his Glory in Heaven Now there is no Solitude in the Unity which maketh Paradise a Wilderness the Unity is the true Paradise within itself springing up into variety then marrying itself to it and so flourishing from this Union with all manner of Beautiful and pleasant Fruits By this Birth and Distinction in the Unity Adam and Eve are capable of enjoying themselves each in other and of multiplying themselves Thirdly Eve is brought to Adam again and these two are made one Flesh. This is the making of two one again which were first made two of one This Unity in the Distinction and Distinction in the Unity is that Marriage in Paradise which is the Type of that Incomprehensible Marriage above all Heavens which is the Third Person in the Trinity In him the Father and the Son spend Eternity in mutual Embraces and multiply themselves into an Infiniteness of Blessed Lives Blessed Loves You that are Married Persons see your selves in this double Glass of Paradise and the Trinity By these Glasses dress your selves in your Loveliness and Loves one for another St. Paul saith that Marriage is Honourable among all or in all things A Type hath a double Honour the Figure which is Shadowy the Truth which is a substantial Glory Husbands and Wives preserve the Honour of your state at least in the shadowy part Bear the Figure of the Ever-glorious Trinity whose Type you are by a mortal Beauty Truth Purity Sweetness which are the Gold and precious Mettal in the Ring of this Love-union This will make Marriage an Earthly Paradise But rest not in this You will find a Serpent here that will quickly poyson all your Sweets and change your Flowers into Thorns if you pass not thorow the Earthly into the Heavenly Paradise Then you wear the Marriage-Crown in Truth when that Spirit which is the Band of Love between the Father and the Son is the Eternal Band of Divine Love between you also when you also make your Marriage-Bed in the Bosom of the Holy Ghost What Joys what an Immortal Off-spring is born of those Lovers where the Love-fellowship of these below and the sacred Love-fellowship of the Blessed Trinity above descend and ascend one into another where they mingle themselves Universally 3. Love-Union in the Soul Joh. 3. 6. That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit The Divine Being Life and Form of the Soul in which it is a Spirit lie first wrapt up in the Unity of the Eternal Spirit its Heavenly Mother above The Eternal Spirit out of this Love-Center and within the Love-Circle of its own Unity by the New-birth in the Soul bringeth forth at once a Daughter-Spirit a Sister and Spouse to itself This Divine Spirit like the Paradisical Eve so soon as it is born of its Heavenly Adam is brought to him again and they Two are made one Spirit 1 Cor. 6. 17. As a New-born Babe so soon as it is sprung out of the Womb seeketh the Breast of the Mother that it may suck forth a continued stream of Life from the Fountain of its Life so is it in the Spiritual Birth So soon as the New-born Spirit ariseth up out of this Unity which is the Womb of the God-Head it is immediately received into the Arms of this Unity it desireth after it hunteth for it returneth to it fastneth upon this Unity which is the Breast of the God-Head By this it draweth in the sincere and pure Milk of the living Word it taketh in by plentiful streams the Light Life Glory Substance of the Divine Nature to grow by them O you who indeed 〈◊〉 born of this Unity lie continually in the Bosom of it hang continually upon this Breast But thus as in the Eternal Generation in Heaven as in the Creation in Paradise as in the Regeneration which is the opening of Paradise and Heaven both a second time in the Soul all are Love-Births Love-Unions The Unity distinguisheth itself within itself into another self which is yet still the same that there may be a variety in the Unity without the breach of the Unity The Virgin above bringeth forth a Son which is also her Lord and continueth a Virgin still The Beautiful variety which is the Effulgeâ—cy of the Unity rejoyneth itself again to it and still remaineth a variety in its distinction from it Thus the Love-Marriage is every where solemnized and every where maketh a Paradise and a Heaven above and below This is the first Description of Divine Love a Divine Union where one Glorious Spirit is made two and these two make themselves one again Use. Learn from the Beauty and Sweetness of Divine Love the Evil of this Worlds Love by their contrariety to it Ye Adulterers and Adulteresses Know ye not that the Friendship of this World is Enmity to the Father Who therefore is this World's Friend is an Enemy to God James 4. 4. See the Evil of this World's Love in 3. Steps 1. Step By loving this World you separate yourselves from the Love of God You estrange your selves from all true Joy Peace and Rest. For these are the Attendants and Companions of Divine Love Cant. 3. 7 8. You read of Solomon's Bed which hath fourscore valiant menos the valiant men of Israel round about it with their swords girt upon their thigh for the fear of the night How great how Divine is the Sweetness the Safety the Security of Spiritual Love He that abideth in this Love enjoyeth an Uninterrupted Rest and untroubled pleasures in a Night of the greatest Darkness Dangers Tumults and Storms He hath ever round about Him a Troop of Holy Angels for his Guard armed with the Glorious Power of the Spirit This is the Sword upon their Thigh In the midst of these he lyeth upon a Royal Marriage-bed Here he is encircled with the Spiritual Embraces of King Solomon the Lord Jesus in Glory the King of all Peace Perfections and Pleasures This is the Love of God that Love by which God and the Soul live and dwell together in One Spirit You now who prefer the blackness of darkness before the Beauty of Christs Face restless cares endless fears continual dangers and deaths before the Rest and Joys of Christ's bosom love this world and let the love of Jesus Christ go 2. Step. By the Love of this World you make your selves Adulterers with a Witch and a Common Whore Poor Soul thou forsakest the Arms of thine own Love thy Loving Roe and pleasant Hind the Wife of thy Youth of Eternal Youth the Heavenly Image in the Person of the Lord Jesus Thou givest thy self up to the Embraces of the strange Woman the Strumpet this World the Fleshly Image of Things The Love of your Saviour is all Truth Purity Peace Immortality The Love of this World beginneth in Deceit hath its Power in Enchantments its Effect Pollutions its End Destruction She giveth thee Drink indeed in a Golden Cup. But she maketh thee to drink in first a Wine of Sorceries
Darkness must be the Ground Division the Work upon it There are then two Powers as two Parts in this Image 1. Power of Darkness 2. Power of Division 1. Power of Darkness This is the Form and Division the Figure of this Black Spirit Darkness is made his Character The Power of Darkness his Princely Title Colos. 1. 13. Who hath delivered us out of the Power of Darkness into the Kingdom of his Dear Son It is read thus in Greek out of the Principality of Darkness into the Kingdom of the Son of his Love The Devil as the Prince of Darkness which implies Division is opposed to Iesus Christ the King of Love which is unity and lives only in Light Again Ephes. 6. 12. We fight against the Rulers of the Darkness of this World You may thus translate it more to the words against the World-comprehending Powers of the Darkness of this State As God is One and Many by a grateful Distinction in the Unity so is the Devil One and Many by a grating Division without Unity many Powers of Darkness in one Power The Devil in this Darkness lies as a Stain upon the Beauties of the whole Creation defacing the Image dimming the Glory of God in them He lies as a Cloud upon all the Contents of the Creature spreading a melancholy Shade over them infusing a Poyson of Fears Falshoods Deceits Mistakes Dangers Death into them He is a Prison and a Chain Shutting up holding down the Spirits of men when they would break forth and raise themselves into that Light of Divinity which faintly glimmers in this Darkness Such is the First Part of the Image the Power of Darkness 2. Power of Division The Name Devil comes from the Greek Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies most properly one that casts in Principles or Seeds of Division So he is described by our Saviour in the Parable The Envicus man the Enemy hath sown Tares Our Lord with a Divine depth defines this Spirit in those words A Kingdom divided against it self cannot stand Whatever stands must be founded upon a Unity The Devil is a divided Kingdom a Duality a Ruinous Thing This Power of Division divides itself into a Seven-fold Power which is known by these Names 1. self-Self-love 2. Lust. 3. Covetousness 4. Pride 5. Envy 6. Passion 7. Enmity or Despair 1. Power self-Self-love 1 John 4. 8. God is Love Love in the Abstract Love Absolute Unlimited Infinite a Universal Sweetness The Devil is self-Self-love a particular Being cutting off itself from the rest of things from Him who is the Great I am in whom all things have their Being These are the Circlings of the Serpent by which he folds and wraps up himself in himself This Serpent before he spake to the Woman tempted himself with this glittering language Es. 14. 14. I will be like the most High The first word in this aspiring speech is that which first made him a Devil of an Angel I The establishing of a Proper Interest divided from the general Interest of things in the God-head This Self-love is the Horned head into which he then sprouted forth the Cloven Foot in which he ended when he first with-drew himself from the all-comprehending Unity into a Circle and Center of his own 2. Power Lust. This is a praegnancy to multiply himself to bring forth himself in strange and diverse forms upon strange and diverse Images God is One Gal. 3. 20. God brings forth himself in One Image Jesus Christ is his Only-begotten Son Joh. 1. 14. God brings forth all things by this One Image and in it Coloss. 1. 16. In him were all things Created The Devil is contrary to God in all this He is that Son of God which broken and deform'd by his Fall from the First Unity goes full of monstrous Lust after the Daughters of Men dark divided fleshly Images of the Creature With these he mingles himself so he brings forth himself and them into Gyantly shapes and in a Brood of Gyants Gyants in Hebrew signifie Dead Distracted Prodigious Forms as appearing from the shades below or faln and sunk thither Our Saviour calls this Spirit of Lust Joh. 8. 45. The Father of Lyes because he begets himself upon all things in base spurious and various Shapes Solomon represents the Image of the Devil in Flesh and this World by a Whorish Woman because she lusts after and wanders thorow all the diversity of divided Forms in the Devil 3. Power Covetousness Pro. 30. 16. There are two things that never say enough the Grave and the Barren Womb. This Invisible Power is a Womb of Darkness which takes in all things but brings forth nothing So the Darkness is never enlightned but ever increas'd made deeper and more devouring This Spirit is the Invisible Grave which draws all things into it But then it crumbles them into Dust it divides them from themselves So the Principle of Division is sharpned not satisfied fretted to a greater wideness not fill'd This is the Serpent feeding upon Dust ever encompassing the Earth This is the Bottomless Pit 4. Power Pride The Devil under this property is call'd Is. 14. 12. Lucifer the Son of the Morning He saith v. 13. I will exalt my Throne above the Stars of God His ambition is to shine alone and as he riseth to put out all other Lights by the Malignity of his appearance He goes on v. 13. I will sit upon the Mount of the Congregation in the sides of the North. The appearance of our Lord Jesus in the double flame of Terror and Triumph Consuming and Crowning is from the North Ezek 1. 4. The Mount of the Congregation is Mount Sion where the General Assembly and Church or Congregagation of the First-born are Hebr 12. 22 23. This is the Mount lifted up above every Mountain The Spirit exalted above every Spirit The Devil would seat himself upon this Mount in the place of Jesus Christ to be as he is the Onely One. Yet he would have it with this difference to be the top of the Mount while the great Congregation sit as the Clouds under his Feet to be a consuming Fire to all others a Crowning Glory only to himself God is the Heavenly Hierusalem where all things are Fellow-citizens The Devil is that Babel which saith I sit alone as a Queen Revel 18. She thinks her self never Great till she have swallowed up all her Companions never Great enough till she be Great alone This is the difference between Pride and Plenty 5. Power Envy This Power is a Reflection of Darkness and Division upon it self from the Sense of Beauty and Unity else-where It is Mystically describ'd Revel 20. 1. An Angel came down from Heaven with a Chain in one hand a Key in the other v. 2. He took hold of the Dragon the old Serpent and bound him up in the Bottomless Pit Divine Wisdom is that Chain which reacheth from the Top of Heaven to the Center of the Earth where at
and Power of Immortal Life in them 5. Rule Let your Mourning be in God In him saith St. Paul of God we live and move and have our Being Acts 17. 28. It is true Naturally of all men It is much more true of Saints in a Spiritual sense We live the life of Grace we Mourn we have our Spiritual Being and Motions in God A Natural and Spiritual Man have their Being in God after a different manner A Natural Man hath his Being in God as he is the Principle of the First Creation in which he is as in Thick Darkness A Spiritual Man hath his Being in God as God is in Christ who is the Brightness of the Glory of God Abide in me saith Christ that is in the Brightness of the Glory of God and ye shall bring forth much Fruit John 15. 4. 5. If you will bring forth your Tears as Fruit to God you must weep in the midst of the Glory and Joys of the Divine Nature God in his Naked Beauties must be the Stage on which you must act the saddest part of your Sorrows What Part will not such a Stage and Scene of Delights make Pleasant If thou mournest right thou art in God while thou mournest thou seest nothing below above on every side of thee but the Gold and Curious Work of his Glory Will not this Guild thy Grief and put a chearfulness upon it PSAL. XLV VER 1. My Heart is enditing a good matter I speak of the things which I have made touching the King my Tongue is the Pen of a ready Writer THis Psalm is believed to be composed upon the same occasion with the Canticles The Marriage between Solomon and the Daughter of Pharaoh which is made by the Holy Ghost a Type of the Mystical Espousals between the Lord Jesus and a Holy Soul The Eternal Spirit delights to play with itself casting from its Heavenly person the shaded Light of this Creation then filling every part of it even the darkest with figures of its own Sweetnesses and Beauties Strange Wives were charged upon Solomon as a Mother-Sin big with many hateful Birthâ— Yet this cloudy piece of Providence is a Vail curiously wrought with the Divine Images of Christ on the Throne his Queen all in beaten Gold at his Right Hand with their pure immortal Lovelinesses Loves and mutual Joyes under which Vail lies hid the Living Face itself of all these Glories Prov. 25. 2. It is the Glory of God to conceal a thing but the Glory of Kings to search out a matter It runs thus in the Original It is the Glory of God to conceal the Word but the Glory of Kings to search out the Word It is a height of Glory beyond the Compass of every created Understanding the hiding of the eternal Word which is brighter infinitely than ten thousand Suns all joined into One under a vail slighter and thinner than the most empty shadow to form the Picture of this Glorious Word upon every part of the shadow and then again to vail that also with the Darkness of the Shade But this is the Glory of Jesus Christ to bring down these Mysterious heights and make them familiar to the Eye of the Creature It is an Eye of Glory in the Saints those Fellow-Kings to Jesus Christ by which they discover the Picture in the shade the ravishing depths of the Life itself in the Picture and make it their Royal Entertainment to converse continually with the Beauties and Sweetnesses of the Divine nature in them both invisible to common senses This Psalm is entituled A Song of Loves The sweetest Matter exprest in the sweetest Manner Both are a Divine Harmony The Loves here are a Harmony of the most Heavenly and most Spiritual Hearts The Song the Harmony of the most Heavenly and most Spiritual Voices The Loves figure out the Father the pure unfathomed unconfined Spring of Unity and Sweetness where all things lie embracing each other in their first and softest Bed The Song represents the shining Word the harmonious Wisdom the Essential Musick Beauty and Image of the Godhead the Son in whom all the Riches of Love are with an equal Richness and Loveliness displaid The Song of Loves these Loves thus sung this Marriage of Love and Loveliness paint out to us the Joyes and Glories of the Thrid Person the Holy Ghost But by whom was this Song sung Some read The Song of the beloved Virgins These are the friends of the Bridegroom and the Bride which sing the Epithalamium or Marriage-Song In the Canticles they are called The Daughters of Jerusalem which some Interpreters understand to be the Holy Angels Angelical Spirits are expressed by the name of Virgins very fitly 1. For the preservation of their native sweetness their primitive beauty the flower of the Divine Image iâ— them uncorrupt untainted 2. For their single Estate being separate from mixture and union with any sorts of Earthly Bodies below them and not yet raised to a marriage with the Divine Body the Substance and Fulness of the God-Head in Jesus Christ because they are the fairest softest and sweetest Images of all created Things It is the manner of the Hebrew Tongue to express the Beauty and Loveliness of things by the feminine Sex The Woman is the Glory of the Man Christ the Brightness of the Fathers Glory is represented in this Form by the Jerusalem above the Mother of us all In the Proverbs he is figured by a Virgin-Queen in her Pallace his Angels as Maidens attending on this Virgin-Queen and sent forth by her to invite her guests Thus separate and Angelical Spirits those invisible Beauties which are the immediate Copies and Springs of all visible things as also the Mark and White to which the activity and operations of all natural Principles as Arrows are directed be known by the names of Nymphs and Virgins Iâ—hn the Baptist was the Restorer of the Law the proper Ministry of Angels which was ministred by Angels and by which only the Angelical Life and Glories as figures of the Divine were ministred to us He therefore is called by the Holy Ghost An Angel going before the Lord to prepare his way He speaks of himself as a Friend of the Bridegroom rejoicing to hear his voice and making one in the Quire of Angels which sing to the Bridegroom and the Bride while they lie on Beds of Glory in the embraces of each others Love These Angels are those Friends which Jesus Christ calleth upon in his Song of Songs when he comes into his Spouse's Garden Cant. 5. 1. I have drunk my Wine with my Milk Eat O Friends Drink be enebriated with Loves St. Paul expounds this Scripture Eph. 3. 10. That unto the Principalities and Power in Heavenly places might be known by the Church the manifold Wisdom of God The Hearts and the Lips of the Spouse of Christ the Marriage-Union between Christ and a saint in the spiritual and Heavenly Image is the Golden Cup out of
then of Fornications Her End is to have her Flesh burnt with Fire and into the same bed of flames will God cast all those that commit fornication with her 3. Step. By loving this world thou makest thy self an Adulteress with the Devil This World as it stealeth thine Heart from God is a Composure of Lyes The Devil who is the Father of Lyes maketh thy Soul his Strumpet upon which he begetteth these false Forms of things Thou breedest these young Devils upon thy Knee and as thou sportest thy self with them thou suckest in by their Kisses the poyson and fire of Hell into all thy veins The Devil first wooes thee in a Counterfeit shape of false Beauty Glory Power Joys When he hath gained thee he breaketh forth upon thee in his own shape of endless Terror and Horrours There is nothing truer than that the Love of this World is a Spiritual Adultery with the Devil and the Head of all Adulteries of all Defilements There is nothing more sure than that Carnal Adultery in all the degrees of it the Similitude of this most powerfully calleth up into us and upon us the Spirit of this World the Prince of Darkness the Devil with all His Dark Deforming and Destroying Powers O ye sons and Daughters of men who dwell in the midst of the snares and nets of this great painted Adulteress be aware of your danger Abide in your first Principle your Root your first Husband the Eternal Love of the Father in Christ. Abide in your own Habitation the Bosom of your own Bride the Eternal Beauty the Essential and Immortal Image of the God-Head in Christ. These Loves shall be a Fountain of Life to you above to preserve you from the snares of Death below 4. Step. By the Love of this World you turn the Love of God into Wrath and fury If you be the Friends of this World you are the Enemies of God saith St. James Why do you provoke the Love of God Will you contend with Almighty Love Are you greater than that Love is the Right Hand of God's Strength His God-Head lieth in His Love God is Love This Love is strong as Death cruel as the Grave What art thou O Worm to stand before it to bear its rage O choose rather to lye down as a Bride in these everlasting Burnings and Devouring Fires of Love to be cherished changed refined and glorified by their tender and divine Embraces than to set thy self as Bryars and Thorns against them to be consumed by them Thus I have done with the First Description of Divine Love A Union between God and the Soul as the Beloved and His Love in One Spirit of Purity Immortality Joy and Glory 2 Descrip. The Love of God is the Will of God This is a Universal Truth that in every Spirit Love and the Will are One This appeareth in their Nature their Object their Operation 1 The Nature of the Will and Love are One The Will is defined to be the Inclination of the Spirit as it tendeth and bendeth itself to this or that this way or that way Love is stiled The Weight of the Soul As heavy things by their Weight so Souls by their Love are carried to their proper Center 2. The Object of the Will and of Love is the same It is a rule that The Powers and Habits in Spirits are distinguâ—shed by their Objects Every Principle and Faculty is the Object in its Sâ—ed The Object is the Form and Perfection of the Principle The Object of the Will is Goodness Appearing The Object of Love is Loveliness Loveliness and Goodness both consist in Suâ—tableness which hath its Ground in Unity If there be any Difference between Goodness and Loveliness it is this that as the Flower of Light is the Sun-shine and as Jesus Christ is the Efâ—ulgency the Shine of the God-Head the Brightness of the Glory of God so Loveliness or Beauty is Goodness shining â—ut to attract all Hearts to it Thus Loveliness the Object of Love and Goodness Appearing the Object of the Will agree entirely in One. 3. All their Operations are the same The Affections and Passions are the Motions of the Will All these are Love's Summer or Winter Love in the Seed is Desire Love budding and blossoming is Hope Love in the ripe Fruit is Joy Anger Fear Grief and Hatred are Love in its Opposition to its Enemy which is Enmity alone Love flying from or contending with that which standeth in its way to or would rob it of its Beloved Object But this is spoken in General onely concerning the Will and Love In Particular let us see how the Divine Will and the Divine Love appear to be the same in the Holy Scriptures The Will of God is distinguished by Divines into the Revealed and the Secret Will of God One is the Divine Will in Outward Signs onely The Other is the Good-Pleasure of God in His Heart and in Eternity 1. The Revealed Will of God is Love 1. Tim. 2. v. 1. c. In the first v. of this Chapter you have a Divine Rule that All manner of Prayers be made for All Men. This Rule is pressed by a particular Application of it to Kings and all in Authority v. 2. All in Authority what ever their Persons are or their Right v. 3. The Reason of this Rule is laid down For this is Good and Acceptable to God our Saviour This Universal Love wound up to the Highest strain of Spirituality and Divinity in us is a Vein of the Supreme and Divine Good let forth from the Heart of God where the Fountain of Good is and circling thorow our Hearts into his Heart again by Prayer Therefore is it acceptable to God Our Wills are never so in tune to the Divine Will and in consort with it as when the Spiritual motions of our Hearts in the Bosom of the Father are strains of Universal Love The Root of this Reason is discovered v. 4. God will have all Men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the Truth Love is said to consist in this To Will good to any one If this be love to Will good to any Then is it the best and highest love to Will the best and highest good Behold then The revealed Will of God is a Revelation of love to the height God will have all Men to be saved God willeth the highest end which is the best good to the lowest and worst of Men to all Men. That this end may not fail he also willeth the means to the end that all Men should come to the knowledge of the Truth The Ground in which this root of love liveth is the Unity of God and Christ. For there is one God and one Mediatour between God and Man the Man Christ Jesus The highest Unity Is the largest Universality It is in Spirits as in these Heavens which we see the highest are the widest All beneath them lie in their Bosoms The whole nature of things is
with himself sitting together upon one Throne which is a Throne of Grace Throne of love love findeth or maketh an equality I have passed thorow the first part of the Psalm which is the God of love 2. Part. The Wonders of love To him who alone doth great Wonders for his Mercy endureth for ever or his love is Eternal v. 4. All the wonders of God are wonders of love God is in nothing so to be admired as in his love Admiration is imperfect knowledge Those things are wonders to us which are incomprehensible the causes and natures of which we cannot search out or reach to What Joy is this to understand that all that which we cannot understand in the nature of things which is as a thick darkness round about us is a glorious mystery of Divine love That all that every where of every Creature of every Providence of the Creator himself in which our Spirits are swallowed up and lost is an abyss of love a great and shining deep of Divine love He who thinketh he knoweth any thing saith St. Paul knoweth nothing as he ought to know How wise how right how pleasant is this to know that we have a perfect a right knowledge of nothing that all things may become wonders of love to us that the less we see the more we may feel of a Divine pleasure in the admirations and raptures of Divine love transcending our highest faculties that where we cannot comprehend things we may give up our selves to be comprehended by an incomprehensible love The Body of the Sun cannot be seen but dazâ—eth and darkneth our sight when we fix our Eyes upon it The Stars are said to be vast Bodies of Light and Glory Yet we see nothing of them but little twinklings and sparks The reason in one is the excess of Light in the other the excess of Height Believe it all things round about us are Stars and Suns of Divine love love in Divine Forms of a transcendent magnitude and lustre But we see them generally in a dusky and shadowy Appearance like the Sky at a great distance or at best as little sparks and twinklings of love Our sight faileth by reason of the greatness of the Glory and its height above us I come now from the second to the third part of the Psalm 3. Part. The works of love All the works of God are works of love The works of God and of love are of three sorts works of Nature works of Grace works of Glory 1. Works of Nature These are summed up in the Principal and Universal parts which comprehend all the rest v. 5. 6 7 8 9. The Heaven the Earth the Day the Night the Sun the Moon the Stars are mentioned To every one of these distinctly is annexed that close and Crown of love for His Mercy endureth for ever or his love is Eternal The whole frame of things is a Creation of love All the Creatures are so many Forms and Shapes which love putteth on to appear to us in to converse to sport itself with us If it take to itself the Glory of a King in the discovery of itself by the light of the day it taketh to itself a greater Glory and affordeth a greater pleasure by surmounting all our Powers and being incomprehensible when it hideth itself in the darkness of the Night Love is the Center of the Earth beneath on which the whole Creation resteth and moveth Love is the Circle of Heaven above which encompasseth all It is Divine love which rideth upon the Circuit of the Heavens of all the Heavenly Spirits and Heavenly Bodies ruling all things by its blessed and sweet influences from thence It is Divine love which soweth itself as a Seed in every dust of the Earth to spring up from thence into a Divine Form and Fruit. The Sun is a Figure of Eternal love shining forth with its naked Beauties in their full Glory In the Moon we see love shadowed and coming forth with its Night-dress to rule and enlighten every night the blackest the most tempestuous The Stars are innumerable Eyes of Love looking forth upon us watching over us attracting our Spirits and drawing them up to Heaven to the Fountain of love They are so many sparks of love flying forth from the Heart of God and glowing continually round about us to warm and melt our Hearts Can we now keep dark blind cold unkind unclean dead hearts in our Bosoms in the midst of a Creation of love where so many Eyes of love shine so sweetly upon us so many sparks of love lie glowing round about us so many Seeds of love are sown in our Earth so many influences of love are continually falling from the Heavens on every side The heat of the Sun warmeth stone-walls quickneth slime to a living Creature You that have hearts of stone in your Bosoms lay them open to the Beams of his love they will be warmed with a Heavenly heat they will live the life of Angels of God The work of Providence is to be annexed to the Creation among the works of Nature The work of Providence is painted out to us in the Nation of the Jesus as in a Figure from the tenth verse to the twenty third as the Soul formeth animateth and inhabiteth the Body as the Soul is all in the whole Body and all in every part of it so is Eternal love the Spring the Life the Sweetness the Beauty residing in the whole work of Providence and resting entirely on each lâ—ne each motion of it Every particular in each verse is set off with this love as the ground the glory and the rellish of all For his Mercy endureth for ever or his love is Eternal As a Silkworm spinneth a soft and shining piece of work out of its Bowels in the midst of which itâ—â—â—f liveth and dyeth to live again with Wings and multiply itself so is the whole piece of Nature and Providence a rich and delicate contexture of the tenderest Love Eternal Love spinneth it out of its own Bowels liveth with us and dyeth for us in the midst of it Then it riseth again with Wings of Spirituality and Glory In this Divine Form it cometh again to generate a Divine Seed to itself A Painter who is drawing a Beautiful Person keepeth his Eye ever upon the Life Whether he lay dark or bright Colours whether he make Shade or Light crooked lines straight or circular still he is acted by that Idea of Beauty which he taketh into his Spirit by his Eye from the Life itself still he is forming that lovely Face in every stroke and colour Thus Divine Love in the whole Age of the World in the life of a particular Saint in the general Affairs of the Church sometimes maketh a Land of Aegypt sometimes a Passage out of it here a red Sea there a way thorow it now a Wilderness then a Land of Canaan But in all these it ever hath its Eye upon that Divine Glory
if thou refuse and murmure nevertheless this Assisting Love will take thee into Its Bosom and bear thee and carry thee along with It in Its own Way laid out and lifted up in Heaven in the Spirit into Eternal Joys If we believe not yet is He faithful and cannot deny Himself God is Love He cannot deny Himself in the unchangeablness of His Divine Essence which is Love He is True and faithful to the unity and simplicity of his own naked Being which is Love in the midst of all our changes unbeliefs unfaithnesses 3. There is poured sorth from the Heart of the Father in the Bosom of our Glorified Saviour The fulness of all finishing Love I know no Scripture which displayeth the finishing Love of God in Christ with more sweetness riches and fulness than that Ephes. 2. v. 4 5 6 7 8. You have here Love under several names in five verses repeated six times Mercy Love Grace Grace Kindness Grace You have it brought in with Magnifying Titles Rich in Mercy Great Love Exceeding Riches of Grace The Salvation of a Saint is here presented to us as a rich Piece of fine Enamelling First the Ground on which the Enamelling lieth is Gold Then you have the rich Enamel upon the Gold Lastly some beautiful Picture is formed in the Enamel Such a piece of Divine Work is a Saint 1. The Ground of the Work is Pure Gold Pure Love Preventing Love God doth all from Rich Mercy for the Great Love wherewith he hath loved us v. 2. 2. The rich Enamelling upon this rich Ground of Love is Love too All the Work is a curious close and fine Enamelling of Divine Love upon a glorious Ground of Love You have this brought in and doubled v. 3 8. By Grace ye are saved 3. The Beautiful Picture formed in this Enamel of Love upon a Ground of Love is the Heavenly Face of Divine Love naked entire in all its Lovelinesses and Glories to ravish all Spirits into a delightful Admiration That to the Ages to come might be shown the Exceeding Riches of his Grace v. 7. This is the End of God in Christ. He draweth upon the whole Person of a Saint the Heavenly Form the Divine Figure of Love as Love is God of Himself as God is Love He draweth this Divine Figure of Love in all its Riches in those Riches of Sweetness Loveliness Glory which exceed which transcend all Degrees all Capacities all Understandings in the Creature He doth it to this end that the Father the Lord Jesus all Angels and Spirits all Creatures in Ages to come that is in Eternity may see with Extasies of Joy and Wonder the Entire Form of Divine Love in its most naked most lively richest Beauties figured upon and shining in the whole Person of a Saint from one end of his Story unto the Other Do you not discern the Finishing Love of God in Christ making All perfect in Eternity The Ground of the Work of God in a Saint is Love It is all inlaid in every point of it with Love It is All Overlaid with Love When St. Paul had gone through the Particulars and several times declared All to be Grace Pure Love after all that he wrappeth up all over again in Grace in Pure Love By Grace ye are saved v. 8. A Saint is like a Gold-Watch in a Gold-Case A Work of Love in a Covering of Love as rich as the Work If you go never so low all thorow a Saint to the Nethermost parts of the Earth to his lowest Foundations All is Love If you search into the Heights of Eternity above him round about him All is Love Comprehending Crowning Love You will see the Fulness of the Finishing Love of God in Christ yet more clearly if you consider Three Things set before you in this Scripture 1. It is Love which is the Supream Sun of Eternity which generateth us to a Divine Birth which infuseth a Divine Principle of Life into us and awakeneth it in us For his greatest Love wherewith he hath loved us he hath quickened us v. 4. 5. This is Pre-venting Love It is Love which maintaineth carrieth on floweth forth into the Stream of Divine Life in us from the Beginning to the End By Grace ye are saved He hath raised you v. 5. 6. The Way of a Saint is a Continued Resurrection Every Moment is a New Resurrection every Resurrection supposeth a Death The whole Way o a Saint from the First Incarnation of Christ in him is a Contexture of Deaths and Resurrections Divine Lights of Life and Shades This whole Way of a Saint the Deaths as well as the Resurrections the Shades as well as the Lights are Divine Grace Pure Love Love putteth on the form of Death and shineth thorow it Death putteth on the Form of Love and shineth in it This is Assisting Love It is Love which setteth us down in Heavenly places Love maketh itself a Heaven of glory and bliss a Kingdom of Joy a Throne of pure Gold a Crown of Immortality This is Finishing Love They are the same Riches of Mercy the same Greatnesses of Love which shine forth in our hearts at our Regeneration at every Resurrection and in Heaven at our Glorification God rich in Mercy for his great Love hath quickened us raised us set us down in Heavenly Places All is the Same Love the Seed the Tree the Blossom the Fruit. 2 All the Steps in the whole Way of a Saint from the Beginning to the End are so many Love-Unions He hath quickened us together with Christ v. 5. He hath raised us together with him He hath set us down together v. 6 Every new Step in Grace or Glory is a New Love-Union Every Act of Divine Life is composed of a Blessed and Beautiful Trinity of Divine Loves 1. There is the Lord Jesus That Spirit which is the Supream Love the Essential Image the Eternal Son of That God which is Love the Bridegroom and Beloved of a Holy Soul 2. There is the Spirit of a Saint the Sister the Spouse the Love of this Love this Bridegroom Spirit of the same Spirit Love of the same Love sprung from the same Root formed into the same Image and Tree bearing the same Fruits of Divine Love 3. There is the Holy Spirit the Marriage-Dove the Marriage-knot the Love-Union between these Two Divine Loves Thus every Act every Moment of a Saint's Life is a Divine Trinity of Heavenly Eternal Loves coming forth in a New Dress suitable to each New Moment 3. All the Parts of a Gracious or Glorious Life are acted all the Forms and Moments of the State of a Saint His Beginning Progress End are acted and comprehended in the Pure Element of Heavenly Love in the Divine World of Spiritual Love in that Great and Glorious Deep into which all the Fountains of Love in the whole God-Head in the Heart of the Father are broken up and pour forth themselves in the Glorified Person of the Lord Jesus He
surrounding us far from our Father's house from the Bosom of our Jesus in the wide solitary naked field of this Fleshly Image We lie upon the Cold Ground of our own Natural Earthly Comfortless Spirits Under our head is the hard Stone of unbelief Distrust Care and Fear Where is now Finishing Love Finishing Love is now nearer to you than you are aware This is the Season for Finishing Love this is the Time in which the Work of Finishing 〈◊〉 is most Beautiful What it now doth will be for Ever for an Eternal Joy and Glory a Work of Eternity It will be now Pure Love Perfect Love It will now work with All Freedom with all Fulness in your Weaknesses Ere you are aware Finishing Love will open itself as the Heaven of Heavens round about you You shall see the Lord Jesus as a Mystical Ladder 〈◊〉 Divine Loves reaching from Heaven to Earth filling with the Fulness 〈◊〉 Divine Loves poured forth in his Glorified Person all the Space betweeâ— Heaven and Earth while One End of this Ladder toucheth the Heart of Goâ— in the Glories of Heaven and Eternity the other End toucheth thine 〈◊〉 thou liest covered with darkness below on the Desolate Earth Divine Love in all Angelical forms stand upon every Round of this Ladder every Degreâ— and State oâ— Things between heaven and Earth in great Troops These â— once descend and ascend bring down the Heart of the Father into thy Bosomâ— and carry up thy Heart into the Bosom of the Father Now thou saiest This Open Field was the House of God of Divine Loâ—â— This Darkness was the Gate of Heaven the Gate of Finishing Love and was not aware By this Gate Divine Love cometh forth from Its Spiritual Pâ—â—lace unto me By this Gate Divine Love bringeth me into its Palace Itâ— enough I have received the Spirit of Promise I am Sealed by it with 〈◊〉 Eternal Image of Divine Loves and Glories with the Heart of my Jesus mâ— God set upon my Heart O my Jesus it is true it is True This was the Sea son of thy Finishing Love and I was not aware Thy Finishing Love maketh Perfect its Strength Light Sweeetness in Weakness Darkness Enmity Thus comfort your selves against the Difficulties of Life in the Freedom the Fulness of the Finishing Love of God treasured up in the Glorified Person of Christ for you 2 Comfort Against the Darkness of Death Gladly therefore will I rejoyce in mine Infirmities For when I am weak the Power of Christ resteth upon me saith St Paul 2 Corin. 12. 10. in the place cited before It is the Power of Finishing Love in Christ which is here intended For that was the Subject of the former part of the verse My Grace is sufficient for Thee Behold Free Grace Pure Love For my Strength is made perfect in Weakness The Strength of Grace of Love is made Perfect in Weakness Behold Finishing Love This maketh the Infirmities not of old Age onely but of our dying hour Pleasant to us that when we are weakest the Power of Divine Love resteth upon us in its Finishing Sweetnesses and Glories When the Lord Jesus hung upon the Cross he cried out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me A Darkness covereth the face of the whole Earth round about Him The next words which we hear from him just as he giveth up the Ghost are these It is Finished A Declaration of Victory A Triumph The Mystery of my Sufferings of Divine Wrath are finished in my Person The Glory of the God Head of Heaven of Eternity All Beauty all Joyes The Mystery of Divine Love are finished and compleated in my Person Both these Mysteries are now finished Both Compleated in One Glory in this One Moment of my Death This is the Pattern of a Saint and of Finishing Love in the Pangs of Death You have a Saint sick on his Death-bed a sense of Sin of Wrath Doubt Despair spreading their black Wings over his Spirit pains faintings deadly pangs seizing upon his Body In a Moment in the midst of these Weaknesses the Lord Jesus in a Chariot of Angels and Invisible Glories with the full Power of all Finishing Loves resteth upon him from without raiseth himself and shineth from within Now in this Moment is the Whole Scenâ— changed The black and baleful Image of Things is changed into a Heaven The fainting dying Person into a Glorified Spirit triumphing in his Chariot of Angels and ascending with the Lord Jesus into the Heighths of Eternity He crieth one moment The Joys of Life the Light of the Sun the Delights of mine Eyes My Dearest Relations and sweetest Friends Life itself forsake me My hope my Faith my Spiritual Comforts my God my God why do ye why doest thou forsake me The Next moment with a Shout of Angels with the Sound of the Silver Trumpets in Heaven he crieth out It is finished The Sufferings of Christ are finished in me Divine Love hath finished upon me all its Mysteries and made the Joys of Eternity full in me A modest Person was sick and in want A Friend sensible of his want and modesty conveyed a Bag of money under his head and pillow while he slept He waketh findeth it smileth and saith This is the Stealth of my Friend Our Jesus frequently casteth a deep Darkness the Shadow of Death over us then when he purposeth under the covert of this Darkness to convey some finished Piece of Glory some Compleat Work of Finishing Love Heaven itself into our Bosom our Persons into a Heaven of Immortalities and Glories unsought unexpected unperceived by us until we are possessed of them until we are in the midst of Them These are the Stealths of our Beloved These are the Stealths of Finishing Love The Power of Christ with all the Fulness of Finishing Loves resting upon a Saint in his Death is excellently described 2 Corin. 5. v. 1 2 3 4. Observe there Four things 1. A Glorious Building 2. The Groans of Burthened Saints 3. The Workmanship of God 4. The Earnest of the Spirit 1. A Glorious Building This is A building of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of God The Materials as well as the Builder and the Form are all of a Divine Nature It is a Pallace hewn out of the Rock and standing in the Rock of Eternity Gold precious Stones Pearls the Body of the Sun Angelical Substances are as Dung to the Materials of which this Building consisteth It is Eternal above Time and so without Beginning or End above Succession and change It is in the Heavens in the Highest Heavens the Heavens of Eternity the Heavens of Heavens in the Eternal and Supream Spirit It is situate in the most Divine Heighths in the midst of the most Divine Lights Loves Purities Powers and Pleasures in the midst of the most Divine Lives and Immortalities 2. The Groans of burthened Saints We groan being burthened The Burthen is the Earthy Tabernacle This Life The Weight of vanity and
that which is Natural then that which is Spiritual so it is true in this First is the Servile State in Religion then the Son-like So we read Gal. 4. 7. Now are ye no more Servants but Sons Thus the Son-like State is the second step or Remove in Religion But it will be necessary for me to open the Servile State first that the Son-like may be the better understood 1. State Servile This State hath Four Signs 1. Sign Fear 2. Sign Dependencies 3. Sign Forms 4. Sign Solicitude 1. Sign Fear A Saint in a Servile State serves God chiefly from a Principle of Fear Rom. 8. 15. Ye have not received the Spirit of Bondage again to fear St. Paul doth not speak here of a Sinful State in Nature but of a Servile State in Grace This will appear clearly if you compare this place with the fourth Chapter of the Epistle to the Galatians You shall see in both Places the Twofold State of a Servant and a Son in Religion described alike almost in the same terms Rom. 8. 15. Ye have not received the Spirit of Bondage again Galat. 4. 1. The Heir while a Child differeth nothing from a Servant v. 3. Ye were in bondage to worldly Elements V. 7. Now are ye no longer Servants Rom. 8. 15 17. But the Spirit of Adoption whereby ye cry Abba Father Now are ye Sons if Sons then Heirs Galat. 4. 6. He hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our Hearts whereby we cry Abba Father 7. Sons and Heirs c. Thus the Spirit of Bondage is a Spirit sent forth from God in the ministry of the Law Therefore the Apostle saith Ye have not received the Spirit of Bondage This Spirit begets men to God but it is in a Servile-State by and to Fear Fear is the Seed and Fruit of this Spirit So a man by it becomes a Son to God but by the Bond-woman So he is partly a Son partly a Servant or rather a Son in the State of a Servant But I must further explain this Fear by 1. The Distinction of Fear 2. The Object 1. The Distinction of Fear There is a Twofold Fear 1. Fear Slavish 2. Fear Filial 1. Fear Slavish This Fear comes before Love and is cast out when Love comes 1 John 4. 18. Perfect Love casteth out Fear But what Fear is this That which is Slavish So it is added Fear hath Torment A Slavish Fear is to the Heart as Fire is to Gold Gold is wrought by the Fire to a softness and fitness to receive the King's Image then it is taken out of the Fire So this Fear subdues the Heart to a yielding temper to receive the Impressions and Image of God in Love Then it is cast ouâ— 2. Fear Filial This follows after Love flows from it is as sweet and desirable as Love itself The Scripture saith in one Place Who would not fear thee This Fear is a Plyantness of the Soul to God yielding to him form a near sense of his Greatness and Goodness both in one It is like the Bowing of some Flowers towards the Sun being toucht with his Influences and Beams Revel 14. 6. An Angel in the midst of Heaven preacheth the Everlasting Gospel What is the Everlasting Gospel The glad Tidings of Eternal Love in God to the Creature This Angel at the seventh v. cries aloud Fear God This Fear answers Love and Ecchos to it in the Heart Love saith God is thine Fear saith I will no more be mine own Love saith God will come down into thee and fill thee Fear saith I will sink down out of my self and give way to God The Filial Fear is proper to the Son-like State It is the Slavish Fear which is the Sign of that Servile State of which we now speak A Son-like State hath Love for its Eldest Child Fear for its Youngest A Servile State hath Fear for its First-born Love here is a Younger Brother In the Son Fear is the Motion of Love In the Servant it is the Motive to Love The Servant is the Son of the Bond-woman The Son is born of the Free-woman The Soul in a Servile State of Religion ascends out of Flesh towards God So Fear is First and Love riseth out of Fear as Fire out of Smoak The Soul in a Son-like state descends comes down from God as a Bride ready trim'd So Lâ—ve is First and brings forth Fear as a pure Flame breaths from it a fine Air. This is the Distinction of Fear This the Sign of a Servile State a Slavish Fear 2. The Object of Fear This is exprest by the Holy Ghost Heb. 2. 15 Those that were held in bondage by the Fear of Death The Jews were under the Law in a Servile State under a Slavish Fear This Fear had Death in its Eye for its Object Death hath two things in it Loss and Pain Loss of Life with all the Sweets and Comforts of Life Pain in the Labours and Pangs at the parting of Soul and Body Thus a Slavish Fear hath a Twofold Object 1 Object Loss 2. Object Pain 1. Object Loss A Christian in a Servile State fears the Loss of God more than God The Fear of God makes a man sink out of himself into God Fear of Loss of him makes a man apt to sink into himself in Despair A Servile Christian fears the loss of Gods Favour more than the loss of God the loss of the Fruits of his Favour which are Peace within Prosperity without more than the loss of his Favour 2. Object Pain A Spiritual Son-like Saint fears the Departures of God the loss of Divine Enjoyments more then all Pains or Tortures But the Servant in Religion is not any thing so much sensible of the loss of all the joys in Heaven as he is struck with trembles at the pains of Hell Iohn the Baptist was a Figure of the Servile State He presseth his Exhortation with such Reasons as these The Axe is laid to the Root of the Tree Save your selves from that wrath which is to come Iesus Christ was the Head and Figure of the Son-like State He moveth by other Arguments The Kingdom of God is at hand Light is come into the World Come to me and have life in abundance I have done with the First and most apparent Sign of a Servile State Fear 2. Sign Dependencies A Servile Christian seeks God chiefly by outward Assistances Gal. 3. 24. The Law was a School-master to bring us to Christ. A School-master ties Children to their set Times Rules Exercises till they can speak a Language judge of Truth converse with wisdom naturally from inward and free Principles So the Law which is the Mistris under whom we are in bondage teacheth us to seek Communion with God at peculiar Times The Forming of our Spirits according to God by particular Rules The Deriving of Truths Strengths Comforts from God by several Performances This is our way of Life till the Seed of Life be come up
us there discovers us to our selves as we were Eternally comprehended in that Root as we grow up out of it as we abide and flourish in it This Spirit being immediately united to God immediately united to our Spirits is an immediate Testimony of our Sonship 4 The Effect of this Discovery He hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our Hearts crying Abba Father The natural Effect of our Sonship made manifest in us is a natural Affection to our Father While we are in the State of Nature we know not whence we come nor whither we go when once we have received the Spirit of Sons we then see God to be the Father who did bear us in his Loyns from Eternity who brought us forth into this World who can never forget us though a Woman should forget her only Child who hath ever Bowels of a Father care tenderness sweetness towards us who cannot always hold but He must discover himself to us When a Saint feels these Workings of the Spirit of God in his own Spirit then his Bowels turn within him then he melts then he casts himself into the Embraces of his God and cries My Father Abba Father Thus God gives a Check to our Lusts changing them into a divine Love by Discovery This is the First place of Scripture 2. Scripture 1 Joh. 4. 16. 17. He that dwells in Love dwells in God and God dwells in him For God is Love In this is Love made perfect that we may have Boldness before him in the day of Iudgment Because as He is so are we in this World Two things are taught us in these words 1. The Relation between God and a Saint in an Evangelical State 2. The Affection of such a Saint towards God 1. The Relation between God and a Saint in an Evangelical State The Relation between a Father and a Son in Nature hath three Parts 1. Part. The Nature of the Father is in the Person of the Son It is one in both as the Sap and Seminal Power is the same thorow the whole Tree 2. Part. The Person of the Son subsists in the Nature of the Father as the Body of the Tree in the Root 3. Part. The Person of the Father propagates and multiplies itself in the Person of the Son as the Body of a Tree runs out into Branches Such a Relation with so many Parts is there between God and a Saint as between Father and Son 1. Part. The Divine nature is in the Person of a Saint as the Fountain of his Being the Fulness of his Person Thus St. John saith We dwell in God not in the Fleshly Image of God as a Servile Christian but in the Spiritual Image the naked Bosom of the Godhead 2. Part. The Person of a Saint is in the Divine Nature as in his Root in his Element in his proper Principle as that which comprehends him communicates itself to him sustains him flows in upon him shows itself in all things possesseth acts him entirely Thus saith St. John We dwell in God that is as a Worldly Spirit dwells in the Spirit of this World 3. Part. God propagates himself in a Saint Both are one Life one Spirit multiplying itself into various Forms Both unitedly and in One pass thorow all Forms So St. John again teacheth As He is so are we in this World This is the Relation between God and a Saint in an Evangelical State as that between a Father and a Son 2. The Affection of a Son-like Saint towards God To dwell in God and dwell in Love to have God and to have Love dwelling in us are both One thing For God is Love God is an Infinite Sweetness which is both Fountain and Sea in one a Fountain sending forth many Streams many Sons a Sea drawing all into its own Bosom again by a Natural course He then that is a Son of God is a Son of Love Love of that first Love coming forth from it and returning thither whence it first came This Son-like or Filial Love hath Two Characters 1. Character The Degree 2. Character The Extent 1. Character The Degree of Love Love in a Son-like Saint riseth to a Confidence a Boldness in the presence of God even then when he puts on the most terrible Appearance in the day of Judgment The Ground of this Boldness in a Filial love is Three-fold 1. Reason A Saint that is a Son knows and feels God to be Love 2. Reason He knows himself to be in this Love to be One with God in his Heavenly Glory 3. Reason He knows this Love to be in him God to be one with him in his worldly Disguise We have boldness because as he is so are we in this World All these Three Reasons are wrapt up in this One Clause As he is in the World Love itself so are we with Him sensible of Him As He is in the World and at once above the World in Glory so are we in Him As he is in the World clothing his Divine Substance with Fleshly Appearances so are we because he is in us This is the first Character of a Filial Love 2. Character Extent of Love A Saint that is a Son hath not a particular Love to God or any Object He is as his Father is Love in its full Latitude He dwells in Love Love is the Air in which he breaths in which he receives all Shapes of things in which he communicates himself to them A Son of God is like his Father in Two Things 1. He is a beautiful Light shining upon all things equally stamping its own bright Form upon them so beholding them 2. He is a Cloud of Sweetness like gentle and soft Rain falling upon every thing till it have sweetned it by degrees to the same height and enjoying it in that Sweetness Exhortation Make God your only Mark and Aim What is it which you seek for Love God is Love What is it which makes every Action or suffering sweet This if Love be the beginning What gives you Rest in every End of things Love Then seek God above all things Make him the Beginning and the End of your way So you shall have a sweet Rest in all For He is Love How strange is that perverseness which is in the Nature of man When man was first made he was placed in a Garden where he had liberty to eat of all the Trees excepting one Tree only which bare all manner of Curses for Fruit the Forbidden Tree Yet then man eats of this one Tree and lets the rest alone Now all the Trees in the same Garden which are all Creatures in the World have wo and death growing upon them There is one Tree only in the m'dst of the Garden bringing forth Glory and Immortality This Tree is God Now man will feed plentifully on all the other Trees but will not touch this Tree of Life We all have Notions in our heads and Expressions upon our Tongues concerning God
thy hearts desire Acquaint thy self with the Lord and he shall shew thee thy hearts desire in shewing thee himself What is God Esa. 57. 15. He is the High and Holy One that inhabits Eternity What then shalt thou see in the Discovery of God Thou shalt see Excellency and Joy at their Height and fixt there unchangeable Eternal as Eternity itself without any Change which is the cause of all Loss and Death without any Shadow of Change which makes all Fear and Melancholy What is God See by Jesus Christ who is the Image of God You read of him Ephes. 1. 10. God hath gathered up all things into One in Him What then shalt thou see in the Appearance of God Thou shalt see all those Forms of things which affrighted and opprest thee in Shapes as Delightful as Delight itself For thou shalt see all things in One in Christ. Thou shalt see all Varieties of things in One Beauty as the various Mixtures of that with itself or Multiplications in itself Thou shalt see thy self immortal in a State of full Glory according to that which St. Paul speaks 2 Tim. 1. 9. The Grace which was given us in Christ before the World was Thou shalt see those dear Relations those sweet Contents which thou hast lost and over which thou bitterly mournest breaking thine Heart or which thou fearest to lose and so livest ever trembling in this Fear Thou shalt see all these living together in one Blessedness present before thee in one view never to die never to be lost when once thou seest God in thy Soul For all things live to God Thy dead Joys are still living in him Death itself which kill'd them and threatens thee lives a lovely life there What is God God is Love What then shalt thou see when thou seest God Thou shalt see a pure unmixt absolute unconfin'd Love Thou shalt see all things having their Being in Love because they have their Being in God Thou shalt see all things animated by a Life of Love inspired by a Spirit of Love because God is the Quickning Spirit of all O Sweet Sight To see every thing quickned by Love and so made perfectly Loving every thing clothed with Love and so made perfectly Lovely This he sees that sees God made manifest to him Now as the Woman said of our Saviour Behold a man that hath told me all that ever was in my heart may not we say this of the Knowledge of God Behold a Light in which you shall see all that ever was in your heart to hope wish or imagine Is not this the Wisdom which is sweeter than Honey Richer than Pearl Better for traffick than fine Gold Even the Knowledge of God in the opening of which all delights flow forth all Beauties sparkle all wares of Blessedness offer themselves and press in upon your Spirits Seek then the Knowledge of God in the first and last place in all places for it is in the place of all things This is the first Exhortation 2. Exhortation Let nothing keep you at a distance from God Where can you be so well as in the Bosom of Him who loves you Nay who is Love Nay who is Love to you if you will receive Him For he is all Love Whatever departs from God departs from Love and goes towards Wrath Enmity Hatred take heed how you trust your self to any thing that tempts you from God whatever it pretends It cannot come from Love or bring Love with it It is an Enemy and seeks to betray you by winning you from your sweetest Strength The Blossom of a Vanity or Sin may be fair to the Eye But Hatred is the Root and will be the Fruit. Every thing of Love is of God and carries the heart to God Hatred faith Solomon breeds strife Canst thou look for Peace I say not Pleasure in that Temptation which draws thee down from Love into Hatred 3. Exhortation Walk worthy of God If you be His Sons you are Sons of Love a Love which is untainted with Particular respects a Love which is Invincible by any unsuitableness or opposition a Divine Love Cherish such a Love in your selves shew it to others Let your Love be your Selves as it is in God that you may as soon cease to be as cease to Love Let Love appear wherever you appear like your Selves Let your Love be as Universal as your Conversation Let it be your Nature Let your Love be like Aarons Ointment poured forth upon the Head of things the Godhead and running down thorow all the Creatures to the very lowest Skirts the least of Things Be you Love as God is Love exalteth not itself For it dwelleth with all things as One in One. Love thinketh no Evil. For it looketh upon all things thorow One and judgeth of them as they appear in that One. Love is not angry For Union is its Life and all its Streams are sent forth from that sweet Spring Love is not suspicious For it makes itself One with All and gathers up all into One Principle with itself Love worketh no ill For it possesseth converseth with enjoys each several thing in One. So every thing to Love is Love's Self Thus God is Love Thus be you if you be Sons of God This is to be Perfect as your heavenly Father is 2. Property Life Heb. 7. 16. Who that is Christ was not made according to the Law of a carnal command but the power of an Endless Life A Comparison is made in this Scripture between the Priesthood of Aaron and our blessed Saviour Aaron was a Priest of the first Covenant the Law The Lord Jesus was the Priest of the New Covenant the Gospel He that lives under the Priesthood of the One is a Servant He that lives under the Priesthood of the Other is a Son We have a Threefold Opposition between these Two States the Servile and the Son-like The First Opposition is between Law and Life A Law is something imposed a Compact a Treaty between Two Life is something Inbred A Principle a Spring a Unity The Second Opposition is between a Law-command and a Life-power A Command works by violence and force from without uncertainly A Power of Life works kindly constantly inwardly and sweetly The Third Opposition is between Time and Eternity The Law of a Carnal Command a carnal or Fleshly Command decays and dies it begins and ends in Time as every thing of Flesh doth But the Gospel is the Power of an Endless life He that lives as a Servant under the Law lives in Fleshly Principles which are frail false and fading The impressions which he hath of goodness are made by terrour and work unkindly They are like Images in water dark ever vanishing if they be not maintained by outward objects Ordinances Duties Sermons Books Men. He that lives as a Son under the Gospel lives in a Divine Principle is naturally good If you ask why this man is good against the stream of all earthly
themselves But they are Invisible and Faith is their Evidence the Discovery of them to thee in their Truth When Jesus Christ had his Sufferings upon him he had a Joy before Him Heb. 12. 2. So much of Faith as thou hast in thee so much of Joy thou hast continually before thee Faith when thou art in a Dungeon gives thee such a Prospect into Heaven and the God-Head as reflects a Joy and a Divinity upon the Dungeon itself 2. Secondly Faith gives thee a Joyful Possession A Wise man among the Heathen tells us that there are Three ways of being united to God by Knowledge by Love by Faith But saith he this Faith is no Empty Image or Thin Persuasion but a Substantial Incorporation of the Things themselves with the Soul So saith the Holy Ghost Heb. 11. 1. Faith is the Presence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Subsistence of Things Hoped for Can you have what you Hope for and not have Joy Do you Hope for Heaven for Jesus Christ for Freedom from Sin and Troubles Do you Hope for Joy So much Faith as you have so much Joy you have so much you have already of all that which you Hope for Dost thou say thou hast Faith and by Faith the Presence of thy Saviour the Possession of Glory and yet hast thou no Joy Say not thou Believest but shew me thy Faith by thy Joy He that believes cannot but have Joy in Believing no more than he that walks in the Light of the Sun can be without its Heat 3. Thirdly there is in Faith a Ioyful Purchase The Life that I live saith St. Paul is by the Faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me Galat. 2. 20. Faith makes an Exchange between Christ and a Saint If thou believest the Lord Jesus hath given Himself for thee Christ stands in thy Stead And thou standest in the Stead of Christ. Christ fills thy Room in the Flesh the world and all Sufferings He bears the Place of thy Person in them Thou fillest the Room of Christ and bearest the Person of Christ in all these Can such an Exchange as this be without its Joy when Christ stands for thee in Sorrows under the Guilt and Infirmity of them when thou standest for Christ in the Mystery of Them This Purchase or Exchange is made in Glory too The Lord Jesus is set in thy place in Heaven as Thou being the Principle and he the Deputy I go to prepare a Place for you saith the Lord to his Disciples John 14. 3. Thou shalt be taken up into Christs Place there Where I am there ye shall be also John 14. 3. My Beloved is Mine and I am His saith the Spouse in the Canticles Is not this abundant matter of Joy at all Times to thee That Glory which Jesus Christ hath now in Heaven is Thine as it is His. That Glory which thou shalt have hereafter shall be Christ's together with Thine Thou hast no Misery Iesus Christ hath no Glory alone This is the Purchase or Exchange of Faith 4. Rule So much Spiritual Love as there is in any Soul so much Spiritual Ioy is there also 1 Pet. 1. 8. Whom having not seen ye Love then it follows a little after Ye Rejoyce with Ioy unspeakable There is a Two-fold Love 1. A Love of Benevolence 2. A Love of Complacency 1. A Love of Benevolence If thou hast this Love to Jesus Christ thou wilt Rejoyce to accomplish His Will to Glorify Him in thy Self to make thy Self a Sacrifice in any Kind to his Good Pleasure even as He offered Himself up in the Flesh to the Father 2. A Love of Complacency Is thy Saviour thy Delight Is He to Thee as He is to the Father Is He thy Beloved in whom thy Soul rests Then is thy Joy the same in the midst of all Changes while thy Jesus remains Unchangeable If Jesus Christ be Altogether all Pleasantnesses all Lovelinesses to Thee as the Spâ—use expresseth Him to her self in the Song of Songs then thou canst want no Joy though thou be in want of all things while thou hast Jesus Christ. This is the Fourth Rule 5. Rule Joy and Purity are ever in the Soul in a like Degree Holiness and Happiness are both One Thing in God and the Soul Each is an Elevation above all Inferiour and Corrupting or Corruptible Things and an Habitation in the Supream Good It is said of God in the Prophet Esay that He inhabiteth Eternity that is Himself Isa. 57. 15. It is said by the Saints to God in the Psal. 90. 1. Thou hast been our Dwelling place from One Generation to another Pure Religion and Undefiled before God and the Father is to keep Himself Unspotted from the World Iames 1. 27. The World is Pitch For it lies in a Principle of Darkness and Blackness Where it Touches it Spots He only keeps himself Pure who keeps himself Untoucht by the World Un-affected with it So long as your Purity is Un-stain'd Your Pleasure will be Un-troubled For Troubles are below in the Changeable State of Things But a Holy Soul dwells on High in Him who hath no Shadow of Change Trouble is in the World and in Christ all is Peace John 16. 33. Hold up thy Heart that it sink not into the World Hold off thy Heart that it settle not on the World and thou at once shalt preserve thy self from Sin and Sorrow Abide in Jesus Christ Act thy self perpetually from and upon Jesus Christ so shall thy Purity and thy Pleasures flow continually like a Mighty River which is both Clear and Calm I have now finish't that which I had to say in the Removal of the First Mistake which hinders the Soul from attaining to a State of Spiritual Joy 2. Mistake That we are to take a Rise of our Ioy from a Reflection upon something in our selves We are generally apt to think that we are to look into our selves for the Ground of our Ioy and that we are to measure our Ioy by that which we find in our selves Go to most Christians when you perceive them full of Joy and ask of them a Reason of their Joy you shall hear them telling you that they have Examined their Hearts and find a Love to God to the Children of God a Trust in God an unfeigned Desire to Please God an Universal Indeavour to keep all the Commandments of God an Uprightness before God a true Sorrow for Sin a Detestation of it a full Purpose to forsake all Sin with many other Goodly Things in Themselves Go to other Christians who put out the Flame of Life in their Hearts by their Sighs and dim their Eyes with their Tears Ask them why they have no more Joy in their Lives you shall have some such Answer as this from them Alas What Joy can there be in my Life God with-holds His Grace from me and I can find no Abatement of Corruption no Life of Holiness in my Soul I
this Person as One with it For all make One Image and that a Spiritual Image Thus this Image is as it were a Body to the God-Head All the Vertues Operations and Appearances of God are contained in Jesus Christ as One Body Yet every One hath his own Distinct Place Power Form Activity Enjoyment as Diverse Members The Fulness of the God-Head dwelleth in Him Bodily Colos. 2. 9. 6. Answer Iesus Christ is the Head-Spirit God hath made Him the Head of All Ephes. 1. 22. Our Saviour is the Universal Spirit that takes in all and unites all in Himself It pleaseth the Father that all Fulness should dwell in Him Coloss. 1. 19. He is a Particular Spirit distinct from all For God hath given Him a Name above every Name which is named in this world and that which is to come Ephes. 1. 21. Thus He is the Head Thus our Saviour becomes a Person that both Represents and Presents all in Himself that both Perfects all in Himself and Himself bears the Imperfections Sufferings in and for all I have now answered the First Question what I understand by Jesus Christ not according to the Exactness or Latitude of the Question but so far as tends to my present purpose and the making plain of the Second Question which follows 2. Question How we are said to be Comprehended in Iesus Christ. I shall indeavour to open the Nature of this which is one of the most Principal Spiritual Profitable Comfortable and yet Difficult Points in all our Divinity I shall proceed in the opening of it by a Three-fold Step which shall be a Three-fold Answer to the Question The Lord Jesus comprehends us Spiritually Mystically Eternally 1. Answer The Lord Jesus comprehends us Spiritually Our Blessed Saviour as a Spirit comprehends us in Himself 1 Cor. 15. 45. The last Adam was made a Quickness Spirit Iesus Christ is the Second Adam a Universal Person comprehending the Second Creation in His Spiritual Person in the Spirituality of His Nature He is the Heavenly Adam a Collection of all the Saints as He is a Spirit Jesus Christ comprehends us by the Spirit 1 Cor. 12. 13. By one Spirit we are all Baptized into one Body Christ and we live both in One Spirit so we are Both bound up in One. It is the Unity of the Spirit Ephes. 4. 4. The Spirit is Christs Radically and Primitively by drawings us down and Baptizing us into this Spirit Jesus Christ comprehends us The Lord Jesus comprehends thee as thou art a Spirit He that is joyned to the Lord is One Spirit 1 Corin. 6. 17. Our Saviour and Husband comprehends us Inwardly Powerfully Fully not as Bodies Waters Flames but as Spirits comprehend one another nay as One Spirit as the Highest Spirit comprehends itself Christ comprehends thee as Spirit of His Spirit as a Spirit in His Spirit as One Spirit as the Self-Image of Himself 2. Answer The Lord Jesus comprehends us Mystically The Mysticalness lies in Three Things in the Glory or Diviness of the Union in the Nearness of it in the Distinctness preserved together with the Oneness We are comprehended in Christ Mystically because Incomprehensibly The Love of Christ passeth Knowledge Ephes. 3. 19. That Love which is an Affection only and loves by Impression and unites by Imagination such a Love may be taken in by Knowledge only which is a Notion the taking of a Picture the Catching of a Shadow Such a Love may be known by the Understanding which is a Faculty an Accident But the Love of Christ is above Affections and Impressions It is a Naked Comprehension of Substances and Spirits in a Unity of Substance and Spirit So it passeth knowledge not being to be represented by any Image or Notion not to be conceived by any Faculty but to be Felt and Enjoyed only after an Immediate and unconceivable manner We are comprehended in Christ Mystically because with an Appearance of Contrariety We are One Spirit and One Body in Christ. The Body of Christ in the Unity of it is a Spirit The Spirit of Christ in the Variety of it is a Body We are comprehended in Christ as Members in the Body Each Saint hath his Distinct Person Place Power Appearance I say Distinct both from the Person of Christ as the Head and from all the other Saints as Particular Members Yet again each Member is One Man with Christ possessing the Fulness of God and of the whole Body being in itself conformed to the Image of Christ. 3. Answer The Third and Last Answer to this Question is that we are Comprehended in Christ Eternally 2 Tim. 1. 9. Who hath saved us and called us c. according to his own Purpose and Grace which was given us in Christ before the World began v. 10. But is now made manifest by the Appearance of Iesus Christ. Three Things lie clear in these words 1. First Thy Person was in Christ from Eternity Thou hadst a Capacity and a Subsistence in thy Saviour before the World began For thou wert then in Him as a Subject on which the Father setled his Purpose and confer'd his Grace The words of the Apostle are Grace given us 2. Secondly Thy Person with all manner of Grace and Glory was in Christ before all Times as it is or shall be in any Time For One is the Measure of the Other That Eternal State in Christ is the Pattern of the State of Grace afterwards according to That is This exactly fashioned who hath called and saved us according to c. 3. Thirdly That State of our Persons comprehended in Christ is Unchangeable When Jesus Christ appears to us or in us as we are in Flesh then is that Grace put upon our Persons in Christ made Manifest The Discovery is now of that which in Truth was before The Maniâ—estation is here below but the Substance abides still above The Manifestation in thy Flesh is as the Appearance of Christ upon thy Flesh subject to Change But as is the Person of Christ in the Glory of God so is thy Person of Christ comprehended in Christ Unchangeable Let us now pass from the Second Question to the Third We have seen in some measure what it is to be Comprehended in Christ. Let us now proceed to enquire how we shall know our selves to be Comprehended in Him There is indeed Unspeakable and Unchangeable matter of Joy for those that are so Comprehended but how shall any Particular Soul be assured of this concerning herself 3. Question How shall I know my self to be comprehended in Christ Answer Art thou comprehended in the Wisdom or Image of God Then thou art comprehended in Christ. For he is the Wisdom of God in its Latitude and the Image of God in Large Hast thou any place in the Fulness of God or any part in the Fulness of the Creature Then hast thou a Mansion and Habitation in the Lord Jesus For it hath pleased the Father that all Fulness both of God and
fitted and filled up only with the Truth of that Type those Three ever-blessed Persons as their Seal in the noblest mettal next themselves it contains more expresly more at large and more gloriously all those Figures and Draughts of Divinity which are imprinted upon the Face of any Creature O the inestimable Treasures of Mans Natural Heart if Sin change it not from a Palace of Angels to a Prison of Devils or a Grave 2. There is a Spiritual Heart 1 Corin. 6. 16. He that is joyned to the Lord is one Spirit Mark the Absoluteness and Universality of the expression one Spirit He who is joyned to the Lord Jesus by believing is one Spirit with Christ one Spirit in Christ one Spirit as Christ is one Galat 3. 19 20. St. Paul thus distinguisheth between the Law and the Gospel The Law was ordained by Angels in the hand of a Mediator Now a Mediator is not a Mediator of one but God is one There is a Twofold Mediator one who hath his Ground in the Distance and his End to maintain the Distance between Two Parties The other is founded in an Unity and his work is to manifest and make perfect this Unity The Character of the Law is Duality and Division God and the Creature are presented each to other as two upon different Principles treating on a Covenant of works containing different Terms to be performed by each apart In the Gospel God reveals himself as he is One as he is the Ground the Object the End of all his affections and operations as he comprehends himself and the Creature in one Person and in one Spirit in our Lord Jesus as he loves the Creature with the same love with which he loves himself and beholds it in the same Glory with which he beholds himself in Christ. This is the Covenant of Grace in which the Lover and the Beloved are both One You may now ask me two Questions Q. 1. How God is One Q. 2. How a Believer is one Spirit Q. 1. How is God One An. God is one four wayes 1. He is perfect He comprehends all parts of Excellency in every kind and degree Essentially in one supream and undivided Point of Being within himself He is to himself the Eye the Light and the Object the Love the Loveliness the Joy and Fruit of both all in One. The most curious Composition of all Sweets in one Ointment or Perfume The most natural extraction of the vertues of all herbs and flowers into one Sweetness in Hony falls infinitely short of the Unity of all Perfections here and the Perfection of this Unity 2. God is Pure There is no mixture in him As they say of Gold the purest Mettal It is plenum sui full of itself so is God in the highest sense Every grain of pure Gold is Gold Every thing in God is God There is no mixture Division Allay or Bound The Divine Nature is endlesly compleat and entire within itself like a Sea of unshaded Light which hath no shore or Bottom God is Light and in him is no darkness 2 John 1. 5. 3. God is unchangeable He is the Rock unmoveable He is the Rock of ages All successions of Time like Waters of a River pass by him and behold him through all revolutions fixt in the same place and State He is the Rock of Eternity As Wheels turning round in a Cave within a great Rock So all the Times and Changes of this World are comprehended within the Unchangeableness and Eternity of his Essence 4. God is the Fountain He is not a Broken Barren but a perfect and pregnant Unity Rom. 9. 36. Of him and Through him and To Him are all things to whom be Glory for ever As all numbers are a Unity multiplied so are all things various Sparklings of this Divine Unity Emanations and Manifestations of the same God presenting himself to us at sundry times and in divers manners Love is defined to be Partus in pulchro a Birth in a Beauty This is the true nature of things that Divine Love which is the Birth of all Varieties of and in this Beautiful this Blessed Unity 2. Q. How is a Believer one Spirit 1. That One Eternal Spirit brings forth the Spirit of a Saint as his own immediate proper and Peculiar Birth as the dear Reflection of himself A Saint is the Workmanship of Jesus Christ not as a Picture is of a Painter but as a Child is of the Father one Spirit one Life one Divine Nature is in Both. 2. This one Spirit begets and brings forth the Spirit of a Saint in his own likeness Rom. 8. 29. God hath predestinated us to be conformed to the Image of his Son that is to his heavenly Image as he is the quickning Spirit 1 Cor. 15. 45 49. The Lord Jesus is our Father the Father of the new World the New Birth in us as he is the Heavenly one that Spirit which is the supream Unity the Lord and Fountain of Life and Spirits So he brings us forth in the Image of the same Heavenly Form and of the same Divine Unity Thus he prays to his Father John 17. 22. The Glory which thou gavest to me I have given to them that they may be One as we are One. Behold the Divine Birth of a Saint the Divine Likeness into which he is born and the Divine Unity the Ground and Form of the Divine Birth and Likeness 3. The Eternal Spirit unites itself to the Spirit of a Believer thus regenerated in the most Intimate Entire and Inseparable manner They mutually inhabit fully possess perfectly enjoy each other In life and death time and eternity they are undivided Thus this Heavenly Adam the Unity and Fountain of Spirits casts himself into the sleep of Humane Life and of Death that he may bring forth from his Side and his Bosom this Sister-Spirit this true Eve the Mother of all Living of all Heavenly and Spiritual Lives as he is the Father Then when he awakens in the Resurrection from the Dead he takes her to be his Spouse as she is his Sister in the Fellowship of the Divine Unity which is the glorious Ring and Circle of all Relations So she who is Spirit of his Spirit in the likeness of the same Spirit is made one Spirit with him Thus you have an Answer to these two Questions You see how God is One How he that is joyned to the Lord is one Spirit O that men knew God unvailed revealed in the Light and Grace of the Gospel as he is One O that they they did rellish the Sweetness of this Unity of the Spirit which is the height of all Relations by which God is one to a Believer in all times and things one in him one with him by which he also is one to in and with God! This sight and sense would make us to be continually in Pangs of longings to be regenerated and brought forth into this Spirit and Unity as Jesus Christ is
Lord Jesus cometh in the Glory of all the Three Persons the Father shineth in the Person of the Son the Son shineth in the Person of the Spirit all Three in One shine together in the glorified Humanity of the Lord Jesus all three glorifie that with themselves Inhabiting and shining forth round about with a full Light of glory in it Figuring themselves in their Divinest Forms upon it overshadowing it and cloathing it with the Brightnesses of their own most entire and most naked Appearances Thus is Jesus the Perfection of Beauty The Glory of the God-Head is now consummate in Him when all the Three Persons appear quite unvailed in his Person You who love and wait for this Appearance of your Heavenly Bridegroom who see this day which his Spiritual Beauties make and rejoyce to see it with a Joy unspeakable and glorious you who live in the sweet dawnings of this day upon you you who have any thing of the Spirit of the Bride in you cry continually Even so so come quickly Lord Jesus in this Thrice-Beautiful and Thrice-Blessed Appearance Thus the Person of Christ is the Perfection of Beauty Perfection implyeth 3 Things 1. Clearness 2. Compleatness 3. Comprehensiveness 1. Clearness That which is perfect is pure hath no spot or mixture of any thing Forreign As every drop of Milk is Milk so every thing the smallest Point in the Person of Christ is Beauty He is Beauty itself in the abstract in its simple Essence This Finite world cannot satisfie our desires because they are infinite Behold here the Person of Christ a world of Beauty and infinite to terminate and satiate your infinite desires For every thing is bounded by another or by its Contrary nothing by itself as Light by Darkness Life by Death Our Lord Jesus is a Light of Beauty where there is no Darkness and so no bound to set a stop to it from multiplying itself endlesly within itself meeting no where in its utmost Circles of glory with any thing besides itself It is this Beauty which is sown in every Spirit shooting up and budding in desires flowring in delights Love is this Beauty in the Seed desires the sproutings of this Love Therefore are our Loves and Desires infinite because this Jesus the Beauty which is their Root and their Fruit is so 2. Compleatness The Beauty of Christ is perfect nothing can be added to it Solomon saith Eccles. 1. 7. All rivers run into the Sea and the Sea is not at all the fuller It is the Person of Christs which is this Mystical Sea of all Beauty and Sweetness all the rivers of created Beauty and Sweetness go forth from him and take away nothing They all return into him again and add nothing When Lot had been made to drink Wine freely by his Daughters he perceived not when they lay down nor when they rose up Believing beloved Souls drink in the Lovelinesses of your own Heavenly Husband drink abundantly of them so will ye have little or no sense of the presence of the Sweetness of any Object or Relation among the Creatures when ye lye down in its embraces or of its absence when ye rise up from it never to return to the enjoyment or sight of it any more Your Jesus in his single Person is all Loveliness compleat in itself He is the same that which all Creature are that which they are not with them and without them Their presence and their absence are the same equally full of the same Beauty and Sweetness in him 3. Comprehensiveness The Perfection of Beauty comprehendeth all Beauties and Beautiful Things in itself It is the First and Essential Beauty which by its presence beautifies every thing The Beauties of Angels Stars and Flowers of Bodies and Spirits all flourish together eminently and unfadingly in the Person of Christ which is the Paradise of God and the Bed of Flowers there Thou who mournest and loathest thy self for some Deformity or Defilement of Spirit who bemoanest thy self for some defect comfort thy self concerning this in the Person of Christ. God is said in one place to call all the Stars by name and no one of them is wanting The Person of thy Saviour hath all Spiritual and Natural Beauties in itself Here thou mayst call by Name the proper Beauties of thy Person to cloath all thy shame with Glory to supply all thy wants with suitable Grace Thou shalt find no one wanting Every one will answer readily here am I behold I bear thine Image and the Inscription of thy Name upon me I have been laid up from Eternity in the Perfection of Beauty and kept for thee unto this Season You that complain for the want of any Loveliness come to Jesus Christ that you may have it and have it in abundance richly to enjoy He is that well of Beauty springing up to eternal Life that is with All with Infinite with Endless Beauties You who 〈◊〉 your hearts captivated by any thing lovely on Earth come hither Where the Person of Christ is seen as he appears in the Spirit unvailed there is Liberty the fulness of a Divine Beauty the freedom of a Divine Love taking off from our hearts the Chains of every ensnaring and enslaving passion Behold that which thou lovest in Christ the perfection of Loveliness where it is truest and sweetest so love it in him Behold Christ beautifying by his presence every beautiful Object like the Sun-shine on Flowers so love him in it One said if a man know not the way to the Sea let him follow the course of a River Every stream of Sweetness flows from our Saviour and runs into him Let thy heart accompany it in this course so shall it be led by a pleasant Guide to Jesus Christ. The nearer thou followest it to Christs Person the larger and fuller will the Sweetness be as a River near the Ocean till it be perfected in him When thy heart breaketh over any departing Beauty or dying Sweetness in a Friend Child Wife or Life then think upon the Comprehensiveness of Christs Beauty which holds all other Beauties in it as Heaven doth the Angels Solomon saith in Ecclesiastes When man dieth the body goeth to the Dust from whence it came the Spirit to God who gave it Each thing returns to its Original to the Element from whence it is taken and of which it is ever a part Darkness sinks down into the Pit of Darkness the Spirit which is the Light Life Sweetness every where every Spark and Image of Divinity re-ascends and retreats into the Bosom of the first Image of God which is Christ. Each pleasantness each beam of loveliness is a glance and sparkle of this Eternal Image of Essential Beauty which enfoldeth all things and mingleth itself with all things That which thou callest the fading of any Sweetness dear unto thee is only the hasting of the loving stream to its beloved Sea the disappearing of the bright flame of Life into the glorious Brightness
at once upon the Soul spring up together in it at the unvailing of the Face of the Lord Jesus as the whole knot of Beams pour out themselves in a moment thorow all the Air to enlighten quicken beautify and cheer it when once the Body of the Sun appeareth Look then to Jesus O poor burthened Spirit Look to him that his Light may shew him that his Living Light may be an Eye in thee to see him that thorow this Eye thou mayst drink in by the streams of this Light of Life him and all his Beauties to be a Well springing up to all Grace and Glory to everlasting Life in thee I shall divide this Exhortation into Two Parts 1. Let the single Person of Christ be the only ground of Faith in thee unto justification Es. 60. 1. Arise and shine for the Glory of the Lord is risen upon thee Thou who lyest in the Dust bearing thy shame as one free among the Dead be no longer unbelieving but believe The Person of Christ in the Glory of the Father is risen upon thee filleth all things round about thee arise and shine in the brightness of his Appearance Consider the Fulness of Beauties in Christ and say thus with thy self Hath the Sun Beauty enough to gild every Dung-hill and Dung-heap here below though that be on Earth and he in Heaven Is not my Jesus then rich enough in Glories to overspread my shame and nakedness to make my Person shine in the Beams of his though he be higher than the Heavens I fal'n down to the nethermost parts of the Earth Ther Person of Christ is an overflowing Sea of Spiritual Beauties For all Fulness dwelleth in him If thou canst not cast thy self into him stand still and see how he breaks forth on every side cometh on upon thee with mighty Floods with a Deluge of Light and Beauty till he cover thee and swallow thee up into his Bottomless depths of pure and Divine Glory as a vessel in the Ocean which is fill'd within and overflown without with the Waters of the great and wide Sea 2. Let the single Person of Christ be the sole Ground of Faith unto Sanctification All Fulness the Fulness of a Sea and of a Spring is in Jesus Christ Num. 21. 17 18. You have an excellent Figure in a History The Children of Israel wanted water in the Wilderness God gave them a Well Then they sung this Song They encompassed the Well they sung to it Spring O Well the Princes digged it with their Staves at the direction of the Law-giver Dost thou want streams of Grace Is thy Soul a dry and barren Wilderness Behold Jesus whom God hath given thee for a Well At the direction of this Law-giver dig up the ground in thine heart till this Well this Jesus appear Then whatever Grace thou wantest at all times encompass his Spiritual Person in thy Soul and sing to him Spring O Well Joh. 4. 14. The Water which I will give him saith Jesus Christ shall be a Well springing up in Him unto everlasting Life Take but in One Drop the least Drop of the Sweetness of Christ the least glance of His Beauty into thy Spirit in this thou takest in the Person of Christ Himself the Fountain that shall spring up within thee unto the Life of Holiness which is the same for Nature and Duration with Eternal Life in Heaven Divine and Incorruptible 2. Make the Single Person of Christ the only Object of thy Love Let all the Fulness of thy Love be poured forth upon this Person which hath All Fulness of Beauty in Him There is a Twofold Love of Benevolence of Complacency 1. Love thy Lord Jesus with all thy Love of Benevolence St. Paul complaineth Philip. 2. 21. Every man seeketh his own things no man the things of Jesus Christ. Seek and pray for the prosperity of Jesus Christ all thy daies in His Truths in His Graces in His Glory thorow the whole Earth in His Church in every Creature where he is sown as a Seed Love him with the Love of Wife Children Friend Country Parents Life In Isaac shall thy Seed be called said God to Abraham In Jesus let all Relations even of thy self to thy self have their Name Truth and Vertue to thee Let all those Blessings with which thou shalt bless any of these come upon the Head of the Lord Jesus Wish well to bless all these in the name of the Lord Jesus Say continually let the Immortal Word upon its Wheels run and be glorified thorow all these thorow the whole Heavens and Earth Those that are Florists and love Flowers procure the choicest slips of Flowers set them in their Gardens water them watch them cherish them with the greatest tenderness and care So do thou love Jesus Christ. Be continually sowing and setting him his Beauties in thine own in every Spirit in every Appearance Water them cherish them by Word Example Faith Prayer Go out often into the Fields go down often into the Gardens to see whether these precious Plants bud and Blossom 2. Love the Person of thy Beloved with all thy Love of Complacency Prov. 18. 1. A man through desire seâ—arating himself intermedleth with all Wisdom or with all Substance Behold here the Spouse her love of Complacency to her Spiritual Bridegroom in three Steps Desire Separation Enjoyment 1. Desire Thy Saviour is called in the Prophet Hag. 2. 7. The desire of all Nations Thy Jesus who hath all Beauties for all Eyes and Spirits who hath all desirable things in himself is the desire of all Nations Shall not he then be the desire of all Principles and Powers of Life or Being in thy whole Spirit Soul and Body shall not he be the Object of all thy desires This Person who is the Sealed Sum and perfection of all Beauties putteth this Song into thy mouth Can. 7. 10. My Beloved is mine and I am his and his desire is towards me As the word there signifieth he continually is circling round about me hovering over me with the Eyes of all his Beauties and Loves upon me as a Kite about his Prey Do thou add to thy Song this part also and my desire is toward him Psal. 27. David saith one thing have I desired of the Lord that I may be all the days of my life in his Temple beholding his Beauty and seeking still The Heavenly Form of Christ is the Temple or Palace and the God or King in it the Beauty of all Say thou to Jesus Christ I now for what is my sighing before thee This is all my desire that I may be continually in the Heavenly Light and Divine Form of thy Person that I may be continually feasting all my Faculties and Senses on thy Beauties and endlesly making fresh Discoveries of new Beauties in thee 2. Separation Cant. 8. 6. The Church cryeth to Christ Set me as a Seal upon thine Heart as a Seal upon thine Arm. For Iealousy that is Love in its Strength
every change lieth in the Person of our Beloved as a Mansion cut out of the Rock of Eternity in the flourishing Garden of Eden in the Paradise of the Divine Nature 3. Ground The Person of Christ hath passed thorow all Changes after an Unchangeable manner St Paul teacheth us that the Lord Jesus hath descended to the Nethermost parts of the Earth and ascended above all Heavens to this end that He might fill All Eph. c. 4. v. O that I had the tongue of the Learned the Learned with the Learning of the Holy that I could speak to you with Words taught by the Holy Ghost O that you had hearts to take in and understand more than I can express Jesus Christ our forerunner is gone into every Form of things from the Height of the God-Head above to the lowest Deeps of the Creature to this end that He might fill every Form of Things with the Unchangeable Fulness of His own Person in which All Fulness dwelleth together in a Spiritual and Divine Body He hath by this means filled every point of time with Eternity every spot of Earth with Heaven every Change on Earth in Time with the Unchangeableness of Heaven and Eternity St. Paul said to his Friends This I know that Bonds await me in every place But my life is not dear to me for the Testimony of Jesus A Believer in a contrary sense may say This I know that my Jesus in the fulness of Unchangeable Loves Beauties and Joys waiteth for me in every Change as a Spiritual Bridegroom in a Spiritual Bed of Loves which is ever green which hath a Perpetual Calm upon it and a Perpetual Spring Nothing therefore is dreadful or melancholy to me for the unchanged Pleasantness of my Jesus In the Eastern countreys they imbalmed the Dead Bodies within anoynted them without with costly Spices that they might be preserved from putrefaction and might have a sweet smell When the Woman in the Gospel poured forth a Box of pretious Spikenard upon the feet of Christ He said to some who were offended with the wast Trouble her not She hath done this against my burial The Lord intimated that this was a Sacrament dispensed by a Divine Hand representing for His Consolation this high and holy Mystery that Death and the Dead Body in the Person of Christ are so embalmed anoynted with the pretious Spikenard of the Eternal Spirit that the Dead Body is Incorruptible Immortal and Pleasant Death itself is a Flourishing Life a fragrant sweet-smelling Joy as it lyeth in and is filled with this Unchangeable Person O! with what a sweet Indifferency may we now walk thorow all the Changes of Life and Death when our Heavenly Spouse hath thus embalmed anoynted â—â—lled all with the Delights and Glories of His Unchangeable Person and Presence Use. 3. The Knowledge of the Lord Jesus in His Beauties sanctifieth and sweetneth our Life in this World our Death and Departure out of the World This Use hath Two Parts 1. Part The Opening of the Person of Christ upon us in His Spiritual Glories sanctifieth and sweetneth this Life There are three Principles of the Knowledge of Christ in His true and unchangeable State which will bring home His Heavenly Beauties warm and shining to your Hearts on this Earth by natural Deductions from each Principle 1 Principle This World in its pure Naturals is the Shadow which falleth from the Heavenly Body of Divine Glories in the Person of our Fair One. This hath been proved at large above Learn then from this Truth 4. Lessons 1. Lesson Live unconcerned in this World This Divine Lesson is taught us from Heaven by the Holy Ghost upon this Ground 1. Cor. 7. 29 30 31. But this I say Brethren the time is short It remaineth that both they that have wives be as though they had none And they that wept as though they wept not and they that rejoyce as though they rejoyced not and they that buy as though they bought not they that use this world as not abusing it For the fashion of this world passeth away The Apostle here divideth all this World into 4. Heads 1. Relations 2. Passions 3. Possessions 4. Employments and Entertainments Solomon saith in one place Why shouldst thou set thine heart upon that which is not There is no real Difference between having a Husband Wife or Children and having none between being in Grief or Joy and being without Grief or Joy between having an Estate and having none between being in the height of all Employments or Entertainments and being out of all This world hath nothing real It is all a Shadow Seeing then the various States of things on Earth have no real Difference pass thou thorow all estates with a perfect indifference of Spirit in a constant calm Eccles. 1. This is an Expression of the Vanity of all things here One Generation goeth another cometh but the Earth standeth for ever The Scripture in several places makes this one of the Names of God The Earth the Ground out of which all Generations of Things arise and into which they return again Divines interpret that Land of the Living mentioned to be the Divine Nature In this let our Spirits be a Divine Earth standing for ever unmoved upon its own Center of Eternity while one change after another cometh and passeth away again The Holy Ghost presseth it upon us by three Arguments 1. This World is a Fashion a Figure only a Shadow The fashion of this world In having this world thou hast a Shadow The Substance is above Let the world in having thee have thy shadow only Let thine heart be in Heaven with Jesus Christ. 2. This world vanisheth as a shadow The fashion of this world passeth away The Colours in a Rain-bow are Appearances of Colours and no more made by the reflection of the Sun upon a dark and watery Cloud So they suddenly break up and are seen no more The Colours of a Flower upon its stalk in the Garden are real livâ—â—g and lasting Such is the difference between Things on Earth and Things in Heaven Nothing here hath either Substance or Root 3. This world is a flying shadow suddenly gone The time is short As the shadow upon a Dyal in a short Winter-day moveth swiftly passeth away presently the Sun being low and immediately going in or going down so is every condition every comfort in Flesh. This is the first Lesson 2. Lesson Live without care and with content Let your moderation be known unto all men The Lord is at hand Be careful for nothing but in every thing by Prayer and supplication with Thansgiving let your requests be made known unto God Phil. 4. 5 6. You have in these words 1. A Precept for moderation Moderation is that measure of Things by which they are proportioned and tuned each to other so as to fall in and agree in one This is that which maketh Beauty in Sights and Musick in Sounds A contented frame
of Life Light Love into this Darkness as the Center in the midst of this glorious Circle where all the Lines from every Point of it meet in One. Again O Believing Soul in this Sight in this Sense in the vertue of these Divine Descents return and spread thy self by all these Lines of Glory together with thy God into the Circle of Eternity There comprehend All thy self and All in the Incomprehensible Mystery of God There see hear tast enjoy Him as Beauty itself Sweetness itself Musick itself Joy itself in All. See Hear tast enjoy All as that Beauty that Musick that Sweetness that Joy in him Thus call him by every name that is named in this world or that which is to come Call every thing in him by a new name above every name which is named in this world or that which is to come When Jacob saw the Chariots which his Son Joseph sent to bring him down into Egypt his Soul revived and he said it is enough that my Son Joseph liveth I will go see him before I die When thou seest Clouds of Enemies or oppositions in thy Affairs which are apt to perplex thee and fill thee with care shut this Eye of Flesh which representeth all things false open the Eye of the Spirit Then look again and see the Chariots of fire and Horses of fire a Spiritual fire shining with Glory burning with Love refining and spiritualizing all things as they ascend with them Now let thy Spirit revive within thee from its care to a Heavenly calm and to praises Say it is enough my Jesus liveth and loveth me This is his Chariot The Flames of it are Flames of Love He is himself in the midst of it upon a seat of Gold I see him He cometh to carry me up above this world into his Heavenly Kingdom I will ascend with him 4. Ingred The making of our requests known to God What Hearts-â—ase is this to have the priviledge of expressing all our desires to God himself with freedom and familiarity at a banquet of Wine of Spiritual Loves better than Wine The Husbandman planteth his Vine against a South-wall and spreadeth all the Branches of it there where it may receive the Sun fullest and longest that by this means all the vertue of the plant may be drawn forth into a great plenty of fairer and sweeter Grapes Let thy Spirit be a Heavenly Vine planted by the Eternal Spirit in thee Let thy will be the Heavenly sap of the Divine Will and the Divine Love in thee Instead of cares spread all thy desires like the Branches of this Vine fasten them continually before thy Invisible Sun the Face of God where the Beams of his Love and Excellencies fall with greatest heat and constancy So shall all the sweet Sap of thy Vine all the Divine Will in thy Will that is all Seeds all desires of Good of Love of Loveliness of Joy of Blessedness be made to grow and be ripened in their proper season unto the most perfect and most pleasant Fruit. 5. Ingred Universality Be careful in nothing but in every thing by Prayer and Supplication with Thanksgiving make your requests known to God There is nothing too great for us to be assured of the Ear and Heart and Hand of God in it There is nothing too little for us to trouble him with Every thing that can befal us in an opportunity a Scene for all manner of Communion with God for Faith and Love to act all their parts upon in all their several Habits and Dresses Prayer Supplication Thanksgiving Requests find a pâ—ace in every Providence Day unto Day declareth Knowledge Night unto Night uttereth Speech Psal. 19. 3. Every State every season of Light and Darkness in all senses bring down from Heaven to us in one lovely Love Appearance or another Jesus Christ with the Heart of the Father Let every day and every night as it returneth to Heaven again carry up Jesus Christ from our Hearts and our Hearts in him in some Spiritual dress to the Bosom of the Father In every thing thy God acteth all manner of Loves expresseth and conveyeth all his Glories to thee In every thing do thou meet him return to him the activity of all thy Loves and the exercise of all Graces 6. Ingred The Ground of all these Ingredients and their vertue in this Cordial The Lord being at hand v. 5. The Philosopher in a Mill seeing his Friends making a doubt of coming in to him there out of a disesteem of the place and of him for being found in that place invited them in with these words here also are the immortal Gods When thou feelest thine heart standing at a distance from any condition for the obscurity of it or disquieted with cares in any condition for the troubles of it say to thine heart after this manner here also is my Jesus with all his Train of Immortal Glories Loves Angels and Spirits Here he is in a Figure of himself Here is he in Person under this Figure Here he is ready to shine forth and appear gloriously This is his Shadow This Shadow is his Tabernacle in which he dwelleth with me Upon this Ground will I tune all my cares all the unquiet motions of my Spirit to Prayers and Praises to the Melody of Faith Love and Joy Thus much for the 2d Lesson of living without Care with content upon this First Principle in the knowledge of the Lord and his Beauties that he maketh this world a Shadow falling from his Beautiful Person 3. Lesson Live beautifully and purely as Priests to God in this present world For this world is the Temple of God in as much as it is Jesus Christ in a Shadow For the Invisible things of him from the Creation of the World are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his Eternal Power and God-Head Rom. 1. 20. Four things make a Temple 1. A Divine Authority for the building of it This World is the Creation of God 2. A Divine Pattern The Invisible things of the God-Head of the Lord Jesus the power of the God-Head of Eternity are figured upon this World 3. A Divine End The proper end of these Figures is to form notions of the Divine nature upon our minds to lead us to converse with it to bring us into the Participations of it that it may enjoy itself in the reflections of its own excellencies and Glories from us v. 21. When they knew God they glorified him not as God They emproved not these Figures and Notions to an entrance within the Vail into the Glory itself which was the Divine end of them 4. A Divine Presence Jesus is he who filleth All in All Ephes. 1. l. In what a Calm in what Serenity in what Purity with what Beauty should we appear in this world as Priests in the Temple and in the midst of the Mysteries of God Psal. 29. 9 In his Temple doth every one speak of his
if I go not away the Comforter will not come unto you but if I depart I will send Him to you Joh. 16. 7. Jesus Christ in the Shadow in the Flesh is the Crucifier and the crucified Jesus Christ in the Substance in the Spirit is the Comforter and the Comforted How expedient is it for us in the midst of these Shadows to withdraw our selves into the Life and Truth that when all things there are dying upon the Cross all things here may be Comforters and Comforts which continue for ever The Lord Jesus saith to the Father Sacrifice and Burnt-offering thou wouldest not have but a Body hast thou prepared me that is to be offered up in the place of all Sacrifices Hâ—b 10. 1. We read v. 1. that the Law hath a Shadow only of good things to come Jesus and all His Members have the Shadowy Body of this Natural Man and the First Creation fitted for them only to sacrifice themselves in these to the Eternal Truth that thus they may return on high into That All Shadows are under the Law The Law hath Shadows only of Good things to come All Sacrifices are under the Law The Gospel is a Feast Spirit and Life How wise how blessed is he who gathereth himself up entirely out of Nature and Flesh into the Invisible Glory of the Spirit In which while Flesh is suffering as a Sacriâ—ice by Fire he seeth all Flesh Suffering and Sacrifices to be Shadows only Shadows of Immortal Joys and Himself already in those Joys triumphing over and comprehending those Shadows in the Beautiful and Blessed Truth These are the Lessons from the First Principle which was that this World in its pure Naturals falleth as a Shadow from the Glorified Person of our Saviour 2. Principle The Presence and Appearance of the Person of our Lord Jesus and His Glory is withdrawn from the faln and corrupt World The Devil is called in the Scriptures The Prince of Darkness and The Prince of this World This World the World in this faln state is Darkness Darkness is the Privation of Light The absence of the Sun from the Earth is the Cause of Darkness Our Saviour in Glory is the Light the Sun of the whole Creation While He goeth away with His Beams into a far countrey to shine in the Invisible World He leaveth all behind Him in the Dark Three Lessons naturally flow from this second Principle 1. Lesson Believe not any Appearances of things in this World Darkness in the language of the Holy Ghost signifieth Deceit The Lord Jesus saith of Himself I am the Truth Truth hath lest the World together with Jesus Christ. Blessed is he who having the Possessions or Powers of this World in his Hand the Smile or Frowns of it before his Eyes the Griefs or Joys of it in his Heart can with a good assurance say Have I not a Lye in my Hand and in my Heart Are not the Apparitions of the Devil the Father of Lyes before me 2. Lesson Love not the things of this World James 4. 4. Ye adulterers and Adulteresses know ye not that the Friendship of this World is enmity with God It is not now the Seed of the Woman which is a Divine Loveliness and Love in the Person of our Heavenly Bridegroom which springeth up in all the Forms and Fruits of this World Yet a little while saith He to the World and ye shall see me no more No! It is the Seed of the Serpent in Deformity and Enmity in a Contrariety to all Spiritual Beauty Goodness and Truth which groweth up every where Your Love to any part of this World is Unclean and Adulterous By it you leave the pure and sweet embraces of your own Glorious Husband to ly down infolded in the treacherous Twinings of the old Serpent the Dragon 3. Lesson Walk not after the Fashion of this World Rom. 12. 2. Be not conformed to this World While the Lord Jesus was with this World it was His Shadow He figured His Beauties upon it He acted it with His Spirit His Name was as an Ointment poured out upon it He spake to us and conversed with us there But now when He is absent the beautiful Figure is gone the Darkness with all its confusions and cursed Fruits remain The Spirit of Darkness ariseth in it with all his Hellish Forms of Deceit Defilement and Wrath If thou cloath thy Spirit with any Worldly Image thou puttest on a filthy Garment which will pollute thee thou puttest on a fiery garment which hathâ— the burning poysons of Hell hidden in it which will cleave inseparably to thee torturing and consuming thee with a hidden inward and uâ—quenchable flame This is the Second Principle 3. Principle Jesus Christ hath reconciled all things hath gathered up all things into One hath made all things New with the Spiritual and Eternal Glory of the Father as the World standeth in the Resurrection of Christ from the Dead and in His Glorified Person as a New Head to it with a New Name Lesson You then that are Christ's live victoriously and triumphantly in this World Abide in your Head â—There you see all this World lying conquered captivated comprehended in a new and endless World of Life Love and Glory Rom. 5. We rejoyce saith St. Paul v. 2. And not onely so but we glory in tribulation v. 3. Because the Love of God is shed abroad in our Hearts by the Holy Ghost given unto us v. 5. O Christians live in Joy Live in Glory live in perpetual Triumph For by the Resurrection and Ascension of your Jesus the bitterest Enmities the blackest Extremities are Forms Floods of Light and Love in that Sea of Light and Love the Holy Ghost breaking forth from the sweet and glorious Deep of the God-Head in the Heart of the Father Rom. 8. v. 57. In all these things famine nakedness sword mentioned before we are more than conquerours through Him that loved us v. 58 59. For nothing life nor death nor Angels things present nor things to come nor height nor depth shall be able to sparate us from the love of god wlâ—â—â— is in Christ Jesus Dear Soul dwell for ever in this good Land of Life and Love thy Saviour in the Spirit Nothing here can separate thee from the Divine Love Every thing then that cometh to thee in life or in death must come in that Element of Love it must come in a Lovedress it must be Love itself in a Lovely Form Every thing that toucheth thee here must touch thee with the Heavenly kisses and Embraces of Divine Love Otherwise there would be a Separation between Love and thee In thy glorified Jesus is the Love of God that Love which is God the God-Head of Love O blessed Habitation O Happy and Heavenly Countrey thine own Countrey indeed What so much our own what so near us so much One with us as Love Here Love in its God-Head filleth all in Spiritual Forms in Forms of Glory and of God
O glorious Victory O Saints more than Conquerours in the Resurrection of your Saviour The World is faln before you it is no more The old things of Vanity Darkness Sin Sorrow Death are passed away in His Death Thus you are conquerours But in His Resurrection the World is raised again in a Form of Eternal Love and Glory for you All things are come again and are made New All things appear again the second time Immortal Spirits shining in the Loveliness burning in the Love of the God-Head for you opening all things past present and to come in themselves as Beautiful and Sacred Mysteries of Divine Love to you which ever is Delighting it self in You sporting with you preparing Joys Glories for you Thus you are more than Conquerous through Him who hath loved You. Live then in Him Joyfully gloriously Triumphantly I have done with the first Part of my last Use the Sweeâ—ning and Sanctifying Life in this World 2. Part. To sweeten and sanctifie Death by the Knowledge of Christ in Glory I shall lay down three Principles to this End 1. Principle Every Saint standeth â—compleat in Glory in the Glorified Person of Christ above even while he is living or dying here below Ye are compleat in Him who is the Head of all Principality and Power Col. 2. 10. In the verse before the Lord Jesus was described as in Him dwelleth all the Fulness or Compleatness of the God-Head bodily v. 9. Then this is added And in Him ye are compleat or full who is the Head of all Principality and Power A Believer is compleat in his Saviour as He hath the Compleatness of the God-Head in him and the Compleatness of all the Angels beneath him His Life then and His Death as they stand in Jesus Christ are more than Angelical They are Divine I shall endeavour to set in lively Figures before your Eyes the Beauty and Sweetness in the Death of a Saint by four Scriptures 1. Script And hath raised us up together and made us sit together in Heavenly places in Christ Jesus Eph. 2. v. 6. What is to be understood by together is plain in the verse before hath quickned us together with Christ It is God who doth all this as is seen v. 4. God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he hath loved us Four Positions lye clear in this Scripture 1. Pos. A Believer is risen from the Dead He dieth no more He is passed from Death to Life As Abraham is said to have received Isaac from the Dead in a Figure So the Beloved of the Lord dâ—eth onely in a Figure Death is to him a Divine Figure standing in the Resurrection from the Dead His Death is a Flower of Life and Immortality growing up in the Paradise of God which is the Glorified Person of Jesus It beareth indeed the Figure of Death but is full of a Sweetness and Beauty which can never fade or dye Let us all labour for our part in the New Birth This is a Resurrection from the Dead All things after it are Life Pure Life without any mixture of Death Perpetual Life Endless Life without any Sting of Death in the tail of it 2. Pos. A Believer is already sâ—t down in Heavenly places nay more than Heavenly The Word Heavenly is by some translated and so it properly signifieth Supercoelestial more than Heavenly places above the Heavens Here a Saint is made to sit down He is fixed and established He is at rest at home at the end of all his journeyings and changes He is set as a Bride at the Marriage-feast He is set as a Prince upon the Throne of his Kingdom Thus God giveth His Beloved Sleep Rest a Feast a Throne in Death Jesus Christ in Glory is this Sleep this Rest this Feast this Throne which endureth for ever and ever O Christian rejoyce and glory in Death for the Hope of the Joy and Glory of thy Bridegroom there Thy Death hath nothing of Dust or Darkness in it It is a Heavenly Thing nay more than Heavenly It is something Supercoelestial It is a soft Strain and ravishing Touch in the Musick of the Divine and Eternal Rest. It is a savoury Dish such as thy soul loveth at the Feast in the Kingdom of God Solomon had a throne of Gold On the Steps which were the Ascents to the Throne on each side were Lyons of pure Gold Thy Death O Saint is now no more a fierce and devouring Lyon to affright thee It is the figure of a Lyon in Gold in one Glory It is not onely an Ascent to thy Throne O Jedidiah Beloved of the Lord It is One Piece of Eternal Glory with thy Throne It is an Ornament an Embâ—â—llishment of Glory to thy Throne How good is it for those who are born of God to keep themselves pure that they may alwaies see God that they may see all things to them Divine Objects in a Divine Light sparkling Jewels of Divine Love We are ever in the midst of these things which are more than Heavenly in the midst of these Supercoelestials even in the arms of Death While we keep our selves unspotted from this world we see these Supercoelestials and Death itself in the number of them But every sin casteth a mist upon them and covereth us with a Cloud that we see them no more Now the Visions of our Joy and Glory of Light and Truth are hid from our Eyes Now fear and trembling are upon 〈◊〉 Life is full of Trouble and Death full of Terrour 3. Pos. A Saint is set down in Heavenly places together with Jesus Christ. The sweetning and the heightning of all the Joys and Glories of the Gospel is the Union with thy Beloved Bridegroom The work of Grace is a Birth a Resurrection a Marriage all in one The Death of a Saint is an Act of Spiritual Communion between Christ and the Soul a Marriage-Joy The Lord Jesus presenteth himself to the Believer in the Form of Death as in a Heavenly a Supercoelâ—stial Beauty At this sight the Saint is immediately transformed into the same Image Jesus Christ springeth up into the Believer a Believer springeth up into his Beloved in this Heavenly Form So both are made one in it Thus Death becometh a Love-play between Christ and his Spouse He by a Spiritual Kiss breatheth forth his Spirit of Divine Loves Immortality and Invisible Glories into the Spouse The Spouse ravished sorth from her self again in the same moment breatheth forth her Spirit into the Bosom of her Lord. Thus they die together they die one in another they die one into another In the first of the Canticles there is a Prophetical Song which beginneth at the Resurrection of our Saviour and the Effusion of the Spirit together with the Spiritual Union between Christ and his Church which was as their Heavenly Espousals solemnized and sealed with a Kiss with the reiterated Kisses of his Mouth Then followeth in the process of the first
diffused is given to us by the Father in the Glorified Person of Christ. This is the Glorifying of His Person the Pouring forth of this Love which is the Gold of the Temple the Glory of Eternity in Him as in a Common Person in which the whole Creation lyeth Before I leave this Scripture which I have brought for the Proof of my Doctrine ye who hear and ye who read stand still a while and together with me gaze upon admire the riches of the glory of the Grace and Love of God in the Gospel This saith St. John is the Record that He hath given us Eternal Life and this Life is in His Son You have here the whole Substance of the Gospel the Record of God the Glad Tydings from Heaven summ'd up It is Love This Love lyeth in Three Parts 1. Free Grace in these words God hath given us 2. The Gift of Free Grace Eternal Life You have heard already that the Eternity the Perfection and Crown of Life is Love 3. The Lovely Seat of this Gift and this Life this Love is in His Son Behold how the Love of the Gospel is no other than the Divine Nature and the 3 Parts of this Love the 3 Persons in that Divine Nature 1 Free Grace is the Fountain of Love the Fountain of the God-Head the Father the Giver 2. The Gift is the Holy Spirit Love itself the Eternity of Life and Love the Collection of all Loves and Lives in Eternity the Gathering together of all the pure and sweet Waters of Love and Life into One Place 3. The Seat of this Gift the Son The Person of our Bridegroom is that vast bright and Beautiful Deep prepared as a place for those pleasant Waters those Treasures of Love How are the Windows of the God-Head here set wide open to pour down Showers of Love How are the great Deeps of the God-Head broken up to send forth Floods of Love What a Blessed Deluge of Love is here enough to drown ten thousand Worlds of Sins and Souls after a Lovely manner so that the Sins shall never live nor appear more the Souls shall never dye nor be at all darkened any more Come now ye unbelieving Hearts be subdued to the Faith of the Gospel by the Strength of this Love Come ye hard Hearts bee softned by the Sweetness of this Love Come ye unclean Hearts be refined be Spiritualised be raised above Sense Flesh by the Purity of this Love All the Strength all the Sweetness all the Purity and Pure Beauties of the Divine Nature are concurrent in this Love The Three Glorious Persons in the Trinity are no other than Love itself in so many Forms of Beauty and Blessedness acting those Heavenly Parts which may make all the Joys and Glories of Love compleat in them and in you I shall prosecute my Doctrine under three Heads 1. The Nature of Divine Love 2. The Effusion or pouring forth of this Love 3. The Person of our Lord Jesus as this Love is poured forth into him 1. Head The Nature of Divine Love I shall endeavour to explain this to you by three Descriptions 1. Descript. Divine Love is a Union between God as a Lover and the Soul as his Love 1 Cor. 6. 16 17. It is said they two shall be one Flesh. But he that is joyned to the Lord is one Spirit Marriage is the Solemnity Festival and Crown of Love The Marriage-Union is the perfection of the Love-Union The Spirit speaketh here of a Marriage in the Flesh as a Figure and Foil only but of the Marriage in the Spirit as Love-Union in its Lustre and its Life This Love-Union hath three Parts 1. There is a Unity which is the ground of Love All Love springeth from this Divine Seed sown throughout all things a Primitive and Original Unity 2. There is a Distinction in the Unity which is the Life of Love This maketh the Lovers The Unity springeth up within itself into a Distinct and Beautiful Image of itself that it may be both its Lover and its Love 3. There is a Union of these two the Original and its own Life-Image as they stand distinct in the Unity This is Love consummate This is the Marriage-bed of Divine Love ever flourishing and fruitful Here it multiplieth itself into innumerable Loves Beauties and Joys which flow endlesly fresh every moment out of this sacred Fountain Thus Love is the Circle of Eternity hath its beginning in itself springeth up out of itself returneth again into itself without beginning or end Thus in Heavenly Love first one is made two then two are made one again So is it all four in one a Birth a Marriage a Death a Resurrection in a continual Circle while they are ever bringing forth one another dying into each other rising again one out of the other and in all united This is the Divine sport or play of Spiritual Love You shall see these three parts of the Heavenly Love-union in three Images in Heaven in Paradise in the Soul 1. Love-Union in Heaven The first Person in the Trinity is the God-Head in the Unity which is the Center and Spring of all Love The Second Person is the God-Head distinguishing itself into a variety of Persons in the Unity The God-Head in the glorious and deep center of its Unity springeth up into an express Image of itself shining forth from the Unity and shining back upon it in the brightness of all its own Glories within its own Divine deep and Center This is to the Father perfectly Himself his Son and his Spouse all in one The Spirit is the Third Person This is the Union of the other two Divines therefore peculiarly appropriate the name of Love to this Person The manner of his Production is expressed by a Procession from the Father and the Son joyntly by way of breathing as the sweets of two Flowers mingling in the same Air or as the Divine Kiss of two Spirits by which they breath forth themselves each into other and become two Spirits in one This is the first Image of the Love-Union in Heaven where the Mystery of the Trinity is the high and Holy Mystery of Love in its Original Here first of all one is made two and those two are made one again 2. Love-Union in Paradise Adam and Eve together with the race of all Living to which Eve was Mother stood at first in Adam all in one Male and Female made He him Gen. 1. v. This was Humane Nature in its Unity the figure of the Divine Unity the Father in the Trinity Then Eve was taken out of Adam The Unity was distinguished into two Persons and Sexes within itself For Adam saith of Eve after the distinction This is Flesh of my Flesh and Bone of my Bone The Unity of the Nature continued in the two Sexes Now the Woman was the Image and the Glory of the Man in Paradise as the Son is the Image of the Father and the Brightness of
within and without in the glorified Person of the Lord Jesus There he taketh his first view of thee There his Eye and his Heart are fixt Eternally to thee Here he maketh choice of thee here he falleth in love with thee and his Soul resteth with perfect delight in thee For he beholdeth thee as a spectacle of all Divine loveliness lying in the Bosom of him who is the brightness of all Divine Glory As a Vessel in the Sea is filled with the Waters and overflown with the same Waters so art thou before the World was in the Person of thy Jesus as in a Sea of Spiritual Heavenly Beauties all full within all covered without with these Glories quite thorow transparent with the riches of their lustre entirely swallowed up into the Sea of these pure and bright Glories This is Electing Love of which St. Paul speaketh Ephes. 1. He hath made us acceptable in the beloved one It is a significant expression which no language can answer for the Sweetness and Fulness of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 made acceptable The phrase hath this force in it God embraceth thee with the Arms of the dearest and tenderest loves finding thee entirely cloathed and encircled with the height of all loveliness in the object of all loves and the first sâ—at the essence itself of all lovelinesses the Lord Jesus His Soul is well-pleased with thee to the utmost of all Content he hath his fill of Pleasures in thee enjoying thee in the Center of all Pleasantnesses his own Son 2. Part. Dâ—vine love in the second Part is a love of Benevolence While thou art a desolate Wilderness where nothing appeareth but Dearth and Drouth but Bush and Brake the love of Eternity descendeth and soweth itself as a Heavenly Seed in thee It cometh down in Heavenly Showers It breaketh forth in Heavenly Sun-shines upon thee The same love springeth up into all manner of Spiritual loveliness in thee Now the Grass groweth the Roes and the Hinds play where the Dragon lay The Bramble bringeth forth Roses The Stony Heart is now made the Garden of God The Soul which wallowed in the â—ilth of the Devil is washed by Eternal love in its own Blood redeemed by its own life made to bear the Fruit of its own loveliness and ready trimmed for a Bride to itself 3. Part. Divine love in the third Part is a love of Complacency and delight in thee in thine own Person Now Heaven is opened to thee God with all his holy Angels are continually descending and ascending between Heaven and thine Heart which is become as it were another Heaven on Earth God resteth in his Love to thee and rejoyceth with singing over thee The Marriage-feast of the Lamb and his Bride is kept in thee and thou art that Bride God with all his loves resteth in thy Bosom All his desires who is infinite are terminated in thee All his delights are consummated in thee All the Quires of Angels round about sing of his love to thee All his Excellencies and Glories all his works on every side sing for his Joy in thee Ah! Dear Souls When God shall thus bring back your Captivity how will your Mouths be filled with laughter How will you be as those that Dream But why should these glad Tydings seem to you too good too great to be true God is able to do all this for you and in you For his Power is Infinite God is as willing as he is able For his Power lyeth in his Will and his Will is Love Only wait thou for him and keep thine Eye upon the first Link in the Golden Chain of Divine love which is fastned to the Throne of God the Person of Christ in Heaven above all thy frailties folly and filths before thy Being in Flesh. This Link is that which draweth after it the other two inseparably and infallibly This is the Circle of Heavenly love First God loveth thee in Eternity with that love with which he loveth the Lord Jesus For he beholdeth thee in the light of the same loveliness in which he beholdeth Jesus Christ. Then he bringeth down the Treasure of this love and loveliness which is his beloved Son into thee soweth him as a Seed of the Divine Nature and Sonship He springeth up in thee transformeth thee into his own likeness groweth up in an inseparable Union and Fellowship with thee Now God hath another Son in which he seeth his Son in conjunction on Earth as he saw them before in conjunction in Heaven Lastly God embraceth this Son on Earth in whom he seeth his Son He giveth him the kiss of a Father with all the Joys of a Father He taketh him into his Arms carrieth him up into Heaven changing him still as he carrieth him up till this Union begun below be at last made perfect in and swallowed up into that Union which was at first in Eternity Then shall the Lord Jesus see himself in a Saint after the same manner in which a Saint is seen in the Lord Jesus both being made perfect in Each and all made perfect in one Follow on to know the Lord and his love and ye shall know this love of the Lord. 1. Use. See the Evil of sin upon two Accounts First Sin is an Aberration from the Will of God Secondly Sin is an Opposition to that Will 1. The first Evil of Sin is that is it an Aberration from the Will of God The Will of God is love In every Sinful path thou losest the Love-Presence of thy God What is this Love-Presence and what is thy loss in being deprived of it In the Love-Pâ—esence of God are these Things 1. A Light of Glory shining round about thee This Light of Glory cloatheth thy Person all over with its living lustre as with a Garment of pure Gold of Divine Loveliness This Light layeth all things open and naked to thee in their Heavenly Beauties in their Eternal Truths and Substances This light is a mutual Union and Fellowship between thee and all things in the light all the Children of light all Spirits and Forms of light This light is a Spiritual Paradise in which thou springest up and flourishest as a Plant and Flower of light This Divine Light is a new Wine which thou continually drinkest in and art filled with pure Spirits of all Life Excellency Loves and Joys Lastly This pleasant and triumphant Light chaseth away all the shadows all the darkness deceits melancholy and fears of the Night 2. In the Love-Presence is the Face of God unvailed naked and smiling God is as a King and a Bridegroom in his Ivory Palace Thou art as his Queen and Bride at his Right hand in Garments of Needle-work wrought by the Eternal Spirit with all manner of Beautiful and Delightful Flowers and Figures Here they make these two glad with all manner of Pleasures as on their Marriage-day 3. An innumerable company of Angels make up this Love-Presence These are thy guard They
to this end that you may not sin by departing from it but if any man do sin that he may presently return Saul was softned and melted when he heard the language of love from David who had watched over him to preserve him while he slept in the midst of that Army with which he made War upon him Is this thy voice my Son David said he then Open thine Eyes see the Divine Will with innumerable Eyes of love watching over thee in the midst of thy rebellions Open thine Ears hear the Divine Will wooing thee with the sweetest language of love in the midst of thy pollutions This will turn thee again to the Will of God to melt thy self into its Bosom when once this thought ariseth in thee that thou returnest to a Bosom of love ever open to thee Use. 3. Be in love with Holiness Holiness is a Conformity to the Will of God This Will is Love How easy is that Yoak How light is the Burthen How pleasant is the Law of Love Keep my Commandment and abide ye in my Love even as I abide in my Fathers Love saith Jesus Christ. To abide in the Divine Will to keep the Commandments of that is to abide in the Paradise of Divine love to dress it and keep it David saith of the Law of the Lord Psal. 19. It is more to be desired than thousands of Gold and Silver It is sweeter than the Honey and the Honey-comb In keeping it is exceeding great reward Hear O beloved Souls and be wise and be in love with Holiness In every command to Holiness God cometh to you in the Light and Purity of all his Divine Beauties in the Strength and Sweetness of all his Divine loves to make thee like himself to marry thee to himself In every act of obedience to this law of Holiness thy Person shineth with a Heavenly lustre by the shining forth of the unvailed Person of God upon thee thou receivest a kiss of Heavenly love immediately from the Mouth of God and returnest it again O tast and see Then you will say that this Heavenly Traffick is beyond that of all precious of all pleasant things No where such loveliness as this no where such love Holiness is a Conformity to the Will of God The Will of God is Love the Fountain and the Life of all Incorruptible Beauties of all pure and ever-flourishing Pleasures I have done with the second â—escription of Divine Love which defineth it to be the same with the Divine Will 3. Descrip. God is Love He who was the Disciple of Love who lay in the Bosom of Love and so best knew what Love is declareth Divine Love to be the Nature and Essence of God God saith he is Love He that dwelleth in Love dwelleth in God and God dwelleth in him 1 Joh. 3. 16. As the Sea is a heap of Waters The gathering together of the Waters God called the Sea Gen. 1. As the Body of the Sun is a pure and simple Light so is God a Collection of Loves a gathering together of all Loves into one Spirit This is the Divine Nature an Unity a Purity a Simplicity of Love I shall endeavour to shew you by four Arguments that there is no name which doth so properly so fitly express the nature of God as this of Love 1. Argum. The first the principal Thing the beginning of all Things in God is Love Psal. 136. I intend a short Paraphrase upon this whole Psalm because it maketh so clearly and fully for my purpose being taken altogether from the beginning to the end of it If you would hear the Musick of Angels of Heaven if you would hear the living Harmony of the Divine Nature as it is all Love listen with a Spiritual Ear to this Psalm which is a Song composed entirely of this Subject of Divine Love If the Spirit of God assist me to sound forth aright the Heavenly Musick of this Psalm I do not doubt to make your hearts in your Bosoms to leap and dance to it by that time I have done First Take two general Observations concerning this Psalm 1. Gener. Observ. This is a Psalm of Praises and Thanksgivings the Work of Heaven a Heavenly Work But all the Praises here are attributed to all the Thanksgivings are terminated in Love and the Eternity of Love This is the burthen of the Song repeated in every verse this is that into which all the Strength and Sweetness of the sense is still resolved this maketh one half of every verse quite thorow the whole Psalm For his Mercy endureth for ever The Word in Hebrew signifieth alike Mercy Kindness Love That word endureth is added by the Translatours You may read the words with as full an agreement with the Original as I humbly conceive For his Love is Eternal But however this be if we adhere to the Translation Mercy is one of the sweetest tenderest largest names of Divine love 1. Mercy is Love condescending and descending from the heights of all Heavens above to the nethermost parts of the Earth to the nethermost Hell 2. Mercy is Love uniting itself to the vilest and most miserable Creatures which lie below which stick in the Mire and Clay in the bottom of the Pit There love sympathizeth with them maketh itself entirely one with them in their low estate 3. Mercy is Love making a mutual and strange exchange with those loathsome and lost Souls Iâ— taketh to itself their guilt shame weakness and woes It giveth to them its own Righteousness Strength Beauties Joys and Glories Thus Mercy is the circle of Divine love as it cometh forth from Heaven and Eternity goeth down to the lowest depths of Time and the Creation then ascendeth again till like the Sun it return thither where it first arose Poor and broken Spirits who lie at the utmost ends of the Earth mourning as outcasts hope evermore in Eternal love wait for it The love of God will find you out it will meet with you and take you in its way For Divine love is Eternal It encompasseth Heaven and Earth Time and Eterty His Mercy endureth for ever 2. Gener. Observ. This Psalm comprehendeth all things in it Created or Uncreated the Nature of God the Persons of God and of Christ the Wonders of God the Works of God the Works of Nature Grace and Glory It comprehendeth all things Then it maketh the ground and Crown of all to be Love this is brought in to every particular in each verse as the Reason Rule Result of all For his Mercy endureth for ever for his love is Eternal It is a maxime in Nature that all motion is founded upon something unmoveable This is the Divine Maxime upon which Heaven and Earth standeth all motions in the heart of God and in the Creature of Grace and Nature are founded upon the unmoveableness the unchangeableness of eternal Love O blessed Love O blessed God who is this love O blessed Soul which with a spiritual Eye created
by this love seeth this all this whole frame of things to be a structure a composure of Divine Love Eternal Love rising up into a Temple which itself filleth with its All-powerful presence and God-Head figuring itself in all Forms acting all Parts dwelling and conversing with us with itself in us and in all things Wandring Souls take what wings you will to your selves you can never fly from the Face from the Bosom of this Love The Face of Divine Love shineth thorow all things The Bosom of Love is the Nest in which all things lie He that hath an Eye to see this Love he that hath a Palate to rellish it feeleth and feedeth upon a Heavenly Sweetness dropping from the Divine Nature thorow all Objects thorow all his Senses as that Honey from the Rock of Eternity These are the two general observations I come now to the parts of the Psalm which are three 1. God 2. The Wonders 3. The Works of God 1. Part God This Part hath three Particulars 1. The Nature of God 2. The Person of the Father 3. The Person of Christ. 1. Partic. The Nature of God is Love O give thanks unto the Lord for he is good for his Mercy endureth for ever v. 1. Goodness is the Nature of God All the Goodness of God consisteth in his Love and the unchangeableness the Eternity of that The Lord Iesus teacheth us in the Gospel that there is none good but one that is God God alone is good essentially and so primitively and so perfectly infinitely good For nothing can limit or confine itself Goodness is in each Creature as an accident only In God it is his essence The essence of God is goodness The essence of goodness is Love Eternal Love O give thanks unto the Lord for he is good for his Mercy endureth for ever his Love is Eternal The Reason or Object in God of all Thanksgivings is his goodness The Formal Reason the Essence of his goodness is his Love As we pass let us make four short Notes upon this Particular 1. Faith in the Soul is to be the Counterpart of Love in God How large then should out Faith be which is to answer so great a Love All the goodness of God lyeth in his Love The Essence of God which is so incomprehensible so infinite is Love The Heart of God the Divine Nature is all Love O that our Hearts our Souls our whole Being were all one Mouth of Faith and that Mouth opening itself still wider and wider to take in these Seas of Divine Love 2. The goodness of the Divine Nature is Love The Seed then of all goodness in us is Divine Love Let us never say the Evil of my Heart and Life keep me from the Fountain of Love in the Heart of God If I were good with what Freedom should I come to it With what desire delight should I drink of it Take in this Love that thou mayst be good This is the beautiful Flower and ripe Fruit of the Divine Nature in the Creator This is the Immortal and precious Seed of the Divine Nature in the Creature 2. Partic. The Person of the Father is Love O give thanks unto the God of Gods for his Mercy endureth for ever v. 2. The ground upon which I Interpret the God of Gods in this verse to be the Father the Lord of Lords in the following verse to be Jesus Christ is the Authority of the Holy Ghost in the New Testament who often distinguisheth these two ever-blessed Persons by these several Titles of God and Lord. St. Peter saith of Jesus Christ in the Acts Him hath God made both Lord and King St. Paul saith There is one God the Father of whom are all things and we of him There is one Lord Jesus by whom are all things and we by him The Holy Apostle seemeth here by the name of God to understand the Fountain of things by that of Lord the Channel In another place he speaketh in like manner There are differences of Administrations but the same Lord. There are diversities of operations but the same God who worketh all in all God is the Original of all Power Jesus Christ the great and universal Administrator the supream Minister in all the Affairs of the God-Head and so the Lord. But to return the excellency by which God the Father infinitely surmounteth all the Gods â—ll Powers Greatnesses and Glories is Eternal Love The Soveraignty by which he reigneth over ruleth rideth forth upon all the Gods all Powers Greatnesses and Glories is Eternal Love The Fountain of the Father from which he bringeth forth the highest Spirits Angels and Saints into the Heavenly Image and Form of God that they all become as Sons of God as Gods round about the Throne of the God of Gods the Father of them all this Fountain is Eternal Love O ye Saints O ye Souls whom God hath created and brought forth from a Seed of Love in Eternity lay your Mouth to this breast of Love suck in abundantly the pure Milk of Eternal Love that you may nourish the Divine Nature and grow up into the Form of God by it What do we make our selves when we cast off Divine Love when we cease to love We cast off the Divine Nature and become Devils The God of Gods the Fountain of the Divine Nature the Father of the Divine Life and Image in Angels and men hath all his Praises for his Love he hath his vertue perfections and preheminence all consisting in his Love and the Eternity of that O give thanks unto the God of Gods for his Mercy endureth for ever for his Love is Eternal v. 3. 3. Part. The Person of Christ is Love O give thanks unto the Lord of Lords for his Mercy endureth for ever The Kingdom of Christ is a Kingdom of Love All the Praises of his Reign are terminated in everlasting mercies the kindnesses of Eternity As Iesus Christ is the Lord of Life and Prince of Glory so is he also the Lord and Prince of Love The Headship of the Lord Jesus over all Principalities and Powers is the Well-head of love Our Saviour as he is the Wisdom of the Father by which he conducteth all things is a love-channel the way of love a contrivance design and mystery of love As he is the Power of God which carrieth on all so he is a flood of love pouring forth itself into this channel and running along thorow it filling all the windings and turnings of the Creation and of Providence Who would not worship thee O thou King of Saints O thou King of loves Who would not kiss this Son with a kiss of Allegiance and be a Subject in this Kingdom where the King and the Kingdom both are love The sharpest reproof here is a kiss of love The deepest wounding is an anointing of love The Lord Jesus in this sense also is the King of Kings the Lord of Lords All his Subjects are Fellow-Lord Fellow-King together
which Eternal Love bringeth forth to itself within itself as its own Essential Form and Image This Glory this Life-Image of Love is that which it is forming in every Aegypt Sea Wilderness and Canaan The Heathen represented the Nature of this thing by Venus the Mother of Love the Seeds and Life springing by a Cupid Love the Child of this Mother Gen. 1. 2. It is said that the Spirit of God moved upon the Waters The Paraphrase upon that Scripture maketh it to be an allusion to a Dove which is the Bird of love sitting upon her Eggs and hatching her young ones The Holy Spirit is often in Scriptures represented by a Dove Eternal Love is of a Truth that Almighty Spirit which at first sate upon the whole Creation to form it and moveth upon it thorow all times to cherish and govern it Love is the Mother of all above All things are the Off-spring of Love a Race of Seminal and Springing Loves Mercy Love runneth along with the whole with each particular of the whole thorow the length of Eternity itself This is still the Burthen of the Song For his Mercy endureth for ever 2. The Works of Grace These are the second sort of Divine Works and these also are the Works of Love These are divided into three Ranks 1. The constant abode of the Soul in the Heart of God Who remembred us in our low estate v. 23. Thou O broken Heart Art sinking by ignorance by unbelief by thy fall from God thou art sinking still deeper into the Darkness and Filth of this World and thy Lusts. Still thou sinkest into the Power and Horrours of the Devil Now thou sayest the Lord hath forgotten me he hath cast me off for ever Yet he remembreth thee in thy low estate Still thou art in his Thoughts thou art in his Heart as a Pillar in the Temple of the Divine Nature which is Love never to go forth Thy Person is ever before him with a Sweet and deep Impression upon his Spirit never to be rased out What hath done this It is Eternal Love This is the Light of the Divine Mind which continually presenteth thee to it in the dress of its own Beâ—uties This is the sweet force of the Divine Will which holdeth thee fast in itself which beareth thee in its Arms thorow all conditions and will not let thee go for ever This is the Reason why He remembreth thee in thy low estate For his Mercy endureth for ever 2. The bringing us back into the Bosom of God This is the second Rank in the Works of Grace And hath redeemed us from our Enemies For his Mercy endureth for ever v. 24. It is Eternal Love in the Bosom of the Father which hath sent Jesus Christ forth from thence for us and to us that he may be our Sacrifice our Ransom and our Redeemer It is Eternal Love in the Person of Christ which cometh down from Heaven to make itself a Sacrifice for us to the Justice and Wrath of God It is Eternal Love in the Person of our Iâ—sus which descendeth upon the Earth as a Field of Blood to undertake the Fight with the Powers of Darkness that he may reskue us and redeem us from all our Enemies on Earth and in Hell It is Eternal Love in the Person 〈◊〉 Iâ—â—us Christ that gâ—veth itself a Price for us that one Pearl in which Hâ—â—ven and Earth with all the treasures of the Creature and Creator lie to puâ—chase us to itself It is Eternal Love in the Person of our Heavenly Bridegroom that giveth itself to us to cloath us to form us to act us to be a Crown of Divine Glory upon us to be a Fountain of all Spiritual Loveliness Life Grace Purity and Joys in the midst of us Thus it redeemeth us from our Captivity and Shame Thus it maketh us a Bride fit for itself coming forth ready trim'd out of the Heaven of its own Embraces 3. The nourishing of us in the Bosom of God This Work of Grace cometh in the third Rank Who giveth food to all Flesh For His Mercy endureth for ever Mark how these answer one another Mercy Food All Flesh For ever Eternal Love is both the Feeder and the Food If God give Food If everlasting Mercy Eternal Love in the Divine Nature and Form give Food This is Food indeed not the Flood of a Shadow or a lie My Flesh is Meat indeed my Blood is Drink indeed saith our Lord Jesus The Lord speaketh not this of his Humane Nature For of this he saith in another place The Flesh profiteth not but the Spirit quickneth It is Eternal Love which is the Flesh of Christ the strength and substance of the Divine Nature It is Eternal Love which is the Blood of Christ the Life and Sweetness of the Divine Nature This is that Meat indeed and Drinâ— indeed which Love giveth for Food to all Flesh in its Bosom to nourish it to Eternal Life I have passed thorow the second Sort of 〈◊〉 Works the Works of Grace 3. Works of Glory O give thanks unto the God of Heaven For his Mercy endureth for ever v. 26. and last The Psalm begun with Goodness as its ground of Love v. 1. It closeth its Musick with Heaven as the Crown of Love The natural Heavens the Heavens of the first Creation are not intended here These were mentioned in the body of the Song and pass away These are the last and highest Heavens the Heavens of Glory the high and holy places of Eternity These Heavens are all made of Love All the precious and incorruptible Substance all the unexpressible and pure Sweetnesses All the Divine and unfading Beauties of these Heavens are Eternal Love All the Praises given to God as he appeareth in these Heavens with all his Saints and Angels all his Joys and Glories round about him are attributed to Eternal Love the Root the Flower the Fruit the only reason and rellish of all O give thanks to the God of Heaven For his Mercy endureth for ever For his Love is Eternal The midst of Solomons Chariot is pavâ—d or flameth with Love Cant. 3. The Center of Heaven is a Love-fire All the Spirits and Spiritual Glories of it are Immortal flames of Divine Love 2. Argum. Love is the end of all Things with God This is the second Argument to prove Love to be the proper Name of God and full expression of the Divine Nature Love appeareth to be the last end of all things three ways 1 All the Works of God end in Love 2. All the Attributes and Exâ—ellencies of God serve his Love 3. God resteth in his Love 1. All the Works of God end in Love Psal. 145. v. 9. His tender Mercies are over all his Works The word Mercies cometh from the Belly the inward parts the Womb. It signifieth the very heart of Love where it first liveth and never dieth where it lyeth warmest and hath the strongest pulse It signifieth Love in its Center and
of sweet light from this precious Stone draw your Eyes and Hearts to the Diamond itself to the naked Bosom of Love There is the abundance of Glory There you shall milk forth the Divine Life Delights and Glory in abundance As the Wood was of old laid upon the Altar and the Sacrifice upon the Wood in order to the descent of fire from Heaven which turning the Wood and the Sacrifice into one flame with itself returned thither from whence it came so let your life and religion be a continual Sacrifice to Eternal Love Let the Lord Jesus be thine Altar which is Love rising up out of the Earth Lay all Duties Graces Truths Spiritual Discoveries as Wood upon this Altar Bring thy Soul thy Heart thy whole Person for the Sacrifice Now wait look upward pray for Love as the pure flame of the God-Head to come down to change all to unite all unto itself in one Love and so ascend again with all unto its own place above the Heavens I have shewed in general how the Divine Attributes all serve Love as their end I will explain it yet more by three instances of the three chief excellencies in the Divine Nature Wisdom Power Righteousness 1. Instance The Wisdom of God serveth his Love According to the riches of his grace in which he hath abounded towards us in all Wisdom and Prudence As a plentiful Spring by the abundance of its Waters maketh a bed and channel to itself in which it runs along so is the Divine Wisdom a manifold and deep channel which the full Spring of free Grace of Eternal Love maketh to itself by the force of its endless streams as they flow thorow all things and play with themselves in various courses and forms until they meet again in the Sea of Love the Bosom of God Divine Wisdom is the richness of Divine Love spreading itself into an infinite variety sporting itself with itself in all diversity of Forms and Shapes thorow innumerable Changes innumerable Windings and Turnings bringing forth itself into a most ravishing Harmony of all Divine Beauties and Joys Divine Wisdom is Love forming itself into rich designs most beautiful contrivances full of unexpected and surprizing turns full of depths past the search of every created Eye that in the close it may display its blessed Treasures more fully that it may raise and enlarge every Spirit to take in its Joys Thus the riches of Grace have abounded towards us in all Wisdom and Prudence The Wisdom of God is the Divine art of Love The Divine Prudence and Providence is the Net of Love to catch Hearts and Souls in spread thorow the Sea of the Creation O blessed Fisher of Souls Dâ—vine Love O blessed Net of love the Divine Wisdom and Providence Thrice-blessed Souls that are caught in this Net by this Fisher These are taken only to be removed out of the Salt and troubled Sea of this World into the sweet clear and calm Sea of Love But wretched are those Spirits who like Carps in a Pond sink themselves down deep into the mud of flesh and fleshly lusts that they may escape this Divine net of Love The Wisdom of God is the Musick of Love by which it charmeth Spirits to attract them to itself to compose them unto a Heavenly Harmony of Peace and Purity Those are indeed Adders the Seed of the Serpent who love not the sound of this Musick who stop their Ears that they may not hear this Charmer the Divine Love though he charm with so much skill 2. Instance The Power of God serveth his Love Rom. 1. 16. I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ for it is the Power of God unto every one that believeth The Gospel is the Ministry of Grace or Love The Divine Power then acting in the Gospel is the Minister and Servant of Love This will appear more by laying together three Scriptures in the Canticles which opening one another will send forth a sweet light of Divine Grace shining in them 1. Scrip. Cant. 5. 10. It is said of the Lord Jesus He is the Chief among ten thousand The Hebrew word for Chief is Standard-bearer I humbly conceive that we are not to understand here the Person that beareth the Standard or Banner who ever is inferiour to many Persons in the Army but the Prince whose the Standard or Banner is which is carried unto which all the Army is gathered together and under which it moveth The sense seemeth to be the same with that Joshu 1. Jesus Christ appeared in the form of a man with a drawn Sword in his hand Being asked by Joshua who he was he answered The Captain of the Lord's Hosts 2. Scrip. Can. 6. 10. The Spouse of Christ which is the Church in general and every believing Soul in particular is described to be Terrible as an Army with Banners This relateth to the Army and Banners mentioned before Cant. 5. 10. Psal. 34. 7. we read that the Angel of the Lord pitcheth his Camp round about those that fear the Lord. It is in the Original Tongue the Angel Jehovah The Lord Jesus is God with God the Father above all Angels and Men. He is God setting up his Pavilion in the midst of the holy Angels He is God setting up his Pavilion with Men in the midst of their Spirits This is the Captain of the Lords Hosts the Prince of Glory who as a great Prince at the head of an Army placeth things dearest to him his Treasure his Princess in the midst of the Army as in a place of Strength and Honour 3. Scrip. Cant. 2. 4. The King brought me into his Banquetting House and his Banner over me was Love You will say now what hath Love or a Banquetting House to do with a Banner of War You shall now see how these Scriptures come home to my end and declare the Power of God to be the Servant and the Soldier of his Love The proper intent of a Banner is to bear the Cause of the War wrought upon it either by Image or Inscription or both It is frequent when the War is ended for the Conquerors in the rooms in which they feast for joy of the Victory to have hanging over their Heads the Banners under which they are fought These are Tropheys marks of the Victory and Ornaments of the Triumph Silken flags aâ— solemn Shows at publick Feasts at Funerals are Imitations and Images of this If a King make a War for his Bride or Love he may very well have Love in a rich Figure and in Golden Leâ—â—â— displayed upon his Banners Neither can any thing be more pertinent when he returneth home and feasteth publickly with his Queen than to have these Banners with Love inscribed upon them in golden Letters and figured upon them in glorious Images waving over their Heads to encrease their Joys by this Declaration Love was that for which the King fought Love was the force by which he conquered Love is the end of
into the Divine Unity He that is joyned unto the Lord is One Spâ—rit 1. Corin. 6. 17. Faith which joyneth us to Christ by his Approach to us by our Reception of him and Acherence to him ingrafteth us into the Unity of the Eternal Spirit The Unity of God is a Golden Chain which fastned to the Throne of the Divine Essence above all Heavens letteth itself down to the lowest parts of the Earth by several rich and curious Links that It may draw us up to itself The first and Highest Link of this Golden chain is the Union of the ever-blessed Persons in the most Holy Trinity in One Glorious and Incomprehensible Essence The second Link in this Mystical Chain is the Union of the Divine and Humane Nature in One Divine and Heavenly Person by the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus The Third is the Mysterious Union of Two Persons a Saint and his Saviour in One Spirit by Regeneration thorow Faith While thou believest the Divine Unity by these degrees like the Steps of Gold to Solomon's Throne of Gold descendeth into thee that thou mayst ascend to that by the same Steps By believing thou art One with God in the Fountain of the Divine Nature The Father himself the Fountain of Israel is now thy Fountain and thy Father Believe and thou shalt be One with God in his Son His Image His Glory God giveth His Son for thee that thou mayst believe God giveth his Son to thee in Believing Believe and thou shalt be One with God in his Spirit Believing ye received the Spirit of Promise saith St Paul Ephes. 1. The Spirit is the Great Promise The Spirit is All the Promises in a Knot living and flourishing upon the Root of eternity like the Sun with his Beams The Spirit is the Unity Unvailed Jesus Christ in his Flesh is the Sun of the Divine Nature under a Cloud Jesus in his Spirit is the same Sun shining out clear and shedding abroad all his Glorious Beams which are all the Great and Precious Promises in their Accomplishment If thou believe whoever how vile how deep in sin how black soever thou art with Guilt thou art now One with God in his Righteousness Christ is made Sin for thee that thou mayst be made the Righteousness of God in him according to St Paul If thou believest thou art One with God in his Rest. he that believeth entreth into Rest as God also rested Hebr 4. 4. Finally believe and thou shalt be One as the Father and Christ are One. Jesus Christ prayeth not onely for his Apostles but for all that shall believe on him thorow their word He maketh this Petition expresly for them to his Father That they may be One as we are One. John 17. 22. If two lye together they shall be warm saith Solomon in Ecclesiastes What warmth of Divine Life Love Joy and Pleasure is there where these Three the Father Christ and a Believer ly together wrapt up in One See how Faith placeth the Soul in the warm Bosom upon the Golden Throne of the Divine Unity together with Jesus Christ. This Divine Unity in Christ is become now thy Center and thy Circle O Believing Soul thy Center out of which and in which thou doest at once both rise and rest thy Circle unto which thou enlargest thy self with which thou art encompassed Qu. Perhaps some souls are so far touched with the Sweet sense of this Blessed Unity that they say within themselves We see indeed a glorious Rest and Joy in being implanted into the Unity of the Eternal Spirit by Believing But what shall we do that we may believe and be set in this Root of Eternity Ans. This Root of Eternity this Glorious Unity eternally comprehendeth and holdeth thee Look then up to this Unity fix thine Eye unmoveably upon it as thy first Principle and Habitation So wait until by a Virtue coming down from thence thou apprehend by faith this Heavenly Unity of the Spirit in which thou art comprehended Arg. 2. Believe and thou shalt partake of the Divine Love by being planted into this Divine Unity The Unity in which the Sons of God dwell together as Brethren is compared by the Psalmist to the holy Oyntment which was poured forth upon the Head of the High Priest and ran down to the skirts of his Garment Thus by Faith the Unity of God in Christ poureth forth it self as a rich Oyntment of Divine Love which spreadeth itself in its precious Substance and Sweetness over thy whole Person to the lowest border of thy Garment Thus art thou anointed to be a King and Priest to God the Father together with the Lord Jesus When this Unity openeth itself upon thee to the Eye of thy Faith and taketh thee into itself then shalt thou see thy self and be ravished to see thy self in the midst of all the Loves of God and embraced most closely by them all 1. In this Unity the Eye of Faith discovereth to thee Electing Love Now thou rellisheth the Sweetness now thou receivest upon thy Spirit the Seal of Electing Love which was before the World was and then had thee with it in its Bosom Now thou seest by the Light of the Glory of this Unity shining upon the Eye of thy Faith the Father in the Height of Eternity looking upon thee in One Loveliness loving thee with One Love together with himself in the Beautiful and Blessed Person of his Son 2. Faith sheweth the Justifying Love in this Unity What peace what Joy is there in this Sight when a poor Believer taken out of the Dungeon where he lay in chains of guilt and filth a Prisoner to the Wrath of God seeth himself set in the Court of the great King before his Throne acceptable and amiable in the Beloved One Thou now appearest washed in the same precious Blood of God Thou shinest in the same Beauty and Righteousness of God together with Jesus Christ. Yea he is thy Loveliness who is Height and Sealed Sum of all Loveliness of all Loves For thou art made acceptable in the Beloved One Eph. 1. v. Thou art not only Righteous but Righteousness itself the Righteousness of God Thy Person is a Solid Glory a Transparent Glory a Pure unmixt Glory of Divine Righteousness For thou art the Righteousness of God in him Faith maketh thee One Spirit with him who is the Brightness of the Glory of God 3. Believing thou meetest in this Unity with the Sanctifying Love of God That Seed of God which is One soweth itself in thy Soul and springeth up into the Fruits of Holiness and Immortality Now say to thy Soul upon a good account Return unto thy Rest O my Soul The Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee The Goods of Heaven and Eternity are sure to thee For this Seed of All Good of Grace and Glory which is now sown in thee will grow up by day or by night whether thou sleep or wake though thou know not how it grow 4. The
is one 3. Pillar That one Seed to which the Promises are made is Christ. To Abraham and to his Seed as to One and that one Christ. Isaac was the Seed of Abraham Isaac stood only as a Figure of the Lord Jesus Isaac signifieth Laughter The Lord Jesus is the true Seed of Mirth and Joy When he cometh to us by his Spirit which is his proper his eternal Presence and Appearance he bringeâ—h back our Captivity from the Powers of Sin Sorrow and Death he filleth our Mouths with laughter he maketh us as those that Dream he placeth us in the midst of such glorious Persons and Things he cloatheth our Persons with so much Glory and all this by so â—asy so sweet so sudden so universal so unexpected a change that it seemeth for the greatness of the Glory more like a Dream than Truth But if Isaac here typifie the Son of God then doth Abraham stand in the place of God the Father The name signifieth The high Father of a Multitude or The Father of a high Multitude God the Father maketh the Promises to himself and to his Son Christ. Jesus Christ is the Seed to which the Promises are made and the Promised Seed the Pearl in the Casket of every Promise Thus God is one in the Gospel the Gracious Maker of the Promise the Rich Matter of the Promise the Glorious Heir of the Promise This Unity is the Love of the Gospel in which the Seed is one in the Father in Christ in all the Saints and this one Seed is the Lover the Love and the Beloved God loveth himself in his Son his Son in his Saints God Christ and the Saints lie all wrapt up in one Seed This is the Unity and this Unity the Love of the Gospel One Seed shining out and springing up thorow all into the Fellowship of all Beauties and delights with itself within itself We have set up some Lights in this verse to shew the Glories of Divine Love the more advantageously as they are presented to us v. 20. in those words God is One. Now let us draw nearer to the verse itself the Center of our discourse St Paul raiseth an Objection and answereth it v. 19. Object This is the Objection If the Gospel were before the Law of Eternal Force the only dispensation of Love Life and Righteousness why then was the Law added Ans. St. Paul answereth this Objection by Defining and Confining the Use and Times of the Law 1. St Paul defineth the end Use of the Law The Law was added because 〈◊〉 Transgression There was a fourfold use of the Law until Christ came to discover to restrain to heighten Sin to bring Condemnation and Death upon Sinners 2. The Times of the Law are câ—nfined to the coming of Christ Until thâ— Seed should come Then the Holy Apostle giveth us two Arguments to make it plain that the Law can be no more of force or have any place when Jesus Christ appeareth These two Arguments are taken from two Essential differences between the Law and the Gospel 1. Argum. The Law was ordained by Angels God appeared not under the Law in his own Person nor in that sweet and supream brightness which floweth immediately from his Face He cloathed himself with the created Light of the Angelical Nature and Glory as with a Garment In the Persons of Angels and their Beauties as under a vail he was seen and conversed with Man But when the Seed cometh which is Jesus Christ this is God in Person God in his own Essential Form and Image Now the Scene the Appearance is changed from the diversities of Angels and their Glories to the Divine Unity Now the Angels thorow which as multitudes of little Stars in the night the Light of the God-Head scattered faint glimmerings of itself vanished out of sight They resigned their weak Beams Beauties and Beings to one Sun that one Seed their Fountain the Unity of God in Christ. Here they are New-born they are made perfect they shine again in one Glory The Son of Man cometh now in the Glory of his Father in his own Glory in the Glory of all his Angels When Christ is seen in his Heavenly shape which alone is the Light of the Gospel Angels appear no more singly all Glories are seen united in their Center the Person of God in Christ. Now hear O Israel come forth and O ye Daughters of Sion the Lord your God your Jesus is one This is the first Argument and the first essential difference between the Law and the Gospel 2. Argum. The Law was ordained by Angels in the hand of a Mediator Now a Mediator is not of One but God is One v. 19. 20. Thus we are come home to the verse itself where you shall see all this discourse come home to our mark at which we aim the Fountain of all Evangelical Graces and Loves in the Unity of God We shall best understand these words by a distinction of Mediators There is a Mediator of Distance and of Unity This latter the Mediator of Unity is one with both the Parties between which he mediateth comprehendeth them both maketh both one in himself Such a Mediator Jesus Christ is in the Gospel Such a Mediator the Law hath not this place intendeth not This hath some shadow of itself in the Medium Participationis which Philosophy treateth of The Mediator of Distance is one who standeth between two to keep them apart because they cannot approach one to the other This is here meant The People of Israel said to Moses Let God speak to thee and we will hear thee But let not God speak to us any more least we die God approved of their words They have said well Thus the Law was ordained in the hand of Moses as a Mediator This we may express by the Medium Abnegationis a Mediator of Distance When the Seed cometh this Mediation this Administration the Distance and so the Law ceaseth Now God is One. Christ is the Seed Christ is come Christ hath two Natures in him but he is One Person in both Natures and that One Person the One only God God is the Person the Subsistency the Root out of which the whole Tree with all its Arms and Branches of both Natures Humane and Divine springeth in which it subsisteth from which all operations and fruits proceed to which all denominations belong which is the name to be named in all and to which every name belongeth This is Christ. The one Seed the one Spirit in all the Saints in all the Graces and Comforts of the Gospel is this Christ that one Person which is the only true God Thus God is one in all The Lord Jesus in his Heavenly Spirit and Body is the Glorious Circle of the Divine Unity in which God Christ and all the Elect Saints or Angels liâ— so close so enfolded and wrapt up mutually one in another that no Mediator can come between them that they need no Mediator
save as this Unity itself the one Seed is the Mediator There are two Promises made to Abraham concerning his Seed one thâ—â— they shall be as the Stars of Heaven for number the other that they shal be as the Dust of the Earth for Multitude The Seed is Christ. The Lord Jesus one Seed in all the uncreated Glories which are fixed as innumerable Stars in the Heaven of the Divine Nature The Lord Jesus is the same Seed in the Dust here below sown in the form 〈◊〉 Flesh and Dust. When the Lord Jesus cometh in the Power of the Gospel into any Heart this one Seed at once shineth down from all those Glories of the God-Heâ—â— above and springeth up out of the Dust here below It awakeneth itself froâ—â— above and below It meeteth with receiveth itself and twisteth into 〈◊〉 with itself the Glory from on high and the Dust from beneath It continually ascendeth and descendeth into its own Bosom and feasteth itself eternally upon itself with all Divine Substance and Sweetness I have endeavoured to draw aside the Curtain from this Scripture to shâ— you the Joy and Glory of the Lord in the Gospel the Unity of God 〈◊〉 the Fountain of Love with him in that Unity Let me add one Scripture to this to bring in more Spiritual Light into a Rooâ— so rich in so full of Heavenly Beauties It is that Rom. 4. 16. It is of Graâ— that it may be sure to the Seed You whose hearts the Love of God in Châ—â— hath touched from Heaven that you pant after the Water-brooks and Fouâ—tain of this Love opened in the Bosom of the Lord Jesus why come yâ—â— not to your Saviour that you may drink abundantly of the Divine Love Are you discouraged and driven away by the sense of your own unworthâ—ness and weakness by unbelief Hear and believe and come with boldâ—â— to the Fountain of Love Love is made sure and tyed fast from the Thron of Love in Heaven to the Hearts of Believers on Earth by a three-fold Cord. 1. Cord. The first Cord is the Promise By the immutable tie of a Promise in which it is impossible for God to lie hath he assured and secured his Love to thee The two chief Attributes of God on which all the rest wait in which they are comprehended are Goodness and Truth Both these must fade and pass away before one tittle of the Promise can fail of its accomplishment For Goodness maketh the Promise but Goodness and Truth both are obliged to the keeping of it 2. Cord. The second Cord is Grace The Promise is of Grace that it may be sure You who are apt to despair of Love and Blessedness let down from Heaven into your Souls by the Golden Line of a Promise because your hearts are unfit Mansions to entertain such Heavenly Guests hear and consider this As the Beams of the Sun descend upon the Earth infuse a precious vertue into it quicken and call up the vertue and Seeds of the Sun there make it green flourishing and fruitful yet lean not depend not at all upon the Earth but have their root in the Bosom of the Sun above from which they shoot themselves down into the lap of the Earth so the Promises of the Gospel as Bâ—ams of Eternal Love are fixed in the Sun of the Divine Nature as their Heavenly root From that they are bred by that they are nourished and maintained This Sâ—n poureth them down upon thee to enlighten enliven and transform thy earthly carnal heart into a Spiritual and Heavenly Garden But these Beams that come to warm and beautify thee lean not at all upon any thing in thee They depend singly and entirely upon their proper Sun which is Love the heart of God 3. Cord. The third Cord is the Seed That the Promise may be sure to the Seed Lawyers say that no gift by any deed is good without a consideration They say also that there is no consideration which bindeth more than that of Fatherly affection when a deed runneth in those words I out of my Fatherly affection give to my Son c. This is the consideration in the New Testament the Love of a Father All the Promises of Grace and Glory of Heaven and Earth Time and Eternity are made to the Seed The ground of a Fathers Love is the Unity A Father loveth himself in his Seed His Seed is one with himself The Seed lay first in the Father It cometh forth from the Father It is one Nature with the Father and beareth the Image of the Father before him The same Seed in the Father is the Father and the Son in the Son All Relations the Loves and Sweetnesses of all Relations are Unions that is Participations and branches of Unity Paternity the Relations and Love of a Father is Unity the Root and Head of all Unions Relations and Loves The Philosopher teacheth us that the reason of a Fathers Love to his Children is Self-love and the Love of Immortality He seeth himself ever-fresh and flourishing propagated to Immortality in his Off-spring All numbers are said to be the first Unity multiplied Each number springeth from Unity is made up of Unities consisteth in an Unity Thus God is one in his Seed The Seed is the Unity of God multiplying itself into many Self-Images in the same Divine Nature in the same Essential and Eternal Image the Lord Jesus Is not the Promise now sure when it is to the Seed in which the Unity of God the Love-spring of Eternity is the Band of Love I have not yet sounded the Sea of Sweetness opening itself to us in this Scripture Now a Mediator is between Two but God is One. God is said to have created all things by Jesus Christ Ephes. 1. 9. To have made all things by him and in him Colos. 1. 16. God then is One in Nature and in Grace in the new Creature and in the first Creation There is one Seed of both the Lord Jesus All things were made by him and without him was nothing made that was made John 1. 2. As no Wheat springeth without a grain of Wheat cast into the ground as no Rose groweth without the Seed of a Rose so no Flower of Divinity no Divine Work no Divine Image cometh forth any where in this World or that which is to come without the Divine Word the Seed of God which was in the Beginning with God and was God Acts 17. 24. St. Paul maketh this his great Argument to convince the Athenians and to persuade them to Faith in Jesus Christ the Unity of the Divine Seed They feel after him saith he if so be they may find him although he be not far from every one of us In him we live and move and have our Being as in our proper Seed and Element For as one of your own Poets hath said We also are his Off-spring The Apostle in the Authority and with the Seal of the Holy Ghost confirmeth the Testimony
are joyned and raised to the highest point of Unity in Love God assembled all the Powers and properties of the Creation all the Angels the Persons in the Trinity to form a shadow of the Divine Nature in the first Man saying Let us make Man O Man All the Beauties Blessedness and Treasures of the Divine Nature are gathered together into one Sun of Divine Love to make thee new no more a Shadow but a Sun in this Sun a Light in this Light of Eternal Love Open thine Eye and thine Heart to this Love by believing it 3. Argu. Power consisteth in Unity The Supreme Unity which is Love is then Almighty the Supreme and Soveraign Power Is any thing impossible to Almighty Love Is any thing too hard for it What change is there from Darkness to Light from pollution to Purity from profaneness to Piety from the hardness of a Stone to the softness and sweetness of a Dove from a Devil to a Blessed Angel from a Hell to a Heaven which Almighty Love cannot make in thine Heart in a moment with one cast of its Eye upon thee 4. Argu. A simple Unity is Infinite It is ever every where the same Nothing boundeth it because it is itself alone and there is no other thing besides itself together with it to give an allay to it or confine it This is the Infiniteness of the Divine Unity This Unity thus Infinite is Divine Love Come whoever thou art Believe and cast thy self thy Hopes thy Fears thy Griefs thy Joys thy Sins thy Graces into this Abyss this Sea of Love which hath no Bottom nor Shore This will receive them all This will swallow them all up into its sweet and shining Depths This will cover them all with its own rich and glorious Floods as Waters cover the Sea Come Believe and cast thy self all thy Relations the delights of thine Eyes the dear and pleasant things of thine Heart thy whole Spirit Soul and Body into this Infiniteness of Divine Love Thou shalt find them after many days to day immediately eternally sporting themselves in this great and wide Sea of Love Love in the Person of the Lord Jesus descended to the nethermost parts of the Earth and ascended above all Heavens that it might fill all Behold now a Deluge of Divine Love in the Resurrection of thy Jesus Love as a manifold Fountain of a great Deep from below breaketh up and breaketh open itself Love poureth down itself thorow all the Windows of Heaven opened upon thee Thus the Floods of Love increase rise higher and higher till they cover the tops of the highest Mountains of Guilt or Despair of Desire or hope in thy Spirit Only do not thou stop these Fountains of Love from below shut not these Windows of Heaven above to thy self by thy unbelief Love in the Person of the Holy Ghost by the mouth of the Psalmist cryeth unto thee Open thy Mouth wide and I will fill it Open all thine outward and â—nward senses open all the Powers and Faculties of thy whole Man to take â—n this Love Open them yet wider wider still Take in still more of this Love When thou art full of Love to thine utmost Capacity still that Love which remaineth is infinitely more infinitely sweeter than all that which thou hast taken in 5. Argu. That One Seed the Divine Unity is thy Seed in thee that is Love â—tself the first the highest Love Thou also art his Off-spring No Man ever hated his own Flesh. Can a Mother forget her Child saith the Holy Ghost Divine Love is the Seed out of which thou springest Divine Love is thy Father which hath begotten thee thy Mother which hath brought thee forth Can Love itself hate its own Birth and Branch Can Love itself forget its own Child the Child of Love The Prodigal returned first to himself then he thinketh of his Father and of Heaven then his Father meetâ—th him kisseth him bringeth him home entertaineth him with the best Garment with Feasts with Musick with an Universal Joy O Prodigal Thou hast wasted thy Beauty thy Strength thy Parts thy Comforts thy flourishing hopes among Harlots in lewd Company and Conversation Thou feedest among Swine upon Husks and thou starvest in the midst of the Swine for want of Husks O Prodigal The Divine Unity the Seed of God Eternal Love is still thy true self which lyeth below all these disguises of Darkness and Deformity as Jesus Christ lay sleeping at the bottom of the Ship which was ready to sink by the violence of the Storm Thou art the Seed of God For thou also art his Off-spring Thou art the Seed of Love For God is Love O Prodigal Open the Eye of thy Spirit Believe and see Divine Love awakening and appearing in thee as thy true self to thy self Feel it drawing thee by a sweet and irresistible force to itself that is to thy self from whence thou hast so long wandered in a strange Form by the Sorcery of Sin and the Devil Believe and see Divine Love in the true Forms of thy Father and of Heaven opening their Bosom again to thee sending forth a vertue of Heavenly Love from themselves with which they touch thy Heart soften iâ— melt it into kindly repentings a lovely shame and tears of Love kindling sweet desires lively hopes and ardent longings in thee after thy Father and Heaven thine own Country Believe and see Divine Love thy Father coming into the midst of the Swine to thee carrying thee in a rich Chariot made of his own Bosom and Embraces heaping kisses upon thee as he carryeth thee So Love bringeth thee home to its own House the Heavenly Palace of Love There Divinâ— Love cloatheth thee with the best Garment it s own Native and Divine Loveliness Love feasteth thee with its own Joys as they have sprung up thorow a Death for thee into a Resurrection for thee also Love sweetneth heightneth all thy entertainment with its own Musick resounding with a Divine Harmony from all Heavenly Hearts all Glorified Spirits round about thee yea from all things in Heaven and Earth tuned by the Eternal Spirit of Love itself and plaid upon in a most exact and charming Consort Return then to thy true self thy Father and to Heaven Heavenly Love is all these It is also thy way to these thy Light and thy Life in the way Believe Say not now O that I could believe and repent Heavenly Love will form itself into inward Divine Meltings Repentings Acts of Faith and of all Grace in thee Look to this Love and live Eternally in the Bosom of Love The Unity of God which is Love is thy Root which will rise up unto a Divine sap and form itself into all Divine Fruit in thee if thou wait for it For thou art the Off-spring of God Use. 3. The Unity of God is the Root and Reason of Holiness The Unity of God is the Fountain of Love of all Grace and Comfort in the Gospel The
Fountain in the Person of the Father For there Love is in its Glory There is a Three-fold Crown the Marriage-Crown the Crown of a King the Crown of a Conqueror There is accordingly a Three-fold Glory 1. There is the Glory of Beauty This is that of the Sun which sendeth forth his Beams thorow all things and outshineth all things among the Earthly and Heavenly Bodies 2. There is the Glory of Soveraignty which ruleth over all 3. There is the Glory of Victory which subdueth all things to itself and maketh every thing an Ornament to its Triumph This Three-fold Crown doth Love wear this Three-fold Glory is it cloathed with in the Person of the Father It is the Eternal Sun which enlightneth enliveneth sweetneth cheareth all things by its Beams sent forth thorow all from the heights of the Heavens above to the depths of the Sea and the center of the Earth below It also infinitely surmounteth all things in Beauty and Sweetness as it shineth Eternally It is the great King that swayeth and ruleth all every where by its Golden Scepter It is the Glorious Conqueror which pierceth deep into the hearts of all which subdueth all to itself by its flaming Sword of Paradise turning every way By this Sword it cutteth off and consumeth all Flesh and Earth to keep that out of Paradise and from the Tree of Life By this Sword it refineth and converteth all into a pure and Heavenly Flame into Spirit So it bringeth them into Paradise to the Tree of Life in the midst of it Every thing every where doth Victorious Love make the Subject of its Conquests and the Ornament of its Triumphs This is Divine Love in its Glory in its Fountain This is the Divine Nature in the Person of the Father This is the Glory of Free-Grace 2. Inlet into the Fountain of Divine Love All the Riches of Love are seated in the Person of the Father The Apostle applyeth the Riches of Grace to the Father Ephes. 1. 7. According to the Riches of his Grace Three things meet in Riches Preciousness Plenty Power Every thing is purest and so most precious every thing is most united and so most plentiful and so most powerful every thing thus is richest in its Fountain The first Person is the Fountain of Divine Love For in him are the riches of Grace Love is Richest in the Father The heart of the Father is the Treasury of Love No where is Love so pure so unalâ—ayed so precious as in the heart of the Father Traffick O Man for the Treasure of this Love with all thy faculties with all that thou hast and art This Merchandise is beyond that of Gold and Rubies Traffick to this Coast of Spices to this Land of rich and precious Cordials the Land of the purest Love the heart of the Father No where is Love so plentiful in such abundance as in the heart of the Father The heart of the Father is infinitely larger than the Sea yet doth Love cover it as waters do the Sea where it is deepest when it is fullest Cast thy world of Sins O guilty Soul with all thy Mountains of guilt into this Sea of Love Love shall cover them that they shall never appear more If thou seek for them thou shalt not find them Come drink thy fill of Loves O dry and thirsty Soul from this rich and full Spring in the heart of the Father Come thou most insatiate Soul cast thy self into this full Sea of Loves in the Bosom of the Father hath thy self roul thy self in the midst of its rich Billows which rise as high as Heaven No where is Love so powerful so irresistible so full of vertue as in the heart of the Father Wash thy heart in this Fountain and it shall be healed of the Leprosy of every Lust. Lay thy heart down in this Spring in the Bosom of the Father and all its hardnesses shall be dissolved Drink in these waters of Love fresh from the heart of the Father and it shall be a powerful Cordial in thine heart It shall restore thy Life thy Strength the complexion of thy Soul thy Beauty thy Spirits thy Joys as at first as in Paradise as in Heaven as in thine Eternal Original 3. Inlet The Father in the Trinity is the Fountain of all Relations and so the Fountain of Love Father is the sweetest of all Names the Name of the highest tenderest purest and most perfect sweetness A Father is the first Relation and the Fountain of all Relations Adam was first a Father then a Husband So the Humane Nature from him streamed forth into Husband and Wives Sons and Daughters Brethren and Sisters into all Degrees of Kindred Allyances and Friendships Ephes. 3. 15. St. Paul saith that from the Father the whole Family in Heaven and Earth is named Some render that word Family the Fatherhood or Paternity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All Fathers in that Relation all the Fatherhoods and Paternities of every Father in Heaven and Earth lyeth first in that first Father the first Person in the Trinity as in their Fountain What comfort is this to every tender careful grieved Father of every sick sinful or lost Child The true Father to thy Child which acteth the part of the Father behind the vail of the shadowy Father in thee is the Father in the Trinity He is the strength sweetness and truth of the Relation every where The Paternity the Fatherhood every where is named from him But if we take the word according to our Translation it affordeth us the same sweet sense more fully The whole Family in Heaven and Earth is named from him from the Father of our Lord Jesus A Family is a chain of Relations which are as so many Links in the chain fastned one to another Father Mother Husband Wife Brother Sister Children Friends All these are named from the Eternal Father All these sweet dear names of Union of Love agree first most properly most truly to him who is the Supream Unity the Original and Fountain of all Unions of all Love All these are named from him He is the true Parent in the Parents the true Child Husband Wife Brother Sister Friend in thy Child thy Husband thy Wife thy Brother thy Sister thy Friends He is descended into all these shadoweth himself under them subsisteth as the truth and substance in them It is this descent of his in them this Presence and Appearance of his which giveth these names to them Love is either the Relation itself or the Blood which runneth along in the vein of every Relation Every Relation is a Union Every Union is Love in its proper kind and degree The Original the Fountain of all Unions of all Loves of all Relations is the Supream Unity which is the Father the first Person in the Trinity All Relations in Heaven and Earth all Unions are broken pieces of the great Diamond of Divine Love The Father is this great Diamond of Divine Love
the Birth or Image of Divine Love The Heathen in their Divinity tell us of two Twin-Loves in Heaven which exactly answer one the other Thus Love which is the Divine Nature subsisteth in two Forms two Persons the Father and the Son which are two Loves and the same equally compleat equally loving equally lovely equally beloved Adam in Paradise brought forth Eve to be ever before him a meet help for him So the Father and Fountain of Love bringeth forth in its own Bosom this Son of Love this Divine Image of Love to be ever before it a meet help to it that Love in this entire Image of itself may perfectly behold possess enjoy and multiply itself to Eternity Mat. 3. 17. The Father speaketh to Jesus Christ from Heaven This is my Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Jesus Christ is the Supreme object of Divine Love the Supreme Loveliness and so the Birth or Image of Divine Love the Son of Loves In Divine things every faculty or power brinketh forth its proper object which is its perfection from itself within itself that it may be independent and undivided in all its Joys in all its Glories The Divine understanding is the Sun and Spring of Divine Truth which is the light of its Life its Object and its Beauty The Divine Will is the center of all Divine goodness which is its proper Object and Crown There it Eternally riseth up There it Eternally resteth So Divine Love in the Person of the Father is the Parent and the Bridegroom of the Divine Loveliness in the Person of the Son This is my Beloved Son saith the Father from Heaven in whom I am well pleased All the Joys of the Father are full all his pleasures compleat here All Seeds of Love in the heart of the Father are here sprung up into the fair Flowers of all Beauty into the ripe Fruit of all delights within his own Bosom in the Person of Christ. This is the only Birth Image and Object of the Father the Love-Spring its Birth and its Bride within itself The Father the Love-Spring bringeth forth this Love-Birth and lovely Image the Son of Love that Love may be both a Bridegroom and a Bride to itself The Persian Prince called Alcibiades his Garden of Pleasure The Father in the Trinity is the Fountain of Love The Son is the Garden of Love rising up within this Fountain Here the Father of Love soweth all the precious Seeds of Divine Love Here so soon as they are sown they spring up into ripe Fruits of which the Father eateth and with which he delighteth himself in his Garden This is the Circle of Eternity Love Eternally sowing the rich Seeds Eternally feasting upon the ripe Fruits of Divine Love in his Garden of Love Use. 1. Christians seek your selves your Love-Birth in this Eternal Love-Birth of the Son Seek the Original and true Image of your selves in this Eternal Image of Divine Love See your selves seeds of Love sown in this Garden of Love from Eternity ripe Fruits of Love flourishing in it Eternally This is the dearest Jewel of a Saint that Jewel which the Saints wear in their Bosom next their heart with the sight of which they renew their vigour and their beauty recreate all their spiritual senses I mean the rich Jewel of Electing Love the Love of Election In this Jewel a Believer seeth with the Eye of his Faith God the Father the Fountain of Love in Eternity God the Son an Eternal Birth of Divine Love from this Fountain an Eternal Image an Eternal Garden of Divine Love in this Fountain himself born in this birth of Love himself a lovely Image in this Image of Love himself a Tree of Love in this Garden of Love Blessed is he who hath this Testimony in his heart and from Heaven that he was born here that here he rose up first out of the heart of the Father that here he first appeared to the Eye of the Father that here the Father set his Love upon him and took pleasure in him He hath saved us saith St. Paul of the Father Not according to works which we have done but according to his own purpose and Grace given to us in Jesus Christ before the World was 2 Tim. 1. 9. Grace given to us in Christ before the World was See your Love-birth in the Eternal Love-birth of the Lord Jesus O Believers His purpose and Grace given to us in Jesus Christ before the World was See the Fountain of Divine Love in the heart of the Father his purpose and all the Births all the Images all the Gardens of Divine Love rising up from the sweet and blessed depths of that Fountain all comprehended in that only Birth that only Image that only Garden of Divine Love the Lord Jesus Use. 2. Seek this Love-Birth in your selves When it pleased the Father to reveal his Son in me saith St. Paul speaking of the new Birth in himself When the Father openeth himself as a Fountain of Divine Love in your Spirits when the Lord Jesus ariseth up and appeareth to you as the Birth and Image of Divine Love within this Fountain when your selves appear in him one Love-Birth in this Fountain of Love together with him then may you rejoice and say now I live now I am new-born from the Love-spring on high in the highest Glory You that have the mystery of this Divine Birth revealed in you who see the Garden of Love flourishing in the midst of the Fountain of Love within you retire into this Fountain into the Garden in the Fountain the Lord Jesus in the Bosom of the Father Walk there solace your selves there hide your selves among the Trees of Divine Loveliness and Love from the strife of Spirits Here you shall be fed with the Fruit from these Trees until the storm of Wrath be over past 2. Character The Son of God is the first Birth of Divine Love It is said of him Mic. 5. 3. His goings forth are from everlasting The goings forth of the Lord Jesus the first Birth and Image of Divine Love from the Bosom of the Father the Fountain of Love are Eternal without Beginning The goings forth of the Light which is the first the beautiful Birth and Image of the Sun were from the beginning of the Creation So soon as the Sun had a being it had Beams There was no moment in which the Sun was without its circle of Beams no more than the Beams were without the Sun In like manner the Lord Jesus who is the Light the Brightness the Beautiful Image of Divine Love had his Birth from Eternity together with the Being of the Father This Fountain in Eternity was no more without this Image the circle of all its Beauties shining in the midst of it than this living and lovely Image of all Glories was without its Fountain from the unsearchable depth of whose Divine sweetnesses it riseth up continually The Father is no more without the Son
than the Son without the Father Both are from Eternity both equally Eternal in this sacred Mystery and Trinity of the Divine Nature of Divine Love Prov. 8. This Son of Love is brought in speaking of himself and his Father Before the Mountains were formed ere yet the foundations of the Earth were laid I was before him as one brought up with him his delight day by day Before all the Creatures in Eternity the Lord Jesus alone was with the Father and none other besides him He was bred up together with him the Lamb the lovely the beloved Birth and Object of all his Loves the delight of his Eyes that fed at his Table and lay in his Bosom If you ask now what the Father did before he made the World the answer is full and sweet the Father in the infiniteness of Eternity brought forth Jesus Christ delighted himself in Jesus Christ the only Birth of all his Love and Desires the entirâ— Image of all his Loves and Joys Use. If you would be Holy Heavenly and Happy if you would be perfect in all Graces Joys and Glories as your Heavenly Father is perfect 〈◊〉 like him in this He is taken up with his Son Jesus alone before above a Creatures in Eternity Let this Jesus as he is the Birth and Image of all Dâ—â—vine Loves in the Father the Fountain of Love be your only one the 〈◊〉 Birth and beautiful Image of your Spirits continually before you bred 〈◊〉 with you into every Age Form and State your only delight day by da This is the first Birâ—â— of Love the Birth of Love in Eternity All those Birth of Love and lovely Images which are in the Creature Shadowy Finite Fâ—â—ding are here Substantial a Spiritual and Heavenly Substance Infinite Endlesâ— Ever-flourishing 3. Character The Lord Jesus as he is the second Person in the Trinity is the fairâ—â— Birth of Divine Love We read 1 Cor. 13. 5. Love behaveth not itself unseemâ— doth nothing uncomely The word uncomely signifieth a want of Proportion Haâ—â—mony Order Figure which make all Beauty and Musick every where Loâ—â— can conceive can form nothing within itself can bring forth nothing froâ— itself but its proper Object its proper effect which is suitable to it 〈◊〉 is Loveliness and Beauty As the Trees of Paradise had their Seed in them so every Birth of Love is in every part full of the Seeds of Love by which begetteth Love again full of the Beams of Love which kindle the sweâ— heat and fire of Love This is loveliness which soweth the Seeds of Loâ—â— and sendeth forth the Beams of Love into Spirits round about it As the 〈◊〉 the Supreme Eye of the visible World is to the Light so is Love the Eyâ—â— and heart of Eternity to loveliness Loveliness is the proper Emanation 〈◊〉 Image of Love by which it planteth itself in all Eyes and Hearts attractâ—â— all things into the Golden Circle and Center into the Glorious Palace of 〈◊〉 Blessed and Eternal Unity in itself which is itself Love then bringeth forth Loveliness and Beauty the Divine Love alâ— vine Loveliness and Beauty the Supreme Love the Supreme Loveliness and Beauty So the Lord Jesus is Beauty itself a Divineâ— Beauty the Supream Beauty the fairest Birth of Love being the first the only Birth of the Father the Fountain of Divine Love Love at the highest Love in its first Sweetness John 1. 14. We saith the Holy Apostle speaking of Jesus Christ saw his Glory the Glory as of the Only-begotten Son of God The Son of God is the only Birth of Love from the Father the Fountain of Love in two respects Comparatively Comprehensively First The Lord Jesus is the only Birth and Image of Divine Love Comparatively for his excelling loveliness We saw his Glory as the Glory of the Only-begotten of the Father So great a Glory shineth in his Person as darkneth all other Beauties all other Births and Images of Love maketh them quite to disappear and seem none at all Secondly Our Beloved Jesus is the only Birth and Image of Divine Love Comprehensively All his Saints are in thine hand All Holy Births and Images of the Father the Spring of Love in Eternity all Divine Lovelinesses the works of this curious Workman all the Jewels of Beauty framed by the skill of the first and Supreme Love in the heart of the Father all are comprehended in this Birth and Image all adorn the Person of Jesus Christ are there in their highest lustre and take their Beauty from him Thus is the Son of God the fairest Birth and Image of Divine Love Use. 1. O Sinners This is that Jesus who wooeth you the fairest of all things Beauty itself the Divine the Supreme Beauty Object no more against him and your union with him Obj. 1. Say not you are unworthy of him it cannot be that he should love Creatures so unlovely as you are Ans. He who would be your Bridegroom will be your Beauty What Bosom of the Highest and Divinest Love are you not fit for when he who is the Highest and Divinest Beauty is your Loveliness What stains can appear in you when the fairest Image from the Fountain of Love comprehending in itself innumerable Glories all Divine all Supreme descendeth upon you and wrappeth you up entirely in itself Obj 2. Say not you are unfit you cannot believe his Love you cannot love him again you shall never be pure and lovely like him to please him to honour him Ans. He who offereth himself to be your Beauty and Loveliness will be your Lover your Bridegroom This Glorious Spirit the Life of all Divine Loveliness will be the Husband of your Spirits All your Fruit shall be from him He who is the fairest Birth and Image from the Fountain of Love will be the Birth of all Spiritual and Heavenly Beauties in you of all Graces Comforts and Glories He will be the lovely Image springing up the root of Love the heart of the Father into your whole Spirit Soul and Body Object then no more Make plain his way Lay open your hearts to this Jesus who cometh to be a Divine Beauty to thy Person a Divine Bridegroom to thy Spirit the Divine Birth of Faith of Love of all Graces Glories Joys and Immortality in thee He will be better to thee than all thy Righteousness sweeter to thee than all thy Lusts Lovelier than all the Idolâ— of thine Eyes and Heart Fruitfuller than all thine hopes Use. 2. O Saints Behold another of your rich Jewels See here that Jewel which when you wear filleth Heaven and Earth with the brightness and sweetness of its light round about you dazleth blindeth and confoundeth the Devils that they cannot come near you to hurt you attracteth and draweth down the Angels from Heaven to gaze upon you to admire you to attend round about you to encompass you whithersoever you go yea allureth ravisheth the heart of the Father himself to come and inhabit in you
see the high and gloriouâ— Trinity the adored and amiable mystery of Eternal Love the three Beauâ—tiful and Blessed Persons of this Trinity of this mystery the Father 〈◊〉 Fountain of Love the Son the Fathers Lovely Birth Bride in their Love-union on their Heavenly Marriage-Bed figuring themselves and shining wilâ— the naked substantial Glory thorow the Figure You will say to the sweetneâ— of every Flower to the Beauty of every prospect in your walks this is thâ— Love-union between the Father and the Son this is the fruit of the Marriage-Bede on which the Father of Loves and his Lovely Image his Son aâ—â— his Bride lie eternally embracing each other This is thâ— perfume this is thâ— lustre of the holy Spirit You will say of every Sickness Sorrow and Death Here also is the Love-union These also are Love-Births Love-Images froâ— the Marriage-Bed of Love in Eternity These also are Doves with Wings 〈◊〉 Silver and Feathers of Gold from that Mother-Dove the Holy Spirit 〈◊〉 Love-Marriage between the Father and the Son in the most holy Triniâ—â— Use. 2. Give Glory to the Persons of this blessed Trinity to this mysteâ—y of Divine Love continually Dost thou perceive any good principle in Grace or nature putting forth itself in thee Give thanks and say This is the Father the Fountain of Diviâ—e Love opening himself and springing in 〈◊〉 Dost thou feel any sweet Appearance of Truth or Goodnes Light or Love in thy Spirit Rejoyce and say this is the Son the Love-Birth the Love-Image the Lord Jesus rising up from his Fountain the Bosom of the Father in me If there be any Vertue any Power any Pleasantness any Joy any Life of Love lift up thine heart and hands on high say This is the Love-union the Love-knot in the most high and Holy Trinity this is the Holy Spirit the Marriage Bed of the Eternal Bridegroom and Bride the Father of all Loves the Image of all Lovelinesses This is thy high and Heavenly Marriage-Bed which is now Green flourishing and fruitful in me Use. 3. Let this be the mark at which thou aimest O Believer to be taken up into this Love union into this Eternal Marriage-Bed to be one with the Father and the Son as they are one in the Unity of the Spirit I have now finished the last Argument for the confirmation of that proposition God is Love The Argument was this The mystery of the Trinity is a mystery of Divine Love Let me conclude this Argument with one general Use. Use. Hold fast the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity Study it with humble pure Spiritual understandings with the Scriptures in your Eye as your mark to guide you in your way with the Holy Ghost in your heart as your Light of Life to discern your mark your way and your end It is a deep and Divine contemplation that of a Learned Acute and Heaâ—enly Person God hath two Boxes in which he hath laid up his Jewels the â—ncarnation and the Trinity God hath opened one Box the Incarnation There we have seen rich and sparkling Jewels in the union between the Diâ—ine and Humane Nature here below God manifested in 〈◊〉 But O! What â—ewels shall we see what Loves what Glories what Unions when God shall open his other Box of the Trinity when we shall see God justified in the â—pirit The Trinity is the Supream the Soveraign mystery of the Gospel the â—undation of fair Colours upon which all evangelical mysteries are built â—e Fountain in Eternity from which they slow Then shall we understand 〈◊〉 mysteries when God shall take the vail from before this which is the entire 〈◊〉 clear-shining Face of the God-Head Here is the Supream Unity the Founâ—â—in of all Love Life and Light Here is the variety of Love and of Life 〈◊〉 its fairest Light in its first and fullest Image Here is the Love-union the 〈◊〉 Treasury the curious Spring the golden Band of all Unions Motions â—easures and Joys Blessed is he who with Eyes washed in this Fountain looketh into it seeth himself and all Divine Mysteries there Unvailed So Austin wished to have seen Christ in the Flesh. O how much more Divine and Blessed a Spectacle is it to see Christ in the Spirit that is in the Glory of the Trinity the Three Persons in One with all their Eternal Beauty fully and freely displayed Pray for Wait for Look up continually into the Heights and Lights oâ— the Spirit for this sight I have now brought to an End my last Description of Divine Love which is the Divine Nature God is Love I will seal up this Sweet and Soveraign Truth of the Gospel with One Use. Use. If you will be Children of God be Children of Love God is Love Love is the Divine Nature in God and in all His Holy Ones 1. Beware of Lust the Corruption of Love 2. Beware of Passion the Contrariety to Love 1. Beware of Lust the Corruption of Love The Corruption of the best Thing is the Worst All Lust is Love degenerated Love Corrupted Love is the Best of all things Love in its purity at its Height is the Godhead in God Lust is the Formality and Essence of the Devil as he is a Devil St. Jude teacheth us that fleshly Lusts are the similitude of that First sin of the Faln Spirits which made them of Angels Devils Ixion in the Poets loved a Goddess in the place of whom he embraced a Cloud formed into the Shape of a Divine Beauty Thus he became the Father of the Centaures half Men half Beasts Then he was cast into hell where he is fastened to a Wheel turning continually round on which he is tormented day and night This Pâ—rabâ—e is meant of thee O Lustful Spirit Thou wert made for Divine Love fâ—r the Love of the Divine Beauty Thus hast changed this Love into various Lusts. Thou defiâ—est thy self with Shadows Clouds of Darkness formed into the Empty Snapes of Beauty Instead of the Divine and Humane Nature in the Blessed Harmony of an Immortal Union all thy Births all thy Production are Horrid hateful monsters Man Beast and Devil all in One Spirit in One Person Thy end is the Endless Circle of thy Lusts and of the Divine wrath as the Wheel of Eternity a Wheel of Fire holding thee fast tied to it and torturing thee without any Rest or Period 2 Beware of Passion the Contrariety to Love Sampson tied Foxes together by their Tails with Firebrands between them So he sent them forth to burn up the standing Corn of the Philistines in the Fields O men when ye fall from the Wisdom of God into the Subtlety of the Serpent you become Foxes not Men. Your Lusts your Carnal Interests are your Tayls by which you are tied together in all your Unions and Commerce your Passions are Fire-brands fastned to your Tayls Thus the Devil sendeth you forth to deface and consume the Beauties the Peace the Comforts each of other of the whole Creation round about you
without any Reserve without any Division of the Heart Simplicity is Unity The Intentness of the Mind upon One Thing The heart of God All the Thoughts of his heart All the Powers of the Godhead All the Divine Attributes are united and intended upon This One Thing alone Love poured forth on the Person of the Lord Jesus Simplicity is without Alteration or Composition The heart of God is single in this Natural unchangeable This is the One Thing the Onely Thing of God's heart This is the Sâ—mplicity of the Divine Operations from Eâ—ernity to Eternity The Effusion of Love in the Person of Christ There may be many Shadows many Vails many Windings But this is the Simplicity the naked Face of the Divine Design of the Divine Work from the Beginning to the End as it lieth in the heart of God 2. Upbraiding none To upbraid is to object some Evil as an Argument of withholding some Act of Love or exercising some Act of Wrath. John 1. 2. 9. Jesus Christ is called the Lamb which taketh away 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tollit taketh up beareth the Sins of the World When the Father was to pour forth his Love upon Christ he did not reproach him saying Thou hast the Sins of all the World upon thee Thou hast upon thee Millions of Whoredomes Adulteries Incests Treasons Witchcrafts Murthers Idolatries Rebellious Blaspemies Horrid Profanenesses Apostasies Spiritual wickednesses in Heavenly Angelical Divine Forms the proper Sins of Devils Thou hast many Davids Amnons Absaloms Manassehs Mary Magdalens many Peters many Judas's in thee and comest thou to me for Love How can I give thee my Love Instead of this when he is Baptized into that publick Ministry in which he professedly beareth the Sins of all the World before Men and Angels in which he beareth the Person of the greatest Sinners that ever were in the open Eye of Heaven Heaven openeth upon him the God-Head descendeth upon him visibly in a living Form of Love in the Form of a Dove a voice cometh to him from the Father This is my Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased St. Paul saith Love thinketh no Evil. Solomon saith Love covereth All Sin When the Father should express Love to Christ in the Person of a Sinner he doth not object thy Unloveliness thy Filth thy want of Love thy enmity neither to deny Love nor to make the manner of expressing love lâ—ss sweet less lovely No. As the Seâ— when it floweth covereth all the Sand on the Shore round about with Multitudes of deep Waters so God when he poureth forth his love in Jesus Christ drowneth Eternally the innumerable multitudes of thy Sins with mighty and unfathomable Seas of Love which never return to leave them naked or bare to any Eye any more for ever God poureth forth his Love in Jesus Christ freely that is 1. Naturally 2 Nakedly 3. Indifferently 1. God poureth forth his Love in Christ Naturally Mat. 3. 17. This is my Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Every Faculty or Power is carried forth naturally to its proper object Jesus Christ is the proper object of the Fathers Love The most perfect work of Nature in every thing is to bring forth its like Then nothing so Naturally so Powerfully attracteth love so delighteth aâ— this similitude doth The most perfect and perpetual Act of the Divine Nature in the Father is to bring forth the most perfect Image of himself in the Person of Christ then to pour forth himself in all Divine Loves and Pleasures into his Bosom Pleasure accompanieth all natural operations Pleasure naturally drawetâ— every Spirit Jesus Christ draweth the Heart of the Father all his love entirely to himself because the Father is pleased in him He is the Rest and Joy of his Father Three Things follow upon This â—aturalness of the Father's Love in Christ 1. Sweetness 2. Force 3. Duration 1. Sweetness That is ever Sweetest which is most Natural Live Honey is most esteemed because it droppeth Naturally of its own accord from the Honey-Comb Thou who hungrest after the Love of God lye down in the arms of thy Jesus There Love will drop and fall from the Heart of the Father into the Mouth of thy Spirit as Freely as Naturally as Sweetly as 〈◊〉 Live Honey from the Hâ—ny-Comb 2. Force That which is Natural hath the Greatest Force in it Every Natural Agent worketh to the utmost of its Power Thou who wantest Love be found in Jesus Christ. As the Sun every moment poureth forth All hâ—â— Beams from every part of him because he shineth Naturally so will the Father pour forth himself in Millions of Loves from every Point of his Hearâ— of his Godhead he will pour forth himself in All his Loves he will poâ—â— forth himself All in Loves upon Thee in Jesus Christ. For the Father as Naturally loveth in Jesus Christ as the Sun-shineth 3. Duration Nothing violent unnatural continueth Psal. 30. 5. His angâ—â— endureth but a moment In his favour there is Life Clouds and Storms 〈◊〉 not long They are a violence upon the Air and Praeternatural to it Calmâ—â— Serenities and Clear Sunshines are its Natural State Clouds and Storms of wrath are a Force upon the Divine Nature Strange to it a Disguise upon it The Blessed Calms Serenities and Sun shines of Loves of Love are its proper State Comfort thy self then O afflicted Soul The rain will be over the storm will be pass't away The sweet and clear the Golden the Glorious smiles of Love will return after the Storm and Rain These will rest the Last in the Face of God and upon thy Spirit Wrath is but for a moment at longest the moment of this Life this Shadow this short Dream of Lifes The Truth of Life the Perpetuity of Life Eternity is for Love 2. God poureth forth his Love in Christ Nakedly John 3. 34 God giveth him his Spirit without Measure The Spirit is Love in a Living Person in its Eternal Substance in its Native Seat in its Unlimited Freedom as Light in the Sun God saith to the Lord Jesus I will not stand to measure out my Love to thee Take it All. I will not give thee a Jewel out of my Cabinet but my Cabinet of Jewels I will not give thee an Apple of Love off from the Tree but the Tree of Love with all ripe and pleasant Fruits of Love hanging upon it I will not give thee some Spice from the Island but the Island of Spices the Land of Loves where they grow and increase eternally I will give thee the Infinite Eternal Spirit of Love himself where all the Treasures of Love â—re without number measure or End The Face of Divine Love in Jesus Christ hath no Vail upon it though â—ever so thin no Cloud upon it though never so fine No. Its Love shineth â—orth in Jesus Christ with a naâ—ed face in its Strength with all its Beauties â—ll its Sweetnesses Thou who art weary who art heavy laden with any
Debt any Burthen 〈◊〉 Guilt Sin or Sorrow come lay thy head upon this Pillow the Naked â—eart of God in the Naked Bosom of Jesus Christ. Here thou wilt sleep and thy â—eep will be sweet to thee thou wilt forget thy Debts and Cares thou wilt 〈◊〉 no weight no burthen upon thee any more 3. The Love of God poureth forth itself in Christ Indifferently that is 1. Without Distinction 2. â—ithout Condition 1. The Love of God poureth forth itself in Christ without Distinction John 〈◊〉 16. God so loved the World that he gave his onely-begotten Son that whosoâ—ver believeth in him should not perish but should have everlasting Life Let 〈◊〉 Sinners let all the Souls of all Mankind hear this All Persons all States 〈◊〉 Dâ—grees the Persons of all Sinners All States and Degrees of Sin are Aâ—â—e to the Love of God in Jesus Christ. It findeth no Distinctions It maketh â—ll Distinctions by its own Election Descent and Operation It taketh away 〈◊〉 Distinctions by putting the greatest Comeliness upon the most uncomely â—rts by pouring forth itself in the greatest Loveliness upon the unloveliest â—arts by being Infinite in the Effusion of itself upon Every Part of Christs 〈◊〉 The First Matter is said by learned men to be a Deep of Emptiness and Darkness a meer Possibility a Pure Passiveness to all Forms of Things Such Matter such a Subject is every Soul to the Divine Love in Christ. Every Soul is in itself a great Deep covered with the Blackness of a Darkness But it is to This Love a meer Possibility a Pure Passiveness It cannot actuate itself to a Complyance or a Resistance Love cometh to it as its Form infuseth itself into it penetrateth thorow the whole Substance of it filleth it in every Part. Love reigneth Powerfully over it reigneth gloriously in it maketh it a Kingdom of Love maketh it a Lovely Queen to itself standing at its own right hand reigning and ruling together with itself in this New Kingdom of Love Rom. 5. 20. Where Sin abounded there Grace hath abounded much more Seas and rivers have their High-Water Marks Thus far their Waters come when they are highest but no further The Sea of Divine Love in the Bosom of Christ hath no High-Water Mark no Bound Thus far Love shall flow thus high its pure and sweet Waves shall rise to wash to make white to make new to overflow Sinners of such Circumstances But beyond this no Love shall pass to Sins of such aggravations of so deep and foul a Dye to Sins against so much Light so much Love to Sins so often repeated after so many new Repentances new Resolutions to Sins so black so bloody No The Love of God is without Distinction to all Sins and over all Sinners in Jesus Christ. If It maketh any Difference It floweth first It riseth highest there where Sin hath most abounded that there It may be most Glorified The Love of God in Jesus Christ maketh the greatest Sinners its Patterns to all the World of Men and Angels Its Master-pieces to Eternity 1 Tim. 1. 15. God had mercy on me the Chiefest of Sinners that I might be an Ensample to all that shall believe in ages to come saith St. Paul The holy Apostle doth not speak vainly when he calleth himself The Chief of Sinners he speaketh the truth in the Holy Ghost and lyeth not He setteth himself as a Light on a high Watch-Tower to all thorow all ages that shall faâ—â— upon Seas of Lust in a dark Night of Ignorance and Unbelief exposed to Storms of Wrath. He inviteth them to make thither there they shall be safe they shall find rest they shall find a Heven of Divine Love in the Bosom of Jesus Christ defended by the Rocks of Eternity the Divine Attributes from every wind No Vessel will fear want of water there where it seeth the greatest Ship of the greatest burthen deepest loaden which draweth the greatest depth of waters to sail safely St. Paul being dead yet speaketh to the greatest Sinners in every age after this manner Behold a Sea of Love a Channel of Love the Love of God poured forth in the Bosom of Jesus Christ. My self the greatest Sinner deepest loaden with Sin and Guilt who draw the greatest depth of Love have here found Love enough unfathomable Love on which I have bin carried safely triumphantly unto that Flourishing Land of Glory where now I feast continually with all Blessed Spirits in the midst of all Incorruptible Beauties and Joyes Let no sinner ever after me doubt to trust himself to this Channel to put himself upon this Sea of Love in the Bosom of the Lord Jesus Thus the Love of God poureth forth itself without Distinction in the Glorified Person of our Blessed Saviour 2. The Father poureth forth his Love in Christ Indifferently that is Without Condition 1. The Love of the Father dependeth upon no Conditions between himself and his Son the Father doth not say to Christ I will pour forth my Love in thee for Sinners but upon this Condition that thou make thy Soul an offering for Sin that thou satisfie my Justice and my Wrath that thou take upon thee to make them capable of my Love suitable to me in Holiness and Spirituality All that the Lord Jesus hath done or suffered is no Condition but Consequent of the Father's Love Love is the Sea These are the many Springs by which it variously boileth up the many Streams and Windings in which it playeth with itself as it runneth along in this Earthly Image until it return into the Sea itself again from whence it came The Lord Jesus testifieth The Words which I speak are not mine but the Father's He doth the Works It is the First the Supreme Love itself which shut up itself in Flesh which was made Flesh It is That Love which weepeth bleedeth dyeth which hangeth upon the Cross lieth in the Grave It is that Love which riseth again maketh itself a Spirit ascendeth up on high taketh to itself Its First and great Glory It is that Love which as a Spirit cometh to thee Invisibly by day and by Night which is now with thee Invisibly wooing thee in all Forms in Its Blood in Its Beauties by all means working itself into thine heart It is The Love of the Father That Love which is the Onely Father which doth all the Works which speaketh all the Words in the Person of the Lord Jesus It is the same Gold which is stampt in several pieces with several Images to make Crowns Angels Twenty shilling Pieces Coin and Currant Money for Traffick The Incarnation Active Obedience Sufferings Resurrection Intercession of the Lord Jesus his Presence his Powers his Operations in the Spirit are All The same Gold The same Divine Love in several Forms bearing several Figures for Traffick and Commerce between God and the Creature When thou presentest to God the Blood the Glory the Intercession the Spiritual Operations the Graces of the Lord Jesus
thou settest before him his Love himself in various Manners in various Mysteries The Onely Coin the Onely Currant Money the Onely Means of Commerce in the Kingdom of Heaven is Love the First Supreme Eternal Love the Gold of Eternity the most high and most Glorious Unity in all varieties stampt with all Figures 2. The Father in giving his Love maketh no Condition with Sinners He doth not say I give thee my Love for that Sinner upon Condition that he be humbled that he accept of my Love that he believe in thee The Gospel is a Covenant of Grace The Covenant is All Love The Covenant is Compleat in the Person of Christ who is The Divine Love Eternal Love in a Divine Infinite Eternal Person I have given him saith the Lord by the Prophet Esaâ—ah for a Covenant to the Natiâ—ns All Preparations Qualifications Acceptations are not Conditions of This Love but Infallible Consequents not Causes without which the Covenant hath no Force but Irresistible Immutable Effects of it By Grace ye are saved Ephes. 2. The whole Work of our Salvation from the Begining to the End from the first Design in Eternity to the last Act in Eternity is Pure Love Divine Love shineth in upon a Dark Spirit Enlightneth Awakneth Convinceth it by Its own Heavenly Brightness Divine Love burneth up flameth in a Defiled Dead heart raiseth a Divine Life and Sense in it melteth it consumeth its Dross maketh it new The Love of the Father in the Bosom of the Lord Jesus is the Golden Mine out of which a Saint is first taken the Flaming Mint where he is Melted refined made pure Gold and stamp't with the Divine Image Rev. 1. 5. 6. He saith St John of our Lord Jesus hath loved us and washed us in his own blood and made us Kings and Priests to God his Father The Love of the Father in the heart of Christ is our onely Fountain All the Blood which streameth from the Wounds of Christ to wash us runneth down from this Fountain This Love is the Costly Ointment running down upon all our Persons anointing us for Priests and Kings Poor Soul which lyest in thy Sins which lyest a Slave in Chains at the bottom of a Dark Deep and Miry Dungeon The Love of the Father in the Person of the Lord Jesus cometh to thee It taketh thee into itself as a Bath of most pretious Blood in which It cleanseth thee from all thy filth cherisheth all thy parts bringeth thee to thy self to a Divine Beauty to a Divine Warmth sense and Life This Love setteth itself as a Priestly and Kingly Crown upoâ— thy Head It infuseth itself as a Priestly and Kingly Spirit into thee 〈◊〉 changeth itself in thine Iron Chains into Bracelets of Gold upon thee in thâ— Dungeon into a Temple and Palace It filleth thee this Temple this Palace round about thee with Its own clear and Proper Appearance in the Glory 〈◊〉 God Thus it dwelleth with thee Eternally Thus the Love of the Fatheâ— in the heart of Christ softneth enliveneth washeth thee with Its own Blood maketh thee by itself a Priest and King to itself Eternally I have done with the first Property in the Effusion of Divine Love Freedoâ— Use. 1. The Gospel is compared to a Marriage-Feast for a King's Son Goâ— the Father is The King His Son is the Bridegroom Eternal Love attendeâ— with all The Lovelinesses and Joys of That Love are The Feast Thou 〈◊〉 Man O Sinner Thy Soul is invited to this Feast of Love not onely to 〈◊〉 Guest but The Beautiful Blessed Bride The Ministers the Angels The Spirit of Love himself are sent forth as Eâ—bassadours to bring thee to This Marriage 1. Obj. Say not I am Unworthy Unlovely in my Sins and shame Answ. This Love is free It seeketh not but bringeth Loveliness along with it This Love is itself The Wedding-Garment and the Marriage-Crown This Feast as thou eatest giveth thee strength Beauty and a Right to it This Feast of Love maketh Its Guest This Marriage of Love maketh a Bride Obj. 2. How can I leave my precious and pleasant Things for This Love Answ. Canst thou not part with a single dying Flower in thy hand for a Root of Flowers to set in thine heart in thy Garden The Love of God is The Root of all Precious and Pleasant Things in Eternity Canst thou not part with a Shadow for the Substance a Picture for the Life a Counterfeit for the Truth a glass Diamond or Pearl for a right Diamond the true Pearl All thy Pleasant Things here are Shadows Pictures counterfeits This Love is All Pleasantnesses all Preciousnesses in their Substance Life Truth Obj. 3. I am weak I shall dishonour This Love I shall be disloyal to It. I shall return to my Lusts. Ans. This Love requireth no Qualifications but worketh all Give up thy self to be the Creature of This Love This Love will make Thee a Heavenly Bride to itself out of Nothing out of Contrariety Enmity This Love will be both a new a Divine Creation of Thee and a Continual Preservation This Preservation shall be a Continued Creation of Love Resign thy self to This Love which is the onely Fountain of Life and of all Loveliness Use. 2. Love again Who planteth a Vine and drinketh not of the Wine The Father planteth Jesus Christ his Love his Vine in thy Soul Let him drink of the Wine of thy Loves Love thy God with the same Freedom Simplicity and Sweetness with the Same Naturalness Nakedness and Force with which he loveth Thee Use. 3. Love one another as God loveth you Pour forth all your Love into the Bosom of Christ. There let it run into the Bosom of every Saint of every Creature There love one another without Distinction without Condition Freely receive one another into embrace one another in the Riches of the Grace and Glory of Jesus Christ as the Father receiveth and embraceth you Use 4. Abide in the Love of the Father 1. Abide in the Father's Love by Faith in the Lord Jesus The Glorified Person of Christ is the Land of Life the Land of Love the Love of the Father is the Sweetness and Fatness of this Land Faith is the root of thy Soul in this Pleasant Land By Faith thy Soul is vitally fixed in this Divine Soil in the midst of all the Sweetnesses and Pretious Sap of Divine Love By Faith thou drawest the rich heart of this Glorious Earth the Love of The Father to thy self Thou feedest upon It nourishest thy self by It and growest up to an Entire Tree of Love 2. Abide in this Love by holiness Holiness is the lovely Fruit which springeth up out of the Love of the Father and is Its Food Holiness is the Purity of the Spirit by which the flame of heavenly Love liveth and spreaded itself there Holiness is the Spiritual Chastity of the Soul to her heavenly Bridegroom 3. Abide in the Father's Love by keeping his Commandments The Commands of
Lamb hath seven Eyes and seven Horns which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the Earth Seven is a Perfect Number the Power of all Numbers which multiply themselves endlesly by the Marriage of the Two First Numbers Three and Four the Numbers of the Trinity upon the Throne and the Four Living Creatures most immediately to the Throne and from thence spreading themselves thorow all things being in the midst of the Throne and round about the Throne on every side Revel 4. 6. The seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the Earth are the Holy Ghost that one Manifold Infinite Spirit which divideth Itself into Innumerable flaming Tongues Eyes Horns into all Forms of things according to its own Good Pleasure ever Containing all within itself ever filling all with itself See now the Lamb with seven Eyes and seven Horns seven Spirits sent forth into all the Earth The Lamb is Jesus risen from the Dead The Lord the Spirit who hath Innumerable Living Lights of Glory in himself Innumerable Living Springs of Light and Glory with which as with so many ever-waking Eyes he shineth and seeth thorow all things who hath innumerable Powers Almighty Powers Fountains of Power as so many Horns with which he ruleth and reigneth in the midst of all things A Poet in a bright Night taken in a Wood by Robbers which would kill him said to them As many stars as shine in the Sky so many Eyes now look upon you and will be witnesses of this Murther O Sinner who art hatching who art practising any lust in the most secret corner of thine heart or Closer be awake be aware See the Lord Jesus with ten thousand with a Numberless Number of Eyes Shining Flaming Eyes of Pure Glory looking forth full upon thee from every point of the Walls the Roof the Floor all things round about thee from every point of thine own Heart and all that is within Thee See the Lord Jesus with as many Horns of Divine Power from every Point of things running upon thee to break Thee off from thy Lusts or to break Thee in pieces O Saint who mournest sitting in Darkness Lying in Prison encompassed with black thoughts with Enemies Invisible or Visible be awake be aware See thy Jesus thy King thy Beloved with ten thousand a Numberless Number of Eyes sweetly-shining sweetly-Flaming Eyes of Pure Love from every Point of the blackest Darkness of the darkest Prison of thy Darkest thoughts themselves looking forth upon Thee See him with as many Golden Horns of Divine Power from every part from every side running upon thine Enemies to ruine them to cast them down to the Ground down to the bottom of the Pit until they rise no more whether they be things Visible or Invisible See him with the same Innumerable Golden Horns from every part of things from the thickest Darkness round about thee running to Thee to raise Thee up to set Thee on high upon the Rock of Eternity in the midst of the Throne of God Revel 1. 14 The Eyes of the Lord Jesus are compared to a Flame of Fire A Spirit is all one Entire Eye and full of Eyes The Lord Jesus is the Supreme Spirit spreading himself thorow all things from the height of Heaven above to the Depth of Death and Hell beneath The Firmament is not set so thick with Stars as the Whole Earth the whole-Creation all things are set with the Eyes of the Lord Jesus These Eyes are so many Suns of Love to the Flowers the Wheat the Gold the Diamonds to increase their Beauty draw forth their Sweetness ripen their Fruit make them sparkle and shine more pleasantly But to Stubble and Thorns to Vanity or Enmity they are a flame of Fire burning upon it until it be consumed O Fear the Wrath of the Lamb. 2. Application Fear to look with a Vailed Heart upon the Vailed Face of the Lord Jesus If thou seest the Shadow the Letter of the Gospel if thou seest the Vail the Flesh of Christ if thou seest not to the End of these as things to be done away if thou seest not thorow these beyond these the Lord the Spirit which is the Heavenly Body and Substance to the Shadow the Naked Face the Naked Unchangeable Eternal Person of Christ hid under the Vail it is not Jesus Christ but Moses in whom thou trustest Thou art not in the Arms of a Lovely pleasant Bridegroom but at the feet of a severe Judge This is the Law from Mount Sinai which engendreth bondage which trembleth and shaketh for fear where Thunders roar and Lightnings fly abroad from the midst of a thick Darkness This is not the Lord Jesus full of Grace that Perfect Love which casteth out fear the Perfection of Beauty on Mount Sion which standeth firm for ever which may be touched kissed and embraced Take heed to thy self O Temporary Believer Thou Jew thou Christian outwardly in the Letter onely This is not the Sun of Righteousness on which thou lookest but the Cloud which covereth the Sun If the Eye of thy Spirit stay here and pierce no further out of this Cloud will come down upon thy head a tempest a Whirlwind and Flames of Fire The Vail is upon your Hearts while the Gospel is read even to this day 3 Application Blessed art thou who lookest with a Naked Heart upon the Naked Person of Christ. He who is fixed in the Letter the Outward Form the Flesh of the Eternal Word is One of the People of the Jews who stood below at the Foot of the Mountain having in their Eye the Outside onely of things These saw nothing but the Blackness of Darkness and the Flashes of Lightning these heard nothing but the dreadful claps of Thunder He who ascendeth and entreth into the Truth the Spirit is with Moses within upon the Top of the Mount He talketh with God face to face as a man talketh with his Friend He seeth the Divine Light and Calm of Eternity in the naked Person of the Lord Jesus He receiveth the Language of Divine Love the Musick of Eternity with kisses of Love immediately from the Lips of the Lord Jesus He feeleth the Fountain of Life all Joys flowing from the Heart of the Lord Jesus running nakedly thorow his whole Body and Spirit being a better Feast than that of all meats and Drinks filling him with Spirit and pleasantness cloathing him with a fresh Lustre Beauty in a more excellent way The Lord Jesus saith of himself in the Gospel I have a Baptism to be baptised with and how am I streightned till it be over The Loves the Lovelinesses the Divine Life the Delights the Glories the Lord Jesus all the Treasures of the Eternal Word are streightned in the flesh of Christ as the Beauties and Sweetnesses of a Flower the Fruits of a Tree are shut up and imprisoned in the Seed When the Lord Jesus by Death is baptised into a Divine Form and Glory when he cometh
to take thy Person into the Arms of his Preventing Loves to breath bis Preventing Loves into Thee as a New Life the Spring of a New Beauty excelling that which was lost by Thee in Paradise incorruptible that never fadeth not passeth away Ladies and Queens have sometimes hatched Eggs in their Bosoms Thy dead deformed Person will thy Saviour hatch in the warm and naked Bosom of his Preventing Loves unto a Divine Life that shall answer Love with Love and flourish in the Loveliness of every Grace every Glory through thy New-born Soul and body according to their proper seasons Having known the Love of the Lord my Spirit laboureth yet not my Spirit but the Love of the Lord Jesus in my Spirit laboureth by all means to bring forth itself in the fresh and full Sense of its First its Free its Preventing Sweetnesses in your hearts as a Spring of Living Waters in a dry and barren Wilderness But as a tender Mother taketh a beloved Child weak and peevish laieth it in her lap poureth a Cordial down into its stomack so will your Jesus do with you O Grieved Spirits who are weak without strength froward will not take in his Love He will take you lay you upon his knees and pour this precious Cordial of his Preventing Loves into your Mouths Then will it go right and sweet down to the bottom of your heart There it will become a Well springing up with pure sweet and plentiful Streams of every Spiritual Truth Grace Comfort or Joy unto Eternal Life This is The First State of Love in the Lord Jesus Preventing Love 2. There is in the Lord Jesus poured forth from the Father a Fulness of all Assisting Love 2. Cor. 14. v. 7. 8. 9. St. Paul had a thorn in his Flesh messengers of Satan sent to buffet him He prayed thrice that he might be delivered from them He had this answer from the Lord My Grace is sufficient for Thee Many tender-hearted Saints who feel their Lusts as Thorns in their Flesh who feel their Passions as the Messengers of Satan the Angels of the Dragon buffeâ—ing them cry out frequently in the Agonies of Fear and Grief O this Lust O this Thorn in my Flesh Sure at last it will wound me so deeply to the heart that it will let out the Life-blood of all faith hope grace and comfort O this Passion O this Messenger of Satan It will one day carry me back again into those Chains of Darkness and that Bottomless Pit out of which I seem to my self sometimes to have escaped But O Believer tossed with the Tempests be comforted Fear none of these things Look up continually to the Blessed Person of your dear Saviour lifted up into Glory in the midst of your Spirits See the Father pouring forth himself into the Fulness the Glorious Fulness of all Assisting Loves in his Bosom Pray continually and hear this Blessed voice from the Mouth of your Saviour continually sounding in your ears My Assisting Loves are sufficient for Thee Obj. But some Soul that wanteth Comfort will say When the Lord Jesus hath once by his Preventing Love planted a New Principle and Habits of Grace in me he now expecteth that I should improve this Principle and act these Graces If I do this and make use of that which I have I may comfortably look for his Assisting Love and that more Grace should be still given me But what New Loves can I promise my self to accompany me and carry me on in my way while I so ill requite the Lord Jesus for his First Loves that I suffer his Gifts to lye unimproved his Graces to lye unactive in me hid in the Earth by my Sloth or Sensuality Answ. I shall proceed in my answer to this Objection by Three Steps 1 Stâ—p This Objection wrappeth up together in it something True something False 1. This is False That the Assisting Love of the Lord Jesus dependeth upon our Emprovement of Grace already received from him This is not True No by no means Assisting Love is as free as full as absolute as much all as much alone in Carrying on the Work of Grace in us as Preventing Love is in Beginning it God hath poured forth in Christ the Fulness of all Assisting Love I am the Truth the way and the Life saith our Saviour Jesus Christ is the Truth and the Life of all Grace in the way as much as in the Beginning or End Without me ye can do Nothing Every Act of Grace every thing in every Act of Grace which distinguisheth it from a meer Non-Entity from an Absolute Nothing Every Degree of Spiritual Being in the whole Life of Grace with all the Exercises of it through the whole way from the Beginning to the End is all alike Immediately from Jesus Christ. That which is True in the Objection is this the Emprovement of Spiritual Principles the Exercise of our Graces are attended with Clearer Illuminations Sweeter Enlargements more Divine heighthnings of all heavenly Truths Graces and Consolations in us On the other siide when Faith is not acted when holiness is neglected Darkness Decay Distress and Death dwell upon us But these things are all entirely Consequences and Effects not Causes or Attractives of Assisting Love The Assisting Love of our Lord Jesus is as the Sun which by its Presence bringeth Light Warmth Fruitfulness Life Beauty Pleasurealong with it When it withdraweth itself leaveth the Cold hardness Storms Desolation of Winter behind it The Bridegroom chargeth the Virgins of Jerusalem by the Roes and Hinds of the Field that they stir not up nor awake his Love until She please Cant. 2. 7. The Angels of heaven which are the Invisible Ministers by whom all things move in the whole Order of Second Causes are here understood according to the sense of some learned Divines By the Virgins of Jerusalem The Roes and hinds of the Field are the Pleasant Loves and Lovelinesses of the Eternal Spirit in the heavenly Person of Christ. The Law of the Eternal Beauties and Loves of the Divine Nature lieth upon all things upon all the Ministers and Armies of God that the Spouse of Christ be never laid to sleep or awakened but according to its own good pleasure as it is One Spirit with the Lord Jesus by a knot of Everlasting Love as a Queen at the Right hand of her King set down in Heavenly Places with him in him upon the same Throne When the Divine Principle which is the Bride and the Spiritual Man in a Saint retireth itself and goeth to its rest in this Night the Wild Beasts Bruitish Lusts Raging Passions come forth to prey upon the Natural Man covering it with filth wounds But when the Day spring ariseth from on high when the season cometh for this Man this Heavenly Seed Bride to awake to stir up her self and come forth again in this New Morning the Beasts return to their Den Lusts and Passions sink down into their own
hand your Redeemer cometh This is the day of finishing love Jesus Christ cometh in this day to thee O Believer to consummate the Marriage and so all thy joys thy graces thy gâ—ories in thy compleat Marriage to himself The day of the Lord is said to be The Revelation of the Lord from Heaven As the natural day chaseth away the shadows of the night but is the brightness of the Suns beautiful and glorious Body making all things new in the pleasantness of his light to those Eyes that watch for the morning so is this day of the Lord a day of Clouds and Darkness to the Children of the night But it is to thee who lovest and waitest for the appearance of our Lord Jesus the breathing forth of all finishing loves the breaking forth of all finished Beauties from the beloved Person of thy Jesus appearing nakedly in all the glories of the God-Head from Heaven in thy Person in all things round about thee as the Sun of Eternity at once shining in every point of things making a new day of immortality and glory every where The Lord Jesus cometh indeed in flames of Fire But these flames are the Almighty powers and Supream glories of the eternal spirit of eternal love in its purity in its simplicity These are of a truth flames of fire to the enmity to the enemies to all flesh but they are to thee who livest in the spirit flames of finishing love of finished beauties presenting themselves to thee in all forms of things feasting themselves upon thee feasting themselves with thee making themselves a feast to thee I will conclude with that History of Elijah 1 Kings 19. 11. There passed before him a Whirlewind rending the Rocks removing the Mountains a Fire and Earthquake After these came a still veice The learned Jews say That all this was acted before the Prophet in a divine vision that the Whirlwind the Mountains the Rocks torn in pieces the Fire the Earthquake were Angels presenting themselves in those Forms as so many Divine Scenes that the still voice were all the Angels in a Quire making a heavenly melody Thy Royal Bridegroom cometh in every day of Judgment to make more than this true to thee O thou Dove thou Bride of the Lamb. He cometh in the weakness of all flesh round about thee to rest upon thee upon all things round about thee in the power of his finishing loves This is the great day of love and of the spirit in which he will make perfect the strength of his love and spirit while thou art trembling while all things are falling with a great noise round about thee as dreadful ruines in a devouring flame Now lift up thy head into that living and glorious light of the eternal spirit now lift up thine Eyes and thine heart unto that living and glorious light of divine love which breaketh forth from the face of thy Jesus within thee without thee on every side of thee This is the day of the anointing of thine Eyes with the heavenly Eye-salve of changing thee and the whole world to thee into fine Gold Gold tryed in the fire All things now appear to thee as indeed they are a divine vision in a light of Glory The whirlewinds Earthquakes Fires Deaths Ruines are all Angelical Scenes in the Spirit In them all thou seest the Dances thou hearest the still voice the calm charming soft Musick of all the Angels all the Spirits all the loves of God as on his and thy Marriage-day Thus finishing love maketh perfect the light the life the strength of the spirit and of love in thee in thy personal weakness in the universal weakness decay and ruines of all flesh of the whole Creation round about thee A skilful Painter is most discerned in laying his shadows By these he maketh his work softer sweeter more full of life and more taking Thus comfort thy self in all thy weaknesses darknesses and deaths Say thou now is my Jesus exercising his divine wisdom and skill in laying and placing his shadows Now upon these sad grounds will he curiously lay his rich and pleasant colours Now will he form and finish the glorious face of his divine beauties of his divine loves upon me Finishing love then appears then displayeth itself with greatest freedom fulness and sweetness when it maketh perfect its strength its beauties its joys its eternal light in our weakness deâ—ormity despair darkness death These are the rellishes to the Musick the shadows to the beauty of finishing love These are the times for finishing love when it is most beautiful I hâ—ve now made an end of my discourse upon the first rich branch of this divine fulness of love in Christ the fulness of love in all States I come now to the second branch the fulness of love in all kinds 2. There is pâ—ured forth from the Father in the glorified Person of the Lord Jesus a fulness of love of all kinds St. Paul saith that God the Father hath abounded in Grace towards us in all wisdom and prudence in Christ. Ephes 1. 6 7. There are three parts of wisdom where it is compleat 1. There is in wisdom a varâ—ety of things 2. A contrivance of this variety into one piece 3. A concurrence and meeting in one of all the several varieties in each part and point of the whole piece by the force of the Harmony The Father aboundeth in his Grace his love to us in all wisdom in Christ. here is fulness upon fulness He aboundeth He aboundeth in all wisdom Nay you have a threefold fulness an abundance an abundance in wisdom which itself expresseth a fulness a riches of variety but then there is superadded all wisdom all variety The Father is a plenitude of love â—of all kinds in all varieties pouring forth himself incessantly endlesly eternally in Christ. God is in Christ in his electing love in his creating love in his preserving love in his redeeming regenerating justifying adopting sanctifying comforting glorifying love God aboundeth with a fulness with a filling an overflowing fulness in all these in each of these several kinds of love in Jesus Christ. Enlightning enlivening softning sweetning healing cleansing defending delighting heightning crowning loves all are here and all are full here to infiniteness Come all ye Souls who want a sense of sin or mourn under a sense of sin for want of a sense of love come hither to Jesus Christ and have love love of every kind love suitable to your longings or wants and have it in abundance The glorified Person of Christ is a spiritual Garden Indeed it is a Garden invisible sealed up from the outward senses But by how much the more invisible it is it is so much the more real glorious and divine This Garden is ever present before thee It flourisheth in the midst of thee It is continually open to every humble believing Spirit In this Garden all kinds of divine love grow as so many flowers which are ever full-blown ever
he that hath suffered in the Flesh hath ceased from Sin The Holy Ghost clearly relates to the death of the Lord Jesus and of a Saint He speaks of the time perfectly past he that hath suffered in the Flesh that is he that by dying hath compleated and finished his sufferings in the flesh he hath ceased from sin He that dyeth in union with Christ in the vertue of his death and in a conformity to it in the first moment of death ceaseth from all the Evils of Sin the Guilt the Power the Pollution the Punishment and so from Death itself See the inseparable connexion between the Flesh Sufferings Sin and Death All these continue together and cease together O you that hear or read understand these things and lay them to heart This Flesh which is so dear to us which we are so loath and unwilling to part with which we tender as our nearest and dearest self is our only division from our self a bed of Snakes and Enmity It is the root the seat the food the fewel the fruit of Sin and suffering and death This Fleshly Principle and Sense this worldly Light and Image which we account Life and the Sweetness of Life in which we think all the dear Treasures and Joys of Life are comprehended is no other than a deep dark and miery Dungeon where we lie in the midst of the hissings stings and poysons of innumerable Toads and Serpents This Sin which so easily besetteth us and winds itself into our bosoms is that weight which presseth us and sinketh us down that chain of Darkness which tyeth us down and fastneth us here below in the horrible Pit and Dungeon of this Fleshly Principle and Sense this Fleshly this worldly Spirit and Image This Death which seemeth so dreadful to us which we so tremble at and fly from is that dearest Friend come down from Heaven from the bosom of God that beautiful hand put forth from the secret of Eternal Life Love and Glory which taketh off this weight which knocketh off this chain of Darkness and restoreth to us our silver Wings and golden Feathers by which in a moment we fly forth from this Cage of unclean Spirits this Dungeon of the Fleshly Principle and Sense never to return into them any more O Believers fear not fly not from Sufferings Be willing to sacrifice and offer up this Flesh as a whole Burnt-Offering in the Flame of Sufferings unto Death Kiss Death as a lovely Bride as those perfumed Flowers those Beds of Spices the Cheeks of the Heavenly Bride-groom mentioned in the Canticles For the Flesh the fleshly Principle and Sense the Spirit and Image of this Flesh of this World together with the Sufferings Sin and Death end all at once in the Death of a Saint in the very first moment of his Death A Holy Divine when he was dying lay upon his Death-Bed singing this often over Now I shall sin no more We read Isaiah 59. 2. That our Iniquities separate between us and our God our Sins hide his face from us Death is indeed a separation but it is not the separation of the Soul from the Body The separation of the Soul or the Body from God this is Death indeed this alone is Death This world this worldly Spirit and Image is the Curtain or Vail the Partition wall between us and the Face or Bosom of our Heavenly Bridegroom our Lord Jesus So saith St. Paul Our Gospel is hid to those whose Eyes the God of this world hath blinded that they should not behold the Light of the Knowledge of the Glory of God in the Face or Person of Christ. The Fleshly Principle or Sense is the unpassable gulf between us and the unsearchable Treasures of the Divine Nature of the Blessed Persons in the Divine Nature the Father the Eternal Word the Holy Spirit Sin digs up and keeps open this Gulf sin builds up this Partition wall Sin draws this Curtain between us and the Divine Beauties the Divine Blessedness O dying Saints break forth into singings O all ye Saints rejoice and triumph at every thought at every approach of Death Abraham saw the day of Christ and rejoyced to see it saith our Lord Jesus in the Gospel The word rejoyce in Greek is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is he danced a Galliard When the Virgin Mary with Christ in her Womb came to the Mother of John the Baptist the Babe within her sprung for joy Thus O Believers let your hearts spring for joy within you at the approach and presence of Death So Death coming to you as a beautiful and a heavenly Virgin with Jesus Christ in its Womb not after the Flesh but in the Glory of the Spirit to be delivered of him immediately into your Bosoms as a Bridegroom that at once in the same moment appears to you in Glory makes you worthy of himself by being like himself and one Glory with himself makes all things Life Immortality Glory round about you Behold the day of your Death both afar off near at hand as the day of Christ as a day which the Lord Jesus makes rising himself as the true Sun upon you so iurning this Sun into Darkness before the brightness of his own appearance enlightning all within you and without you with another Light infinitely greater infinitely sweeter At the sight of this day as Abraham did so let your hearts spring with a pleasant lightness and dance Galliards in your Bosom Now sing of Death and say in your songs every one of you as you lie upon your Death-beds I shall sin no more I shall be in Flesh no more no more for ever in this Fleshly Principle and sense which hath so long bewitched me and held me by their â—orceries in the House of Whoredoms and of Death I shall be in this world so loathsome and so hateful to me I shall see this world and this Image of things which hath been so long so tempting and tormenting to me no more for ever Farewel for ever all distances all divisions between me and my Jesus my God Henceforth shall I with open face in my Soul and my Body behold the open and unvailed Face of God Henceforth shall I with my naked Soul and Body lie for ever in the naked Bosom of my Glorified Saviour my King and Husband giving him of my Loves drinking in abundantly his Loves and bringing forth continually by him all the Spiritual and Heavenly fruits of Life and Immortality The morning is called Rosy-fingred because the morning Beams as Rosy-fingers seem to open the Curtains of the night and let in day upon us Death is to a Saint of a truth this Rosy fingered morning which by sweet beams breaking forth from on high draws aside the Curtains of this night of Flesh and lets in upon us the Eternal day which at once in a moment overspreads our Souls and Bodies and fills all things to us with its blessed Light making us and
the Manhood of Christ in its Earthly State stood in a natural Principle according to its proper essence and created Form but in a Supernatural and Eternal Principle according to its Personal subsistence in the Eternal Word How patient should we be of Life nay with what delight and wonder should we pass the time of our Pilgrimage hero if with a Spiritual Eye we beheld the Lord Jesus in Flesh and saw our life in flesh a conformity to his What a Divine Spectacle what a mystery of Divinity how full of Sweetness Beauty and Glory doth the Life of Christ in Flesh appear when it is rightly seen The Natural Spirit of this world with its natural Image in its full compass stood in the midst of the Lights Immortalities Glories of that Divine Person which is the Brightness of Glory the Sea of all Sweetnesses and Loves Eternity itself God himself This was the Eternal Principle which brought it forth from itself which bears it up in its own Bosom which acts it fills it comprehends it as itself one Person with itself itself Personally in a Divine and Mysterious Figure in the midst of all its Divine and Substantial Glories 3. Propos. As this Eternal Person our Jesus with his God-Head in the Humane Nature stood in a Natural and Temporary Principle he stood under the Curse receiving and feeling all the stings and bitterness of the Curse to the utmost extremity The Scripture saith he was made a Curse for us Although together with the Natural Principle he took not the Corruption yet he took the Curse You that read or hear this prepare your selves to receive a Relation of Divine Love which will at once break your hearts and make them whole again That God who is Blessedness itself the purest Light of Life Joy and Glory in Person cloaths himself with Flesh even with the Fleshly Spirit and Principle that he may make himself a Curse for your sakes in your stead Thus he receives immediately into his own Person into his own Breast and Heart all the stings of the Curse of Separation of Loss of Shame of Pain of Guilt of Grief of Horrour Amazement Death All these stings he receives into himself as they are dipt all over in the most unmixt and fiercest Poison of the Divine Wrath. All these stings he felt at once envenomed with Wrath in the tenderest and most sensible manner with the quickest and sharpest sense Never was never can there be such a sting such a sense of any sting in the Spirit of Man or Devil or any Creature Do we hear all this and that all this was from love to us and are we not by a sympathy of love wounded with a sense of those stings which thus stuck in our Saviours Heart Do we not feel our hearts wounded with a sense of those Sins of ours which fixed those stings there But doth not this sense also fall like drops of precious Balsom upon our Hearts to heal those wounds immediately or to turn them into Fountains of Love and Joy when we hear that it was Love and infinite Love in the Heart of God himself which took these stings out of our low and wretched Persons to fix them in that most High and Glorious Person which is Eternal Love and Life itself He was made Sin for us that is a Sacrifice for Sin in a flame of Wrath in our stead that we might be made the Righteousness of God in him to ascend in the Bosom of his glorified Person in a pure flame of Love Delight and Glory above all Heavens 4. Propos. This our Jesus as he at the same time with his Divine Nature in his Humanity stood in a supernatural and eternal Principle he in his Humanity comprehended his Humanity itself in its natural Principle together with the natural Principle itself the Curse all the stings and bitterness of the Curse in a Light of Divine Glory in a Life of Divine Love as so many varieties of pure Love Joy and Glory with immortality Our Jesus at the same time in his natural Principle and in his Flesh was encompassed with a blackness of darkness and was filled with the bitterness of the Curse at the same time in his supernatural Principle the Eternal Spirit even in the natural Principle in the Flesh in the midst of the darknesses bitternesses he saw them all he conversed with them he tasted them feasted upon them enjoyed them and himself in them as the Light and Sweetness of Heavenly Love as Roses and Lillies the Hony and the hony-comb in the Paradise of God as the delicacies of Eternity and a banquet of Wine in the Kingdom of God For he received he saw he rellished them in the will of his Father and the will of his Father in them Thus he speaketh of them when he cometh first into the World I come to do thy Will O God All things which he met with in the World and in Flesh were to him the pure and entire Will of God alone presenting itself in so many various Forms where the Substance and the Forms both were the same Will like a Feast in several Dishes where the Meat and the Dishes too are alike delicate food So Christ himself expressed it John 4. It is my Meat and Drink a Divine Meat and a Divine Drink to do the Will of my Father All the sufferings and passions of Christ were an active accomplishment an active entertainment of the Will of the Father of that Will of that supream Will which is the pure Fountain Measure Essence perfection of all Good Loveliness Love Sweetness and Joy The sufferings of our Lord Jesus appeared to him in a Spiritual Light as Heavenly Beauties cloathing his Person making it so much the more lovely in the Eye of his Father the truest Judge of loveliness and Beauty My Father loves me saith Jesus Christ because I lay down my Life for my Sheep How sweet and dear a sense hath the Lord Jesus of the Curse and of Death when he had this sense of them that they made him lovely to his Father attracted his Fathers Heart to him and made him more in love with him The blackest Cloud that resteth upon Christ discovered itself to his Spiritual Eye to be in truth a Glory surrounding him All the griefs of his Heart appeared to be Jewels of Glory and Immortality hanging in his Bosom For saith Christ when he was now to suffer now is the Son of Man Glorified and again he saith the Father is Glorified in the Son O! how dâ—fferent is the truth of things in the Spirit from the outward appearance in the Flesh When Jesus Christ was spit upon Scourged Crucified as this World gives forms and names of things then in the sense and language of Heaven of Eternity of the Eternal and Spiritual Principle in himself he was glorified all these were as so many fresh Lights of Glory in which his Person shines forth to itself and to the Father in
these surrounding this Divine Light at the same time surrounded by it give a solemn sweetning and heightning to all like the Base string to the Musick of a Lute making Death it self another Heaven distinct from the Heaven after Death and contending with it for delightfulness Thus God the Father maketh Christ to see the Path of Light in Death 3. The third part in the manner of the Triumph the Pleasure In thy presence are all pleasantnesses and at thy right hand Pleasures for evermore Three pleasâ—n things are here presented in one 1. The Seat of Pleasure 2. The Perfection 3. The Perpetuity of Pleasures 1. The Seat of Pleasure is the Presence and right hand of God The Presence in Hebrew is the Face of God The Son of God The Eternal Word The Essential Form of God and the Brightness of his Glory is the Face of God Behold thou art fair my beloved yea thou art Pleasant our Bed is green saith the spouse in the Canâ—cles to Jesus Christ. He is that Eternal Form and naked face of the Godhead where all the Pleasantnesses of the purest Beauties Loves and Joys first spring flourish and seat themselves His Cheeks therefore in the same Book are said to be the Garden-beds of the most fragrant Spices and persumed Flowers where the highest Beauties and the highest sweetnesses are born and married one to another and bring forth an endless race of Loves and Delights This Face of God in which all Loveliness and Loves thus shine and flame together is also set with so many eyes which continually behold and rejoyce in their own Beauties and Pleasantnesses This Face this Form of God is the Person which subsists in the Human Nature of Christ both Soul Body which in itself gives a subsistance to the whole Humanity of Christ living and dying Thus is it in the Grave and in the dead Body of Christ the seat of all Pleasantnesses the Throne of divine Beauty of Love in Death It is also as a thousand never sleeping never sâ—umbring eyes in this blessed Body with which it uninterruptedly contemplates in it self this Eternal face and Form of God this seat of Pleasantnesses which is its own Person it s own self in its personal Unity and subsistence The right hand of God is the Godhead in the strength at the heighth of Love Power Majesty and Glory as it is above all heavens Here are Pleasures in their proper fear in their greatest force and fulness as they transcend the joys themselves of all created Heavens At this right hand of God is Jesus in the Grave By this right hand of God which hath all pleasures ever attending it was he pleasantly led thorough the Shadow of Death In the Bed of Death this right hand of the most High embraced him that he might sweetly rest there in the midst of all the Pleasures of this Right Hand of his 2. The Perfection of Pleasures is exprest by these two names of Pleasantnesses and Pleasures Pleasantnesses are the Objects of delight or Pleasures in the object Pleasures are the Delights themselves in the fruition and enjoyment of those objects or Pleasures in their Subject The Subject and the Object uniting and mingling and transforming themselves variously by their various mixtures in their union into one mutual life and Form of Beauty and Love make Pleasure and delight You have here all Pleasantnesses in the Face of God and so all Pleasures at the Right Hand of God The Lord Jesus dying and in death beholds the Face of God In this Face he at once beholds all pleasant forms and Forms of Pleasantness the pleasantness of all Forms among Men Angels in their first highest Patterns to which the most Glorious spectacles and spirits of Men or Angels are obscure Shadows and faint imitations In this face he beholdeth pleasant Forms incomprehensible for variety and Glory which never cast any the least shadow of themselves nor were capable of being in the least degree imitated in the highest of created excellencies Death itself is a divine Marriage-bed in which Jesus Châ—ist receives all these pleasant Forms into his Bosom as Lights of Glory shining thick thorow the Cristal Temple of his pure and sacred Body in this Night of his Divine Death He beâ—reth in his dead Body the impressions and Figures of them all with the Heavenly substances themselves in these Impressions and Figures like a seal of Gold fixed on Virgin-wax his dying and dead Body is transformed into one Life and Form with those Original Forms of Pleasantnesses being embraced by them as by a Divine flame which makes it one pure flame of Pleasantness and Pleasure with itself 3. The Perpetuity of the Pleasure At thy right hand are Pleasures for evermore Two things are here signified 1. The continuation of Pleasures in the Person of Christ without any interruption 2. The endlesness of those Pleasures Jesus Christ saith to his Father in one Place thou leadest me by thy right hand The Lord Jesus was ever led by the right hand of the Father out of Heaven into the Virgins Womb out of the Womb into the gloomy Light of this World thorow this World thorow Death and the Grave into Heaven again Thus was this blessed Person ever at the right hand of his Father that is at the right haâ—d aâ—d Fountain of Power Majesty Love Life and Pleasures in the Womb on the earth on the Cross in the Grave So was the Path of this righteous oâ—e a shining Light of divine Pleasures uniâ—terrupted thorow all these thick shades of the blackâ—â—â— darkness There is one thing more in the duration of Christs Pleasures signified in the last Verse of this Psalm above all this The Lord saith to his Father all Pleasaâ—â—â—â—sses are in thy Face Behold here in one undivided point the full circle of Eternity and that an Eternity of Pleasures The Face of God with all Pleasantâ—esses in it Eternity implyes three things 1. the Fulness of all Beiâ—g 2. the utmost heighth of being 3. the undividedness In this Time falls below Eternity that it is a contracted successive Shadow The Face of God which is his Essential Image and substantial Form the God Head itself in the second Person in the Trinity which is our Lord Jesus is this Eternity This is that Person which was Man was Flesh hung on the Cross and lay dead in the Grave No more could the Lord Jesus be separated from the Face of his Father in any part of his Soul or Body in any season either of Life or of Death than a person can be separated from itself or the Lord Jesus be divided from the Second Person in the Trinity Thorow every state thorow the most cloudy days and the most tempestuous Nights the Face of God the Son of Eternity went along with the 〈◊〉 Jesus shining upon every Cloud aâ—d Storm shining thorough all gâ—â—ding all with the Joys and Glories of Heaven itself In this Face as in the
the Victory the Joy and Crown of the Feast I know you prevent me in your thoughts you who love the Lord Jesus by applying this to your Prince your Beloved and his Love his Bride your own Souls I shall bring down all to my purpose and to your practice in the exercise of those Principal and Triumphant Graces Faith Love Heavenly Joy by three Conclusions or Spiritual Maxims 1. Conclu All the Armies of God all the Powers of the God-Head the innumerable Companies of holy Angels and blessed Spirits all the Hosts of Heaven and Earth with their Captain the Lord Jesus at the head of them move and fight in their courses under the Banner of Love Thy Person in a glorious Image of all Divine Beauties is figured upon the Banner as this Eternal Princes Love Love to thee is wrought upon the Banner in Characters of Glory This is the Cause of all motions in Heaven and Earth To this Banner all Powers every where resort unto this they are united under this they march and fight 2. Conclu The Lord Jesus as Captain of the Lord's Hosts with all his Heavenly Armies his ten thousands of Angels his Chariots of fire and Horses of fire continually encompasseth thee marcheth encampeth round about tâ—ee as his chiefest Treasure his Love with Banners of Love spred and displaid over thee on every side of thee round about Every step thou takest in thy way to Heaven is in the midst of these Warriours All Divine Powers continually circle thee in The Invisible and Invincible Hosts of God under the conduct of thy Beloved Jesus are thy perpetual Guard and Convoy In the midst of these thou walkest â—ittest and lyest down thou wakest and sleepest Psal. 91. 11. The Angels have a charge of thee from their Prince and thy Bridegroom that they keep thee in all thy ways that they bear thee in their hands least at any time thou strike thy foot against a stone that thou never stumble The Angels of God are thy Chariots of War thy Chariots of State thy Chariots of Love thy Chariots for Travel in which thou journiest thorow this Wilderness to thy Kingdom the Kingdom of Love and Glory All this they are in one They make thy way thy Palace in the midst of thy Kingdom for Strength for Glory for Delights for Rest in thy Love They bear thee up above in the light of Life in the Life of Divine Love This is the way high and lifted up above all the Powers of Darkness and Death in which they carry thee along that thou mayst never strike thy foot against any stone of offence against any hard and hurtful Form of Darkness Enmity or Death Thy Jesus the Bosom of thy Beloved is this way 3. Conclu These Banners of Love which are spred over thee in thy marches here the same hang streaming over thy head to Eternity and over the Head of thy King as thou fittest at the Feast with him in Heaven The Fights about thee here are the Trophies and Triumphs at the Feast here The same Love is figured on all which maketh all precious Stones and Jewels in thy Marriage-Crown and Crown of Glory to shine there and adorn it for ever Use. The Use which we make of this is to see the difference between the two states of a Saint and a Sinner a Believer and him who believeth not 1. See the blessedness of â— Believer Heb. 1. 2. Jesus Christ is said to be the Brightness of the Glory of God that is of Love the express Image of the Substance or Person of God that is of Love For God is Love v. 6. 7. When God bringeth his Son again that is after his Resurrection in his Spiritual and Heavenly Appearance into the world he saith Let all the Angels of God worship him He hath made all his Ministers Spirits and his Angels a flame of Fire This concerneth thee O Believer and is spoken of thee O the blessedness of that Soul which indeed receiveth Jesus Christ and his Love by Faith if only thou didst know thine own happiness God hath brought his Son in his second Appearance in his Spirit into thine Heart He is in thee the brightness of the Glory of Love that is of the Divine Nature shining in the midst of thee This is that Eternal Sun from which all blessed Spirits continually drink in the Light Influences Joys of Life and Immortality He is in thee the express Image of Love which is the Substance and Person of God This setteth itself thorow him as a Seal upon thine Heart Now the Power of God is a Servant to his Love in thee Now God saith Let all the Angels of God worship how down to serve my Love in this Soul God himself maketh his Angels Flames of Love enfolding thee penetrating thy Body and Spirit shining within thee round about thee continually in the darkest night He maketh his Angels Ministring Spirits to thee Spirits of Glory Minister Love to thee after an Invisible manner in all visible Things Every moment of time every Circumstance or Accident in time are the Wings of Angels a Chariot of Angels carrying thee above the snares of Death below into Heaven This is thy Portion who believest in the Lord Jesus and his Love 2. See the misery of Unbelievers How wretched art thou who believest not who sayest to the Love of God and the Tydings of it from Heaven Depart from me I have no pleasure in you Those Powers of Darkness that are ever ready to raise up Leviathan from his Stormy deep below curse thee All evil Spirits are Flames of Wrath burning within thee burning from without upon thee alwaies in the midst of thy Jollities at thy Feasts on thy Beds of pleasure Evil Spirits are ever Ministring Wrath to thee after an Invisible manner thorow all Visible Things Devils are thy Chariots These wrap thee up in a thick Cloud in the blackness of Darkness and hurry thee to Hell O be not unbelievers but believe that you may inherit the Land of Love and dwell in it for ever Love inviteth wooeth you to believe that is to receive itself into your Hearts Love will bring its own entertainment and make the Feast for itself if you for your parts will but take it in as a guest 3. Instance The Righteousness of God serveth his Love Rom. 5. l. Grace reâ—gneth by Righteousness unto Eternal Life thorow Jesus Christ our Lord. Grace is Love in its Fountain Love upon the Throne Love is brought in here by the Apostle under the name of Grace as a King Eternal Life Heaven is the Kingdom of Love Jesus Christ is the chief Minister of State to this great King God is Love sitting upon the Throne The Lord Jesus is the same supream Love descending from the Throne to be the Universal Servant and General Officer throughout all this Kingdom of Love Righteousness is the Scepter of the King Thy Scepter is a Scepter of Righteousness Psal. 45. Love reigneth by