saith Peter unto you and to all Israell that by the name of Iesus Christ of Nazareth was this man made whole whom ye crucified but God hath raised him up and this is the stone set at naught by you Builders and is now become the head of the corner neither is there Salvation in any other Now when they saw the boldnesse of the Apostles and saw that they were ignorant men they tooke knowledge that they had beene with Iesus and could say nothing against the Miracle they had wrought in the name of Iesus Then they tooke counsell and streightly charged them they should speak no more in that name and they answered boldly whether is it right in sight of God to hearken unto you more then unto God Iudge yee for we can not but speake the things we have seene and heard and so the whole Chapter and divers other places do declare with what wonderfull boldnesse they declare Christ because Christ lived withthem lived in them they had experience of his strength and love in supporting And their love could not but returne in declaring the things they had seene and heard And the Reasons of this are because the injoyment of these things beget a love to the things declared gives power to declare them with all courage and boldnes the Saints are made one with Christ suckt and drawne up into Christ they live by loving and love by living they declare through loving love through declaring And sutable to their love they cannot choose but declare love in them hath the preheminence it predominates it over-rules all other things in them they must needs they are constrained to declare the life they live in If a Parliament should command that men should not declare what experience they have of Christ as I hope this Parliament never will they could not contayne it would be as fire in their bosomes it would burst out loves would so constraine them could they sit and see and not speake I tell you there is such mighty constraines in the power of love they could not keepe in It bootes not the World to act against the power of love to raise persecution the more they act against it the more it workes the more it constraines Againe another reason is why they are so constrained to declare what they see and know because the matter declared is the very power declaring They are so lapt up in the loves of Christ so made one in him that the things they declare is not another thing from them but they are the very things And therefore if they are so bold in declaring never blame them for they and those things are the same no nor never admire them for there is such a constraining power in them they cannot do otherwise And that he hath he receives not from others as their experiences but they are his owne they are himselfe Paul you see when once Christ had appeared to him there was such a Light such a Glory such a Power such a Demonstration of Truth to his Soule that he immediately went preacht Christ he went not to the Bretheren to be confirmed in what he saw and felt but the power love was such that come life come death he must declare it And a third Reason may be because he enjoyes what he declares what he enjoyes he acts and what he acts he enjoyes while he saies he sees he feeles while he speakes of love he acts in love Here now you see the quality of a Saints spirit And indeed this acting and enjoying he esteemes his protion his everlasting inheritance his Heaven his very worke is his reward esteeming saith the Apostle the reproach with Christ Heb. 11.26 greater riches then the Treasures of Egypt Phil 4.8 this life was the recompence of reward Moses had an eye too and Paul he counted all things losse and dung to gaine enjoy it and David herejoyceth in the word as one that findeth great spoiles Ps 16.5.6 â— for in keeping thereof there is a full reward Beloved freinds this is your Heaven and if you cannot count this a sufficient Heaven and reward you will hardly thinke Heaven hereafter a reward especially in the condition you are in but did you act in love and lived in Christ here you would say were this life but perfected I have enough enough I desire no other Heaven this portion is enough as David saies in 16 Psalme Ps 16.5.6 The Lord is the portion of mine Inheritance the Lines are fallen to me in very pleasant places yea I have a Goodly Heritage Now we come to the Third thing wherein the Saints are bold They are bold in undergoing any thing from God must I be poore must I be sicke must I be in prison must I be in Death he is bold to undergoe it he sees the loves of God in all that comes to him Let all the world conjoyn together against this man and looke never so blacke and terrible upon him he sees his God smileing his God speaking nothing but loves As sinne and the law though they are in conjunction to terrifie him yet he is bold for he sees God reconciled And as they the greater can not daunt his boldnes so neither can men nor can the Word all they can doe cannot make him thinke his Father is angry Though God himselfe try the Saints they liveing in him and enjoying his love Though he seeme in his Providence to be angry yet they find loves in his very bosome in his very heart when men enjoy not this every frowne from men and every frowne from God casts them downe they forsake their boldnes because they have no exprience of the sweet and unchangeable nature of God as Ezek. 22.14 Exek 22.14 Can thine heart endure or can thine hands be strong in the daies that I shall deale with thee They being backsliden and departed from God they were not able to look on God as a father when he aflicted them as the Saints can doe Doth God chide yet they know t is in love Doth God wound all are fruits of his love So now you see how bold a Saint is with God How bold in standing for God How bold in declaring God How bold in undergoing any thing from God and all this by liveing with God by liveing in God and enjoying God This man must needs be a bold man that hath such inflowings of loves from God what shall such a man account deere for such a God How bold was Jer. in the Prison though put in the Dungeon where he sanke in the mire and was ready to starve when he was taken out againe and remained in prison he could not hold his peace the power of loves constrained him to speake what he had seene and felt And so Iob though he was aflicted in his Estate in his children in his owne person Iob. 13.15 what saith he though he kill me he deferves to be trusted in I
cannot forsake him for all this And old Ely when there was such bitter things spoken against him by God saith he it is the Lord let him do with me what seemeth him good I Sam. 3.18 And that is the highest Act that is expressed of him And the reason is because that man that lives in God understands God in himselfe what his heart is If we looke on God as he acts out of himselfe and not as he acts in himselfe there is nothing but changes to day sicke tomorrow well to day in prison tomorrow not this yeare rich next yeare poore Now if we shall judge that God changes as our condition changes Iâ—â—â— 17. what comfort But God in his nature is one the same no changes nor shadow of turning alwaies alike Againe a saint in God lives in the will of God Gods will is all in all to him And this is that which brings him up to that raisednesse and height of spirit he sees God in what ever he doth to act his owne blessed will on him and so he see but that accomplished therein he rests and rejoyces because he lives above aloft he lives in the Center in the Fountaine of loves If we live in the streames if we live below among the Creatures there is nothing but trouble and rumbling this way and that way ebbing and flowing but the Center the Fountain the upper Regions are quiet still composed sattisfied Againe because if God do take all from the Creature and take him up to live in himselfe he hath not lost all but found all a thousand fold Yet in the most roughest acting out of God he finds loves in God else his spirit would be downe to day and up to morrow according to those actings but this life with God in the bosome and bowells of transcendent loves there all disputs are at an ends he lives in providence above providence he lives above reasons Region and Element and therefore when Reason would make disputes and arguments from Gods externall dealings as if God were as rough as his providence this life silences all and layes the soule to rest in the sweet embraces of the loves of an unchaingable Father though he kill me yet will I trust in him And againe the Saints have such experience of the loves of God flowing warme from the heart of God that they cannot be beaten out of good thoughts of God as we say by a freind whom we know and love have intimate acquaintance with if this man or that should bring tales of evill intended by him towards you you would say I wil not beleeve him for I know him so well that the thing is impossible to be true So doe the Saints find God such a true freind such an intimate close freind that hath so much exprest his love to them that though sin the Law Hell Death the Divell the World Providence or whoever should bring them ill tydings from their father ob say they it cannot be I know him so well I have such sweet such frequent enjoyments with him that I cannot thinke a hard thought of him this drawes up the Soule to a high yea a higher and higher enjoyment of God This enjoyment transcends yea sleights all other enjoyments below it it transcends Nature it transcends Reason it transcends externall providence and all the roughest actings thereof Let never so high accusations be layd on the Saints they value them not their life with God makes up all As some have laid divers accusations on me and on the Saints some are Truths and we are ready to maintaine them we hope to the death others are false and charging upon us that we never said nor held and all to make us odious to the World As for instance that I should say there was no other use of Christ but to declare love to the World and for this end he came and for no other Who ever holds it for my part I count it an errour my Judgment is otherwise I hold no such thing I disclaime it Christ came to sattisfie and answer a law as well as to make out love and though these and the like and such other things may be fathered upon us partly through darkenes not seeing and enjoying Truth partly through malice to lay to our charge the things we never knew nor held yet we hope God will vindicate his Truth and vindicate his saints and Truth shall burne and flame out so gloriously that he will make all opposers and slanderers ashamed therefore let not the saints much trouble themselves at these things let the Creature be still and silent and let God alone he is but working a way for his owne praise in confounding his enemies and vindicating the simplicity of the saints who live with him and in him to their everlasting comfort and Joy BEloved freinds that I intend to speake unto you at this present shall be from the word of God in the 6 of Cant. 9 verse My Dove my undefiled is but one she is the only one of her mother she is the choice one of her that bare her That which I shall speake to you at this time shal be only from the first words My Dove my undefiled is but one There is not much dependance of these words on the foregoing words but so much dependance there is that as you may see in the former words that the Daughters of Jerusalem enquire of the Spouse of Christ where her beloved is she had so set him out and expressed her ardent affection to him that they begin to wonder desire to see what a one her beloved was because she was so ravished with him say they in the first verse whether is thy beloved gone oh thou fairest among women whether is thy beloved turned aside that we may seek him with thee she answers them in the next verses My beloved is gon downe into his Garden to the beds of spices to feed in the Gardens and gather Lillyes And I am my beloveds and my beloved is mine he feedeth among the Lillies And then Christ in the next words begins to discribe and set out what his Spouse is and anotomizes her in all her portracture and beauties not only how beutifull she is to him and amiable through his beuty put upon her but also how fruitfull his Spouse is in the enjoying her beloved that ther 's not one barren among them so amiable every way that Christ was ravished with her beuty therefore saith he turne away thine eyes from me for they have overcome me But then this discription might breed this objection are all so beutifull and comly are all so fruitfull that there it not on barren amongst them they are severall and of severall tempers and judgements nether do they all appeare so fruitfull as he describes he answers all in this ninth verse My Dove my undefiled is but one All Saints in Christ are but one men of the world and poore Saints weak
way in all the world comparable to this to breake their hearts and to make them throw sin far away Time was when they said true it is Christ calls and invites mee to come but I am so defiled so sinfull I dare not come I will reforme my life and get more power against sin and then I may goe with boldnes But this soule who hath injoyed the loves of God so sweetly so intimately he findes this is the way to remaine foule still And though hee might refraine sin yet he was not purged from sin This end and that end wrought with him something from self and to self but sin as sin was as strong as ever But he found this way the only way to heale sinne and get a new heart a new nature viz. to throw himself upon his Father into his Fathers armes Though Abraham be ignorant of us Isai 63.16 yet thou art our Father And this going to God frees us from our sinnes and nothing else To say I am legall and I am full of corruption I am weake and I can doe nothing all this while we stand at a distance and weaken our selves more We are not free we are lockt up in our selves and strive by our own strength But if you would be holy throw your selves into the loves of God this very injoyment will give you an inlarged a free and broken heart then sin will be hated from a new nature God dos not say I love you if you be holy but I love you to make you holy Beloved this is the new covenant that the Gospell holds out to us and herein lies the power of the Gospell to make of unrighteous righteous to work by love not by constraint Men that never had experience of this life they lay Lawes and Constraints upon men to duty and know not the power of love When the Prodigall had but a resolution to throw himself upon his fathers loves you see how he was received No sooner dos God open his heart to a poore sinner but he sees the everlasting roling bowels of a Father toward him and then they interchange loves and bowels Hos 11.8 That their repentings are kindled together Ier. 31.22 I doe earnestly remember him still my bowels are troubled for him Jer. 3.22 Bowels role towards one another and then the poore sinners come to see their own names writ in their own hearts that before was writ in the heart of God And see his dearest loves have ever been toward them for good He sees now he was not excluded from God because he had departed away from him and blacksliden but was the rather cald to come to him because hee had blackslided and defiled himselfe Jer. 3.22 As Jer. 3.22 Returne ye backsliding children and I will heale your backslidings Behold we come unto thee for thou art the Lord our God He has experience that he had laine long striving against sin but found no power from a right ground from a right principle But when he it may be after many years striving with his lusts to subdue them and bring them under he resolved at last to goe to God and said Lord here is my heart as bad as can be the more I strive with it the worse it is I have striven long and cannot conquer one sinne but Lord doe thou now take it doe with it what thou will all this while I was asham'd to come to thee my heart was so bad now I commit it to thee and then hee found a subdued heart and never before So long as I look upon my obedience and my conformity and when I see a want I hold off from God this breedes obstructions between the soule and God Your praying and your duties and your obedience doe declare that you live in God and not that they may bring you to God Brethren this is the way have you finned and falen from God stay not but returne to God then he will heale your backsliding Stay not as men usually doe till your selves have healed your own backslidings and then you will beleeve This way doth never rightly overcome the heart but be ye weake Christian or be ye strong try this way and you shall find a wonderfull change in your spirits you may draw nigh to God with boldnesse the way stands open God never chid a soule that throwes it self upon him Againe this often recourse to and familiarity with God it makes a man rightly to understand God to know his very nature men that live out of God mistake God they judge otherwise of his nature then it is Saints by injoying God they know God what a God of sweetnesse and loves he is how free in communicating of himselfe what an unchangable God he is how ready to receive a sinner what loves run from him into them when once they are come in to him though God frowne they know his nature is nothing but unchangeable loves however he deales with them in his Providence they know all his wayes are wayes of love to them He cannot hate them nor doe any thing as a fruite of hatred They understand God they know his wayes with his Saints though he kill them yet will they trust in him Isai 55. Though in externall Providence hee seemes to frowne yet they know what 's in his heart they take all in good part their Father doth unto them This is that which raises up their hearts to a holy boldnesse of spirit What ever men intends they know God smiles what ever his providences are they know his loves are constant unchangable This makes their hearts rejoyce and triumph to live above though the body be under sufferings yet their spirit is free walkes up and downe in loves is compassed about with joyes swallowed up in GOD and lives amongst Divine Crownes If a man have no experience of these things he lives darkly mournfully he measures God by himself if men be angry he thinks God is angry if providence change they think God changes and this raises not but overwhelmes the spirit of a man this sinks his spirit for he judges God like himselfe but what sayes God are my wayes as your wayes and my thoughts as your thoughts Isai 55. As high as the Heavens are above the Earth so high are my thoughts above your thoughts and my wayes above your wayes Secondly they are bold for God ye never see any principle but it works sutable to itself so the Saints have a principle from God which qualifies them so that they can stand for God 1. In suffering for him if it be his will they shall suffer losses ignominy derision yea Death it self they have a principle from God will beare them out Look upon Paul what a spirit had he when they told him of bonds Acts. 21.13 what meane ye to weepe and breake my heart for I am ready sayes he not only to be bound but to die for the name of the Lord
Jesus And so the three Children what resolutions had they to suffer Wee know our God whom wee serve Dan. 3.17.18 is able to deliver us but howsoever be it known unto thee wee will not worship this Image Frownes nor scornes from men will not turne them out of their way And the reasons of this are First the reall conviction of security in God before they ingage themselves for God as 2 Tim. 1.12 For which cause I also suffer these things neverthelesse I am not ashamed for I know in whom I haue beleeved and I am perswaded he is able to keepe that which I have committed to him against that day The soule seeing God such a buckler and seeing himselfe so secure this makes him not stand at any thing but to ingage himselfe and all he is for God Object But you will say then this is but self-self-love not to ingage but that hee knowes heshall be secure I answer no t is not selfe love but love to God But here lies a great mysterie in a Saints thus ingaging for God It arises from being partaker of the very nature of God and his will is so swallowed up and resigned into Gods that he acts Gods will not his own So that his security is not in any outward protection but in what the will of God is and if his spirit live in and with God what ever fall to him this he accounts his security Rea. 2 Every spirit acts sutable to that spirit it is in conjunction with Now Christs spirit is the most noble most high most raised spirit and the spirit that is in Christ is in the Saints their spirits are in conjunction with the spirit of Christ therfore they must needs be of noble high raised spirits that though they be in the flesh their life is in the Spirit their life is in Christ though they have thornes and afflictions in the flesh yet to them they are as none they are not much troubled at them for their spirits live among divine thrones and Crownes The 3. reason of a Saints thus boldly ingaging for God is Though they suffer externally yet there is within a supply of contrary love and smiles Men indeavorto throw scornes and derisions upon the Saints and invent such deriding names that they would make them odious even as the very offscouring of the World and that they may render them as the vilest men upon earth It matters not God visits them with his loves Hee communicates that to their spirits which abundantly makes up their suffering and makes amends a thousand thousand times One comes and he calls you Sectaries another Independents another Scismaticks another Anabaptists another Antinomians another comes and tells you they are this day going to petition the Parliament against all your Independents now what of all this were you but carried above and did you live in God these would be like so many small puffes of wind that would scarse blow away a straw For a man never feares a man when hee knowes himselfe above a man when he knowes himselfe free from him and out of his reach to hurt him All the men in the World cannot hurt a Saint nor all the Divells in Hell a man will never feare his Enemie especially when he knowes he is kild before hee comes neare him Christ hath overcome sin Death Hell the Divell the World and therefore what need the saints feare any of these 2 Cor. 4.17 The afflictions of this life are but light and momentary but there is an exceeding weight of glory to be revealed Will a man regard a small crosse when he has a weight and an exceeding weight of Divine loves of Divine Crownes This is enough to make a man not only to be content to beare afflictions and frownes from the World but also to love the crosse to love the frownes When thou hast a losse in thy Estate in thy name or any way Christ comes with his loves and makes an over abundant supply I doe not say he gives thee the same things but he gives thee that which is a thousand times more worth If thou losest farthings and gainest pounds if thou losest strawes and gainest pearles what losse hast thou Thus Christ doth to a Saint at the very instant of his suffering if he live with in Christ for Christs way is not to send the affliction and let it lie heavie and presse a man downe and then he afterwards lets men reason themselves into content for a Saints content as a Saints is not from reason but from a present injoyment of Christ which is communicated at that very instant immediatly from the very bosome and heart of Christ Intercourses of loves runnes out from Christ which alone is their satisfaction without reasons helpe The fourth Reason why the Saints are so bold in declaring and ingaging for God is because in all their sufferings they ingage not at their own cost and charges they live not by their own life they live not by their owne strength but they ingage at Christs charges they live by Christs life they spend upon his strength Ti 's a Phrase wee have often up especially in the Country they may spend freely that spend upon other mens Purses So the Saints they goe on in their way and walke like Saints because they live not by and of themselves their life and their strength and their comforts are all Christs they spend upon his Stock This makes them so free and so bold spend while they will they have a vast Treasure never to bee exhausted Still Christ supplyes them with new strength and new life Let men goe on to revile and abuse the Saints and study names of Factions and Independents and the like to make them odious No matter Christ assists them Christ hath names full of Love and sweetnesse for them And if they should proceed to persecution as they may and imprisonment no matter There comes a new suppy from Christ answerable to their sufferings But the Saints being weake and not knowing this they many times needleslly trouble themselves with forethinking what they shall doe if Suffering and Afflictions and Troubles increase And the reason is because they apply and compare Future Troubles to present strength But those that live in Christ and with Christ they know they cannot ingage upon any new affliction But there is a new supply of Strength and Courage and life from Christ and therefore they reason thus If Bonds Reproaches and imprisonment or Death it selfe doe attend mee There is Fresh Joy New Life and more Srength attends The more opposers the more Strength the more Joy the more Glory the more Loves the more Imbraces The more overcomings of Loves And therefore this is that which makes them Bold in Declaring for God Who more bold for God in declaring truth then the Apostles in Acts the fourth though they knew troubles and persecution attended them Acts 4.10 and bonds in every place be it knowne
what can that man feare that is thus transacted transplanted united to God drawne up into God in whom all selfe and flesh and carnall ends 2 Cor. 12.9 is perished dead and buried and he made a new man in Christ rissen in and with Christ Here is the man is here spoken of Here is the boldnesse of a Saint No marvell all the world nor all the fluctuation of and in the world cannot disturbe this mans Spirit for he is above all aloft he is in the bosome of Christ Oh dearest friends this life is a hidden thing and you that injoy it know it and none else I know your experiences of this life farre exceed what ever my tongue can expresse when men have imprisoned you and thinke they have overcome you then are you most at liberty When they have brought you to poverty then have they most in richt you when ye die ye live when you have all things then have you nothing 2 Cor. 6.10 when you have nothing then have you all things Phil. 3.8 you are so taken up with Christ that all below Christ is as drosse and dung Gal. 6.14 and you say with Paul God forbid that I should rejoyce in any thing save in the Crosse of Christ by whom the world is crucified unto mee and I unto the world While you are with Christ what can hurt you all the troubles in the world sease no more on you then water on a Ducks back While the world is reviling you are singing while the world is imprisoning you are imbracing While the world is hating and persecuting you are loving While the world is casting you off for sects and scismaticks you are in your injoyings While the world smites Christ is kissing such a mysterious hidden secret is the life of a saint that it befooles all the world When the world thinks they deserve their hatred they love and pittye them while you think they look upon you they looke above you their eye is not upō their opposers but what they injoy from Christ they are of more noble higher spirits then to fasten their eyes so low as upon their opposers I professe when God brought mee of from one condition of boldnesse to another but especially when hee fetcht mee off from legall and pharisaicall boldnesse in so much that I saw that all boldnesse which had its rise and birth in self from self and to self it must bee confounded and I came to see that all true boldnesse must run out from the very heart and loves of Christ it must bee from a spirit fild with such royall noble divine bloud as none but the sonnes of God pertake of and then I saw the world was of a bloud so low and base that it cannot bee sensible what this life is The second thing we would come to shew is wherein this boldnesse dothcōsist A soule thus made one with God made righteous by God in the injoyment of God and by the righteousnesse of God revealed in us he is bold in these three regards First He is bold with God Secondly He is bold in declaring for God Thirdly He is bold in undergoing any thing laid upon him by God First He is bold with God he is free and familiar with God There is such intimate communion between Christ and him that he can freely and with a sonlike spirit and affection ask any thing of God his enjoyments embolden him For he sees God so unbosome himself to him that his very heart is not too much for him Hee asks not as a servant with slavish fear but as a sonne as seeing all his inheritance is in God He knowes what ever is in God in Christ is as freely his as they are Christs he hath as true right to them as Christ Hee layes claime to all the beawties and glories of Christ to all the riches life and treasures in Christ as his owne proper portion He does not aske with a daunted fearfull spirit he approaches into his very Bosome to his very Heart and what ever is there hee knows is his owne to aske and injoy and this he does freely fully he layes claime to all Divine loves And by this injoyment he makes returnes of loves all the loves his heart can hold shall all run out to God againe by this very imbracement he comes to act in God and God in him And I pray you observe this and think of it when you do not see mee The very injoyment of God carries over your spirits all you are to God to give up your selves to him you will not stand upon such needlesse questions Whether saints are bount to duty they by that very act of injoying God make themselves over to God to be acted and ruled by God their owne will ceases and Gods will is become one with theirs and theirs with his you cannot chuse but love act for God for you are with God in God Friends I hope some of your spirits doe eccho to these truthes and finde them true by your injoyments in some degree Doe not thinke that this is the life you must look for only hereafter when you are come to Heaven after this life I tell you this life is now and I verily beleeve the time is coming that saints shall come to see this life made good to them and in them more and more Object But it may be some will say you speak of a very high life is it possible that such poore Creatures such poore Wormes as we are should be so imbraced by the Eternall God How comes this to passe Answer Answ In three regards the Saints have experience of these things First In regard they know they have a propriety in him Secondly In regard they have knowledge in experience of recourse to him Thirdly of a constant familiarity with him First They have a knowledge of propriety in him they know that God hath made himselfe their Father and they his sons this makes them bold who can be more bold with a Father then his sonnes Though Abraham be ignorant of us yet thou art our Father Isal 63.16 behold we come unto thee for thou art the Lord our God They know God does not cast them off because of their sins this does not make them no sons but they look upon God as an infinite gracious loving Father They have experience that coming to their Father is a meanes to purifie their hearts and if they stand off till they have clensed thēselves this has been a means to throw them more into sin and though they have sinned yet they throw themselves into his armes they have experience that he dos not upbraid them for coming to him in asking themselves how durst they aproach to him being so defild with sin But they finde that bringing their hearts to him is the only way to cleanse themselves they finde such loves in the bosome of the Father such bowels to pardon such embracements that they know no
Saints that see not their priviledges by Christ they are ready to say how can this be that the Spouse of Christ is so beutifull so fruitfull they see it otherwise they can see no beuty in them they bring forth but little weake and poore fruit here is some of this way and some of that fellowship some of this Judgement and some of that some are in a Church way and some are not some are Congregated and some are uncongregated I but for all that though among themselves they be divers yet in Christ they are but one You 't is true make a difference but that should not be This is but the folly and weaknesse of men but see and looke upon them as they are in Christ and you shall see they are one to him as they are in him and live with him and in him they are fruitfull though not as they are in themselves The points that I apprehend these words hold forth are these 1 Doct. That Christs Church is Christs Dove 2 D. Christs Church is Christs undefiled Dove 3 Doct. That Christs Church or Christs Dove is not divided but is one and united Now for the first of these if you aske why Christs Church is called Christs Dove I conceive for present 't is in two regards first in regard of their Priviledges how much they are tendred by him and secondly in regard they are made glorious and amiable by him 1. Considering how precious they are to him what affections he hath let out to them the dearest loves and the very heart of Christ runnes out to them singly solely nothing that is in the very bowells and heart of Christ is too good too deare for them there 's nothing in Christ but is there laid up kept and preserved for a Saints treasure all the choice loves of God the choicest life of God is treasured up in Christ for his Saints and when once they have forsaken themselves then to be enjoyed by them and delighted in for ever he thinkes nothing too good for his Spouse he hath not only filled himselfe for them but emptyed himselfe for them poured out his own bloud his owne life his owne glory to save them to inrich them Christ shewes how precious they are to him first in regard of the place where he layes a saint that is in his very bosome in his very heart not only in his common providence but in his very heart he never leaves a saint till he bring it from step to step by degrees into himselfe that the soule is so lapt up in him that he hath made it one with himselfe And that soule that is acquainted with this life knowes this and none else others know not what it means I was sayes he a slave under the Law and it tyrannized over me many a hard lesson and many a hard task I had set me and many a bitter stripe and hee in bowells of loves came and freed me he redeemed me from that tyrannie I was under the killing letter which threatned nothing but death and hell and now I have found his loves in setting me at liberty and now I can read his loves in every line in all his proceedings and these are I say such loves that none can prize but those that have them read seene and felt them in them This is a Saints portion peculiarly to live with Christ to live of Christ to live in him 'T is the worlds portion to live under life and not injoy life but a saint lives in life life and he are one they are brought by Christ into the very overflowings of loves they live in the very streams of loves compassed about with loves Christ comes to them continually sups with them wraps them up in admiration of himselfe and fills them with divine loves Secondly Christ declares how precious saints are to him by taking all advantages to do them good by sin by sorrowes by sufferings by afflictions by life by death every way none of all these but Christ makes them advantages and helps to them When they wrastle with sin it would be too hard for a saint if Christ did not help them and sin would get the advantage over them should Christ but leave us in a temptation we were undone but Christ comes with a conquering unresistable power rescues us from sin and brings us over to the loves of himselfe So also in affliction the saints they moyle and toyle and are even worne out in it that they know not what to do that they are ready to give out and lay downe all then Christ he comes in and supports and puts under his hand to stay the soule from sinking when our own strength is done then Christ comes in nay we many times wrastle our selves into great straits Christ comes now and releases us that when we lose our selves he gaines us and wrastles us into his owne loves and glory he ravishes us with his loves and then also is he ravished with our loves as you see in this chapter Secondly they are made glorious by him and with him as David saith Ps 68.13 They are like the wings of a Dove covered with silver and her feathers like yellow gold 't is a metaphor you must conceive taken from very pleasant and glorious coloured Doves to set out how Christ beautifies and makes his saint glorious and amiable The very same glory that is on Christ is on a saint Christ and a saint have not two different lives two different glories but both one and the same sayes the Apostle 1 Ioh 4.17 As he is so are wee in this world Brethren the life of a saint is a misterie Christ and they live in the injoyments each of other the life of a saint is internall Surely friends let me tell you 't is not knowne by partaking of fellowships and ordinances although wee ought to partake of them and hold them forth to the world but the beauty of the life of Christs consists in the injoyment of Christs loves so that the soule is therein centred and satisfied as it is expressed 17. Ioh. 17.23 Ioh. Thou in me and I in them and they in me that they may be made perfect in one All saints they are beloved with the same loves that the Father loves the Sonne the same riches the same life the same love the same glory is bestowed on them Eph. 11.3 We are now in this life set in heavenly places in Christ many thinke they shall have this life hereafter when they shall come to heaven but those that live this life they are in heaven here and sit now in heavenly places and herein is the great mistake among Professours they do not live in and with Christ here they use ordinances and hold forth a profession and here rest but for this heavenly life this intimate uniting life they looke not after it they expect it not they know it not they live it not Oh brethren did you but
love for Christs love to them causes their love to returne to him and they love Christ also in the Saints these loves are the saints feast they live by Christs kissing and embracing them and by their kissing and embracing Christ and also in kissing and embracing one anothers spirits by communicating to each other their experiences and enjoyments of Christ there 's no greater joy nor higher act in them then to act love these are the dainties they feast on then are they transcendent in their spirits and then are they most full of Christ Secondly Doves are made fruitfull by loving so are the saints when thrive they more then when they have the sweetest communion and are most open to one another to each others injoyments and so kisse and embrace each others spirits No sooner hath a saint kist the heart of Christ but it is made fruitfull by that very kisse by that embracement and by that enjoyment The very enjoyment of Christ makes them fruitfull And they cannot be otherwise They being once come to this to enjoy Christ they cannot be unfruitfull Here is a saint then his very love his very nature provokes to fruitfulnesse if he be not fruitfull what ever he may be taken for as a great Christian because a great professor hee never yet enjoyed Christ never yet knew what the loves the overcomming transcendent loves of Christ were Fruitfulnesse is made over to the soule at that very instant it is like the opening of the pores of the body then the bloud interchanges and have free course and mingles it selfe through the whole body this love of Christ I tell you friends it opens the pores of the soule love and fruitfulnesse runs from Christ into the saints interchangeably as Christs heart is open to you so is yours to him there is a secret convayance to each other in the acts of loves And thirdly they die without it saints as saints except they love they die I pray observe saints as saints cannot die but their life dies their joy dies they live uncomfortably and as dying as if they had no life I speak now in regard of actings a saint when he acts not love he dies he may have ordinances and use externall intercourses to Christ and with the saints and yet he as good as dead no more life in act and comfort then the men of the world if the warm heart-bloud of Christ doe not run and have free course into his soule the saint acts not as a saint but yet he may act in religion worship but t is but to him selfe to his own credit and honour and esteeme among men or for some other selfe-end and yet have no life as a saint The new man and Christ is as dead and acts not and therefore it is sometime a saint has overflowings of spirit mightily inlarged his spirit has no bounds another time he is bound up straitned the pores of his soule are lockt up he hath no intercourse of loves from Christ and therefore has no breathings no declarations of Christs loves to him no experiences he is wrapt up in himselfe and to himselfe and therefore this makes him the soule being as sensible of this as of death for 't is a death to him this makes him to goe to Christ and complaine heavily oh how he grones in spirit till he be revived till his spirit till his loves come into him againe and cause him to act and live Oh! sayes he let my Christ come into me or I die I cannot live 't is true sayes he here is ordinances and here is a fellowship externally but what 's all this if my soule be frozen if my heart be bound up if I live within my selfe if I have not intercourses and returnes of loves from my beloved I die I die Now beloved would you have me make some use of this point from the particulars thereof I hope you have done that your selves as I went along but I will a little make out some uses I cannot be large because of the time and my owne weaknesse and I would make it out to you of what I have found in my own experience though I must confesse it is but lately and no great light neither there are depths there are glorious transcendent truths in these experiences but oh how dark at how small a crevice doe wee see How short doe we come I tell you though I have many times spoken of these things yet how coldly no ravishings no inlargings no overcommings of spirit how bound up truth is I had the Theorie in my understanding and I thought I had practised them because I knew them but 't is but new 't is but small the experience of them but God wil reveale and lead on his saints from step to step that they shall go from strength to strength digging up fountaines till they appeare before the Lord in Zion Professors talke much of heaven but I professe they never were in heaven nay never will be if they come not to this life you hope it may bee this life will bee hereafter But I tell you your heaven is here as well as hereafter in a degree be not deceived to pers wade your selves you are saints and you are Christians and have not this life we have described so farre you are in your sins you are yet below Christ you are yet in your selves you are not come up to the life of a Christian to the life of a Saint Vses from the particulars first are the saints so happy in their priviled ges that they are Christs Doves and so precious to him is it the priviledge and portion of the saints to be so precious to Christ then take this as the first consectory this will follow if it be so Then they will not long to be precious to the world you will not bee troubled though the world though men though friends though enemies regard you not so you be precious to Christ this is enough for you what though such a friend speake evill of you what thongh such a Professor loves you not and there another professour suspects you and you are troubled VVhy saints where is your life in the world or in Christ if in the world no marvell you are troubled no marvell you are offended if your life bee in Christ you will say what matter so Christ thinkes preciously of you if you have the sweet and mutuall embraces of Christ and your spirits run into each other and kisse and embrace each other here would be your rest Secondly observe from the next particulars is nothing in the heart of Christ too good for saints does Christ embrace salute kisse ravish the saints in his transcendent loves Does he endow them with the same glory he himselfe hath with the Father for I must put things together strength will not hold out to take them all severally as the things deserve Have any of you felt these things in your owne experience I do
wonder what means that rough and rugged carriage in those that say they live with Christ and in Christ and injoy Christ yet their life is much in seeking to defame others and to set up themselves This is not to live as saints this is farre from the carriage of saints this is not to live in loves to grow fruitfull by loveing the carriage of a saint is you have heard to seeke anothers good as their owne These then live not in Christ but they live in the world Christ and they live in two contrary Regions these declare they yet live in the Creature in selfe in flesh these seek for honour of men and not of Christ so they may but set up themselves it matters not what becomes of their brethren As those that love Honour or Riches or what else in the World so they can but get them for themselves they care not how many suffer for it so they have it are these beloved brethren such as live as Christ lives those that revile because they are reviled nay revile when not reviled how farre is this below the practice of saints such men proclaime and hold it forth they are no saints in practice what ever they would have the World or Gods people thinke of them The saints you see they undervalue all mans reviling it is to farre below them to revile againe to returne evill for evill you see they are passive in suffering but active in loving the other are proud selfe-seeking selfe boasting and they yet live in the flesh and are not come to live in and with Jesus Christ Againe observe from the second thing that the saints grow fruitfull by loveing and delight in loving then they are not constrained by the law to duty but they love it of themselves it is no forced thing in them they do not task and force them selves to obey Christ but it is their nature and they work freely their lives are in loving and in loving they have their life Till men come to live this life these things to all men else are a hidden mistery and if a mistery no marvell then men so much mistake in setting out this life and what a Christian is for no man knows it nor hits it right but he that lives it for all else live and grope in the darke and few attaine to it Some men say this is the Christian and some that is the Christian and it may be mistaken in both for they make Christians according to their owne fancy if he do but jump with them in opinion this is enough to hold him up a Christian oh he must needs be the godly man and and yet see not that rule the word holds forth in the life marrow mistery of it but beloved it will be so every man judges by what light he has if his light be false or dark so needs must his judgement be Yet in my experience I see but as it were a dram of that weight of glory that is to be revealed upon the soons of truth And I wil tel you what my thoughts are I am perswaded ere long God will pick out himselfe a choise people now here is some what to do about Churches and selected Congregations but you will see if I mistake not ere long Congregations pickt out of Congregations of Men that have experience of this life of living with God And the ordinances shall be yet more and more purified and yet they not rest in ordinances but shall haue the marrow of ordinances I say the time will come that there will be a people who kisse and embrace one another in spirit and shall live in loving and in joying one another farre more then ever yet our eyes have seene Wee should now have further proceeded to the next points namely these from the words My Dove my undefiled is one Doct. 2. That Christs Dove is not a defiled but an undefiled company Thirdly that Christs undefiled Dove is but one though they be scattered and divided here to men yet to Christ they are but one where wee should have shewed the folly of many in these dayes that they ty their loves only to that congregated body of which they are in fellowship with and if they differ in judgement from them they have no love to them neither doe they account them of the number of Christs one undefiled Dove this is grosse ignorance and proceeds from weaknesse pride and folly and is indeed meere Antichrist and the fopperies of men congregated or uncongregated so they bee Christs Doves we ought to love them But my strength faileth me and so I commit you and what hath been delivered to the blessing of God PHIL. 4.11 I have learned in what ever estate I am therewith to be content THe first point from these words is this Doct. That contentation is a Saints lesson first let us see what a Saints contentation is Secondly the benefits that flow from a Saints contentation First what a Saints contentation is it is this to bee content with God and in God in all conditions herein is only a true rest if it be in any thing else but God it is no true rest If honour or pleasure or profit or credit or applause or riches or any thing besides God doth give thee rest thy rest and content is in the creature and not in God for then as these things ebbe and flow so doth thy content But hee whose content is in God his content is as God ebbes and flowes to him so that if he have God and enjoy him hee cares not how the creature comes or goes If hee have riches and not God in them he hath no true rest And on the contrary if he have poverty disgrace bannishment or imprisonment and enjoy God hee hath his rest still Because his content is not in and with the creature but it is in and with God Gods will is his rest Hee that lives in the will of God hee sees Gods will is best for him and his will is so swallowed up in the will of God and made one with it that hee hath no peace but in this And this life hee hath and enjoyes not by reasoning himselfe into this condition as for a man to say thus this is Gods will and I must be content it is but a folly to resist his will it must bee so and I cannot helpe it therefore I were better be content then to fight and strive against it for I cannot remove it till God please Now this is not the content of Saints but that which reason dictates to a man which a man without grace may reach and in this content most are satisfied and take it to bee a Saints submission and contentation when it is not But a Saints rest content and satisfaction is not from reason but from a sweet enjoyment of God in every condition so that in every condition hee findes God so sweet so ravishing that hee concludes these