Saints that see not their priviledges by Christ they are ready to say how can this be that the Spouse of Christ is so beutifull so fruitfull they see it otherwise they can see no beuty in them they bring forth but little weake and poore fruit here is some of this way and some of that fellowship some of this Judgement and some of that some are in a Church way and some are not some are Congregated and some are uncongregated I but for all that though among themselves they be divers yet in Christ they are but one You 't is true make a difference but that should not be This is but the folly and weaknesse of men but see and looke upon them as they are in Christ and you shall see they are one to him as they are in him and live with him and in him they are fruitfull though not as they are in themselves The points that I apprehend these words hold forth are these 1 Doct. That Christs Church is Christs Dove 2 D. Christs Church is Christs undefiled Dove 3 Doct. That Christs Church or Christs Dove is not divided but is one and united Now for the first of these if you aske why Christs Church is called Christs Dove I conceive for present 't is in two regards first in regard of their Priviledges how much they are tendred by him and secondly in regard they are made glorious and amiable by him 1. Considering how precious they are to him what affections he hath let out to them the dearest loves and the very heart of Christ runnes out to them singly solely nothing that is in the very bowells and heart of Christ is too good too deare for them there 's nothing in Christ but is there laid up kept and preserved for a Saints treasure all the choice loves of God the choicest life of God is treasured up in Christ for his Saints and when once they have forsaken themselves then to be enjoyed by them and delighted in for ever he thinkes nothing too good for his Spouse he hath not only filled himselfe for them but emptyed himselfe for them poured out his own bloud his owne life his owne glory to save them to inrich them Christ shewes how precious they are to him first in regard of the place where he layes a saint that is in his very bosome in his very heart not only in his common providence but in his very heart he never leaves a saint till he bring it from step to step by degrees into himselfe that the soule is so lapt up in him that he hath made it one with himselfe And that soule that is acquainted with this life knowes this and none else others know not what it means I was sayes he a slave under the Law and it tyrannized over me many a hard lesson and many a hard task I had set me and many a bitter stripe and hee in bowells of loves came and freed me he redeemed me from that tyrannie I was under the killing letter which threatned nothing but death and hell and now I have found his loves in setting me at liberty and now I can read his loves in every line in all his proceedings and these are I say such loves that none can prize but those that have them read seene and felt them in them This is a Saints portion peculiarly to live with Christ to live of Christ to live in him 'T is the worlds portion to live under life and not injoy life but a saint lives in life life and he are one they are brought by Christ into the very overflowings of loves they live in the very streams of loves compassed about with loves Christ comes to them continually sups with them wraps them up in admiration of himselfe and fills them with divine loves Secondly Christ declares how precious saints are to him by taking all advantages to do them good by sin by sorrowes by sufferings by afflictions by life by death every way none of all these but Christ makes them advantages and helps to them When they wrastle with sin it would be too hard for a saint if Christ did not help them and sin would get the advantage over them should Christ but leave us in a temptation we were undone but Christ comes with a conquering unresistable power rescues us from sin and brings us over to the loves of himselfe So also in affliction the saints they moyle and toyle and are even worne out in it that they know not what to do that they are ready to give out and lay downe all then Christ he comes in and supports and puts under his hand to stay the soule from sinking when our own strength is done then Christ comes in nay we many times wrastle our selves into great straits Christ comes now and releases us that when we lose our selves he gaines us and wrastles us into his owne loves and glory he ravishes us with his loves and then also is he ravished with our loves as you see in this chapter Secondly they are made glorious by him and with him as David saith Ps 68.13 They are like the wings of a Dove covered with silver and her feathers like yellow gold 't is a metaphor you must conceive taken from very pleasant and glorious coloured Doves to set out how Christ beautifies and makes his saint glorious and amiable The very same glory that is on Christ is on a saint Christ and a saint have not two different lives two different glories but both one and the same sayes the Apostle 1 Ioh 4.17 As he is so are wee in this world Brethren the life of a saint is a misterie Christ and they live in the injoyments each of other the life of a saint is internall Surely friends let me tell you 't is not knowne by partaking of fellowships and ordinances although wee ought to partake of them and hold them forth to the world but the beauty of the life of Christs consists in the injoyment of Christs loves so that the soule is therein centred and satisfied as it is expressed 17. Ioh. 17.23 Ioh. Thou in me and I in them and they in me that they may be made perfect in one All saints they are beloved with the same loves that the Father loves the Sonne the same riches the same life the same love the same glory is bestowed on them Eph. 11.3 We are now in this life set in heavenly places in Christ many thinke they shall have this life hereafter when they shall come to heaven but those that live this life they are in heaven here and sit now in heavenly places and herein is the great mistake among Professours they do not live in and with Christ here they use ordinances and hold forth a profession and here rest but for this heavenly life this intimate uniting life they looke not after it they expect it not they know it not they live it not Oh brethren did you but
not aske you if you have had the knowledge thereof in your understandings but haue you enjoyed them and found the loves of Christ so large so overcomming to your soules doe you see and feele that Christ thinkes nothing in his very heart too good for you The Scripture indeed is very full to prove this I need not cite them but have you made proofe thereof are these things so to you are they proved by your injoyments then I will tell you what it will worke First nothing that you have will be too precious for Christ Christs very heart his life his riches his loves his glory is not too precious for you And your very heart your life you will not think too precious for him much lesse your honour your riches your credit I tell you friends nothing will be too deare to part with so you may be taken up to these injoyments you will tread upon all as dirt as dung so you may gaine the loves and embraces of Christ Will friends will honours will parts will ordinances stand you in such stead as the loves of Christ will they lay you in the very heart and bosome of Christ will they redeeme you from the law and set you free will they take you from under the power of the killing letter which threatned nothing but death and hell will they take all advantages to do you good by sin by afflictions will they come in and helpe you when you are quite worne out will they helpe you out in straits No no they will not they cannot but all they can doe is but to lay you in their owne bosomes they cannot helpe against the terrours of the Law they take all advantages to doe you hurt they cannot helpe you out of straits but rather helpe you into straits c. The saints as saints they looke on all outward comforts thus and how then can they bee in love with them they looke on them as chaffe as stubble as nothing their life their loves their treasure is in the loves of Christ and having Christs heart running out to them and theirs to his Ioh. 17.23 Thou in me and I in them and they in me Thus much you hold forth by your profession of Christ and if it be so then I wonder why something of yours is too good for him if you loose your honour your good name your estates for him you thinke much you thinke Christ deales hardly with you and well you may if he bestow not himselfe upon you but had you as good a thing in the roome of that you lose you would never repine if Christ be such happinesse such riches such ravishings so that he is better then all things else what 's the reason you sticke so much upon the creature what 's the reason you come not off to this life what 's the reason that ye come no sooner make no more hast have no more longings to it But friends were you in the armes in the embraces of Christ you would repent you came no sooner into these joyes and loves that you were no sooner crucified to the flesh and to your selves Oh! beloved I tell you you would sleight all things as they stood in opposition to Christ But as I told you before they doe love wife friends children but 't is in Christ as Christ appears to them in them But friends where is your great boasting of your profession and Christianity and living to Christ if these things be so If Christ take away strawes and give Diamonds and Pearles what cause hast thou to complaine If thou dost complaine for the losing of these strawes it is signe for all thy boasting thou hast no Pearles but these strawes these nothings were thy Pearles and thy Diamonds Againe is a saint made glorious by Christ and is Christ and his glory all one then were you made glorious by Christ you would be swallowed up in the loves of Christ you could not live apart from Christ but you should live in Christ You have heard this is your priviledge as saints you shall not live in one region and Christ in another but you shall injoy the same life the same joyes the same loves with Christ Againe is the presence of Christ in himselfe then 't is not to be enjoyd else-where 't is not in fellowships 't is not in ordinances simply considered yet these ye are to use to hold forth the discipline of Christ to the world yet not to rest in these these distinguish you externally from the men of the world but you will be as of the world still for all them if you enjoy no more but bare ordinances This I speake because many satisfie themselves in this in receiving outwardly the ordinances and that they are accounted Professours and sequestred from the men of the world and because they are found in such and such fellowships being well thought on by others alas these will doe you no good for all these you may have no more life then the men of the world You see no man can live in the bosome of Christ and in the glory of Christ but hee is made one with Christ Saints they are not only made perfect hereafter as most Professours run away with that but they are admitted and have some entrance into heaven here they live as Saints they walke as saints they trade as saints they live with Christ they walke up and downe in loves love compasses them round about they are swallowed up of loves they live in loving and love in living ordinances are but shels but saints while they are cracking the shell to others they are eating the kernell themselves and live thereby Alas friends you may be partakers of all externall ordinances you may submit to Baptisme you may come into a right order of a Church way you may frequently break Bread together but what 's all this friends this is but the shell of the businesse the huske the bone but is Christ glorified in your spirit here is the life and you in his Spirit here is the kernell the marrow doe you live as he lives are you made one in spirit truly friends examine and look wel to your selves for mine owne part often have I spoken to you taught to you that which I found not in experience yet I thought I had but truly I find now I comprehended them yet I was not comprehended of them I knew not what eating the kernell was nor tasting the marrow the sweetnesse till of late Againe are saints well and fitly called Doves in regard of liveing in loves and by being made fruitfull by loving and in regard they cannot live except they love then observe that the people of God are an innocent people they are innocent to the Law Christ hath fulfilled it for them and freed them from the Law and brought them to peace and liberty from under the power of the killing letter Againe are the saints no selfe-seekers but selfe-deniers then I
power of God he lives in another Region hath a contrary life he is elemented in Divine loves partakes of the Divine nature 2 Peter 1.4 and lives in the divine glory These words we have now read they are an affirmation of a saints priviledge and of a Saints property All soules which are brought home to God that live with God this is their priviledge they are made righteous by God made righteous by Justification a righteousnes held out to them and also made righteous by the glory and righteousnesse of God in them and such a man cannot chuse but bee bold for such a God And not only bold in opposition to wicked men because they flee when none pursueth Psal 53.5 and feare where no feare is but the highest resemblance of the highest creature is too low to set out what such a mans boldnesse is in God and for God and therefore you see the Holy Ghost makes use of the choyfest of all the creatures for courage and boldnesse to set out the temper of a saint when he lives in God and God in him nay the highest and most raised sublimity in the creature is too low to set out the lowest acts of a saints spirit I may draw one point from the former words of wicked mens feare because it leads to unfold the other points concerning a righteous mans boldnesse The wicked flees when none pursueth Doct. The Doctrine That man that lives without God although made by God he is so far a man of feare and not of faith But I shall let that goe and come to the words intended There is not onely a difference in the spirits of wicked and righteous men but a direct opposition the one acts all together downe-ward to the earth to self to carnall low and base ends the other acts all-together upward to God to heaven to self denyall to high and pure ends Doct. First observe That the people of God are a righteous people They are righteous not only in regard of Justification that is a righteousnesse held forth and made out to us but also in regard of that you call sanctification that is a righteousnesse revealed in us and this is peculiarly a saints priviledge He not onely lives under life but he lives in life is life it selfe I confesse it is a great and precious priviledge to live under life to have and use Ordinances but to have them and not live by them nay to have them and not to haue lives above them this is below a saints priviledge the world hath thus much priviledge But the saints they use not onely the Ordinances but they are a meanes to put them into life to make them one with life they know what the Anoninting is what the unction of the Father is But now if you aske me what is mēant by a righteous man Ans Some take it to be meant of Christ himselfe The righteous are as bold as a Lyon that is say they Christ for he onely is righteous and not any man therefore he is cald the Lyon of the tribe of Judah Revel 5.5 But my light sayes this a discription of a saints spirit for there is nothing can be said of Christ but may all so be said of Saints as saints for he lives in the same life with Christ in the same region in the same glory nay he lives in the same Soveraignty and authority is Christ a sonne and heire of his fathers glory So are all Saints they partake of the same sonship the same inheritance is Christ a King so are the Saints partakers of the same Kingship Hath he put downe all rule and all authority and subjected all his enemies under his feer so have the Saints so farre as they live with and in Christ they set their foot upon all their lusts upon all the world they are conquerers over Death and Hell they have set their foot upon the very neck of Sathan I know beloved there be degrees to this life there is a dying before we come to this life but this is certaine as a Saint comes up to this life so he puts downe Principalities and Powers when he lives as a saint he puts downe all rule and all authority that before he was subjected to and captivated under And the very matter of Christs glory the same for nature and kind though not for degrees in this life is a Saints portion Doct. The 2. Observation these words hold forth is from this expression of boldness the righteous are bold Doct. That the people of God are a bold people full of courage Doct. The 3 Doctrine Men and women must of necessity be made righteous by Christ before they can be bold and conragious for Christ All other boldnesse is a false deceiving boldnesse except it proceed from hence in that we are freed set at liberty made righteous by Christ many are bold t is true but t is no true boldnesse t is a presumptuous boldnesse there is a naturall boldnesse and there is a legall boldnesse and there is a pharisaicall boldnesse boldnesse of divers kinds but this true reall unconquerable undeceaveable boldnesse is only to be had and injoyed in the life of Christ being made righteous by him not only by a righteousnesse made out to us but by a righteousnesse revealed in us The next Observation is from the resemblance here used The righteous are as bold as a Lyon T is a comparison taken from the highest and choysest of all Creatures for undaunted boldnesse and courage in that hee fears no creature nothing can turne him out of his way the holy Ghost upon every occasion when he would set out the property and priviledges of Saints he still chuses the choysest of all the creatures to set it out by to set out of what a high choise and raised spirit a Saint is off as he is a Saint the high frame of a Saints spirit that lives with Christ is not to be set out by the choisest of all the creatures and that may be next the point Doct. Doctrine That the highest of creatures is too low to declare the glory of a Saints spirit T is impossible by the choisest of all creatures by the perfection of all creatures to make it out to men in the full glory beawty excellency thereof He that injoyes it knowes it best but he is not able to comprehend it for he is comprehended by it And therefore he himself is not able to make it out to the full but is swallowed up by it These pointes the words hold forth to us but I shall not handle them severally but we will rather chuse to gather the full sence of them all in one conclusion viz. Doct. That Soules made righteous by God are in the injoyment of God transcen dently bold Here are 3 conclusions in one 1. Here is Saints are made righteous 2. Saints thus made righteous they are bold 3. They are transcendently bold For the opening this
point we must open all the words 1. To be made righteous what it is We shall not now speake how we are made righteous by justification as righteousnesse is purchased for us and held out to us Because I conceive the words intend a man in the other sense a man made righteous by revealing of righteousnesse in us in that we are made one with the life and glory of Christ we speak now of a righteous spirit a freed spirit a spirit made one with Christ a spirit overcome in the enjoyment of Christs spirit a spirit wrapt up overwhelmed by the sweet inflowings and comings in of the glory of Christ a spirit wherein Christ sits in glory and displayes his loves to the soule so that by the very coming in and injoyment of Christ they are made one with Christ transformed into the very nature and glory of Christ So that all selfe and the very forme of the old creature is annihilated and all turned into Christ Hee is removed from his former center his owne bottom there is a new ingrafting and being carried up into Christ so that he is transformed into the hidden divine superexcellent glory and riches and life of Christ so as he is as I may say christed with Christ made glory with the very glory of God and Christ so that this they not onely know in their understandings but have feel and enjoy it and it works in them a life and fruit sutable to this glory and transformation Those that lie in the heart of Christ that have found themselves transplanted from themselves transformed into Christ by Christ they finde their heart transformd with loves ravishments towards him to him and none else but as they see them and enjoy them in him and him in them there are intercourses returnes of love to each other This is not the righteousnesse of Justification when Christ holds out a righteousnesse purchased for thee and thou by faith laying hold on it for the acceptation of thy person but this is Christ himselfe his hand taking hold of thee bringing thee over from thy selfe into himself and transacting thee into himselfe and this is that that causes interchanges of loves so that Christ in loving thee he loves himself and thou in loving him lovest thy selfe in one and the same act and in all your acts Christ acts and in all Christ acts within you you act so soone as ever you are brought over into these injoyments you are swallowed up in Christ and in your lowest acts Christ acts as well as in your highest in the very lowest estate you may have the highest injoyments that when you are trampled on by the world when your enimies think they have got the day and have their will of you then may you have such sweet injoyments of Christ Mat. 5.11.12 that in this regard you may rejoyce and be exceeding glad when you enter into divers temptations Jeames 1.2 when the world and persecutors thinke they have taken from you all your comfort and bereft you of all your life then may you be more then conquerers injoying a life hidden from them that when they think you are captived they themselves are captived and you the conquerers as deceivers 2 Cor. 6.8.9.10 and yet true sayes the Apostle as unknowne yet well knowne as sorrowfull Col. 3.3 yet alway rejoycing as poore yet making many rich as having nothing and yet possessing all things you are dead to the world but your life is hid with Christ in God by this you may take a sight and small tast of what is meant by a righteous man in this place the righteous are as bold as a Lyon Secondly what is meant by this word bold truly friends I must confesse I have been along time mistaken what this bold spirit in a saint was I tooke it to be this and that and mistaken in all time was when I had a naturall boldnesse which many men have which is borne with them being of a resolute bold hardy temper of spirit yet this was discovered to me to be but nature and many a wicked man is possessed thereof then afterward I came to be a civill man then in that I paid every man his owne and lived uprightly to menward so that no man could taxe me of doeing any man wrong herein I grew bold But this also was discovered to be but civill boldnesse and upon false grounds Then I came to Legall boldnesse attaining to such a degree of obedience to the Law that I thought my selfe all most blamelesse and herein I grew bold indeed and I thought it was true boldnesse but it was discovered this was not the true boldness neither and there is many other kinds of boldnes there is a sinfull boldnesse men being ignorant of themselves and what sinne is and what God is they are bold to sinne and sinne with a high hand daringly with brazen faces So also there is a pharisaicall boldnesse when men are bold because of their externall conformity to the Law and externall submitting to Ordinances because they are in a right Gospell way because they are of a fellowship where they injoy pure Ordinances And am not I say they as good as you what doe you more then I I doe not speake this that you should neglect Ordinances and forsake fellowship for I know the High God may be injoyed in a low Ordinance And you ought also to hold forth God in Ordinances to others to men of the World and Saints below you though you injoy that which is farre above all Ordinances even the reall and lovely presence of the Lord Christ in himselfe Many men because they injoy Ordinances in puritie and hold forth a great Profession they gather hence a great boldnesse and looke bigg upon themselves and think who may walke more bigg bold and confident then they what they not Saints who is a saint then I that have gon thus sarre and tied my self constant to duty what not I of thus long standing But beloved none of all these is the true boldnesse a Saints boldnesse is from other principles of a more noble and higher frame His boldnesle is because he lives with and injoyes the highest God In that they are gotten above all the world Things below are too base for their spirits they count it gain to lose themselves the other count it gain to gaine themselves And hence it is because they see themselves gottē above all things they live undaunted noble lives They live in the upper Regions where Christ lives above all things inferior to himself They are so much drawne into Christ that they cannot much minde these things below they are not much troubled how they ebb or flow because they are aloft They are not tumbled to and fro as they in their Tides tumble too and againe They are fild with noble bloud divine bloud the Spirit and Glory of Christ and God rests upon them and runs in all their veines Beloved
saith Peter unto you and to all Israell that by the name of Iesus Christ of Nazareth was this man made whole whom ye crucified but God hath raised him up and this is the stone set at naught by you Builders and is now become the head of the corner neither is there Salvation in any other Now when they saw the boldnesse of the Apostles and saw that they were ignorant men they tooke knowledge that they had beene with Iesus and could say nothing against the Miracle they had wrought in the name of Iesus Then they tooke counsell and streightly charged them they should speak no more in that name and they answered boldly whether is it right in sight of God to hearken unto you more then unto God Iudge yee for we can not but speake the things we have seene and heard and so the whole Chapter and divers other places do declare with what wonderfull boldnesse they declare Christ because Christ lived withthem lived in them they had experience of his strength and love in supporting And their love could not but returne in declaring the things they had seene and heard And the Reasons of this are because the injoyment of these things beget a love to the things declared gives power to declare them with all courage and boldnes the Saints are made one with Christ suckt and drawne up into Christ they live by loving and love by living they declare through loving love through declaring And sutable to their love they cannot choose but declare love in them hath the preheminence it predominates it over-rules all other things in them they must needs they are constrained to declare the life they live in If a Parliament should command that men should not declare what experience they have of Christ as I hope this Parliament never will they could not contayne it would be as fire in their bosomes it would burst out loves would so constraine them could they sit and see and not speake I tell you there is such mighty constraines in the power of love they could not keepe in It bootes not the World to act against the power of love to raise persecution the more they act against it the more it workes the more it constraines Againe another reason is why they are so constrained to declare what they see and know because the matter declared is the very power declaring They are so lapt up in the loves of Christ so made one in him that the things they declare is not another thing from them but they are the very things And therefore if they are so bold in declaring never blame them for they and those things are the same no nor never admire them for there is such a constraining power in them they cannot do otherwise And that he hath he receives not from others as their experiences but they are his owne they are himselfe Paul you see when once Christ had appeared to him there was such a Light such a Glory such a Power such a Demonstration of Truth to his Soule that he immediately went preacht Christ he went not to the Bretheren to be confirmed in what he saw and felt but the power love was such that come life come death he must declare it And a third Reason may be because he enjoyes what he declares what he enjoyes he acts and what he acts he enjoyes while he saies he sees he feeles while he speakes of love he acts in love Here now you see the quality of a Saints spirit And indeed this acting and enjoying he esteemes his protion his everlasting inheritance his Heaven his very worke is his reward esteeming saith the Apostle the reproach with Christ Heb. 11.26 greater riches then the Treasures of Egypt Phil 4.8 this life was the recompence of reward Moses had an eye too and Paul he counted all things losse and dung to gaine enjoy it and David herejoyceth in the word as one that findeth great spoiles Ps 16.5.6 â— for in keeping thereof there is a full reward Beloved freinds this is your Heaven and if you cannot count this a sufficient Heaven and reward you will hardly thinke Heaven hereafter a reward especially in the condition you are in but did you act in love and lived in Christ here you would say were this life but perfected I have enough enough I desire no other Heaven this portion is enough as David saies in 16 Psalme Ps 16.5.6 The Lord is the portion of mine Inheritance the Lines are fallen to me in very pleasant places yea I have a Goodly Heritage Now we come to the Third thing wherein the Saints are bold They are bold in undergoing any thing from God must I be poore must I be sicke must I be in prison must I be in Death he is bold to undergoe it he sees the loves of God in all that comes to him Let all the world conjoyn together against this man and looke never so blacke and terrible upon him he sees his God smileing his God speaking nothing but loves As sinne and the law though they are in conjunction to terrifie him yet he is bold for he sees God reconciled And as they the greater can not daunt his boldnes so neither can men nor can the Word all they can doe cannot make him thinke his Father is angry Though God himselfe try the Saints they liveing in him and enjoying his love Though he seeme in his Providence to be angry yet they find loves in his very bosome in his very heart when men enjoy not this every frowne from men and every frowne from God casts them downe they forsake their boldnes because they have no exprience of the sweet and unchangeable nature of God as Ezek. 22.14 Exek 22.14 Can thine heart endure or can thine hands be strong in the daies that I shall deale with thee They being backsliden and departed from God they were not able to look on God as a father when he aflicted them as the Saints can doe Doth God chide yet they know t is in love Doth God wound all are fruits of his love So now you see how bold a Saint is with God How bold in standing for God How bold in declaring God How bold in undergoing any thing from God and all this by liveing with God by liveing in God and enjoying God This man must needs be a bold man that hath such inflowings of loves from God what shall such a man account deere for such a God How bold was Jer. in the Prison though put in the Dungeon where he sanke in the mire and was ready to starve when he was taken out againe and remained in prison he could not hold his peace the power of loves constrained him to speake what he had seene and felt And so Iob though he was aflicted in his Estate in his children in his owne person Iob. 13.15 what saith he though he kill me he deferves to be trusted in I
cannot forsake him for all this And old Ely when there was such bitter things spoken against him by God saith he it is the Lord let him do with me what seemeth him good I Sam. 3.18 And that is the highest Act that is expressed of him And the reason is because that man that lives in God understands God in himselfe what his heart is If we looke on God as he acts out of himselfe and not as he acts in himselfe there is nothing but changes to day sicke tomorrow well to day in prison tomorrow not this yeare rich next yeare poore Now if we shall judge that God changes as our condition changes Iâ—â—â— 17. what comfort But God in his nature is one the same no changes nor shadow of turning alwaies alike Againe a saint in God lives in the will of God Gods will is all in all to him And this is that which brings him up to that raisednesse and height of spirit he sees God in what ever he doth to act his owne blessed will on him and so he see but that accomplished therein he rests and rejoyces because he lives above aloft he lives in the Center in the Fountaine of loves If we live in the streames if we live below among the Creatures there is nothing but trouble and rumbling this way and that way ebbing and flowing but the Center the Fountain the upper Regions are quiet still composed sattisfied Againe because if God do take all from the Creature and take him up to live in himselfe he hath not lost all but found all a thousand fold Yet in the most roughest acting out of God he finds loves in God else his spirit would be downe to day and up to morrow according to those actings but this life with God in the bosome and bowells of transcendent loves there all disputs are at an ends he lives in providence above providence he lives above reasons Region and Element and therefore when Reason would make disputes and arguments from Gods externall dealings as if God were as rough as his providence this life silences all and layes the soule to rest in the sweet embraces of the loves of an unchaingable Father though he kill me yet will I trust in him And againe the Saints have such experience of the loves of God flowing warme from the heart of God that they cannot be beaten out of good thoughts of God as we say by a freind whom we know and love have intimate acquaintance with if this man or that should bring tales of evill intended by him towards you you would say I wil not beleeve him for I know him so well that the thing is impossible to be true So doe the Saints find God such a true freind such an intimate close freind that hath so much exprest his love to them that though sin the Law Hell Death the Divell the World Providence or whoever should bring them ill tydings from their father ob say they it cannot be I know him so well I have such sweet such frequent enjoyments with him that I cannot thinke a hard thought of him this drawes up the Soule to a high yea a higher and higher enjoyment of God This enjoyment transcends yea sleights all other enjoyments below it it transcends Nature it transcends Reason it transcends externall providence and all the roughest actings thereof Let never so high accusations be layd on the Saints they value them not their life with God makes up all As some have laid divers accusations on me and on the Saints some are Truths and we are ready to maintaine them we hope to the death others are false and charging upon us that we never said nor held and all to make us odious to the World As for instance that I should say there was no other use of Christ but to declare love to the World and for this end he came and for no other Who ever holds it for my part I count it an errour my Judgment is otherwise I hold no such thing I disclaime it Christ came to sattisfie and answer a law as well as to make out love and though these and the like and such other things may be fathered upon us partly through darkenes not seeing and enjoying Truth partly through malice to lay to our charge the things we never knew nor held yet we hope God will vindicate his Truth and vindicate his saints and Truth shall burne and flame out so gloriously that he will make all opposers and slanderers ashamed therefore let not the saints much trouble themselves at these things let the Creature be still and silent and let God alone he is but working a way for his owne praise in confounding his enemies and vindicating the simplicity of the saints who live with him and in him to their everlasting comfort and Joy BEloved freinds that I intend to speake unto you at this present shall be from the word of God in the 6 of Cant. 9 verse My Dove my undefiled is but one she is the only one of her mother she is the choice one of her that bare her That which I shall speake to you at this time shal be only from the first words My Dove my undefiled is but one There is not much dependance of these words on the foregoing words but so much dependance there is that as you may see in the former words that the Daughters of Jerusalem enquire of the Spouse of Christ where her beloved is she had so set him out and expressed her ardent affection to him that they begin to wonder desire to see what a one her beloved was because she was so ravished with him say they in the first verse whether is thy beloved gone oh thou fairest among women whether is thy beloved turned aside that we may seek him with thee she answers them in the next verses My beloved is gon downe into his Garden to the beds of spices to feed in the Gardens and gather Lillyes And I am my beloveds and my beloved is mine he feedeth among the Lillies And then Christ in the next words begins to discribe and set out what his Spouse is and anotomizes her in all her portracture and beauties not only how beutifull she is to him and amiable through his beuty put upon her but also how fruitfull his Spouse is in the enjoying her beloved that ther 's not one barren among them so amiable every way that Christ was ravished with her beuty therefore saith he turne away thine eyes from me for they have overcome me But then this discription might breed this objection are all so beutifull and comly are all so fruitfull that there it not on barren amongst them they are severall and of severall tempers and judgements nether do they all appeare so fruitfull as he describes he answers all in this ninth verse My Dove my undefiled is but one All Saints in Christ are but one men of the world and poore Saints weak
love for Christs love to them causes their love to returne to him and they love Christ also in the Saints these loves are the saints feast they live by Christs kissing and embracing them and by their kissing and embracing Christ and also in kissing and embracing one anothers spirits by communicating to each other their experiences and enjoyments of Christ there 's no greater joy nor higher act in them then to act love these are the dainties they feast on then are they transcendent in their spirits and then are they most full of Christ Secondly Doves are made fruitfull by loving so are the saints when thrive they more then when they have the sweetest communion and are most open to one another to each others injoyments and so kisse and embrace each others spirits No sooner hath a saint kist the heart of Christ but it is made fruitfull by that very kisse by that embracement and by that enjoyment The very enjoyment of Christ makes them fruitfull And they cannot be otherwise They being once come to this to enjoy Christ they cannot be unfruitfull Here is a saint then his very love his very nature provokes to fruitfulnesse if he be not fruitfull what ever he may be taken for as a great Christian because a great professor hee never yet enjoyed Christ never yet knew what the loves the overcomming transcendent loves of Christ were Fruitfulnesse is made over to the soule at that very instant it is like the opening of the pores of the body then the bloud interchanges and have free course and mingles it selfe through the whole body this love of Christ I tell you friends it opens the pores of the soule love and fruitfulnesse runs from Christ into the saints interchangeably as Christs heart is open to you so is yours to him there is a secret convayance to each other in the acts of loves And thirdly they die without it saints as saints except they love they die I pray observe saints as saints cannot die but their life dies their joy dies they live uncomfortably and as dying as if they had no life I speak now in regard of actings a saint when he acts not love he dies he may have ordinances and use externall intercourses to Christ and with the saints and yet he as good as dead no more life in act and comfort then the men of the world if the warm heart-bloud of Christ doe not run and have free course into his soule the saint acts not as a saint but yet he may act in religion worship but t is but to him selfe to his own credit and honour and esteeme among men or for some other selfe-end and yet have no life as a saint The new man and Christ is as dead and acts not and therefore it is sometime a saint has overflowings of spirit mightily inlarged his spirit has no bounds another time he is bound up straitned the pores of his soule are lockt up he hath no intercourse of loves from Christ and therefore has no breathings no declarations of Christs loves to him no experiences he is wrapt up in himselfe and to himselfe and therefore this makes him the soule being as sensible of this as of death for 't is a death to him this makes him to goe to Christ and complaine heavily oh how he grones in spirit till he be revived till his spirit till his loves come into him againe and cause him to act and live Oh! sayes he let my Christ come into me or I die I cannot live 't is true sayes he here is ordinances and here is a fellowship externally but what 's all this if my soule be frozen if my heart be bound up if I live within my selfe if I have not intercourses and returnes of loves from my beloved I die I die Now beloved would you have me make some use of this point from the particulars thereof I hope you have done that your selves as I went along but I will a little make out some uses I cannot be large because of the time and my owne weaknesse and I would make it out to you of what I have found in my own experience though I must confesse it is but lately and no great light neither there are depths there are glorious transcendent truths in these experiences but oh how dark at how small a crevice doe wee see How short doe we come I tell you though I have many times spoken of these things yet how coldly no ravishings no inlargings no overcommings of spirit how bound up truth is I had the Theorie in my understanding and I thought I had practised them because I knew them but 't is but new 't is but small the experience of them but God wil reveale and lead on his saints from step to step that they shall go from strength to strength digging up fountaines till they appeare before the Lord in Zion Professors talke much of heaven but I professe they never were in heaven nay never will be if they come not to this life you hope it may bee this life will bee hereafter But I tell you your heaven is here as well as hereafter in a degree be not deceived to pers wade your selves you are saints and you are Christians and have not this life we have described so farre you are in your sins you are yet below Christ you are yet in your selves you are not come up to the life of a Christian to the life of a Saint Vses from the particulars first are the saints so happy in their priviled ges that they are Christs Doves and so precious to him is it the priviledge and portion of the saints to be so precious to Christ then take this as the first consectory this will follow if it be so Then they will not long to be precious to the world you will not bee troubled though the world though men though friends though enemies regard you not so you be precious to Christ this is enough for you what though such a friend speake evill of you what thongh such a Professor loves you not and there another professour suspects you and you are troubled VVhy saints where is your life in the world or in Christ if in the world no marvell you are troubled no marvell you are offended if your life bee in Christ you will say what matter so Christ thinkes preciously of you if you have the sweet and mutuall embraces of Christ and your spirits run into each other and kisse and embrace each other here would be your rest Secondly observe from the next particulars is nothing in the heart of Christ too good for saints does Christ embrace salute kisse ravish the saints in his transcendent loves Does he endow them with the same glory he himselfe hath with the Father for I must put things together strength will not hold out to take them all severally as the things deserve Have any of you felt these things in your owne experience I do
creature must needes simpathize and bee sutably qualified to the creature But he that sits above with God is above all change in the creatures element hee is selfe-denied to the world and all in the world Againe this is the way to persection so far as we are satisfied with God and satisfied with truth so far we live in perfection I doe not say that person is perfect or without sin no but so farre as we live this life so farre we come toward perfection and live in perfection and live with God The new man carries us to God and perfection it assends and carries us upward to God and Christ but so farre as we come not up to this life so farre wee live below God and are drawne downward to the Creature to the World to Hell-ward to Divell-ward as one when he saw a Bird tyed with a stone to her Legg as she mounted to flee upward still the stone drew her downe to the Earth and thereupon he fell a weeping because it did so fully represent to him his own condition hee could not but weepe Grace carries and drawes a man on to perfection but the old man drawes downe to the Earth to defilement to destruction 3. Againe this conditon of a Saints rest is a gathering condition it puts him in a gathering way I pray you observe it this mā is the thriving man he only is in a thriving way this man is like to grow a rich man indeed All our wayes are scattering wayes if we live on the creature we gaine not but scatter and lose all he that lives this life of a Saint that God has taught him this lesson flowing from his own selfe from the very heart of God and the bosom of Christ he gathers such precious flowers of experience and gaines such precious Jewels and Pearles that he counts himself rich in them and in nothing else If hee live beside God he lookes on himself as a man that scatters all as a growing to be a banckrupt one that has no experience of the rich gainings of grace 1 Tim. 6.6 Godlinesse with content sayes the Apostle is great gaine Ther 's no true cōtent but in gaines by grace and the rich experriences of Gods workings in the soule to see which way corruption comes to be crusified and he kild to the world and the world to him to see how his power and life comes in and to observe the glorious outgoings of God and the manner of his glorious and Godlike proceedings with his soule this satisfies and composes his heart to see how sweetly God hath conquered his soule and brought his will into subjection that was so raging so rebellious Then he counts it all joy to fall into divers tēptations knowing finding by experience that the trying of faith worketh patience Isai 13.9.10 to be intire wanting nothing and so farre as he comes into this life of perfection to rejoyce in that he is made low and he that is of low degree in the creature to rejoyce in that he is made rich in God and high in God Ro. 5.4 and he sees how patience bringeth forth experience and experience hope and hope maketh not a shamed We will now come to some short uses and consectories from this point and from the benefits thereof Vse the first Is contentation a saints lesson is a saints spirit a satisfied spirit then so far as any one of us have not a satisfied spirit so far we have not a Saints spirit so far we are not saints So far as we are not satisfied contented at rest and composed so far wee are short of God and have not the life of God so far as we live not with God and in God For this is held out to us in the very nature of God God is in himselfe at rest serene composed no distraction in the Creature touches him he sits above that is hs is free from all changes and all alterations in the world so is that man so farre as he is a Saint being united and made one with God though he live among the creatures as God has his being in and through all the creatures yet he is not altered by the creatures So has this man as he is a saint not his joy his life his riches his treasure in the creature but in and with God above all creatures Againe is a saint as he is a saint of composed satisfied spirit composed of one spirit for that is promised in Jer. I will give them one heart Ier. 32.39 and one spirit then he is not of a devided discontented spirit hee is not troubled with those wishings and wouldings as men below are Oh that I had this condition or that condition but saies he let any condition come so I have God in it God is my rest and not the condition be it riches or health or the best condition wherein the men of the world and so farre as we are unregenerate to think therein is rest oh saies one had I but such a ones conditition such Lands such Honours I could be contented and satisfied oh saies another had I not such enemies were they but cut off overthro wne I should have rest this is not the temper of a Saint as a saint But he sayes I have found that promise fullfild I have the desire if my heart Psalm 37.4 my rest is in God and I cannot tell what to wish other then I have what I have I would have and what I would have I have if thou art not come to this thou hast a devided heart Some men they are ready to say and blesse themselves in their condition and say I thanke God I am contented but wherein is thy content thou hast a good estate and thou hast the desire of thy heart in the creature thou hast rare parts or thou art honoured among men herein thou art satisfied and thou thinks this is a gracious content thou dost not murmur but blessest God for thy condition alasse this is but sensuall this is but nature if thy content were right it would not be in the creature but in God Should God wheele thee into another condition and wheele away these outward contents then where will be thy comfort And some who are gone a little higher they can boast and say I blesse God I am content I am in poverty in disgrace in prison c. I am perswaded to submit to thē because it is so and it cannot be no other waies t is therefore better to bee content then to fight against the conditiō except I could help it this is but reasoning a mans selfe into content this content is not a Saints content that is to be content as seeing an excellency in this condition as seeing beawty and loves Psalm 68.24 and the glorious outgoings of Gods proceedings They have seen thy goings O God who art in the Sanctuary therefore the Virgins love thee oh the sparkling
pearles and diamonds this soule discovers experiences worth all the world he sells all that he hath to purchase this field where these jewells are Matth. 13.46 But he that reasons himselfe to rest he is not satisfied nor content though he saith he is for he sees no loves no joyes no gatherings no riches in these conditions he longs to have the conditions changed if he could he longs not for the experiences of the condition But the other sayes let me have those sweet experiences and then any condition for those experiences are my riches my life I am now in a gathering way now I see my riches come in instead of envying and wishing for others conditions thou wouldst say no conditions like mine no riches like these riches no credit like this credit what to lie in the very bosom and heart of of Christ That whether he continue poverty or remoove it honnor or remove it so that I may have my joyes my experiences the injoyment of my God for therein is my rest For this man a Saint is contented with God and not with something done by God but with God in all conditions As we may look upon the Spouse in the Cant. let her be buffeted so she may but have her beloved she cares not Cant. 5.7 she will through all for him the reasō is tell him I am sick of love if she have not her beloved give her what you will riches honour parts ordinances oh she cryes out what means all these things you mistake my disease I am sick of love If you be content what means this wishing and woulding what meanes this picking and chusing your conditions what meanes so much envy of others conditions if you see them but before you Does a man that has a thousand pounds that has pearls and diamonds envie him that has but a peny or pibble stones t is never seene Therefore wee may conclude thou hast no Pearles no treasure thou hast not found the field wherein is the pearls thou hast not found God in health and God in sicknesse God in riches and God in poverty and God in parts and God in want of parts and God in all I pray observe this nothing contents the soule but that which answers the soule in all conditions in all its wants riches honour beawty c. doe not answer the soules wants without God be in them it must be something sutable to the soules nature that must be Godlike and spirituall else it will not feed the soule these terrene things feed but sense not saints A child delights not to play but with children not with old men so the soule delights not to play with creatures which are all below God but it loves God and delights in God in the loves and imbraces of God aud God delights in the imbraces of saints their imbraces are mutuall Take this as another consectory from this Doct. Is a saints rest satisfaction in the injoying of God then ti 's not not a sessation of any outward accommodation can cease a saints content and satisfaction for his joy his rest lives when all outward comforts dies As Habac. 3.17 Allthough the figtree shall not blossome neither shall fruit be in the Vine the labour of the Olive shall faile and the fields shall yeeld no meat the flock cut off from the fold and their should be no heard in the stalles Yet I will rejoyce in the Lord and joy in the God of my salvation The Lord God is my strength Againe If so farre as a spirit is content and at rest it s so farre like God then those that professe themselves sonnes and daughters of God and are not content they are not like God they are not sonnes and daughters of God they are not the Image and off-spring of God for those that are Gods sonnes and borne of God they are like God hold forth Gods Image and so farre as we come short of this wee hold forth the Divells image and we are no farther to account our selves the sonnes of God then as wee are begotten of God and so far as we are content with God and God in all things Else we are begotten of the will of man and of the will of flesh and not of the will of God Againe dos this contentation of a Saint give him abilitie to be in a gathering way in all conditions then those that thrive not by all conditions so farre they are no Saints but they are in a scattering undoing way they are scatterers and losers in all condititions because they injoy not God Contentation with God is our greatest gaine and the reason is because this fixes a mans heart to his own portion which is God alone and so farre as we run out from God to the creature for content so farre we run out to strange women to commit adultery and play the harlots as Jer. 3. shewes Thou hast played the harlot with many lovers Jer. 3.1 yet retutne againe unto me saith the Lord. Surely as a wife treacherously departeth from her hushand so have you dealt treacherously mith me oh house of Israel All things but God is strange women Againe is he that is content with God free from the combustion of opposition then we gather further that no condition is crosse to this spirit we commonly cry out of crosses from men from friends from enemies crosses by Kings and crosses by Parliaments and why is all this crosses in a Presbiterian way and crosses in an Independent way and why the reason is because our spirits are not laid levell to all conditions to see all conditions equall to him that lives with and in God truly friends think of this seriously our crosses are not without but all our crosses are from within we have wills of our own which crosses and dashes against Gods will in our conditions and hence is the crosse for were my will and the conditions sutable and laid levell here would be no crosse And hence it is we are so unquiet the working of our wills and conditions being so thwart and contrary that they cast up fome mire and dirt and hence it is that we are so unstable we are not fixed but carried up and downe with every wind of doctrine hence it is that so far as we are content with any thing below God we are lyable to the change and confusion of the nature of all things See then friends wherein a saints content and rest lies t is God in friends God in relations God in all outward accommodations you see allso how great a good and benefit arises from this life When they faile God stands we are free from the combustion of opposition that man has no crosse no cōditiō is rough to him ye are in a gathering way ye shall grow rich your heart shall be fixt and not carried away with every wind of doctrine and opinion Lastly this fixes your heart fast to your own portiō which is God himself And those rich injoyments of his glorious outgo-ings Psal 68.24 they have seen thy goings o God even the goings of my God and my King even in the Sanctuary FINIS