The Rise Race and Royalty of the Kingdom of God, Part 1 · Subpart 1

The Rise Race and Royalty of the Kingdom of God · Part 1 · Subpart 1

p. 188PSAL. XLV. VER. 1.

My Heart is enditing a good matter; I speak of the things, which I have made touching the King; my Tongue is the Pen of a ready Writer.

THis Psalm is believed to be composed upon the same occasion with the Canticles; The Marriage between Solomon, and the Daughter of Pharaoh, which is made by the Holy Ghost, a Type of the Mystical Espousals between the Lord Jesus, and a Holy Soul. The Eternal Spirit delights to play with itself, casting from its Heavenly person the shaded Light of this Creation, then filling every part of it, even the darkest, with figures of its own Sweetnesses, and Beauties. Strange Wives were charged upon Solomon, as a Mother-Sin big with many hateful Birth…. Yet this cloudy piece of Providence is a Vail curiously wrought with the Divine Images of Christ on the Throne, his Queen all in beaten Gold at his Right Hand with their pure, immortal Lovelinesses, Loves, and mutual Joyes; under which Vail lies hid the Living Face itself of all these Glories.

Prov. 25. 2. It is the Glory of God to conceal a thing: but the Glory of Kings to search out a matter. It runs thus in the Original: It is the Glory of God to conceal the Word: but the Glory of Kings to search out the Word. It is a height of Glory beyond the Compass of every created Understanding, the hiding of the eternal Word, which is brighter infinitely than ten thousand Suns all joined into One, under a vail slighter, and thinner, than the most empty shadow, to form the Picture of this Glorious Word upon every part of the shadow, and then again to vail that also with the Darkness of the Shade.

But this is the Glory of Jesus Christ, to bring down these Mysterious heights, and make them familiar to the Eye of the Creature. It is an Eye of Glory in the Saints, those Fellow-Kings to Jesus Christ, by which they discover the Picture in the shade, the ravishing depths of the Life itself in the Picture, and make it their Royal Entertainment to converse continually with the Beauties, and Sweetnesses of the Divine nature in them both invisible to common senses.

This Psalm is entituled, A Song of Loves. The sweetest Matter exprest in the sweetest Manner. Both are a Divine Harmony. The Loves here are a Harmony of the most Heavenly, and most Spiritual Hearts. The Song the Harmony of the most Heavenly, and most Spiritual Voices. The Loves figure out the Father, the pure, unfathomed, unconfined Spring of Unity, and Sweetness, p. 189where all things lie embracing each other in their first, and softest Bed: The Song represents the shining Word, the harmonious Wisdom, the Essential Musick, Beauty and Image of the Godhead, the Son, in whom all the Riches of Love are with an equal Richness, and Loveliness displaid. The Song of Loves, these Loves thus sung, this Marriage of Love, and Loveliness paint out to us the Joyes and Glories of the Thrid Person the Holy Ghost. But by whom was this Song sung? Some read; The Song of the beloved Virgins. These are the friends of the Bridegroom, and the Bride, which sing the Epithalamium, or Marriage-Song. In the Canticles they are called, The Daughters of Jerusalem, which some Interpreters understand to be the Holy Angels. Angelical Spirits are expressed by the name of Virgins very fitly: 1. For the preservation of their native sweetness, their primitive beauty, the flower of the Divine Image i… them uncorrupt, untainted. 2. For their single Estate, being separate from mixture, and union with any sorts of Earthly Bodies below them, and not yet raised to a marriage with the Divine Body, the Substance, and Fulness of the God-Head in Jesus Christ; because they are the fairest, softest, and sweetest Images of all created Things. It is the manner of the Hebrew Tongue to express the Beauty, and Loveliness of things by the feminine Sex. The Woman is the Glory of the Man. Christ the Brightness of the Fathers Glory is represented in this Form by the Jerusalem above, the Mother of us all. In the Proverbs he is figured by a Virgin-Queen in her Pallace, his Angels as Maidens attending on this Virgin-Queen, and sent forth by her to invite her guests. Thus separate and Angelical Spirits, those invisible Beauties, which are the immediate Copies and Springs of all visible things, as also the Mark, and White to which the activity and operations, of all natural Principles, as Arrows are directed, be known by the names of Nymphs, and Virgins.

I…hn the Baptist was the Restorer of the Law, the proper Ministry of Angels, which was ministred by Angels, and by which only the Angelical Life and Glories, as figures of the Divine, were ministred to us. He therefore is called by the Holy Ghost, An Angel going before the Lord to prepare his way. He speaks of himself, as a Friend of the Bridegroom, rejoicing to hear his voice, and making one in the Quire of Angels, which sing to the Bridegroom, and the Bride, while they lie on Beds of Glory in the embraces of each others Love.

These Angels are those Friends, which Jesus Christ calleth upon, in his Song of Songs, when he comes into his Spouse's Garden, Cant. 5. 1. I have drunk my Wine with my Milk, Eat O Friends, Drink, be enebriated with Loves. St. Paul expounds this Scripture, Eph. 3. 10. That unto the Principalities, and Power in Heavenly places might be known by the Church the manifold Wisdom of God. The Hearts, and the Lips of the Spouse of Christ; the Marriage-Union between Christ and a saint, in the spiritual and Heavenly Image, is the Golden Cup, out of which the Angels drink in rich Discoveries of God, the Glories and sweetnesses of the Divine Nature, which are there poured forth immediately p. 190from their Fountain, which are that Wine of Love, with which Christ, and his Spouse entertain each other. O the Dignity! O the Delights of a Holy Soul! Angels sing to it; Angels pry into its Beauties, and Joys; Angels draw the Waters of their blissful Light, and Life from this Well. The Sounds, Operations, Lives, Essences of Angels are only a Musick, Songs of Love, and Joy to the beloved Soul, and her Bride-groom in their Union. In this sense Christ, and a Saint in their Spiritual Glory, ride together upon the Cherubims. The Angels are made as perfumed gales of Wind, on which they Flie; Flames of a Divine Fire of Love, Joy, and Glory, which continually spring up, shine before them, and round about them; penetrate thorow all things, converting all things into the same Ministerial Brightnesses, and Harmonies of an Immortal Life, and Love under their Feet.

But there is another passage worth our observation, before we leave the Title to this Psalm: To the chief Musician upon Shoshannim. Shoshannim was an Instrument of six strings, upon which the Tune to this Song was plaid. If there be, as Divines say, Tot Mysteria quot Apices, so many Mysteries, as points of words, letters, or Marks in the Holy Scripture, we may well believe this six-stringed Instrument to allude to the Creation made up of the several Works of six several Days. He that hath Eyes to see what the Spirit doth, and Ears to hear the Sound of the Spirit, understands this great frame to be a well-tuned Instrument of so many strings, as there are Creatures in it; the whole Composure of Providence from the beginning of the world to the end of it, this Song of Loves plaid upon it by Jesus Christ to his Heavenly Bride, whose Spiritual senses see the Harmonious, and Delicate Motions of his Hand upon every string, and take in with unexpressible delight the ravishing Melody.

Shoshannim signifies also the six-leaved Lilly. Can. 2. 1. It is doubtful whether the Holy Spirit speak in the Person of Christ, or the Church, when he saith in his Song, I am the Rose of Sharon, and the Lilly of the Valleys. It is generally understood of Christ. In that Mysterious History of Esther, as Esther, Mordecai, the Jews, so the City Shushan, the City of the Lilly represent the Church of Christ in general, or each holy Soul in particular. Interpreters here apply the Lilly to the Bride, It is in the plural number Lillies, and the clause may be rendred, concerning the Lillies. So the Subject of this Song of Loves is signified to us, Jesus Christ, and his beloved Bride, two Lillies upon the same Root, Flourishing with the same Beauties, smiling Reflections each of other. Either of them with his six leaves comprehends in itself the perfections of the whole Creation in their Original Purities, and Sweetnesses. Both alike, in that Spiritual Image in which they are united, are to the variety of Creatures, as the Seventh Day to the other six, a Bed of Rest, and Delights with a Canopy of Glory; their Rest, Sanctification, and Blessedness.

But it is time to pass from the Title to the Psalm itself. The first verse is a Preparation to the matter contained in the Song. It consists of Three Parts.

p. 1911. The Flame, and fulness of the Author; My heart enditeth a good matter. The word, Enditeth, is used only this once. Some expound it, boileth with a good matter, and make it an allusion to Meat-offering in the Sanctuary prepared by fire in a Frying-pan. So the eternal Spirit, which is Love, hath the place of the Holy Fire. The Heart is the Frying-pan. The Excellencies of Jesus Christ in his own Person, and his Brides, with their mutual Affections, and Joyes are the Meat-offering.

Some interpret this Boiling by the bublings and wellings forth of a Fountain. Thus the Chrystalline Waters of the Light, Life, and Beauties of Christ, mingled with the Heavenly Fire of his Love, are the Sea. The Heart is the Spring into which this Sea by Invisible Tracts, and hidden Passages conveyeth its flowing Treasures, which from thence pour themselves forth into rich, pleasant, and plentiful Streams.

2. The Excellency of the Subject, I speak of the things, which I have made touching the King. This King is called God, and seated upon the Throne of Eternity, v. 6. which verse is cited, and applied to Jesus Christ, as he comes the second time into the World, attended by all his holy Angels after his Resurrection; and Ascent to the Throne of his Father. This is the King, this is the Bridegroom, and the Beloved of the Soul; Jesus cloathed with the Royal garment of his Divine Nature, crowned with the Glory of the Father, perfumed with all the good ointments of the Holy Ghost.

3. The Power, by which the Author is inspired in the composing of this Song My Pen is the Tongue of a ready Writer. Holy men of God spake, as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. 2. Pet. 1. 21. As the Son is the Wisdom, Power, and Glory of the Father: So the Holy Ghost is the Love of the Father, and Son, he is called by the name of Charity, or Love, 1 Cor. 13. v. 1. 8. He is that Love, by which God and a Saint dwell one in another, as Love is described to be the Union between the Lover, and the beloved Object. So he is spoken of. 1 John 4 16. God is Love; He that dwells in Love, dwells in God, and God dwells in him. It is the Inspiration of this Holy Spirit of Love, by which this Song of Loves was penned.

My Heart is enditing a good matter. My heart is full, boileth up, and floweth forth with a good matter, sweet, beautiful and profitable, This Heart represents every Member of Christ, which all have one, and the same Spirit. These words thus opened, afford us this Doctrine.

1. Doct. A good Heart is a Treasury of good things. Matth. 12. 35. A good man out of the good Treasure of his heart bringeth forth good Things. A Treasure, or Treasury implyeth two things:

1st. A Place. A good Heart is a Treasury like Heaven in three respects; 1. It is great, and spatious. It comprehends all things within itself. It hath nothing above it, or without it, to shut it up, and confine it. 2. It is of a sh…ing, and glorious Substance, made of Light. 3. It is incorruptible, immo… p. 192impregnable. No Thief can there break in to steal. No moth, or rust consumes: There is no Principle of corruption, or decay within: No power from without can prevail there.

2. Precious things laid up in this Heavenly Heart make it a good Treasury. All the precious things of the Sun, and Moon, of the Heavens above, and the deep below, are here. Here are Eden and Paradise. Gen. 2. 10. A River went out of Eden to water the Garden. The Jews observe from this place, that there are two Paradises, a Superiour, and Inferiour; One above, Another below. In that above is the Fountain of Pleasure, from thence the stream descends, which makes that below ever-green, and flourishing with delights. Eden signifies Pleasure or Delight, which name in another word is given to Christ, as he was eternally in the bosom of the Father; Prov. 8. 30. I was by him, one brought up with him, Delights from day to day. Jesus Christ in his Heavenly Image, in the Substance and Essence of the eternal Light, is Eden, the Paradise above. In his earthly Image, the sweet Shade where all his Beauties seem at once to sleep and spring, he is the Paradise below. There is he the Eden, and the Fountain in the midst of Eden. Here the Garden watered by the River going forth from Eden. A good Heart hath in itself both these Paradises; the Fountain, and the Stream; Eden, and the Garden. Cant. 4. 15. The Lord Jesus calls his Spouse, A Fountain of Gardens, a Well of living Waters flowing from Libanon. The holy Heart is both the Fountain which makes all things Gardens, Paradises, which way soever it flows, and those Gardens too. It is both Libanon with the Fountain in it; and the Gardens below in the vallies, in the midst of which the Living Waters from this Fountain run along.

Reas…n. The Heart is that Spirit, which is the first Spring, and Principle of Life in man. Prov. 4. 23. Keep thine heart with all Diligence: For out of it are the Issues of Life. All the treasures of this World, its Light, Forms, Vertues, operations are first in the Sun. From thence they flow forth in various Streams all round about him, while yet they are still comprehended in him, as being not only their inmost Center, but also their outmost Circle of Light, and Life. So is the Heart, or Spirit of Man, an Invisible Sun in the midst of him, far more great or glorious than this which we see; in which all forms, and acts of Life, like Beams, rise up first, and fullest; from whence they are dispensed, and dispersed.

The Hebrew word, to keep, imports a double sense. 1st. Diligently observe thine Heart, what Spirit, or Principle it is, by which thou art acted. Such as this is, such is thy whole Life. If thy Heart be a Substantial, true, pure Spirit, thy whole way, and work, all thy Joyes are Substance, Truth, Light, Immortality, as the Visions of God. If the Heart which is in thee, be shadowy, thy Life is vain and empty, the dream of a shadow. Is thy heart corrupt, and polluted? then are all thy Streams poisoned, death lurks and sports p. 193itself in them with an innumerable company of Devils. 2. Keep, that is, preserve thine own, thy true Heart with all diligence. Abide in Christ, and his Love, as the only root of Life, from whence alone spring the sap, greennesses, flowers, fruits of true Sweetnesses, Beauty, and Blessedness. Watch day and night, that no other Spirit put forth itself in thee; for every other Principle besides Christ, and his Love, will certainly prove a Counterfeit, and instead of a Heart, out of which the Issues of Life ought to be, a root of bitterness.

There is a Twofold Heart:

1. Natural.

2. Spiritual.

1. There is a Natural Heart. This is the supream part of the natural Soul, the Angelical Spirit in Man. 1 Thes. 5. 23. St. Paul prayes: The very God of Peace sanctifie you wholly: and I pray God your whole Spirit, and Soul, and Body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Here we have the natural Man divided into three parts, which are equally capable of being sanctified, or by defilement made subject to blame. 1. Spirit. 2. Soul. 3. Body. The Spirit is as the Fountain; the Soul the Stream of Life: The Body the Channel in which this Stream runs along. The whole Man is one Beam sprung immediately from the Divine Glory. The upper end of the Beam, where it is fullest and brightest, immediately united to, and rooted in the supream Light, makes the Spirit. The lowest point, least and darkest, almost vanishing into the Shade, with which it mingles its light, where it toucheth the Earth, is the Body. The Soul is the middle of that Beam, partaking of both these, dividing and uniting them, like the Firmament between the Waters above and the Waters below; the Angels being the Waters above the Firmament; and Corporeal Lives those below.

The Spirit is the Angel in Man, or Man in the Similitude and Society of Angels; the invisible Image, the first Treasury of all his Natural Beings, Beauties, and Life, which afterward descends, and distinguisheth itself into the varieties of Inferiour Acts, and Appearances. St. Paul therefore in the forementioned place calls it their whole Spirit.

The Body is the Outward and Visible Image, the Shadow below of this above.

The Soul is the Life, by which the Spirit descends into the Body, maintains communion with it, and gathers it up again into itself.

According to these Distinctions and Descriptions Solomon discourseth, Eccles. 12. 7. Then shall the Dust return to the Earth as it was: and the Spirit shall return to God, who gave it. The name of God there signifies Gods or Angels, for whom it is frequently, and expresly used in the Holy Scripture. The Jews say it properly imports the Divine Nature, as it is cloathed with the Angelical; God in the midst of all his Holy Angels, coming forth into the Creation, descending to be the Head of it.

It is an English Proverb: If men could live without the company of Women, p. 194men, they should converse with Angels. This is true; when the Spirit, which is the Head, and the Man in us, withdraws itself from its Shadowy Image, the Body, which is as the Woman, it finds itself in the Form of an Angel, and in the Society of Angels. From the Angelical State and Company it descends into the Body. Thither it returns again, when it leaves the Body.

This is the Natural Heart, the Angelical Spirit in Man, made in the Similitude of God, as he cloaths himself with the Angelical Image, as with a Garment of Light, and so vailing his naked, unaccessible Glories comes forth to be the Head of Angels. This Spirit is the Immediate Seat of the Divine Presence, the Glory the Angelical Throne. Here the precious things of the Sun, and the Moon, of the Invisible, and Visible Image of the Divine Nature; here the Riches of the whole Creation appear together in their fullest Lustre, and most beautiful Order. The Letters of the Latine Name for Heart, Cor, make the first Letters of those word, Camera Omnipotentis Regis, which being interpreted are, the Chamber of the Almighty King. It is a common observation, that the Heart of Man is Triangular, which therefore cannot be filled with the round World, but only with the Trinity. This Heart, of which we speak, is properly Triangular, consisting like the Angels, of these Three, Essence, Understanding, and Will, the proper, and Immediate Type of the Trinity, which as it can be fitted, and filled up only with the Truth of that Type, those Three ever-blessed Persons, as their Seal in the noblest mettal, next themselves, it contains more expresly, more at large, and more gloriously all those Figures, and Draughts of Divinity, which are imprinted upon the Face of any Creature. O the inestimable Treasures of Mans Natural Heart, if Sin change it not from a Palace of Angels to a Prison of Devils, or a Grave!

2. There is a Spiritual Heart, 1 Corin. 6. 16. He that is joyned to the Lord, is one Spirit. Mark the Absoluteness and Universality of the expression: one Spirit. He who is joyned to the Lord Jesus by believing, is one Spirit with Christ, one Spirit in Christ, one Spirit, as Christ is one.

Galat, 3. 19, 20. St. Paul thus distinguisheth between the Law, and the Gospel: The Law was ordained by Angels in the hand of a Mediator. Now a Mediator is not a Mediator of one; but God is one. There is a Twofold Mediator; one, who hath his Ground in the Distance, and his End to maintain the Distance between Two Parties. The other is founded in an Unity, and his work is to manifest, and make perfect this Unity. The Character of the Law is Duality, and Division. God, and the Creature are presented each to other, as two upon different Principles, treating on a Covenant of works, containing different Terms to be performed by each apart. In the Gospel God reveals himself, as he is One, as he is the Ground, the Object, the End of all his affections, and operations; as he comprehends himself, and the Creature in one Person, and in one Spirit in our Lord Jesus; as he loves the Creature with the same love, with which he loves himself, and beholds it in the same Glory, with p. 195which he beholds himself in Christ. This is the Covenant of Grace, in which the Lover, and the Beloved are both One.

You may now ask me two Questions:

Q. 1. How God is One?

Q. 2. How a Believer is one Spirit?

Q. 1. How is God One?

An. God is one four wayes. 1. He is perfect. He comprehends all parts of Excellency in every kind and degree, Essentially in one supream, and undivided Point of Being within himself. He is to himself the Eye, the Light, and the Object; the Love, the Loveliness, the Joy and Fruit of both; all in One. The most curious Composition of all Sweets in one Ointment, or Perfume; The most natural extraction of the vertues of all herbs and flowers into one Sweetness in Hony falls infinitely short of the Unity of all Perfections here, and the Perfection of this Unity.

2. God is Pure. There is no mixture in him. As they say of Gold the purest Mettal; It is plenum sui, full of itself: so is God in the highest sense. Every grain of pure Gold, is Gold. Every thing in God is God. There is no mixture, Division, Allay, or Bound. The Divine Nature is endlesly compleat, and entire within itself, like a Sea of unshaded Light, which hath no shore, or Bottom. God is Light, and in him is no darkness. 2 John 1. 5.

3. God is unchangeable. He is the Rock unmoveable; He is the Rock of ages. All successions of Time, like Waters of a River pass by him, and behold him through all revolutions fixt in the same place, and State. He is the Rock of Eternity. As Wheels turning round in a Cave within a great Rock: So all the Times and Changes of this World are comprehended within the Unchangeableness, and Eternity of his Essence.

4. God is the Fountain. He is not a Broken, Barren, but a perfect, and pregnant Unity. Rom. 9. 36. Of him, and Through him, and To Him are all things, to whom be Glory for ever. As all numbers are a Unity multiplied, so are all things various Sparklings of this Divine Unity; Emanations, and Manifestations of the same God presenting himself to us at sundry times, and in divers manners. Love is defined to be Partus in pulchro, a Birth in a Beauty. This is the true nature of things, that Divine Love, which is the Birth of all Varieties of, and in this Beautiful, this Blessed Unity.

2. Q. How is a Believer one Spirit?

1. That One, Eternal Spirit brings forth the Spirit of a Saint, as his own immediate, proper and Peculiar Birth; as the dear Reflection of himself. A Saint is the Workmanship of Jesus Christ, not as a Picture is of a Painter, but as a Child is of the Father, one Spirit, one Life, one Divine Nature is in Both.

2. This one Spirit begets, and brings forth the Spirit of a Saint in his own likeness. Rom. 8. 29. God hath predestinated us to be conformed to the Image of p. 196his Son; that is to his heavenly Image, as he is the quickning Spirit: 1 Cor. 15. 45, 49. The Lord Jesus is our Father, the Father of the new World, the New Birth in us, as he is the Heavenly one, that Spirit, which is the supream Unity, the Lord and Fountain of Life, and Spirits. So he brings us forth in the Image of the same Heavenly Form, and of the same Divine Unity. Thus he prays to his Father; John 17. 22. The Glory which thou gavest to me, I have given to them, that they may be One, as we are One. Behold the Divine Birth of a Saint, the Divine Likeness into which he is born, and the Divine Unity, the Ground, and Form of the Divine Birth, and Likeness.

3. The Eternal Spirit unites itself to the Spirit of a Believer thus regenerated in the most Intimate, Entire, and Inseparable manner. They mutually inhabit, fully possess, perfectly enjoy each other. In life, and death, time, and eternity they are undivided. Thus this Heavenly Adam, the Unity, and Fountain of Spirits casts himself into the sleep of Humane Life, and of Death, that he may bring forth from his Side, and his Bosom this Sister-Spirit, this true Eve, the Mother of all Living, of all Heavenly, and Spiritual Lives, as he is the Father. Then, when he awakens in the Resurrection from the Dead, he takes her to be his Spouse, as she is his Sister in the Fellowship of the Divine Unity, which is the glorious Ring, and Circle of all Relations. So she, who is Spirit of his Spirit, in the likeness of the same Spirit, is made one Spirit with him.

Thus you have an Answer to these two Questions. You see, how God is One; How he, that is joyned to the Lord, is one Spirit. O that men knew God unvailed, revealed in the Light, and Grace of the Gospel, as he is One! O that they they did rellish the Sweetness of this Unity of the Spirit, which is the height of all Relations, by which God is one to a Believer in all times, and things, one in him, one with him; by which he also is one to, in, and with God! This sight and sense would make us to be continually in Pangs of longings to be regenerated, and brought forth into this Spirit, and Unity; as Jesus Christ is always in pangs of Love to bring it forth, and form it in us.

But to conclude this Reason; This Holy Spirit, this Spirit of Unity, and Unity of the Spirit is the Spiritual heart, of which we speak. St. Paul Ephes. 3. expresseth it by being rooted in Love. This is that Root, which we have in the eternal Love of God, in that Love, which is God, in God, as he is Love. This is the new Heart, which is bred and cherished in the bosom of the Father. These Heavens above us comprehend in their Circuits all things here below, which, as learned men teach us, are figures, & images of their vertues sent forth from them. But they have fixed in themselves innumerable Bodies of Light, and Glory far exceeding all things here. They say, that these Heavens are Circular, because that round Figure is most ca…acious, and beautiful, as being an Image of the Unity of Angelical … How great and glorious a p. 197Circle then vastly transcending the Heaven of Heavens is this Divine Unity, this Spirit which is the new heart of a Saint? All the Heavens, and this earth lie within the compass of it, as Light shadows which it casteth from it self. But as for those Treasures which are proper to it, which are fixt in it, how infinitely more innumerable, how infinitely richer are they? The mind of Christ with all the Beauties, and Brightnesses there; the deep things of God, with all those Lights and Joys unfathomable to every natural Eye, and Heart, lie within the Circuit of this Spiritual Principle. A great Philosopher call'd the Angelical Spirit in man, which is his Natural Heart, the Flower of the Soul. It is so indeed, as the Blossoms upon Fruit-Trees; but the Divine Spirit, the Spiritual heart is the Fruit,

1. Use. Seek this good heart, which hath so good a Treasure in it. That you may seek it with all affection, and diligence, take these Three directions: Believe the Truth of this Principle: Consider the Preciousness of it: Understand your Propriety in it.

1. Believe the Truth of this Principle. When the Apostles asked the Christians in Samaria, whether they had received the Holy Ghost, they answered, that they had not so much, as heard whether there were a Holy Ghost or no. Is not this the temper of many amongst us, of most, of the sensitive, and natural Spirit in us all? We do not so much as believe, that there is a Holy Ghost; much less, that this Holy Ghost is poured out upon any Soul, as a Heavenly Anointing from above; or dwells in any heart, as the Principle of a supernatural, and eternal Life. He that comes to God, must believe, that God is, and that he is a Rewarder of those that diligently seek him: Heb. 11. 6. Fix in thine heart with an unshaken faith, these two Radical Truths, from which all the fatness, and sweetness of the Tree of Life is derived into our Spirits: 1. That God is. 2. That there is a Union between God and Man in One Spirit. Say frequently to thy self: It is true, It is the first Truth, upon which all other Truths are built; that there is a supream, incomprehensible Being, which shines through all, and fills all, the Fountain, and Measure; the End, Perfection, and Blessedness of all Beings. It is as true, that this ever-glorious God descends in Jesus Christ to sow himself by his own good Spirit as a Divine Seed in the heart of man below; that by the unvailing of his original Excellencies he shines, as a spiritual Sun from above into the Soul, to quicken, awake, and call forth this Seed, in the vertue of which the Soul springs into a new, and heavenly Being, comes to God by the fresh Participations of his life, grows up into his Likeness, pleaseth him, is possess'd, and enjoy'd by him, possesseth, and enjoyeth him with an unexpressible fulness of all mutual, and Divine Pleasures. When the Merchant in the Gospel found a Pearl in the Field, he went, and sold all to purchase this Field. If you have discovered this rich Pearl of the Divine Nature, as a Root at the bottom of yo… Spirits: go, exchange every Principle, Power, and excellency to give … p. 198self up to the conduct, activity, fruitfulness, enjoyment of this alone.

2. Consider the preciousness of this Heavenly Principle, Es. 6. 13. God compares his people in the greatest desolations to an Oak, whose Substance is in it, when it hath cast its leaves: so saith he, the Holy Seed shall be the Substance thereof. Consider here three Precious Things in this good Heart, which is the Seed, and Principle of Grace in us.

1. This Spiritual Principle is a Substance. Solomon complains of all things under the Sun; the Eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the Ear filled with hearing. He brings this as an Argument, and effect of their vanity. All things here are Shadows only, and so empty, unsatisfactory, endlesly raising expectations, and desire, but never answering them. When this Spirit, which is far above the Sun is received by thee, when this becomes the Principle of all thy faculties, which sees in thine Eye, hears in thine Ear, understands, and wills in thine heart; when this is the Treasury, from which all Objects come forth to act those faculties: then thine Eye will be satisfied with seeing substantial Beauties, thine Ear will be filled with substantial Melodies, thine Understanding will sit down to a Heavenly Feast of substantial Lights, and Truths, thy Will shall lie down to a Sweet and Eternal rest in a bed of substantial Embraces, and Joys, in the midst of the Substance, and Essence of Goodness itself.

2. This is the Holy Seed. The Heavens over our Heads are pure. They are free from that gross, and dark Matter, with which all Forms of things are mixt here on Earth. This Purity of theirs, is their Transparency, Light, Lustre, Harmony, Vertue, Incorruptibility. Yet they are Corporeal, and Bodily; their bright Beauties shall be turned into Darkness, and Blood. The Angels are purer far, than these Heavens. They have no Cloud, Clog, or Dross of Bodies. Yet are they mixtures of Light and Shade. Their Glories are vails upon the true Glory. They wax old, as a Garment, and are changed. Their Nature is subject to stains, and falls. But this Principle, which is the Seed, and Heart of a Believer is purer than the Heavens, or the Angels. It is the Spirit of God, the true Light, in which there is no Darkness; Simple, incorruptible, Unchangeable.

3. This Principle is durable. It is a Fountain springing up in the Soul to Eternal Life, John 4. O precious Treasure! Eternity is defined to be the full, and unbounded Possession of all Good at once, in One. Pearls have their price, because they have their lustre in a lasting Substance. This Holy Seed is the onelyonly Pearl of price, both for its Lustre, and for its lastingness.

The Will of Man naturally moves to good. The greater the good is, and the more clearly it appears to us; so much the more natural, and powerful are the motions of our Will to it. Did we understand the goodness of this Spiritual Principle for the Reality, the Excellency, the Eternity of it; the Waters are not carried so naturally, so constantly to the Sea, nor Fire upwards to the Bosom of Heaven; as our Souls would to this Sea of Life, and Bosom of Love, p. 199Union with God in the Unity of his own Spirit. Thus we have done with the 2d Direction to quicken us in our pursuit of a new Heart, a Spiritual Principle, which is to consider the preciousness of it.

3. Understand your Propriety in this Divine Principle. 1. You were made in the Similitude, and Image of God. He is your Original; the Substance and Truth of your Being; more truly your selves, than you are your selves. 2. God is your Father, There is one God the Father, of whom are all Things, saith St. Paul 1 Cor. The Cheeks of Christ are said to be Beds of Spices: Cant. 5. v. 13. Our Immortal Souls, our whole Persons are sprung up out of the Glories of the eternal Spirit, as Spices, and Flowers out of their Beds in the Gardens. When we are united to this Spirit, we return to our own Original, like those flowers, we sink down into our proper Beds and Roots, to receive a fresh Life and Beauty. 3. We are made by, and in Christ, Col. 1. By Christ, as our immediate Principle, and Pattern; In Christ, as our proper Habitation. The Original Sin of Devils, which infected Mankind, is plainly set down to be this: Jude 6. They kept not their first State, in Greek, Principle: but left their own Habitation. Propriety begets Love; for both Love and Propriety have their life and root in Unity. There is nothing which is so much thine own, as God, as Christ, as the Spirit. These are thine own Father; thine own Habitation, where thou art at home; thine own Principle; thine own Original; thine own truest and best Self. Let this Propriety then by Love ascending from thee, by the sense, and influence of a greater Love far descending upon thee, encourage, allure, and attract thee to this Divine Principle, this Spirit of Union, by which thou becomest one Spirit with Christ, and the Father. Thus return, O man, whosoever, whatsoever thou art, to thine own Home, to thy proper Unity, as the wandring Bird to her nest; and the Wife of Adulteries to the bosom of the Husband of her Youths, where she finds a Fountain of Heavenly Loves still flowing fresh for her, as at the first; into which she casts her self, and finds all the Beauties of her Youth, and Purity restored unto her, as in the beginning; her sins and sorrows flying away, and vanishing into the Air of this eternal Spirit, as Shadows of the Night, and Dreams of a man asleep, when he waketh.

Use 2. This good Treasure of a good Heart is a Cordial, and Comfort against Losses, or Sufferings. Heb. 10. 34. The holy Penman tells the Disciples, to whom he writes, they took joyfully the spoiling of their Goods, knowing in your selves, that ye have in Heaven a better and an enduring Substance. Some read it knowing that you have in your selves in Heaven a better, and an enduring Substance. This Scripture upon the riches of the Spiritual Principle in a Believer groundeth five sweet and full Consolations.

1.▪ Thou hast the Substance. A Lacedaemonian invited to hear one sing like the Nightingale answered, To what purpose, when I can hear the Nightingale itself. When thy sense mourns to thy Soul, and saith: They p. 200have taken away our Estates, our Friends, all the joys of Life. They will take away our Lives also: let thy soul reply; why should we mourn for the Shadows, when still we have the Substance?

2. Thou hast all things better. Philosophy saith, that every plant below, hath its Star in Heaven; each Star its Angel above; the Angels their Idea's, or Original Essences, and Truths, in God, to which they are as Types only. Is thy Flower withered? Thou hast it in a Star. Is thy Star darkned? For thy Star thou hast an Angel. Are the good Angels, which ministred to thee, withdrawn from thee? They are present, and appear to thee in a better manner, in the Form of God. Canst thou grieve for the loss of a Figure in Wax, when thou hast the same Figure in a Gold-Seal, from which the Impression of that Form was made upon the Wax?

3. Thou hast all to endure for ever. The Scripture compares Spiritual, and Heavenly Things to Spices, for their Sweetness, and Incorruptibleness, because they partake much of the Sun. Spices are prefer'd before Flowers, because they have a more lasting Sweetness; and not only so, but they preserve us both living, and dead from corruption. Therefore they are used for preservatives from Infection, and for Embalmings. Thou seest thy Flesh, and all the Glory of the Flesh round about thee wither, and fade away. Trouble not thy self. In stead of these Flowers thou hast Spices. Thou hast all thy pleasant things in an incorruptible Spirit, where they not only preserve their sweetnesses ever fresh for thee, but thee also ever flourishing in the enjoyment of them.

4. Thou hast all in Heaven. A Believer is ever in Heaven, and hath Heaven in himself. For that Spirit, which is his Principle is the highest Heaven. The Joys of the Gospel are compared often to a Feast, to a Wedding-Dinner at the Marriage of a Kings Son. Now there go to make up a Feast, not only costly, and curious fare, but all things suitable, Stately, and rich Rooms, Musick, Perfumes, excellent company, all the Furniture, and Entertainment great, beautiful, and delighting. Thus thy Sufferings only change the Scene. What thou hadst before on Earth; now thou hast in Heaven, in the glorious Fellowship of all Angels, and Triumphant Spirits, with the Ointments of the Holy Ghost, the Melodies, and Harmonies of Divine Love sounding thorow all the Beauties of the Divine Nature, in the purest Light guilding all; Joys, and Immortal Pleasures like Doves with Silver Wings, and Golden Feather flying about every where, being nothing but the Spirit of all Grace, Joy, and Glory in various forms.

5. Thou hast all this Substance, this Heaven in thy self. A Believer hath these Heavenly Things in himself by a threefold Union.

1. By a Union of Love. As these Heavenly things are thy Beloved; so thou art their Love. As thou beholdest all pleasantnesses in their faces: so thou art their Garden of Pleasures, where all precious things, new and old, are p. 201treasured up for thy Beloved. They are thy rest, and delight: their Desire is towards thee. You are in the Unity of the Spirit, as One made Two, and Two made One again.

2. By a Union of Likeness. Those Heavenly things, and thy Spirit are as Brother and Sister that suckt the breasts of the same Mother; as Twin-Lilies, or Roses springing from the same Root of Love. They are to you, and you to them, as clear and shining Glasses, in which you mutually see the Faces each of other, and your selves as reflections of each others Beauties. Jesus Christ in the Canticles often calls the Holy Soul his Sister-Spouse. He calls her, Can. 1. 9. My Love. The word in Hebrew according to its Root is the same with that, which signifies a Friend, who is described to be Alter Idem, the same in another Person. It properly imports One made into Two by a Division, as Adam, and Eve; the other half on Ones self.

3. By a Union of Substances. Bodies can never meet in One. No one Body can ever be in two places at once; nor two bodies ever in one place. They unite only by Touches, by their outsides, by Accidents, and Shadows. A Holy Heart, and Heavenly Things unite, as Spirits, as the purest Spirits, where the Unity is most perfect. These intimately, totally, essentially, formally penetrate, possess, fill, and actuate each other. You have a shadow of it in the mixture of Lights; or in two clear, and bright Eyes, when they look full, and stedfastly one upon another. So Christ prays, John 17. 21. That they all may be one, as thou Father art in me, and I in thee, that they may be one in us. Again, v. 23, I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in One. The Radical, and Original Unity is that of the Blessed Persons in the Trinity; the most immediate Branches, and liveliest Copies of it are those Two, of the Divine, and Humane Nature in Christ's Person; of the Head and Members in his Mystical Body. But this shall suffice for our present Doctrine, that a good Heart is a Treasury of good things.