THE Retired Mans Meditations OR THE Mysterie and Power OF GODLINES Shining forth in the Living WORD to the unmasking the Mysterie of Iniquity in the most Refined and Purest Forms And withall presenting to view I. The Riches and fulness of Christs Person as Mediator II. The Natural and Spiritual Man in their proper Distinction III. The Reign and Kingdom of Christ in the Nature Limits and extent thereof as well in his Saints as over his Enemies IN WHICH Old Light is restored and New Light Justified Being the Witness which is given to this Age BY Henry Vane Knight London Printed by Robert White and are to be sold at the three Bibles neer the West end of Pauls 1655. TO THE READER THere is not any thing which lies more cross to the busie and boundless Spirit of Man then that which takes him off the wing of his Natural desire and is as a bar unto that activity in him which if permitted to run its course makes his feet swift to his own destruction For when such a power is assumed and delighted in by man to direct his own steps the more he is gratified by God with a scope and freedom herein the more is he left alone and singled out in a self-sufficiency of wisdom and strength to be at his own dispose and reap the fruit of his many inventions The springing up of this spirit in man at first aspiring herein to be as God was that that cast him down from his excellency and gave him his Fall setting up in him that great Idol SELF-INTEREST which hath ever since so skilfully insinuated into the desire and heart of every natural man that by its influence the whole world seems to be governed as well in Religion as Civil policy being able to bring that gain and advantage to the observers thereof which as a powerful bait the Devil makes use of to bribe the conscience and by degrees to draw off the heart from God and from sincere love to all righteous and good principles as in the exercise thereof they lie thwart to its designs Self thus considered is no other then the Spirit of man lusting after the doing of his own will and procuring his own glory more then Gods a frame of spirit in direct contrariety to Christs Iob. 5. 30. c. 6. 38. which inordinate affection is the covetousness the Apostle calls idolatry Col. 3. 5. as wel-knowing that the cherishing and upholding of this lust in its credit strength and authority is dearer to man then all other things yea then God himself So as whilst Communion with God and the fruits of his presence are found gainfull and supporting hereunto man is content to part with the filthiness of flesh and be washed from his old darling sins putting on the form of godliness but when the cross of Christ shews it self and comes forth as an enemy against it then God must be dethroned the son of God and the true riches troden under foot so that nothing must stand up or be allowed competition herewith but all must bow and do homage or become the objects of its fierce wrath and displeasure If ever this spirit creep into the purest Forms of Religion in conjunction with worldly Government to back it as the case may be t is then got into its last strong hold and chief place of defence where sitting as on a throne of iniquity it frames mischief by a Law and in casting the truth down to the ground it practises and prospers for a season against the Saints of the most High and against the Prince himself of this heavenly Host magnifying it self and bidding defiance to all adversaries whatsoever Nevertheless the power and wisdom of the cross of Christ is able to grapple with it and in due time will visibly undertake it and triumph over it But forasmuch as this selfish spirit is prophesied of as that which shall be eminently in view in the last dayes 2 Tim. 3. 2. as an immediate forerunner of Christs second coming called Mark 13. 14. The abomination that maketh desolate described as being gotten into the holy place and standing where it ought not even in the very Temple of God clothed with a visibility of Saintship it does therefore behove us to stand upon our watch armed with the whole armour of God against it this being indeed the foundation of all that hypocrisie and apostacy which the last days shall be filled with For this purpose these Meditations on the WORD of Life are presented to thee setting forth evidently before thine eyes Iesus Christ and him crucified in whose grave this self-exalting spirit is found among the dead as conquered and slain either through the power of Faith in the true Saint or by the rod of iron dashing and breaking in pieces all wilful resisters as a potters vessel Christ as he is this WORD of Life is Alpha and Omega the first and the last In which dignity and preheminence he is not only him that is true but hath the property and way of being known by himself as the first and original patern of all true knowledge and discerning So as they that have been with this Iesus trained up at his feet under his immediate teachings are able through him strengthening them to give a reason of their hope whereof they need not be ashamed Being on this account encouraged and having an opportunity ministred through the retiredness of my condition I judged it my duty amongst that variety of witness in the things of God which is at this day given forth to bear also my part and stand up in my lot taking this age to record that I am herein free from the blood of all men as not having shunned to declare unto them the Counsels and truths of God that have obtained a large entrance and reception in my heart as a seed there sowen which is springing up to a perfect day The Warrant and Rule for this practice is so express and undeniable that it needs only the mentioning Rom. 10. 10. where it is said with the heart man believeth unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation And Christ says of himself For this cause was I born and came into the world that I might bear witness to the Truth And to this Paul exhorts Timothy saying Fight the good fight of faith lay hold on eternal life whereunto thou art also called and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses And this in imitation of Christ himself who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good Confession Yet how ungrateful a thing is it to flesh and blood in the best of us to be bearing that witness which seems to carry contention in it with the whole earth Jer. 15. 10. sending forth a fire upon all that is earthly to consume the false Rests wherein Professors themselves are apt to take up even in that wherein we are allowed only to be as Sojourners Yea what streights are we in as streightned
as their living Oracles that proceed out of the mouth of Christ the Mediator is also called the WORD according to Scripturesense and acceptation which yet will be more fully evident by considering the Word of God in a third sense to wit as the holy Scriptures coming not by the will of man but by inspiration from God in men moved by the Holy Ghost are also called the Word and Oracles of God containing in them the same Declaration and Testimony of the mind and will of God as is to be found in the inward WORD but dispensing it in an outward form of wholsome words taught and inspired by the Holy Ghost himself Unto these words of the Holy Scriptures given by divine inspiration no man may adde Rev. 22. 18. or take there from v. 19. Wherefore it is that they are not of any private interpretation but require the inspiration of the living WORD to open and declare the true and full meaning of them which is near unto every true believer being the WORD which dwels in the heart by faith the key of David and that holy anointing 1 Joh. 2. 27. that is truth and no lye which abideth in the Saints in such manner that they need not that any man teach them but as the same anointing teacheth them of all things taking of the things of Christ and shewing them unto them according to his promise John 16. 14 15. whos 's teachings nevertheless are also derived and communicated from one Saint unto another by the Ministry of outward words and Exposition of the Scriptures as by being taught of God they are fitted and prepared thereunto and made able Ministers of the new Testament who handle not the Word of God deceitfully through any private interpretations of their own but by manifestation of the Truth in its own self-evidence do commend themselves to every mans conscience in the sight of God not preaching themselves but Christ Jesus the Lord and themselves servants for Jesus sake 2 Cor. 4 5. And Christ hath promised to send forth such a spirit of the Ministry as this in all Ages even to the end of the world Mat. 28. 20. for the perfecting of the Saints and edifying of the Body the Church till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ Ephes 4. 13. That then which doth enable to the work of the Ministry thus considered is the shining forth of the Truth in the face of Jesus Christ by his indwelling presence in the heart comparing it self in the mind and understanding of the Saint with the testimony which is given of it self in the Outward Word And by discerning the perfect Analogie and Harmony that springs up between both answering one another as face answers face the believer receives such certainty and satisfaction in the mind of God made known as warrants him in the delivery and declaration thereof unto others This as the safest and best rule in judging and declaring truth from the Scriptures hath been owned in a constant harmony of witness by Saints in all Ages against all the enemies under one form or other that have sprung up either against the holy Scriptures themselves or the Spirit and inward WORD that lives and breathes forth in them and by them Thus through the faith that is in Christ Jesus the Holy Scriptures are able to make us wise unto salvation and to make the man of God perfect throughly furnished unto every good work being in this harmony and consent with the inward WORD of the same Authority with it and of the same divine and spiritual nature property and use able to save the soul and prosper to the end for which they are sent as a servant in the hand of the living WORD to fulfil all his pleasure and become either a savour of life unto life as ministred in harmony with and subserviency unto the living WORD or a savour of death unto death 2 Cor. 2. 16. as ministred singly in opposition thereunto The Scriptures then are not properly the inward and living WORD but have a testimony and expression peculiarly their own John 5. 39. search the scriptures they are they which testifie of me saith Christ in which Testimony of theirs they are either as a servant and preparer of the way unto the living WORD as those that literally testifie of it pointing at Christ the life and spirit of them or else they are to be considered as one and the same with the living WORD in perfect analogie and harmony both consorting and dwelling together in an inseparable band of union unveiling rather the naked beauty of the inward WORD then bearing any different sense from it professing themselves to be but as a dead letter or sealed book Isa 29. 11. any farther then the living unwritten WORD of God as breathing into them becomes their life and is made use of as the key to open them so that both together make up one and the same divine oracle whereas if consideration be had of the Scriptures in the letter only they are then capable of having a meer private interpretation and humane sense put upon them and so to nourish up a way of prophecying that hath its rise out of the divination of mans own heart or the single ability of the natural mind exercised in them which is so far from being the true ministry that it is but the vision of God that proceeds from man as he follows his own spirit and not Gods Ezek. 13. 2. 3. c. Now if the body of the Scriptures deserve the name as they do of the word of God their spirit and Original deserves it much more and is much more eminently of authority and use for the effecting of all that is or can be done by them even the WORD that is nigh thee that is in thy heart and in thy mouth the WORD of faith Rom. 10. 8. the unseen and unwritten WORD which evidences itself to faith which is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things unseen Heb 11. 1. This WORD is described Heb. 4. 12. where it is said the WORD of God is quick and powerful sharper then any two-edged sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joynts and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight but all things are naked and open unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do By being here described as a person the Holy Ghost signifies to us in what sense we are to understand the WORD of God in this place even for Jesus Christ the Mediator not simply considered as the second in the Trinity any more then for the outward body of the Scriptures which person of Christ is spoken of under the same name and description Rev. 19.
the true object of his Faith he sojourned as in a strange Country and was willing and content to have no inheritance given to him in it no not so much as to set his foot on but dwelt in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob Heirs with him of the same promise For he looked for a city which hath foundations whose builder and maker is God After this manner was Abraham kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation making use of the very glory of the first Covenant and excellency of the earthly Canaan but as an Inn by the way in his passage towards the glory that was to follow the better and heavenly Country which his eye was set upon by vertue whereof he offered up Isaac when he was tried and resigned up thereby all interest in him as he was the fleshly seed or type of Christ according to the flesh in order to receive him again upon a better account as the figure of him that was to rise from the dead and in the glory and power of that life to make good the Promises to him which he waited for Now what saith the Scripture in this case Hearken unto me ye that follow after righteousness ye that seek the Lord look unto the rock whence ye are hewen and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged look unto Abraham your father and Sarah that bare you for I called him alone and blessed him and multiplied him yea I have given him as a patern unto the whole Spiritual Seed so as they that are of the same faith with him shall be also blessed with him and share with him in his heavenly inheritance To be of the same faith with Abraham is to be called with the like effectual calling as he was according to Gods purpose not of works but of grace and thereby to be begotten again unto a lively hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead unto an inheritance incorruptible that fadeth not away which inheritance the believer is interessed in by being made that one seed with Christ through the new birth as the substance of things hoped for by him and the evidence of things that are wholly unseen to his natural senses and faculties of mind in their best improvements as singly natural So that through this effectual calling this precious faith is wrought in the soul giving Christ an actual inhabitation and abode there as him that is the true one or head of the spiritual seed and anointing the causer and begetter of the soul into actual membership with himself in his heavenly and spiritual humane perfection Which manner of receiving Christ in the heart is a participation with him in his heavenly nature whereby his chosen ones receive power to become the sons and adopted children of God even as many as thus believe on his name For through this union with their head Christ is made unto them wisdom righteousness sanctification and redemption is all in all to them as to whatsoever they stand in need of for salvation In this manner wheresoever Christ is and dwels he distinguishes such persons from all others whatsoever that are not of the same seed but do shew themselves in the end to be reprobates as it is written 2 Cor. 13. 5. examine your selves whether ye be in the faith know ye not your own selves how that Iesus Christ is in you except ye be reprobates Here this kind of being of Christ in the heart is called faith such as distinguishes the persons that have it from reprobates being a differing faith in kind from what those have that have the knowledge and enjoyment of Christ only according to the flesh who upon trial fall away and sink down into hypocrisie and apostasy The exercise of which temporary faith though true believers may have for a while in common with the children of the first covenant whilst they walk like men and are but babes in Christ in respect of the growth of the spiritual seed in them yet they stay not here nor content themselves with the single exercise thereof but are made in time to see and experience that it is by faith of another kind conveying with it Christs heavenly nature by which they must be conducted and enter into the true Rest Albeit after effectual calling that which is the precious saving faith of Gods Elect may lie undistinguished in operation from the first faith which the spiritual seed may continue a long time in the single exercise of in common with the fleshly seed or children of the first covenant as was most evident in Peter who was effectually called when the Father revealed Christ to him and in him as the Son of the living God grounding his heart thereby upon that rock which the gates of hell should never prevail against Yet how low and weak did the operation and power of faith remain in Peter to the suffering of him to fall so shamefully as he did and to the leaving of him several times to the actings of his fleshly will and desire tending to the sparing of the flesh and keeping back the sufferings of the cross It is not therefore barely the having of this faith in the right kind that singly and simply sufficeth to the actual distinguishing of the spiritual seed from the carnal either in inward experience unto themselves or outward witness and testimony unto others But this faith shewing itself as saith Iames ch 2. by its works without which it is as dead in the soul where it is administring little profit to the sense of the man that hath it and hath not its works with it For the bare having it doth not discover his state to be safe nor doth it justifie itself to be of the right kind but as it is operative and shews itself by its works to be the faith that doth justifie true believers Untill which discovery made in the heart and conscience as the body without the soul is dead so the comfortable sense of right believing is wanting which was abundantly shed abroad in the heart and experience of Abraham when God had tried the powerfull working of his faith in the offering up of Isaac upon the Altar wherein he saw a working power of his faith and how faith wrought with his works and by works was made perfect in the experimental sense and discovery thereof unto himself and others And that Scripture was fulfilled that saith Abraham believed God and it was imputed unto him for righteousness and he was called the friend of God For that faith wrought out in Christ his Head whereby he was justified before God now evidenced it-self to the personal Faith of Abraham in this his trial and proof to be the faith the Scripture meant when it so spake and wherein he had stood justified ever since his effectual calling This place of James thus understood is so far from owning a justification by works for which it is usually alledged that it doth most
comes at last to be dissolved in the use which he makes of the one to destroy the other Chap. XXIV Concerning Magistracy as in its primitive constitution and right exercise it hath its place and beares its part in the Reigne and Government of Christ over men in this world Chap. XXV Treating of the power which shall be given unto the two Witnesses to prophecie and finish their testimony when the suffering Saints of Christ must expect the visible protection of Magistracy to faile them as exercised in a worldly way Chap. XXVI Treating of the time of the manifestation of the sons of God their sitting with Christ on his Throne Ruling and influencing all things on earth during the space of a thousand years The end of the Table ERRATA PAge 20. Line 20. for which person of Christ read who p. 24. l. 26. for unloose unloosing p. 30. l 4. for as at p. 31. l. 17. for wings rings p. 34. l. ult for htah hath p. 45. l. 32. for net not p. 53 l. 31. for consequence consequent p. 65. l. 6. for account account p. 66. l. 12. for or of p. 149. l. 5. for therefere therefore p. 152. l. 13. for perpetual personal p. 209. l. 19. for fufilled fulfilled p. 230. l. 25. for em them for ch 4. in the title p. 290. so on to p. 305. r. ch 18. p. 294. l. 5. for heshly fleshly ibid. l. 19. for necessiy necessity p. 326 l. 13. for wollowing wallowing p. 376. l. 25. for owerthrone overthrowne p. 405. l. 12. for hiw him p. 409. l. 5 6. for raising him up and fitting he raised him up and fitted These and some other literal mistakes together with deficiences in the stopping which possibly in some places may obscure or somewhat vary the sense as also in putting the Roman letter sometimes for the Italica or the Italica otherwhile for the Roman thou artdesired Courteous Reader to mend in the perusal CHAP. I. Wherein is shewed that the foundation and first Rule of all true and right knowledge of God is seated in Christ the living WORD as the blessed Trinity by their own immediate operations do make themselves personally visible therein THe full knowledge of this WORD is indeed too wonderful and high to attain unto and is therefore with much difficulty if not impossibility to be expressed by a sound of words and the weakness of language incident to the best of our Pens But although we cannot reach this WORD nor have wherewith to describe his glory he is pleased in great mercy to reach us and become neer unto us even in our hearts and in our mouthes declaring his usefulness to describe and make known unto us Gods name and his Sons name For this living WORD of God is that whereby God speaks forth himself perfectly and distinctly to the understanding both of himself and of the creature By it he speaks and describes the riches and fulness of his own glory giving the perfect representation thereof to his own liking and delight In it he brings to light the invisible things of his eternal power and Godhead shewing as in a three-fold face the incomprehensible properties and vertues of the blessed Trinity who are herein the three that bear witness 1 John 5. 7. severally as well as joyntly through whose first operation God is from all eternity the object of his own fruition and converse and through the other two is given forth a two-fold distinct appearance of God wherein he becomes the proper and adaequate object of converse and fruition to the creature upon the terms of the first and second Covenant The WORD in the first sense is the similitude of God that is immanent and eternally abiding in him and as so is unexposed to any creature-discerning The WORD in the second sense is the similitude of God that proceeds and goes out of his mouth to tabernacle in the creature in a temporary ministration And in the third sense the WORD is that similitude of God which is the creatures Rest and final state of abode for ever The WORD as thus considered is not then to be taken for the second person as it is 1 Joh. 5. 7. where the three that are said to bear witness are the Father the WORD and the Holy Ghost but for the witness it self which is born by all the three in the manner before expressed The Word in this latter sense is the brightness and express character of the Godhead wherein all three are comprehended and do seat themselves to be seen and known as in their own temple and visibility appointed and prepared by them for that purpose In which state of preparation in order to creature-converse the Trinity as having brought forth themselves in Christ are the subject principally treated of in this Chapter And in this consideration Christ hath been a mysterie lying hid in God before the foundation of the world and hath had the place and office of a Mediator in reference as well to the works of Creation as of Redemption Ephes 3. 9 10. When therefore the WORD in this common relation which it hath to all the three as their Temple and Sanctuary is called Col. 1. 15. The image of the invisible God we find subjoyned thereunto as a further explication of the nature and kinds of perfection seated in it these names first-born of every creature and first begotten from the dead having in all things the preheminence ver 18. and prae-existence being he that was before all things ver 17. and without whom was not any thing made that was made Joh. 1. 3. containing in him the principles and life of a three-fold communion which the blessed Trinity by their own immediate operations are the authors and establishers of in Christ as he is the WORD The first is that which is eternally wrought and begotten by the Father between all the three persons and their own image or witness set up within the Divine nature singly and simply considered before the actual being of any creature though in order to creature-converse by him eternally purposed and decreed in which they do see and are seen with common delight and satisfaction to one another having Christ this image of the invisible God as one by them that is brought up with them and is no other then themselves in image and name being daily their delight Prov. 8. 30. In the exercise of this communion between the Trinity and their own image the WORD they are pleased with all their own excellencies and perfections as they are brought forth therein putting honour and glory upon them there Again Christ who in this communion is one with God and is God being the brightness of Gods glory and express character of his substance values and delights in the same divine excellencies and perfections as they are in his head or in the invisible God of whom Christ is the image for God is in this sense the head of Christ or of his own essential image
Adam fell through unbelief and for want of being kept in his innocent state through the power of faith unto salvation without which the Scripture saith it is impossible for any to please God no not for Adam himself in innocency For though whilst he stood he did that which was just and right as the righteous man Ezek. 18. yet in all this he was conversant only about natural good and righteousness the acceptation whereof depends upon its continuance and is such by way of comparison as renders any acceptable to the Magistrate that keep his laws whereas the filial obedience that is performed to God through beleiving answers the very love and complacency of God in a way of intimate friendship as proceeding from the man that is made after Gods own heart and is blessed in himself and in his deed But as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse as it is written cursed is every one that continueth not in all things w ch are written in the book of the law to do them And as thus it was with Adam in his righteous and holy state wherein he was created so is it since with all those sons of Adam that are of the works of the law and are made living souls again in their measure and degree by the renewal of the first covenant upon them in the blood of Christ through which they are brought into that which Jude cals a state of common salvation obtained as through the ransom which Christ was made for all v. 3. and which v. 5. the children of Israel were said to share in when they were brought by God out of Aegypt and were made to live unto God by the first Covenant Ezek. 16. Deut. 32. Isai 63. 10. yet many or most of them God destroyed and was not well pleased with through their unbelief having discovered them to be cursed children in whom was no faith or who under all the light received proved bitter enemies and resisters of the work and voice of the Holy Ghost calling them to believe and receive the change that was to be wrought out in them and so enter into Rest This change is comprehended in the life and perfection of the new creature and glory of the spiritual body or heavenly image of the last Adam For so it is written The first man Adam was made a living soul the last Adam was made a quickning spirit and again it is not circumcision that availeth any thing or uncircumcision but that which is required is to be the new creature having a new name better then that of sons and daughters by the first covenant through which we are made pillars in the house of God never to go out more and are written among the living in Jerusalem whose names shall never be blotted out dwelling on high even upon a munition of rocks where bread even hidden manna is given and the waters of the sure mercies of David that will not fail And if we desire to know what this new creature is it is called faith that works by love which faith translates man out of the natural into the spiritual body and is his new-creature-state wherein the operative powers of his mind are so formed as that he is enabled not only to exercise his natural judgement and will in a crucified and resigned frame in conformity with the dead body of Christ and as quickned together with him through the Resurrection from the dead and made incorruptible but Secondly the believer hereby receives a raisedness of discerning and enlargedness of his natural mind answering that effusion of spirit upon him surpassing all natural knowledge of the uncrucified mind causing him to see as he is seen and to apprehend that for which also he is comprehended in Christ Jesus rendring him a co-partner and co-heir with Christ in the vision of Gods proper and naked similitude as admitted to behold the glory that is within the veil in which capacity the spiritual seed are the bride and wife of the Lamb that are called to sit down on the Throne with him at the right hand of the Majesty on high and who by the means of this their heavenly part do so influence and quicken their natural as that thereby they are enabled to sing both the song of Moses and of the Lamb in perfect harmony together and to do the will of God in earth as it is done in heaven According to their heavenly part or spiritual capacity they sit down at meat with Christ in the Fathers kingdom in the other they are as them that serve in a state equal with the holy Angels This marriage union between Christ and believers is said Rom. 7. to be their marrying unto him that is risen from the dead and this through their becoming dead to their first husband the Law and Ioh. 3. 29 32 33. is said to be the hearing the Bridegrooms voice in what he hath heard and seen from the Father and the receiving that testimony which no man in his natural capacity receiveth through which the Saints do set to their seal that God is true and partake with the Bridegroom throughout in his most intimate communications of glory from the Father as it is written Ioh. 17. 21. That they all may be one in us as thou Father art in me and I in thee Thus we have briefly intimated the change which by way of a new creation is set up in Angels and men through faith in Christ the promised seed as he is the last Adam and was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world putting on this spiritual body in his own person as the first fruits of life from the dead in conformity whereunto every true believer is in his own order clothed upon with the same heavenly image for as is the heavenly such are they also that are heavenly which though they do not so attain as to be perfect therein whilst in the natural body yet they have the mark in their eye and are pressing forward for the price of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus CHAP. VIII Shewing the conviction and judgement that came upon men and Angels for their sin and disobedience by the shining forth of the All-searching light of Gods second appearance in the WORD before which every creature stands naked and discovered BY what hath been already evidenced in the precedent Chapter it may appear that they certainly do very much derogate from the glory of Christ and proclaim their short-sightedness into his fulness and rich grace that look upon the coming of the Lord Jesus the seed of the promise as an accidental provision only that God had in reserve in case of the entrance and coming in of sin never considering that through faith in him sin from the first might and was to have been kept out and that there was from the beginning no other way nor name nor means where by the creature could obtain a sare sare incorruptible
the first as that wherein this second sort of men that make up the earthly Jerusalem have all things in common with the first as to their being benefited by the dispensation of natural right and justice enjoying withall much more then all this amounts to even the comfortable warmth and life that is found in the day-light of Christs first appearance and by immediate and fruitful converse with him in the same which is far to be preferred before the night of the Gentile world The third and last form or administration of the Kingdom of Christ which is exercised over men is that whereby the true spiritual seed of Abraham according to Gods promise Gen. 22. 17. do possess the gates of their enemies and shall in their proper season be manifested to be the seed wherein all the Nations of the earth shall be blessed which is farther explained Dan. 7. 18. 22. where it is said that the Saints of the most high shall take the Kingdom and possess it for ever even for ever and ever in fellowship and society with Christ their Head sitting upon the Throne with him having a dominion glory and a Kingdom that shall never be destroyed The supreme Lords and Rulers then in this kingdom under Christ are the Saints or general assembly of the first-born whose names are written in heaven Children that Christ will make princes in all lands giving them the honour written to bind even Kings in chains and the Nobles in fetters of iron unto whom as unto the right heirs of salvation the elect Angels will be constant ministers and attendants in their charge and office of administing natural right and justice and executing vengeance on all the enemies of these Saints of the most High who come not to the attainment of this high glory and dignity suddenly or one before another but by a general gathering of them all together by their head first into one dead body with him as planted together in the likeness of his death or offering up in the flesh which is a needful preparation to the bearing and right managing the honour and preheminence of that Crown and dominion which they are called unto over all the works of Gods hands Secondly by their being gathered together unto him in one heavenly and glorified body as planted also in the likeness of his resurrection in the glory wherein he is set down at Gods right hand which is expected to be fulfilled at his return when we shall see him coming from heaven in like manner as he was seen to ascend up thither This third sort of Christs subjects are compared by himself Luke 8. unto the good ground on whom Christ the word and seed of life fell as into honest and good hearts that having heard the word keep it and bring forth fruit with patience having such a faith as is mentioned James 1. 3. that under manifold temptations approves and justifies itself to be found durable and saving in and by the fruit of patience which it works obtaining a free passage and course for the WORD OF CHRISTS PATIENCE in the soul till it hath had its perfect work and made the mind perfectly conformable with Christ in his death 1 Pet. 4. 1. to the making the believer perfect and entire wanting nothing and to be of the number of those that do overcome and are made pillars in the house of God never to go out more These are the true Heirs of salvation that as princes may be found walking on foot here in this world whilst servants are riding on horseback and are in faith and patience possessing their souls albeit they be killed all the day long and accounted as sheep for the slaughter Rom. 8. 36. slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they hold Rev. 6 9 10 11. unto whom white robes are given even garments washed in the blood of the Lamb in which patient posture they are appointed to wait and rest for a little season untill their fellow-servants also and brethren that should be killed as they were should be fufillled We find not only this third sort of Christs subjects mentioned and comprehended under that parable of the sower Luk. 8. but the second and first also very lively described to those that have ears te hear yea and Christ himself as the universal seeds-man the living WORD OF GOD who scatters the seed of his searching light and life into all hearts and consciences whatsoever enlightning every one that comes into the world and setting up that in them which is a discerner of their thoughts and of the intents of their hearts who therefore is held forth in that parable first as he sows his seed by the wayside or high waies interpreted by himself Mat. 22. 9. to be the visits and communications of light and life sowen by him among the Gentiles For so he saith when he would intimate Gods intention upon the Jews rejection of him to bring the Gentiles into the knowledge of himself Go ye therefore into the High waies or unto the Gentiles and as many as you shall find bid them unto the marriage shewing evidently that by the high-waies on which the seed fals he means the Gentiles as appears Luke 8. 12. where it is said that in this state the devil comes or may come and take away the Word out of their hearts lest they should believe and be saved that is before it come up to the birth of faith in them so much as of a temporary faith for oommon salvation which appertains to the second sort properly represented by the second and third the stony thorny groud much less a saving one being only a seed of light or work of Christ in the conscience teaching to feel after faith and salvation but not actually entring them into it and so is a most lively description of the subjects of Christ and hearers of the word under the first dispensation Now that which remains is to shew how the children of the first covenant and earthly Jerusalem under the Gospel are also held forth in this parable who are temporary believers arriving at and attaining through the power of the WORD a state of common salvation with those of the Church of Laodicea Rev. 3. who thereby became rich and increased with goods needing nothing being ignorant that they were miserable and poor and blind and naked in a condition that would abide trials no more then those represented by the stony and thorny ground who when they heard received the Word with joy and for a while believed but in time of temptation fell away as unable to resist and avoid the abuse of lawfull comforts and enjoyments vouchsafed unto them by God in the first convenant but ready every moment to over-charge their hearts with surfeiting drunkenness and good things of this world the sweet whereof was relished and esteemed by them in such excess as to work in them an undervalue and disrellish of Christ in his heavenly glory to
come to passe that when it is come to passe ye might beleeve And further I command ye that ye love one another when I am gone If the world hate you you know it hated me first before it hated you if ye were of the world the world would love his owne but because ye are not of the world but I have chosen you out of the world therefore the world hates you and if they have persecuted me they will also persecute you for the servant is not greater then his Lord These things they will do to you because they have not known the Father nor me But these things I have told you that when the time comes you may remember that I told you of them Which things I have beene telling you from the beginning ever since I was with you but now I must put my sayings in execution for I am going my way to him that sent me and none of you are sensible of it or so much as enquiring into that state to which now I am going but because I have said these things unto you sorrow hath filled your hearts Neverthelesse I tell you the truth it is expedient for you that I go away for if I go not away the Comforter will not come unto you but when I depart I will send him to you Yet upon my departure the change will be so great which you will experience through my withdrawing of my self as a Bridegroome from you that you shall weep and lament but the world shall rejoyce ye shall be sorrowfull but your mourning shall be turned into joy As a woman which whilest she is in travel hath sorrow because her hour is come so shall you be in the pangs of this new birth when faith begins to be brought forth into exercise and operation by way of encountring these sharp trialls But as soone as the woman is delivered of the child she remembreth no more the anguish for joy that a man-child is borne into the world Thus also shall it be with you when the birth of the Soone of God as the man-child that is to rule the Nations with a rod of iron shall be brought to light in you through believing and the growing evidence of things unseene Ye now therefore have sorrow for a little moment but I will see you againe and your hearts shall rejoyce and your joy no man taketh from you Such preparative teachings and instructions as these Christ is continually giving forth during his tabernacling with believers in his first appearance that he may make them as little children weaned from the milk and from the breasts in order to traine them up to the use of stronger meat prepared for them in his dead body and crucified flesh which is given to them by him to feed upon till he come and take them into conformity with him in his glorified body which he promises them to do through his intercession with his Father for to make them one with him as he and the Father are one willing that where he is they also may be Through these glances of spiritual light whilest the Bridegroome is yet with the soul in his fleshly presence the Saints do with the Disciples sometimes think and say Lord now speakest thou plainly and not in parables by this we beleeve that thou camest forth from God and art againe leaving the world and going to the Father and yet when the hour of his departure comes indeed then every one scatters and leaves him alone as unwilling to accompany him in his sufferings but are rather drawing back and desirous to stay where they are in the fleshly life and perfection which they have experienced to the making a faire shew of God in the flesh and gaining the visibility of Saint-ship amongst men then to suffer with Christ without the gate leave the Holy City the earthly Jerusalem to go along with Christ to Golgotha the place of skuls bearing his reproach Before the very beleevers themselves will be brought to this what strugling and wrastling is there within themselves to detaine the Bridegroome or first Husband who with the Angel that wrestled with Jacob saith to them Let me go for the day breaks or the day-dawn of my heavenly appearance is overtaking me and calling me away to rest in silence and in the grave as to my appearing to you singly in my fleshly state any more but as I shall come in company and association with a better consort and so compleat the marriage betweene us in the glory wherein I am risen from the dead that you may bring forth fruit in newnesse of spirit and of life This is the weaned unsetled condition of soul which beleevers whilest under the first Covenant and being in nothing differenced from servants as to what is yet appearing in them and to them in the work of the conscience are led into by this preparative administration of Christ who is in them as in seed even in their new-creature-being and life but as a seed under ground very weakly undiscernably working as yet save only in loosening the soul from resting in its present attainments and keeping it in expectation of some better thing wherein to be made perfect In which state probably most of the dear Saints of God were detained under the Law before Christs coming in the flesh and most of them may still be under the same legal perfection heightned and improved by Christs coming in the flesh or by the effusion of his Spirit upon all flesh in and by the same Ministery of his first appearance and in this first step and degree of the new birth are in as safe a state as to Gods love to them here and heaven hereafter as others that have larger fuller and greater attainments and experiences And as the knowledge of this truth ought not to satisfie any to stay here but should still put them on to be pressing forward whereby to come neerer to the mark of the price of their high calling as the more comfortable strong and prosperous state so also should it satisfie the groundlesse objection of those who stick not to brand this witnesse of the beleevers conformity to the death of Christ with the reproach of rendering the faith of all those Saints and precious ones that have died without the experience or acknowledgement thereof to be of none effect as a most pitiful weak affrightment to deteine some tender-hearted well-meaning persons from receiving and owning the excellency of the knowledge of Christs death which to set evidently before our eyes that is to say Christ crucified within us in making us partakers with himself in his sufferings brings to the second thing the consideration of what Christ does when he actually withdraws and takes himself away from the soul as the Bridegroom that hath cohabited with it for a season in the light and glory of his fleshly perfection or first appearance when he refuses the wife of his youth and leaves her comfortlesse
they serve the Law of sin finding sin so farre from being perfectly overcome and subdued as once they supposed that by degrees it returnes upon them with greater force then ever making them miserable men as abandoned and left to its inroad and violence without any possibility of being delivered from this death and wrath that comes upon such wilful sinning in which case there remains to them no more sacrifice for sinne but an expectation of fiery wrath Howbeit to repair this losse unto them whilst they have their abode in this world the Devil lets them have as their reward the praise of one another and enables them to carry the world clear before them to the oppressing and trampling down the righteous and spiritual seed wringing out waters of a full cup to them These are they who prosper in the world and encrease in riches who have no bands in their death but their strength is firme who are in no trouble nor are plagned like other men but have their eyes standing out with fatnesse enjoying more then their hearts can wish They set their mouths against the heavens and their tongue walks through all the earth under the universal Dominion and Rule which Satan as God of the world hath from one end of the earth unto the other This great City or universal worldly spirit and rule under Satan sits as Queene alone and knows no sorrow but with her fornications and sorceries bewitches the world and the inhabitants thereof exercising her universal Rule and Dominion over them under various formes and administrations of government till he come whose right it is and cast downe these Thrones before him receiving to himself Dominion Glory and a Kingdome that all people Nations and Languages should serve him in a Kingdome that is never to be destroyed The principal means which God uses to bring in his Kingdome and oppose these Counter-workings of Satan is his setting up in the person of Christ a bruised broken crucified man that humbled himself to the death of the Crosse suffering without the gates of Jerusalem as the mighty power of God by which to destroy the power of the Devil and bring to nought the wisdome of the wise and the understanding of the prudent as those foolish and weak things of God in mans eye which he hath chosen to confound the great and mighty things of the world and as those base and despised things that are not which he hath chosen to confound the things that are fairest in shew and appearance Which weapons of Christs warfare though mighty through God yet being despicable and weak in the eye of Satan and to the discerning and judgement of men they are thereby the more harden'd and encouraged to contest it out with Christ till at last they come to be trampled under his feet like mire in the streets CHAP. XX. Concerning death to sinne and life to righteousnesse considered as well in the distinct Branches and Parts thereof as in its full extent and comprehensivenesse together with the discovery thereby of that which is counterfeit hypocritical or otherwise defective THe summe of what we have beene Treating of in the preceding Chapters that concerne the Work and Rule of Christ whether in the Natural Legal or savingly beleeving Conscience as also the Saints conformity with Christ in his death the discovery wherof this chapter had immediately and more orderly succeeded but that I was unexpectedly prevented in it by the Presse may very well be reduced unto the two general termes of Mortification and Vivification or of our dying unto sin and living unto righteousnesse Rom. 6. and this according to the kind and measure of Grace received whether common or special temporary or everlasting For in what ever conscience Christ works and gains so farre reception as to be hearkened unto and obeyed in the Voice or Ministery he holds forth himself by whether upon the termes of the first or second Covenant the necessary consequent thereof is a departing from sin and an eschewing of evil as saith the Scripture Rom. 6. 16. Know ye not that to whom ye yeeld your selves servants to obey his servants ye are to whom ye obey whether of sinne unto death or of obedience unto righteousnesse so as the service and obedience ye yeeld unto the one frees and delivers you from the subjection ye were held in unto the other For those that are servants of sinne are free from righteousnesse or dead to it as on the contrary those that are servants unto righteousnesse obeying from the heart the teachings of Christ in any of his Three-fold dispensations before mentioned are free from sinne and become dead unto it according to the Law they are under or the manner of the working thereof in several measures and degrees experienced in any such conscience Now that which we are to understand by righteousnesse whose servants we ought to be and whereunto we are to yeeld our subjection is the Image of God formed and set up in the second Adam or Person of the Mediator propounding it self to be received and entertained by man since the Fall upon the foundation of a new entercourse and converse betweene God and Men which he hath obtained freely through his owne blood shed as a ransome for all whereby also the natural conscience is purged from dead works and fitted againe for the service of theliving God This Image of God consisting in righteousnesse and true holinesse hath power as it lives and dwells in Christ to dispence and give the communication of it self in part or in whole according to the nature of the Ministery and the manner of administration by which it is conveighed into the heart and conscience So as if this Image of God be but as the Word and Voice of God in the mouth only of servants whether Angels or Men unaccompanied with the personal presence of the Sonne himself it hath one kind of operation and effect intimated Esay 40. 3 4 5. by that Voice of the Lord or Word of God in the mouth of servants only Crying in the Wildernesse-condition of mans corrupt nature and degenerate state as he is dead in trespasses and sinnes Prepare ye the way of the Lord make streight in the desert a high way for our God and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together declaring herein this preparatory dispensation which tends and leads unto Christ in his first appearance as he is God manifested in flesh in which respect it is that all flesh can see him together for as to his second appearance he dwells in that light and immortality which no flesh can approach unto which no man hath seen or can see as he is a meer natural man This forerunning Ministery unto Christ we may also take notice of Luke 10. 1. After these things the Lord appointed other seventy and sent them two by two before his face into every City and place whither he himself would come saying unto
farre to enlighten the minds of men in these Nations Governours and people as to shew them the good of Magistracy as it is in its Primitive institution and is held forth in promise for to be restored in the last dayes It will then be their desire and delight to enquire and consider in a way of free debate and common consent on behalfe of the good people of these Nations who in all these great trials have stood faithful and unshaken as to the knowne cause they have beene engaged in how the Rule over them may be brought nearest to its first institution and original patterne in the exercise and practice thereof amongst them founded as we have seene upon the principles of natural right and just and so exclusive to all private interest and personal concerne of any singulars that shall be found to stand in competition with or preference to the good of the whole and how that which is the Ordinance and Institution of God may become also the ordinance and statute of man established in a free and natural way of common consent to the reuniting of all good men as one man in a happy union of their spirits prayers and counsels to resist all common danger and opposition which by Devils or Men may be raised against them And in this posture being taught how to escape the defilements and corruptions of the world together with the wrath and vengeance attending the same they may be accounted worthy to stand before the Sonne of man at his appearance and be acknowledged by him as those faithful servants of his Luke 12. 42 c. whom the Lord having made Rulers of all his houshold to give them their portion of meat in due season shall find at his coming to be so doing in distinction from those wicked servants who say in their hearts and by their actions whatever contrary profession may be in their mouths that their Lord delayeth his coming and thereupon apply themselves to beat their fellow-servants and to eate and drink and be drunken upon whom the Lord will come in a day when they look not for him and at an hour when they are not aware and will cut them in sunder and appoint them their portion with hypocrites and unbeleevers where will be weeping and gnashing of teeth CHAP. XXV Treating of the power which shall be given unto the two Witnesses to Prophecie and finish their testimony when the suffering Saints of Christ must expect the visible protection of Magistracy to faile them as exercised in a worldly way WHat these two Witnesses are considered as well in a general acceptation as in the more restrained sense relating to Revel 11. where the power of prophesying to be given to them is mentioned we have already spoken in the thirteenth Chapter unto whom the Scripture sayes power shall be given to prophesie a thousand two hundred and threescore dayes in sackcloth being the two Olive-trees and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth whom if any man will hurt fire proceedeth out of their mouths and devoureth their enemies and if any man will hurt them he must in this manner be killed These have power to shut heaven that it raine not in the dayes of their prophecie and have power over waters to turne them to blood and to smite the earth with all plagues as often as they will Rev. 11. 3 4 5 6. comprehending in this power of theirs all that was incident unto Moses and Elias in the dayes of their Ministery to fit them to the work that was by God allotted unto them In the exercise of this power the Saints of God shall be enabled to go forth before the great and notable day of the Lord come even then when to the eye of flesh and blood their state and condition shall be at the lowest and they shall seeme to be surrounded with the power of the world in the fiercest opposition and enmity against them At which time it is said Dan. 12. 1. that MICHAEL shall stand up the GREAT PRINCE which standeth for the children that are the true Israel of God in a troublesome season such as never was since there was a Nation to that time and the Saints shall be delivered even every one that shall be found written in the Book This standing up of Christ seemes to be by the power which he gives to his TWO WITNESSES that in this troublesome season are to prophesie in sackcloth shewing plainly thereby that they are but fore-runners to the coming of Christ himself before the brightnesse of whose appearance all opposition shall be consumed and vanish away Whence it is that during these two Witnesses prophesying in sackcloth their enemies bear up in as much confidence as ever consisting not only of the generation of Hypocrites and Apostates embodying themselves as a holy City and earthly Jerusalem but of all the rest of the Gentiles who notwithstanding the differences betweene themselves do make a shift to peece up together that they may both attaine their ends upon the true spiritual seed and right heirs of salvation essaying to mingle themselves and joyne counsels and forces in a combination against the approaching glory of Christs Kingdome as he shall come to be admired in all those that do beleeve When it shall thus come to passe that this yron and clay shall mixe together it shall be but for a season for at length the corrupt world finding its owne strength will besiege this Jerusalem spiritually called Sodome and burne this whore in the fire of their rage and hatred against her Then shall the visible worship and formes of Christian Religion that are in being and practice amongst any people in their fleshly reformation come to be destroyed taken away swallowed up into impurity and corruption and mens hearts will be greatly failing them for feare by reason of what God is bringing upon the earth And at this very season when all outward protection visible defence and power through the treachery of Hypocrites and Apostates shall be withdrawne from the suffering Saints of God and in a just recompence of Divine vengeance the siege of the earthly Jerusalem shall draw nigh upon those that have made themselves accessory to the betraying of the spiritual seed as it did on the literal Jerusalem upon the betraying and crucifying of Christ then shall the TWO WITNESSES receive their Commission and stand up in a destitute naked and poor condition as to worldly assistance but armed with the mighty power of God and the fiery indignation that shall accompany their witnesse against their adversaries whereof Elias in his dayes was the figure who for the same number of dayes prophesied and said there should be no raine and afterwards brought raine againe by his prayer and fire also from heaven yet a man of like passions and affections with us which also these two Witnesses shall be found to be in the dayes of their prophecie as a proof whereof their dead