not the Darkness of Death itself The Grave shines to them as Heaven and shews the same Spirit Life and Glory to their eyes This is the work of the Power of God which makes Light from above and darkness from below to meet and kiss and like the Man and the Woman to bear One Image to become One Light Jesus Christ Mark 14. 35. prayed to his Father That if it were possible that hour might pass from him At the 36th verse he tells his Father that All things were possible to him Then it was possible to the Father that That hour should pass away from him And so his Prayer was absolutely for it Other Scriptures tell us that God alwaies heard his Son and denyed him no thing and that he was heard in that which he feared Then it follows that That Dreadful Hour did pass away from Jesus Christ though it did not pass away Thâ—s was the Comfort of Christ that Power of God which could reconcile two which were contradictions that the sad Hour should pass away in not passing away 2. Secondly The Power of God can call back Time that is past and make it to be present again Heb. 13. 8. You read of Jesus the same yesterday to day and for ever The Lord Jesus is the Fulness the Image and the shining out of the God-Head They are the Puttings forth and Discoveries of Jesus Christ which make all Times Ages and States Jesus Christ hath to day the same Powers and Appearances in himself which being sent forth made yesterday They are only drawn in If then he please to day to put forth the same Appearances to thee or pull thee into them he can make yesterday present to day When he shall open himself fully to thee from the Beginning to the End then he will make the Sun to stand still over thy head he will make all Times past to stand forth as at the first and to stand still before thee eternally For he is the same yesterday to day and for ever Rev. 20. 12. We read that at the Resurrection the Books were opened Time is as a Book which Life opens and Death shuts Daies and years passing are as the turning over of the Leaves of this Book Whatever God doth he doth it for ever saith Solomon in Ecclesiastes Whatever is written in this Book is never to be blotted out but remains there to be read to eternity If any Leaf or Line were pleasant to thee and thou mournest because it is turn'd over and past God can at his pleasure turn that leaf or line back to thee again 3. The Power of God can make things which have been and which have ceased to be to be again It is a sweet spiritual and deep discourse that which is between the Lord and Martha concerning Lazarus Ioh. 11. 23. Jesus saith unto her Thy Brother shall risâ— again V. 24. Martha saith unto him I know that he shall rise again in the Resurrection at the last day V. 25. Iesus said unto her I am the Resurrection and the Life Jesus Christ is the Power the Treasury of God from which all things are brought forth in which they are laid up again and ever to be found The Person of Christ is the Life and the Resurrection while things are they are in him as in their Root When they are no more in themselves they are still in him as in a Repository They return into him as the beauty of dying Flowers into their Root to come forth again at Spring in a better manner The Person of the Lord Jesus is the Life This world is but as the shadowy Image in the Glass or Water All things have their truest and standing Life in him The Lord Jesus is the Resurrection For when he discovers himself to us then we see all things again in a full high immortal manner Hast thou lost any comfort by Death or any other change in this world do but look with a Spiritual Eye upon the Spiritual Person of thy Dear Saviour there thou shalt see thy comforts still living For he is the Life Nay thou shalt see them living immortally never to dye more For he is the Resurrection Thou shalt see them and enjoy them substantially satisfactorily without fear of losing them For that which thou seest in him is not a Shadowy Image but the Life it self 4. Spring Wisdom The Wisdom of God rightly understood is a Fountain of Peace and Pleasures which will flow perpetually into the heart of man Two Scriptures testifie of this Wisdom 1 Scripture Eph. 1. 11. This Scripture speaketh of God who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will These words hold forth four things 1. A Workman 2. The Latitude of his Workings 3. The Pattern 4. The Original of that Pattern 1. The Workman This is God who worketh The chief Agent the Master-wheel in all Motions is the God-Head Learned Men say that if the Heavens should stand still all Things here below would be immediately at a stand as in the Aegyptian Darkness It is most true of the Trinity which moves and makes and works all things by the Movings of that Life which it hath in itself If the Trinity should stop in the course of its mutual Communion and Enjoyments This stop would be a Spoke set in the Wheel of the Creation nothing could stir any more 2. The Latitude of his Workings God worketh all Things God worketh all Things Collectively in the General and whole Sum. God worketh all things Distributively in Particulars The Earth is the Lords Work and the Fulness thereof Psal. 24. 1. There is no time nor any minute or moment of Time which is not fashioned and carried on by God My times are in thine Hand Saith the Psalmist Psal. 31. 15. There is no Affair nor the the least Circumstance of any Affair be it good or evil which is not the Work and the gift of God Shall we receive Good and not Evil from the Hand of God saith Job Job 2. 10. God rides upon the Circuit of the Heavens Psal. 68. 4. So he is the Universal Cause of Things God also fills All in All Ephes. 1. 23. So He descends into the Lowest Relations the narrowest Compass and becomes every where the most Particular Cause of every Thing God saith of the Tree in the Prophet for the Clusters sake Spare it there is a Blessing in it So mayst thou say of any Thing whatever it be great or small for which thou mournest or frettest Spare thy self There is a Blessing for there is a God in this Thing God is not only a Concurrent cause working his Part and leaving to other Causes their Parts apart But he is a Comprehensive Cause uniting all in himself and spreading himself thorow all 1 Corin. 8. 6. There is One God who worketh all in all Wherever there is any Agent that works God works all in that Agent Wherever there is any Form of working God works all in that Form
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
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.
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
first Sun they shine in the midst of them shine quite thorow them They behold not the Figures ascending like a Pillar of Smoak perfumed with all the Spices of the Apothecary from this golden Altar of Christs glorious Form comprehending them and being ever beneath them how they lose themselves by degrees in the sweet shade of Christs Death how they spring again new in the brightness of his Resurrection how they lie continually in the Original Glory where the whole mystery is entirely comprehended perfected and finisht These men set not their hearts upon this glory of the Father in Christ to make that their Righteousness their Strength and their Song in every other Appearance as in the house of their Pilgrimage They take no pleasure in the joints of all the members in this Divine Body which are Jewels wrought by the hand of a skilful workman this Unity being itself the mysterious joynt every where setting all and binding all together in itself in that Wisdom of God which is this Beautiful Person of whom we speak But enough of this Caution and of the Second Part of Beauty in our beloved the Harmony in the variâ—ty 3. The Third Part is the Light in the Harmony John 8. 12. Our Lord saith of himself I am the Light of the World As the Sun the chief and most glorious Body is the Light of all Corporeal and bodily Beings so this blessed Person of our Saviour the first and best Spirit is the Light of all Spirits the first and most Glorious Form is the Light of all Forms of Things Bodies and Spirits He is the First the Supream the universal Light He is that highest Circle of Light which rideth forth upon every Circle or Beam of Light each point in every Beam Psal. 36. 9. David saith to God In thy Light shall we see Light The Light of the Father is Jesus Christ the express Image and Glory of the Father These words of the Psalmist have Two senses 1. As colours are seen in the light of the Sun so every colour Light and Being the Light of the Sun itself is seen only in the Light of Christs Person as this pure and eternal Sun shineth upon every other Light and Form in it and thorow it 2. Every thing as it is seen in the Light of this Heavenly Form is a precious stone of the new Hierusalem It hath a spark of this everlasting Light which playeth in it and is incorruptible The Sun is changed into Sack-cloath at the presence of an Angel whose Light so much excelleth that of the Sun that it hath no Light when that other Light shineth forth The highest Angels vail their Faces with their Wings lose all their Light and Glory when Jesus Christ appeareth upon the white Throne of his proper Forms and naked Person What manner of Light is this then how pure how full of Glory how unexpâ—essible incomprehensible This Light this Lustre of the God-Head is that Scene that Circle in which all the variety the ravishing Harmony of Things lieth in Christ. This is the Form of his Person 4. The last Part of Beauty in Christ is the Life in the Light Life is a Spring of Beings which maketh every thing fresh and new every moment Newness is attributed to the Spirit The oldness of the Letter and the Newness of the Spirit are opposed one to another because the Spirit is Life Life is the Spring of Motion which is the Chiefest Charm in Beauty and in which all Pleasures consist Jesus Christ John 8. 12. calleth Himself the Light of Life The Person of our King is that Light which is the Flower and Crown of the Divine Life and that life which is the lustre the Sparkling the Perfume of this Crown and Flower He is the Fountain of Life Psal. 36. 9. With thee is the Fountain of Life This Lovely Person is the Fountain of Life in the Bosom and Heart of the Father Himself He is the Quickning Spirit 1 Cor. 15. 45. The Lord is that Spirit which is in its own Essence and proper Form Life itself in the Fountain where it is most pure most plentiful most powerful most pleasant How do all Varieties of things 〈◊〉 in the Youth of all Beauty in this Fountain of Life How do they renew their youth their Beauties every moment endlesly Into what mutual traffick of Beauties and Sweetnesses into what uncessant Sprightly Pleasant motions what Divine Acts of Love Joy Delight do they spring up How is the Beauty and Joy of All fulfilled in every one How are all the Beauties and Joys of All eternally varied multiplyed and increased when all lye together in this Fountain of Life and every One hath this Fountain of Life in Himself This Person of Christ is the Fountain of the Divine Life that Springing Fulness of the Divine Nature in each Form Here the Father the Supreme Love eternally generateth the Son the Original Beauty Both in the Spirit eternally embrace each other infuse themselves into each other renew themselves each in other which is the First and Universal Joy the Fountain of Delights Use. Make the Single Person of Christ the Sole Ground of your Faith the onely Object of your Love the Fountain of all your Comfort and Ioy. 1. Make the Single Person of Christ the Sole Ground of your Faith Rom. 10. 17. Faith cometh by Hearing and Hearing by the Word of God Our Jesus in His Spiritual Form of Glory is the Word of God as the Sun itself is Lux the First Light The Scriptures are the Word of God as the Sun-shine Lumen the Secundary Light The First is a Living Light a Light of Life The Second in it self is Light alone without Life Look thorow the outward Word for the Person of Christ. When He cometh in to thy Soul by His Spiritual Appearance He will be a Light of Life in thee at once revealing His Excellencies in thee Giving thee an Eye to see these Excellencies by this Sight Setting them in thine Heart Setting thine Heart upon them as a Root of Faith Esa. 45. 22. Look to me and be saved all ye ends of the Earth saith Jesus from His Throne High and lifted up on which Esay saw Him sitting which is His Divine Form Behold the Person of thy Saviour setteth it self before thee to attract and allure thine Eye by the Light of His Beauties When thou lookest to Him He holdeth thine Heart fast for ever fixt as a Seal upon His Heavenly form by the Fulness of all things Good Great and Glorious in Himself He soweth the seed of his own Form and Fulness in thee by the flowing forth of the Life together with the Light of his Beauties All Objects for Faith to fix upon the answers of all objections against believing the way to believe the power of believing the act of Faith itself with the Sweetness and Fruits of it all these lie folded up in the rich Treasury of Christs Person all these flow in
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
this Light is a Divine Wonder a Divine Mystery Incomprehensible for the greatness of the Glory to sense and reason but familiar and plain to the Spiritual Eye as bred up with it and continually before it known to it from the Beginning The Spiritual Bride meeteth her beloved here with all his Beauties in this Light and kisseth him as her Brother as born of the same Mother There is no strangeness between them This Light is indeed the Temple the Palace of the God-Head of Eternity The Father and Christ are here upon the Throne of their Kingdom in the Glory of their Divine Nature But a Saint is a Royal Priesthood a King and a Priest So he is taken in called by God into this Sacred Palace and Temple to behold the Beauties to contemplate the vertues of both the Father and the Son that they may declare them by the Divine Power of their words and the Beauty of Holiness which is the Sun-shine of the Divine Nature in their Lives We are now by this Circuit of Scriptures brought back to that First on which we grounded this Second Branch of our Rule and for the explication of which we have taken this compass If we walk in the Light as he is in the Light we have Fellowship one with another and the Blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all Sin Who are these that have Fellowship one with another St. John had said before These things we write that you may have Fellowship with us And truly our Fellowship is with the Father and the Son v. 3. Philosophers tell us that we must come within all the Beams of the Sun to the Body of the Sun itself if we will see the Sun in his true and proper Glory Some speak of a Blessed world in the Sun the Rarities and Beauties of which are seen only by the Inhabitants of the Sun Gods own Light is a Divine World in which the Father the Son all the Saints dwell together eternally have their proper life of Divine Sweetness and Blessedness appear in their proper Forms of Divine Purity and Beauty If ye will be admitted into this Society to a sight of these you must go beyond you must come within every Light of the Creature all Beams into the Bosom of God himself into the Brightness of the Divine Essence which is the Living-looking-Glass of the Holy Trinity Here you shall see your Jesus as he is You shall see him as you are seen by him For now the Blood of Christ cleanseth you from all Sin This Light of the Divine Nature which is the Light of Life and the Spirit Himself is the Blood of Jesus eminently in the vertue of it as it is Incorruptible This is that which poureth forth itself thorow the Humane Nature into the lowest Forms of Dust Darkness Wrath and Death in the place of Sinners as a Ransom of Infinite value This is that Precious Blood of the true Vine which when Justice and Wrath have drunk of they are satisfied sweeetned and changed into Grace and Glory an over-spreading Loveliness and an overflowing Love This is that Blood in which the Life is which as it is let forth in Death wrappeth up all things in it self washeth them from filth and flesh then riseth up again as high as its own Spring in the Heart of the Father and carrieth up all things with it self into the Newness of the Glory of God Nothing is so directly contrary to the Divine Light as Sin Therefore it is expressed by Darkness and the Night As the Light of the Day cleanseth all Forms of things from the Darkness of the Night which lay upon them that now they have fellowship one with another mingle their Beams and Beauties with mutual Joy so doth this Blood of the Lamb the Light shining in the Person of Christ when it breaketh forth from the Shades of Death in the morning of the Resurrection sanctifie the Heavenly things themselves bring forth from under every cloud stain and dust the Heavenly Persons of a Saint of Jesus Christ of God the Heavenly Truths and Lives of all Things that they may in the Unity of this Light maintain a precious commerce and traffick of all interchangeable Sweetnesses Excellencies with Immortality unto a full Joy Psal. 4. 6. David thus openeth the Hearts of the multitude and his own Heart Many will say Who will shew us any good But Lord lift up thoâ— the Light of thy countenance upon us When all thy faculties and Affections all the Powers of thy Soul cry Who will shew us Iesus Christ in Glory Let thine Heart answer to God and say Lord lift up thou the Light of thy face upon me In the Shinings of thy Face is my Iesus hid and in these Shinings alone will He be seen by me Thus the Spiritual Beauties of Iesus Christ are to be discerned only in the Spiritual Light of His own Person 3. Spiritual Things are to be seen in Spiritual Forms This is the Third Branch of the Rule Joh. 20. 30. When the Lord after his Resurrction had appeared to the Apostles in a Body of Flesh as He had been cruciâ—ied the Holy Ghost addeth And many other Signs did Jesus in the presence of His disciples Observe this expression well His Appearance in a Natural Body the same in which He had formerly lived with them was not the Truth it Self but a Sign of it Luk. 24. 38. Jesus shewing Himself after the same manner to His Apostles raiseth them from their fears that This was the Apparition of some Spirit by these words Behold my hands and my feet that it is I my self A Spirit hath not Flesh and Bones as you see me to have The Lord seemeth to speak to them after this manner You have not yet received the Spirit but are hitherto carnal If I should shew my self to you as I am now in the Glory of my Resurrection in which I am altogether Spiritual and a Spirit you would not know me you would not believe that I were the same Person you would be afraid of me I have therefore wrought this Miracle and given you this Sign in a tenderness towards you and a Condescention to your present weakness By that Almighty Power over Heavenly and Earthly Things which I am now cloathed with by the virtue of that Spiritual Divine Form and Substance into which I am now raised which comprehendeth within it self all Form Substances and Virtues I present my self to you in that same Body composed of the same Flesh and Bones in which I lived with you and dâ—ed upon the Cross before your Eyes with the same Wounds which I then received And because this is a Sign therefore do I accompany it to your Senses and to your Spirits with a Double Evidence and Seal from my Divinity One that this is no Imposture or Apparition with which Evil Spirits have power to deceive your Sight your Hearing your Touch all your natural Faculties but that
Individual and Substantial Body of mine as it was in Flesh the Other the awakening of Spiritual Senses in you the Shining forth of my Glorified Body and my Divinity by their own Light upon these thorow this Sign of my Natural Body reassumed for this Service But now beware that you make not this Sign a Stumbling-block to you to make you think me now like your selves and such a one as formerly I was to have a body of an Earthly Substance or Figure consisting of Flâ—sh and Bones No the Days of my Flesh are past I was put to Death in my Flesh and to the Flesh I am now quickened by the Spirit to live for ever in the Spirit A Spirit hath not Flesh nor Bones as you see me now to have This seemeth to be something of our Saviours sence in this place St. Paul Rom. 8. 6. saith To be carnally-minded is Death but to be spiritually-minded is Life and Peace The Greek word comprehendeth an Act of both the Faculties of our Souls our Understanding and our Will To look upon things in their Fleshly Forms to savour and rellish a Fleshly Sweetness in things is Death To see things in their Spiritual Appearances to savour and rellish them in a Spiritual Sweetness This is Life and Peace which is the Harmony the Musick the Crown of Life When the Disciples looked down into the Grave for Jesus Christ the Angels reproved them saying Why seek ye the Living among the Dead He is not here He is risen He is gone before you into Galilee as Himself spake unto you The Flesh was our Saviour's Grave and is still the Grave of the Spirit All Forms and Beauties of the Flesh are Grave-cloaths bound about Him Let us no more seek the Living and Immortal Person of our Beloved nor His Living and Immortal Beauties which are all Spirit and Life among the Dead things of the Flesh. He is not here in Flesh any more He is risen and gone before us into the Spirit Let us follow Him thither I have done with the First Rule to direct us in the Knowledge of the Person of Christ Spiritual Things are to be discerned Spiritually Rule 2. Spiritual Things are to be compared with Spiritual 1 Cor. 2. 13. The Holy Ghost teachâ—th comparing Spiritual things with Spiritual This Rule bringeth me to the Mark and White which I aim at That I may hit it the more exactly I must â—ix a while upon that Scripture 1 Cor. 15. 35. and so forward I lay this Groundwork for the Building which I intend to raise upon this Scripture The set Design of the Apostle here is to discourse of the Resurrection of the Body He therefore frameth this Question to himself which containeth the Great Subject of his whole Discourse in this place How are the dead raised up and with What Body do they come v. 35. In answer to this question he treateth of the Bodies of the Saints in general of the Body of Christ in particular as the Root and Rule of the Resurrection to all the rest Upon this ground I shall raise three Propositions as three Stories in my Building which will take in the greatest part of St. Pauls words upon this Subject in this Scripture Prop. 1. The Body of Christ risen from the Dead is not to be compared with the Body of Christ living upon the Earth or Dying St. Paul likeneth by a large similitude the living Body to a Seed the Body raised to a perfect Plant sprung up out of that Seed v. 36. 37 38. St. Paul maketh expresly three Differences 1. The Life of the one is a Death compared to the life of the other and so the world in which it is a Grave to that Image of things in the Resurrection v. 36. That which thou sowest is not quickned except it die 2. They differ as two several Bodies for Substance and Shape Thou sowest not that Body that shall be v. 37. 3. One is as bare Grain naked dark deformed little slight the other hath a Body a Substantial Beautiful Distinct fulness It hath a Form of Light and Beauty proportions of greatness and magnitude a fulness of Substance It hath a Divine Body a Body drawn forth from the Treasury of the God-Head God giveth it a Body v. 38. It is a Body a Form and Fulness sprung forth from the Divine Wisdom and Will bearing the Glorious stamp of these in which themsâ—lves rest with a full Complacency God giveth it a Body 〈◊〉 himself pleaseth v. 38. It is also to the Seed it s own Body and to every Seed it s own Body v. 38. As John the Baptist saith of Jesus Christ he is perfer'd before me because he was before me as in the purity and Paradise of the Creation the perfect Plants were first in the Fulness of their Beauty and Fruit bearing their Seed in them so in the Paradise of Eternity before the World which is Christ the Word the Wisdom of God the Immortal the Glorious the Divine Bodies and Forms of things were first as the Flourishing Tree comprehending in themselves the Bodies and Forms of Flesh as Shadows or naked Seeds hid in the Light or Bosom of the beautiful Substance and Fruit. Then came forth the Earthly Forms of things into the State of this Creation These are Shadows under which the Divine Substances are vailed These are Seeds in which the Tree itself lieth hid as a Divine Mystery By the breaking up of these Shadows and the dying of these Seeds the Immortal Bodies and Glorious Substances themselves spring forth thorow them So every Seed hath its own Body in the Resurrection 1. It is that Body of Glory in which it lay and to which it relateth as its Divine Original or first Idea in the mind and will of God 2. It is that which lay hid virtually in it 3. It is that which springeth up out of it and changeth it into itself Thus the Body of our Lord risen is the same Body in relation to the same Idea or Pattern in God to the same Soul to which it is joyned as its proper Form in the Person of Christ to the same first Matter out of which it is taken God giveth it a Body as it hath pleased him and to every Seed it s own Body v. 38. My Brethren what joy is it to think that the Body of our loving and beloved Jesus that our own Bodies that the Bodies of our dearest Relations and delights lose nothing of themselves in Death yea are much more themselves by Death in the Resurrection as a man awake is much more himself than in a Dream a King upon his Throne than in the Grave and Tomb We shall lose nothing of our selves nor of our distinction But I fear I go to far for common understandings to follow me I will therefore conclude this Proposition with a plain representation of the Truth to you As the thing figured exceedeth the figure so the difference between the Body of our
Jacob out of Egypt which came out of his loyns that is All the Persons For the Immortal Soul cometh not out of the Parent 's loyns 2. The Soul signifieth the Natural State by the first Creation in distinction from the Spiritual State by Grace 1 Cor 2. 14. The Natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit It is properly The Man of Soul So in this 1. Cor. 15. 44. There is a Natural Body there is a Spiritual Body In Greek it is There is the Body of a Soul and the Body of a Spirit The word is the same there and in v. 45. A Living Soul 3. By Soul is meant that Life which the Soul exerciseth in the Body and which dependeth upon the Body The Life of Sense and Reason as it is inseparable from Sense Jude 19. Sensual not having the Spirit The word Sensual is the same with Soul Men of Soul From these Scriptures laid together you may collect this Explanation of a Living Soul A Natural Person living a Life of Sense and of Reason awakened by Sense and inseparably tied to Sense in an Earthly Body The Body is as the tree the Life as the Sap the Root as the Person out of which both spring and in which both are comprehended Such as the Tree is such is the Sap and such the Root which have their perfection in the Tree Such as the Earthly Body is such is the Life such is the Person of the first Adam For the Body is the Result and proper Image of the other two But the surest and clearest Light into this Phrase a Living Soul will be that Scripture where it is first used and whence it is cited Gen. 2. 7. And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his Nostrils the breath of Life and man became a Living Soul Three things lie plain in this Text. 1. The denomination of Man is put peculiarly and signally upon the Body God formed Man of the dust of the Earth 2. That part in Man distinct from the Body is expresly here named a breath of Life 3. The Living Soul is the Body having received the breath of Life into it Man became a Living Soul Man relateth evidently to the beginning of the verse God formed Man that is the Body of the dust of the Earth So in this Chapter to the Corin. The Body is called the Man The first Man is of the Earth Eartâ—y v. 46. The reason why the Holy Ghost peculiarly respected the Body while he speaketh of Man seemeth to be this the Body was the united Image and Fulness of all those Beings and Beauties which were divided thorow the whole Câ—eation a most harmonious Body and sacred Collection of all those â—iving Excâ—lences Appearances and Operations of the Eternal Spirit which made up the several Creatures like single Flowers in a Garden Thus the Body of Adam was a Paradise in Paradise the Paradise of Paradise The breath of Life was in this glorious Body as a Spring in a Garden to quicken and to animate it Without this Body the breath of Life is naked and solitary except Christ above the Law of Nature be in the place of a Body to it which St. Paul signifieth 2 Corin. 5. 6 8. Where he speaketh of being at home in the Body and absent from the Lord and again of being absent from the Body and present with the Lord. By this time it appeareth with some clearness that the living Soul is either the Body of the First Man having received the breath of Life into it or at least his Person consisting of Both comprehending Both but with a Principal respect to the Body This only I will add that nothing is more frequent with most Authors and Languages than to express the Soul without the Body by a Shade or Shadow I have now finished the 2d Question What we are to understand by a Living Soul Before I pass from it let us make a stand here while we hearken to a Twofold Voice from Heaven sounded in the very Essence of a Living Soul 1st O Living Soul cease from thy self and from every thing round about thee 2. O Living Soul cast thy self into the Bosom of thy Saviour and cleave to Him 1. O Living Soul cease from thy self and from every thing round about thee Consider what thou art what an Emptyness what a Vanity what a Nothing Thy Body is of the Earth Earthly The Earth is a meer Darkness without any Form or Vertue except that which it receiveth by the impression of Heaven above it figuring itself upon it like the Images of the Sky in the Waters Thy Body is a piece of this Darkness All that which it hath of Being Beauty or Goodness is the Figure of the Heavenly Body of Christ cast from above upon it Thus thy Body in Paradise was a Shadow onely What then is the Breath of Life in this Body which is suitable to it and confined to it which hath this Body for its only Cloathing for its proper Image and Fulness which hath the Compleatness of its Subsistency and Operations in it which hath it for its Glass in which alone it beholdeth it self and all Objects in which alone it converseth with them This is a Shadow of a Shadow a Shadow in a Shadow the Dream of a Shadow The Body a Shadow the Life of this Body the Dream of a Shadow The Person then which consisteth of this Shadowy Life in a Shadowy Body can be but a Shadowy Person This is the Best of Man in his best Estate the Living Soul in its primitive purity and Glory Adam in Paradise a Shadow and no more So saith the Holy Ghost Rom. 5. The first man was a Figure a rude Type a confused Shadow of Him who was to come The Shadow lyeth upon the ground often moveth and appeareth before the Body But the Body is first is above it casteth the Shadow from it and governeth all its Motions If this were Man the golden Head and Sun in the Paradiscal world if all the Creatures in their Paradisical Births and Beauties went forth were renewed every moment from the Divine Presence resting in the Center of his Person and surrounding him as Beams go forth from the Sun what then were all the pieces of Nature in their first Strength Lustre and Sweetness but Shadows of this Shadow None had the Principle or Truth of its being in itself nor the Power of itself for a moment But now Man and the whole Creation are fallen by Sin the Figure in the Shadow is defaced the Impression and Image of the Eternal Glory in the Darkness of the Creature which gave it a Being a Beauty a Force are withdrawn The Frame of Nature is now a Pit of Darkness full of Confusion where Death reigneth in the midst of all sorts of deformity and weakness That Counsel of the Lord was seasonable in Paradise itself Es. 2. l. Cease from Man whose breath is in his Nostrils
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
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
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
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
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
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