number of seven yeers that their weapons and power shall have an end Now to accomplish this prophecie look in Ezek. 38. he speaketh of burning their weapons burying of their bones which we hope will be in some short time after 1650. or before 1657. in our Nation We cannot predict the full accomplishment or make out a full discovery of the great designe he hath to do or when it shall fully end yet I hope the time is at hand for a short work will the Lord make upon earth to redeem those dry bones that have been very dry poor Witnesses of Christ killed and troden down by your Priestly power false Christs second-hand Teachers of the letter but can give no spiritual life and yet call your selves Ministers of God you shall fall with great rebuke one witness of Christ shall chase a thousand of you and two witnesses shall put ten thousand of you to flight O down with your false power for Christ Jesus will redeem Israel out of your hands The two Witnesses plead shall bring down your power as lowe as Doctor Hill's bones for the Witnesses shall live without your teachings and shall stand upon their feet a mighty Army O Arm of the Lord every Power shall perish under thee Object Doth Christ need Ministers then where is his power or divine light or spiritual appearances Doth he not appear in all and teach all by a spiritual teaching which is far higher then all fleshly teachers can do I am ashamed to hear your Sorceries to say ye are his Ministers then ye may go and teach him what to do The Heavens preach the Stars preach and the Creatures preach in Psal 14. but what is this to the preaching of God in his power Christ Jesus is in the mount and preacheth to all things John saith he is the Angel fleeing in the midst of heaven and preaching the everlasting Gospel to every kindred language and nation then what need we have so many Preachers When Christ preacheth to all he silenceth the tongues of men and Angels Christ is upon the mount and it cleft asunder shewing that every preaching power shall break and dissolve Now the Angel he preacheth in power Christ Jesus is the Angel of the Covenant therefore let all the earth be silent he will make all quiet before him it is he alone that shall still the rage of the sea and will quiet mens spirits when they shall yield the power of preaching into his hand when Ministers shall strive no more for their own power He is the onely preacher When he stood upon mount Olivet it cleft in sunder so shall every preaching power dissolve before him He is the preacher of light and life but ye Diviners Soothsayers and Flatterers ye call your selvs preachers what need that There is but one preacher he standeth on the mount Christ he shall put all rule and all authority under his feet he leadeth us by his holy Spirit that shall guide us in all truth The Creatures may preach yet not declare forth the invisible power of God for that is proper to Christ alone to preach forth the everlasting Gospel Rev. 14. Therefore stop your mouthes ye Priests for every one shall be taught of God from the greteast to the least even ye high Doctors must come under the teachings of the Son of God he is the Day-star that dawneth from on high If ever thou wilt see life that spiritual life must be from him to transform thee into the likeness of him for the way of all mens teachings shall burn up with their wood and straw and every untempered thing which holds up the abomination that makes desolation And truely Ministers are to blame in this thing of discipline Paul saith Eph. 3.10 that principalities and powers in high places ought to be approved by the Church that is to put forth Queries of Scripture and to quire out every truth by witnesses for every vision shall fail at the beatifical vision Ye sons of Ai must down it is not any visible power that can stand before the invisible nor any created power stand before the Ordained and Created Minister of God Ye sons of Levi must throw down though you have been Legators so long yet now there is an Alligator that teacheth us all things by his bright appearing far higher then you can elevate It is not your literal teachings but it is the invisible teachings of the Son of God that maketh wise to salvation Call not thy self a Minister of Christ for he is a Minister of himself Therefore lay down thy power for he teacheth us in all truth We and our predecessors have been taught by you and such as have called themselves Lord Bishops horrible names and intolerable to call themselves Lords And you Priests call your selvs Ministers of Christ yet you are but of that spawn of Euphrates that shall dry up with thy Lord Bishop Lord of folly Those and such as you be have nuzled up the people to thie day But now God will teach his people to stand and live without your Lordly power Your Bishops are fallen and you must fall under contempt for sitting in the holy place as Ministers or false Christs to deceive and seduce the people Some of you have gone under the notion of Lord Priests great Impropriators of Tythes and Donatives and could license authority and give gifts to men as spiritual Peters that had the keys of Purgatory but not the keys of heaven-gates they could lock and unlock they had all in their own hands as if they had been spiritual Lords of heaven and earth And truely what are ye Ministers and high Doctors If the Bishops were the cedars you are the shrubs that must be pluckt up for your power is like to burn as one of the four Constellations for your heavenly power shall go down with your earthly power and shall be consumed by invisible fire from above The universality of God shall so appear in flesh that men shall refuse your teachings and shall repair to the house of the Lord saying He will teach us of his ways which will put an end to your divided Ministery When God teacheth all shall be silenced Ministers silenced and people silenced and every power silenced in heaven and in earth John saith There was silence in heaven for the space of half an hour which declareth Gods wonderful works When Medeum is in the midst of his power in the top of the mountains your elevated powers shall cleave in sunder and every power shall shake and fall at the presence of Christ the great King Oh faithless generation can ye not stand and live in faithfulness to Christ he teacheth thee and me all things how to live he doth inherently teach every one that will savingly come to God and none can come to the Father but by him all other Teachers are but vain ostentation and failable but God inwardly teacheth Ye high Doctors petty Priests Legators and Merit-mongers
to forsake wife and children and calling too yet I must do it and that is my cross to follow my Saviour in his example and not to be led by false Christs or such as you call Ministers of God And for that I stand up which doth anatomize my life And as John lost his life for Christ so I lay down my life for him daily I know my self truly called to it night and day I can have no rest the Lord is with me continually moving me in the work of the new Creation and to go out a Disciple in the power of Eliah a Messenger to call in the Jews If any one would take up my place he cannot perform it neither can I deny it or put it off Therefore let all godly souls mourn with me for I shall be sure of a solitary life as an Anatomy shall I die and the end of my pilgrimage is not known and thus I give up all yet I advise not every one to do so but to walk up to that calling that God hath called them to I say Judgement must sit and the Saints must judge the ends of the earth for God is the beginning and the end of every work I speak as killed yet alive and though I die daily yet I live and my cross doth anatomize my life when I see the unstableness and brevity of life so changeable are all things under Christ his brightness putteth out every light he appeareth as the Sun Let all be silenced BAbylon shall down with all her merchandizes Gods people are commanded to depart out of her the world doth lament her miserable condition saying Alas alas and cannot help her and being thus taken in the same snare with her that they can do no less but mourn with her saying How is our condition changed and we brought low that were so high exalted The clamation is saying It is not your greatness but your goodness that God esteems which causeth her to mourn seeing her wants saying How art thou fallen from God in the world and art become odious in his sight destitute and art become the habitation of Divels and all unclean spirits saying We have recreated our selves in the world and sent gifts one to another in vain for in a moment our condition is changed and we left miserable and desolate cut off in our hopes our iniquities have reached to heaven and God is angry Alas poor Babylon how are we fallen our Idolatry it is all disclosed And thus Babylon must fall in all her practices of oppression and covetousness and from every unlawful act when all scoffers and jeerers shall be brought under this sad calumny of hell in the world which may then cause them to say We be ashamed of our smoak that ascendeth up to heaven and we justly see our burning saying Alas alas for in a moment it is come upon us when all prophane persons shall be laid out in the open view of Gods Church under the judgement of a community bar'd out from the inward temple being left under a dark and a fearful dispensation How may this terrifie the hearts of all unbelievers when judgement is inflicted upon them when they shall be shut out from the holy community of Saints burning under the fire of Gods jealousie and contempt hopeless and helpless I pity your condition all ye Merchants of the world for your earthly treasures shall burn and your sorrows shall come unawares and ye must fall at his appearing and all the dark corners of the earth shall be made manifest and discovered by his kingdom Alas poor Babylon we cannot hide our decayes upon Gods discovery it is not our curiosity that can keep us but if we be wicked we must fall for God will search Jerusalem with torches and much more you that disobey him he will prove all your works and what is within us and whether we be Hypocrites or Christians to know whether we be royal for him or no otherwise we must burn and fall in her idolatry and so be shut out of the land of the living and lie in eternal despair This Babylon shall fall first at the preaching of the kingdom Secondly it shall penetrate and fall at the discovery of the outward court Thirdly it must fall at the building of the inward temple Fourthly it shall finally fall after the little book is opened and the everlasting Gospel preached to shake both heaven and earth meaning the godly and the wicked There is a threefold shaking first of nations to bring them all into one which is to his kingdom for all the kingdomes of the earth must become the kingdom of our Lord and yeild to his golden scepter Secondly there must be a great shaking of heaven or the heavenly people Ministers others to drive them of their own bottoms so that every Christian way shall be broken to pieces and this burning from above shall cashire all your opinions that godliness may be one and all differences cease that Christ may be one and his name one and his nation one to him That unity may swallow up all differences that they may serve him with one heart in love and under one consent The third shaking is the earth or earthly mindes of men thus carried away from God And therefore they be called Babylon which shall endure a terrible shaking when the third part of the earth shall fall which is Sodom when God shall give up all her doings of cruelty to his holy ones This shaking shall shake down all her power and pride and all her domineering fashions which shall cause her to say Alas whither are we fallen now our condition is changed and we brought under our underlings when our pompe shall be turned into emptiness and our wordly joy into mourning it shall then shew apparently that thou art fallen and so soon as God calleth out his own people from out of thee in that very moment and hour thou shalt burn and consume till thou shalt be found no more O Babylon how soon will thy judgement come What city was like this and cry when they see her burning with spiritual fire for in a moment our great riches are come to nothing they that were made rich by her shall stand afar off and see her burning and dare not controverse for her nor hold up their hand to defend her but shall cry Alas alas such is our condition hopeless and helpless This shall be her condition when Sion raigneth and God shall sever the one from the other by a refining power Here is a use of trial to all your consciences to know and try your selves whether ye be of Canaan or not if thou beest not thou must burn with Babylon for God will burn up all idolatry he will consume the wicked from off the earth Therefore rejoyce over her ye holy ones come to the feast of the Lord to eat her flesh and burn her with fire for in her was found the blood of the
under the teachings of God which will be a stable peaceable Government when we shall strive no more for disciplying Ministers Your power that you hold up is full of many horns of the beasts pushing and persecuting in your thought such as will not come under your bow but God will have a peaceable dominion when your power lies as low as Doctor Hill's bones This is a hard doctrine to you which you have not learned at Oxford and Cambridge yet you must stoop to his dominion Christians and People how have you been deluded in your way and solely conceited in earthly Priests Is not Christ all in all Ye look upon mortal man to teach yet God hath a providence that teacheth and ruleth all things in heaven and in earth Doth he not guide Winter and Summer and every season declareth his wisdom and by his power dark things declare forth the light that the people may know there is an higher Ministery then that of men Doctor Pulpitian know this the more you tie men to your audience the more they shall break off from your tyecal ties and your hearers shall be few in number Further know this When they turn their backs upon you there will be a great consumption of your power as we may call a consumption of the lungs or an endless consuming so that you shall be a hopeless Ministery for Christ is the beginning and end of every work and all truth is from the Father and the Son Christ never resisted the powers but said Give tribute to whom tribute belongeth he further said Give Caesar his due He was circumcised he read the Law he went into the water and was baptized yet all things are failable when he cometh in power then all such customes and forms must be done away though he suffered all after the flesh yet he redeemed all by a spiritual power and shall controverse for every wrong done in the flesh contrary to the will of God Doctor there must be a falling away but not from God but shall bring them neerer to God It shall not be a falling from their Sabbath rest which is the endless Ministery of Christ but it shall be a falling away from your power that the mystery of iniquity may be dissolved or discovered for there must be a great falling away and then you Stars or Ministers called shall fall from your high perfection and shall dissolve before Sion Ministers you shall be much disconsolate at this great falling away when your sheep shall seek a new Shepherd and go to the right Shepherd Christ Jesus when the kingdoms and powers shall be all given into his hand when no man shall say I am a Priest or a Minister of God then you high Doctors may say How are the mighty fallen How be our weapons of spiritual warfare perished and we are counted as low as other men Babylon thy honour is going down thy Temple is rent for there will be a falling away from thee two parts of the people shall fall away and the other two shall be tryed in the fire of his jealousie for God will bring all things upon trial to prove who are sincere and who are not and who will lay down life and all for him and who will not This falling away from you will be a redeeming of the people to Christ by bringing them out from your adulterous power of Ministery which is not of Christ but of men and cannot stand for yours is the Gospel of men and not from above your power is literal and you as so many decoy-ducks that deceive and insnare many others so do you captivate all those that follow you and neglect the principal of all which is Christ Isai 20. and 23. The Lord saith He will make a consumption in the midst of the Land which is now to be observed by this great falling away as by a shaking or quaking of the people of God which sheweth they must fall from your Ministery and be restored to Christ their great Conquerour This Tribe of Christ called the North-Tribe shall grow and prosper until it come to be an invincible Tribe of the Lion of Judah This Lion of the North shall cause all the beasts of the field to quake and a terrible shaking shall be that have disobeyed him This great Conquerour Christ Jesus of the new covenant first appeareth to the Messenger of the covenant and so to the North-country by an alusion to Jeremiah saying As I have scattered them so will I gather them from the North country and from all the countries where they have been scattered Christ alone he shall gather the people he is King of the North-country and of all the countries when his power doth arise it shall be as water in the bowels of the world he shall gather the people he shall sit and rule upon his Throne he is the Lion of the North-skâ—…t of the Jews whose power shall go forth This Tribe of the North is the Tribe of Judah to whom every Tribe shall stoop and fall Gen. 49.8 Judah thou art as a Lion thy hand shall he upon the neck of thy enemies Judah thou art as a Lion from the prey and shalt stand up for the Scepter shall not depart from thee nor a lawgiver from between thy feet until Shiloh come and unto thee shall the gathering of the people be So that I finde this Lion of the Tribe of Judah shall gather in all the lost Sheep of Israel to their fold that Christ may separate the Sheep from the Goats which will be a great shaking and falling away from your Ministery When God shall divide your Sichem and deliver his people out of your hands to be taught of Christ and taken from your mouth Then they may joyfully say Our Moon is set and no darkness appeareth The Lord is the light of our Temple The seventh and last part of this Sermon is set forth to declare the peaceable dominion of the Son of righteousness Obj. SOme Priests may say We have fasted we have prayed we have sighed and mourned for the people All this may be yet Christ hath done so before thee for he hath laid his life down and done the work thorowly for all that can believe Then Oh Priest look to thine own soul and take no charge of other mens souls though Noah Daniel and Job should pray for others yet they can have an answer but for their own souls for Christ is the end of all happiness and salvation he is the end of war look upon Sion the City of solemnisie to see Jerusalem a quiet habitation a peaceable dominion When the people see the Ministiners shall be ashamed when the Lord of Hostes shall raigne in Mount Sion and sit before his ancient glory to judge when Christ shall sit upon his throne by a Government called Mount Sion by an Auditory of twenty four or some twelves in other places to declare and effect condigne justice to all according as God shall
sowing Pillows under great Mens Elbows you will speak a little of Covetousness but much less of blood and oppression and little or nothing of devouring one another for that will touch my self or my parsonage O draw the Curtain there see that God is angry with you and telleth you by his Prophet Micah 3. that ye shall move out of your holes and Ezekiel the Prophet saith The people shall be taken from your mouth and Zachary saith I heard a howling of the Shepherds for their glory was spoiled and Malachy saith Ye rob my Store-house therfore the land is cursed with a curse If ye Ministers should preach against all Impropriations as that ye dare not do for losing your Parsonages lose them and lose all for then preaching will cease and there will be many that will remove our Feet from the Pulpit when every truth shall be defined by two or three witnesses what will becom of us Pulpittians it will be to us as the mourning of Hadadrimmon indeed that is the way to bring down the pride of Palestina and Capernaum exalted so high you Pulpitsayons are set so high as Lord speaker who shall controul you yet your power must come down when your Pulpits shall have never a leg yet the two witnesses shall be upon their Feet to plead for equity and justice which ye do not ye preach for your own ends and cannot satisfie truth alwaies full of repetition but nothing of any new work that God will do in the earth If a lay-man should speak higher things then those you declare you would say as Festus said to Paul that he was mad Ye have slandered many good Christians that have been faithful witnesses to Christ and learned the language from the Heavenly University far passing Oxford and Cambridge Truly we have many Doctors in Oxford and Cambridge that enjoy so much that it is intolerable These blind Doctors Doctor up the Common-wealth and deceive the people impropriating to themselves more then Food and Rayment which is contrary to Christs example they be more in shew then in substance getting to themselves high tolerations which are not of Christ whereof you shall lie under his wrath saying How hard a thing is it for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom Yet take to thy self the instruments of a foolish Shepherd Doctor I am as a fool amongst the Doctors I cannot but tell you the truth for God hath raised my spirit he hath encouraged me to speak of your shame and not to be daunted Some Ministers now of late have made themselves Doctors hoping for some of these great places in Oxford and Cambridge which will prove but veynal or a veyne uncurable that runneth it self out by many obstructions or clashings one against another Minister against Minister there is not that Antipathy nor that Universality for some shall preach up their power and some shall preach it down This Eclipse or terrible shaking will hold until the power of your Priesthood fall at the power of the eternal Priest you must throw down your power at Christs Feet for the Holy Ghost shall be all our teacher Ministers your mouthes shall be stopped Micah 3. you shall not divine you shall no more say to the people Know the Lord for they shall all know me from the greatest to the least and that is by spiritual revelation or by an inward knowing which far passeth your learned places your Colledges are filled with many scandalous Ruffinous Fellows and of a ranting Crew very litteral and not knowing the truth translators and usurping the word of the letter to their own turnes setting themselves higher then the teachings of God thinking lay-men inferior to themselves as if God could not raise up Children to Abraham out of those Stones To be taught of God is the best University for all your wit and skill and univesality of tongues cannot make one godly person for every gift and perfect giving is from above God ministreth grace to whom he pleaseth he is the Minister then how canst thou be a Minister for God ministreth to all things then yeild up thy Priesthood to him he is the Fountaine and all the Streames must go to that Fountaine You Doctors are set so high and shall become low more contemptible then the Bishops were for God will set you as a mark to shoot at or as a lost Jerusalem for the Bittern or Owle to sit in for you have kept all things at a distance blinding the people and keeping them under the letter by the hearing of Faith without inward Faith as if salvation were by the letter and full freedom by the speaker They will not let to say they have begotten souls as if salvation were simply from their teachings And thus they silence the people under their bands Ah go go and tell them so that they silence the people and cannot give them spiritual life but keep them at a distance as a Horse in a Mill alwaies going round teaching them repetition and repetition learning and yet not come to the knowledge of truth but Paul saith Prove all things yet hold fast that which is good Then lay your heads together and ye shall finde the Ministers of our time very faulty They call themselves the Ministers of God and sit in Christs place In the name of the Lord we cast you forth and we discarge your false power for Christ is Adminstrator and you are fleshly and litteral and have no more power to preach then another man for Christ is the Minister of God and giveth us spiritual life to heal our infirmities and he is our example to walk by then lay by your covetousness and pride and follow his example set your selves to know God and then you shall find great comfort for it shall stir up the gift which is the best teaching Ministers cannot live themselves and how should they give life to others they are full of guilt and scandal and yet they accompt themselves high Doctors or Ministers of God when indeed ye are not so but deceivers of the people for there is no Minister but Christ alone though ye stand so high in the Pulpits you must come down at the appearing of Christ in his power when all flesh shall bend both things in Heaven and things on the Earth and things under the Earth shall all be dispowered and dis-throned when nothing shall stand but ordination and that is Christ ordayned a Priest and a Minister for ever he alone is our spiritual teacher and you Ministers are worse then Lay-men for taking upon you that title of Ministery and cannot live free from covetousness which is Idolatry and you are idolatrous Priests which deceive the simple Methinks I could stand an hour or two in your idolatrous places to preach as you do but my conscience informeth me otherwise Therefore I lay the Ax to the root of your one-legged Pulpits to cut them down for you Pulpitsayons must come down and set upon your low