well provided But by the way be not deceived to think God comes or goes for he cannot remove from place to place he cannot fill you more then he hath filled you already neither can he be nearer you then he is for he is ONE intire ACT of Being filling all things with his infinity he cannot come nor go nor remove nor be more in one place nor in one man more then in another And yet David bids us Open our gates that the King of glory may come in stand open ye everlasting doors that the King of glory may come in yet this is a certain truth he cannot come in more then he is already come in but the meaning must needs beâ— set open the eyes and doors of your knowledge and understanding Beloved take knowledge of this that the King of glory is within you already As when Elisha and his servant were invironed round about with enemies the mountains round the City full of Chariots and armed men his servant was afraid but Elisha comforts him and tels him there was no cause of fear for they had more with them to preserve and defend them then there was to offend and destroy them for saith he There is round about us Chariots and Horsemen for our defence Elisha his eyes were open and he saw them present but his servants were shut and he could not see them although as near to him then Elisha prayed that his eyes might be opened and immediately it was so and then he also saw the Chariots and Horsemen and fire round about them to defend them they were there before he saw them and his not seeing them did not make them not there So Christ doth not then come into thy soul when thou first seest him there when he works in thee and to thy sight and feeling when he lives in thee but then you come to know him and see him there and then you come to know ye are no reprobates because he dwels in you workingly to your sight and feeling for if you were reprobates yea Devils and the blackest Devils in Hell yet he is in you no place no creature can exclude him the earth and heavens yea the heaven of heavens cannot contain him no nor exclude him nor is he any more in the highest gloriousest Heaven then he is in the lowest Hell then he is in the very Prince of Devils but this they know not they cannot see him in them they are not able to see that he acts in them and by them but they think they act and live and work by their own power and think that they fulfil onely their own wills their own malice and do what they please And this also indeed is the very Devil in man this Disposition when he arrogates to himself the wisdome power or glory of God for all wisdom power glory and all good is all and alone his And as I said if all be his the creature is deceived to think it self hath any but they in whom God lives they see themselves nothings they see God is all in them they see him do all speak all work all think all in them they acknowledge freely they have no wills no affections either Natural or Divine but what are his they execute not their own wills their own lusts but they fulfil the will of him who works in them And to him and not to themselves they ascribe the glory and power of doing all O Beloved If we knew the gift that is in us our eyes our desires would alwaies be upon it Oh how precious is that gift in us could we but see it and know it as our Saviour said to the woman of Samaria O woman if thou knewest the gift of God and who it is that speaketh to thee he would have given thee living water whereof if a man drink he shall never thirst and it should be in his belly a spring of water springing up to eternal life Such a Gift such a Power such a Treasure is in every man mark well what I say that were he but acquainted with it he would presently deny renounce himself his own wisdom power parts and solely live upon this gift this wisdom this treasure I tell you you would desire to drink no more of your own waters of your own pleasures of your own wills but you would say as the woman there said to Christ Oh sir evermore give me of that water that I thirst no more that I come no more hither to draw Then you will desire never to draw your comforts from honours pleasures lands c. or from your own wills then you wil acknowledge feelingly and knowingly and not in words onely that you are nothing that you can do nothing but that he is all and in all Beloved look but inwardly and there you shal see the gloriousest things that ever â—e saw there is the City of God the Temple of God the new Ierusalem such things as never eye saw nor ear heard or ever entred into the heart of man as man but as he is a new creature in some degâ—ee Glorious things are spoken of thee O thou City of God Selah saith David There is within thee such a glorious Temple 〈◊〉 bedecked and beset with precious stones and rich pearls of Faith Repentance Love Ioy Hope c. all graces which didst thou enâ—oy would make thee rich to Eternity thou woulst never desire any more to taste thine own waters to follow thine own will but woâ—ldst say with David One day in this house of Godâ— is better then a thousand elsewhere Psal. 84. 10. It s better with David to be but a Door-keeper in this Temple then to dwel in the places of self-wil wickedness Here are â—he Beauties of God himself displayed One thing I have desired and that I will seek saith David that I may dwell in thy house all the daies of my life there to behold thy beauty and to visit thy Temple Here dwells wisdom whose wayes are wayes of pleasantness and all her paths are peace Never look nor never expect outwardly to find God for God dwells within nor expect not outwardly to hear God for God dwels in his Temple within there he preacheth and there he teacheth for outwardly are nothing but obscurities darkeness thick darkness outward darkness as the right translation renders it where is nothing but weeping and gnashing of teeth Outwardly are nothing but accidents and vails and thick clouds whiâ—h hide the everlasting beauties of our God from our beholdings within dwells the King of glories the everlasting Son of the Father who is from everlasting to everlasting even the Alpha and Omega of all the works of God Beloved when you aâ—e still and quiet upon your beds then examine your hearts then ye shall find your beloved when lust and self and flesh are all quieted and asleep so that there is no disturbance nor hurly-burly in
iniquities so may they complain to God of you and say thou hast appointed me to serve and comfort man and to make him more fit to serve thee but he abuses us and prostitutes us to serve his own inordinate will and lust and regards not thee And God himself calls upon you Oh take heed you do not abuse them and make them to serve your sins and lusts by Drunkenness Gluttony Pride and Wantonness for they are of that family of whom is named the whole family in heaven and earth They all call me Father and Maker as well as your selves And he that can look upon every creature as his BROTHER he can never abuse it he will never begin to strike his fellow-servants and say My Master deferreth his coming and therefore I take that to be a godly speech of St. Francis as they call him for all he was of the Church of Rome and therefore some of our literal Divines deride and mock at it I would God they would practice it in a godly and reverent manner It was his manner to call all the creatures his Brethren the Ox his Brother the Ass his Brother the Dog his Brother For God is Father of them as well as of thee But proud man is ready to put honour upon himself when no honour belongs to him All honour is Gods if all be his what right hast thou to claim any take heed of abusing then any of these thy brethren at thy pleasure and thinking that they were made Only to please and satisfie thee Solomon saith A good man is merciful to his Beast that is he useth them respectfully and for necessity and forbears Execrations and cursings of them and tortures to them And so to conclude let us and all creatures together sing and sound forth the Honour and Praise of our great God from Generation to Generation throughout all Ages Amen OF MILK FOR BABES AND OF Meat for Strong Men. Luk â— 2. 40. And the Câ—ild grew and waxed strong in Spirit filled with wisdom and the Grace of God was upon him Preached at Kensington Publick Meeting-place AS it is said of Iohn Luk. 2. ult That the child grew waxed strong in spirit was in the desarts till the day of his shewing unto Israel so likewise here the same is said of Jesus Christ yet with this exception and difference Iohn hath an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or set time after which he decreaseth and grows less Iohn 3. 30. He must increase but I must decrease And so it is with Believers they must grow less and less and come to nothing that so Jesus Christ may become all in all according to that in Dan. 2. 34 35. That stone cut out of the mountain without hands which smote the Image and brake it to pieces and it became a great mountain and filled the whole earth This stone is Jesus Christ which breaks to pieces all things That is That all Worships and Religions and whatever is mixt with Iron and Clay and whatever is of Man may decrease that himself may increase and grow great and fill the whole earth with the knowledge and manifestation of himself He being all in all But I must forbear for I prevent my self The Text contains 1. A Histâ—ry 2. A Mystery And this as I was speaking before comes under the second part viz. The Mystery For the History that is brief and shews onely the truth of his humane nature which though Hypostatically united to the Divinity even from the instance of his conception as it followeth in the Text that he was filled with wisdom and the Grace of God was upon him Vers. ult that he increased in wisdom and stature and in favour with God and man which cannot be meant in regard of his Divine nature as if there could be any Access or increase of or to that which is infinite but onely in the expression and manifestation thereof in those Organs which the God of Order had therefore ordained and co-apted So that if any shall ask How that which is full and perfect can be said to increase I Answer as before not in Augmentation but in Manifestation God cannot grow greater or lesser be more or less excellent or glorious but his greatness power and glory is further manifested more spread and made known according to that promise Numb 14. 21. and Isa. 6. 3. All the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord Our great and infinite God filleth the whole earth and the Heavens yea and the Heavens of Heavens with his majesty and Glory at all times and in every place Alike but then he is said to fill the Earth or Heavens with his glory and greatness when he is manifested more to men or Angels and when he enlargeth the knowledge of himself And of his Power and Greatness As we have often shewed you concerning Iacob Gen. 28. He dreamed and saw the Ladder reaching from earth to heaven and the Almighty The God of Abraham and Isaac was at the top thereof and from him Angels ascending and descending continually thereby God manifesting himself to be with him whereever he was and that he would keep him in all places whereever he went and that he would not leave him but fulfill all he had promised Iacob awaking he saw God as present there as at home in his Fathers house and cryes out The Lord is in this place and I knew it not whereat he was â—ore afraid and burst out into this ravishing acclamation How dreadfull is this place this is none other but the house of God! God was as much present in his glory and majesty over night as well as then but Iacobâ—aw â—aw not his presence God was not more there but there was a greater manifestation Iacobs sight was opened to see the presence of God more Iacobs Portion and Treasure was nigh him alwayes but he saw him not as Hagar God opened her eyes and then she saw the well of water Gen. 21. 19. Know this that the fountain of all good is alwayes with us nigh at hand if we could but see him and we need never fear nor never despond and doubt so as we do For as Moses saith concerning the command Deut. 30. 14. It is not hiddeu from thee neither is it far off the not in heaven nor beyond the sea but nigh unto thee in thy mouth and in thy heart So the Apostle Rom. 10. 6 7. he applies that Scripture to Jesus Christ who is Col. 1 16. the first begotten of all creatures by whom all things consist and in whom they live move and have their being But the second part is the Mystery of the Text. That which is more materiall is the Mystery Though all Scripture be written for instruction yet know The Scripture is a Mystery of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which as Eustathius saith comes from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
Beneplacit 2. Consequent As also of his Revealed and Secret Permissive and Operative Wills Are no other but Subterfuges of ignorance and so confessed by the Authors and Inventors themselves and yet withal I do profess my detestation with Augustine to say that God is the Author of evil for it is impossible that Entity should be Non-Entity for such is all evil And yet I say that Coincidence of Contraries nay of Contradictories which in any created nature are impossible may be and are in God as wisdom in him is said to be 1. Stable One yet 2. Moveable Manifold Yet in Psal. 139. 12. The light and the darkness to him are both alike and All Actions are 〈◊〉 to him though not the Evil or 〈…〉 He it is Alone That 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 slay Isa. 54. 16. So of Cain against Abel and Giants of the old world against Noah Philistiâ—s against Isaac Esau against Iacob Pharaoh against the Israelites Magicians against Moses the Tempter against Christ Simon Magus against Simon Peter Gentiles against Believers Antichrist and Christ Thus throughout the whole Creation Good is set against Evil Life against death and so are the sinners against the godly So look upon all the works of the most High and there are two and two One against Another Ecclus. 33. 16. And therefore Further know this we must not measure Eternity by temporary Moments I confess I have been a man almost fifty years longer then when I was born and never a one that now hears me but is a week elder then he was this day seventhnight but God hath not been God One Hour longer then when the world was first made Almost six thousand years yet ago I grant that here in the Kingdom of Matter as I may call it During the Hour and Power of darkness Luk. 22. 53. There may be some contest some Prevalence Moses hands may flag and the Amalekites prevail Exod. 17. 11. but what is that to God Neither hath Place any proportion to the Immensity of our God nor Time to his infinity And further to the clearing this question Vter fortior whether is the stronger I say as St. Paul 2 Cor. 13. 3. if ye seek an experimâ—nt take this for a scantling never did our Saviour Christ Command any Unclean spirit but He Obeyed when commanded but he trembled before commanded knowing the power of Christ to be above himself Look into and search the Scriptures and it will plainly appear so But if any shal further object say Si scirent etiam rabidi sculpsisse Leones If Lions should turn Limners the Devil then would draw a large story and shew manifold Examples of his power and strength He knows how many times Christ hath stood at the door and knocked And we would not let him enter How many times He hath Cryed aloud when the unclean spirit was in men and he hath been like a deaf Devil and would not let them Hear How often God himself hath called to the Creatures for their Testimony when he suffered dishonour when he like a dumb Devil in them would not let them speak What Miracles of blessings and judgements And what stupendious acts of his power and providence Christ hath wrought in the earth When yet The Vnclean spirit as a blind Devil would not let men see or perceive them And did not the Devil by his Policy and Power Sweep down The third part of the Stars of Heaven What that but the Third part of such who have been as STARS in the Profession of Christ yet are fallen from Their own Stedfastness And what can be sâ—â—d to all this 'T is true All this and a thousand times more mischiefs hath he wrought All this power hath He had hath still and will have over his own Vassal the children of Unbelief But All these Help as so many demonstrative arguments to exemplifie the Infinite Incomprehensible power of God for All the power the Devil hath is from God for as the Apostle Paul hath it There is no poâ—er but of God the powers that are are ordained of God Rom. 13. 1. Beloved let not this pass without our circumspect and diligent consideration Can there â—e think you any power stronger or greater then Gods power seeing all power is Essentially Originally and Really in God and flows from God nor no power but of God nay Every power is Under His And what powers are He constitutes appoints ordains ordereth and limiteth as he pleaseth to his own will and pleasure for judgements or mercies It was and is undeniably true what Christ said to Pilate boasting of and abusing his power Knowest thou not that I have power to crucifie thee have power to release thee said Pilate but Christ replyed Thou couldst have no power Except it was given thee from above which implies as if Christ should say That Even Thou Pilate who Accountest and judgest thy self so great and powerful why thou thy self art under Caesar Thy Power is subject to His and His how great soever it be is from God nay further though thou shouldst desire and Hunt after or purchase by bribes or favour to be instated with judicial strength and power yet it is for certain Thou even Thou couldest not obtain nor enjoy it and I know for truth what power thou now art intrusted with it is not thine own 'T is given thee and may be taken again from thee so that its plain that the very power that Pilate had over our Saviour was given to him even by our Saviour himself And now who can doubt whether is the stronger When that the strength power the Devil hath is from God and we know that God though in himself infinite yet is but finitely received in or by the Creature And what proportion or measure the creature hath of power God himself who knows the capacity of his creatures orders and distributes to them as much as he pleaseth who can doubt whose ARSENAL Magazine is better furnished When all the Fiery Darts and Arrows of the Devil are from Gods Store-house His quiver indeed may Rattle and he may shoot out sharpe and bloody arrows which wound and kill yet 't is Gods Hand that fills His Quiver and 't is Gods Power that sends and directs his arrows to the right mark and he orders every dart How deep it shall pierce In brief as Isaiah saith Isa. 26. 12. Thou O Lord hast wrought our works in us so the Devil must confess Even the worst the blackest saddest Devils must say and acknowledge that God is their life without whom they could not live God is their strength without whom they could not move God is their BEING without whom they were nothing and could not be at all Beloved these are truths But are ye able to bear them take awaye God from the creature the creature is not and therefore 't is worthy our observation that there are very few
our feeling to our sight to our apprehension and comprehension but not at all in himself We cannot Honour him no nor dishonour him as to himself he is infinitely Far Above our praises or dispraises neither toucheth him as David saith My goodness extendeth not to him and Iob If I sin it toucheth not him He is neither better or worse by all our works either by sin or righteousness Beloved be sure of this we can neither diminish nor increase his praise in Himself though in regard of â—s we do for though we hold our tongues though we run upon our own destruction yet All as Creatures Praise him if he be not glorified by us in his Mercy he is and will be in his Iustice. It is said in Phil. 2. that he emptied himself of all his glory that is he as it were drew a curtain between Our eyes and His glory not between his own eyes and his glory for he was the same in himself but as to men He drew a Curtain or Vail before his glory for he honoured himself most in that he Emptied himself and therefore he saith here All power is given unto me in Heaven and in Earth not but that he had the same power before But now All power is given me that is Now men shall see it how in this very thing I honoured my self How in this very thing I manifested my self to be the Saviour of the world And though he seemed to Unclothe and dis-robe himself of all power and glory yet men shall now see and acknowledge that he still At that very instant retained it as much as ever yea manifested it more to them I seemed to lay it down and now to them I will be seen to Take it up again and they shall see that it never departed from me nor I from it But now it may be you will say to me We see you have partly cleared it and made it appear in what sense it is to be understood that All power is given to him in Earth but how is all power given him in Heaven do the Angels add any thing to him or is any thing added to them yea certainly for by the Church these things are More made known unto them for they were not created in such an estate but they may be made better nor are they so perfect but that they desire an increase in their perfection for it is said 1 Pet. 1. 12. The Angels do stoop down to pry into these mysteries therefore their knowledge and perfection is increasing And indeed it is certain They see their imperfections more then man because of the great light they have they are nearer to God who is light and therefore see their darkness and imperfection more then we for we are more dark and further off the light but alas Vain men think they see a great deal and because of their blindness they think themselves such excellent Creatures being thereby puffet up in themselves looking on themselves as Lords of all every thing was made for Him and that Christ was sent Meerly to Redeem him to save him God overlookt as he conceives All Creatures both above him and below him and had respect to none but to him as proud Haman said I onely am in the Kings favour O poor Creatures you are deceived think not so this is onely a fruit of your ignorance of your blindness limit not Gods Church to so narrow a scantling The Dominions of his Church reach infinitely further ther then you are aware of but we must not now enter upon that But hereby you may see that things in Heaven have a revelation and manifestation of Christ unto them and his power is given unto him There as well as on earth if so it be That you do take Heaven according to our general and common Notion of taking Henven which we Vulgarly conâ—eive to be above the Circumference of the Sun and God to be present more especially there but this also is a limiting The bounds of his Church and Kingdom His Kingdom as I conceive is every where and Heaven is where he is for he is Every where Yet I remember I was taught when I was a Child either by my Nurse or my Mother or Shoolmaster that God Almighty was above in Heaven viz. above the Sun Moon and Stars and I thought of a long time afterwards that there was his Court and his Chamber of presence and I thought it a great Height to come to this knowledge but I assure you I had more to do to unlearn this principle then ever I had to learn it and I am afraid too many of us are gone no further then this Childish principle whereupon follow many errours But it is more safe Taking Heaven in the largest sense Eiâ—her as God Filling all places and all things as well above the Sun as below and below as above and so Heaven to be where God is that is ever where for he cannot be excluded from any place but he is not onely in every place but in every place Alike Or else to take Heaven in that sense the Prodigal doth Luk. 15. 18. Father I have sinned against Heaven and before thee to take Heaven to be in our souls When God comes into our souls and dwels there that is when he manifests his presence in us and to us then he is said to dwell there not but that he dwelt there in regard of himself as much before but then he is there as in his Temple As in his glory to Us-ward then we see him there In the Beauty of Holiness Then He is compassed about with our praises as it is exprest in that 68 Psalm It is well seen O God how thou goest How thou My God goest when thou art in thy Sanctuary The singers go before and the minstrels follow after in the midst are the damsels with timbrels c. When God is not onely in us as he is in all Creatures but when he is there sensibly to us that we feel him and see him and Rejoyce to behold his Presence and Glory and so we come Thereby to glorisie him more Whenever we come to this Sight then are we come into a degree of the kingdom of Heaven Into Gods Chamber of Presence There we shall see all Creatures all Angels and Saints and the whole Creation compassing him round about with Glories and Hallelujahs Then as to us is He set upon his Throne And till then he is As Crucified As upon the Cross as Buffetted as Spit upon as Emptied as disrohed as Slighted Trod upon As upon the dunghil as separaâ—e from his glory but all this is but as to men not as to Himself as I said before For to him all Angels Cry A loud the Heavens and the Earth and all the Powers therein and all Creatures cry continually Holy holy holy Lord God of Sabbaths Heaven and Earth are full of the majesty of thy glory And
glorious and beautiful yet Christ is crucified and Self is alive and set in the Throne As David saith Up Lord why sleepest thou Avenge us on our adversaries God is asleep in men till this work be brought about in them and again Arise O Lord exalt thy self above the Heathen Till thou Till thy self be brought down the Heathen are exalted and Jesus Christ is trampled down as the heathen in old time typically got the upper hand and took possession of the Land and the fair houses of God and banished and carried captive the people of God kept them under made them tributary and overrun the Land Even so are those very things accomplished in us when lust and sin commands and bear rule and over-run the soul like locusts which are the very locusts of the bottomless pit Which also are ANTICHRIST and they keep him under and daily crucifie him that is crucifie his life in us And these are those enemies we continually ought to make war with and hate and pray against these are that Meroz that we ought to curse bitterly as the Angel commands and not men nor any thing which God hath made for all creatures As they are made by God are good very good but the seed of the Serpent we must war with and persecute Even to the very death and nothing else These things Brethren we ought still to find in our own experience Not onely to hear and read the history of them as done in and by others but to see and feel how they are really accomplished in our selves for except we see This fighting and resisting accomplished in us except we have found the strong man bound in us and felt those fightings and resistings that he makes till he be bound and overcome we are yet in our sins Strangers possess the Land and the Temple of God lies waste and the enemies of God roar in the midst of the Congregations and they set up their Ensigns for signs and break down the carved work with axes and hammers Could we but see all these things in our selves then we might be sure that Light was approching to us And if This Light were but set upon a candlestick then it would give light round the house and we should discover these things more and more but till then the lights is hid under a bed or under a bushel as our Saviour saith And if we have not found these things in our selves we have not been so much as in the way to union with Jesus Christ but having found it we have cause infinitely to rejoyce for then Those Masters and Lords that formerly commanded thee now thou shalt command them and they shall obey then thou shalt find that he hath in thee broken the gates of brass and cut the bars of iron in sunder Psal. 107. 16. thou through him shalt have power now to rectifie thy understanding thy will thy affections to rule and govern them As a King because Christ is exalted as King in thy soul then thou shalt be taught of God and shalt receive An unction from that holy one and thou shalt know all things In our selves indeed and in our own strength we can do nothing but by the power of Christ and by his strength in us we shall be More then Conquerours and we shall find these words true to our selves that our Saviour here saith All power is given to me in heaven and in earth you shall feel it true in your selves for you being united and made one with him you shall so derive his power to your selves that you may say All power is given to me in heaven and earth then you shall come to see such things as never eye saw nor ear heard nor ever entred into the heart of man things unutterable For till this comes to pass within you you shall never see the new heavens and the new earth so often promised in the Scriptures not till then shall we ever see the day that old things shall pass away and all things shall become new as it is exprest Rev. 21. 4. Then is the day come that God shall wipe away all tears from our eyes And thou shalt heare Christ himself in thee proclaiming Behold I make all things new Then shalt thou have power over the earth then also art thou that blessed Meek one spoken of Mat. 5. That shalt inherit the earth then shalt thou have power to meet thy Saviour Prepared And adorned as a bride to meet the bridgroom at his coming then indeed shall all those spiritual promises be fulfilled and accomplished in thee And all this by being risen again and united to thy Bridegroom Jesus Christ. And the way to this life is by being dead to the world and dead to the flesh the world being crucified to us and we to the world I le tell thee such a pass thou art now come to that as thou stinkest to the world so the world stinks to thee As all things are ready to forsake thee so thou art as ready to forsake them so that thou beginnest to see no excellency in any thing the world presents to thee no not in PROPRIETY which the whole world yea generally al esteem so highly of and are of all things lothest to forgo I say to this man even propriety begins to dye to him and he to it It departs from us and we depart from the love of propriety or with affection laying claim to any thing in the world but having it as having it not as 1 Cor. 7. That both they that have wives be as though they had none and they that weep as though they wept not and they that rejoyce as though they rejoyced not and they that buy as though they possessed not and they that use this world as not abusing it for all the fashion of this world passeth away This man is an a man dead and clean cast out of sight as David saith clean out of mind he is as a bubble that no body sets by but yet be contented hâ—ppy yea thrice happy are those men that are come to this to be dead men You know dead men are not affected with any thing dead men lay no claim to any thing dead men cannot so much as say This is I they esteem not of themselves they boast not of themselves praise and dispraise is all one to them they can let men do what they will with them they are all at one pass they claim no interest no propriety in any thing let them be merry while he lies by or let them be sad all is one to him let them be sharers of his goods One will have one part and another another part let them make merry and spend lavishly of His goods He is not moved why The reason is because he hath lost all his SENCES in this world his life is gone he is a dead man Beloved This was the condition
engrav'd sets forth His outward feature not his inward worth His body was his souls dark vail and skreen So that his excellent substance lies unseen The hearing-ear and seeing-eye are blessings rare He furnish'd was with both for â—was his care To preach and practise true Self-denial Whereof these labours give sufficient trial In 's laâ—er dayes while here he had abode His life was joyn'd and hid with Christ in God How others might this spiritual method know His Life and Doctrine in this book do show True godliness is a MYSTERY long conceal'd But truly in these Sermons 't is reveal'd What good thou findest let not man be prais'd But to the Lord let all your hearts be rais'd L. D. The Titles Contents and Texts of both parts of this Book Christ the true Salt of the Earth IN one Sermon Preached at Islington Publike-meeting place on Mark 9. 50. Have salt in your selves The Star in the East leading to the true Messiah The Mystery of Christ crucified The spiritual crucifying the true Messiah In two Sermons at a private Meeting at Kensington near London on 1 Cor. 2. 2. But I determined to know nothing among you save Iesus Christ and him crucified Of suffering and reigning with Christ. In eight Sermons at Kensington Publick meeting-place on Rom. 8. 17. If so be that we suffer with him that we may also be glorified together The dead and killing letter the Spirit and the Life Shadows vanishing some rayes of glory appearing In four Sermons at a private meeting at Kensington on Iosh. 16. 15 16. And Caleb said he that smiteth Kiriathsepher and taketh it to him will I give Achsah my daughter to wife c. The second part Militia Coelestis or the heavenly Host. In two Sermons on Psal. 68. 17 At Giles Cripplegate London The Chariots of God are twenty thousand thousands of angels the Lord is among them as in Sinai in the holy place Where Christ feedeth and where his flock resteth In two Sermons on Cant. 1. 7. at Highgate Publick-meeting place Tell me O thou whom my soul loveth where thou feedest where thou makest thy â—â—ocks to rest at noon for why c. Of eating Hidden Manna The substance of a Sermon preached at a Lecture in the Old Jury London on Rev. 2. 17. To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the Hidden Manna Covetousness Anatomized or the generality of Covetousness The substance of several Sermons preached at Putney near London on Ier. 6. 13. From the least of them even unto the greatest every one is given to Covetousness and from the Prophet even to the Priest every one dealeth falsely The PLUS ULTRA of the Creatures A brief Exposition on Psal. 148. spoken privately in Old Street London Milk for babes meat for strong men The substance of several Sermons at Kensington Publick meeting-place on Luke 2. 40. And the child grew and waxed strong in spirit filled with wisdom and the grace of God was upon him The Mystery or the Life and Marrow of the Scriptures An Exposition in two Sermons on Exod. 3. the 6. first verses at a private meeting at Kensington Moses kept the flock of Iethro his father in Law Priest of Midian and he led the flock to the backside of the desart And the Angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush c. True and divine Exorcism or the Devil conjured by Iesus Christ. The substance of several Sermons preached at Kensington Publick meeting-place on Mark 1. 25 26. And Iesus rebuked him saying Hold thy peace and come out of him and when the unclean spirit had torn him and cryed with a loud voice he came out of him All power given to Iesus Christ in heaven and earth In one Sermon preached at a Private meeting in Old-street London on Mat. 28. 18. All power is given to me in heaven and in earth Whereunto is added some Collections by Dr. Everard out of some Divine Authors as being things suitable to his preaching and giving further light each to other viz. To him who is in the light 1. DIonysius the Areopagite his mystical Divinity 2. Certain grave and notable sayings in Latin and English 3. Sayings of a certain Divine of great note and name 4. A lovely glass or example of our Lord Iesus Christ taken out of Taulerus his works 5. Another short instruction out of the same Author 6. A short Dialogue between a learned Divine and a Beggar TO THE READER OF Dr. Everards SERMONS Christian Reader AS there were many causes of delay in publishing these Sermons so there are also in bringing them to light now The time when they were preached was in the dayes of the last Bishops who endeavoured the strangling of many Truths in the birth as Pharaoh the children of Israel lest they should increase and multiply to discover and suppress their deeds of darkness to that end High-Commissioning many precious and bright-shining lights whereof this Author was in the number laying as their manner was many foul things to their charge which they never knew as David said of himself by his enemies thereby making a great noise to amuze the people in medling with such men and to colour their wicked designes for the suppression of light and men of light as if they were guilty of foul Doctrine or foul life or both and though they could prove nothing against them yet keeping them in their Courts if possible to aw and vex them if they could not suppress them The Author hereof being spotless in either especially since God in a special and extraordinary manner appeared to him in him in his latter dayes for he confâ—ssed with the Apostle Paul Eph. 4. 17 18. that in the dayes of his former ignorance and vanity he walked as other Gentiles and as men living without God in the world in the vanity of his mind having his understanding darkened being alienated from the life of God because of the blindness of his heart which no doubt our merciful and ready-pardoning God had forgiven though men could not or would not forget which he regarded not much God speaking peace and parâ—on to his soul. But afterward he desired nothing more then to bring in others to see what he saw and to enjoy what he enjoyed and to clear truth to them in either respect he oftentimes averring as to others so to the Publisher hereof that his trouble was not for self-sufferings but that truth should be any way obstructed or defamed through him And he having once obtained of their Court to refer the accusations in either kind but especially for Doctrine and for Conventicles as they called them kept by him to reason out his judgement and what he had delivered with four Bishops members thereof or any three of them In this he rejoyced so as in nothing more so he exprest and we judge and not without good ground he taking abundance of pains and travel to
world upside down it was at his rebuke at the blast of the breath of his nostrils that the earth shook and trembled and coals were kindled by it So also he saw that it was God who sent from above out of heaven his holy place and took him out of his troubles out of many waters and delivered him from his strong enemy and he brought him out into a large place and so goes on in that 18. Psalm When the soul comes to be awaked and to see God thus filling all in all to be motion and Agent in all things then he falls down before God and is ashamed and throws down all his own pride and arrogancie all his high conceits of his acting and doing any thing for he sees now it was not he but that it was God in him that did all now down falls all conceit of power and gifts with all strong holds all principalities and powers and spiritual wickednesses in high places and he gives All glory to God who dwels so near him In his holy hill of Sion Then he no longer looks without himself but now he hearkens to know what the Lord sayes in him his eye and his ear are now to himwards he will now no longer rule and guide himself nor take his own advice but he sees how he hath gone astray from God and desires now that God onely would guide him for he finds that he is the surest and the nearest Counsellour his eye is altogether now upon God so that he trembles in his presence He sees now we need not say Who shall ascend up to Heaven to bring Christ thence or who shall descend into the grave to bring Christ from the dead for behold the word is nigh thee it is even in thy mouth Christ is in thee in the midst of thee as the Prophets often Great is thy God in the midst of thee O Israel And again The holy One of Israel in the midst of thee And again Iohn Baptist There is one in the midst of you whom ye know not he shall baptize you with the holy Ghost and with fire When our eyes are opened by Christ to come to see this even those eyes which were blind from their Mothers womb And when the strings of our tongue shall be loosed then we shall fall down before his presence and confess our own vileness our own nothingness and that we in our selves without him are meer dust and ashes poor drops poor warms And this is not out of formality or custom but unfainedly and really seeing our selves to be so and no otherwise But till this time we go on in our pride and arrogancie we exalt our selves and go on to please our own wils and say who shall bring us downe our tongues are our own we will prevail who is Lord over us we say Tush God sees not he is above can he see through the thick clouds and so we go on in our own waies and follow our own wills and regard not God who is in us and acts all our acts and works all our works for us till then we exalt our selves even into Gods throne and dethrone him as much as lies in us for we say I will and I am Power is mine and Revenge is mine many say so and multitudes more do so they will be Revenged that they will and so appropriate and arrogate to our selves the very attâ—ibutes of God Vengeance is mine saith the Lord. And as Iames Woe to them that say To morrow we will go to such a City and remain a year and there buy and fell and get gain and Isa. 9. 9. Wo to them that say in the pride and stoutness of their heart The bricks are fallen down but we will build with â—â—wn stones Beloved conclude this all power is his and all praise is his and if all be His then what hath any creature to do to take to himself any at all but this great sin of arrogancie is that which runs through the whole world great and small and who sees it and who checks himself for it saying what have I done This is that which rules in the very Devils themselves Nay this is the Devil in us For they think they have a power and so walk according to their own wills and see not that they act by the power of God for God is all power all act and no creature stirs or moves but by him he is their act and their being thoâ—gh not of evil for though God be The orderer of evil yet he is not the Author but men would hence lay the fault on God and excuse themselves And very strange conclusions men have made through mistake that because there is in God an active positive consulted and deliberate reprâ—obation of certain men before their sins were committed yea before the Creation and because also t is said we can do nothing without him for in him we live move and have our being therefore they conâ—lude that the evil of action as well as the Action belongs to Him not understanding to distinguish between the Act and the Evil of the Act no no you are deceived you conclude thus because you cannot comprehend his waies and so you would bound limit and circumscribe the Almighty by your narrow Reason But you must distinguish between the Act and the evil of the Act all Act is Gods but he is free from the evil of any Act. All evil is thine and all good is Gods And therefore Hos. 13. 9. O Israel thy perdition is of thy self but in me is thy help but this I cannot now enter upon we therefore return to our point in hand Till Christ be pleased to discover himself to be there to be in us we are stark blind until He say to our eyes Ephatha be ye opened Else how do we walk and â—et up and down in our pride and arrogancie both to wards God and men and begin to beat and oppress and lord it over our fellow-servants what an â—nseemly thing is it that such worms and nothings as men are should walk so bolt-upright in insolencie and arrogancie boasting oâ—t themselves to be something when they are nothing They will revenge themselves and begin to 〈◊〉 their fellow-servants and reproch even those who desire to do their masters business as well and better then themselves affecting nothing so much as to rule and to be great Is this the carriage of those who have their eyes upon God who they know sees all their pride insolencie and arrogancie or rather is it not clear that this is the carriage of blind men ignorant men that say We see and therefore their sin remaineth And the Lord of such servants will come in an hour when they look not for him and will cut them asunder and appoint their portion with Hypocrites there shall be weeping and grashing of teeth The hainousness of his sin is seen
after me with a hungring and thirsting after truth and without slighting other worthy Teachers I here profess be they what they will be rich or poor if they have a feeling of these things in their own souls I profess they are more welcome to me then so many Princes or Potentates and for ought I know one of them may enjoy more of God then most Kings or Princes or Noblemen and shall enter into their Masters joy when they themselves shall be shut out for the poor are alwaies despised in the world You know the Prophet Esay saith ch 43. 8. Bring forth the blind people that have eyes and the deaf that have ears And saith our Saviour Go tell Iohn the poor receive the Gospel This is a digression by the way we return to our matter And although the storm and the lightning be now very terrible be not afraid change not your countenances nor be not so amazed stand fast our God is able to defend us Attend mind the business in hand and fear not we are about the Lords business our fathers business we are now discovering the powers of Darkness if we should now be snarcht away doing this work we should have comfort in it though the earth be removed saith David and the Mountains be hurled here and there we will not fear though the heavens should kiss the earth and all things be reduced to their first Chaos yet stand stil fear not but attend and we shall go on Saith Doctor Honour Be wise for thy self art thou willing to be counted such a Fool to be so hot in religion do any of the learned any of the great and wise men go this way canst not thou go on in a fine smooth moderate way and so shalt thou please all the World And thus these Doctors will dispute against those wayes which are of absolute necessity if ever a man come to Heaven If thou wilt go this way we go and seek for honour riches c. thou shalt be a man of some account all the world shall bow to thee thou shalt be accounted some body people shall flock to thee for counsell else if thou wilt not hearken and obey our counsell thou art like to lead an obscure And beggerly life Again there is Doctor Arrogance and he saith Be thou some body in thine own esteem exalt thy self seek thine own praise thou hast wisdom and power and parts they are thine arrogate and appropriate these to thy self and walk confidently and boldly on in thinâ— own worth and so he looks on himself as a Peacock and saith Am not I some body have not I done this and this and that Is not this great Babel sayes Nebuchadnezzar that I have built for mine honour and greatness Oh Beloved this little word 1 little do you think what a comprehensive vast word it is it is a little one as the Apostle Iames saith concerning the tongue but full of evil have not I brought about this and have not I effected that and so prides himself therein as if he had brought things to pass and sees not God acting and doing all in him and by him and in and by all the creatures This Doctor is none of the lowest but is every where in request he runs through the whole world but unobserved Arrogance you may observe almost in every man in setting up himself praising and admiring himself what great Acts he hath done being tickled and delighted with the praises of others but cannot endure to hear any other praised but Himself and though all men say not thus with their tongues because of their subtilty The Devil will not suffer them for they would noâ— be observed to do so yet t is the end of their discourse and in their hearts they say no less And men are ignorant how dangerously The Devil in them disputes and whereto it tends in taking from God that which belongs to him and arrogaâ—ing it to himself no less sin then pulling God from his throne as much as lies in them and advancing themselves into his seat Oh! poor crawling worms nothings worse then nothings to attempt this high Treason to the King of kings and Lord of lords for all power wisdom goodness and praise All is Gods and if all be his what right hath any creature to say or think any part thereof is his This is no less then the sin of Lucifer which threw him down from heaven This is Lucifer within us being not content to be as he was created but would be someâ—hing of himself he would aim at Gods seat Thou hast said in thine Heart I will ascend into Heaven I will exalt my Throne above the Stars of God I will be like the most High c. And this doth all the world by appropriating any good to themselves or any power to act without God for the creature is but a meer instrument in the hand of the Almighty and hath nothing of his own but sin and therefore they should in themselves be vile and nothing little in their own eyes else we cannot enter into the Kingdom of God as our Saviour saith Except ye be converted and become as little children ye cannot enter that so all praise and goodness and all power to act be ascribed to God alone And then comes up Doctor Reason Oh! He is a great man he is a learned Doctor indeed he is Doctor of the Chair at least when all the rest are â—â—â—enced yet he must be heard and he will believe nothing that you cannot bring within his bounds within his element whatever ye shew him if you shew him a reason for it then he is on your side If you tell him its reason he should regard his body he will believe you and that he should regard his soul above his body as the more precious and look out for the good of that that it may be saved hereafter he will believe you also because ye speak but reason to him but if you go beyond reason tell him any thing you cannot make him understand by reason he will if he can have you hist out of the Schools Tell him he must deny himself he must deny his own wisdom parts goodness he must become a fool that he may be made wise Tell him It is written I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring to nought The understanding of the prudent Oh! This is Harsh Doctrine then he cannot hear he cannot understand But when Iesus Christ comes into the soul he puts all these Doctors to sielnce he opposes and answers all he comes and preaches with authority and not as the Scribes he disputes with such power and authority with such a plain demonstration of truth in all his questions and answers that he makes the standers by amazed and astonished at his understanding and answers and brings all things into such a peace and tranquillity in the soul that there is no more jars
like a swine spake like a swine conversed like a swine and all this because he fed and fared like a swine he lived upon Husks the Letter of the Word without the Spirit and the MARROW And that would suffer them to follow the World To wallow in the pleasures the profits the honours thereof these and the like these he fed upon and these relished with him and nothing else but such like Husks and Excrements and Altogether carnal things was his meat and his delight Will not new food alter all even the whole man Judge therefore Brethren whether we may not call The Letter of this blessed wholsome and Heavenly Book which within it contains the Heavenly Manna and Angels food any other but the Husks To such men Whether it be any thing else to these men but the City of the Letter the Book sealed The Fleshly and bodily exercise which profiteth them nothing It is not yet Debir to them its true they call it the Word of God as the Jews did Oh! the Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord so they call it the Word the word I by all means t is The Word of God but you see it is not the Word to them for where is the Nourishment they get from it If they fed upon the Life and Marrow Alas to day How would it Alter their Lives and their Looks and reform their wayes and make them Look like Christians doing the works of Christians But they smooth themselves up with Crying The Temple of the Lord and The Temple of the Lord with a meer outside profession of godliness But the Prophet Tells them there They were deceived For saith he The Temple of the Lord Are these If ye Throughly amend your wayes and your doings If ye throughly exercise Iudgement between man and man c. But will you steal and murder and lye and commit Adultery and swear falsly and burn Incense to Baal and serve other gods and oppress the stranger the fatherless and the widow c. and then come and stand before me in my House which is called by my name and say we are delivered what for To do All these Abominations Is This House which is Called by my Name become A House of Thieves and a Den of Robbers Therefore I charge you in the name of God and as ever ye hope for heaven or think to see Gods face learn yet I know it is not in your power to learn but this I say To shew what you should be and what you must be if ever you enter into the Kingdom of God learn henceforward I say Not to keep this Book in your houses onely and in your heads But to BREAK the body of Christ that you may eat of the True bread saith our Lord This is my body which is BROKEN for you Learn to smite the rock that you may get the pure water of life running from under the Throne of God and the Lamb In the new Ierusalem and not outwardly to touch it onely for that will do thee no more good then if thou hadst Touched the body of Christ when he was upon earth yet many desired to see him and rejoyced to see him and To converse with him and Touch him and so it is now and alwayes hath been in all ages with most Professours in regard of the Letter and Externals of the Word Christs body does us no good except his body be broken and his blood shed for us Neither will the water you draw out of the Letter do you any more good for your souls then that water the woman of Samaria drew out of Iacobs well And He that drinketh of that shall Thirst again But He that drinketh of the Water that Christ giveth He shall never Thirst and It shall be IN HIM An Everlasting Well of water Springing up to Everlasting Life Let us Ministers and All others learn Rightly to divide the word of truth and not take the Outside alone but Outside and Inside together and then you shall find what it is To marry Achsah and to have The Rending of the Vail What it is to have The Upper Springs And the Nether Springs given you as your JOINTURE Let no man for Any thing that I have said think to undervalue the Letter and to trample it underfoot as Excrements and Prophane For though this be The Shell The Outside yet it is the Shell and it is the Outside but this is that I still say There is something within of more price of greater value Thus far prize it In that God hath by this means given us the Kernel In the Shell is the kernel to be found and without the shell ye cannot have the kernel As we can never see LIFE but we must see it in a mortal thing That lives so The Ever blessed Sweet and eternal Truth is in the Letter Hid as life is in Accidents and as fire in a thing fired for True Fire The Element of Fire ye can never see And Truth is as an Oyster in the shell fast shut up which shell must be forced open before you can have the meat And he that doth thus by the letter shall have the meat the vail Rent for him he shall have the priveledge to pry into the secrets of my God and he shall enter into his High and Holy place Now I humbly beseech God Almighty that your eyes may be opened to behold Those Mâ—steries that are Within Paul that blessed High-Flowen self-denied Apostle He being brought to this he not onely confest he saw things unutterable unspeakable so that he was so ravished therewith he knew not whether He was in the body or no but also this was another effect in him of the sight of these things Then sayes he I will henceforth know no man after the flesh Why because that was nothing many glory in the flesh in the letter in that they have seen the body of Christ That they have the Bible in daily use As if he should say away now with all these poor empty things Henceforth I will know no man after the flesh no though I had seen the Lord Christ after the flesh he would now he was come to this condition know nothing after the flesh no more no he went so far as to say that in that case he valued not the very body of Jesus Christ which was a very High and A strange word Men after the flesh And after the Letter judge it no better then blasphemy and would say so but that it s written in the Bible and had many that profess themselves Teachers and knowing men heard Paul say so not knowing him to be as he was they would not have been able To comprehend Pauls reach but All their voices would have gone clear To have burnt him for an Heretick And Christ himself also For many of whose actions were such they would have cryed Away with him Crucâ—â—ie â—im Crucifie Him it s not fit he should
Exod. 14. 9. of the Chariots of new Pharaoh that arose which knew not Ioseph who pursued Israel with Chariots being drowned in the Sea He and all his Chariots And it is said of Solomon that his Chariots were twelve thousand But the greatest number we read of in Scripture is in 1 Chron. 19. 7. were Hanun hired 32000 out of Mesopotamia Syria and Zobah Now I say Chariots were used in two regards As the great men and Princes of the Earth besides that common use for ease they had them either for their state and glory and those were for triumph or else for terror and dreadfulness and those were for warre Some Chariots were drawn with two horses some with 4 some with 6 or else for the more glory they were sometimes drawn with men So also as Chariots were to several ends so they were of divers fashions some were made of wood and some of Iron and some were made with Hooks according to their several uses and Ends for which they were So our great God when he will appear in Triumph or Terror Hath Chariots at command without borrowing buying or hiting c. And these Chariots are in one word HIS CREATURES in which he rides when he pleaseth Either for Glory and Triumph or else Terrour and Battel 1 Triumphant As he is said to be fairer then all Psal. 45. 2. that is there is none like him in mercies and compassions to those he loves Thou art fairer then the children of men therefore Grace is poured into thy lips So he is terrible above all in fury and dreadfulness to those he hates Psa. 66. 5. Come and see the works of the Lord he is terrible in his doing toward the children of men Those are Gods Chariots of Triumph when hâ— rides upon the Cherubims and walks upon the wings of the wind when he is clothed with Majesty and Honour and covereth himself with light as with a garment when he layes the beams of his Chambers in the waters and maketh his spirits Messengers Psal. 104. When he is clothed with Glory and Maâ—esty and cometh forth like a Bridegroom and as the Sun is his Tabernacle Psal. 19. 5. Then we may say O Lord our God how excellent is thy Name in all the Earth who hast set thy glory above the Heavens And as it is here in the 24. vers of this Psalm so we may say They have seen thy goings O God even the goings of my God and my King which art in the Sanctuary The Singers go before and the players of Instruments followed after among them were the dâ—msels playing with Timbrels 2 For Terror Let us see which are Gods Chariots for Terror and War as he is fairer then all so he is terrible above all as I said before as he is the God of peace Rom. 16. 20. so he is the Lord of Hosts Psal. 24. 8. God then rides in his Chariots of Terror when he makes darkness his secret place and at the brightness before him thick clouds passed hail-stones and coals of fire The Lord thundered in Heaven and the Most High gave out his voyce Hail-stones and coals of fire Psal. 18. When he rents the Heavens and comes down and causeth the Mountains to flow down at his presence as when the melting fire burneth to cause the waters to boil to make his name known to his Adversaries that the Nations may tremble at his presence when he doth terrible things which they looked not for Isai. 64. 1 2 3. And as in that Psalm 18. v. 26. With the pure thou wilt shew thy self pure so with the froward thou wilt shew thy self froward That is with those that will be at peace with him he will be â—t peace with them and with those that are at war with him he will be at war with them Yet think not that God changeth But so as it is in a Looking glass you know it represents unto you such shapes as is set before it yet all the change is in your selves not in the glass for the glass is alwayes the same in it self If you frown upon it it will frown upon you if you laugh upon it it will laugh upon you if you hug it it will hug you if you strike it it will strike you if you embrace it it will embrace you if you turn your back upon it it will turn its back upon you Just so it is with our righteous God as a man behaves himself toward him so will he shew himself towards him If we forsake him he will forsake us Chr. 15. 2. If we be stubborn toward him he will be stubborn towards us But if we cleave to him he will cleave to us if we embrace him he will hug and embrace us if we run toward him he will run towards us As you know what the Prodigals father did when he was yâ—t afar off but a coming and returning to his father His father ran to meet him and fell on his neck and kissed him And yet for all this God changes not our God is alwayes the same there is no shadow of change in him but the change is in us And he appears so to us because we are changed but in himself he is not nor cannot be changed but is ever the same like Mount Sion which cannot be moved â— But we go onto our Text The Chariots of God Quest. What are these Chariots of God Answ. Look but round about thee and thou shalt see those innumerable Chariots and Angels here spoken of for so many Creatures as thou seest so many Angels and Chariots of God thou seest they are all his Host they are all his Chariots wherein he rides and whether you see it or no Thâ— Lord is among them as in Sinai in his holy place The glory of the Lord fills them all had we but our eyes open to see it so and they are all at his command and there is no creature but doth his pleasure Oh Brethren how glorious and blessed a thing it is to behold and see that look how many Creatures visible and invisible thou seest or conceivest to be For the soul now to look on them as so many fiery Chariots and Horsmen for its defence and preservation and on the other hand how a fearful a thing it is to fall into the hand of the living God who hath all these Angels and Chariots at his command to execute his will and vengeance on those that hatâ— and oppose him Amos 3. 8. when this Lion roareth who can but tremble when God by any Creature roars against a man and threatens terrour to any one for when the Creature roars and threatens or when it comforts and smiles it is God in it I say who is he then that dare comfort And if God speaks peace to a man what Creature dares nay what Creature can terrifie If God be on our side
sheweth his handy Work dâ—y unto day uttereth speech and night unto night sheweth knowledge In these God rides more openly here ye may behold him with open face as it is Ier. 23. 24. Caâ— any hide themselves in secret places from him do not I fill Heaven and Earth sayes God So the Earth is a close Chariot wherein he rides God rides and abides in the close silent Earth though less glorious as to us as well as in the open and more glorious Heaven Psal. 18. 10 11. He made darkness his secret place and his pavilion round about him were dark waters and thick clouds he bowed the Heavens and came down and darkness was under his feet T is true he fills Heaven and Earth but in the Earth we cannot see him so open and manifest Sometimes he hides himself in darkness and sometimes he shews himself in light As he is light so he clothes himself with light Psal. 104. 2. like as he was to the Israelites he went before them in a pillar of a cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night Exod. 14. 19 20. He in himself is always invisible but in his expressions workings he is more secret more manifest Isa. 45. 15. Verily thou art a God that hidest thy self O God of Israel the Saviour For God was both the cloud and the fire that went before and behind the children of Israel and he it was that filled the Tabernacle he was in both though he exprest himself so diversly And when we have put off this Tabernacle of clay that hangs about us then we whom he hath appointed shall see him as he is Yet let me tell you no man can see God as he is not in his Essence no not the Angels in heaven they themselves are not capable of that nor ever shall be but then the scales of Ignorance and blindness shall fall from our eyes and then we shall see his Influence into all Creatures and how this infinite God Flowes into them all as the river of Thames or the Sea by its streams it flows into all the adjoyning Creeks Arms but into every one according to their capacity not according to their own greatness but according to the greatness or littleness of those Creeks So doth our infinite God Flow into all his Creatures yet these expressions are infinitely below him too narrow to set out God to you but something in a way of resemblance I say after this manner doth the Almighty Flow into all his Creatures into Angels Arch-Angels Cherubims Seraphims Into men into beasts birds fish into all creatures yet not according to his own infinite greatness but according as every one can receive him and according to their capacity For if God should fill his creatures or communicate himself to them beyond their capacities he should destroy his creatures As to Moses God shewed him as much as a creature could see and live for if God had shewed him more he had been blinded undone by it for things may be as well invisible by too much light as by too little by excess of light as by want of light As the Sun if it should shine unto us in that excess of light that is in it self and that it were not intercepted interrupted by vapours and by thick and dull aire or if we were nearer to it then we are we should see nothing at all But whatever we see not of God now while we are in the world it is not for want of light in God but for want of light in us because the thick scales and the thick Darkness are still before our eyes and the dark vail is upon our hearts For God is alike apparent in every creature in regard of himself yet the accidents and matter that clothes God in the creature hides him from our sight For if we ask the Sea or the Winds or Beasts or Men of God these all speak dully and darkly of him for thou art now a hidden God from our eyes though thou art in every creature thou art the action motion and being of every creature yet God himself is a hidden a close God As Iacob when he fell asleep and dreamed and when he awaked he cryes out Oh how fearful is this place this is none other but the house of God God was there before but Iacobs eyes were not opened for God is in every place alike and cannot be more in one place then another but till our eyes be opened we can never acknowledge it but as soon as they are open then we can cry nay then we shall cry out for we cannot contain ourselves with Iacob with a holy fear and reverence we seeing the fulness of his presence every where Oh how dreadful is this place this is none other but the house of God and the gate of Heaven doubtless the Lord was in this place and I was not aware Object T is true you may say I see indeed all the creatures are Gods House and his Temple but why doth he call it The Gate of Heaven Ans. Because every creature when our eyes and ears are open it plainly represents speaks out God with a loud voice it leads us to see God himself who is not onely the substance and being thereof but he is the action life and motion thereof it leads us to behold and enjoy the infinite God who is heaven it self Then we shall come to see and say Holy holy holy Lord God of Hosts heaven and earth are full of the majesty of thy glory And then shall we cry out one to another as the Seraphims Isa. 6. 3. And one cryed unto another and said Holy holy holy is the Lord of Hosts the whole earth is full of his glory Then we shall see him so fill all places and all creatures even as he filled the tabernacle with his presence and glory Insomuch that we shall be overcome by his presence and the excellency of his divine glory Take home this truth with you and the Lord fix it in your hearts meditate and often think on it till you come to see it and believe it That God fills every thing though you see him not And although he be hidden not onely from men but even from the Angels themselves in regard of his Essence yet whatever creature it be how little so ever it be it is the house of God and the gate of heaven for this is Heaven upon earth thus to enjoy God and therefore well may Iacob call it The gate of heaven He fils even the lowest hell and is as wel in the damnedst Lucifer in hell as in the gloriousest Saint in heaven in regard of his Essence because he is in that regard in all places alike But here is the difference the one seeth him not so nor yields unto him the praise and glory of his infiniteness and of his filling all things as the
therein who can stand before his indignation and who can abide the fierceness of his anger his fury is poured out like fire and the rocks are thrown down by him and darkness shall pursue his enemies Think upon this all you that forget God lest he tear you in pieces and there be none to deliver Psal. 50. ult But saith he Psal. 61. 3. The Lord is good and is a strong Hold in the day of trouble and he knoweth them that trust in him Oh Beloved Let us all then give glory from our souls to this our great God to this infinite and everlasting Being who fills all things let us all poure out oâ—r souls before him like Water and be melted to nothing in his presence And to that end First Let us subscribe to the infiniteness of our â—od in all his Attributes in all his ways in all his Creatures Let us alwayes believe it and have him continually before us that we may tremble to offend him even the wickedest man And that godly men may both fear and love him and that they may with strong confidence be rooted resting and depending on him who is the rock of Ages And Secondly Let us cry out with Moses in continual acclamations in that powerful Orarion when ever we think of him or behold him There is none like the God of Iesurun who rideth upon the Heavens for thy help and in his excellency upon the skie For the eternal God is thy refuge and underneath are the Everlasting Arm. Thou canst be in no trouble but he is by thee with thee in the fire or in the water where ever thou art Ps. 34. 7 8. The Angels of the Lord encamp round about them that fear him O taste and see that the Lord is good blessed is the man that trusteth in him O fear the Lord ye his Saint for there is no want to them that fear him The young Lions may lack and suffer hunger but they that seek the Lord shall not want any thing Iacob when he went from his fathers house was afraid he should have wanted Gen. 28. but God appeared to him in a dream and he beheld a Ladder reaching from Earth to Heaven The longest Ladder that ever was read of or ever heard of and the greatest builder hath made it and onely for his own use And Iacob by it saw that the providence of God was every where and Angels were continually passing up and down upon it being sent of the Almighties Errands not onely for protection but to be ministring spirits sent forth not onely for the good of those who shall be heirs of Salvation but for the good of all his Creatures So that we may say of the providence of God as David saith of his presence for they are both one Psal. 139. 7. Whither shall I go from thy presence if I ascend into Heaven thou art there there is the top of the Ladder if I descend into the deep thou art there there is the bottome of the Ladder The builders of Babel aimed to make such a Ladder but that which they could never do the builder of Heaven and Earth hath done but were they not very fools to think to build a Tower of ten thousand times 1000000 miles high But let us labour to see the eternal God at the top of this Ladder and everlasting arms at the foot of it then how can we doubt He that hears the Ravens when they cry unto him who have neither faith nor understanding shall he not hear thee O thou of little faith It is against both the promise against the practice of your Father that any of you should want any good thing Yet how full of complaints are all the sons of men one wants children another friends others honour others riches others health others preferment some all these but certainly you are deceived you do not want any of them for if they were good for you you had them not then indeed you wanted them but being not good for you you want them not for they in such a case will do you more hurt then good Therefore I say let the servant of God that thinks he wants any of these things pray for what he will he shall have it if he do really want them for not onely all inanimal or unreasonable Creatures which are Gods Angels when he pleaseth do owe their Suit and Service unto those that fear the Lord but even all the Angels of God in heaven they are all ministring spirits sent forth to minister for their sakes which shall be heirs of Salvation Heb. 1. 14. Nay let me tell thee if thou wilt command the Sun to stand still and the Moon in the valley of Ajalon as Ioshuah did it shall be done or the Sun to go backward upon the Dial as Hezekiah did or the Rocks to gush out water and the Heavens rain down Manna or the waters to be divided and the Sea to stand up as a wall as Moses did all shall be done and they shall obey rather then any of Gods people shall want any good thing Or if he will command Iron to swim as Elisha did Nay let him command the Covenant of night and day to be broken and time to be no more and it shall be done for Gods word can never fail nay heaven earth shall pass away but not one jot of his word shall fail But for all this I know and methinks I hear your murmuring thoughts still for all this you are not yet satisfied And you say with Iob Doth the wild Asse bray when he hath grass or loweth the Oxe over his fodder can that which is unsavoury be eaten without salt or is there any taste in the white of an egg We are sure we do want these things or else we would not complain we are sure we have them not and is there any sweetness in nothing had we fodder we would not lowe nor complain I answer Indeed that may be that you are without them 1. It may be you are not of the family of your heavenly father then what right or interest have you to expect them but you are servants to sin and to his enemies and yet would have him let you want nothing 2. There is a great difference between not having and wanting It may well be that you have not riches and honour and preferment c. but if you be the true servants of God it cannot be that you should want them David saith it was good for him that he wanted and that he was in trouble There is oftentimes more mercy from God and more comfort to us in Gods Rods then in these outward things which are onely esteemed Blessings for they are often no other but rods or else meat to fat us for slaughter for our happiness and comfort lies not in that which the tender
delicate or wanton flesh and blood saith is good as to eat Calves out of the stall and Kids out of the flock and then rise up and sing to the sound of the Vial and the Harp Can there be any true comforts in these discomforts which if attained are but vanity and if not attained are vexation of Spirit Teshavah Teshelemoth nay most commonly better not attained then attained because they prove but snares and destructions But here may be applyed that of Sampsons riddle out of the sowre came forth sweet and out of the eater meat therefore O that we could behold the love of God in all conditions Indeed there is nothing happens to the wicked that hath any thing of love in it but if we belong to him how heâ—vy soever the afflictions be or how evil or unjust soever the Instrument be from him it is alwayes just and is in love and intended for our good and the issue shall be sweet just and good Shall then any servant of God grudge at whatever such a Tender father lays upon him we suffer the fathers of our bodies to correct us as the Apostle saith Heb. 12. 9. and we gave them reverence and shall we not much rather be in subjection to the father of spirits and live so verily they for a few dayes chastened us for their pleasure but he for our profit that we may be partakers of his holiness I might shew you in many things wherein our profit by afflictions ariseth but this is not our point in hand we must return to it that we may end at present and commit you to God And let not me think because there are so many men and creatures in the world in Heaven and in Earth to provide for defend and protect that therefore I shall be neglected or that he hath not Armies and Angels enough to defend me or that thou who ever thou art that trustest in him shalt be neglected no no. To think because Kings and Princes and great Ones have Angels to defend them therefore to doubt there will be none or not enough to mind or to assist me Yea yea fear not he hath Chariots enough to assist all yea all his Creatures in all places in all times through all ages Beloved those sweet Babes the Kings children that now are How pleasant are they they take their sleep their food their play and care for nothing And yet little do they think how many heads must bleed and hearts must ake before their royal persons can be touched but I say they take their play and sleep quietly in their Cradles neither fear nor care toucheth them So my beloved Let the true royal seed of God do so Let all Gods Servants lie down in peace and take their rest and say O Lord thou alone makest me dwel in safety Psal. 4. for their Gods Armies lie round about them and shall make them all dwel safely They cannot be touched or hurt For besides al this that these millions of Angels both in Heaven Earth are their Guard That great General himself the King of Kings and Lord of Lords is their Saviour Protectour and his Everlasting Arms are under them for evermore But it may be their infirmities and their ignorance wil not let them see it or confess it yet little do they know how many thousand thousands of the Armies of God must be overthrown before Gods people or any one of his children can be touched before ever any one member of Jesus Christ can be hurt for this God as he is great dreadful so he is a God infinite in bowels and compassions who fills and commands all Creatures and all his Armies and Chariots are for their defence relief and protection And therefore from henceforth and for ever let us all cry out in an holy admiration Oh the Heighth Depth Breadth and Length of his Power and Mercy and Loving-kindness 1 HEIGHTH For saith David Psal. 36. Thy Mercy O Lord is in the Heavens and thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds Thy righteousness is like the great Mount ains and thy Iudgements are a great deep O Lord thou â—reservest man and beast How excellent is thy loving kindness O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the â—adow of thy wings â—hey shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house and thou shalt make them drink of the Rivers of thy pleasures For with thee is the fountain of life and in thy light we shall see light 2 DEPTH Psal. 86. 13. Great is thy mercy toward me thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest Hell 3 BREADTH Psal. 104. 24. O Lord how manifold are thy works in wisdom hast thou made them all the earth is full of thy riches 4 LENGTH Psal. 98. 3. He hath remembred his mercy and his truth toward the house of Isaael all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God And now Brethren if this OUR great God be Lord and Governour of the House what then can be out of order If he be our spenditory our house of Store what fear of want If he be our Treasurer what fear of poverty Surely he hath enough and enough infinitely more then enough He can make the Philosophers Stone he can make gold he can and will create comforts and therefore let all these things stay your hearts and depend on him as on that Rock to whom there is none like him though all the men all the Kings Princes on earth should consult and conspire together and all contribute their utmost to make thee happy yet there is none like the God of Iesurun who rideth upon the Heavens in his help and in his excellency upon the skie for the eternal God is thy refuge and underneath are THE EVERLASTING ARMS And so I commit you to God and to the word of his grace which is able to build you up and bring you on to perfection Militia Coelestis OR The Heavenly Host The second Sermon upon Psal. 68. 17. The Chariots of God are twenty thousand thousands of Angels The Lord is among them as in Sinai in the Holy Place At Giles Criplegate in the Afternoon the Repetition omitted WE may well call this Verse The heavenly warfare wherein as I told you were contained four things 1 Their nature they are the hariots of God because God was pleased to ride in them 2 Their number the Text saith that they are twenty thousand thousands of Angels and I told you from the Text that they were Infinite 3 Their name they are called Angels 4 Their Commander and that is God The Chariots of God are twenty thousand even thousands of Angels We spake of these two in the forenoon we come now to the two last The third is their name Angels There is much adoo about this name of Angels what they are what their nature is but we will not now stand
much upon that the most do consent that all the creatures are Angels The word it self signifies especially in this plaâ—e an ambassador or a messenger now all the creatures being so messengers or ambassadors from God they must needs all be Angels But if a man should speak now unto the wisest in Israel and tell them that God sent Angels into every womb there to frame and create the Infant would he not wonder But what if I should say that the very forming-power is an Angel This could not be digested yet it is true for every particular influence in every creature is an Angel observe this that never any one Angel was sent on two errands nor never any two Angels on one errand for all the whole creation do joyntly together sing the infinite praise of their most wise Creator there is not the wickedest man alive but sings and sounds forth Gods praise as much as the holiest though it may be against their wills for if they sing not the praise of his mercy yet they sing as much to his praise the glory of his Iustice. God makes even the very worst of his creaturs sing a part of his praise Ask the craggy Mountains what part they sing and they will tell you they sing the praise of the immutableness unchangeableness of God Ask the flowers of the field what part they sing and they will tell you they sing the wisdom and liberality of God who clothes them beyond Solomon in all his glory Ask the Sun Moon and Stars what part they sing they will say the constancy of Gods promises that they shall hold their course and not alter it Ask the poor received sinner what part he sings and he will tell you he sings the infinite free mercy of a most gracious Father And ask the wicked obstinate sinner what part he sings and he will tell you he sings the praise of his patience and Iustice. And truly my beloved not one creature but sings apart and yet all together all that ever were and that are and that ever shall be put all together yet they do not sing no not the thousand thousand part of this infinite eternal God As the Queen of Sheba when she came and heard Solomons wisdom she confessed that what she heard of him in her own Countrey although incredible yet it was not the tenth part of that she saw and heard so though all creatures sing Gods praise yet All and all if they were a thousand times more then they are yet they all do not yield the thousand thousand part of that honour and praise that is due to him for he hath all perfections in him and he also gives and distributes to the several creatures those several parts and portions they have As I have often told you the perfection of any one species cannot be known by any one individual And so Gods Church is a glorious Church taken not as being in any one member but in the compleat body As the perfections of a man cannot be known by any one man for if one man have wisdom another hath sobriety if one hath patience another man hath temperance so that the beauty of the Church cannot be known by any one member be it never so excellent If Abraham hath faith Iob hath patience if Ioseph hath chastness Moses hath meekness c. so that as you must not look for the perfections of a man in one man for if one be as fair as Absalom another is as proper as Saul if one hath proportion another hath sobriety c. so neither must we look to see the admirable perfection of the Spouse of Christ that is all fair and hath no spot by one member neither by all that are now living upon the earth or that were but look upon all that ever were are and shall be and adde to them their Head Christ and then it is a beautiful Church indeed and in her no spot at all So though every creature express God One one attribute another another and they speak his praise wonderfully yet they come infinitely shorr of him and though altogether they say somewhat yet not the tenth part of him not the tenth part of his Iustice not the tenth part of his patience not the tenth part of his Mercy c. One is sent to deliver a message of his love another a message of his justice another a message of his patience another a message of his liberality and bounty all of several errands and whatever message he sends any creature on he is alwayes just they all do but his will Though they sin and transgress and therein think they do their own will that makes it sin but they all do his wil therefore it is said Ps. 103. 20. Bless the Lord all ye hosts ye Angels that do his pleasure and although it be more properly spoken of those Angels that are invisible in the air in the heavens yet it may well be also applied to all creaturâ—â— for he hath made them very little lower then the Angels onely in the Angels below matter prevails above the form but in the Angels above form prevails over the matter for if our forms were not bounded and fastned to the earth by their matter even we should be as the Angels of God so that we should no sooner think or desire to be in any place were it never so far off but we should immediately be there for how soon can my spirit convey it self in thought thousands of miles but my body cannot be there but by times and succession of gradation and by steps The reason is because the form is imprisoned in the matter earth goes to earth and ashes to ashes and dust to dust naturally because it is its center but the spirit goes upward naturally the higher we go from the earth the more pure the elements and the nearer the earth the more gross the more dull the more sad and lumpish it is impossible that a heavy body should hang in the air for every thing tends and bend to his center if it be a heavy body it will fall downward the water is purer then the earth the air then the water the light then the air the fire then the light and so more and more spiritual till you come to him who is All Spiritual Spirit it self And for those Angels are out of our sight which are said to be in heaven you know there are degrees of them some are Angels some Archangels some Cherubims and some Seraphims 〈◊〉 therefore if you have observed it if ever ye saw Angels pictured they were drawn with compleat bodies from head to foot but yet to shew they are above a man and more spirit therefore they have alwayes wings which shew that they are above us in their Nature and are carried above our element but Arch-angels they are pictured with half bodies cut off at the middle with wings shewing that they are further off
will fight and kick with those that would do them good And our Saviours counsel is Cast not your pearls before swine leâ—t they turn again and all to rent you I say again some of the Servants of God have found it so and for goodwil freeness and faithfulness and not keeping back any part of Gods counsel have been ill-rewarded rent and torn for their faithful counsel and it hath therefore been the Serpentine Wisdom of others to hide their talent in a napkin that so they might avoid the cross of Christ and sleep in a whole Skin I remember a speech of R. Moses More Nevochim part 3. chap. 34. Legem accommodatam esse ad totam gentem communiter non ad singulos the Law is fitted for the people in generall for all the Nation and not for particular persons only There was and is many a good man who wants those outward things when those that are evil have them in abundance as well then as now And shall we then say and conclude the word or promises are not true no God forbid Heaven and earth shall pass away before one tittle of his word shall fail Mat. 5. Therefore I say they in the old Testament and also we now mistake because by Moses was promised the Kingdom and the Land flowing with milk and honey temporal peace multitude of children bodily health these were in themselves temporal blessings but they figured out spiritual because these were promised but to the old man under the old Law and those that look no farther now under the Gospel what are they better then the old Jews and the CHILDREN of Israel 3. I affirm I have alwayes holden it a dangerous thing especially of late years to press God with particulars of temporal things as of health wealth honour c. but to leave all those things to the will of God walking on in our duties and calling and leave the success to him But while we are in our childish condition we are still telling God in this regard what he shall do for us and how he shall govern the world and when we would have fair weather and when rain and when a fair wind and so every man would serve his own turn and then I pray thee if thy will be done who shall take care of thy neighbour t is no matter though thousands miscarry and fail of those things so thou hast them it matters not What kind of prayers do you think are these dost thou in thy self think God were wise if he should answer thy prayers that which is for thee as thou thinkest is against multitudes of others and who shall seek their good that wind that serves thy design is as much opposite for others And therefore my advice is be very tender how you press the infinite wisdom of the Almighty Who when he will bless he will turn crosses and evil things as thou esteemest them to be the greatest blessings and therefore let the Almighty Alone in governing the Heavens and the Earth by his power and wisdom he hath upheld supported preserved and ordered the heavens and the earth to our knowledge almost these six thousand years well enough and I le warrant thee he will do it still without thy care or direction Who shall teach him knoledge and Who shall shew him the way of understanding or being his Counsellor hath taught him I remember a speech of Bernard Longe a Deoest animus qui in oratione c. That mind is farre from God or Heaven which in prayer is full of earthly requests And I say for the most part men are mistaken both in the nature and end of prayer which is first to ask things according to the will of God and our end ought to be God and the things of God in which our happiness is involved 4. I affirm it is certainly more excellent to seek the Kingdom of heaven and the righteousness thereof then to trouble God and our selves with wordly requests I say still distingue tempora distinguish of seasons there is a time when we may take more liberty because we know no better and we think it a great deal of Religion that we will acknowledge God and will come to him for temporal blessings but as the Apostle saith Behold I shew you a more excellent way covet after the best gifts Then doth God best accept thy prayer when thou onely seekest him for himself and not when thou seekest any other thing by or through him this will declare what thou lovest him for whether for thy self or himself what thou most lovest what thou most earnestly prayest for and what thou most weepest for when wanting that thou most lovedst when thou hadst it but to all true believers both in this as in all thinigs God is their end their chief love c. and therefore tis him they seek to enjoy above all things Although it be with the loss of all things Him they esteem Portion enough And to conclude I affirm as it is said of Abishai 2 Sam. 23. 19 there were three most honourable among the thirty but Abishai was the most honourable of the three therefore they chose him their Captain And so say I prayer is honourable in its time season and seeking for temporal blessings according to the will of God but more honourable in seeking graces to adotâ— the soul and inward man but when in prayer we seek God for himself having so much love to him such strong desires after him that we forget and lose our selves and mind onely him as our chief end then say I let Abishai let That Prayer be Captain for that hath done the most honourable of all the chosen Worthies the other have done worthily but this is the more Honourable of all the three for if we had time we might shew you that there can no prayer do more worthily then this for it answers first to the Lords Prayer Mat. 6. 17. Secondly to Christs Prayer immediately before he suffered Iohn 17. Self-denialls in his resignation to the will of his Father and love to his Flock Disciples and Members A most ravishing prayer and such a prayer as no man ever prayed but time will not suffer me now to open any thing about it Thirdly this prayer is most agreeable to the example of the Apostles who under-valued all the world to enjoy the life of Christ insomuch that they esteemed his Cross their Throne and his sufferings their Crown So that by all this we have said you may examine your prayers of what excellency they be consider the matter and end of your prayers whether they be of Flesh or spirit whether in them you seek God or your selves And with the words of the Apostle Rom. 7. 6. I conclude all for this time seeing God hath put it into your heart to seek him and to worship him Let it not be in the Oldness of the Letter but in the Newness of the
he will Tear and Rent the Man and when he doth not though he seem to depart he keeps possession still or will Return with seven other spirits worse then himself Many perswade themselves they have grace because they are of a smooth fine affable disposition and carriage and many Prophets daub them up with untempered morter as if they had grace from their Cradles whereas indeed All men are as deep in Adams fall one as another and one as hard to be recovered as another I have shewed you upon another Text how all must suffer with Christ none excepted if they will be glorified with him and shewed you wherein viz. All and every one must be emptied and humbled as Christ was When Christ comes to cast the Devil out of these men in person himself I le warrant you he will Rend and Tear them When for Christ and to enjoy the life of Christ they must be emptied of all their fine natural endowments and come to see the ugliness the sinfulness of all their thoughts words actions and to be arraigned as the vilest Malefactors for all their great progress in Religion for even these are as far off the life of Christ as the other And they must be at the mercy of the Judge as much as the other And their Secret and Heart-Idols and defilements are as odious to God as the other I pray where is then their In-bred gracious natures If they must pass through that Condemnation and annihilation and abdication and indifferency c. as I then shewed you And must fight with the strong man Armed before he be cast out I le warrant you they will find this A Fiery Tryal Also the Apostle calls it A new birth What throws and pangs is there in natural births And do you think there is less and easier in the New birth No no deceive not your selves far far more for ye must be Slain and Crucified with Christ. I pray consider seriously of these things and be not deceived and lulled asleep nor receive not any such pillows under your Elbows from any for they cry peace peace when there is no peace and they say Thus saith the Lord when he hath not spoken unto them but they flatter you with the visions of their own heart Jet 23. 16. But be sure these unclean spirits are in every one of us naturally and they depart not without Tearing Beloved know All these are the unclean spirits in men that God will cause to pass out of the Land Zech. 13. 2. And I say t is to be suspected That when as the unclean spirit goes out without RENTING he intends a second return And contrarily where Satan departs with Renting he hath no hopes of re-possession For where he spoils and tears his lodging at his departure he finds that he that is stronger then himself casts him out and that such a soul is weary of such a troublesom Guest and turbulent intruding Inmate whom he rents he leaves and whom he Teares God Repairs whom he Rents God Renews Oh how I desire to have all our hearts Rent for then and not till then will God regard them Rent your hearts saith Ioel Joel 2. 12. And A broken heart a soul that is contrite and rent O Lord thou wilt not despise Psal. 51. 17. And therefore O sweet Saviour Rebuke thou all our unclean spirits with power command all our sins and corruptions to depart out of our hearts let them not reign or have the dominion over us but be thou our Lord our King and reign over us Other Lords indeed have had rule over us but do thou set up thy Kingdom O Lord and cast down thine Enemies under thy feet Thy Kingdom come for thine is the Kingdom power and glory for ever AMEN Come Lord Iesus come quickly ALL POVVER Given to IESUS CHRIST IN HEAVEN AND IN EARTH MAT. 28. 18 19 20. All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth c. In one Sermon Preached at a private Meeting in Old-street Augustine and others with him reckon this to be the ninth and last time of our Saviours appearing to his disciples after his Resurrection And that for this end he appeared so often to manifest the truth of his Resurrection and yet for all this some still doubted as you read in the foregoing Verse And they had great cause for though he had appeared to so many and so many times as this being the ninth time and it is also said He was seen of more then five hundred brethren at once yet for all this some doubted and although the Disciples were particularly appointed by Jesus to come at this time into this mountain and when they saw him they fell down and worshipped him yet some for all this doubted they knew they had seen him in great and extreme sorrow and anguish of soul even to the utmost that the malice of men and Devils could invent they saw him yield up the Ghost and they thought they had done their last office for him accompanying him to his execution and death and so to his grave and sepulchre but here He after many appearings to them to confirm their saith appears this once more and it seems to be very probably the last time of his appearing immediately before his ascention and now he gives them a commission and command To go and teach all Nations as it follows in the 19 and 20. Verses baptizing them in the name of the Father c. and teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you for â—o I am with you alwayes even to the end of the world And because they should be able to shew their Authoritie and Warrant if any should ask who sent them he tells them He that is IAM hath sent you IAM is with you and further tells them that their power they shall derive from Him For all power is given to me in heaven and earth And these words however they be few in number yet there is in them an Abyss of matter there is a mighty power and a vast length and breadth height and depth in all His words for His words are alwayes full of sense spoken to the highest pitch that our capacity can conceive or reach The words of Christ are most pure free from all concourse of the depravedness of the creature they are like the pure wine that he made at Canaan there is no tincture no brackishness no leaven of the old Adam or of the Pharisees Mens writings and speakings are alwayes low they have in them some Allay of humane weakness but in his words there is not the least allay they cannot admit of any moderation or modification Others it may be writ they knew not what themselves as I may so speak even the Penmen of the holy Scriptures for they wrote things beyond their own comprehension they being directed by another spirit they spake not of themselves but the holy
Ghost In them for all Scripture was given by inspiration 2 Tim. 3. 16. after they were once set apart by God to write the holy Scriptures they all spake as they were moved by the holy Ghost as Dan. 12. 4. God commands Daniel Shut up the words and seal the Book even till the time of the end These holy men being once set apart for this use they prophesie Beyond themselves and out of course and latter and after-times shall make known that which they themselves which wrote them knew not for they spake as inspired by God but Christs words are alwayes absolute and perfect truth he knew and saw very well what he said there is nothing useless in his words there is no Tautologies as we call them no vain repetitions when Christ speaks they are words of weight words of power they carry vertue with them as for instance if ever the winds blow and the storms arise in thy soul Then thou shalt find experimentally and feelingly that One word from Christs mouth will do thee more good then all the words and all the power of men To Still those winds and storms those who have experience here of know it full well as we see when the ship was like to be Overcome by the winds and storms and Christ was asleep you may see there how One word from him Ceased them No more but Peace and be still and t is the same in the soul and Psal. 107. 29. He maketh the storm a calm so that the waves thereof are still These words we have now read All power is given to me in heaven and earth They signifie that Christ is God equal with the Father but there seems to be a great difficulty in the words in that Christ never said before he was ready to leave the earth All power is given unto me in heâ—ven and earth The question is What power had Christ now committed to him that he had not before what new power received he that when he was to leave the earth and had given his Disciples a Commission and it was to be sealed at the day of Pentecost that he should say now and never before All power is given me in heaven and earth what addition of power had he now which he had not before if he be God equal with his Father and he saith many times The Father hath committed all judgement to the Son and again Before Abraham was I am and many such like words which shews he is God and of Equal power and Authority with his Father and yet he saith in the 14 of Iohn The Father is greater then I Can God receive any new Access of power No certainly but these words are so hard and difficult to reconcile that in the daies of Arius it filled the Church full of Errors and Heresies the Church fell much at Odds for many from hence denied the Divinity of Christ because they could not reconcile these Scriptures And by the way if he be Lord of all power then he leaves none for man to claim to himself But that I may answer this doubt and make it clear I will lay down two grounds First Although God receive no new power in himself yet he doth receive power by being made further known unto man And Secondly By mans being made further known unto him First By his being made further known unto man the revealing and discovering of God unto man making himself more known the manifestation of this is said To Adde power to him but not That any thing can be added to him who is infinite if there could he were not infinite and He were not God But know this whatever attribute God hath ascribed to him it is in regard of his creatures not in regard of himself for there are no such things in God Neither in regard of his incommunicable or communicable Attributes as Eternity Infiniteness Omnipotency Immensness c. Or in regard of his communicable as Wisdome Iustice and Mercy and Patience c. as if these were several things in God for God is One and cannot be more for when he is said to be any of these Iust or Good or Severe or the like these are all One and the same thing in him they are but Attributed to him that we may conceive of him it is but spoken of him according to the several workings of God on the creatures As for instance the Sun makes the Roâ—e to smel sweet and pleasant and it makes the Nettle to sting it makes the fields to grow and cast a Pleasant savour but it makes the Carrion and the Dunghil to stink and all this variety is by one and the self-same Sun the same light and heat doth divers things causes divers effects in the subjects Says the Rose it makes me fragrant and sweet and says the Dung-hill but it makes me stink and be unsavoury says the Wax it makes me soft and pliable but says the clay it makes me hard and obdurate yet the Sun doth not do one thing to one and another thing to another Even so Beloved it is with our God One man He finds God A comfort and a rejoycing to his heart another he finds God A Terror and an Amazement to him One he finds God A sweet guide and direction to him and thereby and therefore he draws nearer to God loveth and embraceth him Another apprehends God an enemy to him and this makes him run away from God Is God therefore thus various no no He is the self-same God to the One and to the Other and the self-same action in him is to the One and to the other He that is a Hammer to the Hard heart he is also mollifying and softning Oyl to the Penitent soul He that is A comfort to the fatherless and widow he is as an Enemy A Revenger and a consuming fire to the obstinate and rebellious And yet for all this Our God is always the same he is not nor cannot be changed in him is no shadow of change And therefore we cannot imagine that he can grow greater or less in regard of himself but as To us he doth that is if he manifest himself more to us more within us in our souls then he is said to be greater and if he lessen the knowledge of himself As to us then he is said to grow less And in this sense also he is said to come nearer to us and go further from us As also he is said so to do when he expresses as to us more or less some act of justice or mercy or any other artribute then I say he is onely said to be so in regard of us To grow greater or less to come nearer or depart further but He in himself is for ever blessed and perfect Unchangeable Immoveable always the same we can no way Touch him or Alter him but it is onely We the Creature is Altered and he is altered to us as to
thou art dead to every creature thou canst never make this boast Beloved if you would have power to remove mountains and to offer violence to the Kingdom of heaven then you are to be thus qualified that thou hast experimentally seen and felt in thy own soul how that thy sins have ploughed and made long furrows upon his back as David saith and how you by your sins have quenched the light that is in you and how in thee he is crucified dead and buried and how thou hast drawn grave-stones of custome over him and how you have buried his light resisted and grieved his spirit in you and that you have found him arise in your own souls that you have really seen and felt all these things actually done within you his birth his life his death his resurrection that as his enemits have overcome and crucified him within you so himâ—rise â—rise gloriously and triumphantly within you and that he hath put down all his enemies under his feet In thee insomuch that thou hast heard him and seen him and felt him crying within thy soul Isa. 1. 24. Ha ha I will now arise I will avenge me on my adversaries Now I that was crucified am now risen again so that you see his glory and the love of him triumphing in you so that now thou canst truly say with David Psal. 27. 4. Now I am so far gotten from and forsaken the world and my self that now I desire but one thing and that will I seek after even that thou wouldest give me thy self unite me and make me One with thine own life that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life and visit his Temple You being once come to this pass Really in experience then you also may say All power is given to me in Heaven and Earth for then you are as I may say within an inch of being swallowed up into God and then are you ready to leave the earth and all things therein for this man he is become one spirit with the Lord And if we be one spirit as Chriâ—ts prayer hath purchafed Ioh. 17. 21. That they may be one as thou and I are one that thou mayest be in me and I in them and they in me that the world may believe that thou hast sent me if it be so then Christ himself lives in us and all our words are the words of Christ we have no thoughts but the thoughts of Christ we have no life but Christ lives in us as the Apostle saith I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me And then also as the Apostle again saith and so may you say All is yours and not before Whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or things present or things to come all are yours and you are Christs and Christ is Gods You being come to this as you may claim a right to all things so you may claim a Power over all things for you are already set down in Heavenly places with Christ himself in the very glory of God the Father who is blessed for ever But yet many there be that wil claim this right and appropriate to themselves this power and life when alas they are farre from it they will assume and presume that this is their condition when indeed and in truth Christ and his life is as yet buried in them He is not risen in them he hath not conquered nor gotten victory over his enemies but he is still crucified and made to serve their sins and their lusts Self-will and pride and arrogancy and vain boasting is still alive in them he hath not as yet Avenged himself on his enemies But pride and covetousnes and love of the world and praise of men these things live in them still and Christ is dead and so much the more dead and crucified in as much as they glory of that which is not conceiving Christ is theirs when as all their wayes are contrary to him and yet they conceive themselves made One with him when as it were far better they had a true sight of their opposition and contrariety to him And therefore thou must know thou art but an usurper to claim this power and right to all things in which thou hast no part For when a man is come to that life we formerly spake of then he is made Lord of the earth and hath then Real dominion over all the Creatures And made little lower then the Angels as it is exprest in Psal. 8. Then thou belongest to and art one with him who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords though you see it not A supposition of two drops reasoning together As suppose two Drops apart from the Sea should Reason together and the one should say to the other Whence are we canst thou conceive whence we are either whence we come or to whom we belong or whither we shall go something we are but what will in a short time become of us canst thou tell And the other Drop should ansâ—wer Alas poor fellow-drop be assured we are Nothing for the Sun may arise and draw us up and scatter us and so bring us to nothing Says the other again Suppose it do for all that yet we are we have a Being we are Something Why what are we saith the other Why Brother Drop dost thou not know we even we as smal contemptible as we are in our selves yet we are members of the sea Poor Drops though we be yet let us not be discouraged we belong to the vast Ocean How saith the other we belong to the sea to the Ocean how can that be We have heard of the mighty greatness of the Ocean we have heard that there is the huge Leviathan that sports himself there who is so great and terrible he feareth none whose heart is as firm as a stone and as hard as a piece of the â—ether milstone the mighty are afraid before him who feareth not the spear nor the dart nor the Habergeon who esteemeth iron as straw and brass as rotten wood the arrow cannot make him flee-darts are as stubble and he laugheth at the shaking of the spear who maketh the deeps to boyl like a pot and maketh the sea like a pot of ointment so that he maketh a hoary path to shine after him and upon earth there is not his like What that we are of the Sea how can it be We have heard the Sea is great and wide Wherein also are things creeping innumerable both small and great beasts there is that Leviathan who is made to play and sport therein and they that go down into the sea in ships and do their business in great waters they see the wonders of the Lord in the deeps there are the huge roaring waves that mount them up to heaven and suddenly they fall down into the depths and their souls melt because of trouble and those great
pious and precious proverb All things must be comprehended and keep Sabbath there must be no going up no running out nor no work done Seeing God desires not Our works but Our Sabbath and that himself in us Free and None Hindring him a MASTER and a GOD may Work Know Love Praise Pray Hear Crown and Reward HIMSELF in us Beloved without all doubt this is the ONE and Onely thing that pleaseth him And he commands All Flesh that in Divine matters it never Stir it self or desire any thing And therefore it is that I in this Book have Robbed man of all and Rejected him with all his Best Ware and most Precious Riches that he had in Divine businesses viz. Of all his Will Knowledge Wisdom Goodness All these must we Unlearn from all these must we Fast and keep Holy-day as from the Tree of knowledge of good and evil from whence Death is eaten And therefore there is in Heaven meer Peace Gladness Felicity as where there are Eternal Sabbaths and no Will but Gods Will Light Knowledge Art Wisdom in all his Saints whereby he doth Illustrate and Enlighten them And Christians do pray in the Lords Prayer that the same thing may be upon earth and that the will of God may be there done as it is in Heaven where no man Doth Wills Knows Speakes any thing but God who will have and in Christ hath Appointed this Sabbath also upon Earth This God grant unto us all Amen A most clear Glass and lovely Example of our Lord Iesus Christ which as he practised in himself so he propounded unto us to be followed and it may serve for an EPILOGUE or Perclose of this Book out of the 106 page of Iohn Taulerus his Works printed at Colen in Folio 1548. VVHosoever desireth to order his life according to the most Acceptable will of God and to be Partaker of his grace without any impediment ought warily to look into this Instruction following of the life of Christ which containeth all good things and to express it in his life and conversation Therefore every good and religious Christian ought in all things and above all things aâ—d at all times with all the strength of his soul in all his thoughts words and works purely to love and intend for God who is the eternal happiness and blessedness of all men as his own Portion which that he may the better do he shall most strictly observe himself within and in silence hearâ— what the Lord saith within him and avoiding all Imployments and Multiplicity he shall rest with God in unity He shall Shut up all his Senses in quietness Continually Praying and Calling upon God His eye being Fixt on him in all his actions He shall enjoy His Presence in every place time and thing He shall be A perpetual inhabitant of himself and shall Especially love Truth of heart and peace of conscience He shall be milde and Humble in heart as well as in word and be Divine and God-like in his life and conversation Taking Patiently All things at the hand of God He shall Praise Thank Honour and intend him in all his works He shall be always Endued with a certain humble Abnegation ordering of himself to what God wils shall submit himself not only to God but to All creatures avoiding those hateful vices Pride Envy Wrath and Arrogancy Moreover perpetually considering and marking the Goodness and Perfection of God He shall wonder and be astonished at the great love and faithfulness of God toward him and contrariwise at his own Unthankfulness and Infidelity judging himself from his heart The Least and Unworthiest of all men He shall more diligently take heed of his own Sense Estimation and of all the wickedness of his nature neither shall he think More of Himself then he hath from or of Himself which is indeed Nothing He shall alwayes take in hand a certain New life and exercise himself in New virtue and in New Truth He shall be Sober and Sparing in words but Plentiful in Holiness of life and shall desire to be Left and Despised of all men as men He shall much weigh Small sins and shall think The least defect not light He shall take so great care of Himself that he be never frustrated of the presence of God in his soul and that other men may be by him provoked to better things he shall do all his works in the most Perfect manner and shall Satisfie those things which he comprehends in his understanding He shall by his good will do nothing in this life to repent of hereafter He shall have In daily Adversity either within him or without him perpetual patience and in continual Multiplicity A Recollected mind he shall not 〈◊〉 either to Have or to Will any thing Proper in this world but be ready to distribute to others wants nor to have any Election oâ— Choise in things but receive thankfully The goodwill of His Father in every thing He shall admit nothing within himself but God continually He shall diligently Eschew and withdraw himself from all men as men and shall preserve himself Naked and Free from all Inwardly-received Images and his soul Untangled from all Accidents whatsoever that he may continually receive The Influence of His Heavenly Father into his soul. He shall often behold and Exercise himself in the Most worthy Life and Example of our Lord Jesus Christ As in a glass considering well How like or unlike He is unto Him and He shall in himself give an Ensample and Testimony to all men Of A Better life then This He shall be True in all his words Religious and Mature in His conversation He shall contemplate His beginning and Original From whence He and All things flowed forth and shall Strive with all diligence To return into the same again Finally tending diligently What He is whether He Ought what He Doth and for What cause he doth every thing and shall most constantly persevere in virtue and truth even unto Death And all this not by any power of his own but by Christ He alone Working all these things in him and not Himself nor Any His own Industry or Acquiring Another short Instruction taken from the same place in Iohn Taulerus his works pa. 107. VVE shall most certainly Attain The Various and Numerous exercises of this Book yea whatsoever can be written of a Perfect and Divine-like Life viz. by this means if we withdraw our selves from the love of all frail and mortal things if we study to attain an humble Resignation and inward Nakedness and embrace Onely God by faith and love in the bosom of our souls and hide our selves wholly with our Souls Spirit Body Heart and Senses in his Most Holy Humanity and labour by a certain lively imitation to become comformable thereunto and Finally by His life and merits Inhere and cleave continually and perpetually to his Divinity Whoâ—oever is enabled by Jesus Christ to do These things doth doubtless Obtain all
This is the Shadow of that House of Clay Where dwelt a Soule that richly did Display Such Light of Trueth abroad as did Viseal The Book of God and Hidden Things Reveal But hauing left That House now dwels Aboue In those Bless'd Mansions of pure Light Loue. T. Cross Sculpsit M B THE Gospel-Treasury Opened OR The Holiest of all unvailing Discovering yet more The RICHES of Grace and Glory TO THE VESSELS of MERCY Unto whom onely it is given to know the Mysteries of that Kingdom and the excellency Of SPIRIT above LETTER POWER above FORMS TRUTH above SHADOWS In several Sermons preached at Kensington elswhere By JOHN EVERARD D. D. deceased Whereunto is added the Mystical Divinity of Dionysius the Areopagite spoken of Acts 17. 34. with Collections out of other Divine Authors translated by Dr. Everard never before printed in English 2 Cor. 3. 6. Who also hath made us able Ministers of the New Testament not of the Letter but of the Spirit for the letter killeth but the Spirit giveth life Verse 10. For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect by reason of the glory that excelleth 1 Cor. 2. 6. Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect even the hidden wisdom of God in a mysterie London Printed by Iohn Owsley for Rapha Harford at the Bible and States-Arms in Little Brittain 1657. To all those who through the power of Christ in them have attained to esteem it their Wisdom long to be despised accounted Fools by the World 〈◊〉 his sake and the Gospels whose knowledge â—isdome and Guifts hath made them not Great and 〈◊〉 according to the custome of the World but Little yea Nothing in their own esteem who notwithstanding are the True Of-spring of God the Only Right-Wise and Honourable with Him and the Excellent upon Earth TO such only are these Sermons dedicated they knowing what these things mean but not to the Great and wise men of this world For saith our 〈◊〉 All men cannot receive these sayings Mat. 〈◊〉 11. A rich man can hardly enter into the Kingâ—â—me of heaven nor he especialy who is Rich or 〈◊〉 in his own esteem Nay It is easier for a 〈◊〉 or Cable to go through the Eye of a 〈◊〉 Needle then for a Rich man to enter into 〈◊〉 Kingdome of God And saith our Lord 〈…〉 I say unto you Except ye be converted 〈…〉 little Children ye cannot enter therein But whosoever shall humble himself as a littâ—â— child The same saith he mark the word 〈◊〉 no other shall be greatest in the Kingdome of Heaven These onely are they that can Deny theâ— selves in all things and take up their Crosse daâ— ly following their Lord and Master in the samâ— path he hath trod out before them being 〈◊〉 with his own Baptisme they wait upon 〈◊〉 as his serâ—ants and covet to be like him In all his afflictions reproches and death 〈◊〉 meek how lovely how courteous how 〈◊〉 how amiable how gratious was he 〈◊〉 all his behaviour How ready to pardoâ— and pray for his enemies There was no guile founâ— in his mouth He never reproached the vildest sinner how patient meek and loving was he 〈◊〉 them how did he pitty and tender them anâ— weep over them because they were so fast bounâ—â— in Satans chains Only he fell very foul on the 〈◊〉 and dissembling Outside Religion of thâ— Pharisees their gilded seemingly Holy outsides He could never endure Because though therâ— was an unreproveable and glorious outside yâ— within nothing but Stenches rottenness and 〈◊〉 bones like unto gilded and stately Sepuâ—â—chers without but within all manner of rottenâ—ness and loathsome Stenches And he chose raâ—ther to keep company with the grossest sinner the Publicans rather then with these Because themselves and others had so high an esteem of them and thought them righteous by reason of their grave and demure outsides to make others believe it was so or rather better within when it was quite otherwise He sought not Himself nor his own glory but the glory of his Father He endured the Cross despised the shame His life was to go about doing good even to his enemies He would gladly have done good to the proud Pharisees but they could not endure him because he did not reverence and admire them as others did but dishonour them and discover their nakedness and loathsome insides Those that are his servants they in their measure strive to follow their Master in all good things They have the same spirit Full of meekness and tenderhartedness to all Free and ready to do good they love all creatures for his sake they can see no creature in want but their bowels Yearn to help them being much troubled if they have not wherewith to supply their wants These indeed like their Master can Welcome the Crosse yea kisse the Crosse every day and expect bearing of the Crosse in every thing they do whether they be Actions Civil or Spiritual in their Almes or Charities to men or their religious Worship and duties to God They in all bear the Crosse alwaies about them Therefore that of the Papists to me is a pretty Embleme of these mens lives in this regard though they abuse it in an external outward foolish and Superstitious way but the Morral and signification to this purpose is by some very aptly applyed Viz. Every thing they have to do with or what ever they begin or go about The Crosse The Crusifix as they call it must be made upon it when they rise or when they go to bed or whatever they do they will not forget that so is it very truly and really applyed to these men And the more they esteem themselves Blessed for the Papists think themselves Blessed by doing it externally and the fewer Crosses they use the more they think are their curses But in this sence I am sure t is a real truth That these Self-denied Little-Ones know by experience then whom for any to offend it were far better for him That a Milstone were hanged about his neck and sunk headlong to the bottome of the Sea That the more of the Crosse they bare they reckon they are the more Rich the more Happy This taking up the Crosse and Denial of themselves they account it their Life their Portion their Inheritance their Blessing their Crown yea indeed their Heaven upon Earth As for all the things of this world they sit as loose to them as Elijaâ—'s Mantle which as he Ascended fell from him to the Earth to which it belonged These Souls they willingly and freely have departed from the love of this World and expect no love from it but rather Hatred but they having found the Pearl of great price of invalluable price they slight all Sell All for this Pearl For they have resolved and concluded in their souls in good earnest as it is Prov. 4. Wisdome is the principal thing therefore say they I must what ever I
those that hunger and thirst for them and who cannot be satisfied without them and to none else Besides all this the importunity and sollicitations of many Scholers and other Christians from time to timeâ— who having experience of these practical things in themselves who though they want much of the Doctors schollership and parts yet deemed them worthy the publishing and have now prevailed to communicate them publiquely assuring themselves that those who have the things themselves in them will not be captious to spy out faults but receive in good part what is well intended Moreover another main reason of deferring them no longer is the abuse of many truths more broken forth of late them foâ—merly many of those Diamonds of truth being therein cleared and polished which have been so much abused and abased either by those filthy dreamâ—rs who have as to men wofully mistaken corrupted and defiled many glorious truths and by their false and devillish conclusions have not onely given occasion but a justification to defile the â—lesh falsly pretending that truth allows it though truth in it self cannot be corrupted or defiled or else by those blind Seers of 〈◊〉 times who yet calling themselves Prophets but are not do as Isaiah saith Isa. 5. 20. call truth errour and errour truth call darkness light and light darknesâ— evil good and good evil c. here also thou shalt find many of those Diamonds and prâ—cious Tâ—uths taken up from under their feet having been by them so trodden in the dirt as to men I say still they not knowing the worth of them by their viâ—ifyings and by their foul names of Errour Heresie Familsm c. because they knew not a true and right Diamond or if some yet not all and thâ—m they knew not they presently vilifie as cheating and counterfeit indeed few can know them from such or from dirt they have so daubed and trampled them in the miâ—e yet here thou shalt find them made orient spaâ—kling and refulgent as â—it to be numbred among those foundation precious stones whereof the New Ierusalâ—m is built Rev. 20. And those blind Seers pourtraitured to the life and their seemingly-holy disguises pulled off And yet in all this we have said commendatory of the Author Christian friends do not think that we have gone about to praise or liâ—t up Man or that we would have you fasten your eyes on any creature whatever No no God forbid far far be any such thing from our thoughts for what is man or wherein is he to be accounted of neither was it the Authors practise at all to lift up Man neither do we here present him as a perfect man but with Eliah as the Apostle saith of him Iames 5. 17. He was a man subject to like passions as we arâ— and with Lot Abraham David Pâ—ul and Peter he had his infiâ—mities but he could say also with Paul 〈◊〉 me that is in my flâ—sh dwelleth no good thing But I dâ—ligâ—t in the Law of God aftâ—r the inward man now if I do that I would not it is no more I that do it but sâ—â— that dwelleth in me neither did he ascribe any good either graces or gifts to himself but all to God he would not set that crown upon his own head or upon the head of any creature but with Paul confessed Gal. 2. 20. I am crucified with Christ nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me And when God had wrapt up his spirit in pâ—eaching even as it were to behold himself in the third heaven yet he had that prick in the â—lâ—sh which would cause him often to say even in publique Beloved if at any time you find any good by me or see any truth more then you did before or find your souls raised from death to life or the Cripple from his mothers womb healed and cured within you or if you see any grace any gift in me as Peter to the Jews Ye men of Israel why look ye on us so earnestly as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man walk if you see in me any good know that is none of mine I dare not claim it neither can any creature claim it But if you see in me or your selves any sâ—â— any evil that is most properly mine and yours and yet it is not I that do it but sin that dwelleth in me but all good is Gods whatever it be that comes under the notion of Good under what name soever it is Gods and his onely So that we have onely hereby laboured to set and six your eye on him from whom all excellencies slow to see and behold the excellencies and vertues not of man but of him who calleth from darkness to light from the power of Satan to God and that you should wonder and be amazed that the Almighty should stoop so low as to work in men and to communicate of his own nature and put â—orth his mighty workings in and through such poor nothings as men are And in this respect let no man â—ear to speak to the utmost freely and fully of the Vertues Excellencies and workings of the Lord in the hearts of his people for in them he displayes his gloâ—ies they are his Sanctuary his Temple in them he rests as in his holy hill where every one speaks of his glory and although these motions and mighty miracles be wrought in man yet they are not of man or by man Therefore let men or whoever shall have occasion to speak either of the dead or of the living but keep to this rule and fix their eye on him to whom all glory and praise is due and then let them set forth freely and fully whatever vertues or what ever is praise-worthy in any of the sons of men thus far made the sons of God then they need never fear to be charged with flattery or hope of rewards from men Let not so far as lies in man the graces of God and his glorious working in his Saints dye no not when thâ—y dye 〈◊〉 this is far from over praising the dead or the 〈◊〉 as the mistake hath been though man may and must return to his mother the Earth and to his principle of dust yet let the Lord alone be exalted and in this sense spare not to speak out freely the vertues and endowments of God in any man although for the best of man or men we must say of them with Daniel and other Saints To us belongeth nothing but shame and confusion of face for ever but to the Lord honour and glory mercy and forgiveness for over and â—ver Let no man appropriate to himself or put upon others any good for all good is fâ—om God and whatever is evil is mans although naturally and generally mens practises are quite otherwise appropriating all good to themselves and nothing of evil whereby the poor blind creature Man deludes his poor soul while
be for a fire and his holy one for a flame and it shall burn and devour his thorns in one day And he is FIRE in three regards In regard of Burning Heat Light First The nature of Fire is to burn Fire cannot burn it self take notice of that fire cannot burn fire but all things else it will burn and consume So doth Christ he is that fire that burns up all our works and whatsoever is not himself and his own work INUS he consumes and annihilaâ—es The Light of Israel shal be for a fire and his holy one for a flame it shall burn and devour his thorns and his brâ—ers in one day Know this the more sin the more fire the greater burning Mal. 3. 2. Who may abide the day of his coming who shall stand when he appeareth for he is like refiners fire and like fullers sope Christ is this fire and let me tell you this burning and consuming is for your good it is that out of the old ashes of the old man you may have a new life a new resurrection Examine thy self hath this fire cut off thy hands and feet and pulled out thy right eye hath it consumed thy young men 〈◊〉 hath it burnt up thy OLD heaven and thy OLD earth that so ye may enjoy a new heaven and a new earth 2 Pet. 3. 7. Nay further let me aske thee hath it thrown all thy gods in the fire hath it burnt up all thy idols yet I tell ye this burning is not unto death but unto life as Christ said of Lazarus This sickness is not unto death but be sure that as the Lord Jesus Christ burneth up and woundeth so he healeth and maketh alive again I would and I heal Secondly the work of fire is to heat so Christ after he hath destroyed and burnt up all our actions then he breathes into us a gentle warmth and heat of his own Spirit to cherish and revive us again that so we may no longer live our own lives but the life of Christ. Thirdly The nature of fire is to give light when That day dawns to us that Christ comes into the soul we shall find He brings light with him and this is called Christs day Our first day is our own day that is a day of darkness a day of gloominess and thick clouds but the day of the Lord is a terrible day our flesh trembleth for fear of thee for who shall abide the day of thy coming and who shall stand when thou appearest for thou art like refiners fire and like fullers sope When Christ comes into the soul he comes not onely with light to discover but like fire to burn up all that building that we have made to our selves and that we have raised by our own power and breathes warmly and gently by his Spirit his own life until by degrees he brings a glorious light into the soul He then turns us from darkness to light from the power of Satan unto God And all this is done by one and the same act in God although those acts be divers and distinct in the creature that is the same act in God which comes to the obstinate and perverse and hardens them which comes to the humble and meek and softens them the same act in him Hardens and Softens as the Sun doth wax and clay That same God which was darkness at the bottom of Mount Sinai was light in the top of the Mount He is the same God in himself to all but he works diversly in regard of the creatures He is the same God in a frozen and hard heart as he is in a repenting and bleeding soul but to the one he appears not but in wrath and vengeance ready to take revenge on them for their sins but to the other he appears in mercy and love and marries himself to them he communicates to them his sweet loves and their wills are swallowed up in his and these onely are they that can say in truth Not my will but thine be done but the other they cannot forsake themselves their own will their own ends but this is but by the way And this you see in brief what the fire is Our God is a consuming fire But now what is the salt I know it is divers wayes taken and expounded Some take it to be wisdom and discretion in speech and for proof they cite that place of the Apostle Let your speech be alwayes gracious seasoned with salt for so Solomon saith A wise man may hold up his head before Princes and they give this reason As salt keeps things from stinking so doth wisdom so salt and season a mans words that his words may not be unsavoury to wise men so that he is not laught to scorn Others take it for holiness and sincerity in life and conversation as our Saviour saith Ye are the salt of the earth Mat. 5. 13. that is say they when by their living well speaking the Truth in their words and expressing holiness in all thir actions this seasons their lives maketh them savoury before God and men So also they interpret that of our Saviour Mat. 5. 13. Ye are the salt of the earth but if the salt have lost his savâ—â—r wherewith shall it be salted it is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden under the feet of men when men live not as they profess they are unsavoury and men tread such mens profession under their feet and therefoâ—e say they He admonisheth them to strive for integrity of life and soâ—ndness in doctrine and constancy in suffering for these things honour their profession and seasons them with salt and makes them savoury to God and to men But to be short and without any more circumstances that we may come to the matter intended The fire and the salt are both one and that is Christ himself as I have told you He is the fire so He is the salt as the Apostle saith Heb. 2. 11. Both he that sanctifyeth and they who are sanctified are all one So Jesus Christ he is the fire that salteth and the salt wherewith it salteth as is exprest in the verse before the Text. Indeed I confess the Apostles also were called Salt Mat. 5. 13. Ye are the Salt of the earth saith Christ himself not that they were the Salt themselves or the salt indeed but they were those which uttered the salt they taught salt as I may say and where rathâ—r as we may call them Salters those which sold and uttered the true salt which is CHRIST to the world But I say of them as the Apostle Paul saith 1 Cor. 3. 4 5. While one saith I am of Paul and another I am of Apollo who is Paul or who is Apollo but Ministers by whom you believed neither is he that planteth any thing nor he that watereth but God c. and in another
every where But shall I tell you how yoâ— may come to handle him with your hands and see him with your eyes Thus Can you but take off all accidents from every thing and then that whiâ—h remains is Christ Their Angels alwaies behold the face of their father which is in heaven As if you take from me all heighth and depth all greatness and littleness all weight and measure all heat and cold and all kind of matter and form for these are all Accidents and then that which is left is He which BEARS â—p all even Iesus Christ blessed for ever even He that dwels in Heaven and in the bosome of his Father in his Pavilion and in his Secret place He clothes himself with light saith the Psalmist as with a garment Light is the next thing to God himself the purest Accident For all that may be smelt felt tasted seen heard oâ— understood all these are Accidents and therefore saith the Apostle the fashion of this world passeth away for the fashion of this world are but Accidents for take away all kind of fashion visible and every thing that can be imagined under any form whatsoever and then you shall find Jesus Christ the Son of the father the first-begotten of all creatures the Beginning and Foundation of all the works of God The IMMANUEL God with us All accidents must pass away all the fashion of the World and whatsoever must passaway let it pass away and that which perisheth or is to perish let it perish but still Christ remaineth he changeth not he is not subject to Accidents or any change but he remains alwayes the same He is yesterday and to day and the same for ever Therefore lay not hold on these transitory things but lay hold on the Anchor of your souls which is Both sure and stedfast and that entreth into that which is within the vail Heb. 6. 19. Highness and lowness pass away greatness and littleness pass away youth and age pass away weight and lightness pass away and all the beauty and glory of the Creature but still Christ who is the salt and the substance that still remains For there was something of me before I was either high or low great or little heavy or light old or young c. and that was Christ The beginning of all things And Christ being thus as we have shewed you you then see what ground Christ had to call himself The salt of the earth for all these things being taken away ye shall find him to be as the salt of every thing thâ—t is Christ he is the Strength the Holder the Knitter the Composure and Compacture of all things His name is The word of God Rev. 19. 13 He is The word by whom all things were made in him was life and the life was the light of men this light shineth in darkness But the darkness comprehendeth it not All Accidents are darkness and hide God from us He is the image of the invisible God the first-born of every Creature for by him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth visible and invisible whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers all were created by him and for him and he is the beginning of all things and by him all things consist Object But it may be you will say to me How can that be true of Christ Salt is good but if the salt saith he hath lost its â—avour wherewith shall it be salted It is neither meet for the land nor yet for the Dunghil but men cast it out He that hath ears to hear let him hear What shall he be seasoned withal can he be infaâ—â—ated or unsavoury Answ. The decision of which doubt falls propeâ—ly under the second general question of my 〈◊〉 My second question answers this viz. What iâ— is to have salt He in regard of himself seasons all alike He in himself doth not season some more and some less or some have him and some have him not but as it was in the gathering of Mannâ— they all gathered enough thoughsome gathered more some less they lacked not nor they had none left so Christ is in every one in regard of himself alike that is in regard of their real and essential perception and participation of Christ. He is the form of forms the soul of the soul and he cannot be more in one place then in another But here to have salt is to see to know to feel and believe and assure our selves that we have this salt and that Christ is in us Christ is in regard of himself every where and in every one alike but every one believes it not alike If we should attempt to speak of God as he is in himself in his essence as abstracted from all creatures so he is unknowable neither Creating nor in possibility of being Created as t is said in Prov. 30. 4. Who can declare his generation his name or his sons name if thou canst tell he is unknowable unnameable Canst thou by searching find out God We cannot conceive of his manner of being in the creature but acâ—ording to his manner of working in the creature As Iacob when he awaked then he saw that God was in that place then he cryes out Oh how terrible how dreadful is this place this is none other but the House of God God was there before as much as he was then but Iacob was not aware of God The whole creation is Gods house Gods Temple but we see it not so we see not God in all places nor in all creatures as Iacob did then till our eyes be opened God is alwaies in every creature and he is there alike in his Heaven in his Holy place and he cannot be more in one then another but till we be awaked till our eyes be opened till the scales of ignorance and the thick darkness be removed we cannot acknowledge it But as soon as ever they are open then we see God was and is in us we were not aware and we shall then cry out of every place and of every creature O how dreadful is this place I see now this is Gods house and Gods Temple and I knew it not Till then God had made as David saith darkness his secret place and his Pavilion round about him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies but when he pleaseth to discover himself then it follows in the next verse At the brightness that was before him his thick clouds passed hailstones and coals of fire then the Lord was seen and heard for he thundred in the heaven and the Highest gave out his voyce they saw then that it was He alone that wrought in and through all the Creatures that it was he alone that gathered and scattered and discovered the foundations of the world He it is that turneth the Nations of the
may be of no effect Christ may be to thee infatuate unsavoury good for nothing as he is in reprobates Now I hope is answered that Question What if the salt hath lost his savour wherewith shall it be salted Christ who is the true salt in himself he cannot be unsavoury and good for nothing but he may lose his favour in thee and to thee may be as a thing good for nothing because he dyed in vain to thee his cross is of no effect and so may be as he saith himself good for nothing but to be cast out and troden under the feet of men Alas brethren Christ blessed for ever he in himself cannot be said to be good for nothing noâ— he cannot be troden under the feet of men but till their eyes be opened to see him and acknowledge him as he is that they be aware of Christ and oâ— his presence and greatness and filling all things they as it were tread him under foot And as it is said Heb. 10. 29. How much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy of who hath troden under foot the Son of God and hath counted the blood of the convenant an unholy thing wherewith he was sanctified and hath done despite unto the spirit of Grace But beloved none of all these things can any creature do to Christ in himself for to him all Angels cry aloud Rev. 4. 8. The heavens and all the powers therein cry continually Holy holy holy Lord God of Sabboths heaven and earth are full of the majesty of thy glory No creature can dishonour him in himself but in â—hemselves and to themselves they tread him under foot because he lives not in them and so they see not neither acknowledge him or his workings in them Then my beloved let us make this use of this If this salt be in us and that wee see it is he that is our life and our motion then let us not onely give ear to him but let us love reverence and obey him and hearken to what he woâ—ld teach us and work in us let him be sole Lord and Saviour to us to deliver and save us from our lusts and from Satan nay if this salt be in us these will be the fruits and effects that will follow To love reverence and obey him God himself proclaims him to be his well beloved Son in whom onely he is pleased hear him Silence then your selves deny your own life hear no longer your selves nor your own lusts what honour saith what profit saith what self and your own by-ends saith But hearken now to what he commands This shall be your wisdom before all people this shall be your life and he that findeth his life shall lose it but he that loseth his life thus shall find it Beloved Christ being once dead dyeth no more saith the Apostle and yet he saith again That we crucifie to our selves the Son of God afresh He in himself cannot dye cannot be crucified no more but to our selves and in our own soules he maâ— be and is crucâ—fied daily that is when your lusts and your sins live then Christ he is dead and you have crucified him of whom you have been the betrayers and muâ—therers as Stephâ—n said to the Jews Acts 7. 52. so that he hath then losâ— his savour and his taste in and to thy soul for thou tastest him not seest him not nor feelest him though he be in thee Further know this that Christ himself is that salt himself hereâ—ommandeth â—ommandeth To have salt in our selves is to have Châ—ist himself in us as if he should say Though I be in you as I am in all things in all creatures yet my being there doth you no good except you feel and see me there except your faith believe me there and your life express me The third and last point is What is it to have salt in our selves We must have salt in us 1. Exclusively and 2. Inclusively not onely to see Christ in our selves and in â—ll creatures as we have shewed you but to have it in our selves is to be sure we look to our own 〈◊〉 whether we have this salt or no and this is a necessary Exhortation now in these times when men are so ready to neglect themselves and are so much in questioning the estates of others We are too ready to â—udge and condemn otheâ—s that tâ—ey have not this salt but heâ—e we are admonished 〈◊〉 others alone and first be sure to look circumspectly that we have it in our selves Another mans grace will do thee no good if thou haâ—â— none in thy selfâ— Warm thy self at thine own fire and drink the waters of thine own Cistern as Solomon counsels Prov. 5. 15. And who made thee Iudge over others what hast thou to do to take Christs office from him he is appointed to be Iudge of quick and dead Acts 10. 42. Yet thou wilt take upon thee to be Iudge and to sit in Christs throne thou wilt be judging and censuring of thy Brethren before thou hast censured thy self Christ is not in such and such men thou canst spy motes in thy brothers eye and perceivest not the beam in thine own Mat. 7. 5. whereby thy sight is quite put out as to thy self You know Christ himself when he was here in the slesh when they brought to him the woman taken in Adultery sayes he Hath no man condemned thee neither dâ— I. John 8. 11. Beloved did he disclaim this Iâ—dicature and shall we presume to take it up shall we overlook our selves and judge reproch and condemn other men This man hath no grace and that man hath no grace away away with all these things such a man O he is a wreâ—ched sinner and thou wouldst have God destroy him and plague him thou wonderest God doth not strike him down dead and seest not thy self how vile thou art Lord shall we call for fire from heaven said some of the Disciples away away saith Christ Ye know not of what spirit ye are of Leave off then â—udging of others and leave all â—udgement to God Vengeance is mine saith the Lord Christ could have writ every mans sins in his forehead as his are whom thou despisest to be read and seen of all men But thy sins are more secret and hidden and yet as odious to God as his and this thine own conscience knows what would become of thee I pray thee â— if all thy secret sins were written visibly in thy forehead But know that this gift of having salt in our selves is not in any mans power to take but God onely must give it where and when he pleases to bestow it they shall have it and none else And in his time and not sooner nor later But this command to have Salt in our selves is as much as to say before you go about to search other mens cellars that you see your cellars be
the shell of the Letter except we go further and Iesus Christ opens the seals and shews us the life the marrow That which except it be given to us we cannot understand And therefore the Apostle flatly denies all other knowledge 2 Cor. 5. 14 15 16. for saith he the love of Christ constraineth us because we thus judge that if one died for all then were all dead and he dyed for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him that dyed for them Wherefore saith he in the 16. verse henceforth know we no man after the flesh yea though we had known Christ after the flesh yet henceforth know we him no more What may be the meaning of this blessed Apostle thus seemingly to sleight the very body of Jesus Christ In all probability he never saw the body of Jesus Christ upon earth in that 33 years he lived here except he had a vision of him as he marched to Damascus when he was smitten from his horse His meaning therefore must needs be If we know Christ after the Letter never so exactly the whole history of him what avails it Our knowledge of Jesus Christ must be internal spiritual experimental to live unto him that dyed for them if a man be not as the Apostle saith in the succeeding verses made a new creature altered and changed according to Christ in the inward man so that he lives no longer to himself but to him that dyed for him so that all old things are past away and all things are become new so that there is by the mighty power of Jesus Christ a new man begotten in us as the Apostle saith My beloved of whom I travel in birth till Christ be formed in yoâ— This is indeed that Christ that died for us else Christ dyed not for us his cross is of no effect he dyed in vain to us T is not all the knowledge and believing that ever thou canst attain to of an external Christ will do thee any good without a Christ begotten within thee a Christ in experience Hath any man gotten or attained though by much pains and industry any taste any knowledge of Christ otherwise it is but old things old knowledge old learning attained by the power of the old man fot self-ends And all old things must pass away saith the Apostle That knowledge that was conveyed to us by our parents or by our School-masters let it be what it will or by whom it will by all the Catechisms and Books that can be made and that we are able to apply them to our lives according to the Letter t is all but old things old knowledge as the young man in the Gospel he knew the law and had kept all those things from his youth but he failed in point of self-denial he obeyed from old powers and to old ends And although we had all knowledge and all power and all conformity in this regard before Christ be created in the heart it must all pass away This is that knowledge that we cannot depend on This is that knowledge that the Apostle regards not he esteems it Nothing let it be never so glorious and splendent and though all the world hath received it and in their words own it though in practise they renounce it he counts it all dross and dung Why St. Paul what manner of knowledge then is it that thou wilt know nothing besides it And that is the second thing he answers it himself in this chapter Lo if ye are able to understand saith he so that the god of this world hath not blinded your eyes we do speak wisdom even the hidden wisdom of God yet in a mystery not the wisdom of this world nor of the Princes of this world which comes to nought indeed this wisdom it tends not to outward pomp not to riches nor honour nor the setting up of men and parts but we speak wisdom to those that are perfect to those whom Jesus Christ hath pulled off the scales from their eyes What mystery is it to know Jesus Christ his death and resurrection outwardly and all the circumstances Will this faith save you No but to those that know no more we are very fools and they can see no wisdom in our words The carnal man knoweth not the Profound the Deep things of God neither indeed can he because they are spiritually discerned But he that can divide these waters shall have dry and firm ground to walk on and over Iordan safely He that can crack the shell those can rellish and digest these precious mysteries And to those they are the preciousest dainties in heaven and earth they are the sweetest excellencies wherein their souls can live and die these are the souls which delight themselves in Fatness undervaluing the world and all things therein as seeing them lean and empty things But to the carnal man and he that will go no farther then the Letter these truths we now speak of are the unrelishablest the tasteless est the sapless est meat you can give them we pour but water in their shoes ye cannot please them worse then when you talk of these things or preach of these things because ye are out of their element t is as unwelcome and as Nauseous as a câ—p of cold water they are sick of such doctrine To tell them that they must be killed and slain their own knowledge their own lives must be crucified they must no longer have their own desires their own wils their own affections but must be content to cross themselves in every thing and to take up their cross dayly and follow Christ else they cannot be his Disciples oh here is vinegar and gall ye are the unwelcomest men to them in the world they cry with the Jews Our soul is weary of this light meat give us somewhat that we can feel give us some ponderous thing some comfortable thing somewhat that our senses may see and feel good Alas this is not the Heaven we look for Can we think it a happiness to be destroyed to be killed and crucified Give us such a Christ and such a Heaven as is good to our outward man who will let us have credit and honour and riches such a Christ that we may believe in who died so many years ago that will save us outwardly such a Christ that will be good to my eyes to my hands and to my feet to my back and to my belly such a Christ as will save us if we do but externally and litterally believe in him and will let us have our own wils and speak our own words and please our affections and save our souls at last I marry Sir Here is a Christ indeed this is such a Christ as all the world would have But give me leave to tell you This is a Christ of thine own making this Christ which thou speakest of
was never of the Fathers sending he comes unsent the true Christ is hid from thee But as the Apostle saith if our doctrine be hid it is hid to those that perish but to us who believe it is the Savour of life unto life but to all others the Savour of death unto death He is to us sweeter then the hony or the hony comb more dear to us then thousands of gold and silver This Christ is more precious whom we are now unfolding to you that truly believe then all the riches and glory yea then all the lives in the world And That we may come to open this Iesus Christ to you if so be your eyes are open or else we shall speak but parables and paradoxes to you as Christ did to the Jews and they will but make you more mad as he did them more enrage them against himself That ye may understand what we speak of and intend we must first wave the knowledge of the History of Christ externally and then we shall come to the knowledge of the Mystery of the true Christ of that Jesus Christ which is able to save your souls and to make you wise unto salvation The other knowledge cannot do so for if it could the Devils themselves should be saved Therefore it must needs be another kind of knowledge then they have it must be more then the knowledge of the Letter and outward face even of the whole Scriptures It must be a hidden knowledge and that is the knowledge of The Mystery namely a real lâ—vely and experimental knowledge of Iesus Christ wrought in thy heart by the power of himself Even like unto Flowers or Herbs or any other thing that grows on the ground by the heat and power of the Sun if there be not something communicated to them from the Sun that is of the Suns own nature they grow not at all but they wither and dye if the Sun warm them not and comfort them they grow not but dye So if there be not in every one of us something of Jesus Christ that is of his own nature the same mind the same quickning Spirit the same disposition and the same new nature something of his own off-spring we are but in a dead and perishing condition all that ever we know otherwise is meer folly in this regard be their knowledge never so excellent and glorious to those who have not Jesus Christ in them As that wicked Pope said when he had shewed such a vast treasure of riches See saith he how that Fable of Iesus Christ hath inriched me So to these men what ever they talk of Jesus Christ and of the knowledge of him to them the true Christ is a meer fable a meer tale as he thought outwardly to inrich him so they think this Fable of a deceitful Christ hath and will enrich their souls But except we know Christ feelingly experimentally so that he lives within us spiritually his own natural life insomuch that whatever any man hath known in the Letter and History of him that he know the same within him as truly done actually in his own soul as ever Christ did any thing without him in the days of his flesh else it profit nothing And to find all that ever you read of him to be verified in you experimentally It is not Jesus Christ without us can do us any good he is no Christ to us all his actions are in vain to us they are all as a meer tale a meer song to us As one of the Fathers said It was not that Christ that the Virgin Mary carryed in her womb that did save her but that Christ that she carried in her heart And our Saviours own words express as much Not blessed is the womb that bare thee and the paps that thou hast sucked but blessed are they that hear the word of God and kept it They that would have any benefit by Jesus Christ they must have him in their hearts Born within them not only to know that Christ was born at Bethlehem but born in them and not to know onely that Christ dyed at such a time so many years ago this will do you no good except you experimentally find and feel how he is crucified dead and buried within you Let no man what ever he be delude you and make you believe that any other Christ will save you Let no man upon pain of the salvation and damnation of his soul once dare to think that any other Christ will do him any good and that he experimentally feel Jesus Christ risen again within him and all other actions that ever he did that still he finds him doing the same in him as Saint Paul saith My beloved of whom I travel in birth till Christ be formed in you not Christ divided and by halves but whole Christ formed in you When you begin to find and know not onely that he was conceived in the womb of a Virgin but that thou art that virgin and that he is more truly and spiritually and yet as really conceived in thy heart so that thou feelest the Babe beginning to be conceived in thee by the power of the Holy Ghost and the most High overshadowing thee when thou feelest Jesus Christ stirring to be born and brought forth within thee when thou beginnest to see and feel all those Mighty powerful and wonderful actions done in thee which thou readest he did in the flesh For Christ is not divided saith the Apostle but yesterday and to day and the same for ever There is not one Christ without us and Another within us but that same Christ that was then upon earth must be spiritually in us growing and encreasing and doing the same actions still Now Beloved here is a Christ indeed that will save you here is a Christ A real Christ that will do you some good this is The Christ which indeed Alone and Onely will bring you to heaven If your faith hath wrought and formed such a Christ in you then you may have boldness through him Of this Christ you may boast and triumph against all the powers of darkness with St Paul Rom. 8. so that neither heights nor depths nor things present nor things to come nor Angels nor any creature shall be â—ver able to separate you and this Iesus Christ our Lord blessed for ever Rom. 8. 38 39. What ever other faith you have believe as strongly and as confidently as you will or can do be sure it is but Head-knowledge of Christ it is but a bold unwarranted presumption and no faith For Externall Jesus Christ is a shadow a symbole a figure of the Internal viz. of him that is to be born within us In our souls Beloved you know it is said of Abraham He saw Christs day and rejoyced so all the Saints that ever were are or shall be must See the day of Iesus Christ as well as Abraham did if we look for any
comfort by Iesus Christ we must see his day also The Jews saw the day of Christ in the flesh onely but thou must see Christs day as Abraham did Thou must as really yea more really and more truly See Christs day then the Jews for sayes Christ Abraham saw my day and rejoyced and in the same manner shall all that ever shall taste of heaven See The same day of Christ. Did the Jews see the day of Christ in the flesh did they see him work miracles opening the eyes of the blind yea of those born blind and curing the deaf and the lame and the dumb why as if our Saviour should have said you think you see my day but if you see me but externally doing this action you see not my day Abraham that lived so many hundred years ago he saw my day truly and rejoyced He saw me do all these works in himself he did truly and really see me cast out devils raise the dead open blind eyes heal and cure all the diseases of his soul he saw me to be the Messiah and Saviour to himself and in himself he saw my day better then you and rejoyced to see me do all these mighty works in him and the self-same day must we see if ever we come to be partakers of Iesus and of the Divine nature Abraham saw not his day as some think so much by way of prophesie as it is commonly taken and expounded that he was the Messiah that should come into the world but he besides this saw done in himself that which he did when he came in the flesh And so Abraham saw my day He saw me conceived born brought up yea he saw me apprehended scourged crucified He saw me dead and buried and risen again and all in himself This was a true a real a saving seeing of Christs day To see it by way of prophesie was far below this seeing that was a seeing did Abraham nor will do you little good If it were meant of that kind of seeing the Iews saw Christ better then Abraham for they saw him actually personally but that was a fruitless seeing Therefore if you will see Christ gloriously as the Great and Mighty Saviour we must see him such a Saviour as we may say of him Unto us a Son is born unto us a child is given ye shall call his name Wonderful Counsellor the mighty God the everlasting father and the Prince of Peace and the Government shall be upon his shoulders And all this I find and feel in my own soul and in me and to me is all this done But Beloved give me leave that you may understand me if it shall please God to open your eyes and to let you see these hidden secrets which are kept close from ages and from generations I will in the plainest manner that I can shew you how Jesus Christ is said to be in you that is when he so begins to arise in you that his fame spreads far and near when he shews his own actions in you for know this Christ is alwayes in youâ— he is at no time absent as soon as ever ye began to have a being he was in you in regard of himself though you saw him not because he is Infinite For That which is infinite is in all places it is excluded out of no place for if any place if any creature were without him he were not infinite And because he is infinite he is equally present in all places at once and in all places alike he cannot be more in one place then another for if he should he could not be infinite and because he is infinite he is all-present in all places at once These things are out of all question and known by every one that understands any thing I think none will deny them He is as well in a dead withered branch as in a green flourishing tree but in the living branch we see him grow and put forth his life And so likewise he is in the deadest rottenest member that is as well as in the fruitfullest Christian But here is the difference in the one we see him not we see not his life and fruit but he is in such a member as dead dead to him and dead in appearance to others yea that member is as it were twice dead and pulled up by the roots as the Apostle saith and fit for nothing but to be condemned to the fire For Jesus Christ although he be in them as much as in the living bought yet to them he is dead and buried and lives not in them and to them And give me leave and I will shew you in some particular actions that Christ did and doth when He begins to live in a man for till He begin to shew the actions of life He is as if he were not there I will onely touch upon some of his actions which may be as a key to open and interpret the meaning of all the rest for it is impossible to speak of all the actions that he did and doth for the whole world were not able to contain that which might be written of him saith St. Iohn that is of those actions and mighty miracles that he goes up and down working daily and doing good internally and spiritually in the souls of men But the first motive that induceth shews and perswades us that Christ is alive in us is his Nativity which you know in the dayes of his flesh was first proclaimed by one Angel and afterwards by a whole quire of Angels When God hath sent this One Angel or Messenger into the soul to shew us and to proclaim the reality and being of Christ in every creature then thousands of Angels sing the same to us then every creature proclaims HIM with a loud voyce to him who hath this light sent into his soul that there is now to us a Son born and to us a child is given glory only be to God in the highest on earth peace good will toward men then all the Angels that is all the creatures they all harmoniously sing the same tune to us When he bringeth the first-begotten into the world He saith Let ALL The Angels of God worship him And then Christ being once born the next thing that appears is his Star his star appears in the East and wisemen come to see him then he increases and grows up in us then he shews himself to men then he manifests himself to be The Christ in that he doth the deeds of Christ in that we shew the vertues of him that hath called us from darkness to light from the power of Satan to God then he waxes taller and taller and grows up in wisdome and stature and in favour with God and man i. e. with all wise men They now act and live the life of Christ denying their own lives they lived before that so men seeing their good works may glorify
their father which is in heaven Til this time Iesus Christ was crucified dead and buried but when once this Lion of the Tribe of Iudah begins to rouse up himself then it shall appear that there is now a King born that will bear rule that shall be such a Messiah spiritually as the Iews expected temporally a Potent and Mighty Prince whose Government shall be upon his shoulders His Name being WONDERFUL Counsellour and Prince of Peace And now all those Accursed Iews which â—rucified him and made him to serve shall now be made to serve him as the Prophet saith You have made me to serve with your iniquites Now all those headstrong lusts those Kings and Rulers of the Earth which cryed Let us break his bonds in sunder and cast away these cords from us He shall now rule them with a rod of iron and crush them in pieces like a potters vessel So that we shall live no longer the life of natural carnal men in the vanity of their mind to fulfil the lusts of men and the will of flesh and of the world but they live the life of spiritual men we shall then shew that we are the Off-spring of Christ Till you become to this whatever you think of your selves there can be nothing well done for before this we altogether think our own thoughts do our own actions go our own ways For all the imaginations of mans heart are onely evil continually But before this great and not able day of the Lord come the Lord will set signs in the heavens and in the earth and there shall be great stirs and wars and rumors of wars and the Inhabitants of the earth shall be troubled amazement and terrour shall seize upon them because of these things And when thou seest these things come to pass I say within thee then look up for know your redemption draweth nigh When you see the red Dragon watch against the woman shall be delivered of her man-child spoken of in the Revelation that he sends forth whole floods of water out of his mouth to drown her then know the child is born But before this time when you see the woman in travel and hath great pain and cryeth out extremely and hath bitter pains I say Bitter pangs then you may know the child is near delivery that is when this beloved old man our own will as the Scripture terms him who was never by us denyed anything himself desired but all was carried smoothly according to his own desire and now to be crost and contradicted Oh â—his is great pain to him Oh he cryes out like a travailing woman Oh he would by no means forsake himself his own will his own pleasure his own profit Take up his cross and follow Christ What forsake all that is dear to him this is death to him Oh! when you hear your flesh cry out Oh! would to God I had never been born then I had never seen this day Oh! let me dye let me dye I am weary of my life when ye hear him like Iob bitterlycurse the day of his birth Oh Beloved this day is a terrible day to flesh and blood it never saw such a day Oh it s a bloody day it comes with a terrible confused noise of the warriors and garments tumbled in blood as the Prophet speaks it was never so haled and puld this way the flesh tother way the spirit it was never so torn in pieces But know Beloved when these pains are upon you that the child is at the birth near to be delivered Beloved these things will be if ever Christ be born in the soul And when it is so that the flesh hales one way and the Spirit another Oh then it behoves you to pray That so your flight be not in the winter nor on the Sabbath nor in the harvest Oh Beloved pray that these things this Seed do not dye without fruit that in the midst of this biting bitter winter you do not fly but bide by it and indure and wait the fruit that in the midst of winter you may enjoy your Sabbaths a day of rest peace lest that when other men enjoy their Sabbaths their harvest you have nothing but winter bitterness trouble and want and no fruit to refresh you Brethren I beseech the Lord that you may prove try and examine your selves by these things see if this day hath overpast ye hath your woman had pains and bitter agonies have you suffered such contradiction between the flesh and the spirit that these wars and terrours and rumours have struck through the very soul of you that you have felt it as bitter as gall as bitter as bitterness it self for saith our Loâ—d Luk 21. 22. Then be the dayes of VENGEANCE that all things which are written may be fulfilled insomuch as you may say of your selves Call me not now Naomi pleasant but call me Marah bitterness for the Almighty hath dealt bitterly with me This work being gone through you may be sure the child is born to you and to you a Son is given else not Tell me of what you will of education and good nature and the still work of Gods Spirit except this work be done in you so that you can speak of the work thereof experimentally you do but befool and delude your own souls And this work being gone through and the child born then as I said before he grows and increases in age and perfection every day He is not grown to a man in a moment but by steps by degrees He that hath this work brought about in his soul he need fear nothing he is in a free and safe condition all the men upon earth nay the powers of darkness cannot hurt him although the Dragon the Devil Sin Lusts the old man Self Lucifer Adam the Serpent c. these with all their fiery darts for when I name one I name all as I opened them to you upon another occasion for I opened near 20 of his names severally for these names and many such the Scripture gives him to set out that evil one within us which the most part of men are little acquainted with although they hug them in their bosomes eat drink sleep work play with them all these I say although they send forth whole floods of water after the woman yet they cannot drown her 〈◊〉 this work delivers and frees men from the powers of darkness this work brings down the strong holds disarms the strong man and sets the soul free Saves it delivers it carries it above all waves The next remarkable action Christ did he was circumcised That is He submitted himself to all outward Ordinances because he knew that all powers were ordained of God and so far forth as they tend to God and tend to love and peace we ought to submit So then we are then circumcised with Christ and Christ is
circumcised in us when we for his sake submit to all humane Ordinances both temporal and spiritual they not being against the Word and command of God For Christ himself though he was not bound to them yet he would do it because saith he on another occasion it becomes us to fulfil all righteousness And our Saviour puts this very question to Peter saith he Peter of whom do the Kings of the earth take tribute of the children or of Strangers Peâ—er answers of Strangers Then saith our Saviour the children are free Though our Lord knew his liberty yet he did submit himself and did not as many do now adayes upon pretence of liberty deny submission to good orders in Church and State But he commanded Peter notwithstanding he was the Son of God and knew infinitely his own liberty and the liberty of his Saints and Disciples more then we or they T is true Peter saith he the children are free yet notwithstanding go to the Sea and cast word Angle and open the mouth of the first fish that comes up and there he should find a piece of silver go and give that for me and thee so then are we circumcised with Christ when we do the same action for his sake although we be free that we may give them no offence as Christ there saith The next action that we read Christ did He came up with his Parents at the feast to Ierusalem and went into the Temple and disputed among the Doctors The same thing doth Christ in the soul for there is within every one of us A many Learned Doctors brought up in Satans University who are very subtle very acute Disputants even the rankest fool amongst us hath a whole University of Doctors within him how subtle how learned then are they in wise men Truly the more wisdome the more dangerous to dispute a man to hell and in this regard the more wise the more remote from the Kingdome of heaven more unfit to be made a fool for Christ how hard is it for such a man to be brought to vnknow unlearn and deny his own wisdom parts goodness c Thy wisdome hath made thee rebel saith Ieremiah and Isaiah We are so full of wisdom to defend our selves in our evil wayes and by custome and practice we have wonderfully profited in this University we have made a large progress in these Schools and have out-stript many of our standing Insomuch that we have not onely approved and cleaved fast and close to our iniquities but we are grown learned Doctors at it to defend thâ—â— to hold out arguments against the very World of God and the everlasting blessed truths of Jesus Christ which did we but receive and suffer our selves to be overcome by them they would make us for ever happy and Able to make the man of God wise â—nto salvation Beloved examine your selves find you not these things so What mighty learned unwearied Disputes are there held in our souls what strange and strong reasonings insomuch that the Old man carries all before Him and these Lusts these great Doctors bear away the day of it down with the Word down with Law Gospel Christ Salvation Truth all kept under and imprisoned and made to serve with our iniquities as the Prophet speaks And this you know is and hath been of old and still will be My brethren until Jesus Christ be pleased with his Almighty power to come into the soul and command a silence and that he will now manifest himself and comes in with Regal Conquering power Else our lusts make such a hurly burly such a noise such loud clamouring in the soul that Christ cannot be heard therefore he in the first place is fain to put them all to silence answering and convicting every lust and then are we mighty through God to the casting down of strong holds and every imagination that exalts it self against the knowledge kingdome and power of Iesus Christâ— otherwise if Christ come not in thus there is no silencing these Doctors He must put the Minstrels out of doors before he will raise the dead soul. Do you what you can pray fast strive against them yet they know you not they are furious and raging Iesus we know and Paul we know but who are ye Self will not be cross'd will through all knows no banks no bounds no bottom will seek it self set up and exalt it self in every thing there is no overcoming no silencing these Doctors For there is Doctor Pleasure and he pleads take thy pleasure in the life time fill and satisfie thy self with recreations and take thy fill of the good blessings of God Were they not made for mans use and art not thou Lord over the Creatures to use and enjoy them as thou pleasest And then there is Doctor Profit saith he Friend the best way for thee is to get riches for thy self it is no matter how though others pinch for it so thou canst but bring in profit this will do thee good when all thy friends will forsake thee thou mayest then take thine ease come times what wil thou hast goods laid up for many years thou shalt be rich and be a man in esteem in the parish hereby thou shalt be a great man thou shalt be heard before another and thou shalt be looked upon and advanced whereas the Poor they are despised and trampled on scarce suffered to speak for themselves And then comes Doctor Honour and sayes he what need all this stir about Religion canst not thou be content to go the old way thy fore-fathers went canst not thou be content to go that way the State goes that way that Kings and Princes and Great men go then shalt thou walk safely and enjoy thine own and be honoured for a wise man a prudent man do not the most go this way and though thou art not so forward in Religion thou shalt do as well as they There is none but a a company of poor beggerly fellows Tinkers and Coblers and schismatical and conceited fellows that are so hot and they are every where despised as it was said in derision the last day that there was none came running out of the City to hear me but a company of Coblers and slight fellows Although I would not encourage any to slight their own Pastors who teach them truth and labour to build them up in their holy faith and I know there be many able men in the City near them and therefore I marvail what they came out into the Wilderness to see a poor sinful man subject to like passions and infirmities with others a Reed shaken with the wind who hath nothing to give if God enlighten not and if he open not my mouth I cannot set forth his praise whose praise is far above the earth and heavens for if Praise or Profit or Self open my mouth I cannot set forth His praise but if this people come
and dissentions but the soul yields to Christ he having cast out those unclean and unruly spirits and they now with Maâ—â— sit quietly at Christs feet and hear his Heavenâ—â— Doctrine and there is a confessing and subscribing that he hath done all things well they will no more contend with him nor direct him but confess that what ever he doth is the best Well then we hear no more of Christ after this till he was thirty years old I beseech you go along with me and look altogether within your selves and it may be the Lord may shew you all these things and a thousand times more then I can speak I beseech him to open your eyes and to give you understanding for this day through Gods blessing I shall put such a key into your hands that unlocks all the Scriptures even as a fine curious contrived Cabinet which we know not which way to open yet having found the secret Lock of all the Drawers then they all fall to pieces and every one comes to your hand So shall I do this day if God say Amen give you such a secret key that takes all the Scripture to peices and you may come to see what use every several part thereof is for Those Scriptures that before were hard and dark and you could not tell what they should mean now they all fall off as easie and come to hand as you desire but it is not I nor any thing I can do though I should preach and beat these things into you till midnight till Christ himself be pleased to come into the soul and work these things in you by his own power the hearing by the ear will not do it it must be the experimental touch of these things upon your hearts that must teach you these things Well after Christ was thirty years old he began to fall to working of miracles â—nd it is said the first miracle that we read that Iesus did was in Cana of Galilee where at a feast he turned the water into wine Those things which before to you were but dead flat waters these precious truths that heretofore were so untasteful so unrelisâ—able that you had as live dye as drink thereof the wayes of Christ are so harsh and thwart to flesh and blood Christ must come and make those waters that before were deadly they were so bitter you could not endure to taste them Oh! it was Gall Vinegar and Wormwood if you tipt but your tongue in them you would have no more of them away with them now he comes and makes these waters first drinkable that you begin to endure to take a draught of them and afterward he turns them into wine delightful and pleasant drink nay he made such wine that it was wondered at Thou hast kept the good wine until now Oh! the wayes of Christ to that soul that hath experience of them are more pleasant then the purest wine they as David saith Are as sweet as honey and the honey comb are more desirable then gold yea then much fine gold And now those wines that we so much prized before now are turned into water they are now harsh and distasteful its death to them now to drink of those waters but he that is overcome and governed by Christ he turnâ— all into wine then all Christs wayes are pleasant though he walk contrary to them yet still he gives these souls wine to drink and such wine as they never tasted the like before Do you now tell them of drinking of their old waters no they can despise them all he despises his sinful pleasures he despises the world he can despise honour pleasure ease profit all though they were his life before now he can despise them all If Christ before had commanded to for sake our pleasure our profit our friends our houses our lands our lives Oh! this had been harsh wine we should have dyed to have heard of it but as soon as Christ comes he convinces and overcomes our inward darkness and mistakes our judgement of these things is quite turned our eyes begin to be opened we have new eyes new tastes we can now see and relish the wonderful things of Gods Law Now Christ doth nothing but go up and down in us preaching and teaching in our Temples and working miracles from place to place in our souls in one place he makes clay and anoints their eyes and opens them in another he cryes to the ears Ephatha be ye opened and then all things shine gloriously to these eyes and all things sound melodiously to these ears What thunder is not a well tuned cymbal and what voyce so hoarse and harsh that is not a clear Organ when God sets his voyce to the instrument and the instrument to his voyce when our spirits are set right there is a sweet harmony between us and all the wayes of God seem they never so harsh to flesh and blood all Gods dealings they esteem them to be right though God afflict them yet they see it is in faithfulness as David saith I know O Lord that all thy judgements are right and thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me and again saith he I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right and I hate every false way Before they could endure to hear of nothing but ease pleasure honour profit credit and external freedom from crosses I I ye cannot bring news so fast of these things as they have eyes ears hearts hands and all ready to receive them ye are the welcomest Guests that can be to them but if you tell them they must deny all these things they must part with these things they must sell all and follow Christ as he told the young man That they must enjoy them as if they enjoyed them not as Paul saith Oh bitter they have now neither eyes to see nor ears to hear you nor hands to receive all this Doctrine shall fall to the ground for them they cannot endure any thing which brings not good news to themselves to their carnal self As when the Sun shines you know it shews all things below it self and darkens every thing above it self for in the day ye can see nothing above the Sun all the Stars which are above the Sun are obscured and all things else So while a man is in the state of unregeneration he can see nothing above himself but if it be any thing that leads him to the love of himself that he can see Heaven is welcome to him out of a self-love and so far as he apprehends it will make him happy but if ye shew him any thing above himself he cannot see nor hear any thing he is therein stark blinde and deaf this is not the generation that he is wise in but the children of this world are wiser in their generation then the children of light I said Christ being once come into the soul conceive I pray
you what I mean not that Christ in regard of dwelling can come in or go out but in regard of his workings in us and to us Christ in himself cannot grow greater or less or more exalted for his praise is far above the earth and heavens but to us he is more manifested and to us and in us he grows and increases and so his life comes to us by degrees And so far forth as we lay down our selves and all that is in us or whatsoever is acted by us at the foot of Christ and that we are ruled and guided by him then we shall see how he speaks all in us doth all in us hears all in us sees all in us for it is not ye that speak but the Spirit of your Father which dwells in you This is to have Christ come into the soul because before we are really sensible of this he is as it were not there But he being I say once come into the soul for we must make use of such expressions for our understanding then he opens those eyes that before were shut he now makes those feet that were cripple from the mothers womb so that they could not set one foot forward in his wayes now he makes their feet like hindes feet he makes them run his ways with delight and he shews his miracles in all their members he turns all into a new creature and in this sense he grows more and more in them till they come to a perfect stature even the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ Before they could not endure this life it was the old life they were taken up withal how they might please the flesh and fulfil the desires of the flesh and were by nature children of wrath even as others Those were the thoughts they were taken up withal at bed and at board all their thoughts words actions eyes ears tongues feet were all imployed in this service else they were unquiet and never contented To see Christ to be all in all in us this is to know him experimentally and if ye know him thus then you know him as you ought to know him else he is but a fable to you for so to know him is to have all the Scriptures fulfilled in you as our Saviour said This Scripture is this day fulfilled in your ears Beloved such a light such a key ye have gotten who see these things that whatever place of Scripture you read or hear that you shall be able to say and feel it in your own souls That this day is this Scripture though writ so long ago fulfilled in your ears in your souls When you read the Story of the Conception Birth Life Death Resurrection of Christ of his Whipping Crowning with Thorns Buffeting Spitting upon you shall be able experimentally to say and cry out Alas this day is this Scripture fulfilled in me And Beloved this is a daily doing all the Scriptures over again this is the enduring of the word for ever as David speaks sayes the soul Alas my soul was like a Leopard spotted from head to foot with the leprosâ—e of sin and he hath commanded I willâ— be thou clean he hath washt away with his bloud all my spots I found that I was grown crooked and bowed together with my strong sinews of lusts and he hath made me straight I found I had a continual running issue that continually ran to the polluting of my soul and to the dishonour of God and the touching of his garments hath healed me Oh happy soul to whom God hath been pleased to give this key this is saving knowledge of the Scripture all other knowledge of the Letter is but the flesh of the Scriptures that which the carnal man may comprehend and although it be never so great never so exact it is meer dirt and dungâ— it s not worth one rush for thus to know the Scriptures as I have said is to have the whole Scriptures fulfilled in us as David saith I will hearken to what the Lord saith in me Now we come to the third thing What it is to know Jesus Christ crucified I determined to know nothing among you save Iesus Christ and him crucified And again saith the Apoâ—â—le God forbid that I should rejoyce in anything save in the Cross of Christ whereby the world is crucified unâ—o me and I unto the world And again I count all things loss and dung that I may win Iesus Christ and know him crucified Before we can live the life of Jesus Christ we must of necessity know his death and find that he is crucified in us In a natural life a man must first be born and live before he can be crucified and put to death but in the spiritual life in us its contrary a man must first see that Christ is crucified before he is born Beloved I tell you if you take but this key to unloâ—k this pâ—ecious Cabinet of God you will find precious Iewels will come tumbling down to your hand Christ Jesus as he was crucified upon the cross so by way of equivalency he is still and daily crucified in us for he is the lamb slain from the beginning of the world and shall be to the end of the world You are deceived if you think the passion of Christ is past when he had suffered under Pontius Pilate Every man before he comes to be a spiritual man he was a carnal man a natural man And this natural man possessed the house and he is the strong man and not onely strong but armed and when ever I speak of the strong man or the old man or sin or the Devil or Satan or Lucifer or Antichrist c. I mean and intend one and the samething and so doth the Scripture as I conceive and I would have you well to consider this thing for they are those enemies the Scripture most minds us of and gives us warning to beware of and watch against they be our bosome enemies that betray us as for outward enemies we meddle not now with them but the Scripture hath given these Enemies or rather this Enemy of ours several names that thereby we may come to know him or by some of them at least that we may see in our selves the several effects of all those names and the several workings according to the nature of those names So long as this strong man keeps the house that is so long as our own wisdom strength gifts abilities of nature reason understanding will affections so long as these keep the house Iesus Christ is crucified these are those Jews who have Crucified the Lord of life these have kept him under and made him to serve your iniquities these have laden him as a cart is pressed with sheaves these have kept him down these have put his feet in the Stocks with Joseph and the irons have entred into his very soul. This is
Mourners and Rejoycers Isa. 66. 10. Rejoyce ye with Ierusalem all ye that love her Rejoyce for joy with her even all ye that mourn for her that ye may suck and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolations that ye may milk out and be delighted with the abundance of her glory You shall come to know what Heaven is which is so much talked of and so little known 7. You shall see what our Saviour represented and intended when he said Iohn 16. 21. A woman when she is in travail hath great sorrow because her hour is come but as soon as she is delivered of the child she remembreth no more the anguish for joy that a man-child is born into the world And lastly we shall also see what it is St. Paul means 2 Cor. 1. 15. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us so also our consolation Aboundeth by Christ So that you see both the Law and the Prophets And Christ and his Apostles do plentifully bear witness to the Text and to both parts of it both for our suffering with Christ and our reigning with him for as the Apostle saith 1 Cor. 15. 19. If in this present life onely we had hope in Christ we were of all men most miserable But our Life is Hid with Christ in God As then There is a Season to every thiâ—g and an appointed time for every purpose Eccles. 3. 1 c A time to be born and a time to dye a time to weep and a time to laugh a time to mourn and a time to dance a time to lose and a time to get c. So will I enstyle this Text A CHRISTIANS TIME His whole time from the very beginning to the end so that besides or beyond which he hath not noâ— cannot look to have a minute a moment Nay he is not at all when he is not either suffering or being crucified with his Saviour or else in being glorified or reigning with him In both which states he is very safe although he cannot alwayes see it so Or you may call iâ— if you will his Non-age and Full age Gal. 4. 1. when he is under age and differeth nothing from a Servant though he be coheir with Christ who is heir of all things or else his Full-age or partaking with Christ in his Inheritance and glory Or else if that be too long ye may call it A CHRISTIANS YEAR that is his winter and his summer his winter of affliction and suffering and his summer of joy refreshing and consolation Or if that be too long then cal it HIS DAY as Gen. 1. The evening and the morning were the first day and so the fâ—rst day and every day after consisted of an evening and a morning first the evening then the moâ—ning And Luke 19. 42. If thou hadst known in this Thy day the things that belong to thy peace You must observe this order or else a Day is improperly applyed to him because he hath first his Night and evening of darkness and sorrow and then his Morning of joy and refreshing after that NIGHT of sorrow as Psal. 30. 5. Heaviness may indure for a Night but joy cometh in the morning Call it all these or any of these so you pervert not the order that we must be first servants and suffer with Christ before we come to be heirs in pâ—ssession with Christ we must first have our winter first sow our seed c. before we have our Summer and time of reaping From hence take notice of the perpetual and constant method God takeâ— with all his children first he gives them their Evening their Non-age their Winter c. First lets them have their time of suffering their winter of affliction their evening of sorrow Their serving-time first and then afterward cometh their Morning their Summer their Full age Their Morning of joy and consolation and their time of Reigning first Servants then Heirs as you may obseâ—ve in those Types of Jesus Christ which Types set out not only his Person but his Body Ioseph was first sold for a slave and was cast into prison before he was advanced to a kingdom And Mordecai he had his sorrowing and fasting time before he was advanced a tristibus semper sed necessariis incho at Deus as Origen saith And as our Saviour saith Mat. 11. 28. Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest But it is quite contrary in the Devils method towards his servants He gives first their Summer first their morning first their good wine but Christ he keeps the good wine last God first plucks up and then plants first pulls down and then builds first kils and then makes alive 1 Sam. 2. 6. And as it is Rom. 5. 15 16. For if through the offence of one many be dead much more the Grace of God and the gift by grace by Iesus Christ hath abounded unto many For if by one mans offence death Reigned much more the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness shall Reign in life by One Iesus Christ. But wicked men They may rejoyce here but they have their portion but their suffering succeeds and is coming apace as Abraham said to Dives Son remember that thou in thy life time receivedst thy Good things but now he is comforted but thou art tormented Friends you may rejoyce sing and dance and be merry but you have small cause if you consider all you may sup well but you are like to have au hard breakfast You prefer your life and your lovial time before the life and time of the people of God you think they are a melancholy people but judge your selves whose condition is best theirs or yours He that will be my Disciple let him here take up his cross and then his Crown follows whatever He loses parts with denies himself in t is that he may have an hundred-fold with Christ in his Kingdom He now sows that he may then Reap but it is quite contrary in thy condition nothing will content thee but to reap now rejoice now and to be frolick here and then follows everlasting darkness instead of leaping and dancing your feet will for ever stumble on the dark Mountains Beloved these things are worth your consideration which if you seriously do it may be that your spirit may be saved in that day of the Lord do not overprize your contents here but rather use them soberly use them but use them so as if ye used them not there will come a time will abundantly recompence all your suffering Bearing and forbearing But I fear to some this is harsh doctrine as Christ his doctrine was to the young man when he bid him Sell all and he should have treasure in Heaven he went away sorrowful for he was very rich worldly riches glistered more in his eye then heavenly riches
you have but beauty and handsomeness long life and deliverances and the esteem and praise of men and you are well enough As Mâ—phibosheth said to David when he bid him and Ziba Divide the land between them Mephibosheth answers Nay saith he now my Lord the King is come home in peacâ— let who will divide the Land So let that whiâ—h is Lord and King in thy esteem come home to thee let who will take heaven for health and riches and honour and praise and credit in the world these things you account real and present for you know and feel the use and benefit of them but as for these things to come they are a great way off we see them not now what they are and therefore say you give us these things and as for our souls we will trust God with them for God is merciful we know it and he that would make us afraid knows it also for all he frames and presents us with such Bugbears Saith the Apostle Peter 1. Pet. 4. 18. If the righteous can scarcely be saved where shall the wicked and ungodly appear I know the general vote of interpreters expounds this place of temporal deliverances but you must pardon me I take it not so my eyes are too dim to read your Iunius notes upon this text I take it as it is spoken If the righteous shall scarcely be saved c. that is if the righteousest with all his righteousness if the just with all his justness if Peter with all his tears if Iob with all his patience if Abraham with all his Faith if Ioseph with all his chastness if Moses with all his meekness if all these shall scarcely be saved where wilt thou appear what will become of thee that hast nothing of all these And to this purpose I told you the last sabbath as there were six steps that went up to Solomons throne so there be six steps or degrees which we must Ascend before we can sit down with Christ upon his throne of Rest and peace The first is Condemnation of our selves Confessing and acknowledging our own sinfulness and wickedness condemning and abhorring our selves really in the sight of God upon a true sight of our own vileness Secondly Annihilation of our selves accounting our selves Nothing worse then nothing and as it were beating our selves to dust in our own esteem Thirdly Abdication or forsaking all things in the world of what nature or condition soever Using the world as if we used it not Fourthly Indifferency to all things to all conditions whether to riches or poverty to honour or dishonour to health or sickness to ill report and good report to liberty and imprisonment to praise or dispraise to peace or to war to fair weather or foul When all conditions are Alike to us whether God makes us sad or merry Fifthly Conformity to Christ our head folfowing him as our pattern that in what condition soever we are in whatever in such a condition Christ himself would do were he in our case and condition the same do we Sixthly Deiformity when indeed we are no longer men but gods mistake me not that is when we act no longer our selves but God acts in us that if we do any thing yet we see and feel and confess it is God that doth it that if we speak it is Christ that speaks if we think it is Christ that thinks if we go it is Châ—ist that goeth that it is no longer I that act any thing it is Christ that dwelleth in you and you and the members of your body are given up to him a living sacrifice and as instruments of righteousness Rom. 6. 13. These are things the Old man cannot indure to hear of They are terrible to flesh and blood the flesh cannot indure to hear of Whippings and Rackings fire and faggot But let me tell you that these things are farr short of these spiritual sufferings These are a thousand-fold more hard to undergoe as those can witness who have experience in them nay yet let me tell you a man were better endure any nay all those sufferings Nay that a Milstone were hanged about his neck and He dragged to the bottom of the sea then not to have his part in these sufferings for they are happy sufferings Beloved lest these things and the difficulty of these Names and of this work should make you amazed and make you cry out quis potest salvari who then can be saved if all must ascend those six steps you have named how few then have gotten or will get to heaven Therefore before I proceed any further Let me for your comfort and encouragement represent unto you two things two Qualifications of these truths Qualification 1. The first is this That God is in you although you know it not as you know there are in us all â—hose parts those organs and instruments of life by which we breath and live as Nerves Arteries Sinews Bones c. whereof though most of us do not know their particular names and uses and how knit together and whereof we have daily and minutely use of And if any of you be Arâ—ists in the body of Man you can discourse thereof and delineate plainly the use and exercise of them And as Iohn said concerning Christ There is one in the midst of you whom you know not Ioh. 1. 26. I say so of you there is one among you and yet alas you see him not you know him not and as God said to Moses Exod. 6. 3. By my name Almighty was I known unto your fathers but by my name Jehovah was I not known unto them I was the same then but by that name they knew me not So God is the same in himself but he is not manifested to thee nor in thee that is he lives not in thee as to thee to thy sight and knowledge So likewise the Patriarchs and Prophets before Christ they knew him but not as we do now they knew him by the name MESSIAH to come and by the promised seed and to be He in whom all Nations should be blessed by these names they knew him then but not by the Messiah come The Messiah born the Messiah crucified the Messiah risen again the Messiah ascended Abraham saith Christ desired to see my day and he saw it and was glad Ioh. 8. He saw it fifteen hundred years before but not as we see it But these things are somewhat too high and you cannot conceive it may be what I mean by these expressions But I shall come lower to your capacities and shall make you acquainted with these hidden things and make them familiar to you Saith our Saviour to Nicodemus he was one that wanted teaching for all he himself was a Teacher in Israel Christ began to reason with him of High and Hidden and Mysterious things Except a man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God Christ was now too high for
other and so these dayly complaints are in the world Oh! What shall I do I have lost my estate or I have lost my good name or I have lost my dear wife or I have lost my hopeful children Oh! take heed of that of saying so They are taken away And he hath taken them that gave them to thee whose own they are He takes but what is his own and why then dost 〈◊〉 repine but that thou claimest a propriety right in them when thou hast None For did God ever Covenant with thee How long thou shouldst have thy wife or thy children or thy lands oâ— thy health or thy credit or thy honour He never did why may not He then take any of them when he pleases But here now is that faith that overcomes all To look upon God As doing all and therefore to conclude all is well done for in his government there can be no error not the least Error that can be imagined who dare blaspheme so as to imaginne that God can erre and yet in our practise we dayly Accuse him You know David how he behaved himself towards Shimei 2 Sam. 16. 7. when he railed on him Come forth thou man of blood come out thou man of Belial when some would have fallen upon him no saith David let him alone for God hath bid him curse as if he should say I will not run at the stone that is thrown but look through him to him that stands behind this creature Oh what a height in Christianity is that soul come to that not onely can endure but endure joyfully as the Apostles Act. 5. 41. they went away Rejoycing from the councel when they had been imprisoned misused and whipt That they were counted worthy To suffer such things for the name of Christ So when a man simply out of an Awful respect and Reverence of His Almighty God and Father can look upon the carrying away of his goods the burning of his house the ravishing of his wife with dry eyes and with a smooth face I say Out of an Aweful respect to God not out of a senseless stupidity mistake me not but because he dares not find fault with what Gods will is when he so behaves himself in whatever befals him for the Name and sake of Christ That he rejoyces at it That he so carries himself in Gods sight in these things as if he willed them and takes them thankfully as the Apostles did hating murmuring This is something What thou poor worm dust and clay to lift up a thought of murmuring against thy infinite wise Creator Oh tremble before him all ye Nations and let him rule in his own house in peace We daily pray Thy Kingdome come Thy will be done Beloved Gods will is never out of tune but it is thine that is for although thou hast said that Petition a thousand times over yet thou hast never yet learned that Petition till thou hast learned to render up thy will to Gods will as David 2 Sam. 12. 16. when his child was sick He fasted and lay upon the earth but when his child was dead he raised up himself and washed and called for meat Some of his servants wondred at him he answers Ver. 22. When the child was sick I knew not what Gods will was but now God hath declared his will in taking him away why should I grieve any longer I shall go to it it shall not return to me his carriage in it was wonderful That he should grieve for the child when it was alive and comfort himself when it was dead Now we having been so long in the Doctrinal part it is time for us now to look What effects this Doctrine brings about in us Let me tell you He that practises this Doctrine As he hath two eyes in his head so he hath two eyes in his mind and as he hath two feet two hands two ears to his body so to his mind the one is like the compass that stands fixt pitched in the center and the other moves and goes about and doth the work the one is pitcht upon God his will and his decree the other acts and works and goes up and down and doth what he hath to do in the world so that whatsoever fall out still he hath recourse to Gods will and decree There is his place of Refuge and security He doth the works of his calling and actions among men with chearfulness as imployment from God and however things fall out they move not him to lift him up or cast him down 2. This mans eye is not divided between God and Mammon he looks not asquint his eye is alwayes single he brings not God down to these things but he brings all things up to God he consecrates all to God 3. This man he hath resigned up his judgement To God onely He is content to let God rule his judgement he resignes his judgement wholly to him If God condemn him He accounts himself condemned but if men condemn him he can puffe at it He Regards not that So likewise This Man He resignâ— his judgement of others to God He dares judge no man saith he shall I dare to judge no no Psal. 85. 8. I will hear what God will say I will hear his judgement whatever his judgement be that is well that is best and as David saith Psal. 31. 5. Into thy hands I commend my spirit So saith this Man into thy hands O Lord I commend my judgement into thy hands I commend my taste into thy hands I commend my sight I am ignorant and know â—othing but thou knowest what is best for me and to thy judgement will I submit whatever it be 4. This Mans is gotten Above all Heights and depths above all principalities and powers above life and death for he hath tamed and brought under all fears and all hopes that which hath undone and conquered thousands He hath vanquished all his Enemies and doth lay him down and sleep for saith he with David Thou onely makest me dwell in safety Psal. 4. 8. If mountains be tumbled up and down and hurled into the midst of the sea Though the Sea Roar and make a Noise yea though the whole frame and fabrick of heaven and earth crack and heaven and earth should meet together yet He can lay him down and sleep they may kill him but he knows They cannot hurt him If all things be in peace He is a quiet man If all things be in confusion and coming to nothing He is a quiet man too For believe it Till a man be come to This He is never quiet for he that hath any propension to any one thing more then to another can never be quiet therefore this man is equally A stranger to all creatures and he that is disturbed by hearkning to the call of his lusts cannot be quiet He that Hearkens after covetousness If he be a servant to this sin
Let me tell you In this very history There is a good land promised to us as well as to these Israelites and it is by Gods promise confirmed and Ratified to us And though we often doubt and despair murmur and mutiny yet the Lord often and many a time passeth by and pardons our murmurings and unbeliefe and still renews his promise Though we often so far as lies in us Cancel the bonds and the ingagements yet He is a God Rich in mercy Slow to anger and he pardons our Unbelief and his Charter to us and with us is A New granted and renewed every day and Revealed more and more unto us You that are Believers Do ye not find all these things true both to and in your selves Nay are there not Mutiners among us within our souls do you not find These very things accomplished within your own hearts have you not These Whisperers These depravers of the power of God within your selves do not you harbour these Mutiners that say T is true Heaven is a good Country and full of plenty that can be desired there is indeed as the Scripture saith Things such as eye never saw nor as ear never heard nor ever entred into the heart of man And At his right hand there are pleasures for evermore but These Mutiners within us they say withal that This place this land this Paradise is walled about with high and thick walls such as we shall never climb and the Inhabitants are Giants mighty men such as we shall never overcome There is before we come there The strong man to overcome and he is not onely strong but Armed And there is Lucifer the Prince of the powers of darkness and There is the blood Red Dragon spoken of in the Revelation And all these are Giants sons of Anack whom we dare not disturb nor enâ—ounter there is the Old Adam and Self-will and that which is nearest and dearest of all There is I my Self to be overcome as I opened to you upon another Text under several heads All these are as so many Golia's making challenges and proâ—lamations in behalf of the whole army of those numerous Philistims within us And to fight really with these we had rather die in the wilderness or return into Egypt into our old captivity then once adventure against them For saith the heart within for the present we are quiet and let us not further adventure we feel now no evil we can take our own wills and we can follow our own pleasures and we are Lords and none dare controul us in our own wayes if we can be content Though we are told our own wayes and wills are destruction We find not nor we feel no such thing while we served and worshipped the Queen of Heaven we had plenty of all things but since we attempted To forsake our selves and deny our selves and to crucifie our selves we have found nothing but troubles fightings and discouragements Therefore T is but a folly to try any further and labour ourselves in vain let the Country be as good as it will we shall never get thither we will rather venture our souls though we dye in this wilderness God is merciful and we find most ease and pleasure in following our own wiâ—ls and oâ—r own wayes Oh my beloved Find you not all these things within you and ten thousand thousands more of this nature But let me tell you None of all these doubtful distrustful spirits can ever enter this promised land Never did Nor never shall Enter this desired Land for Those enemies as I then shewed which I named in part before they must not onely be fought withal but they must be overcome These Goliahs must be slain and be beheaded before ever ye can triumph in the Dance with the Minstrels and the Damsels Nay let me tell you God hath solemnly sworn in his wrath in Psal. 95. These shall never enter into His Rest but To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my Throne even as I also overcame and am set down in my Fathers Throne Rev. 3. 21. But Oh ye of little faith why doubt ye How is it that ye have no faith if ye look upon your selves indeed ye are but as Grashopers to these Mighty Giants and Terrible â—nemies within you but if ye fix your eyes on him that hath promised you have no cause at all to 〈◊〉 they shall be but as meat for us And their â—efence shall depart from them and the Lord of hosts is on our side this spiritual Canaan this Heavenly Rest is freely promised by God not for anything in you Say not in your hearts as the Lord saith to the Israelites Because we are better or because we are stronger then the Nations about us we have done or shall do All these things but because the Lord loved you and he would do it for his own Name sake Therefore Onely Believe and none of all these things shall stand in your way These discouragements shall be as meat and Strength to you This inheritance is not gotten or obtained by our strength or our righteousness but it is purchased by his Sons Own bloud and the work is carried on by his Own strength Onely believe If ye can but trust to this if ye can but Rely and Rowl your selves on Him be sure you shall enter This Rest and possess This Good Land And the way to it is onely by being sensible of our own unworthiness and weakness and likewise of his Love and power Relying thereupon These souls shall enter and these onely My Brethren Then of all things take heed or rather The Lord give you watchfulness against this great sin of Unbelief Infidelity and unbelief is the first and main thing to be overcome in the way of Christianity Unbelief excludes us from this Rest Therefore it is That He who is an unbeliever cannot inherit the Kingdom of God All other sâ—ns are but fruits of unbelief â—nbelief disables utterly and Cuts off from the Kingdome of God for so long as we conceive a thing impossible to be done we can never go about it with courage oâ— confidence But He that relies on Gods promise distrusting his own ability yet believing that there is nothing so high but he shall attain it nor nothing so strong but he shall overcome it and onely because God hath promised it Then shall we go on couragiously and victoriously Our own strength or our own weakness shall not much encourage or discourage us But If we doubt and believe not Then shall it fare with us as it did here with these Murmurers We can never enter into His Rest. But now let us go on These things I could not but touch at lying so in our way After that these Israelites had entred and had partly overcome and conquered this Land and had got it into their own possession They began to divide the Land to every Tribe His lot of
Nay they cannot relish any thing Higher That which is spiritual heavenly and divine and like God That they turn at and quarrel at because it is out of their Element And all because The word of God the Bread of God they cannot come at The book is still sealed they have not their senses exercised to discern between good and evil between the precious and the vile The word is not in them Aningrafted word turning the stock into its own nature they are not converted moulded into the word that so it may be able to save their souls as the Apostle saith they get no good by the meat they eat they feed upon Husks and not upon the FATTED Calf Luk. 15. 23. Nor on thefeast of fat thingsful of marrow nor of The wine on the lees well refined Esay 25. 6. Therefore it is no strange thing that they profit not to salvation because they champ onely The Letter of the Word and feed upon Husks and can get no nourishment from it and no marvel for it can give none I marvel much how such men can hope for Heaven or hope for the Gift and the Reward here spoken of that never eat any thing but the Letter of the word That only do as the Jews did onely desire but to touch Christs outward Garments and to see His Body or to see his external miracles on others but they touch not HIM not his person His miracles are not wrought in themselves they touch him not as the woman did with the bloody-issue she touched not onely his garments but touched him inwardly she got vertue from him for Christ as soon as she had touched him askt when all the people pressed him Who touched me Peter wonders and asks him Doest thou ask who touched thee when there have so many hundreds toucht thee the whole multitude presseth thee By this you may see what I mean Christ knew he was not onely Outwardly toucht as multitudes do all that make any profession of Christ do that but he was toucht inwardly which fetcht Vertue and nourishment from him For all your great professions and running after Christ in much hearing reading and praying c. Let me tell you He is senâ—ble when ye touch him you may do all these things constantly all your life and yet never touch him He can feel when vertue goes out of him For we all in the flesh and in the letter and accoâ—ding to carnal men may be wise in carnal things According to men and the rudiments of the woâ—ld and for external government and the like And herein we touch Christ but as the Iews did onely see and touch His body but none gets Strength and Marrow Life from him Indeed they handled Christ when they crucified him and they handled him Hard but who once I say handles him as the woman to get vertue from him for a man may read the letter diligently gather his family together duly every day morning noon and night read it and converse of it and teach it to them but may not Christ ask for all this pressing about him who hath touched me To what end is all this ye do what good do ye what meat what marrow get ye unless withal ye touch Christ inwardly what does all Touching do you good this is but to touch Christs body this is but to touch the Letter this is but the Shel As the Disciples going to Emaâ—s They read and conferred but they could not understand till Christ came for all they had been brought up in the Family and in the House of Christ in the School of Christ alwayes hearing and receiving at the feet of Christ yet they were ignorant of the Mystery and the Spirit The Letter of the Scripture is but the Outward Court of the Tabernacle where all the people may be admitted Where Beasts clean and unclean come and are sacrificed And there was also the inward Court whither came the Priests and there were onely Outward Ordinances and Laws for Discipline and Outward worship But there was also the Sanctum Sanctorum where onely entred the High priest and that but once a year The Letter is but this outward Court or the Priests Court at most where were nothing but Outward duties of preaching and sacrificing of reading hearing and praying and the like but within in the Sanctum Sanctorum There is the hidden Manna there is that which all the Other things Without did but represent for they were not the things themselves there onely is to be found Debir the word There is that which is quick and powerful mighty in operation Sharper then any two-edged sword dividing between the bones and the marrow and is the discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart All the former things were but cold low dead things Here is the Life here is the Quickning the Spirit it self There you shall find That word that sword of Ionathan which never Returns in vain In this regard the Letter alwayes returns in vain Thou saist thou Readest it in the Church and in thy family twice a day and thou delightest to be exercised therein and to see that others do so Thou doest well it is good in its place but what good doth it convey to thy soul what refreshment and nourishment dost thou find by this thou so delightest in and so boastest of where is the Power that the word hath abroad among these kind of men that seem so much to throng after Jesus Christ what manner of people are these that so champ the Letter between their teeth and Troul it on their tongues what are they in their lives have they got any vertue from Christ by being so conversant with him are they transformed and made new Ceratures do they live the inward and spiritual life of the Word are they dead to the world and the world to them does Christs life shine in them and by them so that they live not any longer in themselves are they fetcht off their own bottoms and ingrafted into Christ or rather do not They altogether live and Christ is dead in them do they feed upon any thing but Husks upon the Letter of the word and upon the world and upon creatures And there they have their chief Life hope and dependance for had they new diet they would become new men by the men you may guess at their meat As Take a man that hath been hard kept with ill fare ill diet and want of clothes his very countenance will shew it but let him come to better keeping good nourishing diet and warm clothes and you shall see his Complexion and his flesh come again and his whole body and countenance will be more white smooth and sightly So He that feeds upon the Life and Marrow of this Word Oh! He is cleâ—n another man then he was before the time was that he lived like a swine eat and fed and fared like a swine walkt
if a man love his friend let him wrong him if he can but here is matter If ye have but the External Worship As most men content themselves with that and never care for the Internal but if once ye have the Spirit and the True sense of the Letter through the Letter then I say let him throw away the Letter if he can no no he cannot abuse but love that in its place and degree which hath been the Shel and instrument to bring him all that sweetness meat and nourishment I say Beloved once again things being thus and men being generally thus taken with the Letter and go no farther Wonder not To see All the world in A Deluge All drowned in their own ways all seeking themselves and their Own things and not the things of Iesus Christ All being taken with and Idolizing their own Conceits Wonder not To see them All in a mist Groping in darkness and every one feeding himself with his own devices I say Wonder not for Iohn the Baptist He that leapt and sprang for ioy in his Mothers Womb at the salutation of the Virgin Mary For all He as it were lived with him was his acquaintance and conversed with him for 30. years yet knew him not Wonder not to see An Universal Darkness over the whole world and scarce a man knows Him that lives in them dwels in them I am afraid it is with most men as it was with those women the Apostle Paul speaks of Alwayes learning and never came to the knowledge of the truth Yet it is well known ye have alwayes been Throâ—gers of Christ with the Jews but I fear Never yet drew any vertue from him and that ye have not yet Taken the City of the Letter Never yet had The rending of the Vail never yet took Achsah to wife For if ye had you would be so far forth Altogether spiritual and much taken up with these things knowing no man any more after the flesh but altogether in a spiritual manner knowing God to be in you and to dwell with you wherefore to stand in awe of his goodness and greatness majesty and incomprehensibleness c. But Beloved I press these things the more and the oftâ—er because I know these things had need be taught you as the Prophet Esay saith Line upon line and precept upon precept here a little and there a little For these things ye receive but slowly and by degrees like narrow-mouth'd vessels as ye are able to receive otherwise these things run over run at wasâ—e and run besides And are spoiled and ye trample these Pearls under your feet And besides I know you have enough that press the Letter but these things very rarely and therefore I take the more liberty This is such a truth that I would have it founâ—ded and well rooted in you viz. That God is He that Fills All in All I would not have you ignorant of this one thing viz. that God He is All Act a pure Act and nothing acts nor grows or increases or moves but in Him Know that not one creature stirs in any act towards you but by Commission there is no such thing as chance or fortune This is such a foundationâ— Truth that every Branch of Godliness ariseth from this root Iacob He saw this for t is said when he Awaked then he saw God was in this place God there appeared to him On purpose to convince Iacob of this very Truth not but that God was in that place before but Iacob saw him not there before God was in this place before but I knew it not saith he but his eyes being opened then he cryes out Oh! How dreadful is this place this is noâ—e other but the house of God! God dwells with us and in us and we are not aware of it All this while To this very day As suppose two men should come into a large room in which the King should be in one corner behind the hangings privately I suppose I have used the Simile before but the fitness makes me use it the oftner therefore take it and apply it and the One of these two men Espieth the King the Other knowing nothing of him He that knows the King is there he behaves himself with all Reverence and fear as before the King because he knows the King hears and sees all but the other lashes out in idle and frothy talk and behaves himself rudely as among his companions The reaon is because He sees not the King but if once he chance to espye the King or the King discover himself to him Then He humbles himself for all his idle carriage falls down Amazed intrembling and fear and carries himself so much the more Humbly and Awfully and the more submissively His carriage is quite changed he is no such man as he was before so Howsoever a man carry himself before he sees God and before he knew of him that he was so near and he knew it not yet when God once shews and discovers himself to such a man In the midst of all his pride and lofty carriage in the midst of his high and Towring imaginations and self-conceits As he did to Belshazzar when the hand-writing appeared to him on the wall His hair stood upright and his knees smote together and his joynts were loosed Even so is this man astonished at the sight of God in him he falls down and cries out with Iacob Oh! how dreadful is this place this is none other but the house of God and I never knew so much Was my God my Creator the Almighty and maker of Heaven and Earth He that the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain Is he here by me and in me all this while heard all my words and observed all my actions and I not know it I not aware of it Oh vile wretch that I am Beloved the case was thus with Iacob He over night being weary Travelling a whole days journy from his fathers house had no Inne to lodg at but in the open field having gotten some stones together for his pillow and the Heavens foâ— his Curtains He lies down in sorrow and thoughtfulness what he should do what would becom of him what course he should take He was a yoâ—ng maâ— and apt to run hiâ— own wayes and follow his own will little he had and knew not how he should be provided foâ— He was fain to run from home leave his fathers house as a banished man and it seems in these thoughts and the like he fell asleep And in a dream God appears and speaks to him and comforts him And in his dream he saw a vision A Ladder reaching up to Heaven and the Angels of God ascending and descending c. and when he awaked he finding God to be so near him anâ— present with him whithersoever he went his spirit was comforted and refreshed Then He was a changed man Then he had New
thoughts and all his former thoughts were banished Even so doth this man behave himself when once God hath spoken to him and discovered himself to be so near He doth as David sayes he did Set the Lord alwayes before his eyes then he minds God and observâ—s his workings his out-goings and incomings he alwayes then puts God forward in him He must do all Before He was the forward man and who but he All Gods acts in him he arrogated to himself and as he thought the actions were His done by His power wisdom and parts so he took home The glory and praise of all to himself But now Upon Gods appearing to him this man is Undonâ— slain crucified Then he can with all his heart let God Be all and Do All Speak in him Move in him Live in him Work all his works in him and for him He now minds God in whatsoever any creature saith or doth to him He no longeâ— lives his own life but the life of God t is true He lives as the Apostle saith Yet not He but Christ in him He now As a New man Hath no words but the words of Christ no thoughts but the thoughts of Christ made One spirit and life with Him and so he becomes throughout A changed Man A New man But the other he that is not aware of God He that is a Reprobate who knows not That Christ is in Him He takes no knowledge of all this but does what he list and as he thinks He speaks his own words and thinks his own thoughts and All their thoughts words and actions All their aims and endeavours tend to the fulfilling the desires of the flesh Either more gross and open or else more subtile and refined and more hid from the eye of the world Their desires and aims are How they shall procure such a benefit to themselves such an estate or how he shall be delivered from the danger of the times and he is full of carking and caring how his flesh shall be provided for and the like And truly beloved it cannot be otherwise for whatsoever is born of the flesh is flesh and whatsoever is born of the Spirit is Spirit for it can never act without its own sphere and compass were we born of the Spirit we could not but dye to the flesh and seek the things of the Spirit then all his thoughts for the advantage of the flesh Cease and he is altogether fot Increasing and Perfecting This life of God begun in him let God live more and more and himself less and less As John Baptist saith he must increase but I must decrease This is his life now which before was his death and contrary his death is his life God is now A welcom Guest Yet Not that God is more or less there you being alwayes Gods Temple as well before you see him as when you see him for Christ cannot Alter his lodging in the reality of it This is a certain truth Nothing can make Christ depart in regard of his Essence and Being but to you he may depart and so you are to understand all such expressions for if you think and as some preach that God comes and goes from place to place from earth to heaven oâ— from heaven to earth departs and returns and that you can stay Him and change Him or make him return These are all childish fopperies in this ye do as it were Create another God to your selves and make the true God an Idol but it is spoken in refâ—rence to the Creature in regard of our sight and apprehensions As To you He is departed and dwels above far remote And indeed and really he is as having no being and is as no God to thee However thou mayest flatter and deceive thy self Until thou hast smitten and taken Kiriathsepher and marryed Achsah Calebs daughter Till there be power given To rend the vail But then you shall see Him who is the truth of all things The substance of all things and not before for whatever you can see are but Shaddows and not the Truth As in this my body you cannot see the Internality and the Truth of it for the truth and Substance of it doth not consist either in the coldness or in the hotness for it hath been hotter and it hath been colder neither in the Oldness nor Youngness for it hath been younger and may be older neither in the heaviness nor lightness for it hath been lighter and may be heavier nor in no accidents you can name Then if so none hath ever heard or seen or spoke that which is the Truth of me for my Substance cannot be seen but onely Accidents the truth consists in things internal and t is the like for any other thing you behold besides And so likewise such is the Word of God it consists not in any thing you can hear or see or can perceive or comprehend for Gods Word is as himself Mighty Incomprehensible Omnipotent c. not included in any place His Word is the Being and life of all things the Letter cannot possibly contain the Eternal Majesty of the Word it is not the Word of God till it be expounded to the heart and made a word of power and quickning in the hearts of his people The Word is Eternal and was before any Letters or Scriptures were and shall be for ever when all those things Cease Gods speaking is His creating Let it be done there can be no resisting sayes David whatever he commanded it was wrought God Hath spoken As many Words as he hath made Creatures But He hath spoken One Great and mighty word and that One WORD includes All those Words and that One Word is Jesus Christ the Onely begotten of his Father and the first born of every creature all the rest of the creatures are but as so many Letters of this GREAT Word for he is called the Word He being in the bosome of his Father He was Unspoken Unuttered Unpronouncedâ— there was not then any one creature in heaven or earth but God was ALL there was then Neither Father Son nor Spirit as divided But He being Once pronounced He is the Word Spoken then immediately there is Father Son and Spirit For these are expressed Several or TRINE onely in relation to the creatures which to me is clear for there is not diversity in God but God is one and in Himself cannot be more and I hope it is clear to you If any should think or say unto me the words of Pilate Oh Sir What thing is truth I must answer thus truth is not possible to be either spoken or heard for God onely is truth and nothing else can be now it is impossible to see or hear God saith our Saviour No man hath seen God at any time for we cannot see him and live we must depart Out of the nature of man and return into God and be one with God Else we can never know
God t is onely his well-beloved in us and who also is in the bosome of the Father he hath declared and revealed him Whatever it be that a man sees or comprehends that cannot be God that cannot be truth It can be at most but the Emblem the shadow of truth as in a man we cannot see his life but we may see him live even so truth cannot be seen but you may see the Effects and Fruits of truth But he that marries Achsah To him will I give The Rending of the Vail that is He shall see as much As a creature Can See and live as God said to Moses Achsah She will give you A glimpse A sight through the cleft of the rock as was to Moses The Back-parts of IEHOVAH But Truth cannot be seen In the True glory and splendor thereof onely the back parts of her She will admit you into the Sanctum Sanctorum she will beg of her Father to give you a blessing that seeing he hath given you the south-land as it is here in this Chapter that he will give you Springs of water That you shal not onely have the Nether Springs The Letter of the Word External Ordinances and outward Duties Bodily Worships and the like but you shall have The Upper Springs The life of the Letter the power the quickning Spirit to see not onely Christs body and touch it but you shall have the vertue of The breaking of His Body and the benefit of the sheding of his blood And When the Vail is Rent take but a short view of those priviledges and precious things you shall then have Though I have hinted at them in general as I went along yet let us view a little the particular things contained within the Holie of Holies as time at present will give leave When ye came to the Tabernacle there was first as I told you A worldly sanctuary as the Apostle sets them down Heb. 9. 1. And therein was Ordinances and Divine service for so the Apostle calls it in the first verse And therein was the Candlesticks and the table and the Shew-bread and thither came the Priests and did their office there was sacrifices and offerings for themselves and all the people And All they could learn there was but worldly and external Ordinances bodily worships which concerned not the heart and the inward man But if they offered such and such External things as was required this was all But into the second Vail within the Holie of Holies thither the High Priest must come but once a year for we shall onely at present touch at those particulars mentioned there by the Apostle And first There was the golden Censer which typified Christs offering the prayers of the Saints as it is exprest Rev. 8. there is an Angel which had the Golden Censer and there was given him much Incense that he should offer it with the prayers of the Saints upon the golden Altar which Angel is Jesus Christ the Angel of the Covenant shewing unto us thus much that he is the Mediator between God and man for whose sake all our services are accepted nothing is accepted from us with the Father But what his Son doth in us Be they never such glorious actions and done with never so specious religious pretences yet if they be Our actions they stink they are abominable In him onely he is well pleased They are his actions onely that can be savourâ— meat to him Although as they be our actions they may seem beautiful and glorious to us yet to him they stink A dead man hath the shape of a man but he stinketh So thy duties though they have the shape of Right and Holy duties to us yet they are to him but dead works Heb. 9. 14. How much more shall the blood of Christ purge your consciences from dead works to serve the living God who through the eternal spirit offered himself When your services are not from an Internal prinâ—iple from the work of the Eternal Spirit but are like the Motion of Clocks and Watches which is from Art and External weights not from nature all such services are dead works Within the Vail we come really to see All our works nothing they are abominable yet we think highly of them While we remain in the worldly Sanctuary and are gotten no farther But here within the Vail God speaks to us as he did to Iob and we are convinced of our Vileness Behold saith Iob then I am vile I will lay my hand upon my mouth I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear but now mine eye seeth thee I abhor my self in dust and ashes Iob had oft made confession of sin before in words and in the notion And practised dayly External worship but yet we may see all along for all thaâ— what an high Opinion Iob had of himself of his strictness and righteousness Iob sacrificed often and constantly and observed the letter very strictly and thereby Iob maintained a high opinion of himself But now the vail must be rent and God must appear himself to darken and confound all Iobs righteousness before Iob could say I am vile Iob was strict in Externals but Iob could not Really loath and Abhor himself though in words he might as many can easily and frequently do that dayly but to be really VILE in themselves this work is from above from Heaven from God And so we come to see what it is and for what we or our actions are accepted it must be his sons work in us else he loaths all even the best of your Sacrifices if it be not Jesus Christ in us that doth All viz. that loves God and Fears God and obeyes God and believes in God c. his Father regards it not that may seem a Paradox but yet it is a truth for indeed and in truth there is nothing fears God but God nor Nothing obeys Godâ— but God nor Nothing loves God but God He aâ—cepts his own work in us and nothing else God cannot accept any thing any creature doth out of himself but what himself doth what his Son doth that pleases him that he cannoâ— but accept This is that Achsah that so pleases her Father that he can deny her nothing This is the first thing we shall have after the Vail is rent and none can attain this Really and in good earnest But He to whom the vail is Rent The next thing there Exprest is The Ark overlaid with Gold the Ark of the Covenant overlaid with gold overlaid round about with pure gold Having married Achsah we shall also have power to break open this Mystery Christ is He in whom all the promises are Yea and Amen they are all fulfilled in him As all our actions must be derived from him as from the fountain that is if they be not quickned and animated with the power purity holiness excellency of Jesus Christ that they are of himself and of his own
all the good things he hath promised we shall say by experience Now we know that heaven and earth shall pass away but not one tittle of his word hath failed We shall then see All Solomons Love-songs fulfilled and never till then And yet Beloved all these things are but dark shadows to the Truth and The Things themselves But to conclude We run over these things for time hastens Those that are brought to this condition To have the vail Rent before their faces They shall see Such things as I am not able to express For eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither ever entred into the heart of man those glorious things which God hath prepared to entertain To Feast such self-denying souls which are both Full Satisfying and Ravishing contentments Beloved these are such things as cannot be enjoyed Seeing them by feeling till the vail be Rent But yet know this t is Othniel that takes this City t is The Lords good time or fit opportunity We cannot take this City nor marry Achsah Calebs daughter when we would but we must wait Gods opportunity when he pleases to give it noâ— in our time but in his time nay we cannot so much as hasten that time When we shall have power to smite Kiriathsepher and marry Achsah no more then a woman in travail by all the means and industry she can use can hasten the time of her delivery We must wait the time Till God reveal for we must take it When he will give it And As He will give it by degrees time after time line upon line and precept upon precept And so We wâ—iting in Gods way He will Reveal and we shall come to understand The Good Will of the Lord One time after another Now A little and then A little line upon line that so you may come To glorifie God your heavenly Father Not that you may bring Honour or Profit to your selves though This be our greatest Honor and profit or take the praise to your selves as though by Your power you had smitten the City or married Achsah And so possessed the Upper and Nether springs the letter and the Spirit Thus to do is not to smite the City You as yet have not smitten it this is not The power of God this is but Your selves this is but by the power of flesh this is but by the power of Satan in us but here is the misery of the Sons of men they are ready to think and believe that they have smitten the City when t is Nothing less they think they know as much as can be known and Glory in this and so look for and give praise and Honour to themselves And if Any go beyond them if they cannot fathom what you say presently they cry out upon it as an Error and no body must know more then they and they must have the honour and praise of all they must and will be sure to keep men within their compass and knowledge always holding them in the letter in the Rudiments in the Pedagogies and in the shadows of Religion and cannot indure nor bear that men should be brought up to perfection to possess those Plerophorias those Full Enjoyments prepared for them that so they may be delivered and set at liberty from under the Law and from the killing Letter From Bondage and thraldom that they may come to receive The inheritance of Sons and Freemen hâ—t so the glory and praise of All may be to God Almighty none to them who hath given power to smite Kiriathsepher the City of the Letter that it may be unto us DEBIR The Word of God and so reveal unto us things Unutterable and unspeakably glorious Even The hidden Manna and the Living Waters to nourish us to Everlasting life Where the Glory of God is the light of that Temple whose brightness you shall see so far as you are able to Receive where you shall have Safety from all your Foes you shall see and behold their Ruine where you shal have the company comfort of all the Saints And God himself shall strive to Fill and if it were possible and Glutt you with happiness Where the City Gates are built with Pearls The streets paved with gold the walls of Precious stones the Temple in this City Is Almighty God Himself and Kings and Princes shall be but Vassals and cast out and nor regarded as such Where the River springs from under the Throne and Hill of God the Water clear as Chrystal The Banks set with Trees of Life Where your Chear is Ioy your Exercise Singing the song of Moses and the Lamb your Duties praising the Subject God the Quire consisting of Angels and Saints the Songs Hallelujahs Rev. 19. 3 4 6. Where there is no more need to fear that your Eyes shall be dimmed with Tears or your Ears Affrighted with Cryes or your Senses disturbed with Pain or the Heart Damped with Sorrow or the Soul Ever Surprized by death VVhere there is All God and No Evil there is No Persecutors None to Claim your Possessions from you None To Envy your Happiness the Rich cannot be Robbed Nor Kings shall not be Flattered VVhere there is Possessions without Impeachments Seigniories without Cares Length of yeares without decay of Strength Love of All without Ieâ—lousie of any Greatness of STATE without Conscience of Corruption Where we shall be Ravished with Seeing Satisfied with Enjoying And Secured for Retaining Beloved All these things are Very true True In the Letter But far more true Taking it All as meant Spiritually There are Such Things as These Buâ— infinitely more Spiritual Divine and Transcending Such things As These and whatever else The Heart of man can Imagine Are but Poor Things to what we shall there Have and Live with and Live in viz. In Heaven The Beginnings whereof are given you Here as an Earnest and First Fruits For Heaven is Nothing else But Grace perfected T is of the same Nature with that you Enjoy Here For He that is United and made ONE with Jesus Christ by Faith Hath A True and REAL Glimpse of those Ravishing Glories And Delights which he shall for ever Enjoy But you must Wave All Carnal Sensual and Worldly Enjoyments And look upon the Highest Chiefest and Rarest here To be But Shadows and Dark Resemblances of those Blessed Good things which we shall then Enjoy For Ever and Ever THE TWO MIGHTY AND Wonderfull TREES OF EDEN In the Garden of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ELOHIM Incognita Vnknown Ever since Man was driven out of Paradise until Admitted to Return in Again viz. THE TREE of KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD and EVIL AND The TREE of LIFE Taken out of A Book Called The LETTER And The LIFE Or The FLESH And The SPIRIT Translated by Dr. EVERARD THE TREE of KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD and EVIL What it is I Will not much contend with them that will have The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil as
of the Stars and calleth them all by their names but as they are his Stars so they are numbered by his Arithmetick for they are not according to the number of a man As God saith to Abraham Gen. 15. 5. Look towards Heaven and tell the Stars if thou be able to number them so shall thy seeed be I hope Beloved by this time you begin to see what a numberless number of Chariots and Angels God hath ready prest at his command for any errand he pleaseth to send them on and also how easily our Saviour the great Arch-Angel of the Covenant and Michael Captain of the Lords hosts could have commanded more then 12 Legion of Angels Mat. 26. 53. Beloved I will propound it very briefly to you in two things or two Scriptures wherein ye may a little have a glimpse of God and a smal scantling of God and of God Almighties Arithmetick and if this smal scantling and little glimpse be so wonderful what is his perfection what is himself what is his Essence and glorious Being One shall be from that which David saith Ps. 90. 4. A thousand years with God are but as yesterday or as one day there is no succession of time with him In a thousand years you know are 365000 dayes and all this time is to God but as one day is to us Then who can number dayes with God so who can number Gods Angels his Armies and his Chariots they are to us infinite and numberless as to men we must not nor cannot number them no not according to the number of a man As we must not measure God by mans measure so God numbers not by mans number nor measures not by mans measure for whensoever ye read of God expressed under any Name or Attribute measure him not as you apprehend of that Attribute but as infinitely beyond it as the Ocean to the Drop and farre farre beyond Beloved when we think of God we must go backward from our first principles that were born with us or instilled into us by our Teachers or acquired by our industry and unlearn what we have been learning so long or rather transcend and forget and forsake all that knowledge of him we must be stript from all carnal apprehensions of God so as to measure him by any thing we can comprehend And to teach us this Arithmetick we had need have line upon line line upon line and precept upon precept precept upon precept here a little and there a little before ever we can learn these things for they are farre above us As all the wayes of God are unknowable unsearchable Rom. 11. 33. so all the Armies of God are unsearchable unknowable and the Chariots of God are all the wayes of God And both Chariots and Wayes are his Creatures God hath his wayes in all his Creatures his goings forth and workings in all the Creatures are but the goings forth of himself they are but the displayings of his own wisdom power and greatness Be hmoth is called The Prince of the wayes of God Iob 40. 19. And David saith Ps. 77. 19. Thy wayes are in the Sea and thy paths are in the deep and the Lord hath his wayes in the whirlwinds and in the Storms and the clouds are the dust of his feet Nah. 1. 3. And whatever God is he is infinitely so as he is If he be called good he is infinitely good If Being he is infinite in Being he only hath a Being for if any thing else hath a being he cannot be infinite All things but God are but shadows bubbles soon vanish soon up and soon down and if he be all power and all wisdom c. as most certainly he is then there is no power nor wisdom c. but onely his either in Heaven or Earth and if his be all the glory then no Creature hath any glory if his be all the power Kingdome and glory as in the conclusion of the Lords Prayer then no Creature can claim any and yet how commonly do men ascribe appropriate these to themselves and wipe their mouths and say I have done no evill The second thing wherein I would have you take a scantling of God or of Gods Arithmetick or of his wayes is from that place Dan. 7. 10. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him thousand thousands ministred unto him and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him I could make a strange inference upon his calculation but the bed is shorter then a man can stretch himself upon it and the covering narrower then he can wrap himself in it Isa. 28. 20. Therefore well may we with the Prophet conclude v. 23. Precept must be upon precept and line upon line c. that ye may go backward and be broken snared and taken Beloved ye must be undone and broken as to your selves and your own wisdom parts and then begin again Line upon line and line upon line here a little and there a little for saith he whom shall he teach knowledge and whom shall be make to understand Doctrine even them that are weaned from the milk and drawn from the breasts For we have hitherto made lyes our refuge and under falshood have we hid our selves v. 15. Then Beloved if God be so infinitely great as he is so that he is all greatness all wisdom all power so that he comprehends commands acts all things fils all things in Heaven and Earth Oh! All you the people and children of God look about you and behold your Portion none hath such a God as you none hath such a Protector as you none hath such a Father such a Provider as you have Oh happy Oh happy yea thrice happy indeed art thou that hast but these everlasting arms under thee his right hand to defend thee and his care to provide for thee what needest thou to fear what needest thou to care thou art safe for ever Henceforth let not any proud flesh quarrel at or any doubtful soul wonder at or question our Saviours words saying how can it be that all the hairs of our heads are numbered and that not one can fall to the ground without him for by infinite wayes he is infinitely present with all things in all places But let all that hate or slight this great God tremble at his stupendious presence greatness and power For Nahum 1. 3 4 5. Though the Lord be slow to anger yet he is of great power and will not at all acquit the wicked who hath his way in the whirlewind and in the storm and the cloud are the dust of his feet for at his pleasure he rebuketh the Sea and maketh it dry and dryeth up the Rivers Bashan languisheth and Carmel the flower of Lebanon The Mountains quake at him and the hills melt and the earth is burnt up at his presence yea the world and all that dwell
from matter but Cherubims they have faces onely with wings shewing that they are further off then all these but Seraphims they are pictured as it were without any form or matter at all onely with a kind of fiery flame or yellowishness Therefore now of these Angels that are above us we can say little of them because men being in Nature below and they above our element Even as if we should ask a Toad what man is it could say nothing because it is in a sphere below us So if we should go about to define what Angels are we might very well mistake for though we may conceive somewhat to our selves yet we may be easily deceived in the knowledge of the Nature of Angels So much at present concerning Angels But some may further Object to me and it is a strong Objection Object God being so constant so unchangeable as he is and he is in the creatures what is the reason â—hen that the creatures are so changeable the Scripture tells us God is Immutable Ans. Beloved Almighty God is like the Sun riding in his Chariot we have no better expressions to set out these unexpressable things to you the Sun shines to us yet it is much changed to us according to the several objects it shines through The Sun is not the same to us that it is in its self for it is exceeding light and exceeding hot and its shining through the dull air changes it to us though nothing changed in itself so though the creature be changed yet God is not changed but his works are changed according to the several subjects he works on Again that same beam that shines in at one window is not the same that shines in at another yet we say the Sun shines in at both and yet it alters in a very small distance in one quarrel it shines red in the next green c. now here is a change but the Sun is the same So though the creatures be changed and turned upside down and mountains be hurled here and there yet God is the same he is not changed he cannot be moved In him is no variableness nor shadow of changing Iam. 1. 17. although according to the several creatures he works in he seems to be changed to us yet in himself he is not nor cannot be Now we come to the fourth and last part and that is who this General and great Captain is that commands all these Armie of Angels this great Army of Chariots and Angels it is said they are the Chariots of God Quest. But you will say to me I pray how is God in the Creature is he in the creature as he was on Mount Sinai for then God appeared to Moses in great Majesty and Glory the mouâ—â— shook and trembled and trumpets sounded lowder and lowder and there was thunder lightnings insomuch that all the people were amazed now if we could see God in the creature thus we should then believe he were there but we see no such thing in the Creature Answ. We must not imagine that God hath either trumpets or thunders or any such things material but there was something answerable to them something equivalent God then appearing in terrour and we could not better conceive of God then by such expressions as these But although God appear not the same to us in his creatures Yet without all doubt he is as much in every creature and as infinitely present as he was on Mount Sinai as terribly as gloriously though he doth not manifest himself so much For he is as much in the basest creature in a Mouse in a Frog and yet no disparagement or abasing to his infinite Majesty and greatness as some foolishly think but it so much the more exalts him yea I lay he is as much present in a Flie in a Flea in a Pile of grass as he was on the Mount And to some God â—ounds as loud in their hâ—arts in the manifestation of himself as the trumpets then though in others more stilly and wisperingly In all he is alike but he manifests himself but where he pleaseth Some are 〈…〉 and see not God at all In Balaaâ—◠〈…〉 as as much before he spoke but when God 〈◊〉 himself in him then he spake for if God would he could raise unto himself children unto Abraham out of the very stones as well as from among the wisest men And therefore O Hierome it was thy fault it was thy weakness when thou saidst that it was an abasing of God to say he was in a Mouse in a Toad in the base creatures for it is no dispraise at all to him to say he is as much in a Flie or in a pile of grass as in an Angel as much in the damnedst Devil in hell as in the gloriousest Saint and Angel in heaven but much to his praise and glory for deny this and ye deny his 〈◊〉 his filling all places and all creatures But know this God is not in every 〈◊〉 as he is in himself but as every creature 〈◊〉 him as though it be true that thâ— sea flows into all the creeks crannies of the earth yet not according to the fulness of the sea though to every cranny and brook the sea is not spaing It is true God is in heaven yet not more in heaven then he is in the earth and I remember I was taught when I was a child by my nurse or by my mother that God was above in heaven but let us now put away childish things I pray God too too many old men be not guilty of this childishness yea and many of these litteral Divines teach no otherwise they never bring their heâ—rers any farther then to be Monsters alwayes children alwayes feeding them with milk and never learn them to eat strong meat So that if they come amongst strong men to feed with them their stomachs are so squemish they turn with at all Or else casting pearls before swine they trample them under their feet and turn again and all to rent you One thing I had almost forgotten concerning the name of Angels which I will deliver to you before I come to make use of these things In every creature there is an Angel and this Angel is as the beam that comes from the Sun and this beam goes directly in a strait line to the Sun So that let a man thâ—â—gh he be in never so dark stinking a dungeon and never so deep yet if any little beam of the Sun can but come in though it be but at a pinhole yet go lay your eye full in that beam and you shall behold the Sun it self therefore and in that regard saith our Saviour Christ Their Angels alwayes behold the face of their Father which is in heaven So though there be never so much darkness in the soul yet do but lay your eye blinding all your sight besides in this beam or Angel that comes from
for present I conclude and commit you all to the Lord and to the word of his Grace Farewell Where Christ FEEDETH AND RESTETH CANT 1. 7. Tell me O thou whom my soul loveth where thou feedest where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon for why should I be as one that turneth aside by the stocks of thy companions In two Sermons preached for Mr. Hodges at the publick meeting place at Highgate in the Forenoon THIS Text may well be called the request of a fair Lady to her dearly beloved Lord it is clear it is so for though she complains of her self in the verse before my Text that she is black the Sun hath looked upon her yet in the verse following my Text he sayes That to him she is the fairest among women and she cannot be so forward in requesting any thing at his hands as he is ready to accommodate her if she desire to have her name written in the palms of his hands he will do more he will set her as a Signet upon his heart as you may perceive in reading over this Book this Lord here spoken of is such a Lord whose judgment when you know him you cannot disallow for it is Christ Jesus the Lord of life and death and this Lady is the Spouse of this Lord viz. the Congregation or the body of this Saints and Servants and wonder not that I call her a fair Lady for though we see it not yet He her Lord says she is all fair and there is no spot in her And I tell you if we would see the beauty of the Church we must not look upon any one particular member for then we can never say she is all fair ye shall see many spots many wrinkles in them but if you look upon the whole Church then she is all Fair that is the compleat body together As any one species the excellency thereof cannot be known by any one Individual as in a horse the best that is though he may excell in one and many things yet he may want something that is excellent in another if he have strength yet he may want comliness if one have comliness he may want swiftness c. but take all together and then you may judge of the species of a horse and so of a man or any other kind it is a vain thing to judge of the perfections of a man by any one mâ—n one is comely of body another is comely in mind if one be diligent another is wise so if you look upon the whole kind of man and the excellencies of all men put together I say look upon him outwardly inwardly then you must needs say he is a glorious Creature a rare workmanpiece So O Lord Christ wherewilt thou shew us where shall we find that beautiful one thou speakest of that is Altogether fair that is Tota pulchraces amica mea if we look upon any one Member but take the religion of one and the charity of another the zeal of another the faith of another the patience of another and go through the whole body and look upon these as a compleat body and then thou mayest say truly Tota pulchraes amica mea c. There is no spot in thee Thou art all fair my Love And if any one man or member shall claim this beauty to himself except it be as he stands in relation to the body he claims a lye for if ye will claim this Perfection ye must look upon The whole body both all below upon Earth and all that are in Heaven all that ever were and all that are and all that ever shall be and adde to them Christ the head of all then we shall confess that as she requests him not to look upon her as black in any one member so he answers her and acknowledgeth that she is all Fair. This Text then is a request of a fair Lady to her dear espoused Lord whom he hath wasâ—t and purified with his own blood I hope be that is the weakest the meanest in religion will not imagine this Sons to be a Dialogue between two carnal Lovers or as Solomon and his wife complementing together if ye consider them so they are but the eâ—crements of flesh and blood and they shall perish with them But whereto then shall I liken these songs of the Canticles They are like those three Tabernâ—cleâ— that the Disciples would have made when Christ was transfigured one for Moses one for Elias and one for Christ. 1 One for Moses and for his Law that is for the legal and civil life 2 The second Tabernacle is like the Book of Ecclesiasâ—es and the Proverbs leading a man above this life when it condemns this civil legal life reprehending whatsoever is in man as man as wisdom strength power and what ever power there is in him to act and to bring any thing to pass 3 But the third Tabernacle may well be called The Holy of Holies and such is this namely this Book of the Canticles Here Christ answers his Spouse familiarly face to face even in the silence of thunder as it is in Psal. 81. 7. there he calls it the silence of thunder and yet what is more â—ud then thunder the meaning is that to that soul to whom God speaks it is as loud to him as thunder but to them that stand by it is silence and secret wispering because they hear not the voyce of Christ. Beloved this Book is a Mystical Divine High-flown Book the things herein contained are not fit for every ear to hear lest the dead Flie as Solomon saith corrupt this precious oyntment Let the flesh abuse it and turn it to fleshly liberty and for this end the Jews would not suffer their children to read this Book lest the wantonness of flesh should make them abuse it but I hope well of you that you are better instructed so that you will not abuse this Scripture to your own destruction as the Apostle saith Charity bids me judge the best I go on propound them as to the immaculate Spouse of her dear Lord. Ye may observe in the words yet rather for memory then order sake four things 1 The first is her Request Tell me she is in a doubt and cannot be satisfied therefore she desires to be taught 2 The Adjuration or the Poise or weight she hangs upon her request it is not slight weak cold or perfunctory but she is violent in her request follows him with strong arguments Oh thou whom my soul loveth she offers violence to the Kingdom of God to say the truth she doth as it were commit a Rape upon the Kingdome of God 3 The Matter of her Request and that is double she would know where he feeds where he rests at noon 4 The Reason of all this why she would be taught where he rests and where he feeds for why should I be as those that
turn aside by the flocks of thy companions 1 For her Request Tell me teach me think it not strange that this Spouse who is so great and familiar with her Husband and Lord that thi Spouse doth desire to be taught of him neither look upon her as guilty of curiosity or impertinencies Although she wants for no instruction but is acquainted with all the counsel of God and she knows all things for she hath received an unction from the holy One which abideth within her and she knows all things yet here she is complaining that she wants something In such passionate speeches as these so full of raptures of love ye must not look for method for they excel fly above the regiment of reason truth it is Logick is the Art of reason but passions are either above reason or beneath it but here above it David was a man taught of God and though wiser Then either 1 His Enemies 2 His Teachers 3 His Elders Yet he cryes teach me notwithstanding which shews that the teachings of God are far above Nature and Reason for they are but like the Sun which when it shines shews all beneath it but hides all above it This admirable and glorious Spouse of the Lamb she desires to be taught of her Lord And she doth it not remissely as if she cared not whether she sped or no but zealously earnesty tell me Oh thou whom my soul loveth she so presseth her suit as if she would not be satisfied with out granting of it tell me she would for all her knowledge still know more that so she might do more she would have her light shine before men that they may magnifie glorifie her Spouse Husband Hence take notice of the nature of the fire of Love when Jesus Christ hath once kindled it in the heart it is never satisfied still feeding ever hungry still she wonders at the glory beauty of God and of her Spouse and is never satisfied with enjoying of him she sees his excellency sweetness and glory in every thing desires more and more to see it and taste it still he fils her and still she wonders at him Oh how excellent is thy name in all the earth who hast set thy glory above the Heavens she never thinks she hath enough and that she needs no more as it is too great a fault in these self-wise dayes but like David she cries O teach me Oh direct me Oh lead me so that I may draw nearer nearer to thee she answers the desire of God Oh that there was such a heart in this people to seek after me to keep my commandements and she hath good reason for the rich full God sends empty away but he fils the hungry with good things but now adays we are rich and full with the Church in Rev. 3. and know not that we are poor blind and naked no sooner one is entered into the Church Christs School and they begin to know any thing but they will be presently Masters and Teachers and he is a great Christian now adayes that is a great fault-finder he that can pick a many holes and reprove the sins of other men and this Forsooth must go for great profession and a good progress in Christianity but for my part I would ye were all Masters Teachers I would as Moses that all the people of God could prophesy and that the Lord would put his spiâ—it upon them I would they were as sure Masters and Teachers as I am sure they are ignorant and without all knowledge for the Apostle sayes He that thinks he knows any thing he knows nothing as he ought to know and our Saviour commands Be not many Masters for one is your Master in Heaven he that will learn must still account himself a fool and I pray God our wisdom be not so great that we scorn to learn even of God himself And sure I am as long as ye go on in this conceit of your own knowledge you cannot admire God and his wisdom but you admire your selves and your own wisdome your own parts and you love your selves above God and the truth is the very summe and quintessence of this peoples Religion is to speak bitterly and largely against their neighbours sins against their brethrâ—ns infirmities and forsooth they conceive they do it out of a zeal to Gods Glory and consider not what a hook the Devil hath put into their own nostrils who draws and puls them which way he pleases and is under pretence of serving and glorifying God They consider not how they serve nothing but the Devil and their own lusts such a man say they he is a good man were it not but that he hath such and such faults he would be a good member in the Church but he lives scandalously never considering how scandalously they live themselves toward others yea far more but see it not Oh Beloved what do we in all this but say in practice though not with our mouths with that Pharisee I thank God I am not as other men he is a greater sinner then I I am better then he I am no whoremonger as such a man no Adulterer as such a man I live not in those sins as he doth You know the Scripture tells us that this poor sinner the Publican whom he despised went home to his house justified and not the other Therefore I beseech â—ou for your own sakes and for his sake that shed his blood for you Nay I beseech you for his sake that could have written every mans fault in his forehead if he had pleased Leave this office of accusing of back-biting of slandering to the Divel take not his office from him it is the nature of 〈◊〉 files to be alwayes dwelling upon sores of horses or other Beasts so thou whatever good or excellency he hath in him otherwayes thou art content to run over that and takest no notice thereof But if thou meetest with a botch with a sore there thou eaâ—est and there thou gallest and makest it worse then thou foundst it when thou shouldest rather dwell upon the other and run over this and the reason they do so is because they would seem wise be able to reprove sin I do not speak against this so that I would not have you reprove sin where you find it Yes yes do it but then do it to his face and not behind his back I confess that Christ called Herâ—d Fox not to his face go tell that Fox but he did it not blindly in a censorious way as most do but upon knowledge when he knew he ought to do it For he knew the hearts of men But you see the Spouse here not contented with that she had but she seeks still and forgets that which is behind and presses hard toward the mark what warrant then have these men that as soon as ever they are within the
pale of the Church they will be Teachers and they would fain be accounted great Rabbies and they can expound Scriptures as well as any and if need were or if they durst they can preach as well as any and these people if people will not hear them presently they are ignorant They are so well instructed they can go no whither to learn anything as though al wisdom were born with them when God knows they are as full of ignorance of pride of self-conceitedness as any men in the Town but the Spouse she cryes yea and still will cry till dooms day Tell me teach me she sees her own imperfections and strives after perfection she knows and is sensible with Paul she hath not yet attained And therefore I once again beseech you in the bowels of Jesus Christ and for your own souls sake leave off this kind of Religion although I would have you to hate even the garments spotted by the flesh We come to the second thing laid down and that is the Poise or weight that she hangs upon her suit she doth in a kind Adjure God I had thought to have gone through this Text at this time indeed I had thought when I began that you I should have waited upon this beautiful Lady our Mother our Mistress from Engedi to Eneglaim from the beginning of the Text to the end but you see here is a word hath bin cast in our way as the Carkases of Amasa and Asahâ—â— which made us to make a stand like the children of Israel at the Red Sea they could not the pass on till waters were dryed up and indeed the Red Sea is before us a whole Sea of matter but we must take what we can leave the rest Tell me O thou whom my soul loveth Here is a true expression of Prayer it is but a folly to pray to God except we can thus put up our prayers to him in this dialect O thou whom my soul lovesâ— Many think that if they can pray to God in setting forth his attributes styling him Most High Most Mighty Most Gracious and it may be adde Hebrew words as O Most mighty Iehovah then they think they have made an admirable Prayer but be sure of this except thou canst come to God truly say from thy heart O thou whom my soul love thy prayers be they never so excellent otherwise they all fal to the ground he accepts them not But when thou comest under this title it is so indeed he cannot chusâ— but hear for then it is the voyce of his Spouse but if you express his Attributes never so largely amply without this yet thou hast prayed no better then the Devil for there is no Attribute but he can inlarge amplifie above any of you all herein he is able to out-strip the best of you And the Apostle saith He that loves not the Lord Iesus let him be Anâ—thema Maranatha accursed from Christ he prayes no better then the very Devils and those that are accursed from Christ as we see still when the possessed with Devils came and met our Saviour whâ—t a large confession acknowledgement they make of him I know thee who thou art Iesus the Son of the most High God but Christ many times stopped their mouthes and would not accept their confession All thy prayers the best that ever thou madest without this title of love are but as milstones hung about thy neck and will drag thee to the bottom of the Sea But it may be you bless your selves for all this think your prayers are not so bad as we make them or if they be you hope you shall do well enough hereafter after you dye But know that as the tree falls so it lies as Solomon saith If thou dye in this condition so judgement shall find thee you hope it may be that you shall possess the Crown laid up for you in Heaven as you conceive but I fear you are so glued to the earth you can relish nothing but the earth so that that is it your souls loves And it may be you think it shall be some ponderous thing you shall have in heaven some glorious visible material or some tangible thing You think you shall have some such things as you enjoy here but alas alas thou shalt find that as soon as ever thou art unriveted from the earth And happy were it for thee if it were done here That the Kingdom of God consisteth not in meat and drinks in riches and wealth and the like for the Kingdom of heaven is not a creation but a multiplication And when you come to be received into that Kingdom it will not be demanded What riches have ye what honour have ye but Christ will ask How many loaves have ye if ye are not in possession of some loaves of some part of the Kingdome of heaven before in this world there is none to be given then Not what had you in this world But it will be asked how many loaves have ye â—hat is how many loaves of love How many loaves of Charity how many loaves of faith how many loaves of patience what wilt thou do if thou hast none wilt thou say Stay Lord I will go and buy or I will go and borrow as the foolish Virgins no no there is no body can lend they have none to spare they have but enough for themselves If thou canst not say as here O thou whom my soul loveth never look to entâ—r but ye must look for the answer those foolish Virgins had Depart I know ye not if this love be not the salt that seasons all your actions all your sacrifices he knows them not he regards them not where he sees no love in the actions let it be never so glorious a duty he knows it not Depart from me But try your love to him Try this secret seal by the Broad-seal of love to the creatures to your brethren if you be a living Member you will sympathize in love and fellow-feeling wit the rest of the members for the Apostle saith Love is the fulfilling of the Law the whole Law for take the Commandements first the Commandements of the second Table if a man love father and mother let him dishonour them if he can And so the next Thou shalt not kill if he love the creatures and his brethren he is so far from offering violence to any that he will rather lay down his own life And so the seventh if he love all he will not take the members of Iesus Christ and make them the members of an harlot And love will make him in stead of stealing from any to give plenteously and willingly and to be so far from coveting and taking away that he will rather adde what he can and love can bear no false witness nor covet any thing which is his Neighbours And so likewise for the first Table he that
root And what ever priviledge or benefit Christ hath they shall all receive of his fulness grace for grace they shall all be made partakers of all the vertues of the head but notwithstanding all these promises we are never the better without we have Christ they are all blanks without him all unsavoury it is he that seasons all Yea trust as long as thou canst and believe as much as thou wilt without Christ thou canst never come unto him God himself is nothing to us without Christ As every Iubar and Beam of light that comes from the Sun they are all included in the body of the Sun but they are not communicated to us but by those Jubars and beams that come from the Sun so God is like the Sun and whatever good benefit or blessing we have it comes from God but all these are included in God himself and there is no creature can partake of any good from him but by his Son Christ in those Iubars of light that communicates them to us This light had never come to us but for those beams so God the Father cannot communicate himself to any creature but by the Son he is the first begotten of every Creature he came being sent from the father yet God the Father is not a day not a minute Ancienter then his Son Christ he is called The word spoken in the Hebrewes As he is unspoken so he is the word with God in the bosome of his Father and this word is God as Iohn 1. 1. but being once spoken and utered he is the first begotten of God in every creature The Alpha and Omega in every creature from whom alone we receive grace for grace all the goodness and fulness of God is poured upon the head of this Aaron which runs down not only to his beard but to all the skirts of his garments to all his members God himself in himself to the creature is nothing without Christ He cannot possibly be communicated but by and through Christ. Secondly All these promises to the seven Churches they imply that which hath its beginning in this life and perfected in the life to come saith our Saviour the Kingdom of Heaven is within you if ye find not the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Heaven within you and in this world be assured ye shall never find it in the world to come He that denyes me before men him will I deny before my father which is in Heaven he that enjoys me not in this world he shall never enjoy me hereafter The poor dejected and oppressed soul it longs to taste Christ here nothing will satisfie him but to taste and eat Christ here for if he eat him not here he knows he shall not hereafter as David saith My soul thirsteth for God even for the living God when shall I come before God What to do Psal. 27. 4. To see his beauty and to taste of his goodness if you see not God here ye shall never see Him hereafter Christ will ask thee as he did the Discsples how many loaves have ye when ye come to dye what Angels food have ye to feed on what Hidden Manna How many loaves of that if ye must say none Lord what a heavy answer will this be to you but if thou hast any if but two loaves if but a little oil in thy Lamp he will then multiply thy loaves and that little oyl the barrel of meal and that cruse of oyl shall never fail And he will say come thou good and faithful servant thou hast been faithful in a little I will now multiply thy reward Come now I will feed thee to eternity If Christ shall say to thee How much peace have you if thou canst but say here is a little Lord Christ will say come come I will multiply and increase that peace infinitely what love hast thou if thou hast but any though but as much as a grain of mustard seed come saith our Lord I will cause it to grow and increase and become a mighty tree so that the fowls of the air shall build their nests therein That is I will enlarge it as my self infinitely And which way soever else a man seeks for rest and peace he shall never find it for as all the Creatures so all the action and motion of the Creatures come out from him and they can never rest till they return into him again and therefore he is called the God of Sabbath which signifies Rest in him there is Rest and no where else The soul is the breath of God and it is impossible that it should have a rest for the sole of her foot till it return and this blessed Noah put forth his hand and take her in again Lay up treasure for your selves in heaven would you have treasure hereafter ye must treasure it up while ye are on earth that ye may have the reward and the wages hereafter ye must receive here the pledge the Hire The Portion and the reward comes hereafter Your fathers saith our Saviour have eaten Manna and are dead but blessed is he that eats Manna in the Kingdom of Heaven he that feels Gods love shed abroad in his heart here shall find that love increased thirty sixty an hundred-fold in the life to come here ye feed but are not filled but then you shall be satisfied Thirdly All these seven promises that are here made to the seven Churches there is not one word to be taken according to the Letter but think not strange of such sayings be not startled I would onely quicken up your attention I undervalue not the Scriptures but desire to give them all due honour for do you think that you shall be Pillars in Heaven or that you shall eat trees or the fruit of trees there or that ye shall have rods of iron in your hand or that ye shall be burning stars or as it is in Daniel He that converteth a soul shall shine like the Stars I say there is not one word true according to the Letter yet I say in all the words that ever Christ spake or that is written in this blessed blessed Book of God they are all true there is not the least tincture not the least allay of untruth I say every word every syllable every letter is true bear me witness you are my record but they are true as he intended them that spake them they are true as God meant them not as men will have them As when Christ says my Father is an husbandman do you think or are you so childish to think that God is a husbandman and Christ sayes again I am the vine and ye the branches will you have this to be literally spoken Go to I will speak a paradox to you but I willl unfold it It is impossible for any man either to speak a precise truth or to hear a precise truth for a precise
know what a many woes Christ pronounced against the Pharisees for making Religion a colour for their Hyprocrisie and covetousness under pretence of long prayers devouring poor widows and their houses Matt. 23. 14 15 16. where he instances in many other particulars insomuch that by their evil example which was then much looked upon they shut up the Kingdom of heaven against men for they neither go in themselves nor suffer them that are entring to go in This was the case of the Shechemites Gen. 34. you see how desperately the two sons of Iacob Simeon and Levi played the hypocrites pretending Religion to the Shechemites that if they would be circumcised they would marry with them and give their daughters in marriage to them again This was the Cloak but what was their End and Ayme you shall see Verse 23. say they when they are circumcised and not able to stir shall not their cattle and their substance and every beast of theirs be ours And so in the 28. Verse They fell upon them and took their sheep their oxen their asses and that which was in the field and all their wealth c. Thus the Devil is transformed into an Angel of light he will be religious to serve his own turn and to accomplish his own ends when men instead of making Godliness great gain which is pretended 2 Tim. 6. 5. they make Gain godliness And that is intended 4. COMMANDMENT Fourthly For the Sabbath Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day six dayes shalt thou labour but the seventh is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God in it thou shalt do no manner of work c. The covetous man commonly is of Pharoahs Religion Exod. 5. 17. Ye are idle ye are idle therefore ye say Let us go and do sacrifice to the Lord They count that day a lost day One day in seven is above seven weeks in a year say they and what loss of time is this And those covetous persons in Amos who were weary of one day in seven Amos 8. 5. When will the new Moon be gone that we may sell corn and the Sabbath that we may set forth wheat Many keep their Sabbaths in their Saddles riding up and down for profit and gain about their worldly occasions Nehemiah when he saw how they prophaned the Sabbath how zealous was he the course he took you may see Neh. 13 15 16. If he were alive now and should see what is now done to see how thrust the Lawyers chambers are on this day what would he say But you see all this is the fruit of Covetousness 5. COMMANDMENT The fifth Commandment is Honour Parents by which is meant not onely in brief that we owe them first Reverence Secondly Obedience But thirdly Maintenance also but Covetousness will keep back all these As Levi in a good sense said of his Father and Mother I have not seen him Deut. 32. 9. so it is through Covetousness more often practised in a bad sense as Prov. 28. 24. He that robbeth his father and mother and saith it is no transgression the same is a companion of a destroyer This will Covetousness do and wipe its mouth and say I have done no evil This was the practise of the Pharisees Matth. 15. 4. saith Christ God commandâ— To honour father and mother and he that curseth father or mother shall dye but ye say whosoever shall say to his Father or Mother Corban It is a gift by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me and honour not his father or his mother he shall be free They would give a small gift to the Temple to be excused from a greater duty and further charge Still COVETOUSNES is in all this 6. COMMANDMENT I but you will say though Covetousness be a breach of all the Commandments hitherto yet the covetous man doth not kill and break the sixth Commandment yea Covetousness also is a Blood-sucker and the covetuous man-slayers those that are gold-thirsty are blood-thirsty also especially now in these hard times in hard times those that pinch the poor grinde their faces do as it were such their very lives and blood see Prov. 1. 11. My Son if sinners intice thee consent thou not if they say Come with us let us lay wait for blood let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause let us swallow him up alive and whole as the grave Why do all this We shall finde all precious substance we shall fill our houses with spoil and verse 19. saith he So are the wayes of every one that is greedy of gain for it taketh away the life of the owners thereof Therefore Covetousness and Blood are joyned together Ezek. 22. 13. I have smitten my handâ— at thy dishonest gain and at thy blood which hath been in the midst of thee I need not instance the case of Ahab and Naboth Ahab taking away his life to get his vineyard nor of Iudas who for gain betrayed Jesus Christ his Lord to death for thirty pieces of silver And if the hands of many covetous persons are not defiled Actually with shedding of blood It is the Law and not Conscience keepeth them clean they have bloody hearts thoâ—gh not bloody hands and to God they are in that regard guilty of blood as if they had shed blood and though mans Law cannot finde them culpable yet Gods Law doth for that forbids the Murther of the wish and of the heart 7. COMMANDMENT But sure he is not guilty of Adultery yea for you know Covetousness was the cause that Tamar suffered Iudah to lie with her Gen. 38. 16. What wilt thou give me to lie with me saith Tamar to Iudah What is the cause of the permission of so many Stews and Brothel-houses in the Popes Territories at Rome and Venice and Dance and other places but Covetousness for Gain they will a give dispensation for any sin And on the other hand how common is it even among us That many refuse Marriage meerly out of Covetousness to avoid the charge of marriage 8. COMMANDEMENT 8. I but He doth not steal yea surely for the world having stollen the heart of a Covetous man from God he himself will make no bones to steal from men and Thieves and Covetous are immediately joyned together in that I Cor. 6. 10. Iudas was a Thief why Iohn 12. 6. This he said not that he cared for the poor but because he was a Thief and had the bag and bare what was put therein You see he was called a Thief because he was covetous Defrauding oppressing over-reaching cozening cheating gaming extortion vsury all of them Worms bred in the dunghill of a covetous heart Nor is it any excuse to say there is as much evil or more in spending it prodigally that excuses not thee at all as the end of evil asking may be to spend it upon their lusts Jam. 4. 3.
Goodness the Wisdom Excellency and Beauty of him You may say these indeed in themselves are glorious creatures but say withal Where is He that enlightens them and makes them so glorious Oh! What and How glorious is He that thus shines in them and through them And as they All testifie the glory of their Creator so they All suffer him to be their Lord and Ruler Every thing is contented to stand in his place and be obedient to him the beasts they are appointed for food to man as other things are for beasts every one increasing and yielding their sweetness and fatness to the next creature above them and this they do willingly without grudging And All these creatures though they do speak God yet that they say of Him it is nothing in comparison of him Though they say something yet they all say not All of him but in us there is such a deal of ignorance which I was about to say was the greatest sin that we are so far from using them as we should making them serviceable to us and keeping them in their place that we are rather serviceable to them and are their servants and we make them Masters we are sooner turned into their kind then they into ours And the creatures though they speak God and speak aloud of him yet know this they still cry Plus ultra plus ultra there is more behinde still look beyond us for we are nothing when thou beholdest The Beauty glory sweetness or Excelencie of any Creature or of all the Creatures together Hear This voice from Them Look Beyond us for we All are Nothing Nothing to Him who made us and gave us to be What we are And we all speak infinitely short of Him As when I see This Church or House I know he was a workman that built it yet I know not All of him I neither knew what age he was of nor what means he had but that he was a workman this his works do tell me So in the works of Creation when I look upon any of the creatures I must needs acknowledge he was a Rare workman and a wise that contrived and made it but they come infinitely far short of him And they still cry with that man in the Gospel We believe But Lord help our unbelief 2. For their prayers You know prayer consists of two parts Of Prayer or Invocation Of Praise and Adoration As I told you every creature praises God the work praises the workman and every creature praises God I and with a loud voyce But whoever heard and understood the noise and the language of the stones and the voyce of the still and quiet earth But even All these praise God Aloud and he receiveth it at their hands They all praise him in his Sanctum Sanctorum The whole world and the Heavens and the Heaven of Heavens are all but His Temple as David saith In this Temple doth every one speak of His glory In this Temple they all sing praise and Hallelujahs to him every one even as it were vocally as Psal. 84. 3. David complains that the Swallows and the Sparrows were more happy then he for they might draw nigh unto God in his Temple to praise him for what is their chirping crying and singing but the voice of nature and to whom do they cry and to whom do they sing but to their Creator and God knows their voice and their cry as David saith He feeds the young Ravens when they cry unto him As a mother knows the signs the Child makes knows by the nuzling what it craves even so doth God by all his creatures The eyes of all things look up unto thee and thou givest them their meat in due season What the eyes of all men nay of all things You know one creature understands the voice of another they understands one anothers complaints one anothers singing and rejoycing one Dog understands the voice of another and so every creature in its kind and shall not God who is the God of nature he knows whereof we are all made and He knows all our complaints and wants The Lions seek their prey of God and he feeds the Ravens when they cry unto him But if these should not preach Gods praise yet the very stones do speak his praise and cry unto him but yet in such a language as God understands who made them and therefore you to whom God hath given rongues and understanding if you do not praise God and glorifie him if you hold your tongues all these dumb creatures and even these senseless stocks and stones shall rise in judgement against you for this is a true rule Nature hath done nothing in vain What 's the reason the poor sheep bleats when it comes to the slaughter and the swine Roars when he is killed do you think they cry to us that pursue them kill them no no but to God who is witness of their surrendring up their precious lives according to his will STEVEN when he was stoned to death nor Jesus Christ when he was crucified and said Father into thy hands I commend my spirit they did not cry more Audibly I say not more Audibly in Gods eares to God to take notice of their innocent yielding up their lives then these creatures do Cry to God when they suffer cruelly and unjustly crying to God Lord lay not this sin to their charge And Father into thy hands I commit my life and my spirit and fall asleep as Steven did and return to their rest 3. The third thing is their Decalogue but this belongs onely to us because they need none they never broke their law they alwayes walk according to Gods will The water and the sea summer and winter hay-time and harvest with all other things these all keep their appointed time they all obey thy will O God True it is they have not that reason that we have and therfore they have not so exact A Decalogue Yet God hath power even to break this exact Law yea man also may if God give him a dispensation and then if he break any of these Laws it is no sin as God commanded Abraham to kill his son and he did kill him in his intention and he had killed him had not the Angel staid his hand and it was not Evil but Obedience in Abraham But if any one shall do this from their own will then it were sin for he that gave the Law may break the Law And for this third part we need say no more 4. For their Sacrifices or Sacraments I do not say they sacrifice as of themselves but they are not onely an occasion of our praising God and sacrificing to him but they are also the matter of our sacrifices yet David in that of I Chron. 16. 31 32 33. Exhorts Let the Heavens be glad and the earth rejoyce and let men say among the Nations The Lord reigneth so withal saith he Let the sea
roar and the fulness thereof let the fields rejoyce and all that is therein then shall the trees of the wood Sing Out at the presence of the Lord that is To him to whom God hath revealed himself and suffered His glory to pass before him All creatures yea the dumb and inanimate creatures sing out and sing aloud the infinite praises of God Almighty Psal. 145. 9 10. The Lord is good to all and his tender mereies are over all his works All thy works shall peaise thee and thy Saints shall bless thee and talk of thy Kingdom and Power And so much shall suffice for these four parts of the creatures Religion We will come to make use hereof to our selves First Let it make us ashamed of our backwardness to give God praise we that are exalted above these creatures that they are more ready and cheerful in praising their Creator then we we may blush and be ashamed for There is nothing that we can behold but puts us in mind of our slothfulness These poor servants that have received but one talent do yeild more increase of praise to God then I or you that have received many talents These poor creatures do more sing forth Gods praise then we with all our wisdom reason and understanding And let us with shame confess Saying it is I It is I that have depressed thy glory and caused thy praise to be evil spoken of and say with David when thou seest any of the creatures dye It is I Lord that have offended but what have these poor sheep done which are killed and slain for me unworthy unthankful sinner Second Use Take notice hence of the vast circumference of Gods Kingdom it reaches farther then we are aware of we think that we are the onely creatures that God esteems of Was not the earth made for me and the Sun to shine upon me and all creatures to feed and clothe me and thou thinkest that thou art left alone to praise God no no deceive not thy self Gods praise is not confined to the Church of men he hath reserved to himself seven thousand that have not bowed their knee to Baal Dost thou think poor creature that thou art onely He that I have appointed to worship me and that my infinite praise depends onely upon thee no no His Kingdom is from one end of heaven to the other and every creature praises him as much or more then thee as Col. 1. 16. All things were created by him both things in heaven and things in earth visible and invisible all things were created by him and for him for his praise and glory and Psal. 2. 10 11. That at the name of Iesus every knee shall bow of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth and that every tongue should confess that Iesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father Therefore alas alas do not think that Gods Temple is so narrowly scanted that thon onely praisest him thou art the least part of his Church and Temple Third Use Let this teach us to go to God boldly in the name of Iesus and with great encouragement to praise God for though men and Angels be unfit to praise God and they cannot do it as they ought yet he that accepts the Ravens and the Lions and all the dumb creatures when they Cry unto Him be assured he will never refuse the sighs and the groans of any poor penitent dejected soul that comes bleeding and weeping to him for mercy He that cometh to me I will in no wise cast away Joh. 6. 37. Fourth Use Let us learn also that when we look upon the creatures we take heed of being taken with any of them But let us consider that these are but as Iaco bs Ladder that by these steps by these Angels of God we may ascend to him that stands at the Top And if God do not by one means or other by one affliction and vexation in the creature or other drive us from the creature that we may look up to him we shall for ever live and dye in the creature And therefore happy is that man that God hunts from these things that they may never have any Rest till they find Him where they shall find Rest to their souls As if there be oyl put into a deep glass it lies at the bottom and will never rise to the top but if you pour water into it it will still be rising up to the top till the oyl it self run over I could apply it thus A soul that is sunk in sin and sunk in the creature except God of his infinite mercy pour upon him the water of afflictions his soul will never Arise and mount up to God this drives us upward to seek rest there for here is none and so thereby shall become more then conquerors through him that hath loved us where as if these had not been our souls had been drowned in the creatures and sunck for ever to the pit of Hell These things I thus unfold to you that you may see the unspeakable and large bounds of Gods praise That every thing may result and yield to him honour and praise A Fifth Use To teach us that though it be impossible for us to search out the unspeakable praises of God that is hid in all the creatures we may see them yet we can never search them to the bottom howbeit every creature saith to us as the Angel to Iohn when he would have fallen down and worshipped him See thou do it not for I am thy fellow servant Worship God we are ready to fall down and worship the creatures but they all cry See thou do it not I am thy fellow servant worship God And they all cry to thee Dost thou see the beauty of any creature doth the sweetness of any creature take thee I say they all cry to us Arise and depart hence for this is not your rest Doth the Pleasantness the sweetness the Comeliness c. of any creature delight thee it saith and calls aloud to thee Arise and depart hence for this is not your rest how sweet how beautiful how fair soever Rest not in that thou seest but seek for HIM thou seest not All creatures are like the waters to Noahs Dove which could find no rest for the soal of her foot but yet she brought an Olive leaf in her mouth we may taste and use these things But take not too much of them and hold them gently and be alwayes ready to let them fall take heed of resting till you come to the Ark all come out from him and all return to him again Sixth Use and the last Take heed of abusing any creature it is enough that you may use them for they are one of the family you your selves are of and they groan as well as you for deliverance as God complains that ye make him serve your
but also typical and Significant so is this growth of Jesus Christ he grows up in us in wisdom and stature and he in us waxeth strong in spirit being filled with wisdom and understanding He teacheth us the true wisdom He in us chuseth that good thing which shall never be taken away He is The grace of God in us I live saith the Apostle yet not I but it is Christ his life in me From him cometh all growth in grace not from our selves the work is his none of ours From him cometh Faith Hope Charity Strength Vertue c. If any of these come from man from the power industry or strength of man they are false and good for nought yet how ready are most men to assume these to themselves or at least to think that by their power or wisdom or industry they have attained them From whence come wars come they not from your lusts So from whence comes pride and the lifting up of the creature high towring and and swelling imaginations that in plain terms exalt themselves against Jesus Christ they are so far from being from him or of him that they are quite contrary to him however to some may seem the vertues of Christ himself but they they are the excrements of the Old man Hence it is said That Iohn Baptist grew and waxed strong in spirit because Christ by his divine life in him brake forth in Iohn and his light did shine before men they seeing those good works in him God was glorified not Iohn for saith he I must decrease but he must increase Hence it is said here accentively twice in this Chapter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 versus ult 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both in our Text and Verse ult And the childe grew and waxed strong in Spirit filled with wisdom and the grace of God was upou him And again Iesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favour with God and men As these things were in him in his person then so the same things are as really done in his Mystical body and members All these influences are his and flow from him the head We are dead in trespasses and sins bnt he is the Resurrestion and Life And he that believeth in him shall never dye nay though he were dead yet shall he live When Jesus Christ doth once begin to display and declare the glory of himself in the soul and to adorn the soul with himself what a palace what a Kingdom what a Temple is that soul Well might David say Glorious things are spoken of thee O thou City and Temple of God Psal. 82. 3. more glorious then the Temple spoken of Rev. 21. and saith our Saviour The Kingdom of heaven is within you All that description Rev. 21. there at large setteth out the Glory and light of that Temple which was like Iasper most precious and clear as Chrystal and the wall high and stately wherein were twelve gates the gates kept by twelve Angels and the walls of Iasper and the City pure gold and the very foundation garnished with precious stones a Iasper a Saphir a Chalcedony an Emerald a Sardonix a Sardius a Chrysolite a Beril a Topas a Chrysophrasus a Iacinth an Amethist I say all these things are accomplished in a great measure in some less in some more in all those where Jesus Christ is pleased to display his glories and in that soul where he is pleased to adorn it with his own graces and with the fruites of the spirit as Faith Hope Charity Strength Vertue Love Ioy Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Meekness Temperance c. Those that are thus qualified inriched and adorned let me tell you they need no Law no Light for they are a Law to themselves and there is a light within them like that City Rev. 21. 23. That had no need of the Sun neither of the Moon to shine in it for The Glory of God did lighten it and the lamb is The light thereof Nay I may say and say truly as I may say they are gotten above Law above Letter in this regard for they have the Gospel and the life within them yet for all this do not think that I speak against Law or Letter or Ordinances use them as I say but Rest not in them And know this also that while the soul is Rapt up in the glory sight and beholding of Jesus Christ he knows this that he enjoys that which is the Substance and that which is as farre above the other as the Substance is above the Shadow and the Life above the Letter and the Spirit above the Flesh yet he will not slight nor cast away these means or Ordinances because God hath often appeared in them and by them to him as I have shewed more at large upon other Scriptures But I say Let us look to find that in us which Christ affirms that the Kingdom of God is within us and that you are in some beginnings of that glorious Temple and City mentioned before for if you think the Kingdom of God or Heaven to consist of such things as are there declared in the Letter you are much deceived But the holy Spirit is pleased to make use of such expressions and representations that are so amiable and Glorious to the carnall eye that so we may come to see the Truth and Substance of those Shadows and Representations to be far and transcendenly more ravishing and glorious as all those Saints and people of God before whom God hath Unvailed his glory can abundantly witness and seal to the truth thereof Insomuch that had they all those precious stones and Houses and Temples built of them really yet they in comparison of what they see and enjoy of God would trample them all under their feet as not worthy to be named the same hour with those true pearls and those ravishing full and satisfying and transparent precious stones which are within them They need not when they are in union and communion with him and when he is pleased to let but his back parts pass before them they shall not desire the light of the Sun or of the Moon to give light in that Temple for the glory of the Lord doth lighten it aud the Lamb is the light thereof And as it is expressed there in Ver. 14. The Nations of them that are saved shall walk in the light of it and the Kings of the earth shall bring their glory unto it This Temple and this Palace and this Glory darkens all the glory and splendor of all the Kings and Emperors under the Sun All their glory vanisheth and makes hast before this glory as being abashed and ashamed once to appear in sight thereof Beloved I hope and I know there are some that hear me which know and see and feel these things to be true yea as you say as true as Gospel yea so true as nothing is nor
stark naked then you may look to find God to see Him as he is in himself consequently truth but not before And truly this work being done in the soul there is such a miracle wrought as none but only the finger of God could do He that thinks ever by his own power to bring it about is utterly deceived This is a great question now adays Whether miracles be ceased now or no But it shews that such men have little experience of these Divine sublime truths It is a most foolish ridiculous question to him who enjoys these things for he sees there are as great miracles done now every day as ever was done since the world stood but the fault is in us we see them not our eyes are blinded that we can see no miracles Oh! were they but open we should see such miracles as would make all the understandings of Men and Angels stand amazed and a thousand times greater then ever any that Christ did in the flesh And the Angel of the Lord appeared unto him in the midst of a burning bush and behold the bush burned and was not consumed In these bare literal words there is a mighty miracle yet there is hid in them a miracle far transcending this outward miracle there is couched in them an abstruse hidden sense One would wonder to what purpose God should shew such a miracle of this nature A burning bush and not consumed What did this concern the work God Almighty was about namely to bring the Israelites from under Pharaohs bondage and grievous slavery Yet it being opened and unfolded you may see how fit it was every way upon this occasion As for instance That of Iacobs vision Iacob when he was to leave his Fathers house and forsake all his kindred and friends never looking to see them again he was to walk a long tedious way and un-inhabited as the world was in those times he having many sad thoughts and knew not what he should do nor what should befall him having gone one dayes journey and meeting with no lodging at night but weary as he was lay down in the open field and having nothing to lay his head on he gathered a heap of stones and laid his head on them a hard pillow as you may well think yet at last it should seem fell asleep and dreamed such a dream as never was dreamed on a pillow of Down And his dream was he saw a Ladder reach from Earth to Heaven and God himself stood at the top of the Ladder and the Angels of God were ascending and descending on it But as I said of this vision to Moses What was all this to Jacob this seems not suitable to his necessity at that time One would think that if God had appeared to him and said Iacob I will be with thee I will provide for thee take no thought I will be thy God thou shalt want for nothing though thou hast forsaken Father and Mother and all yet fear not I will be all in all to thee This or else somewhat to this purpose had been more fit for Iacobs condition Beloved Whatever it seems to be in the History in the Mystery it was the suitablest the fittest the seasonablest vision that could possibly have been revealed to him namely to let Iacob see that while all the Creatures in Heaven and Earth which are Gods Angels or Messengers and do his will and all go of his errands He himself holds the Ladder at the top they all come from him and they all return to him again And not only so but he being their essence their being their life their motion they are all moved and actuated by him Himself there is not one Creature not one of these Angels or Messengers but doth his will and he is with them in what part of the Ladder soever they are if they be in the middle or bottom or at the top yet they are not absent from him but he rules and guides them all to do his work which he appoints them to do Now my Brethren this being fixed in Iacobs mind that every Creature was formed actuated and moved by God himself and that not any one of them could do any thing to him nor he could want nothing but a supply was at hand because he commanded it because he was so near it he was in it This was that which comforted Jacob in all his journey That whatever he met withal or wheresoever he was he still had recourse to what his vision taught him And so likewise in this vision to Moses it was the fittest that could have been shewed him upon this occasion and in this business which he was to go upon Now you may observe three kinds of Miracles to three several divisions of persons 1. To Moses and that onely this One the bush burned and was not consumed and this was sufficient to work upon Moses and to encourage him to his work But 2. The Israelites they will not beleive for one miracle but they must have three miracles But 3. The Egyptians ten miracles would not work upon them something is included in this For Moses being a man Near God being a Shepherd already he had in part resigned up himself to God and therefore one miracle was enough to make him believe for as soon as ever he saw it and God called unto him and said Moses Moses he presently answers Gods call Here am I Lord but Israel being further off from God having been long in Egypt they were so well accustomed there also to their slavery that they had as live remain there still as depart therefore before they could be perswaded to Obey and follow Moses there must be three miracles wrought 1. Moses threw down his Rod and it became a Serpent then he took it up by the tail and it became a Rod again 2. He put his hand into his bosome and pulling it out it became leprous and putting in his hand again and pulling it out it became as his other flesh 3. Says God If they will not believe for the first nor for the second miracle for the third they shall believe Take up of the water of the brook and pour it on the ground and it shall turn into blood These being further removed from God God did not live in them he was exalted in them as he was in Moses but was as dead and buried in them and to them But ten and ten to that can never work upon the Egyptians Those that will live and die Egyptians all the miracles in the world can never make them believe Moses he said at once Lord here I am he was ready to obey God and the Israelites they answered at three times But some there are that are so hardned in their own ways and so frozen on their dregs that let God do what he will with them let him strike them with sickness famine plague pestilence what he
will yet it doth no good upon them they will never let the Israelites go to serve the Lord but if they do they will pursue them and never leave them till they themselves are drowned in the Sea and utterly destroyed Now for the vision it self in hand And the bush burned and was not consumed A strange miracle that a bush should be all over of a red glowing fire all a day and not consume Indeed trees that have stood close together by the violence of wind rushing them together have been known to set on fire but then they consumed but who ever saw wood on fire a whole day together and not consume Moses it seemeth at first took no great notice of it but seeing it burn all day and not consume I will turn aside saith he and see what the reason is and see this great sight why the bush burneth and is not consumed But before I come to the vision it self here is yet one thing that will detain us and I fear for the whole time of the these few minutes allotted us but God may offer ere long another opportunity for to speak of the vision it self It is said in this second verse That the Angel appeared to Moses in the midst of the bush and in the verses following it is said to be the Lord God how could one and the same be an Angel and God too Tell the Children of Israel I AM hath sent you unto them Which name can belong to no Creature but is proper onely to God Almighty And again you know in all the Old Testament when any Angel appeared to any man if they fell down and worshipped them never any man was blamed but St. Iohn did but offer to fall down to worship the Angel that had shewed him all those visions and he was forbidden See thou do it not for I am thy fellow-servant worship God What may be the reason of this was there any difference between the Angels of the Old Testament and the Angels of the New No certainly The truth is this and that which will bear the touch and the trial against all opposition That every Creature is an Angel a Messenger of God Almighties not the greatest nor the least nor meanest that is but is one of Gods Angels or Messengers and being so He is the Essence and Being of every Creature The Substance of all things Insomuch that nothing can have a Being but onely Himself No Creature can say I AM. If he were not so how could God say I am if any Creature could say so Truly of it self And God is so the Essence and Being of all things not onely as most men affirm and believe an Essence giving Being to all things so as every thing hath no Being in it self but from him and of him but he is the Essence of the Essence He is the Being of the Being for he it is onely that is Alpha and Omega the first and the last He onely is He that was and that is and that is to come if any Creatures were sâ—arers in this title he were not God Almighty This is such a truth as all the world shall never be able to overthrow ye may bottom upon it for The gates of hell shall never prevail aginst it God being the Substance and Form of all things the Form of Forms he is as Really and as Gloriously and as Omnipotently present in the Meanest and least Creature you can shew me as he is in the greatest Let flesh and blood and Satan and Hell and all the powers of darkness set against it with all the might they have they shall never prevail against it I say he is as Infinitely as Magnificently as Gloriously as Incomprehensibly present in the basest Creature in the least mâ—te in sticks and stones name what ye will as he is in Heaven it self and in all the world besides for He cannot be more fully present in One place then another but in all places all present at once he is as Fully as all-sufficiently as Graciously as Vnbounâ—ably present in the barrenest Mountain as in he fruitfullest Valley But where is he that câ—n see him so who can see this glory and this â—ower of God in every Creature Most certainlâ— undeniably the thing is so but we want eyes to see him so Do not I fill Heaven and Earth saith God If any thing fill Heaven or Earth besides him in the least jâ—t or period that saying were not true He is not present in the glorious Heavens in his Majesty more then He is in the Earth He is not present as most men teach and too many believe them in one place in regard of his Essence and in Another in regard of his Power and in another in regard of his Iudgment and in another in regard of his Mercy and in another by his Patience c. These be fond fopperies hearken to none of them let them be who they will be know this is truth He is in all alike Essentially but we see him not so and therefore we think him not so That we see him not so the fault is not in God for he is the same in all places and through all ages but the fault is in our selves we are so weak-sighted we cannot see him As suppose I speak to these three several Creatures to a man to a dog and to a stone the man he hears my voyce and understands me what I mean the dog hears but he understands not but the stone it doth neither And if you should ask the Stone what I said supposing there were a possibility of answering therein it would say I spake not at all if you ask the dog he would say I heard a voice a noise but he said nothing but ask the man and he would tell you That I spake and What I spake Was it therefore true that which the dog and the stone affirmed Because they either understood not or heard not or Was the fault in me they heard not or understood not No the fault is in themselves for I did speak and spoke sense but they had not a capability of hearing and apprehending So God shines Gloriously and Majestically and Super-exaltedly in all his Creatures but if we see him not so blame not God and say He is not so nor He is not there because you see him not nor cannot apprehend him there but blame your own ignorance your own blindness for God is as much in one as in another he cannot be Glorious in one and not in another but the same in all And God being there he cannot be without All His Accoutrements of Majesty and Glory Al His Glorious Attributes attend him whereever he is And he cannot be Sequestred from them nor they from him And if God hath opened your eyes so far as to see him Thus in all Creatures Do not offer to take from him His Glory or Greatness as if God where-ever
or any figure but as Abstracted and above all creatures and so he is the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Iacob but take him Concretely as included or represented in any creature so it is Idolatry But if in the former sense then ye worship him after the example of the Patriarchs Beloved I beat upon these things the more and the larger because I would fain have you understand me and it may be this may seem to you an Error or a Novelty at least till you have eaten it and chewed the cud and debated it in your own souls but to have a thought of worshipping God as included in any creature or representing him in regard of his Essence to justifie worshipping of Images I abhor and curse all such thoughts to the pit of hell and surely you cannot have such a thought of me for this is the very thing I so much endeavour to perswade you from But for instance There is the Sun that shines in at this window yet you know that is not the Sun but a beam from the Sun though I lye not in saying the Sun is there for that could not be there without the Sun yet it is not the real Sun and in seeing that I do not see the Sun yet if I desire to see the Sun in this room and were loth to go out of doors let me but lay my eye in that beam to see whence it comes and I should see the Sun it self for that beam it goes directly to the Sun for if I were in a dungeon though thirty miles deep in the ground if the Sun could but shine in at any cleft or pin-hole though the Dungeon were never so dark yet if I lay my eye in that beam I should behold the face of the Sun Even so it is with Almighty God there is in every Creature a beam that comes from him which is the Being and Essence of the Creature Now if we shall fall down and worship that Beam as simply considered as contracted and included in the Creature this were sin but if I lay my eye in that beam I shall see it leads me to the Eternal One Immutable Incircumscriptible Iuconceivable Essence of the Divine BEING And that Angel beholds the very face of God Almighty Hence you may learn to interpret that place where our Saviour commands Take heed ye despise not nor offend one of these little ones for their Angels alwayes behold the face of your Father which is in Heaven Not that it is lawful to worship that beam or Angel but He alone from whence that Beam comes who is farre above every Angel and all manner of Creatures and Creation As to take the former instance suppose there were a Religion that it were lawful to worship the Sun if one should fall down and worship that Beam that comes from the Sun did not he sin for that is not the Sun but comes from the Sun and therefore for any one according to that Religion to worship that Beam were Idolatry for he worshipped not that he was commanded but was taken up in a thing Infinitely below his God So in the same sense Every Creature is a beam of the Divinity which is the Substance thereof and though you see not the face of your Father in Heaven yet that beam doth yet He that shall see that beam and fall down to that worships that he ought not something else instead of God I pray God ye understand me for I fear the simile I before named and instanced in is too true among men Some there are that do hear me and understand me to whom God hath revealed these things and some though they hear me yet they are like the dog they understand not what I say I speak riddles to them but others there are which understand not neither will they hear but are like a stone therefore I say it again God is really present in himself in every Creature but if he worship God as included in or represented in that Creature he sins and commits Idolatry because he worships that beam instead of God and falls down to a Creature instead of God But if I take occasion upon the sight of any Creature To behold God himself above and beyond all Creaâ—ures and so worship him he that will deny this and say This is sin let him also deny God himself So farre as any thing can be called an Angel so farre we are forbidden to worship it but if that Angel occasion us to look beyond it to him that sends that Angel to him that is the Essence and Substance of that Angel Here we are commanded to worship because then Our Angel always Beholds the Face of Our Father which is in Heaven being One Eternal Almighty Immense Incircumscriptible Glorious BEING even God blessed for ever and ever Vse We will onely make one short Vse and Application of this point to our selves and so conclude Is it not then more then apparent that God is every where in all Creatures and in every place he is near us yea nearer us then our selves are to our selves he is the Ideal form and first beginning of us and all Creatures and whatever is in us But if we would see him we must first strip your selves of all manner of visibility and whatever can come under any thought of an Angel Beam or any conception for God is unknowable unconceivable And as long as you know or conceive any thing you are short of what God is else we make him comprehensible and knowable who is altogether unknowable and incomprehensible And therefore whensoever I meet with any thing whatsoever that will shew me how to know the incomprehensible God I must cast it away because I know it seduceth and misleadeth me for God is unknowable yet God is nearer to me then any thing I can call I or my self he is nearer then my touching tasting smelling seeing hearing so near that he is the form of our forms the soul of our souls And therefore Beloved if we would send our desires to him he is so near that we can no sooner think any thing but he knows it as the Prophet Esay saith Before they call I will hear and before they pray I will answer God knows all our thoughts and desires before-hand for he is the desire of the desire And therefore do I want any thing any benefit any good thing any counsel in any difficult case Yet mistake me not I do not mean about lands and livings or riches and pleasure honour and praise or good name when I speak of these things I mean not nor intend concerning matters of right and wrong so much or those things wherein flesh and blood please themselves which come to nothing and perish with the using As the Apostle saith But do I want direction to guide my soul to bring me nearer to God to live the life of Christ do I want counsell and support to
an Angel to worship him I sin or if I fall down to Jesus Christ as included in that man or in any Creature I sin likewise But if in men and beasts and trees and in all I behold God 〈◊〉 Immutable Incomprehensible Incircumscriptible Essence so I may praise God and take any occasion to fall down before him and say O thou God That Fillest Heaven and Earth O thou God that Fillest and movest every thing and thou thy self art not moved nor changed in all things I see thee who art One and for ever the same If you shall now ask me how you may behold God thus I will tell you In every Creature is a beam of the Divinity which is an Angel and that Angel be it never so small beholds The face of God Almighty that beam that lives in me or thee that beam I say sees the very face of God And therefore saith our Saviour Christ Take heed ye despise not one of these little ones for their Angel always beholds the face of your Father which is in Heaven Although you see not the Sun when you behold a beam that comes in at the window yet if you do but lay your eye in that beam you shall see the Sun it self So though you cannot see God Almighty in any Creature yet if you do not despise any of these little ones They behold God and if you lay your eye in that beam you shall come to behold God himself and then in the name of God praise God even with all your might and with all your strength then you can never praise him enough in all his Creatures Only take this along with you Thar so long as you are capable to see touch or understand what you see so long you see not God it is but a Creature but if you let that little spark guide you That Angel within you it will bring you to the very face of God For God is in the Midst of the bush in the midst of the Creature yet he is not The burning bush though he be in the Creature yet he is not the Creature So long as he appeared to Moses under any form he was but an Angel The Angel of the Lord appeared unto Moses in the midst of a burning bush And if Moses had worshipt that burning bush he had been blamed as well as S. Iohn But God is Hid he is Vailed from our sight by Accidents He is not in the Out-parts but he is Within Beloved if God would be pleased to unfold these things to you and me and make us understand them aright I know that Then neither heights nor depths nor Angels nor Principalities nor any thing should ever be able to separate between us and these blessed truhs nay nothing could hinder us from union with this Our ever Blessed God for these are such infallible Truths such glorious Truths Against which the gates of hell shall never prevail When Iacob was to go three or four hundred miles from his Fathers house He saw a vision in his first nights sleep and it was a Ladder that reached from heaven to earth and the Angels of God went up and down ascending and descending on it and at the top of the Ladder stood God himself What do you think was the meaning of that Ladder We deny not the truth of the Story for let that heart that hath such a thought consume for ever in endless flames but let us labour to find out the mind and meaning of God in all his words God stood at the top of Ladder what God is in himself we meddle not with we have nothing to do with that O blessed God! be thou what thou art thou hast said I AM that I AM and we say so too THOU ART that THOU ART Holy and Blessed be Thou in what thou Art for ever and ever And as Thou art in Thy Self we neither know thy Name nor thy Sons Name But the Word became flesh and dwelt amongst us Christ Jesus is the Substance and Being of all things Hee is Hee in whom all Types and visions ended This Book of God is a great Book and many words are in it and many large Volumes have been drawn out of it but Christ Jesus Hee is the Body of it Hee is the mark all these words shoot at Hee is the Truth and Substance of all those Types Shadows Metaphors Allegories Parables and Paradoxes Hee is The MARROW in that Bone and the Kernel in that SHEL There cannot one Creature come into the world nor go out of the world not one Angel ascends or descends upon that Ladder but it comes from God and by Jesus Christ He is the Substance and Being thereof and there is not One Creature but doth the Errand God sends him on And therefore David ascribes the very worst of actions to him when Doeg curst him he said Let him alone for God hath bid him He knew no Creature could move towards him to do him either good or hurt but what God bid it do And therefore saith he in whatever befel him I held my tongue and spake nothing because thou didst it Beloved know this the interpretation of visions is from the Lord as Ioseph said to Pharaoh It is not in me to interpret dreams or visions but God shall give Pharaoh an Answer of peace And so say I of this A vision it is and we shall find it no where expounded but God hath set it down It is thrown amongst us and writ for every one to read some take it one way and some another As Pilate said What I have written I have written he that can find the interpretation let him Beloved we spent much time the last Sabbath but we could not get from under the cloud nor espy the bright pillar of light and comfort to discover the meaning of the VISION but you know I was forced to leave my discourse as to the Vision it self Muâ—â—led up in those Sacred and Holy discontents which yet are like physick though a little distastful yet exceeding whollom My beloved is a garden walled about and as a fountain sealed up And saith Daniel to Nebuchadnezzar the interpretation of dreams and visions is from the Lord. There is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets And he that Ploughs not with his heifer shall not find out his riddle He which sent that vision to Iacob taught him also how to interpret it For in the bare relation of the vision what is in it to comfort Iacob in the condition he was in And so here to what purpose was this vision shewed to Moses what concerned this the business in hand as you may conceive Beloved He that can find out Gods meaning in these visions shall find Hidden Manna to nourish him But he that thinks by his wit and by his policy and by his own strength to find it out be sure shall find nothing but a bone to choke him
and thwart and contradict one another and that the confusion of things confounds thine understanding yet be sure I am with them and in them and I order all and to me all things work harmoniously though to thee cross and contradictory yet all effect and bring about my Ends they can do nothing but what is agreeable to my will for they are all led by one spirit they all to me do keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace with me Even all Contradistories Coincide And so far forth as thou canst see and believe this they all shall do the Same to thee Beloved you know these my two hands are moved by the same spirit in me and the same soul moves all the members of my body and think you will one member hurt another No will my hand smite or pierce any member to hurt it No surely and if it do yet it is to better its condition though for the present it may hurt and wound and make it smart yet it is not to Hurt it but for its greater good So say I In the world what can happen or fall out to hurt us or displease us Truly nothing at all If we were but come to this that we could but keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace If we did But Behold ONE Spirit moving and ruling through the whole earth And if we did but see that He is the cause of all Wars and Tumults and that He stirs up their spirits for what End is best known to himself and thought we see such varieties and changes in the world yet in him and to him all things Coincide Even those things that are contradictories to us even all changes and oppositions and contentions and clashings in the world all in him Coincide That is all things to him are in agreement in an Harmony and work to his Almighty praise to the Highest to the utmost that can be Yet in regard of men he may be dishonoured but in himself and by himself He Works out His own praise in all contrarieties Because Really and in truth Nothing contradicts his will but if it do His revealed will yet He makes every act in the creature be it good or evil to contribute to his praise And he whom God hath been pleased to shew this vision to which he here shewed to Moses and the interpretation thereof he sees it so and his will and Gods clash not but Harmonize and coincide Gods actings and their wills agree these Blessed Souls They cannot finde fault with any thing but subscribe that He hath done all things well How then can this man distrust or murmure against God in whatever falls out because he sees God doing all he sees one Spirit moves all acts all but so far forth as men are Drowned in the Letter of this Vision they see none of all this They onely look upon it As a wonderful thing that God did thousands of years since and so take it as an History or according to their utmost interpretation viz. That God in the midst of the Afflictions of the Church yet he preserved them even as in the veâ—â—sâ—re though Pharaoh oppressed them and Egypt was as a furnace to the Israelites in which God kept them and brought them out of it which interpretation I condemn not but I think there is more held forth for God bid Moses tell the Israelites I AM had sent him He that was the Substance and Being of all things the worker and orderer of all things in heaven and earth But so far as men see not this When they hear of wars and rumours of wars and Nation rising against Nation they tremble and they fear and are at their wits end not knowing they are all led by the same spirit himself is when as those who see the Almighty thus working ordering and filling all creatures yea Burning and Changing Melting and reducing the Elements from one form and shape to another so that they see one generation come and another go These men they go on in an holy Serenity and Tranquillity of minde knowing there shall not an hair of their head perish without their Fathers pleasure and ordering Beholding his wisdom and power and goodness in all things in all turnings and tumblings and overturnings Having Cast all their care upon him for they know He takes care of them and infinitely beyond what they could do for themselves Therefore they Repose themselves sweetly upon his will and disposing which condition they prize above all earthly enjoyments yea more then a thousand natural lives if they had so many for They have forsaken Houses Lands Wives Children c. and all for Him and in him they enjoy and possess a hundred-fold instead thereof even in this life If they have them they enjoy God in them and through them and though they want all yet they have God instead of all who is to them more worth then all But others not being able to Hear or Bear these things being not yet come to be either Fathers or Yong-men in Christ living still in the Letter and in Shadows whom indeed these fathers in Christ pity and pray for and their Bowels yern for them and such is their strength that they are fain to become weak to the weak and all to all not that they shall gain all but that they may gain some for some are like the Egyptians here spoken of that not all the precepts or examples nor all the Plagues in the world will convince them They will not take knowledge That they are Acted and Guided by an unseen hand and power They see not that the whole Universe is guided by One Spirit But they think that there is one Spirit in the English and another in the French another in the Spaniard and another in the Dutch another in the Turks one in Europe another in Asia another in Affrica and another in America but be assured As to the carrying on of the affairs and designs of God in the world One and the same Spirit rules in all And though there are divers and contrary operations yet all is by the same Spirit it is God that worketh all in all and though they be never so far asunder yet all act by the same Spirit As in my body what 's further asunder then my head and my foot yet the same soul in both and know that this One soul within me hath as great a care of the lowest member as of the highest And so in the world though Almighty God hath set some in a high condition and some in a low yet know He Guides all He takes care whatever thou thinkest that the Higher Members and more Exalted and Impowred shall not oppress the lower no further then he in his wisdom thinks meet He it is that lets one man finde favour in this mans eyes and another not This as other actions all along are
ascribed to him He gave them favour and he hardened the heart of Pharaoh and He bid Shimei curâ—e David and the like Be assured whatever clashing and dashing thou observest in the world So as to thy thinking all will come to Nought and Miscarry yet be assured He it is that keeps all Guides all from dashing one against another but so far as his wisdom will have it so and it must be so for the accomplishment of his most holy ends O therefore let Vain man and his ignorance Nay his wisdom and his will stoop yea stoop to the very dust before him and leave all to him and be afraid To Censure His doings or to say concerning the Almighty Such an action was not well done Such a man O it were well if he were Removed Oh! he doth a great deal of hurt Oh! let him be cut off Oh! Beloved know God Almighty is a God of Infinite wisdom and art thou wiser then he must it needs be as thou conceivest no no you are deceived submit your judgements to him Expand and give up your selves and all you are and have to his Wisdom and Soveraignity and do not once dare to oppose that Infinite Infinite Wisdom of God in comparison of whose wisdom all the wisdom of all men and Angels put together is but folly before him He chargeth his Angels with folly and the Heavens are unclean in his sight what art thou then Poor Crawling worm to lift up thy self in his presence But thus to see God Doing all This is that Moses saw by the eye of faith in this Burning Bush It is He that Overturns the world It is He that burns every Creature New-forms and New-shapes The whole Universe He is that Great Potter that makes destroys and Re-makes at his pleasure what vessels he pleaseth He maketh vessels of honour and dishonour He alters and changes every Creature New-moulds and New-makes all and yet he destroys nothing And know this and set to thy seal that whatever He doth He cannot but do all things well superlatively well so well as it cannot be better And hereby the Lord will also set His seal to this soul so that He and It are so joyned together and made One that they will never part But he that looks upon the bare vision in the bare letter he cannot see these things What is it to him that Moses saw the vision That is gone and past But dost thou see what Moses saw Dost thou see all acted altered and changed by him Dost thou see Him alone doing all That it is He that Vn-makes and New-makes That it is He that makes men yong and makes men Old That it is He that bringeth to the grave and turneth man to destruction and saith at his pleasure return again ye sons of men That it is He that maketh and formeth man and all Creatures and bringeth them back again to their first principles and thereof Creates Raiseth and re-makes new Creatures Dost thou Thus see That the whole Universe is but a Body acted and guided by one soul by one spirit And that it is nothing else but a Carcase moved and led up and down by one spirit And that He is the substance of all and of every Creature the meanest the smallest the vilest as well as of the most glorious Dost thou see HIM in the midst of all this changing and tumbling up and down That it is He that destroys and preserves all things Unmakes Re-makes as the Potter doth and yet the clay is the same but that it is he which is still producing new forms Dost thou see that it is He that doth all these things that it is He that preserves all and weighs all so that nothing is lost For did not he Preserve all entire in themselves every element in its Property and Nature and keep them within their own bounds which is His Excelling glory they would presently devour and Overcome one another Fire if it did predominate were not bounded it would turn all things into Fire it would make all things like it self And so of Water it would turn all to Water and so of the rest But he hath set them their bounds which they cannot pass hitherto shalt thou come and no further and here shall thy proud waves be stayed So that he keeps all things Entire in their own Element and every thing in its Proper place And in all this change or alteration and tumbling of the elements together Herein is His power seen That there is nothing lost nor diminished Dost thou see all this and that it is He that ruleth the Nations and that it is He alone that reigneth and that HE commandeth and ordereth the affairs of Princes all Nations and that all the Kings of the earth are in his hands My times are onely in thine hand saith David And know though thou thinkest That Kings and Rulers and others walk according to their Own wills and contrary to thine and thou art therefore offended yet know They all walk according to my will and pleasure saith God and though thou and they think otherwise and though they have no such purpose to obey my will but to please themselves and fulfil their own wills and not mine yet I have them so in my hand that they shall all in the end serve to my praise glory yea even in that they think they serve themselves and their own ends Poor Ignorant souls Alas when as they glory and pride themselves in their great pomp attendance and command and think that it is They that Rule when as they see not Psal. 66. 7. that it is He that ruleth by his power for ever and ever And Dan. 4. 17. The most High ruleth in the Kingdoms of men He it is alone that doth whatsoever He will and not they wil He sendeth the sword giveth it a Commission The Sword never awakes Till he say awake O sword And t is said of our Saviour That he came to bring peace unto men Luk. 2. 14. Peace on earth and good will towards men And yet our Saviour saith again Matth. 10. 34. I come not to send peace but a sword and vers 35. I am come to set a man against his father and the daughter against her mother and the daughter in Law against her mother in Law c. what strange contradictions are here What flesh and blood can reconcile these Scriptures yet both very true Again dost thou see That it is he that shall change these our vile bodies and make them like the glorious body of Iesus Christ Phil. 3. 21. Jesus Christ will purifie thoâ—â— that cleave to him and purifie them like unto himself Fire I told you never rests working and purifying till it hath brought All things to be as pure as it self So That Divine Fire Jesus Christ will never leave purifying and cleansing His people till he
he is where he works In his operations He works upon us As the spokes of a wheel upon the Ring and in his possession as upon the Nave As a Spider upon his Web If any one thred be Toucht He presently seizes upon the fly He is not to seek not will miss his prey for He is alwayes either watching or working to destroy Yet for all this As the earth rent with thunder blasted with fire drowned with water shaken with winds must not cannot blame the Heavens because the cause of all these distempers came forth of the Earth at first So if we be Heavily punished by the Devil we may blame our selves For we have taken into our selves of His Nature whereby he hath gotten power over us For could we but say as Christ He hath Nought in me He could have no power upon us Let therefore these spiritual Enemies keep us up as whips do Tops continually with our eyes up unto God That He may help us To leave and abhor all sin which procures and draws down such heavy and spiritual torments And here I must lay down this Maxim As all things aym either at a good or evil end so effectum testatur de causa the effect witnesseth of the cause all things proceed either from a good or Evil cause A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit nor an evil tree good Matth. 7. 28. Now we know WHOSE the good is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is none good but one which is God Matth. 19. 17. and we know likewise who is the Source and fountain of all Evil who is therefore in so many places of Scripture called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and from whom we are taught by our Saviour to pray for deliverance under that name Deliver us from Evil Matt. 6. 13. All these Actions of this sublunary world whether External or Internal Corporal or Spiritual Visible or Invisible Are divided between these two whom our Saviour calls God and Mammon Matth. 6. 24. S. Iohn Light and Darkness S. Paul Christ and Belial 2 Cor. 6. 15. Elias God and Baal 1 Kin. 18. 21. Accordingly Is that Text of our Saviour He that gathereth not together with me scattereth abroad and he that is not with me is against me Matt. 12. 30. So also that Text Rom. 14. 23. All that is not of faith is sin Hence the word of God makes it plain That many Diseases and Evils inflicted upon men are called Devils because coming from him and inflicted by him as Lunacy is called a Devil my son is Lunatick Matth. 17. 15. yet vers 19. t is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Devil came out of him so Mark 9. 17. t is said of one that was dumb that he had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a dumb Devil so also of one that was blinde A blinde man possessed with a Devil Matth. 12. 22. the like is said of of Deasness or of a Deaf Devil Luke 11. 14. So in the same manner of Crookedness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Having a spirit of infirmity Luke 13. 11. and yet at verse 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whom Sâ—tan or the Devil hath bound and thereupon Luke 8. 2. we finde that Infirmities and Devils 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are joyned together And includes One and the same thing All the plagues of Egypt Flies Frogs Caterpillars Locusts Hail Frosts Thunder-bolts c. Are all called Psal. 78. 49. Evil Angels and so also Iobs blains and botches pass under the same denomination so that as Hippocrates said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in every disease as there is something of God in it so may we say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 something of the Devil in it Now I pray you Resume and take up again what I have formerly delivered God is a God of Order Order implyes plurality and diversity Now as all the Actions of Christ are Mystical So all of the Devils are likewise and as Omnis actio Christi est nostra instructio as every action of Christ is our instruction so is every one of the Devils actions too and therefore as there is Mysterium Evangelii The Mystery of the Gospel Ephes. 6. 19. And the Great Mystery of godliness 1 Tim. 3. 16. as also The Mystery of faith 1 Tim. 3. 9. The Mystery of God Revel 10. 7. In like manner there is Mysterium iniquitatis The Mystery of iniquity 2 Thess. 2. 7. And as Paul cries out Rom. 11. 33. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Oh the depth of the Riches and Wisdom and Knowledge of God! so S. Iohn tell us Rev. 2. 24. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Depths of Satan When you consider and contemplate The mercies and miracles of Christ toward mankinde and his mighty works in the flesh Do you onely consider them as His mercies to the Bodies of men Or onely done to them then no no Duc in altum as Christ said unto Peter Luk. 5. 4. Lanch forth into the deep And Let down your Nets for a Greater draught Rest not there Look into your selves also reflect and see what God and Christ did and doth unto the souls and spirits of men even in thy self for as he cureth the one so he cureth and saveth the other He it is that gives light to them that sit in darkness of sin and ignorance and makes them to be Light in the Lord and looseth the Captives which are bound in Spiritual Captivity by Satan and maketh them free men in the Lord He healeth those that are broken-hearted and sets at liberty them that are bruised He opens the prison doors to them that are bound And lets the captives go free He maketh to grow strong in faith to grow in grace and favor with God and men He it is hath sent Redemption unto his people psa 111. 9. But all this not onely to their persons in corporal deliverances but chiefly to their souls and spirits doing the same actions over again in us And herein Is Iesus Christ yesterday and to day and the same for ever And so also when you consider the malice of Satan do you onely look upon his malice to the Estates of men or to their bodies As His vexing Iobs person with diseases and botches his blowing down the house upon Iobs children or the fire he sent to burn up his sheep or do you onely look upon the Sabeans and Chaldeans or onely upon the loss of the Girgasites swine or upon the Tempests at sea and the sicknesses which he layes on the bodies or estates of men c. O Beloved you will Catch little or nothing here Though you fish All night and though you hear all the Sermons or read all the Books you can get you will be little the better stay not your contemplations or experiences here but Duc in altum Lanch forth mind these workings in you look into your
type of this spiritual Pharaoh You see how discouraged he was but to come into his presence but to ask to let the people go to serve the Lord and much more to bring the thing to pass he went for No mâ—rvel if an Embassador for Christ be in this regard discouraged for All the Powers of darkness are before him Christians look on your enemies they have Cities walled up to heaven You have the tower of Babel to climb the soul to be Rescued and brought out of the claws of all the Devils in hell But this is your comfort Christ doth this for you but it must be done in you What 's thy name LEGION If all the whole earth were gathered into one Body into one Army All the Engines and Politick Engineers for war and all the Artillery thereof this were a potent mighty almost inconceiveable strength yet this is Nothing to these Legions One of which One Sin is able to destroy the soul for ever which is of more value then all the world yet all this power cannot destroy one soul whom Jesus Christ hath purchased Then what shall they soul do that hath Legions of these as thick in thy understanding will affections as Motes in the Sun as Devils in the air as thick as words as actions â—y as thoughts For where this strong man keeps the house Mat. 12. 29. all he doth speaks thinks all is sin and he lies close and safe in his trenches and strong holds he thinks himself invincible unconquerable And indeed so long as Men do but take up Arms against him Or use never so many ordinances or duties which they force themselves unto he laughs at the shaking of your spears Job 41. 29. And the neighing of your horses and all the strength you can make of your selves though you call in all the parties you have from all quarters in the soul Yet he is quiet as t is said David was or as a Christian ought to be in his God he can lie down and sleep in the midst of his enemies because God is his strong hold his Castle of defence So sure and safe is Satan in his conceit in the soul where he hath kept long possession foâ— he hath all the men in the world the whole Arm of Fesh he glories in his Offensive and Defensive weapons And indeed till the Lord Jesus begins To rouse up himself That King of Kings and Lord of lords that Mighty Lion of the Tribe of Iudah Aâ—ise in us and dress himself in his Glittering Armour as David speaketh he fears nothing for as I said before he is so strong that indeed he thinks himself too strong for Christ for so long as Christ suffers himself to be Overmastered by our sins and strong lusts he seemes Too weak for him And he insults over him as a Turk over his poor Gally-slave as I may so say or as if you will some cruel Marshal over his prisoners though the Kings best subjects he lays them at his pleasure Neck and Heels he casteth them into noisom dungeons where is nothing but Satans excrements and the filthy spuings of our lusts and These also he sets as Centinels that they stir not whilst he himself jets up and down in pride saith I le bring down the oroudest of you all What know you not me I have his Majesties Commissino for what I do So also This is that Spiritual and true Nebuchadnezar that jets up and down in his own pride Saying Is not this great Babel that I have built for the honour of my majesty and for the glory of my Kingdom Dan. 4. 30. This Devil in us he looks on himself as a Peacock and saith VVhat a goodly Christian am I what a height I have gotten what large knowledge have I obtained I think there is no point in Divinity but I am able to speak to it what doth no body take notice of me and so Arrogates the doing of all good to himself and All Evil as none of his Ah where is the man that can say I find all these things truly and really in my self this were a certain forerunner of the Sun Arising Of the day Break and of the day-stars arising in Our hearts Now will the Lord Christ arise triumphantly in thy soul and make All these beasts of the forrest to tremble Now as it is exprest in Rev. 6. 2. He will ride on conquering and to conquer as David saith Gird on thy sword upon thy thigh O thou most mighty with thy glory and thy majesty Ride on prosperously thine arrows shall pierce deep into the heart of all Our and the Kings enemies now though Satan in us muster up All his forces as now most certainly he will Yet he shall fall from heaven like lightning that which he hath Enjoyed as his heaven had the command of our souls where he hath ruled as Lord and King but yet as a Tyrant though we saw it not but were willing servants as to our Leige-Lord and natural King and were at the command of every servant and lust more then ever the Israelites were under the External Pharaoh under him we made bricks did all servile work our wages was but hard fare and tripes Oh! was not this an Egyptian blindness and darkness a darkness that may be felt but Israel when they most felt their slavery and groaned were nearest deliverance from under Pharaoh we are alwayes in darkness and slavery but when we begin to feel our spiritual darkness when we begin to feel the plagues of Egypt upon us Our water turned into blood and the frogs crawl and cover over all the Land when we are sensible of the murrain the boils and blains and the Plague and Carbuncles in our flesh the hail and the locusts Even the LOCUSTS of the bottomless pit which come all out of the mouth of the Dragon and from Belzebub Prince of the Devils then we shall see the death of our first-born our dearest right hand and right eye sins then we shall feel in our selves that this conquering King begins to carry captivity captive then shall Pharaoh with all his Host be overwhelmed in the midst of the sea Then the soul shall sing the song of Moses Exod. 15. The Lord is my strength and song he is become my salvation the Lord is a man of war the Lord of hosts is his name Pharaohs Chariots and his Host are drowned in the sea the depths have covered them they sank to the bottom as a stone as lead in the mighty waters thy right hand alone is become glorious in power thy right hand O Lorp hath dashed in pieces the enemies and David throughout his Psalms is full of these expressions all tending to empty the creature of all good and all power and to ascribe all to the Lord neither had the Israelites any good success any further then the Lord went with them and did their workes for them Here
private but all is because it is of good Report and now in fashion and credit but this is not done for the love of God nor of grace but for to get the praise of men and for love of themselves for fear of punishment or hope of Heaven or Rewards In these and such like cases Satan gives a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a check to himself silences himself in one case when he sees it is not for his security that there is a distast against some sin or a convincement in the soul And so changes that practise that he may be heard and received in another and all is to get more and stronger possession Nay which is more he will Command himself out in one shape that he may be admitted the easier in another as when one leaves Drunkenness because his brain will not bear it any longer but then turns covetous and it may be a Usurer So also when as a man follows not lust nor Wantonness because he is old or sickly or weak yet betakes himself to Idleness or Pride or Ambition so also when as any one leaves pride because it s too costly yet gives himself over to Glunttony and Rioting so he can but get it on other mens cost and thus t is in divers other vices and not onely in civil or external things but in Religion Now you may know and discern Satan his subtile workings and plottings in these wayes by this in such cases as this He never Rents nor Tears them whom he so leaveth bur deals fawningly and placidly and smoothly with them he deals easily and insensibly with them In these kinds Of Satans casting out himself in men and shifting shapes yet t is still Himself for he never Tears nor Rents them He departs not though he seems to depart but so much the more keeps in and strengthens himself in his possession As the natural changes do in our bodies which are not to be discerned but infancy goes away and youth steps in and youth departs and manhood comes on so manhood decays and old age creeps upon us as it were insensibly Thus Satan departs in lesser and weaker sins that he may Reenter in greater and stronger nay he may break off in some Great Sins too but then he aims still to bring in greater yea the greatest impieties that he may reign solely and absolutely without any control or rebuke at all And thus he deals with men for many Reasons As 1. That he may have the easier Re-admission he departs gently makes no combustion or commotion for he leaves all in quiet the sooner to insâ—nuate again as a cunning Enemy who will quit some out-works that he may the sooner get into the heart of the City like a wayfaring man who leaves his lodging quietly and discharges all and departs in peace but 't is that he may be Entertained with the greater respect at his return 2. Satan departs from men so quietly that they may be the securer and the more careless that they may have no suspicion of his wiles and subtilties As when a man departs with smooth carriage sweet language and civil deportments he will be the sooner invited thither again nay the parties will be glad to enjoy his company As those prophane Jews that cryed out for the return of those dayes wherein they baked Cakes to the Queen of Heaven they were so besotted with the deluding spirit of Idolatry and spiritual whoredom that they wished for and cryed out for the dayes of the Queen of Heaven to return Was it not better then with us say they then now 3. Satan doth thus in policy and deep subtilty for he doubts if he should dwell too long or alwayes in one and the same habit and practise he would be discovered and therefore he transforms himself the oftner that he may not be discerned and known to be Satan 4. And further Satan is a Thief and steals something at his going out and therefore departs in the night nay while the good man of the house was asleep Security is the bane of the soul when men are careless and aâ—e in the night of ignorance Now Thieves when they go away they steal out without any noyse or tumult softly and without any Candle because they hate the light And as Thieves do not reside alwayes in one place but shift fro none place to another departing from one road-way to another from one corner to another to avoid discovery so the Devil he goeth about saith the Apostle Peter or rather Iob and compass eth the earth and goeth to and fro in it and it is for the most part without any noise or Renting at all And hereupon it is that men are the easier perswaded to yield him admission because he departs fairly and smoothly there is no Tearing or Renting at all when Satan casts out himself but when Christ casts Him out then he Tears and Rends for then he comes forth against his will But else he suffers them to sleep as we say in a whole skin He doth not then disturb or rack the conscience nor wound the soul at all And therefore 't is with men in this case as t was with the Israelites in Gideons time when they pleaded for Baal How long saith Ioash will you plead Baals cause and contend for him Judg. 6. 31 The Devil did so mask and cover himself that most people cryed him up as a true God his sleights were so subtillty woven that they took him for the onely God and his service for the pure service of God So that not discerning him truly what he was they pleaded for him and contended for him and in Eliahs time they Rent themselves and Cut their flesh for his Cause And so Covetousness is said to wear a cloak that is because it will never appear in its own shape and so neither will Satan that he may the better deceive Our Saviour bids us to beware of false Prophets in Sheeps clothing but inwardly they are ravenous Wolves Mat. 7. 15. Such an one is Satan for all his quietness and stillness within you Now if Satan shall stir up any false Prophet or lying spirit as he did to Ahab saying Whatever this odd fellow saith Go in peace Go on and prosper and will nto let you believe these things you may then if you will Go on And go up with confidence But ye shall surely fall And t is very like some may call you aside as Peter did our Saviour Mat. 16. 22. And he began to rebuke him saying Master favour thy self none of thosethings shall happen to thee Thou mayest go on in a fine smooth way of Religion and never feel this Tearing or Renting He speaks of But my counsel is to make them that answer our Saviour doth Peter Get thee behind me Satan thou art an offence unto me And labour to see this Renting in thy self for if Satan do in reality depart
when he might have been advanced and made a King he ran away from among them he was Far of another Spirit then is now in the world and alwayes was in the world among the men of the world and no greater sign of a carnal earthly low base spirit then to be alwayes seeking the great things of the world to be tickled and itching after the praises of men to lift up our selves to be some-body in the world to desire to sit above and to trample upon their brethren to have the cap and the knee and yet how many of such men forsooth must be the onely gracious and religious men of this age but you see these are far from the life of Christ As far as the East from the West As far asunder as darkness and light Are these the men that brag of Power and Wisdom and Holiness and yet are thus swallowed up in the world love the praise of men and greetings in the Market and the Highest seats in the Synagogues and the uppermost rooms at feasts Their Phylacteries must be broad and long viz. to be known from other men that they may be bowed to and reverenced of all men Are these the Doctors and Teachers of all others Are these the Disciples and Ministers Christ hath sent out to preach to us the life of Christ by their Doctrine and example Judge ye Beloved ye must know that all Christs actions which were imitable while he was here upon earth they were symbolical they shew that he is yesterday and to day and the same for ever for whatever he did then he did but shew and represent to our senses by external actions what he is still Doing in the souls of men and will be to the end of the world For did he cure diseases in the body he did it to shew us how be cured the diseases of the soul Did he heal the blind and cure the lame cast out Devils dumb Devils and deaf Devils yes yet these do but shew what he doth daily when our mouthes are shut up as to things appertaining to God and his glory his power dispossesses this dumb Devil when our ears are shut up and we can hear nothing but what pleases self and flesh and the carnal man Let the Charmer charm never so wisely now Christs power and wisdom in us dispossesses al of his nature he turns the minstrels out of doors to those deceiving pleasures and allurements of the world that in our crosses make us such deceiving musick he saith Give place and He Himself enters aâ—one and brings us to own and delight in him and in what he administers to us Those actions of his he did then upon the bodies of men do but shew what he doth upon their souls for he then cast out but some Devils not all he healed and cured but some of their diseases not all for that was not the end of his coming for had it been so he would have cast out all Devils as well as some and cured all diseases as well as some but he onely by them did teach our dull capacities which else could not conceive what he did in the soul but by representing the same thing Outwardly even by those things which were most equivalent to them Did he resist the temptations of Satan and so made him depart from him it was to shew that he doth the same in those that are his even by himself in his own person and through his own power in â—hem For whatever actions he did they were done by him onely for a resemblance of his internal workings Did he pray whole nights it doth but shew that his Spirit in us makes continual requests and expressions even with sighs and groans which cannot be expressed Did he come before Pontous Pilate and was accused arraigned whipped buffered mocked and crowned with thorns yea he was and this was to shew how our carnal judgements Arraign him and How we whip him and peirce him by our sins mock and grieve his blessed Spirit Was he nailed to the Cross did he dye and was he put to death by the Jews and was he buried and a stone rolled upon him never to rise again they did so and in these and other his actions lies all our hope and our faith this is our Anchor-hold and our trust and whoever shall deny it let his tongue cleave to the roof of his mouth Yet these were but symbols and representations of our killing of him crucifying and burying of him daily in our souls by our sinâ— by following our own wils and by our Arrogance Pride and selfness and thereby his life is crucified And also it is to shew how we have daily quenched the motions of his blessed spirit so that it lives not in us but the Old Adam the Old man is alive and Christ the New-man is dead within us And so likewise in the rest of his actions Did he â—ise again the third day and triumph over hell and death it shews How this mighty Lion of the Tribe of Iudah hath and will raise up himself and overcome all his enemies and hath and will put them all under his feet in our souls then after he is once arisen he will appears to al the brethren to five hundred brethren at once where-ever Christâ— is risen he will appear and shew himself If I be lifted up I will draw all men unto me as he saith Iohn 12. 32. As you know it is the nature of fire to draw all things to ascend upward to its own center so if Christ be risen and ascended in us he will so display his own glories and beauties in us that he will draw all our affections upto him so that we cannot buâ— eagerly and vehemently desire to be like him to draw all our love to the love of him and all our hatred to hate that which he hateth and all our love to love that which he loveth our hate and love joy and grief and all our other affections to be like his Even as fire also endeavours vehemently to make every thing like it self so doth Christ where-ever he comes with his life light and glory Thus you see that what Christ did for a time in the historie the same he still also doth as truly as really and as constantly in the mysterie he did some things visibly to shew that he doth the same things as truly invisibly he did so much as was enough to manifest himself to be Emanuel and that he was God manifested in the flesh And as I said when Christ was ready to leave the earth then he made this boast of himself and never before did he ascribe this power to himself Even so till we are made one with him till we are made like him and till we can sit so loose to the earth that we are with him ready willingly and freely to leave the earth we can never claim this power till
Real condemnation of our selves and not onely verbal p. 206 c. In this Condemnation three sorts of men sit Judges 1. The Carnal man p. 209. 2. The Rational man and he 〈◊〉 the Carnal p. Ibid. 3. The Spiritual manâ— and â—e â—udges both the former p. 210. The spiritualâ—ty of the 〈◊〉 opened and the first Commandment set before us as a glass to behold our condition p. 215. Further explained p. 224. Yet for all this guilt the blood of Iesus Christ purgetâ— from all sin if Christ apply it and not onely our selves p. 229. 2. Step Annihilation reducing our selves to nothing what it is p. 231 c. The effects of this Annihilation This Man 1. Receives all as from God p. 237 c. 2. He doth all by the power of God 238. to the glory of God ibid. 3. He rejoyceth in others goods as his own 239. 4. He is not glued to any temporal things but is ready to part with them when God calls ibid. 3. Step Resignation for saking all things in the world of what condition soever p. 240. 4. Step Indifferency to all conditions p. 251. Effects of indifferency This Man 1. He hath two eyes two feet as to the body so to his soul p. 264. 2. His eye is not divided between God and Mammon p. 265. 3. He resigns his judgement to God alone regards not what mans judgement is ibid. 4. He is gotten above all heights and depths principalities and powers c. ibid. 5. He is an Anabaptist his former name is changed and his Father hath given him a new name p. 268. The Author being interrupted came not to preach of the two last steps which is Conformity and Deiformity p. 270. Four Sermons on Josh. 15. 15 16. And Caleb said He that smiteth Kiriathsepher and taketh it to him will I give Achsah my daughter to wife c. THe History of Moses sending the Spies to discover the Land of Canaan of the peoples murmuring and mutining upon the ill report raised by the ten Spies of Calebs and Ioshuas faith these things run over and applyed to our selves as concerning as much 〈◊〉 as them from p. 272 to 280. Part of this Chapter and 2 Cor. 3. Compared and answering face to face as the two Cherubims p. 212 c. The words opened and explained p. 287. Kiriathsepher the City of the Letter must be smitten and taken before it can be to us Debir The word then we likewise shall marry Achsah signifying The rending of the vail p. 294 c. The Letter or Ordinances not to be thrown away nor yet to be rested in p. 295. The spirituality of the ten Commandments briefly explained applyed from p. 296 to 319. In what sense the Scriptures are and are not the word of God explained p. 318 c. The text divided into two parts 1. Onus the work 2. Honos the reward p. 334. Those that rest in the letter either are starvelings or dwarfs alwayes children in stature and grow not p. 337. Christs body and actions in the flesh symbolical p. 343. Jesus Christ the substance and soul of all creatures false conclusions hence abandoned and shewing the soul of man is infinitely below God p. 351. An Objection answered about undervaluing the Letter p. 353. The Awfulness of God in that soul that truly sees him p. 357 c. Pilates question what thing is truth answered p. 363. A short view of some Priviledges which are to be enjoyed withiâ— the Holiest of all after we have married Achsah and obtained The râ—nding of the vail p. 364 c. The two Wonderful and unknown Trees of Eden viz. The Tâ—ee of Knowledge of Good and Evil p. 379. The Tree of Life in the midst of the Paradise of God p. 385. How the Tree of Knowledge c. Is the Seed of the Serpent in mans Heart p. 389. That Great Idol a Mans Self 392. Two Sermons on Psal. 61. 17. The Chariots of God are twenty thousand thousands of Angels the Lord is among them as in Sinai in the Holy place Part 2. THe parts of the text p. 7. God hath his Chariots of Triumph and Terror p. 8. All the Creatures are Gods Chariots wherein he gloriously rides so many creatures so many chariots p. 11. God in himself alwayes invisible to men and Angels p. 17. All creatures infinitely short of God and the most excellent speak him but darkly and though he fill all creatures yet all cannot comprehend him nor all men and Angels by them p. 18. How God is said to be in Hell and in Lucifer himself p. 21. God not to be found or known by Addition but onely by subtraction p. 23. The Kingdom of Heaven commonly mistaken which consisteth not in meats or drinks or crowns or scepters musick c. or any ocular or carnal glory p. 25. All creatures the Amiable tabernacles of God p. 30 c. Two Scriptures propounded whereby to represent a a small glimps or scantling of God p. 34. None like the God of Iesurun who rideth upon the Heavens in his excellency c. p. 39. What repose of heart the people of God may take in this their infinite God and Father because his everlasting arms are under them p. 44. Angels are Messengers or Embassadours p. 48. All creatures sing aloud Gods praise even the worst and wicked st sing a part and how p. 49. What to think of the Angels above us being out of our sphere we not able to define them p. 52. That God is in all the creatures and though the creatures change yet he is unchangeable p. 53. Yet he is not in every creature according â—o his infiniteness but as every creature can receive him p. 55. 1. use To teach us love and charity toward all creatures p. 57. 2. use To learn to know our selves p. 58. 3. use That nothing comes by chance but all things ordered by providence p. 59. Considerations of the Immenseness and infiniteness of God p. 60 c. Two Sermons on Cant. 1. 7. Tell me O thou whom my soul loveth where thou feedest and where thou makest thy flocks to rest at noon for why c. THe division of the text p. 70. The nature of a soul in love with Christ though he be still filling her yet she is never fully satisfied wiâ—h him p. 71. Things in heaven are neither visible material ocular oâ— tangible c. p. 77. To try whether we have love to God by our love to our brethren p. 78. Many can come to God in prayer under this notion O thou whom my body loves but how few O thou whom my soul loves p. 80. The letter of the word but a dead resemblance of the life within p. 85. They that limit Jesus Christ according to the thirty three years he lived on earth do circumcise and cut short the large vastness of his greatness p. 88. The Question answered what need Christ any rest seeing he is in heaven p. 94. If Christ be not
as the best and most excellent ibid. Two Sermons on Exod. 3. 6. the first six verses Moses kept the flock of Iethro his father in Law and he led them to the back side of the Desart And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire in the midst of a bush c. THis is one of the grâ—atest miracles in the whole Scriptures p. 232. This History and Miracle concerns us now as much as the Israelites then p. 233. The Spirit magnified above the Letter p. 237 The truth couched under parables p. 240. The infinite condescension of God to become weak to the weak p. 242. The depth of the true word is imployment for Men and Angels for Eternity p. 244. Why Moses and the Patriarchs are taken such notice of that they were Shepherds p. 246. What the life of a true Shepherd is and why preferred before Husbandmâ—n p. 248. Moses led the flock into the desart before God appeared to him so must we foâ—sake the world or God will not manifest himself p. 250 c. Whether Miracles be ceased now oâ— no an ignorant question p. 253. Greater miracles done in accomplishing the truth of miracles then in the type or shadow p. 254. Yet this a mighty miracle in the letter but the mystery a miracle far transcending p. 255. How suitable Iacobs Vision of the Ladder reaching to heaven was to him and so this miracle to encourage Moses so the great work he was to go about p. 255. Why the Almighty is somâ—times termed an angel and why angels were worshipped in the Old Testament and St. Iohn forbidden p. 258 God not more present in heaven then in earth p. 260 c. God is to be worshipped as present in all places and in all creatures p. 265. The error of the Papists in worshipping Images condemned and why ibid. Hence a ground to interpret that saying of our Saviour Their Angels alwayes behold the face of their father c. p. 268. The use and Application from the foregoing truths p. 269 c. The second Sermon on the same Text. THe life of a Shepherd and of a Husbandman further explained p. 27â— The life of a Husbandman not condemned but a Shepherds life prâ—ferred before it p. 276. Going into the Dâ—sart not meant of forsaking all things actually but in aâ—fection and using them as if we used them not p. 280. The reason of all mens unquietness p. 283. The way to understand the vision is to put off our shoes from our feet as Moses and what that means p. 285. Men as men can comprehend nothing but what is within their own sphere of reason p. 288. Something about the name and nature of angels ibid. Every beam of the Divinity is an Angel p. 294. Christ the Substance of all types and visions p. 296. The true interpretation of visions and types from God alone p. 297. He that can see God thus cannot so far fear any creature nor any cross or death it self p. 298. The wonderfulness of the vision opened p. 300. Making known Jesus Christ is the business of all creatures of all men and all ages p. 302. The substance of this vision is Jesus Christ he is that fire that burns and changeth all things but not himself ibid c. He weighs the mountains and measures the waters he alters all things yet preserves the substance entire so that nothing is lost p. 304 c. How Gods will and theirs harmonize and coincide to whom God hath shewed this vision p. 308. They cannot find fault with anything God doth but they see one spirit moving and guiding all actions of men and creatures through heaven and earth p. 310. Vain man as his ignorance so his wisdom is to stoop and bow before the Almighty p. 311. He that looks no further then the letter of the vision he sees not these mighty things p. 312. But he that doth he sees Jesus Christ not onely changing all things but how at last he shall change our vile bodies ta make them like his glorious body p. 315. The substance of several Sermons on Mark 1. 25 26. And Iesus rebuked him saying Hold thy peace and come out of him and when the unclean spirit had torn him and cryed with a loud voyce he came out of him THe Text divided as Paul diâ—ides a man into body soul and spirit p. 318. Six morall observations onely named from the soul or letter of the Text not stood upon ibid c. Nothing absolutely evil but sin and nothing perfectly good but God p. 323. Obâ—â—r 7. That Christ is stronger then the Devil though he seem weaker and lets the Devil sometimes prevail in the world more then himself p. 324. Distinctions in the will of God as Revealed Secret Permissiv Ephes. 4. 17 18. Luke 10. 42. Phil. 3. 8. Heb. 4. 12. Gal. 6. 14. 1 Pet. 4. 15. 2 Cor. 5. 17. Jer. 17. 9. Ephes. 4. 21. 2 Cor. 3. 6. Exod. 26. 33. 2 Cor. 3. 14. 1 Cor. 6. 5. Rev. 22. 2 Ephes. 6. 12. Ezeâ— 13. 18. Mich. 3. 5. Heb. 6. 1 2. Rev. 1. 10. Isa. 5. 20. Isa. 2. 22. James 5. 17. Rom. 7. 18. Gal. 2. 20. Acts 3. 12. Rom. 7. 20. Acts 26. 18. Psal. 26. 9. Dan. 9. 7. Mat. 7. 2. Mat. 7. 11. Jer. 31. 33 34. Luke 14. 35. Luke 2. 12. Luke 4. 22. Rev. 8. 1. Rev. 3. 16. John 4. 11. John 6. 60. Mat. 13. 36. Num. 22. 28. Ps. 51. 15. Mat. 9. 49. Isa. 10. 17. Mal. 3. 2. Mat. 5. 29. 30. 2 Pet. 3. 7. Joh. 11. Isaiah 20. 3. and Joel 2. 10. Acts 26. 18. Exod. 19. 16. Hos. 2. 19. Mat. 26. 39. Heb. 12. 29. Col. 4. 6. Prov. 16. 21. Eccl. 8. 1. Mat. 5. 13. Heb. 2. 11. Mat. 5. 13. 1 Cor. 3. 4. 5. 1 Cor. 1. 13. Mat. 5. 14. Joh. 1. 9. Joh. 8. 12. Lev. 6. 13. Lev. 2. 13. Num. 18. 19. 2 Kings 2. 21. Ezek. 16. 4. Job 16. 4. Gen. 27. Mat. 3. 17. Mat. 1. 24. Mat. 13. 34. Prov. 15. 23. Psal. 119. Rea. Hos. 13. 9. Luke 10. 34. Reas. 2. Psal. 38. 5. 2 Pet. 2. 22. Reas. 3. 2 Chro. 13. 5. Numb 18. 19. Mal. 3. 6. Psal. 102. 26. Ps. 139. 4. Rev. 3. 14. Heb. 1. 3. Col. 1. 17. Heb. 3. 14. 1 Cor. 15. 51. Mat. 18. 1â— Psal. 104. 3. Col. 1. 15 17. 1 Cor. 7. 31. Heb. 13. 8. Heb. 6. 19. Joh. 1. Rev. 19. 13. Col. 1. 15. Object Luk. 14. 34 35. Maâ— 9. ult Answ. Exod. 16. 18. Prov. 30. 4. Job 12. 7. Gen. 28. 17. Psal. 18. 11 c. Psal. 18. Eph. 6. 12. Psal. 15. Psal. 24. Hab. 1. 2. Rom. 10. 7. Ioh. 1. 26. Gen. 18. 27. Psal. 12. 4. Job 12. Isa. 20. James 4. 13. Isa. 9. 9. Hos. 13. 9. Rom. 12. Mat. 24. 49. Ioh. 9. 41. Mat. 24. â—0 Isa. 2. 18. Gen. 19. 35. 2 Cor. 13. 15. Isa. 46. 10. Jer. 48. 11. Psal. 62. 11. 46. 2. Job 42. 5. Jude 1â—
in your sins and your destruction is of your selves because you believe not and lay not hold on him who would save you from destruction Alas do not you once think In your own names or in your own strengths to turn your selves to God No alas this is the way to destroy your selves for do you what you can fast and pray and weep and lament and confess your sins c. these do but destroy you the more if he be not the bottom you stand upon if he be not your rock you build upon But coming in his name and confessing from your souls your own vileness seeing really your own nothingness and utterly disclaiming whatever flesh and blood can do Then thou shalt find God gracious to thee not onely in accepting what thou dost on this ground but also healing thy nature and subduing thy lusts then shalt thou find this good Samaritan pouring in oyl to heal thee and to bind up thy wounds and then thy meanest duties in him are better accepted then the most glorious and splendent to men for then the câ—se is altered with thee Because now Thou bottomest upon him Seâ—ondly he is compared unto salt because as salâ— preserves things from putrefaction and corruption so doth he preserve our souls for they would stink before God if his merits were not applied to them as David saith My wounds stink and are corrupt We are in our selves without him As unclean as a swine that walloweth in the mire and as dogs that return to their vomit but of this we hâ—ve spoken sufficiently already and therefore we pâ—ss it by and come to the third Reason Thirdly salt hath a power and vertue in it to preserve it self if it be able to preserve other things much more it self Salt is the most durable of all things therefore saith Abiâ—ah 2 Chro. 1â— 5. Ought you not to know that the Lord God of Israel gave the Kingdom over Israel to David for ever even to him to his sons by a Covenant of Salt Why Because it was most durable therefore sayes thâ— Lord I will make with you an everlasting Covenanâ— of salt A perpetual covenant is there called A covenant of Salt because salt is durable it self and makes every thing else durable therefore the Lord compares his Covenant to salt because it is and shall be immutable unchangeable And it is his praise and his goodness that in himself he is not mutable and it much commends his mercy to us that he changes not why Because Therefore ye sons of Iacob are not consumed Mal. 3. 6. and Iames 1. 17. In him is no variableness nor shadow of change or turning He onely is Unchangeable but look on all the creatures and ye may see them changeable If we grant they do not change as you think yet they are in a possibility of changing But if we think Him changeable this is our ignorance our childishness When we think by our prayers or fastings and reformings that we can turn God or change his mind that one while he is angry and another while he is pleased Beloved this be far from our God He cannot change You think weakly and childishly of him that when you feel or fear a judgement or desire any blessing that you can meet him and stay his hand or you can prevail to turn his mind or constrain him no no far be such thoughts from us The change is not in your God but you may and are changed The change is in your selves and in your selves only As when men are at Sea and cast anchor on a rock they draw and pull as though they would pull the rock to them but they pull themselves to the rock We think when we repent he is pleased and when we are obstinate he is angry as if â—e were so changeable that he is angry to day and pleased to morrow There can be no such thing in God And by such thoughts we make God no God we make the ever blessed and unchangeable God an Idol Indeed the creature is changed and the act of God upon the creature may and doth change as the Psalmist saith They all shall wax old as doth a garment as a vesture shalt thou change them and they shall be changed but thou changest not they years are the same We erre not knowing the Scriptures if we think that we can Change and Alter God or that we can direct him what is best to be done as I Fear too many of you doe Yea I fear even some that have been long professors nay those that have been long Teachers in the Church and sit at the stern and should guid the ship aright yet ordinarily let it dash upon this rock they themselves teach so and others believe so and so both The people with Aaron have made themselves A golden Calf and then have fallen down worshipped it No no my brethren it is our happiness our security that God changes not And so also God is said to come nearer to us to go further from us but know God cannot remove God is as near us alwayes as he can be yea he is nearer us then any thing we can call i he is nearer us then our selves he knows all our thoughts a farr off that is even before we think them our selves But Beloved to me all these Reasons are bâ—t external common Reasons But I conceive the onely and true reason and that which I conceive is chiefly intended is this That as salt is for so it is the Central existence of every thing that is salt is the Substance the Strength Supporter and Compacter of every visible and mixt body So is Christ to every creature Rev 3. 14. the beginning of the creation of God and the BEARER bearing up all things by his mighty word and power Heb. 1. 3. and Col. 1. 17. He was before all things and by him all things consist and Heb. 3. 14. For we are made partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end Take this as a maxime there is no one thing in the world but salt is the strength the Knitter the Supporter the Sustainer the Compacture of it there is nothing in the earth that you can give me but I can give you the Salt of it as take a Leafe wherein you may think that there can be no salt but there is in it Salt and so in all other things And indeed that is the life of every thing The greenness is not the salt and yet salt is in it though you see it not even so is Christ that salt of every thing it is He who FILS all things He who Knits and Upholds all things is the essence being and life of all things Behold I tell you a mysterie as the Apostle saith you think Christ is in heaven and so indeed he is for heaven is where he is and he is
He knows His own glory and praise Infinitely Beyond our apprehensions but as I said He is more praised and glorified As to us and by us And in this sense are our Saviours words here that he hath now All power given him in Heaven and in Earth in regard there is a great deal more light come to us and he is revealed unto more for Christ as he saith Ioh. 1. 9. He is the true light that enlightneth every man that comes in to the world As you know He was once made known to the Jews and the Genâ—iles lay in darkness but now he is made known to the Gentiles and the Jews are in darkness like Gedions fleece They were wet when all the ground about was dry which was the time that the Jews had the knowledge of God and Christ but then again all the ground was wet and his fleece dry The fall of the Jews was the rising of the Gentiles as the Apostle expresseth Rom. 11. 12. The Gospel it first shined to the Jews and afterwards to the Gentiles which was All the rest of the world And our Saviour saith That he was sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel And he commanded his Disciples when he first sent them out Go not in the way of the Gentiles but go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel He did very strictly tye himself to the Jews so that hardly any others could get any mercy from him They never got any but they got it very hardly and very sparingly as the Centution Luke 7. he would not go himself immediately to Jesus knowing how unwelcome they were to him and what harsh answers he gave them therefore he went by the Jews and got the Priests and Elders to go to him And they also were fain to use many words to perswade him t is said they were fain to perswade him instantly commending him for a good man and that he had done them much good and had built them a Synagogue and at last Jesus went with them c. And so likewise the woman of Canaan how hardly did she get mercy from him and how oft gave he her a repulse and beat her off and would not be overcome till her faith prevailed with him and she got it by force it is wonderful to see how our Saviour tyed himself to the Jews again it s said God wrought salvation in the midst of the earth Great is thy God saith the Prophet Isa. 12. 6. in the midst of thee or in the heart of thee Historiographers say that Ierusalem is in the very midst of the earth that it is the very Navel of the world And Christ began his miracles and preached first at Ierusalem and from thencâ— sent out his Disciples into all the world from which Observation we may apply thus much to our selves that whensoever Christ teacheth any man to Salvation That when he preacheth Healthfully and Savingly in the soul he preacheth first to the heart begins there sets that right and from thence His word is derived and sent forth to all the members of the body Christ and his Disciples first began at Ierusalem and then afterward their Commission was to go into all the world he tyed himself very strâ—ctly to the Jews before ever he would suffer them to go to the Gentiles This truth I would commend to you as a Stable Maxim of truth All faith and holiness is first to be preached to the heart before we go about to rectifie the members and the actions which in this regard may well be called Iews and Gentiles Religion if it begin not at the heart is nothing worth it is but a folly to preach to the eyes and to the ears to the hands and to the feet before we preach to the heart we must observe Christs rule first begin at Ierusalem and then go into all the world first preach to the Jews afterward to the Gentiles God onely speaks to the heart and Teacheth that to begin with the Outward man that so they may teach the heart is the way of man not of God Great is thy God in the midst of thee in thy heart do but rectifie that and the actions cannot be amiss make the tree good and there will follow good fruit Can you expect figs of thorns or grapes of thistles nay can you by all your manuring watching and dressing or forcing them cause them to bear such certainly no therefore see the folly of many men in our daies they think by their pains and by their Discipline to force men into Religion into faith good works and Spiritual actions When thereby they have onely restrained the outward man And with them they pass for Excellent Christians Alas alas Either saith our Saviour make the tree good and his fruit good or else make the tree evil and his fruit evil whatever fair pretences their actions may have and though they seem Good to men if the heart be not reformed they are but Golden Vices Botten Nutmegs and rotten apples gilded over Gilded Sepulchers they neither have a good root nor tend to a right End fair without but false rotten and stinking within they are carried on by Self to base carnal fleshly ends self is both the Rise and End of their actions and they no better then thorns and thistles and fit for nothing but to be burnt up As the Apostle saith The fire shall try every mans work of what sort it is Great is thy God in the midst of thee Satan it is that preaches first to the out-parrs He it is that preaches to the outward man by Laws by Credit by Honour by Riches by Praise and you know what verdict Christ gives of this preaching and of this learning Verily I say unto you you have your reward ye do it that ye may be seen of men and ye are seen of men ye have your reward ye restrain your hands and your feet from evil because you would not come under the penalty of mens Laws and you do escape them verily Herein you have your reward and you do your good works for the praise of men and you have it Verily I say unto you you have your reward And though you may think highly of such works and of your selves for them yet there is nothing of God in them and to him they are no better sacrifice Then cutting off a Dogs neck or the offering up of swines blood as the Prophet Isaiah saith this is nothing but One sin casting out Another for self-advantage this is nothing but Belzebub casting out Devils by Belzebub and yet he hath nothing less possession for it is nothing but the old man working within his own sphere and to his own advantage ye do it that ye may be counted honest among men and ye are accounted so ye would be and are esteemed great professors verily you have your reward Many such like ends you
the same is the Snare Poyson and Death of all Natural men Therefore As All Works before Faith and Regeneration are Sin and Unclean so also To Read the Scriptures to praise God to fast pray and the like and not onely to torture and kill men or to steal and the like for seeing that whatsoever is not of faith is sin and to the Unclean nothing is Clean but they are Reprobate to every good work It must needs follow that all their Seemingly good life exercises and vertues are sin and nothing but dissimulation So God doth often in Scripture reject the Fasts Holidays Sacrifices Prayers Praises Preachings Gifts and Charitable Deeds of the Pharisees as well as the known and gross impieties of the Publicans the wicked words of men and their Violences Usuries Murthers Adulteries Thefts c. Therefore is Regeneration Principally necessary before which All things are alike sin whatsoever thou canst Think Speak Do leave Undone Read Hear Write Give Love Worship Will Know Have or Be for as to them that Love God all things are to their Good so to them that love the world all things are to their Evil yea God himself is to them Perverse contrary and a Devil and his True word is to them hateful and deadly for it is meet that to the froward all things should fall out Untowardly and to them that are Contrary to God all things should be Cross wherefore as they are not Enough so they are not alwayes good those Sayings Fast Pray Give to the Poor Read the Scriptures c. But these before all things Be Regenerated and Born Again of God and his word and then Thou wilt be Fit to do All things which that New-birth will teach thee which Cannot Sin and whatever thy hand shall find to do thou shalt do it Well for God will be present with thee for then thou being Iust shalt do Iust things It is not enough to do a thing but to do it Well else better be idle and leave doing By this means the good deeds which good men do are not rejected but onely the shew and feigning of good deeds which that Herd of Apes do imitate It were expedient indeed to read and hear all things if a man knew how to read or hear but few there are that have the Art of God to hear and read his word and far fewer that can so pierce into this Thorny-thicket that they be not rent and torn Therefore I will not by these my writings scare any man from any right Art of writing learning or reading but do admonish all men to see they use and do all things rightly and first of all in the word of God to grow Fools and Infants and then at the length we shall know how to read do and Use all things profitably and then we may safely Philosophize even in the writings of the Gentiles or any others and like Natural Birds fly among all the boughs and branches not taken whereas before we could not safely be conversant no not in the Sacred Scriptures themselves without eating Death from God and his word Briefly by this you may See the conclusion of the whole business And be it thus determined Onely the Pious and Regenerate man can and doth use All things Well and with pleasure and profit read all Arts and all Heathen Books to him there can be nothing Prohibited or Corrupt He is a certain clean Bee upon what thing soever He Sits He sucks from it meer Honey and Life yea even from Death and Sin Again the old and Natural man which in Scripture is called flesh and blood can use nothing at all well and to him all Arts and all the Nature of things nay the very Scriptures and God Himself and His Word do bring Death and Evil He can neither Do nor Read nor Know any thing Profitably or Pleasing to God He is Abuse and Poyson it self and an Unclean Spider which Siâ— where it will sucks nothing thence but Poyson Sin Death even out of the Scriptures themselves Out of things Well done out of God and His word So it comes to pass that to the wicked all things are deadly and forbidden such as are good deeds to make or hear Sermons to read the Scriptures to do good to the poor to pray to fast and such like as is before said for to the unclean all things are unclean and hurtful so that it cannot be but the things that to the Good are profitable shall be to them Unclean and deadly Briefly the good man in point of God is never at rest till being Entred into God He have lost his own Pleasure Will Act yea Himself and all His things in God so that wanting Sense Will Desire He doth now as the word requires at his hands Covet nothing so that now God in him freely Wills Knows Desires Doth leaves Undone How What Why and to whom he pleaseth Summarily In such a man God hath freely his Will Kingdom Pleasure Place so that he is not now The man he was but is as A dead man who attributes nothing to himself yea so far that God is in him All things God in him Loves Reads Writes Preacheth Gives Prays Hears Knows and is All things and therefore it is that the great God hath determined to Crown own or Reward Nothing in us but His own work the rest which himself in us doth not Know Read Write Do leave Undone Speak Preach Hear Think are Sin and therefore saith St. Paul Now live not I but Christ liveth in me And I dare not Do nor Say anything which Christ doth not Say or Do in me To this Iudge let every man refer all his life he shall then soon find in what estate all his Affairs are and to whose Service he hath addicted himself and offered his members as a living sacrifice Let him observe himself and understand who it is that worketh in him And That he to whom he liveth and beareth fruit His Servant he is Now the fruits of the two Masters are reckoned up in the Epistle to Gal. 5. 22. The fruit of the spirit is love joy peace long-suffering gentleness goodness faith meekness temperance c. against such there is no Law and they that are Christs have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts if we live in the spirit let us also walk in the spirit c. I would be glad with all my heart if by the help of God I might have so much power as to drive all natural men from their good Deeds Actions Omissions Life Arts Reading Writings and the rest unto God the True Sabbath that lacking both hands and feet and utterly void of will Art Desire they might keep Holy-day from their own works Truly then God which otherwise goeth not forth in our strength would go forth in them with great strength for indeed God must and will go forth and the time is at hand that the heavens must keep Holy day as it is in that