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
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
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
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
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
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
others Beauties Jesus Christ in the Canticles often calls the Holy Soul his Sister-Spouse He calls her Can. 1. 9. My Love The word in Hebrew according to its Root is the same with that which signifies a Friend who is described to be Alter Idem the same in another Person It properly imports One made into Two by a Division as Adam and Eve the other half on Ones self 3. By a Union of Substances Bodies can never meet in One No one Body can ever be in two places at once nor two bodies ever in one place They unite only by Touches by their outsides by Accidents and Shadows A Holy Heart and Heavenly Things unite as Spirits as the purest Spirits where the Unity is most perfect These intimately totally essentially formally penetrate possess fill and actuate each other You have a shadow of it in the mixture of Lights or in two clear and bright Eyes when they look full and stedfastly one upon another So Christ prays John 17. 21. That they all may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they may be one in us Again v. 23 I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in One. The Radical and Original Unity is that of the Blessed Persons in the Trinity the most immediate Branches and liveliest Copies of it are those Two of the Divine and Humane Nature in Christ's Person of the Head and Members in his Mystical Body But this shall suffice for our present Doctrine that a good Heart is a Treasury of good things PSAL. XLV VER II. Thou art fairer than the Children of Men Grace is poured into thy lips therefore God hath blessed thee for ever THis Psalm is a Song of Loves It containeth the whole mystery of the Gospel and of the life of a Saint with his Saviour both in the Figure and Substance which is all an Heavenly Song of Spiritual and eternal Loves An Holy Soul in love with Jesus Christ is altogether taken up with this Threefold exercise 1. The Description and Contemplation of the Person of her Beloved 2. The Desire and continual longings by day and by night to be possess'd of to enjoy this Person 3. The care and labour to be like him to partake of his Beauties and Graces to derive them by the channels and streamings of the Spirit into itself to transform itself into his Likeness St. Paul spends the first part of his discourses in drawing aside the Curtain and setting the Person of Christ in its entire form naked glories and native sweetnesses in the Eyes of Believers Then he leadeth and presseth them to the enjoyment first next to the Imitation of this Jesus upon the ground of his own Loveliness Love and Life The first part of this Psalm is spent in like manner upon the Person and Praises of the Lord Jesus This Verse hath Three Parts 1. The Beauty of Christ Thou art fairer than the Children of Men 2. The Love and Sweetness of Christ Grace is poured into thy lips 3. The Seal of the God-Head of the Father of his Blessedness and Eternity upon the Person of Christ therefore God hath blessed thee for ever 1. The first part in the Text is the Beauty of Christ Thou art fairer than the Children of Men. Jesus Christ is the fairest of all men He is fairer than the whole generation of Mankind He is fairer than any person born of Man The Lord Jesus excells all Mankind in Beauty in Three respects 1. The Humane Nature of Christ taken by itself was born of a Virgin-Mother and God immediately supplying the place of a Father So it was as a Morning-beam begotten between a pure Sun and a clear sweet Air. Then it was born without Sin the proper and only deformity of Spirits Thus his Soul and Body were like a Silver stream flowing quietly in a clean channel where the Image of the Skie and all the Heavenly Bodies figures itself constantly and clearly So did the Mind Will and Workings of the God-Head figure themselves and shine in the Manhood of Christ. Lastly it is the common sense of Divines that the Complexion of Christ was very delicate and pure arising from the most accurate proportion of the Elements the most exact Harmony and purity of the Humours and Spirits in his Body We never read that he was at all Sick As this made all his Sufferings the greater thorough the quickness of his sence so it made him in his outward Form extreamly sweet and lovely above the rest of men But besides all this the Holy Ghost seems to fix its eye upon the Humane Nature of Christ in two other States different from that of his Incarnation by the Virgin Mary as he is the First-born of the whole Creation or of every Creature and as he is the First-born of those that rise from the Dead Coloss. 1. 15 18. The Jews say that the Messias was the first Creature that all the rest were made by Him in Him and for Him as Pictures to the Life and Copies to the Original A German Divine teacheth that he who receives the Body of Christ receives at once all that is good or fair in the whole world from the Beginning to the End of it But the Humanity of the Lord Jesus as he is the First-born of those that are risen from the Dead excels Adam in all his Innocency and primitive Perfections yea and Himself also as he was the First-born of every Creature the Natural Head of Angels as much as Heaven exceeds the Earth or a Paradise in the third Heavens an Earthly One 1 Corin. 15. 49. The former was an Earthly Beauty fading designed for a Sacrifice to be exposed to all sorts of shame and Sufferings to be made a Prey to the devouring jaws of Death This latter Beauty is Heavenly Incorruptible seated upon a throne which indureth for ever and ever 2. The Second Respect in which Christ is fairer than the Children of men is the Union between the Divine and Humane Nature All the Beauties of our Saviours Manhood are heightned by this Union to that Lustre and Loveliness which cannot be express'd in any meer Creature as a fine Cloud a Garden of Flowers a Statue of Gold are quite other things when the naked Sun sheds his Beams immediately upon them than when they are seen in a common or reflected Light By vertue of this Union the Humane Nature of Christ is One Person with the Divine As precious stones are a common water congealed but inclosing particles of the Heavenly Aetherial Light and Spirit So the Manhood of the Lord Jesus in its lowest state of Flesh in its Blood in the Grave excel'd in vertue outshined in Lustre Rubies Diamonds all the precious things of the Creature in Heaven and Earth by vertue of this Union For in all these States God was the Person there all subsisted in him as Branches in the Tree of Eternity As Thomas did to the Wounds of Christ
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
at its Height is strong as Death cruel as the Grave the flame of it is as the Flame of the Lord. Love and Death both agree in this that they are a separation I protest by my Rejoycing in Iesus Christ I dye dayly saith St. Paul The Love of a Saint to Jesus Christ is a Daily Death a Separation from all created Objects a Retirement out of this whole World visible or invisible into the World of the Blessed that World of Eternal Light and Beauty to be alone with Him and in Him to be inseparably united in One Love in One Loveliness in One Spring and One Stream of Beauties with Him as a Seal upon His Heart as a Seal upon His Arm. Where we read Cant. 8. 6. Love is strong as Death cruel as the grave the coals thereof are coals of Fire which hath a most vehement flame which hath is put in by the Translatours a most vehement Flame is in Hebrew the Flame of Jah of the Lord of Jesus Learn here the Divine Mystery of Love in Death The Death of a Believer a Lover of Christ is Love itself which is the Fire of God burning from the Center of our Spirits from beneath the Foundations of our Natural Being till it have consumed the whole frame of this Creation in us and transformed us into one everlasting Flame with itself till it have separated us from every Form of things into his own Shining and Flourishing Form which is the Person of our Beloved the Temple Palace Paradise of Love of the God-Head which is that Primitive the purest Love 3. Enjoyment This is the Third Step in the Love of Complacency The Intermedling with all Wisdom or all Substance Our Jesus is the only Wisdom Substance and Truth The Fulness of things in Harmony as they make all Beauties and Pleasures in their Substances and Truths as they have the first freshest Glory upon them and are incorrupâ—â—â—e lie in the Person of Christ. The Hebrew word to intermeddle signifieth to mingle with or roul our selves in the midst of all Wisdom and Substance that is in the Bosom of Jesus O believing loving Soul Thy Beloved when He cometh into thy Spirit saith Can. 1. I am come into my Garden my Sister my Spouse I have gathered my Spice I have eaten my Hony with my Hony-Comb I have drunk my Wine and my Milk When thou comest into his Bosom and Spirit say thou to him Now am I come into my Garden my Brother my Bridegroom I gather all pleasant precious and incorruptible Fruits in thy Person together with their Root thy Person So I transplant them into my Spirit and Person I eat of the excellencies of Wisdom which are sweeter to my Soul than Honey is to the Palate I eat them in and with thy Person the essence of Wisdom itself as live Honey with the Honey-comb I drink in my Wine and my Milk the Spirit and Sweetness of thy Divine and Humane Nature of the New Heaven the naked Appearance of the God-Head and the new Earth the Divine Appearance of the whole Creation in thy Spiritual Form Thus I stretch my self at large I roul my self at liberty in the midst of all Beauties and Delights Here I rest in Eternal Ioy with the perfect Complacency of all my Faculties of my whole Spirit Soul and Body in thine Heavenly Person 3. Make the single Person of Christ the Fountain of all thy Comforts 1. Consider that there is indeed such a Jesus so Beautiful Eccl. 11. 7. Solomon telleth us the light is sweet and it is a pleasant thing to behold the Sun If the light of this Heaven be sweet and the sight of this Sun infuse a pleasure into us when we look upon it what is the Light that shineth in the Person of Christ What doth once glance of this Sun of the Divine World How doth it make the heart in our bosom leap to him and dance about him as the Needle to the Loadstone To go forth in a fair Summers day to look upon the green Fields and clear Skie is a refreshing to our Natural Spirits and begetteth a lightsome Joy in us come forth ye dark and melancholy Souls see this Jesus in his unvailed Person as he rideth forth upon the Circuit of the whole Heaven and Earth in his name Jah in his Divine Form in which he comprehendeth and filleth all see that New Heaven and New Earth which he maketh in himself As Snow at the shining forth of the Sun so will the heaps of Snow the Mists and Clouds about your Heart dissolve into an unexpressible Sweetness and Light of a secret Joy and hope at this Sight By the Light of the Beauties of this Person cometh the Sight of him by this Sight cometh Faith then cometh all Peace and Joy in Believing Could Davids Harp chase away Sauls evil Spirit which vexed him Is there any evil Spirit which will not be chased away any vexation or melancholy which will not be charmed by this Harp of God by the Harmony of all Heavenly Beauty and Musick in the Person of Christ. 2. Consider that this Jesus is Beautiful to make thee Beautiful Ephes. 1. 6. God is said in his Grace that is in his sweetest and richest Love to have made us acceptable that is to have made us lovely in the Eye of his Love to have set us in the Embraces of his Love in the Beloved One in the Person of Christ. When thou liest on the ground covered with Sack-cloath and ashes in thine own Spirit then think thus with thy self When the Lord Jesus appeareth in all his Glories before the Father then doth he represent me then doth he present my Face and Person to the Eye and heart of his Father in the Glass of his own Beauties Will not thâ—s revive thy Soul within thee to understand that the Father taketh that Beautiful Image and sweet Impression of thee upon his heart which he receiveth from the most lovely sight of Jâ—sus Christ in his fullest lustre that all the thoughts and works of the Father concerning thee pass thorow this Medium the Beautiful and Blessed Person of Christ Thou sittest on the dunghil of this Body of Sin this Flesh covered from Head to Foot with the Sores of thy Corruptions Thâ—u liest in the Grave of this Body of Death where all cares and fears like Worms feed upon thee But see Jesus boweth the Heavens and cometh down He descendeth in that Form of Glory which is the Heaven of Heavens encon passâ—ng thee on every side transfiguring thee into a shining Glory as the white Cloud of the most excellent Majesty transfigured him when it rested upon him 3. Consider that this Jesus is Bautiful for thee to make thee happy in the enjoyment of Him David in a pang of grâ—â—f comforteth himself after this manner Why dâ—est thou cast down thy self O my Soul why art thou so troubled within me Hope in the Lord I shall yet praise Him the Health
healeth these breaches But it preserveth entire all distinctions of things in God in the Divine Unity The God-Head the Manhood the Soul the Body the Persons of the Saints and of their Saviour ever keep their proper parts in the variety to make the Musick of Heaven pleasant As Spirituality heightneth the Unity beyond every Created comprehension that the Sweetness and the Glory may be heightned in like manner so doth it enlarge the variety beyond all finite proportions that the Marriage-Joy may be more free more fresh more full 2. Cant. Preserve carefully the distinction between God and the Creature God is that which he is in himself and of himself The Creature is that which it is by its Union with God This is the Incommunicable Name of God I am that which I am The name of every Creature on Earth and in Heaven is I am that which I am in God I am that which God is in me I have now made an end of my third Proposition which was this that the Spiritual Body of Christ is to be compared with its Spiritual Principle and Pattern Jesus speaketh to this sense in one place If they had known the Father they would have know me if they had known me they would have known you they The Person of the Bridegroom is known aright only by its Pattern and in its Principle which is the Father as he is the brightness of the Fathers Glory the express Image of his Substance and sporteth eternally in his Bosom The Person of a Saint is then only seen aright when it is seen by its Pattern and in its Principle which is the Heavenly Bridegroom as it is the brightness and fulness of him who shineth thorow and filleth All in All the Glory of Christ in Christ like the purest Light rejoycing continually in the Bosom of the Sun I am now arrived at the end of my second Rule to compare Spiritual Things with Spiritual And thus I have concluded my present use which is a direction to the knowledge of the Person of Christ and his Beauty Use 3. An exhortation to Holiness and Comfort thorow Faith in Jesus Christ. This exhortation is raised upon these three Grounds 1. Ground The Person of our Lord is unchangeable For he is in his true Person when the Vail is taken off from him an Eternal Spirit in an Eternal Glory John 8. 58. He saith of himself Before Abraham was I am I am is the name of Eternity and unchangeableness See how the Lord Jesus comprehendeth all the Successions and Distances of Time before Abraham from Abraham to that moment as one present sixt undivided point in himself As a Rock standeth firm on the Shore while Millions of waves rise and fall at its foot such a Rock of glory and Eternity is our Saviour While all the Streams of Time roul along successively and pass away while all the waves of change life up themselves reak bury themselves onein another this Beautiful and blessed Personstandeth unchanged unmoved in the midst of them all How great an Encouragement is this to you who are tost with the Tempests upon the Sea of this world and find no rest to retire and withdraw your selves into Jesus Christ by Faith His glorious Person is a perpetual Calm with Sun-shine Here in him in the midst of all the Storms of this world is the same sweet untrou-bled Calm which was in Eternity before the woâ—ld was Mal. 3. 6. Our Saviour is brought in speaking after this manner For I am the Lord I change not therefore ye Sons of Jacob are not consumed The unchangeableness of the Lord Jesus is founded upon the unity of his Person in which he comprehendeth beholdeth converseth with himself and all things It is said to this Jesus by the Psalmist cited Heb. 1. 8. Thy Throne O God endureth for ever and ever This Throne in the same Epistle is stiled a Throne of Grace that is of Love The Person of Christ in its Unity is the Throne of Love and Eternity Hear this Word all Sinners and Saints Hear this you who have an ear to hear what the Spirit saith of the Person of Christ. You that have none let this word come to you and make in you a hearing Ear. Hear this you who believe not that you may believe you who have Faith that you may have it in greater abundance The same Eye with which Jesus Christ looked upon you the same Beauty in which he beheld you the same Love with which he embraced you in himself in Eternity before that Sin or the world had any Being with the same Eye he now looketh upon thee in the same Beauty he now beholdeth thee with the same Love he now embraceth thee in the midst of all thy Pilgrimages through so many Darknesses and Deaths For he is unchangeable All the Waters all the Fires of Temptations and Troubles thorow which thou passest cannot drown consume or at all empair thy Beauties thy Joys For thou awakest and findest thy self ever with thy Beloved thy Jesus thou findest him the same to thee thou findest thy self the same in him For he changeth not So those Waters and fires vanish as a Dream 2. Ground The Pâ—rson of Christ comprehendeth all Changes in itself after an unchangeable manner Heb. We are commanded to look to Jesus the end of our Conversation the same yesterday to day and for ever As all successions of Time lie united in one point in one present undivided moment in Eternity where all things past and to come are ever present and every thing of Time appeareth cloathed with the Form of Eternity so do all changes lie in one unchangeable Glory in the Lord Jesus The Yesterday of Inâ—initeness before the world this worlds Day Eternity after this world are 〈◊〉 one 〈◊〉 one Eternity of Life and Love in this blessed Person This world in itself lieth as a small Island in the midst of the Ocean of Eternity bounding it on all sides In the Heavenly Person of Christ this Island is sunk and swallowed up into the Depths of that Ocean Which way soever you look there is nothing but Heaven and Eternity Are you wearied with the Changes of your own Heart and This World Retire into the bosom of your Loving God and Saviour There every Change lyeth in an Unchangeable Beauty and Blessedness Do variety of Objects with their Changes distract and divide you making you unsetled and unsafe Would you be unchangeable in a Holy and Heavenly Frame of Heart Would you be unmoved in the Work and Joy of the Lord Fix your Eye on Jesus Christ Abide in Jesus Christ. There you shall see the Same there you shall be the Same Yesterday to Day and for Ever The Lord was buried in a New Tomb hewed out of a Rock in a Garden What a Mysterious what a beautiful what a blessed Figure is this Let us fear none of those things that are to come upon us A Sick-bed a Prison a Grave
Chapter and beginning of the Second the Loveliness of the Spouse and the Love between her and the Heavenly Bridegroom in her Sufferings and Death as they are acted upon the Stage in the glorious Scene of the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ in the State of Espousals and in their Union in one Spirit The dying Spouse there singeth to her Lord Behold thou art fair my Love yea thou art pleasant also our Bed is green v. 16. Jesus Christ is fair to a Saint Eye in his Divine Loveliness being risen up into the Glory of the Father He is pleasant to her in his Loves which are his Loveliness in Motion acting beautiful parts transforming itself into delightful Shapes with endless variety in all pouring forth itself into her Bosom taking her up into itself with Blessed Changes of one into another The Unity of the Spirit is the Bed of Divine Loves which is ever green that is as the word importeth ever encompassed with a Heavenly Calm and Serenity ever flourishing ever fruitful Death itself is the mutual embracing of these two Heavenly Lovers in this Bed of Spiritual Loves in the midst of a Divine calm and clearness while out of these embraces they spring up into innumerable Forms of Eternal Beauties and Joys which are the flourishing Fruits and Blessed Children of this Marriage-Union It is said that nothing was made without Christ apart from Christ that was made in the Creation John 1. 2. Remember O Christian that in the new Creature thou art thou sufferest thou doest nothing in life or in death without thy Jesus in Glory apart from thy Jesus in the Unity of his Spirit which is the Center and Circle of all Blessed Spirits with all the Train and Treasures of the Divine Nature While thou livest all the Body of Christ Heavenly Spirits Innumerable Angels live with thee thy life All these all the Lights and Loves of the Supercoelestial State die with thee thy Death 4. Pos. All this Resurrection Ascension into the Heavenly places Fellowship of a Believer with Christ is in Christ. He hath raised us together and hath made us sit together in Heavenly Places in Christ Jesus See now those places above the Heavens those more than Heavenly Things in the midst of which a Saint is set They are all in the glorified Person of Christ who is made higher than the Heavens The Learned tell us that there are three Worlds 1. This which is visible 2. The Angelical World 3. The Divine World All things of the upper and greater Worlds are in the lower as in the Seed All Things of the lower are in the Superiour as ripe Fruit. Every thing is in each according to the nature of that place Behold This is the Divine World the Person of our Lord and Love ascended up on high above all Heavens of Angels Here in him the Fulness of the God-Head dwelleth Bodily that is not shadowily or seminally in its Shadow or Seed but in its Substance and Perfection While here thou standest fast in this thy Jesus thine own proper habitation Death itself is an Angel nay more it appeareth in a Divine Form is become a Divine Glory a rich and ravishing piece of variety in the Unity of the Divine Nature In the World of Angels every thing is a distinct Angel In the Divine World all things are cloathed with the form of God As a Child lying in its Mothers lap a branch from the Mother bearing her Image with its mouth at the Breast looking upon her Face falling asleep in her Bosom yet not so sleeping but that still it sucketh as it sleepeth such is a Saint dying in Jesus Christ. He lieth in the lap of the Supream Glory encompassing him on every side and bearing him as its own Birth and Image His mouth is at the breast of this Glory His Eye is upon the Face of this Glory He sleepeth in its Bosom But it is a Divine sleep While he sleepeth he is awake and keepeth his Eye still upon the Glory and sucketh in the Glory still in Death We have this excellently represented in one place by the Prophet Esay where the Heavenly Hierusalem which is our Jesus in the Spirit is said to bear her Children on her sides and to dandle them on her Knee In another place they are said to walk in the Light of the new Hierusalem These Dandlings and Dancings in the Arms of that Glory which is our Mother our Father and our Husband our Heavenly Jesus such walks in its sweet and living Light are all the Motions and Changes of Life and Death to those that are in Christ Jesus I shall conclude my Observations from this Scripture with the difference between the Death of a Man standing in the Root of the First Adam and a Christian in Christ. Death to one is a Poyson In eating of the Forbidden Fruit he dieth out of the Earthly Paradise yet remaining in its ruines in this World into a Land of Briars and Thorns into a vast and howling Wilderness where the Light is Darkness and where there is no Order The Death of the other is a Cordial of dissolved Pearl In eating of the Tree of Life he 〈◊〉 out of a Land of Briars and Thorns into a Heavenly Paradise the Paradise of God I have done now with the first Scripture 2. Script Verily verily I say unto you except a Corn of Wheat fall into the ground and die it abideth alone but if it die it bringeth forth much Fruit John 12. 24. These are the words of our Saviour concerning himself upon a report made to him hy Philip that some Greeks desired to see him The design of Jesus is partly to raise them from a Carnal view of him on Earth to a Spiritual sight of him in a Heavenly Glory after Death partly to signify the difference between his State of humiliation in this Life where he is single and Barren in the Flesh and his State of exaltation after Death where he â—iseth up an Universal Person reconciling comprehending All in the Unity of the Spirit a Fruitful Person being a new head and root in the Love Life and Glory of the Father to all Mankind Jews and Gentiles to all Creatures Our Saviour while he lived was as a single naked grain of Wheat But when he sprung up out of the Grave he became a pleasant and flourishing Plant bearing much Fruit many grains of Wheat in one Ear many all Persons all Angels and Spirits in Glory in that one his own Person and Spirit He was in the Flesh as one Rose one Apple pull'd off the Tree He is in the Spirit as the Rose-Tree the Apple-Tree All Angels and Saints all Forms of Things are glorified in his Glory all in Heavenly and Immortal Persons are in his Heavenly Person as full-blown Roses growing upon the Rose-Tree as full-ripe Apples upon the Apple-Tree The Death of a Saint is upon this ground made most beautiful and pleasant Can. 2. 3. As the
Apple-Tree among the Trees of the Wood so is my Beloved among the Sons I sat down under his Shadow with great delight and his Fruit was sweet to my taste There are three distinct parts in the Hebrew 1. I desired and sweetly delighted in his Shadow 2. Then I sate down 3. And his Fruit was sweet to my taste The Apple in Holy Scriptures and in the writings of Learned Authors is famous for a pleasant Cordial nourishment of Life and for an Emblem of Love You may see this in this Chapter v. 5. Stay me with Flagons comfort me with Apples for I am sick of Love Apples are Emblems of Love for their pleasant looks to the Eye their fragrant smell their delightful tast their cordial vertue their round form which is a Figure of Unity the Root and Sap and Fruit of all Love In the midst of the Wood of this Life where all Forms of things are like blasted and barren Trees good neither for Shade nor Fruit Jesus Christ standeth as an Apple-Tree a Tree of Life and a Tree of Love Fair Flourishing and Fruitful When the poor Spouse of Christ thorow all this Life is wearied with scorching Heats sounding Tempests raging Storms then her Beloved when He seeth His Fit Time springeth up as a Paradisical and Heavenly Tree As He springeth up He overshadoweth His Spouse not as a cloud overshadoweth the Sun or as Darkness in the absence of the Sun overshadoweth the earth but as the approaching and rising Sun overshadoweth the Stars So the Lord as a Tree of Glory spreadeth His Shadow over all those Lights of the Night the Principles Powers Activities Appearances oâ— the Natural Man drinking them up into One Light of Glory and Immortality with Himself while He drowneth them with a Sea of Love breaking in upon them and overflowing them How sweet is this Approaching Shadow of her Lord's Blessed Person to the Love-sick Soul a Shadow perfumed with the Ointments of His Love shining with the purple Lustre of His Beauties quickened with the Life of His Glories a Divine Shadow With what Desire with what Delight doth the Holy Soul go under this Shadow How precious in the Eye of God of all the Angels of a Saint Himself is This Death This Death is no Evening to a pleasant Day but a Lovely Morning and glorious Sun putting out the Lights of the Moon with all the Sars because the Time of the Night is past and the Day is come Never did the softest and sweetest Sleep 〈◊〉 with more pleasure upon the Senses of any Person than this Shadow of Death cometh upon the Heavenly Bride Here a Saint sitteth down As Hee entreth into this Shadow he entreth into Rest into the Unâ—ty of God where He resteth for ever from his own Work and Spirit to lye down in the Eternal Spirit Now he catâ—h of his own Apple upon this Apple-Tree He meeteth with Himself in Glory in the Glorified Person of his Beloved as the ripe Fruit of Life and Love hanging ready upon its own Tree in Eternity In the same moment he seeth it he taketh it in he rellisheth it with unexpressible sweetness and delight as being Great Glorious His own by the nearest dearest Suitableness and propriety Himself in the Entirest Unity in the same Moment he seedeth upon it is Transubstantiated into it and becometh that Lovely Apple that full-ripe Fruit of â—ove upon the Tree As he thus seedeth upon his own Apple and is changed into it at once he seedeth upon is changed into all the Apples of the Tree and the whole Tree itself For this is the Divine Mystery of Spiritual Pâ—anâ—s in the Heaveâ—ly Paradise each Fruit each part of the Plâ—nt comprehendeth the whole Pâ—ant all the Plants stand live and grow together in each Plant. Every Person aâ—d Spirit in Glory hath its own Name all Names written upon it It is itself an Entire Heaven in which all the Heavenly Inhabitants shine and sing and dance together with their various Beauties Musicks and Motions cast into the most Divine Harmony by a most perfect Unity 3. Script Iohn 14. v. 2. 3. In my Father's hâ—use are many Mansions If it 〈…〉 I would have tâ—ld you I go to prepare a place for 〈◊〉 And if I goe and prepare a place for you I will come again â—nd receive you unto my self that where I am there ye may be also Three Mysteries are opened to us in these words 1. The Place of Blessed Persons after this Life 2. The Preparation of this Place 3. Their Passage into this Place All are full of a Joy glorious and unspeakable 1. The Place of Blessed Spirits after this Life It is saith Christ my Father's House The House of the Father is the Glorified-Person of His Son This is the Temple of God in Heaven the Palace of the great King In Him the fulness of the God-Head dwelleth bodily All glorious Persons Angels Saints and Spirits as they are comprehended in the Person of Christ and make up His Body the Divine Body the Body of Glories and Eternity in Him as they are Beautiful Members in that Body so are they Mansions in that Temple Apartments in that Palace Every Apartement in this Divine Palace hath the whole Palace with all the Persons Prospects Furniture Entertainments of the whole within itself This is the Place 2. The Preparation of this Place I go to prepare a place for you While this Palace of Eternity with all its Apartments which are also its Inhabitants the Glorified and Immortal Persons of all Saints stood in the Father in the Divine Nature alone it was hid from the Eye of every Creature it was shut up that none could enter into it it was remote from every Creature at a very great distance The Lord Jesus by His Death and Resurrection entring with the Humane Nature into this Eternal Habitation hath set it up in the Nature of Man hath brought it near to us hath set it in our view hath set it open for us The Gates of this Temple of this Heavenly Hierusalem stand open day and night to all quarters of the Heaven and the Earth All the Apartements of it with our several Names written upon them our several Persons in Glory appearing in them stand ready The Lord Jesus Himself is the Beautiful Gate the Living Way the Ascent the rich Stair-case to this Temple The Angels are continually descending in Him as Chariots to bring down riding upon them our glorious Saviour and our glorious Selves into the Bosom of our Spirits here below The Bridegroom and the Bride ready trimm'd and already joyned in One come thus down out of Heaven come thus forth from the Temple The Angels are continually ascending by this Stair-case carrying up our Spirits beforehand on visits into this Palace into our own Apartments into the Bosom of our own Glorified and Immortal Substances there Every Grace every Providence every Motion of things to him whose Eyes are opened is such an Angel
several Mansions in the same Palace So they fly into the Bosom of their proper Substances where Thou art the same Person in Truth at Liberty and awake which thou wert in Show in Captivity in a Dream here below Thou art the Unity in which all these Spirits with the unsearchable Riches of their several Varieties ever centred and dwelt together as One once shut up in darkness and in a narrow place but now displaying all their Beauties unfolding all their Joys to the full O how are the Beauties and Pleasures of thy Death O Saint far beyond all those of Marriage and of Children How doest thou in that moment meet and marry thy self in all the flourishing Glories with all the warm and fresh Loves of the Divine Nature How doest thou bring forth a Troop of Divine Spirits in thine own Form and Person to be ever before thee bred up and Living with thee rejoycing in thee the Delight of thine Eyes and the Jewels of thy Bosom the pleasure of thine Embraces day by day This is the first Representation of Death by a Dissolution 2. Death is a Deluge that Mortality might be swallowed up of Life 2. Cor. 5. v. 4. It is in Greek that the or this Mortal may be swallowed up of Life Life in the Abstract in its Purity and Perfection without any Mixture or Allay is Immortality Eternity Christ and God As God is Light in which there is no Darkness so God is Light in which there is nothing of its contrary neither in act nor in possibility no Death nor Shadow of Death The Mortal is that which is capable of Dying in a Saint with the Principles of Corruption and Power of Death adhering to it See the Glory the Might of this Glory the Extent of it in the Death of a Saint Life Itself in its own Divine Essence as a Divine Substance no more an Accident in the Purity of all Its Sweetnesses in the Perfection of all Its Powers as it reigneth upon the Throne of Eternity breaketh forth upon the Person of a Saint upon all His Powers and Parts the lowest the darkest the most Mortal As It breaketh forth It drinketh up all together with the Shadow of Death Itself encompassing them into itself Mortal Things are Shadows of Immortal that is Figures in the Dark But the Darkness also is Part of the Figure The Life of pure Nature is an Image-Life a Shadowy Life The Darkness swallowing up the Figure and defacing the Shadow is a Natural Death The Devil lurking in the Dark Part as in His Den from thence coming forth into the Figure is the Life of Sin When a Sinner dieth the Devil in the Darkness of the Shadow Divine Wrath thorow the Devil swallow up the Darkness Image and all into themselves But at the new Birth of a Saint the Eternal Life and Substance awakeneth itself in the Shadow liveth and weareth that Darkness as a Divine Vail upon Its Beauties too bright to appear nakedly on Earth It acteth that Figure as a Picture with the Life in it looking forth through and springing through it as a Flower thorow the Lattices and the Windows Then when the time of Harvest and the Singing of Birds is come this Eternal Life drinketh up All into its own unmixt unfading Light Thus a Saint dieth As sometimes the Sea sendeth forth an Island which after sometimes it again swalloweth up so is the Life and Death of a good Man in His Mortal Part. He riseth up like an Island from the unfathomable and glorious Depths of a Divine Sea the Sea of Eternal Life and Love He standeth rooted in this Sea and encompassed with It on every side So He lives Again He sinketh down into the Blessed Depths out of which He arose So He dieth Elijah laid His Sacrifice with a pile of wood upon the Altar He digged Trenches round about the Altar which he filled with Water till it ran over Then he called upon the Name of the God of Israel Immediately a Fire descended from Heaven which licked up all the Water consumed the Sacrifice with the Wood upon the Altar The Altar is our Jesus filling the Earth as well as the Heavens The Saint in his Divine Part is the Sacrifice upon the Altar in Union with Christ. The Wood is the Mortal Part of a Saint which also lyeth upon the Altar of Christ's glorified Person The low estate of a Saint in Flesh with all his Sufferings and Sorrows all the Powers of Darkness and Death make the Trenches full of Waters round about Him At length the Divine Sea from below when It hath fulfilled the Days of Its Pilgrimage and Imprisonment calleth to Its Father above Then in a moment the Lord Jesus in His Glorified Body as a Flame of Immortal Love and Life cometh down from Heaven upon this Saint drinketh up at once the Sacrifice the Wood the Waters and All into One Flame with itself Nothing remaineth but the Altar and the Trenches the Place where they had been the Double Image in which they had appeared a Light-Image Beautiful and Pleasant in the Spirits of Light a Dark-Image in Dark Spirits Both these by degrees vanish into their several Elements of Light and Darkness I have done with my first Principle in the second Part of my present use which is to sweeten and sanctify Death by the Spiritual Knowledge of our Lord Jesus The first Principle was this A Saint is compleat above in the Glorified Body of Jesus Christ while he is living or dying here below 2. Principle The Glorified Person of our Saviour with all its Divine Fulness dwelleth Spiritually in the Natural Body of each Saint on Earth Our fleshly Members are the Members of Christ in Heaven 1 Corin. 6. 15. The riches of the Glory of this Mystery among the Gentiles which is Christ in you the Hope of Glory Col. 1. 27. As the Essential Form of a Plant with all its proportions and perfections lieth inclosed in the Seed which by the breaking of the Seed displayeth itself upon it and transfigureth the Seed so is the Natural Body of each Believer a Seed so is Jesus Christ the Hope of Glory a Body of Glory to that Seed and dwelleth inclosed in it until the Spring of Death The Natural Body is called a Body of Death Rom. 7. 24. We are said to wait for the Adoption or Sonship the Redemption of the Body Rom. 8. 23. These two Bodies cannot be the same One is a Redeemed Body a Body of Adoption or Sonship This is as St. Paul speaketh before a Body brought forth into the Liberty of the Glory of a Son of God The other is a Body of Death St. Paul cryeth out against one Who shall deliver me from this Body of Death St. Paul groaneth and waiteth for the Redemption of the other as a Son of God One is the Oppressour the other is oppressed One is a Grave and Death the other is a Divine Life a Form of Glory a Son of
God in the Valley of the shadow of Death in the Grave As a Sun at night casting up its Cloud and foretelling a fair day so is the Death of a Saint the Glorified Body of a Saint being one Spirit with the Glorified Body of his Beloved casteth up the Cloud of this Natural Body which had lien as the Cloud of Death upon it and now immediately maketh a â—air and Heavenly Day without the interposal or succession of any Night The Glorified Body of Christ and his Bride are hid under this Body oâ— Flesh like the Sun under a thick Mist. It is long glowing and casting glympses of itself thorow the Mist. The Mist groweth thinner The heat and light of Divine Love Beauty and Joy groweth stronger At last the Mist is quite gone drunk up into the Sun The Sun shineth out with open Face and the Freedom of all its Beams 3. Prince That which this Body is to a Saint here that his Glorified Jesus is to â—im in Death We take pleasure rather to be absent from the Body and present with the Lord saith St. Paul 2 Corin. 5. 8. These words Absent Present relate in Greek to a Country a People Such a presence as the Soul hath with the Body in Lie it hath with its Lord and Love in Death Here thy Body is the Country the Region of thy Soul Thy Body is the Image into which thy Soul is formed in which alone it appeareth to itself or others All thy Relations Companions Contentments are Images presented unto thee in this Glass and Impressions made upon thee by the Images appearing in this Glass All this World is nothing to thee but as it is an Appearance rising up in thy Body which by vertue of the Personal Union raiseth a suitable Act of Life in thy Soul All this World to thee is only a diversity of Forms into which it is varied and a diversity of Impressions made upon thy Soul by this variety of Forms In Death this Glass is broken this Image vanisheth this Country disappeareth like an Enchantment Thy Glorified Jesus cometh in the place of this Body and is a Heavenly a Divine Body to thee Thy Glorified Jesus is that Beautiful Pure and Immortal Form in which thou appearest to thy self and to all Thy Relations Companions Entertainments are the Glorified Person of thy Jesus varied into Innumerable Forms of Love Light and Loveliness All thy Motions Affections and Pleasures are in Sympathy and Consort with thy Jesus by vertue of the mystical and unexpressible Union between thee and him All acts of Life in thee all Touches upon thy Spirit are the kisses of his Divine Mouth Myrrhe dropping from those Lillies of the Heavenly Paradise his Lips This is thy Country thy People thy World the Fulness of the God-Head dwelling bodily in Christ. Spring for joy O dying Saint The World thy Country thine own People the Body into which thou now comest is the Fulness of all Divine Light Divine Life the Fulness of all Divine Forms Loves Joys and Glories dwelling together with the Fulness of a Divine Harmony in the Glorified Body of thy Beloved This hath drunk up into itself thy former Body with all its acquaintances and entertainments the former world with all its furniture PART II. Psal. 45. 2. Thou art fairer than the Children of Men Grace is poured forth in thy lips Therefore God hath blessed thee for ever I divided these words into three parts 1. THe Loveliness of our Lord Iesus Thou art fairer than the Children of Men. 2. The Love of Christ The Love of this Lovely One Grace is poured forth in thy lips 3. The Seal of the God-Head of a Divine Blessedness and of Eternity upon both these the Loveliness and the Love in this Glorified Person of our Saviour Therefore God hath blessed thee for ever I have finished my discourse on the first part I now take in hand the second part I have spoken something of the Loveliness of our Beloved One as I have by any Beam from his Beauties been enlightned to some glimmering vision of them and quickned to a weak expression of that which I have seen Now I am to speak of his Love as the Grace and Sweetness of it shall pour forth itself from his Lips into mine by a Spiritual kiss from the Mouth of this Heavenly Bridegroom Grace is poured forth in his Lips The rich composition of this Heavenly-sweet Sentence is made up of three rich Materials 1. Grace 2. Effusion or the pouring forth of this Grace 3. The Lips of the Lord Jesus These are to be explained 1. Grace This in the Language of the Scripture signifieth three Things 1. Grace is Love For the Grace of God which bringeth salvation to all Men hath appeared Tit. 2. 11. But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward Men hath appeared Tit. 3. 4. That which in one place the Apostle calleth Grace in the other he expresseth by kindness and love Grace is love in its Fountain freest and sweetest 2. Grace is Loveliness or Beauty Prov. 31. 30. Favour is deceitful and Beauty is vain Favour there is Grace It is the same word in Hebrew with this in my Text. Grace is Beauty with its most powerful charms as it toucheth every Spirit answereth every desire maketh all things answer it and dance to its Musick So the Hebrew word imports 3. Grace is Joy or pleasure a fair and smiling Child begotten between these two amiable and ever-pleasant Parents Love and Beauty St. Paul commandeth the Saints to sing making melody to God with Grace in their hearts that is with Divine Joy kindled into a Heavenly Flame from the Love and Loveliness of the Lord Jâ—sus shining forth there unitedly and concentring their joint Beams in the Beloved Spirit Thus Grace is all three Love Loveliness and Joy all these with a peculiar and most eminent heightning as the Sunshine is the Grace of a Garden and the Fâ—owers in it So Grace in the sense of the Gospel is Love Beauty Delight with the God-Head the Sun of Spirits peculiarly and nakedly shining in them But principally and primitively Grace is Love Then it is Loveliness as that is the first Birth and lively Image of Love in which it bringeth forth itself to its own Eye and embraces then sporteth with it as its Spouse It is Pleasure as that springeth from the Union of these two and is their mutual Life and Perfection each in other Grace is a Tree where Love is the Root and Sap Loveliness the fair Tree with its Body and Branches rising out of this Root whose Sap formeth itself into this Beautiful Figure Joy is the Fruit into which the sweet Sap of Love from its Root thorow the Body and Branches of its shining Beauties digesteth itself unto a perfect admirable and Divine Maturity to be the Food and Feast of all Lives all Spirits in Time and Eternity It is Love smiling in the face of every Beauty which is
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
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-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
only Free Kindly Evangelical and Divine when it springeth from the Womb of love lyeth in the Bosom of love hangeth at the Breasts of that love which is God of God as he is in his own Eternal Form of love He that hath the Son hath the Father also He that hath the Father hath the Son saith St. John Let us not be deceived He that worketh Righteousness hath the love of God in him and he that hath the love of God hath also the Righteousness of God Love is the fulfilling of the Law of every Law Natural Moral Evangelical of the Letter and of the Spirit Love doth nothing uncomely offendeth no Principle Humane or Divine of Sense Reason or Grace Thus Divine Love is free but Divinely fair and pure 2. So is not Lust. The Lust of the Flesh is licentious without Law Light Harmony Order All Disorder Deformity Shame Bondage Anguish and Death are there where Lust is Can there be any Freedom Beauty or Peace in the midst of Confusion and Contrarieties Every Lust maketh thy Spirit a narrow and deep Pit of Darkness and Horrour Thou lyest sunk to the bottom of it in the midst of loathsom Toads and poysonous Serpents twining about all thy parts crawling upon thy naked Bosom and naked Heart 3. Cast out every flesh Lust. A Lust is the spawn of the Devil If thou suffer it to lie in thy Soul innumerable Devils will spring up out of it and make thee a Hell in thy self a Habitation of Devils The Devil was a Beautiful and Blessed Angel until Lust came Lust made him a Devil Lust is the Nature and Essence of the Devil It maketh thee the Child of the Devil 4. Take in cherish the Love of God in thine Heart Pray for wait for receive gladly the Blessed Sower the Lord Jesus when he cometh forth to sow the Seed of Love in thy Soul Cherish it when it is sown Give it depth of Earth let it take root deep enough in thee Suffer no cares of this world to choak it Love is the Seed of God in thee The Image of God with all the Graces and Joys of it the Divine Nature with all its Purities Powers and Perfection God himself will grow up out of it to dwell and walk in thee to fill thee with the presence of his Glory to make thy Spirit and Person another Heaven to him The God-Head of God the Guilding Sweetning and warming of Heaven the life of Eternity is Love I have now shewen how all the Attributes of God serve his Love in general and in three particular Instances of the Wisdom Power Righteousness of God This is the Second Proof that Love is the end of all 3. God resteth in his Love This is the third Proof that Love is the end of all Zephan 3. 17. He will rejoyce over thee with singing he will rest in his Love Like the Joy of Harvest when the Countryman bringeth in the last shocks of ripe Corn out of the Field with Songs and Garlands because this is the end of all his labours for the whole year so God rejoyceth when his Love is come to the ripe Corn in the Ear when it is cut off from its Earthly stalk when in the full declaration of it in the riches of its Glory in the Simplicity and Spirituality of its Divine Nature it is brought home into his Bosom again for this is the end of all the Circuit of his labours thorow the whole Creation This is his Noah his rest No man resteth till he come to his last end The Love of God is his last end For he resteth in his love All motion tendeth to and endeth in rest All the Motions Works and Ways of God tend to and end in Love For this is his rest God in all other Appearances and Forms of things is in transitu passing thorow them as a way-fairing man till he cometh to the full expression of his Love This is his Mount Sion his resting place for ever Upon this Mount of Love God casteth off every disguise layeth aside every vail Here God is seen naked in the simplicity and brightness of his own Beautiful Person Love is the Chrystal Glass of the Divine Essence in its own light and purity Here all the Saints see God themselves all things in their Eternal Forms of Divine loveliness with a beatifical vision Here time is no more The mystery of God which is the mystery of Love is made perfect is finished and ended A wise man so far as lieth in his Power maketh all his desires and designs all his works all things within his Sphear to meet in his end that his rest in his end may be sweet and full God is infinitely Wise and Almighty All his Counsels and Contrivances all his Works and Ways in Heaven above on the Earth below all his Attributes and Perfections all things that ever were meet in his Love as in their end So he resteth in his Love His Soul and all that is within him is well-pleased in his Love His Joy is full He lieth down upon the Bed of love with the perfection of all contentment with the sweetest and highest Complacency of all those infinite Powers in him Love is an end every way proportioned to him For it is himself God is Love Use. 1. How happy a thing were it if Men were like to God in this to have their rest in love This would be a Heaven upon Earth What a Divine Calm should we be continually in Divine Love would be a Bed of rest to us while the Storms only made Musick to the Heavenly Dances of things round about us O the blessed and unknown force of this Wine of Heaven Eternal Love where it is drunk deeply down into any Soul by large draughts Beware of the Corruption of Love The Corruption of the best thing produceth the worst of all things Lust is the Corruption of Love Beware of the Contrarities to Love All Passions are Contrarieties to Love There can be no Peace no Rest no Comfort of Love while our Lusts and Passion prevail Seek God seek the Rest and Joy of the Lord in his Love Behol◠he giveth his Beloved to sleep It is Divine Love alone which singeth us into Divine sleep of sweetest rest and delight in its own Arms in the midst of even Tempest of Sickness Sorrows or Death I have finished the second Argument for the confirmation and explication 〈◊〉 the description of Love taken from St. John that God is Love in as much 〈◊〉 Love is the end of all 3. Argum. The Unity of God is the highest and purest love This is 〈◊〉 third Argument to shew that God is Love that the first and Supream Love 〈◊〉 the most high God over all Blessed for ever The highest purest and mo◠Spiritual Union of all things in the highest purest and most Spiritual Form◠in one Eternal Spirit this is the Love this is God I will unfold to you this sweet and glorious
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
Entire Eternal the first and highest Unity in which all Unions lie together undivided compleat making up one Sweetness which hath the names and rellishes of all sweetnesses which giveth name and rellish to every sweetness which is above all names and rellishes unexpressible incomprehensible This is the Love-spring in the Trinity of Divine Love This is the Father in the Trinity of the Divine Nature Use. 1. Give all Glory to Free-Grace Ascribe all Riches to it Set your Love upon it This is the Fountain of Divine Love in the Bosom of the Father This is the Fountain of Israel This is the Fountain of the God Head This is your own your only Fountain O Saints All your streams of Life Grace Comfort Glory arise out of this Love-spring in Eternity which is the heart of the Father This is the Fountain this is the Father of Jesus Christ your Fountain and Father in him He that hath drunk the Waters of Life and Love from this Well will never thirst more after any other Waters or drink of any other Spring We read in Numbers of a Well in the Wilderness which the Princes digged with their Staves and sung to it Spring O Well O wandring Souls behold your Well which is before you in every Wilderness The Prince of Life your Jesus hath dig'd and opened it for you from the depths of the God-Head with the Staff the Scepter of his Spirit Look to no other Fountain But sing continually to this Spring O Well Spring O thou heart of the Father Spring in mine heart Spring with streams of Divine Truth Spring with streams of Divine Strength Spring with streams of Divine Joy Send forth thy streams over all my Soul and Body Make all my powers and parts to sing like the Garden of Eden O thou Fountain of Gardens My Prince hath dig'd and opened thee in my heart O thou heart of the Father with the Staff of his Spirit Open mine Eyes O Blessed Spirit that by thee I may see this Fountain which by thee is opened in me It was at the Fountain that Jacob and his beloved Rachel first met The Daughters of Laban came thither to water their Flocks But the Well had a great stone upon it which they could not move Jacob rolled away the Stone and watered their Flocks for them From thence they brought Jacob to their Fathers House knew him for their neer Kinsman and were marryed to him It is at this Fountain of Free-Grace that the Lord Jesus and the elect Soul first meet Sin Death and Wrath make the Stone which cover this Spring The Lord Jesus rolleth away this Stone that thou and all thy Fathers Flocks with thee all the Principles and Powers of Life in thee may drink of this Well Here the Lord Jesus looketh upon thee and loveth thee Here he maketh himself known to thee to be thy Brother and taketh thee to be his Bride From this Well he goeth home with thee unto thy Fathers House into thine heart into thy natural Spirit and thine Earthly Image in these to marry thee to himself to make the fruitful to Eternal Glory to enclose this door of thy natural Spirit with Boards of Cedar a Divine Beauty Sweetness and Incorruptibility to build upon the wall of thine Earthly Image a Palace of Silver into which he will invite his Father the Holy Angels all glorified Spirits to feast and inhabit with himself and thee There was often contention for Wells between the Servants of Abimelech and the Servants of Isaac These digged them and the others stopped them up Contend O Believers for this your Well of Free-Grace Suffer no Aegyptians or Philistines to stop it up by casting in the Earth or Stones and Rubbish of Free-Will of any Wisdom Work or Worth in the Creature As Earth cast into a Spring defileth it so by every thing of the Creature mingled with the Waters of this Fountain they lose their clearness their sweetness their vertue Keep this Spring of the Fathers heart of Free-Grace pure So shalt thou see a clear shining deep of Divine Sweetnesses without any Bottom the Glorious Deep of Eternity itself In the clearness of this Spring shalt thou see thine own Face From the freshness of this Spring thou shalt drink in perpetually new Floods of all living Sweetnesses With the pure Waters of this Spring thou shalt preserve thine heart ever new ever soft ever flourishing with all Joys ever fruitful in all Graces O Saints Keep this Love-Spring the Fountain of Free-Grace open keep it pure in your Spirits Use. 2. Learn this Divine skill O Christians which comprehendeth all the rich mysteries of the Gospel in it Rise up new every moment with all things round about you out of this Fountain of Love in Eternity the Bosom of the Father Return again every moment with all your troop into this Fountain of Love the Bosom of the Father Lay your selves down for ever here Here alone is Jesus Christ in his naked Beauties nakedly embraced Seek see and enjoy all your pleasant Relations all pleasant Unions in this Unity of Divine Love the heart of the Father as in their proper Fountain Here is the Truth here is the Life of them all in their Original Here they are unchangeable Here they are as Sun-beams before they come forth descend divide grow shadowy and fading As we keep Flowers fresh by setting their stalks in Water So say of all your Relations in their shadows on Earth of all your sweet things with their Sweetnesses Who is their Father Answer thy self The Fountain of Love Then keep them with their stalks in this Fountain So shall they be ever fresh ever sweet to thee 2. Person The Love-Birth God is Love The three Persons in the Trinity are Love in a three-fold Form and Property or in a threefold Distinct and opposite Relation to itself within itself for the enjoyment of itself in the secret of Eternity abstracted from all Creatures infinitely before them and above them I have spoken of the first Person in this Trinity of Divine Love the Father the Fountain of Love in Eternity I come now to speak of the second Person The God-Head in the second Person is Divine Love in its Eternal Birth and Image The Fountain of Divine Love which is the Father bringeth forth from itself within itself an Eternal Birth the compleat Image of itself the Supreme Loveliness and Beauty This is our Jesus in the Bosom of the Father I shall endeavour to draw the Curtain from before this Blessed and Glorious Birth of Divine Love the Beloved the only one of all Holy and Heavenly Spirits I shall endeavour to set this most desired and most pleasant Person our Lord Jesus before the Eyes of your mind by five Characters or Marks The second Person in the Trinity is 1. The Birth or Image of Divine Love 2. The First 3. The Fairest 4. The Freshest 5. The Fullest Birth and Image of Divine Love 1. Character The Lord Jesus is
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
saying in his Songs of Love This is my Beloved Birth my Beloved Bride in whom my Soul is well pleased What is this Jewel of the Saints It is the Righteousness of thy Justification What is the Righteousness of a Saints Justification It is this Jesus the fairest Birth of Divine Love the fairest Image of all Loveliness in the Eternal Fountain of Love the Bosom of the Father uniting himself to thee and making himself thy Loveliness making thee one fair Image of Divine Love one Divine and Supreme Beauty with himself By vertue of this union thorow Faith where-ever he is seen thy Person is seen together with that fairest Image of Divine Love in the Fountain of Love Wherever thou art seen rightly there together with thee and in thy Person is seen this fairest Image of Divine Love in the open Fountain of Love the Fathers Bosom Thou art the Righteousness of God in Jesus Christ Thou art the Birth and Image of Divine Love in the fairest Birth and Image of Divine Love in the midst of the Fountain of Love This is thy Beauty thy Beloved thy Jesus O Believer Trust thy self to the perfection and covering Glory of his Loveliness Lie down in the Bosom of his Beauties Seek all Births and Images of Love which ever have been are or can be dear to thy Soul in his Face the immortal Seat and Eternal Spring-season of thy self and them 4. Character The Lord Jesus is the freshest Birth and Image of Divine Love that is of the Divine Nature The Father the Love-Spring in Eternity speaketh to the Son his Love-Birth thus To day have I begotten thee Psal. 2. The principal and terminating sense of these words is the Eternal Generation of the Son in the Trinity Eternity is one continued day ever present never past never to come above all Succession So is the Generation of this Love-Birth ever perfect ever present never past This is true from one end of Eternity to the other if we may so speak of that which hath neither Beginning nor End to day hath the Father begotten the Son Eternity is Indivisible All Acts all Joys all Things of Eternity are together at once in one There are three Rules which our Divines lay down concerning this Act of the Generation of the Son by the Father in the Trinity 1. Rule This Birth of Divine Love is perfect from Eternity perfectly sprung up perfectly brought forth from the Fountain of Love the Bosom of the Father The reason of this is the Unity of the Divine Essence The Divine Nature the Essence of Love the God-head is one equally Eternal in the Father and the Son 2. Rule The Lord Jesus the lovely Image of Dâ—vine Love is ever in the Birth ever newly rising up out of the Fountain of Love to Eternity For the Act of Divine Generation of the Divine Birth in the Mystery and Trinity of Divine Love is Eternal one continued Act from Eternity to Eternity 3. Rule This Birth and Image of Divine Love the Son ever lyeth in its Fountain the Bosom of the Father This ariseth from the Unity of the Essence and the Union of the Persons in this glorious secret of Eternal Love These Love-Persons in the same Love-Substance are ever distinct never divided Hose 6. 3. The coming forth of Christ as the anointed and anointing of Divine Love is said to be as the Morning The Love-Birth of our Jesus is in this sense as the Morning It is ever new ever fresh ever pleasant as the lovely Summer-Morning in its first Sweetnesses and Light in its Virgin-Purities and Pleasures It was a Divine Sentence of a Holy and learned Bishop in the primitive times All that God doth from Eternity to Eternity is the bringing forth of Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus is at once a lovely morning for new and fresh Sweetnesses ever a glorious noon for the height of his Beauties and the brightness of his light He is a lovely Rose ever in the Bud ever full-blown Use. 1. Chuse Christ Refuse the Creature Take into your Bosom this Love-Birth of the Father Cast out of your Bosom your own Love-Births in the Creature All these are Flowers which wither and dye away either upon their stalk or in your hand Every thing of the Creature declineth so soon as it cometh to its height The Lord Jesus is ever the same ever full ever fresh a fruitful Autumn and a floury Spring both in one continually This is your Inheritance Incorruptible Undefiled that passeth not away 1 Pet. 1. Use. 2. Ever believe as freshly as freely as at the first moment of your Conversion as in the first Act of Believing The Lord Jesus the ground and object of your Faith is ever fresh ever new All thy Sins against the Spiritual Marriage-Bed of thine Heavenly Bridegroom in thine heart can make no impression upon him He is New-born to thee from the unsearchable depths of Divine sweetness in the heart of the Father every moment He springeth up a new Love-Birth in the Fountain of Love every moment with all his lovelinesses fresh fair and full like a Rose new-blown as if now alone they had first appeared 5. Character Jesus Christ in the sacred Trinity is the fullest Birth and Image of Divine Love from the Father the Fountain of Love Our Saviour is called The Power of God 1 Corin. 1. Whatever the Father hath brought forth from the Eternal spring of Love of the God-Head whatever he doth whâ—â—ever he shall or can bring forth to Eternity all is comprehended in this Love-Birth in this Glorious and full Image of Love of God Jesus Christ. The Father the Fountain of Love the Supream Unity bringeth forth itself into all variety in this full Image of himself his Son that he may rest in his Son that his Joy may be full in him As the Father is the first Unity so the Son is the first distinction or variety The first is the highest distinction and variety the fullest distinction and variety the Fountain of all distinctions and varieties As the Father is the Unity of Love the Love-spring so the Son is the variety of Love the entire Image of all Loves and Lovelinesses All things in Heaven in Earth and under the Earth lie together here in this Image in the perfect Harmony of the Supreme Love and Beauty according to their proper distinctions as Branches of the first the fairest and the fullest variety Use. 1. With all thy stock of Life and abilities Traffick for this great and rich Pearl the Lord Jesus His price is beyond that of Rubies All thy desires cannot equal him All Prices are comprehended in his Price All precious things are in this Pearl O that we understood with Spiritual Hearts that we saw with Spiritual Eyes that we rellished with a Spiritual tast this Love-Birth this Image of Love this variety of Love the first the full distinction and variety the Fountain of all distinctions and varieties in the Person of Christ
Behold the true Figure of Passionate Persons whose Wrath Envy Hatred Malice are Fire-brands Kindled from Hell and fastned to their Lusts as to their taâ—ls in which they carry them burning about thorow all things In the Holy of Holies was placed a Mercy-Seat all of Beaten Gold the Throne of Grace the Throne of Love Out of this Throne of one piece with it rose up two Cherubims of Beaten Gold They stretched forth their Wings they set their faces one to the other They together looked down to the Mercy-Seat This is the Heavenly Figure of your Christ and you O ye Children of Love in your Love-Union and Spiritual Communion God in Christ Christ in the Glory of the Father is the Golden Mercy-Seat the Throne of Love The Saints are the Cherubims the Children of Love rising up from the Throne of Love of one piece of Gold of one Love-Spirit with it With their Faces their Divine part they look one to another and maintain a mutual society They spread their Hearts their Spiritual understandings their Spiritual affections to each other and so meet so embrace With united Spirits they look down to the Throne of Love in the midst of them out of which they grow up together from which they continually draw fresh Beams fresh Love life and Joy O Saints O Holy Souls be rooted in Love grow up out of this Throne of Love Shine forth with Faces of Love spread forth wings of Love Be in all things one piece one pure Gold of Divine Love with the Throne of Love the Divine Nature For God is Love I am now come to the period of my discourse upon the first part of my Doctrine The Love of God The second part is the Effusion or pouring forth of Divine Love I shall express this to you by six Properties The Love of God is poured forth in Jesus Christ. 1. Freely 2. Purely 3. Plentifully 4. Powerfully 5. Essentially 6. Eternally 1. Property The Love of God is poured forth in Jesus Christ freely 2. Sam. 7. 21. David is brought in as a Type of Jesus Christ. He sitteth in the Temple beâ—ore the Lord when he was setled in his Kingdom and at the height of his Kingly Glory Thus Jesus Christ sitteth upon his Throne in the highest Heavens before his Father He discourseth to his Father of the wonders of his Fathers Love and his own Glory What is my Fathers House that thou hast brought me hitherto v. 18. I was a Man a poor Creature a Worm of the Earth Earthy as the Dust of the Earth as low as the neathermost parts of the Earth as low and naked as the first principle of the first Creation when the Earth was empty and void when darkness covered the face of it This was my Fathers House Yet thou hast brought me hitherto thou hast brought me to thy right Hand far above all Principalities and Powers all Heavens to thy Throne Thou hast given me a new Name above every Name a Name that eminently comprehendeth all Names in it a Name that infinitely transcendeth all Names Thus Love is poured forth in Christ. Jesus Christ goeth on in the Person of David And this was yet a small thing in thy sight O Lord God thou hast spoken of thy Servants House for a great while to come v. 19. This O my Father which thou hast wrought so wonderfully these mighty Works these Miracles of Divine Love and Glory in my Person seem a small thing to thee Thou hast spoken of my House my Church my Members my Seed to reign with me in the same Kingdom of Glory to Eternity Then Jesus Christ raiseth this Love to the highest point of Admiration to a state of transcendency above the capacity and comprehension of all Humane Hearts of all Created understandings Is this the manner of Man O Lord God! Is there any thing among Men in the compass of the Creation to which this Love can be likened or with which it can be compared Is there any where any Image Figure or Resemblance of such a design such a work of Love and Glory Thus Love is poured forth in the Person of the Lord Jesus See now how freely it is poured forth According to thine own heart hast thou done all this v. 21. Indeed he bringeth in first For thy Words sake for thy Promise for thy Sons sake thine Eternal Word thine Essential Image the Ground of thy Promise the Subject of thy Love and Design the Pattern and Model of thy Work But this word springeth from that Root to which all is ultimately referred the Heart of God According to thinâ— own Heart hast thou done all this The Heart of God is the Fountain of living Loves which springeth up freely of its own accord to Eternal Joys and Glories in the Person of Christ. The Love of God in Christ receiveth its Beginning Force Form Fashion and Finishing from the Heart of the Father All the Works of God are said in the Epistle to the Hebrews to have been Finished from the Beginning of the World All the Loves of God all the Works of Divine Love manifested and wrought in the Blessed Person of our Lord Jesus were finished from Eternity in the heart of his Father All Tides are from the Aestuation of the Sea The Sea boyling up from its Bottom as it riseth and dilateth itself poureth forth floods of Waters into all Rivers which run along in the Bosom of the Earth The Heart of God is the great Sea of Love This from its own Divine Heart Height and Fulness filleth all Spirits with its Heavenly Floods in the Bosom of Jesus Christ. The Will in the Soul is said by a learned Man to be Amplitudo Intellectûs the understanding in its full extâ—nt The Love of God poured forth upon the Person of Christ and upon all the Saints upon all things â—n him is Amplitudo Cordis Divinâ— the largeness of Gods Heart the Heart of God in its full extent and latitude So David addeth in the same place that God doth all this to shew his Greatness the Greatness of his Heart for he faith This is to make thy Servant know v. 21. To display thy self to draw a perfect draught of thy self in the Person of Christ. In what The next verse expresseth it Wherefore thou art Great v. 22. James 1. 5. God is said to give to all men liberally and to upbraid none Love is implyed in the gift Freedom in the liberality and gentleness without reproach The Person of Christ is signified in the universality All Men. Christ is one among the rest of Men Christ is the Fulness of Mankind He took not upon him the Person but the nature of man unrestrained to any particular Person His Humane Nature was not a Branch or an Apple but the Apple-Tree There are two expressions which St. James maketh use of here to set forth the Freedom of Divine Love in the effusions of it 1. He giveth Liberally The Word in Greek is Simply
the Father are Beams of Love which he shooteth into our Bosoms Obedience to them is the Reception of these Beams and the Reflection of them back again into the Bosom of God Obedience is the Activity of Divine Love enlarging itself freely in our Souls If it be contracted or shut up it goeth out 4. Abide in the Father's Love by the Peace of your Spirits Peace of Spirit is a Heavenly Calms and Serenity which freely receiveth and preserveth entire the Beams and Sunshine of Divine Love Passions are Clouds and Storms which cut off and darken the Beams of Love The Spirit of Love resteth not upon an Angry or Melancholy Man 5. Abide in the Father's Love by Spiritual Joy Joy is Love flaming One saith that Laughter is the Dance of the Spirits their freest Motion in Harmony and that the Light of the Heavens is the Laughter of Angels Spiritual Joy is the Laughter of Divine Love of the Eternal Spirit which is Love in our Spirits True Joy is Eternal Love the Eternal Spirit in Its Freest Motions in Its fullest Harmony and Complacency in our Spirits 6. Abide in the Love of the Father by Heavenliness The Presence of God in his Wrath is hell The Presence of God in his Love is Heaven Love is the Sunshine of the Godhead sweetning and guilding all things round about it after a Divine Manner as this Sun doth these Skies So far as thou abidest in a Heavenly Image of Things where every Object is covered with an Immortal Pleasantness and Glory thou abidest in the Love of God 7. Abide in the Father's Love by Spirituality Love is an Union The highest Love is the highest Unity the Unity of the highest Spirit In the Unity of this Spirit all things are Spirit of this Spirit All Varieties in this Unity of the Spirit are Spirits Divine Eternal Spirits of this Supreme Spirit in this Supreme Spirit Supreme Eternal Loves from the womb in the Bosom of this Supreme Love Abide in This Palace of Love The Unity of the Spirit Let this be thine Eternal habitation Be continually here in the Sweet and Blessed Society of Beautiful Pure Eternal Spirits Living Immortal Loves Behold Converse with all things within Thee without Thee in these Forms So shalt thou abide in the Love of the Father as It is poured forth in the Glorified Person of the Lord Jesus So This Love shall guide Thee as thou walkest into Fields of Light and Divine Pleasures into the Gardens of the Divine Nature This Love shall talk with Thee when Thou wakest as Moses and Elias talked with Jesus Christ in the Transfiguration of the Departure out of every other Image of things into this Paradise of Love flowing with all the Joyes of Life and Love in the heavenly Form of Christ. So This Love shall keep thee when thou sleepest as a Rich Canopy of Divine Substance over thy head as a Guard of Immortal Sweetnesses round about Thee as a heavenly Consort of Divine Spirit Divine Loves by their Musical Harmony continuing and crowning thy sleep I have done with the First Property of Divine Love as It is poured forth in Christ Freedom I come to the Second which is Purity 2. Property in the Effusion of Divine Love Purity The Love of God is poured forth in Jesus Christ Purely The Lord Jesus is said to be the Brightness of the Glory of God Hebr. 1. v. 2. Brightness is the Purest Light of Glory The Prime Glory in God is his Grace his Love He doth all for the Praise of the Glory of his Grace Ephes. 1. Jesus Christ in heaven in thine heart O Believer is the purest Stream the richest Flood of Divine Love the Love of the Divine Nature in the Brightness of Its Glory We are taught that this Light of the Sun which we enjoy here below is only a Shadow of that Light which shineth in the Body of the Sun itself The Sun in its highest Lustre is the Shadow of an Angel The Highest and Brightest Angel in his Purest Glories is no more than a Shadow of our Glorified Jesus He alone is the Brightness of Divine Glory without any Shade the Purity of Divine Love without any Allay Love is Loveliness in Motion As fine Gold melted into a Pure and shining Stream so is the Person of our Lord Jesus in Glory the Godhead in the Purity Perfection of all Its Lovelinesses melting itself into a most Pure Precious Stream of Love in which it runneth along winding turning meeting sporting with itself from Bosom to Bosom in the Father the Son and all the Saints O Broken-hearted Sinner who â—ittest in the Shadow of Death who wanderest in a Wilderness where there is no water ready to dye for thirst open thine Eyes see this Pure Light of Divine Love which shineth round about Thee in the midst of Thee see this Pure Stream of Divine Love which runneth along before Thee in that Wilderness thine heart the Blessed Person of thy Saviour which is this Pure Light this Pure Stream of Divine Love which filleth All. Take in the Waters of this Stream drink freely of it Cast thy self into this Stream let it cover Thee let it roul Thee along with it sport thy self in it There are Two Arguments of the Pure Effusion of Divine Love in Christ 1 The heighth of Its Sweetness 2 The Greatness of Its Virtue 1 The Love of God in Christ sheweth Its Purity by The heighth of Its Sweetness The Purest things are Sweetest The Love of God in Christ is the Rose upon its Stalk New-blown in its Virgin-Freshness and Sweetness To be Carnally-minded is Death to be Spiritually-minded is Life saith St. Paul Rom. 8. Impurity Carnality is the Death of Love dulleth embaseth embittereth it by Corrupting it Purity Spirituality is the Life of Love heighteneth and immortaliseth all its Sweetnesses all its Pleasures The Sweetness of the Love of God in Christ is made up of Three Parts 1. The Nearness of the Union 2 The Firmness of the Union 3 The Efficacy of the Union 1 The Nearness of the Union is the First Part of the Sweetness in the Love of God poured forth in the Glorified Person of our Saviour Love is an Union Where Love is Sweetest the Love-Union is Nearest The Love of God in Christ bindeth up God Christ all the Saints immediately in the most naked most warm Embraces of each other It maketh them All up into One Beautiful Body It melteth them All into One Blessed-Spirit of Divine Love The Bridegroom in the last of the Canticles expresseth his Love to his Bride after this manner If she be a Door we will inclose her with Cedar Cedar Wood is Eminent for three Things It is sweet Beautiful Incorruptible Blessed art Thou O Believer the meanest of all Believers who art a Door onely in this heavenly Temple Christ risen from the Dead a Door by which the Glories of the Godhead go in and out between the Visible and Invisible World Thy
a Body of Divine Loves above all Heavens Rom. 8. 28 29. St. Paul triumpheth after this manner I am perswaded thâ—â— neither Death nor Life neither Angels Principalities Powers nor things present noâ— things to come nor heighth nor Depth nor any other Creature shall be able to separate us from the Love of God which is in Jesus Christ our Lord. The Love of God in Jesus Christ lineth covereth all things transubstantiateth all things into the same Divine Love St. Paul mentioneth the nearest things to us the most intimate the most Potent the most Penetrating the most Universal the most comprehending the most Transforming Death Life Angels things Present to come Depth Heighâ—h What cometh nearer what toucheth every Point of our whole Substance and Being than Death Life Angels What more intimate to our hearts and Spirits If none of these can come between the Love of God in Jesus Christ and our Persons then all these by the Touch of this Love must be Tinctured and changed into new Forms into Essences of Love As Sugar is dissolved in a Glass of Wine so Death Life Angels things Presâ—nt things to come heighths Depths every other Creature in this Golden Cup of Divine Love the Glorified Person of Christ is dissolved into Love becometh a Rich Love-Cordial to a fainting Spirit making it to dance and sing for Joy when it was intended a deadly Poyson to it The holy Apostle had said upon this Ground a little before In all these things Sword Famine Persecution wee are more than Conquerours It is plain how we are Conquerours Captivity is carried Cuptive Those Forms and Powers of Darkness of Death which thought to captivate us are themselves Captives to Eternal Life and Love in the Lord Jesus As Saul among the Prophets so the Bitterest the Blackest things which assault the Spirit of a Saint encompassed with this Love of the Father poured forth in Christ uncloath themselves and put on Amiable Shapes of Love sing songs of Love breath forth from every part of them the most Delightful Sweetness of Divine Love Thus this Love maketh us Conquerours But what meaneth this to be more than Conquerours Is there a Joy or Glory above this of a Conquerour Grace coming into Glory Love Reigning after Suffering Is there any thing sweeter any thing greater than this Victory of Love Yes St. Paul saith when he was caught up into the Third heavens into the Paradise there he heard Words which it is impossible to utter This is The Paradise in the Third Heavens the Love of God in the Glorified Person of Christ. This Love transformeth every thing every Creature to this heavenly Paradise Those blessed Souls which by believing enter into this Paradise hear Words of Love Words of Joy Words of Pleasure of Glory from this Love which it is impossible to utter which are too sweet too high too ravishing to be exprest A holy Soul in This Paradise of Love feeleth a Joy far beyond that of Marriage of Conquest of Reigning of Children of any thing named in this World or in that which is to come Thus the Sweetness of Divine Love expresseth itself in its Sweet Efficacy Thus the Purity of Divine Love in Christ is manifest in its Sweetness 2. The Love of God in Christ is most Pure because it hath the greatest Virtue Our Divines express hell after this manner All Diseases Pains Griefs here are Evils by a Tincture onely of Divine Wrath a little Drop of Divine Wrath mingling itself with them Hâ—ll is Pure Wrath. Hell is the Abstract of Wrath the Evil of all Diseases Pains and Griefs abstracted from them and heightned to the utmost So Jesus Christ bare all our Infirmities and took our Griefs though he was never sick On the Contrary all the Good all the Joyes in the Creature are a Weak Tincture of Divine Love The Shadow of St. Peter as hâ— passed along healed the sick All the Sweetness and Pleasure in things here is the Shadow onely of Divine Love falling upon them All the Joy in any heart here is the Shadow onely of Divine Love cast over it The Love of God is poured forth Purely in the Person of Christ. There Love is a Substance no Accident There Love is Infinite being allayed or limited by no mixture Our Saviour in Glory is Divine Love in the Abstract It is a Weak Glance of Divine Love like the Sunshine here below cast upon the Water or a Looking-Glass which maketh the Beauty the Sweetness of all Colours Figures Motions in the Creature It is a remote Touch of Divine Love like the Ends of the Sun-beams reflected in a Burning-Glass which maketh the Pleasantness and Pleasant Properties of all Plants the Lustre Gracefulness Virtue of all Precious Stones and Pearls the Joy of all Relations The Beauty the Sweetness of all Colours Features Motions the Pleasantness the Pleasant Properties of all Plants the Lustre Gracefulness Virtue Life of all Precious Stones Pearls heavenly Bodies heavenly Spirits the Joyes of all Relations are contained Eminently with an Infinite Enlargement an Infinite heightning in this Divine Face This Tree Pearl this Union the Unity the Purity of Eternal Love in our Glorified Jesus O Sinner come cast thy self freely into the Bosom of thy Saviour Here thou fallest immediately into a Sea of Pure Love Open thy Mouth wide enlarge all thy Faculties to drink in the Sweetness of Pure Love pouring itself by Floods and Seas into thee Feel the Transcendent virtue of Pure Love transforming thee thy heart thy Person into a rich clear and heavenly Pearl in this Sea O Saints swim continually in this Sea of Pure Love the Bosom of your Glorified Saviour Feel the Transcendent Virtue of Pure Love dissolving you also into a Sea of pure Love a Sea of Glass and Fire a Sea of Pure Chrystal Divine Beauty without any Spot of Flesh or Earth Darkness or Death a Sea of Pure Chrystal shining and burning with a Pure Flame of heavenly Joyes without any Smoak of Lusts or Passions Obj. how is the Love of God Pure in Christ Is there not in the Lord Jesus a mixture of Love and Wrath He saith of himself in one place All Judgment is given to the Son of Man He adjudgeth to Hell and to Torments as well as to Heaven and to Joys Matt. 25. Jesus Christ is represented as a King upon the Throne in Glory in the Judgment of the last day v 31. He maketh Separation between the Sheep and Goats v. 32. He setteth the Sheep at his Right hand in the Place of Power Honour and Love He setteth the Goats at his Left hand on his Wrath-side v. 33. He passeth the Sentence of Love upon One inviting them as Blessed Ones to the Kingdom of Love prepared for them of the Father in Eternity v. 34. He passeth a Sentence of Wrath upon the other sending them away with a Curse into the Hell fire with the Devils v. 40. How is the Love of God poured forth Purely without
forth as A Spirit as the Eternal Spirit having married the Humane Nature into One Heavenly Form and Spirit with itself Now all the Treasures of Righteousness Life Immortality Love Joy all the Treasures of the God-Head display themselves over the whole Person of Christ entirely nakedly richly to the Height of all their Beauties and Sweetnesses as Flowers full-blown in Spring as Fruit-trees laden with ripe fruit in Autumn Who now can express the Joys when a Naked Heart meeteth with its Naked Jesus when both have cast off their Vails One from his Face The other from his Heart It is the same Blessed hand of the Eternal Spirit which taketh off the Vails from Both dropping Myrrhe a heavenly Sweetness Purity and Immortality as It taketh them off The Reflection of the Face of God upon the Face of Moses on the Mount cast a Divine Lustre and Beauty which remained upon it He came down into the midst of the People bringing a Heaven in his Face along with him But they could not bear the Brightness of this Naked Beauty He therefore casteth a Vail upon his Face So they remain in Darkness their Minds are blinded until Wrath cometh upon them to the uttermost This is an Example unto us upon whom the Ends of all Fore-going Times and Actions are come Behold the Lord Jesus is gone up to the top of the Mount He is ascended He is Glorified with the Father with that Glory which he had with the Father before the World was As a Spirit he cometh down again to us in the Shining Form of this Spiritual Uncreated Eternal Glory Wo to you who cannot bear the Brightness of this Appearance who cannot look stedfastly upon the Naked Face the Naked Form of the Lord Jesus this Spirit To you he casteth a Vail over his Face and as he casteth a Vail over his own Face he casteth a Vail over your Hearts To you now he cometh as a Thief in the Night bringing Darkness and Doubt Trouble and Terrours Confusion Desolation and Despair spoiling you of all your Counterfeit Jewels false hopes false Joys false Graces false Christ. But you who love and wait for this Appearanâ—e of your Lord and Saviour like Lightning shining from Heaven into your Hearts you who with the single Eye of a Chast Spouse look to the Beloved Person of your Jesus in the simplicity of his Spiritual and Divine Form Blessed are you of the Lord Jesus To you he cometh as a Sun of Righteousness with healing in his Wings Overspreading you with his warm and Naked Beauties Covering your Deformities Curing your Maladies Infusing new Cordials of Immortal Life and Joy into your Hearts Hatching you to Spirituality raising you upon Silver Wings and Golden Feathers to Heavenly Flights with himself To you he cometh Enlightning enlivening Transforming Glorifying Gathering you up into One Spirit One Glory with himself Where this Spirit the Lord Jesus is there is Liberty of beholding of enjoying the Lord Jesus nakedly immediately entirely eternally without any chain clog cloud interposal or interruption There is Liberty of growing up into a Spirit out of All the Vails of Flesh into One Spirit with him O the Joys of a Naked Heart when it meeteth with its Naked Saviour But as it was with the Painter who called to remove the Vail that he might see the Picture when their was a Vail onely painted there The Vail was all the Picture so is it with the hypocrite with the Temporary Believer His Jesus his Heaven is a Vail onely a Vail like that of the Tabernacle finely wrought with Pictures of Angels of Heaven of Jesus but Keeping him for ever from the Face the Bosom of Jesus the society of Angels the Joys of Heaven in the Outermost Darkness His hope is a Spiders Web. The Poison of Death and Hell are bred there I hear a Voice frequently in my Spirit saying to me Cry What shall I cry 1. Cry There was an Ark in which Noah and his Family were safe from the Flood which drowned the World The onely Ark in which Noah the Believer the Child of Rest shall be safe from the Flames which are now ready to devour the World is the Naked Person of Christ in the Invisibility and Spirituality of his Divine Eternal Form 2. Cry The Sound and noise of the Hammers framing the Ark for Noah preached the Righteousness of God the Ruin of the World very near The Sound and noise of the Lord Jesus the Spirit of Life the Spirit of Love in his Naked Person in his Naked Loves and Lovelinesses growing up forming himself in the Spirits of his Saints preaches now a Deluge of Destruction Death and Hell at the Door ready to enter in The Rest and Righteousness of God in his Bosom alone the Rest of God in his Loves the Righteousness of God in his Loveliness 3. Cry As it was in the Days of Noah so it will be now The whole World will go on to eat and Drink to marry and give in Marriage to mock at this Preparation of an Ark at these Discourses of these Endeavours for the Spiritual Person of Christ in the Heavenly Image for the Revelation of him in our Spirits for the Retirement of our Persons into him The whole World will go on in Sensuality and Carnality mocking at the Lord this Spirit the Ark till the day that God open the Windows of Heaven from above and break up the great Deep of Hell from below to cover them with and swallow them up in Unquenchable Flames They say that Seth foreseeing Two Destructions of the World prepared Two Pillars upon which he engraved all Mysteries of Humane and Divine Knowledge One of Marble to endure the Flood the other of Brick to continue in the Flames St Peter speaking of the Flood and the Ark addeth The Like Figure whereunto now saveth us Baptism not the washing away of the filth of the Flesh but the Answer of a Good Conscience by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the Dead The Lord Jesus counselleth the last Church Laodicea to buy of him Gold tried in the Fire Gold tried in the Fire no more loseth any thing or receiveth any harm in the Fire but shineth more gloriously The Lord Jesus risen from the Dead and become a Spirit the Fountain of Life is the Gold tried in the Fire of Death and the Divine Wrath. An Ark of Wood saved Noah from the Waters Behold an Ark of pure Gold a Spirit of Immortality and Glory which shineth with greatest Glory in the midst of the Everlasting Burnings This is our Jesus who saveth us from the Fire which is already Kindled and burneth upon the World which will immediately raise itself to a Mighty Irresistible Flame Blessed are you who enter into this Ark of Gold and shut your selves up into It. Here you shall lie upon beds of Love as in the Marriage-Chamber in the Bosom of your Bridegroom encompassed with Songs of Joy while the Fire dreadfully devoureth all without
Principle the Bottomless Pit out of which they arose But the Musick to which the Spiritual Spouse moveth in these Retirements and Returns is the Love of the Spiritual Bridegroom like the Silver Trumpets of the Sanctuary in the Wilderness to the Children of Israel sounding a Retreat and a Rest or a March and a Progress Obj. But you will say If there be nothing to be done by us to what purpose are all Duties Prayers Attendances on the Word If nothing can be done by us in the Acting and Improvement of Spiritual Principles to what end are all Admonitions Exhortations Instructions Promises in the Holy Scriptures Ans. These are all Assisting Love descending from the Bosom of the Bridegroom above into the Lap of his Bride below in various forms like the Sun-shine Showers from Heaven falling upon the Bosom of the Earth They are the same Assisting Love ascending again by various degrees in various Shapes or Growths like the Flowers the Corn shooting up out of the Ground Hos. 2. 22. It is promised that God will hear the Heavens the Heavens shall hear the Earth the Earth shall hear the Corn and Wine and the Corn and Wine shall hear Jezreel Jezreel is the Seed of God All the Ordinances all Forms all Motions not of Grace alone but of Nature also are the Commerce and Traffick of the Divine Nature with itself as it is the head of Fine Gold above all and the Hidden Pearl the Precious Seed at the bottom of all In every Step of things in every Form in every Language of Heaven and Earth of Grace and Nature in every Ordinance God seeth the face heareth the Voice answereth the Cry of Jezreel his own Seed his own Son Jezreel seeth the Face heareth the Voice answereth the Call of God of its Father Jezreel is the Dove whose Face is Lovely whose Voice is Sweet to the Heavenly Bridegroom although it be from the Holes of the Rock and the Hollow places of the Stairs from the lowest the darkest Dispensations from the nethermost parts of the Earth from the meanest Ordinances from an Inward an Outward Prison or Grave The Heaven the Earth the Corn the Wine Duties performed Ordinances enjoyed Graces Acted the Word published All are the Green Flourishing Fruitful Bed of Preventing or Assisting Loves on which the Lord Jesus and his Spouse embrace each other In Ordinances the heavenly Bridegroom pipeth or mourneth to Jezreel the Divine Seed his Sister-Spouse In Duties or Graces Jezreel danceth or mourneth to him again Thorow all these Assisting Love sweetly shineth or soundeth from above sweetly again reflecteth and Ecchoeth back from the Spirit of a Saint below This is the Answer in its First Step. 2. Step. The Reason given by the Philosopher why the Heavens which we see over our heads move so regularly so harmoniously so constantly from the begining of the world hitherto is this They have Assisting Forms Intelligences Angels which move them which turn them round Many Souls sweetly touched with the Allurements of Divine Love in Christ fear to come to him to cast themselves into His Bosom by Believing They distrust their own strength and constancy for their continuance in a holy temper They doubt they shall fall back with greater guilt and shame to themselves with greater reproach to the name of the Lord Jesus Many weak Christians are day and night tormented with like fears and doubts that they shall fall away at last by the force of some Corruption or the Difficulties in the waies of Holiness Dear Souls be not discouraged from believing or in believing be not kept off from the Bosom of Christ be not disquieted in His Bosom by any fears or doubts You have a Good Angel for an Assisting Form you have an Assisting Form brighter and more glorious than the highest and brightest Angel more powerful than all the Angels in Heaven You have the Assisting Love of the Lord Jesus present with you in your Spirits by day and by night This doth move this will move and turn about your Hearts your lives regularly harmoniously constantly in all the Circles of Divine Graces Truths Joys Glories according to the Laws and Patterns in the Supreme Mind in the Heart of God thorow all times Eternally Preventing Love is the Golden Chain which draweth thee to the Embraces of Christ. O run when thou feelest thy self so drawn Assisting Love is the Golden Chain that tyeth thee fast and close immediately inseparably for ever in these embraces Rest with Confidence and full Assurance in these embraces feed with desire and delight among the Lillies here lye down to sleep in these embraces Thy sleep will be sweet to thee 3. Step. Learned men and Divines teach us that the Preservation of the world is continuata Creatio a continued Creation In every moment of Time from the Begiâ—ning of the world to the end the Divine Act of Preserving and Governing the world according to the Present form proper to it for that Season is entirely the same with the Act of Creation In every moment from the Begining of the world to the end the whole world with all things in it rise up into the form designed for that moment in the Eternal Law of the Divine Wisdom out of the nothingness of the Creature out of the Omnipotency of the Creator as freely as freshly as fully as Absolutely as in the first Moment of Its Being So is it and much more clearly sweetly gloriously so in this Creation of God the Creation of Grace Assisting Love is no other than Preventing Love Continued A continuation of Preventing Love They say A line is One Individual Point in motion This is most true All Assisting Love the whole Life of Grace and Glory in a Saint is One Individual Unchangeable Point of Preventing Love Eternal Love in Motion spreading itself within Itself to an Infinite Circle In every moment of a Saint's spiritual Being from his first Conversion to Eternity the Act of Assisting Love in Preserving in Governing thee is the same with that first Act of Preventing Love in Regenerating thee In every moment of thy Spiritual Being from thy first Conversion to thy Glorification in Eternity thy Spiritual Man the Divine Nature in thee riseth up into the form of that Moment answering Its Pattern in the Heavenly Image the Glorified Person of Christ out of thine own Nothingness out of the glorious fulness of the God-head in Christ as freely as â—reshly as sweetly as absolutely as entirely as in the first moment of the New-Birth in thee I will conclude this Second State of Divine Love in Christ Assisting Love with that of the Greek Epigram thus translated fer Fatum sin ferre recuses non minus te feret Fatum Bear thy Destiny If thou refuse to bear it thy Destiny will nevertheless bear thee and carry thee along Cast thy self O believer into the Bosom of the Assisting Love of thy God in Christ to be born up and carried along in it But
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
hath quickened us together in Christ v. 5. He hath raised us together made us to sit together in Heavenly Places in him v. 6. Thus you see the Absoluteness the Compleatness of Finishing Love as well as of Preventing and Assisting Love You see the Finishing Love of the Father poured forth with all Fulness in our Blessed Saviour You see Divine Love in the Bosom of your Beloved Alone Beginning Alone Continuing the Work of Grace Alone in the Purity Power Simplicity of Free Grace Finishing Perfecting All in Glory I will make this clear to you by One Scripture more 2 Tim. 1. 9. he hath saved us not according to works which we have done but according to his own Purpose and Grace given to us in Christ before the World was Who hath abolished Death and brought Life and Immortality to Light by his Appearance in the Gospel Behold this Heavenly Sight Believe rejoyce and wonder A Saint is a Spiritual Building of all Heavenly Graces and Glories It is entirely composed thorowout of Free Grace of Pure Love The Foundation of it is laid in the Fair Colours of Divine Love all the Rooms the several Stories the Furniture the Riches the Entertainment is of Pure Love The Roof is laid with the Precious stones of Pure Love The whole Work of a Saint's Salvation the Materials the Form the Proportions the Measures of the Whole and of every Part are Free Grace Pure Love He hath saved us according to his Purpose and Grace given us in Christ before the World was That Word Purpose signifieth properly the Fore-laying of a thing This Divine Bâ—ilding of Love this Heavenly Frame of Life and Immortality which is the True Form of a Saint was set up in the Glorious Person of our Jesus from Eternity All that is done in time is the unvailing and Discovery of this Heavenly and Eternal Building by Degrees according to the Measure of the Appearance of the Lord Jesus in us in whose Person and Spirit this Frame standeth as a Living Precious Corner-stone out of which it is grown up as a most pleasant Situation which encompasseth it on every paâ—t This Palace this Temple of Divine Love of Light of Life of Immortality is Eternal in the Heavens in Christ. Time Flesh Sin the whole Work of this Creation are a Vail of Darkness and Death cast upon It. As Jesus Christ shineth forth upon the Soul in the Gospel he casteth off this Vail he abolisheth this Death he discovereth and bringeth forth into the Clearness and Sweetness of Its own Divine Light this Divine Frame of Life and Immortality which is the True Saint the New Jerusalem the Bride the Lamb's wife coming down out of Heaven with her Beloved ready trim'd How manifest how full is the Finishing Love of God in Christ The whole Being of a Saint is a Building where all the Materials the Work the Finishing is Pure Love Pure Love finished all its Works in this Building before it began the World from Eternity and set it up in the Person of Christ. Pure Love cleanseth it from the Dust of Time the Filth of Flesh and bringeth it forth into the clear Lights of Grace of Glory which are the Brightness of its own Spiritual Beauties in the Evangelical Appearances and Out-Shinings of Jesus Christ. Use 1. Receive the Love of God in Christ. 2. Resign your selves to the Love of God in Christ. 1. Receive the Love of God in Christ. It is a sweet and easy work For this Love giveth reception to itself in the Soul When the Sugar taketh in the Wine In truth the Wine into which the Sugar is cast or which is poured upon it worketh itself into the Sugar then melteth and dissolveth it into One Body with itself until you can no more distinguish between the Sugar and the Wine So the Soul lieth in the midst of Divine Love Love in its own way by its own force worketh and melteth itself into the Soul until it have melted and wrought the Soul into One Spirit One Love with itself Divine Love is received into thy Soul as thy Soul is received into thy Body by Bringing it forth New out of its own Bosom by Comprehending it in itself by Forming it unto a Divine Image of Itself by Inhabiting Filling Acting it by Delighting in it as its Daughter Sister Spouse as its self multiplyed Receive this Love which thus receiveth you giveth reception to itself in you 2. Resign your selves to Divine Love This Love worketh all your works all its own works in you and for you all Works of Love and of Loveliness Philosophy teacheth us that all Colours are Light mingled with Shade in various degrees and manners until it break up thorow the Shades and drink up the Shades into One Pure Brightness The Gospel teacheth us that all Graces are Divine Love shining variously and gradually forth thorow the Darknesses of our Spirits until by a sweet and Heavenly Force as the Fire of the Divine Life kindled from the Throne of God it burn out and burn up all those Darknesses Distances Deâ—ilements Enmities into One Eternal Flame of Pure Love of Perfect Joy St. James teachâ—th us c. 1. 4. If Patience have its perfect work it shall make us perfect wanting nothing This is the same thing as if he had said Let Divine Love Preventing Assisting Finishing Love have their Perfect work These will make you Perfect wanting nothing This is the Grace of Patience the Love of God in Christ by its own force insinuating itself into our Souls by its own Charms alluring our Souls tempering them to a harmonious Repose in it a sweet entire Resignation to it until it have wrought out and finished its own Glories upon it Patience hath its Perfect Work when Love hath its Perfect work Love hath its Perfect Work in us when we oppose nothing of the Devil to it when we mingle nothing of our own with it O that I were indeed a Minister of the Gospel Then I should minister the Spirit to you which is Love The Fountain and the Sea of Love Then while I speak of Love you would feel the Holy Ghost in his own proper Form in the Form and Fulness of Divine Love coming down upon you entering into you forming himself in you unto a Free Reception of himself a Full Resignation to himself until he had Finished his own most Lovely Form of Heavenly Love in you Use 3. Be aware that you must receive the Love of God in Christ thorow Death St Paul admonisheth us that as many as are baptised into Christ are baptised into the Similitude of his Death Rom. 6. 3. If we will be baptised into the Love we must be baptised into the Death of the Lord Jesus When Moses son was circumcised Zipporah his wife said to him A bloody husband hast thou been to me Some interpret the Words as they run in the Hebrew Thou hast been to me a Husband in Blood So they are the Solemn words
of that Sacrament pointing out the Truth figured in that Type The Lord Jesus is a Husband to Thee in his own Blood Thou must also be a Spouse to him in thine own Blood St Paul saith Ye are dead to your first Husband by the Dead Body of Christ that ye may be married to another to him who is risen from the Dead Rom. 7. 4. You must come thorow the Death of Christ into his Marriage-Bed You cannot lye down in the Embraces of his Love in Glory except ye be first married to his Crucified Body and united to that in the Embraces of Death Flesh and Blood saith St Paul cannot enter into the Kingdom of God into the Kingdom of Spiritual Love If a Fleshly a Natural Spirit striveth to enter into the Love of God in the Glorified Person of our Lord Jesus it â—alleth short of the Truth the Life it attaineth to a Similitude only The Love and Glory of the Father of Christ of Heaven to the most raised Spirit of this Creation is an Enchantment Delusion a Dream This Gâ—ace of God in the Figure this Divine Love in a Dream is for the most part turned into Wantonness Lust. So men become in the heighth of the Purest Notions of the Sweetest Images no more than Filthy Dreamers The Death of Christ in the New Birth in Purity and Power of the holy Ghost is the Angel with a Flaming Sword turning every way which keepeth the Entrance into the True Paradise the Way to the Tree of Divine Love as well as of Divine Life The Eternal Spirit is the Flaming Sword Death here in its outward form is an Angel ministring to this Spirit He that dieth by this Sword and Flame in the hand of this Angel cutteth off burneth up all Fleshly Forms and Lives is in the same moment new-born into a Divine Immortal Spirit In this Spirit he entereth into the Paradise of Love in the Third Heavens above the Heaven of Sense or all things Visible above the Heaven of Reason Angels all things Invisible Intellectual of the First Creation in the Glorified Person of Christ. Here nothing entereth which hurteth or defilâ—th But be not discouraged when ye hear of a Baptism in Death before the Heavens open and the Dove Divine Love descend to rest upon you to give you rest in itself It is Love itself which is the Baptiser which leadeth you and goeth down with you into Death It is a River of Love which is the Jordan the Death into which you go down and are baptised We are baptised St. Paul saith in the forementioned place into the Similitude of Christ's Death The Death of Christ was Death in Truth a Substantial Real Death The Death of Christ in a Saint is Eternal Love Eternal Life in the Likeness and Form of Death a Similitude onely of Death in a Substance of Immortal Love and Glory in the Person of our Jesus ascended Use. 4. Take heed of mingling the Lusts of the Flesh with Spiritual Loves Jealousy is the Rage of God as well as of Man It burneth to the Foundations of the Earth A Fly bred out of Dung so infested the Eagle that it forced him to lay his Eggs for safety in the Lap of Jupiter the Heathen-God The Fly mounteth up aloft carrieth up some Dung with it letteth it fall into Jupiter's lap He arising and shaking the Dung out of his Lap shaketh ouâ— the Eagle's Eggs with it which fall broken to pieces upon the ground This is a Fable The Moral is good Thou art a Saint Thou layest the Births of the Divine Spirit in Thee thy Graces Hopes Joyes with thy self in the Bosom of Divine Love O take heed that thy Flesh that Dung-Fly mingle nothing of its Filth with these Births of the Spirit in the Pure Bosom of Heavenly Love If it do assure thy self that Love will cast all the Filth all Flesh out of its Chast and Spiritual Embraces As that falleth to the Ground thou also wilt fall with it and have many a broken bone many a broken heart We read in the Revelation of the Dragon and his Angels in Heaven together with Michael and his Angels But they fought there till the Dragon and his Angels were cast out Thou O Believer art a Heaven in which God dwelleth as Love where all the Angels as Angels of Love where all Forms of things are as Heavenly Angels of Pure Love round about him ministring to him Shall there be now seen in this Heaven in thy Person O Believer silthy Lusts furious Passions the Dragon and his Angels together with the Lord Jesus Divine Love and its holy Angels How hateful how horrid a Wonder What a Prodigy is this If it be so let there be no rest in the Heaven of thy Spirit let there be a continual Fight until the Dragon with his Angels the Fleshly Spirit with its Lusts and Passions be cast out When the Unclean Dog and the fiery Dragon are no more Thy Lamb will feed and lye down to rest thy Turtle will make its Nest and enjoy its Mate its Beloved in quiet Nothing shall disturb or make them afraid in all the Paradise of Divine Love Use. 5. Comfort your selves O Believers You travel thorough the Valley of Baca Baca signifieth a Mulberry Tree and Weeping You travel thorow a Valley of Tears a Mournful Valley where all the Trees that grow are Mulberry Trees Emblems of Grief and Wo. You are frequently overspread with the black Shades of Fear Unbelief Doubt Distrust Despair You often fall into the hands of violent Robbers Evil Spirits in the forms of various Temptations Corruptions Passions These spoil you leave you naked wounded desolate You dig up pits in Duties Ordinances But many times no Rain no Descent of the Spirit from Heaven filleth these Pits Yet be not discouraged all you who believe the Love of God in Jesus Christ. Strengthen the feeble Knees You shall go on from Strength to Strength from Light to Light so you shall come every one of you at last to a Clear Sight to a Compleat Fruition of the God of Gods on Mount Sion of God in his Supreme Glory in the Nakedness Purity Simplicity Unity of the Eternal Spirit Lift up the feeble hands These weak Graces of yours mixt interrupted with so much Corruption These weak Persons Bodies and Spirits wearied wounded stained with so many Sufferings Sins and Sorrows shall be crowned with perfect Glory For why Pure Love Almighty Love That Love which is itself God over all Blessed for ever This Love comes forth casting off all vails pouring forth itself from all its Eternal Springs in all its Infinite Fulnesses in the Glorified Person of Christ This Love hath begun and shall it not make an End As Certainly as it hath laid the Foundation and you have cried to it Grace Grace Pure Love Preventing Love as Certainly as it hath gone on to build you up thus far and still you have cried to it Grace Grace Pure Love
the Creation the Living Creatures in the Chariot are the Angels of the Thronâ— in the Glory of the Kingdom of the Coronation and Marriage-Day The Firmament the New Heaven is the Glory of the Father The Chariot itself which containeth him in which he descendeth bowing down the Heavens as he descendeth The Lord Jesus himself in his own Glory is Distinct from all these Glories compreâ—endeth them and rideth forth in them This is that Image in which he shall appear at the last Day as a New Creator and a New Creation making all things New as the most Entire most Naked Image of the Invisible God in all his most Pure and most Invisible Glories as the First-born of the whole Creation in general and of every Creature in Particular as the Whole Creation in its Virgin-State in its Ideal Glory while yet it sprung up out of the Bosom of God and stood onely in the Bosom of God and was a Sister-Spouse to the uncreated Beauty This is that Testimony of Jesus which is the Spirit of Prophesy That Divine Presence that Word of God which came to all the Holy Men of old in the Light of which as in the Glass of Eternity the First and Supreme Truth they saw Visions dreamed dreams and spake of him This is the Chariot of the Princes of the Saints in the Glory of the Spirit 4 Qu. How doth the Soul of the Spouse make her as this Chariot of her Princely People or set her in it Answ. The Soul of the heavenly Bride is her Lord her Life her Love her heart her True Self her Beloved her Jesus He descendeth in his Chariot and taketh her up into it He appearing in his heavenly Image composed of the Glory of his Father his own Glory the Glory of all his holy Angels which is his Chariot as he appeareth in her translateth and transfigureth her into the same heavenly Image She also is now become a Chariot made up all of the same Glories with the same Jesus the same Queen the same Company of Princes riding together in it The Soul of the Bride is also Faith the 〈◊〉 of God the Divine Nature the Spirit in a Saint This Divine Life in a Saint by a Descent of the Lord Jesus upon it in a moment ere a Saint is aware he knoweth not how both taketh him up to set him in this Chariot and Transformeth him into it I have onely prepared you by all this for the Application of the Scripture opened by us to our present purpose that we may take in with a greater Sense with a Deeper Impression the Comfort and Joys of Finishing Love making Perfect its most Beautiful Works and Displaying its most pleasant Strengths in our Weaknesses Ere I was aware my Soul made me as the Chariots of my Princely People or set me in them Hearken to me my Brethren Is there not among you a Poor Believer a Mournful Saint which hath long prayed long sighed for a Clear Sight of Jesus Christ a Sense and Seal of his Love Sweet and Constant Communion with him To this Soul I now speak Perhaps after all this thou art embracing the Dunghil of Distrust and Despair Perhaps thou art sitting upon the Dunghil of some Fleshly Lust or Earthly Care of Covetousness or Lasciviousness Vanity or vexation Now in a moment which thou thinkest not of ere thou art aware Jesus Christ in the Divine Brightness of some heavenly Truth flashing like Lightning in upon thy Spirit may descend may discover himself in his Heavenly Image with his naked Glories naked Loves to thee Now are thou art aware he may make this heavenly Image at once a Laver of Precious Blood in which he washeth Thee white as the Light itself from every Spot a Chariot of heavenly Princes in which he cometh down to Thee upon thy Dunghil taketh Thee off from thy Dunghil to ride with him in the Fellowship of all Immortal Spirits while all the holy Angels bear Thee up and carry Thee on upon the Firmament of the Father's Glory at the side of thy Beloved whither the Mind of the Spirit is for Thee to go Ere thou art aware the Lord Jesus can change thy Dunghil can change Thee into a Divine Chariot of Eternal Spirits in which he will ride forth with Thee thou shalt ride forth together with him having his Loveliness in thine Eye his Love in thine heart thorow all Forms of things Light and Darkness Life and Death as thorow various Fields differing Regions of Spiritual Beauties and Delights in the Vast Continent the Vast World of the Divine Nature Thus comfort thy self against the Discouragements of Life with the Fulness of Divine Love â—inishing Love in the Glorified Person of Christ which maketh Perfect its Strength and Sweetness in Weakness and Enmity which giveth Thee the Desire of thy Soul thy Jesus most clearly most dearly into thy Bosom when thou lyest locked up fastest in the Bosom of the Strange Woman oâ— This Strumpet and this Witch the Hellish Darkness cloathed with Figures of Fleshly Softnesses Sweetnesses Lights and Treasures Gen. 28. 11 12. Jacob had pursued the Spiritual Blessing the heavenly Birth-right and had obtained the Promise the Purchase After all this he flyâ—th alone as a Banished Person from his Father's house He is benighted in an open field He lieth upon the naked ground He hath under his head for a Pillow a Cold Hard Stone Now Finishing Love maketh Perfect its Strength in this Weakness giving him now the Evidence the Pledge the First-fruits of that Spiritual Blessing that heavenly Birth-right which he had a Promise of and a Title to Now Heaven is opened to the Eye of his Spirit in a Dream A Ladder â—â—acheth from Heaven to Earth One End of it resteth on the Bosom of God above The other End standeth upon the Ground at his head below Angels descend and ascend upon the Ladder He awaketh and saith This is none other than the Gate of Heaven the house of God and I was not aware of it The Stone on which he lay is now anointed and becometh a Pillar and Altar a Figure of Jesus Christ in all his Divine Loves and Lovelinesses Jacob is in every holy One. Hear this you broken hearts You complain We have tasted something of the Sweetness of Preventing Love if this be Preventing Love to cast in upon our Spirits gracious hints and hopes of Spiritual Blessings and heavenly things when we sate in the Shadow of Death and did not so much as know or Believe that there was a Spirit a Heaven We have also tasted something of the Sweetness of Assisting Love if this be assisting Love to help us to carry us on for a wearisome length of time with sighs and groans unutterable to cry for the Revelation the Possession the Fruition of these Spiritual Blessings and heavenly things in the Foretast of them But O! where is Finishing Love Now instead of this behold we are benighted with Darkness of Spirit
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
any fresh Effusion of the Spirit upon you When the Activity of Grace when the Operations of the Divine Life are heightned in you by any peculiar Appearances and Outshinings of the Lord Jesus in you what do you Find Do you not find all things made New Do you not find the Invisible Image of things within the Image of all Visible things without Your self your Life Your Soul your Body Your Graces your Comforts Husband Wife Children all Objects of Life the whole World itself renewing its Light its Sweetness its Lustre All heightened Spiritualised Immortalized transfigured into Divine Forms Invisible to all other Eyes and this without any Darkening without any Eclipse or Cloudy moment interposing This is the Earnest of the Spirit given unto Thee for a Figure a Foretast and a Seal of Thy change in Death Thou shalt not be uncloathed of any Garment of Life or Light Spiritual or Natural which thou hast ever put on Thou shalt never be found naked of any Forms of Light Life or Love which have ever accompanyed and encompassed Thee Thy Faith-shall be swallowed up into Vision Clear Full Immediate Vision Eye to Eye Thy Hope into Entire Possession and Compleat Fruition thy Soul itself into a Simple Divinity and Eternity Thy Body thy Dear Relations the Delights of thine Eyes the Precious and Pleasant things of thy Senses shall All be cloathed upon from above with those Immortal Substances of which here they are the Shadows with their own Original Forms of which here they bear the Figure with their Flourishing Patterns upon the Mount of Glory in that First and Pure Spirit the Fountain of Life the shining Fountain of Good in the Glorified Person of the Lord Jesus in Eternity The Movable Tabernacle with its Tent both are Dissolv'd and fall into the Eternal Building of Glory in the Heavens where they become as Mysterious Figures of Divinity in that Temple or Rich Furniture Delightful Apartments of that Palace where every Part beareth the Figure possesseth the Life and Beauty of the Whole This is the Freedom the Sweetness the Fulness of the Finishing Love of God in Christ. Death itself is made at once A Consummation of the Marriage Love between the Heavenly Bridegroom his Bride A Bed of Loves the Divine Embraces of Eternal Love and the Divine Fruitfulness of these Embraces Jesus in his Invisible and Eternal Form descendeth overshadoweth embraceth his Bride transfigureth her into a Form of Eternal Beauties perfectly answering his own maketh her to spring with to bring forth in the moment of those embraces in the moment of her own Transfiguration all Forms of Things above and below in Immortal Divine Images and Essences of Pure Perfect Love The Dark aud Dreadful Appearances which surround Death are onely A Cloud which hide these Delightful these sacred Mysteries and changes from all Natural Eyes while the Saint himself in the Spirit seeth its own Beauties feeleth its own Joys in these Transfiguring and Impregnating Embraces So Christ himself was taken by a Cloud out of the sight of the Apostles while he ascended Death beginneth to the whole Saint in all parts that Coming down of the Lord Jesus in a Flame of Glory that Rapture of a Saint caught up into the Bosom of the Lord Jesus with the Sound of the Heavenly Trumpet The Universal Shout of Divine Lives Loves Glories thorow all things The Resurrection finisheth them O the Absoluteness of Finishing Love All work of Glory is made perfect in a Saint Jesus in all these Powers and Treasures of the God-Head resteth upon a Saint then when he is weakest when he seemeth nearest likest to Darkness Dust and Dung in the Agonies of Death 3. Comfort Against the last Day There are peculiar Terrours accompany the Day of Judgment It is indeed the most Dreadful of all Dreadful things The Last Day is twofold 1. Universal the Day of the Lord upon the whole Earth 2. Particular the day of the Lord upon a City or Nation Both these are spoken of mixtly The same dreadful things are attributed to both properly or figuratively We know not how near the Universal Day of the Great Judgment of the Lord upon the whole Earth may be The Lord Jesus may be now at the Door and ready to enter He shall come as a Thief in the Night in Clouds unperceived unexpected All things shall be in the moment of his Appearance as from the Beginning Some at the Mill some in the Field some in the Market some at Church to be married others in the Marriage bed others Eating and Drinking All the signs which are to fore-run that Great Day of the Lord's Last Appearance from Heaven may be come to pass in the midst of us in another manner and form differing from that which we figure to our selves and we not aware of it As Elijah the great fore-runner of our Lord Jesus in his first Appearance was come and gone in the Person of John the Baptist not understood either by the Jews in general or by the Disciples Watch and pray have your Loyns ever girt your Lamps burning go forth from the things of Sense into the Spirit to meet the Lord who cometh in that Air of Heaven and Eternity So shall you be caught up to meet him as he cometh and enter with him into the Bride-chamber I shall give you my Reasons which make me to believe that the Particular Day of the Lord upon this Land and City approacheth and cometh like a Traveller like an Armed Man upon us 1. Jerusalem and the Jews seem to be set up for a Type to every City and Land which beateth the Name of God St. Paul at large in the 11th to the Romans describeth the Succession of the Gentiles by Christianity into the place of the Jews the Progress and Way of God with the External Professors of the Gospel as with Israel He representeth this by Natural Branches cut off from and Olive Tree by wild Branches ingrafted in their place standing upon the same Terms in the same danger of being cut off 2. Are not we as Hierusalom ripe for the Harvest Have we not had the Ministry of the Law of the Gospel of the Letter of the Spirit in great power and glory Have not all varieties of chastisements and judgments inferiour to preparatory for the great and last Judgment already passed upon us Have not our Sins among all sorts of all kinds grown up to maturity to be ready for the Sickle 3. We have seen signs in Heaven above and on the Earth beneath and in the Waters which Jesus Christ foretelleth as Joel before and St. Peter afterwards from him to precede immediately the great and dreadful day of the Lord upon Hierusalem Hierusalem is in London But O what comforts flow from the finishing love of God in Jesus Christ to make this day of the Lord not only supportable but lovely to us and longed for by us Lift up your heads for your redemption is at
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
which the Fathers Person shines forth in his Person as in a new Heaven with new and increasiâ—â— Beauties O you that are Followers of Christ what a mystery of Spiritual Joy and Heavenly Glory is there in the life of a Saint if this be to be a Saint to walk on Earth as Christ walked that is in a Spiritual Principle in the midst of the Natural Principle and Fleshly Image of things governing comprehending seeing handling rellishing all in the Divine Light Beauty and Sweetness of the Eternal Spirit When the blackest Cloud of melancholy rests upon thy Spirit when the sharpest Sword of Grief pierceth thy Heart retire into thy Spiritual Principle there thou shalt be as on Mount Tabor the Mount of Transfiguration where the Face of thy God shall be as a pleasant Sun of Joy and Glory shining forth in its strength within thee and the whole Image of things in thee and round about thee as a Garment of Light all weaved and wrought with the freshest and purest Beams of this Sun in all living and immortal Figures of the highest Joys and Glories 5. Propos. The Curse with the stings and sense of it upon the Natural and Temporary Principle as also the conflict between the Natural and Temporary the Supernatural and Eternal Principle in the Lord Jesus thorow his whole Person as it lived in a Humane Soul and Body were highest at his Death The Lord Jesus saith the Prince of this World cometh This is your hour and the power or principality of Darkness The Devil came now to make his two last and most furious assaults upon the Lord Jesus in the Garden and upon the Cross. He therefore comes with all the powers of Darkness and Legions of Devils with all the blackest and most dreadful Furniture and force of Wrath from Hell below from Earth and Heaven above as the Prince of this World and the Prince of Darkness The Battel was so sore against the Lord Jesus that he himself who was the Wisdom and Power of God was amazed He who was the eternal delights of his Father day by day cries out My Soul is very sorrowful even unto Death The word in Greek is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth an excess of sorrow and a surrounding sorrow All things round about the Lord Jesus were hung with a blackness of Darkness and amazing horrours that he himself who bears up the weight of all things could hardly sustain the weight of his own fears and sorrows or sustain himself in Life under them He falls beneath them to the ground His whole Person is so prest and opprest with them that through the agony of his Spirits the boiling blood is strained forth through all the parts of his Body He cries to his Father thrice Angels are sent from Heaven to strengthen him and comfort him But after this the conflict upon the Cross was yet sharper Now the Prince of Darkness grows desperate knowing that this is his last effort and that now at once he fights for his Kingdom Liberty and Life that his whole Kingdom of Darkness and his Person too depend upon this one Fight The Earth-quake the rending of the Rocks the total Eclipse of the Sun and the Universal Darkness upon the face of the whole Earth were Types of what Christ the Prince of Glory and the Devil the Prince of Darkness suffered in this last Conflict the like to which never was before nor shall ever be The whole frame of things shook and trembled under the Feet of the Lord Jesus and round about him The Rocks all the supports of his Soul all the Foundations and Pillars of his strength and life were rent in pieces and dissolved The face of the Creature the face of Heaven the face of his Father were all covered with a thick a threatning and an amazing Darkness as in a dreadful Tempest above the course and force of nature The Lord of Life in whom all things subsist is now sinking and ready to give up all for lost How deeply was his Heart pierced how cruelly wounded how were every glympse of Light every drop of Comfort intercepted and with-held when he cried out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me What potent inchantment from Hell was this what power of Darkness what infusion of Wrath what separation ten thousand times more bitter than Death which so wrought that he who is God himself seems divided from himself and totally deserted by all the power and sweet lights of the God-Head Thus you see in this 5th Proposition the trouble of Christ at its height In the two following Propositions you shall see that notwithstanding this dreadful storm in the evening and latest hour of his life this beautiful Sun in his dying moment as in the close itself of the day casts up its cloud comes forth Triumphantly and no night follows Before we pass to the other Propositions let us make a few short observations upon these 1. See how dreadful and hateful an evil Sin is by the effects of it in the Person of God himself our Lord Jesus Let not that be a light thing to us which lay with so great weight upon him neither let us be secure in our Lusts Vanities Covetousness Sloath playing with these which were so many Serpents in the Bosom of Christ and shot deadly stings into his Heart Can we stand under those things which had almost sunk the Son of God into despair and Eternal Darkness It is true God brings good out of the evil of Sin order out of its disorder and reconciles all into a beautiful Harmony of Divine Love and Joy But how by how dear a price by how precious an atonement by how costly how cruel how bloody a Sacrifice by how violent a conflict between all the powers of light and darkness at once by how dreadful a dissolution of the whole frame of things with the blackest Tempest of Divine Wrath from above by what horrours of Death in its ugliest shape with its most venemous stings and all this in the Person of God himself our Jesus 2. Be good Soldiers of the Lord Jesus Endure hardships Endure the fight of Sufferings Think not strange to have the Clouds blackest and the Storm greatest with Thunders and Lightnings round about you in your latest hour in old age and death Thus you bear the Cross of Christ. Thus you fight under the Banner of Love A Husband in Bloods art thou to me saith the Wife of Moses to him concerning the Circumcision Jesus Christ hath been a Husband in Blood to thee O suffering Saint Now art thou also indeed a Sister and a Spouse to him in Blood This Life is the Season of suffering Christ suffered here Can you not suffer with Christ one hour the short Season of this fleeting Life Think how glorious in the Eyes of all the Holy Angels and of the Blessed Saints of Christ and the Father you shall come into Heaven How dear to the Bosom and Embraces
Death This World with all its Powers and Principalities the life of this World the Cross itself and Death which had so long captivated the Lord Jesus with all the Powers Beauties Joys and Glories of his Heavenly Image binding them in Chains of Darkness within the Dungeon of this Earthly Image whose light is darkness are now themselves in the Person of our Lord Jesus in his Soul and Body together with his Captivity itself carryed up as he ascends and made Captives to that Heavenly Image which they held Captive Here in this Pallace of the Spirit and of Eternity where Darkness itself shines as the Light they are seen as the Captives of the Lord Jesus bound in Chains of Glory spectacles to all the Holy Angels and Blessed Spirits in which the Beauties of Christs Victory and Triumph as so many ravishing Wonders of an Incomprehensible of a Mysterious Power Wisdom Love Glory Divinity subduing all things entirely to themselves eternally shine This honour have all the Saints in their Deaths by the vertue of their Saviours Death by vertue of their fellowship with him and his fellowship with them mutually in their several Deaths all in each Death dying together Where now is the Melancholy of Death and of the Grave It is swallowed up into the Divine Pomp and Pleasure of a most Glorious Victory and Triumph O Saint What fearest thou in Death Or thou who fearest not to be dead why fearest thou to die If thou rejoicest in the Glory of thy departed Soul why mournest thou over thy Body as left behind in a naked and loathsome Prison The act of dying to both is the gaining of a Glorious Victory over the Life and Death the Powers and Principalities of this whole World The passage itself out of this Life is a Glorious Triumph to thy Soul and Body both which with all the Triumphal Ornaments of the Light of Life and Immortality ride forth in the Chariot of the Heavenly Image and the Eternal Spirit over the Spirit and all the forms of this Creation which lie conquered under your Feet In the very moment of your dying all the Powers and Appearances of Nature which rule in the Kingdoms of Sense and Reason are lost for ever so that their place where once they reigned in your Persons knows them no more You sit down upon the Throne of Christ and the Father together with them All the Births Images and changes of time are swallowed up into the bright the beautiful the most delightful depths of Eternity the unfathomable depths of purest Light Love and Joy immediately as Triumphant Conquerors and Kings you are encompassed with the ravishing applauses and shouts of innumerable Angels of Immortal and Glorious spirits springing up and shining forth in all the places of this World where its Light or Darkness Life or Death seemed before to stand You see all these with a Heavenly Musick and Songs of Triumph setting Garlands and Crowns of Victory on your Heads immediately as you pass out of the Light of this Life you see your selves received your Souls and your Bodies both with the most delicious kisses into the Eternal Embraces of the Father and of Christ in that Unity of the Spirit which is the unfathomable center of all Lights Loves and Joys of all beautiful and blissful Spirits created and uncreated All now for ever are filling full your Joys in themselves and fulfilling their Joys in you 4. Scrip. Heb. 2. 14. That he by dying might destroy him who had the power of Death that is the Devil and set them free who all their life time were subject to bondage by the fear of Death The word Power in this place signifieth properly a Prince with a Principality or Dominion This whole world is the Principality of the Devil For the Devil is called in Scripture the Prince of this world All Flesh every thing of Nature and of this Creation is comprehended under that name as it is distinguished from and opposed to the Spirit and the new Creation in the Spirit the Kingdom of God in the Holy Ghost and is the Principality of the Devil All Darkness every shadow every evil of Sin or Suffering of Corruption and the Curse of Shame Deformity Pain Grief and Wrath as all these are expressed in the Scripture and in common Language with every other kind or degree of Evil by Darkness are the Principality of the Devil For the Devil is called the Prince of Darkness Death is the Devils Principality who in this Scripture is called the Power or Prince of Death All this then hath Jesus Christ by dying destroyed in his own Person this World the Principles and Forms of Nature the Life and Images of Flesh every Darkness inward or outward of mind or sense Death itself For all these lie within the Principality of the Devil and are his Region his Kingdom without the bounds of this Dominion all things are Light Life Love Joy Immortality Spirit and Truth As it is Jesus who dies again in the Death of every Saint as the Death of every Saint is the Death of Christ acted over again in the similitude by the vertue of his Death so doth every Saint as he is one Spirit with Christ after the like manner by dying destroy the Principality the Kingdom of the Devil in his Person also For this is said to be the end of Christ in his Death that he might free all the Saints from the fear of Death O Believers Let your Saviour gain his end upon you and end of most tender Love Be no more in bondage to the fear of Death Let the Lord Jesus see the seed of his Death springing up in your Deaths a Glorious and Divine Seed of Life and Immortality springing up in the place of Death and swallowing it up into Victory Lay aside now for ever those melancholy and delusive Imaginations of Death as a separation of those tenderest Bosom-Friends Soul and Body a separation from your dearest Relations and entertainments the delights of your Eyes an extinguishing of the sweet Light of Life a dismal solitude a perpetual Darkness the Confinement of the Body to the nakedness coldness streightness and horrour of the Grave Dust Stones and Bones covering it and ratling over it Worms feeding upon it the Soul naked and alone taking its flight through a vast distance of empty air and space to another place These are the Forms and Appearances of Death to the Dead only Those who follow Jesus Christ in that living and shining way in which he went thorow Death meet with none of these appalling and affrightful Apparitions Let the Dead bury their Dead saith Jesus Christ to his Disciples but follow thou me Understand this O Believers that all Shadows all Forms of Darkness and of Death are from below Earthly Sensual Devilish from the Earth from the Natural Soul and from the Devil as St. James speaks All this Image and sense of things is that Kingdom of the Devil which together
undivided Circle of Eternity always at once in every moment and cast of his eye he saw possest and enjoyed all pleasantnesses In this Face of his Father which is the Light of Eternity he saw his own Face as he passed thorow all changes Even then when he cried out that he was forsaken by his Father he beheld this forsaking of him himself thus forsaken in this Glass the face of his Father in the midst of all Pleasantnesses one of the Pleasantnesses one with all the Pleasantnesses there The Aâ—gels that take care of Children here below in the midst of this their work on Earth ever behold the Face of the Father in Heaven How much more is it true of that Person who is the Face of the Father who is one Essence and Substance with the Father who unites the Humane Nature to the Divine Nature in the Unity of this Person Shall not he much more see the face of his Father in Heaven while he is on Earth or in the Grave serving the little Children of his Father his younger Brethren as their good Angel This Face in which all Pleasantnesses are at their fulness at their heighth was that Joy set before Jesus Christ upon the Cross for which he enâ—ured the Cross and despised the shame I shall now conclude this discourse of our dying and dead Saviour of his sacred Body living and immortal in Death with those four thiâ—gs which were too wonderful for Solomon the way of a Ship upon the Sea of an Eâ—gle in the Air of a Serpent upon a stoâ—e or a rock of a man with a maid or as it is in Hebrew in a maid The most learned Jews teach us to understand this as the Mystâ—ry of the Messiah The most learned of the Christian Divines give us such a Gloss as this upon it while they make this place from the authority oâ— the Jews themselves to prove against them that the Messiah was to be born of a Virgin 1. The Man in the Maid is the Heavenly Man in Womb of the Virgin 2. The Ship upon the Sea is the Humane Nature in its Union with the Divine Nature Sailing along in its course of time and life here below upon the Sea of Eternity 3. The serpent upon the Sâ—oâ—e or the Rock is the deep and Glorious wonder of Death in the Person of Christ who is the Rock oâ— Eternal Life and God himself who lives for ever 4. The Eagle in the Air is the Humane Nature risen and ascending in the Spirit to the right hand of the father above all Heaven to the utmost heighths of all Joys and Glories of the Divine Nature and Eternity Before I leave this Subject I will point out one Use and Application of it When a Voice came with Thunder to the Lord Jesus declaring Love and Glory from on high upon him Jesus Christ saith to his Disciples Tâ—is Voice came not for my sake but for yours In like manner these glorious things are spoken of Christ in his life and in his death not for himself only but for all his Saints Christ and all the Saints are one seed To that one seed to all the Saints in Christ to Christ in himself and in all his Saints are all the Promises made All those pleasant things which we have spoken of Jesus Christ and of his holy Body in Death are true of him as his Humane Nature is joyned to the Divine Nature in one Divine and Eternal Person which is the most High God The same things are true in us also who believe in him by that Mystical Union which joyneth us to the Lord Jesus in one mystical Person and in the Unity of that Spirit which is also the most high God one with the Father and the Son While we live as Saints by the Faith of the Lord Jesus we live not but Christ liveth in us we live and we are Spiritual only as we are Spirits the Birth of the Eternal Spirit and one Spirit with the Lord Jesus in his Resurrection from the Dead All things in Heaven and on Earth of Soul and of Body of Life and of Death are Spirit and Life to us It is true that while we live on Earth a fleshly Spirit a fleshly Image in which Satan hath his Throne have a part in us not as our true selves but as our disguises our diseases our enemy as evil Dreams in our sleep These ofâ—â—n prevail over the Spiritual Man in us and captivate us to many sinful Lusts fears and Griefs But still the Spiritual man in itself which is our true self puts them under its feet and makes them Captives to the Light Love and Immortality of the Spirit The Spirit in us is like the Sua which when we think it under a Cloud or eclipsed by the Moon is so only to our Earthly Light but in truth and to itself it is upon its own Throne of Light triumphantly above the Clouds and the Moon comprehending them in the brightness of its own Glory But besides this in the moment of Death this fleshly Spirit and Image is for ever cast out of all power and rule in a Saint and is entirely subdued to that pure and Heavenly Spirit which is the true Saint which now withâ—â—t any interposing vail or interrupting interval perpetually sees the glorious Face of Jesus Christ in it self which is one Spirit with him and the Glorious Face of the Father in Jesus Christ. Yea one advantage of unexpressible Joy and Glory hath the death of a 〈…〉 of Christ. The Death of Christ had all the stings of 〈…〉 crâ—â—ture â—ver felt or can feel the guilt of Sin 〈…〉 Wrath of the Father all the Powers of Hell in 〈…〉 these stings are taken out of the death of a Saint Christ is risen all the Powers of evil subdued captivated and changed into mysteries of eternal Light and Love in the Glorified Person of Christ by the Virtue of his Resurrection A Believer living and dying stands in the Resurrection of Christ is risen with him in him A Believer is married to Christ as he is risen from the Dead His Life his Death thoroughout all things of them both are Divine Fruits of this marriage-bed brought forth in the Bosom of God to God Break forth then O ye Saints into singing both living and dying tune your last breath to this song of the Lamb and say like him I have set my glorified Jesus my Heavenly Bridegroom and the Father in him before me My glorified Jesus my Heavenly Bridegroom and the Father in him is at my right hand therefore shall I not be greatly moved Therefore doth my Soul rejoyce in Death my Body also sweetly rests in the Grave as in a Marriage-bed in the midst of all Divine delights as Flowers of Paradise strewed upon it It rests in the Bosom of my glorified Jesus my hope This sweet and sure hope is he that will never leave my Soul in the state of Death nor suffer his Holy One
Fellowship between the Father and Christ and the Spirit and the Saints in the Spirit at the coming of the Spirit is this 1. The blessed Person of the Holy Spirit in the Trinity is the beautiful band of that sweet and sacred Union in which the two other Persons the Father and the Son most nakedly most entirely at the utmost heighth of their Beauties and Loves possess and enjoy each other The same Person of the Spirit in the mystical and Marriage Union between Christ and the Soul is that sweet and sacred Unity by the Virtue of which the Father Christ and a Saint in the Purity and Perfection of all Heavenly sweetnesses and excellencies behold love and take Pleasure in each other as one Spirit By this you may see how the Spirit is the Promise and the Seal and what this Seal of the Spirit means The Lord Jesus fully expresseth it in the verse mentioned At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father and you in me and I in you This day is the day of the Spirit the day of the Spirits coming into the Soul and appearing there In the Revelation of this third Person the Holy Spirit when he shines forth in the Spirit of a Saint the Father Christ and a Saint are all seen together in one Glory the Glory of the Father in the Fellowship and Unity of this Spirit which is the Spirit of Glory This Union and this Vision takes the Saint up into itself fixeth itself in a Saint displayeth itself there by the immediate Brightness and Glory of that Heavenly Person the Spirit himself which is the Spirit of Truth This is the Seal of the Spirit this is the Banner of Love Thus he sets himself as a Seal upon the Heart of his spouse thus he spreads himself as a Banner of Love over her head in his Banqueting-house How clearly in this Day in this Vision and Unity of the Spirit doth the Beloved Spouse of Christ see Heaven and Paradise ten thousand Heavens and Paradises new-born and risen within herself herself new-born and risen into the midst of them and enjoying them all Dost thou mourn O dejected Soul that thou hast not received this Seal of the Spirit Alas how few have How hath this Seal been withdrawn since the Nations of the World received the mark of Anti-Christ Mourn thou together with all the Saints for the absence of the Heavenly Bridegroom in this Vision of his Glory and Seal of his Love But mourn not as without Hope Press forward to this Day of the Spirit and to the Brightness of the rising of the Lord Jesâ—s together with the Father upon thy Soul in the Person of the Spirit which is the Union of all Loves Joys and Glories as all Lights are United in the Sun This Day hath already dawned some few have seen the dawnings of it and rejoyced to see it when it hath shone forth upon the tops of their Spirits as the Sun in the pleasant morning of a Summers-day gilds the Tops of the Mountains 2. The Second Evidence is the Witness of the Spirit Of this Paul speaketh Rom. 8. v. 16. The Spirit itself beareth Witness in our Spirit that we are the Children of God This Witness of the Spirit may be more interrupted and be accompanied in the Soul with less Glory and a less triumphant Joy yet is it clear and sweet and sure although the clearness and the sweetness have their different degrees The Witness of the Spirit is as tho Voice of God in the Soul received and ecchoed to by the Soul The Seal of the Spirit is the Glorious Face of God unvailed in the Soul and by the kiss of its mouth Uniting it to the Soul so that it stamps its own Heavenly Image upon the Soul and Ravishing the Soul into one Life and Form of Glory with itself becomes its own Reflection there equally embracing and embraced enjoying and enjoyed in the Unity of the Spirit Thou who feest not the Seal of the Spirit upon thy heart open thy Spiritual Ear hearken unto the voice of the Spirit hearken to the voice of thine own Spirit These two by a sweet Consent and Harmony may testifie together the Love of God in thee Their voice may be low and not to be heard in the Tumult and noise of thy Fears and Doubts In the calmness quietness and rest of a meek and resigned Spirit hearken diligently and thou mayest hear this low voice Though this voice be low yet is it clear and sweet The Love and Peace and Joy of the Spirit the Spirit of Love Peace and Joy himself are in this low voice 3. The third Evidence is the Instinct of the Spirit which seems to be mentioned by St. Paul as a less degree of Evidence going before that of the Witness of the Spirit Rom. 8. 15. Ye have received the Spirit of Adoption whereby ye Cry Abba Father The little Lamb newly yeaned and come forth from the Dam in a great flock amongst many Lambs and Ews knoweth its own Dam discerneth its call from all others runneth to it keepeth by its side when it is in any fear seeketh and sucketh its Milk and the nourishment of its Life from it This is the Instinct of Nature which faileth not the Births of Nature Thus every Child of God hath much more a Spiritual and Divine Instinct which is inseparable from the Divine Nature in it The Spirit of God in it when the Light of the Divine Nature is most obscured is a Spirit of Son-ship or Childhood in the Soul by secret Impressions leading it inclining and carrying it to God as its Father giving it a secret sense and discerning of the Voice of God and of its Relation to God as by the instinct of the Divine Nature Consider this ye doubting fearful and distressed Saints consider this and be comforted Thou hast no clear sight of the Face of God Thou hast no clear Testimony of the Love of God in thy Spirit Thou hast no distinct understanding of thy Union with God or of the Nature of God or of the things of God Thou hast no Evidences by which thou canst satisfy thy own Reason thorow any discourse of Reason But thou art inwardly carryed in thy desires and inclinations to God to please him to be with him Thy Soul secretly hangs upon God and cleaveth to him Thou inwardly longest and thirstest to suck in from his Breasts the milk of Spiritual Life Comfort and Light In the day of thy fears and distress thine Eye looketh to God thine Heart cryeth and hasteth to him The call the voice of God in his Providences his Word and the inward motions of his Spirit touch thine Heart and turn thy Bowels within thee How often in the greatest doubts and distresses of thy Spirit dost thou sigh forth to God the name of Father Behold this is the instinct of the Divine Nature in thee This is the Spirit of Adoption by which thou art acted and by
THE Rise Race and Royalty OF THE Kingdom of God IN THE Soul of MAN OPENED In several Sermons upon Matthew 18. 3. AS ALSO The Loveliness Love of Christ Set forth In several other Sermons upon Psal. 45. v. 1 2. Together with An Account of the State of a Saint's Soul and Body in Death By PETER STERRY sometimes Fellow of Emanuel Colledge in Cambridge and Late Preacher of the Gospel in London Matthew 11. 19. But Wisdom is justified of her Children LONDON Printed for Thomas Cockerill at the Three Leggs over against the Stocks-Market in the Poultry 1683. THE PUBLISHER TO THE READER Reader IF thou knew'st the Author of these following Discourses it is needless to say any thing to thee concerning him or them And if thou art still a stranger to him it is pity to detain thee from so profitable an Acquaintance as thou may'st yet most happily redeem with him by these his Excellent Works in which he has given us a much better Account of himself than it is possible now to receive from any other hand However the Publisher professes so great a Love and Veneration for his Person and is so great an Admirer of these and all other Discourses of his whicâ— he has yet seen that he dare not venture to tell thee his own thoughts of either lest he should offend against the Spring whilst he commends the Stream Vpon this and some other considerations which are to him of much weight he declines doing any thing that may pretend to look like a Preface and believes upon thy due perusal of what is here presented to thee thou wilt easily justifie his Modesty and Prudence herein Nor wilt thou then wonder that our Author and this his Book addresses thee so directly and without the recommendations of some of the Greater Lights and Rabbies of our present Times It would indeed be a new thing for a Person and Discourses so very heavenly and spiritual to receive such a complement and especially in an Age which has all along discovered such a watchful jealousie over and opposition to all the encreases and growths of Truth above the pitch and stature of Opinions and Principles commonly received among us An Age which instead of forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before as the Apostle speaks Phil. 3. 13. has taken up its rest and satisfaction in present measures and attainments making them the Rule the Law the â—est and the Standard to all the further discoveries and breakings forth of God in the midst of us It has still been the Lot of the Divinest Births and Appearances of God in this lower World to be most solitary and neglected as to an outward pomp and attendance They are reserved for the Glory and Triumph of another day We read indeed of a Ruler who came to Christ by night being drawn by the fame of his Miracles and of the Multitude following him for the Loaves but upon that most spiritual Sermon of our Saviour's in the 6th chap. of John the Text tells us Many of the Disciples went back and walked no more with him And that the Twelve were themselves so stagger'd that our Lord saies unto them Will ye aâ—so go away Leaving then our Author and his Book among those excellent and best things whicâ— have alwaies stood alone in this World and been contented so to do I now apply my self to the proper service of these Lines which is to acquaint thee that these Discourses are posthumous and not designed for the Press when they were first Preached but are now made publick to answer the impâ—rtunities of particular Friends and thâ— requiring of a more universal Charity that so much Goodness should be communicative This is the reason why in the diligent perusal of this Book thou wilt find an omission of some few Heads of Discâ—urse as to the particular enlargement upon them both in the Sermons upon Matth. 18. and those upon the 45th Psalm As also why neither of those Discourses are compleatly finished Those few particular Heads being forgotten by our Author in his Original Copy which is here exactly observed and he by his death prevented bringing of either Discourse to their desired and designed perfection I must also acquaint thee that the State of a Saint's Soul and Body in death which makes the last part of this Book was intended by our Author as an Introduction only to several Sermons which he afterwards Preached upon that Argument from those two Scriptures 1 Thes. 4 14. and Heb. 2. 14 15. in which he dispatch'd the several Heads enumerated in the beginning as also those which are wanting at the end of that Discourse belonging to the first consolation and joy of death to a Saint which Sermons to the Reader 's great satisfaction had been here published as the Author 's finishing strokes to his excellent representation of Death had they not proved his own Funeral Discourses for before he could give us a Copy of them or correct one which was imperfectly taken from his mouth he died confirming to us his Belief of what he had deliver'd upon that Subject by his hastening to the highest proof thereof which is enjoyment However it is judg'd worth the Reader 's while to make what our Author design'd for the beginning of several other Discourses to be the conclusion of these it being so sweet a strain in his Dying Song and so admirable an expression of his Victory and Triumph over the King of Terrors I must also tell thee that some few Errata's have escaped the Press whiâ—h the more intelligent may rectifie as they read although for the sake of the more ordinary Readers they are careâ—ully corrected in the end of the Book 'T is hoped the Reader will not think it one that these Discourses are Printed in no bigger a Letâ—er and that we have leâ—t him no fairer a Margent because we have herein consulted his Purse and taken care he should buy as little waste Paper as was possible in the purchase of this Book Nor will the understanding Reader complain it wants the Ornament of a large empty Margent or the ostentation of one filled with Learned Quotations whilst in the reading of it he will find our Author has given him throughout his Book all manner of Humane and Divine learning after the best sort Well digested and converted into an excellent habit strength and activity of mind And now Reader I have only some few requests to present to thee for thy own sake rather then our Authours First It is probable thou maist here meet with some things which not onely from the manner of the expression but chiefly from the matter of them may be difficult and hard to be understood My request here is Thou would'st take great care not to Judge and condemn what thou art not able first to hear and understand lest by tâ—y rash Censures thou should'st blindly rush upon the hiding of power which the
Content Hagar was flying from the face of her Mistress Sarah but she meets an Angel that sweetly sends her back thither where God would provide for her Sarah is the Divine Form in the Spirit Hagar this Fleshly Being the Bond-woman This Earthly Nature is unable to bear the frowns and severity of her Heavenly Mistress she flies from her Face her Appearances which oppress the Flesh with their Glory But the bright Images of this Beauty as Angels meet the Natural Man in the way of his flight in the Principles of Nature By the flashes and breakings forth of these Man is persuaded to return and submit himself to the supreme Beauty his Mistress and Parent so only shall he have provisions of Joy and Rest from his wandrings Our Saviour takes a sweet farewel of the Earth in this language Iob. 16. v. 28. I came forth from the Father into the world again I leave the world and go to the Father Happy is that Soul that after all her weary steps thorow the world to seek Content now tyred thinks of Returning to her Father her first Husband and breaths forth such sighs as these towards him O my God! Thy Fulness is the womb out of which I was brought forth into this world Thy Sweetness is the Bosom in which I must eternally rest How long shall I linger here O when shall I once leave this world and come again to thee Q. 4. How come we hither Thorow a Darkness You shall in the first of Genesis see that Darkness is the Ground of this Creation and all Light-Colours are laid upon that Ground Darkness is the Bound between God and the Creature thorow which all things pass out of one into the other This Darkness holds forth to us the Light of a Twofold Rule Rule 1. Let us not think to know eternal things by the Light of this World or any Creature When we come into this life we come well drencht drawn thorow a Sea of Darkness There is no more any Remembrance of former things We know not where we were when God laid the Foundations of the Earth or what we were before that when all our Bones were first written by God in his Book when first those Eternal Forms which were to frame and sustain every shape or state into which we should pass were brought forth in the Divine Wisdom We are of Yesterday and know nothing We are started up into this Life thorow a Darkness behind us which lies upon all things which are beyond this Image before us and swallows up this into it self as it passeth along Vain Man would be wise though he be born as the wild Asses Coâ—t Why should Man undertake to bring forth from himself the Beauties of Wisdom when he comes upon the face of the Earth out of the same Darkness with the Asses Colt as void as that of all Eternal Images Rule 2. Care not to cloath your selves with the Contents of this World all which you must put off so soon as you touch the Brim of this Darkness into which you must return Care not for the Cares or Sorrows of this Life Those waters of Forgetfulness into which we must all descend will wash them all away Imagine this Life as an Island surrounded with a Sea of Darkness beyond which lies the main Land of Eternity Blessed is he that can raise himself to such a Pitch as to look off this Island beyond that Darkness to the utmost bound of things He sees his way before and behind him What shall trouble him on this Twig of Life on which he is like a Bird but now alighted from a far Region from whence again he shall immediately take his Flight Thou cam'st through a darkness hither but Yesterday when thou wer 't born Why then shouldst thou not more readily and cheerfully return thorough the same darkness back again to those everlasting Hills Let us then ever be in Tune to sing that sadly sweet Song of Far-seeing and so much-suffering Job Job 1. 21. Naked came I out of my Mother's womb Naked shall I return thither again The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh Blessed be the name of the Loâ—d Naked camest thou my Soul thorough a Darkness into this World strip't of all the Glories above Naked must thou return again out of this World quite strip't of all the Glories and Griefs here The Lord gives thee forth thorough this Darkness into this Life the Lord takes thee in thorough the Darkness out of this Life to Himself Blessed is the Name of the Lord. Rest thou in the Blessed and Glorious Workings of the High God while thou art in that Darkness Thou shalt suddenly be pass'd beyond it where thou shalt in an open Light enjoy the Hidden workings there where thou shall see the Highest Beatitudes and Glories Eye to Eye Heart in Heart They and Thou being made One Life One Spirit and without Partition or Vail Use 2. The endearment of the Lord Jesus to us If this Face of Nature which now presents it self to us have such Beauties Greatnesses Varieties as ravish us from all sense of our selves our present safety our souls our God from the Love and Delight which from them flow into our Spirits what Sights what Things above Words are there then in Jesus Christ what Ravishments would surprize us and snatch us out of Flâ—sh if we saw Him For Nature and this World is but the Earthly Inferiour Imperfect Image of God and of the Person of Christ which is the Heavenly and Supream Image Now we under-value and neglect the sweetnesses of our Saviour for this World's joyes But if we saw Him we should much more despise Ten thousand Worlds ten thousand times heightned in Glory as a heap of Dunghills in Comparison of Him Our Blindness our Blindness clips the wings of Desire clogs the Spirit of Delight in us O Jesus cast thou but one Glimpse of thy self into our souls and we shall run from all things after thee fly beyond all things towards Thee How Dark and cold things are these Shadows to him that hath seen the Light of Beauty in thy Person and felt the warm Life of Love in Thine Embraces Shew thy self to me and set many Worlds many Death 's more between me and thy self my Spirit shall shoot it self like an Arrow thorow them all into thine Arms. A Look of thine can Translate me as Enoch or Eliah of old I have thus Finish'd the First Image in which man lives before his Conversion The Image of Nature 2. Image of the Devil The State of man before his Change is in a Threefold Image The First was that of Nature the Second this of the Devil which we now are to take a view of But what can we see or say of this Who can draw a Picture of or describe Darkness and Confusion The Power of Darkness and Division prevailing over the Powers of Light and Love in the Creature This is the Devil If you will pourtray a Devil
bears Whatever you meet with like a Devil any where that 's a Sin Wherever you see the Cloven Foot of Division or the Horned head of Darkness fly and cry an Apparition from Hell Take then Two Rules which measure out every Sin Rule 1. Every choice of an Act or Object that draws you down out of the Light of God is Sin In the Light of God we worship and love the Supream Beauty we possess the most perfect and purest Pleasures we grow up into the Divine Image which continually appears to us we have all our Faculties fill'd enlarg'd to a Freedom an Infiniteness When we leave this Light we fall down before Idols empty Shows of Beauty so we become Idolaters and Adulterers we mingle our selves with mixt Pleasures Dark Delights so we pollute our selves we are transform'd into every base inferiour Image with which we converse Our Souls are imprison'd in low and narrow Objects where they beat themselves against the walls of their Prison into perpetual vexations Such are the Loves Lusts Ambitions Entertainments of this World The Love of the World is Enmity with the Father Ja. 4. 4. He that casts his eye down upon the Earth must necessarily take it off from Heaven He that sets his Face as if he would go into the Embraces of Vanity must have his back upon the Eternal Glory Rule 2. The Divided enjoyment of any particular Image apart from the Image of God is Sin God is one The Image of God is that in which all things are United He that takes any Piece out of this Image he breaks the Unity he makes a Wound to let in Death and Ruine This makes Fleshly Lusts Sins Man and woman are each to other the Image of God which is One. When therefore they rest not in the bosom of One Another they commit the Sin of the Devil in a Type St. Jude makes the Lustful Sin of Sodom an exemplar Copy of the Sin of Angels Jude 6. 7. The Angels kept not their first state but left their own habitation c. Even as Sodom and Gomorrah in like manner giving themselves over to Fornication and going after strange divers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Flesh c. The Sin of Devils was a Spiritual Whoredom in which they dissolv'd the Unity of the Divine Image and fell into a Diversity of divided Images as into a deep Pit Both are join'd together in Solomon At once he multiplyed Wives and Idols A Converse with the Creatures in Diverse Principles and Images is as the Familiarity of a Man with many Women Fleshly Lust is the proper Image and Fruitfulness of the Devil by which he brings forth himself into this Visible World most Naturally and therefore most Potently most Plentifully Obj. But you will say may we not enjoy the delights of the Creature which is an Inferiour Image Ans. Yes as a Man may have a Conversation with many Women so that he break not the Marriage-Union Thy Fâ—untain must be thine own All delights abroad must be as Streams of this Fountain not divided Springs All other Images must be onely Reflections of this One concentred in it Please thy self to the full with every Content Only let it be no Cloud to cut off but a Christal to take in the Divine Glory that this may shine and flame in them Use 2. Consolation Wretched Man What wilt thou do Hell is sown in thy Nature This is the Paradise which is planted in thee all manner of loathsom bitter venemous deadly Plants The Sap of these is the Life of thy Spirit the Fruit of these the Food of thy Life What shall deliver thee Shall Time No As Nature puts forth itself in thee so these Trees of baleful Woe grow up What shall reskue thee from them Shall Death No When thou puttest off this Natural Image thou must then be transform'd into these Invisible Plants to be everlastingly inclos'd in them to have one Root one Stock one Sap one Fruit for ever with them that is with Devils Is there then no Help There is behold God descends to be thy Saviour He comes by a Two-fold Step and brings Salvation into thy Bosom 1. Step. God comes into our Nature as the Root of each single Person Here he becomes our Jesus making himself a New Seed Out of this Seed he brings forth a New Image of Divinity by which he breaks thorow the Image of the Devil and Nature brings forth Man out of them brings them into subjection to this growing Beauty As the Fuel is dissolv'd into Smoak and the Smoak again breaks up into Flame So the Image of the Devil riseth up out of the Image of Nature shaking that to Dust as it riseth The Image of God again sprouts forth in the midst of the Devils Image First spoiling then Triumphing over and in both 2. Step. God thorow Nature as the Root grows up into single Persons as the Branches Then as the shades of Night flie away before the Ascending Day so as this Divine Seed our Jesus sends forth itself in an Image of Beauty thorow our Souls the Image of Darkness and Death sinks down into its own Place and Principle Love this Jesus then You will love Him when He shall do this And He that shall do it will do it He is the Root and Branch He is a Root which holds every other Root of Pollution and Perplexity c. He will grow up thorow them the Last of All. He is the Branch that is imprison'd in every other Branch of Death and Hell which will at last spread forth itself over All if thou wait for it As the Head of the Devil is Enmity and Despair so the Lord Jesus is an Eternal Root of Hope and Love 2. State That to which the Change is made in our Conversion This is Three-fold 1. The Inward State in Nature 2. The Spiritual State in Christ 3. The Divine State in God 1. The Inward State in Nature The Change is for the most part at first a Conversion or Introversion into this State This needs a Three-fold Explication 1. Explication The Inward State in Nature as it is in itself Man is naturally the Off-spring of God Act. 17. 28. We are all his Off-spring God hath an Inward Glory and Outward Cloathing The Scripture speaks of both these Hebr. 1. It saith of One v. 8. Thy Throne O God is for ever and ever It saith of the Other v. 10. Thou hast laid the Foundations of the Earth the Heavens are the Work of thine hands v. 12. Thou foldest them up as a Garment and they are changed God over-spread his Outward Cloathing with his Inward Glory he possesseth both his Person and his Vesture in One Fountain of Life So both become to him One Life and Beauty Man is in Nature the Off-Spring and Resemblance of God So Man also in his Natural State is composed of a Twofold Image the one Inward the other Outward the one the Image of God in Man the
things The Good at which he aims The Evil from which he flies Desires here are the Attractions of the highest Good the most high God backed by the Impressions of the greatest Evils Sin Death Devils As one draws the Other drive The Soul sees God before her opening a World of new Hopes and Delights She sees Lusts and Furies behind her labouring to overtake her and hold her back from those fresh Glories which are now in her eye This makes her Desires as swift feet as strong Wings to her Now the newly-converted Spirit begins to discover her self by continual violent Breathings and cries towards Heaven How long Lord Now she speaks in Davids tune and tone Psal. 84. 2. My soul longeth yea even fainteth for the Courts of the Lord my Heart and my Flesh cry out for the Living God Grones are now the constant beatings of the Heart Longings and Faintings become the Language of all parts inward and outward Longings after Faintings for the Life of God the Living God 3. Passion Rage 2. Corin. 7. 11. The Corinthians had slept secure in a foul Sin They now awakened by St. Paul give those Testimonies of their Change which he reckons up in this place What vehement Desire yea what Zeal yea what Revenge As a Flood foâ—ming and roaring when it is streightned or swelling and over-bearâ—ng all when it is stopt in its Course So are Anger or Rage Desires multiplied and growing Mighty by Resistance There are Thrâ—e that resist the Soul in her Conversion the Flesh the World the Devil The Flesh lusteth against the Spirit Gal. 5. 17. The Inâ—linations of the Flesh cross and quench the Motions of the Spirit The World infuseth a poyson of Desires and Delights into the Heart which kill Heavenly Loves which infect the Heart with hatred and enmity against God and his Glory James 4. 4. The Friendship of the World is enmity with God The Devil is like a Lyon seeking whom he may dâ—vour 1 Pet. 5. 8. He would draw down our Souls into himself out of the Arms of our Saviour The World works upon us thorow the Flesh in our selves For this is the Property and the Birth of the World in us John 8. 23. Ye are of the World Ye that is they that are Fleshly The Devil prevaileth upon us by the World This is the Body with which he cloaths himself when he comes he is Prince of this World This world is his Power As God Christ and a Saint are all united in the Spiritual part of a Christian So the Devil the World the Flesh are all in one in the Natural part These the Soul at her Conversion now understands to be the Enemies of her Hope the Tyrants over â—â—â—joy the Rubs in the way of her Desires She riseth to a brave heat of Rage and height of Revenge against these Thus she vents her Rage thus she takes Revenge By fastning her own Flesh to the Cross 〈◊〉 her Lord She Crucifies Spoils Triumphs over them all Gal. 6. 14. I Glory saith Paul in the Cross of Christ by which the World is crucified to me and I to the World Nothing now is so sweet nothing so Glorious to this Soul as the Crâ—ss of her Jesus By this she revengeth her self upon her Spiritual Enemy as they treated her Lord her Life that is with Scorn and Despight First she puts them to open Shame She uncloaths them of all their fair Appearances In the face of Heaven in the eye of her Sun her God 〈◊〉 displays them naked in their ugly monstrous Shapes in their loathsom and hateful Uncleannesses Then she nails them by a constant force to theâ—r Paâ—ns and Sufferance till they languish to Death I have gone thorow the Second Order of Passions Hope Desire Rage 3. Order of Passions 1. Passion Lovâ— Love is a Câ—njunction with a Complacency in Goodness God Gal. 2. 20. I am saith St. Paul Crucified with Christ and now I live yet not I but Christ livâ—th in me c. The Holy Soul having stâ—ugled thorow the Streights of Grief and Shame thoâ—ow the Croâ—stides of Hope and Fear having wrestled with the Principles of Nature the Principalities and Powers of this world Fleshly Honours and heights now comes to tast the Freedom and Sweetness of life which is Lovâ— now she knows what 't is to Live indeed to live in the Embraces and mutuâ—l Twiniâ—gs of the Lord Jesus Now she hath no Life but his Lâ—ve now her Lâ—vâ— hath no Object but â—is Liâ—e By this time our Convert is grown up out of a 〈◊〉 to a Spouse-like tempâ—r like her in the Canticles She grows Sick of Love Her Love to God consumes her strength wasts her Life dispossesseth her of â—er sâ—lf Nothing can be Strength Life Self to her save her Saviour only She is â—â—â—ong only when he is present She is happy when he is pleased A man in this State breaths nothing but Affection to God He cries continually as David doth Psal. 18. 1. I lâ—ve Thee The word signifies I love thee dearly tenderly inwardly I twist thy love upon my inwardest and tenderest bowels O my Iâ—sus 2. Passion Hatred Psal. 139. 22. I hate them that hate thee with a perfect Hatred Hatred is the Life of Contrariety Casting out from itself yet Comprehending in it self as in a Chain Conquering to it self its Contrary God promiseth Christ thus much Psal. 110. 1 Sit thou at my right hand till I make thine enemies thy Foot-stool We hold our Foot-stool near us but under us We hold it down yet we hold up and raise our selves by it There is a Twofold Hatred 1. Hatred before Love 2. Hatred from Love Hatred before Love is weak and imperfect rellishing much of self-love Darkness and Hell Hatred from Love is Perfect it springs from the Heart of sweetness it subordinates itself to it it ends in it The Life of this Hatred is Love As the soul at her first Conversion is strong in Love so is she sweet in her Hatred She hates perfectly like a God not a Devil every thing which brings not the Loveliness of her Saviour along with it as a Pass-port She turns away her face from it she sets her feet upon it not suffering it to rise up against the Life of the Lord Jesus within her forcing it to serve his Glory So much for the Third Order of Passions Love Hatred So much for the First Circumstance in our Conversion The Universal Motion in our Passions 2. Circumstance A General Alteration in Practice This Alteration is Twofold 1. A Manifest withdrawing from all Companies and Contents that draw the Soul outward or downward 2. An eminent Delight in all Persons and Paâ—hs that draw the Spirit inward or upward David expresseth both these in himself Psal. 16. My delight is in the Excellent of the Earth As for them that go after other Gods I will not make mention of their Name 1. Use For Discovery Religion is no empty Name but a Real
Thing Two Things make a Reality in the Soul 1. The Object 2. The Inward Affections 1. The Object As the Woman is to the Man his Image his Glory in the Image So is the Soul to her Object If she espouse her self to the Lying Vanities of this World she makes her self one with them both Vanity and a Lye If she cleave to the Rock of Ages the Rock of the Godhead growing to that growing up out of that she becomes a Living Stone a Rock of Eternity in her self This is the First Motion in Religion the winding of the Soul about the utmost point of the Creature and turning in towards God again This is the Discriminating Dividing Temper between Religious and unregenerate Persons the Touching of the Soul with God as the Needle is touch't with the Load-stone when it may have various agitations yet it feels the Impressions of God in the midst of all when it can never establish or quiet itself in any posture save then only when it is pointed on God My Soul hath said to the Lord thou art my Portion Lamen 3. Psal. 16. 8. I have set the Lord always before me He is at my Right hand I shall not be moved God is our Assistant there where he is our Object at our Hand if he be in our Eye This is the Life and Essence of Religion the exaltation of God in our Spirits as our Chief Object to which and by which we are directed Examine thy self by this If the world be all to thee and God a Fancy then art thou like that world a Fancy and a Bubble If God be all to thee and the world a Dream then thou hast Strength Life and Substance For thou art one with him who is the Life Strength Substance Being of all things Is thy Heart as a Hearth on which Thorns only blaze Are the workings of thy Spirit like thin and fine Smoak slight and vanishing Can then there be any Religion where there is no Reality He is the Religious man who graspes Substance who digs thorow all things till he meets with a sure Foundation who hath taken hold of something Solid Satisfactory Everlasting at which his Soul stops on which she stays her self I hate them saith David that look to lying Vanities but my trust is in the Lord. There is a Three-fold Sense of things which makes a Religious man Real 1. Sense of this World's sorrows 2. Sense of Divine Wrath. 3. Sense of Divine Love 1. Sense of this World's sorrows No man is in the Spirit of Christ who hath not been at the Cross in the Grave of Christ and there seen the end of all this world's Glories Who beholds things in the Eternal Light He that hath first seen this world in a Fire out of which it falls into blackness of Darkness By the Cross of Christ the World is crucified to me saith St. Paul I come to kindle a Fire in the World saith our Saviour and what will I if it be already Kindled They that go down into the Deep see the Wonders of the Lord saith the Psalmist Whoever is gone up to Heights of Grace hath gone down into the Deep of the First Creation and seen Wonders of Darkness there Jonah tells us of himself Jon. 2 6. I went down to the bottom of the Muntains the bars of the Earth were about me for ever Hast thou descended with thy Saviour to the Bottom of this Creation hast thou seen about thee those everlasting Bars of Darkness which bear up and bound this Creation Then shew us the effect which Solomon mentions in Ecclesiastes A sad Countenance makes a good Heart As Darkness contracts the Eye unites the Fancy and makes it strong So a sad Face of things makes the Spirit gather up itself into itself live serious and Recollected 2. Sense of Divine Wrath. We saith St. Paul knowing the Terrours of the Lord persuade men 2. Cor. 5. 11 If we know God we know his Terrours and what the Power of his Wrath is can we not then persuade our selves to be serious Have you seen the Treasures of wrath laid up with God for those that harden their Hearts in Sloth and Sense to an insensibleness of Spiritual and Eternal things Have you heard those seven-times-seven fold increases of Fury upon those who go on in Vanity and yet say it shall not be so it shall be well with them Cannot these things make you Real and Sober If still vanity be your Life your Food your Joy if still Lightness be your Air and Shadows the Game which you hunt with your Reason and Senses then fear lest you have seen Shadows only of these Objects lest your Religion too be vain 3. Sense of Divine Love The Scripture saith in one place to good men The Joy of the Lord shall be your Strength Such as the Nourishment of our Spirit is such will its Constitution and our Conversation be If our Food our Joy be Divine and we eat the Bread of Angels our Lives will be Divine and our Faces shine with Angelical Beams If our Delights be Vanity and we feed on wind our Spirits and Conversation will be windy The same Solomon that said of Mirth what dost thou And of Laughter it is Madness Eccles. 2. 2. He saith Prov. 3. The ways of Wisdom are ways of Peace and all her Paths are pleasantness Spiritual Pleasures are Serious ones as Grave as Wisdom itself for they are her Walks The Love of Christ constrains us saith St. Paul 2 Cor. 5. The Love of Christ holds in binds up and unites the Spirit not suffering it to pour forth itself loosely That Liberty which is Daughter to Divine Love what a Stranger is it to Licentiousness Those Sweetnesses which flow from God and his Glories how do they look down upon and despise Empty Mirths and mad Laughters A Bride made a Woman of a Cat and set among the Guests in the bridal Chambear on a sudden runs after a Mouse which stir'd in a Corner of the Room If thy Soul be still ready to fly at every vanity which is at any time started in the eye of it thou maist be cloth'd with the Form of a Heavenly Bride but sure thou hast still a Brutish Spirit Thus you see how the Object of a Religious man makes him Real The Second Reality in Religion is that of Inward Affections 2. The Inward Affections My Son saith Wisdom in the Proverbs give me thy Heart Perhaps you give to God your Feet to carry you to Sermons you give him your Hands to work or fight for him you give him your Tongue to discourse of Him but have you given him your Heart Doth that cleave to him long and pant after him sigh for him live only in Him David saith to God Psâ—l 51. Thou lovest Uprightness in the Inward parts The more Inward any thing is the more Upright it is Are thy frequentest Groans such as thou dost not express thou canst not express such as thy Spirit
Death 23. v. If there be a Messenger with him an Interpreter one among a Thousand to shew to man his Uprightness Now in this Evening-close of life and joy in this rushing approach of a dreadful eternal Night Jesus Christ steps forth as a Messenger an Interpreter between God and Man He opens upon him his own Beauty the mans own proper and true Beauty which was his own in Eternity 24. v. Then he is gracious to him and saith Deliver him from going into the Pit I have found a Ransom Then the Father smiles upon the Soul Then He gives a command in the Ears of the Soul to all the Invisible Ministers of Darkness and Death to let him go To all the Spirits of Life and Light to take charge of him to hold him in their Arms that his Life come not into the Prison of Spirits 25. v. His Flesh shall be fresher than a Childs he shall return to the days of his Youth He shall be translated into the Kingdom of Christ into that Paradise of God out of which he came There he shall flourish with a Flesh more beautiful more heavenly than that of Adam in Innocency There he shall see those Youthful Days which were before this World Thus God takes hold of Temporal Afflictions in them to convert us to Eternal Affectiâ—ns and Objects 1. Use. Instruction See how absolute and universal thy dependence is on thy God for Happiness His Fulness is the only Treasury in which every minute of thy Life every moment of thy Grief or Joy is â—aid up My times saith David are at the Right hand of the most High Psal. 31. 15. His Sweetness is the only Port or Gate by which this Fulness issues forth on thee and brings thee home to its own Place These Two are the Mine and Mint of thy Natural and Spiritual Life Jesus Christ is the Way of both these A man can receive nothing from God can never come to God but thorow Jesus Christ. Thus nothing comes to us or from us nothing comes to pass round about us which is not first pass'd through a Double Strainer the Heart of the Father and of Christ. Not a Sparrow falls to the Ground much less a Soul without both these our Heavenly Father and Saviour Not a Hair falls from our Heads much less a Thought from our Hearts without this Divine Pair The Father works and I work Saith Christ. Every thing of Man and the Creature is distill'd or dropt thorow this Double Heaven of the Father and Christ. We have our Being in these Two Nothing then can be without them We live in these Two Our Life then and each article of it is Their Life in us We move in Them Each Motion then would be none if it did not run upon this greater and less Wheel We lie still when they move not Thus thou knowest O God that it is not in him that walks to order his own steps Jere. 10. 23. What then shall we cast our selves into a Gulf of Ryot or sensual Pleasures because we cannot resist His Will nor rule our own Unhappy he on whose mind the Almighty God stamps this Image of His Will in the Wrathful and Dark Part of it Yet he also shall go as it is written of him upon the Heart of God but in Fiery Letters God hath made all things for Himself even the wicked for the Day of Wrath Prov. 16. 4 But how can we abide in the Dark or bitter Part of things in Flesh and Sin If we know that the Will of God is the Rule of all things and an Infinite Light Love Goodness the Rule of this Will He that saith he hath seen God and walks in Darkness lies and the Truth is not in him 1 John 1. 6. He that saith he sees the Will of God to act all things and yet is himself acted by a Contrary Will checks and contradicts himself while he speaks and acts How can we that are dead to sin live any longer in it Rom. 6. 2. If the Divine Fulness and Sweetness have discovered themselves to us they have overshadowed us darkning by an Eternal Death the Light of our own Life in Vanity and Flesh. They have drunk up our Spirits into themselves and infused their Spirit into us Thus they themselves are become the Death and Resurrection of Christ in us that we live no longer but Christ liveth in us and the Father in Christ. Obj. But you will say If I be wicked what can I do I have no power upon my own Spirit but am over ruled by a Power above me which commands All. Must I then still sin still be forlorn without any hope or help in my self Must I sit down with Despair and make that my only comfort to hope for no comfort Ans. No No! Let this be not my Despair but my surest Hope and sweetest that I am no more in my own power who am a foolish weak inconstant Creature but form'd fashion'd commanded managed entirely by Him who is the Greatest and Best of all things Let me draw from this Consideration these holy and happy Resolutions 1. I will resign my self to my God I will give up the rudder of my Spirit to him who alone guides it and guides it by a Sweetness unclouded a Wisdom unquestioned a Power uncheck't 2. I will repose my self in my God What the bad King said foolishly I desire ever to say upon a holy and divine Principle This also is of the Lord Therefore will I wait upon him 2 Kings ch 6. v. last He hath a Glory in this He will make this a Glory to me if I wait stedfastly to the end For he doth this who doth all and doth all well who hath no Principle but Love no act but Power no end but Glory I have finish'd the First Part of my Text which was The Rise to the Kingdom I have concluded the Doctrine which was propounded from that Part The first Rise to Religion is a Change or Conversion Part 2. The Race to the Kingdom and become as little Children These Words afford this Second Doctrine Doctr. 2. The second Step in Religion is to a state of Childhood Read Gal. 4. 1. The Heir while he is a child differâ—th not from a Servant though he be Lord of all We have here a Child a Regenerate person one born a Son of God made a Saint yet at first nothing differing from a Servant coming afterwards in the second place to the quality of a Son and Heir The Person of a man in the Non-age till Reason which is the Principle of a man puts forth itself in him is but as a Plant or at best a Brute a sensitive Creature So that Soul which hath the Seed of the Divine Nature sown â—in it until that Seed be grown up is as a Servant not as a Son These are the Two states in Religion 1. A Servile State 2. A Son-like State As St. Paul saith in another case First is
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
can make Darkness in thy Soul His Secret place out of which he shoots his invenomed arrows into thy heart He can make thick Clouds upon thy Soul his Pavilion from whence he will make war upon thee Thus we must distinguish upon the Appearances of God 2. Distinct. Secondly we must distinguish upon the Person of God as He is in Himself and as He is in Jesus Christ. 1. First God as He is in Himself is One One rest and blessedness in every State Thus God is All in All all that sweetness peace joy in every Appearance which he is in any Appearance It is said in Job of the Earth as it was in its first State No stranger passed thorow it So it is true of the God-Head in its first State in its simplicity that there is no Strange Appearance there This Throne of God wherever it is set up is a Circle and every hand is the Right Hand there every Shape in which God puts forth Himself is Love 2. Secondly God as He is in Iesus Christ hath his Right and his Left Hand his Sweet and Strange Appearances Light and Darkness Love and Wrath Revel 6. 16. They cry to the Rocks and the Mountains to fall upon them to hide them from the wrath of the Lamb. Jesus Christ witnesseth John 5. 22. The Father judgeth no man but hath committed all judgment to the Son This distinguishing and dividing Judgment by which God puts forth Himself in Love upon some in Wrath upon others is not exercised by the Father that is by God as He is in Himself but by the Son that is by God as He is in Jesus Christ. This is the Kingdom of God the shining forth of the God-Head from the right hand of the Lord Jesus in its own proper Glory calming and clearing up all in the Soul scattering like Clouds those strange Appearances of Darkness and Terrour into which God had before put himself This is Christ shewing us the Father discovering God in his First Light as He is the Fountain of Love where there is neither Fear nor Torment Use. 1. For Tryal By this we may try our selves whether we be in the Kingdom of God or no. The Kingdom of God is Peace If you be truly in Peace you are of a truth in the Kingdom of God I will enlarge this Tryal by Three Instances which are the Glory the Grace the Blessing of God 1. Glory First the Glory of God and the Peace of God ever go together Luk. 2. 14. In the Angels Song these two are united Glory to God on high Peace on Earth Jesus Christ when he came down from Heaven and was incarnate Angels in their Praises and Prayers at the Incarnation joyn these two Spiritual Glory and Spiritual Peace as undivided in their Life and Death in their absence and presence The Soul that is without Peace is indeed without in that Darkness which is without whither nothing of the Glory of God comes whence no Glory is given to God If thou canst live without Peace thou livest in a true Hell where there is nothing of the Light of the Glory of God nor any desire of it If thou hadst any taste or glympse of the Glory of God in thy Soul thou wouldst feel a sweet peace within thee with thy God with thy self and with all things The Glory of God is a Healing a Uniting a Perfecting thing it makes all perfect in One Mal. 4. 2. A Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in his Wings The Sun-shine of Glory falling from the Face of God upon the Soul in any degree sweetly and soundly closeth up wounds maketh up breaches and divisions in the Spirit The Wings of the Sun are his Beams Each touch of any one Beam of the Glory of God upon the Soul carries a healing lenifying appeasing vertue 2. Grace Secondly the Grace and the Peace of God ever go together St. Paul when he prays for the Saints at the beginning of all his Epistles joyns these Two Grace and peace from God our Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ. So much of the Grace of God as goes forth into the Soul so much of Peace goes along with it Where there is no Peace there is no Grace There is a Two-fold Grace of God the Love of God towards the Soul the Loveliness or Image of God in the Soul 1. Where there is nothing of Peace there is nothing of the Grace of God that is of the Love of God yet appearing to that Soul Where the Love of God is poured forth it is an overflowing Sweetness 1 Corin. 13. 5. Charity thinketh no ill This Charity which is said in the same Chapter to be perfect to remain for ever can be no other than the Love of God let down from Heaven into the Soul and revealed there gathering the Soul up into itself to dwell in this Love The Soul that dwells in this Love thinks no evil of God of itself of any thing but is at peace with all hath sweet thoughts of all For the Love of God is its Eye by which it sees and its Heart by which it thinks It sees God itself and all things by the Light of this Love it thinks of all things by the Strength of this Love 2. Where there is nothing of Peace there is nothing of the Grace of God that is of the loveliness of God of the Beauty of Holiness in that Soul So much of Peace so much of Holiness and Spirituality So much of Distraction and Disquiet so much of Corruption and Carnality Where things begin to descend there begins Flesh and Division As things descend and go lower so these things increase Where things begin to ascend there begins Spirit Spirituality Unity and Peace The more we ascend and go upward the more we increase in these 3. Blessing Thirdly the Blessing and the Peace of God ever go together Prov. 15. 17. Better is a Dinner of Herbs with Love than a stalled Ox with hatred Love is the Womb of Peace and Hatred is the Mother of Unquietness as appears by that place Prov. 10. 12. Hatred stirreth up strife but Love covereth a multitude of Sins Didst thou live at the highest rate of all content in thine outward man and hadst no peace in thy Soul thou couldst have nothing blest to thee All thy delicacies would have a bitterness on thy palate and a venom in thy bowels that will never suffer thee to have a true joy in any thing which thou enjoyest Hadst thou but a Dinner of Herbs the lowest fare such as the Cattel may have together with thee and hadst Spiritual peace with it these Herbs would have such a blessing in them that they would be as the food of Paradise was to man when he had Herbs and all Green things given him for meat If thine inward man had a stalled Ox those Oxen which Wisdom slays Prov. 9. 2. prepared for it the strongest notions the highest Mysteries set before thine understanding
their Eyes And therefore their Eyes are full of Tears they go on weeping but they carry their precious Seed with them in the Secret of their Souls These are Gods Mourners and these are to apply to themselves that sweet Promise Es. 57. 18. I have seen his ways I will heal him I will lead him also and I will restore Peace to him and to his Mourners the verse before was For the iniquities of his Covetousness I was Wroth with him and smote him I hid me and was Wroth and he went on frowardly in the way of his Heart How absolute how sweet how full is this Promise What objection canst thou make against thy self which the Lord doth not here punctually answer 1. Object Thou sayest I have been very sinful and still continue so Mercies Judgments do me no good but make me more wanton or more froward in an evil way Ans. Hark the Lord tells thee that he knows all this He hath seen thy ways the Evil of thy ways and every Aggravation of the Evil in them yet he saith I will heal thee He undertakes to be Himself thy Physician 2. Object But thou â—ryest â—ut I am Sick with my Lusts I am wounded with miseries I am broken with horrours And I have no Strength to recover my self out of any of these Ans. But the Lord Jesus saith I will heal theâ— of all these Evils of thy Sins thy Sorrows and thy Fears I will do it for thee by mine own Right Hand and for mine own Sake 3. Obj. Still thou objectest against thine own Mercies and complainest that thou knowest not Jesus Christ nor the way to Him Or if thou didst thou hast neither Will nor Power to come to him that thou mayst be healed by Him Ans. But what saith the Lord to thee I will lead thee also I will first come to thee I will stretch out my Hand towards thee and take hold of thy Spirit I will draw thee towards my self I will direct thee in the right Paths of my Love I will bear thee up in the way that thou shalt not fall in it nor fall from it 4. Obj. But thy Melancholy Dark and Sullen thoughts still abound in thee and suffer thee to have no Peace These fill thee with Fears and Tremblings that thou canst not take comfort in any thing Ans. But God will restore comfort to thee and to thy Mourners He will bring again that Comfort which thou hadst once in thy Spirit which thou hadst in Paradise It is now but laid aside hid sown in thee God will bring it forth to Light and set it before thee and make it to grow up out of thine own Spirit in the sight of thy Spirit and in the sight of all thy Mourners all those melancholy thoughts which now fill thee with so much heaviness I will restore Comfort Saith God The Comfort the Joy for the want of which thou Mournest is thine already it was thine Eternally it was the Grace given to thee before all times in Jesus Christ as St. Paul speaks to Timothy But as the Trees were first in the Creation and then the Seed and then again the Trees are restored to themselves out of their Seed So thy Comforts have been hid in thine Heart in which they lye in their proper Seed and out of which God will make them to grow up and so restore them to thee and thee to thy Spiritual and Heavenly self Thus much for the Second Answer The Peace and the Kingdom of God may be sown though they be not grown up in thee So I have done with the First Spirit to be silenc'd in the Soul that she may have Peace which is the Spirit of Wrath from God 2. The Spirit of the Devil This is the Second Spirit to be silenced in the Soul for her Spiritual Peace Read those Verses Psal. 46. 2. 3. Therefore we will not fear though the Earth be removed and though the Mountains be carryed into the midst of the Sea Though the Waters thereof roar and the Mountains shake with the swelling thereof Selah In the verse following you read of a River whose streams refresh the City of God This River is clearly the Spirit of God This Sea then which troubles the Earth must be the Spirit of the Devil the Natural Power of Darkness in the Creature which while it kept its own place and order had a Beauty in it but forsaking its own habitation as St. Jude speaketh it brings Confusion You may confirm that sense of the Sea in this place by comparing Two or Three places of Scripture more one with another Gen. 1. 2. That Darkness out of which the Light and Strength of the Creature was first raised is express'd by a Sea Darkness was upon the Face of the Deep and the Spirit of God moved upon the Face of the Waters Revel 20. 3. The Angel casts the Devil into the Bottomless Pit The Word here which is translated Bottomless Pit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 answer in Greek to that in Hebrew Tehôm which is expounded the Deep in that First of Genesis And the Sea is frequently called by this Name thorough the Scriptures Tehâ—m 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Deep The Devil was cast down into the great Deep of his own Darkness and shut up there Revel 21. 1. I saw a new Heaven and a new Earth and there was no more Sea The Spirit of the Devil and the Power of Darkness was now shut up in itself and no more troubled the Peace and Beauty of the Creature Though there was still Night and Day Darkness and Light yet there was no more Sea the Darkness was as a sweet Calm Stream refreshing the Earth and mingled with the Light of Life This Sea of Darkness and confusion lies at the bottom of the Spirit of every man naturally It encompasseth us on every side This often opens itself upon us and the Mountains of all our Strength Joy or Glory are swallowed up in the midst of it When the Waters of this Sea evil Spirits roar upon our Souls they fill them with Fear amazement and Horrour The Sea is accounted the Cause of Earth-quakes The Earth in a Man all the Foundations of his Life and Joy are violently shaken in him when this Sea swells beneath them What Peace what Establishment can there be to the Soul while this Power of Darkness rageth As the World shall have no Peace till it be bound up in its own Deep so neither can the Soul This is the Second Spirit to be silenced 3. The Spirit of a Man in Himself Before the Soul can have Peace her own Spirit must be silent in the midst of her Psal. 4. 4. We have this advice given us Commune with your own Heart upon your Bed and be still This seems to be a Contradiction Commune and be still But the Selah added points out a more hidden sense Here are Two Terms in this Scripture which have a various Sense Heart and Bed 1.
Heart Commune with your Hearts What is the Heart The Heart is the Inward Principle the Life-Principle 1. The Heart is the Inward Principle So you read of the Heart of the Sea Exod. 15. 8. and the Heart of the Earth Mat. 12. 40. Mark 7. 18. Whatsoever thing cometh from without defileth not the Man v. 19. Because it entreth not into thy Heart but into thy Belly and passeth into the Draughts v. 21. From within from the Heart of men proceed Evil thoughts Adulteries c. The Meats which we take in from without reach the Body in all the parts of it and they reach the Soul as it lives in the Body working upon it and making changes in it Both these then are the Belly the Outward Man which is maintained from an Outward Principle and passeth away into the Dust and Darkness But the Heart is more Inward and Immutable It is that which abides in the Invisible part of things and is that Hidden Spring the Principle both of Soul and Body This Heart in the Natural Man is the Spirit of Man in the Spirit of the Devil or in the Spirit of Divine Wrath or rather in both So from the Heart come evil thoughts So St. Iohn saith 1 Iohn 3. 20. If our Hearts condemâ— us God is greater than our Hearts and knoweth all things But if our Hearts condemn us not then have we confidence before God Every man hath in him a Principle more Inward than the Spirit of the Devil which is the Spirit of God as it comes forth into his Spirit and gives his Spirit a Created Invisible Immortal Being in itself among Angels This is that Heart of man with which he is to commune this is the Seat of Justification Or Condemnation The Spirit of Man as it lives above in the Spirit of God according to his Wrath or his Love Or the Spirit of God as it becomes the Principle of Nature a Principle in the Spirit of Man If this Heart condemn us that is the Spirit of God as it is the Principle of our Spirits God is greater than our Hearts that is the Spirit of God as it is in itself above our Spirits hath a greater Fulness of Majesty and Light in itself where it is as the Light in the Sun when as in our Spirits it is but as the Light in the Star If therefore it testifie Wrath to us in this relation in which it is but as a Glance it shall more fully testify wrath against us in that State in which it is the Full Glory As it is a Principle in our Spirits it opens itself truly but imperfectly in a right Sense but in a part only of its own Sense But as it is in itself it knows all things it opens itself to the utmost of its own sense and eternal purpose A man should neither comfort nor condemn himself from the language of his own Spirit as it lives in the Outward Soul or Body and speaks of its own This Spirit should be silent and still But we are to commune with the Divine Principle in us with our Spirits as they dwell within in the Spirit of God For so the Spirit of God and our Spirits are twisted in One make One Heart testify One thing and that truly whether it be for Life or for Death from Wrath or from Love For the Spirit of God and of Man in this Principle are an Image of the Spirit of God as it is absolute and supream in the God-Head But there is a Heart within this Heart This Heart is a Principle of Life or Death Love or Wrath. There is within this a Heart which is the Life-Princiciple and the Love-Principle 2. The Heart is the Life-Principle Prov. 4. 23. Keep thy Heart with all Diligence for out of it are the Issues of Life What is this Heart which we are to keep when we are to deny our selves We are to keep it not with Caution to preserve our selves from it but with Confidence to preserve our selves by it This place of Scripture is like that before it Prov. 4. 13. Where Solomon speaking of Wisdom or Instruction saith Keep her for she is thy Life Jesus Christ as he is in the Spirit is our Life-Principle Colos. 3. 4. When Christ who is our Life shall appear He is the Treasure of our Hearts and our truest Heart For from Him as He is in the Spirituality of his own Person are the Issues the Out-goings of our Life Mat. 6. 21. Where your Treasure is there will your Hearts be also Our Treasure and our Hearts are both with Jesus Christ in Heaven Colos. 3. 1. The Heart is the Treasury of all good things A good man out of the good Treasury of his Heart bringeth forth good things Mat. 12. 35. Jesus Christ is this Heart which hath the Treasure in it For in him are all the Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge hid Colos. 2. 3. Jesus Christ is the Heart as he is the Head of Man 1 Corin. 11. 3. The Head of every Man is Christ The Head of Christ is God The Lord Jesus as he is the Heavenly Man is the most proper Head and Heart of man the First Principle before all others the most inward Principle lying within and beneath all other Principles the Life-Principle Thus we see what the Heart is 1. Jesus Christ as He puts forth Himself in the Natural Spirit of Man to be the Principle of Nature either in a Power of Wrath or Love 2. Jesus Christ as He is in his own Heavenly Spirit and Person comprehending the Life Perfection and Blessedness of Man in Himself as in a Divine Root or Treasury 2. The Bed This is the Second thing of which we are to seek the meaning We read of a Bed of Tribulation Revel 2. 22. This Bed is a Spirit of Darkness Weakness Woe and Torment We read of a Bed in Tribulation which God prepares for those whom he loves Psal. 41. 3. Thou wilt make all his Bed in his Sickness or Thou wilt turn it the Inside of Peace Love and Glory for the Outside of Pain and Trouble or thou wilt change it from a Bed of Languishings into a Bed of Rest or a Bed of Love We read of Beds of Joy and Glory Psal. 149. 5. Let the Saints be joyful in Glory let them Sing aloud on their Beds In the Canticles there is mention made of the Bed of Christ and His Spouse Can. 1. 16. Our bed is Green There is also Solomons Bed who was a Type of the Heavenly Bridegroom Cant. 3. 7. Behold his Bed which is Solomons threesâ—â—re valiant men are about it of the valiant men of Israel This Bed is the Spirit of the Lord Jesus which shines forth and buds with Sweetness and Beauty which goes forth in the midst of the Angels cloathing itself with those Mighty and Glorious Spirits This Spirit draws the Soul forth from the Tumults of the Flesh takes her off from her own Strength and casts
what all this means by another a plainer Parable John 12. 24. If the Corn dye not it abides alone But if it dye it brings forth much fruit The â—lâ—shly Appearances of Christ are the Talents un-multiplyed the Corn abiding alone While they so continue they are solitary melancholy bearing little fruit of Glory to God or Joy to the Soul But then the Soul casts these Talents into the Bank then she sows this Corn when she resigns them to God when she crucifies them and dies to them by the power of the Death of the Lord Jesus in her Now the Soul hath them within her rising again in the Spirit after a Spiritual manner Now she receives them again with an increase of Holiness Peace and Joy Now the Lord Jesus saith to the Soul Well done good and faithful Servant thou hast been faithful in a few things in poor low and dark manifâ—sâ—ations Thou hast submitted them to my will and yielded them up to the power of my Death I therefore will make thee ruler over many Thou shalt no more be subject to low and single Appearances Thou shalt reign in the power plenty and variety of more Glorious Manifestaâ—ions Enter thou into these high and Spiritual Discoveries of God in which thy Lord and Saviour now enjoys Himself So the Kingdom and Ioy of the Lord shall be thy Kingdom and Ioy. Application Use. 1. Examination There is nothing of more concernment to us than to distinguish and discern aright our Joys Sensual and carnal Joys are apt to make us sensual and fleshly ignorant and brutish as the Beasts Delusive Joys make our Souls as Devils in the form of Angels of Light Spiritual Joys when they are truly such make us most like to God The Delights of Nature and sense are indifferent things lawful if they be lawfully used They are therefore to be taken with much moderation and caution as the Wine that St. Paul speaks of to Timothy Drink not alwaies Water but drink a little Wine for thy healths sake Delusions and false Raptures of Spirit are a sweet Poyson which are taken in greedily and kill so much the more speedily The Soul is naked open free simple in her joys she mingles herself inwardly and deeply with the Spirit of her joys As Herod offered to the half of his Kingdom to Herâ—dias when she pleased him with dancing before him It is then a thing of great moment to understand the nature of our Joys that we may know when to admit and to reject them How and to what height to cherish or check them I will propound Four Tryals of our Joy 1. Tryal The First Tryal is this Spiritual Joys ever spring from a Spiritual sense of the Love of God towards us Rom. 5. St. Paul speaks of his Joy v. 5. Rejoycing in the hope of the Glory of God He goes on discoursing of the growth strength effects of this Joy Then v. 5. He shews you the Ground of his Joy The Love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost that he hath given us Spiritual Joys can give an account and a reason of themselves There are Three things which go to make up the Reason of Spiritual Joy when it is Right 1. The Love of God not any Loveliness of our own or the Sweetness of any Creature 2. The Discovery of this Love in an open manifest way with a Fulness and Clearness like a Liquor that is poured forth and spread abroad 3. The Holy Ghost making this Discovery and evidencing it by his own presence and power in the Soul This is the Reason which Spiritual Rejoycings and Gloryings give of themselves The Love of God shed abroad in our Hearts by the Holy Ghost which he hath given us Are your Joys ignorant sudden and violent such as spring from no appearing cause and can give no account of themselves Whence do your Joys arise from a Sense of the Love of God or from a Reflection upon your Selves upon any thing of or in the Creature Whence have you your Sense of the Love of God Is it wrought upon you by Fancy by the strength and frequency of Imagination or by the Persuasions of your own Souls or by the Reasonings of your own Hearts consulting with themselves and with the Letter of the Scriptures without the Holy Ghost by any of the Words or ways of mans Wisdom or Power without you or within you If your Joys be such as these you have reason to suspect and fear them least they be from the Father of Lies and not from the Father of Lights from the Fountain of bitterness and enmity not of sweetnes and Love 2. Tryal The Second Tryal of your Joy is the Effect of it Spiritual Joys increase Spiritual Strength in the Soul as they increase themselves Nehem. 8. 10. Go your ways saith Nehemiah to the People Eat the Fat and Drink the Sweet and send portions to them for whom nothing is prepared For this day is holy to the Lord. Be ye not sorry for the Ioy of the Lord is your Strength Thus the Lord Iesus speaks to the Soul in the Ministry of the Gospel Go your ways Feed upon the Fat of my Glory Drink the Sweet of my Love Sond forth Portious and Manifestations of this Glory and Love to them who have nothing of it yet prepared and set forth in their own Spirits This day is holy to me in it you are to live altogether to me and in the Light of my Appearances Then let not your Hearts be heavy nor your countenances sad For my Ioy shall not weaken or betray you My Ioy shall be a Presâ—rvative against Corruptions a Strength against Temptation the Power of a new life carrying you up on high into further Communion with God and Conformity to him There is a Threefold Joy that takes to itself often the name of being Spiritual 1. A Joy flowing from our natural temper and Complexion from sparklings of Blood or Flashings of melancholy is many times mistaken for a Spiritual Joy But this Joy dissolves it makes the Soul airy light and loose it exposeth the Soul to Vanity and Sin 2. A Iâ—y brought forth by an Evil Spirit of Delusion carries the Appearance of a Spiritual Joy This swells the Soul makes it vain-glorious confident secure in itself In this State the Soul easily falis into Temptation â—asily falls in the Temptation 3. Spiritual Joy truly so called This Knits the Union between Christ and the Soul more close and strong It gathers up the Soul more fully into the Spirit of the Lord Jesus St. John saith He that dwells in Love dwells in God It is as true He that dwells in Spiritual Joys dwells of a Truth in the Lord Jesus Vanity Lust Passion Pride come to the Soul in other Joys and find her fittest for them But when they come to the Soul in her Spiritual Joy so far as she is in that Joy they find nothing in her nothing to comply with
have strong Temptations mighty Lusts and no Power to withstand them I cannot Trust in God or Believe in Jesus Christ I find no Profit in the Ordinances I take no Pleasure at all in Spiritual Things Obj. But you will say may I not rejoyce when I discover the Workings of Grace in my Heart Is it not a just Cause of Grief when I feel my Heart hardned from the Love and Fear of God Ans. There is a Right and a Wrong Way of Rejoycing and Grieving in these Things The Mistake lies here in not Distinguishing between these Ways Psal. 3. 7. David rejoyc'd that the Lord by his Favour had made his Mountain so strong But this Mirth was quickly turn'd into Mourning It would not have been so if David instead of Rejoycing in the Mountain made strong by the Favour of the Lord had Rejoyc'd in the Lord and his Favour which made that Mountain strong Or rather if instead of that Favour of the Lord he had made the Lord of that Favour his Joy Psal. 77. Asaph abandoned all Joy and gave himself over to Grief for Gods With-drawings from him in the Sensible Conveyances of His Grace to his Soul v. 2. 3. c. But he repents himself of Measuring his Ioy or Grief by this Standard and finds a Cause of Joy above these Troubles v. 10. I said This is mine Infirmity but I will remember the Years of the Right Hand of the most High I shall speak of Spiritual Mourning when I come to the next Mistake In the mean time I will give you Two Rules for the Removing of the Mistake in this Point of Grounding our Joys The Two Rules are These 1. Rule Make God as He is in Himself the Object of your Ioy without any Consideration of your selves at all 2. Rule Take the Rise of your Ioy from Iesus Christ not as He Communicates Himself to you but as He Comprehends you in Himself I will begin with the First Rule 1. Rule Make God as He is in Himself the Object of your Ioy without any Consideration of your selves at all When St. Paul commands Joy he confines us to the Person of God for the Matter of our Joy Philip. 3. 1. Finally Brethren Rejoyce in the Lord. The Person of the Lord hath Space and Room and Entertainment enough for thy Joys in their largest Extent Thou needst not wander besiâ—es the Tents of any Creature within thee or without thee Do but still Pitch thy Thoughts upon this Mark and thou shalt have Plenty of Joy He that makes God as He is Alone the Matter of his Rejoycing will find Abundant matter of Joy in every Season You have David's Example in this kind Psal. 118. 14. The Lord is my Strength and Song He is become my Salvation The Lord is then Strong in you and for you when you receive Him in the Simplicity of His Nature unmixt with anything of the Creature God is weakned and straitned when He is Compounded with any other thing You bring Him out of Himself and below Himself when you joyn Him with any thing besides Himself It is said of Jesus Christ in the Gospel that in One Place He could do no Great Work because of Their Unbelief Faith is the Emptying and Filling Grace It Empties the Soul of itself and the Creature It Fills the Soul with God While we abide in Unbelief that is in any Thing of our Own or the Creatures we weaken God in us we bind Him and make Him un-able He can do no Great Work in us We have God in Power when we have Him in Purity we have Him in Purity when we have Him in the Simplicity and Nakedness of his own Person Thus the Lord is thy Strength And thus must He be thy Song the Subject of thy Joy When thou singest of God alone then art thou strong and hast strong Joys The Lord is thy Salvation So far as thou goest out of thy self and the World so far as thou entrest into God thou entrest into Salvation Joy and Heaven itself I will back this Rule with some Particular Motives 1. Motive Look to God in the Nakedness of His own Person and you shall see Light without any Darkness John 8. 12. Jesus Christ saith of Himself I am the Light of the World He that followeth me shall not walk in Darkness but shall have the Light of Life Our Saviour is the Light that points and chalks out our way to us He is the Star that goes before us and stands over the God-Head as the House in which He and We must find our Rest and dwell for Ever Follow Christ. Which way goes Christ He goes by the Cross and thorow Death He descends to the Lowermost Darkness Then He ascends thorow all things till He comes above All. He goes up above the Highest Heavens into God Go you after the Lord Jesus Tread in the Steps of this Shepherd of the Flock Go by the Cross the Death and the lowest Darkness Carry every thing of the Creature with thee this Way into These Then rise up out of All pass thorow All till thou come beyond All unto the High and Holy Habitation of the God-Head If thy Heart be in this Treasure of the Divine Nature if thine Eye be upon it and thy Way be towards it thy Way itself shall be a Light of Truth and Joy without any Darknâ—ss Psal. 104. 2. Who coverest thy self with Light as with a Garment and stretchest out the Heavens like a Curtain Every Thing of the Creature is a Covering upon God even the Brightest the most Beautiful Piece of the Creature the Light itself The Highest and most Glorious Things the Heavens themselves are Curtains drawn before the Lord Hiding and Darkning Him to us You must break thorow the Light of Angels the Highest Heavens the Divinest Excellencies of this Creation into the Open Face of the Godâ—Head if you will have the true Light of Peace and Joy in your Spirits While you sit under any Thâ—ng Created you sit under a Cloud in the Dark you can never be free from Fears Doubts Uncertainties and Unsatisfactions This is the First Motive 2. Motive Set your Heart and Thoughts on God in the Simplicity of His own Nature and you shall sit down under Love without any Mixture of Wrath. Esa. 27. 4. The Lord saith of Himself Fury is not in me who would set the Bryars and Thorns against me in Battel I would go through them I would burn them together God as He is in the Singleness of His own Person and Nature hath nothing of Wrath in Him but all Sweetness Love and Blessedness God in Himself is Light and Love He is a Fire a Principle of Wrath only as He is in the Fleshly Creature Straitned Imprisoned and Resisted by the Darkness of the Flesh. If you hold up any Created Strength or Excellency before God you set Bryars and Thorns against Him upon which God Kindles in his Wrath as a Consuming Fire 1 Corin.
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
the Creature should dwell in Him Coloss. 1. 19. Obj. But you may object and say It is true all things that have a Being or Subsistency have it in Christ For all things subsist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Him Coloss. 1. 17. But there are Two ways of being in Christ One as He is Head of the First Creation So Plants and Brute Creatures have their Being Motion and Life in Him as well as Men or Angels What Happiness or Joy can I have in this Another Way of being in Christ is as He is Head of the Second Creation the First-born from the Dead The Lord Jesus in this State comprehends the Spirits of men in Himself with a very great Contrariety some in Love others in Wrath. So we read that there were Sheep set on his Right Hand and Goats on His Left Mat. 25. 33. What comfort can I have in the Lord Jesus till I know on which Hand I stand What shall discover to me whether I be comprehended in his Love or his Wrath Ans. I entreat thee to understand and lay up this which I shall now say carefully in thine Heart It is a Preparation to the Answer to this Objection which thou hast made and the only way of Satisfaction It is this The Left Hand of Jesus Christ is his Weakness his State and Appearance under a vail of Flesh as he bears the Image of the Creature upon Himself For this Reason the Works of Wrath are the Strange Works of Christ and God Es. 28. 21. This Expression His Strange Work signifies a work with which he is not acquainted in His own Person and Nature a Work which is uncouth to Him in which the Height of his Skill and Power delight not to put forth themselves a work in which he is descended out of his own Form into some inferiour Form of the Creature and so become a Stranger to Himself The Right Hand of Christ is the Person or Spirit of Christ in its full Power and Glory as Christ is at the Right Hand of God that is in Immediate and Personal union with the Father When the Love of Christ is signified by his Right Hand the meaning is that Love belongs to Christ in the Proprâ—eâ—y of His Person Therefore St. John saith God is Love 1 John 4. 16. Now the Answer to the Objection follows clearly from these Premises if they be clearly understood You shall know that you are comprehended in the Love of the Lord Jesus if you look within the Vail beyond the Creature to the End to Jesus Christ in the Simplicity of his own Person as he is the Beginning and the End of all the Works of God 2 Corin. 3. 13. It is only the Discovery of the naked Person of Christ in you which can discover your Persons naked in the Love of Christ. 2 Corin. 4. 6. God hath shined into our Hearts the Light of the Knowledge of the Glory of God in the â—ace of Jesus Christ. You cannot see the Glory of God in his Eternal Love to your Persons but by the Shining out of God from the Naked Face or Person of Jesus Christ within your Hearts 1 John 5. 10. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the Witness in Himself because He hath the Son of God in Hâ—mself who is the only True and Faithful Witness While you look at any thing below Christ whether without or within your selves while you look at any thing oâ— or in Christ besides himself while you look upon Christ in any Relation Capacity or Consideration and not in the Singleness of his own heavenly and Divine Person you will sit under a Cloud though light may be sown for you He that followeth me shall not walk in Darkness but shall have the Light of Life John 8. 12. You can have Light in your Eye no longer than your Eye is upon the Person of Christ. Every other way iâ— Darkness Then do this Tâ—ke off the Eye of your Souls from all Outward Things Turn it Inward into the Sâ—cret of your own Spirits There lay aside all Appearances of your Self or any Creature which would draw your Eye to it â—â— Glittering Cloud at best or a Shining Vail So wait till Jesus Christ sets his own Person before your Spirits in the Light of God When you see him you shall in the same Light see your Selves in Him and together with Him in Love Now for ever after make your self your Graces but Glasses to see the Face of Christ in and Christ will be a Glass in which you shall see your own Face in the Love and Glory of God Obj. Still you may urge and say But how and when shall I have this Appearance of Jesus Christ to me Ans. 1. St. Paul tells thee how Jesus Christ shall appear to thee 2 Corin 4. 6. God who hath made Light to shine out of Darkness hath shined into our Hearts As Light shined out of Darkness so shall Jesus Christ appear in thine heart out of the midst of Ignorance Unbelief Lusts and all manner of Contrariety Thy Evil shall no more hinder his Discoveries than Darkness can the shining of the Light His breakings forth no more depend upon or are assisted by thy Spirit than the spreading of the Light through the Air depends upon the Air. As Light was brought forth upon the Waters when there was no Light by the Moving or Hatching of the Spirit of God and by the Word of God So shall God upon thy Spirit as easily as soon as a Word is spoken bring forth in thy Spirit the Sight of Christ where there was no Sâ—ght at all of him Thus you see How the Lord Jesus shall be discovered in thee But still thou cryest How long Lord When shall this be I answer thee to that also that it shall be in the Fulness of thy Time As the World hath its fulness of Time so hath a particular Soul for the bringing forth of Christ in it God hath several works upon thy Soul various Forms to bring thee thorow and to bring forth himself in before thee When these are full then will he last of all come forth to thee in his Last and full Appearance which is the Manifestation of the Lord Jesus God hath his Ordinance with the Sun and Moon which run their Race from one end of the Sky unto the other These at length enlighten every part of the Earth in its Season as they come to it in their Course The Ordinance and Covenant of God is as sure with Jesus Christ who is the Day-star and Day-light of thy Spirit He hath his Goings forth decree'd and set Him from Eternity Wait thou for him as the Watch-men watch for the Morning For thou shalt so certainly see his Appearance in thy Soul The Vision of Christ is for an appointed Time It is like the Birth of Isaac who was the Type It hath its Set time In its Set time it shall not fail Go thy ways then be at
Rest have this assurance in thy self that thou â—alt stand up in the Light of Christ in thy Lot Cantic 6. 13. You have a Song in Parts Christ and his Angels answering one another or the Spirit of Man answering it self Return O Shulamite that we may see thee What will ye see in the Shulamite As it were the Company of two Armies Invisible Things and Visible Divine and Humane God and the Creature united in a Holy Soul Hitherto I have persuaded you to see nothing besides the Single Person of God and Christ if you would have true Joy Now you may say to me what shall we see in the Single Person of God and Christ to give us true Joy I think it therefore necessary for me to point out to you the Several Springâ— of Joy for all Seasons in the Person of God and Christ before I leave this Subject that so my discourse upon it may be more full and Satisfactory to the Soul There are various Springs in the Person of God which but look't upon by any Spirit in any Condition would certainly bubble up a Sweet Delight into that Spirit I will indeavour to lead you to these Springs There are Five distinct Springs of Joy in the Person of Christ or God 1. Love 2. Beauty 3. Power 4. Wisdom 5. Glory 1. Spring Love Psal. 63. 3. David confesseth to God Thy Loving Kindness is better than Life Solomon faith A living Dog is better than a dead Lyon Life is the best of all Created Things Yet the Love of God is better than Life Instead of Better you may read Sweeter Did you ever tast a Sweetness in Life In your own Life Or in the Life of any Thing that was dearest to you The Love of God can make this Sweetness none at all overcoming it with a greater Sweetness in itself The Love of God can Sweeten the Loss of your own Life or the Life of those in whom you have most Delight because it is itself far Sweeter Waters are Sweetest in their Fountain The Love of God is the Fountain of Life All Lives derive themselves as Streams from this Head Hath Life ever been Sweet to you Come to the Love of God and you shall tast the Sweetness in a Sweeter manner in its Fountain The Love of God hath a Six-fold Sweetness in it 1. A Pardoning 2. A Healing 3. A Clearing 4. A Chearing 5. A Crowning 6. A Conquering Sweetness 1. There is in the Love of God a Pardoning Sweetness David melts out this Psal. 103. 3. Who pardoneth all thine Iniquities O hear this you who with Mary Magdalen have a full number of Sins in you and those ripened into so many Devils Though your Iniquities be as a Mountain reaching up to Heaven the Love of God hath a Sea of Sweetness in it which can swallow up this Mountain that nothing of it shall ever appear any more 2. There is a Healing Sweetness in the Love of God David adds this in the former place Psal. 103. 3. Who healeth all thy Diseases The Woman who had many years been afflicted with a Bloody Issue and had spent all on Physitians was cured by one Touch of the Hem of Christs Garment Here is Comfort for you who have old Sins or Sorrows like Sores running continually upon you and can find no help or ease The Love of Christ can cure you in a Moment with one Touch onely of its Sweetness upon your Spirits 3. The Love of Christ hath a Clearing Sweetness 1 Iohn 5. 20. The Son of God is come and hath given us an understanding by which we may know Him who is true What Job said of himself is true of the Love of Christ It is Eyes to the Blind The Psalmist makes a Sweet Conjunction of Tasting and Seeing Isal. 34. 8. O tast and see that the Lord is gracious 1 Sam. 14. 2. Jonathan said See I pray how mine Eyes have been Enlightned because I tasted a little of this honey Do but tast this honey the Sweetness of the Love of Christ and see how the Eyes of your minds will be Enlightned to a Discovery of Spiritual and Heavenly Things 4. The Love of God hath a Chearing Sweetness the Heavenly Spouse saith to her Saviour Thy Love is better than Wine Cant. 1. 2. It is the Advice of Solomon's Mother Prov. 31 6 7. Give strong drink to him that is ready to perish and wine to those that be of a heavy heart Let him drink and forget his Poverty and remember his Misery no more The Sweetness of our Saviour's Love is the True Wine the New Wine as He is the True Vine This is strong drink of a strength to ravish and transport the Soul out of and above her self Give this drink to that Spirit which is dropping into Hell or Despair Give this spiritual wine to him that hath a heart heavy with guilt wrath and terrours Let him drink freely One draught of this Sweetness shall make him forget his guilt and remember his fears no more The fifth Sweetness in the Love of Christ is a Crowning Sweetness Psa. 103. v. 4. God saith David to his soul crowneth thee with loving kindnesses and tender mercies The Love of God casts its Sweetness all round about thee that thou canst turn thy self no way but thou meetest with this Sweetness Jesus Christ encompasseth thee with a Ring of Sweetness as a Garland of Roses encompasseth the Head Nothing can come at thy Person but it must come thorow this Sweetness and so be Sweetned by it St. Iohn calls Jesus Christ Revel 1. 5 6. Him that loved us c. and made us Kings and Priests to God his Father The Love of Christ Crowns us Kings Kings to God not Imaginary but True Kings not Puppet-Kings in the Play of this Life but Real Kings not Kings to shadows for the Dream of Time but Kings for Eternity to God Kings as God and Christ whose Kingdom is not in this world but in heavenly places and in the Power of an Endless Life 6. A Conquering Sweetness This is the last Of this St. John testifies concerning Christ Joh. 13. 1. Having loved his own he loved them to the end The Love of Christ hath a conquering and triumphant Sweetness indeed for it bring all things Sin Misery Flâ—sh Time the World Death to an end but hath itself no end Fear not lest thy corruptions or evil should outwear thy Saviour's Love No It is made of a durable and everlasting Sweetness which will outlast all things besides it self or subdue them to itself Here you may change the Riddle and sing Out of sweetness comes strength and out of the heavenly meat of our Spirits comes forth the Eater that devours all other things and makes them its meat Eph. 3. 19. St. Paul saith of the Love of Christ that it passeth knowledge This is a Conquering Sweetness which conquers all our faculties our largest even our Understanding itself The Understanding is the Gate of the Soul according
all the Natures of Love and Wrath the two Contrary heads of all distinct Natures are Originally in God according to their Eternal Ideas or First Forms If Jesus Christ had not come forth into all these Forms and taken upon himself these several Natures in their utmost varieties and contrarieties he had wanted some parts belonging to his Person and been imperfect in his Relation as a Son a Saviour in his Office as a Representer a Reconciler Therefore as St. Paul witnesseth He descended first to the lowermost Parts of the Earth then He ascended above all Heavens and that for this reason that He might fill All Ephâ—s 4. 10. Thus he was made perfect by Sufferings The descent of Christ was the drawing of the Picture of the God-Head upon him in its lowest and outermost Mysteries or wonders of Glory in its Back-parts or Feet The Ascent was the Uniting of the lowest to the highest the bringing of the outermost into the bosom of the Innermost the drawing up of the Feet into the Bed into the rest and Glory of the head The Scripture holds forth the accomplishment of the same Mystery in our Persons after the same manner Jesus Christ went thorow these Sufferings as our Captain that he might lead us the same way to the same end that he might bring us as Sons to inherit the same Glory to fulfil all Righteousness all the goings forth of the God-Head in our selves thorow Christ Heb. 2. 10. St. James c. 1. v. 2 4. exhorts the Saints to account it all Joy when they fall into all manner of Temptations and to let Patience have her perfect work which would make them Perfect entire wanting nothing We were brought forth upon the uppermost parts the Face of the Earth in Paradise Let us now with Jesus Christ go down into the Deep to the lowermost parts of the Earth by Sufferings and Sorrows Let us patiently endure till we are carried thorow all the Chambers of Death and the innermost corners of that Cave of Darkness till we be carried out of all up into Heaven So we shall be clothed with all the Wonders of God and have his manifold Wisdom his Fulness displaid in our Persons as his Sons also together with our Saviour Willingly then Travel thorow the valley of Baca of Mourning and Lamentation as the way of Perfection the Accomplishment of the Mystery of God in you Now I have performed the first part of my promise which was to speak of the Nature of Spiritual Mourning There remains behind the Second part of my promise which is to speak of the Mixture of Spiritual Mirth and Spiritual Mourning I will direct you to this Mixture by Five Rules 1. Rule So grieve as giving Glory to God in your Griefs 1 Cor. 10. 31. Whether ye eat or drink or whatsoever ye do do all to the Glory of God whether ye Mourn or be merry let both be to the Glory of God Mourn not as questioning the Sweetness in the Will of God the Wisdom in the Counsels of God the Strength in the Power of God the Beauty in the Face of God the Pleasures in the Person of God the Infiniteness in all Grieve not to the Clouding but the clearing of the Appearances of God in your Spirit Let not your Sorrows be as a troubled Sea but as a Sea of Christal thorow which you may see the glorious face of God As the Beams of the Sun shining thorow red Glass so will the glory of God be appearing thorow your Sorrows It will beget a Pleasantness in your bloodiest Pangs 2. Rule Let your Mourning raise not ruine the Life of the Spiritual Man in you Though the Outward Man perishes the Inward Man is renewed day by day 2 Cor. 4. 16. Let your Sorrows weigh down the Natural Man only as one of the Buckets that the Spiritual Man as the other of the Buckets may be lifted up If that Life which is Light in the Lord be lifted up by your Griefs It will draw up your Person and your Griefs themselves into the Pleasantness of its own Light 3. Rule Mourn in the Name of Christ Colos. 3. 17. Whatsoever ye do in Word or Deed do all in the Name of the Lord Iesus The Name of the Lord Iesus wraps up Four Things in it which I shall express by Four Rules in this present case 1. Mourn in the Power of Christ The Power of Christ is the Power of Eternal Life which carries an unexpressible sweetness along with it even then when it goes forth into the saddest operations Thy Tears will be a Spiritual Wine if they be the Fruit of this Vine 2. Mourn in the Image of Christ. Every thing is delightful to us which brings our well-beloved into our Thoughts though it be but as a Picture or Shadow of him Love delights in likeness especially to be itself made like that which it loves This will make thy Sorrows Comfortable to thy Heart and Glorious in thine Eye if thou Transferrest them upon thy self as in a Figure of Jesus Christ. 3. Meurn for Christ. Make him the end of thy Sorrows Christ is the end of the Law for Righteousness sake Rom. 10. 4. Let Jesus Christ be the end of thy Griefs for thy Joys sake The End puts a Loveliness and Pleasantness upon the means and way to it If thy Sorrows be for Self and from Self-love they will be like Brine they will have a Gnawing Burning Saltness in them But if they be for thy Saviour and from his Love they will be Fresh and Sweet on thy Spirit as the Dew of Heaven on the tender Grass 4. Mourn as in Union with the Person of Christ. A Saiâ—t is a Name of Anointing which signifies Two in one the Ointment or Oyl and the Anointed the Sanctifier and the Sanctified He that Sanctifies and they that are Sanctified are of one Heb. 2. 11. They must also be in One. Our Griefs are never Saintlike or Holy if they be not in Consort and Fellowship with Iesus Christ. Rom. 8. 17. Joint-heirs with Christ if so be we suffer with him Our Sufferings are a Murther not a Sacrifice they are to Death not to Life if they be not in Union with Jesus Christ. If they be in Union with Christ that Union unites a Sweetness and Joy to them These are the Branches of the Third Rule 4. Rule Let your Grief be a Grace If your Grief be from Nature only it is carnal not spiritual it is such a Death as is a Sowing to the Flesh which will bring forth Corruption and Death Whatever is not of Faith is Sin Rom. 14. 23. If your Mourning be not a Grace in you one of the Daughters of Faith which is the mother of all Grace it is Sin and to be resisted by you as the Devil But if your Mourning be Gracious then it is a Sowing to the Spirit of which you shall reap Immortality Such Tears are Precious Seed Spiritual Seed which have the Sweet Rellish
which the Angels drink in rich Discoveries of God the Glories and sweetnesses of the Divine Nature which are there poured forth immediately from their Fountain which are that Wine of Love with which Christ and his Spouse entertain each other O the Dignity O the Delights of a Holy Soul Angels sing to it Angels pry into its Beauties and Joys Angels draw the Waters of their blissful Light and Life from this Well The Sounds Operations Lives Essences of Angels are only a Musick Songs of Love and Joy to the beloved Soul and her Bride-groom in their Union In this sense Christ and a Saint in their Spiritual Glory ride together upon the Cherubims The Angels are made as perfumed gales of Wind on which they Flie Flames of a Divine Fire of Love Joy and Glory which continually spring up shine before them and round about them penetrate thorow all things converting all things into the same Ministerial Brightnesses and Harmonies of an Immortal Life and Love under their Feet But there is another passage worth our observation before we leave the Title to this Psalm To the chief Musician upon Shoshannim Shoshannim was an Instrument of six strings upon which the Tune to this Song was plaid If there be as Divines say Tot Mysteria quot Apices so many Mysteries as points of words letters or Marks in the Holy Scripture we may well believe this six-stringed Instrument to allude to the Creation made up of the several Works of six several Days He that hath Eyes to see what the Spirit doth and Ears to hear the Sound of the Spirit understands this great frame to be a well-tuned Instrument of so many strings as there are Creatures in it the whole Composure of Providence from the beginning of the world to the end of it this Song of Loves plaid upon it by Jesus Christ to his Heavenly Bride whose Spiritual senses see the Harmonious and Delicate Motions of his Hand upon every string and take in with unexpressible delight the ravishing Melody Shoshannim signifies also the six-leaved Lilly Can. 2. 1. It is doubtful whether the Holy Spirit speak in the Person of Christ or the Church when he saith in his Song I am the Rose of Sharon and the Lilly of the Valleys It is generally understood of Christ. In that Mysterious History of Esther as Esther Mordecai the Jews so the City Shushan the City of the Lilly represent the Church of Christ in general or each holy Soul in particular Interpreters here apply the Lilly to the Bride It is in the plural number Lillies and the clause may be rendred concerning the Lillies So the Subject of this Song of Loves is signified to us Jesus Christ and his beloved Bride two Lillies upon the same Root Flourishing with the same Beauties smiling Reflections each of other Either of them with his six leaves comprehends in itself the perfections of the whole Creation in their Original Purities and Sweetnesses Both alike in that Spiritual Image in which they are united are to the variety of Creatures as the Seventh Day to the other six a Bed of Rest and Delights with a Canopy of Glory their Rest Sanctification and Blessedness But it is time to pass from the Title to the Psalm itself The first verse is a Preparation to the matter contained in the Song It consists of Three Parts 1. The Flame and fulness of the Author My heart enditeth a good matter The word Enditeth is used only this once Some expound it boileth with a good matter and make it an allusion to Meat-offering in the Sanctuary prepared by fire in a Frying-pan So the eternal Spirit which is Love hath the place of the Holy Fire The Heart is the Frying-pan The Excellencies of Jesus Christ in his own Person and his Brides with their mutual Affections and Joyes are the Meat-offering Some interpret this Boiling by the bublings and wellings forth of a Fountain Thus the Chrystalline Waters of the Light Life and Beauties of Christ mingled with the Heavenly Fire of his Love are the Sea The Heart is the Spring into which this Sea by Invisible Tracts and hidden Passages conveyeth its flowing Treasures which from thence pour themselves forth into rich pleasant and plentiful Streams 2. The Excellency of the Subject I speak of the things which I have made touching the King This King is called God and seated upon the Throne of Eternity v. 6. which verse is cited and applied to Jesus Christ as he comes the second time into the World attended by all his holy Angels after his Resurrection and Ascent to the Throne of his Father This is the King this is the Bridegroom and the Beloved of the Soul Jesus cloathed with the Royal garment of his Divine Nature crowned with the Glory of the Father perfumed with all the good ointments of the Holy Ghost 3. The Power by which the Author is inspired in the composing of this Song My Pen is the Tongue of a ready Writer Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost 2. Pet. 1. 21. As the Son is the Wisdom Power and Glory of the Father So the Holy Ghost is the Love of the Father and Son he is called by the name of Charity or Love 1 Cor. 13. v. 1. 8. He is that Love by which God and a Saint dwell one in another as Love is described to be the Union between the Lover and the beloved Object So he is spoken of 1 John 4 16. God is Love He that dwells in Love dwells in God and God dwells in him It is the Inspiration of this Holy Spirit of Love by which this Song of Loves was penned My Heart is enditing a good matter My heart is full boileth up and floweth forth with a good matter sweet beautiful and profitable This Heart represents every Member of Christ which all have one and the same Spirit These words thus opened afford us this Doctrine 1. Doct. A good Heart is a Treasury of good things Matth. 12. 35. A good man out of the good Treasure of his heart bringeth forth good Things A Treasure or Treasury implyeth two things 1st A Place A good Heart is a Treasury like Heaven in three respects 1. It is great and spatious It comprehends all things within itself It hath nothing above it or without it to shut it up and confine it 2. It is of a shâ—â—â—ing and glorious Substance made of Light 3. It is incorruptible immoâ—â— impregnable No Thief can there break in to steal No moth or rust consumes There is no Principle of corruption or decay within No power from without can prevail there 2. Precious things laid up in this Heavenly Heart make it a good Treasury All the precious things of the Sun and Moon of the Heavens above and the deep below are here Here are Eden and Paradise Gen. 2. 10. A River went out of Eden to water the Garden The Jews observe from this place that there are two Paradises a
murmurings whisperings hard thoughts evil speakings or any such thing Heaven is not now open upon you neither do you see Jesus as he comes up out of the Baptism of his Sufferings into a Resurrection of Glory with the Eternal Spirit in the Form of a Dove in a Form of Love resting upon him The Priests in the Temple were Morning and Evening to trim the Lamps in the Golden Candlestick by pouring in fresh Oil that the Light might not go out by day nor by night Your Persons O ye Saints are the Temple your Spiritual and Divine part the Golden Candlestick the Heavenly Person of your beloved is the Light in the Lamps of this Candlestick If you would preserve this Light of Glory continually shining in you be continually pouring in from that vessel of Love the Heart of the Father fresh Love which is the Golden Oyl of the Spirit in which the Life and Light of the Divine Nature burneth and shineth eternally But to conclude my discourse concerning these Three Sins The Scripture saith Covetousness is Idolatry We make an Idol of every Image besides the Lord Jesus alone which we set up in our Hearts as real and excellent to bow down our Souls to it by our esteem and affection Every Idol hath its Devil in it St. Paul saith plainly What the Gentiles Sacrifice to Idols they Sacrifice to Devils You cannot eat of the Table of the Lord which is his Glorified Person to feast upon the Delicacies of his Beauties set before your Spirits there and eat of the Table of Devils which is this world to feed upon the Dainties of the Flesh here You cannot drink of the cup of the Lord which is his Spirit to take in the Wine of Spiritual Sweetnesses from this and drink of the Cup of Devils which is the Spirit of this World to swallow down the riches and pleasant things of that 2 Pet. 2. 13 14. We read of Spots at the Feasts of the Saints who are those that have Eyes full of Adultery St. Jude expoundeth those Feasts to be Feasts of Charity that is Love-Feasts which were Joyned with the Supper of the Lord. The Appearances of Christs Person in the Visible Angelic l Divine Images are our several Love-Feasts An adulterous Eye in the moral sense which looketh upon any visible Object after an undue manner is a Spot upon the First Love-Feast The adulterous Eye in a legal sense which looketh upon any Fleshly or visible Figure of things is a Spot upon the Second The adulterous Eye which setteth its Love upon Created Forms on Earth or in Heaven is a Spot upon the Last and best Love-Feasts All these Spots are Clouds upon the Person and stains upon the Beauty of Christ which at once dishonour and grieve him darken and defile us making us unworthy and uncapable of his blessed Appearances to us As an adulterous Eye of Lust so the blood-shot Eye of Wrath is unable to look upon this Heavenly Object or to bear the brightness of his Glory I will wind up this Use with this solemn adjuration and charge If there be such a Person as our Jesus if this Person have such unsearchable Treasures of Beauty and Joy in it if the presence and appearance of this King in his Beauty as a Bridegroom as a Spiritual Sun in the hearts of the Saints be no dream or fancy but the very Spirit and Truth and Life of the Gospel I adjure and charge you all his Saints by the Hinds and Roes of the Field by the lovely Person of your Christ by the pleasantness of his Appearances in you that laying aside Covetousness casting away all Filthiness both of Flesh and Spirit putting off all Wrath Malice Envyings and evil speakings you fix your Eye upon fill your Souls with the Beautiful and blessed Person of the Lord Jesus This is your own Fountain Drink waters from this Fountain alone Behold your selves one another all things in the Light of this Person of these Beauties as they lie here as they are comprehended in this fairest greatest and most Divine Image of all Loveliness Christ is the Truth The Appearance of things in the sweet Light of his lovely Person is True This is that Truth which if you walk in it shall dwell with you for ever shining with a precious and living lustre in the darkest places of Sorrow or Death In this Truth live at peace live in love within your selves with one another with all things So the God of Peace and Love shall be with you Amen Reas. 3. I now come to the Third Reason of the Doctrine our Lord Jesus is the fairest of all things because he hath all the parts of Beauty compleat and entire in his person That work with my own Spirit and with all Spirits which is my design and delight is to woo them for Christ and espouse them as chast Virgins to Christ. Eccles. 12. 10. We read that the Preacher sought out acceptable words and the words which he found out were upright Solomon was a figure of Christ in glory King in the Hierusalem above This Glorious Person is the Preacher the Text and the Sermon Acceptable words in the Original Language are words of delight as you may see in the Margin If ever it be fit to seek out pleasant and delightful words it is on this Subject when we treat of the Lord Jesus and his Beauties If ever it be necessary to take care to speak right words it is now when we speak of him whose Person is the Center from which all the lines of the Gospel of Evangelical Truths Graces Comforts Glories Spirits are drawn into which they all run in which they all meet My endeavour therefore is that all my discourses may be steps from one Scripture to another that by the explications and applications of these I may enlighten your minds to the sight and warm your affections to the love of these Blessed and Heavenly Beauties There are four Parts of which all Beauty consisteth 1. Variety 2. Harmony in the variety 3. Light in the Harmony 4. Life in that Light These four meet all eminently and transcendently in the highest degree in the Person of our Saviour 1. There is all variety in the Person of Christ. Colos. 1. 19. It pleased the Father that in him all fulness should dwell Observe how St. Paul cometh to this total Sum at the foot of the Account to this Conclusion of all Fulness in Christ. From the 15 th v. to this you have the whole Compass of Things in Nature Grace and Glory From the 15 th to the 18 th you have the Circuit of Nature in the full extent of the Creation with its Creator First there is God as he is the Author of Nature Jesus Christ is the Image of the Invisible God v. 15. Then you have the whole Creation He is the First-born of every Creature or of all the Creation The First-born is the Excellency of Dignity the Excellency of Strength Every
these are Varieties only in thee It is thy self thy Person besetteth compasseth comprehendeth me and my way in them all O Believers when you see Jesus Christ in the least glance of His Person with the same Eye of Light and Love as David saw him with do not you also meet with wonders of Delight and Glory which are too great for your Hearts Affections or Understandings to take in Do not the lowest and least things seen in him appear to you as Divine Wonders with such a height of Light in them as no created Eye can reach But David caught up into the view and Embraces of Jesus in his Heavenly Form proceedeth in his Rapture Whither shall I go from thy Spirit or whither shall I flee from thy Presence Face or Person v. 7. The Spirit and the Presence or Person of Christ are here both one to teach us that this Person and Presence of our Saviour in which he is the same yesterday to day and for ever in His Appearances to the Saints under the Law under Grace in Glory is entirely Spiritual a pure Spirit If I ascend up into Heaven thou art there if I make my Bed in Hell behold thou art there v. 8. Hell in Hebrew and Greek signifies no more 〈◊〉 the Grave or the State of the Dead It is added in Hebrew Behold Thou These words art there are put in by the Translatours as you may see by the Change of the Letter If I take the wings of the Morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the Sea v. 9. even there shall thy hand lead me and thy right Hand shall hold me v. 10. If I say the Darkness shall cover me even the Night shall be light round about me v. 11. Yea the Darkness hideth not from thee but the Night shineth as the Day the Darkness and Light are both alike to thee v. 12. These last words too are added to thee Go thy wayes O Believer O beloved Spouse of this Heavenly Lover say to him with the same tongue in the same language of Light and Love as David doth Wherever I fly or fall I am ever encompassed with ever wrapt up in thy Spiritual and Glorious Person as my Heaven as the Air of my Life O my Beloved If I fly it is in the face of these Brightnesses If I fall I lie in the Bosom of these Beauties When I ascend up into Heaven behold thou art there Heaven is as a great Room of State and Pleasure in the Divine Building of thy Person The Light of this is all the Glory the Love and Loveliness of this are all the Treasures and feasts of Joy there The several Appearances of those Distinct Varieties in thy Person shooting forth themselves like Beams with a Divine Lustre Warmth and Life make all the Angels in Heaven The Assembly of Glorified Saints is the Fruitfulness and Fulness of thy Person first thy Birth and then thy Bride like Eve to Adam in Paradise the Heavenly Eve to the Last Adam in the Heavenly Paradise thy self multiplying it self that it may have a meet Help for it self to be the Object of all its Loves the Subject of all its Joys the Mother of all Living What have I in Heaven besides thee Ps. 73. 25. Thy Person filleth all those shining and smiling Forms of things in Heaven They are all the Beauties in thy Face the smiles in thine Eye If I die behold thee Death itself is first an extasie of Love in which thou overshadowest me in a moment snatching me out of the Light of this world into the sweet and everlasting Light of a far greater and more Blessed world thy Person Then is it an extasie of Joy to find the same Jesus cloathed with the same white and shining Rayment in the Grave as I beheld him in Heaven The Grave becomes a Bed and that Bed thy Bosom Luke 16. 22. The Begger died and was carried by Angels into Abrahams Bosom the rich man also dieth and is buried That which the Grave is to the rich man that to the Begger to the poorest Saint is the Bosom of Jesus figured by Abraham in whom he lay hid as the Seed of Eternity Ere I was aware my Soul made me as the Chariots of Aminadab Cant. 7. Aminadab is my Princely People a Chariot of Angels of Glorious Spirits This is the manner of the Death of Christs Spouse Ere she is aware her Soul setteth her upon or rather itself becometh to her a Chariot of Angels where she sitteth upon a Golden Throne of Love encompassed with Curtains of Light and so is transported in the twinkling of an Eye into the Arms of her Beloved her whole way itself lying in the same embraces which are the end of her way and those Angels being the varieties and the movings of those Fulnesses of beauties in the Bridegrooms Person which is the same Spring and Rest of love in them all Go on then believing Soul with David and say to thy Saviour but the time may come when I shall neither rest on thy bosom as a Throne of Grace in Heaven nor as a Bed in the Grave in the Fellowship of thy Death I may be hurried to the uttermost parts of the Sea to that State where storms of malice and wrath rage most in the midst of the blackness of Darkness But when it is so even then thou risest upon me and sweetly breakest like a lovely morning in the Beauties of thy Person round about me Thou takest me upon thy Divine Beams as upon Silver Wings with Feathers of Gold in which the Glories of the Divine and Humane Nature are united As thou in thy course circlest thorow all the infiniteness of differing Beauties within thy self thou carriest me upon these Wings of thine to the extremities of this Sea of Darkness and Tempests Even here also as in Heaven itself thy hand which is thy self thy Spiritual Person thy Divine Life in Act the Activity and Appearance of thine inseparable Glories lead me as my Strength within my guide and way before me my light round about me Yea even here thy right Hand which is thy Person in the sweetest fullest Act and appearance of Love Beauty Majesty and Power holdeth me at once bearing me up in itself encompassing with itself Thus the Sea and Tempests are still thy Person in the same Lovely and Eternal Form opening new Wonders of Beauty and discovering greater Riches of vaster varieties within the bright Bound of its own Spiritual Fulness Yea if I sink so low that I begin to faint and say now the Darkness will cover and overwhelm me now the night will seal up my Eyes from the sight of my Beloved and hide him from me then the Night it self becomes a bright Sun round about me in the Heaven of thy Person where every spot of Darkness as well as Beam of Light is a shining Point or line of Beauty and all so many several Suns set thick one by another Can.
Fountain of wisdom above with the voice of our Faith to seek it as Silver in every thing round about us the pure mettal in the oar of the Creature by the Flame of our Love to dig for it as hidden Treasures within our selves below the Foundations of this Creation by Humility and the Cross This is the Comprehensiveness of the Knowledge of our Saviour 2. The Second Excellency in this Knowledge is the Efficacy This divideth itself into three Branches It worketh Grace 1. Universally 2. Powerfully 3. Kindly 1. The Knowledge of the Lord Jesus worketh Grace Universally It worketh all Grace together in a sweet Harmony John 17. 3. In a bosom-discourse between himself and his Father where he is most naked sweet and free the Lord Jesus saith to his Father This is Eternal Life to know thee the only true God and Him whom thou hast sent Jesus Christ God is True the Truth as he is God He is the True God as he is the Onely One Jesus Christ is sent forth from him as he is the Brightness the Effulgency the Outshining of his Glory his essential Image Thus is he also one with him The Father cannot be perfectly known by him if he be not perfectly one with him This verse hath in it a figure called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 One thing expressed as two like that a Cup and Gold for a Golden Cup. So here to know the only true God and Jesus Christ sent forth from him is to know that God who is the Unity and Truth in Jesus his essential Image in which he comprehendeth and cometh forth into all manner of various Images the outgoing of his Divine Essence in Eternity and Time Eternal Life is the whole Work of God upon the Souls of the Elect from the Beginning to the End the Divine Life begun in Grace on Earth compleated in Glory in Heaven I have formerly said that Knowledge maketh the Spirit One with that which is Known How should this endear the Knowledge of our Blessed Lord and quicken us to follow hard after it The true Knowledge of our Beloved maketh us One Spirit with Him and transformeth us into His Image which is the whole Armour of God put on at once the compleat frame and fabrick of all Grace rising up at once in the Heart All Graces are One in the Person of Christ. By taking him in and being made One with Him we take in All Grace and are molded into All Grace in One according to the measure of the Revelation of our Lord Jesus in us The want of having this Pattern upon the Mount Jesus in His Heavenly Form in the Eye of our Spirits is the great reason why the Tabernacle of God goeth up so imperfectly and brokenly in us One Saint is careful of his way but goâ—th sadly on another is chearful but careless One is sweet and slight another serious and soure censorious One is zealous and ignorant another high in his Light and loose in his Life Particular rules and precepts are like a Watering-pot which a man carrieth up and down in his hand watering his flowers and plants singly and slightly While one is watered the other withereth The Discovery of our Saviour in His Spiritual Person to the Eye oâ— our Spirits is as the gentle Rain from Heaven which at once watereth thy whole Garden and descendeth to the Root of every Truth Grace and comfort in thee Grow saith St. Peter in Grace and in the Knowledge of Jesus Christ. 2 Pet. l. l. Grace indifferently universally in the whole Nature and Kind is inseparable from the Knowledge of Jesus Christ. These two mutually breed and feed each other All Grace in the entire Frame and Harmony is the similitude the Image of Christs Person as it is in Glory formed in us As Christ riseth and shineth forth upon us this Image springeth up groweth clearer and fairer As this Image cometh to perfection so Jesus Christ is seen more perfectly in it as in a Glass If you be compleat Christians grow at once proportionably in all Grace in Light in Life in Love study the Heavenly Person of your Bridegroom grow in the Knowledge of him As the Eye of the Husband should be the Looking-glass of the Wife by which she adorneth her self so let this glorious Person of thy Beloved be that Spiritual Glass in which thou O Queen O Believing and loving Soul dressest thy self 2. The Knowledge of our Lord Jesus worketh Grace powerfully Psal. 19. 5. The Sun cometh forth like a Bridegroom out of his Chamber and a strong man to run a race His going forth is from the end of Heaven to the end thereof nothing can hide it from his Heat St. Paul testifieth to us Rom. 10. 18. that the Lord Jesus is the subject of the Spirit in this Psalm When he cometh forth from the Chamber of Invisible and Spiritual Glories in his Resurrection He cometh into the Soul at once as a Sun for Light and Glory as a Bridegroom for Love and Beauty as a strong man for Life Power and Progress When he riseth and shineth out in us he encompasseth our whole Person and Life from one end to the other he searcheth out every corner in both There is nothing so close so dark so corrupt so hard so unclean so dead so comfortless that can hide itself from the convincing enlightning consuming softning cleansing quickning comforting heat and power of his Appearance Every Beam of the Sun is a Figure of the Sun sheweth the Sun itself and carrieth along with it three Things Light Heat and Influence or Vertue Such is every Spiritual Truth in the Soul It is a Beam from the Person of Christ. It beareth a Figure of his Person and setteth his Person open and naked like a clear Sun before the Soul drawing the Eye of the Spirit to that and terminating it alone upon that Each Spiritual Beam each Glance every Discovery of Christ bringeth with it into the Soul a Light of Knowledge a Heat of Love a Convincing Converting Melting Transforming Chearing Sanctifying Spiritualizing Glorifying Influence and Power Go then in all thy pantings in all thy Prayers by night and by day cry to this Blessed Person Arise O Sun shine O Light that my Soul may become a Spiritual Garden that my Garden may flourish with all Spiritual Plants of Truth Grace and Joy that all my Spiritual Plants may give forth their smell and vertue by thine Appearance 3. The Knowledge of Christ worketh all Grace and maketh it most kindly Psal. 110. 3. The Spirit saith to Christ in the day of thy power thy people shall be a willing people in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the Morning the Dew of thy Youth The word Power signifieth also Armies Willing hath a twofold sense a natural pleasant Freedom and a Princeliness The Morning is the Person of Christ in the Glory of the Spirit who is called in Scripture the Day-spring the Light the Sun-rising When this
lovely morning breaketh upon thy Spirit from the midst of the shades of unbelief and thy natural State it maketh a day of Power a day of Armies Jesus Christ appeareth now in the Glory of his Father in his own Glory in the Glory of all his holy Angels He boweth down all these Heavens and with them descendeth from above into thy Spirit With these Armies of Glories he fighteth against all the Powers of Darkness in thee With the Power of these Glories he subdueth thee to himself winneth thy Love transformeth thy Spirit and Person shineth upon and draweth forth to maturity every Seed of Glory in thee The Person of thy Jesus shining out in thee is that Morning from which as from a Beautiful and Blessed Womb falleth the Dew of Christs Youth which is his Spirituality his Eternity ever-full ever-flourishing with all Divine Beauties upon his Person This Dew maketh all Graces to spring in thy Soul powerfully plentifully beautifully pleasantly with State and Majesty As that Vine which hath most of the Sun bringeth the most kindly Grapes the greatest Clusters the fairest and best coloured the sweetest the largest Grapes the most abounding with Spirit and Heat yielding the best Wine so doth that Soul which liveth most in the Eye of the Lord Jesus under the Beams of his Person unvailed bring forth the most kindly Fruits of the Spirit in all these respects 1. All Grace aboundeth most it is as the Dew 2. It is pleasantest Thy people are a willing people There is most of Love of Life and Delight 3. It is most Beautiful There are the Beauties of Holiness 4. Every Grace is greater spreadeth and enlargeth itself more hath more vertue and force in it The Appearance of Christ. maketh a Day of Power 5. It is more Princely hath enstamped upon it more of the Person of the Lord Jesus and so more of the Majesty of the Divine Nature 6. It yieldeth the most excellent wine of Heavenly Joys to make glad the heart both of God and Man It is the Dew of Christs Youth It hath in it a Confluence a Concurrence of all the Lovelinessâ—s Sweetnesses of the Person of our Lord in his Spâ—ritual his Immortal State which is his Youth flourishing in the height of all Divine Pleasantness and Glory never to fade or decline O! Let us all be found in the â—umber of the Watchmen that watch continually for this morning Let us go forth from under the vail from out of the Cave of the Flesh and of the world into the Light of this morning into the sweet breakings of the Eternal Day from the glorâ—ous Person of our Saviour Let us receive the Dew of his Youth falling upon us Let us see the Dew of his Youth falling upon all things round about us making the Deseâ—t to Blossom as the Rose our Hearts all things to us Spring Blossom and Flourish with the Spiritual and Immortal Beauties of our Beloved This Dew is his Sowing his watering them every where Use 2. A Direction to the Knowledge of the Person of our Saviour and his Beauties The Lord himself saith The words that I speak unto you they are Spirit and they are Life John 6. 63. Jesus had been speaking of Himself of eating his Flesh and drinking his Blood He meaneth by words the Things which those words signify The Person of Christ the excellencies and vertues of his Person concerning which he spake to them are not Flesh and Blood which are the Shadows only dying dead yea Death itself nor meerly Spiritual but Spirit Substantially and Essentially which is Life not by Participation but Primitively in the Essence in the Spring This is the ground which I lay for the direction which I am to give you in your study of the Beautiful Person of Christ Christ and his Beauties are Spiritual Now not I but St. Paul giveth you two Rules 1 Corin. 2. 7 8. The Holy Apostle speaketh of the Knowledge of the Wisdom of God in a Mystery Then he expresseth this Wisdom of God in a Mystery to be Jesus Christ the Lord of Glory the Lord whose Person is all Glory whose Principality and Kingdom is Glory in the Abstract Glory in its utmost extent He had said this was unknown to all the Princes of this world the Princes in Wisdom as well as Power the highest ranks and orders of Men or Angels To confirm this he citeth a Scripture in the next verse v. 9. Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard neither have entered into the heart of Man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him Observe by laying these three verses together how St. Paul meaneth one Thing by these three expressions The Wisdom of God in a Mystery the Lord of Glory Things prepared by God for those that love him The Person of Christ is that Image of Glory and of the God-Head in which lieth the entire Mystery Wisdom and design of God from the Beginning to the End with all its way He is a Collection of all those Beauties and Blessedness Loves and Joys prepared by the Father for his Beloved Ones to feast upon to Eternity Of these St. Paul determineth that the noblest highest largest senses understandings hearts of the most excellent Creatures are uncapable of the least Glympse or tast of them This he draweth down afterwards to a Rule which is my first Rule Rule 1. Spiritual Things are Spiritually discerned 1 Cor. 2. 14. This Rule divideth it self into Three Branches 1. Spiritual things are discerned by a Spiritual Eye St. Paul saith The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness to him neither can he for they are Spiritually discerned 1 Cor. 2. 14. Nature hath a Twofold Eye the Eye of Sense the Eye of Reason The Eye of Sense is common to Man with Beasts and is the Bestial Eye This discerneth the Beauties of Flesh and Blood We have histories of Beasts Birds and Fishes which have been in love with Beautiful Virgins and Youths But this Eye is blind to Spiritual Objects A Material and Corporeal Object if it excel and be transcendent in Sweetness Harmony or Beauty destroyeth the Sense as the Sun dazleth darkeneth and putteth out the Eye How much more unable are our Senses to take in or bear Immaterial and Spiritual Glories Nature 's other Eye is that of Reason of the Mind the Intellectual Eye which is common to Man with Angels This is the Angelical Eye in Man This can discover can take some measure of the Invisible things of the Creation and maintain some Commerce with Angels But the Darkness of this Eye to the Beauties of Christ is painted forth in a lively manner by that sweet and sublime Prophet Isaiah c. 6. v. 1. The Lord Jesus appeareth sitting upon the Throne of His Spiritual and Divine Form His Train of Glories filled the Temple v. 2. The Seraphims themselves which are â—eputed the Highest Order and Degree of Angels cover their faces
Life from the Ocean which hath its Fountain in itself which is therefore unconfined and infinite as much as a little Shadow from the Eternal Incomprehensible Truth and Substance such is the dissimilitude and disproportion between the beautiful Body of Adam in Paradise and the Blessed Body of our dear Lord in Heaven As the Earth in Essence and Appearance in Greatness and Glory in vertue and Comprehension differeth from Heaven not only this Heaven which we see not the Heaven of Angels above our sight but that Heaven out of which our Jesus cometh as Lord of all an Heaven higher than all created Heavens such is the difference between the New-created Body of Adam our first Father which shone about his spotless Soul as the Light about the Sun and the glorified Body of Jesus our first and last Lord and Love O all ye that hear and believe admire with me the insiniteness of the wisdom and love of our God who hath made the loss of Paradise by Sin so great a gain to us instead of that giving us our Jesus But we shall come yet more clearly to the mark at which we aim if we examine these words more exactly To that end I shall propound three Questions 1. Question What the general Nature of a Body is Answ. A Body is the compleat Image Instrument and Fulness of that Soul or Spirit to which it doth belong Col. 2. 17. A Body and a Shadow are set opposite one to another Which are a Shadow of things to come but the Body is of Christ or is Christs is the Body of Christ. A Body and a Shadow agree in being an Image But the Shadow is a confused useless emply Image the Body express Instrumental Substantial and full In the same Chapter a little before v. 9. we read of the Lord Iesus in him dwelleth all the Fulness of the GodHead bodily God is the Person in Christ the glorified Body of our blessed Saviour is the express Image of the God-Head God is seen there as a Man is at home in his house nakedly clearly familiarly constantly entirely in all Forms and Postures This glorious Body is the Universal and Immediate Instrument of the God-Head the Sphear of its Activity God judgeth all acteth all exerciseth all the operations of the Divine Nature and life here as the Sun runeth his race from the beginning to the end of it in his proper Orb and Heaven God dwelleth with all his fulness in this Body He delighteth to pour out into the Body of our Beloved and his Beloved all the precious Treasures of his God-Head Here he delighteth to possess and enjoy them in a Bodily Form in the Form of a Spiritual Heavenly and Divine Body As at the Incarnation the word was made Flesh. A Body of Flesh Iohn 1. 14. by emptying itself to nothing so now is the Eternal Word again in the Resurrection made a Spiritual Body by returning and rising up into all its Fulnesses in the same Body in which he had emptied himself The Lord Jesus speaketh of himself in Glory when he saith In my Fathers house are many Mansions John 14. 2. The Body of our Bridegroom is a Spiritual Palace in which all the excellencies and Off-springs all the operations and works of the Divine Nature have their several distinct Mansions and apartments We read of a Tree in the branches of which all the Birds of Heaven have their Nests The Spiritual Body of Christ is the Tree of Life and of Love which hath Branches enough and large enough for all the Birds of the highest Heaven the seven Spirits of God with all their Train all the variety of the God-Head to make their several Nests in them I may add also for all the Beasts of the Field all inferiour Forms of Things to lodge under its Shadow You who love the Lord Jesus and his Appearances doth not this move you doth not this make your hearts to spring and dance in your breasts to hear that your Saviour is cloathed with this Heavenly Body so full of Glory and of God Can we forbear now from saying to our own hearts and one to another these five short words 1. If we have formerly known any thing besides our Jesus let us now know it no more If we have hitherto known Christ after the Flesh let us know him so no more This is the only object worth all our knowledge and study Jesus in his Spiritual Body purer and brighter than the Body of Heaven in Paradise far beyond that in the height variety and compass of its Glories 2. How black doth every Sin appear in this Light of our Lords glorified Body When a Soldier was about to kill Cresus his dumb Son cryed out thou killest the King So cry to every Lust in thine heart thou crucifiest my Jesus in his Spiritual Body the Body of all Divine Beauties shining like a Divine Sun upon thee comprehending thee as the highest â—eaven In every Creature in which thou seest not the blessed Light of this Body in which thou doest not kiss it with the pure mouth of the Spirit in thee thou doest crucisy it 3. Is not this Bosom this Heavenly Body of our Beloved a Field of Lillies indeed the Field of all Spiritual Beauties and Divine Graces Shall we not like pleasant Roes be ever feeding here As Booz said to Ruth let us never go into any other Field to gather or to feed Is not this the Paradise itself in the third Heavens where all the Fulnesses of the God-Head are in a Body a Divine Body 4. How pure and Spiritual are we to be in Body and Spirit if we are to be Brides to this Lamb of God whose Body outshineth all the Angels and is raised to a degree of Spirituality far above them 5. Is this that Body of which the poorest believing Soul may say by the Law of its Spiritual Marriage my Jesus hath not power over his own Body but I have power over it to command its presence with me to delight my self in it as my Garden of Eden of pleasure to bring forth Fruit by it Is this that glorious Body of Christ to which these vile Bodies yours and mine are to be made like by that Power by which he is able to subdue all things to himself to the similitude of this Body of Divine Glories Is this the Body into which we are taken up and which we are at home with when in death we are withdrawn from these Bodies of our Pilgrimage here Qu. 2. What the force of this phrase is A Living Soul The first Adam was made a Living Soul Was he not made a Body as well as a Soul The Body seemeth to be so far from being concerned here that it is excluded Ans. This Word Soul hath Three Acceptions in the New Testament and so that which answereth it in the Old 1. It is taken for the Person composed of Soul and Body So Gen. 46. 26. All the Souls which came with
and Births of the Divine Love v. 2. All things were made by Him by his Lord and his Love our Lord and our Love our Jesus As He was the Essential Image and the Pattern upon the Mount of Eternity All things were made by Him They were Copies taken of Him Shadows cast from Him by the Abunance of an Overflowing Life and vertue in Him Without Him was nothing made v. 2. That expression Without Him properly signfieth apart in separation or disunion from Him in a Self Subsistency All the Creatures in their Flower in their Virgin-purities and perfections stood and flourished together with their united Beauties and Sweetnesses in the Person of our Bridegroom as He made Himself a Shadowy Image After this manner was our Jesus The Beginning of the Creation of God and the First-born of every Creature St John addeth v. 3. In Him was Life Some Interpreters joyn the latter end of the second verse with the beginning of the third and read That which was made was Life in Him The sense is the same All the Creatures in the Person of Christ did flourish and shine together in the unstain'd Lustre and Harmony of One Divine Beauty They did rejoyce and sing together in the Fellowship of One Divine Life and Love Here they see the Beauties they smell the sweetnesses they tast the pleasant vertues they feast upon the precious Substances they drink in the pure Lives and Spirits of each other continually This Life was the Light of Man v. 3. From this Life-Image of the Creation in Christ propagating itself Immediately and entirely springeth forth the Essence and Form of Man Man is now a Light of Glory shining freshly and fully from the First Created Light which subsisted in the Person of the Eternal Word In this Light of Glory stood Paradise with all the Creatures in their Priâ—tâ—ve Pure and First-born State next to their First-born State in our Lord Jesus From the Fountain arising here and going forth from this Eden all the Creatures sprung up fresh and new every moment in their several Beings and Beauties as they grew upon their proper and distinct roots By this you may understand the sense in which Adam is said to be set in the Garden to dress it and to keep it Gen. 2. To dress it signifieth to serve it or minister to it The Lord Jesus by his Resurreâ—tion from the dead is set in the Heavenly Paradise to dress and keep that So he saith of himself I go to prepare a place for you John 14. The Paradise above is set in the glorified Person of the Lord Jesus From the Father the Fountain of the God-Head opening himself in his Bosom he riseth up with an Eternal Form of Divine Glory into every particular Saint as into a Spiritual Plant of the Heavenly Paradise which comprehendeth all Paradise with its Root Body and Branches in itself Jesus Christ is the Tree of Life in the midst the Center of the Eternal Paradise on which all the Fruits of this Garden grow Each Fruit each Plant in like manner is a Tree of Life compleat in itself bearing all the other Love-Plants as its own proper Branches and Fruits Thus this Paradise in the third Heavens standeth in the Person of Christ and standeth out of the Person of Christ. After the same similitude the Paradise below standeth first standeth entire in the Angelical Person of the first Adam The Lord Jesus in his Shadowy Image riseth up first here here first he formeth the fairest and fullest figure of himself Every Angel every Star every Flower hath here its first its freshest Life Beauty and Sweetness All fall in and stand here as parts of the Musick in the full Harmony As all the parts of Musick flow forth from the Universal Harmony and are measured by it so doth the first Man from the Fountain rising up into the universal Form of the whole Creation in himself go forth every moment freshly and newly into the temporary Forms of each particular Creature each Angel each Star each Flower ministring to them the number of their parts the measure of their proportions the weight of their vertâ—â—s I have been the larger in this place that we may enjoy the sweetness of the Light of that Scripture more fully by seeing it more clearly Rom. 5. 14. The first Man was a Figure of him who is to come This is the Earth of which we speak God in a Shadowy Image the Mâ—on which Pythagoras called an Heavenly Earth or an Earthly Heaven Thus is the first man of this Earth Earthy I believe you run before me in your thoughts and by this time have some prospect into that Heaven from which the second Man the Lord of Glory 〈◊〉 I am now to proceed to this which is our Rest and the end of our 〈…〉 he unprofitable nor unpleasant to stay here a while and reâ—â—◠〈…〉 beautiful Earth this blessed Mâ—n rising up out of it It will afford us two Lessons of much use and comfort 1. Lesson Fear tremble be confounded at the sight of Sin and fly from it with all your might O Man What a glorious Angel wast thou How wert thou in the similitude of God the Crownof the whole Creation Every precious stone was there How is this goodly Creature faln Thou art become by Sin a Worm and no Man a Serpent creeping upon thy belly and feeding upon the dust of the Earth All the Creatures grew and flourished together as a Nose-gay in thy Bosom being in their Paradise there and living upon their Root How art thou made a filthy noisom sink in which all the Creatures â—e covered with dirt withered and dead O the Curse that goeth along with every Sin I have heard of an Holy Divine strong in Faith who haunted by an Apparition of the Devil in the form of an Hog thus reproached him Fie Satan once a beautiful and blessed Angel dost thou now appear in the shape of a vile filthy Heg The Devil was so stung with this reproof that he went presently away out of countenance and vanished cut of that good Mans sight When we are tempted to any Sin of Lust Covetousness or Wrath let us in like manner say to our selves Fie my Soul once in the Likeness of God once a Quire of Angels a Paradise in thine own Person wilt thou now make thy self a Hag a Dâ—g a Toad 2. Lesson Set a high value upon Jesus Christ set your hearts upon him believe in him love him run into his arms cleave to him That Paradise that Purity that Innocency that light of Life and Beauty which you have lost are found again in his bosom changed from the Shadow to the Substance He that was the Figure in the first Adam and vanished out of your sight leaving you alone naked and desolate the same is come again to you in the second Adam in the Truth and life to abide for ever with you Augustus Caesar gloried that he found the Buildings
droppeth from the Lips of Christ like Myrrhe from Lillies Joh c. 3. v. 15. No one ascendeth into Heaven but He who cometh down out of Heaven the Son of Man who is in Heaven Mark how the Lord to prevent all Objections â—ixeth that Title the Son of Man upon that which hath its constant abode in Heaven all along the several degrees of its descent and Ascent Jesus Christs encompasseth and circleth in His Human Nature Descending walkiâ—g sadly on the Earth hanging on the Cross lying in the Grave with the Glory of the same Humane Nature Eternal in the Heavens I will now finish my Building and lay the Top-stone by giving you three Representations of the Person of your Beloved with its Beauty in the Resurrection as his Spiritual Soul and Spiritual Body stand in the same Glory with their Spiritual Principle and Pattern as they are two distinct Heavens exactly answering that Heaven from which they come it being both their Mine and their Mint So I shall conclude this use 1. Repres All my representations shall be grounded on clear Scriptures Can. 8. 6. The Spouse prayeth to Christ Set me as a Seal upon thine Heart as a Seal upon thine Arm. The prayers of the Heavenly Bride are made by the Spirit according to the will of God and so are always answered The Divine and Humane Nature are Bridegroom and Bride married together in one Person As the Impression of a Seal in Wax hath all its Substance and Subsistance in the Wax is nothing but what the Wax is in that Form so the glorified Soul and Body of our Blessed Lord stand as Seals as Impressions in that glorious depth of Love of Light of Life of all Being which is the Root and Heart of the God-Head they stand as Sealed Impressions on the Arm of God that is on every Excellency every Beauty every form of Glory in which the God-Head with endless variety with incomprehensible Sweetness and Majesty spreadeth forth itself This is all that which they are the unfathomable Love and Innumerable Beauties of the Divine Nature in the Forms of a Divine Soul and a Divine Body 2. Repres Job c. 38. 14. speakâ—ng of the New Heaven and Earth telleth us that they are turned to the Eternal word as Clay to the Seal The Manhood of Christ in Glory hath the first Model of these in itself As a Golden Seal maketh the Impression of itself on Wax and then fixeth itself unto a constant abode in the Impression which it hath made so the Eternal Word imprinteth by itself immediately upon its own Soul and Body a clear deep and full Image of itself in all the Treasures of its Immortal Life and Blessedness uniting itself in its Divine Substance to this Divine Image most intimately most intirely inseparably After this manner the Glory with which the Humane Nature of Christ is glorified is the Form and fulness of the Divine Nature in its Purity unmixt with any other Substance or Image in its Perfection possessing comprehending enjoying itself in each distinct part here distinctly and compleatly The God-Head by its unvailed Presence and full Appearance at once fashioneth the Manhood of our Jesus in every part and point into its own Supream Form and filleth that Form throughout with its own most glorious Fulness 3. Repres St. Paul telleth the Saints that their Souls and Bodies are Temples of the Holy Ghost 1 Corin. 6. 19. If it be so in the Members it is so without question in the Head Jesus himself calleth his Body a Temple Destroy this Temple and in three days I will build it up again This he spake of his Body The Divine Nature the Glorified Soul the Spiritual Body of our Heavenly Bridegroom are three wonderful Temples The matter of which these Temples are made is all Spirit of the Eternal Spirit the Light of Eternal Life in the Spirit The fashion of these Buildings is the form of God All the Beauties and varieties of the Essential Wisdom all the ravishing delights of the first the highest and most universal Harmony in the God-Head shine in every part of these living structures Within is seen the high and Holy Trinity with all its deep dazling and delightful Mysteries unvailed all the Persons appearing in the Lights of their naked and united Beauties In the pure and transparent brightness of this Supream Glory which is the first and the last are seen all things that ever passed or are to pass over the Stage of this Creation from the Beginning to the End with their several Motions and Changes yea Forms far more innumerable and greater than ever were or can be seen in this World the whole compass of Eternity and Time as it cometh down out of Eternity as it beareth the Figure of it as it returneth again as it lieth in the bosom of Eternity as it is one piece with it and maketh a Triumphant part of the Divine variety there All these are seen in the amiable and admirable Face of the Trinity within these Temples as they are continually rising up out of their Fountain the Unity of the first and most transcendent Love the Father of all as they are continually falling down into this Fountain again as they are ever playing upon the bosom of it All things are seen here as rich varieties in the Harmony of an entire and Immortal Beauty which comprehendeth all Forms and hath no bound besides itself which sitteth entire and undivided upon every Form and Part throughout the whole which is the only Birth and Image of the Father All things are seen here as they make up one unexpressible Marriage-Joy between this Love the Father the Original and this Beauty the Birth the Son the Image by which they both breath forth themselves into one Spirit the Band and Union the Inmost Center and outmost Circle of all Sweetnesses Graces Amiablenesses Pleasantnesses Pleasures Rests Complacencies Delights and Joys thorow Heaven Earth Time Eternity In these three Temples these Things are to be observed that we may understand their Divine Nature and wonderful make aright 1. All three are perfectly distinct in the highest degree of distinction each from other 2. All three perfectly answer and are alike to one another 3. Every one comprehendeth the other Two exactly and entirely in itself that all Three stand together in each several Temple 4. All three Temples joyn perfectly into one Temple 5. The first Temple is the precious and living Stone out of which the other two grow up into living Temples It is the Root the Life the Substance the Form the Fulness the perfection the glory of the other Two I must interpose here two Cautions to prevent mistakes 1. Cant. Preserve carefully the distinction between Spiritual Things both in the Person of our Saviour and in his Mystical Body The Spirit taketh away all Separations and Divisions from God All breaches upon the Unity of God are wounds with which Sin pierceth the Prince of Life The Spirit
such a chariot of Angels with these Persons riding in it 3. The Passage into this Place I will come unto you and take you unto my self that where I am there ye may be also There are three Steps of Christ's Coming to us in Glory 1. Into our whole Spirits by Regeneration 2. Into our whole Souls at death 3. Into our whole Persons Spirit Soul and Body at the Resurrection By every step he maketh a mutual Union so far as he goeth He cometh to us He taketh us to himself that we may be both together in one place in one Spirit He letteth himself down in his Heavenly Palace into us he taketh us up into the Heavenly Palace in himself he maketh our Persons a Heavenly Palace like his glorified Person and one with it This is our passage in Death into Glory Of old God descended upon the Tabernacle in a Cloud the Glory was in the Cloud Then Moses was summoned to enter into the Cloud and so into the Glory where God talked with him In latter times the most excellent Majesty in a 〈◊〉 Cloud overshadowed the Lord Jesus and in overshadowing him transfigured him then in the transfiguration talked to him of his Sonship to the Father and of Love In like manner at the set time the Lord Jesus as a living Temple of Heavenly Glory cometh down upon thee in a white Cloud of some Love-storm or Love-sickness I call it a Love-sickness because it ariseth at once from the Love of the Spirit of the Bride in thee and from the Love of thy Bridegroom to thee from the longings and burning desires of both after the immediate perpetual and full enjoyments of each other As thou entrest into this Cloud and art overshadowed by it thou art in a moment at the same time taken into that Palace of Glory and transfigured into the Glory of that Pallace There thou appearest to be the Son of God the Spouse of the Immortal King God speaketh to thee converseth with thee as a Son and Spouse in one He seeth the Figure of his own Beauties in thy Face and his Heart resteth in thy Bosom He seeth and enjoyeth thy Person as springing up eternally with incomprehensible Pleasures out of the Root of his own Divine Loveliness he feeleth and rellisheth thy Spirit as the flowing of his own sweetnesses from their own Fountain in himself he poureth forth himself in a flood of Beauties and Sweetnesses into thee All his Loves rest in thy Love and he in thee 4. Script I am now come to the last Scripture For we know that if our Earthly House of this Tabernacle be dissolved we have a Building of God an House not made with hands Eternal in the Heavens For in this we groan earnestly desiring to be cloathed upon with our House which is from Heaven If so he that being cloathed we shall not be found naked For we that are in this Tabernacle do groan being burthened not that we would be uncloathed but cloathed upon that Mortality might be swallowed up of Life Now he that hath wrought us for this self-same thing is God who hath also given us the Earnest of the Spirit 2 Cor. 5 1 2 3 4 5. This is a rich and deep Scripture What expressions of Death are those How full of Joy Not to be found naked Naked of any support or comfort Of any cloathing of Being or Beauty Essence or Substance Form or Fulness in Person or Relations Not to be uncloathed Of any Garment of Light or Life To be cloathed upon with an House from Heaven To have the Lord Jesus as a circling Glory coming down upon this Image in which we now dwell neither taking away the Nature nor Form of any thing that here we are or have but taking up all as sacred Mysteries into a Temple of Glory giving them a place for ever in this Temple penetrating filling and cloathing them the Glory To have Mortality swallowed up of Life To lose none of the things or entertainments which here we enjoy in this mortal state but the mortality of them only and that not by Death breaking them down with violence but by the sweet breakings in of Life and Immortality upon them not by a blackness of Darkness dreadfully over-spreading them but a brightness of Eternal Glory delightfully rising upon them like the Sun upon the beautiful Forms of Heaven and Earth after they have weakly appeared in the melancholy Beams of the Moon shining faintly in the shade of the Night And He that hath wrought us for the Self-same Thing is God It is a Divine Hand and Skill which hath framed and fashioned us to this capacity It is God who by his own operations in us not mediately as in tâ—e works of Nature but immediately as in all works of Grace and Glory hath wrought out this Spiritual and Divine Being this Spiritual and Divine Nature in us which never dyeth but is changed from Glory to Glory which in Death putteth off nothing but putteth on a greater and purer Light upon its weaker Lights and Shades piercing thorow and breaking up delusive Shapes formed out of the Darkness of remaining night by stronger Beams of Glory falling from above Who hath also given us the Earnest of his Spirit An Earnest is part of the Sum in present and an assurance of the rest God doth not only frame a Spiritual work like a new Heaven in us but giveth us the Person of his Spirit himself in which the Persons of the Father and the Son are seen together unvailed in their Union and Communion of Beauties and Loves in the unity of which all Angels and Blessed Spirits dwell together as their proper Center and Circle This Spirit God giveth to be in the Spiritual Nature framed by himself in us as a new Sun in the new Heaven This Spirit in us is the Earnest of our Death a foretast of its Sweetness and Delights a vision in part beforehand of the manner of our dying and an assurance of the compleating of its season after the same Beautiful and pleasant Image As at the first Effusion of the Spirit upon us or any new Effusion as at any Act of the Spirit when he shineth our freshly in us this Natural Image of Things is no more a Light of Glory Forms of Glory Immortal Spirits full of a Divine Beauty and Majesty appear every where They are alone and there is nothing besides in the whole space of Things above or below past present or to come As they are so are we All Things are one Vision of Divine Glory Neither do we perceive how one Image of Things goeth and another cometh Both are done one is come the other is gone in the same moment in the twinkling or cast of an Eye So is Death This is the Earnest of our Death This is a step of Death a foretast of it So shall Death he perfected us I have three Observations to make upon this Scripture besides that which I have
the Grace of it as the Water and Sparklings of Light in a Diamond are the Grace of that It is the Tast and Rellish of Love in every Joy is as the Wine which is the Grace of the Feast It is the Love of Jesus Christ at its height which is the Grace intended here 2. The Effusion or Pouring forth of this Grace is next to be opened Three things are signified in this Effusion 1. A Fulness of Grace is discovered Natural Agents work to the utmost of their Power God is in nothing so Natural as in His Love His work of wrath is his strange work praeternatural to Him and a Disguise upon Him Love is His Right Hand the Sheep are set at his Right Hand Love flows forth from the Person of the Father unveiled naked as Light from the Sun Millions of fresh Beams each moment from each point 2. Freedom of Grace is manifested in Its Pouring forth itself It is its own First Mover It puts itself into Motion It is a fluid thing It cannot contain itself within its own Bound the Heart of God It is ever pouring forth itself all abroad into every Heart Divine Love is the most universal and importunate Beggar It cometh to the door of every Spirit It Knocketh It presseth in 3. A Force of Love putteth forth itself in this Expression When the Rain cometh with a Tempest and falleth with a great force we say It poureth down Love from above stormeth Hearts most fortified against it It rusheth forth like a mighty flood If any banks or dams oppose it it riseth so much the higher it gathereth so much the more strength till it bear down all before it carry away all with it overflow all swallow up all into itself that all things become One Sea of Love 3. The Lips of Christ into which this Grace is poured forth may be understood four ways 1. The Word of the Scriptures and the Outward Ministery are the Lips of Christ in which Grace is poured forth All the Scriptures are Love-letters from Christ in Heaven all the Ministeries of the Gospel are Love-Embassages Love-tokens 2. All Outward Providences all Inward Discoveries of the Lord Jesus are His Lips with which He kisseth us and poureth forth the Divine Sweetness and Strength of His Love into our Spirits 3. The Spirit Himself is the Mouth and Lips of the Heavenly Bridegroom By this He uniteth Himself most immediately to us in the closest and Divinest Love-union By this He transmitteth Himself and His Love most warmly into us 4. The naked Person of Christ in Glory is to be understood by these Lips The Holy Ghost composeth this Psalm as a Marriage-song to celebrate the Union State and Joys of the Heavenly Bridegroom and Bride in the Resurrection and Ascension of our Blessed Lord. Here the Person of our Beloved is all a Divine Mouth with which He breatheth forth all the Sweetnesses of His glorious Nature and Love as He sucketh in ours It is all One Divine Eye from which He poureth forth upon us continual Floods of Light Beauty and Grace by which also He taketh us in continually in all Blessed Forms of an Immortal Loveliness and Love Thus we see our selves continually in Him He seeth Himself continually in us Eye to Eye each a Living Glass of glorious Love to the other The Spirit and the Lord Jesus in Glory are Both One. A Bee in a Garden sitteth upon every flower and plant sucking the vertue forth from it This it formeth into One Sweetness in itself which is Honey Full of this Honey it flyeth to its Hive and there layeth up its pleasant Treasures So this Spirit resteth upon every Excellency in the God-Head every Life and Image of things in the Creature It extracteth the several virtues from all It turneth all within itself into One Divine and unexpressible Sweetness which is Love With this Treasure of Love it maketh haste to some broken and forlorn Heart There in this Heart in thine Heart if thou wilt believe that thou mayest tast and see it it layeth down its precious Burthen it layeth up the inestimable Riches of glorious Grace We read in the building of the Temple that there was a great Sea of Brass which stood upon twelve Oxen the figures of the Cherubims Our Saviour's glorified Person is a vast Sea of Love All the Angels of God support this Sea serve this Love The God-Head itself in a bright and sweet flood of Love is poured abroad in this Sea in this Bosom and Person Here every Believing Soul batheth itself in and taketh its Fill of Loves Doct. The Doctrine which I intend to insist upon according to the Grace of God given unto me is this The Love of God is poured forth in the Glorified Person of our Lord Jesus Thy Name is an Ointment poured forth Cant. 1. 2. The Name of our Beloved which His Spouse Knoweth Him by and calleth Him by is That Name above every Name in this World or the World of Angels which the Father hath given Him at His Resurrection and Ascension Ephes. 1. 21. This Name is His Person itself in Glory which is the onely Expression of itself This is an Ointment poured forth O Blessed Ointment of Divine Love which hath all the Cordial Spices and Sweets of the God-Head itself in it which perfumeth all things thorow Heaven and Earth which maketh all Faces to shine with a Divine Lustre and all Hearts to spring with a Divine Joy This costly Ointment was before shut up and kept in an Alabaster Box in the Glorious Secret of the Father's Bosom But now that Box is broken in the Death of our King That Bosom is opened in His Resurrection That sweet Treasure of all Life and Delight the Eternal Love of the Father is poured forth at the Root of the Creation upon the Head of every Creature in the Glorified Person of Jesus Christ. It s sweet Savour is gone forth into the Nostrils of every Spirit to revive it and allure it to its Everlasting Embraces 1. John 5. 11. This is the Record namely of God Himself that God hath given us Eternal Life and this Life is in His Son Eternity is defined to be The Possession of all Good at once and in One. There are Three things which go to make up Eternity 1. A Perfection of Excellency 2. A Collection of all Excellencies 3. A Station of all these with their several Distinctions in One Top-point of Spirituality above all Division or Change Love is the Union of Lovely Things The most Perfect Love is the most Perfect Union which bindeth up all Lovelinesses in their several Perfections into the streightest Unity Eternal Life then is the Life of Love in its Purity and Perfection Eternity is Love itself the firmest and Fullest Union of all Graces and Graceful Things in the height of Glory and the height of Unity This Eternal Life this Eternal Love this Life of Love which is the Life of Eternity is
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
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
estate in the Flesh of Christ and his Members by a Dove a Groaning Dove The Dove is in the clefts of the Rock and the holes of the Stairs Cant. 2. The Spirit descended upon Jesus at his Baptism before his Temptations in the form of a Dove The Spirit in his Heavenly strength and Glory is set forth by an Eagle I have born them upon Eagles Wings saith God They shall mount up on high like an Eagle saith the Prophet Esay The Spirit is often expressed in the plural number because he is that Unity which is the Spring the Center the Circle and Band of all blessed Spirits He hath in himself an endless variety of Spiritual Glories which are all glorious Spirits in him as he is and one with him whithersoever his Will is to go they all go together with him He is therefore expressed by seven Lamps seven Spirits and Eagles here Where the Carcass is there the Eagles will be gathered together The end of all this is to make way for the letting in of a flood of Heavenly Balsom of Divine love upon every heart upon the broken heart to heal it upon the hardest heart to soften it Eagles from afar and from on high are drawn to slaughter'd Carcasses as to their proper Prey So when the Divine Image lyeth in thee as a loathsome Carcass at the bottom of a dark and deep Dungeon now is it the most proper Bait and most powerful Attractive of Divine love Now the Lord Jesus the Eternal Spirit with all the Troop of Spiritual Powers and Glories resort to this Carcass descend upon it hunger after it Now they feed and feast upon it until they have eaten it up until they have converted it into one pure nature and glorious Spirit with themselves When Ignatius was to be devoured by wild Beasts now saith he shall the Teeth of the Lyons grind me into fine Flower to make fine Manchet of me for the Table of God So do thou say concerning all thy Sufferings within and without These are the Divine Teeth of the Spirit of Heavenly love Now doth my God feed upon me If my God feed upon me if he nourish and enlarge his own Life Joys and Glory by me then shall he also change me take me up into himself diffuse his own Life Joys and Glory into me This is the first Answer Ans. 2. Dear Soul whoever whatever thou art thou art the Off-spring of God St. Paul citeth this from a Poet confirmeth it by a Divine Testimony applyeth it Universally to all maketh it the ground of Evangelical Truths and Loves Acts 17. 28. As some of your own Poets have said We are his Off-spring St. Paul hath something very like this Ephes. 3. 9. The Gospel was hid in God from the Foundation of the World who made all things by Jesus Christ. God had the love of the Gospel in his Heart and sowed it as a secret Seed in the Foundations of the whole Creation when he made all things by Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the Seed of Nature as well as of Grace and so lyeth hid in the Bosom of every Creature as the true Pearl in the Field That Divine Image of which we spake before was the similitude only the Mother of Pearl This is the Substance the Pearl itself In the Off-spring of God is the Seed of God Where the Seed of God is there is God himself in the Vertue Power and fulness of his Divine Nature For so the Seed of every Plant hath that Plant Virtually and Spiritually in it Be now no more unbelieving but believe Believe the love which God hath to thee Believe that all the Inclinations of the Divine Will are to thee that the Eye and heart of God are turned toward thee in every place fixt upon thee with all that intention and force of Sweetness in the Divine Nature For why He is drawn irresistibly to his own Seed his own Son his own self in thee Thou art his Off-spring When Micah was reproved for crying after the Company he replâ—ed Ye have carried away my Gods and ye say why criest thou after us No more now doubt and say why should the most high God with an Eye of love from Heaven thus follow me into every state of life into all the corners of my heart Why should he by a voice of love from Heaven in the Word in Providences in the motions of his Spirit thus cry and call after me Thou hast his Seed his Son himself in thee Do thou answer him again and say Thou seekest thy self thy Seed thy Sheep crucified buried lost in me O seek and find it find it and take it up into thine Arms keep it in thine Arms till thou bring it home to its own self to its lost Life Joys and Glories again But I also seek my Life my Original my true self hid with Christ in thee in the brightness of thy Glory O take thy crucified self in me home to thee into thy Bosom O give me my Glorified self with thee home to me into my Bosom Thus much for the second Answer Ans. 3. Still the wounded Spirit sigheth and saith Can God take pleasure in any thing common or unclean Dear Souls ever dear to the Divine Will when you have a sense of Sin or Love and when you have none understand the Mystery of the Divine Will in the order and method of Divine love When you understand this you will have a deep and kindly sense of Sin indeed but so as to have a righter and sweeter sense of love by it There is a Twofold Love in God a Love of Complacency or Delight a Love of Benevolence or good Will The first is that by which he taketh pleasure in thee as a Bridegroom in his beautiful Bride The second is that by which his Will is set on work to make thee beautiful and a Bride to himself The love of Complacency is the first and the last love The love of benevolence is a middle-love which ariseth out of this and endeth in it as Springs and Rivers come from the Sea and run into it This is the Order of Divine love First thou art beloved with a love of Complacency from Eternity as thou art seen in that Glass of Eternity the Word the Lord Jesus Secondly Thou art for this love's sake beloved with a love of benevolence in time in thine own Person by which love God willeth all good to thee and worketh all good in thee Lastly Thou art beloved with a love of Complacency to Eterniâ—y in thine own Person as thou art decked with all the Ornaments of the Divine Nature This is the order of Divine love It s Musick is made up of these three Parts 1. Part. Divine-love in the first Part is a love of Complacency or Delight in thee as thou art seen Eternally in the Person of Christ. Dear Soul while thou art complaining here below and fixest thine Eye upon thy shame thy God seeth thee all-glorious
continually encircle thee and encamp round about thee in every place by night and by day Which way soever thou goest they bear thee in their arms They go before thee to make smooth paths for thy Feet and to prepare a resting place for thee They contend with all the Powers of Darkness in thy behalf for thy Body itself even in Death They make Peace for thee with the Beasts of the Field and a Covenant for thee with the Stones of the Earth in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Mystery of the Gospel The darkest Appearances of things have the face of Pleasure itself and put on Immortal Beauties for thee The hardest things soften into Spirits of Life and Love flow with Springs of love and delights for thee 4. The God-Head itself encompasseth thee with a Ring of unapproachable Powers and Incomprehensible Glories like the Mountains round about Hierusalem Himself becometh unto thee the Habitation of a Rock the Rock of Eternity and Glory Himself is thy King thy Kingdom thy Palace thy strong Tower thy safety thy rest and thy pleasure In this Divine strength in this Divine secret no evil can come near thee no good can ever fail thee neither the Bread of thy strength and life nor the living Waters of thy Loves Beauties and Joys This is the Love-Presence of God This is drawn in and withdraweth itself from thee in the same degrees as sin is entertained in thy Spirit and Life Evil is a Privation of Good How great an Evil then is the least sin which depriveth thee of the best and greatest good the Love-Presence of thy God Blessed are the pure in Heart saith our Saviour they shall see God Mat. 5. How cursed are the Impure Wo to the filthy and unclean They are condemned to the loss of the sight of this God and the sense of his Love which sight which sense alone enlighten alone sweeten Heaven This is the Will of God your Sanctification The Will and the Love of God are one While you stand in a holy Temper and State you stand in the Will of God you stand in the Love-visions and Love-embraces of God What a horrour should you have for every Sin which cometh to snatch these blessed visions of Love from before your Eyes and you from the midst of these embraces of love When the Lord Jesus died the Sun was entirely darkned besides the course of Nature the Rocks were rent asunder the Earth shook and trembled the Graves were opened and the Dead came forth How dreadful and dismal a thing would Sin appear if we met with so unnatural affrighting a Change as this upon the act or meditation of every Sin But the change is far more tragical and mournful if we saw it with the Eyes of our mind as indeed it is Upon the arising of each Lust in thee to gain thy Will from the Bosom of thy Will Jesus Christ is spiritually slain in thee who hath a Twin-life with thy life while thou livest in the Divine Will This is a Death far more deadly than that in his Flesh. Now that light of Glory is extinguished in thy Spirit which shineth ten thousand times brighter and sweeter than the Summer-Sun Now the Rocks the Divine Powers round about thee rend asunder and remove out of their places Hell is opened All things round about thee are Apparitions from beneath evil Spirits walking in all Forms of things The whole frame and face of Nature is full of Darkness and uncertainty Tremblings and Horrour The whole Image of things within thee and without is changed from a Love-Presence to a spectacle of Wrath and Vengeance O that Men understood and would believe the Evil of Sin of a departure from the Divine Will which is a Sea of Love to their own Will which is a dark fire of Lust burning up into an open Hell But though they neither understand nor believe it yet is it true and they feel it to be so 2. The Second Evil of Sin is an opposition to the Divine Will that is to the Divine Love But can any oppose unclean Lusts to so pure a Love Earthly Hellish Lusts to so Heavenly a Love Fleshly Lusts to a spiritual Love a Love which is the Life and Immortality of all Blessed Spirits Can any oppose raging passions to the meekness and sweet Calm of Divine Love Can any set themselves against that Love which wooeth them continually till it win them which doth all things for them Can any so cast shame upon that Love which poureth forth itself as a sweet-smelling Ointment of all Grace and Beauty upon their Heads and Persons Are any hearts to be found so hard that they will wound Eternal Love itself while it is pouring forth the Life-Blood of its own heart partly for a Divine Bathto wash us wâ—ite in partâ—y as a precâ—ous Balsom to heal those woâ—nds which Sin and Sorrow make in theâ— All this we do while by Sin we walk contrary to the Divine Will which is all Love Love framing all contrivances casting itself into all Forms in Heaven on the Earth under the Earth acting all parts of Life and Death for us to gain us and to crown us with all its Joys and Beauties O how uningenuous how unnatural a thing is Sin O take heed of trusting the comforts of your lives the life of your Souls the sweetness of your Relations to it The foundations of Heaven and Earth are not so firm as that of this Truth The greatest Evil of Suffering is to be chosen a thousand times rather than the least Evil of Sin In the midst of all other Evils thy Will may stand in a Love-Union with the Divine Will which is the only Paradise of Delights and Beauties that never fade In every Evil of Sin thy Will standeth in opposition and enmity to the Divine Will which enmity alone is the Center of Hell where all its blackness of darkâ—ess all its unquenchable fires all its innumerable furies forms of torment rise up into it Our Lord Jesus in his Agony on the Cross in all his Sufferings had a Joy set before him The Wrath of his Father with all its Tempests which shook Heaven and Earth was a spectacle of Divine Love and Joy set before him For in all this his Fathers Will was done by him His Will was tuned to his Fathers Will. So the Harmony and Musick of Divine Love plaid in the Ear of his Spirit thorow all His Will was an excellent Lute the more it was broken the more sweetly it returned all that Musick On the other side all the pleasures of Sin all the Glories of the Creature to a sinful Soul are only a scene of Heaven in Hell For the Will standeth in a Contrariety to the Divine Will which is the Supream Love and Joy What can the Contrariety to the Supream Love and Joy be but the deplorable extreams of Wrath and Torment Use 2. The Will of God declareth itself to be Love
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
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
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
Righteousness unto Eternal Life thorow Jesus Christ our Lord. There are three Ways in which the Righteousness of God serveth his Love 1. Righteousness is the Royal-Garment and the Wedding-Garment for Love itself and its Bride on the Coronation and the Wedding day which are both one the day of the Spirit the day of Grace the day of Eternity The Bridegroom himself is said to be fairer than the Sons of Men in my Text Psal. 45. 2. He is cloathed with the Righteousness of God which is the Comeliness the Beauty of Holiness or the Holy the Pure the unstained unmixt Beauty of the Divine Nature Two things make Beauty Features Colours The Features in the Face of the God-Head are the variety of all Excellencies in a Harmony The Colours are the Glory shining in all these This is the Righteousness of God Jesus Christ hath both these He is the express Image of the Person of God There are the Divine Features He is the brightness of the Glory of God There are the Divine Colours and Lustre Both these make up the Garment of Righteousness which is the Divine Loveliness of Love himself In this he appeareth fairer than the Sons of Men on his Marriage-Day in the day of the Gospel For Behold He cometh forth in the Righteousness of God This also is the Garment with which Love cloatheth and adorneth his Spouse the Believing Soul to make her fairer than all the Daughters of Men than all the Daughters of Hierusalem than all Angelical Beauties The Queen is said to be brought to the King all Glorious within in Garments of beaten Gold in Garments of Needle-work Psal. 4. 5. The Glory quite thorow the beaten Gold the Needle-work is all comprehended in the Righteousness of God He was made Sin for us that we might be made the Righteousness of God in him 2 Cor 5. 21. This is the Garment with which Divine Love adorneth his Queen to make her fit for his Throne and his Embraces This Garment of Divine Righteousness hath a mysterious vertue in it It is at once a Bath of Divine Blood which taketh off all the blackest deepest stains of deformity from the most loathed Souls It is a Tincture of Divine Beauty which giveth in a moment Youth Immortality a loveliness quite thorow its whole Essence a Substantial Essential loveliness a loveliness resembling and answering that of love himself of God This is the beaten Gold all Glory within A learned Interpreter teacheth us that the Needle-work in the Garment signifieth properly Oes wrought in Gold like so many Suns all over the Garment How rich how Beautiful is that Garment of Righteousness with which the Lord Jesus decketh the Soul of every Saint in which it fully pleaseth the Eye of God and dazleth the Eyes of Angels It is set all over with Golden Oes of an Eternal Glory with Invisible and Eternal Suns the unvailed Face the entire Person of the Lord Jesus set in every part and shining from every point of it This is the first Service of the Divine Righteousness to the Divine Love to make itself and its Bride the Beloved Soul Infinitely Unchangeably Lovely and Pleasant one to another This is the Righteousness of our fustification 2. Eternal love soweth the Righteousness of God as a Divine a Spiritual Seed in our Hearts This Seed changeth the ground into its own Nature It draweth the vertue and strength of it to itself It groweth up in it together with it to a Tree which is an entire Paradise in itself The body of this Tree is the Lord Jesus in the Power Glory Fulness of his Spirit The Branches are all the Spirits of God of Angels and Saints spread thorow all times and things All moral Excellencies all the Beauties and Perfections of the Divine Image in the first and universal frame of Nature are the leaves of this Tree which here never fade All Divine Righteousness all Evangelical Perfections and Spiritual Graces are the Fruit which is fitted for every Season and ever ripe in its Season On this Fruit love itself which is God the Son of love Jesus Christ all the Angels of love the Soul herself feed are refreshed and raised to a Divine Joy This is the Righteousness of our Sanctification 3. The Righteousness of God is the Scepter in the Hand of Love by which it ruleth all things As Moses commanded all the Elements the Air the Water the Earth by stretching forth the Rod in his hand so the Love of God swayeth all things every where by the Scepter of his Righteousness The Harmomony and Motions of the Divine Righteousness from the hand of Divine Love are felt and obeyed by all things to the utmost end of the Creation Righteousness is the Musick of Divine Love by which all things are charmed Use. See the distinction between the liberty of Spiritual Love and the licentiousness of Fleshly Lusts. 1. Divine Love is free but Divinely fair and pure St. James calleth the Gospel which is the Ministery of Love from Heaven the perfect Law of Liberty and in another place the Royal Law Love is free but it is perfect Love is a Liberty but it is a Law to itself in its Liberty Love is a King but it reigneth in Righteousness It is itself both King and Law to itself Love saith St. Paul is the fulfilling of the whole Law Jesus Christ said to John the Baptist It behoveth me to fulfil all Righteousness This is the Language of Heavenly Love in every Holy Heart It behoveth me to fulfil all Righteousness Love is an obligation of Righteousness to itself Righteousness is the decency the comliness of Love Love is the Divine Unity and Righteousness the Heavenly Harmony in which this Unity of Love diffuseth itself thorow all things True liberty is only found in Harmony All Bondage ariseth from Discord which hath its Root in Contrariety and Enmity Righteousness is the Harmony and Beauty of Love It is the liberty of the Sun to shine of a Tree to flourish with Leaves Flowers and Fruits Righteousness is the liberty the Sun-shine the Beauty and fruitfulness of Divine Love As the Sun by its light so the love of God by its Spiritual Beauty which is Holiness attracteth Spirits to it maketh them in love with it maketh them lovely by Assimilation making them like itself filleth them with all delights maketh them fruitful with all Beautiful and Divine Births of Grace and Glory Love and Righteousness are as the Father and the Son in the Blessed Trinity Love bringeth forth Righteousness as its proper brightness its lovely light its essential Image the express Image of its Substance and all its Sweetnesses or vertues As the Father is at liberty only in the Son his own Image as the Son is no where at liberty but in the Bosom of the Father his own Principle and Original so is love no where truly free but where it springeth up and flourisheth in the Fruits of Righteousness Righteousness is then
Unity which is the Divine Nâ—â—ure and which is Divine Love by three Principles of our common Orthodâ—â— Divinity rightly founded upon the Scriptures 1. Prin. God beholdeth All things in himself He goeth not forth out of himself to converse with any Thing He receiveth not any Impression from thing without himself Rom. 11. v. 35. 36. Who hath been his Counsellour or who haâ—â— given to the Lord first that he should repay him God is Simple ever Perfect uncompounded He seeth all things in the Glass of his own Essence He Himself All to himself his own Center and Circumference 2. Princ. Every thing which God seeth in himself he seeth at himself All Forms of things as they appear in God appear cloathed with the Form of God James 1. 5. every good and perfect Gift cometh from above from the Father of Lights with whom there is no variableness nor shadow of Turning All appearances of things in the Fahter of Lights the Sun of Eternity are Lights good and Perfect Lights not Beams but so many entire Suns Springs and Seas of Light the Light of Life and Love in the Bosom of that Sun the Father of them All. For there is no Variableness in God although there be Variety God is the Same in every season and Appearance without any Shadow of Turning 3. Princ. God as he seeth all things in himself in one Divine Form with himself comprehendeth them unchangeably in the closest and sweetest Embraces converseth with them Eternally in the highest degree of all mutual Suitableness Sweetness Satisfaction and Delight Pythagoras said Friendship the best Kind of Love on Earth was One Soul in several Bodies as in so many Images and Reflections of itself Such is God such is Love One Incomprehensible Spirit multiplying itself into Innumerable Representations and Reflections of itself that it may contemplate itself possess itself delight it Self Infinitely for the Divine Form compleat in every One endlessly for the Variety ever New This is the sacred Unsearchable Unity of the Divine Majesty Thus this Unity is the most Sacred and Supreme Love Quest. Now you may perhaps say within your selves some one of you This Love of which you speak is the Love of God within himself the Love of God to himself What is all this Love to me Answ. My answers to this Question shall be so many Applications of this Truth Use. 1. All this Love is nothing to thee who separatest thy self from the Divine Unity by sin Your Sins separate between me and you saith the Lord by the mouth of his holy Prophet You have accounted your selves unworthy of Spiritual Loves in that you have divided your selves from the Unity the Heavenly Body and Spirit of the Lord Jesus You stand in the strength of your own Spirits and walk after your own Imaginations Principles and â—mages which you have found out and chosen to your selves to stand in the Power and walk in the Light of them Matth. 23. 37. Jesus Christ mournâ—th over Jerusalem in these words O Jerusalem Jerusalem who stonest the Proâ—hets and killest those that are sent unto thee how often would I have gathered â—hee as a Hen gathereth her chickens under her Wings But ye would not Thereâ—ore now shall thy house be left unto thee desolate I say unto you Ye shall see me no more until ye shall say Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord Wretched Soul who art still in thy Sins hear thy Saviour after this manâ—er mourning over thee with tears of blood falling from those Wounds which Love in him Sin and Unbelief in thee have made with Words of Pity and tender Compassions falling from his Lips O wretched wretched Soul which by sin woundest that Unity of Divine Love which first sent thee forth from its Blessed Womb which by Unbelief continually killest in thy Self that Unity of the Eternal Spirit which springeth up in thee which sendeth forth sweet glances maketh strong Impressions of itself upon thee to draw thee into its Blessed Bosom O sinful O Unbelieving soul how often within thee without thee in thoughts of thine Heart in touches upon thy affections in the ministery of my Word in the works of my Providence have I spread over thee the Shadowing wings of the Divine Unity the wings of Divine Love of the Heavenly dove my Spirit How often would I have gathered thee under these wings to have lien safe from every Bird of Prey every Evil and Unclean Spirit to have lien warm under that Divine Heart which would have cherished the Divine Life in thee with all the Graces and Joys of it But thou wouldest not Therefore is thy Spirit and Person left to thee desolate without Spiritual Life Spiritual Comfort Spiritual Company which all as Plants of Immortality grow and flourish together in the Unity of the Eternal Spirit as in their Root But poor forlorn Soul when thou shalt see thy Saviour come again in his Spirit into thy Spirit then shalt thou fall down at his feet fly into his Arms and say Blessed is my Jesus coming in the Heavenly Evidence of the Divine Unity which is the Supream Love that subdueth all things to itself Now I believe This Unity this Love is the Ground and Root of Faith Use. 2. All this Love is nothing to thee who livest in the enmity of the Serpent Thou hast no lot nor portion in that Divine Unity which is the Fountain of Love who livest in Wrath Malice and a bitter Zeal The Spouse of Christ the Soul on which he hath set his Love is a Dove hath Hony and Milk under her Tongue Divine Love Heavenly Peace and Joy are a Fountain of Milk and Hony in her Heart Gentle Language Words of Meekness Healing Peace-making works are streams of Milk and Hony under her Tongue flowing from the Fountain of Divine Love in her heart We read in the Book of Job that the Wicked Man shall never see the Land of Brooks of Fountains and of Rivers of Waters but the Serpent shall bite him These expressions seem to allude to the Land of Canaan and the fiery Serpents in the Wilderness which things themselves were Types of the Paradise of Love in the Divine Unity and the Enmity of the old Serpent in the Wilderness of Sin As thou likest not to retain Love in thine Heart language and life but art a fiery biting Serpent by deadly hate bitter Speeches works of wrath and malice formed in Hell so thou shalt never see the pleasant Land flowing with Brooks with Fountains and Rivers of Love The crooked Serpent shall wrap thee up in his cursed folds to draw thee into his hideous Den there bite and devour thee Use. 3. Believe So shall all this Love be thine in thee and to thee I shall make good this to thee by 3 Arguments which are so many Motives to perswade thee to believe to stand fast in the Faith to grow in Faith 1. Argum. Believe and by believing thou shalt be transplanted
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
the Evil and Ugliness of Sin in the Light and Glass of their own Heavenly purity 2. Ans. Hatred is an intellectual contrariety The Unity and Love of the Divine Nature in the King of Saints and all his Holy Ones is essentially and formally in itself an irreconcilable opposition an active contrariety to Enmity and Sin as Light Day and Immortality are to Darkness Night and Death 3. Ans. God seeth Sin in order to his Wrath. God seeth his Wrath in ordeâ— to his Glory his Glory as the full object of his Love order is the Chain and Band of Unity Thus God beholdeth all at once as they lie comprehended in the Unity of Eternal Light and Love by their several Subordinations God beholdeth Sin as it is swallowed up into a flame of wrath the flame of wrath as it is heightned to a Light of Glory the Light of Glory as it shineth and liveth in the Eye of his Love the Fountain of all Lights Life and Joys Love is the Eternal and rich Root of all Glory is the Tree that springeth up out of this Root the perfect and full Image of Love in which it liveth diffuseth and delighteth itself within itself This Tree of Glory spreadeth itself into many flourishing Branches among which are Holiness Justice Wrath against Sin Wrath by the force of the contrariety raiseth up Sin as a mark to shoot its burning Arrows and cast his fiery Darts at Love thorow these Attributes letteth in Sin by the Law that it may display itself more fully in its War with its Enemy in it Conquest and Triumph over it that it may break forth and rise up thorow it more powerfully purely and sweetly like a flame going up to Heaven from a great pile of Wood perfectly subdued to it The Unity of God is now the Glass of Love in which alone God seeth alâ— Things and the Diamond which he seeth set and shining in every Ring of Operative or Permissive Providences Sin appeareth to him in the Glass of his Wrath and Justice These sheweth themselves to him by their reflections and Images in the Glass of hiâ— Glory His Glory shineth forth from the Arms and Bosom of his Love which is the inmost Center and outmost Circle of the Divine Unity Here all things lie here all things present themselves to God as Mysteries of Divinity and Love in the Unity of the Divine Nature God beholdeth with a fulness of Joy his Love the reflection of himself his own Fountain the Fountain of his blessed Unity in which he lyeth Eternally bathing himself in pure floods of Incomprehensible Pleasures this Love this Unity this Fountain he beholdeth in all his Glory His Glory is the Object of his Eye in the Severity of his Justice and Wrath. He contemplateth his Justice and Wrath alone in Sin Thus God seeth every where the Mystery of his Divine Unity as the great and bright deep of Eternity He seeth every where the Seal the express Image of his Divine Unity where all the riches of his Glory and Sweetnesses of his Love unfold themselves and sport together Thus O Saint learn to look upon every Sin See it in this Glass of Truth the mystery of the Divine Unity See this secret and invisible Jewel the mystery of the Divine Unity sealed upon it sealed up in it Thus shalt thou see Sin so as to preserve thy Purity and thy Love both in one Thou shalâ— see Sin so as to be at once a flame of Wrath to it and a Light of Glory a flame of Love in that flame of Wrath comprehending both Wrath and Sin in the Wrath. So shalt thou see Sin hate and dwell for ever with God who is the Beauty of Holiness and Love 4. Ans. God looketh upon a Sinner as upon a Prison and a Grave where the Truth the Divine Seed the Light and Life of the Divine Image lyeth detained captivated slain by a Lie the Prince of Life and Light by the Powers of Darkness His Wrath and Hatred against the Sinner is a zeal of Love He cometh forth with Thunders Lightnings Tempests and Earthquakes in his Wrath to break down the Prison walls to break open the Grave that the Prince of Glory may come forth into the Light of Life and the liberty of the Glory of a Son of God God as a Sun breaketh forth with power and in his Strength to dissolve by the force of his Beams the Inchantment and Light that the Sons of Light and the Truth may be set free Thus God hateth Sinners thus do thou hate them with a perfect Hatred Let thy fire be no bitter zeal but a zeal of Love Let thy woundings be Divine Anointings I have hitherto passed thorow only one half of my discourse upon the description of Spiritual Love by the supream Unity in the Divine Nature I shall take my ground for the other half Galat. 3. 20. This shall be my Center for a time from which my Motions shall arise and whither they shall return to end thee The words are these Now a Mediatour is not of one but God is one This Scripture hath a sweet and clear depth of Love in it but unfathomable This depth is the Unity of God St. Paul stateth here the most essential difference between the Law the Ministery of Wrath and the Gospel the Ministery of Love One is established in the hands of a Mediatour in the other God is one The Love-union in the Gospel is too near too sure too sweet to need or admit a Mediator The Fountain of all Evangelical Grace and Love is the Unity of God The Unity of the Spirit is the Band of Peace between the Uncreated and all Created Spirits Ephes. 4. 6. But we shall more clearly see the Riches Treasured up in this Scripture if we look upon it by the light of another Scripture in the same Chapter v. 16. Now the Promise was made to Abraham and his Seed he saith not to Seeds as to many but as to one And to thy Seed which is Christ. The Holy Apostle in this Chapter maketh it his work to prove that Righteousness is not by the works of the Law but by Faith in Jesus Christ according to the Gospel God descending into Christ and taking up Christ into himself Jesus Christ in this fulness and Glory of the God-Head entring into the Soul and taking the Soul into himself by the free Revelation and immediate Union of Faith This is the Righteousness of God and of his Saints in the Gospel One Argument by which St. Paul maintaineth Righteousness to be of Grace and not by Works is laid down v. 15. the Covenant of Grace was long before the Law He confirmeth that here v. 16. The Promises were made to Abraham and to his Seed c. The Holy Ghost in this verse established the Heavenly Building of the Gospel upon three beautiful and firm Pillars 1. Pillar The Gospel is a meer simple pure Promise That which was called in the verse
before the Testament or Covenant is here expressed by Promises The Law is compounded of Precepts and Promises dependant upon those Precepts as condition of the Covenant to be performed mutually on both sides of prohibitions and threatnings annexed But as the Sun is a Body streaming forth freely by a knot of Beams So is the Gospel a knot of Promises which are all Love in so many clear unmixt Beams shooting themselves freely forth from the fulness and force of Love alone in its Head-spring the heart of God Obj. But you will say Are there not Precepts set down Conditions imposed Duties required high and hard things to be performed in an Evangelical State Ans. It is most true The Gospel hath its Precepts Conditions Duties and these all high hard raised to a pitch of Spirituality and Heavenliness beyond the reach and sight of any natural Spirit But these all depend upon the Promise and not the Promise on them All Evangelical Graces and Duties are Children of the Promise The Promise is as the Hierusalem above free the mother of all living Principles and Performances We read 2 Pet. 1. 4. That we have given to us great and precious promises by which we are made partakers of the Divine Nature You who believe not hear and believe You who believe but faintly and weakly hear that your Faith may be encreased You who are strong in Faith hear and believe yet more Hear how all the difficulties in believing in the whole life of Faith from the Beginning to the end the Promises are Pipes of pure Gold laid into your Hearts from the Heart of Christ in Glory By these from that flourishing Olive Tree the Divine Nature as the best Oil floweth in upon you freely and perpetually When a Gardiner would set choice Plants Flowers in a barren sandy Soil he first bringeth in fresh and fertile Soil to lay upon it Then he planteth in this good ground which he hath made his Flowers and Trees which now flourish and make that barren Earth a rich and pleasant Garden So God findeth thy Spirit O Man barren and sandy a Rock No Spiritual Plant no Truth or Grace of the Gospel can take root or live here But be not thou discouraged by all this by the hardness of thine Heart the barrenness and enmity of thy Spirit to the Heavenly Seed which it killeth as often as it is sown in it Look to the Promises God by these will bring in the Divine Nature With this as a good and Heavenly ground he will overlay and enrich thy Spirit Now God will plant every pleasant Truth every Evangelical Grace in thy Spirit Now they shall all prosper they shall unfold their several Beauties send forth their sweet smell and bring forth much fruit in thee For this new Earth of the Divine Nature shall send forth its Fatness and Sweetness into them and make them to grow When a Prince goeth his progress his Gests are set down before he leaveth his Court which way and how far he shall Travel every day where he shall lodge at night His Servants with Furniture and Provisions from his Court wait upon him all along A Promise is a Declaration and Obligation of Divine Love which it maketh of itself which it layeth upon itself free and immutable Whoever thou art that hearest this believe in the Promise Believe freely in a free Promise This Faith will make thee the Prince of which I speak Thou art now a Prince come forth from Heaven to take thy Progress thorow this world and so return home to Heaven again All thy Gests by day and Rests by night are set down Eternally in Heaven in the Book of Love there which is the Heart of God and from thence in a Promise which is Eternal Love or the Heart of God transcribed to be read by thee The day of a Saint is the Light shining from the Face of God The night is the drawing in and darkning of this Light All thy motions by day with every Circumstance O Believer O Heavenly Prince are described exactly in the draught of Divine Love the Promise Thou goest as it is written of thee there The Holy Angels thine own Servants from thy Court in Heaven attend thee in all thy way with Heavenly Provisions and Minister unto thee as is appointed there Thy resting-place every Night is ordered in the Promise The Blessed Angels go before thee They take up thy lodging for thee They make it ready with Heavenly Furniture They make thy Bed for thee They are a Guard round about thee for the fear of the night All things are done as was set down before in the Bosom of Eternal Love opened in the Promise Thus the Gospel is All a Promise The Promises are Love shining forth by its own Brightnesses and Beams Love is that name of God which is an Ointment poured forth Love is the Divine Nature freely flowing and diffusing itself like Live-Honey As a Bottom of Silk is unwound and wrought out into divers beautiful Figures in a Garment of Needle-work such is thy Life thy whole Story O Saint Divine Love spun forth from the glorious Heart of God as Silk from the curious Worm is wound up into a Bottom in the Promise This rich Bottom worketh out itself into all thy motions and rests into all thy Changes and Chances thorow thy whole course as into so many exact and shining Figures of Eternal Glories Thus Love maketh itself the entire History of thy Life of that History and Life it maketh for thee a Garment to wear in Heaven becoming the Bride of the great King You may see something by my description of this first Pillar on which the Gospel standeth how God is one in the Covenant of Grace and that high Heavenly Unity the sweet Spring of all the Grace and love of the Covenant You will see this breaking forth more like the day dawning by degrees upon you as I shall set before you the other two Pillars of Evangelical Truth 2. Pillar The Promise of the Gospel is to the Seed and to that Seed as to One. To Abraham and to his Seed were the Promises made He saith not to Seeds as to many but to his Seed as to One. v. 16. The Seal of the Promise upon the Seed is the Unity God will not give his Glory to another The Love and Grace of God in the Gospel is his chief Glory Therefore is Evangelical Love to the Evangelical Seed and that for the Unity sake The Seed every where in the Father in all the Off-spring is one with itself Love and Unity are ever inseparable The Strength and Sweetness of the Relation between the Father and the Child is the Unity Love is at its height in a Father because there is the Head of the Unity The Unity here is the Spring of Love From hence its streams run along into all relations with the sweeter and stronger force as they are nearer to this Spring God is Love God
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
Promises are all made to this one Seed which is Christ in the Unity of the Spirit in the Unity of the Divine Nature Thou hast then no further any part or portion in the promises of the Gospel or the Comforts of Love than thou abidest in the Unity of Christ and of the Spirit It is the Seed of Love which is a Holy and Divine Seed it is the Life and Fruit of this Seed on which as on the Fleece of Gideâ—n all the Dew of Divine Blessings falleth Every other Seed with its Life and Fruit is as the Mountains of Gilboah on which no Rain or Dew of any Divine Grace or Promise descendeth Abide then in this Love which is the Holy Seed in thee bring forth the Fruits of this Love in thy whole Life So shalt thou be Blessed in thy Seed and in thy Deed. I have now finished the third Argument for the confirmation and explication of the third Description of Divine Love which was this The Love of God is the God of Love For the Unity of God is the most high and holy Love I pass now to the fourth and last Argument 4. Argu. The Mystery of the Trinity is a Mystery of Divine Love This is the fourth Argument to prove that God is Love The Divine Philosopher defineth Love to be a Birth in a Beautiful Subject As the New Hierusalem is said to come down out of Heaven a Bride ready trimmed so out of the Bosom of Divine Love opening itself as a Heaven cometh forth the Divine Loveliness the Garden of Heaven the Heavenly Paradise This is the Heavenly Bride In this Garden Love planteth and maketh to grow all Beautiful and Divine Images all Heavenly Pleasures and Joys Divine Love and the Holy Trinity agree in this that they are a Birth and a Marriage both in one This Mystery is figured in Paradise in the first Man Adam bringeth Eve forth from himself Then Adam bringeth forth all Living in and by Eve Adam first bringeth forth Eve the Beautiful Image of himself and of that Paradise which he then comprehended and carryed about with him in his own Person Then he brought forth all Beautiful Images of Humane Life and Humane Nature in this Beautiful Subject by the Love-union of a Paradisical Marriage In like manner the Supream Love first bringeth forth the Supream Loveliness the Image of itself Then it marryeth itself to this Beautiful Image and bringeth forth in the Bosom of it all Lives Loves Lovelinesses Delights and Glories Thus Divine Love is a Trinity There are three in Divine Love 1. The Love-spring or the Divine Fountain of Love 2. The Love-Birth or the Divine Birth and Image of Love the Supream Loveliness 3. The Love-union the Divine Union between these two the Sacred Fountain and the Beautiful Image These are the three Properties in Divine Love which are all one Love as there are three Persons in the Divine Nature which three are one God In Love and in God these three are the same Divine Love the same Divine Nature standing in distinct and opposite Relations to itself within itself infinitely above all things without itself These Relations are in both the same 1. The God-Head in the Fatâ—er is Divine Love in the Fountain the Love-spring of Eternity 2. The God-Head in the Son is Divine Love in the Birth or Image the Love-Birth of Eternity 3. The God-Head in the Holy Ghost is Divine Love in its Marriage-Union between the Love-Spring and the Love-Birth the Love-Union in Eternity See how God being Love is compleat in Eternity by being within himself a Birth and a Marriage which Two include all Beauties Sweetnesses and Blessedâ—essâ—s all the Beautiful Sweet and Blessed Fruits of Love Learn here how Honourable Marriage is and to keep the Bed of Love undefiled God hath Sealed upon it the Image of the most Holy and Blessed Trinity the Trinity of Divine Love the Trinity in the Divine Nature Marriage in Paradise was the fairest and fullest Figure of the highest and sweetest Mystery in Heaven the Ever-Blessed Trinity The Jews and Gentiles before the coming of the Lord Jesus were for the most part strangers to the Doctrine of the Trinity They were therefore loose and dissolute in the rites of Marriage They made nothing of Fornication and very little of Adultery The Lord in the Revelation of the Gospel at once unvaileth the glorious face of the God-Head in the most Blessed Trinity and discovereth the sweet and beautiful Figure of it in the Holy State of Marriage Our Saviour by the Appearance of the Divine Nature in its numbeless Glories shining thorow every Created Form in his own Mysterious Person as thorow their proper Figures and Images hath restored all things He hath restored Marriage not only to its primitive institution in Paradise but to its Eternal Pattern and Original in Heaven the high and holy Trinity Preserve carefully this Marriage-Glory pure from Lusts untroubled by passions So shall you see with the Joy of Paradise the sacred Impression of that supream Mystery of all Divine Loves Lovelinesses and Delights the Trinity in the Divine Nature set as the Seal of Eternity upon it So shall you draw down the Trinity itself with all its secret and sacred Treasures of Blessedness to inhabit with you in it Blessed are they who hold the Band of Marriage undefiled unbroken in the sweet and beautiful Type in the Glorious Truth of the Heavenly Unity in the most Blessed Trinity We have said something in general to shew how the Mystery of the Trinity is a Mystery of Divine Love Let us launch a little further into this Sea of unexpressible Sweetnesses and Beauties by contemplating this God-Head of pure loves in the several Persons of the Trinity 1. The God-Head in the first Person the Father is Divine Love in its Fountain The Father in the Trinity is the Love-spring in Eternity A Dâ—vine plenitude or fulness an unfathomable deep of Divine and Unexpressible Sweetness ever rising up ever flowing overflowing all things this is the Sacred Person of the Father in the Trinity this is the Sacred Spring of Divine Love in Eternity and this is that Fountain so dear to you O ye Saints out of which you all are made to drink that Sacred Fountain of Free-Grace I shall endeavour to open this beloved Fountain the streams of which are the Life Love and Joy of all things in Heaven above and on the Earth below by three precious inlets into it 1. Inlet The Person of the Father is Divine Love in its Glory St. Paul speaking of the Father terminateth all the mysteries of the Gospel in the Glory of his Grace as the Beginning and the end of them all the sweet and shining Sea from which they come into which they all run again Grace is the name of Love in its Freedom Sweetness and Fulness Every thing is in its Glory in its Fountain For there it is fairest freshest sweetest and fullest Love is in its
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
we should then rejoice to see each dear or displeasing object each state and circumstance of Life in its proper and distinct Form a distinct Form a distinct Spirit of Divine Love and Beauty immortal shining in this Eternal Spirit in this Heavenly Image Love and Loveliness itself the first the fullest variety all variety in one entire and All-glorious Form the Fountain of variety which is our Jesus Ignatius being to die said Let Sword Fire wild Beasts the Cross breakings of all my bones tortures thorow all my body so I may find Christ so I may gain Christ. If thou hast Jesus Christ he is thy Garland and all these are sweet-smelling Immortal Flowers in thy Garland he is thy Crown all these are precious Stones and Jewels in thy Crown A Sword in Christ is a living Form and penetrating power of Divine Love dividing between Flesh and Spirit the Bone and the Marrow in thee piercing to the Bottom of thine heart to open the Fountain of Eternal Life and Joyâ— in thee The fire springing up in this Love-Birth is a flame of Love working thee into one Heavenly flame with itself and to this end embracing thee winding itself into all the secrets of thy Body and Soul The Teeth of wild Beasts appearing in this Image of Divine Love are the Eternal Spirit the Spirit of Love feasting upon thee and then feasting thee upon itself The Cross in this Garden of Love is a Tree of Eternal Love thou art the fair and sweet Fruit upon this Tree The breakings of Bones looked upon in this mysterious Glass of all varieties the Eternal Word the Eternal Image of Love are no Wounds but Divine Anointings The tortures of the whole Body are the costly perfume of Love poured forth upon the head of the Sacrificer and running down all along to the hem of his Garments Use. 2. Hast thou Jesus Christ Care for nothing more in him are all things given thee richly to enjoy If he be come to thee look for no other thing There is nothing can come after hâ—m He is the full Birth and Image of Divine Love The vanity and emptiness of the Creature is expressed by Solomon after this manner What is that which hath been It is that which is and what is that which is to come It is that which hath been It is named already It is man So do thou express the variety and fulness of Jesus Christ. So quench all other Loves in thee What is that which hath been It is that which is What is that which shall be It is that which hath been It is all named in Jesus Christ. If thou hast Jesus Christ thou art rich to God thou hast all his Treasure Now sing thy Soul to a Divine sleep and rest in the Bosom of Divine Love with these words go to rest O my Soul Thou hast all good things laid up for thee in the Person of thy Jesus to Eternity The Bosom of the Father the Fountain of Love is opened in thee The Lord Jâ—sus the full Birth the full Image the full variety of Love springeth forth from this Fountain for thee Poets say that every Spring hath at the bottom of it a palace of Pearl in which the Divinity the God of this Spring dwelleth God the Father is the Fountain of Love The Lord Jesus riseth up in the rich depths of this Fountain as the Palace of Eternity composed of all variety in most precious Forms and Figures furnished with inhabited by all variety in all Beautiful and Heavenly Images in the dress of all Divine entertainments in the form of all Glorious and Eternal Spirits flowing continually with all manner of Sweetnesses O Saint O Believer Thou hast this Fountain this Palace continually open in thee Open thou the Eye of thy Faith Look upon the Treasures of it if thou canst number them if thou canst comprehend them Separate thy self through desire kindled in thee by the strength of thy Faith and thy Love Descend into this Fountain Dwell for ever in this Palace and intermeddle with enjoy all substance I have spoken of the two first Persons in the Trinity I come now to the third 3. Person The Holy Spirit the third Person in the Trinity is the Love-union between the Love-Spring and the Love-Birth the Father and the Son The Holy Ghost hâ—th his name from Breathing Eternal Love distinguishing itself into two Persons the Father and the Son from both these by a conspiration of Love doth breath forth itself into one third person the Holy Spirit in which they both stand two distinct Persons in one third Person which is the Love-union the golden Marriage knot of them both The Holy Spirit is frequently expressed in Scriptures by an Ointment Several rich Spices breath forth themselves into one costly ointment Thâ— Spices all meet in one precious Form in which they still retain their own distinct forms the sweetnesses and vertues of the several Spices breath forth themselves into one pleasant perfume in whâ—ch all the several sweetnesses remain distinct mutual penetrating and infusing each the other in that one sweetness distinct from them all So the Father and the Son by the force and mystery of Divine Love breath forth themselves into one distinct Person the Holy Ghost in which they also remain distinct distinctly and mutually penetrating possessing enjoying the Persons of each other with their Properties Powers Sweetnesses and Beauties in that one Thiâ— one is distinct from both because it comprehendeth both distinctly in one This is the Love-union between the Fountain and the Birth or Image oâ— Divine Love It is a saying which Thomas Aquinas citeth from St. Austin Whatever there is of Sweetness of Pleasantness of Complacency of Delight of Joy of Love of Loveliness of Agreeableness of Suitableness of Harmony any where it is the Holy Ghost The reason is this All Colours with their several Beauties are the mixtures of shade and light Children are the Parents united So every thing of Love or Beauty every Divine Work and Operation thorow Heaven and Earth is the Love-union between the Father the Fountain of Love and this lovely Image which is both the Birth and the Bride of Love of the Father All Pleasaâ—tness all Divine Acts of Creation and Providence with their several Lights Lives Loves and Vertues are this Love-union in its lovely extent and vast variety The Psalmist saith of God Thou hast stretched out the Heavens by thy Breath by thy Spirit The Heavens are the Beauty the Pleasantness and Joy of the Divine Appearance and the Divine Operation which is the Love-Image and the Love-Birth every where Use. 1. Pray O Christians for the Heavenly Eye-salve of the Holy Ghosâ— to anoint the Eyes of your minds What Blessed sights shall you then see every where What Heavenly Visions of Divine Love and Beauty upon the Spiritual Bed of Eternal Love shall you meet with in every object In even work of God in every act of Providence you will
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
Jesus by the Immediate Embraces of Divine Love incloseth comprehendeth thy Person entirely with the Sweetness Beauty Immortality of his own Glorified Person The Soul in the Bosom of Christ lieth as a Pleasant Island in a Sea of Love The Sea bringeth to an Island Pleasure by its prospect and by sayling upon it Safety by inclosing it Riches by Traffick unto all parts Thus thou O Saint art seated in the midst of a vast Ocean of heavenly Love This Ocâ—an of Love is thy Prospect on every side Which way soever thou lockest thou seest Waves of Love rolling and tumbling one upon the neck of another sometimes rising up as high as heaven sometimes again falling as low as Heâ—l All Storms are The Workings of this Lovely Sea of Love and Delightful Entertainments to Thee thou lanchest forth and sailest round about thy Island which is thy self upon this Sea of Love These are thy Pleasures How safe art thou How great and impregnable is thy Strength Nothing can come to thee but by a Sea of Love Divine Almighty Eternal Love Thou art inaccessible but this way by the Sea of Love No vessels can pass upon this Sea nothing can pass thorow it but Divine Forms of Love heavenly Angels and Ministers of Love Whatever other Form of things attempteth This Blessed Ocean of the Father's Love poureth forth in Jesus Christ is swallowed up by it and never seen more Thou hast Traâ—â—ick and Commerce by this Sea of Love with all things holy heavenly Beautiful and Bâ—essed every where with all Lands of Life and Joy Thou sendest forth thy Spirit thoughts and Affections into all Parts Thou bringest home all the Precious and Pleasant things of Heaven and Earth of Time and Eternity of God and the Creature Thou hast a Love-Union and by this Love-Union a Communion of Love with all the Treasures of the Godhead in the Sun and in the Moon in the Heavens above and the Deep which lieth below This is the Purity the Sweetness of the Father's Love in Christ the nearness of the Love-Union 2. The Sweetness of the Love of God in Christ sheweth itself in the Firmness of the Union What the Spouse of Christ saith of her self in the Canticles that is the Language of this Love to the Soul in Jesus Christ I took hold of him I will not let him go The Love of the Father hath taken hold of Thee will never let Thee go St. Paul Rom. 8. v. 35. maketh a Challenge What shall separate us from the Love of Christ Affliction Danger Sword the Love-Union between God and the Soul in Jesus Christ is so close so fast that the Point of the sharpest Sword cannot pierce between them the subtilest Flame cannot divide between them If it wound or burn one it must wound and burn the other also There is no Vein of Blood in the Body of Man which hath not running along beneath it an Artery a Vein of Spirits to preserve the Warmth Motion and Life of the Blood There is no Vein of Divine Providence in the whole Life of a Saint there is no Vein of Life or Death in the whole Person of a Saint which hath not a Vein of Divine Love running along inseparably with it to sweeten it to give a Spiritual a heavenly Tincture of Life Joy and Glory to it To me to live is Christ to dye is Gain saith St. Paul Philip 1. v. 21. There is nothing so Dividing as Death The Life of a Man is the Union between Soul and Body Death dissolveth this Union The Life of a Saint is the Love Union between his God and Spirit in Christ who is the Glorious head and the Golden knot of this Union Death maketh this Love-Union faster and sweeter more close more clear more compleat Dâ—ath is a Gain here The Death of a Saint is like the Tabernacle in the Wilderness Without was a course Tent of Badgers Skin exposed to the Injuries of all Weathers This was seen by the Common Eye But this was not the Tabernacle This was onely the Tent the Covering upon the Tabernacle The Tabernacle within as it appeared to the Priest's Eye which entred into it was Silk Silver Gold and Precious Stone Fine Linnen Scarlet Crimson Sky-Colour Cherubims richly wrought Be not deceived That is not the Death of a Saint That is not a Saint in Death which appeareth outwardly to the Eye of Sense so affrightful so mournful so dark so deformed so Dividing from all the Joyes of Life No. This is the Covering onely upon Death to hide the sacred Mystery from common Eyes That which is within which presenteth itself all along to the Eye of a Saint that entreth into this Death is indeed a Tabernacle of Immortal of Divine Love with all rich and pleasant Appearances wonderfully heightened The Love-Union between God and the Soul in Christ opening itself taking the Soul entirely into itself as into the true Heavens where all things which are seen are the highest Forms of Beauty in the highest Lights of Divine Glory all things that are heard tasted or felt the highest Joyes of the Divine Life with the most heightned Sweetnesses of Divine Love 3 The Sweetness of Divine Love is manifested in its Efficacy in its Sweetning Operations as it is poured forth in the Lord Jesus St. Paul saith Philip 3. l. We have our Conversation in Heaven from whence we look for the Lord Jesus who shall change these Vile Bodies these Bodies of our humiliation and make them like his own Glorious Body according to that Power by which he is able to subdue all things to himself As the Flowers put forth unfold all their Beauâ—ies send forth their several Sweetnesses to the Sun so do all the Excellencies Joyes and Glories of the Godhead display themselves to the Divine Love God in the Presence of his Love is the highest the Truest Hâ—â—ven This is the Heaven which containeth and hideth Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ cometh forth from this Heaven as a Bridegroom from his Chamber he cometh forth in this Heaven with this Heaven round about him he maketh this Heaven every where as he cometh forth as the Sun maketh a Glorious Sky He boweth this Heaven and cometh down upon It into the broken heart To this broken heart he changeth the vilest the Bitterest Image of things the Body of its humiliation the Body of this Darkness and Death in which it dwelleth here into the Likeness of his own most Glorious Body the Body of the highest Heaven in its Brightness the Pure and clear Body of Divine Love This Love of the Father is that Power by which our Jesus subdueth all things to himself that is to the Brightness and Sweetness of the Glory of this Love to the Express to the Naked Image of this Love in its own Divine Substance in 〈◊〉 own most Lovely Person This is the transfiguring Efficacy of the Love of the God-Head poured forth in the Glorious Person of Christ and making for him
mixture in Christ I shall give 3 Answers to this Objection 1. A Concession 2. A Distinction 3. An Application 1. Answ. A Concession It is true Contrary things are spoken of Jesus Christ in this point We read I judge no man Moses in whom you trust he judgeth you The Son of Man came not to dâ—stroy Men's Lives but to save them The Work for which Christ came is a Work of Love of Light of Life not a Work of Wrath and Death Jesus Christ came to destroy the Works of the Devil The Devil Is a Lyar and a Murtherer from the Beginning He is the Serpent the Seed of Enmity The Deceit of Sin Death Wrath are the Devil's Work Jesus cometh full of Grace and Truth like the Sun full of sweet Light and influences of Life to destroy the Deceits to scatter into Nothing the Clouds and black Shades of Sin of Death of Wrath to make all a clear and Lovely Sky over our heads a Green and Flowry Earth under out Feet O the Delightfulness of Christ's Person and of his Appearance We read again I came not to send Peace but a Sword I came to Kindle a Fire The Lord Iesus shall come in a Flame of Fire to render vengeance to all those who know not God and who have not believed our Gospel 2 Thessal v. 8. O the Dreadfulness of the Lord Jesus and of his Appearance 2. Answ. A Distinction 2 Corin. 3. 13. You have Moses brought in with a Vail upon his Face You have the Effect of this Vail There is a Blindness upon the Minds upon the Notions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Jews The Children of Israel cannot see to the End of that which is to be done away They cannot see thorow beyond the Shadowy Glory of the Vail to be taken off to the Naked Glory of the Heavenly Face which liveth and is the same for ever v. 13. 14. There is the Interpetation of the Vail The Vail upon the Face of Moses is a Vail upon the Hearts of the Israelites v. 15. The Vail is removed by the Turning of the heart to the Person of Christ v. 16. The Person of Christ and the Removal of the Vail are Both described v. 17. Now the Lord is that Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is Liberty The Lord Jesusâ— in Glory is a Spirit the Eternal Spirit The Person of Christ was ever a Spirit the Spirit the same Yesterday to Day and for ever even in that Day when he was made Flesh in his humane Nature this Spirit carrieth Liberty along with It as the Sun doth the Light of the Day This Liberty of the Spirit answereth to that Removal of the Vail in the verse before The Vail shall be taken away It is significant Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall be taken away quite all round about on every side from off the Whole Image of things from off the Whole Person of Christ from off the Whole Heart the Compleat Person of the Lord Jesus in his Supream Glory as the Supreme Spirit shall shine entirely in the whole Image of things in the whole heart in every Part in every Point of Both. The Close of all is the Blessed Effect of the Removal of the Vail of the Free and full Appearance of this Spirit the Lord Jesus A Liberty of Sight A Liberty of Growth a Liberty of Union and Divine Communion A Saint looketh forth with Opâ—n Face with an Open Eye in the Naked Glory of the Spiritual Man having cast the Vail entirely off He seeth the Glory of the Lord in the Naked Beauties of the Spirit himself compleatly unvailed He seeth this Glory in the Unity of the same Spirit as in a Looking-Glass where Face answereth Face where one is seen as the Dear Image and Reflection of the other A Saint in the same moment seeth and is changed into the Image which he seeth as by one Spirit at once working Both. The Lord the same Spirit in its Unity is the Root the Eye the Life the Light the Looking-Glass the Glorious Face in the Looking-Glass to a Saint Where this Spirit is there is Liberty in that Heart The Vail is taken off from it when the Spirit existeth and appeareth in it There the Lord Jesus and a Saint see each other grow up together in one Glory We all with open face as in a Glass beholding the Glory of the Lord are changed into the same Image from Glory to Glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord or by the Lord the Spirit By this time I believe you see the Distinction which I aim at Jesus Christ with the Vail upon his Face is Mâ—ses Mâ—ses unvailed is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ to the Vailed heart is Moses still Moses to the Naked heart is the same Jesus from the Beginning The Appearance of Jesus Christ according to the Letter after the Flesh is Christ with a Vail upon his Face casting a Vail upon the heart The Appearance of Jesus Christ as the Spirit the Lord of Glory is Christ with his Vail cast off taking the Vail off from the Heart that Both may meet see embrace each other Nakedly Immediately at Liberty in the Open Light of their Eternal Loves and Beauties 3. Answ. Applications 1. Application Fear the Wrath of the Lamb. There is a Day in which the Kings of the Earth Great Men Captains of Thousands shall cry to the Rocks and to the Mountains to fall upon them and hide them from the Wrath of the Lamb. When the Great Day of his Wrath cometh who is able to stand Rev. 6. v. 16 17 18. Revel 5. 6. 8. You read of a Lamb who had bin slain standing in the midst of the Throne of God of the Four Living Creatures of the 24. Elders having seven Eyes and seven Horns which were the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the Earth Behold the Lord Jesus risen from the Dead He standeth in the mâ—dst of the Throne of God of the Four Living Creatures of the four and Twenty Elders He is the Center of All Glories He filleth All He uniteth All and Compleateth All in his own Person the Uncreated Glories of the God-Head the Four-fold Fountain Glories of the Uncreated and Created Natures in Union The Manifold and Multiplyed Glories of Those Fountains in the Person of every Saint from the Beginning to the End of things having his Crown upon his Head the Universal Kingdom of all Glories in himself with which Kingdom he standeth out of the Person and in the Person of the Lord Jesus which Mysteriously and Divinely involveth and unfoldeth all in itself For this reason they cast down their Crowns at his Feâ—t This Jesus uniteth all States in himself from the highest the Sweetest Light of Life to the Darkest most Dismal Deep of Death For he standeth in the midst of these Glories as having bin slain shewing all the Bloody Baleful Forms of Death in the Triumph of Eternal Life This
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
round about you Then shall Worldly Christians Hypocrites Temporary Believers all who have lived in the Lusts of the Flesh or the Letter onely of the Gospel take hold of climb up upon the outside of the Ark the outward Fleshly Form and Appearances of the Eternal Word the Lord Jesus Then shall they too late cry to be taken into the Spirit which alone is Truth which alone hath Immortality But they shall be rejected They shall lose their hold drop off into the flames and perish there I will conclude all with that Scripture John 14. v. 30. 31. When Jesus Christ perceived that the hour and Power of Darkness were now come upon him he saith The Prince of this World cometh Arise let us go hence Thus saith the same Jesus now in the Hearts of his Beloved Ones to his Spouse The Prince of Darkness The hour and Power of Darkness of dread of Destruction of the Devouring Fire cometh Arise let us go hence out of the visible things of the Flesh into the Invisibility of the Spirit The Ark of Pure Gold Paved with Loves 3 Property Plenty This is the Third Property in the Effusion of Divine Love upon the Glorified Person of Christ. It is poured forth plentifully I will divide this Head by Streams flowing from it 1. The Fulness of all Love is poured forth in Iesus Christ. 2. The Person of Christ is all Full of Love 1. The Fulness of all Love is poured forth in Jesus Christ. We read Colos. 1. 19. It pleased the Father that all Fulness should dwell in him that is in Jesus Christ. All Fulness and so the Fulness of All Love had its Seat its Bed in the Bosom of our Saviour But the Pleasure the Will of the Father which is the Highest Pleasure Pleasure in one Substantial most Perfect Eternal Act is the Well Spring which sendeth forth this Plenitude of Divine Love into Christ. The Words lye so in Greek that they may be properly rendred according to the rules of Grammar after this manner All Fulness was well pleased to dwell in him God is the Fulness which filleth all in all He alone is in any Place in any Spirit in any Creature Repletive so as to fill it God is Love God then is the Fulness of all Love Nothing attracteth and draweth so powerfully as Pleasure doth God who is that Love which is all Fulness the Fulness of all God who is the Fulness of all Love poureth forth himself to the Full to the last drop if we may so speak of that Love which hath neither First nor last Beginning nor End in the Lord Jesus For in Christ he poureth forth himself with Pleasure which is the highest of all Pleasures The Effusion of Love is itself a Pleasure Then the Beautiful and Blessed Person of the Lord Jesus is the most pleasant Channel the most pleasant Seat and Palace of Divine Love This Fulness of Divine Love in Christ shooteth forth itself into Three Branches 1. Love in all States 2. Love of all Kinds 3. Love in all Degrees 1. There is in Jesus Christ flowing forth from the Father a Fulness of Love in all States There are Three States of Divine Love in our Blessed Saviour There is 1. Preventing Love 2. Assisting Love 3. Finishing Love Divine Love in Jesus Christ hath these Three States and a glorious transcendent triumphant Fulness in every State 1. There is in the Lord Jesus poured forth from the Father A Fulness of all Preventing Love 2. Tim. 1. 9. St. Paul teacheth us that God hath saved us not according to works which we have done but according to his own Purpose and Grace given us in Christ before the World was Before thou hadst any thoughts of Love to Jesus Christ before thou hadst any Being in This World before the World was there was a Love from the Father in Jesus Christ to Thee to Thee whoever thou art that liftest up the Eye of thy Spirit the Eye of Faith to see thy true Self thine own Person in this Dwelling-Place this Palace of Divine Love where thou hast bin hid where thou hast had thine abode thorow all generations from Eternity Christ in the Glory of the Father the heart of the Father in Christ. This Preventing Love well understood removeth Two Objections out of the way of many hearts to the Bosom of their Jesus Object 1. Broken-hearted Sinners distressed Souls frequently plead thus against themselves We cannot think that Jesus Christ hath any Love for us because we cannot believe his Love Answ. Hear O broken-hearted Sinners O Distressed Souls Hear and believe Jesus Christ hath in himself from his Father the Fulness of all Preventing Love He beginneth to you in Love He beginneth with you He giveth you Faith to believe his Love To you it is given to believe The Son of Man cometh and giveth you an understanding to know the True God by his Proper Name of Love 1. John 5. 20. The Preventing Love of God in the Bosom of Christ cometh to Thee poureth forth itself in thy Bosom giveth Thee a new Eye to see the Divine Beauty a new Ear to hear the heavenly Melody a new heart to take in rellish and understand the Spiritual Sweetnesses Fulnesses Joys of this First Love Love in its Fountain in the Fountain of Eternity This New Wine of the Everlasting Kingdom giveth itself to Thee with a New Bottle a New Spirit which will take in and hold this precious Liquour Not one drop of it shall ever fall besides this Bottle or be spilt out of it Object 2. But still thou poor troubled trembling Soul thinkest the glad Tydings of the Gospel of Pure Preventing Love too good to be true Thus thou arguest against thy self If I were but moderately evil or morally good if I could in any degree comply or close with Jesus Christ when he offereth his Love and himself to me then might I have some hope that I had some place in his heart But if the Lord Jesus himself should shine forth with the Sweetest Vision of Preventing Love in the midst of my Fleshlinesses Filthinesses hardnesses Enmities and should say to me as the Angel to Mary hail thou that are greatly Beloved Hail thou that are freely Beloved I should not onely wonder at this Salutation but believe it all to be a vain Dream of my deluded Fancy Answ. Let me tell Thee a Story A beautiful Aegyptian Youth when his Friends desired to take his Picture desired them to take him up seven daies after his death and then to take his Picture Thou the most defiled the most deformed Sinner wert once beautiful once in the freshness and flower of thy Youth in Paradise It is true thou art now dead dead of the most loathsom disease dead by the most killing and corrupting Death dead in sin Yet now after that thou hast bin many years dead Jesus Christ in his Glorified Person cometh like a Bridegroom from heaven not onely to take thy Picture but
Assisting Love so certainly will it lay the Top-stone Your Eyes shall see it You shall in like manner cry to it with a Shout of Angels and Blessed Spirits all round about you Grace Grace Pure Love Finishing Love There are Three Sorts of Comforts which the Finishing Love of God in Christ ministreth to us 1. Against the Difficulties of Life 2. Against the Darkness of Death 3. Against the Dreadfulness of the Great and Last Day 1. Comfort against the Difficulties of Life St. Paul had prayed thrice against the Thorn in his Flesh and the Buffetings of Satan He receiveth this Answer My Grace is sufficiâ—nt for thee My Strength is perfected in Weakness I rejoyce therefore gladly in my Infirmities For when I am weak the Power of Christ resteth upon me My Grace You have there the Father the Fountain of Love the Fountain of Free Grace You have at the end of the verse the Lord Jesus Glorified into whom this Fountain floweth continually covering his Person all over without filling it all within with the Gâ—ories Immortalities and Joys of Divine Love This Jesus resteth upon St Paul in the Power in the Perfection of All his Loves He maketh Perfect he finisheth his Loves the Pure and heavenly Work of his Loves upon him when he is weakest The Holy Ghost discovereth a Mystery here A Mystery is a Divine Secret A Divine Glory with a Divine Vail cast over it a Divine Light surrounded with a Divine Darkness The Head of Christ all Pure Fine Gold covered with Locks and Curles black as a Raven The Mystery which the Holy Ghost here unvaileth to us is One of the richest and sweetest among all the Mysteries of the Gospel It is the Mystery of Love of Finishing Love Blessed are those Eyes that see the Glory Blessed are those Hearts that understand and rellish the Sweetness of This Mystery It is This When Divine Love would put forth itself in Greatest Power and Glory when it would finish make Perfect the general or any Particular Work of Love in us it chooseth that Season when we are weakest lowest have least of Loveliness Life Love or Suitableness to Love when we are in the greatest unlikelyhood for it when we seem to be at the greatest Distance from it Cant. 6. v. 12. The Spouse is brought in speaking thus Ere I was aware my Soul made me as the Chariots of Amminadib I have not Learning enough to understand why Amminadib is set here as One Proper name whenas in the Hebrew there are Two distinct Words which have their common signification and are rendered in the Margint of the Bible My Willing People Moreover that word As is put in by the Translatours and where we read Made me the Original properly is expressed by Set me The words thâ—n run thus in the Hebrew Text Ere I was aware or I knew not I knew not how I knew nothing of it my Soul set me the Chariots of my Willing People or by the Addition of One Preposition understood My Soul set me in the Chariots of my willing people It will be worth our time and pains if we stay a little upon the opening of this verse We shall find a Spiritual a heavenly Treasure in it and bring the Application home to our hearts more Clearly more Comfortably There are Four Questions which may be made here 1. Qu. Who this People are which the heavenly Bride calleth My People 2 Qu. What the Willing People are 3 Qu. What the Chariots are 4. How the Soul of the Bride setteth her In these Chariots or maketh her As these Chariots 1. Qu. Who the heavenly Bride 's own People are Answ. These whom the Spiritual Bride calleth Her own Pâ—ople are Heavenly Spirits in Glory It was said of Jacob when he died He was gathered to his People While a holy Soul is in this World she is as an unknown Princess under a Disguise in a strange land the language whereof she understandeth not In Death this Princess-Bride returneth home to her own People to her own Kindred her own Relations and Acquaintances There all understand the languages Faces and hearts of Each other There they mutually drink in the Spirits of Each Other and in the Spirits of Each other all Pure Immortal Loves Beauties Joys There is another Scripture which commenteth upon this and confirmeth our Explication of it It is Eccles. 12. 7. The Dust returneth to the Earth as it was The Spirit to God who gave it That which is translated God is in the Plural Number Gods often applyed to the Angels The Jews say it signifieth God cum Indumentis suis as he cloatheth himself with the Forms of Angels and appeareth in them The Soul of a Saint cometh forth from the Land of Angels and Glorious Spirits in the midst of which God reigneth into this World as into an Exile or Banishment When it dieth then it goeth home to its own Countrey and People to its own City and Fellow-Citizens The Inhabitants of the heavenly Jerusalem the Mother of us all I shall add one Text more which will make all the rest Clear Hebr. 11. 14 15 16. The Saints there are said to seek a Countrey The Word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Their Native Countrey Then to prevent a mistake you are told that this Native Countrey was not that from which they came on Earth It is distinguished from that and plainly called A heavenly Country Their Native Land which is a heavenly Countrey Behold those whom the Spouse of Christ calleth My People The Inhabitants of the City of the Living God her heavenly Countrey her Native Land above the Heavens as the word beareth These are described in the Epistle to the Hebrews The Assembly of the First-born all Forms of things all the Saints in Spiritual Beings and Beauties in the Likeness of Christ as he is the first-born of every Creature before they descend from their Thrones of Pure Glory from their Virgin-Lustre and Sweetness in the Bosom of Christ into Flesh upon the Earth The Innumerable Company of Angels the Glorious Attendants of the Saints in their higher and First-born Glory The Spirits of just men made Perfect either in the Body or out of the Body come to this heavenly Land Living walking and conversing there among the Inhabitants of this Land in the Spirit These are Thy People Thine own People O Believer O thou Blessed Bride of thy Glorified Jesus You have the Answer to the First Question 2 Qu. What are the Willing People Answ. Again I am ignorant why the same word is rendred in the Margin of this Scripture Willing when as immediately after Cant. 7. 1. The same word Nadib is translated Prince O Prince's Daughter or O Princely Daughter If I mistake not the Church is spoken of in that Chapter as being now in Glory upon the Throne You have this word Nadib used to the same sense of the same Subject Psal. 110. 3. Thy People shall be Willing in the day of thy
Corruption These burthened Spirits groan for the Dissolution of this Tabernacle But how Not that we would be uncloathed but cloathed upon with our house from Heaven not to be found naked but to have Mortality swallowed up of Life St. Paul expresseth the meaning of the Unutterable Groans with which the Spirit of Supplications maketh Intercession in the Saints They would not be uncloathed of the Spiritual Image which they put on at the New Birth They would not be uncloathed of the Natural Image which they put on at their First Birth They would never no not for a moment be found naked of any thing of that Life Light or Sweetness Heavenly or Earthly which belong to either of these No they groan to have these cloathed upon with that their Buiâ—ding from above to have not onely their Immortal and Inward but their Outward and Mortal Part itself swallowed up into Life Life itself in its Purity in its Perâ—ection in its Spring which is Eternity 3. The Workmanship of God in a Saint is wonderful and indeed Divine in this Now he that hath made us for this or he that hath wrought us unto this is God St Paul assureth every Saint that his Groans are heard and answered from the Workmanship and the Workman We read in the Canticles that the Thighs of the Princess and Bride are as Jewels the Work of the hands of a Curious and Faithful Workman So the Word in Hebrew signifieth The Spiritual and Natural Life the Whole Frame and Composure of a Saint Inward and Outward all are Mysterious Jewels wrought by the Divine hands of God himself as a most Curious and Faithful Workman as a most Skilful and Firm Piece of Work They are by an Unexpressible Wisdom and Love framed unto this that the Substance of these Jewels should never fail the Vertue never decay the Lustre never fade no not in Death itself but then most of all grow bigger and brighter more Pure more Perfect more Powerful by being drunk up into Eternity as the Waters of a fine Spring are drawn and drunk up by the Sun 4. The Earnest of the Spirit Who hath also given us the Earnest of the Spirit The Eternal Spirit in the Immortal Soul and Mortal Body of a Saint The Eternal Spirit in which a Saint possesseth Soul Body things of Faith of Reason of Sense This Spirit is to a Saint an Earnest both a foretast and a seal of this truth that both the Soul and the Body of a Saint in Death are like the Spice in the Golden Censor or upon the Golden Altar in the Temple which is the Glorified Bosom of Christ. Both lose nothing of themselves but change into a more Spiritual and Divine Form in which they ascend and carry up all their Preciousness all their Pleasantness with them like the Pillar of Smoak from the Altar perfumed with all the Spices of the Apothecary in which those Spices themselves with all their Sweetness and Vertue go up refining and enlarging themelves till they rest and spread themselves in the Bosom of Heaven How Curious and Sure a Workman is Jesus Christ is the Love of the Father in the Death of a Saint O the Freedom O the Fulness O the Skill O the Faithfulness of Finishing Love in the Death of a Saint O Believers Preventing Love hath brought you out of Aegypt out of the Servitude to your Lusts and the God the Spirit of this World Assisting Love hath carried you along thorough this Weary Wilderness your Conformity and Fellowship with the Lord Jesus in his Sufferings Be of good Courage Your Cloaths shall not wax old Nothing of you shall fall in this Wilderness You shall certainly come into the Good Land the Land of Promise the Land of Rest the Land flowing with Milk and Honey with Life and Peace Immortality and Immortal Pleasures Finishing Love in the Glorious and Immortal Person of your Beloved like the Ark before the Israelites shall lead you thorow this Jordan thorow Death on the Dry Firm and Pleasant Land of Life itself Not so much as any single Drops of any Dark Waters shall sprinkle themselves upon any Parts of your Garment The clear Streams of this Beloved River shall stand on heaps on each side of you as Christal or Diamond Rocks as Lights Prospects and Guards of Angels while you pass When You are weakest under the Pangs of Death the Finishing Love of Christ in Power your Glorified Jesus in the Power of his Finishing Love shall rest upon you shall spring up in you at once to comprehend you and enlarge you to Cloath you upon and to transform you within Nothing of the Graces and Joys of your Inward Man Nothing of the Beauties and Delights of your Outward Man shall be divorced from you or darkened in you Like a Heaven of Stars they may pass under many Clouds But under all Clouds they shall go on shining still and increasing their Lustre When they seem to be extinguished in Death they shall be only drunk up into that Pure Light of Life which is Invisible to all Mortal Eyes by its Fineness and Fulness of Glory They shall disappear onely by the Degree of heightning He who hath wrought us unto this is God The Sweet Colours of a fair Summer-Morning in the Sky are so made that they fade not but go on changing to fair and fresher Colours still until they all vanish into Pure Light For These Colours are all the Light of the Approaching Sun figuring itself in divers degrees into Different Forms of Beauty till at last It Break up into the Full Glory of unmixt Light by the immediate Presence of the Sun appearing with the unclouded Brightness of his heavenly Body In like manner all the Excellencies Entertainments and Joys of a Saint in his Immortal and Mortal Part The Immortal and Mortal Parts themselves of a Saint thorowout are so framed by the Father of Lights and Loves that they can never fade nor pass away but in the moment of Death itself are cloathed upon from above with a Brighter a Diviner Form and are swallowed up into the Abysses the Incomprehensiblenesses of Eternity For God is Love A Saint is a Birth of Love A Seed of Divine Love springing up in his Outward and Inward Man Forming itself into a Body and Spirit into all the Powers Pleasures Objects Relations of Both. Divine Love is the Substance and the Sap The Matter and the Form in all A Saint in his Essence and Operations all Entirely is a Plant of Divine Love Death is the Ripening of the whole Plant all over into the Perfect Fruit of Pure Love of Finishing Love In this Form It can be seen felt tasted no more but by the Pure Eyes Embraces and Mouth of Divine Love God hath also given us the Earnest of his Spirit for this Tell me now you who have received the Spirit What do you see what do you feel when you are blessed from on high with any fresh Anointing
in their full beauty and sweetness ever fresh never fading never failing As fast as one is gathered another springeth up in its room These Immortal flowers of divine love grow here for thee They have thy name written upon them They bend and bow themselves towards thee They invite thy hand to gather them They are ripe in every season and gathered with the least touch of thy spirit Thou who hast a Spirit black and burning with the deepest guilt take the flower of justifying love stick it in thy bosom This will take out all the heat of pain and take away all the deformity and stain from thy spirit Thou who labourest under the disease of any corruption See here the flower of sanctifying love Carry this in thine hand in thine heart It is a powerful a pleasent remedy against every lust or passion Doth the Instability of thy spirit the uncertainty of thy spiritual condition afflict thee The flower of electing love hath a soveraign vertue in it to establish and â—ix thine heart in a triumphant peace and joy above all changes or fears Art thou melancholy is thine heart cast down within thee for some apparent reason or thou kno west not why look upon this pleasant flower of comforting love smell to it wear it in thy bosom It shineth with a heavenly lustre which recreateth the Eyes and infuseth strange joy into the heart It breatheth forth a sweetness from it which will make you think your self in Paradise or kissing those blessed Cheeks of your heavenly lover your Jesus which are Beds of Spices It hath a spirit in it which is the extract of all Cordials which hath all comforting vertues in it which is the soveraign Comforter of hearts and spirits the only causer of delight and pleasure on Earth or in Heaven If any one be dejected with a sense of shame let him make himself a Nose-gay of these three Flowers regenerating adopting glorifying love Every one of these casteth a wonderful light from it which will make thee to see thy self in the unity of the eternal Spirit in the form of the Son of God Thou wilt see the whole face of things as a glorious Heaven round about thee all full of bright and shining Angels encompassing thee guarding thee attending upon thee as the heir of God Jesus in glory walking with thee hand in hand as his Brother God himself beholding thee with an unmoved and full Eye of esteem wonder and complacency as his onely one the Object of all his love the Ground of all his joy The State of a Saints Soul and Body in Death THe peculiar consolations and joys of Death to a Saint pour forth themselves into ten distinct channels or streams 1. Death is no dissolution to the Soul or Body of a Saint but a restitution and return of both to liberty peace and perfection 2. Both descend no more but ascend in Death 3. Death hath in it no melancholy overcast or unpleasant darkning to the Soul or Body but a sweet unexpected surprising and ravishing increase of a pure divine and triumphant light circling in and shining through all 4. Death casts no deformity upon either part of a Saint but cloaths both with an heavenliness amiableness and beauty 5. Death is no streightning or imprisonment to Body or Soul but a blessed enlarging of both to a divine state and freedom 6. The Death of a Saint hath nothing bitter in it but is a spring of pure sweetnesses and pleasures dividing itself into every part and making all the garden of God 7. There is nothing of the Devil in the Death of a Saint but Christ risen and glorified is all fills all and shines thorow all 8. Death hath nothing of wrath in it but is all divine love unvailing itself 9. There is nothing of Death in the Death of a Saint but life and immortality unclouded and shining forth clearly 10. Death is no other thing to a Saint than a heightning of his spirituality making him all thorough-out spiritual purely spiritual without any mixture unchangeably spiritual without any interruptions inconstancies or darkintervals 1. Death is no dissolution to the Soul or Body of a Saint but a restitution and return of both to liberty peace and perfection 2. Corinth 5. 1. St. Paul expresseth this ground of confidence and joy in Death For we know that if our earthly house of this Tabernacle be dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the Heavens It is the observation of learned Divines that the Greek word here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we render to be dissolved signifieth to take up ourâ—Inn from that circumstance of unloosing the Horses and taking them out of the Waggon or Chariot to bring them into the Inn and Stable that there they may be at their liberty to rest and feed and lie down From this word upon this ground an Inn or House of reception refreshing for Travellers hath its name in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 At our Birth which is the morning of this life and our entrance upon our Journy through this weary world our Souls and Bodies are joyned to this fleshly Image by the natural spirit the spirit of this world as Horses put into a Waggon to which they are fastned by their Harnes and Traces The Body is as the fore-horse but the Soul as the filler which draws most and bears the chief weight All the day long of this life we draw this Waggon heavy laden with all sorts of temptations and troubles thorow deep ways of mire and sand This only is our comfort that the divine will which is love itself in its perfection as a hand put forth from Heaven thorow a Cloud at our Birth put us into this Waggon and governs us all the day In the evening of our life at the end of our Journey Death is the same divine will as a naked hand of pure love shining forth from an open heaven of clear light and glory taking our Souls and both Bodies out of the Waggon and Traces of this â—leshly Image and Spirit and leading them immediately into their Inn into a place of freedom rest and refreshing into the unity of the eternal spirit into the Bosom of our Lord Jesus Obj. But before I proceed any farther I will indeavour to make my whole way more clear by answering an objection which perhaps already ariseth in most of your thoughts You may be ready to say Is this your meaning as you seem clearly to express it that the Bodies also of the Saints suffer no dissolution in Death but return immediately to a state of purity and perfection This seemeth to contradict the common sense of all the faith of the Saints and the plain letter of the Scriptures Do we not with our Eyes see every day the dead Bodies of the best Persons thrown into the Grave turning to Corruption and Putrefaction either before or in the Grave dissolved to Worms and
Dust their bones scattered and cast up and down Church-yards The blessed Body of our Lord Jesus was taken off from the Cross a bloody liveless mangled Corps a sad and ruthful spectacle So he was laid in the Grave the same Body which after three days rose again and was taken up into Glory The Scripture plainly testisieth that in Death as the Spirit returns to God who gave it so the dust returns to the Earth as it was God passeth this sentence of death upon Adam for his transgression Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return Do not we by faith grounded upon the clear letter of the Scripture expect the Resurrection of our Bodies at the sound of the last Trumpet Ans. I answer to these objections first in general I fully assent to all these testimonies of sense of the letter of the Scriptures of the common faith of all the Saints concerning the Resurrection of the Body Yet is it true that I mean this I believe this in this meaning and belief my Soul and Body rejoice and triumph together that not the Soul alone but also the Body of a Saint in the very first moment of Death meeteth with no dissolution but a restitution and most delightful return to liberty peace and perfection This is that sweet and comfortable sense of Death which the holy Spirit seemeth to have sealed upon my Soul from all principles of reason of Faith and from the letter of the Scriptures In this sense I wish that all were as I am to behold with the same spiritual Eye in the same light of the Spirit the beauty and loveliness of Death in the Body of a Saint the beauty loveliness and pleasant life of the Body of a Saint in Death I come now to give a more particular answer fitted to the several objections by four distinctions The four distinctions are these 1. Of a two-fold body in a Saint 2. Of a two fold Dust. 3. Of a two-fold Sense 4. Of a two-fold Resurrection 1 Dist. There is a twofold Body which the Scripture in its language attributes to a Saint There is a Body from which a Saint is to be delivered You read of this Rom. 7. l. Wretched Man that I am who shall deliver me from the Body of this Death There is a body in a Saint which is to be delivered St. Paul speaks of this in the name of all the Saints Rom. 8. We also who have the first-fruits of the Spirit wait for the adoption the redemption of the Body There is a Body which is the seat of Death a Body of Death as in the forementioned place who shall deliver me from the Body of this Death In all the members of this Body sin reigneth as a King establishing his Law For so in the same place a little before it is written With my Members I serve the Law of Sin This is the Body of Flesh in which there dwelleth no good as St. Paul speaks in the same Chapter There is again in a Saint a holy living immortal Body the seat of a holy heavenly and immortal Life in as much as it is the Temple of the Holy Ghost For so St. Paul testifieth as to an unquestionable and known truth granted of all the Saints in the primitive times 1 Corin. 6. 19. What know you not that your Body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost Again a Saint carryeth about with him thorow his life a Body which is a partition-wall between him and his Beloved which divides between Christ and him which he must break forth from and cast off before he can be taken into the Bosom of Jesus Christ and be with him 1 Corin. 5 6. 8. St. Paul complains that while he is present in the Body he is absent from the Lord and breaths forth passionate longings to be absent from the Body that he may be present with the Lord. But a Saint hath a Body which is so far from dividing him and Jesus Christ that these two divine lovers are entirely united and both one in it It is Christs own Body as well as a Saints All the Members of it are the Members of Christ as they are of a Saint 1 Corin 6. 15. Know ye not that your Bodies are the Members of Christ shall I then take the Members of Christ and make them the Members of a Harlet God forbid Yea he carryeth this union so high that he maketh the Lord Jesus and a Saint in this Body of his of which alone he speaketh to be one Spirit and makes that the principal ground upon which he builds his arguments against Fornication v. 16. 17 18. What know ye not that he which is joyned to a Harlâ—t is one body for two saith he shall be one flesh but he that is joyned unto the Lord is one Spirit Flee Fornication he that committeth Fornication sinneth against his own Body How manifestly here are a fleshly Body and a spiritual Body distinguished one from another A Body in which Fornâ—cation makes the Man one flesh with the Harlot a Body in which a Saint is one Spirit with Jesus Christ These two are one Body which standeth in two mixed Principles and Images The Body of a Saint while this life lasteth standeth partly in a carnal or fleshly principle and Image This is the Body of Death in which no good dwels which is subject to the Law of Sin While a Saint is present in this Body he is absent from Christ. This is that from which a Saint groaneth to be delivered The Body of a Saint standeth in part and imperfectly while we live here in a Spiritual Principle and Image Thus the Body of a Saint is the Temple of the Holy Ghost the Body and Member of Christ one Spirit with Christ by which one Spirit it is Baptized into his Spiritual and heavenly body This is that body of a Saint which groaneth to be redeemed and delivered from the Body of Death as from its Captivity Prison and Grave The Death of a Saint finisheth this Captivity breaketh open the Prison and the Grave and setteth free the Body of a Saint into the liberty of its Adoption or Sonship that is into its Spiritual and divine form of a Son of God As fire is said to separate things of different kind and to gather into one things of the same nature so is the Death of a Saint the flame of God the fire of Divine Love Jesus Christ coming in the invisible flame of this Heavenly fire to separate the fleshly Principle and Image from the spiritual Principle and Image both in the Soul and Body of a Believer The fleshly Principle and Image which is in the Body of a Saint as a foreign and strange thing as rust upon Gold is entirely cast off to the Spirit and Image of this world and of the Devil to which it belongeth The Body of the Saints in its Spiritual Principle and Image which are truly and properly its own in which it is
effect of that union Jesus Christ put a life a divine life into every Creature by his union with it St. Paul seemeth to relate to this Scripture and to confirm this living beautiful and Divine State of all the Creatures as they came forth from God Colos. 1. 16. All things were made in him all things were made thorow him unto him and into him v. 18. All things stood together in him Well then the Dust the Ground the Earth the Darkness in the pure state of the Creation were made in Christ were life in him were made in union with Christ. They were made thorow Christ as their mould and channel They were made by Christ as their Original pattern as the immediate power putting forth itself in them They stood together with the rest of the Creatures in the Divine Unity in Christ. Thus had this Dust of which we speak a Divine life in it a Divine Beauty upon it a Divine Seed in it this life was the life of Christ and so comprehended according to its kind all the lives and vertues of all the Creatures and of Paradise It s beauty was the beauty of Christ in which after the like manner all created beauties centred and met in one Christ himself was the Seed in this Dust and so not only the excellencies and virtues of the whole Creation but all the uncreated Treasures of Life and Glory lay together shaded and vailed within this Dust. But their vail and their shade was a living beautiful and pleasant Picture of themselves all filled with the sweet Odour of those hidden Ointments I have one thing more to say to describe this Dust. Man who was the last days work the comprehension and perfection of the whole Creation was made in a shadowy Image of God For so the word Image in the first of Genesis signifieth and the Scriptures in their whole course testify In the beginning all things came forth from God in an universal Darkness before the Light of the first day This Darknâ—ss is remarkable in several eminent circumstances 1. It was cast forth immediately from the Divine Nature and from the glorious Person of Christ to be a vail round about upon the Eternal Glory itself and to be a ground of the whole Creation 2. It stood in an â—immediate union with the Divine Nature and the glorious Person of Christ springing forth immediately from it and depending immediately upon it 3. The unsearchable riches of the God-Head and of Christ with all the various Excellencies of the creatures as they were in their eternal patterns and principles lay hid together within this shade 4. Out of this ground did God make to spring all the creatures in their primitive paradisical purity and pleasantness being wrapt up here as in their first matter and having their proper seeds sown here Thus was this Darkness a shade indeed but pure indued with a Divine Life cloathed with a Divine beauty and lustre bearing a Divine figure breathing forth a Divine sweetness spread forth every moment fresh with a new lustre and sweetness from the Divine Nature vailing within itself all the Joys and Glories of God Christ Heaven and Paradise and as it hides all these in its Bosom lying itself in the Bosom of Christ. Such is the Ground such is the Dust of the Ground and the Earth out of which the Body of Man was first taken and into which the Body of a dying Saint returns Such is the Darkness of Death that overshadows a Saints body like the Nights in Paradise But there is this advantage now that this pure primitive Dust and Darkness are heightened have a new and greater beauty and sweetness by the Resurrection of Christ from the Dead This is the first Dust the Dust before the Fall 2. The second Dust is that after the Fall understood in that sentence Dust thou art and to Dust thou shalt return This is the Dust of that Death which sin brings forth a cursed Dust the Dust of the cursed Earth which bringeth forth Bryars and Thorns That former beautiful and blessed Dust lies captivated in this as in a Prison or Grave of contrariety and enmity This Dust is composed of three things 1. A Separation Dissolution and Desolation from the â—orce and power of Enmity 2. A Blackness of Darkness from a cloud and storm of wrath 3. The seeds of shame pain anguish horrour and torment hidden in it This Dust is that which the Body of a Saint casts off in Death upon this worldly Image and Spirit together with the Spirit and Image of this world This is that which suffereth dissolution which representeth deformity and striketh the horrour in Death All which are now of the Image of this world and to the Image of this World in the Spirit of this World and to the Spirit of this World within the Kingdom of the Devil having no more relation to a Saint in Death than the filthy raggs of a Prince in a Dangeon to the Prince at Liberty and in his Pallace Death rubbing off the Rust of this cursed Dust from the Body of a Saint leaves it all a shining rich incorruptible Dust of pure Gold His Body is now entirely with Christ a precious pleasant and living Dust in the Garden-Beds the Beds of Spices or perfumed Flowers in Paradise This is the second Distinction of the two Dusts 3 Dist. The third distinction is of a twofold sense Rom. 8. 6. St. Paul teacheth us That to be carnally minded is Death but to be spiritually minded is Life and Peace The Greek runs thus the mind of the flesh and the mind of the spirit The word mind is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth a practical understanding and comprehendeth a twofold act one of the understanding to disâ—â—rn and judge another of the will to tast and rellish So the mind is here a sense and a favour both in one Thus you have here a twofold sense Spiritual and Carnal or Fleshly 1. The Spiritual sense is set forth three ways 1. By the Principle 2. By two effects of this Principle 3. By two companions of these effects 1. The Principle of a Spiritual sense is the Spirit this holy and blessed Spirit is the only and proper Principle of a Saint and Saintship of a Son of God and a Sâ—â—ship to God Art thou indeed a Saint then thou art in the Spirit of Glory and of God as in thy Root and Element as a Tree of Life in the Root of Eternal Life and Love as Fishes in the water of Life as Birds in the pure air of Divine Love as Angels in Heaven Rom. 8. 9. You are not saith St. Paul to the Saints in thâ— Flesh but in the Spirit Art thou indeed a Son of God Then is this Spirit of Grace and Immortality in thee as thy natural Principle as the power of Nature according to the new and Divine Nature which acteth thee Rom. 8. 16. As many as are led by the Spirit of God are
the Sons of God The word led is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 acted As the Soul acts the Body as the principle of reason the Soul of Man as the nature of the Sun acts the Sun in its shinings in its motions thou also art acted by the Divine Spirit to which the Sun the Soul of Man the principle of reason are empty and weak shadows so far as thou in truth art a Child of Light and a Son of God the Father of Lights Let me here by the way touch a three-fold string in your Souls 1. A mournful string 2. A string of desire 3. The string of praise 1. Is the Spâ—â—it the principle of a Saint how then should we mourn thâ—â— this Spirit of Grace this Comforter is grieved that this Spirit of Light and Life is quenched by unbelief sensuality unkindness and neglect how should we mourn that this Holy Spirit this Spirit of Truth is slighted and spoken evil of as a Spirit of licentiousness or as a fancy and delusion and all this among Saints at least in profession when as this Spirit is the only principle of Saintship St. Jude in his Epistle speaketh of this as the Sin of Devils for which they are cast down to Hell and bound in Chains of Darkness that they did forsake their first state and their own habitation It is in Greek not their first state but their first principle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O Saints is not this a Sin greater than that of Devils not only to forsake but to grieve and cast shame upon this first and most blessed Spirit which is your only principle a principle of Divinâ— Life Light and Purity your own habitation a habitation of Divine Rest and Glory 2. O all you who desire to be Saints or to grow in the new and Divine Nature of a Saint let your hearts burn by day and by night with continual longings for the Spirit This alone is that of which a Saint is bred by which he is nourished This alone is the Heavenly Root the Sap the sweet Dew Showers and Influences the warm and cherishing Sun-shine to every Spiritual Plant Cry therefore and wait for this Spirit wait upon it minister to it seek it suck it in by all means thorow all its own manifestations and ordinances of Nature or of Grace When this world was first made a beautiful frame out of a dark Deep the Spirit moved upon the face of the waters When Jesus was conceived in the womb of the Virgin the Holy Ghost overshadowed her and rested upon her In both places the expressions seem to allude to a Bird or a Dove spreading itself over its Nest to hatch its young Ones When the Lord Jesus was Baptized the Holy Ghost descended and rested upon him in the form of a Dove Dost thou indeed desire to have thy dark defiled dead heart made a new Creature to have Jesus Christ to be born or to grow within thee and to be Baptized yet more into Jesus Christ the Sea of all Heavenly Beauties Loves and Joys O then pray to the blessed Spirit to make thy Soul his Nest to move upon the face of thy Spirit to overshadow thee to descend and rest upon thee in his Dove like form 3. O all ye Saints sing the praises of the holy Spirits let the high praises of the holy Spirit be ever in your mouths Say to the Spirit this is the womb of Divine Life and Power which hath born us and brought us forth to be Children and Heirs to God these are the Breasts of Divine Life and sweetness which give us suck this is itself the Heavenly Milk of the Eternal word by which we live and grow Do you see any glympse of Evangelical Light and Truth do you feel any workings of Grace any sweet springings of Love and Joy Give Glory to the Spirit it is this blessed Spirit which now shines in you enlivens you and acts you The Children of Iracel in the Wilderness in a great want of water met with a Well then they sang to it in these words Spring O Well the Princes have digged it with their Sâ—aves When ever thou meetest with any fresh stream any sweet drop of the water of Life rising up within thee in thâ—s parched Land and weary Wilderness sing to thy Well sing to the blessed Spirit and say in thy Song my Well springeth my Jesus hath digged it in my heart with the Golden Scepter of his Gracâ— and Love Thus let every gracious thought gracious moving of thy mind will or affections put into thy mouth a new Song of joyful praises to the Spirit as the dear and inseparable principle of Life of Heaven of Eternity within thee thine ownâ— principle Thus much of the Principle 2. The two effects of this Principle are a Spiritual sense savour both comprehended in that expression to be heavenly minded How often doth my Spirit labour in the Bosom and power of the Eternal Spirit for these two things 1. That all Men were brought forth into this Spiritual Principle 2. That all who have the Spiritual Principle within them were continually acted by it How sweet would life be to them for the sight of their Eyes and rellish of their Spirit They that live in the Spirit see all things by a Spiritual Light It is indeed a pleasant thing to behold this Light Every glympse of it infuseth a heavenly joy into the Heart and scattereth all Clouds of grief or melancholy These see all things in a Spiritual Image that is in a Divine and Immortal Glory They tast the sweetness of a Heavenly and Divine Love in every thing Every thing presenteth itself to them in an Heavenly Appearance and every appearance of things entreth into their Souls with a heavenly taste and rellish far sweeter than Hony to the Palate All our converse with things of every kind of Nature or Grace of Sense or reason proceedeth from a union with those things in one Principle and is a communion with them in that Principle Such as the Principle is such are the Appearances and rellishes of things to us such is our converse with them All Appearances of things to Men or to Angels in every natural Principle to our senses or to our understandings are no more than shadows or dreams The Spirit alone is Truth When melancholy forms and Images of things in this world afflict our Spirits when the pleasant things here lift them up to vain joys and glories if the holy Spirit awaken himself and arise in us all these fly away all other appearances of things break up into an appearance of Eternal Beauty and Blessedness springing forth from this Spirit like the shadows of the night when the Sun is seen and a dream when a Man awaketh We are taught by natural Philosopy that the Images of things are seen thorow a Christalline humor in the Eye as a fine Glass If this Christal be dyed with any colour all things which we see appear
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
all things new in the newness of its own Heavenly and Immortal Beauties The second Scripture is 2 Corin. 5. 6 8. Therefore we are alwaies confident knowing that whilst we are at home in the Body we are absent from the Lord. We are confident I say being willing rather to be absent from the Body and present with the Lord. Of what Body speaketh the Apostle here What Body is this which thus divideth between the Spiritual Bride and her Heavenly Bridegroom that a Saint cannot be present with both at once If he be at home in this Body he must be absent from Christ and a banished Person from his Bosom If he will be present with Christ and enjoy him he must cast off this Body and be absent from it Is this the true and proper Body of a Saint How can that be The true Body of a Saint is as much himself as his Soul is himself He can be no more absent from his own Body than he can be absent from his Soul or from himself We read in the same Chapter 1 Corin. 6. Towards the latter end that the Body of a Saint is the Member of Christ and the Temple of the Holy Ghost When St. Paul speaketh of a Body from which we must be absent that we may be present with the Lord Jesus sure he cannot mean this Body which is a Member of Christ which is united to Christ and implanted into him Can I be absent from Christ by being present with that Body which is a Member of him a Member in him Can I be absent from this Body which is a Member of Christ while I am present with Christ O Believers be not weary of living in the Body only know your true selves and your own Bodies while you live in these you live in Heaven and are ever with the Lord Jesus For your-Bodies are his Members and so the fulness of him who filleth all in all O Believers fear not to die you part not with any thing that is truly your selves truly your own You part not with your Bodies nor with any thing in which they have any true propriety or which hath any dear Relation to them For your Bodies are the Members of Christ Baptized into one Body with him by that one and the same Spirit which gathereth up all things together unto him and into one in him Thy Body O Believer is the Temple of the Holy Ghost When the Spirit of God and of Glory rests upon this Temple he never removeth off from it any more When he enters into this Temple of his he never goeth forth nor leaves it empty This is his true Temple upon the true Mount Sion the Soul and Body of a Saint which he hath chosen for a resting place for ever O Saints have patience and peace in life For by being at home in your Bodies you are in the Temple of the Holy Ghost which he fills with his Glory where every thing utters Glory O Saints have pleasure in Death For Death cannot divide your Bodies from you nor the Holy Ghost from your Bodies which are his Temple Can you ever be absent from Christ while you are present in your own proper Bodies which are the Temples of the Spirit of Christ Can you by being present with the Lord Jesus be absent from these Bodies of yours which are the Temple of the Holy Spirit which is the highest band of Unity the dwelling place of that Spirit which is one with the Lord Jesus No certainly this can never be Thy Body O Saint is ever in life and in death filled and overshadowed by the Holy Ghost When it seems to fall into the Dust and Darkness of Death according to the Carnal sense then doth thy Heavenly Dove give to it according to the Spiritual sense its own silver Wings and golden Feathers What then is this Body of which St. Paul speaks to the Corinthians which gives him a triumphant confidence in the face of Death while it is his greatest desire to be absent from this Body that he may be present with Christ Is it not that Body of Death against which he cryeth out Rom. 8. l. O wretched Man that I am who shall deliver me from this Body of Death This he calls also a little before in the same Chapter that flesh of his that self in which there dwels no good This is the Fleshly Principle and Sense the Spirit and Image of this world which is sprung up out of the Fall which lies as a disguise and a cloud upon the true Person the Soul and Body of a Saint What is not this the Body which is the partition-wall between these two Spiritual Lovers Christ and a Saint while he lives here which being cast off in Death they find themselves in the pure beautiful and naked Arms of each other What is Death now to a Saint Is it not the power of the Divine life and love in a Saint breaking forth and as it breaks forth tearing off and burning up this disguise of Flesh Is it not the power of a Divine Light and Glory breaking forth and as it breaks forth scattering and blotting out the cloud of this Body of Death for ever How beautifully does the Body of a Believer shine forth now in Death as a naked Member of our glorified Jesus cleansed from all its dust and defilement when it is taken up entirely out of the fleshly Principle and Sense How beautiful and glorious a Temple on every side of it doth the Body of a Believer now appear in Death when it cometh entirely out of its Cloud by being entirely taken out of the Spirit and Image of this world The true Body of a Saint lieth while this life lasteth as in a Dungeon or Grave It stands here like the glorious Tabernacle composed of the most precious materials Silks Silver Gold the choicest Woods wrought with all the richest colours and the most curious Figures in Needle-work and Carvings of a Divine Workmanship which stood in a vast and howling Wilderness covered with a Tent of Badgers Skins O! how pure how precious how beautiful how divine a thing is the Body of a Saint in Death when it casts off this Body of Death the corrupt the carnal Image and Principle entirely and is seen now no more for ever in any appearance besides that alone of a naked Member in the most lovely shining Body of the Lord Jesus With what sweetness and beauty doth it break forth now as a most amiable and admirable Tabernacle of the Eternal Spirit when by death it casts off the Tent of Badgers Skins with all the darkning and deforming impressions of Dust and heat and at once passeth out of the Wilderness of this worldly Spirit and form of things unto the good Land of rest and promise by passing in a dry and flowry path thorow the River Jordan that sweet and blessed bound of Death between the dreadful desart and heavenly Canaan Give me leave here to
drop upon your hearts four brief exhortations 1. O that all Men would love the King of Saints the Lord Jesus It is he alone who subdues the King of Terror that is Death and is more than a conqueror over him making him the King of delights He changeth the Region and Kingdom of Death which is the Principality of the Devil into the Kingdom of God which is Righteousness Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost 2. Set a value upon the union with the Lord Jesus by faith Ask seek dig for this by day and by night in Prayer in the Word in the Society of the Saints in every ordinance in every creature that you may believe in the Lord Jesus and that you may be united to him by believing Let nothing discourage you in this pursuit and expectation The Lord Jesus hath given himself for you even unto Death that you may be his in the sweetest and most intimate union He giveth himself to you in his life of Glory that he may be yours by an immediate and entire union He giveth his Spirit to you to be the Maker and the band of this union to work faith in you and make you Believers He is now with you now in you in the fulness of his merits righteousness glory love and Spirit Now this moment open the Eyes of your minds and behold him in the midst of you open your hearts and take him in cast your selves into his open arms and heart cleave to him by believing So even this moment shall your Souls and Bodies both which are naturally the Members of this Harlot the Flesh and the World which are naturally Dens of Thieves and Devils become the Members of the Lord Jesus and the Temples of the Holy Ghost The Lord Jesus shall be in your Body itself as in a Member of himself a Fountain of living waters even in Death and in the Grave making it there a Paradise a Garden for God and for all blessed Spirits The Holy Ghost shall be not only in your Souls but in your Bodies also as in his Holy Temple even in the darkness of Death itself filling it with his Glory and moving over it with his Doves Wings the Wings of Eternal Love 3. Make it your chief work and end to grow in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus What care and pains do we take to grow in riches yet riches profit not in the day of Wrath. To know him is eternal life With what diligence do we pursue the wisdom of this world Yet saith Solomon as dyeth the Fool so dyeth the wise Man If thou gain and grow in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus this is a wisdom which will make thy Soul and Body both shine with a Light of Glory and Immortality even in Death itself Solomon saith that when understanding enters into our Souls wisdom will be sweeter than hony to our tast O what new tast and rellishes of new and unexpressible sweetnesses doth the Soul still meet with which is still growing in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus What a sweet tast and rellish of Death beyond all the delights of Life doth the knowledge of Jesus Christ give unto us representing it as a Feast of pleasant things to our Bodies also as well as to our Souls When thou understandest the fellowship and vertue of Christs Death in thy Death thou shalt see Death in thy Soul and in thy Body as the Carkass of a dead Lyon torn in pieces by that true Samson the Lord Jesus whither the Father himself and Christ and the Holy Spirit with all the blessed Angels resort as Bees to their Hive laying there their Hony and their Hony-comb for thee to eat 4. O you that are Christs love Death Death is now become but a shadow of Death True life with all the joys of life vails itself beneath that shadow If you knew the love of the Father the Glory of the Lord Jesus the joys of the Holy Ghost in Death if you knew what the Death of a Saint were how precious you would ask it continually of God that he would hasten it in the time thereof You would cry out continually as Sisera's Mother did why doth his Chariot stay Death is not now a shadow of Death but a living delightful and divine shadow cast from the glorious face of our Lord Jesus under which our Souls and Bodies lie together as in a sweet and divine sleep in his Bosom in which sleep all the joys and glories of Heaven and Eternity are present with us as a divine Dream out of which we wake at the Resurrection finding all to be true eternally true and the sweet shadow and dream themselves swallowed up into a bright clear and full enjoyment Thus according to St. Pauls Language doth the very Body of a Saint when he dies sleep in the Lord. Thus is death to the Soul and Body of a Saint as the Curtains of Purple round about Solomons Bed where the Saint lies now in the embraces of the true Solomon himself the King of Righteousness and King of Peace or round about the Chariot of Solomon which had within it a Throne of Gold and was paved with Love As the Sun by its influence forms a precious Mine of Gold in the bowels of the Earth which afterward being taken out and separated from its dross becomes pure and incorruptible and is made a Crown for the Head of a great King so the Lord Jesus by his Spirit frames a new a heavenly Soul and Body in a Saint which are both his precious Members his Temples of Gold But while this life lasts they are in this Body of Sin and Death as Gold in the Oar. In the moment of Death the Lord Jesus takes them both out separates them entirely from the dross of all earthliness and carnality makes them pure and shining Diadems in the hand of God 2. Propos. The whole Person of a Saint in Soul and Body at the moment of Death is gathered up entirely into a Spiritual Principle and so into a Spiritual Sense and so into a Divine Life and Peace This followeth of necessity upon the former Proposition which I have already proved by the Scripture For if a Saint in Death be gathered up entirely out of a Carnal Principle he is gathered up entirely into a Spiritual Principle There is now no middle between these two We read in Scripture of the divided state of a Saint between freedom and bondage liberty and captivity the War between the Spirit and the Flesh while he lives on Earth Accordingly we meet with exhortations to abide in Christ to walk in the Spirit if we live in the Spirit But when a Saint dies we read of him and that with a peculiar relation to his Body that he sleeps in the Lord that he sleeps in Christ. O sweet and full expression O beautiful and blessed State Now is a Saint with his Body as well as his Soul alone in Christ entirely in Christ for
these so far as you stand in a Spiritual Principle are as another Heaven the Heaven of Heavens the Pallace of the great King which he fills with his Glory where he heeps his Court sits upon his Throne 3. The Saints have communion with God in his Temple In the Temple was the Golden Mercy-Seat There saith God will I commune with thee This was overspread with Cherubims of Glory as St. Paul calls them These Cherubims covered this Golden Mercy-Seat with their Wings and so made the State or Glory about the Throne This is therefore called the secret of the most high and the shadow of the Almighty where a Saint is said to dwell and to lodge Hear O ye Saints what glorious things are spoken of your Bodies be Spiritual and behold in these Temples the Golden Mercy-Seat which is the glorified Person of Christ and the Cherubims of Glory covering it with their Wings and God here upon this Golden Mercy-Seat the glorified Bosom of Christ from between the Wings of the Cherubims ready alwaies to commune with you yea taking you up upon this Golden Mercy-Seat within the Wings of the Cherubims to commune freely with him at all seasons in this secret of eternal safety rest love joy and glory This Temple is the Body of a Saint while he liveth below but now it is in too great a degree covered with a cloud of Flesh filled with the smoak of the Spirit of this world that a Saint too rarely enters into this Temple of the holy Ghost in his own Body and more rarely seeth with any degree of clearness the Glory or heareth the voice of the blessed Spirit there What joy is it to think in what a purely sacred and Divine Temple in what a clear and shining Pallace of the eternal King in what open and unstained unvailed visions of Divine Glory in what a secret in what a presence of glorious Angels and Eternal Spirits in the midst of what sweet overshadowings dear encompassings naked outshinings of the Eternal Spirit in what most blessed most ravishing Communion of Eternal Light Life and Love with this Spirit in what sight and embraces with what kisses of incomprehensible Beauties in the sound of what words what salutations what wooings what expressions of the highest Loves and Joys from the Eternal Spirit a Saint finds himself even in his own proper Body in the very moment of his Death when departing out of this Life at once he departs for ever out of the Fleshly Image and the Spirit of this World 4. The Divine Presence and Glory was the defence of the Temple Esa. 4. 5. There is a Prophesy concerning the times of the Gospel expressed by figures taken from the state of things under the Law And the Lord will create upon every â—welling place of Mount Sion and upon her Assemblies a Cloud and smoak by day and the shining of a flaming fire by night For upon all the Glory shall be a defence or a covering When the first Temple was to be destroyed the Prophet Ezekiel saw the Glory removing off from it afterwards when the second Temple was near its end a voice was heard in it saying Let us be gone from hence which was understood to be the voice of God and of his holy Angels with all those invisible companies and Ministers which made up the Glory of the Divine Presence as Nobles Officers and Guards make up the Court of a King O Saints why do you fear for your Bodies hidden Conspiracies or open force diseases the fury of the Elements the malice of Men or Devils These Bodies of yours are the Temples of the Holy Ghost Here are the Holy Assemblies of all the Heavenly Company in the unity of the Spirit whose Temples your Bodies are Of these it is Prophesied to these it is promised that God will create upon them a cloud and a smoak by day the shining of a flaming fire by night Upon these the Glory is a defence or a covering God himself with all his holy Ones his Angels his Watchmen his ministring Spirits is this Cloud this Glory which is the defence and covering upon your whole Persons your Bodies as well as your Souls both have together with Christ a hidden Life a secure Life in this secret of God within this covering of this Divine Cloud Flame and Glory From off these Temples of your Bodies this Glory never removes From within these Temples of your Bodies this heavenly Company never departs for as much as the union in the Spirit of Grace under the Gospel is Eternal Thus the Bodies also of Believers in this Life are the Temples of the Holy Ghost All things in them here are divine Figures of a divine Glory They are filled and covered with the Glory itself They are the seats of the freest Communion with this Glory being the Temples of the God of Gods and so the Pallaces of the King of Kings All this is true of them here as they stand in a Spiritual Principle and in union with Christ by the new birth But this Life is a mixt State We stand partly in a Spiritual partly in a Fleshly Principle These Temples of our Bodies are covered with a corrupt Flesh that we can hardly discern their Spiritual Beauties They are too frequently in too great a part filled with a smoak of Hell the smoak of the Spirit of this world that a Believer can rarely enter into this Temple of his Body to behold and converse with the Glory there This is the precious the blessed work of Death in a Believer It breaketh the union it maketh a separation not between Christ and a Believer not between the Soul and Body of a Believer as they are joyned together in Christ by the band and unity of the Eternal Spirit and make one Spiritual Man or Person in Christ but between the precious and the vile between the Carnal and Spiritual Principle of a Saint both in Soul and Body Now in the moment of Death the Soul and Body of a Saint come forth immediately clear and shining Temples of the Spirit the smoak and clouds of the Fleshly Principles and of this worldly Image being for ever driven away from within them and from without Thus you understand St. Pauls sweet and blessed sense of Death when he speaketh of the Body and saith 1 Corin. 5. 1. 2. That we shall not be found naked but be cloathed upon from above with a building of God Eternal in the Heavens which shall swallow up mortality in life Our Spiritual Body which we have in this life by our new Birth as we stand in our Spiritual Principle is this Divine Building sprung from a Divine Root of a Divine Nature or Substance of a Divine Form and Workmanship This is ever in Heaven being inseparably united to Christ and being ever in the Spirit This is Eternal when we die this casts off the Cloud of corrupt and cursed Flesh. This springs forth out of its Spiritual Principle
as out of Heaven and the Bosom of God This rests upon us takes us in cloaths us entirely universally with itself Thus we are never found naked not for any one the least moment All that life all those objects entertainments and joys which we possessed before in the Cloud in the Captivity of a mortal Image yea the very Image of mortality itself besides innumerable new and unconceivable Glories are all the very same things present with us in this Heavenly Building this Heavenly Body but after a new and more excellent manner We have our pleasant things a hundred-fold more pleasant We have our unpleasant things with an unmixed pure and perfect pleasantness as they stand within in the Divine Mystery and Love Thus desirable and delightful is death to a Saint which now indeed is no more Death but the flood the Fountain of pure Light Eternal Life the Divine Love breaking forth in his Soul and Body and swallowing up every thing of Mortality into itself Give me leave here to take occasion to shir you up to the love and pursuit of Spirituality in Religion by a short exhortation 1. Understand your loss How many precious and glorious truths of the Gospel What Heavenly and Divine growths in Grace How many sweet unexpressible consolations and joys in life and in death are we unacquainted with are we uncapable of for want of the Spirit and Spirituality I have many things to speak unto you saith our Lord Jesus to his Disciples before his Death but ye cannot bear them now Why Hitherto they knew Christ after the Flesh only The Spirit was not come which was to lead them into all truths and to be their eminent comforter I could not speak unto you as to Spiritual but as to Carnal saith St. Paul to the Corinthtans who yet were pussed up with a conceit of their knowledge 2. Consider the danger from the want of Spirituality St. Paul saith in one place that what the Law speaketh it speaketh to those that are under the Law The Law in Scripture is called the Letter which is the Figure and Image only The Gospel the Spirit which is the Life and Truth This then is the dreadful curse which the Law pronounceth upon those who live and worship God in the oldness of the Letter not in the newness of the Spirit that their Eyes their Ears their Hearts shall be closed made fat and hardned that seeing they shall not see hearing they shall not understand that they shall be taught line upon line precept upon precept here a little and there a little that they may fall backward and perish and never rise more because when Christ was presented to them in the Spirit of Life and Glory to be their rest and refreshing for ever they would not obey the heavenly Call O dreadful danger O deadly curse Hear this O Professors O Believers who are Carnal and not Spiritual Tremble and fear to be eternally imprisoned in the dark Image and killing Letter being for ever excluded from the marvellous light of God from the Eternal Life and from the most glorious truth itself of all Heavenly and Divine Things to wander perpetually in a barren Wilderness of Graves and of fiery Serpents never to enter into the rest of God nor the refreshing of the Eternal Spirit O Silly Men and silly Women that are ever learning ever hearing Sermons ever praying ever reading the Scriptures ever sounding forth the name of Christ and God yet at the end of one ten or twenty years still laden with the same diversity of Lusts and Passions still moving forward and backward upon the same Carnal and literal sense of things never coming to the knowledge of the Truth as the Truth is in Jesus as the Spirit is Truth 3. See the advantages of Spirituality as they are laid together 2 Corin. 3. At the latter end 1. Liberty Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is Liberty a pure freedom from the servitude of hellish Lusts and passions a pleasant freedom from fears cares consinements from the Law Death and Wrath a Divine Freedom from the vale of the Flesh the Law the Letter of things from every Earthly Created Darkning Dividing Principle Life and Image the liberty of a free access into the purity power rest joys glories immortality infiniteness of the Spirit and of the Divine Nature 2. A clear discovery evidence and seal of the new Birth in you We with open Face behold the Glory of the Lord. The open face there as appears clearly by the context of the words is the Spiritual and Heavenly Man within us unvailed appearing evidently with the Seal of his own Spiritual Beauties and Glories upon it in the openness and freedom of a Spiritual and Divine Light Where are doubts where are fears now concerning our condition they are fled away and vanish as the shadows of the night before the Sun rising and shining forth with open face 3. A clear vision of the Lord Jesus in Glory within thy self We all with open face as in a glass beholding the Glory of the Lord saith St. Paul It is in Greek beholding as in a Looking-glass where the Face that is seen is the Face of him who fees reflected upon itself O blessed State of a Spiritual Saint The Spiritual Man in him is a Divine and living Looking-glass in which while he beholds the face of the Lord Jesus in Glory he sees his own Face and the glorious form of his own Heavenly Person reflected upon itself The Person which sees the Heavenly Person which is seen and the Glass are all one Spirit All these dwell together see possess and enjoy one another in the same Life and Image 4. Spirituality brings a lively and lovely growth in all Grace We are changed saith St. Paul into the likeness of the same Image from Glory to Glory These words import three excellencies in the growth of a Spiritual Person 1. It is continual which is implied in that expression from Glory to Glory One degree of growth immediately follows another The Kingdom of Heaven which is the State of Spirituality and in the Holy Ghost is compared to Corn which grows by day and by night in Winter and in Summer It is growing every moment till it be ripe for the Harvest 2. Spirituality groweth by great increases Here the name of Glory is put upon the growths of Grace in a Spiritual State from Glory to Glory In another place St. Paul expresseth it by the increases of God that is swift great glorious divine increases as by the immediate springings of the Godhead and bearing the likeness of God in Glory 3. Spirituality makes the Glorified Person of Christ the Pattern the Measure the Mark and End of its growth So saith St. Paul Beholding the Glory of the Lord we are changed into the likeness of the same Image A Spiritual Person hath the Lord Jesus cloathed with a Spiritual Glory ever in his eye is continually taking him into
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
of them all when you come most covered with Dust and Blood when you come immediately out of the greatest sufferings when you come so much the lovelier by how much the liker you are to Christ when Christ and the Father have been so much the more glorified in you when they in their Glories have so much the more clearly eminently shined forth in your Persons and rested upon them by how much the more extream your sufferings have been When the Father hath thus accomplished his will in you what a Feast of Eternal Pleasures what a Crown of Eternal Glories will he make this will of his to you how will he accomplish your will in himself to the utmost height of all delights blessedness 3. See here a threefold comfort against sufferings and Death 1. He who hath conquered them is your Captain the Lord Jesus We read Heb. 2. That the Captain of our Salvation being to bring many Sons to Glory was made perfect through Sufferings There are four things in that word Perfect 1. There was a perfection of sufferings in all kinds and degrees Nothing of any evil of sufferings in the evil of it was absent or could be added 2. Jesus Christ perfectly endured these sufferings in the sense of them in the continuance under them in pressures and oppressions by them 3. He was a perfect Conqueror over them 4. To be made perfect signifieth an initiation in Sufferings as in Sacred and Divine Mysteries So Christ was at once in his Sufferings the Priest the Altar the Fire the Sacrifice the Temple the God This Jesus thus a perfect and a Divine Conqueror over all Sufferings who holdeth all evil of Sin and Sorrow as Captives in Chains of Eternal Goodness pure Love Light and Joy He leads you upon Sufferings he goes before you into them he turns them all into Holy and Heavenly Mysteries of Divine Life and Love and makes you in the midst of them as Priests like Aaron in his Priestly Robes and Ornaments and Anointings in the Temple of the Eternal Spirit 2. You O Saints have nothing to do in your greatest Sufferings that you may be Conquerors over them but to abide in the Lord Jesus He himself in his dying discourses thus comforts his Disciples in the Gospel of St. John In the World you shall have trouble but in me you shall have peace be of good chear I have overcome the World Stand still be stedfast and unmoved in the Lord Jesus so shall you never have any other sight of your Enemies or Troubles but such as the Children of Israel had on this side of the Red Sea when they came forth with their Timbrels and Dances You shall see them drown'd in the Sea of your Saviours Blood in a Sea of Glory in his Victory never to appear more in any melancholy shape When thine Enemies encompass thee on every side like mighty Floods with greatest force and fury lie down upon thy glorified Saviours Bosom as the Bed of Love have his high praises in thy mouth sing aloud of his Love his Loveliness his Victory in his Death his Resurrection and return in the Spirit So shalt thou see all the powers of Darkness Death and Hell under thy Feet bound in Golden Chains of Love Immortality and Glory 3. Look forth now with a Spiritual Eye and see that Sufferings and Death are a name only and empty shadows without any substance The things themselves are for ever destroyed by the Death of Christ and buryed in his Grave never to rise more A good Woman a Martyr being reproved for going with joy to the Fire when Christ was sad at the approach of Death answered My Saviour was sad that I might be joyful Sufferings and Death are now to Saints like Snakes out of whom the Lord Jesus hath taken the Sting that we may take them into our Bosoms and make them our soft and shining Play-fellows They are become now in the Blood and Spirit of Christ like Vipers in Wine which have lost their Poyson and are high Cordials like Bees they have shot their stings into the Lord Jesus and lost them there They have Hony now without any sting for thee to suck forth and feed upon 6. Propos. This Eternal Person our Jesus with his God-Head in his whole Humanity both Soul and Body in the moment of Death by dying went entirely forth from the Natural or Temporary Principle and so from under the Curse I shall open this by four Scriptures 1. Scrip. Heb. 10. 19 20. The Lord Jesus is said to have conâ—â—erated a new and living way for us to enter into the holiest through the Vail that is his Flesh Math. 27. 50 51. You shall see that as Jesus Christ yielded up the Ghost immediately the Vail of the Temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom The Temple was a Figure of the Person of Christ as the Vail was of this Flesh. How particularly and emphatically is it expressed that the Vail was rent from the top to the bottom to its utmost extent in the Person of Christ The Flesh was as a Vail lying upon the Divine Beauties upon the Eternal Person and the Heavenly Image in the Soul Body of Christ. The Flesh of Christ was a dividing Vail separating between the Lord Jesus the naked Beauties the naked Bosom of his Father keeping his Soul and Body his blessed Person and Divine Nature as they subsisted in his Soul and Body out of the holiest out of the pure and open Glories of the God-Head As the Lord Jesus dies in that same moment this Vail is rent from the top to the bottom from the the highest part of his Soul and Spirit to the lowest part and appearance in the Body Now the Holiest the Heavenly Image the pure and naked Glories of the Eternal Person of the God-Head were opened and discovered thorow his whole Soul and Body His Soul and Body both entered into the Holiest into this Heavenly Image into these pure Glories in the unity of the Eternal Spirit 2. Scrip. John 19. 30. When the Lord Jesus was now breathing his last he formed his last breath into these words it is finished As he spake those words he bowed his Head and gave up the Ghost What was that which was finished with the life of Christ Not the work of our redemption Many great and principal parts of that remained still behind the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus his Ascension his Intercession his return in the Spirit at the pouring forth of that his last Appearance his Judgment and Kingdom What then was that which was finished with the finishing of the life of Christ The days of his abode in the Flesh without the Vail his Humiliation his Sufferings the State of Nature the Curse the Wrath of the Father were now finished the Spirit and Image of this world the hour and power of Darkness the bloody Fight with the Prince of Darkness the Prince of this World were now
with the King himself which the Lord Jesus by dying in himself in thee hath everlastingly destroyed in his own Person in his own Death and in thine by the vertue of his own As an Inchantment so is this whole Frame and Form of things dissolved so doth it vanish at the going forth of thy last breath If thou seek now for the region of Shadows and the Land of Darkness thou findest it no more for ever as he that would seek for the Night the Nightly Shades and Forms of things when the Sun is once risen Let thy Soul and Body both then rejoice together and rest in this assurance that in their departure out of this Life in the passage of Death they shall meet with nothing of loss nothing uncouth nothing unpleasant nothing of Darkness of Division of Death of the Devil but the most beautiful and blessed Face the most dear and delightful Embraces of the Lord Jesus as a Glorious Lover as a Heavenly Bridegroom immediately presenting himself immediately receiving them In the same moment do all things here disappear and all things appear again as they are reconciled into a most ravishing Harmony of Divine Beauty and Love As they are gathered up into their Head into their first Glory their Eternal Unity in the Glorified Person of Christ. 7. Propos. This same Jesus in his whole Person with his whole Soul and Body in the moment of Death by dying went forth entirely into the simplicity and singleness of his Supernatural and Eternal Principle and so into a State of pure Eternity unmixt Joy and Glory I shall endeavour to explain and confirm this Proposition by the fuller opening of a Scripture which I have often touched Psalm 16. 9 10. 11. Thus we read Therefore my heart is glad my Glory rejoiceth my Flesh also shall rest in hope For thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell neither wilt thou suffer thy Holy One to see corruption Thou wilt show me the path of Life in thy presence is the fulness of Joy at thy Right Hand are Pleasures for evermore This is a Prophesy of Christ in his Death David as a Prophet speaketh concerning Christ and in the Person of Christ. So St. Peter interpreteth and applieth this Scripture Acts 2. 25. This then is the Triumph of Christ in Death over Death which Triumph consisteth of four Parts 1. The Subject 2. The Triumph 3. The Ground 4. The manner of the Triumph 1. The Subject of Christs Triumph This is threefold 1. The Soul 2. The Glory 3. The Flesh of the Lord Jesus 1. The Soul This seemeth to be that unseen and principal part of the Natural Man which in our common language is opposed to the Body as the Visible and inferiour part 2. The Glory hath a twofold acception Davids Harp and his Tongue were his Glory upon two accounts both as he was a sweet Singer a most skilful Musitian and also as he was the sweet Singer of Israel as his Harp and Tongue recorded the Praises of God and made all things round about him to resound the perfections and loves of the Lord Jesus Thus the Tongue of Christ was his Glory as he is the sweet Preacher in Jerusasalem the Heavenly Interpreter one of a thousand who sheweth to Man his Righteousness and his rest But again this Glory in David was the Spiritual Man the birth of the Spirit the Seed of God the Life of Christ Christ in David This Glory in Christ was the Spiritual Man the Heavenly Image the Divine Nature the God-Head For so Heb. 1. 1. Jesus Christ is said to be the brightness of the Glory of God as he is the express Image of his Person and Substance 3. The Flesh of Christ is his Body as it is distinguished from the Soul and is covered with a Vail of Flesh under which Vail it contains within itself those other two the Soul and the Glory This is the threefold Subject of the Triumph the Natural Body the Natural Soul the Eternal Spirit as it inhabiteth in these 2. The Triumph itself is exprest in those four words Gladness Joy Rest and Hope Gladness is the same with Joy The State of Blessedness in Heaven and Eternity is expressed by Joy The Lord Jesus saith to the Good and Faithful Servant Enter thou into thy Masters Joy St. Peter calls the Blessedness which we have here in believing and loving the Lord Jesus which is Heaven upon Earth a Joy Glorious and unspeakable As our Lord Jesus dyed the Humane Soul of Christ before imprisoned in a Fleshly Body went forth to be comprehended and swallowed up in that Joy which it could not take in nor comprehend because it was boundless and infinite His Divine Nature which in this Humane Soul together with it had been vailed by an Earthly Body now breaks forth and shines out into the freedom and full liberty of its own unconfined delights and unvailed Glories My Soul saith Christ is glad and my Glory rejoiceth The Triumph of Christ in his Body and his Flesh is set forth by Rest and Hope which two words import Life Sense a Sweetness and fulness of Life and Sense with Immortality The Sabbath in the beginning of the Creation as it figureth the perfection of a Sanctified and blessed State in Christ and in Heaven is expressed by Rest the name Sabbath signifieth Rest. The Land of Canaan as it was a Land of Rivers and Springs and floods of Water as it was a Land flowing with Milk and Hony and so a Type of that good Land that flourishing Land of the Spirit and of Eternity where the Fountains and full floods are of all Divine Goodness and Truth is expressed by Rest. Joshua who gave the Land of Canaan to the Jews is said to give them Rest. That perfect Cessation from all trouble that perfect Consummation of our Happiness in the quieting of all our desires by the full accomplishment of them that terminating of all our motions to good in their most wished for end the chief good which the Lord Jesus which the Gospel which Faith bringeth us to in an immediate entire eternal Union with God all this the Holy Ghost expresseth by Rest. Come to me and I will give you Rest saith the Lord Jesus He that believeth entereth into Rest saith the Epistle to the Hebrews Thus the Body and Flesh of Christ rest in Death These are the words as he dies in his Song of Death My Flesh also doth rest in hope The Hebrew word for Hope signifieth two things Confidence and Hope Confidence implies a double certainty 1. A certainty in the object which is the good in prospect or in possession hoped for or already enjoyed 2. The certainty of the Subject which is a sweet a deep a clear Sense and Seal upon the Soul of the certainty of the object of the certainty of that Good which it hath in fruition or expectation This twofold Certainty maketh that confidence or assurance which compleateth or crowneth the Souls
is a Dream in thy sleep a â—delusive a defiling a melancholy Dream where false and filthy showes of Pleasures are mingled with tumultuous disquiets confusions torments fears and Horrours This Sleep is the Sleep of Death not a Natural and momentany Death which is a meer cessation of Life with a rest from all its troubles but a living Death the second Death a Hellish Death the Death of damned Spâ—rits Thus are Sleep and Death joyned here Awake thou that sleepest and stand up from the Dead This Sleep is a true Death and this Death is truely a Sleep a living Death or an unquiet Sleep full of evil Dreams 2. The second thing is the Awakening The Awakening out of this Sleep is also a Resurrection from the Dead Awake thou that sleepest and stand up from the Dead This is the Regeneration or new Birth by which the soul is raised up from the Sleep and Death of Sin into the Light of Life and Immortality 3. The third thing is the cause of this Awakening And Christ shall give thee Light And here signifies as much as For by a common Hebraism Thus you are to read it Awake thou that sleepest and stand up from the Dead for Christ shall give thee Light This will be plain if you look to that Scripture from which this is taken Isaia 60. 1. v. Arise shâ—ne for thy Light is come and the Glory of the Lord is risen upon thee St. Paul applies this to the Lord Jesus and a Sinner in the work of Conversion or Regeneration Poor Sinner thou sleepest in a dark and miry Dungeon of Sensuality Lust Passion Ignorance Unbelief Despair like Peter sleeping in Prison bound with two Souldiers on each side him so thou sleepest in the dark Prison of the flesh and this World in the midst of Devils with whom thou art chained and bound Thou liest dead in this dead Image of things as in a Grave of Corruption and Rottenness Behold the Lord Jesus full of the Beauties of Holiness full of the unsearchable Riches of Divine Love shineth upon thee with a Light of Glory He who is the Light and Glory of God of Heaven of Eternity as he shineth upon thee giveth thee Light infuseth this Light of Glory into thee by giving himself to thee by infusing himself into thee by springing up himself within thee as he shineth from without upon thee Thus he awakens thee Thus awakened stand up from the Dead For Christ giveth thee Light The work of Regeneration which is a true Resurrection from Death to Life will be more clearly understood by considering it in these four Circumstances 1. The Life which is raised again 2. The Death out of which this Life is raised 3. The Resurrection itself 4. The way of this Resurrection 1. The life which is raised again is twofold 1. One Life is that of Paradise at the beginning of Time We had an earthly head in Paradise in whom we all stood and subsisted together in the Garden of Eden or of Divine Pleasures There we were clothed with a Divine Image and enjoyed a Divine Life We were made in the similitude of God and lived a life like to that of God himself St. Paul speaks of this Life Rom. 7. 9. v. For I was alive without the Law once I know that this Scripture is generally applied to the convincing and the condemning Power of the Law So St. Paul is understood here to speak of that Life of Pleasure and satisfaction to his own deceived mind and senses which he enjoyed in sin before he felt the work of the Law upon his Heart convincing him of the Evil of Sin But whoever well considers this Scripture will very plainly see that it cannot bear this sense For 1. The scope of this place is to shew that which is expressed at the 5th Verse That the Motions of Sin are by the Law which work in our Members to bring forth fruit unto Death 2. The objection which is made at the 7th verse what shall we say then is the Law sin can have no ground in any other sense than this that Sin itself takes life from the Law 3. St. Paul expresly proceeds in his reasoning by these steps verse 8th 9th Sin taking occasion by the Commandment wrought in me all manner of concupiscence He proves that by this Argument for without the Law sin was dead The force of the connection makes it clear that the death of sin here meant is not the death in Sin with stupidity and security but a Life free from the power and pollution of Sin This is explained and illustrated by another Argument For I was alive without the Law once While all things stood in the sâ—â—plicity and unity of the Divine Image undivided the Light and the Darkness no where appearing as two but as one in one Divine Spirit in one Divine Harmony There was nothing from which sin could take life Now St. Paul lived now as he so we lived and all Mankind according to our several properties and distinct Persons in Paradise together with Adam in Adam who was the Earthly Head and collective Body of us all like Christ in Heaven 2. The other Life which is raised again in the Regeneration is the Life of Heaven in Eternity Before and above our Earthly Head we had a Head in Heaven in Eternity the Lord Jesus in whose Image and Similitude Adam was Created to be a Figure of him In this heavenly and eternal Head had we a Heavenly and Eternal Life Our Heavenly Life in Eternity is as the Light Our Earthly Life in Paradise as the Shadow to this Light O thou who art now as a Dunghil covered with and composed of the most loathsom pollutions and defilements of Sin who art withered in all thy Beauties Hopes and Comforts who art sunk deepest into despair who art now no more a Man but a Worm the worst of Worms the seed of the Serpent See from whence thou art fallen what once thou wert what Lives what Joys what Glories lie buried in thee Thou wert once a beautiful Prince like the Morning Star Thou wert once the Perfection of Beauty and Pleasantness in the Figure in Paradise in Adam Thou wert once the Perfection of Beauty in the Life itself in Heaven in Eternity in the Lord Jesus Whither are these Beauties now fled How do these Beautiful Lives now lie as in the Grave covered with the Darkness of Death The Psalmist saith to the Lord That the Saints pity the Dust of Sion and take Pleasure in the Stones thereof O all you who hear and read this In your selves in each other see pity take Pleasure in the Ruins of the Divine Life of the Divine Image of Paradise of Heaven with all their Beauties Joys and Glories See the Lord Jesus from Heaven looking upon them with an eye of pity and delight Let this be a Beam of hope to you shining from his face into the midst of the Darkness of your Guilt Defilements
which thou cryest Abba Father Although thou understandest it no more than the Lamb understandeth how or why it is carryed to its Dam and drawn by its bleatings Go thy way then and be no more troubled give thy self up to the instinct and leadings of this holy Spirit within thee Thou shalt certainly see the time when the obscure smoak of the Spiritual Instinct in thee will break up into a clear Light and flame of a Joy unspeakable and Glorious both in the Testimony of the Spirit heard within thee and the Seal of the Spirit seen upon thee either in this Life or in Eternity We read in the 2 of Chron. That Solomons Throne had a Foot-stool of Gold and six steps up to the Throne On each side of these steps were two Lyons that supported every step Thou who hast the Throne of the Divine Nature in the midst of the Spiritual Paradise and Heaven set up within thee in its obscurest and lowest state rest in peace and joy on the Foot-stool itself and upon the lowest step of this Throne For the Foot-stool itself the lowest state is of Gold of an incorruptible and Divine Nature which will certainly in its proper time lift thee up to the full height and Glory of the Throne itself The lowest step here even at the highest hath for its support and guard two Lyons The Lord Jesus the true Lyon of the Tribe of Judah in all the Varieties and Riches of his Spiritual Glories multiplies his Presence and Appearance round about thee to sustain defend and cherish thee in these first beginnings of Grace in thee in the midst of thy darkness and weakness after the same manner in the same Heavenly Person of his in the same fulness of Love Power and Glory as he is with the highest Saints When we began to speak of this first step of the Resurrection or new Birth we propounded four Heads to treat upon 1. The Life which is risen 2. The Death out of which it riseth 3. The Resurrection itself 4. The way of this Resurrection We have finished our discourse upon three of these We are now to speak briefly of the last 4. The way of the Resurrection in the new birth is Jesus Christ. He saith of himself in the Gospel of St. John I am the Way Jesus Christ is the way of this Resurrection in six Steps 1. He is the Price 2. The Head 3. The Root 4. The Pattern 5. The Companion 6. The Life of this Resurrection 1. The Blood of Christ is the Price of this Resurrection Jesus Christ by his Blood hath doubly redeemed us from Death 1. By Purchase giving his Life a Ransom for us to the Divine Justice 2. By Conquest having by the effusion of his Blood and loss of his Life gained a perfect Victory over all the Powers of Darkness 2. The Lord Jesus above in Heaven is the Head of the Resurrection from the Dead In the latter part of the first of Eph. we have Jesus Christ gloriously presented unto us in his Resurrection from the nethermost part of the Earth and in his Ascent above all Heavens Then the Apostle concludes that discourse and Chapter with this Blessed Consolation that God had given him in this Glory of the Resurrection from the Dead to be the Head over all things to his Church Thou who mouâ—nest over thy sins as the worst of Deaths who doubtest who despairest of Life raise thy self to a lively Hope Look up and see thy self already risen in his Resurrection already set down in Heavenly Places together with Christ as a Glorious Spirit in that first Spirit the Head and Fountain of them all from which they are as Inseparable as the Beams in their upper ends are from the Sun Thus St. Paul speaks in the former part of the 2d Chap. of the Eph. upon that Divine Ground which he had laid in the end of the first Chapter That Christ in his Resurrection from the Dead is the Head over all to his Church 3. The Lord Jesus as he is risen from the Dead by his Spiritual Presence in our Hearts is the root of the Resurrection or new Birth in us 1 Corin. 15. Jesus Christ as he is the second Adam is said to be a quickning Spirit and the living corner Stone precious and tryed in his Death and precious in his Resurrection out of which we grow up to be a Temple to God that is both a Spiritual Heaven and a Spiritual Paradise Eph. 3. He is said to dwell in our Hearts by Faith The Lord Jesus is that Spirit which is the Root of all Spirits natural or supernatural the Root of all Life Natural and Spiritual Earthly or Heavenly Humane Angelical or Divine Dost thou feel the weight of Death heavy upon thee hast thou no sense of any spark of true Life in thee to sweeten either Death or Life to thee Look up to thy Root at the bottom of thy Spirit thy Jesus Abide in this Root wait for this Root Here are all the Treasures of Spiritual Life laid up At the set time in the proper season this Root shall spring and bud and blossom and bring forth it 's heavenly Fruits replenished with the Light and sweetness of the Divine Life and spreading themselves thorow thy whole Soul Thus shall that Life of God which thou hast lost which in thy death retired itself hither into its Root rise again in thee and thou be new-born into this Life Thus shall Jesus Christ as an Heavenly Root in thy Heart bring forth himself unto the Life of Faith which is his own Heavenly Image in thee within the Vail the Cloud of Flesh. Thus doth he make thine heart from this Root of Eternity to be an Heavenly Habitation and dwelling place for himself raised up new and Eternal out of the Ruines of Death 4. Our blessed Saviour is the Pattern of the Resurrection to us In the 8th of the Rom. we are said to be predestinated to be conformed to his Image Eph. 1. God is spoken of as working Faith and so bringing forth the Spiritual Life in us according to that exceeding greatness of his Power by which he raised Christ from the Dead We read in the Gospel that a mighty Angel came down from Heaven and rolled away the Stone from the mouth of the Grave while the Watchmen about the Grave were cast into a deep sleep to make way for the rising of Christ. How frequently doth the Soul which feels the horrour of the Spiritual Death think its Resurrection to a Divine Life to the Heavenly Graces and sweet Peaces of that Life impossible Alass the Flesh is as a Grave in which it is shut up Its Lusts and Temptations are as a mighty Stone rolled upon the mouth of this Grave Tempters visible and invisible are as Watchmen round about the Grave to keep thee there But be not discouraged at any of these things O thou disconsolate Soul Look to thy Pattern the Lord Jesus as it was
by two Illustrations and one Distinction 1. Illustr Then a thing is truly Right when it answereth to its Idea that is to its First Principle and Pattern in God God himself in the Fulness of his Person is the Principle and Pattern of Man Righteousness is the Image of God in Man Coloss. 3. 10. The New man which is the Righteous man and the Righteousness of man is said to be Created in Knowledge after the Image of Him who hath created Him There is a Twofold Image of God one Earthly the other Heavenly The Earthly Image of God in Man is the Righteousness of Nature The Heavenly Image is the Righteousness of the Spirit or in the Spirit 2. Illustr Then a thing is truly Right when it answereth its End in God God is the End of all things Prov. 16. 4. God made all things for Himself The End of Man is the Possession and Fruition of God as his only Portion of Being Beauty Blessedness Psal. 16. 5. The Lord is my Portion saith my Soul This then is the Righteousness of man his Union and Communion with God to live in Him by Him with Him to Him For this reason is Christ said to be made of God Righteousness and Sanctification to us 1 Cor. 1. 30. Because in the Person of Christ it is that God and Man are made One one Love one Life one Likeness Distinct. There are two sorts of Righteousness 1. Imputed 2. Inherent 1. Righteousness imputed You may read of this Philip. 3. 9. That I may be found in Him not having mine own righteousness which is of the Law but that which is of God by Jesus Christ. There is a Righteousness of the First and of the Second Adam That of the First Adam is our own the Righteousness of the Law It riseth out of the Earth it is but a Shadow at best the Gilding of an Earthen Vesâ—el a Reflection upon a Brick Wall That of the Second Adam comes down from Heaven is of God is the true Gold the sure substantial everlasting Righteousness As when a Cloud is placed in that part of the Sky on which the Sun shoots forth his Beams the Cloud is over-spread by those Beams and made Glorious in their Glories So are there four Things in this Imputed Righteousness 1. The Person of Christ as the Sky or Heaven 2. The God-head as the Sun shining in this Sky 3. The Cloud poor man drawn up from the Earth into the bosom of his Saviour by his Union with Him 4. The Glory of the God-Head falling upon him encompassing and clothing his whole Person in Jesus Christ. This is that Righteousness which is of God by Jesus Christ. 1 Cor. 12. 26. St. Paul teacheth us that if one member be honoured all the members rejoyce together with it When a Crown is set upon the Head of a King it puts a Royalty and Majesty upon his whole Person The Head of Man is Christ the Head of Christ is God The Glory of the God-Head in Christ is the Crown upon the Head of the Heavenly man this puts a Royal Beauty of Holiness the Majesty of that Divine Righteousness upon every mystical member upon each Soul how mean soever that is united to Jesus Christ in one Spirit thorow believing The Beauty of the God-head shining thorow the Humane Nature of Christ thorow his active and passive Obedience thorow his Wounds and so falling upon that Soul which hath cast herself into the Arms of her Saviour this is the Imputed Righteousness of man Take this Caution concerning this Righteousness It is said to be imputed not because it is not truly Ours and in us but because it is not Primarily Ours but by our Union with another Person The Colours in the Rain-bow are said to be Apparent not Real because the Rain-bow is not their Spring though it be their Seat but they are reflected from the Sun shining on the watry Cloud So this Righteousness is said to be imputed to us because it is First seated in Jesus Christ and then reflected from Him on us Yet it is a true Righteousness it is truly immediately on our Persons in our Persons as Jesus Christ is It is therefore said to be imputed because it is not ours Primitively but Consequently because Christ is ours yet not as Absent from us but Present in us possess'd by us 2. Righteousness Inherent 2 Cor. 3. last We all as in a Glass beholding the Glory of the Lord are Translated into the likeness of the same Image from glory to glory as by the Lord the Spirit The Lord Jesus at once enters into a Two-fold Relation to man one of a Sun shining all over him the other of a Root growing up in him We see his Glory in our selves as in a Glass we bring the face of Glory with us We have the Glory in our selves and are our selves the Glass There is the Sun shining which beautifies and justifies a St. We grow up into that Image by the Lord the Spirit of that Glory planting itself in us There is the Root growing which purifies and sanctifies us Our Saviour when he discovers Himself appears at once without us and within us Without us he riseth upon us as a Light of Loveliness Es. 60. 1. Rise out of the Dust and shine for thy Light is come the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee Within us He riseth as a Light of Life Galat. 1. 16. When it pleased the Father to reveal his Son within me This is our Righteousness Imputed and Inherent This Righteousness is the Crown Robe Scepter of Royalty in the Kingdom of God 1. The Crown So St. Paul stiles it 2 Tim. 4. 8. Henceforth is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which God the righteous Judge shall give me in that day The Righteousness the Glory of God resting on Man is that Crown which both entitles him to and enstates him in the Kingdom of God As a King ever possesseth his Crown though he wear it only on high days at solemn meetings of the people so a Christian may have this Crown though laid up while he is on Earth But he doth not appear with it openly till that great day the Resurrection when the whole world shall meet 2. The Robe The Righteousness of God and Man is the Imperial Robe which both as Kings are cloth'd with Es. 61. 10 He hath covered me with a Robe of Righteousness as a Bridegroom dâ—cketh himself with Ornaments Behold a Royal and a Bridal Robe It is Righteousness which puts upon the Spirit the beauty of a Bridegroom the Majesty of a King That Soul which shines forth in Righteousness makes itself a King not by Right only but Choice too by Love as well as Law Psal. 45. 4. 5. In thy Majesty ride prosperously because of Truth Meekness and Righteousness c. Thine Arrows stick in the hearts of thine Enemies the people fall under thee This was sung of the Lord Jesus Righteousness cloth'd him
with so sweet a Majesty that he pierc'd the Hearts of His Enemies with Arrows of Love Such a King is every Spirit which is Brother to this Jesus Righteousness sits upon him and shines from him as a Garment of Light Truth and Wisdom it shews as wrought into a Harmony of Courage Justice Temperance it sparkles with Tempers of Goodness Gentleness Meekness Humility These things like Arrows wound the stubbornest Hearts with a Liking and a Love that a man's bitterest Enemies bow to him 3. The Scepter Psal. 45. 6. It is said to our Saviour The Scepter of thy Kingdom is a Righteous Scepter Righteousness is the Scepter of Strength in the Kingdom of Christ by which all things are swayed and governed Psal. 16. 7. If a mans ways please the Lord his Enemies shall be at peace with him Holiness or Righteousness is such a Harmony such a Musick between God and Man as all things hear and obey They that make use of hellish Charms make the Picture of a Person in Wax and as they work the Wax by the Fire so they work upon the Person Goodness hath a Heavenly Charm in it For a Righteous man hath in himself the Heavenly Image of God which is the First and radical Image of all things By this Image he hath a power upon all things Thus Righteousness is the Crown Robe Scepter in the Kingdom of God 1. Use. Learn to hate Sin by the Rule of Contraries For if Righteousness cloath you with the highest Honour Worth Strength of Kings if it crown you with the Glory of God if it carry you up to the Life of God then what doth Sin Sin by the Rule of Contraries puts upon you the Baseness Badness Weakness of Slaves Sin wraps you up in the Shape sows in you the Seeds of Devils Let us then look on Sin in this Five-fold View As it puts on us 1. Weakness 2. Badness 3. Baseness of Slaves 4. Shapes of Devils 5. As it plants in us Seeds of Devils 1. Sin puts upon us the Weakness of Slaves Gen. 49. 3. 4. Reuben thou art my First born the Beginning of my Strength Excellency of power O Man O my Soul consider what thou wert in thy Beginning A Divine Flame shot forth from an Angels Bosom into this lump of Clay not to abide imprisoned in it but to feed upon it as fuel so to return and make its way upward making all things that resist its prey and nourishment What is it that hath thus enfeebled and cool'd thee and chang'd thee from Fire into Water Sin hath done this Now thou lyest spread upon the Earth swayed by every weak Breath or Spirit that blows upon thee unable to contain thy self casting thy self into the Figure and Shape of every Object on which thou touchest Thy Swordâ— hath thus weakned thee Man was the Reuben of God the First-born in the first Creation the Excellency of Dignity and Power the Head of Strength He was the Chieâ— Image of the Divine Nature made to be the Spouse and Queen of the God-Head the Onely One of her Mother The Rest of the Creatures were to be as Concubines only particular inferiour Images of God The Soul foolishly forsakes the Bosom of her God to throw herself into the Embraces of these Concubines so she defileth herself and them so she dishonoureth her King and Husband in both so pours forth her self loosely upon the Ground as spilt Water 2. Sin puts a Badness into men It puts into us a Three-fold Badness of Folly Filth Fury 1. Sin fills us with folly Sin so far befools thee O vain Man as to despise deny Blessedness Beauty Eternity there where they are in God the First the Fountain the Substance of all Beings and to seek them there where they are not in Fleshly shadowy fleeting Trifles This is that Folly the Head-Spring of all Sin which St. Paul complains of Rom. 1. 21. They became vain in their Imaginations their foolish Heart being darkned This was the Folly The Eternal Substance and Fulness was darkned and disappeared in their Spirits which brought forth instead thereof empty Images So St. Paul explains it at the 23. v. Changing the glory of the Incorruptible God into an Image made like to Corruptible Man and Birds c. What degree of Folly is this to refuse to acknowledge or own the true God who is Eternal Life and to make each painted perishing Vanity a God to us while we make it the Object and Spring of our Hopes and Happiness But thus it is most just that they to whom the true God is but as an Idol an empty name to them each Idol each empty Appearance should be their God This is the First Badness in Sin Folly 2. Sin fills a Man with Filth Carnality and Corruption signify both the same thing in Scripture To be Spiritual is to be Holy to be Fleshly Sinful To be Carnally minded that is to be Fleshly-minded is Death but to be Spiritually minded is Life and Peace Rom. 8. 6. Is there any thing more foul than this for a Soul which was made as a Spirit for Spiritual Joys and Glories so to mingle itself with Flesh as to see receive rellish nothing but by Senses of Flesh so to drown itself in Flesh as to be uncapable of conversing with taking conteâ—t in any but Fleshly objects This is the State of a Sinful Soul Thus is she over-spread with Flesh as one great Spot The Interpreters of the Proverbs teach us that the Young Man there is the Soul which is naturally Immortal ever young ever flourishing the Matron the chast Spouse that woes this Young Man Divine Wisdom the Heavenly Image of the Divine Nature The Strumpet this Worldly Image of things O say now when thou Sinnest Alass How do I dishonour and defile my self I who should who might live chastly constantly sweetly with the Eternal Image of Glory my God my Spouse mine own I pour forth my self into the lap of Strangers of Unconstant Whorish Flattering Fading Beauties in Flesh. O Filth O Shame That Spirit that should tread upon the Stars ride upon the Angels rejoyce with God everlastingly that Soul labours and sweats in Dust and Death as a Slave rowls in the Mire of Flesh like a Beast rakes in the unsavory sinks of all various Lusts as an unclean Spirit 3. Sin fills a man with Fury Solomon in his Proverbs tells us of One that throws about Fire-brands and Swords and saith Am I not in jest Prov. 26. 18. 19. This is Solomon's Foâ—l which is a Sinner Can it be that any should make Ruines and Reproaches their Delight nay their Devotion too Jonah said once He did well to be angry even unto Death Can it be that any should cherish a Rage to the Death Destruction of Men Kingdoms and Souls and then think such a Rage Religion such a Fury Zeal and that these things they ought to do Can it be that any should draw Tears and blood from others from
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
may not yet be sprung up in thee like the ripe corn in the ear in the Ripeness and maturity of their own Spirituality and of the Heavenly Image Yet may they flourish in the Ear that is in a high and sweet Figure of Spirituality according to the purest letter of the Gospel which may have the Spirit itself for a hidden life in it and ready to reveal itself as the perfect Fruit. But suppose thou hast not attained to this yet sing for Joy the Spring and the Summer Season are come Harvest is not far off if the Kingdom of God which is Christ Heaven Paradise all in one and all in a Heavenly Glory be come up in thee into a Green and Living stalk Perhaps thou art yet subject to the Ministry of the Law Rejoyce in this if it Spring from the Seed of Promise if it flourish by the Virtue and Life of this Seed forming itself into this stalk although it lie vailed there This living Stalk this living Ministry of the Law hath not only an outward Glory and Lustre upon it but the inward Glory of the Spiritual Kingdom within it which sends forth this outward Life and Lustre which will itself also in its proper season sprout forth from it Dost thou fall short of this also dost thou see nothing in thy self of Letter or Spirit of Law or Gospel in any clearness of Life or Power by which thou canst make any comfortable Judgment of thy self Are not these mournings of thine that sence those impressions those desires affections endeavours the causes and companions of these mournings which come up so thick in the ground of thy Spirit by day and by night are not these that Kingdom of God that Jesus with Heaven and Paradise in the midst of thee before thine eyes as in the Blade or the Herb which can hardly be discerned or distinguished from common grass by common eyes In the mean time thou like Mary complainest that Christ is taken away from thee when he standeth before thee risen from the dead and talketh with thee though vailed under the form of a Gardener But let it be that no green things appears in the field of thy Soul it is naked cold and hard like the Earth in Winter Yet mourn not as one without hope This naked ground may be a flourishing field of Corn in the Summer time This naked and hard heart of thine may in its proper Season soften and flourish into an Heavenly Paradise by the springing up of Christ in it For even now in this disconsolate desolate state may God the Father and the Holy Angels from on high have their eye with Love and delight upon it from one end of the year to the other as seeing Heaven and Paradise with all their own Joys and Excellencies treasured up there in their seed which is Christ sown in thee 3. Ans. The Heavenly Image in thee who art born again while thou livest on Earth is subject to various Clouds and Storms It is always in a conjunction with the fleshly Image and the Spirit of the Devil These never suffer it to shine forth clearly and purely These often so cloud it and captlvate it that it can send forth no one sweet beam or spark to enlighten thee to any sensible discovery of it or warm thee with any sensible comfort in it The Law of God which is the Law of the Spirit of Life in which Spirit the Heaven and Paradise of a Saint are seated is within in the inward man in the mind But the Law of Sin which is the Spirit of this World where Death Hell and the Devil have their place and their Throâ—e is still manifest and Powerful in thy Members in thy outward man What wonder then if thine inward Man like the Face of Heaven and of an Heavenly Paradise with the Lord Jesus in his Spiritual Glory shining in them as the Sun in its purity and strength be discerned by thee very weakly and uncertainly when they are to be seen thorough so thick so polluted so troubled an Air of the natural Spirit in thy Members Nay what wonder is it if from the Morning of thy Life to the Evening of it such blackness of darkness cover the whole Face of these beautiful and Heavenly things in thee that they appear not at all to thee although they constantly shine in the same Glory and move in the same order in themselves to themselves within thee when as such Powers of Darkness have their seat in thine outward Man thorough which they are to appear 4. Ans. Thou perhaps O afflicted Soul with the eye of Sense and of Reason by the Light of thine own Spirit lookest to see the Kingdom of God with its Joys and Glories and Glorious Inhabitants in thee But these are Spiritual things and to be discerned Spiritually They are Spiritual Senses which alone can take in the Divine sweetnesses and Beauties of this Spiritual Paradise and Heaven It is the Light of the Spirit alone in which they shine forth and appear It is the Breath of the Spirit alone which makes their Spices to flow forth and give their smells Thou O dejected Soul mayest have thy Spiritual senses yet weak Like a new-born Child thou mayest behold and gaze upon the Light of the Heavenly Sun and yet not understand what that is which thou seest or that thou seest any thing at all Again the Spirit is free he breaths and gives his Light where he pleaseth when he pleaseth and in what degree he pleaseth The Garden of God may be in thee thou mayest be in the midst of this Garden and yet not aware of it because it is either a dark Season where nothing appears or a twilight of the Spirit only where the Flowers and Plants of this Garden appear like little Clouds or dark spots undistinguished 5 Ans. There are three ways by which the new Birth or the Resurrection from the dead evidenceth itself to the Soul 1. The Seal of the Spirit 2. The Witness of the Spirit 3. A Spiritual Instinct 1. The Seal of the Spirit is the clearest and compleatest evidence Of this you read Eph. 1. v 13. You are sealed with that Holy Spirit of Promise The Spirit himself in his own person was the Promise and is the Seal St. John 14. v. 20. Jesus Christ in that Chapter promiseth the Spirit which he would send down when he was ascended to be in them He calleth this Spirit the Spirit of Truth and the Comforter Together with the promise of the Spirit he promiseth them that he would come again to them and that they should see him and have Joy and that none should take this Joy from them because they should never more lose the sight of him He promiseth likewise that at that day of the Spirit his Father and himself would come together and sup with them and lodge with them The rich and glorious ground of all this sweet mystery of the Divine Love and