Prophet Habakkuk speaking of Christ in the Spirit tells us Chap. 3. ver 4. is in his hand That is In the spiritual discoveries of Christ which are as hands of light by which he puts forth himself and taks hold of the World As our Author some where expresses himself upon those words Who among us is yet able to comprehend all the distinct ages and growths of good minds To understand the various Improvements measures and attainments the several capacities languages and operations which are peculiar to those ages and growths It is impossible for us to set the bounds to spiritual things To stint that Spirit in our selves or others which is a fountain of Divine Light and Life in all regenerated Souls continually sending forth new streams and running along with afresh succession of Waters without any stop or limit We are too proud to understand the condescentions too low to take the height too shallow to fathom the depth too narrow to measure the breadth too short to reach the length of the Divine truth and goodness and the various communications of theâ—selves to us We cannot assign the highest or the lowest state of Saints whilst they are here below We cannot say all above this is fancy whimsie dream and delusion all below that is common carnal formal and superstitious As we ought not then to despise and contemn that which is below So let us not censure and condemn that which is above us Blessed be God all Good Souls in the midst of their greatest distances from one another here below do all meet in the Divine Comprehension above We are all enfolded in the Divine Arms we are all encircled in the Divine Love That has breadth and length and depth and height enough to reach and hold us all And if we cannot yet receive and embrace each other in our several ages growths measures and attainments it is because we have little low dark narrow and contracted hearts feel but little of the love of Christ and are no more fill'd with that Spirit which is the spring the center the circle the band to all good Spirits in heaven and on Earth There is as great a difference in the statures of Souls as of bodies In the growths of Christians as of men and all other things St. John Joh. 12. c. distinguishes these growths into little Children Young men Fathers twice together That we might take the more distinct notice of them Our Author was in the highest of these ranks Was indeed one of the tallest among his Brethren whether we consider the height of his own spiritual discoveries and enjoyments or the depth of his condescentions to the lowest and least of them For the true stature of any thing cannot be exactly taken without measuring from both ends That is not truly tall or great which seems to stand high and look big but that which reaches furthest which is most extensive comprehending and Universal Our Author was indeed a true Father in Christ and so esteemed by all who knew him For his own great understanding and experience in Divine things for the excellency of his Ministery whereby he did in Jesus Christ thorow the Gospel beget and edifie many As also for the great tenderness and Father like bowels which throughout his whole Ministry and in all his other converses he delighted to be still expressing towards all the weak and little ones Nor was his skill herein less considerable than his Naturalness This Character thou wilt find eminently due to him as thou perusest these discourses in which he is still careful to provide Milk for the Babes whilst he sets stronger Meat before the men Those who are Spiritual and by being so are able spiritually to discern spiritual things to compare them with themselves and to feed on them not only as they are brought down to us in fleshly Images and resemblances But as they express and manifest themselves in us in their own spiritual forms and glories Sure I am if thou art truly come within the compass of the lowest of those growths before mentioned if thou art become so much as a little Child in Christ if thou hast but that genuine instinct and naturalness of Soul towards God and all Divine things which is essential to and inseparable from the New birth in its most infant state if thouâ—hast but the least degree of a Spiritual mind any spiritual sense and savour there are a great many things in this Book which thy Soul must of necessity understand eccho to rellish and acknowledge to be exceeeding good Let then the goodness of what thou dost understand encourage thy Charity to think that which is above thy reach may be better At least let it prevail with thy reason not to judge sentence and condemn it It is every where esteemed an high and difficult Office to be a Judge in the Affairs of this lower World The Wisdom of our Nation has provided as a Noble Author observes that so great a Work should not depend upon One Person every Court of Iudicature having a certain number of Judges or Assistants belonging to it Nor can a Iudge depute his Authority to another it being an Office and Work of greatest Confidence Trust and Skill and therefore personal and inherent And with what wariness and caution do the Rules of all our Courts direct their own proceeding to a Judgment in every little case here below It is certainly a much higher and harder work to be a Iudge in the matters of another World in things not obvious to Sense and transcendent to Reason in things above all the natural Principles of Wisdom or Truth in any creature The Jews speak of it as one of the first things delivered by God to Moses by him to Joshua and so down to all their Elders and Wise men in all Ages To be slow in judging St. Paul cautions us 1 Cor. 4. 5. To judge nothing before the time until the Lord come To pass a Iudgment to pronounee a Sentence upon Persons and Principles in spiritual matters is in its own nature and in the consequences thereof the greatest the weightiest act our Souls can put forth and therefore not to be hastily executed nor indeed at all without his presence from whom all the Authority Power and Capacity of Spiritual Iudgment is derived God has committed all this Iudgment in a more especial manner to Jesus Christ and there can be no true right authentick valid and final Iudgment without him and where he is not present He has no where so deputed this Office and Work to any Person or Company of persons as to alienate the dignity and glory of it from himself And whether he dispence it immediately or mediately he cannot be excluded It is his Presence and Power the Appearances of Christ and the manifestations of his Spirit which do give to any Society of men the Distinction and Authority of a Church to every Church or Person the right the ability of
Spiritual Iudgment No man no Church has here any other Spiritual Power and Capacity besides that of Christ and his Spirit in them And how rich full and sufficient soever the several Churches of Christ may at this day esteem themselves to be without him yet sure I am there is nothing more speaks the absence of Christ and his spirit And their poverty emptiness and weakness then that hasty rash sleight partial blind and bold judging and censuring one another which every where abounds in the present Christian Churches Whilst in some of them the greatest acts of spiritual judgment that can be done on Earth as a great man long since complained are made to lackey up and down for Fees and become the most ordinary process that is And in others which pretend to be more refin'd to attend upon outward forms inward Opinions our own parties interests and passions As if instead of judging nothing before the time until the Lord comes The Spirit of man would so determine every thing that no knot should be left for him to unty nothing remain for him to judge But blessed be God the causeless curse shall not come All the judgments which are fondly and proudly made in mans day shall be cancell'd in the day of Christ. Your Brethren as God speaks by the evangelical Prophet to those that tremble at his Word That hated you that cast you out for my name sake said Let the Lord be glorified But he shall appear to your joy and they shall be ashamed Be perswaded then to do as God has done Leave all judgment to the Son to his manner and measure of appearing in thee Wait still for his coming who is to set judgment in the Earth to bring it forth in thy Spirit Be first able to say Thou art full of Power by the Spirit of the Lord and of Judgment before thou takest upon thee to declare unto thy Brethren their transgressions mistakes follies and errours Do not venture to step into the Throne of Iudicature till he whose place it is lead thee up lest thou find thy self ere thou art aware in the Chair of Scorners instead of the Seat of Judgment Judge nothing till Christ comes lest thou shouldest then be judged by him as an evil doer and a busie body 'T is true the Spiritual Man is said to judge all things But that Word that State that Work do all of them import a distinct and critical discerning of things such must thine be of all things before they can be rightly judg'd by thee Thou mayest indeed speak evil of what thou knowest not but thou canst not fairly judge it till thou doest thoroughly understand it As a spiritual man read these following Discourses and as such give thy judgment of them Remember still that every Truth is not spoken at once to every good man nor any Truth opened to him in its full glory at the first sight but as Luther speaks we are enlightened by Beam after Beam It is said of some things our Saviour did and which were done unto him Joh. 12 That his Disciples understood them not at the first but when Christ was glorified when he took away his fleshly presence and came in more spirit then they were acquainted with them What I do says Christ to Peter Joh. 13. 7. thou knowest not now but thou shalt know hereafter And in Joh. 16. 12 13. He tells his Disciples he had yet many things to say unto them but they could not bear them then howbeit when the Spirit of Truth was come he should guide them into all Truth When St. Paul was a little beforehand caught up into the World to come the Text says 2 Cor. 12. 4. that he heard unspeakable words which it is not lawful for a man to utter that could not that might not be spoken Such things as would no dâ— ubt â—ave offended the best men then alive if he had declared them Good Souls have their several Orbs and Sphears of Spiritual Light and Life all below are comprehended by them above and lie in their Bosoms but the lesser Circle can by no means contain the greater A Soul got no further than the first Heavens cannot hear cannot receive the discoveries and enjoyments of one in the third If a Truth be very raised and spiritual it is not the first Beam of Christ himself can shew us that Truth And if I by my glimmering light shall go about to examine and judge things spoken in a clearer day I shall be subject to many mistakes and in great danger of rejecting the Truth because I do not understand it In my Father's house saies Christ are many Mansions 'T is true of his house of grace here below as well as that of glory above Let every Christian then say of his present state and measure This is my present Heaven my present Mansion here my God is pleased to meet me thus he dispenseth himself to me here I will wait until I am called up higher and if another comes and speaks things beyond my present understanding and experience I will judge no man's Light Life and Liberty in the Lord being constant to this that as Christ in the flesh came to his own and his own received him not so also may Christ in the Spirit Instead then of judging and censuring what thou doâ—st not yet understand be faithful to that which thou already knowest answer thy present light with a suitable life so shalt thou grow up not only into all the Discoveries Truth and Mysteries which are in this and all other spiritual â—ooks but into him also in all things who is thy Head Hast thou received any one ray any one glimpse of spiritual Light into thy Soul watch it cherish it walk according to the direction and instinct of it and this Beam shall quickly swiftly grow up into a glorious day in thy spirit For the path of the Just is as the shining Light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day Secondly It is possible thou mayest here meet with some few things very different from some of thy beloved Sentiments for our Author intended in these Discourses to tell thee his own thoughts not to guess at thine My Requests in this case are such as these not to make thy self overwise not to think thou knowest any thing not to abound in thy own sense not to lay too much weight upon thy own Iudgment nor too little upon thy Brother 's not to overvalue thy own Notions and Opinions nor to undervalue his not to forget that modesty and sobriety of mind which every good man ought still to preserve towards himself nor that moderation forbearance indulgence allowance and respect which not only charity but reason and interest oblige thee alwaies to express towards all good men that differ from thee For we all stand in need of and have a right to such a tender behaviour from one another To impress a little such Requests as these upon
Wherever there is any Subject to be wrought upon or to receive the work God works all in that Subject Wherever there is any Effect to be wrought God works all in that Effect Not an Angel or Bird flies or falls not a Thought a Hair a Dust moves but as he moves in it and moves it 3. The Pattern of these Workings God worketh all Things according to Counsel Counsel and Wisdom are both the same Thing This is the Glory of God and the Happiness of the Creature that nothing â—omes to pass which is not the Work of God and nothing is wrought by God which is not a Work of Wisdom Philosophers and the Scriptures agree in setting forth the excellent Nature of Wisdom by a Two-fold Description of it 1. Description Wisdom is Knowledge with a Head Knowledge is the Image of Things The Golden Head of this Image is the Heavenly Image of God in the Person of our Lord Jesus Colos. 2. 18. 19. St. Paul calls the Study of the Nature of Angels not Wisdom but Folly and Vanity a vain Puffing up of the Fleshly Mind why Is not this a High and Excellent Knowledge Yes But now it was vanity not Wisdom a vain Swelling not a Substantial Fulness and Greatness of Spirit in those of whom the Apostle speaks Because they held not the Head God then who works all things in Counsel and true Wisdom holds the Head in all His Workings that is whatever he brings forth He brings it forth in the Divine Appearance of his Son he brings forth the Divine Appearance of his Son upon it as the Head Wisdom saith of God and herself Prov. 1. 27 29 30. When he prepared the Heavens I was there when He appointed the Foundations of the Earth Then I was by Him as his Delight This may be as truly spoken of every Passage of thy Life of the least Accident that concerns thy Person For the same God in the same Wisdom hath wrought these that prepared the Heavens and laid the Foundation of the Earth Thou mayst with as great Assurance hear in every Thing of Grief or Joy which thou meetest with in Flesh or Spirit the Glorious Person of thy Beloved Saviour speaking to thee after this manner God hath prepared this for thee and I am here This hath the Father appointed for thee and now am I with thee to be thy Delight brought up and growing up before thee together with this and every other Appearance You look upon things vainly with a Fleshly mind after a heedless manner if you see not the Brightness and Delight of the God-Head in the Person of Christ as a Crown of Rejoycing upon every Providence You deface the work of God you look not upon it as he hath wrought it Holding the Head if you see not the Face of Christ in every Act or Accident as in a Glass God in this Sense hath made Christ his Only Begotten Son in that he brings forth nothing but Discoveries of Jesus Christ. For he is the Head of all Things and this is the Wisdom of God the Holding of this Head in all This is the First Description of Wisdom 2. Description Wisdom is the Fulness of Things Jesus Christ is the Wisdom of God and the Fulness of all Things Colos. 1. 19. Wisdom is that Contrivance that Harmony of Things that casts the whole Fulness of Things into each Thing As Members in the Body amongst whom the Joy of all pertains to every one and the Grief of each One to all So are all the Parts of that work which is wrought in Wisdom Wisdom is a Spirit that conveys the Life Power and Sense of all into each Particular that all may rejoyce and mourn together every where As in a good Picture all the Proportions of the whole Face meet and concenter as it were in each Line Point or Touch giving you from thence a Cast of the Beauty of the whole So hath God prepared and appointed all his Works in Wisdom like an Excellent Picture that the Fulness of the Whole and the Beauty of all Parts may shew forth themselves from every Part. Is there any thing so dark so low as that the Wisdom of God reacheth not to it and shines not in it If the Wisdom of God be there then is there the Center the Concurrency the Union of all Things of all Glory If the Wisdom of God shine there then is there a Spiritual Light opening all Divine Beauties making that Thing the Gate of the Creation of Paradise Heaven and the Divine Nature This is that Traffique of Wisdom which makes the Merchandise of it better than that of Silver Gold or Pearl 4. The Original of that Pattern God works all things according to the Counsel of his will The Will of God is the Principle and Original of his Wisdom The Will of God is the highest Rule Rest and Rejoycing of all manner of Goodness The Phaenix is said to spring out of a Nest of all manner of Spices laid together and fired by the Sun the Will of God is such a Flaming Nest of all Beauties and Sweetnesses at their Height Out of this will the Wisdom of God springs forth into every Act of Providence being Beautiful and Precious in it The Will of God is the highest Reason of all things What if God willing to shew the Riches of his Grace What if God willing to shew the Power of his Wrath The Will in a Spirit is as the Sea to a River All its workings flow out of it and into it It is its Spring and Fulness Shall not thy Will rest and rejoyce in that which is the Will of God that is the Highest Reason the fullest Rest and Blessedness of the Divine Nature The Will of God out of which God himself drinks all his Delights in which he bathes himself this Will is the Eternal Fountain The Wisdom of God is a Large and Broad River poured forth from this Fountain Every Creature each Passage of things in the Creature is the Water of this River Shall it not be Sweet to thee Canst thou not drink of this Water of the River of God sent forth from his own Fountain with Delight 2. Scripture Deut. 32. 4. Moses sings of God He is the Rock His work is perfect All his ways are Iudgment The Work of God is Perfect in the whole For all the ways of God in his work in Particular are in Judgment that is in exact Wisdom This place affords us Three comfortable Observations concerning the ways and works of God 1. Observation Nothing comes to pass but that which is best 2. Observation Nothing falls out but in the best Time 3. Nothing is brought about but in the best manner The former place of Scripture taught us that all things are the Work of God This teacheth us that his work is Perfect and all the ways of it Exact according to the best Judgment of things and the rightest rules of Wisdom which are the
any fresh Effusion of the Spirit upon you When the Activity of Grace when the Operations of the Divine Life are heightned in you by any peculiar Appearances and Outshinings of the Lord Jesus in you what do you Find Do you not find all things made New Do you not find the Invisible Image of things within the Image of all Visible things without Your self your Life Your Soul your Body Your Graces your Comforts Husband Wife Children all Objects of Life the whole World itself renewing its Light its Sweetness its Lustre All heightened Spiritualised Immortalized transfigured into Divine Forms Invisible to all other Eyes and this without any Darkening without any Eclipse or Cloudy moment interposing This is the Earnest of the Spirit given unto Thee for a Figure a Foretast and a Seal of Thy change in Death Thou shalt not be uncloathed of any Garment of Life or Light Spiritual or Natural which thou hast ever put on Thou shalt never be found naked of any Forms of Light Life or Love which have ever accompanyed and encompassed Thee Thy Faith-shall be swallowed up into Vision Clear Full Immediate Vision Eye to Eye Thy Hope into Entire Possession and Compleat Fruition thy Soul itself into a Simple Divinity and Eternity Thy Body thy Dear Relations the Delights of thine Eyes the Precious and Pleasant things of thy Senses shall All be cloathed upon from above with those Immortal Substances of which here they are the Shadows with their own Original Forms of which here they bear the Figure with their Flourishing Patterns upon the Mount of Glory in that First and Pure Spirit the Fountain of Life the shining Fountain of Good in the Glorified Person of the Lord Jesus in Eternity The Movable Tabernacle with its Tent both are Dissolv'd and fall into the Eternal Building of Glory in the Heavens where they become as Mysterious Figures of Divinity in that Temple or Rich Furniture Delightful Apartments of that Palace where every Part beareth the Figure possesseth the Life and Beauty of the Whole This is the Freedom the Sweetness the Fulness of the Finishing Love of God in Christ. Death itself is made at once A Consummation of the Marriage Love between the Heavenly Bridegroom his Bride A Bed of Loves the Divine Embraces of Eternal Love and the Divine Fruitfulness of these Embraces Jesus in his Invisible and Eternal Form descendeth overshadoweth embraceth his Bride transfigureth her into a Form of Eternal Beauties perfectly answering his own maketh her to spring with to bring forth in the moment of those embraces in the moment of her own Transfiguration all Forms of Things above and below in Immortal Divine Images and Essences of Pure Perfect Love The Dark aud Dreadful Appearances which surround Death are onely A Cloud which hide these Delightful these sacred Mysteries and changes from all Natural Eyes while the Saint himself in the Spirit seeth its own Beauties feeleth its own Joys in these Transfiguring and Impregnating Embraces So Christ himself was taken by a Cloud out of the sight of the Apostles while he ascended Death beginneth to the whole Saint in all parts that Coming down of the Lord Jesus in a Flame of Glory that Rapture of a Saint caught up into the Bosom of the Lord Jesus with the Sound of the Heavenly Trumpet The Universal Shout of Divine Lives Loves Glories thorow all things The Resurrection finisheth them O the Absoluteness of Finishing Love All work of Glory is made perfect in a Saint Jesus in all these Powers and Treasures of the God-Head resteth upon a Saint then when he is weakest when he seemeth nearest likest to Darkness Dust and Dung in the Agonies of Death 3. Comfort Against the last Day There are peculiar Terrours accompany the Day of Judgment It is indeed the most Dreadful of all Dreadful things The Last Day is twofold 1. Universal the Day of the Lord upon the whole Earth 2. Particular the day of the Lord upon a City or Nation Both these are spoken of mixtly The same dreadful things are attributed to both properly or figuratively We know not how near the Universal Day of the Great Judgment of the Lord upon the whole Earth may be The Lord Jesus may be now at the Door and ready to enter He shall come as a Thief in the Night in Clouds unperceived unexpected All things shall be in the moment of his Appearance as from the Beginning Some at the Mill some in the Field some in the Market some at Church to be married others in the Marriage bed others Eating and Drinking All the signs which are to fore-run that Great Day of the Lord's Last Appearance from Heaven may be come to pass in the midst of us in another manner and form differing from that which we figure to our selves and we not aware of it As Elijah the great fore-runner of our Lord Jesus in his first Appearance was come and gone in the Person of John the Baptist not understood either by the Jews in general or by the Disciples Watch and pray have your Loyns ever girt your Lamps burning go forth from the things of Sense into the Spirit to meet the Lord who cometh in that Air of Heaven and Eternity So shall you be caught up to meet him as he cometh and enter with him into the Bride-chamber I shall give you my Reasons which make me to believe that the Particular Day of the Lord upon this Land and City approacheth and cometh like a Traveller like an Armed Man upon us 1. Jerusalem and the Jews seem to be set up for a Type to every City and Land which beateth the Name of God St. Paul at large in the 11th to the Romans describeth the Succession of the Gentiles by Christianity into the place of the Jews the Progress and Way of God with the External Professors of the Gospel as with Israel He representeth this by Natural Branches cut off from and Olive Tree by wild Branches ingrafted in their place standing upon the same Terms in the same danger of being cut off 2. Are not we as Hierusalom ripe for the Harvest Have we not had the Ministry of the Law of the Gospel of the Letter of the Spirit in great power and glory Have not all varieties of chastisements and judgments inferiour to preparatory for the great and last Judgment already passed upon us Have not our Sins among all sorts of all kinds grown up to maturity to be ready for the Sickle 3. We have seen signs in Heaven above and on the Earth beneath and in the Waters which Jesus Christ foretelleth as Joel before and St. Peter afterwards from him to precede immediately the great and dreadful day of the Lord upon Hierusalem Hierusalem is in London But O what comforts flow from the finishing love of God in Jesus Christ to make this day of the Lord not only supportable but lovely to us and longed for by us Lift up your heads for your redemption is at