First Unities or Springs in the Creature and so Spirits Yet they compared with God are Compounded and Divided Things and so fleshly St. Peter thus sums up under the name of Flesh all things that have a Principle of Division in them by which they are cut off from their own Beauty or Being by which they fade and fall away This is Flesh. 3. The Effusion or Pouring forth of the Spirit upon Flesh. This signifies Three things 1. The Spirit nakedly sustaining the Creature as its Immediate Root and Principle So the Spirit is a Spring pouring itself forth into Flesh as it 's Channel 2. The Spirit filling the Fleshly form with its Waters with its clear and fresh Streams the workings of its own Life 3. The Spirit planting its own Image upon each Created Image clothing and overflowing it with its own Appearances Thus St. Paul expresseth the Effusions the Overflowings of the Spirit Rom. 8. 6. To be Spiritually-minded is Life and Peace To be Spiritually-minded is to see Things as they are in their Spiritual State In this State all things have a Twofold Representation 1. Represen Life true Life without any mixture of Death Every Sight here is Life For all things are seen as growing up out of this Life-Principle the Spirit and Themselves as Powers of this Life displaying themselves and working in themselves 2. Represen Peace This is the Efficacy of that Life in the Harmony of an Inward Sweetness an Outward Beauty Thus this Spiritual State brings forth to Light again in itself the Inward Image of God in Nature For it shews all Fleshly Forms being yet Fleshly and yet Harmonious Images of the Supream Unity or Beauty But it brings forth this Natural Image with this Twofold Advantage 1. It formerly grew upon a Natural Principle and so was subject to Decay Now it is rooted in this Immortal Spirit and so becomes Immortal 2. It was in Nature an Image only Now it is an Image and a Glass It doth not only Represent the Glories of the Spirit by an empty Show but it sets them before you as Present in their proper substances and so shining thorow it Thus we have gone thorow the Second Part in this Head and seen the Spiritual State in itself 3. Part The Passage of Man into this Spiritual State When the Soul is taught by her Experience and her God that the Secret Delights of the Natural Image are for a Repast only not a Repose that in the strength of these as Eliah's food brought by Angels she is to travel thorow a Wilderness the Ruines of Nature with all its Principles and Images till she comes to the Mount of God Then she takes up a resolution to stay no longer in this Field of Swine with the Swine but to make hast to her Fathers House where every Servant hath Bread enough each Fleshly Form is fill'd with a Substantial Glory When God hath secretly instructed the Soul thus to resolve he as a tender-hearted Father meets her in the beginning of these resolutions falls upon her neck and kisseth her God shews himself in the Soul gives her sweet Testimonies of his Love carries her further off from the Outward Image carries her thorow the most retired Principles of Nature beyond and above them into this Spiritual Principle and State which is the Spirit of Christ where God and the Creature are United where the Spirit is as Water the Flesh as a flourishing Earth standing in that Water and out of it being continually fed continually made Fruitful and Beautiful by it As Jacob at the sight of the Waggons which came from Joseph so this Soul now revives she begins to be her self and to live again as after a long Trance or Death She looks about and sees her self at home she perceives her self in that Spirit in which she came forth from God in which she sees the Face of God again by which she is assured to be carryed on to the full and eternal enjoyment of her God and Father Now saith the Soul I have enough I have not only seen the Face of my God but He hath made me to see His Seeds also the Face of each Object as the Face of an Angel of God Now let me die that I entirely in my Body and whole Soul may be call'd home from my Banishment into this remote part of Things the Out-side of Nature Now let me die in Peace with this Spiritual Image in my Embraces this Sense of Ioys and Glories in my Heart Let me ever abide here O my God! never to go forth more from this Inner Chamber of the Great King into the Tumultuous street of my senses or sensual Reason O that this Spiritual State so full of ravishing Sights which like the Sheet full of all living Creatures before Peter is now let down out of Heaven into my Soul O! that it might never be drawn up again until it take me also up with it into Heaven I have finisht the Second State of our Change at our Conversion The Spiritual State in Christ I pass to the Third 3. The Divine State of things in God As Christ is the way to God So the Divine State is the Spiritual State made Perfect The Soul having been a while taught in the Bosom of Christ begins to grow up to a fuller sense of God in a more naked abstracted absolute and comprehensive manner Now she begins to put off all that ever she put on that God may be her only Clothing She begins to think it not enough to live and walk in the Spirit of God except she be One Spirit with Christ and God She perceives some dark glimpse of that which is meant 1 Cor. 13. 12. To Know as we are Known that is in patrid at home in God Comprehensively by being Comprehended in God and so Comprehending him again The Soul in the glimmering Light of this State brought forth in her Flesh as a small Candle in a dark Lanthorn or faint twinklings of a Star in a Cloud the Soul rudely descries a difference between making the Creature the Glass thorow which we see God and having the Godhead for the Glass placing itself next our Eye and discovering all the Creatures in itself this the Soul climbs up towards this makes her long for Heaven that she may enjoy this Beatifical Vision clearly unâ—as'd of Flesh. The imperfectest Beginnings and rudest Hints of this State in the Soul are to the other State as Honey and Wine to Milk They melt the Spirit of Man to a Transcendent Sweetness and heighten it to a Triumphant Strength As Jesus Christ saith of God out of the Psalmist Psal. 82. 16. He saith of those to whom the word of God came I have said Ye are Gods Joh. 10. 35. So saith the Soul to all things as she looks upon them in this Divine State Ye are God-like Appearances rising up out of God and abiding in him Saul cries 1 Sam. 28. 13. I see Gods ascending up out
Power of God making themselves first the Tree of the Curse on which all the Principles and Spirits of this world must hang Then the Tree of Life bringing forth the Fruits of Paradise and the Third Heaven Every care or cross in a Saint is this Cross of his Saviour sprouting in his Person The Lord Jesus lies hid in each Tear in each sigh of a Holy Spirit He is there as the Seed falling into the Earth and Dying By this Death he delivers himself from Death in thy Heart and breaks out on every side into Discoveries of his Grace and Glory Say of thy Trouble why art thou cast down O my Soul This is that Death of my Saviour in me by which he destroys the power of Death in my Spirit Sin and the Devil This is the way in which thou shalt praise him and see him swallowing up the Principle of Darkness in Darkness that he may bring forth himself in the Light of his Countenance to be the Light of thy Countenance I have been the larger in this Objection that so I may be the more clearly understood both in this and in the following Particulars Whatever mention is made of any Beauty or Grace in a Saint is not to be imputed to the Saint but to the Grace and Face of Jesus Christ in him so is the Excellency or Efficacy of our mourning the Discovery of our dying Saviour in it No Persons no Sorrows are Spiritual if they be not one Spirit with Jesus Christ. But thus much for the First limit in the measure of our Sorrows the casting out of Filth 2. Limit The casting down of the Flesh 1 Cor. 9. 27. I saith the Apostle keep under my body and bring it into Subjection The words are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I beat it black and blew and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I make it to serve The end and so the bound of Humiliation is First to bring down the Principle of the Natural Man into a Principle of Darkness that it may no more put forth itself in its own Light and Life Secondly it is to subdue that Principle to the Heavenly Principle that it may be quite slain in itself and revived in the Spiritual Man a Spiritual Principle Rom. 7. 24. St. Paul calls the Natural Man this body of Death or the body of this Death It is a body of Death in a Two-fold sense First Thy Outward Man is the shadow of Death cast upon thy Spirit It is the Valley of the Shadow of Death thorow which thou walkest here below Thou art in the Body sunk down to the borders of Death being already come within the shadow of it The whole face of things upon thy Person and round about thee is a dead Image and the Image of Death For he who hath the Power of Death hath entred into it with his Principality and taken away the true Life of it setting it up now as an Appearance in and of himself Secondly Thy Outward Man is a Body of Death because it is appointed to Death The Body by one Death hath brought it self out of the Divine Life into the Power of Darkness into a Hellish Root Now by another Death it must be broken off from this Root and brought back again into an Eternal Stock Our mourning then must last while we are in the Body of this Death till this be no more this Body but perish in Death The Devil cast us out of our Innocency and from the face of God he set up himself by setting up the Natural Man in it self We were turn'd out of Paradise when we came into this Body which is now the Beast's skin Again By the Ruine of the Natural Man we must raise the Building of God and cast down the Devil By putting off the Beast's skin by the dissolution of the Tabernacle of Beasts skins in Death we return into Paradise We are therefore to go mourning to our Graves 3. Limit The clearing of the face of God towards us Matth. 9. 15. Our Saviour tells the Jews That his Disciples could not fast while the Bridegroom was with them But the Bridegroom should be taken away And then they should fast in those days The Face of God in Jesus Christ is the Soul's Bridegroom Who that is the Bride of this Bridegroom can take joy in any thing when this Face is withdrawn and hid from him Shall not our Souls fast from the Freedom and Fulness of Natural Delights when our Spirits are made to fast from the Beauties and Delicacies of Jesus Christ This is the season of Mournning It is now beautiful to see a holy Soul Widow-like with a Vail upon the face of all her Glory and Content when her God is gone a great Journey from her What can she do but mourn when he is absent who was the Light of her Eyes the Anointing of her Face and Head What can set an end to her mournings till he return and wipe away all Tears from her Eyes by setting himself in the Eye of her Spirit Psal. 30. 7. Thou didst hide thy face and I was troubled saith David Will it not be Winter when your Sun is gone Can you expect a Spring till he turns toward your Earth again Is it not the Presence of the Lord Jesus that makes all things fresh and full of Beauty round about thee When he is withdrawn who was the Image of God in them do not all things droop and languish in thine Eyes Canst thou then chuse but languish with them If the Lord Jesus be the Root of thy Spirit and his Spirit the Sap of thy Comforts thou wilt grieve in his absence without arguments to persuade thee to it as naturally as Flowers nipt with Frosts hang the head Nay no arguments will be able to raise thee to any degree of chearfulness except he come and make himself the argument When thy Corruptions like Fogs from the Earth have gathered into Clouds which hide the Heaven of thy Lords Face from thee weep then till these Clouds be again dissolv'd by the Showers of thy Tears and so thy Jesus again discover himself over thee as a clear sky I have done with the Third particular in the Nature of Spiritual mourning which was the measure of it 4. The Mystery The Mystery of every thing is in God Ephes. 3. 9. the Mystery hid in God who created all Things by Jesus Christ. This is the Mystery of Things their ground their beginning and end in the Person of God and Christ. Neither can we be Spiritual in any thing any further than we see the Mystery of it and stand in the Mystery The Mystery of a holy Grief is Threefold 1. Mystery Conformity to Iesus Christ. 2. Mystery Complyance with the Will of God 3. Mystery The Compleating of our Persons 1. Mystery Conformity to Jesus Christ. We read Ephes. 1. 4 5. that we were chosen in Christ before the Foundation of the world We were predestinated to the Adoption of Children by
that in which the Heavenly Image lies hid as the Substance in the Shadow as the Child in the Mother as the Seed in the Field This is that which is not quite hid but is quite lost in us and to be recovered and re purchased by an Exchange of our Selves and all that we have As the Sea in the Creation expresseth the Darkness of the Creature So the Earth represents the Contrary Principle of Light and Beauty in the Creature which stands up out of that Darkness He hath founded it upon or above the Waters Psal. 24. 2. God hath given to the Earth a Principle of Strength and Eminency by which it appears out of and above the Darkness Therefore the Psalmist adds in the same place He that is God hath established it that is prepared adorned and fixed it he hath put a Beauty and Strength into it above the Floods that is all Dark confused and wandring Principles Then he goes on v. 3. Who shall go up into the Holy Hill that is out of the Waters of the Darkness of the Creature which now have over-flown all into this Hill this Habitable Earth which is above the Waters the Principle of Beauty in the Creature as it is in its Flower This is the Earth of which Christ speaks in a Parable Mark 4. 28. The Earth of its own accord sends forth the Fruit. The Field now is the Natural Image of God springing up out of the Principle of Light in the Creature and clothing that with itself as a Field doth the Earth This Field in its Flourishing State was the Garden of Eden or Paradise which Paradise though outwardly and in the letter it was a real Garden yet was it also and principally Inward and in the Spirit the Natural Image of God shining forth with a peculiar Glory upon the Beauty of the Creature It is very observable that Adam when he fell was cast out of the Garden out of Paradise only Gen. 3. 23. Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the Garden of Eden But Cain when he had killed his Brother was cast off from the Face of the Earth For so he complains Gen. 4. 14. Behold I am driven away from the Face of the Earth and from thy Face shall I be hid There is the Earth the Face of the Earth the Field which is the Natural Image of God the Garden which is the Glory of the Field the Face of God in this Image Man fallen from God in Adam is banished out of the Garden He hath lost the pleasant and glorious Appearances of God in him by the Natural Image Yet he hath the Field left in him still the Natural Image itself which though it be beset over-grown shut up with Bryers and Thorns from the Earth corruptions cares miseries from the Image of the Creature yet it affords us some low weak Strength and Sweetness for man to feed upon So you shall read Gen. 3. 18. Bryars and Thorns shall it bring forth to thee that is the Ground and thou shalt eat the Herb of the Field Though thou O man seest no more the Trees of the Garden the high Appearances of God in the Glory of his Image yet thou-shalt have the Herb of the Field still left thee Man like Cain falling into the depth of Sin murthering in Abel the Image of God remaining in him hath a Darkness brought upon him which takes away from him all the Discoveries of God with every thing of the Beauty and Sweetness of his Image He also hath withdrawn from him all the Comfort Chearfulness Vigour and Life of the Light-Principle in the Creature Though that Light-Principle remains still in him yet he is restless in it and as a Stranger to it rejected by it Thus he is driven from the Face of the Earth he is hid from the Face of God he is a Vagabond in the Earth We see now what the Field is 2. The Treasure This is the Second Thing in the Parable the Treasure hid in the Field This is Jesus Christ Eph. 3. 8. Paul saith of himself that he was to make known among the Gentiles the Unsearchable Riches of Christ. Jesus Christ is the Treasure of Unsearchable Riches The Lord is the Seed in which all the Vertue or Powers of God or the Creature lie wrapt up He is the Root which bears the variety of all Divine and Humane Excellencies Coloss. 1. 29. It pleased 〈…〉 that all Fulness should dwell in him namely in Jesus Christ as in its Principle Coloss. 2. 9. All the Fulness of the God-Head dwelleth in him Bodily that is fully flourishingly shot forth into all its distinct Branches and Fruits This Jesus the Treasure of Heaven lies hid in the Natural Image of God in Man as the Seed lies hid in the Field or as the Plant lies hid in its Seed or as the New Creation lies hid in the First Creation So St. Paul tells us the Mystery of the Gospel was hid from the Beginning of the World Ephes. 3. 9. Jesus Christ is called the Seed of the Woman in this sense As Jesus Christ is to God his Image in which he beholds himself So the Woman was to be to the Man who was made in the Image of God She was to be as that Image of God drawn forth from Man set continually before the Man that he might bring forth Children in that Image Gen. 2. 23. It is said Adam called her name Woman because she was taken out of Man Woman in Hebrew is Ishah Which is the Name of God and the Name of Man joyned in one to signify that the Woman was as the Image of God in Nature sprung forth from Man and united to him Jesus Christ is the Seed of this Woman the Natural Image of God in the Creature This is the Treasure in this Field as in a Womb. 3. Concealment The Third Thing is the Concealment of this Treasure There is a great deal of difference between the State of Innocency in Nature and the State of Grace in Christ. The First Adam had only the Natural Image of God appearing and flourishing in him But a Saint under the Gospel hath the Lord Jesus revealed in him who is the Super-natural and Heavenly Image which lay undiscovered in the Perfection of Nature and did not as yet put forth itself thorow that Inferiour Appearance of God in the first Creation The Scripture tells us of Two Paradises an Earthly and a Heavenly Paradise The Glory of Nature before the Fall was but an Earthly Paradise Gen. 2. 9. God planted a Garden Eastward in Eden And out of the Ground the Lord God made to grow every Plant that was pleasant c. Here you have a Paradise made to grow up out of the Earth The Glory of the Gospel in Christ to which a Saint is to be advanced is a Heavenly Paradise 2 Cor. 12. 2. I knew a man saith St. Paul caught up into the Third Heavens v. 4. caught up into Paradise
Here you have a Paradise in or above the Third Heavens We read that the most Holy place was not yet opened while the First Tabernacle stood Heb. 9. 8. The way into the most Holy place was not yet made manifest while the First Tabernacle was standing So the Heavenly Paradise was not discovered while the Earthly Paradise flourished in the Creature but there was a vail between them Jesus Christ lay hid in the Image of the Earthly man Thus the Treasure was hid in the Field before the Fall of Man But by the Fall the Field itself was lost The Natural Image of God withdrew and disappeared in all the Glory of it when man sinned So far as it remained it remains captived imprisoned by the Devil under Darkness Lusts monstrous Images Rom. 1. 23. Sinful men are said to change the Glory of the incorruptible God in the Natural Image into the Image of a Corruptible Man of four-footed Beasts c. The Fall of Man brought in this Corruptible Image in which Man and all the Creatures now are which detains the Image of God as a Prisoner in itself Thus now the Treasure is doubly hid in the Field and in the Bryars which over-grow and hide the Field itself 4. Discovery Which when a man finds saith Christ. When Jesus Christ was to come in the Flesh he sent John Baptist to prepare his way This Preparation was to be made by a restoring of the Divine Image in Nature which is the First Restitution of all things that was to be made by Eliah and this Eliah was John the Baptist. He was also to point out Jesus Christ to shew how he was figured out in that First Image and now ready to break forth thorow this Image So when the Season comes in the Soul Jesus Christ the Eternal Image puts up the Natural Image of God in the Soul and puts forth himself thorow it as the Seed of Corn first comes up in the tender Blade like a low Herb an ordinary Grass before it comes forth into the shape of Corn. So the Redemption and the Discovery begins in the Soul which makes way for the Joy of the Kingdom of God 5. The Purchase He hides it and goes with joy and sells all that he hath and buys this Field Here the Purchase of the Field for the Treasures sake is exprest About this the Soul goes with Joy But what means this Second Concealment This Hiding of the Treasure again after that it is once found This Hiding of it is the laying it up in a Mans Heart The hiding of it in a Mans inward Spirit and the hiding of a mans self in it according to his Inward Spirit A man now draws this Treasure of Glory out of that Fleshly Darkness under which it lay into his inward Principle and withdraws his inward Principle out of the Flesh and the Lusts of it into this Treasure Then a Man for the love of this Treasure and in the Strength of it sells all that he hath casts away his Corruptions the Creatures his own Being as they are his own as he hath them in himself that he may have his own Being and all the Creatures in the Natural Image of God and that Image in Jesus Christ And this the Soul doth with Joy For this is that Enlargement that Liberty which is the Kingdom of God and the Joy thereof in the Soul Now the First Image of God is brought out of its Prison now Jesus Christ is brought out of his hidden streightned State to Freedom in the Soul Now those Discoveries of God which lay shut up in Jesus Christ as in a Seed thrust forth themselves into Liberty in the Spirit of Man The Spirit of a man is brought forth from the darkness narrowness of Lusts and the Flesh into the Liberty of these divine Appearances into the Spirit of the Lord Jesus where the Spirit of man is in a Depth Height Breadth Length without any Limit or Confinement This Liberty is the Divine Joy of the Spirit I will conclude this Particular with that place of Scripture Psal. 96. 12. Let the Field be joyful and all that is therein then shall all the Trees of the Wood Rejoyce This Psalm is a Prophesy of the State and times of the Gospel as appears by the First Verse which calls this Psalm a New Song This is the Name by which the Gospel is frequently expressed in Scripture The Sense then of this Psalm is chiefly Spiritual In the Verse before this Twelfth Verse we read thus v. 11. Let the Heavens rejoyce and let the Earth be glad let the Sea râ—ar with the fulness thereof The Natural Image of God as it is above the Creature and the Head of the Creature is the Heavens The Earth the Light-part the Sea the Dark part which both make One Creature as Earth and Sea make One Globe Then follows v. 12. Let the Field rejoyce The Field is the Image of God as it grows up out of the Creature and is the Life of that While a man is in a Sinful State the Field languisheth the Vertues and Excellencies of God are withdrawn and hid in it But when a man is New-born then this Field rejoyceth and breaks forth into Singing The Discoveries of God grow up high full and thick as Trees of the Wood and Sing together in the Soul which is now at Liberty and in Joy in the midst of thâ—m as in her Paradise restored Application Use. 1. Information That which hath been spoken on this Particular instructs us in Three Things of very great Concernment 1. Instr. What Man is 2. Instr. What a Sinner 3. Instr. What a Saint 1. Instr. What Man is That which makes a Man is the Natural Image of God First is that which is Natural then that which is Spiritual 1 Corin. 15. 46. Three Things go to make up the Being of a Man To be a Man is 1. To be the Image of another 2. To be the Image of God 3. To be the Image only and no more 1. To be a Man is to be the Image of another Gen. 1. 26. God made Man in an Image in a Likeness He that is a Man is to have no Principle Form Activity Appearance of his own But in all he is to answer the Principle Forms Actings Appearances of another in that manner of which Solomon speaks Prov. 27. 19. As in the Water Face answers Face so is the Heart of Man Man in this Creation is the Face in the Water which answers to another Face above the Water All Creatures are Representations Man the chief Creature is the chief Representation The Philosopher called Man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Creature made for Imitation to hold forth something before and above himself St. Paul calls the First Adam a Figure or Type Rom. 5. 14. St. Paul in one place tells the Corinthians that he transferred things to himself and to Apollos as in a Type or Figure for their sakes Man is to
with two of their Wings as uncapable of the Brightness of this Blessed Appearance We generally profess to abhor the Principles of Sadducees and Socinians O that we did not most of us fall in too far with them in the real and practical part The Sadducees deny both Angel and Spirit They allow nothing besides that which their Senses can take hold of and assure to them Let us awaken our own Souls and examine our selves Are we not very apt to reject and condemn Jesus Christ Himself if He come in any Appearance of Beauty and Glory which beareth not the Figure of which hath not some proportion to the Forms of Flesh and Sense The Socinians acknowledge both Angels Created Spirits and the Eternal uncreated Spirit above them But they admit nothing more of these than their reason can give reception to They ascend no higher to these than the Wing of their Natural understanding can carry them They make reason the only Rule and Judge of Divine Things The men of Sodom went about groping for the door at which the Angels went in and could not find it because they were blind Is not this too frequently our case How many How often do we all go about in our searches groping for that Gate of Heaven by which the Angels all Divine Appearances go in and out at the Heavenly Person of our Saviour but find him not because we seek him with those natural Eyes of our own sense and understanding which are perfectly blind to his Beauties Divines teach us that one way of knowing God is by Negations when we run over each particular good in every Creature when we lay all the good of the whole Creation together in one heap and then say nothing of this is God all this is nothing of God as he is in himself his Nature and Person is infinitely beyond and above all that is here We were advanced to a good degree in the Knowledge of our Lord Jesus if we were arrived at this Negative way of knowing him if when we were gone as fâ—r risen as high as our outward senses our inward faculties could enlarge and lift up themselves we then said of all this is not Jesus Christ. No he is made higher than all the Heavens of sense than all the Heavens of Reason and of Angels When we are thus stopt and bounded let us turn to Prayer and wait for the opening of a New Eye in us David cryeth out Psal. 24. 7. Lift up your heads O ye gates and be ye lift up ye everlasting Doors and the King of Glory shall come in So do you cry Thou everlasting Door thou Eye of Eternity thou Spiritual and Divine Eye open thy self in me that by thee the King of Glory may come in to me and fill all my Soul and Senses themselves with His Train So shall I see my King in His Beauty 2. Spiritual things are discerned in a Spiritual Light 1 Job 1. 7. 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 As He is in the Light He is God the Father as is manifest by that part of the last clause in the verse Jesus Christ His Son That term As is Emphatical and Distinguishing There is a Twofold Light One in which the Creature is Another in which God is One God maketh the Other God is The Creature is in a Derived and Changeable Light like the Earth God is like the Sun in His own Light inseparable from Himself St Paul distinguisheth between these two Lights God who commanded the Light to shine out of darkeness hath shined in our hearts the Light of the Knowledge of the glory of God in the face or Person of Jesus Christ 2 Cor. 4. 6. Behold here One Light which is commanded by the Creating Word of God out of Darkness which is called up out of the Possibility and Principles of the Creature Another Light which is the immediate Shine of the God-Head itself in the Face of Christ. As the Sunshine is called the Flower of Light because it springeth and â—lourisheth in the Body and Face of the Sun itself so is this called here a Light of Glory in the Face of Christ. God Himself is called the Father of Lights Jam. 1. 17 that is the Eternal Sun the Sun of Spirits the Supreme Sun of all Beings Spiritual and Corporeal He is the Fountain of Light the first and purest Light His Essence is a Light of Glory This Essential Light of his own unchangeable Glories is the Heaven in which he is St. Paul saith of him he only hath immortality dwelling in the Light which no man can approach unto whom no man hath seen nor can see 1 Tim. 6. 16. The Light of God is so pure that it is invisible to every Creature It shineth with such a Strength and Fulness of Glory that no mortal Eye the natural sight of no Man or Angel can approach it or pierce into it In this God himself dwelleth as in a Palace composed of the Beams and Brightnesses of his own God-Head spread round about him and encompassing him on every side In this Palace he resideth in the Center and midst of every Spirit every Being hid from the search of all In this high and strong Tower of Divine Light Jesus Christ dwelleth together with the Father and is hid there after the same manner Colos. 3. 3. Our Life is hid with Christ in God He is hid in God by the excess of Light in an Abyss of Glory But how then shall we see Jesus Christ in his own Light if that Light of his Person and Beauties by its unsearchable Riches and Incomprehensible unapproachable Glories hide him from us St. Peter answereth this objection 1 Pet. 2. 9. Ye are a chosen Generation a Royal Priesthood a peculiar people that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called us out of Darkness into his marvellous Light His Light in Greek is properly his own Light Every Light in the things of sense is from the Sun But that is the Suns own Light which is inherent in the Body of the Sun which floweth immediately from it in which the Sun himself is seen In like manner that is Gods own Light by way of eminency peculiarity and distinction from every other Light which is the very shine and sparkling of the God-Head in itself upon itself in which it seeth and rejoyceth in it self in which alone it is seen which is inseparable from the Divine essence and Persons as the Sun-shine is from the glorious body of the Sun This is a Marvellous Light This Light itself is a Divine Wonder It is above the reach of every Humane or Angelical understanding It is a Light which openeth a Divine World of Glorious Wonders every thing is then only seen right and in its true state when it is seen in this Light Every thing seen in
Power in the Beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning thou hast the dew of thy Birth The words lie thus in Hebrew Thy willing People in the Day of thy Power oâ— thy Armies in the Beautiâ—s or Excellencies or Majesties of holiness or in thy holy Pure Beauties from the Womb of the Morning to thee the Dew of thy Youth You have here the Lord Jesus in Glory in his Kingdom in the Day of his Power with his Armies of Angels round about him in the Beauties of holiness in his Frâ—shest Beauties in the heighth of Excellency and Majesty in the Glory of his God-Head filling shining thorow overspreading his humane Nature You have him here in the Brightness Sweetness and Newness of his Eternal Sonship as he cometh â—orth Immediately from the Womb of the Morning the Bosom of the Father who is the Morning the Day-Spring of the God-Head Thus is Jesus Christ with the Dew of his Youth upon him as Fair as Fresh as unfading as a New-blown Rose in the Morning while the Pearly Dew lieth yet upon it Jesus Christ is now as a Bridegroom upon his Coronation Day or as a King upon his Marriage-Day Now his People are a Princely People all Fellow-Kings together with him Now the holy Soul is That Princess and Daughter which is his Queen all in Beaten Gold at his right hand The Willing People are Princes heavenly Spirits in Glory This is the Answer to the Second Question 3. Qu. What are the Chariots of the Princely People Answ. 1. The Chariots are the holy Angels Psal. 68. 17. The Chariots of the Lord are Thousands Ten Thousands of Angels God is in the midst of them as on Sinai in the holy Place You may observe in your Bibles that word Place not to be printed with the same letter as holy to signifie that it is not in the Hebrew but added by the Translatours The Holy may be here any of these or rather all of these in their Subordinations the Sanctuary or Temple the Holy Placâ— the Figure the Lord Iesus the Substance Life to this Figure the holy One the Saints the holy Ones the members of Christ Christ Mystical the Spiritual Temples Heaven the Everlasting Glory of the God-Head in which Christ resideth Sinai was a Type to all these These in their several degrees are Sinai heightned to Sion to the Perfection of the Divine Presence in the Beauty of Holiness and Love You may see too that As before Sinai is added The Hebrew lieth thus Sinai in the holy The Thousands and Ten thousands of holy Angels make all One Chariot in which God rideth Each Angel is also a Distinct Chariot The Chariots of the Lord are according to the number of the Angels But Each Angel comprehendeth in himself the whole Millions of Angels They are distinguished in their Essential Forms but undivided As the same Colours and Lines varied make all Beauties So all Angelical Forms in distinct Relations make up the Essence and Glory of Every Particular Angel God with the Thousands of his Chariots rested on Mount Sinai Sinai or Sion rather is in the Lord Jesus in the Assemblies of the Saints in the Person and Spirit of every Saint in Heaven in the Spirit thorow all the Heavens and the Earth in the Lord Jesus and every Saint The Chariot of Solomon is the Chariot of his Queen also The Bridegroom and the Bride ride together in the same Chariot Jesus Christ and his Spouse Jesus Christ and his Brethren his Fellow Kings Behold then the Chariots of the Princely People of the Immortal Kings of Saints in Glory in the Glory of Christ and of the Spirit whether in the Body or out of the Body They are the Chariots of God The Thousands andâ— Ten Thousands of the holy Angels These are in a double sense the Chariots of these Divine Princes 1. These Princes ride in them 2. God rideth upon them in these Princes as on Sinai as on Sion as in Heaven Answ. 2. The Chariot is the Divine Presence in the Light and Evidence of its own Appearance with all its Train of Glories and Angels as in Heaven with the Universal Form of things comprehended in it enlivened and enlightned by it as in the Glorious Person of Christ at the last day This Divine Presence descending and ascending resting upon and shining forth in the Prophets and Holy men of old in their Visions is described Mystically Ezek. c. 1. and called by the Jews The Chariot There are Wheels Living High Dreadful Glorious Shining as a Pretious Stone full of Eyes that is of Angels of heavenly Spirits I humbly offer it to be considered whether these Wheels be not the Elements these Globes of the Visible Earth and Heavens made New made Spiritual filled with Angelical Lives cloathed with Angelical Forms and Glories in the Kingdom of the Spirit and Mystical Person of Christ. Then the Horses which draw these Wheels are the Living Creatures full of Eyes If the Wheels may be understood to be the visible Part these Living Creatures may present the Invisible Part of the Creation in its Renovation by a Spiritual Glory flowing forth from the Fountain of The God-Head in the Glorified Person of the Lord Jesus These Wheels and Horses together may perhaps not improbably be thought to be the New Earth Above the Wheels and the Living Creatures is the Chariot itself a Firmament If I may pursue my former Apprehension with Submission to the Spirit of Truth in every Spirit I shall call this the New Heaven The heavenly Image the God-Head unvailing itself appearing in a New Glory This is the Firmament the Heaven born up and carried along by the Innumerable Company of Angels while Jesus Christ sitteth in it as in his Chariot Above this Firmament is the Similitude of a Man as Fire from his Loins upward and as Fire from his Loins downward This is our Blessed Saviour in the Union of his Divine and Humane Nature The Glory of the Divinity of the Eternal Spirit cloatheth both with the same Similitude of Fire which shineth with the Sweetest Light burneth with the greatest force of Love transformeth all things with an Almighty Power into One Pure Immortal Divine Flame with itself The Lord Jesus himself speaketh of his own Coming and Appearance in his Kingdom after this manner The Son of Man shall come in his own Glory in the Glory of his Father and in the Glory of all His holy Angels Our Saviour seemeth to have had the same Vision in the Eye of his Spirit which Ezekiel had The Jews distinguish the Angels into Angels of the Throne nearer to the Divine Majesty Angels of Service at a greater Distance The Glory of the holy Angels make the New Earth the Horses and the Wheels in the Chariot of the great King The Wheels the Visible Part of the Creation the Wheels are made of Angelical Glory But they are the Angels of Service in a New Spiritual Glory The Invisible Things of
to us in that colour In like manner there is a native moisture upon our Palates and Tongues by which we tast things If this moisture have any tast of its own every thing tasteth of it Blessed art thou who livest the life of a Saint Thou livest the life of Heaven upon Earth The Spirit is the Christal in the Eye of thy Soul thorow which thou seest all things This Christal hath a heavenly colour of Glory ever upon it Thou then feest all things in this ravishing colour in a Heavenly Glory The Spirit is the Divine moisture and water of life upon the pallate of thy Soul by which thou tastest all things This water of the Spirit hath ever the heavenly rellish the unexpressible sweetness of the Divine Nature of the Divine Love of the pleasures of the God-Head Thus thou savourest all things This Love and Sweetness thou rellishest in every thing 3. The two companions of these two effects of a Spiritual Principle are 〈◊〉 and Peace To be spiritually minded is Life and Peace 1. Life The Spirit and Life are inseparable one from another The words that I speak they are Spirit and they are life saith Jesus Christ Joh. 6. The Spirit is the Fountain of Life For he is called the Spirit of Life Rom. 8. The Quickening Spirit 1 Cor. 15. The Power of an Endless Life Heb. Let us ever pray that we may ever live in the Spirit For now we live if we stand fast in our spiritual Principle The Life which we now live is first pure It hath nothing of any Mixture of any Defilement or of any shadow of Death Secondly It is perfect It hath all the Sweetnesses Virtues Joys and Beauties of Life in it Thirdly It is perpetual It never ceaseth It never endeth but springeth to Eternity Fourthly It is a powerful Life It maintains itself against all the Powers of Darkness and Death It maintains itself in the midst of them as a sweet Light of Glory shining in a dark place and triumphing over the darkness In a word this Life is the purest sweetest and most lasting Liâ—e For it flows immediately and springs up continually from the Fountain of Life itself Nay which is far sweeter and more glorious it is Life as it lies in the Fountain of Life It is Life not only from the Spirit but in the Spirit So St. Paul speaks in this Chapter They that are in the Spirit and to the Galatians if ye live in the Spirit 2. The other Companion of a Spiritual Sense is Peace Peace in the Language of the Scripture signifieth a perfection of Happiness It is distinguished into 1. Peace above with God 2. Peace within in your own Consciences and Spirits 3. Peace with all Creatures round about you O how true is it that they keep the Feast continually a Royal and Divine Feast in white Garments who live in a spiritual sense of things Every day to them is a Holy Day a Festival Day All things are festival round about them All things are in a Covenant of Peace with them in a Covenant of Grace and Divine Peace All appearances of things in every State shine upon them from the glorified Person of Christ as heavenly Beauties smiling upon them All Providences Changings and Motions of things are a Heavenly Musick springing up to them and sounding round about them in the Unity of the Spirit All Impressions made upon their Souls from every passage of Providence or Change is a most delicious sweetness upon their Spirits an unexpressible Taste of Heaven and Eternity But the manner of St. Paul's Expression is very observable and hath a great force in it To be spiritually minded is Life and Peace The sense and favour of the Spirit is itself Life and Peace universally absolutely in the abstract in perfection without any Confinement or Allay The spiritual sense of a Saint is the pure and compleat Essence of Life and Peace in its highest Activity How true is it that a good man is satisfied from himself How Holy how High how Happy how Heavenly a thing is it to be a Saint to be spiritual to live as a Saint to live spiritually Thou now comprehendest all things in an uncorruptible Beauty Love and Joy in thy self as in Heaven For all things are to thee thine own spiritual Principle thine own spiritual Sence springing up and diffusing itself into all blessed Forms of Glory Delight and Immortality within thee Jesus Christ tells his Spouse in the Canticles That she is a Fountain of Living Waters flowing from Lebanon That she is a Fountain of Gardens That all her Plants are Plants of Paradise O blessed Spirit who livest in the Eternal Spirit as thy Principle by which thou art inwardly acted The Principle of thine is the Fountain the ground of Paradise within thee All forms of things are Paradisical Plants at once pleasant to the Eye good for Food desirable to fill thee with all the most glorious Treasures of the Divine Wisdom Thy Spiritual Principle is the Divine Ground out of which all these Plants of Paradise grow up within thee as thine own Plants Thy spiritual Sense and Savour is a perpetual Feeding and Feasting upon the Fruits of Paradise which these Plants continually bring forth 2. The Fleshly or Carnal Sense is also illustrated by three Circumstances 1. The Principle 2. The Effect of that Principle 3. The Companion of that Effect 1. The Principle of a Carnal Sense is the Flesh. It is expresly called the Mind or Sense of the Flesh. The Flesh the Natural Man the Earthly Man the Spirit of man the natural Soul in the Language of the Gospel and most of them in this present Chapter signifie the same Principle of a carnal Sense of Sin and of Death Happy is he that is not here deceived Every Earthly Heavenly Humane Angelical Spirit or Principle however enlightened sanctified heightened by the work of the Spirit below that Spirit which 〈◊〉 immediately born of the eternal Spirit which is one Spirit with it and liveâ—â— in it is Flesh and this Principle of a fleshly Mind or Sense or of Death 2. The Effect of this Fleshly Principle is Twofold 1. A Carnal 〈◊〉 Fleshly Sense 2. A Fleshly or Carnal Savour How unpleasant is thy Life who livest in this Principle for the sight of thine Eyes The Light of 〈◊〉 World which alone thou seest is Darkness and the shadow of Death Foâ— the Prince of this World is the Prince of Darkness Thou measurest Heavenly and Spiritual things by Earthly and Carnal When Jesus Christ in the Gospel was reproved by Peter for the mentioâ— of his Sufferings and Death the Lord replies to Peter Get thee behind 〈◊〉 Satan For thâ—u savourest not the things of God but the things of man Theâ—â— are Three things remarkable in these words 1. There is a Humane 〈◊〉 there is a Divine Sense of the same things and these two are contraâ—â—â— one to another 2. Those things that are the things
all things new in the newness of its own Heavenly and Immortal Beauties The second Scripture is 2 Corin. 5. 6 8. Therefore we are alwaies confident knowing that whilst we are at home in the Body we are absent from the Lord. We are confident I say being willing rather to be absent from the Body and present with the Lord. Of what Body speaketh the Apostle here What Body is this which thus divideth between the Spiritual Bride and her Heavenly Bridegroom that a Saint cannot be present with both at once If he be at home in this Body he must be absent from Christ and a banished Person from his Bosom If he will be present with Christ and enjoy him he must cast off this Body and be absent from it Is this the true and proper Body of a Saint How can that be The true Body of a Saint is as much himself as his Soul is himself He can be no more absent from his own Body than he can be absent from his Soul or from himself We read in the same Chapter 1 Corin. 6. Towards the latter end that the Body of a Saint is the Member of Christ and the Temple of the Holy Ghost When St. Paul speaketh of a Body from which we must be absent that we may be present with the Lord Jesus sure he cannot mean this Body which is a Member of Christ which is united to Christ and implanted into him Can I be absent from Christ by being present with that Body which is a Member of him a Member in him Can I be absent from this Body which is a Member of Christ while I am present with Christ O Believers be not weary of living in the Body only know your true selves and your own Bodies while you live in these you live in Heaven and are ever with the Lord Jesus For your-Bodies are his Members and so the fulness of him who filleth all in all O Believers fear not to die you part not with any thing that is truly your selves truly your own You part not with your Bodies nor with any thing in which they have any true propriety or which hath any dear Relation to them For your Bodies are the Members of Christ Baptized into one Body with him by that one and the same Spirit which gathereth up all things together unto him and into one in him Thy Body O Believer is the Temple of the Holy Ghost When the Spirit of God and of Glory rests upon this Temple he never removeth off from it any more When he enters into this Temple of his he never goeth forth nor leaves it empty This is his true Temple upon the true Mount Sion the Soul and Body of a Saint which he hath chosen for a resting place for ever O Saints have patience and peace in life For by being at home in your Bodies you are in the Temple of the Holy Ghost which he fills with his Glory where every thing utters Glory O Saints have pleasure in Death For Death cannot divide your Bodies from you nor the Holy Ghost from your Bodies which are his Temple Can you ever be absent from Christ while you are present in your own proper Bodies which are the Temples of the Spirit of Christ Can you by being present with the Lord Jesus be absent from these Bodies of yours which are the Temple of the Holy Spirit which is the highest band of Unity the dwelling place of that Spirit which is one with the Lord Jesus No certainly this can never be Thy Body O Saint is ever in life and in death filled and overshadowed by the Holy Ghost When it seems to fall into the Dust and Darkness of Death according to the Carnal sense then doth thy Heavenly Dove give to it according to the Spiritual sense its own silver Wings and golden Feathers What then is this Body of which St. Paul speaks to the Corinthians which gives him a triumphant confidence in the face of Death while it is his greatest desire to be absent from this Body that he may be present with Christ Is it not that Body of Death against which he cryeth out Rom. 8. l. O wretched Man that I am who shall deliver me from this Body of Death This he calls also a little before in the same Chapter that flesh of his that self in which there dwels no good This is the Fleshly Principle and Sense the Spirit and Image of this world which is sprung up out of the Fall which lies as a disguise and a cloud upon the true Person the Soul and Body of a Saint What is not this the Body which is the partition-wall between these two Spiritual Lovers Christ and a Saint while he lives here which being cast off in Death they find themselves in the pure beautiful and naked Arms of each other What is Death now to a Saint Is it not the power of the Divine life and love in a Saint breaking forth and as it breaks forth tearing off and burning up this disguise of Flesh Is it not the power of a Divine Light and Glory breaking forth and as it breaks forth scattering and blotting out the cloud of this Body of Death for ever How beautifully does the Body of a Believer shine forth now in Death as a naked Member of our glorified Jesus cleansed from all its dust and defilement when it is taken up entirely out of the fleshly Principle and Sense How beautiful and glorious a Temple on every side of it doth the Body of a Believer now appear in Death when it cometh entirely out of its Cloud by being entirely taken out of the Spirit and Image of this world The true Body of a Saint lieth while this life lasteth as in a Dungeon or Grave It stands here like the glorious Tabernacle composed of the most precious materials Silks Silver Gold the choicest Woods wrought with all the richest colours and the most curious Figures in Needle-work and Carvings of a Divine Workmanship which stood in a vast and howling Wilderness covered with a Tent of Badgers Skins O! how pure how precious how beautiful how divine a thing is the Body of a Saint in Death when it casts off this Body of Death the corrupt the carnal Image and Principle entirely and is seen now no more for ever in any appearance besides that alone of a naked Member in the most lovely shining Body of the Lord Jesus With what sweetness and beauty doth it break forth now as a most amiable and admirable Tabernacle of the Eternal Spirit when by death it casts off the Tent of Badgers Skins with all the darkning and deforming impressions of Dust and heat and at once passeth out of the Wilderness of this worldly Spirit and form of things unto the good Land of rest and promise by passing in a dry and flowry path thorow the River Jordan that sweet and blessed bound of Death between the dreadful desart and heavenly Canaan Give me leave here to
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