A pilgrimage into the land of promise By the light of the vision OF Jacobs ladder and faith OR A serious search and prospect into life eternal pointing out the way and discovering the passage out of mans mutable state of life into a state of immutable righteousnes and glory through the knowledg of Christ in Spirit Written in the year 1662 by HENRY VANE Knight towards the latter end of his prison-state by himself fully reviewed and perfected some few dayes before his suffering and left as his last Testimony and service to this present generation according to the wil of God before he fell asleep HOSEA 12.3.4 and 6. verses He took his brother by the heel in the womb and by his strength behaved himself princely with God Yea he had power over the angel and prevailed he wept and made supplication unto him he found him in Beth-El and there he spake with us Therefore turn thou to thy God keep mercy and judgment and wait on thy God continually Printed in the yeare 1664. A TREATISE CONCERNING ETERNAL LIFE THe purposes and counsells of Gods mind are first taken within himself before they are or can be knowne to any other They are therefore called the deepe and hidden things of God For God is his owne counsellour There is none that can instruct him His mind is not only comprehensive of all that can be knowne and consulted upon but hath those eternall springs of light and power by which he is the supreame cause and orderer of all things And these as to their manner and kind of operation are three These first and great powers are they who in their name and manifestation are the Father Son and Holy Ghost by whom the same God doth forme and take all his counsells within himself and put them in execution according to the purpose of his owne mind These are the severall distinct powers of discerning and will in the same divine essence With the first of them God minds things after his owne incomprehensibile manner of being knowing and willing them as God Of this patern there is no imitation I am says God and there is none besides me With the second God minds things on earth or in the world condescending to proportion himself in his knowledg and will to the creature in order to be found in the likenes and fashion of created nature and so to act over the law first in himself that the creature may be capable to imitate and fulfill it after him With the third he does so admirably joyne and put both these minds into one and fix them in such most perfect harmony and love that they are not to be divided yet keeps and upholds in each their proper and distinct operations By this threefold operation God sets up the eternall law and causes the manifestation of that which is the very wisedome and reason of God himself the head of Christ the person of the blessed mediatour For he who thus is three in counsell wherein he decrees and orders all things giving the law in one and the same eternall mind does not execute by himselfe immediatly but by the Mediatour his representative or image the Angel of his presēce in whom his name or likenes is placed in order to beare it and bring it forth into the sight and participation of others By the immediate operation of the Trinity he is made and constituted the Lords Christ and true Messiah the secondary and executing power ordeined by God as the breath and voyce of his mouth to fulfill all his wills and all the counsells of his heart This is he who was from the beginning the breath of God the inspiration of the Almighty the face and image of the invisible God First by eternall generation within the mind of God 2. By everlasting emanation as the outshining light and express character of he divine essence 3. By temporall incarnation and inseparable personal union whith the seed of David According to his eternal generation he is without Father without Mother without descent coeternally and coessentially God with the Father or first cause of all no lesse truly and properly God then God himselfe But that which he is by everlasting emanation is the first born of every creature he that was before all things and by whom all things consist And according to his temporall incarnation he was made man like unto us in all things sin only excepted He is the inward writing of the eternal law that is written and lies within the bosome of the father None can read or unloose the seales on the backside of this writing but the lion of the tribe of Judah he that from eternity hath knowne Gods mind and bin his counsellour as the almighty breath of his month inspiring and giving life and being to all things which when put forth doth execute most exactly all that the dictates of Gods mind require to be done Without him is not any thing made that is made Nay admit the creature could receave being without him which it cannot yet the eternal law and will of God could never be knowne to angels or men unlesse revealed to them by this lively oracle and voyce of his month For all things are delivered to him of the father and none knows who the Son is but the Father nor who the Father is but the Son and he to whom the Son will reveale him No man hath seen God at any time The only begotten Son which is in the bosome of the Father he hath declared him even he that was in the beginning was found in the forme of God and thought it not robbery to be equall with God the WORD in whom is life and that life the light of men By him comes all hearing understanding and obedience to be wrought in the creature The first creature in which it is wrought is the building not made with hands eternal in the heavens made part of himself who as Mediatour is a mixed seed of both natures in one person and Spirit In this Spirit he comes in the dispensation of the fulnes of time to be made flesh and so hath in him the voice of God the voice of the head and cheif of angels and of the head and cheife of men by meanes whereof he speakes and converses with all created understandings in their owne likenes and language Thus comes he to be that spirituall ladder and way of graduall entercourse by means whereof the angels that are ascending and descending upon him doe keepe the doore open betweene heaven and earth and he fils al things This is Gods first best and most perfect worke finished from the beginning the works that are so much the object of Gods knowledg and delight that he therein rests subjecting them no more to change This is the building not made with hands eternal in the heavens the invisible and exemplary paterne unto both creations the rock whence they flow Deut. 32.4 He is the rock his work is
in the Sacramentall signes of his death on which he appoints them to feed as so manifesting him unto them till he himself come in his owne personall appearance in spirit to shew them the same mystery in the substance it self or originall patern Of the above-mention'd sorts of beleevers partaking of the light and life of Christs first appearance from the voice and testimony of the scriptures together with the sacramentall signes of his death instituted by commandment from God in his written word does the visible Christian church consist that hold themselvs to the rule of the Scriptures for their guide and are faithfully obedient in putting into practice what is therein revealed Amongst these there alwayes is as we have shewed a select number of hidden and beloved ones kept through the power of faith unto salvation without whom the rest would be as Sodom and Gomorrah And for the sake of this small remnant that truly and properly are Gods heritage out of all the rest as the new wine in the cluster it is that the Lord sayes destroy it not for there is a blessing in it These are they that being in and under the law of the Scriptures the teaching of Gods outward and written word shal be judged by this law as to the things they are found failing in and as to their comming short of the end set before them in this ministry Now the end of it is to bring them by faith to the sight and fellowship of Christ himself speaking in spirit as he is the word of the beginning and gives forth the light of the glory of God in his owne face with which he shines in the hearts of his people This comes to passe when once it pleases the father to reveal his Son in us setting him as a living patern before the eyes of our faith that in unity and similitude of spirit with that wherein the works are done by him in himself we may fulfill the law of God after him and be brought to live and dwell together in the same love which hath its season of dawning in the heart as the true day-star to prepare the soule to meet with Christ in the glory of his secōd appearāce Concerning these is it said Rom 8 1. There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit When they have begun in the spirit they do end there also and draw not back to be perfected in the flesh As they live in the spirit so their care and practice is to walk in the spirit rejoycing in Christ Jesus and having no confidence in the flesh Their praise is of God not of men They lose the prayse and honour of men because they seek both of them from God only They are strangers and pilgrims with him on the earth as all their fathers were They sojourne in tents in the outward land of Canaan the streets of the visible church and various self-chosen wayes of visible worship which Christians of different judgments walk in These invisible saints have their eye set upon the heavenly countrey and building that hath foundations which is the workmanship wrought in God the engraffed WORD and by him is held forth to the eye of that faith that is the evidence of things unseen and is able to espy for us this land of promise in the spirit whilst it is yet at a great distance and very far off There is evidently set before this eye of our faith the crucified spirit of Christ as he offered up himself in sacrifice to the will of the father learning obedience by the things that he suffered in denying his owne will that we may tread in the same steps dying with him that we may live with him and suffring with him that we may reign with him Through such fellowship with him in his suffrings and conformity with him in his death we shall be found still advancing and pressing forwards if by any means we may attein the resurrection of the dead or that redemption of the body which is atteinable in this life by those that diligently presse after the mark for the prize of their high calling which is in Christ Jesus This resurrection and redemption of the body will be experimented upon the rising of the witnesses and then better understood In the mean time the eagle-eyed beleever lives upon the dead carkasse of Christ crucified seen so in spirit And he is content as a mēber of his dead body to be made the scorne and off-scouring of the world a member of the forsaken Zion that dwells in the feild in a wildernes-state solitary and alone that no man regards because his dwelling is in the dust in expectation of rising together with Christs dead body Untill that season this sort of beleevers in stead of being found within the pale of the visible church do follow Gods invitation of them into the secret chambers of his presence and do dwell in his house a building not made with hands in the person and spirit of Christ where they behold his beauty shutting the doors about them as to any visible entercourse with the worldly Church Thus they hide thēselvs as it were for the little moment that his indignation is to last and be exercised on thē by the power and during the reigne of the Beast Blessed are those that thus die in the Lord though by the world called and accounted phanatick waiting for the brightnes of his second comming He that hath ears to hear let him hear To shut up thē and close the ministry of the day of Christs first appearance as after this manner the Redeemer hath bin lifted up in it and the work of common and temporary as well as of peculiar and eternall Redēption hath bin wrought by him and made manifest to all sorts of men and of beleevers in the world we shall now come in the next place to a distinct consideration of the fourth and last generall head of enquiry above mentioned in this discourse which is concerning the very being life and constitution of the new creature or that immutable state in righteousnes and glory that begins in the day of Christs first appearance and is perfected by his second 4. The fourth generall enquiry then is about the immutable state of life and righteousnes in the new creatures constitution or that change which is brought upon man by the new creation The new creatures life is founded as hath bin shewed in the birth of the fathers love in the soule Of this love are they born who are by Christ the immortall seed layd hold on cleaved unto and apprehended in that intimate and inseperable marriage-union in spirit which is never to be dissolved in the Covenant ordered in all things and sure that is contracted in his person between the father and the Son through the holy Ghost Where ever this union is there is Gods love there is Christ inseperably united to that soule
might bring us thus to live in and with him The life that we thus live is through his enlivening and inspiring motiō who for this very ēd gives himselfe to us in such an intimate and unchāgable uniō as makes him our very life or the activity and strength through which we act and live Christs thus being given to us and receaved by us amounts unto true regeneratiō and our being made willing to give up ourselvs thus unto him is the presenting our bodies or lusting fleshly mind a living sacrifice that is holy and acceptable to God This is to make our living soule an offering or reasonable service to God even the freewill offering of those reasonable first created powers of discerning and desiring which however refined do remaine yet corruptible till the transforming work of true regeneration hath passed upon them and this with Abel's is reputed by God and therefore certainly in itself is a much more excellent sacrifice then that which Cain offered or indeed can be offered by any that retaine the life of their owne will as the principle of all their motion and activity in Gods service be it otherwise never so conform to the letter of the commandement They that are under this second work and chang have the Son of God in them so as to be himself the keeper of their soules by oath never to part with or give up his interest in and Rule over them unto any but the father After this manner to receave have and possesse the Son is to beleeve and have life eternall by the new and everlasting Covenant And not thus to receave the son is the unbeleif which when once it takes root springs up with that bitternes and enmity against the principle operation and Testimony of saving faith in true beleevers and so against Christ himself who rules in their hearts by faith as amounts in conclusion to the very second death For it carries them on in to that irrecoverable impenitency and hardnes of heart for which God swears they shall never enter into his Rest To be quickned and risen with Christ in this second work and chang wrought in the soule by him is that resurrection into life which never is to se corruption or change more And he that is thus borne of God doth not commit sin that is the sin of unbeleif above mention'd because his seed remaineth in him which keepeth him from so sinning and the evil one toucheth him not This heavenly immortall seed and birth of the life that is incorruptible keeps the beleever in all trialls and temptations fixed like a rock and as mount Sion that cannot be moved from holding fast the confidence of a lively hope to the end Yet where this resurrection and immortall life is in the seed it does not suddenly appear or shew itself in its owne likenes according to the mightines of the power that works in us But however it is the power of faith through which we are kept unto salvation It is that which after we have passed over the day of temptation the suffering season will be sure to come forth in its powerfull operation and make us perfect stablish strengthen and settle us Hence is it that Christ sayes if we have faith that is of the right kind but as a grain of mustard seed we shall find it to be of such a growing encreasing nature that though it be not presently discerned yet by it shall we be at last enabled to remove mountains and nothing shal be impossible unto it This is Christs meaning also when he sayes that he will raise up such beleevers at the last day that is in the day appointed for the manifestation of these Sons of God in which they shall appear as indeed they are to every eye And the eye that sees them shall acknowledg them the eare that heares them shall bear witnes unto them that they are the seed that God hath blessed not only by strengthning them with might in the inner man and rooting them in love but visibly raising them up in his power to the rendring of them mighty in word and deed With this kind of resurrection that shal be visible in the eyes of enemies and all beholders it is that Christ will raise up the sons of God before described and cause them to live in his sight in this third day at the breaking forth of the brightnes of his second personall appearance as the Kingdom of his power with which as with the latter rain he will visit and refresh the habitable part of his earth and at same time burne like an oven in flames of fire to the consuming and destroying of all his adversaries The way that God will take to make his sons manifest in this day is by a powerfull work of redemption that shal be wrought and passe upon the outward as wel as inward man of the heart upon the speaking acting powers as well as upon the understanding and intuitive faculties of the mind to the freeing of them both from the bondage of corruption and stating the whole person of the beleever in the glorious freedom of righteousnes and true holines 7. This shal be effected first by the ministry of the holy Angels as the Elias that is to come who like the foure winds of heaven shall breath with their influencing gales of prophesy upon the spirits of all men but especially upon beleevers to the gathering them up into a life of spirit and causing them to be as it were absent from the body in order to be present with the Lord whilst yet in the body 2. Secondly This work shal be carried on by the revelation of the son himself from heaven for the changing of our vile bodies into the likenes of his most glorious body We find Mark 1.1 c. that John Baptists ministry though but the messenger sent before Christs face to prepare his way in preaching the baptisme of repentance for the remission of sins is called the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ the son of God And the Evangelist luke chap. 1.15 describing that which qualified John for his ministry tells us in the words which the angel spake to his father Zachary that he was filled with the holy Ghost from the womb for the rendring him a fit messenger to usher in the comming of Christ in the flesh by going before him in the spirit and power of Eliah whose work is to restore all things making them right and streight but he is to leave the work of regeneration and ministry of the new creature being and life to the son himself The subject which both these ministries cheifly respected in the day of the dispēsation of Christs first appearance was the inward man of the heart for the rooting and grounding it in love and strengthning it under the many and various trialls of the crosse and temptations that were to be undergone For beleevers are to beare about in their bodyes the markes of
perfect or he is the rock that is Gods perfect work the wisedome which God possessed in the beginning of his way in which he was pleased to condescend and set forward toward the creation of the world Prov 8. and 9. chapters which compared with John 1.1 2 doe evidently shew him to be the WORD that was by God as one brought up with him who was with God and was God Gods love and delight in whom he was ever rejoycing He also had his love delight or choice in conformity to the eternal will and purpose of God among the sons of men that he makes the habitable part of his earth of whom David was the type and figure Psal 89. where God says v. 20. c. I have found David my Servant with my holy oyle have Ianointed him With him shall my hand be established mine arme also shall strengthen him I will beat down his foes before his face and plague them that hate him I will set his hand also in the sea his right hand in the rivers He shall cry unto me thou art my Father my God and the rock of my salvation Also I will make him my first borne higher then the kings of the earth I have sworn by my holines that I will not lie unto him His seed shall endure for ever his throne as the sun before me Againe Psal 78 70 c. He chose David also his Servant and took him from the sheepfolds from following the ews great with young he brought him to feed Jacob his people and Israel his inheritance So he fed them according to the integrity of his heart and guided them by the skilfulnes of his hands Most of this is accomplished in Christ the antitype and Truth as he is the Son of Man of the seed of David according to the flesh called Gods Servant the BRANCH and the Lord our righteousnes the WORD of life that is the rock of ages whence all things are hewen He is the platform and exemplary patern of both worlds in idea as wel as execution which the divine wisedom contrived and wrought in God from all eternity as its great masterpeice by which the worlds were made Heb. 1.2 Eph. 3.9 God made all things by Jesus Christ whether visible or invisible He was the first patern of all his works Consequently according to this first and perfect patern was man made and to it in some degree and measure restored since his deformation by the fall In uprightnes was he made according to Gods image God is righteous originally in his owne nature and both originally and communicatively righteous in Christ who made man upright Eccl 7.29 The house which wisdom first builds for her self with seven pillars is in the person of Christ Gods only begotten son For he that built all things is God and this as the Son over his owne house a house not made with hands that eternal house of the Father wherein are many mansions The same WISEDOME after she had built her house killed her killing slew her sacrifice the lamb was slaine from the beginning of the world mingled her wine and also furnished her table All things being thus made ready for her guests whom she purposed to invite she sends forth her servants She crieth upon the highest places of the city who so is simple let him turn in hither as for him that wanteth understanding she saith to him come eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mingled Jt shal be to your soules as a tree of life a wel springing up into everlasting life in every one of you But as we shal shew more fully afterwards man in his perfect innocent state professing himself wise when he should have seen himself simple or at most wise only in part wanting yet that which should make him fully and immutably so became a fool And because when he knew God he glorified him not as God neither was thankful he became vain in his imagination changing the glory or likenes of the incorruptible God manifested in Christ into an image made like to corruptible man and to birds four-footed beasts and creeping things to the darkning his foolish heart that changed the TRUTH of God into a lie the original and first sin worshipping and serving the creature more then the Creatour God blessed for ever Conformity to Christ the first and most perfect patern and Rule of all obedience unto Gods word and declared will is the TRUTH of God which the first Adam changed into a lie endeavouring as much as in him lay to make it void and set up some other thing even himself in the place thereof as the law and Rule of his action which he was forbidden In departing from and disobeying of Christ who was the law of Gods mouth from the beginning the word that was commanded to a thousand generations he tasted the bitter fruit of his own doings and was ensnared by the work of his owne hands He was enticed by his owne lust sin conceaved which being perfected brought forth death And if it be objected 't was impossible the first Adam should sin against Christ or the TRUTH of God as it is in Jesus because where there is no law there can be no transgression when as yet nothing was declared of Christ there could be no offence against him The Answer is easy and plain There was both knowledge and need of Christ before the fall as well to prevent and keep out sin from entring into the world as to expiate and deliver from it by his death after it was entered and secure against its return againe This the Apostle Paul asserts with great cleernes in his Epistle to the Romans shewing that Adam was but the Image and figure of him that was to come Christ made from the beginning the power of God unto Salvation and the righteousnes of God that was to be revealed from faith to faith This man at his creation and before his fall could not be ignorant of For that which might be known of God in Christ by the book of the creature was shewed to him and made manifest in him For the invisible things of him even of Christ who is the invisible image of God and hidden mystery ordeined for our glory before the world and kept secret in God were cleerly seen and to be known by the things that are made the creatures he produced to the making manifest his eternal power and Godhead thereby rendring them without excuse that would otherwise be apt to make the forementioned objection and on that presumption thinke themselvs at liberty to change Gods truth into a lie But hereby every mouth comes to be stopped and al the guilty world are subjected to the righteous judgment of God Christ who is the law of Gods mouth required of man obedience as soon as he was created He called upon him to be a hearer of the will of God which he was intrusted to reveale and teach the most acceptable manner of
heavenly aire or Spirit where they are to be ever with the Lord. In effect the day of Christs second appearance brings upon the stage of this world life from the dead working and declaring the first resurrection mentioned Revel 20. which is to continue visible to men on earth one thousand years The glorious chang which shal be made in the progresse of this day upon the soules and bodies of the Saincts shal be such as will no more leave them subject to corruption For over them the second death shall have no power This is another of the dayes of the Son of Man which succeeds the first is to continue a thousand years and then also have its end upon the sons making a voluntary and entire resignation of this his Kingdom unto his Father that God may be all in all For during this thousand years the son in his Kingdom shal be exalted as he to whom the father hath committed all judgmēt to be executed so that what he binds on earth shall be bound in heaven and what he looses on earth shal be loosed in heaven Whom he will he shall slay and whom he will he shal keep alive as the most absolute Monarch and only Potentate that ever reigned on the earth to the end that during this season and space of time all mē may honour the son with the honor due to the father and in this appearance of the Son se the father as in his vicegerent and doe him homage in this his living Image the Lords Christ or anointed one the man that by God is ordeined to rule the world in righteousnes even all the nations upon the earth during this his day which immediatly praecedes the day of eternity and last judgment wherein God is to be all in all The son himself after that all things shall have bin subdued and subjected unto him shal be subject to the Father that put all things under him This second day of the Son of Man is that one day knowne to the Lord not day nor night but a kind of middle state between that which is corruptible and that which is incorruptible It is neither absolutely one or the other but a mixture of both And it shall come to passe in the evening of this day it shal be light and the passage out of this into the day of eternity very pleasing and delightsome It shall distinguish itselfe as hath bin already intimated into the 3 usuall parts of a day MORNING MIDDAY NIGHT. 1. In its morning beauty and appearance the Eliah comes and restores all things as is foretold of him the BRIGHT MORNING STAR which is to shew to the kings of the east the neer approach of the only begotten Son himself and be to them and all other inhabitants on the earth the signe of the Son mans approaching and comming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory 2. In the noontide of this day of the Son of Man in his Kingdom shal be seen the height of the sunshine of that royall power and greatnes which shal be exercised by him in the capacity of universall King over all the earth the season wherein there shal be one LORD in his owne person visible and his name one throughout the whole world 3. There shall also be a declining and evening state of this glorious day which willingly and cheerfully gives place to the day of eternity wherein the father unveyled shall shine forth and be all in all How fitly does Ezekiel in the vision he had of the holy waters represent and describe this growing encreasing Kingdō of Christ revealed in the Gospel the light of Gods law that shines forth in the Son himself into the obedience and power whereof we are to be changed from glory to glory by the Lord the Spirit The waters issued from under the threshold of the house eastward on the right or south side Ezek. 47. Their first comming forth was by measure the measure of a man and gradually from the ankles to the knees from the knees to the loins from the loins to a river unpassable by man as meer man in his first constitution of being 2. 2dly then the same waters came forth in a communication above and beyond the measure of mans first nature into a river that man may swim in without drowning or being at all subject to die any more how much higher soever it rise above the head of the naturall man the first Adam And of this Noah by faith was aware who that he might obtein a state of safety from the overflowing flood by which al the world not made beleevers and taken into the arke were drown'd obeyed the counsel and command of God in building the arke and going into it after it was built and ready to receave him Herein have we a lively type of Christs humane nature offered up by the immortal Spirit and brought forth into the life that is from the dead never to die more but hath the keys of hel and death committed to him Unto the likenes of this heavenly building and temple of the living God in Christs person every true beleever is fashioned and conformed and is thereby made a fit vessel to swim in those waters of life safely and delightfully which by rising up above al the measures and proportions of the first world drowne them but are the proper element for those that are saved to live in They are fitted with enlarged hearts and mouths wide enough open'd to take in and receave those streams and rivers of the emanations of divine bounty and love how broad or deep soever they prove and how high soever they may rise and overflow For they have the man Christ Jesus their head the second Adam who as their forerunner is gone before to prepare the way for them and as the true arke in which are many mansions to receave them into himself that where he is they may be also Of what hath bin already said this then is the sum Christ is the eternall WORD and speaking power of God by whom are all things He is also as hath bin shewed the rock of ages the place of Gods rest throughout all generations the eternal Sabbath Heb. 4. wherein God finished his works so fully to his content that therein he took up his Rest even in the person and Spirit of the Mediatour the mystery which from the beginning of the world hath lain hid in God who created all things according to the eternall purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord. Further This eternall WORD who is the creatour of all things visible and invisible being in the Mediatour the image of the invisible God does bear the name of the blessed Trinity and stamps the impression and character thereof upon all the works of his hands He is the Alpha and Omega the Beginning and Ending of the creation of God In the Psalms and Ecclesiastes God is called by the name of creatours as being three
the lawyer and answer him according to his owne heart and principles What is written in the law sayes he how readest thou The lawyer replies Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart with all they soule with all thy strength and with all thy mind and thy neighbour as thy self This Christ agrees to be the sum of the things conteined in the commandements of God which man is to doe and in the doing and obeying whereof as he ought and God requires will make him heir and sure of eternall life Therefore all that Christ adds is Thou hast answered right this do and thou shalt live But although these few words contein mans whole duty to God and to his neighbour yet as by the following verses does appeare in the parable of the wayfairing man that fell amongst theeves there is more in it then at first we are aware of to perform this duty to God and to our neighbour rightly and after such manner as is acceptable to God For so do to it requires faith that faith which works by love or which makes us new creatures giving us the sight of that man in the person of the Mediatour that hath seen God by whose testimony we also are taught to so him and know that he is and what he is even the rewarder of all those with eternall life who diligently seek him No man knows who the Son is but the Father nor who the Father is but the Son and he to whom the son will reveale him He that beleeveth on the Son of God hath this witnes in himself by the sons comming into his heart and bringing this knowledg along with him giving us to know him that is true and that we are in him that is true even in him that is the true God and eternall life By such knowledg are we preserved from idols and setting up some other thing in our hearts for the true God or from ignorantly bestowing our worship love and service upon him He that beleevs not God hath made him a liar because he beleeves not the Record which God gives of his Son when it is plainly represented and set before his eyes in such legible characters that he is able to understand and perceave the Record even that God hath given unto us eternall life and that this life is in his Son and is to be had only in the gift of the Son made to us in a most intimate and inseperable union which he that hath hath life he that hath it not hath not life Whatsoever comes short of this let it make never so faire a shew for the present it wil be sure to end in death Hence is it that without faith it is impossible to please God because otherwise we cannot know him as we ought with such certainty as not to mistake him for some other thing or some other thing for him And so also will it be with us as to our neibour or brother we shall take him to be our neibour and brother that is not he and he that is not we shall account to be him For not knowing the very Image and first patern set up in Christ our elder brother and the lowly meek spirit in him which with God is of great price how can we know the children and many brethren that are to be conformed to him therein Unlesse we know and love him that begets how can we know and love them that are begotten of him For both he that sanctifies and they that are sanctified are all of one for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren those who if we be are love unto we thereby know that we are passed from death to life And if we love not but hate them sitting and speaking against these our brethren slandering our owne Mothers Sons we are in Gods account no better then Cain wicked munderers whatever righteous works we are conversant in according to the letter of the law Be we as zealous and forward as we will in offering our sacrifices and bringing our gifts before the altar till we be first reconciled to our brother we are directed to leave our gift before the altar as better not to offer it at all with a heart which is without that love by which faith works In this sence are we to understand 1 Cor. 13.1 2 3. If we have al other gifts and good things from God that are possible to be had and not this love with them we are nothing we are but as sounding brasse and tinckling cymballs The saying therefore of Christ do this and thou shalt live according to his owne reading and understanding of the law is do this at present by the light thou art under but give not off be not satisfied til thou come to do it by faith as a new creature with the knowledge and love which faith teaches and workes and thou art a true heir of eternall life and shalt most certainly enter into it and possesse it for ever Leave thy sacrifice and thy guift before the altar in humility and brokenes of Spirit and in lowlines of heart rather then take upon thee to offer it untill thou have the Son given to thee and art regenerated For it is better for thee that thou shouldst not vow then that thou shouldst vow and not pay Keep thy foot therefore when thou goest into the house of God or doest enter upon the performance of his worship and Service in thy natural mutable frame of Spirit and be more ready to heare then to give the sacrifice of fools for they consider not that they do evill even in their very prayers and duties of divine worship By faith it is that the right and stedfast Spirit is formed the whole and entire heart which God requires We may then take notice that there is a twofold reading preaching hearing receaving and obeying of the Word of God and doctrine of his law the one after a lesse the other after a more excellent way the one proportiond to the sight hearing and heart of the natural and earthly man in his mutable state properly called the law the other proportioned to the sight hearing and heart of the heavenly and spiritual man properly called the Gospel How readest thou says Christ to the learned lawyer when he would point out the law in the former sence and as to the latter himself is the reader preacher and worker of it as he is the Son himself and word of faith which through our being in him in whose manhood it is as in our mouth and in our heart is made bread to us and not only possible but most desireable and prevailingly attractive unto us to do and fulfil after him In this sence it is that Christ is the end of the law to all that beleeve and the law in its first kind of teaching or reading is the Schoolmaster or teacher that sends us to Christ and is appointed to keep us under its rule and discipline
till it put us into the hands of a better and surer guide which is the Son himself who by the voice of his Servant or messenger that he sends before him gives notice of his comming But when he comes himself he teaches the way of God more perfectly the way of knowing and loving God of fearing him and keeping his commandements which is the whole duty of man According to this gradual discovery and revelation of the mind and will of God in his law there are several degrees of growth and age that man is or may be acquainted with in the conformity and obedience that he is to yeild to Gods holy law and commandement 1. First that of childhood signifying the state of mans mutability and unstable righteousnes wherein he is wavering liable to be tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine apt to be deceaved 2. The state of youth or years of discerning and settled judgment in those that by faith are strong and have overcom the wicked one in whom the Word of God is abiding and hath taken fast hold and root importing the life of the first resurrection in them at least in the principles thereof over whom the second death is never to have power 3. The state of fatherhood and most ripe years in those that have known him that is from the beginning and are one with him one with the father as Christ and the father are one the church that are in God the father the Bride the Lambs wife by whom is made known the manifold wisdom of God and unsearchable riches of Christ unto the Principalities and Powers in heavenly places the very holy and Elect Angels This importeth the life of the second resurrection in them and the highest ascent into union and communion with God To all these several kinds of growth ages or statures of humane perfection the word and law of God is a Rule suiting itself and commanding the same Duties to be performed as to the knowledg and love which we are to have and bear towards God and towards our neighbour accordingly as the heart is principled and qualified for the performance thereof with a first second or third measure and degree of light and power from God enabling thereunto For that which God requires of man in the obedience he is to yeild unto him is according to what he first gives and causes him to have and not according to what he hath not The commandement therefore of God or the law of his mouth which conteins in it and requires from man his whole duty both towards his God and towards his neighbour is as to the matter of it the same for the rule of mans walking in communion with God either in the first or second Covenant being that which in Scripture is called the law as wel as that which is called the Gospel 1. It is called the law as it is the divine oracle and righteous command of the supreme lawgiver strictly enjoyning exact and compleat obedience and severely punishing the least tittle of disobedience being dispensed in such manner as leaves it to mans liberty and fredom of wil to hear and obey or to refuse and disobey at his owne peril upon the penalties and curse declared in it 2. T is called the Gospel or good tydings as it is the free and gracious condescention or good wil of God appearing towards man which God the Mediatour exercises upon the foresight of what man would doe as left to his owne freewil in and under the law For this in pursuance of his fathers decree does he cleave unto and lay hold of mans nature or the seed of David according to the flesh resolving to bring upon the natural frame of mans Spirit as left to his owne arbitrary choice and freewil a most beneficial and necessary change through which man is prevailed with to give up and resigne back againe that first liberty of his into the hands of his faithful creatour who first gave it and to trust him for the restoring it in such manner and measure back againe as may be best for him and may most certainly and infallibly attein the end for which it was first given which was to fulfil the righteousnes of Gods law Accordingly does he receave it in a new a more excellent and certain manner of hold and exercise wherein it is made impossible for him to transgresse the law of God by sinning and most possible and free for him to run the race of Gods commandements Through this new enlargment and fredom of heart given him by the influencing power of that love which is stronger then death man is so bound up in the wil of God so absolutly subjected to what the law requires as makes him sure to inherit eternal life The living and primitive patern of this obedience is wrought out in mans owne nature in the person of the Mediatour and set before his eyes with an attractive and transforming power to draw man after him and transform him into the same image from glory to glory from the glory of his first creation in conformity to the law in Christs first appearance to the glory of the new creation in conformity to the Gospel in his second And thus Christ enables his beleeving followers to fulfil the law after him who came not to destroy but fulfil it in the Gospel And as some are thus changed by the attractive influence of Christs constreining love others with whom also his Spirit for a season strives by the same Gospel manifestation of him are upon their wilful refusal hardned and fixed in their disobedience To such he becomes a stone of stumbling and rock of offence even to those who after this gracious offer made knowne unto them doe obstinately despise and reject it preferring their first and natural fredom of the Sons of men to this more excellent fredom and glorious liberty of the Sons of God In order to make triall of them herein since the fal Christ hath obteined of the father on their behalf the restoration of that lesser glory and inferiour liberty of nature that ought to be resigned for the greater that excels and is to remain by the price and ransome of his owne blood from whence flowes a conditional remission of al sinners as to sins past and a free and general restoration of them to the priviledg and benefit of their first natural fredom and primitive righteousnes in kind and in such degrees and measure as is requisit and sufficient for the making of such a trial and rendring them without all excuse nothing having bin wanting in him to bring them to repentance and to receave the truth in the love of it He hath given that former sort of gifts to the rebellious also that prove enemies and haters of him in the more excellent gifts and priviledges that he offers them also in a superiour dispensation which cannot be receaved by them without an obedient surrender and losse
in the flesh abolishes and abrogates that dispensation of the mosaical ministry and in stead thereof makes the heart and conscience of man in himself and followers the fleshly tables whereon the law is written by the Spirit of the living God Hereby a conformity of holy flesh is wrought in man like unto the flesh of Christ through the hearing of the word This is the washing of our body or natural man with the pure water of the living WORD and Spirit of Christ through the ministry of the outward preaching thereof to the purging and clensing us from all filthines of flesh And this is obteined through the vertue and price of Christs blood together with the atonement and remission of sins past Under this dispensation it is that by the doctrin of the cross signified in the Sacraments of baptism and the Lords Supper and thereby lively represented to the eyes of the very natural man he is taught the Gospel a second time under the Scripture dispensation of law and Gospel Neverthelesse this teaching yet is short of the glory of God to be revealed in and by Christs personal appearance in Spirit which as it is the 3. Third and last dispensation of law and Gospel so does it differ in excellency and glory very much from the other two For it is the fruit of the vine which Christ reservs to drink with his owne brethren and faithful Servants in the Kingdom of his father or which his father hath given unto him that those that have continued with the Son in his temptations and followed him fully in the regeneration may eat and drink at his table in this his Kingdom and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel or the natural and fleshly holy seed jew or gentile who at that day shal be found to be but in their mutable state of righteousnes and life This is the best wine far exceeding any before receaved in types figures and Sacraments being that which Christ keeps till the last as that fruit of himself the heavenly and true vine which will refresh the heart of God and of man or of the divine and heavenly man as wel as of the earthly and natural man brought forth in the exercise of an immutable righteousnes and made after the power of an endlesse life The former of these is to sit at Christs right hand the latter at his left in this his Kingdom and glory unto which both of them are fitted and prepared by the father through the lively conformity they are taken into and made to beare with Christ in his death and resurrection So much be spoken in way of resolution to the first general query of the 4 above propounded to insist on in this Treatise to wit concerning the subject matter of the law or command of God delivered to man by the divine WORD and oracles of God under the threefold dispensation thereof together with the difference of these dispensations under the law of nature Scripture Spirit The time of the latter branch of the 2d dispensation beginning with John the Baptists and Christs owne personal ministry in the flesh is now far spent and the yet more glorious day of Christs 2d appearance and dispensation in Spirit is at hand The second General query to be insisted on is concerning the mutable state man was created in at first and remains in even after the fall out of which he is again capable to be changed and either restored and regenerated by the knowledg of Christ in the Gospel or else cast down for ever into eternal perdition The WORD that hath bin the old Commandement from the beginning that it may evidently appear to all understandings to be the word of Truth doth branch itself forth as hath bin declared into two Testimonies or witnesses which are both of them the law of Gods mouth The one conteins in it the doctrine of the law of works the rule of mans first communion with God in the first Covenant the other the doctrin of the law and righteousnes of faith the rule of that 2d communion which God thinkes fit to take man into in the spirit of his Son which can never be lost as the first may but endures to everlasting life Now two Testimonies according to the law are sufficient for the discovery and confirmation of all truth Answerable hereunto does he that is Truth itself shine and give forth the light of his glory whose two Testimonies may either be joyned in consortship harmony and subserviency with and to one another in the ministry and dispensing of them and so become a law of life to all that heare and obey them that new song mention'd Rev. 14.3 sung before the throne called chap. 15.3 the song of Moses and of the lamb sung together in perfect harmony and agremēt which no man can learne but the 144000 Virgins that follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth being redeemed from among men as the first fruits to God and to the Lamb. But now these two laws or Testimonies of works and of faith as they may be taught and dispensed in difference disagreement inconsistency and opposition one unto the other may become a ministry of death either by setting up and exalting the letter above and against the spirit or disjoyning the spirit from the letter as that which may be without it and needs no consortship with it This is the work of the false deceitful Spirit the father of lies and is not of the Truth Now these being the Testimonies which from the beginning are commanded by God to be heard and obeyed no sooner was man created in Gods image and endued with an immortal intellectual rational and sensual soule made a free agent but God set them before him as a meet and capable subject to be made wise and happy in the practice of them The work of the one of them was immediatly written in his heart by the finger of God at his creation and the word of the other of them as soon as he was put into Paradise was sounding every wherein his eares and was exposed to the sight of his mind in the visible types and signes of the Sabbath the institution of marriage the tree of life and by the ministry of the holy angels Two things are recorded by Moses concerning the first make and constitution of being given unto man by God at his creation The first we find Gen. 1.26 27. where the counsel is taken by the blessed Trinity his creatours within themselvs saying Let us make man in our image after our likenes and let him have dominion over the visible creation and be fruitfull multiply and replenish the earth ruling over every living thing that moveth upon the earth So God created man in his owne image in the image of God created he him male and female created he them God is in his being the highest reason and the operation or work of his mind is discovered and made knowne by the word of his
second of them it seemes very evident that the day of Abrahams naturall seed continuing a nation and visible church owned by God as a peculiar people above all others is certainly intended Yea in some respect we may carry up this day of Abrahams naturall seed as high as shem the blessed Son of Noah in whose loyns and under whose blessing Abrahams seed are comprehended Gen. 9 26.27 Blessed be the Lord God of Shem. and Canaan shal be his servant The true and right iew is here distinguished from all the wicked hardned world 2dly T is said God shall en large or perswade Japhet to dwell in the tents of Shem or in the same spirit of faith and thereby become a fellow citizen with the Saints and of the houshold of God But if this be not admitted the date of the beginning of this day cannot be denied according to Stevens computation Act. 7.8 to have bin at least when God gave to Abraham the Covenant of circumcision And so Abraham begate Isaac and circumcis'd him the eight day And Isaac begate Jacob and Jacob begate the twelve Patriarchs that were the originall heads of the twelve tribes the Israelits to whom perteined the adoption the glory the Covenants the service of God and the promises whose are the fathers even from the beginning of the new world after the flood and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came who is over all God blessed for ever Amen By his comming he gave a revivall to Gods work in the midst of its dayes Hab. 3. or in the end of the second day and by his death ended also that whole dispensation of the circumcision relating to the naturall seed of Abraham and the Mosaicall ministry The second day being thus found in its beginning as well as ending it will not at all be difficult from the beginning of that especially if considered as from the time of Noahs bestowing the blessing upon Sem to fill up the space of time of which the first day consists And therein shall we find the continuance of another line wherein God declared himself for the propagating and carrying on of the holy seed of the church For after the death of Abel that was murdered by his brother Cain Adam knew his wife againe and she bare a son and called his name Seth for God appointed him as another seed in stead of Abel whom Cain slew Gen. 4 25. This holy seed from Seth downwards in way of distinction from the rest of the world passed under the name of the Sons of God calling themselvs by the name of the Lord and continuing so to do as we find Gen. 6. till the flood came and drowned the old corrupted apostate world This reduced the holy seed to a new root and spring in the person of Noah an heir of the righteousnes which is by faith Hereof he gave the proof in preparing an ark at Gods command to the saving of his house thereby condemning the world that slighted and rejected that way of being saved These are the two dayes in the end of the second whereof we have bin revived by the comming of Christ in the flesh dying for our sins and rising againe according to the Scriptures It remains now therefore to search out if we can what is the tract of time meant by the third day which is the day of the continuation of Abrahams seed as they are Christs And he that sanctifies and they that are sanctified are all of one He that begets and they that are begottē are the one seed that are the Sons of Gods absolute and unchangable choice and love They are born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man no not of the Son of man himself as standing in his owne will or exercising his owne humane freedom single but of God or of the Son of man as he and the father are one having as it were but one will betweene them Of this holy and good will they are begotten being taken out of their owne wills and made to stand and live in the will of the Son of God as his resigned humane will lives intirely in the will of his father So come they to be one with him as he is one with the father This seed are those that are of Abrahams faith being of the same spirit and walking in the steps of that typicall father and of Christ himself their father in spirit and Truth These are the true heirs according to the promise and are called to inherit the blessing of Abraham in the actuall receiving of the promise of the spirit through faith the adoption of Sons which makes them like David a people after Christs owne heart For the forming and bringing of them to this God sends forth the spirit of his Son or his Son in spirit into their hearts by which thy cry Abba father Thus Christ comes to dwell in them and with them purifying them in spirit as he is pure to a like-mindednes in all things with himself This spirituall seed who are Christs as the children of his Kingdom the day whereof in spirit begins with his ascension are said Col. 3. to be risen with Christ in the affection and desire of their minds which is set upon things above This renders them dead to things below the seen things which are temporary and perishing causing them by the eye of faith to espy out for themselvs a life and to find an ability to worke the righteousnes that is immutable However hidden weak and low this life and ability may be in the motion and activity thereof for a season 't is that that will never faile as to the effecting in them a conformity to Christs death and arming them to suffer in the flesh and to continue with Christ the season appointed for his temptations and sufferings in the whole body of his true members and followers as well as in himself It prepares them to be his true witnesses in a sackcloth testimony a state of patience and persecution from the world as wel as afterwards to be the witnesses of his power and great glory when he shall come to be glorified in his Saincts and admired in all those that do beleeve During the suffering season they are patiently to undergoe all approving themselvs first to be faithfull witnesses under this baptisme of the crosse as they desire to be found afterwards in the number of the two sorts of his obedient children that are to reigne with him first such as are chosen out of the world into the common rank of sons secondly such as are chosen out of that choice to be freinds and speciall favourites They are both of them appointed and prepared by the father to sit on thrones with Christ the one at his right hand and the other at his left when he shall come forth in his power and great glory as may seem in some sort to have bin perceaved by the mother of Zebedees children in
its persecuting power and war on the saincts who prophesy all the same time in sackcloth as a despised rejected remnant of outcasts are according to the true meaning of the holy Ghost to take their date and beginning from that conspiracy or combination of the ten hornes uniting in one preistly head as to spiritualls Concerning the Rise then of this little horne we may safely assert 1. That there was a time certaine when the papal power did begin and that time was after the dissolution of the Roman empire as it was meerly heathenish And this power was as the corner stone to cement and build up the ruins of the Roman empire into ten Kingdoms bearing the name of Christian and acknowledging the supremacy of the pope Secondly That so soon as this power was first in being the power which hath made war with the saincts ever since did begin For these ten Kingdoms with their Ghostly father the Pope have ever since bin treading down and keeping under the holy city or true citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem necessitating the two witnesses if they will prophesy at all to do it in sackcloth that is under great persecution and tribulation Thirdly It is evident that from the time of such beginning of the power of Daniels little horne or last branch of the fourth Kingdom upon the earth the sackcloth Testimony of the witnesses did also begin And after the continuance of the one and the other for the space of 42 months or 1260 years the day of the Kingdom of Christs patience is to expire and the time of the witnesses prophesying in sackcloth is to be no longer But in stead hereof the time of the lambs wrath is to come and be revealed from heaven against all this bestiall domination over his saints and he will openly take to himself his great power and reigne He will set up his Kingdom over the heads or on the top of all the other Kingdoms and Rule with his saints or the earth one thousand yeaves Rev. 20. In order and by way of preparation to this Christ comes in the latter rain of his spirit upon the earth to gather the harvest of the world and keep the last and great feast of Tabernacles to which the true spirituall Israelits amongst jews and Gentiles are invited Zech 14 16 21. These then are the two distinct commings of Christ wherein he comes to his people as the former and the latter raine in this third day that is the day of his Kingdom in spirit the day wherein first he shews his royall patience and forbearance towards his worst enemies and the day wherein secondly he shews forth his royall power and universall irresistible command in earth as well as in heaven The one as well as the other of these dayes or parts of the third day above mentioned do belong to this great Kings making himself knowne even as he is the Son of man ordeined by God to judg the world in righteousnes But it may be demanded since both these make but the one day of Christs Kingdom in spirit called in Hosea the third day wherein he hath promised to raise up the children of this his Kingdom and cause them to live in his sight how comes it to passe that during the long time of Christs first appearance in the Kingdom of his patience the true saincts are in an outwardly suppressed and afflicted condition as inhabitants of the dust trampled under foot by the powers of the world The answer is easy by this short and cleer distinction The raising up or resurrection of them to live in his sight which Christ promises is twofold 1. Such a raysing up as is wrought inwardly in their minds directing them to the sight of things above and fastning their affections and desires accordingly binding them up in the life which is hid with Christ in God This first kind of resurrection is knowne and experienced in themselvs by the renewings of their inward man day by day under the perishings and decayes of their outward when they are looked upon as in the grave in a very sad and low condition by the eye of the world 2. But secondly there is a raising them up to live in Christs sight discernably to the very eye of the world At that season glory and honour shal be put upon their very outward man and they shal be called to sit downe at Christs right and left hand in the Kingdom of his power to the visible treading all their enemies under their feet like mire in the streets They shall also administer healing and refreshing to the whole creation of God For in this seed all nations of the earth shal be blessed and the very creature freed from the bondage of corruption The promise then of raising up the true children of the Kingdom shal be made good both these wayes and that successively the one after the other as will appear in its proper place when the day of Christs second appearance in spirit shal be particularly spokē to But in this the scripture is very positive and expresse that untill we be children of the resurrection in the first of these respects during the season of suffering with Christ we shall never be children of it in the second If we die not or suffer with him now we shall not live and reign with him thē It therefore highly concerns us even as much as to make our calling and election sure to have the certain and cleer discovery yea and practicall experience of what it is that makes the children of the resurrection in the first sence For over those only that are such the second death will have no power And they also are of two sorts being found in a first or second degree of life from the dead which is wrought out in Christ as he is the Son of man In the first of these they are made sharers with the holy angels in their atteinment and fruition of God and goe no higher But in the second they are sharers with Christ in that higher atteinment and fruition of God which he hath as he is the engraffed WORD and is admitted accesse to the very similitude and shape of God in his owne proper forme Man by his owne voluntary sinfull act hath concluded himself and God by his judiciall act hath concluded all men under the death of sin and unbeleif In these chains might man justly have bin left by God for ever bound up in an alienation of mind from all good But by the tender mercies of God in the redeemer he is visited by the power of that voice of the son of God which raises him out of the grave awakens him out of this deadly sleep into which he is not at first so deeply plunged as to be irrecoverable and without remedy This death is properly of the mind as become the servant of sin and it is not only that by which the spirit of the mind is gone out from its subjection to
the first Resurrection The Apostle does there speak of the time when this way of heavenly converse between the saincts that are on earth and the holy angels shal be frequent and usuall and no such wonder or strang thing as yet by most it is accounted This will be brought to passe by the opening of the door in heaven interpreted by Christ himself Jo. 1.51 in his answer to Nathaniel Because I said unto thee I saw thee under the fig-tree beleevest thou Thou shalt se greater things then these What greater things A door open in heaven as a means of easy and familiar entercourse between the inhabitants of heaven and dwellers on earth The angels are to be employed as messengers of intelligence between Christ and his Saincts before the time of his owne personall converse with them on earth For saith Christ verily verily I say unto you Hereafter you shall se heaven open or the gate and door that is made into it and kept open by me for the ascent and descent of my holy angels between me and my Saincts on earth At that day Christ wil be glorified in his Saincts and honour them in the sight of them that hate them God will answer them before they pray whilst they are yet speaking he will heare and speedily avenge them of their adversaries He will grant them the desire of their hearts But when will this day be that these great and wonderfull things shal be seen The text is plain and expresse Revel 11. T is evidently to begin at the rising of the witnesses who shall immediatly upon their rising be thus in the spirit as John was on the Lords day in the I le of Patmos This wil be the proper and usuall dispensation in that day of the Lord that is to begin at the sounding of the seventh trumpet The spirit of life from God shall then enter into the witnesses set them upon their feet and immediatly qualify them to be in the spirit or have their inward senses awakened and fitted to hear and receave messages from heaven and the knowledg of the mind of their Lord by the immediate impression and inspiration of angels employed by him for that purpose We know this was frequently the case with Daniel and most of the other dear servants and prophets of the Lord. Unto Jacob this great mystery and truth was most particularly and distinctly foretold in the ladder which he saw the feet whereof touched the earth and the top of it reached to heaven and behold the angels ascending and descending upon it and the Lord himself standing above and speaking by that means unto Jacob acquainting him thereby with his mind and giving to him most rich and precious promises The interpretation of this ladder was not only made by our saviour to Nathaniel as we have opened but it was at the same time given to Iacob with the vision itself as appears by the Result that came into his mind thereupon when he sayd How dreadfull is this place It is the very house of God where his throne is It is the very gate of heaven through which by the ministry of angels in the hand of Christ as he is the son of man and hath the use and exercise of all kinds of humane sense in perfection in his glorified manhood the inward and outward man of the saincts shal be so affected changed and transformed as to give them a kind of entrance into and a being in heaven even whilst they are yet here in the body This Christ wrought and obteined the power of when he ascended up above all heavens and as man did come to have a more excellent name then the angels Now that he ascended what is it but that he who was in the forme of God and counted it not robbery to be equall with God did first descend lower then the angels into the fashion of an earthly man the lowermost part of his habitable earth Prov 8 31. even the animalish and sensuall nature of man using and exercising as well the bodily as spirituall senses appertaining to the very naturall man When he had done this by laying hold on the seed of Abraham and receaving it into personall union with himself he set up that ladder in his owne person the feet whereof stand on the earth whilst the top of it enters into the highest heaven For he that descended is the same also that ascended far above all heavens that he might fill and fulfill all things That therefore which Jacob pronounced in the spirituall interpretation of his vision is most undeniable This is none other sayes he then the house of God the building not made with hands whose builder and maker is God the fathers house wherein are many mansions built by the eternall WORD and wisdom of the father in the person of the mediatour considered as he is the first borne of every creature and the beginning or first begotten from the dead Col. 1. in whom is that life that is the light of men who was before all things and by whom all things consist The way for God that is the high and lofty one inhabiting eternity to descend and come to dwell in the humble broken and contrite spirit as the place of his rest and the way for the humble poor and broken spirit to ascend into the persence and sight of God all this was wrought out in our nature by the WORD that made himself flesh and in that body died rose again and ascended where he was before as in the volume of Gods book it is written of him This he told his owne disciples Jo. 14. In my fathers house are many mansions If it were not so I would have told you Behold I go to prepare a place for you to set the ladder by which the ascent and descent is contrived into my fathers house for such as you are And if I goe and prepare a place for you you may be sure I will come againe and gather you unto my self that where J am ye may be also At his comming again the same Apostle John finds the thing to be true that his Lord had promised For Revel 11.12 19. it appears that upon the rising of the witnesses and sounding of the seventh trumpet the temple of God wil be opened in heaven which is the same opening of the heavens before-mentioned Jo. 1.51 and there wil be seen in his temple the arke of his Testament the law of the two tables written in the heart of Christ the Son of Man from whose presence the fiery law is to be dispensed by the ministry of angels at which there wil be lightnings voices thunderings an earth quake and great haile The door into heaven being thus set open the risen witnesses are spoken to v. 12. saying come up hither or be with me in the spirit in a mind fitted to enterteine converse with me by the ministry of the holy angels And for such a blessing and benefit be not unwilling