is proper to him it is his due yea let me speak a little freely it is his duty it is that which he owes to every thing that came from him Now God will be a God to them that is First He will be Fulness to them he will be the Fountain of all Perfection in them he will lay out all his Wisdom Goodness Power and Love for them He will not only be their God in giving them a right to these an interest in these but he will be a God to them in employing and improving these for them that they shall have as great a share in them and as great a freedom in the use of them as any man can have in that that is his most proper possession that as God is a God to himself still laying out his Wisdom Power c. for himself so he will be a God to them he will never spare any of them when they have occasion to use them they shall have as free and as full use of every thing he has as he himself has The same Fulness that dwells in himself and is enjoyed by himself shall dwell in them and be enjoyed by them What he is in himself he will be in them and to them I will be to them a God And then secondly God will be a God to them in his care over them He will take as exact care of them as a Master does of his family as a King does of his people yea as he does of himself and what belongs to himself As he taketh care of himself of his own Glory that it be preserved and flourish so will he take care of them in every respect of their standing growing thriving c. that nothing hurt them that every thing advance their happiness And well he may for they are himself the children that came out of his own loyns the Wife that came out of his own side they were one at first in the straitest union and conjunction they are one still even as much as ever they were their present separation doth but hide not destroy their union and they must appear to be one again Indeed he is a God to them at present he taketh care of them at present his eye is continually upon them and his heart with them in all their bondage and captivities but he is not so a God to them as he will be when he brings them forth as his people under this Covenant And well may he forbear appearing thus a God to them for he doth not yet so appear a God to himself but his own Name Glory and Excellencies go to wrack and ruine And they shall be to me a people Not only Gods people so they are where ever they are and in what state and condition soever but a people to him a people that walks every way like his people children that will not lye and deceive in that relation which they pretend to stand and act in There are two things which a people stand indebted to God in Love and Obedience in neither of which shall they fall short God loves his people entirely and he cannot be satisfied unless they love him again ye know it goes to our hearts to have no returns of love from them on whom we bestow all our affection It is Gods great desire to have a people that may love him that may receive and answer all his Love When he chose the Jews this was the main thing he looked for from them viz. Love in that way wherein he loved them Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart As it is Gods Love makes him chuse a people so it is their love he doth it for that the same Love may have free scope between them The end of this Covenant being to engage hearts together Love is a necessary fruit on both sides It is the root the main ingredient and the fruit on both sides That from or out of which the Covenant grows is Love that which makes up the Covenant is Love that which sprouts out of the Covenant is Love Because God loves his people therefore he makes this Covenant with them that which he makes this Covenant up of is his own Love and as it contains his Love so it is continually emptying it into them and they fall in with this Covenant from the same Love that they might have the same way and the same advantage of emptying their Love into him And Obedience is necessary to testifie the truth of Love If ye love me keep my Commandments Thou shalt love the Lord and keep all his Statutes he prescribes the Law of Obedience immediately after the Command of loving him As God must perfectly write his Law in their hearts or he cannot fully testifie his Love So they must perfectly obey every tittle or they cannot fully testifie their love Now the people of God shall fail neither in Love nor Obedience to him when he comes to set up this Covenant among them but they shall love him as much as he desires to be loved and obey him as much as he desires to be obeyed they shall be to him a people he shall have every thing fully from them that he can expect from a people And so by this means by this Covenant will he amend both those faults which he excepted against in the former Covenant vers 9. God disliked that Covenant but why There are two Reasons rendered in that 9. vers The one was because they continued not in it The other was because God was not sufficiently engaged by it to respect them Neither God nor they were bound close enough to one another in that Covenant the bonds were not strait enough for either but they were able to start from God notwithstanding the Covenant and God was left at liberty too he could slip loose from them for all this Covenant Notwithstanding the bond of this Covenant he regarded them not he did not look upon them as his people and so on himself as their God to take care of them as of his people but let enemies loose upon them scattered them up and down become of them what would he cared not I regarded them not saith the Lord. But now in this Covenant God undertakes and hath so framed it that he will be sure to mend both those faults it shall so bind him and his people together that neither shall be able to start one hairs bredth from the other but when they once meet they shall ever remain together in perfect Life and Love He will be to them a God and they shall be to him a people Vers 11. And they shall not teach every man his neighbor and every man his brother saying Know the Lord for all shall know me from the least to the greatest The happiness the perfection of the creature consists in the knowledg of God A man might be any thing do any thing have any thing enjoy any thing if he knew but God If he
his Love doth not go about to undermine it but to satisfie it by paying the whole price that it requires and hereby it maketh Justice its friend and as ready to seal the discharge of the prisoner as Love can be to desire it To illustrate this a little because it seemeth to some so impossible Suppose a King making a Law of Death after the manner of the Medes and Persians irreversible One whom he exceedingly loves transgresseth this Law Suppose this King could by his great understanding and skill fairly according to exact Rules of Justice transfer this fault upon his son and should out of love to the offender so do giving up his own son to death for him Here is the King himself paying the price to himself of the transgression of his own Law And yet God is more exact in the case in hand for with him the same person or that which offended in the person dyeth It was not simply a man but the manhood that sinned and he sent his Son not barely to offer up himself but the Manhood He slew and offered up the man in himself the nature that offended He gave up that principle of life in himself that had gone astray in man not to have it spared in the rest but to have it offered up in them also so that there is no more living henceforth by it but the life now to be had is a new life after the death of this I mean not the body but the spirit which must as certainly dye in us before we live as Christs did And surely this death must needs be acceptable to God and of true worth and value in his eye seeing by it all dyes that he would not have live He offereth up his own unspotted Life and puts to death all that is polluted and all that he desires is that he and his may live after this death a life that cannot dye nor be defiled He would have that Principle of Life live only where it was and as it was before it miscarried in their hand The great Work of Christ is first to bring all forth from God by a weak fading Life and then to bring all back again to God by a strong violent Death And as he receiveth life first and so communicateth it unto them so he enters into death first he begins the cup of death destruction to them also And as they could not but live when he let out life upon them so they cānot but dye when he administers death unto them He did not dye that any might escape death but that they might pass through it to life that they might be redeemed from death that they might live again that was it he gave his life for and that is the fruit of his death And it is another-ghess death we have by Christ and suffer with Christ then that which fell upon us from sin and the Law By the Law we dye in sin we enter into and lie under condemnation By Christ that principle of life dyeth in us that sinned so that we can sin no more nor be no more obnoxious unto death after once we come to live in him O sweet Price O excellent Purchase The Life which Christ hath bought for us was worth the buying it is Life indeed and the Price he gave was of value also both in it self and in the eyes of him who could not but accept it He out of whose hands he redeemeth us is the Devil who is the great Lord and Tyrant over us until then until Redemption be perfected He doth not pay to him the Price but to his own Justice and then taketh us from him by force for there is no dealing with him by Justice but only by Power yet God will shew himself just in putting forth his Power to recover any thing from him therefore first he clears his right to us and then tugs with him for us who unjustly detaineth us from him That which he redeemeth us from is that slavery misery and vanity which we are in subjection unto by lying under the Devil by being in the hands of the Devil That which he redeemeth us unto is the enjoyment of himself of life and blessedness in himself and the end the intent he hath in redeeming us is that he might enjoy us and that we might be happy in him and with him O God How excellent are thy Works How excellent art thou in Creation in Desolation in Redemption and Salvation and in the Circle and Circumference of them all Of Faith FAith is the divine Instinct of the new Nature in the new Creature whereby it naturally knoweth and goeth forth towards God as its Center Faith is not an acquired thing but sown in nature humane Faith in the nature of man spiritual Faith in the nature of the spiritual man Indeed outward occurrences and experiences may occasion its growing and thriving but they cannot sow the seed of it Things from without may draw it out and strengthen it but not beget it And yet to speak properly they cannot encrease it neither but rather the same life flowing from the Fountain through them into it And so life can at any time reach it either immediately from it self or through any other conveyance it shall please to chuse In Faith there are two things 1. The knowledg of God Faith it is the eye wherewith we see God and spiritual things We see nothing that is spiritual by our nature by our reason but only by Faith We see indeed with those eyes that which we think to be and call the same thing but not that which is the same thing We have a kind of sight a natural sight a rational sight yea a beleeving sight of these things without this Faith for there is Faith in nature and this Faith will act towards every thing that nature or any revelation or discovery to the eye of Nature can point out as a proper object for it but this sight is not the spiritual sight This light is but darkness not light and that sight which is in and by this light is but blindness not sight This light cannot comprehend any thing that is spiritual nor can this eye see any thing that is spiritual The light is too thick and the eye is too weak Man hath ever been searching after God making no question but if he were discovered once he could see him not perceiving in himself the want of that eye which alone can see him which is this eye of Faith which alone is sown and grows up in the new nature And where this Faith is sown though there were never any outward means the knowledg of God could not but spring up for it is sown in Faith in the very nature of Faith and doth as naturally spring up and grow as any thing in the ordinary course of common nature doth The knowledg this child hath of his Parent is by its nature by feeling the nature of his Parent in him by
the instinct of the divine nature in himself which points out God to him as his Original 2. There is in Faith a going forth towards God in desire in delight in confidence it naturally desires God delights in God and relieth upon him This Nature teacheth him more freely and fully to trust God then the nature in common children doth them to trust their parents It is not by outward promises and falling in with a visible Covenant that things are transacted between God and them but God begetteth them by his nature and they turn again towards God by the same nature so soon as it springs up and acts in them Of his own will he begets them and by the same will begotten in them they run into his lap and give themselves up unto him The little weak imperfect childish Will of eternity in us naturally rouls it self upon the perfect compleat fatherly Will of Eternity in God Now Faith is the substance of a Christian of this new child All that the Soul is it is by Faith All that the Soul enjoys it enjoys by Faith All that the Soul acts it acts by Faith All that the Soul receives it receives by Faith By Faith it walks with God by Faith it pleaseth God by Faith it goeth forth towards God by Faith it receiveth God into it self or in plain terms It is by the several windings and turnings of this divine Instinct that it lives moves acts enjoys any thing And as this Instinct or nature is nipped so it withers and dyes for it hath its storms and sharp Winter blasts and frosts and so also it hath its seasons of retiring its life as things in this outward world have By Faith this weak vessel whereinto this new Nature is put comes to be saved for the new man himself needeth not Salvation for himself having never sinned but the vessel whereinto it is put is unclean and fit only to be cast away unless it were purified and saved by Faith Of Love LOve is the spiritual affection between God and this new child As they know one another so they love one another and as their knowledg is the straitest knowledg so is their love likewise the closest love There is no such union besides as is between them nor are there any such streams of love any where else to carry hearts up and down to one another or to center them in one another This Love is sown in their nature there is no attaining it but where this nature is sown Man may reason himself into love of God a kind of love and it is natural to him so to do but he cannot thus love him he hath not the root of this love in him he hath not the nature whence it flows O how excellent is this Love O how strong is this Love Cast this child into what state you will you cannot turn the heart of God one hairs bredth from him Let God appear in what posture he will act how he will towards this Child it cannot think hardly of him The streams of this Love run though sometimes insensibly forward and backward from each towards each in the midst of all the varieties changes and strange unlovely disguises that both are clothed with And O what torment is it to have this Love chained up How doth it consume and burn up the poor spirit within when it cannot find its God to go forth upon for it cannot move towards any thing else It were a very pretty thing to observe the workings of this Love on both hands between God and them in the several dispensations he carrieth them through How gentle it maketh them both how kind to one another They can withhold nothing from one another They dare trust one another with all they have The child dares put himself into the hands of the Father it is the pleasure of the child to be subject to the will of the Father The Father dareth trust his whole Estate his Name then which nothing is dearer to him every thing in the hands of the child How patient towards one another God will bear any thing from them they will bear any thing from God How naturally do they interpret every thing well concerning one another notwithstanding all the contradictions and contrary apparitions of sense Surely says God they are children that will not lye I will trust them with Salvation Surely say they God will not fail me nor forsake me I will follow him into the jaws of death and destruction And if things appear never so contrary to what is expected or hoped though it be quite swallowed up in misery contrary to all Promises and Assurances as it cannot but apprehend yet it will not beleeve what it feels because of the strength of its Love And though with its mouth it cannot but at sometimes complain because of the bitterness of its anguish yet in heart it cannot think amiss Nay those very complaints be they never so bitter against God yet they flow from Love and he who had but a skilful eye to read them might read Love in them God never deals so sharply with his People but still 't is from Love and in Love and they never speak so hardly against God but 't is from Love and in Love too Love is at bottom and 't is Love moves 't is Love complains Love thus vents it self to ease it self that it might strengthen it self at the root There is a two-fold Love between God and his People A Love of Good-will and a Love of Righteousness and Iustice They love one another from their nature from that natural tye that is between them and they love one another according to that worth and excellency they see in one another A shadow of this we see in man We love our kindred from and according to the bond of nature and also from and according to that worth that appears in them The former of these remains constant is still the same in both The latter varies according to the various appearances of worth and loveliness in each It was the latter of these from which we fell We fell from the Love of God according to our excellency when we lost our excellency God could not then love us as excellent when we were no longer excellent And this Christ restoreth us unto in restoring us to our former beauty and excellency So in this Love we vary towards God too Though we always love him with the love of good-will yet his Excellency is so hid from us that we cannot always love it because it is often and cannot but be otherwise represented to us in this frail state His Ways his Dispensations his various Appearances are not throughly seen into by us and so we cannot throughly love them or him in them but this Christ will also restore us to in opening that loveliness in them all which is yet hid from us And when this is compleatly done our hearts will perfectly flow forth in all manner
in some considerations but yet he is still there in other considerations and where he is his Love is And how remote soever things appear at present from him yet he will have a time to discover himself and consequently his Love in them 6. It is Conquering it is Subduing it subjects all things to it self Love is stronger then death The Love that is in every thing will one day when it discovers its strength conquer the Death that is in every thing and the Conquest must be where the Combate is even in the heart of every thing Nothing is able to stand before Love If thine enemy hunger feed him if he thirst give him drink hereby thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head and he shall not be able to hold out against the engines and art of Love If we had but Love enough we might conquer our greatest enemies God hath Love enough and therefore can conquer his greatest enemies He can chain them up by Power but that is nothing so noble a Conquest as to change them by Love The letting loose of pure and perfect Love will charm all the enmity and opposition in the bitterest and fiercest adversary Now do not say O Man these things cannot be There is certainly such a Love in God who cannot but delight to give it full vent And when Wrath hath had its full scope why should not Love which cannot be always bound have its turn Wrath comes from Love and in its greatest heat is subject unto Love and why should it not at length be swallowed up in Love Love cannot be perfect in its work while it suffers an enemy to remain and its Conquest being so sweet excellent and universally good how can it but desire and delight to conquer If Love be the best thing the most universally pleasing and profitable why should it not delight to diffuse it self how can it rest until it hath diffused it self Was there any thing but Love before things were brought forth in such a way as they might be exposed to hatred When there was nothing but God was there any hatred in him Doth any man hate his own flesh himself And how can Love be quiet until it hath reduced all into Love and loveliness again Surely saith my Soul Love must want strength or it cannot suffer misery always to remain If I had power in me answerable to the love I find sown and springing up in me I could not endure the misery of any thing Whence cometh this what is this being interpreted Is not this from and a shadow of that Love which wants not this power nor this good-will nor skill to do it in a way of Righteousness Is it not just for Love to recover all it once had and possessed if it can And this may God do to my understanding which since he hath broken it gives him his scope in doing what he pleases in speaking what he pleases in interpreting his own words as he pleases and not contradict any thing he hath said but only our weak creaturely apprehension of things who have measured his declaration of his Intentions not in his light but in our own Of Self-denyal SElf-denyal is the first step in Christianity that which Christ first teaches and requires to have learnt of any before he will admit of them into his School before he will undertake to train them up as his Disciples It is that which makes way for all the Lessons which he teacheth afterwards without which none of them can be learnt and by which they are all made easie He who hath learn'd to deny himself will quickly learn to bear his Cross to dye with Christ dayly yea to live and move towards God in and through Christ Self is the natural man the earthly principle Adam in his own nature which is of the earth and tends to the earth which is ever sinking into that corruption which makes way for death This Self where ever it is where ever it hath a Being it cannot but seek to preserve and make use of its Being in motion and activity which as it comes from it self so it centers in it self it may move towards God towards any spiritual thing yet it is from Self and for Self that it so moves This Self being corrupted hath most of its principles motions and ends in and from corruption yet it will not rest there but wanders up and down every where for security and there is nothing within its reach but it will lay hold on if it may hope for preservation from it or through it There is nothing can be propounded for it to beleeve but it will beleeve nothing can be propounded for it to practise but it will practise yea it will not fall short in the very accurateness of Self-denyal it self There was never yet any Fabrick that God reared for himself for his own Spirit to make use of or to dwell in but our spirits our Self hath entered in after him hoping to live there with him and to be safe there through him through his presence and help When the Lord built a material Temple which he appeared in how did the spirits of fleshly Israel cling unto it how did Flesh Self corrupt all those Ordinances and wayes of Worship which were once pleasing but by it made abhominable in the eyes of God There is no Form take the expression as largely as ye can either of outward or inward worship but flesh self will intrude thither will be making use of it will be corrupt there and corrupting it It will enter into all Duties Ordinances into all Spirituall Motions of every kind into Faith into Love into Humility Patience Meekness heavenly mindedness there Self will be in these postures will Self act and move There is not any strain of Religion so pure not a notion or apprehension so spiritual not a vision or revelation so sublime and seemingly remote from Self but Self will be climbing up and getting into it putrifying and preparing it for Eternal fire which will not be quenched when once it is kindled until it hath burnt up flesh burnt up Self where ever it finds it And though these now seem very glorious smell very sweet O how Flesh is pleased and ravished here yet when the Eternal fire is let loose upon them they will stink extreamly nothing scents worse then burnt flesh and then in stead of a sweet savor there will be a stink Ye begin to smell the flesh in your Ordinances in your Duties ye shall smell it in your Graces too yea in the purest intirest motions that ever your spirits went out in This sickness is so deep this leprosie so spread that it will be very costly to have it purged out and the person cured The whole house must be pulled down the whole building the spiritual Temple as well as the material and every stone burnt in the fire Every Ordinance all spiritual Knowledg every spiritual Motion must be rent confounded torn
very certainty is imaginary but fetchest not one step in the light and when thou awakest and comest to behold the vanity of thy dreams O how sick wilt thou be of them Thou walk towards happiness O Man thou canst not so much as desire happiness Thou canst not but desire happiness and yet thou canst not for thy heart desire happiness As thou comest from the flesh so thou centerest in the flesh and fain wouldst come to rest in a fleshly happiness from God but thou wouldst chuse to go to Hell rather then come near true Life which will one day be more tormenting to thee then all the Hells thou canst imagine O how tormenting is the Life and Love of God to every thing but it self tormenting in its nature tormenting in every motion of it Every creature can imagine an excellency in his life in his love but none can groundedly acknowledg it nay none can bear it They call that so and can very well bear that which they fancy in him if God were that which man imagines him to be he could not but love him and honour him exceedingly and desire the greatest intimacy and communion with him but they cannot call that so which is so in him for when they come near it their very sense and experience will undenyably evidence it to be otherwise to them Wisdom cryeth aloud to thee O Man she hath long uttered her voyce in thy streets but thou canst not hear nor understand her language the way of life thou canst not know The light shineth in thy darkness but thy darkness cannot comprehend it therefore must thou dye in thy blindness and folly while WISDOM laughs at thy destruction and mocks when thy fear cometh This is thy Judgment written which will at length overtake thee how skilful soever thou art at present to put it far from thee Of the Seasons varieties and changes in the inward World which answer to the seasons varieties and changes in the outward World which is a map or picture of them according to the description given by that wise Observer of the Course of Nature ECCLES 3. Vers 1 c. To every thing there is a season and a time to every purpose under the Heaven A time to be born and a time to dye a time to plant and a time to pluck up that which is planted A time to kill and a time to heal a time to break down and a time to build up A time to weep and a time to laugh a time to mourn and a time to dance A time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones together a time to embrace and a time to be far from embracing A time to get and a time lose a time to keep and a time to cast away A time to rent and a time to sow a time to keep silence and a time to speak A time to love and a time to hate a time of war and a time of peace What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboreth I have seen the travel which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised therein He hath made every thing beautiful in his time also he hath set the World in their heart so that no man can find out the Work that God maketh from the beginning to the end THis is the whole course of things here below In living and dying coming into the world and going out of the world planting and plucking up killing and healing breaking down and building weeping and laughing mourning and dancing c. the world passeth away Some come in some go out Some plant some pluck up Some kill some heal Some break down some build Some weep some laugh Some mourn some dance c. Yea the very same persons have their several seasons to go forth in these several motions so contrary one to another Man is ordained to walk retrograde to himself to go quite contrary ways to fetch contrary steps to throw down all that he builds to build all that he throws down to go so many degrees of death as he hath gone degrees of life to run through so many passages in the dark world as he hath gone through in the light World one while to make himself an universal transgressor and anon to justifie himself in all his transgressions and he is but a vain fool in all a fool living a fool dying a fool planting a fool plucking up a fool killing a fool healing a fool weeping a fool laughing a fool making himself a sinner a fool making himself a Saint There is no man hath so much life and so much pleasure allotted to him but he must taste death answerable and there is no man undergoeth and runneth through so much misery anguish grief trouble but he shall have happiness joy rest peace content answerable when his season comes when those superior Orbs which carry these influences in them are circumvolved by that power which moveth them and produceth these effects by them There is an inward World much like this outward it is the Copy after which this was drawn There are such Elements in it as in this after the same manner compounded by the same art and skill There are creatures there of the same manner of make as these here There is an inward man to govern this inward world There are the same seasons of night and day Winter and Summer with the several concomitants of each and with the several alterations in each which have their force influences upon the inward man and the inward world as these here have upon the outward but none of all the Beings in this inward world hath any sight or understanding of the state of things here but the inward man as none of all the creatures have any understanding of the state of this outward world but the outward man though every outward thing hath its place and state in it yet unknown to it self none here knoweth either where it is or what it is but man or rather in that manner that man doth for man doth it not truly neither There are here also winds some nipping some cherishing and rains some refreshing some overflowing and drowning There is likewise here a Sun to rule and give light by day and a Moon and Stars to give light by night And this world hath its course just like the outward it begins with Life first traversing the several paths of it and then runs backward retiring into the chambers and degrees of death And herein will God deceive the thoughts and expectations of all men both the inward man and the outward man for the inward world shall dye and pass away so as the inward man could never imagine it possible and the outward world shall live and remain so as the outward man could never imagine it possible The one shall meet with such a death as it never dreamed of and the other with such a life as it never dreamed of The one for
one the excellent nature of the other expressing his esteem of the one his hatred of the other shewing the different ends of each c. Now how will he come off at last if all this should prove nothing but a flam and one should be as good as the other and both tend but to one and the same end If it should be granted that both shall be swallowed up at last yet doubtless there must be subordinate ends which must have their time and course and may contain in them a larger everlasting or for ever then yet we are acquainted with wherein their difference shall appear and wherein those things spoken concerning them in the Scripture must be fulfilled Of the Devil THe Devil is that created Spirit which God hath fitted with enmity subtilty and strength for the distraction and destruction of his Works God to shew his own Wisdom Strength and Love hath prepared opposition against himself and that they might appear the more clearly he hath so fitted the Opposer as may best try and draw out his own to the utmost The Devil is not an Original Spirit no more then the rest of the creatures but a created a derived Spirit It is the breath of the Lord in his nostrils that gives him life all that he has and is came from the Lord and remains still in the Lord in whom he lives and moves and acts and who lives and moves and acts in him There is but one originally This one is all and in all all in every being all in every motion all in Heaven Earth Hell all in herbs plants beasts birds fishes men devils all in every of their motions Now the work of this Spirit is to destroy to oppose God or if you will that which God intended to work in by and through this created Spirit was to oppose himself to destroy his own Works so far as he saw good God made all good but he did not intend this goodness should stand therefore he provides this Spirit to let loose upon the Creation to eat out the sweetness the beauty the vertue the excellency of it Now that this Spirit might the better accomplish his work he is fitted for it with Enmity Subtilty and Strength 1. With Enmity Hence he hath his name Satan an Enemy An enemy to God to the creature to the life and happiness of both to all that is good and truly excellent And where he throughly prevails he sows all this enmity and begets a child like himself O full of all subtilty and all mischief thou child of the Devil thou enemy of all Righteousness We see enmity in the creatures one against another this is his work from the beginning it was not so all was in peace and love before the evil one sowed the tares of division As all shall be in peace at last the Lion and the Lamb shall lie down together so all was in peace at first This was one part of the goodness that God saw in his works namely the harmony the sweetness the natural unity and subserviency which he beheld in the whole when it came newly out of his fingers 2. He is fitted with Subtilty not with Wisdom that is peculiar to Christ he is the Wisdom of God As God only is Love so God alone is Wisdom There is a vein of subtilty runs through the Devil and through wicked men but it is not wisdom That the Devil might the better do his work he hath abundance of subtilty as well as enmity yea all subtilty bestowed upon him O full of all subtilty said Paul to one who had it but at the second hand from him for he was but the child of the Devil And he is very subtle for though he cannot reach the original Wisdom of God nor can he touch any of his Plot any of his Design which is wrapped up safe in it but he himself is but an engine there yet in his several goings forth in his footsteps and tracks that appear he can there undermine him and dash his enterprises in peeces Thus did he break the whole fabrick of the Creation which God made an excellent sweet beautiful Peece what an heap of confusion misery and vanity is it now become The whole world lieth in him and the whole world is poysoned by him and is become a kind of Devil with him a peece of enmity a tormentor of it self There is nothing in it lives in true love in true wisdom in true peace but in a devilish love and policy There is such a love and wisdom in the world as is in the Devil such peace and good-will among men as is in Hell among devils Thus did he break the spiritual Fabrick of the New-Creation the evil one sowed tares in this field also The Husbandry the building of God was no sooner erected by God but it was presently defaced by him He hath taken possession of this inward world and hath emptied all sorts of Religions of true love and filled them only with enmity and the wisdom that is among them is neither pure nor peaceable but sensual and devilish He appeareth like an Angel of light that he may vent his own wares and his great traffique is in Religion but for all the paint wherewith he coloureth them he that can look into them may see them to be his wares The Devil hath his faith his love his holiness his ways of ravishing and transporting the heart in prayer in meditation in conference c. It is not the sweetness of these it is not the pleasingness of these it is not the warming and drawing forth of the heart in these that can distinguish them There is abundance of this counterfeit stuff abroad in the world the Devil is making use of his time he may be somewhat near playing his master-peece though as yet he needeth not to do it little of truth because now is the time of destruction God giveth the Devil string and he will make use of it to the utmost 3. He is fitted with Strength He is the strong man armed He is strong in himself the world is but a weak thing to him Man is very weak before him yea the renewed man hath nothing of strength comparable to him He is a fountain a Well-head a kind of original so vast that he contains all wicked persons all wicked actions all wicked things all wicked motions within him He hath a Kingdom and is a mighty King and not a King in title but he hath the head and heart of a King he is as fit to be the Head of his Body in his kind as Christ is to be the Head of his Body in his kind He has so much strength in him that no place can be at quiet can be free from enmity while he is there unless it will admit of his peace There will be trouble in Heaven in Earth in each in both till he be cast out of both into the pit and bound up in the pit There
of love one towards another when we are made in every respect what God loves and esteems and when God is made to appear what he is even every way pure excellent and lovely in all his Ways and Motions This Love both in God and in his for it is one and the same hath these six Properties in it 1. It is Spiritual 2. Pure 3. Vniversal 4. Gradual 5. Dispersive 6. Conquering or Subduing 1. It is Spiritual of a divine Nature of the Nature of God Not of an earthly nature not of the nature of any thing here below but of an heavenly Nature of the Nature of God No man no creature can thus love but God alone it dwells in him it goes along with him where he sows his own Life there he sows this Love and it is no where else to be found 2. It is Pure it is not mixed it will not mix with any thing it will not go forth for any by ends but from it self of its own Nature it is of pure good-will of exact Righteousness Where there is the nature it seeks where there is the worth it seeks it will it cannot but love it 3. It is Vniversal it goes forth towards all things God loveth himself his Son his Creatures his Enemies Heaven and Hell Light and Darkness Saints and Devils Holiness and Sin It is a comprehensive Love takes in all things into its bosom God is Love as every thing hath its place in God so every thing hath its proper place in his Love God hath prescribed us nothing but what is in himself and he calls for it from us because he would have us like himself He bids us love our enemies because he himself doth so he hath no enemy but what he loves O how vast are his Motions He can hate with a perfect hatred and yet love with a more perfect Love And he in whom this Love is grown up in strength and power finds it also spreading in him in this universality There is nothing he can so hate but he also loveth it He knoweth Hell Devil Sin so well that he can tell both how and wherein to hate and love them 4. It is Gradual God loveth not all things alike but every thing in its order place and station He loveth himself first and chiefly he loveth his Son as himself he loveth his Creatures according to their several ranks Hell Devil and Sin in theirs and that both with the love of good-will and of Righteousness all which are lovely in their several respects though some of them are very unlovely both in themselves and in their motions yet all of them are very lovely in their subserviency and none of them can be spared Yea the very nature of the very worst of them which is the worst thing in them far worse then any of their motions and actions hath its proper lustre and loveliness to that eye which throughly discerneth it The loveliness of darkness lieth in its black dark nature in its contrariety to and opposition against light and he who made it so saw it lovely and cannot but love it in its being so and he who is taken up into him cannot but see its loveliness also and love it with him Yet there is an order and degree as in things themselves so in Love's going forth towards them A Master of a family loveth his whole family every thing in it his wife his children his servants his vassals his horses his oxen his sheep his asses his whole houshold stuff all his furniture and several sorts of jewels vessels of gold silver wood stone brass tin c. yet not all alike These have not all the same nearness to him though they have all some relation and may challenge some love and respect These are not all of the same nature have not all the same make are not all for the same use They are not of the same worth in themselves they yeeld not the same delight unto him but there is a vast difference in them and cannot but be likewise in his love towards them An excellent Work-man may like all his peeces of work because several veins of his skill appear in them all yet still with a difference He hath his rude inferior draughts of things which he careth not much for which any almost may beg from him but he hath some peeces he setteth so high a price upon that he will by no means be drawn to part with them God is THE GREAT OPERATOR he has THE SKILL He is wonderful in Counsel excellent in working but yet he works variously He hath his slight peeces as he reckoneth this Creation which he made but for a Say and regards not what becomes of it but maketh havock of it and suffereth havock to be made of it continually Such are all his outward Works in his outward People by his outward visible Covenant He never set much by the one he never did any great thing by the other he brought it forth to shew its weakness its insufficiency for the bringing about of what he meant to do And the love he beareth to it is for its weakness for its fitness to set off the strength of his other Covenant when it should be brought forth But God hath his peeces of Skill he hath his accurate peeces of Work which he hath brought forth all his Wisdom in wherein there are the very depths of God running in their several secret lines these he is very dainty of He loveth every thing but yet wisely in its order and place according to its nature end and use His Love is not such a confused love as must go forth with its whole strength or not at all but he hath Wisdom and Judgment to guide it by to let it out as may yeeld him most pleasure and may most commend and set it off in its going forth which consists in the perfect variety of objects and in the perfect variety of acts and ways of motion The having and enjoying of the whole strength of his heart would not be so choyce rare and excellent if it were over-common But when none hath it but his Spouse his Children his Jewels it will appear what it is to be his Spouse to be his Child to be his Jewel And when he hath none else to love enjoy and delight in as them his delight in them will be more precious and pleasing to himself God will have can have but one Spouse and his Spouse will not cannot endure the least jot of his husbandly affection to run aside from her no more then he can suffer the least Spouse-like affection of hers to run aside from him They shall each love every thing else but nothing so as they love one another 5. It is Dispersive This Love sows and scatters it self every where There is not any thing any where but God is there it is in God and God is in it God hath excluded himself from many things yea from most things
earnest to bring others unto also as being very sensible that it tends both to his and their happiness whereas all other things tend apparantly to the misery and destruction of the creature And herein lieth the excellency of man this is the best he can desire or hope to attain and a Birth to or in this is the best Birth that can be produced by him But this is not the new-birth this is not that which God calls Regeneration this is not the heir but the son of the bond-woman which shall never inherit this is but the fruit but the off-spring of the first Adam which is of the earth earthly not of the second Adam which is the Lord from Heaven heavenly in himself and begetting an heavenly nature All these come from man the nature of man the blood of man the desire and skill of man the corruption of man or at best the excellency of man But the Child here spoken of the Child God delights in the Child he will own as his Son is of his own Seed is begotten by himself is born of him He is of the Seed of Eternity of Immortality and therefore Eternity of right belongeth to him He is the Child of God by a new Nature by a new Life he is the immediate off-spring of his own Son formed by his own Spirit But of God This whole Birth belongs to God 1. It is he that sows this Seed in the heart the seed of this Life his own Seed the Seed wherein the very Godhead is contained and which cannot but grow up into God God hath his Power to generate as well as man and the other creatures he hath his Seed to sow as well as they and his Seed doth a truly and fully contain his Nature as their seed doth theirs He is the great Sower that sows his own grain in his own Vineyard He is the great Builder that lays the foundation of his own House He hath begotten us again c. 2. It is he that quickens the Seed and causeth it to grow And you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins Eph. 2. He casts a vail of death upon Eternity upon Immortality for a season he maketh it as it were to rot in the heart that he may quicken it again that he may cause it to grow up in its own shape and fulness And when it shoots forth it is he that causeth it to thrive and flourish Paul may plant and Apollos water but God giveth the increase This Life floweth only from God and groweth up only by the breath of God 3. He doth this by his own Power by his mighty Arm He puts his whole strength to it It doth not cost him nothing to sow this Seed to beget this Son but it costs him the very Power and strength of the Godhead even an exceeding greatness of Power he works with the very might of his Power when he begets this Child when he brings forth Faith in this Child even with the very same strain of strength that he exercised upon Christ when he raised him from the dead and exalted him above all other power Ephes 1.19 20. 4. He does this also by his own Will The other births are by the power of man by the will of man this is as by the Power of God so by the Will of God He is not at all moved to this by any thing in the creature by any thing from the creature but meerly by his own Will of his own Will begat he us He soweth his Seed according to his Nature as other things do theirs according to their nature Lo this is the New-Birth The Spirit breatheth where he listeth No man knows whence this breath comes no man knows whither this breath goes but it keeps within its own Circuit which is only known to it self Thus is every one that is born of God Of the Excellent Nature of this Birth or of the Child thus begotten thus born FROM JOH 3. Vers 6. That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit SPirit denotes excellency purity strength durableness of nature its constitution is more excellent more clear more strong more lasting then that of flesh Flesh is weak corrupt fading hath little loveliness it and that loveliness quickly perishing the Egyptians are men and not God and their horses flesh and not Spirit Spirit is a sublime an excellent kind of nature both in its inwardness and in its outwardness its way of Being of motion either within or without of generation far exceeds that of flesh and so doth the Child begotten this way it is of the same nature with that which begets it That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit That which is begotten by the Spirit is of a spiritual nature of the same nature with himself of the very divine nature who hath made us partakers of the divine nature He observes the Law of Generation which is to beget and encrease his own nature and kind to multiply himself So that this Child is divine what ever is in this Child what ever flows from this Child cannot but be divine its Faith its Love its Hope its Joy its Meekness Sweetness Holiness Righteousness are not such as grow in Natures garden but in the Paradise of God and from a more inward and spiritual seed then is sown in nature That which is born of the flesh is flesh All the excellency that man can attain to all the Faith Hope Love Joy c. that man can have from any of the Births fore-mentioned is but fleshly but weak corrupt fading but that which is born of the Spirit that which flows from this Life that which grows out of this Seed is spiritual and hath the Spirit of Life Eternity and Immortality in it The flesh profiteth nothing Christ speaks that to persons who were bending their whole strength to understand him all this avails nothing The greatest fleshly desire moves not God the greatest fleshly industry and endeavour furthers not the creature What ever is thus received what ever is thus understood what ever is thus obtained is but fleshly and will not avail All the faith in God all the love towards God all the desire after God or delight in him all the obedience unto God thus gained thus put forth hath no true life in it and must needs wither and come to nothing The fleshly understanding of any thing revealed by Christ is of no value It is the Spirit that quickeneth It is the spiritual part in the Word the spiritual part of the Word engrafted by the Spirit in the heart that quickeneth it at first or causeth it afterwards to thrive and grow This Child hath a generosity a nobility an height an aspiringness in him He can never rest out of his own Country nor out of his own place of habitation in his Country He cannot endure to live beneath himself He must possess and enjoy God to the full or he is not satisfied He must live
thy love for his relief he wants thy help behold he is sick When he hears this he stirs not one step but stays still where he was two days together as if he would be sure to give him time enough to dye Secondly Another cause of his death was an hidden design of glory to God This sickness is not unto death but for the glory of God that the Son of God might be glorified thereby Vers 4. I know the meaning of this sickness it shall not end in death but that death it must lead to shall be as it were no death it shall be so soon and so powerfully swallowed up in life But for the glory of God for the advancing of the glory of that Power and Love of his which this shall occasion the putting forth and discovery of in his Son that the Son of God may be glorified thereby There was also a design of love to Lazarus that he might gain a further testimony a further sight a further experiment of the Love and Power of Christ that he might receive and enjoy a further degree of life from Christ God doth not meerly use us as Instruments for his own Glory but he loves that we should have a taste of that Glory he raises to himself out of us He brings us to sickness to death to destruction not only to exercise his skill and power in healing in raising in restoring us but that he might also cause a more sweet fresh health a more precious flourishing life a more pure perfect Salvation to spring up out of that sickness out of that death out of the ashes of that destruction There was another design yet in it which had also an influence upon it and that was the confirmation of the Faith of the Disciples So Vers 14.15 Lazarus is dead and I am glad for your sakes that I was not there to the intent ye may believe God had an intent besides the glory of the Work to confirm the Faith of the Disciples Miracles can neither work nor confirm Faith they cannot reach that Principle whence Faith springs and grows but God can either work or confirm faith by them All the Miracles that ever Christ wrought could not bring any one to beleeve but they still ask for a sign these were not evidencing and convincing enough but yet God made use of every one of them when and to whom and as he pleased He who hath an eye may see the Power of God in every thing and may observe the several eminent putings forth of it and so be strengthened in his Faith towards him but he who hath not this eye can only toss it up and down in his own uncertain reasonings but not spiritually discern it And I am glad for your sakes He was not glad of Lazarus's sickness of Lazarus's misery of Lazarus's death but he was glad of the advantage it yeelded him to set forth God the Glory of God to make Lazarus taste of his Love and his Power to strengthen the Faith of his weak staggering Disciples in this respect he was glad of it God delights not simply in misery in death in destruction but in that which he works by them and out of them which could not so advantagiously any other way be brought forth and discovered as through them 3. There is the sad lamentation over dead Lazarus The lamentation of the Jews of his kindred of the Disciples but especially the lamentation of Martha and Mary is very observable Vers 21 32. Lord if thou hadst been here my brother had not dyed Wherein they secretly tax him for his neglect for his delay as if they had said Lord we sent to thee soon enough and if thou hadst come we had not now been thus mourning and weeping over our dead brother thou mightest easily have prevented all this if thou hadst pleased Lord if thou hadst been here my brother had not dyed And this is the language of the poor desolate Soul of the poor dead spirit Lord if thou hadst been here my life had not gone out If thou hadst stood by me and stuck to me and put forth thy skill and power for me as I thought thy love to me would have enforced thee to do I had never tasted this cup of desolation this cup of death O it is the absence of Christ that kills the Soul whose Life is in his presence 4. The unexpectedness of any restauration of him to life The Disciples it never enters into their thoughts but let us go and dye with him V. 16. The Jews wonder that Christ loving him so well did not preserve him from dying but never once thought of raising of restoring him to life Vers 37. Martha who seemed to be full of Faith in this very respect Vers 22. was so far from it that she even mocks at Christ that he should make any offer to go about it Vers 39 Lord by this time he stinketh for he hath been dead four days If thou hadst come sooner thou mightest have preserved him from death but now it is too late to think of any thing he is not in a case now to be visited or recovered by this time he stinketh what dost thou mean to speak of taking away the stone Resurrection from death is very unexpected He that is shut up in the grave seemeth quite out of the capacity of life In misery in affliction there may be hope of relief but who can look for Redemption from death to be raised out of the grave Alas we little think ever to meet with any such grave much less to be redeemed from it Christ was thy Type herein though somewhat more also Thou must taste of his Death thou must into his Grave and lie there thy season though the holy One in thee shall not see corruption Thy life shall not dye shall not not there it shall but sleep and when thou awakest thou shall awake in his likeness and live for ever As Christ was raised from the dead to dye no more for death to have no more dominion over him so shalt thou Thou shalt sit on the Throne with him and that life which hath been hitherto in weakness in bonds in slavery in misery passing through and bearing the weight of death and destruction shall then reign shall then enjoy it self in the Fountain from whence it did flow and where alone it can sweetly and perfectly live 5. The great Love and Power Christ shewed in recovering him to life There was great Love which he variously expressed both in disregarding himself and his own safety in going thither which his Disciples put him in mind of vers 8. and in his behaviour when he came there His affection vented it self exceedingly so that the Jews could not but take notice of his great Love to him vers 36. He groaned and troubled himself vers 33. He wept vers 35. It went to his Heart it melted his very Soul to see the condition of his beloved one
know his is knowledg and shall appear knowledg when it cometh to be tried when the day comes and the shadows fly away this shall stand and remain we know He that is born of God he that feeds upon and grows up in the Life of God he doth indeed know He that sees with his eye in his light sees truth sees himself and that not any way painted but in his own native nakedness beauty and excellency But all other eyes all other lights all other sights of things with these eyes in or through these lights are but shadows tend but to hide and deceive and after their appointed season is over must pass away Man must dye his eye be closed at the time of his death after which it can see no more and then must he into the grave and all his light and knowledg be buried with him Go on O Man study the creatures study the Scriptures gather a stock of knowledg and experience from these Admire God love God live in God live to God be perfect walk exactly with God This is knowledg this is life this is excellency I cannot but give it its due as I am a man I love it and O how is my heart taken with the person in whom I find this vigorous But again This is not knowledg this is not life this must perish and thou with it This will not save thee but kindle the flames upon thee and help the more to scortch thee And if I do not know this more certainly then thou knowest any thing let me be proved a Lyar and shamed before the whole bulk of mankind for so unjustly arraigning accusing and condeming man so long and so deeply in mine own spirit and now at length so publiquely in open view We know no man after the flesh This Seed of God who are begotten and born of God who live in the Life of God who walk in the Light of God they see nothing after the manner of men they know nothing as man knows It is not by reason or experience by the sight of the eye or hearing of the ear that they come to understand but by the springing up of their own life in them Indeed while the man remains in them he will be knowing even spiritual things as other men know them and making use of them as other men make use of them but this is not the life in them that doth thus The Life only knows it self and it only knows by it self by its own living it comes to know There is light sown every where in this life and as the light grows the life springeth up in it They need nothing to make them perfect but the perfect growth of their own life they need nothing else to teach them to guide them to refresh them all that they can desire dwells in that life which they already have They are like God his Seed cannot but have his likeness their happiness their perfection lieth in themselves in their own life They walk in the light as he is in the light the knowledg the fellowship they have with things is by feeling them in their own spirits They know God by feeling him there and they know other things by comprehending them there in God in whom they are originally and most fully Yea though we have known Christ after the flesh The Word became flesh The Word appeared in flesh the Word tabernacled in flesh dwelt in flesh discovered himself in flesh and the Word may be known after the flesh Those spiritual Excellencies and Glories of God which he in his fleshly Appearance held forth may be seen by the fleshly eye and after a fleshly manner All his Preachings all his Miracles all his outward Manifestations of the Power Goodness and Love of God in these were but fleshly Manifestations and he who thus knew him knew him but by these knew him but after the flesh Christ as he was here in a fleshly state so he had a fleshly knowledg of God and held forth a fleshly knowledg of God which was useful to him and might be also to others in the season of it but it passed away with him he dyed to it and is to live no more to it and with his Apostles after him in part and must pass away in all in whom the other seed is sown according as that comes to live in them Yet now henceforth know we him no more We have been weak we have been babes in Christ and then the man did much live in us and we knew by outward receptions of Light and by visible demonstrations of Power While the seed is young and tender the weeds are suffered to grow up with it that it might also grow If you should at first pluck up all the knowledg of the man ye could not but pluck up the knowledg of God too which is weak and as it were hangs upon it but let them both alone let them both grow till it hath taken thorow rooting and then it will keep its ground and be able to bear the violence of the separation Let but the New-Man grow strong and hearty enough he will spue up the other of himself henceforth know we no man after the flesh yea though we have known Christ after the flesh yet now henceforth know we him no more Not as if Paul or any else then had perfectly attained unto this but life in him and in others was working apace towards this and had in part also attained And now let me tell thee O Man if thou canst bear to hear it that though thou hast a great deal of knowledg in thy kind yet not one dram of true knowledg not one grain of knowledg in the right kind Thou canst not read aright one line throughout the whole Creation nor one tittle of the Book of God Thou dost not know God or the creatures or that which thou thinkest cannot but be known that God made the creatures Thou dost not know sin or the Law whereby sin is sin or Christ who is the Redeemer from sin That which thou callest the knowledg of these things which indeed thou hast is not knowledg and when they come to be opened in the light of the Lord which shall put out thy light and discover thy darkness which is now painted as if it were light thou shalt find thou dost not know them Thou art so far from Redemption that thou never knewest what sin was even thou who canst talk of sin and seemest to thy self to be able to open it in the several kinds natures and degrees of it Ah poor perishing man how wilt thou be deluded in thy hopes of Salvation Thy ways are the ways of death all thy motions towards God towards Life towards Happiness as thou thinkest are but so many steps from it Thou dost but dream of things in the night and it is not much material whether thy dreams please or disturb thy fancy for whichsoever it be it is but imaginary thy