seek and visit with the light of his eternal life thus administred through the grace which so far as they fall in with the Lord doth receive them and beget life in them engrafting them into the living Vine and preserving them according to their abiding in it and according to their obedience to him in the springings up of the sap of the Vine in them But besides this common administration of the grace to all mankinde God formerly picked out a people after the flesh of Abraham and afterwards a people after the spirit of Abraham towards whom in a more peculiar way his grace did administer it self and whom he dealt with not as with other Nations but chose to love and work up into life and communion with himself by a more especial administration and visitation of his love and grace The one of these were that people of the Jews the other the believing Christians With the Jews he remembred the Covenant with Abraham By vertue of that he loved and chose them to be his people after the flesh or his outward people by vertue of that he brought them out of Egypt led them through the Wilderness brought them into Canaan giving them an inheritance therein and delivering them from their Enemies time after time Yet he also made another Covenant with them even that of the Law which was suitable to their state and which their nature desired and chose to walk with God in but hardly ever kept it and so brought the curse and misery due thereby upon their heads and at last were utterly cut off so far and so long as the Lord pleaseth to let the curse of that Covenant have power over them untill he shall please again to remember to them his Covenant with Abraham Isaac and Jacob and breath life through it into their dry bones Now though God did make this Covenant with them because they were fleshly and their present state required it yet he did not disanul or make void the other to them all the while their day lasted but remembred loving-kindness and mercy towards them in it often delivering and redeeming them for his own Names sake pointing them also to the word in the heart and the gracious administration thereof But they were blinded and held captive in the earthly nature and principle and in the Law thereof and held their marriage and union with God thereby And so though this administration to the Jews wherein God did strive with them by his Spirit and sometimes stir life and beget a true sensibleness in many of them calling to them for the circumcision of the heart and pointing them to the principle of life in the heart whereby it might be circumcised though this advanced them far above the Heathen yet they through the flesh and the letter at last fell below the very state of the Heathen proving greater enemies to and persecuters of the life than they And so the Lord brake them off from the Olive tree into which they were engraffed and cut them off from the Covenant which he had made with Abraham Isaac and Jacob whereas hitherto though he had been often provoked by and sorely offended with them yet he had still loved them for the Fathers sake After them and in their stead he chose the believing Gentiles engraffing them into the stock from whence these were broken letting them into a sweeter and fuller and more spiritual and abiding estate and influences of the Covenant For here the life was manifested and the light did shine in great beauty and clearness and they were gathered into the true Fold of the Shepherd besides that outward state which was also built up by the Lord and preserved for a season among them and they saw their standing to be by and in the grace and were established in the grace and could feel the good pleasure calling the good pleasure working the good pleasure being and doing all in them and could cry grace grace to this building and say Not for any works that they had wrought or for their faith in or obedience to the light of life which was made manifest but of his own mercy he saved them who wrought in them both the will and the deed of his own good pleasure and preserved them by his power through faith which was of his gift and begetting unto salvation Yet for all this there was somewhat of the Law or light eternal to be administred unto them which was suitable to the natural part or first principle through which they were to travel even until the man or first nature was wholly wasted whereby some of them were in danger of falling away wholly others of coming under chastizement and judgement with which the Lord pursued them that they might not be utterly condemned with the world Mark therefore this brief sum of the matter 1. Man fell under the first Covenant His restitution is never to be thereby but by the second through which God works up vessels into a state of life and glory in the administration of his grace 2. But in this working up of the vessel he sees necessary to make use of the other Covenant according to the capacity that is left in man to answer it and so as that capacity wears out the Covenant of the Law wasteth and passeth away by degrees and the Covenant of grace succeeds and fills up the room thereof 3. There is great danger of falling from the life for some as also of chastizements and judgements to others while this capacity remains even while the earthly nature spirit and principle is not worn out by the entrance death and resurrection of the principle of life in the heart 4. When the first principle is wholly dead and the heart perfectly formed in the life and all perfectly raised and renewed in the life then there is no danger of falling or fear of chastizement but perfect life and peace and joy with God in his spirit of power and glory for ever more 5. Though God begin with man in a Covenant of grace and bring in a Covenant of the Law to man suitable to his present state only in subserviency to the Covenant of grace and would not have man stick there but cling to him in the grace and seek remission through the grace for his own names sake Yet man through the prevalency of the first principle in him and his looking on God through that is apt to fix on this Covenant and draw comfort or discouragement to himself from his own obedience or failings and not live on the freeness of Gods love and the faithfulness of his heart to the soul to all conditions for his Christ's sake This hath been the great error of Israel even of Israel after the flesh and of Israel after the Spirit also that while God layes hold on them by his love promise mercy and grace yet they lay hold on him by another Covenant even their obedience to the Laws he gives forth not
knowing that the obedience to the first Covenant must be a fruit of the second and that they are not beloved or accepted for that but that that flowes into them and is brought forth in them through the love and through the free and powerful workings thereof in them I say This to wit their obedience is not the ground of their acceptance or being loved so far as they are in this Covenant though as far as the other hath yet an influence it hath some force in this respect But this the eye is to passe through and to be be fixed on the other Covenant still waiting for the revealing and manifesting the riches of the mercy thereof and to feel the washing and cleansing thereof from all the guilt which under the remainers of the first Covenant will be daily contracting while any thing of the earthly principle and offending part is left standing There hath been in this day a very glorious administration of life to the sons of men after the long foregoing night wherein both these Covenants have been again administred in Spirit suitable to the state of the persons whereto they have been administred And because of the necessity of faith and obedience in the new Covenant both to the seed and to the man the man is so apt to fix his eye and build his hopes upon them and not upon the free love of him that works them in him that he is in danger of falling from and dishonouring the free grace which is the hope of Israel and of losing his state which is not sure how far so ever it be advanced in a present power and dominion further than it is built upon and fixed in the grace And therefore is this given forth that the life in Israel may be sure and lasting and that they may grow up perfectly out of the principle of nature into the principle of grace and know the difference between their being united to and living in God either in the fear faith or love so far as they can receive or retain them and God's living in them and creating continually the fear faith and love in them and bringing forth all the fruits thereof in and from himself For though the Covenants are and have been still the same from the beginning yet the manifestations of them have been still greater and greater And a greater manifestation may yet be of the love and life of God and the sweet free nature of his Covenant than hath hitherto been or yet is which Israel is to wait for and feel the need of before it be brought forth And though all those fore-mentioned to wit of fear faith and love are pretious states which God works his Israel up to in and by the Covenant of his grace according to their several growths and capacities yea and according to which the delight and pleasure of his soul is in them yet the absolute assurance is only in the latter even where the Creature is so gathered into the life of God that its state depends not at all upon what it self is or doth but only upon what God is and will be to is freely of himself and for his own names sake This is written in love for preservation and not for discouragement or destruction but that that which standeth may feel where to fix For in the highest state that man can be advanced to yet if any of the creaturely principle be left in him unsubdued and not yet buried with the Seed into its death there is so far a capacity of falling and his fall in case the Lord do suffer his feet to slip will be the greater by how much the higher and more exalted he was in the Dominion and presence of the power and by how much the more it vvas unexpected by him And this my heart hath often said within me and still saith to a weary soul which hath felt the touches of life and desireth-everlasting unity with it yea to all that desire to walk with God and to abide in the power of his life in any dispensation Keep the eye of thy minde to the grace which visits thee not so much to the light which comes from the grace as to the grace from which the light comes and dayly look for help and remission from it as freely as thou hadst at first And in all losses and darknesses and â—â—sings up of guilt and condemnation cast thy self at the foot of it saying in thy heart if thou hadst not freely visited me at first I had not set one step in the path of life and if thou dost not as freely visst me still and renew life in me dayly of thine own accord and from the same love and goodness I cannot but be lyable to miscarry O that I might obey every beam of thy light and every moving of thy life but I dare not undertake it O that thou wouldest undertake for me My righteousness my obedience my love to thee my faith in thee is like the morning due which soon passeth away and I cannot finde or come at it again O raise up life from an everlasting Seed and gather my heart into it and preserve me in it not according to what I am or have done or yet can be or do but for thine own names sake and in thy love to thy Seed and to thy creature in and through thy Seed by the Promise Thus as any grows into the Covenant of grace through the Covenant of works which is necessary to be dispensed in some measure till the mans Nature and Principle be wholly worne out by it they will finde sure footing there and building upon that from which the Soul that cleaveth to it in the vertue and nature that floweth from it can never be removed Yea the peace and safty of Israel in there travels fixing here will be greater and there assurance greater and their falls and the prevailings of the Enemy not so dangerous that being had recourse to which never faiâ—es of healing that soul which lyes at the foot of it and in heart waits its season however they may be hurred and driven about with Tempests through the violence of the Enemy and good pleasure of him who seeth it fit for the present state of the soul to have it thus exercised The intent of God in the salvation of man is to magnifie the riches of his grace and the freeness of his love And this is effected as man is broken in his natural principle and power of beleiving and obeying and a Seed of life freely raised up in him and he freely gathered into it and preserved in it And where is the Boaster here or where is he who in this state can throw a stone at another because of his transgressions Nay nay He that is freely forgiven and lives meerly and for ever by mercy alone he is formed and brought forth in the tenderness of the bowels which begat and nourish him and he cryeth mightily for the spreading
of the same bowels over other sinners waiting for the season of their visitation and gathering into the same love and by the same powerful hand if it may be O my God bring up the power and sweetness of thy life in Israel and shew mercy to all Nations Purge the Earth with thy fan scatter the corruption there of from the hearts of the sons of men and make them the Paradice of thy pleasure that thou O living God mayst dwel in and shine forth from thy Temple and it may no longer lye wast nor the abomination of desolation defile it to the dishoner of thy name and to the ruine and misery of thy Creation Postscript SOme things are exceeding necessary for lost man to be acquainted with in his travels from his lost estate into the life and peace of God As 1. To his lost estate and misery for ever unless the Lord pitty and help him 2. To know the light wherewith the Lord visits the souls that sit in darkness that he may wait for the shinings therof and in them travel with the leading spirit of life from the darkness and death of sin tovvards the land of the living 3. To breath unto the Lord and wait to have his heart joyned to the light and power of life dayly and separated from the powers of death and darkness under which he was and still is a captive but as thâ— Lord appears for him and delivers him 4. To put forth all the strength of his soul and mind and all the members of his body in the service of the Lord. For as he is in any measure set free by the Lord from the service of sin So is he to serve and obey the Lord in righteousness 5. To wait dayly to receive the strength from the Lord wherewith he serueth the Lord. For though by the Redemption of the Lord he feels the creaturely part in some measure renewed and restored and an ability received to serve righteousness which before he had not yet this is not so given to him as that the Lord hath it not still in his hand who can stop or let it out at his pleasure And happy is that man who looketh not upon himself as somewhat because of what in any kind he hath received but feeleth his dependance upon the Lord. 6. To feel the grace and mercy of the Lord in whatever he receiveth from the Lord or whatever he doth for the Lord. It is all of the Lord happy is the man that sees it It is the mercy of the Lord that man is not consumed It is the mercy of the Lord that any man in any state or degree of life and redemption is preserved The mercy of the Lord endureth for ever therefore is Israel safe This will be the song of praise in the house of the Lord for ever 7. To wait for the wasting of the man and the raising up of the seed day by day that that to which the Covenant of works is na-natural and which cannot but desire it and seek to live by it may be worn out and that to which the Covenant of grace is as natural if not more and which alone lives by the promise and through the faith and in the grace which freely flows from the eternal fountain may be raised up and succeed in the place and stead thereof Here is safety indeed Here is everlasting righteousness so brought in as that it can never be removed out of the heart more Here everlasting life and the Soul are one for ever Here is no more going into captivity which Israel setled in Canaan and enjoying the sweetness and rest thereof under the first Covenant may Here are no tears nor sighing nor departing from the â—â—fe nor grieving the holy Spirt of the Lord nor being grieved by it any more but what the heart desires of God and what God desires of the heart mutually received and the going forth and the coming in and the abiding one and the same for ever the same life and power and love and eternal sweetness being all and in all for ever This is the mark of Israel and the haven of its eternal rest to which the Lord is leading the poor hungary empty mourning afflicted lossed Souls to whom it is as sure in the love and good-will of God and in the councel of his heart determined thereupon as if they were already in it THE END