which thou cryest Abba Father Although thou understandest it no more than the Lamb understandeth how or why it is carryed to its Dam and drawn by its bleatings Go thy way then and be no more troubled give thy self up to the instinct and leadings of this holy Spirit within thee Thou shalt certainly see the time when the obscure smoak of the Spiritual Instinct in thee will break up into a clear Light and flame of a Joy unspeakable and Glorious both in the Testimony of the Spirit heard within thee and the Seal of the Spirit seen upon thee either in this Life or in Eternity We read in the 2 of Chron. That Solomons Throne had a Foot-stool of Gold and six steps up to the Throne On each side of these steps were two Lyons that supported every step Thou who hast the Throne of the Divine Nature in the midst of the Spiritual Paradise and Heaven set up within thee in its obscurest and lowest state rest in peace and joy on the Foot-stool itself and upon the lowest step of this Throne For the Foot-stool itself the lowest state is of Gold of an incorruptible and Divine Nature which will certainly in its proper time lift thee up to the full height and Glory of the Throne itself The lowest step here even at the highest hath for its support and guard two Lyons The Lord Jesus the true Lyon of the Tribe of Judah in all the Varieties and Riches of his Spiritual Glories multiplies his Presence and Appearance round about thee to sustain defend and cherish thee in these first beginnings of Grace in thee in the midst of thy darkness and weakness after the same manner in the same Heavenly Person of his in the same fulness of Love Power and Glory as he is with the highest Saints When we began to speak of this first step of the Resurrection or new Birth we propounded four Heads to treat upon 1. The Life which is risen 2. The Death out of which it riseth 3. The Resurrection itself 4. The way of this Resurrection We have finished our discourse upon three of these We are now to speak briefly of the last 4. The way of the Resurrection in the new birth is Jesus Christ. He saith of himself in the Gospel of St. John I am the Way Jesus Christ is the way of this Resurrection in six Steps 1. He is the Price 2. The Head 3. The Root 4. The Pattern 5. The Companion 6. The Life of this Resurrection 1. The Blood of Christ is the Price of this Resurrection Jesus Christ by his Blood hath doubly redeemed us from Death 1. By Purchase giving his Life a Ransom for us to the Divine Justice 2. By Conquest having by the effusion of his Blood and loss of his Life gained a perfect Victory over all the Powers of Darkness 2. The Lord Jesus above in Heaven is the Head of the Resurrection from the Dead In the latter part of the first of Eph. we have Jesus Christ gloriously presented unto us in his Resurrection from the nethermost part of the Earth and in his Ascent above all Heavens Then the Apostle concludes that discourse and Chapter with this Blessed Consolation that God had given him in this Glory of the Resurrection from the Dead to be the Head over all things to his Church Thou who mouâ—nest over thy sins as the worst of Deaths who doubtest who despairest of Life raise thy self to a lively Hope Look up and see thy self already risen in his Resurrection already set down in Heavenly Places together with Christ as a Glorious Spirit in that first Spirit the Head and Fountain of them all from which they are as Inseparable as the Beams in their upper ends are from the Sun Thus St. Paul speaks in the former part of the 2d Chap. of the Eph. upon that Divine Ground which he had laid in the end of the first Chapter That Christ in his Resurrection from the Dead is the Head over all to his Church 3. The Lord Jesus as he is risen from the Dead by his Spiritual Presence in our Hearts is the root of the Resurrection or new Birth in us 1 Corin. 15. Jesus Christ as he is the second Adam is said to be a quickning Spirit and the living corner Stone precious and tryed in his Death and precious in his Resurrection out of which we grow up to be a Temple to God that is both a Spiritual Heaven and a Spiritual Paradise Eph. 3. He is said to dwell in our Hearts by Faith The Lord Jesus is that Spirit which is the Root of all Spirits natural or supernatural the Root of all Life Natural and Spiritual Earthly or Heavenly Humane Angelical or Divine Dost thou feel the weight of Death heavy upon thee hast thou no sense of any spark of true Life in thee to sweeten either Death or Life to thee Look up to thy Root at the bottom of thy Spirit thy Jesus Abide in this Root wait for this Root Here are all the Treasures of Spiritual Life laid up At the set time in the proper season this Root shall spring and bud and blossom and bring forth it 's heavenly Fruits replenished with the Light and sweetness of the Divine Life and spreading themselves thorow thy whole Soul Thus shall that Life of God which thou hast lost which in thy death retired itself hither into its Root rise again in thee and thou be new-born into this Life Thus shall Jesus Christ as an Heavenly Root in thy Heart bring forth himself unto the Life of Faith which is his own Heavenly Image in thee within the Vail the Cloud of Flesh. Thus doth he make thine heart from this Root of Eternity to be an Heavenly Habitation and dwelling place for himself raised up new and Eternal out of the Ruines of Death 4. Our blessed Saviour is the Pattern of the Resurrection to us In the 8th of the Rom. we are said to be predestinated to be conformed to his Image Eph. 1. God is spoken of as working Faith and so bringing forth the Spiritual Life in us according to that exceeding greatness of his Power by which he raised Christ from the Dead We read in the Gospel that a mighty Angel came down from Heaven and rolled away the Stone from the mouth of the Grave while the Watchmen about the Grave were cast into a deep sleep to make way for the rising of Christ. How frequently doth the Soul which feels the horrour of the Spiritual Death think its Resurrection to a Divine Life to the Heavenly Graces and sweet Peaces of that Life impossible Alass the Flesh is as a Grave in which it is shut up Its Lusts and Temptations are as a mighty Stone rolled upon the mouth of this Grave Tempters visible and invisible are as Watchmen round about the Grave to keep thee there But be not discouraged at any of these things O thou disconsolate Soul Look to thy Pattern the Lord Jesus as it was
this Light is a Divine Wonder a Divine Mystery Incomprehensible for the greatness of the Glory to sense and reason but familiar and plain to the Spiritual Eye as bred up with it and continually before it known to it from the Beginning The Spiritual Bride meeteth her beloved here with all his Beauties in this Light and kisseth him as her Brother as born of the same Mother There is no strangeness between them This Light is indeed the Temple the Palace of the God-Head of Eternity The Father and Christ are here upon the Throne of their Kingdom in the Glory of their Divine Nature But a Saint is a Royal Priesthood a King and a Priest So he is taken in called by God into this Sacred Palace and Temple to behold the Beauties to contemplate the vertues of both the Father and the Son that they may declare them by the Divine Power of their words and the Beauty of Holiness which is the Sun-shine of the Divine Nature in their Lives We are now by this Circuit of Scriptures brought back to that First on which we grounded this Second Branch of our Rule and for the explication of which we have taken this compass If we walk in the Light as he is in the Light we have Fellowship one with another and the Blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all Sin Who are these that have Fellowship one with another St. John had said before These things we write that you may have Fellowship with us And truly our Fellowship is with the Father and the Son v. 3. Philosophers tell us that we must come within all the Beams of the Sun to the Body of the Sun itself if we will see the Sun in his true and proper Glory Some speak of a Blessed world in the Sun the Rarities and Beauties of which are seen only by the Inhabitants of the Sun Gods own Light is a Divine World in which the Father the Son all the Saints dwell together eternally have their proper life of Divine Sweetness and Blessedness appear in their proper Forms of Divine Purity and Beauty If ye will be admitted into this Society to a sight of these you must go beyond you must come within every Light of the Creature all Beams into the Bosom of God himself into the Brightness of the Divine Essence which is the Living-looking-Glass of the Holy Trinity Here you shall see your Jesus as he is You shall see him as you are seen by him For now the Blood of Christ cleanseth you from all Sin This Light of the Divine Nature which is the Light of Life and the Spirit Himself is the Blood of Jesus eminently in the vertue of it as it is Incorruptible This is that which poureth forth itself thorow the Humane Nature into the lowest Forms of Dust Darkness Wrath and Death in the place of Sinners as a Ransom of Infinite value This is that Precious Blood of the true Vine which when Justice and Wrath have drunk of they are satisfied sweeetned and changed into Grace and Glory an over-spreading Loveliness and an overflowing Love This is that Blood in which the Life is which as it is let forth in Death wrappeth up all things in it self washeth them from filth and flesh then riseth up again as high as its own Spring in the Heart of the Father and carrieth up all things with it self into the Newness of the Glory of God Nothing is so directly contrary to the Divine Light as Sin Therefore it is expressed by Darkness and the Night As the Light of the Day cleanseth all Forms of things from the Darkness of the Night which lay upon them that now they have fellowship one with another mingle their Beams and Beauties with mutual Joy so doth this Blood of the Lamb the Light shining in the Person of Christ when it breaketh forth from the Shades of Death in the morning of the Resurrection sanctifie the Heavenly things themselves bring forth from under every cloud stain and dust the Heavenly Persons of a Saint of Jesus Christ of God the Heavenly Truths and Lives of all Things that they may in the Unity of this Light maintain a precious commerce and traffick of all interchangeable Sweetnesses Excellencies with Immortality unto a full Joy Psal. 4. 6. David thus openeth the Hearts of the multitude and his own Heart Many will say Who will shew us any good But Lord lift up thoâ— the Light of thy countenance upon us When all thy faculties and Affections all the Powers of thy Soul cry Who will shew us Iesus Christ in Glory Let thine Heart answer to God and say Lord lift up thou the Light of thy face upon me In the Shinings of thy Face is my Iesus hid and in these Shinings alone will He be seen by me Thus the Spiritual Beauties of Iesus Christ are to be discerned only in the Spiritual Light of His own Person 3. Spiritual Things are to be seen in Spiritual Forms This is the Third Branch of the Rule Joh. 20. 30. When the Lord after his Resurrction had appeared to the Apostles in a Body of Flesh as He had been cruciâ—ied the Holy Ghost addeth And many other Signs did Jesus in the presence of His disciples Observe this expression well His Appearance in a Natural Body the same in which He had formerly lived with them was not the Truth it Self but a Sign of it Luk. 24. 38. Jesus shewing Himself after the same manner to His Apostles raiseth them from their fears that This was the Apparition of some Spirit by these words Behold my hands and my feet that it is I my self A Spirit hath not Flesh and Bones as you see me to have The Lord seemeth to speak to them after this manner You have not yet received the Spirit but are hitherto carnal If I should shew my self to you as I am now in the Glory of my Resurrection in which I am altogether Spiritual and a Spirit you would not know me you would not believe that I were the same Person you would be afraid of me I have therefore wrought this Miracle and given you this Sign in a tenderness towards you and a Condescention to your present weakness By that Almighty Power over Heavenly and Earthly Things which I am now cloathed with by the virtue of that Spiritual Divine Form and Substance into which I am now raised which comprehendeth within it self all Form Substances and Virtues I present my self to you in that same Body composed of the same Flesh and Bones in which I lived with you and dâ—ed upon the Cross before your Eyes with the same Wounds which I then received And because this is a Sign therefore do I accompany it to your Senses and to your Spirits with a Double Evidence and Seal from my Divinity One that this is no Imposture or Apparition with which Evil Spirits have power to deceive your Sight your Hearing your Touch all your natural Faculties but that
the Evil and Ugliness of Sin in the Light and Glass of their own Heavenly purity 2. Ans. Hatred is an intellectual contrariety The Unity and Love of the Divine Nature in the King of Saints and all his Holy Ones is essentially and formally in itself an irreconcilable opposition an active contrariety to Enmity and Sin as Light Day and Immortality are to Darkness Night and Death 3. Ans. God seeth Sin in order to his Wrath. God seeth his Wrath in ordeâ— to his Glory his Glory as the full object of his Love order is the Chain and Band of Unity Thus God beholdeth all at once as they lie comprehended in the Unity of Eternal Light and Love by their several Subordinations God beholdeth Sin as it is swallowed up into a flame of wrath the flame of wrath as it is heightned to a Light of Glory the Light of Glory as it shineth and liveth in the Eye of his Love the Fountain of all Lights Life and Joys Love is the Eternal and rich Root of all Glory is the Tree that springeth up out of this Root the perfect and full Image of Love in which it liveth diffuseth and delighteth itself within itself This Tree of Glory spreadeth itself into many flourishing Branches among which are Holiness Justice Wrath against Sin Wrath by the force of the contrariety raiseth up Sin as a mark to shoot its burning Arrows and cast his fiery Darts at Love thorow these Attributes letteth in Sin by the Law that it may display itself more fully in its War with its Enemy in it Conquest and Triumph over it that it may break forth and rise up thorow it more powerfully purely and sweetly like a flame going up to Heaven from a great pile of Wood perfectly subdued to it The Unity of God is now the Glass of Love in which alone God seeth alâ— Things and the Diamond which he seeth set and shining in every Ring of Operative or Permissive Providences Sin appeareth to him in the Glass of his Wrath and Justice These sheweth themselves to him by their reflections and Images in the Glass of hiâ— Glory His Glory shineth forth from the Arms and Bosom of his Love which is the inmost Center and outmost Circle of the Divine Unity Here all things lie here all things present themselves to God as Mysteries of Divinity and Love in the Unity of the Divine Nature God beholdeth with a fulness of Joy his Love the reflection of himself his own Fountain the Fountain of his blessed Unity in which he lyeth Eternally bathing himself in pure floods of Incomprehensible Pleasures this Love this Unity this Fountain he beholdeth in all his Glory His Glory is the Object of his Eye in the Severity of his Justice and Wrath. He contemplateth his Justice and Wrath alone in Sin Thus God seeth every where the Mystery of his Divine Unity as the great and bright deep of Eternity He seeth every where the Seal the express Image of his Divine Unity where all the riches of his Glory and Sweetnesses of his Love unfold themselves and sport together Thus O Saint learn to look upon every Sin See it in this Glass of Truth the mystery of the Divine Unity See this secret and invisible Jewel the mystery of the Divine Unity sealed upon it sealed up in it Thus shalt thou see Sin so as to preserve thy Purity and thy Love both in one Thou shalâ— see Sin so as to be at once a flame of Wrath to it and a Light of Glory a flame of Love in that flame of Wrath comprehending both Wrath and Sin in the Wrath. So shalt thou see Sin hate and dwell for ever with God who is the Beauty of Holiness and Love 4. Ans. God looketh upon a Sinner as upon a Prison and a Grave where the Truth the Divine Seed the Light and Life of the Divine Image lyeth detained captivated slain by a Lie the Prince of Life and Light by the Powers of Darkness His Wrath and Hatred against the Sinner is a zeal of Love He cometh forth with Thunders Lightnings Tempests and Earthquakes in his Wrath to break down the Prison walls to break open the Grave that the Prince of Glory may come forth into the Light of Life and the liberty of the Glory of a Son of God God as a Sun breaketh forth with power and in his Strength to dissolve by the force of his Beams the Inchantment and Light that the Sons of Light and the Truth may be set free Thus God hateth Sinners thus do thou hate them with a perfect Hatred Let thy fire be no bitter zeal but a zeal of Love Let thy woundings be Divine Anointings I have hitherto passed thorow only one half of my discourse upon the description of Spiritual Love by the supream Unity in the Divine Nature I shall take my ground for the other half Galat. 3. 20. This shall be my Center for a time from which my Motions shall arise and whither they shall return to end thee The words are these Now a Mediatour is not of one but God is one This Scripture hath a sweet and clear depth of Love in it but unfathomable This depth is the Unity of God St. Paul stateth here the most essential difference between the Law the Ministery of Wrath and the Gospel the Ministery of Love One is established in the hands of a Mediatour in the other God is one The Love-union in the Gospel is too near too sure too sweet to need or admit a Mediator The Fountain of all Evangelical Grace and Love is the Unity of God The Unity of the Spirit is the Band of Peace between the Uncreated and all Created Spirits Ephes. 4. 6. But we shall more clearly see the Riches Treasured up in this Scripture if we look upon it by the light of another Scripture in the same Chapter v. 16. Now the Promise was made to Abraham and his Seed he saith not to Seeds as to many but as to one And to thy Seed which is Christ. The Holy Apostle in this Chapter maketh it his work to prove that Righteousness is not by the works of the Law but by Faith in Jesus Christ according to the Gospel God descending into Christ and taking up Christ into himself Jesus Christ in this fulness and Glory of the God-Head entring into the Soul and taking the Soul into himself by the free Revelation and immediate Union of Faith This is the Righteousness of God and of his Saints in the Gospel One Argument by which St. Paul maintaineth Righteousness to be of Grace and not by Works is laid down v. 15. the Covenant of Grace was long before the Law He confirmeth that here v. 16. The Promises were made to Abraham and to his Seed c. The Holy Ghost in this verse established the Heavenly Building of the Gospel upon three beautiful and firm Pillars 1. Pillar The Gospel is a meer simple pure Promise That which was called in the verse