that and the other duty but this cure being not throughly wrought but as the Prophet Jeremy saith The Prophets have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people sleightly for they having submitted to their directions Jer. 6.14 they have hereupon comforted them and told them now all was well and they were converted and both concluded that he was their spiritual father that had begotten them again But for all this the day of the Lord hath afterward come upon them as a thiefe in the night 1 Thes 5.2 and they have been robd of all their comfort and confidence and have laine many yeers after in misery and bondage and no man could speak any peace to them till Jesus Christ himselfe came and then they found him indeed to be The Deliverer And that he alone was annointed to preach good tidings to the meek to bind up the broken-hearted to proclaime liberty to the Captive Esay 61.1 c. and the opening of the prison dores to those that are bound to proclaim the acceptable yeare of the Lord and to comfort all that mourn To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion beauty for ashes joy for mourning c. that HE might be glorified Therefore from hence I would presse a word or two upon all those that think themselves delivered It is worthy your consideration that so your confidence may not deceive you If thou art DELIVERED by the power of Christ and that the Lyon of the Tribe of Judah hath ransommed and redeemed thy soule from the power of the grave Rev. 5.5 Then thy testimony and thy witnesse will be this That nothing in Heaven or Earth can deliver but solely the power of Christ and this thou wilt and canst hold forth not in general words but really and from experience that there is no deliverer but Christ alone Thou wilt I say bear out thy witnesse if so be thou art delivered that it was not Ordinances as men improperly call them could do it it was not in the power of the Letter of the word nor in any thing whatsoever nor in the power of thy doing nor thy watchfulness nor strictness could in the least help thy soul to rest but only the mighty arm and power of Christ He hath trod the Wine-presse alone He can in experience give Testimony freely Esay 63.3 c. to that Scripture in Esa 63.3 Who is this that commeth from Edom with died garments from Bozrah travelling in the greatnesse of his strength t is I that speak in righteousnesse being mighty to save T is I that have trodden the Wine-presse alone And of the people there was none with me for the day of vengeance is in mine heart and the year of my redeemed is come therefore mine own arm brought salvation And I will tread down the people in mine anger and make them drunk in my fury and I will tread down THEIR STRENGTH to the Earth Here Beloved is a true description of MANS deliverance it can never be till Christ will do it and till the year of his redeemed be come and he doth it alone and no man stands by him no man can help And in that day they shall drink in his fury ☞ and he will tread down THEIR STRENGTH t is not mans power nor wit nor learning nor endeavours nor doings nor fellowships nor Ordinances can help him or stand by him But his own right hand hath brought salvation If it be not by the hand and power of God alone thou wert never yet delivered For in that day all the strength of man the wisdom of man the righteousness of man all their strength must be all trodden down Esay 63.6 Jer. 25.15 c. and in that day he must be content to drink in the Lords fury and he must stand condemned and abominable in his own sight and take the cap of this fury at the Lords hand Oh sayes that soul whom Christ hath delivered I find He alone was my Saviour my Deliverer there was none with him If his hand had not laid hold on me and saved me I had gone down to hell into the Nethermost pit Oh Beloved he cannot endure to hear any lift up any thing equal with Jesus Christ or join any thing with him to help him in this work in the least He had rather you should kill his dear Father nay himselfe rather then hear any one speak against or undervalue the work of Jesus Christ And this is the witness he bears forth for he testifies what he knows and what his eyes have seen and what his hands have handled of the word of life 1 John 1.1 Nay the very work of Christ it self bears testimony that this was Christ his own work in them for t is such a work as none other could do saith our saviour The works that I doe bear witness of me John 15.24 for if I had not done such works as no man ever did or could do why should you beleeve on me For to make duties or those things falsly call'd Ordinances his rest or his peace or his Saviour this is DEATH to a true experienced soul he cannot endure any should wear that crown but Jesus Christ alone he knowes experimentally as Peter when Christ asked them Ibid. 6.68 Will ye also go from me Lord Whither shall we go thou alone hast the words of Eternal life They had experience of this in themselves that he alone had power and wisdom and strength and to turn away from him they turned to death to sin to misery to weakness to helplesse and dumb Idols whatever it was but only Himself and the work of Christ gave testimony to this work they felt the workings thereof they had it not by reading or hearing or observing this or that rule nor by Notions or fancies or opinion or perswasion or self-confidence but they in themselves have had experience of the breaking of thier own bonds and loosing off their own yoaks and that in them HE hath preached good tidings to the meek and hath bound up the broken-hearted Esa 61 ◠c. and proclaimed liberty to the Captives and hath opened the prison doors and delivered them from death and guilt and hell And that the Tabernacle of God is with these men and to them there is no more death neither sorrow nor crying for the former things are passed away And he that now sits upon the Throne saith in them Rev. 21.3 Behold I alone make all things new These things Write saith the BRIDE and also this Soule for these words are true and faithful Beloved can you give testimony to this work of Christ in you have you seen it felt it believed it Oh! know it is not much talk of Christ or much talk of sin or talking of Deliverance nor thy perswasion or the like but hath Christ wrought it in thee by himself alone Esa 63.3 4. when no man stood by him not thy selfe by thy
to all these devilish deceits that your soules might come to live in him who is Truth it selfe And then you would not onely be professors but possessors of that Eternal love which would lead you into the truth and goodnesse in sincerity But because this friend of truth will not nor cannot own your outside worship he having by Gods power found the deceit thereof he is therefore by you cast out as a Heretick and so are all those that in truth and uprightnesse of heart are led and acted forth by God to work his own works for Wisdom is justified of her Children The second thing that is breathed forth in this book is this that as Christ is the Foundation so he alone it is that doth build upon this Foundation that building that will stand when all other shall and must fall and not only so but he likewise begins the work of his own power in every particular soule and carries on the same with his own hand in despight of all opposition causing flesh and all the power thereof to fall down before his face into death misery judgment and condemnation where all the glory of the first creation is seald down under the covenant of death never to rise again in its own strength power wisdom nor righteousnesse but if ever it rise again it may rise in the power wisdom and righteousnesse of Jesus the Eternal Son of the living God And thus God exercises his people under the administration of his power by bringing life out of death mercy out of misery fulnesse out of emptinesse strength out of weaknesse sufficiency out of insufficiency joy out of sorrow peace out of war and doth not break the bruised reed nor quench the smoaking flax until he hath brought forth judgment into victory and as he begineth and carrieth on his own work so also he it is and none but he that perfects it as saith the Apostle he that hath begun a good work will perfect it For it was the Eternal love of the Lord which by his Son planted the righteous seed in every soule of his and it is the same power and love that causeth it to grow in the spirit of man above all carnal power strength or policy for the pure seed shal reign till all its enemies be subdued and the spirits of those in whom it is perfectly redeemed from the Shrines and Vizzards of mortality Oh how it doth chear my heart to see our near and dear IMMANVEL springing forth unto the blind world in and through earthen vessels to the praise of the glory of Gods great grace who hath made us accepted in his beloved Therefore Reader if thou findest any of these workings in thy own soul then mayst thou know that they are no fictions but the real operations of Gods great power but if thou look not on them in the light of truth there will be no unity between thee and the party through whom they were uttered for he lives in the life of that which here is declared by words and if thou live in the same life and look upon them in the same light then will they be matter of rejoycing to thy soul but if thou look upon them any other way they will be nothing to thee but Parables and Riddles Thus hoping and knowing that God will make this work and every other work together for good to them that love him I commend thee to God and to the work of his grace Resting thy Brother and Companion in tribulation in the Kingdom and Patience of Jesus Christ THO. SOMERTON THE TITLES CONTENTS And TEXTS contained in this Book 1. THe Vail of the Covering spred over All Nations What it is and How removed with a Discovery of that Mountain of Fat things full of Marrow and Wine on the Lees well refined Delivered on a Publick Day of Thanksgiving the 23. of June 1653. at Alhallowes Lumbard street Upon ESA. 25.6 7. In this mountain shall the Lord of Hosts make unto All people a Feast of Fat things A Feast of Wines on the Lees c. In one Sermon 2. THe Builders of Babel confounded in their Language Being an Exposition by Mr. Webster at the end of a Disputation at Alhallows Lumbard street He being requested to dismisse the multitude with some profitable exhortation which was from Gen. 11. the nine first verses And the whole Earth was of one Language and of one Speech and it came to pass as they journyed from the East they found a Plain in the land of Shinar and they dwelt there and they said one to another Go too let us make brick and burn them throughly c. 3. THe Power of Divine Attraction or The Fathers great love in drawing poor Sinners unto his Son Delivered at White-hall On JOH 6.44 No man can come unto me except the Father which hath sent me draw him and I will raise him up at the last day In one Sermon 4. THe Cloud taken off the Tabernacle that the Israel of God may journey At Alhallows Lumbard street In two Sermons EXOD. 40.36 37 38. And when the Cloud was taken up from over the Tabernacle then the Children of Israel went onward in all their journeys But if the Cloud were not taken up they journyed not until the day it was taken up c. 5. THe secret Southsayer or Hidden Sorcerer discovered At Alhallows Lumbard street In two Sermons MICAH 5.10 11 12 13. And I will cut off the Cities of thy land and throw down all thy strong holds I will out off Witchcrafts out of thine hand and thou shalt have no more Southsayers Thy graven Images also will I cut of and thy standing Images out of the midst of thee c. 6. THe rooting up of every plant not planted by the Heavenly Father Delivered at Alhallows Lumbard street In two Sermons MATTH 15.13 14. Jesus answered and said Every plant which my Heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up Let them alone they bee blind leaders of the blind and if the blind lead the blind both shall fall into the ditch 7. THe Saints perfect freedom or Liberty in Christ asserted in opposition to all yoaks of bondage At Alhallows Lumbard street In two Sermons GALA 5.1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us Free and be not entangled again with the yoak of bondage 8. IN the second of these last Sermons Mr. Webster was freely drawn forth to give that Testimony to Dr. Everards Sermons lately printed which is placed at the end of the Book and are all the Sermons can be expected of his there being not any more preserved Which are sould by R. Harford at the Bible and States-Arms in Little Brittain 9. LAstly hereunto is added A Responsion by Mr. Jo. Webster to certain pretended Arguments against his Book call'd The Saints Guide Reader THere are some few faults escaped at the Press some litteral others in some owrds mistaken but being only such as an
persecuting both men and women that were of that way that he might bring them bound to Jerusalem dragging them out of every City and breathing out threatnings and slaughter and compelled them to blaspheme Who now do you think turned Paul about and of a Saul made him Paul was there any other hand did this but the good hand of the Heavenly Husbandman who of a Devil made him a Saint No no he clearly saw he opposed salvation fought against it and he had onely a Notion of Salvation and Happinesse in his mind but really to desire Salvation he neither did nor Knew not what salvation was Gal. 1.16 1 Tim. 1.13 but it pleased the Father to reveal his Son and Salvation in me and to receive me to mercy because I did it ignorantly and through unbelief It was alone his good pleasure to cut me off from the wild Olive and to plant me into the true Olive And as the Apostle saith so say I Such were some of you but ye are washed 1 Cor. 6.11 but ye are sanctified and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God There is not one natural man in the whole world that can desire salvation but under a false notion as he thinks it will bring peace and rest honour and glory and happinesse but salvation indeed all men who are not possessed of it oppose it fight against it and should it be revealed to them in the true nature thereof they would persecute it and breath out slaughters against the Professors of it Then certainly no man loves Salvation nor no man seeks after it nor can use any means to attain it as men ignorantly affirm and beleeve For can a man love his own death can any man love crucifying and hate his own life I tell ye nay but he must be changed new moulded and be leavened with a new leaven that he may be a new lump And therefore when men talk of such things 1 Cor. 5.7 they know not what they say That man must do and man must act and man must use the means and the like it declares to me they were never yet met in the way going to Damascus they were never yet un-horst and laid flat to the earth Oh Beloved this work of Salvation it is a marvellous work for the Lord to reveal his Son in man Gal. 1 16. the world knows nothing of it but they have some notions of Heaven without them and of a Christ without them and Religion is now made an easie and a common thing almost every one is Religious Religion is the fashion of the Age and its a shame to be otherwise and they think this is enough But to make Christ in us the hope of Glory this is none of mans work but t is the Lords doing and t is marvellous in our eyes For Christ to dye for us when we were sinners and enemies to salvation Col. 1.27 Psal 118.23 Rom. 5.8.10 and for him then to dye for us and to reconcile us by his death this the world knows little of I appeal to every renewed soul here whence is it that any of you are come to be Christians and of men and women of a Devillish nature to be made partakers of the Divine Nature of a Bryar and a Thorn and a Bramble 2 pet 1.4 which was fit for nothing but the fire and burning to become a Heavenly plant and a branch in the true Vine Jesus Christ How came this about was it ever your own work or your own seeking nay did you not fight against this work and oppose it he that findes it not so never yet was partaker of it He never yet could say Vnto me a Child was born and a Son given whose name is called Wonderful Councellour the Mighty God the Everlasting Father and the Prince of peace except he have found in himself as the Lord saith there in Isaiah 9.5.6 Esa 9.5 6. Every battel of the Warriour is with confused noise and garments rolled in blood this must be with burning and fewel of fire This * As that precious instrument in the hand of the Lord Dr. Everard expounds that place in his Sermons call'd Gospel Treasure opened pag. 61. c. alwayes goes before that Christ is given to any of the sons of men Beloved do but examine your own hearts and you shall finde it was thus and it must be thus was ever the strong man bound and cast out of his house and possession without resisting will man lose his life and suffer all his riches and goods to be taken away and never strive nor oppose And was this work ever done by a still-work and using of Ordinances and joyning here and there and man never disturbed but that out of his natural and dead condition he hath dreamed and slept himself into a new nature and into the condition of a Christian No my brethren conversion is an otherguesse thing then most men hold forth And if men see but a want in themselves and then resolve that they must seek after a Heaven to fill up this want and to that end run to this duty and tother fellowship and think he must be constant in the use of Ordinances and if he do but beleeve in an external Christ then the work is done and the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs Alas all this is but the way of man and by all this they do but make a Proselyte and those that teach thus they do but sew pillows under all arm-holes and cry peace peace when there is no peace but have made themselves Aprons Ezek. 13 18. and blesse themselves in an unsound condition and heale the wound of the daughter of my people slightly Wo to these Women saith the Prophet there for this is nothing but Weakness nay herein they have made them two-sold more the Children of Hell then before Mat. 23.15 Col. 3.1 If men are risen with Christ let them shew me how they were crucified dead and buried with him if they are come to Canaan let them shew me how the alone Mighty and Outstretched hand of the Lord hath brought them out of Egypt and how they came through the Sea and through the Wilderness Indeed I confesse these people they talk of signs and marks of the people of God Mat. 12 38 c. but to them there shall be no sign given but that of the Prophet Jonah as he was three days and three nights in the Whales belly so must the Son of man be buried in the heart of the Earth Go ye and learne what this means Art thou cut off from thy old root from the wilde Olive hast thou felt this burning hast thou lost thy own life art thou buried with Christ hast thou been three dayes in the heart of the earth and in the Whales belly hast thou had in thee the battail of the Warriours and the confused noise Esa 9.5 and the
ceases to act and he made as dead as nothing as emptied to all things in themselves so that they cannot say nor think that they have any Wisdom Power or Goodnesse or that by them they can act any thing toward the worship or acceptance of the Father but are reprobate in themselves to every good work Thou who hast chosen any other Saviour Tit. 1.16 any other Deliverer any other Help but Jesus Christ where wilt thou appear when the Lord shall come to judgment then all thy Saviours will forsake thee and not one stand by thee When thou hast said of thy forms and fellowships and thy Ordinances as thou callest them These be thy gods that will save thee these shall give thee a Rest and peace Exo. 32.4 And though with your tongues you do not say thus yet this is the very end of thy cleaving to them to be rest for thy spirit here and to save thee from the wrath to come What is all this but to rob Christ of his Glory and to set the crown upon thy own inventions And t is true we in words say Christ is all in all yet in practice we must bring in something of man he must act and he must do something else he cannot expect that Christ should do his part how then is Christ all in all how is he the Author and finisher of faith These are therefore those which Christ and the Prophet speaks of Heb. 12.2 that have eyes and see not and cares and hear not and hearts which cannot understand Now if thou wert able I say to stand in this light of God and there rest quiet and sit down under hell and wrath and covered with damnation and the curse as being thy right and thy portion this were the way to come to life this is Christ his way for life alwayes springs out of death and light out of darknesse and fulness out of emptinesse and Alsufficiency out of nothingnesse and this is the great Mystery of the Gospel which the whole world and all litteral and great knowing Professors neither will nor can understand because they cannot endure this light of God to destroy confound and undoe them But they are seeking out any covering to keep them from this discovering light for they must be something in themselves and hate this making nothing and would by no means their deeds should be made manifest nor the foulness of their hearts laid open And know also this light is within thee if thou wouldst let it shine out there is a voice within thee saying This is the way walk in it So that thou needest not say in thine heart who shall ascend into Heaven that is to bring Christ down from above Esa 30.21 Rom. 10.6 7. or who shall descend into the deep that is to bring Christ again from the dead but the righteousness of Faith saith the word is nigh thee even in thy mouth and in thy heart and this is the word of faith which we preach But man he is still looking to external actings and thinking he must be doing something to procure peace and life or else he thinks if he can but beleeve on an external Jesus Christ who died at Jerusalem and fetch Christ from the grave or bring him down from above this is his righteousnesse what 's all this but the righteousnesse of the Law which Moses describeth to be on this wise Ibid. v. 5. that the man which doth those things shall live in them And this covenant of works man can never get from under For the Law was given to shew man his weaknesse and inability to do the least and this never works effectually till Christ come in with his light to make man see himself as he is poor and wretched and blind and naked to slay man and to make him miserable to himself for he is miserable and lost and undone but he hates to see it or acknowledge it and by running from this discovering light man thinks to save himself and to avoid hell and wrath and the pit of eternal condemnation when indeed this very thing is his misery and death and condemnation That he must be something in his own esteem and he cannot lose his life yet all this is no other but seeking to make a covenant with death and hell but this Covenant will be broken and will and doth in time break in upon him to his everlasting condemnation and none of all his coverings shelters forms or any of his fortifications nor his strong holds will secure him or keep off the Deluge of wrath and vengeance due unto him Now Jesus Christ being as I said nigh thee within thee in thy mouth in thy heart he by his light Psal 91.11 if thou wouldest hearken to his teaching would direct and guide thee in all thy waies from whence come those secret whisperings and checks within thee when thou thinkst to doe this and that evil and it tels thee no do it not t is evill to wrong or hate thy brother to persecute him no saies this light Doe as thou wouldst be done unto Mat. 7.12 and thou oughtest not to doe the least hurt to any creature because thou wouldst not be hurt thy selfe He did evil thou wouldst verily think if he should doe so to thee and is it not the same in thee this very light in thy own breast is a sufficient judge and teacher if thou wouldst but still mind it and eye it and be guided by what it teacheth in thee This light would bring thee to see how weak thy strength is how much folly is in all thy wisdom what confusion is in all thy peace what rottenness of bones in all thy health what poverty in all thy riches what sorrow and misery in all thy joy and pleasure But this is thy condemnation that thou wilt not be condemned but as this light within discovers darkness thou art stil using thy utmist inventions to cover thy self and make thee seem otherwise namely Good holy wise righteous and worthy of all praise and admiration And this is the epidemicall misery of all the sonnes of men and He cryes out against this light and hates it and persecutes it and those that professe it and hold it forth No blacker divel to men then this light that would shew them themselves And in all ages those whom God hath made instrumentall to hold this light forth in experience they have been still hated and persecuted by the most and greatest professors of Truth no names black enough to smite them with nor no death bad enough for to cut them off by to expresse their unexpressible hatred and bitternesse to them to the utmost of their power what to take away their life their peace their glory their God their goodness nay the very crown of their glory Acts 22.22 away with such a fellow from the earth t is not fit he should live And all this comes from hence that man
can teach it for t is onely taught and wrought by Jesus Christ and it is infinitely above the reach of humane wisdom nay man by all his Learning and Wisdom and acquired parts and utmost industry is so far from attaining it in the true possession and power thereof that by all those things he can never come to know it nor understand it and yet such is the pride arrogance and presumption of the sons of men they will undertake to preach thereof and teach it to others when as they never understood it themselves nor ever came to the practice thereof for this power and this liberty and this deliverance can never be known but by the workings and feelings thereof it must be brought to us by the communication of the spirit workng it in us Secondly concerning the Relation of this Freedom Secondly the Relation whom it belongs and that is onely to men that find themselves bond-slaves he that thinks himself a Free-man and never yet found really his bondage except it were in words or notions he was never yet delivered T is true men exercised about Religion may and do ordinarily confesse we are all sinners and that they are by nature bond-slaves c. which men may do and never finde it true in themselves 2 Pet. 2.19 But that of which a man is overcome saith the Apostle of the same is he brought into bondage nay herein is mans bondage the greater because when he thinks himself free and delivered then is he most in bondage And what a pittifull bondage is this Nay when he partly sees himself in bondage thinking then by his own strugling and paines to work himself out he is more in bondage when he thinks to amend the matter to get himself to be a Saint then he is so much the more a Devil how are most men captived to their own Iusts to every poor base and mean thing and how are they captived to the humours and inventions of men to their forms and their rules and how ready are they to obey and Idolize what men have found out for to worship by wherein they commit flat Idolatry for the second Commandement requires Thou shalt not make to thy selfe any graven Image c. Thou shalt not bow down to them nor worship them c. wherein lies a Great Mysterie Exod. 20.4 5. more then is in the litteral and externall command for whatever it be that thou dependest on or waitest on for comfort from or hopest upon for any rest peace or satisfaction to that very thing Thou bowest down and makest it a graven Image when thou so far subjectest thy selfe to the will of man to let him rule and ride thee to follow his rules and directions to get peace thereby these then thou assuredly makest thy God and they are Images and Idols to thee Nay further when men have so far enslaved thee as to cause thee to submit to every poor and empty thing Col. 2.20 c. as when they place Religion in meats and drinks in touch not taste not handle not as the Apostle saith which are but things which perish with the using and yet they will enslave their consciences to such men and such things And further The world hath made a deal of doe about Christs comming in the flesh and about his life and death and sufferings when as indeed they as they have used the matter have even made it a just nothing a meer Image and an Idol and have by their inventions made the Crosse of Christ in themselves of no effect Some saying his death is meritorious and satisfactory for sins past but not for sins to come And that some sins are pardoned not all And that man hath power and he must work out his salvation quite mistaking the intent the drift the life marrow and mysterie of the Scriptures but content themselves with the bare letter which every man may by his own wisdom comprehend and finde out And others saying that sin is never pardoned till there be actuall repentance And that there is a power in man if he use his utmost endeavour that he may work out and accomplish his own salvation And that man must be a CO-WORKER with Christ and he must perform his part by way of fulfilling the condition required else Christ will not perform his and many such ignorant litteral and unexperienced Tenents are held forth by them And what is Christ made in all this but a meer nothing a very Idol and making the FVLL and PERFECT righteousnesse of Jesus Christ a poor scanty mean narrow thing and to say in effect Christ takes away sin but in part but man must do something and he shall take away the rest And that mans acting is the cause of taking away sin When as HE hath trodden the Wine-pressalone and NO MAN stood by him and he onely speaks in righteousness and is alone mighty to save and he despiseth and treadeth down all their STRENGTH and all the power of man to the earth What is all this but to say he shall not do it alone man shall stand by him and he must help him But we must know this deliverer is as full and as large as the son of God himself and the Delivererance as deep and as high as the misery of man the Defection of man is not so deep but the Descention of Christ is as deep nor mans sins reaches not so high but his Ascention is as high But these men cut short both the VASTNESSE of the Deliverer and the LARGENES SE of the Deliverance T is certain mans misery and fall is so deep and so great that nothing but infinitenesse could recover and fetch him up againe he is fallen into an INFINITENESS of Nothingnesse from whence all the creatures Angels or Men could not redeem one soul but it must be the infinite work of the Creator man by sin hath thrown himself into a worse condition then any other creature and below the whole Creation and he that sees it not thus really never yet knew what it was to be delivered and he that thinks that lesse then infiniteness will redeem him He undervalues and circumscribes the Death and life of the Son of God and counts it a poor thing and was never yet saved by them he never yet knew the heighth and the depth the lenghth Phil. 4.7 Eph. 3.18.19 Psal 68.13 88 6. and the breadth of the love of Christ which is unspeakable and passeth knowledge he never yet saw himself in the lowest Hell nor ever saw Jesus Christ stooping and descending down into the very bottom of the bottomless pit to bring him up again He that is delivered by Christ cannot but admire and cry out oh the heighth and the depth the length and the breadth of the love of Christ And again Rom. 11.33 c. Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments and
his own heart But when once Jesus Christ hath thus declared his power in this soul and brought forth his eternal counsels in it then he comes to see that all this is done in faithfulness and loving kindness and in tender compassion then he comes to see that he was deluded Hos 12.1 and fed himself with lies with wind and vanity and that the way to safety was not to build up this Babel Esay 25.4 but to bring it into confusion for saith he in the fourth verse Thou hast been a strength to the poor and needy in their distresse a refuge from the storm a shadow from the heat So that you see the matter of Saints praises is only to magnifie and set up and exalt and make Christ great and wonderful They cannot say any thing of themselves or of men for they see them to be nothing but sin and the fountain of misery desolation and destruction even the very best the highest the holiest in their own esteem And so he goes on Thou shalt bring down the noise of the strangers c. the branch and the Terrible ones shall be brought low V. 5. And all this is but to shew forth what further work Christ makes how he goes on making more Havock in Satans building Mans work or the work of Satan in him is to set up and exalt the wisdom of man and power and holiness of man and to sleight and debase the wisdom holiness and power of God all this is foolishness but his own is wisdom indeed and holiness indeed Now the work of Christ is to pull down these strong holds and high imaginations 2 Cor. 10.4 Babel must be confounded and Bethel must be erected Christ wil himself set up his own Temple his own house his own Kingdom and wil bring man to see that he is nothing but want and misery Note emptiness and confusion sin and death Hell and condemnation And that Jesus Christ alone is fulness riches life light glory and all that can be named or esteemed good and man s nothing but what may be named and esteemed evil And this is certainly the work that Christ makes in every soul wherever He enters And Christ brings the soul really to see All this true in it self all done and acted in man that this Babel and this Antichrist is set up in him and also that the power and wisdom of Jesus Christ hath ruined and destroyed them in him and that this can be no other but the work of Christ conquering and bringing all things even every thought into subjection in him Jude v. 5. and he gives him the sole praise and glory of these mighty works in him why for he knows he had no hand in it himself he could not believe of himself repent of himself never would the strong man bind himself ruin himself Luke 11.22 but when a stronger then he comes then he is disarm'd and never before and thus he sees himself delivered from bondage set free from the divels chains brought out of Babylon and that Christ alone is all in all he is all fulness and no emptinesse all riches and no want all wisdom and no folly all righteousness and no impurity at all But contrary himself to be nothing but emptiness and nothingness darkness misery folly madness folly and madness is in his heart while he lives Eccl. 9.3 and afterward goes down into the pit while men thus build up themselves and have these high opinions of themselves they are in the pit in darkness in misery in bondage but they see it not till at length they fall down and sink into it for ever But where Christ appears in mercy there he brings down the noise of strangers all this in man and of man is but the noyse of strangers though man have a high opinion of himself and glories in these conceits and thinks himself in the Kings favour and if any shal be saved he shal and so blesseth himself and all is wel and no wrath nor no divel nor no hell shall come neer him yet alass this is but the noise and the voice of strangers which must be brought down Christ cannot own this voyce for 't is the voyce of strangers but will bring it down to hell and to the sides of the pit for Esa 14.15 all this language is nothing else but the language of death and the language of Babel the language of the divel and the language of confusion all this is but the branches of the Terrible ones Esay 25.5 the branch which hath enlarged and spread it self over the whole earth Psal 14.3 Every one is gone astray and there is none that doth good no not one And all the imagination of mans bea rt is evil Gen. 6.5 and only evil continually not a man upon the face of the whol earth but this branch hath spread it self over him Esay 30.3 and he sits under the shadow of it he hath something of man to shroud and cover himself withall This is the branch of the terrible one that Jesus Christ wil cut down Mans holines bears great sway and who dare speak against it It s high and lifted up and reacheth to heaven yet the power and faithfulnesse of Christ shal bring it low it shall fall and never rise again Ibid. 24.20 and the transgression therof shall be heavy upon it And cursed be he that buildeth again the walls of Jerico And then he comes to the verses read what shall come to passe after the accomplishment of all these things In this mountain shall the Lord of Hosts make unto all people a Feast of fat things c. He spake not of any mountain before but of a branch and he presently changeth the metaphor and speaks of a mountain It shews us thus much by the way that there is not any one thing in the World but it holds forth Jesus Christ Note all the whol creation is a representation of Jesus Christ all tipes all metaphors are resemblances of him In this Mountain Mountains are things of the greatest strength most stable most immovable most durable and he is in Scripture often call'd The mountain of strength The mountain of holiness Jer. 31.23 Esay 33.6 The strength of Salvation and the Mountain of his Glory No man ever comes into the mountain of strength nor into the mountain of Glory nor of Holiness nor of Salvation till they come to Jesus Christ strength and glory and riches and power and righteousness peace is only to be had in him and no where else only In this Mountain will the Lord of Hosts make a feast of fat things full of Marrow Esay 12.3 Rev. 2 17. wine on the Lees well refined in him only can we drink out of the wells of Salvation and eat of the hidden Manna So that these words contain a further making out of the excellency and glory of Jesus Christ unto
to him why because there is a vail upon them the Covering of all Nations some things more or lesse excellent some righteousnesse some holinesse some duties some reformation some forms some shadows and These are the Covering by reason of which he neithr sees nor tasts death nor hell nor destruction In Christ there is all life all rest all peace all discovery of good things but if man remain in himself and dwel in his own mountain there is all darknesse and all deformity nothing but death trouble bryars thorns but it never appears so till but death trouble bryars thorns but it never appears so till the vail be taken away till then man is never stript of himself never turned outward but all is under this Covering and while so he blesses himself and saith I am safe all is well there is no death nor hell can come neer me I am a reform'd man I walk exactly I presse after the strictest rules of the word I am under the purest Ordinances here now Gen. 3.6 man eates death and tasts of the forbidden tree and the tree is sweet to him and to be desired But now when Christ comes into the soul really all these thoughts are cursed damned thrown to hell and the man becomes vile abominable in his own fight instead of seeing himself an heir of glory as before his thoughts are clean altered the vail the Covering is removed and he now sees himself an heir of hell a poor deluded undone creature He sees THE ASSE the flesh must not goe up into the mountain with Abraham but must be left below let that bear the burden as fit and meet it should let it bear the wrath of God it must be destroyed it must be condemned it must goe to hell All the glory of man all the excellency of nature all the holinesse of man the wisdom of man all must be left below with the Asse the flesh at the bottom of the hill and there must be a going out of our selves a loosing of our selves that we may goe up to the mountain and there be feasted and there see visions there see strength there see glory there see power there see riches righteousnesse and all good things then man shall see how he called evil good and good evil Esay 5.20 darknesse light and light darknesse there he shall be feasted with all delights there he shall see how wisdom hath furnished her table Prov. 9.2 there the scales are removed here he beholds Jacobs ladder here is the valley of Achor here he enjoys his hopes here he sees visions and the third heavens opened and here he feeds upon the hidden Manna c. But know this Rev. 2. that all these thing are not done at once but by degrees as man leaves the Asse behind so he ascends the mountain as man goes out of himself so he enjoyes Jesus Christ and is made one with him as man is made nothing so Christ comes to be made all man becomes all in Christ and nothing in himself so far as man utterly denies himself so far he eats of these fat things when he see himself oppressed with sin or wrath or hell he presently runs to this mountain when he is parched with drought he runs to this rock to this fountain of living waters Jer. 17.13 below in the valley in himself he can find no comfort nothing but wrath and death and darkensse and destruction there 's is nothing but the bottomless pit there 's nothing but madness and folly nothing but lies and vanity there 's nothing but fears and frights horrors and amazements and the smoak of the bottomlesse pit he now cries out Wo is me Rev. 9.2 did I so much delude my self to think my self to be wise holy c. when as there was nothing but folly and an infiniteness of madnesse And now he sees that there is in him Antichrist indeed the beast with seven heads and ten horns and himself bearing the mark and image of the beast And all this the soul sees by faith for faith is the souls eye when Faith goes up from its self and looks upon Jesus Christ there it sees all riches all glory all wisdom all unchangeableness all purity all life all rest all in all in a word it sees him to be unutterable unspeakable and in him things not able to be uttered not fit to be uttered but only to such as are admitted into the same condition for others cannot comprehend these words they are paradoxes and riddles They see themselves to be nothing but sin and horrour and there is the bottom or the foot of Jacobs Ladder and they see also Jesus Christ with all his riches glory power wisdom righteousness there is the top of the Ladder these things are only to be seen in this mountain When Saints by faith look down into what they are in themselves they see there is a bottomlesse pit of smoak and darkness blackness of darkness darkness that may be felt Exod. 10.21 and they see the smonk covers the face of the whole earth there he sees in this valley such a bottomless depth of sin and Misery that he is ashamed of himself and ashamed that others should see him to be so Now while the vail is untaken away all the endeavour all the wit all the power of the naturall man is to keep on this covering to keep it from being rent he would by no means have it removed he would upon no terms see himself as he it to see himself undone to be nohing but emptiness and misery this kindles the fire of hell in him what he that thought himself so holy so full of goodnesse now to see himself to be so far deluded as to be all sin and all darkness and all hell he that thought himself to be a lover of God and a lover of righteousnesse to be no other but a hater of God and a bater of true holines and a hater of the truth Oh now by all means he would cover and hide this monstrous Image from himself and others he would not for all the world see himself nor have others see him thus vile and thus miserable but the contrary to admire himself to magnifie himself as good excellent and holy but when Jesus Christ comes he wil in despight of all mans wisdom and cunning and power discover him to himself he shall whether he will or no behold his own shape see himself in his own colours Then he cries out Ob miserable man that I am who shall deliver me â—â—m 7.24 Lord help me I am undone I am a man of polluted lips and with Peter Lord help or I perish I shall fink for ever into this bottomlesse gulph from whence there is no redemption He sees now the vail rent and himself lost for ever and that such is the bottomlesness of this gulph that he is in that nothing can redeem him thence but only the blood of
Christ no hand can help him but only the infinit bottomlesse mercy of the Son of God He sees now nothing in Heaven or earth no righteousnesse of men or Angels could suffice for his ransom but Jesus Christ alone the Son of God himself must lay down his life to redeem him out of the nethermost hell Now Christ revealing this to him he hereby ascends up into this mountain and there he feasts and there he hath all his wisdom all his power all his life all his meat Jer. 17.13 all his living waters here he now hath all his teachings he now sees Christs mountain exalted upon the top of all mountains above the top of all mans mountains of wisdom power holinesse c. though they have been raised in mans esteem never so high and esteemed as the mountains of the Lord he sees his knowledge now meer folly his wisdom darkness his righteousness sin his power weaknes his glory shame his Heaven Hell this he sees in himself and he can see nothing else but this misery and this blindness upon the face of the whole earth every man is under this darknes is under this Covering the face of the Covering of all Nations Christ went up to the mountain and taught the people Mal. 2.2 The truth is this is that mountain where Christ alone teacheth all other teachings are folly and ignorance till we hear the word at his mouth Here in this mountain the soule beholds visions and receives the manifestations of Christ and the mysteries of the kingdome hereit sees from the bottom to the top of Jacob Ladder Mat. 24.15 here he sees the Abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the Prophet that had it not been for the love of Christ the meer power and hand of Christ he had been gon for ever lost for ever swallowed up in a mystery of iniquity but when Christ brings him into this mount then he sees himselfe escaped then he sees Sodom and Gomorah all on a flame all self flesh and al mans wisdom and righteousnes burnt up and the smoak thereof ascend as the smoak of a furnace and then he can say experimentally Jehovah-jireh Gen. 22.14 In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen Saints can testifie of these things because they have seen and felt them done in themselves and t is that which their hands have handled of the word of life 1 Joh. 1.1 they can give testimony to the wisedome of Christ to the power of Christ to the righteousnesse of Christ to the evrlasting and unexpressible goodnesse of Christ as it is expressed and put forth in their hearts they can give no testimony of man of any goodness wisdome power c. in themselves but they know Christ to be all in all he see man and himselfe and all things of man to be nothing but a pit of darknesse a lump of sin a gulf of misery without the least wisdome goodnesse or power but whatever is good or strong or holy in him t is not himself t is not of man but of an from Christ alone he sees experimentally that he hath as of himselfe no power no strength to resist sin no repentance no minde to hate or resist the least sin but the contrary He findes a cursed hellish demned unbeleeving heart full of evil and that continually Gen. 6.5 a heart instead of loving God it fights against God in stead of doing good to his Neighbour really he seeks not his good but his own ends in all he doth that he doth nothing at all for God but himselfe is his supreame and ultimate end so that his highest and best actions are loathsome defiled abominable Now the soule seeing these things to be really thus Then all his strong high towering conceits fall down before the light wisedome power and excellency of Christ and he sees that there is none of all these through all the whol earth but in Christ alone no wisdom at all but his no power at all but his no righteousnes at al but his and no creature to receive any glory but hm alone then he falls down and cryes out O'wretched man that I'am who shal deliver me from that body of death Rom. 7.24 who shal deliver me from this bottomless gulf who shal deliver me from this monsterous fiend my own self Rom. 9.3 he now sees the Locusts of the bottomles pit covering the face of the whole earth every one running after his own ways and following his own laws every man setting up new Gods every man setting up the Image of his Imagery and the abomination of desolation in himself every man making himself his own god and seeking to be somthing and making the eternal glorious God to be an Idol and nothing He sees himself with the whole earth besides saying with the builders of Babel Gen. 11.4 go to let us build us a Tower and a City whose top may reach up to Heaven that we may not be seattered and destroyed they will save and deliver themselves from hell wrath and destruction by their own power by their own wisedome by their own inventions by the brick slime and morter that they have made Now the Lord looking down from Heaven to see what the Children of men are doing and he in himselfe sees how God hath said Let us go down and confound their language God in them hath discovered the evilnesse of their wayes the evil of self-seeking self-glory of their selfe-wisdome selfe-power self-righteousnesse and they in whom or to whom the Lord discovers these things all this contrivance and all this work n them is made BABEL Confusion a heap of Lyes t is all deceit destruction and misery but in Jesus Christ he hath righteousnesse indeed life indeed power indeed heaven indeed And then he can adde and say with the Apostle Thanks be unto God who hath given us victory through Jesus Christ O death where is thy sting 1 Cor. 15 54.55 Oh grave where is thy victory then hath this corruptible in him put on incorruption and this mortal put on immortality and then is brought to passe in him the saying as it is written death is swallowed up in victory Herein the Saints finde Jesus Christ to be their joy to be their feast to be their mountain to be their glory to be their All. In this mountain they finde and receive all these good things and are fully satisfied and that they are to be had nowhere else If they look anywhere else they know there is nothing but sin corruption death hell mortality and the grave And they having found this mountain they finde themselves escaped delivered from all those things And now they sit down with Abraham Isaac Mat. 8.11 and Jacob in the kingdome of Heaven They have found Abrahams bosome they have found the tree of Life in the midst of the Paradise of God they have found the Hidden Manna Rev. 3. they have received the
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
is that true Crucifying that every beleever experienceth in himself for else how suffered he in Sodom and Egypt When Christ appeareth thus in man then he appeareth as the great and true MESSIAH then he comes into his own Temple and takes his own Throne then he casts out the Prince of darkness who hath all this while usurped his Throne in man who is his Temple here he makes a whip of many cords and whips out the buyers and sellers and the money-mongers Mark 11.17 who trade for themselves and aime at their private ends seek their own glory and not his glory who is Lord of the Temple and when he does this in man then and never before can it be call'd the House of Prayer then is Jesus Christ Mediatour and Intercessour then hath the Father made him King Priest and Prophet over his Church then all that he did in the flesh is made good acted and fulfilled in thee then thou hast experience that Jesus Christ is he who was dead Rev. 2.8 and is alive then hast thou experience of those two Eternal and Immutable Witnesses then hast thou those two Olive trees in thee and the two Candlesticks which continually run one into another and continually feed one the other and this light is the light of God which cannot be put out but stands for ever before God here are the true discoveries of life and death these are the great changes and mutations of which all the changes and mutations all the lives and deaths in the world are but Types Shadows and Symboles Here now is Jesus Christ indeed whom the Father sends Mark 24.23 Mark 13.21 Luke 17.23 But if man say Loe here is Christ or loe there or he is in the wilderness or he is in the secret chambers beleeve them not go not after them If they say Loe he is in this form or that mode in this rule or that discipline and this mans Church is modelled after the purest form and the neatest cut here thou shalt find rest and satisfaction here is He whom thou seekest here is thy Beloved Know all things of this nature are but lyes and delusions except thou finde Jesus Christ comming thus in thee and seest that thy heart is become an habitation of Devils and the hold of every foul spirit and the cage of every unclean and hatefull Bird. Christ manifests in thee where death and life is really and he discovereth Death and Hell and Darkness and Sin and the Bottomlesse pit and Sathan and Antichrist and the Dragon and the like mentioned througout all the Scriptures to be all in the soules of men and that these are the things that are to be destroyed and consumed and that here Babylon is fallen within man and is that great WHORE whom the Lord will Judge Rev. 18.2 Vers 11. Ibid. Ch. 19.6 Then shall the Merchants of the earth weep and mourn because they can Merchandise no more and stand afar off and bewail her downfall and here it is that the Saints sing Allelujahs to him that sitteth upon the Throne because he hath taken unto him his great power and will raigne for ever and ever If Jesus be not thus manifesting himself in thee doing over again all those things spoken of in Scripture under several and divers Allegories and Metaphors then is the Prince of Darknesse still raigning and sitting in full power upon his Throne in thy soule and there he sits and there he raignes Luk. 11.21 22. Ch. 10.18 the strong man yet keeps possession Lucifer is not yet thrown down nor Satan fallen from Heaven like Lightning Rev. 17.1 Antichrist and the great WHORE are still sitting upon the seven Hills and many Waters arrayed in Purple and Scarlet and decked with Gold and precious Stones yet full of filthiness and fornications and thou art not yet come out of her That great Word COME OVT OF HER MY PEOPLE Ch. 18.4 is not yet spoken by Jesus Christ in thy heart though thou hast been many years a Worshipper of Christ and pretended to him yet if these things be not effected in thee whatever duties forms or fellowships thou hast taken up or any exact observances Jesus Christ is not in thee since he is not in this mans way nor in that mans Church as men blaspemously speak for hath any one a Church but only Jesus Christ will any man dare to assume to himself any part of the Immaculate Church or of any one member of Jesus Christ and say this or these are my Churches and my people and my Congregation Oh Blaspemy in the highest degree And though these talk of Heresies and Schismes and charge them upon others yet judge ye who are those that make rents and utter blasphemies against the honour and glory of Jesus Christ Heb. 13.20 that one eternal Saviour and that great Shepherd of the Sheep And who is Paul and Apollo and others but Ministers and Servants by whom ye beleeved are they any thing or is there any glory due to them But if Jesus Christ come into thy soul discovering himself by casting out the strong man and Antichrist and letting thee see death and hell and all evil to be in thee and hath quite slain man in all his excellencies and glory then he will arise in thee and appear to be life alone glory alone power alone and till then men meerly delude themselves under all forms pretending strictness conformity and obedience to Christ when indeed though they have preacht and prophesied Mat. 7.22.23 and in his name done so many great works which shall amaze the people of the world and the general sort of professours yet Christ who searches the heart shall professe unto them I never knew you depart from me ye workers of iniquity though men may admire them and esteem them the highest the wisest the holiest the meekest the gravest the strictest of all the sons of men yet he sees them to be the worst the wickedest the profanest the greatest workers of iniquity the purest Hypocrits for that which is highly esteemed among men Luk. 16.15 is in the sight of the Lord abominable For man hath nothing of good in him but all his imaginations are evil and onely evil and continually evil and Jesus Christ is good all good and continually good and nothing else but good and he that gives other testimony either in word or deed is a lyar and the truth is not in him Rev. 11.8 And those two Eternall Witnesses are in him slain and lie dead in the streets of the great City that is in the whole nature of Mankind which two Witnesses can never be raised and stand up upon their feet till Jesus Chirst himselfe come and revive them and cause them to live HERE IS WISDOME Ibid. 13.8 and let him that readeth understand and he that hath read these things in himself he alone can understand these things And when the Lord is thus
had or John or any of the Apostles if thou experiment not the same things without question this is the truth and the life whatever the men or the Masters of the Letter or of the City of the Letter say unto you The words that I speak unto you saith our Saviour they are spirit and they are life Joh. 6.63 they are not onely a dead Letter to the ear and to the understanding but they are quickning spirit declaring true death and true life in us The Scripture in every part there of holds forth either evil or good death or life light or darknesse heaven or hell the Temple of God or the Temple of Idols Christ or Belial that is either man in his lost miserable blind dark undone and helish condition or else Christ the Saviour the life the light the glory the happiness the Redeemer of man Now if we have not experience of either of these two in our selves all reading hearing preaching praying sacrificing is in vain 2 Cor. 3.6 and the Scriptures are no other to us but the killing and deadly letter Lastly we will name one more of their Sorceries and Inchantments and so conclude and t is a very great one In that they take upon them the very Office and place of Christ they think themselves and call themselves Teachers and Divines and men must come to them as to the Oracles of God and they are the Priests lips which shall preserve knowledge come to us and hearken to us and we will direct you and teach you what means and what rules and ordinances ye shall use and which is the way to Heaven when as Christ saith plainly call no man Father nor no man Master upon earth for one is your Master and one is your Father Luke 14.11 c. Joh. 6.44 which is in Heaven but he that is greatest among you let him be your servant And whosoever shall exalt himselfe shall be abased and he that shall humble himselfe shall be exalted And saith again No man can come to me but by the Father and except the Father draw him And again I am the way the truth and the life And yet they say come to us joyn your selves in fellowship with us and conform to us and walk with us for we have the best means we will shew you the best way we have overlookt and examined all other Church-fellowships and none like ours we are squared according to the primitive pattern and to the mind of Christ 1 Cor. 2.16 and the word it self justifies all our rules and our way of worship And they say moreover we have the word of the Lord with us and for us and we have the mind of Christ with us we have a dream and we have a revelation and we have seen a vision when indeed they have seen nothing but have stole the word of the Lord from others and borrowed of their neighbour of this and that Authour and have searched what this man saies or that man writes of such and such points and then come and cry the word of the Lord when the Lord hath not spoken in them nor to them but boast of things without their measure 2 Cor. 10 14 c. 1 Joh. 1.1 speak not the things that they have seen and heard and that their hands have handled of the word of life but as the Apostle saith 2 Cor. 10. Who seek to commend themselves boasting of other mens labours and experiences and not of their own boasting beyond their line of things not distributed to them 2 Cor. 10. Vers 15. Ezek. 13.6 7. and yet will say The Lord hath spoken and this is the Word of the Lord and yet never found it The Word of the Lord in them or to them neither have they seen any thing nor the Lord hath not spoken unto them And therefore what ever they may say they cannot make it out to the hearts of others but they talk of it at random and by guesse and they say t is so and it must not be questioned for all other received Orthodox men forsooth have said it Are these Prophets think you of the Lords sending have these received the Word at his mouth Ibid. 3.17 No no but they are furnished by their learning and parts and acquirements and so of and from Man And so likewise not onely is the Prophet deluded but the people also for they have joyned themselves with these Prophets and there they will stick and their faith is pind upon their sleeves Oh such a man he is a sound man and he cannot erre and they will heare no where else And so this Prophet as thou takest him to be becomes Thy Pope and thy Holy Father for to him thou givest heed and him thou followest and obeyest And this is the great inchantment in our times when men forsake Jesus Christ the true and only Teacher and depend upon men This is a great mischiefe and a grievious plague but the world is not sensible thereof but blesse themselves in this great evil What say they shall we forsake our Ministers shall we let the Gospell and the preaching of the Word fall to the ground God forbid As though men upheld the Gospel and men could teach the Gospel It is then Gospel to thee when Jesus Christ makes it glad tidings in thy heart and when there is nothing in Heaven and Earth more wellcome to thee and when thou hast forsaken and laid down thy selfe to receive it But till we come to see that there is no other father no other Master but Jesus Christ in all the world in heaven or earth we are certainly inchanted and deluded and are under a spirituall CHARM But be it so Object then what reason is there that we should heare you or receive what you say T is true if I should say otherwise in regard of my selfe Answ I should also be a deluder a lyer and a charmer and a Southsayer I would by no means you should look at me or regard me as if I could doe anything I desire to be no other but as a dead instrument used by the Lord and would not be thought of or esteemed any thing I am no more fit to speak then any of you all if God will speak by you ye may all prophesie one by one as the Apostle saith God forbid that I should think my selfe better then any other Saint of God or think my selfe more honoured by standing in a high place above you the Lord hee knows my heart An hill or a mountain in the field were as fit for me any place I passe not but onely for conveniency of Hearing So the Lord wil but set up himselfe and magnifie his own name which he will doe let my praise my glory lie in the dust and I would be no more stirred and disquieted in spirit with any such thing then a man that is naturally dead And therefore let them look to it Math.
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
him the corruption and rudiments of men their rules and their formes and their precepts these and these things they must do if they will be perfect and so joyne man with Christ and so make Christ and his Crosse of no effect Nay the Apostle he did so magnifie and set up and adore Jesus Christ and esteemed him so full so rich so large so all in all that he not only abhorred the rudiments and the inventions of men but the Ordinances and the very law of God as kept by men to come in competition with Jesus Christ for never any man observed the the law in the least tittle It was only Jesuch Christ and them in whom he is conceived and borne and in whom he workes For verily the law was not given to tell man what he should do to get peace and life but to condemne him to disable him to slay him to convince him that he is miserable and weak and cursed And therefore in vaine did those false Apostles or any other in any generation put men upon doing this or that by way of condition to enable man to act or do any thing on his part by his own power to please God But every true believer is a man lost and destroyed in himselfe and he is borne anew of this Divine seed and he is setled not on himselfe by his own doings 1 Sam. 2.2 but on the Rock of Ages And he harknes to this spiritual counsell given here by the Apostle To stand fast in this liberty whatever men say And will not suffer himselfe to be bewitched by the plausible techings of men tickling the flesh with acting and doing that by themselves which shall bring peace but which tends to no other end but to keep men in bondage and to hold them under the old Jerusalem because that 's very pleasing to man for there are many glorious forms and worships and man shewing out himselfe to be something which things please the outward man and the flesh and this is that man esteemes highly of and much prides himselfe in And indeed all this is nothing but to seek life in death and for the living to seek to the dead Esa 8.19 as the Prophet speakes all tends to death to bondage and to remaine under the Curse But that which the Apostle here holds forth is the truth the the power the life the inheritance the resurrection the glory and shewes that there is no other power life glory inheritance peace rest but only here there is no other spirit no other Baptisme no other breaking of bread he alone is The true bread which came downe from heaven John 6 51 and he alone can give it And he alone is the meanes the only Ordinance by which we receive it he is the way and he is the doâ—re this bread is given down from heaven as Christ shewes at large in John 6.31 c. He gave them bread from Heaven to eate Moses himselfe could not give them that bread Your Fathers have eaten Manna and are dead Vers 49. That bread which Moses gave could not keep them from death but for all they eate of that bread which came down from the elementary Heaven yet they are dead But my Father giveth you the true bread from Heaven for the bread of God is he which commeth downe from Heaven and giveth life unto the world I 'am the bread of life V. 57 58. and he that commeth unto me shall never hunger and he that believeth on me shall never thirst So that you see The Apostle here sets the opposition between the intanglements of men and the yoake of Bondage against the pure free and full liberty by Jesus Christ whatever it be but this liberty given us by Jesus Christ that gives the least joy the least peace the least rest to the soul of man but purely Jesus Christ he is intangled in the yoak of bondage for the liberty of Christ consists not in any thing below himself in any Ordinances as men call them in any duty in any form in any mode whatsoever but only in himself all things else are too low too poor too meane too base to stand in the room of Christ they cannot give the true bread but only Jesus himself who is The Bread There are but two principles from which all men work either from Christ or Antichrist either from the bondwoman or the free woman Jam. 3.15 either from the wisdom that is above which is pure peaceable gentle easie te be intreated full of mercy and good works without partiality without hypocrisie Or else t is from the wisdome which is from beneath which is earthly sensual and divelish which is full of envying strife and confusion and every evil work And though this wisdom of the world will undertake to shew us Christ and the true bread and they cry Loe here and loe there he is in our way sayeth every several separation But if they say he is in the wilderness or he is in the secret chambers goe not after them Mat. 24.26 for the Kingdom of Christ commeth not with observation who ever shall say he is in this outward form or in that way of washing or breaking bread believe them not goe not after them for know Luk. 17.20 The Kingdom of God is within you All men that think to be helped by cleaving to this Church or that Fellowship and are still going out of themselves to finde Christ they are deceived but if any man direct you to finde Christ anywhere but within in his own heart he is deceived all these waies are ensnarements and delusions if men think to be helped by any thing in heaven or earth but only by the pure perfect and alsufficient righteousnesse of Jesus Christ which is onely manifested in thy heart by his own spirit for if thou thinkest that Jesus Christ Externall in the flesh as dying at Ierusalem will help thee thou art utterly deceived t is Christ Onely who is begotten within thee all other waies of mens devising are meer lyes delusions and ensnarements In the words for order sake onely take notice of these foure things 1. That the state of a believing soule is a state of liberty 2. That believers are onely made partakers of this liberty by Jesus Christ 3. That the safety of standing is only in abiding in this liberty and freedom 4. That when any man goes out from this liberty and freedom by Jesus Christ to any thing else whatsoever he goes out to be ensnared and entangled and it cannot be otherwise For the two first t is cleare that there is a state of freedom and liberty belonging to the people of God and that Christ only is their deliverer He who is delivered by Jesus Christ he onely hath true freedom and he is the true free man all other however they talk of freedom and boast of freedom if Christ doe not set them free they are still bondmen they
are still in snares and lockt fast in their fetters for who else can deliver and set free the soule of man but he that is Lord of all Rev. 1.18 and is subject to none He alone hath the keyes of Hell and death he alone is the soules Captaine and deliverer This is that which all the Saints have experience of when they finde themselves delivered from the bondage of flesh of selfe of the world if they feel this work done within them they know experimentally t is the very finger and power of Christ and that he is only Christs free man that none hath brought it to pass to set them at liberty to knock off their chains and lead them out of prison and set their feet upon a rock but only the Almighty power and meer mercy of the Lord Jesus they know that it hath been he that hath opened their eyes and their eares Psal 40.2 that hath raised them from death and given them feet to walk and there is none know this truly but only those that feele it done in themselves And for proofe of this point though I might prove it by Scripture very pleatifully to shew how many yea all the Saints there spoken of have found it in their own experience that they were delivered from death and from prison by the power of God and by the hand of Jesus Christ yet what is this to thee except thou sinde their experience true in thy selfe else their experience is but notions and riddles to thee and such things whereof thou hast no knowledge except thou see and know thy selfe to be under deth and kept fast in prison and except thou hast found Jesus Christ restoring recovering delivering and redeeming thee from this death And that thou findest that he hath said to thy soule Arise and stand up on the feet Acts 14.10 and hath given thee strength and life to what end is it to bring all the examples in Scripture and in the world if this death and life be no experimented in us Insomuch that thou canst say This word is true to me because done in me as the Apostle saith in Heb. 1.1 2. Heb. 1.1 2. God who at sundry times and divers manners spake in times past unto the Fathers and by the Prophets hath in these last days spoken unto us by his son whom he hath appointed Heir of all things Those truths which he spake before by the Prophets he hath now spoken in us by his Son so that we now know them to be the word and speakings of God But as our Saviour saith Mat. 12.39 40. An evil and an Adulterous Generation seeketh after a sign They expect every speaking should be made good by an external word and ye must go no farther so that the truth is never witnessed to in their hearts but as he sayes there There shall no sign be given them but the sign of the Prophet Ionas For as Ionas was three days and three nights in the Whales belly even so shal the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the Earth Except you find the same things done in you the same miracles the same death the same lying in the grave three days and three nights except you find Jesus Christ taking thee by the hand and restoring thee to life thou art of an evil and adulterous Generation seeking after an external sign and thou art a meer stranger to these things But I shall for their sakes who feel the work of Christ within them give you two or three places of Scripture being the experience of the Saints of old that you may see how the Saints bear witnesse to each other in experience First Scripture Esa 61.1 2 3. Esa 61.1 2 3. speaking there of Christ being the only deliverer saith The spirit of the Lord God is upon me because he hath anoynted me to preach good tidings to the meek he hath sent me to bind up the broken hearted to proclaim liberty to the Captives and the opening of the prison to them that are bound c. To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion to give them beauty for ashes and the oyl of joy for mourning and the garments of praise for the spirit of heavinesse c. Christ only is the breaker open of the soules prison doors he alone gives deliverance to the Captives and he alone brings them forth from prison and sets them free and this he is to his people in all ages for he is yesterday and to day Heb. 13.8 and the same for ever and when the same word appeared in flesh he testifies the same of himself Luke 4.18 Luk. 4.18 21. where he rehearseth the same words and applyes them to himself vers 21. This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears And this was that which he still held forth in all his teachings that there is no other Saviour nor Deliverer but himself never was nor is nor ever shall be to the end of the world Moses was only an outward and external Captain or Deliverer but His leadings and deliverings are spiritual and there is none can be delivered but by him Heb. 12.24 as he is a better Mediator then Moses so he is a better deliverer t is he alone that frees the soul from the pit from death and hell his Kingdom is within us The Jewes and Pharisees they still excepted an outward deliverer and could not own Him as a Prince and Saviour but were blind and saw not what he still held forth in all his teachings They could not see the truth that they were blind and miserable and full of Hypocrisie and were no other but painted Sepulchres glorious outwardly but within were full of rottennesse stench and dead mens bones They could not endure to stand in the light of this truth Mat. 23.27 but hated it and persecuted him to the death for holding it forth What are we blind also what we the learned the wisest the holiest what we that are strict our selves and call upon others to be so this was death to them But now had they but seen this and owned it he would have been their righteousness their deliverer their redeemer to have set them free but because they said we see therefore their sin remained and their fetters and bondage was not taken off And again Christ tells them Iohn 8.31 32. If ye continue in my word then are ye my Disciples indeed and ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free Now these things they could not see nor understand that they were in bondage but answered to him we are Abrahams seed and were never in bondage to any man how sayest thou ye shall be made free then Jesus answered them Verily verily I say unto you He that committeth sin is the servant of sin the servant abideth not in the House for ever but the son abideth for ever And if the son shall make you
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
not of nor cannot conceive of And therefore all the world whether professing Christ or not they not eating of this Divine food they starve and die and eat nothing else but death the curse and damnation And yet what a noise and a busling there hath been in all ages about the forms and shadows of things and what censuring and condemning each other for not having a uniformity which can never be for they only dwelling in the letter and upon externall things they see not the spirit and the mysterie the life and the true bread 1 Gor. 10.17 But those who eate of the true bread they are one body and one bread for they are all partakers of that one bread with them there is a unity and a uniformity and nowhere else there can be of which men have heard a talk and report and they speak of such a thing but they know not what it means nor how to come by it for none can come at it but those to whom this bread is given and they onely can say experimentally Joh. 6.55 his body is bread indeed and his blood is drink indeed 1 Gor. 10.16 And they only can give witnesse of the True Communion of Saints and know the happinesse and true pleasure thereof and what heavenly sweetnesse is therein All harmonizing and giving testimony to This One alone Great Deliverer and This wonderfull None-such Deliverance No unity like this unity nor love nor peace like this peace which they have in Jesus Christ Their only Deliverer THE SAINTS Perfect Freedome OR Liberty in CHRIST asserted In opposition to all Yokes of Bondage By Mr. Jo. WEBSTER Preached at Alhallows Lumbard-street SERMON II. GALAT. 5.1 Stand fast therefore in the libertie wherewith Christ hath made us free and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage WE have already spoke something from these words according as God was pleased to give forth to us The Apostle in the former Chapter having spoken of the difference between the two seeds shewing that the one was the Heir the son of the promise and the seed of the Free-woman and was to inherit all the blessings The other was the son of the Bond-woman who was always in bondage with her Children and was to be cast cut and rejected for the Son of the Bond-woman shall not be Heir with the son of the Free-woman Now the Apostle with these Galathians had taken great pains and he had as it were Gal. 4.19 travailed in birth with them to bring them to Christ and to have him formed in them and they being made children of the Free-woman He comes in this verse to exhort them to stand fast in that deliverance wherewith Christ had made them free and to stand fast under the true obedience of Christ and not to be entangled or to give eare to any other Doctrine for all Doctrine and all other Government was no other but A yoak of bondage And the point we then stood upon was this That Jesus Christ was the only Deliverer from bondage wherein we shewed that every beleever was Christs true free-man Doct. and no man was ever delivered and set free from bondage but only and alone by Jesus Christ And we spake something to shew you how Christ was the Deliverer Esa 7.14 whom I shewed you was IMMANUEL God in us he being manifested and brought forth in us Col. 5.27 then he was the hope of Glory and never till then For man is set free by no other nor no lesse power then the power of the Father even the very same power which raised up Iesus from the grave Eph. 1.19.20 The very same sets every beleever at liberty And was that which freed him from his bondage broke off his shackles loosed him from his chains and delivered him out of prison We shewed hence the folly and madness of all those who went about or had any hope or expectation of freedom by any other way but only by Jesus Christ alone and how vain all the endeavour of man was till Christ was pleased to set him free for where the spirit of Christ is 2 Cor. 3.17 there is liberty and nowhere else This Liberty will abide and men may stand fast in it but all other liberty is but a delusion and will fail and come to nothing whatever peace or power or righteousness is brought into any soul by any other means it will fail and deceive him that puts confidence therein But where Christ has set a man free there is real freedom and his work will abide and shall receive a reward 1 Cor. 3.14 In the next place we shewed that this Deliverer all his works were spiritual they were not wrought in a carnal and fleshly way It was not externall forms nor outward rules nor disciplines nor gathering into fellowships nothing of this nature could set the soul free but onely the infinite power of Jesus Christ himself And having laid these things down we would now come nearer to our selves that every soul here may examine it selfe to see what witnesse it can bear to this doctrine whether they can testifie and beare out their witnesse in experience that Christ hath been their Deliverer or no and whether this deliverance have been wrought in them I doe not here come to ask any what he can say in words or what he hath by notion by reading or hearing or by custom or education but Art thou come to thy Deliverance by the spirit and power of Christ Hast thou found in thy selfe that all thy wisdom power endeavours all thy rules and strict walking could never deliver thy soul from one lust but that thou wert forced to renounce all as weak and abominable being utterly lost and stript naked in thy selfe being made as weak as any other man Judg. 16.17 and that all thy power working acting reforming was but a meer forced thing and nothing therein done by the power of love and by the spirit of Christ in thee that all thy glorious shews of faith and holinesse and strictnesse in conversation was but meer shews and pictures and that thou thy selfe wert but as sounding Brass and as a tinckling Cymbal and all thy profession and religion meer aire apparition 1 Cor. 13.1 emptiness and in truth A Ly and no such thing However thou hast been carried out upon divers considerations and hast had many glorious speculations and high expressions which to thy selfe and others have seemed rare and glorious yet I say except thou canst make these things out as done and acted in thy self by Jesus Christ be assured all thy words and high profession is nothing But hath Jesus Christ been thy Saviour thy Deliverer hath he opened thy eyes and thy ears raised thee from death to life have thy anckle-bones received steength from him Are those miracles spoken of which he did in the flesh done in thee Acts. 3.7 Are thy bones broken Ps 91.3 and is thy soul
it is set in its due place as it was in the Apostle Paul who did not preach in the enticing words of mans wisdome 1 Cor. 2.4 but only used in its due place to speak to divers people in those tongues that they understood this was not to use it to understand the mystery by nor of it self to be advantageous to the Gospel and so comes not within the Verge of the Question And besides the knowledg of tongues was in Paul as a special gift as in the rest for he was not behind the rest of the Apostles not as it was an acquisition and therefore he might lawfully Praise God for it and so this is altogether improper and impertinent to this Argument or Question And for what he urgeth of Apollos it is as improper for he did it not by the force and efficacy of humane Learning Act. 18.25 28. but through the power of the spirit of God for the Text saith he was instructed in the way of the Lord and that was A teaching above humane Learning and it was in the strength of Divine Wisdome and not humane that he mightily convinced them and it was out of the storehouse of the Scriptures opened unto him by the Holy Ghost that he spake and not from the muddy puddle of mans broken Cisterns that can hold no water Jer. 2.13 Act. 6.10 but as Stephen who spoke with such a spirit that the adversaries were not able to resist so it was in Paul and the rest not in the words of mans wisdom but in the demonstration of the spirit and power He proceeds in his scurrilous language with fool and knave it may be such are his companions as most fitting for him and in the 125. pag. he saith I keep a coile about nothing for the very Objecton as I have put it asserts the good to flow from the sanctification of Learning so that I make it an Handmaid Let any one read the Objection and my Solution and they shall easily perceive how he either mistakes or wilfully falsifies my words for I say this that if by being sanctified they mean that the providential wisdom of God doth order it or make use of it for the good of his people I oppose it not so that it be understood that that good flowes not from the nature of acquired Learning it self but from the wisedome and goodnesse of the spirit of God who maketh all things work together for the benefit of those that love him who are the called according to his purpose Then which nothing can be more clear for that a blind man could hardly have mistaken it Then he goes on saying Behold how he cheats you mistaking the Question for it is not whether by the help of humane learning a man may attain a saving knowledge to himselfe whether he can save his own soul but whether he may not attain to such a knowledge as may enable him to hold out the way of salvation unto others and so proceeds in the proving of this unto the beginning of the 119. pag. The poor creature is still accusing others of that which he is guilty of himself for alas he cheats himselfe like a blind man shooting he knows not at what mark for this Question was not moved nor denied by me but in my second Solution granted that humane learning may conduce to the gaining of Litteral and Historical knowledge and is there shewed to be an Objection not ad idem because it profitteth not and therefore the man is here arguing nothing against he neither knows whom nor what but thinks it sufficient confutation of any thing if he do but babble forth wind and words enough though they be altogether beside the Question and to no purpose I will once again tell him what he should have proved to wit That man had reason before the Fall and that humane learning is not the fruit and effect of the forbidden tree but not a word of this It is a morsel too hard for his digesting And that men by reason and humane learning may get a litteral knowledg of the Scriptures and preach that unto others is witnessed by himself others of the like principle who have but a carnal and litteral knowledge of the things of Christ Mat. 15 13. and yet dare take upon them to inform and teach others and so the blind lead the blind and they fall both into the ditch and so many thousands preach that which will neither save themselves nor those that hear them and so the Scripture is fulfilled in them 1 Pet. 3.16 who being undiscipled or untaught of God Jude 19. wrest both the writings of Paul and other Scriptures to their own destruction These be they who separate themselves sensual having not the spirit But I must tell him that he absolutely wrests and falsifieth that Scripture in 1 Cor. 9.27 1 Cor. 9.27 For knoweth he what body the Apostle meaneth and in what sense doth he understand that Paul may be a Cast-away For if he means that Paul might be Eternally Cast away or a Reprobate if he preached to others and kept not his own body in subjection them I utterly deny it as false and unsound for he was A Chosen Vessel and was perswaded by the truth of the spirit of God that neither Death nor Life nor Angels nor Principalities Rom. 8.38.39 nor Powers nor things present nor things to come nor Height nor Depth nor any other creature should be able to separate the Saints of which he was one from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus their Lord. For the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will not bear A cast-away but one disapproved or disallowed of now if the Young man would but have looked a little farther he might have found the Apostle expounding himself not that he might be disallowed of God Eternally but disapproved of men and therefore he saith But I trust ye shall know that we are not reprobates 2 Cor. 13.6.7 Now I pray to God that ye do no evil not that we should appear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 approved but that ye should do that which is honest though we be as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Reprobates So that I make him not speak an impossibility but I am sure he makes the Text speak an untruth in holding that Paul might be Eternally Reprobate or disallowed of God And I wish him to examine his own breast and he will finde the Judas there and himselfe to have but a form of godlinesse having denyed the power thereof 2 Tim 3.5 and that he hath but taken that word into his mouth in a carnal and fleshly comprehension which the holy spirit never planted nor taught there and therefore must be rooted out because not planted by the Heavenly Father Mat. 15.13 He concludes saying it is cleare therefore that learning and parts per se ex propriâ naturâ can understand and so apprehend the mystery the Gospel