I leave you at this time with a Theologia negativa a negative divinity or divine ignorance and onely tell you what is not heaven The plumage of the swan appeares more faire when it is opposed to the ravens blacknesse and wee may best conjecture at the joyes above if wee consider the miseries here below This life of ours if it were not short yet it is miserable and if it were not miserable yet it is short In this world are a world of troubles we have no resting place here saith the Prophet glory and rest are two things that meet not here the glorious life is not the most quiet and the quiet life is for the most part inglorious riches and honour like Absolons mule do sometimes leave their Master in extremity A consideration if well digested which would gather our divided thoughts and rouse up our Soules to seeke first the Kingdome of heaven and then we know coetera adjicientur other things shall be added unto us And indeed when heaven is once named all other things are but cetera's not worth the naming But now for heaven it is observed by those that are skill'd in the holy tongue that in the sacred name Jehova are none but literae quiescentes mystically impliing thus much unto us that Deus est centrum quietatiuum that God is the God of rest in whose presence there is joy fulness of joy joy for evermore as David sings When once we shall be planted in that celestiall paradise there shall no apple of contention grow between God and us It is Nazianzens note upon that divine antheme of three parts Glory be to God on high on earth peace good will towards men Luk. 2. pugnas dissidia nescire deum angelos that there are no broils nor brabbles in heaven There shall the Soul be satisfied in all her desires there shall be no actuall or potentiall evill no actuall because grace being consummate in the Saints excludes all sin no poetential for they being confirmed in goodnesse cannot sin There shall be no sorrow nor tears the effect of sorrow those rivers of our eyes shall be dried up there shall be no more death for resurrectio erit mors mortis At that jubilee of glory the conqueror shall be disarmed and we whom death hath overcome shall overcome death Our bodies rising first immortall not subject to any more disease or death we shall not any more stand in need of those ordinary helpes of meat and drinke by which our nature is preserved for it shall then be our meat and drink to do our Fathers will Secondly our bodies shall rise glorious the just shall shine like the sun in the firm ament saies the Prophet qualis erit splendor animarum quando solis claritatem habebit lux corporum and how great then shall the splendour of our Soules be when that of our bodies shall exceed the Suns And to confirme the verity and solidity of this glory it shall not onely be revealed unto us but saith the Apostle in us Jerusalem as the Kings daughter is all glorious within Thirdly they shall be perfect every defective member shall be restored to it's inregrity Jacob shall not halt nor Isaac be blind nor Mephibosheth be lame Fourthly our bodies shall be raised impassionate free from such passions as may hurt and offend but not from the passions of joy the joy of the soul shall be the soul of joy Lastly they shall be spirituall that is in quality not in substance they shall still remaine the same quantitative bodies bounded and limited with their natural dimensions For otherwise how could Job see God with the same eyes he had while he lived Our bodies therefore shall be endued with most unspeakable perfections and most perfectly clarified from all imperfections but they shall not be disrobed of their natural properties briefly they shal be spirituall in a three-fold sence Fist in that they shall be wholly freed from all earthly drossy corruptions all the sences shall be more subtle the body it 's selfe shall become more light and apt to motion and as neer the nature and qualitie of a spirit as a body may be Secondly cause they shall be no more upheld and maintain'd by earthly meanes and helpes but be preserved by spirituall meanes i e. by the power of Gods holy Spirit What use shall there be of the creature when the Creator himselfe the Lord of heaven and earth is in place And in these two respects especially they shall be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 equal to angels Thirdly they shall be Spiritual because they shall never rebell but be alwaies subject and obedient to the regenerate soul without contradiction they shall obey the motions of the spirit Other particulars I cease to enquire cause the Scripture doth forbeare to deliver them and in the silence of the holy-Ghost I will not be curious least by this meanes I loose my selfe in the labyrinth of these everlasting habitations whereto the Arts never taught an entrance in nor Divinity ever discovered a passage out The greatest light we have which is but dimm neither is held out vnto us by Scripture and the primitive Doctors of the Church in these particulars of eternall life or eternal habitations first in the comfort that the Saints shall pertake of there Secondly in their joy Thirdly in the sight and Lastly in the knowledge which the Saints shall have of the blessed Trinity in heaven And first as to the comfort this is in some sort expressed John 14 2. In my fathers house are many mansions Where our Saviour administers severall Recipees of comfort to his afflcted disciples by reason of his going away and of this comfort the first beam is that that state which he promises them and in them all faithful believers is a house it hath a foundation no earth-quake shall shake it it hath a wall no artillery shall batter it it hath a roof no tempest shall pierce it It is a house that affords security and that is one degree of comfort And then Secondly it is his Fathers house a house in which he hath interest and that is another degree of this consolation It was his fathers and so his and his and so ours for we are not joynt purchasers of heaven with the Saints but we are co-heirs with Christ Jesus by death we are gathered to our fathers in nature and by death through his mercy gathered to his father also where we shall have a full satisfaction in that wherein Saint Philip placed all satisfaction Lord shew us thy Father and 't is enough John the 4. 8. We shall see his father and see him made ours in Christ And then a third degree of this comfort is that in this house of his fathers thus by him made ours there are mansions which word in the originall and latine and our language signifies a remaining an abiding and fixing and denotes the perpetuity the everlastingnesse of that
again now an Episcopal man then a Presbyterian after that an Independent any thing to keep his own and to get more and more of the Mammon of unrighteousnesse Secondly from hence let mee give them a word of Dehortation from all such corrupt sordid courses whereby they make Divinitie a Trade and the Pulpit a Shop where they vent their doctrines according to the fashions of the Time not the truth forgetting that solemne pompe and Ceremonie used in their Orders where when they received the Bible from the holy man with autoritie to divide the Word and Sacraments it was not given to abuse their Masters trust in betraying that sacred pledge either to Pulpit-applause or Pulpit-gain to the flatterie of the giddie multitude or the reward Secondly this Mammon is call'd unrighteous Mammon or the riches of iniquitie ab effectu from the effect because it commonly makes men unrighteous endangering the soul of the possessor and therefore the Church Liturgie doth teach us to pray In all time of our wealth good Lord deliver us there being as great danger in the multitude of temporal blessings as there was in the multitude of fish John 21. where if Christ had not seconded their great draught with divine help they had lost both the ship and themselves From this expression thus interpreted our first consideration shal be that of our Saviour Mat. 19. 24. that 't is a very hard thing for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of heaven Gold is the heaviest of all mettals no wonder then if it somtimes carries the rich man downwards 'T is hard for the soul clogged with many weights to ascend to heaven Laban and Nabal think onely of their Sheep-shearing and making merrie when they have done their businesse is thought on not their salvation so great an enemy is our temporal happinesse to our eternal the love of this world being that great gulfe betwixt Abrahams bosâ—me and us Secondly if it be so hard for the rich then surely 't is as easie for the poor to enter into the Kingdom of heaven which is our second consideration upon the point Whether a storme or calme are most dangerous Jonah's Whale or his Gourd whether prosperitie have lost or adversitie recovered more I know not certain I am none praies so heartily for his daily bread as he that wants it miserie like Pharaoh's plagues sends them to their praiers that never thought of God when they were well Outward losses are inwardly gainful and it is good for us that wee have been afflicted nay it would be worse with us were it not sometimes thus bad many had they more wealth would be more wicked and if they were not kept short of this world would come short of the next and then it had been better for them had it not been so well I know 't is pitie that fair weather should do any harme and yet 't is often seen we even adore those Physitians in our sicknesse which being recovered we onely salute with a complement abundance makes many forget that God which want would make crouch to like Pharaoh's Butler shaking off his friend with his shackles or like beggars that are no sooner serv'd but they are gone Thus I hear Israel praying in Egypt quarrelling in the wildernesse When they were at their Brick-kills they would be at their devotion and no sooner are they at ease but they are wrangling for their flesh-pots I think many a man had not been so bad had he been but poor It is the saying of a wise Father That Solomon's riches did him more hurt then his wisdom did him good Wealth like knowledge puffs up when povertie as their infirmities did many in the Gospel makes men flock to Christ But then in the Third place I would not have any one here thinke I speak this to barr rich men heaven God forbid For though 't is hard for a rich man to enter into the Kingdome of Heaven yet he may enter notwithstanding the gate of heaven stands open for him as well as for the poor and as 't is Scripture Blessed are the poor for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven so 't is also as true Blessed are the rich for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven Which shall be our third consideration upon the point that heaven gate stands open for the rich as well as the poor Thus Adam and Noah flew up to heaven with the double monarchy of the world upon their backs for they were sole Emperors both of the East and West and the whole universe The Patriarchs also did climb to heaven with much wealth many holy Kings with massy Crowns and scepters It is not wealth therefore as wealth but sin that is the clogg that keeps men from ascending the burden of covetous desires being more heavy to an empty soul then much treasure to the full for not the meer possession and use of riches offends but the affectation And to this purpose Lombard puts in his observation with a non dicit propheta the prophet saiâ—s not in the Psal 62. 10. have not riches but set not your heart upon them which is the true meaning likewise of Prov. 23. 5. for cash not your eyes in the English is set not your heart in the original as the 4 ver also testifies so that the error hangs not upon those but our selves not on riches but that which Idols them our heart And therefore Moses gave a strong caveat to the Israelites that when their flocks and heards increased and their silver and their gold was multiplied they should beware least their hearts were lifted up and so they should forget the Lord their God Deuter. 8. 13. Those sublunary creatures raise not distraction in us so we make them not our center if we rest not in them if we can look through them to heaven we may by a good use of them come to heaven and be received into these everlasting habitations of the Text. The use then of this particular consideration is first to direct thee either to abate of thy load if thou find it too pressing which may be done either by loving lesse or giving more or else to add to thy strength and activity that thou maist ascend it is more commendable by how much more hard to climbe to heaven with a burthen But if the soul be not so active and nimble as to carry up it's selfe and such a load we must with Eliah drop our mantle upon the Prophets disperse our goods to the poor it being better going to heaven naked then to hell in purple For when we are naked these friends of my text shall cloath us with the garment of righteousness and when we want they shall receive us into everlasting habitations Secondly here is a word of comfort both to poor and rich when they shal think upon the goodness of God who hath open'd heaven gates both to the poor and rich Art thou poor he that wore a
state an everlasting State and yet a state but of one day because no night shall overtake or determine it but such a day as is not of a thousand yeares which is the longest measure of any day in scripture but a thousand Millions of Millions of generations a day that hath no pridie nor postridie yesterday doth not usher it in nor to morrow shall not drive it out Methusalem with all his hundreds of yeares Gen. 5. Was but a mushrom of a nights growth to this day And all the foure Monarchies with all their thousands of years and all the powerful Kings and all the bueatiful Queenes of the world were but a bed of flowers some gathered at six some at seven some at eight all in one morning in respect of this day In all the two thousand years of nature before the law given by Moses and the two thousand years of law before the Gospel given by Christ and the too thousand years of grace which are runnig now of which last hour we have heard three quarters strike already more then sixteen hundred of this last two thousand spent in all this six thousand and in all those which God may be pleased to add in this house of his Fathers in heaven there was never heard quarter-clock to strike never seen minute glass to run No time lesse then it's self would serve to express this time which is intended in this word mansions which is also exalted with another beam a fourth beam of comfort that they are also many in my Fathers house are many mansions In which circumstance we do consider the comfort of our society and conversation in heaven since society and conversation is noe great element and ingredient into the comfort which we have in this world First we shall have an association with Christ himself for where he is it is his promise that we also shall be John 14. Secondly we shall have an association with the Angels and such an one as we shall be such as they Thirdly we shall have an association with the Saints and not onely to be such as they but to be they and to be with all those who come from the East c. Mat. 9. 11. Where we shall be so far from being enemies to one another as that we shall not be strangers to one another so far from envying one another as that all that every one hath shall be every others possession where all Souls shal be so entirely knit together as if there were but one Soul and God so entirely knit to every Soul as if there were as many Gods as Souls And this is that glimpse of the eternal life I promised you a meer cursorie sight and view of those everlasting habitations and mansions in the Text and here as I have given you a glimpse of the comforts so let me beg leave of your patience to present you with a taste of the joyes of heaven likewise and it shall be a taste most properly so called For it shall be but of one drop of the Fountain of life I meane that drop which Dives in Hel desired to coole his tongue with which must not be so understood as if the paines of hell were so small that they might be quenched by one drop of water but rather thus that one drop of water where Abraham and Lazarus are is of that infinite virtue as could it be but drop'd into the pains of hell it would quench them all Now the greatness of these joies may be comprehended both by the fulnesse of the objects in heaven and also the fulness of our enjoiying the objects there The objects in heaven are many but the summe of all is God whom we shall see face to face and in him all that is good and joifull for as looking in a glasse wee see the glasse our selves and most things that are in the room about it so in the glasse of the blessed Trinitie we shall by the Beatifical Vision see the glorie of that Trinitie our selves an our own glorie and all the Angels Saints and pleasures that are about that Trinitie And as our joy shall be full in regard of the fulnesse of the object so it shall be full too in regard of our fulnesse of enjoying that object Wee shall feel this joy with all the powers and faculties of our souls ever beholding though alwaies satisfied and ever drinking yet still thirsting not with any thirst of drinesse but with a thirst of desire after that water of life those rivers of joy which are said Psal 46. 4. to make glad the citie of the Lord. And thus as I have given you a taste of these joies from the Scriptures drop of water so now should I give you all those rivers of Rhetorical expressions should I open all the flood-gates of Oratorie with which the Primitive Doctors of the Church have endeavored to expresse those joies all would prove but as one drop of water in respect of the infinite ocean of those joies And this may appear from that storie of Saint Augustine concerning Saint Jerome of whom Saint Augustine saith quae Hieronimus nescivit nullus hominum unquam scivit that that S. Jerome knew not no man ever knew and S. Cyril to whom S. Augustine said that said also to Saint Augustine in magnifying Saint Jerome that when a Catholick Priest disputed with an Heretick and cited a passage of Saint Jerome and the Heretick said Jerome lied instantly he was struck dumb Yet of this last and everlasting joy and glorie of Heaven in the fruition of God Saint Jerome would adventure to say nothing no not then when he was divested of his mortal bodie dead for as soon as he died at Bethlem hee came instantly to Hippo Saint Augustines Bishoprick and though he told him Hieronymi anima sum I am the soul of that Jerome to whom thou art now writing about the joies and glorie of heaven yet hee said no more of that but this Quid quaeris brevâ— immittere vascule totum mare Can'st thou hope to pour the whole sea into a thimble or take the whole world into thy hand And yet that is casier then to comprehend the joy and â—he glorie of heaven in this life Nor is there any thing that makes this more incomprehensible then that semper in 1 Thes 4. 17. that we shall be with God for ever For this eternity this everlastingness is not onely incomprehensible to us in this life but even in heaven we can never know it experimentally no not in heaven and all knowledge in heaven is experimentall as all knowledge in this world is causal we know a thing if we know the cause thereof so the knowledge in heaven is effectuall experimentall we know it because we have found it to be so The endowments of the blessed those which the school calls dotes beatorum are ordinarily delivered to be these three visio dilectio fruitio the sight of God the love of God and the
even in the infusing of Faith he works by the ministery of the Gospel but there he shall be all in all do all in all immediately by himselfe for Christ shall deliver up the Kingdome to God even the Father his Kingdome is the administration of his Church by his ordinances in the Church at the resurrection there shall be an end of that Kingdome no more Church no more working upon men by Preaching but God himselfe shall be all in all therefore it is said in heaven there is no Temple but God himselfe is the Temple Apoc. 21. 22. God is the service and musick Psalm and Sermon and Sacrament and all We shall live upon the word and heare never a word Here God is not all in all where he is at all in any man that man is well Wisedom in Solomon it was well with Solomon because God was wisedom with him and patience in Job and faith in Peter and zeal in Paul but there was something in all these that God was not But in heaven he shall be so all in all that every soul shall have every perfection in it's selfe and the perfection of these perfections shall be that their sight shall be face to face and their knowledge as they are known But now for the first of these privileges how shall we see God face to face is it allwaies a declaration of Gods favour when God shewes his face No I will set my face against that soul Levit. 17. 10. but when there is light joyned with it it is a declaration of favour this was the blessing that God taught Moses for Aaron Num. 6 25 The Lord make his face shine upon thee And there we shall see him face to face by the light of his countenance which is the light of glory But what shall we see by seeing God so face to face we shall see whatever we can be the better for seeing First all things that men believed here they shall see there and therefore let us me ditate upon no other thing on earth then we would be glad to think on in heaven and this consideration would put many frivolous and many fond thoughts out of our mind This then we shal get concerning our selvs by seeing God face to face but what concerning God Wee shall see God as he is in his essence Why did all that are said to have seen God face to face see his essence No. In earth God assumed some material things to appear in and is said to have been seen face to face when he was seen in those assumed forms But in heaven there is no material thing to bee assumed and if God be seen face to face there hee is seen in his essence Saint Augustine summs it up fully upon those words In thy light we shall see light te scil in te Wee shall see thee in thee i. e. saith he face to face And then secondly what is it To know him as wee are known it is not expressed in the Text so that is onely that we shall know so not that we shall know God so but the frame and context of the place hath drawn that unanime Exposition from all that it is meant of our knowledg of God then A comprehensive knowledg of God it cannot bee to comprehend is to know a thing as well as that thing can be known and wee can never know God so but that he will know himself better Our knowe ledge cannot be so dilated nor God condens'd or contracted so as that we can know him that way comprehensively It cannot bee such a knowledge of God as God hath of himself nor as God hath of us for God comprehends us and all this world and all the worlds that hee could have made and himself But it is not a similitudinis non aequalitatis as God knows mee so shall I know God but I shall not know God so as God knows me It is not quantum but sicut not as much but as truly As the fire does as truly shine as the Sun shines though it shine not out so far nor to so many purposes So then I shall know God so as that there shall be nothing in me to hinder me from knowing God which cannot be said of the nature of man though regenerate upon earth no nor of the nature of an Angel in heaven left to it self till both have received a super-illustration from the light of glorie And so it shall be a knowledge so like his knowledge as it shall produce a love like his love we shall love him as he loves us For say the Fathers whom Oecumenius hath compacted I shall know him i. e. embrace him adhere to him What an holiday shall this be which no working day shall ever follow By knowing and loving the unchangeable the immutable God mutabimur in immutabilitatem we shall be changed into an unchangeablenesse saith that Father that never said any thing but extraordinarie Saint Augustine Hee saith more If God should be seen and known in hell hell in an instant would be heaven How many heavens are there in heaven how is heaven multiplied to every soul in heaven where infinite other happinesses are crown'd with this sight and this knowledge of God there And how shall all those heavens be renewed to us every day that shall bee as glad to see and to know God millions of ages after every daies seeing and knowing as the first hour of looking upon his face And as this seeing this knowing of God crowns all other joies and glories even in heaven so this very crown is crown'd there grows from this an higher glorie which is that we shall be made partakers of the divine nature 2 Pet. 1. 4. Immortal as the Father righteous as the Son and full of all comfort as the Holy Ghost To which blessed Trinitie bee ever as is most due ascribed all Honour and Glorie Dominion and Power now and for ever Amen FINIS THE Fifth Sermon Which is that in the INDEPENDENT Style or Way of Preaching Never delivered before any Congregation and now proposed onely as a pattern or example of that way of preaching HEB. 11. 24. By Faith Moses when he came to years refused to bee called the son of Pharaoh's daughter LONDON Printed for Edward Archer at the Adam and Eve in Little Britain Anno Dom. 1656. Luke 9. 23. And he said to them all If any man will come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow mee AFter our blessed Saviour had made known to his Disciples and the rest that the Son of man must suffer many things and be reproved of the Elders and of the High Priests and be slain vers 22. fore-seeing that a great many who now did cry him up and highly magnifie him would then be ashamed of him hee tells all such ver 26. That whosoever shall bee ashamed of mee and of my words of him shall the Son of man be ashamed when he shall
Secondly we must deny our selves as in our great places and honours and dignities so likewise in our profits pleasures in all our carnal worldly enjoiments Oh how hard is it for a poor crcature to deny himself in this How hard is it for a rich man saith our blessed Saviour to enter into the kingdom of heaven Luk. 18. 24. The world is a common bait wherewith the Divel enticeth men to fin as Judas Ananâ—as nay Christ himself is set upon with this temptation Mat. 4. But when Christ comes into a soul he teacheth that soul to deny it self to look upon the world as Christ did as a very emptie thing he gives power to overcome the world 1 Joh. 5. 4. For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world All our worldly desires therefore and pleasures and enjoiments must be denied by us we must use the things of the world as though wee us'd them not We must be so dead to the world as to see all things that are now in our possession to be none of ours so that the very worst things in the world that can befall us will be good to us all that before were crosses and afflictions now will be joy and comfort ' cause wee shall see it to be the will of the Father and we shall have peace in every condition We shall have as much comfort in a dungeon as in the possession of the greatest state in the world We shall cast our care upon God and trust him as well with our bodies as with our souls We shall not so much care for to morrow we shall see enough in God to satisfie us both for to morrow and for ever For the earth is the Lords and the fulness thereof saith the Psal 24. 1. All the labour of men under the Sun is but for two things food and raiment now when we are ascended to God by denying our selves we shall know that God is able to feed us and cloath us as miraculously as he did the children of Israel in the wildernesse And thus much shall suffice for our first step or stair of self-denial the denial of our honors preferments riches pleasures lusts all our carnal sinful enjoiments The second now followes which is the denyall of our will and affections First then for our will we must deny our selves in that as well as our Saviour did If we will come after Christ be followers of Christ we must tread in this step and follow him in this track and path as wel as the former And indeed our blessed Saviour began betimes in the denyall of his own will For when he was but twelve yeares old we find him at this work doing the will of his Father Luke 2. 49. And he said unto them how is it that ye sought me wist yee not that I must be about my Fathers businesse not fulfilling his own will or doing his own businesse but both were his Fathers And as he began this course betimes when he was but twelve yeares old so he continued it likewise through the whole course of his life In his preaching as you heard before he did not his own worke nor fulfilled his own will but his Fathers and as in his preaching so in his praying like-wise one of his first petitions was Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven and this petition was made good even through his whole life and death Through his life John 4. 34. Jesus saith unto them My meat is to do the will of him that sent me and to finish his woâ—k And Secondly in his very death Passion which was full of this self-denying Spirit For even there also his saying was Not my will but thine be done Luke 22. 42. Thus you see that our Saviour both praying preaching living and dying denied himselfe and his â—own will now let us go and do so likewise let us learn â—ather to deny our selves and our own wils then Gods Christ who is the Saints patterne did alwaies so walke as to please God John 8. 29. And hee that sent mee is with me the Father hath not left me alone for I do always those things that please him And as he was our pattern so he teacheth us by his Apostle the same lesson 1 Thess 4. 1. Furthermore then wee beseech you brethren and exhort you by the Lord Jesus that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God so ye Would abound more and more As if the Apostle had said that which you receive of us is that you ought to walk according to the example of Christ to please God though you thereby should displease your selves And this is a soul taught by Gods Spirit when he prefers the pleasing of the Lord before himselfe the fulfilling of his will before his own This being once learned is that which would carry you along through all oppsition in a way of truth Perhaps the poor creature resolving with flesh blood may be reedy to conclude somtimes if I submit to this way to this truth I must expect reproach persecution Now it would wonderfully please carnall will and reason to conceal such a truth in unrighteousoesse but when a Soul comes to this it is my duty to fulfil Gods will and not my own O then I dare not but do it come what will come I cannot but do it Truely you who indeed love the Lord Jesus that love will constrain you to please him though you displease your selves to fulfill his will by denying your own This Christ himselfe teacheth and by his own example hath given us an example so to do John 4. 34. Jesus saith unto them My meat is to do the will of him that sent me and to finish his work Oh blessed example to be imitated by all the Saints what shal Jesus Christ when he was but twelve yeares old dony himselfe his own will and shall not the Saints do it his disciples his followers at fiftie and sixtie and eighty do as much But Christ hath not onely given us his example and paterne but hath enjoyned us thereunto also under penalty of damnation Matt 7 21. Not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven but he that doth the will of my Father which is in heaven And the Apostle Ephe. 6. 6. exhorting servants to be obedient to their Masters saies Not with eye-service as men pleasers but as the servants of Christ doing the will of God from the heart This selfe-will is the cause of much stir and division in the world What is the cause of this war among us but selfe-will One will establish one religion another another religion or else the Nation must rue it This selfe-will is it that causes discontents and troubles in Families The husband will have his will and the wife her will This causes contention in Churches among the Saints when every one will have his own mind his own way his own
therefore when the Prophets Isa Jerem. and Ezekiel spake what they saw from God they spake Thus saith the Lord out of experience of what they saw and felt and they were call'd true Prophets But when others rose up that spake their words writings and then applied them to another age and generation of men saying Thus saith the Lord as the other did they were called false Prophets because they had seen nothing themselves of God but walked by the legs and saw by the eyes of the true Prophets For God doth not threaten death to every city of every age of the world as to Sodom and Gomrorha neiâ—her captivity to every people as he did to Israel under Nebuchadnezar in Babilon Neither doth he promise victory or deliverance to every army or people from enemies as he did to Irsael in Jehosophats time Now if any man speake and assures others of victory when God purposes distruction or speakes destruction when God purposes a victory these men speake at randome and though they speake the very words of the Scriptures yet they speake not the mind of him that gives life or destroyes and so having seen nothing from him they are to be reckoned among the false Prâ—phets they run before they are sent A man may know the Scripture and yet be an arch enemie to the God of the Scripture as the Jewes were They knew the writings of Moses who writ of Jesus Christ and yet they persecuted and killed Jesus Christ because they knew him not For if they had known him to have been of the power of God they would not have kill'd him And so many nowadayes do know Scripture yet may do persecute the spirit of the Scripture through ignorance and unbeliefe Truely friends it is not the knowledge of the Scripture onely but the knowledge of the God of the Scripture as God is pleased to make known himselfe by his mighty working in you that gives life and peace to you If you know and speake Scripture and can see nothing of God you are like Parrats that speake the words of another as you have been taught by humane education But if the same annointing or power of God dwel in you as did appeare in the Prophets and Apostles that writ then you can see into that mistery of the Scripture and so can speake the mind of the Scriptures though you should never see heare nor read the Scripture from men If your peace and comfort in God should onely remain with you while you are either hearing or reading Scriptures or while you have any society of such as can speake and discourse thereof and then find again that your peace and comfort is gone when you are deprived by any occasion of that society of Saints truely let me tell you that though you prize and know the Scripture yet there is a great strangeness betweene you and the God of the Scripture Many enjoy outward reading and hearing and Saints Communion and they are in peace and they live in heaven as they conceive and it is a sweet life but it is not the life For if the wisedom of God hedge up all these enjoyments with thornes and leave these poor souls alone as it was Christs case all forsooke him and fled why then here is your triall For when God hath denyed you the opportunities of hearing reading praying and Saints fellowship doth not your heart now looke for those helps and mourn in their absence If it be so with you as I know it is with you then where is your knowledge experience and peace in and with God It shewes plainly that at such a time we suck'd refreshment from the creatures brests but not from God We are now come to the â—ast particular in respect of which we must deny our religion and that is in respect of the Author of it our blessed Saviour And herein we must first deny all false Christs secondly all false opinions of the true Christ thirdly we must deny but in a Christian qualified sence even the true Christ himselfe First then we must deny all false Christs you will find false Christs coming with signes and wonders Matt 24. 24. For there shall arise false Christs and false Prophets and shall shew great signes and wonders insomuch that if it were possible they shall deceive the very elect You shall have Christs to do what you desire Christs to shew you signes and wonders as you gape after but they shall be false Christs and this shall be your judgement God in judgement hath false Christs for false Seekers false Inquirers This is the plague of the flesh it shall have what it doth desire one that will open Scriptures do mighty miracles shew great gifts and yet all this is but a false Christ and the very elect so far as is possible shall be deceived therewith Therefore let it be our speciall care to deny these false Christs most especially in these antichristian times wherein we live in which you shall have Christs come upon you more then you would have If you go into the desert there is Christ if into the city there 's Christ some shall say lo here others lo there you shall have false Christs every where a false spirit a false resurrection a false glory a false god continually offering themselves unto you lo here lo there Such excellent glorious high ravishing wonderfull discoveries of spirituall things that they shall say plainly to you I am Christ Such things so far excelling all that ever you have known so heavenly so glorious as thereby you shall be able to say with open face here is Christ You shal have a light above men and Angels and yeâ— all this shall bâ— but a delusion I suppose you are not acquainted with this as yet but you shall have â—uch glorious discoveries in such illustrious brightnesse majesty and authority that shall absolutely say in you I am the Christ I am the Lord I am the Son of the living God In Fzekiel 28. 2. There 's a type of the false appearance of God in the world Because thine heart is listed up and thou haist said I am a God I sit in the seat of God in the midd'st of the seas yet thou art a man and not God though thou set thine heart as the heart of God You shall be so enlarged in understanding that you shall thinke your selves wiser then Daniel that you shall see through all the mysterie of Daniel through all the darke prophesies of Daniel as a clear thing yet there will be a false Christ an antichrist under all this go not after saith our Saviour Luke 17. 23. And they shall say to you see here or see there go not after them nor follow them Such appearances will present themselves unto you and invite you to the discovery and clear understanding of the darke places of Scripture but saith God follow them not They are such as if it were possible they should deceive the very elect
to say after him The flesh profiteth nothing If you onely know Christ as dying and rising without you it will profit you nothing unlesse you know him as dying and rising within you Any man is capable of remembring the storie of Christ and rehearsing it if hee have but common reason and can say as well as another that Christ died for him and can throw himself upon Christ and can hang upon Christ this is not faith this is not salvation for saith James Faith without works is dead and Rom. 8. 2. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath `made me free from the law of sin and death he doth not say that such a proposition or text of the Gospel did set him free he doth not say that the hearing that Christ died for the sins of men doth set him free No there was the Spirit of life in Christ as well as the law or letter it is that entails life upon Christ and his seed There is an outward Covenant and there is an inward Spirit The outward Covenant is this I will be thy God and the God of thy seed and may not any man pretend to be in this Covenant of this seed do not thousands professe themselvs to be so Do not thousands in the world say Lord Lord Lord and presse to enter into heaven We cannot put a difference betwixt one or other except we know this truth for they say they are within the Covenant and of Christs seed and what hold they forth for this they hold forth the confession of Christ and say that he died for their sin and rose for their justification and this they believe and upon this they lay their souls for salvation May not the veriest hypocrite do so as well as the truest Saint but here 's that which puts the difference when the spirit of Christ brings this Covenant to the heart of a poor creature when the Spirit of Adoption the Spirit of son-ship revealing God as our Father revealing God in Union with us our righteousnesse our strength hee doth indeed seal us to the day of Redemption he sets apart Christs sheep and this distinguisheth them from the other So that if you lay salvation upon an historical Christ you 'l be deceived If you would have that in which you may confide you must have Christ revealed in you in the Spirit you must have the same Spirit of Faith that was in Christ and the same spirit of power that wrought in him you must have the same eternal spirit by which you must offer up your bodies offer up your flesh to God as a sacrifice yea your selves and your own righteousnesse this is true salvation this is salvation manifested unto life To make this yet more clear I shal shew you the difference between Christ in the flesh and Christ in the Saints between that work of God within us and that work of God in Christ the latter is the truth of the former Sanctifiethem through thy truth Joh. 17. 17. that is do thou act those things really in them which are done in a figure for them upon mee there is the truth I desire to clear this to you by some familiar experience You know that Jesus Christ is said to die for our sins and rise for our justification Here is now Christ in the flesh here is his ministration Why now hereupon salvation is preach'd to men and they are told that God is reconciled for he hath sent his Son there is nothing to be done God is reconciled his justice satitfied onely believ Here is the outward difpensation But now a poor soul notwithstanding all this lies under the guilt and weight of sin whereby he cannot believe or take comfort in these glad tidings Do you not see that there is need of another ministration Is there not need of the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus as well as the proposition of the Gospel You come and shew a poor soul the proposition of the Gospel that whosoever believeth in Christ shall have eternal life Yet all this while the poor soul lies dead till not onely the letter but the spirit of the Gospel comes and appears to him till Christ appears not onely in his first Court that is his own flesh or the letter of the Gospel but the inmost place of all that is in this man's conscience For wee may allude to Heb. 9. 24. That Christ is not entred into the holy places made with hands which are the figures of the true but into heaven it self now to appear in the presence of God for us These words are spoke figuratively It is true he went visibly into heaven that is a place remote from their sight a cloud received him out of their sight The true heaven and that heaven where Christ doth appeare to the comfort and releife of a poor soul is the conscience of a poor sinner and that is called heaven because as heaven is the place of God so is the heart of man He is sayd â—o be the searcher of the heart God sits there and wounds and heales there that is God's true place It is not in the understanding of a man in the Notions there but it is in the heart of man there it is gone Christ in the spirit is in the heart of his people that is Christs place and there it is that Christ Jesus speakes a word for a poor soul there it is that Christ Jesus sits as King in our conscience Christ may offer himself long enough in the letter in the history of the Gospel but if he appeare not in the spirit and sit in our consciences to quiet them we shall never have any true understanding of the word Now for this reason I shall desire you to looke within your selves and I make no question but if you do wait upon God without prejudicate spirits he will clear this truth unto you And now while I come to some application of this truth I shall desire you in the feare of God not to mistake me Let us take heed of idolizing even the humanity of Jesus Christ himselfe of idolizing his doings and his sufferings We see God through these doings and sufferings of Jesus Christ as through a glasse but it is not blasphemie to say that a believer may come to see a love born unto him above and before the manifestation of it in the sufferings of Jesus Christ he may see it in God himself though by Christ Do not think you know so much as you need to know in knowing the flesh of Christ in knowing the man Christ Jesus for unlesse you know God in his appearance under that form you mistake Christ and make him an Idol I am nothing saith Christ and hee that sends is greater then he that is sent If God be greater then Christ then Christ himselfe is but a medium through which you come to be acquainted with God and in which you must not rest Take