A Wakening Call, Chapter 16
CHAP. XVI. Concerning meer Creaturality in Angels and Men in their first, and also, in their highest spiritual, second, New-Creation Capacities; with some account of all, possible to be done by any in their first, and the differing Ends of all, at last.
HAving already spoken of the ready prepar'd Hand, the exalted Creature-Son and Branch in the Mediator's Person, the living Word of God, as qualified and fitted for a first and second creating of Angels and Men; come we, now, to consider, what they, both and all, amount unto, for ever, as but meer Creatures, not only in their natural Beings and Life of the Creature, given them by a first, but also spiritual Beings and Life of the Creator, given by a second Creation of them.
Angels were all created, at first, in their compleat Personalities, invisible immortal Beings, without any innate Capacity of, or connatural Tendency to the exercise of a threefold Souly or Animalish Life, rational, sensual, and vegetable, in and by a fitly Organiz'd Body. As for Mankind, they do gradually descend from one another, in a continued Succession, Generation after Generation, for a compleating their Personal Beings, from the beginning to the ending of this mortal World.
What became of Angels, good and bad, by the first well-pleasing Passive Obedience of the former, and first unpardonable Sin of the latter, has been above-spoken to, Chap. 4. of this Treatise. Man, inferiour to Angels, in their single intuitive natural Understandings, (tho in the same kind of Mortal, Earthly, First-Covenant Life) is, in his compleated Personality, a much more comprehensive Being, than an Angel. He is the most compleat shadowy Image of God, on all accounts, in the whole Natural, Mortal, First-Creation World, visible or invisible. This is signified concerning him, in distinction from Angels and all other Creatures, therein, created before him, in a readiness for his Entertainment. Of none thereof is it said by God, as of him; Let us make Man in our Image, after our Likeness (Gen. 1.26.) as the Compend or Epitome of all other Creatures, and something more, peculiar to himself, the rational Exercise of his Mind, in and by a Body, found in no Creatures, above or below him. So find we, a peculiar Consultation of the three that are one, to draw an earthly shadowy Image and Representation of themselves, in every individual Man.
This Enlargement of Man's Personal Being, beyond Angels, expos'd and rendred him liable to vain sinful Desires and Thoughts, so as to wallow in Mire among Satan's Swine, feeding on Husks, the lowest Dust of this World (below any Palate in any evil Angels, to savour, any Belly, Desire or Appetite in them, to lust after, delight in, or feed upon, being never link'd with mortal Bodies or sensual Life) Pleasures, in common with brute Beasts. So, the Enlargement of Man's Being, beyond Angels, was a Diminution to his intuitive Understanding, in common with them, and to the Exercise of his Natural Will, as exposing him, to a running out in his Desires, after the lower sort of Desirables, in the vast heap of vanishing Shadows, in the visible Parts of this First-creation World. And evil Angels, tho they care not for such things themselves, have Power, through God's most wise Permission, to shoot their fiery Darts into Mens Spirits, and kindle in them evil Lustings after such visible things, in which, they keep the far greater part of Mankind, wallowing in Mire, as their Swine, far from any looking after God, at all.
The Soul, or threefold animalish, souly-Life of Man, distinct from his Spirit, ceases, as to exercise, at the Death of his Body. The Spirit, then, retreats to the full Experience and Exercise of its supream, intuitive Way of discerning and converse with Angels, good or bad; in a spiritual Intuitiveness, with the good, Gospel-Angels, or natural, with the evil, Law-Angels, (Lawyers) from the beginning, on their First Sin and Fall; setting up the Law-life of the Creature, given in the First-creation, against the Gospel-life of their Creator, offer'd by a Second; and so, their Lie, against God's Truth. The Devil was a Murderer from the Beginning, (John 8. 44.) and his fix'd Law-party of Mankind, in the restor'd Law-life-Wisdom, and Righteousness of Man, have been, under him, the irreconcileable Haters and Murderers of Christ himself and his Gospel-Saints, all along this World. At the Death of the Body, Man (good or evil) is dead. His Spirit is, for a time, strip'd of the threefold Souly-life, as to exercise, that are essential Ingredients, into his personal Constitution. At last, Saints will recover their Bodies, in a Resurrection of Life, and, therein, the right Exercise of their whole Beings, Body, Soul, and Spirit, in the incorruptible New-creation Order of all, to Eternity. Incorrigible Sinners, also will receive their Bodies, in a Resurrection of Damnation, Iohn 5. 28, 29. Saints, in their glorified Bodies and whole personal Beings, will be everlastingly blessed, in the Enjoyment of God; and incorrigible Sinners, in their whole Beings, most exquisitely sensible under God's everlasting Curse and unquenchable Wrath, without any Hope or Possibility of mitigation or end of their Torments, to an endless Eternity. 'Tis a most fearful thing, thus to fall into the Hands of the living God, to be dealt with, in final Wrath, and infinite revenging Justice, (Heb. 10. 31.) without any Day's-man or Mediator to stand between them and such Wrath; but, instead thereof, will he be their Accuser, Witness and Pleader against them, Judg and Condemner of them, and the infallible irresistible Executor of his infinite and everlasting Wrath upon them. All this, will he do, so easily, as by the Word of his Mouth, by which he made them. With the Breath of his Lips will he slay the incorrigibly Wicked, (Isa. 11. 4.) Satan, with his Gog and Magog, his innumerable Multitude of evil Angels, and serpentine Seed of Men. His Breath, like a stream of Brimstone, will kindle his unquenchable Wrath upon them, both and all, as having rendred themselves, fitted perpetual Fuel for it, in the Tophet, ordain'd of old, the Lake of Fire and Brimstone, prepar'd for the Devil and his Angels, with their innumerable serpentine Seed of Men, Isa. 30. 33. Rev. 20. 10.
This will be the everlasting Condition of all Inhabitants of the Earth, and of the Sea, in distinction from the Dwellers in Heaven, who will have eternal Joy and Blessedness, in the Sight and Enjoyment of God, for evermore. All, that in this World, take up their Rest and Dwelling in but the earthly Law-life and Righteousness of Man, as needing nothing, therein, for true Blessedness (Rev. 3.17.) these Inhabitants of the Earth, will, with the Inhabitants of the Sea (all that Party of Mankind, that wallow in the miry Filths of literal Sodom, foaming out their own Shame) find their Portion in the same Lake of Fire and Brimstone, in the Hell-part of the eternal World to come, Rev. 12.12. Isa. 57. 20. Iude 13. Dwellers in Heaven, that have their Conversation in Heaven, (Phil. 3. 20.) Minds, fix'd on things above, the peculiar Delights of the Sons of God, these, only, have true Joy in this World, and continual Advantage, by all, God permits Devils and Men to do to them, in their implacable Malice. So, they rejoice under all Trials and Injuries from evil Angels and Men (Matth. 5. 11, 12. Act. 5. 41.) and Wo is denounc'd to all sorts of incorrigible Enemies of God and them, to eternity, after all their laughing and delusive Merriment in this short-liv'd World. They'l mourn and weep, eternally, Luk. 6. 24-26. Under Satan's Reign, by his false Prophets and Apostles, true New-Ierusalem-Saints, are counted the Filth of the World, and Off-scouring of all things, 1 Cor. 4. 13. Under Christ's Reign, they'l be a Praise in the Earth; for which, therefore, Gospel-Angels and Saints continually pray, and never keep silence, Isa. 62. 6,7. This will Saints come to, after a little time, spent, in this confounded mortal World, under and amongst a Throng of innumerable Enemies, evil Angels and Men.
Come we now to consider, what was ever possible to be done by Angels or Men, in their First-creation earthly Life, at best, with reference to their finding eternal Life, or scaping eternal Death. The Death and Loss of all, therein, Life, Wisdom, Righteousness, Works, Fruits, by Passive Obedience, in Sacrifice to the Divine Will, is undispensably necessary, to the finding eternal Life, the heavenly Creature-life of the Creator. In the Methods of God's unquestionable Wisdom, and Appointments of his declar'd undisputable Will, this is the Way to eternal Life. When any ask'd Christ, what they must do, to inherit or find eternal Life, and confidently asserted, all these things they had done, in the restor'd righteous Life and Wisdom of their own Spirit, in their own Will and Way; his reply upon them, and Counsel to them, was, Part with all this, and follow me, in the true Regeneration, by Death and Resurrection, out of the Death of the Creature, into the Life of the Creator. To this effect, was Christ's constant Answer to such Enquirers. And their constant rejecting such Counsel, and departing from him, sorrowful and amaz'd thereat, we find, in these Scriptures, Matth. 19. 16-22. Mark 10. 17-22. Luk. 18. 18 -23. None can do the Divine Will of the Father, but in the partaken of heavenly Creature-life and Will of the Son; nor, therefore, enter into his Kingdom, Mat. 7. 21. None but new Creatures can ever come there, Gal. 5.6. & 6.15. 2 Cor. 5. 16, 17. In the restor'd Light of the First-creation, by him that lighteth every Man that comes into this World, (Iohn 1. 9.) ought all Heathens to walk, and keep that kind of good Conscience, that consists in a moral Obedience thereto, as their Principle. In the restor'd First-covenant Law-life, ought Men to walk, in such Obedience to that higher Knowledg of God, as amounts to the legal good Conscience, withstanding all brutish Lusts and sinful Desires of their sensual Life. But all this done, till the partaking of, and experiencing the Life of the quickning Spirit of the Second Adam, or a living spiritual Faith therein, working by Love to God, and walking therein, so as to have the evangelical good Conscience, we have nothing of that eternal Life, in which, only, any can ever enter into the Kingdom of God. Paul could truly declare to the Jewish Council, that he had liv'd in all these three sorts of good Conscience before God, successively, one after another, in Obedience to the Light of Nature, Law, and Gospel, Act. 23.1. And he found his evangelical good Conscience, by living and walking in Christ's Gospel-spirit, (Gal. 5. 25.) to comprehend and unspeakably out-do, all, performable by any, in the two former. This, indeed, is the only right Performer of all Duty to God and our Fellow-creatures, in God's Sight.
All First-covenant Life, receiv'd by Angel or Man, in their First-creation, is figuratively character'd in Scripture, by Flesh, Grass, a fading Flower, call'd a vain Shew, or vanishing Shadow; all their natural Excellencies and Perfections therein, all, but a Glory to be done away, in order to receive the heavenly Creature-life and Image of God, in Christ, with the eternal things of God, therein, the Wisdom and Righteousness of God, Isa. 40. 6-8. 1 Pet. 1. 24, 25. 2 Cor. 3. 10, 11. Satan, with all his humane Disputers of this World, in the Words of his and Man's Wisdom, against God's; and for their way of Salvation, quite contrary to his, (Isa. 55. 8, 9.) God challenges, in a holy Contempt of their vain Thoughts, to produce their Cause, bring forth their strong Reasons, for self-defence, and see what all will amount unto, Isa. 41. 21.
Object. 1. Will God destroy the First creation-works of his own Hand? Will he take away Man's Reason, Wisdom, and Righteousness, bring to nothing all his good Works and Fruits, done and brought forth therein? Must the very Life of our own Spirit, at best, with all the things thereof, our own Wills and Vnderstandings therein, be given up in Sacrifice to the Will of God, by a holy Death?
Answ. Yes; And all, to our transcendent Advantage, and greatest Gain, in order to find all again, in a Life above all Deaths, and therein, an infallible Understanding and incorruptible Will, for the right knowing and doing all things, in answer to the very Divine Will of God Most High.
Object. 2. Does God require Impossibilities of Man, such Obedience as 'tis impossible for him to perform in his own Spirit, Will and Way, at best, in the restor'd Life and Righteousness of Man?
Answ. Yes; But had provided an originally incorruptible, heavenly, eternal Creature-life, in the Mediator, to be given them in the room thereof, by a Second or New-creation of them. This is a Life above all Deaths, temporal or eternal; will swallow up Death, in Victory, Isa. 25.8. 1 Cor. 15. 54. This Life is figur'd by the Wine in Iotham's Parable, (Iudg. 9. 13.) cheering God and Man, answering all, Man can rightly desire of God, and enabling him to answer all, God requires of him. He that has not this Life of the Son of God, has not Life; not true, eternal Life, 1 Iohn 5. 12.
Quest. Will the Disputers of this World, still contend with their Maker, in defence of their own Wisdom, Will, and Way, against his, for Salvation?
Answ. They will, till Satan's Reign and Man's Day, under him, are at a full Period. But, what are Men like to get by this Contest? Eternal Death. True Saints oft suffer a violent temporal Death, from such self-confident Contenders against God and them. Man's own fallible Reason or Wisdom perverts him, turns him away, from looking after the infallible Wisdom and Reason of God, to his own sudden unfore-seen everlasting Destruction, Isa. 47. 10, 11. He searches the Scriptures, thinks he understands those written Oracles of God, yet never comes to Christ, the living Word of God, for the Life, therein witness'd and declar'd, Iohn 5. 39, 40. The Scriptures are a Book seal'd, as to Man's Understanding; that reaches not to the heavenly Creature-life and things therein signified, under Figures, Types and shadowy Similitudes, Isa. 29.11. All spiritual, Salvation-truths, signified from the beginning of Genesis to the End of the Revelation, are fast lock'd up and hid from Man's highest single natural Understanding.
The losing all, in our own Law-spirit of Works, is the only way to find and do all in God's Spirit of Grace, Esphes. 2. 8-10. 'Tis by Grace, only, or in the never-sinning Life of God's Spirit of Grace, in Christ Jesus, communicated to them, any can be finally sav'd; never, in their own boasting Law-spirit of Works.
Having thus promiscuously consider'd Sinners in their First-creation, and Saints in the Second, come we now to consider meer Creaturality, in spiritual Saints and Angels, for evermore.
Spiritual Saints, of the Double-portion, making up God's New Heavens, in their various distinct Portions therein, from the highest to the lowest; and Gospel-Angels, the supream in the single Portion, with all variety of Gospel-Saints, therein, making up God's New Earth, in true Salvation-life, are all Members of Christ's mystical Body. In the former, Christ's peculiar Dove, supream double-portion'd Saints, in the twofold heavenly and glorified earthly Life of Christ, are the peculiar Wife and Bride of the Lamb, Revel. 19. 7. Below these, in the double Portion, are threescore Queens; and then, in the single, Virgins without Number, all, in a Union of Mind with her, praising her and owning her Superiority to them, Cant. 6. 8, 9. There will be no envying of the highest, in the lower and lowest, nor any insulting of the highest, over the lower, in Heaven, to Eternity. They'l all rejoice in the superiour and inferiour Attainments of each other, as is figur'd in the higher and lower Members of the literal Body of Man, all mutually rejoicing in the Joys of one another, as compleating the Joy of the whole Body, 1 Cor. 12. 12-27. The various spiritual Capacities in higher and lower Saints, are figur'd by Cups and Flagons, Isa. 22. 24.
None of all these will ever pretend to a personal Union with Christ's Creature-root, and less yet, with his infinite Divinity, but only with the exalted Creature-Son and Branch in him, the living Word of God, the immediate Creator of all, and Performer of the whole Divine Will, on all, good and evil, for evermore, in Heaven or Hell.
A World of gross Errors concerning God, Christ, and the eternal Concerns of Men, have been toss'd up and down in the various Conceptions of Man's fallible Understanding, under the unperceiv'd Influence of evil Angelical Rulers over this dark World, (Ephes. 6. 12.) so as to blind and keep Men from looking after God, for his all-discovering Spirit of Grace and Truth, Rom. 3. 11.