enable us to effect this work of faith whereby we may live and also may die to the Lord and in neither sin nor serve our selvs Christ both died and rose againe and is become Lord both of the dead and of the living even in this sense before opened To this agrees what the same Apostle testifies 2 Cor. 4 12.13 compared with 1 Cor. 4.8 13. Here we find the Apostle the father and true elder as to his growth up into Christ strong in the faith and the Corinthians they are the children babes in Christ weak and low in faith but high full and puffed up in their fleshly minds Let us therefore consider the differing characters he gives of the one and of the other though both beleevers such as in their living and in their dying are or may be the Lords Ye now are full sayes Paul or this is your time of being rich and reigning as kings without us but I would to God you did indeed reigne that we also might reigne together with you But it is otherwise with us even a dying time We are troubled on every side perplexed persecuted cast downe alwayes bearing about in our body the dying of the Lord Jesus God having set forth us that are the Apostles most strong and eminent in faith as it were appointed unto death and to be made a spectacle to the world to angels and to men We are fools for Christs sake but ye are wise in Christ we are weak but ye are strong Ye are honourable but we are despised So then death workes in us but life in you And we having the same spirit of faith according as it is written I have beleeved and therefore have I spoken we also beleeve and therefore speak knowing that he which raysed up the Lord Jesus shall raise us up also by Jesus and shall present us with you That then which is wrought in men by Christ through the ministry of the outward word by the spirit and life of his first appearance is either restoration-work single or restoration-work joyned and accompanied with true regeneration and eternall salvation Restoration-work single is that which is called the spirit of bondage making but those servants that abide not in the house for ever as having never tasted nor partaken of that freedome wherewith the Son makes those free indeed that he knits into an indissoluble union with himself But restoration-work as it is accompanied with salvation or the birth of the immortal and incorruptible seed of life and righteousnes is that which is called the spirit of adoption of power of love and of a sound or stedfast mind that principle of life begotten and springing up in us whereby we put off that which is mutable and corruptible and put on that which is immutable and incorruptible as well in the inward man of the heart as in the outward man of the flesh We have already shewed that their obedience is accepted with God who are faithfull to their light under the first dispensation of Gods word speaking in them to the inward senses of their mind as was the case of the centurion Such persons in every nation are owned by God as those that fear him and work righteousnes And this feare is in a sense faith for they cannot thus come to God and obey him but they must beleeve that he is and that he is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him and hearken to his voyce Neverthelesse this is not the faith that is in the regenerate flowing from the spirit and life of the new creature and working by love but it is the faith which all restored enlightned men may have in conformity to what Adam had before his fall that knew and obeyed the eternall WORD as creatour and maker of both worlds though not as the redeemer and Saviour of men by the blood of the crosse from sin and the wrath attending it This sort of faith is that which flowes from mans exercise of his right knowledg and free will wherein he was created after Gods likenes and did receave the truth in his knowledg but in no fixed permanent love thereof because he was left free to change his mind as seemed good unto himself being in case of his failer therein personally responsible to the penalties and curse of the law For to be created with such a righteous mutable principle of activity and free moving power in the mind was simply in itself good and might be lawfully used to answer the end for which it was given which was by way of voluntary resignation to chang and turne out of that wavering unstable active power though at present righteous into that love that should bind up the moving power of mans Spirit into a stedfast and unmoveable delight and rest in righteousnes and into a fixed and unshaken enmity and aversnes of mind to sin and all evill By this new creation and forming of the spirit of man within him his first freedome is taken from him and done away or it is swallowed up into a freedome much better and more excellent wherein man is made more in Gods image and after his similitude then at the first For though all things were in a good estate with man at first when God made him upright that is to say in a due conformity unto the divine will for the performance of a pure and holy worship and service to God justice and true judgmēt to his neighbour and for the walking in a due sobriety temperance and continence as to himself yet God would have him know he might be better made through a new creation which should more then comprehend all the good of his first make and adde also to it an immutability God did therefore forbid man to trust to the uncertaine riches and fading glory of his first estate and timely to look and make out for a better But in stead of this man notwithstanding Gods prohibition runs himself aground into a very bad and evill condition Out of this forlorne state the first thing that God propounds to him in and by the knowledg of the redeemer is his restoration which God is willing to draw him to by the ministry of Moses and turn him to by the ministry of Eliah even the disobedient to the wisedome of the just to make a ready people prepared for the Lord to meet and receave him as he is given by the father in a better Covenant ordered in all things and sure of which there can never be any breach either on Gods or mans part as there was and wil be againe of the first Covenant how often soever it be repeated and renewed unlesse it end in mans being receaved and taken into the second There is then a ministry of the first Covenant in the hand of the Redeemer Sprinckled with the blood of his crosse which is able to rectify the depravation of things caused by sin and mans first breach with God consisting in a restitution towards mans
masters God and Mammon We cannot take that delight and pleasure in any creature or seeming present good whatsoever which is due from us to God in Christ only but it breaks off our spirits from the God of life To delight in and prefer the way of worshipping God and working righteousnes in the mutable fading humane creaturely principles of our first creation when restored before the performing all in the unchangable divine and never fading principles of the new creation where God comes to work all our works in us and for us this is a very high provocation of God the highest and most deeply delusive and unperceaved idolatry in preferring the creature before the creatour who is God blessed for ever Mans disobedience and failing then with God as to the performance of the condition of the first Covenant renewed and brought into force againe by the blood of the redeemer is that which since the fall does cause a new breach between God and man when it is willfull working that wrath which the Sacrifice of Christ cannot appease And man is not free nor safe from the danger of such wilfull unexpiable sinning and so of that judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries whilst he is under the dominion and jurisdiction of the law And under it he is so long as he is alive to God but upon the condition required in the first Covenant which makes him a debtour to the whole law qualifying him with that naturall ability and exercise of free-will unto which when he trusts as he is too apt to do takes up his rest and engages in the single strength thereof to performe what the law requires then he falls and provokes God to wrath This will he never be able finally to prevent or avoid whilst he cleaves to and takes up his rest in the life and activity of his owne free-will for the enabling him to keep Covenant with God how rich in stock soever he may at present seem to be therein His only way therefore is to passe or rather suffer himself to be translated out of these his mutable principles into that love and stedfastnes of heart in Covenant with God which is the end of the commandement and proceeds from a pure heart good conscience and faith unfeigned Now of those that are alive unto God in the awaken'd principles and renewed life of the first Covenant by repentance from dead works and faith in God the Redeemer and saviour of all men and this by the voice of Christ through the hearing of the outward and written word there are severall sorts the cheif of which only we shall mention 1. Those who are diligent hearers willing and zealous obeyers of what they learn receave and drink in from the holy Scriptures which they are convinced is the mind and will of God written for their direction and instruction in righteousnes either by their owne private reading or by the outward ministry thereof Upon this they make their boast of God and of the chang wrought in their hearts through repentance and faith of their walking with God in the purity of his worship and towards their neighbour righteously according to the commandment delivered unto them Hereby they do indeed come to be quickly and deservedly distinguished from the prophane world having the forme of knowledg and of the truth in the law and written word into the mould whereof the whole man is by them endeavour'd to be cast But all this is but of little availe to them that stay here and rest in the letter of the Scriptures which are not he but testify of him that is come himself in his owne personal appearance God manifested in flesh And he afterwards died and rose againe according to the Scriptures and revealed himself in spirit the better comforter and anointing which teaches all things All this the voice of the Scriptures points at and sends those unto that desire to be made partakers of the life that is eternall But those that hear or obey not this voice do provoke So that though a promise be left unto them of entring into the true rest they fall short of it through unbeleif and pleasing themselvs with a false rest and satisfactiō in this first degree of restoration-work and lively change which is and may be wrought by the ministry of the outward word to the bringing of men into a mutable state of righteousnes which they are upon all occasions in danger of losing and falling from how sure soever they esteem themselvs to be 2. A second sort of hearers there are obeyers of the holy commandment delivered unto them not only by the testimony and preaching of the written word but by the knowledg of the Son himself Christ in spirit which is a degree farther then the first goe who manifests himself to them in a likenes and glory that is bread and sutable food to give life to the world or to man in his first nature Such practicall knowledge and sight of Christ is able to heal and restore man from the leprosy of sin causing him to escape the pollutions of the world and to be washed from his old sins Concerning such is it said that it is impossible for them having bin thus enlightn'd having tasted the heavenly gift bin made partakers of the holy Ghost or Christ in spirit and tasted the good word of God and Powers of the world to come so far as the natural man can be heightned and rais'd to the capacity of on this side true Regeneration if or when they fall away to renew them againe unto repentance The reason is because they do eminently crucify the Son of God afresh in themselvs and put him to open shame yea they trample him under foot accounting the blood of the Covenant whereby they were sanctified an unholy thing and doe despite to the Spirit of grace These before their personal fall or apostasy are not properly under the spirit of bondage as meer servants but are rather children of that kingdom out of which they may be cast who strivingly may seek to enter in at the streight gate after an undue manner and so shall not be able to enter When once the master of the house is risen up and hath shut to the door and they standing without knock at the door desiring admission and alledging for themselvs that they have eaten and drunk in Christs presence and that he hath taught in their streets his answer to them wil be I know you not whence you are depart from me all ye workers of iniquity to the place where shal be weeping and gnashing of teeth You shall se Abraham Isaac Jacob and all my true prophets in the kingdom of God and yourselvs that have in one sence bin the children of the kingdom thrust out Luk. 13 24 28. Mat. 7 21 23. and Math. 8 12. These are branches in Christ the true vine and good olive tree partaking of his sap and fatnes for a season But
by reason of their mutable principles and slippery standing under the first and conditionall Covenant they come at last to wither and to be cut off from the root and cast into the fire that never shal be quenched Jo. 15 1 6. Rom 11. In this last sort the restoration-work is carried up very high so as to place them that have it amongst the number of those mention'd 1 Cor. 13 1 3. that may speak with the tongue of men and angels have the gift of prophecy understand all mysteries and all knowledg Yea though they should have all faith so as to remove mountains though they should bestow all their goods to feed the poor and give their bodies to be burned and yet not have love or that faith which works by love they will come at last to nothing They will prove and shew themselvs to be in the issue but as sounding brasse and a tinckling cymball This is that the highest restoration-restoration-work will discover itself to be where it springs up but from the single seed of that righteousnes which is unaccompanied with true regeneration or that faith which works by love changing the naturall mind of man from its mutable into an immutable principle of life righteousnes and glory 3. Thirdly therefore this work of restoration may and does proceed in some so far as not only to set all right and streight within and without man in a great measure and in an eminent prevailing activity according to what it was at first when he was made in Gods image but it hath a second and farther operation upon the soule which prepares and makes ready the will to deny itself take up the crosse and become absolutely resigned up to the will of another even of the Lord as the sure guardian and keeper of the will in its truest and best freedom which such service of the Lord is that is in such a manner performed that we can do nothing against the truth but all for it Through this second operation the Lord himself who is the immortall seed does most powerfully beget us and that of his owne will as he is the Son of Man begotten into the love of the father and made unmoveable in subjection and obedience to his fathers will He doth cleave unto us lay hold on us and put under his everlasting armes to make our armes strong and to guide us in that way of coworking with him in a joyntnes of will and operation that nothing can dissolve Such fooles for Christ sake with Paul 1 Cor. 4.10 through the intire resignation of themselvs to the ruling power of Christ in their hearts will not cannot erre or miscarry in the holy way of Gods ransomed ones This is that which the Apostle meanes by love 1 Cor. 13. and chap. 8.1 where he sayes knowledg puffeth up but love edifieth that is makes firm and stedfast work of it It erects that building founded on the rock Math. 7. that is unmoveable and cannot be shaken This love of God by which he makes us his choice ones lies close and concealed a great while in the heart during which time the work of faith is weak and low very wavering and apt to faile But afterwards by falling into divers temptations wherein our faith is put to its proof it does of weak become strong When faith thus begins to come forth with power that love by which it workes is spread abroad in our hearts by the holy Ghost which is given to us whereby we come to experience our selvs to be firmly rooted and grounded in the love of God to the making us able to comprehend with all Saints what is the length breadth depth and height of it whilst the communication of it is enjoyed by any measures Some do ascend yet farther even to know the love of Christ in its highest and most extensive diffusing of itself passing knowledge exceeding all measure and filling them with all the fulnes of God The former communication of God who is love is the single portion or gift of Christ in spirit which all true Saints have their share in The second is the double portion which they only do inherit who are made Gods first born Sons higher then the kings of the earth whose names are written in heaven Concerning this love in both these sorts of true beleevers and Saints we shall come in its proper place to a more particular search and consideration First we shall enquire into it as it is in its concealed state making us babes in Christ in a low and weake exercise of saving faith 2dly as it hath a time wherein it comes to be spread abroad in the heart to the warming and quickning of it and to the fulfilling of the work of faith with power in an activity that failes not but is immutable encreasing more and more to the perfect day of Christs second appearance In generall we may say that this is that love which 2 Cor. 3. is called the spirit which where it is there is liberty even a liberty with open face to behold the glory or image of the invisible God and by beholding it to be transformed into the same image from glory to glory a state directly opposite to that of the spirit of bondage The love we speak of does truly regenerate and bind up the will in a unity of operation with the will of the Son of God It workes that hearing eare and obeying heart to Christ in spirit in the life and exercise whereof true and saving faith does consist yea it is the activity itself which quickens that faith and by the which faith workes This love hath its beginning in us in and with Christs first appearance but it is perfected and comsummated by working out the redemption of the body at the day of the manifestation of the Son of God in the brightnes of his second comming At that time the creature itself the very animalish and sensuall soule in us with the filthy garments of the mortall body wherewith it is clothed shal be freed from the bondage of corruption and brought into the glorious liberty of the Sons of God putting on the chang of raiment which in that day wil be provided for it With this love the father loved our head the second Adam And the WORD that was from the beginning laid hold on the seed of David so as that both he that sanctifieth and he that is sanctified became one one engraffed WORD that is the fathers love the spirit wherein he is alwayes well pleased which can do nothing but what he sees the father do and those things he does and fulfills after him with a heart after the fathers heart He is so entirely in the fathers love and well-liking that he shews him all that himself doth or hath a purpose and intention to do For this end Christ hath sanctified himself that is our nature in his owne person that he which sanctifieth and we that are sanctified may be all of
the lawyer and answer him according to his owne heart and principles What is written in the law sayes he how readest thou The lawyer replies Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart with all they soule with all thy strength and with all thy mind and thy neighbour as thy self This Christ agrees to be the sum of the things conteined in the commandements of God which man is to doe and in the doing and obeying whereof as he ought and God requires will make him heir and sure of eternall life Therefore all that Christ adds is Thou hast answered right this do and thou shalt live But although these few words contein mans whole duty to God and to his neighbour yet as by the following verses does appeare in the parable of the wayfairing man that fell amongst theeves there is more in it then at first we are aware of to perform this duty to God and to our neighbour rightly and after such manner as is acceptable to God For so do to it requires faith that faith which works by love or which makes us new creatures giving us the sight of that man in the person of the Mediatour that hath seen God by whose testimony we also are taught to so him and know that he is and what he is even the rewarder of all those with eternall life who diligently seek him No man knows who the Son is but the Father nor who the Father is but the Son and he to whom the son will reveale him He that beleeveth on the Son of God hath this witnes in himself by the sons comming into his heart and bringing this knowledg along with him giving us to know him that is true and that we are in him that is true even in him that is the true God and eternall life By such knowledg are we preserved from idols and setting up some other thing in our hearts for the true God or from ignorantly bestowing our worship love and service upon him He that beleevs not God hath made him a liar because he beleeves not the Record which God gives of his Son when it is plainly represented and set before his eyes in such legible characters that he is able to understand and perceave the Record even that God hath given unto us eternall life and that this life is in his Son and is to be had only in the gift of the Son made to us in a most intimate and inseperable union which he that hath hath life he that hath it not hath not life Whatsoever comes short of this let it make never so faire a shew for the present it wil be sure to end in death Hence is it that without faith it is impossible to please God because otherwise we cannot know him as we ought with such certainty as not to mistake him for some other thing or some other thing for him And so also will it be with us as to our neibour or brother we shall take him to be our neibour and brother that is not he and he that is not we shall account to be him For not knowing the very Image and first patern set up in Christ our elder brother and the lowly meek spirit in him which with God is of great price how can we know the children and many brethren that are to be conformed to him therein Unlesse we know and love him that begets how can we know and love them that are begotten of him For both he that sanctifies and they that are sanctified are all of one for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren those who if we be are love unto we thereby know that we are passed from death to life And if we love not but hate them sitting and speaking against these our brethren slandering our owne Mothers Sons we are in Gods account no better then Cain wicked munderers whatever righteous works we are conversant in according to the letter of the law Be we as zealous and forward as we will in offering our sacrifices and bringing our gifts before the altar till we be first reconciled to our brother we are directed to leave our gift before the altar as better not to offer it at all with a heart which is without that love by which faith works In this sence are we to understand 1 Cor. 13.1 2 3. If we have al other gifts and good things from God that are possible to be had and not this love with them we are nothing we are but as sounding brasse and tinckling cymballs The saying therefore of Christ do this and thou shalt live according to his owne reading and understanding of the law is do this at present by the light thou art under but give not off be not satisfied til thou come to do it by faith as a new creature with the knowledge and love which faith teaches and workes and thou art a true heir of eternall life and shalt most certainly enter into it and possesse it for ever Leave thy sacrifice and thy guift before the altar in humility and brokenes of Spirit and in lowlines of heart rather then take upon thee to offer it untill thou have the Son given to thee and art regenerated For it is better for thee that thou shouldst not vow then that thou shouldst vow and not pay Keep thy foot therefore when thou goest into the house of God or doest enter upon the performance of his worship and Service in thy natural mutable frame of Spirit and be more ready to heare then to give the sacrifice of fools for they consider not that they do evill even in their very prayers and duties of divine worship By faith it is that the right and stedfast Spirit is formed the whole and entire heart which God requires We may then take notice that there is a twofold reading preaching hearing receaving and obeying of the Word of God and doctrine of his law the one after a lesse the other after a more excellent way the one proportiond to the sight hearing and heart of the natural and earthly man in his mutable state properly called the law the other proportioned to the sight hearing and heart of the heavenly and spiritual man properly called the Gospel How readest thou says Christ to the learned lawyer when he would point out the law in the former sence and as to the latter himself is the reader preacher and worker of it as he is the Son himself and word of faith which through our being in him in whose manhood it is as in our mouth and in our heart is made bread to us and not only possible but most desireable and prevailingly attractive unto us to do and fulfil after him In this sence it is that Christ is the end of the law to all that beleeve and the law in its first kind of teaching or reading is the Schoolmaster or teacher that sends us to Christ and is appointed to keep us under its rule and discipline
for man by the ability and strength of nature given him before the fall to have stood and continued longer in his duty then he did For before any danger appeared of his discontinuance herein or that any temptation thereunto discovered it self a way was set open to him in the tree of life wherein he was taught how he ought to resigne up himself to the teaching and will of another whereby such a change might have bin brought upon him through a new creation and the comming of the son of God to dwell in his heart by faith even that faith which workes by a love stronger then death as would have rendred him unmoveable in his duty and love to God It must needs then be acknowledged to be mans owne fault through unbeleife to resist and harden himself against that working of the holy Ghost which brings upon us the pangs of the new birth as a needfull preparation thereunto This was the folly of Ephraim that unwise son who stayed long in the place of the breaking forth of children Hosea 13.13 as having no mind to endure the pangs required to the birth of the immortall seed This was great folly in our first parents but it is far greater and more dangerous in any restored but to some graduall exercise of the like ability since the fall when proof hath bin made by man at his best estate in his primitive purity what this first ability and sufficiency of nature does amount unto as to the keeping out of sin For what can the man in this case doe that comes after the king If the armour with which our first parents were armed against the great Goliah did upon experience faile them surely though it be prepared to be put on againe by their posterity and attempted anew never so often it is and wil be found alwayes best for us with David to forbeare making use of it with any confidence in such selfsufficiency and to resort to the more sure and effectuall weapons mention'd 2 Cor 10 4 and Eph. 6 11 17. and to put on the whole armour of God to arme ourselvs with the same mind that was in Christ Jesus that may make us inclinable and ready so to suffer in the flesh as to cease from sin or so to crucify the flesh by the powerfull operation of this heavenly mind in and upon us as thereby to put an end to all the motions of sin in our fleshly and sensuall part which is the door by which at first sin entred This brings us to the second particular enquiry in order to the clearing up the third generall Querie in this discourse concerning the losse and deprivall which happened unto man through his sin and disobedience of that naturall ability and aptnes of mind which he had in his primitive purity to love and serve God according to his duty And how far is man by the vertue of Christs blood duly applied to him capable of restitution into the exercise thereof so as to be once more put upon the proof and triall whether in the day of temptation he will hearken to the voice of the gospel by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the holy Ghost which purifies the heart from all filthines of flesh and spirit not only from the blood or naturall pollution from which before it was not cleansed but also from all those things whereby man could not be cleansed and freed by the law of Moses by the best naturall ability and strength receaved by him in his first creation or renewed and revived in him since In answer to this we shall as little as may be repeat what hath bin mention'd before but rather refer to it Only here is the proper place to reassume the pursuit of what was but lightly touch'd before concerning the conditionall Covenant made by God with Cain after the fall which is necessarily implied Gen. 4.7 and may safely be concluded on 1. Because Cain owned himself a visible worshipper of God and brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord. 2. Because God in effect ownes as much himself when he speakes to this purpose if thou doe well I wil be as good as my agreement with thee thou shalt be rewarded But if thou doe ill know that the Covenant I have made with thee is but conditionall and workes wrath upon thy disobedience whereby the punishment of thy sin will hasten apace upon thee and be neer thee even at the door And that thou mayst certainly know thou wilt be without all excuse for thy disobedience if thou persist in it doe not thinke to lay the fault any where but in the free motion of thine owne will which thou art restored to the exercise of For although through the fall thy lusting proud flesh and sensuall part of thy mind hath gotten the Dominion and usurped authority over thy intellectuall and most purely rationall part it shall be subject to thee againe as it ought by the law and order of nature For thou shalt be more and more renewed into a strength and ability to rule over and keep it to its duty if the fault be not in thy self This conditionall Covenant with the benefits of it thus renewed between God and Cain is that which is renewed by the same blood of the Mediatour between Christ and all the posterity of Adam vertually and radically This is that which Christ hath obteined at the fathers hands to be anew entered into with man for his farther proof and triall Unto this ministry Christ is enabled and qualified either by himself or by his messengers and servants to bring back againe the whole world unto God according to that invitation of his Isai 55.1.2 Ho every one that thirsteth come ye to the waters and he that hath no mony come ye buy and eat yea come buy wine and milk without mony and without price Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread and your labour for that which satisfieth not hearken diligently unto me and eat ye that which is good and let your soule delight itself in fatnes All this yet lies short of the saving grace and sure mercies of the new and everlasting Covenant which is propounded by itself afterwards v. 3. So then thus far the Gospell is and may be receaved by Cain and those of whom God swears in his wrath that they shall never enter into his Rest Unto these the promise is made conditionally of entering into Rest and they fall short of it through hardnes of heart and unbeleife The WORD preached unto them does not profit them as to eternall salvation because they are not united to it by faith or have not the inseperable union contracted between the Son of God and them in the Covenant ordered in all things and sure which true saving faith workes The word therefore and command of God consisting in a conditionall and in an absolute Covenant from the beginning are the same two Testimonies of the
law and Gospel still or rather the two Testaments that are in force with mankind by the death of the Testatour the Lord Jesus Christ By the first of these man is renewed and restored out of the fall and brought in some degree to the fruition and exercise of his first righteousnes and freedome of will in order to the making proof and triall of him once more And by the second of them he is regenerated and begotten of the immortall seed into an immutability in righteousnes and glory in a life that is from the dead uncapable ever to be lost or faile more These two Testimonies and Testaments of God are visible words inward spirituall words and lively oracles that create their owne suitable organs and vessells in the minds of men for their reception And there is an inward sight of them to be had by man as well as an outward hearing to which purpose it is sayd 1 Joh. 1.1 That which was from the beginning which we have heard which we have seen with our eyes which we have looked upon and our hands have handled of the word of life that declare we unto you That which John saw heard and handled was from the beginning and was seen heard and handled from the foundation of the world at sundry times and in divers manners under former dispensations till at last the dark shadows of him vanished and the true light itself began to shine and dawne in his owne personal appearance first in the flesh and then afterwards in the Spirit There are therefore inward and spirituall senses whereby the man of God sees heares tasts savours and handles the word of God Such senses there must be because there is an inward as well as an outward man of the heart which must not want his due powers and faculties any more then the other For since the words themselvs are divine even words of spirit and life how can they be otherwise perceaved then by senses suited to their nature spirituall senses distinguished from those of the animalish outward man of the soule which is not at all skilled in that manner of knowing and discerning From the exercise of spirituall life and the senses thereof proceeds the spirituall tast savour and approbation of those divine words that are the significations of Gods will and law to us Unto such experienced men skilled in the words of truth we may appeale as to the true and full significancy of divine oracles which the disputer of this world in the perverse and presumptuous use of his naturall senses and understanding contradicts and blasphemes doe you not see this truth doe you not handle with your hands this Word of life do you not tast that the Lord is gracious This is the much more excellent way of understanding the Scriptures when after such a spirituall manner we relish handle se tast and have a share in what we know of the word of God as the Apostle prayes Phil. 1.9 For this I pray sayes he that your love may abound in knowledge and in all judgment or in every spirituall sense He that was from the beginning is Christ the living WORD of God the WORD wherein was life and that life the light of men even of every man that comes into the world He is the light of men in and under a threefold dispensation or manner of ministry He is the word of God God to men that makes with them either a conditionall and dissoluble Covenant or an absolute and everlasting Covenant that can never be dissolved The first of these is the word of the beginning by which God begins to make himself knowne and declare his will in his law to all men that law by which they must one day be judged The second is the word of the oath conteining a free promise to some and a gracious receaving of them into his love therein to abide for ever but a finall and judiciall rejection of others concerning whom he therein swears that they shall never enter into his Rest but be given up to the wayes that they have chosen and fixed in their owne delusions in the everlasting chains whereof he binds them up and reservs them with the fallen angels to the judgment of the great day This is that which is the end and consummation-work both wayes to all that have passed under the first Testament or conditionall Covenant Christ considered as he is the word of the beginning the author and minister of the conditional Covenant and of the life and quickning proper thereunto hath a comming forth in light and life unto men which is called his first appearance which he dispenses in the capacity of the promised seed pursuant to the manifestation of Gods will unto man in paradise immediatly after his fall He is therein declared the saviour and redeemer of man he by whom alone is remission of sins and all those that beleeve not on him shall perish in their sins For as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wildernes so hath the father provided that the WORD made flesh be lifted up in the sight of all men and preached to them that whosoever beleeveth in him should not perish but have everlasting life And God would have men know that he so loved the world as that he gave his only begotten Son to take and beare away their sins and lead them into the way of salvation in stead of condemning them upon the fall of our first parents as he might justly have done He then that beleevs in the Son of God is not or shall not be condemned But he that beleeveth not that is receavs not his word in the love thereof is condemned already because he hath not beleeved in the name of the only begotten Son of God The justice of such condemnation will shew itself in this that when this light is come into the world men have chosen and loved darknes better then light yea to discover the evill of their mind they hate the light and as neer as they can shun all appearance of it least they should be reproved thereby and convinced of their evill deeds and be converted and God should heale them But how is Christ the saviour and redeemer lifted up before the eyes of all men and how comes he with light into the world or into the mind of the naturall man who receavs not the things of the spirit of God but accounts them foolishnes Yea he cannot know them because they are spiritually discerned and are therefore too deep for him to fathom too high and heavenly for him to reach being destitute of spirituall senses and discerning suitable thereunto By way of answer to this we must be carefull rightly to distinguish and divide the word of truth which as hath bin said hath a first voyce and the light of its first appearance as also a second voice and the brightnes of a second comming It is by means of the first voice and the light and life ministred in
one of one immortall seed and he not ashamed to call us and owne us for his brethren As he is so are they that are borne of one and the same immortal seed each one resembling the children of the great King They become one with him through this birth as he is one with the father They are fixed and rendred unmoveable in his love as he is in his fathers love This they arrive at by his declaring to them the fathers name or giving the manifestation of the fathers love as he and the father are one that the love wherewith the father hath loved these his children may be in them and that the Spirit of the Son that lives in the fathers love may also be in them even the spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba father From thence-forward are they evidently no more servants but true heaven-born Sons and heirs of God through Christ being taught to know God after the same manner as they are knowne of him and to apprehend that for which also they are apprehended of Christ Jesus It is Christ in the spirit of this love that apprehends the soule layes hold on the heart and cleaves to it as he is the sealed one of the father till he change it into the same love and image from glory to glory working us into such a conjunction in spirit with him and likenes in operation to him that not we in the exercise of our former and naturall free will but Christ in this his love and glorious liberty of the Son of God lives in us and we in him as in a Kingdom that cannot be shaken This love does not only cast out fear but frees from all danger of any more breach of Covenant with God whence his finall departure from us should follow or our separation from him This way of giving himself to us is love indeed in a much more excellent way then appeared in such gift as he made of himself to us in our first creation or in his restoration-restoration-work upon us since singly considered as that whereby he makes a new proof and triall of us In both those two former sorts of restoration-work above mentioned God is indeed pleased to make us his people manifesting himself and his will to us and making knowne to us good and evill experimentally so that we have tasted of the evil and of the good when the Lord hath restored our first fredom and put it in our power againe to cleave to him and love him or else to leave and forsake him In this state he set Adam under the counsell rebukes and threatnings declared in his law with a liberty to stand or fall Whoever then stands upon these tearms with God is alwayes in the same danger can never be out of the fear of a breach that may happen between God and him through his owne default The comming of that love and the spirit of it above-mentioned into the soule does perfectly secure from and cast out all such feare And this it doth perform by its attracting prevailing power in and over the will whereby man is brought to give up the absolute Rule and power of keeping himself into the will of him that is this love and is made fully content to be in his hands and under his wormanship as a little child created a new unto the good works before ordeined that we should walk in them The soule is hereby fitted and prepared with a meeknes and lowlines of mind to draw together in one yoke with the spirit of this love whose command is easy and burden light requiring no more nor other thing to be done then what by faith we se our head the second Adam in our very nature to have done before us And as many as are taught and enabled by Christ to walk with him according to this rule that is as a race set before them in his cross they are the true Israel of God and mercy and peace shall for ever rest upon them Conformity to this rule of the crosse is the high way the way of holines which all the ransomed of the Lord are appointed to passe and wherein the waifairing men the true pilgrims on earth though become as fools and little children cannot erre but will infallibly come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads But this way of holines appears to flesh and blood so strait a gate to enter in at so fiery a baptisme to passe through so bitter a cup to drink up that none whoever that are left to the freedom of their owne wills or naturall liberty restored will ever be inclined to drink it off or conforme to Christs example and command therein They looke upon ir as a rock of offence a stone of stumbling which they know not how to get over nor have any mind to it This bitter cup and hard saying is provided by God as the bitter waters were of old to try the adultresse or false hearted wife to her husband It hath the like operation both wayes as the antitype and mystery of the bitter water in the Mosaical ministration It hurts not those that are chast in whose spirit there is no guile but makes them more fruitfull in good works such good works as proceed from a lively operative saving faith which those that truly and savingly beleeve in Christ wil be carefull to maintein But it corrupts and rotts others ripening them faster on to their owne destruction It is to this sacrifice of the first freedom of our wills or free wil offring that the Apostle exhorts us Rom. 12.1 2. I beseech you brethren by the mercies of God that ye present your bodies or living soules a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to God your reasonable service or the service which your reason owes unto God in seing and accounting yourselvs fools under his teachings and weak and insufficient under his ruling power in you Obj But it will be objected If I suffer the freedom of my owne will to be taken from me I either become a perfect slave or am reduced into that necessity of action with which all creatures work by a Kind of instinct so shall I come to be unmanned and made a very beast Answer In such suggestions and groundlesse surmises we erre not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God If we did both these consequences of mans being reduced to slavery or bestiality through such resignation of his freedom and rational powers that make up his reasonable sacrifice into the hands of God who will returne all back againe with usury would appear exceeding far from truth as is possible For so far is that frō a bestiall state of life and will that succeeds in the room of our rightly resigned freedom to the will of God by the crosse of Christ and fellowship with him in his death that it highly advances man into a more glorious liberty evē the liberty of the sons of God a freedom to good only a liberty
for good And although this kind of life and union do lie hid and concealed as it may for a long time asleep in the vessell of the mind as Christ was in the ship when it was in danger to sink with the waves yet by it is the soule Kept and seperated to the Lord as Paul was from the womb notwithstanding which he walked as a Pharise nay as a persecutour of the true church till this seed of Gods love revealed itself in him This is the first degree of the new creatures hidden and concealed state and this foundation of God is sure for he knows who are sealed with this his living seal from the womb though neither as yet themselvs know it or any other but only the Father and the Son The second degree of new creature life arising from the immortall seed of Gods love sealed as yet and concealed in the heart of the beleever is as it yet lies undermost and at botome suffring Esau the elder brother to come out first into view It gives way to the restoration-restoration-work which puffs up the flesh in making the spirit of the naturall man full and rich in his first abilities of pure nature and exercise of his freewill Such a saint girds himself as peter had done when he went whithersoever he would He wil be a very active couragious follower of Christ whilst he works miracles and all the world runs after him yea he will promise faire also to goe even to prison and death with him but in the hour and power of darknes the faith he acts upon this bottome and all his other graces faile and abide not the triall unlesse the seed which lies undermost appear and shew forth its preserving overcomming and never failing power In this 3d state or degree of new creature life we are with the Corinthiaus such as are carnall and babes in Christ but cannot properly be addressed unto as spirituall Christians We are ready in this state with good Samuel to say of Eliab the elder brother surely the Lords anointed is before us in the restoration-work wrought by the spirit of Christ in our soules We are little aware that the true David the man after goes owne heart the inward man which feeds upon that which is not corruptible lies hid and is not yet seen as he is but under a veyle only and as through the lattesse In these true saving faith is but weak and low not knowne rightly to themselvs but upon grounds that may and will fail them A third state or degree of this new birth and new creature life is when upon being found triall-proof the love of God comes to spread itself abroad in the heart by the holy Ghost when the seed which is at the bottome and lies undermost works and removes out of the way him that lets every impediment and weight that presses downe It comes now to circumcise the foreskin of the flesh which is the cover and veile under which it hath layn so long hid bringing under and laying low the fleshly man in us teaching him subjection and shewing him that law by which the elder is to serve the yonger and come behind but no longer to lead the way or be preferred before him For the naturall man to come under this discipline is the great crosse which is so fiery and dreadfull to flesh and blood the cup which if it were possible every one would avoyd But 't is by this means that the naturall man is made subject and becomes a meet vessell for the use of his Lord. And now when we are thus in weaknes according to the flesh most low broken and crucified then are we strongest after the spirit and the work of faith springing up with vigour is fulfilled in us with power so comes it to be cleerly seen to ourselvs though yet very much hid as to others When it hath once rooted and grounded the inward man in this love it will diffuse the good ointment to the very shirts of the garment and cloath the beleever with change of raiment that as the soule is made all glorious within the outward man may be glorified also and Christ not only admired in the heart but glorified in and by the mouth of the same beleever which is the fourth degree of new creature life This fourth and last degree of the perfecting of the love of God in us is reserved to the day of Christs second appearance called also the day of the manifestation of the sons of God which we shall now in the next place enquire into and apply ourselvs to search after according to such discovery thereof as God hath bin pleased to make knowne By way of preparation to this enquiry let us take notice of what we find described and foretold of it by the Prophet Hosea chap. 6. v. 2 3. After two dayes he will revive us that is in the end of the second day In the third day he will raise us up and we shall live in his sight Life from the dead and immortality shall be brought to light in us The day of Christs Kingdom in the spirit considered as the going forth of it is prepared as the morning which encreases more and more to a perfect day distinguishes itself into two distinct seasons It comes upon us and to us as the raine as the former and the latter rain upon the earth In the former it is a Kingdom of patience in the latter a kingdom of power The Kingdom of Christ in spirit is that stone which whosoever falls upon shal be broken to peices or they shall split and break themselvs in peeces that fal upon it whilst it is yet but the Kingdom of his patience in himself or his suffering servants who amidst all their sufferings in the flesh do remain in spirit true members of the Kingdom of the stone lively stones of Christs spirituall building abiding firme and unmoveable under all trialls of persecutiō and opposition But on whomsoever this stone or Kingdom of Christ shall fall in the day of its power when it becoms a mountain filling the whole earth it shall grind them to powder It will make them as the chaffe of the summer threshing floore which the wind of Gods just anger will so carry away that no place wil be found for them The beginning of the third day mention'd Hos 6. seems cleerly to be about the time of Christs ascension and day of Pentecost when the former rain of the spirit came downe or some few years after at the final ruin of Jerusalem and the jewish Kingdom To know the certain period of the second day and beginning of the third will much conduce to the better forming of our judgments as to the seasons of this Kingdom that are yet to come We may hereby also gain some sight into the two dayes that are past and the distinguished parts of time that the holy Ghost does intend and signify to us by those two former dayes By the