his Love doth not go about to undermine it but to satisfie it by paying the whole price that it requires and hereby it maketh Justice its friend and as ready to seal the discharge of the prisoner as Love can be to desire it To illustrate this a little because it seemeth to some so impossible Suppose a King making a Law of Death after the manner of the Medes and Persians irreversible One whom he exceedingly loves transgresseth this Law Suppose this King could by his great understanding and skill fairly according to exact Rules of Justice transfer this fault upon his son and should out of love to the offender so do giving up his own son to death for him Here is the King himself paying the price to himself of the transgression of his own Law And yet God is more exact in the case in hand for with him the same person or that which offended in the person dyeth It was not simply a man but the manhood that sinned and he sent his Son not barely to offer up himself but the Manhood He slew and offered up the man in himself the nature that offended He gave up that principle of life in himself that had gone astray in man not to have it spared in the rest but to have it offered up in them also so that there is no more living henceforth by it but the life now to be had is a new life after the death of this I mean not the body but the spirit which must as certainly dye in us before we live as Christs did And surely this death must needs be acceptable to God and of true worth and value in his eye seeing by it all dyes that he would not have live He offereth up his own unspotted Life and puts to death all that is polluted and all that he desires is that he and his may live after this death a life that cannot dye nor be defiled He would have that Principle of Life live only where it was and as it was before it miscarried in their hand The great Work of Christ is first to bring all forth from God by a weak fading Life and then to bring all back again to God by a strong violent Death And as he receiveth life first and so communicateth it unto them so he enters into death first he begins the cup of death destruction to them also And as they could not but live when he let out life upon them so they cānot but dye when he administers death unto them He did not dye that any might escape death but that they might pass through it to life that they might be redeemed from death that they might live again that was it he gave his life for and that is the fruit of his death And it is another-ghess death we have by Christ and suffer with Christ then that which fell upon us from sin and the Law By the Law we dye in sin we enter into and lie under condemnation By Christ that principle of life dyeth in us that sinned so that we can sin no more nor be no more obnoxious unto death after once we come to live in him O sweet Price O excellent Purchase The Life which Christ hath bought for us was worth the buying it is Life indeed and the Price he gave was of value also both in it self and in the eyes of him who could not but accept it He out of whose hands he redeemeth us is the Devil who is the great Lord and Tyrant over us until then until Redemption be perfected He doth not pay to him the Price but to his own Justice and then taketh us from him by force for there is no dealing with him by Justice but only by Power yet God will shew himself just in putting forth his Power to recover any thing from him therefore first he clears his right to us and then tugs with him for us who unjustly detaineth us from him That which he redeemeth us from is that slavery misery and vanity which we are in subjection unto by lying under the Devil by being in the hands of the Devil That which he redeemeth us unto is the enjoyment of himself of life and blessedness in himself and the end the intent he hath in redeeming us is that he might enjoy us and that we might be happy in him and with him O God How excellent are thy Works How excellent art thou in Creation in Desolation in Redemption and Salvation and in the Circle and Circumference of them all Of Faith FAith is the divine Instinct of the new Nature in the new Creature whereby it naturally knoweth and goeth forth towards God as its Center Faith is not an acquired thing but sown in nature humane Faith in the nature of man spiritual Faith in the nature of the spiritual man Indeed outward occurrences and experiences may occasion its growing and thriving but they cannot sow the seed of it Things from without may draw it out and strengthen it but not beget it And yet to speak properly they cannot encrease it neither but rather the same life flowing from the Fountain through them into it And so life can at any time reach it either immediately from it self or through any other conveyance it shall please to chuse In Faith there are two things 1. The knowledg of God Faith it is the eye wherewith we see God and spiritual things We see nothing that is spiritual by our nature by our reason but only by Faith We see indeed with those eyes that which we think to be and call the same thing but not that which is the same thing We have a kind of sight a natural sight a rational sight yea a beleeving sight of these things without this Faith for there is Faith in nature and this Faith will act towards every thing that nature or any revelation or discovery to the eye of Nature can point out as a proper object for it but this sight is not the spiritual sight This light is but darkness not light and that sight which is in and by this light is but blindness not sight This light cannot comprehend any thing that is spiritual nor can this eye see any thing that is spiritual The light is too thick and the eye is too weak Man hath ever been searching after God making no question but if he were discovered once he could see him not perceiving in himself the want of that eye which alone can see him which is this eye of Faith which alone is sown and grows up in the new nature And where this Faith is sown though there were never any outward means the knowledg of God could not but spring up for it is sown in Faith in the very nature of Faith and doth as naturally spring up and grow as any thing in the ordinary course of common nature doth The knowledg this child hath of his Parent is by its nature by feeling the nature of his Parent in him by
thing else Man thinks now he can attain any thing there is nothing either in Heaven above or Earth beneath but he can understand in his proportion according to what of it is represented to him and according as he bends and applies himself to take in the knowledg of it but the bryars and the thorns of the wilderness will teach him otherwise When he is throughly brayed in the mortar though his folly will not depart from him yet his conceit of his wisdom will fall And what will then become of the life in him What would become of the life of the Creature if there were no Sun Where will be his knowledg of good and evil wherewith he doth now so lift up himself judging justifying or condemning as he pleaseth How will he resist his enemies or turn towards his friends when he cannot see or distinguish either Ah poor man poor Christian How doth my spirit bewail that dreadful captivity which thou dost not so much as dream of yet must drink deep of There is no avoyding it it is the Lords interest to put out thy light to put out thy life and it must not be spared There is a double Captivity hastening hastening coming on apace very swiftly though man may account the Lords haste slackness A captivity of the whole Creation a captivity of all Creation a captivity of the old Creature a captivity of the new Creature a captivity of the seed of man a captivity of the seed of God a captivity of the flesh a captivity of the spirit a captivity of the old creaturely life of the reason wisdom understanding of the creature a captivity of the new regenerate life of the life of God sown in the creature I shall onely give a glance at the latter of these because it is here pointed at and is first to take place for God will begin with his people God shall judg his people Judgment must begin at the house of God and the other captivity the captivity of the Creature may go hand in hand with this in them so that their whole captivity perhaps may be wholly ended before God begins with the world They shall lift up their heads because their redemption draweth nigh when destruction is but coming upon others God will say to them Arise shine thy light is come the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee when he is but raising the cloud of darkness yea of gross darkness to cover the earth and the people of the earth with But as they must rise before the world so they must dye before the world they must dye while man remains alive that they may live when death issueth forth to seize upon man And as their Life and Resurrection is far more excellent then ever man can attain to so is their Death and Captivity far more bitter To touch a little at it There is a captivity a great captivity which the spiritual life is subject unto before it entereth into perfect rest Whether this shall befall any in the body or out of the body I know not God knoweth for I know not the way of the spirit in the body nor the way of the spirit out of the body Yet Paul seemeth expresly to affirm concerning some that they should be saved in the Day of the Lord which is the proper time of Salvation yet so as by fire Their works should not be able to endure the fire many of them but should be burnt up yet they themselves notwithstanding their loss by the burning up of their works should be saved yet not perhaps as they think but so as by fire The Soul must be purified throughly purified perfectly purified before it enjoy God it must pass through the fire and if it be not able to endure the fire it cannot but suffer by it both pain and loss Sin may be taken away by imputation but the work of renovation is not so either begun or perfected but by often casting into the fire and by often molding in the fire where the very powers of life are melted and transformed by several steps and degrees into perfection and the process and growth into life is still according to the force and degree of death I have nothing to say concerning a place of Purgatory which the Papists speak of but in this I know not how to be otherwise minded but that the Soul must be throughly purged of all its dross before it enter into perfect union and communion with God and the Apostle seemeth to intimate that some shall not be so purged until the Day of the Lord which is the proper time for the letting out of that fire for the tryal of all things And when the Tryal is then must needs the suffering be of that which is not able to bear the Tryal although in the result it should be saved he himself shall be saved yet so as by fire 1 Cor. 3.15 If we observe mens departure out of the body there are few seem so purged but that they have still need of the fire How far that Thief was changed upon the Cross or what is wrought in men at the point of death or what becomes of them immediately after I have nothing to say concerning yet the general apprehension of such an immediate entering into perfect rest would not to me carry sufficient clearness if I should go about to scan things as a man But to let that pass There is I say a great captivity for the spiritual life to be tryed in and by to the purpose before it be entrusted with Rest before it be admitted into the possession of perfect and unchangeable Rest There may be an entering into the Land of Canaan yea a setling in and an enjoying of it and yet after that a going into captivity We who beleeve have entered into Rest Paul deeply entered and yet here is a kinde of captivity afterwards he was buffeted by a messenger from Satan and his spirit very restless under it And though his be but a type or taste of the captivity not the captivity it self yet it may serve to point at it The Jews were Types of the true Israel Canaan a Type of their Rest and the captivities of the Jews Types of the captivities of their spirits To have a spirit wounded is very bitter what is it to have a spirit in captivity where it is continually wounding nothing but wounded at the pleasure of its greatest enemy There are two things in this Captivity pointed at here as in a figure The nature of it and the helplessness of the spirit under it 1. The nature of it which consists in a subjection to the Devil The person who was delivered from him snatched out of his Kingdom set free from his yoke of Tyranny seated in its own land is thrust out of its own land and put into the hands of the Devil again he is brought back to Egypt concerning which it was said unto him that he should return no more
that which is the foundation of this and has the main influence into this by vertue whereof this is wrought O vain Man thou wouldst fain be wise though thou beeft born a wilde Asses Colt Thou art still searching after knowledg and erecting a fabrick of wisdom though thou hast no capacity in thee of receiving or entertaining either If God throw down the edifice of thy Religion about thine ears thou presently with thy wisdom wilt rear up another When thou seest thy self impoverished by those ruines which he bringeth upon thee thou immediately returnest to build the desolate places But what come all thy buildings to They are onely permitted to be raised for greater throwings down This wisdom must not stand nor any thing that it brings forth O that thou couldst be still and that this might be thy wisdom Cease measuring God and spiritual things till he give thee a measure wherewith to do it When thou knowest Christ the Wisdom of God then shalt thou know God and when thou knowest God the Original of Christ then shalt thou know Christ what God is in Christ what God hath done by Christ But if thou wilt be measuring the things or actions of God by what thou feelest in thy self thou canst not chuse but miss and wilt be as much befooled herein as thou seest others to be in what they have uncertainly received and held forth from an outward sight and knowledg Of the two Principles Seeds or Creations their different Natures Motions and Ends. THere are two Creations made by one and the same workman which have both of them their several distinct Natures Motions and Ends according to their frame and constitution and are both excellent in their kinde and for that use to which they were intended The one is weak frail perishing made and appointed as a foyl to set off the beauty excellency and perfection of the other which if it were of the nature of the other it could not do and so should lose its own proper excellency vertue and use for the excellency of every thing lyeth in its own nature and in its suitableness by its nature to its end and use If sin were not black in its nature vile in every motion did not tend both in its nature and motions to death and destruction it were not excellent it would be a dull tool without an edg which is no way lovely or commendable The one hath all manner of excellency in it but appears weak poor low The other maketh a great shew of much worth beauty excellency but is nothing but emptiness and vanity at the bottom The one spreads little but hath abundance of life and strength at root The other spreads abundantly its branches leaves fruit are very fair and flourishing but it is putrified at the root These two have their distinct Natures and accordingly their distinct motions and ends which they still retain in all the varieties and changes which they are made to undergo Clothe the first Creation how you will it is but still Earth carry it whither you will mount it up to Heaven it remains Earth there let in what glory can be let in upon it it is still but Earth The other the second Creation lay it as low as you will bring it down into the Earth clothe it with Earth bury it in the very bowels of the Earth it still retains its own heavenly life and nature So for their Motions They still move according to their Natures Let Earth be tryed to the utmost throughly frighted into Spirituality driven to seek shelter in the life and power of God to preserve it self from perishing be put upon moving towards God towards Heaven or it sees it is undone for ever it cannot for all this move spiritually but will be like it self though moving to the utmost yet earthly in all these motions On the other hand Let the spiritual Principle be thrust out of Heaven into the Earth be shut up from all spiritual life and motion there have no happiness peace rest content day nor night but what it can suck in from and through the Earth alass for all this it cannot move earthlily it cannot rest or take in delight from the Earth if it cannot finde its own life it will refuse to live it will chuse death rather then the life of the Earth And for their Ends they are according to their Natures and Motions The one tends to Condemnation to Death the other to Justification to Life Involve Earth as much as may be in Heaven in Life it will be sinking into Death and Hell again Binde Heaven as much as may be in the Grave in Hell its life will be breaking all bonds and mounting upwards when its strength is grown it will not be held back but will return into its own Country and Inheritance These two they differ in their seed or root in their bulk or body in their branches leaves fruit in their substance vertue quality from their very rise unto their very end in every thing The Scripture holds out this abundantly every where testifying concerning two distinct trees trees of righteousness trees of Gods planting trees that grow in his Garden in his Vineyard and trees of wickedness wilde Olives wilde Vines their Vine is the Vine of Sodom These Trees have distinct roots of distinct natures the one whereof is earthly of this Creation and so weak and corrupt the other is heavenly of the other Creation of a nature more inward strong and pure They have likewise distinct branches leaves and fruit which as each grow from their own root so they have their distinct vertue keeping that nature which they have from the root The one is still sowing and bearing fruit to the flesh the other to the Spirit They have also both the tree leaf and fruit their distinct shape and Image the one the Image of the earthly the other the Image of the heavenly There is the Image of God of Christ every where throughout the New Creation in every peece and parcel of it in every motion of any part of it The Faith Love Hope Joy Peace Humility Patience Praying Waiting c. of the new man have the Image of the Father and of Christ in them whereas the best of these in man and from man are but earthly And they have their distinct ends The one with all that comes from them with all that belongs to them shal be cast into and perish in the fire shall be like chaff before the wind tossed up and down by it shall return from whence they came shall receive their death where they had their life The other shall only be purified in the fire from that which encumbereth it and is death unto it and its end shall be rest and peace Justification in it self with all its ways and motions and perfect union and communion with God which the other shall never be admitted unto Be not deceived God is not mocked for whatsoever a man soweth
thy love for his relief he wants thy help behold he is sick When he hears this he stirs not one step but stays still where he was two days together as if he would be sure to give him time enough to dye Secondly Another cause of his death was an hidden design of glory to God This sickness is not unto death but for the glory of God that the Son of God might be glorified thereby Vers 4. I know the meaning of this sickness it shall not end in death but that death it must lead to shall be as it were no death it shall be so soon and so powerfully swallowed up in life But for the glory of God for the advancing of the glory of that Power and Love of his which this shall occasion the putting forth and discovery of in his Son that the Son of God may be glorified thereby There was also a design of love to Lazarus that he might gain a further testimony a further sight a further experiment of the Love and Power of Christ that he might receive and enjoy a further degree of life from Christ God doth not meerly use us as Instruments for his own Glory but he loves that we should have a taste of that Glory he raises to himself out of us He brings us to sickness to death to destruction not only to exercise his skill and power in healing in raising in restoring us but that he might also cause a more sweet fresh health a more precious flourishing life a more pure perfect Salvation to spring up out of that sickness out of that death out of the ashes of that destruction There was another design yet in it which had also an influence upon it and that was the confirmation of the Faith of the Disciples So Vers 14.15 Lazarus is dead and I am glad for your sakes that I was not there to the intent ye may believe God had an intent besides the glory of the Work to confirm the Faith of the Disciples Miracles can neither work nor confirm Faith they cannot reach that Principle whence Faith springs and grows but God can either work or confirm faith by them All the Miracles that ever Christ wrought could not bring any one to beleeve but they still ask for a sign these were not evidencing and convincing enough but yet God made use of every one of them when and to whom and as he pleased He who hath an eye may see the Power of God in every thing and may observe the several eminent putings forth of it and so be strengthened in his Faith towards him but he who hath not this eye can only toss it up and down in his own uncertain reasonings but not spiritually discern it And I am glad for your sakes He was not glad of Lazarus's sickness of Lazarus's misery of Lazarus's death but he was glad of the advantage it yeelded him to set forth God the Glory of God to make Lazarus taste of his Love and his Power to strengthen the Faith of his weak staggering Disciples in this respect he was glad of it God delights not simply in misery in death in destruction but in that which he works by them and out of them which could not so advantagiously any other way be brought forth and discovered as through them 3. There is the sad lamentation over dead Lazarus The lamentation of the Jews of his kindred of the Disciples but especially the lamentation of Martha and Mary is very observable Vers 21 32. Lord if thou hadst been here my brother had not dyed Wherein they secretly tax him for his neglect for his delay as if they had said Lord we sent to thee soon enough and if thou hadst come we had not now been thus mourning and weeping over our dead brother thou mightest easily have prevented all this if thou hadst pleased Lord if thou hadst been here my brother had not dyed And this is the language of the poor desolate Soul of the poor dead spirit Lord if thou hadst been here my life had not gone out If thou hadst stood by me and stuck to me and put forth thy skill and power for me as I thought thy love to me would have enforced thee to do I had never tasted this cup of desolation this cup of death O it is the absence of Christ that kills the Soul whose Life is in his presence 4. The unexpectedness of any restauration of him to life The Disciples it never enters into their thoughts but let us go and dye with him V. 16. The Jews wonder that Christ loving him so well did not preserve him from dying but never once thought of raising of restoring him to life Vers 37. Martha who seemed to be full of Faith in this very respect Vers 22. was so far from it that she even mocks at Christ that he should make any offer to go about it Vers 39 Lord by this time he stinketh for he hath been dead four days If thou hadst come sooner thou mightest have preserved him from death but now it is too late to think of any thing he is not in a case now to be visited or recovered by this time he stinketh what dost thou mean to speak of taking away the stone Resurrection from death is very unexpected He that is shut up in the grave seemeth quite out of the capacity of life In misery in affliction there may be hope of relief but who can look for Redemption from death to be raised out of the grave Alas we little think ever to meet with any such grave much less to be redeemed from it Christ was thy Type herein though somewhat more also Thou must taste of his Death thou must into his Grave and lie there thy season though the holy One in thee shall not see corruption Thy life shall not dye shall not not there it shall but sleep and when thou awakest thou shall awake in his likeness and live for ever As Christ was raised from the dead to dye no more for death to have no more dominion over him so shalt thou Thou shalt sit on the Throne with him and that life which hath been hitherto in weakness in bonds in slavery in misery passing through and bearing the weight of death and destruction shall then reign shall then enjoy it self in the Fountain from whence it did flow and where alone it can sweetly and perfectly live 5. The great Love and Power Christ shewed in recovering him to life There was great Love which he variously expressed both in disregarding himself and his own safety in going thither which his Disciples put him in mind of vers 8. and in his behaviour when he came there His affection vented it self exceedingly so that the Jews could not but take notice of his great Love to him vers 36. He groaned and troubled himself vers 33. He wept vers 35. It went to his Heart it melted his very Soul to see the condition of his beloved one
O the various workings in the Heart of Christ He can weep and rejoyce over the same thing how sorrowful doth he here express himself at that which he told the Disciples he was glad of It afflicts him to see his people in misery in perplexity in the hands of death and yet he rejoyceth to behold what he meaneth to work for his Father himself and them out of it He groans again very deeply in himself vers 38. He did not make a shew of sorrow and groaning but it was inward in his heart and he prays for him and sets his strength to deliver him he both calls upon God for his strength and puts forth that strength of God that was in himself He cryed with a loud voyce Lazarus come forth Vers 43. He spake with Life and Power mightily He who was the Resurrection and the Life gave an evidence of it for he spake Resurrection and Life with his lips he sent forth his raising and living Power and it did raise and beget life This is the only way to cure such as enter into this state of death into the grave of Christ they must be raised by the very same Power wherewith Christ was raised Nothing beneath that will avail to effect it the death that binds them the grave that holds them under will easily master any thing else It is not using of means that can relieve them they are dead they are beneath the use of means they have lost all life and knowledg in the grave they know no means they can use no means they can stir no way they can move no more then a dead man Nor indeed are there any means appointed for them or to be used by them Spiritual means are as improper and will prove as ineffectual in this state of spiritual death as natural means would used towards a man naturally dead That Light that Life whereby they knew whereby they acted being dead and buried they cannot stir nor move they are in no capacity either of knowing using or receiving benefit from any means That Eternal Life Love Power that at first quickened them that at first brought them forth by whose withdrawing from them and leaving them for a season as he had done Christ before My God my God why hast thou forsaken me they were brought to this state must come again himself to the grave and raise them up by the very same Power of Life if ever they live more Of the Relation between Christ and his and the Hold they have of each other FROM JOH 10. Vers 14. I am the good Shepherd and know my sheep and am known of mine HE is the Shepherd they the Sheep He the Father they the Children He the King they his Subjects He the Head they his Members He and they together make up one Church one Body one Christ They have all the same Life in them he the same with them they the same with him and the same with one another but yet every member its different portion according to what it is needs and is appointed to There is unity and variety every where in every thing in every life which true Light comprehends but darkness confounds and makes the one swallow up the other Though they all make up one Christ yet not one Head but he is the Saviour of his Spouse of his Body he lays down his Life for his Sheep he begets them renews them washes them sanctifies them It is true they both came from one and they are one both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one They came from the same Original they are of the same Nature they have the same stamp upon them there is the most perfect Oneness between them that can be the very same that is between God and Christ and yet there is also a difference The whole body of man or any other creature hath the same flesh and blood the same life it is wholly of the same substance and make and yet there is a difference between one member and another The head is not the whole body nor is it the hand or foot or any other member of the body nor is any other member or part of the body or the body it self the head nor ever can be according to the present constitution of nature I am the good Shepherd Christ had been speaking of three things in the beginning of the Chapter Of the door of the sheepfold the Door-keeper and the Shepherd The first and the last he challengeth to himself I am the Door saith he vers 9. I am the good Shepherd saith he here and the second belongeth to him also he is the Door-keeper who opens and shuts the door 1. Christ is the Door There is a door at which Christ enters into us and that we are to open to Christ Behold I stand at the door and knock if any man open to me c. and there is a Door at which we enter into the Father which Door is Christ. We are the Seed of the Father sown in a strange Land and we return by Christ unto our own home There is no other Door but this to enter into the Kingdom and Bosom of the Father by 2. Christ is the Door-keeper he it is that opens this Door and lets in the Sheep at this Door he hath the Key of David who opens and none shuts and shuts and none opens He set the Door open to that Church Rev. 3.8 He turns the Key and lets in the Soul into spiritual Light Life and Truth and he who gets in by any other means he who gets spiritual Mysteries opened to him before Christ opens them he comes not into them aright nor will he be advantaged in the life of his spirit thereby That Truth alone will do us good which Christ by his Spirit opens to us and leads us into 3. He is the Shepherd the great Shepherd of the Sheep the Master-Shepherd He is the only Shepherd to the Universal Flock that never had any Shepherd but him The Kings the Priests the Prophets of old they were only typical Shepherds to that typical Kingdom and People of Israel The Officers of Churches were only Shepherds to a few particular Congregations some to one some to another The Apostles rose a step higher they were Shepherds over all the Churches at that time in the World though some of them had a more peculiar charge over the Jews as Peter some a more peculiar charge over the Gentiles as Paul But none of these were Master-Shepherds but all under Christ as his Servants He is the only Shepherd of the Universal Flock and the Head-Shepherd of every little Flock in whom all the Light and Life doth dwell and from whom it doth spring forth to them who speaks in all other Shepherds and to whom the greatest Shepherds are but Sheep I am the Way the Truth and the Life saith Christ No man cometh unto the Father but by me I am the spiritual
Way wherein I my self and wherein all spirits walk towards God I am the Truth the Light that leads all in this Way I am the Life that quickens and enables all to follow this Light in this Way I am the Way It is by entering into me that a man enters into the Way and by walking in me a man walks in the Way Out of Christ and quite out of the way to the Father ever in Christ and ever in the Way Every branch that abideth in him is in the way of growing in the Light and Life of God and of bringing forth fruit unto God I am the Truth It is in Christ we have the true Light the Lord shall be a Light unto thee They are the spiritual Beams of Truth that flow from Christ which only guide us to God All the light of this world all the light of reason is but darkness and leads a man further and further from the Father Christ is our Light when ever we are led to the Father I am the Life All the quickenings and warmings we have any where but from Christ never lead us to God it is only the Life of him in us that moves us and guides us truly and aright to him Every motion but what we have from Christ is a dead motion there is no true life in it in him we live and move and have our spiritual Being We are out of the way dark and dead naturally and all the helps of nature and art help but to lead us more out of the way to increase our wanderings darkness and death upon us God hath made Christ unto us our Way and our Light and our Life when ever we come to the Father we come in him as our Path lighted by him who is that Truth that never deceives quickened and animated with him who is that Life that never fails I am the good Shepherd He is not only a Shepherd but the Shepherd not only the Shepherd but the good Shepherd He taketh care of the Sheep he maketh a Fold to keep the Sheep safe in he looketh to every one of the Sheep he calleth his own Sheep by name vers 3. he leadeth them out he goeth out before them chuseth their pasture for them hath skill and maketh use of it to feed them to water them to preserve them to cure them he ventures his Life for them yea yeelds it up to rescue them Whom seek ye I am he if therefore ye seek me let these go their way A kinde Shepherd a loving Shepherd a faithful Shepherd a tender Shepherd the good Shepherd I am the good Shepherd And know my sheep I know who they are I know what they are I know their nature I know their names I know whence they came I know their very original I know their present state their present strength their present weakness I can tell every one of them both who they are and where they are and what they are and what they need there is nothing can befall them no condition they can be led or driven into but I understand it and them in it It notes Christs full understanding the state of his sheep and his owning and taking care of them in their several states I know mine yea the performing every office of service and care that belongs to him concerning them in that state as if they be sick or weak or wandering the Shepherd is then to express special love and care towards them The Shepherd is not to neglect or cast off his sheep for any such thing as one who knows not their weakness their foolishness their proneness to run astray their liableness to diseases c. but to be the more tender over them to take the more pains about them to watch them so much the more narrowly to guard them so much the more safely Christ will not suffer any of his sheep to miscarry of those which thou hast given me I have lost none And know my sheep Christ knows his sheep as part of himself as of the same nature and life with himself knows how to love and cherish them as himself yea can neglect himself his own ease and liberty yea his very life for their sakes And am known of mine As Christ knows his sheep so his sheep know him He knows them as his sheep and they know him as their Shepherd The derived light and life in them knows that original light in him from whence it came Hence it is that they cannot but own and submit to him They hear his voyce they folfollow him they will not so much as harken to the voyce of strangers Let another come with never so much learning with never so much skill with never so much light with never so high and mysterious openings of spiritual things they know him not they cannot receive any thing from him It is the goat the stranger in us that hears the voyce of a stranger but the sheep never hears any voyce but the voyce of Christ It knows none but him and it knows him very well and will hear him in every thing he speaketh will follow him any whither will take any food any Physique from him will yeeld it self up to him to deal as he will with it in any distemper which it is obnoxious to These sheep are ever satisfied while they are under the eye and in the hands of this Shepherd They like every thing he makes use of towards them They like his crook whereby he gathers them in when he sees good unto himself they like the very rod wherewith he smites them they know him so well the sight the thoughts of them his use of them is a refreshment to them thy rod and thy staff comfort me Psal 23.4 This knowledg between Christ and them is just such a knowledg as is between the Father and him as it is illustrated in the next verse of this Chapter It arises from such an union it is heightened by such a communion nay it is such a kinde of knowledg for nature We know Christ by proceeding from him and by lying in his bosom and by his opening his secrets to us Thus Christ comes to know the Father and thus we come to know Christ There is the most intimate the most clear the most full acquaintance between the Father and Christ that can be Christ knows the Father as one with him as he in whom the Father is written and brought forth Christ speaks much of his knowing the Father what is it It is a knowledg that ariseth from the same nature by the communication of the same nature unto him he hath his capacity and comprehension of it by the full revelation of the Father in him he hath his light and by lying in the bosom of the Father he hath the full use of his light to see with There is a kinde of knowledg between Creatures of the same nature and the neerer they are in the line of blood the better they know
unbelief and then ye shall finde the whole mystery of Salvation both in the type and in the substance to be another-ghess manner of thing then man by his understanding and reason or by that which he calls the assistance of the Spirit of God hath interpreted it to be Hasten thy work O God Let thy counsel stand Fulfil all thy pleasure and do it as speedily as thou wilt Let forth that destruction that desolation which must necessarily precede and make way for Salvation Let the old Covenant devour and bury in her own bowels the fruit of her own womb that the new seed may be conceived formed quickened brought forth and hang upon the brests of the new Covenant whence nothing but the sweetness purity and power of Life can be sucked Live O God live in thy seed quicken thy seed let them cause them to live in thee according to the law and by the vertue of thine own life Finish imperfection weakness sin vanity death dash it out and write thine own perfection and life in the stead and room of it Blot out the name of the foolish vain empty creature and write thine own name every where then shall those that desire and love thee be satisfied with thee when they shall meet none but thee and meet thee every where The way to Life which is through the death of that which we account and press after as life and through the captivity of the Life it self FROM 2 COR. 12.7 8 9 10. And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations there was given to me a thorn to the flesh the messenger of Satan to buffet me lest I should be exalted above measure For this thing I besought the Lord thrice that it might depart from me And he said unto me My grace is sufficient for thee for my strength is made perfect in weakness Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities in reproaches in necessities in persecutions in distresses for Christs sake for when I am weak then am I strong IN these words there are divers remarkable passages which he is very likely to meet with who pursueth the purity and height of the life of his spirit 1. There is the excellency of a Christians life the top of it which lieth in Visions and Revelations in Gods opening of himself and spiritual things to the eye of his spirit letting him in to the other world to behold God himself and the state of things there Ye are come to mount Sion to the City of the living God the heavenly Jerusalem and to an innumerable company of Angels to the general Assembly and Church of the first born to God the Judg of all and to the spirits of just men made perfect c. Here is life indeed here is true sight true enjoyment here is the possession of strength he feels nothing fears nothing that may affright or trouble him who is here being wrapt up safe in the bosom of Eternity where mortality cannot seize upon him And the greater the fuller the deeper the more frequent and abundant these Visions are the quicker and stronger is the life by them the more is the spirit elevated through them 2. The danger of this life the danger of these enjoyments they tend to over-exalt him his flesh cannot bear them he is puffed up by them and forgets himself because of them Lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of revelations Paul was in great danger of being lift up beyond all bounds by reason of these his strength though it was great and much more then ordinary yet it was no way proportionable to his Revelations God can bear the weight of all his glory he is not at all lifted up with the sight and possession of his own strength and fulness but flesh cannot do so it is lifted up with any thing with every thing that is a little more then ordinary a little above it self and if its life and enjoyments be over-vigorous be much more then ordinary they over-exalt it This is the foolishness of the creature it desires the highest life the best the purest the strongest food but is not able to bear any thing beyond it self nothing but what is suitable to its proportion of life and it onely enjoyeth it self while by eternal Wisdom and Power it is guided and kept within its own bounds The Plants cannot live the life of Sensitives Sensitives cannot live the life of Man Man cannot live the life of God he cannot know as he knows he cannot comprehend as he comprehends he cannot live as he lives We think if we had abundance of sights and enjoyments of God we should live abundantly Alass poor fools Behold the experiment it almost overturned Paul lifted up his flesh so high that it cost him very dear to have it brought down again Exaltation is the worst posture of spirit of the worst nature the most prejudicial to the Creature that can be It is the most unbeseeming posture the most dishonorable to God and that which sets the Creature at the greatest distance from him It is the most unbeseeming posture for what is the Creature Nothing emptiness vanity a lye that which appears but is not a puff of wind that maketh a noise but passeth away and cometh not again Now for this to be lifted up as if it were somewhat as if it were substance nay as if it were all as if it knew all as if it alone were and none besides it what more uncomely thing And yet such is the foolishness of the creature that let God but open himself a little to it it presently conceits it self to be as himself let him but open himself in it it in himself and it presently is God as truly as fully as himself let him but open a little of his bosom a little beyond what it hath formerly seen and it presently sees as himself and so certainly that things cannot possibly be otherwise then as it now sees O uncomely Spectacle O how my Soul loaths the creature lifted up O how sordid is the creature aspiring to assuming and clothing himself with that greatness state and majesty which belongs not to him and which he can in no wise manage O God thou must needs destroy and prepare a grave to bury this uncomeliness in It is the most dishonourable to God intrenching most upon his Glory who is all who fills all who can endure nothing to be or appear where he is in his own Life and Fulness The creature never lifts up it self but it throws down God as much as in it lies it robs him and prides it self with what it hath stollen as if it were its own it defloureth his Beauties his Excellencies by making them appear unlike his and as if they were not his it raseth his Name out of that wherein he hath written in
the flesh be thrown into the furnace the spirit goes with it and is burnt and melted in the fire as well as it Therefore all the life the spirit gains possesses pleases it self with it must part with again and must dye a bitter death with the flesh that it may be quite rid of the flesh all its life must sink back into its principle and lie there as if it were dead while the flesh is truly mortified and slain for ever And if it were not of an excellent nature if it could not bear the force of that fire which kills and burns up the flesh it would also be slain and consumed with the flesh if it were not pure gold it could not but waste and perish in the heat of that furnace which is still consuming and at last when it is heated hot enough will quite devour all fleshly dross whatsoever that is cast into it 4. The restlesness of the spirit under this Remedy For this thing I be sought the Lord thrice that it might depart from me He useth the best means with the utmost vigour to get rid of it Nothing more effectual then prayer then fervent prayer then constant prayer We have no strength of our own our strength lies in God faith and prayer or faith in prayer is our readiest and surest way of recourse to him for it Paul prayeth once yea again and again and fain he would be heard and mark the earnestness of his spirit that it might depart from me He doth not pray for strength to bear it for submission to the Will of God for spiritual benefit and advantage by it No nothing will serve his turn but to have it taken away to have it removed to have it depart the pain the shame is so great that he can by no means be content to lie under it This is such physick as we would never take if we might chuse it maketh us so sick that we would rather be without health then come by it this way If this remedy were not forced upon us this sickness would always remain with us 5. The support of the Soul under this restlessness the Cordial that is of most force to refresh the spirits under the violent workings of this physick which make the spirits very faint and bring the Soul very low My Grace is sufficient for thee The Grace of God the good will of God revealed to tasted by the Soul is able to refresh and support it under sense of the greatest misery There are two things of very great efficacy in it 1. There is a taste of sweetness at present which doth secretly relieve refresh revive the spirit He who ever knew God let him at any time taste the favour and love of God though in the lowest darkest deadest most oppressed state he can be in he cannot but find a secret touch of life in it in thy favour is life yea thy loving-kindness is better then life it is better to taste the sweetness the kindness the love of God in the most bitter pangs of death then to enjoy the sweetest touches and motions of life in ones own spirit 2. There is an assurance of a good issue and of all this tending that way He who sees the Grace of God the vertue of its nature its skill and efficacy in operation will see his physick administred to him from that Grace and working by that Grace He sees no more the temptations of the Devil in the Devils hand or his own sins in his own hand doing him mischief but in Gods hand doing him good He sees his own weakness not any longer his snare but his advantage making way to rid him of his weakness and to give him full possession of the strength of God for my strength is made perfect in weakness The strength of God is not made perfect in the discovery of it self to the creature in the creature for the creature till the creature be made perfectly weak While there is any strength left in the creature there is some room left there which the strength of God doth not fill the strength of God may be there but not all his strength the strength of God may act there but not perfectly The strength of God can never do that it hath to do for the Soul to perfect it before the Soul be first made perfectly weak and then the strength of God will soon be perfected when the Soul is brought to perfect weakness When we are brought into perfect captivity and perfectly weakened in captivity so that there is nothing left nothing remaining nothing visible to be delivered but the whole life of the spirit is perfectly dryed up and lost even for ever then is there nothing to hinder the breaking forth of perfect deliverance 6. The exultation of the spirit from the sense and experience of the good that the Grace of God works for it by these it can hereafter sport with misery play with death laugh while it is in the very jaws of destruction Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities I will not be so ashamed of my weakness now I know what it is and whither it tends but I will glory in it I will rejoyce in mine own inability to withstand temptations to keep back the breaking forth of any corruption in me to secure my self from the meanest messenger of Satan and I will not do it as a forced thing but most gladly it shall be a free motion of my spirit that which it shall most freely give it self up to namely to rejoyce in and because of its weakness most gladly therefore c. Yea I will rather do it I will chuse to rejoyce and glory in them before I would do it in Revelations I like them better they tend to bring me nearer to that which my spirit longs after whereas Revelations tend to set me further from it That the Power of Christ may rest upon me My life my happiness lies in enjoying the Power of Christ Revelations tend to strip me of it but weaknesses tend to possess me of it yea to cause it to rest upon me not only to seize upon me but to abide with me Our weaknesses are not only to fit us for some more vigorous aid and assistance from God but for the inhabitation of God there will he dwell thither shall the Power of Christ resort and there shall it rest Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities I will never be so unwilling to be weakened again Since I knew the meaning of it I cannot but take pleasure in it It is my delight to be made weak to be thrown down to be reproached to be bemired in my own filth I could not endure shame immediately after my Revelations but now I can please my self to behold mine own shame Yea I love to be brought to necessities to distresses that I know not which way to turn my self for all this is for Christs sake to give him more hold of
me to give him more advantage to work himself into me this weakening of me by all these sharp corrasives to the flesh is but the pulling down of my strength that he may set up his and I sensibly feel it in constant experience for when I am weak then am I strong I am never strong but when I am weak nor never weak but when I am strong A strange Paradox that a mans strength should lie in his weakness that the time of his weakness should be the season of his strength that the way to make him strong should be by making him weak yet Paul felt and therefore ye may give him leave to speak he spake feelingly experimentally in saying when I am weak then am I strong Strength is both sown in weakness groweth up in weakness and is perfected in weakness 1. Strength is sown in weakness In our weakness God soweth his strength The time of weakening us of pulling down our strength is the time of sowing Gods strength in us When God plows us up makes long furrows in us rents and tears up all that lives in us then is his time of sowing the seed of his own Life and Strength in us Light is sown in darkness the Light of Eternity is covered in the dark bowels of the Earth Life is sown in death Salvation is sown in destruction and strength is sown in weakness 2. Strength grows in weakness By growing weak a man grows strong A Christian the more he is stripped of his own riches the richer he grows the more he is stripped of his own life the more he grows in life and the more he is stripped of his own strength the more he grows in strength There is nothing makes us weak but our own strength the strength of our enemies can only try not any way impair our strength therefore the taking of our strength from us is the taking away of our weakness it is the delivering of us from that which hindered the increasing and thriving of true strength in us 3. Strength is perfected in weakness When weakness is perfected strength is perfected As the shadow declines and is made to give way so the substance comes in and fills up its place and when the shadow is quite gone the substance comes wholly in and then there is nothing to be found there but substance Our strength is a shadow a counterfeit of strength but not strength indeed it is the strength of man who is but weak himself in his whole frame and constitution and what can his strength be Now as the strength of the man the shadowy strength decayeth so the strength of God true substantial strength grows up in him in the stead of it And when all his strength is quite spent quite gone utterly vanished there will be no weakness left nothing but perfect strength everlasting strength remaining The strength of God hath nothing to hinder it self in us but our strength He hath nothing to hinder him but the creature it is as it was made both a glass and a vail to represent or hide him as he himself pleaseth to make use of it Nothing to hinder his Being but the being of the creature Nothing to hinder his Life but the life of the creature Nothing to hinder his Wisdom but the wisdom of the creature Nothing to hinder his Strength but the strength of the creature Where ever he destroyeth these as he wil do perfectly one day in the great day at the great battel of the Lord God Almighty he himself fills up their room O happy is he who hath drunk his full draught of death and misery for full Life perfect Life and Happiness cannot chuse but spring up in him Doth the plow-man plow all day to sow Doth God rent and teer in peeces for nothing Do you think he cannot give an account of all the misery and desolation that lighteth upon his Creation It is his more then its own it ever was his it ever will be his it is but its own for a moment yea it is his while it is its own nay it is his in being its own He hath made it for a season to know and feel what it is to be its own shall it never know and feel what it is to be his It hath been long disowned and cast off by him as if it were of no value as if it had no relation to him but shall this distance and strangeness last for ever It is true he doth rent teer and make havock of it and speaketh terribly concerning future desolations and miseries which he will unavoydably bring upon it and it doth not please him to give an account of his Ways but tells proud man he doth it for his pleasure but he doth not tell him why it is his pleasure nor how long it shall be his pleasure Be silent then and rest here Do not say that he hath no other pleasure thou knowest not the thoughts of his heart thou knowest not what relation any thing hath unto him nor how he will dispose of it He is what he is He doth what he doth He will be what he will be He will do what he will do and he scorneth to let proud man know him in any thing The light which he giveth him without which he cannot so much as see after that poor weak silly manner that he doth is but to befool to bewilder him not to lead him to him Man thinketh to be wise by his light God by that very light maketh him a fool It is light to him but darkness in it self and what a fool is he whose light is darkness whose wisdom is folly whose life is death whose Heaven is Hell whose God is the Devil onely transformed at present into an Angel of light to please the fool with appearing light with his counterfeit light which is but darkness not light O poor shallow deceived man what a dismal time is coming upon thee a time of darkness of darkness that may be felt nay of darkness that cannot but be felt Thou wilt not thou canst not now see and acknowledg thy darkness No it is light but the time shall come that thou shalt not be able to avoyd seeing and feeling and acknowledging it The Sun that shines upon thee by the light whereof thou yet seest must be turned into darkness and if thou wilt think to get a little light in that night by the Moon if when the Sun is put out thou wouldst be content to descend and make shift with the light of the Moon thou shalt not neither for that shall be turned into blood That which was set up by God under God to give light unto man either in his day or in his night shall go out and there shall a day or night come upon him wherein he shall be perfectly lost wherein he shall see and feel and know that he is a fool and cannot reach to the true understanding either of God of himself or of any
Lord. Christ was once here in this World in a fleshly body like ours causing the glory of the Godhead which dwelt in his Spirit to shine in it and through it as he pleased conversing with men but more especially with his own going in and out before them as the shepherd doth before his sheep He came unto the world and he came unto his own He made an offer of himself to the world he enforced himself upon his own or which is all one made them willing to receive him in the day of his power Now after he had thus lived a while he went away again appeared thus no more was to be seen or known thus no longer The Comforter was to come to sustain their hearts until the coming of Christ again but Christ himself was to be seen no more until his return from that far Country into which he then went when he took his leave of his dearest ones The Seed of God they are the Spouse of Christ and their life consists in the presence of their Husband If they might have the Spirit of God dwelling in them never so fully it will not serve their turn they must have Christs company There is that foundation layd in the spiritual Nature between Christ and them that neither could enjoy God with content without the other neither can they enjoy themselves any where without one another They cannot enjoy themselves in the earth till they enjoy Christ there nor can Christ enjoy himself in Heaven till he enjoys them there Their content their life their happiness is bound up in one another and there alone can they reap and possess it The Coming of the Lord. Christ is gone removed out of the world from the eye of flesh a cloud hath taken him out of our sight He is hid in God even where he was hid before he was manifested in the flesh and thither is he retired again whither no eye can follow him whither I go ye cannot come and there must he stay the appointed season But he is to come again he will come again he shall come again He that shall come will come If I go and prepare a place I will come again and receive you unto my self There are two things comprized in the Coming of Christ two great effects of his coming which make it on the one hand so terible to some and on the other hand so desirable to others There is the death of the world in it and the life of his people He will come to Judgment to reveal declare and execute Judgment And this is the Judgment which he hath already pronounced though not in the same way as then he will he hath but talked of it yet but then he will make good what he hath hitherto held out but in words viz. Death to the old earthly man he will strike him at the very root and in all his branches and fruit wo to every thing that hath sprung from him wo to him in every thing wherein he hath appeared and acted Life to the new spiritual man Destruction to Babylon everlasting destruction Salvation to Sion everlasting Salvation Your God will come with vengeance even God with a recompence he will come and save you He will come with gloominess with darkness over-spreading all the light of the Creature but he will come with the light of life to you Because he lives ye shall live also He will cover all the glory of the Creature with shame but he will cloath you with glory It doth not yet appear what we shall be but when he appears we shall appear with him in the same glory wherein he himself appears His absence is your death your misery your torment but it is the joy happiness and life of the world they cannot live nor enjoy any thing nor rejoyce in any thing in his presence Ye shall weep and lament but the world shall rejoyce why what is the matter O! very great cause for both Christ hath left the Earth and now the men of the Earth can enjoy their life very quietly that which disturbed that which interrupted their joy their life their peace is removed But it was that which fed the life of his people therfore they weep and mourn But saith Christ chear up your spirits poor hearts your grief and sadness shall have a better issue then their mirth and jollity your seed-time though it be very troublesom and boysterous though ye sow in tears and deep anguish of spirit is better then their harvest your sorrow shall be turned into joy when their joy shall be turned into sorrow I will turn the scales one of these days I will see you again and your heart shall rejoyce and your joy none taketh from you O how will the heart of the People of Christ leap at the sight of Christ who is their full and onely joy And if he remain always with them as he then will their joy can never be taken from them more Be quiet therefore be patient wait but till this time till the Lord come and you will finde amends made for all your misery Then ye are to have your happiness then ye are to reap and enjoy and ye shall reap and enjoy that which will give you full content if ye can but stay your time But before the coming of the Lord expect it not If in the mean time ye may have but so much of the Spirit allowed you as may help you to rub on as may keep you from sinking under your burdens and miseries it is well but as for any enjoying of life or sweetness it is not till then to be had Be patient therefore Therefore Because your happiness your life your content will be so compleat so full and satisfactory then because ye shall be so full of joy so abound with true riches when they who have hitherto been rich shall mourn over the loss of all when the world shal lose all their life all their substance all their hope all their joy then shall ye enter into the possession of yours which shall be as full as lasting as your hearts can desire Be patient therefore Be content to be without it a while and to feel misery and anguish under the sense of the want of it ye now therefore have sorrow ye must sow in tears before ye reap in joy and be content to do so to go forth weeping to sow your precious seed and stay for your crop till the harvest it will be worth your staying for Be patient therefore Behold the Husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the Earth and hath long patience for it until he receive the early and latter rain Ye see it ordinary in the course of Nature Precious things take time to grow and the Husbandman doth not expect to reap so soon as he hath sowed but waits the season waits for the former rain and after that waits again for the latter The Kingdom of Heaven is like seed
AN ECCHO FROM The Great Deep CONTAINING Further Inward Openings Concerning divers other things upon some whereof the Principles and Practises of the Mad Folks do much depend As also the Life Hope Safety and Happiness of the Seed of God is pointed at which through many dark dismall untrodden paths and passages as particularly through an unthought of death and captivity they shall at length be led unto Through ISAAC PENINGTON junior Esq PSAL. 14.2 3. The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any that did understand and seek God They are all gone aside they are altogether become filthy there is none that doth good no not one PSAL. 82.5 They know not neither will they understand they walk on in darkness all the foundations of the earth are out of course LONDON Printed by John Macock and are to be sold by Giles Calvert neer the West end of Pauls MDCL To the Mad Folks Poor shattered Souls YE little think how dear ye are unto me because of your breakings such of you as have been broken by power and not by notion That which I have felt in the same kind for I have been broken all in peeces once and again yea and yet again My life and my strength hath been led nay driven into captivity yea I have been made to taste the death of the whole lump and the death of every parcel over and over and the bitter relish of it is yet very strong upon my palate That I say which I have felt in this kind hath made me beyond measure tender towards you and I cannot but own you before all the world as the greatest objects both of my delight and expectation I am most pleased in beholding you your sickness is more lovely in my eye then that health which others enjoy and please themselves in My expectations of the next discovery of Light Life and Glory are fastned upon you as the most proper materials which wisdom hath fitted to disclose it self in most unexpectedly to the world My heart tells me that ye are not thus shattered broken and made so odious for nothing yet let me withal tell you that my spirit thinketh you never the neerer either for your principles or practises which carry more unloveliness to me then any principles or practises of any sort of men upon the face of the earth It is not your new Fabrick but your old desolations that kindle in me any desire towards you or hopes concerning you They are not your new notions of God Christ the death of Christ the life of Christ the coming of Christ the Judgment hell heaven the equality of things the community of things c. that represent you any thing lovely to me No really My palate doth in no wise relish this new wine but rather saith the old is better But 't is your broken state your desolate condition your being stripped and made naked of all your garments ornaments beauty glory this is it takes with me and if I could see you yet more sick yet more stripped stripped of these new fig-leaves also wherewith you cover your old nakedness mine eye would more pity you and my heart more love and embrace you As ye live I loath you nay I loath your life more then the life of any else So far as ye are dead I cannot but hug you And for such of you who break forth through Visions and Revelations into new apprehensions I profess I know you not this is not the way of the breaking forth of my life which must not be steered by these but be able to judg these which when once I feel with cleerness Majesty and power I may then be drawn to beleeve that I begin to taste life But oh how I long to see your new life with all the motions of it swallowed up by death There is a cup prepared for you a baptism ye are to be baptized with which shall wash you clean within and make you vomit lustily even till ye are quite emptied of all that froth and scum of vanity which now swims up and down in your stomacks and fumes up into your brains This is not HE whom ye now hold forth This is not God nor any thing which ye now take to be all things The child is not yet born in you that knows how to chuse the good or refuse the evill This is not the Land of promise wherein ye now set up your rest but a strange land a land of dearth and barrenness a land of darkness and of the shadow of death This is not light not true light it is but a painted light wherein ye now walk not the light of the Lord but the light of the vain imagination of the creature O quit your station your present habitation the wilderness is better though not as an abode yet as a passage Depart ye depart ye this is not your rest for it is polluted Life lives not here This is not the chamber of the Bridegroom for him to embrace and enjoy his Bride in This is poor gain This falls short of what ye have lost The meanest enjoyment of a living God in the lowest dispensation is better then the highest transportations from airy notions O my Beloved where dwellest thou where is thy Temple where is thy Turtle where dwellest thou where dwells thy love Where shal God and his people meet to know and enjoy one another When shal the Son put off his servile Form and be admitted into his inheritance When shall the creature be made free which hath so long groaned under the bondage of its corruption Awake arise save with thy right hand that thy Beloved may be delivered Gather into thy self that which cannot be happy out of thee Put an end to death to destruction by thy life by thy Salvation Bind up enmity in the bosom of thine own love O let us at length see the conquest of love Overcome all by thine own goodness Swallow up all in thine own perfection and nothing shall remain weak or imperfect any longer Visit thy fainting Spouse for behold the very strength of her heart faileth which she desireth only to preserve to entertain and embrace thee with Her spirit is quite spent therefore contend no longer but yeild up thy self at length to the desire which thou thy self hast kindled in the bosom of thy Beloved Revive that precious life by thy presence which is expiring for want of thee and can no longer live but in thee and with thee Thou who hast prepared food for every thing thou haste made satisfie that hunger that thirst which is immeasurable after and can only be allayed with the presence and possession of a living God Thou who invitest him that is a thirst give to him whose very tongue faileth for thirst that he may drink of the water of life freely and fully What shall every desire be satisfied but that which is kindled after God Is this the true
this outward Fabrick is a true draught of the inward though a dark and defaced one He changeth it as he pleaseth maketh it habitable or inhabitable as he pleaseth but his work lyeth most still at present in the habitable part there he is most active his glory is most sown there and most seen from thence there Christ is at work with him and rejoycing in his work And my delights were with the sons of men The sons of men are the chief part in Gods Earth even in the habitable part of it according as they were brought forth the chief part of this shadowy Earth they have the special stamp and Image of God upon them the excellency and quintessence of the whole Creation is contracted into them the life and glory of God is sown in them this the soyl for it to spring up in grow in discover it self in this is his Tabernacle this is his holy Land c. and accordingly Christs delights were chiefly here and my delights were with the sons of men Lo this is the Word thus he was with God and this was his employment in part And the Word was God He was with God and he was God He was not with God as a stranger as a meer beholder of him and his works as one at a great distance from him but as one with him As God brought him forth out of himself so he brought him forth as himself he brought forth himself in him he brought forth his own life his own Wisdom his own Power his own Eternity his own Immortality which remains the same now as it was before it was God before and it is God still it was God in it self and it is God in him Christ is but God breathed out and God is but Christ drawn in He is the Image of the invisible God yet not a bare Image but a living Image an Image wherein the whole portraiture and lineaments yea the very life and substance of the Godhead is engraven Where ever God forms Christ he forms himself for he is but himself a little diversified and that with the least distinction that may be it is himself in the first step of descent it is himself in his first and most immediate going forth it is the primary and most perfect forming of God it is a Scripture-phrase before me was no God formed God is formed in the Creature but it is very difficult to read him there the likeness is so small the unlikeness so great but it is easie to read him in Christ He that beholds Christ cannot but behold God He that understands and knows Christ cannot but know God for there is nothing but God in him He is the true draught of the Godhead he in whom God came forth in whom God is in whom God dwells who hath filled every part of him with himself who shineth through him and cannot but be seen where he is seen Christ is every thing that God is is every where where God is does every thing that God does All things were made by him and without him was not any thing made that was made All things are ordered and governed by him he upholdeth all things by the Word of his Power Hebr. 1. The Word was God Not his flesh that is but his garment it is no part of him no more then our clothes are of us onely indeed in this respect it is somewhat neerer because he took it up as an everlasting garment Our flesh is no part of us no part of the new-man no part of Christ in us it is but our garment and his flesh is but his garment which he took up not for any need he had of it or from any love to it but because he would be like us and because he found it somewhat advantagious to him to express his love to us to perform some offices of love for us in because the children were partakers of flesh and blood he himself also took part of the same Hebr. 2. The Word was made flesh He was made or became he put himself into that appearance he partook of it with his Brethren but it was no part of him nor had no relation to him otherwise then as it was assumed by him It is an imaginary description which many give of Christ that he is God in flesh God in weakness No he is God in strength God in perfection The Wisdom of God the Power of God the Arm of the Lord wherein all his strength lies the skill of God whereby he does every thing by him he made the Worlds the storehouse the treasury wherein the whole fulness of the Godhead is locked up and dwells in its own perfection It is true he was made flesh he entred into a state of weakness but what was he who became flesh who entred into this state of weakness It was the Word and that Word was God O Man Behold thy Saviour know thy life do not despise Eternity because of its appearing in and acting through mortality This is he who came to redeem thee to be a propitiatory sacrifice for thee and a pattern to thee Art thou able to measure God in any work of his through the Creature Thou knowest thou art nor why then dost thou measure him so confidently in his greatest work through his Christ even the work of Redemption and so apparantly contradict him in it He lays the stress on that Death of his Son which he underwent when he offered up himself in his Body on the Cross through the Eternal Spirit Thou slightest that lookest upon it as nothing but a type making the substance to be the death of Christ in thee Indeed it is a type and the death of Christ in thee is the substance of it so far as it is a type of it but is it no more then a type Was there nothing done but onely a representation of what was to be done in thee and in others Search read see consider what is spoken concerning that once dying of his by that one offering hath he for ever perfected them that are sanctified Poor shallow Man cannot comprehend God or any thing of God he can see but one peece but one side or any of his works at once and in beholding and acknowledging that he is still ready to contradict the other which at that time he seeth not He who looks on Christ without and is taken up with beholding that death little thinks he that he must feel the same within that he must be baptiz d with the same Baptism that he must drink of the same Cup. He who sees and feels that death within finding the power efficacy and vertue of it there presently inclines to slight the other to look upon it as a meer shadow yet not as comprehending it not as truly and throughly knowing it but as having lost the sight of it by being taken up with the sight and sense of what is wrought within and so he passes unrighteous judgment undervaluing
that shall he also reap For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting They differ also in their circuit and course The one begins in life and ends in death begins in strength and ends in weakness begins in glory and ends in shame begins in order but ends in confusion The other begins with death weakness shame confusion but ends in perfect life strength glory and order This Creation was brought forth in its perfection it began gloriously but it withers and dyes dayly its life its glory is like a wind that passeth away and comes to nothing for it returneth not again The other Creation is but as seed sown in this Creation which hardly appears to have any life or excellency in it and its growth is very weak and gradual but withall it doth spring up and will grow until it arrive at Life and Perfection These two Principles Seeds Creations the fleshly the earthly and the spiritual and heavenly are together live together move together in the renewed man and cannot perfectly be distinguished either in themselves or motions The spiritual Principle goes up and down through the Earth with the earthly extracting God out of every thing and feeding upon God in every thing turning every thing into heavenliness into spirituality into life that it meets with The earthly Principle goeth up and down also into Heaven and among heavenly things with the spiritual with the heavenly making them earthly to it self and feeding its earthliness with them extracting Earth out of Heaven blowing upon and tainting every spiritual excellency that it hath to do with And these can neither of them have ease rest or content the one being still disturbed by the other Neither of them can move freely nor enjoy it self fully because the other is still striving to move and enjoy it self as its nature still guides it in that which is quite contrary O how welcom will a separation be to both The one would leap into the fire to get rid of the other nay either would chuse to live rather in the fire then with the other The condemnation which is to issue out upon the first Creation is double which may easily be discerned every where in every thing by him that can read it is so plainly written upon every thing One is because of their deviating from their state and kind for falling short of that excellency which is proper to them and which they might attain in a far greater degree then they do for not being what they should and might be Every seed hath degenerated from its kind all flesh hath corrupted its way before the Lord and so lieth open to condemnation for its degeneration for its corruption The other is in respect of their kind which shall be made appear to be weak shallow imperfect and so not fit to be suffered to remain but fit only to make fuel for the fire against that great time of burning which is designed concerning the Earth and all the works therein which must then be burnt up Such is all the righteousness and excellency of the Creature and therefore though it were as compleat in any as it was in Adam yet it must come under condemnation And though it should be justified in and according to its nature for being what and acting according to what it was made yet it should be condemned for the weakness of its nature as being but a shadow and Image suited only to represent somewhat at present but in no wise fit to abide There is answerably a double Justification of the second Creation One in respect of the excellency of its kind the other is in its keeping to its kind it remaining still the same in all its motions conditions changes As it came forth pure from God so it remains pure in it self acts purely and is stripping it self dayly of that filthy garment wherewith it is here clothed as fast as may be He who hath this seed in him which seed hath Faith and Hope and every spiritual thing in it purifieth himself as he is pure from whom it came As he is pure who begat so it is pure which is begotten by him and cannot but be contracting inwards and purging it self from that impurity which cleaves unto it by reason of its present affinity with flesh Of the New-Birth whence Faith and Love flows and to which Redemption with all the Priviledges of it appertain FROM JOH 1. Vers 13. Which were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God HEre is the New-Birth distinguished from all other Births which bear any resemblance to it and by their similitude may happen to be taken for it There are three sorts of generations or ways of begetting men in Religion none of which are this Birth nor can entitle to that Sonship or those Priviledges which flow from this Birth and belong to the Child thus born 1. The first way of generation in Religion is by Blood So the blood of Abraham running along in that line did convey Religion or at least the Priviledges of that outward Religion which was established among the Jews They were free born they were born under the Promises and Priviledges belonging to that Nation They were not of the common sort of the world but an holy a peculiar people who were nigh unto God to whom God was nigh whereas the rest of the world were aliens and strangers to him He was their God so as he was not to any else and they were his people so as none else were God was to take care of them their Posterity their Land every thing that belonged to them in an especial maner They were to serve and honour God in a peculiar way so as none else were appointed to do and they might expect that acceptation with God which none else could though doing the same things 2. A second way of generation in Religion is by the fleshly will of man by the corrupted depraved will of man by the selfish desire of man which naturally enclines to propagate its own Principles Party and Interest Thus the Pharisees did beget or make Proselites yea they compassed Sea and Land to do it as also the Sadduces and so all sorts of Sects have ever been very industrious to strengthen and encrease their Party 3. There is a third way of generation and that is by the honest plain simple down-right ingenuous will of man which for no by-ends but meerly in reference to the good of man desires and endeavors to change him from those corrupt principles which come into the world with all and grow up in all into principles and practises of justice and order of righteousness and love both towards God and man This is the will of man of man so far as he is undepraved which naturally he enclines to cannot but strive after and be very
world is not worthy A dram of their life is worth a thousand worlds They are blessed in their likeness unto Christ blessed in their present communion with Christ in their fellowship in his death and sufferings and shall appear to be blessed when they are taken up into his glory and come to inherit both God Heaven and Earth in and with him which he who cannot lye hath promised them and hath reserved for them and which none shall ever come to partake of with them but this way Of the Fathers care over this Childe and his readiness to provide for him every thing he needs FROM LUK. 11. Vers 13. If ye then being evil know how to give good gifts unto your Children how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him NAture among other of her lessons teacheth Parents to be tender over their Children to give them what is for their good and not for their hurt While they are babes unable to chuse for themselves they provide for them what they know needful when they grow up and begin to feel what they want they are still ready to furnish them with those necessaries which Nature directeth them to seek to them for God hath his Children his Children need provision and his Nature teacheth him to take care of them to be tender towards them as well as the nature of man teacheth him That which these children chiefly want is the Spirit of the Father to live in them to dwell with them to guide them to enlighten them to quicken them to comfort and refresh them They came from this Spirit and all their content lies in union and communion with this Spirit in the presence and power ot this Spirit in them He is their meat their drink their light their life their strength their clothes their house their inheritance their way their end their all They are as it were at present severed from him as the seed is from the body but they cannot be well till they return into him and that which they want in the mean time is him to enter into and dwell in them And as they grow up to any distinct understanding of themselves and their state they feel this want and are led by their nature to ask accordingly of their Father That which this Childe begs is the Spirit he cares not for any thing else It is that which his Soul which every part of him wants it is that which he needs in every motion in every condition He cannot tell how to shift any where how to do any thing without this Spirit of life There is no life more vigorous then this when it lives in this Spirit nor no life more flags without it To them that ask him This Childe asks it is natural to him to be asking what he wants of the Father He is taught to ask and according to the nature and degree of his want And Oh how he begs for this Spirit for this Holy Spirit He loathes the unclean spirit of the world but he loves and longs for the pure Spirit of the Father His Nature is pure and he loves purity His Nature is spirit and he loves spirit but not every spirit but that spirit which is suitable to his Nature the Spirit which he himself came from and for this he cries and groans unto the Father night and day Now there seems to be a great hardness in God to part with this Spirit unto them which may be gathered out of this question here and may be further confirmed by their experience for though they cry hard for him they obtain little of him little of his presence little of his power little of his comfort They are ever and anon complaining that they have not sufficient of him to rub on with They do not onely want the delight of his presence but they have hardly enough to keep life and soul together hardly enough of Gods Spirit to keep life in their spirits But for all this there is a great propensity in God to furnish them with his Spirit with so much as their present state needs though not with so much to their sence yet with so much to his knowledg How much more shall your heavenly Father c. He is not an heavenly Father for nothing but is as ready to give heavenly good things as earthly Parents are to give earthly good things How much more If your Nature which is weak derived which came from him teach you to carry your selves thus towards your children how much more shall his Nature which is strong which is the Fountain of Strength and Perfection teach him to empty his Goodness into his Children according to their need If ye being evil know how to give good gifts c. If your nature thus prevail to instruct you who are corrupted and in whom it is corrupted how much more shall his pure his heavenly his incorruptible Nature teach him tender-heartedness towards his Children How much more shall it encline him to give not outward things earthly things but heavenly things and that heavenly thing which they all want which is his own Spirit Be silent O Sense Be confounded O Experience who art still witnessing the contrary in our spirits We see not we feel not we taste not we apprehend not God or any of his Ways aright through thee A strange Occurrence which may befall this Darling of God and of Christ in his pilgrimage and travel towards his native Country hidden in a Parable JOHN Chap. 11. IN which Parable there are several strange things covertly held forth or represented to that eye which is taught and enabled to pierce into them under a vail 1. There is the sickness and death of one dearly beloved of Christ he whom he loved was sick His love was so great to him that he was known to be an especial object of it Christ who cured others had power enough to have preserved him in health if he had pleased or to have recovered him at a distance but for all Christs Love and Power Lazarus falls sick and his sickness tends unto that which we count and call death 2. The true causes of his death which were Christs neglect and an hidden design of glory to God and love to him I reckon not his sickness as any that was but an instrument an engine so inferior a cause as it deserves not to come in number with these First Christs neglect and that was very great Vers 6. When he had heard therefore that he was sick he abode two days still in the same place where he was Though he had notice of it and that in the most pathetical maner that could be the news was directed to his heart and so directed as it might best touch and wound his heart Behold he whom thou lovest is sick There is one whom thou hast professed and born much love to he now stands in need of thy love of the putting forth of
sweet but beyond those limits it is very bitter And O how sweetly things go between God and his people within the bounds of his Covenant but he who passes those limits shall finde it an evil and a very bitter thing God hath two seeds to sow and cause to grow up two earths or wives to conceive and bring forth children to him from the seeds sown in their wombs and he hath two Covenants wherein are his terms of agreement and theirs too for each sort readily by their very nature desire and cannot but assent to the terms of each Covenant how far in what respect and upon what ground he will own them as his be with them be what they desire unto them Now as these seeds were in several seasons to be brought forth and appear So were these wives to be taken and owned and accordingly were the Covenants to appear in which respect the one is said to be old the other new vers 13. When God speaks to us he speaks in a language suitable to us and suitable to so much of his minde as he intends to express whereas those very things he speaks to us he can represent open and call otherwise He can call that old which he tells us is new and that new which he tells us is old yea and he can confound this language also and bring them both to an equality in this respect There never was any deep any wise understanding of God nor ever can be till the great depths of the Godhead are broken up till then God can and may hide himself in his whole Being in every motion in every thought of his heart in every word of his mouth He may speak what he pleaseth He may speak one thing now and in the very next breath speak clean contrary to what he spake before and make both good and yet make him a lyar that spake either from him or pretended to understand him in either He can call the same thing old that he calls new and the same thing new that he calls old He can call this a new Covenant and if thou thinkest to understand him and speak the same thing with him he can tell thee thou art a lyar and call it an old Covenant If thou wilt fall in with him here and say with him 't is old he can confound thee here also and say 't is both new and old If thou thinkest thou canst comprehend him in this he can confound thee yet again and say 't is neither new nor old If thou wilt yet be wise and understand both how 't is new and how 't is old and how neither new nor old he can and will confound thee again and shew thee that thou art now the greatest fool of all That very understanding which was made by the Lord enlightened by him made wise to know him must be darkened and confounded again A deep wise man can order his words so as others shall think they know him by them yet shall not but he alone understand and comprehend himself When he will he can open himself to the understanding of the meanest and when he will he can hide himself from the understanding of the deepest He can open himself in his deepest mysteries and he can hide himself in his plainest conceptions of things and this is an excellent peece of skill to be able to open and hide as one pleases Wilt thou deny to God this skill O Man Or if he have it wilt thou deny him liberty to make use of it Wilt thou say that if he speak to thee he must speak to thee so as thou mayst understand him Or if he speak that which seemeth plain to thy Reason wilt thou presently conclude that thou dost see and understand him O the boldness of man who will be measuring the minde of God in his words and say thus far must his meaning go and no further To what an height doth every sort of men raise their own Babylon some out of the Scriptures some out of inward Revelations comprehending God Christ Life Blessedness within their line But the building doth no where come to perfection nor ever shall for before it doth or can confusion shall overtake it and the City alone shall stand whose builder and maker is God That which God speaks shall stand for Truth onely as he opens and onely so far as he opens it and man shall one day see let him be as confident now as he will that he never understood one jot or tittle of God in the plainest thing that ever he did or spake Vers 10. For this is the Covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days saith the Lord There is a Covenant to be made to be established between God and his People which hath not been as yet I will make but I have not yet made The seed are to be brought forth but they have not as yet been brought forth and the Covenant is to be made and set up but hath not as yet been made and set up There is a Covenant that hath been already made an old Covenant a Covenant of works of labor and toyl of bondage slavery misery wrath death And there is a Covenant to be made a new Covenant a Covenant of Rest of Liberty of Love of Life and Peace evermore God hath his several sorts of things to bring forth and set in an excellent order one by another And this is it it contains this in it this is the description of it which here follows this is the Covenant that I will make With the house of Israel What is here meant by the house of Israel whether the natural seed of Abraham which were so in one sence or the spiritual seed of Christ which were so in another sence or both for though they have hitherto been separated yet the shadow and the substance may one day be gathered into one I shall not now declare After those days saith the Lord. After the days of their visitation destruction and desolation shall be ended after he hath plucked up both the natural seed and the spiritual seed and hath done breaking down destroying and afflicting them after that then will he begin to raise them up to build and to plant them Jer. 31.28 And when the time of restitution when the time of refreshing when the time of this seeds springing up anew with its new-purified life comes then shall this new Covenant appear then will I make this Covenant with them saith the Lord. I will put my Laws into their minde Their minde The minde is the inward part of the man the understanding part wherein the light of the man lies it is that wherein the principles of light or darkness of life or death are sown The constitution of man the state of man is according to his minde the changes wrought in man one way or other is by an efficacy upon his minde the minde being changed the man is changed otherwise
writing its own in stead thereof It sets the creature at the greatest distance from God it turns the heart of God most from the creature God can only have communion with the creature in its low estate it must be nothing when he who is all fills it and dwells fully in it So much as the creature strives to be desires to be it turns from God God is all where he is himself and appears as all where he appears as himself and he cannot fully be not fully appear in that creature that is or that appears any thing The proud he beholds afar off but he maketh his habitation with the humble he lives there he dwells there and the humble may walk converse have full and free communion with him humble thy self to walk with thy God It were better for the creature never to see or enjoy any thing of God then to be lifted up by it and if I might have mine own choyce I would never have any discovery of God further then I were first enabled by him to bear it 3. The Remedy of this danger which hath a very proper appellation here it is called a thorn to the flesh somewhat to prick and make the flesh sensible of its weakness and so to abate and asswage its swelling Flesh is the weak part a thorn is that which is very painful and irksom to the flesh Visions and Revelations they lift up the flesh cause it to forget it self raise it up in its own eyes and thoughts as if it were no longer flesh but spirit no longer weakness but strength surrounded with the Life Glory and Perfection of God which these give some taste and sense of so that the poor creature begins now to perk up above all other things beholding them far beneath it self they lying in a dungeon of darkness horror weakness filthiness corruption death whereas it is scituated in the light of the Lord dwelling with him in the Land of the living But now when a thorn is thrust into the flesh making it ake and smart and all its Visions and Revelations can neither help to pluck out this thorn nor take away the smart of it it begins to feel and know it self again it finds it self not to be what it took it self to be not to be where it was not so full not so glorious not so safe It thought it self above all these things above the reach above the sense of these things but now by this it sensibly perceives that it is still a weak frail creature in a weak frail state This lets the wind out of the bladder and so its swelling falls by degrees There is no better physick in such a state and it is the skill and kindness of the Physician to administer it to the Patient though against his mind Paul here calls it a gift there was given me a thorn to the flesh indeed it was a gift a kind gift a needful gift a seasonable g ft. Paul if he might have had his own choyce would have had more Revelations still but he who knew the present state of Paul knew what to give him and however he looked upon it at present yet afterwards when he came to understand himself he could not but see and acknowledg it to be a gift The captivity of our life that pain bondage heaviness of spirit death which we are so apt to complain of is a gift which our life in this state wherein it is needs if need be ye suffer heaviness through manifold temptations 1 Pet. 1.6 it cannot otherwise enjoy it self it cannot otherwise be rid of that enemy which is still surprizing it in its enjoyments The particular thorn to the flesh here bestowed on Paul was a messenger of Satan to buffet him To bring him down Satan is let loose upon him who when he hath his Commission will quickly make the flesh feel it self what it is To bring him down yet more Satan deals with him by a messenger as if notwithstanding all his height he scorned to deal with him himself and this messenger handles him in a most disgraceful way buffets him and Paul lieth open to him not knowing which way to help himself but is fain to receive blow after blow from him as he gives them him This was a thorn to the flesh indeed a very sharp thorn He who knoweth what it is to be wrapt up into the might and power of the Lord cannot at that time fear the powers of darkness dares challenge the very Prince of darkness with all his force and stratagems to do his worst and cannot suspect the least prejudice from him Now for this person who knoweth the sweetness of this strength to be wholly stripped of it have his enemy let loose upon him be left to the weakness of his own flesh be laid open to receive and feel the smart of every blow that Satan pleaseth to give him and that not by himself but by a messenger as if he scorned to put his own strength to it this is a grievous thorn to the flesh this pricketh very sharply the weak the fleshly part and by its continuance allayeth and letteth out that swelling and puffing wherewith it was lifted up by those Revelations and Inlets of the Life Glory and Power of God which were bestowed not on it but on the spiritual part It is the flesh that is lifted up and were it not for the fleshly part the spirit would as willingly lie low as be exalted yea in some respect rather for it desireth not to be exalted but to lie low it desireth to have the Lord alone exalted it would not be any thing it would not appear any thing it would not own any thing but have the Lord alone be appear be known So far would it live as the Lord liveth in it so far would it shine as the Lord pleaseth to shine in it and no further And the sufferings of the spirit are with and because of the flesh and to this intent to free and deliver it from the infirmity bondage and corruption which cleaveth close to the flesh and is ready still to annoy it by reason of its present conjunction with the flesh The spirit and the flesh are so incorporated one within the other yet unmixed that whatsoever is done to the one the other also partakes of as suppose like two trees whose root body boughs branches leaves and fruit were entwisted within one another yet still retaining their own property and distinction You cannot feed the spirit but the flesh also will suck in and partake of the sweetness thereof and be nourished and grow thereby you cannot feed the flesh but the spirit tasts and is made sick by the poyson for such is the food of the flesh unto the spirit no other then poyson You cannot smite the flesh but you also wound the spirit and if you go about to heal the spirit the flesh will also partake of it and gather strength and freshness by it If
thither He is bound and carryed into Babylon yea beyond Babylon there is a Captivity beyond Babylon I will carry you beyond Babylon In this Subjection there are divers things considerable which discover it to be very hard and bitter 1. There is the weakening of this life the drying up of the life of the spirit When we lie under the influences of God this life is quickened revived and cherished but when we are in the Devils prison layd in bonds by him he nips this life blows upon it doth as much as he can to extinguish it And how bitter how painful is it to a spiritual man to finde his spiritual life dying and decaying 2. The stopping the course of it And this were death it self if there were no more added to have the activity of this life choked it being so full of motion and so active in every motion The whole current of this life is stopped it can do nothing that it would it wants its light it wants its strength it wants that which was wont to set it agoing it wants oyl In this Captivity the night is come wherein none can work Spiritual actions and motions are of a curious nature requiring much skill care accurateness requiring a great deal of pure clear light how can they be wrought in the night They require strength how can the Soul effect them in so great weakness as its Captivity exposeth it unto They require liberty how can the Soul set about them in bonds Nor will the Devil suffer any such works of Light Life and Liberty to be wrought in his Kingdom If we would sing the Lords Song in a strange Land he would not permit it He is Master over us in our Captivity he hath our spirit so bound with his chain that we can stir no whither do nothing without his leave I tell you Sirs it is as impossible to beleeve to hope to wait to rejoyce in God nay to submit to God in this Captivity as it is for the man who was never yet brought out of his Kingdom Life wholly shut up cannot at all stir abroad Life wholly bound up can no more act then Death it self then that which never was nor ever knew life 'T is true there are Captivities wherein these things may be done but I speak now of the great Captivity and of the depth of that Captivity too for both at the going in and upon the coming out some of these things may perhaps be possible 3. There is the drawing forth of the person into contrary ways and acts of death He is not onely hindered from doing what he would but he is made to do what he would not He is not onely forcibly kept from serving his own Liege Lord but he is made to serve the Devil who delights to put him upon such motions as are most contrary to his former life and to his present most inward spiritual nature He is a perfect Tyrant will still be putting his slave to that which may be most irksom to him and which may most manifest his own dominion over him And here I could relate some strange things which I have heard of one that hath felt how in the time of his Captivity he never resolved against any thing nor strongly desired to avoyd any thing but he was sure to be forced into it and found this his greatest relief and safety to lie perfectly open to all manner of weakness 4. There is hard usage under all this buffetings blows sharp strokes upon the spirit He deals like the Turks with their Gally-slaves beats them whether they work or no He useth all manner of Tyranny towards them is not pleased with any thing they can do but hateth them perfectly and doth them all the mischief he can because of that life in them which still lives in the root and shall break forth again in branches leaves and fruit for all this Indeed he who was never out of his clutches may have some fair quarter from his hands but he who is brought back again with the life in him must expect to feel the utmost that his malice is suffered to do unless he will yeeld as many shall and extremity will much urge all and over-bear the strongest resolutions of standing out and come under his banner and then he shall have light enough and strength enough and pleasure enough in his service but this they cannot do because their nature steereth them otherwise and therefore must undergo the brunt II. The spirits helplessness under it or the ineffectualness of all means that can be used towards Redemption or towards mitigation of the rigor of this Captivity there is a taste of that here too for this I prayed thrice Paul used all his strength in prayer all his interest in God but it would not avail he must bear these buffetings So is it in this Captivity it must have its course pray never so hard the cup will neither pass from you nor so much as one drop be abated It is not possible for this cup or the least portion of it to pass from the dearest ones of God This is Christs cup he drank all his share and every one must drink all theirs And the physick as it is very strong so it will make them very sick perfectly restless and helpless Christ was so he knew not which way to turn him He knew none but God could help him and he could not reach him nor make any prayer come neer him O my God saith he I cry in the day time but thou hearest not and in the night season and there is no silence to me And it will make every one though the life of Christ be in them sick restless helpless as it did Christ The Soul cannot tell which way to turn in any one motion for the least ease all the time of its Captivity Run to the Scriptures run to Experiences think of the Nature of God its Interest in God c. all is dead all is dark all is confounded there is nothing now can be looked upon but as it is represented in the Kingdom of Darkness as it is poysoned by the Devil and so tends but further to poyson and torment the Soul And the more it thinks on these the more it feeds on these the more it seeks relief from these the more it sucks in that which still administers fresh anguish and death unto it If it be never so hungry it can come at no food if it be never so thirsty it can come at no drink except vineger and gall not one crumb of the bread of life not one drop of the water of life is to be heard of here This is not the place for life either to live or act in nay there is nothing is an occasion of greater Torment to the Soul in the time of this Captivity then its striving to live and move spiritually as to beleeve love pray hope wait or the like For hereby 1. It occasions a
calling to minde the former sweetness of these its former activity in these which are now become so difficult so impossible to it and a lively remembrance of the sweetness of what was formerly enjoyed doth much encrease the trouble of the present want of it 2. It encreaseth the sense of the present bitterness by making it more lively It doth not onely encrease the sense of the want of these but encreaseth also the sense of that which lieth upon the spirit The remembrance of former life and liberty makes the present bonds and pangs of death a great deal more sharp and weighty 3. It encreaseth the Devils rage that he now layeth load upon the Soul To finde that life yet striving to stir which he hath bound so fast this makes him seek for new cords to binde it yet faster for stronger poyson to strike it yet more dead Now if I should tell you of a strange Mystery viz. of embracing this subjection of putting your necks under Nebuchadnezzars girdle of receiving quietly all the buffetings of Satan not onely of entering again willingly into your Captivity but of bearing your whole burden in your Captivity of letting your life hope strength and all suffer death and be layd in the grave if I should speak after this manner to you ye would say this were a very hard doctrine yet this is certain that the Bird in the Cage doth but tire yea perhaps bruise and hurt it self by fluttering to get out or the Bird in the net or snare doth but entangle it self more by straining to get loose and fly abroad There is no way like to lying still and yeelding up even the spiritual life as a sacrifice following Christ as a Lamb or Sheep to the slaughter without the least resistance gainsaying or reluctation O sad sad sad will this Captivity be Never was there destruction desolation and anguish like unto it Then shall every member feel the pains of the head and then shall every member so afflicted complain with the head and say Is it nothing to you all ye that pass by behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow which is done unto me wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger From above hath he sent fire into my bones and it prevaileth against them he hath spred a net for my feet he hath turned me back he hath made me desolate and faint all the day But when this Captivity is ended when life shall again come forth from under this bondage O how sweet how fresh how pure will it be how pleasant to look back upon the several yokes bonds snares deaths in the Land of our Captivity Then we shall glory more in those multiplyed deaths then in our former life Our former life and enjoyments tended but to lead us to Captivity but this Captivity tends to lead us to that Life which cannot enter into Captivity which cannot feel Captivity but will be master of it where ere it meets it Our life led us into that Captivity where we felt unutterable anguish death misery but our Captivity leadeth us to that Life which is so strong and vigorous that it is able to lead Captivity captive even in its own Land The Way to true Knowledg FROM 2 COR. 5.16 Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh yea though we have known Christ after the flesh yet now henceforth know we him no more THat which God created was flesh He brought forth every thing in this Creation in a state of weakness All the Images and representations of himself here are fleshly The eye he made to behold them was a fleshly eye The content the happiness that cometh by this sight is a fleshly happiness The enjoyment of God in this way is a fleshly enjoyment There was emptiness weakness vanity written in the very state yea in the very make of the Creation Indeed it might have enjoyed a kinde of happiness if it had remained as it was made but it would not have been true happiness nor could it have lasted It was as impossible for Adam to have stood as it is for God to fall for there was mortality mutability written in his state in his nature as there is Eternity Immutability written in Gods Adams nature disposed him to what befell him it was flesh walked in the path of flesh hastening towards the end designed unto flesh Henceforth know we no man after the flesh The eye the created eye the eye of this Creation in its best in its purest in its perfectest state is no better then fleshly This eye as it is fleshly so that which this eye seeth is flesh it can see nothing which is spiritual The eye of sence cannot see the reason of man nor can the reason of man see the Nature of God Man may see God as the creatures see man not comprehending not understanding him He may see the fleshly part of God the fleshly appearance but not the spiritual Substance He may see outward visible Demonstrations of God but not his Nature not his Spirit which alone is God The manner after which this eye seeth is fleshly after a weak shallow fleshly manner not comprehending not piercing into things not gathering things into it self but by gathering deductions and conclusions from principles and experiences this is mans way Henceforth know we We. There is a parcel of this Creation in whom Eternity in whom the seed of another-ghess life then this Creation is acquainted with or can comprehend is sown in whom this Creation is in part pulled down and the Foundations of Eternity laid in the ruines of it All things are not one all things are not alike do not your senses perceive a vast difference in things There is an inward world and there are inward senses which have felt and can tell you that the difference there is more vast and more substantial In this world ye see that excellent things are rare there is abundance of dross but little pure mettal in comparison abundance of stones but pearls are not so common abundance of chaff and off all but not so much pure seed So is it in the inward world The jewels of God the grain of God the seed of his own Spirit is very scarce and precious We know As there is such a seed so they have a life and knowledg suitable to them and indeed their knowledg is the only knowledg before which all the knowledg of man vanisheth and shrinketh away like a shadow It is true man hath knowledg man hath life if ye speak in one kind of language but if ye speak in a pure language he hath not He doth know God he doth live in God he doth live to God in a sense in a shadowy life and knowledg and so do other creatures in a sense too in a more dark and more shadowy life and knowledg but in truth he doth not But we know this seed this man the new man doth
very certainty is imaginary but fetchest not one step in the light and when thou awakest and comest to behold the vanity of thy dreams O how sick wilt thou be of them Thou walk towards happiness O Man thou canst not so much as desire happiness Thou canst not but desire happiness and yet thou canst not for thy heart desire happiness As thou comest from the flesh so thou centerest in the flesh and fain wouldst come to rest in a fleshly happiness from God but thou wouldst chuse to go to Hell rather then come near true Life which will one day be more tormenting to thee then all the Hells thou canst imagine O how tormenting is the Life and Love of God to every thing but it self tormenting in its nature tormenting in every motion of it Every creature can imagine an excellency in his life in his love but none can groundedly acknowledg it nay none can bear it They call that so and can very well bear that which they fancy in him if God were that which man imagines him to be he could not but love him and honour him exceedingly and desire the greatest intimacy and communion with him but they cannot call that so which is so in him for when they come near it their very sense and experience will undenyably evidence it to be otherwise to them Wisdom cryeth aloud to thee O Man she hath long uttered her voyce in thy streets but thou canst not hear nor understand her language the way of life thou canst not know The light shineth in thy darkness but thy darkness cannot comprehend it therefore must thou dye in thy blindness and folly while WISDOM laughs at thy destruction and mocks when thy fear cometh This is thy Judgment written which will at length overtake thee how skilful soever thou art at present to put it far from thee Of the Seasons varieties and changes in the inward World which answer to the seasons varieties and changes in the outward World which is a map or picture of them according to the description given by that wise Observer of the Course of Nature ECCLES 3. Vers 1 c. To every thing there is a season and a time to every purpose under the Heaven A time to be born and a time to dye a time to plant and a time to pluck up that which is planted A time to kill and a time to heal a time to break down and a time to build up A time to weep and a time to laugh a time to mourn and a time to dance A time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones together a time to embrace and a time to be far from embracing A time to get and a time lose a time to keep and a time to cast away A time to rent and a time to sow a time to keep silence and a time to speak A time to love and a time to hate a time of war and a time of peace What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboreth I have seen the travel which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised therein He hath made every thing beautiful in his time also he hath set the World in their heart so that no man can find out the Work that God maketh from the beginning to the end THis is the whole course of things here below In living and dying coming into the world and going out of the world planting and plucking up killing and healing breaking down and building weeping and laughing mourning and dancing c. the world passeth away Some come in some go out Some plant some pluck up Some kill some heal Some break down some build Some weep some laugh Some mourn some dance c. Yea the very same persons have their several seasons to go forth in these several motions so contrary one to another Man is ordained to walk retrograde to himself to go quite contrary ways to fetch contrary steps to throw down all that he builds to build all that he throws down to go so many degrees of death as he hath gone degrees of life to run through so many passages in the dark world as he hath gone through in the light World one while to make himself an universal transgressor and anon to justifie himself in all his transgressions and he is but a vain fool in all a fool living a fool dying a fool planting a fool plucking up a fool killing a fool healing a fool weeping a fool laughing a fool making himself a sinner a fool making himself a Saint There is no man hath so much life and so much pleasure allotted to him but he must taste death answerable and there is no man undergoeth and runneth through so much misery anguish grief trouble but he shall have happiness joy rest peace content answerable when his season comes when those superior Orbs which carry these influences in them are circumvolved by that power which moveth them and produceth these effects by them There is an inward World much like this outward it is the Copy after which this was drawn There are such Elements in it as in this after the same manner compounded by the same art and skill There are creatures there of the same manner of make as these here There is an inward man to govern this inward world There are the same seasons of night and day Winter and Summer with the several concomitants of each and with the several alterations in each which have their force influences upon the inward man and the inward world as these here have upon the outward but none of all the Beings in this inward world hath any sight or understanding of the state of things here but the inward man as none of all the creatures have any understanding of the state of this outward world but the outward man though every outward thing hath its place and state in it yet unknown to it self none here knoweth either where it is or what it is but man or rather in that manner that man doth for man doth it not truly neither There are here also winds some nipping some cherishing and rains some refreshing some overflowing and drowning There is likewise here a Sun to rule and give light by day and a Moon and Stars to give light by night And this world hath its course just like the outward it begins with Life first traversing the several paths of it and then runs backward retiring into the chambers and degrees of death And herein will God deceive the thoughts and expectations of all men both the inward man and the outward man for the inward world shall dye and pass away so as the inward man could never imagine it possible and the outward world shall live and remain so as the outward man could never imagine it possible The one shall meet with such a death as it never dreamed of and the other with such a life as it never dreamed of The one for
all the vigour of its life shall not find it self able to live out of God when the time of its remove and separation comes and the other for all its weakness shall find it self able to live in God when it is taken into him There is nothing so weak so imperfect but God can make it taste of strength of perfection There is nothing so strong so perfect but God can make it taste of weakness and imperfection There was nothing ever born planted built up c. but may have a time to dye to be plucked up to be thrown down c. There was nothing ever deaded plucked up rased out but may have a time to be quickened to be planted to be written in again All things are brought forth in weakness the inward world as well as the outward All things under the Sun there are vanity are to have but a vain course and to end in vexation of spirit God indeed is perfect in every motion of his both in the inward and in the outward world I know that whatsoever he doth it shall be for ever nothing can be put to it nor any thing taken from it Vers 14. But man is weak man is vain the outward man vain the inward man vain every motion of his comes to nothing He seemeth to be wonderous wise to have motions of great weight even of Eternity upon him but alas he cannot reach Eternity he is but a vain empty cipher which stands for nothing He hath purposes in him but his purposes are poor shallow things and there is a season for them wherein he takes his swinge in them but these seasons must blow over too and the time must come wherein man must be ripped up with all his hurdle of vanity from the very begining to the end and then both he and it blown away with the wind an eternal puff will quickly set them all packing What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboreth O God Let others treasure up but I abhor I throw away every inward motion that ever hath sprung up from me I will have nothing to delight in nothing to glory in nothing to hope from before thee Do thou gather them up and save them as they are thine as thou hast been and appeared in them but as mine let them pass away for evermore Let there be no profit of all my labour and travel Do thou reap the travel of thy Soul and be satisfied but for my part I have long turned and still do and cannot but turn from all the works of my hands all the delights of my spirit even in the inward world and with as perfect irksomness and tiredness of spirit as ever Solomon did from his in the outward He hath made every thing beautiful in his time Every thing is beautiful in its season and nothing is lovely out of its season There 's a beauty in life O how lovely is the spring both in the inward and outward world The life of the flesh the life of the spirit each shoots forth with a grace And there 's a beauty in death it is comely to see things dye when the season of death comes There is nothing so black but there is beauty written in it nothing so evil but it hath goodness engraven on it Nothing so bad but it is good in its own place order season course nothing so good but it is bad out of its place There 's a beauty in killing and a beauty in healing a beauty in weeping and a beauty in laughing c. in their seasons but of their seasons they are very deformed All the motions of God both in the inward and in the outward world are very exact They have all reference one to another the outward to the inward the inward to the outward every motion in each hath an universal aspect and referrence there is a strain of Eternity in every motion There is the very Nature and Excellency of God in every thing that God doth every thing as it comes from him savours and tastes of his own Perfection Man hath but a poor sight of things either the outward or inward man and after that manner that he sees he doth not see either from the beginning or to the end of any thing The outward man seeth not any outward thing so nor doth the inward man see any inward thing so And indeed God hath so set the world in mans heart that man cannot be left free and unbyassed in observation and judgment There is such a desire planted in man to grasp and enjoy what ever is discovered every thing in the outward world there is a desire in the outward man to possess every thing in the inward world there is a desire in the inward man to possess that man cannot addict and apply himself to understand things to observe the motion and operation of God in things from the beginning to the end There is nothing seen in the root either as it lies in the root or as it springs out of the root or as it returns into the root Man hath only a bruitish knowledg of things or of the motions and actions of God in and about things seeing only a present appearance of this or that but not knowing what it is whence it came what it means or whither it tends And this also is beautiful in its season Darkness becomes the night spiritual darkness the spiritual night as light becomes the day and shadows and lyes are as proper for the night as Truth and substance is for the day While the night remains it is as suitable that the shadows should remain also as that when the day dawns the shadows should fly away Now here is the Excellency of Christ of Sion of the holy Seed They are not exempted from any varieties or changes either in the inward or outward world but in their running through them they still remain the same They are like God Every where in every thing what ever their clothes what ever their appearances be yet their Substance their Life is still the same The inward man shall be befooled all his light be put out and he made to see and confess that he knoweth nothing as well as the outward it is the spiritual man only whether in the seed or grown up that shall live and flourish And for the coming of this day my Soul after its own hidden way and manner waiteth and longeth the breaking forth whereof is alone able to afford my spirit rest and satisfaction The secret hidden most inward Voyce and Demeanor of Sion in the time of her Captivity FROM LAMENT 3. Vers 24 c. The Lord is my Portion saith my Soul therefore will I hope in him The Lord is good unto them that wait for him to the Soul that seeketh him It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the Salvation of the Lord. It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his
even go shift for my self as well as I can but that hope that strength which I fastened upon God for and which I was wont to have from God is quite lost the very bottom of it is failed Vers 30. He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him He resisteth not evil All his strength is broken and now he knoweth how to resist no longer He lieth open to all manner of injuries from all manner of enemies he yeeldeth up his face to men to Satan to buffet Now his wisdom is taken from him his spirit is not so averse from bearing oppression He wants his true fence his proper fortress which he knows is alone able to secure him and so he seeks no shelter from any indignity from any stroke of malice or cruelty but yeelds himself like Christ to be led about like a fool spit upon buffeted any thing He is filled full with reproach There is no such object of shame and obloquy as the people of God in their Captivity Their former height their nearness to God their interest in God their boasts about their expectations from God all tend to fit them for and lay them open to the greater scorn And the more livelily God did appear and act in them before the greater is their present shame All that pass by clap their hands at thee they hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem What is this the City that men call the perfection of beauty the joy of the whole Earth Is this the people that were so glorious so eminent in piety in purity in self-denyal in mortification in faith in love in all manner of righteousness and holiness And his spirit is sensible of the just ground of this reproach that is cast upon him for there is not that loveliness that was nay there is all manner of unloveliness appearing in him now God hath left him He is besmeared all over with lying among the pots and though he be comely in this his blackness yet not to any outward eye no not to his own eye he seeth not his own comeliness and therefore cannot cast off any of that reproach that is thrown upon him not so much as from his own spirit but is filled with it he is filled full with reproach Vers 31. For the Lord will not cast off for ever Here is the ground of all this his misery hinted at God hath cast him off at present When he had nothing he was made rich by Gods entertaining him and taking care of him who when he saw him in his blood pitied him and bid him live But now he who clothed him strips him again naked naked as in the day that he was born he who took him in thrusts him out of doors he who gave him light takes away his light he who breathed life into him dryeth up his life he who redeemed him out of his enemies hand delivereth him back into his enemies hand again And now he is worse then he was before both worse used by his enemies and more sensible of his sufferings and misery in his own spirit Thus it was with Christ He was the Son of his Love he in and with whom he delighted to live and converse his only one in whom the pleasure of his Soul was seated whom he was continually nigh unto whom he delighted to satisfie fill and please with himself with the inhabitation presence and enjoyment of himself But at last when Christ had most need of him then he left him My God my God why hast thou forsaken me And thus may every one also partake of feel and complain of it when the time of their Captivity when the season of the hour and power of darkness's seizing upon them cometh But the Lord will not cast off for ever Though he doth thus cast off and make miserable for a season yet it shall be but for a season it shall not always last And it is a secret sense of this that makes him thus quietly give up himself unto his present most miserable condition Thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell I shall not always lie in the grave saith Christ and while I lie there that life which I would have preserved shall not corrupt there I shall lose nothing by my death by my misery but that which I my self am willing to part with I shall not lose my God for he will be still with me in the grave though not to my sense and will raise me out of the grave and manifest himself again unto me He will so appear in me that I shall fear grave death hell sin devil no more Why then art thou so sad O my Soul and why art thou so disquieted within me Hope in God for I shall yet see him and satisfie the desire of my heart with the sight of him The Lord will not cast off for ever nay doth not cast off at present any further then I desire to be cast off by him Though there is that weakness and tenderness in me which is much encreased by duration of misery which turns from the cup and desires if it were possible to avoyd it yet there is that also in me which takes it willingly and drinks it down heartily and stands ready to embrace both that sickness and that death with all its sick fits and sharp pangs which it hastens upon them who drink deeply of it Vers 32. But though he cause grief yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies It is God that causeth grief He measureth out our sorrow to us as well as the misery that causeth it He drowneth the Soul in anguish who thought it had been impossible for him to have been driven from rejoycing and delighting in himself And our state requireth it We have as much need of the pain of the smart of the grief as of the affliction that occasioneth it if need be yea if need be only if need be ye suffer heaviness through many temptations for he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men from his heart it is his strange work not his natural delight He sends into captivity and he maketh that captivity doleful and though we cry and roar yet will he not hear but shut up his bowels against us But he will have a time again to have compassion he will have a time to heal and take away grief as well as to wound and cause it He hath multitude of mercies within him to heal and make up every condition of misery with and he will one day open the sluces wide and let forth all his bowels he will have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies And then he that keepeth not alive his Soul shall know and praise him God will build up Sion and when he builds up Sion he will appear in his Glory He will repair the old waste places and shine himself in those desolate ruines He will make the Wilderness a pleasant Land
sown which must have seasons pass over it before it spring up must rot and dye before it live though in its rotting it doth not rot and in its dying it doth not dye and when it doth spring up must grow gradually and undergo many changes before it cometh to maturity There is a double sowing one of Christs another of ours Christ soweth and we sow Christ soweth in us and we sow unto him He sows the seed of life in us and this life in us sows the seed of living motions towards him and of living operations in him it moves spiritually towards Christ it works spiritually in Christ Every motion of life put forth towards Christ is a sowing Every act of faith of love of joy of expectation of contentedness and submission of spirit under his dispose is a sowing He that soweth unto the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption but he that soweth unto the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting To be spiritual to move spiritually to live spiritually is to sow unto the spirit as to be carnal to move carnally to live carnally according to the will and desire of the flesh is to sow unto the flesh Now all these all these motions all these operations this life with all the buddings forth of it must be thrown into the Earth dye there be gone and lost a long season before they come to any thing so that the flesh which had great hopes because of them great delight in them and great desire after them will lose all its expectation be weary of its delight and let fall its desire and will be vehemently perswading the spirit to do so also To what purpose is it to beleeve to what purpose is it to pray to what purpose is it to deny ones self and to suffer in so many kindes All comes to nothing he whose spirit multiplyeth in these multiplyeth sorrow unto himself c. True all these are thrown into the Earth lost and gone for ever to all sight and appearance they come to nothing a great deal of pains and trouble there is but to no purpose And how can it be otherwise seeing the time of reaping nay perhaps of growth is not yet come But wait run the venture as you see the husbandman is fain to do who expects a crop Be ye also patient Follow their example wait and wait long as ye see they do Stablish your hearts Do not give way to frights to discouragements from present pressures which may dishearten you and make your waiting irksom but stablish your hearts to wait It will come it will be worth all your waiting for it when it comes and the longer it stays the more weighty will it be in it self and the sweeter to you Be content then to stay for it and to expect nothing but trouble and misery until you meet with it For the Coming of the Lord draweth nigh It is a great encouragement to wait if one be neer the attaining of what one waits for And this great advantage Faith hath always had to represent things very neer as neer as they can be desired to be The Coming of the Lord is a great way off to the eye of man so far off that he can hardly forbear scoffing at the spiritual man for speaking of it as nigh at hand but close by to the eye of Faith even as near as Faith would have it Faith would have nothing wrought otherwise then it is he that sees every thing with a spiritual eye can dislike nothing it would not have any thing come sooner then it is appointed to come It is the flesh which shall never be saved that is so hasty after Salvation but he that beleeveth doth not make haste but stayeth willingly till Salvation be ripe and till he be ripened for Salvation It is the foolish flesh that thinks it self wise enough to cut out its own season and proportion of deliverance but the truly and spiritually-wise-childe knoweth his degree of wisdom the degree of wisdom allotted him doth not amount high enough for this undertaking and therefore yeeldeth it up to the dispose of the wisdom of the Father The flesh is much troubled that it cannot have things times and seasons at its own dispose the spirit or spiritual childe would not have them at its own dispose if it might The spirit in the spirit of the childe teacheth it contentedly from choyce and with delight to give up it self to the dispose of the spirit in the spirit of the Father Surely it cannot but seem strange to the eye of man that the Apostles should then in their times so many ages ago speak of the coming of Christ as so nigh and that it should yet be so far off but Faith can digest very well Faith sees the certainty of it the suddenness of it yea that it is already in motion Behold he that cometh will come and will not tarry He is certainly a coming and he will come on he will not stay He comes he comes he wo'nt step back again he will come on forward nay he wo'nt stand still he will not tarry Behold he cometh leaping over the mountains skipping over the hills Arise shine thy light is come Lift up your heads your Redemption draweth nigh Howl ye who have thriven and grown rich in his absence your delight your content your life your peace your happiness is ended your Sun is set Spring forth with joy and singing ye weak ye sick ye poor faint distressed spirits the Sun of righteousness is risen with healing in his wings he is coming to anoint you with the oyl of salvation and gladness to wipe away all tears from your eyes and so to fill you with joy as ye shall be able to grieve or weep no more He will appear the second time without sin to Salvation ye have been long talking of Salvation when he cometh again ye shall know what it meaneth ye shall feel what it is and it will not be long ere he come he is upon his march already hastening towards you coming on apace the appointed time of his absence is wearing out amain and the time of his return approaching The day is at hand the Coming of the Lord draweth nigh Even so Amen Come Lord Jesus come quickly redeem the time of thy long delay and come quickly yea very quickly The Spirit of the Bride saith Come and he that is athirst saith Come Come O Water of Life or I perish come O Bread of Life or I famish Come Come ERRATA'S Pag. 24. l. 6. r. a new-man P. 30. l. 27. r. doth not onely P. 31. l. 28. r. this is the. P. 74. l. 28. r. lives safe P. 78. l. 23. r. diverts P. 79. l. 1. r. and bonds P. 109. l. 28. r. out of The Contents 1. OF the difference between God and the Creature Pag. 1 2. Of Good and Evil. Pag. 3 3. Of the Devil Pag. 5 4. Of Righteousness Holiness and Happiness Pag. 9 5. Of Redemption Pag. 10 6. Of Faith Pag. 12 7. Of Love Pag. 14 8. Of Self-denyal Pag. 21 9. Of Christ from John 1.1 Pag. 24 10. Of the two Principles Seeds or Creations their different Natures Motions and Ends. Pag. 35 11. Of the New-Birth whence Faith and Love flows and to which Redemption with all the priviledges of it appertain from Joh. 1.12 Pag. 39 12. Of the excellent Nature of this Birth or of the Child thus begotten thus born from Joh. 3.6 Pag. 42 13. Of the excellent Food prepared for this New-born-child to nourish him and cause him to grow from Joh. 6.63 Pag. 44 14. Some Properties which attend this New-born-child in his non-age while he is growing up to his inheritance from Matth. 5.3 c. Pag. 47 15. Of the Fathers care over this Child and his readiness to provide for him every thing he needs from Luke 11.13 Pag. 51 16. A strange Occurrence which may befall this Darling of God and of Christ in his pilgrimage and travel towards his native Country hidden in a Parable John 11. Pag. 53 17. Of the Relation between Christ and his and the Hold they have of each other from Joh. 10.14 Pag. 58 18. Of the New Covenant from Hebr. 8.10 11 12. Pag. 65 19. The way to Life which is through the death of that which we account and press after as life and particularly through the Captivity of the Life it self from 2 Cor. 12.7 8 9 10. Pag. 83 20. The Way to true Knowledg from 2 Cor. 5.16 Pag. 100 21. Of the Seasons varieties and changes in the inward World which answer to the seasons varieties and changes in the outward World which is a map or picture of them according to that description given by that wise Observer of the course of Nature Eccles 3.1 c. Pag. 106 22. The secret hidden most inward voyce and demeanor of Sion in the time of her Captivity from Lament 3.24 c. Pag. 111 23. The Ruine Destruction and utter Desolation of Babylon from Revel 18.21 Pag. 121 24. An Exhortation to such in whom the seed of Life is sown to wait for the growth and happy success of it from James 5.7 8. Pag. 125 FINIS