AN ECHO FROM The Great Deep: CONTAINING Further Inward Openings, Concerning divers other things, upon some whereof the Principles and Practices of the Mad Folks do much depend.  
As also the Life, Hope, Safety and Happiness of the Seed of God, is pointed at; which through many dark, dismal, untrodden paths and passages (as particularly through an unthought of death and captivity) they shall at length be led unto.  
Through ISAAC PENINGTON (junior) Esq.  PSAL. 14.2, 3. 
The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men; to see if there were any that did understand and seek God.  
They are all gone aside, they are altogether become filthy: there is none that doth good, no not one.  PSAL. 82.5. 
They know not, neither will they understand; they walk on in darkness: all the foundations of the earth are out of course.  
LONDON, Printed by John Macock, and are to be sold by Giles Calvert near the West end of Paul's. MDCL.   

To the Mad Folks.  
Poor shattered Souls,  
YE little think how dear ye are unto me because of your break (such of you as have been broken by power and not by notion.) That which I have felt in the same kind (for I have been broken all in pieces once and again, yea and yet again; My life and my strength hath been led, nay driven into captivity, yea I have been made to taste the death of the whole lump, and the death of every parcel over and over, and the bitter relish of it is yet very strong upon my palate) That, I say, which I have felt in this kind, hath made me beyond measure tender towards you, and I cannot but own you before all the world as the greatest objects both of my delight and expectation: I am most pleased in beholding you; your sickness is more lovely in my eye then that health which others enjoy and please themselves in; My expectations, of the next discovery of Light, Life and Glory, are fastened upon you, as the most proper materials which wisdom hath fitted to disclose itself in most unexpectedly to the world. My heart tells me that ye are not thus shattered, broken, and made so odious for nothing: yet let me withal tell you, that my spirit thinketh you never the nearer either for your principles or practices, which carry more unloveliness to me then any principles or practices of any sort of men upon the face of the earth. It is not your new Fabric but your old desolations that kindle in me any desire towards you or hopes concerning you. They are not your new notions of God, Christ, the death of Christ, the life of Christ, the coming of Christ, the Judgement, hell, heaven, the equality of things, the community of things, etc. that represent you any thing lovely to me; No really, My palate doth in no wise relish this new wine, but rather saith the old is better. But 'tis your broken state, your desolate condition, your being stripped and made naked of all your garments, ornaments, beauty, glory: this is it takes with me; and if I could see you yet more sick, yet more stripped, stripped of these new fig-leaves also wherewith you cover your old nakedness, mine eye would more pity you and my heart more love and embrace you. As ye live, I loathe you; nay I loath your life more than the life of any else: So far as ye are dead I cannot but hug you.  
And for such of you who break forth through Visions and Revelations into new apprehensions, I profess I know you not, this is not the way of the breaking forth of my life, which must not be steered by these, but be able to judge these, which when once I feel with cleverness, Majesty and power, I may then be drawn to believe that I begin to taste life.  
But oh how I long to see your new life, with all the motions of it swallowed up by death! There is a cup prepared for you, a baptism ye are to be baptised with, which shall wash you clean within, and make you vomit lustily, even till ye are quite emptied of all that froth and scum of vanity, which now swims up and down in your stomaches, and fumes up into your brains.  
This is not HE, whom ye now hold forth. This is not God, nor any thing, which ye now take to be all things. The child is not yet born in you that knows how to choose the good or refuse the evil. This is not the Land of promise wherein ye now set up your rest, but a strange land, a land of dearth and barrenness, a land of darkness and of the shadow of death. This is not light, not true light; it is but a painted light wherein ye now walk: not the light of the Lord, but the light of the vain imagination of the creature. O quit your station, your present habitation, the wilderness is better, though not as an abode, yet as a passage. Depart ye, depart ye; this is not your rest: for it is polluted. Life lives not here. This is not the chamber of the Bridegroom for him to embrace and enjoy his Bride in. This is poor gain, This falls short of what ye have lost. The meanest enjoyment of a living God in the lowest dispensation, is better than the highest transportations from airy notions.  
O my Beloved, where dwellest thou! where is thy Temple, where is thy Turtle! where dwellest thou, where dwells thy love! Where shall God and his people meet to know and enjoy one another! When shall the Son put off his servile Form, and be admitted into his inheritance! When shall the creature be made free, which hath so long groaned under the bondage of its corruption! Awake, arise, save with thy right hand, that thy Beloved may be delivered. Gather into thyself that which cannot be happy out of thee. Put an end to death to destruction, by thy life, by thy Salvation. Bind up enmity in the bosom of thine own love. O let us at length see the conquest of love. Overcome all by thine own goodness. Swallow up all in thine own perfection, and nothing shall remain weak or imperfect any longer. Visit thy fainting Spouse; for behold the very strength of her heart faileth, which she desireth only to preserve to entertain and embrace thee with: Her spirit is quite spent, therefore contend no longer, but yield up thyself at length to the desire, which thou thyself hast kindled in the bosom of thy Beloved. Revive that precious life by thy presence which is expiring for want of thee, and can no longer live but in thee and with thee. Thou who hast prepared food for every thing thou haste made, satisfy that hunger, that thirst which is immeasurable after, and can only be allayed with the presence and possession of a living God. Thou who invitest him that is a thirst, give to him whose very tongue faileth for thirst, that he may drink of the water of life freely and fully. What shall every desire be satisfied, but that which is kindled after God? Is this the true way, the only way to restlessness and misery, to be touched and inflamed with love towards God? Is there no cure for this love, no rasing it out of the heart, nor no attracting its object into the heart? O God why art thou so coy? why dost thou so disdain the low estate of thy Spouse? What credit will it be unto thee to have it said and seen, when all things shall be opened to all eyes and spoken in all ears, Behold a Soul burnt up into perfect misery by the flames of its own love!   

Of the Difference between God and the Creature.  
THE Difference between God and the Creature, can only be seen by that eye, which throughly discerneth, and is able to measure both throughout: yet according to that measure we have to discern somewhat of both, we may also in part discern that vast difference that is between them.  
God is the Original Being, the Creature but a derived Being, and hath only so much of and from God, as he is pleased to impart unto it, who may do what he will with his own, dispensing it as he pleaseth. As every thing is a shadow of him; so every thing hath some stamp of his Image upon it; one sort of creatures more than another, Man more than other sorts, some sorts of men more than others. Man is a God in respect of the creatures, yet still he is but man, the Egyptians are men, and not God; Some men are Gods in respect of others, in reference to that majesty, wisdom, justice, mercy, kindness, love, holiness, etc. wherewith some are endued beyond others.  
Man in his best estate is vanity; weak, fading, changeable; his very soul and spirit subject to faint, and unable to stand before the hand of God, when it goeth forth against him: Who knoweth the Power of thine anger! I will not contend for ever, neither will I be always wroth, lest the spirit should fail before me, and the Souls which I have made.  
Man came from God, his spirit was made, so was not Gods. God is able to bear his own weight in every kind, Man is not able to bear his weight in any kind. God can so wound the strongest man as quickly to make him sink; A wounded spirit who can bear? But God can not only bear up himself, but man also under the greatest pressure.  
Man is a poor, narrow, confined, limited spirit: God is a large, universal, unlimited Spirit; He sitteth upon the Circle of the Earth. God is Substance, Truth: Man is vanity (in his best estate altogether vanity) a shadow in himself, in all his motions, (man walketh in a vain shade) a lie, a liar, (let God be true, and every man a liar.) All men, put them in the balance, they are nothing before God, but as the dust of the balance, as grasshoppers, as nothing, less than nothing, and vanity. All that all the men in the Earth have derivatively from him, is nothing to that which is originally in him; Whereunto will ye liken me, saith the most High? There is nothing throughout the whole Creation, nothing that man can see, nothing that can enter into his heart or thoughts, that can bear any true or substantial resemblance of God. Alas, poor man, what canst thou think aright concerning God Wilt thou be measuring God, what he is, or what his Thoughts, or what his Ways in any kind, are? Who knoweth the Spirit of the Lord? O Man, thou hast ever been befooled in all thy thoughts of God; and as thou risest higher in thy apprehensions, and bolder in thy determinations, the more shalt thou certainly be befooled. When God openeth himself, to thy cost shalt thou see, how far thou wast from knowing him, or speaking aright concerning him.   

Of Good and Evil.  
GOOD is that which tends to the welfare of the creature: Evil is that which tends to its hurt and damage. They have also some reference to God, though not as he is in himself, yet as he discovereth himself, appeareth, and acteth in such or such a line: So in the several lines, wherein he acts, there is a Good and an Evil, the one tending towards his honour in that line, the other towards his dishonour.  
God as he is in himself cannot be touched, yet as he appeareth, acteth, and holdeth forth his Name, it may receive honour or disparagement; Him that honoureth me, I will honour. The Wisdom, Power, Goodness, Love, Grace, Mercy of God, etc. may be neglected, slighted, undervalved by the creature: He may discover these in his motions, and the creature not take notice of them, not acknowledge them, not acknowledge him in them; and this is a dishonour cast upon him. Again; They may be taken notice of, and he exalted in the thoughts and heart of the creature thereby; and this he pleaseth to accept of and esteem as an honour done unto him.  
Now there is a double kind of good. The creature's keeping in its line, walking to its rule, moving orderly in its station; and the enjoying of life, sweetness and content therein. The living to God, and the enjoying of God, in its course, in its Orb, in its sphere, this is good, and herein lieth the happiness of the creature.  
There is answerably a double Evil. The creatures' deviating from its line, walking out of its way, swerving from the rule of its Creation; and its meeting with that misery which attends this, losing its life, sweetness, content, happiness. And let men think what they will by the change of their apprehensions, yet Good and Evil will evidence their difference to the sense and experience of the creature: that they are different in their own nature, are sown in different grounds, grow from different roots, and tend to different ends. And the creature, while it is a creature, cannot be happy in the way of Evil (either in his present state, or in his end) but only in the way of Good. Mark the perfect man, behold the upright; the end of that man is peace. Say ye to the righteous, it shall go well with him; Say to the wicked, it shall not go well with him. Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, etc. he shall be like a tree planted, etc. The ungodly are not so, they shall not stand in judgement, nor sinners in the Congregation of the Righteous. Christ himself, the beloved Son, cometh to his Exaltation by Righteousness; Because thou lovest Righteousness, and hatest iniquity, therefore God even thy God hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.  
Let the righteousness of the creature fall, lay it as flat as ye will, make unrighteousness equal with it, as well ye may, because it is but unrighteousness, and somewhat more unlovely, because of its paint. But is there no other Righteousness? Is there no true Righteousness? Or must that far the worse, because there is so much painted righteousness? Consider this well. All Gods work, from the very beginning, hath been about Righteousness and Unrighteousness, holding forth the evil nature of the one, the excellent nature of the other; expressing his esteem of the one, his hatred of the other, showing the different ends of each, etc. Now how will he come off at last, if all this should prove nothing but a flame, and one should be as good as the other, and both tend but to one and the same end? If it should be granted, that both shall be swallowed up at last, yet doubtless there must be subordinate ends, (which must have their time and course, and may contain in them a larger everlasting or for ever, then yet we are acquainted with,) wherein their difference shall appear, and wherein those things spoken concerning them in the Scripture must be fulfilled.   

Of the Devil.  
THe Devil is that created Spirit, which God hath fitted with enmity, subtlety, and strength, for the distraction and destruction of his Works. God, to show his own Wisdom, Strength, and Love, hath prepared opposition against himself; and that they might appear the more clearly, he hath so fitted the Opposer, as may best try and draw out his own to the utmost.  
The Devil is not an Original Spirit, no more than the rest of the creatures; but a created, a derived Spirit. It is the breath of the Lord in his nostrils that gives him life: all that he has, and is, came from the Lord, and remains still in the Lord; in whom he lives, and moves, and acts; and who lives, and moves, and acts in him. There is but one, originally; This one is all, and in all: all in every being, all in every motion; all in Heaven, Earth, Hell; all in herbs, plants, beasts, birds, fishes, men, devils; all in every of their motions.  
Now the work of this Spirit is to destroy; to oppose God: or if you will, that which God intended to work in, by, and through this created Spirit, was to oppose himself; to destroy his own Works, so far as he saw good. God made all good; but he did not intent this goodness should stand, therefore he provides this Spirit to let lose upon the Creation, to eat out the sweetness, the beauty, the virtue, the excellency of it.  
Now that this Spirit might the better accomplish his work, he is fitted for it with Enmity, Subtlety, and Strength.  
1. With Enmity. Hence he hath his name, Satan, an Enemy. An enemy to God, to the creature, to the life and happiness of both, to all that is good and truly excellent: And where he throughly prevails, he sows all this enmity, and begets a child like himself; O full of all subtlety, and all mischief, thou child of the Devil, thou enemy of all Righteousness. We see enmity in the creatures one against another, this is his work, from the beginning it was not so, all was in peace and love before the evil one sowed the tares of division. As all shall be in peace at last (the Lion and the Lamb shall lie down together:) so all was in peace at first. This was one part of the goodness that God saw in his works, namely, the harmony, the sweetness, the natural unity and subserviency, which he beheld in the whole, when it came newly out of his fingers.  
2. He is fitted with Subtlety; not with Wisdom, that is peculiar to Christ, he is the Wisdom of God. (As God only is Love; so God alone is Wisdom. There is a vein of subtlety runs through the Devil, and through wicked men, but it is not wisdom.) That the Devil might the better do his work, he hath abundance of subtlety as well as enmity (yea all subtlety) bestowed upon him; O full of all subtlety, said Paul to one who had it but at the second hand, from him, for he was but the child of the Devil. And he is very subtle; for though he cannot reach the original Wisdom of God, nor can he touch any of his Plot, any of his Design, which is wrapped up safe in it, (but he himself is but an engine there:) yet in his several go forth, in his footsteps and tracks that appear, he can there undermine him, and dash his enterprises in pieces.  
Thus did he break the whole fabric of the Creation, which God made an excellent, sweet, beautiful Piece, what an heap of confusion, misery and vanity is it now become? The whole world lieth in him, and the whole world is poisoned by him, and is become a kind of Devil with him, a piece of enmity, a tormentor of itself: There is nothing in it lives in true love, in true wisdom, in true peace; but in a devilish love and policy. There is such a love and wisdom in the world, as is in the Devil; such peace and goodwill among men, as is in Hell among devils.  
Thus did he break the spiritual Fabric of the New-Creation, the evil one sowed tares in this field also. The Husbandry, the building of God was no sooner erected by God, but it was presently defaced by him. He hath taken possession of this inward world, and hath emptied all sorts of Religions of true love, and filled them only with enmity; and the wisdom that is among them is neither pure nor peaceable but sensual and devilish. He appeareth like an Angel of light, that he may vent his own wares, and his great traffic is in Religion; but for all the paint wherewith he coloureth them, he that can look into them may see them to be his wares. The Devil hath his faith, his love, his holiness, his ways of ravishing and transporting the heart in prayer, in meditation, in conference, etc. It is not the sweetness of these, it is not the pleasingness of these, it is not the warming and drawing forth of the heart in these, that can distinguish them. There is abundance of this counterfeit stuff abroad in the world, (the Devil is making use of his time, he may be somewhat near playing his masterpiece, though as yet he needeth not to do it) little of truth, because now is the time of destruction; God giveth the Devil string, and he will make use of it to the utmost.  
3. He is fitted with Strength. He is the strong man armed. He is strong in himself, the world is but a weak thing to him; Man is very weak before him, yea the renewed man hath nothing of strength comparable to him. He is a fountain, a Wellhead, a kind of original; so vast, that he contains all wicked persons, all wicked actions, all wicked things, all wicked motions, within him. He hath a Kingdom, and is a mighty King; and not a King in title, but he hath the head and heart of a King; he is as fit to be the Head of his Body in his kind, as Christ is to be the Head of his Body in his kind. He has so much strength in him that no place can be at quiet, can be free from enmity, while he is there, unless it will admit of his peace. There will be trouble in Heaven, in Earth, in each, in both, till he be cast out of both into the pit, and bound up in the pit. There is no chaining of him, but by eternal, by everlasting Strength. He dares venture upon any thing even upon Christ himself; and if God, with his infinite Power and Wisdom, had not stood by him, and stuck close to him, he had without doubt vanquished him.  
And he is not only strong, but armed; He hath his fortresses, his bulwarks, his ammunion, both of offence and defence, in every kind, whereby he can set upon his enemy, or strengthen and defend his own, as occasion serves.  
Lo, this is the great Destroyer, he that dwells in death, he that leads unto death; and what can be proper for him, but death, but destruction? He that hath slain the creature, is it not fit he himself should die? He that hath shed the blood of man, is it not just and equal, that by man his blood should be shed? He that hath marred and destroyed the whole Creation, doth he not deserve his wages? and is it not fit he should be paid in his own coin, even with death and destruction? And as for such as are led captive by him, whither can they be led, but into death and destruction with him? Surely there are none can escape from him, or from suffering that torment that is cut out for him and his, but the redeemed of the Lord, those who by his Power, his Love, his Purchase, are fetched out of the claws of this cruel one.  
Obj. But how can God be just in punishing the Devil, if he appointed him to his work, and fitted him for his work? How can the Devil be  for acting as he was made, for fulfilling the will of him who made him?  
Answ. Hath not God power to make what he pleaseth? May he not make use of his Power, to show his skill in making several kinds of things, of several natures, and appoint them distinct courses and ends according to their natures? May he not make Hell as well as Heaven, darkness as well as light, evil as well as good? (I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things. The Lord made all things for himself, even the wicked for the day of wrath.) If he hath a black seed of death and destruction, which he soweth in ground suitable to it, and causeth to grow up unto death, unto destruction, what hast thou to say to him?  
O shallow man, when wilt thou cease measuring God by the eye of thy Reason! Wilt thou say it must be thus and thus, it cannot be otherwise, because thou canst not see how it can be otherwise? Thou knowest not any one creature throughout the whole Creation, and yet thou wilt be taking upon thee to know God. Thou knowest not the heart of any man, and yet thou wilt be determining what is in the heart of God. Thou knowest not what any man can do, what any man will do; and yet thou wilt be chaining up the infinite One, and be telling how far he shall or can go, and that he can go no further. If thou hadst far more knowledge, far more wisdom, far more considerateness, a far deeper insight into things; yet God would be still beyond thee, and able to outreach thee in any thing, and could show thee, when he pleased, himself to be somewhat else then thou didst conceive of him, and at liberty to act otherghess things in an otherghess manner than thou couldst possibly apprehend.   

Of Righteousness, Holiness, and Happiness.  
RIghteousness is the conformity of persons, things, or actions, to a straight Rule. To make persons, things, or actions righteous, there must be a Rule, that Rule just, and the person, thing, or action, conformed to it.  
Holiness is the purity of any nature. God's Holiness is the purity of his Divine Nature, man's holiness is the purity of the humane nature, its constitution and current in its own immixed channel. In every thing there is an uncleanness, an impurity, and a purity. We see this in the nature of bodies, and also in the nature of spirits, in the constitution and actions of both.  
Happiness flows from Righteousness and Holiness. God cannot but be happy, because he is both righteous and holy: Not as many understand, that whatsoever he should do he could not be unrighteous or unholy, but because he cannot but keep within the limits of his own holy and righteous Nature in his motions and actions. Shall not the Judge of all the Earth do right? It is not right because he doth it; but because he is what he is, he cannot but do what is right. And he in whom the seed of God is cannot sin, because he cannot but do so likewise; he is free only to that to which his own nature inclines him, which is an holy and righteous nature, and can run but in its own channel.  
The Devil is the unclean, the unrighteous one, therefore also the miserable one. He is the fountain of impurity, poison in himself, and poisoning every thing he comes near: and so long as any thing is within his verge, within his kingdom, it can be neither righteous, holy, nor happy. The subjection of the creature at present to him, is its vanity, its bondage, its death, its misery; and it can never enjoy itself, until it be delivered from his dominion, and be purged of that tincture of uncleanness which he hath breathed and infused into it. It requireth no small skill, power and love, to redeem the creature, and when the misery of our present state appears in its own colours, we shall see the need of, and know how to prise Redemption. Miserable is that man whose God is the Devil, but happy is he under whose feet he is trodden, who is passed through the kingdom of Satan into the Kingdom of God.   

Of Redemption.  
REdemption is the buying of the creature out of its captivity, the bringing of it back into its former state, into its conformity unto God, into its union and communion with God. The creature slipped from God, the creature was gained by the Devil's wiles into his possession: Redemption is the recovery of the creature by that price which Wisdom, Power and Love weighed out, and laid down for the rescue of it.  
He who redeemeth us is God, he payeth the price for us. He who made us, paying the price of our Creation, redeems us too, paying the price of our Redemption. He who laid out so much Wisdom, Power and Love in forming us, is also at the cost of all the Wisdom, Power and Love that is requisite to redeem and renew us.  
He, whom he redeemeth us by, is his Son; he doth it by the blood of his Son. Wisdom and Love hath prepared in and by him a Ransom, not to bribe, but justly to stop the mouth of Justice, by paying it its full price.  
He, to whom he payeth the price, is himself. He payeth it himself, and he payeth it to himself. His Love payeth the price to his Justice. His Justice is himself, it will not be bribed, but will stand upon its right while it hath a Being: his Love doth not go about to undermine it, but to satisfy it, by paying the whole price that it requires; and hereby it maketh Justice its friend, and as ready to seal the discharge of the prisoner, as Love can be to desire it. To illustrate this a little, because it seemeth to some so impossible. Suppose a King making a Law of Death, after the manner of the Medes and Persians, irreversible: One, whom he exceedingly loves, transgresseth this Law: Suppose this King could, by his great understanding and skill, fairly according to exact Rules of Justice, transfer this fault upon his son, and should, out of love to the offender, so do, giving up his own son to death for him. Here is the King himself, paying the price to himself, of the transgression of his own Law. And yet God is more exact in the case in hand, for with him the same person, or that which offended in the person, dyeth. It was not simply a man, but the manhood that sinned; and he sent his Son not barely to offer up himself, but the Manhood. He slew and offered up the man in himself, the nature that offended: He gave up that principle of life in himself that had gone astray in man, not to have it spared in the rest, but to have it offered up in them also, so that there is no more living henceforth by it, but the life now to be had is a new life after the death of this, (I mean not, the body, but the spirit,) which must as certainly die in us, before we live, as Christ's did. And surely this death must needs be acceptable to God, and of true worth and value in his eye, seeing by it all dies that he would not have live. He offereth up his own unspotted Life, and puts to death all that is polluted; and all that he desires is, that he and his may live, after this death, a life that cannot die, nor be defiled. He would have that Principle of Life live only where it was, and as it was, before it miscarried in their hand. The great Work of Christ is, first to bring all forth from God by a weak fading Life, and then to bring all back again to God by a strong violent Death: And as he receiveth life first, and so communicateth it unto them; so he enters into death first, he gins the cup of death & destruction to them also: And as they could not but live, when he let out life upon them; so they cannot but die, when he administers death unto them. He did not die that any might escape death, but that they might pass through it to life; that they might be redeemed from death, that they might live again; that was it he gave his life for, and that is the fruit of his death. And it is anotherghess death we have by Christ, and suffer with Christ, then that which fell upon us from sin and the Law. By the Law we die in sin, we enter into and lie under condemnation: By Christ that principle of life dyeth in us that sinned; so that we can sin no more, nor be no more obnoxious unto death, after once we come to live in him. O sweet Price! O excellent Purchase! The Life, which Christ hath bought for us, was worth the buying, it is Life indeed: and the Price he gave was of value also, both in itself, and in the eyes of him, who could not but accept it.  
He out of whose hands he redeemeth us, is the Devil, who is the great Lord and Tyrant over us until then, until Redemption be perfected. He doth not pay to him the Price, but to his own Justice, and then taketh us from him by force; for there is no dealing with him by Justice, but only by Power, yet God will show himself just in putting forth his Power to recover any thing from him, therefore first he clears his right to us, and then tugs with him for us, who unjustly detaineth us from him.  
That which he redeemeth us from, is that slavery, misery and vanity, which we are in subjection unto by lying under the Devil, by being in the hands of the Devil.  
That which he redeemeth us unto, is the enjoyment of himself, of life and blessedness in himself; and the end, the intent he hath in redeeming us is, that he might enjoy us, and that we might be happy in him and with him.  
O God, How excellent are thy Works! How excellent art thou in Creation, in Desolation, in Redemption and Salvation, and in the Circle and Circumference of them all!   

Of Faith.  
FAith is the divine Instinct of the new Nature in the new Creature, whereby it naturally knoweth, and goeth forth towards God as its Centre.  
Faith is not an acquired thing, but sown in nature; humane Faith in the nature of man, spiritual Faith in the nature of the spiritual man. Indeed outward occurrences and experiences may occasion its growing and thriving, but they cannot sow the seed of it. Things from without may draw it out, and strengthen it, but not beget it. And yet, to speak properly, they cannot increase it neither, but rather the same life flowing from the Fountain through them into it: And so life can at any time reach it, either immediately from itself, or through any other conveyance it shall please to choose.  
In Faith there are two things.  
1. The knowledge of God. Faith, it is the eye wherewith we see God and spiritual things. We see nothing that is spiritual by our nature, by our reason, but only by Faith. We see indeed with those eyes that which we think to be and call the same thing, but not that which is the same thing. We have a kind of sight, a natural sight, a rational sight, yea a believing sight of these things without this Faith, (for there is Faith in nature, and this Faith will act towards every thing that nature, or any revelation or discovery to the eye of Nature, can point out as a proper object for it,) but this sight is not the spiritual sight. This light is but darkness, not light; and that sight, which is in and by this light, is but blindness, not sight. This light cannot comprehend any thing that is spiritual, nor can this eye see any thing that is spiritual. The light is too thick, and the eye is too weak.  
Man hath ever been searching after God, making no question but if he were discovered once, he could see him, not perceiving in himself the want of that eye which alone can see him, which is this eye of Faith, which alone is sown and grows up in the new nature. And where this Faith is sown, though there were never any outward means, the knowledge of God could not but spring up, for it is sown in Faith, in the very nature of Faith, and doth as naturally spring up and grow, as any thing in the ordinary course of common nature doth. The knowledge this child hath of his Parent is by its nature, by feeling the nature of his Parent in him, by the instinct of the divine nature in himself, which points out God to him as his Original.  
2. There is in Faith a going forth towards God in desire, in delight, in confidence: it naturally desires God, delights in God, and relieth upon him. This Nature teacheth him more freely and fully to trust God, than the nature in common children doth them to trust their parents. It is not by outward promises, and falling in with a visible Covenant, that things are transacted between God and them; but God begetteth them by his nature, and they turn again towards God by the same nature, so soon as it springs up and acts in them. Of his own will he begets them, and by the same will begotten in them, they run into his lap, and give themselves up unto him. The little, weak, imperfect, childish Will of eternity in us, naturally rolls itself upon the perfect, complete, fatherly Will of Eternity in God.  
Now Faith is the substance of a Christian, of this new child. All that the Soul is, it is by Faith: All that the Soul enjoys, it enjoys by Faith: All that the Soul acts, it acts by Faith: All that the Soul receives, it receives by Faith. By Faith it walks with God; by Faith it pleaseth God; by Faith it goeth forth towards God; by Faith it receiveth God into itself: or in plain terms, It is by the several wind and turn of this divine Instinct, that it lives, moves, acts, enjoys any thing. And as this Instinct or nature is nipped, so it withers and dies, for it hath its storms, and sharp Winter blasts and frosts, and so also it hath its seasons of retiring its life, as things in this outward world have.  
By Faith this weak vessel, whereinto this new Nature is put, comes to be saved; for the new man himself needeth not Salvation for himself, having never sinned: but the vessel, whereinto it is put, is unclean, and fit only to be cast away, unless it were purified and saved by Faith.   

Of Love.  
LOve is the spiritual affection between God and this new child. As they know one another, so they love one another: and as their knowledge is the straitest knowledge, so is their love likewise the closest love. There is no such union besides as is between them, nor are there any such streams of love any where else to carry hearts up and down to one another, or to centre them in one another.  
This Love is sown in their nature; there is no attaining it, but where this nature is sown. Man may reason himself into love of God (a kind of love,) and it is natural to him so to do, but he cannot thus love him; he hath not the root of this love in him, he hath not the nature whence it flows.  
O how excellent is this Love! O how strong is this Love! Cast this child into what state you will, you cannot turn the heart of God one hairs breadth from him. Let God appear in what posture he will, act how he will towards this Child, it cannot think hardly of him. The streams of this Love run (though sometimes insensibly) forward and backward from each towards each in the midst of all the varieties, changes, and strange unlovely disguises that both are clothed with. And O what torment is it to have this Love chained up! How doth it consume and burn up the poor spirit within, when it cannot find its God to go forth upon, for it cannot move towards any thing else!  
It were a very pretty thing to observe the workings of this Love on both hands between God and them, in the several dispensations he carrieth them through. How gentle it maketh them both, how kind to one another! They can withhold nothing from one another, They dare trust one another with all they have. The child dares put himself into the hands of the Father, it is the pleasure of the child to be subject to the will of the Father: The Father dareth trust his whole Estate, his Name (than which nothing is dearer to him) every thing, in the hands of the child. How patiented towards one another! God will bear any thing from them, they will bear any thing from God. How naturally do they interpret every thing well concerning one another, notwithstanding all the contradictions and contrary apparitions of sense! Surely, says God, they are children that will not lie, I will trust them with Salvation: Surely, say they, God will not fail me, nor forsake me, I will follow him into the jaws of death and destruction. And if things appear never so contrary to what is expected or hoped, though it be quite swallowed up in misery, (contrary to all Promises and Assurances, as it cannot but apprehend,) yet it will not believe what it feels, because of the strength of its Love: And though with its mouth it cannot but at sometimes complain, because of the bitterness of its anguish; yet in heart it cannot think amiss: Nay those very complaints, be they never so bitter against God, yet they flow from Love, and he who had but a skilful eye to read them, might read Love in them. God never deals so sharply with his People, but still 'tis from Love and in Love, and they never speak so hardly against God, but 'tis from Love and in Love too. Love is at bottom, and 'tis Love moves, 'tis Love complains; Love thus vents itself, to ease itself, that it might strengthen itself at the root.  
There is a twofold Love between God and his People: A Love of , and a Love of Righteousness and justice. They love one another from their nature, from that natural tye that is between them; and they love one another according to that worth and excellency they see in one another. A shadow of this we see in man: We love our kindred from and according to the bond of nature, and also from and according to that worth that appears in them.  
The former of these remains constant, is still the same in both; The latter varies, according to the various appearances of worth and loveliness in each.  
It was the latter of these from which we fell. We fell from the Love of God according to our excellency, when we lost our excellency: God could not then love us as excellent, when we were no longer excellent. And this Christ restoreth us unto in restoring us to our former beauty and excellency.  
So in this Love we vary towards God too. Though we always love him with the love of goodwill, yet his Excellency is so hid from us that we cannot always love it, because it is often (and cannot but be) otherwise represented to us in this frail state. His Ways, his Dispensations, his various Appearances are not throughly seen into by us, and so we cannot throughly love them, or him in them: but this Christ will also restore us to in opening that loveliness in them all, which is yet hid from us. And when this is completely done, our hearts will perfectly flow forth in all manner of love one towards another; when we are made in every respect what God loves and esteems, and when God is made to appear what he is, even every way pure, excellent and lovely in all his Ways and Motions.  
This Love both in God and in his (for it is one and the same) hath these six Properties in it. 1. It is Spiritual. 2. Pure. 3. Universal. 4. Gradual. 5. Dispersive. 6. Conquering or Subduing.  
1. It is Spiritual, of a divine Nature, of the Nature of God: Not of an earthly nature, not of the nature of any thing here below, but of an heavenly Nature, of the Nature of God. No man, no creature can thus love, but God alone: it dwells in him, it goes along with him; where he sows his own Life, there he sows this Love, and it is not where else to be found.  
2. It is Pure, it is not mixed, it will not mix with any thing: it will not go forth for any by ends, but from itself, of its own Nature; it is of pure goodwill, of exact Righteousness. Where there is the nature it seeks, where there is the worth it seeks, it will, it cannot but love it.  
3. It is Universal, it goes forth towards all things. God loveth himself, his Son, his Creatures, his Enemies; Heaven and Hell, Light and Darkness, Saints and Devils, Holiness and Sin: It is a comprehensive Love, takes in all things into its bosom. God is Love: as every thing hath its place in God, so every thing hath its proper place in his Love. God hath prescribed us nothing but what is in himself, and he calls for it from us, because he would have us like himself: He bids us love our enemies, because he himself doth so; he hath no enemy but what he loves. O how vast are his Motions! He can hate with a perfect hatred, and yet love with a more perfect Love. And he, in whom this Love is grown up in strength and power, finds it also spreading in him in this universality: There is nothing he can so hate, but he also loveth it; He knoweth Hell, Devil, Sin so well, that he can tell both how and wherein to hate and love them.  
4. It is Gradual: God loveth not all things alike, but every thing in its order, place and station. He loveth himself first and chief, he loveth his Son as himself, he loveth his Creatures according to their several ranks, Hell, Devil and Sin, in theirs; and that both with the love of goodwill and of Righteousness; all which are lovely in their several respects, though some of them are very unlovely both in themselves and in their motions, yet all of them are very lovely in their subserviency; and none of them can be spared. Yea the very nature of the very worst of them (which is the worst thing in them, far worse than any of their motions and actions) hath its proper lustre and loveliness to that eye which throughly discerneth it: The loveliness of darkness lieth in its black dark nature, in its contrariety to and opposition against light; and he who made it so, saw it lovely, and cannot but love it in its being so; and he, who is taken up into him, cannot but see its loveliness also, and love it with him.  
Yet there is an order and degree, as in things themselves, so in Love's going forth towards them.  
A Master of a family loveth his whole family, every thing in it; his wife, his children, his servants, his vassals, his horses, his oxen, his sheep, his asses, his whole household stuff, all his furniture, and several sorts of jewels, vessels of gold, silver, wood, stone, brass, tin, etc. yet not all alike: These have not all the same nearness to him, (though they have all some relation, and may challenge some love and respect:) These are not all of the same nature, have not all the same make, are not all for the same use; They are not of the same worth in themselves, they yield not the same delight unto him; but there is a vast difference in them, and cannot but be likewise in his love towards them.  
An excellent Workman may like all his pieces of work, because several veins of his skill appear in them all, yet still with a difference. He hath his rude inferior draughts of things, which he careth not much for, which any almost may beg from him: but he hath some pieces he setteth so high a price upon, that he will by no means be drawn to part with them.  
God is THE GREAT OPERATOR, he has THE SKILL, (He is wonderful in Counsel, excellent in working:) but yet he works variously. He hath his slight pieces, as he reckoneth this Creation, which he made but for a Say, and regards not what becomes of it, but maketh havoc of it, and suffereth havoc to be made of it continually. Such are all his outward Works, in his outward People, by his outward visible Covenant: He never set much by the one, he never did any great thing by the other; he brought it forth to show its weakness, its insufficiency for the bringing about of what he meant to do: And the love he beareth to it is for its weakness, for its fitness to set off the strength of his other Covenant when it should be brought forth. But God hath his pieces of Skill, he hath his accurate pieces of Work which he hath brought forth all his Wisdom in, wherein there are the very depths of God running in their several secret lines; these he is very dainty of. He loveth every thing; but yet wisely, in its order and place, according to its nature, end and use. His Love is not such a confused love, as must go forth with its whole strength, or not at all; but he hath Wisdom and Judgement to guide it by, to let it out as may yield him most pleasure, and may most commend and set it off in its going forth; which consists in the perfect variety of objects, and in the perfect variety of acts and ways of motion. The having and enjoying of the whole strength of his heart would not be so choice, rare and excellent, if it were over-common. But when none hath it but his Spouse, his Children, his Jewels, it will appear what it is to be his Spouse, to be his Child, to be his Jewel. And when he hath none else to love, enjoy and delight in, as them; his delight in them will be more precious and pleasing to himself. God will have, can have but one Spouse; and his Spouse will not, cannot endure the least jot of his husbandly affection to run aside from her, no more than he can suffer the least Spouse-like affection of hers to run aside from him. They shall each love every thing else, but nothing so as they love one another.  
5. It is Dispersive: This Love sows and scatters itself every where. There is not any thing any where, but God is there; it is in God, and God is in it. God hath excluded himself from many things, yea from most things in some considerations, but yet he is still there in other considerations; and where he is, his Love is: And how remote soever things appear at present from him, yet he will have a time to discover himself, and consequently his Love, in them.  
6. It is Conquering, it is Subduing, it subjects all things to itself. Love is stronger than death: The Love that is in every thing will one day, when it discovers its strength, conquer the Death that is in every thing: (and the Conquest must be where the Combat is, even in the heart of every thing.) Nothing is able to stand before Love: If thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink; hereby thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head, and he shall not be able to hold out against the engines and art of Love. If we had but Love enough, we might conquer our greatest enemies; God hath Love enough, and therefore can conquer his greatest enemies: He can chain them up by Power, but that is nothing so noble a Conquest as to change them by Love. The letting lose of pure and perfect Love will charm all the enmity and opposition in the bitterest and fiercest adversary.  
Now do not say, O Man, these things cannot be. There is certainly such a Love in God, who cannot but delight to give it full vent; And when Wrath hath had its full scope, why should not Love (which cannot be always bound) have its turn? Wrath comes from Love, and in its greatest heat is subject unto Love, and why should it not at length be swallowed up in Love? Love cannot be perfect in its work, while it suffers an enemy to remain: and its Conquest being so sweet, excellent and universally good, how can it but desire and delight to conquer? If Love be the best thing, the most universally pleasing and profitable, why should it not delight to diffuse itself? how can it rest until it hath diffused itself? Was there any thing but Love, before things were brought forth in such a way, as they might be exposed to hatred? When there was nothing but God, was there any hatred in him? Doth any man hate his own flesh, himself? And how can Love be quiet, until it hath reduced all into Love and loveliness again? Surely, saith my Soul, Love must want strength, or it cannot suffer misery always to remain. If I had power in me answerable to the love I find sown and springing up in me, I could not endure the misery of any thing. Whence cometh this? what is this, being interpreted? Is not this from, and a shadow of that Love, which wants not this power, nor this goodwill, nor skill to do it in a way of Righteousness? (Is it not just for Love to recover all it once had and possessed, if it can?) And this may God do, to my understanding, (which since he hath broken it, gives him his scope in doing what he pleases, in speaking what he pleases, in interpreting his own words as he pleases,) and not contradict any thing he hath said, but only our weak creaturely apprehension of things, who have measured his declaration of his Intentions, not in his light, but in our own.   

Of Self-denial.  
Self-denial is the first step in Christianity, that which Christ first teaches and requires to have learned of any, before he will admit of them into his School, before he will undertake to train them up as his Disciples. It is that which makes way for all the Lessons which he teacheth afterwards, without which none of them can be learned, and by which they are all made easy: He who hath learned to deny himself, will quickly learn to bear his Cross, to die with Christ daily, yea to live and move towards God in and through Christ.  
Self is the natural man, the earthly principle, (Adam in his own nature,) which is of the earth, and tends to the earth, which is ever sinking into that corruption which makes way for death. This Self, where ever it is, where ever it hath a Being, it cannot but seek to preserve and make use of its Being in motion and activity, which as it comes from itself, so it centres in itself: it may move towards God, towards any spiritual thing, yet it is from Self, and for Self that it so moves.  
This Self, being corrupted, hath most of its principles, motions and ends in and from corruption; yet it will not rest there, but wanders up and down every where for security; and there is nothing within its reach but it will lay hold on, if it may hope for preservation from it or through it: There is nothing can be propounded for it to believe, but it will believe; nothing can be propounded for it to practise, but it will practise; yea it will not fall short in the very accurateness of Self-denial itself.  
There was never yet any Fabric that God reared for himself, for his own Spirit to make use of, or to dwell in; but our spirits, our Self hath entered in after him, hoping to live there with him, and to be safe there through him, through his presence and help. When the Lord built a material Temple which he appeared in, how did the spirits of fleshly Israel cling unto it, how did Flesh, Self, corrupt all those Ordinances and ways of Worship which were once pleasing, but by it made abominable in the eyes of God.  
There is no Form (take the expression as largely as ye can) either of outward or inward worship, but flesh, self, will intrude thither, will be making use of it, will be corrupt there and corrupting it. It will enter into all Duties, Ordinances, into all Spiritual Motions of every kind, into Faith, into Love, into Humility, Patience, Meekness, heavenly mindedness, there Self will be, in these postures will Self act and move. There is not any strain of Religion so pure, not a notion or apprehension so spiritual, not a vision or revelation so sublime, and seemingly remote from Self, but Self will be climbing up, and getting into it, putrifying and preparing it for Eternal fire, which will not be quenched (when once it is kindled) until it hath burnt up flesh, burnt up Self where ever it finds it. And though these now seem very glorious, smell very sweet, (O how Flesh is pleased and ravished here!) yet when the Eternal fire is let lose upon them they will stink extremely (nothing scents worse than  flesh) and then in stead of a sweet savour there will be a stink. Ye begin to smell the flesh in your Ordinances, in your Duties; ye shall smell it in your Graces too, yea in the purest intirest motions that ever your spirits went out in.  
This sickness is so deep, this leprosy so spread, that it will be very costly to have it purged out, and the person cured. The whole house must be pulled down, the whole building, the spiritual Temple as well as the material, and every stone burnt in the fire. Every Ordinance, all spiritual Knowledge, every spiritual Motion must be rend, confounded, torn in pieces, so that there will be no sight or acknowledgement of them left. We shall be perfectly lost in the life of our spirits, before the life of the flesh come to be lost in us. And the corruption of the flesh will so stink, in every thing that is spiritual, when it comes to be burnt, that we shall think there was nothing else, nothing but corruption in them; because at present (in the time of its burning) we can see nothing else, and see and smell that so strong.  
Ye have heard a noise of persons crying out against all Righteousness, all Religion, all Excellency, laying the highest, the eminentest acts in that kind even with the vilest, grossest acts of evil to common sense and understanding. Ye can judge these clearly, and well ye may, for in some respect some of them lie open to your judgement: But when the flames come to find thee out, and seize upon these in thee, thou also wilt be confounded, and become not so able to distinguish and retain that difference which is now so palpable between them. Nay Flesh, Self, that is got into these motions, will smell more abominably (when it is cast into the fire) then that which concents itself to dwell and act in the grossest: And the day may come that thou mayst prefer the swaring, drinking, cursing, blaspheming, uncleanness of those that are now loathsome unto thee in this respect, before thine own praying, believing, loving of God, etc. The inward intense, spiritual wickedness that lies hid in these, is of a thousand-fold deeper nature than that grossness which appears in the other. As the Spirit of Life is most excellent in these, beyond what he is in outward appearances, (The Spirit of Life triumphs in the new Creature, in the new Creation, in the motions of this Life:) So the spirit of man, Self, Flesh is most abominable here, far surpassing the common curruption of mankind, both in the nature and degree of wickedness.  
Man can never learn to deny himself. He can indeed both learn and practise this Lesson after his manner, as he doth other Lessons of the same nature, viz. truly and substantially to his own judgement, but not to Gods. As he can believe, and that upon Scripture-Grounds, love God upon spiritual Considerations: So he can deny himself, he can move not for his own ends, but from the Excellency in God and spiritual things. Man can make every action and motion of his weighty in his own balance, but for all that they are light in Gods: Thy Faith is not Faith (though bottomed on Scripture-Grounds and Promises) thy Love is not Love, thy Self-denial is not Self-denial, thou dost not throw down, but set up thyself in thy purest motions, ends, desires. To avoid misery (eternal misery) to obtain glory (an eternal weight of glory) what would not poor Self do! How hard will it run the race for this prize, and strip itself as naked of Self, as may be, that it may so run as to obtain! and yet it is not stripped, it doth not run, it cannot obtain. Ah poor man, what will become of thee! Of what nature, thinkest thou, are all thy signs, and all thy Evidences, by which thou weighest things concerning thyself in the balance of the Sanctuary, as thou imaginest; but in truth dost but turn them up and down in the scale of thine own uncertain reason and understanding, which by a false finger thou still makest speak well for thyself! Thou art undone, all thy treasure is dross, it cannot abide the coming of the Lord, nor the day of his strict Trial; all thy precious things will be consumed and perish in the fierce fire of his Jealousy.  
But there is Newman, who cannot but learn to deny himself, for it is written in his nature, so that it is as hard for him to seek himself, as it is for the other to deny himself. Let him be beset with never so many motives, snares, advantages to seek and set up himself, he cannot do it. It is as impossible for him to be drawn to himself, as it is for the other to be drawn from himself.   

Of CHRIST, FROM JOH. 1. Vers. 1. 
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.   
IN the beginning. In the Circle of Eternity there is neither beginning nor ending, and yet in it and from it is both the beginning and the end. When Eternal Life clothed itself with weakness and mortality, than there was a beginning; when it shall put off all these garments, swallowing up the vanity and emptiness of the Creature in its own immortal Substance and Fullness, than there shall be an end. Before those things were, that were brought forth in time, there was no beginning; but when those things began to be framed, which could not so be but in time, then there was a beginning both of time and them.  
Was the Word. A word with us, is that which we speak: a Word with God, is that which he speaks, who has the complete Substance in himself of every thing which is (but weakly) shadowed out in us. God speaks often, hath many words, and yet but one: His several Words express parts (as I may say) parcels of him; his one Word this one Word expresseth him all, expresseth him wholly, expresseth him fully. This is the Original Word whereof all other Words are but Copies: This is the perfect Word, wherein God spoke out himself perfectly; wherein he spoke the whole Godhead as fully as it could be spoken, in whom he brought forth his own invisibility into view, he is the express Image of the invisible God, his likeness is just as may be, his own Word that came out of his own Mouth from his very Heart, and hath all his Heart engraven upon it, so that he who can read this Word, may read the whole Godhead.  
In the beginning was the Word. When other things did but begin to be, than the Word was: He had his full, his perfect Being before any thing else: He was before all things, and by him do all things subsist. The Word was not only when other things were, but before other things were. He was in the beginning, nay indeed he was the Beginning: I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last. He was the first that came from God, and the last that returns into God. He was that Point in the Circle out of which every thing was let, and into which every thing runs back, and returns with him into the Circle again.  
And the Word was with God. Would you know where the Word was in the beginning? it was with God. This was an inward Word: This Word did not so go forth from God, but that it still remained in and with God. This Word God brought forth both within himself, to live and remain in him, and without himself, for him to live and dwell in: And whoever are made one with this Word, must become the same; They must be God's House. God's Temple, and God must be their House, their Temple; they must dwell in God, and God in them. The Creature, the Creation, when it was brought forth, it was to be removed at a distance from God: God would have communion with the Creature but when and as he pleased, after what manner, and by what rule he pleased. He would not dwell in the same house with him, he would not keep continual company with him, but he would come, and walk, and converse with him at what seasons he saw good: He puts Adam into the Garden, but there he leaves him, and what befell him, while he left him, we all too well know. But the Son abideth in the house for ever; the Father ever abideth with the Son; the Blood, the Life, the Spirit of the Father continually runneth in the veins of the Son. The Word was ever with God, and God was ever with the Word; the Son lay ever in his bosom, and he lay ever in his Son's bosom. The Word was made (for he was the beginning of the Creation of God) for his own immediate and everlasting Possession. When he keeps him within himself, he possesses him there; when he sends him forth, he goes forth with him, and possesses him there also; I am not alone, but the Father is with me: They never are alone, they never act alone; but where the Father is, the Son is; and where the Son is, the Father is; what the Father does, the Son does; and what the Son does, the Father does in him: He is not, he acts not, he speaks not, but the Father in him; the Father is not, acts not, speaks not, but in him. Here him expounding this himself, how he was with God in the beginning.  
Prov. 8.22. The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his Way, before his Works of old. The Lord had a Way to go, a great Circuit to fetch, to make Eternity, Life, Perfection run through all the paths of mortality: He had Works of old, the things he made a great while ago, the whole Weeks Creation that ye read of. Why in the very beginning of his Way, when he set the first step in it, yea even before any of these his Works of old, he possessed me.  
Vers. 23. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the Earth was. The Fabric of Christ was reared from everlasting, or if you will, from the beginning: I was the first he began with, and he began with me from everlasting; yea then was I perfected, I was his Tabernacle pitched, I was set up from everlasting. Ye cannot conceive how any thing can be brought forth from everlasting, neither can ye conceive how any thing can be from everlasting: but ye may believe the one as well as the other. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the Earth was. I am not of the stamp of this Creation, not such a thing as is brought forth in time; but I am that Word wherein God brought forth his own Eternal Being, his own Eternal Life and Substance: and as he reared up his own Eternity in me, so he set me up from Eternity. I was not the first in this Creation, but from the beginning, before ever the Earth was. Not from the beginning of this Creation, that is but a shadow of the beginning, as well as all the things created are but shadows of somewhat else, but from the beginning indeed, from that beginning which was a beginning from everlasting, where all things do begin and end in anotherghess manner than can be shadowed out by draughts of Creation to a created eye: and from then was I set up.  
Vers. 24. When there were no depths, I was brought forth: when no fountains abounding with water. He instances in the first things, and in the greatest things. The first thing we read of was the great deep, and the deeps they are the wonders of God, and where he does wonders, These see the Works of the Lord, and his Wonders in the deep. And the Fountains of Waters are one of his Masterpieces in this Creation, Worship him who made the Heaven, the Earth, the Seas, and the Fountains of Waters. Yea but there was a more wonderful thing brought forth then these, before any of these; When there were no dephs, I was brought forth: when no Fountains abounding with water.  
Vers. 25. Before the Mountains were settled, before the Hills was I brought forth. The depths and fountains, they are the eminent things in the Waters: The mountains and hills, they are as eminent in the Land, or dry part of the Creation. What mighty mountains are there up and down throughout the whole Earth? and what a piece of work was it, think you, to settle and fix these in their places; or to bring forth all the hills throughout the whole world? and yet I was before them, I was brought forth before them. Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth.  
Vers. 26. While as yet he had not made the Earth, nor the open places, nor the chief part of the dust of the World. He speaks very accurately, as one who was very well acquainted with the work of Creation. He divides the Earth into three parts, or represents it under three Considerations. There is the bulk of it, which is generally hid; Then there is the surface or open part of it, which lieth open to the eye of the creature for it to view and behold; and then there is the spirituous part of it, wherein is as it were the life and excellency of the Earth.  
Nor the chief part of the dust of the World. There is a choyceness in Earth as well as in other things, and God hath a special eye to the chief part. The dust is the lightest part, the most minute and spirituous, the fittest to be form into any thing, (God form man of the dust of the Earth:) and he hath a choyceness in dust too. But before he made either the bulk of the Earth, or the open part of it, or the chief part of the dust of the World, I was brought forth, and stood by him.  
Vers. 27. When he prepared the Heavens, I was there: when he set a Compass (or Circle) upon the face of the depth. Here are two wonderful things more: his preparing Heaven and Earth. He had Works to form and fashion above, as well as beneath; he had Heavens to make, as well as Earth. He takes the matter he would make the Heavens of, the Sun, Moon, Stars, and all that Host, the several Regions and Orbs there, and prepares it for it, makes it ready for himself to work upon, to cast into what form he pleased. And he takes the depth out of which, and within which he would make the dry Land and the Sea (which were jumbled together in one Mass) and draws a line about it, within this Compass, saith he, will I do it. When he did this, says Wisdom (Wisdom brought forth, which was the Word) I was there, I saw him do it, I knew his meaning in it, I perceived the very skill whereby he wrought it.  
Vers. 28. When he established the Clouds above: when he strengthened the Fountains of the deep: The Clouds had need be well fastened, or they would soon drop down. They are such great Curtains, they had not need only be fastened at the ends, but up and down every where: God perceived this well enough in his making and stretching them out, and therefore when he had made them, and set them in their places, he established them. And the Fountains, that continually yield so much water, the Fountains of the deep (that must yield waters to maintain all Seas and Rivers, and supply the continual expense of waters from each, whereof the Earth sucks in much, and from whence the multitude of creatures, both on the Earth and in the Air, draw much) had need of good store, it requites a great stock to nourish these: therefore the Lord, when he had made them, he strengthened them, that they might have fullness in themselves, and be able to fill all their vessels.  
Vers. 29. When he gave to the Sea his Decree, that the Waters should not pass his Commandment: when he appointed the Foundations of the Earth. The Sea is very violent and unruly, not to be tamed by mankind as other creatures are. The Foundations of the Earth are very vast things, as hard to be mastered as tha Sea. But God who made both knows how to rule both; and when he divided them he gave each their bounds. He gave the Sea his Decree; hither may it go, but here must it stop, the pride of its waves must not swell further: Neither may the Foundations of the Earth thrust the Sea out of its place, but keep their own station and limits, which he likewise appointed them.  
Vers. 30. Then I was by him, as one brought up with him: and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him. I than stood by him and saw him do all these things, and understood his meaning and intent, comprehending him fully in every one of them: I was then as one that stood by him, having the view and comprehension of his whole operation in this Fabric from first to last. Nor was I by him as one then newly brought forth, as the first piece of the Creation; but as one brought up with him, as one who had always been with him; as one in whom he always delighted, whom he could never tell how to pass a day pleasantly without, I was daily his delight. Christ is the delight of God, he whom God evermore delighted in, he who was still so like himself, so perfect and unchangeable in the Image of himself, that God could not but take continual pleasure in beholding himself in this glass: yea he was so taken with this representation of himself that he could never leave off looking on it. He could never forbear looking on him, and every look was pleasant to him, (it is impossible for God to be cloyed with Christ▪) I was daily his delight. Man is not so pleased to behold himself, as to behold his Image in his Son, that is his pleasure, his content, the delight of his heart: And 'tis the delight and pleasure of God, not simply to see himself in himself, but to see himself brought forth in Christ, to behold this Image, this draught of himself perfectly brought forth, eternally durable; to behold every thing of himself brought forth in him, living in him acting in him; This is his delight, the very joy of his heart.  
Rejoicing always before him. Christ is not only delightful to God, but delightful in himself before God, rejoicing before him. God's heart is full of joy and delight in Christ and because of Christ, and Christ's heart is full of joy before God, he is ever rejoicing. Where God and Christ are together there is nothing but delight and joy, delight in God, joy in Christ; God delighting in Christ, and Christ rejoicing before God. Rejoicing always before him. The mirth and rejoicing of the Child is exceedingly pleasing to the Father, specially when it is in his presence, and when it flows from the delight and pleasure he hath in the Father. The Father is pleased with all his excellencies and perfections as they are brought forth in Christ: Christ he is pleased with them as they dwell originally in the Father. The Father pours out his own Spirit of Joy into the Son, anointing him abundantly with the oil of gladness; and the Son pours forth that joy abundantly and continually in the presence of the Father, he is ever rejoicing before him, rejoicing in the Person of the Father, delighting in the Works of the Father, leaping to see how every thing comes from him, how every thing returns to him, how every thing makes for him, how every thing is full of him, how every thing is fully in him. Oh how ravishing would it be to any eye, to any heart, to behold things in Christ as God beholds them there, or to behold things in God as Christ beholds them there! He who once is led to this, will meet with true joy with Christ, with true delight with God; he cannot forbear delighting himself in Christ with God, nor from rejoicing continually with Christ before God.  
Vers. 31. Rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth, and my delights were with the sons of men. Christ doth only rejoice in God; but in every thing that comes from God; as God doth not only rejoice in Christ, but in every thing that he brings forth through Christ. There is nothing displeaseth Christ in any thing but its distance from God; There is nothing displeaseth God in any thing, but its distance from Christ: They so entirely love one another that they care not for beholding any thing, desire not to enjoy any thing, but in one another.  
Rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth. Heaven and Earth and all things in both had a Being in God, a more complete substantial Being then this shadowy Being wherein they are brought forth and outwardly appear: There Christ knew them, there Christ rejoiced in them, from thence Christ brought them forth into this state and kind of being wherein they are; thither will Christ bring them back again, and rejoice in them again; alas, this present state is not a state to be rejoiced in.  
His Earth. The Earth is the Lords, and the fullness thereof; It is his own, it came from him, it was framed by him, he made the matter of it, he form and shaped it, it was what it was by him, it is what it is according to his pleasure and for him, it is subjected to weakness and vanity for his sake, and he knows and owns it, in a way unknown to it, in the midst of all its weakness and vanity. Man, if he be a little exalted, doth presently despise that which appears weak and beneath him: but God, who is mighty in strength and wisdom, despiseth not: Job 36.5.  
The habitable part of his Earth. In the Earth, in his Earth there are habitable and inhabitable parts (this outward Fabric is a true draught of the inward, though a dark and defaced one;) He changeth it as he pleaseth, maketh it habitable or inhabitable as he pleaseth: but his work lieth most still at present in the habitable part; there he is most active, his glory is most sown there, and most seen from thence, there Christ is at work with him, and rejoicing in his work.  
And my delights were with the sons of men. The sons of men are the chief part in God's Earth, even in the habitable part of it, according as they were brought forth the chief part of this shadowy Earth, they have the special stamp and Image of God upon them, the excellency and quintessence of the whole Creation is contracted into them, the life and glory of God is sown in them, this the soil for it to spring up in, grow in, discover itself in, this is his Tabernacle, this is his holy Land, etc. and accordingly Christ's delights were chief here, and my delights were with the sons of men.  
Lo this is the Word, thus he was with God, and this was his employment in part.  
And the Word was God. He was with God, and he was God. He was not with God as a stranger, as a mere beholder of him and his works, as one at a great distance from him, but as one with him. As God brought him forth out of himself, so he brought him forth as himself, he brought forth himself in him; he brought forth his own life, his own Wisdom, his own Power, his own Eternity, his own Immortality, which remains the same now as it was before; it was God before, and it is God still, it was God in itself, and it is God in him. Christ is but God breathed out, and God is but Christ drawn in. He is the Image of the invisible God, yet not a bare Image, but a living Image, an Image wherein the whole portraiture and lineaments, yea the very life and substance of the Godhead is engraven. Where ever God forms Christ he forms himself, for he is but himself a little diversified, and that with the least distinction that may be; it is himself in the first step of descent, it is himself in his first and most immediate going forth, it is the primary and most perfect forming of God (it is a Scripture-phrase, before me was no God form.) God is form in the Creature, but it is very difficult to read him there, the likeness is so small, the unlikeness so great: but it is easy to read him in Christ. He that beholds Christ, cannot but behold God; He that understands and knows Christ, cannot but know God: for there is nothing but God in him. He is the true draught of the Godhead, he in whom God came forth, in whom God is, in whom God dwells, who hath filled every part of him with himself, who shineth through him, and cannot but be seen where he is seen. Christ is every thing that God is, is every where where God is, does every thing that God does, All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made: All things are ordered and governed by him, he upholdeth all things by the Word of his Power: Hebr. 1.  
The Word was God. Not his flesh, that is but his garment, it is no part of him no more than our clothes are of us, only indeed in this respect it is somewhat nearer, because he took it up as an everlasting garment. Our flesh is no part of us, no part of the newman, no part of Christ in us, it is but our garment; and his flesh is but his garment, which he took up not for any need he had of it, or from any love to it, but because he would be like us, and because he found it somewhat advantageous to him to express his love to us, to perform some offices of love for us in; because the children were partakers of flesh and blood, he himself also took part of the same: Hebr. 2. The Word was made flesh; He was made or became, he put himself into that appearance, he partook of it with his Brethren, but it was no part of him, nor had no relation to him, otherwise then as it was assumed by him. It is an imaginary description which many give of Christ, that he is God in flesh, God in weakness: No, he is God in strength, God in perfection; The Wisdom of God, the Power of God, the Arm of the Lord wherein all his strength lies; the skill of God whereby he does every thing (by him he made the Worlds;) the storehouse, the treasury wherein the whole fullness of the Godhead is locked up and dwells in its own perfection. It is true he was made flesh, he entered into a state of weakness, but what was he who became flesh, who entered into this state of weakness? It was the Word, and that Word was God.  
O Man, Behold thy Saviour, know thy life; do not despise Eternity because of its appearing in and acting through mortality. This is he who came to redeem thee, to be a propitiatory sacrifice for thee, and a pattern to thee. Art thou able to measure God in any work of his through the Creature? Thou knowest thou art nor; why then dost thou measure him so confidently in his greatest work through his Christ, even the work of Redemption, and so apparently contradict him in it? He lays the stress on that Death of his Son which he underwent, when he offered up himself in his Body on the Cross through the Eternal Spirit: Thou slightest that, lookest upon it as nothing but a type, making the substance to be the death of Christ in thee. Indeed it is a type, and the death of Christ in thee is the substance of it, so far as it is a type of it: but is it no more than a type? Was there nothing done but only a representation of what was to be done in thee and in others? Search, read, see, consider what is spoken concerning that once dying of his, by that one offering hath he for ever perfected them that are sanctified. Poor shallow Man cannot comprehend God or any thing of God, he can see but one piece but one side or any of his works at once, and in beholding and acknowledging that, he is still ready to contradict the other which at that time he seethe not. He who looks on Christ without, and is taken up with beholding that death, little thinks he that he must feel the same within, that he must be baptiz d with the same Baptism, that he must drink of the same Cup. He who sees and feels that death within, finding the power, efficacy and virtue of it there, presently inclines to slight the other, to look upon it as a mere shadow; yet not as comprehending it, not as truly and throughly knowing it, but as having lost the sight of it, by being taken up with the sight and sense of what is wrought within: and so he passes unrighteous judgement, undervaluing that which is the foundation of this, and has the main influence into this, by virtue whereof this is wrought.  
O vain Man, thou wouldst fain be wise, though thou beeft born a wild Ass' Colt! Thou art still searching after knowledge, and erecting a fabric of wisdom, though thou hast no capacity in thee of receiving or entertaining either. If God throw down the edifice of thy Religion about thine ears, thou presently with thy wisdom wilt rear up another: When thou seest thyself impoverished by those ruins which he bringeth upon thee, thou immediately returnest to build the desolate places. But what come all thy buildings to? They are only permitted to be raised for greater throwings down: This wisdom must not stand, nor any thing that it brings forth. O that thou couldst be still, and that this might be thy wisdom! Cease measuring God and spiritual things, till he give thee a measure wherewith to do it. When thou knowest Christ the Wisdom of God, then shalt thou know God; and when thou knowest God, the Original of Christ, then shalt thou know Christ, what God is in Christ, what God hath done by Christ: But if thou wilt be measuring the things or actions of God by what thou feelest in thyself, thou canst not choose but miss, and wilt be as much befooled herein, as thou seest others to be in what they have uncertainly received and held forth from an outward sight and knowledge.   

Of the two Principles, Seeds or Creations, their different Natures, Motions, and Ends.  
THere are two Creations, made by one and the same workman, which have both of them their several distinct Natures, Motions and Ends, according to their frame and constitution, and are both excellent in their kind, and for that use to which they were intended.  
The one is weak, frail, perishing, made and appointed as a foil to set off the beauty, excellency and perfection of the other; (which if it were of the nature of the other, it could not do, and so should lose its own proper excellency, virtue and use: for the excellency of every thing lieth in its own nature, and in its suitableness by its nature to its end and use. If sin were not black in its nature, vile in every motion, did not tend both in its nature and motions to death and destruction, it were not excellent, it would be a dull tool without an edge, which is no way lovely or commendable.)  
The one hath all manner of excellency in it, but appears weak, poor, low: The other maketh a great show of much worth, beauty, excellency, but is nothing but emptiness and vanity at the bottom. The one spreads little, but hath abundance of life and strength at root: The other spreads abundantly, its branches, leaves, fruit are very fair and flourishing, but it is putrified at the root.  
These two have their distinct Natures, and accordingly their distinct motions and ends, which they still retain in all the varieties and changes which they are made to undergo.  
Cloth the first Creation how you will, it is but still Earth; carry it whither you will, mount it up to Heaven, it remains Earth there; let in what glory can be let in upon it, it is still but Earth. The other, the second Creation, lay it as low as you will, bring it down into the Earth, cloth it with Earth, bury it in the very bowels of the Earth, it still retains its own heavenly life and nature.  
So for their Motions: They still move according to their Natures. Let Earth be tried to the utmost, throughly frighted into Spirituality, driven to seek shelter in the life and power of God to preserve itself from perishing, be put upon moving towards God, towards Heaven; or it sees it is undone for ever; it cannot for all this move spiritually, but will be like itself (though moving to the utmost, yet) earthly in all these motions. On the other hand, Let the spiritual Principle be thrust out of Heaven into the Earth, be shut up from all spiritual life and motion there, have no happiness, peace, rest, content day nor night, but what it can suck in from and through the Earth: alas! for all this it cannot move earthlily, it cannot rest or take in delight from the Earth; if it cannot find its own life it will refuse to live, it will choose death rather than the life of the Earth.  
And for their Ends, they are according to their Natures and Motions. The one tends to Condemnation, to Death; the other to Justification, to Life. Involve Earth, as much as may be, in Heaven, in Life; it will be sinking into Death and Hell again: Bind Heaven, as much as may be, in the Grave, in Hell, its life will be breaking all bonds, and mounting upwards, when its strength is grown it will not be held back, but will return into its own Country and Inheritance.  
These two, they differ in their seed or root, in their bulk or body, in their branches, leaves, fruit; in their substance, virtue, quality, from their very rise unto their very end in every thing.  
The Scripture holds out this abundantly every where, testifying concerning two distinct trees, trees of righteousness, trees of Gods planting, trees that grow in his Garden, in his Vineyard, and trees of wickedness, wild Olives, wild Vines, their Vine is the Vine of Sodom.  
These Trees have distinct roots, of distinct natures, the one whereof is earthly, of this Creation, and so weak and corrupt; the other is heavenly, of the other Creation, of a nature more inward, strong and pure.  
They have likewise distinct branches, leaves and fruit, which as each grow from their own root, so they have their distinct virtue, keeping that nature which they have from the root: The one is still sowing and bearing fruit to the flesh, the other to the Spirit.  
They have also (both the tree, leaf and fruit) their distinct shape and Image; the one the Image of the earthly, the other the Image of the heavenly. There is the Image of God, of Christ every where throughout the New Creation, in every piece and parcel of it, in every motion of any part of it: The Faith, Love, Hope, Joy, Peace, Humility, Patience, Praying, Waiting, etc. of the new man have the Image of the Father and of Christ in them, whereas the best of these in man and from man are but earthly.  
And they have their distinct ends. The one, with all that comes from them, with all that belongs to them, shall be cast into and perish in the fire, shall be like chaff before the wind, tossed up and down by it, shall return from whence they came, shall receive their death where they had their life: The other shall only be purified in the fire from that which encumbereth it, and is death unto it, and its end shall be rest and peace, Justification in itself with all its ways and motions, and perfect union and communion with God, which the other shall never be admitted unto. Be not deceived, God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption: but he that soweth to the Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.  
They differ also in their circuit and course. The one gins in life, and ends in death, gins in strength, and ends in weakness, gins in glory, and ends in shame, gins in order, but ends in confusion: The other gins with death, weakness, shame, confusion, but ends in perfect life, strength, glory, and order. This Creation was brought forth in its perfection, it began gloriously, but it withers and dies daily; its life, its glory is like a wind that passeth away and comes to nothing, for it returneth not again: The other Creation is but as seed sown in this Creation, which hardly appears to have any life or excellency in it, and its growth is very weak and gradual, but withal it doth spring up, and will grow, until it arrive at Life and Perfection.  
These two Principles, Seeds, Creations, the fleshly, the earthly, and the spiritual and heavenly, are together, live together, move together in the renewed man, and cannot perfectly be distinguished either in themselves or motions. The spiritual Principle goes up and down through the Earth with the earthly, extracting God out of every thing, and feeding upon God in every thing, turning every thing into heavenliness, into spirituality, into life, that it meets with. The earthly Principle goeth up and down also into Heaven, and among heavenly things, with the spiritual, with the heavenly, making them earthly to itself, and feeding its earthliness with them, extracting Earth out of Heaven, blowing upon, and tainting every spiritual excellency that it hath to do with. And these can neither of them have ease, rest or content, the one being still disturbed by the other: Neither of them can move freely, nor enjoy itself fully, because the other is still striving to move and enjoy itself (as its nature still guides it) in that which is quite contrary. O how welcome will a separation be to both! The one would leap into the fire to get rid of the other, nay either would choose to live rather in the fire then with the other.  
The condemnation, which is to issue out upon the first Creation, is double, (which may easily be discerned every where, in every thing, by him that can read, it is so plainly written upon every thing.) One is, because of their deviating from their state and kind, for falling short of that excellency which is proper to them, and which they might attain in a far greater degree than they do, for not being what they should and might be: Every seed hath degenerated from its kind, all flesh hath corrupted its way before the Lord, and so lieth open to condemnation for its degeneration, for its corruption. The other is in respect of their kind, which shall be made appear to be weak, shallow, imperfect, and so not fit to be suffered to remain, but fit only to make fuel for the fire against that great time of burning which is designed concerning the Earth, and all the works therein, which must then be burnt up. Such is all the righteousness and excellency of the Creature, and therefore though it were as complete in any as it was in Adam, yet it must come under condemnation: And though it should be justified in and according to its nature, for being what, and acting according to what it was made; yet it should be condemned for the weakness of its nature, as being but a shadow and Image suited only to represent somewhat at present, but in no wise fit to abide.  
There is answerably a double Justification of the second Creation: One in respect of the excellency of its kind, the other is in its keeping to its kind, it remaining still the same in all its motions, conditions, changes. As it came forth pure from God, so it remains pure in itself, acts purely, and is stripping itself daily of that filthy garment wherewith it is here clothed, as fast as may be. He who hath this seed in him (which seed hath Faith and Hope, and every spiritual thing in it) purifieth himself as he is pure from whom it came. As he is pure who begat, so it is pure which is begotten by him, and cannot but be contracting inwards, and purging itself from that impurity which cleaves unto it by reason of its present affinity with flesh.   

Of the New-Birth, whence Faith and Love flows, and to which Redemption with all the Privileges of it appertain: FROM JOH. 1. Vers. 13. 
Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.   
HEre is the New-Birth distinguished from all other Births which bear any resemblance to it, and by their similitude may happen to be taken for it.  
There are three sorts of generations or ways of begetting men in Religion, none of which are this Birth, nor can entitle to that Sonship, or those Privileges which flow from this Birth, and belong to the Child thus born.  
1. The first way of generation in Religion, is by Blood: So the blood of Abraham running along in that line did convey Religion, or at least the Privileges of that outward Religion which was established among the Jews: They were free born, they were born under the Promises and Privileges belonging to that Nation. They were not of the common sort of the world; but an holy, a peculiar people, who were nigh unto God, to whom God was nigh; whereas the rest of the world were aliens and strangers to him. He was their God so as he was not to any else, and they were his people so as none else were: God was to take care of them, their Posterity, their Land, every thing that belonged to them in an especial manner; They were to serve and honour God in a peculiar way, so as none else were appointed to do, and they might expect that acceptation with God which none else could, though doing the same things.  
2. A second way of generation in Religion, is by the fleshly will of man, by the corrupted, depraved will of man, by the selfish desire of man, which naturally inclines to propagate its own Principles, Party, and Interest. Thus the Pharisees did beget or make Proselytes, yea they compassed Sea and Land to do it, as also the Sadduces; and so all sorts of Sects have ever been very industrious to strengthen and increase their Party.  
3. There is a third way of generation, and that is by the honest, plain, simple, downright, ingenuous will of man, which for no by-ends, but merely in reference to the good of man, desires and endeavours to change him from those corrupt principles, which come into the world with all, and grow up in all, into principles and practices of justice and order, of righteousness and love both towards God and man. This is the will of man, of man so far as he is undepraved, which naturally he inclines to, cannot but strive after, and be very earnest to bring others unto also, as being very sensible that it tends both to his and their happiness, whereas all other things tend apparently to the misery and destruction of the creature. And herein lieth the excellency of man, this is the best he can desire or hope to attain, and a Birth to or in this, is the best Birth that can be produced by him.  
But this is not the new-birth, this is not that which God calls Regeneration; this is not the heir, but the son of the bondwoman, which shall never inherit; this is but the fruit, but the offspring of the first Adam, which is of the earth, earthly, not of the second Adam, which is the Lord from Heaven, heavenly in himself, and begetting an heavenly nature.  
All these come from man, the nature of man, the blood of man, the desire and skill of man, the corruption of man, or at best the excellency of man: But the Child here spoken of, the Child God delights in, the Child he will own as his Son, is of his own Seed, is begotten by himself, is born of him. He is of the Seed of Eternity, of Immortality, and therefore Eternity of right belongeth to him. He is the Child of God by a new Nature, by a new Life, he is the immediate offspring of his own Son, form by his own Spirit. But of God. This whole Birth belongs to God.  
1. It is he that sows this Seed in the heart, the seed of this Life, his own Seed, the Seed wherein the very Godhead is contained, and which cannot but grow up into God. God hath his Power to generate, as well as man and the other creatures, he hath his Seed to sow as well as they, and his Seed doth a truly and fully contain his Nature, as their seed doth theirs. He is the great Sower that sows his own grain in his own Vineyard: He is the great Builder that lays the foundation of his own House; He hath begotten us again, etc.  
2. It is he that quickens the Seed, and causeth it to grow; And you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins, Eph. 2. He casts a vail of death upon Eternity, upon Immortality for a season, he maketh it, as it were, to rot in the heart, that he may quicken it again, that he may cause it to grow up in its own shape and fullness: And when it shoots forth, it is he that causeth it to thrive and flourish; Paul may plant, and Apollo's water, but God giveth the increase; This Life floweth only from God, and groweth up only by the breath of God.  
3. He doth this by his own Power, by his mighty Arm; He puts his whole strength to it. It doth not cost him nothing to sow this Seed, to beget this Son, but it costs him the very Power and strength of the Godhead, even an exceeding greatness of Power; he works with the very might of his Power when he begets this Child, when he brings forth Faith in this Child, even with the very same strain of strength that he exercised upon Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and exalted him above all other power, Ephes. 1.19, 20.  
4. He does this also by his own Will. The other births are by the power of man, by the will of man; this is as by the Power of God, so by the Will of God. He is not at all moved to this by any thing in the creature, by any thing from the creature, but merely by his own Will, of his own Will begat he us. He soweth his Seed according to his Nature, as other things do theirs according to their nature.  
Lo this is the New-Birth. The Spirit breatheth where he listeth; No man knows whence this breath comes, no man knows whither this breath goes, but it keeps within its own Circuit, which is only known to itself: Thus is every one that is born of God.   

Of the Excellent Nature of this Birth, or of the Child thus begotten, thus born: FROM JOH. 3. Vers. 6. 
That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit.   
SPirit denotes excellency, purity, strength, durableness of nature; its constitution is more excellent, more clear, more strong, more lasting, then that of flesh. Flesh is weak, corrupt, fading, hath little loveliness it, and that loveliness quickly perishing, (the Egyptians are men, and not God, and their horse's flesh, and not Spirit:) Spirit is a sublime, an excellent kind of nature, both in its inwardness, and in its outwardness; its way of Being, of motion (either within or without) of generation, far exceeds that of flesh, and so doth the Child begotten this way; it is of the same nature with that which begets it, That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. That which is begotten by the Spirit is of a spiritual nature, of the same nature with himself, of the very divine nature, who hath made us partakers of the divine nature. He observes the Law of Generation, which is to beget and increase his own nature and kind, to multiply himself. So that this Child is divine, what ever is in this Child, what ever flows from this Child cannot but be divine: its Faith, its Love, its Hope, its Joy, its Meekness, Sweetness, Holiness, Righteousness, are not such as grow in Nature's garden, but in the Paradise of God, and from a more inward and spiritual seed than is sown in nature. That which is born of the flesh is flesh: All the excellency that man can attain to, all the Faith, Hope, Love, Joy, etc. that man can have from any of the Births , is but fleshly, but weak, corrupt, fading; but that which is born of the Spirit, that which flows from this Life, that which grows out of this Seed, is spiritual, and hath the Spirit of Life, Eternity and Immortality in it.  
The flesh profiteth nothing; Christ speaks that to persons who were bending their whole strength to understand him, all this avails nothing: The greatest fleshly desire moves not God, the greatest fleshly industry and endeavour furthers not the creature. What ever is thus received, what ever is thus understood, what ever is thus obtained, is but fleshly, and will not avail. All the faith in God, all the love towards God, all the desire after God, or delight in him, all the obedience unto God thus gained, thus put forth, hath no true life in it, and must needs whither, and come to nothing. The fleshly understanding of any thing revealed by Christ is of no value; It is the Spirit that quickeneth: It is the spiritual part in the Word, the spiritual part of the Word engrafted by the Spirit in the heart, that quickeneth it at first, or causeth it afterwards to thrive and grow.  
This Child hath a generosity, a nobility, an height, an aspiringness in him. He can never rest out of his own Country, nor out of his own place of habitation in his Country: He cannot endure to live beneath himself. He must possess and enjoy God to the full, or he is not satisfied. He must live at the full height of Majesty, Power, Greatness and Glory, or his Life does not please him; he will hardly own it as Life till it arrive at that. It is the seed of the Kingdom, and it will never leave shooting up till it grow into the Kingdom; till all the Light, till all the Life, till all the Power, Glory, Greatness and Majesty of God that was sown in it, spring up in it, flourish, and expatiate itself to the full. And then when this Spirit comes to its full stature, when it is so united to the Lord as to become perfectly one with that which begat it, it will come to itself, be itself, and enjoy itself: Having attained to that whereunto it was appointed, and to which its nature did aspire, and continually reach towards, it will enter into perfect rest, into that rest which is prepared for it only, and which it alone is capable of comprehending.   

Of the Excellent Food, prepared for this New-born-Child, to nourish him, and cause him to grow; FROM JOH. 6. Vers. 63. 
The Words that I speak unto you, they are Spirit, and they are Life.   
EVery thing that hath life given it, hath food likewise prepared for it to nourish it, and cause it to grow. Man lives by bread, though not by bread only. The Newman hath his bread also whereupon he lives. It is Christ in him that is born who is the Newman, and it is Christ that Christ feeds upon. Christ is the Bread of Life, by eating and digesting whereof the Newman increaseth his life. He hangs upon the mouth of Christ (from whence he came) for the continuation and growth of his life, it is his Word he feeds upon and lives by, it is the nourishment by which he is sustained, and by which he grows in life, as new-born-babes desire the sincere milk of the Word that ye may grow thereby. As it was the Word, whereby he was begotten, of his own Will begat he us by the Word of Truth: So it is the Word, whereby he lives. As he is born of water, so he hath water administered unto him to nourish him up to eternal life. As he is form of the flesh and blood of Christ, so he eats and drinks the flesh and blood of Christ; and he that desireth not this food, he that knoweth not how to eat and digest this food, hath no life (none of this life) in him. As it is by sowing and quickening the seed of light, of life in us, that we come to live: So it is by adding of the same light, of the same life unto us, that we come to live more abundantly. The principle of this life is within, but the food it gathers it receives from without, as every life else also doth: It's Being, its subsistence is from what God hath form in it, its life and growth is from what God pleaseth to add unto it of the same nature and kind with itself; from his food, which food is the Word of Christ.  
Man hath the Principle of Knowledge in him, but he is trained up by Instruction, and learns no more but as he is taught, either by the dilating of that Principle in himself, or from men: So is it with this new Nature; The newman learneth what it teacheth him within, or what Christ teacheth him from without, from without in this sense; though his Teachings are inward. Christ speaks within, but he speaks from without. He doth not only draw forth that life within, but from without he adds more life. As he does give out of himself the seed and principle of life whereby he comes to be sown and grow up in another, so he gives out of himself likewise that food, that virtue, that nourishment whereby that life lives, thrives, flourisheth. The Word of Christ upon which the newman feeds is without, is distinct from him (as our food is from us) until it be eaten, concocted, distributed, and so made perfectly one with him.  
Christ is the Word of God, and Christ hath his Word too. God teacheth Christ, Christ teacheth us. God teacheth Christ by writing his Nature in him; Christ teacheth us by writing his Nature in us. As there is the Nature of God in his Word, so there is the Nature of Christ in his Word. As God teacheth Christ by opening his Life and Spirit in him: So Christ teacheth us by opening his Life and Spirit in us. God taught him by anointing him, and he teacheth us by anointing us; Ye have an anointing which teacheth you all things. As Christ is Life and Spirit, so he speaketh nothing but what is living and spiritual, The Words which I speak unto you, they are Spirit, and they are Life; and where ever they enter they convey spirit and life. Indeed every one cannot receive them, as these here could not, they thought to comprehend them by their natural fleshly understanding, which is a principle beneath them, and cannot reach up unto them. As well may a brute understand the wisdom the reason of the words of a man, as a man understand the spiritual wisdom of the words of Christ. But man's words may have reason in them, though the brute understand them not; and Christ's words have spirit and life in them, though man perceive it not. Christ's words are like unto him, truly spiritual and living, what ever they appear to man. If he prescribe a way to man, it is a spiritual a living way; If he open any thing of God, it is a true a spiritual opening; If he speak peace, it is peace indeed: But there must be a principle within to receive this, or else it falls to the ground.  
There is a twofold Word of Christ; a generating, a creating Word, and a fructifying Word. The former there needs no principle to receive, but there he speaks life where there was no life; he only sends forth his voice, saying, Let there be light, and there is light; Let there be life, and there is life. But the fructifying the thriving Word only takes place where a principle of life is first sown: That cannot be blessed with increase and multiplication, which is not, which hath not a Being. Quarrel not therefore, O Man, against the Scriptures in this respect, because they speak not life to thee, that may be because there is not life in thee, or at least that life at present may be so nipped, that it may be altogether unable to go forth for or receive in its sustenance.  
The Words which I speak unto you, they are Spirit, and they are Life.  
This food is spiritual food, living food, pure food, perfect food, eternal food, food that never wastes, never corrupts, but abides the same for ever. This seed, this child is spiritual, eternally living, and such is his food; it grows up with him and in him to eternity; the water that I shall give him, shall be in him a Well of water springing up to Eternal Life. It is food of a quickening nature, comes from a quick and living Spirit, enters into a quick and living spirit, is spiritual and living of its own nature. O how richly hath God prepared for thee, O Child of Eternity! He hath sown his own life and perfection in thee, he hath reserved his own life and perfection for thee, and he feeds thee with no less than life and perfection at present, only a little prepared, a little qualified and corrected for the queasiness of thy stomach in the state of thy weakness.   

Some Properties which attend this New-born-Childe in his nonage, while he is growing up to his inheritance; FROM MATTH. 5. Vers. 3, etc.  
1. HE is poor in spirit, stripped of all his life, of all his beauty, of all his excellency, of all his wisdom, of all his strength, of all his righteousness, of all his holiness, of all his happiness; a piece of perfect weakness, emptiness, vanity and misery. He is nothing, he can do nothing: He cannot pray, he cannot believe, he cannot wait, he cannot hope, he cannot love, he cannot so much as desire. Indeed when God breathes any of these into him, than he has them; when God draws forth any of these in him, than he acts them; when God lives in him, than he lives: but of himself he is nothing, knows nothing, can do nothing. Other men can resist temptations, but he lies open to all evils: Other men can conquer corruptions, but every thing is too strong for him: Other men have a stock of duties, of mortification, of holiness; but he is poor: Other men are strong, but he is weak: Other men cannot but trust God, love God, live in and upon God; but he sees, he knows, he feels he can do none of them: He hath nothing of his own, nothing in his power, but is shut out of all the possession and possibility of life in himself.  
Behold a poor one indeed! There are none else so poor but they are rich in themselves, rich in the esteem, thoughts and conceits of themselves: But this Soul is emptied within, as well as without; is stripped of his inside, as well as of his outside; is made naked to purpose, his very spirit is unclothed, he hath nothing to cover, support or refresh himself even there.  
2. He is of a mournful spirit, cannot but grieve at the sight and sense of this poverty. As he is the truly poor one, so he is the truly afflicted one. As this is the greatest, the deepest poverty; So it pincheth hardest, it causeth the greatest, the sharpest smart. It overwhelms his heart to see, how he is fallen short of the glory of God; to find himself destitute of the life and presence of God: He cannot rejoice while he wants him, who is the light of his countenance. The Primitive Christians indeed had a taste of joy, but that was from the riches which were then dispensed unto them, which did not long last; They were poor outwardly, but rich towards God; as having nothing, but yet possessing all in him: but this was no abiding state, the Bridegroom was soon taken away, and ever since hath been a time of mourning.  
3. He is of a meek spirit: by being continually emptied, broken and stripped, he is made very meek. His haughtiness and roughness is tamed and subdued by his constant sense of misery. He knows what it is to be miserable, to be subject to vanity, to be destitute of the life and power of God. He hath nothing in him to lift up itself against any, to accuse any of. He can neither act roughly towards others, nor oppose any rough actings towards him. He knows the meaning of nothing, and so is silent and meek towards all and concerning all. He is not a fretful outrageous mourner, but he bewails himself, and the sad condition of all things with a meek broken spirit.  
4. He is hungry and thirsty after Righteousness. He is very poor, altogether stripped of them, yet not contented so to remain, but there is a great hunger and thirst kindled in him after them. He feels the vanity and misery of unrighteousness, and would fain be rid of it; he tastes the sweetness and excellency of righteousness, and is very eager to be filled with it, to be possessed of it, to have it brought forth in him. It is his own natural temper, and he cannot rest until he return into the freedom and fullness of it; until he find nothing but righteousness within, nothing but righteousness flowing forth; perfect righteousness within, perfect righteousness flowing forth, even the Righteousness of God himself communicated to him, living in him, and displaying itself through him. When he is perfect as his heavenly Father is perfect, then and not till then will he have enough.  
5. He is very merciful, full of compassion, of bowels. Merciful to every creature, merciful to all men, to their Bodies, Souls, to every thing that is liable to suffer. He loves no cruelty, no oppression, but would fain have all tendered, all pitied, all relieved. He is touched with every one's want, and would fain have them supplied: He would not have the Bodies of men want food or raiment; He would not have the Souls of men want God, the life of God, satisfaction in and from God.  
6. He is pure in heart. Though he is overspred and covered with abundance of filth and impurity, yet the principle of life in him is pure, and uncapable of being tainted.  
7. He is a peacemaker, does not love quarrels and contentions, but meekness and quietness. There should be no fall out, no jarrings between Creature and Creature, or between God and Creature, if he could help it: and he is still making peace so far as lies in his reach. He loves peace exceedingly, and because of his abundant delight to reap it, he is ever sowing and cherishing it. He is the very Image of his Father still moving and working towards Reconciliation.  
8. He is persecuted for righteousness sake, for that righteousness, sweetness, meekness, etc. that God bringeth forth in him. There is no cause why he should be persecuted, but yet he is persecuted, and this kind of temper layeth him open to persecution (the Dovelike Lamblike spirit is a temptation to the Hawk, to the Wolf.) Christ was persecuted for this very cause, and the same spirit in the world that persecuted Christ will also be still persecuting such as these upon the same ground, and speaking all manner of evil against them falsely, for Christ's sake, because of their reference and likeness to Christ, whom by a secret antipathy the spirit of the world (when most refined and spiritualised) cannot but oppose. They cannot for shame (before men, and in their own spirits) speak against these things in them, therefore they invent lies and falsehoods, that they may represent them odious to men and their own spirits thereby, and so more freely, without check of Conscience, persecute them under colour thereof.  
But these, notwithstanding all their present miseries and hardships, though they be looked upon as the scum and offscouring of the world, and so used by the world, yet they are the blessed of God, of whom the world is not worthy. A dram of their life is worth a thousand worlds. They are blessed in their likeness unto Christ, blessed in their present communion with Christ, in their fellowship in his death and sufferings, and shall appear to be blessed when they are taken up into his glory, and come to inherit both God, Heaven and Earth, in and with him; which he, who cannot lie, hath promised them, and hath reserved for them, and which none shall ever come to partake of with them but this way.   

Of the Father's care over this Child, and his readiness to provide for him every thing he needs, FROM LUK. 11. Vers. 13. 
If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your Children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?   
NAture, among other of her lessons, teacheth Parents to be tender over their Children, to give them what is for their good and not for their hurt. While they are babes, unable to choose for themselves, they provide for them what they know needful: when they grow up, and begin to feel what they want, they are still ready to furnish them with those necessaries which Nature directeth them to seek to them for.  
God hath his Children, his Children need provision, and his Nature teacheth him to take care of them, to be tender towards them, as well as the nature of man teacheth him.  
That which these children chief want is the Spirit of the Father, to live in them, to dwell with them, to guide them, to enlighten them, to quicken them, to comfort and refresh them. They came from this Spirit, and all their content lies in union and communion with this Spirit, in the presence and power ot this Spirit in them: He is their meat, their drink, their light, their life, their strength, their clothes, their house, their inheritance, their way, their end, their all. They are as it were at present severed from him, as the seed is from the body; but they cannot be well till they return into him, and that which they want in the mean time is him to enter into and dwell in them: And as they grow up, to any distinct understanding of themselves and their state, they feel this want, and are led by their nature to ask accordingly of their Father.  
That which this Child begs is the Spirit, he cares not for any thing else. It is that which his Soul, which every part of him wants; it is that which he needs in every motion, in every condition: He cannot tell how to shift any where, how to do any thing without this Spirit of life. There is no life more vigorous than this when it lives in this Spirit, nor no life more flags without it.  
To them that ask him. This Child asks; it is natural to him to be ask what he wants of the Father; He is taught to ask, and according to the nature and degree of his want. And Oh how he begs for this Spirit, for this Holy Spirit. He loathes the unclean spirit of the world, but he loves and longs for the pure Spirit of the Father. His Nature is pure, and he loves purity: His Nature is spirit, and he loves spirit; but not every spirit, but that spirit which is suitable to his Nature, the Spirit which he himself came from, and for this he cries and groans unto the Father night and day.  
Now there seems to be a great hardness in God to part with this Spirit unto them, which may be gathered out of this question here, and may be further confirmed by their experience: for though they cry hard for him, they obtain little of him; little of his presence, little of his power, little of his comfort. They are ever and anon complaining that they have not sufficient of him to rub on with. They do not only want the delight of his presence, but they have hardly enough to keep life and soul together, hardly enough of God's Spirit to keep life in their spirits.  
But for all this, there is a great propensity in God to furnish them with his Spirit, with so much as their present state needs; though not with so much to their sense, yet with so much to his knowledge: How much more shall your heavenly Father, etc. He is not an heavenly Father for nothing, but is as ready to give heavenly good things, as earthly Parents are to give earthly good things. How much more? If your Nature, which is weak, derived, which came from him, teach you to carry yourselves thus towards your children; how much more shall his Nature, which is strong, which is the Fountain of Strength and Perfection, teach him to empty his Goodness into his Children according to their need? If ye being evil know how to give good gifts, etc. If your nature thus prevail to instruct you who are corrupted, and in whom it is corrupted; how much more shall his pure, his heavenly, his incorruptible Nature teach him tender-heartedness towards his Children? How much more shall it incline him to give, not outward things, earthly things, but heavenly things, and that heavenly thing which they all want, which is his own Spirit. Be silent, O Sense, Be confounded, O Experience, who art still witnessing the contrary in our spirits: We see not, we feel not, we taste not, we apprehend not God or any of his Ways aright through thee.   

A strange Occurrence, which may befall this Darling of God and of Christ, in his pilgrimage and travel towards his native Country, hidden in a Parable, JOHN Chap. 11.  
IN which Parable there are several strange things, covertly held forth or represented to that eye, which is taught and enabled to pierce into them under a vail.  
1. There is the sickness and death of one dearly beloved of Christ, he whom he loved was sick: His love was so great to him, that he was known to be an especial object of it. Christ, who cured others, had power enough to have preserved him in health if he had pleased, or to have recovered him at a distance; but for all Christ's Love and Power Lazarus falls sick, and his sickness tends unto that which we count and call death.  
2. The true causes of his death, which were, Christ's neglect, and an hidden design of glory to God, and love to him. (I reckon not his sickness as any, that was but an instrument, an engine, so inferior a cause as it deserves not to come in number with these.)  
First, Christ's neglect, and that was very great, Vers. 6. When he had heard therefore that he was sick, he abode two days still in the same place where he was. Though he had notice of it, and that in the most pathetical manner that could be, the news was directed to his heart, and so directed as it might best touch and wound his heart, Behold, he whom thou lovest is sick: There is one whom thou hast professed and born much love to, he now stands in need of thy love, of the putting forth of thy love for his relief, he wants thy help, behold he is sick. When he hears this, he stirs not one step, but stays still where he was two days together, as if he would be sure to give him time enough to die.  
Secondly, Another cause of his death was an hidden design of glory to God. This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God: that the Son of God might be glorified thereby, Vers. 4. I know the meaning of this sickness, it shall not end in death, but that death it must lead to shall be as it were no death, it shall be so soon and so powerfully swallowed up in life; But for the glory of God, for the advancing of the glory of that Power and Love of his which this shall occasion the putting forth and discovery of in his Son; that the Son of God may be glorified thereby.  
There was also a design of love to Lazarus; that he might gain a further testimony, a further sight, a further experiment of the Love and Power of Christ, that he might receive and enjoy a further degree of life from Christ. God doth not merely use us as Instruments for his own Glory, but he loves that we should have a taste of that Glory he raises to himself out of us: He brings us to sickness, to death, to destruction, not only to exercise his skill and power in healing, in raising, in restoring us; but that he might also cause a more sweet fresh health, a more precious flourishing life, a more pure perfect Salvation to spring up out of that sickness, out of that death, out of the ashes of that destruction.  
There was another design yet in it, which had also an influence upon it, and that was the confirmation of the Faith of the Disciples. So Vers. 14.15. Lazarus is dead, and I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, to the intent ye may believe. God had an intent, besides the glory of the Work, to confirm the Faith of the Disciples. Miracles can neither work nor confirm Faith, they cannot reach that Principle whence Faith springs and grows; but God can either work or confirm faith by them. All the Miracles that ever Christ wrought could not bring any one to believe, but they still ask for a sign, these were not evidencing and convincing enough; but yet God made use of every one of them when, and to whom, and as he pleased. He who hath an eye may see the Power of God in every thing, and may observe the several eminent puting forth of it, and so be strengthened in his Faith towards him; but he who hath not this eye can only toss it up and down in his own uncertain reasonings, but not spiritually discern it.  
And I am glad for your sakes. He was not glad of Lazarus' sickness, of Lazarus' misery, of Lazarus' death; but he was glad of the advantage it yielded him to set forth God, the Glory of God, to make Lazarus taste of his Love and his Power, to strengthen the Faith of his weak staggering Disciples, in this respect he was glad of it. God delights not simply in misery, in death, in destruction; but in that which he works by them, and out of them, which could not so advantageously any other way be brought forth and discovered as through them.  
3. There is the sad lamentation over dead Lazarus: The lamentation of the Jews, of his kindred, of the Disciples; but especially the lamentation of Martha and Mary is very observable, Vers. 21, & 32. Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. Wherein they secretly tax him for his neglect, for his delay; as if they had said; Lord, we sent to thee soon enough, and if thou hadst come, we had not now been thus mourning and weeping over our dead brother, thou mightest easily have prevented all this if thou hadst pleased; Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. And this is the language of the poor desolate Soul, of the poor dead spirit; Lord, if thou hadst been here, my life had not gone out; If thou hadst stood by me, and stuck to me, and put forth thy skill and power for me (as I thought thy love to me would have enforced thee to do) I had never tasted this cup of desolation, this cup of death. O it is the absence of Christ that kills the Soul, whose Life is in his presence!  
4. The unexpectedness of any restauration of him to life. The Disciples, it never enters into their thoughts, but let us go and die with him, V 16. The Jews wonder that Christ (loving him so well) did not preserve him from dying, but never once thought of raising of restoring him to life, Vers. 37. Martha, who seemed to be full of Faith in this very respect, Vers. 22. was so far from it, that she even mocks at Christ that he should make any offer to go about it: Vers. 39 Lord, by this time he stinketh, for he hath been dead four days. If thou hadst come sooner thou mightest have preserved him from death, but now it is too late to think of any thing, he is not in a case now to be visited or recovered, by this time he stinketh, what dost thou mean to speak of taking away the stone? Resurrection from death is very unexpected: He that is shut up in the grave seemeth quite out of the capacity of life. In misery, in affliction there may be hope of relief, but who can look for Redemption from death, to be raised out of the grave? Alas, we little think ever to meet with any such grave, much less to be redeemed from it! Christ was thy Type herein (though somewhat more also:) Thou must taste of his Death, thou must into his Grave, and lie there thy season, though the holy One in thee shall not see corruption. Thy life shall not die, shall not not there, it shall but sleep; and when thou awakest, thou shall awake in his likeness, and live for ever. As Christ was raised from the dead to die no more, for death to have no more dominion over him, so shalt thou: Thou shalt sit on the Throne with him; and that life, which hath been hitherto in weakness, in bonds, in slavery, in misery, passing through and bearing the weight of death and destruction, shall then reign, shall then enjoy itself in the Fountain from whence it did flow, and where alone it can sweetly and perfectly live.  
5. The great Love and Power Christ shown in recovering him to life. There was great Love, which he variously expressed, both in disregarding himself and his own safety in going thither, which his Disciples put him in mind of, vers. 8. and in his behaviour when he came there. His affection vented itself exceedingly, so that the Jews could not but take notice of his great Love to him, vers. 36. He groaned and troubled himself, vers. 33. He wept, vers. 35. It went to his Heart, it melted his very Soul to see the condition of his beloved one. O the various workings in the Heart of Christ! He can weep and rejoice over the same thing: how sorrowful doth he here express himself at that which he told the Disciples he was glad of: It afflicts him to see his people in misery, in perplexity, in the hands of death, and yet he rejoiceth to behold what he meaneth to work for his Father, himself and them out of it. He groans again very deeply in himself, vers. 38. (He did not make a show of sorrow and groaning, but it was inward, in his heart,) and he prays for him, and sets his strength to deliver him; he both calls upon God for his strength, and puts forth that strength of God that was in himself; He cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth, Vers. 43. He spoke with Life and Power mightily; He who was the Resurrection and the Life, gave an evidence of it, for he spoke Resurrection and Life with his lips; he sent forth his raising and living Power, and it did raise and beget life.  
This is the only way to cure such as enter into this state of death, into the grave of Christ; they must be raised by the very same Power wherewith Christ was raised; Nothing beneath that will avail to effect it; the death that binds them, the grave that holds them under, will easily master any thing else. It is not using of means that can relieve them, they are dead, they are beneath the use of means, they have lost all life and knowledge in the grave, they know no means, they can use no means, they can stir no way, they can move no more than a dead man. Nor indeed are there any means appointed for them, or to be used by them, Spiritual means are as improper, and will prove as ineffectual in this state of spiritual death, as natural means would used towards a man naturally dead. That Light, that Life, whereby they knew, whereby they acted, being dead and buried, they cannot stir nor move, they are in no capacity either of knowing, using, or receiving benefit from any means. That Eternal Life, Love, Power that at first quickened them, that at first brought them forth, by whose withdrawing from them, and leaving them for a season (as he had done Christ before, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?) they were brought to this state, must come again himself to the grave, and raise them up by the very same Power of Life, if ever they live more.   

Of the Relation between Christ and his, and the Hold they have of each other; FROM JOH. 10. Vers. 14. 
I am the good Shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.   
HE is the Shepherd, they the Sheep; He the Father, they the Children; He the King, they his Subjects; He the Head, they his Members; He and they together make up one Church, one Body, one Christ. They have all the same Life in them, he the same with them, they the same with him, and the same with one another; but yet every member its different portion according to what it is, needs, and is appointed to. (There is unity and variety every where, in every thing, in every life, which true Light comprehends, but darkness confounds, and makes the one swallow up the other.) Though they all make up one Christ, yet not one Head, but he is the Saviour of his Spouse, of his Body; he lays down his Life for his Sheep; he begets them, renews them, washes them, sanctifies them. It is true, they both came from one, and they are one, both he that sanctifieth, and they who are sanctified, are all of one: They came from the same Original, they are of the same Nature, they have the same stamp upon them, there is the most perfect Oneness between them that can be, (the very same that is between God and Christ,) and yet there is also a difference. The whole body of man, or any other creature, hath the same flesh and blood, the same life, it is wholly of the same substance and make, and yet there is a difference between one member and another. The head is not the whole body, nor is it the hand, or foot, or any other member of the body; nor is any other member, or part of the body, or the body itself the head, nor ever can be according to the present constitution of nature.  
I am the good Shepherd. Christ had been speaking of three things in the beginning of the Chapter: Of the door of the sheepfold, the Doorkeeper, and the Shepherd. The first and the last he challengeth to himself, I am the Door, saith he, vers. 9 I am the good Shepherd, saith he here; and the second belongeth to him also, he is the Doorkeeper who opens and shuts the door.  
1. Christ is the Door. There is a door at which Christ enters into us, and that we are to open to Christ, Behold, I stand at the door and knock, if any man open to me, etc. and there is a Door at which we enter into the Father, which Door is Christ. We are the Seed of the Father sown in a strange Land, and we return by Christ unto our own home. There is no other Door but this to enter into the Kingdom and Bosom of the Father by.  
2. Christ is the Doorkeeper, he it is that opens this Door, and lets in the Sheep at this Door; he hath the Key of David, who opens, and none shuts, and shuts, and none opens. He set the Door open to that Church, Rev. 3.8. He turns the Key, and lets in the Soul into spiritual Light, Life and Truth: and he who gets in by any other means, he who gets spiritual Mysteries opened to him before Christ opens them, he comes not into them aright, nor will he be advantaged in the life of his spirit thereby. That Truth alone will do us good, which Christ by his Spirit opens to us, and leads us into.  
3. He is the Shepherd, the great Shepherd of the Sheep, the Master-Shepherd. He is the only Shepherd to the Universal Flock, that never had any Shepherd but him: The Kings, the Priests, the Prophets of old, they were only typical Shepherds to that typical Kingdom and People of Israel: The Officers of Churches were only Shepherds to a few particular Congregations, some to one, some to another: The Apostles risen a step higher, they were Shepherds over all the Churches at that time in the World, though some of them had a more peculiar charge over the Jews, as Peter; some a more peculiar charge over the Gentiles, as Paul. But none of these were Master-Shepherds, but all under Christ as his Servants. He is the only Shepherd of the Universal Flock, and the Head-Shepherd of every little Flock; in whom all the Light and Life doth dwell, and from whom it doth spring forth to them, who speaks in all other Shepherds, and to whom the greatest Shepherds are but Sheep.  
I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, (saith Christ:) No man cometh unto the Father but by me. I am the spiritual Way, wherein I myself, and wherein all spirits walk towards God: I am the Truth, the Light that leads all in this Way: I am the Life that quickens and enables all to follow this Light in this Way.  
I am the Way. It is by entering into me that a man enters into the Way, and by walking in me a man walks in the Way. Out of Christ, and quite out of the way to the Father: ever in Christ, and ever in the Way. Every branch that abideth in him is in the way of growing in the Light and Life of God, and of bringing forth fruit unto God.  
I am the Truth. It is in Christ we have the true Light, the Lord shall be a Light unto thee: They are the spiritual Beams of Truth that flow from Christ which only guide us to God. All the light of this world, all the light of reason is but darkness, and leads a man further and further from the Father; Christ is our Light when ever we are led to the Father.  
I am the Life. All the quickenings and warmings we have any where but from Christ, never lead us to God: it is only the Life of him in us that moves us and guides us truly and aright to him. Every motion, but what we have from Christ, is a dead motion, there is no true life in it: in him we live, and move, and have our spiritual Being. We are out of the way, dark and dead naturally, and all the helps of nature and art help but to lead us more out of the way, to increase our wander, darkness and death upon us: God hath made Christ unto us our Way, and our Light, and our Life; when ever we come to the Father we come in him as our Path, lighted by him who is that Truth that never deceives, quickened and animated with him who is that Life that never fails.  
I am the good Shepherd. He is not only a Shepherd, but the Shepherd, not only the Shepherd, but the good Shepherd. He taketh care of the Sheep, he maketh a Fold to keep the Sheep safe in, he looketh to every one of the Sheep, (he calleth his own Sheep by name, vers. 3.) he leadeth them out, he goeth out before them, chooseth their pasture for them, hath skill (and maketh use of it) to feed them, to water them, to preserve them, to cure them; he ventures his Life for them, yea yields it up to rescue them, (Whom seek ye? I am he: if therefore ye seek me, let these go their way:) A kind Shepherd, a loving Shepherd, a faithful Shepherd, a tender Shepherd, the good Shepherd, I am the good Shepherd.  
And know my sheep. I know who they are, I know what they are; I know their nature, I know their names, I know whence they came, I know their very original, I know their present state, their present strength, their present weakness; I can tell every one of them, both who they are, and where they are, and what they are, and what they need; there is nothing can befall them, no condition they can be led or driven into, but I understand it, and them in it. It notes Christ's full understanding the state of his sheep, and his owning and taking care of them in their several states; I know mine: yea the performing every office of service and care that belongs to him concerning them in that state, as if they be sick or weak or wandering, the Shepherd is then to express special love and care towards them: The Shepherd is not to neglect or cast off his sheep for any such thing, as one who knows not their weakness, their foolishness, their proneness to run astray, their liableness to diseases, etc. but to be the more tender over them, to take the more pains about them, to watch them so much the more narrowly, to guard them so much the more safely. Christ will not suffer any of his sheep to miscarry, of those which thou hast given me, I have lost none. And know my sheep: Christ knows his sheep as part of himself (as of the same nature and life with himself) knows how to love and cherish them as himself, yea can neglect himself, his own ease and liberty, yea his very life for their sakes.  
And am known of mine. As Christ knows his sheep, so his sheep know him: He knows them as his sheep, and they know him as their Shepherd: The derived light and life in them knows that original light in him from whence it came. Hence it is that they cannot but own and submit to him. They hear his voice, they folfollow him, they will not so much as hearken to the voice of strangers: Let another come with never so much learning, with never so much skill, with never so much light, with never so high and mysterious openings of spiritual things, they know him not, they cannot receive any thing from him. It is the goat the stranger in us that hears the voice of a stranger, but the sheep never hears any voice but the voice of Christ. It knows none but him, and it knows him very well, and will hear him in every thing he speaketh, will follow him any whither, will take any food any Physic from him, will yield itself up to him to deal as he will with it in any distemper which it is obnoxious to. These sheep are ever satisfied while they are under the eye and in the hands of this Shepherd: They like every thing he makes use of towards them; They like his crook whereby he gathers them in when he sees good unto himself, they like the very rod wherewith he smites them, they know him so well; the sight the thoughts of them, his use of them is a refreshment to them, thy rod and thy staff comfort me: Psal. 23.4.  
This knowledge between Christ and them is just such a knowledge as is between the Father and him, as it is illustrated in the next verse of this Chapter. It arises from such an union, it is heightened by such a communion, nay it is such a kind of knowledge for nature: We know Christ by proceeding from him, and by lying in his bosom, and by his opening his secrets to us; Thus Christ comes to know the Father, and thus we come to know Christ. There is the most intimate, the most clear, the most full acquaintance between the Father and Christ that can be: Christ knows the Father as one with him, as he in whom the Father is written and brought forth. Christ speaks much of his knowing the Father, what is it? It is a knowledge that ariseth from the same nature: by the communication of the same nature unto him, he hath his capacity and comprehension of it: by the full revelation of the Father in him he hath his light, and by lying in the bosom of the Father he hath the full use of his light to see with. There is a kind of knowledge between Creatures of the same nature, and the nearer they are in the line of blood, the better they know one another: There is none comes between the Father and the Son, they know one another indeed. The first act of the Father's knowledge passed upon the Son, and the first act of the Sons knowledge passed upon the Father, and there it is fullest and strongest. God knew the Son first, and all for his sake; Christ knew the Father first, and all for his sake: Their knowledge is concentred in each other, there they fix it, there they make use of it, there they delight in it.  
Just such a knowledge, as this, is there between Christ and his sheep. Christ knoweth them as those he himself hath begotten, as those whom he hath breathed the Image of the Father into, as those that were taken out of him, as his wife form out of his own side (as Eve was out of Adam's:) They know Christ as the everlasting Father, as the Fountain of their life, as their only Lord and Shepherd. And therefore it is the first and most natural act of the Soul, so soon as it is begotten and born, to believe on Christ, to love Christ, to hope in Christ: So soon as ever it opens its eyes and sees, it sees Christ the original of its own life; and it clings unto him; all its motions are go forth of itself towards him, and receiving and letting him into itself: It cannot live further than it enters into Christ, or then Christ enters into it; this is its proper element where it only can rest and delight itself. As Christ did hang on the Father from that knowledge he had of him, and the Father did continually communicate himself to Christ by that knowledge he had of him: So Christ's sheep presently hang on him as their Shepherd so soon as they are made sheep, and he naturally taketh care of them as the Father doth of him. Look after what manner, and upon what grounds the Father and Christ know one another, and what the effects of this knowledge are; just such a knowledge, and such effects of knowledge shall you find between Christ and his sheep.  
Knowledge is the acquaintance persons have one with another, their comprehending of one another in the same light wherein they are and live; wherein they understand the dispositions, the ways, the counsels of one another: God is said not to know wicked men, because he holds no acquaintance no correspondence with them; but he knows Christ, he holds intimate acquaintance and correspondence with him, he lets him see what ever is in him, and what ever he intends to do: and so Christ also advises with his Father about every thing, desires to hid nothing from the Father, desires to know nothing but from, in and with the Father. Such an acquaintance is there between Christ and his: Christ opens his excellencies and the mysteries of his ways to them, and they open their hearts and thoughts and burdens and every thing to Christ; it is a knowledge accompanied with and begetting the most intimate familiarity, the most mutual communion, delight and confidence.  
And this knowledge only is certain; all other knowledge, all from without, all from within that is any other ways received then from the lips of Christ, is but a lie, and cannot but deceive. We know Truth by knowing Christ, and it is in and from Christ that we know it. Christ's sheep cannot take up truth at any time when it is held out, nor from any hand, but only when they see Christ going before them: Though they see Truth to be their food, yet they desire it not, they meddle not with it, but when their Shepherd picks it out for them and as he distributes it to them. It is the subtlety of the Devil to be beforehand with Truth, to hold it out first on his false grounds and principles, that afterwards by felling them he may supplant the Truth itself, when Christ comes to hold it forth: And though other persons may take up Truth thus held forth (by drinking in the outward notion) yet they cannot. They do not know this kind of voice, they are not used to receive things thus from principles, or from the light of Reason, after the manner of men; but when Christ leads them by his Spirit, when he thus speaks to them, they know his voice and follow him. They regard not what Creatures speak in or through the Creation; They regard not what spiritual men speak of God or Christ, or any other spiritual thing; They regard not what is spoken within them (they know the root of vanity and deceit is deep within:) But what Christ speaks either from within or from without is exceeding welcome to them, when he opens that ear and that heart that can hear and know his voice. And this is their kind of knowledge, which having once tasted of they are not able to relish any other: Christ relisheth no other knowledge in them, nor do they relish any other knowledge in themselves. When this is at any time darkened, hid or buried from them or within them, though they have never so much left of that which men call knowledge, yet they cannot look upon it or own it as knowledge. Such kind of knowledge is not knowledge with them, is not their knowledge, they have neither interest nor delight in it. As Christ knows them by his own light, by his own knowledge, by the knowledge of his own divine spiritual Nature, so they know Christ and spiritual things by the same light, by the same nature, with the same knowledge: He hath the peculiar knowledge of such a Shepherd as he is, and they have the peculiar knowledge of such sheep as they are. Their relation is distinct, different from any relation in this world, of another nature and kind, their union is such an union as is not to be found here below, and such is their knowledge and communion; I am the good Shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.   

Of the New Covenant: FROM HEBR. 8.10, 11, 12. 
For this is the Covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord: I will put my Laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a People.  
And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: For all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.  
For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.   
A Covenant with us is that agreement which is concluded of between man and man, between two several parties: It contains in it the agreement between them, and the terms of the agreement. This is sown every where in every thing throughout the whole Creation, and in all affairs and transactions there may be seen and read the force and virtue of a Covenant, written either in open letters or secret characters. Every union every relation contains a Covenant in it, the bounds whereof makes the union and relation sweet, but beyond those limits it is very bitter. And O how sweetly things go between God and his people within the bounds of his Covenant, but he who passes those limits shall find it an evil and a very bitter thing.  
God hath two seeds to sow and cause to grow up, two earths or wives to conceive and bring forth children to him from the seeds sown in their wombs; and he hath two Covenants, wherein are his terms of agreement (and theirs too, for each sort readily by their very nature desire, and cannot but assent to the terms of each Covenant) how far, in what respect and upon what ground he will own them as his, be with them, be what they desire unto them.  
Now as these seeds were in several seasons to be brought forth and appear; So were these wives to be taken and owned, and accordingly were the Covenants to appear, in which respect the one is said to be old the other new, vers. 13. When God speaks to us, he speaks in a language suitable to us, and suitable to so much of his mind as he intends to express, whereas those very things he speaks to us he can represent, open and call otherwise. He can call that old which he tells us is new, and that new which he tells us is old, yea and he can confound this language also and bring them both to an equality in this respect.  
There never was any deep, any wise understanding of God, nor ever can be, till the great depths of the Godhead are broken up; till than God can and may hid himself in his whole Being, in every motion, in every thought of his heart, in every word of his mouth. He may speak what he pleaseth; He may speak one thing now, and in the very next breath speak clean contrary to what he spoke before, and make both good, and yet make him a liar that spoke either from him, or pretended to understand him in either. He can call the same thing old that he calls new, and the same thing new that he calls old. He can call this a new Covenant, and if thou thinkest to understand him and speak the same thing with him, he can tell thee thou art a liar, and call it an old Covenant: If thou wilt fall in with him here and say with him 'tis old, he can confound thee here also and say 'tis both new and old: If thou thinkest thou canst comprehend him in this, he can confound thee yet again and say 'tis neither new nor old: If thou wilt yet be wise and understand both how 'tis new and how 'tis old, and how neither new nor old, he can and will confound thee again and show thee that thou art now the greatest fool of all. That very understanding which was made by the Lord, enlightened by him, made wise to know him, must be darkened and confounded again. A deep wise man can order his words so as others shall think they know him by them, yet shall not, but he alone understand and comprehend himself: When he will he can open himself to the understanding of the meanest, and when he will he can hid himself from the understanding of the deepest: He can open himself in his deepest mysteries, and he can hid himself in his plainest conceptions of things; and this is an excellent piece of skill to be able to open and hid as one pleases. Wilt thou deny to God this skill, O Man? Or if he have it, wilt thou deny him liberty to make use of it? Wilt thou say, that if he speak to thee, he must speak to thee so as thou mayst understand him? Or if he speak that which seemeth plain to thy Reason, wilt thou presently conclude that thou dost see and understand him? O the boldness of man who will be measuring the mind of God in his words, and say thus far must his meaning go and no further! To what an height doth every sort of men raise their own Babylon (some out of the Scriptures, some out of inward Revelations) comprehending God, Christ, Life, Blessedness within their line! But the building doth no where come to perfection, nor ever shall; for before it doth or can, confusion shall overtake it, and the City alone shall stand whose builder and maker is God. That which God speaks shall stand for Truth only as he opens, and only so far as he opens it: and man shall one day see (let him be as confident now as he will) that he never understood one jot or tittle of God in the plainest thing that ever he did or spoke.  
Vers. 10. For this is the Covenant that I will make with the house of Israel, after those days, saith the Lord:  
There is a Covenant to be made, to be established between God and his People, which hath not been as yet. I will make, but I have not yet made. The seed are to be brought forth, but they have not as yet been brought forth; and the Covenant is to be made and set up, but hath not as yet been made and set up. There is a Covenant that hath been already made, an old Covenant, a Covenant of works, of labour and toil, of bondage, slavery, misery, wrath, death: And there is a Covenant to be made, a new Covenant, a Covenant of Rest, of Liberty, of Love, of Life and Peace evermore; (God hath his several sorts of things to bring forth and set in an excellent order one by another.) And this is it, it contains this in it, this is the description of it which here follows, this is the Covenant that I will make.  
With the house of Israel. What is here meant by the house of Israel, whether the natural seed of Abraham, (which were so in one sense) or the spiritual seed of Christ, (which were so in another sense) or both, (for though they have hitherto been separated, yet the shadow and the substance may one day be gathered into one) I shall not now declare.  
After those days saith the Lord. After the days of their visitation destruction and desolation shall be ended, after he hath plucked up both the natural seed and the spiritual seed, and hath done breaking down destroying and afflicting them, after that then will he begin to raise them up, to build and to plant them, Jer. 31.28. And when the time of restitution, when the time of refreshing, when the time of this seeds springing up anew (with its new-purified life) comes, then shall this new Covenant appear, then will I make this Covenant with them, saith the Lord.  
I will put my Laws into their mind. Their mind.  
The mind is the inward part of the man, the understanding part wherein the light of the man lies: it is that wherein the principles of light or darkness, of life or death are sown. The constitution of man, the state of man is according to his mind, the changes wrought in man one way or other is by an efficacy upon his mind; the mind being changed the man is changed, otherwise not; Man would in all changes remain the same, if his mind were not changed.  
My Laws. Laws are Rules of Government. In every Kingdom, City, Society there are or at least should be Laws for the ordering and governing of them: God hath his Laws, which are his Rules, whereby he would have both the mind and the body, the inward and outward man guided in every thing. A Law is a Rule for such or such an action: God hath his rules for every action; for every action of worship, of obedience, for the whole course and conversation, and those that do not obey him are called unruly men, sons of Belial, that come not under his yoke. He hath his Laws for us in every condition, for every motion in every condition, what we should turn from, what we should turn towards, how, in what degree, by what light, by what power, etc.  
I will put my Laws into their minds. I will put, or I will give; I will bestow them upon the mind for a gift. I will dip their minds into my Laws, or I will put my Laws within their minds: My Laws shall be the quality or qualification of their minds, I will make their mind's savour and relish of all my Laws; it shall be the Ark to keep them in, that they shall not be to seek when they should come to obey them, and guide their actions by them, for they shall lie within their understanding; They shall not need to say, Who shall go up to Heaven to bring the Will of God down to us? but they shall find his Will (their Rule) in their own minds. I will put my Laws into their minds.  
And writ them in their hearts. The heart is the seat, the fountain of life and motion; the inward principle of life is there: It is the place where life dwells, & whence life goes forth into the whole man, and every motion and action of the man. Writing notes a solemn putting in, a clear putting in, a durable putting in; it expresseth somewhat more to us then the former phrase: The other was given as it were by word of mouth, this by writing, which remains in the heart, that the heart may have recourse to it continually, nay it is written in and upon the heart, that the heart cannot choose but know it, that if the light of the understanding should at any time fail, yet the holy inclination of the will should preserve it pure. And writ them in their hearts: He will not only put them into their mind, that they may have a force upon their reason and understanding, but he will make them take a deep impression upon their hearts too, he will write them there.  
There are two things make men miscarry; the darkness of their understandings, and the perverseness of their wills. God undertakes to heal both in this New Covenant: He will put his Laws into their mind to be a Light there, and he will write them in their hearts to be a Guide there, to have the first motion in, and upon, and from the principle of life, so that the heart shall never move, but it shall have the tincture and force of the Law going forth in it. Though a man should have the Law put into his mind, and know clearly what the will of God is; yet his heart may stand at a distance from it. (It is one thing to make a man know the will of God, and another thing to incline his will to it.) The heart will not always follow the law of the understanding, but sometimes observes the rule of its own crookedness; therefore God will rectify that too, that it shall not have a crooked Law within in itself, but a right Rule to guide it by; that whatsoever the will and affections incline to shall be suitable to the Law: that as now the heart closes with nothing but what is suitable to its own perverseness, because the Law of Sin is written there; so than the heart shall incline to nothing but what is suitable to God's Holiness, because the Law of his Life is written there.  
Christ still complains of the heart, and tells us that out of the heart proceeds all evil, there lies the root and strength of our disease: Our understandings indeed are bad, but our hearts are worse. Now God, intending to cure us by this New Covenant, doth not only take order about the understanding, but especially about the heart; I will put my Laws into their mind, and in their hearts will I write them, as the words may somewhat more forcibly and significantly be rendered.  
And I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a People.  
This phrase is very full, denoting not only the Relation, but also the filling up of the Relation between God and his People on both sides. He doth not say, I will be their God, and they shall be my People, for so God always was, even in the time of his greatest estrangedness from them; and so they always were, even in their greatest bondage and captivity: but I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a People. I will become a God to them, and they shall become a people to me: I will act towards them as their God, and they shall act towards me as my people: I and they will both walk answerably to the relation that is between us: I will walk towards them just as a God should towards his people, and they shall walk towards me just as a people should towards their God: When this Covenant comes to take place, their own hearts shall feel, and all that look upon our mutual walking shall know, that I am their God, and they my people. There shall no fault be to be found in either of our carriages towards the other, but in every thing I will (as becomes me) be to them a God, and they shall in every thing (as it behoves them also) be to me a people.  
I will be to them a God. To be a God implies two things.  
1. To be full of all things, to be the Fountain of Fullness, to be and enjoy every thing (the Perfection of every thing) in himself. They are degrees of wisdom, power, holiness, goodness, etc. that are communicated to creatures, but the Fullness of these is proper to God: He is the Fountain whence all these issue; he is the great Sea out of which all waters flow, into which they return, and in which they live their own life: 'Tis a weak, a creaturely life they enjoy in their going forth, it is a true, a full, a perfect Life they enjoy in their return.  
2. To take care of all things. God is the great Owner of all, to him it properly belongs to take care of all. The Heathen, when they make gods, they attribute and commit to them the care of themselves, and of every thing. Care, it belongs to the Master of the Family, to the Head, to the Governor. The care of all things lies upon God, it belongs to his place, it is proper to him, it is his due, yea (let me speak a little freely) it is his duty, it is that which he owes to every thing that came from him.  
Now God will be a God to them, that is. First, He will be Fullness to them, he will be the Fountain of all Perfection in them, he will lay out all his Wisdom, Goodness, Power and Love for them. He will not only be their God, in giving them a right to these, an interest in these; but he will be a God to them in employing and improving these for them, that they shall have as great a share in them, and as great a freedom in the use of them, as any man can have in that that is his most proper possession: that as God is a God to himself, still laying out his Wisdom, Power, etc. for himself; so he will be a God to them, he will never spare any of them when they have occasion to use them; they shall have as free and as full use of every thing he has, as he himself has: The same Fullness that dwells in himself, and is enjoyed by himself, shall dwell in them, and be enjoyed by them: What he is in himself, he will be in them and to them. I will be to them a God.  
And then secondly, God will be a God to them in his care over them. He will take as exact care of them as a Master does of his family, as a King does of his people, yea as he does of himself, and what belongs to himself. As he taketh care of himself, of his own Glory, that it be preserved and flourish, so will he take care of them in every respect; of their standing, growing, thriving, etc. that nothing hurt them, that every thing advance their happiness: And well he may, for they are himself, the children that came out of his own loins, the Wife that came out of his own side; they were one at first in the straitest union and conjunction, they are one still even as much as ever they were, (their present separation doth but hid, not destroy their union,) and they must appear to be one again. Indeed he is a God to them at present, he taketh care of them at present, his eye is continually upon them, and his heart with them in all their bondage and captivities; but he is not so a God to them as he will be when he brings them forth as his people under this Covenant. And well may he forbear appearing thus a God to them, for he doth not yet so appear a God to himself, but his own Name, Glory and Excellencies go to wrack and ruin.  
And they shall be to me a people. Not only God's people, (so they are where ever they are, and in what state and condition soever,) but a people to him, a people that walks every way like his people, children that will not lie and deceive in that relation which they pretend to stand and act in.  
There are two things which a people stand indebted to God in, Love and Obedience, in neither of which shall they fall short.  
God loves his people entirely, and he cannot be satisfied unless they love him again: ye know, it goes to our hearts to have no returns of love from them on whom we bestow all our affection. It is Gods great desire, to have a people that may love him, that may receive and answer all his Love: When he chose the Jews, this was the main thing he looked for from them, viz. Love in that way wherein he loved them, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart. As it is God's Love makes him choose a people, so it is their love he doth it for, that the same Love may have free scope between them. The end of this Covenant being to engage hearts together, Love is a necessary fruit on both sides. It is the root, the main ingredient and the fruit on both sides. That from or out of which the Covenant grows is Love, that which makes up the Covenant is Love, that which sprouts out of the Covenant is Love. Because God loves his people, therefore he makes this Covenant with them, that which he makes this Covenant up of is his own Love, and as it contains his Love, so it is continually emptying it into them: and they fall in with this Covenant from the same Love, that they might have the same way, and the same advantage of emptying their Love into him. And Obedience is necessary to testify the truth of Love: If ye love me, keep my Commandments: Thou shalt love the Lord, and keep all his Statutes, he prescribes the Law of Obedience immediately after the Command of loving him. As God must perfectly write his Law in their hearts, or he cannot fully testify his Love: So they must perfectly obey every tittle, or they cannot fully testify their love. Now the people of God shall fail neither in Love nor Obedience to him when he comes to set up this Covenant among them; but they shall love him as much as he desires to be loved, and obey him as much as he desires to be obeyed; they shall be to him a people, he shall have every thing fully from them that he can expect from a people.  
And so by this means, by this Covenant will he amend both those faults which he excepted against in the former Covenant, vers. 9 God disliked that Covenant, but why? There are two Reasons rendered in that 9 verse. The one was, because they continued not in it; The other was, because God was not sufficiently engaged by it to respect them. Neither God nor they were bound close enough to one another in that Covenant, the bonds were not straight enough for either, but they were able to start from God notwithstanding the Covenant; and God was left at liberty too, he could slip lose from them for all this Covenant: Notwithstanding the bond of this Covenant, he regarded them not, he did not look upon them as his people, and so on himself as their God, to take care of them as of his people, but let enemies lose upon them, scattered them up and down, become of them what would he cared not, I regarded them not, saith the Lord. But now in this Covenant God undertakes, and hath so framed it, that he will be sure to mend both those faults; it shall so bind him and his people together, that neither shall be able to start one hairs breadth from the other, but when they once meet they shall ever remain together in perfect Life and Love; He will be to them a God, and they shall be to him a people.  
Vers. 11. And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.  
The happiness, the perfection of the creature consists in the knowledge of God. A man might be any thing, do any thing, have any thing, enjoy any thing, if he knew but God: If he had but the Light of God, he could not but have the Life of God also, for the Life lies in it; This is life Eternal, to know thee the only true God. If a man were in the light, as he is in the light, he could not but walk in the light with him. This is the great misery of the Creation, God is shut up from it, and it is shut out from God; and there is nothing but emptiness, vanity and misery to be met with, while God remains unknown.  
Man's excellency lieth in knowledge. Wherein doth man excel the other creatures, but in his knowledge? The light of this world the creatures have in common with him, but not the light of his mind. Wherein doth one man excel another, but in knowledge? He that knows much in any kind, excels others in that kind who fall short of him in that knowledge. He that knows most (most certainly, most clearly, most fully) in the deepest kind of knowledge, excels all others.  
The proper object of knowledge is God; there is nothing else worth knowing; the knowledge of any thing else begets and increases misery. And there is but one kind of knowledge of God neither that tends towards happiness, and that is that knowledge of himself which he giveth out to his people in his own Light: all other knowledge is death, and carries destruction in the bowels of it. The knowledge of God as it springs up in the creature destroys the creature, that life it seems to feed and nourish it doth but fatten for destruction, and so moveth towards destruction even therein; that knowledge alone preserves the creature, which comes immediately from God into the creature, and carries the creature out of itself into God, where it lodges and lives save.  
The knowledge of God (since the broken, dark state of man) comes by teaching, by such a Ministry and Ministration as God pleases to set up among his people, who are the persons he alone picks out to know, and to make himself known unto. The Law was given to the Jews by Moses, and he and Aaron (the Priests and the Prophets) were still to open the Law unto them, and to teach them to know God by it; The Priest's lips should preserve knowledge, and they should seek the Law at his mouth. Men were also to teach one another according to the light they had, according to the relation they stood in, according to the conveniencies and opportunities that were cut out unto them for the instruction and exhortation of one another: Thus every man was to teach his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord; This is your life, this is your happiness, this is that ye were chosen by him for, to be his people, to be acquainted with him, to understand his mind, therefore what ever ye do look to it, make it your main business to know the Lord. So in the times of the Apostles there was the same way of teaching, we shall find men there likewise communicating the knowledge of God to one another, and pressing them earnestly to receive and retain this knowledge, (there was a tang of somewhat further, but it was neither universal, full, nor lasting.)  
But now when this Covenant comes to be set up there shall need no more of this teaching, this teaching shall continue no longer: God will so himself diffuse the knowledge of himself into every one, according to what they need, and can hold, that none shall need to look abroad for it. Every one shall drink water out of their own Cistern, or rather out of their own Fountain, for all shall know me. There shall not remain one, among the whole people of God, ignorant of God; there shall not any one need any other teaching, or be taught any other ways then as the anointing teacheth him.  
From the least to the greatest. God produceth every thing in great variety. There are smaller and greater in every sort of creatures: Though they are much one, yet they differ much also. They differ in their shape, in their dimension, in beauty, virtue, strength and spirit; some are of mean low spirits, others of high, noble, excellent spirits. So is it in his Seed. In the natural seed, the Jews, there was a difference, both in the Tribes, and in the Families, and in the particular persons in each Tribe and Family: And as there were many other differences, so there was particularly this in respect of the knowledge of God, some having much knowledge of the Law, others little, some none at all. So in the spiritual Seed, there are little ones (babes in Christ) young men, old men, experienced men, strong men, men strong in Faith, in Love, in the Life and Power of God, etc.  
But this was the common way of all their learning, viz. by teaching one another. Indeed the Apostles were not taught by men, but immediately by God, but that was not usual, it was in reference to their particular work, but the Churches were taught by one another, by the Officers, and by the Brethren in them: So that this hath been the common way hitherto. But, when this Covenant is set up in full force, every one shall be taught by the Lord, all thy children shall be taught of God, and so taught, that every one shall know God. Man can but lay, what he teacheth, before the understanding; but God can infuse it into the heart, he can presently leaven the heart with it; when he teacheth there is none shall avoid learning, but they shall all know the Lord, from the least to the greatest: They shall all learn of him, and they shall all learn him, from the very lest to the greatest. The hardest lesson that is (for there is nothing harder than to know God) God will teach his meanest scholar. God will not have any blockhead or dullard in his School, but the least there shall be able to comprehend himself. From the least to the greatest: He that is least, he that hath least, yet he shall not receive it from others, but from God: He that hath least light, least life, shall have that he has pure from the Fountain. The least of his he will teach, and the very lest thing that is to be taught them, he himself will teach them. He will suffer none to teach his but himself; indeed the least thing that can be known cannot thus be taught by any but himself. And he that is greatest, fullest, who had need have much to fill him, yet shall not draw one jot of it from any Cistern, but all from the living God. The greatest in the Life, Liberty and Power of God, he will teach yet further; the least he will teach sufficiently; he will teach every one from the very beginning to the end of all his School; and he will teach every one effectually, so as they shall need no other Teacher, so as they shall need no otherwise to be taught, so as they shall not choose but learn that lesson every one of them, wherein lieth their whole life and happiness, they shall all know me, from the least to the greatest. God will make his people vomit up all the knowledge of himself that ever they have received, he will break the old bottles, and spill all the wine they held, and this will he do from the least to the greatest: The highest in the knowledge of God, who have the purest, the clearest light, shall not be able to preserve one scrap of their knowledge from destruction. And then will he make new bottles, and fill them with new wine: Every bottle must be newmade that is filled with this wine, and every bottle that is newmade shall be filled with this wine from the least to the greatest.  
Vers. 12. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.  
Here is the ground of all, here is the first beginning of all, here is the establishment of all this good will, love and sweetness between God and his people: He will certainly do it, for he will take away that which hinders, that which any way stops or diverts the current of their affection and intimacy on either hand. That which had the great force in the other Covenant to estrange God and his people, was sin; Your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you: Sin made God turn from them, and sin made them turn from God; for, feeling the guilt of sin in his own spirit, man runs as far and as fast from him as he can. Adam had great delight in the presence of God, and God in Adam's till he had sinned, than the appearance of God is terrible to him, and he seeketh to hid himself from his presence: and since that time guilty man could never endure to come near God. To quiet himself he is fain to frame a God suitable to himself, and this he can come near and delight himself with; but the true, the living God, who can pierce into him and will not be bribed to spare him, the heart of man cannot endure to come near: Every man is apt to think that of all things he desires God, communion with God, but the appearance of God will one day give him the lie. And this ariseth from the secret guilt of sin, which however it be daubed up at present, yet the purity of God's presence cannot but search and discern it: The sight of sin is drowned and lost at present, every man almost hath an art to hid, silence, cover and bury sin; but the approach of God will put life into it again, the effects whereof will be such as will make his coming very  even to such as now seem to themselves much to desire it.  
The Majesty and Terror of God, whom would it not affright! how can sinful flesh stand before him! There is no hiding any sin from him, for the light in him discovers it: There is no undergoing his wrath, it is too weighty for any creature. While any sin remains upon the conscience of the creature, it cannot but startle at God and shrink from him; while any sin remains upon the score of the creature God cannot but be dreadful to it: O what a distance and shyness is there between him and his dearest ones while any reckoning remains between them!  
O how little true intercourse and communion is there between God and any man at this day! There is a great deal of seeming boldness in drawing nigh to him and claiming acquaintance with him, arising from ignorance and from an imagination of the pardon of sin; but alas how will this vanish, when he comes to make himself known and to lay men's sins to their charge, which are not yet so blotted out as they think they are. I will do it, saith he, at such a time, but the time is not yet come: The blotting out of sin is reserved for the times of refreshing, for the days wherein this Covenant shall be set up; Then God will indeed do great things for his people, and nothing shall fall short of all that sweetness and perfect communion that he hath spoken of between him and them, for all that might interpose shall be taken away by him; for I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.  
For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness.  
unrighteousness holds forth the nature of sin in general, for sin is nothing but unrighteousness. Take what sin you will into consideration, this is the nature of it, this is the chief property of it, this is that which makes it to be sin, which brings the person into danger from whom it flows, which any way divers God from or incites God against the creature, namely its unrighteousness. The influence which sin hath upon the Justice of God (which is an utter enemy to it) is by its unrighteousness: The harm it doth to the creature, both by deforming it, defiling it, and laying it open to wrath and misery, is by its unrighteousness: That which maketh it to be sin, that whereby it produceth all its effects, is its unrighteousness.  
Their unrighteousness. The People of God, who are dear unto him, whom his heart is upon, whom he intends to do all the good he can to, whom he means to bring into perfect union and communion with himself, yet have their unrighteousness belonging to them, cleaving to them, they are not yet freed from sin, but lie with the rest of the world overwhelmed and buried under the heap and rubbish of it. Indeed there is that life and hope in them that will one day spring out of the grave and throw off all the fetters and boods of sin, but at present there is little difference between them and others, saving that they are somewhat more sensible of their burden, which makes their yoke smart the more: Sin clings yet to their consciences, they are yet slaves under it, they are yet in captivity and misery because of it. If mercy had took its swinge upon them, sin could not so remain and dwell in them, nor the effects of sin so follow them as they continually do.  
I will be merciful to their unrighteousness. As Justice hath hitherto had and must still have its scope to prosecute sin, to be severe against sin where ever it finds it: So than mercy shall have its scope, and shall be able to answer justice in all its pleas against the sinner; and the poor creature (that is now worn out by the prosecuting avenger of blood) shall be refreshed, shall never hear more concerning sin but what mercy speaks. And mercy shall have full vent, God will set himself to be merciful. When Justice hath had its full time, its full hearing; then Mercy shall have its turn, and be fairly heard to what it can say for the rescue and Salvation of the sinner. God will give himself up to mercy, set himself to be merciful, I will be merciful to their unrighteousness; Where ever I espy unrighteousness in them I will show forth mercy; I will hear no voice of sin but what calls for mercy; There's not one of their sins shall stand before me, if I have mercy enough to blot it out; If ever sin prejudice them any more, let the blame lie upon my mercy; I will be merciful to their unrighteousness.  
And their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. There are two sorts of sin (two ways of sinning) one of commission the other of omission. There is a direct spurning against the Law, and a falling short of the Law. There is a doing things contrary to the Will of God, and a neglecting to do the Will of God: There is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as they are here expressed. This is the great charge God hath against all men, under all his several Dispensations, the not doing what he in righteousness requires of them, and the doing otherwise or contrary thereunto; the slipping aside from his Rule, or the clashing against his Rule by motions contrary to it.  
I will remember no more. They shall be so far from feeling any prejudice by reason of sin any more, that I will not so much as remember that they have sinned. Not any Transgression against the Law, not any falling short of the Law will I ever remember again; I will think never the worse of them for it, I will carry myself not one whit the more unkindly to them because of it, there shall be no strangeness between me and them in any such respect. I will not only pity them and be merciful to them, but my mercy shall carry me to do the utmost act against sin, that can be done, to keep it from prejudicing them: I will not only pity them in their sins and under their miseries showing mercy to them in respect of both, but I will heal them perfectly, I will cure them for ever, I will take away the root of their sickness and all the sap that can feed that root. I will not only forgive sin, but I will forget it too: I will blot it out of mine own mind that it may never be by me to stir up the least jealousy or harsh thoughts in me concerning them. Their sins shall be so far from ever working upon my heart that I will not keep them in my mind; I will not think of them again, I will set myself to forget them, I will not suffer the remembrance of them to enter into me or come any more before me: I will never henceforth look upon them as persons that ever did any such thing, but what they have offended in I will so discharge them of that the offence shall for ever be forgotten even by myself. I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.  
O sweet Covenant! O certain way of emptying God into his people, and of letting in his people into his fullness! Surely they can never miss of any thing they desire who lie under the direct influence of this Covenant.  
But when shall these things be! when shall this Covenant be set up! There was a sweet taste of it, once given out, in the Primitive Times, (The Spirit was then given out, there was then enjoying of God, living in and towards God, rejoicing in tribulation, triumphing over sin, Law, Death, Hell, etc. the yoke of the Cross was then easy, sweet, delightful, etc.) but it was but a taste, but a shadow of the thing itself: it was weak while it was in Being, it was quickly swallowed up: The sweetness of the intercourse and communion between God and his people was low and liable to frequent interruptions in the midst of its enjoyment: Sin was not conquered (though sorely struck at and wounded) but in conflict, and after a while gathered up its strength and overcame that appearance of God in the world. Since which time there hath been much quietness, much rest, much peace in the world, in the Kingdom of the Devil, all being at his dispose, he reigning and commanding in open wickedness, in moral righteousness, in the several ways and paths of Religion; and the holy seed being in such bondage and captivity under him, so shut up in his dark prison that they see not where they are, nor what they are, nor have either heart or strength to oppose him: Things being thus, the Devil lieth still, Sin is quiet, the Law is silent, they are where they would be, they have what they would, they do what they would; God and Christ overlook this time of ignorance, take as it were no notice what the Devil does, do not so much as offer to disturb him. But when God shall once stir to set up his Kingdom, when Christ ariseth to recover his own out of the Devils hands, than it will be a quick sharp time, then Satan Sin and the Law will put forth their strength, and will not let Israel go while they have any power to detain them; and O how dreadful will the breaking of their power be, and how fierce their tyranny over Israel while it is in breaking! Then shall Israel feel the bitterness of bondage and of captivity; then shall Israel know what Sin is, what the Law is, and what the Devil is. O how terrible will their death-pangs be! O how will they rend and teer at their casting out! when they fall (Sampson-like) they will make the very house fall with them: And indeed the leprosy of Sin hath so overspred and is so interwoven that there is no purging of it out without breaking the vessel all in pieces and melting those broken pieces over and over again and again; Corruption will never be purged out of this old man, but this old man must be destroyed and a new one made. God also will be very sharp, very severe against all manner of sin and unrighteousness according to the Law, while the Law remains in force to exact it from him: yea Christ himself will be a sore Minister of Justice, (until his own righteousness come to conquer and take place) He will not pardon your iniquities, for my name is in him. Alas, what a dream are we in! We have a kind of sense of sin, and a kind of sight of Christ and Salvation, and a kind of going forth (by that which we call Faith) for Salvation from him, and thus we think to pass over unto rest: No, no, we must feel our captivity, we must come under and feel the force of the Ministration of Condemnation, we must taste the death-pangs of Sin and the Law, and we must fetch every step of our journey or travel through the wilderness to the promised Land, as in the type there was not one of the Israel of God exempted from so doing. And when this is in agitation, than ye shall know the meaning of so many carcases of the Israelites falling in the wilderness, and how those to whom a promise is made of entering into Rest, may fall short by unbelief; and than ye shall find the whole mystery of Salvation (both in the type and in the substance) to be anotherghess manner of thing than man (by his understanding and reason, or by that which he calls the assistance of the Spirit of God) hath interpreted it to be.  
Hasten thy work O God; Let thy counsel stand: Fulfil all thy pleasure; and do it as speedily as thou wilt. Let forth that destruction, that desolation which must necessarily precede and make way for Salvation: Let the old Covenant devour and bury in her own bowels the fruit of her own womb, that the new seed may be conceived, form, quickened, brought forth, and hang upon the breasts of the new Covenant, whence nothing but the sweetness, purity and power of Life can be sucked. Live O God, live in thy seed; quicken thy seed, let them (cause them) to live in thee according to the law and by the virtue of thine own life. Finish imperfection, weakness, sin, vanity, death; dash it out, and write thine own perfection and life in the stead and room of it: Blot out the name of the foolish, vain, empty creature, and write thine own name every where; then shall those that desire and love thee be satisfied with thee, when they shall meet none but thee, and meet thee every where.   

The way to Life, which is through the death of that which we account and press after as life, and through the captivity of the Life itself; FROM 2 COR. 12.7, 8, 9, 10. 
And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn to the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.  
For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might departed from me.  
And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee; for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.  
Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.   
IN these words there are divers remarkable passages, which he is very likely to meet with, who pursueth the purity and height of the life of his spirit.  
1. There is the excellency of a Christians life, the top of it; which lieth in Visions and Revelations, in Gods opening of himself and spiritual things to the eye of his spirit, letting him in to the other world to behold God, himself, and the state of things there: Ye are come to mount Zion, to the City of the living God the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of Angels, to the general Assembly and Church of the first born, to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, etc. Here is life indeed, here is true sight, true enjoyment; here is the possession of strength; he feels nothing, fears nothing that may affright or trouble him, who is here, being wrapped up safe in the bosom of Eternity, where mortality cannot seize upon him: And the greater, the fuller, the deeper, the more frequent and abundant these Visions are, the quicker and stronger is the life by them, the more is the spirit elevated through them.  
2. The danger of this life, the danger of these enjoyments; they tend to over-exalt him, his flesh cannot bear them, he is puffed up by them and forgets himself because of them: Lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of revelations: Paul was in great danger of being lift up beyond all bounds by reason of these; his strength, though it was great and much more than ordinary, yet it was no way proportionable to his Revelations. God can bear the weight of all his glory, he is not at all lifted up with the sight and possession of his own strength and fullness: but flesh cannot do so, it is lifted up with any thing, with every thing that is a little more than ordinary, a little above itself; and if its life and enjoyments be over-vigorous (be much more than ordinary) they over-exalt it. This is the foolishness of the creature, it desires the highest life, the best, the purest, the strongest food; but is not able to bear any thing beyond itself, nothing but what is suitable to its proportion of life: and it only enjoyeth itself while, by eternal Wisdom and Power, it is guided and kept within its own bounds: The Plants cannot live the life of Sensitives, Sensitives cannot live the life of Man, Man cannot live the life of God; he cannot know as he knows, he cannot comprehend as he comprehends, he cannot live as he lives: We think, if we had abundance of sights and enjoyments of God, we should live abundantly; Alas, poor fools! Behold the experiment, it almost overturned Paul, lifted up his flesh so high that it cost him very dear to have it brought down again.  
Exaltation is the worst posture of spirit, (of the worst nature, the most prejudicial to the Creature) that can be. It is the most unbeseeming posture, the most dishonourable to God, and that which sets the Creature at the greatest distance from him.  
It is the most unbeseeming posture: for what is the Creature? Nothing, emptiness, vanity, a lie, that which appears, but is not; a puff of wind that maketh a noise, but passeth away, and cometh not again. Now for this to be lifted up, as if it were somewhat, as if it were substance, nay as if it were all, as if it knew all, as if it alone were, and none besides it, what more uncomely thing? And yet such is the foolishness of the creature, that let God but open himself a little to it, it presently conceits itself to be as himself; let him but open himself in it, it in himself, and it presently is God as truly, as fully as himself; let him but open a little of his bosom, a little beyond what it hath formerly seen, and it presently sees as himself, and so certainly that things cannot possibly be otherwise then as it now sees. O uncomely Spectacle! O how my Soul loathes the creature lifted up! O how sordid is the creature aspiring to, assuming and clothing himself with that greatness, state and majesty, which belongs not to him, and which he can in no wise manage! O God, thou must needs destroy, and prepare a grave to bury this uncomeliness in.  
It is the most dishonourable to God, entrenching most upon his Glory who is all, who fills all, who can endure nothing to be or appear where he is in his own Life and Fullness. The creature never lifts up itself, but it throws down God (as much as in it lies,) it robs him, and prides itself with what it hath stolen, as if it were its own; it defloureth his Beauties, his Excellencies, by making them appear unlike his, and as if they were not his; it raseth his Name out of that wherein he hath written in, writing its own in stead thereof.  
It sets the creature at the greatest distance from God; it turns the heart of God most from the creature. God can only have communion with the creature in its low estate; it must be nothing, when he (who is all) fills it, and dwells fully in it. So much as the creature strives to be, desires to be, it turns from God. God is all, where he is himself; and appears as all, where he appears as himself; and he cannot fully be, not fully appear in that creature that is, or that appears any thing. The proud he beholds afar off, but he maketh his habitation with the humble; he lives there, he dwells there: and the humble may walk, converse, have full and free communion with him; humble thyself to walk with thy God. It were better for the creature never to see or enjoy any thing of God, then to be lifted up by it: and, if I might have mine own choice, I would never have any discovery of God, further than I were first enabled by him to bear it.  
3. The Remedy of this danger, which hath a very proper appellation here, it is called a thorn to the flesh, somewhat to prick and make the flesh sensible of its weakness, and so to abate and assuage its swelling. Flesh is the weak part, a thorn is that which is very painful and irksome to the flesh. Visions and Revelations, they lift up the flesh, cause it to forget itself, raise it up in its own eyes and thoughts, as if it were no longer flesh but spirit, no longer weakness but strength, surrounded with the Life, Glory and Perfection of God, which these give some taste and sense of; so that the poor creature gins now to perk up above all other things, beholding them far beneath itself, they lying in a dungeon of darkness, horror, weakness, filthiness, corruption, death, whereas it is situated in the light of the Lord, dwelling with him in the Land of the living: But now, when a thorn is thrust into the flesh, making it ache and smart, (and all its Visions and Revelations can neither help to pluck out this thorn, nor take away the smart of it,) it gins to feel and know itself again, it finds itself not to be what it took itself to be, not to be where it was, not so full, not so glorious, not so safe: It thought itself above all these things, above the reach, above the sense of these things; but now by this it sensibly perceives, that it is still a weak frail creature in a weak frail state: This lets the wind out of the bladder, and so its swelling falls by degrees. There is no better physic in such a state, and it is the skill and kindness of the Physician, to administer it to the Patient, though against his mind: Paul here calls it a gift, there was given me a thorn to the flesh; indeed it was a gift, a kind gift, a needful gift, a seasonable g ft. Paul, if he might have had his own choice, would have had more Revelations still: but he, who knew the present state of Paul, knew what to give him; and however he looked upon it at present, yet afterwards (when he came to understand himself) he could not but see and acknowledge it to be a gift. The captivity of our life, that pain, bondage, heaviness of spirit, death (which we are so apt to complain of) is a gift, which our life, in this state wherein it is, needs, (if need be ye suffer heaviness through manifold temptations, 1 Pet. 1.6.) it cannot otherwise enjoy itself, it cannot otherwise be rid of that enemy which is still surprising it in its enjoyments.  
The particular thorn to the flesh here bestowed on Paul, was a messenger of Satan to buffet him. To bring him down Satan is let lose upon him, (who, when he hath his Commission, will quickly make the flesh feel itself what it is:) To bring him down yet more Satan deals with him by a messenger, as if (notwithstanding all his height) he scorned to deal with him himself; and this messenger handles him in a most disgraceful way, buffets him; and Paul lieth open to him, not knowing which way to help himself, but is fain to receive blow after blow from him, as he gives them him: This was a thorn to the flesh indeed, a very sharp thorn.  
He who knoweth what it is, to be wrapped up into the might and power of the Lord, cannot at that time fear the powers of darkness, dares challenge the very Prince of darkness, with all his force and stratagems, to do his worst, and cannot suspect the least prejudice from him. Now for this person, who knoweth the sweetness of this strength, to be wholly stripped of it, have his enemy let lose upon him, be left to the weakness of his own flesh, be laid open to receive and feel the smart of every blow that Satan pleaseth to give him, and that not by himself, but by a messenger, (as if he scorned to put his own strength to it,) this is a grievous thorn to the flesh, this pricketh very sharply the weak, the fleshly part, and by its continuance allayeth and letteth out that swelling and puffing wherewith it was lifted up by those Revelations and Inlets of the Life, Glory and Power of God, which were bestowed not on it, but on the spiritual part. It is the flesh that is lifted up; and were it not for the fleshly part, the spirit would as willingly lie low as be exalted, yea in some respect rather, for it desireth not to be exalted, but to lie low; it desireth to have the Lord alone exalted; it would not be any thing, it would not appear any thing, it would not own any thing, but have the Lord alone be, appear, be known; So far would it live as the Lord liveth in it, so far would it shine as the Lord pleaseth to shine in it, and no further: And the sufferings of the spirit are with and because of the flesh, and to this intent, to free and deliver it from the infirmity, bondage and corruption which cleaveth close to the flesh, and is ready still to annoy it by reason of its present conjunction with the flesh.  
The spirit and the flesh are so incorporated one within the other (yet unmixed) that whatsoever is done to the one, the other also partakes of, (as suppose, like two trees, whose root, body, boughs, branches, leaves and fruit were entwisted within one another, yet still retaining their own property and distinction.) You cannot feed the spirit, but the flesh also will suck in and partake of the sweetness thereof, and be nourished and grow thereby: you cannot feed the flesh, but the spirit tastes and is made sick by the poison; for such is the food of the flesh unto the spirit, no other than poison. You cannot smite the flesh, but you also wound the spirit; and if you go about to heal the spirit, the flesh will also partake of it, and gather strength and freshness by it: If the flesh be thrown into the furnace, the spirit goes with it, and is burnt and melted in the fire as well as it. Therefore all the life the spirit gains, possesses, pleases itself with, it must part with again, and must die a bitter death with the flesh, that it may be quite rid of the flesh: all its life must sink back into its principle, and lie there as if it were dead, while the flesh is truly mortified and slain for ever: And if it were not of an excellent nature, if it could not bear the force of that fire which kills and burns up the flesh, it would also be slain and consumed with the flesh; if it were not pure gold, it could not but waste and perish in the heat of that furnace, which is still consuming, and at last (when it is heated hot enough) will quite devour all fleshly dross whatsoever, that is cast into it.  
4. The restlessness of the spirit under this Remedy: For this thing I be sought the Lord thrice, that it might departed from me: He useth the best means with the utmost vigour to get rid of it. Nothing more effectual than prayer, then fervent prayer, then constant prayer. We have no strength of our own, our strength lies in God; faith and prayer (or faith in prayer) is our readiest and surest way of recourse to him for it. Paul prayeth once, yea again, and again, and fain he would be heard: and mark the earnestness of his spirit, that it might departed from me. He doth not pray for strength to bear it, for submission to the Will of God, for spiritual benefit and advantage by it; No, nothing will serve his turn but to have it taken away, to have it removed, to have it departed; the pain, the shame is so great, that he can by no means be content to lie under it. This is such physic as we would never take, if we might choose; it maketh us so sick, that we would rather be without health then come by it this way: If this remedy were not forced upon us, this sickness would always remain with us.  
5. The support of the Soul under this restlessness, the Cordial that is of most force to refresh the spirits, under the violent workings of this physic, which make the spirits very faint, and bring the Soul very low; My Grace is sufficient for thee. The Grace of God, the good will of God revealed to, tasted by the Soul, is able to refresh and support it under sense of the greatest misery. There are two things of very great efficacy in it.  
1. There is a taste of sweetness at present, which doth secretly relieve, refresh, revive the spirit. He who ever knew God, let him at any time taste the favour and love of God, though in the lowest, darkest, deadest, most oppressed state he can be in, he cannot but find a secret touch of life in it, in thy favour is life, yea thy lovingkindness is better than life; it is better to taste the sweetness, the kindness, the love of God in the most bitter pangs of death, then to enjoy the sweetest touches and motions of life in ones own spirit.  
2. There is an assurance of a good issue, and of all this tending that way. He who sees the Grace of God (the virtue of its nature, its skill and efficacy in operation) will see his physic administered to him from that Grace, and working by that Grace. He sees no more the temptations of the Devil in the Devil's hand, or his own sins in his own hand, doing him mischief; but in God's hand doing him good: He sees his own weakness, not any longer his snare, but his advantage, making way to rid him of his weakness, and to give him full possession of the strength of God, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. The strength of God is not made perfect in the discovery of itself to the creature, in the creature, for the creature, till the creature be made perfectly weak. While there is any strength left in the creature, there is some room left there which the strength of God doth not fill: the strength of God may be there, but not all his strength; the strength of God may act there, but not perfectly. The strength of God can never do, that it hath to do for the Soul to perfect it, before the Soul be first made perfectly weak; and then the strength of God will soon be perfected, when the Soul is brought to perfect weakness. When we are brought into perfect captivity, and perfectly weakened in captivity, so that there is nothing left, nothing remaining, nothing visible to be delivered, but the whole life of the spirit is perfectly dried up and lost even for ever, then is there nothing to hinder the breaking forth of perfect deliverance.  
6. The exultation of the spirit, from the sense and experience of the good that the Grace of God works for it by these: it can hereafter sport with misery, play with death, laugh while it is in the very jaws of destruction; Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities. I will not be so ashamed of my weakness now I know what it is, and whither it tends, but I will glory in it; I will rejoice in mine own inability to withstand temptations, to keep back the breaking forth of any corruption in me, to secure myself from the meanest messenger of Satan; and I will not do it as a forced thing, but most gladly; it shall be a free motion of my spirit, that which it shall most freely give itself up to, namely to rejoice in and because of its weakness, most gladly therefore, etc. Yea I will rather do it; I will choose to rejoice and glory in them before I would do it in Revelations: I like them better, they tend to bring me nearer to that which my spirit longs after, whereas Revelations tend to set me further from it.  
That the Power of Christ may rest upon me. My life, my happiness lies in enjoying the Power of Christ, Revelations tend to strip me of it, but weaknesses tend to possess me of it, yea to cause it to rest upon me, not only to seize upon me, but to abide with me: Our weaknesses are not only to fit us for some more vigorous aid and assistance from God, but for the inhabitation of God, there will he dwell, thither shall the Power of Christ resort, and there shall it rest.  
Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities. I will never be so unwilling to be weakened again: Since I knew the meaning of it, I cannot but take pleasure in it. It is my delight to be made weak, to be thrown down, to be reproached, to be bemired in my own filth, (I could not endure shame immediately after my Revelations, but now I can please myself to behold mine own shame.) Yea I love to be brought to necessities, to distresses, that I know not which way to turn myself: for all this is for Christ's sake, to give him more hold of me, to give him more advantage to work himself into me; this weakening of me, by all these sharp corrasives to the flesh, is but the pulling down of my strength that he may set up his, and I sensibly feel it in constant experience; for when I am weak then am I strong.  
I am never strong but when I am weak, nor never weak but when I am strong. A strange Paradox, that a man's strength should lie in his weakness, that the time of his weakness should be the season of his strength, that the way to make him strong should be by making him weak: yet Paul felt, and therefore ye may give him leave to speak; he spoke feelingly, experimentally in saying, when I am weak, then am I strong. Strength is both sown in weakness, groweth up in weakness, and is perfected in weakness.  
1. Strength is sown in weakness: In our weakness God soweth his strength: The time of weakening us, of pulling down our strength is the time of sowing God's strength in us. When God ploughs us up, makes long furrows in us, rents and tears up all that lives in us, then is his time of sowing the seed of his own Life and Strength in us. Light is sown in darkness, (the Light of Eternity is covered in the dark bowels of the Earth;) Life is sown in death, Salvation is sown in destruction, and strength is sown in weakness.  
2. Strength grows in weakness: By growing weak a man grows strong. A Christian the more he is stripped of his own riches, the richer he grows; the more he is stripped of his own life, the more he grows in life; and the more he is stripped of his own strength, the more he grows in strength. There is nothing makes us weak but our own strength, (the strength of our enemies can only try, not any way impair our strength;) therefore the taking of our strength from us is the taking away of our weakness, it is the delivering of us from that which hindered the increasing and thriving of true strength in us.  
3. Strength is perfected in weakness: When weakness is perfected, strength is perfected. As the shadow declines, and is made to give way, so the substance comes in and fills up its place; and when the shadow is quite gone, the substance comes wholly in, and then there is nothing to be found there but substance. Our strength is a shadow, a counterfeit of strength, but not strength indeed; it is the strength of man, who is but weak himself in his whole frame and constitution, and what can his strength be? Now as the strength of the man, the shadowy strength decayeth; so the strength of God, true, substantial strength grows up in him in the stead of it: And when all his strength is quite spent, quite gone, utterly vanished; there will be no weakness left, nothing but perfect strength (everlasting strength) remaining. The strength of God hath nothing to hinder itself in us, but our strength: He hath nothing to hinder him, but the creature; (it is, as it was made, both a glass and a vail, to represent or hid him, as he himself pleaseth to make use of it:) Nothing to hinder his Being, but the being of the creature; Nothing to hinder his Life, but the life of the creature; Nothing to hinder his Wisdom, but the wisdom of the creature; Nothing to hinder his Strength, but the strength of the creature: Where ever he destroyeth these (as he will do perfectly one day, in the great day, at the great battle of the Lord God Almighty) he himself fills up their room.  
O happy is he who hath drunk his full draught of death and misery; for full Life, perfect Life and Happiness cannot choose but spring up in him! Doth the ploughman blow all day to sow? Doth God rend and teer in pieces for nothing? Do you think he cannot give an account of all the misery and desolation that lighteth upon his Creation? It is his more than its own, it ever was his, it ever will be his; it is but its own for a moment, yea it is his while it is its own, nay it is his in being its own: He hath made it, for a season, to know and feel what it is to be its own; shall it never know and feel what it is to be his? It hath been long disowned and cast off by him, as if it were of no value, as if it had no relation to him, but shall this distance and strangeness last for ever? It is true, he doth rend, teer, and make havoc of it, and speaketh terribly concerning future desolations and miseries which he will avoidable bring upon it, and it doth not please him to give an account of his Ways, but tells proud man he doth it for his pleasure; but he doth not tell him why it is his pleasure, nor how long it shall be his pleasure. Be silent then, and rest here, Do not say that he hath no other pleasure, thou knowest not the thoughts of his heart, thou knowest not what relation any thing hath unto him, nor how he will dispose of it. He is what he is, He doth what he doth, He will be what he will be, He will do what he will do, and he scorneth to let proud man know him in any thing. The light which he giveth him (without which he cannot so much as see after that poor, weak, silly manner that he doth) is but to befool, to bewilder him, not to lead him to him. Man thinketh to be wise by his light, God by that very light maketh him a fool. It is light to him, but darkness in itself: and what a fool is he whose light is darkness, whose wisdom is folly, whose life is death, whose Heaven is Hell, whose God is the Devil, only transformed at present into an Angel of light to please the fool with appearing light, with his counterfeit light, which is but darkness, not light. O poor, shallow, deceived man, what a dismal time is coming upon thee! a time of darkness, of darkness that may be felt, nay of darkness that cannot but be felt: Thou wilt not, thou canst not now see and acknowledge thy darkness; No, it is light; but the time shall come that thou shalt not be able to avoid seeing, and feeling and acknowledging it. The Sun that shines upon thee, by the light whereof thou yet seest, must be turned into darkness; and if thou wilt think to get a little light in that night by the Moon (if when the Sun is put out thou wouldst be content to descend and make shift with the light of the Moon) thou shalt not neither, for that shall be turned into blood: That which was set up by God, under God, to give light unto man either in his day or in his night, shall go out; and there shall a day or night come upon him, wherein he shall be perfectly lost, wherein he shall see and feel and know that he is a fool and cannot reach to the true understanding either of God, of himself, or of any thing else. Man thinks now he can attain any thing, there is nothing either in Heaven above or Earth beneath but he can understand in his proportion, according to what of it is represented to him, and according as he bends and applies himself to take in the knowledge of it, but the briars and the thorns of the wilderness will teach him otherwise: When he is throughly brayed in the mortar, though his folly will not departed from him, yet his conceit of his wisdom will fall. And what will then become of the life in him? (What would become of the life of the Creature if there were no Sun?) Where will be his knowledge of good and evil, wherewith he doth now so lift up himself, judging, justifying or condemning as he pleaseth? How will he resist his enemies or turn towards his friends, when he cannot see or distinguish either? Ah poor man, poor Christian; How doth my spirit bewail that dreadful captivity, which thou dost not so much as dream of, yet must drink deep of! There is no avoiding it: it is the Lords interest to put out thy light, to put out thy life, and it must not be spared.  
There is a double Captivity hastening, hastening, coming on apace, very swiftly, (though man may account the Lords haste slackness:) A captivity of the whole Creation, a captivity of all Creation; a captivity of the old Creature, a captivity of the new Creature; a captivity of the seed of man; a captivity of the seed of God; a captivity of the flesh, a captivity of the spirit; a captivity of the old creaturely life, (of the reason, wisdom, understanding of the creature) a captivity of the new regenerate life (of the life of God sown in the creature.) I shall only give a glance at the latter of these, because it is here pointed at, and is first to take place: for God will begin with his people, God shall judge his people, Judgement must begin at the house of God; and the other captivity (the captivity of the Creature) may go hand in hand with this in them, so that their whole captivity perhaps may be wholly ended before God gins with the world: They shall lift up their heads, because their redemption draweth nigh, when destruction is but coming upon others: God will say to them; Arise, shine, thy light is come, the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee, when he is but raising the cloud of darkness, yea of gross darkness to cover the earth and the people of the earth with. But as they must rise before the world, so they must die before the world; they must die while man remains alive, that they may live when death issueth forth to seize upon man: And as their Life and Resurrection is far more excellent than ever man can attain to, so is their Death and Captivity far more bitter. To touch a little at it.  
There is a captivity, a great captivity which the spiritual life is subject unto before it entereth into perfect rest.  
Whether this shall befall any in the body or out of the body, I know not, (God knoweth:) for I know not the way of the spirit in the body, nor the way of the spirit out of the body. Yet Paul seemeth expressly to affirm concerning some, that they should be saved in the Day of the Lord (which is the proper time of Salvation) yet so as by fire: Their works should not be able to endure the fire (many of them) but should be burnt up; yet they themselves (notwithstanding their loss by the burning up of their works) should be saved, yet not perhaps as they think, but so as by fire. The Soul must be purified, throughly purified, perfectly purified, before it enjoy God: it must pass through the fire, and if it be not able to endure the fire, it cannot but suffer by it both pain and loss. Sin may be taken away by imputation, but the work of renovation is not so either begun or perfected, but by often casting into the fire, and by often moulding in the fire, where the very powers of life are melted and transformed, by several steps and degrees, into perfection; and the process and growth into life is still according to the force and degree of death. I have nothing to say concerning a place of Purgatory, (which the Papists speak of) but in this I know not how to be otherwise minded, but that the Soul must be throughly purged of all its dross before it enter into perfect union and communion with God; and the Apostle seemeth to intimate that some shall not be so purged until the Day of the Lord, which is the proper time for the letting out of that fire for the trial of all things: And when the Trial is, then must needs the suffering be of that which is not able to bear the Trial, although in the result it should be saved; he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire, 1 Cor. 3.15. If we observe men's departure out of the body, there are few seem so purged but that they have still need of the fire: How far that Thief was changed upon the Cross, or what is wrought in men at the point of death, or what becomes of them immediately after, I have nothing to say concerning; yet the general apprehension, of such an immediate entering into perfect rest, would not to me carry sufficient clearness if I should go about to scan things as a man: But to let that pass.  
There is, I say, a great captivity for the spiritual life to be tried in and by to the purpose, before it be entrusted with Rest, before it be admitted into the possession of perfect and unchangeable Rest. There may be an entering into the Land of Canaan, yea a settling in and an enjoying of it, and yet after that a going into captivity. We, who believe, have entered into Rest, Paul deeply entered, and yet here is a kind of captivity afterwards; he was buffeted by a messenger from Satan, and his spirit very restless under it: And though his be but a type or taste of the captivity, not the captivity itself, yet it may serve to point at it. The Jews were Types of the true Israel, Canaan a Type of their Rest, and the captivities of the Jews Types of the captivities of their spirits: To have a spirit wounded is very bitter, what is it to have a spirit in captivity, where it is continually wounding (nothing but wounded) at the pleasure of its greatest enemy?  
There are two things in this Captivity pointed at here, as in a figure. The nature of it, and the helplessness of the spirit under it.  
1. The nature of it, which consists in a subjection to the Devil. The person, who was delivered from him, snatched out of his Kingdom, set free from his yoke of Tyranny, seated in its own land; is thrust out of its own land and put into the hands of the Devil again: he is brought back to Egypt, concerning which it was said unto him that he should return no more thither: He is bound and carried into Babylon, yea beyond Babylon (there is a Captivity beyond Babylon) I will carry you beyond Babylon.  
In this Subjection there are divers things considerable, which discover it to be very hard and bitter. 1. There is the weakening of this life, the drying up of the life of the spirit. When we lie under the influences of God, this life is quickened, revived and cherished; but when we are in the Devil's prison, (laid in bonds by him) he nips this life, blows upon it, doth as much as he can to extinguish it: And how bitter, how painful is it to a spiritual man, to find his spiritual life dying and decaying!  
2. The stopping the course of it: And this were death itself (if there were no more added) to have the activity of this life choked, it being so full of motion, and so active in every motion. The whole current of this life is stopped: it can do nothing that it would; it wants its light, it wants its strength, it wants that which was wont to set it going, it wants oil. In this Captivity, the night is come, wherein none can work. Spiritual actions and motions are of a curious nature, requiring much skill, care, accurateness; requiring a great deal of pure, clear light; how can they be wrought in the night! They require strength, how can the Soul effect them in so great weakness as its Captivity exposeth it unto? They require liberty, how can the Soul set about them in bonds? Nor will the Devil suffer any such works (of Light, Life, and Liberty) to be wrought in his Kingdom: If we would sing the Lords Song in a strange Land, he would not permit it. He is Master over us in our Captivity, he hath our spirit so bound with his chain, that we can stir no whither, do nothing without his leave. I tell you Sirs, it is as impossible to believe, to hope, to wait, to rejoice in God, nay to submit to God in this Captivity, as it is for the man who was never yet brought out of his Kingdom: Life wholly shut up cannot at all stir abroad, Life wholly bound up can no more act than Death itself, then that which never was nor ever knew life. 'Tis true, there are Captivities wherein these things may be done; but I speak now of the great Captivity, and of the depth of that Captivity too; for both at the going in and upon the coming out some of these things may perhaps be possible.  
3. There is the drawing forth of the person into contrary ways and acts of death. He is not only hindered from doing what he would, but he is made to do what he would not. He is not only forcibly kept from serving his own Liege Lord, but he is made to serve the Devil, who delights to put him upon such motions as are most contrary to his former life, and to his present most inward spiritual nature: He is a perfect Tyrant, will still be putting his slave to that which may be most irksome to him, and which may most manifest his own dominion over him. And here I could relate some strange things, which I have heard of one that hath felt, how (in the time of his Captivity) he never resolved against any thing, nor strongly desired to avoid any thing, but he was sure to be forced into it; and found this his greatest relief and safety to lie perfectly open to all manner of weakness.  
4. There is hard usage under all this, buffet, blows, sharp strokes upon the spirit; (He deals like the Turks with their Galleyslaves, beats them whether they work or no;) He useth all manner of Tyranny towards them, is not pleased with any thing they can do, but hateth them perfectly, and doth them all the mischief he can, because of that life in them which still lives in the root, and shall break forth again in branches, leaves and fruit for all this. Indeed he who was never out of his clutches may have some fair quarter from his hands, but he who is brought back again (with the life in him) must expect to feel the utmost that his malice is suffered to do, unless he will yield (as many shall, and extremity will much urge all, and over-bear the strongest resolutions of standing out) and come under his banner, and then he shall have light enough, and strength enough and pleasure enough in his service: but this they cannot do, because their nature steereth them otherwise, and therefore must undergo the brunt.  
II. The spirits helplessness under it, or the ineffectualness of all means that can be used towards Redemption or towards mitigation of the rigour of this Captivity; there is a taste of that here too, for this I prayed thrice; Paul used all his strength in prayer, all his interest in God, but it would not avail, he must bear these buffet. So is it in this Captivity, it must have its course; pray never so hard, the cup will neither pass from you nor so much as one drop be abated: It is not possible for this cup or the least portion of it to pass from the dearest ones of God. This is Christ's cup, he drank all his share, and every one must drink all theirs. And the physic, as it is very strong, so it will make them very sick, perfectly restless and helpless. Christ was so, he knew not which way to turn him: He knew none but God could help him, and he could not reach him nor make any prayer come near him; O my God, saith he, I cry in the day time, but thou hearest not; and in the night season, and there is no silence to me: And it will make every one (though the life of Christ be in them) sick, restless, helpless, as it did Christ. The Soul cannot tell which way to turn, in any one motion, for the least ease, all the time of its Captivity: Run to the Scriptures, run to Experiences, think of the Nature of God, its Interest in God, etc. all is dead, all is dark, all is confounded; there is nothing now can be looked upon but as it is represented in the Kingdom of Darkness, as it is poisoned by the Devil, and so tends but further to poison and torment the Soul: And the more it thinks on these, the more it feeds on these, the more it seeks relief from these; the more it sucks in that which still administers fresh anguish and death unto it. If it be never so hungry, it can come at no food; if it be never so thirsty, it can come at no drink, except vinegar and gall, not one crumb of the bread of life, not one drop of the water of life is to be heard of here. This is not the place for life either to live or act in; nay there is nothing is an occasion of greater Torment to the Soul in the time of this Captivity, than its striving to live and move spiritually; as to believe, love, pray, hope, wait, or the like: For hereby,  
1. It occasions a calling to mind the former sweetness of these, its former activity in these (which are now become so difficult, so impossible to it:) and a lively remembrance of the sweetness of what was formerly enjoyed, doth much increase the trouble of the present want of it.  
2. It increaseth the sense of the present bitterness, by making it more lively. It doth not only increase the sense of the want of these, but increaseth also the sense of that which lieth upon the spirit. The remembrance of former life and liberty, makes the present bonds and pangs of death a great deal more sharp and weighty.  
3. It increaseth the Devil's rage, that he now layeth load upon the Soul. To find that life yet striving to stir which he hath bound so fast, this makes him seek for new cords to bind it yet faster, for stronger poison to strike it yet more dead. Now if I should tell you of a strange Mystery, viz. of embracing this subjection, of putting your necks under Nebuchadnezars girdle, of receiving quietly all the buffet of Satan; (not only of entering again willingly into your Captivity, but of bearing your whole burden in your Captivity) of letting your life, hope, strength and all suffer death and be laid in the grave; if I should speak after this manner to you, ye would say this were a very hard doctrine: yet this is certain, that the Bird in the Cage doth but tire (yea perhaps bruise and hurt) itself by fluttering to get out, or the Bird in the net or snare doth but entangle itself more by straining to get lose and fly abroad. There is no way like to lying still, and yielding up even the spiritual life as a sacrifice, following Christ as a Lamb or Sheep to the slaughter without the least resistance, gainsaying, or reluctation.  
O sad, sad, sad will this Captivity be! Never was there destruction, desolation and anguish like unto it! Then shall every member feel the pains of the head, and then shall every member (so afflicted) complain with the head, and say; Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? behold and see, if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me, in the day of his fierce anger. From above hath he sent fire into my bones, and it prevaileth against them: he hath spread a net for my feet, he hath turned me back: he hath made me desolate, and faint all the day.  
But when this Captivity is ended, when life shall again come forth from under this bondage; O how sweet, how fresh, how pure will it be! how pleasant to look back upon the several yokes, bonds, snares, deaths in the Land of our Captivity! Then we shall glory more in those multiplied deaths, then in our former life. Our former life and enjoyments tended but to lead us to Captivity; but this Captivity tends to lead us to that Life which cannot enter into Captivity, which cannot feel Captivity, but will be master of it where ere it meets it. Our life led us into that Captivity where we felt unutterable anguish, death, misery; but our Captivity leadeth us to that Life which is so strong and vigorous, that it is able to lead Captivity captive even in its own Land.   

The Way to true Knowledge. FROM 2 COR. 5.16. 
Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.   
THat which God created, was flesh: He brought forth every thing, in this Creation, in a state of weakness: All the Images and representations of himself here are fleshly; The eye he made to behold them, was a fleshly eye; The content, the happiness that cometh by this sight, is a fleshly happiness; The enjoyment of God in this way, is a fleshly enjoyment. There was emptiness, weakness, vanity written in the very state yea in the very make of the Creation: Indeed it might have enjoyed a kind of happiness, if it had remained as it was made, but it would not have been true happiness, nor could it have lasted: It was as impossible for Adam to have stood, as it is for God to fall; for there was mortality, mutability written in his state, in his nature, as there is Eternity, Immutability written in Gods. Adam's nature disposed him to what befell him, it was flesh, walked in the path of flesh, hastening towards the end designed unto flesh.  
Henceforth know we no man after the flesh.  
The eye, the created eye, the eye of this Creation in its best, in its purest, in its perfectest state, is no better than fleshly.  
This eye, as it is fleshly, so that which this eye seethe, is flesh; it can see nothing which is spiritual. The eye of sense cannot see the reason of man, nor can the reason of man see the Nature of God. Man may see God, as the creatures see man, (not comprehending, not understanding him:) He may see the fleshly part of God, the fleshly appearance, but not the spiritual Substance; He may see outward visible Demonstrations of God, but not his Nature, not his Spirit, which alone is God.  
The manner after which this eye seethe, is fleshly; after a weak, shallow, fleshly manner, not comprehending, not piercing into things, not gathering things into itself, but by gathering deductions and conclusions from principles and experiences; this is man's way.  
Henceforth know we: We.  
There is a parcel of this Creation, in whom Eternity, in whom the seed of anotherghess life (than this Creation is acquainted with, or can comprehend) is sown; in whom this Creation is in part pulled down, and the Foundations of Eternity laid in the ruins of it. All things are not one, all things are not alike, do not your senses perceive a vast difference in things? There is an inward world, and there are inward senses, which have felt, and can tell you that the difference there is more vast, and more substantial. In this world ye see that excellent things are rare: there is abundance of dross, but little pure metal in comparison; abundance of stones, but pearls are not so common; abundance of chaff and off all, but not so much pure seed: So is it in the inward world; The jewels of God, the grain of God, the seed of his own Spirit is very scarce and precious.  
We know. As there is such a seed, so they have a life and knowledge suitable to them: and indeed their knowledge is the only knowledge, before which all the knowledge of man vanisheth and shrinketh away like a shadow. It is true, man hath knowledge, man hath life, if ye speak in one kind of language; but if ye speak in a pure language he hath not: He doth know God, he doth live in God, he doth live to God in a sense, in a shadowy life and knowledge (and so do other creatures in a sense too, in a more dark and more shadowy life and knowledge,) but in truth he doth not. But we know, this seed, this man (the new man) doth know; his is knowledge, and shall appear knowledge when it cometh to be tried: when the day comes, and the shadows fly away, this shall stand and remain; we know. He that is born of God, he that feeds upon and grows up in the Life of God, he doth indeed know: He that sees with his eye, in his light, sees truth, sees himself, and that not any way painted, but in his own native nakedness, beauty and excellency. But all other eyes, all other lights, all other sights of things with these eyes in or through these lights, are but shadows, tend but to hid and deceive, and after their appointed season is over, must pass away. Man must die, his eye be closed at the time of his death, after which it can see no more, and then must he into the grave, and all his light and knowledge be buried with him.  
Go on, O Man; study the creatures, study the Scriptures, gather a stock of knowledge and experience from these; Admire God, love God, live in God, live to God, be perfect, walk exactly with God. This is knowledge, this is life, this is excellency, (I cannot but give it its due▪) as I am a man, I love it; and O how is my heart taken with the person in whom I find this vigorous! But again, This is not knowledge, this is not life, this must perish, and thou with it; This will not save thee, but kindle the flames upon thee, and help the more to scorch thee: And if I do not know this more certainly than thou knowest any thing, let me be proved a Liar, and shamed before the whole bulk of mankind, for so unjustly arraigning, accusing and condeming man so long and so deeply in mine own spirit, and now at length so publicly in open view.  
We know no man after the flesh.  
This Seed of God, who are begotten and born of God, who live in the Life of God, who walk in the Light of God, they see nothing after the manner of men, they know nothing as man knows. It is not by reason or experience, by the sight of the eye, or hearing of the ear, that they come to understand, but by the springing up of their own life in them. Indeed while the man remains in them, he will be knowing (even spiritual things) as other men know them, and making use of them as other men make use of them; but this is not the life in them that doth thus. The Life only knows itself, and it only knows by itself, by its own living it comes to know. There is light sown every where in this life; and as the light grows, the life springeth up in it. They need nothing to make them perfect but the perfect growth of their own life; they need nothing else to teach them, to guide them, to refresh them; all that they can desire, dwells in that life which they already have. They are like God (his Seed cannot but have his likeness) their happiness, their perfection lieth in themselves, in their own life. They walk in the light as he is in the light, the knowledge, the fellowship they have with things is by feeling them in their own spirits: They know God by feeling him there, and they know other things by comprehending them there in God, in whom they are originally, and most fully.  
Yea though we have known Christ after the flesh.  
The Word became flesh, The Word appeared in flesh, the Word tabernacled in flesh, dwelled in flesh, discovered himself in flesh, and the Word may be known after the flesh. Those spiritual Excellencies and Glories of God which he in his fleshly Appearance held forth, may be seen by the fleshly eye, and after a fleshly manner. All his Preach, all his Miracles, all his outward Manifestations of the Power, Goodness and Love of God in these, were but fleshly Manifestations; and he who thus knew him, knew him but by these, knew him but after the flesh. Christ, as he was here in a fleshly state, so he had a fleshly knowledge of God, and held forth a fleshly knowledge of God, which was useful to him, and might be also to others in the season of it; but it passed away with him (he died to it, and is to live no more to it) and with his Apostles after him in part, and must pass away in all, in whom the other seed is sown, according as that comes to live in them.  
Yet now henceforth know we him no more.  
We have been weak, we have been babes in Christ, and then the man did much live in us, and we knew by outward receptions of Light, and by visible demonstrations of Power. While the seed is young and tender, the weeds are suffered to grow up with it, that it might also grow: If you should at first pluck up all the knowledge of the man, ye could not but pluck up the knowledge of God too, which is weak, and as it were hangs upon it; but let them both alone, let them both grow till it hath taken thorough rooting, and then it will keep its ground, and be able to bear the violence of the separation. Let but the Newman grow strong and hearty enough he will spew up the other of himself; henceforth know we no man after the flesh; yea though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more: Not as if Paul or any else then had perfectly attained unto this, but life in him and in others was working apace towards this, and had in part also attained.  
And now let me tell thee, O Man, if thou canst bear to hear it, that though thou hast a great deal of knowledge in thy kind; yet not one dram of true knowledge, not one grain of knowledge in the right kind. Thou canst not read aright one line throughout the whole Creation, nor one tittle of the Book of God. Thou dost not know God, or the creatures, or (that which thou thinkest cannot but be known) that God made the creatures. Thou dost not know sin, or the Law whereby sin is sin, or Christ who is the Redeemer from sin. That which thou callest the knowledge of these things, (which indeed thou hast) is not knowledge; and when they come to be opened in the light of the Lord (which shall put out thy light, and discover thy darkness, which is now painted as if it were light) thou shalt find thou dost not know them. Thou art so far from Redemption, that thou never knewest what sin was, even thou who canst talk of sin, and seemest to thyself to be able to open it in the several kinds, natures and degrees of it. Ah poor perishing man, how wilt thou be deluded in thy hopes of Salvation! Thy ways are the ways of death, all thy motions towards God, towards Life, towards Happiness (as thou thinkest) are but so many steps from it: Thou dost but dream of things in the night, (and it is not much material whether thy dreams please or disturb thy fancy, for whichsoever it be it is but imaginary, thy very certainty is imaginary,) but fetchest not one step in the light, and when thou awakest, and comest to behold the vanity of thy dreams, O how sick wilt thou be of them! Thou walk towards happiness, O Man? thou canst not so much as desire happiness: (Thou canst not but desire happiness, and yet thou canst not for thy heart desire happiness:) As thou comest from the flesh, so thou centerest in the flesh, and fain wouldst come to rest in a fleshly happiness from God, but thou wouldst choose to go to Hell rather than come near true Life, which will, one day, be more tormenting to thee then all the Hells thou canst imagine. O how tormenting is the Life and Love of God to every thing but itself! tormenting in its nature, tormenting in every motion of it. Every creature can imagine an excellency in his life, in his love; but none can groundedly acknowledge it, nay none can bear it: They call that so (and can very well bear that) which they fancy in him, (if God were that which man imagines him to be, he could not but love him and honour him exceedingly, and desire the greatest intimacy and communion with him,) but they cannot call that so which is so in him, for when they come near it their very sense and experience will undeniably evidence it to be otherwise to them. Wisdom cryeth aloud to thee, O Man, she hath long uttered her voice in thy streets; but thou canst not hear nor understand her language, the way of life thou canst not know: The light shineth in thy darkness, but thy darkness cannot comprehend it; therefore must thou die in thy blindness and folly, while WISDOM laughs at thy destruction, and mocks when thy fear cometh. This is thy Judgement written, which will at length overtake thee, how skilful soever thou art at present to put it far from thee.   

Of the Seasons, varieties and changes in the inward World, which answer to the seasons, varieties and changes in the outward World (which is a map or picture of them) according to the description given by that wise Observer of the Course of Nature. ECCLES. 3. Vers. 1, etc. 
To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the Heaven.  
A time to be born, and a time to die: a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted.  
A time to kill, and a time to heal: a time to break down, and a time to build up.  
A time to weep, and a time to laugh: a time to mourn, and a time to dance.  
A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together: a time to embrace, and a time to be far from embracing.  
A time to get, and a time lose: a time to keep, and a time to cast away.  
A time to rent, and a time to sow: a time to keep silence, and a time to speak.  
A time to love, and a time to hate: a time of war, and a time of peace.  
What profit hath he that worketh, in that wherein he laboureth?  
I have seen the travel which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised therein.  
He hath made every thing beautiful in his time; also he hath set the World in their heart, so that no man can find out the Work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.   
THis is the whole course of things here below: In living and dying, (coming into the world, and going out of the world,) planting and plucking up, killing and healing, breaking down and building, weeping and laughing, mourning and dancing, etc. the world passeth away. Some come in, some go out; Some plant, some pluck up; Some kill, some heal; Some break down, some build; Some weep, some laugh; Some mourn, some dance, etc. Yea the very same persons have their several seasons, to go forth in these several motions so contrary one to another. Man is ordained to walk retrograde to himself, to go quite contrary ways, to fetch contrary steps, to throw down all that he builds, to build all that he throws down, to go so many degrees of death as he hath gone degrees of life, to run through so many passages in the dark world as he hath gone through in the light World, one while to make himself an universal transgressor, and anon to justify himself in all his transgressions, (and he is but a vain fool in all; a fool living a fool dying; a fool planting, a fool plucking up; a fool killing, a fool healing; a fool weeping, a fool laughing; a fool making himself a sinner, a fool making himself a Saint.) There is no man hath so much life and so much pleasure allotted to him, but he must taste death answerable: and there is no man undergoeth and runneth through so much misery, anguish, grief, trouble, but he shall have happiness, joy, rest, peace, content answerable when his season comes, when those superior Orbs which carry these influences in them are circumvolved by that power which moveth them, and produceth these effects by them.  
There is an inward World much like this outward, (it is the Copy after which this was drawn;) There are such Elements in it as in this, after the same manner compounded, by the same art and skill; There are creatures there of the same manner of make as these here: There is an inward man to govern this inward world: There are the same seasons of night and day, Winter and Summer (with the several concomitants of each, and with the several alterations in each) which have their force & influences upon the inward man and the inward world, as these here have upon the outward, (but none of all the Being's in this inward world hath any sight or understanding of the state of things here but the inward man, as none of all the creatures have any understanding of the state of this outward world but the outward man, though every outward thing hath its place and state in it, yet unknown to itself, none here knoweth either where it is, or what it is, but man, or rather in that manner that man doth, for man doth it not truly neither.) There are here also winds, some nipping, some cherishing; and reins, some refreshing, some overflowing and drowning. There is likewise here a Sun to rule and give light by day, and a Moon and Stars to give light by night. And this world hath its course just like the outward; it gins with Life, first traversing the several paths of it, and then runs backward retiring into the chambers and degrees of death. And herein will God deceive the thoughts and expectations of all men, both the inward man and the outward man: for the inward world shall die and pass away so as the inward man could never imagine it possible, and the outward world shall live and remain so as the outward man could never imagine it possible: The one shall meet with such a death as it never dreamt of, and the other with such a life as it never dreamt of: The one (for all the vigour of its life) shall not find itself able to live out of God, when the time of its remove and separation comes; and the other (for all its weakness) shall find itself able to live in God, when it is taken into him. There is nothing so weak, so imperfect; but God can make it taste of strength, of perfection: There is nothing so strong, so perfect; but God can make it taste of weakness and imperfection. There was nothing ever born, planted, built up, etc. but may have a time to die, to be plucked up, to be thrown down, etc. There was nothing ever deadened, plucked up, razed out; but may have a time to be quickened, to be planted, to be written in again.  
All things are brought forth in weakness, the inward world as well as the outward: All things under the Sun there are vanity, are to have but a vain course, and to end in vexation of spirit. God indeed is perfect in every motion of his both in the inward and in the outward world, (I know that whatsoever he doth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it, Vers. 14.) But man is weak, man is vain, the outward man vain, the inward man vain; every motion of his comes to nothing: He seemeth to be wondrous wise, to have motions of great weight (even of Eternity) upon him, but alas he cannot reach Eternity, he is but a vain empty cipher which stands for nothing: He hath purposes in him: but his purposes are poor shallow things, and there is a season for them, wherein he takes his swinge in them, but these seasons must blow over too, and the time must come wherein man must be ripped up with all his hurdle of vanity from the very beginning to the end, and then both he and it blown away with the wind; an eternal puff will quickly set them all packing.  
What profit hath he that worketh, in that wherein he laboureth?  
O God, Let others treasure up, but I abhor, I throw away every inward motion that ever hath sprung up from me! I will have nothing to delight in, nothing to glory in, nothing to hope from before thee. Do thou gather them up and save them as they are thine (as thou hast been and appeared in them) but as mine let them pass away for evermore. Let there be no profit of all my labour and travel. Do thou reap the travel of thy Soul and be satisfied; but for my part I have long turned, and still do, and cannot but turn from all the works of my hands, all the delights of my spirit, even in the inward world, and with as perfect irksomeness and tiredness of spirit, as ever Solomon did from his in the outward.  
He hath made every thing beautiful in his time.  
Every thing is beautiful in its season, and nothing is lovely out of its season. There's a beauty in life, O how lovely is the spring both in the inward and outward world! The life of the flesh, the life of the spirit, each shoots forth with a grace. And there's a beauty in death, it is comely to see things die when the season of death comes. There is nothing so black but there is beauty written in it, nothing so evil but it hath goodness engraven on it; Nothing so bad but it is good in its own place, order, season, course; nothing so good but it is bad out of its place: There's a beauty in killing, and a beauty in healing; a beauty in weeping, and a beauty in laughing, etc. in their seasons, but of their seasons they are very deformed.  
All the motions of God, both in the inward and in the outward world, are very exact; They have all reference one to another, the outward to the inward, the inward to the outward, every motion in each hath an universal aspect and reference, there is a strain of Eternity in every motion: There is the very Nature and Excellency of God in every thing that God doth, every thing as it comes from him savours and tastes of his own Perfection. Man hath but a poor sight of things, either the outward or inward man, and after that manner that he sees he doth not see either from the beginning or to the end of any thing: The outward man seethe not any outward thing so, nor doth the inward man see any inward thing so. And indeed God hath so set the world in man's heart, that man cannot be left free and  in observation and judgement: There is such a desire, planted in man, to grasp and enjoy what ever is discovered (every thing in the outward world there is a desire in the outward man to possess, every thing in the inward world there is a desire in the inward man to possess) that man cannot addict and apply himself to understand things, to observe the motion and operation of God in things from the beginning to the end. There is nothing seen in the root, either as it lies in the root, or as it springs out of the root, or as it returns into the root: Man hath only a brutish knowledge of things, or of the motions and actions of God in and about things, seeing only a present appearance of this or that, but not knowing what it is, whence it came, what it means, or whither it tends. And this also is beautiful in its season; Darkness becomes the night, (spiritual darkness the spiritual night) as light becomes the day: and shadows and lies are as proper for the night, as Truth and substance is for the day. While the night remains it is as suitable that the shadows should remain also, as that when the day dawns the shadows should fly away.  
Now here is the Excellency of Christ, of Zion, of the holy Seed, They are not exempted from any varieties or changes either in the inward or outward world, but in their running through them they still remain the same. They are like God; Every where, in every thing, what ever their clothes, what ever their appearances be, yet their Substance, their Life is still the same. The inward man shall be befooled (all his light be put out, and he made to see and confess that he knoweth nothing) as well as the outward, it is the spiritual man only (whether in the seed or grown up) that shall live and flourish: And for the coming of this day my Soul, after its own hidden way and manner, waiteth and longeth, the breaking forth whereof is alone able to afford my spirit rest and satisfaction.   

The secret, hidden, most inward Voice and Demeanour of Zion, in the time of her Captivity; FROM LAMENT. 3. Vers. 24, etc. 
The Lord is my Portion, saith my Soul, therefore will I hope in him.  
The Lord is good unto them that wait for him, to the Soul that seeketh him.  
It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the Salvation of the Lord.  
It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.  
He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he hath born it upon him.  
He putteth his mouth in the dust, if so be there may be hope.  
He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him, he is filled full with reproach.  
For the Lord will not cast off for ever.  
But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies.   Vers. 24. The Lord is my Portion, saith my Soul. 
A Portion is the child's share in his father's estate, containing in it present provision for him, education according to his quality and degree, and a proportion of substance for him afterwards to enjoy and inherit as his father's estate will bear, and as his father's good will standeth towards him.  
The Lord hath his children, and he (according to the bond of the relation) provides portions for them, shares out his own estate among them, taketh care of them, both to furnish them with necessaries, and to bring them up (by education suitable to their rank) in the time of their nonage, and hath cut out an inheritance for them, which he will freely bestow upon them when they come to age, which he hath divided and disposed of partly according to the greatness of his own estate, partly according to the disposition and inclination of his own Will.  
Now this Portion is the Lord himself. As he hath cut out his people for himself, (the Lord's Portion is his People, Jacob is the lot of his Inheritance:) So he hath cut out himself for his People's Portion, the Lord is my Portion, saith my Soul. For every thing that is made he hath made provision, but his own Seed hath he reserved for himself, and himself for his Seed. They come from nothing but God, they live upon nothing but God, they can expect nothing but God: He is all their share, all that ever was intended or appointed for them, all they have, all they can enjoy, all they are to look for.  
And as God knows this, so his Seed have a knowledge of this likewise: When they are grown up to understanding they come to see whose they are, from whence they came, to whom they belong, what their life and hope is. Their relation, and all that belongs to them, is written in their very nature, which when they come to be so skilful as to read, they cannot but take notice of.  
But in their Captivity their light and their life is buried, their relation to God vailed, they removed at a distance from him: He severs them from him as if they belonged not to him, he acteth towards them as if he knew them not, he letteth all kind of misery and distress befall them as if he took no care of them at all; so that the poor Soul loseth all sight of him, all viable virtue from him, yea and interest in him, cannot tell how to lay any hold of him: Yet for all this there remains a deep inward sense of this thing, and the heart secretly, inwardly (in such a manner as perhaps the person himself cannot distinguish the sound) saith, the Lord is my Portion. I have no share in any thing but God; nothing can help me, nothing can relieve me, nothing can refresh me but God: And I have a share in him, he will yet look after me, (I shall yet see him, who is the health of my countenance and my God,) he will yet be Life unto me, and Spirit in me; The Lord is my Portion, saith my Soul.  
Therefore will I hope in him.  
In extremity, the poor creature looks up and down every where is everywhere kindling desire after relief, & everywhere fastening hope for relief: But the heart of the Spouse, the heart of the child looks for no relief any where else but only from her Husband, from its Father, nor will fasten hope any where else. If it can but look at any time into its own heart, it shall hear this kind of language; Nothing can relieve me but God, Nothing can mitigate my misery but God, Nothing can satisfy my tormenting love, my scorching desire, but the full enjoyment of God; therefore there is all the hope I have: I may be made to search up and down by the force of extremity; I may be persuaded to try this way and that way, and the other way, but I have no manner of expectation from them, I cannot hope in them, I will not hope in them, I will hope in him. He is all my share, my only share; my help, my relief lies there or no where, from thence must I have it, or no where at all, and thither alone will I have recourse, upon him will I hang for it.  
Vers. 25. The Lord is good unto them that wait for him, to the Soul that seeketh him.  
There are two sonlike tempers or kinds of motion in the spirit of this child towards his Father, in his Father's withdrawing and absence for him; which are to wait for him, and to seek after him. He waits and he seeks, he seeks and he waits. Fain would he find him, and therefore he seeks; and yet he would not have him come afore his own time, and therefore he waits for his appointed season: He waits for a full enjoyment of him, he seeks for present food and support. Those that know not God can neither wait nor seek: but those that have this life in them can forbear neither, for their nature is pointed towards it, their nature puts them into, and keeps them in that posture, it is the proper course and current of their nature, which cannot be stopped while their nature remains: If it were possible, by the thickness of darkness, and extremity of misery, to drive them into the greatest hatred of these, and strongest resolution against these, yet their spirits would return again to their course, yea in the very midst hereof have their secret current through secret channels (though perhaps untaken notice of by themselves) in these. To what parpose is it to wait, to what purpose is it to seek, saith the flesh and the fleshly birth? Yes it is to purpose, saith the Spirit and the spiritual Child, for the Lord is good unto them that wait for him, to the Soul that seeketh him. It is not in vain to wait for God, for the goodness and kindness of God, to seek him, or what our spirits want from him; The Lord is good to such. You cannot persuade the child, that it is in vain for him to ask what he wants of his father, or to wait the pleasure of his father for it, he knows it is not. He who is led to seek God, to wait for God; to seek what his spirit wants of God, to wait for it from God, shall find that the Lord, who put him into this posture, who keeps and sustains him in this posture, will be good unto him: And what ever jealousies to the contrary may be whispered into his ears, yet they cannot enter into the inmost of his heart, but there is still this secret language there, The Lord is good unto them that wait for him, to the Soul that seeketh him.  
Vers. 26. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the Salvation of the Lord.  
That which the poor creature in thraldom, in bonds, in captivity, in misery needs is Salvation: That which the Lords Captives (those that are captived at his appointment, and for his sake) that which they need is his Salvation, even the Salvation of the Lord. There is no hastening of this Salvation, nor no attaining any other Salvation, (They that seek after lying vanities, forsake their own mercies: They that turn aside from him, after any thing but him, follow after vain things which cannot profit, for they are vain;) the best way is to hope and wait for it with all the quietness that may be. This doth best compose and temper the spirit in its present misery, to hope that deliverance will come, and to wait, with all possible quietness, until it come. Well, I will be content to bear the buffet of Satan, to lie open to all manner of enemies, to all manner of evils; to every vanity, to every temptation, to every corruption; to have no light to walk by, no life to move in me, no strength for or against any thing: How can it be otherwise? I am in a strange Land, in mine enemy's hands, cast off by my God for a season; but there will come a time when he will again visit me, when he will visit me with Salvation. Then shall I have all these burdens and oppressions removed from me: Till then, I must lie under them, and I will give up my neck to the yoke, and my shoulders to the load, till be vouchsafe to ease me. The easiest posture in misery is the spirits suiting and complying with it.  
Vers. 27. It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.  
Every one must bear the yoke. The son of Belial, the untamed flesh must be tamed in every one by the yoke. Every one (how unruly soever at present) shall one day be made subject to the Will, Power and Law of him who hath prepared and fitted a yoke for that end. And the sooner this subjection is begun, the easilier will it be wrought. A tender twig will be more easily bend. Captivity is not so bitter to a child, as to him who hath long tasted the sweetness of his own Country, and of liberty in his Country. It is good to begin betimes to drink one's draught of misery: It will be the sooner over, the more easily swallowed, and work the more kindly. It will require a great deal of pains to bring them to the yoke, and to break them in the yoke, who were never acquainted with it (whose necks were never used to it) till their old age.  
Vers. 28. He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he hath born it upon him.  
Here is the posture of the man in misery, he sitteth alone and keepeth silence. Grief chooseth solitariness and silence: I am like a Pelican in the wilderness, like an Owl in the desert. The behaviour of the child of God, in every condition, is from his nature, which guides him in this season to lonesomeness and silence. He who can hear nothing, know nothing, act nothing; can neither give nor receive, what should he do in company? He wants him with whom alone he knows how to converse, and therefore what should he do but sit alone mourning for him? There is none can know or taste his condition, or apply themselves in any wise suitable to it, what should he do among them? The Turtle cannot but choose solitariness to mourn and bewail the loss of her mate.  
And keepeth silence. All he doth alone is to give scope to grief. He saith nothing, but throbs and mourns in his heart. He will not, he cannot allay his grief by speaking it out, but keepeth silence. He hath nothing to say concerning any thing, or to any save to him whom he cannot come to speak with, and therefore is enforced to keep silence. His weight, his burden taketh up all his thoughts, (taking forcible possession of them by reason of that advantage it hath from sense,) and yet he hath nothing to say concerning that neither; neither concerning the burden itself, nor concerning the meaning of him who laid it upon him.  
Because he hath born it upon him. It is a mighty burden, such an one as put God as it were to bearing or lifting of it. And because God did it (whom he understands not in any of his ways or motions) he is silent; I held my peace, because thou didst it. He taketh no notice either of men or means whereby he is afflicted, he knows they are but mere instruments: but the captivity, the misery he feels, he knows to be from the Lord (who ever had the dispose of him) and that makes him silent.  
Vers. 29. He putteth his mouth in the dust, if so be their may be hope.  
The mouth of the people of God is their glory before men, as their heart is their glory before God. With their mouth they confess and honour him. That which men hear of the renown of God is from the mouths of his people, whose heart alone knoweth him, and whose tongue alone can declare him. But this he putteth in the dust, covering his glory with shame: He knows nothing now of God, and can speak nothing now of God. He abaseth the instrument of his praise (hangs his harp upon the willows,) those lips that were wont to lift up the great Name of God in the world, are now laid in the dust: He putteth his mouth in the dust.  
If so be there may be hope. Good God How low is the Seed of God brought in their Captivity! If so be there may be hope! He who was wont to glory in God; who feared no difficulty, no danger, no enemy, who was sure he could never fall so low but he should be raised up again, who could rejoice in all manner of tribulations, by this Captivity is brought to that stress, that his hopes faint, and he is fain to feed them with peradventures, with an if it may be. It may be, for all this, God will look towards me: Though I am even swallowed up, nay though the pit hath shut her mouth upon me, it may be there may come Redemption from the grave; it may be the great Whale in the great Sea may be forced by Eternal Power to spew up its prisoner. And this is the furthest they can go, and it is a great degree of life and refreshment too: for when all light is shut out, that there is no sight of Redemption or a Redeemer, and the spirit within flags, and is so continually overwhelmed with waves and billows, that it hath not a moment's respite to lift up its head, how can it go further? it is well it can go so far as an if. Read but a little backward, and you shall hear another language far different from this, My hope and my strength is perished from the Lord: I may now even go shift for myself as well as I can, but that hope, that strength which I fastened upon God for, and which I was wont to have from God, is quite lost, the very bottom of it is failed.  
Vers. 30. He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him.  
He resisteth not evil: All his strength is broken, and now he knoweth how to resist no longer. He lieth open to all manner of injuries from all manner of enemies; he yields up his face to men, to Satan to buffet. Now his wisdom is taken from him, his spirit is not so averse from bearing oppression. He wants his true fence, his proper fortress, which he knows is alone able to secure him, and so he seeks no shelter from any indignity, from any stroke of malice or cruelty, but yields himself (like Christ) to be led about like a fool, spit upon, buffeted, any thing.  
He is filled full with reproach.  
There is no such object of shame and obloquy, as the people of God in their Captivity. Their former height, their nearness to God, their interest in God, their boasts about their expectations from God, all tend to fit them for and lay them open to the greater scorn: And the more livelily God did appear and act in them before, the greater is their present shame. All that pass by clap their hands at thee, they hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem. What is this the City that men call the perfection of beauty, the joy of the whole Earth? Is this the people that were so glorious, so eminent in piety, in purity, in self-denial, in mortification, in faith, in love, in all manner of righteousness and holiness? And his spirit is sensible of the just ground of this reproach that is cast upon him; for there is not that loveliness that was, nay there is all manner of unloveliness appearing in him, now God hath left him. He is besmeared all over with lying among the pots, and though he be comely in this his blackness, yet not to any outward eye, no not to his own eye; he seethe not his own comeliness, and therefore cannot cast off any of that reproach that is thrown upon him, not so much as from his own spirit, but is filled with it; he is filled full with reproach.  
Vers. 31. For the Lord will not cast off for ever.  
Here is the ground, of all this his misery, hinted at: God hath cast him off at present. When he had nothing he was made rich by Gods entertaining him, and taking care of him, who when he saw him in his blood pitied him, and bid him live: But now, he who clothed him, strips him again naked, (naked as in the day that he was born;) he, who took him in, thrusts him out of doors; he, who gave him light, takes away his light; he, who breathed life into him, drieth up his life; he, who redeemed him out of his enemy's hand, delivereth him back into his enemy's hand again: And now he is worse than he was before, both worse used by his enemies, and more sensible of his sufferings and misery in his own spirit. Thus it was with Christ; He was the Son of his Love, he in and with whom he delighted to live and converse, his only one, in whom the pleasure of his Soul was seated, whom he was continually nigh unto, whom he delighted to satisfy, fill and please with himself, with the inhabitation, presence and enjoyment of himself: But at last, when Christ had most need of him, than he left him; My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And thus may every one also partake of, feel and complain of it, when the time of their Captivity, when the season, of the hour and power of darkness' seizing upon them, cometh.  
But the Lord will not cast off for ever: Though he doth thus cast off, and make miserable for a season, yet it shall be but for a season, it shall not always last: And it is a secret sense of this that makes him thus quietly give up himself unto his present most miserable condition. Thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell, I shall not always lie in the grave, saith Christ; and while I lie there, that life which I would have preserved shall not corrupt there: I shall lose nothing by my death, by my misery, but that which I myself am willing to part with. I shall not lose my God, for he will be still with me in the grave (though not to my sense) and will raise me out of the grave, and manifest himself again unto me. He will so appear in me, that I shall fear grave, death, hell, sin, devil no more. Why then art thou so sad O my Soul, and why art thou so disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet see him, and satisfy the desire of my heart with the sight of him. The Lord will not cast off for ever, nay doth not cast off at present any further than I desire to be cast off by him. Though there is that weakness and tenderness in me (which is much increased by duration of misery) which turns from the cup, and desires if it were possible to avoid it, yet there is that also in me which takes it willingly, and drinks it down hearty, and stands ready to embrace both that sickness and that death (with all its sick fits, and sharp pangs) which it hastens upon them who drink deeply of it.  
Vers. 32. But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies.  
It is God that causeth grief: He measureth out our sorrow to us, as well as the misery that causeth it. He drowneth the Soul in anguish, who thought it had been impossible for him to have been driven from rejoicing and delighting in himself. And our state requireth it: We have as much need of the pain, of the smart, of the grief, as of the affliction that occasioneth it, (if need be, yea if need be, only if need be, ye suffer heaviness through many temptations, for he doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men from his heart; it is his strange work, not his natural delight.) He sends into captivity, and he maketh that captivity doleful; and though we cry and roar, yet will he not hear, but shut up his bowels against us: But he will have a time again to have compassion, he will have a time to heal and take away grief, as well as to wound and cause it. He hath multitude of mercies within him to heal and make up every condition of misery with, and he will one day open the sluices wide, and let forth all his bowels, he will have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies: And then he that keepeth not alive his Soul shall know and praise him.  
God will build up Zion, and when he builds up Zion he will appear in his Glory: He will repair the old waste places, and shine himself in those desolate ruins: He will make the Wilderness a pleasant Land, even his own garden of delight. Wise man could never know God, could never learn the way to God, could never be acquainted with the Life of God, that which he calls so is vanity: But God's fools shall know him; Those that are indeed stripped and made naked by him shall indeed be clothed with him; Those whose old life, old eye, old heart is slain, dead and buried, shall be raised with a new life, a new eye, a new heart, and that life shall live in God, that eye see God, and that heart embrace God. This feed, which hath so long lain dead in the grave, when it is raised by that Almighty Power which slew it, shall love the Lord its God with all its heart, and live.  
Therefore, Say not, O Jacob, nor complain not, O Israel, saying, My way is hid from the Lord, (God takes no notice of what befalls me,) My Judgement (that Salvation which God himself hath judged suitable to my condition) is passed over by my God: for he will show himself as skilful to vent his mercies and compassions (which all miseries tend to stir) as he hath been to cause grief. As he hath been exceeding skilful in making such a wound in thee as none can administer any thing to heal or mitigate the smart of, so he will likewise approve his skill in providing balm himself, and in applying it to effect a perfect cure. None could grieve thee but he, none could touch thy life but he; he hath touched thy life to purpose, so as thou never suspectedst: None can refresh thee, none can restore thee but he; stay, wait, see what he will do, and if he do not satisfy thee with life and Salvation, spare not to blame him.   

The Ruin, Destruction, and utter Desolation of Babylon, FROM REVEL. 18. Vers. 21. 
And a mighty Angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the Sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great City Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all.   
BAbylon is the chief fabric, the great masterpiece of the spirit of man, the City that man buildeth to dwell with God in, to enjoy God in, yea the great City, which all the will, wisdom and power of man have contributed towards to the utmost, to make it glorious and sumptuous, to make it pleasing to, and taking with the spirit of man. The City that God builds is Zion, the City that man builds is Babylon. The City that God erecteth is spiritual, he doth it by his own Spirit, with his own spiritual Wisdom: The City that man erecteth is carnal, from and according to the measure of his own carnal mind; That which he sets up for the Will of God, for the Worship of God, is but according to his own carnal apprehension and imagination; That which he worships for God is not God, but Bell or Merodach his own Idol, an Idea which his own wisdom hath framed, which he sees and apprehends to be God with the eye of his understanding, but will prove but emptiness and vanity in the presence and light of the true and living Substance.  
In this Babylon, in this great City there are many streets, and in them many houses, and in them many rooms of several heights or stories: There is much beauty, much riches, much sweetness, much pleasure: Their worship of their Idol is glorious; their enjoyments high, their pleasure great, their raptures sweet: There is somewhat in one street or other, in one room or other, to allure and entangle the spirit of man in what dress soever it be; (she hath wares suitable to the spirit of man, be it in what state or posture it will,) and hereby she prevails to draw the whole Earth after her. In Zion there's a God, a Will, a Worship, a Light, a Purity that will not bend one jot to humour the will or wisdom of man in the least, and therefore the ways of Zion mourn, poor Zion is desolate: But Babylon is suited to the wisdom and will of man, there is somewhat in her to take every one with, and therefore all the trade and traffic runs that way.  
O the beauty of Babylon! O the excellent order in Babylon to the eye of man! (the unity, the uniformity, the harmony, the decency!) Zion is a poor mean thing, not worthy to be compared with Babylon, nay hardly worthy, to be the footstool of Babylon. But O the filthiness of Babylon, O the confusion of Babylon to the eye and in the light of God and O how beautiful is Zion there!  
In Babylon there are two eminent things to be taken notice of.  
There's their own Image, their own way, their own worship, their own knowledge, their own light adorned, beautified, presented as very taking, and enforced upon all; all must acknowledge and do reverence to this Image some way or other: They must worship in some street, in some house, in some room, though not all in one and the same.  
And then there's the holy Seed, and the vessels of the House of the Lord in Captivity; the true Life, the true Power is hampered and kept under there: The people of God lie there among the pots, defiled, besmeared, made slaves, and put to nothing but drudgery in the Land of their enemies. No loveliness appears in them, but all the glory shines in and about Babylon's brood: They appear poor and wretched; the rich ones, the great ones are the children of Babylon. Zion mourns, pants, fetches breath for life, is destitute, afflicted, tormented: Babylon hath pleasure, lives deliciously; lightsomness is in her countenance, and sorrow far from her heart, I fit as a Queen, saith she, and shall never see widowhood. The Babylonians, they have a glorious God and a glorious Worship, all things magnificent: But God's people they are like lost sheep, like sheep turned away upon the mountains, like sheep running astray, having none to take care of them; God doth not look after them now so as he did while they were in their own Land, nor do they know how to find out their God, but wander up and down from mountain to hill, having forgotten their resting place.  
In the destruction of Babylon, there will be the Redemption, the rescue, the delivery of this Seed; the defacing of all her glory, the discovery of her paint, and the lothsomness of that underneath, which she thus painted, and the clothing of Zion with Life and Salvation, with true Beauty and Glory. She (Babylon) shall have torment in stead of pleasure, (How much she hath glorified herself and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her. The voice of the Bridegroom and of the Bride shall be heard no more at all in thee.) Darkness in stead of light, (The light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee.) Howling in stead of music, (The voice of Harpers, Musicians, etc. shall be heard no more at all in thee.) Desolation in stead of such abundant traffic, (No Crafts-man, of whatsoever craft he be, shall be found any more in thee: and the sound of a millstone shall be heard no more at all in thee.) Filthy nakedness in stead of precious garments and ornaments, for she was clothed in fine linen, and purple, and scarlet; and decked with gold, and precious stones, and pearls.  
The plagues and downfall of Babylon (they may be put together, for her plagues shall quickly make an end of her) shall be sudden, violent, and utterly destructive.  
Sudden, like the taking up of a stone, and throwing it into the Sea; her plagues come in one day, Vers. 8. (death, mourning, famine, yea utter burning,) nay in one hour, Vers. 17.  
Violent, Thus with violence shall that great City Babylon be thrown down; besides its own weight, which will make it descend downward amain, there is the strength of him that casts it added to it, and it is a mighty Angel, who is chosen out to that purpose.  
And utterly destructive, she shall be so sunk that she shall be found no more. Zion, though long drowned and lost in Babylon, shall be fought out and found again, her Land shall be married; though she fall, she shall rise again; though her light be put out, and she sit long in the dark sighing and mourning over her widowhood and desolation, yet her Sun shall rise again, light shall spring unto her out of obscurity: But Babylon shall be utterly destroyed, eternally destroyed, shall be put to such a death as it shall never recover from, shall be buried in that Sea where nothing can never be found more that is cast into it; and shall be found no more.  
After this manner shall Babylon be destroyed. It shall not only be razed to the ground, but it shall be plucked up by the very roots: God will not only cut off some branches of Babylon, and cast them into the fire, but he will lay the Axe to the root of the tree, and cast the whole tree with all its branches, leaves, fruit, trunk, root and all into that fire which shall prevail over it utterly to consume it. Zion shall be purified with Judgement, but Babylon shall be destroyed with Judgement: Zion shall be purged by the fire, but Babylon shall be burnt to nothing in the fire; This dross the fire will lick up for ever, and suffer to be or appear no more.   

An Exhortation to such in whom the seed of life is sown, to wait for the growth and happy success of it; FROM JAMES 5. Vers. 7, 8. 
Be patiented therefore, Brethren, unto the coming of the Lord: behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the Earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.  
Be ye also patiented; establish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.   
BRethren. They in whom the Seed of God is sown are brethren: They are begotten by the same Father in the same nature and life; They are members of the very same Body whereof Christ is the Head: They have such a relation one to another, such a knowledge of one another, such love towards one another, such delight in one another, as that which is in the world among natural brethren (even where it is highest and purest) is but a dark shadow of. Christ is the Head of this relation, (the Foundation, the top stone, the corner stone in this new building,) he is the firstborn, the eldest Son, the elder Brother; but all the rest have a share in it, they are also the children of God, and having the same sonship from God, they must needs become brethren with him, and among one another, I will declare thy name among the brethren.  
Be patiented. Every thing is exposed to suffering; the first Creation, the second Creation: Man, Christ, God, every thing. That which sweetens sufferings, and makes the sufferer hold out, is patience. If man were not endued with patience, he could never go through those hardships which he ordinarily meeteth with: If Christ had not been furnished with patience, he could never have born the contradiction of sinners, the weight of sin, and the absence of his Father: If God himself had not patience, he could never suffer his Name and Glory to be so trampled upon in the world. There is a patience form in every thing proportionable to its nature and kind of sufferings. God and Christ, as their sufferings are great, so their patience is of a very deep intense nature, they are not capable of being provoked further than they themselves please to give way to it: And the newman, as he must drink of the same cup of sufferings with them, so he hath the same patience given him. There is none knoweth the nature of his sufferings, nor doth any know the nature of his patience.  
Be patiented. Give yourselves up to patience, settle your spirits to wait quietly; be content to meet with storms, with blasts, with troubles, and to stay your time for the enjoyment of your life and happiness. Every thing must be encouraged and cherished according to its nature and kind, or it will not grow nor move freely and kindly. The natural man, who hath natural patience, must apply himself unto it, or his passions will overmaster him, and make his troubles very grievous and burdensome to him. Man hath knowledge, faith, love, joy, patience, meekness (for these are not spiritual, but where they grow in a spiritual seed, from a spiritual stock) yea all natural excellencies sown in him; but if he hath not wisdom to draw them forth and manage them aright, he cannot use them, he cannot enjoy them, he cannot reap that sweet benefit which he might from them: The Newman hath faith, love, patience, yea all spiritual excellencies in him, but for want of spiritual skill these are not always drawn forth into act according to the strength of them within; but many times, in many cases the use of them, and that comfort and refreshment that might be had by them is lost. There are oppositions to every kind of motion; to faith, to love, to hope, to joy, and so to patience: now if there be not strength within to grapple with, and overcome the opposition met with, these motions must needs flag. I know this life is of such a nature as that it cannot be put out, This faith, this love, this patience, every thing of this impression, must live for ever: yet its life may be driven back exceedingly inward, and it deprived of all the sense and sweetness of life or refreshment by life.  
Unto the Coming of the Lord. Here he tells them how long their patience should last, namely until the Lord come; then they shall wait no longer, than they shall hope no longer, than they shall desire no longer, but enjoy what they have waited for, hoped after and desired.  
The Lord. Christ is the Head of both Creations, he is the Lord of Life; he gave life unto both, he hath appointed every thing its course in life and motion, and he will call all to an account concerning every Talon that they have been entrusted with by him.  
The Coming of the Lord. Christ was once here in this World in a fleshly body like ours, causing the glory of the Godhead (which dwelled in his Spirit) to shine in it and through it as he pleased, conversing with men, but more especially with his own, going in and out before them as the shepherd doth before his sheep: He came unto the world, and he came unto his own: He made an offer of himself to the world, he enforced himself upon his own, or which is all one, made them willing to receive him in the day of his power. Now after he had thus lived a while he went away again, appeared thus no more, was to be seen or known thus no longer: The Comforter was to come to sustain their hearts until the coming of Christ again, but Christ himself was to be seen no more, until his return from that far Country into which he then went, when he took his leave of his dearest ones. The Seed of God they are the Spouse of Christ, and their life consists in the presence of their Husband: If they might have the Spirit of God dwelling in them never so fully, it will not serve their turn, they must have Christ's company. There is that foundation laid in the spiritual Nature between Christ and them, that neither could enjoy God with content without the other, neither can they enjoy themselves any where without one another: They cannot enjoy themselves in the earth till they enjoy Christ there, nor can Christ enjoy himself in Heaven till he enjoys them there. Their content, their life, their happiness is bound up in one another, and there alone can they reap and possess it.  
The Coming of the Lord. Christ is gone, removed out of the world from the eye of flesh, a cloud hath taken him out of our sight: He is hid in God even where he was hid before he was manifested in the flesh, and thither is he retired again, whither no eye can follow him; whither I go ye cannot come: and there must he stay the appointed season. But he is to come again, he will come again, he shall come again, He that shall come will come: If I go and prepare a place, I will come again and receive you unto myself.  
There are two things comprised in the Coming of Christ, two great effects of his coming, which make it on the one hand so terrible to some, and on the other hand so desirable to others. There is the death of the world in it, and the life of his people. He will come to Judgement, to reveal, declare and execute Judgement: And this is the Judgement, which he hath already pronounced (though not in the same way as then he will, he hath but talked of it yet, but then he will make good what he hath hitherto held out but in words) viz. Death to the old earthly man, he will strike him at the very root, and in all his branches and fruit, woe to every thing that hath sprung from him, woe to him in every thing wherein he hath appeared and acted, Life to the new spiritual man; Destruction to Babylon, everlasting destruction; Salvation to Zion, everlasting Salvation: Your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompense, he will come and save you. He will come with gloominess with darkness overspreading all the light of the Creature, but he will come with the light of life to you: Because he lives, ye shall live also. He will cover all the glory of the Creature with shame, but he will  you with glory. It doth not yet appear what we shall be, but when he appears we shall appear with him in the same glory wherein he himself appears. His absence is your death, your misery, your torment; but it is the joy, happiness and life of the world; they cannot live nor enjoy any thing, nor rejoice in any thing in his presence. Ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice: why? what is the matter? O! very great cause for both. Christ hath left the Earth, and now the men of the Earth can enjoy their life very quietly; that which disturbed, that which interrupted their joy, their life, their peace, is removed: But it was that which fed the life of his people, therefore they weep and mourn. But saith Christ, cheer up your spirits poor hearts, your grief and sadness shall have a better issue than their mirth and jollity; your seedtime (though it be very troublesome and boisterous, though ye sow in tears and deep anguish of spirit) is better than their harvest: your sorrow shall be turned into joy, when their joy shall be turned into sorrow: I will turn the scales one of these days, I will see you again and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy none taketh from you. O how will the heart of the People of Christ leap at the sight of Christ who is their full and only joy! And if he remain always with them, as he then will, their joy can never be taken from them more. Be quiet therefore, be patiented; wait but till this time, till the Lord come, and you will find amends made for all your misery. Then ye are to have your happiness, than ye are to reap and enjoy, and ye shall reap and enjoy that which will give you full content, if ye can but stay your time. But before the coming of the Lord expect it not; If in the mean time ye may have but so much of the Spirit allowed you, as may help you to rub on, as may keep you from sinking under your burdens and miseries, it is well: but as for any enjoying of life or sweetness it is not till then to be had.  
Be patiented therefore. Therefore. Because your happiness, your life, your content will be so complete, so full and satisfactory then; because ye shall be so full of joy, so abound with true riches, when they who have hitherto been rich shall mourn over the loss of all: when the world shall lose all their life, all their substance, all their hope, all their joy; then shall ye enter into the possession of yours, which shall be as full & as lasting as your hearts can desire. Be patiented therefore; Be content to be without it a while and to feel misery and anguish under the sense of the want of it: ye now therefore have sorrow, ye must sow in tears before ye reap in joy; and be content to do so, to go forth weeping to sow your precious seed, and stay for your crop till the harvest, it will be worth your staying for: Be patiented therefore.  
Behold the Husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the Earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. Ye see it ordinary in the course of Nature; Precious things take time to grow, and the Husbandman doth not expect to reap so soon as he hath sowed, but waits the season, waits for the former rain, and after that waits again for the latter. The Kingdom of Heaven is like seed sown, which must have seasons pass over it before it spring up, must rot and die before it live (though in its rotting it doth not rot, and in its dying it doth not die) and when it doth spring up, must grow gradually and undergo many changes before it cometh to maturity.  
There is a double sowing, one of Christ's, another of ours: Christ soweth, and we sow. Christ soweth in us, and we sow unto him: He sows the seed of life in us, and this life in us sows the seed of living motions towards him, and of living operations in him; it moves spiritually towards Christ, it works spiritually in Christ. Every motion of life, put forth towards Christ, is a sowing; Every act of faith, of love, of joy, of expectation, of contentedness and submission of spirit under his dispose, is a sowing; He that soweth unto the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption, but he that soweth unto the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting: To be spiritual, to move spiritually, to live spiritually, is to sow unto the spirit; as to be carnal, to move carnally, to live carnally, according to the will and desire of the flesh, is to sow unto the flesh. Now all these, all these motions, all these operations, this life with all the buddings forth of it must be thrown into the Earth, die there, be gone and lost a long season before they come to any thing, so that the flesh which had great hopes because of them, great delight in them, and great desire after them, will lose all its expectation, be weary of its delight, and let fall its desire, and will be vehemently persuading the spirit to do so also. To what purpose is it to believe? to what purpose is it to pray? to what purpose is it to deny one's self, and to suffer in so many kinds? All comes to nothing, he whose spirit multiplieth in these, multiplieth sorrow unto himself, etc. True, all these are thrown into the Earth, lost and gone for ever to all sight and appearance, they come to nothing, a great deal of pains and trouble there is, but to no purpose: And how can it be otherwise, seeing the time of reaping, nay perhaps of growth, is not yet come? But wait, run the venture, as you see the husbandman is fain to do who expects a crop.  
Be ye also patiented. Fellow their example, wait and wait long as ye see they do.  
Establish your hearts. Do not give way to frights, to discouragements from present pressures, which may dishearten you and make your waiting irksome; but establish your hearts to wait. It will come, it will be worth all your waiting for it when it comes, and the longer it stays the more weighty will it be in itself and the sweeter to you: Be content then to stay for it, and to expect nothing but trouble and misery until you meet with it.  
For the Coming of the Lord draweth nigh.  
It is a great encouragement to wait, if one be near the attaining of what one waits for: And this great advantage Faith hath always had to represent things very near, as near as they can be desired to be. The Coming of the Lord is a great way off to the eye of man (so far off that he can hardly forbear scoffing at the spiritual man for speaking of it as nigh at hand) but close by to the eye of Faith, even as near as Faith would have it. Faith would have nothing wrought otherwise then it is (he that sees every thing with a spiritual eye can dislike nothing) it would not have any thing come sooner than it is appointed to come. It is the flesh, which shall never be saved, that is so hasty after Salvation, but he that believeth doth not make haste, but stayeth willingly till Salvation be ripe, and till he be ripened for Salvation. It is the foolish flesh that thinks itself wise enough to cut out its own season and proportion of deliverance, but the truly and spiritually-wise-childe knoweth his degree of wisdom (the degree of wisdom allotted him) doth not amount high enough for this undertaking, and therefore yields it up to the dispose of the wisdom of the Father. The flesh is much troubled that it cannot have things, times and seasons at its own dispose: the spirit (or spiritual child) would not have them at its own dispose if it might. The spirit, in the spirit of the child, teacheth it contentedly (from choice and with delight) to give up itself to the dispose of the spirit in the spirit of the Father. Surely it cannot but seem strange to the eye of man that the Apostles should then, in their times, so many ages ago, speak of the coming of Christ as so nigh, and that it should yet be so far off; but Faith can digest very well. Faith sees the certainty of it, the suddenness of it, yea that it is already in motion; Behold he that cometh, will come, and will not tarry. He is certainly a coming, and he will come on, he will not stay. He comes, he comes; he won't step back again, he will come on forward, nay he won't stand still, he will not tarry. Behold he cometh leaping over the mountains, skipping over the hills: Arise, shine, thy light is come: Lift up your heads, your Redemption draweth nigh. Howl ye who have thriven and grown rich in his absence; your delight, your content, your life, your peace, your happiness is ended, your Sun is set: Spring forth with joy and singing ye weak, ye sick, ye poor, faint, distressed spirits; the Sun of righteousness is risen with healing in his wings, he is coming to anoint you with the oil of salvation and gladness, to wipe away all tears from your eyes, and so to fill you with joy as ye shall be able to grieve or weep no more. He will appear the second time without sin to Salvation: ye have been long talking of Salvation, when he cometh again ye shall know what it meaneth, ye shall feel what it is; and it will not be long ere he come, he is upon his march already, hastening towards you, coming on apace, the appointed time of his absence is wearing out amain, and the time of his return approaching, The day is at hand, the Coming of the Lord draweth nigh. Even so Amen; Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly, redeem the time of thy long delay, and come quickly, yea very quickly. The Spirit of the Bride saith Come, and he that is athirst saith Come; Come O Water of Life or I perish, come O Bread of Life or I famish. Come, Come.   

ERRATAS.  
Pag. 24. l. 6. r. a newman. P. 30. l. 27. r. doth not only. P. 31. l. 28. r. this is the. P. 74. l. 28. r. lives safe. P. 78. l. 23. r. diverts. P. 79. l. 1. r. and bonds. P. 109. l. 28. r. out of.   

The Contents.  

1. OF the difference between God and the Creature. Pag. 1  
2. Of Good and Evil. Pag. 3  
3. Of the Devil. Pag. 5  
4. Of Righteousness, Holiness and Happiness. Pag. 9  
5. Of Redemption. Pag. 10  
6. Of Faith. Pag. 12  
7. Of Love. Pag. 14  
8. Of Self-denial. Pag. 21  
9 Of Christ, from John 1.1. Pag. 24  
10. Of the two Principles, Seeds or Creations; their different Natures, Motions and Ends. Pag. 35  
11. Of the New-Birth, whence Faith and Love flows, and to which Redemption with all the privileges of it appertain, from Joh. 1.12. Pag. 39  
12. Of the excellent Nature of this Birth, or of the Child thus begotten, thus born; from Joh. 3.6. Pag. 42  
13. Of the excellent Food prepared for this New-born-child, to nourish him, and cause him to grow, from Joh. 6.63. Pag. 44  
14. Some Properties which attend this New-born-child in his nonage, while he is growing up to his inheritance, from Matth. 5.3, etc. Pag. 47  
15. Of the Father's care over this Child, and his readiness to provide for him every thing he needs; from Luke 11.13. Pag. 51  
16. A strange Occurrence, which may befall this Darling of God and of Christ, in his pilgrimage and travel towards his native Country, hidden in a Parable John 11. Pag. 53  
17. Of the Relation between Christ and his, and the Hold they have of each other, from Joh. 10.14. Pag. 58  
18. Of the New Covenant, from Hebr. 8.10, 11, 12. Pag. 65  
19 The way to Life, which is through the death of that which we account and press after as life, and particularly through the Captivity of the Life itself; from 2 Cor. 12.7, 8, 9, 10. Pag. 83  
20. The Way to true Knowledge, from 2 Cor. 5.16. Pag. 100  
21. Of the Seasons, varieties and changes in the inward World, which answer to the seasons, varieties and changes in the outward World (which is a map or picture of them) according to that description given by that wise Observer of the course of Nature, Eccles. 3.1, etc. Pag. 106  
22. The secret, hidden, most inward voice and demeanour of Zion in the time of her Captivity, from Lament. 3.24, etc. Pag. 111  
23. The Ruin, Destruction, and utter Desolation of Babylon, from Revel. 18.21. Pag. 121  
24. An Exhortation to such in whom the seed of Life is sown, to wait for the growth and happy success of it; from James 5.7, 8. Pag. 125   
FINIS.