to this end that you may not sin by departing from it but if any man do sin that he may presently return Saul was softned and melted when he heard the language of love from David who had watched over him to preserve him while he slept in the midst of that Army with which he made War upon him Is this thy voice my Son David said he then Open thine Eyes see the Divine Will with innumerable Eyes of love watching over thee in the midst of thy rebellions Open thine Ears hear the Divine Will wooing thee with the sweetest language of love in the midst of thy pollutions This will turn thee again to the Will of God to melt thy self into its Bosom when once this thought ariseth in thee that thou returnest to a Bosom of love ever open to thee Use. 3. Be in love with Holiness Holiness is a Conformity to the Will of God This Will is Love How easy is that Yoak How light is the Burthen How pleasant is the Law of Love Keep my Commandment and abide ye in my Love even as I abide in my Fathers Love saith Jesus Christ. To abide in the Divine Will to keep the Commandments of that is to abide in the Paradise of Divine love to dress it and keep it David saith of the Law of the Lord Psal. 19. It is more to be desired than thousands of Gold and Silver It is sweeter than the Honey and the Honey-comb In keeping it is exceeding great reward Hear O beloved Souls and be wise and be in love with Holiness In every command to Holiness God cometh to you in the Light and Purity of all his Divine Beauties in the Strength and Sweetness of all his Divine loves to make thee like himself to marry thee to himself In every act of obedience to this law of Holiness thy Person shineth with a Heavenly lustre by the shining forth of the unvailed Person of God upon thee thou receivest a kiss of Heavenly love immediately from the Mouth of God and returnest it again O tast and see Then you will say that this Heavenly Traffick is beyond that of all precious of all pleasant things No where such loveliness as this no where such love Holiness is a Conformity to the Will of God The Will of God is Love the Fountain and the Life of all Incorruptible Beauties of all pure and ever-flourishing Pleasures I have done with the second â—escription of Divine Love which defineth it to be the same with the Divine Will 3. Descrip. God is Love He who was the Disciple of Love who lay in the Bosom of Love and so best knew what Love is declareth Divine Love to be the Nature and Essence of God God saith he is Love He that dwelleth in Love dwelleth in God and God dwelleth in him 1 Joh. 3. 16. As the Sea is a heap of Waters The gathering together of the Waters God called the Sea Gen. 1. As the Body of the Sun is a pure and simple Light so is God a Collection of Loves a gathering together of all Loves into one Spirit This is the Divine Nature an Unity a Purity a Simplicity of Love I shall endeavour to shew you by four Arguments that there is no name which doth so properly so fitly express the nature of God as this of Love 1. Argum. The first the principal Thing the beginning of all Things in God is Love Psal. 136. I intend a short Paraphrase upon this whole Psalm because it maketh so clearly and fully for my purpose being taken altogether from the beginning to the end of it If you would hear the Musick of Angels of Heaven if you would hear the living Harmony of the Divine Nature as it is all Love listen with a Spiritual Ear to this Psalm which is a Song composed entirely of this Subject of Divine Love If the Spirit of God assist me to sound forth aright the Heavenly Musick of this Psalm I do not doubt to make your hearts in your Bosoms to leap and dance to it by that time I have done First Take two general Observations concerning this Psalm 1. Gener. Observ. This is a Psalm of Praises and Thanksgivings the Work of Heaven a Heavenly Work But all the Praises here are attributed to all the Thanksgivings are terminated in Love and the Eternity of Love This is the burthen of the Song repeated in every verse this is that into which all the Strength and Sweetness of the sense is still resolved this maketh one half of every verse quite thorow the whole Psalm For his Mercy endureth for ever The Word in Hebrew signifieth alike Mercy Kindness Love That word endureth is added by the Translatours You may read the words with as full an agreement with the Original as I humbly conceive For his Love is Eternal But however this be if we adhere to the Translation Mercy is one of the sweetest tenderest largest names of Divine love 1. Mercy is Love condescending and descending from the heights of all Heavens above to the nethermost parts of the Earth to the nethermost Hell 2. Mercy is Love uniting itself to the vilest and most miserable Creatures which lie below which stick in the Mire and Clay in the bottom of the Pit There love sympathizeth with them maketh itself entirely one with them in their low estate 3. Mercy is Love making a mutual and strange exchange with those loathsome and lost Souls Iâ— taketh to itself their guilt shame weakness and woes It giveth to them its own Righteousness Strength Beauties Joys and Glories Thus Mercy is the circle of Divine love as it cometh forth from Heaven and Eternity goeth down to the lowest depths of Time and the Creation then ascendeth again till like the Sun it return thither where it first arose Poor and broken Spirits who lie at the utmost ends of the Earth mourning as outcasts hope evermore in Eternal love wait for it The love of God will find you out it will meet with you and take you in its way For Divine love is Eternal It encompasseth Heaven and Earth Time and Eterty His Mercy endureth for ever 2. Gener. Observ. This Psalm comprehendeth all things in it Created or Uncreated the Nature of God the Persons of God and of Christ the Wonders of God the Works of God the Works of Nature Grace and Glory It comprehendeth all things Then it maketh the ground and Crown of all to be Love this is brought in to every particular in each verse as the Reason Rule Result of all For his Mercy endureth for ever for his love is Eternal It is a maxime in Nature that all motion is founded upon something unmoveable This is the Divine Maxime upon which Heaven and Earth standeth all motions in the heart of God and in the Creature of Grace and Nature are founded upon the unmoveableness the unchangeableness of eternal Love O blessed Love O blessed God who is this love O blessed Soul which with a spiritual Eye created
thou settest before him his Love himself in various Manners in various Mysteries The Onely Coin the Onely Currant Money the Onely Means of Commerce in the Kingdom of Heaven is Love the First Supreme Eternal Love the Gold of Eternity the most high and most Glorious Unity in all varieties stampt with all Figures 2. The Father in giving his Love maketh no Condition with Sinners He doth not say I give thee my Love for that Sinner upon Condition that he be humbled that he accept of my Love that he believe in thee The Gospel is a Covenant of Grace The Covenant is All Love The Covenant is Compleat in the Person of Christ who is The Divine Love Eternal Love in a Divine Infinite Eternal Person I have given him saith the Lord by the Prophet Esaâ—ah for a Covenant to the Natiâ—ns All Preparations Qualifications Acceptations are not Conditions of This Love but Infallible Consequents not Causes without which the Covenant hath no Force but Irresistible Immutable Effects of it By Grace ye are saved Ephes. 2. The whole Work of our Salvation from the Begining to the End from the first Design in Eternity to the last Act in Eternity is Pure Love Divine Love shineth in upon a Dark Spirit Enlightneth Awakneth Convinceth it by Its own Heavenly Brightness Divine Love burneth up flameth in a Defiled Dead heart raiseth a Divine Life and Sense in it melteth it consumeth its Dross maketh it new The Love of the Father in the Bosom of the Lord Jesus is the Golden Mine out of which a Saint is first taken the Flaming Mint where he is Melted refined made pure Gold and stamp't with the Divine Image Rev. 1. 5. 6. He saith St John of our Lord Jesus hath loved us and washed us in his own blood and made us Kings and Priests to God his Father The Love of the Father in the heart of Christ is our onely Fountain All the Blood which streameth from the Wounds of Christ to wash us runneth down from this Fountain This Love is the Costly Ointment running down upon all our Persons anointing us for Priests and Kings Poor Soul which lyest in thy Sins which lyest a Slave in Chains at the bottom of a Dark Deep and Miry Dungeon The Love of the Father in the Person of the Lord Jesus cometh to thee It taketh thee into itself as a Bath of most pretious Blood in which It cleanseth thee from all thy filth cherisheth all thy parts bringeth thee to thy self to a Divine Beauty to a Divine Warmth sense and Life This Love setteth itself as a Priestly and Kingly Crown upoâ— thy Head It infuseth itself as a Priestly and Kingly Spirit into thee 〈◊〉 changeth itself in thine Iron Chains into Bracelets of Gold upon thee in thâ— Dungeon into a Temple and Palace It filleth thee this Temple this Palace round about thee with Its own clear and Proper Appearance in the Glory 〈◊〉 God Thus it dwelleth with thee Eternally Thus the Love of the Fatheâ— in the heart of Christ softneth enliveneth washeth thee with Its own Blood maketh thee by itself a Priest and King to itself Eternally I have done with the first Property in the Effusion of Divine Love Freedoâ— Use. 1. The Gospel is compared to a Marriage-Feast for a King's Son Goâ— the Father is The King His Son is the Bridegroom Eternal Love attendeâ— with all The Lovelinesses and Joys of That Love are The Feast Thou 〈◊〉 Man O Sinner Thy Soul is invited to this Feast of Love not onely to 〈◊〉 Guest but The Beautiful Blessed Bride The Ministers the Angels The Spirit of Love himself are sent forth as Eâ—bassadours to bring thee to This Marriage 1. Obj. Say not I am Unworthy Unlovely in my Sins and shame Answ. This Love is free It seeketh not but bringeth Loveliness along with it This Love is itself The Wedding-Garment and the Marriage-Crown This Feast as thou eatest giveth thee strength Beauty and a Right to it This Feast of Love maketh Its Guest This Marriage of Love maketh a Bride Obj. 2. How can I leave my precious and pleasant Things for This Love Answ. Canst thou not part with a single dying Flower in thy hand for a Root of Flowers to set in thine heart in thy Garden The Love of God is The Root of all Precious and Pleasant Things in Eternity Canst thou not part with a Shadow for the Substance a Picture for the Life a Counterfeit for the Truth a glass Diamond or Pearl for a right Diamond the true Pearl All thy Pleasant Things here are Shadows Pictures counterfeits This Love is All Pleasantnesses all Preciousnesses in their Substance Life Truth Obj. 3. I am weak I shall dishonour This Love I shall be disloyal to It. I shall return to my Lusts. Ans. This Love requireth no Qualifications but worketh all Give up thy self to be the Creature of This Love This Love will make Thee a Heavenly Bride to itself out of Nothing out of Contrariety Enmity This Love will be both a new a Divine Creation of Thee and a Continual Preservation This Preservation shall be a Continued Creation of Love Resign thy self to This Love which is the onely Fountain of Life and of all Loveliness Use. 2. Love again Who planteth a Vine and drinketh not of the Wine The Father planteth Jesus Christ his Love his Vine in thy Soul Let him drink of the Wine of thy Loves Love thy God with the same Freedom Simplicity and Sweetness with the Same Naturalness Nakedness and Force with which he loveth Thee Use. 3. Love one another as God loveth you Pour forth all your Love into the Bosom of Christ. There let it run into the Bosom of every Saint of every Creature There love one another without Distinction without Condition Freely receive one another into embrace one another in the Riches of the Grace and Glory of Jesus Christ as the Father receiveth and embraceth you Use 4. Abide in the Love of the Father 1. Abide in the Father's Love by Faith in the Lord Jesus The Glorified Person of Christ is the Land of Life the Land of Love the Love of the Father is the Sweetness and Fatness of this Land Faith is the root of thy Soul in this Pleasant Land By Faith thy Soul is vitally fixed in this Divine Soil in the midst of all the Sweetnesses and Pretious Sap of Divine Love By Faith thou drawest the rich heart of this Glorious Earth the Love of The Father to thy self Thou feedest upon It nourishest thy self by It and growest up to an Entire Tree of Love 2. Abide in this Love by holiness Holiness is the lovely Fruit which springeth up out of the Love of the Father and is Its Food Holiness is the Purity of the Spirit by which the flame of heavenly Love liveth and spreaded itself there Holiness is the Spiritual Chastity of the Soul to her heavenly Bridegroom 3. Abide in the Father's Love by keeping his Commandments The Commands of
themselves But they are Invisible and Faith is their Evidence the Discovery of them to thee in their Truth When Jesus Christ had his Sufferings upon him he had a Joy before Him Heb. 12. 2. So much of Faith as thou hast in thee so much of Joy thou hast continually before thee Faith when thou art in a Dungeon gives thee such a Prospect into Heaven and the God-Head as reflects a Joy and a Divinity upon the Dungeon itself 2. Secondly Faith gives thee a Joyful Possession A Wise man among the Heathen tells us that there are Three ways of being united to God by Knowledge by Love by Faith But saith he this Faith is no Empty Image or Thin Persuasion but a Substantial Incorporation of the Things themselves with the Soul So saith the Holy Ghost Heb. 11. 1. Faith is the Presence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Subsistence of Things Hoped for Can you have what you Hope for and not have Joy Do you Hope for Heaven for Jesus Christ for Freedom from Sin and Troubles Do you Hope for Joy So much Faith as you have so much Joy you have so much you have already of all that which you Hope for Dost thou say thou hast Faith and by Faith the Presence of thy Saviour the Possession of Glory and yet hast thou no Joy Say not thou Believest but shew me thy Faith by thy Joy He that believes cannot but have Joy in Believing no more than he that walks in the Light of the Sun can be without its Heat 3. Thirdly there is in Faith a Ioyful Purchase The Life that I live saith St. Paul is by the Faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me Galat. 2. 20. Faith makes an Exchange between Christ and a Saint If thou believest the Lord Jesus hath given Himself for thee Christ stands in thy Stead And thou standest in the Stead of Christ. Christ fills thy Room in the Flesh the world and all Sufferings He bears the Place of thy Person in them Thou fillest the Room of Christ and bearest the Person of Christ in all these Can such an Exchange as this be without its Joy when Christ stands for thee in Sorrows under the Guilt and Infirmity of them when thou standest for Christ in the Mystery of Them This Purchase or Exchange is made in Glory too The Lord Jesus is set in thy place in Heaven as Thou being the Principle and he the Deputy I go to prepare a Place for you saith the Lord to his Disciples John 14. 3. Thou shalt be taken up into Christs Place there Where I am there ye shall be also John 14. 3. My Beloved is Mine and I am His saith the Spouse in the Canticles Is not this abundant matter of Joy at all Times to thee That Glory which Jesus Christ hath now in Heaven is Thine as it is His. That Glory which thou shalt have hereafter shall be Christ's together with Thine Thou hast no Misery Iesus Christ hath no Glory alone This is the Purchase or Exchange of Faith 4. Rule So much Spiritual Love as there is in any Soul so much Spiritual Ioy is there also 1 Pet. 1. 8. Whom having not seen ye Love then it follows a little after Ye Rejoyce with Ioy unspeakable There is a Two-fold Love 1. A Love of Benevolence 2. A Love of Complacency 1. A Love of Benevolence If thou hast this Love to Jesus Christ thou wilt Rejoyce to accomplish His Will to Glorify Him in thy Self to make thy Self a Sacrifice in any Kind to his Good Pleasure even as He offered Himself up in the Flesh to the Father 2. A Love of Complacency Is thy Saviour thy Delight Is He to Thee as He is to the Father Is He thy Beloved in whom thy Soul rests Then is thy Joy the same in the midst of all Changes while thy Jesus remains Unchangeable If Jesus Christ be Altogether all Pleasantnesses all Lovelinesses to Thee as the Spâ—use expresseth Him to her self in the Song of Songs then thou canst want no Joy though thou be in want of all things while thou hast Jesus Christ. This is the Fourth Rule 5. Rule Joy and Purity are ever in the Soul in a like Degree Holiness and Happiness are both One Thing in God and the Soul Each is an Elevation above all Inferiour and Corrupting or Corruptible Things and an Habitation in the Supream Good It is said of God in the Prophet Esay that He inhabiteth Eternity that is Himself Isa. 57. 15. It is said by the Saints to God in the Psal. 90. 1. Thou hast been our Dwelling place from One Generation to another Pure Religion and Undefiled before God and the Father is to keep Himself Unspotted from the World Iames 1. 27. The World is Pitch For it lies in a Principle of Darkness and Blackness Where it Touches it Spots He only keeps himself Pure who keeps himself Untoucht by the World Un-affected with it So long as your Purity is Un-stain'd Your Pleasure will be Un-troubled For Troubles are below in the Changeable State of Things But a Holy Soul dwells on High in Him who hath no Shadow of Change Trouble is in the World and in Christ all is Peace John 16. 33. Hold up thy Heart that it sink not into the World Hold off thy Heart that it settle not on the World and thou at once shalt preserve thy self from Sin and Sorrow Abide in Jesus Christ Act thy self perpetually from and upon Jesus Christ so shall thy Purity and thy Pleasures flow continually like a Mighty River which is both Clear and Calm I have now finish't that which I had to say in the Removal of the First Mistake which hinders the Soul from attaining to a State of Spiritual Joy 2. Mistake That we are to take a Rise of our Ioy from a Reflection upon something in our selves We are generally apt to think that we are to look into our selves for the Ground of our Ioy and that we are to measure our Ioy by that which we find in our selves Go to most Christians when you perceive them full of Joy and ask of them a Reason of their Joy you shall hear them telling you that they have Examined their Hearts and find a Love to God to the Children of God a Trust in God an unfeigned Desire to Please God an Universal Indeavour to keep all the Commandments of God an Uprightness before God a true Sorrow for Sin a Detestation of it a full Purpose to forsake all Sin with many other Goodly Things in Themselves Go to other Christians who put out the Flame of Life in their Hearts by their Sighs and dim their Eyes with their Tears Ask them why they have no more Joy in their Lives you shall have some such Answer as this from them Alas What Joy can there be in my Life God with-holds His Grace from me and I can find no Abatement of Corruption no Life of Holiness in my Soul I
Promises are all made to this one Seed which is Christ in the Unity of the Spirit in the Unity of the Divine Nature Thou hast then no further any part or portion in the promises of the Gospel or the Comforts of Love than thou abidest in the Unity of Christ and of the Spirit It is the Seed of Love which is a Holy and Divine Seed it is the Life and Fruit of this Seed on which as on the Fleece of Gideâ—n all the Dew of Divine Blessings falleth Every other Seed with its Life and Fruit is as the Mountains of Gilboah on which no Rain or Dew of any Divine Grace or Promise descendeth Abide then in this Love which is the Holy Seed in thee bring forth the Fruits of this Love in thy whole Life So shalt thou be Blessed in thy Seed and in thy Deed. I have now finished the third Argument for the confirmation and explication of the third Description of Divine Love which was this The Love of God is the God of Love For the Unity of God is the most high and holy Love I pass now to the fourth and last Argument 4. Argu. The Mystery of the Trinity is a Mystery of Divine Love This is the fourth Argument to prove that God is Love The Divine Philosopher defineth Love to be a Birth in a Beautiful Subject As the New Hierusalem is said to come down out of Heaven a Bride ready trimmed so out of the Bosom of Divine Love opening itself as a Heaven cometh forth the Divine Loveliness the Garden of Heaven the Heavenly Paradise This is the Heavenly Bride In this Garden Love planteth and maketh to grow all Beautiful and Divine Images all Heavenly Pleasures and Joys Divine Love and the Holy Trinity agree in this that they are a Birth and a Marriage both in one This Mystery is figured in Paradise in the first Man Adam bringeth Eve forth from himself Then Adam bringeth forth all Living in and by Eve Adam first bringeth forth Eve the Beautiful Image of himself and of that Paradise which he then comprehended and carryed about with him in his own Person Then he brought forth all Beautiful Images of Humane Life and Humane Nature in this Beautiful Subject by the Love-union of a Paradisical Marriage In like manner the Supream Love first bringeth forth the Supream Loveliness the Image of itself Then it marryeth itself to this Beautiful Image and bringeth forth in the Bosom of it all Lives Loves Lovelinesses Delights and Glories Thus Divine Love is a Trinity There are three in Divine Love 1. The Love-spring or the Divine Fountain of Love 2. The Love-Birth or the Divine Birth and Image of Love the Supream Loveliness 3. The Love-union the Divine Union between these two the Sacred Fountain and the Beautiful Image These are the three Properties in Divine Love which are all one Love as there are three Persons in the Divine Nature which three are one God In Love and in God these three are the same Divine Love the same Divine Nature standing in distinct and opposite Relations to itself within itself infinitely above all things without itself These Relations are in both the same 1. The God-Head in the Fatâ—er is Divine Love in the Fountain the Love-spring of Eternity 2. The God-Head in the Son is Divine Love in the Birth or Image the Love-Birth of Eternity 3. The God-Head in the Holy Ghost is Divine Love in its Marriage-Union between the Love-Spring and the Love-Birth the Love-Union in Eternity See how God being Love is compleat in Eternity by being within himself a Birth and a Marriage which Two include all Beauties Sweetnesses and Blessedâ—essâ—s all the Beautiful Sweet and Blessed Fruits of Love Learn here how Honourable Marriage is and to keep the Bed of Love undefiled God hath Sealed upon it the Image of the most Holy and Blessed Trinity the Trinity of Divine Love the Trinity in the Divine Nature Marriage in Paradise was the fairest and fullest Figure of the highest and sweetest Mystery in Heaven the Ever-Blessed Trinity The Jews and Gentiles before the coming of the Lord Jesus were for the most part strangers to the Doctrine of the Trinity They were therefore loose and dissolute in the rites of Marriage They made nothing of Fornication and very little of Adultery The Lord in the Revelation of the Gospel at once unvaileth the glorious face of the God-Head in the most Blessed Trinity and discovereth the sweet and beautiful Figure of it in the Holy State of Marriage Our Saviour by the Appearance of the Divine Nature in its numbeless Glories shining thorow every Created Form in his own Mysterious Person as thorow their proper Figures and Images hath restored all things He hath restored Marriage not only to its primitive institution in Paradise but to its Eternal Pattern and Original in Heaven the high and holy Trinity Preserve carefully this Marriage-Glory pure from Lusts untroubled by passions So shall you see with the Joy of Paradise the sacred Impression of that supream Mystery of all Divine Loves Lovelinesses and Delights the Trinity in the Divine Nature set as the Seal of Eternity upon it So shall you draw down the Trinity itself with all its secret and sacred Treasures of Blessedness to inhabit with you in it Blessed are they who hold the Band of Marriage undefiled unbroken in the sweet and beautiful Type in the Glorious Truth of the Heavenly Unity in the most Blessed Trinity We have said something in general to shew how the Mystery of the Trinity is a Mystery of Divine Love Let us launch a little further into this Sea of unexpressible Sweetnesses and Beauties by contemplating this God-Head of pure loves in the several Persons of the Trinity 1. The God-Head in the first Person the Father is Divine Love in its Fountain The Father in the Trinity is the Love-spring in Eternity A Dâ—vine plenitude or fulness an unfathomable deep of Divine and Unexpressible Sweetness ever rising up ever flowing overflowing all things this is the Sacred Person of the Father in the Trinity this is the Sacred Spring of Divine Love in Eternity and this is that Fountain so dear to you O ye Saints out of which you all are made to drink that Sacred Fountain of Free-Grace I shall endeavour to open this beloved Fountain the streams of which are the Life Love and Joy of all things in Heaven above and on the Earth below by three precious inlets into it 1. Inlet The Person of the Father is Divine Love in its Glory St. Paul speaking of the Father terminateth all the mysteries of the Gospel in the Glory of his Grace as the Beginning and the end of them all the sweet and shining Sea from which they come into which they all run again Grace is the name of Love in its Freedom Sweetness and Fulness Every thing is in its Glory in its Fountain For there it is fairest freshest sweetest and fullest Love is in its
the Father are Beams of Love which he shooteth into our Bosoms Obedience to them is the Reception of these Beams and the Reflection of them back again into the Bosom of God Obedience is the Activity of Divine Love enlarging itself freely in our Souls If it be contracted or shut up it goeth out 4. Abide in the Father's Love by the Peace of your Spirits Peace of Spirit is a Heavenly Calms and Serenity which freely receiveth and preserveth entire the Beams and Sunshine of Divine Love Passions are Clouds and Storms which cut off and darken the Beams of Love The Spirit of Love resteth not upon an Angry or Melancholy Man 5. Abide in the Father's Love by Spiritual Joy Joy is Love flaming One saith that Laughter is the Dance of the Spirits their freest Motion in Harmony and that the Light of the Heavens is the Laughter of Angels Spiritual Joy is the Laughter of Divine Love of the Eternal Spirit which is Love in our Spirits True Joy is Eternal Love the Eternal Spirit in Its Freest Motions in Its fullest Harmony and Complacency in our Spirits 6. Abide in the Love of the Father by Heavenliness The Presence of God in his Wrath is hell The Presence of God in his Love is Heaven Love is the Sunshine of the Godhead sweetning and guilding all things round about it after a Divine Manner as this Sun doth these Skies So far as thou abidest in a Heavenly Image of Things where every Object is covered with an Immortal Pleasantness and Glory thou abidest in the Love of God 7. Abide in the Father's Love by Spirituality Love is an Union The highest Love is the highest Unity the Unity of the highest Spirit In the Unity of this Spirit all things are Spirit of this Spirit All Varieties in this Unity of the Spirit are Spirits Divine Eternal Spirits of this Supreme Spirit in this Supreme Spirit Supreme Eternal Loves from the womb in the Bosom of this Supreme Love Abide in This Palace of Love The Unity of the Spirit Let this be thine Eternal habitation Be continually here in the Sweet and Blessed Society of Beautiful Pure Eternal Spirits Living Immortal Loves Behold Converse with all things within Thee without Thee in these Forms So shalt thou abide in the Love of the Father as It is poured forth in the Glorified Person of the Lord Jesus So This Love shall guide Thee as thou walkest into Fields of Light and Divine Pleasures into the Gardens of the Divine Nature This Love shall talk with Thee when Thou wakest as Moses and Elias talked with Jesus Christ in the Transfiguration of the Departure out of every other Image of things into this Paradise of Love flowing with all the Joyes of Life and Love in the heavenly Form of Christ. So This Love shall keep thee when thou sleepest as a Rich Canopy of Divine Substance over thy head as a Guard of Immortal Sweetnesses round about Thee as a heavenly Consort of Divine Spirit Divine Loves by their Musical Harmony continuing and crowning thy sleep I have done with the First Property of Divine Love as It is poured forth in Christ Freedom I come to the Second which is Purity 2. Property in the Effusion of Divine Love Purity The Love of God is poured forth in Jesus Christ Purely The Lord Jesus is said to be the Brightness of the Glory of God Hebr. 1. v. 2. Brightness is the Purest Light of Glory The Prime Glory in God is his Grace his Love He doth all for the Praise of the Glory of his Grace Ephes. 1. Jesus Christ in heaven in thine heart O Believer is the purest Stream the richest Flood of Divine Love the Love of the Divine Nature in the Brightness of Its Glory We are taught that this Light of the Sun which we enjoy here below is only a Shadow of that Light which shineth in the Body of the Sun itself The Sun in its highest Lustre is the Shadow of an Angel The Highest and Brightest Angel in his Purest Glories is no more than a Shadow of our Glorified Jesus He alone is the Brightness of Divine Glory without any Shade the Purity of Divine Love without any Allay Love is Loveliness in Motion As fine Gold melted into a Pure and shining Stream so is the Person of our Lord Jesus in Glory the Godhead in the Purity Perfection of all Its Lovelinesses melting itself into a most Pure Precious Stream of Love in which it runneth along winding turning meeting sporting with itself from Bosom to Bosom in the Father the Son and all the Saints O Broken-hearted Sinner who â—ittest in the Shadow of Death who wanderest in a Wilderness where there is no water ready to dye for thirst open thine Eyes see this Pure Light of Divine Love which shineth round about Thee in the midst of Thee see this Pure Stream of Divine Love which runneth along before Thee in that Wilderness thine heart the Blessed Person of thy Saviour which is this Pure Light this Pure Stream of Divine Love which filleth All. Take in the Waters of this Stream drink freely of it Cast thy self into this Stream let it cover Thee let it roul Thee along with it sport thy self in it There are Two Arguments of the Pure Effusion of Divine Love in Christ 1 The heighth of Its Sweetness 2 The Greatness of Its Virtue 1 The Love of God in Christ sheweth Its Purity by The heighth of Its Sweetness The Purest things are Sweetest The Love of God in Christ is the Rose upon its Stalk New-blown in its Virgin-Freshness and Sweetness To be Carnally-minded is Death to be Spiritually-minded is Life saith St. Paul Rom. 8. Impurity Carnality is the Death of Love dulleth embaseth embittereth it by Corrupting it Purity Spirituality is the Life of Love heighteneth and immortaliseth all its Sweetnesses all its Pleasures The Sweetness of the Love of God in Christ is made up of Three Parts 1. The Nearness of the Union 2 The Firmness of the Union 3 The Efficacy of the Union 1 The Nearness of the Union is the First Part of the Sweetness in the Love of God poured forth in the Glorified Person of our Saviour Love is an Union Where Love is Sweetest the Love-Union is Nearest The Love of God in Christ bindeth up God Christ all the Saints immediately in the most naked most warm Embraces of each other It maketh them All up into One Beautiful Body It melteth them All into One Blessed-Spirit of Divine Love The Bridegroom in the last of the Canticles expresseth his Love to his Bride after this manner If she be a Door we will inclose her with Cedar Cedar Wood is Eminent for three Things It is sweet Beautiful Incorruptible Blessed art Thou O Believer the meanest of all Believers who art a Door onely in this heavenly Temple Christ risen from the Dead a Door by which the Glories of the Godhead go in and out between the Visible and Invisible World Thy
drawn forth from them What floods of outward miseries have they brought upon them It is this has given such a scope and power to our lusts to our pride ambition covetousness anger wrath bitterness of Spirit and revenge as has been more wounding to Religion then the malice of all the wicked men in the World can possibly be It is this has set us to rake into the Infirmities Weaknesses and Miscarriage of our mistaken Brother And whilst men have been thus employed what heaps of dirt and folly have they poured out of their own Spirits to the greater scandal of themselves and their profession It is this has for several ages delivered up the Christian World to disorder bloud and desolation It is this has rendred a great part of it unhabitable to a man that asserts the just liberty of his mind It is this has made Christians who should be the best of men much worse to each other than wild Bears and Beasts of prey for they devour not one another of the same kind It is this has raised so many suspitions jealousies fears heart-burnings evil surmises mutual provocations to wrath and thoughts of revenge and ruine among our selves that we are almost become an easy prey to our common enemies And if we should escape them are in danger to be consumed one of another We have laid the stress and weight of our Religion upon Notions Opinions outward modes and forms and some of those subservient only to a secular interest and reasons of state and not upon the truth and substance it self which is Jesus Christ and his Spirit For this reason the Righteous God seems to have given up the whole frame of Nature to confusion and destruction and to be drowning the face of the Earth in bloud St. Paul 2 Thesâ— 2. 1. puts these two together The coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to him And we often read in the Scripture of his coming with all his Saints Lines are at their greatest distance in the circumference the nearer they come to their center the nearer still they are to one another As we are drawnforth from all those things which we have set up in the room of Christ and are made to unite in his Person alone so shall we also draw near to and be at peace with one another It is he alone who is our King of Righteousness and Prince of Peace the true Shiloe Vnto him shall the gathering of the People be and unto each other in him Nothing more proves him to be so far off from us as our being so miserably scaâ—tered divided and driven away from one another When he shall again return and appear to us in his own Person when we shall for his sake cast away all our Idols and unanimously running into his Bosom cry out with an universal shout None but Christ he alone is that eternal image it self of all truth and goodness which we have been every where seeking our center and rest for ever When we shall no more place our wisdom righteousness sanctification and redemption our Religion in those forms and Opinions which are but the outsides and dresses of it and must pass away with the fashion of this World Which are but the leaves and husks that shall fall to the ground But in him who is that Truth Life Power and Substance which endures for ever Then shall a peace which is to encrease without end bless the World All our Swords shall then be beaten into Plow shares our spears turned into pruning-hooks and nothing be left to hurt and destroy in Gods holy Mountain A mutual forbearance indulgence allowance and kindness among all honest hearts of different perswasions and practices has not only thy own interest but the concern of all thy Brethren and the welfare of the whole Christian World after the highest manner contained in it For it is the safety stability security strength and subsistence of a good interest and of all good men in the midst of a very unkind angry and wicked World Whose rage doth not terminate in the extirpation of any one particular sect or party of good men but would by degrees and as fast as it can blot out goodness it self St. Paul with admirable reason joins these two together Eph. 4 2 3. Our walking with all lowliness and meekness with long suffering forbearing one another in love And our endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace It is most plain from this Scripture That the unity of the Church of God is not an agreement in inward Opinions and outward forms But an Unity of Spirit an Unity in that Spirit which is the common Soul of the Church the specificating form the constituting and conserving Principle of all true Christianity We are not united to Christ and to one another by the same Opinions and Forms but by one and the same Spirit nor can any Opinions and Forms divide us from Christ and therefore ought not to separate us from each other if they have not in their own nature an enmity to the heavenly image of Christ which is Spirituality Or to the natural image of him which is morality It is again expresly told us in the connexion of this Scipture That the way to preserve this Vnity of the Spirit in the Body of Christ is by walking towards one another with all lowliness and meekness with long-suffering forbearing one another in love And not by a proud haughty impatient peevish and angry imposing of our own Notions and modes of Religion upon them This may indeed be a mistaken piece of humone policy to serve our own Worldly interest upon Christianity but I am very sure there is nothing of the true Spirit of Christ in this temper not of a right endeavouring to keep the Vnity of his Spirit in such a proceeding How clear is it again from this Scripture That the bond of Peace has its strength and root not in an Unity of knowledge and uniformity of worship but in the Unity of a Divine Spirit As the sympathy and Vnion of all the members in the body arise from and is preserved by the Vnity of the Soul Whilst there is as great a difference in the Original make of Souls as of faces in the complexions of minds as of bodies whilst the variety of humane understandings is so great Whilst we are under the power of different tempers educations and interests several measures and degrees of light Whilst there is imperfection in our state negligence in our searchings after truth an envious one alwaies ready to sow Tares It is unreasonable to expect a proportion and analogy of Notions and Opinions among good men Whilst we are thus circumstanced there will be some otherwise minded Nor do I know any remedy in such a case but a mutual forbearance till God cleares up the matter of difference This forbearance cannot be more our Duty then it is our interest and necessity
Death 23. v. If there be a Messenger with him an Interpreter one among a Thousand to shew to man his Uprightness Now in this Evening-close of life and joy in this rushing approach of a dreadful eternal Night Jesus Christ steps forth as a Messenger an Interpreter between God and Man He opens upon him his own Beauty the mans own proper and true Beauty which was his own in Eternity 24. v. Then he is gracious to him and saith Deliver him from going into the Pit I have found a Ransom Then the Father smiles upon the Soul Then He gives a command in the Ears of the Soul to all the Invisible Ministers of Darkness and Death to let him go To all the Spirits of Life and Light to take charge of him to hold him in their Arms that his Life come not into the Prison of Spirits 25. v. His Flesh shall be fresher than a Childs he shall return to the days of his Youth He shall be translated into the Kingdom of Christ into that Paradise of God out of which he came There he shall flourish with a Flesh more beautiful more heavenly than that of Adam in Innocency There he shall see those Youthful Days which were before this World Thus God takes hold of Temporal Afflictions in them to convert us to Eternal Affectiâ—ns and Objects 1. Use. Instruction See how absolute and universal thy dependence is on thy God for Happiness His Fulness is the only Treasury in which every minute of thy Life every moment of thy Grief or Joy is â—aid up My times saith David are at the Right hand of the most High Psal. 31. 15. His Sweetness is the only Port or Gate by which this Fulness issues forth on thee and brings thee home to its own Place These Two are the Mine and Mint of thy Natural and Spiritual Life Jesus Christ is the Way of both these A man can receive nothing from God can never come to God but thorow Jesus Christ. Thus nothing comes to us or from us nothing comes to pass round about us which is not first pass'd through a Double Strainer the Heart of the Father and of Christ. Not a Sparrow falls to the Ground much less a Soul without both these our Heavenly Father and Saviour Not a Hair falls from our Heads much less a Thought from our Hearts without this Divine Pair The Father works and I work Saith Christ. Every thing of Man and the Creature is distill'd or dropt thorow this Double Heaven of the Father and Christ. We have our Being in these Two Nothing then can be without them We live in these Two Our Life then and each article of it is Their Life in us We move in Them Each Motion then would be none if it did not run upon this greater and less Wheel We lie still when they move not Thus thou knowest O God that it is not in him that walks to order his own steps Jere. 10. 23. What then shall we cast our selves into a Gulf of Ryot or sensual Pleasures because we cannot resist His Will nor rule our own Unhappy he on whose mind the Almighty God stamps this Image of His Will in the Wrathful and Dark Part of it Yet he also shall go as it is written of him upon the Heart of God but in Fiery Letters God hath made all things for Himself even the wicked for the Day of Wrath Prov. 16. 4 But how can we abide in the Dark or bitter Part of things in Flesh and Sin If we know that the Will of God is the Rule of all things and an Infinite Light Love Goodness the Rule of this Will He that saith he hath seen God and walks in Darkness lies and the Truth is not in him 1 John 1. 6. He that saith he sees the Will of God to act all things and yet is himself acted by a Contrary Will checks and contradicts himself while he speaks and acts How can we that are dead to sin live any longer in it Rom. 6. 2. If the Divine Fulness and Sweetness have discovered themselves to us they have overshadowed us darkning by an Eternal Death the Light of our own Life in Vanity and Flesh. They have drunk up our Spirits into themselves and infused their Spirit into us Thus they themselves are become the Death and Resurrection of Christ in us that we live no longer but Christ liveth in us and the Father in Christ. Obj. But you will say If I be wicked what can I do I have no power upon my own Spirit but am over ruled by a Power above me which commands All. Must I then still sin still be forlorn without any hope or help in my self Must I sit down with Despair and make that my only comfort to hope for no comfort Ans. No No! Let this be not my Despair but my surest Hope and sweetest that I am no more in my own power who am a foolish weak inconstant Creature but form'd fashion'd commanded managed entirely by Him who is the Greatest and Best of all things Let me draw from this Consideration these holy and happy Resolutions 1. I will resign my self to my God I will give up the rudder of my Spirit to him who alone guides it and guides it by a Sweetness unclouded a Wisdom unquestioned a Power uncheck't 2. I will repose my self in my God What the bad King said foolishly I desire ever to say upon a holy and divine Principle This also is of the Lord Therefore will I wait upon him 2 Kings ch 6. v. last He hath a Glory in this He will make this a Glory to me if I wait stedfastly to the end For he doth this who doth all and doth all well who hath no Principle but Love no act but Power no end but Glory I have finish'd the First Part of my Text which was The Rise to the Kingdom I have concluded the Doctrine which was propounded from that Part The first Rise to Religion is a Change or Conversion Part 2. The Race to the Kingdom and become as little Children These Words afford this Second Doctrine Doctr. 2. The second Step in Religion is to a state of Childhood Read Gal. 4. 1. The Heir while he is a child differâ—th not from a Servant though he be Lord of all We have here a Child a Regenerate person one born a Son of God made a Saint yet at first nothing differing from a Servant coming afterwards in the second place to the quality of a Son and Heir The Person of a man in the Non-age till Reason which is the Principle of a man puts forth itself in him is but as a Plant or at best a Brute a sensitive Creature So that Soul which hath the Seed of the Divine Nature sown â—in it until that Seed be grown up is as a Servant not as a Son These are the Two states in Religion 1. A Servile State 2. A Son-like State As St. Paul saith in another case First is
in us which makes Divine Love as our Pulse Faith our Breath Holiness our Constitution Galat. 3. 23. We were kept under the Law shut up unto the Faith that should be revealed A Legal Christian having a perpetual Alarm of Fears within him entrencheth himself strongly in Promises and Threatnings Ordinances and Duties in the outward Letter as a Wall or Mount of Earth He plants a Guard about his Spirit of Resolutions Vows and such like Fleshly obligations He takes care for a constant supply of Provision from without from the Gifts and Parts of men for a maintenance of these Forces Angels saith Christ Marry not nor are given in Marriage Angels are ever strong ever feasted yet have no Meals They are always refresh't and at rest yet have no season for Sleep They marry not to any thing without themselves yet they multiply themselves their Images and Fruits to Eternity Earthly man must have his Meal and Sleeps in their appointed time or else he dies He must joyn himself in marriage to another without himself or else he remains barren Such is a Christian under the Law if he have not his Duties Ordinances Ruleâ— and Retirements to which he is true and constant he falls down into Dust and Deadness or runs out into Lust and Profaness Therefore saith St. Paul we were shut up A Saint is now like an Ivy which cannot bear itself up or bring forth fruit upon its own Root or Stock but must twine about some outward Prop else it liâ—s on the ground and withers I defer the other Two Signs that I may now divert my self to some Application of these 1. Use. Exhortation This is Double 1. Exhorta Serve God from a Principle of Fear till you know why to serve him from the Freedom of a Natural Life 2. Exhorta Serve God by outward Rules till you know how to serve Him by the Regulation of an Inward Light 1. Exhorta Serve God from a Principle of Fear till you know why to serve Him from the Freedom of a Natural Life We read 2 Pet. 1. 4. of a Divine Nature Nothing is so skilful sweet strong lasting as that which is Natural as the Sun shines God is kind a man truly Spiritual is holy and heavenly But where is that man among the whole race of men who loves God lives in God as his Element lives to God as his Joy and Glory and all this because it is his Nature Are â—ot these the times of which our Saviour spake when he said Shall the Son of Man find Faith upon the Earth In what heart can we find such a Faith such a Union between God and Man as that these Two shall have but one Life that the Man may say as Saint Paul did Now Christ liveth in me In this universal Dis-appearance of the Divine Nature it were happy if men would serve God from the Force of Fear when they cannot do it from a natural Freedom If men would be wrought by an awe to a Compliance with God while yet they have no Complacency in him O that men would fear if they cannot love that Omni-present Omni-potent God in whom we all live by whom we breath I shall urge this Exhortation by Four Persuasives 1 Persuasive Fear the Loss of the Divine Presence here on Earth Job expresseth a great sense of this Job 29 He sighs out his complaints v. 2. O that it were with me as in the days of old when God preserved me v. 3. When his Candle shined upon my Head when by his Light I walked thorow Darkness The Candle is the Image of God in Nature which burns in the Seven-fold Candlestick of the Angelical Nature This Glory rested upon the Spirit of Job's Natural Man as a Light upon his Head leading him thorow the Darkness of his Fleshly Being v. 4. As I was in the days of my Youth when the Secret of God was upon my Tabernacle The Secret of God is the Invisible Glory of the Divine Image among the Angels which before he express'd by the Candle The Angels seem to be the Secret For they are the Chambers the Paviliâ—ns of God God was in the midst of them in the Dark at Mount Sinai The Tabernacle is the Body or outward Man To this place agrees that in the Psalm Psal. 34. 7. The Angel of the Lord pitcheth his Camp round about them that fear him The Angel of the Lord or the Angel the Lord is the Divine Image in Nature and the Law The Camp the Host or Armies of Angels In the Gospel instead of this Image is Jesus Christ instead of Angels in their Natural Glory are Angels in a Spiritual State residing upon the Head the Spirit the Tabernacle the visible Frame the Bodily Being of a Saint V. 5. When the Almighty was yet with me When my Children were yet about me Job in his first days was a Type of man in Innocency The Presence of the Almighty in the Angelical Nature on the top of his Spirit was as the Head of his Being The Angelical Lives putting themselves forth in the rest of bodily things as Souls to them were as the Children Images and Dependencies of the Soul of Man But at the Fall the Almighty withdrew from man These Lives were drawn in from the rest of the Creatures V. 6. When I washt my steps in Butter When the Rock poured me out Rivers of Oil. The steps of Job were his wayes below in the visible part of things which were wash'd with the Peace and Plenty of Inferiour Contents raised from these Inferiour Creatures as Butter Rivers of Oyl The Spirit of Angelical Divine Life among invisible Superiour Glories did flow forth abundantly upon him from that Rock which was the Almighty These Words of Job afford us a Twofold Principle of Policy for Natural things 1. Principle The Divine Presence is the spring of all Earthly Comforts 2. Principle The Removal of this Presence is the Root of all Bitterness in this Life 1. Principle The Divine Presence is the spring of all earthly Comforts Tell me O Man what hath kept thee thy Peace and Plenty all thy Dayes Months and Years Thy God hath preserved thee When thou hast been in a doubtful difficult dangerous State of things what then hath pointed out a clear and shining path to thee in that darkness When thou hast had trouble in thine Affairs calamities in thy Person confusion in thy Soul what then hath sent forth a Beam of Comfort and Council through thy Spirit to light thee out of all these The Candle of God hath been upon thy head God hath look'd sweetly forth from the top of thy Spirit through the Principles of Nature and this hath been thy Light When thou hast wash'd thy Feet as thou hast walk'd in smooth soft flowing streams of Peace and Plenty when thou hast seen thy Children playing about thee like lively Lambs in pleasant Pastures while thou hast been as their Sheepherd feeding thy Spirit from invisible Spirits
Heart Commune with your Hearts What is the Heart The Heart is the Inward Principle the Life-Principle 1. The Heart is the Inward Principle So you read of the Heart of the Sea Exod. 15. 8. and the Heart of the Earth Mat. 12. 40. Mark 7. 18. Whatsoever thing cometh from without defileth not the Man v. 19. Because it entreth not into thy Heart but into thy Belly and passeth into the Draughts v. 21. From within from the Heart of men proceed Evil thoughts Adulteries c. The Meats which we take in from without reach the Body in all the parts of it and they reach the Soul as it lives in the Body working upon it and making changes in it Both these then are the Belly the Outward Man which is maintained from an Outward Principle and passeth away into the Dust and Darkness But the Heart is more Inward and Immutable It is that which abides in the Invisible part of things and is that Hidden Spring the Principle both of Soul and Body This Heart in the Natural Man is the Spirit of Man in the Spirit of the Devil or in the Spirit of Divine Wrath or rather in both So from the Heart come evil thoughts So St. Iohn saith 1 Iohn 3. 20. If our Hearts condemâ— us God is greater than our Hearts and knoweth all things But if our Hearts condemn us not then have we confidence before God Every man hath in him a Principle more Inward than the Spirit of the Devil which is the Spirit of God as it comes forth into his Spirit and gives his Spirit a Created Invisible Immortal Being in itself among Angels This is that Heart of man with which he is to commune this is the Seat of Justification Or Condemnation The Spirit of Man as it lives above in the Spirit of God according to his Wrath or his Love Or the Spirit of God as it becomes the Principle of Nature a Principle in the Spirit of Man If this Heart condemn us that is the Spirit of God as it is the Principle of our Spirits God is greater than our Hearts that is the Spirit of God as it is in itself above our Spirits hath a greater Fulness of Majesty and Light in itself where it is as the Light in the Sun when as in our Spirits it is but as the Light in the Star If therefore it testifie Wrath to us in this relation in which it is but as a Glance it shall more fully testify wrath against us in that State in which it is the Full Glory As it is a Principle in our Spirits it opens itself truly but imperfectly in a right Sense but in a part only of its own Sense But as it is in itself it knows all things it opens itself to the utmost of its own sense and eternal purpose A man should neither comfort nor condemn himself from the language of his own Spirit as it lives in the Outward Soul or Body and speaks of its own This Spirit should be silent and still But we are to commune with the Divine Principle in us with our Spirits as they dwell within in the Spirit of God For so the Spirit of God and our Spirits are twisted in One make One Heart testify One thing and that truly whether it be for Life or for Death from Wrath or from Love For the Spirit of God and of Man in this Principle are an Image of the Spirit of God as it is absolute and supream in the God-Head But there is a Heart within this Heart This Heart is a Principle of Life or Death Love or Wrath. There is within this a Heart which is the Life-Princiciple and the Love-Principle 2. The Heart is the Life-Principle Prov. 4. 23. Keep thy Heart with all Diligence for out of it are the Issues of Life What is this Heart which we are to keep when we are to deny our selves We are to keep it not with Caution to preserve our selves from it but with Confidence to preserve our selves by it This place of Scripture is like that before it Prov. 4. 13. Where Solomon speaking of Wisdom or Instruction saith Keep her for she is thy Life Jesus Christ as he is in the Spirit is our Life-Principle Colos. 3. 4. When Christ who is our Life shall appear He is the Treasure of our Hearts and our truest Heart For from Him as He is in the Spirituality of his own Person are the Issues the Out-goings of our Life Mat. 6. 21. Where your Treasure is there will your Hearts be also Our Treasure and our Hearts are both with Jesus Christ in Heaven Colos. 3. 1. The Heart is the Treasury of all good things A good man out of the good Treasury of his Heart bringeth forth good things Mat. 12. 35. Jesus Christ is this Heart which hath the Treasure in it For in him are all the Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge hid Colos. 2. 3. Jesus Christ is the Heart as he is the Head of Man 1 Corin. 11. 3. The Head of every Man is Christ The Head of Christ is God The Lord Jesus as he is the Heavenly Man is the most proper Head and Heart of man the First Principle before all others the most inward Principle lying within and beneath all other Principles the Life-Principle Thus we see what the Heart is 1. Jesus Christ as He puts forth Himself in the Natural Spirit of Man to be the Principle of Nature either in a Power of Wrath or Love 2. Jesus Christ as He is in his own Heavenly Spirit and Person comprehending the Life Perfection and Blessedness of Man in Himself as in a Divine Root or Treasury 2. The Bed This is the Second thing of which we are to seek the meaning We read of a Bed of Tribulation Revel 2. 22. This Bed is a Spirit of Darkness Weakness Woe and Torment We read of a Bed in Tribulation which God prepares for those whom he loves Psal. 41. 3. Thou wilt make all his Bed in his Sickness or Thou wilt turn it the Inside of Peace Love and Glory for the Outside of Pain and Trouble or thou wilt change it from a Bed of Languishings into a Bed of Rest or a Bed of Love We read of Beds of Joy and Glory Psal. 149. 5. Let the Saints be joyful in Glory let them Sing aloud on their Beds In the Canticles there is mention made of the Bed of Christ and His Spouse Can. 1. 16. Our bed is Green There is also Solomons Bed who was a Type of the Heavenly Bridegroom Cant. 3. 7. Behold his Bed which is Solomons threesâ—â—re valiant men are about it of the valiant men of Israel This Bed is the Spirit of the Lord Jesus which shines forth and buds with Sweetness and Beauty which goes forth in the midst of the Angels cloathing itself with those Mighty and Glorious Spirits This Spirit draws the Soul forth from the Tumults of the Flesh takes her off from her own Strength and casts
have done with this Use of Examination Use. 2. Conviction Do not think Religion or Holiness a Melancholy thing Do not fear to be Religious as if then you must part with all your Delights and put your self into the perpetual Desert of a solitary sad sour Conversation Holiness and Religion have their own Joy and will take none of yours 1 Tim. 6. 6. Godliness is great gain with Contentment Let me commend Holiness to you in Three Particulars 1. Particular The First Particular is this Holiness is a Kingdom in itself It is Godliness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Right way of taking in and holding forth the Majesty of God Holiness is the Uniting of the Soul by a vital and conjugal Union to God who is the Lord of All who is All in All. Thy Maker is thy Husband Es. 54. 5. Religion is a Discovery in the Soul of God as the Eternal Spirit the Quickning Spirit as bringing forth Himself as working his own works as fulfilling his Joy as setting up his Kingdom in the Soul He hath shined into our Hearts the Glory of the Knowledge of God 2 Corin. 4. 6. Religion is a Drawing of the Soul up to God into the Glory of God as the Sheet which St. Peter saw was drawn up into Heaven Brethren partakers of the Heavenly Call Heb. 3. 1. Can this be a Melancholy thing where there is so much of Heaven so much of the Love Life Glory of God himself Can there want Content where there is a Kingdom the Kingdom of God Or Delights where the Immortal King Jesus Christ keeps his Court Why shouldst thou think it strange when all things in Nature are united to their Head and in that have their Perfection that thy Soul should be re-united to her God and partake of his Fulness and there possess a Fulness of Joy Thou art our Father Say they in the Prophet I will return to my Father saith the Prodigal Son Luke 15. 18. This is the First Particular 2. Particular Godliness or true Religion is Gain It is so far from making you loosers in any point that it gives you your own again with Usury and Increase It will not divorce your Spirit from any of your Joys but it will make the Marriage-bed of your Delights Honourable and Undefiled Green and Flourishing There is a double Gain of Joy in Holiness 1. There is a Gainful Change made upon your Joys when you come to be truly Religious Your former Joys are transfigured like the Garments of Jesus Christ. They are changed from a Vile to a Gloriâ—us State from a Corruptible to an Immortal State 2. There is a Gainful Addition made to your Joys by being Holy Holiness brings in upon your Spirits higher greater and more Heavenly Joys such as you were never acquainted with before Godliness hath the Promises of this Life and that which is to come 1 Tim. 4. 8. Gen. 49. 2 6. Jacob blesseth his Son Joseph after this manner The Almighty shall bless thee with the Blessings of Heaven above and with the Blessings of the Deep that lieth under v. 27. He adds The Blessings of thy Father hath prevailed above the Blessings of my Progenitors Come taste and see what Sweetness what a Blessing there is in being Holy The Blessing of a Holy and Spiritual Principle in your Hearts will prevail above the Blessings and Joys of all your Natural and Worldly Principles You shall have the Delights of Heaven above and the Delights that are in the Deep of Nature which lies below All these you shall enjoy while you are on Earth 't is true indeed you shall enjoy them in the Promises which is as a Spring in the Earth which is by the Life of Faith as under a vail of Contradiction in a hidden way but a sweet sure substantial way Do not thou Doubt but that God can make Abrahams dead Body a Father to an Isaac even thee in this Earthly State which is dark and dead to possess as thine own all mirth of Angels men all the Precious things of the Sun and Moon the Creature and the Creator if thou put thy trust in him Do not fear to give up and Sacrifice thy Isaac thy Natural Joys to thy God by devoting thy self to Him in a Religious way It shall be no loss or Death to thy Joys He shall give thee thy Isaac thy Joys again in the Figure and Fellowship as a Seed of Eternal Joys 3. Particular Religion gives you Joy with Contentment with Assurance and Rest. When you come to God and have your Joys in him you are at home at your End in your Center So all the Workings Desires Inclinations of your Soul are satisfied they acquiesce and are still God is your Beginning and your End When you live to him he gives you assurance in your Joys he seals them to you because he is the Beginning the first of all He gives you Rest in your Joys that you care for you are capable of nothing more because he is the End the close the fulness of all Happy and Blessed is he to whom the Kingdom of God is come God giveth that man Joy and no trouble no Stain no Shame no Sting with it Happy and Blessed is he who hath share in this Joy for to him the Bitterness of Death and every evil is already past 2. Part Enlargement The Enlargement of the Soul in God is the Second Part of Spiritual Joy This is fitly exprest by the Prophet Esa. 52. 9. Break forth into Joy Sing together ye wast places of Jerusalem For the Lord hath comforted his people he hath redeemed Jerusalem The Lord first Redeems the Soul delivers her from the State of Servitude and Subjection then she breaks forth into Joy Natural Joy is the Dilatation or Enlargement of the Heart Spiritual Joy is the Dilatation or Enlargement of the Holy Spirit in man When the Divine Principle in the Soul breaks out of the Darkness of our Nature when it breaks forth from the Bonds of Flesh into its own Liberty and Freedom this is the Kingdom of God and the Joy thereof in the Soul You have this Joy of the Kingdom fitly and fully described in a Parable by our Lord Jesus Mat. 13. 44. The Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a Treasure hid in a Field the which when a man hath found he hideth and for Joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath and buyeth that Field The opening of this Parable will tend very much to the Explaining of this Particular of which I am now speaking There are Five Things to be opened in the Parable 1. The Field 2. The Treasure in the Field 3. The Concealment of this Treasure 4. The Discovery of the Treasure 5. The Purchase of the Field 1. The Field This is the First Thing The Kingdom of God is like unto a Treasure hid in a Field What should this Field be Can it be any other thing than the Natural Image of God in Man This is
The Puttings forth of Christ in us are Unsatisfactory This One thing I do saith the Apostle forgetting those things which are behind I reach forward towards that which is before What is that Observe the next verse will tell us The Mark of the price of the High Calling of God in Iesus Christ. That which is come forth of Christ into thy Natural Man that is now Behind thee That which is Before thee is the Person Possession and Life of Jesus Christ in the Spirit and Glory of God The Unity of this Spirit the Fellowship of this Glory as it is in the Person of Christ this is That Mark which is Before us All that which is in our Persons while we are in Flesh is Behind us and to be forgotten by us It hath a Darkness a Shadowyness an Emptiness a Transitoriness from the Flesh in which it is inclosed So it cannot stay with us or satisfie us It cannot hold us It vanisheth it passeth behind us and is to be forgotten by us Our best Things while we are in this vile Body are a Heavenly Treasure in an Earthen Vessel as St. Paul speaks They are Pure and Sweet as they flow from the Spirit of Christ but as they are in our Spirits they tast of the Vessel they receive an Unsavouriness or Unsatisfactoriness from their Communion with our Earth and Flesh. The Grace of Christ in thee is like a Beam which is at once in the Bosom of the Sun and in the Bosom of the Earth That End of the Beam which is to the Sun is pure and perfect Light But that which is towards the Earth is Dim full of Motes and Dust. The Shinings forth of Christ in thee have such a double Relation to Christ and to thee As they are Christs and in Union with him they are Light and Life in Christ without any Emptiness or Mixture But as they are Thine and have their Being in thy Heart they are like Gold in the Mine partaking very much of the Earth in the midst of which they lie The Power of Christ magnifies it self in thy Weakness as the Apostle speaketh of Himself The Life of Christ in thy Spirit is Wine mingled with Water If thou take it in itself and in Christ it is the Power of Christ. But if you look upon it as it is in your Spirit it is Wine and Water Power in Weakness On Christ's part it is Magnified but on thy part it is Weak and can afford thee but a Weak Unsatisfying Joy 4. Fourthly and Lastly The Communications of Christ in us become Unsafe when we build our Joys upon Them St. Paul is ever very careful in this One Main Point when he rejoyceth at any time in the Grace of God to set aside his own Person and to set up that Grace in the Person of Christ. I thank God thorow Jesus Christ my Lord Rom. 7. 1. What ever matter of Rejoycing or Thankfulness a holy Soul finds it still finds and acknowledges it to have all its Vertue Sufficiency and Safety from and in the Person of Jesus Christ. Therefore doth it draw all through that Person out of its own Person lest it should think of it self above what is meet Look to Jesus Christ the Beginner and Finisher of thy Faith and Joy For God hath appointed Him as the Mediator in whose Person alone every Thing is made truly Acceptable unto God and Man He alone must be thy Beloved in whom thou must be well-pleased Thou must be well-pleased and Joy'd with every Grace onely in Him as Thou and It meet in him Otherwise thou art in danger of Spiritual Adultery and Idolatry by which thou wilt grieve thy Husband the Lord Jesus and rob thy self of his blessed Presence This is a Way by which thy Soul often falls on a sudden from High Enjoyments into a Dark and Desolate Condition When the Lord Jesus fills thee with the Warmth and fruitfulness of his Embraces first thou lookest upon the Fruits of Christ in thy Soul and art exceedingly taken with the Beauty and Sweetness of these Now thy Heart and thine Eye begin to go a whoring from thy Heavenly Spouse when they begin to look off from his Person though it be upon something sent forth from Him Secondly thou then reflectest upon thy self with Delight to see thy self so adorned so strengthened Thou thinkest thy self Rich and Safe So ere thou art aware thy Soul makes her self like that Whore which said I sit like a Queen and shall see no sorrow Thirdly Thy Saviour now grows Jealous He turns away his Face He withdraws his Graces the Testimonies of his Presence from thee He leaves thee to the Power of Temptations and Lusts. This he doth that thou mayst learn not to Exalt thy self by his Gifts nor His Gifts in thy Self but Both in him whose Person is the Life of Both and ought to be the Only Object of all thy Love and Joy Thus the Apostle had the Buffetings of Satan and a Sting in his Heart that he might not be exalted by his Revelations but his Saviour and he only in his Saviour Take heed then of looking upon the most Glorious Graces of Christ in your own Person But keep your Eye unmoved on the Person of your Saviour and look upon Both your Self and your Graces in that true Glass and perfect Image So I pass from the Negative to the Affirmative Part of this Rule 2. Part Take the Rise of your Ioy from Iesus Christ as He comprehends you in Himself It is necessary for me here to make plain this Rule by Propounding and Answering Three Questions which perhaps most of your Spirits will be ready to ask in themselves 1. Question First you may ask me What I mean by Iesus Christ. Answer I shall answer so far only as I apprehend most pertinent to the Point in hand My Answer to this Question shall be Six-fold 1. Answer Our Lord Iesus is a Spirit 2 Corin. 4. The Lord is that Spirit A Spirit hath a Three-fold Power 1. A Penetrating 2. A Receiving 3. A Uniting Power 1. Power Penetrating When Jesus Christ was made Spiritual by his Resuâ—rection He could pass thorow the Door when it was shut and present himself in the midst of the Room and the Disciples on a sudden All Bodily Substances are forc'd to remain one without another They touch and joyn only by their Out-sides They cannot mingle but by Breaking themselves into little pieces So the Golden Calf was stampt to Powder that it might mix itself with the Waters But this is the Excellent Nature of Spirits that they can be a whole Army of them in One Spirit or in the Body of any Creature passing into the very Essence or Being of it most Inwardly most Universally and yet neither Divide nor Stretch it The Lord was in this manner present with His Ten Thousand Thousands of His Angels on Mount Sinai which was a Bodily Substance that might be touched So the Lord and all
Superiour and Inferiour One above Another below In that above is the Fountain of Pleasure from thence the stream descends which makes that below ever-green and flourishing with delights Eden signifies Pleasure or Delight which name in another word is given to Christ as he was eternally in the bosom of the Father Prov. 8. 30. I was by him one brought up with him Delights from day to day Jesus Christ in his Heavenly Image in the Substance and Essence of the eternal Light is Eden the Paradise above In his earthly Image the sweet Shade where all his Beauties seem at once to sleep and spring he is the Paradise below There is he the Eden and the Fountain in the midst of Eden Here the Garden watered by the River going forth from Eden A good Heart hath in itself both these Paradises the Fountain and the Stream Eden and the Garden Cant. 4. 15. The Lord Jesus calls his Spouse A Fountain of Gardens a Well of living Waters flowing from Libanon The holy Heart is both the Fountain which makes all things Gardens Paradises which way soever it flows and those Gardens too It is both Libanon with the Fountain in it and the Gardens below in the vallies in the midst of which the Living Waters from this Fountain run along Reasâ—n The Heart is that Spirit which is the first Spring and Principle of Life in man Prov. 4. 23. Keep thine heart with all Diligence For out of it are the Issues of Life All the treasures of this World its Light Forms Vertues operations are first in the Sun From thence they flow forth in various Streams all round about him while yet they are still comprehended in him as being not only their inmost Center but also their outmost Circle of Light and Life So is the Heart or Spirit of Man an Invisible Sun in the midst of him far more great or glorious than this which we see in which all forms and acts of Life like Beams rise up first and fullest from whence they are dispensed and dispersed The Hebrew word to keep imports a double sense 1st Diligently observe thine Heart what Spirit or Principle it is by which thou art acted Such as this is such is thy whole Life If thy Heart be a Substantial true pure Spirit thy whole way and work all thy Joyes are Substance Truth Light Immortality as the Visions of God If the Heart which is in thee be shadowy thy Life is vain and empty the dream of a shadow Is thy heart corrupt and polluted then are all thy Streams poisoned death lurks and sports itself in them with an innumerable company of Devils 2. Keep that is preserve thine own thy true Heart with all diligence Abide in Christ and his Love as the only root of Life from whence alone spring the sap greennesses flowers fruits of true Sweetnesses Beauty and Blessedness Watch day and night that no other Spirit put forth itself in thee for every other Principle besides Christ and his Love will certainly prove a Counterfeit and instead of a Heart out of which the Issues of Life ought to be a root of bitterness There is a Twofold Heart 1. Natural 2. Spiritual 1. There is a Natural Heart This is the supream part of the natural Soul the Angelical Spirit in Man 1 Thes. 5. 23. St. Paul prayes The very God of Peace sanctifie you wholly and I pray God your whole Spirit and Soul and Body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Here we have the natural Man divided into three parts which are equally capable of being sanctified or by defilement made subject to blame 1. Spirit 2. Soul 3. Body The Spirit is as the Fountain the Soul the Stream of Life The Body the Channel in which this Stream runs along The whole Man is one Beam sprung immediately from the Divine Glory The upper end of the Beam where it is fullest and brightest immediately united to and rooted in the supream Light makes the Spirit The lowest point least and darkest almost vanishing into the Shade with which it mingles its light where it toucheth the Earth is the Body The Soul is the middle of that Beam partaking of both these dividing and uniting them like the Firmament between the Waters above and the Waters below the Angels being the Waters above the Firmament and Corporeal Lives those below The Spirit is the Angel in Man or Man in the Similitude and Society of Angels the invisible Image the first Treasury of all his Natural Beings Beauties and Life which afterward descends and distinguisheth itself into the varieties of Inferiour Acts and Appearances St. Paul therefore in the forementioned place calls it their whole Spirit The Body is the Outward and Visible Image the Shadow below of this above The Soul is the Life by which the Spirit descends into the Body maintains communion with it and gathers it up again into itself According to these Distinctions and Descriptions Solomon discourseth Eccles. 12. 7. Then shall the Dust return to the Earth as it was and the Spirit shall return to God who gave it The name of God there signifies Gods or Angels for whom it is frequently and expresly used in the Holy Scripture The Jews say it properly imports the Divine Nature as it is cloathed with the Angelical God in the midst of all his Holy Angels coming forth into the Creation descending to be the Head of it It is an English Proverb If men could live without the company of Women men they should converse with Angels This is true when the Spirit which is the Head and the Man in us withdraws itself from its Shadowy Image the Body which is as the Woman it finds itself in the Form of an Angel and in the Society of Angels From the Angelical State and Company it descends into the Body Thither it returns again when it leaves the Body This is the Natural Heart the Angelical Spirit in Man made in the Similitude of God as he cloaths himself with the Angelical Image as with a Garment of Light and so vailing his naked unaccessible Glories comes forth to be the Head of Angels This Spirit is the Immediate Seat of the Divine Presence the Glory the Angelical Throne Here the precious things of the Sun and the Moon of the Invisible and Visible Image of the Divine Nature here the Riches of the whole Creation appear together in their fullest Lustre and most beautiful Order The Letters of the Latine Name for Heart Cor make the first Letters of those word Camera Omnipotentis Regis which being interpreted are the Chamber of the Almighty King It is a common observation that the Heart of Man is Triangular which therefore cannot be filled with the round World but only with the Trinity This Heart of which we speak is properly Triangular consisting like the Angels of these Three Essence Understanding and Will the proper and Immediate Type of the Trinity which as it can be
if I go not away the Comforter will not come unto you but if I depart I will send Him to you Joh. 16. 7. Jesus Christ in the Shadow in the Flesh is the Crucifier and the crucified Jesus Christ in the Substance in the Spirit is the Comforter and the Comforted How expedient is it for us in the midst of these Shadows to withdraw our selves into the Life and Truth that when all things there are dying upon the Cross all things here may be Comforters and Comforts which continue for ever The Lord Jesus saith to the Father Sacrifice and Burnt-offering thou wouldest not have but a Body hast thou prepared me that is to be offered up in the place of all Sacrifices Hâ—b 10. 1. We read v. 1. that the Law hath a Shadow only of good things to come Jesus and all His Members have the Shadowy Body of this Natural Man and the First Creation fitted for them only to sacrifice themselves in these to the Eternal Truth that thus they may return on high into That All Shadows are under the Law The Law hath Shadows only of Good things to come All Sacrifices are under the Law The Gospel is a Feast Spirit and Life How wise how blessed is he who gathereth himself up entirely out of Nature and Flesh into the Invisible Glory of the Spirit In which while Flesh is suffering as a Sacriâ—ice by Fire he seeth all Flesh Suffering and Sacrifices to be Shadows only Shadows of Immortal Joys and Himself already in those Joys triumphing over and comprehending those Shadows in the Beautiful and Blessed Truth These are the Lessons from the First Principle which was that this World in its pure Naturals falleth as a Shadow from the Glorified Person of our Saviour 2. Principle The Presence and Appearance of the Person of our Lord Jesus and His Glory is withdrawn from the faln and corrupt World The Devil is called in the Scriptures The Prince of Darkness and The Prince of this World This World the World in this faln state is Darkness Darkness is the Privation of Light The absence of the Sun from the Earth is the Cause of Darkness Our Saviour in Glory is the Light the Sun of the whole Creation While He goeth away with His Beams into a far countrey to shine in the Invisible World He leaveth all behind Him in the Dark Three Lessons naturally flow from this second Principle 1. Lesson Believe not any Appearances of things in this World Darkness in the language of the Holy Ghost signifieth Deceit The Lord Jesus saith of Himself I am the Truth Truth hath lest the World together with Jesus Christ. Blessed is he who having the Possessions or Powers of this World in his Hand the Smile or Frowns of it before his Eyes the Griefs or Joys of it in his Heart can with a good assurance say Have I not a Lye in my Hand and in my Heart Are not the Apparitions of the Devil the Father of Lyes before me 2. Lesson Love not the things of this World James 4. 4. Ye adulterers and Adulteresses know ye not that the Friendship of this World is enmity with God It is not now the Seed of the Woman which is a Divine Loveliness and Love in the Person of our Heavenly Bridegroom which springeth up in all the Forms and Fruits of this World Yet a little while saith He to the World and ye shall see me no more No! It is the Seed of the Serpent in Deformity and Enmity in a Contrariety to all Spiritual Beauty Goodness and Truth which groweth up every where Your Love to any part of this World is Unclean and Adulterous By it you leave the pure and sweet embraces of your own Glorious Husband to ly down infolded in the treacherous Twinings of the old Serpent the Dragon 3. Lesson Walk not after the Fashion of this World Rom. 12. 2. Be not conformed to this World While the Lord Jesus was with this World it was His Shadow He figured His Beauties upon it He acted it with His Spirit His Name was as an Ointment poured out upon it He spake to us and conversed with us there But now when He is absent the beautiful Figure is gone the Darkness with all its confusions and cursed Fruits remain The Spirit of Darkness ariseth in it with all his Hellish Forms of Deceit Defilement and Wrath If thou cloath thy Spirit with any Worldly Image thou puttest on a filthy Garment which will pollute thee thou puttest on a fiery garment which hathâ— the burning poysons of Hell hidden in it which will cleave inseparably to thee torturing and consuming thee with a hidden inward and uâ—quenchable flame This is the Second Principle 3. Principle Jesus Christ hath reconciled all things hath gathered up all things into One hath made all things New with the Spiritual and Eternal Glory of the Father as the World standeth in the Resurrection of Christ from the Dead and in His Glorified Person as a New Head to it with a New Name Lesson You then that are Christ's live victoriously and triumphantly in this World Abide in your Head â—There you see all this World lying conquered captivated comprehended in a new and endless World of Life Love and Glory Rom. 5. We rejoyce saith St. Paul v. 2. And not onely so but we glory in tribulation v. 3. Because the Love of God is shed abroad in our Hearts by the Holy Ghost given unto us v. 5. O Christians live in Joy Live in Glory live in perpetual Triumph For by the Resurrection and Ascension of your Jesus the bitterest Enmities the blackest Extremities are Forms Floods of Light and Love in that Sea of Light and Love the Holy Ghost breaking forth from the sweet and glorious Deep of the God-Head in the Heart of the Father Rom. 8. v. 57. In all these things famine nakedness sword mentioned before we are more than conquerours through Him that loved us v. 58 59. For nothing life nor death nor Angels things present nor things to come nor height nor depth shall be able to sparate us from the love of god wlâ—â—â— is in Christ Jesus Dear Soul dwell for ever in this good Land of Life and Love thy Saviour in the Spirit Nothing here can separate thee from the Divine Love Every thing then that cometh to thee in life or in death must come in that Element of Love it must come in a Lovedress it must be Love itself in a Lovely Form Every thing that toucheth thee here must touch thee with the Heavenly kisses and Embraces of Divine Love Otherwise there would be a Separation between Love and thee In thy glorified Jesus is the Love of God that Love which is God the God-Head of Love O blessed Habitation O Happy and Heavenly Countrey thine own Countrey indeed What so much our own what so near us so much One with us as Love Here Love in its God-Head filleth all in Spiritual Forms in Forms of Glory and of God
O glorious Victory O Saints more than Conquerours in the Resurrection of your Saviour The World is faln before you it is no more The old things of Vanity Darkness Sin Sorrow Death are passed away in His Death Thus you are conquerours But in His Resurrection the World is raised again in a Form of Eternal Love and Glory for you All things are come again and are made New All things appear again the second time Immortal Spirits shining in the Loveliness burning in the Love of the God-Head for you opening all things past present and to come in themselves as Beautiful and Sacred Mysteries of Divine Love to you which ever is Delighting it self in You sporting with you preparing Joys Glories for you Thus you are more than Conquerous through Him who hath loved You. Live then in Him Joyfully gloriously Triumphantly I have done with the first Part of my last Use the Sweeâ—ning and Sanctifying Life in this World 2. Part. To sweeten and sanctifie Death by the Knowledge of Christ in Glory I shall lay down three Principles to this End 1. Principle Every Saint standeth â—compleat in Glory in the Glorified Person of Christ above even while he is living or dying here below Ye are compleat in Him who is the Head of all Principality and Power Col. 2. 10. In the verse before the Lord Jesus was described as in Him dwelleth all the Fulness or Compleatness of the God-Head bodily v. 9. Then this is added And in Him ye are compleat or full who is the Head of all Principality and Power A Believer is compleat in his Saviour as He hath the Compleatness of the God-Head in him and the Compleatness of all the Angels beneath him His Life then and His Death as they stand in Jesus Christ are more than Angelical They are Divine I shall endeavour to set in lively Figures before your Eyes the Beauty and Sweetness in the Death of a Saint by four Scriptures 1. Script And hath raised us up together and made us sit together in Heavenly places in Christ Jesus Eph. 2. v. 6. What is to be understood by together is plain in the verse before hath quickned us together with Christ It is God who doth all this as is seen v. 4. God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he hath loved us Four Positions lye clear in this Scripture 1. Pos. A Believer is risen from the Dead He dieth no more He is passed from Death to Life As Abraham is said to have received Isaac from the Dead in a Figure So the Beloved of the Lord dâ—eth onely in a Figure Death is to him a Divine Figure standing in the Resurrection from the Dead His Death is a Flower of Life and Immortality growing up in the Paradise of God which is the Glorified Person of Jesus It beareth indeed the Figure of Death but is full of a Sweetness and Beauty which can never fade or dye Let us all labour for our part in the New Birth This is a Resurrection from the Dead All things after it are Life Pure Life without any mixture of Death Perpetual Life Endless Life without any Sting of Death in the tail of it 2. Pos. A Believer is already sâ—t down in Heavenly places nay more than Heavenly The Word Heavenly is by some translated and so it properly signifieth Supercoelestial more than Heavenly places above the Heavens Here a Saint is made to sit down He is fixed and established He is at rest at home at the end of all his journeyings and changes He is set as a Bride at the Marriage-feast He is set as a Prince upon the Throne of his Kingdom Thus God giveth His Beloved Sleep Rest a Feast a Throne in Death Jesus Christ in Glory is this Sleep this Rest this Feast this Throne which endureth for ever and ever O Christian rejoyce and glory in Death for the Hope of the Joy and Glory of thy Bridegroom there Thy Death hath nothing of Dust or Darkness in it It is a Heavenly Thing nay more than Heavenly It is something Supercoelestial It is a soft Strain and ravishing Touch in the Musick of the Divine and Eternal Rest. It is a savoury Dish such as thy soul loveth at the Feast in the Kingdom of God Solomon had a throne of Gold On the Steps which were the Ascents to the Throne on each side were Lyons of pure Gold Thy Death O Saint is now no more a fierce and devouring Lyon to affright thee It is the figure of a Lyon in Gold in one Glory It is not onely an Ascent to thy Throne O Jedidiah Beloved of the Lord It is One Piece of Eternal Glory with thy Throne It is an Ornament an Embâ—â—llishment of Glory to thy Throne How good is it for those who are born of God to keep themselves pure that they may alwaies see God that they may see all things to them Divine Objects in a Divine Light sparkling Jewels of Divine Love We are ever in the midst of these things which are more than Heavenly in the midst of these Supercoelestials even in the arms of Death While we keep our selves unspotted from this world we see these Supercoelestials and Death itself in the number of them But every sin casteth a mist upon them and covereth us with a Cloud that we see them no more Now the Visions of our Joy and Glory of Light and Truth are hid from our Eyes Now fear and trembling are upon 〈◊〉 Life is full of Trouble and Death full of Terrour 3. Pos. A Saint is set down in Heavenly places together with Jesus Christ. The sweetning and the heightning of all the Joys and Glories of the Gospel is the Union with thy Beloved Bridegroom The work of Grace is a Birth a Resurrection a Marriage all in one The Death of a Saint is an Act of Spiritual Communion between Christ and the Soul a Marriage-Joy The Lord Jesus presenteth himself to the Believer in the Form of Death as in a Heavenly a Supercoelâ—stial Beauty At this sight the Saint is immediately transformed into the same Image Jesus Christ springeth up into the Believer a Believer springeth up into his Beloved in this Heavenly Form So both are made one in it Thus Death becometh a Love-play between Christ and his Spouse He by a Spiritual Kiss breatheth forth his Spirit of Divine Loves Immortality and Invisible Glories into the Spouse The Spouse ravished sorth from her self again in the same moment breatheth forth her Spirit into the Bosom of her Lord. Thus they die together they die one in another they die one into another In the first of the Canticles there is a Prophetical Song which beginneth at the Resurrection of our Saviour and the Effusion of the Spirit together with the Spiritual Union between Christ and his Church which was as their Heavenly Espousals solemnized and sealed with a Kiss with the reiterated Kisses of his Mouth Then followeth in the process of the first
the Grace of it as the Water and Sparklings of Light in a Diamond are the Grace of that It is the Tast and Rellish of Love in every Joy is as the Wine which is the Grace of the Feast It is the Love of Jesus Christ at its height which is the Grace intended here 2. The Effusion or Pouring forth of this Grace is next to be opened Three things are signified in this Effusion 1. A Fulness of Grace is discovered Natural Agents work to the utmost of their Power God is in nothing so Natural as in His Love His work of wrath is his strange work praeternatural to Him and a Disguise upon Him Love is His Right Hand the Sheep are set at his Right Hand Love flows forth from the Person of the Father unveiled naked as Light from the Sun Millions of fresh Beams each moment from each point 2. Freedom of Grace is manifested in Its Pouring forth itself It is its own First Mover It puts itself into Motion It is a fluid thing It cannot contain itself within its own Bound the Heart of God It is ever pouring forth itself all abroad into every Heart Divine Love is the most universal and importunate Beggar It cometh to the door of every Spirit It Knocketh It presseth in 3. A Force of Love putteth forth itself in this Expression When the Rain cometh with a Tempest and falleth with a great force we say It poureth down Love from above stormeth Hearts most fortified against it It rusheth forth like a mighty flood If any banks or dams oppose it it riseth so much the higher it gathereth so much the more strength till it bear down all before it carry away all with it overflow all swallow up all into itself that all things become One Sea of Love 3. The Lips of Christ into which this Grace is poured forth may be understood four ways 1. The Word of the Scriptures and the Outward Ministery are the Lips of Christ in which Grace is poured forth All the Scriptures are Love-letters from Christ in Heaven all the Ministeries of the Gospel are Love-Embassages Love-tokens 2. All Outward Providences all Inward Discoveries of the Lord Jesus are His Lips with which He kisseth us and poureth forth the Divine Sweetness and Strength of His Love into our Spirits 3. The Spirit Himself is the Mouth and Lips of the Heavenly Bridegroom By this He uniteth Himself most immediately to us in the closest and Divinest Love-union By this He transmitteth Himself and His Love most warmly into us 4. The naked Person of Christ in Glory is to be understood by these Lips The Holy Ghost composeth this Psalm as a Marriage-song to celebrate the Union State and Joys of the Heavenly Bridegroom and Bride in the Resurrection and Ascension of our Blessed Lord. Here the Person of our Beloved is all a Divine Mouth with which He breatheth forth all the Sweetnesses of His glorious Nature and Love as He sucketh in ours It is all One Divine Eye from which He poureth forth upon us continual Floods of Light Beauty and Grace by which also He taketh us in continually in all Blessed Forms of an Immortal Loveliness and Love Thus we see our selves continually in Him He seeth Himself continually in us Eye to Eye each a Living Glass of glorious Love to the other The Spirit and the Lord Jesus in Glory are Both One. A Bee in a Garden sitteth upon every flower and plant sucking the vertue forth from it This it formeth into One Sweetness in itself which is Honey Full of this Honey it flyeth to its Hive and there layeth up its pleasant Treasures So this Spirit resteth upon every Excellency in the God-Head every Life and Image of things in the Creature It extracteth the several virtues from all It turneth all within itself into One Divine and unexpressible Sweetness which is Love With this Treasure of Love it maketh haste to some broken and forlorn Heart There in this Heart in thine Heart if thou wilt believe that thou mayest tast and see it it layeth down its precious Burthen it layeth up the inestimable Riches of glorious Grace We read in the building of the Temple that there was a great Sea of Brass which stood upon twelve Oxen the figures of the Cherubims Our Saviour's glorified Person is a vast Sea of Love All the Angels of God support this Sea serve this Love The God-Head itself in a bright and sweet flood of Love is poured abroad in this Sea in this Bosom and Person Here every Believing Soul batheth itself in and taketh its Fill of Loves Doct. The Doctrine which I intend to insist upon according to the Grace of God given unto me is this The Love of God is poured forth in the Glorified Person of our Lord Jesus Thy Name is an Ointment poured forth Cant. 1. 2. The Name of our Beloved which His Spouse Knoweth Him by and calleth Him by is That Name above every Name in this World or the World of Angels which the Father hath given Him at His Resurrection and Ascension Ephes. 1. 21. This Name is His Person itself in Glory which is the onely Expression of itself This is an Ointment poured forth O Blessed Ointment of Divine Love which hath all the Cordial Spices and Sweets of the God-Head itself in it which perfumeth all things thorow Heaven and Earth which maketh all Faces to shine with a Divine Lustre and all Hearts to spring with a Divine Joy This costly Ointment was before shut up and kept in an Alabaster Box in the Glorious Secret of the Father's Bosom But now that Box is broken in the Death of our King That Bosom is opened in His Resurrection That sweet Treasure of all Life and Delight the Eternal Love of the Father is poured forth at the Root of the Creation upon the Head of every Creature in the Glorified Person of Jesus Christ. It s sweet Savour is gone forth into the Nostrils of every Spirit to revive it and allure it to its Everlasting Embraces 1. John 5. 11. This is the Record namely of God Himself that God hath given us Eternal Life and this Life is in His Son Eternity is defined to be The Possession of all Good at once and in One. There are Three things which go to make up Eternity 1. A Perfection of Excellency 2. A Collection of all Excellencies 3. A Station of all these with their several Distinctions in One Top-point of Spirituality above all Division or Change Love is the Union of Lovely Things The most Perfect Love is the most Perfect Union which bindeth up all Lovelinesses in their several Perfections into the streightest Unity Eternal Life then is the Life of Love in its Purity and Perfection Eternity is Love itself the firmest and Fullest Union of all Graces and Graceful Things in the height of Glory and the height of Unity This Eternal Life this Eternal Love this Life of Love which is the Life of Eternity is
his Glory in Heaven Now there is no Solitude in the Unity which maketh Paradise a Wilderness the Unity is the true Paradise within itself springing up into variety then marrying itself to it and so flourishing from this Union with all manner of Beautiful and pleasant Fruits By this Birth and Distinction in the Unity Adam and Eve are capable of enjoying themselves each in other and of multiplying themselves Thirdly Eve is brought to Adam again and these two are made one Flesh. This is the making of two one again which were first made two of one This Unity in the Distinction and Distinction in the Unity is that Marriage in Paradise which is the Type of that Incomprehensible Marriage above all Heavens which is the Third Person in the Trinity In him the Father and the Son spend Eternity in mutual Embraces and multiply themselves into an Infiniteness of Blessed Lives Blessed Loves You that are Married Persons see your selves in this double Glass of Paradise and the Trinity By these Glasses dress your selves in your Loveliness and Loves one for another St. Paul saith that Marriage is Honourable among all or in all things A Type hath a double Honour the Figure which is Shadowy the Truth which is a substantial Glory Husbands and Wives preserve the Honour of your state at least in the shadowy part Bear the Figure of the Ever-glorious Trinity whose Type you are by a mortal Beauty Truth Purity Sweetness which are the Gold and precious Mettal in the Ring of this Love-union This will make Marriage an Earthly Paradise But rest not in this You will find a Serpent here that will quickly poyson all your Sweets and change your Flowers into Thorns if you pass not thorow the Earthly into the Heavenly Paradise Then you wear the Marriage-Crown in Truth when that Spirit which is the Band of Love between the Father and the Son is the Eternal Band of Divine Love between you also when you also make your Marriage-Bed in the Bosom of the Holy Ghost What Joys what an Immortal Off-spring is born of those Lovers where the Love-fellowship of these below and the sacred Love-fellowship of the Blessed Trinity above descend and ascend one into another where they mingle themselves Universally 3. Love-Union in the Soul Joh. 3. 6. That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit The Divine Being Life and Form of the Soul in which it is a Spirit lie first wrapt up in the Unity of the Eternal Spirit its Heavenly Mother above The Eternal Spirit out of this Love-Center and within the Love-Circle of its own Unity by the New-birth in the Soul bringeth forth at once a Daughter-Spirit a Sister and Spouse to itself This Divine Spirit like the Paradisical Eve so soon as it is born of its Heavenly Adam is brought to him again and they Two are made one Spirit 1 Cor. 6. 17. As a New-born Babe so soon as it is sprung out of the Womb seeketh the Breast of the Mother that it may suck forth a continued stream of Life from the Fountain of its Life so is it in the Spiritual Birth So soon as the New-born Spirit ariseth up out of this Unity which is the Womb of the God-Head it is immediately received into the Arms of this Unity it desireth after it hunteth for it returneth to it fastneth upon this Unity which is the Breast of the God-Head By this it draweth in the sincere and pure Milk of the living Word it taketh in by plentiful streams the Light Life Glory Substance of the Divine Nature to grow by them O you who indeed 〈◊〉 born of this Unity lie continually in the Bosom of it hang continually upon this Breast But thus as in the Eternal Generation in Heaven as in the Creation in Paradise as in the Regeneration which is the opening of Paradise and Heaven both a second time in the Soul all are Love-Births Love-Unions The Unity distinguisheth itself within itself into another self which is yet still the same that there may be a variety in the Unity without the breach of the Unity The Virgin above bringeth forth a Son which is also her Lord and continueth a Virgin still The Beautiful variety which is the Effulgeâ—cy of the Unity rejoyneth itself again to it and still remaineth a variety in its distinction from it Thus the Love-Marriage is every where solemnized and every where maketh a Paradise and a Heaven above and below This is the first Description of Divine Love a Divine Union where one Glorious Spirit is made two and these two make themselves one again Use. Learn from the Beauty and Sweetness of Divine Love the Evil of this Worlds Love by their contrariety to it Ye Adulterers and Adulteresses Know ye not that the Friendship of this World is Enmity to the Father Who therefore is this World's Friend is an Enemy to God James 4. 4. See the Evil of this World's Love in 3. Steps 1. Step By loving this World you separate yourselves from the Love of God You estrange your selves from all true Joy Peace and Rest. For these are the Attendants and Companions of Divine Love Cant. 3. 7 8. You read of Solomon's Bed which hath fourscore valiant menos the valiant men of Israel round about it with their swords girt upon their thigh for the fear of the night How great how Divine is the Sweetness the Safety the Security of Spiritual Love He that abideth in this Love enjoyeth an Uninterrupted Rest and untroubled pleasures in a Night of the greatest Darkness Dangers Tumults and Storms He hath ever round about Him a Troop of Holy Angels for his Guard armed with the Glorious Power of the Spirit This is the Sword upon their Thigh In the midst of these he lyeth upon a Royal Marriage-bed Here he is encircled with the Spiritual Embraces of King Solomon the Lord Jesus in Glory the King of all Peace Perfections and Pleasures This is the Love of God that Love by which God and the Soul live and dwell together in One Spirit You now who prefer the blackness of darkness before the Beauty of Christs Face restless cares endless fears continual dangers and deaths before the Rest and Joys of Christ's bosom love this world and let the love of Jesus Christ go 2. Step. By the Love of this World you make your selves Adulterers with a Witch and a Common Whore Poor Soul thou forsakest the Arms of thine own Love thy Loving Roe and pleasant Hind the Wife of thy Youth of Eternal Youth the Heavenly Image in the Person of the Lord Jesus Thou givest thy self up to the Embraces of the strange Woman the Strumpet this World the Fleshly Image of Things The Love of your Saviour is all Truth Purity Peace Immortality The Love of this World beginneth in Deceit hath its Power in Enchantments its Effect Pollutions its End Destruction She giveth thee Drink indeed in a Golden Cup. But she maketh thee to drink in first a Wine of Sorceries
then of Fornications Her End is to have her Flesh burnt with Fire and into the same bed of flames will God cast all those that commit fornication with her 3. Step. By loving this world thou makest thy self an Adulteress with the Devil This World as it stealeth thine Heart from God is a Composure of Lyes The Devil who is the Father of Lyes maketh thy Soul his Strumpet upon which he begetteth these false Forms of things Thou breedest these young Devils upon thy Knee and as thou sportest thy self with them thou suckest in by their Kisses the poyson and fire of Hell into all thy veins The Devil first wooes thee in a Counterfeit shape of false Beauty Glory Power Joys When he hath gained thee he breaketh forth upon thee in his own shape of endless Terror and Horrours There is nothing truer than that the Love of this World is a Spiritual Adultery with the Devil and the Head of all Adulteries of all Defilements There is nothing more sure than that Carnal Adultery in all the degrees of it the Similitude of this most powerfully calleth up into us and upon us the Spirit of this World the Prince of Darkness the Devil with all His Dark Deforming and Destroying Powers O ye sons and Daughters of men who dwell in the midst of the snares and nets of this great painted Adulteress be aware of your danger Abide in your first Principle your Root your first Husband the Eternal Love of the Father in Christ. Abide in your own Habitation the Bosom of your own Bride the Eternal Beauty the Essential and Immortal Image of the God-Head in Christ. These Loves shall be a Fountain of Life to you above to preserve you from the snares of Death below 4. Step. By the Love of this World you turn the Love of God into Wrath and fury If you be the Friends of this World you are the Enemies of God saith St. James Why do you provoke the Love of God Will you contend with Almighty Love Are you greater than that Love is the Right Hand of God's Strength His God-Head lieth in His Love God is Love This Love is strong as Death cruel as the Grave What art thou O Worm to stand before it to bear its rage O choose rather to lye down as a Bride in these everlasting Burnings and Devouring Fires of Love to be cherished changed refined and glorified by their tender and divine Embraces than to set thy self as Bryars and Thorns against them to be consumed by them Thus I have done with the First Description of Divine Love A Union between God and the Soul as the Beloved and His Love in One Spirit of Purity Immortality Joy and Glory 2 Descrip. The Love of God is the Will of God This is a Universal Truth that in every Spirit Love and the Will are One This appeareth in their Nature their Object their Operation 1 The Nature of the Will and Love are One The Will is defined to be the Inclination of the Spirit as it tendeth and bendeth itself to this or that this way or that way Love is stiled The Weight of the Soul As heavy things by their Weight so Souls by their Love are carried to their proper Center 2. The Object of the Will and of Love is the same It is a rule that The Powers and Habits in Spirits are distinguâ—shed by their Objects Every Principle and Faculty is the Object in its Sâ—ed The Object is the Form and Perfection of the Principle The Object of the Will is Goodness Appearing The Object of Love is Loveliness Loveliness and Goodness both consist in Suâ—tableness which hath its Ground in Unity If there be any Difference between Goodness and Loveliness it is this that as the Flower of Light is the Sun-shine and as Jesus Christ is the Efâ—ulgency the Shine of the God-Head the Brightness of the Glory of God so Loveliness or Beauty is Goodness shining â—ut to attract all Hearts to it Thus Loveliness the Object of Love and Goodness Appearing the Object of the Will agree entirely in One. 3. All their Operations are the same The Affections and Passions are the Motions of the Will All these are Love's Summer or Winter Love in the Seed is Desire Love budding and blossoming is Hope Love in the ripe Fruit is Joy Anger Fear Grief and Hatred are Love in its Opposition to its Enemy which is Enmity alone Love flying from or contending with that which standeth in its way to or would rob it of its Beloved Object But this is spoken in General onely concerning the Will and Love In Particular let us see how the Divine Will and the Divine Love appear to be the same in the Holy Scriptures The Will of God is distinguished by Divines into the Revealed and the Secret Will of God One is the Divine Will in Outward Signs onely The Other is the Good-Pleasure of God in His Heart and in Eternity 1. The Revealed Will of God is Love 1. Tim. 2. v. 1. c. In the first v. of this Chapter you have a Divine Rule that All manner of Prayers be made for All Men. This Rule is pressed by a particular Application of it to Kings and all in Authority v. 2. All in Authority what ever their Persons are or their Right v. 3. The Reason of this Rule is laid down For this is Good and Acceptable to God our Saviour This Universal Love wound up to the Highest strain of Spirituality and Divinity in us is a Vein of the Supreme and Divine Good let forth from the Heart of God where the Fountain of Good is and circling thorow our Hearts into his Heart again by Prayer Therefore is it acceptable to God Our Wills are never so in tune to the Divine Will and in consort with it as when the Spiritual motions of our Hearts in the Bosom of the Father are strains of Universal Love The Root of this Reason is discovered v. 4. God will have all Men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the Truth Love is said to consist in this To Will good to any one If this be love to Will good to any Then is it the best and highest love to Will the best and highest good Behold then The revealed Will of God is a Revelation of love to the height God will have all Men to be saved God willeth the highest end which is the best good to the lowest and worst of Men to all Men. That this end may not fail he also willeth the means to the end that all Men should come to the knowledge of the Truth The Ground in which this root of love liveth is the Unity of God and Christ. For there is one God and one Mediatour between God and Man the Man Christ Jesus The highest Unity Is the largest Universality It is in Spirits as in these Heavens which we see the highest are the widest All beneath them lie in their Bosoms The whole nature of things is
within and without in the glorified Person of the Lord Jesus There he taketh his first view of thee There his Eye and his Heart are fixt Eternally to thee Here he maketh choice of thee here he falleth in love with thee and his Soul resteth with perfect delight in thee For he beholdeth thee as a spectacle of all Divine loveliness lying in the Bosom of him who is the brightness of all Divine Glory As a Vessel in the Sea is filled with the Waters and overflown with the same Waters so art thou before the World was in the Person of thy Jesus as in a Sea of Spiritual Heavenly Beauties all full within all covered without with these Glories quite thorow transparent with the riches of their lustre entirely swallowed up into the Sea of these pure and bright Glories This is Electing Love of which St. Paul speaketh Ephes. 1. He hath made us acceptable in the beloved one It is a significant expression which no language can answer for the Sweetness and Fulness of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 made acceptable The phrase hath this force in it God embraceth thee with the Arms of the dearest and tenderest loves finding thee entirely cloathed and encircled with the height of all loveliness in the object of all loves and the first sâ—at the essence itself of all lovelinesses the Lord Jesus His Soul is well-pleased with thee to the utmost of all Content he hath his fill of Pleasures in thee enjoying thee in the Center of all Pleasantnesses his own Son 2. Part. Dâ—vine love in the second Part is a love of Benevolence While thou art a desolate Wilderness where nothing appeareth but Dearth and Drouth but Bush and Brake the love of Eternity descendeth and soweth itself as a Heavenly Seed in thee It cometh down in Heavenly Showers It breaketh forth in Heavenly Sun-shines upon thee The same love springeth up into all manner of Spiritual loveliness in thee Now the Grass groweth the Roes and the Hinds play where the Dragon lay The Bramble bringeth forth Roses The Stony Heart is now made the Garden of God The Soul which wallowed in the â—ilth of the Devil is washed by Eternal love in its own Blood redeemed by its own life made to bear the Fruit of its own loveliness and ready trimmed for a Bride to itself 3. Part. Divine love in the third Part is a love of Complacency and delight in thee in thine own Person Now Heaven is opened to thee God with all his holy Angels are continually descending and ascending between Heaven and thine Heart which is become as it were another Heaven on Earth God resteth in his Love to thee and rejoyceth with singing over thee The Marriage-feast of the Lamb and his Bride is kept in thee and thou art that Bride God with all his loves resteth in thy Bosom All his desires who is infinite are terminated in thee All his delights are consummated in thee All the Quires of Angels round about sing of his love to thee All his Excellencies and Glories all his works on every side sing for his Joy in thee Ah! Dear Souls When God shall thus bring back your Captivity how will your Mouths be filled with laughter How will you be as those that Dream But why should these glad Tydings seem to you too good too great to be true God is able to do all this for you and in you For his Power is Infinite God is as willing as he is able For his Power lyeth in his Will and his Will is Love Only wait thou for him and keep thine Eye upon the first Link in the Golden Chain of Divine love which is fastned to the Throne of God the Person of Christ in Heaven above all thy frailties folly and filths before thy Being in Flesh. This Link is that which draweth after it the other two inseparably and infallibly This is the Circle of Heavenly love First God loveth thee in Eternity with that love with which he loveth the Lord Jesus For he beholdeth thee in the light of the same loveliness in which he beholdeth Jesus Christ. Then he bringeth down the Treasure of this love and loveliness which is his beloved Son into thee soweth him as a Seed of the Divine Nature and Sonship He springeth up in thee transformeth thee into his own likeness groweth up in an inseparable Union and Fellowship with thee Now God hath another Son in which he seeth his Son in conjunction on Earth as he saw them before in conjunction in Heaven Lastly God embraceth this Son on Earth in whom he seeth his Son He giveth him the kiss of a Father with all the Joys of a Father He taketh him into his Arms carrieth him up into Heaven changing him still as he carrieth him up till this Union begun below be at last made perfect in and swallowed up into that Union which was at first in Eternity Then shall the Lord Jesus see himself in a Saint after the same manner in which a Saint is seen in the Lord Jesus both being made perfect in Each and all made perfect in one Follow on to know the Lord and his love and ye shall know this love of the Lord. 1. Use. See the Evil of sin upon two Accounts First Sin is an Aberration from the Will of God Secondly Sin is an Opposition to that Will 1. The first Evil of Sin is that is it an Aberration from the Will of God The Will of God is love In every Sinful path thou losest the Love-Presence of thy God What is this Love-Presence and what is thy loss in being deprived of it In the Love-Pâ—esence of God are these Things 1. A Light of Glory shining round about thee This Light of Glory cloatheth thy Person all over with its living lustre as with a Garment of pure Gold of Divine Loveliness This Light layeth all things open and naked to thee in their Heavenly Beauties in their Eternal Truths and Substances This light is a mutual Union and Fellowship between thee and all things in the light all the Children of light all Spirits and Forms of light This light is a Spiritual Paradise in which thou springest up and flourishest as a Plant and Flower of light This Divine Light is a new Wine which thou continually drinkest in and art filled with pure Spirits of all Life Excellency Loves and Joys Lastly This pleasant and triumphant Light chaseth away all the shadows all the darkness deceits melancholy and fears of the Night 2. In the Love-Presence is the Face of God unvailed naked and smiling God is as a King and a Bridegroom in his Ivory Palace Thou art as his Queen and Bride at his Right hand in Garments of Needle-work wrought by the Eternal Spirit with all manner of Beautiful and Delightful Flowers and Figures Here they make these two glad with all manner of Pleasures as on their Marriage-day 3. An innumerable company of Angels make up this Love-Presence These are thy guard They
by this love seeth this all this whole frame of things to be a structure a composure of Divine Love Eternal Love rising up into a Temple which itself filleth with its All-powerful presence and God-Head figuring itself in all Forms acting all Parts dwelling and conversing with us with itself in us and in all things Wandring Souls take what wings you will to your selves you can never fly from the Face from the Bosom of this Love The Face of Divine Love shineth thorow all things The Bosom of Love is the Nest in which all things lie He that hath an Eye to see this Love he that hath a Palate to rellish it feeleth and feedeth upon a Heavenly Sweetness dropping from the Divine Nature thorow all Objects thorow all his Senses as that Honey from the Rock of Eternity These are the two general observations I come now to the parts of the Psalm which are three 1. God 2. The Wonders 3. The Works of God 1. Part God This Part hath three Particulars 1. The Nature of God 2. The Person of the Father 3. The Person of Christ. 1. Partic. The Nature of God is Love O give thanks unto the Lord for he is good for his Mercy endureth for ever v. 1. Goodness is the Nature of God All the Goodness of God consisteth in his Love and the unchangeableness the Eternity of that The Lord Iesus teacheth us in the Gospel that there is none good but one that is God God alone is good essentially and so primitively and so perfectly infinitely good For nothing can limit or confine itself Goodness is in each Creature as an accident only In God it is his essence The essence of God is goodness The essence of goodness is Love Eternal Love O give thanks unto the Lord for he is good for his Mercy endureth for ever his Love is Eternal The Reason or Object in God of all Thanksgivings is his goodness The Formal Reason the Essence of his goodness is his Love As we pass let us make four short Notes upon this Particular 1. Faith in the Soul is to be the Counterpart of Love in God How large then should out Faith be which is to answer so great a Love All the goodness of God lyeth in his Love The Essence of God which is so incomprehensible so infinite is Love The Heart of God the Divine Nature is all Love O that our Hearts our Souls our whole Being were all one Mouth of Faith and that Mouth opening itself still wider and wider to take in these Seas of Divine Love 2. The goodness of the Divine Nature is Love The Seed then of all goodness in us is Divine Love Let us never say the Evil of my Heart and Life keep me from the Fountain of Love in the Heart of God If I were good with what Freedom should I come to it With what desire delight should I drink of it Take in this Love that thou mayst be good This is the beautiful Flower and ripe Fruit of the Divine Nature in the Creator This is the Immortal and precious Seed of the Divine Nature in the Creature 2. Partic. The Person of the Father is Love O give thanks unto the God of Gods for his Mercy endureth for ever v. 2. The ground upon which I Interpret the God of Gods in this verse to be the Father the Lord of Lords in the following verse to be Jesus Christ is the Authority of the Holy Ghost in the New Testament who often distinguisheth these two ever-blessed Persons by these several Titles of God and Lord. St. Peter saith of Jesus Christ in the Acts Him hath God made both Lord and King St. Paul saith There is one God the Father of whom are all things and we of him There is one Lord Jesus by whom are all things and we by him The Holy Apostle seemeth here by the name of God to understand the Fountain of things by that of Lord the Channel In another place he speaketh in like manner There are differences of Administrations but the same Lord. There are diversities of operations but the same God who worketh all in all God is the Original of all Power Jesus Christ the great and universal Administrator the supream Minister in all the Affairs of the God-Head and so the Lord. But to return the excellency by which God the Father infinitely surmounteth all the Gods â—ll Powers Greatnesses and Glories is Eternal Love The Soveraignty by which he reigneth over ruleth rideth forth upon all the Gods all Powers Greatnesses and Glories is Eternal Love The Fountain of the Father from which he bringeth forth the highest Spirits Angels and Saints into the Heavenly Image and Form of God that they all become as Sons of God as Gods round about the Throne of the God of Gods the Father of them all this Fountain is Eternal Love O ye Saints O ye Souls whom God hath created and brought forth from a Seed of Love in Eternity lay your Mouth to this breast of Love suck in abundantly the pure Milk of Eternal Love that you may nourish the Divine Nature and grow up into the Form of God by it What do we make our selves when we cast off Divine Love when we cease to love We cast off the Divine Nature and become Devils The God of Gods the Fountain of the Divine Nature the Father of the Divine Life and Image in Angels and men hath all his Praises for his Love he hath his vertue perfections and preheminence all consisting in his Love and the Eternity of that O give thanks unto the God of Gods for his Mercy endureth for ever for his Love is Eternal v. 3. 3. Part. The Person of Christ is Love O give thanks unto the Lord of Lords for his Mercy endureth for ever The Kingdom of Christ is a Kingdom of Love All the Praises of his Reign are terminated in everlasting mercies the kindnesses of Eternity As Iesus Christ is the Lord of Life and Prince of Glory so is he also the Lord and Prince of Love The Headship of the Lord Jesus over all Principalities and Powers is the Well-head of love Our Saviour as he is the Wisdom of the Father by which he conducteth all things is a love-channel the way of love a contrivance design and mystery of love As he is the Power of God which carrieth on all so he is a flood of love pouring forth itself into this channel and running along thorow it filling all the windings and turnings of the Creation and of Providence Who would not worship thee O thou King of Saints O thou King of loves Who would not kiss this Son with a kiss of Allegiance and be a Subject in this Kingdom where the King and the Kingdom both are love The sharpest reproof here is a kiss of love The deepest wounding is an anointing of love The Lord Jesus in this sense also is the King of Kings the Lord of Lords All his Subjects are Fellow-Lord Fellow-King together
with himself sitting together upon one Throne which is a Throne of Grace Throne of love love findeth or maketh an equality I have passed thorow the first part of the Psalm which is the God of love 2. Part. The Wonders of love To him who alone doth great Wonders for his Mercy endureth for ever or his love is Eternal v. 4. All the wonders of God are wonders of love God is in nothing so to be admired as in his love Admiration is imperfect knowledge Those things are wonders to us which are incomprehensible the causes and natures of which we cannot search out or reach to What Joy is this to understand that all that which we cannot understand in the nature of things which is as a thick darkness round about us is a glorious mystery of Divine love That all that every where of every Creature of every Providence of the Creator himself in which our Spirits are swallowed up and lost is an abyss of love a great and shining deep of Divine love He who thinketh he knoweth any thing saith St. Paul knoweth nothing as he ought to know How wise how right how pleasant is this to know that we have a perfect a right knowledge of nothing that all things may become wonders of love to us that the less we see the more we may feel of a Divine pleasure in the admirations and raptures of Divine love transcending our highest faculties that where we cannot comprehend things we may give up our selves to be comprehended by an incomprehensible love The Body of the Sun cannot be seen but dazâ—eth and darkneth our sight when we fix our Eyes upon it The Stars are said to be vast Bodies of Light and Glory Yet we see nothing of them but little twinklings and sparks The reason in one is the excess of Light in the other the excess of Height Believe it all things round about us are Stars and Suns of Divine love love in Divine Forms of a transcendent magnitude and lustre But we see them generally in a dusky and shadowy Appearance like the Sky at a great distance or at best as little sparks and twinklings of love Our sight faileth by reason of the greatness of the Glory and its height above us I come now from the second to the third part of the Psalm 3. Part. The works of love All the works of God are works of love The works of God and of love are of three sorts works of Nature works of Grace works of Glory 1. Works of Nature These are summed up in the Principal and Universal parts which comprehend all the rest v. 5. 6 7 8 9. The Heaven the Earth the Day the Night the Sun the Moon the Stars are mentioned To every one of these distinctly is annexed that close and Crown of love for His Mercy endureth for ever or his love is Eternal The whole frame of things is a Creation of love All the Creatures are so many Forms and Shapes which love putteth on to appear to us in to converse to sport itself with us If it take to itself the Glory of a King in the discovery of itself by the light of the day it taketh to itself a greater Glory and affordeth a greater pleasure by surmounting all our Powers and being incomprehensible when it hideth itself in the darkness of the Night Love is the Center of the Earth beneath on which the whole Creation resteth and moveth Love is the Circle of Heaven above which encompasseth all It is Divine love which rideth upon the Circuit of the Heavens of all the Heavenly Spirits and Heavenly Bodies ruling all things by its blessed and sweet influences from thence It is Divine love which soweth itself as a Seed in every dust of the Earth to spring up from thence into a Divine Form and Fruit. The Sun is a Figure of Eternal love shining forth with its naked Beauties in their full Glory In the Moon we see love shadowed and coming forth with its Night-dress to rule and enlighten every night the blackest the most tempestuous The Stars are innumerable Eyes of Love looking forth upon us watching over us attracting our Spirits and drawing them up to Heaven to the Fountain of love They are so many sparks of love flying forth from the Heart of God and glowing continually round about us to warm and melt our Hearts Can we now keep dark blind cold unkind unclean dead hearts in our Bosoms in the midst of a Creation of love where so many Eyes of love shine so sweetly upon us so many sparks of love lie glowing round about us so many Seeds of love are sown in our Earth so many influences of love are continually falling from the Heavens on every side The heat of the Sun warmeth stone-walls quickneth slime to a living Creature You that have hearts of stone in your Bosoms lay them open to the Beams of his love they will be warmed with a Heavenly heat they will live the life of Angels of God The work of Providence is to be annexed to the Creation among the works of Nature The work of Providence is painted out to us in the Nation of the Jesus as in a Figure from the tenth verse to the twenty third as the Soul formeth animateth and inhabiteth the Body as the Soul is all in the whole Body and all in every part of it so is Eternal love the Spring the Life the Sweetness the Beauty residing in the whole work of Providence and resting entirely on each lâ—ne each motion of it Every particular in each verse is set off with this love as the ground the glory and the rellish of all For his Mercy endureth for ever or his love is Eternal As a Silkworm spinneth a soft and shining piece of work out of its Bowels in the midst of which itâ—â—â—f liveth and dyeth to live again with Wings and multiply itself so is the whole piece of Nature and Providence a rich and delicate contexture of the tenderest Love Eternal Love spinneth it out of its own Bowels liveth with us and dyeth for us in the midst of it Then it riseth again with Wings of Spirituality and Glory In this Divine Form it cometh again to generate a Divine Seed to itself A Painter who is drawing a Beautiful Person keepeth his Eye ever upon the Life Whether he lay dark or bright Colours whether he make Shade or Light crooked lines straight or circular still he is acted by that Idea of Beauty which he taketh into his Spirit by his Eye from the Life itself still he is forming that lovely Face in every stroke and colour Thus Divine Love in the whole Age of the World in the life of a particular Saint in the general Affairs of the Church sometimes maketh a Land of Aegypt sometimes a Passage out of it here a red Sea there a way thorow it now a Wilderness then a Land of Canaan But in all these it ever hath its Eye upon that Divine Glory
Entire Eternal the first and highest Unity in which all Unions lie together undivided compleat making up one Sweetness which hath the names and rellishes of all sweetnesses which giveth name and rellish to every sweetness which is above all names and rellishes unexpressible incomprehensible This is the Love-spring in the Trinity of Divine Love This is the Father in the Trinity of the Divine Nature Use. 1. Give all Glory to Free-Grace Ascribe all Riches to it Set your Love upon it This is the Fountain of Divine Love in the Bosom of the Father This is the Fountain of Israel This is the Fountain of the God Head This is your own your only Fountain O Saints All your streams of Life Grace Comfort Glory arise out of this Love-spring in Eternity which is the heart of the Father This is the Fountain this is the Father of Jesus Christ your Fountain and Father in him He that hath drunk the Waters of Life and Love from this Well will never thirst more after any other Waters or drink of any other Spring We read in Numbers of a Well in the Wilderness which the Princes digged with their Staves and sung to it Spring O Well O wandring Souls behold your Well which is before you in every Wilderness The Prince of Life your Jesus hath dig'd and opened it for you from the depths of the God-Head with the Staff the Scepter of his Spirit Look to no other Fountain But sing continually to this Spring O Well Spring O thou heart of the Father Spring in mine heart Spring with streams of Divine Truth Spring with streams of Divine Strength Spring with streams of Divine Joy Send forth thy streams over all my Soul and Body Make all my powers and parts to sing like the Garden of Eden O thou Fountain of Gardens My Prince hath dig'd and opened thee in my heart O thou heart of the Father with the Staff of his Spirit Open mine Eyes O Blessed Spirit that by thee I may see this Fountain which by thee is opened in me It was at the Fountain that Jacob and his beloved Rachel first met The Daughters of Laban came thither to water their Flocks But the Well had a great stone upon it which they could not move Jacob rolled away the Stone and watered their Flocks for them From thence they brought Jacob to their Fathers House knew him for their neer Kinsman and were marryed to him It is at this Fountain of Free-Grace that the Lord Jesus and the elect Soul first meet Sin Death and Wrath make the Stone which cover this Spring The Lord Jesus rolleth away this Stone that thou and all thy Fathers Flocks with thee all the Principles and Powers of Life in thee may drink of this Well Here the Lord Jesus looketh upon thee and loveth thee Here he maketh himself known to thee to be thy Brother and taketh thee to be his Bride From this Well he goeth home with thee unto thy Fathers House into thine heart into thy natural Spirit and thine Earthly Image in these to marry thee to himself to make the fruitful to Eternal Glory to enclose this door of thy natural Spirit with Boards of Cedar a Divine Beauty Sweetness and Incorruptibility to build upon the wall of thine Earthly Image a Palace of Silver into which he will invite his Father the Holy Angels all glorified Spirits to feast and inhabit with himself and thee There was often contention for Wells between the Servants of Abimelech and the Servants of Isaac These digged them and the others stopped them up Contend O Believers for this your Well of Free-Grace Suffer no Aegyptians or Philistines to stop it up by casting in the Earth or Stones and Rubbish of Free-Will of any Wisdom Work or Worth in the Creature As Earth cast into a Spring defileth it so by every thing of the Creature mingled with the Waters of this Fountain they lose their clearness their sweetness their vertue Keep this Spring of the Fathers heart of Free-Grace pure So shalt thou see a clear shining deep of Divine Sweetnesses without any Bottom the Glorious Deep of Eternity itself In the clearness of this Spring shalt thou see thine own Face From the freshness of this Spring thou shalt drink in perpetually new Floods of all living Sweetnesses With the pure Waters of this Spring thou shalt preserve thine heart ever new ever soft ever flourishing with all Joys ever fruitful in all Graces O Saints Keep this Love-Spring the Fountain of Free-Grace open keep it pure in your Spirits Use. 2. Learn this Divine skill O Christians which comprehendeth all the rich mysteries of the Gospel in it Rise up new every moment with all things round about you out of this Fountain of Love in Eternity the Bosom of the Father Return again every moment with all your troop into this Fountain of Love the Bosom of the Father Lay your selves down for ever here Here alone is Jesus Christ in his naked Beauties nakedly embraced Seek see and enjoy all your pleasant Relations all pleasant Unions in this Unity of Divine Love the heart of the Father as in their proper Fountain Here is the Truth here is the Life of them all in their Original Here they are unchangeable Here they are as Sun-beams before they come forth descend divide grow shadowy and fading As we keep Flowers fresh by setting their stalks in Water So say of all your Relations in their shadows on Earth of all your sweet things with their Sweetnesses Who is their Father Answer thy self The Fountain of Love Then keep them with their stalks in this Fountain So shall they be ever fresh ever sweet to thee 2. Person The Love-Birth God is Love The three Persons in the Trinity are Love in a three-fold Form and Property or in a threefold Distinct and opposite Relation to itself within itself for the enjoyment of itself in the secret of Eternity abstracted from all Creatures infinitely before them and above them I have spoken of the first Person in this Trinity of Divine Love the Father the Fountain of Love in Eternity I come now to speak of the second Person The God-Head in the second Person is Divine Love in its Eternal Birth and Image The Fountain of Divine Love which is the Father bringeth forth from itself within itself an Eternal Birth the compleat Image of itself the Supreme Loveliness and Beauty This is our Jesus in the Bosom of the Father I shall endeavour to draw the Curtain from before this Blessed and Glorious Birth of Divine Love the Beloved the only one of all Holy and Heavenly Spirits I shall endeavour to set this most desired and most pleasant Person our Lord Jesus before the Eyes of your mind by five Characters or Marks The second Person in the Trinity is 1. The Birth or Image of Divine Love 2. The First 3. The Fairest 4. The Freshest 5. The Fullest Birth and Image of Divine Love 1. Character The Lord Jesus is
to dye with you This is the true Church-fellowship a Fellowship in our Souls and in our Bodies by a Spiritual Principle and Life with the Church and Assembly of the first-born with all things in their first born State in one Spiritual and Heavenly Body in Christ. 3. How amiable and lovely doth this make death to the Saints This is the chief end I aim at in my discourse and the point to which I bring it With what a beautiful and smiling Face doth Death now look forth even in the Body of a Saint in which he hath been wont generally to appear so grim to the holiest Persons Thy Body O Believer so far as thou standest in a Spiritual Principle is a Fellow-member with thy Soul in the Body of Christ It is a Jewel the work of a faithful and curious workman the most holy Spirit as Solomon in the Canticles speaketh of the Spouse of Christ. But here the mixture of the fleshly and carnal Principle is as Dust and Dirt which covereth and fullyeth this costly Jewel With what a sweet pure lustre of Immortality and of Heavenly Glory doth it sparkle and shine forth ravishing thine own and all spiritual Eyes and Hearts in the moment of Death when the blessed hand of Death clean wipes off the dust and stain of the carnal Principle and brings it forth entirely into its Spiritual Principle that now it stands singly as a Spiritual Member in the Spiritual Body of Christ The Lord Jesus saith if thine Eye be single thine whole Body shall be light as when a Candle enlightens a Room In this life O Saints we have a double Eye and have a double sight The mixture of the Spiritual and Carnal Principle is the double and divided Eye O welcome Death receive it with open embraces Now is your Eye single Now is the carnal Principle cast out for ever Now you look forth with the open and single Eye of the single Principle of the Eternal Spirit Now is your whole Body nay now is the whole body of things filled to you with a Heavenly light of Immortality Glory This single Eye pours forth from the Unity of the Spirit as from the Fountain of blessed Light thorow your whole Souls and Bodies thorow all things round about them a Light of Glory as when a Candle enlightneth a Room A way of cleansing Pearls when they have any spot or cloud upon them is to thrust them down the throat of a Pigeon into its Crop where the heat of the Pigeon takes off the stain and makes them perfectly white This is the mystery of a Saints Death The Heavenly Dove the Holy Spirit in the same moment takes a Saint entirely in Soul and Body out of this Life out of the Carnal Principle into himself into his Bosom of Love by the Divine heat of that Love takes off every spot or cloud of the flesh by consuming it both in the Soul and in the Body and makes them both purely white and shining Pearls in the Heavenly Body of that one great and only Pearl the Lord Jesus 2. The second relation into which the Body of a Believer is taken at the new birth is that of a Temple to the Holy Ghost There are 4 things proper to a Temple 1. The Figure 2. The Glory 3. The Communion 4. The Defence 1. Every thing in the Tabernacle and so in the Temple to the least things and lowest actions were divine Types of Spiritual Truths and Heavenly Excellencies in the Person of the Lord Jesus So it is said that all things were made and ordered according to the pattern in the Mount which pattern in the Mount was Christ in Glory O Saints This Tabernacle and Temple were Types first of Christ then of you whose Souls and Bodies both are the true and living Temples of God The Body of a Saint is a more excellent Temple in as much as Solomons Temple was a shadow only of this It is a Living Divine and Immortal Temple It is therefore in the whole a far more excellent more rich more glorious and delightful Image of the God-Head in its entire form It is in every part and point of it a most lively a most beautiful a most pleasant figure of some particular Mystery and Glory in the God Head All the parts of your Bodies themselves the lowest and least even to a hair of your Heads every thing that befals you in every part of your Body in the meanest and slightest circumstance is formed exactly by the Divine Wisdom and Power according to the Divine Will to answer the Pattern in the Mount to be the holy figure of an eternal Glory in Christ. We read Psal. 29. 9. Every thing in his Temple speaks Glory Every thing in thy Body O Believer so far as thou art a Believer speaks Glory For this is his Temple O live alwaies in the Spirit that thou maist alwaies be in thy Body as in the Temple that there thou maist see understand and enjoy the Glory in every thing 2. The Temple of God is filled with the Glory of God There is a Prophesy in Malachy concerning the times of the Gospel that he shall come into his Temple You O Saints are the Temple which is here Prophefied of Jesus Christ as God in the Glory of the Father in the Third Person the Holy Ghost comes into you into your Bodies also and fills them with his Glory The same word in Hebrew signifieth a Temple and a Pallace The name of a Temple in Greek signifieth an Habitation or dwelling place It is a note of a learned Divine that the Temple had Tables and a Throne and a State in it which was the Golden Mercy Seat called in the Gospel the Throne of Grace to signifie that the Temple of God was his Pallace as he is the great King The Eternal Spirit is present in the Body of a Believer as in his Pallace He keeps his Court there There is his Throne with all the blessed Angels and all the Heavenly Company waiting round about it It is called his resting-place Arise saith David to God thou and the Ark of thy strength into thy resting-place God shineth forth in his Temple filleth it with his Glory within resting upon it and overshadowing it with his Glory without In the 50 Psal. at the beginning the Psalmist speaking of the Temple saith God shineth from Sion the perfection of Beauty What a perfection of Beauty then what a Divine Pallace how full of Glory within how encompassed with a clear shining Glory round about is that Body of a Saint which is the living eternal Temple of the Holy Ghost In what Majesty doth this Eternal Spirit appear here upon its Throne of Love In the midst of what Divine Pleasures and Delights doth it rest for ever here What a Court does it keep here with all its Train of Angels and heavenly Attendants waiting round about its Throne as in another Heaven O Believers honor your Bodies For