The Rise Race and Royalty of the Kingdom of God, Part 1 (4 of 6)

The Rise Race and Royalty of the Kingdom of God · Part 1 (4 of 6)

p. 94This is that Heart of man, with which he is to commune, this is the Seat of Justification, Or Condemnation: The Spirit of Man, as it lives above in the Spirit of God, according to his Wrath, or his Love: Or the Spirit of God, as it becomes the Principle of Nature, a Principle in the Spirit of Man.

If this Heart condemn us; that is, the Spirit of God, as it is the Principle of our Spirits: God is greater than our Hearts: that is, the Spirit of God, as it is in itself, above our Spirits, hath a greater Fulness of Majesty, and Light in itself, where it is, as the Light in the Sun; when as in our Spirits, it is, but as the Light in the Star. If therefore it testifie Wrath to us in this relation, in which it is, but as a Glance; it shall more fully testify wrath against us in that State in which it is the Full Glory. As it is a Principle in our Spirits it opens itself truly, but imperfectly: in a right Sense; but in a part only of its own Sense. But as it is in itself, it knows all things; it opens itself to the utmost of its own sense, and eternal purpose.

A man should neither comfort, nor condemn himself from the language of his own Spirit, as it lives in the Outward Soul, or Body, and speaks of its own. This Spirit should be silent, and still.

But we are to commune with the Divine Principle in us, with our Spirits, as they dwell within, in the Spirit of God. For so the Spirit of God, and our Spirits, are twisted in One, make One Heart, testify One thing, and that truly, whether it be for Life, or for Death; from Wrath or from Love.

For the Spirit of God, and of Man in this Principle, are an Image of the Spirit of God, as it is absolute, and supream in the God-Head.

But there is a Heart, within this Heart. This Heart is a Principle of Life or Death, Love or Wrath. There is within this a Heart, which is the Life-Princiciple, and the Love-Principle.

p. 952. The Heart is the Life-Principle. Prov. 4. 23. Keep thy Heart with all Diligence: for out of it are the Issues of Life. What is this Heart, which we are to keep, when we are to deny our selves? We are to keep it, not with Caution to preserve our selves from it; but with Confidence, to preserve our selves by it.

This place of Scripture is like that before it, Prov. 4. 13. Where Solomon speaking of Wisdom, or Instruction, saith: Keep her, for she is thy Life.

Jesus Christ, as he is in the Spirit, is our Life-Principle, Colos. 3. 4. When Christ, who is our Life shall appear.

He is the Treasure of our Hearts, and our truest Heart. For from Him, as He is in the Spirituality of his own Person, are the Issues, the Out-goings, of our Life, Mat. 6. 21. Where your Treasure is, there will your Hearts be also. Our Treasure, and our Hearts are both with Jesus Christ in Heaven, Colos. 3. 1.

The Heart, is the Treasury of all good things. A good man out of the good Treasury of his Heart bringeth forth good things, Mat. 12. 35. Jesus Christ is this Heart, which hath the Treasure in it. For in him are all the Treasures of Wisdom, and Knowledge hid, Colos. 2. 3.

Jesus Christ is the Heart. as he is the Head of Man, 1 Corin. 11. 3. The Head of every Man is Christ: The Head of Christ is God.

The Lord Jesus, as he is the Heavenly Man, is the most proper Head, and Heart of man: the First Principle before all others, the most inward Principle lying within, and beneath all other Principles; the Life-Principle.

Thus we see, what the Heart is.

1. Jesus Christ, as He puts forth Himself in the Natural Spirit of Man, to be the Principle of Nature either, in a Power of Wrath, or Love.

2. Jesus Christ, as He is in his own Heavenly Spirit, and Person, comprehending the Life, Perfection, and Blessedness of Man in Himself, as in a Divine Root, or Treasury.

2. The Bed. This is the Second thing, of which we are to seek the meaning. We read of a Bed of Tribulation, Revel. 2. 22. This Bed is a Spirit of Darkness, Weakness, Woe, and Torment.

We read of a Bed in Tribulation, which God prepares for those, whom he loves, Psal. 41. 3. Thou wilt make all his Bed in his Sickness, or, Thou wilt turn it, the Inside of Peace, Love, and Glory, for the Outside of Pain, and Trouble: or thou wilt change it from a Bed of Languishings, into a Bed of Rest, or a Bed of Love.

We read of Beds of Joy, and Glory, Psal. 149. 5. Let the Saints be joyful in Glory, let them Sing aloud on their Beds.

In the Canticles there is mention made of the Bed of Christ, and His Spouse: Can. 1. 16. Our bed is Green. There is also Solomons Bed, who was a Type of the Heavenly Bridegroom, Cant. 3. 7. Behold his Bed, which is Solomons, threes…re valiant men are about it, of the valiant men of Israel.

This Bed is the Spirit of the Lord Jesus, which shines forth, and buds with p. 96Sweetness, and Beauty, which goes forth in the midst of the Angels, cloathing itself with those Mighty, and Glorious Spirits. This Spirit draws the Soul forth from the Tumults of the Flesh, takes her off from her own Strength, and casts her upon itself, as upon a Bed of Rest.

By this time we see, what the Holy Ghost means by the Heart, and the Bed.

Let us now return to that place of that Psalmist, for the opening of which we have brought in all these Scriptures, Psal. 4. 4. Commune with your own Heart upon your Bed, and be still: that is, discourse not with your Spirit, as it lives in this Body, upon these Outward Appearances. For so it is one with the Strange Woman, it is a Strange Heart: it is a Fountain, that makes itself common, and defiles itself; it is not your own Fountain alone, your own Heart; but a wandring, false, lying Heart.

Retire your self into your Chamber, in which the Candle of the Lord shines; that is, into your Spirit, as it hath the Spirit of God, for the Spring of Natural Light, and Life in it. Here wait quietly, and silently for the openings of the Spirit of God in the secret Voice of Nature within you.

But, stay not here, Silence this Spirit too, draw your self yet more inward, into the Spirit of the Lord Jesus, as He is the Inward Man, within, the more inward than, the secretest Retirements of the Natural Spirit.

Here cast thy self upon thy Bed in thy Heart, and commune with thy Heart upon thy Bed. This is thy Bed, and thy Heart both in one. Here lay thy self at Rest, upon this Spirit, which is the Comforter; advise with this Spirit, which is the only Counsellor, the Spirit of Truth. So be thou still, let thine own Spirit, the Spirit of this World, and Nature in thee be silent.

He that thus hearkens in Silence, what the Lord will say, shall certainly hear him speak Peace to his Saints.

The Spirit of God in thy Natural Man may speak of Wrath to thee; and God will confirm that voice of Wrath in the Spirit of thy Natural Man. And so here thou canst find no Bed to comfort thee. But go a little beyond thy Natural Man, and thou shalt meet with the Spirit of God, as it is in its own Freedom, and Fulness in the Lord Jesus▪ Here is a Bed ready prepared for thee. Now silence thine own Spirit for ever; and hear no more, what the Spirit in thine own Spirit speaks; but, what this Spirit speaks, as it is here, in Jesus Christ; and this Spirit will certainly make thee to hear the voice of Joy, and Gladness. Thus the Lord giveth his Beloved Rest: not in themselves, but in Himself.

I have now finished the First Part of Spiritual Peace, which is Silence; the Silencing of a Three-fold Spirit; the Spirit of Wrath from God; the Spirit of the Devil; the Spirit of Man.

2. Part: Satisfaction. The Second Part of Spiritual Peace is Satisfaction. This consists in Two Things.

1. A Sweet League with all things.

2. A Satisfactory Rest in this League.

p. 971. A Sweet League with all things. There can be no Satisfaction, where there is any thing wanting, and not made up; or any thing Crooked, and not made straight: as Solomon speaks, Eccl. 1. 15. There is no Satisfaction, where there is Division, or Contention.

Jobs Friends promiseth this Satisfaction to Job, Job 5. 23. Thou shalt be in League with the Stones of the Field, and the Beasts of the Field shall be at Peace with thee. v. 24. And thou shalt know, that thy Tabernacle shall be in Peace. Behold a League wi…h all things below thee, Beasts, and Stones: Principles, and Appearances of Life descending are the Beasts: The Stones are the Principles and Appearances of Darkness descended to the lowest, the Dead Images of things. Behold a League here with all things above thee; thy Tabernacle shall be in Peace. The Powers above thee are thy Tabernacle: The Angels are thy Tabernacle, God is thy Tabernacle. Thou shalt dwell peaceably in these. These shall be in Peace, not in stormy or fiery Appearances upon thee.

Behold a League with all Times, with Eternity: Thou shalt know, that thy Tabernacle shall be in Peace. Thou shalt not fear, what is to come; because all Times to come shall be in Covenant with thee. Whatever Times come to others, still thy Tabernacle, thy Angel, thy God shall be peace upon thee; and this thou shalt know before hand.

This is that League with all things, which Jobs Friend promiseth to him, without which there can be no Satisfaction or Peace.

Quest. But you will perhaps ask me, how this League is made.

Ans. I answer, that it is made by living in the Spirit of Jesus Christ. This Spirit in you is this League or Covenant. For the Spirit is the Unity, and hath the Band of Peace in itself, Ephes. 4. 3.

The Lord, who is the Spirit, is call'd, the God of the Spirits of all Flesh, Num. 16. 12. and 27. 16. This place agrees with that, Luk. 20. 38. God is the God of the Living, not of the Dead, for all things live to Him.

As our Saviour said; that Little Children had their Angels, which beheld the Face of God in Heaven: So it is most true, that each Fleshly Appearance hath its Spirit in which it lives with, and to God. Every Beast, or Stone hath its Angel, in which it is comprehended after a living manner, and by which it is governed. Every Angel hath its Spirit in Jesus Christ, in which itself is again comprehended after a Divine manner, and by which it is entirely managed.

Thus the Spirits of all things are in the Spirit of Jesus Christ. The Spirit of every Creature, which is the Scepter, that sways it, the Law…giver to it, is in the ha…d of the Spirit of Christ, and goes forth from between his Feet.

If then thou wouldst be in League with all things, and at Peace with them: be thou One Spirit with Jesus Christ; so all Things, and Times shall be One Spirit with thee; and this Unity of Spirit is the Bond of Peace.

To be Spiritually-minded is Life, and Peace, Rom. 8. 6. If thou wouldst live comfortably, take h…d of dw…lling in the Fleshly Tabernacle, in the Fleshly Savour, p. 98and rellish of things. Let thy understanding, and Soul abide in the Spirit of God. So thou shalt converse always, every where with lively, and lovely Objects. All things round about thee, within thee, without thee, shall have Life, and a Harmony, a Tuneableness with themselves, and with thy Spirit, a Peace-fulness in their Life. All things shall have an Angelical Life and Sweetness to thee as they have to the Elect Angels. All things shall have a Divine Life and Sweetness to thee, as they have to God.

This is the First thing, in which Satisfaction consists, a Sweet League with all things.

2. A Satisfactory Rest in this League. This is the Second Thing, in which the Satisfaction of Spiritual Peace confists.

Es. 14. 3. And it shall come to pass in that day; the Lord shall give thee Rest from thy Sorrow, and from thy Fear, and from thy hard Bondage, wherein thou wast made to serve.

Poor Soul! while thou livest in the Darkness of Fleshly things, thou hast Sorrow breaking thee by the Oppression of present Evils, thou hast Fear pursuing thee with the expectation of more Evils yet to come, thou hast thy Desires carried forth uncessantly, and violently toward those Objects which cannot satisfy, but divide, disappoint, and distract them, making them to labour under a hard Bondage, to work in the Fire, and feed on the Wind.

But when the Day of the Lord, the Day of the Spirit comes; then the Soul is in Covenant with all things; she hath all Evils subdued to her, so her Passionate part is Satisfied, and calm; she hath all good things freely to enjoy, so her Desires are at rest in the bosom of their proper Objects; thus the whole Soul hath Peace, all her Faculties acquiesce in their several Perfections, all her Powers move with a full Complacency in their several Operations.

Thus that is made good which is prophesied in another place, Es. 32. 17. The work of Righteousness shall be Peace, and the Effect of Righteousness, Quietness, and Assurance for ever. When thou hast the Lord Jesus in the Spirit, then thou hast Righteousness brought forth to victory in thee. For all things are then gathered up into One Body, or Fulness of Divine Glory in thy Soul. Now thou hast Peace with Quietness, and Assurance for ever. This is the Satisfactory Rest, when no Passion hath any thing, to disturb it, no Desire wants any thing to distract it. But all is quiet in the Soul for present, and assured to Eternity. This God doth, when he brings us into his Kingdom, which is the Unity of the Spirit.

Thus much for the Second Property of the Kingdom of God, which is Peace in the Two Parts of it, Silence, and Satisfaction.

Application.

Use. 1▪ Direction. If you would have Peace, understand, and distinguish rightly the Grounds of your trouble. As they are Three, so you shall know them by their several ways of working.

1, Ground. The Spirit of Wrath from God hath its way of Working in p. 99the Soul peculiar to itself▪ It makes present Impressions of Trouble, and Terrour. But it doth it with an Absoluteness, an Arbitrariness, laying no Premises, drawing no Conclusions.

This was the great Dispute between Job, and his Friends. Job complained that God set a Watch over him; a Spirit of trouble, that should suffer him to take no Rest, no way, on no side: that He scar'd him with Visions, and frighted him with Dreams; God appointed a Spirit over him, which fill'd him sleeping and waking with dreadful Appearances, Job▪ 7. 12. 14.

Jobs Friends charge him to have Iniquity in his Hand, Job 11. 14. And Hypocrisy in his Heart, Job 8. 13. otherwise say they: Thou shouldst have prosper'd still; thy hopes should not thus have perished. So they laid Premises to the Wrath of God, which fell upon Job.

On the other side Job maintains; the Vanity of this Life, where all things fall alike to all: the Absoluteness of God, who deals alike with all at Pleasure: the Slightness, and Shadowiness of Man in this Fleshly State, where God alike sweeps away the Lives, and Glories of all sorts of men, as Shadows: The Excellency of Afflictions in the Saints: the Propriety of this State of things, which is properly subject to the Principalities, and Powers of Darkness, Job 9. 22. 23. 24. He destroyeth the Perfect, and the Wicked. None therefore can say, that any Sufferings are a Sign of a Reprobate Man, or of Hatred in God. If the Scourge slay suddenly, he will laugh at the Tryal of the Innocent. God will laugh at the miseries of a Good man, as being, but a Melancholy Dream, when the Man is asleep, which wakes him, and he finds himself well in Glory. The Earth is given into the Hand of the Wicked, and hath covered the face of the Judges of it. It is improper to expect any thing right in this State, which is the Season for Darkness, and the time of the Reign of those Spirits which are the Powers of Darkness, under whom the good Angels are vailed, and imprisoned.

Thus Job shews his Friends how they plead deceitfully for God. And Job hath this Testimony given him by God, that his Friends had not spoken right things of God, as he had done.

Job would grant, that he had sinn'd. But the Lord could forgive him all his Sins, and he knew▪ His Redeemer liv'd, his Record was on High. He would never grant that his Sufferings were any Argument of his Sinfulness, or want of Sincerity in him.

Jeremy complains, Lamen. 3. 6. He hath set me in dark places, as they that be dead of old. The Spirit of Wrath from God can make itself a Prison of Darkness to thee, depriving thee of all the Sweet, Comfortable, Lightsom Appearances of things; leaving thee only Shady, Frightful, Empty, Melancholy Shapes hovering about thee, as they that are Dead. This Spirit can keep thee in this Darkness, that thou shalt find no way out of it, by Friends, Ordinances, Prayers, Endeavours of thy Spirit within thee. This Spirit can bind thee fast up in itself, sit heavy upon thee, sink thee still lower, as a Chain. So he goes p. 100on complaining, v. 7. He hath bedg'd me about; he hath made my Chain heavy.

But the Spirit of Wrath from God never draws forth any uncomfortable Conclusions for Eternity. No when such thoughts as these arise: I am cast away for ever: I shall be eternally damn'd in Hell. These thoughts are not from the Spirit of God, but from some other Spirit. And so Jeremy brings them in. v. 18. I said; my Hope, and my Strength is perished from the Lord. It is not: He, the Lord said, though he were in His Wrath: but, I said.

Thus we see, how we may know, when the Spirit of Wrath from God is the Ground of our Inward Trouble.

There is a Four-fold Remedy against this Trouble.

1. Remedy: Resignation. Say in the midst of this Darkness, and Fear: It is the Lord, let him do, whatsoever pleaseth him. I am in His arms, these are His ways with me. Can the same Fountain bring forth Bitter, and Sweet Waters? Be not deceived, be not disturbed O my Soul, but leave thy self with God, as a Faithful Creator; let him make, what He will of thee. The Word of the Lord, every Appearance, in which God comes forth unto thee, is good. Fear not to receive him, and to sit down, though it be in Darkness: for then thou sittest under his Shadow. Only neither take from, nor add to his Words, or Appearances in thee; by the Suggestions of any other Spirit.

2. Remedy: Retirement. Withdraw from the Fleshly Man, together with this Pillar of Clouds and Fire; which sits upon that. Draw thy Spirit up to the Unchangeable Spirit of Glory, and the State of thy Spiritual Man in that Glory. So did Job: My Record is on High. Appeal from that Testimony, or Discovery, which God gives of Himself below in thy Earthly Man; to that Testimony, or Discovery, which God gives of thee, above, in the Simplicity, and Nakedness of His Divine Nature. So did Paul: Of such a man I will boast; a man caught up into the Third Heavens, into Paradise. Though thou canst see nothing but anger, and frowns in the Face of Jesus Christ, as thou seest that in thy Flesh below: yet thou mayst see Joys and Glories in thy self, as thou seest thy Person in the Heavenly Person of the Lord Jesus above.

3. Remedy: Prayer. Cry to God continually for Two Things: First, that He would take his Hand off from you. No means, or Power can remove your Trouble, till the Hand of God be removed. 'Tis that, holds down your Eyes, that you cannot see the Light of Comfort. No art, or force, can remove the Hand of God, till Himself please to do it: The Second is, that He would turn unto thee.

4. Remedy: Waiting. Submit, and Wait. I waited patiently for the Lord, …nd he inclined unto me: Saith David. Give the Lord leave first to sit down Himself, and Feast on his own Will, and thy Comforts; while thou waitest, and ministrest all thy Peace, and Strength to Him▪ then will God say to thee: Sit thou down, and Feast upon thy Will in mine, upon thy Joys together with mine.

So much for the Discovery, and Remedies of the First Ground of Inward Trouble.

p. 1012. Ground: The Spirit of the Devil, when he is the cause of Trouble, manifests himself by his Lying Arts; and Murthering Aims. He increaseth thy Feelings by Fears, and thy Darkness by false Reasonings. He would teach thee, to argue against thy self from the present Anger of the Lord towards thee that he eternally hates thee. He would teach thee to dispute against thy self; that no Sufferings are like unto thine, and therefore never any Sinner like unto thee. What clear Falshoods are these, when God plainly affirms in his word: that All things come alike to all, and no man can know either Love, or Hatred by any thing under the Sun?

The Devil is ever drawing Inferences of Despair from Desertions, prompting thee to such Language, as this in thy Spirit: This Evil is from the Lord; why should I wait any louger upon him? There is no hope for me in God.

Thus the Devil is known by Lies leading to Despair, which leads to Death, and Destruction.

There is one Remedy against this Ground of Trouble besides those mentioned before, and that is this: Resist the Devil, and he will fly from you.

Beat back his Suggestions, by stopping your Ears against them. Answer him, that he is the Accuser of the Father, and the Brethren one to another. When he puts into you Dark thoughts of God; Despairing thoughts towards God; that he is a Lyar, and a Murtherer. But God is Light, and there is no Darkness in Him: God is Love, aad Fury is not in Him. All these Fears are thy weakness, and thy Low Estate, in which thou sufferest with Jesus Christ.

3. Property. The Third Property in the Kingdom of God is Joy. St. Paul in 1 Thes. 2. 19, 20. joyns these Two, Joy, and a Crown: Ye are my Joy, and my Crown.

Spiritual Joy hath Three Parts.

1. The Exaltation of the Soul.

2. The Enlargement.

3. The Activity of the Soul in God.

1. Part: The Exaltation of the Soul in God is Two-fold.

1, There is a Spiritual Exaltation of the Soul over her Spiritual Enemies. 2. Chron. 20. 27, It is said of Jehoshaphat, and all Israel, that, they returned to Jerusalem with joy. For God had made them to rejoyce over all their Enemies. This is a Figure of the Souls Joy over her Spiritual Enemies; when Jesus Christ brings her, as a Conqueror into the Spirit, which is the Jerusalem above.

This Exaltation, and Joy is described in the Person of our Lord Jesus: Colos. 2. 15. He spoyled Principalities and Powers, making a shew of them openly triumphing over them. Thus is her Royal State, set above the Principalities of Hell, the Powers of Darkness; Corruptions, Temptations, Death, and Devils. She sees them set under her Feet, that is, beneath her lowest Appearance; She sees them spoyled of all power to hurt, and glory to tempt her. She shews them, and makes them manifest in the Light of God. She Triumphs over them, exalts herself, and rejoyceth over them; raising a Joy, and a Praise to herself, and her Saviour out of them.

p. 162This is the First Exaltation of the Soul in her Spiritual Joy.

2. The Second is the Exaltation of the Soul to the Spiritual State of Jesus Christ. This is set forth in a Parable, by our Lord Jesus: Mat. 25. 23. The Lord saith to him that had emproved, and multiplyed his Talents: Well done, thou good, and Faithful Servant; thou hast been Faithful in a few things, I will make thee ruler over many: enter th… into the Joy of thy Lord. Here is a Rule, and a Joy: the Kingdom, and the Joy of the Lord. To both these the Soul is at once exalted with her Lord.

This Parable is worth our stay upon it for a while. The Opening of it will add much Light to this Particular of Spiritual Joy.

A Christian hath a Two-fold State on Earth.

1. State of sad Employment.

2. State of sweet Enjoyment.

1. A Christian hath a State of sad Employment in a Two-fold S…a…n; while he is a Servant; and while he is a Son, before he is yet past the growth of a Young Man.

1. Season. The Fi…st Season of a Christians sad Employment is, while he is a Servant. He then lives under Legal Administratio…s, which are the Manifestations of God in the Earthly Image. These are the Two Talents, with which the Soul is now to Trade. When Adam was driven out of Paradise, he was to till the Ground, and to eat his Bread in the Sweat of his Brows. So a Saint in this Season is put to dig into the Earthly Image, and to feed upon the Bread of Heaven in the toil, and labour of his Natural Principles.

2. Season. The other Season of a Saints sad Employment is, when he is a S…n, but not yet grown up out of the Age of a Young Man, to that of a Father, or a King. Now he hath in his Soul the Evangelical Appearances of God, and Jesus Christ. But he hath them after a Fl…s…ly manner, and in a Fl…shly way. These Appearances are the Five Talents. The Lord Jesus, while he was in the … l…sh, had not, where to lay …is …ad. So it is with the Soul in this Season. She hath not y…t attain'd to h…r State of Rest She is not y…t come to … sweet Enjoyments. As her Saviour, so she hath a Baptism to be baptized with, and she is str…ightned, till it be over. She is in difficulty, pain, and trav…l, till these Talents be multiplyed. Then comes the sweet Enjoyment, which is the Second State of a Christian on Earth.

2. A Christian hath his State of sweet Enjoyment, when the Talents are multiplyed. But what is the multiplying of the Talents? What is the casting of them into the Bank to receive them again with increase? Our Saviour teacheth us, what all this means by another, a plainer Parable, John 12. 24. If the Corn dye not, it abides alone. But if it dye; it brings forth much fruit.

The …l…shly Appearances of Christ are the Talents un-multiplyed, the Corn abiding alone. While they so continue, they are solitary, melancholy, bearing little fruit of Glory to God, or Joy to the Soul. But then the Soul casts these Talents into the Bank, then she sows this Corn, when she resigns them to God, p. 103when she crucifies them, and dies to them by the power of the Death of the Lord Jesus in her.

Now the Soul hath them within her rising again in the Spirit, after a Spiritual manner. Now she receives them again with an increase of Holiness, Peace, and Joy.

Now the Lord Jesus saith to the Soul: Well done, good, and faithful Servant; thou hast been faithful in a few things, in poor, low, and dark manif…s…ations. Thou hast submitted them to my will, and yielded them up to the power of my Death. I therefore will make thee ruler over many. Thou shalt no more be subject to low, and single Appearances. Thou shalt reign in the power, plenty, and variety of more Glorious Manifesta…ions. Enter thou into these high, and Spiritual Discoveries of God, in which thy Lord and Saviour now enjoys Himself. So the Kingdom, and Ioy of the Lord shall be thy Kingdom, and Ioy.

Application.

Use. 1. Examination. There is nothing of more concernment to us, than to distinguish, and discern aright our Joys. Sensual, and carnal Joys are apt to make us sensual, and fleshly, ignorant, and brutish, as the Beasts▪ Delusive Joys make our Souls, as Devils in the form of Angels of Light. Spiritual Joys, when they are truly such, make us most like to God.

The Delights of Nature, and sense are indifferent things, lawful, if they be lawfully used. They are therefore to be taken with much moderation, and caution, as the Wine, that St. Paul speaks of to Timothy: Drink not alwaies Water: but drink a little Wine for thy healths sake.

Delusions, and false Raptures of Spirit are a sweet Poyson, which are taken in greedily, and kill so much the more speedily. The Soul is naked, open, free, simple in her joys, she mingles herself inwardly, and deeply with the Spirit of her joys: As Herod offered to the half of his Kingdom to Her…dias, when she pleased him, with dancing before him.

It is then a thing of great moment to understand the nature of our Joys that we may know, when to admit, and to reject them; How, and to what height, to cherish, or check them;

I will propound Four Tryals of our Joy.

1. Tryal. The First Tryal is this. Spiritual Joys ever spring from a Spiritual sense of the Love of God towards us. Rom. 5. St. Paul speaks of his Joy. v. 5. Rejoycing in the hope of the Glory of God. He goes on discoursing of the growth, strength, effects of this Joy. Then v. 5. He shews you the Ground of his Joy: The Love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost that he hath given us.

Spiritual Joys can give an account, and a reason of themselves. There are Three things, which go to make up the Reason of Spiritual Joy, when it is Right.

1. The Love of God, not any Loveliness of our own, or the Sweetness of any Creature.

p. 1042. The Discovery of this Love in an open, manifest way, with a Fulness, and Clearness; like a Liquor that is poured forth, and spread abroad.

3. The Holy Ghost making this Discovery, and evidencing it by his own presence, and power in the Soul. This is the Reason, which Spiritual Rejoycings, and Gloryings give of themselves: The Love of God shed abroad in our Hearts, by the Holy Ghost, which he hath given us.

Are your Joys ignorant, sudden, and violent, such, as spring from no appearing cause, and can give no account of themselves?

Whence do your Joys arise from a Sense of the Love of God, or from a Reflection upon your Selves, upon any thing, of, or in the Creature?

Whence have you your Sense of the Love of God? Is it wrought upon you by Fancy, by the strength, and frequency of Imagination; or by the Persuasions of your own Souls; or by the Reasonings of your own Hearts consulting with themselves, and with the Letter of the Scriptures, without the Holy Ghost; by any of the Words, or ways of mans Wisdom, or Power, without you or within you?

If your Joys be such, as these, you have reason to suspect, and fear them, least they be from the Father of Lies, and not from the Father of Lights; from the Fountain of bitterness, and enmity, not of sweetnes, and Love.

2. Tryal. The Second Tryal of your Joy is the Effect of it. Spiritual Joys increase Spiritual Strength in the Soul as they increase themselves.

Nehem. 8. 10. Go your ways, saith Nehemiah to the People, Eat the Fat, and Drink the Sweet, and send portions to them, for whom nothing is prepared. For this day is holy to the Lord. Be ye not sorry: for the Ioy of the Lord is your Strength. Thus the Lord Iesus speaks to the Soul in the Ministry of the Gospel: Go your ways, Feed upon the Fat of my Glory, Drink the Sweet of my Love. Sond forth Portious, and Manifestations of this Glory, and Love to them, who have nothing of it yet prepared, and set forth in their own Spirits. This day is holy to me; in it you are to live altogether to me, and in the Light of my Appearances. Then let not your Hearts be heavy, nor your countenances sad, For my Ioy shall not weaken, or betray you. My Ioy shall be a Pres…rvative against Corruptions, a Strength against Temptation, the Power of a new life carrying you up on high into further Communion with God, and Conformity to him.

There is a Threefold Joy that takes to itself often the name of being Spiritual.

1. A Joy flowing from our natural temper, and Complexion, from sparklings of Blood, or Flashings of melancholy is many times mistaken for a Spiritual Joy. But this Joy dissolves, it makes the Soul airy, light, and loose: it exposeth the Soul to Vanity, and Sin.

2. A I…y brought forth by an Evil Spirit of Delusion carries the Appearance of a Spiritual Joy. This swells the Soul, makes it vain-glorious, confident, secure in itself. In this State the Soul easily falis into Temptation, …asily falls in the Temptation.

p. 1053. Spiritual Joy truly so called. This Knits the Union between Christ and the Soul more close, and strong: It gathers up the Soul more fully into the Spirit of the Lord Jesus.

St. John saith: He that dwells in Love, dwells in God. It is as true: He that dwells in Spiritual Joys, dwells of a Truth in the Lord Jesus.

Vanity, Lust, Passion, Pride come to the Soul in other Joys, and find her fittest for them. But, when they come to the Soul in her Spiritual Joy, so far, as she is in that Joy, they find nothing in her, nothing to comply with them.

This is the Second Tryal.

3. Tryal. The Third Tryal of Spiritual Ioy is the Quality of it. Spiritual Ioy is a Glorious Ioy, 1 Pet. 1. 8. You Rejoyce with Ioy Glorious, and unspeakable. Spiritual Ioy hath a Spiritual Glory resting upon it, and puts a Spiritual Glory upon the Spirit, and Person of that man, in whom it is.

Spiritual Joy ariseth from a sight of the Glory of God. Therefore it holdeth forth the Image of this Glory in the Spirit, and in all its workings.

Try your Joys by this: What of the Glory of God? What of the Mysteries of the Gospel? What of the Heavenly Man? What of the Spiritual manifestations of the Lord Jesus have you seen, or known? St. James saith, that; Faith is dead without works, that is, without the life, and power of God working in you. So Joy without the Spiritual Discoveries of God in it, is carnal, dead and empty.

Tell me not, that your Heart is full of Joy. But unfold to me those Discoveries, those Shinings out of God, which you have met with in your Spirits. So shew me your Joy.

Obj. But you will say perhaps: I see a Glory, but it is unexpressible, and you are uncapable of it.

Ans. I answer to that Four Things.

1. A Spiritual Glory cannot be exprest by any inferiour Principle, or Power, by any abilities of the Natural man. But it can express itself. As it can be, so it can be manifested in the Soul. Spiritual things give a Subsistance to themselves in the Natural man: So they can give an Expression to themselves there.

Rom. 10. 8. The Word is nigh thee in thy Heart, and in thy Mouth. v. 10. With the Heart man believeth unto Righteousness, with the Mouth man confesseth unto Salvation. The Life of Christ, who is the Glory of God, hath a Mouth as well as a Heart in the Soul of man.

The Glory of God unites itself to the Spirit, and Principle of man, for the adopting of him, and entituling of him to Heaven; for his Justification. It puts forth itself by the Mouth, thorow the whole Image of the man, for the Change, and Transfiguration of that; for his Glorification.

Ans. 2. Secondly; it is true, that the Glory of God in the Soul cannot express itself, in its own Form, thorow the natural man. But it can express itself by Earthly Images, by Types, and Figures; so as to convince even Carnal Hearts.

p. 106Jesus Christ so shewed forth the Glory of his Father, while he lived in Flesh, that the very Officers which came to apprehend him, confessed, and said: Never man spake like this man: John 7. 46. He spake to their sense, as having Authority; foreign He put forth thorow his Flesh, Declarations, of that Power of Light, and Divine Glory, which dwelt in him, beyond all that any other Spirit, or Principle could send forth.

Ans. 3. Thirdly, though a Spiritual Glory cannot evidence, or testifie itself to Natural men, yet it may to such as are Spiritual. As Face answer… Face in a Glass, so doth the Heart of man: Saith Solomon. Prov. 27. 19. So doth the Spiritual Heart of man. There is a Proportion between Spiritual men, and Spiritual things. The Glory of God in one Heart shews itself to the Glory of God in another Heart, thorow the Natural man, as a Face shews itself to itself in a Glass.

He that hath an Ear to hear, let him hear, what the Spirit saith to the Churches, Revel. 2. 7. A Spiritual man hath an Ear in his Heart by which he can hear, and take in thorow the outward Ear, the things spoken by the Spirit, even as they are inwardly spoken by the Spirit in its own Language.

The Spirit of the Prophets is subject to the Prophets, saith St. Paul, 1 Corin. 14. 32. Spiritual men can judge of the Workings, the Appearances, the Joys, the Glories of the Spirit in another man; as Rational men can judge of Reason.

Ans. 4. Spiritual Joy is as unexpr…ssible, as Spiritual Glory. You may hold forth, as much of one, as of the other. If you can declare nothing of either distinctly, and clearly; then both are at the best, but confused and uncertain in your Souls.

Spiritual Love, and Spiritual Joy have both this Property; they set the Heart on work, to be ever enditing a good matter, sweet matter, touching the King, the Glory of the Lord Jesus. They make the Tongue of a man like the Pen of a ready writer, Psal. 45. 1. sweetly, swiftly, forming, and warbling forth distinct Expressions of the Divine Glory.

Thus much for the Third Tryal.

4. Tryal. The Fourth Tryal of Spiritual Joy is this: Spiritual Joy is above the Natural man. 1 Pet. 1. 8. Joy Glorious, and Unspeakable. 1 Cor. 2. 9. The Eye sees not; the Ear hears not; the Heart takes not in the Spiritual Joys of a Christian. Sense, Fancy, Reason, all the Faculties, and Powers of the Rational man are too low to reach, too narrow to receive these Joys.

Obj. If it be thus, how can any man have these Joys, or have any sense of of them, while he is on the Earth?

Ans. I answer to that by Two places of Scripture. 1. The First place of Scripture is, 2 Corin. 4. 7. We have this Treasure in Earthly Vessels, that the Excellency of the Power may be of God, and not of us. The Spiritual man possesseth the Treasure of Spiritual Joys in itself. But the Natural man holdeth in itself this Joy; because it holdeth the Spi…itual man in itself, as the Water of p. 107life in a Vessel. So the Excellency of the Power, which takes in Spiritual Joy, is of the Spiritual man, though it be in the Natural man, who is united with the Spiritual man in One Person.

2. The Second Place of Scripture is, 2 Cor. 4. last. We as in a Glass beholding the Glory of the Lord, &c. The Natural man is the Glass, the Spiritual man is the living Face. As a living Face makes an Image of itself in a Glass, and then sees, enjoys itself in that Image. So the Spiritual man makes an Image of its Joys in the Natural man; and hath a living, substantial Enjoyment of them that way: while the Natural man holds the Image only. After the same manner the Soul in the Body contemplates, enjoys itself, and all immaterial things, in the imagination only, which is a Material Glass.

Examine your Joys; do they admit a Stranger, the outward man into their Fellowship, to intermeddle with them? Do they flow alike thorow the Regenerate, and the Unregenerate part, as upon a Level? I would then question, though I would not condemn them.

Those Spiritual Joys have the greatest Doubtfulness, and Danger in them, which make the greatest Impressions, Motions, and Discoveries of themselves in the Natural man.

St. Paul speaketh of the Spirits putting up from the Heart of a Saint, Unexpressible Groans, Rom. 8. Those Griefs, and Joys are most likely to come from the Spirit, which make the least Sound, Noise, or Alteration in the Fleshly part.

I have done with this Use of Examination.

Use. 2. Conviction. Do not think Religion, or Holiness a Melancholy thing. Do not fear to be Religious, as if then you must part with all your Delights, and put your self into the perpetual Desert of a solitary, sad sour Conversation. Holiness, and Religion have their own Joy, and will take none of yours.

1 Tim. 6. 6. Godliness is great gain with Contentment. Let me commend Holiness to you in Three Particulars.

1. Particular. The First Particular is this: Holiness is a Kingdom in itself: It is Godliness, foreign, the Right way of taking in, and holding forth the Majesty of God.

Holiness, is the Uniting of the Soul, by a vital, and conjugal Union to God, who is the Lord of All, who is All in All. Thy Maker is thy Husband. Es. 54. 5.

Religion is a Discovery in the Soul, of God, as the Eternal Spirit, the Quickning Spirit; as bringing forth Himself, as working his own works, as fulfilling his Joy, as setting up his Kingdom in the Soul. He hath shined into our Hearts the Glory of the Knowledge of God, 2 Corin. 4. 6.

Religion is a Drawing of the Soul up to God, into the Glory of God: as the Sheet, which St. Peter saw, was drawn up into Heaven. Brethren, partakers of the Heavenly Call, Heb. 3. 1.

Can this be a Melancholy thing, where there is so much of Heaven, so much p. 108of the Love, Life, Glory of God himself? Can there want Content, where there is a Kingdom, the Kingdom of God? Or Delights, where the Immortal King Jesus Christ keeps his Court?

Why shouldst thou think it strange, when all things in Nature are united to their Head, and in that have their Perfection; that thy Soul should be re-united to her God, and partake of his Fulness, and there possess a Fulness of Joy? Thou art our Father: Say they in the Prophet, I will return to my Father; saith the Prodigal Son, Luke 15. 18.

This is the First Particular.

2. Particular: Godliness, or true Religion is Gain. It is so far from making you loosers in any point; that it gives you your own again with Usury and Increase. It will not divorce your Spirit from any of your Joys; but it will make the Marriage-bed of your Delights, Honourable, and Undefiled: Green, and Flourishing.

There is a double Gain of Joy in Holiness.

1. There is a Gainful Change made upon your Joys, when you come to be truly Religious. Your former Joys are transfigured like the Garments of Jesus Christ. They are changed from a Vile to a Glori…us State, from a Corruptible to an Immortal State.

2. There is a Gainful Addition made to your Joys, by being Holy. Holiness brings in upon your Spirits higher, greater, and more Heavenly Joys, such as you were never acquainted with before.

Godliness hath the Promises of this Life, and that, which is to come, 1 Tim. 4. 8. Gen. 49. 2 6. Jacob blesseth his Son Joseph after this manner: The Almighty shall bless thee with the Blessings of Heaven above, and with the Blessings of the Deep, that lieth under. v. 27. He adds: The Blessings of thy Father hath prevailed above the Blessings of my Progenitors. Come, taste, and see, what Sweetness, what a Blessing there is in being Holy. The Blessing of a Holy and Spiritual Principle in your Hearts will prevail above the Blessings, and Joys of all your Natural, and Worldly Principles. You shall have the Delights of Heaven above, and the Delights that are in the Deep of Nature which lies below.

All these you shall enjoy, while you are on Earth; 'tis true indeed you shall enjoy them in the Promises, which is, as a Spring in the Earth; which is by the Life of Faith as under a vail of Contradiction; in a hidden way; but a sweet, sure, substantial way.

Do not thou Doubt, but that God can make Abrahams dead Body a Father to an Isaac; even thee in this Earthly State, which is dark, and dead to possess, as thine own all mirth of Angels, men; all the Precious things of the Sun, and Moon, the Creature, and the Creator, if thou put thy trust in him.

Do not fear to give up, and Sacrifice thy Isaac, thy Natural Joys to thy God, by devoting thy self to Him in a Religious way. It shall be no loss or Death p. 109to thy Joys. He shall give thee thy Isaac, thy Joys again, in the Figure, and Fellowship, as a Seed of Eternal Joys.

3. Particular: Religion gives you Joy with Contentment; with Assurance, and Rest. When you come to God, and have your Joys in him, you are at home, at your End, in your Center: So all the Workings, Desires, Inclinations of your Soul are satisfied, they acquiesce, and are still.

God is your Beginning, and your End: When you live to him, he gives you assurance in your Joys, he seals them to you; because he is the Beginning, the first of all. He gives you Rest in your Joys, that you care for, you are capable of nothing more; because he is the End, the close, the fulness of all.

Happy, and Blessed is he, to whom the Kingdom of God is come: God giveth that man Joy, and no trouble; no Stain, no Shame, no Sting with it.

Happy, and Blessed is he, who hath share in this Joy, for to him the Bitterness of Death, and every evil is already past.

2. Part: Enlargement. The Enlargement of the Soul in God is the Second Part of Spiritual Joy. This is fitly exprest by the Prophet. Esa. 52. 9. Break forth into Joy, Sing together, ye wast places of Jerusalem: For the Lord hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem. The Lord first Redeems the Soul, delivers her from the State of Servitude, and Subjection; then she breaks forth into Joy.

Natural Joy is the Dilatation, or Enlargement of the Heart. Spiritual Joy is the Dilatation, or Enlargement of the Holy Spirit in man. When the Divine Principle in the Soul breaks out of the Darkness of our Nature, when it breaks forth from the Bonds of Flesh into its own Liberty, and Freedom: this is the Kingdom of God, and the Joy thereof in the Soul.

You have this Joy of the Kingdom fitly, and fully described in a Parable, by our Lord Jesus: Mat. 13. 44. The Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a Treasure hid in a Field: the which, when a man hath found, he hideth, and for Joy thereof goeth, and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that Field. The opening of this Parable will tend very much to the Explaining of this Particular, of which I am now speaking.

There are Five Things to be opened in the Parable.

1. The Field.

2. The Treasure in the Field.

3. The Concealment of this Treasure.

4. The Discovery of the Treasure.

5. The Purchase of the Field.

1. The Field. This is the First Thing. The Kingdom of God is like unto a Treasure hid in a Field. What should this Field be? Can it be any other thing, than the Natural Image of God in Man? This is 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 p. 110Earth 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. p. 111Though 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.

p. 112The 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.

p. 113Then 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 r…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 th…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.

p. 114Three 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,foreign 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 possess his Being, and all things, that appertain to it, as in a Figure, as a Type of some higher thing.

With what Humility, and Peace? In what Silence, and Satisfaction would Man live, if he did but know himself; that he walkt in a Figure; that his whole Being, and Life is altogether a Figure of something above him, something to come, which is to be revealed in him?

What would become of all our Pride, Plots, Passions; if we knew; that Man is as the Reflection of the Light of the Sun from a Glass upon a wall. That reflection, that Light upon the wall danceth, and trembleth, as the Glass moveth, from which it is cast? The Sun is God: the Light Jesus Christ: the Glass, the Angelical Nature: the Reflection, or Light on the Wall, the Earthly Man.

This is the First Thing in the Being of a Man.

2. To be a Man, is to be the Image of God, Gen. 1. 26. God made man in his own Image, and Likeness, Rom. 5. 14. The First Man was the Figure of him, who was to come: that is, of Jesus Christ.

Man is the Supream, and Universal Image of God in the First Creation; as Jesus Christ is in the Second, Eccles: 6. 10. That which hath been, it is named already, that it is man: and he may not contend with him, who is mightier than he. Man is all in this First Creation which is that, which hath been already, and is now faded, passing away, but this Man must yield to Jesus Christ, who is coming, and bringing with him a New Creation.

So far thou art a Man, as thou comprehendest, sustainest, subduest, possessest enjoyest all Images of things among the Creatures, in thy self, as the Universal Image; and thy self as an Image, in the Appearance of God.

He indeed is a Man, and lives, as the Image of God, who lives at a Height above the Creatures in himself; and at a Height above himself, in God.

p. 115That, by which we see a Building, a Wood, a large Prospect, or the Body of Heaven, is a very little thing, and lies in a little compass in the Apple of the Eye, as one with it. But it shews not the Eye, to the Eye; nor itself to the Eye; but only those things, which it represents. Man is the great Representative of God. He ceaseth to be a Man, so far, as he sees any thing, besides himself, in the Creatures; and any thing besides God, in himself.

As God in Divine things: so Man, as the Image of God in Natural things, is to be All in All. This is the Natural Righteousness, and Perfection of Man, thus to stand in the Image of God.

This is the Second Thing.

3. To be a Man, is to be the Image only, and no more. David saith, Psal. 39. 6. Man walks in a vain show: an empty Image. And least you should think, that this is spoken of Man only since his Fall: when man was first made in a State of Perfection, Gen. 1. 26. it is said, that God made man in his own Image, and Likeness: the very same word is used there by Moses, which is used here by David: TSELEM. The Word signifies a Dying Shadow.

Man is only a Shadow of God without the Substance: a Shadowy Image, not a Substantial one; an Image, which subsists by the Substance, and hath the Likeness of it: but possesseth not the Substance with the Life in itself.

The Difference between Man, as he was created at first, and the Lord Jesus, is expressed by St. Paul, 1 Corin. 15. 49. As we have born the Image of the Earthly, so shall we bear the Image of the Heavenly also. Man is an Earthly Image: Jesus Christ is the Heavenly Image of God.

Earth is an Image of Heaven in a baser Substance, or Kind, Man is an Image of God in a Principle of Darkness, which hides, and vails the Substance. Jesus Christ is a Perfect Image, which holds forth the Substance clearly, and is One with it.

Thus Man at his best Estate is altogether Vanity, as David speaks.

So we have seen, what Man is: by which we see, from whence we are fallen: How little of Man there is left in Man. When Man was perfect, Humility, Submission, Obedience was the Perfection of man, as being an Image only. What little reason then hath empty, wretched man now for Pride, Vainglory, Confidence, Self-love?

I have done with the First Instruction.

2. Instr. What a Sinner is. A Sinner un-mans himself. He puts himself out of the Image of God into some low, inferiour Image of a Creature. God complains of sinful men, Psal. 4. 2. How long will ye turn my Glory into Shame? Man is the Glory of God, Saith St. Paul; that is, the Image of God. Man by by Sin exchangeth this Glorious Image for some base Image among the Creatures, which becomes an Idol, and a Reproach, when it is not held in the Image of God, as in its Head. Thus Man turns the Glory of God into Shame.

O! That we did understand, how Glorious an Image Man is by his Creation; p. 116what a change Sin hath made in him! We should then hate Sin to purpose, and tremble at every Act of it.

A Sinner is

1. The Ape of a Man, and not a Man.

2. A Monster.

3. A Devil.

1. A Sinner is the Ape of a Man, and not a Man: He is a Beast in the Likeness of a Man: or the Image of Man shut up, and imprisoned in a Brutish Principle, and Image.

Psal. 49. 12. Man being in Honour continueth not, but becomes like the Beast that perisheth. By each act of Lust, Passion, any inordinate Inclination toward any Created Appearance, thou un-clothest thy self of the Image of God, which is thine Honour, and clothest thy self with a Particular Image, which, if it be without Life, is a Stock, or a Stone, if it have Life is a Beast; So, whil'st thou livest in it, thou art but the Ape of a Man, and a true Beast; putting on contempt, scorn, and Death; instead of Honour, and Immortality.

2. A Sinner is a Monster. When thou sinnest, thou confoundest the Excellent Image in thee with a base Image, so thou makest thy self a Monster.

Gen. 6. 2. The Sons of God saw the Daughters of men, and took Wives of them. Then at the fourth v. we read; that there were Gyants upon the Earth in those days. Give me leave to make an Allegory, or an Allusion of this Story, which you please.

The Divine Image is the Man, the Son of God: All the Inferiour Images of the Creatures descend from this, depend on this, are the Secondary, and weaker Births of it. So they are the Daughters of Men.

While the Image of God in Man holds the lower Images of things in a Subjection, and subordination to itself, as Daughters to their Father: all things then are in their Order, and Beauty.

But when the Son of God, the Supream Image, which is Man, looks down, and dotes upon the Inferiour Images the Daughters of Men; when it marries, and mingles itself with them, then confusion comes in: then this Beautiful Image, Man, becomes a Monster, and brings forth Monsters.

Now Gyants are born: Man comes forth in a greatness, and force resembling the Image of God in Man, but is in the true Form, and Principle of a Beast. The Divine Image is fallen, imprisoned, dead in the midst of all this Greatness.

Thus of a truth Sin is the highest Incest, the most unnatural confusion, the true Engendring of Monsters.

3. A Sinner makes himself a Devil. A man by Sin withdraws the Creature from the Image of God: sets it up in its own Principle, and Image: so maintains it in the place of, and against the Image of God.

Rom. 1. 25. St. Paul sets forth the Nature of Sin after this manner. who changed the Truth of God into a Lie, serving the Creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever▪ See here the nature of the Devil discovered in a Sinner.

p. 117When thou fatherest any Sin, thou by that Act makest thy self the Father of Idolatry, Lies, and Murther.

1. Thou makest thy self by Sin the Father of Idolatries: Thou settest up the Creature above the Creator, and servest that, more than thou dost him; Sacrificing thy Heart, thy Love, and thy Life to it.

2. Thou makest thy self by Sin the Father of Lies: thou settest up the Creature; as if it were something of, and in itself; when as it is meerly nothing, save as it is in the Image of God.

3. Thou makest thy self by Sin the Father of Murthers: Thou killest, and destroyest the Image of God; which is the First Murther, and the Fountain of all Murthers. Thou changest the Truth of God into a Lie. Thou makest away that Image of God, which is the Truth, and Life of all the Creatures; by setting up instead of it those things, which as they are in themselves, without that Image, are not only Vanity, but a Lie too.

He knows very little of the Nature of Man, of the Creature, of God; who knows not Sin to be the most ridiculous Apishness, that he may despise it: the most horrid Monstrousness, that he may hate it: the highest Devilishness, that he may tremble at it, and fly from it.

So much for the Second Instruction, which shews us, what a Sinner is.

3. Instr. What a Saint is. Then a Man begins to be a Saint, when the Natural Image of God begins to be restored in him with advantage; with the advantage of the Super-natural Image bringing it forth again from itself, and itself in it, together with it.

The Kingdom of God brings forth itself, and the Kingdom of Nature a Second time in itself. Behold, I make all things new, Saith Jesus Christ, when he appears in the Soul.

The Second Adam revives, and restores the First Adam, in us; but as in its own Spirit, and Bosom; that so the Earthly Man may become Heavenly, and Immortal.

I will conclude this use with Consolation to Two Sorts of Mourners, Gods Mourners.

1. Consolation. You who have lost the Innocency of your Natures in Sin, and Guilt; be you comforted in the knowledge of this: The Righteousness of God, the Eternal Image of Glory shall break forth in your Souls, and bring forth the First Image of Beauty, your Natural Innocency again upon you; with an Increase of Glory.

It is the Lord that justifies, who shall condemn: Saith St. Paul, Rom. 8. 34. Who, or what Guilt shall condemn thee, or be able to sink for ever the Innocency, and Beauty of thy Nature; though it now have lain long buried under thy Lusts? The Lord, the Lord himself shall come, and this Beauty of thine shall come with him, and thou shall see it again with Joy.

2. Consolation. You, who have lost the Chearfulness of your Spirits, and p. 118the sweet Pleasantness of your Natural tempers in Melancholy, and Terrours, comfort your selves in the knowledge of this. The Spring of Joys, the Eternal Spirit, the Spirit of our Lord Jesus shall open itself within you; and shall send forth from itself the ancient streams of your first Peace, and joys; of your natural chearfulness. Your natural Spirits shall once more danc… and sing together in this Spirit.

All your Springs are in this Heavenly Image: the Springs of your first Innocency, Beauty, Peace, Pleasantness. All shall open themselves again upon you from the Bosom of this Image, at the Appearance of it, never to be shut more. And this Heavenly Image shall certainly appear in you. Only do you wait with Hope, and Patience for the appointed Season.

Do notmourn at the Death of any natural Beauty, or Content, as without Hope ever to see it again; the Hour comes apace, and perhaps now is, in which thy dead Innocency, and Joys shall hear the Voice of the Son of Man, Jesus Christ in thee, and live again by him.

Do not doubt, but believe. The Earth shall hear the Heaven. The Earthly Image of Life, Paradise, and Heaven in thee shall be awakened again in thy Spirit by the manifestation of thy Saviour in thee. Thine Eyes shall see thy Redeemer; and he shall stand the last upon the Earth. Thine Eyes shall certainly see Jesus Christ, when he shall redeem the Earthly Man in thee with all its Excellency, and Sweetness from these Powers of Sin, Fear, Death, and Hell, which have carried it captive. And thou shalt see this Jesus the Heaven of God, the Heavenly Image, last of all standing, and appearing in thy Earth, thy Earthly Man, thy first Image.

Be of good chear, faint not. Death shall not prevent this Blessedness. Thou shalt live, when God shall do all this; thine Eyes shall behold it, and thou shalt taste of it, and feed upon it. For God hath undertaken it, and he will bring it to pass. Behold I make all things new; saith He, who is the first, and the last. Believe, and wait: for these words are True, and Holy. Revel. 21. 5, 6. And he that sate upon the Throne said: Behold I will make all things new. And he said, Write, (write upon your Hearts this Sentence, behold, I the Lord make all things new.) For these words are True, and Holy. And he said unto me; It is done: (This is the Finishing of all things, the ending of the Mystery) I am Alpha, and Omega, the Beginning, and the End: I will give unto him, that is a thirst, of the Fountain of the Water of Life Freely, that is, without any thing of Suitableness to it, or Satisfaction for it, without any Condition, or Confinement.

3. Part: The Activity of the Soul in God. This is the Third, and last Part of Divine Ioy.

The Psalmist expresseth Joy by Shouting, and Singing: Psal 65. 13. The Pastures are clothed with Flocks; (the Appearances of God are Green, and Flourishing, they bring forth, maintain, and put forth themselves into numerous p. 119Flocks of Saints:) the Valleys also are covered with Corn; (The lowest State of things in the Flesh, and the Natural Man are cloathed with Jesus Christ, and grow up into him, who is the Bread, and Beauty of Eternal life.) they Shout for Joy, they also Sing. This is Spiritual Musick, the working of Spiritual Joy, to Shout, and to Sing.

We read of a Two-fold Song, which Spiritual Persons sing, Revel. 15. 3. They Sing the Song of Moses, and of the Lamb. The Song of Moses is the Law; the Song of the Lamb, the Gospel. When the Children of Israel had passed thorow the Red Sea, and saw their Enemies lie dead on the Shore: then they Sung the Song of Moses, who drew them out of those Waters, according to the Signification of his Name.

When the Soul hath escaped out of the Sea of Blood mingled with Fire, which is the Dissolution of her Natural Principles in Troubles, and Terrours by the Baptism of the Spirit; when shee sees her Spiritual Enemies slain on the Dry Land of Christ Spiritual Appearance: then she Sings the Song of the Lamb, who was dead, but is alive, and lives for ever; the Song of Peace.

Singing naturally, with the outward voice, is the highest, and fullest Activity of the Natural Spirits. So Singing Spiritually, and with the Inward Man is the highest Activity of the Spirit in our Spiritual Part.

This Spiritual Musick, or Singing, which is the working of the Wine of Spiritual Joy in the Soul, consists of Three Things.

1. The Heightning of the Soul towards God.

2. The Tuning of the Soul to God.

3. The Exercise, or Entertainment of the Soul upon God, and with God.

1. The Heightning of the Soul towards God. This is one Piece of that Activity of Spiritual Ioy, which is the true Musick of the Soul.

In that place cited before, Psal. 65. 13. Singing, and Shouting are put together, 1 Thessal. 4. 16. The Lord Jesus is said to descend from Heaven with a Shout. This Shout is the Awakening, and the Elevation of the Soul, or Body towards the highest State of things, by the Powerful breakings forth of the Glory of God upon them.

Psalm, Psal. 57. 7. David had said: I will Sing, and give Praise. Then he calls upon himself, v. 8. Awake up my Glory, awake my Psaltery, and Harp: I my self will awake right early.

Some say, Davids Glory was his Tongue: but then sure it was such a Tongue of Fire, as sat upon the Heads of the Apostles, a Tongue of Spiritual Manifestations, and Heavenly Glory, like a Flame, enlightning, and heating both at once.

Man is the Glory of God; saith St. Paul, 1 Corin. 11. 7. The Spiritual Man is the true, and Spiritual Glory of God. The Natural Man is but a Shadowy Glory.

David calls upon his Glory to awake; as distinct from himself; and then he saith: I shall awake; like that of St. Paul, Galat. 2. 20. I live not, but Christ p. 120in me: there is the Glory awakening itself: and the Life, that I live, is by the Faith of the Son of God: there is himself awakened in that Glory.

Then the Soul sings, when the Life of Jesus Christ, which is her Glory, awakens itself in her, and awakens her together with itself, into the Light of God, to a Contemplation of, and fixing upon his Beauties. Now the Soul is above her ordinary Pitch, as Waking is above Sleeping. Now she sits above herself, upon the top of her Spiritual Principles, as a Bird upon the Top-branch of a Tree, Singing in the Sun-shine, the highest Light of Divine Discoveries.

This is the First thing in this Activity, or Spiritual Musick.

2. The Timing of the Soul to God. In that fore-mentioned Psal. 57. 7. David speaks of awakening three distinct Lives: His Glory: His Psaltery, and Harp: Himself. The Glory is Jesus Christ in the Soul. Self is the Soul. The Psaltery and Harp those Heavenly Principles, and Powers, which as Ministring Spirits, go forth from Jesus Christ into the Soul, suiting, fitting, and tuning the Soul to her Saviour.

Revel. 15. 2. St. Iohn saw the Saints, that had gotten the victory over the Beast, stand upon a Sea of Glass mingled with Fire, and the Harps of God in their hands. Then in the next verse they Sing.

The Sea is this Creation, especially the Invisible, the Angelical Part of it. In this State it is a dark, troubled, foaming Sea. But in the Kingdom of Christ it shall be a Sea of Glass, a Chrystalline Sea, clear, calm, fresh taking in, and holding forth the Lord Jesus, the Image, and Face of God, as a Glass, as a pleasant Stream. The Fire, with which it shall be mingled, shall be the Spirit of God, and of Glory resting upon the Creature.

The Saints standing upon this Sea, shall have the Harps of God in their hands. Angels are the Trumpets of God. This State of the Saints, which is here described, is their Angelical State, when they shall be like the Angels. These Harps of God then are Angelical Tempers, and Principles, which Jesus Christ brings forth, and puts into the Soul, as Harps into their Hands, by which they are tuned, and fitted, made ready for Him, to sing to Him.

Thus the Soul is tuned to God, being put into a Spiritual, and Heavenly Temper, like an Angel beholding the Face of God, and in a readiness to Sing forth, to Sing aloud his Glory.

Coloss. 3. 16. St. Paul speaks of Spiritual Songs, which they were to Sing with Grace in their Hearts. This is that, which David calls his Harp. This is the Harp of God in the hands of the Saints, the Grace of God in their Hearts.

This is the Tuning of the Soul to Christ, the Receiving of Grace for Grace from Christ, the winding up of Grace in the Heart to a pitch of Conformity, and Communion with Jesus Christ, like the Tuning of two voices, or Instruments one to another; that so Christ and the Soul may make Musick each to other, and have their Joy fulfilled in one another.

So much for the Second Thing.

p. 1213. The Exercise, and Entertainment of the Soul upon God, and with God. This is the Third thing in the Souls Singing for Ioy.

David saith in one place: I will Sing of thy Righteousness: and in another: I will Sing of thy Power.

The Spiritual Joy, and Musick of a Saint is to fly abroad among the Excellencies of the Divine Nature: to enlarge, and act his Spirit to the Height upon the Beauties, and Brightnesses in the Face of God; the Uprightness, Truth, Perfection in the Heart of God; the Freedom, Fulness, Fruitfulness, Infiniteness, in the Spirit, and Life of God.

David hath often expressions to this purpose: I will Sing to thee: I will Sing to the Lord. So St. Paul speaks: Making melody to God. The Holy Soul Sings of God, to God.

Spiritual Joy is the Free letting forth of the Spirit with God, concerning God.

It is often the Work, and Delight of a Holy Soul to open her mouth wide, to take in to the utmost, the contemplation of God, the communications of his Greatness, Fulness, Sweetness, Glory: and then, when she is fullest, to pour forth herself again into the Ear, and Bosom of her God.

You may see this in the Psalmist, Psalm 45. 1. My Heart is enditing a good matter. I speak of the things touching the King. My Tongue is as the pen of a ready writer.

The Heart was here full. A Spring of Heavenly Sweetness had opened itself in it. It bubled, and boyled up apace. It enlarged itself into a Flood of matter. But all was touching the King, the Beauty, the Glory, the Graciousness, the Pleasantness, the Love, the Power of Jesus Christ. And the Heart full of this Blessed matter, empties itself again as fully upon Jesus Christ. My Tongue is as the Pen of a ready Writer.

I have now shewn you the Third Part of Spiritual Joy, which is the Activity of the Soul in God.

Use. 1. For Instruction. Spiritual Ioy is no Secure, Slothful, Carnal thing.

1. Spiritual Joy is no Secure thing. It hath the least, and the greatest Security in it. It suffers a man to be least of all secure in himself, or in any Creature; that he may be most secure in God.

True Joy consists in the Heightning of the Soul towards God. The Soul, that is acquainted with this Joy, hath a Fear, and Trembling upon her, while she is among the Creatures, though she be in the Fulness of them. She can rest no where, till she get up above them all, and come to God.

God makes a Gracious Promise to a good Man, Psal. 91. 14. I will s…t him on high, because he hath known my name. The word signifies the setting of a man in a Strong Castle situate on a High Rock. The God-Head is the Rock, the Messiah, or the Humanity of Jesus Christ, is the Castle upon this Rock.

A Holy Soul is in Safety, and may be in very great Security; but not in her self, nor in the World. Her Safety, and Security lies in being carried upward, p. 122and set on high, in being encompassed with Jesus Christ, and God, as with a Tower of Defence.

The Soul hath her high Rock, and her Strong Castle of Spiritual Joy, and Triumph; not in the knowledge of any thing here below, not in any Earthly acquaintance; but in the knowledge of God. I will set him on High, because he hath known me.

If we be in the Light, as God is Light; then is our Joy full; and the consolations of the Lord Jesus cleanse our Hearts from all Clouds of Griefs, and Fears.

This is the First Instruction.

2. Spiritual Joy is no Sluggish Thing. It is the Enlargement, and Activity of the Soul.

I went by the Field of the Sluggard, saith Solomon, end I saw it over-grown with Thorns. Thy Spirit is thy Field. If thou be not plowing it up with the Cross of Christ; and sowing it with the Seeds of Grace, Glory, and Immortality by the Life of Christ; and waiting for, and gathering, and feeding upon the Appearances of these in thee; thou art this Sluggard, and canst expect nothing but Thorns.

That Soul which is not Spiritually active in Christ, will be miserably passive in Cares, and Confusions,

Divine Joy is the Highest, and most Harmonious Activity of the Soul upon the highest Excellencies of the Best, and most Blessed Object, which is Jesus Christ.

While the Husband-man sleepeth, Tares are Sown. If Jesus Christ be asleep in the Ship, the Winds toss it, and the Waves fill it. A sleepy, or sluggish temper of Spirit breeds Fears, Cares, and all Sorts of Troubles.

Awaken the Lord Jesus in thy Spirit, and be thy self awake in his Spirit, if thou wouldst have Peace, and Joy.

3. Spiritual Joy is no Carnal, or Fleshly Thing. This is the Third Instruction. The Joy of the Spirit is the Exercise, and Entertainment of the Soul on God.

Mark the Temper, and Spirit of St. Iohn, 1 John 1. 3. That, which we have seen, and heard, declare we unto you, that ye also may have Fellowship with us; and truly our Fellowship is with the Father, and with the Son Iesus Christ. V. 4. And these things write we unto you, that your Ioy may be full. V. 5. This then is the Message, which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is Light, and in him there is no Darkness at all.

Spiritual Joy springs from seeing Spiritual Objects, and hearing Spiritual Mysteries. The Eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the Ear with hearing: Saith Solomon, Eccl. 1. 8. The Natural Eye, and Ear can convey no Satisfaction to us For they are but a Dream. The Sight, and hearing of the Things of this Life can give no Satisfaction; for they are but a Shadow.

A Full Joy, Joy, and fulness both together come by a Spiritual way of seeing, and hearing the Things of Eternal Life.

p. 123You may have a slight, empty, vanishing Joy by Fellowship with the Pleasures, and Glories of the Flesh.

But if you will have a full, and solid Joy, which may endure for ever, your Fellowship must be with the Father, and the Son Jesus Christ.

Bring before your Spirits the Excellencies, and, Delights of the whole World. Let all the Creatures send into your Souls from the best Hand, Messages of their Loveliness and Loves. You for all this can have no true Joy, no compleat Joy in any of these things. For all the Creatures have in their highest Sweetnesses, and Glories a Darkness, which will begets, Doubts, Fears, and Distractions in you.

Would you have Joy? Seek it in the Declaration and Discovery of God, who is Light, and hath no Darkness in him. Seek it in the Contemplations of God by his own Light.

So long thou shalt have Peace, and Joy, as thou turnest away thy Spirit from the Lying Vanities of the Creature; and takest in, and livest upon Messages of God, which are brought in upon thee by God himself.

Behold the Face of God, and thy Heart shall live in Pleasures, For in his Face is the Fulness of Joy, with all manner of Pleasantnesses, without any uncomfortable Dash, or Mixture of Darkness. But, while thine Eye looks upon the Sparklings, or Appearances of any Creature, thine Heart shall never be without the biting of the Serpent.

So much for the First Use.

Use 2. Exhortation. Press forward toward the High Calling of this Royal, and Joyful State in Religion.

Your Fears, Doubts, and Servile Tempers in your Religion arise from a want of Growth. Forget that, which you have already attained, and follow hard after Jesus Christ. There is before you a State of Peace, Pleasure, and Perfection in a Kind.

Travel on thorow this vale of Tears, in which you now are, from Strength to Strength; till you come to see the God of Gods, on Mount Sien, in this State of Royalty, and Joy.

But you may now ask me Two Ques….

Quest. 1. Whether is this Royal and Joyful State of Holiness attainable in this Life? May we enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, before we go out of this Body? Dath not St. Paul say; that Flesh, and Blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of Heaven? … Corin. 15. 50.

My Answer to this Question is Four-fol… 1. Answ. So far, as we are risen with Christ, while we are on Earth; So far we are entred into the Kingdom of H…en, before we are out of the Body.

St. Paul speaks to the Colossians, as being Risen with Jesus Christ, Col. 3. 1. If ye then be Risen with Christ, seek those things, which are above, where Christ sitteth on the Right Hand of God.

2. Answ. We may in this Life attain to a State of Royalty, and Joy Comparatively. p. 124We may come to that Degree of Liberty, Power, Peace, and Pleasure in Holiness; which may be a Resurrection into the Kingdom of God, and Heaven, compared with lower Degrees of Grace, thorow which we pass.

St. Paul speaks to the Galatians: But now after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak, and beggerly Elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in Bondage? Galat. 4. 9. Here you have described a Two fold State of Grace on Earth. The First is in these words: After that ye have known God, or rather are known of God. This knowledge of God is in the Spirit, and Truth. There the Apostle expresseth it rather, by a being known of God; or, as some interpret it, a being made to know by God. The sense is the same, which is this: The coming in of God after a Spiritual manner, and making himself in the Spirit One with our Spirits; so that God in the Power of his Spirit is the Principle by which we know: and God in the Appearance of his Spirit is the Object which we know.

Now we know God, not an Earthly Figure only of God. Now we are known of God. For we are taken up into the Light, and Spirit of God. Now we are made to know by God. For it is God, who both knows, and is known in us. It is the Light, and Spirit of God, in, and by which we know.

The Second State described is in these words: How turn ye again to weak; and beggerly Elements? The Principles of this Creation are these Elements, which are weak, because they cannot hold forth God to us, but in a very uncertain way, full of Fear, and Doubt. They are Beggerly, because they can convey to us very little of the Riches, Fulness, Greatness, Grace, Glory of God.

When we first come to the knowledge of God, for the most part we know him after this manner, by the Rudiments of the Flesh, the Elements of this World. And so long we are in Bondage, carried on by Fear, and Hope, in a Servile way: seeing very little Glory, enjoying very little Freedom in our Religion.

You that are in this Condition, whose Fears are your Food, whose Tears are your Drink, by Day and Night: Up, and be travelling forward thorow this Shadowy Vale, you may come to such a State of Holiness even here in this Life, as will be a Heaven compared with this Wilderness, in which now you wander. When you shall attain to a Spiritual understanding of Things, you will think your selves come forth from a Prison-bonse, in which before, like Samson, you were made to Grind, with your Eyes out; into a Palace, where you sit, and reign like Kings, in a Divine Light, Liberty, and Joy.