O glorious Victory O Saints more than Conquerours in the Resurrection of your Saviour The World is faln before you it is no more The old things of Vanity Darkness Sin Sorrow Death are passed away in His Death Thus you are conquerours But in His Resurrection the World is raised again in a Form of Eternal Love and Glory for you All things are come again and are made New All things appear again the second time Immortal Spirits shining in the Loveliness burning in the Love of the God-Head for you opening all things past present and to come in themselves as Beautiful and Sacred Mysteries of Divine Love to you which ever is Delighting it self in You sporting with you preparing Joys Glories for you Thus you are more than Conquerous through Him who hath loved You. Live then in Him Joyfully gloriously Triumphantly I have done with the first Part of my last Use the Sweeâ—ning and Sanctifying Life in this World 2. Part. To sweeten and sanctifie Death by the Knowledge of Christ in Glory I shall lay down three Principles to this End 1. Principle Every Saint standeth â—compleat in Glory in the Glorified Person of Christ above even while he is living or dying here below Ye are compleat in Him who is the Head of all Principality and Power Col. 2. 10. In the verse before the Lord Jesus was described as in Him dwelleth all the Fulness or Compleatness of the God-Head bodily v. 9. Then this is added And in Him ye are compleat or full who is the Head of all Principality and Power A Believer is compleat in his Saviour as He hath the Compleatness of the God-Head in him and the Compleatness of all the Angels beneath him His Life then and His Death as they stand in Jesus Christ are more than Angelical They are Divine I shall endeavour to set in lively Figures before your Eyes the Beauty and Sweetness in the Death of a Saint by four Scriptures 1. Script And hath raised us up together and made us sit together in Heavenly places in Christ Jesus Eph. 2. v. 6. What is to be understood by together is plain in the verse before hath quickned us together with Christ It is God who doth all this as is seen v. 4. God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he hath loved us Four Positions lye clear in this Scripture 1. Pos. A Believer is risen from the Dead He dieth no more He is passed from Death to Life As Abraham is said to have received Isaac from the Dead in a Figure So the Beloved of the Lord dâ—eth onely in a Figure Death is to him a Divine Figure standing in the Resurrection from the Dead His Death is a Flower of Life and Immortality growing up in the Paradise of God which is the Glorified Person of Jesus It beareth indeed the Figure of Death but is full of a Sweetness and Beauty which can never fade or dye Let us all labour for our part in the New Birth This is a Resurrection from the Dead All things after it are Life Pure Life without any mixture of Death Perpetual Life Endless Life without any Sting of Death in the tail of it 2. Pos. A Believer is already sâ—t down in Heavenly places nay more than Heavenly The Word Heavenly is by some translated and so it properly signifieth Supercoelestial more than Heavenly places above the Heavens Here a Saint is made to sit down He is fixed and established He is at rest at home at the end of all his journeyings and changes He is set as a Bride at the Marriage-feast He is set as a Prince upon the Throne of his Kingdom Thus God giveth His Beloved Sleep Rest a Feast a Throne in Death Jesus Christ in Glory is this Sleep this Rest this Feast this Throne which endureth for ever and ever O Christian rejoyce and glory in Death for the Hope of the Joy and Glory of thy Bridegroom there Thy Death hath nothing of Dust or Darkness in it It is a Heavenly Thing nay more than Heavenly It is something Supercoelestial It is a soft Strain and ravishing Touch in the Musick of the Divine and Eternal Rest. It is a savoury Dish such as thy soul loveth at the Feast in the Kingdom of God Solomon had a throne of Gold On the Steps which were the Ascents to the Throne on each side were Lyons of pure Gold Thy Death O Saint is now no more a fierce and devouring Lyon to affright thee It is the figure of a Lyon in Gold in one Glory It is not onely an Ascent to thy Throne O Jedidiah Beloved of the Lord It is One Piece of Eternal Glory with thy Throne It is an Ornament an Embâ—â—llishment of Glory to thy Throne How good is it for those who are born of God to keep themselves pure that they may alwaies see God that they may see all things to them Divine Objects in a Divine Light sparkling Jewels of Divine Love We are ever in the midst of these things which are more than Heavenly in the midst of these Supercoelestials even in the arms of Death While we keep our selves unspotted from this world we see these Supercoelestials and Death itself in the number of them But every sin casteth a mist upon them and covereth us with a Cloud that we see them no more Now the Visions of our Joy and Glory of Light and Truth are hid from our Eyes Now fear and trembling are upon 〈◊〉 Life is full of Trouble and Death full of Terrour 3. Pos. A Saint is set down in Heavenly places together with Jesus Christ. The sweetning and the heightning of all the Joys and Glories of the Gospel is the Union with thy Beloved Bridegroom The work of Grace is a Birth a Resurrection a Marriage all in one The Death of a Saint is an Act of Spiritual Communion between Christ and the Soul a Marriage-Joy The Lord Jesus presenteth himself to the Believer in the Form of Death as in a Heavenly a Supercoelâ—stial Beauty At this sight the Saint is immediately transformed into the same Image Jesus Christ springeth up into the Believer a Believer springeth up into his Beloved in this Heavenly Form So both are made one in it Thus Death becometh a Love-play between Christ and his Spouse He by a Spiritual Kiss breatheth forth his Spirit of Divine Loves Immortality and Invisible Glories into the Spouse The Spouse ravished sorth from her self again in the same moment breatheth forth her Spirit into the Bosom of her Lord. Thus they die together they die one in another they die one into another In the first of the Canticles there is a Prophetical Song which beginneth at the Resurrection of our Saviour and the Effusion of the Spirit together with the Spiritual Union between Christ and his Church which was as their Heavenly Espousals solemnized and sealed with a Kiss with the reiterated Kisses of his Mouth Then followeth in the process of the first
Chapter and beginning of the Second the Loveliness of the Spouse and the Love between her and the Heavenly Bridegroom in her Sufferings and Death as they are acted upon the Stage in the glorious Scene of the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ in the State of Espousals and in their Union in one Spirit The dying Spouse there singeth to her Lord Behold thou art fair my Love yea thou art pleasant also our Bed is green v. 16. Jesus Christ is fair to a Saint Eye in his Divine Loveliness being risen up into the Glory of the Father He is pleasant to her in his Loves which are his Loveliness in Motion acting beautiful parts transforming itself into delightful Shapes with endless variety in all pouring forth itself into her Bosom taking her up into itself with Blessed Changes of one into another The Unity of the Spirit is the Bed of Divine Loves which is ever green that is as the word importeth ever encompassed with a Heavenly Calm and Serenity ever flourishing ever fruitful Death itself is the mutual embracing of these two Heavenly Lovers in this Bed of Spiritual Loves in the midst of a Divine calm and clearness while out of these embraces they spring up into innumerable Forms of Eternal Beauties and Joys which are the flourishing Fruits and Blessed Children of this Marriage-Union It is said that nothing was made without Christ apart from Christ that was made in the Creation John 1. 2. Remember O Christian that in the new Creature thou art thou sufferest thou doest nothing in life or in death without thy Jesus in Glory apart from thy Jesus in the Unity of his Spirit which is the Center and Circle of all Blessed Spirits with all the Train and Treasures of the Divine Nature While thou livest all the Body of Christ Heavenly Spirits Innumerable Angels live with thee thy life All these all the Lights and Loves of the Supercoelestial State die with thee thy Death 4. Pos. All this Resurrection Ascension into the Heavenly places Fellowship of a Believer with Christ is in Christ. He hath raised us together and hath made us sit together in Heavenly Places in Christ Jesus See now those places above the Heavens those more than Heavenly Things in the midst of which a Saint is set They are all in the glorified Person of Christ who is made higher than the Heavens The Learned tell us that there are three Worlds 1. This which is visible 2. The Angelical World 3. The Divine World All things of the upper and greater Worlds are in the lower as in the Seed All Things of the lower are in the Superiour as ripe Fruit. Every thing is in each according to the nature of that place Behold This is the Divine World the Person of our Lord and Love ascended up on high above all Heavens of Angels Here in him the Fulness of the God-Head dwelleth Bodily that is not shadowily or seminally in its Shadow or Seed but in its Substance and Perfection While here thou standest fast in this thy Jesus thine own proper habitation Death itself is an Angel nay more it appeareth in a Divine Form is become a Divine Glory a rich and ravishing piece of variety in the Unity of the Divine Nature In the World of Angels every thing is a distinct Angel In the Divine World all things are cloathed with the form of God As a Child lying in its Mothers lap a branch from the Mother bearing her Image with its mouth at the Breast looking upon her Face falling asleep in her Bosom yet not so sleeping but that still it sucketh as it sleepeth such is a Saint dying in Jesus Christ. He lieth in the lap of the Supream Glory encompassing him on every side and bearing him as its own Birth and Image His mouth is at the breast of this Glory His Eye is upon the Face of this Glory He sleepeth in its Bosom But it is a Divine sleep While he sleepeth he is awake and keepeth his Eye still upon the Glory and sucketh in the Glory still in Death We have this excellently represented in one place by the Prophet Esay where the Heavenly Hierusalem which is our Jesus in the Spirit is said to bear her Children on her sides and to dandle them on her Knee In another place they are said to walk in the Light of the new Hierusalem These Dandlings and Dancings in the Arms of that Glory which is our Mother our Father and our Husband our Heavenly Jesus such walks in its sweet and living Light are all the Motions and Changes of Life and Death to those that are in Christ Jesus I shall conclude my Observations from this Scripture with the difference between the Death of a Man standing in the Root of the First Adam and a Christian in Christ. Death to one is a Poyson In eating of the Forbidden Fruit he dieth out of the Earthly Paradise yet remaining in its ruines in this World into a Land of Briars and Thorns into a vast and howling Wilderness where the Light is Darkness and where there is no Order The Death of the other is a Cordial of dissolved Pearl In eating of the Tree of Life he 〈◊〉 out of a Land of Briars and Thorns into a Heavenly Paradise the Paradise of God I have done now with the first Scripture 2. Script Verily verily I say unto you except a Corn of Wheat fall into the ground and die it abideth alone but if it die it bringeth forth much Fruit John 12. 24. These are the words of our Saviour concerning himself upon a report made to him hy Philip that some Greeks desired to see him The design of Jesus is partly to raise them from a Carnal view of him on Earth to a Spiritual sight of him in a Heavenly Glory after Death partly to signify the difference between his State of humiliation in this Life where he is single and Barren in the Flesh and his State of exaltation after Death where he â—iseth up an Universal Person reconciling comprehending All in the Unity of the Spirit a Fruitful Person being a new head and root in the Love Life and Glory of the Father to all Mankind Jews and Gentiles to all Creatures Our Saviour while he lived was as a single naked grain of Wheat But when he sprung up out of the Grave he became a pleasant and flourishing Plant bearing much Fruit many grains of Wheat in one Ear many all Persons all Angels and Spirits in Glory in that one his own Person and Spirit He was in the Flesh as one Rose one Apple pull'd off the Tree He is in the Spirit as the Rose-Tree the Apple-Tree All Angels and Saints all Forms of Things are glorified in his Glory all in Heavenly and Immortal Persons are in his Heavenly Person as full-blown Roses growing upon the Rose-Tree as full-ripe Apples upon the Apple-Tree The Death of a Saint is upon this ground made most beautiful and pleasant Can. 2. 3. As the
several Mansions in the same Palace So they fly into the Bosom of their proper Substances where Thou art the same Person in Truth at Liberty and awake which thou wert in Show in Captivity in a Dream here below Thou art the Unity in which all these Spirits with the unsearchable Riches of their several Varieties ever centred and dwelt together as One once shut up in darkness and in a narrow place but now displaying all their Beauties unfolding all their Joys to the full O how are the Beauties and Pleasures of thy Death O Saint far beyond all those of Marriage and of Children How doest thou in that moment meet and marry thy self in all the flourishing Glories with all the warm and fresh Loves of the Divine Nature How doest thou bring forth a Troop of Divine Spirits in thine own Form and Person to be ever before thee bred up and Living with thee rejoycing in thee the Delight of thine Eyes and the Jewels of thy Bosom the pleasure of thine Embraces day by day This is the first Representation of Death by a Dissolution 2. Death is a Deluge that Mortality might be swallowed up of Life 2. Cor. 5. v. 4. It is in Greek that the or this Mortal may be swallowed up of Life Life in the Abstract in its Purity and Perfection without any Mixture or Allay is Immortality Eternity Christ and God As God is Light in which there is no Darkness so God is Light in which there is nothing of its contrary neither in act nor in possibility no Death nor Shadow of Death The Mortal is that which is capable of Dying in a Saint with the Principles of Corruption and Power of Death adhering to it See the Glory the Might of this Glory the Extent of it in the Death of a Saint Life Itself in its own Divine Essence as a Divine Substance no more an Accident in the Purity of all Its Sweetnesses in the Perfection of all Its Powers as it reigneth upon the Throne of Eternity breaketh forth upon the Person of a Saint upon all His Powers and Parts the lowest the darkest the most Mortal As It breaketh forth It drinketh up all together with the Shadow of Death Itself encompassing them into itself Mortal Things are Shadows of Immortal that is Figures in the Dark But the Darkness also is Part of the Figure The Life of pure Nature is an Image-Life a Shadowy Life The Darkness swallowing up the Figure and defacing the Shadow is a Natural Death The Devil lurking in the Dark Part as in His Den from thence coming forth into the Figure is the Life of Sin When a Sinner dieth the Devil in the Darkness of the Shadow Divine Wrath thorow the Devil swallow up the Darkness Image and all into themselves But at the new Birth of a Saint the Eternal Life and Substance awakeneth itself in the Shadow liveth and weareth that Darkness as a Divine Vail upon Its Beauties too bright to appear nakedly on Earth It acteth that Figure as a Picture with the Life in it looking forth through and springing through it as a Flower thorow the Lattices and the Windows Then when the time of Harvest and the Singing of Birds is come this Eternal Life drinketh up All into its own unmixt unfading Light Thus a Saint dieth As sometimes the Sea sendeth forth an Island which after sometimes it again swalloweth up so is the Life and Death of a good Man in His Mortal Part. He riseth up like an Island from the unfathomable and glorious Depths of a Divine Sea the Sea of Eternal Life and Love He standeth rooted in this Sea and encompassed with It on every side So He lives Again He sinketh down into the Blessed Depths out of which He arose So He dieth Elijah laid His Sacrifice with a pile of wood upon the Altar He digged Trenches round about the Altar which he filled with Water till it ran over Then he called upon the Name of the God of Israel Immediately a Fire descended from Heaven which licked up all the Water consumed the Sacrifice with the Wood upon the Altar The Altar is our Jesus filling the Earth as well as the Heavens The Saint in his Divine Part is the Sacrifice upon the Altar in Union with Christ. The Wood is the Mortal Part of a Saint which also lyeth upon the Altar of Christ's glorified Person The low estate of a Saint in Flesh with all his Sufferings and Sorrows all the Powers of Darkness and Death make the Trenches full of Waters round about Him At length the Divine Sea from below when It hath fulfilled the Days of Its Pilgrimage and Imprisonment calleth to Its Father above Then in a moment the Lord Jesus in His Glorified Body as a Flame of Immortal Love and Life cometh down from Heaven upon this Saint drinketh up at once the Sacrifice the Wood the Waters and All into One Flame with itself Nothing remaineth but the Altar and the Trenches the Place where they had been the Double Image in which they had appeared a Light-Image Beautiful and Pleasant in the Spirits of Light a Dark-Image in Dark Spirits Both these by degrees vanish into their several Elements of Light and Darkness I have done with my first Principle in the second Part of my present use which is to sweeten and sanctify Death by the Spiritual Knowledge of our Lord Jesus The first Principle was this A Saint is compleat above in the Glorified Body of Jesus Christ while he is living or dying here below 2. Principle The Glorified Person of our Saviour with all its Divine Fulness dwelleth Spiritually in the Natural Body of each Saint on Earth Our fleshly Members are the Members of Christ in Heaven 1 Corin. 6. 15. The riches of the Glory of this Mystery among the Gentiles which is Christ in you the Hope of Glory Col. 1. 27. As the Essential Form of a Plant with all its proportions and perfections lieth inclosed in the Seed which by the breaking of the Seed displayeth itself upon it and transfigureth the Seed so is the Natural Body of each Believer a Seed so is Jesus Christ the Hope of Glory a Body of Glory to that Seed and dwelleth inclosed in it until the Spring of Death The Natural Body is called a Body of Death Rom. 7. 24. We are said to wait for the Adoption or Sonship the Redemption of the Body Rom. 8. 23. These two Bodies cannot be the same One is a Redeemed Body a Body of Adoption or Sonship This is as St. Paul speaketh before a Body brought forth into the Liberty of the Glory of a Son of God The other is a Body of Death St. Paul cryeth out against one Who shall deliver me from this Body of Death St. Paul groaneth and waiteth for the Redemption of the other as a Son of God One is the Oppressour the other is oppressed One is a Grave and Death the other is a Divine Life a Form of Glory a Son of
Rest. In this confidence doth the Flesh of the Lord Jesus rest in Death It hath no more for ever any Conflicts or Allarms It is overspread with a sweet and clear Heaven It breaths in a gentle and delicious air where there is no storm no rain nor cloud It is in a State of immutable joys where there is no Death no Shadow of Death no trouble no fear no shadow of fear or any such thing All things sing an eternal requiem and rest to it As the Flesh of the Lord Jesus resteth in Confidence so it resteth also in Hope Hope is good in prospect or in progress At our first conversion the Eternal day breaketh upon us While we live on Earth in a State of Grace we have sweet and clear streaks of the Light of Life appearing thorow our Spirits which still grow clearer and brighter unto a perfect day But all this while there are dark and black shades of the Night Sins and Sufferings every where mingled with the pure Light of this blessed Day At Death it is perfect Day The shadows of the Night are perfectly drunk up into the rising Light that now they appear no more in dark Forms but are seen only as by a lovely temperature with the Light they make beautiful and pleasant colours of Saffron and of Roses In the Resurrection the body of the Sun the Eternal Sun the Lord Jesus in the Glory of his God-Head ariseth upon Soul and Body both and is nakedly seen nakedly enjoyed without the Vail of any dark and nightly shade or any Floury Spicy or morning shade From the Resurrection to the utmost point of the ascention this Divine Sun is rising higher and higher in Glory upon us till he comes to that Noon-sted of Eternity and of the God-Head where there is no more any ascent or descent where the Unity is entire where god is one and that one God is all in all In the Confidence and full assurance of this Hope doth the Flesh of our dying Saviour and of every dying Saint rest Object But you may say we have formerly seemed to affirm according to the Language of the Scripture that the days of Christ on Earth before his Death were alone the days of his Flesh that the Flesh of Christ was a Vail upon his Body which was rent in Death that it was not the substance of his Body nor its true proper and natural Form but a darkning and dividing Form in which the Body of Christ appeared and with which it was cloathed in the State of fallen Nature in the State of his Humiliation in his Earthly State This State ended this Form was put off in Death How then had the Flesh of Christ a part in his Triumph How did the Flesh of Christ rest in Hope Ans. In a Garden of Flowers by night the Flowers are seen in dusky and dark Forms while the shades of the night lie upon them as Vails upon their Beauties When the bright day riseth upon this Garden the Flowers appear in their naked and shining Beauties in their proper and lovely Figures their dark appearances together with their darkning vails the shades of the night are drunk up and transformed into the brightness of the Rosy morning The Body of the Lord Jesus and of all his holy Ones are the immortal Flowers Flowers of the Heavenly Paradise Their Fleshly Form is the shadow of the night upon them their dim and dusky appearance thorow this Shadow Death is the lovely and rosy Morning of the Eternal Day rising upon them The Spirit of Glory and of God is the brightness of this Day The Flesh is now changed into Spirit the dusky appearance thorow the Vail of Flesh into a Spiritual and Heavenly brightness In this brightness these bodies of which we spake shine forth in their naked native shapes and Beauties from all parts they shed a Divine Lustre they breath a pure sweetness of Divine Joys like the Flowers of the Spring in a fair morning Thus the Flesh of Christ resteth in Death 3. The ground of this Triumph is the inseparable union between the God-Head and the whole Humanity of Christ living or dying These are the words of the Lord Jesus by his Spirit in the mouth of David Thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell Expositors agree that the word Hell signifieth not a place of torments according to the common acception but the State of Soul and Body in Death The Greek word by which it is rendered in the New Testament is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which by its notation signifieth the State of things Invisible or the Invisible State of things It is also well known that the Soul in the language of the Old Testament is not used to express only one part of a Man but the whole Person It is a Maxim in Divinity laid down by all learned and holy Men that when the Natural Union between the Soul and Body of our Lord Jesus ceased in Death the Supernatural and Hypostatical or Personal Union between the Divine or Humane Nature in both parts of it remained inviolable and entire Thus it is frequently said that although the Soul of Christ was separated from his Body in the Grave yet the God-Head was never separated from either O sweet and sure truth A Spring of Holy Heavenly and Immortal Joys in Life and in Death This Truth rightly understood is a blessed Light which discovereth to us a Divinity in our Life here Immortality in Death and Heaven in the Grave This Divine Truth is the rich ground of our dear Saviours Glorious Triumph over Death in Death There was a twofold band of Union between the Soul and Body of Christ while he lived in Flesh one Natural the other Supernatural 1. The Natural Union was that composition of soul and Body by which he became a Natural Man and had the true Forms Substance and Essence of a Man sprung from the first Adam This band of union was broken in Death by which means the Natural Man now was no more for ever according to its Natural State and Principle but vanished like a shadow breaking up into the Light of a Spiritual Glory 2. The Supernatural Union is that of the second Person in the Trinity which is the Eternal God who at the Incarnation of Christ made himself Flesh that is a compleat Man himself subsisting as the single and undivided Person in this Man in both parts of this Man in Soul and in Body giving in like manner a personal subsistence to them in himself that the Divinity and the Humanity in its Soul and in its Body both were all one simple individual indivisible Person This is that which Divines call the Hypostatical or Personal Union in Christ which remained firm and altogether unimpaired in Death itself See now the beautiful and delightful consequences of this Union The Soul and Body of Christ continued immediately intimately sweetly triumphantly united upon the Cross in the Grave were both one Immortal
undivided Circle of Eternity always at once in every moment and cast of his eye he saw possest and enjoyed all pleasantnesses In this Face of his Father which is the Light of Eternity he saw his own Face as he passed thorow all changes Even then when he cried out that he was forsaken by his Father he beheld this forsaking of him himself thus forsaken in this Glass the face of his Father in the midst of all Pleasantnesses one of the Pleasantnesses one with all the Pleasantnesses there The Aâ—gels that take care of Children here below in the midst of this their work on Earth ever behold the Face of the Father in Heaven How much more is it true of that Person who is the Face of the Father who is one Essence and Substance with the Father who unites the Humane Nature to the Divine Nature in the Unity of this Person Shall not he much more see the face of his Father in Heaven while he is on Earth or in the Grave serving the little Children of his Father his younger Brethren as their good Angel This Face in which all Pleasantnesses are at their fulness at their heighth was that Joy set before Jesus Christ upon the Cross for which he enâ—ured the Cross and despised the shame I shall now conclude this discourse of our dying and dead Saviour of his sacred Body living and immortal in Death with those four thiâ—gs which were too wonderful for Solomon the way of a Ship upon the Sea of an Eâ—gle in the Air of a Serpent upon a stoâ—e or a rock of a man with a maid or as it is in Hebrew in a maid The most learned Jews teach us to understand this as the Mystâ—ry of the Messiah The most learned of the Christian Divines give us such a Gloss as this upon it while they make this place from the authority oâ— the Jews themselves to prove against them that the Messiah was to be born of a Virgin 1. The Man in the Maid is the Heavenly Man in Womb of the Virgin 2. The Ship upon the Sea is the Humane Nature in its Union with the Divine Nature Sailing along in its course of time and life here below upon the Sea of Eternity 3. The serpent upon the Sâ—oâ—e or the Rock is the deep and Glorious wonder of Death in the Person of Christ who is the Rock oâ— Eternal Life and God himself who lives for ever 4. The Eagle in the Air is the Humane Nature risen and ascending in the Spirit to the right hand of the father above all Heaven to the utmost heighths of all Joys and Glories of the Divine Nature and Eternity Before I leave this Subject I will point out one Use and Application of it When a Voice came with Thunder to the Lord Jesus declaring Love and Glory from on high upon him Jesus Christ saith to his Disciples Tâ—is Voice came not for my sake but for yours In like manner these glorious things are spoken of Christ in his life and in his death not for himself only but for all his Saints Christ and all the Saints are one seed To that one seed to all the Saints in Christ to Christ in himself and in all his Saints are all the Promises made All those pleasant things which we have spoken of Jesus Christ and of his holy Body in Death are true of him as his Humane Nature is joyned to the Divine Nature in one Divine and Eternal Person which is the most High God The same things are true in us also who believe in him by that Mystical Union which joyneth us to the Lord Jesus in one mystical Person and in the Unity of that Spirit which is also the most high God one with the Father and the Son While we live as Saints by the Faith of the Lord Jesus we live not but Christ liveth in us we live and we are Spiritual only as we are Spirits the Birth of the Eternal Spirit and one Spirit with the Lord Jesus in his Resurrection from the Dead All things in Heaven and on Earth of Soul and of Body of Life and of Death are Spirit and Life to us It is true that while we live on Earth a fleshly Spirit a fleshly Image in which Satan hath his Throne have a part in us not as our true selves but as our disguises our diseases our enemy as evil Dreams in our sleep These ofâ—â—n prevail over the Spiritual Man in us and captivate us to many sinful Lusts fears and Griefs But still the Spiritual man in itself which is our true self puts them under its feet and makes them Captives to the Light Love and Immortality of the Spirit The Spirit in us is like the Sua which when we think it under a Cloud or eclipsed by the Moon is so only to our Earthly Light but in truth and to itself it is upon its own Throne of Light triumphantly above the Clouds and the Moon comprehending them in the brightness of its own Glory But besides this in the moment of Death this fleshly Spirit and Image is for ever cast out of all power and rule in a Saint and is entirely subdued to that pure and Heavenly Spirit which is the true Saint which now withâ—â—t any interposing vail or interrupting interval perpetually sees the glorious Face of Jesus Christ in it self which is one Spirit with him and the Glorious Face of the Father in Jesus Christ. Yea one advantage of unexpressible Joy and Glory hath the death of a 〈…〉 of Christ. The Death of Christ had all the stings of 〈…〉 crâ—â—ture â—ver felt or can feel the guilt of Sin 〈…〉 Wrath of the Father all the Powers of Hell in 〈…〉 these stings are taken out of the death of a Saint Christ is risen all the Powers of evil subdued captivated and changed into mysteries of eternal Light and Love in the Glorified Person of Christ by the Virtue of his Resurrection A Believer living and dying stands in the Resurrection of Christ is risen with him in him A Believer is married to Christ as he is risen from the Dead His Life his Death thoroughout all things of them both are Divine Fruits of this marriage-bed brought forth in the Bosom of God to God Break forth then O ye Saints into singing both living and dying tune your last breath to this song of the Lamb and say like him I have set my glorified Jesus my Heavenly Bridegroom and the Father in him before me My glorified Jesus my Heavenly Bridegroom and the Father in him is at my right hand therefore shall I not be greatly moved Therefore doth my Soul rejoyce in Death my Body also sweetly rests in the Grave as in a Marriage-bed in the midst of all Divine delights as Flowers of Paradise strewed upon it It rests in the Bosom of my glorified Jesus my hope This sweet and sure hope is he that will never leave my Soul in the state of Death nor suffer his Holy One
and then feeding their Spirit from thine who gave thee all these The secret of the Almighty was with thee 2. Principle The Removal of the Divine Presence is the Root of all Bitterness in this Life When God withdraws he draws in all his Blessings as the Sun often goes in and gives up the Sky and Day to dark Clouds What wilt thou do when like wretched Saul The Philistines are upon thee and God hath forsaken thee When Perplexity shall take hold of thy Spirit when there shall be no Counsel or Comfort left because God hath forsaken thee What then can all thy Pleasures or Honours do Will they not be as miserable Comforters as the Witch of Endor to Saul presenting thee with Devils under God-like forms ill-boding foretelling thy death and Ruine When our dear Saviour was on the Cross he did not cry out O my Disciples why do ye fly from me or deny me O ye Iews my Brethren why do ye wound so bloodily my Feet Hands and Head No but he cries out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me This broke his heart David complains in Psal. 30. 7. Thou hast made my Mountain strong but thou didst turn away thy face and I was troubled Place a man in a Wilderness of Horrours in a Sea of Flames let the Secret of God be with him and he will fear he will feel no Evil. Plant a man on a Mountain where he may not only with Christ see but possess all the Delights and Glories of this World let God be gone and you may call them all Ichabod where 's the Glory Where 's the Delight The whole Mountain will moulder into Melancholy and crumble away into Griefs O! Fear to estrange this God from you by a neglect of him on whose Presence all your present Joyes depend Fear to put out his Light in your Souls by your Lusts fear to chase away by your hardnesses and Rebellions that God who when he removes his Glory from off any Person or Place gives up all to ruine and leaves a Hell behind him This is the first Persuasive 2. Persuasive Fear the lâ—ss of Divine Enjoyments after Death Is there any thing any where more moving more full of sweetness than the language of the Apostle 1 Thes. 4. 18. Then we shall be for ever with the Lord. Comfort ye one another with these words I will present your Spirits with the force of this place in three short Propositions 1. Proposition Thâ—re is a Lord over all a supream Principle or Power which makes maintains manages all the Creatures a Spirit of Strength and Wisdom which governs the affairs of the whole World Thus St. Paul speaks 1. Cor. 8. 6. To us there is one God the Father of whom are All one Lord Jesus by whom are All. 2. Proposition This Lord is the best of all things As he is over so he is above all 1 Cor. 2. 8. St. Paul calls him the Lord of Glory The Heathens teach us that the God of the Sun is the God of Musick because he tempers with his Beams and tunes all the visible world This Lord our Lord is the God of Light Beauty Musick the God of all Sweetnesses Glories Blessednesses For he tunes both the visible and invisible World to a happy Harmouy 3. Proposition All good Spirits are the Friends all evil Spirits the Enemies of this Lord. Each pure lightsome peaceful Spirit comes from this Jesus and goes to him again when it goes off the Stage of this Earth as a Beam darted from his Glory and drawn up to him again Each dark unclean disorderly Spirit is cut off and cast out from him One is every where in Scripture stiled His Child His Brother The other is thus spoken to by him Depart from me ye cursed Now what joy is it when a man in all the troubles of Life can comfort himself with these words and say This Life will quickly end then shall I be ever with the Lord my Lord the Lord of Blâ—ssedness Who can express the Peace and Pleasure of that Soul within which lies upon its Death-bed and in the last moment of its abode in the World comforts itself with these words Now I must be uncloath'd of all Being or Appearance among men on Earth for ever But it is that I may be for ever in the naked Embraces of the Eternal Spirit of Life and Beauty I go from hence for ever but I go to be for ever with the Lord. I had faintâ—d saith David if I had not hoped to see the Goodness of the Lord in the land of the Living Who can tell those fainting fits in the midst of highest Pleasures those bitter Soul-turning Qâ—aulmes in fullest Glories which those men have that have no hope to see the Goodness of the Lord after this Life Many pangs many pangs of remorse and anguish pangs far beyond the pangs of a natural Death hath that dying Soul which hath no hope to live with God after Death Fear then this Loss so great so irreparable Fear to be prophane like Esau to sell your Birth-right for a Mess of Pottage to fell your hopes of Heaven for a short Satisfaction to your sensual Appetite 3. Persuasive Fear what God can do What cannot he do to make you miserable who is the God of the Spirits of all Flesh He can let forth Five Spirits upon you 1. Spirit of Diseases 2. Spirit of Folly and Falshood 3. Spirit of Melancholy 4. Spirit of Ruine 5. His own Spirit 1. Spirit of Diseases God can send a Spirit of Diseases into thy Body to strike thee with Worms with some foul and sharp sickness till thou dye a loath'd and horrid Death Thus he did to King Herod in the Acts. Can all thy Physicians then cure thee 2. Spirit of Folly and Falshood God can send into thy Breast a Lying Spirit that shall carry the on to foolish Counsels that thou mayst perish Thus he did with King Ahab Can thy Wisdom foresee or prevent this 3. Spirit of Melancholy God can let forth upon thee a Spirit that shall sit upon thy Brain and Heart like a black Cloud distilling poyson upon both This shall be thy inseparable Companion at Table and Bed in society in solitude to vex thee perpetually This shall make thy sweetest Delights thy dearest Relations a Burthen and a disease to thee This shall make thy surest Strengths and firmest aids a matter of continual Suspicion and mortal Jealousy to thee Thus he did with King Saul What delights or businesses can now divert thee 4. Spirit of Ruine God can let upon thee as upon Job a Spirit like a devouring Sea or Storm This shall take away from thee thy whole Estate from thy Children their Life from thy Wife and wisest Friends their Affection and Tenderness This will fill thy Skin with Noysomness thy veins with Fire thy Bones with Pains thy Head with black vapours This shall take away all rest from thy Sleeps filling them with affrighting
thy hearts desire Acquaint thy self with the Lord and he shall shew thee thy hearts desire in shewing thee himself What is God Esa. 57. 15. He is the High and Holy One that inhabits Eternity What then shalt thou see in the Discovery of God Thou shalt see Excellency and Joy at their Height and fixt there unchangeable Eternal as Eternity itself without any Change which is the cause of all Loss and Death without any Shadow of Change which makes all Fear and Melancholy What is God See by Jesus Christ who is the Image of God You read of him Ephes. 1. 10. God hath gathered up all things into One in Him What then shalt thou see in the Appearance of God Thou shalt see all those Forms of things which affrighted and opprest thee in Shapes as Delightful as Delight itself For thou shalt see all things in One in Christ. Thou shalt see all Varieties of things in One Beauty as the various Mixtures of that with itself or Multiplications in itself Thou shalt see thy self immortal in a State of full Glory according to that which St. Paul speaks 2 Tim. 1. 9. The Grace which was given us in Christ before the World was Thou shalt see those dear Relations those sweet Contents which thou hast lost and over which thou bitterly mournest breaking thine Heart or which thou fearest to lose and so livest ever trembling in this Fear Thou shalt see all these living together in one Blessedness present before thee in one view never to die never to be lost when once thou seest God in thy Soul For all things live to God Thy dead Joys are still living in him Death itself which kill'd them and threatens thee lives a lovely life there What is God God is Love What then shalt thou see when thou seest God Thou shalt see a pure unmixt absolute unconfin'd Love Thou shalt see all things having their Being in Love because they have their Being in God Thou shalt see all things animated by a Life of Love inspired by a Spirit of Love because God is the Quickning Spirit of all O Sweet Sight To see every thing quickned by Love and so made perfectly Loving every thing clothed with Love and so made perfectly Lovely This he sees that sees God made manifest to him Now as the Woman said of our Saviour Behold a man that hath told me all that ever was in my heart may not we say this of the Knowledge of God Behold a Light in which you shall see all that ever was in your heart to hope wish or imagine Is not this the Wisdom which is sweeter than Honey Richer than Pearl Better for traffick than fine Gold Even the Knowledge of God in the opening of which all delights flow forth all Beauties sparkle all wares of Blessedness offer themselves and press in upon your Spirits Seek then the Knowledge of God in the first and last place in all places for it is in the place of all things This is the first Exhortation 2. Exhortation Let nothing keep you at a distance from God Where can you be so well as in the Bosom of Him who loves you Nay who is Love Nay who is Love to you if you will receive Him For he is all Love Whatever departs from God departs from Love and goes towards Wrath Enmity Hatred take heed how you trust your self to any thing that tempts you from God whatever it pretends It cannot come from Love or bring Love with it It is an Enemy and seeks to betray you by winning you from your sweetest Strength The Blossom of a Vanity or Sin may be fair to the Eye But Hatred is the Root and will be the Fruit. Every thing of Love is of God and carries the heart to God Hatred faith Solomon breeds strife Canst thou look for Peace I say not Pleasure in that Temptation which draws thee down from Love into Hatred 3. Exhortation Walk worthy of God If you be His Sons you are Sons of Love a Love which is untainted with Particular respects a Love which is Invincible by any unsuitableness or opposition a Divine Love Cherish such a Love in your selves shew it to others Let your Love be your Selves as it is in God that you may as soon cease to be as cease to Love Let Love appear wherever you appear like your Selves Let your Love be as Universal as your Conversation Let it be your Nature Let your Love be like Aarons Ointment poured forth upon the Head of things the Godhead and running down thorow all the Creatures to the very lowest Skirts the least of Things Be you Love as God is Love exalteth not itself For it dwelleth with all things as One in One. Love thinketh no Evil. For it looketh upon all things thorow One and judgeth of them as they appear in that One. Love is not angry For Union is its Life and all its Streams are sent forth from that sweet Spring Love is not suspicious For it makes itself One with All and gathers up all into One Principle with itself Love worketh no ill For it possesseth converseth with enjoys each several thing in One. So every thing to Love is Love's Self Thus God is Love Thus be you if you be Sons of God This is to be Perfect as your heavenly Father is 2. Property Life Heb. 7. 16. Who that is Christ was not made according to the Law of a carnal command but the power of an Endless Life A Comparison is made in this Scripture between the Priesthood of Aaron and our blessed Saviour Aaron was a Priest of the first Covenant the Law The Lord Jesus was the Priest of the New Covenant the Gospel He that lives under the Priesthood of the One is a Servant He that lives under the Priesthood of the Other is a Son We have a Threefold Opposition between these Two States the Servile and the Son-like The First Opposition is between Law and Life A Law is something imposed a Compact a Treaty between Two Life is something Inbred A Principle a Spring a Unity The Second Opposition is between a Law-command and a Life-power A Command works by violence and force from without uncertainly A Power of Life works kindly constantly inwardly and sweetly The Third Opposition is between Time and Eternity The Law of a Carnal Command a carnal or Fleshly Command decays and dies it begins and ends in Time as every thing of Flesh doth But the Gospel is the Power of an Endless life He that lives as a Servant under the Law lives in Fleshly Principles which are frail false and fading The impressions which he hath of goodness are made by terrour and work unkindly They are like Images in water dark ever vanishing if they be not maintained by outward objects Ordinances Duties Sermons Books Men. He that lives as a Son under the Gospel lives in a Divine Principle is naturally good If you ask why this man is good against the stream of all earthly
in then this Beautiful Image Man becomes a Monster and brings forth Monsters Now Gyants are born Man comes forth in a greatness and force resembling the Image of God in Man but is in the true Form and Principle of a Beast The Divine Image is fallen imprisoned dead in the midst of all this Greatness Thus of a truth Sin is the highest Incest the most unnatural confusion the true Engendring of Monsters 3. A Sinner makes himself a Devil A man by Sin withdraws the Creature from the Image of God sets it up in its own Principle and Image so maintains it in the place of and against the Image of God Rom. 1. 25. St. Paul sets forth the Nature of Sin after this manner who changed the Truth of God into a Lie serving the Creature more than the Creator who is blessed for ever See here the nature of the Devil discovered in a Sinner When thou fatherest any Sin thou by that Act makest thy self the Father of Idolatry Lies and Murther 1. Thou makest thy self by Sin the Father of Idolatries Thou settest up the Creature above the Creator and servest that more than thou dost him Sacrificing thy Heart thy Love and thy Life to it 2. Thou makest thy self by Sin the Father of Lies thou settest up the Creature as if it were something of and in itself when as it is meerly nothing save as it is in the Image of God 3. Thou makest thy self by Sin the Father of Murthers Thou killest and destroyest the Image of God which is the First Murther and the Fountain of all Murthers Thou changest the Truth of God into a Lie Thou makest away that Image of God which is the Truth and Life of all the Creatures by setting up instead of it those things which as they are in themselves without that Image are not only Vanity but a Lie too He knows very little of the Nature of Man of the Creature of God who knows not Sin to be the most ridiculous Apishness that he may despise it the most horrid Monstrousness that he may hate it the highest Devilishness that he may tremble at it and fly from it So much for the Second Instruction which shews us what a Sinner is 3. Instr. What a Saint is Then a Man begins to be a Saint when the Natural Image of God begins to be restored in him with advantage with the advantage of the Super-natural Image bringing it forth again from itself and itself in it together with it The Kingdom of God brings forth itself and the Kingdom of Nature a Second time in itself Behold I make all things new Saith Jesus Christ when he appears in the Soul The Second Adam revives and restores the First Adam in us but as in its own Spirit and Bosom that so the Earthly Man may become Heavenly and Immortal I will conclude this use with Consolation to Two Sorts of Mourners Gods Mourners 1. Consolation You who have lost the Innocency of your Natures in Sin and Guilt be you comforted in the knowledge of this The Righteousness of God the Eternal Image of Glory shall break forth in your Souls and bring forth the First Image of Beauty your Natural Innocency again upon you with an Increase of Glory It is the Lord that justifies who shall condemn Saith St. Paul Rom. 8. 34. Who or what Guilt shall condemn thee or be able to sink for ever the Innocency and Beauty of thy Nature though it now have lain long buried under thy Lusts The Lord the Lord himself shall come and this Beauty of thine shall come with him and thou shall see it again with Joy 2. Consolation You who have lost the Chearfulness of your Spirits and the sweet Pleasantness of your Natural tempers in Melancholy and Terrours comfort your selves in the knowledge of this The Spring of Joys the Eternal Spirit the Spirit of our Lord Jesus shall open itself within you and shall send forth from itself the ancient streams of your first Peace and joys of your natural chearfulness Your natural Spirits shall once more dancâ— and sing together in this Spirit All your Springs are in this Heavenly Image the Springs of your first Innocency Beauty Peace Pleasantness All shall open themselves again upon you from the Bosom of this Image at the Appearance of it never to be shut more And this Heavenly Image shall certainly appear in you Only do you wait with Hope and Patience for the appointed Season Do notmourn at the Death of any natural Beauty or Content as without Hope ever to see it again the Hour comes apace and perhaps now is in which thy dead Innocency and Joys shall hear the Voice of the Son of Man Jesus Christ in thee and live again by him Do not doubt but believe The Earth shall hear the Heaven The Earthly Image of Life Paradise and Heaven in thee shall be awakened again in thy Spirit by the manifestation of thy Saviour in thee Thine Eyes shall see thy Redeemer and he shall stand the last upon the Earth Thine Eyes shall certainly see Jesus Christ when he shall redeem the Earthly Man in thee with all its Excellency and Sweetness from these Powers of Sin Fear Death and Hell which have carried it captive And thou shalt see this Jesus the Heaven of God the Heavenly Image last of all standing and appearing in thy Earth thy Earthly Man thy first Image Be of good chear faint not Death shall not prevent this Blessedness Thou shalt live when God shall do all this thine Eyes shall behold it and thou shalt taste of it and feed upon it For God hath undertaken it and he will bring it to pass Behold I make all things new saith He who is the first and the last Believe and wait for these words are True and Holy Revel 21. 5 6. And he that sate upon the Throne said Behold I will make all things new And he said Write write upon your Hearts this Sentence behold I the Lord make all things new For these words are True and Holy And he said unto me It is done This is the Finishing of all things the ending of the Mystery I am Alpha and Omega the Beginning and the End I will give unto him that is a thirst of the Fountain of the Water of Life Freely that is without any thing of Suitableness to it or Satisfaction for it without any Condition or Confinement 3. Part The Activity of the Soul in God This is the Third and last Part of Divine Ioy. The Psalmist expresseth Joy by Shouting and Singing Psal 65. 13. The Pastures are clothed with Flocks the Appearances of God are Green and Flourishing they bring forth maintain and put forth themselves into numerous Flocks of Saints the Valleys also are covered with Corn The lowest State of things in the Flesh and the Natural Man are cloathed with Jesus Christ and grow up into him who is the Bread and Beauty of Eternal life they Shout for Joy they also
3. 11. St. Paul tell us that Iesus Christ is the Foundation and v. 12. If any Man build upon this Foundation Gold Silver Precious Stones Hay Stubble then saith He. v. 13. Every Mans work shall be made manifest it shall be revealed by Fire Let thy God be laid in thy Heart as the Foundation of thy Joy He is a Living Rock a Living Corner-Stone If thou resign thy self to Him and rest on Him He will grow up unto a Building of Pleasure and Glory in thee Living Precious Stones of all Joys and Beauties will spring up out of Him But take thou heed of laying on any Thing thy self upon this Rock For whatever it be though it be not Hay and Stubble only but Gold and Precious Stones though it should be the Immortal Excellencies of Angels the Glory of the First Image in Nature the Beauties of the Earthly Paradise This Rock of the God-Head will be as an Irresistible Fire at the Bottom of them breaking forth upon them and Devouring them Then thine own Person may be saved because it is Rooted in the Rock and hath the Foundation of the Lord in it which abides Sure But this will be as by Fire Thou must pass thorow the Fire in which thou shalt leave all thy Joys behind thee which have been thy Super-structures and Additionals upon the Foundation Thy Person alone shall escape naked out of the Fire having nothing left but the naked Foundation or the Rock for a Clothing to it St. John saith He that dwells in love dwells in God So far as you dwell in anything of the Creature you dwell under the Vail in the Fire under the Law under an Administration of Wrath and Death you cannot be free from Trouble and Torment Death will feed upon you Dwell Nakedly in God and you dwell Entirely in Love Let a Naked God dwell in you and as you take in a Naked God you take in Naked Love into your Souls Thus much for the Second Motive 3. Motive Close with God in the Abstractedness of his own Being as he is unclothed of all the Creatures and you close with Eternal Life itself where there is no more any Death See how David Rejoyceth Psal. 18. 46. The Lord lives and Blessed be my Râ—â—k David look'd off from all other Things and turned his Eyes upon the Lord alone In the Lord he sees Life and this is his Life He considers nothing Transitory or Moveable His Rock is alone in all his Thoughts He Blesseth his Rock He triumpheth in the Blessedness of his Rock And this is his Blessedness Follow Davids Example and thy Heart shall live while there is Life in God Say my Friends and my Body may die my Graces and my Comforts may wither but the Lord lives I may be miserable the whole World may be miserable round about me but Blessed be my Rock There I see and find a Life in the midst of Death and Blessedness in a Heap of Miseries The Lord lives Truly all other Things below Him are Dead and have only a Shadow of life The Lord lives Eternally He hath no End of Days no Change of Life or Shadow of Change The Lord lives Universally He lives in all Things He comprehends all Lives in Himself He gives a Life to all Things in Himself All Things live to God Luk. 20. 38. If thou look to or for an thing below or besides God thou shalt certainly find it in the Region of the Shadow of Death and Death feeding upon it with his Iron Teeth of Divisions Distractions Cares Changes and Griefs Look into the Book of this World and thou shalt find it a Book of Death where thou shalt see every thing Dead or Dying Betraying thee to Death and Amazing thee with the Fear of Death Look into thine own Heart and thou shalt find that a Book of Death and Hell fill'd with Darkness Guilt Fear Torment The best things there thy Graces are written with Black and Bloody Letters in much Obscurity hard to be discerned in much Impurity having little Life of Comfort in them But if thou wilt look into the Person and Nature of God thou shalt see the Book of Life opened to thee God is that Book of Life in which thou shalt see thy Self and all Things Written with the Beams of the Light of Life Here thou shalt neither read nor hear no more sad Stories of Death Thou shalt see Death itself Shining in the Light of Life God is a Bright and the Last Darkness The Darkness of Death itself is swallowed up into Life and Immortality in Him O Death I will be thy Death Live only to God and upon God Consider nothing but Him only So shall thy Joy alwaies be as Life from the Dead as the Joy of Harvest I mean that Heavenly Harvest the Resurrection 4. Motive Pitch thy Spirit upon the Single Person of God so thou shalt fall into an Infiniteness of Satisfaction This is the Advice of David Psalm 37. 4. Delight thy self in the Lord and he shall give thee thy Hearts Desire The Desires of man are Infiniteness budding forth from its Seed in the Soul These Desires are ever in Motion and Restless till they put forth into Infiniteness itself All the Creatures are too Strait and Narrow for them They are Unquiet while they are contained within the Compass of any Creature because every Creature is Finite They beat against the sides of it till they break thorow it into the Innfiniteness of God Make God thy Delight and there is nothing which thou canst think of or wish for but thou shalt have it in him In God thou shalt meet with thy Self in any State or Form in all States or Forms which thou canst desire at once In God thou shalt meet with whatever thou hast Enjoyed and wouldst fain Enjoy again with whatever Enjoyment thou hast fallen short of and longest for If there be Loss Shame Grief or Evil which thou wouldst fain have abolished and to be as if it never had been If thou wouldst have any Time past brought back again any Good or Content which hath been defac'd or stained renew'd thou shalt have this Abolishment of what thou wilt this Restitution of what thou wilt in God For He will give thee thy Hearts Desires God is All if he be Alone As He is in Himself He is Infinite If you add any Thing to Him or take Him cloath'd with any thing of the Creature you make Him Finite and so loose Him quite It is a Joy from the Creature which is a Confined Joy If thy Joy be purely from God if it be from an Un-compounded Cause it will be an Un-confined Joy Search then if thy Griefs encrease as thou appliest Spiritual Comforts to them thou then dost but take something of God as a New piece of Cloth and sowest that to the Old Garment of the Flesh and Creature in thee so the Rent becomes worse For if thou think to patch up that which is Thine
Power of God making themselves first the Tree of the Curse on which all the Principles and Spirits of this world must hang Then the Tree of Life bringing forth the Fruits of Paradise and the Third Heaven Every care or cross in a Saint is this Cross of his Saviour sprouting in his Person The Lord Jesus lies hid in each Tear in each sigh of a Holy Spirit He is there as the Seed falling into the Earth and Dying By this Death he delivers himself from Death in thy Heart and breaks out on every side into Discoveries of his Grace and Glory Say of thy Trouble why art thou cast down O my Soul This is that Death of my Saviour in me by which he destroys the power of Death in my Spirit Sin and the Devil This is the way in which thou shalt praise him and see him swallowing up the Principle of Darkness in Darkness that he may bring forth himself in the Light of his Countenance to be the Light of thy Countenance I have been the larger in this Objection that so I may be the more clearly understood both in this and in the following Particulars Whatever mention is made of any Beauty or Grace in a Saint is not to be imputed to the Saint but to the Grace and Face of Jesus Christ in him so is the Excellency or Efficacy of our mourning the Discovery of our dying Saviour in it No Persons no Sorrows are Spiritual if they be not one Spirit with Jesus Christ. But thus much for the First limit in the measure of our Sorrows the casting out of Filth 2. Limit The casting down of the Flesh 1 Cor. 9. 27. I saith the Apostle keep under my body and bring it into Subjection The words are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I beat it black and blew and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I make it to serve The end and so the bound of Humiliation is First to bring down the Principle of the Natural Man into a Principle of Darkness that it may no more put forth itself in its own Light and Life Secondly it is to subdue that Principle to the Heavenly Principle that it may be quite slain in itself and revived in the Spiritual Man a Spiritual Principle Rom. 7. 24. St. Paul calls the Natural Man this body of Death or the body of this Death It is a body of Death in a Two-fold sense First Thy Outward Man is the shadow of Death cast upon thy Spirit It is the Valley of the Shadow of Death thorow which thou walkest here below Thou art in the Body sunk down to the borders of Death being already come within the shadow of it The whole face of things upon thy Person and round about thee is a dead Image and the Image of Death For he who hath the Power of Death hath entred into it with his Principality and taken away the true Life of it setting it up now as an Appearance in and of himself Secondly Thy Outward Man is a Body of Death because it is appointed to Death The Body by one Death hath brought it self out of the Divine Life into the Power of Darkness into a Hellish Root Now by another Death it must be broken off from this Root and brought back again into an Eternal Stock Our mourning then must last while we are in the Body of this Death till this be no more this Body but perish in Death The Devil cast us out of our Innocency and from the face of God he set up himself by setting up the Natural Man in it self We were turn'd out of Paradise when we came into this Body which is now the Beast's skin Again By the Ruine of the Natural Man we must raise the Building of God and cast down the Devil By putting off the Beast's skin by the dissolution of the Tabernacle of Beasts skins in Death we return into Paradise We are therefore to go mourning to our Graves 3. Limit The clearing of the face of God towards us Matth. 9. 15. Our Saviour tells the Jews That his Disciples could not fast while the Bridegroom was with them But the Bridegroom should be taken away And then they should fast in those days The Face of God in Jesus Christ is the Soul's Bridegroom Who that is the Bride of this Bridegroom can take joy in any thing when this Face is withdrawn and hid from him Shall not our Souls fast from the Freedom and Fulness of Natural Delights when our Spirits are made to fast from the Beauties and Delicacies of Jesus Christ This is the season of Mournning It is now beautiful to see a holy Soul Widow-like with a Vail upon the face of all her Glory and Content when her God is gone a great Journey from her What can she do but mourn when he is absent who was the Light of her Eyes the Anointing of her Face and Head What can set an end to her mournings till he return and wipe away all Tears from her Eyes by setting himself in the Eye of her Spirit Psal. 30. 7. Thou didst hide thy face and I was troubled saith David Will it not be Winter when your Sun is gone Can you expect a Spring till he turns toward your Earth again Is it not the Presence of the Lord Jesus that makes all things fresh and full of Beauty round about thee When he is withdrawn who was the Image of God in them do not all things droop and languish in thine Eyes Canst thou then chuse but languish with them If the Lord Jesus be the Root of thy Spirit and his Spirit the Sap of thy Comforts thou wilt grieve in his absence without arguments to persuade thee to it as naturally as Flowers nipt with Frosts hang the head Nay no arguments will be able to raise thee to any degree of chearfulness except he come and make himself the argument When thy Corruptions like Fogs from the Earth have gathered into Clouds which hide the Heaven of thy Lords Face from thee weep then till these Clouds be again dissolv'd by the Showers of thy Tears and so thy Jesus again discover himself over thee as a clear sky I have done with the Third particular in the Nature of Spiritual mourning which was the measure of it 4. The Mystery The Mystery of every thing is in God Ephes. 3. 9. the Mystery hid in God who created all Things by Jesus Christ. This is the Mystery of Things their ground their beginning and end in the Person of God and Christ. Neither can we be Spiritual in any thing any further than we see the Mystery of it and stand in the Mystery The Mystery of a holy Grief is Threefold 1. Mystery Conformity to Iesus Christ. 2. Mystery Complyance with the Will of God 3. Mystery The Compleating of our Persons 1. Mystery Conformity to Jesus Christ. We read Ephes. 1. 4 5. that we were chosen in Christ before the Foundation of the world We were predestinated to the Adoption of Children by
Jesus Christ. We sprung up in Eternity in the Heart of God out of the Person of the Lord Jesus there as Images of him who as he rose up in the Divine Nature the essential Image of it was Fruitful from the Root of that Nature according to the Power of Life and Store of Spirit in it So he multiplied himself by the strength of the Father into many such Images in the heart and thoughts of God Thus we were chosen in and by him Thus also we were chosen to be Conformed to the Image of this Son as you shall read Rom. 8. 29. Whom he did foreknow he did also predestinate to be conform'd to the Image of his Son The Fathers fore-knowledge of us in his Son was the ground of our predestination by him and conformity to him A chief part in Christ is the dark part his Sufferings a chief part of our Conformity to him lies in our Sufferings and Sorrows Rom. 8. 17. Joynt-heirs with Christ if so be we suffer with him that we may be also glorified together Our whole inheritance is our conformity to the Lord Jesus This Inheritance lies as well in Suffering as in being glorified We have a double interest in Christ One in the Unity of his Spirit Another in the variety of his Body According to our First interest we are one with Christ that is by the Unity of the Spirit 1 Cor. 6. 17. So we are to have the fulness of Christs Sufferings form'd over again upon our Persons in the Spirit 2 Cor. 4. 10. According to our Second interest in the Body of Christ we are only particular members 1 Cor. 6. 15. In this particular membership a particular 〈◊〉 of Sufferings pertains to us according to our place in the Body The portion of sorrow allotted to every Saint in this capacity is as much inferiour to the miseries of our Blessed Saviour as that Member is inferiour to the Head But for this reason the Providence of God leads us to occasions of sorrow and then opens in us a spring of Sorrow that we may fulfil our measure in the sufferings of Christ Col. 1. 21. This is the first Mystery of our Griefs our Conformity to Christ that we may be Brethren Spouses and Members of Christ. 2 Mystery Our Complyance with the Will of God We mourn that we may be like Christ Brethren grown up from one Root with him Spouses drawn forth from his side Bone of his Bone Flesh of his Flesh Principle of his Principle Image of his Image Strength of his Strength Weakness of his Weakness But now you may ask what the mystery of all sufferings and griefs are as they are Christ's first and so ours Answ. I answer to that by a place of Scripture Heb. 5. 8. Though he were a Son yet learned he Obedience by the things which he suffered There are Two Waies of Learning one Speculative in the Contemplations of the Spirit the other Practical in the Conformity of the Person There are Two Waies of Obedience one in the Will being prepared and ready to all things the other in the Work of Doing or Suffering being actually undertaken and thorowly undergone Our Lord Jesus was ever in all things obedient to his Father so far as that State in which he was would permit While he liv'd in Heaven he was obedient to the Death in the Contemplations of his Mind and the Conformity of his Will so far as these two Wings could carry him But all this while the Devil might say of Jesus as he did of Job He dyes for his Father in his Speculations and Purposes at a distance while his Father maintains a hedge of Life and Joys round about him while he sees not Death but as Death it self is a living and beautiful Image in a Prospect of Glory Therefore Jesus Christ is brought down into Flesh that he may try and so experimentally learn another way of suffering by an Actual Descent into the Power of Darkness and Misery as it is in its own Principle Our Father could have prevented the Rising up of the Spring or Principle of Sin in the Heart of the creature So he could have cut off all occasions of sorrow or suffering He could have taken away Sin by a change and not by a Death Transfiguring instead of Crucifying us and this too by the heavenly Person resting upon us in a White Cloud and taking us up in it self without its Descent into the Dark Cloud of this earthly Body Thy Father could restrain the Issues of Lust in thee which send forth so much Filth upon which we pour forth so many Tears So our Tears might have been spared But if all this had been where had been the Testimony of our Obedience to the Father There are Two Waies of Obeying God One in the concurrency of his Will and ours the other in a contradiction between his Will and ours A holy Spirit obeys God the first way in Heaven and Joys For there it takes up its Joys and tasts a Sweetness in them much more out of Obedience than Appetite because they are the Will of God rather than because they agree with its own will But we obey God the Second way on Earth in Afflictions In Heaven we give up our will to be swallowed up in the Will of God as a River in the Sea In our Sorrows we Sacrifice our wills to the Will of God as the Beasts were Sacrificed by their Death and by Fire So Jesus Christ when his will was at the height of contrariety to the Will of God according to its own proper inclination If it be possible let this Cup pass from me Yet then he cut the Throat of his will and laid it panting upon the Altar to be wholly consumed in the dreadfullest way in the Fire of divine wrath and vengeance Thou in all thy Griefs accomplishest the same Mystery after the same manner Thou Feastest the will of the Father by the Fast of thine own will Thou obeyest thy God and servest his Pleasure by the binding and Offering up of thy Isaac all thy Pleasures 3. Mystery The Compleating of our Persons This is yet a Further and the utmost depth in the Mystery of our Sorrows The Scripture holds it forth in the Person of Christ as the Pattern in our Persons as the Copies of that Pattern We read of Jesus Christ Heb 2. 10. that he was made Perfect through Sufferings That is Perfect which hath all parts belonging to it It belonged to the Person of Jesus Christ to act all parts to appear in all shapes For he was to be the dwelling place of all Fulness 1 Colos. 19. He was to unfold the manifold wisdom of God in his own Person Ephes. 3. 10. He came forth as the Word to make a full and distinct expression of God The Nature of God is the Glass in which all Natures are first formed and seen The Natures of Light and Darkness Shame and Glory Joy and Misery to say
of its unseen Element Thou sayst it is now dying now dead when it is emptying itself into the Ocean of Beauties retreating into the pure and incorruptible Element of Beauty the Blessed Person of Christ. Cleave to it in this view of it cast thy self with it into these secret and sacred depths of Life and Loveliness so shalt thou never lose it or thy self save by being both together swallowed up into the perfection of Beauty the Eternal Treasury of all Beauties Jesus Christ. I have now finished the Two first Reasons of the Fairness of Christ above all things the Original the Perfection of Beauty in his Person Before I pass to the other Two Reasons let us look down a little upon our selves and make some application of these Beauties which we have seen in the Person of our Lord to our own Persons to enlighten the Darknesses and redress the deformities there Use. 1. A Caution Let us take heed that we make no inference take no encouragement from the Loveliness of Christ to make our selves unlovely in his Eye to defile his Spouse in our selves to stain his Glory by Sensuality Lust or any presumptuous Sin Our Saviour now dying saith to his Father of his Disciples I sanctify my self that they also may be sanctified John 17. Jesus Christ put off in Death every thing of Earth and Flesh. He lifteth himself up by his Cross into Glory that he may present himself again to the Eye of our Spirits in the Spiritual and Heavenly Brightness of the Divine Form and Glory that he may baptize us into the same Sea of his Blood and into the same white Cloud of his own Spiritual Beauties that we also by him may die to the Flesh and live with him in the Spirit Hath Jesus Christ to this end made himself higher than the Heavens Heb. that our Hearts and Liveâ— should be low and vile as the Earth Is he ascended above all the Angels all the Principalities and Powers of Light that we should become like Beasts and yield up our Bodies and Spirits Instruments to the Principalities and Powers of the Darkness of this World and of Hell Is there any hope of renewing such a Person by words who thus turneth the rightest and pleasantest words of the Lord Jesus and his Beauties unto nourishment to vain and filthy Lusts to Corruption Is any more to be done but to leave him to that Dreadful and Delightful Maran Atha which is by interpretation The Lord cometh to the Person of Christ himself in his own immediate Appearances when those glorious and unexpressible Beauties of the Spirit and God-Head in which he shall appear shall be Flames of Fire burning upon and consuming every Earthly Fleshly Principle or Spirit in every Form Use. 2. A Conviction of the Evil of Sin which blindeth us to the sight of this Beautiful and Blessed Person of our Lord Jesus How should we all curse to the Pit of Hell from whence it arose that Charm or Enchantment if any had such force to change the Sun into Sack-cloath or hinder it from shining any more upon the Earth How much worse than a Grave would it make the whole world when we should have eyes open and no Light Far greater is that mischief which the Devil worketh by Sin By the charm of this world which he raiseth as an Apparition and Lying Image from Hell together with the Lusts which he awakeneth by it he taketh away from us the glorious Light of Christs Person ten thousand times brighter sweeter and of more consequence to us than the Sun in Heaven 2 Corin. 4. 4. By this means all our faculties are as so many Eyes continually awakened continually benighted with the blackness of Darkness deluded with empty Shadows and disappointed of the beloved Substance So are our Spirits wandring in an everlasting Darkness tormented night and day with the fire of their own restless eager and unsatisfied desires while Jesus Christ their only Light and Food is hid from them under the Cloud of their Corruptions Take heed especially of three Sins 3 of Covetousness Uncleanness Enmity 1. Take heed of Covetousness Mat. 6. 22. Our Saviour warneth his Disciples to take heed what they made their Treasure because where the Treasure sure is there the Heart will be v. 21. The beloved Object irresistibly draweth the Heart to itself and transformeth it into itself as Seed doth the ground in which it is sown The Eye saith Christ is the Light of the Body If thine Eye be single thy whole Body shall be full of Light But if thine Eye be evil thy whole Body shall be full of Darkness and if the Light which is in thee be darkness how great is that Darkness The whole Soul and every Spirit is an Eye The understanding is an Eye of Light the Will is an Eye of Love The same word for the substance of it in the Hebrew signifies an Eye and a Fountain The Object is the Light of this Eye which sheds abroad in it the Beams of its Light Sweetness and Influence These are the waters springing up in this Fountain The single Eye in the Language of the Scripture is the good the liberal large open Eye The Eye is single from its Object when it hath fixed unchangeably in it that single Object which is truly and eternally One when it looketh upon all things only as they are comprehended in this Unity This is such a singleness such a simplicity that the Eye and the Object are both One the Supream and Eternal Unity is both the Eye and the Object in this Spirit and so the Fountain which goeth forth from its own Eden maketh the Soul a Paradise and watereth the whole Body The Evil Eye is a contracted divided narrow covetous envious malicious Eye Beware O man that the things of this world that this world be not in thine Eye As Jesus Christ is the Image of the Invisible God so is this World the Image of its God the Devil the Prince of Darkness by which he becomes visible to thee enamouâ—eth thy Soul setteth himself in thine Eye and thine Heart with all his Hells and Fires hid within this Cloud And now a blackness of Darkness big with a dreadful Tempest of Wrath dwelleth within thee and covereth all things round about thee But if Jesus Christ be the Object of thy Love he will be as a Divine Sun in the Center and midst of thy Spirit powring forth a great plenty of rich and glorious Beams thorow all parts every point of thy Soul thy Body every thing round about thee Now all things shall be to thee one entire and beautiful Body of Divine Light Indeed the world compared with the great and glorious world of Light and Beauty in the Person of Christ is as a Mote in the Sun But if this Mote be in thine Eye it will deprive thee of the sight of this Sun 2. Take heed of Uncleanness St. Jude v. 23. teacheth us to hate the Garment spotted
murmurings whisperings hard thoughts evil speakings or any such thing Heaven is not now open upon you neither do you see Jesus as he comes up out of the Baptism of his Sufferings into a Resurrection of Glory with the Eternal Spirit in the Form of a Dove in a Form of Love resting upon him The Priests in the Temple were Morning and Evening to trim the Lamps in the Golden Candlestick by pouring in fresh Oil that the Light might not go out by day nor by night Your Persons O ye Saints are the Temple your Spiritual and Divine part the Golden Candlestick the Heavenly Person of your beloved is the Light in the Lamps of this Candlestick If you would preserve this Light of Glory continually shining in you be continually pouring in from that vessel of Love the Heart of the Father fresh Love which is the Golden Oyl of the Spirit in which the Life and Light of the Divine Nature burneth and shineth eternally But to conclude my discourse concerning these Three Sins The Scripture saith Covetousness is Idolatry We make an Idol of every Image besides the Lord Jesus alone which we set up in our Hearts as real and excellent to bow down our Souls to it by our esteem and affection Every Idol hath its Devil in it St. Paul saith plainly What the Gentiles Sacrifice to Idols they Sacrifice to Devils You cannot eat of the Table of the Lord which is his Glorified Person to feast upon the Delicacies of his Beauties set before your Spirits there and eat of the Table of Devils which is this world to feed upon the Dainties of the Flesh here You cannot drink of the cup of the Lord which is his Spirit to take in the Wine of Spiritual Sweetnesses from this and drink of the Cup of Devils which is the Spirit of this World to swallow down the riches and pleasant things of that 2 Pet. 2. 13 14. We read of Spots at the Feasts of the Saints who are those that have Eyes full of Adultery St. Jude expoundeth those Feasts to be Feasts of Charity that is Love-Feasts which were Joyned with the Supper of the Lord. The Appearances of Christs Person in the Visible Angelic l Divine Images are our several Love-Feasts An adulterous Eye in the moral sense which looketh upon any visible Object after an undue manner is a Spot upon the First Love-Feast The adulterous Eye in a legal sense which looketh upon any Fleshly or visible Figure of things is a Spot upon the Second The adulterous Eye which setteth its Love upon Created Forms on Earth or in Heaven is a Spot upon the Last and best Love-Feasts All these Spots are Clouds upon the Person and stains upon the Beauty of Christ which at once dishonour and grieve him darken and defile us making us unworthy and uncapable of his blessed Appearances to us As an adulterous Eye of Lust so the blood-shot Eye of Wrath is unable to look upon this Heavenly Object or to bear the brightness of his Glory I will wind up this Use with this solemn adjuration and charge If there be such a Person as our Jesus if this Person have such unsearchable Treasures of Beauty and Joy in it if the presence and appearance of this King in his Beauty as a Bridegroom as a Spiritual Sun in the hearts of the Saints be no dream or fancy but the very Spirit and Truth and Life of the Gospel I adjure and charge you all his Saints by the Hinds and Roes of the Field by the lovely Person of your Christ by the pleasantness of his Appearances in you that laying aside Covetousness casting away all Filthiness both of Flesh and Spirit putting off all Wrath Malice Envyings and evil speakings you fix your Eye upon fill your Souls with the Beautiful and blessed Person of the Lord Jesus This is your own Fountain Drink waters from this Fountain alone Behold your selves one another all things in the Light of this Person of these Beauties as they lie here as they are comprehended in this fairest greatest and most Divine Image of all Loveliness Christ is the Truth The Appearance of things in the sweet Light of his lovely Person is True This is that Truth which if you walk in it shall dwell with you for ever shining with a precious and living lustre in the darkest places of Sorrow or Death In this Truth live at peace live in love within your selves with one another with all things So the God of Peace and Love shall be with you Amen Reas. 3. I now come to the Third Reason of the Doctrine our Lord Jesus is the fairest of all things because he hath all the parts of Beauty compleat and entire in his person That work with my own Spirit and with all Spirits which is my design and delight is to woo them for Christ and espouse them as chast Virgins to Christ. Eccles. 12. 10. We read that the Preacher sought out acceptable words and the words which he found out were upright Solomon was a figure of Christ in glory King in the Hierusalem above This Glorious Person is the Preacher the Text and the Sermon Acceptable words in the Original Language are words of delight as you may see in the Margin If ever it be fit to seek out pleasant and delightful words it is on this Subject when we treat of the Lord Jesus and his Beauties If ever it be necessary to take care to speak right words it is now when we speak of him whose Person is the Center from which all the lines of the Gospel of Evangelical Truths Graces Comforts Glories Spirits are drawn into which they all run in which they all meet My endeavour therefore is that all my discourses may be steps from one Scripture to another that by the explications and applications of these I may enlighten your minds to the sight and warm your affections to the love of these Blessed and Heavenly Beauties There are four Parts of which all Beauty consisteth 1. Variety 2. Harmony in the variety 3. Light in the Harmony 4. Life in that Light These four meet all eminently and transcendently in the highest degree in the Person of our Saviour 1. There is all variety in the Person of Christ. Colos. 1. 19. It pleased the Father that in him all fulness should dwell Observe how St. Paul cometh to this total Sum at the foot of the Account to this Conclusion of all Fulness in Christ. From the 15 th v. to this you have the whole Compass of Things in Nature Grace and Glory From the 15 th to the 18 th you have the Circuit of Nature in the full extent of the Creation with its Creator First there is God as he is the Author of Nature Jesus Christ is the Image of the Invisible God v. 15. Then you have the whole Creation He is the First-born of every Creature or of all the Creation The First-born is the Excellency of Dignity the Excellency of Strength Every
5 11. The Head of Christ is said to be as fine Gold the Bushes or Curles of his Locks black as a Raven which is the Bird of Death The blackest Darknesses with the most affrighting Horrours are but those black Locks with their Bushes and Curls which grow and live upon the Golden Head of my Jesus and are a principal part of thy Beauties Thy Golden Head is in the midst of them shineth thorow them every where like a mid-day Sun shedding his Beams of Gold thorow a pleasant Grove making so perfect and delightful a mixture of the Light and the shadow that both seem one The Shadow heightens and sweetens the Light the Light shineth in the Shadow sweetneth and softneth it Each appeareth as the same Beauty the same Person of Christ in a different posture in a different dress Thus the Light and the Darkness are both alike in thee to me The Light is thine Eye Thy Person is all an Eye of Life Beauty Love The Darkness is the Apple of thine Eye Here all inferiour excellencies are lost and covered in a deep shade Here thy Spirit and Person is most naked here it uniteth all the Beams and Forces of its loveliness and love here I see my self mine own Image and Person shining with an Immortal light round about it The Darkness is the variety making the Beauty and distinguishing the unity of Light into the Riches of maniâ—old Divine Colours Shapes and pleasant Operations of Love-delights in thy Person The Darkness is the excess and depth of thy Light swallowing up every Eye of Nature in me then giving me a new Eye and a new Vision of things in itself Day unto day uttereth Speech Night unto night declareth Knowledge Psal. 19. 2. Thou my Jesus the Immortal word and onely wisdom of thy Father art this Speech this Knowledge The Day and Night agree in this both are Divine Sounds of the Living Word Divine Representations of the Heavenly Image Divine expressions of the eternal wisdom that is both are thine Appearances distinct Appearances of the same Beautiful Person several parts of the same fulness lying together as Lines and Colours in the delightful Bosom and Face of one Transcendent Spiritual Beauty Thy Person appeareth in them both with equal fulness and is equally the fulness of both Thus in this one blessed Person of thine both are made one and are alike to me This is the happiness of every Believer This is my First Note 2. Note How unhappy is every Sinner Prov. 5. 14. There is one brought in bewailing himself How had I almost fallen into all Sin in the midst of the great Congregation Thou canst never Sin out of the presence from under the Eye of this Jesus whose Person is the great Assembly of all Living Immortal Beauties pure Beauties Spiritual the Beauties of Holiness A Poet in a clear night surprized by Thieves as he Travelled when they were now about to murther him pointing to Heaven so many Stars saith he as are yonder so many watchful Eyes are there witnesses of this Murther So many Forms of things as are round about thee so many Eyes of Heavenly Beauties look upon thee make the darkest night to shine bright as day round about thee when thou thinkest to hide in the greatest secrecy the practice or thought of any Lust. When thine Eyes shall be unsealed how will thy Spirit within thee be amazed and confounded how will thine heart within thee be melted to see that thou hast covered thy self with the loathsom abhorred deformities of so many pollutions so many profannesses in the midst of the great Congregation of all living Lovelinesses and Loves walking round about thee and seeing thee though thou lookedst not to them But thus much for the First part of Beauty in Christ the Variety 2. The Second part is the Harmony in this Variety St. Paul after that he had said that all Fulness dwelt in Christ addeth and having made peace by his blood it pleased the Father by him to reconcile all things to himself whether they be things in Heaven or things in Earth Col. 1. 20. The Spiritual Form of Christ is as a Musical Instrument All varieties of things in Heaven and Earth are so many strings upon this Instrument which are all by the life and vertue of the Instrument itself so tuned one to another and made to sound in Consort that they fill the Ears of God himself with a most Divine and pleasing Melody There is another Scripture which agrees with this and goeth further expressing the Harmony and the Ground of it Ephes. 1. 10. That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together all things in One in Him both things in Heaven and things on Earth in Him Here you have the Variety all Fulness the Fulness of Times then the Harmony this Fulness gathered up into One both these in Christ in Him Then the Fulness is explained Things in Heaven and things on Earth Then he brings it in a second Time in him Unity is the ground of all Harmony The Unity of Christs Person maketh the Harmony in him by a concurrence of four Particulars 1. The Unity of this Spiritual Person which is most entirely one springeth up into all variety within itself 2. This Transcendent Unity boundeth all this infinite variety with itself 3. This glorious Unity runneth through the whole variety as a string of Silk through a row of Pearls 4. The entire unity of this high and Heavenly Person standeth compleat in every branch and point of all the vast variety at once as the Soul is said to be all in the whole Body and all in every part of it or as if the Body of the Sun in stead of encompassing the Heavens successively should at once shine with its entire Body of Light in each point of the Firmament as the same and yet so many distinct Suns being an Unity of all Lusters and yet that Unity set in so many distinct Varieties which are as highly and ravishingly various each from other as the unity is one in itself This is that wonderful Person of Christ this is that Word that Image of God which is the Supream and Universal Harmony the Supream the Universal Musick and Beauty This maketh all the Beauty and Musick through Heaven and Earth as it giveth forth any where any Glance or sound of itself This Harmony comprehendeth all particular Musicks and Beauties of the Creature with their several sorts and degrees in their distinct Perfections within itself This maketh all things with all their motion Musick and Beauty by its Universal Presence with them and comprehension of them Blessed is he who hath a seeing Eye to discern this Beauty in every Appearance the most rugged black blessed is he who hath a hearing Ear to take in this Musick from every motion the most sharp the most confused Yea blessed is he who lies with his whole Person and Life wrapt up in this Harmony who
at its Height is strong as Death cruel as the Grave the flame of it is as the Flame of the Lord. Love and Death both agree in this that they are a separation I protest by my Rejoycing in Iesus Christ I dye dayly saith St. Paul The Love of a Saint to Jesus Christ is a Daily Death a Separation from all created Objects a Retirement out of this whole World visible or invisible into the World of the Blessed that World of Eternal Light and Beauty to be alone with Him and in Him to be inseparably united in One Love in One Loveliness in One Spring and One Stream of Beauties with Him as a Seal upon His Heart as a Seal upon His Arm. Where we read Cant. 8. 6. Love is strong as Death cruel as the grave the coals thereof are coals of Fire which hath a most vehement flame which hath is put in by the Translatours a most vehement Flame is in Hebrew the Flame of Jah of the Lord of Jesus Learn here the Divine Mystery of Love in Death The Death of a Believer a Lover of Christ is Love itself which is the Fire of God burning from the Center of our Spirits from beneath the Foundations of our Natural Being till it have consumed the whole frame of this Creation in us and transformed us into one everlasting Flame with itself till it have separated us from every Form of things into his own Shining and Flourishing Form which is the Person of our Beloved the Temple Palace Paradise of Love of the God-Head which is that Primitive the purest Love 3. Enjoyment This is the Third Step in the Love of Complacency The Intermedling with all Wisdom or all Substance Our Jesus is the only Wisdom Substance and Truth The Fulness of things in Harmony as they make all Beauties and Pleasures in their Substances and Truths as they have the first freshest Glory upon them and are incorrupâ—â—â—e lie in the Person of Christ. The Hebrew word to intermeddle signifieth to mingle with or roul our selves in the midst of all Wisdom and Substance that is in the Bosom of Jesus O believing loving Soul Thy Beloved when He cometh into thy Spirit saith Can. 1. I am come into my Garden my Sister my Spouse I have gathered my Spice I have eaten my Hony with my Hony-Comb I have drunk my Wine and my Milk When thou comest into his Bosom and Spirit say thou to him Now am I come into my Garden my Brother my Bridegroom I gather all pleasant precious and incorruptible Fruits in thy Person together with their Root thy Person So I transplant them into my Spirit and Person I eat of the excellencies of Wisdom which are sweeter to my Soul than Honey is to the Palate I eat them in and with thy Person the essence of Wisdom itself as live Honey with the Honey-comb I drink in my Wine and my Milk the Spirit and Sweetness of thy Divine and Humane Nature of the New Heaven the naked Appearance of the God-Head and the new Earth the Divine Appearance of the whole Creation in thy Spiritual Form Thus I stretch my self at large I roul my self at liberty in the midst of all Beauties and Delights Here I rest in Eternal Ioy with the perfect Complacency of all my Faculties of my whole Spirit Soul and Body in thine Heavenly Person 3. Make the single Person of Christ the Fountain of all thy Comforts 1. Consider that there is indeed such a Jesus so Beautiful Eccl. 11. 7. Solomon telleth us the light is sweet and it is a pleasant thing to behold the Sun If the light of this Heaven be sweet and the sight of this Sun infuse a pleasure into us when we look upon it what is the Light that shineth in the Person of Christ What doth once glance of this Sun of the Divine World How doth it make the heart in our bosom leap to him and dance about him as the Needle to the Loadstone To go forth in a fair Summers day to look upon the green Fields and clear Skie is a refreshing to our Natural Spirits and begetteth a lightsome Joy in us come forth ye dark and melancholy Souls see this Jesus in his unvailed Person as he rideth forth upon the Circuit of the whole Heaven and Earth in his name Jah in his Divine Form in which he comprehendeth and filleth all see that New Heaven and New Earth which he maketh in himself As Snow at the shining forth of the Sun so will the heaps of Snow the Mists and Clouds about your Heart dissolve into an unexpressible Sweetness and Light of a secret Joy and hope at this Sight By the Light of the Beauties of this Person cometh the Sight of him by this Sight cometh Faith then cometh all Peace and Joy in Believing Could Davids Harp chase away Sauls evil Spirit which vexed him Is there any evil Spirit which will not be chased away any vexation or melancholy which will not be charmed by this Harp of God by the Harmony of all Heavenly Beauty and Musick in the Person of Christ. 2. Consider that this Jesus is Beautiful to make thee Beautiful Ephes. 1. 6. God is said in his Grace that is in his sweetest and richest Love to have made us acceptable that is to have made us lovely in the Eye of his Love to have set us in the Embraces of his Love in the Beloved One in the Person of Christ. When thou liest on the ground covered with Sack-cloath and ashes in thine own Spirit then think thus with thy self When the Lord Jesus appeareth in all his Glories before the Father then doth he represent me then doth he present my Face and Person to the Eye and heart of his Father in the Glass of his own Beauties Will not thâ—s revive thy Soul within thee to understand that the Father taketh that Beautiful Image and sweet Impression of thee upon his heart which he receiveth from the most lovely sight of Jâ—sus Christ in his fullest lustre that all the thoughts and works of the Father concerning thee pass thorow this Medium the Beautiful and Blessed Person of Christ Thou sittest on the dunghil of this Body of Sin this Flesh covered from Head to Foot with the Sores of thy Corruptions Thâ—u liest in the Grave of this Body of Death where all cares and fears like Worms feed upon thee But see Jesus boweth the Heavens and cometh down He descendeth in that Form of Glory which is the Heaven of Heavens encon passâ—ng thee on every side transfiguring thee into a shining Glory as the white Cloud of the most excellent Majesty transfigured him when it rested upon him 3. Consider that this Jesus is Bautiful for thee to make thee happy in the enjoyment of Him David in a pang of grâ—â—f comforteth himself after this manner Why dâ—est thou cast down thy self O my Soul why art thou so troubled within me Hope in the Lord I shall yet praise Him the Health
this Light is a Divine Wonder a Divine Mystery Incomprehensible for the greatness of the Glory to sense and reason but familiar and plain to the Spiritual Eye as bred up with it and continually before it known to it from the Beginning The Spiritual Bride meeteth her beloved here with all his Beauties in this Light and kisseth him as her Brother as born of the same Mother There is no strangeness between them This Light is indeed the Temple the Palace of the God-Head of Eternity The Father and Christ are here upon the Throne of their Kingdom in the Glory of their Divine Nature But a Saint is a Royal Priesthood a King and a Priest So he is taken in called by God into this Sacred Palace and Temple to behold the Beauties to contemplate the vertues of both the Father and the Son that they may declare them by the Divine Power of their words and the Beauty of Holiness which is the Sun-shine of the Divine Nature in their Lives We are now by this Circuit of Scriptures brought back to that First on which we grounded this Second Branch of our Rule and for the explication of which we have taken this compass If we walk in the Light as he is in the Light we have Fellowship one with another and the Blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all Sin Who are these that have Fellowship one with another St. John had said before These things we write that you may have Fellowship with us And truly our Fellowship is with the Father and the Son v. 3. Philosophers tell us that we must come within all the Beams of the Sun to the Body of the Sun itself if we will see the Sun in his true and proper Glory Some speak of a Blessed world in the Sun the Rarities and Beauties of which are seen only by the Inhabitants of the Sun Gods own Light is a Divine World in which the Father the Son all the Saints dwell together eternally have their proper life of Divine Sweetness and Blessedness appear in their proper Forms of Divine Purity and Beauty If ye will be admitted into this Society to a sight of these you must go beyond you must come within every Light of the Creature all Beams into the Bosom of God himself into the Brightness of the Divine Essence which is the Living-looking-Glass of the Holy Trinity Here you shall see your Jesus as he is You shall see him as you are seen by him For now the Blood of Christ cleanseth you from all Sin This Light of the Divine Nature which is the Light of Life and the Spirit Himself is the Blood of Jesus eminently in the vertue of it as it is Incorruptible This is that which poureth forth itself thorow the Humane Nature into the lowest Forms of Dust Darkness Wrath and Death in the place of Sinners as a Ransom of Infinite value This is that Precious Blood of the true Vine which when Justice and Wrath have drunk of they are satisfied sweeetned and changed into Grace and Glory an over-spreading Loveliness and an overflowing Love This is that Blood in which the Life is which as it is let forth in Death wrappeth up all things in it self washeth them from filth and flesh then riseth up again as high as its own Spring in the Heart of the Father and carrieth up all things with it self into the Newness of the Glory of God Nothing is so directly contrary to the Divine Light as Sin Therefore it is expressed by Darkness and the Night As the Light of the Day cleanseth all Forms of things from the Darkness of the Night which lay upon them that now they have fellowship one with another mingle their Beams and Beauties with mutual Joy so doth this Blood of the Lamb the Light shining in the Person of Christ when it breaketh forth from the Shades of Death in the morning of the Resurrection sanctifie the Heavenly things themselves bring forth from under every cloud stain and dust the Heavenly Persons of a Saint of Jesus Christ of God the Heavenly Truths and Lives of all Things that they may in the Unity of this Light maintain a precious commerce and traffick of all interchangeable Sweetnesses Excellencies with Immortality unto a full Joy Psal. 4. 6. David thus openeth the Hearts of the multitude and his own Heart Many will say Who will shew us any good But Lord lift up thoâ— the Light of thy countenance upon us When all thy faculties and Affections all the Powers of thy Soul cry Who will shew us Iesus Christ in Glory Let thine Heart answer to God and say Lord lift up thou the Light of thy face upon me In the Shinings of thy Face is my Iesus hid and in these Shinings alone will He be seen by me Thus the Spiritual Beauties of Iesus Christ are to be discerned only in the Spiritual Light of His own Person 3. Spiritual Things are to be seen in Spiritual Forms This is the Third Branch of the Rule Joh. 20. 30. When the Lord after his Resurrction had appeared to the Apostles in a Body of Flesh as He had been cruciâ—ied the Holy Ghost addeth And many other Signs did Jesus in the presence of His disciples Observe this expression well His Appearance in a Natural Body the same in which He had formerly lived with them was not the Truth it Self but a Sign of it Luk. 24. 38. Jesus shewing Himself after the same manner to His Apostles raiseth them from their fears that This was the Apparition of some Spirit by these words Behold my hands and my feet that it is I my self A Spirit hath not Flesh and Bones as you see me to have The Lord seemeth to speak to them after this manner You have not yet received the Spirit but are hitherto carnal If I should shew my self to you as I am now in the Glory of my Resurrection in which I am altogether Spiritual and a Spirit you would not know me you would not believe that I were the same Person you would be afraid of me I have therefore wrought this Miracle and given you this Sign in a tenderness towards you and a Condescention to your present weakness By that Almighty Power over Heavenly and Earthly Things which I am now cloathed with by the virtue of that Spiritual Divine Form and Substance into which I am now raised which comprehendeth within it self all Form Substances and Virtues I present my self to you in that same Body composed of the same Flesh and Bones in which I lived with you and dâ—ed upon the Cross before your Eyes with the same Wounds which I then received And because this is a Sign therefore do I accompany it to your Senses and to your Spirits with a Double Evidence and Seal from my Divinity One that this is no Imposture or Apparition with which Evil Spirits have power to deceive your Sight your Hearing your Touch all your natural Faculties but that
Individual and Substantial Body of mine as it was in Flesh the Other the awakening of Spiritual Senses in you the Shining forth of my Glorified Body and my Divinity by their own Light upon these thorow this Sign of my Natural Body reassumed for this Service But now beware that you make not this Sign a Stumbling-block to you to make you think me now like your selves and such a one as formerly I was to have a body of an Earthly Substance or Figure consisting of Flâ—sh and Bones No the Days of my Flesh are past I was put to Death in my Flesh and to the Flesh I am now quickened by the Spirit to live for ever in the Spirit A Spirit hath not Flesh nor Bones as you see me now to have This seemeth to be something of our Saviours sence in this place St. Paul Rom. 8. 6. saith To be carnally-minded is Death but to be spiritually-minded is Life and Peace The Greek word comprehendeth an Act of both the Faculties of our Souls our Understanding and our Will To look upon things in their Fleshly Forms to savour and rellish a Fleshly Sweetness in things is Death To see things in their Spiritual Appearances to savour and rellish them in a Spiritual Sweetness This is Life and Peace which is the Harmony the Musick the Crown of Life When the Disciples looked down into the Grave for Jesus Christ the Angels reproved them saying Why seek ye the Living among the Dead He is not here He is risen He is gone before you into Galilee as Himself spake unto you The Flesh was our Saviour's Grave and is still the Grave of the Spirit All Forms and Beauties of the Flesh are Grave-cloaths bound about Him Let us no more seek the Living and Immortal Person of our Beloved nor His Living and Immortal Beauties which are all Spirit and Life among the Dead things of the Flesh. He is not here in Flesh any more He is risen and gone before us into the Spirit Let us follow Him thither I have done with the First Rule to direct us in the Knowledge of the Person of Christ Spiritual Things are to be discerned Spiritually Rule 2. Spiritual Things are to be compared with Spiritual 1 Cor. 2. 13. The Holy Ghost teachâ—th comparing Spiritual things with Spiritual This Rule bringeth me to the Mark and White which I aim at That I may hit it the more exactly I must â—ix a while upon that Scripture 1 Cor. 15. 35. and so forward I lay this Groundwork for the Building which I intend to raise upon this Scripture The set Design of the Apostle here is to discourse of the Resurrection of the Body He therefore frameth this Question to himself which containeth the Great Subject of his whole Discourse in this place How are the dead raised up and with What Body do they come v. 35. In answer to this question he treateth of the Bodies of the Saints in general of the Body of Christ in particular as the Root and Rule of the Resurrection to all the rest Upon this ground I shall raise three Propositions as three Stories in my Building which will take in the greatest part of St. Pauls words upon this Subject in this Scripture Prop. 1. The Body of Christ risen from the Dead is not to be compared with the Body of Christ living upon the Earth or Dying St. Paul likeneth by a large similitude the living Body to a Seed the Body raised to a perfect Plant sprung up out of that Seed v. 36. 37 38. St. Paul maketh expresly three Differences 1. The Life of the one is a Death compared to the life of the other and so the world in which it is a Grave to that Image of things in the Resurrection v. 36. That which thou sowest is not quickned except it die 2. They differ as two several Bodies for Substance and Shape Thou sowest not that Body that shall be v. 37. 3. One is as bare Grain naked dark deformed little slight the other hath a Body a Substantial Beautiful Distinct fulness It hath a Form of Light and Beauty proportions of greatness and magnitude a fulness of Substance It hath a Divine Body a Body drawn forth from the Treasury of the God-Head God giveth it a Body v. 38. It is a Body a Form and Fulness sprung forth from the Divine Wisdom and Will bearing the Glorious stamp of these in which themsâ—lves rest with a full Complacency God giveth it a Body 〈◊〉 himself pleaseth v. 38. It is also to the Seed it s own Body and to every Seed it s own Body v. 38. As John the Baptist saith of Jesus Christ he is perfer'd before me because he was before me as in the purity and Paradise of the Creation the perfect Plants were first in the Fulness of their Beauty and Fruit bearing their Seed in them so in the Paradise of Eternity before the World which is Christ the Word the Wisdom of God the Immortal the Glorious the Divine Bodies and Forms of things were first as the Flourishing Tree comprehending in themselves the Bodies and Forms of Flesh as Shadows or naked Seeds hid in the Light or Bosom of the beautiful Substance and Fruit. Then came forth the Earthly Forms of things into the State of this Creation These are Shadows under which the Divine Substances are vailed These are Seeds in which the Tree itself lieth hid as a Divine Mystery By the breaking up of these Shadows and the dying of these Seeds the Immortal Bodies and Glorious Substances themselves spring forth thorow them So every Seed hath its own Body in the Resurrection 1. It is that Body of Glory in which it lay and to which it relateth as its Divine Original or first Idea in the mind and will of God 2. It is that which lay hid virtually in it 3. It is that which springeth up out of it and changeth it into itself Thus the Body of our Lord risen is the same Body in relation to the same Idea or Pattern in God to the same Soul to which it is joyned as its proper Form in the Person of Christ to the same first Matter out of which it is taken God giveth it a Body as it hath pleased him and to every Seed it s own Body v. 38. My Brethren what joy is it to think that the Body of our loving and beloved Jesus that our own Bodies that the Bodies of our dearest Relations and delights lose nothing of themselves in Death yea are much more themselves by Death in the Resurrection as a man awake is much more himself than in a Dream a King upon his Throne than in the Grave and Tomb We shall lose nothing of our selves nor of our distinction But I fear I go to far for common understandings to follow me I will therefore conclude this Proposition with a plain representation of the Truth to you As the thing figured exceedeth the figure so the difference between the Body of our
Jesus by the Immediate Embraces of Divine Love incloseth comprehendeth thy Person entirely with the Sweetness Beauty Immortality of his own Glorified Person The Soul in the Bosom of Christ lieth as a Pleasant Island in a Sea of Love The Sea bringeth to an Island Pleasure by its prospect and by sayling upon it Safety by inclosing it Riches by Traffick unto all parts Thus thou O Saint art seated in the midst of a vast Ocean of heavenly Love This Ocâ—an of Love is thy Prospect on every side Which way soever thou lockest thou seest Waves of Love rolling and tumbling one upon the neck of another sometimes rising up as high as heaven sometimes again falling as low as Heâ—l All Storms are The Workings of this Lovely Sea of Love and Delightful Entertainments to Thee thou lanchest forth and sailest round about thy Island which is thy self upon this Sea of Love These are thy Pleasures How safe art thou How great and impregnable is thy Strength Nothing can come to thee but by a Sea of Love Divine Almighty Eternal Love Thou art inaccessible but this way by the Sea of Love No vessels can pass upon this Sea nothing can pass thorow it but Divine Forms of Love heavenly Angels and Ministers of Love Whatever other Form of things attempteth This Blessed Ocean of the Father's Love poureth forth in Jesus Christ is swallowed up by it and never seen more Thou hast Traâ—â—ick and Commerce by this Sea of Love with all things holy heavenly Beautiful and Bâ—essed every where with all Lands of Life and Joy Thou sendest forth thy Spirit thoughts and Affections into all Parts Thou bringest home all the Precious and Pleasant things of Heaven and Earth of Time and Eternity of God and the Creature Thou hast a Love-Union and by this Love-Union a Communion of Love with all the Treasures of the Godhead in the Sun and in the Moon in the Heavens above and the Deep which lieth below This is the Purity the Sweetness of the Father's Love in Christ the nearness of the Love-Union 2. The Sweetness of the Love of God in Christ sheweth itself in the Firmness of the Union What the Spouse of Christ saith of her self in the Canticles that is the Language of this Love to the Soul in Jesus Christ I took hold of him I will not let him go The Love of the Father hath taken hold of Thee will never let Thee go St. Paul Rom. 8. v. 35. maketh a Challenge What shall separate us from the Love of Christ Affliction Danger Sword the Love-Union between God and the Soul in Jesus Christ is so close so fast that the Point of the sharpest Sword cannot pierce between them the subtilest Flame cannot divide between them If it wound or burn one it must wound and burn the other also There is no Vein of Blood in the Body of Man which hath not running along beneath it an Artery a Vein of Spirits to preserve the Warmth Motion and Life of the Blood There is no Vein of Divine Providence in the whole Life of a Saint there is no Vein of Life or Death in the whole Person of a Saint which hath not a Vein of Divine Love running along inseparably with it to sweeten it to give a Spiritual a heavenly Tincture of Life Joy and Glory to it To me to live is Christ to dye is Gain saith St. Paul Philip 1. v. 21. There is nothing so Dividing as Death The Life of a Man is the Union between Soul and Body Death dissolveth this Union The Life of a Saint is the Love Union between his God and Spirit in Christ who is the Glorious head and the Golden knot of this Union Death maketh this Love-Union faster and sweeter more close more clear more compleat Dâ—ath is a Gain here The Death of a Saint is like the Tabernacle in the Wilderness Without was a course Tent of Badgers Skin exposed to the Injuries of all Weathers This was seen by the Common Eye But this was not the Tabernacle This was onely the Tent the Covering upon the Tabernacle The Tabernacle within as it appeared to the Priest's Eye which entred into it was Silk Silver Gold and Precious Stone Fine Linnen Scarlet Crimson Sky-Colour Cherubims richly wrought Be not deceived That is not the Death of a Saint That is not a Saint in Death which appeareth outwardly to the Eye of Sense so affrightful so mournful so dark so deformed so Dividing from all the Joyes of Life No. This is the Covering onely upon Death to hide the sacred Mystery from common Eyes That which is within which presenteth itself all along to the Eye of a Saint that entreth into this Death is indeed a Tabernacle of Immortal of Divine Love with all rich and pleasant Appearances wonderfully heightened The Love-Union between God and the Soul in Christ opening itself taking the Soul entirely into itself as into the true Heavens where all things which are seen are the highest Forms of Beauty in the highest Lights of Divine Glory all things that are heard tasted or felt the highest Joyes of the Divine Life with the most heightned Sweetnesses of Divine Love 3 The Sweetness of Divine Love is manifested in its Efficacy in its Sweetning Operations as it is poured forth in the Lord Jesus St. Paul saith Philip 3. l. We have our Conversation in Heaven from whence we look for the Lord Jesus who shall change these Vile Bodies these Bodies of our humiliation and make them like his own Glorious Body according to that Power by which he is able to subdue all things to himself As the Flowers put forth unfold all their Beauâ—ies send forth their several Sweetnesses to the Sun so do all the Excellencies Joyes and Glories of the Godhead display themselves to the Divine Love God in the Presence of his Love is the highest the Truest Hâ—â—ven This is the Heaven which containeth and hideth Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ cometh forth from this Heaven as a Bridegroom from his Chamber he cometh forth in this Heaven with this Heaven round about him he maketh this Heaven every where as he cometh forth as the Sun maketh a Glorious Sky He boweth this Heaven and cometh down upon It into the broken heart To this broken heart he changeth the vilest the Bitterest Image of things the Body of its humiliation the Body of this Darkness and Death in which it dwelleth here into the Likeness of his own most Glorious Body the Body of the highest Heaven in its Brightness the Pure and clear Body of Divine Love This Love of the Father is that Power by which our Jesus subdueth all things to himself that is to the Brightness and Sweetness of the Glory of this Love to the Express to the Naked Image of this Love in its own Divine Substance in 〈◊〉 own most Lovely Person This is the transfiguring Efficacy of the Love of the God-Head poured forth in the Glorious Person of Christ and making for him
he that hath suffered in the Flesh hath ceased from Sin The Holy Ghost clearly relates to the death of the Lord Jesus and of a Saint He speaks of the time perfectly past he that hath suffered in the Flesh that is he that by dying hath compleated and finished his sufferings in the flesh he hath ceased from sin He that dyeth in union with Christ in the vertue of his death and in a conformity to it in the first moment of death ceaseth from all the Evils of Sin the Guilt the Power the Pollution the Punishment and so from Death itself See the inseparable connexion between the Flesh Sufferings Sin and Death All these continue together and cease together O you that hear or read understand these things and lay them to heart This Flesh which is so dear to us which we are so loath and unwilling to part with which we tender as our nearest and dearest self is our only division from our self a bed of Snakes and Enmity It is the root the seat the food the fewel the fruit of Sin and suffering and death This Fleshly Principle and Sense this worldly Light and Image which we account Life and the Sweetness of Life in which we think all the dear Treasures and Joys of Life are comprehended is no other than a deep dark and miery Dungeon where we lie in the midst of the hissings stings and poysons of innumerable Toads and Serpents This Sin which so easily besetteth us and winds itself into our bosoms is that weight which presseth us and sinketh us down that chain of Darkness which tyeth us down and fastneth us here below in the horrible Pit and Dungeon of this Fleshly Principle and Sense this Fleshly this worldly Spirit and Image This Death which seemeth so dreadful to us which we so tremble at and fly from is that dearest Friend come down from Heaven from the bosom of God that beautiful hand put forth from the secret of Eternal Life Love and Glory which taketh off this weight which knocketh off this chain of Darkness and restoreth to us our silver Wings and golden Feathers by which in a moment we fly forth from this Cage of unclean Spirits this Dungeon of the Fleshly Principle and Sense never to return into them any more O Believers fear not fly not from Sufferings Be willing to sacrifice and offer up this Flesh as a whole Burnt-Offering in the Flame of Sufferings unto Death Kiss Death as a lovely Bride as those perfumed Flowers those Beds of Spices the Cheeks of the Heavenly Bride-groom mentioned in the Canticles For the Flesh the fleshly Principle and Sense the Spirit and Image of this Flesh of this World together with the Sufferings Sin and Death end all at once in the Death of a Saint in the very first moment of his Death A Holy Divine when he was dying lay upon his Death-Bed singing this often over Now I shall sin no more We read Isaiah 59. 2. That our Iniquities separate between us and our God our Sins hide his face from us Death is indeed a separation but it is not the separation of the Soul from the Body The separation of the Soul or the Body from God this is Death indeed this alone is Death This world this worldly Spirit and Image is the Curtain or Vail the Partition wall between us and the Face or Bosom of our Heavenly Bridegroom our Lord Jesus So saith St. Paul Our Gospel is hid to those whose Eyes the God of this world hath blinded that they should not behold the Light of the Knowledge of the Glory of God in the Face or Person of Christ. The Fleshly Principle or Sense is the unpassable gulf between us and the unsearchable Treasures of the Divine Nature of the Blessed Persons in the Divine Nature the Father the Eternal Word the Holy Spirit Sin digs up and keeps open this Gulf sin builds up this Partition wall Sin draws this Curtain between us and the Divine Beauties the Divine Blessedness O dying Saints break forth into singings O all ye Saints rejoice and triumph at every thought at every approach of Death Abraham saw the day of Christ and rejoyced to see it saith our Lord Jesus in the Gospel The word rejoyce in Greek is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is he danced a Galliard When the Virgin Mary with Christ in her Womb came to the Mother of John the Baptist the Babe within her sprung for joy Thus O Believers let your hearts spring for joy within you at the approach and presence of Death So Death coming to you as a beautiful and a heavenly Virgin with Jesus Christ in its Womb not after the Flesh but in the Glory of the Spirit to be delivered of him immediately into your Bosoms as a Bridegroom that at once in the same moment appears to you in Glory makes you worthy of himself by being like himself and one Glory with himself makes all things Life Immortality Glory round about you Behold the day of your Death both afar off near at hand as the day of Christ as a day which the Lord Jesus makes rising himself as the true Sun upon you so iurning this Sun into Darkness before the brightness of his own appearance enlightning all within you and without you with another Light infinitely greater infinitely sweeter At the sight of this day as Abraham did so let your hearts spring with a pleasant lightness and dance Galliards in your Bosom Now sing of Death and say in your songs every one of you as you lie upon your Death-beds I shall sin no more I shall be in Flesh no more no more for ever in this Fleshly Principle and sense which hath so long bewitched me and held me by their â—orceries in the House of Whoredoms and of Death I shall be in this world so loathsome and so hateful to me I shall see this world and this Image of things which hath been so long so tempting and tormenting to me no more for ever Farewel for ever all distances all divisions between me and my Jesus my God Henceforth shall I with open face in my Soul and my Body behold the open and unvailed Face of God Henceforth shall I with my naked Soul and Body lie for ever in the naked Bosom of my Glorified Saviour my King and Husband giving him of my Loves drinking in abundantly his Loves and bringing forth continually by him all the Spiritual and Heavenly fruits of Life and Immortality The morning is called Rosy-fingred because the morning Beams as Rosy-fingers seem to open the Curtains of the night and let in day upon us Death is to a Saint of a truth this Rosy fingered morning which by sweet beams breaking forth from on high draws aside the Curtains of this night of Flesh and lets in upon us the Eternal day which at once in a moment overspreads our Souls and Bodies and fills all things to us with its blessed Light making us and
drop upon your hearts four brief exhortations 1. O that all Men would love the King of Saints the Lord Jesus It is he alone who subdues the King of Terror that is Death and is more than a conqueror over him making him the King of delights He changeth the Region and Kingdom of Death which is the Principality of the Devil into the Kingdom of God which is Righteousness Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost 2. Set a value upon the union with the Lord Jesus by faith Ask seek dig for this by day and by night in Prayer in the Word in the Society of the Saints in every ordinance in every creature that you may believe in the Lord Jesus and that you may be united to him by believing Let nothing discourage you in this pursuit and expectation The Lord Jesus hath given himself for you even unto Death that you may be his in the sweetest and most intimate union He giveth himself to you in his life of Glory that he may be yours by an immediate and entire union He giveth his Spirit to you to be the Maker and the band of this union to work faith in you and make you Believers He is now with you now in you in the fulness of his merits righteousness glory love and Spirit Now this moment open the Eyes of your minds and behold him in the midst of you open your hearts and take him in cast your selves into his open arms and heart cleave to him by believing So even this moment shall your Souls and Bodies both which are naturally the Members of this Harlot the Flesh and the World which are naturally Dens of Thieves and Devils become the Members of the Lord Jesus and the Temples of the Holy Ghost The Lord Jesus shall be in your Body itself as in a Member of himself a Fountain of living waters even in Death and in the Grave making it there a Paradise a Garden for God and for all blessed Spirits The Holy Ghost shall be not only in your Souls but in your Bodies also as in his Holy Temple even in the darkness of Death itself filling it with his Glory and moving over it with his Doves Wings the Wings of Eternal Love 3. Make it your chief work and end to grow in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus What care and pains do we take to grow in riches yet riches profit not in the day of Wrath. To know him is eternal life With what diligence do we pursue the wisdom of this world Yet saith Solomon as dyeth the Fool so dyeth the wise Man If thou gain and grow in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus this is a wisdom which will make thy Soul and Body both shine with a Light of Glory and Immortality even in Death itself Solomon saith that when understanding enters into our Souls wisdom will be sweeter than hony to our tast O what new tast and rellishes of new and unexpressible sweetnesses doth the Soul still meet with which is still growing in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus What a sweet tast and rellish of Death beyond all the delights of Life doth the knowledge of Jesus Christ give unto us representing it as a Feast of pleasant things to our Bodies also as well as to our Souls When thou understandest the fellowship and vertue of Christs Death in thy Death thou shalt see Death in thy Soul and in thy Body as the Carkass of a dead Lyon torn in pieces by that true Samson the Lord Jesus whither the Father himself and Christ and the Holy Spirit with all the blessed Angels resort as Bees to their Hive laying there their Hony and their Hony-comb for thee to eat 4. O you that are Christs love Death Death is now become but a shadow of Death True life with all the joys of life vails itself beneath that shadow If you knew the love of the Father the Glory of the Lord Jesus the joys of the Holy Ghost in Death if you knew what the Death of a Saint were how precious you would ask it continually of God that he would hasten it in the time thereof You would cry out continually as Sisera's Mother did why doth his Chariot stay Death is not now a shadow of Death but a living delightful and divine shadow cast from the glorious face of our Lord Jesus under which our Souls and Bodies lie together as in a sweet and divine sleep in his Bosom in which sleep all the joys and glories of Heaven and Eternity are present with us as a divine Dream out of which we wake at the Resurrection finding all to be true eternally true and the sweet shadow and dream themselves swallowed up into a bright clear and full enjoyment Thus according to St. Pauls Language doth the very Body of a Saint when he dies sleep in the Lord. Thus is death to the Soul and Body of a Saint as the Curtains of Purple round about Solomons Bed where the Saint lies now in the embraces of the true Solomon himself the King of Righteousness and King of Peace or round about the Chariot of Solomon which had within it a Throne of Gold and was paved with Love As the Sun by its influence forms a precious Mine of Gold in the bowels of the Earth which afterward being taken out and separated from its dross becomes pure and incorruptible and is made a Crown for the Head of a great King so the Lord Jesus by his Spirit frames a new a heavenly Soul and Body in a Saint which are both his precious Members his Temples of Gold But while this life lasts they are in this Body of Sin and Death as Gold in the Oar. In the moment of Death the Lord Jesus takes them both out separates them entirely from the dross of all earthliness and carnality makes them pure and shining Diadems in the hand of God 2. Propos. The whole Person of a Saint in Soul and Body at the moment of Death is gathered up entirely into a Spiritual Principle and so into a Spiritual Sense and so into a Divine Life and Peace This followeth of necessity upon the former Proposition which I have already proved by the Scripture For if a Saint in Death be gathered up entirely out of a Carnal Principle he is gathered up entirely into a Spiritual Principle There is now no middle between these two We read in Scripture of the divided state of a Saint between freedom and bondage liberty and captivity the War between the Spirit and the Flesh while he lives on Earth Accordingly we meet with exhortations to abide in Christ to walk in the Spirit if we live in the Spirit But when a Saint dies we read of him and that with a peculiar relation to his Body that he sleeps in the Lord that he sleeps in Christ. O sweet and full expression O beautiful and blessed State Now is a Saint with his Body as well as his Soul alone in Christ entirely in Christ for
his Heart continually bringing him forth into his whole Person and Life with an increasing clearness and fulness As the Object is to the Faculty and to the Soul so is Jesus Christ to a Spiritual Person his Pattern his Object his Food his Feast which spreads itself quite thorow his Person and Life which all throughout turns into Life Strength Beauty Cheerfulness and Joy to him 5. A spiritual person in a sweet and sealing manner sees the Spirit himself presenting the Lord Jesus to him within himself in a spiritual Glory feels the Spirit himself springing up immediately within him in all sights of Christ in all his changes and growths into Christ. He sees and feels this Spirit to be Jesus Christ himself He sees and feels this Spirit and this Jesus to be in himself and one Spirit with himself So the verse forementioned runs We all with open face beholding as in a Looking-glass the Glory of the Lord are changed into the likeness of the same Image from Glory to Glory as by the Spirit of the Lord or according to the Greek by the Lord that Spirit These are the sweet and blessed Advantages of a Spiritual State I will add some few and short Directions to this State 1. Look to the New Birth in You. See that you be born again that you be born from above that you be born of the Spirit that this which is born in you be Spirit Jesus Christ saith That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit This only is the New Birth Newness is only in the Eternal Spring the Spirit 2. Take care of your Union with Christ that it be a Spiritual Union that you be united to Christ as he is risen from the Dead and in Glory as he is a Spirit the King and Bridegroom of Spirits that you be united to Christ in the Spiritual Man that your Union be a Spiritual Marriage that you be one Spirit in the Unity of the Eternal Spirit which is Love 3. Pray for the Spirit for a Spiritual Understanding for the Knowledge of things in the Spirit as they are Spirit and Life and so alone Truth Suck in the Spirit by day and by night from the lips of Christ from the kisses of his mouth 4. Die to every thing of the Flesh that you may live in the Spirit Bear about in your Bodies the dying of the Lord Jesus that the Life also of the Lord Jesus according to the Spirit may be manifested in your mortal Bodies At the young Phoenix is said to spring new and fresh out of the Ashes of the Old One so doth the Spirit in the newness of an Heavenly and Immortal Glory spring out of the Grace of Christ. 5. Live purely live in Love These two Purity and Love are the principal fruits of the Spirit by which the Spirit himself is drawn down and held in our Hearts being fed and delighted with them Every kind and degree of impurity and enmity quencheth the Spirit and maketh him to withdraw himself into Heaven again The Scripture saith The Flesh lusteth against the Spirit to bring forth its own Beauties Delights and Fruits all over the Spirit of Man in the place of the Eternal Spirit The Scripture saith also That the Flesh envyeth against the Spirit The Flesh hath an envy and an envious malice to see the Spirit with its Eternal Glories Joys and Fruits to flourish in the Soul 6. Lastly Take heed of thinking that you know enough He that thinks he knows any thing knows nothing as he ought to know it saith St. Paul He that thinks he knows any thing knows things only after the Letter which is a knowledge of shadows only and a shadow of knowledge This is that knowledge which pusseth up which swels a man with a windy conceit of knowledge But that knowledge which is from the Spirit as its Fountain and in the Spirit as its air and element and of the Spirit as its only object this makes a man at the highest degree of his knowledge on Earth to be sensible that all his knowledge is but as the light of the night a light shining in a dark place not the day-star and the Sun itself risen upon him This man thinks himself at best as a door-keeper only or as the Hebrew word signifieth one standing at the threshold of the House of God who looketh in at a distance and hath only a weak glimmering prospect of the Glories there but is not yet entered into the Light of those Glories to behold them as they are to know them as he ought to know them and is to know them He therefore as a new born Babe from the Womb of the Spirit keeps his Eye ever fixed with wonder and pleasure upon the light of the Spirit and ever thirsts to drink in more and more the sweet milk of this Light The Subject of our discourse hath been the passage of a Saint by Death not only in his Soul but in his Body also into a State of purity pleasure perfection and immortality One of the objections against this was taken from common sense to which Death presents the Bodies of the holiest Persons liveless ghastly dissolving to dust We have answered this objection by a distinction between a twofold sense Carnal and Spiritual But this objection was enforced from the Body of Christ which was a rueful and bloody spectacle in Death which lay three days in the silence darkness and restraint of the Grave It is necessary therefore to say something particularly to the State of Christs Body in Death by the application of this distinction to that also I shall ground this discourse upon that Scripture Luke 12. 50. They are the words of Christ I have a Baptism to be Baptized with and how am I streightned till it be over This Baptism is generally and as I humbly conceive rightly interpreted to be the sufferings of Christ at his Death The Baptism of Christ and the accomplishment of that Baptism were both at the time of his Death The sense of this Baptism before it came was an unexpressible streightning or affliction and oppression to the Soul of Christ. He cries out how am I streightned The words thus opened afford this observation The Lord Jesus had his greatest trouble and his greatest Triumph at the time of his Death Then was this bloody Baptism and then was the blessed accomplishment of this Baptism I shall open this in seven Propositions whereof 5 set forth the trouble the other two the Triumph of Christ at his Death 1. Propos. It was the most glorious and eternal Person of God himself in two Natures Divine and Humane which was our Jesus 2. Propos. God in his own Person as the Divine Nature lived in our Nature here on Earth stood at once in a twofold Principle one Natural and Temporary the other Supernatural and Eternal 3. Propos. As this Eternal Person our Jesus with his God-Head in the Humane Nature stood in a Natural and Temporary
Principle he stood under the curse receiving and feeling all the stings and bitterness of the curse to the utmost extremity 4. Propos. This our Jesus as he at the same time with his Divine Nature in his Humanity stood in a Supernatural and Eternal Principle he in his Humanity comprehended his Humanity itself in its natural Principle together with the natural Principle itself the Curse all the stings and bitterness of the Curse in a light of Divine Glory in a life of Divine Love as so many varieties of pure Love Joy and Glory with Immortality 5. Propos. The Curse with the stings and sense of it upon the Natural and Temporary Principle as also the conflict between the Natural and Temporary the Supernatural and Eternal Principle in the Lord Jesus through his whole Person as it lived in a Humane Soul and Body were highest at his Death These are the five Propositions which set forth the trouble of Christ at his Death In the other two followeth his Triumph 6. Propos. This Eternal Person our Jesus with his God-Head in his whole Humanity both Soul and Body in the moment of Death by dying went entirely forth from the Natural or Temporary Principle and so from under the Curse 7. Propos. This same Jesus in his whole Person with his whole Soul and Body in the moment of Death by dying went forth entirely into the simplicity and singleness of his Supernatural the Eternal Principle and so into a State of pure Eternity unmixt Joy and Glory I shall briefly open these Propositions in their order 1. Propos. It was the most glorious and eternal Person of God himself in two Natures Divine and Humane which was our Jesus John 1. 14. The Word was made Flesh. The second Person in the Trinity from which the other two Persons the Father and the Spirit are inseparable the eternal and essential Son of God which hath the fulness of the God-Head in himself in its most express Image and greatest Glory he in his own Person in this Eternal Person and Sonship was made Flesh. This Eternal Person this Essential Son of God was that Flesh. This Flesh was that Person that Son which had the Father and the Spirit inseparably with himself and was essentially one with them O Christians study this union of the two Natures Divine and Humane in one only Divine Unchangeable and Eternal Person which is the most glorious and Ever-blessed God This is the deep and rich ground of the Christian Religion out of which as the true ground of the Heavenly Paradise the God-Head itself makes to spring all the precious mysteries of the Gospel all Evangelical Truths Graces and Joys in their most Spiritual Beauty Sweetness and Life Understand this Pray for the understanding of this for a sight sense and feeling of it within your own Spirits that it is God God himself in his own only Divine unchangeable undivided Person in your own Form in your own Nature in your own Persons and Spirits which is your Jesus your Saviour Redeemer Husband and King your Ransom Atonement and Righteousness your Beauty your Life your Joy your Root Branch Flower and Fruit. This union between the Divine and Humane Nature in one Person in our Lord Jesus is the Original and Reason of the union between you and this Jesus which is God in Person to which Person thorow this union you also are immediately eternally united in one Spirit in one mystical Person which is Christ as St. Paul speaketh as there is one Body and many Members so is Christ. A Spiritual knowledge of this union of two Natures in one Person and that God himself is this Person will sweeten all sufferings of life to you and perfume the Grave Open the Eyes of your Spirits and behold with joy and wonder the going of your God and King in the Sanctuary of this Earthly Body It was the ever-glorious and immutable Person of God in the most high and holy Trinity which made itself Flesh in the Womb of the Virgin which was that Flesh which in that Flesh eat drank slept talked and walked upon the Face of this Earth which passed under all the clouds thorow all the storms of life here which hung upon the Cross dyed and lay down in the Grave O with what a Divine and delightful Glory hath this Divine presence and Person silled and cloathed this Flesh this Earth all the natural actions and passions of this Flesh on this Earth Clouds Storms the Cross Death and the Grave to the Spiritual Eyes of Believers What living Plants of Paradise how beautiful how laden with most pleasant and Immortal Fruits are all these springing up out of this Root this Divine and Eternal Person What Jewels are they of incomprehensible virtue sweetness and lustre hanging upon this Person See your selves O all ye Saints even the lowest and the least conformed to this Image It is the immortal Seed and Son of God in you it is your Jesus the most glorious Person of God himself in this Seed in you which is made partaker of Flesh and Blood which walks on Earth and acts all the parts of the natural Life here which passeth thorow all the Clouds and Storms of life which suffers dies and lies in the Grave The Spoase saith of Christ he is a bundle of Myrrh he shall lye all night between my Breasts Thus the Humane Nature of Christ saith to the Divine Nature Thus the Earthly Nature saith to the Heavenly Nature to the Divine Seed to the Lord Jesus to the Divine Nature in the Lord Jesus thou art my bundle of Myrrh thou liest all the night of this life and death between my naked Breasts What corruption can I see in the Grave itself What Divine Sweetness breaths forth itself in all States What Divine Treasures of Life and Immortality fill and overflow all while we thus lye most intimately united entirely wrapt up in each other in the most sweet and glorious Unity of one Divine and Eternal Spirit one Mystical Divine and Eternal Person 2. Propos. God in his own Person as the Divine Nature lived in our Nature here on Earth stood at once in a twofold Principle the one Natural and Temporary the other Spiritual and Eternal The Lord Jesus was truly and really a man in every point like unto us sin only excepted as the Scripture speaketh in the Epistle to the Hebrews Thus he did bear in himself the Earthly and Natural Image he stood in an earthly and natural Principle He came forth from the Father into the World So was he made a Servant and made under the Law But the Lord Jesus was in Person the Eternal Son of God In this Person alone did the Humane Nature of Christ with its Natural Principle and Fleshly Form in this world subsist The second Person in the Trinity was the Glorious and Invisible Root which through the Divine Nature sent forth sustained lived and appeared in the spotless Flesh of the Lord Jesus Thus
Death This World with all its Powers and Principalities the life of this World the Cross itself and Death which had so long captivated the Lord Jesus with all the Powers Beauties Joys and Glories of his Heavenly Image binding them in Chains of Darkness within the Dungeon of this Earthly Image whose light is darkness are now themselves in the Person of our Lord Jesus in his Soul and Body together with his Captivity itself carryed up as he ascends and made Captives to that Heavenly Image which they held Captive Here in this Pallace of the Spirit and of Eternity where Darkness itself shines as the Light they are seen as the Captives of the Lord Jesus bound in Chains of Glory spectacles to all the Holy Angels and Blessed Spirits in which the Beauties of Christs Victory and Triumph as so many ravishing Wonders of an Incomprehensible of a Mysterious Power Wisdom Love Glory Divinity subduing all things entirely to themselves eternally shine This honour have all the Saints in their Deaths by the vertue of their Saviours Death by vertue of their fellowship with him and his fellowship with them mutually in their several Deaths all in each Death dying together Where now is the Melancholy of Death and of the Grave It is swallowed up into the Divine Pomp and Pleasure of a most Glorious Victory and Triumph O Saint What fearest thou in Death Or thou who fearest not to be dead why fearest thou to die If thou rejoicest in the Glory of thy departed Soul why mournest thou over thy Body as left behind in a naked and loathsome Prison The act of dying to both is the gaining of a Glorious Victory over the Life and Death the Powers and Principalities of this whole World The passage itself out of this Life is a Glorious Triumph to thy Soul and Body both which with all the Triumphal Ornaments of the Light of Life and Immortality ride forth in the Chariot of the Heavenly Image and the Eternal Spirit over the Spirit and all the forms of this Creation which lie conquered under your Feet In the very moment of your dying all the Powers and Appearances of Nature which rule in the Kingdoms of Sense and Reason are lost for ever so that their place where once they reigned in your Persons knows them no more You sit down upon the Throne of Christ and the Father together with them All the Births Images and changes of time are swallowed up into the bright the beautiful the most delightful depths of Eternity the unfathomable depths of purest Light Love and Joy immediately as Triumphant Conquerors and Kings you are encompassed with the ravishing applauses and shouts of innumerable Angels of Immortal and Glorious spirits springing up and shining forth in all the places of this World where its Light or Darkness Life or Death seemed before to stand You see all these with a Heavenly Musick and Songs of Triumph setting Garlands and Crowns of Victory on your Heads immediately as you pass out of the Light of this Life you see your selves received your Souls and your Bodies both with the most delicious kisses into the Eternal Embraces of the Father and of Christ in that Unity of the Spirit which is the unfathomable center of all Lights Loves and Joys of all beautiful and blissful Spirits created and uncreated All now for ever are filling full your Joys in themselves and fulfilling their Joys in you 4. Scrip. Heb. 2. 14. That he by dying might destroy him who had the power of Death that is the Devil and set them free who all their life time were subject to bondage by the fear of Death The word Power in this place signifieth properly a Prince with a Principality or Dominion This whole world is the Principality of the Devil For the Devil is called in Scripture the Prince of this world All Flesh every thing of Nature and of this Creation is comprehended under that name as it is distinguished from and opposed to the Spirit and the new Creation in the Spirit the Kingdom of God in the Holy Ghost and is the Principality of the Devil All Darkness every shadow every evil of Sin or Suffering of Corruption and the Curse of Shame Deformity Pain Grief and Wrath as all these are expressed in the Scripture and in common Language with every other kind or degree of Evil by Darkness are the Principality of the Devil For the Devil is called the Prince of Darkness Death is the Devils Principality who in this Scripture is called the Power or Prince of Death All this then hath Jesus Christ by dying destroyed in his own Person this World the Principles and Forms of Nature the Life and Images of Flesh every Darkness inward or outward of mind or sense Death itself For all these lie within the Principality of the Devil and are his Region his Kingdom without the bounds of this Dominion all things are Light Life Love Joy Immortality Spirit and Truth As it is Jesus who dies again in the Death of every Saint as the Death of every Saint is the Death of Christ acted over again in the similitude by the vertue of his Death so doth every Saint as he is one Spirit with Christ after the like manner by dying destroy the Principality the Kingdom of the Devil in his Person also For this is said to be the end of Christ in his Death that he might free all the Saints from the fear of Death O Believers Let your Saviour gain his end upon you and end of most tender Love Be no more in bondage to the fear of Death Let the Lord Jesus see the seed of his Death springing up in your Deaths a Glorious and Divine Seed of Life and Immortality springing up in the place of Death and swallowing it up into Victory Lay aside now for ever those melancholy and delusive Imaginations of Death as a separation of those tenderest Bosom-Friends Soul and Body a separation from your dearest Relations and entertainments the delights of your Eyes an extinguishing of the sweet Light of Life a dismal solitude a perpetual Darkness the Confinement of the Body to the nakedness coldness streightness and horrour of the Grave Dust Stones and Bones covering it and ratling over it Worms feeding upon it the Soul naked and alone taking its flight through a vast distance of empty air and space to another place These are the Forms and Appearances of Death to the Dead only Those who follow Jesus Christ in that living and shining way in which he went thorow Death meet with none of these appalling and affrightful Apparitions Let the Dead bury their Dead saith Jesus Christ to his Disciples but follow thou me Understand this O Believers that all Shadows all Forms of Darkness and of Death are from below Earthly Sensual Devilish from the Earth from the Natural Soul and from the Devil as St. James speaks All this Image and sense of things is that Kingdom of the Devil which together
with the King himself which the Lord Jesus by dying in himself in thee hath everlastingly destroyed in his own Person in his own Death and in thine by the vertue of his own As an Inchantment so is this whole Frame and Form of things dissolved so doth it vanish at the going forth of thy last breath If thou seek now for the region of Shadows and the Land of Darkness thou findest it no more for ever as he that would seek for the Night the Nightly Shades and Forms of things when the Sun is once risen Let thy Soul and Body both then rejoice together and rest in this assurance that in their departure out of this Life in the passage of Death they shall meet with nothing of loss nothing uncouth nothing unpleasant nothing of Darkness of Division of Death of the Devil but the most beautiful and blessed Face the most dear and delightful Embraces of the Lord Jesus as a Glorious Lover as a Heavenly Bridegroom immediately presenting himself immediately receiving them In the same moment do all things here disappear and all things appear again as they are reconciled into a most ravishing Harmony of Divine Beauty and Love As they are gathered up into their Head into their first Glory their Eternal Unity in the Glorified Person of Christ. 7. Propos. This same Jesus in his whole Person with his whole Soul and Body in the moment of Death by dying went forth entirely into the simplicity and singleness of his Supernatural and Eternal Principle and so into a State of pure Eternity unmixt Joy and Glory I shall endeavour to explain and confirm this Proposition by the fuller opening of a Scripture which I have often touched Psalm 16. 9 10. 11. Thus we read Therefore my heart is glad my Glory rejoiceth my Flesh also shall rest in hope For thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell neither wilt thou suffer thy Holy One to see corruption Thou wilt show me the path of Life in thy presence is the fulness of Joy at thy Right Hand are Pleasures for evermore This is a Prophesy of Christ in his Death David as a Prophet speaketh concerning Christ and in the Person of Christ. So St. Peter interpreteth and applieth this Scripture Acts 2. 25. This then is the Triumph of Christ in Death over Death which Triumph consisteth of four Parts 1. The Subject 2. The Triumph 3. The Ground 4. The manner of the Triumph 1. The Subject of Christs Triumph This is threefold 1. The Soul 2. The Glory 3. The Flesh of the Lord Jesus 1. The Soul This seemeth to be that unseen and principal part of the Natural Man which in our common language is opposed to the Body as the Visible and inferiour part 2. The Glory hath a twofold acception Davids Harp and his Tongue were his Glory upon two accounts both as he was a sweet Singer a most skilful Musitian and also as he was the sweet Singer of Israel as his Harp and Tongue recorded the Praises of God and made all things round about him to resound the perfections and loves of the Lord Jesus Thus the Tongue of Christ was his Glory as he is the sweet Preacher in Jerusasalem the Heavenly Interpreter one of a thousand who sheweth to Man his Righteousness and his rest But again this Glory in David was the Spiritual Man the birth of the Spirit the Seed of God the Life of Christ Christ in David This Glory in Christ was the Spiritual Man the Heavenly Image the Divine Nature the God-Head For so Heb. 1. 1. Jesus Christ is said to be the brightness of the Glory of God as he is the express Image of his Person and Substance 3. The Flesh of Christ is his Body as it is distinguished from the Soul and is covered with a Vail of Flesh under which Vail it contains within itself those other two the Soul and the Glory This is the threefold Subject of the Triumph the Natural Body the Natural Soul the Eternal Spirit as it inhabiteth in these 2. The Triumph itself is exprest in those four words Gladness Joy Rest and Hope Gladness is the same with Joy The State of Blessedness in Heaven and Eternity is expressed by Joy The Lord Jesus saith to the Good and Faithful Servant Enter thou into thy Masters Joy St. Peter calls the Blessedness which we have here in believing and loving the Lord Jesus which is Heaven upon Earth a Joy Glorious and unspeakable As our Lord Jesus dyed the Humane Soul of Christ before imprisoned in a Fleshly Body went forth to be comprehended and swallowed up in that Joy which it could not take in nor comprehend because it was boundless and infinite His Divine Nature which in this Humane Soul together with it had been vailed by an Earthly Body now breaks forth and shines out into the freedom and full liberty of its own unconfined delights and unvailed Glories My Soul saith Christ is glad and my Glory rejoiceth The Triumph of Christ in his Body and his Flesh is set forth by Rest and Hope which two words import Life Sense a Sweetness and fulness of Life and Sense with Immortality The Sabbath in the beginning of the Creation as it figureth the perfection of a Sanctified and blessed State in Christ and in Heaven is expressed by Rest the name Sabbath signifieth Rest. The Land of Canaan as it was a Land of Rivers and Springs and floods of Water as it was a Land flowing with Milk and Hony and so a Type of that good Land that flourishing Land of the Spirit and of Eternity where the Fountains and full floods are of all Divine Goodness and Truth is expressed by Rest. Joshua who gave the Land of Canaan to the Jews is said to give them Rest. That perfect Cessation from all trouble that perfect Consummation of our Happiness in the quieting of all our desires by the full accomplishment of them that terminating of all our motions to good in their most wished for end the chief good which the Lord Jesus which the Gospel which Faith bringeth us to in an immediate entire eternal Union with God all this the Holy Ghost expresseth by Rest. Come to me and I will give you Rest saith the Lord Jesus He that believeth entereth into Rest saith the Epistle to the Hebrews Thus the Body and Flesh of Christ rest in Death These are the words as he dies in his Song of Death My Flesh also doth rest in hope The Hebrew word for Hope signifieth two things Confidence and Hope Confidence implies a double certainty 1. A certainty in the object which is the good in prospect or in possession hoped for or already enjoyed 2. The certainty of the Subject which is a sweet a deep a clear Sense and Seal upon the Soul of the certainty of the object of the certainty of that Good which it hath in fruition or expectation This twofold Certainty maketh that confidence or assurance which compleateth or crowneth the Souls
Glorious Person by the Heavenly and Personal Union in and with the Eternal Word Soul and Body were separated in respect to their Natural Union and Composition All the Relations and Delights of both all the precious Treasures all the clear Images and Lights of Life with the sweet life itself vanished and fled away so far as they were founded upon the Natural Union the band being broken which tyed them all together in one at the dissolution of this Union But all these still dwelt together undivided still possessed and enjoyed one another after the most intimate manner without allay or interruption in the Unexpressible and Glorious Unity of the Eternal Word the Second Person in the Trinity This Unity was a Divine Band an undivided Center a living Spring an unfathomable depth of Loves and Glories where they lay perpetually enfolded in the warm embraces each of other covered with all the sweetest Lights and Beauties even upon the bitter Cross and in the cold Grave never to be divorced from each other Separation itself was here only a various and delightful form of embracing in the Unity of this Eternal Person 4. In the fourth and last place follows the manner of the Triumph This hath three parts 1. The Triumph over Corruption exprest in these words Thou shalt not suffer thy holy One to see Corruption 2. The Triumph of Life Thou wilt shew me the path of Life 3. A Triumph in the Pleasures of Life In thy Presence is fulness of Joy at thy Right Hand Pleasures for evermore 1. The first part in the manner of the Triumph is the Triumph over Corruption Thou wilt not suffer thy Holy One to see Corruption The Triumphant Person here is the holy one of God the holy Son of God the pure Seed Birth and Image of God Jesus Christ in his Divine and Humane Nature as he is in both the Holy One of God the Holy Birth and Son of God Jesus Christ in himself Jesus Christ in David David in Jesus Christ Jesus Christ in the Holy Soul and Holy Body of every Member of Christ as they are the Spiritual Births and Spiritual Temples of the Holy Spirit This is the Person which Triumphs in Death That which he Triumphs over is Corruption There is a complication of four Evils in Corruption 1. Division or Dissolution which is the chief and the Root of the other Evils 2. Darkness increasing 3. Deformity overspreading 4. Decay which is a tendency to a destruction of Being or to a contrariety in Being to all the good of Being Over all these Evils of Corruption Jesus Christ Triumpheth as he dyeth 1. Jesus Christ Triumpheth over Division or Dissolution in Death The Eternal Unity of his Divine Person was at once as a Root and a Band to both his Natures to both parts of his Humane Nature to all the Powers and parts of his Soul and Body to the several Elements in his Body to all Perfections of Glory Grace and Nature in all Powers and Parts of the Humane Soul and Body All were as an Immortal Nosegay or a Mysterious Knot of Divine Flowers ever inseparably united in this Band ever unfadingly flourishing in this Root of the Hypostatical Union or the Divine Unity of the Eternal Person which was indissoluble in Death itself Yea those Separations which are Natural and necessary in Death were themselves Flowers of the Heavenly and Earthly Paradise bound up with this Heavenly Band in this ever-fair ever-fragrant Nosegay 2. Jesus Christ dying Triumpheth over the gloomy horrours of the increasing darkness which ariseth from the hateful Womb of Darkness in the dreaded vaults of Death The Divine Nature which is inseparable from the Humane Nature the Personal Unity which is really and substantially one with the Divine Nature which gives a subsistence in itself to the Humane Nature and makes it in its Personal subsistence one with the Divine this is a brightness of Glory shining in the Grave this is a Golden Candlestick in which all the seven Lamps of God burn continually by day and by night before the Throne of God and make the vaults of Death themselves a Temple of Gold and Christal filled with the sweet Beams of the Heavenly Eternal Sun All things even Death and the darkness of Death are as precious Stones set together in the rich Jewel of this Person or Hypostatical Union where no one Stone contracts the least degree of dimness but all in the midnight of Death itself ever sparkle with the sweetest and clearest water of Eternal Life 3. The deformity of Death as it springs up out of the Corruption in Death is the subject of our dying and dead Saviours Triumph The Heavenly Image of the God-Head which is the supream Beauty the Arche-type and first Pattern of all Beauties upon the Mount of Eternity is the Person of Christ in which the Divine and Humane Nature with all its changes of Life and Death stand and subsist together Can any thing be deformed in Beauty itself Can any thing be Unlovely where the highest and purest Loveliness shines thorow all and over all What must the Harmony what must the amiableness and agreeableness be how exact and ravishing as in Heaven itself there where the Supream Unity the most Sacred Unity of one of the most blessed Persons in the All-glorious Trinity diffuseth itself thorow all the variety of things Divine and Humane of Soul and of Body binding up all by itself immediately into the most perfect and Divine Order and gathering up all into one most perfect and Divine Person in itself How High and Glorious is the Triumph of Divine Beauty over the deformity of Death when thus the Eternal Beauty itself dies dressing itself up in the Forms of Death and giving to Death it s own most lovely Face which enflames the highest Angels and God himself with Eternal and Infinite Loves In the place of Deformity what potent what attractive charms of Loveliness hath this Death to ravish Souls into the bosom of it which are thus to die by a Fellowship with the Lord Jesus as he dies 4 The last Evil in the Corruption of Death is the decay which is a Tendency to a Nothingness a Privation the destruction of the being of things or to a contrariety to all good in Being This is that dark Cave that bottomless Pit out of which like the smoak of Hell like gastly black and flaming apparitions from Hell the deepest and darkest Melancholy the most dismal Horrours and the most horrid Imaginations from the sense and fear of Death issue forth and cover the face of the Soul as pitchy and stormy Clouds cover the Face of Heaven How does the dying Soul dread to be cast forth into the uttermost Darkness to be dispossest of itself together with all thigns To be endlessly sinking in an abyss or bottomless deep of a vast emptiness and a cheerless formless shade to be no more or to be in the midst of all the wounds and torments that
Being is capable of to be consuming so as ever to wish it as the only medicine of ones evil and ever to fear it as the greatest of all Evils as the most incomprehensible Evil to be no more How sweet and delightful was the Triumph of our Lord Jesus over this Monster which stands with so grim and frightful a look in the Gate of Death O Corruption O Decay O Destructions where is your Victory Jesus Christ comes into the empty and obscure shades of Death with the fulness of the Godhead with all the Lights of the Divine Nature of Angelical and created Glories of Heaven and Eternity with their full splendours shining together all at once in the Unity of his Divine Person This Person which is the Fulness that filleth all in all which is the Brightness that shineth eternally in the Divine Essence now filleth the whole space oâ— Death now enlighteneth it thorough-out now becometh the stage and Scene of Death supporting it on his delicious Bosom bounding it with his bright and blissful Beams Where is the emptiness where is the shade where is the bottomless Pit of Dread decay in Death They are all swallowed up into shining full substantial Glorys in this Triumph of our Saviour over Death These are the Evils of Corruption in Death over which Christ triumphs See row the height of this Triumph Thou wilt not suffer thy Holy One to see Corruption Jesus Christ passeth so triumphantly through the Regions of Death that Corruption loseth not onely its force but its appearance 〈◊〉 his presence Jesus Christ seeks for the place of Corruption and finds it no more Thou O God wilt not suffer thy Holy One to see Corruption The God-head itself the Divine Person of Christ the Divine Nature inseparable from that Person goes before the Lord Jesus as a Guide when he passeth through this waste Wilderness It cometh behind him as a Rearward of Glory It encompasseth him on every side with its highest Brightnesses and Blessednesses It suffereth him to see nothing but Itself on every side of him The living shining Glorys of his God-head are Light and Eyes to his dead Body in the Grave With these and with these alone his Divine Person now looketh forth thorough his Body in the Grave thorough the Grave to the utmost bounds of the Regions of Death In this Light to these Eyes all things near at hand and afar off throughout are a shining Prospect of Living Beauties to Eternity This Divine Light and these Divine Eyes are a Divine Flame which in a moment in the twinkling of an Eye break up all Shades of obscurity fill all space with their own Brightnesses transform all Shapes even Corruption and Death into the same Divine Forms with themselves to the utmost bound of things Thus God suffereth not his Holy One to see Corruption 2. The second part is the manner of the Triumph the Triumph of Life is expressed in those words Thou shalt shâ—w me the Path of Life There are here two remarkable Triumphs over Death 1 Life in Death 2. The sight and Triumphant sense of this Life 1. Life in Death is declared by the Path of Life which is made for the Lord Jesus thorough Death Noah with his dear Relations and all kinds of Creatures kept dry and safe in the Ark while the fountains of the great Deep were broken up from below and the windows of heaven were opened from above to cover all things with a Flood of Waters the Children of Israel in the Land of Goshen whâ—â—re there was Light and Rivers of Water while darkness was upon the whole Land of Egypt and the Rivers in it were turned into Blood the Children of Israel passing in a dry path thorough the Red Sea which overwhelmed the Eâ—yptian King with his whole Army the Three Children with the similitude of the son of God walking in the midst of the fiery furnace which burnt their bands only and devoured their enemies which cast them in all these were Figures of Jesus Christ passing in a Path of life thorow Death The Lord Jesus himself in his Heavenly divine form as he is the Essential Image of his Father is his own Way and Life thorough Death This is the Fountain of Life and Eternity itself This hath all Lives bound up in one like those innumerable Beams which pour forth themselves through all things in Heaven and on Earth united in the sun Here Life riseth up in its greatest Fulness in its freshest purest and sweetest Streams where all the strengths Beauties and Joys of Life are at their greatest heighth Thus the Godhead in its Essential Image stands in every part and point of the Humane Nature of Christ dying or dead Thus it stands in every step and point of its Way through Death Thus it makes it all as a Fountain and Fâ—ood of Life As the Milky way in Heaven where innumerable Stars mingle their Beams into one Path of Light Such is the Way of Christ in Death which is all a mixture or contexture of the innumerable Beauties and sweetnesses of Life rising up fresh from the innumerable springs of Life in the Bosom of this Heavenly Image which is Eternity and the Divine Essence it self in its own substantial Form 2. The Triumphant sight and sense of Life accompanys the Lord Jesus in this Path of Life thorow Death as is signified by those words Thou 〈◊〉 shew me or make me to know the Path of Life As a Princely Bridegroom leading his Royal Bride in his hand thorough delightful walks when the spring is in its prime makes her to observe all the delights in the Walks saying to her see how pleasantly all things look how sweetly Heaven and Earth smile one upon another how lovely the leaves and blossoms are upon the Trees the grass and the Flowers upon the ground how pleasantly the birds sing in every bush how pure and sweet the air is how 〈◊〉 the year is now Thus God the Father leads Jesus Christ thus the Divine Nature in the brightness of its Glory leads the Humane Nature thorough the Paâ—h of Life in Death as a heavenly Bridegroom its dearest Bride He loâ—k forth upon him with a flaming eye of Love he saith to him behold a new and large prospect of Divine Lights and all the Beauties of Life in Death with what spicy sweetness and immortal perfumes the Spirit of Life and Love as the Air of Paradise and Heaven itself breaths upon all things here 〈◊〉 do Heaven and Earth the uncreated and the created Image of things reflect the same Beauties and sweetnesses one upon another like the Living Face and the Face in a Chrystal Mirrouâ— How do all glories in their lovelyest Forms richest Varieties looking down from above sprouting forth and blossoming from beneath meet and kiss each other How do Angels how do Immortal and shining Spirits spring and sing every where How doth the Shade of Death itself mingling itself with all
these surrounding this Divine Light at the same time surrounded by it give a solemn sweetning and heightning to all like the Base string to the Musick of a Lute making Death it self another Heaven distinct from the Heaven after Death and contending with it for delightfulness Thus God the Father maketh Christ to see the Path of Light in Death 3. The third part in the manner of the Triumph the Pleasure In thy presence are all pleasantnesses and at thy right hand Pleasures for evermore Three pleasâ—n things are here presented in one 1. The Seat of Pleasure 2. The Perfection 3. The Perpetuity of Pleasures 1. The Seat of Pleasure is the Presence and right hand of God The Presence in Hebrew is the Face of God The Son of God The Eternal Word The Essential Form of God and the Brightness of his Glory is the Face of God Behold thou art fair my beloved yea thou art Pleasant our Bed is green saith the spouse in the Canâ—cles to Jesus Christ. He is that Eternal Form and naked face of the Godhead where all the Pleasantnesses of the purest Beauties Loves and Joys first spring flourish and seat themselves His Cheeks therefore in the same Book are said to be the Garden-beds of the most fragrant Spices and persumed Flowers where the highest Beauties and the highest sweetnesses are born and married one to another and bring forth an endless race of Loves and Delights This Face of God in which all Loveliness and Loves thus shine and flame together is also set with so many eyes which continually behold and rejoyce in their own Beauties and Pleasantnesses This Face this Form of God is the Person which subsists in the Human Nature of Christ both Soul Body which in itself gives a subsistance to the whole Humanity of Christ living and dying Thus is it in the Grave and in the dead Body of Christ the seat of all Pleasantnesses the Throne of divine Beauty of Love in Death It is also as a thousand never sleeping never sâ—umbring eyes in this blessed Body with which it uninterruptedly contemplates in it self this Eternal face and Form of God this seat of Pleasantnesses which is its own Person it s own self in its personal Unity and subsistence The right hand of God is the Godhead in the strength at the heighth of Love Power Majesty and Glory as it is above all heavens Here are Pleasures in their proper fear in their greatest force and fulness as they transcend the joys themselves of all created Heavens At this right hand of God is Jesus in the Grave By this right hand of God which hath all pleasures ever attending it was he pleasantly led thorough the Shadow of Death In the Bed of Death this right hand of the most High embraced him that he might sweetly rest there in the midst of all the Pleasures of this Right Hand of his 2. The Perfection of Pleasures is exprest by these two names of Pleasantnesses and Pleasures Pleasantnesses are the Objects of delight or Pleasures in the object Pleasures are the Delights themselves in the fruition and enjoyment of those objects or Pleasures in their Subject The Subject and the Object uniting and mingling and transforming themselves variously by their various mixtures in their union into one mutual life and Form of Beauty and Love make Pleasure and delight You have here all Pleasantnesses in the Face of God and so all Pleasures at the Right Hand of God The Lord Jesus dying and in death beholds the Face of God In this Face he at once beholds all pleasant forms and Forms of Pleasantness the pleasantness of all Forms among Men Angels in their first highest Patterns to which the most Glorious spectacles and spirits of Men or Angels are obscure Shadows and faint imitations In this face he beholdeth pleasant Forms incomprehensible for variety and Glory which never cast any the least shadow of themselves nor were capable of being in the least degree imitated in the highest of created excellencies Death itself is a divine Marriage-bed in which Jesus Châ—ist receives all these pleasant Forms into his Bosom as Lights of Glory shining thick thorow the Cristal Temple of his pure and sacred Body in this Night of his Divine Death He beâ—reth in his dead Body the impressions and Figures of them all with the Heavenly substances themselves in these Impressions and Figures like a seal of Gold fixed on Virgin-wax his dying and dead Body is transformed into one Life and Form with those Original Forms of Pleasantnesses being embraced by them as by a Divine flame which makes it one pure flame of Pleasantness and Pleasure with itself 3. The Perpetuity of the Pleasure At thy right hand are Pleasures for evermore Two things are here signified 1. The continuation of Pleasures in the Person of Christ without any interruption 2. The endlesness of those Pleasures Jesus Christ saith to his Father in one Place thou leadest me by thy right hand The Lord Jesus was ever led by the right hand of the Father out of Heaven into the Virgins Womb out of the Womb into the gloomy Light of this World thorow this World thorow Death and the Grave into Heaven again Thus was this blessed Person ever at the right hand of his Father that is at the right haâ—d aâ—d Fountain of Power Majesty Love Life and Pleasures in the Womb on the earth on the Cross in the Grave So was the Path of this righteous oâ—e a shining Light of divine Pleasures uniâ—terrupted thorow all these thick shades of the blackâ—â—â— darkness There is one thing more in the duration of Christs Pleasures signified in the last Verse of this Psalm above all this The Lord saith to his Father all Pleasaâ—â—â—â—sses are in thy Face Behold here in one undivided point the full circle of Eternity and that an Eternity of Pleasures The Face of God with all Pleasantâ—esses in it Eternity implyes three things 1. the Fulness of all Beiâ—g 2. the utmost heighth of being 3. the undividedness In this Time falls below Eternity that it is a contracted successive Shadow The Face of God which is his Essential Image and substantial Form the God Head itself in the second Person in the Trinity which is our Lord Jesus is this Eternity This is that Person which was Man was Flesh hung on the Cross and lay dead in the Grave No more could the Lord Jesus be separated from the Face of his Father in any part of his Soul or Body in any season either of Life or of Death than a person can be separated from itself or the Lord Jesus be divided from the Second Person in the Trinity Thorow every state thorow the most cloudy days and the most tempestuous Nights the Face of God the Son of Eternity went along with the 〈◊〉 Jesus shining upon every Cloud aâ—d Storm shining thorough all gâ—â—ding all with the Joys and Glories of Heaven itself In this Face as in the
Content Hagar was flying from the face of her Mistress Sarah but she meets an Angel that sweetly sends her back thither where God would provide for her Sarah is the Divine Form in the Spirit Hagar this Fleshly Being the Bond-woman This Earthly Nature is unable to bear the frowns and severity of her Heavenly Mistress she flies from her Face her Appearances which oppress the Flesh with their Glory But the bright Images of this Beauty as Angels meet the Natural Man in the way of his flight in the Principles of Nature By the flashes and breakings forth of these Man is persuaded to return and submit himself to the supreme Beauty his Mistress and Parent so only shall he have provisions of Joy and Rest from his wandrings Our Saviour takes a sweet farewel of the Earth in this language Iob. 16. v. 28. I came forth from the Father into the world again I leave the world and go to the Father Happy is that Soul that after all her weary steps thorow the world to seek Content now tyred thinks of Returning to her Father her first Husband and breaths forth such sighs as these towards him O my God! Thy Fulness is the womb out of which I was brought forth into this world Thy Sweetness is the Bosom in which I must eternally rest How long shall I linger here O when shall I once leave this world and come again to thee Q. 4. How come we hither Thorow a Darkness You shall in the first of Genesis see that Darkness is the Ground of this Creation and all Light-Colours are laid upon that Ground Darkness is the Bound between God and the Creature thorow which all things pass out of one into the other This Darkness holds forth to us the Light of a Twofold Rule Rule 1. Let us not think to know eternal things by the Light of this World or any Creature When we come into this life we come well drencht drawn thorow a Sea of Darkness There is no more any Remembrance of former things We know not where we were when God laid the Foundations of the Earth or what we were before that when all our Bones were first written by God in his Book when first those Eternal Forms which were to frame and sustain every shape or state into which we should pass were brought forth in the Divine Wisdom We are of Yesterday and know nothing We are started up into this Life thorow a Darkness behind us which lies upon all things which are beyond this Image before us and swallows up this into it self as it passeth along Vain Man would be wise though he be born as the wild Asses Coâ—t Why should Man undertake to bring forth from himself the Beauties of Wisdom when he comes upon the face of the Earth out of the same Darkness with the Asses Colt as void as that of all Eternal Images Rule 2. Care not to cloath your selves with the Contents of this World all which you must put off so soon as you touch the Brim of this Darkness into which you must return Care not for the Cares or Sorrows of this Life Those waters of Forgetfulness into which we must all descend will wash them all away Imagine this Life as an Island surrounded with a Sea of Darkness beyond which lies the main Land of Eternity Blessed is he that can raise himself to such a Pitch as to look off this Island beyond that Darkness to the utmost bound of things He sees his way before and behind him What shall trouble him on this Twig of Life on which he is like a Bird but now alighted from a far Region from whence again he shall immediately take his Flight Thou cam'st through a darkness hither but Yesterday when thou wer 't born Why then shouldst thou not more readily and cheerfully return thorough the same darkness back again to those everlasting Hills Let us then ever be in Tune to sing that sadly sweet Song of Far-seeing and so much-suffering Job Job 1. 21. Naked came I out of my Mother's womb Naked shall I return thither again The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh Blessed be the name of the Loâ—d Naked camest thou my Soul thorough a Darkness into this World strip't of all the Glories above Naked must thou return again out of this World quite strip't of all the Glories and Griefs here The Lord gives thee forth thorough this Darkness into this Life the Lord takes thee in thorough the Darkness out of this Life to Himself Blessed is the Name of the Lord. Rest thou in the Blessed and Glorious Workings of the High God while thou art in that Darkness Thou shalt suddenly be pass'd beyond it where thou shalt in an open Light enjoy the Hidden workings there where thou shall see the Highest Beatitudes and Glories Eye to Eye Heart in Heart They and Thou being made One Life One Spirit and without Partition or Vail Use 2. The endearment of the Lord Jesus to us If this Face of Nature which now presents it self to us have such Beauties Greatnesses Varieties as ravish us from all sense of our selves our present safety our souls our God from the Love and Delight which from them flow into our Spirits what Sights what Things above Words are there then in Jesus Christ what Ravishments would surprize us and snatch us out of Flâ—sh if we saw Him For Nature and this World is but the Earthly Inferiour Imperfect Image of God and of the Person of Christ which is the Heavenly and Supream Image Now we under-value and neglect the sweetnesses of our Saviour for this World's joyes But if we saw Him we should much more despise Ten thousand Worlds ten thousand times heightned in Glory as a heap of Dunghills in Comparison of Him Our Blindness our Blindness clips the wings of Desire clogs the Spirit of Delight in us O Jesus cast thou but one Glimpse of thy self into our souls and we shall run from all things after thee fly beyond all things towards Thee How Dark and cold things are these Shadows to him that hath seen the Light of Beauty in thy Person and felt the warm Life of Love in Thine Embraces Shew thy self to me and set many Worlds many Death 's more between me and thy self my Spirit shall shoot it self like an Arrow thorow them all into thine Arms. A Look of thine can Translate me as Enoch or Eliah of old I have thus Finish'd the First Image in which man lives before his Conversion The Image of Nature 2. Image of the Devil The State of man before his Change is in a Threefold Image The First was that of Nature the Second this of the Devil which we now are to take a view of But what can we see or say of this Who can draw a Picture of or describe Darkness and Confusion The Power of Darkness and Division prevailing over the Powers of Light and Love in the Creature This is the Devil If you will pourtray a Devil
Order 1. Love 2. Hatred 1. Order of Passions in our Change 1. Passion Grief John 12. 32 33. And I if I be lifted up will draw up all men after me This he spake signifying by what Death he should die The Explication of the Exaltation the lifting up the drawing up is Death The Lord Iâ—sus was lifted up to Glory by Death He draws up all men to himself and Immortality by Death Grief is the Souls Death God by this for the most part begins to draw us up out of Sin and Flesh to himself and eternal joys Grief naturally is the Sense of some Great and Present Evil oppressing the Soul Grief Spiritually is the Sense of some Great and Present Evil oppressing the Soul and pressing it thorow itself into the lap of the Godhead Psal. 119. 67. David communicates his Experience Before I was afflicted I went astray but now I keep thy Commandments The word afflicted signifies to be brought low or down When the Soul gone forth into the midst of the Creatures is arrived at the utmost point of one Contrary then it begins to return towards the other as the Sun first turns itself towards us again at Midnight The utmost Point of a worldly life in Sin and Vanity is Grief or Torment taking away all our Rest. The Soul hurried hither by the Torrent of her lusts here begins to look and move towards God So the Grave of our joys our Grief becomes a Womb bringing us forth to a Spiritual life Psal. 40. 2. David speaks of God and himself He hath drawn me up out of the Horrible Pit and Dirty Clay This world hath a Root of Darkness which bears for a Flower the Images of Light When the Spirit of Man lives upon and makes itself One with these Imaginary Pleasures they quickly fade So both together sink down into their Root where they are swallowed up in a melancholy darkness Here the Vanities which before were Light now grow heavy weighing down the Soul Here all her former Contents meet her again as Parts and Powers of this Darkness That which was before beautiful Clay soft Clay easie to any Impression of Desire is now stiff and dirty Clay holding the feet of the Soul fast in the bottom of this Horrible Pit Now God takes hold of us thus low thus lost and draws us upward So our Change begins in Grief 2. Passion Shame Es. 6. 11 12 13. Shame ariseth from a Mixt sense of Light and Darkness Good and Evil Beauty and Deformity It is a mixt Passion of Grief Anger Fear As when the Light and Day first sink into Night and Darkness in the Evening or first ascend out of these in the Morning the Sky looks red So the Soul blusheth in the midst of her Sins and is ashamed when God first dawnes upon her and begins to draw near to her Ezek. 43. 10. Son of man shew them the House that they may be ashamed of all their Iniquities and let them measure the Pattern Shame is a Reflection of foul and hateful Deformities made upon our Spirits by the Light of Beauty Goodness God shining forth upon them Shame is the Divine Glory glowing thorow our Darkness and Filth before yet it is broken forth into a clear Flame to scatter and consume them God saith to Iesus Christ of man Son go and shew thy self to him as the Image in which he was made in which he should have lived So let him be ashamed of that dark narrow vile brutish Image in which he walks Let him take measure by Thee as his Original and Pattern 3. Passion Fear As Grief awakens Shame so Shame rowseth Fear out of its Den. Psal. 119. 120. David cries out My Flesh trembleth because of Thee I am afraid of thy Iudgments Fear is the Commotion of the Soul upon the sense of some approaching Evil. As the Sea trembles before a Storm So at the sign of God's breaking forth upon the Soul the fleshly part trembles and shakes before its fall The Man himself is afraid of the Judgments of God the ways of God with the Creature The Devils at the Presence of Christ feared two Things 1. A Banishment from off the Face of the Earth 2. A Confinement to the Lower-most parts of the Earth Such now is the Fear of a Man lest he should be call'd off from his Carnal Contents and cast down into the Straitness and Horrour of his Carnal Principles He discourseth with himself thus Must not I who have lived in Flesh now be separated from all the delights of Flesh and be shut up in the Darkness of it Must I not abide there till I have pass'd thorow the Fire and endur'd the Consumption of all that which is Corruptible in me The longer I live in the Flesh will not the Fire be the stronger Thus Fear becomes a Spur in the side of the Spirit to increase her speed out of the World to God This is the First Order of Passions Grief Shame Fear 2. Order of Passions 1. Passion Hope Lament 3. 21 22. This I call to mind therefore have I hope It is the mercies of the Lord that we are not consumed Hope is the Springing of the Soul towards good or God first dawning upon it and dispensing Himself to it Jeremy was all before wrapt up in Sorrows Despairs Death Now one single Beam of Hope and that a small one glimmers in his Soul It is the mercies of the Lord that we are not consumed Yet this lights him into fresh Fields of Contemplations and Consolations in God There is Mercy with thee that thou mayst be feared saith the Scripture to God When Fear affrights the fainting Soul from God Hope invites it to entertain that Fear Fear saith The Presence of God will take away thy Natural Strength and Ioy. Hope answers I shall find a better Strength and Ioy in God Fear goes on The Glory of God will be as a Fire in thee Hope replies This Fire will be a Glory to me Fear still urgeth Canst thou ly down with Everlasting Burnings Hope concludes I shall have everlasting Arms beneath me So the Soul casts her self into these Arms to be carried whithersoever they will bear her 2. Passion Desire 2. Sam. 7. 27. David thus conveys his Desires to God Because thou O lord hast revealed it to thy Servant concerning his House therefore hath he found in his heart to pray this prayer Hope is the Conception of Blessedness Desire is the Teeming the Breeding Bearing and Growing big with it till it be brought forth The Vestal Virgins first kindled their Spark by a Beam then they from that Spark kept a continual Flame upon their Altar So the Revelation of God in Man is the Foundation of Hope Hope the Fountain of Desires which grow into great Streams and so pour forth themselves into their Sea into God again The Desires of a New Convert when once they are kindled increase suddenly to a mâ—ghty Flame For they are proportion'd by Two
things The Good at which he aims The Evil from which he flies Desires here are the Attractions of the highest Good the most high God backed by the Impressions of the greatest Evils Sin Death Devils As one draws the Other drive The Soul sees God before her opening a World of new Hopes and Delights She sees Lusts and Furies behind her labouring to overtake her and hold her back from those fresh Glories which are now in her eye This makes her Desires as swift feet as strong Wings to her Now the newly-converted Spirit begins to discover her self by continual violent Breathings and cries towards Heaven How long Lord Now she speaks in Davids tune and tone Psal. 84. 2. My soul longeth yea even fainteth for the Courts of the Lord my Heart and my Flesh cry out for the Living God Grones are now the constant beatings of the Heart Longings and Faintings become the Language of all parts inward and outward Longings after Faintings for the Life of God the Living God 3. Passion Rage 2. Corin. 7. 11. The Corinthians had slept secure in a foul Sin They now awakened by St. Paul give those Testimonies of their Change which he reckons up in this place What vehement Desire yea what Zeal yea what Revenge As a Flood foâ—ming and roaring when it is streightned or swelling and over-bearâ—ng all when it is stopt in its Course So are Anger or Rage Desires multiplied and growing Mighty by Resistance There are Thrâ—e that resist the Soul in her Conversion the Flesh the World the Devil The Flesh lusteth against the Spirit Gal. 5. 17. The Inâ—linations of the Flesh cross and quench the Motions of the Spirit The World infuseth a poyson of Desires and Delights into the Heart which kill Heavenly Loves which infect the Heart with hatred and enmity against God and his Glory James 4. 4. The Friendship of the World is enmity with God The Devil is like a Lyon seeking whom he may dâ—vour 1 Pet. 5. 8. He would draw down our Souls into himself out of the Arms of our Saviour The World works upon us thorow the Flesh in our selves For this is the Property and the Birth of the World in us John 8. 23. Ye are of the World Ye that is they that are Fleshly The Devil prevaileth upon us by the World This is the Body with which he cloaths himself when he comes he is Prince of this World This world is his Power As God Christ and a Saint are all united in the Spiritual part of a Christian So the Devil the World the Flesh are all in one in the Natural part These the Soul at her Conversion now understands to be the Enemies of her Hope the Tyrants over â—â—â—joy the Rubs in the way of her Desires She riseth to a brave heat of Rage and height of Revenge against these Thus she vents her Rage thus she takes Revenge By fastning her own Flesh to the Cross 〈◊〉 her Lord She Crucifies Spoils Triumphs over them all Gal. 6. 14. I Glory saith Paul in the Cross of Christ by which the World is crucified to me and I to the World Nothing now is so sweet nothing so Glorious to this Soul as the Crâ—ss of her Jesus By this she revengeth her self upon her Spiritual Enemy as they treated her Lord her Life that is with Scorn and Despight First she puts them to open Shame She uncloaths them of all their fair Appearances In the face of Heaven in the eye of her Sun her God 〈◊〉 displays them naked in their ugly monstrous Shapes in their loathsom and hateful Uncleannesses Then she nails them by a constant force to theâ—r Paâ—ns and Sufferance till they languish to Death I have gone thorow the Second Order of Passions Hope Desire Rage 3. Order of Passions 1. Passion Lovâ— Love is a Câ—njunction with a Complacency in Goodness God Gal. 2. 20. I am saith St. Paul Crucified with Christ and now I live yet not I but Christ livâ—th in me c. The Holy Soul having stâ—ugled thorow the Streights of Grief and Shame thoâ—ow the Croâ—stides of Hope and Fear having wrestled with the Principles of Nature the Principalities and Powers of this world Fleshly Honours and heights now comes to tast the Freedom and Sweetness of life which is Lovâ— now she knows what 't is to Live indeed to live in the Embraces and mutuâ—l Twiniâ—gs of the Lord Jesus Now she hath no Life but his Lâ—ve now her Lâ—vâ— hath no Object but â—is Liâ—e By this time our Convert is grown up out of a 〈◊〉 to a Spouse-like tempâ—r like her in the Canticles She grows Sick of Love Her Love to God consumes her strength wasts her Life dispossesseth her of â—er sâ—lf Nothing can be Strength Life Self to her save her Saviour only She is â—â—â—ong only when he is present She is happy when he is pleased A man in this State breaths nothing but Affection to God He cries continually as David doth Psal. 18. 1. I lâ—ve Thee The word signifies I love thee dearly tenderly inwardly I twist thy love upon my inwardest and tenderest bowels O my Iâ—sus 2. Passion Hatred Psal. 139. 22. I hate them that hate thee with a perfect Hatred Hatred is the Life of Contrariety Casting out from itself yet Comprehending in it self as in a Chain Conquering to it self its Contrary God promiseth Christ thus much Psal. 110. 1 Sit thou at my right hand till I make thine enemies thy Foot-stool We hold our Foot-stool near us but under us We hold it down yet we hold up and raise our selves by it There is a Twofold Hatred 1. Hatred before Love 2. Hatred from Love Hatred before Love is weak and imperfect rellishing much of self-love Darkness and Hell Hatred from Love is Perfect it springs from the Heart of sweetness it subordinates itself to it it ends in it The Life of this Hatred is Love As the soul at her first Conversion is strong in Love so is she sweet in her Hatred She hates perfectly like a God not a Devil every thing which brings not the Loveliness of her Saviour along with it as a Pass-port She turns away her face from it she sets her feet upon it not suffering it to rise up against the Life of the Lord Jesus within her forcing it to serve his Glory So much for the Third Order of Passions Love Hatred So much for the First Circumstance in our Conversion The Universal Motion in our Passions 2. Circumstance A General Alteration in Practice This Alteration is Twofold 1. A Manifest withdrawing from all Companies and Contents that draw the Soul outward or downward 2. An eminent Delight in all Persons and Paâ—hs that draw the Spirit inward or upward David expresseth both these in himself Psal. 16. My delight is in the Excellent of the Earth As for them that go after other Gods I will not make mention of their Name 1. Use For Discovery Religion is no empty Name but a Real
Death 23. v. If there be a Messenger with him an Interpreter one among a Thousand to shew to man his Uprightness Now in this Evening-close of life and joy in this rushing approach of a dreadful eternal Night Jesus Christ steps forth as a Messenger an Interpreter between God and Man He opens upon him his own Beauty the mans own proper and true Beauty which was his own in Eternity 24. v. Then he is gracious to him and saith Deliver him from going into the Pit I have found a Ransom Then the Father smiles upon the Soul Then He gives a command in the Ears of the Soul to all the Invisible Ministers of Darkness and Death to let him go To all the Spirits of Life and Light to take charge of him to hold him in their Arms that his Life come not into the Prison of Spirits 25. v. His Flesh shall be fresher than a Childs he shall return to the days of his Youth He shall be translated into the Kingdom of Christ into that Paradise of God out of which he came There he shall flourish with a Flesh more beautiful more heavenly than that of Adam in Innocency There he shall see those Youthful Days which were before this World Thus God takes hold of Temporal Afflictions in them to convert us to Eternal Affectiâ—ns and Objects 1. Use. Instruction See how absolute and universal thy dependence is on thy God for Happiness His Fulness is the only Treasury in which every minute of thy Life every moment of thy Grief or Joy is â—aid up My times saith David are at the Right hand of the most High Psal. 31. 15. His Sweetness is the only Port or Gate by which this Fulness issues forth on thee and brings thee home to its own Place These Two are the Mine and Mint of thy Natural and Spiritual Life Jesus Christ is the Way of both these A man can receive nothing from God can never come to God but thorow Jesus Christ. Thus nothing comes to us or from us nothing comes to pass round about us which is not first pass'd through a Double Strainer the Heart of the Father and of Christ. Not a Sparrow falls to the Ground much less a Soul without both these our Heavenly Father and Saviour Not a Hair falls from our Heads much less a Thought from our Hearts without this Divine Pair The Father works and I work Saith Christ. Every thing of Man and the Creature is distill'd or dropt thorow this Double Heaven of the Father and Christ. We have our Being in these Two Nothing then can be without them We live in these Two Our Life then and each article of it is Their Life in us We move in Them Each Motion then would be none if it did not run upon this greater and less Wheel We lie still when they move not Thus thou knowest O God that it is not in him that walks to order his own steps Jere. 10. 23. What then shall we cast our selves into a Gulf of Ryot or sensual Pleasures because we cannot resist His Will nor rule our own Unhappy he on whose mind the Almighty God stamps this Image of His Will in the Wrathful and Dark Part of it Yet he also shall go as it is written of him upon the Heart of God but in Fiery Letters God hath made all things for Himself even the wicked for the Day of Wrath Prov. 16. 4 But how can we abide in the Dark or bitter Part of things in Flesh and Sin If we know that the Will of God is the Rule of all things and an Infinite Light Love Goodness the Rule of this Will He that saith he hath seen God and walks in Darkness lies and the Truth is not in him 1 John 1. 6. He that saith he sees the Will of God to act all things and yet is himself acted by a Contrary Will checks and contradicts himself while he speaks and acts How can we that are dead to sin live any longer in it Rom. 6. 2. If the Divine Fulness and Sweetness have discovered themselves to us they have overshadowed us darkning by an Eternal Death the Light of our own Life in Vanity and Flesh. They have drunk up our Spirits into themselves and infused their Spirit into us Thus they themselves are become the Death and Resurrection of Christ in us that we live no longer but Christ liveth in us and the Father in Christ. Obj. But you will say If I be wicked what can I do I have no power upon my own Spirit but am over ruled by a Power above me which commands All. Must I then still sin still be forlorn without any hope or help in my self Must I sit down with Despair and make that my only comfort to hope for no comfort Ans. No No! Let this be not my Despair but my surest Hope and sweetest that I am no more in my own power who am a foolish weak inconstant Creature but form'd fashion'd commanded managed entirely by Him who is the Greatest and Best of all things Let me draw from this Consideration these holy and happy Resolutions 1. I will resign my self to my God I will give up the rudder of my Spirit to him who alone guides it and guides it by a Sweetness unclouded a Wisdom unquestioned a Power uncheck't 2. I will repose my self in my God What the bad King said foolishly I desire ever to say upon a holy and divine Principle This also is of the Lord Therefore will I wait upon him 2 Kings ch 6. v. last He hath a Glory in this He will make this a Glory to me if I wait stedfastly to the end For he doth this who doth all and doth all well who hath no Principle but Love no act but Power no end but Glory I have finish'd the First Part of my Text which was The Rise to the Kingdom I have concluded the Doctrine which was propounded from that Part The first Rise to Religion is a Change or Conversion Part 2. The Race to the Kingdom and become as little Children These Words afford this Second Doctrine Doctr. 2. The second Step in Religion is to a state of Childhood Read Gal. 4. 1. The Heir while he is a child differâ—th not from a Servant though he be Lord of all We have here a Child a Regenerate person one born a Son of God made a Saint yet at first nothing differing from a Servant coming afterwards in the second place to the quality of a Son and Heir The Person of a man in the Non-age till Reason which is the Principle of a man puts forth itself in him is but as a Plant or at best a Brute a sensitive Creature So that Soul which hath the Seed of the Divine Nature sown â—in it until that Seed be grown up is as a Servant not as a Son These are the Two states in Religion 1. A Servile State 2. A Son-like State As St. Paul saith in another case First is
Woman to the Man This is plain by comparing those Two Places Psal. 8. 5. Thou hast made him that is man a little lower than the Angels Heb. 2. 5. Unto Angels he hath not put in subjection the World which is to come But unto Jesus Christ That is implyed in the Place The Law is the Law of the Husband Now the Law was administred by Angels the Ministring Spirits which are Principalities and Powers of this Creation as the Vice-Gerents of God Now St. Paul saith that by the Body of Christ that Husband died which held us in Subjection to the Law The whole Frame of Nature was shaken by the Death of Christ and must fall by the Power of it Then St. Paul adds that we were subject to the Law while we were in the Flesh. All these things make it plain that by the Flesh he understands the State of Nature in its highest Principles and utmost Extent Thus much for the First Term Flesh. 2. Letter This is the Image of God in Flesh. Letter and Spirit are opposed by St. Paul as Old and New Rom. 7. 4. And he teacheth us that by the Death of the Flesh in the Body of Christ we are freed from our Service to God in the Oldness of the Letter St. Paul opposeth Spirit and Letter as Inward and Outward He calleth that the Letter which is Outward in the Flesh Rom. 2. 28 29. The Spirit is Jesus Christ as He is the Heavenly Image of God within in the Heart of God 2. Cor. 3. 15. This is that which is Inward under the Vail of Flesh. The Letter is the Image of God in the outward Man as it is drawn forth from and discovered in the Principles of the first Creation which is the Vail 3. The Law This is the State of the Soul while she lives in the Letter and hath Communion with God only by the Letter St. Paul thus describes a Legal State Gal. 4. 3. When we were Children 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Infants we were in Bondage under the Elements of the World While we are under the Law we are Infants we have neither the Ear nor the Heart nor the Mouth of the Spirit and the Spiritual man in our Souls We are Uncapable of Taking in or making out God in his own Divine Image according to Spiritual Principles or the Elements of the New Creation Therefore we are in Bondage to Natural Principles and Reasonings We are bound up within the Compass of this Creation as in a Prison We are unskill'd in unacquainted with any Principles or Appearances of things besides those of this Creation We compare Spiritual Things by these Things of Nature We hear God with the Ear we speak of him with the Tongue of this Creation We receive and cherish such Notions of God as are agreeable with this Frame The Manifestations of God which spring from Spiritual Principles from the Face of God himself are Barbarians to us while we are under the Law To the Law of Nature to the Testimony of Reason to the Elements of this World whatsoever speaketh not according to these whatsoever casteth off or doth not cloth its Speakings with these Forms though it be the Spirit Himself hath no Light in it to our Understandings while we are under the Law These Elements or Forms in which we are tied up while we are under the Law are 1. Weak 2. Dark 3. Beggarly 4. Old 1. Forms are weak Things They have only the Shadows of Good Things to come They have not the Substance They cannot give us the Good Things Themselves Forms set the Picture of our Beloved before our Eyes but they cannot lay the Person Himself in our Arms. They are but a Letter from our Husband They have not the Spirit of our Husband in them 2. Forms in the knowledge of God are Dark Things They can give us no clear or certain Discoveries The greatest Light of Communion or Comfort that can come while we are shut up in Forms is but like a Spark from a Flint at Midnight It hath much Doubt Diffidence and Fear mingled with it 3. Forms are Beggerly Things They cannot lay open before us the Unsearchable Riches of Christ. Jesus Christ is Rich in Glory He can fill all Appearances He can bring forth Innumerable Appearances He hath Glory above all appearances which the Creature is capable of He can bring forth more Glory into thy Heart than can be made out in thy Heart itself by any Appearance The Power of Glory which thy Spirit feels shall be above the Appearance which it sees 1 Corin. 14. 14. Ephes. 3. 19. How poor then and Beggarly must that Spirit be in the knowledge of the Glory of God which is shut up in any one Form in any one Sort or Degree of Manifestations While thou canst not part with any Particular Form of Appearance while thy Spirit is not indifferent and universal extending itself to all Forms in the Manifestation of God while thou art not above the Forms of this World Thou wilt be but a Beggar in thy Divine Discoveries or Enjoyments He must be above the Letter in the Spirit above and out of all Created Images in the Light of Life itself that will attain to those Riches of assurance of a full understanding in the Mystery of God and Christ which St. Paul speaks of Coloss. 2. 2. 4. Forms are Old God hath blasted all Forms and Ways of his Appearing by the Principles and Elements of the Creature If they have had any Beauty yet now they are Blear-eyed If they have been Fruitful yet now they are become a Barren Womb which is as the Grave The Cross of Christ and the Glory of his Appearance in the Spirit have taken away the Life and Glory of all Manifestations or Administrations in the Flesh. They are Old Withered Decayed and Dying The more our Saviour shines out in the Glory of his Father the more will they Droop till they drop quite into the Dust 4. Sign Solicitude Rest and want of Rest are the distinguishing Notes of a Legal or Evangelical State His Rest shall be Glorious saith the Prophet of the Lord Jesus in the Times of the Gospel Esa. 11. 10. Come to me saith our Saviour to those under the Law You that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you Rest Mat. 11. 28. A Legal Spirit hath a Four-fold Solicitude 1. Solicitude for Acceptance of the Person 2. Solicitude for Assiance in Perplexities 3. Solicitude for Light in the way 4. Solicitude for Life in the work of Grace 1. Solicitude for Acceptance of the Person While the Soul is under the Law the Seed of God Jesus Christ is not yet come up nor revealed within her She sits therefore trembling in the Dark sometimes Confident that it is a Seed of Love sometimes as Peremptory that it is a Seed of Wrath which lies hid in her So she is perplexed and anxious in herself St. Paul teacheth us Coloss. 2. 2. that
thy life so many times over is thy God thy Father Gen. 2. 7. God breathed into Man the Breath of life and he became a Living Soul The issuing forth of our Life and Being from God is compared to Breathing 'T is as perpetual Can God cast off all affection and care for me in the same moment in which He brings me forth Or can I in that very moment in which I receive my Being from Him rob Him of it pollute it turn it against Him This I do every moment in which I sin For but now came I forth from God that Appearance which fill'd the last minute being vanisht and giving way to this A Mother forgets her Sorrows so soon as a Man-child is born into the World Sure then God cannot forget his Delights in me his Loves to me so soon as He hath brought me out from Himself into this world and this he doth freshly each minute of Time 3. Consider God is my Father a sweeter and nearer way than by Nature by Grace too The relation of a Father is the Top of all Sweetness and Nearness in Nature But as much as Heaven is above the Earth Time above Eternity God above the Creature so much is a Father by Grace sweeter and nearer than a Father by Nature If a Natural Father plant his Image and place his Affection his Care upon his Son shall not thy Heavenly Father much more love thee make thee like Himself make all Provisions of life and joy for thee It is the rule of God He that provides not for his Family in Nature hath denyed the Faith and is worse than an Infidel Can Himself then ever deny Himself so far as to prove unfaithful or unnatural towards hâ—s Family of Grace his own Children that way He will certainly take all care of them with all tenderness He that blasphemed or disobeyed his Parents under the Law was to die What deaths then is he worthy of who doth not think sweetly speak sweetly of obey chearfully this Father of his Spirit Use. 3. Direction If you would attain to the State of Sons and know God as your Father feed well upon this Four-fold Meditation 1. Medita I lay Eternally in the Fulness of the God-Head as in the Loyns of my Father Ephes. 1. 5. Having predestinated us to the Adoption of Children by Iesus Christ to Himself according to the Pleasure of His Will When God had his First and most retired thoughts before the World then was I in his thoughts as a Son of Delights all lovely without a spot When no other thing yet was when no Creature was yet made when God lived alone in the highest and purest Joys of his own Nature then in the midst of all those Joys was I in the Fulness of the Divine Nature presented to him as an Image of Himself springing up in him to be sent forth into this world again to grow up out of this world into that Eternal Image of His Pleasure and Will Thus was I Predestinated a Son 2. Medita God hath made me his Son a second time by Purehase He hath given his Son his Beloved his Only Son for me that I might be his Son 2 Cor. 5. 21. He was made Sin for us that we might be made the Righteousness of God in Him God hath given the Body of his Son to reproaches and pains his Soul to Guilt and Horrours His Person in both parts to Death his Name to Infamy Thus he waâ— made Sin for us And all this that we might be made the Righteousness of God Images of his â—ull Beauty Sons of his highest Glory in Him as He is who is the Substantial Image the Essential Son As the Seed is by Nature placed lowest in the Earth at the bottom of the Plant that by the Dissolution of itself it may bring forth its kind So was the Son of God laid below at the bottom of the Creature in the depth of Darkness that by his Dissolution he might resolve himself into us and as by an Exchange bring forth his Son-ship in our Persons 3. Medita God hath made me his Son yet once more by Design He hath joyned me in Affinity with his only-begotten Son Marriage on Earth is a Type of that True Marriage between my Saviour and my Spirit Ephes. 5. 30. He hath joyned me with Him in Consanguinity Heb. 2. 12. He that Sanctifies which is Jesus and they that are Sanctified are both of One. He hath made me One wâ—th his Eternal Son Mystically The Mystical Union is a Mysterious one hidden Divine the highest Union such as is among Divine things not to be resembled by any thing among the Creatures not to be comprehended by any mere Creature I in them and they in me that all may be made perfect in One John 17. 21. 23. 4. Medita God hath made me his Son finally by Generation 1 Pet. 1. 3. He hath begotten us again to a lively hope by the Resurrection from the dead As the Eternal Spirit lay like a Seed in the dead body of our Lord Jesus which putting forth itself brought forth Eternal Life and Glory in it So God the Father sends forth the same Spirit into our Spirits by which the Divine Life and Image of His Glorified Son spring up in us making us also Sons to Him in the same manner Thus if you would lead Son-like lives with God consider him as your Father There is no Earthly Relation or Form which more sets out the Spiritual Evangelical Eternal Union between God and Man than this of a Father Trace it apply it from the beginning to the end and it will lead you into all the Mysteries of Eternity Only remember these two Cautions 1. Take away all the Imperfection which this Relation hath in the Creature 2. Add to it all Perfection that it is capable of or can be imagined So apply it to God and a Saint For the Brightest Beauty in Nature is but a Shadow of Spiritual Glories I have finish't the Second Part of my Text which is the Race to the Kingdom 3. Part. The Royalty or Kingly State itself Enter into the Kingdom of God Doct. 3. The Third Doctrine from this Third Part is this The Third and last State in Christianity is a State of Royalty or a Kingly State This Kingly State is described by St. Paul Rom. 14. 17. The Kingdom of God is Righteousness Peace and Ioy in the Holy Ghost The Kingly State or Royalty of a Saint hath Four Properties 1. Righteousness 2. Peace 3. Ioy. 4. The Holy Ghost 1. Property Righteousness This is the Conformity of a Saint to God as to his Rule Genes 17. 1. Walk thou before me and be perfect Saith God to Abraham To be Perfect and to be Righteous are the same thing Set thy God the Supream Glory continually in thine Eye as thy Pattern and thine Aim So shalt thou be perfectly Righteous I will endeavour further to unfold the Nature of this Righteousness
can make Darkness in thy Soul His Secret place out of which he shoots his invenomed arrows into thy heart He can make thick Clouds upon thy Soul his Pavilion from whence he will make war upon thee Thus we must distinguish upon the Appearances of God 2. Distinct. Secondly we must distinguish upon the Person of God as He is in Himself and as He is in Jesus Christ. 1. First God as He is in Himself is One One rest and blessedness in every State Thus God is All in All all that sweetness peace joy in every Appearance which he is in any Appearance It is said in Job of the Earth as it was in its first State No stranger passed thorow it So it is true of the God-Head in its first State in its simplicity that there is no Strange Appearance there This Throne of God wherever it is set up is a Circle and every hand is the Right Hand there every Shape in which God puts forth Himself is Love 2. Secondly God as He is in Iesus Christ hath his Right and his Left Hand his Sweet and Strange Appearances Light and Darkness Love and Wrath Revel 6. 16. They cry to the Rocks and the Mountains to fall upon them to hide them from the wrath of the Lamb. Jesus Christ witnesseth John 5. 22. The Father judgeth no man but hath committed all judgment to the Son This distinguishing and dividing Judgment by which God puts forth Himself in Love upon some in Wrath upon others is not exercised by the Father that is by God as He is in Himself but by the Son that is by God as He is in Jesus Christ. This is the Kingdom of God the shining forth of the God-Head from the right hand of the Lord Jesus in its own proper Glory calming and clearing up all in the Soul scattering like Clouds those strange Appearances of Darkness and Terrour into which God had before put himself This is Christ shewing us the Father discovering God in his First Light as He is the Fountain of Love where there is neither Fear nor Torment Use. 1. For Tryal By this we may try our selves whether we be in the Kingdom of God or no. The Kingdom of God is Peace If you be truly in Peace you are of a truth in the Kingdom of God I will enlarge this Tryal by Three Instances which are the Glory the Grace the Blessing of God 1. Glory First the Glory of God and the Peace of God ever go together Luk. 2. 14. In the Angels Song these two are united Glory to God on high Peace on Earth Jesus Christ when he came down from Heaven and was incarnate Angels in their Praises and Prayers at the Incarnation joyn these two Spiritual Glory and Spiritual Peace as undivided in their Life and Death in their absence and presence The Soul that is without Peace is indeed without in that Darkness which is without whither nothing of the Glory of God comes whence no Glory is given to God If thou canst live without Peace thou livest in a true Hell where there is nothing of the Light of the Glory of God nor any desire of it If thou hadst any taste or glympse of the Glory of God in thy Soul thou wouldst feel a sweet peace within thee with thy God with thy self and with all things The Glory of God is a Healing a Uniting a Perfecting thing it makes all perfect in One Mal. 4. 2. A Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in his Wings The Sun-shine of Glory falling from the Face of God upon the Soul in any degree sweetly and soundly closeth up wounds maketh up breaches and divisions in the Spirit The Wings of the Sun are his Beams Each touch of any one Beam of the Glory of God upon the Soul carries a healing lenifying appeasing vertue 2. Grace Secondly the Grace and the Peace of God ever go together St. Paul when he prays for the Saints at the beginning of all his Epistles joyns these Two Grace and peace from God our Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ. So much of the Grace of God as goes forth into the Soul so much of Peace goes along with it Where there is no Peace there is no Grace There is a Two-fold Grace of God the Love of God towards the Soul the Loveliness or Image of God in the Soul 1. Where there is nothing of Peace there is nothing of the Grace of God that is of the Love of God yet appearing to that Soul Where the Love of God is poured forth it is an overflowing Sweetness 1 Corin. 13. 5. Charity thinketh no ill This Charity which is said in the same Chapter to be perfect to remain for ever can be no other than the Love of God let down from Heaven into the Soul and revealed there gathering the Soul up into itself to dwell in this Love The Soul that dwells in this Love thinks no evil of God of itself of any thing but is at peace with all hath sweet thoughts of all For the Love of God is its Eye by which it sees and its Heart by which it thinks It sees God itself and all things by the Light of this Love it thinks of all things by the Strength of this Love 2. Where there is nothing of Peace there is nothing of the Grace of God that is of the loveliness of God of the Beauty of Holiness in that Soul So much of Peace so much of Holiness and Spirituality So much of Distraction and Disquiet so much of Corruption and Carnality Where things begin to descend there begins Flesh and Division As things descend and go lower so these things increase Where things begin to ascend there begins Spirit Spirituality Unity and Peace The more we ascend and go upward the more we increase in these 3. Blessing Thirdly the Blessing and the Peace of God ever go together Prov. 15. 17. Better is a Dinner of Herbs with Love than a stalled Ox with hatred Love is the Womb of Peace and Hatred is the Mother of Unquietness as appears by that place Prov. 10. 12. Hatred stirreth up strife but Love covereth a multitude of Sins Didst thou live at the highest rate of all content in thine outward man and hadst no peace in thy Soul thou couldst have nothing blest to thee All thy delicacies would have a bitterness on thy palate and a venom in thy bowels that will never suffer thee to have a true joy in any thing which thou enjoyest Hadst thou but a Dinner of Herbs the lowest fare such as the Cattel may have together with thee and hadst Spiritual peace with it these Herbs would have such a blessing in them that they would be as the food of Paradise was to man when he had Herbs and all Green things given him for meat If thine inward man had a stalled Ox those Oxen which Wisdom slays Prov. 9. 2. prepared for it the strongest notions the highest Mysteries set before thine understanding
what all this means by another a plainer Parable John 12. 24. If the Corn dye not it abides alone But if it dye it brings forth much fruit The â—lâ—shly Appearances of Christ are the Talents un-multiplyed the Corn abiding alone While they so continue they are solitary melancholy bearing little fruit of Glory to God or Joy to the Soul But then the Soul casts these Talents into the Bank then she sows this Corn when she resigns them to God when she crucifies them and dies to them by the power of the Death of the Lord Jesus in her Now the Soul hath them within her rising again in the Spirit after a Spiritual manner Now she receives them again with an increase of Holiness Peace and Joy Now the Lord Jesus saith to the Soul Well done good and faithful Servant thou hast been faithful in a few things in poor low and dark manifâ—sâ—ations Thou hast submitted them to my will and yielded them up to the power of my Death I therefore will make thee ruler over many Thou shalt no more be subject to low and single Appearances Thou shalt reign in the power plenty and variety of more Glorious Manifestaâ—ions Enter thou into these high and Spiritual Discoveries of God in which thy Lord and Saviour now enjoys Himself So the Kingdom and Ioy of the Lord shall be thy Kingdom and Ioy. Application Use. 1. Examination There is nothing of more concernment to us than to distinguish and discern aright our Joys Sensual and carnal Joys are apt to make us sensual and fleshly ignorant and brutish as the Beasts Delusive Joys make our Souls as Devils in the form of Angels of Light Spiritual Joys when they are truly such make us most like to God The Delights of Nature and sense are indifferent things lawful if they be lawfully used They are therefore to be taken with much moderation and caution as the Wine that St. Paul speaks of to Timothy Drink not alwaies Water but drink a little Wine for thy healths sake Delusions and false Raptures of Spirit are a sweet Poyson which are taken in greedily and kill so much the more speedily The Soul is naked open free simple in her joys she mingles herself inwardly and deeply with the Spirit of her joys As Herod offered to the half of his Kingdom to Herâ—dias when she pleased him with dancing before him It is then a thing of great moment to understand the nature of our Joys that we may know when to admit and to reject them How and to what height to cherish or check them I will propound Four Tryals of our Joy 1. Tryal The First Tryal is this Spiritual Joys ever spring from a Spiritual sense of the Love of God towards us Rom. 5. St. Paul speaks of his Joy v. 5. Rejoycing in the hope of the Glory of God He goes on discoursing of the growth strength effects of this Joy Then v. 5. He shews you the Ground of his Joy The Love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost that he hath given us Spiritual Joys can give an account and a reason of themselves There are Three things which go to make up the Reason of Spiritual Joy when it is Right 1. The Love of God not any Loveliness of our own or the Sweetness of any Creature 2. The Discovery of this Love in an open manifest way with a Fulness and Clearness like a Liquor that is poured forth and spread abroad 3. The Holy Ghost making this Discovery and evidencing it by his own presence and power in the Soul This is the Reason which Spiritual Rejoycings and Gloryings give of themselves The Love of God shed abroad in our Hearts by the Holy Ghost which he hath given us Are your Joys ignorant sudden and violent such as spring from no appearing cause and can give no account of themselves Whence do your Joys arise from a Sense of the Love of God or from a Reflection upon your Selves upon any thing of or in the Creature Whence have you your Sense of the Love of God Is it wrought upon you by Fancy by the strength and frequency of Imagination or by the Persuasions of your own Souls or by the Reasonings of your own Hearts consulting with themselves and with the Letter of the Scriptures without the Holy Ghost by any of the Words or ways of mans Wisdom or Power without you or within you If your Joys be such as these you have reason to suspect and fear them least they be from the Father of Lies and not from the Father of Lights from the Fountain of bitterness and enmity not of sweetnes and Love 2. Tryal The Second Tryal of your Joy is the Effect of it Spiritual Joys increase Spiritual Strength in the Soul as they increase themselves Nehem. 8. 10. Go your ways saith Nehemiah to the People Eat the Fat and Drink the Sweet and send portions to them for whom nothing is prepared For this day is holy to the Lord. Be ye not sorry for the Ioy of the Lord is your Strength Thus the Lord Iesus speaks to the Soul in the Ministry of the Gospel Go your ways Feed upon the Fat of my Glory Drink the Sweet of my Love Sond forth Portious and Manifestations of this Glory and Love to them who have nothing of it yet prepared and set forth in their own Spirits This day is holy to me in it you are to live altogether to me and in the Light of my Appearances Then let not your Hearts be heavy nor your countenances sad For my Ioy shall not weaken or betray you My Ioy shall be a Presâ—rvative against Corruptions a Strength against Temptation the Power of a new life carrying you up on high into further Communion with God and Conformity to him There is a Threefold Joy that takes to itself often the name of being Spiritual 1. A Joy flowing from our natural temper and Complexion from sparklings of Blood or Flashings of melancholy is many times mistaken for a Spiritual Joy But this Joy dissolves it makes the Soul airy light and loose it exposeth the Soul to Vanity and Sin 2. A Iâ—y brought forth by an Evil Spirit of Delusion carries the Appearance of a Spiritual Joy This swells the Soul makes it vain-glorious confident secure in itself In this State the Soul easily falis into Temptation â—asily falls in the Temptation 3. Spiritual Joy truly so called This Knits the Union between Christ and the Soul more close and strong It gathers up the Soul more fully into the Spirit of the Lord Jesus St. John saith He that dwells in Love dwells in God It is as true He that dwells in Spiritual Joys dwells of a Truth in the Lord Jesus Vanity Lust Passion Pride come to the Soul in other Joys and find her fittest for them But when they come to the Soul in her Spiritual Joy so far as she is in that Joy they find nothing in her nothing to comply with
not the Darkness of Death itself The Grave shines to them as Heaven and shews the same Spirit Life and Glory to their eyes This is the work of the Power of God which makes Light from above and darkness from below to meet and kiss and like the Man and the Woman to bear One Image to become One Light Jesus Christ Mark 14. 35. prayed to his Father That if it were possible that hour might pass from him At the 36th verse he tells his Father that All things were possible to him Then it was possible to the Father that That hour should pass away from him And so his Prayer was absolutely for it Other Scriptures tell us that God alwaies heard his Son and denyed him no thing and that he was heard in that which he feared Then it follows that That Dreadful Hour did pass away from Jesus Christ though it did not pass away Thâ—s was the Comfort of Christ that Power of God which could reconcile two which were contradictions that the sad Hour should pass away in not passing away 2. Secondly The Power of God can call back Time that is past and make it to be present again Heb. 13. 8. You read of Jesus the same yesterday to day and for ever The Lord Jesus is the Fulness the Image and the shining out of the God-Head They are the Puttings forth and Discoveries of Jesus Christ which make all Times Ages and States Jesus Christ hath to day the same Powers and Appearances in himself which being sent forth made yesterday They are only drawn in If then he please to day to put forth the same Appearances to thee or pull thee into them he can make yesterday present to day When he shall open himself fully to thee from the Beginning to the End then he will make the Sun to stand still over thy head he will make all Times past to stand forth as at the first and to stand still before thee eternally For he is the same yesterday to day and for ever Rev. 20. 12. We read that at the Resurrection the Books were opened Time is as a Book which Life opens and Death shuts Daies and years passing are as the turning over of the Leaves of this Book Whatever God doth he doth it for ever saith Solomon in Ecclesiastes Whatever is written in this Book is never to be blotted out but remains there to be read to eternity If any Leaf or Line were pleasant to thee and thou mournest because it is turn'd over and past God can at his pleasure turn that leaf or line back to thee again 3. The Power of God can make things which have been and which have ceased to be to be again It is a sweet spiritual and deep discourse that which is between the Lord and Martha concerning Lazarus Ioh. 11. 23. Jesus saith unto her Thy Brother shall risâ— again V. 24. Martha saith unto him I know that he shall rise again in the Resurrection at the last day V. 25. Iesus said unto her I am the Resurrection and the Life Jesus Christ is the Power the Treasury of God from which all things are brought forth in which they are laid up again and ever to be found The Person of Christ is the Life and the Resurrection while things are they are in him as in their Root When they are no more in themselves they are still in him as in a Repository They return into him as the beauty of dying Flowers into their Root to come forth again at Spring in a better manner The Person of the Lord Jesus is the Life This world is but as the shadowy Image in the Glass or Water All things have their truest and standing Life in him The Lord Jesus is the Resurrection For when he discovers himself to us then we see all things again in a full high immortal manner Hast thou lost any comfort by Death or any other change in this world do but look with a Spiritual Eye upon the Spiritual Person of thy Dear Saviour there thou shalt see thy comforts still living For he is the Life Nay thou shalt see them living immortally never to dye more For he is the Resurrection Thou shalt see them and enjoy them substantially satisfactorily without fear of losing them For that which thou seest in him is not a Shadowy Image but the Life it self 4. Spring Wisdom The Wisdom of God rightly understood is a Fountain of Peace and Pleasures which will flow perpetually into the heart of man Two Scriptures testifie of this Wisdom 1 Scripture Eph. 1. 11. This Scripture speaketh of God who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will These words hold forth four things 1. A Workman 2. The Latitude of his Workings 3. The Pattern 4. The Original of that Pattern 1. The Workman This is God who worketh The chief Agent the Master-wheel in all Motions is the God-Head Learned Men say that if the Heavens should stand still all Things here below would be immediately at a stand as in the Aegyptian Darkness It is most true of the Trinity which moves and makes and works all things by the Movings of that Life which it hath in itself If the Trinity should stop in the course of its mutual Communion and Enjoyments This stop would be a Spoke set in the Wheel of the Creation nothing could stir any more 2. The Latitude of his Workings God worketh all Things God worketh all Things Collectively in the General and whole Sum. God worketh all things Distributively in Particulars The Earth is the Lords Work and the Fulness thereof Psal. 24. 1. There is no time nor any minute or moment of Time which is not fashioned and carried on by God My times are in thine Hand Saith the Psalmist Psal. 31. 15. There is no Affair nor the the least Circumstance of any Affair be it good or evil which is not the Work and the gift of God Shall we receive Good and not Evil from the Hand of God saith Job Job 2. 10. God rides upon the Circuit of the Heavens Psal. 68. 4. So he is the Universal Cause of Things God also fills All in All Ephes. 1. 23. So He descends into the Lowest Relations the narrowest Compass and becomes every where the most Particular Cause of every Thing God saith of the Tree in the Prophet for the Clusters sake Spare it there is a Blessing in it So mayst thou say of any Thing whatever it be great or small for which thou mournest or frettest Spare thy self There is a Blessing for there is a God in this Thing God is not only a Concurrent cause working his Part and leaving to other Causes their Parts apart But he is a Comprehensive Cause uniting all in himself and spreading himself thorow all 1 Corin. 8. 6. There is One God who worketh all in all Wherever there is any Agent that works God works all in that Agent Wherever there is any Form of working God works all in that Form
these are Varieties only in thee It is thy self thy Person besetteth compasseth comprehendeth me and my way in them all O Believers when you see Jesus Christ in the least glance of His Person with the same Eye of Light and Love as David saw him with do not you also meet with wonders of Delight and Glory which are too great for your Hearts Affections or Understandings to take in Do not the lowest and least things seen in him appear to you as Divine Wonders with such a height of Light in them as no created Eye can reach But David caught up into the view and Embraces of Jesus in his Heavenly Form proceedeth in his Rapture Whither shall I go from thy Spirit or whither shall I flee from thy Presence Face or Person v. 7. The Spirit and the Presence or Person of Christ are here both one to teach us that this Person and Presence of our Saviour in which he is the same yesterday to day and for ever in His Appearances to the Saints under the Law under Grace in Glory is entirely Spiritual a pure Spirit If I ascend up into Heaven thou art there if I make my Bed in Hell behold thou art there v. 8. Hell in Hebrew and Greek signifies no more 〈◊〉 the Grave or the State of the Dead It is added in Hebrew Behold Thou These words art there are put in by the Translatours as you may see by the Change of the Letter If I take the wings of the Morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the Sea v. 9. even there shall thy hand lead me and thy right Hand shall hold me v. 10. If I say the Darkness shall cover me even the Night shall be light round about me v. 11. Yea the Darkness hideth not from thee but the Night shineth as the Day the Darkness and Light are both alike to thee v. 12. These last words too are added to thee Go thy wayes O Believer O beloved Spouse of this Heavenly Lover say to him with the same tongue in the same language of Light and Love as David doth Wherever I fly or fall I am ever encompassed with ever wrapt up in thy Spiritual and Glorious Person as my Heaven as the Air of my Life O my Beloved If I fly it is in the face of these Brightnesses If I fall I lie in the Bosom of these Beauties When I ascend up into Heaven behold thou art there Heaven is as a great Room of State and Pleasure in the Divine Building of thy Person The Light of this is all the Glory the Love and Loveliness of this are all the Treasures and feasts of Joy there The several Appearances of those Distinct Varieties in thy Person shooting forth themselves like Beams with a Divine Lustre Warmth and Life make all the Angels in Heaven The Assembly of Glorified Saints is the Fruitfulness and Fulness of thy Person first thy Birth and then thy Bride like Eve to Adam in Paradise the Heavenly Eve to the Last Adam in the Heavenly Paradise thy self multiplying it self that it may have a meet Help for it self to be the Object of all its Loves the Subject of all its Joys the Mother of all Living What have I in Heaven besides thee Ps. 73. 25. Thy Person filleth all those shining and smiling Forms of things in Heaven They are all the Beauties in thy Face the smiles in thine Eye If I die behold thee Death itself is first an extasie of Love in which thou overshadowest me in a moment snatching me out of the Light of this world into the sweet and everlasting Light of a far greater and more Blessed world thy Person Then is it an extasie of Joy to find the same Jesus cloathed with the same white and shining Rayment in the Grave as I beheld him in Heaven The Grave becomes a Bed and that Bed thy Bosom Luke 16. 22. The Begger died and was carried by Angels into Abrahams Bosom the rich man also dieth and is buried That which the Grave is to the rich man that to the Begger to the poorest Saint is the Bosom of Jesus figured by Abraham in whom he lay hid as the Seed of Eternity Ere I was aware my Soul made me as the Chariots of Aminadab Cant. 7. Aminadab is my Princely People a Chariot of Angels of Glorious Spirits This is the manner of the Death of Christs Spouse Ere she is aware her Soul setteth her upon or rather itself becometh to her a Chariot of Angels where she sitteth upon a Golden Throne of Love encompassed with Curtains of Light and so is transported in the twinkling of an Eye into the Arms of her Beloved her whole way itself lying in the same embraces which are the end of her way and those Angels being the varieties and the movings of those Fulnesses of beauties in the Bridegrooms Person which is the same Spring and Rest of love in them all Go on then believing Soul with David and say to thy Saviour but the time may come when I shall neither rest on thy bosom as a Throne of Grace in Heaven nor as a Bed in the Grave in the Fellowship of thy Death I may be hurried to the uttermost parts of the Sea to that State where storms of malice and wrath rage most in the midst of the blackness of Darkness But when it is so even then thou risest upon me and sweetly breakest like a lovely morning in the Beauties of thy Person round about me Thou takest me upon thy Divine Beams as upon Silver Wings with Feathers of Gold in which the Glories of the Divine and Humane Nature are united As thou in thy course circlest thorow all the infiniteness of differing Beauties within thy self thou carriest me upon these Wings of thine to the extremities of this Sea of Darkness and Tempests Even here also as in Heaven itself thy hand which is thy self thy Spiritual Person thy Divine Life in Act the Activity and Appearance of thine inseparable Glories lead me as my Strength within my guide and way before me my light round about me Yea even here thy right Hand which is thy Person in the sweetest fullest Act and appearance of Love Beauty Majesty and Power holdeth me at once bearing me up in itself encompassing with itself Thus the Sea and Tempests are still thy Person in the same Lovely and Eternal Form opening new Wonders of Beauty and discovering greater Riches of vaster varieties within the bright Bound of its own Spiritual Fulness Yea if I sink so low that I begin to faint and say now the Darkness will cover and overwhelm me now the night will seal up my Eyes from the sight of my Beloved and hide him from me then the Night it self becomes a bright Sun round about me in the Heaven of thy Person where every spot of Darkness as well as Beam of Light is a shining Point or line of Beauty and all so many several Suns set thick one by another Can.
Life from the Ocean which hath its Fountain in itself which is therefore unconfined and infinite as much as a little Shadow from the Eternal Incomprehensible Truth and Substance such is the dissimilitude and disproportion between the beautiful Body of Adam in Paradise and the Blessed Body of our dear Lord in Heaven As the Earth in Essence and Appearance in Greatness and Glory in vertue and Comprehension differeth from Heaven not only this Heaven which we see not the Heaven of Angels above our sight but that Heaven out of which our Jesus cometh as Lord of all an Heaven higher than all created Heavens such is the difference between the New-created Body of Adam our first Father which shone about his spotless Soul as the Light about the Sun and the glorified Body of Jesus our first and last Lord and Love O all ye that hear and believe admire with me the insiniteness of the wisdom and love of our God who hath made the loss of Paradise by Sin so great a gain to us instead of that giving us our Jesus But we shall come yet more clearly to the mark at which we aim if we examine these words more exactly To that end I shall propound three Questions 1. Question What the general Nature of a Body is Answ. A Body is the compleat Image Instrument and Fulness of that Soul or Spirit to which it doth belong Col. 2. 17. A Body and a Shadow are set opposite one to another Which are a Shadow of things to come but the Body is of Christ or is Christs is the Body of Christ. A Body and a Shadow agree in being an Image But the Shadow is a confused useless emply Image the Body express Instrumental Substantial and full In the same Chapter a little before v. 9. we read of the Lord Iesus in him dwelleth all the Fulness of the GodHead bodily God is the Person in Christ the glorified Body of our blessed Saviour is the express Image of the God-Head God is seen there as a Man is at home in his house nakedly clearly familiarly constantly entirely in all Forms and Postures This glorious Body is the Universal and Immediate Instrument of the God-Head the Sphear of its Activity God judgeth all acteth all exerciseth all the operations of the Divine Nature and life here as the Sun runeth his race from the beginning to the end of it in his proper Orb and Heaven God dwelleth with all his fulness in this Body He delighteth to pour out into the Body of our Beloved and his Beloved all the precious Treasures of his God-Head Here he delighteth to possess and enjoy them in a Bodily Form in the Form of a Spiritual Heavenly and Divine Body As at the Incarnation the word was made Flesh. A Body of Flesh Iohn 1. 14. by emptying itself to nothing so now is the Eternal Word again in the Resurrection made a Spiritual Body by returning and rising up into all its Fulnesses in the same Body in which he had emptied himself The Lord Jesus speaketh of himself in Glory when he saith In my Fathers house are many Mansions John 14. 2. The Body of our Bridegroom is a Spiritual Palace in which all the excellencies and Off-springs all the operations and works of the Divine Nature have their several distinct Mansions and apartments We read of a Tree in the branches of which all the Birds of Heaven have their Nests The Spiritual Body of Christ is the Tree of Life and of Love which hath Branches enough and large enough for all the Birds of the highest Heaven the seven Spirits of God with all their Train all the variety of the God-Head to make their several Nests in them I may add also for all the Beasts of the Field all inferiour Forms of Things to lodge under its Shadow You who love the Lord Jesus and his Appearances doth not this move you doth not this make your hearts to spring and dance in your breasts to hear that your Saviour is cloathed with this Heavenly Body so full of Glory and of God Can we forbear now from saying to our own hearts and one to another these five short words 1. If we have formerly known any thing besides our Jesus let us now know it no more If we have hitherto known Christ after the Flesh let us know him so no more This is the only object worth all our knowledge and study Jesus in his Spiritual Body purer and brighter than the Body of Heaven in Paradise far beyond that in the height variety and compass of its Glories 2. How black doth every Sin appear in this Light of our Lords glorified Body When a Soldier was about to kill Cresus his dumb Son cryed out thou killest the King So cry to every Lust in thine heart thou crucifiest my Jesus in his Spiritual Body the Body of all Divine Beauties shining like a Divine Sun upon thee comprehending thee as the highest â—eaven In every Creature in which thou seest not the blessed Light of this Body in which thou doest not kiss it with the pure mouth of the Spirit in thee thou doest crucisy it 3. Is not this Bosom this Heavenly Body of our Beloved a Field of Lillies indeed the Field of all Spiritual Beauties and Divine Graces Shall we not like pleasant Roes be ever feeding here As Booz said to Ruth let us never go into any other Field to gather or to feed Is not this the Paradise itself in the third Heavens where all the Fulnesses of the God-Head are in a Body a Divine Body 4. How pure and Spiritual are we to be in Body and Spirit if we are to be Brides to this Lamb of God whose Body outshineth all the Angels and is raised to a degree of Spirituality far above them 5. Is this that Body of which the poorest believing Soul may say by the Law of its Spiritual Marriage my Jesus hath not power over his own Body but I have power over it to command its presence with me to delight my self in it as my Garden of Eden of pleasure to bring forth Fruit by it Is this that glorious Body of Christ to which these vile Bodies yours and mine are to be made like by that Power by which he is able to subdue all things to himself to the similitude of this Body of Divine Glories Is this the Body into which we are taken up and which we are at home with when in death we are withdrawn from these Bodies of our Pilgrimage here Qu. 2. What the force of this phrase is A Living Soul The first Adam was made a Living Soul Was he not made a Body as well as a Soul The Body seemeth to be so far from being concerned here that it is excluded Ans. This Word Soul hath Three Acceptions in the New Testament and so that which answereth it in the Old 1. It is taken for the Person composed of Soul and Body So Gen. 46. 26. All the Souls which came with
one Spirit In the verse before he had said What know ye not that he who is joyned to an Harlot is one Body For two saith he shall be one Flesh. v. 16. Here the discourse is clearly of the Body As the earthly Marriage maketh two Bodies one Flesh the Heavenly Marriage maketh them one Spirit The union between our glorified Lord and our Bodies in the Resurrection is as immediate and entire as between our Saviour and our Souls so that these also are Spirits and one Spirit with him Is not his Body then first a Spirit Doth not the Union between the Divine Nature and his Blessed Body make that a Spirit and one Spirit with itself The glorified Body and Soul of a Saint are one Spirit They are one Spirit with the glorified Body and Soul of their Jesus with the three Persons in the Trinity with all Beautiful and blessed Spirits All are one Spirit Yet are they all distinct Spirits If the distinction were taken away the Harmony the Beauty the Musick the Marriage-joy and Marriage-love in Heaven were all lost Obj. But you will say how can this be Are not Body and Spirit contrary How then can a Body be a Spirit Ans. Flesh and Spirit are every where in Scripture opposed one to the other but not so a Body and a Spirit Those very Terms on which the Contrariety is set so frequently by the Holy Ghost between Flesh and Spirit shew that the Heavenly Body the true Body the Body of Life and Glory is a Spirit I shall instance only in a Twofold Opposition one where the Flesh and the Spirit are set as Life and Death the other where they are set as the Truth or Beauty itself and the Vail upon it 1. The First is Rom. 8. 6. To be carnally minded is Death but to be Spiritually-minded is Life and Peace In each of these Words Life Peace all Joys of Life and Immortality are expressed by the language of the Spirit Both together are Joys heaped upon Joys Blessedness upon Blessedness to express the Infiniteness in which they rise up ever New though there can be never any thing more Or the Circle of Eternity where all Fulnesses of Life and Joy run one into another multiplying themselves upon themselves endlesly Life is the Flourishing State of Things a Perpetual Spring The Happiness of Princes the Blessedness of the Divine Nature is sum'd up in Life Live O King The Lord liveth Peace is the whole Gift and Legacy of Christ to His Saints My Peace I leave with you My Peace I give unto you It is All the Good that goeth along with His Presence and Appearance in His Immortal state Hee stood in the midst of them saying Peace be with you when He appeared to them after His Resurrection Peace is the Plenary Rest of all Parts and Faculties of the whole Person in a perfect Union with and full Fruition of their proper Objects in Perfection The Greek Word for Peace signifieth the Band of all Perfections the Circle of Eternity All things within and without linked together in the Golden Chain of a Blessed and Divine Harmony making an Ornament of Beauty for the Soul to put on making a Musâ—ck to charm the Soul into the Divine Sleep of the sweetest and deepest Complacency The Hebrew Tongue expresseth Both Perfection and Peace by one Word This is the Name of him who was the Eminent Figure of Christ in Glory Solomon This is the Name of Jesus Himself as He sitteth upon the Throne of the Divine Nature in the Kingdom of the Spirit Isa. 9. 6. The Prince of Peace Some translate it very properly The Prince The Peace or Perfection Shalom But to apply this to our purpose The Image of things as they stand in the Spirit is in it self the Appearance of things in this Image is to those who see it Life and Peace that is Eternity of Blessedness Heaven it self But the Image and Appearance of things in Flesh is not onely Dying or Dead It is Death itself The Life of Nature and of Flesh is a Shadow onely of Life and the Death of the True Life which is in the Spirit This universal Image of things which we call the World comprehending the whole Creation in all its Beauty is no more than the Grave in which the Spiritual Image lyeth sleeping the sleep of death 2. The second Opposition between Flesh and Spirit is that of the Truth and the Vail upon the Truth Job 4. 24. Our Saviour saith The Father seeketh such Worshippers as worship Him in Spirit and Truth Spirit and Truth are here joyned in the same sense as Spirit and Life go together Job 6. v. 63. The words that I speak they are Spirit and they are Life The Spirit is the Truth and the Life The Flesh is a Dead Counterfeit as a Picture is the Counterfeit of a Man being neither the Life nor the Truth 1 Joh. 6. 6. The Spirit beareth witness For the Spirit is the Truth The Spirit is the last and onely Witness For the Spirit is the Truth itself the Universal and Eternal Truth There are two Maxims in Philosophy that All Truths and the Essences of things are Eternal The Truth then and Essence of a Saint's Body and of Christ's the true and essential Body is a Spirit in the Eternal Spirit It is not Living but Life it self The Body of Flesh is a Vail upon this True Body which is an Immortal Spirit So it is expresly named Heb. 10. v. 20. where Christ is said to have entred and made a living way for us into the most Holy Place by the rending of the Vail that is His Flesh. The true Body is a Spirit and Spring of Immortality in the most Holy Place the Eternal Spirit When it cometh forth from thence into the open streets and fields of this Creation it casteth over itself the Vail of this Fleshly Body In Death it rendeth and casteth off this Vail of Flesh so it returneth pure and naked in the Resurrection into the most Holy Place into the Eternal Spirit again where it ever stood after an unchangeable manner in its simple and unvailed Beauties So is that Mystery of the Gospel accomplished in the blessed Body of our Saviour No one goeth up into Heaven but he who come down out of Heaven the Son of Man who is in Heaven Qu. But you will ask me now What becometh of this Body of Flesh in the Râ—surrection Ans. What becometh of the Seed of a Plant in the Spring and the Summer The Plant first contracteth its Parts and Powers its Beauties and Sweetâ—â—sses under a Vail while it maketh itself a Seed Then again it breaketh this Seed casteth off the Vail discovereth by degrees its entire Form with all its Flowers and Fruits As before the Plant was hid and imprisoned in every poâ—nt of the Seed so is the Seed now Flourishing and rejoycing with all its several vertues and pleasant Forms in every part of the Plant. We read
such a chariot of Angels with these Persons riding in it 3. The Passage into this Place I will come unto you and take you unto my self that where I am there ye may be also There are three Steps of Christ's Coming to us in Glory 1. Into our whole Spirits by Regeneration 2. Into our whole Souls at death 3. Into our whole Persons Spirit Soul and Body at the Resurrection By every step he maketh a mutual Union so far as he goeth He cometh to us He taketh us to himself that we may be both together in one place in one Spirit He letteth himself down in his Heavenly Palace into us he taketh us up into the Heavenly Palace in himself he maketh our Persons a Heavenly Palace like his glorified Person and one with it This is our passage in Death into Glory Of old God descended upon the Tabernacle in a Cloud the Glory was in the Cloud Then Moses was summoned to enter into the Cloud and so into the Glory where God talked with him In latter times the most excellent Majesty in a 〈◊〉 Cloud overshadowed the Lord Jesus and in overshadowing him transfigured him then in the transfiguration talked to him of his Sonship to the Father and of Love In like manner at the set time the Lord Jesus as a living Temple of Heavenly Glory cometh down upon thee in a white Cloud of some Love-storm or Love-sickness I call it a Love-sickness because it ariseth at once from the Love of the Spirit of the Bride in thee and from the Love of thy Bridegroom to thee from the longings and burning desires of both after the immediate perpetual and full enjoyments of each other As thou entrest into this Cloud and art overshadowed by it thou art in a moment at the same time taken into that Palace of Glory and transfigured into the Glory of that Pallace There thou appearest to be the Son of God the Spouse of the Immortal King God speaketh to thee converseth with thee as a Son and Spouse in one He seeth the Figure of his own Beauties in thy Face and his Heart resteth in thy Bosom He seeth and enjoyeth thy Person as springing up eternally with incomprehensible Pleasures out of the Root of his own Divine Loveliness he feeleth and rellisheth thy Spirit as the flowing of his own sweetnesses from their own Fountain in himself he poureth forth himself in a flood of Beauties and Sweetnesses into thee All his Loves rest in thy Love and he in thee 4. Script I am now come to the last Scripture For we know that if our Earthly House of this Tabernacle be dissolved we have a Building of God an House not made with hands Eternal in the Heavens For in this we groan earnestly desiring to be cloathed upon with our House which is from Heaven If so he that being cloathed we shall not be found naked For we that are in this Tabernacle do groan being burthened not that we would be uncloathed but cloathed upon that Mortality might be swallowed up of Life Now he that hath wrought us for this self-same thing is God who hath also given us the Earnest of the Spirit 2 Cor. 5 1 2 3 4 5. This is a rich and deep Scripture What expressions of Death are those How full of Joy Not to be found naked Naked of any support or comfort Of any cloathing of Being or Beauty Essence or Substance Form or Fulness in Person or Relations Not to be uncloathed Of any Garment of Light or Life To be cloathed upon with an House from Heaven To have the Lord Jesus as a circling Glory coming down upon this Image in which we now dwell neither taking away the Nature nor Form of any thing that here we are or have but taking up all as sacred Mysteries into a Temple of Glory giving them a place for ever in this Temple penetrating filling and cloathing them the Glory To have Mortality swallowed up of Life To lose none of the things or entertainments which here we enjoy in this mortal state but the mortality of them only and that not by Death breaking them down with violence but by the sweet breakings in of Life and Immortality upon them not by a blackness of Darkness dreadfully over-spreading them but a brightness of Eternal Glory delightfully rising upon them like the Sun upon the beautiful Forms of Heaven and Earth after they have weakly appeared in the melancholy Beams of the Moon shining faintly in the shade of the Night And He that hath wrought us for the Self-same Thing is God It is a Divine Hand and Skill which hath framed and fashioned us to this capacity It is God who by his own operations in us not mediately as in tâ—e works of Nature but immediately as in all works of Grace and Glory hath wrought out this Spiritual and Divine Being this Spiritual and Divine Nature in us which never dyeth but is changed from Glory to Glory which in Death putteth off nothing but putteth on a greater and purer Light upon its weaker Lights and Shades piercing thorow and breaking up delusive Shapes formed out of the Darkness of remaining night by stronger Beams of Glory falling from above Who hath also given us the Earnest of his Spirit An Earnest is part of the Sum in present and an assurance of the rest God doth not only frame a Spiritual work like a new Heaven in us but giveth us the Person of his Spirit himself in which the Persons of the Father and the Son are seen together unvailed in their Union and Communion of Beauties and Loves in the unity of which all Angels and Blessed Spirits dwell together as their proper Center and Circle This Spirit God giveth to be in the Spiritual Nature framed by himself in us as a new Sun in the new Heaven This Spirit in us is the Earnest of our Death a foretast of its Sweetness and Delights a vision in part beforehand of the manner of our dying and an assurance of the compleating of its season after the same Beautiful and pleasant Image As at the first Effusion of the Spirit upon us or any new Effusion as at any Act of the Spirit when he shineth our freshly in us this Natural Image of Things is no more a Light of Glory Forms of Glory Immortal Spirits full of a Divine Beauty and Majesty appear every where They are alone and there is nothing besides in the whole space of Things above or below past present or to come As they are so are we All Things are one Vision of Divine Glory Neither do we perceive how one Image of Things goeth and another cometh Both are done one is come the other is gone in the same moment in the twinkling or cast of an Eye So is Death This is the Earnest of our Death This is a step of Death a foretast of it So shall Death he perfected us I have three Observations to make upon this Scripture besides that which I have
already said in order to my present purpose to shew how the knowledge of Christ in Glory sanctifieth and sweetneth Death 1. Obser. Here are three distinct Frames 1. A Building v. 1. 2. A Tabernacle v. 1. v. 4. Where take notice that in both places it is translated this Tabernacle but is in Greek the Tabernacle 3. The Earthly House v. 1. This seemeth to allude to the Temple which was a standing stately Building set up by Solomon in the Kingdom of the Jews to the Tabernacle in the Wilderness which was less and moveable but rich and â—ine for the Workmanship and for the Materials to the Tent of course stuff a covering â—or the Tabernacle All these were Figures of Christ and his Church to which they are also applied 1. The Heavenly Person of Christ as it standeth in the high and holy place of Eternity as it springeth up out of the Bosom of the Father and abideth in his Bosom as it is one Spirit and one Glory with the Father is the Temple the Building For the Building hath this Three-fold Character 1. It is of God in Greek out of God as Gold is out of a Mine of Gold 2. It is Eternal 3. It is in the Heavens The Glorified Person of every Saint as it is comprehended in this Glorious Head of all Saints is a Temple a Building in Heaven in Eternity of the same manner and fashion 2. The Tabernacle made of Sky-colour of Scarlet of Purple of fine Linnen with Silver and Gold and all manner of precious stones wrought with Cherubims and all curious Workmanship is the Image of God in Christ and a Saint here below in the Wilderness of this World John 1. 14. And the Word was made Flesh and dwelt in Greek Tabernacled among us and we beheld his Glory the Glory as of the onely Begotten Son of God full of Grace and Truth Here you have the Temple which is higher greater in compass and more glorious than the Heavens contracting itself into a Tabernacle and residing in that Tabernacle filling it with its own Sweetnesses and Glories which are Grace opposed to Wrath Truth opposed to Shadows The Word was made Flesh. The Eternal and Substantial Image of God which is the Temple the true Heaven brought forth itself into a Temporary and Shadowy Image which is the Tabernacle and the Paradise of the whole Creation As it is in the Lord Jesus so is it in his Spouse who is the Fulness of him that silleth All in All. This vile Body in which a Saint is here this dark and course Form with which our Souls and Bodies are cloathed here is the Tent that covereth the Tabernacle the Earthly House of the Tabernacle 2. Obser. The Effect of Death is different in these Three 1. The Tent the Earthly House onely is dissolved It is dissolved and no more It is taken to pieces The Word belongeth to the taking down of a house or the taking of Horses out of the Coach and setting them up in a stable at an Inn when the day and the Journey are ended The Dark and Narrow Form which made it a Vile Body a Body of Death is lost The Materials are laid up in the Tabernacle 2. The Tabernacle is taken into the Temple This is that which shall be cloathed upon from Heaven v. 2. If so be that being cloathed or as it is in Greek if having been cloathed namely with the Tabernacle we shall not be found naked of the Tabernacle in Death v. 3. So it is explained in the words following For we that are in the Tabernacle do groan being burthened not that we should be uncloathed of the Tabernacle but cloathed upon that Mortality might be swallowed up of Life that the Form of Mortality might be lost for ever in Immortality and the Mortal Things continue being now become Immortal When thou puttest on Jesus Christ thou puttest on that Image of Grace and Nature in which Paraâ—ise is revived and heightned in which is contained all that is good fair and pleasant thorow the whole Creation quickned with a new Sun-shine from on high This thou puttest on in thy Natural Man This thou shalt never put off after that thou hast once been cloathed with it It is still cloathed upon with a higher and higher Glory from Heaven until in Death the Glorified Body of Christ come down entirely upon it in the fulness of all its Divine Beauties 3. The Eternal Building in Heaven thy Glorified Person which was hither to hid in God with and in the Glorified Person of thy Saviour now cometh down cloatheth thee entirely resteth openly upon thee never to go off from thy Tabernacle more 3. Observ. See the beautiful and sweet manner of Dying Death is expressed in Two Representations 1. A Dissolution 2. A Deluge a Swallowing up 4. Death is a Dissolution If our earthly house of this Tabernacle be dissolved v. 1. A Troop of everblessed Spirits united by Eternal Love into one Form of Glory make the Heavenly Body of thy Beloved In the same Form and yet another they make thy Heavenly Body and Person in the Bosom of thy Bridegroom O Believer These descending are by the sacred knot of this dark and narrow Form in Nature tied together into One Mortal Person in which they are the Shadow of themselves and tied down to the Earth to stand their Tryal in the midst of all sorts of Temptations Thus they continue till they have finished the Mystery of God and compleated the Figure of Divine Things in their Persons here below Then when the set Time is come according to the Laws of that Eternal Harmony in the Nature of God which is the Supream Love Beauty and Wisdom all in One they dye after this manner That Troop of glorious Spirits which is Thy-Self above come down upon Themselves Thy Self imprisoned in their Shadow below As the Fire of God they touch with some Mysterious Stroak of Providence the knot of this Earthly Form Immediately it untieth and is dissolved Now all these Spirits thus set free retaining the Unchangeable Unity of thy Person return Each to Itself in the Liberty Beauty Joy and Glorious Majesty of its proper Substance and It s own Its First Heavenly State Yea they are already there in their Building Eternal in the Heavens This Eternal Building these Heavens come down upon them to cloath them from above that in no one moment they may be found naked At once they spring up out of the Earth they come down out of Heaven and meet and kiss each other and fall into One with a Wonderful Shout a Triumphant Concurrence of all Blessed Spirits in the Perfect Freedom of all their Joys and Glories They fall into One because they are One and this One is Thy self In an Instant the Twinkling of an Eye the Living Word cometh to them the knot of Nature is dissolved all fly this knot the Figure itself the Shadow like Doves to their Windows like a Court to their
of Nature to this Truth the Unity of the Divine Seed in Nature God is One not in Regeneration only but in the Creation also We also are his Off-spring Thou who art hitherto Earthly and Natural an outcast of Nature cast down to the nethermost parts of the Earth in Lusts Unbelief Blindness of Mind Hardness of Heart Profaneness Enmity seek thou also after God feel after him Thou also mayest see him and feel and find him in every motion in every act and part of thy Life in every point of thy whole Being Every Motion Act and Part of thy Life every Point in thy whole Being is that Field in which is hid the Treasure of the Divine Being Beauty and Blessedness Thou livest and movest and hast thy Being in him He liveth and moveth and hath his Being in thee He is thy Seed in thee For thou also art his Off-spring Believe the Love of God open all the parts of thy Being and Powers of thy Soul to take in this Love Thou hast in thee the band of the Love-union the Divine Love-spring the Unity of the Divine Seed For thou also art his Off-spring Blessed is he who believes and seeks for this Pearl more than Silve and diggeth for it more than for hidden Treasures Blessed is he who findeth it and goeth and selleth all that he hath to purchase it Thou hast this Pearl in thine own Field the Divine Seed in thine own Soul and Being Let this be the only Seed in thy Soul Then hast thou sold all for it Then will it spring up into a living Palace of one Immortal Pearl in thee which God himself and all Glorious Spirits will inhabit together with thee filling it with the sweet Lights of their Divine Beauty with the Eternal Flames of their Divine Loves and Joys Obj. But you may say if this be so why are not all saved If all be of one Seed which is Christ why doth not one Life of Grace and Glory spring up in all from that one Seed Ans. My Answer to this Objection shall be a threefold use a Reproof to Sinners a Root of Comfort a Reason for Holiness Use. 1. A Reproof to Sinners The Sin of the Devil was the first and Fountain Sin In that therefore the evil Nature of Sin in the whole Kind and in every individual Act is most manifest St. Jude painteth it out in its black and bloody colours after a most lively manner Jude 6. The Angels not keeping their first Principle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and forsaking their proper Habitation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O Man Thy God is thy first Principle Thou didst stand in him as in thy Root Thou wert filled with Sap from him Thou didst partake of the Fatness and Sweetness of the Divine Nature Thou wert a flourishing and fruitful Tree All the Birds of Heaven the Holy Spirit the Blessed Angels delighted to sit and Sing in thy Branches All visible things rested under thy Shadow How art thou fallen to the ground How dost thou lie withered and dead upon the face of the Earth No good thing cometh near thee Sin hath done this Thou hast not kept thy first Principle O Man The Divine Image was thy proper Habitation This Image in thy Person was a Sun of Beauty shining in every part of it and a Shield of Power defending it on every side In this Image all Blessed things were united to make a Paradise for thee which thou didst carry about in thine own Person as thy proper Form thine inseparable Habitation like to God who carryeth his own Heaven into every place with him Alas Thou art now naked in the Eye of God and all the Creatures Thou art exposed to shame to every storm of Rage Malice and Wrath from all Sin hath done this By Sin thou hast forsaken thine own thy proper Habitation Beware O Men Of the Evil of Sin You cast out anew the Divine Seed out of your Garden by every new act of Sin You cut off anew the Divine Form Flower and Fruit from every Plant in your Garden by every new Act of Sin As oft as you Sin so oft you make a fresh wound upon the Divine Unity you make it to bleed afresh and dye in your Persons But besides this there is yet a greater Evil in Sin The Seed of God is one the Divine Unity the Love-spring of Eternity The Seed of the Serpent the Devil is Enmity the Hellish Spring of Hate and Death Every Sin is this Seed of the Serpent in thee Enmity to the Heavenly Seed the Unity of God In the Law the Jews were forbidden to seethe a Kid in his Mothers Milk for the Cruelty and Unnaturalness O the cruelty of every Sinner in every act of Sin O the unnaturalness Thou makest a Fire of the Kid that thou mayst burn its Mother in it Thou changest the natural Image the natural Life in thee into a fire of Wrath and Lust to burn up and consume in it the Heavenly Seed out of which it springeth Solomon in his Proverbs telleth us that he who curseth his Father and despiseth his Mother the Ravens of the Valleys and the young Eagles shall pick out his Eyes This hath its highest truth here go on in Sin But know that now in each Act of Lust of Wrath of Profaneness of Unbelief thou offerest despight to thou cursest thou killest the Seed of God in thy self the Divine Unity the purest and perfectest Love thy Father which hath begotten thee and thy Mother which bare thee which brought thee forth What will thine End be The Ravens of the Vallies and the young Eagles Unclean and devouring Spirits from Hell below Spirits of blood of death of horrour and slaughter shall eat thy Flesh consume all the Light of Life and Beauty in thee shall swallow up thy Spirit into the Bottomless Pits of Darkness Dread and Death within themselves Use. 2. The Root of Comforts in Believing the Root of Faith that we may believe and have Comfort is the Divine Unity The Unity of God is thy Seed in thee The Seed is one and that one Christ. The Unity of God is the highest and purest Love The Unity of God Divine Love is the Seed of all Things thy Seed Believe this Love believe in this Unity that is in Christ who is this one Seed of Love Let these Arguments persuade thee to believe 1. Argu. The Unity of God is the Fountain of Love The Unity is the Simplicity the Purity of the Divine Nature God in the nakedness and simplicity of his Divine Essence is Love Lean stay thy self upon this Rock of Eternity the Divine Unity Simplicity Purity of Love 2. Argu. The Unity of God is Love How strong is this Love All the Attributes Powers Excellencies Vertues of the God-Head are united and centred in Love How great is the force of Divine Love What is its Vertue its Excellency its Sweetness O Almighty O Supream O Soveraign Love All Things Good Great and Divine
Assisting Love so certainly will it lay the Top-stone Your Eyes shall see it You shall in like manner cry to it with a Shout of Angels and Blessed Spirits all round about you Grace Grace Pure Love Finishing Love There are Three Sorts of Comforts which the Finishing Love of God in Christ ministreth to us 1. Against the Difficulties of Life 2. Against the Darkness of Death 3. Against the Dreadfulness of the Great and Last Day 1. Comfort against the Difficulties of Life St. Paul had prayed thrice against the Thorn in his Flesh and the Buffetings of Satan He receiveth this Answer My Grace is sufficiâ—nt for thee My Strength is perfected in Weakness I rejoyce therefore gladly in my Infirmities For when I am weak the Power of Christ resteth upon me My Grace You have there the Father the Fountain of Love the Fountain of Free Grace You have at the end of the verse the Lord Jesus Glorified into whom this Fountain floweth continually covering his Person all over without filling it all within with the Gâ—ories Immortalities and Joys of Divine Love This Jesus resteth upon St Paul in the Power in the Perfection of All his Loves He maketh Perfect he finisheth his Loves the Pure and heavenly Work of his Loves upon him when he is weakest The Holy Ghost discovereth a Mystery here A Mystery is a Divine Secret A Divine Glory with a Divine Vail cast over it a Divine Light surrounded with a Divine Darkness The Head of Christ all Pure Fine Gold covered with Locks and Curles black as a Raven The Mystery which the Holy Ghost here unvaileth to us is One of the richest and sweetest among all the Mysteries of the Gospel It is the Mystery of Love of Finishing Love Blessed are those Eyes that see the Glory Blessed are those Hearts that understand and rellish the Sweetness of This Mystery It is This When Divine Love would put forth itself in Greatest Power and Glory when it would finish make Perfect the general or any Particular Work of Love in us it chooseth that Season when we are weakest lowest have least of Loveliness Life Love or Suitableness to Love when we are in the greatest unlikelyhood for it when we seem to be at the greatest Distance from it Cant. 6. v. 12. The Spouse is brought in speaking thus Ere I was aware my Soul made me as the Chariots of Amminadib I have not Learning enough to understand why Amminadib is set here as One Proper name whenas in the Hebrew there are Two distinct Words which have their common signification and are rendered in the Margint of the Bible My Willing People Moreover that word As is put in by the Translatours and where we read Made me the Original properly is expressed by Set me The words thâ—n run thus in the Hebrew Text Ere I was aware or I knew not I knew not how I knew nothing of it my Soul set me the Chariots of my Willing People or by the Addition of One Preposition understood My Soul set me in the Chariots of my willing people It will be worth our time and pains if we stay a little upon the opening of this verse We shall find a Spiritual a heavenly Treasure in it and bring the Application home to our hearts more Clearly more Comfortably There are Four Questions which may be made here 1. Qu. Who this People are which the heavenly Bride calleth My People 2 Qu. What the Willing People are 3 Qu. What the Chariots are 4. How the Soul of the Bride setteth her In these Chariots or maketh her As these Chariots 1. Qu. Who the heavenly Bride 's own People are Answ. These whom the Spiritual Bride calleth Her own Pâ—ople are Heavenly Spirits in Glory It was said of Jacob when he died He was gathered to his People While a holy Soul is in this World she is as an unknown Princess under a Disguise in a strange land the language whereof she understandeth not In Death this Princess-Bride returneth home to her own People to her own Kindred her own Relations and Acquaintances There all understand the languages Faces and hearts of Each other There they mutually drink in the Spirits of Each Other and in the Spirits of Each other all Pure Immortal Loves Beauties Joys There is another Scripture which commenteth upon this and confirmeth our Explication of it It is Eccles. 12. 7. The Dust returneth to the Earth as it was The Spirit to God who gave it That which is translated God is in the Plural Number Gods often applyed to the Angels The Jews say it signifieth God cum Indumentis suis as he cloatheth himself with the Forms of Angels and appeareth in them The Soul of a Saint cometh forth from the Land of Angels and Glorious Spirits in the midst of which God reigneth into this World as into an Exile or Banishment When it dieth then it goeth home to its own Countrey and People to its own City and Fellow-Citizens The Inhabitants of the heavenly Jerusalem the Mother of us all I shall add one Text more which will make all the rest Clear Hebr. 11. 14 15 16. The Saints there are said to seek a Countrey The Word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Their Native Countrey Then to prevent a mistake you are told that this Native Countrey was not that from which they came on Earth It is distinguished from that and plainly called A heavenly Country Their Native Land which is a heavenly Countrey Behold those whom the Spouse of Christ calleth My People The Inhabitants of the City of the Living God her heavenly Countrey her Native Land above the Heavens as the word beareth These are described in the Epistle to the Hebrews The Assembly of the First-born all Forms of things all the Saints in Spiritual Beings and Beauties in the Likeness of Christ as he is the first-born of every Creature before they descend from their Thrones of Pure Glory from their Virgin-Lustre and Sweetness in the Bosom of Christ into Flesh upon the Earth The Innumerable Company of Angels the Glorious Attendants of the Saints in their higher and First-born Glory The Spirits of just men made Perfect either in the Body or out of the Body come to this heavenly Land Living walking and conversing there among the Inhabitants of this Land in the Spirit These are Thy People Thine own People O Believer O thou Blessed Bride of thy Glorified Jesus You have the Answer to the First Question 2 Qu. What are the Willing People Answ. Again I am ignorant why the same word is rendred in the Margin of this Scripture Willing when as immediately after Cant. 7. 1. The same word Nadib is translated Prince O Prince's Daughter or O Princely Daughter If I mistake not the Church is spoken of in that Chapter as being now in Glory upon the Throne You have this word Nadib used to the same sense of the same Subject Psal. 110. 3. Thy People shall be Willing in the day of thy
Dust their bones scattered and cast up and down Church-yards The blessed Body of our Lord Jesus was taken off from the Cross a bloody liveless mangled Corps a sad and ruthful spectacle So he was laid in the Grave the same Body which after three days rose again and was taken up into Glory The Scripture plainly testisieth that in Death as the Spirit returns to God who gave it so the dust returns to the Earth as it was God passeth this sentence of death upon Adam for his transgression Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return Do not we by faith grounded upon the clear letter of the Scripture expect the Resurrection of our Bodies at the sound of the last Trumpet Ans. I answer to these objections first in general I fully assent to all these testimonies of sense of the letter of the Scriptures of the common faith of all the Saints concerning the Resurrection of the Body Yet is it true that I mean this I believe this in this meaning and belief my Soul and Body rejoice and triumph together that not the Soul alone but also the Body of a Saint in the very first moment of Death meeteth with no dissolution but a restitution and most delightful return to liberty peace and perfection This is that sweet and comfortable sense of Death which the holy Spirit seemeth to have sealed upon my Soul from all principles of reason of Faith and from the letter of the Scriptures In this sense I wish that all were as I am to behold with the same spiritual Eye in the same light of the Spirit the beauty and loveliness of Death in the Body of a Saint the beauty loveliness and pleasant life of the Body of a Saint in Death I come now to give a more particular answer fitted to the several objections by four distinctions The four distinctions are these 1. Of a two-fold body in a Saint 2. Of a two fold Dust. 3. Of a two-fold Sense 4. Of a two-fold Resurrection 1 Dist. There is a twofold Body which the Scripture in its language attributes to a Saint There is a Body from which a Saint is to be delivered You read of this Rom. 7. l. Wretched Man that I am who shall deliver me from the Body of this Death There is a body in a Saint which is to be delivered St. Paul speaks of this in the name of all the Saints Rom. 8. We also who have the first-fruits of the Spirit wait for the adoption the redemption of the Body There is a Body which is the seat of Death a Body of Death as in the forementioned place who shall deliver me from the Body of this Death In all the members of this Body sin reigneth as a King establishing his Law For so in the same place a little before it is written With my Members I serve the Law of Sin This is the Body of Flesh in which there dwelleth no good as St. Paul speaks in the same Chapter There is again in a Saint a holy living immortal Body the seat of a holy heavenly and immortal Life in as much as it is the Temple of the Holy Ghost For so St. Paul testifieth as to an unquestionable and known truth granted of all the Saints in the primitive times 1 Corin. 6. 19. What know you not that your Body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost Again a Saint carryeth about with him thorow his life a Body which is a partition-wall between him and his Beloved which divides between Christ and him which he must break forth from and cast off before he can be taken into the Bosom of Jesus Christ and be with him 1 Corin. 5 6. 8. St. Paul complains that while he is present in the Body he is absent from the Lord and breaths forth passionate longings to be absent from the Body that he may be present with the Lord. But a Saint hath a Body which is so far from dividing him and Jesus Christ that these two divine lovers are entirely united and both one in it It is Christs own Body as well as a Saints All the Members of it are the Members of Christ as they are of a Saint 1 Corin 6. 15. Know ye not that your Bodies are the Members of Christ shall I then take the Members of Christ and make them the Members of a Harlet God forbid Yea he carryeth this union so high that he maketh the Lord Jesus and a Saint in this Body of his of which alone he speaketh to be one Spirit and makes that the principal ground upon which he builds his arguments against Fornication v. 16. 17 18. What know ye not that he which is joyned to a Harlâ—t is one body for two saith he shall be one flesh but he that is joyned unto the Lord is one Spirit Flee Fornication he that committeth Fornication sinneth against his own Body How manifestly here are a fleshly Body and a spiritual Body distinguished one from another A Body in which Fornâ—cation makes the Man one flesh with the Harlot a Body in which a Saint is one Spirit with Jesus Christ These two are one Body which standeth in two mixed Principles and Images The Body of a Saint while this life lasteth standeth partly in a carnal or fleshly principle and Image This is the Body of Death in which no good dwels which is subject to the Law of Sin While a Saint is present in this Body he is absent from Christ. This is that from which a Saint groaneth to be delivered The Body of a Saint standeth in part and imperfectly while we live here in a Spiritual Principle and Image Thus the Body of a Saint is the Temple of the Holy Ghost the Body and Member of Christ one Spirit with Christ by which one Spirit it is Baptized into his Spiritual and heavenly body This is that body of a Saint which groaneth to be redeemed and delivered from the Body of Death as from its Captivity Prison and Grave The Death of a Saint finisheth this Captivity breaketh open the Prison and the Grave and setteth free the Body of a Saint into the liberty of its Adoption or Sonship that is into its Spiritual and divine form of a Son of God As fire is said to separate things of different kind and to gather into one things of the same nature so is the Death of a Saint the flame of God the fire of Divine Love Jesus Christ coming in the invisible flame of this Heavenly fire to separate the fleshly Principle and Image from the spiritual Principle and Image both in the Soul and Body of a Believer The fleshly Principle and Image which is in the Body of a Saint as a foreign and strange thing as rust upon Gold is entirely cast off to the Spirit and Image of this world and of the Devil to which it belongeth The Body of the Saints in its Spiritual Principle and Image which are truly and properly its own in which it is
to us in that colour In like manner there is a native moisture upon our Palates and Tongues by which we tast things If this moisture have any tast of its own every thing tasteth of it Blessed art thou who livest the life of a Saint Thou livest the life of Heaven upon Earth The Spirit is the Christal in the Eye of thy Soul thorow which thou seest all things This Christal hath a heavenly colour of Glory ever upon it Thou then feest all things in this ravishing colour in a Heavenly Glory The Spirit is the Divine moisture and water of life upon the pallate of thy Soul by which thou tastest all things This water of the Spirit hath ever the heavenly rellish the unexpressible sweetness of the Divine Nature of the Divine Love of the pleasures of the God-Head Thus thou savourest all things This Love and Sweetness thou rellishest in every thing 3. The two companions of these two effects of a Spiritual Principle are 〈◊〉 and Peace To be spiritually minded is Life and Peace 1. Life The Spirit and Life are inseparable one from another The words that I speak they are Spirit and they are life saith Jesus Christ Joh. 6. The Spirit is the Fountain of Life For he is called the Spirit of Life Rom. 8. The Quickening Spirit 1 Cor. 15. The Power of an Endless Life Heb. Let us ever pray that we may ever live in the Spirit For now we live if we stand fast in our spiritual Principle The Life which we now live is first pure It hath nothing of any Mixture of any Defilement or of any shadow of Death Secondly It is perfect It hath all the Sweetnesses Virtues Joys and Beauties of Life in it Thirdly It is perpetual It never ceaseth It never endeth but springeth to Eternity Fourthly It is a powerful Life It maintains itself against all the Powers of Darkness and Death It maintains itself in the midst of them as a sweet Light of Glory shining in a dark place and triumphing over the darkness In a word this Life is the purest sweetest and most lasting Liâ—e For it flows immediately and springs up continually from the Fountain of Life itself Nay which is far sweeter and more glorious it is Life as it lies in the Fountain of Life It is Life not only from the Spirit but in the Spirit So St. Paul speaks in this Chapter They that are in the Spirit and to the Galatians if ye live in the Spirit 2. The other Companion of a Spiritual Sense is Peace Peace in the Language of the Scripture signifieth a perfection of Happiness It is distinguished into 1. Peace above with God 2. Peace within in your own Consciences and Spirits 3. Peace with all Creatures round about you O how true is it that they keep the Feast continually a Royal and Divine Feast in white Garments who live in a spiritual sense of things Every day to them is a Holy Day a Festival Day All things are festival round about them All things are in a Covenant of Peace with them in a Covenant of Grace and Divine Peace All appearances of things in every State shine upon them from the glorified Person of Christ as heavenly Beauties smiling upon them All Providences Changings and Motions of things are a Heavenly Musick springing up to them and sounding round about them in the Unity of the Spirit All Impressions made upon their Souls from every passage of Providence or Change is a most delicious sweetness upon their Spirits an unexpressible Taste of Heaven and Eternity But the manner of St. Paul's Expression is very observable and hath a great force in it To be spiritually minded is Life and Peace The sense and favour of the Spirit is itself Life and Peace universally absolutely in the abstract in perfection without any Confinement or Allay The spiritual sense of a Saint is the pure and compleat Essence of Life and Peace in its highest Activity How true is it that a good man is satisfied from himself How Holy how High how Happy how Heavenly a thing is it to be a Saint to be spiritual to live as a Saint to live spiritually Thou now comprehendest all things in an uncorruptible Beauty Love and Joy in thy self as in Heaven For all things are to thee thine own spiritual Principle thine own spiritual Sence springing up and diffusing itself into all blessed Forms of Glory Delight and Immortality within thee Jesus Christ tells his Spouse in the Canticles That she is a Fountain of Living Waters flowing from Lebanon That she is a Fountain of Gardens That all her Plants are Plants of Paradise O blessed Spirit who livest in the Eternal Spirit as thy Principle by which thou art inwardly acted The Principle of thine is the Fountain the ground of Paradise within thee All forms of things are Paradisical Plants at once pleasant to the Eye good for Food desirable to fill thee with all the most glorious Treasures of the Divine Wisdom Thy Spiritual Principle is the Divine Ground out of which all these Plants of Paradise grow up within thee as thine own Plants Thy spiritual Sense and Savour is a perpetual Feeding and Feasting upon the Fruits of Paradise which these Plants continually bring forth 2. The Fleshly or Carnal Sense is also illustrated by three Circumstances 1. The Principle 2. The Effect of that Principle 3. The Companion of that Effect 1. The Principle of a Carnal Sense is the Flesh. It is expresly called the Mind or Sense of the Flesh. The Flesh the Natural Man the Earthly Man the Spirit of man the natural Soul in the Language of the Gospel and most of them in this present Chapter signifie the same Principle of a carnal Sense of Sin and of Death Happy is he that is not here deceived Every Earthly Heavenly Humane Angelical Spirit or Principle however enlightened sanctified heightened by the work of the Spirit below that Spirit which 〈◊〉 immediately born of the eternal Spirit which is one Spirit with it and liveâ—â— in it is Flesh and this Principle of a fleshly Mind or Sense or of Death 2. The Effect of this Fleshly Principle is Twofold 1. A Carnal 〈◊〉 Fleshly Sense 2. A Fleshly or Carnal Savour How unpleasant is thy Life who livest in this Principle for the sight of thine Eyes The Light of 〈◊〉 World which alone thou seest is Darkness and the shadow of Death Foâ— the Prince of this World is the Prince of Darkness Thou measurest Heavenly and Spiritual things by Earthly and Carnal When Jesus Christ in the Gospel was reproved by Peter for the mentioâ— of his Sufferings and Death the Lord replies to Peter Get thee behind 〈◊〉 Satan For thâ—u savourest not the things of God but the things of man Theâ—â— are Three things remarkable in these words 1. There is a Humane 〈◊〉 there is a Divine Sense of the same things and these two are contraâ—â—â— one to another 2. Those things that are the things
of man and dreadfulâ— man in an humane Sense as Death are Divine have a Divine Beauty 〈◊〉 sweetness in them to a Divine Sense and Savour 3. The Humane sense the Humane Image and rellish of things springs from the Devil as he is Saâ—tan that is the Hater the Enemy to all things Divine to Love to Lighâ— to Truth to Immortality and Blessedness 3. The Companion of a Carnal Sense and Savour is Death To be Caâ—â—nally minded is Death 'T is Death in all the black Properties and Powers 〈◊〉 Death 1. That Divine Image of things which alone is the Truth is Spirit and Life both the Paradises the Heavenly and the Earthly as it is new born and united unto the Heavenly lie captivated in a Carnal Mind or Sense as in a Prison or Grave 2. A Carnal Sense is that outermost Darkness which is without the new and Heavenly Jerusalem 3. In a Carnal Sense are disorder confusion and desolation the dissolutions of all the banâ—s of Peace Beauty and Life For these all consist in that order alone which hath for its band the Unity of the Spirit 4. A Carnal Sense hath ever the sting of Death in it Fears Cares Grief Pains Anguishes Torments never cease here They are the Worm which never dyes the Fire which never goes out in this region of the shadow of Death a Carnal Mind or Fleshly Sense Naturalists tell us that some Candles may be so made that all the Persons seen by those lights shall appear as Ghosts one to another or the whole place seem full of Snakes and dreadful Serpents Such are those lights of a Carnal Sense by which all things are seen of thee who art in a Carnal Fleshly State Every thing of Truth as it appears to thee is an apparition from below bearing Paleness Terrour Death and Hell in the face of it Thou canst no where walk sit lie down in peace All places all States to thee are full of Serpents hissing shooting out their forked stings casting their poyson at thee Wo to you O ye Inhabitants of the Earth ye who dwell in a fleshly sense of things The Devil is ever in the midst of you with great rage here he is known by his name Satan the Enemy the Hater But ye O ye Inhabitants of Heaven who live in a Spiritual Principle why are you ever found abroad Why are not all your walks within in the Spirit the heavenly Paradise which God hath planted and set you in to dress it and to keep it and to eat of the fruits of it without any exception within your own Spirits Behold not a single Cherubim but the whole Army of glorious Angels with the Presence and Power of the Eternal Spirit as a flaming Sword turning every way keeps the entrance into this Paradise not to keep you out but to defend you in it by suffering no evil thing none of the Powers of Darkness of Death of Wrath to enter here While you are without in a Carnal Mind and Worldly Spirit you are among the holes of the Foxes the Dens of the Lyons and the Mountains of Leopards All things with which you converse ascend from below from the Earth from the natural Soul and from the Devil as St James teacheth us All these three the Earth the Natural Soul and the Devil are Links in the same chain of Darkness immediately fastned one to another The light and breath of your life in the Spirit of this world is the smoak from the Bottomless Pit Your Beauties your Joys your pleasant things are those Locusts sent forth from thence mentioned in the Revelation with Faces and Hair like Women with Crowns upon their Heads false Shows of Sweetness Softness Greatness and Glory but stings invenomed stings the stings of Death are in their tails O! Retire into your own enclosed Gardens there within your own enclosed Grounds your own Souls sit under your own Fig-Tree your own Vine which are your own Spiritual Principle out of which the universal Image of things both Heavenly and Earthly springeth up into the perfection of all pure Beauties and Joys with immortality Delight your selves under their shadows where you are safe from all Evil and at rest for ever I again testify unto you as I have often and alwaies testified in all my Sermons and Discourses that there is no Salvation to the flesh or in the flesh O then ye who are yet found walking after the flesh give no rest to your selves here Cry night and day without ceasing to the Holy Spirit to take you up upon his Wings and to translate you suddenly in a moment out of this Wilderness of fiery Serpents into the promised and good Land flowing with Rivers of Milk and Hony the Milk of the Eternal Word and the Hony of the Divine Wisdom which both are Jesus Christ the Fulness Sweetness and Glory of the God-Head O that these words as now you read or hear them in this very moment thorow the power of the blessed Spirit might be as the hands of Angels laid upon Lot to hasten you out of this Sodom of the flesh while you linger here into a place of safety the City of the living God in the secret of the Spirit before the Lord rain down fire from the Lord upon all Flesh. The profit the pleasure the seasonableness of this discourse hath carryed me farther stayed me longer upon it than my method seemed to require Let us now return to apply this distinction of a twofold sense Carnal and Spiritual to our present purpose which is to set forth the Beautiful and Blessed Staâ—â— of a Saints Soul and Body in Death We have heard that a Spiritual sense is Life and Peace absolutely universally eternally without mixture confinement or change that all things here are in the purity and perfection of Divine Life Beauty and Joy We have also heard that the Carnal Sense is Death as it reigns entirely here so it it is confined hither shut up in this Pit and without this fleshly Principle hath no where any place I shall bring this Distinction home to my purpose of making Death all over in every part lovely and pleasant to a Saint by two Propositions 1. Propos. This is the first A Saint by dying is taken entirely in his whole Person Soul and Body out of the Carnal or Fleshly Principle out of the Fleshly Sense and so out of Death 2. Propos. A Saint by dying is in his whole Person Soul and Body gathered up entirely into a Spiritual Principle and so into the Immortality of a Divine Life Peace and Delight 1. Propos. A Saint by dying is taken entirely in his whole Person Soul and Body out of the Carnal or Fleshly Sense and so out of Death I shall open and confirm this Proposition to you by two Scriptures 1. The first Scripture is the 1 Epistle of St. Peter 4. 1. Wherefore seeing Christ hath suffered in the Flesh let us also arm our selves with the same mind For
at an end as the life of Christ ended O you who are followers of Christ and predestinated to be conformed to him in your Lives and in your Deaths meet Death with Joy with the shout of those who cry out for victory Now is your Warfare accomplished now is your Captivity in the Fleshly Spirit and Image at an end You shall dwell now no more in Meshek at a distance from the Divine Glory nor sojourn in the Tents of Kedar in the Land of Darkness The Vail of the Flesh is now rent from the top to the bottom thorow your whole Soul and Body In both as you seem to fleshly senses to enter into the shade of Death you in that moment enter into the Kingdom of Light the Glorious Pallace of your Father the Divine Beauties and Joys of the Heavenly Image You have now fought the good Fight and finished it Henceforth from this moment it is that the Crown of Righteousness the Crown of Life and Immortality hath been laid up for you to be set upon your Heads and worn by you which God shall now give you from his own presence from his own hand in this day of Glory which now breaketh and riseth upon you 3. Scrip. Colos. 2. 15. The Apostle speaking of Christ saith thus and having spoiled Principalities and Powers he made a show of them openly and triumphed over them in it that is his Cross which was mentioned in the latter end of the foregoing verse There are three parts in this Scripture which is a glorious description of the Victory of our Lord Jesus 1. The Subject of his Victory 2. The Victory itself 3. The Seat of his Victory 1. The Subject of Christs Victory are Principalities and Powers The first word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth Principles The second word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth Dominions Principalities and a power of ruling By these names the Angels are expressed as they are the Invisible Springs out of which all visible things continually flow as they are the Supream Glories Virtues Powers among things created to which this present world is subjected by which it is enlivened enlightned formed acted and ruled Thus the Victory of Christ extendeth itself over the whole Creation the whole frame of Nature in its Heavenly Angelical and unseen part in that which is Earthly and visible in the Fountain-Glories and flowing Streams in the Princes on high and their Principalities beneath 2. The Victory itself is exprest in three steps 1. The Spoil 2. The Show 3. The Triumph 1. The Spoil He spoiled Principalities and Powers The word signifieth to uncloath The Lord Jesus as a conquering Prince uncloathed the Invisible Princes of this World of all Power Principality and Appearance by which means the whole Creation and the frame of Nature which stood by these Powers in these Appearances according to their first and natural State were dissolved fell into the depths of Darkness and confusion disappearing for ever 2. The Show Our Victorious Saviour brought forth all the Principles Powers and Appearances of Nature into the open light of the Eternal Spirit There he led them as Captives through the Streets of the Heavenly Jerusalem showing them as the subjects and marks of his Victory to all the Innumerable and Glorious Inhabitants of that Blessed City of the great King 3. The Triumph He Triumphed over them All natural Powers Glories Lives and Images lay beneath the Feet of the Lord Jesus as his Footstool while he sat down upon a Throne of Glory cloathed all over with Garments of Glory and wearing a Crown of Glory upon his Head These are the three Parts of Christs Victory 3. The Seat of Christs Victory was his Cross. He Triumphed on it Heaâ— this all ye that are one Seed one Spirit with the Lord Jesus that are made conformable to his Death in your Lives and Deaths Hear this let it be written upon your Hearts in Characters of Glory with a living Beam from that bright Sun the Face of our Lord Jesus as he shines in the Eternal Glory of his most Blessed Victory and Triumph It was upon his Cross it was upon his Cross that the Lord Jesus spoiled made a Show of Triumphed over the Principalities and Powers of this World Our Blessed Saviour in dying by dying in that very moment by that very act dissolves and defaceth at once the whole frame of Nature and of the first Creation He taketh away from it all Power of being subsisting acting or appearing He blotteth out every natural Image and form of Light or Darkness Life or Death Beauty or Deformity Shame or Glory Grief or Joy for ever You have this excellently painted out in a clear Prophesy Psalm 73. 20. As a Dream when one awaketh O Lord when thou awakest thou shalt despise their Image The word Image signifieth a Shadow The Eternal Word the Heavenly Image our Lord Jesus was in this Creation as under the Vail of Darkness and Night as in a sleep He bringeth forth and beareth up all the Powers and Forms of Nature as a Dâ—eam in this sleep and as shadowy Images in this Dream By dying he awakes out of this sleep he sets an end to this Dream The whole frame of Nature with all Forms and Images of things within the vast compass of it either Visible or Invisible break up fly away and vanish as a Dream as the shadowy Images in a Dream when a Man awaketh But neither are they quite lost They only change their Principle and Appearance In the same dying moment doth the Lord Jesus who is that Eternal and Essential Image in whom they all subsist appear and pass thorow their several changes carry them with himself into the Divine Light and Life of the Eternal Spirit There are they seen again as the Fruits of his Conquest spoiled of all their own Life Light and Form having put on a new Life Light and Form according to the Will of the Conqueror to show forth his Power and Glory to make them pleasant and Eternal Spectacles of his Divine Triumph to all the Inhabitants of Heaven and Eternity Now before he is taken down from the Cross even upon the Cross itself the Lord Jesus as he gives up his Spirit with his last breath Triumphs in his Soul and Body too whose proper Seat the Cross was In both cloathed with Triumphal Robes of an immortal Beauty and Blessedness he rides forth in the Glorious Chariot of the Heavenly Image and of the Eternal Spirit All the Powers and Forms of Nature of Life and Death the Cross itself and the Crucifiers as Captive follow his Chariot bound in the Golden Chains of Divine Light and Love making up the delight and Glory of his Triumph This also doth the Psalmist clearly Prophesy of Psal. 68. 18. Thou hast ascended up on high thou hast led Captivity Captive The descent of our Lord Jesus was finished with his Life He begins his ascent upon his Cross the first moment of his
and despair that by him these beautiful and blessed Lives may rise again 2. The Death out of which this Life is raised is that of Sin and of the Curse for Sin Eph. 2. 1. v. St. Paul saith we were dead in Sin Hear and read this O man with sighs and tears with trembling and terrour Thy Life it self is now a Death and a cursed Death such a Death as makes the difference between an Angel in Glory and a Devil in Hell The corruption of the best things is worst The fall of the highest and greatest things makes the greatest and most dreadful Ruine The Divine Life is dead the Divine Image is fallen in thee Thou art dead in Sin Sin lived and I died saith St. Paul in the forementioned place A Life of Darkness shame Disorder deformity enmity the Life and Image of Hell and Devils are sprung up in thee and are become a Grave of hate and horrour which hath swallowed up the Life the Image of Love Beauty and Joy of Heaven of Angels of God into a cursed Victory in thee All the stings and terrours of the first death in the separation of the Soul and Body are all the secret burnings of this Hellish fire of the Death in Sin now quite consuming the broken Relicks of the Divine Light and sweetness in the Flesh and enlarging itself into the second Death as into an eternal Flame of Wrath and torment Look up oh man see this whole World of these Heavens and this Earth as a Charnel-house or a dark Vault for the Dead See thy self in this Body as a melancholy Coffin in the midst of this Vault where thine own Divine Life and Image with ten thousand blessed Lives the Life of Christ of Paradise of Heaven lie dead and buried See this place in which now thou art the smoaky porch and gloomy entrance into Hell like a cloudy Evening to that dismal Night See thy self walking here as a wretched Ghost and Shade in the midst of the Dead in the midst of cursed Apparitions from below and thy self together with all these ready every moment to vanish into everlasting Darkness and Flames This is the Death out of which the Divine Life is raised in the first Resurrection or the Regeneration 3. The Resurrection of this Life out of this Death is to be declared in its first step which is the Regeneration or New-birth The Divine Nature which lies hid at the bottom and in the center of the Soul lives there to itself with its Heavenly and Earthly Image as in the Secret of its own twofold Paradise whereof one was never yet revealed in any Creature until Christ the other with drew itself hither from the sight of the Soul at the Fall This Divine Nature as to the Soul itself whose Root it is of whose Being it is the only Life and Truth lies slain by the Life of Sin and buried in its own Ruines beneath the Darkness and Confusion of the Corrupt the Fleshly and the Hellish Image This Divine Nature in the moment of Regeneration or Conversion is new-born in the Soul or which is the same the Soul is new-born into the Divine Nature and comes forth with a new and Divine Being into a new and Divine World This change is called a Birth because the Divine Nature as the Seed of God sown in the Soul diffuseth itself thorough the Soul changeth the Soul into one Nature and Life with itself so bringeth forth itself in the soul and the Soul together with itself in its own Divine Life and Likeness The Eternal Spirit is the Father of this Birth which sendeth forth this holy Seed This Spirit is also the Mother For in the naked Bosom of the Eternal Spirit at once the Seed of God is sown in the soul and the Soul is sown as a new Seed sent forth immediately from God wrapt up in the Seed of God The Spirit also itself is this Seed For so the Lord Jesus saith John 3. That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit This New birth is said to be from above because it is immediately from God the Birth of God as he is in the Simplicity of his Godhead uncloathed of every Vail infinitely transcending all created powers and perfections This Birth is expressed by being born again as a second Birth For man was first born unto a Divine Light and Image in Pâ—radise where he aâ—so dyed to this Life and Image unto which he is now born a second time That was a Shadow onely This the Shadow and the Substance both in Union This Birth is also called a Resurrection and is truely so upon this account That same Divine Person in his own proper and individual Existency which died in Paradise which ever since hath lien slain and buried in the corrupt sinful Person sprung up in its place as in a Grave now riseth again As it riseth it casteth off this cursed and Hellish person as a Body rising to Glory casteth off the form of a dead Carcass of Rottenness and dust recovering it s own proper place and right But there is a threefold difference between this Divine Nature in its first Life in Paradise and its first Resurrection in its Regeneration or New-birth 1. In Paradise the Divine Nature sprung up and appeared in a Earthy Image and in an Earthy Person only as in a lovely shadow of itself The Heavenly Person the Heavenly Image although it were the Root the Truth the Life the Fulness of this Shadow yet it lay concealed beneath it as a Vail or as the Fruit lies hid in the Blossom By Sin the Blossom falls to make way for this Fruit. In the new birth out of the Ruins of the Earthy Person and the Earthy Image as the rending of the Vail the Divine Nature springs up and shines forth in its own Heavenly Person and Image Thus that which was sown by the Fall a Heavenly and Divine Shadow riseth again by the new birth a Heavenly and Divine Substance which is the Shadow in its Life and Truth The Holy Scriptures declare this Glorious Mystery 1 Epist. John 5. c. where we read That there are three which bear record in Heaven the Father the Word and the Spirit A little after we read That he who believeth hath the record in himself If a Believer hath the Record within himself he hath also within himself those who bear the Record For a Record or Testimony hath all its authority and force from the Persons of the Witnesses as it is given by them and cometh forth out of their mouths Behold then here in the moment of believing God himself in the three Persons in their Heavenly Image which is the Heaven of Heavens bringing forth the Divine Nature as their own proper Birth and Child in an Heavenly Person and in their own Heavenly Image in which they themselves dwell together with him giving their Testimony to him in which he believes 2. That which was the Beauty and the beautiful
with him so shall it be with thee A supernatural Power a mighty Angel from Heaven shall bind up thy Tempters thy Spiritual Enemies in chains of Darkness as in a deep sleep shall remove the great Stone the most powerful Lusts and Temptations from the mouth of thy Grave God himself in his Power in the greatness of his Power as it excelleth and transcendeth all Powers all things all thoughts of men or Angels God himself in his Almightiness in the infiniteness of his Power and God-head God himself in the immediate naked most potent most high most Glorious Appearances and Operations of his God-head shall come down upon thee shall arise and shine in thee and as he riseth raise thee together with himself into the Light of Life Whil'st thou lyest in Sin thy true Person or Life lie together dead in thee as to thee But beneath thy Soul at the bottom of it they lie hid in God who is the ground of every natural being and the Treasury of all Spiritual Beings At the season of the new birth God discocovers himself in thy Soul as a glorious ground out of which thy Life and thy Jesus spring up together by degrees like Twin-lillies Roses from the same stalk or root which is Christ. Thus shalt thou rise from the Dead with a shout of Heavenly Joys 5. Christ is the Companion in the Resurrection St. Paul tells the Galatians he travels in birth again with them till Christ be formed in them We read 1 Corin. 6. He that is joyned to the Lord is one Spirit A saint and Christ are one Spirit by a Spiritual Marriage which makes two Spirits perfectly one yet so that they remain perfectly and distinctly two in one When thou risest from the dead in Regeneration thy Jesus riseth together with thee out of that Grave in thy Heart into which thou hast cast him by thy Sin at the Fall when thou in thy true Life and Paradise in thee fell into the same Grave together with him Jesus Christ and the Soul spring up together in the first Creation as Twins For St. John saith in his first Chapter of his Gospel that without him that is in a single state disjoyned from Christ was nothing made that was made Christ and the Soul like two Twin-lillies flourished together in Paradise Together they died by the Fall Many times since thy birth into this world have Jesus Christ and with him that Beautiful and Blessed Life which thou enjoyed'st in Paradise been rising again into thy Heart into a more excelling Paradise that in the Spirit and in Heaven which is Eternal But alass thou hast still thrown them back again into the same Grave in thy flesh by the new wounds which thy renewed Lusts and Unbelief have given them Notwithstanding all this when the set time is come nothing can withstand the rising in thee Jesus Christ and thy Soul are together born anew in thee from the womb of Eternal Love where they lay hid and wrapt up together in the Grave itself They now come up together in one Spirit into one Spiritual Life and Heavenly Image in which Paradise also comes up new and fresh together with them By the same immediate and glorious operation of the God-head they break irresistibly forth thorow the darknesses of the night and scatters them and breaks them up as it shines thorow them How blessed is this Union and Fellowship Christ and the Soul ever undivided grow up now together in the mutual sight in the mutual embraces of each other thorow every state and degree of the Regeneration or Resurrection Light or Darkness Solaces or Sufferings Life or Death In all by the Heavenly Union they are mutually a Crown of rejoycing one to another 6. Christ is the Life of this Resurrection So himself testiâ—ieth in the 11 of St. John I am the Resurrection and the Life How sure how sweet is thy Life O Believer who art risen from the Death of Sin and born again to thine Heavenly Father Thy Life is sure It is Christ himself the Power God eternal Life itself who is thy Life the Life of thy Graceâ— here the Living Hope of Glory in Heaven the Life of God in thee which never dies in the midst of Death Thy Life is sweet O Believer How unexpressible is this pleasure to feel Jesus Christ himself the only delight of the Father in Eternity the only Delight of all the Holy Angels and Glorified Saints in Heaven springing up in thy Heart flowing thorow thy whole Soul and Person working in all acting all as Life in thee Thus I have finished this fourth Head the way of the Resurrection in its first step the Regeneration or New-birth and the discourse itself upon this subject FINIS ERRATA'S PAge 15. line 22. for word r. world p. 19. l. 25. for and thou r. O thou p. 55. l. 1. for spirit r. letter p. 66. l. 15. for three r. four p. 115. l. 38. dele by p. 126. l. 2. dele the first have p. 139. l. 2. for ni r. in l. 14. for an r. any p. 151. l. 1. for no r. not l. 7. for diviness r. divineness p. 158. l 22. for thee r. the p. 175. l. uâ—â— for their r. there p. 189. l. 16. for because r. and 3dly because p. 194. l. 14. for word r. words p. 205. l. 11. dele the first 1 p. 206. l. 32. for beautiful r. beauty p. 208. l. 39. dele at the word below p. 210. l. 17. for of spirit r. of the spirit p. 211. l. 20. for creature r. creatures p. 228. l. 35. for forms r. form p. 236. l. 24. for each in r. each creature in p. 249. l. 20. for form r. forms p. 252. l. 33. for though be it r. though it be p. 279. l. 9. for Vse 3 d r. Vse 4 th p. 294. l. 35. for pants r. plants p. 297. l. 5. for the glory r. with glory p. 299. l. 27. for 4 r. 1. p. 300. l. 32. for so God is light r. so God is life p. 301. l. 31. for the Divine Sea r. the Divine Saint p. 311. l. 3. for 3 steps r. 4 steps p. 314. l. 11. for is vizor r. is a vizor p. 315. l. 28. for thine nature r. thy nature l. 39. for fields r. field p. 319. l. 39 for is it r. it is p. 321. l. 16. for thy will r. thy God p. 325. l. 22. for four r. two p. 329. l. 17. for nature of this thing r. nature of things p. 332. l. 33. for which the will r. which is the will p. 335. l. 35. for are r. have p. 341. l. 4. for flesh r. fleshly p. 342. l. 19. for beware r. 2 dly beware p. 349 l. 41. for it conquest r. its conquest p. 350. l. 39. dele the Light p. 352. l. 14. for to the end r. to the end are removed p. 380 l. 25. for thus r. thou l. 41. for o passionate r. of passionate p. 392. l. 36. for poureâ—h r. poured p. 423. l. 9. for are r. ere p. 433. l. 7. for tof r. of p. 448. l. 27. for it it r. it p. 450. l. 17. for so r. see p. 451. l. 21. for same r. next for 1 Cor. r. 2 Cor. p. 472. l. 32. for resteth r. rested p. 480 l. 7. r. form p. 512. l. 3. r. Look to thy Root