The Rise Race and Royalty of the Kingdom of God, Part 1 (2 of 6)

The Rise Race and Royalty of the Kingdom of God · Part 1 (2 of 6)

p. 31If still vanity be your Life, your Food, your Joy; if still Lightness be your Air, and Shadows the Game, which you hunt with your Reason, and Senses; then fear, lest you have seen Shadows only of these Objects, lest your Religion too be vain.

p. 323. Sense of Divine Love. The Scripture saith in one place to good men▪ The Joy of the Lord shall be your Strength. Such as the Nourishment of our Spirit is, such will its Constitution, and our Conversation be. If our Food, our Joy be Divine, and we eat the Bread of Angels, our Lives will be Divine, and our Faces shine with Angelical Beams. If our Delights be Vanity, and we feed on wind; our Spirits, and Conversation will be windy.

The same Solomon, that said of Mirth, what dost thou? And of Laughter, it is Madness: Eccles. 2. 2. He saith Prov. 3. The ways of Wisdom are ways of Peace, and all her Paths are pleasantness. Spiritual Pleasures are Serious ones, as Grave, as Wisdom itself: for they are her Walks. The Love of Christ constrains us: saith St. Paul, 2 Cor. 5. The Love of Christ holds in, binds up, and unites the Spirit, not suffering it to pour forth itself loosely.

That Liberty, which is Daughter to Divine Love, what a Stranger is it to Licentiousness? Those Sweetnesses, which flow from God and his Glories how do they look down upon, and despise Empty Mirths, and mad Laughters? A Bride, made a Woman of a Cat, and set among the Guests in the bridal Chambear, on a sudden runs after a Mouse which stir'd in a Corner of the Room. If thy Soul be still ready to fly at every vanity, which is at any time started in the eye of it: thou maist be cloth'd with the Form of a Heavenly Bride; but sure thou hast still a Brutish Spirit.

Thus you see, how the Object of a Religious man makes him Real. The Second Reality in Religion is that of Inward Affections.

2. The Inward Affections. My Son, saith Wisdom in the Proverbs, give me thy Heart. Perhaps you give to God your Feet to carry you to Sermons; you give him your Hands to work, or fight for him; you give him your Tongue to discourse of Him: but have you given him your Heart? Doth that cleave to him, long and pant after him, sigh for him, live only in Him? David saith to God: Ps…l 51. Thou lovest Uprightness in the Inward parts. The more Inward any thing is, the more Upright it is. Are thy frequentest Groans such, as thou dost not express, thou canst not express; such, as thy Spirit only feels, God's Spirit only hears?

It is the Counsel of our Lord Jesus: Pray to thy Father in Secret, and He shall reward thee openly. The most Secret things are the most Serious. Dost thou commune with thine own Heart upon thy Bed about the things of God, and Eternity? Do the workings and Labourings of thy Soul after thy Saviour hold thine eyes waking, while others are sleeping?

Solomon tells us: The Heart knoweth its own Sorrow, and a stranger intermeddles not with its Joys. Blessed is he who hath a sense of a Sorrow for Sin, and the absence of God, which his own Heart only is conscious to. Blessed is he, who lives on hidden Manna, who hath his Bosom still warmed with a secret Flame of Divine Love, and Joy, to which all others are Strangers.

p. 33Man hath, as St. Paul teacheth, a Spirit, a Soul, a Body. So hath Religion. God the Eternal Object and Spring of our Religion is the Spirit: our Inward Affections are the Soul; our outward Actions, the Body. Outward Actions most glorious, if they go alone, make but a Dead Religion, are a Body without a Soul. Inward Affections without God make but a Brutish Religion, a Soul in a Body without the Immortal Spirit. I now conclude this Application.

2. Use: For Direction, I will divide this into a Threefold Direction.

1. Direction. Entertain mournful Tempers as Angels; Improve them as Treasures. When Jonah was in the bottom of the Sea, and belly of the Fish, his Soul fainting within him; then he remembred the Lord; Jonah 2. 7. As Pearls are found at the bottom of the Sea: so, frequently do the Beauties of the Lord Jesus disclose themselves to us in the depths of Grief, when we are sunk below the waters of this world, and are swallowed up into a Spirit of Darkness. It is St. James's advice, Jam. 1 4. Let Patience have its perfect work, and it shall make you perfect. As one Element stretcht to the utmost passeth into another, Water into Air, Air into Fire: as a Cloud big, and swelling dissolves it self upon the Earth: so thy Griefs, if thou wait calmly upon them, as they swell, and grow, will at length dissolve themselves into God. As Snow and Frost cherish the Seed in the ground: so do biting and binding Sorrows both kill the weeds of Vanity, and ripen the Seed of Divinity in Man. I can no more want Sorrows for my Soul, than the Husband-man can want Winter seasons for his Corn fields. As natural Melancholy draws the Soul deeply into her self, and her Divinest Principles; whence she issues forth again, with the most great and glorious Lights: so do sad things work upon a holy Spirit sinking her thorow her self into the Depths of the Godhead, out of which she riseth renewed to a fresh Spring of Life and Joy.

2. Direction. Look stedfastly to the end of all Flesh. In every Pleasure, Strength, Glory, see the Worm, and the Fire which is bred in all fleshly things, the one never to go out, the other never to die till Flesh be no more. The belly for meats, and meat for the belly; but God shall destroy them both; and I will be in bondage to neither, saith St. Paul. If thou engage thy Soul in any earthly Content, thou puttest thy self into a Prison, whence you must come by Death, or where Death will find you. Why should I put on that, which I must keep on with lasting vexations, or put off with present Pains? The world and my senses were made one for another. The Devil hath defiled, and disordered both: God distract… and will destroy both: The Joy of my Life, and my Life shall depend o… neither.

3. Direction. Preserve Hope towards God ever alive in thy self, Hos. 2. 15. We read of the Door of Hope. Hope is the Door of Happiness. This admits us into the Godhead. He that suffers Hope to sink under Despair in his Spirit, locks and bars up the Door of Heaven against himself. Prov. 13. 12. Hope p. 34deferr'd makes the heart sick. But Hope cut off kills the Heart, and makes it lie dead in Sin, and Flesh. He will lay his mouth in the Dust, if there may be Hope, Give a man Hope, and you cast the Seed of a New Soul, of God into him. What? saith one, May I, the vilest of men, the lowest of creatures, hope to be pardoned? Nay more, to be loved? to be made partaker of a Divine Spirit, and Glory? May I thus l…st, hope this? Then will I fear, worship, serve God, do, suffer any thing for him, or from him; I will lay my mouth in the Dust at his feet, if I may have Hope. Hope declares the most right, and most sweet thoughts of God. It sets the Soul in the rightest and sweetest frame towards God. He exalts God, and gives him the highest Glory, that dares at worst, to hope for the best things from him. He that praiseth me, he honoureth me, saith God, Psal. 50. There are Two Grounds for Hope, which never fail.

1. God is nigh thee, Acts 15. Thou hast thy Being in him. Thou wer't made by Jesus Christ, thou subsistest in him, as in thy Root. Thou art the work of his hand; the Son of his Handmaid, Nature. Thy Natural Being is a putting forth, a manifestation of Christ. Wait alwaies in Hope, for his highest, and divinest manifestations, which come after this. Thine eyes shall see them, if thou let not go thy Hope, but wait con…idently to the end.

2. God is Infinite. He is All: All that thou canst think or wish. For thou couldst not think, or wish any thing▪ if it were not first in him. He is beyond thy Distresses or Desires. Hope then ever in this God, who is already in thee, who is Infinite, whose Power is above all thy Pressures, whose Love is above his own Wrath. Christ is called our Hope: Christ in you the Hope of Glory: to signifie, that Hope is the Son of God, and his Image growing in us; that Hope should have no Ground, but Christ; and then be as its Ground; Immortal, In…inite. Thus much for the Second Part in this Point of Conversion; The Circumstances. There is yet remaining the Third Part; the Causes of this Change.

3. Part. The Cause of our Change or Conversion. This is manifold. Some Causes are essential, some only Occasional. Some remote, some near. Yet all are as Links in a Chain, one depending on another. St. Paul scatters all these Causes within the compass of a few verses; 1 Tim. 2. 1. I will therefore that prayers be made for all men. 3. For God will have all to be saved, and come to the knowledge of the Truth. 4. For there is one God, and one Mediator, the man Christ Iesus. 5. Who hath given himself a ransom for all to be revealed in due time, All the Causes of our Conversion are in these words comprehended under Five Heads.

1. Cause: The Relation of God to Man.

2. Cause: The Mediation of Iesus Christ.

3. Cause: The Manifestation of the Truth.

4. Cause: The Ministry of Man to Man.

5. Cause: The Manages of Providence.

p. 351. Cause: The Relation of God to Man. 1 Tim. 2. 5. There is one God. All Mankind, all creatures are gathered up into one point of Life, which is Love, the Unity of Life, in God. There is one God, the Father of all, Ephes. 4. 6.

God is a Father in Fulness, in Sweetness.

1. God is a Father in Fulness, Luk. 20. 38. Our Saviour speaks thus of God: He is not the God of the Dead, but of the Living. For all live to God: foreign, All things live to God. After the same manner, with the same force you may reason thus: God is not the God of the Dead, but the living; of the unclean, but the pure; of the imp…rfect, but the perfect; of the miserable, but the happy; of the fading, but the eternal. For all things are living, pure, perfect, happy, eternal, to God. So all things have pure, happy, eternal lives in God. These are the Original and Radical Lives; the First, the Fairest Seeds of all things in the Divine Nature. Thus God is All. This is the Fulness of God.

2. God is a Father in Sweetness. God is Love, 1 Joh. 4. 16. God is Love in the Fountain. As waters in their Spring, so is Love in God. It makes him flow into creatures, it makes him flow forth in Love upon the creatures; and still he pursues, he chaseth one Love with another in a Stream, till all return to their Original. Thus, as St. Paul Speaketh, Rom. 11. 36. All things are from him, thorow him, and to him, From him. as the Fountain of Love; thorow him, as the Stream of Love; to him, as the Sea of Love. All Cattel are mine upon a thousand bills, saith God, Psal. 50. 10. As a Father looks upon his Children, as his own, as Images, parts of himself, himself multiplied: So is God a Father in Sweetness.

These two, the Fulness, the Sweetness of God, as a Father, are the First Ground of Hope, and Root of Happiness to the creature. The Fulness is that which we call the All-sufficiency of God; the Sweetness is that which we call Free Grace. These are the Two Pillars in the Temple of Glory: Booz (strength) Jakin, (He will prepare.) The Fulness of God is one, Sweetness the other.

2. Cause: The Mediation of Iesus Christ: There is one Mediator, the Man Iesus Christ, 1 Tim. 2. 5. Our Lord Jesus is Mediator two waies: He is

1. A Divine Head to the Soul.

2. A Divine Seed in the Soul.

1. Our Lord Jesus is a Divine Head to the Soul, 1 Cor. 11. 3. The Head of every man is Christ. This is the difference between God, and Christ; God contains eternally all the creatures in one Nature and Person in himself. God is One. Jesus Christ comprehends the creature in one Person, not Nature, together with himself. Therefore as in one place he is said to be the Head of Man, 1 Cor. 11. 3. So in another place he is called the Man, 1 Tim. 2. 5.

Our Blessed Saviour is God uniting the different Natures of God, and the Creature in One Person, and that his Own Person. From this Person he communicates the Being of the creature, and streams forth immediately into it, in a different Nature and Person. In this Person. he holds the creature in its proper and distinct Being, by being annext and united to himself. Thus the Lord p. 36is a Head to Man. And as the Head puts a beauty upon the Whole Body, so doth Jesus Christ upon the whole Creation, by making himself a Head to it.

2. Our Lord Iesus is a Divine Seed in the S…ul. He is called the Seed: Gen. 3. 16. 19. till the Seed came: He is the Seed of the Woman, Gen. 3. 15. But what Woman is this? He is the Seed of the Earthly Woman, Eve. For he lies hid in her, as in a Womb. He groweth up out of her in the Virgin Mary, clothing himself with her Flesh. But there is another Woman besides this, which is a Mother, and hath her Seed; a heavenly Mother of a heavenly Seed. St. Paul makes mention of her, Gal. 4. 26. The Hierusalem above is free, which is the Mother of us all. Jesus Christ is a Seed. God is the Father, this heavenly Woman is the Mother, the Spiritual State of the creature. He derives himself from both these. He unites both these in himself. So he lies in the earthly Woman, the fleshly Image, and becomes her Seed in the second place; a Seed thrice over, bearing h…r, abiding in her, bringing her forth the second time.

As every creature hath this Seed in it, so it hath lying hid in it the Eternal Beauty of the Divine Nature, the Immortal Beauty of the Spiritual Creature, which both are wrapt up together, in this Seed, to grow up together out of it in their Season. Thus our Saviour is a Divine Seed in the Soul.

These two, Christ the Head of Man, the Seed in Man expound that of St. Paul, Ephes. 1. 4. He hath elected us in him. We are elected in Christ by a double meaning:

1. We are made the Desire, and Delight of God, in Christ, as in our Head.

2. We are design'd to be saved by Christ, as the Seed of Grace and Glory.

3. Cause: The manifestation of the Truth, 1 Tim. 2. 3. God will have all to be saved, and come to the knowledge of the Truth. As in Hebrew, so in the Greek of the New Testament, and hath various significations. S…metimes i… shews a Cause, sometimes an Instrument, sometimes a Means, or Way; so Iob. 17. 3. This is eternal Life, to know thee the only true God, and (that is, in, or by) him, whom thou hast sent Iesus Christ. So 'tis here: God will have all men to be saved, and come (that is, by coming) to the knowledge of the Truth. The manifestation of the Truth is One Cause of our Conversion to Holines… and Happiness.

But what is Truth? said Pilate to Christ. Christ had often said of himself; I am the Truth. We read of him, Rev. 1. 5. that he is the Faithful Witness, And he is said to reveal the Father: No man knows who the Son is, but the Father. No man knows who the Father is, but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him.

The First Truth in General and particular, is the Life of God, and the Life of the Creature in God. Jesus Christ is Truth, as he is a True Discovery of this Truth. He reveals the Father, that is, he opens the bosom of God; he manifests the Life of God, as it enfolds the Life of the Creature in it self; he manifests p. 37the Life of the Creature, as it abides in the Life of God, and grows upon the same Root with it. This is Truth, But what is the Manifestation of this Truth in Man? No man can come unto me, except the Father draw him, saith Jesus Christ, Ioh. 6. 44. To come to the Truth; to have the Truth manifested in us are both the same thing. The Coming is not Natural, nor the Manifestation Moral; both are Supernatural and Spiritual; t…e Drawing of the Father. A Seed hath a Power or Principle, which sent it forth, abides in it, and works thorow it, It hath also an Image, which grows up out of it. Jesus Christ is the Seed in the Soul of Man; the Father is the Power; the Son is the Image in this Seed.

When a Corn is cast into the ground, a Power goes forth from it into the Earth round about, which attracts, and draws it; which unites, and incorporates it with the Seed, which sends it forth again in the Form of that Plant, first in the Herb, then in the Blade, last in the Ear. So the Father thorow Jesus Christ diffuseth himself into the whole Soul, draws it into Christ, who lies there as a Seed, makes it One with him, who brings it forth again into his own Form and Fruit. St. James saith, Jam. 1. 18. Of his own Will beg at be us by the Word of Truth. The Word is the Seed of Truth, Christ, Jesus in us.

The Will of God is composed of those two forementioned; A Supream Fulness, a Soveraign Sweetness: These powerfully and pleasantly stir up the Godhead to bring forth the creatures, and to bring forth it self in the creatures: These delightfully and effectually move God to propagate himself endlesly and infinitely. These heats of love, the delights of fruitfulness are the inward and only Motives which put on our heavenly Father to quicken his Seed in us, to make it grow up by degree, till it hath perfectly brought forth it self into its own form and fulness.

Thus St. Paul tells us, Gal. 1. 16. It pleased the Father to reveal his Son in him. As the Sun draws up the Plants out of their Roots, and discovers them to the open Air; so the Father reveals and discloseth Jesus Christ in the Soul.

4. Cause: The Ministry of Man to Man; Heb. 1. 14. We read that Angels are made Ministring Spirits for the good of those that are to inherit Salvation. So it pleaseth God often to make men as Angels, to minister Spiritual things to their Brethren.

It is one of the Mysteries of Godliness, 1 Tim. 3. 16. God manifested in the Flesh, justified in the Spirit. The great God is pleased by the Fleshly waies of man's doing, speaking, writing, reading, living, to express and convey himself.

A Learned man admires it, as having a Height of Wonder in it, that so low, so narrow; so dark, dead, divided things, as words, and letters should carry into our Souls the highest Images of the divinest Life, Truth, and Glory. This is the Infiniteness of the Godhead, which brings forth itself in the greatest Vari…ty of Shapes, yet still keeps the Unity, preserves it self entire, and full in every one. Thus the Divine Nature imprints it self upon the thoughts of p. 38Earthly man, as scattered Dust, and by the Motions of this Dust in words implants it self by one Man upon the Soul of another.

There is a Three-fold Ministry of Man by which God works in the Conversion of men:

1. Elevation of the heart in Prayer to God.

2. Exhortation by words to men.

3. Example of life before men.

1. Elevation of the heart in Prayer to God for men. St. Paul describes Prayer, Rom. 8. 27. God heareth His Spirit, for it makes intercessions in us, according to his will. Prayer is the Conception of the Soul, when it hath taken in from Heaven the Spirit in the Form of some Divine Blessing: Then it grows big with this Blessing; it travels with it; it labours to raise it self into God, that by the clearness of his Light, by the fulness of his Life, it may bring it forth to perfection. A Spiritual man is like Abraham, who had in himself that Seed, in which all the Nations of the Earth were to be blessed. He hath conceived with a Seed of Blessedness to all Creatures. Therefore as Paul travelled in birth with the Galatians, till Christ was formed in them: so doth a good man travel in birth by Prayer, having many Pangs, and Throws in the Spirit, till this Blessedness be formed in each Soul.

St. Paul tells the Corinthians, 1 Cor. 3. 22. All things are yours, &c. A Heavenly Spirit is an Universal Father; it look… upon all Creatures, as its own Off-spring, or Bowels. As Job sacrificed constantly for his Children, while they were feasting in their course: So is this Spirit praying for the Souls of men, while they are playing away themselves in Vanity. This is the First Ministry.

2. Exhortation by words to men. David promiseth, and prophesieth, Psal. 51. 13. I will teach transgress…urs thy ways, and Sinners shall be converted unto thee. Before in the former verse he had prayed; Restore thy Ioy, and establish thy free Spirit in me. Then he adds; I will teach transgressours thy ways, (the ways of thy Love and Wisdom with man) Sinners shall be converted unto thee, that is, by the report of thy sweet Contrivances upon me, and Compassions towards me. When the Heart feels the Waters of Divine Life and Joy bubling up warm from the bosom of the Godhead, then the Tongue becomes the Pen of a ready Writer, labouring to imprint the Form of the same Life and Joys upon other hearts also.

If you will have me weep when you speak, weep your self, you that speak, said a Wise man. When a man utters those heavenly Loves, Truths, Delights of Jesus Christ, in which his own Soul lies melting and bathing her self, while he reports them: Then he often hath his Tongue made the Quill of the Godhead, by which he toucheth other Souls, and makes the same Musick upon them.

David call his Tongue, his Glory, because by it he displayed that Glory of God, which was treasured up in his heart, to the view of many Hearts.

p. 39St. Paul tells us, that God hath chosen the Foolishness of Preaching to make it His Power unto Salvation God sends down the highest Glory into inferiour Forms, in which they descend by degrees; then in the lowest they become a Seed, out of which they grow and rise again by degrees to their first Height. So the Divinity puts its self into our Saviour, then into our Hearts, then into our Tongues, so into Words hovering in the Air, thus low it is become. Now by Words, as a Seed it is cast into the Ear of another, so it passeth into the Heart, where it springeth up into the Fairness of Christ, and from that into the Fulness of God.

3. Example of Life before Men. St. Paul tells the Saints! Philip. 2. 15. They should be blameless, and harmless, in the midst of a crooked generation, in which they shine, as Light. When one Candle is lighted, we light many by that. When God hath kindled the Life of his Glory in one man's Heart, he often enlightens many by the Flame of that spread thorow his Conversation. Philosophers tell us; that, every thing hath Beams, by which it manifests, and multiplies itself, Sure nothing hath so piercing, so plentiful Beams, as the Divine Nature. When this is brought forth in any Spirit, it cannot but manifest itself by beautiful Beams of Love, and Holiness; as it manifests, so it often multiplies itself upon other Spirits.

When thou art Converted, saith Christ to Peter strengthen thy Brethr…n. It is the Perfection of Life to bring forth its Like. When a man is himself made partaker of the life of God: The Perfection of this life displays itself with such power, and luster thorow the whole man; that it many times draws strangers, first into the Love, then into the Likeness of it.

5. Cause: Manages of Providence, These are often Moral Helps to Man, Outward Hints, which God is pleased to make, and take for the Inward, and Spiritual work of our Conversion. But as they say of Stars: they do not operate, but indicate only; not produce, but point out effects, and events in Earthly things: So outward Providences, when they are most, are Concurrencies only, not Causes in a proper sense: not Living Hands to do any thing in the Truth of this Change; but as Hands in a Margin, to declare sometimes, what God is doing.

These Workings of Providence, by Natural effects in our Bodies; civil accidents in our Life; Moral Impressions on our Hearts are as the motion of the Waters, when the Angel descended into the Pool, which motion accompanied, but contributed nothing to the Healing Vertue, It is not of him, that wills, nor of him, that runs; but of God, that hath mercy.

Sometimes God brings forth this Change; when the Waters of outward Providence are quite calm; as when the Apostles were called from their Nets; Matthew from the Custom; Gideon from the Flail; Elisha from the Plow.

Sometimes God spreadeth this healing, and enlivening vertue thorow the Soul, when the Waters of the Natural man work high a contrary way; as p. 40when Saul was chang'd into Paul, he was then surprized with the Love, and appearance of Jesus Christ, when he was persecuting him.

Yet it pleaseth our Father very often to manage, and forelay outward things so; that he takes hold of them, as occasions, or opportunities to make his way into our Souls.

There are Two things in outward Providence, which God especially makes use of to this purpose:

1. Natural Affections.

2. Temporal Afflictions.

1. Natural Affections. As we season Vessels for the Liquor, with which we mean to fill them; and as the Threshers of old had the Staff for the more tender Corn, and the Wheel for the Harder: So God made John the Evangelist of a gentle Heart, seasoned with Still, but Strong affections; like a River, that runs quiet, but swift and deep. This John Jesus Christ takes into his bosom, makes him his Lute, on which he sounds forth his softest, sweetest Loves, Beauty, Delights: So he lives, so he dies.

St. Peter was naturally more of the Rock, and Flint; sharp, hard, and fiery, Jesus Christ brings the Wheel over him, and breaks him forely, while he first forswears his Saviour near his Cross; then afterwards is forc'd to follow his Saviour to the Cross.

St. Paul had a vigorous, profound Sp…rit by Nature, and Education; Jesus Christ flashes upon him a with Glory from Heaven; fills him with the deep, and high Discoveries of Divine Glory; makes him to fill the world with the loud reports of them; as the Trumpet of Christ.

Our Lord found some of his Apost…es Fishing. He takes hold of them by this, which was their Employment, and Enjoyment; their Inclination, o… Education: Come, saith he, follow me, and I will make you Fishers of Men.

One Man is caught and carried by sensual Beauties, and Pleasures: Jesus Christ covers the Golden Hook of His Love, and Spirit with a Bait of Beauty, and Pleasure to take this Man: come, saith Christ, and follow me. I am fairer than the Sons of men. I have a Beauty beyond that of any Creature. I am the Brightness of the Eternal Glory; the Lively Image of the Invisible God. I am the Light and Life of all Loveliness in all the Creatures, They, when they shine sw…test, are but shadows to me, shadows of me. I am all Pleasant altogether; all Pleasantnesses, and Delights together. As Jesus Christ whispers this to the So…l, he lets fall upon it a Glimpse, a Touch, a Tast of Himself, which makes all this Real. So he ravisheth the Soul of this Man from the midst of his Vanities, Sensualities, Lusts, into his own Embraces, by the strength of a higher, though purer Delight.

Another man is Rational, and Philosophical, led, by inclination, and study to trace the hidden ways of Nature, to search the first Springs, and continued course of Things. The Lord Jesus works Himself into the Reason, and speculation p. 41of this Man: Come, saith our Saviour, and follow me. I am the Wisdom of God, by which the whole Creation was contrived, came forth, and is carried on. I am the beginning, the way, the end of all things. Time draws out its Line, and runs its Race, in me, Eternity comprehends itself, in its Center, and Circle, in me. All the Treasures of Knowledge are in my Love. You shall see all Mysteries, all Forms, and Motions of God, and the Creature, bare and naked in my Light. As He speaks this, He opens something of Himself upon the Soul, which gives it a Glance of this Light, and Sight. Now He, that sat before at Gamaliels feet, like Paul, sets his feet upon the head of all that learning, and sits with Mary, at the feet of Christ. Now Jesus Christ is the Reason of his Reason, and the only Reason to it. Now Jesus Christ is all his Philosophy, and Study. Thus God makes use of Natural Affections.

2. Temporal Afflictions. You have a Platform of Gods working by these, from the mouth of Elihu: Job. 33. 19. He is chastned with pain upon his bed, the multitude of his bones with strong pain. The place of a mans Rest, and Pleasure, is made the place of his Torment. All the several Principles, and Strengths of Life are several Springs, Seats, and Strengths of Pain, and Misery,

20. v. His Life abhorreth Bread, and his Soul dainty Meat. The Nourishment of Life is tedious, and becomes a Burthen. The most pleasant Entertainments, the sweetest delicacies of Nature, and the Creature are now loath'd.

21. v. His Flesh is consumed away, that it cannot be seen, his bones that were not seen, stick out. All the cloathings, all the Beauties of his Being wither, and wear away. Those Forms in which he walked, disappear. The Foundations, the lowest Principles of being in him, are discovered, and left naked; like the Sea without waters, a Deep having no Face, but that of Darkness; an Earth, void, and without Form.

22. v. His Soul draweth near unto the Grave; and his Life to the Destroyers. The Life of the Spirit in the Body is now sinking into a Silent Darkness. The Life of the Spirit in itself is almost swallowed up into those Spirits, which are the principles of a dark, a dying Life; or a living Darkness, and Death.

23. v. If there be a Messenger with him, an Interpreter, one among a Thousand, to shew to man his Uprightness. Now in this Evening-close of life, and joy; in this rushing approach of a dreadful, eternal Night; Jesus Christ steps forth, as a Messenger, an Interpreter between God, and Man. He opens upon him his own Beauty, the mans own, proper, and true Beauty; which was his own, in Eternity.

24. v. Then he is gracious to him, and saith: Deliver him from going into the Pit. I have found a Ransom. Then the Father smiles upon the Soul. Then He gives a command in the Ears of the Soul to all the Invisible Ministers of Darkness, and Death; to let him go: To all the Spirits of Life, and Light; to take charge of him, to hold him in their Arms, that his Life come not into the Prison of Spirits.

p. 4225. v. His Flesh shall be fresher than a Childs; he shall return to the days of his Youth. He shall be translated into the Kingdom of Christ, into that Paradise of God, out of which he came. There he shall flourish with a Flesh more beautiful, more heavenly, than that of Adam in Innocency. There he shall see those Youthful Days, which were before this World.

Thus God takes hold of Temporal Afflictions, in them to convert us to Eternal Affecti…ns, and Objects.

1. Use. Instruction. See how absolute, and universal thy dependence is on thy God for Happiness. His Fulness is the only Treasury, in which every minute of thy Life, every moment of thy Grief, or Joy is …aid up, My times saith David, are at the Right hand of the most High Psal. 31. 15. His Sweetness is the only Port, or Gate, by which this Fulness issues forth on thee, and brings thee home to its own Place. These Two are the Mine, and Mint of thy Natural, and Spiritual Life.

Jesus Christ is the Way of both these. A man can receive nothing from God, can never come to God; but thorow Jesus Christ. Thus nothing comes to us, or from us; nothing comes to pass round about us; which is not first pass'd through a Double Strainer, the Heart of the Father, and of Christ.

Not a Sparrow falls to the Ground; much less a Soul, without both these our Heavenly Father, and Saviour. Not a Hair falls from our Heads; much less a Thought from our Hearts without this Divine Pair. The Father works, and I work: Saith Christ. Every thing of Man, and the Creature is distill'd, or dropt thorow this Double Heaven of the Father, and Christ.

We have our Being in these Two. Nothing then can be without them. We live in these Two. Our Life then, and each article of it, is Their Life in us. We move in Them. Each Motion then would be none, if it did not run upon this greater, and less Wheel. We lie still, when they move not.

Thus, thou knowest, O God, that it is not in him, that walks, to order his own steps, Jere. 10. 23.

What then shall we cast our selves into a Gulf of Ryot▪ or sensual Pleasures; because we cannot resist His Will, nor rule our own? Unhappy he, on whose mind the Almighty God stamps this Image of His Will in the Wrathful, and Dark Part of it? Yet he also shall go, as it is written of him, upon the Heart of God, but in Fiery Letters. God hath made all things for Himself, even the wicked for the Day of Wrath: Prov. 16. 4

But how can we abide in the Dark, or bitter Part of things; in Flesh, and Sin: If we know, that the Will of God is the Rule of all things, and an Infinite Light, Love, Goodness, the Rule of this Will? He, that saith, he hath seen God, and walks in Darkness, lies, and the Truth is not in him: 1 John 1. 6. He that saith, he sees the Will of God to act all things, and yet is himself acted by a Contrary Will, checks and contradicts himself, while he speaks, and acts.

p. 43How can we, that are dead to sin, live any longer in it? Rom. 6. 2. If the Divine Fulness and Sweetness have discovered themselves to us; they have overshadowed us; darkning by an Eternal Death the Light of our own Life in Vanity, and Flesh. They have drunk up our Spirits into themselves, and infused their Spirit into us. Thus they themselves are become the Death and Resurrection of Christ in us; that we live no longer, but Christ liveth in us, and the Father in Christ.

Obj. But you will say, If I be wicked, what can I do? I have no power upon my own Spirit, but am over ruled by a Power above me, which commands All. Must I then still sin, still be forlorn without any hope, or help in my self? Must I sit down with Despair, and make that my only comfort to hope for no comfort?

Ans. No, No! Let this be not my Despair, but my surest Hope, and sweetest; that I am no more in my own power, who am a foolish, weak, inconstant Creature; but form'd fashion'd, commanded, managed entirely by Him, who is the Greatest and Best of all things.

Let me draw from this Consideration, these holy, and happy Resolutions.

1. I will resign my self to my God. I will give up the rudder of my Spirit to him, who alone guides it, and guides it by a Sweetness unclouded, a Wisdom unquestioned, a Power uncheck't.

2. I will repose my self in my God. What the bad King said foolishly, I desire ever to say upon a holy and divine Principle: This also is of the Lord: Therefore will I wait upon him. 2 Kings ch. 6. v. last. He hath a Glory in this; He will make this a Glory to me, if I wait stedfastly to the end. For he doth this, who doth all, and doth all well; who hath no Principle, but Love; no act, but Power; no end, but Glory.

I have finish'd the First Part of my Text, which was, The Rise to the Kingdom. I have concluded the Doctrine, which was propounded from that Part: The first Rise to Religion, is a Change, or Conversion.

Part 2. The Race to the Kingdom: and become as little Children.

These Words afford this Second Doctrine.

Doctr. 2. The second Step in Religion is to a state of Childhood. Read Gal. 4. 1. The Heir, while he is a child, differ…th not from a Servant, though he be Lord of all. We have here a Child, a Regenerate person, one born a Son of God, made a Saint; yet at first, nothing differing from a Servant, coming afterwards in the second place, to the quality of a Son and Heir.

The Person of a man, in the Non-age, till Reason, which is the Principle of a man, puts forth itself in him, is but as a Plant, or at best a Brute, a sensitive Creature. So that Soul which hath the Seed of the Divine Nature p. 44sown …in it, until that Seed be grown up, is as a Servant, not as a Son.

These are the Two states in Religion:

1. A Servile State.

2. A Son-like State.

As St. Paul saith in another case: First is that which is Natural, then that which is Spiritual: so it is true in this: First is the Servile State in Religion, then the Son-like. So we read, Gal. 4. 7. Now are ye no more Servants, but Sons.

Thus the Son-like State is the second step, or Remove in Religion.

But it will be necessary for me to open the Servile State first, that the Son-like may be the better understood.

1. State, Servile. This State hath Four Signs.

1. Sign: Fear.

2. Sign: Dependencies.

3. Sign: Forms.

4. Sign: Solicitude.

1. Sign: Fear. A Saint in a Servile State serves God chiefly from a Principle of Fear.

Rom. 8. 15. Ye have not received the Spirit of Bondage again to fear. St. Paul doth not speak here of a Sinful State in Nature, but of a Servile State in Grace. This will appear clearly, if you compare this place with the fourth Chapter of the Epistle to the Galatians. You shall see in both Places, the Twofold State of a Servant, and a Son in Religion described alike, almost in the same terms. Rom. 8. 15. Ye have not received the Spirit of Bondage again. Galat. 4. 1. The Heir, while a Child, differeth nothing from a Servant. v. 3. Ye were in bondage to worldly Elements. V. 7. Now are ye no longer Servants. Rom. 8. 15, 17. But the Spirit of Adoption, whereby ye cry Abba Father. Now are ye Sons, if Sons, then Heirs. Galat. 4. 6. He hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our Hearts, whereby we cry, Abba Father. 7. Sons and Heirs &c.

Thus the Spirit of Bondage is a Spirit sent forth from God in the ministry of the Law. Therefore the Apostle saith, Ye have not received the Spirit of Bondage. This Spirit begets men to God, but it is in a Servile-State, by, and to Fear. Fear is the Seed and Fruit of this Spirit; So a man by it becomes a Son to God, but by the Bond-woman. So he is partly a Son, partly a Servant; or rather a Son in the State of a Servant.

But I must further explain this Fear by,

1. The Distinction of Fear.

2. The Object.

1. The Distinction of Fear. There is a Twofold Fear.

1. Fear, Slavish.

2. Fear, Filial.

1. Fear, Slavish. This Fear comes before Love, and is cast out, when Love comes: 1 John. 4. 18. Perfect Love casteth out Fear. But what Fear is this? That, which is Slavish. So it is added: Fear hath Torment. A Slavish Fear is to the Heart, as Fire is to Gold, Gold is wrought by the Fire to a p. 45softness, and fitness, to receive the King's Image: then it is taken out of the Fire. So this Fear subdues the Heart to a yielding temper, to receive the Impressions, and Image of God in Love. Then it is cast ou….

2. Fear, Filial. This follows after Love, flows from it, is as sweet, and desirable, as Love itself. The Scripture saith in one Place: Who would not fear thee? This Fear is a Plyantness of the Soul to God, yielding to him, form a near sense of his Greatness, and Goodness, both in one. It is like the Bowing of some Flowers towards the Sun, being toucht with his Influences, and Beams.

Revel. 14. 6. An Angel in the midst of Heaven preacheth the Everlasting Gospel. What is the Everlasting Gospel? The glad Tidings of Eternal Love in God to the Creature. This Angel at the seventh v. cries aloud: Fear God. This Fear answers Love, and Ecchos to it in the Heart: Love saith: God is thine. Fear saith: I will no more be mine own. Love saith: God will come down into thee, and fill thee, Fear saith: I will sink down out of my self, and give way to God.

The Filial Fear is proper to the Son-like State. It is the Slavish▪ Fear, which is the Sign of that Servile State of which we now speak.

A Son-like State hath Love for its Eldest Child; Fear for its Youngest. A Servile State hath Fear for its First-born: Love here is a Younger Brother.

In the Son Fear is the Motion of Love. In the Servant it is the Motive to Love.

The Servant is the Son of the Bond-woman. The Son is born of the Freewoman. The Soul in a Servile State of Religion ascends out of Flesh towards God. So Fear is First, and Love riseth out of Fear, as Fire out of Smoak. The Soul in a Son-like state descends, comes down from God, as a Bride ready trim'd. So L…ve is First, and brings forth Fear, as a pure Flame breaths from it a fine Air.

This is the Distinction of Fear. This the Sign of a Servile State, a Slavish Fear.

2. The Object of Fear. This is exprest by the Holy Ghost: Heb. 2. 15▪ Those, that were held in bondage, by the Fear of Death. The Jews were under the Law, in a Servile State, under a Slavish Fear. This Fear had Death in its Eye, for its Object. Death hath two things in it, Loss, and Pain; Loss of Life, with all the Sweets, and Comforts of Life: Pain in the Labours, and Pangs at the parting of Soul, and Body,

Thus a Slavish Fear hath a Twofold Object:

1: Object, Loss.

2. Object, Pain.

1. Object, Loss. A Christian in a Servile State fears the Loss of God, more than God. The Fear of God makes a man sink out of himself into God. Fear of Loss of him makes a man apt to sink into himself in Despair. A Servile Christian fears the loss of Gods Favour, more than the loss of God: the loss of the Fruits of his Favour, which are Peace within, Prosperity without; more than the loss of his Favour.

p. 462. Object: Pain. A Spiritual, Son-like Saint fears the Departures of God, the loss of Divine Enjoyments, more then all Pains or Tortures. But the Servant in Religion is not any thing so much sensible of the loss of all the joys in Heaven; as he is struck with, trembles at the pains of Hell.

Iohn the Baptist was a Figure of the Servile State. He presseth his Exhortation with such Reasons, as these: The Axe is laid to the Root of the Tree. Save your selves from that wrath, which is to come.

Iesus Christ was the Head, and Figure of the Son-like State. He moveth by other Arguments: The Kingdom of God is at hand. Light is come into the World. Come to me, and have life in abundance.

I have done with the First, and most apparent Sign of a Servile State: Fear.

2. Sign: Dependencies. A Servile Christian seeks God chiefly by outward Assistances. Gal. 3. 24. The Law was a School-master to bring us to Christ. A School-master ties Children to their set Times, Rules, Exercises; till they can speak a Language, judge of Truth, converse with wisdom naturally, from inward, and free Principles. So the Law, which is the Mistris, under whom we are in bondage, teacheth us, to seek Communion with God at peculiar Times: The Forming of our Spirits according to God, by particular Rules: The Deriving of Truths, Strengths Comforts from God, by several Performances. This is our way of Life, till the Seed of Life be come up in us, which makes Divine Love, as our Pulse: Faith, our Breath: Holiness, our Constitution.

Galat. 3. 23. We were kept under the Law, shut up unto the Faith, that should be revealed. A Legal Christian having a perpetual Alarm of Fears within him, entrencheth himself strongly in Promises and Threatnings, Ordinances and Duties in the outward Letter, as a Wall, or Mount of Earth. He plants a Guard about his Spirit, of Resolutions, Vows, and such like Fleshly obligations. He takes care for a constant supply of Provision from without, from the Gifts, and Parts of men, for a maintenance of these Forces.

Angels, saith Christ, Marry not, nor are given in Marriage. Angels are ever strong, ever feasted, yet have no Meals: They are always refresh't, and at rest, yet have no season for Sleep: They marry not to any thing without themselves, yet they multiply themselves, their Images, and Fruits to Eternity. Earthly man must have his Meal; and Sleeps in their appointed time, or else he dies. He must joyn himself in marriage to another without himself, or else he remains barren. Such is a Christian under the Law, if he have not his Duties, Ordinances, Rule…, and Retirements, to which he is true, and constant; he falls down into Dust and Deadness; or runs out into Lust, and Profaness. Therefore saith St. Paul, we were shut up.

A Saint is now like an Ivy, which cannot bear itself up, or bring forth fruit upon its own Root, or Stock; but must twine about some outward Prop; else it li…s on the ground, and withers.

p. 47I defer the other Two Signs, that I may now divert my self to some Application of these.

1. Use. Exhortation. This is Double:

1. Exhorta. Serve God from a Principle of Fear, till you know why to serve him, from the Freedom of a Natural Life▪

2. Exhorta. Serve God by outward Rules, till you know how to serve Him, by the Regulation of an Inward Light.

1. Exhorta. Serve God from a Principle of Fear, till you know why to serve Him from the Freedom of a Natural Life. We read, 2 Pet. 1. 4. of a Divine Nature. Nothing is so skilful, sweet, strong, lasting, as that which is Natural: as the Sun shines, God is kind, a man truly Spiritual is holy, and heavenly. But where is that man among the whole race of men, who loves God, lives in God, as his Element, lives to God, as his Joy, and Glory; and all this, because it is his Nature?

Are …ot these the times of which our Saviour spake, when he said: Shall the Son of Man find Faith upon the Earth? In what heart can we find such a Faith, such a Union between God, and Man, as that these Two shall have but one Life; that the Man may say, as Saint Paul did: Now Christ liveth in me?

In this universal Dis-appearance of the Divine Nature, it were happy, if men would serve God from the Force of Fear, when they cannot do it from a natural Freedom: If men would be wrought by an awe to a Compliance with God, while yet they have no Complacency in him.

O that men would fear, if they cannot love that Omni-present, Omni-potent God, in whom we all live, by whom we breath!

I shall urge this Exhortation by Four Persuasives.

1: Persuasive. Fear the Loss of the Divine Presence here on Earth. Job expresseth a great sense of this, Job. 29, He sighs out his complaints: v. 2. O that it were with me, as in the days of old, when God preserved me▪ v. 3. When his Candle shined upon my Head, when by his Light I walked thorow Darkness. The Candle is the Image of God in Nature, which burns in the Seven-fold Candlestick of the Angelical Nature. This Glory rested upon the Spirit of Job's Natural Man, as a Light upon his Head, leading him thorow the Darkness of his Fleshly Being. v. 4. As I was in the days of my Youth, when the Secret of God was upon my Tabernacle. The Secret of God is the Invisible Glory of the Divine Image among the Angels, which before he express'd by the Candle. The Angels seem to be the Secret. For they are the Chambers, the Pavili…ns of God. God was in the midst of them in the Dark at Mount Sinai. The Tabernacle is the Body, or outward Man.

To this place agrees that in the Psalm. Psal. 34. 7. The Angel of the Lord pitcheth his Camp round about them, that fear him. The Angel of the Lord, or the Angel the Lord, is the Divine Image in Nature, and the Law. The Camp, p. 48the Host, or Armies of Angels. In the Gospel, instead of this Image is Jesus Christ; instead of Angels in their Natural Glory, are Angels in a Spiritual State, residing upon the Head, the Spirit; the Tabernacle, the visible Frame, the Bodily Being of a Saint.

V. 5. When the Almighty was yet with me: When my Children were yet about me. Job in his first days was a Type of man in Innocency. The Presence of the Almighty in the Angelical Nature on the top of his Spirit was, as the Head of his Being. The Angelical Lives putting themselves forth in the rest of bodily things, as Souls to them, were as the Children, Images, and Dependencies of the Soul of Man. But at the Fall, the Almighty withdrew from man: These Lives were drawn in from the rest of the Creatures.

V. 6. When I washt my steps in Butter; When the Rock poured me out Rivers of Oil. The steps of Job were his wayes below in the visible part of things; which were wash'd with the Peace and Plenty of Inferiour Contents, raised from these Inferiour Creatures, as Butter, Rivers of Oyl. The Spirit of Angelical, Divine Life, among invisible, Superiour Glories did flow forth abundantly upon him, from that Rock, which was the Almighty.

These Words of Job afford us a Twofold Principle of Policy for Natural things.

1. Principle. The Divine Presence is the spring of all Earthly Comforts.

2. Principle. The Removal of this Presence is the Root of all Bitterness in this Life.

1. Principle. The Divine Presence is the spring of all earthly Comforts. Tell me, O Man! what hath kept thee thy Peace, and Plenty, all thy Dayes, Months, and Years? Thy God hath preserved thee. When thou hast been in a doubtful, difficult, dangerous State of things; what then hath pointed out a clear and shining path to thee in that darkness? When thou hast had trouble in thine Affairs, calamities in thy Person, confusion in thy Soul; what then hath sent forth a Beam of Comfort, and Council through thy Spirit, to light thee out of all these; The Candle of God hath been upon thy head: God hath look'd sweetly forth from the top of thy Spirit, through the Principles of Nature, and this hath been thy Light. When thou hast wash'd thy Feet as thou hast walk'd, in smooth, soft, flowing streams of Peace, and Plenty: when thou hast seen thy Children playing about thee, like lively Lambs in pleasant Pastures; while thou hast been as their Sheepherd, feeding thy Spirit from invisible Spirits, and then feeding their Spirit from thine; who gave thee all these? The secret of the Almighty was with thee.

2. Principle. The Removal of the Divine Presence is the Root of all Bitterness in this Life. When God withdraws, he draws in all his Blessings, as the Sun often goes in, and gives up the Sky, and Day to dark Clouds. What wilt thou do, when like wretched Saul, The Philistines are upon thee, and God p. 49hath forsaken thee? When Perplexity shall take hold of thy Spirit, when there shall be no Counsel or Comfort left, because God hath forsaken thee? What then can all thy Pleasures or Honours do? Will they not be as miserable Comforters, as the Witch of Endor to Saul; presenting thee with Devils under God-like forms; ill-boding, foretelling thy death and Ruine?

When our dear Saviour was on the Cross, he did not cry out, O my Disciples! why do ye fly from me, or deny me? O ye Iews, my Brethren! why do ye wound so bloodily my Feet, Hands, and Head? No, but he cries out; My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me; This broke his heart.

David complains in Psal. 30. 7. Thou hast made my Mountain strong; but thou didst turn away thy face, and I was troubled. Place a man in a Wilderness of Horrours, in a Sea of Flames, let the Secret of God be with him, and he will fear, he will feel no Evil. Plant a man on a Mountain, where he may not only with Christ see, but possess all the Delights and Glories of this World; let God be gone, and you may call them all Ichabod; where's the Glory? Where's the Delight? The whole Mountain will moulder into Melancholy, and crumble away into Griefs.

O! Fear to estrange this God from you by a neglect of him, on whose Presence all your present Joyes depend. Fear to put out his Light in your Souls, by your Lusts: fear to chase away by your hardnesses and Rebellions, that God; who, when he removes his Glory from off any Person, or Place; gives up all to ruine, and leaves a Hell behind him.

This is the first Persuasive.

2. Persuasive. Fear the l…ss of Divine Enjoyments after Death. Is there any thing, any where, more moving, more full of sweetness, than the language of the Apostle: 1 Thes. 4. 18. Then we shall be for ever with the Lord. Comfort ye one another with these words.

I will present your Spirits with the force of this place, in three short Propositions.

1. Proposition. Th…re is a Lord over all; a supream Principle, or Power, which makes, maintains, manages all the Creatures; a Spirit of Strength and Wisdom, which governs the affairs of the whole World. Thus St. Paul speaks, 1. Cor. 8. 6. To us there is one God, the Father, of whom are All; one Lord Jesus, by whom are All.

2. Proposition. This Lord is the best of all things. As he is over, so he is above all. 1 Cor. 2. 8. St. Paul calls him, the Lord of Glory. The Heathens teach us, that the God of the Sun, is the God of Musick; because he tempers with his Beams, and tunes all the visible world. This Lord, our Lord is the God of Light, Beauty, Musick, the God of all Sweetnesses, Glories, Blessednesses. For he tunes both the visible, and invisible World, to a happy Harmouy.

p. 503. Proposition. All good Spirits are the Friends; all evil Spirits the Enemies of this Lord. Each pure, lightsome, peaceful Spirit comes from this Jesus, and goes to him again, when it goes off the Stage of this Earth; as a Beam darted from his Glory, and drawn up to him again. Each dark, unclean, disorderly Spirit is cut off, and cast out from him. One is every where in Scripture stiled, His Child, His Brother. The other is thus spoken to by him; Depart from me, ye cursed.

Now what joy is it, when a man in all the troubles of Life, can comfort himself with these words, and say: This Life will quickly end; then shall I be ever with the Lord, my Lord, the Lord of Bl…ssedness? Who can express the Peace and Pleasure of that Soul within, which lies upon its Death-bed, and in the last moment of its abode in the World, comforts itself with these words, Now I must be uncloath'd of all Being, or Appearance among men on Earth for ever: But it is, that I may be for ever in the naked Embraces of the Eternal Spirit of Life, and Beauty. I go from hence for ever, but I go to be for ever with the Lord.

I had faint…d saith David, if I had not hoped to see the Goodness of the Lord in the land of the Living. Who can tell those fainting fits in the midst of highest Pleasures, those bitter, Soul-turning Q…aulmes in fullest Glories; which those men have, that have no hope to see the Goodness of the Lord after this Life? Many pangs, many pangs of remorse, and anguish, pangs far beyond the pangs of a natural Death, hath that dying Soul, which hath no hope to live with God after Death.

Fear then this Loss so great, so irreparable. Fear to be prophane, like Esau; to sell your Birth-right for a Mess of Pottage, to fell your hopes of Heaven for a short Satisfaction to your sensual Appetite.

3. Persuasive. Fear, what God can do. What cannot he do to make you miserable, who is the God of the Spirits of all Flesh? He can let forth Five Spirits upon you:

1. Spirit of Diseases.

2. Spirit of Folly, and Falshood.

3. Spirit of Melancholy.

4. Spirit of Ruine.

5. His own Spirit.

1. Spirit of Diseases. God can send a Spirit of Diseases into thy Body, to strike thee with Worms, with some foul and sharp sickness, till thou dye a loath'd, and horrid Death. Thus he did to King Herod in the Acts. Can all thy Physicians then cure thee?

2. Spirit of Folly and Falshood. God can send into thy Breast a Lying Spirit, that shall carry the on to foolish Counsels, that thou mayst perish. Thus he did with King Ahab. Can thy Wisdom foresee, or prevent this?

3. Spirit of Melancholy. God can let forth upon thee a Spirit, that shall sit upon thy Brain and Heart like a black Cloud, distilling poyson upon both. This shall be thy inseparable Companion at Table, and Bed; in society, in solitude; to vex thee perpetually. This shall make thy sweetest Delights, thy dearest p. 51Relations a Burthen and a disease to thee. This shall make thy surest Strengths, and firmest aids a matter of continual Suspicion, and mortal Jealousy to thee, Thus he did with King Saul. What delights or businesses can now divert thee?

4. Spirit, of Ruine. God can let upon thee, as upon Job, a Spirit, like a devouring Sea, or Storm. This shall take away from thee, thy whole Estate; from thy Children, their Life; from thy Wife, and wisest Friends, their Affection, and Tenderness. This will fill thy Skin with Noysomness; thy veins▪ with Fire; thy Bones with Pains; thy Head with black vapours. This shall take away all rest from thy Sleeps, filling them with affrighting Dreams; all peace from thy waking hours, filling them w…th Tumult, and Sorrow; till Life become more hateful to thee, than the most hateful Death I chose Strangling, rather than Life; saith Job, Chap. 7. 15. What can help, or comfort thee, at such a time as this? When an evil Spirit over-whelms all the Creatures to a man; what can the Creatures do?

5. Spirit of God. I cannot express, I tremble to think this; God can make his own Spirit a stream of Fire and Brimstone in thy Spirit, If. 30. 33. The breath (the Spirit) of the Lord, a stream of Brimstone. God can himself be an everlasting Burning upon thy Immortal part. Who can lie down with everlasting Burnings? Can all thy Tears, or Pleasures quench these Burnings?

Well might Moses cry out: Psal. 90. 11. Who knows the Power of his Wrath. According to thy Fear, so is thy Wrath. You may read the latter Clause thus: As is thy Wrath▪ so should the Fear of thee be. There is an unsearchableness, an Incomprehensibleness in the Wrath of God. No Creature can take it in, but is swallowed up by it.

Let men fear God, according to his Wrath. Let men fear to make him their Enemy, or if they do, let them meet so potent an Enemy betimes, while he is yet on the way, that they may cast themselves at his Feet, with Submission, Repentance; Fears, and Tears.

If you harden your Heart by Insensibleness, or sensuality, he can multiply the Stroak of Sorrow upon thy Heart seven times, seven times more, still seven times, nay seventy times seven, endlesly, till thy Heart be ground to the smallest Dust, and so lie under his Feet.

If thy Soul be as high, rough, untractable, as a Whale, or Sea; He can tame, and calm thee by Griefs.

If thy Soul were a Leviathan, arm'd with impenetrable Scales over-looking every lofty thing: God can make his Sword, which is his Spirit, to approach thee: he can put h…s Hook into thy Nostrils, draw thee forth out of thy swelling Seas of Lust, and Pride, lay thee Panting, and Languishing upon the dry Shore before him.

Thus ends the Third Persuasive.

4. Persuasive. Fear what God will certainly do, to punish, and purge Sinners. p. 521 Cor. 3. 13. The Fire shall try every man's work, Mark▪ 9. 49. Every one shalt be salted with Fire. That, which is the highest Principle, the Supreamest Power in every kind, will subdue all other Powers, and Parts of things to itself. So it is said of Christ: Philip. 3. 21. According to tha… working, whereby he is able even to subdue all things to himself.

If this Principle of power meet w…th any thing suitable to itself, it cherisheth, and h…ightens that till it be perfectly like, perfectly one with itself. Thus every Sacrifice is seasoned with the Salt of Divinity.

But where it meets with a Contrariety, it conflicts, and contests with it, making the Conflict as fierce, and lasting; as the Contrariety; till …t have consumed it. Thus every man shall be Salted with Fire.

Thus is Fire among the Elements. Thus is God among the Creatures, as a Fire Salting every man's Person, trying every man's Work. If he meet with any holy work, he rests upon it in the Secret of his Glory, as a Fountain of Beauty, and Blessings. If he meet with any pure, and sweet Spirit, like h…mself; he closeth with it, in all manner of gentleness, and softn…s…, as Two Flames embrace one another.

But where he meets with opposition he rageth. He b…rns upon dark, unclean, untractable Hearts, as Fire in the Iron-works; till he hath poured them forth into the Temper, and Mold of his Spirit, and Image.

Take heed then of feeding upon fleshly Pleasures with…ut Fear, as St. Jude speaks. O men, and women, what do you, while you live upon the World, and in Sin?

As the Woman said of her self in the story of the Kings, 1. King. 17. 12. I am gathering sticks to bake a Cake for me and my Son, that we may eat it, and die. This is your posture. You are every where wandring, and busied to gather the Greatnesses and Pleasures of this world, that you may feed with these your Fleshly part fat, and strong, as a Sacrifice, that the Fire of Divine wrath, may come down upon you, and devour you.

I shall conclude this whole use thus: If there be a God, which hath brought forth all the Sweet, and good things, which are before us here, which now move Desire, or Delight in us: sure this God is Almighty, and can yet heighten this Goodness, this Sweetness, to an Infinit…ness, as well, as an Endlesness. Fear then for a Drop to lose the Sea for a Tast, the Feast; thy share in such Delights, for the short temptation of a Darling-S…n.

If there be a God which hath contrived, and sent abroad all the Evils, which now afflict, affright, amaze mortal men: sure this God is this way too Almighty, and can extend these Sufferings, till there be no Bound to them in our sense, no end of them in our Eye. Fear then to dare this God by your Dalliances in Fleshly vanities.

If there be a God, who is pure, just, true, sweet, meek: sure he loves such p. 53things as these, and hates the contrary: sure he will set himself …gainst all proud, impure, false, fiery Ways, and Spirits; till he have con…unded them, or consumed these things in them. Fear then to be sound before the Eyes of this God without the Righteousness, and Spirit of your Saviour as a Garment fast, and close gi…t to you. Fear to be seen by him in your Nakedness. For his Eyes are a bright and hot Flame, which will d…scover thy Shame, and burn thy Flesh, as the Whore's in the Rev…lation, with Fire.

I have spoken of Two Signs of a Servile State in Religion: Fear; and Dependencies. There Remain Two more: Forms; Solicitude.

3. Sign: Forms. There are Two Sorts of Forms, which the Holy Ghost mentions, in the Scripture:

1. Eternal Forms.

2. Temporary Forms.

1. Eternal Forms. Philip. 2. 6. J…sus Christ is said to be In the Form of God, foreign and in that Form He thought it no Robbery to be equal with God.

This Form is the Substance itself, Spirit, and Truth This is the Essential Form, which is no Shadow, but One with the Substance; no Appearance Separable from Truth, but that App…arance, which is Truth; no Letter or Outside, but One Spirit with the Spirit, having Life in itself.

St. Paul speaks of this F…m: Rom. 12. 2. Re ye transformed in the Ren…wing of your Mind: foreign Again: Rom▪ 8. 29. He hath predestinated us to be conformed to the Image of his Son: foreign This is an Inward, and Spiritual F…rm. It is the Evangelical Form, which is seen by Evangel'cal Eyes; which is f…lt, as well as seen; being …ower, as well as Form: 1. John 1. 2.

2. Temporary Forms. The Apostle speaks of these F…rms: 1 Cor. 7. 31. The Fashion of this World passeth away. St. Paul useth the Word foreign, which signifieth the Outward Figure, and Shape in Bodily Things, wh…ch is a meer Accident, vary…ng often, while the Substance remains the same, not reaching to the Spirit, but Inhering in the Outward Body, and Perishing with it.

He makes use of the same word: Rom. 12. 2. Be not ye Conf…rmed to the World: foreign And this is opposed to foreign but be ye Transformed.

Temporary Forms are Empty Figures; Accidental Out-side Shapes. But Divine Forms are Substantial, Spiritual, Essential.

We speak now of such Forms, as these, under the Law; which are not the Life and Power of God; but may be without these, and yet as Fair in themselves.

The Scripture makes use of this Word, Form, in this Sense frequently: Rom. 2. 21. St. Paul saith of the Jew, who is One Outwardly, not Inwardly, as he concludes in the last Verse of that Chapter; that he hath a Form of Knowledge; foreign. The Word is Elegant, and seems to signify a Form not Natural, springing forth from the Life, or Substance; but a Form Affectate, Arti…icially made▪

p. 542 Tim. …. 5. St. Paul speaks of the same thing, and useth the same Word: Having a Form of Godliness: foreign: but denying the Power of it.

Thus much for the Explication, and Justification of the Word: Forms; as they are a Sign of Legality.

The Thing, which I understand by Forms, is the Image of God, and Godliness taken in, or held forth according to the Principles, and Appearances of This Creation.

St. Paul saith: Galat. 4. v. 3. When we were Children, we were in Bendage under the Elements of the World. v. 4. But when the Fulness of Time came, God sent forth His Son. v. 9. After that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, (or, are made to know by God) how turn ye again to weak and Beggerly Elements, to which ye desire again to be in Bondage.

Mark, what Oppositions the Apostle maketh.

1. Opposition: Between the Elements of the World: and the Son sent forth. When Jesus Christ the Heavenly Image of God is revealed in our Spirits, then we are free from that Slavery of Spelling the Name of God out of the Elements of this Creation. We no more go to the Aegyptians for their Learning; that is, to the Principles of Nature for the knowledge of God.

2. Opposition: Between the Knowing of God, so as being known, or made to know by God, and the Elements of the World. We know God by Divine Principles, when we know him by an Immediate Union with Him, which gives us the Naked Appearance of God in our Spirits, by the Mutual Comprehension of our Spirits in that Appearance, and Spirit.

Till we thus know God, we know Him not. We have no Image, but Shadows only of Him. We know Him by Worldly Principles, which are Dark, and Beggerly.

The Scripture often links together these, as in a Chain: The Law, the Letter, the Flesh, Man, the World, the Outward Man, the I…w, Forms.

Rom. 2. 28. 29. You have a Jew, Outwardly, in the Letter, Outward in the Flesh, whose Praise is of Men.

Rom. 8. 3. The Law is weak thorow the Flesh.

2 Cor. 3. 6. 7. There are Coupled; The Letter, which kills: and the Ministration of Death engraven in Stone.

Gal. 4. 3. 5. Those that are under the Elements of the World, are the same with those, that are under the Law.

R…m. 2. 17. There is a Jew resting in the Law: v. 18. He is instructed out of the Law, and approves the things, that are Excellent: v. 20. He hath a Form of knowledge, and of Truth in the Law.

All these, and the Particular Sign of a Servile State now in hand, which is Forms, will be clearly understood by the Opening of Three of the Fore-mentioned Terms.

p. 551. The Flesh.

2. The Spirit.

3. The Law.

1. The Flesh, Flesh, and Spirit; Carnal, and Spiritual are opposed, a… Time, and Eternity; the First, and the Second Creation. All the Empty, and Temporary Things of this World are Flesh. Ioh. 6. 63. 1 Pet. 1. 24. Ioh. 17. 2.

Sometimes Flesh is taken for the Corrupt State of Things: as Iude 23. The Garment spotted with the Flesh.

Sometimes it is taken for the Visible Part of Natural Things: as 2 Cor. 7. 1. All Filthiness of Flesh and Spirit. In the Former place Flesh was the Filth, that defiled the Garment of Nature. Here it is Natures upper, and Outward Garment, which is in danger of being defiled.

Thirdly, Flesh is taken for the whole Frame of Nature in the Visible, and Invisible Part of it. So Mat. 26. 41. The Spirit is willing, but the Flesh is weak. The Spirit there is the Spiritual; the Flesh the Natural Man. So Luke 3. 6. All Flesh shall see the Salvation of the Lord. This place is cited from Es. 40. 5. The Glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all Flesh shall see it together. Compare this with 1 Tim. 3. 16. God manifest in the Flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of Angels Angels are Part of that Flesh, which sees the Glory of God, and hath it revealed in them.

Lastly, Flesh is taken for Created Nature, both Body, and Spirit; as it is spiritualized. Jesus Christ spake in this sense: Iohn 6. 55. My flesh is meat indeed. He expounds himself afterwards: v. 63. It is the Spirit, that quickeneth; the Flesh profiteth nothing. Our Saviour means thus much: The Creature in me, as it is a meer Creature, is uncapable of so near an Union with you, or so great a vertue in itself, as to be the food, or Conveyance of Eternal Life to you. But as it is become a New Creature, and is made One in Person, and Spirit with the Divine Nature: So you may feed upon it after a Spiritual manner, and be nourished up by it to Eternal Life. For so the Lord adds; The Words that I speak, are Spirit and Life. So we read of the Fleshly Tables of the Heart.

But the Common Acceptation of Flesh, when it is opposed to Spiritual Things, and joyned with the Law, is the Third: that is, the first Creation, or this World.

This is manifest from the seventh of the Epistle to the Romans. v. 2. The Woman is bound by the Law to her Husband, while he liveth; saith St. Paul v. 4. Ye are dead to the Law by the Body of Christ, that ye may be married to another, even to him who is raised from the Dead. He goes on, v. 5. When we were in the Flesh, the Motions of Sin, which were by the Law. Then, v. 6. But now we are delivered from the Law, that being dead, wherein we were held.

The Principles and Frame of Nature in the Invisible Powers, and visible Parts of it are our Husband by the first Creation. For we were made subject to Angels in that State, as in the New Creation we are to Jesus Christ. And p. 56we were made by Nature a little Lower than Angels, in the next degree of Inferiority to them: as the Woman to the Man. This is plain by comparing those Two Places: Psal. 8. 5. Thou hast made him (that is, man) a little lower than the Angels: Heb. 2. 5. Unto Angels he hath not put in subjection the World, which is to come: But unto Jesus Christ, That is implyed in the Place.

The Law is the Law of the Husband. Now the Law was administred by Angels, the Ministring Spirits, which are Principalities, and Powers of this Creation, as the Vice-Gerents of God.

Now St. Paul saith; that by the Body of Christ that Husband died, which held us in Subjection to the Law. The whole Frame of Nature was shaken by the Death of Christ, and must fall by the Power of it.

Then St. Paul adds, that we were subject to the Law while we were in the Flesh.

All these things make it plain, that by the Flesh he understands the State of Nature in its highest Principles, and utmost Extent.

Thus much for the First Term, Flesh.

2. Letter. This is the Image of God in Flesh. Letter and Spirit are opposed by St. Paul, as Old, and New: Rom. 7. 4. And he teacheth us, that by the Death of the Flesh in the Body of Christ, we are freed from our Service to God in the Oldness of the Letter.

St. Paul opposeth Spirit, and Letter, as Inward and Outward. He calleth that the Letter, which is Outward in the Flesh: Rom. 2. 28, 29.

The Spirit is Jesus Christ, as He is the Heavenly Image of God within in the Heart of God; 2. Cor. 3. 15. This is that which is Inward, under the Vail of Flesh.

The Letter is the Image of God in the outward Man, as it is drawn forth from, and discovered in the Principles of the first Creation, which is the Vail.

3. The Law. This is the State of the Soul, while she lives in the Letter, and hath Communion with God only by the Letter.

St. Paul thus describes a Legal State: Gal. 4. 3. When we were Children, (foreign, Infants) we were in Bondage under the Elements of the World.

While we are under the Law, we are Infants, we have neither the Ear, nor the Heart, nor the Mouth of the Spirit, and the Spiritual man, in our Souls. We are Uncapable of Taking in, or making out God in his own Divine Image, according to Spiritual Principles, or the Elements of the New Creation. Therefore we are in Bondage to Natural Principles, and Reasonings.

We are bound up within the Compass of this Creation, as in a Prison. We are unskill'd in, unacquainted with any Principles, or Appearances of things; besides those of this Creation. We compare Spiritual Things by these Things p. 57of Nature. We hear God with the Ear, we speak of him with the Tongue, of this Creation, We receive, and cherish such Notions of God, as are agreeable with this Frame.

The Manifestations of God, which spring from Spiritual Principles, from the Face of God himself, are Barbarians to us, while we are under the Law.

To the Law of Nature, to the Testimony of Reason, to the Elements of this World; whatsoever speaketh not according to these, whatsoever casteth off, or doth not cloth its Speakings with these Forms, though it be the Spirit Himself; hath no Light in it to our Understandings, while we are under the Law.

These Elements, or Forms in which we are tied up, while we are under the Law, are,

1. Weak.

2. Dark.

3. Beggarly.

4. Old.

1. Forms are weak Things. They have only the Shadows of Good Things to come. They have not the Substance. They cannot give us the Good Things Themselves.

Forms set the Picture of our Beloved before our Eyes; but they cannot lay the Person Himself in our Arms. They are but a Letter from our Husband. They have not the Spirit of our Husband in them.

2. Forms in the knowledge of God are Dark Things. They can give us no clear, or certain Discoveries.

The greatest Light of Communion or Comfort, that can come, while we are shut up in Forms, is but like a Spark from a Flint at Midnight. It hath much Doubt, Diffidence, and Fear mingled with it.

3. Forms are Beggerly Things. They cannot lay open before us the Unsearchable Riches of Christ.

Jesus Christ is Rich in Glory. He can fill all Appearances. He can bring forth Innumerable Appearances. He hath Glory above all appearances, which the Creature is capable of. He can bring forth more Glory into thy Heart, than can be made out in thy Heart itself by any Appearance, The Power of Glory which thy Spirit feels, shall be above the Appearance, which it sees, 1 Corin. 14. 14. Ephes. 3. 19.

How poor then, and Beggarly must that Spirit be in the knowledge of the Glory of God, which is shut up in any one Form, in any one Sort, or Degree of Manifestations?

While thou canst not part with any Particular Form of Appearance while thy Spirit is not indifferent, and universal, extending itself to all Forms in the Manifestation of God: while thou art not above the Forms of this World: Thou wilt be but a Beggar in thy Divine Discoveries or Enjoyments.

He must be above, the Letter, in the Spirit; above and out of all Created p. 58Images in the Light of Life itself, that will attain to those Riches of assurance of a full understanding in the Mystery of God, and Christ, which St. Paul speaks of: Coloss. 2. 2.

4. Forms are Old. God hath blasted all Forms and Ways of his Appearing by the Principles, and Elements of the Creature. If they have had any Beauty, yet now they are Blear-eyed. If they have been Fruitful, yet now they are become a Barren Womb, which is as the Grave.

The Cross of Christ, and the Glory of his Appearance in the Spirit have taken away the Life, and Glory of all Manifestations, or Administrations in the Flesh.

They are Old, Withered, Decayed, and Dying. The more our Saviour shines out in the Glory of his Father, the more will they Droop till they drop quite into the Dust,

4. Sign: Solicitude. Rest, and want of Rest are the distinguishing Notes of a Legal, or Evangelical State. His Rest shall be Glorious; saith the Prophet of the Lord Jesus in the Times of the Gospel, Esa. 11. 10. Come to me, saith our Saviour to those under the Law, You that labour, and are heavy laden, and I will give you Rest, Mat. 11. 28.

A Legal Spirit hath a Four-fold Solicitude.

1. Solicitude, for Acceptance of the Person.

2. Solicitude, for Assiance in Perplexities.

3. Solicitude, for Light in the way.

4. Solicitude, for Life in the work of Grace.

1. Solicitude, for Acceptance of the Person. While the Soul is under the Law, the Seed of God, Jesus Christ is not yet come up, nor revealed within her. She sits therefore trembling in the Dark, sometimes Confident, that it is a Seed of Love; sometimes as Peremptory, that it is a Seed of Wrath, which lies hid in her. So she is perplexed, and anxious in herself.

St. Paul teacheth us, Coloss. 2. 2. that Assurance ariseth from the Acknowledgment of God in the Mystery even of the Father, and of Christ.

The Mystery of the Gospel lies hid under the Law, the Heavenly Image is covered, and kept out of Sight by the Earthly. All this while a Saint is apt to be looking down into himself, and to judge of Love, or Hatred, by those Appearances, which he finds of either in himself. But still he finds those Appearances Mixt, Unconstant, Doubtful. So he is ever tost from one thing to another with much Unstableness, and Unquietness.

If he look up to God, he sees Him in a Cloud, thorow the Principles of the Creature, in which he judgeth of God after the manner of Man; and so one while he believes him to be a Sweet Friend; another while, an Irreconcileable Enemy.

But he that is truly Evangelical, looks upward still, like Stephen. He sees with p. 59the Eye of his Spirit Heaven, that Divine Image, and State of things, opened to him. He seeth the Father, and Jesus Christ standing at the Right Hand of the Father, and himself in the Arms of Jesus Christ, as Lazarus was seen lying in Abraham's Bosom.

This Discovery of the Mystery of God above, gives him a full Assurance concerning the Acceptance of his Person in the Beloved One.

2. Solicitude, for Affiance in Perplexities. The Temper of a Legal Spirit in this Point is fitly express'd, Psal. 116. 10. 11. I was greatly afflicted, I said in my hast: All men are Lyars.

While our Comforts depend upon the Forms of our Saviour's Appearing to us, either Inwardly, or Outwardly: we are, as cast off, and at a Loss upon every Change. When a Temptation, or unexpected Trouble ariseth, we are like a Ship in a Storm, that hath lost its Anchor. We are carried away with the violence of the Tempest.

Then w… cry: All our Signs for Good have deceived us. All the Marks of Divine Love, which men have given us, all the Encouragements, and Comforts, with which they have carried us on: All the Manifestations, and Workings, which we discovered, as Grounds of Assurance, in our own Hearts; All these have deceived us. Good God whom, or what shall we trust? What shall we do, that we may have rest in the Time of Trouble?

This is the uncertainty of his Comforts, who is under the Law, who hath not all his Comforts, and Confidence wrapt up in One Spirit with Jesus Christ, who is the Same, without Change, in the midst of all Changes; Yesterday, and to Day. It is this alone, which can make us sweetly to Rejoyce in our Infirmities, and Tribulations.

3. Solicitude: for Light in the way. While the Law is our School-master, the Letter is our Way, and Guide. The Letter hath a Twofold Inconvenience in it.

First, the Way of the Letter is cut out into great Diversity of Paths. It is full of Windings, and Turnings. It hath manifold Rites, and Observations in it.

Secondly, the Letter itself is Old, and Dim. So the Directions, which it gives us are very Dark, and uncertain to us.

These Two Inconveniences make us perpetually full of Disputes, and Doubts in our selves, every step, that we take, whether we be in a right way, or no.

We never can be delivered from this Solicitude, till we be brought into the High, and Plain way of the Spirit, in which the wayfaring Man, though a Fool, cannot erre.

4. Solicitude: For Life in the Work of Grace, Rom. 8. 3. The Law being weak thorow the Flesh, Heb. 7. 16. Iesus Christ is made a Priest, not after the Law of a Carnal Command; but after the Power of an Endless Life.

The Life of Grace under the Law is very Weak. For the way of its Working is by Fleshly Principles. It is so conveyed thorow them, as if it were wrought out of them altogether.

p. 60In this State the Soul eats the Bread of Life, with the Sweat of her Brows. She is fain to till an Earth full of Bryars, and Thorns. She carries on the Working of Grace with much Difficulty for the present, and Anxiety for the Future. For the Life of Grace is weak, and it puts forth itself after the Way of the Life of Reason, by Parts, Affections, Passions, Resolution, Industry. This way of Working by these Powers naturally carrieth along with it much Care, and Vexation. Whereas under the Gospel the New Earth bringeth forth the Fruit of the Spirit of its own accord, according to the several Seasons, and Growths of it. And this is done, while the Husbandman sleepeth, while the Spirit lies sweetly at Rest in the Bosom of her Saviour without any Care, or Toil.

The Life of Grace in the Law, is as Water drawn up out of a Deep Well by Buckets-full at a time. But in the Gospel it is a Living Fountain springing up Freely, Plentifully, Uncessantly.

So much for the Signs of a Servile, or Legal State in Religion.

I will conclude this Head with one Use of Consolation.

Application.

Use. Consolation. You, who feel not your selves carried up into the Glory of God by the Spirit, as upon the Wing of an Eagle; but are creeping towards Heaven, like Worms upon the Ground: you have great Priviledges belonging to you, and a great Portion of Comfort.

Your Priviledges, in which you that are under the Law, may Glory, and take Comfort, are these:

You have an Adoption, or Son-ship; a Protection; a Presence of Glory; a Peculiar Worship; a Pledge, and Type, you may have a Precious Seed in you.

1. Priviledge: Adoption, or Son-ship. Rom. 9. 4. You are the Israelites in the Letter, or Flesh, to whom pertaineth the Adoption. God is your Father in a more especial way, than to the Rest of Men, in a nearer Relation, than that of Creation. You are Sons, though by the Bond-woman. You are begotten again of God into a New Image of Himself: though this Image be in the Flesh, and of the Flesh, as the Mother.

2. Priviledge: Protection. God was with all his Thousands of Angels on Mount Sinai in the midst of the Fire, and Thick Darkness. This was an Allegory, and signified thy Heart with its Fears and Agonies under the Law; in the midst of which God, and His Angels dwell, as a Defence over thee. The Law was added because of Transgressions: to Protect thee from the Power of the Devil in thy Lusts, and Corruptions.

3. Priviledge: the Presence of Glory. This is reckoned up, Rom. 9. 4. The Glory. The Glory is some Manifestation above the Work of Nature, sent forth from God, and having God present in it, conversing with us by it. Such was the Pillar in the Wilderness; such the Smoak in the Temple; the Appeapearance at the Oracle.

p. 61Thou also who fearest God, and workest Righteousness, though under the Law; yet hast a Glorious Work of God upon thy Heart, a Divine Appearance of God in thy Spirit, a near Presence of God with it; by which thou hast Access to Him, and Communion with him.

We read of those that are near, and those, that are far off. Thou in the State of Nature wast far o…f from God. Now being brought under the Law, thou art near to Him. When thou shalt be brought up into the Light of the Gospel, thou wilt see thy self in Him.

4. Priviledge: Peculiar Worship. The Covenants; the giving of the Law; The Service of God pertained to the Israelites: Rom. 9. 3. Thou art an Israelite, a Kinsman of Christ, and all the Saints, nay a Brother according to the Flesh: if thou hast the Work of the Law upon thy Heart. The Covenant, nay both Covenants, in the Letter, in the Outward Dispensation, and Administration belong to thee. Thou hast a Right to all the Ordinances, and to every Instituted Service of God. The Promises in the Proposal of them concern thee in the First Place.

Go then to the Sacraments; Pray; Read the Word; Hearken to the Promises; whatever thy Troubles, or Terrours be. These are appointed for thee to keep, to Comfort, to carry thee on, till Christ be revealed in thee.

5. Priviledge: The Pledge, and Type of Spiritual and Eternal things, Rom. 9. 4. The Promises; The Fathers; Christ according to the Flesh.

When thou feelest the Bondage of the Law to lie heaviest upon thee, thou hast this to comfort thy self with: All the Saints of old, in whose Loyns, the Life, and Heirs of all Grace, and Glory lay; lived in this State, and were subject to the Law, even until death: Jesus Christ Himself was born of Legal Parents, and made under the Law.

Besides; The Law is a Fleshly Image of all the Joys of the Gospel, and the Spirit, and Heaven. The Law holds them forth all, not in the Type, or Image only; but in the Prophecy of them, as being certainly to come.

Moses, and the Prophets go together, and Moses himself is One of the Chief of the Prophets.

As Christ according to the Flesh was an Israelite, so the Law is the Beauty, and Glory of Christ in the Flesh, testifying of itself, and its own coming in the Spirit.

Sit down then under thy Fig-tree, under the Shadow of the Law, with good Nathaniel, till thy Vine be grown up. There look on Him, who seeth thee. Behold that Glory, which looks forth in the Law, as in a Fleshly Image of itself. Feed thy self with the Expectations of his Shining out, whom this Image prophesies of to thee. When he discovers himself, thou shalt know, that He was in Covenant, and Communion with thee, even when thou wert under the Fig-tree.

p. 626. Priviledge: You may have a Precious Seed in you. While you are Legal you are in Bondage to many Fears, and Terrours: You weep, for you say; you can discover nothing of Christ in you. It is true the Seed is not come up yet; but it may be Sown. You come not Rejoycing, and bearing your Sheafs with you: yet you may be those, who go forth weeping, and carrying your Precious Seed with you.

When Darkness would drive you to Despair, then take to your selves the words of St. Paul, Gal. 3. 23. Before Faith (that is, the Revelation of Christ in my Flesh) I am kept under the Law, under Terrours, and Rigours; Shut up in Darkness and Fear, from all Comforts, or Confidence unto the Faith, (that Appearance of Christ) which shall be revealed; but now is hid, as a Seed only in me.

Though thou canst not yet with good old Simeon, sing over Jesus Christ in thine Arms, a Song of Peace, and Rest to thy Soul: yet thou mayst with Mary have him in thy Womb. This Burthen, which thou bearest, and goest with so heavily, may be the Burthen of the Lord, the Immortal Word in thee.

These Pangs, which thou feelest may be, not to the Death of thy Soul, but the Birth of a Son, a Saviour, whose coming forth shall make thee to forget all thy Sorrows, and Rejoyce; because a Son is born unto thee, by which Birth thou art no more a Servant, but a Son.

I have now done speaking of the Servile, and come to the Son-like State in Religion.

2. The Son-like State. This is known by a Four-fold Property.

1. Love.

2. Life.

3. Spirituality.

4. Resignation.

1. Property: Love. I shall shew this in two places of Scripture.

1. Scripture: Galat. 4. 6. Because ye are Sons, he hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. St. Paul in these words toucheth four Things, which will much open this Point, and this Particular.

1. The Sonship of a Saint.

2. The Concealment of this Sonship

3. The Discovery of it.

4. The Effect of this Discovery.

1. The Sonship of a Saint. This is the Union of a Saint in one Spirit with him, who is the only begotten Son of the Father, Jesus Christ. It is the Fellowship of the Person of a Saint in one Life, one Image with the Person of his blessed Saviour. The Apostle unites these two: our being Sons; and our having the Spirit of his Son. And that which St. Paul in this place calls The Spirit of His Son: he calls the Spirit of Adoption, Rom. 8. 15. That Spirit, which is the Spirit of all the Sons of God.

2. The Concealment of this Sonship. The coming of the Spirit into our Souls doth not make us Sons, but manifests us to be such. We are First Sons, and then the Spirit of his Son is sent forth into our Spirits. So we read plainly: Because p. 63ye are Sons, he hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your Hearts.

While we live in sin and slavery, we are in truth Sons, though we be, as Princes in disguise. Yet ever God retains in himself, the Root, and Image of our Persons, as of Sons.

So our State of Sonship is twice hid: once in the Secret of divine Glory: again under the Shadow of our Flesh.