forme but shall appeare alwaies in the same glory in and to the spirit of such a Creature So that what changeable forme God is pleased to appeare in to us is to be no Rest or habitation of us but to be led into higher enjoyments or after higher enjoyments of God by the fight and appearance of him though in a low or very meane manner in the form discovered For the end partly why Christ appeared in divers formes to his Apostles and so to many now is because he would not have any Rest in or upon his forme or appearance but that they might be as he was dying to all these and waiting for his ascending into God where he might be for ever swallowed up with the light and glory of God and there to make his and all Saints habitation and Rest The fifteenth false Rest THe next Rest which I shall speak of is The Gospel Faith of Jesus Christ as men cals it which indeed hath some ground of Rest both from Scripture and reason as they thinke Men in our daies have given distinctions of Faith as namely Historicall Temporall and Saving But leaving the two former I come to the latter and shall un bosome my sad experience of deceit in the same 1. Concerning this Saving Gospell Faith I owne their is a Faith which in Scripture is termed Saving yet that which men cals both beleeving and saving I finde not to be so And first of all men cals true Faith A dependance upon Christ or beleeving Christ dyed for them according to the Scripture Now Faith is neither a dependancy upon Christ or beleeving according to our common exposition that Christ dyed for us these if they be so in the heart as a Creature doth conceive yet they are but the effects and fruits of Faith in its spirituall act upon or towards God but this many make their Rest and shelter that if they can but beleeve Christ dyed for them at Jerusalem and that thus beleeving they can goe out of themselves that is onely deny their own righteousnesse and beleeve that Christ is theirs and that he dyed for them this is a Rest sufficient when indeed the poore heart is both ignorant what Faith is and what going out of himselfe is For never can a creature go out of himself to Christ or God before there be a cleere manifestation of God in the heart Now the Creature who is thus Resting upon his beleeving in Christ is altogether ignorant of any manifestation of God to him or in him For Faith is a supernaturall and divine light of God communicated to the soule by the Spirit of God which after this manifestation of light the creature comes to see and behold the glory of God by which Faith he is made to beleeve yea which beleeving is an effect or act of the said Faith upon or towards the same God which is revealed Now in the first place Beleeving is not Faith but an effect thereof Secondly Beleeying is an act of God in us to himselfes and so no Rest Thirdly Nothing which flowes forth from man to God is to be a Rest No act whatsoever is to be a Rest as it is purely exercised in man though of God but mans Rest is to be One who acts all in man who is God Many men are thinking highly of themselves because the Scriptures declare a Christ crucified for man and they are made to beleeve he was so for them and so are made to deny their own workes of doings and to depend onely upon this Christ â— which indeed the poor hearts be ignorant of and know him not neither have any manifestation of Jesus Christ in them in any particular way but onely from their own imaginations and fancies they still confidently beleeve that this Christ is theirs and he dyed for them and here they Rest and make their habitation concluding this to be Faith and the knowledge of Christ which indeed if such a Spirit knew what Faith were or the knowledge of Christ were this would be dissolved if not destroyed and it would finde it's faith and knowledge to be an un-sound and nn-safe Rest to be centred upon So that I say that that is not Faith or beleeving which men so cals and if so it were no ground to Rest upon For In the first place A man must truly know within himselfe what Faith is before man can truely beleeve Secondly Hee must also know what this Christ is he beleeves in before he can depend upon him and beleeve truly in him Thirdly There must be a cleare manifestation of God or Christ in man before there can bee any true knowledge particularly of him by man Fourthly Christs dying at Jerusalem shall then bee known to the heart in a more spirituall manner then ever And the workings of that death shall be found in that heart to bee such as formerly it did not conceive of Fiftly He shall know that dependency upon Christ and his former beleeving in Christ the truth of which he hath formerly tryed by visible signes and marks is now made to be a fancy not Faith and an effect of darknesse not of light And now he findes another dependency and beleeving in him flowing from another ground then before he knew and that the matter hee Rested upon in his own imagination which he before called a Christ dying for him is now changed being it was but his carnall conceptions and fleshly teachings and actings and now he is made to see the spirituall sense and so to judge of the truth of an ever dying yet ever living transfigured glorified Christ so as now he is making his habitation not amongst the beasts of the field in his former fancies and fleshly teachings but in the spirituall heavens where lives all Just men made perfect and all perfect men made to live by or in the life of God or Christ so as he is changed into glory and his Rest is made glorious Sixtly When this is come to passe men shall know really the Mystery of Faith and why it is called a Mystery and that same spirit shall know a difference betwixt the Mystery of Faith discovered to the Conscience coming as it were from God and the keeping and exercising of the Mystery of that Faith in a pure Conscience to God and that beleeving is not Faith as it purely comes from God discovering it selfe and the Mystery thereof to the Conscience But it is the exercise of that said Mystery of Faith by God in Conscience to God So that the Mystery of faith in it selfe is one thing and beleeving and dependency upon Christ if true is another thing But the effect or exercise of the Mysteriousnesse of faith in a conscience which is pure to or upon a God that is pure Seventhly Men may beleeve Christ died for them and from this beleeving may practise such things as are required by him yea may have much peace joy in the same And in this his own works
Kingdome after death or any thing here I have inserted to be false Rests But that I aime at is to set all things in its proper place and to bring soules to see the true Center that they may not misse the one thing necessary while they are acting beyond their line in which actings themselves may become cast-awayes and that men may know That neither Scriptures or Christ in the flesh Oridnances or Members of Churches or the Kingdome after death or the form of Words in the Letter or Promises is the Rest of Saints But He who is the summe and substance of all viz. Christ in the Spirit Coming in us to be Life Glory Light and Happinesse to us and so an hope of glory in us This is the Rest of Saints But Christian Reader God now in these daies is discovering the false Coverings of creatures and so stripping them naked God is bringing men to see this great Mystery of self in all its glory Hee is annihilating Creatures and bringing them to a spirituall death He is laying low mountains and un-bottoming and un-resting Creatures Mens lofty looks He is abasing yea He is bringing men who have been Stars and something in their own and others eyes even to a losse and silence confusion and darknesse That now their light is darknesse their wisdome folly their life death their enlargements and self-actings hedged up and they cannot finde out any of their former Paths so that now they are made to waite in silence as well as the Author of this Book was forced to do and it may be the Wisdome of God that this particular shall be an instrument of good as well in this as it hath been before iâ— came in this publique view to many soules in another manner and method so that I shall leave them to receive at thy hands what Censure the Wisdome of God pleaseth to cause or permit wishing thy exceeding happinesse in the Spirit Thine in Truth Revealed R. W. Severall Rests of Creatures Discovered and laid open below the Comming of Christ in the Spirit who is the alone Rest of Saints THE first Rest which we shall speak of is Civility or a common restraint of the Creature from the committing of grosse evils looked upon by the party to be Reformation This condition or dispensation speaks deceiveable Peace to many a spirit upon the which seeming good which pretends to follow this state the creature resteth and is satisfied But the reason thereof partly flowes from these following grounds 1. From comparing himself with others that is looking upon the grosnesse of mens actions abroad in the World as namely swearing and drunkennesse and the height of all prophanes many spirits live in where they are in the same condion Drinking up iniquity as if they were drinking up water and in these particulars hee being restrained and more civillized then these he blesseth himself in his present condition and Rests satisfied with it as though in it he did enjoy much of God 2. It flowes from comparing his condition present with what it was The more grosser his condition was before the higher it works him into conceit with the happines of its present condition Thus not seeing the purity of God and the deceitfulnes of its own spirit within he comparing himself with himself is deceived and so rests satisfied 3. It flowes from the consideration of the greatnes of love hee had before being restrained to those grosse evils he is restrained from together with the greatnes of the power which he cals the divine power of God which thus restraines him and thus he reasons If God did not highly love me I should never have received such a power from him as to shake off and not only so but to haâ—e and obhorre those grosse sinnes I so decrly loved both in my self and others and now the very practise of them being as he conceives hated by him ads weight to his thus reasoning out the Love of God Another thing which ads weight is his often praying against such particular sins as yet remaines unsubdued and afterwards these being subdued he looks upon acceptance with God in this being he lookes upon it as an answer of prayer and so in the same he reasons out love in this condition 4. It flowes from the seeming sorrow which ariseth continually upon the view of his former condition which workes a seeming repentance and reformation and from the sorrow he hath for his former condition now having a work of Reformation he Rests under the notion of happinesse yet not all this time brought home to see the grosnesse of his heart within but meerly washing the outside Luke 11. 39. and being a whited wall glorious without it is all he looks for or seeks after But Satan and mans heart will suffer the creature to act so farre and propound such waies to himself as in the same to bring the soul into a state of security where it may rest under the consideration of being happy and not without some visible ground apparent both to the creature thus deceived and the World who are not spirituall discoverers But alas what is it for any to be instruments to pull down or to be restrainers from Idolatry without when indeed there is remaining the cause of all Idolatry of spirit within To be outwardly drunk no more and yet to be drunk with the high conceipts of himself which is neither with wine nor strong drink its worse for a man to have the branches broken down before the root be pulled up for a man to be seemingly a Saint a devil within in this estate there is no sure Rest but thus it is most commonly with men they conclude they are happy if they have but the least appearance of it in a visible restraining of them from grosse evils and in this they appear to themselves and others men reformed and so new creatures when indeed they are still in their blood though they have escaped the common pollutions of the World through a generall knowledge of Christ which is no sure cause of Rest until there be a particular knowledge of him by which the creature is cleansed from all pollutions both of flesh and spirit which makes the heart upright before God from this inward knowledge of God which carries up the spirit of a spirituall man into God where he comes to be truly centred up in God so that the heart and Satan being deceitfull as to suffer the creature to escape the common pollutions of the World so that it may but there keep the Creature And seeing in this estate of darknesse none can truly judge of its condition aright untill the true light come in which makes all things manifest Then it behooves souls in this estate though to themselves never so seemingly glorious not to Rest satisfied with or content it self in it as though it did enjoy God in the same manifested but to wait for a higher dispensation and then the truth
that is all that is required of them to salvation and indeed so it is and something more But Thirdly To Rest upon Christ come in the flesh is to beleeve from the Letter of the Scripture without any powerful manifestation of the spirit that this Christ who did according to Scripture dye at Jerusalem dyed for them And here many satisfie themselves with very high conceits of their condition and here alone men Rest upon the bare Figure As if men under the Law should have made Circumcision and the enjoying of Sacrifices in that common manner they were performed to be a ground of Rest and so contented themselves in the use thereof as conceiving themselves to be made happy by the Type and Figure and not by that which was Typified out in the same So concerning Christs dying at Jerusalem it was a Figure of the spirituall death of the creature with Christ and also of his resurrection Now when we come to be buried with him into his death Rom. 6. 4 5. and also come to be with him raised up from death that is into the clear enjoyments of God where we are made to live in the God-head from it living in us John 14. 17. then doe we fully understand and know this Christ and this eternall Life and not meerly for a man to conceive because the Sriptures doe declare that this Christ is come and the Creature assenting to the whole history and believing of it that this is the knowledge of Christ which is eternall life for unlesse the Creature know him so to be to him that is eternall life to him Col. 3. 3 4. that as the Scriptures do declare him so to be in the knowledge of him so the Creature findes it true within himselfe from the experience of him in his own soule his knowledge is but carnall not living spirituall knowledg for that man that Rests upon him as he is declared in Scripture before he be revealed within his soul both that mans Rest and knowledge is but carnall and fleshly for we see that all men almost in England or in any place where the Gospel is but published doe believe that he is crucified and is risen and this they know from the testimony of Scripture but doth every man know the minde and mystery of truth Doth God reveale it to every one Can any know the minde of God in these particulars either by the History or any other way but by the Spirit of God then it must he that before this Christ come to be spiritually known hee must be spiritually revealed within mans heart 1 Cor. 2. 10. Gal. 1. 16. So that to hear of a Christ and not to enjoy him from being revealed within is but very unfafe and unsound knowledge to Rest upon and that which brings not along with it eternall Life as witnesse 1 John 1. 1 2. He clearly expresses that this Christ which is eternall life was made manifest unto them and was their knowledge of from which knowledge they had fellowship and communion with him 1 John 1. 3. This knowledge is spirituall and according to Scripture spiritually revealed before it be truly and experimentally known now the Sriptures doe not reveale Christ within any man neither doe say the yto any particular soule thou such a one Christ died for thee but it is the same spirit which did declare the Scriptures which must reveal what this Christ is Secondly What the mystery of God in his so coming or what mystery God did hold out in the figure which was his fleshly coming too and for thee in particular And lastly Thou must doe as he did passe from death to life and after being buried with him before thou live in the Kingdome of heaven with him or indeed know what that Kingdome or place is which men carnally conceive to be above the Skyes though the spirituall knower of him knowes it in â—nother place Now what is it for a man to fill his head full of the history concerning the birth and death of Christ unlesse this Jesus a Saviour or this Christ which is the light and glory of God be discovered and revealed within him sutable to that precious Testimony of Pauls knowledge of this Christ Gal. 1. 16. where he speakes of this Christ to be revealed within him for Christ as he was in the flesh cannot be revealed but Christ as he is in the Spirit or Christ as he is the great design of God typified out in the flesh and revealed in the Spirit either as a light or as life or as he is the breath of God or as he is the clear manifestation of God wherein man comes to know him to be his Jesus that is his Saviour or inward deliverer or wherein man clearly beholds The Father in him and he in the Father John 24. 11. which cannot be discerned as he was in the flesh but as he is in the Spirit 1 Pet. 3. 8. that being a figure thereof wee see this knowledge the Apostles wanted when they said Lord shew us the Father John 14. 8. they having no more knowledge of Christ but as he was in the flesh they knew not that the Father was in him and he in the Father Iohn 14. 11. upon this knowledge were they Resting when they said Lord it is good for us to be here Mat. 17. 4. when they would have been making Tabernacles of Rest before Christ did transfigure himselfe within but Christ bids them Arise let us goe hence as if he should say This is not a proper Rest for you John 14. 31. It is a very low dispensation goe I will discover my glory to you by transfiguring my selfe within you then shall you see partly the mystery of my selfe then shall you more spiritually understand and know me And also sometimes the carnall and fleshly knowledge the Apostles had then put them upon carnall conceptions as in these phrases expressed When wilt thou restore the Kingdome to Israel And many more expressions as desiring fire might come from above where Christ tels them they knew not of what spirit they were the one place tels them they looked upon him as to be one who was to have a great power in the World namely To be an earthly King to live in outward pomp and glory the other doth signifie they understood not the great designe of God in his coming so as they in this dispensation were very low as many are in our daies and would gladly have been Resting in the knowledge they had which was Christ in the flesh that was known by them and declared and preached by them also but still they remaining under the clouds and ignorant of the mystery of Christ in reverence to his coming in the Spirit yet God was daily leading them to behold their ignorance and more into the Mystery of Jesus So that though men pretend to escape the common pollutions of the World by such a knowledge of Christ in the flesh yet it is not a
of them when indeed they are but a Testimony or a Record to set forth in a Mystery what Eternall life is And because the Scriptures say that weary soules are to come to Christ for ease and Rest therefore every soul who in his own fancy and imaginations doth judge himself to be weary may come to Christ and so by his being weary there is way opened for his coming to him For First It may be the heart may be weary of sin because it brings judgement or condemnation Or Secondly It may be weary because of his long travel to and waiting for Christ Thirdly It may be weary because it can no longer abide in these dispensations of Gods leading Fourthly It may be weary because God comes not in his time and reward it for its breathing after and working to attaine God or Christ Now the soul being falsly led out by his owne heart hee instead of coming to Christ onely Rests upon his bare apprehension of this in the letter from his sutability to it in his own spirit and here he feeds and remaines with ease comfort and peace in his own spirit and this hee makes his Tabernacle Though it be true that Scriptures were given to be a visible testimony or declaration of God or Christ according to which God workes in man yet they were never given to bee an inward Testimony or a Rest unto man but the Truth of the letter must be both Revealed Known and Judged of by the Spirit and not the Spirit especially in Internals by the Externall letter neither qualifications in man sutable to the letter in mans apprehension is a ground of faith or Rest without an inward Testimony and Manifestation by the Spirit of the Truth of these qualifications The Eleventh false Rest THE next Rest in order to this upon which men Center their spirits and makes their Tabernacles is the use and applycation of the conceived and imagined extent of Christs death which being so fully declared in the letter without any more they beleeve it upon this Testimony and here is the ground of their joy peace assurance and Rest Now I shall not go about to speake evil of any point of judgement in reference to any particular factions but to come to lay open my own experience and false Rests which in so doing I may come to lay open a way whereby those that are led by the same deceite may come to see it in themselves and so may from sad experience seale to the Truth of what we are saying for many who have gone through this dispensation and have beleeved this to be a Truth when now alas they see that they were both ignorant of what this Christ was or what was meant by his death wanting the knowledge of it in themselves now the terrours of death have or doe sease upon them and instead of being joy and peace unto them it hath produced death and sorrow in them But first of all This soul who is thus Resting upon Christs dying for all he sees the Scriptures saith Hee gave himself a ransome for all The conclusion is this of such a spirit If for all then for me and this he beleeves and this saith hee is the ground of true faith when he is altogether decived For the ground of faith is something out of the Creature in God before time revealed and made manifest from God to the soule in time upon which the soule builds his faith Rests upon it and is kept unto all time in the glory and splendor of it but the soul wanting this in a particular way of discovery he makes the other the ground of his confidence for refreshment peace safety and happinesse and he concludes First That no true faith can be but this Secondly that none have any ground to beleeve but upon this ground When the poor heart is altogether ignorant in his owne breast of the manner of Gods coming to reveale Truth yea himself in his Son by his Spirit whereas now mans ground of his happinesse lyes not in a misunderstood Scripture without him but in a right discerned revealed and known God within him Thirdly This soul daily encreaseth in the assurance of this his Rest by his daily study paines and diligence wherein he fils his head with so much of the Scriptures as indeed hee makes it so glorious as it Conquers his spirits and many more into a follacing himself in this very particular when indeed he is missing the cheesest good which is the life of him who puts an end of all controversy to all such disputes when he comes to appear in the Spirit But alas before no marvell though the poore soule bee running from mountaine to hill though hee forgets him who is the Resting place of Zion Therefore Soule Thou that makest thy habitation amongst the briers and thornes and barren mountains Arise these are not thy Rest they are from a corrupted judgement and therefore are corrupted and if thou stay here they shall destroy thee with an utter destruction all are not proper Rests which are dispensations and manners of Gods leadings but the pure promise of Rest is neither in any thing before in Death and Resurrection but in the ascendings of the heart and spirit of a Creature into God by the descendings of God into the Creature which did raise him from death and the grave and now hath opened the Heavens to him by receiving of him into glory for as Christ did not make his Rest and abode in any carnall or fleshly dispensation though in the same he did enjoy the Father so no heart is to make that his Rest which Christ did not make Every heart so long as it lives below the glory of God so as it is not glorified with God is a heart centring himselfe in a dispensation which shall be dissolved For both man in the dispensation of Christ in the flesh or in a crucified buried or raised Soule is not to abide but in a glorified ascended soule into God where the life is the unchangeable glory and splendor of God dwelling in man glorifying of man in which is the life and center of man truly and unchangeably centred The Twelfth false Rest THe next Rest in order to this is a closing with and drawing comfort from the promises expressed in the Letter of the Scriptures This closing thus with and applying the benefit of promises the whole life center comfort cause of joy peace duties diligence what not to many a soule and from hence when many comes to declare their manifestation of God all they have to say is at such a time a promise was made forth unto them or cast into their thoughts by which they apprehend God and closed with it and from thence did draw comfort and peace from it and this is all the experience of God that is manifested to them or that they have This causes abundance of Rest and security to many a heart and luls them a sleep which is
speak of was Christ Secondly we see the place where it centers before it is made manifest and that is laid open to be in the Father Thirdly the way whereby they knew it and also to be theirs was twofold First by the manifestation of it Secondly by opening the eyes of a souls understanâ—â—ng whereby they come to see that life which now to them is made manifest further he is the life of Saints spiritually considered Coloss 3. 3. 4. here he saith when Christ our life shall appear then shall we also appear with him in glory So that he is here Saints life called and more fuller experienced in every heart who hath found him fully made manifest within their spirits againe he is life of Saints as he becomes the spirituall resurrection of Saints for before ever God bring any Creature into the enjoyment of himself he brings the Creature into a spirituall death not in the body but in the spirit and being layd in the grave aloâ—â— Christ as he is the spirituall life of Saints must be their resurrection I meane the resurrection of their spirits from this spiritual death as he is a dispensation of life and therefore it is written Joh. 11. 25. I am the resurrection and the life he that beleeveth in me though he were dead yet shall he live So that Christ as he is to become the spirituall life of Saints proves an inward resurrection to them in the manifestation of this their life which indeed Paul did experience when he spake these words Gal 2. 20. I am crucified with Christ neverthelesse I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me So that though Paul had been buried into Christs death yet notwithstanding when Christ came to be manifested to him then he proved a resurrection of life in him and by this life was Paul madâ—â—◠〈◊〉 for untill Christ our life comes to be manifest we lye dead voyd of any spiritual life or motion in us and this was figured out in the matter of Lazarus death when Christ came he found him dead and buried voyd of life or motion wherein at last the very breath of Christ breathed out in way of voice Lazarus come forth raised him up and gave life unto him Ioh. 11. 43 44. Two things are here spiritually holden forth First a spirituall death of Creatures when Christ comes to breath upon them the breath of life Secondly by his thus comming speaking and breathing occasions life because his words are spirit and life thus spoken So that it is said The hour is comming and now is when the dead shall hear the voyce of the Son of God and they that hear shall live Now in all this is held forth unto us The spirituall resurrection of all Saints by Iesus Christ coming in the spirit into them so that though this particular be the least looked after yet it is of the highest concernment and not that which most men doat of so much after death So that if we look upon our spirituall resurrection we shall see that the coming of Christ in the Spirit is a manifestation of Spirituall life which proves a spirituall life which proves a spirituall resurrection in such Creatures and in time their Rest and Center Now he being the life of Saints Then first we may observe That Saints life is Iesus Christ Though before they are making out of their own actings according to the law of works do this and live yet now they see that life is destroyed and the cause of all actions to God flowes from this life principled in them and though they are making a life out of enlargement or holinesse in conversation yet this is a life above it unbottoming the creature off from it and centring the Creature in a stable and solid life Secondly the Saints live because Christ lives in them for though before their livâ—â—â—re hid with God yet they were not to live in 〈◊〉 â—o themselves with joy and peace untill it 〈◊〉 manifest from God in them so that they are made to live from the manifestation of life in them whereby they come to know it and so to be made to live by it for ever Cast a Saint into any condition he lives very sweetly because he lives by the life of Christ in him yea he lives sweetly with contenâ—ednesse because Christ lives in him So now to summe up this Christ as he is a spirituall dispensation of God in the Spirit is a Spiritual life by vertue of which life in Saints are Saints swallowed up with it and so centred up in it So that the center or rest of a Saint is eternall and everlasting which is Christ the spirituall life of God in us by which life the Creature doth not only live to but live to do This life is the motion of his spirit so as by this life he doth not onely live but lives to it so that the creatures spirits are wholly set apart to live to God This life is the living in the Spirit and not in the flesh hereby comes the life of Saints to be a life of love and a life of God because they are not at Rest from all their own labors and now all things are acted in them by that Spirit of life which is Christ dwelling in them now Saints wholly live to God by the life of God in them and thus are Saints centred up in God or Christ because their spirits are carried up above the creature into life which is Christ in them becoming spirituall and eternall life to them Fifthly This spirituall Christ as he comes from God and is manifested by God and so known by us and become Rest to us he is spirituall redemption and deliverance Now to looke upon Christ in the Spirit he cannot be manifested but he becomes a spirituall Jesus that is a Saviour of spirits for he was not a Jesus as he was in the flesh but he was a Jesus as he was to come in the Spirit for the flesh could not doe it Yet it was a figure of that spiritual salvation and liberty which Christ is in the hearts of Saints For indeed Jesus Christ is salvation it self and where he in power and glory there is salvation that is he is a Saviour or a deliverer of the creature out of that spiritual slavery and bondage in which he lives So as he is become freedome and redemption to the heart and therefore he is said to be made unto us Wisdom and righteousnesse and sanctification and redemption that is he is manifest in us and so is become a spirituall redemption to us freeing us spiritually from our inward bondage and slavery both that bondage of self and Sathan whereby we are made to live in spiritual freedome and all this freedome and deliverance is Christ in the spirit as he is a spirituall dispensation designed of God for the same purpose though many souls do work out their own salvation by their doing whose salvation is false others having