A Wakening Call, Chapter 14
CHAP. XIV. Concerning the two Covenants, first and second.
THE Life, given Angels and Men, in their First-creation, was the Principle of a First-covenant-communion with, and worshipping of God. Many Angels, and all Mankind, in Adam, by such Knowledg of God, as they had, therein, by the things that were made, glorified him not as God; were not thankful for what they had received, nor made the right Use thereof, in Sacrifice to his Will, in order to receive the eternal Gospel-life of their Creator, by a new or second Creation, the only Principle of a new and everlasting Covenant with him. They became vain in their Imaginations, professing and owning themselves wise enough to know what was best for themselves to do, in their own First-covenant Law-spirit of Works, as not needing any other Life or Things for true Happiness, in a Second, Rom. 1. 19-22. God made Man upright, (Eccl. 7.29.) pure and incorrupt, in the First, but not incorruptible, as in the Second. All Mankind are sad experimental Witnesses of this, however many of them, all along this World, deny it with their Mouths. The Disputers of this World, under Satan's Inspirations, seek out many Inventions, to defend and maintain their evil Choice and false Confidence in the First, (as transform'd into the Likeness, and disguis'd with all Scripture-Titles, belonging to the Second) in unchangeable Enmity to God and the Second.
This greatest Folly, as to their eternal Concerns, are many guilty of, taking great Pains to dispute themselves into everlasting Destruction. They decry the New-covenant-life, and, therein, the Wisdom and Righteousness of God, which Christ requires all, to seek after (Mat. 6. 33.) and complains, that no Man will, (Rom. 3. 11.) while confident in his own fallible Understanding, in which, he can never make one right Step in the Paths of Life to himself, or Peace with God, Ier. 10. 23. Prov. 20. 24. Had the First-covenant-life (given Man, in his First-creation, or restor'd by the Redeemer, since) been faultless, (or not defective, as to his true Blessedness) no place should have been sought, or appointed of God, for a Second, by a New-creation, Heb. 8. 7. Mens establishing themselves in the First, in unchangeable Enmity to God and the Second, turns a visible People of God, inholy Flesh, Righteousness of Man, into no People of God at all, but a Synagogue of Satan, Hos. 1. 9. & 2. 2. Revel. 3. 9. Yet, when so, will they confidently, under Satan's strong Delusions, assert themselves to be the only true Iews, or spiritual Israel and Church of God: but, lie. This will they say, when in unchangeable Enmity to God and his true Saints. Such have been, all along this World, Haters and Murderers of true Saints, Prophets, Apostles, and Christ himself, for the Life and Doctrine of the Second-covenant. True Saints, under the Inspirations of the Almighty, are gradually ceasing from the Labours of their own Law-spirit of Works, at best, or delighting to seed on the best Fruits brought forth by them, therein, and to commit their Way to the Lord, to work all their Works in them, (Isa. 26. 12.) by his heavenly Creature-spirit of Grace, and to feed on such incorruptible spiritual Fruits as are producible by them, therein. This is the true mystical Fast and Sabbath, which he has chosen, and requires Men to keep, Isa. 58. Man is but a mystical Tree of Good and Evil, in his own Spirit, Will and Way; a mystical Tree of Life, in God's. All outward, literal, bodily Fasts, and Sabbaths, though God's own Appointments and Ordinances, to the Jews, without this inward mystical Truth of all, rendred all their Performances an Abomination to God, and themselves a mystical Sodom, (Isa. 1. 10-15.) worse than literal, Matth. 11. 23, 24. The delighting in, and feeding on the best Fruits of our own Spirits, in preference to God's, is the self-same thing with Eve's Apple, and our first Transgression, in Adam. All First-covenant Life, Wisdom, Righteousness, Works, and Fruits of Man's own Law-spirit of Works, are to be given up, in Sacrifice to God, in order to our arriving at the happy Experience of the spiritual, heavenly Creature-life, Righteousness and Wisdom of God, working all our Works in his Spirit of Grace and Truth, (Iohn 3. 21.) and bringing forth right Fruits to him, Rom. 7. 4.
That the First-Covenant Life, given Man in his first Creation, was eternal, is Satan's Lie, (carried on, all along this World, by all manner of Disguises, in his evil Angelical Subtlety) in opposition to God's Truth, in the second. The Law was given by Moses, to direct to First-Covenant Righteousness of Man, in the living Soul of the first Adam; but Grace and Truth come by Iesus Christ, in the quickning Spirit of the second; Iohn 1. 17. 1 Cor. 15. 45. God rewards the Righteousness of Man, for a season, as a Debt to him, (Rom. 4. 4.) but takes away such Rewards from Saints, the inward Comforts of a good Conscience, there; and, sometimes, outward also, by the permitted Hands of evil Angels and Men, to make room in them for his eternal Life and Blessings, where all is of Grace, both Works and Rewards. Iob was a signal Experiencer of both; and Paul also, with other Saints; Phil. 3. 6-11.
All that passes in Man's day of judging, and Words of his own Wisdom, for eternal Life, will, in God's day of judging, be found, by all that trust thereto, eternal Death. All first-Creation Life and Things thereof, all Works and Fruits, done and brought forth, therein, will pass for nothing in God's day.
The Temporary Wrath of God, bringing Saints into the lowest Hell, in this World, from which there is Deliverance (Psal. 86.13.) is God's way for delivering them from the Wrath and Hell to come, which are eternal. The Saints Hell, in this World (as plagu'd and chasten'd all the day long, Psal. 73. 14. while Enemies have more than Heart could wish, v. 7.) is their true Purgatory, cleansing them from all Filth of Flesh and Spirit, and God's way of bringing them into the never-sinning Life and everlasting Righteousness of his Spirit of Grace and Truth.
Man, in his own Spirit, Will and Way, at best, has no right Knowledg of the true God; or, God of this World, the Devil; or what the Heaven or Hell-part of the eternal World to come, amount unto; so, on he goes, in the delusive Pleasures of this Mortal World, and Things thereof, literal or mystical, within the reach of his natural Understanding, without any looking after God, for his Spiritual, Heavenly, Eternal, New-Covenant Life and Things, without which, 'tis impossible to find the Salvation of Heaven, or scape the Damnation of Hell.
The Death of Man's Spirit, at best, in but the restor'd first-Covenant Life of the Creature, is the only way to find the Life of the Creator, in the second. The living Soul of the first Adam, has nothing, but what Death will swallow up into Victory. The Life of the quickning Spirit of the second Adam, will swallow up all Deaths into Victory; 1. Cor. 15. 53, 54. The deepest Reason, and highest Wisdom of Man, in a first-Covenant righteous Life, is by Death and total loss thereof, the only way to find all again, by way of Resurrection, the very Reason, Wisdom and Righteousness of God, in the quickning Spirit of the second Adam. Paul obediently parted with all the former, for the latter; Phil. 3. 6-11. God challenges the Disputers of this World, standing up, with Confidence, in defence of their own Reason and Wisdom, to produce their strong Reasons, against him, and see what all will amount unto; Isa. 41. 21. 'Tis Man's true Interest and greatest Reason, to give up his own Reason and Wisdom, for God's. Iob was, a while, at this disputing Trade of Man, against God, as Elihu charges him; Iob 34. 35-37. At this work, we find him, under the Cross, challenging the Almighty to answer his strong Reasons, in Self-defence, and for his Justification, in the Life, wherein he had been eminently righteous; Iob 19. 6-11. & 30. 1-10. & 31.35. When Christ told any that enquir'd after eternal Life, the parting with all they have, or can do, in their own Spirit, was necessary to the finding Eternal Life, in his; away they went, and walk'd no more with him; Mat. 19. 16-22. Mark 10. 17-22. Luke 10. 25. & 18. 18-23. Iohn 6. 66. All Words of Man's Wisdom, are without any true Knowledg, a darkening the Counsels of God's Wisdom, as to Man's eternal Concerns. Iob, that had been confident in the former, acknowledg'd what God charg'd him with (Iob 38. 1, 2.) when in the latter; Iob 42.3. I utter'd that I understood not, things too wonderful for me, which I knew not; so, darken'd the Counsel of God, by Words without Knowledg. He that contends with, and reproves the Almighty, can he answer it? Job 40. 2.