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

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

p. 1MAT. XVIII. 3.

Except ye be converted, and become as little Children, ye cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.

IN the First Verse, the Disciples of our Lord measuring the State of Things above, by the Principles of Reason, and the Fashion of this World; make this Inquiry; Who should be Greatest in the Kingdom of God; as if Ambition must follow us into Heaven, there also to make a Hell. Our Savior would undeceive those, whom He lov'd, by answering not so much to their Proposals, as their Principles. Therefore He gives them a full Description of the Christian Mystery, which is exprest in the words of my Text: Except ye be Converted, and become as little Children, ye cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.

This Description hath Three Parts.

1. A Rise to a Kingdom.

2. The Race towards it.

3. The Royalty itself.

1. The Rise to the Kingdom lyes in these words: Except ye be converted: The Greek word signifies a Turn or Change from the present Principles, and Forms of things to another vertue and view.

2. The Race to the Kingdom is thus set forth: and become as little Children: Diminutives are signs of Affection, Delight, and Dependence; as that; One of those little Ones, that believeth on Me: Mat. 18. 6.

3. The Royalty itself, is magnificently describ'd: Ye cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. The Kingdom of Heavn hath a Twofold Signification. Sometimes it is generally taken for both States of Grace and Glory: one being the Inchoation; the other the Consummation: Man in one, being as a King Elect: in the other a King Crown'd. Sometimes it hath a particular sense, and points out one peculiar State of Liberty, and Spiritual Glory; as Rom. 14. 17. The Kingdom of God consisteth not in Meats and Drinks: but in Righteousness, Peace, and Ioy in the Holy Ghost. So again, 2 Pet. 1. 8, 11. If these things be in you, and abound, a large entrance shall be made for you into the Kingdom of Heaven. The Reason of the Expression in both senses is; because God is both the King of Believers, and their Kingdom, either in Fleshly Types, or in his own Spiritual. Appearance.

p. 2These three Parts thus opened, afford us three Doctrines for our Discourse.

Doct. 1. The first Rise to true Religion is a Conversion or Change.

Doct. 2. The second Course of things in Christianity, is a Childhood or Sonshing.

Doct. 3. The third Degree in Christianity is, an entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven, or the Royalty begun.

Doct. 1. The first Rise to true Religion, is a Conversion or Change. This is the first Doctrine; and I begin with it.

David's language makes it good, Psa. 51. 13. Then will I teach transgressours thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto thee. He that will pass from the dismal Depths of sin and Woe, to those Heights of Strength, Holiness and Sweetness in God, must make his first Motion a Conversion, a Change from a Descent to an Ascent; from going Outward to the Circle, to go Inward towards the Center of things, which comprehends and casts forth all the Circles.

The Explication of the Point will be its fullest Confirmation. I will open it in three Parts.

1. The Change.

2. The Circumstances.

3. The Cause of this Change.

Part 1. The Change. There are two States to be considered in this Part.

1. The State of Man before this Change.

2. The State, to which this Change is made.

1. State. That of Man before this Change. Man before his Conversion walks in a threefold Image.

1. The Image of Nature. 2. The Image of the Devil. 3. The Image of Divine Wrath.

1. Image of Nature. St. Paul tell us, 1 Cor. 15. 49. As we have born the Image of the Earthy, we shall also bear the Image of the Heavenly Man. Earth and Heaven are here opposed, not as Men and Angels, Visible and Invisible things; but as the State of things in the Creature, and in Christ. So it appears manifestly by the Context of that place, that the first Adam, the Earthly Man, the first Creation, Nature in the Visible and Invisible things of it, are all the same thing, and One Image. Into this Image Man is born of his Natural Parents. In this he lives Naturally.

This Image hath three things in it.

1. 'Tis a Representation.

2. 'Tis a Meer Representation.

3. 'Tis a Mixt One

1. The Image of Nature is a Representation. The Earthly Man is an Image of God, as well as the Heavenly. St. Paul teacheth us, Rom. 5. 14. in the latter part of it, that the first Adam is a figure of him, who is to come; that is, Jesus Christ. Whatever Rich workings, and various forms are in him, who is the Wisdom of God. Whatever Depth of Life. Heighth of Activity, Store of Virtues are in him, who is the Power of God: Whatever ravishing Beauties are in him, who is the Brightness of the Father's Glory: Whatever endless Sweetnesses of Love, Loveliness, mutual Relations are in him, who is the first, the Only p. 3begotten of the Father; All these are figured out, and represented to us in the Earthly Image. This is the first thing.

2. The Image of Nature is a Meer Representation: It hath a show of things, but not the very things themselves. We read Psal. 39. 5. Man at his best Estate is altogether vanity. Take the first Man at his Best; as he was crown'd with the whole Quire of Angels when they were the first and freshest Rayes of Divinity among the Creatures; as he was cloath'd with the heavenly Bodies, Sun, Moon and Stars, while yet they were the near and transparent Images of Angels living in them; as he hath spread about his Feet, all the Delicacies of Air, Earth and Sea, when they were Pure and Chrystalline, Reflections of the heavenly Bodies: The first Man in this State was a meer Phantome, a fleeting Fancy, a Bubble, Vanity quite thorow, and so he vanisht in his Fall.

Gen. 1. 27. God made Man in his own Image, Psal. 39. 6. Surely Man walketh in a vain show. Those two expressions; Image, vain Show, are both the same in Hebrew, TSelem. If you translate the same word in Genesis, as it is translated in the Psalm, you will then read thus; God made Man in a vain show of himself.

Obj. But you may object thus against this; If God be Omnipresent, and fill All, how can any thing be a Representation of him, without him? He is at the bottom of the Sea, in the shades of Death and Hell, Psal. 139. 8, 9, 10. Can any thing be a meer Show, when he who is All, is every where, and fills each Show of things.

Ans. 'Tis true, as Euthydemus the Heathen taught of old; All things are in each thing: Or as St. Paul since him hath Preacht upon clearer grounds: God is a Fulness filling all in All, Eph. 1. 23. But this also is true, that All things are in each thing according to the Manner of that in which they are. God is as truly in the Froward, as in the Gentle Spirit. But we learn the Differences of his Presence from David, Psal. 18. 26. With the Pure thou wilt shew thy self Pure; with the Froward thou wilt shew thy self Froward.

God is not only on Mount Sion, but on Mount Sinai; yet so, that on Mount Sinai he is a flame of fire; on Mount Sion a calm and clear Light. So God is in Himself, and in the Creature: In Himself he is Himself; the Eternal Rock and Substance of things. He is in the Creature, only as his own Shadow.

This is the Infiniteness and Unsearchableness of God. He comprehends the thinnest Shadows in Himself, and makes them there Substantial. Again, he casts Himself into every Shadow or Show, and Himself there becomes but shadowy. Thus he is All in All. Thus much for the second thing in the Natural Image.

3. The Image of Nature is a Mixt Representation. The Making of the World was divided into so many Parts, as Days; each Day had its Night; a Morning and an Evening made the Day. This was to signifie that the Fundamental p. 4Constitution of this frame of things, was laid in a commixture of Light and Darkness. These two mutually catch and enfold one another.

The Light discovers God: The Darkness obscures that Discovery; so that seeing, we do not see. The Light pleaseth us; the Darkness perplexeth those pleasures; so that this Life is as a Shady Valley, as a Shadow of Life and Death, Heaven and Hell both in one. The Light invites and allures us to those Immortal Seats above, pointing out a shining Path to them. The Darkness affrights us, and drives us back, casting a mist of Doubt upon those beautiful Beings, presenting it self between them and us, as a Dreadful Gulf to be pass'd,

Nature is by this means an Image of the Perfections, which are beyond Nature; but an Imperfect one. God speaks it, Isa. 55. 9. As the Heavens are higher than the Earth; so are my waies higher than your waies, and my thoughts than your thoughts. The waies of God are the unchang'd workings of Glory, perpetually casting it self into all Changes in the Divine Nature. The Thoughts of God are the deepest Roots, the most spatious Expansion and Putting forth, the fixt and glorious Platforms or Figures of things, in the Godhead. The Waies and Thoughts of Man, are the figurings of things in Nature, or according to the Forms of Nature. This is a certain Rule: The first thing in every kind is the Original and Substance; all second things are Images of that. The first thoughts and waies are those in God. The Waies of Nature, the Thoughts in Man, are second to those, and so Images of them; but with as vast a Difference, as the Distance is between Heaven and Earth. Thus Imperfect and Mixt is Nature, yet an Image of Divine Perfections and Purity.

We have now taken a view of the first Image, in which Man walks before his Change.

Use 1. Excitation. The first Use is to awaken in us a Sense of our State, as we are Men. This would very advantagiously direct, sweeten, assist our Conversion. Let us then to this end consider these four Questions.

1. What we are.

2. Where we are.

3. Whence we come.

4. How we came hither.

Quest. 1. What are we? David answers for us, Psal. 39. 6. Surely Man walketh in a vain show, and disquieteth himself in vain. Man is a Shadowy Show. Descend O Man! into thine own Being: Enter into the secretest Retirement of thine own Spirit; there sit, look round about thee and say, Can I comprehend my self? Can I tell into what f…rm my will would grow up? or into what shapes I shall pass after this moment, while I live, or when I am dead? If I cannot tell this, th… sure I am not my own Origin…l.

Vain Main! why dost thou exalt thy self by Pride, as if thou wert something, seeing thou art not the Beauty, but the Face in the Glass; too slight a thing for thy self to take hold of; too weak a thing to reflect upon it self?

Foolish Man! What dost thou, feeding upon thy Spirit such a numerous p. 5flock of Cares, Contrivances, Confidence, Plots and Passions? Hast thou no sense of this, that, it is not in Man, that walks, to guide his own steps? There is some Eternal thing above thy reach, past thy understanding, which fashions thee, and carries thee on in its own Image.

Look upward then, and say, O thou hidden and supreme Substance! which hast cast me, as thy Shadow, upon this Earth; comprehend me. O thou supreme Pattern! which hast sent me forth to pass thorow this world in thy Image; Guide me.

Q. 2. Where are we? I shall give a twofold Answer to this Question.

Ans. 1. We are in a world of Images. This world is a Type of God, insomuch that some Heathens call'd the world, the Great God. Solomon saith, Wisdom lifts up her voice, and cryes in the corner of every street. Wisdom is the Brightness of Eternal Beauties; the Streets are the Outward Forms, on which all the Creatures walk forth; the Corner or Head of the Street is the Power or Principle in these Forms thorow which, as by several Tongues of Fire, the Forms above sparkle and proclaim themselves. Their sound, saith St. Paul, is gone forth into the whole Earth.

Canst thou sleep, be slothful or sad here? Hear and see. O Man! thou art in this world, as at a Show. A Noise of Diving Glories descending thorow the Clouds: Apparitions of heavenly Essences, or Excellencies coming forth shadowed; these fill the empty space. A Repetition of Blessed Sounds; a Restection of Holy Images falling from above; This is the World in which thou livest.

Dost thou not feel Desire awakened in thee? Hast thou not a secret sense of high Joys infus'd into thy Soul? then spread thy Spirit thorow this world; take it into thy Spirit, as the Noise of a Harmony sounding from far. Take in thy self, as a Part of this Noise. Pass thorow this world, as a Throng of Apparitions, thy self being One among the rest. Ascend now with these; for if thou slide downward, thou siakest out of them into a waste Desert: But if thou be carried upward in them, they will still grow sweeter, brighter, and fuller to thee, till they bring thee to their first Fountain, where thou and they together shall drink▪ and be wrapt up into an Immortal Fulness.

Thus this Shallow world will have a Depth in it, sfill to centent thee, and still to carry thee on farther; while it shall still have a Relative Delight, … Representative Beauty. Jesus Christ is brought in speaking after this manner, …. 8. 18. I and the Children which thou hast given me, are for signs and w…nders. So let my Soul say to my God. Highest Beauty! Greatest Love! I and this World, into which thou hast brought me, are for signs of thee, so to move wonder and delight. O! that I might be in the midst of them; that they might be unto me, as figures only of thee, subsisting …nly in thee. So these slight things would have a Divine Fulness; for even they would be thy Pleasures, thy Glories, O God! as in a figure.

p. 6Ans. 2. We are in a World of Meer Images. The multitude of Creatures is often in Scripture compar'd to Waters; for as Water they receive the Images of heavenly things without the Substance into their thin passing streams. Look then on These, and immediately cast thy Eye upward to the Substances which shine fixt above, and shed these Glimpses of themselves. O Men! why do you cast your selves so ardently on the Faces of Beauty in these unstable Waters? You can embrace Nothing; you can meet Nothing to sustain you. You sink and perish in the midst of these wavy Sun-shines.

The first Creation is often call'd a Sea. The Sea is unfruitful; nothing can take Root in the floods; untam'd, devouring all things. We are launcht forth upon this Sea of Appearances, in this Vessel, the Body, not to Dwell or Grow upon it, much less to Throw our selves into it; but to Glide swiftly over the Face of it, to a firm Land of Bliss. But, alas! what throngs of people are there on every side casting themselves with a furious Delight into this Gulf, where every Wave is a Grave, when it once receives thee? Most, the Wisest, linger and dally on this rolling, roaring Deep, till their Vessel worn out, or split upon some Rock, they be swallowed up in the midst of the Floods, and never reach the wished Shoar of Immortality.

Angels signifie Messengers. The Best things of this world are Invitations only, Messengers sent forth to call the Guests: They cannot Feast us: They have not for us. All cry Wisdom; That which we show, and you seek, is not in us. I am not He. We are not The Life, Beauty, Ioy, but a Voice crying in the Wilderness, in a vast Emptiness. Come, taste and see how good the Lord is; what satisfactory sweetnesses are in the Godhead.

Joseph sent Asses laden with provisions, and Waggons, to bring his Father Jacob with his Family into egypt. Our Younger Brother, the New Man, the Lord Jesus, hath sent forth the Contents of this Life, as Waggons and Asses, to bring the Old Man out of the Flesh, into the Bosom of the Father, the Pallace of Eternity, there to rejoyce for ever with our Brethren, all the Children of the Great King. How foolish a thing is it for us to mistake the Waggon for the Court, which is only the Convoy? How brutish a thing is it to forget the Glories of our Father's House, that we may run, feed, lie down with the Asses?

Q. 3. Whence come we? Whence are Shadows cast? from their Substances. Whence do Images flow? from their Original. From an Immutable Substance, from an Eternal Original are we then come forth into this world. Then shall we never have Rest, till we Return thither again. Our first Seed will be most Inward with us, and Inseparable from us; it will travel with us thorow all Forms still working in us, still wearing out, and casting off all Forms, in which it sojourns with us, until it bring us back into it self, and become our only Clothing, our only Content.

Hagar was flying from the face of her Mistress Sarah; but she meets an p. 7Angel that sweetly sends her back thither, where God would provide for her Sarah is the Divine Form in the Spirit; Hagar, this Fleshly Being, the Bond-woman. This Earthly Nature is unable to bear the frowns and severity of her Heavenly Mistress; she flies from her Face, her Appearances, which oppress the Flesh with their Glory. But the bright Images of this Beauty, as Angels, meet the Natural Man in the way of his flight, in the Principles of Nature. By the flashes and breakings forth of these, Man is persuaded to return, and submit himself to the supreme Beauty, his Mistress and Parent; so only shall he have provisions of Joy and Rest from his wandrings.

Our Saviour takes a sweet farewel of the Earth in this language, Iob. 16. v. 28. I came forth from the Father into the world; again I leave the world, and go to the Father. Happy is that Soul, that after all her weary steps thorow the world, to seek Content, now tyred, thinks of Returning to her Father, her first Husband; and breaths forth such sighs as these towards him: O my God! Thy Fulness is the womb, out of which I was brought forth into this world: Thy Sweetness is the Bosom, in which I must eternally rest. How long shall I linger here? O when shall I once leave this world, and come again to thee?

Q. 4. How come we hither? Thorow a Darkness. You shall in the first of Genesis see, that Darkness is the Ground of this Creation, and all Light-Colours are laid upon that Ground. Darkness is the Bound between God and the Creature, thorow which all things pass out of one into the other.

This Darkness holds forth to us the Light of a Twofold Rule.

Rule 1. Let us not think to know eternal things by the Light of this World, or any Creature. When we come into this life, we come well drencht, drawn thorow a Sea of Darkness. There is no more any Remembrance of former things. We know not where we were, when God laid the Foundations of the Earth; or, what we were before that, when all our Bones were first written by God, in his Book; when first those Eternal Forms, which were to frame and sustain every shape or state, into which we should pass, were brought forth in the Divine Wisdom.

We are of Yesterday, and know nothing. We are started up into this Life thorow a Darkness behind us, which lies upon all things which are beyond this Image before us, and swallows up this into it self, as it passeth along. Vain Man would be wise, though he be born, as the wild Asses Co…t. Why should Man undertake to bring forth from himself the Beauties of Wisdom, when he comes upon the face of the Earth out of the same Darkness with the Asses Colt, as void, as that, of all Eternal Images?

Rule 2. Care not to cloath your selves with the Contents of this World, all which you must put off, so soon as you touch the Brim of this Darkness, into which you must return. Care not for the Cares or Sorrows of this Life. Those waters of Forgetfulness, into which we must all descend, will wash them all p. 8away. Imagine this Life, as an Island, surrounded with a Sea of Darkness; beyond which lies the main Land of Eternity. Blessed is he, that can raise himself to such a Pitch, as to look off this Island, beyond that Darkness, to the utmost bound of things. He sees his way before, and behind him. What shall trouble him, on this Twig of Life, on which he is like a Bird but now alighted from a far Region, from whence again he shall immediately take his Flight?

Thou cam'st through a darkness hither, but Yesterday when thou wer't born. Why then shouldst thou not more readily, and cheerfully return thorough the same darkness back again to those everlasting Hills?

Let us then ever be in Tune to sing, that sadly sweet Song of Far-seeing, and so much-suffering, Job, Job. 1. 21. Naked came I out of my Mother's womb; Naked shall I return thither again. The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh. Blessed be the name of the Lo…d. Naked camest thou, my Soul, thorough a Darkness into this World, strip't of all the Glories above. Naked must thou return again out of this World, quite strip't of all the Glories; and Griefs here: The Lord gives thee forth thorough this Darkness into this Life: the Lord takes thee in thorough the Darkness out of this Life to Himself. Blessed is the Name of the Lord. Rest thou in the Blessed and Glorious Workings of the High God, while thou art in that Darkness. Thou shalt suddenly be pass'd beyond it; where thou shalt in an open Light enjoy the Hidden workings there; where thou shall see the Highest Beatitudes and Glories, Eye to Eye, Heart in Heart; They and Thou, being made One Life, One Spirit, and without Partition or Vail.

Use 2. The endearment of the Lord Jesus to us. If this Face of Nature, which now presents it self to us, have such Beauties, Greatnesses, Varieties; as ravish us from all sense of our selves, our present safety, our souls, our God; from the Love and Delight, which from them flow into our Spirits: what Sights, what Things above Words are there then in Jesus Christ? what Ravishments would surprize us, and snatch us out of Fl…sh, if we saw Him? For Nature and this World is but the Earthly, Inferiour, Imperfect Image of God, and of the Person of Christ, which is the Heavenly, and Supream Image.

Now we under-value and neglect the sweetnesses of our Saviour for this World's joyes. But if we saw Him, we should much more despise, Ten thousand Worlds, ten thousand times heightned in Glory; as a heap of Dunghills, in Comparison of Him.

Our Blindness, our Blindness clips the wings of Desire, clogs the Spirit of Delight in us. O Jesus! cast thou but one Glimpse of thy self into our souls, and we shall run from all things after thee, fly beyond all things towards Thee. How Dark and cold things are these Shadows to him, that hath seen the Light of Beauty in thy Person, and felt the warm Life of Love in Thine Embraces? Shew thy self to me, and set many Worlds, many Deaths more between p. 9me and thy self; my Spirit shall shoot it self, like an Arrow, thorow them all into thine Arms. A Look of thine, can Translate me; as Enoch, or Eliah, of old.

I have thus Finish'd the First Image, in which man lives before his Conversion; The Image of Nature.

2. Image of the Devil. The State of man before his Change is in a Threefold Image. The First was that of Nature; the Second, this of the Devil, which we now are to take a view of. But what can we see or say of this; Who can draw a Picture of, or describe Darkness, and Confusion?

The Power of Darkness, and Division, prevailing over the Powers of Light, and Love, in the Creature; This is the Devil. If you will pourtray a Devil; Darkness must be the Ground, Division, the Work upon it.

There are then two Powers, as two Parts in this Image.

1. Power, of Darkness.

2. Power, of Division.

1. Power of Darkness. This is the Form, and Division the Figure of this Black Spirit. Darkness is made his Character; The Power of Darkness his Princely Title: Colos. 1. 13. Who hath delivered us out of the Power of Darkness into the Kingdom of his Dear Son. It is read thus in Greek: out of the Principality of Darkness, into the Kingdom of the Son of his Love, The Devil, as the Prince of Darkness, which implies Division, is opposed to Iesus Christ, the King of Love, which is unity, and lives only in Light.

Again: Ephes. 6. 12. We fight against the Rulers of the Darkness of this World. You may thus translate it more to the words: against the World-comprehending Powers of the Darkness of this State. As God is One and Many, by a grateful Distinction in the Unity, so is the Devil, One and Many by a grating Division without Unity: many Powers of Darkness in one Power.

The Devil in this Darkness lies, as a Stain upon the Beauties of the whole Creation; defacing the Image, dimming the Glory of God in them. He lies, as a Cloud upon all the Contents of the Creature; spreading a melancholy Shade over them, infusing a Poyson of Fears, Falshoods, Deceits, Mistakes, Dangers, Death into them. He is a Prison, and a Chain Shutting up, holding down the Spirits of men, when they would break forth, and raise themselves into that Light of Divinity, which faintly glimmers in this Darkness. Such is the First Part of the Image, the Power of Darkness.

2. Power of Division. The Name, Devil, comes from the Greek Word, foreign. which signifies most properly one, that casts in Principles, or Seeds of Division. So he is described by our Saviour, in the Parable: The Envicus man, the Enemy hath sown Tares. Our Lord with a Divine depth defines this Spirit in those words: A Kingdom divided against it self cannot stand. Whatever stands, must be founded upon a Unity. The Devil is a divided Kingdom, a Duality, a Ruinous Thing.

This Power of Division divides itself into a Seven-fold Power, which is known by these Names.

p. 101. Self-love.

2. Lust.

3. Covetousness.

4. Pride.

5. Envy.

6. Passion.

7. Enmity, or Despair.

1. Power, Self-love. 1 John 4. 8. God is Love: Love in the Abstract; Love Absolute, Unlimited, Infinite, a Universal Sweetness. The Devil is Self-love; a particular Being cutting off itself from the rest of things; from Him, who is the Great, I am; in whom all things have their Being. These are the Circlings of the Serpent, by which he folds, and wraps up himself in himself.

This Serpent, before he spake to the Woman, tempted himself with this glittering language. Es. 14. 14. I will be like the most High. The first word in this aspiring speech is that, which first made him a Devil of an Angel: I: The establishing of a Proper Interest divided from the general Interest of things in the God-head. This Self-love is the Horned head; into which he then sprouted forth; the Cloven Foot, in which he ended; when he first with-drew himself from the all-comprehending Unity, into a Circle, and Center of his own.

2. Power, Lust. This is a praegnancy to multiply himself; to bring forth himself in strange, and diverse forms; upon strange and diverse Images. God is One, Gal. 3. 20. God brings forth himself in One Image, Jesus Christ is his Only-begotten Son: Joh. 1. 14. God brings forth all things by this One Image, and in it: Coloss. 1. 16. In him were all things Created. The Devil is contrary to God in all this. He is that Son of God, which broken, and deform'd by his Fall from the First Unity; goes full of monstrous Lust after the Daughters of Men, dark, divided, fleshly Images of the Creature. With these he mingles himself; so he brings forth himself and them into Gyantly shapes, and in a Brood of Gyants. Gyants, in Hebrew, signifie, Dead, Distracted; Prodigious Forms, as appearing from the shades below; or faln, and sunk thither.

Our Saviour calls this Spirit of Lust: Joh. 8. 45. The Father of Lyes: because he begets himself upon all things in base, spurious, and various Shapes. Solomon represents the Image of the Devil in Flesh, and this World, by a Whorish Woman; because she lusts after, and wanders thorow all the diversity of divided Forms in the Devil.

3. Power, Covetousness. Pro. 30. 16. There are two things, that never say, enough: the Grave, and the Barren Womb. This Invisible Power is a Womb of Darkness, which takes in all things; but brings forth nothing. So the Darkness is never enlightned, but ever increas'd, made deeper and more devouring. This Spirit is the Invisible Grave, which draws all things into it. But then it crumbles them into Dust; it divides them from themselves. So the Principle of Division is sharpned, not satisfied: fretted to a greater wideness, not fill'd.

This is the Serpent feeding upon Dust; ever encompassing the Earth. This is the Bottomless Pit.

4. Power, Pride. The Devil under this property is call'd Is. 14. 12. Lucifer, the Son of the Morning. He saith, v. 13. I will exalt my Throne above p. 11the Stars of God. His ambition is to shine alone; and as he riseth to put out all other Lights by the Malignity of his appearance. He goes on: v. 13. I will sit upon the Mount of the Congregation, in the sides of the North. The appearance of our Lord Jesus in the double flame of Terror and Triumph: Consuming, and Crowning; is from the North: Ezek, 1. 4. The Mount of the Congregation is Mount Sion, where the General Assembly, and Church or Congregagation of the First-born are, Hebr, 12. 22, 23. This is the Mount lifted up above every Mountain: The Spirit exalted above every Spirit.

The Devil would seat himself upon this Mount in the place of Jesus Christ; to be, as he is, the OnelyOnly One. Yet he would have it with this difference; to be the top of the Mount, while the great Congregation sit, as the Clouds, under his Feet: to be a consuming Fire to all others; a Crowning Glory, only to himself.

God is the Heavenly Hierusalem, where all things are Fellow-citizens. The Devil is that Babel, which saith; I sit alone as a Queen, Revel. 18. She thinks her self never Great, till she have swallowed up all her Companions; never Great enough, till she be Great alone. This is the difference between Pride, and Plenty.

5. Power, Envy. This Power is a Reflection of Darkness and Division upon it self, from the Sense of Beauty and Unity else-where. It is Mystically describ'd, Revel. 20. 1. An Angel came down from Heaven with a Chain in one hand, a Key in the other, v. 2. He took hold of the Dragon, the old Serpent, and bound him up in the Bottomless Pit. Divine Wisdom is that Chain which reacheth from the Top of Heaven to the Center of the Earth; where at both ends, it meets, and is fastned in God. The several Ranks of things, the distinct Orders of Causes and effects are the Links of this Chain mutually enwrapping each other. The Key is a Divine Light, and Spiritual Power, which fastneth, or looseth, draws up, or lets down; waves this Chain, and every Link of it, at pleasure. The Angel represents our Lord Jesus.

When he brings forth this Glory from God to men; He by it takes such hold of that Power of envy in the Devil; that he makes him to sink himself deeper, lock himself up fast, into the Bottomless Pit, into his own dark and dividing Principle.

6. Power, Passion▪ Passion is a Rage kindled, and heightned by Resistance. It is said of the Devil, He hath great wrath, because he hath a short time, Revel. 12. 12. He is in that Chapter set before us, as a Dragon. A Dragon hath his upper part winged,, like a Bird, that flies in the air: his lower parts Snaky, like a Serpent crawling on the Earth. So is Passion, partly rais'd to its own pitch, and height, there breathing flames, and sparkling fury: partly kept down, laid low in the Dust by opposition.

The Devil in this Power is, as Fire shut up in close matter, Earth, or Iron; where it burns with a Fierce and dismal Rednes.

p. 127. Power, Enmity, or Despair. God is Eternal Life: The Devil is Eternal Death and Ruine: Apollyon, Abaddon: Revel. 9. 11. The Mystery of God is a Fellowship, Ephes. 3. 9. The Mystery of the Devil is a Desolution: Es. 66. 24.

Jesus Christ is a Brasen Serpent, lifted up; a Glorious, Eternal Principle of Distinction, dividing between the nearest Forms, bringing each one forth to a naked Discovery in its own Property; and all in his own Divine Light. The Devil is a Fiery Serpent below on the Earth; a Dark, Furious Principle of Division, separating all Forms of things, setting each apart in its full Power, in the midst of his Hellish Flames.

These are the Seven Heads of that monstrous Half of the Devil's Image, the Power of Division.

The Man in the Gospel possess'd by the Devil was a shadow of the Devil in this Twofold Shape of Darkness and Division. He was ever among the Tombs, tearing and rending his own flesh. So this Distracted Spirit dwels in himself, as in a Living Tomb, into which he labours to draw all other things. He is perpetually dividing, and Tearing all things, but most of all himself.

Qu. I cannot pass from this Image, till I enquire how Man was brought forth in it. Our Saviour fully sets forth the Truth, and manner of this in one word: Ye are of your Father the Devil, Joh. 8. 44.

We read in the Third of Genesis, of Two Seeds: The Seed of the Woman, who was the Image given by God to Man, out of himself, through Man; in which Image Man was to enjoy, and bring forth himself: The Seed of the Serpent. When God had brought forth Man from a Divine Seed into a beautiful, and blessed Image: the Serpent sows his dark, and dividing seed in this Fair Field. He brings forth man the second time from this poysonous Seed into his own Image, in which he captivates the Image of God. Thus the Son of God is become the Son of the Devil.

The Spirit of lies and murthers by the Forbidden Tree, as by his own Image, begets the Woman into the Form of sin, and death: through the Woman he begets Man in the same Principle and State.

Thus we see Man before his Conversion in the Image of the Devil.

3. Image of Divine Wrath. This is God in a Twofold appearance:

1. Fire.

2. Smoak.

1. Appearance, Fire. Who shall dwell with Everlasting Burnings: Es. 33. 14. The Nature of Fire is to work upon Confused things, to Separate them in their Distinctions; to gather them together in their Affinities. So the Fire in a Stick, makes the Fiery part to take its way by it self; while the Airy part vapours into Smoke; the Earthy falls down-ward into Dust; the Water weeps out at the ends of the Stick.

The Forms of things in Flesh lie hudled, and imprison'd one in another. God comes down upon the Creature in his Wrath, as in a Fire; to Consume that p. 13dark Band of Confusion, that Bar of division, the Flesh; to Dispose all things into their several Varieties; to Collect all things into their proper Unities, both the Vailing, and the Vailed Forms.

2. Appearance, Smoak. So the Wrath of God is describ'd: Psal. 18. 8. A Smoak went up out of his Nostrils. Fuel by Smoak passeth into a Flame: the Flame again works itself into a Smoak, and so vanisheth. God, as a Smoak darkens the Glory of the Creature, and so draws it into the Fire. Again he carries it out of the Fire into a fine cloud of white Smoak, which disappears to appear again in the God-head. Thus the Smoak is God's clothing, as he goes into the Fire, as he comes out of it; both Ascending, and Descending. Yet withal the Smoak, and the Fire are mingled too.

Man stands Naturally in this Image of Wrath, as in his deepest Root, next the God-head in its naked being. Out of this he Springs, into this he Sinks. So St. Paul signifies, Ephes. 2. 3. And were by Nature the Children of Wrath, as well as others. We are the Children of this Three-fold Image; Nature; Devil; Wrath; Subordinately.

God comes forth in an Image of Wrath. This brings forth Devils. These wrap themselves up in the Natural Seed, which first brings forth the Natural Image, then thorow that breaks forth into a Devil, out of which it grows up into a Form of Divine Anger. So the most Radical Principle puts forth itself last into appearance; as the Rational life in Man.

Thus much of the Three Images.

Application.

Use. Admonition. Let us take heed of Sin, for its Father's sake the Devil; and for its own. This Admonition will make its way into your Spirits; if from that, which hath been said, you seriously consider Two Things.

1. The Nature of the Devil.

2. The Nature of Sin.

1. The Nature of the Devil. Behold in this, as in a Glass, Four unlovely Spectacles:

1. Solitude.

2. Horrour.

3. Torture.

4. Ugliness.

1. Spectacle, Solitude. As a high and dreadful Cliff upon some dangerous Shoar: such a Solitude is the Devil. I, saith he will be like the most High: as high as he; but with this difference: God is above all, and in all: The Devil would be above all, and without all: God is such a Height, as is all in all: The Devil would be all alone: God is alone, but so, as that he is One with all Things: The Devil would be alone, but as a Precipice broken off from all things.

As the Mouth of a Burning Mountain, which wasts all things round about it, and makes the neighbouring Circuit a wide Desolation: such▪ a Solitude is the Devil, Revel. 12. He is represented, as a Dragon ready to devour the Manchild, so soon, as he is born. As a Dragon in his lonely Den, the Country a Wilderness all about: So is this Fiery Spirit eager to consume all appearances of Life, and God upon their first discovery.

p. 14As the Night, which entombs all things in it self, and makes the richest variety of Shapes, but one Lonely shade: such a Solitude is the Devil.

Consider this, all ye who cleave to the Noise, Glories, Pleasures of this world, and leave your God, least you should be Melancholy. See, and tremble to see into what a Melancholy Shade, what a solitude your souls pass, when you die.

2. Spectacle, Horrour. Imagine a world, where over your head instead of a Sky, black, pitchy Clouds perpetually roul, not suffering any Glimpse of Light, or Day ever to appear: under your feet, instead of Land, or Sea, a vast, amazing depth, which no where by nothing bounds your sight, or thought: round about you, a Desolate Darkness, presenting near, and at furthest distance, all those Forms, which are bred in the womb of darkness, and carry an astonishing darkness with them to the Senses, and Spirits of Men; like apparitions, Lightnings, Shrieks, dying Groans, roaring Tempests, Howling of wild Beasts; to a man alone in a Forrest at Midnight. Such a world of Horrours is this Evil Spirit. Therefore he is set forth by the Outward Darkness, where the Worm dies not: a Darkness without Light or Limit, in which all gnawing Forms of Horrour live. Let him, that hates not that world of Curses, love this world of Varities, For the Vanities of one are the Porch to the Vexations of the other.

3. Spectacle, Torture. Every Wound is a Division. What are Fears, Pains, Griefs, Death? Separations of Desires from their Delights, Faculties from their Objects, Principles from their Act, End, Perfection; in a word, Things from Themselves. All Deaths and Tortures then are in the Devil, at their heighth, in their fullest Power. For he is the Principle, and Power of Division.

The Life of this Mighty Creature is a Two-edged, Flaming Sword in the midst of itself. Each Act, and Motion of life is the Brandishing of this Sword, Cutting and Burning in every Part, and point of life with ten thousand Anguishes.

4. Spectacle, Ugliness, Deformity is Darkness with a Disproportion. Darkness in harmony with Light makes a Beauty. So the Evening and the Morning make a Day. So the Night, and sleep are the shade of an Angel's wing, dropping sweet sleep, and rest on Men.

Proportion is a Kind, and Image of Unity. Disproportion is a Division without any form of Unity. Where this Division, and Darkness first meet, there is the Center of Ugliness, the Fountain of ugly things. This is the Babel, where Ziim and Ijim dwell, Unclean Birds; Forms dry without any beautiful Water; desolate, no pleasant plant of Life, putting forth it self there; irksome, and hateful, being surrounded with a rude Darkness, like rocky, uncouth Islands in a Tempestuous Sea; or Screech-Owles in a Melancholy Night.

These are the Four Spectacles of dread, & death, in the Nature of the Devil: Solitude, Horrour: Torture, and Ugliness. Now make up these Four into One, let that One be a Living Spirit of greatest Activity, and Capacity: This p. 15is the Devil, the Bottomless Pit of Things; the Unpassable Gulf, which divides Heaven from Hell. This is the Father of Sin, and Sinners.

Now before you commit a Sin, propound this Question to your selves: Can I eternally wander in a Darkness, where I shall never meet Companion or Comfort? Can I make everlasting Clouds my Canopy? Can I lie under these at Rest? Can I sleep sweetly over an unknown, roaring Deep? Can I imbrace Fire, feed on Poysons, drink down Tortures, like Water? Can I make those hateful Shapes, at which, when they appear, the stoutest men grow stiff with horrour, and feel their hair to stand on end upon their heads? Can I make these ghastly, dismal things my Play-fellows?

If you can do all this, then go, sin freely. But if these be Terrours above Man, to bear: take heed, and start at a Lust, more than you would at a Ghost, for these are but weak Types of those Tormenting Truths, which Sinners must try below. For, as God makes Heaven; so the Devil is the Hell, into him do all polluted Souls descend; they dwell, not only with, but in Him.

Obj. Why should any doubt, whether there be a Devil. But alass! who believes him to be any thing besides a Scar-crow; except Children, or weak and superstitious Spirits?

Answ. Yet, you that thus reason, ask those Principles, that govern you: Do not Sense and Reason shew, that all things have their Roots, out of which they rise? Are there not such things, as Follies, Filths, and Furies spread through the World? Are they not, if not the All, yet the Greatest part of the word? Can these be, and no Spring be, in which they are United, and at their Height? This Spring is this Spirit, which we call the Devil. This is that untam'd Sea, of which Job speaks. Job. 7. 12. Am I a Sea, or Whale, that thou thus breakest me?

What pity then is it to see Millions of men go with merry dalliance down the streams of fleshly delights; and at the same time to see that Cloudy Sea of Horrours, into which they are within a few moments delivered by these streams?

If every thing make hast to its own Principle, and Element; Fire to the upper Circle; Earth to its Center below: If it be Natural for every Plant to bring forth its own Seed: then sure, it cannot be, but that each guilty Soul should sink downward to the Element of Woe, and Horrours, the Center of Darkness: then sure, every Sin must at last bring forth a Devil.

You that love your lusts, more than your God, learn from your Bodies, the state determin'd upon your Souls. Your Bodies are Dust, and to Dust they must return. Your defiled Spirits are of their Father the Devil, and to him they must again go, when they leave this World. This is the first consideration to preserve us from Sin: The Nature of the Devil.

2. The Nature of Sin. We read no where of Mary Magdalen, that she was Possess'd according to the common acceptation of that word. We read, that she was a Sinner, eminently, absolutely, without restraint, as if she, who is: p. 16said to have been an Hostess, had been an Inne to all Sins. Yet she is thus describ'd: Mark. 16. 9. Mary Magdalen, out of whom he had cast Seven Devils. All Sins are rankt under Seven Heads. These are the Seven Powers of Evil, in the Devil; which are, as so many Devils there. These are the Unclean Spirits, which go forth from the Mouth of the Dragon into the breasts of all the Sons and Daughters of Adam. Fly then from a Sin; for 'tis a Devil. Fly from the sweetest Temptations. They may look like Angels: but they are the Devil's Angels, the most immediate Emanations or Images from that foul Principle.

Qu. But you will say; What is Sin? How shall I know it? That I may fly from it.

Ans. You may know it by the Image, it bears. Whatever you meet with like a Devil any where, that's a Sin. Wherever you see the Cloven Foot of Division, or the Horned head of Darkness; fly, and cry: an Apparition from Hell.

Take then Two Rules, which measure out every Sin.

Rule 1. Every choice of an Act or Object, that draws you down, out of the Light of God; is Sin. In the Light of God, we worship and love the Supream Beauty; we possess the most perfect, and purest Pleasures; we grow up into the Divine Image, which continually appears to us; we have all our Faculties fill'd, enlarg'd to a Freedom, an Infiniteness. When we leave this Light, we fall down before Idols, empty Shows of Beauty; so we become Idolaters, and Adulterers; we mingle our selves with mixt Pleasures, Dark Delights; so we pollute our selves: we are transform'd into every base, inferiour Image, with which we converse: Our Souls are imprison'd in low, and narrow Objects, where they beat themselves against the walls of their Prison into perpetual vexations.

Such are the Loves, Lusts, Ambitions, Entertainments of this World. The Love of the World is Enmity with the Father: Ja. 4. 4. He that casts his eye down upon the Earth, must necessarily take it off from Heaven. He that sets his Face, as if he would go into the Embraces of Vanity; must have his back upon the Eternal Glory.

Rule 2. The Divided enjoyment of any particular Image apart from the Image of God; is Sin. God is one. The Image of God is that, in which all things are United. He that takes any Piece out of this Image, he breaks the Unity, he makes a Wound, to let in Death, and Ruine.

This makes Fleshly Lusts, Sins. Man and woman are each to other, the Image of God, which is One. When therefore they rest not in the bosom of One Another, they commit the Sin of the Devil, in a Type.

St. Jude makes the Lustful Sin of Sodom an exemplar Copy of the Sin of Angels: Jude 6. 7. The Angels kept not their first state, but left their own habitation, &c. Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, in like manner, giving themselves p. 17over to Fornication, and going after strange (divers, foreign Flesh, &c. The Sin of Devils was a Spiritual Whoredom, in which they dissolv'd the Unity of the Divine Image, and fell into a Diversity of divided Images, as into a deep Pit.

Both are join'd together in Solomon. At once he multiplyed Wives, and Idols. A Converse with the Creatures in Diverse Principles and Images is, as the Familiarity of a Man with many Women. Fleshly Lust is the proper Image, and Fruitfulness of the Devil, by which he brings forth himself into this Visible World most Naturally, and therefore most Potently, most Plentifully.

Obj. But you will say; may we not enjoy the delights of the Creature, which is an Inferiour Image?

Ans. Yes, as a Man may have a Conversation with many Women, so that he break not the Marriage-Union. Thy F…untain must be thine own. All delights abroad must be, as Streams of this Fountain, not divided Springs. All other Images must be onelyonly Reflections of this One, & concentred in it.

Please thy self to the full with every Content. Only let it be no Cloud to cut off: but a Christal to take in the Divine Glory, that this may shine, and flame in them.

Use 2. Consolation. Wretched Man: What wilt thou do? Hell is sown in thy Nature. This is the Paradise, which is planted in thee; all manner of loathsom, bitter, venemous deadly Plants. The Sap of these is the Life of thy Spirit: the Fruit of these the Food of thy Life. What shall deliver thee? Shall Time? No: As Nature puts forth itself in thee, so these Trees of baleful Woe grow up. What shall reskue thee from them? Shall Death? No; When thou puttest off this Natural Image, thou must then be transform'd into these Invisible Plants, to be everlastingly inclos'd in them, to have one Root, one Stock, one Sap, one Fruit for ever with them, that is, with Devils.

Is there then no Help? There is. behold, God descends to be thy Saviour. He comes by a Two-fold Step, and brings Salvation into thy Bosom.

1. Step. God comes into our Nature, as the Root of each single Person. Here he becomes our Jesus, making himself a New Seed Out of this Seed he brings forth a New Image of Divinity, by which he breaks thorow the Image of the Devil, and Nature, brings forth Man out of them, brings them into subjection to this growing Beauty. As the Fuel is dissolv'd into Smoak, and the Smoak again breaks up into Flame: So the Image of the Devil riseth up out of the Image of Nature, shaking that to Dust, as it riseth: The Image of God again, sprouts forth in the midst of the Devils Image, First spoiling, then Triumphing over, and in both.

2. Step. God thorow Nature, as the Root, grows up into single Persons, as the Branches. Then, as the shades of Night flie away before the Ascending Day; so, as this Divine Seed our Jesus sends forth itself in an Image of Beauty p. 18thorow our Souls; the Image of Darkness and Death sinks down into its own Place, and Principle.

Love this Jesus then. You will love Him, when He shall do this. And He that shall do it, will do it. He is the Root and Branch. He is a Root, which holds every other Root of Pollution and Perplexity, &c. He will grow up thorow them the Last of All. He is the Branch, that is imprison'd in every other Branch of Death, and Hell, which will at last spread forth itself over All; if thou wait for it. As the Head of the Devil is Enmity and Despair: so the Lord Jesus is an Eternal Root of Hope, and Love.

2. State, That to which the Change is made in our Conversion. This is Three-fold.

1. The Inward State in Nature.

2. The Spiritual State, in Christ

3. The Divine State, in God.

1. The Inward State, in Nature. The Change is for the most part, at first, a Conversion, or Introversion into this State. This needs a Three-fold Explication.

1. Explication. The Inward State, in Nature as it is in itself. Man is naturally the Off-spring of God, Act. 17. 28. We are all his Off-spring. God hath an Inward Glory, and Outward Cloathing. The Scripture speaks of both these, Hebr. 1. It saith of One, v. 8. Thy Throne, O God, is for ever, and ever. It saith of the Other, v. 10. Thou hast laid the Foundations of the Earth: the Heavens are the Work of thine hands, v. 12. Thou foldest them up, as a Garment, and they are changed. God over-spread his Outward Cloathing with his Inward Glory. he possesseth both his Person, and his Vesture in One Fountain of Life. So both become to him One Life and Beauty.

Man is in Nature the Off-Spring, and Resemblance of God. So Man also in his Natural State is composed of a Twofold Image, the one Inward, the other Outward; the one the Image of God in Man, the other of the Creature. While man stood in Innocency, he abode in the Inward Image, as his Center: in that he Comprehended, and Commanded the Image of the Creature. The Image of God was Eden, the Fountain of pleasures within, from thence a River went forth watering the Image of the Creature, and making that a Paradise. All things were Trees in this Paradise, good for food, and pleasant to the Eye: Trees of perpetual Youth, Beauty, Pleasure to Man, Man was seated in this Inward Image, as on his Throne, from which he commanded, and changed all the Creatures into divers Shapes of Delight, at pleasure. This is the First Explication.

2. Explication: The Departure of Man out of this Inward State. When Man fell, he went forth from his Inward Glory, into the Outward Image, this is signified, Gen. 3. by the Woman yielding her self over to the Will of the Serpent: and the Man giving himself up to the Will of the Woman. So it was true of Man, what is said of the Devils, Jude 6. He left his First Estate, and his Proper Habitation. Now he lived wholly in the Out-forms of things which p. 19he broke off from the Inward Image, and so made them all an Image of Vanity, Darkness, and Death; keeping the Image of God imprisoned in this Outward Image, which suffered it not to put forth itself, or appear.

St. Paul expresseth this Departure, as the Root of all Sin, Rom. 1. 18. All wickedness is there sum'd up in this: Detaining the Truth of God in Unrighteousness. That is, keeping down the Image of God, and True Glory, in a corrupt, and false Image.

3. Explication. The return of Man into this Image, Man hunting, and hunted thorow the exteriour face of things, finds neither his desired Prey, nor Rest▪ Poor Man! oppressed with cares and sorrows, he sinks down by a sad Retirement to the bottom of his own Spirit. There he happily falls into the bosom of the Divine Image, which lay buried under the Ruines of his Soul. Here he catcheth some Glimpses of Immortal beauty, some Tasts of a high delight, some sense of a true Rest. Now he loaths the Empty, Tedious, Tormenting Follies of this Outer World.

David experimented this in himself, Psal. 16. 7. My Reins instruct me in the Night-season. When a Night of nature, or melancholy takes away these sensual forms of things from us, or makes them a Torture to us: then this Hidden Image from the retired Principles of Nature, from the secret of our souls, puts up itself before us, draws us down into itself, makes its own Impressions upon us; Impressions which have another manner of Light, Strength, Sweetness in them.

Now the Soul cries out in the language of Cain, to a sweeter purpose: How have I been a Fugitive, and a Vagabond upon the Earth, while I have been driven out from thy Face, and Presence, and thou beautiful Image of things! Come, lock me up in thine Embraces, that I may never go forth more into that Outward Court of things, which is troden down by the Feet of Lusts, and Confusions. Or if▪ I must go forth again; O that I might carry thee forth with me, as my Brother, that suckt the breasts of my Mother-Nature. I would kiss thee, and I should not be despised. I would enjoy perpetual pleasures in thee; and no shame, but strength, and glory should rest upon me.

This is the First Change into the Inward State, in Nature.

2. The Spiritual State, in Christ. The Change to this State we are to consider in Three Parts.

1. The Preparation in Man.

2. The Spiritual State.

3. The Passage of Man into it.

1. Part. The Preparation in Man to this Spiritual State. Man pursued by Griefs from without, retired into the Inward Image, the Recess of Nature, as David into his Cave, meeteth with a fresh, unexpected view of Beauties here. Now he is refresh't, now he comes to himself. Now he begins to raise himself, and say, as Samuel did, when the eldest Son of Jesse was presented to him: p. 20Behold the Annointed of God is before me. Surely this is no other, than the Gate of Heaven.

But after a little Tryal, Man finds this to be, but a Natural Image of God, an Earthly Paradise only, which so soon as it puts forth is ready so soon to dis-appear again. He finds it too weak to raise itself clearly from the bottom of those Waters of Vanity, Sin and Trouble, which have over-flown, and over-whelm'd it. He perceives it too slight to satisfie him. 'Tis an Intimation of true joys, rather than the Joys themselves. 'Tis a fair Invitation, no full Entertainment.

Mans joys and hopes here prove to him like the Seed sown in Rocky Ground; which springs up suddenly, but suddenly withers, when once the Sun, the Tempting Glories, or Scorching Furies of this World beat upon it.

Now the Soul is, as Mary Magdalen at the Grave of her Saviour; She looks into her Heart for this Image but finds that gone, and her heart, as an empty Grave. Then she cries; O my God; who hath taken these Comforts away? I thought, that these should have delivered me, and dwelt for ever with me. But wipe away thy Tears, distressed Soul. As Jesus carryed away his Natural body from Mary, to bring it again a Spiritual body: So thy God hath withdrawn this Natural Image of divine joyes in thy Spirit; but he will restore, and bring it into thy soul again a Spiritual Image.

St. Paul gives thee this Consolation, Rom. 8. 3, 4. What the Law could not do, being weak thorow the flesh. &c. That the Righteousness of the Law might be fulfill'd in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. The weakness of Natures Inward Image prepares the Spirit of Man for the Spiritual State of things.

2. Part: The Spiritual State itself. The Prophet represents this in a Promise. Joel 2. 28. I will pour forth my Spirit upon all Flesh. Three things are here to be explained.

1. The Spirit. 2. Flesh. 3. Effusion, or Pouring forth of Spirit upon Flesh.

1. The Spirit is the Unity of things: Ephes. 4. 3. The Unity of the Spirit. Unity is appropriated to the Spirit. This Spirit is the most High God. For he is the First, Supream, only Unity: Gal. 3. 20. God is One. God, eminently, and exclusively, is One. This Spirit, the Unity is the Fountain, and Life of Things. All sorts of Life, all Beauty every where are Images of this Self-comprehending, A…-comprehending Unity. This is the Spirit.

2. Flesh, Flesh, and Spirit differ, as Unity, and Division; or which is the same, as Life, and Death: Rom. 8. 6. To be Carnally-minded is Death: to be Spiritually-minded is Life, and Peace. Life is the Unity of Things, in which they Contain themselves. Death is the Division of Things from themselves.

Flesh is all Divided Forms of things in the Creature according to the language of the Scripture. The Scripture in this sense reckons Angels, and Souls of Men, as Fleshly things. Though Angels are the most United Things, the p. 21First Unities, or Springs in the Creature; and so Spirits. Yet they compared with God are Compounded, and Divided Things, and so fleshly.

St. Peter thus sums up under the name of Flesh, all things, that have a Principle of Division in them, by which they are cut off from their own Beauty or Being; by which they fade, and fall away. This is Flesh.

3. The Effusion, or Pouring forth of the Spirit upon Flesh. This signifies Three things.

1. The Spirit nakedly sustaining the Creature, as its Immediate Root, and Principle. So the Spirit is a Spring pouring itself forth into Flesh, as it's Channel.

2. The Spirit filling the Fleshly form with its Waters, with its clear and fresh Streams, the workings of its own Life.

3. The Spirit planting its own Image upon each Created Image; clothing and overflowing it with its own Appearances.

Thus St. Paul expresseth the Effusions, the Overflowings of the Spirit, Rom. 8. 6. To be Spiritually-minded is Life, and Peace. To be Spiritually-minded is to see Things, as they are in their Spiritual State. In this State all things have a Twofold Representation.

1. Represen. Life, true Life, without any mixture of Death. Every Sight here is Life. For all things are seen; as growing up out of this Life-Principle, the Spirit; and Themselves, as Powers of this Life displaying themselves, and working in themselves.

2. Represen▪ Peace. This is the Efficacy of that Life, in the Harmony of an Inward Sweetness, an Outward Beauty.

Thus this Spiritual State brings forth to Light again in itself, the Inward Image of God, in Nature, For it shews all Fleshly Forms, being yet Fleshly, and yet Harmonious Images of the Supream Unity, or Beauty. But it brings forth this Natural Image with this Twofold Advantage. 1. It formerly grew upon a Natural Principle, and so was subject to Decay. Now it is rooted in this Immortal Spirit, and so becomes Immortal. 2. It was in Nature an Image only Now it is an Image, and a Glass. It doth not only Represent the Glories of the Spirit by an empty Show: but it sets them before you as Present in their proper substances, and so shining thorow it.

Thus we have gone thorow the Second Part in this Head, and seen the Spiritual State in itself.

3. Part: The Passage of Man into this Spiritual State. When the Soul is taught by her Experience, and her God; that the Secret Delights of the Natural Image are for a Repast only, not a Repose; that in the strength of these; as Eliah's food, brought by Angels, she is to travel thorow a Wilderness, the Ruines of Nature, with all its Principles, and Images; till she comes to the Mount of God: Then she takes up a resolution; to stay no longer in this Field of Swine with the Swine; but to make hast to her Fathers House, where every p. 22Servant hath Bread enough; each Fleshly Form is fill'd with a Substantial Glory.

When God hath secretly instructed the Soul thus to resolve, he as a tender-hearted Father meets her in the beginning of these resolutions, falls upon her neck, and kisseth her. God shews himself in the Soul, gives her sweet Testimonies of his Love, carries her further off from the Outward Image, carries her thorow the most retired Principles of Nature beyond, and above them, into this Spiritual Principle, and State, which is the Spirit of Christ; where God and the Creature are United; where the Spirit is, as Water; the Flesh as a flourishing Earth standing in that Water, and out of it; being continually fed, continually made Fruitful, and Beautiful by it.

As Jacob at the sight of the Waggons, which came from Joseph; so this Soul now revives, she begins to be her self, and to live again, as after a long Trance, or Death. She looks about, and sees her self at home, she perceives her self in that Spirit; in which she came forth from God; in which she sees the Face of God again; by which she is assured to be carryed on to the full and eternal enjoyment of her God, and Father.

Now, saith the Soul; I have enough; I have not only seen the Face of my God; but He hath made me to see His Seeds also; the Face of each Object, as the Face of an Angel of God. Now let me die; that I entirely in my Body, and whole Soul may be call'd home from my Banishment into this remote part of Things, the Out-side of Nature. Now let me die in Peace, with this Spiritual Image in my Embraces, this Sense of Ioys, and Glories in my Heart. Let me ever abide here, O my God! never to go forth more from this Inner Chamber of the Great King into the Tumultuous street of my senses, or sensual Reason. O that this Spiritual State so full of ravishing Sights, which like the Sheet full of all living Creatures before Peter, is now let down out of Heaven into my Soul; O! that it might never be drawn up again; until it take me also up with it into Heaven.

I have finisht the Second State of our Change at our Conversion: The Spiritual State, in Christ, I pass to the Third,

3. The Divine State of things, in God. As Christ is the way to God. So the Divine State is the Spiritual State made Perfect. The Soul having been a while taught in the Bosom of Christ, begins to grow up to a fuller sense of God, in a more naked, abstracted, absolute, and comprehensive manner. Now she begins to put off all, that ever she put on, that God may be her only Clothing. She begins to think it not enough to live and walk in the Spirit of God; except she be One Spirit with Christ, and God. She perceives some dark glimpse of that, which is meant, 1 Cor. 13. 12. To Know, as we are Known; that is, in patrid, at home in God, Comprehensively, by being Comprehended in God, and so Comprehending him again.

The Soul in the glimmering Light of this State brought forth in her Flesh, as a small Candle in a dark Lanthorn, or faint twinklings of a Star in a Cloud; p. 23the Soul rudely descries a difference between making the Creature the Glass, thorow which we see God, and having the Godhead for the Glass, placing itself next our Eye, and discovering all the Creatures in itself, this the Soul climbs up towards, this makes her long for Heaven, that she may enjoy this Beatifical Vision clearly, un…as'd of Flesh.

The imperfectest Beginnings, and rudest Hints of this State in the Soul are to the other State; as Honey, and Wine, to Milk. They melt the Spirit of Man to a Transcendent Sweetness, and heighten it to a Triumphant Strength. As Jesus Christ saith of God out of the Psalmist, Psal. 82. 16. He saith of those to whom the word of God came: I have said: Ye are Gods. Joh. 10. 35. So saith the Soul to all things, as she looks upon them in this Divine State. Ye are God-like Appearances, rising up out of God, and abiding in him.

Saul cries, 1 Sam. 28. 13. I see Gods ascending up out of the Earth. But this Soul in this Divine Principle sees God Himself with the whole Troop of the Sons of God, God-like Forms ascending out of every Point of the Earth, and the lowest parts of things.

Use. Conviction. Consider with thy self after this manner, Am I Chang'd? If I be not, I stand in the Circle of Vanity, Darkness, and Woe. I am gone forth from my Center, outward, into a Waste Wilderness, whither no clear Line of Light, or Life stretcheth itself; where are no Sparks of peace, or joy, which are not scattered into wild Distractions, torn in pieces and devoured by Confusion.

Am I still wandering in this World? I am already upon the very Brink, and Precipice of Things. Whither do I wander? Whither shall I fall, when I die? Is there yet any thing beyond this World, further from God, and Goodness, besides the Place of Devils.

There are Four Discoveries of a Chang'd, or Unchang'd State.

1. Discovery. Have I seen a Resurrection in myself. Our Conversion is made the same thing with the Resurrection of our Saviour, Coloss. 3. 1. If ye be risen with Christ. When Jesus rose again, He returned to that Glory, which He had with God, before he was in Flesh. His Resurrection was a Return not to that Life, which he had in the World; this was part of his Death: but to that Life, which he had before This among Earthly Men. So when we Turn to God, we Return truly to our selves. We perceive our Selves now to be our Selves, and all below this, to have been a Shadow of us, or a Disguise upon us.

The Conversion of Man is call'd an Awakening, Ephes. 5. 14. Awake thou, that sleepest: stand up from the Dead. My God is a Light, in which all Things are seen ever, as they were from the Beginning. My Jesus is a Life, in which all things are the same Yesterday, before the World, as they shall be to Morrow, and for ever. My Soul! Art thou awakened into the Light, the Life of thy God, thy Jesus? If thou art, what seest thou? Thou seest thy true, and p. 24substantial Being, thy proper Person appearing; thou seest all things in their first Principle, in their right state; thou seest every Inferiour Person, which thou hast been cloth'd with, and each Lower State of Things, in which thou hast acted any Part, as Dreams of a sleeping Man in the Night, out of which he awakens the same, that he was, when first he lay down, and they vanish, as Airy Images.

The Gospel declares the Mystery, that was hid in God from the beginning of the World, Ephes. 3. 9. If you have not beheld present things, things to come, Heaven, Glory, your future State; as it was in the Mystery of God from Eternity: you are still buried under the Ruines of this Confused World, beneath which that Mystery lies hid.

2. Discovery. Can I tell the Difference between Flesh, and Spirit? A Converted, and a Regenerate Condition are thus distinguisht by Walking in Flesh, or Spirit, Rom. 8. 4. The Eye guides the Feet. How can I walk after One, and not the Other, if I know not, how One differs from the Other. The Light shined in Darkness, but the Darkness comprehended it not. The Flesh is the Darkness, which understands neither the Spirit, nor itself, The Spirit is the Light, in which both are understood, and discern'd.

Say thus to thy Heart: My Heart! Canst thou tell a way to possess all Things in one point, in a Unity of Life? Hast thou lookt on all Things at once, and seen them in a Harmony of Beauty? Hast thou taken in the Tunes and Motions of all Things Created and Uncreated in a Concent of Pleasures? Didst thou ever yet descry a glorious Eternity in each winged Moment of Time; a Bright Infiniteness in the narrow points of every dark Object? Then thou knowest what the Spirit means, that Spire-top of Things, whither all ascend harmoniously, where they meet, and sit together recollected, and concentred in an Unfathom'd Depth of Glorious Life. From hence thou lookest down, and seest all Flesh, as a heap of Single Dusts; Dark, though falling from the midst of a bright Flame; Divided, though laid together.

He that knows no Spirit, but that which breaths thorow Flesh, and feeds on the Air. He that understands the highest Spirit, but as a Fleshly Fancy exalted; is yet Flesh, condemn'd like Nebucchadnezzar to graze on the fading Field of Flesh, till he know, this Flesh to be that Darkness, which covers all Truth; and the most high Spirit, to be the only Light, which discovers all things, and itself.

3. Discovery, Have I seen a Night upon this World? One Day passeth not away for another to succeed, except a Night come between. My soul is not yet born again out of the Light of this World into the Day of Christ, if she hath not gone thorow a Night, a Night of Eternal Darkness upon all Earthly Contents. Thou canst not look down upon Fleshly Things with a Delight, from the Throne of Christ; except thou hast lookt upon them, as a Prospect of Horrour; from the Cross of Christ.

p. 25Jesus Christ threatens Jezabel, and her Companions, to throw her into a Bed, and great Tribulation: Revel. 2. 22. He never comes into the Bed of Eternal Repose with Jesus Christ, as his Spouse; that hath not been in a Bed of afflictions, and Flames, with his Jezabel the Flesh.

4. Discovery. Have I tasted the Sweetness of a Life within, in my own Spirit? Hast thou not made a Retreat into thine own Depths? Hast thou not seen the Beauties, that shine in this Glass? Then art thou far from the Depths of the Divine Spirit, and the Glories that disclose themselves in that Glass.

Solomon tells us, Prov. 20. 27. That the Spirit of Man is the Candle of the Lord in his Bowels: if the Spirit of Man within be but a Candle; what then is this Sensual State without? Neither Life, nor Death; nor Light, nor Darkness: but Shadows of Life, and Death between both. But who can think he hath receiv'd the Beams of the Sun, when yet he hath not seen a Candles Light?

We read of a Strumpet, Prov. 7. 11, 12. That her Feet abide not in the house; but she loves to be abroad. While the Feet, the Affections of our Souls are ever gadding and our eyes gazing in the broad ways of Sense; while they love not to dwell in the Habitation of their own Spirits; they make themselves Strumpets to every unclean Spirit.

I have ended the First Head of this Doctrine, the Conversion, or Change it self. I am now to pass to the Second, the Circumstances of this Change.

2. Part: The Circumstances of the Change. These are Two.

1. Circumstance: A Universal Motion in all the Passions.

2. Circumstance: A General Alteration in Practice.

1. Circumstance: A Universal Motion in all the Passions. These are moved at the time of our Conversion, for the most part, in this Threefold Order.

1. Order of Passions in our Change.

1. Passion: Grief. John 12. 32, 33. And I, if I be lifted up, will draw up all men after me. This he spake, signifying, by what Death he should die. The Explication of the Exaltation, the lifting up, the drawing up, is Death. The Lord I…sus was lifted up to Glory by Death. He draws up all men to himself, and Immortality, by Death, Grief is the Souls Death. God by this for the most part begins to draw us up, out of Sin, and Flesh to himself, and eternal joys.

Grief naturally is the Sense of some Great, and Present Evil oppressing the Soul. Grief Spiritually is the Sense of some Great, and Present Evil oppressing the Soul, and pressing it thorow itself into the lap of the Godhead.

Psal. 119. 67. David communicates his Experience: Before I was afflicted, p. 26I went astray: but now I keep thy Commandments. The word afflicted signifies to be brought low, or down. When the Soul gone forth into the midst of the Creatures is arrived at the utmost point of one Contrary, then it begins to return towards the other: as the Sun first turns itself towards us again at Midnight. The utmost Point of a worldly life in Sin, and Vanity, is Grief, or Torment taking away all our Rest. The Soul hurried hither by the Torrent of her lusts, here begins to look, and move towards God. So the Grave of our joys, our Grief becomes a Womb bringing us forth to a Spiritual life.

Psal. 40. 2. David speaks of God, and himself: He hath drawn me up out of the Horrible Pit, and Dirty Clay. This world hath a Root of Darkness, which bears for a Flower the Images of Light. When the Spirit of Man lives upon, and makes itself One with these Imaginary Pleasures; they quickly fade: So both together sink down into their Root, where they are swallowed up in a melancholy darkness. Here the Vanities, which before were Light, now grow heavy, weighing down the Soul. Here all her former Contents meet her again, as Parts, and Powers of this Darkness. That, which was before beautiful Clay, soft Clay, easie to any Impression of Desire, is now stiff, and dirty Clay, holding the feet of the Soul fast in the bottom of this Horrible Pit.

Now God takes hold of us thus low, thus lost, and draws us upward. So our Change begins in Grief.

2. Passion: Shame. Es. 6. 11, 12, 13. Shame ariseth from a Mixt sense of Light, and Darkness; Good, and Evil; Beauty, and Deformity. It is a mixt Passion of Grief, Anger, Fear. As when the Light, and Day first sink into Night, and Darkness in the Evening; or first ascend out of these in the Morning, the Sky looks red: So the Soul blusheth in the midst of her Sins, and is ashamed, when God first dawnes upon her, and begins to draw near to her.

Ezek. 43. 10. Son of man, shew them the House that they may be ashamed of all their Iniquities, and let them measure the Pattern. Shame is a Reflection of foul, and hateful Deformities, made upon our Spirits by the Light of Beauty, Goodness, God shining forth upon them. Shame is the Divine Glory glowing thorow our Darkness, and Filth; before yet it is broken forth into a clear Flame to scatter, and consume them.

God saith to Iesus Christ, of man: Son, go and shew thy self to him, as the Image, in which he was made, in which he should have lived. So let him be ashamed of that dark, narrow, vile, brutish Image, in which he walks. Let him take measure by Thee, as his Original and Pattern.

3. Passion: Fear. As Grief awakens Shame, so Shame rowseth Fear out of its Den. Psal. 119. 120. David cries out: My Flesh trembleth because of Thee: I am afraid of thy Iudgments. Fear is the Commotion of the Soul, upon the sense of some approaching Evil. As the Sea trembles before a Storm: So at p. 27the sign of God's breaking forth upon the Soul, the fleshly part trembles, and shakes before its fall.

The Man himself is afraid of the Judgments of God; the ways of God with the Creature. The Devils at the Presence of Christ feared two Things: 1. A Banishment from off the Face of the Earth. 2. A Confinement to the Lower-most parts of the Earth. Such now is the Fear of a Man, lest he should be call'd off from his Carnal Contents, and cast down into the Straitness, and Horrour of his Carnal Principles.

He discourseth with himself thus: Must not I, who have lived in Flesh, now be separated from all the delights of Flesh, and be shut up in the Darkness of it? Must I not abide there, till I have pass'd thorow the Fire, and endur'd the Consumption of all that which is Corruptible in me? The longer I live in the Flesh, will not the Fire be the stronger?

Thus Fear becomes a Spur in the side of the Spirit to increase her speed out of the World, to God. This is the First Order of Passions: Grief, Shame, Fear.

2. Order of Passions.

1. Passion: Hope. Lament. 3. 21, 22. This I call to mind, therefore have I hope: It is the mercies of the Lord, that we are not consumed. Hope is the Springing of the Soul towards good, or God, first dawning upon it, and dispensing Himself to it. Jeremy, was all before wrapt up in Sorrows, Despairs, Death: Now one single Beam of Hope, and that a small one, glimmers in his Soul: It is the mercies of the Lord, that we are not consumed. Yet this lights him into fresh Fields of Contemplations, and Consolations in God.

There is Mercy with thee, that thou mayst be feared: saith the Scripture to God. When Fear affrights the fainting Soul from God: Hope invites it to entertain that Fear. Fear saith: The Presence of God will take away thy Natural Strength, and Ioy. Hope answers: I shall find a better Strength, and Ioy in God. Fear goes on: The Glory of God will be, as a Fire in thee. Hope replies: This Fire will be a Glory to me. Fear still urgeth: Canst thou ly down with Everlasting Burnings? Hope concludes: I shall have everlasting Arms beneath me. So the Soul casts her self into these Arms to be carried, whithersoever they will bear her.

2. Passion: Desire. 2. Sam. 7. 27. David thus conveys his Desires to God: Because thou O lord, hast revealed it to thy Servant concerning his House: therefore hath he found in his heart to pray this prayer. Hope is the Conception of Blessedness. Desire is the Teeming, the Breeding, Bearing, and Growing big with it, till it be brought forth. The Vestal Virgins first kindled their Spark by a Beam: then they from that Spark kept a continual Flame upon their Altar. So the Revelation of God in Man is the Foundation of Hope: Hope the Fountain of Desires, which grow into great Streams, and so pour forth themselves into their Sea, into God again.

p. 28The Desires of a New Convert, when once they are kindled, increase suddenly to a m…ghty Flame. For they are proportion'd by Two things: The Good, at which he aims: The Evil, from which he flies. Desires here are the Attractions of the highest Good, the most high God: backed by the Impressions of the greatest Evils, Sin, Death, Devils. As one draws; the Other drive. The Soul sees God before her opening a World of new Hopes, and Delights. She sees Lusts and Furies behind her, labouring to overtake her, and hold her back from those fresh Glories, which are now in her eye. This makes her Desires, as swift feet, as strong Wings to her.

Now the newly-converted Spirit begins to discover her self by continual, violent Breathings, and cries towards Heaven: How long Lord? Now she speaks in Davids tune, and tone Psal. 84. 2. My soul longeth, yea even fainteth for the Courts of the Lord: my Heart, and my Flesh cry out for the Living God. Grones are now the constant beatings of the Heart; Longings and Faintings become the Language of all parts inward, and outward: Longings after, Faintings for, the Life of God, the Living God.

3. Passion: Rage. 2. Corin. 7. 11. The Corinthians had slept secure in a foul Sin. They now awakened by St. Paul, give those Testimonies of their Change, which he reckons up in this place: What vehement Desire: yea, what Zeal? yea, what Revenge? As a Flood fo…ming, and roaring, when it is streightned: or swelling, and over-bear…ng all, when it is stopt in its Course: So are Anger, or Rage, Desires multiplied, and growing Mighty by Resistance.

There are Thr…e, that resist the Soul in her Conversion: the Flesh, the World, the Devil. The Flesh lusteth against the Spirit: Gal. 5. 17. The In…linations of the Flesh cross, and quench the Motions of the Spirit. The World infuseth a poyson of Desires and Delights into the Heart, which kill Heavenly Loves, which infect the Heart with hatred, and enmity against God and his Glory, James 4. 4. The Friendship of the World is enmity with God. The Devil is like a Lyon, seeking whom he may d…vour. 1 Pet. 5. 8. He would draw down our Souls into himself out of the Arms of our Saviour.

The World works upon us thorow the Flesh in our selves. For this is the Property, and the Birth of the World in us, John 8. 23. Ye are of the World: Ye, that is they that are Fleshly. The Devil prevaileth upon us by the World. This is the Body with which he cloaths himself, when he comes, he is Prince of this World. This world is his Power.

As God, Christ, and a Saint are all united in the Spiritual part of a Christian: So the Devil, the World, the Flesh are all in one, in the Natural part. These the Soul at her Conversion now understands to be, the Enemies of her Hope, the Tyrants over …joy, the Rubs in the way of her Desires. She riseth to a brave heat of Rage, and height of Revenge against these. Thus she vents her Rage, thus she takes Revenge. By fastning her own Flesh to the Cross … p. 29her Lord, She Crucifies Spoils, Triumphs over, them all. Gal. 6. 14. I Glory saith Paul, in the Cross of Christ, by which the World is crucified to me, and I to the World.

Nothing now is so sweet, nothing so Glorious to this Soul, as the Cr…ss of her Jesus. By this she revengeth her self upon her Spiritual Enemy, as they treated her Lord, her Life; that is with Scorn, and Despight.

First she puts them to open Shame. She uncloaths them of all their fair Appearances. In the face of Heaven, in the eye of her Sun, her God, … displays them naked in their ugly monstrous Shapes; in their loathsom, and hateful Uncleannesses.

Then she nails them by a constant force to the…r Pa…ns, and Sufferance; till they languish to Death.

I have gone thorow the Second Order of Passions: Hope, Desire, Rage.

3. Order of Passions.

1. Passion: Lov…. Love is a C…njunction with, a Complacency in Goodness, God. Gal. 2. 20. I am, saith St. Paul, Crucified with Christ, and now I live, yet not I, but Christ liv…th in me, &c. The Holy Soul having st…ugled thorow the Streights of Grief, and Shame; tho…ow the Cro…stides of Hope, and Fear; having wrestled with the Principles of Nature, the Principalities, and Powers of this world; Fleshly Honours, and heights: now comes to tast the Freedom, and Sweetness of life; which is Lov…; now she knows what 'tis to Live indeed, to live in the Embraces, and mutu…l Twini…gs of the Lord Jesus. Now she hath no Life, but his L…ve: now her L…v… hath no Object, but …is Li…e.

By this time our Convert is grown up out of a … ▪ to a Spouse-like temp…r: like her in the Canticles: She grows Sick of Love. Her Love to God consumes her strength, wasts her Life, dispossesseth her of …er s…lf. Nothing can be Strength, Life, Self to her, save her Saviour only She is …ong, only when he is present. She is happy when he is pleased.

A man in this State breaths nothing, but Affection to God. He cries continually, as David doth: Psal. 18. 1. I l…ve Thee. The word signifies: I love thee dearly, tenderly, inwardly: I twist thy love upon my inwardest, and tenderest bowels, O my I…sus.

2. Passion: Hatred. Psal. 139. 22. I hate them, that hate thee with a perfect Hatred. Hatred is the Life of Contrariety, Casting out from itself, yet Comprehending in it self, as in a Chain, Conquering to it self, its Contrary. God promiseth Christ thus much: Psal. 110. 1, Sit thou at my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy Foot-stool. We hold our Foot-stool near us, but under us. We hold it down, yet we hold up, and raise our selves by it.

There is a Twofold Hatred.

1. Hatred before Love.

2. Hatred from Love.

Hatred before Love is weak, and imperfect, rellishing much, of self-love, Darkness, and Hell.

p. 30Hatred from Love is Perfect, it springs from the Heart of sweetness, it subordinates itself to it, it ends in it. The Life of this Hatred is Love.

As the soul at her first Conversion is strong in Love, so is she sweet in her Hatred. She hates perfectly like a God, not a Devil, every thing, which brings not the Loveliness of her Saviour along with it, as a Pass-port: She turns away her face from it, she sets her feet upon it: not suffering it to rise up against the Life of the Lord Jesus within her: forcing it to serve his Glory.

So much for the Third Order of Passions, Love, Hatred. So much for the First Circumstance in our Conversion: The Universal Motion in our Passions.

2. Circumstance: A General Alteration in Practice. This Alteration is Twofold:

1. A Manifest withdrawing from all Companies, and Contents, that draw the Soul outward, or downward.

2. An eminent Delight in all Persons, and Pa…hs, that draw the Spirit inward, or upward.

David expresseth both these in himself: Psal. 16. My delight is in the Excellent of the Earth. As for them, that go after other Gods, I will not make mention of their Name.

1. Use: For Discovery. Religion is no empty Name, but a Real Thing▪ Two Things make a Reality in the Soul.

1. The Object.

2. The Inward Affections.

1. The Object. As the Woman is to the Man his Image, his Glory in the Image: So is the Soul to her Object. If she espouse her self to the Lying Vanities of this World, she makes her self one with them, both Vanity, and a Lye. If she cleave to the Rock of Ages, the Rock of the Godhead, growing to that, growing up out of that, she becomes a Living Stone, a Rock of Eternity in her self.

This is the First Motion in Religion, the winding of the Soul about the utmost point of the Creature, and turning in towards God again. This is the Discriminating, Dividing Temper; between Religious and unregenerate Persons; the Touching of the Soul with God, as the Needle is touch't with the Load-stone; when it may have various agitations, yet it feels the Impressions of God in the midst of all: when it can never establish, or quiet itself in any posture, save then only, when it is pointed on God. My Soul hath said to the Lord, thou art my Portion: Lamen. 3.

Psal. 16. 8. I have set the Lord always before me: He is at my Right hand: I shall not be moved. God is our Assistant there, where he is our Object: at our Hand, if he be in our Eye. This is the Life and Essence of Religion; the exaltation of God in our Spirits, as our Chief Object, to which, and by which we are directed.

Examine thy self, by this. If the world be all to thee, and God a Fancy: then art thou like that world, a Fancy, and a Bubble. If God be all to thee, p. 31and the world a Dream: then thou hast Strength, Life, and Substance. For thou art one with him, who is the Life, Strength, Substance, Being of all things.

Is thy Heart, as a Hearth, on which Thorns only blaze? Are the workings of thy Spirit like thin, and fine Smoak, slight and vanishing? Can then there be any Religion, where there is no Reality? He is the Religious man who graspes Substance; who digs thorow all things, till he meets with a sure Foundation; who hath taken hold of something Solid, Satisfactory, Everlasting at which his Soul stops, on which she stays her self. I hate them, saith David, that look to lying Vanities: but my trust is in the Lord.

There is a Three-fold Sense of things, which makes a Religious man Real:

1. Sense, of this World's sorrows.

2. Sense, of Divine Wrath.

3. Sense, of Divine Love.

1. Sense, of this World's sorrows. No man is in the Spirit of Christ, who hath not been at the Cross, in the Grave of Christ, and there seen the end of all this world's Glories. Who beholds things in the Eternal Light? He, that hath first seen this world in a Fire, out of which it falls into blackness of Darkness? By the Cross of Christ, the World is crucified to me; saith St. Paul. I come to kindle a Fire in the World, saith our Saviour, and what will I, if it be already Kindled.

They that go down into the Deep, see the Wonders of the Lord: saith the Psalmist. Whoever is gone up to Heights of Grace, hath gone down into the Deep of the First Creation, and seen Wonders of Darkness there.

Jonah tells us of himself: Jon. 2, 6. I went down to the bottom of the Muntains, the bars of the Earth were about me for ever. Hast thou descended with thy Saviour to the Bottom of this Creation, hast thou seen about thee those everlasting Bars of Darkness, which bear up, and bound this Creation? Then shew us the effect, which Solomon mentions in Ecclesiastes: A sad Countenance makes a good Heart. As Darkness contracts the Eye, unites the Fancy, and makes it strong: So a sad Face of things makes the Spirit gather up itself into itself, live serious, and Recollected.

2. Sense, of Divine Wrath. We, saith St. Paul, knowing the Terrours of the Lord, persuade men: 2. Cor. 5. 11, If we know God, we know his Terrours, and what the Power of his Wrath is; can we not then persuade our selves to be serious? Have you seen the Treasures of wrath laid up with God for those that harden their Hearts in Sloth, and Sense, to an insensibleness of Spiritual, and Eternal things? Have you heard those seven-times-seven fold increases of Fury upon those, who go on in Vanity; and yet say, it shall not be so, it shall be well with them? Cannot these things make you Real, and Sober?