life Many will say What shall we we not pray when they neither know what God is nor what themselves are such as presume to pray without knowledge do break the command of God in taking his Name in vaine when the heart is not according to the tongue and sound yea when their Company or their Congregation agreeth not for there is the hater and the hated the oppressour and the oppressed the rich that cares not for the poor and the poor that curseth the rich What congregall prayer can there be in this mixture when mens hearts are one aginst the other The rich and the poor goes together but the Lord is the maker of them both he knows their hearts their ends in comming to publike places every sound noise is not a prayer then the Pharisee had been commended for his long one but it is the inward and deep sighings of the heart in the singlenesse thereof and being fervent We are commanded to pray continually and they that make long prayers are condemned being in ostentation as in publike congregations once or twice in a week and have little converse with God all the rest of the week be not deceived God is not mocked Whatsoever ye sow that shall ye reap Decipies alios verbis vultuque benigno Sed mihi jam notus dissimulator eris Be ashamed and stand amazed all ye that are under the great Light that God hath caused to shine forth in this Nation You will say that you are the people of God and that you know him but it appears by your actions that you know him not for a man to know a thing is to know the condition of it as to know a peece of coine To know God is another manner of businesse than the world makes it to know God is to have experience of him and of all his Attributes his Mercy his Love his Goodnesse his long suffering c. To know God in Christ is the true knowledge of him to be in Union and Communion with him to obey him love him and fear him to honour him and glorifie him this the world knoweth not for the world seeks its own Therefore many that do professe that they know God and in their works do deny him are not onely Heathens but they are worse then the heathens Cato for they say If there be a God he ought to be worshipped with a pure minde miserable is the condition of many that think it sufficient to have the bare name of a Christian and say Christ died for me and rose again for me and never felt the power of Christs death killing sin in them nor the vertue of his Resurrrection quickening and raising them to a new life that cannot witnesse a new birth a separation But live in the old nature and the old man of sin remaining still Deale plainely with your selves ye sons of men for the case doth require it do not lose your precious time here and say I hope to go to Heaven whereas you know not what heaven is neither are you fit for it for heaven is a Condition rather then a Local place and the heavenly condition stands not in outward things as to satisfie the flesh neither is it found any otherwise then in the Crosse here in this World but it doth appear in us by Peace of conscience and joying in the Holy Spirit of God being perfectly assured and having a firme testimony of our Resurrection being Adopted and made the Sons of God 1 John 1.3 and having fellowship with the Father and the Son Deceive not your selves but strive to enter in at the strait gate Go not the broad way of the Worlds profession but the strait and narrow way of the Crosse Deny your selves your own works your own righteousnesse and whatsoever pleaseth and agreeth with your own wills and wait at Wisdoms gate examining your selves whether you be not that that cleaves to the pure Metall and makes it the worse whether you are not the corrupt matter of Silver and not Silver it self if you be the corrupt matter if you be the drosse you must be purged out you must be spewed out if you come to the porch onely and go no further if you come not to the Holy of Holies you were better not come neer at all Psal 119.119 for the Lord will take away the wicked like drosse The Lord will not have to do with such corrupt impure and unclean matter Prov. 25.4 Take the drosse from the silver and there will proceed a vessell fit for the refiner when the Almighty God hath purged and purified the silver and ejected and cast out the drosse then there is a vessell for himself a temple for himself to dwell in for the Lords delight is in his Saints and among them and silver is as his Word is when it is refined Meddle not nor have to do with the most Holy and pure God upon any account living in your own wisdome wills and lust for it had been better for Cain that he had offered no Sacrifice then to account the best too good for God and to offer the worst better not to come to any Table then to the Table of the Devils the end of all Religion is to bring soules to God not to make a greater separation by it from God You were once a far off but now ye are made nigh by the Blood of Christ that onely brings us neer to God draw neer through his Blood and he will draw neer to us look to your hearts and to the issues of all exercises not what the exercise is but to what it tendeth for it is either life or death If you serve God in the flesh you shall have corruption and death for your reward if you live to the flesh you shall die but if through the Spirit you mortifie the deeds of the flesh you shall live God accepteth no sacrifice done in the flesh but as he is a Spirit most holy so he must be worshipped in Spirit and in Truth which was the Legacy Christ Jesus left with his Disciples when he left them We cannot come to the Lord with anything of our own to be acceped of him but what we come to him with must be his he heareth nothing but his own Spirit and that he wil not deny What saith Christ In vain do they worship me c. The Lord Esay 1. saith What have I to do with your Sacrifices and in the same first of Esaiah I hate your new Moons and your appointed feasts they are a burden unto me I am weary to bear them All the devices of men all their art all their invention proceeding onely from them in drawing neer to to God is nothing worth for it cannot but differ from the will of God in Gods worship the more of mans wisdom the lesse of Gods respect the more plainer and simplier we worship him the more hope of acceptance The ordinances of man or of any Churches
to know himself where he is or what he is All these severall evils as to the naturall sense conduceth much to the undoing of the body and estate of man But drunkennesse in the spirituall â—enâ—e in the inâ—isible and internall part of man to be drunk and not with wine to stagger and not with strong drink to be drunk with the wine ot the fornication of the great Whore Esa 29 9. to sleep in sin to forget God to be full of wrath against God his will his people and his Word to do eâ—ill and speak evil to be infatuated and to have the powers of darkenesse rule over us and in us and not to knovv our selves nor vvhere vve are but reel and stumble and fall This is misery Be sober in your invisible actings Jer. 25.27 in your thoughts imaginations understandings affections wills passions that nothing break into outvvard act against Almighty God or his deare relations either in revilings reproachings or persecutions But be patient bearing all things and abiding in the vvil of our God although never so crosse to our vvills Furthermore Watch Watch as a Centinel doth both to destroy and to discover and by prayer call for help and assistance against the potent Enemies of our soules who doth continually assault us by inward objects injected into our mindes and thoughts and some visibly presented before our eyes which we cannot be freed from so long as we are in the flesh but are kept by the power of God through Faith unto Salvation which is prepared to be shewed in the last time 1 Pet. 115. Again Have fervent love c. Above all things especially and chiefly primarily and in the first place have fervent love hot love not cold and frozen but fervent earnest the want of this love makes all things to be out of order that we love not our superiours inferiours nor our equals but differ with them all and speak evill of all We should love all for Gods sake and be tender hearted forgiving one another as God for Christs sake forgave us 1 John 4.11 Beloved if God so loved us then ought we to love one another For this want of love all men are to be blamed For those that are called Ministers the teachers of the people at this day they do speak bitterly and would act cruelly against divers poor people of God that are otherwise inlightened then themselves and are led by the true light of God living above the ordinances of man which they call the ordinances of God And they that are so highly inlightened by the inward teachings of the Almighty are full of censuring and condemning of those that have not attained to the same measure nor yet come to that pitch and height that they are come to not considering that that which they now live in being darknesse was once their own light and so seem to despise the small things of the Lord which once they rejoyced in Zach. 4.10 Ephes 4.4 There is but one body that shall be saved yet there are many members of that one body the Presbyter and the Baptized Churches are of that body if they cleave to the Lord with all their hearts though they vary in the outward Let not one member therefore despise another for love covereth all All Christian beleevers are but one body of which there are many members The head is the greatest and chiefest part of the body the Spirit of God acteth all one and the same thing in every beleever in different forms As the life of mans body is three wayes so is the life of the mysticall body three wayes In the body of man the life thereof is Animal in the brain Vitall in the heart Naturall in the liver sinews and arteries As it is thus in the body naturall so in the body mysticall yet but one life though three distinct for in the body mysticall there is God in you Christ in you and the Spirit of Christ in you where the Spirit of Christ is there is God be it in what opinion soever For our life is hid with God in Christ Col. 3.3 2 Cor. 3.17 where there is both secrecie and safety Resist not the Spirit For the Spirit is the Lord and there is liberty The Spirit is light the Lord is that light let the members of the body sympathize if one part suffer and is not in its perfection let the other parts and members suffer with it and lament for it In the primitive time there was scarce a brother did differ with a brother but now Churches against Churches differ and are at great variance O let brotherly love be among us yea that fervent love that covereth the multitude of sins Gods infinite and eternall love manifested to us in the fulnesse of it even in the Lord Christ covereth all our sins And our love one to another covereth the sins and offences committed one against another Let not our hearts burn within us one against another because of opinions but rather wait to be delivered out of this apostate state the Church of Christ is now in Matth. 24 2â— for God is beginning to gather his together from the four winds and to scatter and consume all fleshly worships and service done to him set up by the will of man and to set up his King on the holy hill of Sion let the heathen rage never so much it will be all in vain for he will come and reign and rule over us and in us he will be our guide our counsellour and our teacher and will dwell with us after we have past thorow the fire of his indignation and are purged cleansed purified and refined Therefore what our God shall do unto us or bring upon us either by wounding squaring sifting purging purifying cleansing or refining let us be patient with meeknesse of spirit in it and under it and rejoycing with gladnesse of heart that out of his great mercy he will take us into his own hands being unclean filthy impure earthy and drossie and make us partakers of such and so great g ory by being made like unto himself Hear then the word of the Lord you people of the Land Rom. 11.25 who are succenturiated from Israel that that did concern them doth concern you being in the same posture the same diâ—eaâ—e must have the same cure the Lord will not â—et his people perish he wil have judge mercy on them and heal them for the Lord wilâ— judge with fire and his sword Esa 66.16 all flesh And the slain of the Lord shall be many Son of man the hou e of Iâ—rael is unto me as drosse All they are brasse and tin and iron and lead in the midst of the furnace they are e en the drosse of silver Therefore thus saith the Lord God Because you are all as drosse behold therefore I will gather you in the midst of Jerusalem as they gather silver and brasse and iron and
tin and lead into the midst o the furnace to blow the fire upon it to melt it so will I gather you in mine anger and my wrathâ— and will put you there and melt you I will gather you I say and blow the fire of my wrath upon you and you shall be melted in the midst thereof As silver is melted in the midst of the furnace so shall you be melted in the midst thereof and you shall know that I the Lord have poured out my wrath upon you Ezek. 22. vers 18 19 20 21 22. Here is Gods complaint against Israel and his purpose what he will do to Israel God is the agent and his people are the patient he will melt them and they shall be melted The Almighty God who is the searcher of the heart and the trier of the reins Jerem. 17.9 knoweth what his people are although they think well of themselves not knowing themselves nor God but have backslidden Revel 3. and fallen into grievous sins he will not suffer them so to lie but wil make them to know him that he is displeased with them and they shall taste of his displeasure In the former chapter the Lord doth threaten Jerusalem with the sword and that he would remove the Diadem and overturn oâ—erturn overturn and it shall be no more the same untill he come whoâ—e right it is and he wi l give it to him In this chapter he reckoneth up their severall sins shedding of blood idolatry disobedience oppression uncharitablenesse covetousnesse and fornication In these verses he positively concludeth what the hou e of I rael is The house of Israel is drosse unto God Some reâ—d it They are turned into drosse Further they are brasse and tin and irons and lead c. First here is I rael called a house sometimes called the house of God Secondly that they are to God as drosse Thirdly the denomination of the drossie metals brasse tin iron and lead which they are Fourthly that God wiâ—l gather them and bring them into the midst of Jerusalem Fifthly the receptacle that must contain them the furnace and the midst of it Sixthâ—y that he will blow the fire of his wrath upon them Seventhly that he will melt them Eighthly the end they shall know that the Lord hath done it in his wrath First here Israel is called a house the house of Israel the people of God are the true Israelites Gal. 6.16 Christ the true Israel Esa 49.3 Nathaniel a true Israelite Joh. 1. This hou e this people they are corrupted Esa 1. their wine is become as water their silver is become drosse Cant. 6.7 there are threescore queens fourscore concubines and virgins without number they are drosse they are mixt and adulterated A strange and a sad thing that this people this house should be thus 1 Pet. 2 5. What the people of God that are in covenant with him they to whom the promises do belong who are built up to God who are cemented to him by a lively faith and hope Rev. 19.18 who are clothed with the garments of Christ who obey the Gospel of God who hear the voice of Christ Esa 57.15 Heb. 3.6 Psal 144.15 who have an humble heart where God delighteth to dwell who hold fast the confidence in God and rejoyce in him that have the Lord for their God These are the properties of Gods house was Israel thus and is Israel not so is Israel drosse how comes this house so to be When his house his people cleaves not to him with all their hearts Judg. 8.7 but fals to idolatry as they did and embrace other lovers abusing the mercy love and grace of God turning it to wantonnesse when their righteousnesse is become as filthy rags as a monstruous cloth when their worship is barely externall when they draw neer to God with their lips and their hearts are far from him when there is more respect to the beautifying of the outward man than of the hidden man of the heart when they commit spirituall whoredoms that they can lie down with God in an outside ordinance and the heart not there and lie down with the world also in heart agreeing to all the worlds courses and fashions when they have a religion that they might enjoy their own wils and lusts when they are become unthankfull murmurers idolaters oppressours when they do forget God and all his mercies and deliverances past and present when they cause God to complain as he did of his Vineyard Esa 4. and to say of it What could I have done more for it and it bring forth no fruit but wild fruit Such demeanour under the grace mercy and love of God makes him not onely to complain of them but to punish them For his people to revolt backslide and turn rebellious wicked and transgressive God cannot bear it therefore he saith by his Prophets in divers places what he will bring upon them as in Ezek. chap. 14. â—…ad 15. I will saith the Lord set my face against them A fearfull thing to have the face of the Almighty to be set against a people And when they call As by the example of a great man I will not answer saith the Lord Ezek. 20.31 And I will not be enquired of by them saith the Lord Amos 3.2 You onely have I known of all the families of the earth therefore will I visit you for your iniquities Hence it is that Sodom is called her sister Ezek. 16.48 Should God keep his house when the Devils haunt it No Apostate people must suffer severely where God hath bestowed much mercy and love there he requireth obedience or else he will sorely punish them Well Israel is drosse Gods people are revoltets backsliders rebellious and yet the mercifull God he owns them still Jerem. 2.13 2 Chron. 7.14 my people hath forsaken me the fountain of living waters and digged themselves pits broken pits that can hold no water My people if they do humble themselves and pray then will I hear them c. God he will heal their backsliding and be mercifull to their sins he takes occasion by the greatnesse of his peoples sins to shew mercy as in the second of Hosea at large the Lord speaks there what he will do to his people in the 14 verse I will allure her and bring her into the wildernesse and speak friendly to her How willing is the Almighty God to accept of and to receive sinners although grossely sinfull notwithstanding his great mercy when they were in their blood To call a people to himself Ezek. 17. and to adorn them and beautifie them and after to fall from him to recall them again is an invaluable mercy as in Jeremy the third and first verse Though thou hast played the harlot with many lovers yet turn again to me saith the Lord as if he should have said Bring the dregs of all thy wicked life to me I will receive it
cunning sophistry hath been much in use and it is got into that garb that it deceiveth many and they deceive themselves to speak prate of that that is not within them but without them they teach not the testimony of Jesus that should be the spirit of prophecie but speaks out their lying vanities to deceive yet taken by the world for teachers of the truth 2 Cor. 15.16 But S. Paul bids other Apostles not to teach by another mans line but to get praise of God for he that seeketh his praise of men or from himself is not allowed of God Such Apostles are deceitfull workers 2 Cor. 11.12 13 14 15. that transform themselves into the Apostles of Christ and no marvell for Satan himself is transformed into an Angel of life therefore it is no great thing though his Ministers transform themselves as though they were the Ministers of righteousnes whose end shall be according to their works 1. Tin is like silver in colour in lustre silver is of a very bright colour and shineth much and tin doth resemble it in the colour and brightnesse as much for we may finde by things made of tin being in shape and form of the silver vessels some are apt to take one for the other bâ—ing not in their neer view so the Minister he shineth and is a spectacle for his whole parish to look on and for others where he resorteth observing all the rules of civil carriage and behaviour a fair outside good words courteous seemingly thankful for courtesies temperate sober and ready to give advice and every way seeming to be of a godlike behaviour like the painted sepulchres that are fair on the out-side but within nothing but dead mens bones 2. Tin is like silver in its sound silver hath a very sweet sound to the ear of man and nothing can passe it so the sound that the Minister doth make Jer. â— 14 is very sweet to the ear for they sound out the great love of God according to the letter and tell of his great mercies like the sound of the pure word but where is the true sound of the word that soundeth to us the taking up the Crosse the submitting and yeelding of our wils to Gods will denying our selves losing of our lives this is bitter Durus sermo to themselves and cannot say as Paul did that he rejoyced in the Crosse that is the sweetest sound to the soul when the mystery of God comes to be revealed by the Crosse 3. Tin is like silver in its weight herein is some difference but yet many times Tin hath not been su pected by wait when a piece of coin hath been counterfeited by it it is neer it in the weight of it So are Ministers like silver in the weight they will speak of as weighty matters and as pressing as if the very power of the Lord went along with their voices when it is nothing but a meer pressure upon the minde for the present and makes the melancholly man or woman it may be sermon-sick Where is the alteration and change of the minde wrought It cannot though they presse home with loud voices terrible words dreadfull and threatening quotations all is nothing it is but as the weight of Tin But the word it self figured to us by silver is that that shews its perfect and absolute weight when that without as to the outward makes a greater shew for when the Temple was builded there was no noise of axes and hammers 1 King 6.7 nor any tool else while it was building so the inward work of the word is not by outward hammering but by a low and still voice into the inward part Fourthly Tin will adulterate with other metals and mix it self with them it will adulterate and mix with brasse and so it becomes hard joyning with a hard severe metall So doth the Clergy they mix and adulterate with the power and authority taking that upon them they are not called unto by the Lord witnesse these late times wherein the Episcopacy had great power and authority to do and undo upholding by their power t e Beast and Antichrist compelling men to observe dayes and meats and the Orders of their Rubrique who did punish with as severe a punishment him that did deny Bishops to be Jure divino as he that should deny Jesus Christ or the Father to be God Blessed be God we are delivered from that horrible adulteration and so far is tin refined or melted nay in that case taken clean away yet the seed of that power lies in the earthy minde for the Clergy would if possible bear some sway but because they cannot they are gotten to be Incendiaries to the Magistrate against the Innocents for that the mystery of Antichrist is by them a discovering and laying open to the Beleever which they cannot endure to hear of because they are the chief concerned in upholding him it is conceived that they are the greatest hinderers of the growth of the pure and infallible truth But what can they do their power if they were so many Bishops might be restrained their behaviour concerning marriage heretofore did testifie what they were Psal 76.10 and now they rage but the rage of man will turn to the praise of God and the rest God will restrain Job saith of his persecutors Why persecute ye me as God is not my flesh sufficient let them take heed who they persecute for Christ is upon the earth though not seen by them nor heard out of the pulpit and God is shaking the heavens they are chiefly to look to it for they are as the pillars of that heaven that shall fade It is said when the Son of man shall come shall he finde faith on the earth It is to be doubted whether there will be any or no for the channell begins to be dried up the Spirits presence is not where some say it is and therefore suspect your selves you that would mix with the authority take heed of kindling any more fire if you do you are like to be burnt in it Again Tin will adulterate and mix with lead This is a strange thing that tin such a shining metall should debase it self so to mix yet so it is the Clergy will mix themselves with the poor rabble of the world Hosea 7.8 those that are ignorant and though not openly profane yet secretly vile making them the executioners of their designed purposes what they will not be seen to do themselves they encourage and countenance the poor to do as in the persecution of the tongue to mock and deride the poor Northern men that goes about speaking words of the kingdom such as Noah was to the old world a Preacher of righteousnes In this matter the Ministers of the land shew no spirit of meeknes 2 Pet. 2.5 neither are they Ministers of the Gospel that do not obey the Gospel of our Lord he saith blesse them that curâ—e pray for them
hammer will fashion him to any thing to this condition or to that to any forme In all theâ—e qualifications the poor seemeth to be the best of all Moâ—t true it is that there are a sort of poor that in all the equalities do appear in the world beyond the men of the world whom our precedent discourse hath made mention of for the wisdom of Almighty God is such that he knoweth what is best for us and to some in his great and rich love doth he give a very small pittance of the outward things of this life that being hereby pinched they might be still calling to God who is the giver of all things meat and drink apparell houses and other necessaries they are gifts of God Dantur bonis quia non mala dantur malis quâ—a non bona good men may be bettered by them and e ill men may be made worse however it be yet God is good and loving to Israell and to all them that are true of heart they shall want nothing that is good for them Haâ—h God appointed the poor to serve the rich and are they thâ—s pâ—iâ—bâ—e â—oâ—t and gentle unto their earthly masters Let us by them yea let all the great ones of the world learn to be p iable to their Maker in all t ings as the poor man is to his master be willing to go to come to be easily perswaded by the Word of our God and not to live being ignorant according to our own judgements and understandings but according to the will of our God Psalm 7â— David when he saw the prosperity of the wicked he was cast down and thought he had cleansed himself in vain But afterwards when he had been at the Sanctuary of God he understood c. and said Thou wilt guide me with thy counsell and after that receive me to Glory In this let us learn of the poor and be poor in spirit for they shall inherit the Kingdom of God the poor takes any impression call him what you will he is not angry neither offended so should it be with us take all manner of wrongs and injuries patiently not seeking revenge but be Mal eable under the hammer of God to be beaten and fashioned to what he will have us to be Again Lead is waighty and in that quality it is like Gold for that is the weightiest of all metals But this lead being a waighty and heavie metall it serveth in the world to make weights wherewith most commodities that are sold by weight are weighed and ballanced So are they the poor of the world they are as the weights wherewith the dealings of men one with another and towards themselves are by them weighed and considered all their unjust actions their oppressions fraud injuries and hard dealing is by them seen and felt and known more then to others for by such means men are made poor and kept so and therefore the pressure of it lying on them chiefly it is by them weighed and considered and also by them judged censured and execrated Lead also is waighty in another respect and that is in respect of the poor themselves being heavie and burdensome to the places they are and do remain in some of them being aged lame impotent and blind and destitute these poor are chargeable and burdensome and such as these are alwaies in the world and to be provided for Thete is also poor that are vagarants rogues theeves and poor prisoners the which are troublesome to the Common Wealth and burdensome where they are these the civil Magistrate should take in hand to restrain punish and suppresse Here we see that the poor here understood by the metall Lead are of two kindes the one are very flexible and tractable and doth resemble the silver that is in the Lead as it lies in the drossy body unseen The other poor is as the drossey body of the Lead which must by refining be brought to a separation forth from the Silver and so the one makes a vessell for the refiner and the other is as a weighty and burdensome people in the world Take Lead as it is in the originall and ye cannot perceive any Silver to be in it So the poor they are such that have some graces and discoveries of God unto them but they cannot shew it they are so trampled on by the men the world and kept low in a despised forlorne and mean condition that they cannot exercise their graces as they should it lies inwardly in the heart and doth not appear outwardly This is the condition of many and yet the rich justifie themselves very much by the carriages of the poor being contrary to them for they frequent publike preaching and use long prayers pay their dues speak the truth without avowing and do acts of charity being sober and chast outwardly whereby it comes to passe that the rich man in his demeanor and carriage blesseth himself that he is not such a one as the poor like the proud Pharisee that did thank God he was not as other men he did fast twise a week c. whereas there is a great difference between them the rich can very well spare the time to be seen of men and spend much in the outward visible matter of service and nothing troubles him all things is in store for his use without seeking after it But the poor man he must get his bread and be imployed at all seasons for that end to have to sustain nature but seeing the difference he crieth to the Lord from his heart God be mercifull to me a sinner and so getteth inward comfort and solace though outwardly he cannot shew it to the world Other poor that is signified by Lead being parted from the Silver is that fort of poor that are wicked of these there are that are mockers raylers revilers and verbal persecutours slanderers of men in high places for good acts of Justice Piety and Charity having nor the fear of God before their eyes they are ready to do any evill as coadjutors to others being thereunto engaged wherein men of eminence outwardly civil forbear in their own persons and force and compell those poor whom they can command And thus the designes of evil men are brought to passe and executed as in these dayes against the pure people of God who are drawn from the the common practice of the world to live more neerer with God and to commune with him out of the worlds ordinances these are much abused and mocked Some of these poor are such that are discontented that they are poor falling from one wickednesse to another and most rudely do abuse the Name of God his people his creatures and all the things of God impatient passionate and charging of God for aflicting them some as it hath been heard say said Could God do more to me then he hath done some also that were before A poor man at Cardiffe of some ability and means having lost it
I had been undone Consider how fit this resemblance is Man is as drossy metall that must be melted refined and purified These metalls are all generated and bread in the earth and they are no way usefull or serviceable as they come forth of the earth but must passe through a strong blowing fire before they can be made perfect or usefull for the Artificer Even so it is with man being brought forth into this world he is not fit for any thing nor to have to do with his Maker untill he hath past through the fire that all the earthy disposition and incapable substance of drosse that fixeth to him be clean taken away A man cannoâ— commune with his Maker nor offer any sacrifice to him as he is in nature untill he is new born he cannot enter all that earthinesse and drossinesse that is in the internall part must by fire be scummed cleared and utterly taken away and consumed hence it is that Saint John the Baptist saith John 3.3 I Baptise you with water but there is one that cometh after me who will baptize you with the Holy Ghost Matth. 3. and with fire the baptisme of fire is that that will be hereafter for the Whore sits upon the many waters and she is in discovering What is there in the world that is fit for use and service as it is brought forth Children are apt and prone to all evill and disobedience and do whatsoever is contrary to right if they be not educated taught corrected and instructed the naturall disposition must be subdued and kept under that the direction to a good demeanour may work upon them and they grow up into it Survey the whole creation and see where there is any thing that is fit in its body naturall by reason of its afaffixes to make use of before there is a change Corne canot be made into bread before it be threshed winnowed ground sifted and baked no flesh can be fit to nourish before it hath been ordered dressed by fire Trees cannot serve for building but they must be squared sawed and fitted stones must be hewed and so must all things that doth belong to meate and drink apparell and manufactory there must be a change of them or an abatement from them the earth it self canot yeeld forth fruits before it be tilled and manured Canst thou then Oh unbeleeving man conceive although thou art lord of the Creatures that thou art cleaner then other creatures canst thou approach neer to canst thou serve and obey thy Creatour in that nature of thine thou wast brought forth in before thou art cleansed purified purged melted plowed winnowed and sifted before thy self thy will wisdome understanding desires Psal 51.8 and all in that nature be dead and a new birth be witnessed that the broken bones may rejoyce over the dead body of sin which is called the old man because it is as old as thy self having all the parts of a man a head to imagine mischief and vanity to plot and contrive against his Maker a stiffe neck arms and hands full of oppression and guile and stretched out against the innocent feet swift to shed blood heels to kick against the law of God eares to hear folly eyes to behold vanity if this old man be not dead in thee and thou art not a new creature nothing that thou doest can be accepted thou mayest dream of a happinesse to be had when thou hast gotten an artificiall tongue like a newborne creature and art through education and thine own wisdome Esa 1. civilized in the outward garbe but if thy heart bâ— not changed thou art farre off from happinesse Judgement must passe over thee yea the fire of the Lord must burn out thy drosse or else thou wilt be miserable poor blinde and naked Thou must yeeld and submit thy self to thy God bring thy cursed nature to him there to be slain come willing y Psal 10. humble thy self under the mighty hand of God and he will exalt thee learn of thy Maker to know him and to beleeve in him that for the love of the world gave his onely begotten Son that they should not perish but obtaine through him everlasting life Thinke on this O man of the great love of God to thee what satifaction could the whole world give for the Redemption of one soul and hath Christ Jesus equall to God his Father purchased Redemption for the whole world and art thou so far from prising it that thou wilt not accept of it but think to live happie without change in thy naturall unclean unpurified and unrefined condition Consider in thy hought it to minde did thy Saviour Jesus Christ that be no robbery to be equall to God as it were un-God himself becomming man and suffering a shameful death to recover and Redeem thee and art thou so desperately wicked and so fool-hardy that thou wilt not unman thy self to be like God that is to say to put off thy will wisdome righteousnesse thy pride lust and carnall minde to be invested into a kingdom of righteousnesse peace and holinesse and to be made like unto Christ in whom all fulnesse dwels and to be in union and communion with the Father Let him that hath ears to hear hear what the Lord hath said Know ye not that Christ is in you except ye be reprobates and except your righteousnesse exceed the righteousnesse of the Scribes and Pharisees you cannot enter if you are the servants of sin your wages is death if you live after the flesh you shall die for they that are in flesh cannot please God for the wisdome of the flesh is death but the wisdom of the spirit is life and peace all that you can do in the raw unquoth earthy rough drossy vain darke uncircumcised unprepared and dead condition of nature though never so much beautified and adorned with art learning and outward wisdom and glory it is but hypocrisie we are onely Christians portraied and as it with a diamond if not right it is worth nothing and as in a picture if it be not to the life then it hath no regard so except we are really changed and metamorphosed from that we were borne in and are made like the Son of God we are not free from the law of sin and death but it hath power over us to eternall death Will the almighty God melt his people let them be of what sort soever in their outward callings either men of authority men of the world teaching men or mean men Then here Behold the great love of God unto you he will will melt you he will make you pliable tractable and vertible that what you cannot do your selves he will do for you Can the Leopard change his spots or the Blackmore his skin no more can a man change his nature of himself or by any power within himself but God onely is the changer of all Are his people Brasse Tin Iron and Lead such metalls
being of drossy earthy substances and qualities that are not fit for his service that will be served with Gold and Silver how then can these metalls be melted and purified and be made fit vessels for the Lord They cannot melt themselves neither is it in the power of one to melt another no more can man be humbled mollified or be made capable tractable or vertible of himself by himself or by any other man bur onely by the Lord himself who saith I will melt them Behold then I say the goodnesse mercy and love of God that doth such great things for us as to melt us himself we are still in his hands we cannot do amisse no hurt shall come to us we have his presence his love his bounty although in the Furnace he owns us he will not depart from us what greater love then this to be with us when we have most need when we have the bitter cup presented to us then then is our sanctification neer then the Lord is making of us like to Himself and like to his Word to be righteous as he is righteous pure as he is pure Therefore those that have gone through this fire and have been melted humbled broken and refined sound fort the praises of God and declare as David did what the Lord hath done for your soules how he hath severed and separated you from the world and hath made you fit to have fellowship with the Father and with the Son which is a mystery to the World 1 John 1.3 and to those that have not past from death to life that have not past through the fire and known the indignation of the Lord but liveth in the vanity of their mindes serving their lusts cohering to the corrupt formes fashions and customes of the world which have no life in them but have the issues of death proceeding from a raw earthy drossy unmelted and unpurified root holding and continuing in it self no true peace nor joy but what nature or art hath Let the people who have been dead and are now alive that were darknesse and are now light in the Lord that are made conformable to the Death and Resurrection of Christ being dead to all sin and alive to all Grace who love not the world nor the things of the world but have attained the Kingdom of Grace Love Joy and Peace and have communion with their God have a reciprocall and correspondent love to God and to their brethren and eccho back everlasting thanks and praises to their God who hath freely communicated of himself unto them and hath made them as kings and priests who have not onely the fruits and effects of peace but peace it self Heb. 7.2 Ephes 2.14 Col. 1.27 for Christ in them the hope of glory he is their eternall Peace and their everlasting Light which proceeded from that fire in which they were melted and purified which hath consumed in them all their drosse and all manner of carnall lust concupiscence and self wisdom all righteousnesse invention and imagination that was in the will and carnall minde that led them into errour imitation and separation from the pure truth that comes from God the Fountain of all Truth and the very essence of all true religion and of all righteous living being derived from him and to be yeelded up to him with a pure conscience being divided and severed from the world which savours not of the things of God Eighthly and lastly The end They shall know that the Lord hath done it in his wrath in his indignation What my people Israel are they such abominable sinners as to commit such grosse sins blood-shed idolatry oppression disobedience uncharitablenesse covetousnesse and fornication I have great indignation against my people for these their great sins you may think that you are still in my favour and because your secret hiding of your sins makes the lesse cry among men you think by my silence that I am like unto you But I will reprove you and set your sins in order before you Psal 50.21 you shall know that I am angry and wrathfull against you you may apprehend in your carnall wisdoms and understandings that I still love you but you shall feel my fury I will melt you and then you shall know wherefore because you transgressed against me The Lord in the sixteenth of Ezekiel speaks much of his people how they were and what he did for them Ezek. 16. and what their behaviour was vers 48. As I live saith the Lord God Sodom thy sister hath not done neither she nor her daughters as thou hast done and thy daughters After many threats and menaces the Lord still owns them and in vers 62. saith that he will establish his covenant with them and they shall know that he is the Lord. The Lord here doth tell them that when he hath melted them they shall know that it is the Lord hath done it in his wrath they shall not say This fiery change came upon them by chance or fortune or out of the dust or by the transactions of differences that is among the Nations of the world or through the envie and malice of men against them and so blame the instruments as the ignorant world doth but they shall know that it is he that doth it and by the power of his arm and in his wrath See here and take notice of Gods love and mercy in the midst of judgement although he be angry and full of wrath yet he will not destroy his people in the midst of judgement he remembereth mercy Psal 83.3 that what he doth bring upon them is to change them not to confound them it is to purifie not to consume them it is that they may know the Lord as in many places in Isaiah Jeremiah and Ezekiel of their prophecies you shall find that after judgements denounced it is said And they shall know that I am the Lord. The knowledge of God is that that the world is not acquainted with although they talk much of it they have none of it Hos 4.1 God complains by his Prophet Hosea that there was no knowledge of him in the Land and that his people were destroyed for want of knowledge vers 6. We are Heathens by nature and by profession we declare it for we professe outwardly what is not inwardly It is the inward living the life of grace that makes us Christians to be ingrafted into Christ truly to be as the branches to the Vine to have experience of Gods mercy and love to us to know God by our acquaintance and fellowship with him is to know him aright as Christians not as the world that sayes they are Christians and know God no otherwise but as a dreadfull Judge by the flashings that they have in their mindes living in disobedience to the light and every thing that they do in profession is heavie irksome and burdensome to them they worship God because of his great power
that can destroy them not for the love of his great power thaâ— burns and consumes sin and drosse in them they fear him because they are sinfull and do not convert and change but live in sin love it and plead for it But because God hates sin and sin is of such a defilin nature and makes us that we cannot be vessels for him therefore should we hate it Search and examine your selves ye sons of men thaâ— say you know God and are Christians and hope to bâ— saved by Christ Do you know God If you did yoâ— would know his people his Word his will his power his love his mercy his goodnesse and his tender compassion Can people say they know God and hate an persecute his Saints despise his Word resist his will regard not his power take nothing from God as love to them but what doth appear visibly in the things of the world that cannot see God mercifull to them when he doth afflict them that cannot conceive that God made them men out of his goodnesse that cannot apprehend God to be tender unto them in delivering them from their lusts from the snares of Satan and from the allurements of the world that cannot praise God for afflictions and rejoyce under crosses that fear death and being never renewed nor changed cannot tell what Heaven is neither is their desire to any other heaven than that that is like the happinesse of this world Should there be such a strict survey and enquiry made of the knowledge of God among us we should finde very few that do know God aright and truly as they ought and as the Saints of old did but imaginarily by relation by hear-say and by writings Who is it that knoweth God experimentally not onely to be his Creatour but to be his God Who is there that sheweth forth in a lively practice that he was made to glorifie God with and in his heart minde soul and strength that doth witnesse to the world that all his members and sences were deputed in their severall orders and places to honour and glorifie his Maker and not to make them vassals and drudges in the service of sin and Satan Who is there that doth exercise his affections in the things of God onely that leapeth and danceth as David did because of the Ark of God 2 Sam. 6.14 that was recovered and brought again among the people of God Or who doth grieve and mourn to the death as old Eli and his daughter Phineas wife did 1 Sam 4.13 Jerem 9.1 Isai 22.3 because the Ark of God was taken they would not be comforted The glory is departed from Israel therefore life was nothing to them Are mens affections carried on or off according to the tenour of Gods will as for the glory of God Or are they set on the world and carried on to the contrary then there can be no true knowledge of God Who is there that the passions of his minde bends to the glory of God that is angry when the Lord is dishonoured his people abused truth despised Where is the zeal that David had Psal 69 9. which did eat him up he was not himself his zeal had devoured him Who is there that will adventure his life liberty goods estate credit or reputation for God If there be any such as are here enquired of surely they know the Lord. And all others that live onely in the Heathenish nature and run together with the multitudes to do they know not what and to they know not whom The Lord will make as many as doth belong to him to know him by his furnace and acknowledge him to be just holy and good as he hath declared himself to be so shall his people finde in themselves if there were no Scripture by their own testimony which is the best evidence and proof for no true knowledge can be but by the inward testimony other knowledge deceiveth for when men boast of their knowing God to be all-sufficient and that he knoweth best what is fit for them and if this be not radicall within by inward testimony when trouble and affliction cometh and the evil day approacheth they are ready to murmure against God and disdain his dealings whereby they testifie to their own hearts their own failings and that recoileth back that should go forwards witnessing by their impatiency and unquiet spirits that their knowledge of him was not true neither can there be any thing true but what will hold the fiery triall that makes us to know the Lord and to know our selves The people of God that are and have been melted they onely shall know the Lord and his indignation they shall not need to fear the wrath to come for wrath seizeth on them here they shall know the Lords wrath that it hath past oâ—er them and that there shall be no more and that his triall is that they might be the better that they might know God knoweth what all men are though men know not themselves Where no triall hath been and none of Gods indignation hath past over to melt refine purifie and purge out the drosse the filth and corruption which lieth hidden and covered within what ever metall-like shining there is or what gilded profession soever there is or whatsoever art or worldly wisdom there is there is nothing but death To know God inwardly savingly experimentally in all his attributes in all his dealings to know that his wrath here his indignation here worketh for our eternall good is the right knowledge that God will indue his people with for the true knowledge of God and a pure minde goes together being attained unto by the Crosse and by the true revelation of the Son of God made manifest in the flesh by his sufferings that as he overcame death and now sits at the right hand of the Father so might we also overcome and be fellow-heirs with him Away with the knowledge the world hath that cannot apprehend God to be good to them in time of distresse sorrow misery and calamity in the time of their triall but deem that they are out of Gods favour and lie down either despairing of happinesse looking without themselves and revile others which they conceive have been the cause of that that is fallen upon them The case of England is so at present because men cannot enjoy their pleasures and profits as heretofore and things are not according to their wils they lie down in discontent and rage against those that rule over them emulating reviling of them if not seeking their destruction Mark and behold what man is he is a polluted Psal 3. Isai 6. unclean filthy and a defiled creature how unable is he to do any thing to the cleansing of himself and to enter into life he cannot let him be what he will except he be cleansed as the brasse cannot make it self to be gold nor the Tin to be silver so cannot man approach neer to God
positions framed and compiled out of the letter chosen by themselves to serve their own turns for the advance of their functions Most certain it is that there is a generation of teachers that are not sent by the Lord who are desperate enemies to the pure truth Jer. 23.21 Ezek. 13.2 3 4 and cannot endure those that do discover their weaknesse defections or wickednesse and upon this ground will be raised a far greater contest than is yet not consonant to the minde of God for disputing should be laid aside and be no longer among us but advice given to turn amend repent or else for ever perish Let not Teachers be slight in the examination of themselves in that large charge which is laid against them lest that come upon them which Saint Paul endevoured to avoid that after he had preached to others himself might not be a castaway 1 Cor. 9.27 therefore did he beat down his body and kept it in subjection But how far are many from this duty How do they feed and pamper their bodies in every manner of way as much as any It is a strange recoil for a diseased man to say Physician heal thy self or for an Auditour to say to the preacher Pull the beam out of thine own eye That light which is sprung up sent among us from the Lord let them obey it though never so crosse to their wils lest that after all their learning teaching preaching praying and exercising Psal 2.1 they be found among the raging Heathen or which is worse to be their Abettours and Ring-leaders Think upon the complaints that the Lord often hath made against the Prophets who caused his people to erre Judge your selves that you be not judged and condemned of the Lord Try and examine your selves ye that call your selves sons of Levi for the Lord is coming to try and to refine you Great is the goodnesse of God to his Church that he hath made such a discovery that they in whom we trusted and have been our introduction we must forsake being called to a better and a more lively hope to the indwellings of God than to attend the ordinances of man that speaks nought but death the Priests lips should preserve knowledge Mal. 2.7 but they have destroyed the true saving knowledge they have known the will of the Lord but they have not done it they have thrust themselves into Christs office meerly to get profit favour and honour It is a great mischief and a deadly injury to be blinde-led Christ saith If the blinde lead the blinde they both fall into the ditch that is they fall into that they cannot easily get out and when they are through mercy helped out they must be cleansed from the filth of the ditch which they have received in the ditch If by leading men fall where their desire is to avoid what are they better by leading what a heavie account have these leaders to give above all others Are not the teachers moved to hear of the fall of Babylon Surely some are but those that are not that endevour to uphold Antichrist in the mystery shall suffer with the Whore and be partaker of her plagues Is there 〈◊〉 in Heaven and cannot those hear of it that are still talking of Heaven Is there a new Jerusalem coming down from God out of Heaven and shall our Supervisours not see it Hath that City but one street in it and no crosse-wayes at all tending to unity and concord and shall our peacefull Preachers not know it Certainly God will dwell himself with his people and they shall know all things 1 Joh. 3.19 through that light and love of his wherewith many Nations shall be joyned to him and whereby he will be all in all that that which was above the reach of the highest Apostle will come down and appear to the lowest and meanest of his people The great discoveries that Almighty God hath made concerning the fall and overthrow of Antichrist which fall is beginning the wise and the learned of the world are so far from waiting to see it that they are blinde yea wilfully blinde concerning it being friends to that worship of God which is according to the oldnesse of the Letter Rom. 7.6 and great enemies to that of the newnesse of the Spirit holding forth for good the outward Circumcision the outward Baptism the outward lip-labour and auricular attendance in divine Ordinances that now is wounded and condemneth the Circumcision and the Baptism of the heart the invisible and spirituall Communion in the Spirit with the Father and the Son which is the marrow of all religion Rom. 2.27 28 29. not holden by men worthy of praise or commendation and therefore maligned and envied as Stephen was Acts 7.54 c. being stoned for speaking the truth which the people could not apprehend All the Apostles spake somewhat of the great change that would be in the world Rom. 8.23 1 Joh. 3.2 2 Pet. 3 13. and do declare evidently that there is a third dispensation which is of the Spirit that of the Law had its period that of the Gospel as the Gospel had its limit bound up to the outward administrations of men gifted hath had its Apostate-being digressing from Gospel graces and faith being as the night of the world to the revelation of the great light that God would after shine into the spirits and hearts of men spoken of by Saint Paul 1 Cor. 2.9 10 11. Now the night of Apostacie is beginning to passe away and the day approacheth wherein the Almighty will manifest himself to be the God and Father of his people by his dwelling in them foretold by the Prophets seen a far off by the Apostles and witnessed by some now the which hath a very great opposition not by scandalous and profane persons onely but by great Professours acute and learned Teachers which will not yeeld to any reproof nor subscribe to any other mans revelation and therefore do charge the unchangeable God that he changeth not nor disturbeth not neither doth he rent and divide the visible Church but that some do they do conclude they are suborned of the evil one and endevour to stop their mouths and punish those persons that say as Malachi did Mal. 2.17 Ye have wearied the Lord with your words Why use you so many words so much pharisaicall prayers and such counterfeit and heedlesse singing and praising Why such variety of humane learning philosophy and pleasing the fleshly mindes of men And wherein have we wearied the Lord are we not his people and are not our exercises the exercises of Faith and Love derived from the primitive time we know nothing of it but what is agreeable to the Word and if we should desist what will become of religion Mark the Text when ye say Every one that doth evil is good in the sight of the Lord and he delighteth in them or where is the God of
us in a mystery so that our knowledge without the mystery becomes a snare a bar to keep us from the life and light of God being proud thinking thou art something when thou art nothing Gal. 6. Get out of thy self into single-hearted humility deny the glory and same of thine own wit wisdom and understanding which is sprung up in thee from that evil seed is become that drosse in thee that hath defiled and corrupted the good metall so shalt thou finde the Lord and he will teach thee and instruct thee Psal 16.7 Psal 45. he it is that will give thee counsell without which thou art Antichrist and of the Whore let thy profession be never so shining for the Kings daughter is all glorious within Try and examine thy self O England whether thou dost obey the Lord thy God whether thou dost love him with all thy heart with all thy minde with all thy soul with all thy strength thou hast been catechized unto this Psal 81.8 but where is the exercise of it Hadst not thou need to learn it again of the Lord hear what God saith of Israel If they would have hearkened unto him and not have any other gods what blessings would he have brought upon them c The like might the Lord say of England See and behold thy gods of silver of gold of high places lands livings friends trade and the like Are not thy teachers thy gods whom thou servest and praisest Dost not thou idolize them for their parts of wit art humane learning and invention speaking things agreeable to thy palate and dost despise reject and refuse the inward teachings of God being thereunto wilfully blinded Why dost thou take the Covenant in thy mouth seeing thou hatest to be reformed Psal 50.20 Esa 1. 1 Cor. 4.5 Mat. 10.26 Or why shouldest thou think that God is as thou art consider this ye that forget God he will reprove you by his creatures the Ox and the Asse and other creatures by his judgements and by thine own conscience Forsake therefore thine hypocrisie and leave off thy lip-labour go from the falshood dwell no longer in Babylon neither delight thy self in the abominations of the Whore for her flesh shall be burnt and happy are they that have attained to this in particular and who are by the teachings of God made like to himself he that is built on the Rock need not fear undermining Tremble all you that live in blindnesse and ignorance that see not the mystery of God manifested among men God in union with man being new created cleansed purged purified and refined Will you still continue as young children to be bound up and swadled in swadling clouts Time was when the Church was in its infancie that it was needfull that it should be bound and limited with ordinances and fed with a little at a time being chewed by the Pastour which used Catechisticall forms having then no other attainments which salting kept the Church from a farther declension or putrefaction being introducible to a further and more cleare demonstration which now is lifted up and held forth namely the accomplishment of the promises whereby we do not only enjoy by faith the benefit of Gods goodnesse mercy and love as dis-joyned but his presence and abiding with us Are you not glad to hear of the beginnings of that which your forefathers did long to see are you content with the rudiments and traditions of men and forsake the inward teachings of God Take heed you do not turn the grace of God into wantonnesse and consult with the arm of flesh and be found fighters against God and his pure truth accounting the times of darknesse to be better then the taking up the Crosse by embracing and obeying the pure light without which you shall never see light nor enjoy the Crown Much might be said concerning the times and of the people that are in controversie in these our dayes the one would have this way the other that way every one seeking to be master over others their words and actions yea of their spirits too contemning one another and contending one with another insomuch that England is become as it were a Chaos of confusion and a nursery of Sects and Orders some binding up the spirit of Christ to the forms and orders of disputation setting foolish reason to be the Master or Judge in things concerning the kingdom of Christ giving out the meaning of the spirit of God without inward testimony perverting the holy Scriptures to their own destruction and others in severall various wayes broaching new doctrines not consistent with the minde of God insomuch that brotherly love hath been much impaired divisions increased and many revolted and rebell in their mindes against the Law and love of God Some stand much upon the ordinances and divine orders in stone-houses called Churches that their devout duties of lip-labour and preaching wherein is counterfeited somewhat of Christ is the onely way to life calling themselves the true Church and their Teachers true Apostles Others spend rheir time in disputing contending and brawling about sects idolatries opinions and judgements so that one party doth condemn and sentence another so that the ears and hearts of the Auditours are much infected with gall and bitternesse wilfully opposing one another crying down that for diabolicall that is not their own judgement whence proceedeth very dangerous effects of daily and most deadly provocations through a secret inward pride of minde working by envie and malice generated and bred in that gall exercising and urging one another by evil entreating by which it doth appear 1 Joh. 2.18 that there are many Antichrists in the world one persecuting and speaking evil of another Ephraim against Manasses and Manasses against Ephraim and both against Judah These contentions among us do perfectly declare that the war spoken of is begun Rev. 12.7 betwixt Michael and the Dragon they that have received the unction 1 Joh. 2.20 Saint John speaketh of they know all things they need not be taught of men but they speak of it and that great tribulation shall be such as was not from the beginning all to bring to passe the promised thing It is much that the Devil the great red Dragon should make Heaven his place to war in so it is he is now warring against Michael in Heaven that is in religion in and among the Professors therof but the comfort is he shall not prevail although his angels make sport and recreation to fulfill the anger of God being the very fire of God and his bellowes also to blow up the fire they do onely his will in purging away the drosse of his people by their most fiery contentions brawlings revilings Zach. 8.10 Isa 66.5 and persecutions as if it were the very zeal of the Lords glory The people of God knowing that the Lord will purge and refine them do willingly yeeld themselves thereunto to be tried and purified
and quake O ye mockers for the day of the Lord is come in which he will not onely search Jerusalem with candles but he will change Jerusalem by fire what can you expect that when the great and dreadfull God who is holy and cannot endure uncleanesse and drosse to be among his people but will consume it by the fire of his anger but to be utterly consumed as these sublunary metalls you can have no other end for the Silver and the Gold the pure metals you ever hated and made no reckoning of but rested and trusted in the shinings of your own base metals not regarding to know God and therefore God will give you up to a reprobate minde Rom. 1.28 let seasonable advice take hold on you What ever you do or suffer get Gold buy Truth dig deep for Silver and let not all the metalls beneath these metalls gain thy heart let them have what luster gilding or shining soever they will deceive thee Jona 3.8 They that trust in lying vanities forsake their own mercy What will become of our Nation if it should neglect so great salvation is there not a deluge of pride hypocrisie idolatry covetousnesse and murmuring now God would be mercifull to us if we would but resigne our selves up to him but we are proud and exalted in the fleshly wisdome being blinde thinking our selves in an excellent good condition giving our selves up to the lusts of our own hearts not caring to see the visions of God in the inward and internall way and so perish through our own carnall understandings in an outward profession Let us be humbled under the mighty hand of God who will exalt us the humble he will teach and those that dread and fear him he will reveal his secrets unto what greater blessednesse can be to any of the sons of men then this to be his schollers Pro. 29.18 and to know his will The teachers of the world are corrupted Psal 25.9 14. and need to be taught themselves for it appeareth they are not as the Apostles were in the primitive time but alienated from their practice having not the inlivening power within them of the spirit whence it comes to passe that living and speaking according to the letter they are by an Artifice of Satan strengthened by the outward profession to oppose strongly from their forme the inward and true spirituall worshiper and so Antichrist comes to be taken for Christ and Christ for Antichrist As the Scriptures are such are the Ministers of it the letter serveth as a shelter or an hiding place for Antichrist to lurke and save himself in where now he is striving for superiority as the Pharisees did in the time of Christ against whom he did chiefly speak but the Spirit is of that pure simple individuall and virgin like holy quality proceeding from the Father of light that it needeth not to be urged either by letter or word being given up wholly to the invisible and internall enjoyment of the life of God which by his inspiration the letter was first monumented to enioy the letter without the spirit is to enjoy the picture and not the person Christ saith you thinke to have eternall life in the Scriptures No you cannot they testifie of me John 5.39 that giveth life to all that do beleeve His ministration is a ministration of reconciliation to salvation and we are to look after no other although there may be excellent pretences Should the men of the world study but half so much for their eternall welfare as they do for their temporall they could not but give strong reasons and gain strong resolutions against their own practices to be in Israel and not an Israelite to be of the visible Church and to have no invisible light and truth this is worth nothing to talk of grace with the mouth and have none in the heart to say they know and do not there sin remaineth Stirre up thy self Joh. 9.14 O worldling ly not still consider what thou art and wherefore thou wast created 1 Joh. 3.20 let not the naturall light that is within condemn thee to perdition and make no further use of any thing wherein others meet with the Lord their God then that thou mightest so really and truly meet him also Let not the outward performances of duties Eccles. 5.7 Job 34.19 Psal 113.7 serve thine own will to the increase of worldly gain or preferment but serve God with a pure minde and heart-performance which he onely accepteth of Let the poor and mean Yea the servants of men endeavour cheifly that the Lord may be their portion the sin of murmuring is as among all people so especially among people of low degree they murmure because God hath not given them such a portion of the world as oothers because they are impotent or that they are under the cōmand of others many waies is there a murmuring against God learn patience and know that the very worst estate that can be is beyond thy desert and that thy Maker will do with his own as He pleaseth Happy art thou if thou findest within thy self the God of love and infinite mercy anyway to appear if in that thou hast received thou hast seen a hand directing it to thee though it be bitter take it from the Lord as a token of his infinite love rejoyce in thy low condition the Lords eye is over thee and will neverthelesse judge thine oppressour he hath a regard to the poor he will defend them he wil bring them them out of the dust and set them among Princes all that wait upon the Lord shall see his goodnesse in the Land of the Living Let all therefore say that have not to their desire in outward appearance of Gods favour Verily thou O God hidest thy self O God thou Saviour of Israel Lastly whatever thou art that dost draw neer to God in any outward performance meditate with thy self to what end thou dost it and be more neer to hear than to offer the sacrifice of fools Eccles 4.17 ◠1. neither be rash with thy mouth to utter a thing before God for he is in Heaven and thou art on earth therefore let thy words be few Eccles 4.17.5.1 Lamentable it is to see how sinfully men present themselves before the Lord in Congregations petitioning for that their hearts are not affected with and promising that they have no intent to perform Consider in your mindes would a mortall man be so served that is in some regall authority and do you think the great God can bear it No if this be your resolved practice he will cast you into utter darknesse that doth thus counterfeit and dissemble with him who seeth the heart you shall never have the light of his countenance here nor that Heaven which you care little for hereafter Behold the day of the Lord is very neer at hand and he cometh as a thief in the night Revel 3.2 Who may abide the day of his coming And who shall endure when he appeareth Mal. 3.2 1 Thess 5.6 for he is like a purging fire and like Fullers sope Watch therefore Luke 12.33 to the 41. read it in the Spirit that being fore-warned you may be fore-armed Finally brethren whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things pertain to love Phil. 4.8 whatsoever things are of good report if there be any vertue or if there be any praise think on these things which you have both learned and received and heard and seen in Paul or in any of the Saints of God those things do and the God of peace shall be with you FINIS