mark it in the 5. of John The Father judgeth no man but hath committed all judgment to the Son that men might honor the Son as they honor the Father He that honoreth not the Son honoreth not the Father that hath sent him God is he that must inherit all honor and glory to eternity but he hath for the present set up Christ Jesus to make himself known unto the world It was not that Christ should make himself known or that we should lye down in the Discovery of Christ but that by Christ the Father might be known and discovered to us and his love and therefore it is said That this is life eternal to know thee to be the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent The meaning is not as if it were not enough to know the Father but that there is no knowing of the Father but by Jesus Christ whom he hath sent for that end So that Jesus Christ hath fulfilled his Ministration when he hath made known the Father and then is the Kingdom delivered up by the Son yea by all the Sons of God when once they come to know God by Christ they deliver up the Kingdom from Christ unto God even unto the Father This is the first thing that is hid under this same Parable Christ bears the name but God doth the thing Christ saith I came to do the work of him that sent me God saith unto Christ thou shalt make me known unto the world But the second thing that is hid under this Parable is the doing of the like works in the Saints as were done in Christ Jesus This is that which they onely see and receive that are delivered from the delusions of Antichrist Antichrist cryes up Christ in the flesh cries up that same man Christ Jesus that dyed for our sins and rose again for our Justification but he knows not Christ in the Spirit he knows not Christ and him crucified in the Saints He knows not the power of his Resurrection in Beleevers He knows not the exceeding greatness of that power which wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead working in us in both these respects is Christs Ministration in the flesh a speaking in Parables First because the Gospell seems to run thus as that Christ hath done this and that for us whereas indeed it was God in Christ God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself 2 Cor. 5. before end And whereas the Gospell seems to deliver to us a History only of what Christ Jesus hath done for us in the flesh It doth indeed hold forth the Model and Platform of that salvation that is carryed on in the spirit and is revealed in the breasts of the Saints I say that is wrought and revealed there sutably and agreably to all those steps and stages to all those points and periods you shal find in the Letter The same things are done in the Saints in the Spirit that were done in and upon Christ in the flesh And now I have opened this point unto you if you require any reason for it why God did speak to us in a Parable and why he shews us things as in a glasse why he shews us rather the Image of things then the things themselves Reason it is because of our weaknesse it is because of our childishnesse It was the manner of the Heathen to put wisdom into Parables to put their wise Observations into fables into pleasant tales and stories for these two reasons First that they might hide wisdom from the Vulgar 2. That they might the better insinuate it into their Children and those that were ingenuous And these two Reasons may be given why God teaches the world by Parables It is for their weaknesse sake It is to take them and lead them by the hand to speak to them in childish things in things within their own sphere and understanding So God hath done to us in the flesh of Christ You will beleeve a man loves you if he wil dye for you you wil beleeve a Creditor wil be reconciled to you if he pay the debt himself Why behold thus doth God satisfie man 2. Rea. God doth this to hide these things from the prophane of the world I thank thee O Father Lord of Heaven and Earth that thou hast hid these things from the wise and hast revealed them unto babes c. And therefore if you observe it Christ did commonly speak to the Multitude in Parables they had Parable upon Parable they had rind upon rind one shel upon another that they could not easily come to the kernell And the Reason is this that wicked and prophane men may scoff and jeer at the Letter and Parable but God doth keep the truth from that contempt and obloquie The outward Court is given to the Gentiles to be trodden down God makes it not much matter men may tread down outward forms and God may let them prophane them but there is a place where none come that defile and that is the Spirit the truth as it is in Jesus Gods Truth is Himself We know that precious things have covering upon covering they have lappings one upon anotherâ— Iewels have Caskets to put them in though the Casket fall into the dirt yet the Iewells will be kept clean So prophane and wicked men may preach and receive the Gospell in a Parable in the outward Letter But what hast thou to do to take my word in thy mouth the word in the Spirit for it is that hidden wisdome that is prepared for our glory as the Apostle saith 1 Cor. 2. Vse Now all the Use of this point I shal make to you is this to desire you to look into your selves whether you know any more then Parables whether you can doe any more then say over Parables Examine your selves by those two things spoken of before Do you discerne God under the forme of the man Christ Jesus Do you see God coming forth unto you in Christ And then do you find the Gospel to be realized in your hearts and spirits Do you find these transactions to be transacted over again in you The death of Christ in you The life of Christ in you The Resurrection of Christ in you Now a further thing I aime at is this and this specially The plain shewing of the Father by the Spirit Hitherto have I spoken to you in Parables the time cometh when I will speak no mâ—re to you in parables but will shew you plainly of the Father I shal only speak at this time of the Object of Divine Discoveries and that is the Father The time cometh that I will shew you plainly of the Father So that the point is this Doctr. That the adequate Object or the whole and intire Object of the Discovery of Christ and the Gospel is the Discovery of the Father unto us This our Saviour plainly intimates here in saying The time comes that I wil shew you plainly of the
Father For if there had been any thing else that they had needed to have known he would have mentioned that also This is life eternal saith Christ John 17. 3. to know thee the only true God and Iesus Christ whom thou hast sent to know thee by Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent as I told you before for we cannot know the Father but by Christ But more particularly and expresly in Iohn 14. 8. saith Phillip there Lordshew us the Father and it sufficeth us pray mark As Pilate and other wicked men as Balaam and the High Priest many times spake things that they knew not all that was in what they spake Sodoth Phillip here he speaks more truth then he is aware Shew us the Father and it sufficeth us It is most true and Christ never contradicts him he never says no it would not suffice to know the Father The Father is the whole object of divine Discoveries The Fathers Love as in the 6. of Iohn 29. This is the wil of him that sent that of all those he hath given me I should lose none The Fathers Person No man hath seen God at any time the only begotten Son in the bosom of the Father he hath declared him This then I say that which was the scope of Christs comming downe from Heaven must needs be the adequate scope of the Gospell But to declare the Father was the scope of Christs comming downe from Heaven to declare the Fathers Person as wel as the Fathers Love Therfore he is called the express Image of his Person God did not send the Image of his Person but that we should know his Person by that Image Many take up the Image and the Picture and they never know the Person as when they take up Christ in the flesh for indeed Christ in the Spirit is one and the fame with the Father knowest thou not that I am in the Father the Father in me as Christ discourseth in that 14 of Ioh. 9. 10 11. Have I been so long time with you And hast thou not seen me Phillip He that hath seen me hath seen the Father And therefore are these expressions in Scripture of beleeving in God by Christ and coming to God by Him and through Him Jesus Christ Himself in the flesh is but a forme in which the Father doth present himself unto the world But what is the Father you wilsay Ans The Father here is God in Himself bringing forth all things within Himself possessing all things with in Himself God as he is this is the Father you know that is the expectation of the Saints to see God as he is Iesus Christ and all that God is to man in Iesus Christ it is in a form descending or in a condescending form Righteousness is such a form Sanctification is such a form Redemption is such a form All these are but formes in which God descends unto us they are not God Himself as he is And there shall come a time when these forms shal vanish when as the Saints shall heare no more of Righteousness or of Sanctification for Righteousness what is it but a relative word that relates to sin when sin shall be no more righteousness shall be no more Sanctification is a relative word that signifies peculiarity and separation This refers to common things and unclean things but when there shall be no unclean nor common thing but God shall be all in all and all things shall be in a form or appearance suitable to the form wherein they were in God then the notion of Sanctification shall cease so then the Father is the journies end of a Christian That which is first is last and that which is last was first The Father is first of all There was a time when God lived only in Himself and possessed all things in a divine form in Himself His own Diety was his Heaven and was all unto him The time cometh when these things that are brought forth in a distinction from God in proper beings of their own shal be returned and marryed to him and united to that Original whence they sprang and live in his life and shine in his glory And so the Father who is the first shall be the last also The end must find the beginning as the year is discribed to you by such an emblem of a Snake taking his tayl in his mouth the end running into the beginning all things came from God and God by all things shews Himself All things are Pictures and Emblems of God and especially Christ Iesus and the Saints they shew forth the vertues and the praises of God but all these things they must they do wheel about until the end doth find the beginning and so God shal be all in all When God hath made known himself by his Sonne unto the Saints then shal God cease administring any longer to the world as he hath done by our flesh and by the man Christ Iesus but God Himself shall be all in all So that by the Father here I mean not a Person in the Trinity but rather the whole Trinity considered essentially originally as containing in them that state appearance of things which was their first and Originall glory which is said in Scripture to be in the form of God which this present state and appearance waits to be cloathed withall and to be swallowed up in so as to subsist act and live in that and not in their own yet their own not to be destroyed by this nor mixed or confounded by this but cloathed upon with this and so of Christ it is said that he shal come in the glory of the Father Christ is not destroyed but is stil and keeps his distinct being but this being lives acts and appears in the Glory of the Father Reason Now if you ask me the Reason of this why is it not all the Reason in the world that God should only be and only appear and only be glorified He may lend his glory for a time and may lend his name for a time unto others that they may make him known unto the world as a King may lend his Kingly Honor to some Leiutenant in another Country as suppose in Ireland that so that Country may be Conquered for him and Governed for him but when it is done we know all derivative power and authority and names whatsoever do yield up to those from whom they receive their Commission when they have done that for which they had their Commission and so it is in this case Use To apply this same truth I desire you in the fear of God not to mistake me nor wilfully to pervert what I say Let us take heed of Idolizing even the humanity of Iesus Christ Himself of Idolizing his doings or his sufferings We see God through these doings or sufferings of Iesus Christ for us as through a Glass but it is no Blasphemy to say that a Beleever may come to see a Love
copious as well as very sweet bestowing the whole 14. 15. 16. Chapters upon them Among all the comforts Christ doth minister unto them this is one and a chief one That they should see him again and he would hide himself from them but a little while Not only his going away was for their advantage but he would come again to them This he tels them often especially here at the 17. verse of this Chapter A little while and ye shall not see me and again a little while and ye shall see me And to let pass the rectfying of their understandings concerning these promises and these undertakings of his he tels them what he wil do for them when he sees them again and what shal be their condition in that day At the 22. verse in general he tels them Their hearts should rejoyce and no man should take their joy from them And particularly verse 23. In that day you shal ask me nothing saith he verily verily I say unto you whatsoever ye shal ask the Father in my name he wil do it They shall have all their Petitions It shall be a day of grace and favour such as Herods birth-day was when he promised he would give Herodias his Daughter the half of his Kingdom but this is not restrayned to half of the Kingdom for we know the spirit himself is promised to those that ask him the Spirit is the Kingdom of God it is God and his Kingdom and all Another benefit and advantage of that time when he would see them again is this that I have read to you in the Text I wil shew you plainly of the Father Hitherto have I spoken to you in Parables the time cometh that I will speak no more in Parables but will shew you plainly of the Father Obiect But it wil be said Christ spake in Parables to the Multitude but he spake not in Parables to his Disciples or if he did he opened the Parables to them as it s said When be came into the house he opened the Parable of the tares and so he did other Parables Solu I conceive this Scripture meaneth other kinds of Parables then those for in such Parables Christ spake not at that time but under Parables here is meant not only those very portions of Scripture which have the form of Parables but the whole Preaching and Ministry of Christ as Man and not only so but the whole Ministration and Appearance of God in the Flesh of Christ may be called a Parable and thus were they Parables that he had spoken to them in I have spoken to you hitherto in Parables but the time cometh when I wil speak no more to you in Parables but I wil shew you plainly of the Father And this plain shewing of the Father is when Christ comes in the Spirit While a Beleever knows Christ only after the flesh he knows the love of God and the Covenant of God and the things that concern his peace only in a Parable but when God comes to do those things in him in the Spirit which were done to him in Christ in the flesh Why then doth God shew himself unto him plainly This shall suffice in brief to have opened the words unto you The parts of the Text are these two 1. Here is the casting up as it were of the Dispensation or Administration of Christ in the flesh It is cast up what it amounts unto and that is a speaking to the world in Parables 2. Here is the glory of Christs appearing in the Spirit in the heart of a Beleever and that is a plain Demonstration or shewing of the Father In this latter are these two things 1. Here is the Object of Divine Discoveries and that is the Father I will shew you plainly of the Father 2. Here is the Quality of the Spirits Discovery it is a plain Discovery Doctr. I shall speak first of the former shal observe unto you this point That the Preaching and Administration of Christ in the flesh was but a speaking to us as it were in Parables Hitherto saith Christ have I spoken to you in Parables The time cometh when I shall no more speak to you in Parables If we enquire what a Parable is we shal find that the Use of a Parable doth agree with the Nature of this Discovery or Appearance of God in the Flesh of Christ for to this shall I confine my Discourse A Parable is this when there is a latent sense under patent words When there are words outwardly sounding one thing and a sense under those words that is not conceived by the Vulgar understanding This is a Parable It is a Riddle It is a dark saying And certainly the Wise man in the beginning of his Book of Proverbs or Parables as he calls them wherein are the Treasures of the Gospell He calls the Gospell there Parables Prov. 9. 6. Now that Christ in the flesh is such a Parable may be made good unto you thus There is one thing doth appear outwardly and runs into the sences of men And there is another thing held forth under that which few do perceive but those that are singularly taught of God That which is visible and obvious and runs into the sences of men is a Carnall transaction A Bargain between God and Christ The doings and sufferings of Christ in the flesh and by these doings and sufferings our Life our Justification and our Peace This is the outward form as it were this is the Parable Now what is that which is held forth under this Parable There are these two things that are veyled and hid under this Parable which most men doe not set their eyes upon And the first is this The Love of the Father This is scarce eyed by most men but they think that the worke of their salvation proceeds from the kind heart of Jesus Christ and so they look upon his Humane Heart and Affections as the Root and Original of their Redemption Whereas Christ tells us in this Chapter I say not that I will pray for you for the Father himself loves you As who should say though I should hold my peace the Father himself loves you Now this is that which few men see in and under this Parable Christ Jesus in his dying for man was set up by God in the place of God to shew us the great love that God did bear unto man I say he was set up by God in the place of God and that not to shew his own love only but to shew the Fathers Love and therefore we find these names given unto Christ and these things spoken of him That he is the brightness of the Fathers Glory and the express Image of his Person And we saw his Glory saith John as the Glory of the only begotten Son of God The Apostles and Spiritual men saw the Love of God held forth through the doings and sufferings of Christ And therefore it is said I beseech you
the Gospel and why should sin have dominion over me and thereupon I have studied the promises because 't is said There are given to us exceeding great and precious promises that by them we might be made partakers of the divine nature I have looked upon Jesus Christ dying for me because the Scripture saith The Love of Christ constrains us c. When all this while I have been like Siseras Mother wondering in my self why do his Chariot Wheels stay c Why am I not set free from my lusts Is the Gospel a broken Reed Doth it tell us things that we must make up by imagination rather then feel the real operation and experiment of them within us The last Scripture I was much exercised in in relation to these things was this in the Epistle of John He that abideth in him sinneth not Hereupon I enquire what this is to abide in Christ and sought to make it out to my self by my own Reason and to find it out by the Letter of the Scripture and all the account I could give of it did relate to the creatures action I thought we must be still commanding our selves and putting our selves on to abide in Christ and we must call upon one another to abide in Christ And thus was I exercised in a continuall toyle and perplexity and never could see my desires all this while I could not find my corruptions slaine by all these means til God was pleased to hold forth this discovery to me which I do now desire to hold forth to you viz. that it is not the flesh of these things it is not the historicall knowledg of these things it is not the saying you are under grace it is not being under the forme of the Gospell that can change your hearts set you free from sin but it is the Spirit that when he comes doth chase away all Clouds as the Sun on the earth It is Christ in the Spirit who is the truth within you represented by that History without you and yet all these things are the making out of God to you they are not your happiness or your life for our happiness lies not in any action be it in the greatest action not in the mortification of sin nor in vivification but our life lyes in Union that hidden principle within us that is God And if ever you would have this Union and that which is your hope made out to you and would have the enjoyment of it in this life you must wait upon that Jesus that came down from the Fathers Bosom and lived in the flesh you must wait upon him to come and live in your spirits not only to bring you forth in the participation of his nature but to fill you with the fulness of God for so we have warrant to expect that you may be filled with all the fulness of God Now this the Lord shew you to be a Truth There is a two-fold Truth there is a mediate Truth and an ultimate Truth there is a Truth manifesting and a Truth manifested Now the Truth manifested is Union That they all may be one as we are one This is the Truth that God would manifest to us by these things by coming to us in the flesh of Christ and in the Spirit Now the Truth manifesting is the Appearance of Christ in the Spirit sutable and conformable to that outward Appearance of Christ in the flesh without us for our sakes And you wil never have the Love of God and your Union with God manifested to you unless it be manifested to you by the Spirit and except God work the same works in you that he wrought in Christ And thus I have discharged my self of this same Testimony There are but two or three things that I shall speak by way of Use and the first is this Consider that which our Saviour speaks John 16. 5. saith he there It is expedient for you that I should go away and pray mark it here These times from Christs departure are the times of the Spirit And pray mark that in the first place the Spirit is the power of the fleshly administration he is the power within us of that fleshly or administration without us The Spirit is often called power in the Demonstration of the Spirit and Power ◠Observe this that there is but one Administration upon the world at a time there is but one Administration upon a Person at a time So that if you be under that Administration of the Spirit you are past from under the fleshly Administration This is clear from hence that Christ saith It is expedient for you that I go away for except I go away the Comforter wil not come A seed of corn doth not grow up in the eare or the blade except it dye in its own first form and so it is here That which I would infer from hence is this That you must go quite through the fleshly Administration before you can come under the spirituall Administration You must see the Originall of the Administration and the end of it that is the Father the Father sent the Son and he sent the Son to reveal the Father And it is not in the Death of Christ you are to see it it is not in the Resurrection of Christ you are to see it He brings you to the sight of this by the power of these things working within you And to confirm this to you I desire you to consider That when as the Scripture speaks of Christ and when Christ himself speaks to the Father you shall find that the Dialect is exceeding different When Christ speaks to the Father look into the 17 of John 11. And now saith he I am no more in the world but they are in the world keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me When the Scripture speaks of Christ to men it saith That God hath given him power over all flesh that he should give life to whomsoever he will And so the Scripture exalts Christ but when Christ speaks to the Father he doth quite devest himself and saith Father I have kept them through thy name I have manifested thy name unto them verse 6. Mark ye Christ had made this discovery to them that all the power he had was of the Father And now saith he Father I come to thee keep them through thy name It was before by Gods name that Christ kept them but now it breaks forth more clearly that it was through the Fathers name and so I conceive that this is a kind of resignation of the Kingdom to the Father ☞ It is true the Administration was to go over and over again that is Beleevers are first trayned up under a legall Administration and trayned up under an Administration of Christ in the flesh before they come to the Administration of Christ in the Spirit but as Christ himself when he is going out of the world saith I have done all that I came
A TESTIMONY TO An Approaching Glory BEING An account of certain Discourses lately delivered In Pancras Soperlane London By JOSHUA SPRIGGE Esay 61. 11. For as the earth bringeth forth her bud and as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth so the Lord God will cause righteousnesse and praise to spring forth before all the nations LONDON Printed for Giles Calvert at the Black Spread-Eagle at the West end of Pauls 1648. The Preface to the READER THere are three Vanities my soule is afflicted to behold under the Sunne Men professing and desiring an end but denying the meanes Ministers not knowing their owne Doctrines and Principles And Christians not owning their owne Prayers and Hopes when they are shewed them again For 1. what have been the Gaspings and pantings of pretious soules alwayes but after the Kingdome of God to come with power in their hearts their lusts to be conquered their mindes renewed the new creature to wax strong and vigorous in them c And 2ly what hath been the glory of our modern Orthodox Divinity but that The Father himselfe loves us That the enmity is on the creature's part not God's according to these Scriptures a 2 Cor. 5. 19. God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself not himselfe to the world and b Rom. 5. 10. if when we were enemies we were reconciled unto God by the death of his Son c. That Christ is the gift and effect not the cause of the Fathers love That the worke of Redemption or all that fell from or between Gods electing men to their glorification was but the excursion or extravagancy of Grace but the Prodromus or praeludium to glory And lastly what have been the Prayers and Expectations of the Saints but the coming of Christ and his Kingdom the powring forth of the Spirit the times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord to be all taught of God the Lord alone to be exalted the comming down of the New Jerusalem from God out of Heaven c. But what a vanity is it for men to be in with the end and out with the meanes or way conducing thereto What an unnaturall thing is it in Ministers to espouse the forementioned Doctrines to themselves and to be shy of all their kin nay not to know their own espoused except it be in such a colour'd cloathes And who hath bewitcht these Christians that they should not know the Returnes of their owne prayers yet thus stands the matter with us as I have with wonder observed and the evidence of these things may appear by the sequele For first the Lord Jesus as c 1 Cor. 15 45. a quickening spirit dwelling within us informing enlivening acting us is the onely Physitian of value both for Conscience and Conversation the d Joh. 4. 25. Messiah who when he is come will tell us all things the e 1 Joh. 2. 20 27. Vnction that will teach us all things and f Phil. 4. 13. through whom alone we can doe all things g Acts 7. 37. that Prophet raised up unto us out of our selves who will be heard that h Isai 12. last Holy one of Israel in the midst of us that is i 1. Cor. 2. 2. Gal. 3. 1. crucified among us and that is k Col. 1. 27. in us the hope of glory l Gen 3. 15. Gal. 4. 4. the feed of the woman that lies hid and buried in the woman the earth the naturall principle or man a long time even till the due times of the Father when he is pleased to call him forth and m Gal. 1. 15 16. to reveale him in us that n Isai 9. 6. to us a child is born unto us a sonne is given This is the Deliâ—erer the Saviour the Word that is o Rom. 10 8 nigh us the p 〈…〉 engrafted word that is able to save our soules that is q Heb. 1. 2 appointed heire of all things whom r when the Lord brings into the heart of man he sayes Let all the Angels of God all Angelicall Legall appearances Ministrations Operations of man or in man worship Him It is Å¿ Isai 45. 5. He that girds us even while we doe not know him He t Joh. 1. 9. is the light that lightens us even while our Religion and knowledge of him is but worldly and legall while our language is the language of Ashdod and not pure He it is that gaspes and u Rom. 8 9 21 22 groanes in the creature even while it is in bondage to corruption after libertie He vv serves with our iniquities and is pressed under them as a Cart with sheaves And when he x Rev. 11. 17. takes to himself his great power and reignes then is there peace yea y Isai 9. 7. of the increase of his government and of peace there is no end When the Lord z Psa 68. 1 arises in us his enemies are scattered and all our lusts flee before him Though they compasse us about like a Psal Bees in the name power and unction of this Iesus we destroy them and b Phil. 3. 10. Matth. 14. 2. mighty works shew forth themselves when he is risen from the dead in us This c Heb. 1. character of the Father's person is that Coin or d d Money of Solomon that answers to all things and can fill us with the e Eph. 5. 19. fulnesse of God f Joh. 5. 21 26. All life and power doth he carry along with him and in his own person for he is g 1 Cor. 1. 24. the wisdome of God and the power of God h 1 Joh. 5. 12. Whosoever hath the Sonne hath life and whosoever hath not knoweth not acknewledgeth not the Son in him hath not life And therefore it is that the Apostle comforts beleevers with the i Phil. 1. 6. 10. 2 Tim. 1. 12. day of Christ the k 1 Pet. 1. 13. revelation of Iesus Christ and the l 2 Pet. 1. 19. day star to arise in their hearts And m Heb. 10. 37. he that shall come will come and will not tary This is that n Joh. 14. 16. other Comforter the same that walkt in flesh among us but another because he now dwels o Joh 14. 17. in us as well as with us And this was the p Joh. 16. 7. end both of his coming and going away in the flesh that he might come thus in the Spirit This is that coming to which the Law and the Prophets beare witnesse and whereof the whole Scriptures testifie q Mat. 3. 11. I indeed baptize you with water sayes John the Baptist in the name of the whole Law but there is one commeth after me who baptizeth with the holy Ghost and with fire The Law leads us to Christ by the experiment of its weaknesse through the flesh and the vanitie of all things
his coming in the spirit for his Truths to open and empty themselves upon us these with that fervency and uncessantnâ—sse as served to some in stead of prophesies of these things shortly to be to their great comfort and encouragement to expect theÌ„ And now is all that truth we expected come to a new forme of government whether Presbyteriall or Congregational Is this all the new light we lookt for to see to cast our cities counties into Classes and Provinces or to put new names of Pastor and Teacher upon our Ministers instead of the old names of Priests and Deacons I say is this all that comming of Christ in spirit we wanted desired expected Hath this mortified our lusts quickned our hearts beautified our ways that we are at rest Are these the changes that speak the day of Christ so notable so terrible that it is said Who may abide the day of his coming Shall the Refiners fire and Fullers sope find onely a few superstitious Ceremonies to purge out of our Parish Assemblies Is this the shaking of heaven and earth to shake men out of an Episcopal Prelacy into a Presbyteriall Or say it were out of a Presbyteriall form into a Congregationall which is but a step further may not have not these changes beene made salvo nomine with good credit and advantage to the makers O my brethren these are but the delusions of your adversary the Devil wbo if he cannot content you with his old trash he will turne merchant of reformation and cheat you with the superficies of it and he doth it by some such slights as these either he drawes a veile and casts a mist before our eyes that we can see no further than the letter and so think when we have attained that we have the prize or if he can not blindmen so farre but that they see a mystery and glory in spirit under the outward form and letter farre surpassing it then he tells them as once the Iewes when the second Temple was to be built the type of our Iesus his second appearance t Hag. 1. 2. The time is not yet But be not deceived the kingdom and government of Jesus Christ is not outward formal shadowy but u Luk. 17. 21. inward reall and powerfull It is in Spirit and within you not in the persons of men or Ministers without you it is that that shall destroy vv Heb. 9. last sin out of the world and all the fruits of sin and shall replenish the subjects of it with holinesse and happinesse And this Kingdome comes not with observation how else should x Luk. 17. 20. it come as a snare on all those that dwell upon the earth The first and second appearance of Christ are not so much distinguished in time as in excellency and glory And that of Christs second appearance which is now but as a cloud of a hand-breadth shall cover the heavens All things make for this appearance of Christ the symptomes of it are upon the world witnesse y Hag. 2. 6. the shaking of heaven and earth the confusion and unsetlednesse that dwels on the face of all our affaires the security of the world their z 2 Pet. 3. 3 4. scoffing and enmity against the Spirit and Christs second appearance But above all the * Isa 1. 30 2. 6. 3. 1 5 7 12 14. wants and disappointments of the children the bride in the hitherto provisions appearances Therefore lift up your heads O ye Saints for the day of your redemptio draws nigh Now as concerning my publishing these discourses the world hath been witnesse of many hard speeches against me let the world now beare witnesse of the Cause I thank God it is with mee a light matter to bee judged at mans day I confesse that in much infirmity of the flesh have I delivered this Testimony but I obtained this grace of the Lord to be faithfull And here you have them in no better dresse then as they were delivered weigh not words but the thing and consider the scope If any prejudicately stumble at the truth at his own perill be it I may perhaps be clearer in the expression of some things in this Preface than in the Discourse which being compared together may bee helpt One thing I must add in this place That whereas I say pag. 126. That a man can be under but one administration at a time either of flesh or spirit my meaning is That in that degree that a spirituall administration takes place the fleshly administration gives place In that measure that Christs second appearance dawnes on us we are drawing from under his first appearance Besides this I know nothing liable to any dangerous mistake with the unprejudiced But the time is short and I have little satisfaction in publishing disputing or wrangling out these things I desire to be enjoying them and as I enjoy to forget and presse forwards The Lord Himselfe will shortly preach Himselfe with clearnesse anâ— authority and all that cloud of Envie that is upon his appearance shall not hinder him Even so come Lord Jesus Amen The Table of the Sermons SERM I. The foundation of a Christian all laid in his being nothing in himself Iohn 14. 6. I am the Way the Truth and the Life no man commeth unto the Father but by me pag. 1 SERM. II. Somthing of the mystery of the â—ather and of Christ Ioh. 18. 25. Hitherto I have spoken to you in parables the time commeth when I will speak to you no more in parables but I will shew you plainly of the Father pag. 33 SERM. III. The Truth as it is in Iesus Iohn 17. 19. And for their sakes I sanctifie my selfe that they may be sanctified through the truth pag. 66 SERM. IV. On the same Text. SERM. V. The dying and the living Christian Rom. 14. 8. For whether we live we live unto the Lord or whether we die we die unto the Lord. SERM. VI. On the same Text. SERM. VII Solace for Saints in the saddest times On Canticles the first ERRATA Page 39. line 9. for the use of a parable read the nature c. p. 102. l. 1 2 3. for so in each line read see p. 114. l. 10. for fulfilled r. satisfied p. 118. l. ult for eternall title r. externall p. 119 at Reas for this Reason r. the Reason p. 122. l. 19. for enquire r. enquired p. 126. l. 9. for first read next l. 13. after fleshly supply appearance In the first Sermon on Genesis there is bitternesse for betternesse I know not the page THE Foundation of a Christians ALL Laid in his being Nothing In Himself GEN. 5. 24. And Enoch walked with God and was not for God took him YOU have here the Phoenix of his days one that doth make the Holy Ghost as it were to make a digression a digression in the story you have a word here that is like a Star in the mids of the
it may be they are fallen into a form of Communion with Christians others are such as are only state Reformers and the time-Reformers Now both of them although there may be graduall difference yet both of them discover themselves that they are of the earth by this they are to be known by their conceits of themselves by their magnifying their duties and their forms they are in As a Christian ceaseth to be soe doe all things cease to be anything to him and he doth no more admire an high form in Religion then he doth admire himself all things are crucified to him as wel as he is crucified to them But many are like the multitude that Christ spake to in the 5. of Mat. They wil be very Zealous Jealous lest others should destroy the Law who preach the Gospel purely in the spirit and why are They zealous of the Law but because they think they can keep the Law they know only some lower formes of the Law but if they knew the Highest formes of the Law it were all one for they are censorious of others and wil persecute others if they will not come up to their form whereas you shall hear a broken-hearted Paul say that Circumcision it nothing c. Paul saw that a man might be a circumcised Jew yet ly down in hel with an uncircumcised Gentile but others by their censoriousnes of others manifest that they are not ceased to be in the flesh the truth is he that doth know God and doth worship God in spirit hath such low thoughts of all manner of outward forms that he doth neither judg himself nor others in the least kind by them for he sees that which is so much beyond and he is pressing towards that stil he takes heed how he riseth up in the morning and blesseth himself or his neighbour in his form for he sees much uncircumcision of heart in the best form The next is a Use of direction to poore creatures that see and subscribe to the truth That true Christianity begins in self-denyall and are saying what may we do that we may be after this manner that we may not be in our selves that the next word wil tell you God took him Enoch had been as other men but that God took him he had been in the flesh and had confidence in the flesh and had been some body in his owne eyes if so be God had not tooke him so that this you are to wait for till God take you up you cannot bring down the spirit a man cannot make an hair of his head white or black a man cannot make a thought a man cannot mould one desire or affection in him it is beyond his power this is according to that I spake in the opening of the point somewhat toward this namely that it is God revealing himself and his owne glory to the soule that engageth the soule to forget his owne kindred and his fathers house Come faith God thou shalt be marryed honorably I wil marry thee my self forget thy self forget thy sins so indeed the death of a Christian is a sweet death and as the Psalmist saith Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints God comes and takes that place that before Self had and therefore you have the death of a Saint expressed in this manner Into thy hands O Lord I commend my spirit God is there to receive the soul or else the soul would never be content to go out of the body and so it is here spiritually And the 3. and last Use is this A Hint or Discovery to what end death is ordained that formall death that we looke upon with so much fear and with such a sad reflection upon our selves when we think of our selves I must ere long dye and be among the dead This is our Ignorance what is death What is it for It is but an outward forme and signification of that work that God in the spirit of a Saint doth every day for what is the life of a Saint but a continual dying into the hands of God his Righteousness expires into the Righteousness of God God increaseth in him and himself decreaseth he hath less thoughts of himself and his own strength and hath higher thoughts of God he doth less know himself after the flesh and according to outward appearances and he more judgeth of himself as he is in God and as in Christ Jesus so that a Beleever dyes dayly and when God hath finished his whole worke upon Mount Sion then he will withdraw the form of death when he hath brought his people to dye to themselves and to the world as he wil in the latter days then death shal be swallowed up for as we see how men are when they are dead they mind no more relations a Child no longer observes his Father when he is dead ceaseth to act to the relation and ceaseth to act to the objects of this world strew fine sweet flowers before a dead corps the corps smels them not and bring good chear before dead corps the corps tasts it not so shal Saints be to sin and this world And thus I am perswaded God would not have continued death in the world since he hath reconciled the world but to teach the world And what are all these changes when a soul is gone to God before is it any terrible thing for such an one to dye It was the speech of one of precious memory in this City when he was dying saith he I shal but change my place not my company he walked as Enoch did So it is with us in all our changes that befal us they are but the outward formes and significations of that which is doing every day therefore we are not to judge according to the sight of our eyes not reckon our selves by our duties and our graces and performances not reckon by that power we see in our selves to resist sin or act in duties but look to an invisible presence of the spirit in oursouls that can never be taken from us which Mothes cannot corrupt and where Thieves cannot break through and steal SOMETHING OF THE MYSTERY OF THE FATHER AND OF CHRIST JOHN 16. 25. Hitherto have I spoken to you in Parables the time cometh when I wil speak to you no more in Parables but I wil shew you plainly of the Father THese are the words of our Saviour a little before his suffering when he spake not upon his own life but upon the life and comfort of his Disciples whose hearts were ful of heaviness and much ado he had to keep them up from sinking therefore no question but Jesus Christ did grone in Spirit and did go down deep that he might bring up something from the bottom to refresh their hearts tobear them up against that houre that was coming upon him their Lord and Master and upon them in being deprived of him therefore we finde him here very
of God born unto him above and before the mafestation of it in the sufferings of Iesus Christ He may see it in God Himself though by Christ Do not think you know as much as you need to know and as much as is the interest of your life and happiness to know in knowing the flesh of Christ in knowing the man Christ Iesus for unless you know God in his appearance under that form you mistake Christ and make him an Idol I am nothing saith Christ the flesh profits nothing He that sends is greater then he that is sent Christ saith so himself If God be greater then Christ then Christ himself is but a Medium through which you come to be acquainted with God and in which you must not rest There is no comparison between that which is infinite If so be that Christ himself if the man Christ Iesus were eternall life he would not have said The Father is greater then I. No know the Father by Christ is eternall life Take heed of being offended when you shal hear such like Doctrine as this that the sufferings of Iesus Christ in the flesh for us were as it were but a Parable in which God spake to us and that Gods Heart was not set upon the very having of a little blood for the sins of his people but that herein he premeditatedly if we look upon it in the Originall contrivance would commend his love to us and herein if we relate to the lapsed estate he considers us poor creatures as we are and speaks to our childishness and weaknesse who being made under such a Law and having incurred the curse could not see how there could be reconciliation without blood-shedding Be not offended when as you hear that there is a greater work done in the Spirit in the Saints then was the offering up the flesh of Christ That there is a greater Sacrifice offered up to God when as the old Adam mans own Righteousness and Strength is crucified and is offered up unto God I say a greater Sacrifice then the very Sacrificing of the flesh of Christ him self that is if you take the Sacrifice of Christ without the Mystery for that Sacrifice was indeed the root as wel as the figure of this same Sacrifice 2. And in the second place If so be you need be warned of Idolizing the Humanity of Iesus Christ we had need to warn you of Idolizing other forms There are two sorts of formes wherein God appears to the world There is the Humanity of Christ which is the first and the Highest and the most immediate Form and Appearance of God and there are Ordinances in which God appears as it were at the second hand and by reflexion as when the Sun appears in the Rain-bow or when it makes another Sun like it self in a watry cloud which is but the Sun by reflexion so Ordinances are but the shadow as it were of the Image Christ is the Image of the Fathers Person he is but the Image neither but the Ordinances are but shadows of the Image therefore take heed of Idolizing forms your interest lies in knowing the Father not in knowing any form whatsoever and take heed of censuring and judging spirituall discoveries Those that should have told the Disciples that there was a better thing then the presence of Christ with them in the flesh certainly they would have given much offence to them Take heed of being offended if we say there is a higher thing then Ordinances then fasting then praying yea we may say there is a higher thing then beleeving and that is seeing the Father and knowing the Father without a form manifesting and revealing himself in his own immediate light Now this I desire you to wait for and seek for and to press towards this point and that for these Reasons 1. Because every form hath weakness in it and therefore you cannot rest in the knowing God in a form 2. Every form hath some unlikeness in it which comes to pass through our mistake and certainly your great Clarks do so criticize upon the Letter of the Scripture that they are by the Letter many times led out of the way and from the mind of the spirit and those that look upon Christ and calculate all the actions and sufferings of Christ with an eye of Reason What a strange thing do they make of the Gospel They make it a notional thing Every form hath weakness and an unlikeness in it you wil never see God as he is till you see him without a form till you see him in Himself 3. I shall shew you what are some of the actings of that state of Beleevers when they shal come to be past form Christ tells you some of them here John 16. In that day saith Christ you shall ask me nothing There is one But what then Whatsoever you shal ask the Father in my name he wil give it you This is another This is a Beleever that is come out of a form that is gone beyond this form when he goes to God not in the name of an outward Mediator only but he goes to God in the same Spirit in that inward unction that is upon him for that I conceive Christ meaneth here whatsoever ye shal ask the Father in my name Now every Beleever hath the name of Christ upon him and hath the name of the new Ierusalem upon him and hath the new name upon him his name is the Christ of God the annoynted of God the annoynting that is upon you shall teach you all things now then is that man past formes that goes to God as Christ himself would go to the Father if he were in distress He goes in the same unction that was powered upon Christ Jesus So he doth not formally make use of the name of Christ as a man would use the name of some great man and say I beseech you Sir that you would do this favour for me for such a ones sake but he goes to God as a woman comes in her husbands name right or interest to a great King her husband being a Favorite of that King the woman doth not make use of anothers name but she makes known to the King what she is and under what relation she stands and so doth a Saint come in the same anoynting of Jesus Christ to the Father for God in raising up Christ doth shew to us that he will raise up all that are his as he raised up the man Christ Iesus not raise them out of the grave of earth only but out of the grave of Self out of that same base being they had in Self and corruption unto that glorious being in God 4. And then another thing is this At that day you shall ask in my name and I say not unto you that I wil pray the Father for you for the Father himself loves you Alas while we are weak we know not the Love of the Father to us but think that Christ
that will cause blood when we make a necessity of the same things to be wrought in us as were wrought in Christ Iesus For as God hath sent Christ into the world so did Christ send these his Disciples into the world that is as God did send Christ into the world to make known himself so Christ Iesus when he hath fulfilled his Ministration in the flesh he sends out Beleevers I say he sends out Beleevers upon the same design to make out God and his glory to the world So that then this is a sure and satisfying ground why the same glory of the Father must work in Beleevers that wrought in Christ because that Beleevers are sent out upon the same errand and design that Christ was sent about As thou hast sent me into the world so have I sent these into c. Beleevers hold forth God in a spiritual discovery to the world that is they hold forth that glory of the Fathers working and discovering it self in them in a spirituall way which Christ held forth in a fleshly way My meaning is Beleevers are not lift up upon a material Cross as Christ was and do not suffer without the gate as Christ did but their Old man is crucified spiritually and they are raised and quickond by a lively hope spiritually This is the Reason that Christ saith As thou hast sent me into the world so have I sent them into the world Therefore sanctifie them with thy Truth thy word is Truth And for their sakes saith he I sanctifie my self This is as it were the making up of the Reason and the meaning of it is this saith Christ Herein doth thy design come to its period and perfection even in the Sanctification of my Members Herein thy design Oh Father is come to the birth and is brought forth for while this design works only in my person it is not at its term and period till it come to work in their persons for I am but as it were an intermediate forme and person in whom thou dost discover thy self for the present with relation to the like discovery in them through the spirit afterwards And therefore saith he For their sakes I sanctifie my self that c. As who should say If it were not in relation to them there should be no such thing as my dying and suffering and rising again It is but in relation to their Sanctification that the same glory may work in them in the Spirit conformable to this pattern of mine in the flesh And thus you have the meaning of the words For their sakes I sanctifie my self c. That which I shal insist upon at this time is the last word of the Text Through thy Truth So that the Observation that I would ground thereupon is this Doctr. That that Glory of the Father which works in the body of Christ the Saints is the Truth of that same Image that did appear in the head of that body Christ Jesus It is called an Image in 2 Cor. 3. ult we all as in a glass behold the Glory of the Lord there it is equivalently called an Image for your face in a glass is but an Image of your face but it follows more expresly And are changed into the same Image from glory to glory But stil I desire you to carry that along that a Beleevers crucifying is not a fleshly crucifying as Christs was but his Old man is crucified by spiritually discoveries This is the Truth and the other is but the form Now I must explain my self here You wil ask me whether that same work of God that is wrought in the hearts of Beleevers be their eternal life their happiness and salvation Whether that be their Righteousness for there is a great prejudice against Doctrines of this kind as if we did take away from Christ and give to that work of God within us that honour that is due to Jesus Christ Answ Now I conceive that neither the Actions of God in Christ I mean of Christ dying and rising nor the like Actions of the Spirit in us conforming us unto Christ are our salvation or eternall life but the making out of eternal life they are only the Manifestation of that grace that was given us before the world began If you ask me then what is our happiness and our life I conceive that God alone is our happiness God in union with us Mark it not only God loving us for love is but an expression to us Love is a sweet thing among the creatures and we know what love is from one to another but the Love of God to us is but the making out of a kind of spiritual Union that is between God and a Beleever So that to say that the Love of God placed upon us is our happiness is too weak and too low an expression but this is our happiness that we are in God and in Jesus Christ and that the Father and the Son is in us and is our Righteousness and our Strength in Union with us This is our happiness and eternall Life Now I say all the Dispensations of God are but to make out these things unto us Give me leave to illustrate it to you by going a little about This was our Lot and Portion from the beginning God was our Portion and God did maintain our Lot as Psa 16. And God was become in Union with the creature This was in the beginning of the Creation and this was in the Person of Christ Iesus as an Earnest of the whole but this same Union and this great happiness that the creature might be sensible of it and that it might come home with the greater advantage as it were and we might have the more lively taste of it therefore did God ordain all those intervening administrations therefore he makes the first Adam as a figure of Christ and therefore he bestows but a little grace on Adam or makes him mutable that he might fall that the Love of the Father might be the more manifested to us which we could never have seen nor admired so much if we had not been thus led about unto it And this is the end of Christ in the Flesh and Christ in the Spirit and so I shal come to shew you the difference betweene Christ in the Flesh and Christ in the Saints for if we give glory to any other then unto Christ we shoot beside the mark we give it to Christ stil but there is Christ in the Flesh and Christ in the Spirit both these agree to make out the Father and here is the difference of that work of God within us from that work of God in Christ This latter is the Truth of the former Sanctifie them through thy Truth that is do thou act those things really in them which are done in a figure for them upon me There is the Truth I desire to cleer up this to you by some famiâ—â—ar experience You know that Jesus Christ is said
leading them into Canaan Did not they fall back in the wilderness Was it not so in Abraham when Isaac was born and growing up to his Fathers hope Then Isaac must be sacrificed So I conceive it is here the Spirit began to be sprinkled in the primitive times in gifts and since that what an Apostacy hath there bin So that the Spirit is yet to be poured out and now after the Apostacy is to be the harvest And so I am perswaded many Christians enter into Ordinances in the Spirit and fall back into the flesh there remains therefore a Restitution a latter day a latter rain as Job speaks at the latter day I shall see God in my flesh and is not the Lord putting up his head in our Horizon Therefore think not the promises of life and salvation have given down all they have travailed with FINIS A Postscript LEast my meaning in any thing be lockt up from the Readers understanding I thought good to add the key of this distinction 1 There is a two-fold Administration of the Kingdom of God viz. outward and inward the outward in signs the inward in truth 2. As the outward and the inward Administration are contradistinguished the one to the other so they are distinguished and differ gradually in themselves i. e. The outward Aministration or Letter of the Gospel excells that of the Law So likewise in the inward Administration or Revelation in us The first Appearance of Christ in us is swallowed up of his second Appearance in us The Kingdom of the Father excels the Kingdom of the Son and the state of the Resurrection of Christ in us the state or likeness of his death And therefore when it is said that Christ in Spirit dwelling and working in our hearts reveals the Father plainly whom we saw but as in a Parable in his flesh or without us I desire ye should understand also that the first Appearance of Christ within us doth not give a full and perfect testimony and witness of the Father for then the Apostle would not have said of such that they see darkly and there would be no expectation of a second Appearance and upon this account it is that in that discourse on John 16. 25. I speak of Righteousness and Sanctification and Faith and Love being forms or glasses which must all be resolved into God at length that he may be all in all And the same thing I desire may be carryed in mind for the understanding of those discourses on John 17. 19. That as the inward Appearance and Working of Christ is the truth of the Outward and the outward is but a Form serving thereto so the second appearance of Christ in us is the truth of the first appearance and the first appearance is but the way unto the latter And when as in those discourses on Rom. 14. they are held forth as dying Christians that stick in Forms and things outward in the flesh of Christ I desire Saints may be aware that there is the flesh of Christ within them or a fleshly manifestation or appearance of Christ in flesh in them which is that that they are not to satisfie themselves withall but are to waite till they be brought forth with Christ in the glory of the Father till faith and Righteousness and al those Forms Vails be broken up into one single view of the Father or God al in all till childish things thoughts and language be put away and we see God face to face as he is till God himself be a place of broad Rivers and Streams in his own Name and not under another name till he make all things new and bring forth all our injoyments of him in a new light and a new glory So much as we are short of this so much are we under death though we may be past from outward forms and have the life dwelling in us And they that shall deny this to be possible in this life must deny the new Jerusalem to come down from God out of heaven and the expresse letter of Revelations Chapter 22 verses 3 4 5. where it is written And there shall be no more curse but the Throne of God and of the Lamb shal be in it and his servants shall serve him And they shall see his face and his name shall be in their foreheads And there shall be no night there and they need no candle neither light of the Sun for the Lord God giveth them light and they shall raign for ever and ever And they that say this body of ours hinders err not knowing the power of God and what that flesh is that cannot inherit which is not this body which is in its self neither good nor evil but the subject of two Inhabitants two Men and so is good or evil as it is ruled by the one or by the other the old or the new man Self or Christ the old man may be and is destroying in Saints dayly while the body remains These things are hinted in the precedent discourses more generally and obscurely I add this only for explanation FINIS