but the Apostle tels us of another Ruler and Teacher As many as are Christs are led by the spirit of Christ Rom. 8.14 Acts 17.7 And in the Acts it is said the Apostles would have gone into Bithynia After they were come to Missia they assayed to goe into Bithynia but the spirit suffered them not for they found trouble and opposition there was the Lord leading of them and guiding of them otherwise they did not set a foot forward their eye was still upon the Lord so till the cloud be removed from over the Tabernacle the soule will finde nothing but trouble and destruction if it goe onward and the Lord hath not discovered the light of the Tabernacle and himselfe goe before it Then in the first place this discovers to us that there are usually two things in the way of Christ which oftentimes in the world are mistaken and taken one for another there are I say the heavenly things themselves and there are the Patterns of them now the Pattern is not set forth for it selfe but in reference and Relation unto the thing of which it is a pattern And a copy or exemplar it is not for it selfe but in relation to what we should act imitate or doe by it so there are the heavenly things themselves and the patterns or types or similitudes of them Take speciall notice of these two things Now we shall finde it apparent if we consider it that the world hath alwayes been quick-eyed to see the one but not at all to discern the other The world and especially the great professours of Religion have been quick-sighted to discern the form pattern and similitudes of Heavenly things and there they have been satisfied But I say to find feel and enjoy and to live in the Heavenly things themselves Heb. 9.23 Col. 1.26 1 Joh. 7.6 this is that Mystery that hath been hid from ages and Generations your time that is the time of the flesh is always But My time that is the time of Christ is not always as to man though always as to God I say the world in all Ages could never be found to be without living upon and in the patterns forms and shapes of Heavenly things according as they fancied but to find the sons of men living in under and by the power of Heavenly things themselves that is the Mystery that hath I say been hidden from ages and generations as Paul saith We all find the Jews in the time of Moses they all lived under the Law in that form they all saw the outward form of the Tabernacle had a reverent esteem of that and there rested And so how many are there now who rest on the outward forms of washing and dipping these I take to be the Familists the world so much hates and talks of for they are all of this Family and Society and herein lies so far as I can see their Church-membership which they so much Idolize And for all this how few are there of them that are of the inward assembly of the Saints that are come to the general assembly of the Church of the first born which are written in Heaven they are come and are brought but only to the mount that may not be touched and that burneth with fire Heb. 12.18 22. and unto blackness and darkness and tempest How many of them I say are these that are brought to Forms Fellowships and Washings which as they are used produce nothing but blackness and darkness and fire and Tempest not into the Unity of that one Spirit But Onely to be baptized with Moses in the Cloud and in the Sea 1 Cor. 10.1 c. Ps 95.11 Heb. 3 17.18.19 for with many of them saith the Apostle God was not well pleased whose Carkasses fell in the Wilderness And the Text saith they entred not into his Rest but were overthrown in the Wilderness because of unbelief Now we shall finde no age in the world where the people have wanted their forms of things in one kind or other but ye shall hardly find any age wherein people have lived under and upon the Heavenly things themselves How many patterns and similitudes have the Papists in their Church the Pope himself in imitation of Christ can wash the feet of twelve Pilgrims once in the year and fares it any better with those that call themselves members of other Churches to be only Apostles in imitation some have one pattern some another one thinks he hath the true Baptisme because he hath the similitude and pattern of spiritual Baptism which was then by some used by way of dipping in water Another hath the pattern and similitude of eating Christs Body and drinking his Blood in their breaking of Bread which was but the type of the Heavenly bread that was the Body of Christ But Christ saith Joh. 6.53 except a man eat his flesh and drink his blood he hath no life in him How many Churches partake of the patterns and shadows and whatever they say they conclude from thence they are the Church of God because say they we have the right use of the Sacraments which is a sign of a true Church because they have the patterns types and shadows observing onely outward rules forms and carnal ordinances which all perish with the using wherefore Col 2.20 if ye be dead with Christ from the Rudiments of the world why as though living in the world are ye subject to Ordinances yet impudently and blasphemously wil they dare to say they are not Church of Man but of God when they know not the mystery nor live according to the power of the Heavenly things themselves and therefore herein that Scripture comes to be fulfilled that men shall have a form of godliness 2 Tim. 3.5 but deny the power of it for the one may be where the other is not and the Apostle tells us That he is not a Jew that is one outwardly but he is a Jew that is one inwardly Rom. 2.28 29. whose circumcision is of the heart and spirit whose praise is not of men but of God So from hence it is clear many Churches and many hundred thousands of souls may have an exact pattern and yet want the Heavenly things themselves they may have the pattern as the Jews had that were sanctified and washed only with the Blood of Bulls and Goats but to have the Heavenly things themselves viz. that Lord Jesus Christ the Lord of life and to have the Purifications and Sanctifications that are onely by his blood this they are strangers to This is the spiritual and living fire and where ever it is in the soul of man it cannot but break forth to the destroying of all things of man and flesh and magnifying and exalting all things of the Spirit of God So that hence it is clear that it would be the wisdome of the sons of men to see whether they have the heavenly things themselves and
eat or receive me but he that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood for my flesh is meat indeed and my blood is drink indeed and no man can give or take of this bread but my Heavenly Father only giveth you of that Heavenly Bread Ioh. 6. Ibid. 6. T is not the outward flesh of Christ or his external body was the life of the world But that same spirit and nature that was in Christ is to be in as many as do receive him this and no other is the life of the World viz. Christ his comming into the souls of men discovering them to be of the seed of that evil one and to be deceived to be lost to be in darkness and discovering the works of Darkness making manifest the works of the Devil and that he dwels in the soul under a disguise pretending himself to Christ when he is a Devil and Antichrist and is no other but the father of lyes Now Christ without us never does this but when he does it in us then is fulfilled that of the Apostle to the Galathians Before whose eyes Iesus Christ hath been evidently set forth Crucified among you or in you Gal. 3.1 The seeing of him then or now crucified outwardly was nothing that was but the shadow of the life and substance but really to see themselves to be the crucifiers of Christ this was the lively crucifying set out before them Then Beloved from hence t is clear against all gainsayers that it is the incomming of the Power of God in our spirits by which alone our Freedom Deliverance and Salvation is wrought T is not all the bolding forth of a Christ crucified the Letter can do it though all those things done in the Letter were true yet they are nothing to us if we be not saved delivered redeemed from our bondage and captivity therfore t is that we see many thousands in the world that can professe Christ and tell large stories of his external life and sufferings and yet never felt the power of his death or life in themselves for they can follow their own wills and they can love the world and extol and magnifie themselves and are as great in their own eyes as any other who professe him not Therefore Christ is not Salvation nor Deliverance to them Master we have eaten and drank in thy presence we have preacht and cast out Devils in thy Name Luk. 13.26 we have cast away Swearing and Lying and Whoring and Drunkenness and we have taken up this duty and the other and we have held forth thy Name to the World and we have been Sober Grave and Austere in our conversation but for all this Christ will profess I never knew you for ye are workers of iniquity For Satan had his full possession still and ye are no other but painted Sepulchres fair and glorious without but full of all rottennesse stench lothsomnesse and dead mens bones Then which nothing can stink more Therefore t is not holding forth the highest profession or Christ in the Letter or externally that sets us free except Christ come into the heart and makes us free indeed else t is not freedom indeed t is but the profession and the shew but it must be even the same Almighty power that raised up Jesus Christ from the dead we having the same spirit of faith as the Apostle saith 2 Cor. 4.13 14. knowing that he that raised the Lord Iesus shall raise us up 2 Cor. 4.13 14. Rom. 8.11 by Iesus And again in Rom. 8.11 But if the spirit of him that raised up Iesus from the dead dwell in you He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his spirit which dwelleth in you And therfore how wofully hath the professing World been mistaken still in all ages about Christ without them and of Christ according to the Letter For if they do but assent to that and say Christ suffered for them and they must apply him by an external beleeving and so he is made their Righteousnesse Sanctification and Redemption and though they sin and fall if they can but cast their eyes upon Christ suffering upon the Cross Joh. 3.14 as the Israelites by looking up upon the brazen Serpent they shall be healed and pardoned and saved and yet we know withall that all those things were done and were necessary for the accomplishing of the Fathers purpose and the mind of God but in all those things it was not FINISHED and yet here the world sticks and builds their Religion and this they think is as much as is required and he that shall speak against it and say they fall short of Jesus Christ they cry out upon him for a Seducer and an Heretick and they are as mad against him as they were against Paul when he preacht that they were no gods which were made by men And are ready to burst out upon them as full of wrath and madnesse as the Jewes upon Steven when he ript them up and spoke home to them Acts. 7.54 Acts 7.54 c. And when they heard these things they were cut to the heart and gnashed upon him with their teeth Yet for all that know that all this believing wil not serve thy turn but it must be Christ manifested in thee seeing him crucified and rising again and sitting in Heavenly places in thy heart else whatever thou talkest of Christ and of his miracles if thou hast no witness no evidence of the truth of them in thy own heart what is all that ever He did and what 's all that ever He suffered to thee It may be thou mayest have a notion and an opinion of the things of God and thou hast them by History and by Relation or Education or Example or Custom or by Tradition or because generally all or most men have received them for truths but if thou hast no evidence of his mighty miracles and God-like power in thine own soul how or which way canst thou be a witness that they are the things thou hast heard and seen for all those outward things are but Representations Figures and Patterns of the Heavenly things themselves Thou mayest have a strong opinion but yet no experience of them that Jesus Christ hath freed and delivered thy soul Again take notice hence That as Christ delivers not but as he comes Himselfe into the soules of men and is born in them so it is not opinions nor notions nor forms nor washings nor disciplines nor any external rules or conformities that can work deliverance for the soule but it must be God in us operating by his own Almighty power every man is spiritually in Sodom and in Egypt Rev. 11.8 where our Lord is Spiritually and most truly crucified And as the world is deceived in their Forms and their Notions thinking they shall help and save them So likewise they take a great deal of satisfaction to themselves in making of Books and
Son himself for not any of all those things the Jews themselves were to rest in though done exactly according to the Pattern But this MESSIAH was he that they should have eyed through and beyond all those figures and shadows for that Tabernacle was but pitched by man mark that though commanded by God but the true Tabernacle is pitched by the Lord himself So that the Apostle there we may clearly see expounds this last chapter of Exodus and reduceth all those shadows to the substance proving that Christ himself is the true Tabernacle and the true Ministry and the true Sanctuary and that those things are but the Patterns and Emblems of the heavenly things Now all things must be according to him for he is the true pattern and is that one and alone Sacrifice once ffered as in that ninth chapter of the Hebrews Heb. 9.11 c. and the eleventh verse and so on Christ being an high Priest of good things to come by a greater and more perfect Tabernacle not made with hands that is to say not of this building and by his own blood he entered into the Holy Place and if the blood of Bulls and Goats sanctifyeth to the purifying of the stesh how much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered up himselfe without spot to God purge your consciences from dead works c. Though all these things were done by Moses and all done according to the example and pattern yet saith he the things we speak of are not things done hy man not of this building that is not done by the wisdom power or will of man no nor those done by them according to the direction of God himselfe and in that sense commanded and unquestionable Ordinances yet these made not the commers thereunto perfect therefore saith he in the three and twentieth verse of that ninth chapter It was therefore necessary that the PATTERNS of the things in the Heavens should be purified with these Vers 23. but the Heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices for Christ is not entered into the Holy Places made with hands which are the figures of the true but into Heaven it self now to appear in the presence of God for us The Heavenly things themselves purified what 's that That is the soules of men which are of Heavenly natures and Immortal and if those External Sacrifices must be purified with blood it is much more necessary that that Heavenly and Immortal soul of man should be purified with the pretious blood of Jesus Christ Man having departed from God and defiled his soul by turning away from him and being gone down to earthly things to find himself a God and a Trust and a Refuge this departure is of that infinitness that nothing but this Eternal Priest and Mediatour could reconcile and bring together again the Majesty and Nature of God and polluted man thus at an infinite distance but He by himself and of his own mercy and good will hath reconciled us to his father 2 Cor. 5.20 Esa 63.3 and hath trod the Winepress alone and none stood by him and herein was the eternal and infinite love of Jesus Christ our alone Saviour seen And by the way let me mind you of one thing That when the Scripture speaks of Christ his Ascending and entring into the third Heaven and far above all Heavens and sitting down on the right hand of his Father Eph. 4.10 Heb 12.2 I would not have you so childish as to be deluded by those tricks and devices of the men of the Letter who not being able to see the mystery do take those things as spoken litterally as though Christ now had a material body flesh and bones the same which he had in the flesh when he was upon earth these are very fond inventions of men that Christ is in a local place and sits upon a Throne above in Heaven next his Father as upon his right hand or the like and when he comes to judgement he will set himself in the material Clouds and call all Nations before him just as Judges doe at the Sizes and there to sit in a Chaire of State above all or as Solomon upon a glorious Throne Truly the world hath been a long time deluded with these fancies Now as the Apostle saith plainly he is not entred into a place made with hands nor into any thing of this nature Heb. 9.24 nor of this building But we are when we speak of him to separate all our thoughts far from all carnal things and all creaturely beings For there is no tincture of the creature concernments in those heavenly and divine things but all those things are done spiritually and in a way far above the thought or comprehension of all creaturely conceptions But from all this which hath been spoken hence it is clear That the Tabernacle here spoken of is the glory wisdome power righteousnesse of Jesus Christ and whatever is HIMSELF who is nothing else but majesty purity glory wisdom love goodnesse fulnesse infinitnesse blessednesse and Alsufficiency and all good he alone is the Lord Mat. 6.13 he alone is King his is the Kingdom the power and the glory for ever and no creature can without blasphemy in the highest degree appropriate or assume any one or any part of these to himself Here now Beloved we have set before you the Tabernacle and the Fire in the Tabernacle This is that fire of the Lord which can never be put out nor extinguished Levit. 6.13 but is ever one and the same it can never decrease nor increase in regard of himself but onely in regard of manifestation to us and which cannot be procured one day sooner by all the Wisdom Learning Industry of man but onely when he is pleased to remove the cloud then have ye liberty to journey and walk and woâ—k and not before whatever the dark and blind and the poor deluded sons of men make you believe And further be assured that until you come to possess and enjoy in your selves these spiritual and divine things you cannot know what they mean and whatever you do and whatever you see or adore below these you adore nothing but the patterns and the images of them wherein no man ever yet had any other but a false rest and they lived in a false light and enjoyed not the things themselves nay though we should know and behold Christ after the flesh and look upon him in his Conception Life Death Crucifying Burial Resurrection Ascention yet all these things are but the patterns of the Heavenly things and of the Lord himself Heb. 9.23 which are to pass a way and be forgotten when that Christ himself is personally manifested Hence forth know we him no more 2 Cor. 5.16 saith the Apostle When the Eternal Majesty and Splendour of that which is the Truth comes in all the glory of all other things vanishes before its presence These are
the things which are purified with better things then the blood of Bulls and Goats nothing could purchase nor purifie these things but onely the blood and the death of the Son of God Here the soule comes to fee clearly and to handle and experiment and tast the Heavenly things themselvs which were from the beginning 1 Joh. 1.1 which we have heard and which we have seen with â—ur eyes which we have looked upon and our hands have handled of the word of life Then the soul truly falls in love with Christ then it eyes him and surveys him then it magnifies and adores him then it loses it selfe in him and dotes upon him then is he all beauty and all perfection to it and then it loseth self-seeking and self-interest and self-glorying and the like and sees him onely to be the Lord of life life alone glory alone riches alone mercy alone light alone pretious alone and nothing in Heaven or earth to be desired but him alone Then it can say experimentally and feelingly with David and not complementally as most professours do Psal 73.25 26. Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none in the earth that I desire in comparison of thee And my flesh and my heart faileth but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever This soule is indeed the Temple of God and hath in it the true light Majesty and Glory of God but all other men do but play with shadows and are but exercised about the patterns of these things which are to come and have not the things themselves notwithstanding their confidences and strong conceits And now this light being in thee this is to be thy guide this is to be thy teacher thy Master and no other can be till this come in the Scriptures themselves nay Christ in the flesh and all things whatever ye can name are but Dark lanthorns without these divine teachings for he is only a light and a guide a Master and Ruler unto spiritual men and he is only Riches Peace Power Love Glory onely unto these men 't is not those that can talk much of him and who have high notions and speculations of him that can love or adore him truly but onely those who thus enjoy him He that walks by any other light or any other guide then by the light of the Tabernacle Esa 5.11 he walks in his own light and in the sparks of his own kindling and they never did Esa 5.1 nor never can receive other at the Lords hand but to lie down in sorrow But this is to lean upon the highest and purest wisdom to depend and rest on him who is only Alsufficient this is to be taken off all other things all other sufficiencies which are so to other men They can really see there is nothing in man nothing in the world but that all are full of emptiness and vanity and deceit this man sees and really knows all this other men talk much of them as if they were to them the onely excellencies and that all below them are nothing but shadows and delusions but secretly in their hearts they do not think so and their practices tell us otherways their eager seeking them their close holding and hugging them plainly declares that they lye with their tongues Psal 78.36 and dissemble in their hearts And they teach to others that which they never yet touched with one of their fingers And to them the things themseles to act in them to live by them Luk. 11.46 are those heavy burdens which the Pharisees laid upon other men shoulders but not touched them themselves He that is guided by any other light or by any other teachers he forsakes the light the life and glory of Christ and goes down into Emptinesse Darknesse Misery Sin and the delusions of his own heart He that thinks the Scriptures to be a light and a teacher or a rule or a guide without this Heavenly and Divine Teacher in him he depends upon that which can never teach nor guide aright without him and therefore when men talk so much of the Scriptures and misse this light they are but in darknesse and meerly delude themselves and others While Adam in the state of innocency beheld this light in him he adhered to it alone he saw no other light no other fire no other guide this was the Tree of life to him this was Riches Glory Fulnesse Gen. 3. all in all but he casting his eye upon the tree of knowledge of good and evil this false light misled him and led him down into darkness death blindness irrecoverable misery and never to return to the tree of life and this was by following the counsels and teaching of his own heart and indeed this is the condition of all the sons of men not one excluded no not one can return for there is a flaming cherub turning every way to keep the way of the tree of life And there is none can remove this Cherub but only the Son of God man with all his wisdom and power can do nothing in it he with all his excellencies is gone down for ever into the pit of Darkness Job 10.21 never to return Now only Jesus Christ is the new and living way the gate to life the true Teacher the only guide the only VNDERTAKER for all those that shall return He alone saith to Adam Where art thou hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee thou shouldest not eat Gen. 3.9 and in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt die Jesus Christ alone is he that discovers man to be naked to see himselfe undone and miserable by following his own will and wisdom he alone can set up a light in the soule to shew man his folly and madnesse he alone can set before him Hell Death the Curse Damnation and Destruction And if man goe about to return in his own light or by his own wisedome he sets himself but more into misery and darknesse and even Publicans and Harlots shall sooner return then these men Mat. 21.31 Ibid. 23.15 who in their own and others eyes are the wisest of men the highest the holiest of the sons of men And these men for all they take so much pains and are so strict over themselves as they would be thought to be and require it of others yet they are no other but those Pharisees and Hypocrits which compass Sea and Land to make if possible ONE Proselyte and when he is made Gen. 2.25 they make him two-fold more the child of Hell then before While Adam lived in that state wherein he was created in the Light of God and in the Glory of God in the Wisdom and Life of God man was not ashamed though he was naked for the glory and light of God was in him which was his life excellency and glory but when he went hence and followed other Counsel Ch. 3.6 the whispering
not the patterns For saith the Apostle when that which is perfect is come then that that is imperfect shall be done away and again the same Apostle when I was a Child I did as a Child 1 Cor. 13.11 2 Cor. 5.16 I spake as a Child I understood as a Child but when I came to be a man I put away childish things and hence forth saith he know we Christ after the flesh no more Alas the Apostle had as well as other men known Christ by the way of the flesh and in outward conformity and observations and in a low carnal apprehension of him but when Christ was come into him in the Spirit Rev. 21.5 then ALL THINGS were become New Then he would not have a Christian to be judged in respect of a Holy-day New Moons or of keeping Sabbath days and the like Col. 2.16.17 which are but shadows of things to come for the body is Christ But there was a time when they were under the type of breaking of bread which was onely to shew the Lords death till he came 1 Cor. 11.29 but when Christ was come then he rebukes the Corinthians for using that ceremony of of breaking bread and said they did not discern the Lords Body For the eating his Body and drinking his Blood was a thing of a far higher nature And from hence will follow the great miserie of the sons of men seeking rest and life in the patterns and types and not in Heavenly things themselves For if a man have the exactest patterns or pictures of any meat that ever could be drawn in the world or of wine and drink would either of these feed or refresh him when he was hungry or satisfie him when he was thirsty you will say they could not and how then can the patterns of Heavenly things feed any more then they So also it is the true Manna that feeds the soul it is not that Manna that fell in the Wildernesse your Fathers they eat of it and are dead saith our Saviour No Joh. 6.49 50. it is the spiritual Manna whereof if a man eat he shall live for ever Then it must needs be a deceit of the Devil and a woful and sad delusion on the spirits of men and yet notwithstanding this is that great delusion wherewith Satan is gone forth to feed men as the Prodigal was with the husks and shells of Divine things He desired the husks and no man gave unto him But when the poor man had wasted that portion he had from his Father when that divine portion was gone and he had wasted it among Whores and Harlots that is after his own inventions thinking they should nourish him he saith he could eat Husks But he found they would not satisfie I he should sterve for hunger yet many thousands think and accordingly do could I go into such a Church-fellowship and walk as they walk I should be as well as they and yet for all that there is no man can give unto them had he them to the utmost alas they would not satisfie and fill him But he cannot have that others have he would have their Holinesse and be able to pray hear and speak and have as much freedome and power against sin and the like but it is not given unto him but if he have all these external things yet alas they are but husks and cannot satisfie So that then there is a plain and absolute necessity falls on him and he sees there is no way but to goe home to his Father else he starves and dyes Luk. 15.18 and now he sees his own weakness and poverty then he begins to come to himself and saith I will return to my Father So when the Soul is brought into this condition then it sees that it is not he that hath brought things into any good frame by his good husbandry or by a providential care now nothing will serve his turn no I must to my Father and I will goe to my Father This shews the misery of the spirits of those men that would fain feed upon husks And from hence it comes to pass that they run here and run there from one to another even as a poor creature when it is thirsty and drye and sees many Wells or Vessels thinking there is water He runs to one to see if there be any and then to another but they are all empty So alas a poor hungry soul here it picks and there it feeds and as long as it can find a crum it will never go to God it had rather go to any MOUNTEBANK then come to Jesus Christ the true Physitian One day it will be of this Church another day of the other membership to see if these things will feed them But they whom God intends to bring home finde no satisfaction herein but are ready to starve and the true Reason is because they live by the patterns pictures and resemblances of food Obj. I know thou wilt object Obj. though we are to live by the Heavenly things themselves yet we are to make use of patterns Answ I confesse carnal reason will say so Answ though to me it is not so else those Scriptures must be a lye for saith he 1 Cor. 13 10. when that which is perfect is come then that that is imperfect shall be done away and when the Apostle saith stand fast in that liberty wherein Christ hath made you free and be not entagled again with the yoak of bondage and bids them they should not turn again to the beggerly rudiments of the world Gal. 5.1 and again saith the shadows and patterns of Heavenly things consisted in washing and rudiments and was never able to make the doers thereof and commers thereunto perfect Admit Heb. 9.9 I say that breaking of bread as it is in the External use of it and admit that using of water-Baptism were used by Christ which is hard to prove they were never or could be any thing else but the pattern of the Heavenly things and of the spiritual baptisme else that Text also tells us a lye that saith there was never any but one baptism which is that of the Spirit Now the Letter tells us of divers as the Baptisme of the Children of Israel in the Red Sea and of the Baptisme of John and the Baptisme whereby an unbeliever was baptized and yet the Text saith there was but one Baptisme for these are but the shadows of the spiritual Baptisme Eph. 4.5 and when that that is perfect is come then that which is imperfect is done away 1 Cor. 13.10 If thou didst really find thus thou wouldest not then need to make so much of Outward washing and breaking of bread for to the pure all things are pure but to the unclean all things are unclean and to the impure all things are impure and even their very hearts and consciences are defiled And from hence this shews that thy soul
nothing else but their own Idols and Groves and Images the inventions and works of mens hands And when they have decked and trimmed their Idols gloriously they not onely fall down themselves to them as Nebuchadnezzar did Dan. 3.11 but enjoyn this Idol-worship to all others and he that will not fall down to what they say is truth and Religion Him they persecute and brand with those odious names of Hereticks Sectaries Schismaticks Familists and the like But in the day when the Lord will appeare to make all these Magicians and Southsayers to be lyars which day they hate and hide themselves from because they hate the light John 3.20 Neither come they to the light lest their deeds should be made manifest and declared that they are not wrought in God but are acted in the power of man by the wonderful working of Antichrist in all power and signs and lying wonders and in all deceivableness of unrighteousnesse 2 Thes 2.8 10. And the Lord when he shall rise wil discover and consume them with the breath of his mouth and with the brightnesse of his comming and all those glorious Images and fine contrived modes and forms and lying wonders wherein they trusted in so much that all the world wondred after the beast Rev. 13.3 as if that these were the only religious men But when God appeares with his light all these shaddows deceits and delusions all these Inchantments and Sorceries wherewith men have cloathed themselves shall be cut off These Cities that the sonnes of men have builded for their safety security and preservation they shall all be cut off from their hands Now of all things in the world these men hate nothing more then this light and this day of the Lord. These Sorcerers use all the means they can to keep away this light and to darken this glory by their reproaches slanders lyes and scandals And they will tell you all this is false light why because it discovers their Inchantments and delusions And they will tell you that all these prophesies concern other things they were onely literally fulfilled when the people of Israel were carried captive into Babylon and there can be no such Mystery in them And so for the promises they will tell you are to be fulfilled externally and litterally or at the most they will carry out the prophesies to be fulfilled onely in the Great Messiah who was born at Bethlem and was crucified at Ierusalem yet indeed know him not And he that shall goe farther then thus is with them a deceiver which sense is no other then those low poore and carnall thoughts and expectations which the Jewes had of him expecting an outward and externall deliverer and all things to be fulfilled in a litterall way As if the holy and divine spirit of the Lord onely busied it selfe about shadows and forms and external worshippings bodily exercises which profit nothing carnal ordinances and things of the world and that he had no higher aym then what every one may come to act and doe when indeed and in truth his main end is to declare the Kingdom of Heaven and set forth the new Ierusalem Rev. 21.2 comming down from God out of Heaven and to shew that his Kingdom is not of this world and consisteth not in meats and drinks touching tasting Rom. 4.17 or handling or any thing the outward man can be exercised in but that his Kingdom consists in righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost Yet some yea most men who pretend very much in the knowledge of Christ yet carry all prophesies of him no higher then his appearing in the flesh and therein say all Scriptures were fulfilled As that prophesie here exprest in the second verse of this chapter The virgin of Israel is fallen Amos 5.2 she shall no more arise she is forsaken upon her Land and there is none to raise her up some say this concerned Israels captivity when all her glory departed from her and she was stript of all her beautiful attire and virgin rayments to which it may be applicable I deny not but that is but in an outward literall and externall way but the spirit of God hath a far higher aym then this viz. That outward and externall glory when men trust to that and professe themselves to be the Israel of God because of that then the Lord threatens that the pride of all their externall forms shall all be forsaken and no man shall regard them and there shall be none to raise them up And that place in Micah chap. 5. vers 2. they say is the promise of the restauration of the Church Micah 5.2 and that she shall be restored and her Rulers But some who would seem to goe further carry it to the highest interpretation as they conceive to Jesus Christ his comming in the flesh and they have referred to this place and cited it in the margin in Matth. 2.6 Thou Bethlem in the land of Iudah art not the least among the Princes of Iudah Math. 2.6 for out of thee shall come a Governour that shall rule my people Israel That in regard he was the MESSIAH which was then born and given to the world and was to suffer and die and rise again All which things are true in a lower and externall sense but there is more in it then so for Christ is yesterday and to day Heb. 13.8 and the same for ever and his goings forth have been of old from everlasting and therefore cannot he be limited according to the short time he was in the flesh But Christ is the same in all generations and he is chiefly manifested in the spirit and all his words expresse no lesse he still takes our eyes off his fleshly appearance and sayes his Kingdome is not of this World Luke 17.21 Joh. 18.36 John 6.51 Luke 22.20 and his Kingdome is within you and his body is the bread which commeth down from heaven and the cup which he gives is The cup of the New Testament in his blood T is not the eating the bread made by men or wine of grapes in that whcih feeds the soule And so for Christs death and his going away there is more in it then his fleshly dying or the application of that But this is held out he must goe away else the Comforter which shall lead into all truth John 16.7 will not come His bodily presence and our apprehending of his fleshly appearing and fleshly suffering Hee in this sence must depart or else the Kingdome of God cannot come upon us nor the Comforter come Touch me not in this way for I am not ascended to my Father And while ye look upon my fleshly presence I cannot send the comforter Acts 1 11. But that must go away Ye men of Galilee why stand ye gazing up into Heaven Why do ye gaze upon his External appearing Sayes the Apostle 1 Cor. 5.16 Acts
23.7 c. who love to be called RABBI or by that Blasphemous Title of DIVINE and they must be honoured above other Saints of God and they are The Clergie and others they are but the Layitie of a meaner rank then we say they And how doe they love to have greetings in the market and the uppermost rooms at Feasts and the like well let them look to it God will judge them one day for all their Sorceries and inchantments and for standing up between him and his glory To whom alone all praise is due but to every man misery shame confusion of face blacknesse of darknesse hell and condemnation But hence we may see that it is no new thing to be bewitched by the Sorcerers and Inchanters and Magicians of the World The Galathians themselves were so for there are many Antichrists in the world there are legions gone out from the Prince of darknesse to deceive the whole Earth And if any from Christ speak but the truth he by his cunning devices will disguise it under the shape of Heresie Schisme Familisme or some odious nickname or other that so the truth may not be owned nor known That so men may stop their eares against the Heavenly voyce of Christ which brings down all things adored or loved in or from man and sets up nothing else but the power wisdom goodnesse holiness and Alsufficiency of the Lord alone He cries Mans heart and all the imaginations thereof are onely evill continually and that there is none that doth good Psal 14.3 Rom. 3 10. no not one They are all gone out of the way and every one is become abominable there is none that understands or seeks GOD. And that there is nothing in man of good but all is evill sin death darkness abomination a lye and utter desolation But Satan cries in the mouthes of his Ministers Let man doe something he can pray he can heare and let him follow those rules that we prescribe and they shall bring peace and rest to his soule But if man were but content to heare the voice of Christ and to stand in the light of God he should be convinced that he had no power no goodnesse and that nothing but onely the power of God could carry him out and that he is dead in trespasses and sins Ephes 2.1 and that the voice of Christ alone can raise them from their graves and that no lesse power can quicken or raise but the eternall Almighty power which raised Iesus Christ himselfe from the dead Rom. 8.11 It is not as men say If you will come to us and joyn and walk with us and be dipt with us or break bread with us will give any life any peace to the soule but the standing in the light of God that so man may take to himselfe death and darknesse misery and wrath and here to stand and dwell and that in him is no good thing then this light would also shew him that in Christ is all life liberty fulnesse satisfaction peace and rest and nowhere else If men did but abide in this light it would debase and keep low the lofty thoughts and those great expectations of and from man it would also give Jesus Christ his due it would not suffer him in the least to act against the glory of Christ but man would be dead and buried and Christ would onely ascend and sit upon his Throne There would nothing be esteemed in Heaven or Earth Mat. 19.21 but Christ and he would be content to sell and lose all for him This light would curb every wicked act every desire of the flesh this alone is the means to crucifie and kill thy vile nature and not any outward externall thing by washing or dipping in water or eating such a poore empty carnall thing as a bit of bread or drinking a sup of wine this thing never did nor never will doe it but to eate and drink that which Christ gave which was not a little bread and wine onely but HIMSELFE Joh. 6.56 1 Cor. 11.29 Ibid. v. 20 ch 10.16 and by feeding on him eating his body and drinking his blood this will nourish to eternall life When ye are met together into one place this is not to eate the Lords body For the bread which we break is the Communion of the body of Christ and he that eateth and drinketh unworthily discerneth not the Lords body Object But may I not use these things Object Ans Yea Answ so you think your selves never the better for using them for t is not they can feed or comfort thee nor t is not going on in thy own power nor thy using of means for Christ alone is the way and the means As if you come to a Feast you are not invited to eate the platters or earthern dishes which bring the meat but you are invited to the meat they doe but bring the meat and if thou eate not the meat thou mayst starve and die if thou follow the dreams of thy own heart and thinkest thou eatest and dost not what a horrible delusion and inchantment is this But of these things we may have an opportunity to speak more fully hereafter Thus you see what are those things which the Lord will cut off in that day when he shall come Thy Horses and thy Chariots thy Cities and thy strong holds Thy witchcraft and thy Southsayers Thy graven Images and thy standing Images out of the midst of thee THE SECRET SOUTHSAYER OR Hidden SORCERER discovered By Mr. Jo. WEBSTER SERMON II. Preached at Alhallows Lumbard-street MICAH 5.10 11 12 13. And it shall come to passe in that day saith the Lord That I will cut off thy Horses out of the midst of thee and I will destroy thy Chariots And I will cut off the Cities of thy Land and throw down all thy strong holds I will cut off Witchcrafts out of thine hand and thou shalt have no more Southsayers Thy graven Images also will I cut off and thy standing Images out of the midst of thee and thou shalt no more worship the work of thine hands I Have beloved according to the appearance of God in me shewed the meaning of these words according to the Spirit and the Mysterie declaring that great work which is brought to passe by Jesus Christ when he appeares gloriously in the world in the soules of men and is exalted as Lord and King and then it is when Jesus Christ is exalted in the earth and not when men are exalted or when there is peace and plenty of outward things But all the speakings of the Prophets and of Christ himselfe tend to set out that Kingdome and PERSONALL REIGNE which generally all men know little of and neither wil nor can own for a glorious state because not accommodated with outward power riches and eternall glory But in that day when Jesus Christ will come and arise in power spiritually in the soules of men then is that
of the same misery Again farther this will be another effect If Satan and Antichrist be discovered and cast out in thee it will bring thee not to wonder to see such infinite multitudes of men carried away with the spirit of Inchantment and Delusion for t is a wonder any one is brought from under these delusions There are but two Spirits in the world either we are carried away with the spirit of Inchanting or else with the spirit of Christ All the Saints can bear witnesse to this and none else for they onely have experience of both states They know the snares of the Hunter and they are not ignorant of his devices and they have the voice the leadings Psal 124.7 2 Cor. 2.11 Joh. 10.5 1 Cor. 2.15 Rom. 2.2 the teachings of their only Master and they know what Doctrine savours of his life and what savours of the flesh they know his voice from the voice of a stranger and a stranger they will not follow for this is the spiritual man who judgeth all things and he himself is judged of no man they hear his judgement for they know his judgment is true and they know the voice of God from the voice of all the Inchanters Diviners Southsayers or from any stranger in the world he cannot be as formerly he was deluded with lyes shews and pretences Beloved this is that the world cannot endure to hear of that their Doctrine or their wayes should be censured or judged But the Saints who are really freed they have such experience of all these things that they do know God from the Devil and their own dear Master who hath done so much for them from all Deluders Necromancers and Southsayers in the world and the spiritual man he hears and ownes and follows and loves his Master and knows him not in conceit or notion and opinion or perswasion but by a clear Revelation and Manifestation of the day of Jesus Christ in him He found that till then he was in darknesse and the strong man kept the house Mar. 3.27 and he had an opinion that he was alive and yet was really dead before he had high opinions of himself and of his serving God and pleasing God and conceited that he had brought every high thought and every imagination into subjection to Christ 2. Cor. 10.5 and that they had observed every rule not omitting the least command without conformity to it He did not pick and chuse but he was universal in his obedience as he thought and he scarce knew any thing amisse by himself He was conformable to forms and duties and washings c. but alas to an experienced Saint all this is but delusion for his very speech will bewray him since he cannot but speak of himself and of his doing and acting ye shall never hear him complain of himself really from a true sense of evil but formally he may but he is still vomitting out his own pride and vain-glory shewing his guifts and parts and glorying in his wisedome and holinesse and stil telleth what great and goodly things he did But all this is but MAN Man in the beginning and Man in the middle and Man in the end For this man was never fetcht out of him self never yet saw the abominations of his own heart Ezek. 20.43 never yet loathed himself and how can any thing of God come from him who never in himself had any thing of God but all his actings were from man and from self and from parts gained and acquired by his own diligence and improvement Mat. 7.16 and do men gather Grapes of Thorns or Figs of Thistles From hence also t is farther clear that all Charmes Lyes Inchantments Sorceries and all the secret workings of Satan and Antichrist lie hid and undiscovered until the day of Jesus Christ for Satan will never discover himself Belzebub will never really cast out Belzebub Mat. 9.34 though he by the Pharisees lyingly cast that upon Christ meerly to hide and keep himself undiscovered for his subtile working is that he would have Christ taken to be the Devil and he would be the Christ and this is the grand policy of the Devil ' who hath wonderfully prevailed in the world upon this account True Christ is the Devil to the world and to all false Professours and the working of man and self and of the Devil in man this is received as the Christ and this is in such a white and glorious and innocent Devil to the world that not all the men in the world nor all out of Christ could never have discovered him convincingly or cast him out t is only the finger of God that discovers cuts off and destroyes this witchcraft from among us But so this Devil may not be cast out he will shift any way to save himself he will take up any form any way to worship Christ be conformable to any external thing being no other but false Apostles And his Ministers shall be Ministers of righteousnes though they be deceitful workers transforming themselves into the very likenesse of the Apostles of Christ as they are called in the Corinthians 2 Cor. 11.13 14 15. And no marvaile for Satan himsel will transform himself into an Angel of light Nay though he be a Devil yet he will have a form of godliness as the Apostle saith 2 Tim. 3.3 2 Tim. 3.3 The word there translated false Accusers is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Therefore the Devil must by no means appear to be a Devil for then he loses his credit and possession he knowing that if once he appears as a Devil as a Devourer as a Destroyer Tormenter as seeking the death of the soule as a red Dragon thirsting after blood If Jesus Christ once discovers him thus far there is no staying for him in that soule for then out he must but still this is the Divels method and his deep designe to hide himself still to appear in a way of Jugling and Conjuring as you know the Serpent did to Eve speaking to this purpose I come not but for thy good I come not to hurt or destroy thee I come to make thee more glorious more happy and more like unto God more wise c. The Devil never appears as a destroyer but as a friend to man he alwayes governs his subjects especially in the Religious part of the world as an Angel of light as hating ungodliness and the wayes of sinne 2 Cor. 11.14 and loving the wayes of righteousness and conformity to the external letter and rule of Christ which these men call GODLINESSE As our Saviour told the Jews John 8. Ye are of your father the Devil and his works ye will doe Beleeve it this was very strange and harsh Doctrine to such great and learned and eminent Professors and Teachers of Religion but he not onely saith but proves that they are of their Father the Devil for all their great shews and external srictnesse for
garment and so making the rent worse Mat. 9.16 though it be done never so curiously with never so much Art and drawn in as if it were of the same peices whosoever he be that brings in any thing of man as having a power or being a cause of any good in man that makes any thing wise but Christ any thing faire but him any thing beautiful but him the same is no other but a Thiefe and a Robber John 10.1 A wizzard and a Southsayer and inticeth to Idolatry and saith Let us go serve other gods Deu. 13.6 even the gods of the Nations that are round about us for this is held forth by those Scriptures when we withdraw our hearts from the Lord and set up any thing in his stead we go a whoring and serve other gods Hos 1.2 although we have never so faire and fine pretences and excuses For when we exalt any thing in man or give any thing to man we at the same time pull down something in Jesus Christ and take away something which is due to him and there is alwayes a magnifying thereof and a resting in it and trusting to it whatever men say to the contrary But Oh blessed is that soul that puts his trust onely in the Lord if any think he has any power or that Christ hath given any sufficiency to man out of himself and he having grace given him he is to work and doth not see that he lives and depends solely on him and that he thinks he can be upheld one moment without the fountain or without drawing and sucking sap from the root they are meerly deluded and live out of the Vine and are cut off from the root that should feed and nourish them Rom. 11.17 and every such branch is dead and fit for nothing but wrath and fire Oh 't is a sad case for men to think to live upon their own stock thinking thus Christ he is in heaven and I have cast Anchor there and he hath given me a stock and a Talent and now I must bestir me and shew my selfe a good husband and a wise man I must now improve these graces and these habits and get something together that I may live and depend upon hereafter and if I do so I shall grow a rich and thriving Christian and finde rest for my soul I confesse most men are led out this way and they are hard at work for they are working for life and to prevent death but the sadnesse and the blindnesse and the blacknesse of these mens condition is exceedingly to be lamented For herein they shall never finde nor enter into the Lords Rest And so for many others they take much delight in reasoning and talking and discoursing about Religion and may be heap together many fine high and curious notions and hence they suck sap and life for a time but alasse this fruit it all withers and comes to nothing For there was never any rest peace or satisfaction in any thing below Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 3.18 Mat. 19.14 And therefore there is no way for these men but to lose all and sell all and to become poore And for these wise men to become fooles and to become as Innocents and children and little in their own sight and to lose their very lives for Christ which all their life time they have been a providing for scraping and patching and piecing up together something to live upon another day Oh! how hardly do such men lose all sell all for in their own esteem they are very rich and must needs go away heavy and sorrowful Beloved this selling all and esteeming and making Jesus Christ the onely riches Mat. 13.46 the onely Pearle is such a thing as man cannot abide to heare it named to lose all the opinion of their own goodnesse to think basely of themselves to be content to let others who had them in high esteem think so of them And to come to rejoyce in this to be nothing for Christ And in him to lose his Religion his wisdome his righteousnesse Jud. 16.7 and to become as weak as another man and to be glad that Christ hath done this for him this is to make Christ All in All. And this is to rejoyce in his infirmities and in distresses for Christs sake though Christ never called thee to outward afflictions for when thou art weakest then art thou strongest And his strength is made perfect in weaknesse 2 Cor. 12.9 10. But when men think that holinesse consists in their own working and doing and observing rules and comming under outward fellowships and in dipping in a little cold water or breaking and eating a little bit of bread and herein think they have done some great matter alasse what poor empty dry Christians for the most part are these keeping such a stir about exactnesse to the shaddow and patterne and never once know the truth never yet tasted how sweet Christ is nor eaten of the HIDDEN Manna or the bread of God or of the living water eate or drank of Christs Body and Blood John 6.51 being meat indeed and drink indeed which was given for the life of the world And yet these men think they have done so well and they have brought forth much fruit and think to receive a great reward and mean to knock boldly at Heaven Gate and who must enter and enjoy the Kingdom but they Now for these men to be deluded and to be served as the five foolish virgins were Mat. 25.12 and to have the Gate shut before they come thinking they had oyle when they had none and good works and good fruit and then it shall be said unto them Luke 13.27 Depart from me I know you not ye are workers of iniquity Truly this will be a sad sentence what will become then of all their confidence of all their Religion Oh happy had it been for them had they hearkned sooner and sold all sooner But no man could ever make them believe but they had true holinesse and true wisdom and now it is laid open in the sight of Men and Angels And they can receive no other for they have kindled a fire and compassed themselves about with sparks and have walked in the light of their fire and in the sparks that they have kindled Esay 50.11 yet t is but their own sparks and the fire of their own kindling and therefore This ye shall receive at my hand ye shall lie down in sorrow Then thou wilt wish thou hadst given eare to the counsell of the Lord and to have learned what this meant Their strength is to fit still but this they could not endure to heare of Ibid. 30.7 15. and he was a false and a lying Prophet that told them so no they would up and be doing and they would seek out and stir up their strength and goe out valiantly and goe down to Egypt to seek help and
before the God of the whole Earth and their dead bodies shal lie in the streets of the Great City which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt where also our Lord was crucified which cannot be meant litterally for Christ in the flesh was not crucified in Sodom nor Egypt But all these are spiritually to be understood and they are GREAT Mysteries which the world hath not been acquainted with But hath generally received a Notion of God-man dying at Jerusalem And indeed they have contented themselves with a shadow of the truth and little or nothing else there have been very few that have seen beyond the shadow nor lookt beyond the vail they have not seen IMMANVEL in themselves and that he dwells in us not among us as your litteral men to justifie their Litteral and External knowledge have translated the word because they saw no farther But t is properly God in us Wherever Christ is he brings a new birth works a change upon the whole man this did not nor does Christ do by any of his actions that he did at Jerusalem neither by his holy life nor his meritorious death For was ever any of the sons of men conformed to him by that act T is true his death was infinitly meritorious and one act in him as being God equal with his Father Phill 2.16 was a sufficient sacrifice and attonement to pacifie the infinite wrath of God But yet know that Jesus Christ is not only a Sacrifice for an hour or two only for the time he suffered in the flesh under Pontius Pilat but He is that One Eternal everlasting Sacrifice which is continually offered up to the Eternal Father in the behalf of all the Elect. And also we grant that by that Act the Eternal purpose and decree of God was fulfilled in bringing forth the true IMMANVEL God and Man in One person who should more fully reveal the Father and in revealing the Father reveal himself for t is said Of Herod and Pontius Pilat Acts. 2.23 Acts 2.23 Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledg of God by wicked hands have crucified and slain But by his comming in the flesh and by his holy life and cruel suffering and death or by his external presence or company or eating and drinking with him or handling or touching him or external beleeving on him by nothing of this nature was any good done spiritually upon the souls of men nor had any one his nature changed or regenerated no no But the true comming of the MESSIAH and the fulfilling of all the promises concerning him was by being made IMMANVEL to us and being brought forth in us this is the Life and Mystery of the Word and of Christ his being made flesh and his true comming in the flesh and he that denies Christ thus come in the flesh the same is ANTICHRIST 1 Joh. 2.22 although he do acknowledge the external comming and dying of Jesus Christ at Ierusalem If he be not come in thy heart he is not yet come asto thee And there is no difference between thee and the external Jew for thou never yet confessedst him by receiving him for he is not a Iew which is one outwardly that is that onely makes a profession of God but circumcision is that of the Heart Wherfore saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 12.3 1 Cor. 12 3 I give you to understand that no man speaking by the spirit of God calleth Iesus Accursed And that no man can say that Iesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost This my Brethren is not done by an outward profession and conformity but when Christ is in us made Lord and King and that nothing within man nor nothing without him sits above Christ nor is esteemed comparable to him This man and no other hath acknowledged Christ come in the flesh and this man only saith that Iesus is the Lord otherwise he is Antichrist and calleth Jesus accursed and hath with the Jewes scourged disdained hated him spit at him 1 Cor. 12.3 and crucified him for there is no man can say that Iesus is the Lord but by the spirit of the Lord. But all that are Iews doe to this day crucify the Lord of Life and say we will not that this man shall rule over us and cry out away with him and release unto us Barabbas but let Iesus be crucified John 8.39 And this is the Language of all the World except those who have received him and they can answer with Peter when all others are ignorant of him But whom say yet that I am Thou art Iesus the son of the living God Verely those that can thus say experimentally of them we may say Verily verily flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee Mat. 16.17 but the Heavenly Father for this is that truth which never any man could teach but it is Heavenly and Spiritual And herein lies the Spirit and the Mystery which is hid from ages but revealed unto us only by the Spirit But all outward things though they were really done yet they are typical and representations still in all ages more and more lively brought forth and more near and more like unto the Truth And when ever Christ came spiritually and was received to them he was come and was the MESSIAH but all others were ignorant of him and therefore crucified him and therefore saith Peter I wot that through ignorance ye did it as did also your Rulers for had they known him Act. 3.17 they would not have crucified the Lord of Life Where Christ is thus come there it may be said indeed IT IS FINISHED but where he is come but externally it may well be said It is not finished for Christ is the Author the End and the finisher of faith and when he is come then it is accomplished compleated And it is FINISHED for there is nothing beyond him Heb. 12.2 nothing better then him nothing higher nor brighter nothing more glorious nor more excellent nor more full then Him Beloved let no man be offended at these things and think that we go about to reproach or vilifie any thing done by Jesus Christ who in all he did fulfilled his Fathers will and all things done by him or unto him were done by the Determinate Counsel and foreknowledge of God But all that we labour to do Acts 4.28 is more to exalt and magnifie the Truth and the Mystery of the Gospel of which so many though professing it are altogether ignorant of it and set up Idols in stead of God and worship shadows and indeed are to them no more but Fancies and Images for the Substance and in that case I know none doth more reproach and vilify Christ in the flesh then they though they pretend so much for him for himselfe often testifies The flesh profiteth not it is the spirit giveth life Joh. 6.63 not those that eat a little Bread or sup a little Wine that
honour or praise or the like nor to the Religion of the world nor of the Nation as ye know many usually do and if that will not do then they fly higher and they will be of the strictest sort of the Pharisees and joyn themselves with men of Learning Gravity and Religion and men esteemed Orthodox and sound in the Faith and he will follow their ways in hearing and reading and praying and walking without offence and the like but all these do but sow to the flesh Gal. 6.8 and of the flesh can reap nothing but corruption Do but examine thy selfe although thou hast joined thy selfe here and there and gone from one Church-society to another and put thy neck under the yoak of such a form and such a religion what was the cause was it not thy fears thy terrors within or was it not that thou mayst cover thy filthy and corrupt heart from the sight of others hast thou not for all this conformity the same heart the same nature still though thou hast hid and covered it by these inventions and when the fire hath still broke out and thy misery and undone condition would not be concealed hast not thou said within thy self is there not some other way some better remedy is there no better Physitians then these I have joind my self to the Presbyterians and I have found their way too short that would not do I have come over to the Independents and thought that way seemed before a better and more refined way yet it is too narrow I cannot wrap my self in that covering well sayes thy heart is there no other nor no better Physitians so I could but secure my self and prevent this fire and this burning I would be content to do any thing and take up every yoak and submit to the strictest forms Then say the Anabaptists come over to us and we shall give thee satisfaction we have the true Baptism according to the word none so near the word of God as we But when thou hast done all these things to find rest and to quench the fire which began to burn and to hide thy deformities from men dost thou think there is any thing of Christ in all this is not this rather to run away and turn thy back upon Christ and to live by thy own wits and inventions and by thy own power meerly to prevent death and destruction and the losing of thy own wisdom and righteousnesse and that thou mayest not come into the light of God least it should discover thy darknesse and blacknesse And now seeing these things are so how dare any of the sons of men boast of these things when they cannot free nor deliver the soul but rather increase their misery and lengthen out their bondage I say dare any man stand forth and call these the Ordinances of Christ as they use them what greater what higher blasphemy an Ordinance of God is a thing of another nature wherein the wisdom and power of God is effectual to bring in the heart to cause man to renounce his own wisdom power c. to empty him of all his power and goodnesse and to cause the soul to submit to the righteousnesse of faith else t is but an ordinance of man and the word is but a dead Letter and t is no more but the word of man Matth. 7.29 2 Cor. 10.5 Psa 50.16 except it come with authority and power upon the heart bringing every high thought and every imagination into the obedience of Christ What hast thou to do to take my word into thy mouth and yet hatest to be reformed Truly friends there are many pretenders to Christ and the world makes a great noise of serving and worshipping him and there is great talk everywhere of fearing God in notion and opinion and delusion For who else more persecute and crucifie Christ and hate and oppose the true power of godlinesse and the teachings of the spirit and the work of Christ in redeeming and delivering the soule then these men Therefore Beloved these things that men so much cleave to and magnifie cannot be the rest of a Christian nor the Ordinances of Christ as used by them but of Antichrist because they may be used and lived in and admired and prized and yet they are without any power they let those that use them and live in them to be carried away with divers lusts 2 Tim. 3.6 2 Pet. 2.19 they pretend liberty but themselves are the servants of corruption and enemies to the power of Christ and the life of Christianity and are acted by Antichrist who as God sitteth in the Temple of God 2 Thes 2.4 shewing himself that he is God Though he be a Devil and Antichrist yet he would not be known all his policy is to conceal himself and be thought to be righteous and pure and to be the very Christ the son of the living God May not one be dipt and receive water baptisme and yet be a Sorcerer Yes was not Simon Magus so Acts 8 12. May not one be at breaking of bread with Christ and yet be a Devil Mat. 26.23 Yes for so was Iudas though he was not there when Christ gave them his body to eat and his blood to drink which was himself which he gave to all the rest yet he was at supper with him at the Paschal Lamb and externally brake bread with him May not a man be full of good words and make great professions of strictnesse and yet be far from the Kingdom of of Heaven Yes Mat. 23.14 for so were the Pharisees they were the only Learned men and the Interpreters of the Scriptures and used much and long praying and uttering many outward good words sweet and smooth in their carriage and were very strict as to the outward command and were generally taken for the holiest and the gravest and the soberest men if any lend to them they would lend to them again yet you know what Christ saies of them Ibid. v. 27. they were but painted Hypocrits and compares them to lothsome stincking Sepulchres As the Apostle saith concerning charity though a man go never so far in actions of love though he give his body to be burned 1 Cor. 13.3 and have not true love all is nothing Men may come so far as to burn for Religion and yet have nothing of Christ at all Therfore these outward external actions of men do not truly declare a Christian whether he act from the power of Christ in him for he may do the same acts by way of imitation that a true Saint may do Therefore Beloved it lies us very much upon to discover and find out wherein the truth lies how we may know it from all forms shadows pictures patterns to know that which is true real unchangable and cannot deceive for there can be no true peace nor no real satisfaction but where Christ is an indweller in the soul where all of man
dare not stand in his Own condemnation he dare not let this light shine on his works because They know they are evil Therefore they hate it preach against it cry out upon it as damnable doctrine and call the Professors thereof Seducers Familists Quakers Jesuits any thing to make them the most odious to the sonnes of men and they themselves resolve to smother it in themselves and will not be guided or directed by it they are resolved not to be weake not to be poore not to be fools not to be vile but make the world still think that they are wise strong holy sober grave regular in all they do and obedient to the very smallest and strictest rules of Christ and he that shall tax them or conceive or declare otherwise of them is to them a Fiend a Serpent a Divel Lastly from this ONENESS of the Deliverer we may conclude As there is but One Deliverer so there is but one way of Deliverance though there may be in the world thousands of inventions of men some worshipping this way and some that some after one form and some after another yet this is certain there is but one Deliverer and one way of Deliverance Eph. 4.5 As the Apostle saith Ephes 4.5 There is a unity in the spirit which is the bond of peace There is one body and one spirit One Lord that is One Deliverer one Faith one Baptism that is one way of deliverance One God and father of all who is above all and through all and in all One Saviour and One way of salvation and there is no more And this way is Christ in man bringing forth the light of God to empty kill and destroy the glory and wisdom of man to make a man as poore as Job having lost all and lying upon the dunghill full of boiles scabs and sores from the crown of the head to the sole of the feet and as miserable as Lazarus with his sores which the dogs came and Licked and to make them lie begging for he smallest crums to relieve them Whosoever thou art if thy deliverance be not wrought this way let me tell thee freely thou wert never yet dilivered however thou flatterest thy selfe to the contrary You may talk of forms and disciplines and dippings and of eating and drinking with Christ and breaking of bread and of Baptismes and all other externall things But this alone is the true Baptisme and the true eating of Christ his body and the drinking his blood This is the One way wrought by this One deliverer and whoever he be that lives in multiplicity of forms and diversity of worships or holds these things forth as Christs way without this Baptism of the spirit he holds forth a lye and a delusion and misery and wrath and desolation of spirit will come in the end for this is that one and only way which Jesus Christ hath used in all the Saints from the beginning of the world and will doe to the end to bring man low in himselfe that he alone may be exalted As there is but One God and Father of all but one Husband who is rich unto all so there is but one Church but one Spouse but one body and this one Spouse body or Church they are all joyned married or brought home to Christ but in this one way And there is but one power but one wisdom but one strength whereby all the people of God were and ever shall be delivered Beloved what a stir does all the world make about setting up a world of severall inventions with variety of washings rules dippings forms and every individuall fellowship say we are in the right way our way is the best and we are neerest the rule and the Primitive practise and our way is the way of peace and rest such and such they miss the rule of the word in this and in that but our way is the most exact and most perfect of all All which is no other but that which Christ foretels shall come when they say Loe here is Christ or Loe he is there but Christs command is Goe not after them for the Kingdom of God comes not with observation Luke 17.20 nor consists not in outward observations nor in eating or drinking nor in dipping in water Col. 22.21 22. nor in meats and drinks nor in obeying the commands and rules of men As touch not taste not handle not which all perish in the using for All things of that nature are far below those spirituall things in which consists the Kingdom of God which is righteousnesse peace joy in the holy Ghost Rom. 14.17 and in being Baptized with the spirit and with fire There is but one eating of Christs body and drinking his blood and this is no other but what is given by Jesus Christ himselfe 1 Cor. 11.24 and whoever eats not nor drinks not of this He it is that eats damnation not discerning the Lords body And though men eate and drink and break bread together never so often and be never so constant and observant therein yet the Apostle says plainly This is not to eat the Lords body but t is onely the eating the Hidden Manna that can nourish to everlasting life Rev. 2.7 T is onely the eating of the Tree of life in the midst of the Paradise of God that can make us live for ever And of this bread all the Saints doe eat And what one Saint is fed with the same are all Saints and what a Sint lives by he eates daily and this is his food and nourishment the bread that feeds them is not eating for an houre or the like but for ever t is his daily food by which he is nourished and fed to the Kingdom of God He does not one day feed like a Saint and another day like a divel He does not onely examine himselfe to eate a little bit of bread and drink a sup of wine but he daily examines himselfe and he daily and continually eats of this bread 1 Cor. 10.17 and drinks of this cup for they being many are one bread and one body for they are all partakers of that one bread and what ever they doe and when ever they eate Luke 22.19 1 Cor. 11.24 they doe it in remembrance of him They live upon Christ in all things they see Him to be their life their motion their rule and ruler their righteousnesse wisdom redemption They see there is not one creature acts or moves nor is there one change of providence but they see Christ do it more truly then they see the creature doth it They see him the Soveraign Lord and Commander ruling and doing all things as in themselves so in the whole creation of Heaven and earth and this is that they live by and feed upon They have such meat to eat Joh. 4.32 which none knows the vertue of but only they who eat it such meat it is the world knows