a Name given him above every name either in this world or in the world to come according to that description we find of him Isaiah 4. 2. c. where Christ the BRANCH is held forth in both these capacities called also Zach. 4. the two olive trees or sons of oyl that stand by the Lord of the whole earth by means of the one emptying out the golden oyl of all natural perfection as he is the Son of man singly considered Christ according to the flesh Head and Root of the renewal of natural purity and perfection by vertue of his blood unto Adams fallen posterity and by means of the other emptying forth the oyl of Gods new Name and of all Spiritual perfection as he is the beginning and first born from the dead made Head to the Heavenly body the Church that general Assembly of the first-born whose names are written in Heaven In both these respects this BRANCH of the Lord is to be made beautifull and glorious so as the very fruit of the earth or the earthly Adam shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel Isa 4. 2. For in them the very being of the first Adams perfection considered as built up again in fellowship and harmony with the second Adams perfection through the Resurrection of the dead is as the Ark of the Testament which is to be seen in this Temple whereby the Song of Moses shall be sung as perfectly as the Song of the Lamb as the musick and harmony requisite to be made by the inhabitants of the NEW JERUS ALEM those that are left in Zion and that remain in Jerusalem when God shall have cleansed them and purged them by the spirit of Judgement and burning by the baptism of the fire of the sacrifice of Christs death wherby they are written among the living in Jerusalem that is do become a Heavenly Tabernacle as built up into a life from the dead for a shadow in the day time from the heat and for a place of refuge and for a covert from storm and from rain in which dwelling places of Mount Zion and upon her Assemblies the Lord will create a cloud and a smoke by day and the shining of a flaming fire by night for upon all the glory shall be a defence ver 3 4 5 6. From this Scripture it appears that after men have had that work pass upon them which baptizeth them into one living Body with Christ making them living Members of his fleshly Manhood and enabling them to bring forth the excellent comely fruits of the renewed earthly Adam ver 2. unless they yet further abide the trial of fire which is to pass upon them by the Spirit of Judgement and burning of the day of Christs second appearance they will not continue long in ZION nor remain members of this earthly Jerusalem but will defile and pollute the Temple and Tabernacle of God set up in them in conformity to the flesh of Christ and so make themselves fit subjects for God to destroy and to swear in his wrath that even this Generation thus far advanced out of Egypt toward the Land of Promise shall never enter into his Rest as those that are but after such a manner Christs house as is intimated Heb. 3. 6. whose house are we if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoycing of the hope firm unto the end And as those Paul speaks of amongst the Corinthians that walked like men 1 Cor. 3. 3 17. If any man defile the Temple of God him shall God destroy for the Temple of God is holy which Temple ye are Those then are the Children of the first Covenant who are Christs seed and off-spring as he is the Head of the first Adams natural perfection and doth renew the Spirit and power of that perfection in the purity thereof as a seed in fallen man that shall grow up and prosper even into a Kingdom in the soul so as to be the prevailing principle there and carry the Rule and sway over the corrupt and prophane part causing men clean to escape the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of him after the flesh only and with this flesh as the true Manna and bread given them from heaven nourishing them up in the beauty and strength of his natural life The character of this sort of Christs children by the first covenant is lively set down by the Prophet Ezekiel instancing in the children of Israel whom God took by the hand and led out of Aegypt under the ministry of the first covenant wherein he was a husband unto them as appears Jer. 31 32. and had made them beautiful and of great renown in the sight of the Heathens round about them from whom they were separated as made perfect through his comliness which he had put upon them Ezek. 16. 13 14. which sort of Gods children Paul ranks those Galatians amongst that still desired to be under the Law in the time of the Gospel Gal. 4. calling them children of that covenant given from Sinai gendring to bondage or of the Ierusalem that now is to wit the earthly Jerusalem in distinction from the children of the other covenant or of the Jerusalem that is above viz. the heavenly For we must not think that this generation of men passeth away through the coming in of the Gospel but is rather much more improved and compleated forasmuch as by the means of Christ death the Holy commandment is now spoken by the Son himself delivered more immediately by the dawning of the light of Christs first appearance in the heart which was in the time of the ministry of the Law the word only spoken by Angels as committed unto them to mannage through whose ministry or disposition Acts 7. 53. the circumcised seed of Abraham Isaac and Jacob received it who were as figures of this circumcision to be made immediately by Christ himself among the Gentiles without hands by the pouring forth of his spirit upon all flesh and building them up with him into one living body as the true Israel of God after the flesh all which amounts but to the compleating of Christs living body through this first-covenant-work of his set up in the heart and conscience called in Scripture the FIRST FAITH which may be departed from and prove a faith that fails as being held upon wavering and uncertain principles until it be fixed by the baptism of fire and have that brought forth in fellowship with it which accompanies salvation to wit the incorruptible and immortal seed of the perfection of the second Adam causing them to dwell on high and placing them upon the munitions of Rocks where bread is given to them and waters that do not fail The Rule that is given unto this fleshly seed or children of the first covenant is the pattern of Christs natural life and perfection as he appeareth in the fashion of a man and form of a servant like unto us in all
Angels and men in the beings they have already received through the power of a resurrection wherein their first beings are not annihilated but altered and made other then they were at first as they are rarified exalted and made to receive by way of superinduction a better and more excellent form and glory in harmony with which they are so far from losing what they had that they receive their own again with usury Therefore it is described by the putting off the old and putting on the new without being found naked or destitute of the being and righteousness they had In it old things indeed pass and are done away as they are corruptible and mortal standing single upon the first root but they are brought forth and restored again upon a new account without having totally or finally ceased to be as it fares with the natural body in the lowest and most literal sense it can be taken in it is not so properly new created at the resurrection as raised up and exalted into a better tenure and exercise of the same life and operation then at first it had as is evident in the body of Christ himself giving the demonstration thereof fourty daies together whilst he was upon earth between his Resurrection and Ascention This is the END which comes and takes its place after that to the natural eye of Angels and men all things appeared to have had their finishing by reason of the good estate of being which they judged themselves to be already brought into and in possession of And indeed this was so truly and really a state of good and of perfection in its kind that God himself acknowledged it to be such by a general approbation of all those first works of his hands However as good as it was it was mutable fading wearing off and vanishing away in the principles of its natural body and first visible constitution as it is said Heb. 1. 10. 11 12 Thou Lord in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth and the heavens are the works of thine hands They shall perish but thou remainest and they all shall wax old as doth a garment and as a vesture shalt thou fold them up and they shall be changed evidently asserting the change they were subjected unto by God from the beginning not as we may say willingly but in hope or in reference to a better state of being intended of God through this change to be brought upon them by Christ considered in his second appearance sitting on the Throne as is in the same chapter declared ver 8 9. unto the Son he saith Thy throne O God is for ever and ever a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of thy Kingdom thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity therefore God even thy God hath anointed thee with the oyl of gladness above thy fellows So that it is not without cause that the Apostle Paul saith 1 Cor. 15. that the natural body is sown in corruption in order to be raised in incorruption Where corruption signifies no more then that mutability or changeableness which the first creation was sowen in in its innocent and good estate of being capable to be made better by being clothed upon with what is more excellent or to decline and sink down into a sinful corruption and in that to become unchangeable in which as in chains of darkness the wicked are detained unto the judgement of the great day no more place or change or repentance being left unto them And in this as in one chief particular the weakness of things in the natural body or first creation doth appear notwithstanding the good and perfection it was set up in which was common and universal to all that was made in the six daies But secondly there was a faultiness and weakness which the Scripture acknowledges incident to this innocent state which properly and only refers to Angels and men as made under the first covenant respecting the operation of their minds and inward powers wherein they were fitted and prepared for meetness of converse with God under that covenant which faultiness is spoken of Heb. 8. 7. 8. in the case of men which compared with Jude ver 6. shews that the Angels also were comprehended under the same This faultiness sprang up partly from the terms of the first covenant requiring the creatures continuance in all things commanded under pain of the curse which terms though good and just to be imposed by God upon them yet were capable of being ill made use of by the creature as it is said 1 Tim. 1. 8. The Law is good if a man use it lawfully importing that what was good in itself and in its first institution might by the unlawful and contrary use made of it become evil to them who so abused it 2 ly This faultiness sprang up also from the creatures weakness as not long able to bear the glory of its first state with sobriety of mind occasioned by the good and perfection already received which it thought could never be valued at too high a rate so that it judged itself enabled thereby to do all that God required and commanded in the wisdom and sufficiency already communicated and imparted to it which weakness and mistake in the creature was not caused by its creation nor came necessarily from it but occasionally and accidentally by the creatures voluntary overvaluing and over-trusting in the strength and power received putting more stress upon it then was meet and putting it to other use then God intended it Whence it is said Rom. 8. 3 4. what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh it pleased God to fulfil by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinfull flesh and for sin condemning sin in the flesh For through this weakness sin made its entrance which weakness and faultiness therefore in all the respects before mentioned was that which God thought requisite to provide against and supply by the ending and finishing hand which he reserved to put unto the work he had made on the seventh day by translating the creature without the intervening of sin into that Rest and incorruptible state which was the true end for which the first creation was brought forth and unto which it was appointed to serve and be subject in the changeable condition it was at first set up in as the means to bring all things into their everlastingly good or bad estate fore-known unto God from all eternity who therefore in his wisdome thought meet that the natural body should be first and then the spiritual and that the natural body should be sowen in weakness corruption or mutability that it might be raised in power and in incorruption and so be made a spiritual body and brought into its true Rest if through the creatures own default it fell not short came to be excluded For though it may be objected that God who did eternall foreknow all events and who
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
for ever to bear their shame and their abominations though yet for a season made keepers of the charge of the Temple for all the service thereof and for all that shall be done therein Ezek. 44. 13 14. Nevertheless the true Saints by being built up one Royal Priesthood with Christ shall be admitted into the most holy place This the Apostles well understood that were the first ministers under Christ of this dispensation unto the Gentiles which considered singly as the ministry of Christs first appearance is acknowledged by them to be but the building up again of the Tabernacle of David that was fallen and brought down to the grave with Christ in his death which thus he had power to rear up again amongst the Gentiles notwithstanding its fall among the Jews Acts 15. 14. when he did visit the Gentiles to take out of them a People for his name that was now ceased or ceasing amongst the Jews In this sense Paul understands the mercy of God shewed unto the Gentiles Rom. 11. upon the rejection of the Jews confessing it to be but such an implantation of the Gentiles into Christ the good Olive tree which the Jews had before and from which state they might again be broken off as the Jews were already which can therefore be no other state but that which Christ doth communicate as he is the minister of circumcision or of the covenant of works by the means of those gifts and distributions of the Holy Ghost which he gives forth amongst them after his ascention dividing to every one under this first covenant severally and a part according to his good pleasure till thereby his whole flesh or natural body be built up also among the Gentiles and compleated With this agrees fully the exposition which Peter gives Acts 2. of that which was spoken by the Prophet Joel It shall come to pass in those daies saith God I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh and your sons and your daughters shall prophesie and your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams and it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved ver 16 17 21. From the right consideration hereof we may discern that this dispensation was no other then that of Christs first appearance wherein he was the perfection of the first covenant the giver forth of common salvation and Redemption the minister of circumcision and the setter up of the truth of God in his own flesh which was promised unto the fathers and whereof the whole ministry of Moses was but the type and figure as appears Acts 7. 37. where Moses is brought in saying a Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren like unto me him shall ye hear Christ as thus the true Tabernacle and sanctuary in his flesh which God pitched and not man was also to suffer that so he might bring down the first standing thereof into the grave whereby to make way into the holiest of all whereinto he entered by his own blood and did build up the Tabernacle of David thus fallen in and by his death into the power of an endless life wherein he sate down at the right hand of God exalted far above all heavens having all principalities and powers made subject to him who in his fleshly man was made lower then Angels for the suffering of death We are therefore to understand the TABERNACLE OF DAVID by the means of the eternal words being made flesh to have had a twofold being and building up given unto it First in the natural and fleshly man of Christ wherein he was the perfection of the first Adam bearing that image and made in all things like unto him as he was made a living soul and enjoyed a sinless spotless nature before the fall In this natural perfection singly considered Christ as meer man was inferiour to the Angels as having that life of man in him which was lower then theirs which was the heel which the Serpent had permission to bruise the Lamb without spot and blemish the body that was prepared him to offer up in sacrifice to God as he had received commandment In this building he became Emanuel God with us according to the first covenant and was a new head unto all the sons of Adam in the first Adams image which all that are planted into are taken out of the wild and engraffed anew into the good Olive tree to partake in the fatness and goodnes thereof as it is the root and spring whence proceeds that restauration and renewal of mans first nature given to Adam by creation and corrupted by the fall which renewal as it flows from the flesh of Christ is the fruit and benefit of his death and where-ever it is wrought by Christ in any sons or daughters of Adam it makes them to become members of his body flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone baptizing them all whether Jews or Gentiles into the same living body with himself the first Sanctuary and building making them all to drink intothe same spirit and seed upon the same natural perfection and purity which flows forth from his own flesh or natural man typed out by the Manna given from heaven which is said to be Angels food and is interpreted by Christ himself to signifie his flesh which he was to give for the life of the world or for the renewing of life unto the world from himself as head of the first Adams perfection and purity This flesh of Christ is spiritual meat such as the Angels themselves feed upon in heaven as on the incorruptible food which is prepared for them by the quickning given unto Christs natural manhood through the resurrection from the dead which flesh considered as given to men in this world may be received and eaten of by them either worthily or unworthily either in the lawful use thereof for which it was ordained and given by God as the Angels in heaven feed on it and true believers here in this world or in the unlawful use of it as it is fed upon by those that discern not nor distinguish between Christs living body and his crucified body between a being made one living soul with him and a being made one quickning spirit with him in a life springing up out of the ruines of this first Tabernacle the fall whereof in this Lamb slain and the true followers of this Lamb whithersoever he goeth is in order to its being built up anew in him and in them by the resurrection from the dead This second sort of building is that which we mean by that second being which is given to the Tabernacle of David in the person of Christ in which he is exalted above the Heavens and is the Temple opened in heaven Rev. 11. where also is seen the Ark of the Testament and so is Emanuel God with us in and by the New and everlasting Covenant having
we come to be like him throughout in his glorified manhood and shall see him as he is having that love in us which he had from his Father before the foundation of the world For the opening of this we are to call to minde that the WORD when he was made flesh did set up this building in the seed of it in the person of JESUS THE SON OF MARY as well as that of meer man in which he was made under the Law In respect of both these birth 's of humane perfection in Christ he was said to grow in grace and in favor with God and man and so his manhood in the full extent of it may seem to be described and figured out to us by the vine in Jothams parable whose fruit cheereth the heart of God and of man According to the first of these births he had the effusion of the Spirit above measure a perfection given to him from above making him in this fashion and form of his heavenly manhood above all even the Jerusalem above that is the mother of us all upon which the new name is written qualifying him through this anointing with a heavenly raisedness of mind and divine heightning of all his humane powers and faculties to that fulness and extent whereby he may be enabled as the true Ark of God to swim live and abide in the waters of the divine glory where they are risen so high as to overwhelm and drown all his natural sences or powers of minde making up a river so deep as is impassable to them singly considered and as alone Ezek. 47. 5. which highest waters of the utmost discovery and manifestation of God import and make out that Love of God and of Christ which passeth knowledge and fils the true Saints with all the fulness of God exceeding abundantly above all they can ask or think Ephes 3. 19 20. This heavenly manhood anointing and new name which Christ hath renders him as the bush that Moses saw able to abide in the fiery and most glorious appearance of the very form and similitude of God himself and not be burned or consumed yea is that whereby he is prepared through the blood of the sacrifice of himself considered in his other capacity of manhood to enter within the vail and face to face as friend talks with friend converse with God in the unveiled brightness of his glory and express image of his person feeding upon it as his meat and drink even the dainties or feast of fat things provided for him in the kingdom of the Father The joy whereof set before him in the days of his flesh made him endure the cross despise the shame and finish the course of his sufferings with cheerfulness through the sight of him that was invisible to the natural eye In this sense was Christ made man when the WORD was made flesh and was the only begotten son in the bosom of the Father that thus sees God and is able to declare him whereas no meer man whatsoever either hath seen God at any time or can see him This is he of whom John said After me cometh a man which is preferred before me for he was before me upon whom the spirit rests and remains who therefore hath power to baptize with the holy Ghost as he did his own natural manhood when he offered it up Secondly then according to the other birth of humane perfection in Christ the spirit was given him by measure as it was to the first Adam when he was made a living soul whereby he was made under the Law like unto other men in all things sin only excepted that is to say with equal powers of mind and capacity of will and understanding as the earthy man or first Adam in his purity capable to think speak do will and desire in all things as a man bearing the same image as the first Adam did before his fall but with this difference that joyntly together with his being made thus a perfect natural man he had the perfection formerly mentioned of his heavenly manhood as that which was the top-stone of the building the crown of glory and honour wherewith he was crowned and made higher then the heavens all principalities and powers being made subject unto him This twofold humane perfection was brought forth in the holy child Jesus by the WORDS being made flesh and through his death and resurrection came to their full maturity and ripeness wherein Christ was declared the son of God with power having all power in heaven and earth put into his hands by the father even as he was the Son of man who in the dignity of this his state and glory can nevertheless do nothing of himself but what things soever he sees the Father do these also doth the Son likewise For the Father loveth the Son and sheweth him all things that himself doth For as the Father raiseth up the dead and quickeneth them even so the Son quickneth whom he will For the Father judgeth no man but hath committed all judgement unto the Son that all men should honour the Son even as they honour the Father For as the Father hath life in himself so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself and hath given him authority to execute Judgement also because he is the Son of man to wit in the twofold respect before mentioned But thirdly over and besides this twofold humane perfection which is in Christ he is also perfect God through the unity of Person whereinto he is begotten with the WORD from the operation whereof the same Jesus that is the Son of man is also the living and eternal WORD OF GOD and is so called Rev. 19. 13. out of whose mouth goeth a sharp sword and wherewith he smites the Nations and rules them with a rod of Iron as KING OF KINGS and LORD OF LORDS which high priviledge is peculiar to him it appertaining only to the man Christ Jesus to be God as he is that one blessed person that is the Mediator between God and Man and therefore incommunicable to any of the rest of the Seed or many brethren whereof he is the first born But as to what concerns this Jesus as he is the SON OF MAN in respect of the twofold humane perfection that is in him the rest of the seed even the many children given to him by the Father to bring up to glory are co-partners with him attaining to the measure of the stature of that his fulness and perfection through which they are made by him KINGS and PRIESTS to God and are to raign for evermore Into this perfection they are made to grow up in all things in him that is their head being by him begotten again unto a lively hope through the resurrection from the dead and having the immortal seed of the heavenliness of Christs perfection and life formed and brought forth in them as the inheritance incoruptible and undefiled that fades not away
threatned with destruction the Mystical earthly Jerusalem or worldly Church under the Gentiles is therein comprehended and also meant as that which shall at the end of the world and in the last times be found in a most corrupted declined estate of Apostasie 2 Thes 2. 3. 1 Tim. 4. 12. 2 Tim. 3. 1 c. unto which therefore several characters and signes are appropriated that cannot be understood to be accomplished at the destroying of the material Temple and outward Jerusalem but are necessarily to be meant of this Mystical one as the Heavens that are remaining to be shaken yet once more Heb. 12. signifying the removing of those things that may be shaken as of things that are made that those things that cannot be shaken may remaine This Mystical earthly Ierusalem is that which shall not have one stone left upon another as well as the other Typical Ierusalem not so much as any visibility or forme of worship shall be left to her but she shall be given to the Gentiles or prophane world who shall tread this holy City under foot fourty and two moneths And to make this hour and power of darknesse the more terrible there shall be warres and rumours of warres Nation shall rise up against Nation and Kingdome against Kingdome and there shall be Famines and Pestilences and Earthquakes in divers places yea all these things shall be but the beginning of sorrows For as thus warres and troubles and sorrowes shall be in reference to the outward man so also deceit and errour by false Prophets and false Christs shall arise causing much defilement in reference to the inner man whence will flow great declinings and apostasies from holy and righteous principles for saking of the truth or a waxing cold in the love of it amongst the inhabitants of this Mystical earthly Ierusalem and not only so but there will spring up a root of bitternesse and an implacable persecuting spirit against the faithful WITNESSES of Christ that shall in those dayes be found in her to the afflicting killing or flaying of them and letting their dead bodies lie unburied in the street of this great City which the Nations shall come and destroy for all her whoredomes and apostasies as they did the literal Ierusalem God putting it into their hearts to agree together and burne this Whore with fire And then they themselves that are thus made the rod of Gods anger and executioners of his vengeance on this great City shall not escape but Zach. 14. 3. The Lord shall go forth and fight against those Nations as when he fought in the day of battel For a great tumult from the Lord shall be among them and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour ver 13. So Mat. 24. 29 30. Immediately after the tribulation of those dayes shall the Sunne be darkned and the Moone shall not give her light and the Starres shall fall from Heaven and the powers of the Heavens shall be shaken And then shall appeare the signe of the Sonne of Man in Heaven and then shall all the Tribes of the earth mourne and they shall see the Sonne of man coming in the clouds of Heaven with power and great glory actually entering upon the exercise of his Kingdome and this First by sending forth his Angels and gathering together his Elect from the four winds from one end of Heaven to the other as into one glorified body with himself to the constituting of this GENERAL ASSEMBLY of the FIRST-BORNE which shall be made up partly of those the Lord brings with him and partly of those which shall be found alive and remaing unto the coming of the Lord or shall be in the natural body during the thousand years all which shal be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye by way of translation as it was with Enoch and not see death Whereby their mortal shall put on immortality and their corruptible shall put on incorruption and death and the grave shall be swallowed up in victory The first in order then which Christ quickens at his coming shall be his own Mystical dead body for the dead in Christ shall rise first 1 Thes 4. 16. that is those that have beene slaine and have born the marks of the dyings of Jesus upon them who are called Rev. 20. the souls of them that were beheaded for the witnesse of Jesus and for the WORD of God who all of them at this time through the quickning power of their Head shall live and reigne with him the first-fruits who hath already for a long time beene living and reigning at Gods right hand as it is written 1 Cor. 15. Every man in his owne order Christ the first-fruits afterwards they that are Christs at his coming whom he builds or raises up with himself into one spiritual and glorified body v. 44. causing them thereby to bear the image of the heavenly and last Adam as they have borne the image of the earthy or first Adam and this in the utmost perfection thereof as arrived to the measure of the stature of that fulnesse and perfection which declares and manifests it self in Christs heavenly manhood enabled to exercise in copartnership with him the power and glory of a threefold humane life and perfection in which he went before them First when upon the laying down of his natural body he came into the exercise of a life proper to the spirit of a just man made perfect in likenesse and equality with that of the holy Angels who stand in a superiority of life unto the earthly man even of Christ himself Heb. 2. 9. Secondly when he also came forth in the exercise of a humane bodily life raised up in a glorified and incorruptible forme never to die more Rev. 1. 18. in which he conversed with men the fourty dayes betweene his resurrection and ascension Thirdly when yet farther he came forth in the exercise of a divine humane life in which ascending to his God and their God to his Father and their Father he was exalted into a unity and copartnership in life and operation with the ROOT OF DAVID the WORD OF LIFE the first-born of every creature and first-begotten from the dead This is spoken of as the fruit also of his resurrection from the dead Ephes 1. ver 20 21. When through the mightinesse of Gods power that wrought in him he was raised from the dead and set at Gods owne right hand in the Heavenly or in the first and Heavenly Tabernacle that is set up in the WORD treated on by us in the first Chapter farre above all prin ipality and power and might and Dominion and every name or particular nature and being not only in this world but also in that which is to come In which life ver 22. 't is said that to the humane nature of Christ it is given to be the Head over all things or
first covenant but becomes the engraffed WORD wherein both the names and ministries of the second and third persons are joyned and knit together in everlasting agreement love and peace through the blood of the Lamb slain so as the Sons ministry by the cessation thereof as singly considered leaves not the Creature for ever orphan or fatherless but in this return of glory visits it again with more abundant joy and consolation never to be taken away more This end Paul makes mention of 1 Cor. 15. 24. whereby the Son delivers up all his kingdom and rule unto the Father as willingly subjecting the exercise of his Ministry in a subserviency and usefulness to the very Image it self that God may be all in all in the communion which is maintained between him and the creature through the operation of the holy Ghost This kind of communion between God and the creature is the last and that which is to continue without change unto which all things under the Ministry of the first covenant must work as to their end and will hasten fast the neerer this end approaches which hath been witnessed unto from the beginning and in its first fruits and dawnings partaken of This is the communion of the holy Ghost 2 Cor. 13. 14. which Paul wishes unto them after the grace they had shared in from Jesus Christ our Lord as the common salvation Jude v. 3. and as the fruit of the love of God the Father which in the new creatures being begins with that of the Sons work and like Jacob treads upon the heels of it and supplants it serving it self of it throughout to bring all things to this end and to that purpose makes the elder brother or the ministry of Gods first appearance serve to the bringing forth of this younger or Ministry of Gods second appearance in the hand of the holy Ghost as the glory which is to follow and be abideding whilst the first as single is to be done away that it may receive its finishing as it stands in agreement and consistency with this latter Which work of the holy Ghost in the person of Christ from the foundation of the world was that which finished all Gods works in the Mediator Heb. 4. 3. or in the Lamb slain who offered up himself as the first-born of every creature and Davids root Rev. 5. becoming thereby Col. 1. the beginning and first-born from the dead head unto the general assembly and Church of the first born whose names are written in heaven and is the same living creature as before which was seen under the God of Israel changed and translated out of the first sort of communion with God upon the terms of the first covenant into this of the holy Ghost losing thereby nothing of the good of that communion he had before but having it fulfilled and far more abundance and exellency added unto it being made to sit down now on the throne with God at his right hand and to possess all power in heaven and earth as brought forth in a glory that is above the firmament over the head of the Sons dispensation Ezek. 1. 25 26. Through this witness of the holy Ghost is given the vision of God in both the former Images and similitudes embracing and reteining each other in mutual harmony and agreement and so enfolding themselves as in one intelligible form and suitable appearance to the new creatures understanding raised up and begotten from the moment of time wherein the holy Ghost in this his Ministry began to work and offer up the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world becoming thereby the author and Rule of this third sort of communion and converse between God and the creature under the new and everlasting Covenant In these openings of light and glory and issuings forth thereof upon the mind and understanding of Christ the Mediator and living WORD or Sanctuary of the living God by the operation of the Trinity is he anointed with the name of God and prepared though a mysterie lying hid in God to perform the office of a Mediator between him and his creatures in both worlds For by the first he is one with God the Mediator and God are one the brightness of Gods glory and power unto which no creature can have the first and immediate access where God seats himself too high in name and similitude to be conversed with by any creature being the glory shadowed out under the law as speaking from above the mercy seat incommunicable to any but the Mediator himself and that as he is God By the second Christ is one also with the natural being of the creature in a changeable and dissoluble band of union the spring and root of all creation time the Author of all natural life being motion and perfection in whose face God beholds all the works of the first world before he proceeds to the creation of them and as they answer the end and finishing by him appointed to them liking and approving of them notwithstanding all the changes from beginning to ending they are subjected unto in that dispensation This is that we mean by Christs being the first-born of every creature in whom the nature of the creature as in its root and head is united unto the Son of God and second person in the Trinity in order to the finishing of that which is to be accomplished upon it by the Holy Ghost Thirdly and lastly Christ is one with God and one with the creature in an indissoluble and unchangeable Band of union mediating such a unity and reconciliation between the two natures of God and the creature as that the height of glory in the name of the Father and the descent of glory in the name of the Son may so peece up as we may say together and become one as to be one new name wherein both meet as in a third and so seat themselves as to be mutually serviceable to the design of this third sort of communion even the communion of the Holy Ghost which some are everlastingly taken into and others everlastingly excluded from in which God is at rest with all the works of his hands having brought upon them that finishing work he before purposed and ordained in righteousness and judgement wherein he dwels converses with the creature after a far better and more excellent manner then in the first building even to his own hearts desire and content as well as to the content and desire of all hearts whether of men or angels that love him find favour in his eyes In this riches and fulness of perfection the WORD is both Lord and Christ from the beginning set down at the right hand of God expecting till his foes be made his foot-stool Psal 110. 1. And hath a government that shall never end being King of righteousness and King of peace Thus in the face of the Mediator doth God behold his works as they are finished to his full liking
in him which is so far from being lessened or interrupted by death and the laying down of the use of his bodily life for a time that it never comes to its full and mature perfection until then and as a consequence hereof the body be re-assumed incorruptible In this property and operation of humane life man bears the figure and image of the witness of the Holy Ghost Thus we have described what man is in his essential parts and operations in order to fit him for that communion and converse with God designed unto him by the two Covenants unto the first of which he was actually and perfectly qualified as he became a living soul and did bear the image of God in and upon his natural man as the first Adam being of the earth earthy But unto the other man by his creation was no otherwise qualified and prepared then as he was set up in such a being as was capable by a farther workmanship of God to arrive unto and attain the glory and everlasting perfection of the new and second covenant without which all that was done unto him yet by what he had received from God in his creation if left to his own freewill would but redound to his greater misery and more righteous condemnation before the judgement seat of Christ through his own default This finishing and compleating work of God upon man was reserved to be Ministred to him on the seventh day whereby a far higher and more exalted capacity of mind and operation was to be added to him for the enabling him unto an everlasting happy and compleat communion with God This is that which in his first state was wanting and could not be obtained by him but as the free gift of God then propounded to him in the tree of life This second and last state of perfection held forth unto man from the beginning in the tree of life in the midst of the Paradise of God is described by the Apostle Paul 1 Cor. 15. 44 45 46 47 48 49. where he sets it up in contra-distinction to the first and earthly make of man by his creation shewing it to be that life and immortality which is brought to light in Christ as the last Adam the Lord from heaven and quickning spirit calling it the spiritual body as that in which the power of this endless life was comprehended comparatively with the natural body wherein the perfection of Adams mutable and corruptible life consisted saying plainly that there is this spiritual body and heavenly image in the last Adam as well as that natural body and earthly image in the first howbeit that is not first which is spiritual but that which is natural and afterwards that which is spiritual the first being the life of perfection that was found in the earthly Adam the other being that which was brought to light in the heavenly by his resurrection from the dead and therefore as is the earthly such are they that are earthly and as is the heavenly such are they also that are heavenly And in reference unto such as are the right heirs of salvation it is said as they have born the image of the earthly so shall they also bear the image of the heavenly and have their natural or vile bodies changed and fashioned like unto his glorious body by him who through his mighty power is able to subdue all things uno himself And if we desire to be satisfied how this change and translation out of the one perfection and image into the other is to be effected he positively asserts that it is brought upon man as the fruit of Christs resurrection or Ministry of Gods second appearance by and in him which rends the first veil and brings down the first Tabernacle of the natural body into the grave with Christ whence it springs up clothed upon with this house from heaven its spiritual body by means whereof this corruptible puts on incorruption and this mortal puts on immortality and death and the grave are swallowed up in victory This change and translation was as we have said propounded unto Adam as the end of his creation and was figured out to him in the tree of life and by the twofold exercise of life and ability of mind set up in their perfection in in him by creation he was indued with a power improveable in the use of the means God afforded him to be at least in a tendency unto so glorious an end and disposed in such a posture and frame of spirit as God required in him by the first covenant in order to this farther work which on the seventh day God would make known and impart to him What God herein required from man was signified unto him by the tree of knowledge of good and evil and the prohibition accompanying the same which was not to eat of the fruit of that tree In this tree of knowledge of good and evil man had the sight of himself in the exercise of his natural life and operations appertaining unto him as he became a living soul in the well or evi use whereof he might arrive unto the experience of the supream good held forth to him as the end of his creation the endless life that was to follow or else he might come by the forfeiture of the present good he enjoyed to know the evil of a much worse condition then at first he had for the avoiding of which and to continue in a posture meet to receive the other God required him in the state of innocency to abide in a waiting frame of spirit as a sojourner and stranger in the midst of his present enjoyments in the earthly Paradise that so through his patient forbearance from taking up his Rest or terminating his delight in seen things he might preserve in himself an unengaged unprejudiced spirit to what was yet behind of the counsel of God to be communicated to him as to a more excellent attainment and inheritance to be exhibited to him in the light of the approaching day of the Lord the beamings forth whereof as considered in type were already present CHAP. VI. Concerning the fall of man the steps and degrees to it with the bitter fruits and consequents thereof BY what hath been said of mans Creation it is undeniable that God made him perfect though the perfection of his estate was mutable or subject to change and therefore not the Rest from all eternity designed him by God so that man in this first perfect state had that still wanting which was the finishing and compleating work to what he at present enjoyed howbeit that which was wanting unto man did no way cause or necessitate his fall but that as we shall shew proceeded from the suggestion of Sathan and enticing of his own lust which lust when it had conceived brought forth sin and sin when it was perfected brought forth death although man in this estate was well and sufficiently armed and provided against it if he
those were that should be everlastingly saved or everlastingly perish would seem by this way of his ordering of things in the first creation to be very accessory to the sin and fall of Angels and men seeing it was in his power to have made them otherwise not at all subjected to this weakness it is very true God could have made them otherwise but when both in wisdom and justice he thought fit to make them thus who art Thou O man that repliest against God And how unseemly is it for the vessel to say to the potter why hast thou made me thus that is subject to such mutability and weakness as may end in everlasting contempt and misery seeing that God puts no influencing necessity upon thee either by his decree or otherwise but leaves thee to the free motion and choise of thy own mind and will herein and for this very reason made thee a creature indued with free will that no turning of the scale towards thy misery and ruine might proceed from him but from the moving and enticing of thy own hearts lust which state also ministred occasion to thee by the weakness and mutability thereof to have looked after that better state that was provided and was approaching even ready to be revealed whereby all the faultiness of thy first state might have been remedied and such a change attained unto as was more worth then all the hazard and loss that lay in the way of coming to the enjoyment of it amounted to The wisdom and justice then of God is very perspicuous in ordering that state of things which by creation was first brought forth as a preparatory and fore-running dispensation to the glory of the spiritual body that was to follow and succeed And the folly and weakness of Angels and men is very inexcusable that in this estate made so bad use of those gifts and communications of God so freely received from the hand of a bountiful Creator as to make him weary of giving more and repent as it were of what he had given already in that it was so shamefully abused by the receivers thereof as to reproach the maker and provoke him to exclude them for ever from the true Rest Now what this second and more excellent state is into which the creature is to be translated may partly be understood by the opposite weakness and faultiness in the other that hath been already opened forasmuch as it contains in it the full cure and remedy thereunto and in general doth procure a full redemption unto the natural body out of its first bondage of corruption and mutability in all respects which therefore the whole creature waits for Rom. 8. 19. but as for the manner and particulars of that glory wherein they shall be brought forth we are to wait till those times of refreshing that shall come from the presence of the Lord for this restitution of all things do themselves give the explanation thereof in visible characters But that which lies most properly before us in the matter we are now handling is the consideration of what that change is in reference to the inward intellectual and rational powers in Angels and men respectively who having received at the first immortal and invisible substances as hath been shewed are not in the essential parts of their first constitution to be annihilated but the Angels are still spirits and flames of fire and men do still consist of spirit soul and bodie retaining the powers and operations incident and proper thereunto after that they have passed by a considerable and irrevocable change through the resurrection from the dead into everlasting honour or everlasting contempt That the perfection of Angels and men which was communicated to them by creation was mutable and corruptible is generally confessed and experienced likewise is it as little to be doubted but that the instability and change in both by their sin and fall did proceed from that freedom of will proper motion of their own which they were enabled to exercise according to the first constitution and natural frame of their minds and spirits wherein they possessed an arbitrary independent and free exercise thereof without any interruption by God who was pleased to suffer this for his own most wise and holy ends intrusting them with what they had received to use and employ it for the glory and in the service of their Creator and not to serve their own private lusts and interests therewith In this honour and trust received from God it would well have become as well Angels as men to have found themselves not a little burthened under the straits and difficulties attending the right managing such soveraignty and arbitrariness of power which seems so much above the weakness of meer creature-beings that until God take them into such intimacy of union by the second Covenant as not to leave them alone in the exercise of this power they are every moment subject to miscarriage in the use thereof God therefore was willing to take a Rise from hence to discover to the creature the needfulness of its being taken out of this wavering state and translated into the permanent glory that was to follow whereby to secure it in the midst of all its present excellency and perfection from destroying itself by forfeiting and losing all that it had already attained and to set up in the creature a house and an abiding place for himself wherein he may rest for ever Esai 66. 1. when all things that his hands had made and are said by him to have been by virtue of the first creation came short of so glorious an end and use as left to themselves and were by him laid by as unregarded That then which God had in his eye and which his heart and regard was set upon consists in a frame of spirit and mind reserved by him to be brought upon Angels men that stood in direct opposition and cross constitution unto this eminently shining forth in the crucified spirit of Jesus the last Adam which God by the vertue and means of his death and resurrection designed to superinduce upon the natural beings of Angels and men as in the way of a new creation before which the old should vanish wear away This Isa 66. 2. is lively set forth where to those expressions all these things hath mine hand made and all these things have been the Holy Ghost subjoyns but to this will I look even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit and that trembleth at my word The like is to be found Psal 109. 16. where Judas and such enemies unto Christ are prophesied of as persecuted the poor and needy man that they might even slay the broken in heart This poverty neediness and brokenness of spirit is that which Christ cals blessed Mat. 5. 3. saying that theirs is the kingdom of heaven being ever accompanied with a purity and a purifying through faith whereby they come to see God v.
yet it was so real and influencing that the BRANCH may truly be said to have lived in this his root the Father of Spirits as properly as the seed of the first Adam may be said to have lived in the loyns of him their common parent who was the Father of the flesh Christ the BRANCH considered as thus living in his root is said and accounted in Scripture phrase to act live and perform all that which was the action life and performance of the WORD For by Jesus God is said to create all things and to make both worlds who is said also to be before all things and in all things to have the preheminence And in this heavenly place of residence and abode which Christ the BRANCH hath in his root the whole spiritual seed Eph. 1. 3. are blessed with all spiritual blessings from the foundation of the world and received grace before the world began 2 Tim. 1. 9 10. forasmuch as Christ had the same union then contracted between his humane nature and the WORD of life vertually and radically which afterwards by the incarnation flowed forth actually to the making of him not only a living soul after the pure image of the first Adam but a quickning spirit as the original pattern unto the heavenly and spiritual seed of himself the second Adam This praeexistent union between Jesus and the WORD before the WORD actually was made flesh Christ asserts upon several occasions as John 3. 13. where he saies No man ascended up into heaven but he that descended even the Son of man which is in heaven that is in his head and root where as a mysterie he lay hid in God before the world began interpreted thus by himself in effect John 6. 62. when he saies What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before likewise Phil. 2. it is said that he that was found in the form or WORD of God and thought it no robbery to be equal with God made himself of no reputation and was found in fashion and habit as a man as if to come forth as the servant the BRANCH were rather a diminution then advance to him simply considered who was before in that exalted state where he though it no robbery to be equal with God And John 8. 58. he asserts this ancientness of his daies unto the Jews saying unto them before Abraham was I am and Mat. 22. 42 43 44 45. he unriddles this mysterie to them where he affirms that he was as well Davids root and Lord as Davids son and off-spring saying that so he was acknowledged by David himself when he was seen unto him in spirit as the Mediator called Lord unto whom God the Father spake Psal 110. 1. where t is said The Lord said unto my Lord Sit thou at my right hand till I make thine enemies thy foot stool which expression can no way suite or agree with the second person in the Trinity simply considered but must necessarily be understood of the Lord the Mediator the WORD of life as he is the first born of every creature and first begotten from the dead the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world to whom as risen from the dead the right hand of God is most fitly to be assigned This witness is also given by John Baptist John 1. 30. when he saith After me cometh a man which is preferred before me for he was before me the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world both as he is the root and the BRANCH in the former capacity as the root he became the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world Rev. 13. 8. In the other capacity as the BRANCH he was carried as the Lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep dumb before the Shearers Isa 53. 7. in the dayes of his flesh For though what is said Heb. 9. 27 28. As it is appointed unto men once to die but after this the judgement so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many may seem strongly to confine the death of Christ to his offering up in the dayes of his flesh so as to exclude the other yet if this be compared with v. 26. it will appear to be so far from excluding that it rather asserts it by shewing how both these do well stand and consist together For saith the text he must then often have suffered since the foundation of the world taking that for granted which was performed before or from the foundation of the world in his mystical and heavenly state as he was Davids root But now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself That which he did after an invisible manner in his heavenly and mystical state wherein he was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world the same thing in the end of the world he doth in a visible manner in mans nature when he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself which sacrifice in his humane nature was but once offered nor could be forasmuch as it is appointed for man but once to die therefore Christ also in offering up this sacrifice as man could offer it up but once as Heb. 10. 12. It is said But this man Christ considered as the BRANCH or off-spring of David after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever sate down at the right hand of God In which action he that is the BRANCH and off-spring ascends up into the glory wherein he was before as the ROOT the first born of every creature and first begotten or beginning from the dead Indeed Christ by being the Lamb slain from the beginning of the world did but lay the needful foundation and preparation to the one sacrifice to be once made by him as man in the end of the world for the putting away of sin So as in effect both are but one and the same sacrifice in its compleat consideration and full extent and the obedience also to the will of the Father but one performed now in earth as from the beginning it had been done in heaven Without such a glorious and blessed counsel and contrivance of God preceding the very creation it self and the entrance of sin upon it how can God be said to have finished his works in the person of the Mediator from the foundation of the world and to be entred into his Rest Heb. 4. 3 4. if sin by entring in upon the creation or works of God after they were made should be able to disturb them and bring a desolation upon the whole Fabrick as it ought to have been dealt with in way of Justice if this Lamb slain had not born up the pillars of it who by standing up in the office of Mediator and High-Priest by whose sacrifice the atonement was actually made and remedy provided before the evil and danger did happen did immediately set all things straight again between God
them to be Abrahams fleshly seed but saith he ye seek to kill me and therefore ver 39. he denies them in effect to be Abrahams spiritual seed or of the faith of Abraham for if ye were thus the children of Abraham saith he ye would do the works of Abraham and this did not he he did not become an enemy and seek to kill men for speaking the truth which they have heard of God ver 40. If therefore you desire to know what Father youbelong to I tell you plainly you are of your father the devil and the lusts of your father ye will do he was a murderer from the beginning and abode not in the truth because there is no truth in him when he speaketh a lye he speaketh of his own for he is a lyar and the father of it ver 44. So then although God gave to Angels and men at first the goodness and perfection of natural beings and doth freely offer a renewal of the same to men in the blood of Christ by the first covenant made again in force by vertue of his death as the first Testament Heb. 9. 15 16 17 18. yet this image and likeness of God wherein they were made and whereunto they are again renewed as it stands single and alone without the other is a mutable and corruptible seed the children whereof are therefore capable to turn again into degenerate plants and into the wild olive tree For God comes down in the ministry hereof as under a veil to the creatures sight and enjoyment in which man fixing and taking up his abode waiting for no further discovery nor expecting or listning after that second voice of him that speaketh from heaven may for ever stand excluded from entrance into or converse with the glory that is within the veil where God is to be seen and enjoyed by the creature face to face By the blood of Christ then man is first made capable to be taken out of the wild degenerate state of nature and to be planted into the good Olive tree the flesh or natural man in the person of Christ and when he comes to partake of the fatness thereof as it singly gives forth Christ in his first appearance or a knowledge of him only according to the flesh which Paul grew a stranger to as he came to be more acquainted with the Cross he is still but in a capacity to stand or fall again as upon his second proof and trial in the renewed exercise of his free will and rectified natural abilities of mind he demeans himself according to which he proves the womb whereinto is received either a divine seed and birth whereof the mediator in his death and resurrection is the author and parent or else a devilish seed and birth whereof the Serpent and old Dragon is the Father growing up into a wilful and fixed enmity against the Cross of Christ One or other of these two seeds all sorts of men do become by the evil and unworthy or the good and worthy use of Christs blood and the benefits of his death and so are either the seed of the woman and of promise or the seed of the Serpent lying children born from beneath of the father of lyes in comparison of the divine birth of the true seed that in the other sense are born of God and from above This latter is attained unto through Gods bounty and free love the Mediator adopting them into oneness of seed with himself as he is the only begotten Son in whom God is well-pleased The other through Gods just permission and Satans prevailing power and influence upon their lust and natural will at its best are changed and corrupted into likeness and oneness of seed with the old Serpent By reason of which different dispensations the innocent good righteous and perfect state of mans nature communicated to him by vertue of the first covenant comes either to grow up into that which is much better even into the power of an endless life or else to degenerate and sink down into that which is much worse even eternal enmity and opposition of mind unto God which is the second death That then which fixeth man in his unchangeable and permanent state of everlasting blessedness or misery is the bringing him forth out of his first wavering and changeable state into oneness of seed with Christ the Mediator in his second appearance wherein he is made to bear the likeness of his death and resurrection or the leaving him to be transformed into oneness of seed with the destroyer and thereby to become a child of perdition The first of these changes mans natural will at its very best lusteth against as the greatest cross that can be brought upon it until by regeneration and the baptism of fire it be prepared broken and subdued into a meet subjection thereunto And the latter change cannot be obtruded by the devil or forced upon mans will but is brought upon him by and with his own free consent which was not found difficult to be gained in the state of mans innocency and purity in Paradise and is not more since Here then we see the seat and original of this enmity between the two seeds springing up in the manner before expressed in their respective heads and roots who are thus to be found as they are in their heads and first principles before they flow forth in the off-spring and are discerned in their distinct operations in the particular beings of men here in this world as deeds done in the body whether they be good or evil for which all men are rendred accountable when they come to stand before the judgement seat of Christ In order therefore to their own voluntary actings herein they are endued with the exercise of a freedome of will which by creation was perfect absolute and uninterrupted and which by the ballance that God since the fall keeps up by the ministry of the holy Angels with their influence and impressions upon the natural enlightned conscience as also by the work of the spirit himself upon those farther illuminated minds under the first covenant against the power and influence of the devil upon mans corrupted and depraved state is so far and truly exercised by man in the several measures and degrees thereof as will render him inexcusable for not hearkning to the light and means tendred and afforded to him through the blood of Christ revealed by the Gospel in one or other of the three forementioned branches of his kingdome So that now upon Gods making man on the sixth day of the creation forming the first Adam of the dust of the ground and breathing into him the breath of life he became a living soul was set up in the first image of God brought forth in the same kind of mutable perfection with the Angels and in all the glory and accomplishments of this first state was a fit subject brought upon the stage capable to be attempted by both these great
therefore not to infer from what hath been said as some ignorantly or maliciously do that in asserting those under the two former dispensations to be capable of miscarrying as not therein arrived at that which is their true safety and blessedness we destroy the faith of many dear Saints and professors of Christ who have dyed or yet may die without ever acknowledging or experiencing a higher or other state of acceptation with God For upon this ground Christ should never have come in the flesh or have promised to come the second time without sin unto salvation because many a true Saint may have died and never seen nor acknowledged him in either of these his comings But indeed this assertion is so far from straitning or lessening the number of those that are the true heirs of salvation that it rather discovers how they may lie hid as they did in Elijahs time out of the observation of visible professors amongst those that they exclude as heathens and may be comprehended by Christ their spiritual head when as yet they may not have their spiritual senses brought forth into exercise so as to apprehend him but may be babes in Christ walking as men 1 Cor. 3. 1 3. undistinguished from the rest of the world And although they may in that respect seem to be men in the flesh yet they may live according to God in the spirit and find acceptance in the beloved one whilst they themselves may either be without law exercising a chaste natural conscience or may be under the law believers so Zealous of the law as to flie in the face of Paul himself for witnessing a higher light then they have yet experience of or can bear Which being premised we shall now proceed to shew what is the third and last sort of Rule and operation of Christ that is set up in the hearts and consciences of men by vertue of the new creation and everlasting covenant described Ephes 2. 10. to be that workmanship whereby we are created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them distinguished as well from the good works of the law as the good works of nature before spoken to consisting in the operation and exercise of that faith through which we are preserved from falling away taken off from those operations wherein self is kept alive and weighs down the ballance and carried on to the saving of the soul For the nature of this faith is to give subsistence and reception in the heart unto Christ in his second appearance considered as in the seed thereof springing up more and more unto a perfect day which consisting in the very image it self and substantial brightness of Gods glory as it subjects and subdues the first earthly and shadowy image wherein man was created unto a perfect subserviency to and harmony with it self makes of twain one new man or Temple of God in heaven where also is seen the Ark of his Test ament and forms the heart into a subjection unto Christ not only as he is the KING OF RIGHTEOUSNES but as he is KING OF PEACE also qualifying the soul not only to minister in the charge of the Levits in the holy place but to draw neer unto God and enter with the high Priest into the holiest of all as having the exercise of all the natural powers and faculties of the mind in their own proper righteousness and holiness but retained in a broken bruised crucified state perfectly subjected to the spiritual sences and operations brought into exercise through faith to the perfecting and fulfilling of the other and so making the same Saint capable to sing the song of Moses and of the Lamb too Thus by living the life of faith the true Saint comes to have the evidence of things unseen and to hope above hope whilst the first Tabernacle is taking down to be laid in the grave and Christ is bringing a perfect weakness and insufficiency upon him to speak think will or do from any other spring or fountain of action and motion then from himself who is risen from the dead or from his exalted heavenly manhood who by degrees as their house from heaven cloaths them upon and keeps them from being found naked though despoyled of their first self-sufficiency ability as it stood single alone This is the faith whereby power is given to us to be the sons of God in a birth and participation of the divine nature wherein God communicates himself in his first and second appearance as knit together and made up of twain into one new name in Christ which none know but they that have it forming up the answer of a good conscience through the resurrection from the dead 1 Pet. 3. 19. to the receiving of whole Christ as he is the finisher as well as the beginner of our faith as he is the High Priest as well as the sacrifice in our nature or as through the unity of Spirit wherein he lives with his Father he does offer up and crucify the will of his flesh bringing it into perfect subjection to his Fathers will This is the patern of being and obedience according to which we are formed when we are made NEW CREATURES being that image of the Son unto which all the adopted children of the new Covenant given by the father to Christ are predestinated to be conformed in copartnership with Christ as he is the first born among many brethren for which he prayed as the peculiar mercy reserved for them in distinction from all the world beside whom therefore in this sense he did not pray for when he desired of his father that they all might be one as he and the father are one Joh. 17. 9 11. And says he the glory which thou gavest me I have given them that they may be one even as we are one I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in one and be with me where I am that they may behold the glory that thou hast given me in the love which thou shewedst me and wherewith thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world that so also the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them ver 22. 23 24 26. The effect of which prayer is accomplished in the heart and conscience of every true believer that is made a NEW CREATURE and is that which constitutes and sets up the new man in his right and perfect distinction from the first Adams highest purity and utmost perfection consisting in that building of God made without hands mans house from heaven with which he is gradually clothed upon as he is gradually unclothed of the first building and so formed up in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto that perfection of manhood which is attainable even unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ unto which we shall arrive when
pieces of silver stumbling at that stumbling stone and going about in the meane time to establish and keep up their owne righteousnesse in its credit and authority not only against the filthinesse of the flesh which lawfully they may but in opposition also unto the righteousnesse of faith which is highly displeasing to the Father who calls for this Isaac to be offered up and warns that this earthly Canaan is only to be sojourned in and that therefore a more heavenly Countrey should be in our eye and desire even a City that hath foundations and immutability in it whose builder and maker is God From this legal or first-Covenant frame of spirit as exalting it self in opposition to the life of faith do arise and spring forth the sinnes of unbelief to the resisting of the Ministery of Faith or the new Covenant endeavouring either to keep out the life and light of the Righteousnesse of Faith or if the dawnings thereof break in upon them whether they will or no to crucifie and trample it under foot as an unholy thing and to oppose to the utmost the life and power of Christs second coming though by so much as is witnessed in the first they may discerne as in a Type and Figure that glory that excels and is to follow and that this second dispensation or first appearance of Christ in its proper use and tendency is ordained as a preparatory and forerunning help and furtherance thereunto This sort of sins are properly sins of unbelief or against the life of Faith called the hidden works of darknesse 1 Cor. 4. 5. that may lie undiscovered and unsuspected under the purest forms of godlinesse and a very fair shew in the flesh of a Practical blamelesse Righteousnesse according to the Law By the very good works and consolations such consciences experience under the Law sinne works death in them more easily even a fixed enmity against the righteousnesse of Faith becoming thereby exceeding sinful Of this sort are the sins that revive and get strength by the coming of the Commandment and die not till we become dead to the Law by being crucified with Christ which till the Law come are unknown as to any experimental discerning of them by those that remaine under the first Ministery who in the utmost of their transgressings do sinne only against the Sonne of man or Christ in his first appearance but these sinne against the Holy Ghost or Christ in his second appearance and by such sinning forfeit the benefit of all their enjoyments The third and last Ministery then in and by which everlasting righteousnesse is conveighed and the Image of God set up in the heart in an immutable and incorruptible state is that wherein is exhibited to us the glory that follows that is to be beheld with open face the seed of Promise borne of the free-woman which is the younger and comes after both the former dispensations as the end for which they were given and are kept on foot This Ministery is exercised by the mouth of the Sonne himself speaking from heaven to the shaking and removing of the former heavens and earth as of things that are made that this Kingdome that cannot be shaken may remaine into which Christ is ascended as received up into glory made higher then the Heavens and set downe on the right hand of the Majesty on high in that light and immortality which no man hath seene or can see but those only who are admitted to enter within the veile through their conformity with him in his death Those that are under this Ministery do stand possessed of farre higher and richer benefits and priviledges then any do arrive unto under the first Covenant having also all that they have under that Ministery being joyned so near unto the Lord that they two are but one spirit 1 Cor. 6. 17. or heavenly manhood the one in the Relation of the Husband the other of the Bride the Lambs wife who hath made her garments the sine linnen which is the righteousnesse of the Saints white in the blood of the Lamb which Robes are neither given unto nor put on by any but the hundred fourty four thousand Rev. 14. that are the true Virgins and followers of the Lamb whither soever he goes leading the true immaculate unchangeable life of righteousnesse which is peculiar unto them from all the world besides The benefit of these Robes they have in a twofold consideration first as they are worne by Christ in his owne person made white by himself in his owne blood when he offered up himself without spot unto God by the eternal Spirit which is imputed to them for justification irrevocable and never to be blotted out over and besides the benefit of his legal righteousnesse for their justification upon the tenour of the first Covenant and secondly as they are worne by themselves for their owne personal inherent righteousnesse and sanctification as washed againe in the blood of Christ by a sprinkling thereof upon every one of their hearts to purge them from all evil conscience as they become planted into a likenesse with him in his death over and beyond the washing of their bodies with pure water from the filthinesse of the flesh which is the first-Covenant-sanctification purging them only from the evil conscience opposite to that Ministery This then is the Righteousnesse of Faith or of the second and New Govenant consisting as we have shewed in that newnesse of life and operation which never leaves untill it hath brought downe mans first activity or way of acting by himself alone into the very grave of Christ And we are farther to consider that this Righteousnesse of Faith may have a hidden and relative Being only in the heart of the Elect separating them unto God from the womb and not yet bring them into reall and actuall union with Christ in his spiritual headship nor appear for a long while in its own proper manifestation or be so much as an operative seed of life taking the soul in any active way into co-operation with it self but at most is only comprehending and preserving it from the evil of falling into the GREAT TRANSGEESSION or sinning the sin unto death So then whilst this holy seed thus lies at the bottome as it were the person in whom it is may be carried forth in the life of other Principles to the exercise of all good conscience from first to last under all the three Ministeries as it was with Paul whether considered as in those Principles wherein he was alive before the Law came or those wherein he lived under the Law in a conformity to it or those wherein he lived by Faith in newnesse of life and operation after he became dead to the Law counting all things lesse and drosse and dung Phil. 3. which he had till then experienced how great and glorious soever his receivings and attainments had beene as fit to be left behind that he might presse forward through a
that sacrifice Jer. 32. 35. which was expresly prohibited Lev. 18. 21. and they threatned with death that should be found practisers hereof Chap. 20. 2 3. yea if men be found conniving in such case as loth to discover the offender God farther declares that he himself wil come forth in his wrathful appearance or face to do execution as it is written v. 4 5. If the people of the Land do any wayes hide their eyes from the man when he giveth of his seed unto Molech and kill him not or cause not execution to be done upon him then will I set my face against that man and against his family and I will cut him off and all those that go thus a whoring after Molech This just judgement and severity of God in his proceeding against this sin as practised in that lowest and most literal sense under the Law will be found in the issue not to be lessened or mitigated but rather much heightned and raised to appear in a more flaming execution of vengeance upon all such in whom this sin finally takes place in a more sublimated and spiritual way to the offering up of their own living bodies and the sensual comforts thereof in a strange fire to the Devil which they ought by fire from heaven taken off the true Altar Christ to have offered up in sacrifice unto God Rom. 12. 1. Secondly the same Scripture 2 Tim. 2. 17 18. that intimates this way of mortification does also mention the proportionable vivification accompanying it called there the resurrection which such false guides do affirme to be already past in them looking for nothing as future or to come of hell or heaven to the quickning or raising them up into the utmost perfection of life and glory as their attainment whilst herein this life and before that redemption of the body mentioned Rom. 8. 23. which the Saints and the creature it self yet groane after and wait for This resurrection of theirs is called 2 Col. 18. a worshipping of Angels in a voluntary humility intruding into those things which they have not seene as taking it for granted they are hereby made the true spiritual seed and that they are enter'd within the veile as having passed through the STRAIT GATE and undergone the BAPTISME of the HOLY GHOST AND OF FIRE and so that they are also come to be intirely under the teachings of the Father as actual possessors and inheritors of his everlasting Kingdome and glory In all this they are seduced and made through strong delusion to beleeve a lie being vainly puffed up in their fleshly minde to the despising and undervaluing of Christ the Mediatour yea 2 Pet. 2. 1. to the bringing in of damnable heresies privily by cunning sleights and beguiling insinuations even to a denying of the Lord that bought them in the incommunicable properties of his Godhead by esteeming and at length in down-right termes asserting themselves to be God or at least to be as much the Sonnes of God in all respects as Christ himself in his own person who is God blessed for ever in consequence whereof we shall finde them at length owning an everlasting and general salvation of all men and Angels This is that posture of spirit into which that old Serpent called the Devill and Satan swells up those that are thus deceived by him in down-right opposition at length to Christ and God asserting himselfe in them and so causing them to assert and own themselves through his inspirations and indwelling presence in them to be both Christ and God Father and Sonne or another while to affirme that there is no God no Heaven no Hell no Angel or Spirit as the Sadduces for if he can perswade them either that he is God or else that there is no God at all he hath enough And in order to make this witness of theirs to stand and take place against all opposition from the true light when he has cried down the living WORD OF GOD into a meere equality on all accounts with the creature or advanced himselfe and his children into the room and place of God himselfe or partnership at least with the WORD in his incommunicable properties but then findes that the outward Word of God can very difficultly be made use of long to countenance either of these designes by degrees he labours to draw them into a state of alienation to that also rendring even the written Word nauseous and despicable to them and causing them to fall a slighting the Scriptures this outward Word of God which rightly represented gives forth the discovery and pleads for the true interest of the inward and living WORD and so professedly to disown all bodily or outward worship and service whatsoever as carnal and inconsistent with the spiritual service they performe Hereupon some of them also forbid marriage and other lawful creature-comforts as called to abstinence and a Virgin-life by which Rule the spirit they live and walk in judges marriage unlawful and commands to abstaine from meats two signal characters of this spirit held forth undeniably to our view 1 Tim. 4. 3. And in all this they carry a shew of wisdome in wilworship neglecting of the body and all things done in honour or satisfaction thereunto as hath been said To these also belong those characters in Jude and Peter where it is said of such that they count it pleasure to riot in the day-time or under pretence of highest light and spirituality to turne the grace of God into wantonnesse and so at last returne with the dog to the vomit and the washed sow to her wallowing in the mire yea and that avowedly in point of judgement now as a condition they can satisfie their owne consciences in and in which they undertake to justifie themselves against all contradiction These by Peter are called spots and blemishes sporting themselves with their own self-deceivings in their feastings with others having eyes full of adultery beguiling unstable souls and alluring through much wantonnesse them that were cleane escaped from those that live in error Yet all this while they will confidently own themselves as lovers and favorers of the Spirit of TRUTH notwithstanding that they live unto a spirit of falshood in the sight of God even in whoredome and defilement with the father of lies But because many of these may be so meerely deceived as verily to think themselves with a chaste and Spouse-like affection to be embracing of Christ their true Lord and husband and so may be doing what they do ignorantly and not wilfully the Scripture sayes in such case Of some have compassion making a difference and others save with fear pulling them with a holy severity out of the fire lest otherwise they finally perish for this is that kinde of sinning which is unto death and therefore unpardonable when it is done knowingly and wilfully This false seducing spirit is capable of putting forth it self in a greater or lesser degree in and under all
bodies shall be found in the streets of the holy City spiritually called Sodome and Egypt kept for three dayes and an half unburied signifying that they must in all things submit to the bruising of their outward man in conformity unto Christ and be slaine as their brethren have beene from the beginning of the world which is to be their lot in the latter end This prophetical and powerful spirit of Eliah shall be poured forth in those dayes upon the witnesses of Christ that keep the WORD OF HIS PATIENCE and endure the fiery triall of those times not thinking it a strange thing that thereby happens unto them and shall fill them with exceeding joy under all the reproaches which they beare for the Name of Christ as the Spirit of glory and of God that is resting upon them and fitting them for such a season that as John Baptist by his Ministery ushered in Christs coming in the flesh or in his first appearance so this same prophetical spirit of Eliah shall be the fore-running dispensation given forth by the witnesses of Christ in those dayes unto Christs second appearance or coming from heaven as hath beene foretold by all the Prophets since the world began for the restitution of all things as the fruit of his personal presence in the world exercising Rule and Dominion there for a thousand years with his Saints and then carrying them up with him to his Father and their Father into the same Kingdome as continued in glory in heaven for evermore What this prophetical spirit of Eliah is that shall be thus poured out upon the Witnesses of Christ in those dayes is to be understood by what it was in Eliah's person who was but the type and therefore certainly had this spirit in a much inferiour degree to what it shall be in them The spirit of glory and power therefore which he had they shall have and much more as indeed is expressed when it is said if any man will hurt them he must in this manner be killed fire proceedeth out of their mouth and devours their enemies These have power by the same way Eliah had which was by the prayer of faith to shut heaven that it raine not in the dayes of their prophecie yea they have power also over waters to turne them into blood and to smite the earth with all plagues as often as they will Yet under all this power and glory they shall remaine exposed in their persons upon the finishing of their TESTIMONY to the rage and power of their enemies who shall then make warre against them overcome them and kill them But notwithstanding on the third day they have power given them to rise from the dead and to ascend up into heaven Rev. 11. 11 12. after a more glorious manner then Eliah did and this in the sight of their very enemies to their terrifying and amazement Thus we see the spirit and power of Eliah what it is that then shall be poured forth and that in a more mystical and spiritual consideration Something we shall also speak to the opening of the state and qualification of the persons that are called the TWO WITNESSES and why they are so called For their state and qualification this is to be known by their names and their apparel They are called the two Olive-trees and the two Candlesticks standing before the God of the whole earth By what hath beene already opened on this subject we are not far to seek what these signifie For the two Olive-trees and two Candlesticks that stand by the Lord of the whole earth must either be Christ in his owne person as he is head to his body the Church and Mediatour betweene God and man shining forth in his first and second appearance as both these perfections of the natural and spiritual man are built up and wrought into a perfect consistency and harmony in him or else these two Olive-trees do signifie the conformity which from him as the head is wrought out in and derived upon his spiritual and heavenly members by his first and second appearance in both those perfections of the first and second Adam as the elder is made to serve the younger and the first is built up into a consistency and harmony with the second by the power of the Crosse making them conformable to him in his death Which conformity is signified by their prophesying in sackcloth testifying the marks which they bear about with them in their mortal bodies of the dying of the Lord Jesus And in this crucified mortal flesh of theirs they are owned by Christ as having the Spirit of God and of glory thus made to rest upon them in a like dispensation unto that of Eliah's prophecy So that when once it shall please God to raise up a seed and generation of Saints in whom these marks of the dying of the Lord Jesus shall be eminent to the slaying and bringing to rest all operating powers and faculties of their natural man as standing in opposition to the Lord of life and glory and subjecting every high imagination in them by the Crosse to the laying of it and all the glory of flesh in a very great measure under the feet of Christ whereby that which lets his glory from appearing unveiled and hath all this time let is taken away then will it be knowne what the TWO WITNESSES are and that they have not hitherto so much as begun their prophecy in the power of Eliah before mentioned so farre are they from being slaine CHAP. XXVI Treating of the time of the manifestation of the sonnes of God their sitting with Christ on his Throne ruling and influencing all things on earth during the space of a thousand years HAving finished what relates to the Saints being made one dead or crucified body with Christ and shewed the opposition which is exercised by the Devil thereunto that which remains to be considered is the gathering also of the Saints together into one glorified body with Christ at his second coming when it shall appear what those shall be that now though they are sons are undistinguished from those that are not who have beene planted into a conformity with Christ in his death and who considered as his dead body having beene exposed to the bruising of their heele by Satan before his being bound up shall be declared the proper subjects and inheritours of this first resurrection in the exercise of the power and glory thereof as KINGS and PRIESTS reigning with Christ a thousand years This time of the manifestation of the sonnes of God is said to be that which is the earnest expectation of the very creature it self Rom. 8. 19. as the season also wherein the whole creation is to be restored to its Primitive purity and to be delivered out of the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the sonnes of God as the benefit which it shall then receive by vertue of the price of Christs blood paid for all for
power and glory shining forth in the beauty of his new name that is above every name either in this world or in that which is to come every knee is appointed to bow of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth and the duty of every tongue shall be to confesse that Iesus is the Lord to the glory of God the Father Hence then it is evident that as God or the WORD in Christs first appearance was pleased to be manifested in flesh wherein to condescend and make himself of no reputation by taking upon him the forme of a servant and being made in the likenesse or habit of a man and in this fashion as a man subjecting himself to the doing and suffering all that which was required to be done and suffered on the behalf of sinful mankind and for the bringing many sonnes unto glory so also is he that thus did and suffered all things as a man in the dayes of his flesh for our redemption at this time to see his seed and reap the fruit of the travel of his soul which then he made a sacrifice for sin being now a second time to appeare without any reference to sinne as then he did but instead thereof to declare himself the Sonne of God with power by the resurrection from the dead So as in and by this second appearance the man Christ Iesus in the fashion and forme of his exalted and glorified manhood consisting of spirit soul and body in substantial or personal union with the WORD is to shew and manifest himself in the glory of the Father in the joynt and united exercise of the same divine life and power with him and therein to give a plaine demonstration that he is the Sonne of God as by his being made flesh and becoming obedient to the death of the Crosse he did undeniably demonstrate that he was really and properly the Sonne of Man made of the seed of David according to the flesh living the life and dying the death of a perfect natural man Thus the Sonne of man shall come with power and great glory sitting with the Father upon the same Throne therein shewing himself the only POTENTATE the KING OF KINGS and LORD OF LORDS dwelling in immortality and that light which no man can approach hath seene or can see Christ then considered as thus dwelling in immortality and that light which is invisible and inaccessible in reference to all those that are meer natural men shall at this time declare himself to be the life and quickning of his own dead body and the object of their converse who having been made one dead body with him as planted in the similitude of his death shall now be called and gathered together unto him in one incorruptible immortal glorified state of spirit soul and body be planted into the likenesse of his Resurrection to the attaining of their compleat adoption and the redemption of the body at this manifestation of the sonnes of God and heirs of salvation which is spoken of Colos 3. 4. where 't is said that when Christ who is our life shall appear we shall also appear with him in glory and 1 Iohn 3. 2. we are now sonnes but it doth not yet appear what we shall be but we know when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is or as he dwells in immortality and in that light from whence he excludes every natural eye reserving it as the peculiar enjoyment and inheritance of his friends whom he loves that are Heirs of God and Co-heirs with Christ in the things prepared only for them which neither eye hath seene nor eare heard nor have entred into the heart of the natural man to consider This likenesse which the true Saints shall be brought forth into with Christ the beginning and first-begotten from the dead is described in general by the promise Christ makes to them on that behalf And Iesus said unto them Verily I say unto you that ye which have followed me in regeneration when the Sonne of man shall sit in the Throne of his glory ye also shall sit upon twelve Thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Israel Matth. 19. 28. So Rev. 3. 21. To him that overcometh sayes he I will grant to sit with me on my Throne even as I also overcame and am set down with my Father on his throne which imports First that as by the Fathers quickning of Christ raising him up and fitting him in spiririt soul and body to exercise in unity with him the same divine life and power to the making his manhood Second with him on the Throne so Christ in like manner will quicken and raise up all the members of his dead body or slaine faithful Witnesses that have beene made conformable unto him in his death and fit them in their spirit soul and body to exercise in unity and association with his heavenly manhood the life and power which he is enabled to exercise as he is the exalted Sonne of man to the rendring them a fit Bride Queene and Second with him in his Throne where they shall neverthelesse sit as upon Thrones of their owne as his Equals and co-heirs yet in subordination unto him judging the twelve Tribes of Israel in a light and glory superiour to the earthly Jerusalem or worldly Church yea to the good Angels themselves who shall be found but standing about the Throne whilst the Saints shall be sitting downe with Christ upon it Secondly as the Father gives authority to Christ in the capacity of the Sonne of man to execute judgement as the only l'OTENTATE KING OF KINGS and LORD OF LORDS under him so Christ also shall give and derive to his body the general assembly of the first-borne whose names are written in heaven authority to be the only Potentates Lords of Lords and Kings of Kings under him whose Decrees and Ordinances shall be binding unto all in heaven or in earth or under the earth next and immediately under Christ their head and this as well in reference to the regulating and well-ordering the service and worship of God in the societies of Saints and all his true worshippers as in reference to the governing and well-ordering the natural and outward converse of men in their humane societies during the reigne of Christ upon earth the thousand years Both these powers and jurisdictions shall be residing in the general assembly of the first-borne whose names are written in heaven who shall then be declared the Bride the Lambs wife the New Ierusalem coming downe from God out of heaven described Rev. 21. 2. as she that is prepared as a Bride adorned for her husband being that Tabernacle of God with men wherein he will dwell with them and they shall be his people and he himself will be with them and be their God wiping away all teares from their eyes so as there shall be amongst them no more death nor sorrow nor crying
in a superiority in all things unto the Church or true spiritual seed which is his body the fulnesse of him that filleth all in all built up into a Heavenly conformity in all things as a Wife and Spouse unto this her Head and Husband This excellency of Christs exalted manhood was surely intimated unto Iaceb by that ladder Gen. 28. 12 which in his dream he beheld set upon the earth the top whereof reached to Heaven as also the Angels of God ascending and descending upon it For thus we find it interpreted by himself Iohn 1. 50 51. as that greater sight of his humane perfection then what could be seene in the dayes of his flesh Verily verily sayes he I say unto you hereafter you shall see Heaven open and the Angels of God ascending and descending upon the Sonne of man as if he should have said You shall see the Heavenly Temple of God opened Rev. 11. 19. that is to be found in the WORD OF LIFE and the heavenly discoveries flowing thence or sent forth from the same in their ascents and descents in and upon the manhood of Christ as the means chosen for the making manifest the riches of his glory to men and Angels in their particular beings and persons In these three respects shall the true SONNES AND HEIRS OF SALVATION fitted and adorned as a Bride and Heavenly body to this Husband and Head appeare bearing on them the image of the last Adam made like unto him to the seeing of him as he is and shining forth in this likenesse they will have accomplished upon them that manifestation of the sonnes of God which shall vastly difference them from the naturall or fleshly seed considered in their highest mutable perfection or in the incorruptible forme wherein they shall be raised up to everlasting contempt By vertue then of this conformity in image which the Saints shall be brought into with Christs heavenly manhood they shall come forth in the exercise of this threefold life in kind wherein the manhood of Christ hath beene conversant ever since the laying down of his earthly and natural body First of that life which all the true sonnes and heirs of salvation that have died in the faith have beene exercising ever since their change or falling asleep in the Lord that is to say the life of the spirits of just men made perfect a life like that of the Angels or perfect spirits that can live and act without dependance upon bodily life and motion described by Christ himself where he sayes that they who shall be accounted worthy to obteine that world and the resurrection from the dead as were Abraham Isaac and Jacob who then were and yet are in the possession of it neither marry nor are given in marriage for they are equal unto the Angels and are children of God and of the resurrection Luke 20. 35 36 that is to say are the children of God in their spirits made perfect and thereby are become equals and fit associates for the holy Angels themselves as the souls of wicked men departed this life become equals and fit associates for the evil Angels concerning which state also in the best sense Christ spake unto the thief upon the Crosse when he said This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise The second exercise of life which the Saints as gathered unto Christ their Head at his second coming shall be brought forth in is that of a glorified incorruptible body in fashion made like unto his glorious body Phil. 3. Into the exercise of which life they are not yet entered but reserved for it by the MAN CHRIST IESUS the FIRST-FRUITS who will have the souls of those slaine under the Altar to rest yet for a little season in the single exercise of their Angelical life as spirits of just men made perfect untill the gathering of the GENERAL ASSEMBLY of the first-borne together and setting them who have beene the slaine Witnesses of Christ upon their feet in the exercise of this immortal incorruptible bodily life here in this world wherein they are to continue and abide for a THOUSAND YEARS keeping the true Sabbath of Rest unto the Lord in that seventh part of the time of the worlds duration All worldly strength wisdome and power shall then as the walls of Iericho fall flat before Iesus the true Ioshua and these true Israelites as having beene by them compassed about six dayes and now on the seventh a thousand years being with the Lord as one day 2 Pet. 3. 8. making way for the end mentioned 1 Cor. 15. 24. to come and shew it self at which time the fleshly Rule and Kingdome of Christ in his first appearance till then kept up in the world as the first general Dominion is delivered up unto the Father the Sonnewillingly becoming subject herein with reference to the bringing himself forth in his second appearance to rule and reign in the place of the first that God may be all in all and that all other rule authority and power may hereby be put downe yea death it self as the last enemy may be destroyed and made unable to deteine any under its power that the quickning vertue shining forth in this presence and appearance of Christ shall call forth and give freedome unto The Saints in the exercise of this life with Christ upon earth during this THOUSAND YEARS shall be those in whom Christ will be admired and the Father glorified This state of theirs is the reward spoken of in Scripture where it is said The meek shall inherit the earth and Godlinesse hath not only the promise of the life to come but of this also 1 Tim. 4. 8. So Rom. 4. 13. The Promise to Abraham that he should be heir of the world is declared not to be by the Law or to have its accomplishment under the first Covenant-dispensation but through the righteousnesse of faith that it might be by grace to the end the Promise might be sure to all the seed not to that only which is of the Law but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham who with other beleevers died and received not the making good thereof It therefore remains to be performed in its due time at this manifestation of the Sonnes of God which faith sees and acknowledges Heb. 11. 39. These all having obtained a good report through faith received not the promise to wit this promise of being heirs of the world and of all Nations being blessed in and by the meanes of the spiritual seed which will certainly be fulfilled to them in the times of the NEW HEAVENS AND NEW EARTH Isa 65. 17. c. God having foreseene and reserved some better thing for us saith the Author to the Hebrews that they without us should not be made perfect but that all of us may enjoy that better thing together at once in the keeping of a holy Sabbath unto the Lord at the coming of this day of God in which the Heavens that