Survey of the Spiritual Antichrist, Part 1 · Chapter 29
CHAP. XXIX. The scope of Saltmarsh his Book called Sparkles of Glory, and of his denying Christ to be any thing but a man figuratively and mystically.
34. THe onelyonly scope (saith he to the Reader) of this Book is to mind you of an higher excellency then meere created things can afford you, of the truth that is in Jesus, or in Spirit: and of that unity of Spirit which Christians should live in under their severall formes and attaintments, and I have not held forth any discovery of Truth, or of any higher dispensation, so as to darken too much other dispensations in which Christians live, or to lessen and under value their attaintments, but only to be faithfull in the power of God to his discoveries in mine own spirit.
The mind of Saltmarsh concerning high Familisme, and other administrations that to him are lower, and touching the law, repentance, duties, Synods, Church government, Episcopacy, Presbytery.I desire we may beare one anothers burdens, and consider that God is in all his severall dispensations, and measures; and Christians are not to hasten out of any, till the Lord himselfe say, Come up higher, and the stronger are to beare the infirmities of the weak.
I am not against the law, nor repentance, nor duties, nor ordinances, as some would say: so all these flow from their right principles to their right end. I am not against the setling of Church government prudentially, as now, so as all of another way be not persecuted, because I know God hath his people under severall attaintments and measures, and is to his people in all these in his meere grace and love, as formerly to Bishops, and thousands of weak Christians in Queen Elizabeths and Queen Maries dayes of martyrdome in their formes. I am onelyonly against any form as it becomes an engine of persecution to all Christians differing from it.
I am not against a sitting of an Assembly of Divines at Westminster, that are so perswaded, because this is but to allow such liberty to others consciences as we desire our selves: And surely, if they would propound such things onelyonly as they have received, or they are in conscience perswaded of to all the kingdome, and so leave it to the Spirit of God, and their Ministery, to perswade and convince, and not desire power from others to compell: this were but to minister as they had received.
Answ. If the scope of a Book be taken as it ought to be, from the subject matter contained in it, then the scope of this booke is a farre other thing, then the truth that is in Jesus and in Spirit: but to deny that Christ is come in the flesh, as I here evidence, which is the mystery of Antichrist, is the scope of his booke, 1 Joh. 4.3. For every Spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God, and this is that (Spirit) of Antichrist whereof you have heard that he is come and even now already is in the world.Saltmarsh denyeth that Jesus Christ is come into th… flesh. But Saltmarsh confesseth not, but denieth, that Christ is come in the flesh, or is true man, or hath any other body that he suffered in, but the mysticall body, the Saints, Sparkles of glory, p. 13. The Sonne of God did not only fulfill this bringing home this first creation or man to God according to his first excellency and communion with God, but in this appearance of the flesh, he was a figure of God whose designe is to make his Saints his Temple, his tabernacle, his body, his new creation, his habitation or house; and God thus manifested in the flesh was a figure of that mystery of godlinesse in us, or God becomming Immanuel, or God with us. He hath a large description of the second Adam, pag. 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15. he never once saith, Christ the Sonne of God was made true and very man in all things like unto us, sinne excepted, or the second person of the Trinity assumed the nature of man in the unity of his person, or Christ was the true Sonne of David, borne of a woman, &c. as Scripture and Divines speak, but by the contrary only in this appearance of flesh he was a figure of God, whose designe it is to make his Saints his temple, his tabernacle, his body—and God thus manifested in the flesh; that is, God by his Spirit giving us faith and a new birth to be the Sonnes of God, in whom he dwells by faith, is the Immanuel God with us; that is, all the God-man, or God incarnate, which this spirit of the Antichrist will yeeld to us, is nothing but, every Saint anointed is Christ and Immanuel: now the Father and Spirit, both make the Saints the Temple of God, the new creation, the body of Christ thus; and so the Son is no more God incarnate then the Father: and God is thus manifested in the flesh, in making us his dwelling house, and Temple, and body by faith, as Saltmarsh is sure not to speak against, but with the heretickes who denyed Christ to have a true body, or to be true man, but only to be a figure or appearance of a man, or a man in representation, in forme, in meer shape, not truly and really▪ so as the Discipl…s heard, saw with their eyes, and looked on, and their hands handled the Lord of life, 1 Joh. 1.1. of him they said, He is not here, he is risen againe; except ye beleeve that I am he, yee shall dye in your sinnes. And in his crucifying (saith Saltmarsh p. 13.14.) all his first glory in which he appeared, revealed that old designe of God, that mystery hid from ages, Christ really crucified and dyed, and not in a figure, as with his Familists, saith Saltmarsh.and now made manifest to the Saints, nayling all the flesh of his Saints to the same crosse, and being lifted up drawes all men to him, which is the mystery of the Gospel, or Christ crucified. H. Nicholas document, c. 3. sen. 5. to be borne of the Virgin Mary out of the seed of David after the flesh is to be borne of the pure doctrine (of H.N.) out of the seed of love. How Christ nailed all the flesh of his Saints to the crosse except mystically and figuratively, and in a spirituall sense, I know not, but this is all Christs dying on the crosse, except Familists say that Christ dyed not really and truly, but only in a figure; or they say Christ, as an extraordinary holy man, was God manifested in the flesh, and that he was not the consubstantiall Son of God, but being a man Godded with the holy being of love, dyed as an example of singular love and patience, and most submissive obedience, and so nailed to his crosse, all the flesh of his Saints exemplary, that we should follow him, as the Socinians teach, and so his death must be no reall, no true satisfaction, nor any satisfactory ransome to justice for us, but that God forgave all men their sinnes without a price or ransome of blood; and Christ gave not himselfe as a reall ransome, price or satisfaction for our sinnes, but dyed as a rule and patterne of holinesse, that we should imitate him and without his, but by our owne personall merits wee might be saved, as we were saved by following the godly lives of other holy men. The Scripture saith, he nailed his owne flesh to the crosse; for so it is, 1 Pet. 2 24. Who his own selfe bare our sinnes in his body on the tree. And Act. 13.28. Though they found no cause of death in him, yet desired they Pilate that he should be slaine, 29. And when they had fulfilled all that was written of him, they tooke him downe from the tree and laid him in a sepulcher, but God raised him from the dead: Now the man Christ that was nailed to a tree, and buried in the grave of Joseph of Arimathea, that same man God raised from the dead, but Christ nailed not the Saints flesh, and the bodies of beleevers, of Saltmarsh and others, really to the crosse, nor were their bodyes really laid in Josephs new tombe, nor did God truly and really raise them from the dead, only in a spirituall meaning, we dyed, are buried with Christ, and partakers of his resurrection. But (saith Peter) Act. 5.30. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree. But Saltmarsh saith, the Christ, crucifying and nailing all the flesh of his Saints to the same crosse, and being lifted up, drawes all men to him, is the mystery of the Gospel, or Christ crucified. But Christ crucifying the flesh, and sinfull corruption of beleevers in the same crosse, is Christ mystically and spiritually, and by the merit of his bloody death, mortifying sin in the Saints, and the sufferings of the Saints are not satisfactory to divine justice, as Christs sufferings were, but castigatorie, to deaden them to the lusts of the flesh: and the Saints sufferings are not Christ crucified, nor Christ on the crosse drawing all men to him For Christ died and was but once really and truly in his blessed flesh and humane nature crucified,H.N. 1. Exh. c. 16. The Elders of love are godded with God, incorporated to God in all love, with whom God in one being, and power of his holy Spirit, is homified or become man; and this is their God incarnate. Heb. 9.26, 27, 28. Matth. 27.34, 35. Marke 14.24. Luke 23. v. 33, 34. Joh. 19.23. on Mount Calvarie. But the Saints were not really crucified with him, for many of them were not borne, when he dyed. I have observed before, that Gortyn and H. Nicholas make the Saints who beare the image of God suffering and persecuted in the world to be Christ crucified, and nothing else, because saith Gortyn, Christ being the Lord of life, cannot dye, nor suffer in himselfe, and therefore hee suffers in his Saints, and so every suffering Saint is all the crucified Christ that these men grant. Yea H. N. never confesseth Christ to be true God and very man, but sometime the sabbaoth is Christ Evang. c. 2. s. 15. or the service of love is Christ. Exhor. 14. s. 1. or the godly being in men is Christ Evang. 13. s. 16. or the eldest Elder of the family of love is Christ, that is, H.N. or a godly life is Chri…t, so are we saved by our owne good works. And Saltmarsh saith, p. 14. Now all this of this new or second creation, as they are spirituall and heavenly, are only in, and through the same Spirit, and discerned in the same Spirit. Hence a Christ of flesh and blood, who is true man and dyed for us, is but Christ in the letter, and the Protestant legall Christ that, as a killing letter, killeth and perfecteth nothing, and cannot give life, but the true Christ is a Spirit and spirituall, and discerned in the Spirit, that is to say, only the family of love knoweth, by the Spirit abstracted from Scripture, and from all flesh and letter, the true God manifested in the flesh of every Saint, and crucified in beleevers, and disclaimeth the Protestant Christ that dyed and was crucified on Mount Calvarie, and was buried in a new Tombe, and rose the third day, and ascended into heaven. And p. 17. This is the Temple (saith he, speaking of the invisible Church) which the Angel measures with a golden reed and the alter thereof, or the eternall Spirit, upon which all the first creation is offered in the Saints, as it was offered in Christ, who through the eternall Spirit offered himself, leaving out the outward court or the flesh and first creation, and all outward ministrations which are given to the Gentiles to tread downe. Ans. I feare that by nailing the creation to the crosse, and offering it up to God when Christs flesh was offered up, is meant that which H. Nicholas said Spi…land. c. 56. sect. 7. if a man would enter into life, he must be taught in the service of love, and unlearne againe all that he hath taken and learned to himselfe; that is, as Libertines said, he must cast off the knowledge of good, and all sense and knowledge of sin, and as a childe, know and feele neither adultery, murther, lying, stealing, nor acts of mercy, justice, chastity, but have a conscience past feeling of both good and ill, and this is the offering on the crosse, the creation of God, the crucifying of the naturall faculties of the soule, and to unlearne all you once learned of Christ, because it was literall, fleshly and carnall; and so to crucifie it, is one of the first lessons that Familists teach their new disciples when they enter into the service of love. H. Nicholas exhort. c. 13. s. 9. Hee hath a good head that can take these giddy fleshly notions of Saltmarsh, and can render the sense either of Gortyns booke, or of this. But it is cleare, when Christ offered his life and body on the crosse to the Father for our sinnes, he offered no flesh, no true reall body to God through the eternall Spirit, for in that offering (saith he) he left out the outer court, and the flesh or the first creation, and outward administrations, then the crucifying of Christ in the flesh, as the Scripture calleth it, is but a dreame; Saltmarsh saith, That is the outward court the letter, the flesh, which all the Gentiles trample upon, and these Protestants that beleeve Christ suffered according to the flesh, are heathen and prophane men. Christ in the flesh or under the Law, is to Saltmarsh p. 195. the same with the literall Christ of David George, not the spirituall true Messias.
Henry Nicholas said every creature in the first state of creation was God, H. N. Evang.34. c. sent. 10. he hath now declared himselfe and his Christ together with all his Saints, unto us his elect, and also made a dwelling with us, and brought even so unto us out of his holy being, the most holy of his true tabernacle with the fulnesse of his garnishing and spirituall heavenly riches, to an everlasting fast standing Jerusalem, and house for Gods dwelling according to the Scripture. To be made partakers of the divine nature, according to Familists sense, is to be of the substance, nature and essence of God, and to live with the true being and very life of God.Saltmarsh with H. Nicholas teacheth that every creature is God, or a substantiall part of God. It is true, Familists say in words, they meane not that the creature is the Creator; nor that man is God, because man (saith Randal in a Sermon) is vanity and a lye, but not man as created or renewed to the image of God, and let the Reader judge, if Saltmarsh in his sparkles of glory, delivers not the same doctrine, speaking of two Creations, or two natures of flesh and spirit, p. 3.See Saltm. Sparkles p. 19 200, 201, 20 While man was thus in the image of God, and stood and lived in communion with God, walking in that paradise, or that glory of his first creation in obedience to God, and participation of God, he was the image of all, or any created excellency, as it was, or is, or shall be in order to a more excellent life, to a life out of it selfe in him, who is the fountaine of life. Saltmarsh cannot meane that man was created in a participation of God in the sense that Protestants meane, in regard of the image of God, but with H. N. in regard of the godly being, wherewith man was godded and diefied at the beginning. And p. 6. Saltmar. phraseth with H. Nicholas, Now all this excellency and glory of the first man, did leave God being tempted of the woman, and the Serpent which were a figure of fleshly wisdome without God, and of the weaknesse of this creation in its owne nature, as it was drawne away from its life in God, and communion with God to live in its selfe, or owne life, or to be its selfe what God should have been, wisdome and life, righteousnesse, and power, and strength, and preservation; and all things. If Saltmarsh mean with Protestants, that Adam did leave his morall or spirituall being and living in, and with God, while he yet stood in the state of innocency, why doth he not speak with Protestants? for this is nothing, but Adam lost the image of God, but not his life & being as he came from the hands, or as it were, out of the shop of the Creator, in which he was moulded according to the image of God. But I fear Saltm. both speaketh and hath the same sense with H. Nicholas, that Adam lost his life, and lost the very created being and holy selfe which was the very substance and nature of God, and now having fallen into sinne, he falls into selfe, and lives in selfe, seperated, as touching the essentiall dependency of a creature from God, and lost his substantiall selfe and being, which is a peece and substantiall parcell of God. For Familists say that Adam, or an Angel should have ascribed being, power, or any thing to it selfe, was sinne and nothing else but the devill, and denying selfe or substantiall being had beene in Adam, and was in him, his standing in innocencie, and to arrogate to selfe, being, and living, was a sinne and a leaving of God. So Theolo. Germanica and Saltmarsh p. 14. sparkles. All the life or excellency of his first creation, is crucified in the Saints as in Christ, whereby they enter into their glory as he did into his and are in th… same glory of God made one, as he and the Father are one, Joh. 17. The life or being of the first creation, as it is a part of God or the sinlesse workmanship of God, is not crucified in the Saints as in Christ; for in the Saints, only sin is crucified, and that spiritually by the merit and efficacie of Christs death, and his Spirit, the naturall being and life of the Saints as they are living men consisting of soule and body, is not crucified; but no sinne, nor lusts nor dominion of sinne, were in Christ to be crucified, but hee laid downe his naturall, reall life and blood, as a ransome satisfactory to the justice of God for our sinnes: But this deceiver meaneth that Christs anihilating on the crosse all the naturall faculties, power and excellencies that the Creator gave to us, when we were created, and nailing these to the crosse, was Christs crucifying of the flesh, and we are the same way crucified with Christ, as so many joynt Saviours with him, by suffering afflictions, and in place of this crucified flesh, all the Saints have the Spirit to act in them; and our conversion to God, or restauration in the second Adam, is, in that we are made againe in Christ, partakers of the divine nature, and of the substantiall being of God, or godded with the new heavenly being of God, in love, and Christed with Christ, and turned, when we are perfectly renewed, into all spirit. Saltmarsh Sparkles of glory, pag. 71. And the naturall faculties of our soule, mind, will, affections are, in our conversion, removed, and in place of them comes the very Holy Ghost in person, and very Christ himselfe acts in us. Rise, Reigne, Ruine of Antino. art. 1. art. 2. pag. 1. and lives in us, not by faith and created grace, but substantially and personally, and for this they alledge, Gal. 2.20. I live not, but Christ lives in me, and so neither our naturall power or any thing, nor is created grace any thing, but Christ is all in all.