acid Liquor makes it ake and shoot and prick and rave like an angry Sore beyond imagination the horrors of that grim Night which the terrible Day of the Lord is said to have Joel 2.3 But when the Light appeareth and breaks out in this darkness and runs through and over spreads this dark yet burning Fire How pleasant and comfortable it looks Things grow green again and look as the Prophets say like the Garden of the Lord Before them the Land is like the Garden of Eden and behind a Flame burneth and makes all as it were a desolate Wilderness where the Heat and the Cold kills burneth and parcheth all up For the Light bringing with it the clear and lovely Sunshine doth not only mitigate and allay this fierce Ardor but turns the Ardor of Heat and the great sharpness of Cold into a Refrigery and makes the Soul a pleasant and delightful Paradise Ho ho come forth saith the Lord Zach. 2.6 7. flee from the Land of the North Zion deliver thy self out of such Northerly state and walk in the light of God. Fire exasperated and deprived of all Light is Eternal Death or Hell or the wrath of God or god burning in the Soul And the same Fire fully satiated tinctured and impregnated with Light is the Eternal Life Rest and Paradise of the Soul and God appeased pleased become pleasant delightful gentle and merciful in us and the love of God itself shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit of Christ which he gives to us Rom. 5.5 Note well here what Matthew saith 3.17 that it is in Jesus Christ who is the Light of the world that God the Father who is a Fire is well pleased and that this was said of him after he was baptized at the same time that he was coming out of the water ver 16. Now because Man in this world is not altogether bereft of the Light of Life all Men being enlightned not only with the outward but the inward Light Christ John 1.9 And therefore his Life is not a Fire without some Light he hath some good of his Life and enjoys whil'st he lives here the pleasures this world affords without any sensible torment or anxiety Except the Father who draws always all Men to himself awakes the Worm and stir up and acuate the Fire which was kept within its bound both by the Light of this world and by the Sensualities which the Soul is diverted and which the Worm of the Soul is always lull'd asleep with For then when the Worm awakes and the Fire is moved the Soul begins to feel the gnawing Syndereses that bite rack and torture it then Man is in a sad pickle his Light goes out he despairs he cries Vror Absumor he looks up and behold trouble down and on every side and behold nothing but pain anguish darkness and horror Then his Moon is eclipsed his Sun saith Christ is darkned and the Powers of Heaven or of the Kingdom of God or of Heaven within him are shaken Matth. 24.28 as it hapned to Christ in his Agony when he sweated Blood for it Luke 22.44 and was sorrowful to death and prayed very fervently that this Cup this very death and not the death of his flesh for that 's not worth praying for and it was unavoidable might pass from him if possible Matth. 26.38 39. And then the sorrows of Hell compass him Psal 18.5 and then he bears with Christ the wrath of God seels that great tribulation foretold Matth. 24.21 22. which none was ever ever like to and note well never shall be and which no man in the flesh could ever go thorow with except the days of this same Tribulation were shortned by the God of Jesu-run who comes riding in the clouds of the heaven in his help and in the great might of his excellency on the sky For the eternal God is his refuge and underneath are the everlasting arms to thrust out the enemies that spoil'd him from before him Deut. 33.26 27. How sweet is the Name Jesus to a Soul that would come out of its Gall of bitterness Acts 8.23 In a word he dies the death Gen. 2.17 and bears the wrath of God for all men must be judged Hebr. 9.27 or undergo the trial of 1 Pet. 4.12 and these be the days saith Luke 21.22 of vengeance or of wrath wherein as saith Isaiah 66.16 the Lord shall plead by Fire and by his Sword with all flesh in this or the other world for falling away from him It 's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of that God Hebr. 10.31 who is a Fire living and devouring for ever Isa 33.14 Hebr. 12 29. Secondly It is all Men in the world whom God pleads with by Fire and by his Sword for every Man saith Mark 9.49 shall be salted with Fire and Christ baptizeth as well with Fire saith the Baptist Matth. 3.11 as with the holy Spirit those that are to be saved Now the word every one includes all and excepts none therefore they that are saved must all go through this Fire this being the Cherubim who keeps with a flaming Sword the way of the Tree of Life and of Paradise itself so that there is no coming at them but only through it that it through his flaming Sword at least if the Word of God Gen. 3. 23 24. is not a meer History and was not written in vain Matth. 24.25 but for Instruction 2 Tim. 3.16 Besides this Peter speaking of this trial by Fire saith 1 Pet. 4.12 that it is no strange thing happing to the Believers or those he calls Beloved and adds in the 13th verse that they who undergo it partake of Christ's sufferings which is another proof of the necessity of their undergoing it First he saith 't is no strange thing therefore it is an usual and known thing to the Faithful Secondly it did begin at the Apostles and must begin at the House of God ver 17. And Thirdly they partake by undergoing of it of Christ's sufferings and death which is as much as to say that they must undergo it because it is a chief part of the sufferings of Christ and they are bound as appears from Matth. 16.24 and 2 Cor. 4.10 to bear the said sufferings being to take up his Cross and follow him under it step by step through every stage or slation which he made what the several stations or pitchings of Israel Numb 21. were a Type and Figure of and to bear in their body the dying of Jesus Christ which dying extends so far as to the loss of their life Matth. 16.25 so long as they have no hopes to find any other way their life and the life of Christ to the perfection of which they may attain as was said Ephes 4.13 if they do imitate him in this part of his passion For as by his Agony bloody Sweat Sorrow to Death he descended into Hell or bore the wrath of God and by the resignation
wit of the Life that saves and we must be born again to live and that of Water So that two things a dying and a new birth of Water are necessary to Life and the only way through which we must unavoidably pass to come to Happiness or to the perfect new Birth of the Spirit of Wisdom in which latter Birth chiefly consists our Salvation Which things See Dr. Wallâ—s his Sermons of Regeneration Printed for Mr. Rogers at the Sun near Temple Bar. because very few Divines do know what they are and therefore pass them over and teach with Dr. Wallis That we are not bound to know and to trouble our selves with such nice Enquiries as if we were not to be saved by coming saith Paul 1 Tim. 2.4 to the knowledge of the Truth I think fit to declare and for this end to begin by the new Birth of Water To be born of Water then is not to be Baptized as we are now with Water but to take the beginning of our Life from VVater To do which man must become Water be Water himself if not in his Flesh and Bones as Nicodemus took it however within the Heart that is in the inward Man by making his Heart tender 2 Chron. 34.27 and as humble as resigned and in a word as passive or unactive as Water That is to say as Water hath no motion of it self but stands still or if moved falls downwards continually or flows this way or that way as the Wind agitates it so our Hearts should no more have any will of their own but lay still as a dead thing or as being resolved even to die at God's Feet That as out of the shapeless passive unactive Water all the Concretes in the World are formed and produced 2 Pet. 3 5. by the only working of God's Spirit upon it Gen. 1.2 Psal 33.6 so we may out of that state wherein we have no more any motion desire lust or will of out own but only that to yield all and enter into God's Will receive a new form and shaper or be reformed or born again of the first Spirit that gave Adam a true Life Gen. 2.7 after the Image of God put off the earthly Image we have from Father Adam 1 Cor 15.49 And thus by Humility rise again to that state which he and Eve fell from by Pride And this is what is shewed us by the Water and the Way of using it in Baptism We are saith Paul Rom. 6.4 by Baptism buried with Christ into death that is as they which were Baptized in St. Paul's time being cover'd all over when they were dipt in Water were by this means as it were dead and buried to the World So we by this 〈◊〉 Baptism or birth or state of Water become as dead men buried to all the Lusts of the Flesh and to all Self-will as Pride Covetousness and Envy and to all the reliance and hope we have on this World that as Christ adds he rose up from grave through God's Spirit so we should out of this state rise into a new Creature that hath got a Divine Form which is rising from the Dead and the first Resurrection All is made out of Spirit or as Hippocrates saith in primo de Diaeta out of Fire and Water Spiritus est organum in manu summi Dei quo agitantur omnes in hoc mundo species saith Trismegistus of it Which Spirit coming down first from the Stars into the Air and thence into the Water works on it continually whence an Oil is produced and this Oil by a longer digestion becomes a Salt which Salt is the first Matter and true Body of Concretes This is demonstrable from the juices of Vegetables if they be distilled before their Fermentation but better by distilling some May dew or Rain-water because being thin and light and a transparent Liquor by reason of their being circulated in the Air they are not thought by many to have and contain an Oil yet in their distillation they yield an Oil and a Salt which must have been formed there by the Spirit from the Stars it was impregnated with working upon its Vehicle the said Dew or Rain-water So likewise Man being made of Water and of Spirit must be born again of them to become a new Creature and must first become water make his heart soft and tender break that Rock as Moses did Exod. 17.6 and melt the Ice or hardness of his heart into water or the tears of Repentance that by the Holy Spirit which is the Dew the Manna or the true Bread from Heaven that gives life unto the world John 6.32 33. an Oil first and then a Salt which is the true Flesh and Blood or the true Body of Christ ver 51. and also the new Body the blessed Souls shall rise with or our house from above may be formed produced and perfected within him Therefore Christ exhorts all Men to have some Salt in themselves Mark 9.50 that is to say as the Salt understand essential Salt is the first matter of things and results from the Spirit 's action upon the water so all Men should always have some of that same first substance which the Spirit of God forms in Souls bathed in tears and so should give leave to his Spirit to work it in them and produce by its working a Salt to salt them withal ver 49. or preserve both their Body and Soul to Eternal Life from all sort of Corruption such as Leprosy which makes the whole Body insensible and as that thorow hardness of heart which turns Man into such Salt as Lot's Wife was that is a Salt Alkali which is gone through the Fire and therefore can by no means be further wrought upon for thereby losing its Oyl or its Radical Moisture the Vehicle of the Spirit is no more susceptible as the moist essential Salt or Nitre of the Earth is of any sweet influence of Heaven working on it but becomes a meer dead Coal a Lime-stone an Alkali made by Incineration and that melts no more like Ice and other essential Salts by the warmth of the Spirit but by a strong fierce Fire into a hard stone like Glass which is past for evermore all hope of recovery or of regeneration and so makes Man incapable of such Vegetation as the dry Rod of Aaron by its budding forth again typified the Souls must have Therefore remember Lot's Wife flee from the Land of the North this hard frosty dark lowring dismal or Northerly state saith the Lord by Zachary 2.6 whoever will inhabit or live in Jerusalem ver 4. This birth of Water therefore is what makes Man susceptible of the sweet influence and working of God's Spirit on his Soul to renew it and make it grow green and bud and bear Fruits or be fruitful for thereby we do like John by his Baptism of water prepare the way of the Lord that is for the Lord 's coming by his comforting Spirit this birth of
water being the true preparation or ordering of the Soul which in the 15th Page I promis'd to speak of For as good ground is made fit to receive and to retain the influence of Heaven or the Spirit that comes down from Heaven into the Air and the Water and the Earth the Scriptures call it the Dew and the Blessing from above Gen. 27 40-49.15 by its being frequently moistned with Rain or Water so our Souls become fit for the Blessing promised Joel 2.28 by being throughly water'd for the Water being void and empty as the Earth was Gen. 1.2 the Chymists call this nature of the Water and the Earth an Alkalick quality it is the sitter to draw and to impregnate it self with the Spirit from the Stars and so to nourish the Earth which is well watered with it by introducing this same starry Spirit into it So the Soul by reducing it self to water becomes void and empty like water that is void of all the cares and desires of this world and thereby is the sitter to be impregnated with the Spirit or the Seed of heavenly Bridgroom And wo be to them saith Christ Mat. 24.19 that are not so prepared but are already with Child and give suck about the time that the Bridegroom comes to them because they cannot go in with him to the Marriage Room and because the door is shut and can no more be opened chap. 25.10 that is they are so hardned that they become like Lot's Wise or to continue here the foregoing Metaphor become like some sort of ground which for lack of competent moisture turns to Sand and Dust and bears nothing but Bryers whose end is therefore to be burned as St. Paul affirms Hebr. 6.8 dry and bound like clods of earth or hard for want of moisture a desolate Wilderness Joel 2.3 yielding nothing but Bryers and even Dust and Ashes or such lixiviate Salt as is made out of Ashes or by Incineration that is a Salt Alkali So that Water or the Birth or the Baptism of Water is always like the Baptist the Forerunner of the Lord who comes in the cloudy sad mourning dark ignorant Souls by the light of his Spirit to revive and comfort them Whence according to St. John 5.6 he comes by Water and Blood that is Water and Spirit Blood being but a Compound of Water and of Spirit and so do all the Children of Adam when they are born to shew them that they must be born again of those two things I say that the Lord comes by his comforting Spirit because when that Spirit comes it is the coming of Christ promised John 14.18 28-16 22 or the Lord that comes himself Seeing that Jesus himself is he that 's sent saith Peter Acts 3.19 20-2 38 from the presence of the Lord to refresh or comfort Men or to be as St. John saith 14. 16. their Comforter for ever And therefore Christ is the same as the comforting Spirit and so the coming of this viz. of the Holy Spirit is the same as the second coming or coming again or the manifestation of Christ himself promised John 14.18 21. Concerning which see Math. 16.28 with Mark 9.1 and Luke 9 27-24.49 Gal. 1. 15 16. And I say that he comes into the sad cloudy Souls for as the Lightning saith he Math. 24.27 30. appeareth out of tho East and shineth even unto the West so shall the coming of the Son of Man happen in the clouds of Heaven with power and great glory For these two Verses may be applied to the said coming of Christ by the Holy Ghost Christ having respect therein to the Disciples question proposed in the 3d Verse concerning his coming again in his day Luke 17.24 that is when he should be revealed ver 30. or should come in his Kingdom Matth. 16.28 though perhaps they might not then understand it in this sense but took it as Men now do as thô it were meant only of his third and last coming viz. at the end of the world Which Answer of Christ sets forth the manner of his Coming and the qualification of the thing which he comes to to wit the cloudy or sad and dark or ignorant Souls which are the Clouds of Heaven hiding Heaven within them Luke 17.21 from the sight of other People For as the Lightning breaks out of the dark thick gloomy Clouds shining through them for a time then the Cloud closeth again so doth his Coming appear in the dark sorrowful Souls John 16.20 22. like a flash of Lightning or sudden Coruscation breaking out of their darkness 2 Cor. 4.6 and opening as it were the Cloud that envelops them then shuts it self up again and so continueth to do with many Men for sometime till at last dissipating the darkness altogether it comes to shine through and through the Sphere or the whole Body Mat. 6.22 thus shining from East to West all the Hemisphere over as it hapned unto Christ as his Transfiguration and as it is and will be with all the Saints in Glory who are represented therefore with beams about them because they shine like the Stars and dart out like the Sun their beams on every side Dan. 12.3 Matth. 13.43 For a remembrance of which slashing or coruscation and of the manner of it the Bishops wear a Mitre bearing the shape of a Flame or else of those cloven Tongues which were like as of Fire Acts 2.30 to signifie the opening of the dark clouds in man's head and the cleaving as it were of the sutures in the Scull and man's communication through this cleft part with Heaven which Mitre they assum'd first when this flashing or lightning began to cease in the Church lest the remembrance it self of it should be lost also But that it closeth not up as the Crown of a King doth signified that their flashing did not shine through on all sides that it was but beginning or just breaking out in them and that it continued not with them as with crowned Heads and therefore that they ought not to pretend to and ascribe to themselves so much honour in the Church as Kings may do and consequently much less than they in temporal things especially seeing that the Kingdom of Christ witness himself John 18.36 is not of this world And hence it may be gather'd that the Church was yet modest when they begun to wear it But now the Mitre is got higher than the Crown itself and lords it over Princes and Kings both in Church and State. Which is not well done my Sons my incorrigible Sons would old Eli say to them 1 Sam. 2.24 if he were alive again you ought not thus to break Christ's Yoke and to burst his Bonds if you will be his Disciples or his true Church in England and you may chance to pay for it if you hearken not to the voice of your Father ver 25. For he that being often reproved hardneth his neck shall suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy Prov. 3
34-29 1 of which you have a very fresh Instance in the late King. To return to the manner of the second Coming of Christ by the Holy Ghost observe that as the lightning comes at first out of the East and then shines even unto the West that is enlightneth the Hemisphere all over so his Coming which is not with any observation Luke 17.20 appears first like the Day-spring chap. 1.78 or the dawning of the day or is like the morning Star arising in our hearts 2 Pet. 1.19 for there all our thoughts or first glimpses of Light rise then encreasing more and more to the perfect light or day Prov. 4.18 it comes to be like the Sun at Noon and at the Solstice in reference to both which distinct states Christ is called the Morning Star by St. John Rev. 22.16 20. and the Sun of Righteousness by the Prophet Malachy 4.2 because he both dissipates the Morning Clouds by his light and strengthneth by the power of it a Believer so that he brings him to ripeness or to his full perfection the flash at his appearance shining nothing near so bright and comfortable as the Sun and as itself would do if it lasted for ever or endured a great while without vanishing again For after the same manner Christ the Word or the Wisdom and Light and Power of God 1 Cor. 1.24 within us in our hearts Rom. 10 8. springing out of the centre out of a man 's own darkness 2 Cor. 4.6 first appears to the sad mind like glimmering sparks of light which are a great refreshing to the Soul light or knowledge bringing still along with it great joy as I have said Then encreasing and sending its sweet beams by little and little towards the Circumserence till it shines through the whole Sphere it enligthneth all over and at the same time comforts and strengthneth sick sainting Man in such sort that he may rise from the shadow of death wherein he lay as benumm'd and walk and run and not faint and mount up with wings as Eagles Isa 40.31 Joel 2.7 and going from strength to strength Psal 84.7 both take God's Kingdom by force and rise to the very top or crown or zenith thereof which is God's holy mountain or the highest state of bliss and of glory and of light which Mankind is capable of Dan 12.3 Mat. 13 43 -19.28 Rev. 3.21 continuing all the while springing shining enlightning and refreshing the firy dark Soul to eternal life with the water of that Well that is Wisdom and Knowledge flowing out of a Man's self whereof Christ spake in St. John 4 14-7.38 As an ever flowing spring of living water streaming through a hot and desart place would revive the weary Traveller dying for Thirst so this new Spring of Wisdom revives the dry sainting Soul of Samson and Ishmael that is of Christ's stout Champions Gen. 21.20 the Church Militant on Earth as soon as they begin to thirst after Righteousness Mat. 5.6 as it was typified by the water gushing out of the Asses dry Jaw-bone which Samson after a great Victory being ready to die met with in his thirst Judg. 15.18 19. and by the Wells of water which Israel found at last in the dry and desart Land Exod. 15.27 But before he I mean the said sick Man comes to this he must dye the second death according to God's threatning Gen. 2.17 which because God's Word is true shall not pass away from him before it be fulfilled Mat. 24.35 and this is not so easie a matter for him to do as our learned Divines who pass it over sicco pede teach in their Sermons For to speak of this dying which is the other thing needful for the obtaining the said birth of the Spirit it is really a dying and dying you will grant is a hard thing to Mankind Neither is it only such dying as is that of this body of the flesh which Men easily go through But such as is proper and peculiar to the Soul which is so intolerable that none but the Son of Man or at least the Soul of Man enabled by the virtue and strength of the Son of Man can sustain or bear with it Prov. 18.14 For no man he saith himself John. 3.13 doth ascend up to Heaven but he that comes down from thence to give us power and strength and thus by enabling us to die lifts us up thither and there go along with it the terrors of Hell it self Which thing because it seems new and very strange to the world is what I do here take upon me to demonstrate And first to shew what it is This dying is the same death as that Adam died of after he had transgressed which must be some other thing than the death of his Body for he was surely to die the day that he transgressed Gen. 2.17 whereas his Body did live 900 years after And that was a rising or an exasperation of the Fire of his Soul after he tasted the Apple for he had lost long before viz. before he fell asleep the Light of Life which his Soul enjoyed at his Creation to a very intense or high degree of sierceness raging in him till the time he catcht hold of the promise made to him of the Woman's Seed Christ the Light of the world For Life without Light is but a dark and obscure Fire kindled either here or there in some individual place and burning without shining as do all Acids the Frost and those Corrosives called Ignes Potentiales by Chymical Writers whereby the Life just subsists in a very anxious fretful state or condition as being always feeding upon the thing it is in that is upon the Body which it had formed itself till that Body be consum'd or till this hungry Fire be fully satiated And this Fire thus burning was represented to us by the firy Serpent of God's People in the Desart and by a Worm or Serpent which Christ saith doth never die because it is always renascens reproducing or kindling itself anew viz. in the eternal Souls for there it can as well do it always as for once by reason that its Body or Subject doth not decay and when exasperated it is the Death of the Soul or its Hell burning gnawing and making it for ever anxious and full of pain except it reacheth the Light that makes all things comfortable Here consider the grimness of a dark and frosty Night which chills benums and destroys and burns all things on the ground and what state things would lay in if the Light of the Sun were taken out of the world Would not all the living things lay still like Worms in Winter and be frozen up as hard and stiff as Ice in their place Sure the world itself would be nothing but Death all over And thence conceive if you can how sharp severe and bitter are to the despairing Soul whose dark Fire corroding and biting it like sharp Frost or a fretting Humor or some tart
of his will to that of God Matth. 6.39 42. all the while he was sighting and bearing this chastisement Isa 53.5 that is by his becoming like the Child in Isaiah 9.6 Matth. 18.3 He overcame and became the wonderful mighty Prince and Champion in our Battels so we to imitate him in this part of his Passion and of his Resignation must sight like him and go through the Red Sea of our Blood that bearing through this great Gulph of God's vengeance and wrath we may become with him and with Jacob Gen. 33.28 Kings Princes and mighty Champions in God Rev. 1.6 Without blood our High Priest went not into the second or most Holy Tabernacle Hebr. 9.7 8. Without Bloodshed a Virgin cannot be impregnated so likewise a Virgin Soul that is which is not with Child Matth. 24.19 but is become Christ's chaste Dove Cant. 5.2 or as void of any form Imagery or Idols of the heart as the water cannot be impregnated with the spirit from on high without first spilling her blood or which is all one Gen. 9.4 losing her own life which is therein nor enter into the most holy Mansions this Spirit doth make in the Father's house John 14.2 according as he allays and satiates the Father 's Fire in the Souls of Men but by her own blood like Christ Hebr. 9.12 and by offering herself wholly as that Sacrifice which was to be wholly burned or consumed by Fire Levit. 1.9 Judgment saith 1 Pet. 4.17 begins at the House of God that is at the Believers By Fire and by his Sword the Lord will plead with all flesh and the slain of the Lord who are the chosen of God shall not be few but many Isa 66.16 To conclude as in Nature Life begins in the Fire and is fully perfected in the Light as I said all taking the beginning of its Life or of Motion from Heat by Fermentation the Light itself which is Life or the perfection of Life coming out of the Fire and subsisting no where one moment without Fire so in Divine Things also For Deus est ubique semper sibi similis God acts in all things alike Our Divine or New Life must begin at the Fire and we must return unto the Rock from which we were hewed and whence all things take their Birth and Motion and Duration Our Life must take from thence its first Principle of Motion which Motion is to be quell'd again by pouring water abundantly upon it that being kindled anew by some extraordinary spark of Grace which like Leaven added to Meal or Liquors sets them in Fermentation Matth. 13.31 33. it may ferment or be set in a hot burning Fever till it hath purged itself of its filth or of its Dross as doth refined Silver or Gold upon the Cupel and does thereby become pure and capable to abide with the devouring Fire or live for ever with God Isa 33.14 For as a Cordial given to a Patient who labours under some great Infection that hath invaded his Life sets him first in a great heat or hot Fit till Life helped by the strength of the Physick and by some drink given him at that time that comforts him overcomes its Enemy and drives it away by sweat So this Spark setting the Soul on Fire for a good while brings a hot Fit upon it and burns it so that it longs after nothing but Moisture Luke 16.24 which as soon as it is sent to it by the Refresher it draws so vehemently that it falls into that state which in a Chymical sense may be properly called Deliquium animae that is the Soul giving or melting into water or else drinking in the way Psal 110 7. of the same Brook as Christ did Matth. 20.23 that is of an absolute Resignation to God's Will Matth. 26.39 42. and receiving from this Cup some comfort and refreshment it is enabled to swear or to master and expel the strange Fire of those Lusts which by infecting of it had been the occasion of this preternatural Burning or Fermentation and to dip itself at last into a Flood of water whereof the Flood of Noah saith Peter 1 Epist 3.21 was a Figure and thus to be baptized with the same Baptism as Christ was Hence Physicians learn to give your Patients Drink when they are in a hot burning Fever And you Physicians of Souls help to set yours in this Life into a hot burning Fit and for Drink leave them to Christ for you cannot give it them till you have got some your selves The Jews have a Tradition that the Messiah's days will be a time of Weeping Fasting and Tribulation yet like our Lip-Christians who crack of the Law of Grace and understand it no more than the Wife of Zebedee Mat. 20.20 they look for Ease in those days whereas Ease is not the way leading to Eternal Life Matth. 7.13 In this world saith Christ to them who do really learn of him you shall have Tribulation John 16.33 And verily you shall weep and lament saith he ver 20 21 22. to all Mark 13.22 But the world shall rejoice and ye shall be sorrowful as a woman in travail but I 'll see you again and your heart shall rejoice because you are by this Birth deliver'd as a travailing Woman of a new Creature For by much Tribulation we get into God's Kingdom Acts 14.22 the entrance into Life being through this narrow gate which as it is known but to very few but few go through Matth. 7.14 Yet God would have us to be saved by going through it out of the House of Bondage the feverish and oppressive Infection of our Sins as did the old Israel our Type out of Egypt called the Iron Furnace Deut. 4.20 which burns the fiercest of all and passing through the Red Sea and then living as he did in the Desart 40 years that is as having no hope of any thing in the world all the time of our Life 40 Years being the time of most Mens Life in this world and being for 40 days tempted with Moses and Christ in the Desart of this world with Hunger Thirst Want Contempt and Sickness and Misery to answer the 40 days of Plenty Glory Pleasures wherein Adam was tempted in the Garden of Eden For so long he was tempted by the desire he had to have the world at his Will and to dispose of it independently from God and so long he was courted by the world which would have him for its own before he fell For thô he was in the world yet he was not of the world and he lived out of it in quite another principle or state viz. in that Heaven wherein the Son of Man was thô he was come down from thence John 3.33 as yet the love of the world had not captivated him And wo be to him that dies with Adam in those pleasures 1 Tim. 5.6 or in the Wilderness the dry place which Christ speaks of Matth. 12.43 with the People of Israel before the