life perisheth and man returneth to his Earth to his very corruption again yea and taketh unto himself seven Devils worse then the former For the higher that man is raised by this breath from the Lord the lower he falls when this breath is withdrawn It is the spirit of corrupt man getting or advanced by the Lord into the purest ways and forms of Religion which bringeth forth the filthiest abominations 4. In the result of this corruption and evil will befall you in the latter days Sin most naturally brings forth death Corruption or putrefaction is a degree of and a direct passage unto death And it will break forth and appear in the latter days Man must have a time to corrupt in which he is to be let alone but in the latter days when his end draws nigh death hastens apace his corruption then begins to open it self and to discover the death which lay hid in it Then that evil which man hoped all this while to secure himself from will begin to manifest it self to be in the nature of his own spirit or in the nature of that sin and corruption which he hid within the nature of his spirit He hath hid his destruction in his own bowels he hath hugged it in his bosom in the midst of all his designs to escape it and in the latter days when it is grown ripe and strong thence it will start seize upon him and devour him When the Lord hath throughly tryed the spirit of man and when man hath throughly corrupted himself then will he lay the ax to the root of this tree and cut it down that it may cumber the ground no longer He hath cut down the Iews already Their latter days wherein evil did befall them have overtaken them and he will also cut down the Gentiles The Iews were not the seed for after the death of Moses they did corrupt themselves and discover that they like the rest of the world were but flesh Neither are the Gentiles the seed for they also after the death of that life which did flow from the Spirit into Christ and his Apostles did also corrupt themselves The uncircumcised and unclean spirit of man did enter into this Temple and Worship as well as into the former Therefore the Lord will both cut down the spirit of man and will also down with all that into which the spirit of man can enter and then will he bring forth his own Truth his true Temple his true Worship his true Worshippers 5. In the ground of this death and destruction to man because ye will do evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger through the works of your hands All the motions of man anger God All the works of his hands are filthy and corrupt in themselves and provocative to the eye of his nature and spirit All mans knowledg all his life all his ways of Worship Faith and Obedience in every kind every thing that suits the eye and judgment of his spirit and wherewith he thinks to please God is lothsom to God This lothsomness stirreth up in God his indignation which causeth him in the proper season thereof to bring death upon man and to bring him to Judgment after which cometh the second death Then it shall be known who have been led by the Lord and who have truly followed him though the spirit of man now laughs at all who walk not with him in his way of understanding Then shall all see and know who are righteous and be forced to confess from their very hearts saying Verily there is a reward for the righteous a competent reward a full reward unto them for all the sufferings and misery which have attended them in their way and passage hither Blessed is he whom the Lord leadeth by the proper cross attending every dispensation through trouble and death into life But excessively miserable is that man whose fleshly spirit remaineth in any dispensation or who passeth from dispensation to dispensation with his life unslain therewith feeding upon the Ordinances duties enjoyments or any other holy or spiritual things of God and thereby fattening and fitting himself for death and destruction against the great and terrible day of the Lord God Almighty according as the spirit of Christ in David speaketh Psal. 94.12 13. with a gloss whereupon I shall draw towards a conclusion Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest O Lord and teachest him out of thy Law That thou mayst give him rest from the days of adversity until the pit be digged for the wicked There is a pit digging for the wicked into which when it is finished when it is every way made large and deep and piercing enough the whole wicked spirit of man shall either fall or be cast or partly fall and partly be cast into it Till this pit be digged it is a troublesome time to the seed but a quiet time with man The spirit of man is now at ease He can serve he can please he can enjoy himself in his whole course both of nature and religion yea and he can also secure himself from future danger from danger at the last He hath made a covenant with death and with Hell is he at agreement When the overflowing scourge passeth it shall not come near him It is for unbeleevers for sinners for persons who know not God or obey not the Gospel of our Lord Iesus Christ to fear death and Hell or eternal destruction But when this pit is digged the Spirit of the Lord with his light will search out the spirit of man under all his disguises and what ever hath not the true breath of life in it shall be cast into and dye in this pit There are persons also to whom God will give rest from the days of adversity Those who have all along been persecuted by all sorts of enemies and afflicted with all sorts of miseries that spirit which hath been hunted wounded grieved distressed all the day long by the cruel spirit of man and Satan shall be rescued from the jaws of each and be refreshed Those who are leavened with the life of Gods most holy Spirit who are so new-changed by it that they have none of that life none of that spirit left remaining in them which the Lord cometh to destroy the Lord will give them rest When the Lord cometh forth to hunt take and devour the spirit of man those in whom that spirit is already dissolved shall not be in fear or danger of his severity but shall find the abundance of love sweetness peace and rest administred to them by the same hand which will then so eagerly and fiercely prosecute the spirit of man Then they who have hitherto been at ease shall be troubled and they who have hitherto been troubled shall have ease And to you who are troubled rest with us When the Lord Iesus shall be revealed c. 2 Thes. 1. The ways whereby God leadeth his to this rest are
was forsaken of his God in the truth of his estate and condition but he also felt it and he did not only feel it himself but his enemies saw it too yea it was palpable to the common eye of the people and to all that beheld him All that see me laugh me to scorn they shooâ— the lip they shake the head saying He trusted in God th the would deliver him c. Is this the man that had so much interest in God Is this the man in whom the Power of God did so appear and who could do such mighty things by the Power and Vertue of God Is his Doctrine and Miracles his great Union and Communion come to this They shake their heads as at a deceit as at a delusion as at a piece of vanity they mock they spit upon him they buffet him c. They crown him in derision They reproach yea they abhor in their spirits the very power of his life in the day of his death Use. Behold O Christians the death of the life of Christ behold the Baptism of Christ the miserable passage to the Crown If ye will become Christs ye must dye not only to the corruption and shame but also to all the glory and excellency of this world and yet not stop there neither The life of Christ will put out the life of all other things and when it hath done so there is a death for it too The Spirit of Christ in the seed must pass through its own blood into the holy of holies Alas Sirs If there were nothing to pass through but a death to this world what an easie matter were it comparatively to be a Christian What an easie matter were it to despise and trample upon this world by vertue of such an excellent life in the Spirit To have that spirit in the seed broken which delights or may delight in the world it is bitter indeed to man but alas that bitterness is nothing in compare with that bitterness which ariseth from the breaking of the new life in the new spirit Would ye know what this is Why measure it by this by the sweetness of this life Do ye know how sweet it is to taste the true nature of the Life of God! to enjoy and live upon the breath of his Spirit to walk in the light and love of the Lord If ye truly know these things the true sweetness of them then ye may be able to give a guess at what it is to have them broken But as there have been counterfeit Images all along of the Life of Christ so are there also of his Death O what pains do several sorts of men take to find out this Death yea and to meet with the anguish of it but all to no purpose for the Lord alone can light and the Lord alone can extinguish this Lamp I kill and I make alive This holdeth true every where but here most especially The Lord alone can bring forth the next strain of life and the Lord alone can bring into this narrow passage of death XIII The Course and End of Man DEUT. 31.29 For I know that after my death ye will utterly corrupt your selves and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you and evil will befall you in the latter days because ye will do evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger through the works of your hands THis people who were the choyce of God among whom the seed of life was sown was a type of the spirit of man truly representing his nature and state more especially in these five particulars following 1. In his difficulty to be woond up to the mind and will of God in any dispensation There was a great deal of work with this people to bring them to any pass Continual Instructions continual Corrections a mighty current of Power and Providence did God both put forth and maintain to cause them to beleeve and obey both in Egypt and in the Wilderness and yet it proved a very difficult task to winde them up to either Thus it is with the spirit of man God is at a very great expence to bring him to any thing He is fain to let forth of his own Spirit of his own Light of his own Power and batter him out of all his fleshly holds before he can bring him to submit to him and walk with him in any of his dispensations 2. In his sudden backsliding This people did naturally fall from God They were hardly drawn up but did slide down of themselves What a work had God with them to make them beleeve and wait upon him what a many wonderful Works did he shew to draw them up to trust him to follow him to love him c. but alas how soon did they forget his Works and retire back into the fleshly principle and course of the Heathen and this both in Egypt and in the Wilderness and also in Canaan Thus it is also with the spirit of man Let God never so powerfully convince and engage him in the light and life of his spirit yet he naturally slinks back from it He corrupts himself in every dispensation of the Lord seting up his own lusts there serving them and forgetting the Lord his Maker and Redeemer He makes every path and truth either of the Law or Gospel serve his own carnal spirit in so much as though he walk in all the ways of the Lord as he accounts them yet he serves himself in all and not the Lord in any Mans flesh mans reason nay mans vanity and corruption gets into every way of the Lord polluting it self there and prophaning all the holy things of God It turns out of that which is indeed the way and walks in that which though it still calls it the way yet is not but only a way of its own for the very Ordinances and Institutions of God after the spirit of man hath entered into them and molded them to his own bent God will no longer own them but terms them his ways and inventions 3. In the season of mans corrupting himself which is after Moses his death after the death of the Witnesses after the departure or death of that life in him which seized upon him overcame him and as it were forced him into the ways of God When the light of God cometh down upon man and overbeareth his spirit he cannot but follow it but when that light is gone he returneth to himself again He turneth from the life from the purity of that into which he was led retaining only so much as will serve the ease quiet content and satisfaction of his own corrupt spirit There are gales of the Spirit of God which descend upon this earth the spirit of man Where these blow strongly man is hugely changed He hath as it were a new spirit in him whereby he is after a sort naturally led to follow the Lord. But when the Lord withdraweth this breath his
in Scripture as in Cain and Abel Isaac and Ishmael Esaiâ— and Iacob the Iews and Gentiles the Gentiles again a spiritual seed and the Jews or natural seed for none of these were the truth it self but several shadows and representations of it under which the truth lay and through which it did sometimes a little start up and peep forth Adam was not the humanity but an Hierogliphick of it his body was not the body nor his Spirit the Spirit but an Hierogliphick of each and the poor weak shadow in coming forth is lost but the substance being safe recovereth its shaddow again The great Lord hath his stay and his Comedies and Tragedies with there several Acts and Scenes He bringeth forth his great principle of good and his great principle of evil and these have Powers and opperations and circuits sutable to themselves and sutable to him whose they are and they act their part in all their limits upon this stay Now of this the Scriptures treat bringing forth first God the principle of light with his Creation then Satan the principle of darkness with his destruction and so the seed of both and the contest of both to the end with the several salvations and destructions appertaining to each Now mark God hath two seeds the natural the spiritual the outward the inward the humanity the divinity Both these were sown in Adam Both these were covered with darkness Both these are recovered and restored by that which is the substance of each neither whereof was in Adam but only the Image and that a natural one too for the spiritual was reserved for Christ in whom the substance was to dwell He was an heavenly man in his make and production as an Adam was an earthly This was again written over in Abraham through whom God produceth and embraceth both the seeds both the natural and the spiritual yet suffereth them both to go into their proper Egypts to go into Captivity to be slaves to be in bondage in the land of darkness and thence again he redeemeth them by his own out-stretched Arm by the substance of his own life and Power out of Egypt have I called my Son Answerably the Devil hath two seeds he hath a spiritual and a fleshly seed as well as a spiritual and fleshly wickedness which he hath sown every where throughout the whole Creation and it is the meeting of these with the seeds of God which maketh such Earthquakes their very natures opposing clashing and fighting like fire and water and there will never be any quietness till both be taken into their places These seeds I mean each of darkness and each of light for there is the outward and inward seed of both are the one of them the wicked the ungodly the sinners the children of darkness whose principle is darkness whose estate is darkness whose course is darkness and whose end is death and destruction And the other are holy righteous the children of light whose principle estate course and end is life and salvation And this is it which was pointed at in all the shadows which were chosen to signifie it in the Scriptures The different constitution and condition of these seeds is such that the one thriveth and flourisheth in his sin and wickedness the other fainteth and almost perisheth in his righteousness only he hath somewhat in hopes somewhat to hope for in the end which to the other is dismal Mark the perfect man and behold the upright the end of that man is peace There is one thing further which would be well observed or it may occasion great mistakes which is this God though he be light yet he hath his proper darkness wherewith he covereth himself he clouds himself with thick darkness and so he doth also his seed And the Devil though he be the principle of darkness yet he hath also his light wherewith he clothes himself and his off-spring But this darkness of God and his seed is light in the root and the light of the Divil and his off-spring is darkness in the root There is a mighty mistery in this in Gods excercising each of his seeds towards salvation under that which cannot save them and yet both think they are in the direct and certain path of salvation under each Thus did the Iews or natural seed in their day and thus did the Gentiles or spiritual seed in their day But the Lord breaketh each of these ways of administration and bringeth about his salvation unto each in a way that they are not aware of The seed whether or natural or spiritual may be dashed and broken in all the pathes of every administration wherein the spirit of man may be broken and yet come safe to harbor at last for the life which is in the seed or root in respect of all its shootings up through the natural spirit and all the motions opperations and several sorts of fruit which it beareth there whereby it shineth so gloriously in the view of man may retire or be driven back into the seed or root yet remaining there it is safe in respect of the substance of the promise though it should lye equally open to the same loss with the spirit of man in all dispensations which depend upon the motions and exercise of life That promise which dependeth upon the nature of the thing cannot be lost where the nature remains but all those promises which depend upon the qualifications motions or opperations of the thing must needs fail where those qualifications motions and operations cease Thus there is none at a greater loss then the seed for there is none besides them have that to lose None besides themselves have that true life that true sweetness and communion with God to lose which they have and yet none in their loss are in so great safety and at so great certainty for that which they lose being substantial is not perfectly lost but retired shrunk back into its root where it cannot but strengthen it self and so spring up again with advantage Now what children are we in understanding all our knowledg being but about a dispensation nay but about the shadow of a dispensation and yet how short are we in that how little of truth do we know there III. Of Radical or Original Knowledg THe Root Spring or Original of all things is perfect unity and being perfect unity is also perfect variety comprehending all things in it self in intire oneness how vastly different or contrary soever they appear when they come forth out of it All the varieties and contrarieties in this world came out of one common mass All the differences and distinctions of Nature out of one common nature He who could look upon them there how closely knit in oneness would he find them notwithstanding their great diversities and antipathies here but if any could look into the root how much more one should he find them there In this root there are too other roots as I may so say
all agree in their common nature and properties and yet have also a distinct nature and properties of their own sutable to that whereof they are formed and to that peculiar end and operation for which they are formed Use 1. Observe the difference between the Religion of man and of God Man receiveth his vertue his strength in Religion from the outward notion The power which is found in him issueth thence but in the Religion of God the strength ariseth yea and the notion it self too from the seed The seed springing up in them in whom it is sown discovereth its own name teaching them how to call it by manifesting it self in them what it is The new Adam knoweth how to name every new creature at the first sight by his knowledg of its nature 2. See how easie it is for Religion to slip in or out of any thing or person This life this nature this vertue may creep in or out at pleasure The life may fill appear and live in that in us one day which the flesh may fill appear and live in the next The spirit of the Lord may rear up and discover himself in that Temple to day which Antichrist may take possession of to morrow Religion I mean the life of it consists in the breath of God not in any outward form whatsoever but in the breath of God there which when God once withdraweth from any thing there is no longer the true nature of Religion there to be found and ever after it is only fit to be a receptacle for the unclean spirit of man which must have some outward court some appearances of the holy nature and institutions of God to place it selfe in But the true nature and use of the thing is then lost that speech referring to the natural state of the creature is here true also Thou withdrawest thy breath they perish 3. Take notice of the proper way of discerning the truth and growth of Religion It is not by having the outward notion it is not by growing in the outward notion of any thing as of Faith Love Self-denial Resignation to Gods will c. but by the vertue and growth of the nature of the thing it self The Kingdom of God is not in word but in power VIII Of the weakness uncertainty and invalidity of the Flesh in reference to the things of God IOHN 6.63 The Flesh profiteth nothing THe whole Verse runneth thus It is the Spirit that quickeneth the flesh profiteth nothing the words that I speak unto you they are Spirit and they are Life In the ministrations of God in the things held forth by Christ there is Flesh and Spirit Man who himself is but flesh he eyes the flesh thinking to drink in light life and happiness thence but that lies not where man looks for it viz. in the flesh in the outward reason and understanding of the thing but in the spirit of it in the spiritual nature and vertue of it It is the spirit of the truth that quickeneth not the Flesh of it Christs words in his Light in his Spirit are Life and Spirit in the light of man to the ear of man to the understanding of man they are but flesh Flesh is the principle of Nature the Root of the first Adam and the Garment about the second Adam Spirit is the principle of Grace the Root of the second Adam the new principle of life sown in and renewing the old earth of God Flesh denotes weakness outwardness proneness to pollution and corruption Spirit denotes strength inwardness purity That which is born after the flesh dyes even Christ himself so born dyes That which is born after the spirit lives even the weakest creature so born lives The flesh profiteth nothing There is a fleshly principle and there is a fleshly object neither of which are of any advantage of any true profit to the end here spoken The flesh in man is not a profitable principle the Flesh of Christ is not a profitable object The eye of the flesh is not a profitable eye the sight of the flesh is not a profitable sight the things so seen though otherwise never so excellent in their own light in their own nature yet here are of no use no benefit at all The fleshly object cannot feed the spiritual principle nor can the fleshly principle feed on the spiritual object The flesh is the natural understanding of man take it either with all outward helps of art or of more immediate revelations from God both which may very much advance it This is the principle or eye of flesh The object of this eye is all things so far as they are liable to it even the truths of God themselves the outward nature of them the outward reason of them is flesh Flesh is Gods eye an eye of his making and therefore it can be no disparagement to God to have it see the things of God in its own Religion Now this natural understanding this fleshly principle the eye of man is uncapable of receiving any thing that is spiritual from all the outward teachings of God nor can the truths of God the true nature of the things of God enter into man any such way as he looks for them The Kingdom of God commeth not by observation The spirit of the Lord entereth not into a man at the eye of his spirit Man indeed may receive the outwardness of God the outwardness of his Light the outwardness of his Life the outward Gifts of Faith of Love c. Faith of his own element faith sutable to his own nature yet do not boast O man for who hath received any such thing now but he cannot receive the truth he cannot receive the new life the seed of the kingdom is sown and groweth up man knoweth not how Indeed after the Kingdom hath entered into man and overcome him and new-molded him then he also can receive the truth and answer the touches of it though this is not so properly called a motion of his as of the life in him Nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ in me saith the Apostle So that this Scripture teacheth man in all his highest strains Let him climb as high as he can with all the revelations and discoveries of God to him Let him know what he can of Christ receive what he can from Christ act what he can towards Christ All this is to no purpose it is of no use it is of no profit It is true It is of use in its kind It is an excellent kind of operation in this broken state of man and the Lord will make excellent use of it to his end but to the end proposed by God and the end which man aimeth at therein it is of no value It will not reach that eternall life which man aimeth at Observe me equally I say it is profitable in its kind and in its way and shall have its reward but it hath nothing to do with the substance
the truth This is not the right seed nor is this the right earth wherein the right seed is sown This is but the nature but the wisdom but the righteousness of the first Adam nay although it were stirred up by the spirit of the Lord in man nay though breathed again from Heaven yet it would be no other This is not the nature not the life not the breath of the seed The son-like spirit and motions are only sown and grow up only in the son The true desire after God the true waiting for him the true repentance faith love c. grow only in him who is begotten from above in a new nature The Lord soweth the life of his own spirit only in the flesh of his holy Child Jesus and thence alone doth the true nature and motions spring up and there alone are they to be sound Secondly They are not true in their kind They are not in man so as man taketh them to be They are corrupted they are not pure Man doth not so truly love and desire God as he seemeth to himself to do He would not be so ready to hear his voice as he thinks he should be It is the son only that hath the spirit of obedience man is not pure is not upright no not in his own kind and way of obedience Neither is mans ear open to hear God It is the son alone whose ear God hath bored 't is his ear which he hath opened to hear as the learned Man hath but a bad ear at best and yet as bad as it is it is not opened Therefore all Gods charges against man will be very cleer when the nature and course of man is made manifest God chargeth him chiefly with two things with want of power and with want of will He cannot come to God though he would No man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him He would not come to God though he could Ye will not come to me that ye might have life There are three great exceptions against man in all he is and does all which are comprized in this phrase flesh which he that is able to consider the nature and course of man may easily observe 1. There is commonly a corruption a core of rottenness in his spirit and in all his motions He doth not know himself he is not so honest or upright as he taketh himself to be nor his actions so just and honorable He is not truly religious or just I do not mean spiritually but in his own kind He doth not love God he doth not desire to obey God he would not be Good if he would That which is in kind of this nature is so corrupted that God cannot own it for the thing that man would have it go for and thinks it to be O that there were such an heart in them that they would fear me c. Man deceiveth himself there is not such an honest obedient heart in him towards God as he thinks for Of all things man is apt to bless himself in the integrity of his heart though he is weak yet his heart is upright and though he cannot attain to be what he would yet he hath a true desire in him to walk with God but God will one day shew him that his heart was never right with him and that he cannot truly desire to walk with him And man if he could possibly observe and discern himself might at some times descry this naughtiness and corruption of his heart in these two particulars The one whereof is in that he doth not like to have it discovered but justifie himself against all the discoveries of God Man doth not like that light that searcheth too far into his hidden iniquity O how difficult it is to bring a conviction close to the heart of any man All will confess sin in general but their peculiar way of wickedness either in their worshipping of God or in their course and conversations they cannot endure to have touched There they stand upon their guard This is not Pride this is not Covetousness this is not Hypocrisie this is not the persecuting of Christ this is not Idolatry but the right way of worshiping God O read thine own heart and tremble in that 2 Chap. of Ieremy especially vers 23.25 34.35 Man purifieth his heart by his principles of light and knowledg he squares his worship life and conversation to his light and measure by the Word thus he painteth his Sepulcher not discerning the rottenness and corruption that is still within notwithstanding all this appearing truth and integrity The other is in that let God set him right in any dispensation he presently and most naturally turneth from it He is woond up by God against the hair but he sinketh down again of himself He is very difficultly brought to a state of rectitude in any kind but so far as he is he very suddenly apostacizeth from This also is abundantly set forth Ier. 2. vers 2.3 c. 2. There is always a weakness attending him If there be not a corruption yet certainly there is a weakness both in his spirit and motions If he be in any kind set right at any time yet his nature is frail If there be Religion if there be righteousness in him of any true stamp under any dispensation yet it is very poor weak and low This ye may see plainly in that people of God the Iews Look upon their Religion their Faith their Love there Obedience c. see what it was It was wrought in them with much difficulty They were hardly drawn to it What ado â—ad God to bring them to any thing He used many instructions many miracles many corrections much patience or else he had destroyed them many a time in the furnace and had never broght them forth And yet what were they when they were brought forth Alas a poor frail vessel a vessel long in making and yet when made very brittle How soon after every right constitution and reformation did they backslide and corrupt themselves which plainly evidences the frailty of their state They sung his praise they soon forgot his work so weak is man that though he be raised and set up upon his leggs yet he is not able to stand so 3. There is in man a continuall progress towards destruction That which is corrupt God destroyeth and that which is frail and weak dyeth of it self yea it s own frail nature inclineth it to that corruption which hasteneth its death Nothing can act above its nature Adam when he fell shewed the weakness of his nature The Prince of this World came and found somewhat in him to fasten upon Frailty is a property of the flesh Weakness is as proper to the earthly image as strength to the heavenly The seed of strength groweth up through weakness unto perfection and the seed of weakness groweth down from strength from all the strength wherein it is set