to bear the shock of such an universal opposition and contempt we find him through the wrangling distemper of his oppressed natural man that 's the disputer of this World in the Saint himself at a sore loss and ready to make very strange Conclusions I am in derision daily every one mocks and reproaches me for speaking the Word of the Lord. Then I said I 'le speak no more in his Name But his Word in my heart was as a fire and I could nor forbear or hold from declaring it Jer. 20. 7 9. When his particular denunciations of desolating Judgments on Jerusalem were accomplished the Jews dispers'd and confounded he was still at the same pass tossed up and down from post to pillar under a universal contradiction As for the word thou hast spoken unto us in the name of the Lord say the Jews we will not hearken unto thee but do whatsoever goes forth of our own mouth follow the words of our own wisdom Jer. 44. 16 17. This they conclude upon come what will Desperate resolutions When Johanan the Son of Kareah and all the Captains of the remaining Forces left by Nebuchadnezzar and all the Jews from the least even to the greatest had besought Jeremy to seek the Lord on their behalf as to what course they should steer after the murder of Gedaliah whom the King of Babilon left to be their Governour he told them the Lord's message that if they stay'd in their own Land they should be safe if they went to Egypt for which he saw their inclination the very Sword of Nebuchadnezzar they causelesly fear'd at home should be sure to meet with them there Johanan the Son of Kareah and all the proud Men tell him he speaks falsly and that the Lord had not sent him to say go not into Egypt to sojourn there So they not only go but force him and Baruch along with them in flat contradiction to their own message And when there we have seen how obstinately they demean themselves against him and all his words All this have we Jer 42. 43. and 44 chapters At this rate are true witnesses of God handled all along this World Christ himself had in a manner a universal contradiction to his whole Gospel-ministry of the second covenant from the professing Jews with their Teachers Priests Scribes Pharisees c. in the first He came to his own people in the first who received him not but blasphem'd and murder'd him for the doctrine of the second though exactly consonant to their own Law and Prophets rightly understood and so became they no people of God at all in first or second What they had was taken from them for rebelliously refusing the great and true Salvation by him farther discovered and offered to them Christ's meek and quiet bearing such universal contradiction of mystical Sinners to his whole Gospel-ministry is set before his followers therein lest they be quite tired out and faint in their minds on like occasion Heb. 12. 3. Concerning the KINGDOM of GOD to vvhich Christ hath had a Right from Everlasting Testified by Saints in all Ages unto the visible Possession vvhereof the signal slaying of the Tvvo Witnesses and the raising them again by the angelical Preachers of the everlasting Gospel into an Association vvith themselves vvill be an immediate fore-running and preparatory Dispensation THERE is not any Truth more frequently foretold or positively asserted in the whole Scripture than the Second Comming of Christ to set up his visible Kingdom on Earth On his joyful appearance for this blessed Angels and Saints hopes have from the beginning been fixed as the season for such an Opening the Temple of God in Heaven as will render the Divine Inhabitant thereof visible on Earth This by first cleerly stating and declaring the infinite and absolute Soveraignty of Gods divine Essence above all And next unto this divine unity the high and superlative Prerogative of the first divine and creature-composition in the Mediatour's person Thirdly the great and peculiar Priviledges of the most heavenly Saints And lastly the just and immutable Rights and Advantages of blessed Angels and other glorified Saints above whatever was to be found in the natural first-creation state of either Hence the whole new-creation seed of Christ from a subjection to chang and vanity in their first-creation life and clothing have been secretly groaning and panting after that deliverance and freedom that 's to be brought to them by this second visible spirituall coming of our Lord Jesus from heaven to Reign on the earth And this will they more impatiently then ever desire and long after toward the end of the encreasing unreasonable Bondage under Satan's reign and Man's day This that the whole Creation groanes after and expects is the peculiar hope the certain and wel-grounded perswasion of spiritual Saints whose Faith becoms an undoubted evidence to things not seen to the natural understanding Rom. 8. 22-25 Heb. 11. 1. They only have the first-fruits and earnest of this yet invisible Spiritual Life in which Christ will appear to all They have the tasts of the new Wine of his Spiritual Kingdom And hence do they greatly thirst after the full draughts thereof in his Kingdom They are therefore uncessant in Prayer to God and this in Obedience to and agreement with the command and will of Christ for the comming of this Kingdom as those Spiritual Watch-Men that in harmony with the Holy Angels cease not Day nor Night to cry unto God for the Personal comming of their Spiritual Lord to make his nevv Jerusalem a praise in the vvhole Earth Esay 62. 1 6 7. For this will compleat the adoption of Sons by the redemption of their body and manifestation of the Sons of God in a visibility of their spiritual life This will be a Jubile to the whole World How deeply then are Angels Saints and all Men concerned to be rightly informed and have their hope fixed in this Important thing the comming of their Spiritual King in his new-creation Glory to reign over them For therein will be comprehended all their distinct Interests and Advantages Peter by way of Prophecy speaking of this spiritual kingdom positively asserts it not to be of a Fabulous or controversible nature but grounded on clear Evidence and undoubted Demonstration For he had the honour of being an Eye-vvitness by faith of Christ as from the beginning living in his root clothed with Glory and Honour 2 Pet. 1. 16-18 And since his ascent in our nature have spiritual Saints been waiting for his descent therein God by setting him at his right hand therein has Endovved him vvith the Povver and Glory of his Fathers Throne to set up his visible kingdom on earth Jo. 5. 22 27. Act. 17. 31. All this seems implied in the voice Peter heard from the excellent glory saying This is my beloved Son in whom I am vvell pleased as having descended and finished the vvork given him to do in our earthly nature
by the compleat death thereof as to all changable first-creation life And ascended into the everlasting new-creature and divine life of God the Mediatour his Root and Father in which fitted for the visible rule of his spiritual kingdom on earth For this blessed thing are Saints out of or in the body all vvaiting as his Members Servants and blessed Retinue to enter with him into the actual possession of this Glorious Kingdom in the visibility of their before hidden Spiritual Life which will be the manifestation of the Sons of God The glad tydings of this second comming of Christ in his spiritual glory to Reign as that of his natural birth in order thereunto will be first signally given by his angelical Messengers as that which will most certainly bring Glory to God in the highest Heavens through a union of peace with his new Heavens and Earth or higher and lower ranks of Spiritual Saints together with undeniable marks of his good vvill to all Men in general that are under his happy government Luke 2. 14. All men that have not excluded themselves by a fixed enmity to this spiritual king shall have their Eyes so far opened at and by his appearing as to see and admire his long-suffring towards them and his restoring to them what at first they lost So will the whole new World joyn in unanimous praises to God through Christ their new-creation King And if this be so a distinct considering the spiritual nature as well as certain visibility of this kingdom will be requisite and this so much the more as the day of his second comming approaches and drawes neerer This growes more evident dayly from the general decay of all natural and moral goodness amongst men and the increase and abounding of all Iniquity litteral and mystical that as foretold will accomplish man's day and period this World Through the extream abounding of iniquity nothing of support or comfort will be left spiritual Saints or reasonable men but a rightly Informed Faith as to the certain approach of the Lord in his spiritual kingdom In the stedfast wel-grounded hope hereof are they called on by Christ to lift up their Heads as knovving his second appearance and consequently their full redemption dravvs nigh and will soon be accomplished For this great and most concerning thing and Truth have we a Cloud of Witnesses in Scripture even for the glorious Comming and Kingdom of our Lord as also an account of the distinct hands by which given divine and creaturely or both together God in his infinite divine Essence the Mediator in his conjunctive divine and creature-nature and the pure creature-spirit of Faith living in a succession of spiritual Saints from first to last do all agree in their Testimony to this Truth The Mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ Col. 2. 2. is all opened by Christ the Branch which Paul earnestly desires Saints may be filled vvith the rich and full assurance of And 1 Cor. 11. 2 3. treating of the same high and glorious Truths he layes down the original and fundamental Ordinances of Truth as he received them from Christ's own hand He declares it necessary for men to know That the Head of every Man is Christ and that the Head of the Woman is the Man and the Head of Christ God In these gradations of a three-fold-Headship he summ's up the essential Foundations of all Truth divine and creaturely to wit of God in his divine unity then of the Mediatour in his supream divine and creature-composition and then thirdly of Christ as Son and Branch the appointed means for rendring the said divine and creature-glories of God the Mediator visible to blessed Angels and Saints The highest of these Ordinances of Truth though last expressed is That the Head of Christ is God God the Mediatour in his conjunctive divine and creature-form of God confesses and ownes the single and uncompounded divine Essence as his absolute Head and Father This is the first and highest Ordinance of Truth Next unto this Christ is the head of every man that is Christ as Mediatour in the first and highest conjunction of divine and creature-nature is the immediate Head of himself as the first-born Creature and Resurrection-Lamb and consequently of every Angel and Man in both creations natural or spiritual And then as the third and last Ordinance of Truth is the Man Christ as Resurrection-Lamb in his spiritual new-creation Life Head of the Woman or Natural-state in Christ's person as brought into subjection to the new-creation Man and also of all his heavenly and earthly glorified Saints and Angels or Church Col. 1. 18. There is a like relation of Father and Son in the Mediatour's creature-nature Root and Branch as of the divine Father and Son in the divine nature And so is his Creature-nature throughout and on all accounts the supream creature-likeness of the infinite divinity 'T is the absolute and peculiar Prerogative of the divine nature not only to be the original of its own Being from Eternity or to be what it is without all begining but also of that purely divine Form and Image of it self in the Mediatour to whom God in the single divine Esence is Head and Father It is therefore said 1 Tim. 2. 5. There is one God in the divine Essence uncompounded with any creature-being and in distinction from God in this supream consideration One Mediatour betvveen God and Men mediating between and therefore consisting of two natures divine and creaturely A Mediatour is not of one but God is one To the Mediatour in this Composition is the single divine Essence Head And the divine nature or purely divine form of God which is one with the divine essence as the immediate former of his own creature-spirit from everlasting Prov. 8. 22 23. stands in a headship or superiority to that creature-spirit which is his own divine workmanship in his own person As the purely divine Son of God is he under a like impossibility with the Father of being immediately seen or known by any but the divine Being it self For in this divine relation of Father and Son are they fitted only for the fruition of each other And so the divine Son lay shut up in the bosom of the divine Father till the good will and mind of both was to build a creature-house for themselves which was the Root and former of all meer creature-beings in both Worlds Heb. 1. 2. This original Word or creature beginning vvas in God and vvith God and vvas God And by it vvere all other things made John 1. 1. 3. The distinction of divine and creature-nature in the Mediatour is intirely preserved in their personal Unity His creature-nature is called the Beginning His divine is without all beginning Again the infinite divine builder of the supream creature house for himself is above the house so built by him though taken into personal union with the divine Inhabitant thereof as is implied Heb. 3. 3 4.
The taking it down by the Babylonian power and the rebuilding it in Cyrus and Darius his dayes by the command of God were figures of the first and second comming of Christ He took down himself in his first and fleshly building in our nature by a holy death and raised himself up therein into a spiritual everlasting righteous life in which he will set up his visible kingdom on earth The second litteral Temple in reference to this spiritual new building of our nature in Christ's person in which visibly to rule and reign over all is said greatly to have exceeded the beauty or glory of the first however singly in the letter so inferiour thereunto that the Old men that had seen the glory of the former Wept Ezra 3. 12. Haggai 2. 3 7 9. By all these significant types and figures did God feed the faith of true saints under the Law who saw to the end of that ministration which was suitable to that non-age of the world their lot was fallen in as also to the changable nature of first-covenant-life in the highest dispensation thereof Thus seeing the end of all that vvas to be abolished were they in the right use thereof pointed unto Christ both in his invisible Angelical state of resurrection-lamb living in his root and also as to descend out of that into a visibility and so to come forth in our glorified nature By the shadowes of the Law and signal voices of providence did the spiritual seed under the Law by faith behold this twofold day of Christ invisible and visible and rejoyced therein Q. But if the visible kingdom of Christ be thus certain as evidenced by the testimonies of God Christ blessed Angels and Saints and signified to us by law-types and by the providences of God in all ages Why does Christ suffer himself to be kept so long out of the possession thereof or suffer his title thereunto to be denied him by the profane and most injuriously questioned even by the religious party among men Men at highest in holy flesh righteousnes of man with evil Angels in their natural excellencies are the worst sort of scoffers that will be found in the last dayes against this visible kingdom of Christ on earth and that in a self-condemning light 2 Pet. 3. 3 4. And saints in whom the first-covenant Temple-building is taken down by the crosse in order to the rebuilding them in the spiritual glory of the second in which to reign with Christ are with all their doctrine spectacles of scorn and wonder to natural Angel and Man who have set up themselves in the glory of the first against the second 1 Cor. 4. 9. A. For a satisfactory answer to this question it will be needfull to look back to Gods method from the beginning as to all the rule and power given to Christ in his invisible creature-day before either the actual transgression of angel and man or creation of them As to manifestation that which is natural was first in Christ's person Christ the branch in his invisible state was the first-born natural-Spirit before the first begotten from the dead the Resurrection Lamb in a spiritual new-creation life The originally unchangable creature-spirit of Christ was the High-Priest that sacrificed the said first-born and so raised it into its own twofold new-creation life the original nevv heaven and nevv earth And thus by the death of his invisible natural state as a purâ— and spotless sacrifice did he lay the sure foundation of his visibility 〈◊〉 the said spiritual life to be brought to light in our glorified nature Iâ— that first death of nature in Christ was exhibited the necessary tryal of aâ—â— mens and angels obedience to the will of God by the like sacrifice and death of the natural state in them This was shewed them both and all in innocency by spiritual light that by a faithful following of theâ— Lord 's own suffering steps they might have been translated into thaâ— spiritual state which alwayes according to God's wise method was to follow Christ through such sacrifice of his invisible natural state did inseparably unite in his own person the natural and spiritual or first and second-creation spirits which are still distinct though united And hereby has he a right of dominion over all the works of God's hands in both worlds or creations natural and spiritual as Maker and Heirâ— of all things in both Heb. 1. 2. But though Christ thus laid a sure Foundation of blessedness for those vvhose names vvere vvritten in his resurrection book of Life inasmuch as their persons comprehended in his death would yield up nature to death in like obedience with him yet many angels and men do finally refuse through inordinate love to the life of nature to exchange their natural for his spiritual State So do they keep up their natural state as a wall of partition between them and God's spiritual in which alone true blessednes can be found Since the fall all mankind have an inherent seed of enmity in them to God Christ and his spiritual Life This enmity in the evil angels by whom sown in men is unchangable and incurable In man barely as a consequent of the first sin not so But this disease in man till cured by such obedience to the Cross as was at first refused is an infectious leprosie in him and becoms as mortal and incurable in him as in the evil angels when found guilty on the like personal account with our first parents By the purifying fire of the Cross alone can the enmity contracted by the fall be melted down or that obedience performed which alwayes was the duty of the first-creation spirit in man or angel before their fall in order to their establishment in a spiritual state of everlasting blessedness The disobedience of man and angel has made no change in God's proceedings as to the death of the natural in order to a spiritual life but has rendred man's suffering part under the Cross much more hard and difficult through an actual enmity and struggling contrary mind thereunto set up in him by the Devil But in this hard work the over-ruling providence of God makes the utmost malice of visible and invisible enemies serviceable to the bruising the saints heel or crucifying his natural man which is absolutely necessary for his receiving that spiritual life in which to break the enemies head The allotted time for the compleating this work of patience on the whole spiritual body of Christ is the saints suffering Season on the finishing whereof they are all to enter into a state of everlasting rest and blessedness And this is the ground of Gods patience towards all sorts of wilful enemies of himself and saints during the time the Prince and Power of the Air is permitted in answer to his own desire to have the active ruling power in and over the natural state and principle which in greatest love God has absolutly denied to Christ and his saints So
altogether ignorant of the Spiritual nature of his visible Kingdom yet to come and of that Spirit and Life in which it will be managed According to appointment were they assembled on the day of Pentecost waiting for the Holy Ghost that Spirit in which Christ's Kingdom is to be managed That day under the Law was a commanded feast of first fruits reaped in the Typical Land of Promise This type significantly represents the mystical truth or substance the first fruits of the true Land of Promise or Christ's risen Spirit brought forth in and by Saints This Spirit came upon them as a sound from Heaven of a rushing mighty wind and sate upon each of them as cloven Tongues like Fire So they spake with other Tongues words which the Holy Ghost taught them as that Spirit gave them utterance These other Tongues were the new Tongues Christ promised them they should speak with Mar. 16. 17. The new-creature-Spirit of Christ partaken of by Saints becomes another or new Tongue in them distinct from and superiour to any Tongue thoughts or words found in their natural Spirit This new Tongue both from its own nature and operation of it on the natural Spirit of the Saint may fitly be typed out by a visible cloven or twofold fiery Tongue First From its own nature as consisting in Christ's person the true original thereof of a twofold Resurrection-state and building inseparably united though distinct from each other Secondly From its twofold secret invisible operation upon man transforming yet not burning or consuming him by its fire-baptism upon him It empties him of all his changeable life and wealth unmakes and builds him anew and fill's him with its newness of Life and true riches And as in Christ so in his peculiar spousal Saints capacitated by their double portion of Christ's twofold Resurrection-Life to receive the double vision of the divine Glory are the twofold spiritual Principles of Christ's new-creature-nature fitly represented by cloven Tongues as Fire The inferiour earthly glorified Saint of the single portion in spiritual resurrection-life as found in unchangeable harmony with those of the double may both and altogether be fitly signified by cloven Tongues of Fire as distinct from each other and yet inseparably join'd together The Holy Ghost that descended upon the Apostles is that new-creature-Spirit which in Christ lives in personal union with the Divinity in both parts thereof upper and lower or most heavenly and glorified earthly all spiritual and above the first-creation-building or natural state of Angel or Man at best as far as the material Heaven is above the Earth No wonder then if the effects of this Spirit poured down on the Apostles were amazing to all natural observers thereof For as a figure of this commanding Tongue or new-creature Spirit could they make themselves understood by all their hearers of whatever differing languages By this litteral miracle was given an undeniable demonstration of the comprehensive nature and universal knowledg of this new Tongue or Spirit including all spiritual both heavenly and earthly-glorified wisdom and knowledg and also comprehending all single natural knowledg in it self Hence fitly said to know see or judg all things 1 Cor. 2. 15. This new-creation-tongue that could make itself understood by all in that primitive Gospel-day was a type of the powerful ministration of the Gospel in the last days under the latter rain or pouring down of the same Spirit or new-creature Tongue in a visibility and discernableness to all so as to command its acknowledgment from all hearers thereof through its suitable sound or voice to every one's understanding and irresistible demonstration of its intrinsick excellency to all hearts The wonderful effects of its first showring down were that the receivers thereof did work miracles cast out Devils and healed all sorts of Diseases litteral and spiritual This precious mystical balm of Gilead became in them a powerful antidote against all inward and outward Poison Mar. 16. 17 18. They could thereby not only discern but cure all diseases of Spirit as well as Body Yea a union by Faith with this Spirit under the Law was of such power that Elisha at a great distance was able to discern and declare the secret designs of God's and his People's Enemies and to cure diseases spiritual as well as bodily as in Naaman the Syrian He not only by his counsel cleans'd him from his bodily Leprosy but as seems implied by bidding him go in peace and Christ's owning his coming to a spiritual Prophet as a reproof to the Jews for rejecting his spiritual ministry and gospel-doctrine Luk. 4. 27. of the enmity of his Spirit by an effectual faith in the new-creation name of the true Son of Peace He was able also to discern the inward disease of enmity in Gehazi to be mortal and incurable as was figured by the outward Leprosy which was cureable in Naaman but rendred unchangeable in him and his unbelieving Seed forever 2 King 5. 27. And by the like new-creature power of spiritual Faith did he raise the Widow's Son from bodily death typing forth the like power of raising the natural Spirit out of its state of enmity and death All this as fore-running types of what was fulfill'd on the natural spirit of Saints by the first Gospel-rain of Christ's risen Spirit upon them And this yet was but a type of the more abundant effects of the latter rain of the same Spirit in the last days Under that first rain were they impowred to find out and cure both bodily and spiritual diseases by forgiving all Sins that were of a pardonable nature Joh. 20. 23. But under the former or latter rain are Saints not to assume any thing to themselves but ascribe all to the new-creation power of their Lord and Head Act. 3. 12 16. To him must they ever own and pay their subjection though in marriage union with him by partaking of his Spirit Nor does the Saint by surrender of his will and life to Christ in order to live in his will and Spirit any more lose his distinct personality from Christ's than the distinction of sexes is lost in the litteral marriage-union of man and woman The Saint by union with Christ lives wholly in his will at last and so is possess'd of his power and riches Whatever he asks in that will new name or life of Christ is given him Joh. 16. 23. This Spirit qualified Saints above all the inticing words and thoughts of man's or Angel's natural wisdom that 's but vain Philosophy for their distinct respective Offices in the Gospel-Church as Apostles Prophets Evangelists Pastors Teachers c. By the diversity of the gifts and operations thereof was every of them fitted for their distinct Offices in the assemblies of Saints 1 Cor. 12. 4 11. They were thereby enabled rightly to discern and determine all things according to the mind of Christ And hereby did they gain Love from those that believed and fear from those that would
given to a faithful witness-bearing in his spirit of true freedom for which they have suffered all along Satan's reign This shall in its place be more fully spoken to And then will be declared God's most wise and holy grounds why the injuries done to the Souls under the Altar slain for the testimony of Jesus have lain so long unaccounted for Under this preparatory dispensation shall the murderers of Jesus and his spiritual Martyrs be punished according to their works All these judgments and mercies are to be opened by the seven new-creation Trumpets sounded by seven Angels on the opening of the seventh and last Seal Rev. 8. 1 2. On the sounding of these Trumpets the judgments sealed up for foes amongst the treasures of mercy for friends Deut. 32. 34 35. will be executed by the pouring forth of the seven Vials All this as the performance of God's promise on behalf of the two slain witnesses Rev. 11. for raising them up into an association with spiritual Angels for the powerful preaching of Christ's everlasting Gospel-life For this will they have power to shut and open the blessings and judgments of Heaven in perfect harmony with the spirit and will of Christ distributing both in love or wrath to the inhabitants of the whole World This is implied in the command given them over that mystical Fire by which the wrath of that day is to be executed and in their power also to give or withhold the heavenly rain of Christ's risen-Spirit and likewise for turning the Waters of the cleansed natural state as turned into enmity against the same into blood from the just wrath and displeasure of God By all ways literal and mystical will the sealed-up judgments of God be opened to smite the accursed Earth in such a successive pouring forth of wrath upon it figured by the plagues on Pharaoh and Egypt by the hands of Saints and Angels in this fore-running dispensation on this side the glorified body of Saints as was figured in Eliah subject to like passions with other Saints in the unchang'd body Jam. 5. 17. Saints in this dispensation will not only have power over the material Heaven so as by the spirit of true faith and prayer to withhold or give the rain thereof but in a like command with Elias to cause the angelical fire to come down on their Enemies for their destruction as he did on the Captains with their Fifties that came in opposition to the new-creature spirit of prophecy by the powerful workings whereof in him he was seen to be a man of God Wilful enmity to this spirit God will come forth in signal displeasure against Now if this power literally and spiritually was thus manifested in Eliah by a union of Faith only with Christ in his new-creature-spirit before the former Gospel-rain thereof Act. 2. what will be impossible to the power of it in Saints on the latter rain thereof for the ripening of Angels and Saints therein to a full harvest fitting them to do all things needful to make way for their Lord's second coming And having thus considered what is meant by the opening of the Seals and pouring forth of the Vials in the preparatory day to Christ's second coming by Angels and Saints we are next to enquire how and in what manner and measure they are then to be poured forth and upon whom For this it is observable that every Vial hath and that from the beginning bin suited to the more or less criminal nature of the several wilful Offences which now shall be laid open however before hid and sealed up This is implied by the distinct places or parts of the accursed first-creation-Earth each Vial is to be poured upon John hears a voice out of Christ's new-creation Temple into which the good Angels were first brought as the first faithful obedient followers of their Head Lord and Master thereinto They are sent out of this Temple with the seven-fold new-creation Trumpet given them by the Lamb for his service as ministring spirits and first sounders forth of this his new-creation-voice to his Saints who thereby become qualified with them to preach the everlasting Gospel of the Kingdom or declare the glad tydings of their Lord 's coming in the seven-fold glory of his resurrection-state to the whole Earth And not only so but they are also fitted to be joined with the holy Angels for pouring forth the Vials of God's wrath on the fixed inhabitants of the Earth who are enemies to his spiritual heavenly appearance and Kingdom Thus we find the first Vial poured forth upon the Earth Rev. 16. 2. the second on the Sea the third on the Rivers and Fountains of Water the fourth on the Sun the fifth on the seat of the Beast the sixth on the great River Euphrates the seventh on the Air. In these distinct vials and places are held forth the particular assigned judgments according to the sealed up wrath of God for every part of the sinful first-creation-Earth The first Vial is poured out upon the Earth not the corrupt but restored Earth repaired by Christ as to their loss by the fall of Adam and so capacitated to answer Christ's heavenly call He hath therein afforded them clear convictions of his new-creation-life for their everlasting blessedness But through wilful refusal of this and despite thereunto are they sound guilty of worshipping the Beast and receiving his mark which is the peculiar Sin for which punished They voluntarily pay that homage to the wicked Angel that 's due to God who hath by his own act made himself the mystical Beast here meant in his self-chosen earthly sensual spirit by a fixed unchangeable enmity to God and his heavenly creature-spirit rendred devilish The same fixed in by Man with its wisdom and all its first-creation excellencies is devilish also Jam. 3. 15. This renders a Man a Devil Christ called Judas so One of you is a Devil Joh. 6. 70. The changeably evil spirit of Man baptiz'd and transform'd by the unchangeably evil spirit of the Devil into unchangeable union with him in enmity to God renders man a Devil If baptiz'd into the unchangeably righteous spirit of Christ man becomes with Abraham the unchangeable friend lover and beloved of God The cleansed mystical house or enlightned righteous natural man receiving the evil angelical spirit is thereby fixed in enmity to God In this case Christ found and asserted the professing righteous Jews with their teachers to be Ye are of your Father the Devil so far were they from being the true spiritual seed and Children of Abraham or of God as they flattered and asserted themselves to be This end or last state is worse than their first in the corrupt nature as born dead in Sin but not unchangeably so as now they are Mat. 12. 43 -45. Joh. 8. 38 -44. Such incorrigible wilful Sinners against the Holy Ghost and its convincing spiritual light set up in their consciences will fall under the sad effects of the
the whole comprehensive single earthly generation and party of evil Angels and Men who will have nothing to pretend as to God's omitting any ways or means for the doing of them good In Israel's case he gives an account of the method of his proceedings with all his Creatures Angels and Men in reference to their everlasting happiness Esay 5. 4. All that set up for themselves in the first-creation-spirit against the second instead of good kindly fruits bring forth wild Grapes from a root of bitterness and known enmity to him In this do they practise all sorts of mystical uncleanness idolatry and fornication And as we have seen the ruine of the old World or first-creation as exalted against the second gradually carried on as to the judgments of God on the several parts thereof and at length upon the whole to their total and irreparable ruin in this preparatory dispensation and close thereof So are we to consider what 's done therein and by towards the building the new Christ will send his Angels for this with the great sound of their seven-fold Trumpet to gather together his Elect from the four Winds from one end of Heaven to the other Mat. 24. 31. This by powerfully wakning up the seed of spiritual life in all Nations Then will the Earth bring forth in one day and a Nation of spiritual Saints shall be born at once Esay 66. 8. and this marvellous wonder-working hand of the Lord which will so be made known towards his Servants will be attended with and made serviceable to the discovery of his indignation towards his Enemies ver 14. All the power and strength of the first-creation shall then like the Walls of Jerico fall without hands before the clear shining forth of the resurrection-power of Christ in his Angels and Saints causing the destruction of the old World and passing away of all the old things thereof as an immediate introduction to the building of the new the new Heavens and Earth to be set up by Christ's new-creation-workmanship wherein he will delight and rejoyce for ever ver 22. Isa 65. 17 -19. Come we then particularly to consider the second general part of the preparatory work the laying the Foundations of the new World or preparing the spiritual materials for the new-creation-building and kingdom of Christ In this second as well as first part of the work of this preparatory day will Christ make remarkable use of his Angels and ripen'd Saints fitly qualified in his spirit for the same This second part of the preparatory work seems necessarily to accompany the former For if this old World for the fleshly and spiritual defilements thereof must be destroyed by Fire mystical and literal as altogether unfit for Christ's presence there must be such a new Heaven and Earth built up as may be found faultless before him fit for his divine and new-creature residence as answering God's mind for the exercising of a visible rule and dominion of love over his Saints and Angels and also of good will over all mankind on the Earth In order to this will these preparatory builders Angels and Saints powerfully assert Christ's right to the visible universal rule and monarchy of this World And then secondly will they declare the great advantage of his assuming the same to all the inhabitants thereof Both these particulars shall in this fore-running dispensation be so clearly stated and asserted with such demonstration as to prevail on the whole new Earth not only to own Christ's right of ruling over them but to express their impatient desires for the same as their unexpressible benefit as well as his unquestionable right For hereby shall they be totally redeemed from the unreasonable bondage under the oppressive governments of this World and brought under the peaceable and righteous rule of Christ so as to perform universal obedience to him in the new-creation-principles of true love and freedom In order to this has Christ reserved a greater effusion of his Spirit in the latter rain thereof to be showred down in this preparatory dispensation to his second coming than the former in the primitive day amounted to The gradual operations of this shall cause all the Kingdoms of this new World to become the Lord's and his Christ's And every member and subject thereof shall receive his summons his Lord 's actual coming being now at hand By the powerful angelical ministry accompanied with the rain of Christ's risen spirit shall the true seed of the Kingdom be universally awaken'd and quicken'd up as a beginning to that full restitution of all things to be accomplish'd by Christ's own personal spiritual coming in his new-creation-temple of our glorified nature And herein will he be beheld before his visible presence on Earth on the opening the doors of that his Temple in Heaven by the powerful preaching of his everlasting-Gospel in the preparatory ministration so as to make the divine inhabitant thereof to be seen through Christ's creature-nature as with open face And this sight shall also have its powerful and peculiar effect on all the mystical members of Christ so as to change or transform them into a likeness to him in his new-creature-spirit as members of his heavenly or earthly-glorified body This great charge is committed to the spiritual and powerful preachers of his everlasting Gospel as in figure was shewed Ezekiel chap. 43. to give his mystical Israelit's a more clear view than ever of the exact form and fashion of the new-creature House and Temple of their great Lord and Head and that in such a manner as to shew them all the ascents and descents and every coming in and going out thereof with all the distinct Laws and Ordinances belonging to the same And this will beget in them a like admiration to that of the Queen of Sheba that came from the utmost corner of her natural Earth to behold the divine and new-creature glory of her spiritual King Solomon in the figure thereof When Saints shall see the divine King and the glory of his creature-House and Temple with the subjected ranks of his attendants in blessed harmony amongst themselves and universal obedience to him they will jointly ascribe all the glory of that order and their blessedness therein to the wisdom of their divine Lord and spiritual King Solomon the maker of those spiritual Laws in observing of which they shall live for ever in perfect blessedness and freedom The sight of this divine King and creature-Lord and of the everlasting blessedness of his Servants and Subjects is to be given in this preparatory dispensation This was exactly figured out in the setting up of the tabernacle or worldly Sanctuary before Israel's entring Ganaan the type of this visible spiritual Kingdom of Christ For in this preparatory day must be proved and fitted all sorts of materials needful to the setting up of Christ's visible Kingdom as then for Moses his Tabernacle And the means as there must be the free-will-offerings of the
these remarkable dealings of God in order to these wonderful designs taken notice of not only by the World in general but the professing party amongst whom must be found as to seed the wise-Virgin-spirit Even such also are slumbring and sleeping in this dark day and in such a remarkable calm of security as is a most certain prefage of a storm And if this be the temper of God's friends a spiritual seed what can be expected from incorrigible enemies on such a wonderful commotion and shaking of their power but a coming forth in their utmost strength and highest expressions of rage and malice to maintain themselves against that power the very light of the day convinces them will undermine and destroy them and all their worldly interests literal and mystical But to spiritual Saints awaken'd and found alive this dispensation that is so amazing and confounding to others as to make their Hearts fail for fear of what is coming upon the Earth becomes a cherishing food causing them to lift up their heads though involv'd in God's outward chastisement of the World as having a common share therein They are supported and owned by God as Friends to whom he communicates the secret of his designs in all He shews them he is therein pleading their cause in destroying his and their enemies and securing his beloved Lots mystically and also litterally so far as is for his glory and their good Though therefore the Figtree their natural Spirit blossom not nor fruit be in the Vine or true and choice plants of the Kingdom though the labour of the Olive fail and there be no meat in the Field no stock in the fold or herd in the stalls Hab. 3. 17. that is though there be a mystical as well as litteral Famine by the total drying up of all Food to the natural mind as well as body yet to the powerful faith of spiritual Saints is it a time of rejoycing in their spiritual Lord invisibly communicating his hidden and incorruptible Manna to them which is a Bread of Life not only to their spiritual but natural Man also which lives not by that Bread which is the single food of the natural Spirit but such as the living Word of God is and gives unto the whole Man of his Saints for ever Mat. 4. 4. And then shall their natural man as with Hinds feet walk upon the high places of this first-creation-world in a conquering and victorious spirit over them Saints will find themselves more and more established in their spiritual faith and expectation of Christ's visible Kingdom by those very ways and means concerning which the fleshly mind or natural spirit at best as well as the profane world do with with the Samaritan Lord judg impossible to bring about such a design The true Believer is so far from thinking God's arm shortned or hand weakned on this withdrawing all sort of visible help from them as thereby to be quickned up into the expectation of those angelical powers Christ hath in reserve to work their deliverance by Nothing to them seems lacking but such a powerful exercise of their precious faith as may give them a patient waiting upon God for the performance and that with great advantage of whatever he hath promised as to the actual setting up of Christ's kingdom and rule of love over them Then will our blessed Lord arise out of his holy new-creature Temple and in his spiritual glory or second appearance take a visible possession of that universal power and authority which was always his right from the foundation of the World He will bow and open those Heavens in which all this while retained Act. 3. 21. He will descend and actually let down that new-Jerusalem-glory out of the said Heaven which is the proper clothing provided by himself for his heavenly and earthly-glorified Saints For when the preparatory work is compleated the King himself will suddenly appear Even so come Lord Jesus and all thy Saints with thee come quickly Amen FINIS
nature at the appointed season for actual setting up of his visible Kingdom on Earth Thus may we with admiration behold the ascents and descents of the mediatours creature-building by which marvelously fitted for preserving the dignity of his own divinity and accomplishing the blessednes of his creatures The ascent or top of it is a fitly capacitated immediate habitation for the divinity And the descent of it in the branch is that wherein Christ becoms a two-fold Head to his Angels and Saints from whom they receive their immortal beings and also the heavenly life and clothing thereof by which fitted for their mansions in this his Fathers House This Son and Branch though but foot-stool to himself as creature-root and Father the Throne on which his divinity sits is in a headship and preheminency over all blessed Angels and Saints by the appointment of his divine and creature-lord This foot-stool or lowest part of the creature-Throne or House of God in the mediatour is the immediate object of Faith as that by which the divinity in the top of this creature-House or Throne invisible and inaccessible to his creatures is let down to them By this blessed medium are Angels and Saints admitted to the sight and injoyment of the divine glory for ever Christ when on Earth witnessed his spiritual life as Son of man in Heaven into which he returned with our nature and so into that enjoyment of the divine glory he had both as creature-root and branch before the foundation of the World according to his prayer Jo. 17. 4 5. He that descended and he that ascended is still but one and the same Son of man in the invisible angelical and visible humane Life of the branch Eph. 4. 10. This did he that he might fill all things In the transformed angelical state as spirit of the branch in his own creature-root the Son of Man in Heaven was he head and parent to the immortal spirits of Angels and Men by a first creation and of the spiritual being and state thereof by a second In this first capacity as spirit of the branch is Christ the heavenly place in which Angels and Saints have been blessed as chosen thereunto before the foundation of the World Eph. 1. 3. In the second as a visible head to them in our glorified nature iâ— he qualified actually to give them a life of everlasting blessednes with the never-perishing meat thereof the divine and new-creature glories together with the life in which alone they can see and enjoy them were both and all treasured up for them in him Our exalted nature in him iâ— the adapted conveyer of his divine and otherwise invisible creature-glories to us In our glorified nature he declares the Gospel or glad tydings of salvation to men By this are they made capable of receiving the joyfull news of mansions provided for them in his Fathers House and of entring into them No entring for us but by his entring first in our nature into the state of everlasting life Christ thus is the Key of the house of David Isaiah 22. 22. In his creature-root was treasured up from everlasting the divine glory This must be unlock'd and set open to blessed Angels and Saints by the creature-branch in the second or visible capacity of it even in our exalted nature This is the mystical Key that opens his heavenly creature-life and gives the vision of the divine glory to us By his coming in flesh and death and resurrection thereof has he entred into that state himself as our Head Spiritual saints under the Law safely shut up in the faith of Christ's so comming and doing for them rejoyced therein Christ in his first capacity of creature-branch as resurrection-lamb in his angelical spirit was the invisible Door to his own great creature-building as Root The very Door yet was invisible as well as House and divine Inhabitant At least that Door was not opened nor the divine and creature-glories of the House and Inhabitant revealed as now In our visible nature glorified the second capacity of the branch does he compleat the Door of entrance into the House and is the spiritual Key and Opener thereof so in both capacities of the Branch fitted to be the Authour and Finisher of our Faith And so was he presented at first to Angels and Men as the compleat Object of their Faith for the perfecting their Salvation Blessed Angels therefore desired to prie into the blessed consequents of the man Christ's ascending to give such openings of divine and spiritual mysteries and glories as never before were given to them or saints 1 Pet. 1. 11 12. John 7. 39. Rom. 16. 25 26. Ephes 3. 9 10. Thus have we the ground and reason why our spiritual Levi stood up from everlasting in the Loins of his great mystical Father and that in the two-fold spirit of the Branch invisible and visible as a twofold natural and spiritual Womb and Parent to blessed Angels and Saints As natural or spiritual Children then to him are they to pay the like Tithes due from them to him even the spoiles of all in their own nature by death and sacrifice that the mystical Levi in his person paid to his spiritual Aaron his Root He requires from his Children all the glory due from the descent of his great creature-building to the ascent or top thereof as also from both to the divinity of the Mediatour and through his conjunctive divine and creature being to God most high and absolute in his single or uncompounded divinity For vvithout controversie the less is blessed of the greater Heb. 7. 7. And in the due observation of this rule every part of the Mediatour's person is preserved in an absolute unity to the praise and glory of God most high and Head of all In the great and compleat mystery of Godliness then we find a threefold Headship The first Of God in the simple unity of his divine Essence soveraign Head to the Mediatour's whole divine and creature-being The second is The headship of the first and invisible conjunction of divine and creature-nature in the Mediatour to the twofold spirit of his humanity in which properly the Branch Thirdly This Branch also in his twofold humane capacity is found in an immortal natural and everlasting spiritual headship over blessed angels and saints having in all things a preheminence above them all next under his divine Lord and creature-root as exalted into personal union with both Next then consider the distinct testimonies given by every of these head-ships to the present truth the certain visibility of the Kingdom of Christ declaring all povver in Heaven and Earth given to and visibly to be exercised by the man Christ Jesus who as in our glorified nature shall be seen and acknowledged as by God and his Father made the only Potentate King of Kings and Lord of Lords 1 Tim. 6. 15. and Rev. 19. 16. Yet will not the man Christ take the honour of exercising this power
2. This Bovvl or Top of the great creature-building in the Mediatour is the fitted immediate reception of the divine mind in order to the execution of it by his inferiour creature-capacity signified by the golden Candlestick This inferiour part as living in personal union with the superiour and through that with the divinity it self in the Mediatour is said to be God's equal or fellovv who thus found in the form of God accounts it no robbery or presumption to be equal vvith God even in our soveraignly exalted nature as therein fitted to declare and execute the whole will of his divine and creature-lord Zech. 13. 7. Phil. 2. 6. This inferiour creature-capacity of the Mediatour is the second reception of the divine will and power which was first received by and treasured up in his creature-root and by that transmitted to its Son and Branch to exercise and execute the same as fitted thereunto From the creature-root does the branch receive the power of creating the worlds Heb. 1. 2. as also the essentials of all Rule and Government For all these undertakes does the Son and Branch become abundantly qualified through personal conjunction with his creature-root and divine Lord even to create all things and make Laws whereby clearly to state conserve the absolute headship of the single divinity and the Supream Prerogative of the first conjunction of divine and creature-spirits in the Mediatour The Man Christ as Son and Branch declares the deriving all his power from the two headships over him and his exercise thereof in a visible rule over this world in perfect subjection to them according to the righteous Laws of his own making And he allowes unto Angels and Men all such priviledges as are essential to their spiritual rational and sensual Principles in the life and exercise of their intellectual beings So does he render them according to their creature-liberty free Agents as well as immortal spirits Thus deep is the foundation laid for the Rule and Power of the Kingdom of Christ as visibly to be exercised by him in our glorified nature And this power does he ascribe to his conjunctive divine Lord and creature-root and in harmony therewith to God's absolute divine unity as above all and head to all Thus does Jesus Christ as subjected Lord over all under the said twofold headship over him ascribe and bring the glory to God most high in his single divinity the great and high Father of all So through the happy union of divine and twofold creature-nature in the Mediatour may we behold the Government of Peace under which blessed Saints and Angels are to live everlastingly as shining forth betvveen them both Zec. 6. 13. to wit both his creature-capacities In the higher he is the immediate receiver of the divine mind in the lower the executour of the divine will in all things This twofold office of the mediatour is excellently figured out in the essential parts of man's make and the distinct usefulnesses thereof by which fitted for the compleat exercise of his whole being Yea the whole person of the mediatour in all the essentials of his constitution may fitly be represented by what is found in man For as a shadow of the divinity his spirit or intellectual part is the conceiver of its own will Then his Soul as figure of the mediatour's creature-root is the fitted reception of the said will and mind of the spirit And thirdly the will thus conceived by the Spirit and received by the Soul must be brought into visible exercise and execution by the third essential part in man the body 1 Thes 5. 23. figure of the inferiour part or capacity in the mediatour's creature-nature as visible branch to his invisible creature-root in vvhom the god-head also dvvells bodily and so becomes visible to Angels and Saints Thus by owning every distinct part in the mediatour and in man and accordingly assigning to them their proper offices the usefulnes of the whole both in type and substance is compleated as also their respective personalities And as the body is put for the whole man as that by which the invisible Soul and Spirit are rendred visible in the exercise thereof which dignity belongs to it through its personal union with its invisible Soul and spirit it bears the Title and denomination of the whole man in the figure after the same manner as in the substance the person of the Mediatour Hence every distinct Name of the Mediatour is applyed to Christ the Branch as in our nature glorified For therein the fulness of the Godhead dvvels bodily and in personal union therewith shines forth visibly to Angels and Men. In the lowest essential part of the Mediatour in Christ the Man-child that 's to be manifested in the glory of his Father put upon our exalted nature in him And so is the Government of his divine and creature-lord put upon his Shoulders Hence is he called by his Father's wonderful Names The vvonderful Counsellour the mighty God the everlasting Father and Prince of Peace Isa 9. 6. This is a full significant Prophecy of Christ the Branch in our nature glorified as the body and visibility of the Mediatour by which his other superiour essential parts his divine spirit and creature-soul are brought to light and rendred visible to his creatures So is the Man Christ Jesus the one Mediatour betvveen God and Men 1 Tim. 2. 5. Yet does not the Mediatour hereby lose either his divine or creature-name in the first conjunction thereof but on the contrary that divine Light and original Creature-immortality which was inaccessible invisible and incommunicable to creatures is made visible in the Man Christ as glorified and exalted on the Throne of David in personal union with his divine and creature-lord Of the encrease of vvhose Government through the said union there shall be no end vers 7. For hereby is this happy Prince of peace abundantly qualified to execute and fulfill the whole divine and creature-will And so through the perfect subjection of the visible body our exalted nature in him to the invisible creature-soul and divine spirit is the will of God and of the whole person of the mediatour declared and fulfilled The will of all is manifested and done by the actual setting up of the kingdom over which Christ is to reign as son and branch in the glory of his divine Lord and creature-father This is significantly figured out by Hilkiam the Father and Eliakim the Son holding forth this relation of our mystical Eliakim the branch bearing the same date with his spiritual root and father Hilkiam in his invisible angelical life that he had in his root from everlasting And in his appointed time must all the glory of his Fathers house be visibly put upon our nature in him on earth as invisibly inherited and possessed by him in Heaven So comes he to be clothed with the twofold Robes of mystical Hilkiam his root and father when this son and branch shall appear in
time the spirit in them did signifie vvhen it testified before hand the suffering of Christ and glory that should follovv 1 Pet. 1. 11. And it vvas revealed to them that not unto themselves but us under the gospel-dispensation witnesses both of his comming in flesh and state of grace or resurrection-life which was to follow they did minister such things The Apostles and other Saints in the gospel-day received that spirit not before given Jo. 7. 39. by which the mystery of Godliness became opened even through Christs being manifested in flesh justified in spirit and in our nature exalted into heaven All this visibly accomplished in Christ's person is the sum and substance of the gospel-testimony The resurrection-state is now no longer a land of distances very far off but brought neer and set open in Christ's glorified humanity Hence is the gospel-dispensation much more spiritual then that of the Law the object of faith being now brought into sight though spiritual saints under both these dispensations found a like acceptation with God The elders and worthies under the Law vvere through their powerful faith pleasing to God Heb. 11. 39. as well as spiritual-saints under the gospel They obtained a good report by faith They willingly and cheerfully confessed themselves strangers on earth or as to their natural state and principle though not actually possessed of the spiritual and heavenly This better thing vvas kept in reserve as neither given to nor received by them in such manner as after Christs comming for the compleating of their blessedness and finishing of that faith he was authour of before But the whole seed of faith spiritual saints before and under Law and Gospel agree in their witness to Christ's resurrection-state as that new name and life vvherein alone any ever were or can be saved or receive the vision of the divine glory And though the gospel-ministration be more glorious then that of the Lavv as a ballance to this priviledg of saints under the gospel those under the Lavv vvere made the first-fruits unto Christ in his resurrection-state in our nature For to their imprisoned spirits shut up in the faith of what was to be revealed Christ appeared and in the first degree of his resurrection-life preached it to them or bestowed it on them rendring the state of those just spirits a paradise by entring among them in his resurrection-life and glory And after this he poured forth his glorified spirit on saints in the body which rendred them powerful experimental witnesses of his resurrection-life and new name Thus the whole generation of faith whether as prophetical messengers before Christs comming in flesh or declarers of him after come have all most harmoniously agreed in their testimony to the spiritual nature and visibility of Christ's kingdom here treated on And thus having seen the testimony of the divine nature itself and the infallible creature-testimony of Christ and his saints to this truth as a secondary general confirmation of it we may observe the various types and figures in Gods providential workings for strengthning his Peoples faith in this important truth Even before the fall every voice of God to man was to point out this spiritual State of Rest he was to look after But all this counsel of God was neglected by him Yet did God even after the fall and before the giving of the Law warn Noah of this his twofold great design to wit of taking down the old or first creation-World and setting up that new one in which to establish this visible kingdom of Christ As a token hereof vvas he commanded to build an Ark and by his obedience to God therein did he condemn that sinful World which wilfully neglected the voice of God therein But Noah by faith saw Christ in that resurrection or kingdom-state figured by the Ark as a spiritual Rock of safety to himself and whole spiritual seed from that destruction figured out by the floud which all Angels and men that obstinately fix themselves in the old World or first-creation state against God and the second bring upon themselves And this deluge or destruction of man-kind by water points out the far greater destruction by fire in that day of the Lord wherein he will destroy the very heavens and earth on purpose reserved for the exercise of Gods long-suffering For their abuse of all will ripen them for a final consumption by the fire of God's wrath 2 Pet. 3. 7. Then even amidst those flames will he most certainly set up that spiritual kingdom in which shall be a like visible protection and safty to his saints as Noahs litteral Ark was to him and his family The next remarkable type of this spiritual truth before the giving of the Law was Abrahams conquest of the four Kings as figuring out not only the corrupt but righteous principles of nature in men and Angels which as singly naturall are all in a combined interest against the spiritual seed of faith and Christ their head These are signified in Abrahams person and his followers And their victory was a type fthe compleat and final conquest our spiritual Lord Abraham with all his saints will obtain over all that come against them to oppose the setting up of his spiritual kingdom visibly in the world After this have we another signal figure hereof in Gods remarkable dealing with the Egyptians as his enemies on behalf of the Israelites his friends in his marvellous wayes of punishing the one and delivering the other by his own right hand and out-stretched arm Both were types of that irresistable power in which Christ in these last dayes of greatest bondage and oppression to his people will give them a more remarkable deliverance then ever In these last and worst of times will be a combination in religious and civil principles against them figured by the Egyptian powers and the Magicians by the latter counterfeiting and by the former persecuting the new-creation spirit and power they both hate which Christ is ready to break forth in and thereby to bestow on his spiritual Israelites an absolute deliverance out of all their litteral and mystical captivities And by the same power will he so judge and deal with his enemies of all sorts as never to suffer them to rise up more against him or his spiritual Israelites Moses his whole government with the sanctuary and other things in his ministration were speaking figures and significant voices of this universal kingdom of Christ No circumstance in the civil or religious constitution of that government but remarkably signified the present truth And by signal sounds of his providence under every dispensation has the Lord been declaring and setting this truth before the faith of his People The sanctuary or tabernacle was not to be fixed as in its resting-place till his People were possessed of their resting-place the typical Land of promise Next this was Solomon's Temple on various accounts a signal type of Christ and of what he was to do
Ravens by whom Saints received that new-creation-food that sustained and nourished them unto eternal life By their angelical representations was Christ the head-Angel of God's covenant revealed to the Patriarks before and to Prophets and Saints after the giving of the Law They appeared on all occasions as employed by Christ in all the messages of God's will to them They opened Heaven to Ezekiel who through a powerful faith was enabled to see take in those wonderful visions of the very divine glory through the new-creature-nature of Christ his head so as to hear the voice of the almighty divinity They were the hand that oft lifted him and others up beyond and above the sight and motion of the natural spirit and body whilst yet in the same By the hand or power of their new-creature Lord did they carry him to them of the captivity by the river Chebar Ezek. 3. 14 15. And by the same hand was he led into the valley of dry bones declared by them to signify the whole spiritual Israel They likewise shewed him that new-creation spirit of prophecy by which the dry bones or slain twofold witnesses in the last and worst of times were to be quickned and made live again Ezek. 37. 1 14. The Scripture abounds with instances of this kind Christ the true Michael sent his ministring Angel or Messenger Gabriel to reveal to beloved Daniel those visions that were to remain a sealed book as to their full accomplishment till the time shewed him for the twofold witnesses to be slain as also how by the peculiar work of the good Angels in a preparitory ministration to Christ's second coming they should be raised into the same life and spirit which the Angel shewed Daniel his lot was fallen in so long before his actual possession of And as Angels were Christ's messengers in giving forth this resurrecton-life through a spirit of faith under the Law before Christ's first coming so were they the first actual dispensers and declarers of the said life and glory under the gospel They first preached the glad gospel tydings of Christ's resurrection in our nature This honourable service Christ employed them in as a just recompence of their being his first followers out of the changeable first-creation into that unchangeable resurrection-land or state of life without ever sinning against Law or Gospel Ezek. 1. 12 20. 10. 11. Hereby did they preserve to themselves in this first-resurrection-state that precedency in place and nature God gave them in their first creation And now as additional to that are they chosen by Christ to be his highest-Officers therein for giving the first report of the said resurrection-state of our nature in Christ's person He is not here but is risen Luk. 24. 6. And as in the two days under Law and Gospel Angels under Christ were the first preachers of the resurrection-state unto men so much more powerfully yet will they be in the third and last day By their powerful sounding the new-creation trumpet or preaching the everlasting gospel-life will the dead witnesses be raised and the elect gathered together from one end of Heaven to the other Mat. 24. 31. They will come forth in such power of the new-creation-spirit of prophecy as to cause it to enter into and build up every part of their crucified nature into the life thereof and compleat union with their angelical helpers and Christ himself therein Ezek. 37. 4 -10. And herein shall they be found the twofold united witnesses of Christ in his heavenly and earthly glorified spirit signified to Ezekiel by the two sticks he was to write upon for Judah and for Joseph with their companions Ezek. 37. 15 22. All this done by the holy Angels in the preparatory dispensation amounts not to the Saint's glorified body For that change will be the immediate fruit of Christ's personal coming and presence But these angelical reapers are to gather together the first-born Church written on the heavenly stick sharers in Christ's heavenly and most excellent new-creature-life mark'd with their Father's name on their foreheads and fitted for the marriage-bed of their heavenly Husband And then are they to gather all those whose names are written on the earthly glorified stick also even an innumerable multitude in the white robes of Christ's spiritual everlasting righteousness Rev. 7. 9. Both these are the Angels to gather by preaching the everlasting Gospel to them By their preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom to all the World in the third and last day before the full end come will be fulfilled Mat. 29. 14. They will powerfully waken up the spiritual seed of the Kingdom in all nations and all that are ripe in the life thereof shall be immediately joyned with them even with Christ's heavenly host of Angels for the work and service of that day And at the same time will they raise up other spiritual Saints into a land of light a spiritual Goshen and pour forth the full vials of Plagues on the hardned enemies of God and them God by his holy Angels will lead Saints out of all captivities as Moses Israel out of Egypt raising out of their great and last grave the whole mystical dead body of Christ Of this preparatory angelical ministration was Christ's transfiguration in his unchang'd body before his death a figure He caused the transforming power of his new-creature-life in which Son of man in Heaven to shine so strongly on his inward man or spirit that his very outward also was made to shine His face or spirit shined as the Sun and his raiment or outward man was white as the light So the crucified spirit dead body or natural man of the two witnesses shall by the Angels powerful preaching the everlasting Gospel be so raised into the powerful exercise of Spiritual life as to make their unchang'd fleshly bodies shine as a high degree of redemption from the bondage of their whole corruptible first-creation-life Such Saints with holy Angels shall shine as Stars through a more signal partaking of Christ's risen Spirit the bright morning Star from whom they all receive their distinct measures of new-creation-light and life In this season and dispensation will Christ make good to his Saints what he long before promised to Joshua as associated with Angels under him his joint powerful instruments for the great work of this preparatory day Of this priviledg was Moses also a signal type as through faith taken into such angelical converse and thereby admitted so near access to Christ the head of Angels as will qualify them to receive the lively oracles of Christ's own mind and become his mouth for declaring the same to others This honour will be put on Saints in the preparatory dispensation to Christ's second coming And thus have we seen by what means or hand the last generation of Saints are to be slain and by what to be raised again and their high priviledg and honour thereupon This by the angelical ministration for this very
People The natural man spirit life or state at best in the persons of Saints is their free-will-offerings figured by the Israelit's literal So by a happy transformation or translation into the spiritual life of Christ become their whole persons at length true lively Stones in his new-creation-Sanctuary figured by the literal 1 Pet. 2. 5. This comes to pass and this come they to by being with Paul obedient to the heavenly vision or discovery of Christ's spiritual heavenly life of truth for which made willing in this day of his power the powerful angelical preaching the everlasting Gospel to part with the but earthly natural fleshly life of their own spirit or nature even with the freedom and life of their own wills as their true free-will-offerings to God under the kindlings and in the same mystical fire Christ himself kindled on the spirit of our nature at best in his own very person To this will Saints be induced by the Angels preaching the everlasting Gospel-life of Christ to them presenting the riches and fulness of his new-creature-nature to the inward senses of his heavenly and earthly glorified spiritual Seed This will not only fill them with unspeakable joy but powerfully convince all unprejudiced reasonable men of the worship due to Christ from all Then shall the new-creature Temple in Christ figured by Solomon's the pattern for which was received from the true temple-spirit 1 Chron. 28. 12. be so open'd as not only to give a view of the divine inhabitant thereof to be worshipped but allow and warrant a free access and safe approach to the divine Majesty For Christ is both the house and builder thereof the presenter also of Saints Prayers unto God most high And for the said House sake will all be accepted according to promise even all persons and performances found to be done in the spirit of the House true Sanctuary-light and life Then shall the seed of the Kingdom be qualified in their awaken'd spiritual senses both to look into and read with delight and comfort the law of God's divine mind and will engraven in Christ's new-creature-nature or spirit of truth which is the living Book or word of God in and by which is given the vision of the divine glory for their everlasting blessedness and also the whole of his requirings from them in reference thereunto The powerful preaching or opening all this to them will in a high degree priviledg them both to see and do the whole will of God Now in order to such a Gospel-preaching as shall be the effectual means of bringing such great and glorious things to pass the preachers will be endowed with that universal new-creature-tongue and understanding which comprehends all other tongues and knowledg The confusion of languages at Babel as to the words of man's wisdom in his own spirit nature and way will be no obstruction to this universal Gospel-preaching to all Nations in the words of God's wisdom or true new-creature-spirit of prophecy A demonstration hereof was given by the said Spirit in the Apostles They could make themselves understood by people of various Languages Act. 2. 4 11. In this universal new-creation-tongue will the angelical preachers raise the seed of first-born-Saints out of their Grave or crucified nature into such a heavenly spiritual life as will capacitate and qualify them to judg the highest elect angels as exalted into a life light and discerning above them Yet till then they receive instruction from spiritual Angels as their teachers and guardians Heb. 1. 14. The next service of Love these angelical preachers will perform is to the earthly seed of spiritual Saints to whom under Christ they are ever to be the instructing and nursing Parents having received from Christ the highest earthly glorified wisdom in the highest conjunction with yet subjection to the wisdom of the heavenly creature-spirit which is above it and them So will Angels be subjected rulers under Christ over his first-resurrection-Saints in a glorified earthly spiritual life Thirdly in their natural make distinct from both the former qualifications are the holy Angels fitted to preach the highest single natural wisdom to the rational righteous man in the largest and most extensive intuitive way of communication that principle in Man is capable of receiving These angelical Ministers will also declare the right use Men are to make of such instruction by growing out of this lowest degree of Christ's obedient Subjects that 's but a changeable state into an everlasting blessed state of spiritual life and true freedom the glorious liberty of the Sons of God And herein have we seen these spiritual builders or preachers fitly qualified to provide all sorts of materials for the visible Kingdom of Christ This by speaking the words of wisdom suited to every distinct principle and understanding in those of whom this Kingdom consists as an adaequate agreeable knowledg of God to all They will declare the good will of God for restoring to all in general the free and orderly exercise of their intellectual rational and sensual powers they were first created in But all this in order to their yeilding subjection to a spiritual state kept in reserve for them through which to be brought into such unchangeable union with Christ's new-creature-spirit as that is in with the divine The very divine Oracles and Laws of God's mind shall then as in Moses his time be committed to these spiritual Ministers who by their new-creation-tongue and universal knowledg will be capacitated for the declaring thereof They will be furnish'd with the very essentials of all right ministry and magistracy by which to lay the sure foundations of both as to spirituals and civils on which the visible Kingdom of Christ must be built Hereby will the everlasting benefit of the government in both become so evident as irresistibly to prevail not only with awaken'd spiritual Saints but enlightned and reformed natural Men for their full consenting to the same So without the least force or compulsion the Nations of this new World shall in an abundant manner flow in unto the Lord voluntarily yeilding a ready subjection to Christ's angelical preachers so as to shew the same not to proceed from fear but for conscience-sake And Christ shall have the whole glory of all For the holy Angels will declare it to be in the power of his spirit they do all and that it is his will alone is done by them in all their proparatory work This work will so influence the Nations of the new World as to cause the congregation of spiritual Israelites to bring themselves as free-will-offerings to Christ the spiritual materials and subjects of which his new-creation-Sanctuary and Kingdom is to consist So see we the high honour of these spiritual builders and preachers in this preparatory day Their feet will be beautiful and glorious in this angelical mount or ministration proclaiming the glad tydings of their Lord 's sudden coming to reign visibly in this World They will powerfully
and undeniably assert and demonstrate his right to the universal monarchy of the whole Earth And having thus seen in a parallel to Moses his day how all the materials of Christ's visible Kingdom are to be provided the mystical Stones hewed squared and polished for compleating the new-building we are next to consider by way of parallel also the view that from an angelical hand and glory is to be given of the Throne and heavenly Temple of Christ as was of Moses his Tabernacle by the rearing thereof before fixed in the Land of Canaan Through the angelical light of the preparatory day shall the new-creation Temple of Christ be opened and rendred much more perspicuous than ever it hath yet been And this as a needful qualifying of the new Earth for so great a glory as will shine forth upon it by Christ's personal coming to set up and establish his visible and everlasting Kingdom In order to this work let us yet more particularly examine the type in which Moses in every thing relating to it received exact direction from God and was also shewed the original patern of the typical Tabernacle in that holy Mount the same with this angelical ministration that 's to reveal Christ the original and substance of all According to this angelical sight through faith given to Moses was he to provide every Pin and Board belonging to the Tabernacle and answerable to the pattern joyn and linke every part of the whole together And so became it a lively figure of the compleat new-creature-building in Christ and his comprehensive body head and members who must all be exactly and inseparably joyn'd together in a spirit of faith and love by that supply to each other which must be made by every joint and member according to the effectual working of the distinct measure of the new-creature-spirit of the head in every part to the increase and perfecting of the whole body in love Eph. 4. 16. Of this compleat creature-building in the invisible existing state of the new-creature-seed in their head before Angels or Men personally and individually were and also as to be brought forth in his spiritual life and inseparably therein joyn'd to Christ their Head and Parent in their distinct subjected places as lively spiritual Stones in his new-creation-Temple 1 Pet. 2. 5. was the literal Tabernacle an appointed type The foundation of Christ's visible Kingdom is laid in this preparatory dispensation giving Pisgah-sights and views of the glory of Christ and his true spiritual Land of Promise before his actual appearance This will yet be more evident from the spiritual meaning of all things belonging to Moses his Tabernacle the type both of Christ's invisible Being and visible Kingdom Exod. 40. There was first the Tabernacle itself then the tent of the Tabernacle and thirdly the cover of the tent each a cover to the other This done in the truth and substance makes the new-creature-house in Christ a fitted reception for the divine inhabitant and to blessed Saints and Angels also This was also figured out by the covering Mercy-seat Ark and Testimony the holy things put within the Tabernacle So in the figure is a compleat view given of the original patern or creature-building in the Mediator of which it was the appointed representation as to be acknowledg'd in root and branch fitly figured by the threefold distinct covers on the infinite divinity which the Tabernacle consisted of The single fleshly humanity of Christ was the outermost cover put upon the twofold immutable being of his creature-nature his heavenly and earthly glorified spirit fitly represented by the Tabernacle and tent thereof and as so the fitted receptacle to the most choice high and holy things his eternal power and divinity and then also to those things of his eternal Power and God-head to wit his original creature-being or root the immediate workmanship of his own divinity In this twofold respect may he not unfitly be represented by the Ark and covering merey-seat The divine and creature-nature of the Mediatour in this first and invisible fellowship or conjunction are the things as in type preserv'd in such an invisibility as not to be immediately look'd upon or seen by any Therefore on purpose did they lodg and seat themselves in that mystical Tabernacle the body or visibility of the Mediatour provided also by himself as the new-creature-Temple and Sanctuary pitch'd by God not Man in which his invisible holy divine and creature-nature or things are laid up out of the immediate sight of any But they are to shine forth through the said blessed Tabernacle with safety and to the comfort of every worshipper and attendant about the said Tabernacle according to the lesser or greater distance in which placed The true Tabernacle in the capacity of branch exalted into personal union with the Mediatour as his divine head and creature-root is become that Temple of God in Heaven that by the setting up of Christ's visible Kingdom is to be open'd on Earth Rev. 11. 19. And so will the compleat personality of the Mediatour be beheld in his divine and twofold creature-being Thus by considering the spiritual meaning of the Type have we the reason why the literal Tabernacle was to consist of so many covers and also for the invisibility of the holy things with which furnish'd to wit as the significant types of the great original that is the invisibility of the divine and also creature-nature in its first conjunction with divine and so also of the fulness and variety of his new-creature-nature For it was needful his divine and creature-nature in their first and invisible conjunction should wrap up themselves in Christ the branch as in a threefold cover or Tabernacle and this as the only means to give the vision of his divine-nature and creature-root to Angels and Men. And having thus considered the distinct parts of the Tabernacle and holy things wherewith furnished consider next the form and manner in which set up to wit in a four-square shape God assigning the distinct places of every Attendant about it from highest to lowest At East or upper-end were placed Moses Aaron and his Sons At each side and West or lower-end were the other Levit's placed according to their respective charges as chosen into the room of the First-born Israelit's for the service of the Tabernacle in a subjected service of love to the high-Priest's office preparing and slaying the Sacrifices but not permitted immediately to draw nigh to God by offering the Sacrifices or touching the Ark and holy things therein Thus Moses Aaron and his high-Priest Sons together with the whole Tribe of Levi were the first Attendants in their higher and lower places round about the literal Tabernacle Then about the same and Court thereof at a greater distance were the whole Congregation of Israel placed in their several Tribes with a Prince and Head to every Tribe and other inferiour Rulers appointed according to Jethro's advice approved by God over thousands
faithful in their service to Christ therein Thus through a union of love between Angels and heavenly Saints are the Angels under Christ instrumental to the bringing the whole Church of first-born David's into those places in Christ's Kingdom wherein to be for ever far superiour to themselves And till seated there do they exercise the utmost of their power to protect the said Davids from the malice of their invsible enemies Devils typed out by Jonathan's faithful informing David of all Saul's mischeivous and malicious intendments discovered towards him and protecting him from them While these Princes or most heavenly Seed of Saints are in their unchanged bodies walking on foot on the Earth or in the single earthly spirit and mind this foot or earthly principle is kept by them from any such wilful dashing against or stumbling at the mystical stone Christ's new-creature-spirit as excludes from the true rest therein only attainable In a like practice with Jonathan in letter they discover all the secret and subtile contrivances of mystical Saul's malice against these spiritual Davids that they may escape him They thus protect them from the evil Angel and on the other hand inform them of Christ's spiritual Kingdom by communicating their visions thereof In both these distinct works of love to Saints will they appear more visibly than ever in their dispensation immediately preparatory to Christ's second coming And herein as owned by Christ so ought they by Saints Rev. 22. 16. I Jesus have sent mine Angel to testify these things to the Churches the things of the new Jerusalem-Kingdom of Christ which will suddenly be made visible and not only so but to testify of me also that I am the bright morning-Star or in my exalted humanity head of these angelical Stars in that resurrection-glory wherein they shall shine forth in their preparatory morning-ministration so as to be signally owned by me in their faithful service to me This is implied ver 6. These sayings are faithful and true For the Lord God of his holy Prophets hath sent his Angel to give them the fore-running sights of things that as to publick and general manifestation are yet to come but now at hand and therefore no longer to be sealed up but open'd by Angels to them in Christ's preparatory day And so also are the sealed up judgments by them then to be opened and visibly poured forth upon the enemies of his approach and Kingdom This honour have the blessed Angels even of being chief instruments in setting up the Kingdom of Christ by communicating their sights thereof to Saints belonging to the upper or lower new Jerusalem or spiritual Kingdom in their distinct relations thereunto as the heavenly or but earthly glorified seed And this ought by them both and all to be thankfully acknowledged When the Angel shew'd John the Lamb and his Bride clothed with her wedding robe her Husband 's heavenly spirit he fell at the Angel's feet to worship him But the Angel said see thou do it not for though in this dispensation I am above thee yet am I but thy fellow-Servant under our great Master to minister to thee who wilt in conclusion be exalted far above me And then also must we both as holding of Jesus our head in the true new-creation spirit of prophecy worship God alone The heavenly seed of Saints that receive the first revelations or visions of the glory of Christ's Kingdom from Angels will be found to have an interest superiour to theirs therein when they take their places about the exalted Throne of Christ set up in the third Heaven Then will the Angels give up their guardianship over them as no longer needing it being exalted above them Yea then will the Angels of God rejoyce to receive instruction from them to whom they before gave it Then shall the marvellous and manifold wisdom of God appear in causing the Church of his first-born-Saints when exalted into their heavenly places to make a suitable return to the good Angels for all their faithful service of love to them in communicating their higher visions of God in such measure as they are capable of receiving than ever yet was attained by them They will under Christ reveal to them that manifold-grace of God that 's the blessed portion of second-resurrection-Saints received by them immediately from Christ and from him by them let down and revealed to Angels Thus makes he his blessed creatures Angels and Saints in the beauty and harmony of his dispensations towards them useful to one another and so to remain for ever in their higher and lower places and offices in Christ's body-mystical as is figuratively signified 1 Cor. 12. 21. Many who in their single unchang'd humanity Angels are the teachers of will be in a superiority to all Angels and in that sence said to judg even the holy Angels as in a higher sort of spiritual life and light judgment or discerning then they and so fit instructers of them 〈…〉 God to them as Christ's highest and chief Ministers These will make known to Christ's Angels and glorified earthly members the fellowship of that mystery which comparatively to the revelation as yet given thereof hath bin till then hid in God They shall fully reveal the whole mystery of divine and creature-fellowship in God the Mediatour from everlasting to everlasting and so the manifold divine and creature wisdom if God to their inferiour-fellow-creaturs which is in the compleat fulness thereof their continual vision and food But though when the first-born heavenly Church take their seats in glory Angels cease from the exercise of rule over them yet do they remain as door-keepers to the said heavenly City and Society They were placed from the beginning as Christ's spiritual Watchmen over this tree of Life or whole spiritual state And in the faithful discharge of that office have ever since with their flaming Swords or angelical weapons bin made use of by way of defence and service to the said state for directing the holy Seed to the right door of the blessed City and for the keeping any spiritually profane persons from entring thereat They are ready with their angelical flames to destroy all such And when the good seed even the first-born Church are all entred and have taken their places in a superiority to them will they still for ever hold the same place and station as door-keepers in the nearest relation to the said first-born Church To be such a door-keeper to the second-resurrection-state David saw was to be preferred above the highest glorified Saints in the first as nearest to the heavenly Citizens or first encompassers of the Throne Also under Christ and his heavenly Saints are the holy Angels Princes or chief Rulers in and over the first-resurrection-state the outward row of encompassers and therein to remain for ever And as now we have seen the good Angels business in the preparatory dispensation we may observe the approbation they will receive from their great Lord and
Master for the same As recompence of their labour of love to his Saints will Christ at end of their preparatory dispensation say to them well done good and faithful Servants enter into the full joy and enjoyment of your Lord prepared for you and reserved to be given or conveighed to you by the hand of my heavenly Saints at my command These highest instruments under Christ are to fill their angelical vessels with that manifold grace and wisdom of God which till thus by heavenly and most exalted Saints could not is not to be reveal'd to them being of too vast and comprehensive a nature to be received by them immediately from Christ's own hand Their portion therein and visions thereof are appointed to be given forth to them by his heavenly Church of first-born-Saints Eph. 3. 10. All others are too inferiour and at too great a distance to be immediate receivers thereof from Christ who in all the distributions of the glory of this state is to be seen and acknowledged head of this first-born-Church And in like manner will the geral assembly of earthly glorified Saints acknowledg Christ head of the angelical rulers over them on the finishing their preparatory dispensation for taking down the whole old first-creation-World and laying the foundation of the new All this by such an opening of the sealed up judgments of God due to every part of this sinful World on the utmost trial discover'd to be that accursed Earth which will not be made better who shall by the light of this angelical ministery be discovered and have a fire kindled in and upon them as condemned persons that shall never be quench'd They shall in mystical chains and fetters put upon them be secured and imprisoned in order to their final sentence and execution thereof from Christ's personal presence Then as the King in the parable will he say of the earthly Jerusalem-Citizens as wilful refusers of his raign over them bring and slay them before me Luk. 19. 27. This shall be when the Son of Man the declared King of the whole World shall sit on the Throne of the Fathers glory on Earth Psal 2. 8. For this will he summon and assemble before him all Nations in order to separate his chast Sheep from Satan's lustful Goats who through inordinate lust after and love to the fading life wisdom power and glory of their own old nature have despised and rejected Christ's new-creature-nature and life wisdom righteousness and power of God therein and will send both to their respective places or final states of eternal life or death Mat. 25. 31 -46. Then will incorrigibly wicked Angels and Men be chained up in unexpressible torment so as in their height of rage against God Christ blessed Angels and Saints not able to do any thing against them to disturbe their peaceable raign with Christ during his thousand years visible Kingdom on Earth And to the Sheep on his right hand the prepared spiritual members of his visible Kingdom will Christ say come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the World either in a spiritual or natural religious or civil capacity This was declar'd to John even that all those Souls that had been mystically or literally beheaded for the testimony of Jesus or word of God who by the chastity of their spirit to Christ have bin kept from worshipping the Beast his image or receiving his mark in their foreheads even an unchangeable enmity to God shall in one or other of the said capacities live and raign with Christ in the first resurrection-state whereby secured from any hurt by the second death The young and tender seed also to be awaken'd by the preparatory dispensation that shall not after that in this powerful day of light degenerate into strange plants shall likewise in their successive generations grow up out of their restored principles of nature into first or second resurrection-members of Christ's visible spiritual Kingdom This season to obedient Sheep and lustful rebellious Goats will be found the best and worst of times For then will be made an abundant recompence to Saints for all the hard usage for Christ's new name and life sake they have met with from World and Devil Then shall they find the performance of all the great and glorious promises so as to fill them with joy and render them blessed beyond what the narrow natural heart of the greatest Saint could imagine conceive desire or wish But quite contrary to the inhabitants of the Earth the Goats on the left hand will this day of Christ be the greatest and saddest wo imaginable For they will find the greatest disappointment as to their mis-grounded hopes of everlasting happiness and true rest and in the room thereof the height of a restless vexation of spirit under a self-condemning light awaken'd up in them in judgment so as ever to see it brought upon them by their own wilful folly And they will also see themselves stripp'd of all means of coming out of the same or of delivering themselves from or being reveng'd on that power against which they have rebelled and incorrigibly hardned themselves Yet will they retain the utmost height of malice for ever to him that slays them that divine and new-creature spirit and life of Christ and God which are unspeakably above them They will proudly and presumptuously in their Luciferian spirit of unchangeable enmity say before him that slays them I am God but shall be forced to see themselves but Man and not God in the hand of him that slays them Exek 28. 9. And thus have we in some small measure observ'd the near approach of Christ's visible Kingdom in the preparatory dispensation to it In the beginning hereof the two witnesses are to be signally slain These are a twofold generation of spiritual Saints that are to be his heavenly and earthly glorified congregation or new-creation Heaven and Earth for ever These two sorts of spiritual Saints do make up and give forth the compleat witness of Christ's new-creature-life who now in the end of this World are to suffer the utmost extremity of mystical or litteral death The design of God in suffering this extream suffering of his witnessing Saints in such a day of trouble to them as never was since there was a Nation is to introduce his angelical preachers and witnessing-risen-Saints whose joint-ministry will powerfully shake and overturn all earthly buildings foundations or principles The voice of God's providences is such as affords significant signs to the reading or understanding of rational men of his present controversy with the whole Earth For in a way of righteous judgment is he confounding and overthrowing all worldly constitutions religious and civil The light of the day so remarkably judges and discovers the rotten foundation upon which both are built as undeniably to convince all they can no longer maintain or uphold their own structure Yet as the saddest lamentation how little are