The Rise Race and Royalty of the Kingdom of God, Part 1 · Subpart 2 (2 of 4)

The Rise Race and Royalty of the Kingdom of God · Part 1 · Subpart 2 (2 of 4)

p. 227Coloss. 2. 17. St. Paul. complaineth of those, who intrude themselves into Heavenly mysteries, which they have not seen, not holding the head. These, as St. Jude speaketh, are Sensual, that is, men acted only by a natural and common Soul, not having the Spirit. So in those things of our Lord Jesus, which they know, as brute Beasts, they corrupt themselves. They have not anointed Eyes, to see the Harmony, and Spiritual Beauty of all things in the Person of the Lord. They discern not how the Original, and first Glories by fit steps, shoot forth themselves into Figures, and Shadows, how they lie hid as the immortal Seed and Substance in them; how like the Invisible, and first Sun, they shine in the midst of them, shine quite thorow them. They behold not the Figures ascending like a Pillar of Smoak perfumed with all the Spices of the Apothecary p. 228from this golden Altar of Christs glorious Form comprehending them, and being ever beneath them; how they lose themselves by degrees in the sweet shade of Christs Death; how they spring again new in the brightness of his Resurrection; how they lie continually in the Original Glory, where the whole mystery is entirely comprehended, perfected, and finisht.

These men set not their hearts upon this glory of the Father in Christ to make that their Righteousness, their Strength, and their Song in every other Appearance, as in the house of their Pilgrimage. They take no pleasure in the joints of all the members in this Divine Body, which are Jewels wrought by the hand of a skilful workman; this Unity being itself the mysterious joynt every where setting all, and binding all together in itself in that Wisdom of God, which is this Beautiful Person of whom we speak.

But enough of this Caution, and of the Second Part of Beauty in our beloved, the Harmony in the vari…ty.

3. The Third Part is the Light in the Harmony, John 8. 12. Our Lord saith of himself; I am the Light of the World. As the Sun, the chief and most glorious Body, is the Light of all Corporeal and bodily Beings: so this blessed Person of our Saviour, the first and best Spirit is the Light of all Spirits; the first and most Glorious Form is the Light of all Forms of Things, Bodies, and Spirits. He is the First, the Supream, the universal Light. He is that highest Circle of Light, which rideth forth upon every Circle, or Beam of Light, each point in every Beam, Psal. 36. 9. David saith to God; In thy Light shall we see Light. The Light of the Father is Jesus Christ, the express Image and Glory of the Father. These words of the Psalmist have Two senses. 1. As colours are seen in the light of the Sun; so every colour, Light, and Being, the Light of the Sun itself is seen only in the Light of Christs Person, as this pure▪ and eternal Sun shineth upon every other Light and Form in it, and thorow it. 2. Every thing as it is seen in the Light of this Heavenly Form, is a precious stone of the new Hierusalem. It hath a spark of this everlasting Light, which playeth in it, and is incorruptible.

The Sun is changed into Sack-cloath at the presence of an Angel, whose Light so much excelleth that of the Sun, that it hath no Light, when that other Light shineth forth. The highest Angels vail their Faces with their Wings▪ lose all their Light and Glory, when Jesus Christ appeareth upon the white Throne of his proper Forms, and naked Person. What manner of Light is this then, how pure, how full of Glory, how unexp…essible, incomprehensible? This Light, this Lustre of the God-Head is that Scene, that Circle in which all the variety, the ravishing Harmony of Things lieth in Christ. This is the Form of his Person.

4. The last Part of Beauty in Christ is the Life in the Light. Life is a Spring of Beings, which maketh every thing fresh, and new every moment. Newness is attributed to the Spirit. The oldness of the Letter, and the Newness of the p. 229Spirit are opposed one to another, because the Spirit is Life. Life is the Spring of Motion, which is the Chiefest Charm in Beauty, and in which all Pleasures consist.

Jesus Christ, John 8. 12. calleth Himself the Light of Life. The Person of our King is that Light which is the Flower, and Crown of the Divine Life; and that life which is the lustre, the Sparkling, the Perfume of this Crown, and Flower. He is the Fountain of Life. Psal. 36. 9. With thee is the Fountain of Life. This Lovely Person is the Fountain of Life in the Bosom, and Heart of the Father Himself. He is the Quickning Spirit, 1 Cor. 15. 45. The Lord is that Spirit which is in its own Essence, and proper Form: Life itself in the Fountain, where it is most pure, most plentiful, most powerful, most pleasant. How do all Varieties of things … in the Youth of all Beauty in this Fountain of Life? How do they renew their youth, their Beauties every moment, endlesly? Into what mutual traffick of Beauties, and Sweetnesses, into what uncessant, Sprightly, Pleasant motions, what Divine Acts of Love, Joy, Delight do they spring up? How is the Beauty, and Joy of All fulfilled in every one? How are all the Beauties, and Joys of All eternally varied, multiplyed, and increased, when all lye together in this Fountain of Life, and every One hath this Fountain of Life in Himself.

This Person of Christ is the Fountain of the Divine Life, that Springing Fulness of the Divine Nature in each Form. Here the Father, the Supreme Love eternally generateth the Son, the Original Beauty. Both in the Spirit eternally embrace each other, infuse themselves into each other, renew themselves each in other, which is the First and Universal Joy, the Fountain of Delights.

Use. Make the Single Person of Christ the Sole Ground of your Faith; the onelyonly Object of your Love; the Fountain of all your Comfort and Ioy.

1. Make the Single Person of Christ the Sole Ground of your Faith. Rom. 10. 17. Faith cometh by Hearing, and Hearing by the Word of God. Our Jesus in His Spiritual Form of Glory is the Word of God, as the Sun itself is Lux, the First Light. The Scriptures are the Word of God, as the Sun-shine, Lumen, the Secundary Light. The First is a Living Light, a Light of Life. The Second in it self is Light alone without Life. Look thorow the outward Word for the Person of Christ. When He cometh in to thy Soul by His Spiritual Appearance, He will be a Light of Life in thee, at once revealing His Excellencies in thee; Giving thee an Eye to see these Excellencies, by this Sight Setting them in thine Heart, Setting thine Heart▪ upon them, as a Root of Faith.

Esa. 45. 22. Look to me, and be saved all ye ends of the Earth; saith Jesus from His Throne, High, and lifted up, on which Esay saw Him sitting, which is His Divine Form. Behold! the Person of thy Saviour setteth it self before thee to attract and allure thine Eye by the Light of His Beauties. When thou lookest to Him. He holdeth thine Heart fast for ever fixt, as a Seal, upon His Heavenly form by the Fulness of all things Good, Great, and Glorious in Himself: p. 230He soweth the seed of his own Form and Fulness in thee by the flowing forth of the Life together with the Light of his Beauties.

All Objects for Faith to fix upon; the answers of all objections against believing; the way to believe; the power of believing; the act of Faith itself; with the Sweetness, and Fruits of it; all these lie folded up in the rich Treasury of Christs Person; all these flow in at once upon the Soul, spring up together in it, at the unvailing of the Face of the Lord Jesus; as the whole knot of Beams pour out themselves in a moment thorow all the Air to enlighten, quicken, beautify and cheer it, when once the Body of the Sun appeareth. Look then to Jesus, O poor burthened Spirit. Look to him that his Light may shew him; that his Living Light may be an Eye in thee to see him; that thorow this Eye thou mayst drink in by the streams of this Light of Life, him, and all his Beauties to be a Well springing up to all Grace and Glory, to everlasting Life in thee.

I shall divide this Exhortation into Two Parts.

1. Let the single Person of Christ be the only ground of Faith in thee unto justification, Es. 60. 1. Arise, and shine; for the Glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. Thou who lyest in the Dust, bearing thy shame, as one free among the Dead, be no longer unbelieving, but believe. The Person of Christ in the Glory of the Father is risen upon thee, filleth all things round about thee; arise and shine in the brightness of his Appearance. Consider the Fulness of Beauties in Christ, and say thus with thy self; Hath the Sun Beauty enough to gild every Dung-hill, and Dung-heap here below, though that be on Earth, and he in Heaven? Is not my Jesus then rich enough in Glories to overspread my shame, and nakedness, to make my Person shine in the Beams of his; though he be higher than the Heavens; I fal'n down to the nethermost parts of the Earth?

Ther Person of Christ is an overflowing Sea of Spiritual Beauties. For all Fulness dwelleth in him. If thou canst not cast thy self into him; stand still, and see how he breaks forth on every side, cometh on upon thee with mighty Floods, with a Deluge of Light and Beauty till he cover thee, and swallow thee up into his Bottomless depths of pure and Divine Glory, as a vessel in the Ocean, which is fill'd within, and overflown without with the Waters of the great, and wide Sea.

2. Let the single Person of Christ be the sole Ground of Faith unto Sanctification. All Fulness, the Fulness of a Sea, and of a Spring, is in Jesus Christ, Num. 21. 17, 18. You have an excellent Figure in a History. The Children of Israel wanted water in the Wilderness. God gave them a Well. Then they sung this Song. They encompassed the Well; they sung to it, Spring O Well; the Princes digged it with their Staves at the direction of the Law-giver. Dost thou want streams of Grace? Is thy Soul a dry and barren Wilderness? Behold Jesus, whom God hath given thee for a Well. At the direction of this Law-giver dig up the ground in thine heart, till this Well, this Jesus appear. p. 231Then whatever Grace thou wantest, at all times encompass his Spiritual Person in thy Soul, and sing to him; Spring O Well.

Joh. 4. 14. The Water which I will give him, saith Jesus Christ, shall be a Well springing up in Him unto everlasting Life. Take but in One Drop, the least Drop of the Sweetness of Christ, the least glance of His Beauty into thy Spirit; in this thou takest in the Person of Christ Himself, the Fountain, that shall spring up within thee unto the Life of Holiness which is the same for Nature and Duration with Eternal Life in Heaven; Divine, and Incorruptible.

2. Make the Single Person of Christ the only Object of thy Love. Let all the Fulness of thy Love be poured forth upon this Person, which hath All Fulness of Beauty in Him.

There is a Twofold Love; of Benevolence; of Complacency.

1. Love thy Lord Jesus with all thy Love of Benevolence. St. Paul complaineth, Philip. 2. 21. Every man seeketh his own things: no man the things of Jesus Christ. Seek, and pray for the prosperity of Jesus Christ all thy daies in His Truths, in His Graces; in His Glory thorow the whole Earth; in His Church; in every Creature, where he is sown as a Seed. Love him with the Love of Wife, Children, Friend, Country, Parents, Life, In Isaac shall thy Seed be called, said God to Abraham. In Jesus let all Relations, even of thy self, to thy self, have their Name, Truth and Vertue to thee. Let all those Blessings, with which thou shalt bless any of these, come upon the Head of the Lord Jesus. Wish well to, bless all these in the name of the Lord Jesus. Say continually, let the Immortal Word upon its Wheels run, and be glorified thorow all these, thorow the whole Heavens and Earth. Those that are Florists and love Flowers, procure the choicest slips of Flowers, set them in their Gardens, water them, watch them, cherish them with the greatest tenderness and care. So do thou love Jesus Christ. Be continually sowing and setting him, his Beauties in thine own, in every Spirit, in every Appearance. Water them, cherish them by Word, Example, Faith, Prayer. Go out often into the Fields; go down often into the Gardens to see whether these precious Plants bud and Blossom.

2. Love the Person of thy Beloved with all thy Love of Complacency, Prov. 18. 1. A man through desire se…arating himself, intermedleth with all Wisdom, or with all Substance. Behold here the Spouse her love of Complacency to her Spiritual Bridegroom in three Steps; Desire; Separation; Enjoyment.

1. Desire. Thy Saviour is called in the Prophet, Hag. 2. 7. The desire of all Nations. Thy Jesus, who hath all Beauties for all Eyes and Spirits, who hath all desirable things in himself, is the desire of all Nations. Shall not he then be the desire of all Principles, and Powers of Life or Being, in thy whole Spirit, Soul, and Body? shall not he be the Object of all thy desires? This Person, who is the Sealed Sum, and perfection of all Beauties, putteth this Song into thy mouth, Can. 7. 10. My Beloved is mine, and I am his, and his desire is towards me. As the word there signifieth; he continually is circling round p. 232about me, hovering over me with the Eyes of all his Beauties, and Loves, upon me; as a Kite about his Prey. Do thou add to thy Song this part also; and my desire is toward him, Psal. 27. David saith; one thing have I desired of the Lord, that I may be all the days of my life in his Temple, beholding his Beauty, and seeking still. The Heavenly Form of Christ is the Temple, or Palace; and the God, or King in it, the Beauty of all. Say thou to Jesus Christ: I now, for what is my sighing before thee? This is all my desire; that I may be continually in the Heavenly Light, and Divine Form of thy Person; that I may be continually feasting all my Faculties and Senses on thy Beauties, and endlesly making fresh Discoveries of new Beauties in thee.

2. Separation, Cant. 8. 6. The Church cryeth to Christ; Set me as a Seal upon thine Heart, as a Seal upon thine Arm. For Iealousy (that is, Love in its Strength, at its Height) is strong as Death, cruel as the Grave, the flame of it is as the Flame of the Lord. Love and Death both agree in this that they are a separation. I protest by my Rejoycing in Iesus Christ, I dye dayly; saith St. Paul.

The Love of a Saint to Jesus Christ is a Daily Death; a Separation from all created Objects, a Retirement out of this whole World visible, or invisible, into the World of the Blessed, that World of Eternal Light, and Beauty; to be alone with Him, and in Him; to be inseparably united in One Love, in One Loveliness; in One Spring, and One Stream of Beauties with Him, as a Seal upon His Heart, as a Seal upon His Arm. Where we read, Cant. 8. 6. Love is strong as Death, cruel as the grave; the coals thereof are coals of Fire, which hath a most vehement flame, which hath, is put in by the Translatours, a most vehement Flame, is in Hebrew, the Flame of Jah; of the Lord, of Jesus.

Learn here the Divine Mystery of Love in Death. The Death of a Believer, a Lover of Christ, is Love itself, which is the Fire of God burning from the Center of our Spirits, from beneath the Foundations of our Natural Being, till it have consumed the whole frame of this Creation in us, and transformed us into one everlasting Flame with itself; till it have separated us from every Form of things into his own Shining, and Flourishing Form, which is the Person of our Beloved; the Temple, Palace, Paradise of Love, of the God-Head, which is that Primitive, the purest Love.

3. Enjoyment. This is the Third Step in the Love of Complacency. The Intermedling with all Wisdom, or all Substance. Our Jesus is the only Wisdom, Substance, and Truth. The Fulness of things in Harmony, as they make all Beauties and Pleasures; in their Substances and Truths, as they have the first, & freshest Glory upon them, and are incorrup…e, lie in the Person of Christ. The Hebrew word to intermeddle signifieth to mingle with, or roul our selves in the midst of all Wisdom, and Substance, that is, in the Bosom of Jesus.

O believing, loving Soul! Thy Beloved, when He cometh into thy Spirit, saith, Can. 1. I am come into my Garden, my Sister, my Spouse, I have gathered my Spice, I have eaten my Hony with my Hony-Comb, I have drunk my Wine, p. 233and my Milk. When thou comest into his Bosom, and Spirit, say thou to him▪ Now am I come into my Garden, my Brother! my Bridegroom! I gather all pleasant, precious, and incorruptible Fruits in thy Person, together with their Root, thy Person. So I transplant them into my Spirit and Person. I eat of the excellencies of Wisdom, which are sweeter to my Soul, than Honey is to the Palate, I eat them in, and with thy Person, the essence of Wisdom itself, as live Honey with the Honey-comb. I drink in my Wine and my Milk; the Spirit, and Sweetness of thy Divine and Humane Nature; of the New Heaven, the naked Appearance of the God-Head, and the new Earth, the Divine Appearance of the whole Creation in thy Spiritual Form. Thus I stretch my self at large, I roul my self at liberty in the midst of all Beauties and Delights. Here I rest in Eternal Ioy with the perfect Complacency of all my Faculties, of my whole Spirit, Soul and Body, in thine Heavenly Person.

3. Make the single Person of Christ the Fountain of all thy Comforts.

1. Consider, that there is indeed such a Jesus, so Beautiful, Eccl. 11. 7. Solomon telleth us; the light is sweet, and it is a pleasant thing to behold the Sun. If the light of this Heaven be sweet, and the sight of this Sun infuse a pleasure into us, when we look upon it: what is the Light that shineth in the Person of Christ? What doth once glance of this Sun of the Divine World? How doth it make the heart in our bosom leap to him, and dance about him, as the Needle to the Loadstone?

To go forth in a fair Summers day to look upon the green Fields, and clear Skie, is a refreshing to our Natural Spirits, and begetteth a lightsome Joy in us▪ come forth ye dark, and melancholy Souls! see this Jesus in his unvailed Person, as he rideth forth upon the Circuit of the whole Heaven and Earth in his name Jah, in his Divine Form, in which he comprehendeth and filleth all; see that New Heaven, and New Earth, which he maketh in himself. As Snow at the shining forth of the Sun; so will the heaps of Snow, the Mists and Clouds about your Heart dissolve into an unexpressible Sweetness, and Light of a secret Joy and hope at this Sight. By the Light of the Beauties of this Person cometh the Sight of him: by this Sight cometh Faith: then cometh all Peace and Joy in Believing.

Could Davids Harp chase away Sauls evil Spirit, which vexed him? Is there any evil Spirit, which will not be chased away; any vexation, or melancholy, which will not be charmed by this Harp of God, by the Harmony of all Heavenly Beauty, and Musick in the Person of Christ.

2. Consider, that this Jesus is Beautiful to make thee Beautiful. Ephes. 1. 6. God is said, in his Grace, that is, in his sweetest, and richest Love, to have made us acceptable, that is to have made us lovely in the Eye of his Love, to have set us in the Embraces of his Love, in the Beloved One, in the Person of Christ. When thou liest on the ground covered with Sack-cloath, and ashes, in thine own Spirit, then think thus with thy self: When the Lord Jesus appeareth p. 234in all his Glories before the Father, then doth he represent me, then doth he present my Face and Person to the Eye, and heart of his Father in the Glass of his own Beauties. Will not th…s revive thy Soul within thee, to understand, that the Father taketh that Beautiful Image, and sweet Impression of thee upon his heart, which he receiveth from the most lovely sight of J…sus Christ in his fullest lustre? that all the thoughts, and works of the Father concerning thee pass thorow this Medium, the Beautiful, and Blessed Person of Christ?

Thou sittest on the dunghil of this Body of Sin, this Flesh covered from Head to Foot with the Sores of thy Corruptions. Th…u liest in the Grave of this Body of Death, where all cares, and fears, like Worms feed upon thee. But see, Jesus boweth the Heavens, and cometh down. He descendeth in that Form of Glory, which is the Heaven of Heavens, encon pass…ng thee on every side, transfiguring thee into a shining Glory, as the white Cloud of the most excellent Majesty transfigured him, when it rested upon him.

3. Consider, that this Jesus is Bautiful for thee, to make thee happy in the enjoyment of Him. David in a pang of gr…f comforteth himself after this manner; Why d…est thou cast down thy self; O my Soul! why art thou so troubled within me? Hope in the Lord; I shall yet praise Him, the Health of my Countenance, (or, the Salvations of my Persons, of my Pers…n in every Form, and Appearance) and my God, Psa. 42. 11. Thus do thou discourse with thine own Soul, when it is overcast and bowed down with fear, care, or sorrows: Why droopest thou my Soul! Why doest thou mourn, and groan? Why art thou thus unquiet within me? Look to thy Iesus; I shall yet sing new songs of my Beloved, and praise His Beauties, these are the Spiritual wine, that maketh glad my Heart; the Oyl of Joy, that maketh my face to shine. He is a Million of Salvations, and Heavens to me in every state. He is my God.

Why art thou cast down, O my Soul! Lift up thine Eyes to the Person of Christ, Is not this Anoynted One, with all the Beauties of the God-Head, ever before thee? Doth not be continually encompass thee, and shine round about t…ee with all variety of pleasantnesses, and glories, like the Rainbow round about the Throne of God? Rev. 4. Is not His Desire towards thee, that thou mayest rule over His Beauties, and satisfie thy self at all times with these Breasts of Divine Sweetne…s? Feed then like a Roe, among these Lillies. The Person of Christ is not His own, but Thine; Thou hast power over it, and all its Heavenly Treasures. Let Him then with all His Excellencies lye like a bundle of Myrrhe between thy breasts all th… dark Night, breathing Sweetness into thy Spirit, and as a Cordiall fortifying thy Heart against all assaults, with a glorious Joy. Here make thy self, with all thy flocks of thoughts, and affections to lye down, O my Soul! Here lose thy …, and this dark appearance of Things, in these Lovelinesses of thy Savi…ur's …ers…n, which cometh forth, like a Brdegroom out of His Chamber of Eternity, … His Father's Bosom, like a Sun fresh in all His Morning-Beauties, to run his race of Glory in thy Person, and to swallow up that into the Circles of His Pure Light.

p. 235Reas. 4. I come now to the 4th and last Reason, why Jesus Christ is the Fairest of all things. All Beauty is derived from Him. Beauty any where in the Creature is an Image of the Divine Nature, by which that maketh itself visible, testifieth its Presence, awakeneth the Soul to a sense of itself, and to seek after it. The Lord Jesus is the First Image of the Invisible God, the Supream Beauty. So every other Image, is drawn from Him, dependeth upon Him, and is comprehended primitively, purely in Him. Every other Beauty is a Copy of Him, taken from Him, who alone is the Life.

Col. 1. 18. All things are made by Christ, invisible, visible; in Heaven, on Earth; Angels; all were made by Him, and for Him; by Him, as the Exemplar Cause, for him, as the End, that thorow the Picture the Person Himself might, as a Sleeping Seed, stir up itself, and spring in the Light of every understanding and sense, in the Love of every Heart.

All Things are By Christ Two ways, 1. As the Pattern of the Work: 2. As the Power Working.

1. Every thing is by Christ, as the Pattern of the Work. Our Lord Jesus is the Wisdom of God. Wisdom is an Inward Image in every Spirit, according to which it ordereth its way, and fashioneth its work that the Whole may be One Piece, and a Beauty may result from the agreement of all Parts in the unity of the whole; as also from the Harmony of the outward Form, and the Inward Image, which by their mutual reflections pour forth pleasures, and joys into the bosom of each other. In Nature the Spirit included in the Seed of a Rose, hath within it self the Image of a Rose-tree, with all its proportions; leaves and flowers; beauties and sweetnesses, several growths, the bud, and the full-blown Rose. According to this Image, the Seed putteth forth it self; the Spirit in the Seed formeth it self upon the outward Matter, and figureth the whole Plant in all the progress, and perfections of it. The Person of our Beloved is the onelyonly Image in that Eternal Spirit, which is God blessed for ever. In this glorious Image doth He ride forth upon the face of the whole Creation from the beginning to the end. In all His works of Power and Providence, He consulteth onelyonly with this Beautiful Image in His own Breast, in which all the Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge, all the Patterns of Beauty and Excellency are laid up. He figureth this Image upon every Creature, and Work: he fixeth this Image itself in every Creature, and Work, which by the lustre of its presence, putteth a Life in the Figure, and giveth a gloss to it, as the Sun-shine to a Flower.

Gen. 40. 38, 39. We have the History of Jacob laying streaked and speckled rods in the Water-troughs before the Cattel. When they came to drink, they saw these, conceived, and brought forth their young streaked, and speckled like to these. Thus God the Father in all the Excellencies of the God-Head generateth Jesus Christ, and setteth his Person before him. When he cometh to drink of these waters of Life, to take in, and feast himself upon the p. 236Joys of his own Essence, and of the Divine Nature, he hath his Beloved Son in his Eye continually. From this Beatifical vision he is filled with the Innumerable Forms of his Son's Beauties. From this Fulness the Father becometh Fruitful, and bringeth forth the Creation with all the Forms, and changes of it in the Figure of these Eternal Glories.

2. All things are by Christ, as the Power working, Job 38. 14. It is turned as Clay to the Seal; they stand as a Garment. How sweet, and clear a Depth is this Text? How doth Jesus Christ in it shine from the Face of every Creature, and from the unfathomable Light of his own Person? What is this it, it is turned? You shall see in the verse immediately before, it is the Earth, which frequently is taken for the whole Creation in the language of the Scripture, as Heaven for God. But what is this Seal, to which the Earth is turned like Clay? Two verses before will shew you, that this Seal is the Day-light. Luk. 1. 78. Zacharias in his Song expresseth Jesus Christ by this name, the Day-spring: These are his words; The Day-spring from on high hath visited us. As the Day-light, when it springeth in the morning, overspreadeth the whole visible World, and setteth a new Form upon every thing: so the Lord Jesus, as a Seal by the presence of his Person with every Creature imprinteth the figure of himself in a beautiful Form upon it.

Thus it is turned, as a Clay to the Seal. Job addeth; they stand, as a Garment. The Creation is spoken of first Collectively, It; then all the Creatures in particular distributively, They. There are two rich Glypmses given us of the glorious Person of our Lord in the Creation by these words.

1. As the whole Creation in general, so each in particular is sealed with the entire Person of Christ.

2. All the Creatures are Sealed with the Person of the Lord Jesus without, and filled with the same Person within. Every Creature rightly seen, is as a Garment of Light cloathing the Body of the Sun, the Person of Christ; and wrought in every part of it with the Figure of this Spiritual Sun. The Type of it was the Vail before the most Holy Place. Within were the Cheru…ims of Massy Gold. Upon the Vail was wrought the Similitude of the same Cherubims in all manner of rich Colours.

Thus the Earth is turned to Christ, as a Clay to the Seal; and every thing in it standeth, as a Garment upon him.

Perhaps he who peruseth this place in Job will find reason to believe, that the Holy Spirit pointeth at Three States. 1. The Creation, as the Figure. 2. The Person of Christ incarnate, as the First-fruits. 3. The Reformation, as the Life in the full Harvest. Neither will it seem unlikely to those who compare the Scriptures; that Zacharias alludeth to Job, and Job here to the first of Genesis. In three things all agree; 1. a Darkness. 2. A Light rising in this Darkness, and triumphing over it. 3. A New Form, given to all things by this Light.

But to return; Heb. 1. 3. Our Lord is said to be, The express Image of his p. 237Fathers Substance. The word is Character, which signifieth an Ingraving, as upon a Seal. Great Persons first engrave their Arms upon some precious matter, as Gold, or a rich stone. This is their Seal. With this they stamp the same Image upon several pieces of Wax, as they have occasion. So God the Father setteth deeply, and richly, the compleat Form of his Divine Person, and Substance upon the Person of his Son. Then he setteth him, as a Gold-Seal upon the Creation, as Virgin Wax, and so imprinteth all his Beauties upon it. But the Lord Jesus stampeth one part of the Creation with the Impressions of his Person thorow another; so that the Figure is more clear and perfect in the invisible part of things upon Angels, and Spirits; more obscure, and imperfect upon the Visible part, the Things of Sense.

Before I leave this we are to take notice that the matter of the Creation, which Job calleth Clay, is expressed by Water in the beginning of Genesis. I… you set a seal upon water, it receiveth the Impression without resistance, but keepeth it only by the continuance of the Seal itself upon it. Thus the Preservation of the Creature to the end, is the same thing with the Creation of it at first, it is the Impression and Figure of our Saviours Beautiful, and Blessed Person, which is the Essence, and Form of each Created Being. It is this Glorious Person itself, the Fountain of all Forms fixed in the Impression, which alone every moment preserveth each Essence, and all Beings, by renewing them. If the Seal be taken off, immediately the Figure vanisheth, and is no more.

Use. 1. Let all this, that hath been spoken of the Person of Christ perswade us to study this Person, in which such unsearchable riches are laid up, and to seek the knowledge of him. Beautiful things alone are worthy of knowledge. This Jesus then is worthy of our knowledge. For he is fair. He is fairer than all things; and so most worthy to be known; all Beauties are comprehended in, and derived from him. His Person then should be the Center, where all the lines of our knowledge meet, and from whence they are drawn.

I shall press upon you the Study of your Beloved in the simplicity and nakedness of his Heavenly Person by Two Arguments. 1. The Easiness. 2. The Excellency.

1. The knowledge of Jesus Christ is Easy. Heb. 5. 11. The Holy Spirit had made mention of Melchisedech in the verse before. In this he addeth: Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered by reason of the dulness of your hearing. Melchisedech signifieth the King of Righteousness. This is Jesus Christ in that Spiritual Form of Divine Glory, which is the Throne of Righteousness. In this he was eternally with the Father, in his heart, and Eye. In this he was with the Saints from the beginning of the World, the Immortal Seed in their Hearts, the Joyful, and Glorious Object in the Eye of their Faith. In this he appeared frequently to them thorow outward Figures.

The Holy Ghost telleth the Hebrews, that He hath many things to say to them of this Person. He hath many, innumerable Beauties in Him to unvail, and p. 238shew to them. He hath many things to say, many words, and expressions, to declare the riches of each single, Beauty. When David saw this Person of Christ, as a City compact in it self, where all Spiritual Beauties, and Beautiful Spirits dwelt together in a most Beautiful Order in the unity of this First and Great Spirit, in the Eternal Palace of His Spiritual Form, he cryed out: Glorious things are sp…ken of thee, O thou City of God! Psal. 87. 3. So saith the Spirit here: of whom I have many things to Say; Then He addeth; and hard to be uttered. This seemeth a strange Testimony to bring, to prove the Knowledge of Christ to be easy, which saith plainly; the things of Christ are hard to be uttered. But you will presently see these words to have in them a full, and manifold proof of this, which we intend.

The Beauties of Christ are hard to be uttered. Whence ariseth this Difficulty? From the Nature of the Things? St. Paul teacheth us, that Every thing, which maketh manifest, is Light; Eph. 5. 13. If that which maketh every thing manifest, be Light; then is the Light itself most manifest of all things; then the higher, and greater the Light; the clearer, the fuller is it in the Manifestation of Itself, and of all other things. The Person of Christ is the most pure, most perfect, and most universal Light. Nothing shineth so openly, so clearly in every creature, in every place, in every Spirit; Nothing so easy to be seen, as the Person of this Lovely One. Whence then is the difficulty of uttering His Glories? The Spirit answereth the Question. It is from the Dulness of our Hearing. How evident an Argument is this of the Presence of our Beloved with us, that He is before our Eyes in every Appearance of Things, that He is in the midst of us? How plain a Testimony is it of the openness, and clearness of His Beauties, of their nearness, and suitableness to our senses; that it is a Dulness in us not to see this Person, these Beauties? We never account it to be a Dulness of Sense not to discern things Distant, or Difficult.

Solomon saith, Prov. 14. 6. Knowledge is easy to him that understandeth. The Knowledge, which this Divine King had his eye upon thorow his whole Book, was that Wisdom, which is the Brightness of the Glory of God shining forth in the Soul. The Holy Ghost seemeth thorow this book of the Proverbs to express by understanding a Divine Light and Sense, which is the Spirit of Christ in us; by Wisdom, that Divine Object, which is the Person of Christ rising in us, like the Sun in his proper Sphere. This Earth which we tread upon, This Heaven, which we see shining round about us, are not so manifest to our natural Senses; as Jesus Christ, that Power of God, which bringeth forth, beareth up us and all things; that Wisdom of God, which encompasseth us round about with its various brightnesses and beauties is present, open, and evident to the Spiritual Eye.

Doth not this move us; to understand, that there is an Heavenly Person ever w…h us, in whom are set before us all the Delights of our Eyes, all the Desires of our Hearts; and that the only Bar between us, and these Beauties, these p. 239Blessednesses is either our want of Senses, or the Dulness of our Senses, that we discern them not? Mat. 10. 51. Bartimeus the blind beggar, hearing that Jesus passed by, cryeth out; Jesus thou Son of David have mercy on me. He ceased not to cry, till the Lord maketh a stand, and asketh him; what he would have. He answereth; Lord, that I may receive my sight. Isa. 50. 4. The Prophet saith of God: He waketh mine Ear morning by morning: he wakeneth mine Ear to hear, as the Learned. You that are no Christians indeed, who have no Spiritual Senses, cease not crying, Jesus, thou Brightness of the Father's Glory, have mercy on me, that I may receive my sight. You that are in truth Christians, and have Spiritual Senses drowsie, and dull, whose heart is awake in you, while you sleep, cry to the Lord Jesus to awaken your Eye, and your Ears morning by morning, moment by moment that you may see his Shape, and hear his voice. This is the first Argument to press you to the study of the Person of Christ; the Easiness of this knowledge.

2. The Second Argument is the Excellency, which consisteth of two Parts, the Comprehensiveness; the Efficacy of this knowledge.

1. The Comprehensiveness of the knowledge of Christ is the Excellency of it, Col. 2. 2. All treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge are hid in him. Several Propositions of great value and vertue, lie wrapt up in this single Proposition.

1. All Things, that are to be known, lie together in the Heavenly Form of Jesus Christ. All things are here in their first, and proper Being, in their Truth and Substance, in their immutable essences, as they are capable of being known. Every thing as it is seen without this Circle of Divine Light the Person of Christ, is a Shadow, an Apparition, a Mockshow of itself. It may beget a Fancy, or Opinion in our Souls, but no Knowledge.

2. That Light, in which alone things are known, is only in Christ. He is the true, Supream, and universal Light. All things are naked, and manifest before him: Heb. 4. 13. This is that Divine Light, in which every thing appeareth in its Divine Form, in its naked Substance, and Essence, uncloathed of every Disguise, and Vail, as it lieth in the Divine Understanding, which is the measure of all Truth. Therefore our Lord Jesus in that place, Heb. 4. 12. where all things are said to be naked and manifest before him, is in the verse before called; the Word of God; the living Word; the living Word of the Divine understanding, in which it bringeth forth at once, and eternally all knowledge to itself, and beholdeth, as in a Glass, the eternal Truths, and Essences of a…l things.

3. The Eye, which taketh in all Knowledge is in Christ; As the Spirit of this world is both the Fountain, and the Eye, which sendeth forth, and taketh in all n…tural Images; then our Spirits by being comprehended in this Spirit, become Springs in that Spring, Eyes in that Eye, bringing forth from themselves and contemplating in themse…ves the various Forms of being in this world; so is a Saint Light in Christ; a Child of Light in this great Father of Lights. Jesus p. 240Christ in His Divine Form is the Light of Life; that is. 1. The First Light, as the first Picture is called the Life. 2. The True Light; every other Light is a Picture of Light, and no more. 3. A living Light; and so both a Fountain, and an Eye. In the Hebrew the same word for the substance signifieth both. A Saint Springing up in his inward man out of this Spiritual Form of Christ, and standing in it, is made itself also, a Fountain of living waters flowing from Lebanon; of all living Glories flowing from the high, and flourishing Mountain of the God-Head in the Person of Christ: Can. 4. 15. He is made also an Eye set fully, Can. 5. 12. Aben Ezra in his notes expounded that to be an Eye, in which is set the full Image of the whole Nature of things; in which, according to the language of the Gospel is set the Person of its Beloved, that entire Image of the God-Head, and of both worlds, where all Fulness dwelleth together in a Divine Form, and Glory. This is spoken of Christ first, then is true of a Saint, as a Saint is the Image of Christ.

4. All Things, as they are known in Christ, are a Treasure. That which is born of the Spirit, is spirit; John 3. 6. That which is seen in this Spirit of Immortality and Glory is an Immortal, and Glorious Spirit. This is the true multiplying, magnifying, and glorifying Glass. Each Dust is here known in the bright Form of a Beautiful Star; each Star is discovered here to be an Heaven of Stars, a new world of Glories. Every thing as it appeareth in Christ, is something of Christ. Christ altogether is Lovely; Can. 5. 16. It is in the Original; Every thing of him is desirablenesses. The least Point, that a Spiritual Eye can touch upon in the Person of Christ, is a fresh spring, a full Sea, a great, and bottomless deep of all Beauties, Excellencies, and Joys that may render any thing perfectly, universally desirable.

5. The Knowledge of things in Christ is a Treasure. It is Wisdom, as well as Knowledge. It is a knowledge of things in their Head, in their highest Beauty, Life, and Truth. It is a Fulness of Things. It is a Transforming Knowledge. We are changed into the things themselves, and they into us. By knowing we possess, and enjoy them; we are possessed, and enjoyed by them; we stand both in one Image, and Spirit mutually comprehending, and comprehended; mutually cloathing, and cloathed.

All this Treasure is hid in Christ, not as in a Cloud, but as in the Sun; by no darkness, or obscurity there; but by the Excess, and Transcendency of the Glory; by the Perfection, and Purity of the Light; as Christ is hid in God; Col. 3. This hiding maketh the Object more a Treasure, and more evident to a suitable Eye, in as much, at it is a Divine Form in a Divine Light; a Form of Light dwelling in the Fountain of Light. How worthy is this Knowledge of that Zeal to it, and pursuit of it, which the wise King stirreth us up to, Prov. 2. 3, 4, 5. to cry for it, to the Fountain of wisdom above, with the voice of our Faith; to seek it as Silver in every thing round about us, the pure mettal in the oar of the Creature, by the Flame of our Love; to dig for p. 241it, as hidden Treasures within our selves, below the Foundations of this Creation, by Humility and the Cross?

This is the Comprehensiveness of the Knowledge of our Saviour.

2. The Second Excellency in this Knowledge is the Efficacy. This divideth itself into three Branches: It worketh Grace. 1. Universally. 2. Powerfully. 3. Kindly.

1. The Knowledge of the Lord Jesus worketh Grace Universally. It worketh all Grace together in a sweet Harmony. John 17. 3. In a bosom-discourse between himself, and his Father, where he is most naked, sweet, and free, the Lord Jesus saith to his Father; This is Eternal Life to know thee the only true God, and Him whom thou hast sent, Jesus Christ, God is True, the Truth, as he is God. He is the True God, as he is the OnelyOnly One. Jesus Christ is sent forth from him, as he is the Brightness, the Effulgency, the Outshining of his Glory; his essential Image. Thus is he also one with him. The Father cannot be perfectly known by him, if he be not perfectly one with him. This verse hath in it a figure called foreign: One thing expressed, as two; like that; a Cup, and Gold, for a Golden Cup. So here; to know the only true God, and Jesus Christ sent forth from him, is to know that God, who is the Unity, and Truth in Jesus his essential Image, in which he comprehendeth, and cometh forth into all manner of various Images; the outgoing of his Divine Essence in Eternity and Time.

Eternal Life is the whole Work of God upon the Souls of the Elect from the Beginning to the End; the Divine Life begun in Grace on Earth, compleated in Glory in Heaven. I have formerly said, that Knowledge maketh the Spirit One with that which is Known. How should this endear the Knowledge of our Blessed Lord, and quicken us to follow hard after it; The true Knowledge of our Beloved maketh us One Spirit with Him, and transformeth us into His Image, which is the whole Armour of God put on at once; the compleat frame and fabrick of all Grace rising up at once in the Heart? All Graces are One in the Person of Christ. By taking him in, and being made One with Him, we take in All Grace, and are molded into All Grace in One, according to the measure of the Revelation of our Lord Jesus in us. The want of having this Pattern upon the Mount, Jesus in His Heavenly Form in the Eye of our Spirits, is the great reason why the Tabernacle of God goeth up so imperfectly, and brokenly in us. One Saint is careful of his way, but go…th sadly on; another is chearful, but careless. One is sweet and slight, another serious and soure, censorious. One is zealous and ignorant; another high in his Light, and loose in his Life. Particular rules and precepts, are like a Watering-pot, which a man carrieth up and down in his hand, watering his flowers and plants singly and slightly. While one is watered the other withereth. The Discovery of our Saviour in His Spiritual Person to the Eye o… our Spirits is, as the gentle Rain from Heaven, which at once watereth thy whole Garden, and descendeth to the Root of p. 242every Truth, Grace, and comfort in thee. Grow, saith St. Peter, in Grace, and in the Knowledge of Jesus Christ. 2 Pet. l. l. Grace indifferently, universally in the whole Nature, and Kind is inseparable from the Knowledge of Jesus Christ. These two mutually breed, and feed each other. All Grace in the entire Frame and Harmony is the similitude, the Image of Christs Person, as it is in Glory, formed in us. As Christ riseth and shineth forth upon us, this Image springeth up, groweth clearer and fairer. As this Image cometh to perfection; so Jesus Christ is seen more perfectly in it, as in a Glass. If you be compleat Christians, grow at once proportionably in all Grace, in Light, in Life, in Love; study the Heavenly Person of your Bridegroom, grow in the Knowledge of him. As the Eye of the Husband should be the Looking-glass of the Wife, by which she adorneth her self: so let this glorious Person of thy Beloved be that Spiritual Glass, in which thou O Queen, O Believing, and loving Soul, dressest thy self.

2. The Knowledge of our Lord Jesus worketh Grace powerfully. Psal. 19. 5. The Sun cometh forth like a Bridegroom out of his Chamber, and a strong man to run a race. His going forth is from the end of Heaven to the end thereof, nothing can hide it from his Heat. St. Paul testifieth to us, Rom. 10. 18. that the Lord Jesus is the subject of the Spirit in this Psalm. When he cometh forth from the Chamber of Invisible, and Spiritual Glories in his Resurrection: He cometh into the Soul at once; as a Sun for Light, and Glory; as a Bridegroom for Love, and Beauty; as a strong man for Life, Power, and Progress. When he riseth, and shineth out in us, he encompasseth our whole Person, and Life from one end to the other; he searcheth out every corner in both. There is nothing so close, so dark, so corrupt, so hard, so unclean, so dead, so comfortless; that can hide itself from the convincing, enlightning, consuming, softning, cleansing, quickning, comforting heat, and power of his Appearance.

Every Beam of the Sun is a Figure of the Sun, sheweth the Sun itself, and carrieth along with it three Things, Light, Heat, and Influence or Vertue. Such is every Spiritual Truth in the Soul. It is a Beam from the Person of Christ. It beareth a Figure of his Person, and setteth his Person open, and naked, like a clear Sun before the Soul, drawing the Eye of the Spirit to that, and terminating it alone upon that. Each Spiritual Beam, each Glance, every Discovery of Christ bringeth with it into the Soul, a Light of Knowledge; a Heat of Love; a Convincing, Converting, Melting, Transforming, Chearing, Sanctifying, Spiritualizing, Glorifying Influence, and Power. Go then in all thy pantings, in all thy Prayers by night, and by day cry to this Blessed Person; Arise O Sun; shine O Light that my Soul may become a Spiritual Garden; that my Garden may flourish with all Spiritual Plants of Truth, Grace, and Joy; that all my Spiritual Plants may give forth their smell, and vertue by thine Appearance.

3. The Knowledge of Christ worketh all Grace, and maketh it most kindly. p. 243Psal. 110. 3. The Spirit saith to Christ; in the day of thy power thy people shall be a willing people, in the beauties of holiness, from the womb of the Morning, the Dew of thy Youth. The word Power signifieth also Armies. Willing hath a twofold sense; a natural, pleasant Freedom; and a Princeliness. The Morning is the Person of Christ in the Glory of the Spirit, who is called in Scripture the Day-spring, the Light, the Sun-rising. When this lovely morning breaketh upon thy Spirit from the midst of the shades of unbelief, and thy natural State, it maketh a day of Power, a day of Armies. Jesus Christ appeareth now in the Glory of his Father, in his own Glory, in the Glory of all his holy Angels. He boweth down all these Heavens, and with them descendeth from above into thy Spirit. With these Armies of Glories he fighteth against all the Powers of Darkness in thee. With the Power of these Glories he subdueth thee to himself, winneth thy Love, transformeth thy Spirit and Person; shineth upon, and draweth forth to maturity every Seed of Glory in thee.

The Person of thy Jesus shining out in thee is that Morning, from which, as from a Beautiful, and Blessed Womb, falleth the Dew of Christs Youth, which is his Spirituality, his Eternity ever-full, ever-flourishing with all Divine Beauties upon his Person. This Dew maketh all Graces to spring in thy Soul; powerfully; plentifully; beautifully; pleasantly; with State and Majesty. As that Vine, which hath most of the Sun, bringeth the most kindly Grapes; the greatest Clusters; the fairest, and best coloured; the sweetest, the largest Grapes; the most abounding with Spirit and Heat yielding the best Wine: so doth that Soul, which liveth most in the Eye of the Lord Jesus, under the Beams of his Person unvailed, bring forth the most kindly Fruits of the Spirit in all these respects. 1. All Grace aboundeth most; it is as the Dew. 2. It is pleasantest. Thy people are a willing people. There is most of Love, of Life, and Delight. 3. It is most Beautiful. There are the Beauties of Holiness. 4. Every Grace is greater, spreadeth, and enlargeth itself more; hath more vertue and force in it. The Appearance of Christ. maketh a Day of Power. 5. It is more Princely, hath enstamped upon it more of the Person of the Lord Jesus, and so more of the Majesty of the Divine Nature. 6. It yieldeth the most excellent wine of Heavenly Joys to make glad the heart both of God, and Man. It is the Dew of Christs Youth. It hath in it a Confluence, a Concurrence of all the Loveliness…s, Sweetnesses of the Person of our Lord in his Sp…ritual, his Immortal State, which is his Youth flourishing in the height of all Divine Pleasantness, and Glory never to fade, or decline.

O! Let us all be found in the …umber of the Watchmen, that watch continually for this morning. Let us go forth from under the vail, from out of the Cave of the Flesh, and of the world, into the Light of this morning; into the sweet breakings of the Eternal Day from the glor…ous Person of our Saviour. Let us receive the Dew of his Youth falling upon us. Let us see the Dew of his Youth falling upon all things round about us, making the Dese…t p. 244to Blossom as the Rose; our Hearts, all things to us Spring, Blossom, and Flourish with the Spiritual, and Immortal Beauties of our Beloved. This Dew is his Sowing, his watering them every where.

Use 2. A Direction to the Knowledge of the Person of our Saviour, and his Beauties. The Lord himself saith, The words that I speak unto you, they are Spirit, and they are Life; John 6. 63. Jesus had been speaking of Himself, of eating his Flesh, and drinking his Blood. He meaneth by words, the Things, which those words signify. The Person of Christ, the excellencies, and vertues of his Person, concerning which he spake to them, are not Flesh, and Blood, which are the Shadows only, dying, dead, yea Death itself; nor meerly Spiritual; but Spirit Substantially, and Essentially, which is Life not by Participation, but Primitively, in the Essence, in the Spring.

This is the ground, which I lay for the direction, which I am to give you in your study of the Beautiful Person of Christ; Christ and his Beauties are Spiritual.

Now not I, but St. Paul giveth you two Rules, 1 Corin. 2. 7, 8. The Holy Apostle speaketh of the Knowledge of the Wisdom of God in a Mystery. Then he expresseth this Wisdom of God in a Mystery to be Jesus Christ, the Lord of Glory; the Lord, whose Person is all Glory, whose Principality, and Kingdom is Glory in the Abstract, Glory in its utmost extent. He had said, this was unknown to all the Princes of this world, the Princes in Wisdom, as well as Power, the highest ranks, and orders of Men or Angels. To confirm this he citeth a Scripture in the next verse. v. 9. Eye hath not seen, nor Ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of Man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. Observe by laying these three verses together, how St. Paul meaneth one Thing by these three expressions; The Wisdom of God in a Mystery; the Lord of Glory; Things prepared by God for those that love him. The Person of Christ is that Image of Glory, and of the God-Head, in which lieth the entire Mystery, Wisdom, and design of God from the Beginning to the End, with all its way. He is a Collection of all those Beauties, and Blessedness; Loves, and Joys prepared by the Father for his Beloved Ones to feast upon to Eternity. Of these St. Paul determineth; that the noblest, highest, largest senses, understandings, hearts of the most excellent Creatures are uncapable of the least Glympse, or tast of them. This he draweth down afterwards to a Rule, which is my first Rule.

Rule 1. Spiritual Things are Spiritually discerned, 1 Cor. 2. 14. This Rule divideth it self into Three Branches.

1. Spiritual things are discerned by a Spiritual Eye. St. Paul saith The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him; neither can he; for they are Spiritually discerned, 1 Cor. 2. 14. Nature hath a Twofold Eye, the Eye of Sense, the Eye of Reason.

The Eye of Sense is common to Man with Beasts, and is the Bestial Eye. This p. 245discerneth the Beauties of Flesh and Blood. We have histories of Beasts, Birds and Fishes, which have been in love with Beautiful Virgins and Youths. But this Eye is blind to Spiritual Objects. A Material and Corporeal Object, if it excel, and be transcendent in Sweetness, Harmony, or Beauty, destroyeth the Sense, as the Sun dazleth, darkeneth, and putteth out the Eye. How much more unable are our Senses, to take in, or bear Immaterial and Spiritual Glories?

Nature's other Eye is that of Reason, of the Mind, the Intellectual Eye, which is common to Man with Angels, This is the Angelical Eye in Man. This can discover, can take some measure of the Invisible things of the Creation, and maintain some Commerce with Angels. But the Darkness of this Eye to the Beauties of Christ is painted forth in a lively manner by that sweet and sublime Prophet Isaiah, c. 6. v. 1. The Lord Jesus appeareth sitting upon the Throne of His Spiritual and Divine Form; His Train of Glories filled the Temple, v. 2. The Seraphims themselves, which are …eputed the Highest Order and Degree of Angels, cover their faces with two of their Wings, as uncapable of the Brightness of this Blessed Appearance.

We generally profess to abhor the Principles of Sadducees and Socinians. O that we did not most of us fall in too far with them in the real and practical part! The Sadducees deny both Angel and Spirit. They allow nothing besides that which their Senses can take hold of and assure to them. Let us awaken our own Souls, and examine our selves. Are we not very apt to reject and condemn Jesus Christ Himself, if He come in any Appearance of Beauty, and Glory, which beareth not the Figure of, which hath not some proportion to the Forms of Flesh and Sense?

The Socinians acknowledge both Angels, Created Spirits, and the Eternal uncreated Spirit above them. But they admit nothing more of these, than their reason can give reception to. They ascend no higher to these, than the Wing, of their Natural understanding can carry them. They make reason the only Rule, and Judge of Divine Things. The men of Sodom went about groping for the door, at which the Angels went in, and could not find it; because they were blind. Is not this too frequently our case? How many? How often do we all go about in our searches, groping for that Gate of Heaven, by which the Angels, all Divine Appearances go in and out at the Heavenly Person of our Saviour; but find him not; because we seek him with those natural Eyes of our own sense, and understanding, which are perfectly blind to his Beauties?

Divines teach us, that one way of knowing God is by Negations; when we run over each particular good in every Creature; when we lay all the good of the whole Creation together in one heap and then say; nothing of this is God; all this is nothing of God, as he is in himself; his Nature, and Person is infinitely beyond, and above all that is here. We were advanced to a good degree in the Knowledge of our Lord Jesus, if we were arrived at this Negative way of knowing him; if when we were gone as f…r, risen as high, as our outward senses, p. 246our inward faculties could enlarge, and lift up themselves; we then said of all; this is not Jesus Christ. No, he is made higher than all the Heavens of sense, than all the Heavens of Reason, and of Angels.

When we are thus stopt, and bounded, let us turn to Prayer, and wait for the opening of a New Eye in us. David cryeth out, Psal. 24. 7. Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up ye everlasting Doors, and the King of Glory shall come in. So do you cry; Thou everlasting Door, thou Eye of Eternity, thou Spiritual, and Divine Eye, open thy self in me; that by thee the King of Glory may come in to me, and fill all my Soul, and Senses themselves with His Train. So shall I see my King in His Beauty.

2. Spiritual things are discerned in a Spiritual Light, 1 Job. 1. 7. If we walk in the Light, as He is in the Light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin. As He is in the Light: He is God the Father, as is manifest by that part of the last clause in the verse, Jesus Christ His Son. That term, As, is Emphatical, and Distinguishing. There is a Twofold Light; One in which the Creature is; Another, in which God is. One God maketh; the Other God is. The Creature is in a Derived, and Changeable Light like the Earth. God is, like the Sun in His own Light, inseparable from Himself. St Paul distinguisheth between these two Lights; God who commanded the Light to shine out of darkeness, hath shined in our hearts the Light of the Knowledge of the glory of God in the face or Person of Jesus Christ, 2 Cor. 4. 6. Behold here One Light which is commanded, by the Creating Word of God, out of Darkness, which is called up out of the Possibility, and Principles of the Creature; Another Light, which is the immediate Shine of the God-Head itself in the Face of Christ. As the Sunshine is called the Flower of Light, because it springeth, and …lourisheth in the Body and Face of the Sun itself; so is this called here a Light of Glory in the Face of Christ.

God Himself is called the Father of Lights, Jam. 1. 17, that is, the Eternal Sun; the Sun of Spirits; the Supreme Sun of all Beings, Spiritual and Corporeal. He is the Fountain of Light, the first, and purest Light; His Essence is a Light of Glory. This Essential Light of his own unchangeable Glories is the Heaven, in which he is. St. Paul saith of him; he only hath immortality dwelling in the Light, which no man can approach unto, whom no man hath seen, nor can see, 1 Tim. 6. 16. The Light of God is so pure, that it is invisible to every Creature. It shineth with such a Strength, and Fulness of Glory, that no mortal Eye, the natural sight of no Man, or Angel, can approach it, or pierce into it. In this God himself dwelleth, as in a Palace composed of the Beams, and Brightnesses of his own God-Head spread round about him, and encompassing him on every side. In this Palace he resideth in the Center, and midst of every Spirit, every Being, hid from the search of all. In this high, and strong Tower of Divine Light Jesus Christ dwelleth together with the Father, and is hid there after the same manner; Colos. 3. 3. Our Life is hid p. 247with Christ in God. He is hid in God by the excess of Light, in an Abyss of Glory.

But how then shall we see Jesus Christ in his own Light, if that Light of his Person, and Beauties by its unsearchable Riches, and Incomprehensible, unapproachable Glories hide him from us? St. Peter answereth this objection; 1 Pet. 2. 9. Ye are a chosen Generation, a Royal Priesthood, a peculiar people, that ye should shew forth the praises of him, who hath called us out of Darkness into his marvellous Light. His Light in Greek is properly his own Light. Every Light in the things of sense is from the Sun. But that is the Suns own Light, which is inherent in the Body of the Sun, which floweth immediately from it, in which the Sun himself is seen. In like manner that is Gods own Light by way of eminency, peculiarity, and distinction from every other Light; which is the very shine, and sparkling of the God-Head in itself, upon itself; in which it seeth, and rejoyceth in it self; in which alone it is seen; which is inseparable from the Divine essence, and Persons, as the Sun-shine is from the glorious body of the Sun.

This is a Marvellous Light. This Light itself is a Divine Wonder. It is above the reach of every Humane, or Angelical understanding. It is a Light, which openeth a Divine World of Glorious Wonders; every thing is then only seen right, and in its true state, when it is seen in this Light. Every thing seen in this Light is a Divine Wonder; a Divine Mystery, Incomprehensible, for the greatness of the Glory, to sense and reason; but familiar, and plain to the Spiritual Eye, as bred up with it, and continually before it, known to it from the Beginning. The Spiritual Bride meeteth her beloved here with all his Beauties in this Light, and kisseth him, as her Brother, as born of the same Mother. There is no strangeness between them.

This Light is indeed the Temple, the Palace of the God-Head, of Eternity. The Father, and Christ are here upon the Throne of their Kingdom, in the Glory of their Divine Nature. But a Saint is a Royal Priesthood; a King, and a Priest. So he is taken in, called by God into this Sacred Palace, and Temple, to behold the Beauties, to contemplate the vertues of both, the Father, and the Son, that they may declare them by the Divine Power of their words, and the Beauty of Holiness, which is the Sun-shine of the Divine Nature in their Lives.

We are now by this Circuit of Scriptures brought back to that First, on which we grounded this Second Branch of our Rule, and for the explication of which we have taken this compass. If we walk in the Light, as he is in the Light, we have Fellowship one with another, and the Blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all Sin. Who are these, that have Fellowship one with another. St. John had said before: These things we write, that you may have Fellowship with us: And truly our Fellowship is with the Father, and the Son, v.

3. Philosophers tell us, that we must come within all the Beams of the Sun to p. 246duplicate page p. 247duplicate page p. 248the Body of the Sun itself, if we will see the Sun in his true, and proper Glory. Some speak of a Blessed world in the Sun, the Rarities, and Beauties of which are seen only by the Inhabitants of the Sun. Gods own Light is a Divine World, in which the Father, the Son, all the Saints dwell together eternally, have their proper life of Divine Sweetness, and Blessedness, appear in their proper Forms of Divine Purity, and Beauty. If ye will be admitted into this Society, to a sight of these; you must go beyond, you must come within every Light of the Creature, all Beams into the Bosom of God himself, into the Brightness of the Divine Essence, which is the Living-looking-Glass of the Holy Trinity. Here you shall see your Jesus, as he is. You shall see him, as you are seen by him.

For now the Blood of Christ cleanseth you from all Sin. This Light of the Divine Nature which is the Light of Life, and the Spirit Himself is the Blood of Jesus eminently, in the vertue of it, as it is Incorruptible. This is that which poureth forth itself thorow the Humane Nature into the lowest Forms of Dust, Darkness, Wrath, and Death, in the place of Sinners, as a Ransom of Infinite value. This is that Precious Blood of the true Vine, which when Justice and Wrath have drunk of, they are satisfied, sweeetned, and changed into Grace and Glory; an over-spreading Loveliness, and an overflowing Love. This is that Blood, in which the Life is, which, as it is let forth in Death, wrappeth up all things in it self, washeth them from filth, and flesh; then riseth up again as high, as its own Spring in the Heart of the Father, and carrieth up all things with it self into the Newness of the Glory of God.

Nothing is so directly contrary to the Divine Light, as Sin. Therefore it is expressed by Darkness, and the Night. As the Light of the Day cleanseth all Forms of things from the Darkness of the Night which lay upon them; that now they have fellowship one with another, mingle their Beams and Beauties with mutual Joy: so doth this Blood of the Lamb, the Light shining in the Person of Christ, when it breaketh forth from the Shades of Death in the morning of the Resurrection, sanctifie the Heavenly things themselves, bring forth from under every cloud, stain, and dust, the Heavenly Persons of a Saint of Jesus Christ, of God, the Heavenly Truths, and Lives of all Things; that they may in the Unity of this Light maintain a precious commerce. and traffick of all interchangeable Sweetnesses & Excellencies with Immortality unto a full Joy.

Psal. 4. 6. David thus openeth the Hearts, of the multitude, and his own Heart; Many will say, Who will shew us any good? But Lord lift up tho… the Light of thy countenance upon us. When all thy faculties and Affections, all the Powers of thy Soul cry, Who will shew us Iesus Christ in Glory. Let thine Heart answer to God, and say, Lord, lift up thou the Light of thy face upon me. In the Shinings of thy Face is my Iesus hid; and in these Shinings alone will He be seen by me. Thus the Spiritual Beauties of Iesus Christ are to be discerned only in the Spiritual Light of His own Person.

p. 2493. Spiritual Things are to be seen in Spiritual Forms. This is the Third Branch of the Rule, Joh. 20. 30. When the Lord after his Resurrction had appeared to the Apostles in a Body of Flesh, as He had been cruci…ied; the Holy Ghost addeth, And many other Signs did Jesus in the presence of His disciples. Observe this expression well; His Appearance in a Natural Body, the same, in which He had formerly lived with them, was not the Truth it Self, but a Sign of it.

Luk. 24. 38. Jesus shewing Himself after the same manner to His Apostles, raiseth them from their fears, that This was the Apparition of some Spirit, by these, words: Behold my hands, and my feet, that it is I my self. A Spirit hath not Flesh and Bones, as you see me to have. The Lord seemeth to speak to them after this manner. You have not yet received the Spirit; but are hitherto carnal. If I should shew my self to you, as I am now in the Glory of my Resurrection, in which I am altogether Spiritual, and a Spirit; you would not know me; you would not believe, that I were the same Person; you would be afraid of me. I have therefore wrought this Miracle, and given you this Sign in a tenderness towards you, and a Condescention to your present weakness. By that Almighty Power over Heavenly and Earthly Things, which I am now cloathed with; by the virtue of that Spiritual, Divine Form and Substance, into which I am now raised, which comprehendeth within it self all Form, Substances and Virtues; I present my self to you in that same Body, composed of the same Flesh and Bones, in which I lived with you, and d…ed upon the Cross before your Eyes, with the same Wounds, which I then received. And, because this is a Sign, therefore do I accompany it to your Senses, and to your Spirits with a Double Evidence and Seal from my Divinity; One, that this is no Imposture, or Apparition, with which Evil Spirits have power to deceive your Sight, your Hearing, your Touch, all your natural Faculties; but that Individual and Substantial Body of mine, as it was in Flesh: the Other, the awakening of Spiritual Senses in you, the Shining forth of my Glorified Body, and my Divinity by their own Light upon these, thorow this Sign of my Natural Body reassumed for this Service. But now beware that you make not this Sign a Stumbling-block to you, to make you think me now like your selves, and such a one as formerly I was, to have a body of an Earthly Substance, or Figure, consisting of Fl…sh and Bones. No, the Days of my Flesh are past. I was put to Death in my Flesh, and to the Flesh, I am now quickened by the Spirit to live for ever in the Spirit. A Spirit hath not Flesh nor Bones, as you see me now to have. This seemeth to be something of our Saviours sence in this place.

St. Paul, Rom. 8. 6. saith, To be carnally-minded is Death; but to be spiritually-minded is Life and Peace. The Greek word comprehendeth an Act of both the Faculties of our Souls; our Understanding, and our Will. To look upon things in their Fleshly Forms, to savour and rellish a Fleshly Sweetness in things, is Death. To see things in their Spiritual Appearances, to savour and p. 250rellish them in a Spiritual Sweetness; This is Life, and Peace, which is the Harmony, the Musick, the Crown of Life. When the Disciples looked down into the Grave, for Jesus Christ, the Angels reproved them saying, Why seek ye the Living among the Dead? He is not here; He is risen; He is gone before you into Galilee, as Himself spake unto you. The Flesh was our Saviour's Grave, and is still the Grave of the Spirit. All Forms and Beauties of the Flesh are Grave-cloaths bound about Him. Let us no more seek the Living and Immortal Person of our Beloved, nor His Living and Immortal Beauties, which are all Spirit and Life, among the Dead things of the Flesh. He is not here in Flesh any more. He is risen, and gone before us into the Spirit. Let us follow Him thither. I have done with the First Rule to direct us in the Knowledge of the Person of Christ; Spiritual Things are to be discerned Spiritually.

Rule 2. Spiritual Things are to be compared with Spiritual, 1 Cor. 2. 13. The Holy Ghost teach…th comparing Spiritual things with Spiritual. This Rule bringeth me to the Mark and White which I aim at. That I may hit it the more exactly, I must …ix a while upon that Scripture, 1 Cor. 15. 35. and so forward. I lay this Groundwork for the Building, which I intend to raise upon this Scripture; The set Design of the Apostle here, is to discourse of the Resurrection of the Body. He therefore frameth this Question to himself, which containeth the Great Subject of his whole Discourse in this place: How are the dead raised up, and with What Body do they come? v. 35. In answer to this question he treateth of the Bodies of the Saints in general, of the Body of Christ in particular, as the Root, and Rule of the Resurrection to all the rest.

Upon this ground I shall raise three Propositions, as three Stories in my Building, which will take in the greatest part of St. Pauls words upon this Subject in this Scripture.

Prop. 1. The Body of Christ risen from the Dead is not to be compared with the Body of Christ living upon the Earth, or Dying. St. Paul likeneth by a large similitude the living Body to a Seed, the Body raised to a perfect Plant sprung up out of that Seed. v. 36. 37, 38. St. Paul maketh expresly three Differences.

1. The Life of the one is a Death compared to the life of the other; and so the world, in which it is a Grave, to that Image of things in the Resurrection; v. 36. That which thou sowest, is not quickned, except it die.

2. They differ as two several Bodies for Substance, and Shape. Thou sowest not that Body, that shall be. v. 37.

3. One is as bare Grain, naked; dark, deformed, little, slight: the other hath a Body, a Substantial, Beautiful, Distinct fulness, It hath a Form of Light and Beauty; proportions of greatness, and magnitude; a fulness of Substance▪ It hath a Divine Body, a Body drawn forth from the Treasury of the God-Head; God giveth it a Body. v. 38. It is a Body, a Form, and Fulness sprung forth from the Divine Wisdom, and Will, bearing the Glorious stamp of these, p. 251in which thems…lves rest with a full Complacency. God giveth it a Body, … himself pleaseth. v. 38. It is also to the Seed its own Body, and to every Seed its own Body. v. 38. As John the Baptist saith of Jesus Christ; he is perfer'd before me, because he was before me; as in the purity, and Paradise of the Creation the perfect Plants were first in the Fulness of their Beauty, and Fruit, bearing their Seed in them: so in the Paradise of Eternity before the World, which is Christ the Word, the Wisdom of God, the Immortal, the Glorious, the Divine Bodies, and Forms of things were first, as the Flourishing Tree, comprehending in themselves the Bodies, and Forms of Flesh, as Shadows, or naked Seeds, hid in the Light, or Bosom of the beautiful Substance, and Fruit. Then came forth the Earthly Forms of things into the State of this Creation. These are Shadows, under which the Divine Substances are vailed. These are Seeds, in which the Tree itself lieth hid, as a Divine Mystery. By the breaking up of these Shadows, and the dying of these Seeds, the Immortal Bodies, and Glorious Substances themselves spring forth thorow them. So every Seed hath its own Body in the Resurrection. 1. It is that Body of Glory, in which it lay, and to which it relateth, as its Divine Original, or first Idea in the mind and will of God. 2. It is that which lay hid virtually in it. 3. It is that, which springeth up out of it, and changeth it into itself; Thus the Body of our Lord risen, is the same Body in relation to the same Idea, or Pattern in God; to the same Soul, to which it is joyned, as its proper Form in the Person of Christ; to the same first Matter, out of which it is taken; God giveth it a Body, as it hath pleased him, and to every Seed its own Body, v. 38. My Brethren, what joy is it to think, that the Body of our loving, and beloved Jesus; that our own Bodies; that the Bodies of our dearest Relations, and delights lose nothing of themselves in Death; yea are much more themselves by Death in the Resurrection; as a man awake is much more himself, than in a Dream; a King upon his Throne, than in the Grave, and Tomb? We shall lose nothing of our selves, nor of our distinction.

But I fear I go to far for common understandings to follow me. I will therefore conclude this Proposition with a plain representation of the Truth to you.

As the thing figured, exceedeth the figure: so the difference between the Body of our Lord Jesus before Death, and after it, is much more large than that, which is between a single grain of Wheat cast into the Earth, and the standing Corn upon the ground full-ripe with many perfect grains of Wheat in the Ear; than that between the single Seed of a Rose, and a Rose-Tree full of fresh, and flourishing Roses; or the Seed of an Apple, and a well-grown Apple-Tree laden with ripe Apples.

What Image could any man frame to himself, or what conjecture would he make of a Rose-bush, or a Rose by the single Seed, if he had never seen the things themselves? No more is it possible for us to take any measure of the Body of Christ in Heaven, or at all to guess, what manner of things it should be, by his Body on Earth.

p. 2521. John. 2. 3. we read from the mouth of the Beloved Disciple, who lay in the Bosom of Christ, knew most of His Divine Secrets, and was best acquainted with His Person in Glory? that, now we are the Sons of God, but it doth not appear, what we shall be: but, when he appeareth, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as He is. Now we have the Seed of God in us: now we have in us the Seed of a Divine and Glorious Soul, of a Divine and Glorious Body. But, what this Seed, which is sown in our Earth, will be, when it is a Tree in the Heavenly Paradise; what this Glorious Soul, and body will be, when they are come forth, grown up; and perfected, we do not at all know, Only this aim we have. We are sure, that we shall be capable of an immediate Sight, and Enjoyment of God, without any Vail, or Garment, without any Representation, or Distance; as He is in His naked and simple Essence, in His own proper and immutable Form. This is an infallible Argument; that then we shall be in the Form of God. For otherwise it would be impossible for us to see it, and take it in.

St. Paul illustrateth this difference between the Body of a Saint in its Life on Earth, and in the Resurrection, by two Comparisons; the Varieties of Flesh and of Bodies. All Flesh is not the same Flesh. There is one Flesh of Men, another of beasts, another of fishes, another of birds, v. 39. There are Terrestrial Bodies, and Caelestial; the Glory of the Terrestrial is One, the Glory of the Caelestial is another. There is one Glory of the Sun, another of the Moon, another of the Stars; one Star differeth from another in Glory: so also is the resurrection of the Dead. v. 40. 41. 42. It is a very great mistake to think, that the Apostle intendeth here to set forth the different Glories of Saints in Heaven. He hath a far higher, and nobler design. This is his sence, and the force of his arguing: You must not think, because we have Bodies on Earth and Bodies in Heaven, that upon this Ground these Bodies must be of the same Nature, and Kind, or at all like one another. How vast a variety of Bodies do we behold with our Eyes on this Earth, and in this Heaven? As great as the number of the Stars in the visible, Heaven; so great, and incomprehensible is the Variety, and Several Sorts of Bodies. For every one of these differeth from the other. Such, yea, far greater. is the Difference between a Body, when it is sown in Death, and a Body, when it is raised up. A Body raised, though be it still a Body doth more vastly differ from it self here, than any two Bodies differ in the frame of Nature, or within the Compass of the whole Creation.