The Rise Race and Royalty of the Kingdom of God

The State of a Saints Soul and Body in Death.

THe peculiar consolations, and joys of Death to a Saint, pour forth themselves, into ten distinct channels, or streams.

1. Death is no dissolution to the Soul, or Body of a Saint, but a restitution and return of both to liberty, peace, and perfection.

2. Both descend no more, but ascend in Death.

3. Death hath in it no melancholy overcast, or unpleasant darkening to the Soul or Body; but a sweet, unexpected, surprising, and ravishing increase of a pure, divine, and triumphant light, circling in, and shining through all.

4. Death casts no deformity upon either part of a Saint, but clothes both with an heavenliness, amiableness, and beauty.

5. Death is no streightning, or imprisonment to Body, or Soul, but a blessed enlarging of both to a divine state, and freedom.

6. The Death of a Saint hath nothing bitter in it; but is a spring of pure sweetnesses, and pleasures dividing itself into every part, and making all the garden of God.

7. There is nothing of the Devil in the Death of a Saint; but Christ risen, and glorified is all, fills all, and shines thorough all.

8. Death hath nothing of wrath in it; but is all divine love unvailing itself.

9. There is nothing of Death in the Death of a Saint; but life, and immortality unclouded, and shining forth clearly.

10. Death is no other thing to a Saint than a heightening of his spirituality, making him all thorough-out spiritual, purely spiritual, without any mixture unchangeably spiritual without any interruptions, inconstancies, or darkintervals.

1. Death is no dissolution to the Soul, or Body of a Saint, but a restitution and return of both to liberty, peace, and perfection. 2. Corinth. 5. 1. St. Paul expresseth this ground of confidence, and joy in Death: For we know, that if our earthly house of this Tabernacle be dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands eternal in the Heavens. It is the observation of learned Divines, that the Greek word here 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , which we render to be dissolved, signifieth to take up our • Inn, from that circumstance of unloosing the Horses, and taking them out of the Waggon, or Chariot to bring them into the Inn, and Stable, that there they may be at their liberty to rest, and feed, and lie down. From this word upon this ground, an Inn, or House of reception, & refreshing for Travelers, hath its name in Greek, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 .

At our Birth, which is the morning of this life, and our entrance upon our Journy through this weary world, our Souls and Bodies are joined to this fleshly Image by the natural spirit, the spirit of this world, as Horses put into a Waggon, to which they are fastened by their Harnes, and Traces. The Body is as the fore-horse, but the Soul as the filler, which draws most, and bears the chief weight, All the day long of this life we draw this Waggon heavy laden with all sorts of temptations, and troubles thorough deep ways of mire, and sand. This only is our comfort, that the divine will, which is love itself in its perfection, as a hand put forth from Heaven thorough a Cloud, at our Birth put us into this Waggon, and governs us all the day. In the evening of our life, at the end of our Journey Death is the same divine will, as a naked hand of pure love shining forth from an open heaven of clear light, and glory, taking our Souls, and both Bodies out of the Waggon, and Traces of this • leshly Image, and Spirit, and leading them immediately into their Inn, into a place of freedom, rest, and refreshing into the unity of the eternal spirit into the Bosom of our Lord Jesus.

Obj. But before I proceed any farther, I will endeavor to make my whole way more clear by answering an objection, which perhaps already ariseth in most of your thoughts. You may be ready to say; Is this your meaning, as you seem clearly to express it, that the Bodies also of the Saints suffer no dissolution in Death, but return immediately to a state of purity, and perfection? This seemeth to contradict the common sense of all, the faith of the Saints, and the plain letter of the Scriptures. Do we not with our Eyes see every day the dead Bodies of the best Persons thrown into the Grave, turning to Corruption, and Putrefaction, either before, or in the Grave, dissolved to Worms, and Dust, their bones scattered, and cast up and down Church-yards? The blessed Body of our Lord Jesus was taken off from the Cross, a bloody, lifeless, mangled Corps, a sad, and ruthful spectacle. So he was laid in the Grave, the same Body, which after three days rose again, and was taken up into Glory. The Scripture plainly testisieth, that in Death, as the Spirit returns to God who gave it, so the dust returns to the Earth as it was, God passeth this sentence of death upon Adam for his transgression: Dust thou art, and to dust thou shalt return. Do not we by faith, grounded upon the clear letter of the Scripture expect the Resurrection of our Bodies, at the sound of the last Trumpet?

Ans. I answer to these objections first in general. I fully assent to all these testimonies of sense, of the letter of the Scriptures, & of the common faith of all the Saints concerning the Resurrection of the Body. Yet is it true that I mean this, I believe this, in this meaning and belief my Soul, and Body rejoice, and triumph together; that not the Soul alone, but also the Body of a Saint in the very first moment of Death, meeteth with no dissolution, but a restitution, and most delightful return to liberty, peace, and perfection: This is that sweet, and comfortable sense of Death, which the holy Spirit seemeth to have sealed upon my Soul, from all principles of reason, of Faith, and from the letter of the Scriptures. In this sense I wish, that all were, as I am, to behold▪ with the same spiritual Eye in the same light of the Spirit, the beauty, and loveliness of Death in the Body of a Saint, the beauty, loveliness, and pleasant life of the Body of a Saint in Death.

I come now to give a more particular answer fitted to the several objections by four distinctions.

The four distinctions are these. 1. Of a twofold body in a Saint. 2. Of a twofold Dust. 3. Of a twofold Sense. 4. Of a twofold Resurrection.

1 Dist. There is a twofold Body, which the Scripture in its language attributes to a Saint: There is a Body, from which a Saint is to be delivered. You read of this, Rom. 7. l. Wretched Man that I am, who shall deliver me from the Body of this Death. There is a body in a Saint, which is to be delivered. St. Paul speaks of this in the name of all the Saints. Rom. 8. We also, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, wait for the adoption, the redemption of the Body. There is a Body, which is the seat of Death, a Body of Death, as in the forementioned place; who shall deliver me from the Body of this Death? In all the members of this Body sin reigneth, as a King, establishing his Law. For so, in the same place, a little before, it is written: With my Members I serve the Law of Sin. This is the Body of Flesh, in which there dwelleth no good, as St. Paul speaks in the same Chapter. There is again in a Saint a holy, living, immortal Body, the seat of a holy, heavenly, and immortal Life, in as much as it is the Temple of the Holy Ghost For so St. Paul testifieth, as to an unquestionable, and known truth, granted of all the Saints in the primitive times, 1 Corin. 6. 19. What? know you not, that your Body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost? Again, a Saint carrieth about with him thorough his life a Body, which is a partition-wall between him, and his Beloved, which divides between Christ and him, which he must break forth from, and cast off, before he can be taken into the Bosom of Jesus Christ, and be with him, 1 Corin. 5, 6. 8. St. Paul complains that while he is present in the Body, he is absent from the Lord, and breaths forth passionate longings to be absent from the Body, that he may be present with the Lord. But a Saint hath a Body, which is so far from dividing him, and Jesus Christ, that these two divine lovers are entirely united, and both one in it. It is Christ's own Body, as well as a Saints. All the Members of it are the Members of Christ, as they are of a Saint, 1 Corin 6. 15. Know ye not, that your Bodies are the Members of Christ? shall I then take the Members of Christ, and make them the Members of a Harlet? God forbid. Yea he carrieth this union so high, that he maketh the Lord Jesus, and a Saint in this Body of his, of which alone he speaketh, to be one Spirit, and makes that the principal ground, upon which he builds his arguments against Fornication, v. 16. 17, 18. What? know ye not, that he, which is joined to a Harl • t, is one body, for two, saith he, shall be one flesh, but he that is joined unto the Lord is one Spirit. Flee Fornication, he that committeth Fornication, sinneth against his own Body. How manifestly here are a fleshly Body, and a spiritual Body distinguished one from another? A Body, in which Forn • cation makes the Man one flesh with the Harlot? a Body, in which a Saint is one Spirit with Jesus Christ?

These two are one Body, which standeth in two mixed Principles, and Images. The Body of a Saint, while this life lasteth, standeth partly in a carnal, or fleshly principle, and Image. This is the Body of Death, in which no good dwells, which is subject to the Law of Sin. While a Saint is present in this Body, he is absent from Christ. This is that, from which a Saint groaneth to be delivered. The Body of a Saint standeth in part, and imperfectly, while we live here, in a Spiritual Principle, and Image. Thus the Body of a Saint is the Temple of the Holy Ghost, the Body, and Member of Christ, one Spirit with Christ, by which one Spirit it is Baptized into his Spiritual, and heavenly body. This is that body of a Saint, which groaneth to be redeemed, and delivered from the Body of Death, as from its Captivity, Prison, and Grave.

The Death of a Saint finisheth this Captivity, breaketh open the Prison, and the Grave, and setteth free the Body of a Saint into the liberty of its Adoption or Sonship; that is, into its Spiritual, and divine form of a Son of God.

As fire is said to separate things of different kind, and to gather into one things of the same nature: so is the Death of a Saint the flame of God, the fire of Divine Love, Jesus Christ coming in the invisible flame of this Heavenly fire to separate the fleshly Principle, and Image from the spiritual Principle, and Image, both in the Soul, and Body of a Believer. The fleshly Principle, and Image, which is in the Body of a Saint, as a foreign, and strange thing, as rust upon Gold, is entirely cast off to the Spirit, and Image of this world, and of the Devil, to which it belongeth. The Body of the Saints in its Spiritual Principle, and Image, which are truly, and properly its own, in, which it is truly, and properly itself, is entirely forever gathered up into the unity of the Eternal Spirit, the heavenly Body, and Bosom of our Lord Jesus.

In the Epistle to the Hebrews, ch. 9. 23. The Blood of Lambs, and Goats were said to cleanse the figures of heavenly things in the Tabernacle, but the Blood of Christ the heavenly things themselves. The Soul, and Body of a Believer are the heavenly things themselves. For these are that true Temple of the Holy Ghost, of which the first Tabernacle, and Temple were figures. As the death of a Saint is a conformity to Christ, and a fellowship to Christ on his death: so doth the Blood of Christ, that is, the divine virtue, and the life of the God-Head in the death of Christ, cleanse these heavenly things, the Soul and Body of a Saint at his death from all their dust, rubbish, and filth, from all mixture with the fleshly Principle, and Image.

Thus now the Body of a Saint, as well as his Soul, is made completely a pure, and heavenly Temple of the Holy Ghost. It subsists alone in an immediate, entire, and mutual union with this blessed Spirit. It lieth wholly in it, as in the Fountain of life, immortality, love, peace, and joy. It is filled with it, as the Temple with the smoke of the sweet incense, and with the Glory of God.

How unhappy are you? How bitter is death, how full of deformity, how dreadful, how dark, how dismal to you, who leave this life before the Fountain of Eternal Life hath opened itself in you? Death to you is a devouring fire from below, which burns upon your Spirit, and flesh, consuming the order, the beauty, the sweetness of both, and changing them into a ruinous heap of utter darkness, desolation and confusion.

But blessed are you, thrice blessed are you, whose Souls, and Bodies are both married by one Spirit unto Jesus Christ, before Death comes to separate them one from another; whose Souls, and Bodies are become Temples of the Holy Ghost, and are inhabited by the Holy Ghost, before Death comes to demolish the fleshly frame, and building. Death to you is a lovely form, it which your Jesus himself comes into your whole Person, both Soul, and Body, as into his Garden or Vine-yard, to drive out the will • Beasts, all the powers of darkness, to pluck up by the roots, and to ca • out the Weeds, everything of this worlds, of a fleshly Spirit, and Image, that the Divine Shades, the Spiritual Plants, the fruitful Vine of his own Life, and Love, and of his own heavenly Image may alone flourish here, and himself alone may delight himself in the midst of these, as in a Garden shut up. Jesus Christ comes by Death to your Bodies, and Spirits, a • to a Beloved fountain, to cast out of it everything of filth, of earth, and flesh, which polluteth it, that he may see his own face clearly all over it, that he alone may drink of it, that he may lie in the midst of these waters forever bathing in them, that you in both may be a fountain sealed up to himself. Death is to you, who believe, a rich Marriage-bed of Gold and Purple, into which your naked Souls and Bodies quite stripped in the twinkling of an eye, of all their r • ggs, are taken to lie in the naked bosom and embraces of your beloved Bridegroom the Lord Jesus.

Thus much for the twofold Body.

2 Dist. The 2. Distinction next to this of the twofold Body in a Saint, is that of the twofold dust in Death. In the last chapter of Ecclesiastes, v. 7. we read That in Death the dust shall return to the earth as it was, and the Spirit to God who gave it. Gen. ch. 3. 17. God passeth this Sentence of Death upon Adam after the Fall: Thou shalt return to the Ground. For out of it thou wert taken, Dust thou art, and to Dust thou shalt return.

There was a Dust before the Fall, out of which the Body of Man was made, Gen. 2. 7. God formed man of the dust of the ground. First observe here by the way, that the ground from which the dust was taken, of which the Body of Man was formed, was the ground of Paradise. For so we read immediately after at the 9th v. That out of the ground God had made to grow every Plant that was pleasant to the eye, and good for food, with the Tree of Life in the midst of them.

The Jewish Doctors teach us, that the dust, of which the Body of Man was made, was a fine and precious powder, in which all the excellencies of the whole Creation were exactly tempered, and mingled together in one Body. The Scripture seemeth to give us a foundation for this belief. When Moses saith, That God made out of the ground to grow every Plant pleasant to the Eye, good for food, and the Tree of Life in the midst of them; he seemeth to signify that this was a divine ground, in which God from the beginning had sown the divine seeds of all the beauties, pleasantnesses, sweetnesses, and of all the beautiful and pleasant Lives of Paradise itself, and of the whole Creation, as it was in a Paradisical state. The dust then of this ground, which composeth the Body of Man, was the manifold beauty, sweetness, virtue and life of Paradise, of the whole Paradisical state of things gathered together, contracting themselves into one, and shading themselves, like the beauties, sweetnesses, and virtues of a flower in its precious seed. But that which is chiefly to be considered here, is the state of all things before the Fall. Sin was not yet entered, which brought in Death. The Unity of the Creature among themselves, between God and the Creatures, was yet entire. The divine life and Image flourished thorough the whole Creation. All the Creatures stood upon their divine root, and were filled with a divine Sap, like flowers upon their stalks, and trees at the height of the Spring.

St. John gives us a sweet, and beautiful Image of the whole Creation in its first state before it lost its life, sweetness, and unity by Sin, Joh. 1. 3, 4. All things were made by him, that is, Jesus Christ, and without him nothing was made that was made. In him was life, and that life was the light of Men. There are two things observable in this Scripture. 1. That which we read, without him was nothing made, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , signifieth properly nothing was made apart, or separate from him. The Holy Spirit seemeth here to point out the primitive union of the whole Creation, and all the distinct parts of it with the Lord Jesus, the living Root, the glorious Head of all, and in all. 2. Where we read; Without him nothing was made, that was made, this latter clause, that was made, addeth nothing to the sense, and looketh like a vain repetition. Some therefore place it at the beginning of the following verse, and read it thus; that, which was made, in him was life. This describeth to us the effect of that union. Jesus Christ put a life, a divine life into every Creature by his union with it. St. Paul seemeth to relate to this Scripture, and to confirm this living, beautiful, and Divine State of all the Creatures, as they came forth from God, Colos. 1. 16. All things were made in him, all things were made thorough him, unto him, and into him. v. 18. All things stood together in him.

Well then the Dust, the Ground, the Earth, the Darkness in the pure state of the Creation were made in Christ, were life in him, were made in union with Christ. They were made thorough Christ, as their mould, and channel. They were made by Christ, as their Original pattern, as the immediate power putting forth itself in them. They stood together with the rest of the Creatures in the Divine Unity in Christ. Thus had this Dust, of which we speak, a Divine life in it, a Divine Beauty upon it, a Divine Seed in it; this life was the life of Christ, and so comprehended according to its kind, all the lives and virtues of all the Creatures, and of Paradise. Its beauty was the beauty of Christ, in which after the like manner all created beauties centred, and met in one. Christ himself was the Seed in this Dust, and so not only the excellencies, and virtues of the whole Creation, but all the uncreated Treasures of Life, and Glory lay together shaded, and veiled within this Dust. But their veil, and their shade was a living, beautiful, and pleasant Picture of themselves, all filled with the sweet Odor of those hidden Ointments.

I have one thing more to say to describe this Dust. Man, who was the last days work, the comprehension, and perfection of the whole Creation, was made in a shadowy Image of God. For so the word Image in the first of Genesis signifieth, and the Scriptures in their whole course testify. In the beginning all things came forth from God in an universal Darkness before the Light of the first day.

This Darkn • ss is remarkable in several eminent circumstances. 1. It was cast forth immediately from the Divine Nature, and from the glorious Person of Christ to be a veil round about upon the Eternal Glory itself, and to be a ground of the whole Creation. 2. It stood in an • immediate union with the Divine Nature, and the glorious Person of Christ, springing forth immediately from it, and depending immediately upon it. 3. The unsearchable riches of the God-Head, and of Christ, with all the various Excellencies of the creatures as they were in their eternal patterns and principles, lay hid together within this shade. 4. Out of this ground did God make to spring all the creatures in their primitive paradisical purity and pleasantness, being wrapped up here, as in their first matter, and having their proper seeds sown here.

Thus was this Darkness a shade indeed, but pure, endued with a Divine Life, clothed with a Divine beauty and luster, bearing a Divine figure, breathing forth a Divine sweetness, spread forth every moment fresh with a new luster, and sweetness from the Divine Nature, vailing within itself all the Joys and Glories of God, Christ, Heaven and Paradise, and as it hides all these in its Bosom, lying itself in the Bosom of Christ.

Such is the Ground, such is the Dust of the Ground, and the Earth, out of which the Body of Man was first taken, and into which the Body of a dying Saint returns. Such is the Darkness of Death, that overshadows a Saints body, like the Nights in Paradise. But there is this advantage now, that this pure, primitive Dust and Darkness are heightened, have a new, and greater beauty, and sweetness by the Resurrection of Christ from the Dead. This is the first Dust, the Dust before the Fall.

2. The second Dust is that after the Fall understood in that sentence; Dust thou art, and to Dust thou shalt return. This is the Dust of that Death which sin brings forth, a cursed Dust, the Dust of the cursed Earth, which bringeth forth Briars and Thorns. That former beautiful and blessed Dust lies captivated in this, as in a Prison, or Grave of contrariety and enmity. This Dust is composed of three things; 1. A Separation, Dissolution, and Desolation, from the • orce and power of Enmity. 2. A Blackness of Darkness from a cloud and storm of wrath. 3. The seeds of shame, pain, anguish, horror and torment hidden in it.

This Dust is that which the Body of a Saint casts off in Death, upon this worldly Image and Spirit, together with the Spirit and Image of this world. This is that which suffereth dissolution, which representeth deformity, and striketh the horror in Death. All which are now of the Image of this world, and to the Image of this World, in the Spirit of this World, and to the Spirit of this World, within the Kingdom of the Devil, having no more relation to a Saint in Death, than the filthy rags of a Prince in a Dangeon, to the Prince at Liberty, and in his Palace.

Death rubbing off the Rust of this cursed Dust from the Body of a Saint, leaves it all a shining, rich, incorruptible Dust of pure Gold. His Body is now entirely with Christ, a precious, pleasant, and living Dust in the Garden-Beds, the Beds of Spices or perfumed Flowers in Paradise. This is the second Distinction of the two Dusts.

3 Dist. The third distinction is of a twofold sense, Rom. 8. 6. St. Paul teacheth us, That to be carnally minded is Death, but to be spiritually minded is Life, and Peace. The Greek runs thus: the mind of the flesh, and the mind of the spirit. The word mind is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , which signifieth a practical understanding, and comprehendeth a twofold act; one of the understanding to dis •• rn, and judge; another of the will to taste, and relish. So the mind is here a sense, and a favor both in one. Thus you have here a twofold sense, Spiritual, and Carnal or Fleshly.

1. The Spiritual sense is set forth three ways. 1. By the Principle. 2. By two effects of this Principle. 3. By two companions of these effects.

1. The Principle of a Spiritual sense is the Spirit; this holy, and blessed Spirit is the only, and proper Principle of a Saint, and Saintship, of a Son of God, and a S •• ship to God. Art thou indeed a Saint? then thou art in the Spirit of Glory, and of God, as in thy Root, and Element, as a Tree of Life in the Root of Eternal Life, and Love, as Fishes in the water of Life, as Birds in the pure air of Divine Love, as Angels in Heaven, Rom. 8. 9. You are not, (saith St. Paul to the Saints) in th • Flesh, but in the Spirit. Art thou indeed a Son of God? Then is this Spirit of Grace, and Immortality in thee, as thy natural Principle, as the power of Nature according to the new, and Divine Nature which acteth thee. Rom. 8. 16. As many as are led by the Spirit of God, are the Sons of God. The word led is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 acted. As the Soul acts the Body, as the principle of reason the Soul of Man, as the nature of the Sun acts the Sun in its shinings, in its motions; thou also art acted by the Divine Spirit, to which the Sun, the Soul of Man, the principle of reason are empty, and weak shadows, so far as thou in truth art a Child of Light, and a Son of God the Father of Lights.

Let me here by the way touch a three-fold string in your Souls. 1. A mournful string. 2. A string of desire. 3. The string of praise.

1. Is the Sp •• it the principle of a Saint? how then should we mourn, th •• this Spirit of Grace, this Comforter is grieved, that this Spirit of Light, and Life is quenched by unbelief, sensuality, unkindness, and neglect? how should we mourn that this Holy Spirit, this Spirit of Truth is slighted, and spoken evil of, as a Spirit of licentiousness, or as a fancy, and delusion, and all this among Saints, at least in profession, when as this Spirit is the only principle of Saintship? St. Jude in his Epistle, speaketh of this as the Sin of Devils, for which they are cast down to Hell, and bound in Chains of Darkness, that they did forsake their first state, and their own habitation. It is in Greek not their first state, but their first principle, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . O Saints is not this a Sin, greater than that of Devils, not only to forsake, but to grieve, and cast shame upon this first, and most blessed Spirit, which is your only principle, a principle of Divin • Life, Light, and Purity; your own habitation, a habitation of Divine Rest, and Glory?

2. O all you, who desire to be Saints, or to grow in the new, and Divine Nature of a Saint; let your hearts burn by day, and by night with continual longings for the Spirit. This alone is that of which a Saint is bred, by which he is nourished. This alone is the Heavenly Root, the Sap, the sweet Dew, Showers, and Influences, the warm, and cherishing Sun-shine to every Spiritual Plant, Cry therefore, and wait for this Spirit; wait upon it; minister to it; seek it; suck it in by all means, thorough all its own manifestations, and ordinances, of Nature, or of Grace. When this world was first made a beautiful frame out of a dark Deep, the Spirit moved upon the face of the waters. When Jesus was conceived in the womb of the Virgin, the Holy Ghost overshadowed her, and rested upon her. In both places the expressions seem to allude to a Bird, or a Dove spreading itself over its Nest to hatch its young Ones. When the Lord Jesus was Baptized, the Holy Ghost descended, and rested upon him in the form of a Dove. Dost thou indeed desire to have thy dark, defiled, dead heart made a new Creature, to have Jesus Christ to be born, or to grow within thee, and to be Baptized yet more, into Jesus Christ the Sea of all Heavenly Beauties, Loves, and Joys? O then pray to the blessed Spirit to make thy Soul his Nest, to move upon the face of thy Spirit, to overshadow thee, to descend and rest upon thee in his Dove like form.

3. O all ye Saints, sing the praises of the holy Spirits let the high praises of the holy Spirit be ever in your mouths. Say to the Spirit; this is the womb of Divine Life and Power, which hath born us, and brought us forth to be Children, and Heirs to God; these are the Breasts of Divine Life, and sweetness, which give us suck; this is itself, the Heavenly Milk of the Eternal word, by which we live, and grow. Do you see any glimpse of Evangelical Light, and Truth, do you feel any workings of Grace, any sweet springings of Love and Joy? Give Glory to the Spirit, it is this blessed Spirit, which now shines in you, enlivens you, and acts you. The Children of Iracel in the Wilderness, in a great want of water, met with a Well, then they sang to it in these words, Spring O Well, the Princes have digged it with their S • aves. When ever thou meetest with any fresh stream, any sweet drop of the water of Life rising up within thee in th • s parched Land, and weary Wilderness, sing to thy Well, sing to the blessed Spirit, and say in thy Song: my Well springeth, my Jesus hath digged it in my heart with the Golden Scepter of his Grac • , and Love. Thus let every gracious thought, gracious moving of thy mind, will, or affections put into thy mouth a new Song of joyful praises to the Spirit, as the dear, and inseparable principle of Life, of Heaven, of Eternity within thee, thine own • principle. Thus much of the Principle.

2. The two effects of this Principle are a Spiritual sense, & savor both comprehended in that expression: to be heavenly minded. How often doth my Spirit labor in the Bosom, and power of the Eternal Spirit for these two things, 1. That all Men were brought forth into this Spiritual Principle. 2. That all, who have the Spiritual Principle within them, were continually acted by it! How sweet would life be to them, for the sight of their Eyes, and relish of their Spirit? They that live in the Spirit, see all things by a Spiritual Light, It is indeed a pleasant thing to behold this Light. Every glimpse of it infuseth a heavenly joy into the Heart, and scattereth all Clouds of grief, or melancholy. These see all things in a Spiritual Image, that is in a Divine, and Immortal Glory. They taste the sweetness of a Heavenly, and Divine Love in everything. Every thing presenteth itself to them in an Heavenly Appearance, and every appearance of things entereth into their Souls with a heavenly taste, and relish, far sweeter than Honey to the Palate.

All our converse with things of every kind of Nature, or Grace; of Sense, or reason proceedeth from a union with those things in one Principle, and is a communion with them in that Principle. Such as the Principle is, such are the Appearances, and rellishes of things to us, such is our converse with them. All Appearances of things to Men, or to Angels in every natural Principle, to our senses, or to our understandings are no more than shadows, or dreams. The Spirit alone is Truth. When melancholy forms, and Images of things in this world afflict our Spirits; when the pleasant things here lift them up to vain joys, and glories; if the holy Spirit awaken himself, and arise in us: all these fly away, all other appearances of things break up into an appearance of Eternal Beauty, and Blessedness springing forth from this Spirit like the shadows of the night, when the Sun is seen, and a dream, when a Man awaketh.

We are taught by natural Philosopy, that the Images of things are seen thorough a Christalline humor in the Eye, as a fine Glass. If this Crystal be died with any color: all things, which we see, appear to us in that color. In like manner there is a native moisture upon our Palates, and Tongues, by which we taste things. If this moisture have any taste of its own, everything tasteth of it. Blessed art thou, who livest the life of a Saint. Thou livest the life of Heaven upon Earth. The Spirit is the Crystal in the Eye of thy Soul, thorough which thou seest all things. This Crystal hath a heavenly color of Glory ever upon it. Thou then feest all things in this ravishing color, in a Heavenly Glory. The Spirit is the Divine moisture, and water of life upon the palate of thy Soul, by which thou tastest all things. This water of the Spirit hath ever the heavenly relish, the inexpressible sweetness of the Divine Nature, of the Divine Love, of the pleasures of the God-Head. Thus thou savorest all things. This Love, and Sweetness thou rellishest in everything.

3. The two companions of these two effects of a Spiritual Principle are 〈◊〉 , and Peace. To be spiritually minded is Life, and Peace.

1. Life The Spirit, and Life are inseparable one from another. The words that I speak, they are Spirit, and they are life, saith Jesus Christ, Joh. 6. The Spirit is the Fountain of Life. For he is called the Spirit of Life, Rom. 8. The Quickening Spirit. 1 Cor. 15. The Power of an Endless Life. Heb. Let us ever pray, that we may ever live in the Spirit: For now we live, if we stand fast in our spiritual Principle. The Life which we now live, is first, pure. It hath nothing of any Mixture, of any Defilement, or of any shadow of Death. Secondly, It is perfect. It hath all the Sweetnesses, Virtues, Joys, and Beauties of Life in it. Thirdly, It is perpetual, It never ceaseth, It never endeth, but springeth to Eternity. Fourthly, It is a powerful Life. It maintains itself against all the Powers of Darkness, and Death. It maintains itself in the midst of them, as a sweet Light of Glory, shining in a dark place, and triumphing over the darkness. In a word, this Life is the purest, sweetest, and most lasting Li • e: For it flows immediately, and springs up continually from the Fountain of Life itself. Nay, which is far sweeter, and more glorious, it is Life, as it lies in the Fountain of Life. It is Life not only from the Spirit, but in the Spirit. So St. Paul speaks in this Chapter: They that are in the Spirit; and to the Galatians; if ye live in the Spirit.

2. The other Companion of a Spiritual Sense is Peace, Peace in the Language of the Scripture, signifieth a perfection of Happiness. It is distinguished into, 1. Peace above with God. 2. Peace within, in your own Consciences and Spirits. 3. Peace with all Creatures round about you. O how true is it, that they keep the Feast continually, a Royal and Divine Feast in white Garments, who live in a spiritual sense of things! Every day to them is a Holy Day, a Festival Day. All things are festival round about them. All things are in a Covenant of Peace with them, in a Covenant of Grace, and Divine Peace. All appearances of things in every State shine upon them from the glorified Person of Christ, as heavenly Beauties smiling upon them. All Providences, Changings, and Motions of things, are a Heavenly Music, springing up to them, and sounding round about them, in the Unity of the Spirit. All Impressions made upon their Souls from every passage of Providence, or Change, is a most delicious sweetness upon their Spirits, an inexpressible Taste of Heaven and Eternity.

But the manner of St. Paul 's Expression is very observable, and hath a great force in it: To be spiritually minded is Life and Peace. The sense and favor of the Spirit is itself Life and Peace universally, absolutely, in the abstract, in perfection, without any Confinement or Allay. The spiritual sense of a Saint, is the pure, and complete Essence of Life and Peace in its highest Activity. How true is it, that a good man is satisfied from himself? How Holy, how High, how Happy, how Heavenly a thing is it to be a Saint, to be spiritual, to live as a Saint, to live spiritually? Thou now comprehendest all things in an uncorruptible Beauty, Love, and Joy in thyself, as in Heaven: For all things are to thee thine own spiritual Principle, thine own spiritual Sence, springing up and diffusing itself into all blessed Forms of Glory, Delight, and Immortality within thee. Jesus Christ tells his Spouse in the Canticles, That she is a Fountain of Living Waters flowing from Lebanon; That she is a Fountain of Gardens; That all her Plants are Plants of Paradise. O blessed Spirit, who livest in the Eternal Spirit, as thy Principle, by which thou art inwardly acted! The Principle of thine is the Fountain, the ground of Paradise within thee. All forms of things are Paradisical Plants, at once pleasant to the Eye, good for Food, desirable, to fill thee with all the most glorious Treasures of the Divine Wisdom. Thy Spiritual Principle is the Divine Ground, out of which all these Plants of Paradise grow up within thee, as thine own Plants. Thy spiritual Sense and Savour, is a perpetual Feeding and Feasting upon the Fruits of Paradise, which these Plants continually bring forth.

2. The Fleshly or Carnal Sense is also illustrated by three Circumstances. 1. The Principle. 2. The Effect of that Principle. 3. The Companion of that Effect▪

1. The Principle of a Carnal Sense is the Flesh. It is expressly called the Mind or Sense of the Flesh. The Flesh, the Natural Man, the Earthly Man, the Spirit of man, the natural Soul in the Language of the Gospel, and most of them in this present Chapter signify the same Principle of a carnal Sense of Sin, and of Death. Happy is he that is not here deceived. Every Earthly Heavenly, Human, Angelical Spirit, or Principle, however enlightened sanctified, heightened by the work of the Spirit, below that Spirit which 〈◊〉 immediately born of the eternal Spirit, which is one Spirit with it, and live •• in it, is Flesh, and this Principle of a fleshly Mind, or Sense, or of Death.

2. The Effect of this Fleshly Principle is Twofold: 1. A Carnal, 〈◊〉 Fleshly Sense. 2. A Fleshly, or Carnal, Savour. How unpleasant is thy Life, who livest in this Principle for the sight of thine Eyes? The Light of 〈◊〉 World, which alone thou seest, is Darkness, and the shadow of Death: Fo • the Prince of this World is the Prince of Darkness. Thou measurest Heavenly and Spiritual things by Earthly and Carnal.

When Jesus Christ in the Gospel was reproved by Peter, for the mentio • of his Sufferings and Death, the Lord replies to Peter, Get thee behind 〈◊〉 Satan; For th • u savorest not the things of God, but the things of man. The •• are Three things remarkable in these words. 1. There is a Human, 〈◊〉 there is a Divine Sense of the same things, and these two are contra ••• one to another. 2. Those things that are the things of man, and dreadful • man in an human Sense, as Death, are Divine, have a Divine Beauty, 〈◊〉 sweetness in them, to a Divine Sense and Savour. 3. The Human sense the Human Image, and relish of things, springs from the Devil, as he is Sa • tan, that is, the Hater, the Enemy to all things Divine, to Love, to Ligh • to Truth to Immortality, and Blessedness.

3. The Companion of a Carnal Sense, and Savour, is Death: To be Ca •• nally minded is Death. 'It is Death in all the black Properties and Powers 〈◊〉 Death. 1. That Divine Image of things, which alone is the Truth, is Spirit and Life, both the Paradises, the Heavenly, and the Earthly, as it is new born, and united unto the Heavenly, lie captivated in a Carnal Mind, or Sense, as in a Prison or Grave. 2. A Carnal Sense is that outermost Darkness, which is without the new, and Heavenly Jerusalem: 3. In a Carnal Sense are disorder, confusion, and desolation, the dissolutions of all the ban • s of Peace, Beauty, and Life. For these all consist in that order alone, which hath for its band the Unity of the Spirit. 4. A Carnal Sense hath ever the sting of Death in it. Fears, Cares, Grief, Pains, Anguishes, Torments never cease here. They are the Worm which never dies, the Fire, which never goes out, in this region of the shadow of Death, a Carnal Mind, or Fleshly Sense.

Naturalists tell us, that some Candles may be so made, that all the Persons seen, by those lights shall appear as Ghosts one to another, or the whole place seem full of Snakes, and dreadful Serpents. Such are those lights of a Carnal Sense, by which all things are seen of thee, who art in a Carnal, Fleshly State. Every thing of Truth, as it appears to thee, is an apparition from below, bearing Paleness, Terror, Death, and Hell in the face of it. Thou canst nowhere walk, sit, lie down in peace. All places, all States to thee are full of Serpents, hissing, shooting out their forked stings, casting their poison at thee.

Woe to you, O ye Inhabitants of the Earth, ye, who dwell in a fleshly sense of things. The Devil is ever in the midst of you with great rage; here he is known by his name Satan, the Enemy, the Hater. But ye, O ye Inhabitants of Heaven who live in a Spiritual Principle, why are you ever found abroad? Why are not all your walks within in the Spirit, the heavenly Paradise, which God hath planted, and set you in to dress it, and to keep it, and to eat of the fruits of it without any exception within your own Spirits? Behold! not a single Cherubim, but the whole Army of glorious Angels, with the Presence, and Power of the Eternal Spirit, as a flaming Sword turning every way, keeps the entrance into this Paradise, not to keep you out, but to defend you in it by suffering no evil thing, none of the Powers of Darkness, of Death, of Wrath, to enter here. While you are without in a Carnal Mind, and Worldly Spirit, you are among the holes of the Foxes, the Dens of the Lions, and the Mountains of Leopards. All things, with which you converse, ascend from below, from the Earth, from the natural Soul, and from the Devil, as St, James teacheth us. All these three the Earth, the Natural Soul, and the Devil are Links in the same chain of Darkness immediately fastened one to another. The light, and breath of your life in the Spirit of this world is the smoke from the Bottomless Pit. Your Beauties, your Joys, your pleasant things are those Locusts sent forth from thence, mentioned in the Revelation, with Faces, and Hair like Women, with Crowns upon their Heads, false Shows of Sweetness, Softness, Greatness, and Glory, but stings, envenomed stings, the stings of Death are in their tails. O! Retire into your own enclosed Gardens, there within your own enclosed Grounds, your own Souls, sit under your own Fig-Tree, your own Vine, which are your own Spiritual Principle, out of which the universal Image of things both Heavenly, and Earthly springeth up into the perfection of all pure Beauties, and Joys with immortality. Delight yourselves under their shadows, where you are safe from all Evil, and at rest forever. I again testify unto you, as I have often, and always testified in all my Sermons, and Discourses, that there is no Salvation to the flesh, or in the flesh. O then ye, who are yet found walking after the flesh, give no rest to yourselves here. Cry night and day without ceasing to the Holy Spirit to take you up upon his Wings, and to translate you suddenly, in a moment, out of this Wilderness of fiery Serpents into the promised, and good Land flowing with Rivers of Milk, and Honey, the Milk of the Eternal Word, and the Honey of the Divine Wisdom, which both are Jesus Christ, the Fulness, Sweetness, and Glory of the God-Head. O that these words, as now you read, or hear them, in this very moment, thorough the power of the blessed Spirit might be as the hands of Angels laid upon Lot, to hasten you out of this Sodom of the flesh, while you linger here, into a place of safety, the City of the living God in the secret of the Spirit, before the Lord rain down fire from the Lord upon all Flesh.

The profit, the pleasure, the seasonableness of this discourse hath carried me farther, & stayed me longer upon it than my method seemed to require. Let us now return to apply this distinction of a twofold sense, Carnal, and Spiritual to our present purpose, which is to set forth the Beautiful, and Blessed Sta •• of a Saints Soul and Body in Death. We have heard that a Spiritual sense is Life, and Peace absolutely, universally, eternally, without mixture, confinement or change; that all things here are in the purity, and perfection of Divine Life, Beauty, and Joy. We have also heard, that the Carnal Sense is Death, as it reigns entirely here, so it it is confined hither, shut up in this Pit, and without this fleshly Principle hath nowhere any place.

I shall bring this Distinction home to my purpose of making Death all over, in every part lovely, and pleasant to a Saint, by two Propositions.

1. Propos. This is the first. A Saint by dying is taken entirely in his whole Person, Soul, and Body out of the Carnal, or Fleshly Principle, out of the Fleshly Sense, and so out of Death.

2. Propos. A Saint by dying is in his whole Person, Soul, and Body gathered up entirely into a Spiritual Principle, and so into the Immortality of a Divine Life, Peace, and Delight.

1. Propos. A Saint by dying is taken entirely in his whole Person, Soul, and Body out of the Carnal, or Fleshly Sense, and so out of Death. I shall open, and confirm this Proposition to you by two Scriptures.

1. The first Scripture is the 1 Epistle of St. Peter, 4. 1. Wherefore seeing Christ hath suffered in the Flesh, let us also arm ourselves with the same mind. For he that hath suffered in the Flesh, hath ceased from Sin. The Holy Ghost clearly relates to the death of the Lord Jesus, and of a Saint. He speaks of the time perfectly past; he that hath suffered in the Flesh, that is, he that by dying hath completed, and finished his sufferings in the flesh, he hath ceased from sin. He that dieth in union with Christ in the virtue of his death, and in a conformity to it, in the first moment of death ceaseth from all the Evils of Sin, the Guilt, the Power, the Pollution, the Punishment, and so from Death itself.

See the inseparable connection between the Flesh, Sufferings, Sin, and Death. All these continue together, and cease together. O you, that hear or read, understand these things, and lay them to heart! This Flesh, which is so dear to us, which we are so loath, and unwilling to part with, which we tender as our nearest, and dearest self, is our only division from our self, a bed of Snakes, and Enmity. It is the root, the seat, the food, the fuel, the fruit of Sin, and suffering, and death. This Fleshly Principle, and Sense, this worldly Light, and Image, which we account Life, and the Sweetness of Life, in which we think all the dear Treasures and Joys of Life are comprehended, is no other, than a deep, dark, and miry Dungeon, where we lie in the midst of the hissings, stings, and poisons of innumerable Toads, and Serpents. This Sin, which so easily besetteth us, and winds itself into our bosoms, is that weight, which presseth us, and sinketh us down, that chain of Darkness, which tieth us down, and fasteneth us here below in the horrible Pit, and Dungeon of this Fleshly Principle, and Sense, this Fleshly, this worldly Spirit, and Image. This Death which seemeth so dreadful to us, which we so tremble at, and fly from, is that dearest Friend come down from Heaven, from the bosom of God, that beautiful hand put forth from the secret of Eternal Life, Love, and Glory, which taketh off this weight, which knocketh off this chain of Darkness, and restoreth to us our silver Wings, and golden Feathers, by which in a moment we fly forth from this Cage of unclean Spirits, this Dungeon of the Fleshly Principle, and Sense never to return into them anymore.

O Believers, fear not, fly not from Sufferings! Be willing to sacrifice and offer up this Flesh, as a whole Burnt-Offering in the Flame of Sufferings unto Death. Kiss Death as a lovely Bride, as those perfumed Flowers, those Beds of Spices, the Cheeks of the Heavenly Bride-groom, mentioned in the Canticles: For the Flesh, the fleshly Principle, and Sense, the Spirit and Image of this Flesh, of this World, together with the Sufferings, Sin, and Death, end all at once in the Death of a Saint, in the very first moment of his Death.

A Holy Divine, when he was dying, lay upon his Death-Bed, singing this often over; Now I shall sin no more. We read Isaiah 59. 2. That our Iniquities separate between us and our God, our Sins hide his face from us. Death is indeed a separation, but it is not the separation of the Soul from the Body. The separation of the Soul or the Body from God, this is Death indeed, this alone is Death. This world, this worldly Spirit, and Image is the Curtain, or Vail, the Partition wall between us and the Face, or Bosom of our Heavenly Bridegroom our Lord Jesus. So saith St. Paul: Our Gospel is hid to those, whose Eyes the God of this world hath blinded, that they should not behold the Light of the Knowledge of the Glory of God in the Face, or Person of Christ. The Fleshly Principle, or Sense is the unpassable gulf between us, and the unsearchable Treasures of the Divine Nature, of the Blessed Persons in the Divine Nature, the Father, the Eternal Word, the Holy Spirit. Sin digs up, and keeps open this Gulf, sin builds up this Partition wall. Sin draws this Curtain between us, and the Divine Beauties, the Divine Blessedness. O dying Saints, break forth into singings! O all ye Saints rejoice, and triumph at every thought, at every approach of Death! Abraham saw the day of Christ, and rejoiced to see it, saith our Lord Jesus in the Gospel. The word rejoice in Greek is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , that is, he danced a Galliard. When the Virgin Mary, with Christ in her Womb, came to the Mother of John the Baptist, the Babe within her sprung for joy. Thus O Believers let your hearts spring for joy within you at the approach, and presence of Death. So Death coming to you as a beautiful, and a heavenly Virgin with Jesus Christ in its Womb, not after the Flesh, but in the Glory of the Spirit, to be delivered of him immediately into your Bosoms, as a Bridegroom that at once in the same moment appears to you in Glory, makes you worthy of himself, by being like himself, and one Glory with himself, makes all things Life, Immortality, & Glory round about you. Behold the day of your Death both afar off, & near at hand as the day of Christ, as a day, which the Lord Jesus makes, rising himself, as the true Sun upon you, & so iurning this Sun into Darkness, before the brightness of his own appearance, enlightening all within you, and, without you with another Light infinitely greater, infinitely sweeter. At the sight of this day, as Abraham did, so let your hearts spring with a pleasant lightness, and dance Galliards in your Bosom. Now sing of Death, and say in your songs everyone of you, as you lie upon your Death-beds: I shall sin no more, I shall be in Flesh no more, no more forever in this Fleshly Principle, and sense, which hath so long bewitched me, and held me by their • orceries in the House of Whoredoms, and of Death. I shall be in this world so loathsome, and so hateful to me, I shall see this world, and this Image of things, which hath been so long so tempting, and tormenting to me, no more forever. Farewell forever all distances, all divisions between me, and my Jesus, my God. Henceforth shall I with open face in my Soul, and my Body behold the open, and unveiled Face of God. Henceforth shall I with my naked Soul, and Body lie forever in the naked Bosom of my Glorified Savior, my King, and Husband, giving him of my Loves, drinking in abundantly his Loves, and bringing forth continually by him all the Spiritual, and Heavenly fruits of Life, and Immortality.

The morning is called Rosy-fingered, because the morning Beams, as Rosy-fingers seem to open the Curtains of the night, and let in day upon us. Death is to a Saint of a truth this Rosy fingered morning, which by sweet beams breaking forth from on high, draws aside the Curtains of this night of Flesh, and lets in upon us the Eternal day, which at once in a moment overspreads our Souls, and Bodies, and fills all things to us with its blessed Light, making us, and all things new in the newness of its own Heavenly, and Immortal Beauties.

The second Scripture is, 2 Corin. 5. 6, 8. Therefore we are always confident, knowing, that whilst we are at home in the Body, we are absent from the Lord. We are confident I say being willing rather to be absent from the Body, and present with the Lord. Of what Body speaketh the Apostle here? What Body is this, which thus divideth between the Spiritual Bride, and her Heavenly Bridegroom, that a Saint cannot be present with both at once? If he be at home in this Body, he must be absent from Christ, and a banished Person from his Bosom. If he will be present with Christ, and enjoy him, he must cast off this Body, and be absent from it.

Is this the true, and proper Body of a Saint? How can that be? The true Body of a Saint is as much himself, as his Soul is himself. He can be no more absent from his own Body, than he can be absent from his Soul, or from himself.

We read in the same Chapter, 1 Corin. 6. Towards the latter end, that the Body of a Saint is the Member of Christ, and the Temple of the Holy Ghost. When St. Paul speaketh of a Body, from which we must be absent, that we may be present with the Lord Jesus; sure he cannot mean this Body, which is a Member of Christ, which is united to Christ, and implanted into him. Can I be absent from Christ by being present with that Body, which is a Member of him, a Member in him? Can I be absent from this Body, which is a Member of Christ, while I am present with Christ? O Believers, be not weary of living in the Body, only know your true selves, and your own Bodies! while you live in these, you live in Heaven, and are ever with the Lord Jesus. For your-Bodies are his Members, and so the fullness of him, who filleth all in all. O Believers fear not to die, you part not with anything, that is truly yourselves, truly your own. You part not with your Bodies, nor with anything, in which they have any true propriety, or which hath any dear Relation to them. For your Bodies are the Members of Christ, Baptized into one Body with him by that one, and the same Spirit, which gathereth up all things together unto him, and into one in him.

Thy Body, O Believer, is the Temple of the Holy Ghost. When the Spirit of God, and of Glory rests upon this Temple, he never removeth off from it anymore. When he enters into this Temple of his, he never goeth forth, nor leaves it empty. This is his true Temple upon the true Mount Zion, the Soul, and Body of a Saint, which he hath chosen for a resting place forever. O Saints have patience, and peace in life. For by being at, home in your Bodies, you are in the Temple of the Holy Ghost, which he fills with his Glory, where everything utters Glory. O Saints have pleasure in Death. For Death cannot divide your Bodies from you, nor the Holy Ghost from your Bodies, which are his Temple. Can you ever be absent from Christ, while you are present in your own proper Bodies, which are the Temples of the Spirit of Christ? Can you by being present with the Lord Jesus be absent from these Bodies of yours, which are the Temple of the Holy Spirit, which is the highest band of Unity; the dwelling place of that Spirit, which is one with the Lord Jesus? No certainly, this can never be. Thy Body O Saint is ever, in life, and in death, filled, and overshadowed by the Holy Ghost. When it seems to fall into the Dust, and Darkness of Death according to the Carnal sense; then doth thy Heavenly Dove give to it according to the Spiritual sense its own silver Wings, and golden Feathers.

What then is this Body of which St. Paul speaks to the Corinthians, which gives him a triumphant confidence in the face of Death, while it is his greatest desire to be absent from this Body, that he may be present with Christ? Is it not that Body of Death against which he crieth out, Rom. 8. l. O wretched Man that I am, who shall deliver me from this Body of Death? This he calls also a little before in the same Chapter that flesh of his, that self, in which there dwells no good. This is the Fleshly Principle, and Sense, the Spirit, and Image of this world, which is sprung up out of the Fall, which lies as a disguise, and a cloud upon the true Person, the Soul and Body of a Saint. What is not this the Body, which is the partition-wall between these two Spiritual Lovers, Christ, and a Saint, while he lives here, which being cast off in Death, they find themselves in the pure, beautiful, and naked Arms of each other. What is Death now to a Saint? Is it not the power of the Divine life, and love in a Saint breaking forth, and as it breaks forth, tearing off, and burning up this disguise of Flesh? Is it not the power of a Divine Light, and Glory breaking forth, and as it breaks forth, scattering, and blotting out the cloud of this Body of Death forever? How beautifully does the Body of a Believer shine forth now in Death, as a naked Member of our glorified Jesus cleansed from all its dust, and defilement, when it is taken up entirely out of the fleshly Principle, and Sense? How beautiful, and glorious a Temple on every side of it doth the Body of a Believer now appear in Death, when it cometh entirely out of its Cloud by being entirely taken out of the Spirit, and Image of this world? The true Body of a Saint lieth while this life lasteth, as in a Dungeon, or Grave. It stands here like the glorious Tabernacle composed of the most precious materials, Silks, Silver, Gold, the choicest Woods; wrought with all the richest colors, and the most curious Figures in Needle-work, and Carvings of a Divine Workmanship, which stood in a vast, and howling. Wilderness, covered with a Tent of Badgers Skins. O! how pure, how precious, how beautiful, how divine a thing is the Body of a Saint in Death, when it casts off this Body of Death, the corrupt, the carnal Image, and Principle entirely, and is seen now no more forever in any appearance, besides that alone of a naked Member in the most lovely, & shining Body of the Lord Jesus? With what sweetness, and beauty doth it break forth now as a most amiable, and admirable Tabernacle of the Eternal Spirit, when by death it casts off the Tent of Badgers Skins, with all the darkening, and deforming impressions of Dust, and heat, and at once passeth out of the Wilderness of this worldly Spirit, and form of things unto the good Land of rest, and promise, by passing in a dry, and flowery path thorough the River Jordan, that sweet, and blessed bound of Death, between the dreadful desert, and heavenly Canaan.

Give me leave here to drop upon your hearts four brief exhortations.

1. O that all Men would love the King of Saints, the Lord Jesus. It is he alone, who subdues the King of Terror, that is, Death, and is more, than a conqueror over him, making him the King of delights. He changeth the Region, and Kingdom of Death, which is the Principality of the Devil, into the Kingdom of God, which is Righteousness, Peace, and Joy in the Holy Ghost.

2. Set a value upon the union with the Lord Jesus by faith. Ask, seek, dig for this by day, and by night, in Prayer, in the Word, in the Society of the Saints, in every ordinance, in every creature, that you may believe in the Lord Jesus, and that you may be united to him by believing. Let nothing discourage you in this pursuit, and expectation. The Lord Jesus hath given himself for you, even unto Death, that you may be his in the sweetest, and most intimate union. He giveth himself to you in his life of Glory, that he may be yours by an immediate, and entire union. He giveth his Spirit to you, to be the Maker, and the band of this union, to work faith in you, and make you Believers. He is now with you, now in you in the fullness of his merits, righteousness, glory, love, and Spirit. Now this moment open the Eyes of your minds, and behold him in the midst of you, open your hearts, and take him in, cast yourselves into his open arms, and heart, cleave to him by believing. So even this moment shall your Souls, and Bodies both, which are naturally the Members of this Harlot, the Flesh, and the World; which are naturally Dens of Thieves, and Devils, become the Members of the Lord Jesus, and the Temples of the Holy Ghost. The Lord Jesus shall be in your Body itself, as in a Member of himself, a Fountain of living waters even in Death, and in the Grave, making it there a Paradise, a Garden for God, and for all blessed Spirits. The Holy Ghost shall be, not only in your Souls, but in your Bodies also as in his Holy. Temple, even in the darkness of Death itself, filling it with his Glory, and moving over it with his Doves Wings, the Wings of Eternal Love.

3. Make it your chief work, and end to grow in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus. What care, and pains do we take to grow in riches? yet riches profit not in the day of Wrath. To know him is eternal life. With what diligence do we pursue the wisdom of this world? Yet saith Solomon, as dieth the Fool, so dieth the wise Man. If thou gain, and grow in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus, this is a wisdom, which will make thy Soul, and Body both shine with a Light of Glory, and Immortality, even in Death itself. Solomon saith, that when understanding enters into our Souls, wisdom will be sweeter, than honey to our taste. O what new taste, and rellishes of new, and inexpressible sweetnesses doth the Soul still meet with, which is still growing in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus? What a sweet taste, and relish of Death beyond all the delights of Life doth the knowledge of Jesus Christ give unto us, representing it as a Feast of pleasant things to our Bodies also, as well as to our Souls? When thou understandest the fellowship, and virtue of Christ's Death in thy Death, thou shalt see Death in thy Soul, and in thy Body, as the Carkass of a dead Lyon torn in pieces by that true Samson, the Lord Jesus, whither the Father himself, and Christ, and the Holy Spirit, with all the blessed Angels resort, as Bees to their Hive; laying there their Honey, and their Honey-comb for thee to eat.

4. O you, that are Christ's, love Death, Death is now become but a shadow of Death. True life with all the joys of life, vails itself beneath that shadow. If you knew the love of the Father, the Glory of the Lord Jesus, the joys of the Holy Ghost in Death; if you knew what the Death of a Saint were, how precious, you would ask it continually of God, that he would hasten it in the time thereof. You would cry out continually, as Sisera's Mother did, why doth his Chariot stay? Death is not now a shadow of Death, but a living, delightful, and divine shadow cast from the glorious face of our Lord Jesus, under which our Souls, and Bodies lie together, as in a sweet, and divine sleep in his Bosom, in which sleep all the joys, and glories of Heaven, and Eternity are present with us, as a divine Dream, out of which we wake at the Resurrection, finding all to be true, eternally true, and the sweet shadow, and dream themselves swallowed up into a bright, clear, and full enjoyment. Thus, according to St. Paul's Language, doth the very Body of a Saint, when he dies, sleep in the Lord. Thus is death to the Soul, and Body of a Saint, as the Curtains of Purple round about Solomon's Bed, where the Saint lies now in the embraces of the true Solomon himself, the King of Righteousness, and King of Peace, or round about the Chariot of Solomon, which had within it a Throne of Gold, and was paved with Love. As the Sun by its influence forms a precious Mine of Gold in the bowels of the Earth, which afterward being taken out, and separated from its dross, becomes pure and incorruptible, and is made a Crown for the Head of a great King: so the Lord Jesus by his Spirit frames a new, a heavenly Soul, and Body in a Saint, which are both his precious Members, his Temples of Gold. But while this life lasts, they are in this Body of Sin, and Death, as Gold in the Oar. In the moment of Death the Lord Jesus takes them both out, separates them entirely from the dross of all earthliness, and carnality, makes them pure, and shining Diadems in the hand of God.

2. Propos. The whole Person of a Saint in Soul and Body at the moment of Death, is gathered up entirely into a Spiritual Principle, and so into a Spiritual Sense, and so into a Divine Life, and Peace. This followeth of necessity upon the former Proposition, which I have already proved by the Scripture. For, if a Saint in Death be gathered up entirely out of a Carnal Principle; he is gathered up entirely into a Spiritual Principle. There is now no middle between these two.

We read in Scripture of the divided state of a Saint between freedom, and bondage, liberty, and captivity; the War between the Spirit, and the Flesh, while he lives on Earth. Accordingly we meet with exhortations to abide in Christ, to walk in the Spirit, if we live in the Spirit. But, when a Saint dies, we read of him, and that with a peculiar relation to his Body, that he sleeps in the Lord, that he sleeps in Christ. O sweet, and full expression! O beautiful and blessed State! Now is a Saint with his Body, as well as his Soul alone in Christ, entirely in Christ, forever in Christ, in Christ risen from the Dead, a quickening Spirit, in the Glory of the Father, with the fullness of the God-Head, and all fullness dwelling in him. Now is the Body also of a Saint at rest in a sweet rest, in a living rest. For such is the rest of sleep. It is in an immortal, and glorious rest, in a rest of Divine Love, and Joys, which, though it bears the similitude of Death to Carnal Sense, yet in truth is above all the degrees, and delights of life here. For such is the sleep in Christ.

But I will open this Proposition to you more clearly, and fully by that twofold relation, which the Scriptures attribute to the Body of a Believer. 1. Of a Member of Christ. 2. The Temple of the Holy Ghost. Both these are affirmed by the Holy Apostle, and the Blessed Spirit, with an assured confidence, as truths known to all, and undeniable by any, 1 Corin. 6. 15. Know ye not, that your Bodies are the Members of Christ? 19. Know ye not, that your Bodies are the Temples of the Holy Ghost?

1. The Body of a Saint is the Member of Christ. This relation of Membership implieth three things. 1. Union. 2. Communion. 3. Proportion, or Suitableness.

1. There is an union between the Body of a Believer, and Jesus Christ, an Union of Membership. But to what Christ is the Body of a Believer united? To Christ risen from the Dead, to Christ in Glory. So you shall read, Rom. 7. 4. You are dead by the dead Body of Christ, that you might be Married to another, to him who is risen from the Dead. Marriage, and Membership are two distinct expressions of the same union between Christ and a Saint, which for its dearness, nearness, entireness, and inseparableness is inexpressible, in as much as it comprehends the sweetness, and virtue of all unions among the Creatures, either Men, or Angels, and transcendeth them all. But you, have these two unions of Membership, and Marriage between the Body of a Saint singly and expressly, and the Lord Jesus, joined together by St. Paul, who founds that of Membership, upon that of Marriage, 1 Corin. 6. 15. Know ye not, that your Bodies are the Members of Christ Then he makes good that, thus, v. 16. 17. It is said those two shall be one Flesh, But he that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit. The days of Christ's life on Earth are called the days of his Flesh. He hath the name of a Spirit given to him, as he is risen from the Dead, as he is in the Heavenly Image, and in Glory. So St. Paul calls him in one place the Lord that Spirit, in another place, the quickening Spirit. St. Peter saith of him; he was put to death in the Flesh, and quickened in the Spirit. Thus the Body of a Saint is married to Christ, is a Member of Christ. By this union it becomes a Spiritual Body, a Spirit, one Spirit with Christ.

There is a threefold band of this union of Membership, the same Spirit, the same Life, the same Image.

1. The first band of Union in this Membership between the Body of a Believer, and Jesus Christ, is the same Spirit, St. Paul saith, 1 Corin. 12. 13. We all by one Spirit are Baptized into one Body. The Unity of the ever-blessed Spirit is the sure, and sweet band which tieth one to another, the glorious Head, and all the blessed Members in the Body of Christ. But what sweetness lies in the universality of that expression; we all are Baptized by one Spirit into one Body? As the Soul of Man is all in the whole Body, and all in every part of it; so is that ever-blessed Spirit, which is in the whole Heavenly Body, of which the Holy Angels, Glorified Saints, Christ, and the Father are Fellow-members, one and the same, whole, and entire in every part of this Body of thine, O Believer, which in its lowest, and most broken State is a Member of Christ. This union is so much more close, full, and sweet between the Members, by how much more Spiritual the Body is; by how much the more high, and divine the Unity is in this Body; by how much the more high, and divine the unity of that blessed Spirit is, in which the Father of Lights, the Heavenly Bride-groom, Glorified Saints, all the Elect Angels dwell together in one,

2. The same Life flowing from this one Spirit is the second band of this Union. We read from St. Paul, Rom. 8. 11. If the Spirit of him; which raised Christ from the Dead, dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the Dead, shall also quicken your mortal Bodies by his Spirit dwelling in you. This expression, shall quicken, signifieth not only an effect at a distance, at the last day, but a present effect immediately flowing from the indwelling of the Spirit in us. For the union between the Spirit, and our Bodies, by which he dwelleth in them also, as well, as in our Souls, is a vital union, an union, from which Membership springs. This expression then, shall quicken your mortal Bodies, is like that of St. Paul in the same Epistle; Sin shall not have dominion over you, if you be not under the Law, but under Grace, Shall, there expresseth an effect immediately, and inseparably flowing from its cause, a freedom from the dominion of Sin by being under Grace, not under the Law. The Spirit of Christ findeth our Bodies Natural, and Mortal; but by its entrance into them, and inhabitation in them, maketh them, immediately Spiritual, and Immortal by their union with Christ, and by the pouring forth of his Life, and Immortality into them.

3. The band of union in this Membership is the same Image. All the Members of every Body make up one Image, in which each several Member bears a part. As we have born the Image of the Earthly Man, so shall we also bear the Image of the Heavenly. So far, O Saint, as thy Body is a Member of the Heavenly Body of Christ, it bears the same Heavenly Image. This is the first thing in Membership, the union.

2. There is in Membership a Communion. We read the 1 Corin. 12. 24, 25, 26. God hath tempered the Body together, having given the more abundant honor to that part, which lacked, that there should be no Schism in the Body, but that the Members should have the same care one for another, and whether one Members suffer, all the Members suffer with it, or one Member be honored, all the Members rejoice with it. There is a threefold Communion in the Body of Christ. A Communion of Cares, a Communion of Sufferings, a Communion of Joy and Glory.

1. There is a Communion of Cares. All the Members have the same care one for another. As it is in the Natural Body, the Head, the Heart, the Eye, the Hand, all are set on work for every other part, for the little Toes, as for themselves, to defend, or cherish it upon every occasion: so is it in the Body of Christ. O Saint! with what quietness, and security mayest thou lie down to rest, and sleep in the midst of all wants, enemies, and dangers? Thy Body itself is a Fellow-Member in the Body of Christ with all the glorious Angels, and Blessed Spirits, with Christ the head of all, and the Father the Head of Christ. All these have the same care of thy Body for every part, of it in every State, as for themselves. For it is themselves, a Member, and part of themselves. They all are present with it, they encompass it, they minister unto it all things seasonable for its defense, and comfort.

2. There is a Communion of sufferings. Whether one Member suffer, all the Members suffer with it. O Christians! what a sweetening is this to the bitterest affliction? How doth this take away the solitude, the sadness, the sting from Poverty, a Prison, a Sickness, the Grave? You are in the heart of all Angels, and Saints of Christ, and of the Father to suffer, to live, and to die together with you. All the Heavenly company, that are by one Spirit gathered together into that one glorious Body of Christ, lie down with you in the Dust, in a Dungeon, on a sick Bed, in the Grave. How is the Spouse of Christ now in its most solitary, and afflicted State indeed, as two Heavenly Companies, according to the expression in the Canticles?

3. The Fellow-members in the Body of Christ have a Communion of Joy, and Glory. Whether one Member be honored, all the Members rejoice with it, A Believer is ever glorious, ever blessed. St. Peter saith, that when we suffer for the name of Christ, the Spirit of Glory, and of God resteth upon us. Every suffering of a Saint, so far as he is a Saint, is for Christ. Why art thou ever melancholy, why is thy Heart heavy within thee, O Believer? Open thine Eyes to see them, open thine Heart to take them in. Behold the Joys, and Glories of all the blessed in Heaven are thine, are present with thee, and ever rest upon thee. I will conclude this Communion with that most remarkable expression: God hath tempered the Body together. The word is hath mingled the Body together. How full an expression is this? How doth this mixture sweeten all our sufferings, and make all our Joys far more pleasant? Thou, O Believer, with all thy shame, and sufferings art tempered, and mingled together with all the Saints, and Angels above, with Christ, and the Father, with all their Joys, and Glories. All the same Heavenly Company, with all the same Joys, and Glories, are tempered, and mingled together with thee, with thy shames, and sufferings here below. Thus are all one piece, and that one piece whole, and entire in everyone. Thus is the greater, the greatest comeliness put upon the most indigent. Thus is there no Schism in the Body. As in many Spirits tempered into one Spirit, many Liquors tempered into one Liquor, many Spices beaten into the smallest Powder, mingled into one costly Ointment, every portion of this Spirit, this Liquor, this Ointment hath all the Spirits, all the Liquors, all the Ointments of the whole in it: so is the Body of Christ in general, and every Member in particular.

3. The proportion, or suitableness. There is no Schism in the Body of Christ. If this be pure, precious, living, immortal, heavenly, and glorious, then is thy Body also, O Believer, so far as it is a Member of this Body, pure, precious, living, immortal, heavenly, & glorious. How living, how immortal, how beautiful, how glorious, how divine a thing is that Body of a Saint, which is a Member of Christ in Glory? What Life, what Joys are those of this Body, which is in so dear, so inseparable, so intimate an Union, and Communion of the same Life, Joys, Beauties, and Spirit with all the glorious Angels, blessed Spirits, Christ himself, the Head of all, & the Father in Christ? This is the State of the Body of a Saint, as it is a Member of Christ. But while a Saint lives in this world, his Body is partly the Member of this Heavenly Husband, the Lord Jesus, and partly the Member of a Harlot, this World, and the Flesh; in as much as a Saint here below hath his life, and conversation divided between the pure Spirit of Christ, and the Whorish Spirit of this world. O sweet, O beautiful, O precious, and blessed Death! By Death is the joyful, and glorious separation made in the Body of a Saint, between the precious, and the vile, between the heavenly Bridegroom, the Lord Jesus, and the Hellish Adulterer, this World. Now it ceaseth forever to be in any degree anymore the Member of the Harlot, to be in a Carnal, or worldly Spirit. Now it's forever singly, entirely gathered up into the Spirit, Body, and Bosom of Jesus Christ. O! how pure, how shining, in what Angelical, in what Spiritual, in what Divine a form, and fullness of inexpressible rest, beauty, and delight is the Body of a Saint in the very moment of Death, when, like fine Gold purged from its dross, or a Heavenly Sun, that hath cast up its cloud, it now comes forth out of the Whorish Spirit of the Flesh, and this World, a single, and pure Member in the pure, and divine Body of our Lord Jesus? These are the three things contained in this Membership of the Body of a Believer in Christ; Union, Communion, and proportion.

From this I shall raise a threefold short exhortation.

1. Set a value upon the new Birth, upon the Regeneration. Content not yourselves with being once born. By your first Birth you have Souls, and Bodies Members of this world. By the Spirit of this world they are Baptized into the Body, and Society of Darkness, Corruption, Death, Wrath, the whole Company of wicked Spirits, and Devils. Give yourselves no rest till you are born again. By the new Birth, which is from above, you have new Souls, and new Bodies, which are Members one of another, Fellow-members of Christ. Your Souls, and your Bodies both are by that one, Eternal Spirit Baptized into one Spiritual, Immortal, and glorious Body with the Spirits of all just men made evangelically perfect by the Blood, and Spirit of Christ; with all the Holy Angels, with Christ, and the Father. Press into the Fellowship of this mystery. Here you shall see it indeed to be true, that Grace is Glory begun in your Souls, and Bodies both; that when you believe, a Spirit of Glory rests upon your whole Person by your Union with Christ.

2. Possess this Vessel of your Bodies in holiness. For so you shall possess it in honor. Possess it, converse with it in a Spiritual Principle. So you shall enjoy it, and yourselves in it, as a Member of Christ. You shall see, feel, enjoy within yourselves in this Body, the Spirit, the Life, the Immortality, the Joy, the Glory of the whole Body of Christ, the society of all things Heavenly, Blessed and Eternal, to wake, and to sleep, to walk, and lie down, to live, and to die with you. This is the true Church-fellowship, a Fellowship in our Souls, and in our Bodies by a Spiritual Principle, and Life with the Church, and Assembly of the first-born, with all things in their first born State, in one Spiritual, and Heavenly Body in Christ.

3. How amiable, and lovely doth this make death to the Saints? This is the chief end I aim at in my discourse, and the point to which I bring it. With what a beautiful, and smiling Face doth Death now look forth even in the Body of a Saint, in which he hath been wont generally to appear so grim to the holiest Persons? Thy Body, O Believer, so far as thou standest in a Spiritual Principle, is a Fellow-member with thy Soul in the Body of Christ: It is a Jewel, the work of a faithful, and curious workman the most holy Spirit; as Solomon in the Canticles speaketh of the Spouse of Christ. But here the mixture of the fleshly, and carnal Principle is as Dust, and Dirt, which covereth, and fullyeth this costly Jewel. With what a sweet, pure luster of Immortality, and of Heavenly Glory doth it sparkle, and shine forth, ravishing thine own, and all spiritual Eyes, and Hearts in the moment of Death, when the blessed hand of Death clean wipes off the dust, and stain of the carnal Principle, and brings it forth entirely into its Spiritual Principle, that now it stands singly, as a Spiritual Member in the Spiritual Body of Christ?

The Lord Jesus saith; if thine Eye be single, thine whole Body shall be light, as when a Candle enlightens a Room. In this life O Saints, we have a double Eye, and have a double sight. The mixture of the Spiritual, and Carnal Principle is the double, and divided Eye. O welcome Death, receive it with open embraces. Now is your Eye single. Now is the carnal Principle cast out forever. Now you look forth with the open, and single Eye of the single Principle of the Eternal Spirit. Now is your whole Body, nay, now is the whole body of things filled to you with a Heavenly light of Immortality, & Glory. This single Eye pours forth from the Unity of the Spirit, as from the Fountain of blessed Light thorough your whole Souls, and Bodies, thorough all things round about them a Light of Glory, as when a Candle enlighteneth a Room.

A way of cleansing Pearls, when they have any spot, or cloud upon them is to thrust them down the throat of a Pigeon into its Crop, where the heat of the Pigeon takes off the stain, and makes them perfectly white. This is the mystery of a Saints Death. The Heavenly Dove, the Holy Spirit in the same moment takes a Saint entirely in Soul, and Body out of this Life, out of the Carnal Principle into himself, into his Bosom of Love, by the Divine heat of that Love takes off every spot, or cloud of the flesh by consuming it both in the Soul, and in the Body, and makes them both purely white, and shining. Pearls in the Heavenly Body of that one great, and only Pearl the Lord Jesus.

2. The second relation, into which the Body of a Believer is taken at the new birth, is that of a Temple to the Holy Ghost. There are 4 things proper to a Temple. 1. The Figure. 2. The Glory. 3. The Communion. 4. The Defense.

1. Every thing in the Tabernacle, and so in the Temple to the least things, and lowest actions were divine Types of Spiritual Truths, and Heavenly Excellencies in the Person of the Lord Jesus. So it is said, that all things were made, and ordered according to the pattern in the Mount, which pattern in the Mount was Christ in Glory. O Saints! This Tabernacle, and Temple were Types first of Christ, then of you, whose Souls, and Bodies both are the true, and living Temples of God. The Body of a Saint is a more excellent Temple, in as much as Solomon's Temple was a shadow only of this. It is a Living, Divine, and Immortal Temple. It is therefore in the whole a far more excellent, more rich, more glorious, and delightful Image of the God-Head in its entire form. It is in every part, and point of it a most lively, a most beautiful, a most pleasant figure of some particular Mystery, and Glory in the God Head.

All the parts of your Bodies themselves, the lowest, and least, even to a hair of your Heads, everything that befalls you in every part of your Body in the meanest, and slightest circumstance, is formed exactly by the Divine Wisdom, and Power, according to the Divine Will, to answer the Pattern in the Mount, to be the holy figure of an eternal Glory in Christ. We read Psal. 29. 9. Every thing in his Temple speaks Glory. Every thing in thy Body, O Believer, so far as thou art a Believer, speaks Glory. For this is his Temple. O live always in the Spirit, that thou mayest always be in thy Body, as in the Temple, that there thou mayest see, understand, and enjoy the Glory in everything!

2. The Temple of God is filled with the Glory of God. There is a Prophesy in Malachi, concerning the times of the Gospel, that he shall come into his Temple. You, O Saints are the Temple, which is here Prophefied of. Jesus Christ, as God in the Glory of the Father, in the Third Person, the Holy Ghost, comes into you, into your Bodies also, and fills them with his Glory. The same word in Hebrew signifieth a Temple, and a Palace. The name of a Temple in Greek, signifieth an Habitation, or dwelling place. It is a note of a learned Divine, that the Temple had Tables, and a Throne, and a State in it, which was the Golden Mercy Seat called in the Gospel, the Throne of Grace, to signify that the Temple of God was his Palace, as he is the great King. The Eternal Spirit is present in the Body of a Believer, as in his Palace. He keeps his Court there. There is his Throne, with all the blessed Angels, and all the Heavenly Company, waiting round about it.

It is called his resting-place. Arise, saith David to God, thou, and the Ark of thy strength into thy resting-place. God shineth forth in his Temple, filleth it with his Glory within, resting upon it, and overshadowing it with his Glory without. In the 50 Psal. at the beginning the Psalmist speaking of the Temple saith; God shineth from Zion, the perfection of Beauty. What a perfection of Beauty then, what a Divine Palace, how full of Glory within, how encompassed with a clear, & shining Glory round about is that Body of a Saint, which is the living, eternal Temple of the Holy Ghost? In what Majesty doth this Eternal Spirit appear here upon its Throne of Love? In the midst of what Divine Pleasures, and Delights doth it rest forever here. What a Court does it keep here with all its Train of Angels, and heavenly Attendants, waiting round about its Throne, as in another Heaven? O Believers, honor your Bodies. For these, so far as you stand in a Spiritual Principle, are as another Heaven, the Heaven of Heavens, the Palace of the great King, which he fills with his Glory, where he heeps his Court, & sits upon his Throne.

3. The Saints have communion with God in his Temple. In the Temple was the Golden Mercy-Seat. There, saith God, will I commune with thee. This was overspread with Cherubims of Glory, as St. Paul calls them. These Cherubims covered this Golden Mercy-Seat with their Wings, and so made the State, or Glory about the Throne. This is therefore called the secret of the most high, and the shadow of the Almighty, where a Saint is said to dwell, and to lodge. Hear, O ye Saints, what glorious things are spoken of your Bodies; be Spiritual, and behold in these Temples the Golden Mercy-Seat, which is the glorified Person of Christ, and the Cherubims of Glory covering it with their Wings, and God here upon this Golden Mercy-Seat, the glorified Bosom of Christ from between the Wings of the Cherubims, ready always to commune with you, yea taking you up upon this Golden Mercy-Seat, within the Wings of the Cherubims, to commune freely with him at all seasons in this secret of eternal safety, rest, love, joy, and glory.

This Temple is the Body of a Saint while he liveth below; but now it is in too great a degree covered with a cloud of Flesh, filled with the smoke of the Spirit of this world, that a Saint too rarely enters into this Temple of the holy Ghost in his own Body, and more rarely seeth with any degree of clearness the Glory, or heareth the voice of the blessed Spirit there. What joy is it to think, in what a purely sacred, and Divine Temple, in what a clear, and shining Palace of the eternal King, in what open, and unstained, unveiled visions of Divine Glory, in what a secret, in what a presence of glorious Angels, and Eternal Spirits, in the midst of what sweet overshadowings, dear encompassings, naked outshinings of the Eternal Spirit, in what most blessed, most ravishing Communion of Eternal Light, Life, and Love with this Spirit, in what sight, and embraces, with what kisses of incomprehensible Beauties, in the sound of what words, what salutations, what wooings, what expressions of the highest Loves, and Joys from the Eternal Spirit a Saint finds himself even in his own proper Body in the very moment of his Death, when departing out of this Life at once he departs forever out of the Fleshly Image, and the Spirit of this World?

4. The Divine Presence, and Glory was the defense of the Temple, Esa. 4. 5. There is a Prophesy concerning the times of the Gospel expressed by figures taken from the state of things under the Law: And the Lord will create upon every • welling place of Mount Zion, and upon her Assemblies a Cloud, and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night. For upon all the Glory shall be a defense, or a covering. When the first Temple was to be destroyed, the Prophet Ezekiel saw the Glory removing off from it; afterwards, when the second Temple was near its end, a voice was heard in it saying; Let us be gone from hence, which was understood to be the voice of God, and of his holy Angels with all those invisible companies, and Ministers, which made up the Glory of the Divine Presence, as Nobles, Officers, and Guards make up the Court of a King.

O Saints! why do you fear for your Bodies hidden Conspiracies, or open force, diseases, the fury of the Elements, the malice of Men, or Devils? These Bodies of yours are the Temples of the Holy Ghost. Here are the Holy Assemblies of all the Heavenly Company in the unity of the Spirit, whose Temples your Bodies are. Of these it is Prophesied, to these it is promised, that God will create upon them a cloud, and a smoke by day, the shining of a flaming fire by night. Upon these the Glory is a defense, or a covering. God himself with all his holy Ones, his Angels, his Watchmen, his ministering Spirits is this Cloud, this Glory, which is the defense, and covering upon your whole Persons your Bodies, as well as your Souls: both have together with Christ a hidden Life, a secure Life, in this secret of God within this covering of this Divine Cloud, Flame, and Glory. From off these Temples of your Bodies this Glory never removes. From within these Temples of your Bodies this heavenly Company never departs; for as much as the union in the Spirit of Grace under the Gospel is Eternal.

Thus the Bodies also of Believers in this Life are the Temples of the Holy Ghost. All things in them here are divine Figures of a divine Glory. They are filled and covered with the Glory itself. They are the seats of the freest Communion with this Glory, being the Temples of the God of God's, and so the Palaces of the King of Kings. All this is true of them here, as they stand in a Spiritual Principle, and in union with Christ by the new birth.

But this Life is a mixed State. We stand partly in a Spiritual, partly in a Fleshly Principle. These Temples of our Bodies are covered with a corrupt Flesh, that we can hardly discern their Spiritual Beauties. They are too frequently in too great a part filled with a smoke of Hell, the smoke of the Spirit of this world, that a Believer can rarely enter into this Temple of his Body to behold, and converse with the Glory there.

This is the precious, the blessed work of Death in a Believer. It breaketh the union, it maketh a separation not between Christ, and a Believer, not between the Soul, and Body of a Believer, as they are joined together in Christ by the band, and unity of the Eternal Spirit, and make one Spiritual Man, or Person in Christ; but between the precious, and the vile, between the Carnal and Spiritual Principle of a Saint both in Soul and Body.

Now in the moment of Death the Soul, and Body of a Saint come forth immediately, clear, and shining Temples of the Spirit; the smoke, and clouds of the Fleshly Principles, and of this worldly Image being forever driven away from within them, and from without.

Thus you understand St. Paul's sweet, and blessed sense of Death, when he speaketh of the Body, and saith, 1 Corin. 5. 1. 2. That, we shall not be found naked, but be clothed upon from above with a building of God Eternal in the Heavens, which shall swallow up mortality in life. Our Spiritual Body, which we have in this life by our new Birth, as we stand in our Spiritual Principle is this Divine Building sprung from a Divine Root, of a Divine Nature, or Substance, of a Divine Form, and Workmanship. This is ever in Heaven, being inseparably united to Christ, and being ever in the Spirit. This is Eternal, when we die, this casts off the Cloud of corrupt, and cursed Flesh. This springs forth out of its Spiritual Principle, as out of Heaven, and the Bosom of God. This rests upon us, takes us in, clothes us entirely, universally with itself. Thus we are never found naked not for any one the least moment. All that life, all those objects, entertainments, and joys, which we possessed before in the Cloud, in the Captivity of a mortal Image, yea the very Image of mortality itself, besides innumerable new and inconceivable Glories, are all the very same things present with us in this Heavenly Building; this Heavenly Body; but after a new, and more excellent manner. We have our pleasant things a hundred-fold more pleasant. We have our unpleasant things with an unmixed, pure, and perfect pleasantness, as they stand within in the Divine Mystery, and Love. Thus desirable, and delightful is death to a Saint, which now indeed is no more Death, but the flood, the Fountain of pure Light, Eternal Life, the Divine Love breaking forth in his Soul, and Body, and swallowing up everything of Mortality into itself.

Give me leave here to take occasion to shir you up to the love, and pursuit of Spirituality in Religion, by a short exhortation.

1. Understand your loss. How many precious, and glorious truths of the Gospel? What Heavenly, and Divine growths in Grace? How many sweet, inexpressible consolations, and joys in life, and in death are we unacquainted with, are we uncapable of for want of the Spirit, and Spirituality? I have many things to speak unto you, saith our Lord Jesus to his Disciples before his Death; but ye cannot bear them now. Why? Hitherto they knew Christ after the Flesh only. The Spirit was not come, which was to lead them into all truths, and to be their eminent comforter. I could not speak unto you, as to Spiritual, but as to Carnal, saith St. Paul to the Corinthtans, who yet were pussed up with a conceit of their knowledge.

2. Consider the danger from the want of Spirituality. St. Paul saith in one place, that what the Law speaketh, it speaketh to those that are under the Law. The Law in Scripture is called the Letter, which is the Figure, and Image only: The Gospel the Spirit, which is the Life, and Truth. This then is the dreadful curse, which the Law pronounceth upon those, who live, and worship God in the oldness of the Letter; not in the newness of the Spirit: that their Eyes, their Ears, their Hearts shall be closed, made fat, and hardened, that seeing they shall not see, hearing they shall not understand, that they shall be taught line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little, and there a little, that they may fall backward, and perish, and never rise more; because, when Christ was presented to them in the Spirit of Life, and Glory to be their rest, and refreshing forever, they would not obey the heavenly Call. O dreadful danger! O deadly curse! Hear this O Professors; O Believers, who are Carnal, and not Spiritual! Tremble and fear to be eternally imprisoned in the dark Image, and killing Letter, being forever excluded from the marvelous light of God, from the Eternal Life, and from the most glorious truth itself of all Heavenly, and Divine Things, to wander perpetually in a barren Wilderness of Graves, and of fiery Serpents, never to enter into the rest of God, nor the refreshing of the Eternal Spirit. O Silly Men, and silly Women, that are ever learning, ever hearing Sermons, ever praying, ever reading the Scriptures, ever sounding forth the name of Christ, and God; yet at the end of one, ten, or twenty years, still laden with the same diversity of Lusts, and Passions, still moving forward, and backward upon the same Carnal, and literal sense of things, never coming to the knowledge of the Truth, as the Truth is in Jesus, as the Spirit is Truth!

3. See the advantages of Spirituality, as they are laid together, 2 Corin. 3. At the latter end.

1. Liberty, Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is Liberty; a pure freedom from the servitude of hellish Lusts, and passions; a pleasant freedom from fears, cares, consinements; from the Law, Death, and Wrath; a Divine Freedom from the vale of the Flesh, the Law, the Letter of things, from every Earthly, Created, Darkning, Dividing Principle, Life, and Image; the liberty of a free access into the purity, power, rest, joys, glories, immortality, infiniteness of the Spirit, and of the Divine Nature.

2. A clear discovery, evidence, and seal of the new Birth in you. We with open Face behold the Glory of the Lord. The open face there (as appears clearly by the context of the words) is the Spiritual, and Heavenly Man within us unveiled, appearing evidently with the Seal of his own Spiritual Beauties, and Glories upon it, in the openness, and freedom of a Spiritual, and Divine Light. Where are doubts, where are fears now concerning our condition? they are fled away, and vanish, as the shadows of the night before the Sun rising, and shining forth with open face.

3. A clear vision of the Lord Jesus in Glory within thyself. We all with open face, as in a glass, beholding the Glory of the Lord, saith St. Paul. It is in Greek beholding, as in a Looking-glass, where the Face, that is seen, is the Face of him who fees, reflected upon itself. O blessed State of a Spiritual Saint! The Spiritual Man in him is a Divine, and living Looking-glass, in which, while he beholds the face of the Lord Jesus in Glory, he sees his own Face, and the glorious form of his own Heavenly Person reflected upon itself. The Person which sees, the Heavenly Person which is seen, and the Glass, are all one Spirit. All these dwell together, see, possess, and enjoy one another in the same Life, and Image.

4. Spirituality brings a lively, and lovely growth in all Grace. We are changed, saith St. Paul, into the likeness of the same Image from Glory to Glory. These words import three excellencies in the growth of a Spiritual Person. 1. It is continual, which is implied in that expression from Glory to Glory. One degree of growth immediately follows another. The Kingdom of Heaven, which is the State of Spirituality, and in the Holy Ghost, is compared to Corn, which grows by day, and by night, in Winter, and in Summer. It is growing every moment, till it be ripe for the Harvest. 2. Spirituality groweth by great increases. Here the name of Glory is put upon the growths of Grace in a Spiritual State from Glory to Glory. In another place St. Paul expresseth it by the increases of God, that is, swift, great, glorious, divine increases, as by the immediate springings of the Godhead, and bearing the likeness of God in Glory. 3. Spirituality makes the Glorified Person of Christ the Pattern, the Measure, the Mark, and End of its growth. So saith St. Paul, Beholding the Glory of the Lord, we are changed into the likeness of the same Image. A Spiritual Person hath the Lord Jesus clothed with a Spiritual Glory ever in his eye; is continually taking him into his Heart, continually bringing him forth into his whole Person and Life, with an increasing clearness and fullness. As the Object is to the Faculty, and to the Soul; so is Jesus Christ to a Spiritual Person, his Pattern, his Object, his Food, his Feast, which spreads itself quite thorough his Person and Life, which all throughout turns into Life, Strength, Beauty, Cheerfulness, and Joy to him.

5. A spiritual person in a sweet and sealing manner sees the Spirit himself presenting the Lord Jesus to him within himself in a spiritual Glory; feels the Spirit himself springing up immediately within him in all sights of Christ, in all his changes, and growths into Christ. He sees, and feels this Spirit to be Jesus Christ himself. He sees and feels this Spirit, and this Jesus to be in himself, and one Spirit with himself. So the verse forementioned runs; We all with open face, beholding, as in a Looking-glass, the Glory of the Lord, are changed into the likeness of the same Image, from Glory to Glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord; or, according to the Greek, by the Lord that Spirit.

These are the sweet and blessed Advantages of a Spiritual State. I will add some few and short Directions to this State.

1. Look to the New Birth in You. See that you be born again, that you be born from above, that you be born of the Spirit; that this which is born in you, be Spirit, Jesus Christ saith, That which is born of the Spirit, is Spirit. This only is the New Birth. Newness is only in the Eternal Spring, the Spirit.

2. Take care of your Union with Christ, that it be a Spiritual Union; that you be united to Christ, as he is risen from the Dead, and in Glory, as he is a Spirit, the King and Bridegroom of Spirits; that you be united to Christ in the Spiritual Man; that your Union be a Spiritual Marriage; that you be one Spirit in the Unity of the Eternal Spirit, which is Love.

3. Pray for the Spirit, for a Spiritual Understanding, for the Knowledge of things in the Spirit, as they are Spirit and Life, and so alone Truth. Suck in the Spirit by day, and by night, from the lips of Christ, from the kisses of his mouth.

4. Die to everything of the Flesh, that you may live in the Spirit. Bear about in your Bodies the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the Life also of the Lord Jesus, according to the Spirit, may be manifested in your mortal Bodies. At the young Phoenix is said to spring new and fresh out of the Ashes of the Old One; so doth the Spirit in the newness of an Heavenly and Immortal Glory spring out of the Grace of Christ.

5. Live purely, live in Love. These two, Purity and Love, are the principal fruits of the Spirit, by which the Spirit himself is drawn down, and held in our Hearts, being fed, and delighted with them. Every kind and degree of impurity and enmity quencheth the Spirit and maketh him to withdraw himself into Heaven again. The Scripture saith, The Flesh lusteth against the Spirit, to bring forth its own Beauties, Delights and Fruits all over the Spirit of Man in the place of the Eternal Spirit. The Scripture saith also, That the Flesh envieth against the Spirit: The Flesh hath an envy, and an envious malice to see the Spirit with its Eternal Glories, Joys and Fruits to flourish in the Soul.

6. Lastly; Take heed of thinking that you know enough. He that thinks he knows anything, knows nothing as he ought to know it, saith St. Paul. He that thinks he knows anything, knows things only after the Letter, which is a knowledge of shadows only, and a shadow of knowledge. This is that knowledge, which pusseth up, which swells a man with a windy conceit of knowledge. But that knowledge which is from the Spirit, as its Fountain, and in the Spirit, as its air, and element, and of the Spirit, as its only object, this makes a man at the highest degree of his knowledge on Earth to be sensible, that all his knowledge is, but as the light of the night, a light shining in a dark place, not the day-star, and the Sun itself risen upon him. This man thinks himself at best, as a door-keeper only, or (as the Hebrew word signifieth) one standing at the threshold of the House of God, who looketh in at a distance, and hath only a weak glimmering prospect of the Glories there, but is not yet entered into the Light of those Glories to behold them, as they are, to know them, as he ought to know them, and is to know them. He therefore, as a new born Babe from the Womb of the Spirit, keeps his Eye ever fixed with wonder, and pleasure upon the light of the Spirit, and ever thirsts to drink in more, and more the sweet milk of this Light.

The Subject of our discourse hath been the passage of a Saint by Death, not only in his Soul, but in his Body also, into a State of purity, pleasure, perfection, and immortality. One of the objections against this was taken from common sense, to which Death presents the Bodies of the holiest Persons lifeless, ghastly, dissolving to dust. We have answered this objection by a distinction between a twofold sense, Carnal, and Spiritual. But this objection was enforced from the Body of Christ, which was a rueful, and bloody spectacle in Death, which lay three days in the silence, darkness, and restraint of the Grave. It is necessary therefore to say something, particularly to the State of Christ's Body in Death, by the application of this distinction to that also.

I shall ground this discourse upon that Scripture, Luke 12. 50. They are the words of Christ: I have a Baptism to be Baptized with, and how am I straightened till it be over. This Baptism is generally, and as I humbly conceive, rightly, interpreted to be the sufferings of Christ at his Death. The Baptism of Christ, and the accomplishment of that Baptism were both at the time of his Death. The sense of this Baptism before it came, was an inexpressible streightning, or affliction, and oppression to the Soul of Christ. He cries out, how am I straightened?

The words thus opened, afford this observation: The Lord Jesus had his greatest trouble, and his greatest Triumph at the time of his Death. Then was this bloody Baptism; and then was the blessed accomplishment of this Baptism. I shall open this in seven Propositions, whereof 5 set forth the trouble, the other two the Triumph of Christ at his Death.

1. Propos. It was the most glorious, and eternal Person of God himself in two Natures, Divine, and Human, which was our Jesus.

2. Propos. God in his own Person, as the Divine Nature lived in our Nature here on Earth, stood at once in a twofold Principle, one Natural, and Temporary; the other Supernatural, and Eternal.

3. Propos. As this Eternal Person our Jesus with his God-Head in the Human Nature, stood in a Natural, and Temporary Principle, he stood under the curse, receiving, and feeling all the stings, and bitterness of the curse to the utmost extremity.

4. Propos. This our Jesus, as he at the same time with his Divine Nature in his Humanity, stood in a Supernatural, and Eternal Principle, he in his Humanity comprehended his Humanity itself, in its natural Principle, together with the natural Principle itself, the Curse, all the stings, and bitterness of the Curse, in a light of Divine Glory, in a life of Divine Love, as so many varieties of pure Love, Joy, and Glory with Immortality.

5. Propos. The Curse with the stings, and sense of it upon the Natural, and Temporary Principle, as also the conflict between the Natural, and Temporary, the Supernatural, and Eternal Principle in the Lord Jesus through his whole Person, as it lived in a Human Soul, and Body, were highest at his Death.

These are the five Propositions, which set forth the trouble of Christ at his Death. In the other two followeth his Triumph.

6. Propos. This Eternal Person our Jesus with his God-Head in his whole Humanity both Soul, and Body, in the moment of Death by dying, went entirely forth from the Natural, or Temporary Principle, and so from under the Curse.

7. Propos. This same Jesus in his whole Person with his whole Soul, and Body, in the moment of Death by dying went forth entirely into the simplicity, and singleness of his Supernatural, the Eternal Principle, and so into a State of pure Eternity, unmixed Joy, and Glory.

I shall briefly open these Propositions in their order.

1. Propos. It was the most glorious, and eternal Person of God himself in two Natures, Divine, and Human, which was our Jesus, John 1. 14. The Word was made Flesh. The second Person in the Trinity, from which the other two Persons, the Father and the Spirit are inseparable; the eternal, and essential Son of God, which hath the fullness of the God-Head in himself, in its most express Image, and greatest Glory, he in his own Person, in this Eternal Person, and Sonship, was made Flesh. This Eternal Person, this Essential Son of God was that Flesh. This Flesh was that Person, that Son, which had the Father, and the Spirit inseparably with himself, and was essentially one with them.

O Christians, study this union of the two Natures Divine, and Human in one only Divine, Unchangeable, and Eternal Person, which is the most glorious, and Ever-blessed God. This is the deep and rich ground of the Christian Religion, out of which, as the true ground of the Heavenly Paradise, the God-Head itself makes to spring all the precious mysteries of the Gospel, all Evangelical Truths, Graces, and Joys in their most Spiritual Beauty, Sweetness, and Life. Understand this: Pray for the understanding of this, for a sight, sense, and feeling of it within your own Spirits, that it is God, God himself in his own only Divine, unchangeable, undivided Person, in your own Form, in your own Nature, in your own Persons, and Spirits, which is your Jesus, your Savior, Redeemer, Husband, and King, your Ransom, Atonement, and Righteousness, your Beauty, your Life, your Joy, your Root, Branch, Flower, and Fruit. This union between the Divine, and Human Nature in one Person in our Lord Jesus, is the Original, and Reason of the union between you, and this Jesus, which is God in Person, to which Person, thorough this union, you also are immediately, eternally united in one Spirit, in one mystical Person, which is Christ, as St. Paul speaketh, as there is one Body, and many Members, so is Christ.

A Spiritual knowledge of this union of two Natures in one Person, and that God himself is this Person, will sweeten all sufferings of life to you, and perfume the Grave. Open the Eyes of your Spirits, and behold with joy, and wonder the going of your God, and King in the Sanctuary of this Earthly Body. It was the ever-glorious, and immutable Person of God in the most high, and holy Trinity, which made itself Flesh in the Womb of the Virgin, which was that Flesh, which in that Flesh eat, drank, slept, talked, and walked upon the Face of this Earth, which passed under all the clouds, thorough all the storms of life here, which hung upon the Cross, died, and lay down in the Grave. O with what a Divine, and delightful Glory hath this Divine presence, and Person filled, and clothed this Flesh, this Earth, all the natural actions, and passions of this Flesh, on this Earth, Clouds, Storms, the Cross, Death, and the Grave to the Spiritual Eyes of Believers? What living Plants of Paradise; how beautiful, how laden with most pleasant, and Immortal Fruits are all these springing up out of this Root, this Divine, and Eternal Person? What Jewels are they of incomprehensible virtue; sweetness, and luster hanging upon this Person?

See yourselves O all ye Saints, even the lowest, and the least, conformed to this Image. It is the immortal Seed, and Son of God in you, it is your Jesus, the most glorious Person of God himself in this Seed in you, which is made partaker of Flesh, and Blood, which walks on Earth, and acts all the parts of the natural Life here, which passeth thorough all the Clouds, and Storms of life, which suffers, dies, and lies in the Grave. The Spoase saith of Christ, he is a bundle of Myrrh; he shall lie all night between my Breasts. Thus the Human Nature of Christ saith to the Divine Nature. Thus the Earthly Nature saith to the Heavenly Nature, to the Divine Seed, to the Lord Jesus, to the Divine Nature in the Lord Jesus: thou art my bundle of Myrrh, thou liest all the night of this life, and death between my naked Breasts. What corruption can I see in the Grave itself? What Divine Sweetness breaths forth itself in all States? What Divine Treasures of Life, and Immortality fill, and overflow all; while we thus lie most intimately united, entirely wrapped up in each other, in the most sweet, and glorious Unity of one Divine, and Eternal Spirit, one Mystical, Divine, and Eternal Person?

2. Propos. God in his own Person, as the Divine Nature lived in our Nature here on Earth, stood at once in a twofold Principle; the one Natural, and Temporary; the other Spiritual, and Eternal.

The Lord Jesus was truly, and really a man in every point like unto us, sin only excepted, as the Scripture speaketh in the Epistle to the Hebrews. Thus he did bear in himself the Earthly, and Natural Image, he stood in an earthly, and natural Principle. He came forth from the Father into the World. So was he made a Servant, and made under the Law.

But the Lord Jesus was in Person the Eternal Son of God. In this Person alone did the Human Nature of Christ, with its Natural Principle, and Fleshly Form in this world subsist. The second Person in the Trinity was the Glorious, and Invisible Root, which, through the Divine Nature sent forth, sustained, lived, and appeared in the spotless Flesh of the Lord Jesus. Thus the Manhood of Christ in its Earthly State stood in a natural Principle, according to its proper essence, and created Form; but in a Supernatural, and Eternal Principle according to its Personal subsistence in the Eternal Word.

How patient should we be of Life; nay with what delight, and wonder should we pass the time of our Pilgrimage hero, if with a Spiritual Eye we beheld the Lord Jesus in Flesh, and saw our life in flesh a conformity to his? What a Divine Spectacle, what a mystery of Divinity, how full of Sweetness, Beauty, and Glory doth the Life of Christ in Flesh appear, when it is rightly seen? The Natural Spirit of this world with its natural Image in its full compass stood in the midst of the Lights, Immortalities, Glories of that Divine Person which is the Brightness of Glory, the Sea of all Sweetnesses, and Loves, Eternity itself, God himself. This was the Eternal Principle, which brought it forth from itself, which bears it up in its own Bosom, which acts it, fills it, comprehends it, as itself, one Person with itself, itself Personally in a Divine, and Mysterious Figure, in the midst of all its Divine, and Substantial Glories.

3. Propos. As this Eternal Person our Jesus with his God-Head in the Human Nature, stood in a Natural, and Temporary Principle, he stood under the Curse, receiving, and feeling all the stings, and bitterness of the Curse to the utmost extremity. The Scripture saith he was made a Curse for us. Although together with the Natural Principle, he took not the Corruption, yet he took the Curse. You that read, or hear this, prepare yourselves to receive a Relation of Divine Love, which will at once break your hearts, and make them whole again: That God, who is Blessedness itself, the purest Light of Life, Joy, and Glory in Person, clothes himself with Flesh, even with the Fleshly Spirit, and Principle, that he may make himself a Curse for your sakes, in your stead. Thus he receives immediately into his own Person, into his own Breast, and Heart, all the stings of the Curse, of Separation, of Loss, of Shame, of Pain, of Guilt, of Grief, of Horrour, Amazement, Death. All these stings he receives into himself, as they are dipt all over in the most unmixed, and fiercest Poison of the Divine Wrath. All these stings he felt at once, envenomed with Wrath in the tenderest, and most sensible manner, with the quickest, and sharpest sense. Never was, never can there be such a sting, such a sense of any sting in the Spirit of Man, or Devil, or any Creature. Do we hear all this, and that all this was from love to us, and are we not by a sympathy of love wounded with a sense of those stings, which thus stuck in our Savior's Heart? Do we not feel our hearts wounded with a sense of those Sins of ours, which fixed those stings there? But doth not this sense also fall like drops of precious Balsom upon our Hearts to heal those wounds immediately, or to turn them into Fountains of Love, and Joy, when we hear, that it was Love, and infinite Love in the Heart of God himself, which took these stings out of our low, and wretched Persons, to fix them in that most High, and Glorious Person, which is Eternal Love, and Life itself? He was made Sin for us, that is, a Sacrifice for Sin in a flame of Wrath in our stead, that we might be made the Righteousness of God in him, to ascend in the Bosom of his glorified Person in a pure flame of Love, Delight, and Glory above all Heavens.

4. Propos. This our Jesus, as he at the same time with his Divine Nature in his Humanity, stood in a supernatural, and eternal Principle, he in his Humanity comprehended his Humanity itself in its natural Principle, together with the natural Principle itself, the Curse, all the stings, and bitterness of the Curse in a Light of Divine Glory, in a Life of Divine Love, as so many varieties of pure Love, Joy, and Glory with immortality. Our Jesus, at the same time in his natural Principle, and in his Flesh was encompassed with a blackness of darkness, and was filled with the bitterness of the Curse; at the same time in his supernatural Principle, the Eternal Spirit, even in the natural Principle in the Flesh, in the midst of the darknesses, & bitternesses he saw them all, he conversed with them, he tasted them, feasted upon them, enjoyed them, and himself in them, as the Light, and Sweetness of Heavenly Love, as Roses, and Lilies, the Honey, and the honey-comb in the Paradise of God, as the delicacies of Eternity, and a banquet of Wine in the Kingdom of God. For he received, he saw, he relished them in the will of his Father, and the will of his Father in them. Thus he speaketh of them, when he cometh first into the World, I come to do thy Will, O God. All things, which he met with in the World, and in Flesh were to him the pure, and entire Will of God alone presenting itself in so many various Forms, where the Substance, and the Forms both were the same Will, like a Feast in several Dishes, where the Meat, and the Dishes too are alike delicate food. So Christ himself expressed it, John 4. It is my Meat, and Drink (a Divine Meat, and a Divine Drink) to do the Will of my Father. All the sufferings, and passions of Christ, were an active accomplishment; an active entertainment of the Will of the Father, of that Will, of that supreme Will, which is the pure Fountain, Measure, Essence, perfection of all Good, Loveliness, Love, Sweetness, and Joy.

The sufferings of our Lord Jesus appeared to him in a Spiritual Light, as Heavenly Beauties clothing his Person, making it so much the more lovely in the Eye of his Father the truest Judge of loveliness, and Beauty. My Father loves me, saith Jesus Christ, because I lay down my Life for my Sheep. How sweet, and dear a sense hath the Lord Jesus of the Curse, and of Death, when he had this sense of them, that they made him lovely to his Father, attracted his Fathers Heart to him, and made him more in love with him.

The blackest Cloud, that resteth upon Christ, discovered itself to his Spiritual Eye to be in truth a Glory surrounding him. All the griefs of his Heart appeared to be Jewels of Glory, and Immortality hanging in his Bosom. For, saith Christ, when he was now to suffer; now is the Son of Man Glorified; and again, he saith, the Father is Glorified in the Son. O! how d • fferent is the truth of things in the Spirit from the outward appearance in the Flesh? When Jesus Christ was spit upon, Scourged, Crucified, as this World gives, forms, and names of things, then in the sense, and language of Heaven of Eternity, of the Eternal, and Spiritual Principle in himself, he was glorified; all these were as so many fresh Lights of Glory, in which his Person shines forth to itself, and to the Father, in which the Fathers Person shines forth in his Person, as in a new Heaven with new, and increasi •• Beauties.

O you, that are Followers of Christ, what a mystery of Spiritual Joy, and Heavenly Glory is there in the life of a Saint, if this be to be a Saint, to walk on Earth, as Christ walked, that is, in a Spiritual Principle, in the midst of the Natural Principle, and Fleshly Image of things governing, comprehending, seeing, handling, rellishing all in the Divine Light, Beauty, and Sweetness of the Eternal Spirit? When the blackest Cloud of melancholy rests upon thy Spirit, when the sharpest Sword of Grief pierceth thy Heart, retire into thy Spiritual Principle, there thou shalt be, as on Mount Tabor, the Mount of Transfiguration, where the Face of thy God shall be as a pleasant Sun of Joy, and Glory shining forth in its strength within thee, and the whole Image of things in thee, and round about thee, as a Garment of Light all weaved, and wrought with the freshest, and purest Beams of this Sun in all living, and immortal Figures of the highest Joys, and Glories.

5. Propos. The Curse with the stings, and sense of it upon the Natural, and Temporary Principle, as also the conflict between the Natural, and Temporary; the Supernatural, and Eternal Principle in the Lord Jesus thorough his whole Person, as it lived in a Human Soul, and Body, were highest at his Death. The Lord Jesus saith, the Prince of this World cometh: This is your hour, and the power, or principality of Darkness. The Devil came now to make his two last, and most furious assaults upon the Lord Jesus in the Garden, and upon the Cross. He therefore comes with all the powers of Darkness, and Legions of Devils, with all the blackest, and most dreadful Furniture, and force of Wrath from Hell below, from Earth, and Heaven above, as the Prince of this World, and the Prince of Darkness. The Battle was so sore against the Lord Jesus, that he himself, who was the Wisdom, and Power of God was amazed. He, who was the eternal delights of his Father day by day cries out, My Soul is very sorrowful even unto Death; The word in Greek is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ; which signifieth an excess of sorrow, and a surrounding sorrow. All things round about the Lord Jesus were hung with a blackness of Darkness, and amazing horrors, that he himself, who bears up the weight of all things, could hardly sustain the weight of his own fears, and sorrows, or sustain himself in Life under them. He falls beneath them to the ground. His whole Person is so pressed, and oppressed with them, that through the agony of his Spirits, the boiling blood is strained forth through all the parts of his Body. He cries to his Father thrice: Angels are sent from Heaven to strengthen him, and comfort him.

But after this, the conflict upon the Cross was yet sharper. Now the Prince of Darkness grows desperate, knowing that this is his last effort, and that now at once he fights for his Kingdom, Liberty, and Life, that his whole Kingdom of Darkness, and his Person too depend upon this one Fight. The Earth-quake, the rending of the Rocks, the total Eclipse of the Sun, and the Universal Darkness upon the face of the whole Earth were Types of what Christ the Prince of Glory, and the Devil the Prince of Darkness suffered in this last Conflict; the like to which never was before, nor shall ever be. The whole frame of things shook, and trembled under the Feet of the Lord Jesus, and round about him. The Rocks, all the supports of his Soul, all the Foundations, and Pillars of his strength, and life were rent in pieces, and dissolved. The face of the Creature, the face of Heaven, the face of his Father were all covered with a thick, a threatening, and an amazing Darkness, as in a dreadful Tempest above the course, and force of nature. The Lord of Life, in whom all things subsist, is now sinking, and ready to give up all for lost. How deeply was his Heart pierced, how cruelly wounded, how were every glimpse of Light, every drop of Comfort intercepted and withheld, when he cried out; My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? What potent enchantment from Hell was this, what power of Darkness, what infusion of Wrath, what separation ten thousand times more bitter than Death, which so wrought, that he, who is God himself, seems divided from himself, and totally deserted by all the power, and sweet lights of the God-Head?

Thus you see in this 5th Proposition the trouble of Christ at its height: In the two following Propositions, you shall see, that notwithstanding this dreadful storm in the evening, and latest hour of his life, this beautiful Sun in his dying moment, as in the close itself of the day; casts up its cloud, comes forth Triumphantly, and no night follows.

Before we pass to the other Propositions, let us make a few short observations upon these.

1. See how dreadful, and hateful an evil Sin is by the effects of it in the Person of God himself, our Lord Jesus. Let not that be a light thing to us, which lay with so great weight upon him, neither let us be secure in our Lusts, Vanities, Covetousness, Sloath, playing with these, which were so many Serpents in the Bosom of Christ, and shot deadly stings into his Heart. Can we stand under those things, which had almost sunk the Son of God into despair, and Eternal Darkness? It is true God brings good out of the evil of Sin, order out of its disorder, and reconciles all into a beautiful Harmony of Divine Love, and Joy. But how? by how dear a price? by how precious an atonement? by how costly, how cruel, how bloody a Sacrifice? by how violent a conflict between all the powers of light, and darkness at once? by how dreadful a dissolution of the whole frame of things, with the blackest Tempest of Divine Wrath from above? by what horrors of Death in its ugliest shape, with its most venomous stings; and all this in the Person of God himself, our Jesus?

2. Be good Soldiers of the Lord Jesus. Endure hardships. Endure the fight of Sufferings. Think not strange to have the Clouds blackest, and the Storm greatest with Thunders, and Lightnings round about you in your latest hour, in old age, and death. Thus you bear the Cross of Christ. Thus you fight under the Banner of Love. A Husband in Bloods art thou to me, saith the Wife of Moses to him, concerning the Circumcision. Jesus Christ hath been a Husband in Blood to thee, O suffering Saint. Now art thou also indeed a Sister, and a Spouse to him in Blood. This Life is the Season of suffering. Christ suffered here. Can you not suffer with Christ one hour, the short Season of this fleeting Life? Think how glorious in the Eyes of all the Holy Angels, and of the Blessed Saints of Christ, and the Father you shall come into Heaven? How dear to the Bosom, and Embraces of them all, when you come most covered with Dust, and Blood, when you come immediately out of the greatest sufferings; when you come so much the lovelier, by how much the liker you are to Christ; when Christ, and the Father have been so much the more glorified in you; when they in their Glories have so much the more clearly, eminently shined forth in your Persons, and rested upon them, by how much the more extreme your sufferings have been? When the Father hath thus accomplished his will in you, what a Feast of Eternal Pleasures, what a Crown of Eternal Glories will he make this will of his to you, how will he accomplish your will in himself to the utmost height of all delights, & blessedness?

3. See here a threefold comfort against sufferings, and Death.

1. He, who hath conquered them is your Captain the Lord Jesus. We read Heb. 2. That the Captain of our Salvation, being to bring many Sons to Glory, was made perfect through Sufferings. There are four things in that word Perfect. 1. There was a perfection of sufferings in all kinds, and degrees. Nothing of any evil of sufferings in the evil of it was absent, or could be added. 2. Jesus Christ perfectly endured these sufferings in the sense of them, in the continuance under them, in pressures, and oppressions by them. 3. He was a perfect Conqueror over them. 4. To be made perfect, signifieth an initiation in Sufferings, as in Sacred, and Divine Mysteries. So Christ was at once in his Sufferings the Priest, the Altar, the Fire, the Sacrifice, the Temple, the God. This Jesus, thus a perfect, and a Divine Conqueror, over all Sufferings, who holdeth all evil of Sin, and Sorrow, as Captives, in Chains of Eternal Goodness, pure Love, Light, and Joy, He leads you upon Sufferings; he goes before you into them; he turns them all into Holy, and Heavenly Mysteries of Divine Life, and Love, and makes you in the midst of them, as Priests, like Aaron in his Priestly Robes, and Ornaments, and Anointings in the Temple of the Eternal Spirit.

2. You, O Saints, have nothing to do in your greatest Sufferings, that you may be Conquerors over them, but to abide in the Lord Jesus. He himself in his dying discourses, thus comforts his Disciples in the Gospel of St. John; In the World you shall have trouble, but in me you shall have peace, be of good cheer, I have overcome the World. Stand still, be steadfast, and unmoved in the Lord Jesus; so shall you never have any other sight of your Enemies, or Troubles, but such as the Children of Israel had on this side of the Red Sea, when they came forth with their Timbrels, and Dances. You shall see them drowned in the Sea of your Savior's Blood, in a Sea of Glory in his Victory, never to appear more in any melancholy shape. When thine Enemies encompass thee on every side, like mighty Floods, with greatest force and fury, lie down upon thy glorified Savior's Bosom, as the Bed of Love, have his high praises in thy mouth, sing aloud of his Love, his Loveliness, his Victory in his Death, his Resurrection, and return in the Spirit. So shalt thou see all the powers of Darkness, Death, and Hell under thy Feet, bound in Golden Chains of Love, Immortality, and Glory.

3. Look forth now with a Spiritual Eye, and see, that Sufferings, and Death are a name only, and empty shadows without any substance. The things themselves are forever destroyed by the Death of Christ, and buried in his Grave, never to rise more. A good Woman, a Martyr, being reproved for going with joy to the Fire, when Christ was sad at the approach of Death, answered; My Savior was sad, that I might be joyful. Sufferings, and Death are now to Saints, like Snakes, out of whom the Lord Jesus hath taken the Sting, that we may take them into our Bosoms, and make them our soft, and shining Play-fellows. They are become now in the Blood, and Spirit of Christ like Vipers in Wine, which have lost their Poison, and are high Cordials; like Bees they have shot their stings into the Lord Jesus, and lost them there. They have Honey now without any sting for thee to suck forth, and feed upon.

6. Propos. This Eternal Person, our Jesus with his God-Head in his whole Humanity both Soul, and Body in the moment of Death by dying, went entirely forth from the Natural, or Temporary Principle, and so from under the Curse. I shall open this by four Scriptures.

1. Scrip. Heb. 10. 19, 20. The Lord Jesus is said to have con •• erated a new, and living way for us to enter into the holiest through the Vail, that is, his Flesh, Math. 27. 50, 51. You shall see, that as Jesus Christ yielded up the Ghost, immediately the Vail of the Temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom. The Temple was a Figure of the Person of Christ, as the Vail was of this Flesh. How particularly, and emphatically is it expressed, that the Vail was rent from the top to the bottom, to its utmost extent in the Person of Christ? The Flesh was as a Vail lying upon the Divine Beauties upon the Eternal Person, and the Heavenly Image in the Soul, & Body of Christ. The Flesh of Christ was a dividing Vail, separating between the Lord Jesus, & the naked Beauties, the naked Bosom of his Father keeping his Soul, and Body, his blessed Person, and Divine Nature, as they subsisted in his Soul, and Body out of the holiest, out of the pure, and open Glories of the God-Head. As the Lord Jesus dies, in that same moment this Vail is rent from the top to the bottom, from the the highest part of his Soul, and Spirit to the lowest part, and appearance in the Body. Now the Holiest, the Heavenly Image, the pure, and naked Glories of the Eternal Person, of the God-Head were opened, and discovered thorough his whole Soul, and Body. His Soul, and Body both entered into the Holiest, into this Heavenly Image, into these pure Glories in the unity of the Eternal Spirit.

2. Scrip. John 19. 30. When the Lord Jesus was now breathing his last, he formed his last breath into these words, it is finished. As he spake those words, he bowed his Head, and gave up the Ghost. What was that, which was finished with the life of Christ? Not the work of our redemption. Many great, and principal parts of that remained still behind, the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus, his Ascension, his Intercession, his return in the Spirit at the pouring forth of that his last Appearance, his Judgment, and Kingdom. What then was that which was finished with the finishing of the life of Christ? The days of his abode in the Flesh without the Vail; his Humiliation, his Sufferings, the State of Nature, the Curse, the Wrath of the Father were now finished; the Spirit, and Image of this world, the hour, and power of Darkness, the bloody Fight with the Prince of Darkness, the Prince of this World were now at an end, as the life of Christ ended.

O you, who are followers of Christ, and predestinated to be conformed to him in your Lives, and in your Deaths▪ meet Death with Joy, with the shout of those, who cry out for victory. Now is your Warfare accomplished; now is your Captivity in the Fleshly Spirit, and Image at an end. You shall dwell now no more in Meshek, at a distance from the Divine Glory, nor sojourn in the Tents of Kedar, in the Land of Darkness. The Vail of the Flesh is now rent from the top to the bottom thorough your whole Soul, and Body. In both, as you seem to fleshly senses to enter into the shade of Death, you in that moment enter into the Kingdom of Light, the Glorious Palace of your Father, the Divine Beauties, and Joys of the Heavenly Image. You have now fought the good Fight, and finished it. Henceforth from this moment it is, that the Crown of Righteousness, the Crown of Life, and Immortality hath been laid up for you to be set upon your Heads, and worn by you, which God shall now give you from his own presence, from his own hand, in this day of Glory, which now breaketh, and riseth upon you.

3. Scrip. Colos. 2. 15. The Apostle speaking of Christ saith thus; and having spoiled Principalities, and Powers, he made a show of them openly, and triumphed over them in it, that is, his Cross, which was mentioned in the latter end of the foregoing verse.

There are three parts in this Scripture, which is a glorious description of the Victory of our Lord Jesus. 1. The Subject of his Victory. 2. The Victory itself. 3. The Seat of his Victory.

1. The Subject of Christ's Victory are Principalities, and Powers. The first word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , signifieth Principles. The second word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , signifieth Dominions, Principalities, and a power of ruling. By these names the Angels are expressed, as they are the Invisible Springs, out of which all visible things continually flow; as they are the Supreme Glories, Virtues, Powers, among things created, to which this present world is subjected, by which it is enlivened, enlightened, formed, acted, and ruled. Thus the Victory of Christ extendeth itself over the whole Creation, the whole frame of Nature in its Heavenly, Angelical, and unseen part; in that which is Earthly, and visible; in the Fountain-Glories, and flowing Streams; in the Princes on high, and their Principalities beneath.

2. The Victory itself is expressed in three steps. 1. The Spoil. 2. The Show. 3. The Triumph.

1. The Spoil. He spoiled Principalities, and Powers. The word signifieth to uncloath. The Lord Jesus, as a conquering Prince, unclothed the Invisible Princes of this World of all Power, Principality, and Appearance, by which means the whole Creation, and the frame of Nature, which stood by these Powers, in these Appearances, according to their first, and natural State, were dissolved, fell into the depths of Darkness, and confusion, disappearing forever.

2. The Show. Our Victorious Savior brought forth all the Principles, Powers, and Appearances of Nature, into the open light of the Eternal Spirit. There he led them as Captives through the Streets of the Heavenly Jerusalem, showing them, as the subjects, and marks of his Victory to all the Innumerable, and Glorious Inhabitants of that Blessed City of the great King.

3. The Triumph. He Triumphed over them. All natural Powers, Glories, Lives, and Images lay beneath the Feet of the Lord Jesus, as his Footstool, while he sat down upon a Throne of Glory, clothed all over with Garments of Glory, and wearing a Crown of Glory upon his Head. These are the three Parts of Christ's Victory.

3. The Seat of Christ's Victory was his Cross. He Triumphed on it. Hea • this all ye, that are one Seed, one Spirit with the Lord Jesus, that are made conformable to his Death in your Lives, and Deaths. Hear this; let it be written upon your Hearts in Characters of Glory with a living Beam from that bright Sun, the Face of our Lord Jesus, as he shines in the Eternal Glory of his most Blessed Victory, and Triumph. It was upon his Cross, it was upon his Cross, that the Lord Jesus spoiled, made a Show of, Triumphed over the Principalities, and Powers of this World.

Our Blessed Savior, in dying, by dying, in that very moment, by that very act, dissolves, and defaceth at once the whole frame of Nature, and of the first Creation. He taketh away from it all Power of being, subsisting, acting, or appearing. He blotteth out every natural Image, and form of Light, or Darkness; Life or Death, Beauty, or Deformity; Shame, or Glory; Grief, or Joy forever. You have this excellently painted out in a clear Prophesy, Psalm. 73. 20. As a Dream, when one awaketh; O Lord, when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their Image. The word Image signifieth a Shadow. The Eternal Word, the Heavenly Image, our Lord Jesus was in this Creation, as under the Vail of Darkness, and Night; as in a sleep. He bringeth forth, and beareth up all the Powers, and Forms of Nature, as a D • eam in this sleep, and as shadowy Images in this Dream. By dying he awakes out of this sleep, he sets an end to this Dream. The whole frame of Nature with all Forms, and Images of things within the vast compass of it either Visible, or Invisible, break up, fly away, and vanish, as a Dream, as the shadowy Images in a Dream, when a Man awaketh.

But neither are they quite lost. They only change their Principle, and Appearance. In the same dying moment doth the Lord Jesus, who is that Eternal, and Essential Image, in whom they all subsist, appear, and pass thorough their several changes, carry them with himself into the Divine Light, and Life of the Eternal Spirit. There are they seen again, as the Fruits of his Conquest, spoiled of all their own Life, Light, and Form, having put on a new Life, Light, and Form according to the Will of the Conqueror, to show forth his Power and Glory, to make them pleasant, and Eternal Spectacles of his Divine Triumph to all the Inhabitants of Heaven, and Eternity.

Now, before he is taken down from the Cross, even upon the Cross itself, the Lord Jesus, as he gives up his Spirit with his last breath, Triumphs in his Soul, and Body too, whose proper Seat the Cross was: In both, clothed with Triumphal Robes of an immortal Beauty, and Blessedness, he rides forth in the Glorious Chariot of the Heavenly Image, and of the Eternal Spirit. All the Powers, and Forms of Nature, of Life, and Death, the Cross itself, and the Crucifiers, as Captive; follow his Chariot, bound in the Golden Chains of Divine Light, and Love, making up the delight, and Glory of his Triumph.

This also doth the Psalmist clearly Prophesy of, Psal. 68. 18. Thou hast ascended up on high, thou hast led Captivity Captive. The descent of our Lord Jesus was finished with his Life. He begins his ascent upon his Cross the first moment of his Death. This World, with all its Powers, and Principalities, the life of this World, the Cross itself, and Death, which had so long captivated the Lord Jesus with all the Powers, Beauties, Joys, and Glories of his Heavenly Image, binding them in Chains of Darkness within the Dungeon of this Earthly Image, whose light is darkness, are now themselves in the Person of our Lord Jesus, in his Soul, and Body, together with his Captivity itself, carried up, as he ascends, and made Captives to that Heavenly Image, which they held Captive. Here, in this Palace of the Spirit, and of Eternity, where Darkness itself shines, as the Light, they are seen, as the Captives of the Lord Jesus, bound in Chains of Glory, spectacles to all the Holy Angels, and Blessed Spirits, in which the Beauties of Christ's Victory, and Triumph, as so many ravishing Wonders of an Incomprehensible, of a Mysterious Power, Wisdom, Love, Glory, Divinity, subduing all things entirely to themselves, eternally shine.

This honor have all the Saints in their Deaths, by the virtue of their Savior's Death, by virtue of their fellowship with him, and his fellowship with them mutually in their several Deaths, all in each Death dying together. Where now is the Melancholy of Death, and of the Grave? It is swallowed up into the Divine Pomp, and Pleasure of a most Glorious Victory, and Triumph. O Saint! What fearest thou in Death? Or thou, who fearest not to be dead why fearest thou to die? If thou rejoicest in the Glory of thy departed Soul, why mournest thou over thy Body, as left behind in a naked, and loathsome Prison? The act of dying to both is the gaining of a Glorious Victory over the Life, and Death; the Powers, and Principalities of this whole World. The passage itself out of this Life is a Glorious Triumph to thy Soul, and Body both, which, with all the Triumphal Ornaments of the Light of Life, and Immortality, ride forth in the Chariot of the Heavenly Image, and the Eternal Spirit over the Spirit, and all the forms of this Creation, which lie conquered under your Feet.

In the very moment of your dying, all the Powers, and Appearances of Nature, which rule in the Kingdoms of Sense, and Reason, are lost forever; so that their place, where once they reigned in your Persons, knows them no more. You sit down upon the Throne of Christ, and the Father together with them. All the Births, Images, and changes of time are swallowed up into the bright, the beautiful, the most delightful depths of Eternity, the unfathomable depths of purest Light, Love, and Joy immediately; as Triumphant Conquerors, and Kings, you are encompassed with the ravishing applauses, and shouts of innumerable Angels, of Immortal, and Glorious spirits, springing up, and shining forth in all the places of this World, where its Light, or Darkness Life, or Death seemed before to stand. You see all these with a Heavenly Music, and Songs of Triumph, setting Garlands, and Crowns of Victory on your Heads immediately, as you pass out of the Light of this Life, you see yourselves received, your Souls, and your Bodies both, with the most delicious kisses into the Eternal Embraces of the Father, and of Christ, in that Unity of the Spirit, which is the unfathomable center of all Lights, Loves, and Joys, of all beautiful, and blissful Spirits created, and uncreated. All now forever are filling full your Joys in themselves, and fulfilling their Joys in you.

4. Scrip. Heb. 2. 14. That he by dying might destroy him, who had the power of Death, that is, the Devil, and set them free, who all their life time were subject to bondage by the fear of Death. The word Power, in this place signifieth properly a Prince with a Principality, or Dominion. This whole world is the Principality of the Devil. For the Devil is called in Scripture the Prince of this world. All Flesh, everything of Nature, and of this Creation is comprehended under that name, as it is distinguished from, and opposed to the Spirit, and the new Creation in the Spirit, the Kingdom of God in the Holy Ghost, and is the Principality of the Devil. All Darkness every shadow, every evil of Sin, or Suffering; of Corruption, and the Curse; of Shame, Deformity, Pain, Grief, and Wrath, as all these are expressed in the Scripture, and in common Language, with every other kind, or degree of Evil, by Darkness, are the Principality of the Devil. For the Devil is called the Prince of Darkness. Death is the Devils Principality, who in this Scripture is called the Power, or Prince of Death. All this then hath Jesus Christ by dying destroyed in his own Person, this World; the Principles, and Forms of Nature; the Life, and Images of Flesh; every Darkness inward, or outward, of mind, or sense; Death itself. For all these lie within the Principality of the Devil, and are his Region, his Kingdom; without the bounds of this Dominion all things are Light, Life, Love, Joy, Immortality, Spirit, and Truth.

As it is Jesus, who dies again in the Death of every Saint; as the Death of every Saint is the Death of Christ acted over again in the similitude, by the virtue of his Death: so doth every Saint, as he is one Spirit with Christ, after the like manner, by dying destroy the Principality, the Kingdom of the Devil in his Person also. For this is said to be the end of Christ in his Death, that he might free all the Saints from the fear of Death. O Believers! Let your Savior gain his end upon you, and end of most tender Love. Be no more in bondage to the fear of Death. Let the Lord Jesus see the seed of his Death springing up in your Deaths, a Glorious, and Divine Seed of Life, and Immortality springing up in the place of Death, and swallowing it up into Victory. Lay aside now forever those melancholy, and delusive Imaginations of Death, as a separation of those tenderest Bosom-Friends, Soul, and Body; a separation from your dearest Relations, and entertainments, the delights of your Eyes; an extinguishing of the sweet Light of Life; a dismal solitude, a perpetual Darkness; the Confinement of the Body to the nakedness, coldness, streightness, and horror of the Grave; Dust, Stones, and Bones covering it, and rattling over it; Worms feeding upon it; the Soul naked, and alone taking its flight through a vast distance of empty air, and space to another place. These are the Forms, and Appearances of Death to the Dead only. Those, who follow Jesus Christ in that living, and shining way, in which he went thorough Death, meet with none of these appalling, and affrightful Apparitions. Let the Dead bury their Dead, saith Jesus Christ to his Disciples, but follow thou me.

Understand this, O Believers, that all Shadows, all Forms of Darkness, and of Death are from below, Earthly, Sensual, Devilish, from the Earth, from the Natural Soul, and from the Devil, as St. James speaks. All this Image, and sense of things is that Kingdom of the Devil, which together with the King himself, which the Lord Jesus by dying, in himself, in thee, hath everlastingly destroyed in his own Person, in his own Death, and in thine by the virtue of his own. As an Inchantment, so is this whole Frame, and Form of things dissolved, so doth it vanish at the going forth of thy last breath. If thou seek now for the region of Shadows, and the Land of Darkness thou findest it no more forever, as he that would seek for the Night, the Nightly Shades, and Forms of things when the Sun is once risen. Let thy Soul, and Body both then rejoice together, and rest in this assurance, that in their departure out of this Life, in the passage of Death they shall meet with nothing of loss, nothing uncouth, nothing unpleasant, nothing of Darkness, of Division, of Death, of the Devil; but the most beautiful, and blessed Face, the most dear, and delightful Embraces of the Lord Jesus, as a Glorious Lover, as a Heavenly Bridegroom immediately presenting himself, immediately receiving them. In the same moment do all things here disappear, and all things appear again, as they are reconciled into a most ravishing Harmony of Divine Beauty, and Love: As they are gathered up into their Head, into their first Glory, their Eternal Unity in the Glorified Person of Christ.

7. Propos. This same Jesus in his whole Person, with his whole Soul, and Body, in the moment of Death, by dying went forth entirely into the simplicity, and singleness of his Supernatural, and Eternal Principle, and so into a State of pure Eternity, unmixed Joy, and Glory.

I shall endeavor to explain, and confirm this Proposition by the fuller opening of a Scripture, which I have often touched.

Psalm. 16. 9, 10. 11. Thus we read: Therefore my heart is glad, my Glory rejoiceth, my Flesh also shall rest in hope. For thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell; neither wilt thou suffer thy Holy One to see corruption. Thou wilt show me the path of Life; in thy presence is the fullness of Joy, at thy Right Hand are Pleasures for evermore. This is a Prophesy of Christ in his Death. David, as a Prophet, speaketh concerning Christ, and in the Person of Christ. So St. Peter interpreteth, and applieth this Scripture. Acts 2. 25.

This then is the Triumph of Christ in Death, over Death, which Triumph consisteth of four Parts. 1. The Subject. 2. The Triumph. 3. The Ground. 4. The manner of the Triumph.

1. The Subject of Christ's Triumph. This is threefold. 1. The Soul. 2. The Glory. 3. The Flesh of the Lord Jesus.

1. The Soul. This seemeth to be that unseen, and principal part of the Natural Man, which in our common language is opposed to the Body, as the Visible and inferior part.

2. The Glory hath a twofold acception. David's Harp, and his Tongue, were his Glory upon two accounts; both, as he was a sweet Singer, a most skillful Musician; and also as he was the sweet Singer of Israel, as his Harp, and Tongue recorded the Praises of God, and made all things round about him to resound the perfections and loves of the Lord Jesus. Thus the Tongue of Christ was his Glory, as he is the sweet Preacher in Jerusasalem, the Heavenly Interpreter, one of a thousand, who showeth to Man his Righteousness, and his rest. But again this Glory in David was the Spiritual Man, the birth of the Spirit, the Seed of God, the Life of Christ, Christ in David. This Glory in Christ was the Spiritual Man, the Heavenly Image, the Divine Nature, the God-Head. For so Heb. 1. 1. Jesus Christ is said to be the brightness of the Glory of God, as he is the express Image of his Person, and Substance.

3. The Flesh of Christ is his Body, as it is distinguished from the Soul, and is covered with a Vail of Flesh, under which Vail it contains within itself those other two, the Soul, and the Glory. This is the threefold Subject of the Triumph; the Natural Body, the Natural Soul, the Eternal Spirit, as it inhabiteth in these.

2. The Triumph itself is expressed in those four words; Gladness, Joy, Rest, and Hope. Gladness is the same with Joy. The State of Blessedness in Heaven, and Eternity is expressed by Joy. The Lord Jesus saith to the Good, and Faithful Servant; Enter thou into thy Masters Joy. St. Peter calls the Blessedness which we have here in believing, and loving the Lord Jesus, which is Heaven upon Earth; a Joy Glorious, and unspeakable. As our Lord Jesus died, the Human Soul of Christ before imprisoned in a Fleshly Body, went forth to be comprehended, and swallowed up in that Joy, which it could not take in, nor comprehend, because it was boundless, and infinite. His Divine Nature, which in this Human Soul, together with it, had been veiled by an Earthly Body now breaks forth and shines out into the freedom, and full liberty of its own unconfined delights, and unveiled Glories. My Soul, saith Christ, is glad, and my Glory rejoiceth.

The Triumph of Christ in his Body, and his Flesh is set forth by Rest, and Hope. which two words import Life, Sense, a Sweetness, and fullness of Life, and Sense with Immortality.

The Sabbath in the beginning of the Creation, as it figureth the perfection of a Sanctified, and blessed State in Christ, and in Heaven, is expressed by Rest, the name Sabbath signifieth Rest.

The Land of Canaan, as it was a Land of Rivers, and Springs, and floods of Water; as it was a Land flowing with Milk, and Honey, and so a Type of that good Land, that flourishing Land of the Spirit, and of Eternity, where the Fountains, and full floods are of all Divine Goodness, and Truth, is expressed by Rest. Joshua, who gave the Land of Canaan to the Jews, is said to give them Rest.

That perfect Cessation from all trouble, that perfect Consummation of our Happiness in the quieting of all our desires by the full accomplishment of them, that terminating of all our motions to good in their most wished for end, the chief good, which the Lord Jesus, which the Gospel, which Faith bringeth us to in an immediate, entire, eternal Union with God; all this the Holy Ghost expresseth by Rest. Come to me, and I will give you Rest, saith the Lord Jesus. He that believeth, entereth into Rest, saith the Epistle to the Hebrews. Thus the Body, and Flesh of Christ rest in Death. These are the words, as he dies, in his Song of Death: My Flesh also doth rest in hope.

The Hebrew word for Hope, signifieth two things, Confidence, and Hope.

Confidence implies a double certainty. 1. A certainty in the object, which is the good in prospect, or in possession; hoped for, or already enjoyed. 2. The certainty of the Subject, which is a sweet, a deep, a clear Sense, and Seal upon the Soul of the certainty of the object, of the certainty of that Good, which it hath in fruition, or expectation. This twofold Certainty maketh that confidence, or assurance which compleateth, or crowneth the Souls Rest.

In this confidence doth the Flesh of the Lord Jesus rest in Death. It hath no more forever any Conflicts, or Allarms. It is overspread with a sweet, and clear Heaven. It breaths in a gentle, and delicious air, where there is no storm, no rain, nor cloud. It is in a State of immutable joys, where there is no Death, no Shadow of Death, no trouble, no fear, no shadow of fear, or any such thing. All things sing an eternal requiem, and rest to it.

As the Flesh of the Lord Jesus resteth in Confidence; so it resteth also in Hope. Hope is good in prospect, or in progress, At our first conversion the Eternal day breaketh upon us. While we live on Earth in a State of Grace we have sweet, and clear streaks of the Light of Life appearing thorough our Spirits, which still grow clearer, and brighter unto a perfect day. But all this while there are dark, and black shades of the Night, Sins, and Sufferings everywhere mingled with the pure Light of this blessed Day. At Death it is perfect Day. The shadows of the Night are perfectly drunk up into the rising Light, that now they appear no more in dark Forms, but are seen only, as by a lovely temperature with the Light, they make beautiful, and pleasant colors of Saffron, and of Roses. In the Resurrection the body of the Sun, the Eternal Sun, the Lord Jesus, in the Glory of his God-Head ariseth upon Soul, and Body both, and is nakedly seen, nakedly enjoyed, without the Vail of any dark, and nightly shade, or any Floury, Spicy, or morning shade. From the Resurrection to the utmost point of the ascension, this Divine Sun is rising higher, and higher in Glory upon us, till he comes to that Noon-stead of Eternity, and of the God-Head, where there is no more any ascent, or descent, where the Unity is entire, where god is one, and that one God is all in all. In the Confidence, and full assurance of this Hope doth the Flesh of our dying Savior, and of every dying Saint rest.

Object. But you may say, we have formerly seemed to affirm according to the Language of the Scripture, that the days of Christ on Earth before his Death, were alone the days of his Flesh; that the Flesh of Christ was a Vail upon his Body, which was rent in Death; that it was not the substance of his Body, nor its true, proper, and natural Form; but a darkening, and dividing Form, in which the Body of Christ appeared, and with which it was clothed in the State of fallen Nature, in the State of his Humiliation, in his Earthly State. This State ended, this Form was put off in Death. How then had the Flesh of Christ a part in his Triumph? How did the Flesh of Christ rest in Hope?

Ans. In a Garden of Flowers by night, the Flowers are seen in dusky, and dark Forms, while the shades of the night lie upon them, as Vails upon their Beauties. When the bright day riseth upon this Garden, the Flowers appear in their naked, and shining Beauties, in their proper and lovely Figures; their dark appearances, together with their darkening vails the shades of the night, are drunk up, and transformed into the brightness of the Rosy morning. The Body of the Lord Jesus, and of all his holy Ones, are the immortal Flowers, Flowers of the Heavenly Paradise. Their Fleshly Form is the shadow of the night upon them, their dim, and dusky appearance thorough this Shadow. Death is the lovely, and rosy Morning of the Eternal Day rising upon them. The Spirit of Glory, and of God is the brightness of this Day. The Flesh is now changed into Spirit, the dusky appearance thorough the Vail of Flesh into a Spiritual, and Heavenly brightness. In this brightness these bodies, of which we spake, shine forth in their naked, native shapes, and Beauties, from all parts they shed a Divine Luster, they breath a pure sweetness of Divine Joys, like the Flowers of the Spring in a fair morning. Thus the Flesh of Christ resteth in Death.

3. The ground of this Triumph is the inseparable union between the God-Head, and the whole Humanity of Christ living, or dying, These are the words of the Lord Jesus by his Spirit in the mouth of David: Thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell. Expositors agree, that the word Hell signifieth not a place of torments according to the common acception, but the State of Soul, and Body in Death. The Greek word, by which it is rendered in the New Testament is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , which by its notation signifieth the State of things Invisible, or the Invisible State of things.

It is also well known that the Soul in the language of the Old Testament is not used to express only one part of a Man, but the whole Person.

It is a Maxim in Divinity laid down by all learned, and holy Men, that when the Natural Union between the Soul, and Body of our Lord Jesus ceased in Death, the Supernatural, and Hypostatical, or Personal Union between the Divine, or Human Nature in both parts of it remained inviolable, and entire. Thus it is frequently said, that although the Soul of Christ was separated from his Body in the Grave, yet the God-Head was never separated from either. O sweet and sure truth! A Spring of Holy, Heavenly, and Immortal Joys in Life, and in Death. This Truth rightly understood is a blessed Light, which discovereth to us a Divinity in our Life here, Immortality in Death, and Heaven in the Grave. This Divine Truth is the rich ground of our dear Savior's Glorious Triumph over Death in Death.

There was a twofold band of Union between the Soul, and Body of Christ while he lived in Flesh, one Natural, the other Supernatural.

1. The Natural Union was that composition of soul, and Body, by which he became a Natural Man, and had the true Forms, Substance, and Essence of a Man, sprung from the first Adam. This band of union was broken in Death, by which means the Natural Man now was no more forever according to its Natural State, and Principle, but vanished like a shadow, breaking up into the Light of a Spiritual Glory.

2. The Supernatural Union is that of the second Person in the Trinity, which is the Eternal God; who at the Incarnation of Christ made himself Flesh, that is, a complete Man, himself subsisting, as the single, and undivided Person in this Man, in both parts of this Man, in Soul, and in Body, giving in like manner a personal subsistence to them in himself, that the Divinity, and the Humanity in its Soul, and in its Body both were all one simple individual, indivisible Person. This is that, which Divines call the Hypostatical, or Personal Union in Christ, which remained firm, and altogether unimpaired in Death itself.

See now the beautiful, and delightful consequences of this Union. The Soul, and Body of Christ continued immediately, intimately sweetly, triumphantly united upon the Cross, in the Grave, were both one Immortal, Glorious Person, by the Heavenly, and Personal Union in, and with the Eternal Word. Soul, and Body were separated in respect to their Natural Union, and Composition. All the Relations, and Delights of both; all the precious Treasures, all the clear Images, and Lights of Life with the sweet life itself vanished, and fled away, so far as they were founded upon the Natural Union, the band being broken, which tied them all together in one, at the dissolution of this Union. But all these still dwelt together undivided, still possessed, and enjoyed one another after the most intimate manner without allay, or interruption in the Unexpressible, and Glorious Unity of the Eternal Word the Second Person in the Trinity. This Unity was a Divine Band, an undivided Center, a living Spring, an unfathomable depth of Loves, and Glories, where they lay perpetually enfolded in the warm embraces each of other, covered with all the sweetest Lights, and Beauties even upon the bitter Cross, and in the cold Grave never to be divorced from each other. Separation itself was here only a various, and delightful form of embracing in the Unity of this Eternal Person.

4. In the fourth, and last place follows the manner of the Triumph This hath three parts.

1. The Triumph over Corruption, expressed in these words; Thou shalt not suffer thy holy One to see Corruption.

2. The Triumph of Life, Thou wilt show me the path of Life.

3. A Triumph in the Pleasures of Life, In thy Presence is fullness of Joy, at thy Right Hand Pleasures for evermore.

1. The first part in the manner of the Triumph is the Triumph over Corruption. Thou wilt not suffer thy Holy One to see Corruption. The Triumphant Person here is the holy one of God, the holy Son of God, the pure Seed, Birth, and Image of God, Jesus Christ in his Divine, and Human Nature, as he is in both the Holy One of God, the Holy Birth, and Son of God, Jesus Christ in himself; Jesus Christ in David, David in Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ in the Holy Soul, and Holy Body of every Member of Christ, as they are the Spiritual Births, and Spiritual Temples of the Holy Spirit. This is the Person, which Triumphs in Death.

That which he Triumphs over is Corruption. There is a complication of four Evils in Corruption. 1. Division, or Dissolution, which is the chief, and the Root of the other Evils. 2. Darkness increasing. 3. Deformity overspreading. 4. Decay, which is a tendency to a destruction of Being, or to a contrariety in Being, to all the good of Being. Over all these Evils of Corruption Jesus Christ Triumpheth, as he dieth.

1. Jesus Christ Triumpheth over Division, or Dissolution in Death. The Eternal Unity of his Divine Person was at once, as a Root, and a Band to both his Natures, to both parts of his Human, Nature, to all the Powers, and parts of his Soul, and Body, to the several Elements in his Body, to all Perfections of Glory, Grace, and Nature in all Powers, and Parts of the Human Soul, and Body. All were, as an Immortal Nosegay, or a Mysterious Knot of Divine Flowers ever inseparably united in this Band, ever unfadingly flourishing in this Root of the Hypostatical Union, or the Divine Unity of the Eternal Person, which was indissoluble in Death itself. Yea those Separations, which are Natural, and necessary in Death, were themselves Flowers of the Heavenly, and Earthly Paradise bound up with this Heavenly Band in this ever-fair, ever-fragrant Nosegay.

2. Jesus Christ dying, Triumpheth over the gloomy horrors of the increasing darkness, which ariseth from the hateful Womb of Darkness in the dreaded vaults of Death. The Divine Nature, which is inseparable from the Human Nature, the Personal Unity, which is really, and substantially one with the Divine Nature, which gives a subsistence in itself to the Human Nature, and makes it in its Personal subsistence one with the Divine; this is a brightness of Glory shining in the Grave, this is a Golden Candlestick, in which all the seven Lamps of God burn continually by day, and by night before the Throne of God, and make the vaults of Death themselves a Temple of Gold, and Crystal filled with the sweet Beams of the Heavenly, Eternal Sun. All things, even Death, and the darkness of Death are as precious Stones set together in the rich Jewel of this Person, or Hypostatical Union, where no one Stone contracts the least degree of dimness, but all in the midnight of Death itself ever sparkle with the sweetest, and clearest water of Eternal Life.

3. The deformity of Death, as it springs up out of the Corruption in Death, is the subject of our dying, and dead Savior's Triumph. The Heavenly Image of the God-Head, which is the supreme Beauty the Arche-type, and first Pattern of all Beauties upon the Mount of Eternity, is the Person of Christ, in which the Divine, and Human Nature with all its changes of Life, and Death stand, and subsist together. Can anything be deformed in Beauty itself? Can anything be Unlovely, where the highest, and purest Loveliness shines thorough all, and over all? What must the Harmony, what must the amiableness, and agreeableness be; how exact, and ravishing, as in Heaven itself there, where the Supreme Unity, the most Sacred Unity of one of the most blessed Persons in the All-glorious Trinity, diffuseth itself thorough all the variety of things, Divine, and Human, of Soul, and of Body, binding up all by itself immediately into the most perfect, and Divine Order, and gathering up all into one most perfect, and Divine Person in itself? How High, and Glorious is the Triumph of Divine Beauty over the deformity of Death, when thus the Eternal Beauty itself dies, dressing itself up in the Forms of Death, and giving to Death its own most lovely Face, which enflames the highest Angels, and God himself with Eternal, and Infinite Loves? In the place of Deformity, what potent, what attractive charms of Loveliness hath this Death to ravish Souls into the bosom of it, which are thus to die by a Fellowship with the Lord Jesus, as he dies?

4, The last Evil in the Corruption of Death is the decay, which is a Tendency to a Nothingness, a Privation, the destruction of the being of things, or to a contrariety to all good in Being. This is that dark Cave, that bottomless Pit, out of which, like the smoke of Hell, like gastly, black, and flaming apparitions from Hell, the deepest, and darkest Melancholy, the most dismal Horrours, and the most horrid Imaginations from the sense, and fear of Death issue forth, and cover the face of the Soul, as pitchy, and stormy Clouds cover the Face of Heaven. How does the dying Soul dread to be cast forth into the uttermost Darkness to be dispossessed of itself together with all thigns? To be endlessly sinking in an abyss, or bottomless deep of a vast emptiness, and a cheerless, formless shade? to be no more? or to be in the midst of all the wounds, and torments that Being is capable of? to be consuming so, as ever to wish it as the only medicine of ones evil, and ever to fear it, as the greatest of all Evils, as the most incomprehensible Evil, to be no more?

How sweet, and delightful was the Triumph of our Lord Jesus over this Monster, which stands with so grim, and frightful a look in the Gate of Death? O Corruption! O Decay! O Destructions! where is your Victory? Jesus Christ comes into the empty, and obscure shades of Death with the fullness of the Godhead with all the Lights of the Divine Nature, of Angelical, and created Glories, of Heaven, and Eternity, with their full splendours shining together all at once in the Unity of his Divine Person. This Person, which is the Fulness, that filleth all in all, which is the Brightness that shineth eternally in the Divine Essence, now filleth the whole space o • Death, now enlighteneth it thorough-out, now becometh the stage, and Scene of Death, supporting it on his delicious Bosom, bounding it with his bright, and blissful Beams. Where is the emptiness, where is the shade, where is the bottomless Pit of Dread, & decay in Death? They are all swallowed up into shining, full, & substantial Glorys in this Triumph of our Savior over Death. These are the Evils of Corruption in Death, over which Christ triumphs.

See row the height of this Triumph. Thou wilt not suffer thy Holy One to see Corruption. Jesus Christ passeth so triumphantly through the Regions of Death▪ that Corruption loseth not only its force, but its appearance 〈◊〉 his presence. Jesus Christ seeks for the place of Corruption, and finds it no more. Thou, O God, wilt not suffer thy Holy One to see Corruption. The God-head itself, the Divine Person of Christ, the Divine Nature inseparable from that Person goes before the Lord Jesus, as a Guide, when he passeth through this waste Wilderness. It cometh behind him, as a Rearward of Glory. It encompasseth him on every side with its highest Brightnesses, and Blessednesses. It suffereth him to see nothing but Itself on every side of him. The living, & shining Glorys of his God-head are Light, and Eyes to his dead Body in the Grave. With these, and with these alone his Divine Person now looketh forth thorough his Body in the Grave, thorough the Grave, to the utmost bounds of the Regions of Death. In this Light, to these Eyes all things near at hand, and afar off throughout, are a shining Prospect of Living Beauties to Eternity. This Divine Light, and these Divine Eyes are a Divine Flame, which in a moment, in the twinkling of an Eye break up all Shades of obscurity, fill all space with their own Brightnesses, transform all Shapes even Corruption, and Death into the same Divine Forms with themselves to the utmost bound of things. Thus God suffereth not his Holy One to see Corruption.

2. The second part is the manner of the Triumph: the Triumph of Life is expressed in those words; Thou shalt sh • w me the Path of Life. There are here two remarkable Triumphs over Death, 1 Life in Death; 2. The sight, and Triumphant sense of this Life.

1. Life in Death is declared by the Path of Life, which is made for the Lord Jesus thorough Death. Noah with his dear Relations, and all kinds of Creatures kept dry, and safe in the Ark, while the fountains of the great Deep were broken up from below, and the windows of heaven were opened from above to cover all things with a Flood of Waters; the Children of Israel in the Land of Goshen, wh •• re there was Light, and Rivers of Water, while darkness was upon the whole Land of Egypt, and the Rivers in it were turned into Blood; the Children of Israel passing in a dry path thorough the Red Sea, which overwhelmed the E • yptian King with his whole Army; the Three Children with the similitude of the son of God walking in the midst of the fiery furnace, which burnt their bands only, and devoured their enemies, which cast them in, all these were Figures of Jesus Christ passing in a Path of life thorough Death. The Lord Jesus himself in his Heavenly, & divine form, as he is the Essential Image of his Father is his own Way, and Life thorough Death. This is the Fountain of Life, and Eternity itself. This hath all Lives bound up in one, like those innumerable Beams, which pour forth themselves through all things in Heaven, and on Earth, united in the sun. Here Life riseth up in its greatest Fulness, in its freshest, purest, and sweetest Streams, where all the strengths, Beauties, and Joys of Life are at their greatest heighth. Thus the Godhead in its Essential Image stands in every part, and point of the Human Nature of Christ dying, or dead. Thus it stands in every step, and point of its Way through Death. Thus it makes it all, as a Fountain and F • ood of Life. As the Milky way in Heaven, where innumerable Stars mingle their Beams into one Path of Light: Such is the Way of Christ in Death, which is all a mixture, or contexture of the innumerable Beauties, and sweetnesses of Life rising up fresh from the innumerable springs of Life in the Bosom of this Heavenly Image, which is Eternity, and the Divine Essence itself in its own substantial Form.

2. The Triumphant sight, and sense of Life accompanys the Lord Jesus in this Path of Life thorough Death; as is signified by those words, Thou 〈◊〉 show me, or make me to know the Path of Life. As a Princely Bridegroom leading his Royal Bride in his hand thorough delightful walks, when the spring is in its prime, makes her to observe all the delights in the Walks, saying to her; see, how pleasantly all things look; how sweetly Heaven and Earth smile one upon another; how lovely the leaves, and blossoms are upon the Trees, the grass, and the Flowers upon the ground; how pleasantly the birds sing in every bush; how pure, and sweet the air; is how 〈◊〉 the year is now: Thus God the Father leads Jesus Christ; thus the Divine Nature in the brightness of its Glory leads the Human Nature thorough the Pa • h of Life in Death, as a heavenly Bridegroom its dearest Bride. He lo • k forth upon him with a flaming eye of Love, he saith to him; behold a new and large prospect of Divine Lights, and all the Beauties of Life in Death; with what spicy sweetness, and immortal perfumes the Spirit of Life, and Love, as the Air of Paradise, and Heaven itself breaths upon all things here 〈◊〉 do Heaven, and Earth, the uncreated and the created Image of things reflect the same Beauties, and sweetnesses one upon another, like the Living Face, and the Face in a Crystal Mirrou • ? How do all glories in their lovelyest Forms, & richest Varieties, looking down from above, sprouting forth, and blossoming from beneath, meet and kiss each other? How do Angels, how do Immortal, and shining Spirits spring, and sing everywhere? How doth the Shade of Death itself, mingling itself with all these, surrounding this Divine Light, & at the same time surrounded by it, give a solemn sweetening, and heightening to all, like the Base string to the Music of a Lute, making Death itself another Heaven distinct from the Heaven after Death, and contending with it for delightfulness? Thus God the Father maketh Christ to see the Path of Light in Death.

3. The third part in the manner of the Triumph, the Pleasure; In thy presence are all pleasantnesses, and at thy right hand Pleasures for evermore.

Three pleas • n things are here presented in one: 1. The Seat of Pleasure: 2. The Perfection; 3. The Perpetuity of Pleasures.

1. The Seat of Pleasure is the Presence, and right hand of God. The Presence in Hebrew is the Face of God. The Son of God, The Eternal Word. The Essential Form of God, and the Brightness of his Glory, is the Face of God. Behold thou art fair, my beloved, yea thou art Pleasant, our Bed is green; saith the spouse in the Can • cles to Jesus Christ. He is that Eternal Form, and naked face of the Godhead where all the Pleasantnesses of the purest Beauties, Loves, and Joys, first spring, flourish and seat themselves. His Cheeks therefore in the same Book are said to be the Gardenbeds of the most fragrant Spices, and persumed Flowers, where the highest Beauties, and the highest sweetnesses are born, and married one to another, and bring forth an endless race of Loves, and Delights. This Face of God, in which all Loveliness, and Loves thus shine, and flame together is also set with so many eyes, which continually behold, and rejoice in their own Beauties and Pleasantnesses. This Face, this Form of God is the Person, which subsists in the Human Nature of Christ both Soul & Body, which in itself gives a subsistence to the whole Humanity of Christ living, and dying. Thus is it in the Grave and in the dead Body of Christ, the seat of all Pleasantnesses, the Throne of divine Beauty, & of Love in Death. It is also as a thousand never sleeping, never s • umbring eyes, in this blessed Body, with which it uninterruptedly contemplates in itself this Eternal face, and Form of God, this seat of Pleasantnesses, which is its own Person, its own self in its personal Unity, and subsistence.

The right hand of God is the Godhead in the strength, at the heighth of Love, Power Majesty, and Glory, as it is above all heavens. Here are Pleasures in their proper fear, in their greatest force, and fullness, as they transcend the joys themselves of all created Heavens. At this right hand of God is Jesus in the Grave. By this right hand of God, which hath all pleasures ever attending it, was he pleasantly led thorough the Shadow of Death: In the Bed of Death this right hand of the most High embraced him, that he might sweetly rest there in the midst of all the Pleasures of this Right Hand of his.

2. The Perfection of Pleasures is expressed by these two names of Pleasantnesses, and Pleasures. Pleasantnesses are the Objects of delight, or Pleasures in the object. Pleasures are the Delights themselves in the fruition, and enjoyment of those objects, or Pleasures in their Subject. The Subject, and the Object uniting, and mingling, and transforming themselves variously by their various mixtures in their union into one mutual life, and Form of Beauty, and Love, make Pleasure, and delight. You have here all Pleasantnesses in the Face of God, and so all Pleasures at the Right Hand of God.

The Lord Jesus dying, and in death beholds the Face of God. In this Face he at once beholds all pleasant forms and Forms of Pleasantness, the pleasantness of all Forms among Men, & Angels in their first & highest Patterns, to which the most Glorious spectacles, and spirits of Men, or Angels, are obscure Shadows and faint imitations. In this face he beholdeth pleasant Forms, incomprehensible for variety, and Glory, which never cast any the least shadow of themselves, nor were capable of being in the least degree imitated in the highest of created excellencies. Death itself is a divine Marriage-bed, in which Jesus Ch • ist receives all these pleasant Forms into his Bosom, as Lights of Glory shining thick thorough the Cristal Temple of his pure, and sacred Body in this Night of his Divine Death. He be • reth in his dead Body the impressions, and Figures of them all with the Heavenly substances themselves in these Impressions, and Figures like a seal of Gold fixed on Virgin-wax; his dying, and dead Body is transformed into one Life, and Form with those Original Forms of Pleasantnesses, being embraced by them, as by a Divine flame, which makes it one pure flame of Pleasantness, and Pleasure with itself.

3. The Perpetuity of the Pleasure; At thy right hand are Pleasures for evermore. Two things are here signified. 1. The continuation of Pleasures in the Person of Christ without any interruption: 2. The endlesness of those Pleasures. Jesus Christ saith to his Father in one Place, thou leadest me by thy right hand. The Lord Jesus was ever led by the right hand of the Father out of Heaven into the Virgins Womb, out of the Womb into the gloomy Light of this World, thorough this World, thorough Death, and the Grave into Heaven again. Thus was this blessed Person ever at the right hand of his Father, that is, at the right ha • d a • d Fountain of Power, Majesty, Love, Life, and Pleasures, in the Womb, on the earth, on the Cross, in the Grave. So was the Path of this righteous o • e a shining Light of divine Pleasures uni • terrupted thorough all these thick shades of the black ••• darkness.

There is one thing more in the duration of Christ's Pleasures signified in the last Verse of this Psalm above all this. The Lord saith to his Father, all Pleasa •••• sses are in thy Face. Behold here in one undivided point the full circle of Eternity, and that an Eternity of Pleasures; The Face of God with all Pleasant • esses in it. Eternity implies three things; 1. the Fulness of all Bei • g, 2. the utmost heighth of being; 3. the undividedness. In this Time falls below Eternity, that it is a contracted, successive Shadow.

The Face of God, which is his Essential Image, and substantial Form, the God Head itself in the second Person in the Trinity, which is our Lord Jesus, is this Eternity. This is that Person, which was Man, was Flesh, hung on the Cross, and lay dead in the Grave. No more could the Lord Jesus be separated from the Face of his Father in any part of his Soul, or Body in any season, either of Life, or of Death, than a person can be separated from itself, or the Lord Jesus be divided from the Second Person in the Trinity. Thorow every state, thorough the most cloudy days, and the most tempestuous Nights the Face of God, the Son of Eternity went along with the 〈◊〉 Jesus shining upon every Cloud, a • d Storm, shining thorough all, g •• ding all with the Joys, and Glories of Heaven itself. In this Face, as in the undivided Circle of Eternity always, at once, in every moment, and cast of his eye he saw, possessed, and enjoyed all pleasantnesses. In this Face of his Father, which is the Light of Eternity, he saw his own Face as he passed thorough all changes: Even then when he cried out, that he was forsaken by his Father, he beheld this forsaking of him, himself thus forsaken in this Glass the face of his Father in the midst of all Pleasantnesses, one of the Pleasantnesses, one with all the Pleasantnesses there. The A • gels that take care of Children here below in the midst of this their work on Earth, ever behold the Face of the Father in Heaven. How much more is it true of that Person who is the Face of the Father, who is one Essence and Substance with the Father, who unites the Human Nature, to the Divine Nature in the Unity of this Person? Shall not he much more see the face of his Father in Heaven, while he is on Earth, or in the Grave, serving the little Children of his Father, his younger Brethren, as their good Angel? This Face, in which all Pleasantnesses are at their fullness, at their heighth, was that Joy set before Jesus Christ upon the Cross, for which he en • ured the Cross, and despised the shame.

I shall now conclude this discourse of our dying, and dead Savior, of his sacred Body living, and immortal in Death with those four thi • gs which were too wonderful for Solomon; the way of a Ship upon the Sea; of an E • gle in the Air; of a Serpent upon a sto • e, or a rock; of a man with a maid, or, as it is in Hebrew, in a maid. The most learned Jews teach us to understand this, as the Myst • ry of the Messiah. The most learned of the Christian Divines give us such a Gloss as this upon it, while they make this place from the authority o • the Jews themselves to prove against them, that the Messiah was to be born of a Virgin. 1. The Man in the Maid is the Heavenly Man in Womb of the Virgin. 2. The Ship upon the Sea is the Human Nature in its Union with the Divine Nature, Sailing along in its course of time, and life here below upon the Sea of Eternity. 3. The serpent upon the S • o • e or the Rock, is the deep, and Glorious wonder of Death in the Person of Christ, who is the Rock o • Eternal Life, and God himself, who lives forever. 4. The Eagle in the Air is the Human Nature risen, and ascending in the Spirit to the right hand of the father above all Heaven to the utmost heighths of all Joys, and Glories of the Divine Nature, and Eternity.

Before I leave this Subject, I will point out one Use and Application of it. When a Voice came with Thunder to the Lord Jesus, declaring Love and Glory from on high upon him; Jesus Christ saith to his Disciples, T • is Voice came not for my sake, but for yours. In like manner these glorious things are spoken of Christ in his life, and in his death, not for himself only, but for all his Saints. Christ, and all the Saints, are one seed. To that one seed, to all the Saints in Christ, to Christ in himself, and in all his Saints, are all the Promises made.

All those pleasant things which we have spoken of Jesus Christ, and of his holy Body, in Death, are true of him, as his Human Nature is joined to the Divine Nature in one Divine and Eternal Person, which is the most High God. The same things are true in us also, who believe in him, by that Mystical Union, which joineth us to the Lord Jesus in one mystical Person and in the Unity of that Spirit, which is also the most high God, one with the Father, and the Son.

While we live, as Saints by the Faith of the Lord Jesus, we live not, but Christ liveth in us, we live, and we are Spiritual only, as we are Spirits, the Birth of the Eternal Spirit, and one Spirit with the Lord Jesus in his Resurrection from the Dead: All things in Heaven and on Earth, of Soul, and of Body, of Life, and of Death are Spirit, and Life to us.

It is true, that while we live on Earth, a fleshly Spirit, a fleshly Image, in which Satan hath his Throne, have a part in us, not as our true selves, but as our disguises, our diseases, our enemy, as evil Dreams in our sleep. These of •• n prevail over the Spiritual Man in us, and captivate us to many sinful Lusts, fears, and Griefs. But still the Spiritual man in itself, which is our true self, puts them under its feet, and makes them Captives to the Light, Love, and Immortality of the Spirit. The Spirit in us is like the Sua, which, when we think it under a Cloud, or eclipsed by the Moon, is so only to our Earthly Light, but in truth, and to itself it is upon its own Throne of Light triumphantly above the Clouds, and the Moon, comprehending them in the brightness of its own Glory.

But besides this, in the moment of Death this fleshly Spirit, and Image is forever cast out of all power, and rule in a Saint, and is entirely subdued to that pure, and Heavenly Spirit, which is the true Saint, which now with •• t any interposing veil or interrupting interval perpetually sees the glorious Face of Jesus Christ in itself, which is one Spirit with him, and the Glorious Face of the Father in Jesus Christ.

Yea one advantage of inexpressible Joy, and Glory hath the death of a 〈…〉 of Christ. The Death of Christ had all the stings of 〈…〉 cr •• ture • ver felt, or can feel, the guilt of Sin, 〈…〉 Wrath of the Father; all the Powers of Hell in 〈…〉 these stings are taken out of the death of a Saint. Christ is risen, all the Powers of evil subdued, captivated, and changed into mysteries of eternal Light, and Love in the Glorified Person of Christ, by the Virtue of his Resurrection. A Believer living, and dying stands in the Resurrection of Christ, is risen with him, in him. A Believer is married to Christ as he is risen from the Dead. His Life, his Death throughout all things of them both, are Divine Fruits of this marriage-bed, brought forth in the Bosom of God, to God.

Break forth then, O ye Saints, into singing, both living, and dying, tune your last breath to this song of the Lamb, and say like him; I have set my glorified Jesus, my Heavenly Bridegroom and the Father in him before me. My glorified Jesus, my Heavenly Bridegroom, and the Father in him is at my right hand; therefore shall I not be greatly moved. Therefore doth my Soul rejoice in Death, my Body also sweetly rests in the Grave, as in a Marriagebed, in the midst of all Divine delights, as Flowers of Paradise strewed upon it. It rests in the Bosom of my glorified Jesus my hope. This sweet, and sure hope is he, that will never leave my Soul in the state of Death; nor suffer his Holy One, his spouse, this Soul, or this Body, which he hath spoused, as chaste Virgins to himself, to see Corruption. No, no; my Bride-groom, with all his Lights of Glory, and the Father of lights in him, will accompany this Darling-Soul, and Darling-Body, his pair of Doves, which are to him as his two eyes, through Death, and the Grave. There will he, filling all things round about me with his shining Beauties, make me to see the Path of Life, & Immortality, all composed of innumerable Angels of Glory, or the innumerable Glories of the Godhead, as the Milky way in Heaven is said to be composed with innumerable Stars thick set. Thorow all the shades of Death shall I behold all pleasantnesses in his Face shining forth upon me with a fresh Glory, as a new Sun turning those Shades into a flowery, and perfumed Arbour in the Heavenly Paradise, I shall be continually at his right hand, where pleasures are for evermore without mixture, interruption, or end. Thus is his right hand, which is the heighth and Fountain of Life, and Pleasures, the beginning of my Life, my strength, and guide in my way, my end in Death.

We have finished the answers to the objection against the Immortality and Glory of the Body of a Saint together with the Soul in Death, which was taken from the Body itself, and strengthened by the particular consideration of the Body of Christ in Death, and in the Grave. We have finished the distinction between the two Bod • es, the Body of Death in a Saint, and the proper Body of a Saint, which is an ins • parable Member in the Spiritual, and Heavenly Body of Christ, and the Temple of the Holy Ghost, as the Soul is.

We come now to the last objection, taken from the resurrection of the Body at the last day, which seems to be without any sense, if our Bodies become Glorious and Immortal at our Death.

This Objection is answered by the distinction of three eminent steps, or degrees in the resurrection from the Dead. I shall take my ground, upon which I shall build this answer, and distinction from St. John Chap. 11. v. 25. these are the words of our Lord Jesus in that place; I am the Resurrection, and the Life. He, that lives, and believes in me, shall never die. He that beli • ves in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. The Lord Jesus is here comforting Martha mourning over her dead Brother: He propounds to her the comfort, and Joy of his Resurrection. Thy Brother, saith he, shall rise again. That, which would have been a present, and powerful Joy looked upon with a Spiritual eye in a Light of Glory, becomes to Martha a faint, and far distant Joy, while she looks upon the Resurrection a great way off, at the end of the World. So she answereth the Lord Jesus: Yea, Lord I know, that my Brother shall rise again at the last Day. The Lord Jesus scattereth this Cloud of Flesh by shining out upon Martha in the Brightness and Glory of his Heavenly, and Divine Person, as that Invisible and Eternal Sun, which is at once the Fountain, and Treasury of all Lights, Lives, and Forms of things in a state of Perfection, and unchangeableness. The Lord, as he shineth out upon her annointeth the eyes of her mind with his Spirit, and the Light of his appearance, to see him, as he is in the fullness of Glory, as the fullness of the Glory of God, and of all things dwelleth in him, as he is the same, and all things in him are the same yesterday, today, and forever. I, saith he, am the Resurre • tion and the Life. The latter of these is the cause, and demonstration of the former. It will not seem strange to him, who seeth the Lord Jesus to be the Life of all things, & all things in their most exact distinction to be living perfectly, and Ete • nally in him, in the vast, and unbounded Circle of the Unity of his Person, and Spirit, as in a secret Paradise, a Field of Light, and bliss above the Heavens, and yet invisibly present everywhere; that he should at his Pleasure bring forth things, which have disappeared here by Death, into new appearances, as Resurrections from the Dead, and present them again to our eye in the same Form, in which they before conversed with them, not as P • antasms, or as empty Apparitions, but real, and Substantial. Thus to Martha enlightened by this Spiritual Vision of Christ, it was easy to understand, that Jesus Christ could give her Brother Lazarus again out of his Grave, living, into her Arms even at that present time.

Having thus cleared my ground for my ensuing discourse by the opening of the words, I procced to my distinction of a threefold eminent degree in the Resurrection from the D • ad.

1. The first eminent step, or degree in the Resurrection from the dead is Regeneration, which signifieth a new birth, a second birth, to be born again of God, after the Death of that Life which we receive from him by our first Generation, as Sons of God by the Creation.

2. The Second eminent step, or degree in the Resurrection from the Dead is the Natural Death.

3. The last eminent step, and degree is the Resurrection of the Dead at the last day.

1. I shall begin with the first of these, that the difference between these th •• e Resurrections may more clearly appear. I shall lay it down in the form of a Doctrine.

Doct. Regeneration is a Resurrection from the Dead. St Paul clearly so expresseth it Eph. 5. v. 14. wherefore, he saith, Awake thou, that sleepest, and arise from the Dead, and Christ shall give thee Light. Behold three things here. 1. A Sleep. 2. The Awakening from this Sleep. 3. The cause of Awakening.

1. Here is a sleep; Thou that sleepest. Every man in his Natural state is a divine Spirit, an Immortal Soul, an Image of God, a Son of God in a deep Sleep. The Natural Sleep is defined to be a perfect ligation, or binding up of all the senses outward, or inward. But this is an unnatural Sleep, into which we are cast by the Enchantments, and Power of the Devil. It is the Sleep of Sin. O man, all thy senses and faculties, outward and inward, which were true, pure, and divine, in the Similitude of God, whilst they were awake, and at liberty, were continually feasted with divine Objects, they possessed, and enjoyed a Paradise in themselves. But how are they now fallen asleep, how are they bound up? Thou now no more seest, hearest, tastest, feelest, understandest, enjoyest any sweet beam of truth, anything of the Harmonious Music, of the delicate Relish, of the soft Embraces, of the immutable, all-satisfying Reality, and Substance of pure Love, pure Light, pure Beauty, pure Joy, pure Goodness, Every thing pleasant everything Real, everything Divine is to thee, as if it were not at all: Yet is not thy sleep quiet. All this, which thou seemest to thyself, to hear, to see, to understand, to converse with by any of thy senses, or faculties, is a Dream in thy sleep, a • delusive, a defiling, a melancholy Dream, where false, and filthy shows of Pleasures are mingled with tumultuous disquiets, confusions, torments fears, and Horrours.

This Sleep is the Sleep of Death, not a Natural, and momentary Death, which is a mere cessation of Life with a rest from all its troubles, but a living Death, the second Death, a Hellish Death, the Death of damned Sp • rits. Thus are Sleep and Death joined here; Awake thou that sleepest, and stand up from the Dead. This Sleep is a true Death, and this Death is truly a Sleep, a living Death, or an unquiet Sleep full of evil Dreams.

2. The second thing is the Awakening. The Awakening out of this Sleep is also a Resurrection from the Dead. Awake thou that sleepest, and stand up from the Dead. This is the Regeneration, or new Birth, by which the soul is raised up from the Sleep, and Death of Sin into the Light of Life, and Immortality.

3. The third thing is the cause of this Awakening; And Christ shall give thee Light. And, here signifies, as much as, For, by a common Hebraism. Thus you are to read it, Awake thou that sleepest, and stand up from the Dead, for Christ shall give thee Light. This will be plain, if you look to that Scripture, from which this is taken Isaia. 60. 1. v. Arise, sh • ne; for thy Light is come, and the Glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. St. Paul applies this to the Lord Jesus, and a Sinner in the work of Conversion, or Regeneration, Poor Sinner, thou sleepest in a dark and miry Dungeon, of Sensuality, Lust, Passion, Ignorance, Unbelief, Despair, like Peter sleeping in Prison, bound with two Soldiers on each side him: so thou sleepest in the dark Prison of the flesh, and this World, in the midst of Devils, with whom thou art chained, and bound. Thou liest dead in this dead Image of things, as in a Grave of Corruption, and Rottenness. Behold the Lord Jesus full of the Beauties of Holiness, full of the unsearchable Riches of Divine Love shineth upon thee with a Light of Glory. He, who is the Light and Glory of God, of Heaven, of Eternity, as he shineth upon thee, giveth thee Light, infuseth this Light of Glory into thee, by giving himself to thee, by infusing himself into thee, by springing up himself within thee, as he shineth from without upon thee. Thus he awakens thee. Thus awakened, stand up from the Dead. For Christ giveth thee Light.

The work of Regeneration, which is a true Resurrection from Death to Life, will be more clearly understood by considering it in these four Circumstances; 1. The Life, which is raised again; 2. The Death, out of which this Life is raised; 3. The Resurrection itself; 4. The way of this Resurrection.

1. The life which is raised again is twofold; 1. One Life is that of Paradise at the beginning of Time. We had an earthly head in Paradise, in whom we all stood, and subsisted together in the Garden of Eden, or of Divine Pleasures. There we were clothed with a Divine Image, and enjoyed a Divine Life. We were made in the similitude of God, and lived a life like to that of God himself. St. Paul speaks of this Life, Rom. 7. 9. v. For I was alive without the Law once. I know that this Scripture, is generally applied to the convincing, and the condemning Power of the Law. So St. Paul is understood here to speak of that Life of Pleasure, and satisfaction to his own deceived mind, and senses, which he enjoyed in sin before he felt the work of the Law upon his Heart convincing him of the Evil of Sin. But whoever well considers this Scripture will very plainly see, that it cannot bear this sense. For 1. The scope of this place is to show that which is expressed at the 5th. Verse, That the Motions of Sin are by the Law which work in our Members to bring forth fruit unto Death. 2. The objection which is made at the 7th. verse, what shall we say then, is the Law sin? can have no ground in any other sense than this, that Sin itself takes life from the Law. 3. St. Paul expressly proceeds in his reasoning by these steps verse 8th, 9th. Sin taking occasion by the Commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. He proves that by this Argument; for without the Law sin was dead. The force of the connection makes it clear, that the death of sin here meant, is not the death in Sin with stupidity and security, but a Life free from the power and pollution of Sin. This is explained and illustrated by another Argument; For I was alive without the Law once. While all things stood in the s •• plicity and unity of the Divine Image undivided, the Light, and the Darkness nowhere appearing as two, but as one in one Divine Spirit, in one Divine Harmony. There was nothing from which sin could take life. Now St. Paul lived, now as he, so we lived, and all Mankind, according to our several properties, and distinct Persons in Paradise, together with Adam & in Adam, who was the Earthly Head, and collective Body of us all, like Christ in Heaven.

2. The other Life, which is raised again in the Regeneration, is the Life of Heaven in Eternity. Before, and above our Earthly Head, we had a Head in Heaven, in Eternity, the Lord Jesus, in whose Image and Similitude Adam was Created to be a Figure of him. In this heavenly and eternal Head had we a Heavenly and Eternal Life. Our Heavenly Life in Eternity is as the Light. Our Earthly Life in Paradise as the Shadow to this Light. O thou, who art now as a Dunghil covered with, and composed of the most loathsome pollutions and defilements of Sin, who art withered in all thy Beauties, Hopes and Comforts; who art sunk deepest into despair; who art now no more a Man, but a Worm, the worst of Worms, the seed of the Serpent; See from whence thou art fallen, what once thou wert; what Lives, what Joys, what Glories lie buried in thee? Thou wert once a beautiful Prince, like the Morning Star: Thou wert once the Perfection of Beauty, and Pleasantness in the Figure, in Paradise, in Adam: Thou wert once the Perfection of Beauty in the Life itself, in Heaven, in Eternity, in the Lord Jesus. Whither are these Beauties now fled? How do these Beautiful Lives now lie as in the Grave covered with the Darkness of Death? The Psalmist saith to the Lord, That the Saints pity the Dust of Zion, and take Pleasure in the Stones thereof. O all you, who hear, and read this; In yourselves, in each other see, pity, take Pleasure in the Ruins of the Divine Life, of the Divine Image, of Paradise, of Heaven with all their Beauties, Joys, and Glories. See the Lord Jesus from Heaven looking upon them with an eye of pity, and delight. Let this be a Beam of hope to you shining from his face into the midst of the Darkness of your Guilt, Defilements, and despair that by him these beautiful, and blessed Lives may rise again.

2. The Death out of which this Life is raised, is that of Sin, and of the Curse for Sin. Eph. 2. 1. v. St. Paul saith, we were dead in Sin. Hear, and read this, O man, with sighs, and tears, with trembling, and terror. Thy Life itself is now a Death, and a cursed Death such a Death, as makes the difference between an Angel in Glory, and a Devil in Hell. The corruption of the best things is worst. The fall of the highest and greatest things makes the greatest, and most dreadful Ruin. The Divine Life is dead; the Divine Image is fallen in thee. Thou art dead in Sin. Sin lived, and I died, saith St. Paul in the forementioned place. A Life of Darkness, shame, Disorder, deformity, enmity, the Life and Image of Hell, and Devils are sprung up in thee, and are become a Grave of hate and horror which hath swallowed up the Life, the Image of Love, Beauty, and Joy, of Heaven, of Angels, of God into a cursed Victory in thee. All the stings and terrors of the first death in the separation of the Soul, and Body, are all the secret burnings of this Hellish fire of the Death in Sin now quite consuming the broken Relicks of the Divine Light, and sweetness in the Flesh, and enlarging itself into the second Death, as into an eternal Flame of Wrath, and torment.

Look up, oh man! see this whole World of these Heavens, and this Earth, as a Charnel-house, or a dark Vault for the Dead. See thyself in this Body, as a melancholy Coffin in the midst of this Vault, where thine own Divine Life and Image, with ten thousand blessed Lives, the Life of Christ, of Paradise, of Heaven, lie dead and buried. See this place in which now thou art, the smoky porch, and gloomy entrance into Hell, like a cloudy Evening to that dismal Night. See thyself walking here as a wretched Ghost and Shade in the midst of the Dead, in the midst of cursed Apparitions from below, and thyself together with all these, ready every moment to vanish into everlasting Darkness, and Flames. This is the Death, out of which the Divine Life is raised in the first Resurrection or the Regeneration.

3. The Resurrection of this Life, out of this Death, is to be declared in its first step, which is the Regeneration, or New-birth. The Divine Nature, which lies hid at the bottom, and in the center of the Soul, lives there to itself with its Heavenly, and Earthly Image, as in the Secret of its own twofold Paradise, whereof one was never yet revealed in any Creature until Christ; the other with drew itself hither from the sight of the Soul at the Fall. This Divine Nature, as to the Soul itself, whose Root it is, of whose Being it is the only Life, and Truth, lies slain by the Life of Sin, and buried in its own Ruines beneath the Darkness, and Confusion of the Corrupt, the Fleshly, and the Hellish Image.

This Divine Nature in the moment of Regeneration, or Conversion is new-born in the Soul, or, which is the same, the Soul is new-born into the Divine Nature, and comes forth with a new, and Divine Being, into a new, and Divine World.

This change is called a Birth, because the Divine Nature, as the Seed of God sown in the Soul, diffuseth itself thorough the Soul, changeth the Soul into one Nature, and Life with itself, so bringeth forth itself in the soul, and the Soul together with itself, in its own Divine Life, and Likeness.

The Eternal Spirit is the Father of this Birth, which sendeth forth this holy Seed. This Spirit is also the Mother. For in the naked Bosom of the Eternal Spirit, at once the Seed of God is sown in the soul, and the Soul is sown, as a new Seed sent forth immediately from God, wrapped up in the Seed of God▪ The Spirit also itself is this Seed. For so the Lord Jesus saith, John 3. That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit.

This New birth is said to be from above; because it is immediately from God; the Birth of God, as he is in the Simplicity of his Godhead unclothed of every Vail, infinitely transcending all created powers, and perfections. This Birth is expressed by being born again, as a second Birth. For man was first born unto a Divine Light, and Image in P • radise, where he a • so died to this Life, and Image, unto which he is now born a second time, That was a Shadow only: This the Shadow, and the Substance both in Union.

This Birth is also called a Resurrection, and is truly so upon this account. That same Divine Person, in his own proper, and individual Existency, which died in Paradise, which ever since hath lien slain, and buried in the corrupt, sinful Person sprung up in its place, as in a Grave, now riseth again. As it riseth, it casteth off this cursed, and Hellish person as a Body rising to Glory casteth off the form of a dead Carcass, of Rottenness, and dust, recovering, its own proper place, and right.

But there is a threefold difference, between this Divine Nature in its first Life in Paradise, and its first Resurrection in its Regeneration, or New-birth.

1. In Paradise the Divine Nature sprung up, and appeared in a Earthy Image and in an Earthy Person, only as in a lovely shadow of itself. The Heavenly Person, the Heavenly Image, although it were the Root, the Truth, the Life, the Fulness of this Shadow, yet it lay concealed beneath it, as a Vail, or as the Fruit lies hid in the Blossom. By Sin the Blossom falls to make way for this Fruit. In the new birth, out of the Ruins of the Earthy Person, and the Earthy Image, as the rending of the Vail, the Divine Nature springs up, and shines forth in its own Heavenly Person, and Image. Thus that which was sown by the Fall a Heavenly and Divine Shadow riseth again by the new birth a Heavenly, and Divine Substance, which is the Shadow in its Life, and Truth.

The Holy Scriptures declare this Glorious Mystery; 1 Epist. John 5. c. where we read, That there are three which bear record in Heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Spirit, A little after we read, That he, who believeth hath the record in himself. If a Believer hath the Record within himself, he hath also within himself those who bear the Record. For a Record, or Testimony hath all its authority, and force from the Persons of the Witnesses, as it is given by them, and cometh forth out of their mouths. Behold then here in the moment of believing, God himself in the three Persons in their Heavenly Image, which is the Heaven of Heavens, bringing forth the Divine Nature, as their own proper Birth, and Child in an Heavenly Person, and in their own Heavenly Image, in which they themselves dwell together with him, giving their Testimony to him, in which he believes.

2. That which was the Beauty, and the beautiful Inhabitant of Paradise, was the Divine Nature in the Earthly Image, and in an Earthy Person, which stood singly in a shadowy Joy, and Glory. The Heavenly Person, and the Heavenly Image, which were the Life itself were hidden, and Vailed beneath this Shadow; like the Glory of a Flower in its seed beneath the Earth, when the Plant begins first to appear; or like the ripe fruit hid in the Blossom.

In the New birth that Divine Person, and Form, which died in the Shadow, riseth again in the blessed life, and most beautiful Truth of the Eternal Substance. As the Accorn, which was first an Oak, being sown in the Ground, and dying, springs up again into a fair, and flourishing tree. But there is this difference the Accorn is not the same Oak which at first it was, but only another of the same kind. But here the Shadow in its new birth riseth again in that Individual Person, and proper Essence of Glory, out of which it first descended. As Jesus Christ saith, I came forth from God into the world; again, I leave the world, and go to the Father. So Saith this new-born Child of God, I was before the World, with my Elder Brother in the bosom of the Father, I was with the Father in the bosom of my Elder Brother, one Spirit, one Heavenly Image, one Brightness of Glory together with him. I came forth from this Glory into a Shadowy similitude of it, into an Earthly Paradise. From thence I fell by sin into that Death which is my Life in this present evil World. Again through the Death of Christ by the Resurrection of the new Birth I leave both this living Death in the World, & that Shadowy Life of Paradise, & return to my first Glory with Jesus Christ in the bosom of the Father.

Moreover that Earthly Image, and shadowy Paradise are not lost. These also rise again in their Regeneration. They arise again the same Individuals, but in a far different Form, and in a far differing manner of subsisting. The Earthly man of the first Paradise is born anew, subsisting in the Person of the Heavenly Man, as the Humanity of Christ subsisted in his Divine, and Eternal Person. The Earthy Man springs up in the bosom of the Heavenly Man. It is no more now, as at the first, a veil on the Sun-like Face and Spiritual Beauties of the Heavenly Pattern, and Original. But it is to it, as the fr • shest Beams, and the most Flowry Light of the Sunshine is to the Sun. It Flows immediately from the naaked Form, and fullness of the Heavenly Glory, it, is transparent to it, filled and covered with it. The Earthly Paradise now flourisheth in the midst of the Heavenly Paradise, which shineth all through it, bringing it forth, as one Person, and one Spirit with itself.

This is the new Heaven, and the new Earth, the Heavenly Man, and the Heavenly Paradise newly, and nakedly discovered, so as it never before was in this Creation; The earthly man also, and the earthly Paradise, brought forth into a new state, and Glory by their Union, and fellowship with the Heavenly Man, and the Heavenly Paradise, as a Bride adorned by the presence of her Bridegroom coming forth like the Sun. Thus Jesus Christ makes all things new in the new Creature; and brings forth the new Creature together with himself in himself, as St. Paul speaks 2 Corin. c. 5. v. If any man be in Christ he is a new Creature, or a new Creation. For behold, saith Christ, I make all things new.

This new birth, and Resurrection of the Heavenly, and earthly Glories united in one Person in a Saint is excellently represented in that forementioned place of St. John. 1. Epist. c. 5. v. Having said, There are three that bear record in Heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Spirit; he adds, There are three that bear record on Earth; and saith he, these three agree in one. The first three were one Heavenly Spirit, and Image. The last three agree in one Earthly Image with themselves, and in one Heavenly Spirit with the Heavenly Image and the Heavenly three. A Believer, as is before noted, is said to have the Record, or Testimony of these Witnesses in himself. He hath then also the Witnesses in himself; for these Witnesses testifying of themselves to the Soul are in their own unveiled persons, and Divine presence, the T • stimony, the Truth of the Testimony, the Authority, the Witnesses all in one.

The second Trinity of Witnesses is 1. the Water. 2. The Blood. 3. The Spirit.

1. The Water is the natural or Earthly Image washed as by a Baptism of Water from its filth, like a piece of Gold fallen into the dirt. The first Creation is expressed by Water. It was a pure, and clear Sea of finest Crystal. The Face of God shining forth upon this Sea of Crystal at once filled it with the sweet Light of his Beams, and figured his Beauties upon it, which Light and Figure, were the Light of Paradise, and the Life of the first man in it. Sin by a mixture of Earth with this pure Water pollut • th it, troubleth it, changeth the Light into Darkness, and the Beautiful Figure of the Divine Glory into Confusion. The clear, and sweet calm is now changed into a black and foul Tempest. The new birth separating the dark, & d • filing Earth from the clear, & pure Flood, gives a Resurrection to the Divine Light, the Divine Form, the Earthly man in its puriti •• , and the first Paradise in its Beauties.

2. The Blood is the second Witness joined together with the Water. This is the Earthly Image heightened with a more excellent washing than that of Water, which is this of the precious Blood of God himself. This Blood taketh away by the virtue of Christ's Death the darkness of the veil, which interposeth between the naked Glories of the Heavenly Image, and the Earthly Image, keeping it in the state of a shadow only. Now this most precious Blood as a rich Flood of Divine Light, and Life breaks in freely, and fully upon the Earthly Image in its new birth, that it is no more the shadow to that Heavenly substance, but the face in the Glass answering to the living face of the supreme, and Eternal Beauty. Thus the Earthly Man and the Earthly Paradise returneth, and riseth again in the Regeneration not by Water only, but by Blood, not as the shadowy Similitude of a concealed Beauty, but the shining brightness of a present, and unclouded Glory. This is the second Witness on Earth. The Spirit is the last of the three Witnesses in the Earthly Image. This giveth his Testimony jointly in both Images, the Heavenly and the Earthly. This Spirit is the same in both; the Mother, which bringeth both forth from its own Eternal Womb; the Life, which dwells in both; the Glory, which fits, and clothes them both; the Love which Eternally sports in both, which fills both with purest, & perpetual Pleasures in themselves, & in each other. This Spirit is that band of perfection, which by its Heavenly, & entire Unity makes the heavenly & the earthly Image both one Spirit, one Life, one Glory, one Divine Person, one new man in Christ Jesus, in whose bosom they lie, mutually infolding each other in most beautiful, and most delightful Embraces. Thus now is the Earthly man, and the Earthly Paradise risen again in the Regeneration, not single, but as a glorious Bride to the Heavenly Image, & the Heavenly Paradise, having her Bridegroom in her arms, and being clasped fast in his. This is the second difference between the Soul in its Earthly Paradise, and in the first Resurrection, when it is new born to a life of Grace in the place of that Life of pure nature.

3. You have seen two differences between the Life in the state of pure nature in Paradise, and the Resurrection of this Life unto a state of Grace in the Regeneration, or new birth. In these two differences this Life, as it is risen again excelleth itself, as it was in its pure, and primitive state for the kind, and nature of it, after a wonderful manner, by an accession of the most Heavenly, and highest Glory together with Immortality.

But this third difference will show us this Life in the Resurrection as it is a Life of Grace for its present state and degrees on Earth far inferior unto itself as it was pu • ely natural in the first Paradise.

1. The Life of Grace in the Regeneration, or Resurrection is imperfect in degree, while it is on Earth, it is in its Infancy, in its Childhood, under age, under Guardians, under the Tutorship of Angels, as St. Paul speaks. It is a Life of Faith, not of clear, and complete Fruition. It is a dying Life, a Life bearing the Image of Christ's Death, and not yet brought forth entirely into the Resurrection from the Dead. It is a Life subject to many weaknesses by reason of its Infant-state, and Childhood. It is a Life in Growth, and so not arrived to its perfect Stature.

2. The Life of Grace in this first Resurrection is imperfect for its state. The Spiritual or Heavenly Man in a Believer is joined in the same Person with the Old Man, which is cursed, and corrupt with the Child of the Curse, and Corruption. The Heavenly Image, and the Earthly Image new-born, Heaven itself, and the first Paradise risen again, are truly in a Saint on Earth, do compose the true Nature, Essence, and Person of a Saint. But there are joined together with these in the same outward Person the Earthly Image, as it is corrupt, and the Hellish Image, the Earthly or fleshly Image, as it is fallen, and the Hellish Image, in which inseparably do reside the universal Corruption, and Curse, all the powers of Darkness, Death and Hell. Thus are all the Purities, Sweetnesses, Glories of Paradise or Heaven in a Saint mixed, and Vailed, that they can never appear entire or in their own proper Form, but imperfectly, darkly, and Enigmatically, as St Paul speaks, or, as those men, that were seen walking in the forms of Trees, by him, whose eyes Jesus Christ had touched the first time only. Thus the Spiritual Man in a Saint, though it have Heaven, and Paradise united in itself, yet in this first step of its resurrection, it hath within the same outward person a continual interchangeable War, and Fight with the Earth, and with Hell, the Flesh, and the Devil. Sometimes it is made a Captive cast into Chains of darkness laid low with all its Glories in a deep, and miry dungeon, where no spark of Divine Light appears; when it is a Conqueror it is in the field still where its sweetness, and Glory are veiled, and stained, as with the dust of the Earth, as with the smoke of the Fight and of Hell, as with the Blood of its Wounds. In the midst of these it is ever alarmed to new Fights. This is the state of a Saint in the first step of the Resurrection, which is the new Birth or the Life of Grace on Earth.

Objection. Some that are truly Saints, may now say to us, Alas how are we excluded from the new birth, if they, who are new born, have Heaven, and Paradise in an Heavenly Form brought forth within them, and they themselves, are after an Heavenly manner brought forth into these, as by a Resurrection from the dead? How far are we from discerning anything so sweet, so great, so Glorious in ourselves?

Ans. I shall give five answers to this Objection to comfort the lowest of the Saints, who least of all seem to themselves to be such.

1. The Lord Jesus lay in the Womb, was laid an Infant in the Manger, slept as a man, had all the Light of Heaven, Visible, or invisible withdrawn from him, being deserted by the God-head itself in respect to any sensible presence, assistance, or enjoyment of it, died on the Cross, was shut up a dead Corps in the Grave. Yet in the Womb, in the Manger, in his sleep, in his Desertion, on the Cross, in the Grave, had he Heaven, and Paradise with their divinest sweetnesses, and fulnesses in himself, he himself was after the sweetest, fullest, and Divinest manner in Paradise, and Heaven. For he himself in his own Person is the Light, the Life, and Truth of both. All this was unchangeably true of him even in his Flesh, and in his natural man, when to him in his Flesh, and in his natural man nothing of this appeared, or seemed to be at all. Thus may it be with thee, O doubting, and mourning Christian, who weepest for that life of the Spirit, which hath Heaven, and Paradise in it by having Jesus Christ risen from the dead in it. Thou refusest to be comforted, because these are not, or rather appear not in thee. But consider this, and be comforted. Cast thy eye upon thy Pattern the Lord Jesus, and then say; Christ with Heaven and Paradise may be in me. I may be in Heaven, and in Paradise by being in Christ, though this appear not to me. Christ may be in me, I may be in Christ in the Womb, or in the Manger, in a deep sleep, or a desertion upon the Cross, or in the Grave. But in Truth by all these, Heaven and Paradise with all their Divine store, and furniture, rise up in me so much the more Gloriously, by how much the more Christ is formed in me, and I am conformed to Christ.

2. Ans. Jesus Christ in the Gospel compareth the Kingdom of Heaven, or of God, to a seed of wheat sown in the field, which cometh up first in the Blade, then in the Stalk, then in the Ear, and lastly in the Ripe Corn in the Ear. Why dost thou sigh, O Believer, and say, that thou hast nothing of Christ, of Heaven, of Paradise risen from the dead, and new-born in thee, because they shine not forth in thee, and they take not thee in to see them, to be seen by them, to converse with them in their Spiritual, proper, eternal Forms, and Glories? It may be true, that they may not yet be sprung up in thee like the ripe corn in the ear in the Ripeness, and maturity of their own Spirituality, and of the Heavenly Image. Yet may they flourish in the Ear, that is, in a high and sweet Figure of Spirituality according to the purest letter of the Gospel, which may have the Spirit itself for a hidden life in it, and ready to reveal itself, as the perfect Fruit. But suppose thou hast not attained to this, yet sing for Joy; the Spring and the Summer Season are come; Harvest is not far off; if the Kingdom of God, which is Christ, Heaven, Paradise all in one, and all in a Heavenly Glory be come up in thee into a Green and Living stalk. Perhaps thou art yet subject to the Ministry of the Law. Rejoice in this, if it Spring from the Seed of Promise, if it flourish by the Virtue, and Life of this Seed forming itself into this stalk, although it lie veiled there. This living Stalk, this living Ministry of the Law, hath not only an outward Glory, and Luster upon it, but the inward Glory of the Spiritual Kingdom within it, which sends forth this outward Life, and Luster, which will itself also in its proper season sprout forth from it.