our feeling to our sight to our apprehension and comprehension but not at all in himself We cannot Honour him no nor dishonour him as to himself he is infinitely Far Above our praises or dispraises neither toucheth him as David saith My goodness extendeth not to him and Iob If I sin it toucheth not him He is neither better or worse by all our works either by sin or righteousness Beloved be sure of this we can neither diminish nor increase his praise in Himself though in regard of â—s we do for though we hold our tongues though we run upon our own destruction yet All as Creatures Praise him if he be not glorified by us in his Mercy he is and will be in his Iustice. It is said in Phil. 2. that he emptied himself of all his glory that is he as it were drew a curtain between Our eyes and His glory not between his own eyes and his glory for he was the same in himself but as to men He drew a Curtain or Vail before his glory for he honoured himself most in that he Emptied himself and therefore he saith here All power is given unto me in Heaven and in Earth not but that he had the same power before But now All power is given me that is Now men shall see it how in this very thing I honoured my self How in this very thing I manifested my self to be the Saviour of the world And though he seemed to Unclothe and dis-robe himself of all power and glory yet men shall now see and acknowledge that he still At that very instant retained it as much as ever yea manifested it more to them I seemed to lay it down and now to them I will be seen to Take it up again and they shall see that it never departed from me nor I from it But now it may be you will say to me We see you have partly cleared it and made it appear in what sense it is to be understood that All power is given to him in Earth but how is all power given him in Heaven do the Angels add any thing to him or is any thing added to them yea certainly for by the Church these things are More made known unto them for they were not created in such an estate but they may be made better nor are they so perfect but that they desire an increase in their perfection for it is said 1 Pet. 1. 12. The Angels do stoop down to pry into these mysteries therefore their knowledge and perfection is increasing And indeed it is certain They see their imperfections more then man because of the great light they have they are nearer to God who is light and therefore see their darkness and imperfection more then we for we are more dark and further off the light but alas Vain men think they see a great deal and because of their blindness they think themselves such excellent Creatures being thereby puffet up in themselves looking on themselves as Lords of all every thing was made for Him and that Christ was sent Meerly to Redeem him to save him God overlookt as he conceives All Creatures both above him and below him and had respect to none but to him as proud Haman said I onely am in the Kings favour O poor Creatures you are deceived think not so this is onely a fruit of your ignorance of your blindness limit not Gods Church to so narrow a scantling The Dominions of his Church reach infinitely further ther then you are aware of but we must not now enter upon that But hereby you may see that things in Heaven have a revelation and manifestation of Christ unto them and his power is given unto him There as well as on earth if so it be That you do take Heaven according to our general and common Notion of taking Henven which we Vulgarly conâ—eive to be above the Circumference of the Sun and God to be present more especially there but this also is a limiting The bounds of his Church and Kingdom His Kingdom as I conceive is every where and Heaven is where he is for he is Every where Yet I remember I was taught when I was a Child either by my Nurse or my Mother or Shoolmaster that God Almighty was above in Heaven viz. above the Sun Moon and Stars and I thought of a long time afterwards that there was his Court and his Chamber of presence and I thought it a great Height to come to this knowledge but I assure you I had more to do to unlearn this principle then ever I had to learn it and I am afraid too many of us are gone no further then this Childish principle whereupon follow many errours But it is more safe Taking Heaven in the largest sense Eiâ—her as God Filling all places and all things as well above the Sun as below and below as above and so Heaven to be where God is that is ever where for he cannot be excluded from any place but he is not onely in every place but in every place Alike Or else to take Heaven in that sense the Prodigal doth Luk. 15. 18. Father I have sinned against Heaven and before thee to take Heaven to be in our souls When God comes into our souls and dwels there that is when he manifests his presence in us and to us then he is said to dwell there not but that he dwelt there in regard of himself as much before but then he is there as in his Temple As in his glory to Us-ward then we see him there In the Beauty of Holiness Then He is compassed about with our praises as it is exprest in that 68 Psalm It is well seen O God how thou goest How thou My God goest when thou art in thy Sanctuary The singers go before and the minstrels follow after in the midst are the damsels with timbrels c. When God is not onely in us as he is in all Creatures but when he is there sensibly to us that we feel him and see him and Rejoyce to behold his Presence and Glory and so we come Thereby to glorisie him more Whenever we come to this Sight then are we come into a degree of the kingdom of Heaven Into Gods Chamber of Presence There we shall see all Creatures all Angels and Saints and the whole Creation compassing him round about with Glories and Hallelujahs Then as to us is He set upon his Throne And till then he is As Crucified As upon the Cross as Buffetted as Spit upon as Emptied as disrohed as Slighted Trod upon As upon the dunghil as separaâ—e from his glory but all this is but as to men not as to Himself as I said before For to him all Angels Cry A loud the Heavens and the Earth and all the Powers therein and all Creatures cry continually Holy holy holy Lord God of Sabbaths Heaven and Earth are full of the majesty of thy glory And
said of him then of God But let us see what is he to us and in us for it is the Devil within us that doth us all the hurt for if he were not in us all the Deviâ—s without us could do us no hurt till gotten within us and so entertained by us were he not in us he were no Devil to us and therefore I say little or nothing of the essence of the Devil But as he is in his workings and effects and therein we daily find him too much and too rife amongst us and his work and nature is to be a lyar from the beginning A Seducer His nature is 1 To accuse Man unto God 2 God unto Man 3 Man unto Man 1 God unto Man as Gen. 3. Hath God said Ye shall not eat of the tree c. but in the day thou eatest thou shalt die Tush Ye shall not die for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof your eyes shall be opened and ye shall be as Gods knowing good and evil What a most horrible lye was that He may well be called the father of lyes Ioh. 8. 44. that he should be so impudent to accuse the infinite good and Almighty God Of strait-handedness or Envy towards them and that he was not so good towards them as he might be and that he had created them blind and in simple condition and had tyed them from eating of that tree lest they should better their condition lâ—st they poor miserable crawling worms should come to be like the Eternal Omnipotent Wise God and that God did forbid them that tree out of envy for fear they should be as wise as he because he onely will be the wisest Oh horâ—ible impudence Again Secondly he accuses Man unto God as Iob 1. God asked him if he had taken notice of his servant Iob Satan answered Doth Iob serve God for nought thou blessest him and therefore he serveth thee but do but put forth thy hand and touch him in his estate and he will blaspheme thee to thy face That is do but take away his estate and he will curse thee as fast as he now blesseth thee and serveth thee Again Thirdly he accuses Man unto man From whence comes all strife and debates and contention is not he the cause as the Apostle saith from whence come wars and dissention come they not hence even from your lusts which war in your members Rather then the Devil will accuse himself he will accuse Man yea the Scripture Nay God himself if any thing go against him then all is lyes the Man lyes the Book lyes the Scripture lyes God lyes and all lyes All this he will not stick to say that they all shall be lyars before he will accuse himself The eighth name is Antichrist 1 Ioh. 4. 3. And every spirit that confesseth not that Iesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God but this is the spirit of Antichrist of whom ye have heard how that he should come and now already he is in the world You will say Nay now we are sure we are all free of this he is far enough off us he is at Rome if there should be an Antichrist among us he should soon be discovered and had up into the High Commission Court and there be censured but we are no Antichâ—ists for the Apostle saith That whosoever he be that confesses not that Iesus Christ is come in the flesh the same is Antichrist now we all confess this he came into the world 1600 years ago and he was begotten by the Holy Ghosâ— this is part of our Creed born of the virgin Mâ—ry suffered under Poâ—tius Pilate c. but thinkest thou that this confession with the mouth is enough But I would ask thee Is Jesus Christ come in the flesh with thee is he come into thy flesh that Châ—ist is Born in thee risen in thee that he is glorified in thy members Then thou art no Antichrist but if he be not thou needest not go far to find Antichrist I know well the general Vote is that the Pope is Antichrist well let it be so that he is externally and chiefly at Rome and that the Pope shall be destroyed and then Antichrist is fallen I will not for my pâ—rt contend let most voices carry it but take heed you do not so long look for Antichrist abroad and at Rome so that thou neglect one at home And it may be when Antichrist is destroyed we look for a thousand years of peace and then the Church shall be without spot or wrinkle and Christ shall rule in his Kingdom in peace and there shall no enemie oppose But all this you think will be when you are dead and gone you wish you could see those dayes And so likewise when you pâ—ay daily His Kingdom come and his will be done you think that will be in those dayes of peace or else when you are dying and can have your wills no longer when you have striven so long and God will have his will then you it may be will say thy will be done and thy kingdom come but then is Gods Kingdom come and Gods Will done when Châ—ist is come into thy flesh that he lives in thee and rules thee That all thy actions are in imitation of thy Saviour Doing the same things as our Saviour would do in thy case were he upon earth and let â—e tell you till then all your prayers and all your external duties are in vain they all turn into sâ—n But if you shall ask What armour wâ—ars this Antichrist I answer The armour of Antichâ—ist is Multitude there are many Antichrists 1 Ioh. 2. 18. Little children it is the last time and as ye have heard that Antichrist shall come even nâ—w are there many Antichrists whereby we know that it is the last time Nothing so common as Antichrist if a man do but put his hand into his bosome he shall find enough of Antichrist there and there are so many Antichrists in the world that a man can very hardly find a true Christian every man hath an Antichrist within him insomuch that we had need do as the Prophet Zachary sayes Search Ierusalem with lights for Antichrist is in every place the houses are full of Antichrist the Pulpits are full of Antichrist the Communion-table is full of Antichrist all places are full of Antichrist Oh beloved There are many throâ—g about Iesus Châ—iâ—t Yet but very few touch him as the woman with a bloody issue to get vertue from him If there were but one Antichrist as we think the Pope is the Antichrist he were easâ—ly found but the armour of this Antichrst is Multitude nothing almost through the whole world but Antichrist we are all born and live Antichrists therefore destroy Antichrist and you must destroy all the world if we are saved it is by Gods infinite power and mercie for we are as the Apostle saith Iude 23.
root And what ever priviledge or benefit Christ hath they shall all receive of his fulness grace for grace they shall all be made partakers of all the vertues of the head but notwithstanding all these promises we are never the better without we have Christ they are all blanks without him all unsavoury it is he that seasons all Yea trust as long as thou canst and believe as much as thou wilt without Christ thou canst never come unto him God himself is nothing to us without Christ As every Iubar and Beam of light that comes from the Sun they are all included in the body of the Sun but they are not communicated to us but by those Jubars and beams that come from the Sun so God is like the Sun and whatever good benefit or blessing we have it comes from God but all these are included in God himself and there is no creature can partake of any good from him but by his Son Christ in those Iubars of light that communicates them to us This light had never come to us but for those beams so God the Father cannot communicate himself to any creature but by the Son he is the first begotten of every Creature he came being sent from the father yet God the Father is not a day not a minute Ancienter then his Son Christ he is called The word spoken in the Hebrewes As he is unspoken so he is the word with God in the bosome of his Father and this word is God as Iohn 1. 1. but being once spoken and utered he is the first begotten of God in every creature The Alpha and Omega in every creature from whom alone we receive grace for grace all the goodness and fulness of God is poured upon the head of this Aaron which runs down not only to his beard but to all the skirts of his garments to all his members God himself in himself to the creature is nothing without Christ He cannot possibly be communicated but by and through Christ. Secondly All these promises to the seven Churches they imply that which hath its beginning in this life and perfected in the life to come saith our Saviour the Kingdom of Heaven is within you if ye find not the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Heaven within you and in this world be assured ye shall never find it in the world to come He that denyes me before men him will I deny before my father which is in Heaven he that enjoys me not in this world he shall never enjoy me hereafter The poor dejected and oppressed soul it longs to taste Christ here nothing will satisfie him but to taste and eat Christ here for if he eat him not here he knows he shall not hereafter as David saith My soul thirsteth for God even for the living God when shall I come before God What to do Psal. 27. 4. To see his beauty and to taste of his goodness if you see not God here ye shall never see Him hereafter Christ will ask thee as he did the Discsples how many loaves have ye when ye come to dye what Angels food have ye to feed on what Hidden Manna How many loaves of that if ye must say none Lord what a heavy answer will this be to you but if thou hast any if but two loaves if but a little oil in thy Lamp he will then multiply thy loaves and that little oyl the barrel of meal and that cruse of oyl shall never fail And he will say come thou good and faithful servant thou hast been faithful in a little I will now multiply thy reward Come now I will feed thee to eternity If Christ shall say to thee How much peace have you if thou canst but say here is a little Lord Christ will say come come I will multiply and increase that peace infinitely what love hast thou if thou hast but any though but as much as a grain of mustard seed come saith our Lord I will cause it to grow and increase and become a mighty tree so that the fowls of the air shall build their nests therein That is I will enlarge it as my self infinitely And which way soever else a man seeks for rest and peace he shall never find it for as all the Creatures so all the action and motion of the Creatures come out from him and they can never rest till they return into him again and therefore he is called the God of Sabbath which signifies Rest in him there is Rest and no where else The soul is the breath of God and it is impossible that it should have a rest for the sole of her foot till it return and this blessed Noah put forth his hand and take her in again Lay up treasure for your selves in heaven would you have treasure hereafter ye must treasure it up while ye are on earth that ye may have the reward and the wages hereafter ye must receive here the pledge the Hire The Portion and the reward comes hereafter Your fathers saith our Saviour have eaten Manna and are dead but blessed is he that eats Manna in the Kingdom of Heaven he that feels Gods love shed abroad in his heart here shall find that love increased thirty sixty an hundred-fold in the life to come here ye feed but are not filled but then you shall be satisfied Thirdly All these seven promises that are here made to the seven Churches there is not one word to be taken according to the Letter but think not strange of such sayings be not startled I would onely quicken up your attention I undervalue not the Scriptures but desire to give them all due honour for do you think that you shall be Pillars in Heaven or that you shall eat trees or the fruit of trees there or that ye shall have rods of iron in your hand or that ye shall be burning stars or as it is in Daniel He that converteth a soul shall shine like the Stars I say there is not one word true according to the Letter yet I say in all the words that ever Christ spake or that is written in this blessed blessed Book of God they are all true there is not the least tincture not the least allay of untruth I say every word every syllable every letter is true bear me witness you are my record but they are true as he intended them that spake them they are true as God meant them not as men will have them As when Christ says my Father is an husbandman do you think or are you so childish to think that God is a husbandman and Christ sayes again I am the vine and ye the branches will you have this to be literally spoken Go to I will speak a paradox to you but I willl unfold it It is impossible for any man either to speak a precise truth or to hear a precise truth for a precise
know what a many woes Christ pronounced against the Pharisees for making Religion a colour for their Hyprocrisie and covetousness under pretence of long prayers devouring poor widows and their houses Matt. 23. 14 15 16. where he instances in many other particulars insomuch that by their evil example which was then much looked upon they shut up the Kingdom of heaven against men for they neither go in themselves nor suffer them that are entring to go in This was the case of the Shechemites Gen. 34. you see how desperately the two sons of Iacob Simeon and Levi played the hypocrites pretending Religion to the Shechemites that if they would be circumcised they would marry with them and give their daughters in marriage to them again This was the Cloak but what was their End and Ayme you shall see Verse 23. say they when they are circumcised and not able to stir shall not their cattle and their substance and every beast of theirs be ours And so in the 28. Verse They fell upon them and took their sheep their oxen their asses and that which was in the field and all their wealth c. Thus the Devil is transformed into an Angel of light he will be religious to serve his own turn and to accomplish his own ends when men instead of making Godliness great gain which is pretended 2 Tim. 6. 5. they make Gain godliness And that is intended 4. COMMANDMENT Fourthly For the Sabbath Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day six dayes shalt thou labour but the seventh is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God in it thou shalt do no manner of work c. The covetous man commonly is of Pharoahs Religion Exod. 5. 17. Ye are idle ye are idle therefore ye say Let us go and do sacrifice to the Lord They count that day a lost day One day in seven is above seven weeks in a year say they and what loss of time is this And those covetous persons in Amos who were weary of one day in seven Amos 8. 5. When will the new Moon be gone that we may sell corn and the Sabbath that we may set forth wheat Many keep their Sabbaths in their Saddles riding up and down for profit and gain about their worldly occasions Nehemiah when he saw how they prophaned the Sabbath how zealous was he the course he took you may see Neh. 13 15 16. If he were alive now and should see what is now done to see how thrust the Lawyers chambers are on this day what would he say But you see all this is the fruit of Covetousness 5. COMMANDMENT The fifth Commandment is Honour Parents by which is meant not onely in brief that we owe them first Reverence Secondly Obedience But thirdly Maintenance also but Covetousness will keep back all these As Levi in a good sense said of his Father and Mother I have not seen him Deut. 32. 9. so it is through Covetousness more often practised in a bad sense as Prov. 28. 24. He that robbeth his father and mother and saith it is no transgression the same is a companion of a destroyer This will Covetousness do and wipe its mouth and say I have done no evil This was the practise of the Pharisees Matth. 15. 4. saith Christ God commandâ— To honour father and mother and he that curseth father or mother shall dye but ye say whosoever shall say to his Father or Mother Corban It is a gift by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me and honour not his father or his mother he shall be free They would give a small gift to the Temple to be excused from a greater duty and further charge Still COVETOUSNES is in all this 6. COMMANDMENT I but you will say though Covetousness be a breach of all the Commandments hitherto yet the covetous man doth not kill and break the sixth Commandment yea Covetousness also is a Blood-sucker and the covetuous man-slayers those that are gold-thirsty are blood-thirsty also especially now in these hard times in hard times those that pinch the poor grinde their faces do as it were such their very lives and blood see Prov. 1. 11. My Son if sinners intice thee consent thou not if they say Come with us let us lay wait for blood let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause let us swallow him up alive and whole as the grave Why do all this We shall finde all precious substance we shall fill our houses with spoil and verse 19. saith he So are the wayes of every one that is greedy of gain for it taketh away the life of the owners thereof Therefore Covetousness and Blood are joyned together Ezek. 22. 13. I have smitten my handâ— at thy dishonest gain and at thy blood which hath been in the midst of thee I need not instance the case of Ahab and Naboth Ahab taking away his life to get his vineyard nor of Iudas who for gain betrayed Jesus Christ his Lord to death for thirty pieces of silver And if the hands of many covetous persons are not defiled Actually with shedding of blood It is the Law and not Conscience keepeth them clean they have bloody hearts thoâ—gh not bloody hands and to God they are in that regard guilty of blood as if they had shed blood and though mans Law cannot finde them culpable yet Gods Law doth for that forbids the Murther of the wish and of the heart 7. COMMANDMENT But sure he is not guilty of Adultery yea for you know Covetousness was the cause that Tamar suffered Iudah to lie with her Gen. 38. 16. What wilt thou give me to lie with me saith Tamar to Iudah What is the cause of the permission of so many Stews and Brothel-houses in the Popes Territories at Rome and Venice and Dance and other places but Covetousness for Gain they will a give dispensation for any sin And on the other hand how common is it even among us That many refuse Marriage meerly out of Covetousness to avoid the charge of marriage 8. COMMANDEMENT 8. I but He doth not steal yea surely for the world having stollen the heart of a Covetous man from God he himself will make no bones to steal from men and Thieves and Covetous are immediately joyned together in that I Cor. 6. 10. Iudas was a Thief why Iohn 12. 6. This he said not that he cared for the poor but because he was a Thief and had the bag and bare what was put therein You see he was called a Thief because he was covetous Defrauding oppressing over-reaching cozening cheating gaming extortion vsury all of them Worms bred in the dunghill of a covetous heart Nor is it any excuse to say there is as much evil or more in spending it prodigally that excuses not thee at all as the end of evil asking may be to spend it upon their lusts Jam. 4. 3.
but also typical and Significant so is this growth of Jesus Christ he grows up in us in wisdom and stature and he in us waxeth strong in spirit being filled with wisdom and understanding He teacheth us the true wisdom He in us chuseth that good thing which shall never be taken away He is The grace of God in us I live saith the Apostle yet not I but it is Christ his life in me From him cometh all growth in grace not from our selves the work is his none of ours From him cometh Faith Hope Charity Strength Vertue c. If any of these come from man from the power industry or strength of man they are false and good for nought yet how ready are most men to assume these to themselves or at least to think that by their power or wisdom or industry they have attained them From whence come wars come they not from your lusts So from whence comes pride and the lifting up of the creature high towring and and swelling imaginations that in plain terms exalt themselves against Jesus Christ they are so far from being from him or of him that they are quite contrary to him however to some may seem the vertues of Christ himself but they they are the excrements of the Old man Hence it is said That Iohn Baptist grew and waxed strong in spirit because Christ by his divine life in him brake forth in Iohn and his light did shine before men they seeing those good works in him God was glorified not Iohn for saith he I must decrease but he must increase Hence it is said here accentively twice in this Chapter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 versus ult 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both in our Text and Verse ult And the childe grew and waxed strong in Spirit filled with wisdom and the grace of God was upou him And again Iesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favour with God and men As these things were in him in his person then so the same things are as really done in his Mystical body and members All these influences are his and flow from him the head We are dead in trespasses and sins bnt he is the Resurrestion and Life And he that believeth in him shall never dye nay though he were dead yet shall he live When Jesus Christ doth once begin to display and declare the glory of himself in the soul and to adorn the soul with himself what a palace what a Kingdom what a Temple is that soul Well might David say Glorious things are spoken of thee O thou City and Temple of God Psal. 82. 3. more glorious then the Temple spoken of Rev. 21. and saith our Saviour The Kingdom of heaven is within you All that description Rev. 21. there at large setteth out the Glory and light of that Temple which was like Iasper most precious and clear as Chrystal and the wall high and stately wherein were twelve gates the gates kept by twelve Angels and the walls of Iasper and the City pure gold and the very foundation garnished with precious stones a Iasper a Saphir a Chalcedony an Emerald a Sardonix a Sardius a Chrysolite a Beril a Topas a Chrysophrasus a Iacinth an Amethist I say all these things are accomplished in a great measure in some less in some more in all those where Jesus Christ is pleased to display his glories and in that soul where he is pleased to adorn it with his own graces and with the fruites of the spirit as Faith Hope Charity Strength Vertue Love Ioy Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Meekness Temperance c. Those that are thus qualified inriched and adorned let me tell you they need no Law no Light for they are a Law to themselves and there is a light within them like that City Rev. 21. 23. That had no need of the Sun neither of the Moon to shine in it for The Glory of God did lighten it and the lamb is The light thereof Nay I may say and say truly as I may say they are gotten above Law above Letter in this regard for they have the Gospel and the life within them yet for all this do not think that I speak against Law or Letter or Ordinances use them as I say but Rest not in them And know this also that while the soul is Rapt up in the glory sight and beholding of Jesus Christ he knows this that he enjoys that which is the Substance and that which is as farre above the other as the Substance is above the Shadow and the Life above the Letter and the Spirit above the Flesh yet he will not slight nor cast away these means or Ordinances because God hath often appeared in them and by them to him as I have shewed more at large upon other Scriptures But I say Let us look to find that in us which Christ affirms that the Kingdom of God is within us and that you are in some beginnings of that glorious Temple and City mentioned before for if you think the Kingdom of God or Heaven to consist of such things as are there declared in the Letter you are much deceived But the holy Spirit is pleased to make use of such expressions and representations that are so amiable and Glorious to the carnall eye that so we may come to see the Truth and Substance of those Shadows and Representations to be far and transcendenly more ravishing and glorious as all those Saints and people of God before whom God hath Unvailed his glory can abundantly witness and seal to the truth thereof Insomuch that had they all those precious stones and Houses and Temples built of them really yet they in comparison of what they see and enjoy of God would trample them all under their feet as not worthy to be named the same hour with those true pearls and those ravishing full and satisfying and transparent precious stones which are within them They need not when they are in union and communion with him and when he is pleased to let but his back parts pass before them they shall not desire the light of the Sun or of the Moon to give light in that Temple for the glory of the Lord doth lighten it aud the Lamb is the light thereof And as it is expressed there in Ver. 14. The Nations of them that are saved shall walk in the light of it and the Kings of the earth shall bring their glory unto it This Temple and this Palace and this Glory darkens all the glory and splendor of all the Kings and Emperors under the Sun All their glory vanisheth and makes hast before this glory as being abashed and ashamed once to appear in sight thereof Beloved I hope and I know there are some that hear me which know and see and feel these things to be true yea as you say as true as Gospel yea so true as nothing is nor
thou art dead to every creature thou canst never make this boast Beloved if you would have power to remove mountains and to offer violence to the Kingdom of heaven then you are to be thus qualified that thou hast experimentally seen and felt in thy own soul how that thy sins have ploughed and made long furrows upon his back as David saith and how you by your sins have quenched the light that is in you and how in thee he is crucified dead and buried and how thou hast drawn grave-stones of custome over him and how you have buried his light resisted and grieved his spirit in you and that you have found him arise in your own souls that you have really seen and felt all these things actually done within you his birth his life his death his resurrection that as his enemits have overcome and crucified him within you so himâ—rise â—rise gloriously and triumphantly within you and that he hath put down all his enemies under his feet In thee insomuch that thou hast heard him and seen him and felt him crying within thy soul Isa. 1. 24. Ha ha I will now arise I will avenge me on my adversaries Now I that was crucified am now risen again so that you see his glory and the love of him triumphing in you so that now thou canst truly say with David Psal. 27. 4. Now I am so far gotten from and forsaken the world and my self that now I desire but one thing and that will I seek after even that thou wouldest give me thy self unite me and make me One with thine own life that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life and visit his Temple You being once come to this pass Really in experience then you also may say All power is given to me in Heaven and Earth for then you are as I may say within an inch of being swallowed up into God and then are you ready to leave the earth and all things therein for this man he is become one spirit with the Lord And if we be one spirit as Chriâ—ts prayer hath purchafed Ioh. 17. 21. That they may be one as thou and I are one that thou mayest be in me and I in them and they in me that the world may believe that thou hast sent me if it be so then Christ himself lives in us and all our words are the words of Christ we have no thoughts but the thoughts of Christ we have no life but Christ lives in us as the Apostle saith I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me And then also as the Apostle again saith and so may you say All is yours and not before Whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or things present or things to come all are yours and you are Christs and Christ is Gods You being come to this as you may claim a right to all things so you may claim a Power over all things for you are already set down in Heavenly places with Christ himself in the very glory of God the Father who is blessed for ever But yet many there be that wil claim this right and appropriate to themselves this power and life when alas they are farre from it they will assume and presume that this is their condition when indeed and in truth Christ and his life is as yet buried in them He is not risen in them he hath not conquered nor gotten victory over his enemies but he is still crucified and made to serve their sins and their lusts Self-will and pride and arrogancy and vain boasting is still alive in them he hath not as yet Avenged himself on his enemies But pride and covetousnes and love of the world and praise of men these things live in them still and Christ is dead and so much the more dead and crucified in as much as they glory of that which is not conceiving Christ is theirs when as all their wayes are contrary to him and yet they conceive themselves made One with him when as it were far better they had a true sight of their opposition and contrariety to him And therefore thou must know thou art but an usurper to claim this power and right to all things in which thou hast no part For when a man is come to that life we formerly spake of then he is made Lord of the earth and hath then Real dominion over all the Creatures And made little lower then the Angels as it is exprest in Psal. 8. Then thou belongest to and art one with him who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords though you see it not A supposition of two drops reasoning together As suppose two Drops apart from the Sea should Reason together and the one should say to the other Whence are we canst thou conceive whence we are either whence we come or to whom we belong or whither we shall go something we are but what will in a short time become of us canst thou tell And the other Drop should ansâ—wer Alas poor fellow-drop be assured we are Nothing for the Sun may arise and draw us up and scatter us and so bring us to nothing Says the other again Suppose it do for all that yet we are we have a Being we are Something Why what are we saith the other Why Brother Drop dost thou not know we even we as smal contemptible as we are in our selves yet we are members of the sea Poor Drops though we be yet let us not be discouraged we belong to the vast Ocean How saith the other we belong to the sea to the Ocean how can that be We have heard of the mighty greatness of the Ocean we have heard that there is the huge Leviathan that sports himself there who is so great and terrible he feareth none whose heart is as firm as a stone and as hard as a piece of the â—ether milstone the mighty are afraid before him who feareth not the spear nor the dart nor the Habergeon who esteemeth iron as straw and brass as rotten wood the arrow cannot make him flee-darts are as stubble and he laugheth at the shaking of the spear who maketh the deeps to boyl like a pot and maketh the sea like a pot of ointment so that he maketh a hoary path to shine after him and upon earth there is not his like What that we are of the Sea how can it be We have heard the Sea is great and wide Wherein also are things creeping innumerable both small and great beasts there is that Leviathan who is made to play and sport therein and they that go down into the sea in ships and do their business in great waters they see the wonders of the Lord in the deeps there are the huge roaring waves that mount them up to heaven and suddenly they fall down into the depths and their souls melt because of trouble and those great
men so much trouble themselves about a personal Reign of Christ here upon earth if they saw that the Chief and Real fulfilling of Scriptures were within them And that whatever is externally done in the world and expressed in the Scriptures is but Typical and Representative and points out A more spiritual and saving salvation and a more Divine fulfilling of them For this is no more Then to ask as the Sons of Zebedee did to sit one at his Right hand and the other at his Left in his Kingdom And with the Disciples to expect a Temporal Restoring the Kingdom to Israel but Christ takes them off from all those things and saith My Kingdom is not of this world for them would my servants fight to obtain this their Kingdome but the Kingdome of heaven is within you for men may have their part in these external Powers Scepters Crowns and Kingdoms and have no part in Christs Kingdom Therefore all those thoughts are but Literal and low and poor and childish but let us mind such a Kingdom wherein if we have but the least part the least share that if we be but Door-keepers then we are Happy for ever and shall never perish neither in this world nor in that to come And let us look upon all those Scriptures they alledge as fulfilled to the Church spiritually in all ages Verily there be some standing here which shall not taste of death till these things be fulfilled And then whether that come about they speak of or no it matters not or if it do or should be fulfilled literally either for the pulling down of Antichrist the Pope externally or for the thousand years of Christs Personal Reign yet we are not Here to Rest in the external fulfilling of them but plus ultra let us look beyond all these things These things may be and yet Christ not exalted in thee nor Antichrist pulled down in thee And if they be not done in thee and in me what is all to us But I will hold my self at this time rather to the point in hand concerning Christ being crucified IN man for to look upon those actions and prophecies only as to be fulfilled externally is but a knowing Christ after the flesh and to please the outward man of which the Apostle saith Hence forth I will know no man after the flesh no though I had know Christ after the flesh yet henceforth will I knew him no more Of our hope and belief in this kind of fulfilling the Scriptures spiritually we are sure we need not nay we shall not be ashamed because we are sure we shall not be disappointed This is the body The Substance the other is but the Figure the Shadow And those actions being done Spiritually they are more truly done then those that are done Temporally and corporally for if he did suffer then in the time that he lived upon earth in the daies of his flesh as he did He suffers now herein more truly and really for that suffering was but the shadow of these sufferings These are The Sufferings indeed His other sufferings are not worthy The Name of sufferings to these Yet be sure The Godhead cannot suffer by no means And therefore if God in you have brought the knowledge of Christ to this to see all these things to be within you And to suffer with him Internally then is your knowledge right Sufferings with Christ in the outward man are nothing to these sufferings namely thus for a man to lay down his own will to cross himself to forsake and Empty Himself as Christ did herein lie the Great and unconceivable sufferings of Christ as the Apostle sets them down in Phil. 2. 4. He that was Lord of all became least of all He Emptied Himself Poured out all his glory as the original renders it and became as a servant was content to be abased and trampled on by his own creatures Herein was Sufferings indeed Herein lies The MYSTERIE of the Gospel of Christ His other sufferings or any External sufferings in the Saints are not worthy to be named the same day with THESE Sufferings For If once you come to these sufferings then down with parts down with our own excellencies and endowments both of nature and grace Babel within us must bethrown down then shall we come to be nothings in our own esteem Behold Herein is the sufferings and patience of the Saints and whatever else we suffer if we suffer not thus we suffer not with Christ we are not acquainted with Christ Crucified For if we know never so much of an External Christ of an Outward Christ and of Outward sufferings without this it will do us no good But I beseech God That you may observe All within you How Christ is conceived within you and when he offers himself to the birth Observe when those Commotions and Hurly-burlies are within you then look up and know that the birth is at hand The kingdom of God is at hand Your Redemption draweth nigh That you may see how you are the men that have killed and crucified Him and that he will be exalted and lifted up in you And then being once come to this That light which hath discovered Thus much of the work of Christ within you will not leave you but bring you further and further so that you shall go on From strength to strength and dig up fountains of wonder and comfort till you come and appear before God in Sion Then shall ye be brought by His power and strength And by his Mighty workings in you to stand in awe of him And now To look Altogether to his counsel and direction ceasing any longer to Guide your selves so that This mans will is quite altered and turned upâ—â—de down As for example Suppose Two men alike Vile coming into a room where the King is Behind the Hangings The one He is aware of the King because he knows he is there but the other knowing nothing he lashes out into his own idle foolish frothy talk he talks any thing he speaks Trenchmole as the Proverb is That is He observes no rules but his own will and fancy He behaves himself Rudely and Unmannerly but the other he observes himself and his carriage because he knows The king hears him and observes him Now The king He is as near to the one as to the other but here is the difference The One sees him and Trembles before him but the other sees him not and so thinks he may do what he list But if so be That the King please to discover himself to this man and to let him know That he was an eye and an ear-witness to all his behaviour Then he falls down with trembling and fear and judges himself and his own loose actions and submits himself to the will and pleasure of the King So my brethren Christ Jesus in regard of his Essence he is as near one creature as another as near the wickedest
and hath dispensed withal but Never did nor Never will dispence with the Spiritual part He gave Abraham a Command to kill his son and had not he Really intended it hâ— had sinned And God commanded the Israelite to rob the Egyptians to borrow their Jewels of silver and gold and raiment and to spoil the Egyptians but never did he dispence with any man Nor never will To rob His God to rob God of his honour and his praise Will Any man Rob His God Mal. 3. 8. And therefore in all the Commandments Content not thy self with the letter of the Command Because for all that thou mayest go to hell But if God shall bring thee to obâ—erve the marrow the inside of the Commandment This is done by the power of God himself in thee And he that can keep that I dare assure him He shall never perish neither in this world nor in the world to come For the Spirit is All in All And I may in brief touch at the spirituality of the ninth Commandment For the time is so far spent and my own ability to speak that I must leave the tenth to some other time And But that I made haste I would have spoken more largely to some of the former but according to that impulse of the spirit within at this present you have had my thoughts Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour The letter of it is against thy neighbour which I say still must not be neglected yet not rested in The spirit of it is That we should not bear false witness of God Thou professest thy self to be a Christian and a servant A child to God and that he is Thy Lord Thy master Thy father Thy God Thou being one of his houshold thou shouldst labour To Credit and Honour Him to whom thou belongest To report to the world in our lives and conversation the Holiness and Purity of our God and our father Because He is Holy and Pure And loveth righteousness and Hateth iniquity And so all his servants ought to do Thereby to bear True witness to the world of our God for else they will say as the proverb is Like servant like Master like Child like Father If you live otherwise you break this Ninth Command And bear false witness to the world of thy Holy and Pure God In all these I have taken the more pains that so you may see that when you have learned a Catechism or the Bible by Heart or that you are able to answer or speak to any point in Divinity acording to the Letter and the Grammatical Sense and have got The letter of it without Book Nay have gotten the external part in your practise and conversation yet you have not gotten The Substance The Life and the Marrow you have but attained onely The Shell and the Husk and not the Meat nor the Kernel So then by this time I hope you are come to see How this letter must be struck How this City Kiriathsepher must be smitten and taken if we mean to marry Achsah and then that is the way to make it unto us Debir that is The Word for it is never The word unto Us before As you may see in the Verse before my Text. This City before it was smitten it was called Kiriathsepher The City of the Letter but when it was smitten and taken then it was no longer Kiriathsepher The City of the Letter but iâ— was called Debir The Word for then it was the word and never before For this Book of the Bible As it consists of Words Syllables and Letters Is not the Word of God It is not nor cannot be the Word of God without the Mind and Meaning till it be smitten till the shell be crackt For the Word is A Spring shut up a Fountain sealed for as it is in my reading it that reading it makes it not the Word of God onely the reading makes them words and they are not words as they are written oâ— pâ—inted till one read them and make them words and syllables for in no Book whatsoever is there One word or syllable till they be read and that makes them words And if a Book be written or printed in English Hebrew or French c. It is the knowledge of him that reads makes them words For if an ignorant man look on them they are nothing So the Scriptures when they are read they are made words yet still the mind and the mysterie lies hid though the external sense be understood And The Acquired Natural parts will Reach This sense but the true and Hidden Sense the Natural man cannot come at As the Apostle saith The natural man perceiveth not the things of God for they are foolishness unto him neither indeed can he because they are spiritually discerned And besides if the natural man should perceive the things of God they are riddles they are foolishness to him they are wisdom onely to those that are perfect to those onely that are immediately taught of God so then it is clear this book of the Letter must not onely be read but Smitten by Othniel before you can find Gods Word For Gods Word as it is his Word is not for every eye to read but onely for those to whom it is Given as our Saviour sayes in another case To you it is given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of God but to them it is not given because in seeing they see not and in hearing hear not neither do they understand They have not received power from on high to smite it as Moses the rock to get out the pure water of life clear as chrystal proceeding from the Throne of God and of the Lamb Rev. 22. 1. T is not that Water or that sense that proceeds from the Universities or any the acquired parts or powers of Man but it must be freely given out by God himself and seldome to the learned Scribes and Pharisees or to the great Princes of the World but to the despised to the Off-scourings to poor Fishermen and the like that the Creature might be convinced that the power is of God and not in the wisdom of Men as the Apostle expresseth 1 Cor. 2. For this book of the Bible is But the Letter to the eye and to the ear But Gods Word that lies hid There must be a word to the heart And the Heart of stone must be removed and a Heart of flesh given We must buy of him eye-salve that we may see before we can be acquainted with Gods Word Gods Word is not Inke and Paper written or printed but Gods Word is as the Apostle saith Heb. 4. 12. Quick and powerfull sharper then a two-edged sword It is not the dull and dead letter That giveth Life which we see by experience in most even those that think themselves Doctors and Teachers and think they know all things And so indeed to them instead of
pleasantness of fruit nor any such thing But he is that by which all these have their pleasantness light and sweetness and whatever excellency any creature hath he is not that thing as some have foolishly conceited because God is in them therefore they are Gods c. this declares in such much ignorance and weakness But he is the cause and being of all such excellencies and he himself infinitely transcends whatever can be thought or imagined For he that conceives in his God that there is in him light or sweetness or glory as we accont glory or light or sweetness or that he should be Musick to the ear or some glorious or glittering sight to the eye he that conceives God or Heaven to be any such thing whatsoever he is deceived Beloved I hope though I have some cause also to fear it that you are not so childish as to conceive that there is Musick Viols or Harps or Organs or any such thing in Heaven He transgresses against the first Commandement whosoever he be that apprehends any of these things to be in God or in heaven according to the letter and he is as great an Idolater as he that makes A Golden Calf and then falls down and worships it nay he is a more dangerous Idolater and Transgressor for the other Idolaters were so gross and absurd that very reason condemns them but this is more spiritual and more close Idolatry and therefore more dangerous For the Kingdom of heaven consisteth not in meats and drinks but in righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost Rom. 14. 17. that is it consisteth not in food or rayment in riches or honours or whatever is accounted precious or amiable to the world but saith our Saviour The Kingdom of God is within you and again My Kingdom is not of this world neither cometh it with observation But I say more then al this he that would find God let him be silent and sit in darkness neither to see any thing nor to hear any thing for he that thinks he hears or sees any thing or thinks of any thing that hath any manner of form or thing in his imagination when he thinks of God he is an Idolater As for instance will you see God in a man as he is in a good man so he is also in an evil man God or Christ dwels in them both in regard of Essence both in good and bad but here is the difference Christ lives not is not formed in them as to them in the one but in the other he is as to them the one sees it and knows it and prizeth rejoyceth in the seeing knowing and believing of it the other doth not but is Anathema Maranatha and separated from Christ 1 Cor. 16. 22. Christ lives in every man in regard of himself and is as much in the one as in the other But I say here is all the difference to the one Christ is manifested to the other he is not God lives in al but all know it not A good man hath God in him and he seeth knoweth and believeth it the other do neither see know nor believe it and so rejoyce not in the manifestations of God in them but they believe they have a power will and a Being of their own and this they glory and rejoyce in presume on and live to themselves and sacrifice to their own drags and regard not God in whom they live move and have their being Again would you see God in the Sun Moon and Stars or in Beasts or Trees and in all other creatures Know he is the Life Act Motion of all creatures take away from all or any of these all that may be taken away all Accidents and then that which remaineth is God In the Sun or Moon or any thing else you must first strip it of all visibility and of all form and representation Glorious or Base and then you shall behold God not as that form but as the Cause Essence and Being of whatever is in it Or as in a man take from him highness and lowness for those are Accidents weight and lightness greatness and littleness youth and age for all these are Accidents what remains then but he that was is and is to come the All in all he that is Alpha the first of all and shall be Omega the last of all What remains then but the first begotten of the Father Jesus Christ even him that is the Ancient of dayes he that is above all through all and in all Ephes. 4. 6. For beloved there was something of me before I was either hot or cold before I was either dry or moist before I had either weight or lightness yea before I had any manner of shape These things I say being taken away what remains then but he that is I am He that is Alpha and Omega For take away heights and depths things present and things to come and then nothing can separate Christ and us as the Apostle in that case reasons Rom. 8. ult He was perswaded nothing could separate him from Christ neither death nor life nor angles nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor heights nor depths nor any other creature should be able to separate him from the love of God which is in Christ Iesus our Lord For nothing hinders or separates us from Christ in this case but these things Although I know many men say and teach in a general way sin is the cause of separation which is a truth but too general a truth But this is a cause more particular and the cause of abundance of particular sins Seek therefore to remove the root and cause and then particular fruits effects and branches will wither and dye of themselves For were it not for the vail of Accidents that is between God and us we should see God we might then see God in the Gold and God in the Light God in the Sun and God in the Water and God in the Earth God in the Trees and God in the Flowers and God in every pile of Grasse and God to be All in All were but those things those Accidents removed from our sight for where any thing moves God is the mover nay where any thing hath a Being a Substance he is the Being of that Being the Substance of that Substance if we may call any thing Substance or Being but God For he is the Motion and being of every thing great or little glorious or mean they are all not onely his workmanship as most men teach and believe but he is also their Substance and Being and the Saints They see that the Lord is among them as in Sinai and that he was not more present and glorious in Mount Sinai then he is in all Creatures And further let me tell you this is The Angel of the Covenant spoken of in the Revelation whom these types and shadows
man should come from some forrein parts and desire to see our Kingdom and should but onely come to the out-coasts and see onely the Cockle-sâ—ells that lie upon the shore or the Oyster-shells or the Pibble-stones that lie there and should immediately go back and say he hath seen England do you think that he is able to describe the Kingdom to any one that shal ask him Alas poor man he is deceived for he hath seen none of the pleasant Hills Vales none of the stately Structures Palaces Buildings none of the strong Castles Towers none of the Provisions and Ammunitions none of the Proper and Comely Men Women and Children none of the Healthful and Commodious Springs none of the Silver-Gliding and Pleasant Streams none of the Pleasant and and Fruitful Orchards none of the Pleasant Walks and Gardens nor any thing else esteemed the Glory of the Nation Even so when Men and Angels and all Creatures have seen and spoken to the utmost what they can of God Alas alas they have neither related nor seen any more then the Out-coasts the Suburbs of this our great God or of his Kingdom Glory and Majesty I say when we have written and spoken to the utmost even Men and Angels and all Creatures put all together all that ever they can do or say They all speak infinitely infinitely short of him they all can shew you but the Cockle-Shels and the Pibble-stones of his Kingdom Glory and Majesty they can describe nothing in comparison of what God is They have not seen the City with twelve Gates the streets whereof are pure Gold the foundations whereof are laid and garnished with twelve manner of precious stones and the twelve gates of several pearls and the streets of the City Transparent as Chrystal And the Glory of God and of the lamb are the light and glory thereof O then let us learn to give him the Glory the surmounting praises of his glorious greatness and incomprehensibleness And do it heartily freely Pour out your very souls before him like water fully and freely nothing your selves in his Being And although herein we may lose our selves and be annihilated yet be assured it is our greatest and onely Salvation and gain Learn we henceforth to know wherein our Riches and happiness lies O Beloved deceive not your selves and dote not on these outward temporal things on Honours Lands Livings Meat and Drink and those despicable things compared with these Riches and Pleasures which indeed are but poor Cockle-Shels for children to play withall and not for Grown-men in Christ These are but for the body for the back and belly and the outward and worser part of man and as the Apostle saith 1 Cor. 6. 14. Meats for the belly and the belly for meat but God shall destroy both it and them All these things perish with the using Learn to distinguish and know what is true riches true food these outward things are but as the Cockle-shels and Pibble-stones that lie on the Out-Coasts of the Kingdom These are nothing of the State Riches Treasure Magnificence of the Kingdom of God You must learn to distinguish between the Riches and Glory of the King and the Cockle-shells at the shore And You that have Plenty of these outward things you have no more but shells and you that have no more you never enjoyed nor saw the Riches the Pleasures the Glory the Magnificence of this Great King or of his Kingdom which we have now been unfolding to you Beloved Let us all call to mind what hath been set before us and stand and wonder and for ever hereafter be amazed and astonished and cry out Oh the Gloâ—y the Glory the Infinite Vnspeakable and Vncomprehensible glory of our God of his Kingdom Majesty and Soveraignty and therein to be lost and swallowed up in an everlasting Abysse of Silence and Serenity And say to our selves as that Rich man in the Gospel and although he deluded his poor soul with false Ioy and Treasure yet this man may truly sing to his soul a Requiem as he did Soul soul take thine ease take thy rest sing and rejoyce leap dance Thou hast much goods laid up in thy God not only for many years but for ever and ever Luk. 22. 12. O now let us for ever take delight under His shadow sitting there with great delight with the Spouse saying as it is Cant. 2. 3. As the Apple-tree among the trees of the wood so is my Beloved among the Sons I sate me down under his shadow with great delight and his fruit was sweet to my taste being ravished in beholding him as Guiding all things as FILLING ALL THINGS and seeing him more our selves then ourselves she was overcome by his Glory and by her union with him c. O Beloved let us curiously survey him in all his Riches Attendance and Glory even the Kingly-nakedness of his Divine Being and let thy soul here set up her REST see him hear him and adore him and entertain all familiar and amorous parlyes with him and receive his Rosy Kisses close and amorous embracements and sugred expressions from him in which condition thy soul will be as it were annihilated and lost being swallowed up and drowned in him I tell thee thou blessed soul thou wilt be inebriated drunken and overcome with these Divine Pleasures Glories which are at his right hand for evermore looking upon and despising all things but him or as enjoyed in him as Empty Nothings as Cockle-shells and Pibble-stones but seeing him to be so Rich so Full so Ravishing and more then transcendently glorious and excellent that this soul can truly really freely and with all his soul say O thou whom my soul loveth thee onely I Adore Love Prize Admire and take full consolation and satisfaction in and I hate all other Comforts Houses Lands Father Mother Wife Children as compared with thee For he that hates not all these in comparison of thee he is not worthy of thee Beloved now I for my part am at my farthest lost and confounded in the beholding this vast and stupendiouâ— riches and glory of our Great and Almighty God which like a deep Sea before me stops my passage I can go no farther So that I must onely now stand upon the Banks and cry out with St. Paul Rom. 11. 33. O the depth of the Riches Wisdom and Excellency of God! how unsearchable are they and past finding out which are as unsearchable as God himself without brim without bottom And if things we see and behold here in the body which are as Cockle-shells and Pibble-stones be so excellent so rich and glorious so full so sweet so ravishing now we see but in part as the Apostle saith 1 Cor. 13. 12. what will the fullness of this glory be to us hereafter when we shall see as we are seen and shall not onely possess it but be possessed and swallowed up in it So
that he emptied himself of all his glory took upon him the form of a Servant made himself of no reputation and One action from him was sufficient this you will not deny And therefore in all the Scripture you may observe that from the very instant of the Creation the second person in Trinity took upon him a body he had a body from the beginning from the first man and shall have a body to the last man as David saith of him a Body hast thou prepared me consider of this and compare it with the Scriptures and see if this be not more agreeable unto the vastness of the largness of Christ then to confine his body onely to the short time of 33 years He it is that suffers in man in the first man and shall suffer in the last man from the time of his suffering in the first righteous Abel to the last to the last righteous Abel from the time of taking his Kingdom of his Father till the time that he shall render up the Kingdom to his Father it is he that suffers I know when at any time ye hear of Christs Body and of his sufferings you presently fly to that short time that he lived upon Earth to those 33 years that he was visibly seen to walk upon Earth and I doubt many Divines intend no less when they speak of his sufferings they presently have recourse to that time and to Pontius Pilate and Herod and the Iews and intend no more but Beloved Christ is yesterday and to day and the same for ever Christ suffers now as much as he did then and before that as much as he doth now for while any of his members suffers he suffers I appeal to you examine this truth whether this be not more agreeable to truth and to the Scripture to acknowledge this Vast Largness of Christ then to narrow and scant his body to that short time for if ye say he wrought our redemption and satisfied Gods wrath in those whole thirty three years then you contradict your selves for none can deny but any one of his actions alonâ— considered was abundantly sufficient and the Apostle Paul saith That he did fill up in his body the measure of the sufferings of Christ and certainly he that thus suffered in him doth still and shall do so to the end of the world And so I say concerning this request of the Spouse to Christ it is a strange question if ye consider it according to the three thirty years he was on earth in the dayes of Herod for to ask him where he fed and where he rested we know in that regard where he fed and where he rested at that time but she asks where he feeds now and where he rests now to the very very last day and from the first day this is the Spouse her question where he feeds and where he feeds at noon But by the way God forbid that we should go about to deny Christs coming in the flesh for he did come in the flesh and whatever the Scripture saith he did in the flesh is really undeniably true and let his tongue cleave to the roof of his mouth that shall deny it But yet give me leave to tell you that is but the History there is a mystery in all the words there is a symbolical truth hid in them that is not obvious to every eye T is true he cured the eyes of the blinde and healed the lame and cured the deaf but that is but the letter the history that dyed with them for they are dead their eyes are shut up and their members are dissolved and returned into their first elements But he by that resembled to us how he hath ever since and before and will for ever cure the eyes of the blind and heal the lame and cast out Devils and cure the bloudy Issue in our souls for the other was but the outside the visible sensible part of his actions and miracles but that which Christ would represent to our understanding by that that is the fixed and eternal truth And so Christ still hath and shall have his food and his resting place And whoever shall eat of this Food shall never hunger again whosoever shall drink of this water that he shall give them shall never thirst again Your Fathers have eaten Manna in the Wilderness and are dead saith he but whosoever shall eat of this manna shall never dye Those actions Christ did then but these actions that those represents he doth alwayes those were visible representations presentations of them which he invisibly and mystically doth now yet as really Not onely I say as truly but more truly The spirituality of those actions never end for put all together that ever Christ raised from death or cast out devils out of and healed c. they were but few he could have healed and cured all if he pleased but that was not the end of his coming but he did so much and enough to manifest God come in the flesh that he will always do the same things to the end of the world Spiritually Where thou feedest what then may be Christs food for even Christ now hath his diet and food though not of figs after which he hungred nor of flesh which he did eat nor of boiled fish which he seemed to eat c. But Christ himself tells us My meat is to do the will of my Father and to finish his work and he tells us where he rests Cant. 6. 2 3. Among the beds of spices among broken and contrite hearts and his delight is to be among his lilies and among his roses in his garden there doth he refresh himself Christ is fed in his members Take heed then ye suffer not Christ to starve within you lest at the last day it be laid to your charge I was a hungry ye gave me no meat thirsty and ye gave me no drink naked ye clothed me not in prison and ye visited me not c. But do you think that Christ is fed with corporal food I assure you this for your comfort that those that feed Christ shall never perish but now to feed the hungry with bread externally to put clothes upon the naked to give drink to them that are A-Thirst to go to them that are shut up in prison this every man may do by his natural power ye may do this and yet give where there is no need you may do this and yet suffer your Saviour to starve This is not a true feeding on Christ no no it is Another-guess feeding that he requires or that he will Reward The meaning is I had a spiritual hunger and a spiritual nakedness this ye did not relieve satisfie and supply when I lay begging knocking at your door for relief in this kinde ye would not hear me and now I will not Hear you You suffered me
honor so that he wanteth nothing for his soul of all that he desireth yet God giveth him not power to eat thereof All the good they have thereof is but to Look on them Eccl. 5. 10 11. He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver nor he that loveth abundance with increase when goods increase they are increased to them that eat them that is make use of them for what good is there to the owners thereof save the beholding with their eyes for as Iob saith Job 20. 22. In the fulness of his sufficiency he shall be in straits I In more straits then he that hath but little Beloved what a strange curse follows these men to have Enough and Abundance and yet have Nothing this is a sin by it self for in all other Sins though they lose Eternal pleasures yet they have some pleasure here But in this None here nor None hereafter 2. In taking them away though they may like fools solace themselves in that poor comfort to see and behold them with their eyes which is vanity saith Solomon yet oftentimes this comfort also is taken away they are removed from them out of their sight for God hath provided a Worm for this Gourd and Vermine to corrupt this Manna as Iob 20. 20. He shall not feel quietness in his belly he shall not save ought of that which he desired there shall none of his meat be left therefore shall no man look for hiâ— goods when he is about to fill his belly God 〈◊〉 all cast the fury of his wrath upon him and shall rain it upon him while he is eating When men like Behemoth think to draw all Jordan into their jaws they shall so oppress their stomachs by their greediness that they shall vomit it as fast up again Iob 20. 15. He hath swallowed down riches but he shall vomit them up again God shall cast them out of hiâ— belly As Augustine saith Praedo minoris shall be Prada majoris Psal. 37. The devourer of the lesser shall become the prey of the greater And saith David I have seen the wicked in great power and spreading himself like a green Bay-â—ree yet he passed away and lo He was not I sought him but he could not be found 3. The punishment of this sin is oftentimes and commonly executed in his children and posterity Though all his care be To raise his house yet he doth all the while but consult evil to his own house Hab. 2. 9. For as the Father was a rich Beggar so his sons commonly are poor Gentlemen for he that coveteth an evil Covetousness to his house troubleth it and hath consulted shame to it His children oftentimes are a great plague to him Either worms to him to consume him while he lives or else they are worms to his wealth when he dyes Or else as the Prophet Amos saith of Riches and affirms it with a very great asseveration That the Lord hath sworn By His HOLINES Amoâ— 4. 1 2. That He will take them away with hooks and their posterity with fish-hooks they are plucked and as it were rent from their estates and they are left unto strangers for whom they were Never intended or else their estates are rent from them I beseech you therefore if none of the former Arguments will perswade yet as Iob to his wife For the childrens sake of your own bodies be afraid of this sin Alas what have these poor sheep done that thou shouldst consult misery and shame upon them 4. And lastly the punishments that attend his soul not onely hast thou sinned against thine own soul stuffing it with vexation and carking cares but thou hast bereft thine eyes of sleep As also in that earthly appetite letting it minde nothing else contrary to the divine nature of thy soul which is made to enjoy things above heavenly not to live upon things below thou hast by custom quite altered the very taste of thy soul and its very food for thou hast made it to live like a beast below having no other then Caninus Appetitus feeding like a Dog and like a swine always rooting in the mire and dirt of this world And not onely so but which is heaviest of all thou hast sinned against thine own soul in disinheriting it of heaven Ephes. 5. 5. For no covetous man who is an idolater hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ or of God Now by all this that I have said thou that art alwayes rooting in the earth I would intreat thee but to cast up thy accounts and see what thou hast gotten what hath it profited thee what hast thou gained by all thy care and â—oil yea though thou hadst gained the whole world Beloved God doth so hate this sin and sinner that in one prophesie he hath sworn two oaths against it Amos 4. 2. There he swears by his holiness that he will take away with hooks and Fish-hooks them and their posterity he cannot endure the sight of such Monsters he so hates them that he hates the very brood of them because they descend from such whom his soul hates Again in the 8. of that prophesie and verse 7. there he swears by his Excellency that he will never forget any of their works who buy the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of shooes Shall not saith He The land tremble for this and every one mourn that dwelleth therein c. Even the heaviest of Judgements are there threatned Thus I have endeavoured to uncase this loathsom unprofitable and Burthensom sin of Covetousness and if the Lord hath been doing that in your hearts which I have been doing to your ears this will be a happy meeting But to all I have said though the time be past yet let me name and onely name four or five Remedies and so conclude REMEDIES THE first means I would commend to you whereby this rooted and prevailing sin may be overcome is by Faith as the Apostle saith 1 Ioh. 5. 4. This is the victory that overcometh the world even our faith To learn To cease from living by sense and to live upon God Our Saviour useth many arguments to this end to destroy this Covetousness and carking care and sends us in the 6. of Matthew the latter end to the fowls of heaven to learn of them they neither reap nor carry into barns yet your heavenly father feedeth them and to learn how the Lillies of the field grow which neither Labor nor spin yet Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these Secondly If the Lord would teach thee sobriety in the use of them to use them with moderation and with weaned affections to use them as if thou usedst them not and they that buy as though they possessed not c. Using them onely for refreshment and necessity sake to use this world as not abusing it because the fashion of this world passeth away
roar and the fulness thereof let the fields rejoyce and all that is therein then shall the trees of the wood Sing Out at the presence of the Lord that is To him to whom God hath revealed himself and suffered His glory to pass before him All creatures yea the dumb and inanimate creatures sing out and sing aloud the infinite praises of God Almighty Psal. 145. 9 10. The Lord is good to all and his tender mereies are over all his works All thy works shall peaise thee and thy Saints shall bless thee and talk of thy Kingdom and Power And so much shall suffice for these four parts of the creatures Religion We will come to make use hereof to our selves First Let it make us ashamed of our backwardness to give God praise we that are exalted above these creatures that they are more ready and cheerful in praising their Creator then we we may blush and be ashamed for There is nothing that we can behold but puts us in mind of our slothfulness These poor servants that have received but one talent do yeild more increase of praise to God then I or you that have received many talents These poor creatures do more sing forth Gods praise then we with all our wisdom reason and understanding And let us with shame confess Saying it is I It is I that have depressed thy glory and caused thy praise to be evil spoken of and say with David when thou seest any of the creatures dye It is I Lord that have offended but what have these poor sheep done which are killed and slain for me unworthy unthankful sinner Second Use Take notice hence of the vast circumference of Gods Kingdom it reaches farther then we are aware of we think that we are the onely creatures that God esteems of Was not the earth made for me and the Sun to shine upon me and all creatures to feed and clothe me and thou thinkest that thou art left alone to praise God no no deceive not thy self Gods praise is not confined to the Church of men he hath reserved to himself seven thousand that have not bowed their knee to Baal Dost thou think poor creature that thou art onely He that I have appointed to worship me and that my infinite praise depends onely upon thee no no His Kingdom is from one end of heaven to the other and every creature praises him as much or more then thee as Col. 1. 16. All things were created by him both things in heaven and things in earth visible and invisible all things were created by him and for him for his praise and glory and Psal. 2. 10 11. That at the name of Iesus every knee shall bow of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth and that every tongue should confess that Iesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father Therefore alas alas do not think that Gods Temple is so narrowly scanted that thon onely praisest him thou art the least part of his Church and Temple Third Use Let this teach us to go to God boldly in the name of Iesus and with great encouragement to praise God for though men and Angels be unfit to praise God and they cannot do it as they ought yet he that accepts the Ravens and the Lions and all the dumb creatures when they Cry unto Him be assured he will never refuse the sighs and the groans of any poor penitent dejected soul that comes bleeding and weeping to him for mercy He that cometh to me I will in no wise cast away Joh. 6. 37. Fourth Use Let us learn also that when we look upon the creatures we take heed of being taken with any of them But let us consider that these are but as Iaco bs Ladder that by these steps by these Angels of God we may ascend to him that stands at the Top And if God do not by one means or other by one affliction and vexation in the creature or other drive us from the creature that we may look up to him we shall for ever live and dye in the creature And therefore happy is that man that God hunts from these things that they may never have any Rest till they find Him where they shall find Rest to their souls As if there be oyl put into a deep glass it lies at the bottom and will never rise to the top but if you pour water into it it will still be rising up to the top till the oyl it self run over I could apply it thus A soul that is sunk in sin and sunk in the creature except God of his infinite mercy pour upon him the water of afflictions his soul will never Arise and mount up to God this drives us upward to seek rest there for here is none and so thereby shall become more then conquerors through him that hath loved us where as if these had not been our souls had been drowned in the creatures and sunck for ever to the pit of Hell These things I thus unfold to you that you may see the unspeakable and large bounds of Gods praise That every thing may result and yield to him honour and praise A Fifth Use To teach us that though it be impossible for us to search out the unspeakable praises of God that is hid in all the creatures we may see them yet we can never search them to the bottom howbeit every creature saith to us as the Angel to Iohn when he would have fallen down and worshipped him See thou do it not for I am thy fellow servant Worship God we are ready to fall down and worship the creatures but they all cry See thou do it not I am thy fellow servant worship God And they all cry to thee Dost thou see the beauty of any creature doth the sweetness of any creature take thee I say they all cry to us Arise and depart hence for this is not your rest Doth the Pleasantness the sweetness the Comeliness c. of any creature delight thee it saith and calls aloud to thee Arise and depart hence for this is not your rest how sweet how beautiful how fair soever Rest not in that thou seest but seek for HIM thou seest not All creatures are like the waters to Noahs Dove which could find no rest for the soal of her foot but yet she brought an Olive leaf in her mouth we may taste and use these things But take not too much of them and hold them gently and be alwayes ready to let them fall take heed of resting till you come to the Ark all come out from him and all return to him again Sixth Use and the last Take heed of abusing any creature it is enough that you may use them for they are one of the family you your selves are of and they groan as well as you for deliverance as God complains that ye make him serve your
can be more true And some others I know there be which will believe none of all these things but they will dwel in the Letter and think all the things spoken thereof are some visible and Ocular glories as the Disciples while they were weak and but babes they pleased themselves with apprehensions of their Master his being a temporal King and that he should sit upon his Throne they all should sit about him and Zebedees children nothing would serve them but That the one might sit at his right hand and the other at his left And such childish apprehensions have many yea most men They please their fancies hopes and imaginations with these things viz. That the glory of heaven shall be onely hereafter and that glory to consist in Thrones and Crowns and Scepters in Musick Harps and Viols and such like carnal and poor things compared to that glory and though they talk and prattle that grace is glory begun and glory is grace perfected yet how farre wide are they in this practise and how harsh and uncouth is this Doctrine to such men but it is the rejoicing of my soul that I speak to some that have seen and felt farre farre more then my tongue is able to express for these things are known not so much by mans teaching as by feeling and enjoying them and by the Teachings of God But indeed and in truth there is so much Litteralness even among great Professors and most Teachers that they are alwayes but at the very Beginning of the Principles of the Doctrine of Christ And if those that profess and think themselves able Teachers do stick here and go no further how can they be a means to bring others on toward perfection I tell you Beloved this dwelling in the letter is that which hath been the occasion of so many Errors Rents and Differences as hath been in the Church The truth is known by none but by those that can come to the truth In thy light we shall see light You that are of the truth you have received the Anointing and that Anointing teacheth you all things Not as if any individual man knoweth all things But Ye Ye the Church Ye the Body Ye know all things as I have shewed you at large upon that Text. Take the compleat Body of Christ both past present and to come adde to them the Head then we may not onely say Thou art all fair my Love there is no spot in thee but thou art altogether Amiable and YE know all things Beloved one runs away with one interpretation and another with another as the Apostle saith Every one of you hath a Doctrine a Psalm an Interpretation a Tongue a Revelation But let us mind this Anointing what that teacheth us let us labour to see that we must be All taught of God that we may come to have the Mystery and the Living sense and this will instruct guide lead and conduct us aright and safely that we shall not only SEE these hidden things but we shall know yea know undoubtedly that they are the Truth the life the Way as Christ saith of himself Did men but see things and were led by the Spirit and by the Truth they would not run away with such poor weak carnal and empty notions and interpretations as they do The Book of the Revelation is a most Divine High-flowen Revelation of most glorious and most Divine things and yet because men rest in the Letter as they do in the rest of the Scriptures we see how low and empty and poor they carry on their works what carnal apprehensions men please themselves withal yet I deny not in the least the truth of the Letter far be it from me I do not deny but those things may be fulfilled according to the Letter But therefore shall we rest and dwell there shall we not seek the Truth of all shadows Not that I would have men neglect preaching the Letter or whatever can be found out externally to be fulfilled but let us not rest there but seek for the Anointing for the Spirit promised by Christ that may lead us into all truth even into that truth which Christ spake of when he said I have many things to say unto you but as yet ye are not able to bear them But I will send the Comforter and he shall lead you into all truth And of which Paul speaketh 1 Cor. 3. 1 2. And I Brethren could not speak unto you as unto spiritual but as unto carnal even as unto babes in Christ I have fed you with milk and not with meat for hitherto ye were not able to bear it neither yet are ye able for ye are yet carnal that ye may come to see those things God reveals by his Spirit for the Spirit searcheth all things yea the DEEP things of God for he that is spiritual judgeth all things yet he himself is judged of no man for who hath known the minde of the Lord that he may instruct him but we have the minde of Christ as there the Apostle in that of 1 Cor. 2. expostulates concerning the Hidden Mystery of the Scriptures which we cannot have except it be freely given unto us of God He that is taught these things hath the Mysteries of the Kingdom of God he hath even this Scripture fulfilled in him And the childe grew and waxed strong in spirit filled with wisdom and the grace of God was upon him Here you may see the reason and what Christ meant when he said Mat. 19. 14. Suffer little children to come unto me and forbid them not for of such is the Kingdom of God And yet Lev. 21. 20. there t is forbid that any Dwarf of the Tribe of Levi should approch to offer sacrifice to God How shall we reconcile Gods Commandment and Christ his practise Truly thus I suppose Christ in that saying holds forth by little children such as are in an humble meek lowly and in a growing condition and coming on to perfection for saith he He that receiveth not the Kingdom of God as a little childe he shall not enter therein But for Dwarfs whose growth is stinted they are at their highest and will never grow taller I mean such who profess themselves tall Christians but are not so much as little children nor cannot endure to grow taller nor hear of new light or a new Birth or that any should know more then they this is hateful to them for they think they have been brought up with the Scriptures they have bin at the University sat at the feet of Gamaliel Exercised in the holy Scriptures from a child studied al points in Divinity searched out the judgment of most Authors Have Epitomized the quintessence of all their judgments and shall we tell these men of new light they cry New lights are old Errors Do you think that these men are true Disciples or fit to be
Nay he that goes no further and rests on that goes no further sees no more then the very Devils for they by long custom and experience have gotten whatever can be known in the history far beyond any man upon earth And therefore he whose faith hath brought him no farther then to believe in an external Christ in that Christ that was born at Bethlehem and there brought up and afterward wrought miracles and was crucified dead and buried and rose again c. This man The Letter kills him he knows no more nay not so much as the Devils themselves know and believe nay I say herein the Devils outstrip thee the Apostle Paul was so far from accounting this any thing that he slights the knowing any man after the slesh Henceforth know we no man saith he after the flesh no though we had known Christ yet henceforth know we him no more insomuch that if he had known and seen exactly what Christ did what he said how he lived how he dyed and how he rose again all is nothing henceforth we will know him no more after this manner No no but let me know all his actions his death his life his miracles his passion his resurrection all within me let me know and experiment them in my self if we know him thus this is knowledge worth prizing indeed this is worth Boasting of as 2 Cor. 5. 16. Christ died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him that died for them and rose again and again Col. 3. 1. If ye be risen with Christ seek those things which are above This is that we should labour to finde Christs death and Christs life in us to see if Christ hath done all his actions not onely among the Jews at Ierusalem other then spiritually but in us I must finde that he hath been born and brought up in me that he hath put all the Doctors to silence within me that he hath wrought all his miracles in me opened my eyes as he did then open the eyes of the blinde open my ears as he did then so opening my lips that my mouth may shew forth his praise And as he cast out then both dumb and deaf Devils That there are the same to cast out in us If these actions be thus done in thee as verily as ever Christ did any of these actions in the flesh if this knowledge and this experience be fixed in your mindes and you feel the power thereof in your hearts then you have crackt The Shell you have gotten the Marrow the Fatness of the word Yet for all this we must not do with the Letter as I then told you because it is the shell as men usually do with the shells of Oysters or of Eggs Having once the Meat throw away the Shells no no for they are the means to bring the Word to us for to us because of our weakness cannot this word be conveyed without The shell therefore our merciful God hath bin pleased to convey it to us in earthen vessels and under Earthen resemblances that so we might hear it understand and receive it If we look upon it as it runs in black and white letters t is true It s a Lofty Majestical kinde of writing That carries Majesty and Authority in it and the proof is in it self Whereas other Writers are fain to bring proofs and witnesses of the truth of that they write whilst this carries proof and Authority in it self and at the best it is no more but he that can get within it He that can get into the midst of the burning bush He shall see Such spirit and life That eye hath not seen ear heard nor ever entred into mans heart to consider In short he shall know what it is to marry Achsah To have the vail rent and what it is to enter into the Holiest of All. And so of this history concerning Moses bringing Israel out of Egypt To see what slavery they were in and how Pharaohs Taskmasters beat them and increased their bondage taking away their straw and making them Toil harder and harder and yet the more they oppressed them the more they increased I say All this and the rest in the history runs High and Majestically and that is the best you can say of it but he that through the history shall see that the History was not written barely for a history but mainly and chiefly for us He shall see there is therein contained an eternal LIVING SENSE He that looks within himself shall finde all verified in himself And not onely This Scripture but the whole Scripture All the five Books of Moses Ioshua the Kings and all the battels of the Kings and so throughout that whatever part of Scripture he shall read he shall be able to say and feel experimentally This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears this day is this Scriptare accomplished in me for the substance of all those histories throughout is verified to this day and shall be to the worlds end It is no matter what other Pharaoh there was what Typical Pharaoh there was so we have found the True Pharaoh Nay it were no matter then though we had never heard of that Pharaoh for that Pharaoh doth but Type out unto us what the Spiritual Pharoah is How he labours to strengthen and advance himself in his Kingdom and if any offer to go out from him he will lay heavy burthens upon them He will make them groan under service insomuch that their cry shall come up before the Lord And if they do get out from him by strong hand it is By Miracles and wonders and he will be sure to pursue them till he himself be quite overthrown in the midst of the Sea and so he that sought for honour and glory in overcoming them the Lord shall get himself a name on that Pharaoh and on all his Host. And That we may come to the history in particular concerning bringing Israel out of Egypt There be three principal things in the Chapter 1. The Preparation before this vision That Moses saw 2. The vision it self the bush burned and was not consumed 3. The effect That followed of the vision viz. Moses his Commission to Pharaoh To deliver Israel 1. For the Preparation to the vision that is in the first verse Moses kept the flock of Iethro his father in Law and he led the flock to the backside of the desart c. Moses it is testified of him in the Acts that he was a man mighty in all the learning of the Egyptians for being brought up as a Kings Son he wanted for no teaching in the Kingdom For the Egyptians had the chief learning of the world For I must tell you We and all Antiquity are beholding to the Egyptians for all their and our chief learning in natural things Now we must labour to see in all the words of
you have but beauty and handsomeness long life and deliverances and the esteem and praise of men and you are well enough As Mâ—phibosheth said to David when he bid him and Ziba Divide the land between them Mephibosheth answers Nay saith he now my Lord the King is come home in peacâ— let who will divide the Land So let that whiâ—h is Lord and King in thy esteem come home to thee let who will take heaven for health and riches and honour and praise and credit in the world these things you account real and present for you know and feel the use and benefit of them but as for these things to come they are a great way off we see them not now what they are and therefore say you give us these things and as for our souls we will trust God with them for God is merciful we know it and he that would make us afraid knows it also for all he frames and presents us with such Bugbears Saith the Apostle Peter 1. Pet. 4. 18. If the righteous can scarcely be saved where shall the wicked and ungodly appear I know the general vote of interpreters expounds this place of temporal deliverances but you must pardon me I take it not so my eyes are too dim to read your Iunius notes upon this text I take it as it is spoken If the righteous shall scarcely be saved c. that is if the righteousest with all his righteousness if the just with all his justness if Peter with all his tears if Iob with all his patience if Abraham with all his Faith if Ioseph with all his chastness if Moses with all his meekness if all these shall scarcely be saved where wilt thou appear what will become of thee that hast nothing of all these And to this purpose I told you the last sabbath as there were six steps that went up to Solomons throne so there be six steps or degrees which we must Ascend before we can sit down with Christ upon his throne of Rest and peace The first is Condemnation of our selves Confessing and acknowledging our own sinfulness and wickedness condemning and abhorring our selves really in the sight of God upon a true sight of our own vileness Secondly Annihilation of our selves accounting our selves Nothing worse then nothing and as it were beating our selves to dust in our own esteem Thirdly Abdication or forsaking all things in the world of what nature or condition soever Using the world as if we used it not Fourthly Indifferency to all things to all conditions whether to riches or poverty to honour or dishonour to health or sickness to ill report and good report to liberty and imprisonment to praise or dispraise to peace or to war to fair weather or foul When all conditions are Alike to us whether God makes us sad or merry Fifthly Conformity to Christ our head folfowing him as our pattern that in what condition soever we are in whatever in such a condition Christ himself would do were he in our case and condition the same do we Sixthly Deiformity when indeed we are no longer men but gods mistake me not that is when we act no longer our selves but God acts in us that if we do any thing yet we see and feel and confess it is God that doth it that if we speak it is Christ that speaks if we think it is Christ that thinks if we go it is Châ—ist that goeth that it is no longer I that act any thing it is Christ that dwelleth in you and you and the members of your body are given up to him a living sacrifice and as instruments of righteousness Rom. 6. 13. These are things the Old man cannot indure to hear of They are terrible to flesh and blood the flesh cannot indure to hear of Whippings and Rackings fire and faggot But let me tell you that these things are farr short of these spiritual sufferings These are a thousand-fold more hard to undergoe as those can witness who have experience in them nay yet let me tell you a man were better endure any nay all those sufferings Nay that a Milstone were hanged about his neck and He dragged to the bottom of the sea then not to have his part in these sufferings for they are happy sufferings Beloved lest these things and the difficulty of these Names and of this work should make you amazed and make you cry out quis potest salvari who then can be saved if all must ascend those six steps you have named how few then have gotten or will get to heaven Therefore before I proceed any further Let me for your comfort and encouragement represent unto you two things two Qualifications of these truths Qualification 1. The first is this That God is in you although you know it not as you know there are in us all â—hose parts those organs and instruments of life by which we breath and live as Nerves Arteries Sinews Bones c. whereof though most of us do not know their particular names and uses and how knit together and whereof we have daily and minutely use of And if any of you be Arâ—ists in the body of Man you can discourse thereof and delineate plainly the use and exercise of them And as Iohn said concerning Christ There is one in the midst of you whom you know not Ioh. 1. 26. I say so of you there is one among you and yet alas you see him not you know him not and as God said to Moses Exod. 6. 3. By my name Almighty was I known unto your fathers but by my name Jehovah was I not known unto them I was the same then but by that name they knew me not So God is the same in himself but he is not manifested to thee nor in thee that is he lives not in thee as to thee to thy sight and knowledge So likewise the Patriarchs and Prophets before Christ they knew him but not as we do now they knew him by the name MESSIAH to come and by the promised seed and to be He in whom all Nations should be blessed by these names they knew him then but not by the Messiah come The Messiah born the Messiah crucified the Messiah risen again the Messiah ascended Abraham saith Christ desired to see my day and he saw it and was glad Ioh. 8. He saw it fifteen hundred years before but not as we see it But these things are somewhat too high and you cannot conceive it may be what I mean by these expressions But I shall come lower to your capacities and shall make you acquainted with these hidden things and make them familiar to you Saith our Saviour to Nicodemus he was one that wanted teaching for all he himself was a Teacher in Israel Christ began to reason with him of High and Hidden and Mysterious things Except a man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God Christ was now too high for
him See for all he was such a great and learned man among the Jews what an ignorant and a fleshly answer he makes Christ Can a man enter into his mothers womb and be born again Christ falls lower to his understanding saith he That which is born of flesh is â—lesh and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit He falls lower still to familiar comparisons to make him understand Marvel not that I said unto thee ye must be born again The wind now I am in thy element wherein thou understandest even among the creatures It bloweth whither it listeth and thou hearest the sound but knowest not whence it cometh or whither it goeth so is every one that is born of the Spirit So would you know of me how far these high truths may be dispensed with and what is the lowest degree in grace you must come to if ye would be saved Thus though God call you not to that degree of suffering as he doth some others yet there ought to be a propension and an Affection to it to aim at it though you reach it not As a child is a reasonable creature as well as the lustiest man and the fullest grown man and we do not exclude it from the name of a man or from the nature of a man for he will be a man in time he hath all the parts and lineaments of a man and he is growing and intends towards a man So neither do we exclude those Christians that are wâ—aklings and Babes in Christ neither from the name nor from the hope of Christians though they be but Babes and have not that strength as perfect and strong men in Christ have You know men can reason and discourse of things to our understandings and can tell you the reason of their strength and growth we do not expect this in children Our Saviour calls the woman of Canaan no better then a Dog a whelp truth said she though I am so yet Lord the whelps eat of the crumbs under their Masters table know this the best Christians are but Whelps meer puppies and weaklings in comparison of their Master and of that they should be and eat but the crumbs the scraps that fall from their Masters table in that regard Alas what poor ungrown unshapen creatures are they in comparison of their head the Lord Jesus Christ and what fragments do we live upon to those dainties he would find us and feed us with if we were but capable or fit for them So though we find not in our selves that strength and growth that should be yet be not discouraged so you find but a propension and disposition toward these things and to grow as much as you can then be sure Christ will perfect that disposition in his due time 2 Qualification Secondly God accepts the will for the deed for as the Apostle saith 2 Cor. 8. 12. A man is accepted according to that he hath and not according to that he hath not so it be a real and a true will a will in good earnest then there is no question He accepts the will for the deed but be sure it be so for you must know as the Apostle saith Gal. 6. 7. Be not deceived do not â—latter your selves God is not mocked you cannot deceive him with pretences but if it be so then he accepts the will for the deed As David 2 Sam 30. 21. when Ziglag was fired and their wives and children carried away captives while he was absent David goes and inquires of the Ephod whether he should pursue after the enemy or no he was bid go and he followed them and overtook them and overcame them but as he followed and pursued some of his men were weary and could not go to their journeys end therefore they tarried behind and looked to the stuff but in the end when the spoil came to be divided those that held out and performed the work would not let them that tarried behind have any part with them yea saith David these that tarried behind shall have as good a part as those that fought for their will was good they as really intended it as those that performed it and this was made a statute and a law in Israel ever after Beloved just so is it with our infinite wise God He sets by All his Souldiers alike though he set some in the Front and some in the Reer and some in other offices some in more dangerous places and some in less yet he esteems them all his true souldiers as well He that is weak so he be faithful as he that performs the greatest service So in the 20 of Matthew and the 11 Verse the Master there hired servants some sooner some later some at the sixth ninth tenth eleventh hour but none at the twelfth observe that none at the twelfth hour and when he came to pay he gave all alike those that came first and had done more service murmured sayes the good Master of the house Take that is thine is thine eye evil because mine is good even so is it with us so we have a right and real disposition to suffering a readiness thereunto and as great a willingness to do much work and to work all the day if God call us to it as to do a little when God calls us not to it Then my brethren know God in such a case accepts the will for the deed perhaps we are not actually called to poverty nor actually to disgrace to whipping to pulling a pieâ—es with wilde horses to racks to breaking of bones to crucifying as you know some have been Though we are not called to do what others are so we do what we can and are faithful in our talent and ready to imploy a greater talent to more advantage if it be Gods will to call you to it But know all must suffer less or more for so much is included in the Parable the last that was called was at the eleventh hour there was none called at the twelfth he that was called last wrought one hour in Christs vineyard Christ will have one hours work done before night take notice of this and to return to our former Simile A Captain that hath Souldiers all stand not in the front he dyes a Souldier that dyes in the battel let it be where it will as well as he that dies in the forefront The Lord is called in Scripture The Lord of Hosts we are part of his Souldiers he hath heavenly Souldiers as well as earthly It is said of the Angels that they are Ready to do his will Psal. 103. 20. they are all ready yet we read but of a few of their names that he sent of errands yet those that he never sent are as truly part of his heavenly hosts as those that he doth send they are as ready and willing as those that were sent So those Christians that suffer not so much which he takes away in