what can that man feare that is thus transacted transplanted united to God drawne up into God in whom all selfe and flesh and carnall ends 2 Cor. 12.9 is perished dead and buried and he made a new man in Christ rissen in and with Christ Here is the man is here spoken of Here is the boldnesse of a Saint No marvell all the world nor all the fluctuation of and in the world cannot disturbe this mans Spirit for he is above all aloft he is in the bosome of Christ Oh dearest friends this life is a hidden thing and you that injoy it know it and none else I know your experiences of this life farre exceed what ever my tongue can expresse when men have imprisoned you and thinke they have overcome you then are you most at liberty When they have brought you to poverty then have they most in richt you when ye die ye live when you have all things then have you nothing 2 Cor. 6.10 when you have nothing then have you all things Phil. 3.8 you are so taken up with Christ that all below Christ is as drosse and dung Gal. 6.14 and you say with Paul God forbid that I should rejoyce in any thing save in the Crosse of Christ by whom the world is crucified unto mee and I unto the world While you are with Christ what can hurt you all the troubles in the world sease no more on you then water on a Ducks back While the world is reviling you are singing while the world is imprisoning you are imbracing While the world is hating and persecuting you are loving While the world is casting you off for sects and scismaticks you are in your injoyings While the world smites Christ is kissing such a mysterious hidden secret is the life of a saint that it befooles all the world When the world thinks they deserve their hatred they love and pittye them while you think they look upon you they looke above you their eye is not upō their opposers but what they injoy from Christ they are of more noble higher spirits then to fasten their eyes so low as upon their opposers I professe when God brought mee of from one condition of boldnesse to another but especially when hee fetcht mee off from legall and pharisaicall boldnesse in so much that I saw that all boldnesse which had its rise and birth in self from self and to self it must bee confounded and I came to see that all true boldnesse must run out from the very heart and loves of Christ it must bee from a spirit fild with such royall noble divine bloud as none but the sonnes of God pertake of and then I saw the world was of a bloud so low and base that it cannot bee sensible what this life is The second thing we would come to shew is wherein this boldnesse dothcōsist A soule thus made one with God made righteous by God in the injoyment of God and by the righteousnesse of God revealed in us he is bold in these three regards First He is bold with God Secondly He is bold in declaring for God Thirdly He is bold in undergoing any thing laid upon him by God First He is bold with God he is free and familiar with God There is such intimate communion between Christ and him that he can freely and with a sonlike spirit and affection ask any thing of God his enjoyments embolden him For he sees God so unbosome himself to him that his very heart is not too much for him Hee asks not as a servant with slavish fear but as a sonne as seeing all his inheritance is in God He knowes what ever is in God in Christ is as freely his as they are Christs he hath as true right to them as Christ Hee layes claime to all the beawties and glories of Christ to all the riches life and treasures in Christ as his owne proper portion He does not aske with a daunted fearfull spirit he approaches into his very Bosome to his very Heart and what ever is there hee knows is his owne to aske and injoy and this he does freely fully he layes claime to all Divine loves And by this injoyment he makes returnes of loves all the loves his heart can hold shall all run out to God againe by this very imbracement he comes to act in God and God in him And I pray you observe this and think of it when you do not see mee The very injoyment of God carries over your spirits all you are to God to give up your selves to him you will not stand upon such needlesse questions Whether saints are bount to duty they by that very act of injoying God make themselves over to God to be acted and ruled by God their owne will ceases and Gods will is become one with theirs and theirs with his you cannot chuse but love act for God for you are with God in God Friends I hope some of your spirits doe eccho to these truthes and finde them true by your injoyments in some degree Doe not thinke that this is the life you must look for only hereafter when you are come to Heaven after this life I tell you this life is now and I verily beleeve the time is coming that saints shall come to see this life made good to them and in them more and more Object But it may be some will say you speak of a very high life is it possible that such poore Creatures such poore Wormes as we are should be so imbraced by the Eternall God How comes this to passe Answer Answ In three regards the Saints have experience of these things First In regard they know they have a propriety in him Secondly In regard they have knowledge in experience of recourse to him Thirdly of a constant familiarity with him First They have a knowledge of propriety in him they know that God hath made himselfe their Father and they his sons this makes them bold who can be more bold with a Father then his sonnes Though Abraham be ignorant of us yet thou art our Father Isal 63.16 behold we come unto thee for thou art the Lord our God They know God does not cast them off because of their sins this does not make them no sons but they look upon God as an infinite gracious loving Father They have experience that coming to their Father is a meanes to purifie their hearts and if they stand off till they have clensed thēselves this has been a means to throw them more into sin and though they have sinned yet they throw themselves into his armes they have experience that he dos not upbraid them for coming to him in asking themselves how durst they aproach to him being so defild with sin But they finde that bringing their hearts to him is the only way to cleanse themselves they finde such loves in the bosome of the Father such bowels to pardon such embracements that they know no
way in all the world comparable to this to breake their hearts and to make them throw sin far away Time was when they said true it is Christ calls and invites mee to come but I am so defiled so sinfull I dare not come I will reforme my life and get more power against sin and then I may goe with boldnes But this soule who hath injoyed the loves of God so sweetly so intimately he findes this is the way to remaine foule still And though hee might refraine sin yet he was not purged from sin This end and that end wrought with him something from self and to self but sin as sin was as strong as ever But he found this way the only way to heale sinne and get a new heart a new nature viz. to throw himself upon his Father into his Fathers armes Though Abraham be ignorant of us Isai 63.16 yet thou art our Father And this going to God frees us from our sinnes and nothing else To say I am legall and I am full of corruption I am weake and I can doe nothing all this while we stand at a distance and weaken our selves more We are not free we are lockt up in our selves and strive by our own strength But if you would be holy throw your selves into the loves of God this very injoyment will give you an inlarged a free and broken heart then sin will be hated from a new nature God dos not say I love you if you be holy but I love you to make you holy Beloved this is the new covenant that the Gospell holds out to us and herein lies the power of the Gospell to make of unrighteous righteous to work by love not by constraint Men that never had experience of this life they lay Lawes and Constraints upon men to duty and know not the power of love When the Prodigall had but a resolution to throw himself upon his fathers loves you see how he was received No sooner dos God open his heart to a poore sinner but he sees the everlasting roling bowels of a Father toward him and then they interchange loves and bowels Hos 11.8 That their repentings are kindled together Ier. 31.22 I doe earnestly remember him still my bowels are troubled for him Jer. 3.22 Bowels role towards one another and then the poore sinners come to see their own names writ in their own hearts that before was writ in the heart of God And see his dearest loves have ever been toward them for good He sees now he was not excluded from God because he had departed away from him and blacksliden but was the rather cald to come to him because hee had blackslided and defiled himselfe Jer. 3.22 As Jer. 3.22 Returne ye backsliding children and I will heale your backslidings Behold we come unto thee for thou art the Lord our God He has experience that he had laine long striving against sin but found no power from a right ground from a right principle But when he it may be after many years striving with his lusts to subdue them and bring them under he resolved at last to goe to God and said Lord here is my heart as bad as can be the more I strive with it the worse it is I have striven long and cannot conquer one sinne but Lord doe thou now take it doe with it what thou will all this while I was asham'd to come to thee my heart was so bad now I commit it to thee and then hee found a subdued heart and never before So long as I look upon my obedience and my conformity and when I see a want I hold off from God this breedes obstructions between the soule and God Your praying and your duties and your obedience doe declare that you live in God and not that they may bring you to God Brethren this is the way have you finned and falen from God stay not but returne to God then he will heale your backsliding Stay not as men usually doe till your selves have healed your own backslidings and then you will beleeve This way doth never rightly overcome the heart but be ye weake Christian or be ye strong try this way and you shall find a wonderfull change in your spirits you may draw nigh to God with boldnesse the way stands open God never chid a soule that throwes it self upon him Againe this often recourse to and familiarity with God it makes a man rightly to understand God to know his very nature men that live out of God mistake God they judge otherwise of his nature then it is Saints by injoying God they know God what a God of sweetnesse and loves he is how free in communicating of himselfe what an unchangable God he is how ready to receive a sinner what loves run from him into them when once they are come in to him though God frowne they know his nature is nothing but unchangeable loves however he deales with them in his Providence they know all his wayes are wayes of love to them He cannot hate them nor doe any thing as a fruite of hatred They understand God they know his wayes with his Saints though he kill them yet will they trust in him Isai 55. Though in externall Providence hee seemes to frowne yet they know what 's in his heart they take all in good part their Father doth unto them This is that which raises up their hearts to a holy boldnesse of spirit What ever men intends they know God smiles what ever his providences are they know his loves are constant unchangable This makes their hearts rejoyce and triumph to live above though the body be under sufferings yet their spirit is free walkes up and downe in loves is compassed about with joyes swallowed up in GOD and lives amongst Divine Crownes If a man have no experience of these things he lives darkly mournfully he measures God by himself if men be angry he thinks God is angry if providence change they think God changes and this raises not but overwhelmes the spirit of a man this sinks his spirit for he judges God like himselfe but what sayes God are my wayes as your wayes and my thoughts as your thoughts Isai 55. As high as the Heavens are above the Earth so high are my thoughts above your thoughts and my wayes above your wayes Secondly they are bold for God ye never see any principle but it works sutable to itself so the Saints have a principle from God which qualifies them so that they can stand for God 1. In suffering for him if it be his will they shall suffer losses ignominy derision yea Death it self they have a principle from God will beare them out Look upon Paul what a spirit had he when they told him of bonds Acts. 21.13 what meane ye to weepe and breake my heart for I am ready sayes he not only to be bound but to die for the name of the Lord
Saints that see not their priviledges by Christ they are ready to say how can this be that the Spouse of Christ is so beutifull so fruitfull they see it otherwise they can see no beuty in them they bring forth but little weake and poore fruit here is some of this way and some of that fellowship some of this Judgement and some of that some are in a Church way and some are not some are Congregated and some are uncongregated I but for all that though among themselves they be divers yet in Christ they are but one You 't is true make a difference but that should not be This is but the folly and weaknesse of men but see and looke upon them as they are in Christ and you shall see they are one to him as they are in him and live with him and in him they are fruitfull though not as they are in themselves The points that I apprehend these words hold forth are these 1 Doct. That Christs Church is Christs Dove 2 D. Christs Church is Christs undefiled Dove 3 Doct. That Christs Church or Christs Dove is not divided but is one and united Now for the first of these if you aske why Christs Church is called Christs Dove I conceive for present 't is in two regards first in regard of their Priviledges how much they are tendred by him and secondly in regard they are made glorious and amiable by him 1. Considering how precious they are to him what affections he hath let out to them the dearest loves and the very heart of Christ runnes out to them singly solely nothing that is in the very bowells and heart of Christ is too good too deare for them there 's nothing in Christ but is there laid up kept and preserved for a Saints treasure all the choice loves of God the choicest life of God is treasured up in Christ for his Saints and when once they have forsaken themselves then to be enjoyed by them and delighted in for ever he thinkes nothing too good for his Spouse he hath not only filled himselfe for them but emptyed himselfe for them poured out his own bloud his owne life his owne glory to save them to inrich them Christ shewes how precious they are to him first in regard of the place where he layes a saint that is in his very bosome in his very heart not only in his common providence but in his very heart he never leaves a saint till he bring it from step to step by degrees into himselfe that the soule is so lapt up in him that he hath made it one with himselfe And that soule that is acquainted with this life knowes this and none else others know not what it means I was sayes he a slave under the Law and it tyrannized over me many a hard lesson and many a hard task I had set me and many a bitter stripe and hee in bowells of loves came and freed me he redeemed me from that tyrannie I was under the killing letter which threatned nothing but death and hell and now I have found his loves in setting me at liberty and now I can read his loves in every line in all his proceedings and these are I say such loves that none can prize but those that have them read seene and felt them in them This is a Saints portion peculiarly to live with Christ to live of Christ to live in him 'T is the worlds portion to live under life and not injoy life but a saint lives in life life and he are one they are brought by Christ into the very overflowings of loves they live in the very streams of loves compassed about with loves Christ comes to them continually sups with them wraps them up in admiration of himselfe and fills them with divine loves Secondly Christ declares how precious saints are to him by taking all advantages to do them good by sin by sorrowes by sufferings by afflictions by life by death every way none of all these but Christ makes them advantages and helps to them When they wrastle with sin it would be too hard for a saint if Christ did not help them and sin would get the advantage over them should Christ but leave us in a temptation we were undone but Christ comes with a conquering unresistable power rescues us from sin and brings us over to the loves of himselfe So also in affliction the saints they moyle and toyle and are even worne out in it that they know not what to do that they are ready to give out and lay downe all then Christ he comes in and supports and puts under his hand to stay the soule from sinking when our own strength is done then Christ comes in nay we many times wrastle our selves into great straits Christ comes now and releases us that when we lose our selves he gaines us and wrastles us into his owne loves and glory he ravishes us with his loves and then also is he ravished with our loves as you see in this chapter Secondly they are made glorious by him and with him as David saith Ps 68.13 They are like the wings of a Dove covered with silver and her feathers like yellow gold 't is a metaphor you must conceive taken from very pleasant and glorious coloured Doves to set out how Christ beautifies and makes his saint glorious and amiable The very same glory that is on Christ is on a saint Christ and a saint have not two different lives two different glories but both one and the same sayes the Apostle 1 Ioh 4.17 As he is so are wee in this world Brethren the life of a saint is a misterie Christ and they live in the injoyments each of other the life of a saint is internall Surely friends let me tell you 't is not knowne by partaking of fellowships and ordinances although wee ought to partake of them and hold them forth to the world but the beauty of the life of Christs consists in the injoyment of Christs loves so that the soule is therein centred and satisfied as it is expressed 17. Ioh. 17.23 Ioh. Thou in me and I in them and they in me that they may be made perfect in one All saints they are beloved with the same loves that the Father loves the Sonne the same riches the same life the same love the same glory is bestowed on them Eph. 11.3 We are now in this life set in heavenly places in Christ many thinke they shall have this life hereafter when they shall come to heaven but those that live this life they are in heaven here and sit now in heavenly places and herein is the great mistake among Professours they do not live in and with Christ here they use ordinances and hold forth a profession and here rest but for this heavenly life this intimate uniting life they looke not after it they expect it not they know it not they live it not Oh brethren did you but
creature must needes simpathize and bee sutably qualified to the creature But he that sits above with God is above all change in the creatures element hee is selfe-denied to the world and all in the world Againe this is the way to persection so far as we are satisfied with God and satisfied with truth so far we live in perfection I doe not say that person is perfect or without sin no but so farre as we live this life so farre we come toward perfection and live in perfection and live with God The new man carries us to God and perfection it assends and carries us upward to God and Christ but so farre as we come not up to this life so farre wee live below God and are drawne downward to the Creature to the World to Hell-ward to Divell-ward as one when he saw a Bird tyed with a stone to her Legg as she mounted to flee upward still the stone drew her downe to the Earth and thereupon he fell a weeping because it did so fully represent to him his own condition hee could not but weepe Grace carries and drawes a man on to perfection but the old man drawes downe to the Earth to defilement to destruction 3. Againe this conditon of a Saints rest is a gathering condition it puts him in a gathering way I pray you observe it this mā is the thriving man he only is in a thriving way this man is like to grow a rich man indeed All our wayes are scattering wayes if we live on the creature we gaine not but scatter and lose all he that lives this life of a Saint that God has taught him this lesson flowing from his own selfe from the very heart of God and the bosom of Christ he gathers such precious flowers of experience and gaines such precious Jewels and Pearles that he counts himself rich in them and in nothing else If hee live beside God he lookes on himself as a man that scatters all as a growing to be a banckrupt one that has no experience of the rich gainings of grace 1 Tim. 6.6 Godlinesse with content sayes the Apostle is great gaine Ther 's no true cōtent but in gaines by grace and the rich experriences of Gods workings in the soule to see which way corruption comes to be crusified and he kild to the world and the world to him to see how his power and life comes in and to observe the glorious outgoings of God and the manner of his glorious and Godlike proceedings with his soule this satisfies and composes his heart to see how sweetly God hath conquered his soule and brought his will into subjection that was so raging so rebellious Then he counts it all joy to fall into divers tēptations knowing finding by experience that the trying of faith worketh patience Isai 13.9.10 to be intire wanting nothing and so farre as he comes into this life of perfection to rejoyce in that he is made low and he that is of low degree in the creature to rejoyce in that he is made rich in God and high in God Ro. 5.4 and he sees how patience bringeth forth experience and experience hope and hope maketh not a shamed We will now come to some short uses and consectories from this point and from the benefits thereof Vse the first Is contentation a saints lesson is a saints spirit a satisfied spirit then so far as any one of us have not a satisfied spirit so far we have not a Saints spirit so far we are not saints So far as we are not satisfied contented at rest and composed so far wee are short of God and have not the life of God so far as we live not with God and in God For this is held out to us in the very nature of God God is in himselfe at rest serene composed no distraction in the Creature touches him he sits above that is hs is free from all changes and all alterations in the world so is that man so farre as he is a Saint being united and made one with God though he live among the creatures as God has his being in and through all the creatures yet he is not altered by the creatures So has this man as he is a saint not his joy his life his riches his treasure in the creature but in and with God above all creatures Againe is a saint as he is a saint of composed satisfied spirit composed of one spirit for that is promised in Jer. I will give them one heart Ier. 32.39 and one spirit then he is not of a devided discontented spirit hee is not troubled with those wishings and wouldings as men below are Oh that I had this condition or that condition but saies he let any condition come so I have God in it God is my rest and not the condition be it riches or health or the best condition wherein the men of the world and so farre as we are unregenerate to think therein is rest oh saies one had I but such a ones conditition such Lands such Honours I could be contented and satisfied oh saies another had I not such enemies were they but cut off overthro wne I should have rest this is not the temper of a Saint as a saint But he sayes I have found that promise fullfild I have the desire if my heart Psalm 37.4 my rest is in God and I cannot tell what to wish other then I have what I have I would have and what I would have I have if thou art not come to this thou hast a devided heart Some men they are ready to say and blesse themselves in their condition and say I thanke God I am contented but wherein is thy content thou hast a good estate and thou hast the desire of thy heart in the creature thou hast rare parts or thou art honoured among men herein thou art satisfied and thou thinks this is a gracious content thou dost not murmur but blessest God for thy condition alasse this is but sensuall this is but nature if thy content were right it would not be in the creature but in God Should God wheele thee into another condition and wheele away these outward contents then where will be thy comfort And some who are gone a little higher they can boast and say I blesse God I am content I am in poverty in disgrace in prison c. I am perswaded to submit to thē because it is so and it cannot be no other waies t is therefore better to bee content then to fight against the conditiō except I could help it this is but reasoning a mans selfe into content this content is not a Saints content that is to be content as seeing an excellency in this condition as seeing beawty and loves Psalm 68.24 and the glorious outgoings of Gods proceedings They have seen thy goings O God who art in the Sanctuary therefore the Virgins love thee oh the sparkling
know this life in experience you would never rest till you were in it and were comprehended by it for I pray mark that this life must comprehend you and not you it you do not know beloved what manner of men you should be were you in it it doth not yet appeare sayes the Apostle what wee shall bee but when he shall appeare in us we shall see him as he is we shall be made like him Christs life shall be in us and we in him We may talke of this life but when we live this life then we shall know it then we shall be swallowed up of it I my selfe knew it not what it meant though I often spoke to you of it till of late and alas that we see and have of it is but little small glimerings of this life In truth I now perceive there is but little injoyment of Christ in the world this life is a hidden life men talk of it Christians talke of it but alas how coldly without affection withoutlove without overwhelmings which shewes they live without it did you know this life and did you live in the heart and loves of Christ in the embraces of Christ it would make us live otherguesse lives then we do Oh beloved how full of loves and sweetnes should we be how full of selfe-deniall how much seeking the good of others as your own it does not make men of that harsh censuring judging spirit that is now so rife in the world it does not make men so sweld fly-blown with their own parts and with the good opinions of others if you had it it would make you live farre above all these things And so far as any mans life and comfort runs not parallel with these things truly let him be never so great in profession in good earnest he lives yet in the flesh and is not gotten into the life of Christ Christ and they are not of one but of two contrary spirits and lives But oh the sweet transcendent loves joyes overcommings that Saints enjoy who live with Christ and in Christ they live in loving and love in living Christ and they are of one spirit 16. Eze. 6. as 16 Ezek. 6. When I passed by thee I saw thee polluted in thine owne bloud I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blond live and I caused thee to multiply c. and then thy time was a time of loves c. then wast thou comly through my comlinese that I had put upon thee Christ makes his Spouse beautifull with his owne beauty but we for the most part thinke highly of our selves and of our own beauty and are comly to themselves through their own comlinesse and therin they glory and most in the world runne this way in practise though in judgement they deny it but he who is come up to Christ to have his beauty put on him his life and his injoyments he hath put off himselfe he hath put of his own life his own beauty his own comlinesse and what ever injoyments come from selfe all these he is crucified too But this is a life none come too nor none knowes what it is in the injoyment of it but he that has it So much for that Head Wee come to a second thing to be considered that is why they are called Doves and that is in regard of the Saints property The property of Doves is to be full of innocencie and secondly full of love and thirdly full of delight First full of innocencie a Dove is the harmlessest creature in the world so are the saints the meekest the harmlessest of all men if they be reviled they revile not againe they esteeme not of the praisings or revilings of the world because they have no life in the world nor of the world as saints If they have they live below themselves they live apart from Christ they are of so mortified a temper in any worldly respect if they live with Christ and in Christ that they cannot thinke any thing a gaine in the world nor any thing a Losse if they lose any thing houses lands wives children honours these they account no losse because to them they were no gaine if they gain any thing they count it not gaine except they gaine their life in it and that is God himself christ himself to have God in all they have or else they account they have nothing if they have nothing if they live as I before shewed you in the very bosome and heart of Christ and in the mutuall embraces of each other that they can say experimentally and feelingly and enjoyingly my beloved is mine and I am his This is their gaine this is their all and they have no thoughts of gaining in the world For if they gaine these things and not God in them they thinke themselves loosers 'T is true they love wife children friends honours so Christ be in them with the discovery of his sweetnesse and loves then they are well and at rest They think it no hard thing to bee reviled in the world if God speake love let blind selfe-seeking selfe-advancing men of the world say what they will And therefore beloved friends observe your spirits doe you find your selves moved and disturbed by others revilings so far you live in your selves so far you are unmortified uncrucified you live not as Christians according to the life you hold forth if you did you would see where their life is how far below Christ and how much in themselves that live in reviling defaming others and in stead of being angry or to your selves and in your selves returning like for like you would pitty them and pray earnestly for them that God would open their eyes that they also may see upon what low and base principles they live and move Againe Doves are single-hearted and full of love so are the saints as saints they love and delight in loving It is observed by some of some Doves and so of Hindes that if their Mates had died they were so affected with it they would die also such a resemblance is in the saints they are full of love to each other are sensible of each others sufferings they doe not seeke to undoe vex and defame one another but pitty and helpe one another they doe as they would bee done by they will not requite evill with evill as do the men of the world and all those that are not come up to the life of Christ to live as Saints for they delight in loving they live by loving and love by living for 't is said of the Hindes and Doves they have these three properties first they live by loving secondly they grow fruitfull by loving and thirdly they die without loving The saints do thus they delight in love they grow fruitfull by loving and dye if they doe not love 1. They live by loving they are carried out in the first place in love to Christ as the cause of their