she is to remain waiting the return of her spiritual Lord in the latter rain of his Spirit in the last days whereby spiritual Saints will again come forth in a visibility of spiritual life all along their sack-cloth state hid with Christ in God through the wonder-working power thereof beyond what was experienced in the primitive Gospel-day Between these two signal rains or powrings forth of the Spirit the dead body of Christ or crucified natural man of Saints is the state wherein they are shut up for a like trial and fixed exercise of their faith in Christ's second and spiritual coming as the true seed of Faith were shut up in under the Law as to his first coming in Flesh But with this advantageous difference by his first coming suffering and exaltation in our nature the birth of the man-child-spirit therein became a means of the actual and visible powring forth of the said Spirit on Saints as long as the first shower thereof continued And the withdrawing the visible presence of that Spirit ever since is so far from being any just argument whence to conclude the total ceasing thereof that it ought rather to be a strengthning motive for expecting the like yea and a greater power and demonstration that it will break forth in at its return This should quicken up in Saints a steddy fervent and well-grounded desire after the same in the latter rain thereof which is to ripen and bring in the full harvest of the spiritual seed of which the former rain afforded but an earnest and first fruits This ought to encourage the as yet invisible Spiritual Saints by faith to wait for that return of his Spirit in the end of the year or last age of this World by the powring down thereof in a much more transcendent clearness and visible demonstration than ever before Spiritual Saints then in this long season of God's withdrawing the visible presence of his Gospel-Spirit for wise and holy ends are by a fixed faith therein to be faithful witnesses of Christ's spiritual life in their sack-cloth state of prophecy experienced for many past ages forasmuch as those infallible marks of Christ's visible spiritual presence whilst pretended to by all have bin found wanting in all societies of Christians ever since his withdrawing During this season sack-cloth is the safest clothing for the chast spouse of Christ in which she is by a perfect subjection to his will to wait for his second coming with longing desire and not dare in the life and activity of her own will or spirit to be found untimely stirring up or awakning her beloved before the appointed time for his return from his far Country By faith are they to wait for this and not make haste from the impatience of their own spirit but by a constant growth in his to hasten towards his spiritual coming that they may daily be more fitted to see him through an encreasing likeness to him therein 1 Joh. 3. 2. They are to withdraw from the voice of every Stranger not bowing to any false power or spirit and to acquit themselves as Christ's faithful witnesses in their very sack-cloth prophecy and invisible spiritual saintship After this manner has God kept his witnessing-work on foot in this long black and dark season of sack-cloth-prophecy The second of the two days Hos 6. 2 3. was the primitive Gospel-day by the former rain or first shower of the resurrection-spirit from our glorified nature in Christ instituting for the season of it a much more spiritual revelation and worship of himself then in the first witnessing day of spiritual Saints by faith under the dark dispensation of the Law But this first Gospel-day as to the visibility thereof has had its succeeding long night-season of Sack-Cloth-prophecy After this then is to follow a third and more joyful day than ever before The dawning or morning-light of this will begin on the latter rain by which God will revive and raise up his people causing his spiritual life resurrection-power and strength to shine forth in them beyond what was experienced in the former Gospel-day In this third and last day will he raise up his Saints out of the grave of their crucified natural Spirits and cause them for ever to live in his sight in the visible glory of his new-creation-life This third day begins after the ending of the Sack-cloth prophecy on the ending of which the two witnesses are to be slain by the beast ascending out of the bottomless pit with new hidden weapons to war upon them overcome and kill them And their dead bodies must lie in the street of the great City spiritually called Sodom and Egypt where also our Lord was crucified Rev. 11. 8. The peculiar season for an eminent slaying the two witnesses may appear by the means or hands by which to be slain spiritually or literally It is by Satan's coming out of the bottomless pit with the utmost depths of deceit in which he has lain hid from the beginning by his conjunctive visible and invisible power to war against and kill them These subtile workings by his said twofold power reserved by him for the last times of all has Christ fore-warn'd his Saints of First he will then more powerfully than ever before influence both the clean and corrupt principles of nature in men so as to cause a more universal abounding in all sorts of iniquity then ever before Hereby will he render men as willing and ready instruments to exercise his persecuting malice against the Saints of the most high as he can desire In that season above all other will Saints be hated and betrayed by all Nations and killed for Christ's new name-sake having nothing left them but such an enduring to the end as shall render them more than Conquerors For it is Christ's quarrel not their own in which they contend Under this sharp trial destitute of all visible relief will they be somewhat helped by God's outward providential dealings with and punishings of the World Hereby in some measure will he avenge his own and peoples quarrel so that while all natural principles shall center and agree in the slaying them God will from unknown causes set every man's sword against his fellow causing a universal commotion war and rumour of wars thorow-out the whole Earth Nation shall rise up against Nation and Kingdom against Kingdom Yea and divers places shall after a wonderful manner be visited with Famine Pestilence and Earthquakes Yet though a signal hand of God will be evident in all these judgments this last and most sinful age of the World will in a self-condemning-light be willingly hurried by the Devil so as in a hardned contempt and wilful neglect of all the voices of God's providence to gratify themselves in all sorts of lusts and vanities And they will practise the same in an enraged enmity against God Christ and Saints All this will ripen them for their final destruction From their implacable malice for the
Conquerors The way of their Conquest was by suffering This is the mystical Weapon by which the Lord and Servant were both to fight this spiritual battel By steddily enduring all sorts of oppositions and sufferings they became triumphant overcomers All the persecutions primitive Gospel-Saints met with in and for their witnessing service tended only to the working out those marks of the dying of the Lord Jesus in their mortal Flesh that were matter of rejoycing to their immortal Spirits All the sorrow of their natural man outward or inward was soon forgotten for joy the spiritual Man-Child was born in them This man-child-spirit was the mystical Reed like a Rod given John to distinguish the inner from the outer Court and accordingly to measure the Temple of God the Altar and them that worship therein This work could be done by no other Reed save the glorified Spirit of Jesus fitted for discerning or judging in harmony with the divine and new-creature mind of Christ between the first and second creation-spirit as also between the twofold distinct branches of the new-creature-spirit or building in Christ and of the differing ranks and orders of Saints belonging thereunto who will find their respective places and portions in the vision and enjoyment of the divine Glory This high priviledg through the spiritual mind and judgment of the Lord thus set up in the Saint Paul esteemed of so inestimable a value as in comparison thereof to make no account of his own or others natural judgment in the highest and most accurate exercise of it 1 Cor. 4. 3. The new-creature-building or spiritual life in Christ's person and glorified manhood consists of two parts or principles heavenly and earthly glorified The full asserting these renders any one Saint or more Christ's twofold or two witnesses as declaring the comprehensive fulness of his new-creature-Spirit Though Abraham as a figure of Christ was the Parent of a twofold seed or first and second covenant Jew he was also in a farther sense a figure of him as Parent of a twofold spiritual new-creature seed his heavenly and earthly glorified members experimental witnesses of the twofold principles of his new-creature building This mystery was frequently represented by types and shadows to the faith of spiritual Saints under the Law but the distinction and inseparable union of these two parts of Christ's comprehensive creature-nature received their first visibility in Christ's glorified humanity By this the before invisible temple of God was opened and the first shower of his risen Spirit sent down on Gospel-Believers which qualified them by a single or double portion in the twofold parts of the new-creation-building to be his two witnesses Such are assigned their distinct witnessing-work according to John's vision Rev. 11. as members of his heavenly or earthly glorified body These two sorts of witnesses of Christ's spiritual life as all joined together declare and make up the fulness of his creature-building as members of his mystical spiritual body This twofold new-creature principle in Christ and Saints was lively figured out in the request for the two Sons of Zebedee by their Mother who was a figure of Christ our spiritual Parent in his desire to his Father to wit that his two sorts of witnessing Sons or Saints may sit on his right and left hand in an everlasting fruition of his divine glory And these are the two spiritual anointed ones Olive-trees or Sons of Oil placed on each side of Christ the Lord of the whole Earth Zech. 4. 3. 14. Rev. 11. 4. John also saw a Sack-cloath-state these two witnesses would be brought into notwithstanding their first eminent visibility in the power and under the strong and clear Sunshine of the spiritual presence of Christ amongst them And this dark season of their Sack-cloath prophecy must in faith and patience be passed thorow by them and the visibility of their spiritual state be taken or withdrawn from them All this seems figured out to John by that Woman clothed with the Sun having the Moon under her Feet Rev. 12. 1. Hereby is represented First the birth of the conquering man-child spirit in Christ's person Secondly the powerful witness of it in and by his spiritual members Then John saw this man-child caught up from the Woman or Church to God and to his Throne And on the withdrawing this man-child-spirit from the Woman or crucified members of Christ is she commanded into the Wilderness as the prepared place for her where to remain by God's appointment 1260 days or years the allotted time for their sack-cloth prophecy During this sack-cloth state of his Church on Earth Christ takes care for the nourishing their inward Man by invisibly feeding that from his own Spirit with his hidden spiritual Manna through such angelical visits as their own natural understanding may be little sensible of This Wilderness-state and Sack-cloth prophecy therein is a peculiar dispensation of the Cross suited to the time of the man-child-spirits absence as to any visibility thereof During this season the Woman spiritual Saints in their crucified natural man is shut up as in a secret Chamber or Wilderness in which secured from any dangerous or hurtful assaults by World or Devil and is therein by Faith chastly and quietly to wait for the return of her spiritual Lord and Husband in the visible glory of his man-child spiritual life and state Then John saw also the means by which this mystical Woman or Spouse of Christ was to be carried into the Wilderness as her prepared place or state of safety Two wings of a great Eagle were given her by which to flee into the said Wilderness-state out of the reach of any hurt by the utmost expressions of her inward or outward enemies malice which would certainly be sent after her as a flood ver 14 15. The great Eagle by whose wings she is carried into this place of security is the person of Christ as head to his new-creature Saints by making his own natural spirit or state under the cross that dead carkass to which they are gathered Mat. 24. 24. in a conformity to him by the like death of nature in them in order to receive his invisible spiritual new-creation-life This by a fixed faith in the two distinct principles of his new-creature-Spirit the two wings of that spiritual Eagle by which they are safely carried and guided into the wilderness-state of their crucified natural man under the Cross By these wings is the inward man of Christ's mystical dead body protected kept in perfect safety and invisibly nourish'd for a time times and half a time from the hurtful fury of the Serpent The sack-cloth prophecy then is dated from the Woman 's actual flight into the Wilderness which was at the withdrawing and absence of the man-child Spirit from her as to such visibility thereof in true signs and wonders as was afforded and for a season continued in and to the primitive Gospel-Church So her proper cloathing became sack-cloth in which
given to a faithful witness-bearing in his spirit of true freedom for which they have suffered all along Satan's reign This shall in its place be more fully spoken to And then will be declared God's most wise and holy grounds why the injuries done to the Souls under the Altar slain for the testimony of Jesus have lain so long unaccounted for Under this preparatory dispensation shall the murderers of Jesus and his spiritual Martyrs be punished according to their works All these judgments and mercies are to be opened by the seven new-creation Trumpets sounded by seven Angels on the opening of the seventh and last Seal Rev. 8. 1 2. On the sounding of these Trumpets the judgments sealed up for foes amongst the treasures of mercy for friends Deut. 32. 34 35. will be executed by the pouring forth of the seven Vials All this as the performance of God's promise on behalf of the two slain witnesses Rev. 11. for raising them up into an association with spiritual Angels for the powerful preaching of Christ's everlasting Gospel-life For this will they have power to shut and open the blessings and judgments of Heaven in perfect harmony with the spirit and will of Christ distributing both in love or wrath to the inhabitants of the whole World This is implied in the command given them over that mystical Fire by which the wrath of that day is to be executed and in their power also to give or withhold the heavenly rain of Christ's risen-Spirit and likewise for turning the Waters of the cleansed natural state as turned into enmity against the same into blood from the just wrath and displeasure of God By all ways literal and mystical will the sealed-up judgments of God be opened to smite the accursed Earth in such a successive pouring forth of wrath upon it figured by the plagues on Pharaoh and Egypt by the hands of Saints and Angels in this fore-running dispensation on this side the glorified body of Saints as was figured in Eliah subject to like passions with other Saints in the unchang'd body Jam. 5. 17. Saints in this dispensation will not only have power over the material Heaven so as by the spirit of true faith and prayer to withhold or give the rain thereof but in a like command with Elias to cause the angelical fire to come down on their Enemies for their destruction as he did on the Captains with their Fifties that came in opposition to the new-creature spirit of prophecy by the powerful workings whereof in him he was seen to be a man of God Wilful enmity to this spirit God will come forth in signal displeasure against Now if this power literally and spiritually was thus manifested in Eliah by a union of Faith only with Christ in his new-creature-spirit before the former Gospel-rain thereof Act. 2. what will be impossible to the power of it in Saints on the latter rain thereof for the ripening of Angels and Saints therein to a full harvest fitting them to do all things needful to make way for their Lord's second coming And having thus considered what is meant by the opening of the Seals and pouring forth of the Vials in the preparatory day to Christ's second coming by Angels and Saints we are next to enquire how and in what manner and measure they are then to be poured forth and upon whom For this it is observable that every Vial hath and that from the beginning bin suited to the more or less criminal nature of the several wilful Offences which now shall be laid open however before hid and sealed up This is implied by the distinct places or parts of the accursed first-creation-Earth each Vial is to be poured upon John hears a voice out of Christ's new-creation Temple into which the good Angels were first brought as the first faithful obedient followers of their Head Lord and Master thereinto They are sent out of this Temple with the seven-fold new-creation Trumpet given them by the Lamb for his service as ministring spirits and first sounders forth of this his new-creation-voice to his Saints who thereby become qualified with them to preach the everlasting Gospel of the Kingdom or declare the glad tydings of their Lord 's coming in the seven-fold glory of his resurrection-state to the whole Earth And not only so but they are also fitted to be joined with the holy Angels for pouring forth the Vials of God's wrath on the fixed inhabitants of the Earth who are enemies to his spiritual heavenly appearance and Kingdom Thus we find the first Vial poured forth upon the Earth Rev. 16. 2. the second on the Sea the third on the Rivers and Fountains of Water the fourth on the Sun the fifth on the seat of the Beast the sixth on the great River Euphrates the seventh on the Air. In these distinct vials and places are held forth the particular assigned judgments according to the sealed up wrath of God for every part of the sinful first-creation-Earth The first Vial is poured out upon the Earth not the corrupt but restored Earth repaired by Christ as to their loss by the fall of Adam and so capacitated to answer Christ's heavenly call He hath therein afforded them clear convictions of his new-creation-life for their everlasting blessedness But through wilful refusal of this and despite thereunto are they sound guilty of worshipping the Beast and receiving his mark which is the peculiar Sin for which punished They voluntarily pay that homage to the wicked Angel that 's due to God who hath by his own act made himself the mystical Beast here meant in his self-chosen earthly sensual spirit by a fixed unchangeable enmity to God and his heavenly creature-spirit rendred devilish The same fixed in by Man with its wisdom and all its first-creation excellencies is devilish also Jam. 3. 15. This renders a Man a Devil Christ called Judas so One of you is a Devil Joh. 6. 70. The changeably evil spirit of Man baptiz'd and transform'd by the unchangeably evil spirit of the Devil into unchangeable union with him in enmity to God renders man a Devil If baptiz'd into the unchangeably righteous spirit of Christ man becomes with Abraham the unchangeable friend lover and beloved of God The cleansed mystical house or enlightned righteous natural man receiving the evil angelical spirit is thereby fixed in enmity to God In this case Christ found and asserted the professing righteous Jews with their teachers to be Ye are of your Father the Devil so far were they from being the true spiritual seed and Children of Abraham or of God as they flattered and asserted themselves to be This end or last state is worse than their first in the corrupt nature as born dead in Sin but not unchangeably so as now they are Mat. 12. 43 -45. Joh. 8. 38 -44. Such incorrigible wilful Sinners against the Holy Ghost and its convincing spiritual light set up in their consciences will fall under the sad effects of the
the visible exercise of all power in heaven and earth essentially belonging to the Throne of his Fathers glory And then will his father visibly place this his son on the said Throne as clothed vvith his Robes and strengthned vvith his girdle to exercise his whole Government put into his hands As the distinct Testimonies of the Mediatour in his invisible divine and creature-natures will he visibly set his creature-son and branch on his holy Hill of Sion committing to him the exercise of all his own rule and power in a visible dominion over that House of Juda and Israel that comprehends the whole heavenly and glorified earthly family of Christ The season for this hath yet been by God kept in reserve figured by the clothing of litteral Eliakim in which Christ our mystical Eliakim as son to the mediatour his invisible father is to have all the distinct glories of that mystical fellowship and unity that his divine and invisible creature-nature live in so hung upon him as to be visibly seen and acknowledged by the whole world Their distinct testimonies will be known and owned at that second comming of Christ in our glorified nature in which he will cause to shine forth his invisible conjunction of divine and creature-nature And so also by the man Christ shall be Administred and given forth the distinct and differing measures of his fathers divine glory as the everlasting Portions of blessed Angels and Saints according to their respective receptivities as vessels of greater or less capacity even from Cups to Flagons And in this universal Kingdom of his Father shall the Man Christ be established as a Nail in a sure Place for evermore And by him shall blessed Angels and Saints ascribe the glory due to the purely divine nature and the invisible conjunction of divine and creature-nature The Son and Branch acknowledges all his Power to be from his God and Father in personal union with him He declared that of himself in our single fleshly nature he could do nothing and that he receives all his ruling power as exalted into personal union with his God and Father therein Thus comes the Son and Branch to be possessed of all the strength and power of the Mediatours whole person And so is enabled not only to see but do all things Whatever the Father doth that doth the Son also For all the Power of the Father through personal union becomes the Son 's The same Will lives in both But this Will as living in the Father cannot be declared to or received by creatures but as descending to and manifested by the Son On this ground Christ himself declares The Father judgeth no man but hath committed all Judgement to the Son So the whole will of the Father is executed by the Son Hence in obedience to the Father All must honour the Son as they honour the Father Thus does Christ shew how all that power which originally is his Fathers comes to be his and that all which is his thus again becomes his Father's and he exercises the same in perfect subjection to his Father Yet is the new creature-will of the son distinct from the divine will though one with it through personal union with the divine In this union and absolute subjection will Christ as son and branch rule his spiritual kingdom as declarer and doer of the divine mind which could no otherwise be known or done Christ would not put any weight on himself in the will of our single fleshly nature Yet is he one that beares a distinct record or vvitness to himself and will by the command of his Father give it unto him as exalted into personal union with God and as so the truth he told the Jews worthy of their belief For in our exalted nature is he the only immediate object of faith to Angels and men and the only way and means for their knowing or comming to the father Christ justified his bearing vvitness to himself as thus considered to the Jews on their offence at his owning himself in this union with the father as knovving vvhence he came and vvhether be vvas to go He knew he was to return by way of resurrection into that life whence he descended as spirit of the branch into our fleshly nature in which he enjoyed the divine glory of his father through union with his root before the foundation of the World and this for the compleating his mediatourship So is there a threefold distinct will in the mediatour in perfect unity This was figured by the tvvo or three vvitnesses under the Law whose joynt testimony was sufficient to pronounce sentence of Life or Death on any one For so will that will of the mediatour be which shall be pronounced by Christ in our glorified nature as the mouth and visible declarer of the united wills in his whole person His glorified humane will though the lowest through perfect union with the higher and highest becomes equally authentick with them in its distinct witness So over the kingdom that descends to him by the gift of his father will he exercise a visible rule in his new-creation life and glory at his second comming Christ's own testimony to this his spiritual kingdom at his second appearance did cost him the life of his first And thereby did he finish his vvork on earth even in his single earthly humanity that he had long before perfected in his invisible angelical state The visible repetition thereof he was neither afraid nor ashamed of before the evil powers of this world For when by the Jews brought before Pilate he positively asserted he had a kingdom but of a spiritual nature and not of this World to be brought to light by the death of our earthly nature in him The joy of his spiritual life state and kingdom set before him made him-willingly take the bitter Cup of death to his natural spirit as the only way and passage to the said spiritual life and kingdom wherein to exercise the whole of the divine and creature-power of the mediatour Having then seen the distinct testimonies to this visible spiritual kingdom of the man Christ from the threefold will of divine and twofold creature-nature in the mediatour we are next to consider the distinct testimony given to the same by the true spirit of saintship in all Ages In order to this enquiry consider first what is the spirit of true saintship that has from generation to generation given testimony to the visible spiritual reign and kingdom of Christ This spirit of saintship is at a great distance from the divinity yea perfectly distinct from the first immediate conjunction of the divine and creature-names or natures of the mediatour on the one hand and from the single first-creation name nature or spirit on the other The true spirit of saintship in the members of Christ's Heavenly or Earthly glorified body is found allwayes in a true subjection to the man Christ as their new-creature Lord and Head And
just hand of God upon them will they take all opportunities to effect what they have long desired even the compleat slaughter of the two witnesses And in all this the Devil discovers himself only in his powerful influencing of outward and visible means towards the carrying on this great design But he is furnished also with inward mystical weapons to fight against God and his spiritual Saints in this latter age that are of a more dangerous nature than the other For these will he use as in the very name and authority of Christ committing therein the highest treason against him In such exercise of his diabolical power will he send forth his false spirits in Christ's new-creation-name as false Christs to make false Apostles joining men with themselves in all sorts of spiritual craft to deceive Spiritual Saints This by such lying signs and wonders of such a deep hidden nature as if Christ had not laid an impossibility on them would deceive the very Elect. On the one hand in imitation of the Cross of Christ will Satan say he is in the Wilderness or secret Chambers on the other in a counterfeit resurrection-state will he exalt himself by sinful transformation into his heavenly spiritual life All this by an angelical ministration knowing Christ's fore-running dispensation to his everlasting Gospel-day by his holy Angels to be at hand as the only means to raise up his slain witnesses out of their Graves And thus have we observed the hand or means by which the two witnesses are to be slain and what the slaying of them is Visible and invisible enemies Men and Devils will combine against them to bring them into such a captivity as all former under Law or Gospel have bin but fore-running types of and so seen by spiritual Prophets and Saints under both dispensations Jeremy Ezekiel Daniel c. have declared this last and great day of sore trouble such as never hath been or shall be So also hath Christ himself prophesied Mat. 24. 21. This very season is indeed the sum of Daniel's many visions the result of what is held forth by the two Kings of the North and South in all the variety and differing appearances they have bin in towards one another through the common profaneness of the former in the cold dead corrupt spirit of nature and the warmth or zeal of the latter in and for the first-covenant life and righteousness of Man Through the powerful influence of the Devil on both can he soder and unite them in a combination against the Saints of the most high so as to bring forth a day of utmost trial and trouble to them For this end Daniel saw these two Kings joined together as the Devil 's twofold weapon in the corrupt and refined principles of nature speaking lies at one Table Dan. 11. 27. and setting or joyning their hearts and hands to mischief true Saints And so both of them in union of mind with the Devil will do his work in effecting the death of the two witnesses Thus will Satan by the practise of the most refined spiritual wickedness and in the expressing greater malice than ever before when his reign draws neer to an end employ all his instruments of cruelty muster up all his force and power for the slaying of Christ's two witnesses And he with his instruments will prosper herein to the accomplishing of their death This we find in the mighty King in Daniel that was to arise last and the beast in John's vision that at end of the Sack-cloth prophecy was to ascend out of the bottomless pit furnished with all sorts of weapons and instruments not only to war upon but overcome and kill Christ's twofold witnessing Saints magnifying himself against the God of Gods The same thing was repeated to Daniel in the vision of the four beasts commonly understood to point out those four Monarchies that are to spend out the remaining ages of the World during the Devil's active power and man's day The fourth beast is described as far worse than any of his Fellows being strong dreadful and terrible and so furious and malicious as with its great iron teeth not only to devour and break in pieces but stamp the residue under his feet This beast had also ten horns and another little horn came up among them which is in a signal manner to war with and prevail against the Saints of the most high Dan. 7. 21. The fourth beast and little horn figure out the utmost strength the Devil from the beginning kept in reserve for this last and most bloody design At the end of the Sack-cloth prophecy in the appointed time of three years and an half will the two witnesses be slain by the little horn Daniel saw come up last and in the least and most unlikely appearance for such a design yet by it the most bloody battel is to be fought in which the twofold witnesses are to be overcome and killed and that in such an enraged malice of their Enemies as not to have any burial permitted them By all may appear the Devil will then rally up all his forces in an universal conjunction of all sorts of principles that are singly natural humane and angelical to bring this most dismal season that ever was experienced by Saints Herein will Satan cause as was shewed Daniel such abominations as shall make wholly desolate all sorts of visible worship and humane affairs Then will all moral and civil Laws customs and constitutions be broken and changed to the setting open a flood-gate and causing an inundation of all sorts of wickedness litteral and spiritual And hereby will be denied both liberty to Saints and propriety to men even to all that shall either from spiritual or rational principles at that season refuse to receive the mark of the beast by not joining with the Devil for slaying the two witnesses litterally or mystically This sad season to be brought on the true spiritual Israel of God was lively represented to Ezekiel by the valley of dry bones Ezek. 37. 1 2. Thus by faith had he a view so long before of these two witnesses that are to be brought into the most deplorable circumstances to the enlightned reason of man imaginable This is implied in the judgment the then house of Israel figure hereof made of themselves saying our bones are dried our hope is lost we are cut off for our parts Secondly On this sad condition and slaughter of the two witnesses or whole house of spiritual Israel in the last and most perillous times their enemies will be found in the height of joy and satisfaction looking with great delight on the dry bones or dead bodies of the said house of Israel the two witnesses during the three years and half or time of them utmost extremity in which not permitted burial As an expression of this joy and gratification of their spiritual lust will they send presents to each other as triumphing over the slain witnesses of Christ which
has long bin their hearts desire even all along their Sack-cloth prophecy in which they have bin contending with and troubling all that dweâ—â— upon the Earth or in earthly first-creation-principles Rev. 11. 10 On this honourable account as contending on God's behalf are they at length to be slain mystically if not also litterally But nor their mystical nor litteral death should have been permitted as Christ said in Lazarus his case but that the power of God may be the more clearly manifested in raising them up again out of their sleep And then and so will they be fitted to execute the wrath of God on his and their implacable enemies as a just recompence for that death of theirs which has bin precious in his sight Rev. 11. 11. Ezek. 37. 10. Such honour shall all his Saints have as the Lord's army to execute vengeance on the Kings of North and South with their heathen and first-covenant people who joined in a combination to destroy them Psal 2. 1 2. 149. 6 -9. They shall then receive the Crown reserved for this last generation of Saints that bring up the rear of all those spiritual worthies and witnesses that have bin from the beginning The true witnesses of Christ have all along found but slender and cool reception for their testimony yea they have always found opposition more or less And how much greater may be expected in this last and utmost assault by visible and invisible powers when the great thing all along witnessed the second personal coming of Christ is at the door The extraordinary voice of God's outward providences shall then also give an undoubted demonstration to all natural hearts that some strange and wonderful change is hastning upon the World And the fear and conviction hereby wrought in Enemies will produce the utmost expressions of rage and fury on the sack-cloth prophets as witnessing this unwelcome truth to them Christ's second comming to be at hand Great reason then to expect not only a more then ever violent breaking in pieces of the earthen vessel in which the precious witnessing treasure is but also a more enraged spirit discovering itself against the very spiritual treasure On this account will it come forth in its spiritual wickedness in heavenly places and so with their angelical weapons gilded with a likeness to Christ's truly spiritual ones war against the inward mind as well as by material weapons against the outward body of the two witnesses But by neither shall they be able to suppress or hinder their witnessing-work For God will make them a defenced City iron Pillars and brazen Walls for an unshaken steddy enduduring the utmost malice of all enemies visible and invisible They shall conquer them even while slaying them by surviving all bodily deaths and spiritual assaults in an unchanged mind and Spirit And having thus considered the time and means in and by which the witnesses are to be slain next are we to enquire by what hand or means they will be raised out of the said death For it is no more possible for the members than head to be held by the bands of death Act. 2. 24. But redemption out of the mystical death of the natural Spirit and out of all death can only be by a new-creation-power And this was that power and glory of the Father by which Christ in our nature was raised out of the both mystical and litteral death thereof This done in a publick capacity and relation to his members ascertain's the like to be done for their crucified natural Spirits and dead Bodies and that by the same means All that are planted together in the likeness of his death shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection Rom. 6. 5. or be sure to partake of his new-creature-life The putting this life into them is the means by which the witnesses are to be raised after slain and lying in the Streets of spiritual Sodom and Egypt Rev. 11. 8. The new-creation spirit of Life from God enters into them quickens and calls up their natural man into an everlasting union with and subjection to their spiritual as that to Christ and God and so sets it upon its right Gospel-Feet The new-creation-spirit of true prophecy will raise the whole slain natural man of the Saint out of its mystical and litteral grave death of spirit and body as to all the mortal first-creation life of either causing the dry bones of the two witnesses to live Ezek. 37. 12 -14. This Spirit of Christ was always the prepared means for loosing and breaking the bands of death from Saints and raising their whole crucified natural man into the glorious life and liberty of their spiritual But this will be done in a more signal manner than ever at the raising the two witnesses in the third and last day mentioned Hos 6. 2. as their slaying will be more signal then then in any former persecutions The new-creature-spirit of Christ then put into their crucified natural man or dead body will be the efficient cause of their resurrection The instrumental hand or cause thereof under Christ will be the holy Angels as honoured with the first powerful sounding forth the new-creation-trumpet voice or everlasting Gospel-life of their risen Lord by which the new-creation breath or spirit of the head will enter into the dead bodies of his crucified Saints The said Angels will be found the highest and chief ministers of Christ till that seed of Abraham laid hold on from everlasting as Christ's first born Church come to take their place in Christ's second resurrection-life over the heads of all Angels and glorified earthly Saints Our nature in Christ is raised into both these lives heavenly and glorified earthly the twofold spiritual and everlasting new-creation-life The man Christ has also a third resurrection-state as advanced into and filled with the very divine life in an infinite superiority to all Angels and Saints In him dwells the fulness of the God-head bodily and personally He is thus anointed above all his fellows or brethren as also with the original and fountain of twofold spiritual-creature-life which none of them are but with derived portions thereof In the days of the highest Saints non-age and minority are the holy Angels teaching and nursing guardians to them Heb. 1. 14. They are the highest and fittest instruments to convey Christ's mind to Saints under Law or Gospel From them have choice Saints and Prophets under both received their manifold visions and communications of the mind of God The Law was ordained to be dispensed by Angels in the hand of a Mediator or under the conduct of Christ their head Gal. 3. 19. Act. 7. 53. In these angelical flames Christ as head of them descended on mount Sinai and by their voice or ministry promulged the Law Exod. 20. Psal 68. 17. By them was Moses shewed through faith his and their new-creation-head by which fed and maintained forty days together without any visible food They were the mystical
Ravens by whom Saints received that new-creation-food that sustained and nourished them unto eternal life By their angelical representations was Christ the head-Angel of God's covenant revealed to the Patriarks before and to Prophets and Saints after the giving of the Law They appeared on all occasions as employed by Christ in all the messages of God's will to them They opened Heaven to Ezekiel who through a powerful faith was enabled to see take in those wonderful visions of the very divine glory through the new-creature-nature of Christ his head so as to hear the voice of the almighty divinity They were the hand that oft lifted him and others up beyond and above the sight and motion of the natural spirit and body whilst yet in the same By the hand or power of their new-creature Lord did they carry him to them of the captivity by the river Chebar Ezek. 3. 14 15. And by the same hand was he led into the valley of dry bones declared by them to signify the whole spiritual Israel They likewise shewed him that new-creation spirit of prophecy by which the dry bones or slain twofold witnesses in the last and worst of times were to be quickned and made live again Ezek. 37. 1 14. The Scripture abounds with instances of this kind Christ the true Michael sent his ministring Angel or Messenger Gabriel to reveal to beloved Daniel those visions that were to remain a sealed book as to their full accomplishment till the time shewed him for the twofold witnesses to be slain as also how by the peculiar work of the good Angels in a preparitory ministration to Christ's second coming they should be raised into the same life and spirit which the Angel shewed Daniel his lot was fallen in so long before his actual possession of And as Angels were Christ's messengers in giving forth this resurrecton-life through a spirit of faith under the Law before Christ's first coming so were they the first actual dispensers and declarers of the said life and glory under the gospel They first preached the glad gospel tydings of Christ's resurrection in our nature This honourable service Christ employed them in as a just recompence of their being his first followers out of the changeable first-creation into that unchangeable resurrection-land or state of life without ever sinning against Law or Gospel Ezek. 1. 12 20. 10. 11. Hereby did they preserve to themselves in this first-resurrection-state that precedency in place and nature God gave them in their first creation And now as additional to that are they chosen by Christ to be his highest-Officers therein for giving the first report of the said resurrection-state of our nature in Christ's person He is not here but is risen Luk. 24. 6. And as in the two days under Law and Gospel Angels under Christ were the first preachers of the resurrection-state unto men so much more powerfully yet will they be in the third and last day By their powerful sounding the new-creation trumpet or preaching the everlasting gospel-life will the dead witnesses be raised and the elect gathered together from one end of Heaven to the other Mat. 24. 31. They will come forth in such power of the new-creation-spirit of prophecy as to cause it to enter into and build up every part of their crucified nature into the life thereof and compleat union with their angelical helpers and Christ himself therein Ezek. 37. 4 -10. And herein shall they be found the twofold united witnesses of Christ in his heavenly and earthly glorified spirit signified to Ezekiel by the two sticks he was to write upon for Judah and for Joseph with their companions Ezek. 37. 15 22. All this done by the holy Angels in the preparatory dispensation amounts not to the Saint's glorified body For that change will be the immediate fruit of Christ's personal coming and presence But these angelical reapers are to gather together the first-born Church written on the heavenly stick sharers in Christ's heavenly and most excellent new-creature-life mark'd with their Father's name on their foreheads and fitted for the marriage-bed of their heavenly Husband And then are they to gather all those whose names are written on the earthly glorified stick also even an innumerable multitude in the white robes of Christ's spiritual everlasting righteousness Rev. 7. 9. Both these are the Angels to gather by preaching the everlasting Gospel to them By their preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom to all the World in the third and last day before the full end come will be fulfilled Mat. 29. 14. They will powerfully waken up the spiritual seed of the Kingdom in all nations and all that are ripe in the life thereof shall be immediately joyned with them even with Christ's heavenly host of Angels for the work and service of that day And at the same time will they raise up other spiritual Saints into a land of light a spiritual Goshen and pour forth the full vials of Plagues on the hardned enemies of God and them God by his holy Angels will lead Saints out of all captivities as Moses Israel out of Egypt raising out of their great and last grave the whole mystical dead body of Christ Of this preparatory angelical ministration was Christ's transfiguration in his unchang'd body before his death a figure He caused the transforming power of his new-creature-life in which Son of man in Heaven to shine so strongly on his inward man or spirit that his very outward also was made to shine His face or spirit shined as the Sun and his raiment or outward man was white as the light So the crucified spirit dead body or natural man of the two witnesses shall by the Angels powerful preaching the everlasting Gospel be so raised into the powerful exercise of Spiritual life as to make their unchang'd fleshly bodies shine as a high degree of redemption from the bondage of their whole corruptible first-creation-life Such Saints with holy Angels shall shine as Stars through a more signal partaking of Christ's risen Spirit the bright morning Star from whom they all receive their distinct measures of new-creation-light and life In this season and dispensation will Christ make good to his Saints what he long before promised to Joshua as associated with Angels under him his joint powerful instruments for the great work of this preparatory day Of this priviledg was Moses also a signal type as through faith taken into such angelical converse and thereby admitted so near access to Christ the head of Angels as will qualify them to receive the lively oracles of Christ's own mind and become his mouth for declaring the same to others This honour will be put on Saints in the preparatory dispensation to Christ's second coming And thus have we seen by what means or hand the last generation of Saints are to be slain and by what to be raised again and their high priviledg and honour thereupon This by the angelical ministration for this very
faithful in their service to Christ therein Thus through a union of love between Angels and heavenly Saints are the Angels under Christ instrumental to the bringing the whole Church of first-born David's into those places in Christ's Kingdom wherein to be for ever far superiour to themselves And till seated there do they exercise the utmost of their power to protect the said Davids from the malice of their invsible enemies Devils typed out by Jonathan's faithful informing David of all Saul's mischeivous and malicious intendments discovered towards him and protecting him from them While these Princes or most heavenly Seed of Saints are in their unchanged bodies walking on foot on the Earth or in the single earthly spirit and mind this foot or earthly principle is kept by them from any such wilful dashing against or stumbling at the mystical stone Christ's new-creature-spirit as excludes from the true rest therein only attainable In a like practice with Jonathan in letter they discover all the secret and subtile contrivances of mystical Saul's malice against these spiritual Davids that they may escape him They thus protect them from the evil Angel and on the other hand inform them of Christ's spiritual Kingdom by communicating their visions thereof In both these distinct works of love to Saints will they appear more visibly than ever in their dispensation immediately preparatory to Christ's second coming And herein as owned by Christ so ought they by Saints Rev. 22. 16. I Jesus have sent mine Angel to testify these things to the Churches the things of the new Jerusalem-Kingdom of Christ which will suddenly be made visible and not only so but to testify of me also that I am the bright morning-Star or in my exalted humanity head of these angelical Stars in that resurrection-glory wherein they shall shine forth in their preparatory morning-ministration so as to be signally owned by me in their faithful service to me This is implied ver 6. These sayings are faithful and true For the Lord God of his holy Prophets hath sent his Angel to give them the fore-running sights of things that as to publick and general manifestation are yet to come but now at hand and therefore no longer to be sealed up but open'd by Angels to them in Christ's preparatory day And so also are the sealed up judgments by them then to be opened and visibly poured forth upon the enemies of his approach and Kingdom This honour have the blessed Angels even of being chief instruments in setting up the Kingdom of Christ by communicating their sights thereof to Saints belonging to the upper or lower new Jerusalem or spiritual Kingdom in their distinct relations thereunto as the heavenly or but earthly glorified seed And this ought by them both and all to be thankfully acknowledged When the Angel shew'd John the Lamb and his Bride clothed with her wedding robe her Husband 's heavenly spirit he fell at the Angel's feet to worship him But the Angel said see thou do it not for though in this dispensation I am above thee yet am I but thy fellow-Servant under our great Master to minister to thee who wilt in conclusion be exalted far above me And then also must we both as holding of Jesus our head in the true new-creation spirit of prophecy worship God alone The heavenly seed of Saints that receive the first revelations or visions of the glory of Christ's Kingdom from Angels will be found to have an interest superiour to theirs therein when they take their places about the exalted Throne of Christ set up in the third Heaven Then will the Angels give up their guardianship over them as no longer needing it being exalted above them Yea then will the Angels of God rejoyce to receive instruction from them to whom they before gave it Then shall the marvellous and manifold wisdom of God appear in causing the Church of his first-born-Saints when exalted into their heavenly places to make a suitable return to the good Angels for all their faithful service of love to them in communicating their higher visions of God in such measure as they are capable of receiving than ever yet was attained by them They will under Christ reveal to them that manifold-grace of God that 's the blessed portion of second-resurrection-Saints received by them immediately from Christ and from him by them let down and revealed to Angels Thus makes he his blessed creatures Angels and Saints in the beauty and harmony of his dispensations towards them useful to one another and so to remain for ever in their higher and lower places and offices in Christ's body-mystical as is figuratively signified 1 Cor. 12. 21. Many who in their single unchang'd humanity Angels are the teachers of will be in a superiority to all Angels and in that sence said to judg even the holy Angels as in a higher sort of spiritual life and light judgment or discerning then they and so fit instructers of them 〈…〉 God to them as Christ's highest and chief Ministers These will make known to Christ's Angels and glorified earthly members the fellowship of that mystery which comparatively to the revelation as yet given thereof hath bin till then hid in God They shall fully reveal the whole mystery of divine and creature-fellowship in God the Mediatour from everlasting to everlasting and so the manifold divine and creature wisdom if God to their inferiour-fellow-creaturs which is in the compleat fulness thereof their continual vision and food But though when the first-born heavenly Church take their seats in glory Angels cease from the exercise of rule over them yet do they remain as door-keepers to the said heavenly City and Society They were placed from the beginning as Christ's spiritual Watchmen over this tree of Life or whole spiritual state And in the faithful discharge of that office have ever since with their flaming Swords or angelical weapons bin made use of by way of defence and service to the said state for directing the holy Seed to the right door of the blessed City and for the keeping any spiritually profane persons from entring thereat They are ready with their angelical flames to destroy all such And when the good seed even the first-born Church are all entred and have taken their places in a superiority to them will they still for ever hold the same place and station as door-keepers in the nearest relation to the said first-born Church To be such a door-keeper to the second-resurrection-state David saw was to be preferred above the highest glorified Saints in the first as nearest to the heavenly Citizens or first encompassers of the Throne Also under Christ and his heavenly Saints are the holy Angels Princes or chief Rulers in and over the first-resurrection-state the outward row of encompassers and therein to remain for ever And as now we have seen the good Angels business in the preparatory dispensation we may observe the approbation they will receive from their great Lord and