The Rise Race and Royalty of the Kingdom of God
Dost thou fall short of this also, dost thou see nothing in thyself of Letter or Spirit, of Law or Gospel, in any clearness of Life, or Power, by which thou canst make any comfortable Judgment of thyself; Are not these mournings of thine, that sense, those impressions, those desires, affections, endeavors, the causes and companions of these mournings, which come up so thick in the ground of thy Spirit by day, and by night; are not these that Kingdom of God, that Jesus with Heaven, and Paradise in the midst of thee, before thine eyes, as in the Blade, or the Herb, which can hardly be discerned, or distinguished from common grass, by common eyes? In the mean time thou like Mary complainest, that Christ is taken away from thee, when he standeth before thee risen from the dead, and talketh with thee though veiled under the form of a Gardener.
But let it be that no green things appears in the field of thy Soul▪ it is naked, cold, and hard, like the Earth in Winter. Yet mourn not as one without hope. This naked ground may be a flourishing field of Corn in the Summer time. This naked and hard heart of thine may in its proper Season soften, and flourish into an Heavenly Paradise by the springing up of Christ in it. For even now in this disconsolate & desolate state, may God the Father, and the Holy Angels from on high have their eye with Love, and delight upon it from one end of the year to the other, as seeing Heaven and Paradise with all their own Joys and Excellencies treasured up there in their seed, which is Christ, sown in thee.
3. Ans. The Heavenly Image in thee, who art born again, while thou livest on Earth, is subject to various Clouds, and Storms. It is always in a conjunction with the fleshly Image and the Spirit of the Devil. These never suffer it to shine forth clearly, and purely. These often so cloud it, and captlvate it, that it can send forth no one sweet beam or spark to enlighten thee to any sensible discovery of it, or warm thee with any sensible comfort in it. The Law of God, which is the Law of the Spirit of Life, in which Spirit the Heaven, and Paradise of a Saint are seated, is within in the inward man, in the mind. But the Law of Sin, which is the Spirit of this World, where Death, Hell and the Devil, have their place, and their Thro • e, is still manifest and Powerful in thy Members, in thy outward man. What wonder then, if thine inward Man, like the Face of Heaven, and of an Heavenly Paradise with the Lord Jesus in his Spiritual Glory shining in them, as the Sun in its purity and strength, be discerned by thee very weakly, and uncertainly, when they are to be seen thorough so thick, so polluted, so troubled an Air of the natural Spirit in thy Members? Nay what wonder is it, if from the Morning of thy Life to the Evening of it, such blackness of darkness cover the whole Face, of these beautiful, and Heavenly things in thee, that they appear not at all to thee, although they constantly shine in the same Glory, and move in the same order in themselves, to themselves within thee; when as such Powers of Darkness have their seat in thine outward Man, thorough which they are to appear.
4. Ans. Thou perhaps, O afflicted Soul, with the eye of Sense, and of Reason, by the Light of thine own Spirit, lookest to see the Kingdom of God with its Joys, and Glories, and Glorious Inhabitants in thee. But these are Spiritual things, and to be discerned Spiritually. They are Spiritual Senses, which alone can take in the Divine sweetnesses, and Beauties of this Spiritual Paradise, and Heaven. It is the Light of the Spirit alone, in which they shine forth and appear. It is the Breath of the Spirit alone, which makes their Spices to flow forth, and give their smells. Thou O dejected Soul! mayest have thy Spiritual senses yet weak: Like a new-born Child thou mayest behold, and gaze upon the Light of the Heavenly Sun, and yet not understand, what that is, which thou seest, or that thou seest anything at all. Again, the Spirit is free, he breaths, and gives his Light, where he pleaseth, when he pleaseth, and in what degree he pleaseth. The Garden of God may be in thee, thou mayest be in the midst of this Garden, and yet not aware of it, because it is either a dark Season, where nothing appears, or a twilight of the Spirit only, where the Flowers, and Plants of this Garden appear, like little Clouds, or dark spots undistinguished.
5 Ans. There are three ways, by which the new Birth or the Resurrection from the dead evidenceth itself to the Soul. 1. The Seal of the Spirit. 2. The Witness of the Spirit. 3. A Spiritual Instinct.
1. The Seal of the Spirit is the clearest, and completest evidence. Of this you read Eph. 1. v 13. You are sealed with that Holy Spirit of Promise. The Spirit himself, in his own person was the Promise, and is the Seal. St. John 14. v. 20. Jesus Christ in that Chapter promiseth the Spirit, which he would send down, when he was ascended, to be in them. He calleth this Spirit the Spirit of Truth, and the Comforter. Together with the promise of the Spirit he promiseth them, that he would come again to them, and that they should see him, and have Joy, and that none should take this Joy from them; because they should never more lose the sight of him. He promiseth likewise that at that day of the Spirit his Father, and himself would come together, and sup with them, and lodge with them. The rich, and glorious ground of all this sweet mystery of the Divine Love, and Fellowship between the Father, and Christ, and the Spirit, and the Saints in the Spirit, at the coming of the Spirit is this: 1. The blessed Person of the Holy Spirit in the Trinity is the beautiful band of that sweet, and sacred Union, in which the two other Persons the Father, and the Son most nakedly, most entirely at the utmost heighth of their Beauties, and Loves, possess and enjoy each other. The same Person of the Spirit in the mystical, and Marriage Union between Christ, and the Soul, is that sweet, and sacred Unity, by the Virtue of which the Father, Christ, and a Saint in the Purity, and Perfection of all Heavenly sweetnesses, and excellencies behold, love, and take Pleasure in each other, as one Spirit. By this you may see how the Spirit is the Promise, and the Seal and what this Seal of the Spirit means.
The Lord Jesus fully expresseth it in the verse mentioned: At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. This day is the day of the Spirit, the day of the Spirits coming into the Soul, and appearing there. In the Revelation of this third Person the Holy Spirit, when he shines forth in the Spirit of a Saint; the Father, Christ, and a Saint are all seen together in one Glory, the Glory of the Father; in the Fellowship, and Unity of this Spirit, which is the Spirit of Glory. This Union, and this Vision takes the Saint up into itself, fixeth itself in a Saint, displayeth itself there by the immediate Brightness, and Glory of that Heavenly Person, the Spirit himself which is the Spirit of Truth. This is the Seal of the Spirit; this is the Banner of Love. Thus he sets himself as a Seal upon the Heart of his spouse, thus he spreads himself, as a Banner of Love over her head in his Banqueting-house. How clearly in this Day, in this Vision, and Unity of the Spirit doth the Beloved Spouse of Christ see Heaven and Paradise, ten thousand Heavens and Paradises, new-born, and risen within herself; herself new-born, and risen into the midst of them, and enjoying them all?
Dost thou mourn, O dejected Soul, that thou hast not received this Seal of the Spirit? Alas! how few have? How hath this Seal been withdrawn, since the Nations of the World received the mark of Anti-Christ? Mourn thou together with all the Saints, for the absence of the Heavenly Bridegroom in this Vision of his Glory, and Seal of his Love. But mourn not as without Hope. Press forward to this Day of the Spirit, and to the Brightness of the rising of the Lord Jes • s together with the Father upon thy Soul in the Person of the Spirit, which is the Union of all Loves, Joys, and Glories, as all Lights are United in the Sun. This Day hath already dawned, some few have seen the dawnings of it, and rejoiced to see it, when it hath shone forth upon the tops of their Spirits, as the Sun in the pleasant morning of a Summers-day gilds the Tops of the Mountains.
2. The Second Evidence is the Witness of the Spirit. Of this Paul speaketh Rom. 8. v. 16. The Spirit itself beareth Witness in our Spirit, that we are the Children of God. This Witness of the Spirit may be more interrupted, and be accompanied in the Soul with less Glory, and a less triumphant Joy; yet is it clear, and sweet, and sure; although the clearness, and the sweetness have their different degrees. The Witness of the Spirit is as though Voice of God in the Soul received, and ecchoed to by the Soul. The Seal of the Spirit is the Glorious Face of God unveiled in the Soul, and by the kiss of its mouth Uniting it to the Soul, so that it stamps its own Heavenly Image upon the Soul, and Ravishing the Soul into one Life, and Form of Glory with itself becomes its own Reflection there, equally embracing, and embraced, enjoying, and enjoyed in the Unity of the Spirit.
Thou, who feest not the Seal of the Spirit upon thy heart, open thy Spiritual Ear, hearken unto the voice of the Spirit, hearken to the voice of thine own Spirit. These two by a sweet Consent, and Harmony may testify together the Love of God in thee. Their voice may be low, and not to be heard in the Tumult, and noise of thy Fears, and Doubts. In the calmness, quietness, and rest of a meek, and resigned Spirit, hearken diligently, and thou mayest hear this low voice. Though this voice be low, yet is it clear and sweet. The Love, and Peace, and Joy of the Spirit, the Spirit of Love, Peace, and Joy himself are in this low voice.
3. The third Evidence is the Instinct of the Spirit, which seems to be mentioned by St. Paul, as a less degree of Evidence going before that of the Witness of the Spirit. Rom. 8. 15. Ye have received the Spirit of Adoption whereby ye Cry Abba Father. The little Lamb newly yeaned, and come forth from the Dam in a great flock amongst many Lambs, and Ews knoweth its own Dam, discerneth its call from all others, runneth to it, keepeth by its side, when it is in any fear, seeketh and sucketh its Milk, and the nourishment of its Life from it. This is the Instinct of Nature, which faileth not the Births of Nature. Thus every Child of God hath much more a Spiritual, and Divine Instinct, which is inseparable from the Divine Nature in it. The Spirit of God in it, when the Light of the Divine Nature is most obscured, is a Spirit of Son-ship, or Childhood in the Soul by secret Impressions leading it, inclining, and carrying it to God, as its Father, giving it a secret sense, and discerning of the Voice of God, and of its Relation to God, as by the instinct of the Divine Nature. Consider this, ye doubting, fearful, and distressed Saints; consider this, and be comforted. Thou hast no clear sight of the Face of God. Thou hast no clear Testimony of the Love of God in thy Spirit. Thou hast no distinct understanding of thy Union with God, or of the Nature of God, or of the things of God. Thou hast no Evidences, by which thou canst satisfy thy own Reason, thorough any discourse of Reason. But thou art inwardly carried in thy desires, and inclinations to God, to please him, to be with him. Thy Soul secretly hangs upon God, and cleaveth to him. Thou inwardly longest, and thirstest to suck in from his Breasts the milk of Spiritual Life, Comfort, and Light. In the day of thy fears, and distress thine Eye looketh to God, thine Heart crieth, and hasteth to him. The call, the voice of God in his Providences, his Word, and the inward motions of his Spirit touch thine Heart, and turn thy Bowels within thee. How often in the greatest doubts, and distresses of thy Spirit dost thou sigh forth to God the name of Father? Behold this is the instinct of the Divine Nature in thee. This is the Spirit of Adoption, by which thou art acted, and by which thou criest Abba Father. Although thou understandest it no more, than the Lamb understandeth how, or why it is carried to its Dam, and drawn by its bleatings. Go thy way then, and be no more troubled, give thyself up to the instinct, and leadings of this holy Spirit within thee. Thou shalt certainly see the time, when the obscure smoke of the Spiritual Instinct in thee will break up into a clear Light, and flame of a Joy unspeakable, and Glorious, both in the Testimony of the Spirit heard within thee, and the Seal of the Spirit seen upon thee, either in this Life, or in Eternity.
We read in the 2 of Chron. That Solomon's Throne had a Foot-stool of Gold, and six steps up to the Throne. On each side of these steps were two Lions, that supported every step. Thou, who hast the Throne of the Divine Nature in the midst of the Spiritual Paradise, and Heaven set up within thee in its obscurest, and lowest state, rest in peace, and joy on the Foot-stool itself, and upon the lowest step of this Throne. For the Foot-stool itself, the lowest state is of Gold, of an incorruptible, and Divine Nature, which will certainly in its proper time lift thee up to the full height, and Glory of the Throne itself. The lowest step here, even at the highest, hath for its support, and guard, two Lions. The Lord Jesus, the true Lyon of the Tribe of Judah in all the Varieties, and Riches of his Spiritual Glories, multiplies his Presence, and Appearance round about thee, to sustain, defend, and cherish thee in these first beginnings of Grace in thee, in the midst of thy darkness, and weakness after the same manner, in the same Heavenly Person of his, in the same fullness of Love Power, and Glory, as he is with the highest Saints.
When we began to speak of this first step of the Resurrection, or new Birth, we propounded four Heads to treat upon. 1. The Life, which is risen. 2. The Death, out of which it riseth. 3. The Resurrection itself. 4. The way of this Resurrection. We have finished our discourse upon three of these. We are now to speak briefly of the last.
4. The way of the Resurrection in the new birth is Jesus Christ. He saith of himself in the Gospel of St. John, I am the Way. Jesus Christ is the way of this Resurrection in six Steps. 1. He is the Price. 2. The Head. 3. The Root. 4. The Pattern. 5. The Companion. 6. The Life of this Resurrection.
1. The Blood of Christ is the Price of this Resurrection. Jesus Christ by his Blood hath doubly redeemed us from Death. 1. By Purchase giving his Life a Ransom for us to the Divine Justice. 2. By Conquest having by the effusion of his Blood, and loss of his Life gained a perfect Victory over all the Powers of Darkness.
2. The Lord Jesus above in Heaven is the Head of the Resurrection from the Dead. In the latter part of the first of Eph. we have Jesus Christ gloriously presented unto us in his Resurrection, from the nethermost part of the Earth, and in his Ascent above all Heavens. Then the Apostle concludes that discourse and Chapter with this Blessed Consolation, that God had given him in this Glory of the Resurrection from the Dead to be the Head over all things to his Church. Thou who mou • nest over thy sins, as the worst of Deaths, who doubtest, who despairest of Life, raise thyself to a lively Hope. Look up, and see thyself already risen in his Resurrection, already set down in Heavenly Places together with Christ, as a Glorious Spirit in that first Spirit, the Head, and Fountain of them all, from which they are as Inseparable as the Beams in their upper ends are from the Sun. Thus St. Paul speaks in the former part of the 2d Chap. of the Eph. upon that Divine Ground, which he had laid in the end of the first Chapter, That Christ in his Resurrection from the Dead, is the Head over all to his Church.
3. The Lord Jesus, as he is risen from the Dead by his Spiritual Presence in our Hearts, is the root of the Resurrection, or new Birth in us. 1 Corin. 15. Jesus Christ, as he is the second Adam, is said to be a quickening Spirit; and the living corner Stone precious, and tried in his Death, and precious in his Resurrection, out of which we grow up to be a Temple to God, that is, both a Spiritual Heaven, and a Spiritual Paradise. Eph. 3. He is said to dwell in our Hearts by Faith. The Lord Jesus is that Spirit, which is the Root of all Spirits, natural, or supernatural; the Root of all Life, Natural, and Spiritual; Earthly or Heavenly; Human, Angelical, or Divine. Dost thou feel the weight of Death heavy upon thee? hast thou no sense of any spark of true Life in thee to sweeten either Death, or Life to thee? Look up to thy Root at the bottom of thy Spirit, thy Jesus. Abide in this Root, wait for this Root. Here are all the Treasures of Spiritual Life laid up. At the set time, in the proper season this Root shall spring, and bud, and blossom, and bring forth it's heavenly Fruits replenished with the Light, and sweetness of the Divine Life and spreading themselves thorough thy whole Soul. Thus shall that Life of God, which thou hast lost, which in thy death retired itself hither into its Root, rise again in thee, and thou be new-born into this Life. Thus shall Jesus Christ, as an Heavenly Root in thy Heart, bring forth himself unto the Life of Faith, which is his own Heavenly Image in thee within the Vail, the Cloud of Flesh. Thus doth he make thine heart from this Root of Eternity to be an Heavenly Habitation, and dwelling place for himself raised up new, and Eternal out of the Ruines of Death.
4. Our blessed Savior is the Pattern of the Resurrection to us. In the 8th of the Rom. we are said to be predestinated to be conformed to his Image. Eph. 1. God is spoken of as working Faith, and so bringing forth the Spiritual Life in us according to that exceeding greatness of his Power, by which he raised Christ from the Dead. We read in the Gospel, that a mighty Angel came down from Heaven, and rolled away the Stone from the mouth of the Grave, while the Watchmen about the Grave were cast into a deep sleep, to make way for the rising of Christ. How frequently doth the Soul, which feels the horror of the Spiritual Death, think its Resurrection to a Divine Life, to the Heavenly Graces, and sweet Peaces of that Life, impossible? Alas! the Flesh is as a Grave, in which it is shut up. Its Lusts, and Temptations are, as a mighty Stone rolled upon the mouth of this Grave. Tempters visible and invisible are, as Watchmen round about the Grave, to keep thee there. But be not discouraged at any of these things, O thou disconsolate Soul! Look to thy Pattern, the Lord Jesus; as it was with him; so shall it be with thee. A supernatural Power, a mighty Angel from Heaven shall bind up thy Tempters, thy Spiritual Enemies in chains of Darkness, as in a deep sleep; shall remove the great Stone, the most powerful Lusts, and Temptations from the mouth of thy Grave. God himself in his Power, in the greatness of his Power, as it excelleth, and transcendeth all Powers, all things, all thoughts of men, or Angels; God himself in his Almightiness, in the infiniteness of his Power, and God-head, God himself in the immediate naked, most potent, most high, most Glorious Appearances, and Operations of his God-head shall come down upon thee, shall arise, and shine in thee, and as he riseth, raise thee together with himself into the Light of Life. Whilst thou liest in Sin, thy true Person, or Life lie together dead in thee, as to thee, But beneath thy Soul, at the bottom of it they lie hid in God, who is the ground of every natural being, and the Treasury of all Spiritual Beings. At the season of the new birth God discocovers himself in thy Soul, as a glorious ground, out of which thy Life, and thy Jesus spring up together by degrees, like Twin-lilies, Roses from the same stalk or root, which is Christ. Thus shalt thou rise from the Dead with a shout of Heavenly Joys.
5. Christ is the Companion in the Resurrection. St. Paul tells the Galatians, he travels in birth again with them, till Christ be formed in them. We read 1 Corin. 6. He, that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit. A saint and Christ are one Spirit by a Spiritual Marriage, which makes two Spirits perfectly one, yet so, that they remain perfectly, and distinctly two in one. When thou risest from the dead in Regeneration, thy Jesus riseth together with thee out of that Grave in thy Heart, into which thou hast cast him by thy Sin at the Fall, when thou in thy true Life, and Paradise in thee fell into the same Grave together with him. Jesus Christ, and the Soul spring up together in the first Creation as Twins. For St. John saith in his first Chapter of his Gospel, that without him, that is, in a single state disjoined from Christ, was nothing made, that was made; Christ and the Soul, like two Twin-lilies, flourished together in Paradise. Together they died by the Fall. Many times since thy birth into this world have Jesus Christ, and with him that Beautiful, and Blessed Life, which thou enjoyed'st in Paradise, been rising again into thy Heart into a more excelling Paradise, that in the Spirit, and in Heaven, which is Eternal. But alas! thou hast still thrown them back again into the same Grave in thy flesh by the new wounds, which thy renewed Lusts, and Unbelief have given them. Notwithstanding all this, when the set time is come, nothing can withstand the rising in thee. Jesus Christ, and thy Soul are together born anew in thee from the womb of Eternal Love, where they lay hid, and wrapped up together in the Grave itself. They now come up together in one Spirit into one Spiritual Life, and Heavenly Image, in which Paradise also comes up new and fresh together with them. By the same immediate, and glorious operation of the God-head they break irresistibly forth thorough the darknesses of the night, and scatters them, and breaks them up, as it shines thorough them. How blessed is this Union and Fellowship! Christ and the Soul ever undivided, grow up now together in the mutual sight, in the mutual embraces of each other thorough every state and degree of the Regeneration, or Resurrection, Light, or Darkness; Solaces or Sufferings; Life, or Death. In all by the Heavenly Union they are mutually a Crown of rejoicing one to another.
6. Christ is the Life of this Resurrection. So himself testi • ieth in the 11 of St. John; I am the Resurrection, and the Life. How sure, how sweet is thy Life, O Believer, who art risen from the Death of Sin, and born again to thine Heavenly Father? Thy Life is sure. It is Christ himself, the Power, God, eternal Life itself, who is thy Life, the Life of thy Grace • here, the Living Hope of Glory in Heaven, the Life of God in thee which never dies in the midst of Death. Thy Life is sweet, O Believer! How inexpressible is this pleasure to feel Jesus Christ himself, the only delight of the Father in Eternity, the only Delight of all the Holy Angels, and Glorified Saints in Heaven springing up in thy Heart, flowing thorough thy whole Soul, and Person, working in all, acting all, as Life in thee?
Thus I have finished this fourth Head, the way of the Resurrection in its first step, the Regeneration, or New-birth, and the discourse itself upon this subject.
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