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
love for Christs love to them causes their love to returne to him and they love Christ also in the Saints these loves are the saints feast they live by Christs kissing and embracing them and by their kissing and embracing Christ and also in kissing and embracing one anothers spirits by communicating to each other their experiences and enjoyments of Christ there 's no greater joy nor higher act in them then to act love these are the dainties they feast on then are they transcendent in their spirits and then are they most full of Christ Secondly Doves are made fruitfull by loving so are the saints when thrive they more then when they have the sweetest communion and are most open to one another to each others injoyments and so kisse and embrace each others spirits No sooner hath a saint kist the heart of Christ but it is made fruitfull by that very kisse by that embracement and by that enjoyment The very enjoyment of Christ makes them fruitfull And they cannot be otherwise They being once come to this to enjoy Christ they cannot be unfruitfull Here is a saint then his very love his very nature provokes to fruitfulnesse if he be not fruitfull what ever he may be taken for as a great Christian because a great professor hee never yet enjoyed Christ never yet knew what the loves the overcomming transcendent loves of Christ were Fruitfulnesse is made over to the soule at that very instant it is like the opening of the pores of the body then the bloud interchanges and have free course and mingles it selfe through the whole body this love of Christ I tell you friends it opens the pores of the soule love and fruitfulnesse runs from Christ into the saints interchangeably as Christs heart is open to you so is yours to him there is a secret convayance to each other in the acts of loves And thirdly they die without it saints as saints except they love they die I pray observe saints as saints cannot die but their life dies their joy dies they live uncomfortably and as dying as if they had no life I speak now in regard of actings a saint when he acts not love he dies he may have ordinances and use externall intercourses to Christ and with the saints and yet he as good as dead no more life in act and comfort then the men of the world if the warm heart-bloud of Christ doe not run and have free course into his soule the saint acts not as a saint but yet he may act in religion worship but t is but to him selfe to his own credit and honour and esteeme among men or for some other selfe-end and yet have no life as a saint The new man and Christ is as dead and acts not and therefore it is sometime a saint has overflowings of spirit mightily inlarged his spirit has no bounds another time he is bound up straitned the pores of his soule are lockt up he hath no intercourse of loves from Christ and therefore has no breathings no declarations of Christs loves to him no experiences he is wrapt up in himselfe and to himselfe and therefore this makes him the soule being as sensible of this as of death for 't is a death to him this makes him to goe to Christ and complaine heavily oh how he grones in spirit till he be revived till his spirit till his loves come into him againe and cause him to act and live Oh! sayes he let my Christ come into me or I die I cannot live 't is true sayes he here is ordinances and here is a fellowship externally but what 's all this if my soule be frozen if my heart be bound up if I live within my selfe if I have not intercourses and returnes of loves from my beloved I die I die Now beloved would you have me make some use of this point from the particulars thereof I hope you have done that your selves as I went along but I will a little make out some uses I cannot be large because of the time and my owne weaknesse and I would make it out to you of what I have found in my own experience though I must confesse it is but lately and no great light neither there are depths there are glorious transcendent truths in these experiences but oh how dark at how small a crevice doe wee see How short doe we come I tell you though I have many times spoken of these things yet how coldly no ravishings no inlargings no overcommings of spirit how bound up truth is I had the Theorie in my understanding and I thought I had practised them because I knew them but 't is but new 't is but small the experience of them but God wil reveale and lead on his saints from step to step that they shall go from strength to strength digging up fountaines till they appeare before the Lord in Zion Professors talke much of heaven but I professe they never were in heaven nay never will be if they come not to this life you hope it may bee this life will bee hereafter But I tell you your heaven is here as well as hereafter in a degree be not deceived to pers wade your selves you are saints and you are Christians and have not this life we have described so farre you are in your sins you are yet below Christ you are yet in your selves you are not come up to the life of a Christian to the life of a Saint Vses from the particulars first are the saints so happy in their priviled ges that they are Christs Doves and so precious to him is it the priviledge and portion of the saints to be so precious to Christ then take this as the first consectory this will follow if it be so Then they will not long to be precious to the world you will not bee troubled though the world though men though friends though enemies regard you not so you be precious to Christ this is enough for you what though such a friend speake evill of you what thongh such a Professor loves you not and there another professour suspects you and you are troubled VVhy saints where is your life in the world or in Christ if in the world no marvell you are troubled no marvell you are offended if your life bee in Christ you will say what matter so Christ thinkes preciously of you if you have the sweet and mutuall embraces of Christ and your spirits run into each other and kisse and embrace each other here would be your rest Secondly observe from the next particulars is nothing in the heart of Christ too good for saints does Christ embrace salute kisse ravish the saints in his transcendent loves Does he endow them with the same glory he himselfe hath with the Father for I must put things together strength will not hold out to take them all severally as the things deserve Have any of you felt these things in your owne experience I do
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