the guilt observe these things 1 What manner of blood it is or whose blood it is that is righteous blood according to Matthew the blood of all the Prophets according to Luke 2 Observe how it is dealt with that is it is shed and the place where upon the Earth 3 From what time it is shed that is from the foundation of the World 4 Vnto what time that is to the present generation 5 That of them it is required that is of the present generation as Luke records it 6 And lastly that it comes upon them according to Matthew For the first the Spirit of God stiles it righteous blood and it affirms also that it is the blood of all the Prophets from the foundation of the World so that there is the same guilt in taking away the life of any of the Saints or Prophets of God that is of any true Interpreter of the word of God in the present age that ever was in the spilling of any righteous blood in the world from the foundation thereof Christ Iesus himselfe not exempted for there is but one righteous life and death as the word blood signifies both which are ever found in Christ and never elsewhere for in all the operations of life he is the Lord our righteousnesse Ier. 23. 6. by whom we live unto God now I live not I any more but Christ liveth in me Gal. 2. 20. Again there is but one righteous blood in point of death unto sin and Satan therefore Christ once suffered and once offered up himselfe 1 Pet. 3. 18. Heb. 9. 26. Heb. 10. 10. which is not found but in Christ for it is one act which comprehends all the Saints therefore the Apostle saith I now rejoyce in my sufferings for you and fill up the remainder or that which is behind of the sufferings of Christ Col. 1. 24. that is I fulfill in my flesh that off-spring or posterity of the suffering of Christ which are common unto that incorporate body according to the true intent and meannig thereof shall we think our selves to be the off-spring and posterity of Christ and not have the similitude of Christ in all things Was ever such a generation brought forth that bears not the image of the Progenitor if we be implanted into his resurrection we are implanted into his death also Romans 6. 5. if any man have not the Spirit of Christ the same is not of his Rom. 8. 9. and so it may be said of all things that are appropriated to Christ as his peculiar interest if any man have not the life of Christ the same is none of his if any man have not the wisdome of Christ the same is none of his and if any man have not the death of Christ that man is none of his we conclude then there is but one righteous life and death in the true posterity and off spring thereof wherefore he that spills the life by living carnally unto the things of the world or he that spils the death by dying carnally unto the things of God that man is guilty of blood in the highest degree for there is but one righteous blood therefore the same guilt and condemnation in the shedding thereof in whom or what age or generation soever Moreover it is but one and the same spirit of that one word of God which hath been falsified and cruelly destroyed by false interpretation from the foundation of the world which is that name of Christ that none can read but himselfe for he is called the word of God Rev. 19. 12. 13. Now if the letter of the word were Christs name or authority then any wicked man might read and know the name of Christ yea the Devill himselfe in his tentations alleged the letter of the Scripture Mat. 4. 6. compared with Psalm 91. 11. 12. who is so far from the knowledge of Christ or from acknowledging him in his vertues to be that which he is But none can know this name of Christ namely the word of God but himselfe therefore wheresoever the truth of the word of God is known there is Christ himselfe he that is guilty therefore of the neglect or rejection of the spirit of the word of God or of that law of the spirit in whomsoever it is that person is guilty of the neglect and rejection of Christ himselfe Luke 10. 16. for none hath or knoweth that name but himself 2 The second point is how they deal with this blood where it is shed that is on the Earth false interpretation lets the blood of Christ who is heavenly out of its proper place as Cain did the blood of Abel which is therefore said to cry from the ground Gen. 4. â—0 it speak but not as in its proper veines and place of its naturall residency and aboad contrary to that blood of sprinkling which is therefore said to sprinkle Heb. 12 24. as having livelyhood and spirit in it to give life and motion to the whole body and therefore speakes better things than that of Abel in as much as life is better than death But the blood being shed on the Earth as Christ affirms here in this place it is that is expounded and applyed carnally as that the death of Christ should consist in the separation of the soul and body of a man living and dying only in such an age or time of the world and not else thus to draw forth the death or the life of Christ is to shed it upon the earth and as blood shed upon the ground is a meanes for the ground to bring forth more abundantly earthly fruits which are naturall to the ground where it is shed but none of those fruits which it brings forth in the body the proper place of its residency even as the blood of a Lamb shed and sucked up by a Woulf ceaseth to have any more the livelyhood and spirit of a Lamb in it but it is now translated and changed by its community with the Woulf as the ptoper agent to work upon into the liâ—e spirit motion and nature of the Woulf so is it in that way of false interpretation for it takes the spirit and life of the word of God out of its proper place that is to say out of that mysticall body of Christ and will not give it its proper place of its aboad For they say that the Saints of God have only some created or creature-like vertue and certain influences of the spirit of Christ but not the same spirit in the reality of it which the Son of God hath They say the Saints of God have a death in them to sin and Satan but not the reality of the death of Christ They teach that the people of God have the righteousnesse of Christ else they could not be just before God but it is not in them nor theirs properly as they are Saints but it is the righteousnesse of another that is nearer to God than themselves and is only imputed to
in way of humane genealogies O fools and blind shall we think that the genealogy and off-spring of the Son of God ended and was cut off in the Virgin Mary or that it was more carnal and bodily in onr forefathers then it is in our dayes is not the flesh of Christ though never a carnal and fleshly Christ conserved in his off-spring until now shall we think this word hath not eternity in it and is made good in his mystical body whereever any member thereof appears viz. My flesh is meat indeed and my blood is drink indeed and he that eateth not my flesh and drinketh not my blood hath no life in him or is this speech worn out so as that it comprehends not the whole body viz. My heart and my flesh rejoyces in the living God Is there no more mention to be made of this word My soul thirsteth for thee my flesh longeth greatly after thee is a land of drought Such as lay these things aside and count it blasphemy to say Christ is compleatly present in his Saints in these dayes in the reallity of whatsoever his body consists of and will but afford him only some certain spirit or rather rayes and influences thereof to be resident in his Saints to this end that the world may not want power to do what they please with their bodies these men are of that spirit of Antichrist which deny the coming of Christ in the flesh as the Spirit of God in his Apostle averreth for if it were salvation to confess Christ come in the flesh as born of the Virgin Mary in such an age of the world only then would that wicked sea and lake of Rome have as much salvation in it as thy people at this day extant who profess and describe him in that respect by so many abominable signs and Images for our Apostle affirms that that spirit which confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God But this spirit which confesses Christ upon the same principles that Rome and the rest of the rabble of the world do who read the writings of the Apostles they do not acknowledge the insufficiency of man in that alsufficiency of the Son of God nor that disability of the creature in point of all humane help to be born up and carried out in that strength and desire proper only to the spirit of God In case therefore of the Jews in their strictness about genealogies and pedegrees I am as a Jew in all such matters and it is the only doctrine I teach whereby I find an ear in them to hear but it is to confound and bring to nought all carnal vain genealogies tribes kindreds and families as having respect unto God that the family and race of the Son of God only may take place of them all that so I may gain them all unto him or vanquish and subdue them all under him that the reality of them all may only be found in him as they are of any truth holiness honour or of any acceptation unto or in any respect with God at all and that all other are but vain and endless genealogies as our Apostle calls them Ignorance of this point in that obcaecoâ—n and pro-caxiouse spirit in the ministry of the world is the cause of that carnal conceit that a member of a church ordered composed and cast into a form by men and the children born in the confines of a church so framed are the true seed and off-spring of Christ and that all others are without any visible ensign of the true Religion and worship of God Again ignorance in this point of the true and compleat proceed of Christ whenever he appears really in any particular person or office is the very ground of that diabollical conceit that the Spirit of God operates in man here on the earth for a time and at his death man as a creature returns unto the earth both in regard of soul and body and is dissolved into the elements whereof natural bodies are made and composed and that nothing but simply God as an increated being is saved or returns to his ancient center these two opinions seem to be far distant but are both alike diabolical denying the truth and reallity of the Son of God and are deceivers of mankind causing them to be inamored with and dore upon the wayes of death and destruction in the villification and rejection of that salvation which is by Christ To them that are under the law as under the law that is to such as are under that Ceremonial bond and ingagement of being tied in the wayes of their worships to persons places times and terms of humane relations as necessary parts thereof instituting of churches creating of officers setting up seals signs services of time which in time will vanish away to these I declare my self to be under as strict bonds and ingagements as themselves be so as I move not in heart nor by hand utterance in tongue or gestures and demeanure in carriage But with respect unto this my ingagement which is the bond of the spirit binding me over unto God by freeing me from all ingagements and things whatsoever inferiour to himself in his Son Christ and not the spirit of bondage which ingageth unto the creature as being set in the place of the Creatour which is ever accompanied with trembling and fear because of the conscience of the insufficiency and uncertainty thereof And by taking up these their bonds and transitory ingagements whereabout as servants of sin they spend their time imploy their studies exercise their zeal in binding heavy burdens upon themselves and others seeking rest by the imployment of that unclean spirit but find none busying themselves in picking at the bark rinde husk or shell and never come to taste of the pith marrow or kernell and by opening of these rudiments and declaring what they be in their strictest injunctions which being followed to the uttermost of their intent in what they drive at and lead unto which is no less nor fall they short of an impossibility to please God thereby I do by these things bring out the reallity of the law of the Spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus our Lord which is the only freedome from this law of sin and death Which law of God hath all its relations operations and respects only in Christ and out of him it neither binds by any bond nor layes it any burden but hath in it in every respect the liberty freedome and authority of the Son of God And by this means I gain the truth and verity of all law bonds and ingagements to have their subsistance and being only in the Son of God being of the same degree power and continuation which himself is and ever will be which is the onely freedome and therefore the Saints of God are not bound unto but transcend and are far above all humane and transitory things from which God hath freed
is a wicked and disallowed ministry rejected and reprobated by God and doth in his heart conclude that the righteousness of Christ is one thing to one Saint and another thing in another Saint that it is of one virtue in one age of the world and of another virtue more or less or some alteration in another age this is reprobate doctrine rejected and reproved by God For our Apostle saith I beat down my body not the body of another So that they who seem to beat down sin in another and know not how to make it their own as it being naturally in that body whereof they by nature are such are in this ministry of reprobation therefore all such as go about to cry down a sin which was committed in a body destitute of humane nature that is the sin of angels before man was or at the least before man sinned these beat down sin in another not in their own body a sin say they which man was never guilty of nor subject unto for say they man sinned by means of a tempter but the evil angels the devils they sinned without a tempter these men preach in another not in themselves and these our Apostle by transferring the thing to himself concludes by the Spirit of God that it is a reprobate and rejected ministry disallowed of God in all good men throughout all ages They therefore that preach a sin without that body whereof man by nature is which are all those which preach the fall of angels not to be the proper fall of man and the sin of the devil in its first act not to be the proper sin of man as well as of Satan all these are reprobate ministers and this their ministry is reproved rejected and disallowed of God Again they who preach a righteousness a wisdome a sanctification or redemption that is in another but not in themselves or that which is not in all the Saints of God as really as they in it or as really in all as in any one these preach in another but not in themselves they build up or seem to do another not their own these are reprobate ministers such as are rejected and disallowed of God And wherewithall shall these men come before the Lord and bow themselves before the high God shall they come before him with burnt-offerings with calves of a year old will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams or with ten thousands of rivers of oyl shall they give their first-born for their transgression or the fruit of their body for the sin of their soul But thou O man of God who art known of him he shall shew unto thee what is good yea what that good thing is which is only acceptable unto him and what doth he require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to abase thy self in point of all humane excellencies that so thou may walk in the power and glory of thy God Amen S. G. The Preface THe piece presented according to the nature of it is as a judge of assize riding his circuit who being set on the seat of judgement is as a man ignorant of all causes apertaining to that place where he is so set as also impartial with respect to any mans person for he knows no man But when the cause is produced the parties brought in and examined with observation of their countenance carriage and demeanure together with manner of speech and all circumstances The witnesses standing up being such as are free from the act as also from passing of sentence and yet have really communicated in the act by eye or ear or some of the sences in way of approbation or dislike The voluntary declaring their testimony without any extraction obstruction interruption or mollestation and it recorded The case opened declared and made manifest The records of the law read seriously considered and skilfully interpreted The Auditours satisfied in the conviction of the guilty and clearing of the innocent And the spirit of the judge animated through sound and indubicable knowledge of the matter and conscience of his office freely determineth in case of right and wrong passeth sentence of absolution or condemnation without either fear or flattery and such manner of progress expect in this presented and so I adventure it to publick view as a thing impartiall having sufficient in it self for its own defence S. G. Matth. the 23. 29. Wo unto you scribes and pharises hypocrites c. THis is the seventh wo denounced by Christ in this chapter against scribes and pharises being hypocrites and once being blind guides to lay open the fearfnl estate and condition of such as oppose Christ Jesus in his doctrine and seek by all means to insnare and intangle him therein to make him appear unto men as a guilty person that so all men might contemn and dispise his sayings as is plentifully declared in the former chapter which is not to be limited or confined to any particular time or age of the world as excluding others nor to any particular rank or calling of men as belonging to them and not to others But is to be taken according to the true etymology of the phrases which are here expressed The word scribe signifies an expounder of the law and so the Evangelist Luke hath it saying wo be to you expounders of the law that is ye reporters of or bringers in the original and first foundation of the law and records of the kingdome The word pharise signifies one who curiously divides makes distinctions in the interpretation or prophesie foretelling what will insue and come to pass upon the principles and foundations premised which are never separated and therefore Luke concludes them in one Luke 11. 52. saying Wo be to you lawyers or wo be to you interpreters of the law The word hypocrite or dissembler is therefore added to declare that they give a false exposition and interpretation of the law of God both in the ground and original of things as also in all the success and prosecutions thereof otherwise the words scribes and pharises might be taken in a good sense 1. The word hypocrite properly signifies a stage-player which sort of men we know are counterfeits in divers respects first they counterfeit the persons of men representing godly or noble men when they are of no such disposition nor degree so do false interpreters represent the person of Christ yet cannot but confess he is as far remote as heaven is from earth 2. The stage-players counterfeit the records and histories of a kingdome as though they were now in their wise and grave agitation and solemnization when as they cannot but confess there is nothing but a bare resemblance of them and so do false interpreters they treat of the records and histories of the Scripture when as they confess they were in act long ago and are not now in present and real existance 3. The stage-players counterfeit time pretending the season of Gods providence
this wo is their gross hypocr sie in that they strain at a gnat and swallow a Camel These kind of interpretors are very strict in straining out of some things of small value as very pernicious and swallow down great abominations as things of nothing like a man which hath great care to strain a mote or flie out of his drink but can swallow without let a mountain or powerful serpent They can strain out the gnat of dipping into or sprinkling with water in their entrance into their Church as also gestures and vestures in the exercises of their Church but they can swallow down that abominable idolatry in falling down before and attributing unto the creature that which God never intended who desires mercy and not sacrifice which will pass away as the early cloud and as the morning dew and the knowledge of God more then all burnt-offerings Hosea 6. 4 5 6. Yea such perfunctory services are nothing but rebellion against Gods command in the weighty matters of the law and as the sin of witchcraft unto the people 1 Sam. 15. 21 22 23. These men can carefully strain out of office such as have not been trained up in some university and attained to orders meerly humane but they can swallow down thousands that never came to the knowledge of the mystery of God nor the operations of his spirit only expressed therein and not elsewhere to be found Yea they can strain out by death of the parties an act of adultery committed between creatnre and creature as brute beasts and in the mean time swallow down that sin of iucest in bringing the holy and eternal word of God into copulation with earthly and transitory things as a temporary Church erected in time and in time dissolved offiâ—ers ordained in time and in time may be deposed or by death abrogated and void ordinances that may not only be changed in time from one form into another but also surcease in time and be no more as though the Lord by conjunction with things that pass away should conceive and bring forth his kind and native properties whereas the word of life hath only purified it self in that undefiled bed of the mystical body of Christ for in the Son of man it is not only a word of putrifying but also putrified and therein and not elsewhere conceives and brings forth its own kind and native properties in all the fruits of righteousness w ich are by Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God Philip. 1. 11. and makes use of all other things as taking occasion thereby to express and declare the power and virtue which forever resides and dwels in that his mystical body for that end he preached in the Jewish Temple or Synagogue went up to their feasts conversed with the Samaritan at the well went to the marriage of Cana in Gallilee healed the man that was born blind and for that end the word of God hath respect unto in the expressing of it self all things that come within the compass of mans reason or found in the nature or operation of any creature not lodging it self in that but only visits it as a stronger in its going forth and return to its native home Add further these interpretours are strict to strain out bloud-shed in the several distinctions and degrees thereof but in the mean time can swallow down the killing and crucif iâ—g of the Lord of glory the Son of God by condemning the right of the first-born to belong unto that compleat mystical body of Christ and depriving it of the reallity of one and the same spirit virtue and acceptation in the sight of God in every part thereof having headship in whom or in whatsoever it put forth it self in present exercise for if the spirit of the Lord be upon any that party in that particular wherein it goes forth is the anointed of the Lord which infinitely transcends all transient things Isaiah 61. 1 2 3. And that doctrine that denies this glory to be the Spirit of Christ takes away and destroyes that wherein the life of the Son of God doth consist which is no other then the proper seed and off spring of him who is a murtherer from the beginning as also that lier who abode not in the truth Iohn 8. 44. as we are not to fear such therefore that can kill the body but have no power to torment the soul when that is done so we are to have in abomination that doctrine and those doctours which strike at the life of Christ in the Spirit of the Scriptures though they should never lay violent hands on the bodies of any of the Saints nor outward estates in point of their bodily well-being in the things that concern this mortal and temporary life Wo then unto false interpretours who highly advance mean and base things of no account in the records of God in neglect and villifying of the great and weighty things in his accounts and strain out and indeavour to clear themselves of such evils as are simply considered only evils in the judgement of man and thereby swallow up and devour as a thing of nought â—amely the things of God in Christ which is the breeding and bringing in the greatest evil yea the devil himself and hence Christ brings in the sixt wo laid down in the 25 26. verses wherein observe these particulars 1. First that there is a clensing pharisaical 2. Of what that is cups and platters 3. The manner how that is the outside 4. A manifestation of the inside and that is full of bribribery and excess 5. A taxation in these words thou blind pharisee 6. An exhortation in way of rebuke for their preposterous practice first cleanse the inside of the cup and platter 7. What would inevitably follow thereupon that the outside may be clean also 1. For the first observe that as there is a righteousness of the scribes and pharises which never enters into the kingdome of heaven Matth 5. 20. so there is a cleansing which is only the purification of the flesh in that sense as slesh and bloud cannot inherit the kingdome of God 1 Cor. 15. 50. and that stands in an indeavour to conform a mans self to the letter of the Scripture which is the proper character of all mens minds naturally according to the principles of humane reason under which as the kernel in the shell or the corn in the husk the will of God is devulged unto the world so that a man is exempted from the seed of the word of God only the conception of it makes it either a first-born or an abortive either the seed of the woman or the seed of the serpent and the more a man inclines after this purification Hebr. 9. 13. according to the law of the carnal commandment standing in outward ordinances Hebr. 7. 16. Ephes 2. 15. Col. 2. 14. the more he declines that simplicity and purity that is in Christ even as a spiritual minded man the
18. 19. Therefore to terminate Equality in temporary relacions as the meaning of the word of God is a strong pillar to bear up and establish the Tomb of the Prophet And in these three points of Supportacion of the Tombs of the Prophets wherin their spirit is departed stands the enervating and disanulling of the fift Commandement and he that is guilty of one hee is guilty of all James 2. 10. 4 The fourth pillar supporting the Tombs of the Prophets for the expunging of their spirit out of the world that men may send gifts and gratifications one to another rejoyceing in the glory of the flesh by abandoning the deeds of the spirit Revel 11. 7. 8. 9. 10. stand in the abrogacion of the sixt Commandement Thou shalt not kill but shalt preserve life wherin all meanes of offence and defence are strictly given in charge for the effecting whereof how many are the terms relacions and respects of Honour contrived and composed in Military affaires and Disciplin according to the differing peoples and Nacions wherein it is exercised with their severall Engines and Instruments to attayn their ends and that from the Law of the carnall Commandement as it is written in all mens hearts Rom. 2. 14. 15. And when the word of God is expounded so as to consist in any thing as is naturally brought forth in the heart of man destitute of the spirit of Christ that is a meer karkasse of the Scripture voyd of the spirit of true prophesy so that to place the word of God in warlike affaires attayning its end in gaining or recovering temporary interests of honour riches lands places offices revenues safety or destruction of body goods and the like this may be done as a karkasse of the Law voyd of the spirit and life of it and so no more but a Tomb wherein the Prophet lies buried And the parties thus teaching and submiting to such Doctrin by working accordingly may and are destitute of the current of the Law how it runs wherein the proper plea stands and what is the tru point of issue For the Law is spirituall but the mind of man never so much refined by humane Learning gives a carnall construction therof Rom. 7. 14. But true Martiall Discipline that is of God must have Eternity in it elce it is not of God And all warlike affaires temporarily managed without the spirit of Christ is an unclean thing yea the Tombes of the Prophets and all the strength manifested therein is but as dead mens bones accompanied with rottennesse and filthinesse For the Military affaires intended by the word of God calling him The Lord of Hosts or of Armies Psalm 46. 7. Psalm 48. 8. is to be followers of the Lamb upon mount Zion as an Army of an hundred forty and four thousand every one of the twelve Tribes being multiplied into twelve thousands to signify unto all men that in whom soever Christ Iesus becomes a Root in Israel whether the Root in David Revel 5. 5. or a Root in Iesse Isay â—1 10. or the Root in Ephraim or any of the Tribes Judges 5. 12. 13. 14. 15. he multiplies himselfe into a compleat and triumphant Host for the conquering of whatsoever opposeth him who have their fathers name as the Motto in their Ensigne written in their foreheads that is the authority and power of God alone openly chearfully and boldly professed and maintayned amongst them Revel 14. 1 And for the Harnesse wherewith the spirit of the Prophet strengthens and animates it selfe it is the whole armour of God for a good souldier of Christ hath his loynes girt about with truth and hath the breast-plate of righteousnesse the helmet of salvacion the shield of faith his feet shod with the preparacion of the Gospell of peace the sword of the spirit which is the word of God and therefore a spirituall war praying with all supplication in the spirit watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all Saints Ephes 6. 14 -18 And for their Onsets and Assaults it is to resist the Devill in the stedfastnesse of Faith 1 Pet. 5. 9. to quench the fiery darts of Satan Ephes 6. 16. and war a good warfare according to the Prophesies that are gone before of every son of God 1 Tim. 1. 18. centring themselves in each of them as their proper intent in whom they are fulfilled and made good by which wee are made able to war a good warfare For the weapons of our warfare are not carnall but spirituall mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds casting down imaginacions and every high thing that exalts it self against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ 2 Cor. 10. 4. 5. And so much for the four Pillars upon which the Tombs of the Prophets are erected and are every one of them a compleat grave wherein Christ is buried that he appears not in the world but in a sensuall respect 1 For the Superiority and Authority of the world is a grave wherein Christ as King is covered with that dust or earth and men walk over it and perceive it not Luke 11. 44. 2 The Inferiority and temporary Subjection of the world is a grave wherein the High-priest of our profession lies hid and covered mens eyes being directed unto that Monument that they perceive not the Subjection of the Son of God who humbled himselfe and became obedient unto death even the death of the Crosse 1 Phil. 2. 8. Hebr. 3. 1. 3 The Doctrin of Equals in the world is a Monument to cover Christ as he is the First-born of God when they state Equals in King and King earthly in Priest and Priest made by men in Captain and Captain only for the slaughter or preservacion of an earthly body or corporacion these things in Equality being made the scope of their Doctrin do fill the eys of men as a Monument set upon a grave and so hide the state of the first-bornship that is in Christ Iesus where every one hath equall Dignity for every Saint and Son of God is the first prime and chief act of God for the tru form of Christ Gal. 4. 19. is the principall and chiefe work that ever God did and all other things whatsoever are subservient thereunto Rom. 11. 36. P ov 16. 4. No direct nor tru Equality can bee found therefore out of the Son of God which is hid and buried by false interpretacions of the Word of God 4 The fourth particular is a grave to bury Christ as he is the Captain of our Salvacion Hebr. 2. 10. whilst men set up a Hearse of temporary Conquest over the bodies of men to be the end and accomplishment of the word of God for which their prayse is to be returned which hath not Eternity in it for they dare not lay prayses upon the Altar for that they have thrust mens souls down to Hell therefore a temporary act that mens eyes must be held
thing thereby wherein men have put alike excellency Further if the law of carnall Jerusalem did not deiâ—ie marriages of man and woman by terminating the word of God in them so as men expect a certain Heaven in fulfilling thereof otherwise would they run into adulteries but only that they find not their hope at home but resolve it is to be found else where and thus it is in point of honour outward peace great friends and allies which Ierusalem after the flesh hath set up as Gods in the world for men to adore and worship and spare nothing for the obtaining and maintaining the same Moreover this carnall Ierusalem makes gods of terrour or rather Devils to be avoyded of temporary things as poverty idlenesse fornication drunkenness pride in gay apparel want of obedience to Parents Ministers Majestrates terminating the word of God as its proper errand to mankind in these things in all their prohibitions curses and comminations which fils some with terrour and fear it may be despaire and madnesse in their coming short of perfection in their abstaining from such things and others are filled with itching desires to taste of them apprehending some strange and uncouth thing to be in that which is so prohibited whereas if the Law of God were rightly exhibited and set forth it would moderate mens hearts in the pursute of any earthly excellency seeing the vanity of it and quell all fears of wants and miseries arising from the want of the glory of it knowing that God hath given commission to all things to work for the good of every one of his Rom. 8. 28 -35 Christ therefore directs his speech against Ierusalem as that mother City law or order that brings forth Scribes and Pharisees who by their law stone the Prophets of God and such laying claime unto the law is the reall deniall of the law as bad as those whom they call Antiscripturians a term soon found out to make men odious But it were better to fill their ears with arguments to the stifling of all such ignorant spirits as deny the present power and authority of the word of God Though these men think themselves such as are flown beyond and above others and therefore wait either for a new word never yet recorded from the mouth of Christ when he comes to reign on Earth as a Monarch or else for such a spirit as yet never breathed in the sons of men and so look at the word of God recorded as a thing now out of date according as they judge of the Ceremonies of the Law These are false Interpreters of the word and are under a law of this carnall Jerusalem that Christ thus chargeth in that they make the eternall word of God which is the same with God himself and lives alike together with himself in the Saints in all ages these persons therefore that deny the â—â—esent power and vertue of the word of God are as really these deceitfull and hypocriticall Expounders as those Scribes and Pharisees were to whom Christ speakes and arise from Hagar the bond-woman as really as those descended of that Ierusalem who is in bondage with her children declaring themselves to be no children of the free-woman and so no heirs of promise For they may as well professe the eternall word that Son of God and Saviour of the world to be void of vertue and have no operation in or upon the Saints of God whether living upon the Earth or departed this life who is he that upholds all thingt by his power Heb. 1. 3. and saith of himself by the Psalmist the foundations of the Earth are weake I bear up the Pillars thereof Selah Psalm 75. as to affirm that the word of God recorded in Scripture is either out of date and not of present use or destitute of any vertue and power which once it had For if these men will have the Characters of the word of God void and out of date as records of no use they deal not truly with themselves unlesse they make the whole work of God in the creation of this visible world to be out of date yea their own bodies and souls with all the operations and imaginations of their hands and hearts for the Letter and Character of the Scripture is engraven in them all therefore it is that all things are called upon by the Psalmist to utter and set forth the high praises of the Lord Psalm 148. as all his Angels all his Hosts all high places yea praise him Sun and Moon and all Stars of Light the Heavens of Heavens and Waters that be above the Heavens yea things from the Earth Dragons and all Deepes Fire Hail Snow and Vapour stormy Wind and Tempest doing his will Mountains and all Hils fruitfull Trees and Cedars the wilde Beasts and all Cattell creeping things and feathered fowls Kings of the Earth and all People Princes and all Iudges of the Earth young Men and also Maidens old Men with Children if men will have the Records of Scripture the Characters of the Word of God out of date let them professe all these to be out of date and void of that vertue relation motion and operation which God at the first placed in them and gave unto them Yea let them professe that their places offices and stations they stand in to be out of date and of no use a marrying and giving in marriage procreation of Children or of any Creature with their eating drinking sleeping labour and rest let all these be dead out of date unto them if the Characters of the word be out of use yea their own thoughts and motions of their minds for the word of God as spoken of all men saith the word is nigh unto thee even in thy heart and in thy mouth Rom. 10. 8. and saith the Apostle this is the word of saith which we preach that is our Ministry is nothing else but an opening of that Husk or Character written upon your own thoughts and words that you may participate of the strength life and substance contained therein which otherwise is a dead and killing letter yea the savour of death unto death 2 Cor. 3. 6. 2 Cor. 2. 16. 2 Cor. 3. 7 -11 Those therefore that deny a like vertue and power to be in the letter of the Scripture or Character of the word of God that ever was at any time from the beginning such men are false Interpreters of the word of God and alike adversaries to Christ and his salvation as these against whom all these woes are denounced and do appertain unto them as their proper right and justly purchased inheritance for the word of God in the letter of it is more firmly imprinted than in being blotted with Ink upon Paper therefore our Apostle affirms that it is graven upon stony Tables of the heart as well as the Law of the spirit is upon the flâ—shy Tables of the heart for they are both to remain in their proper places 2 Cor.
Christian is brought into a point of time as really as that act through the Spirit of God hath in it the extension of Eternity but this false interpreters will not be gathered into 2 They will not have Christ so to neglect himself in the world that there is no stamp of the Image and Spirit of God in wicked men as peculiar to his nature nor so â—o neglect himself as he is Man in the just that there is no excellency or glory of man in any reckoning or account in him that so he may in the fulnesse of God and vacancy and vanity of all the things of man make of these twain one new man in himself this false interpreters will not be gathered into Ephes 2. 15 16 3 They will not have the same life and spirit transfused into every Saint of God which is in the Son of God as he hath respect to the Father or not that however which is in the Father himself but some Secondary or mediate influence else it is not a wing for the children and the bond-woman earthly Ierusalem to come under they are all bound by law of humane learning and their School Divinity to keep with all care and study their Secundâ—m Idem which is a principall pillar set up by Satan to underprop the Nest they belong unto Revel 18. 2. 4 They will not have the form and fulnesse of Christ to be compleated at once where ever or in whom it appears but must have it made up gradually by peece-meal hating inconsistent to the increasings of God and impaires that Salvation that is by Christ for there is nothing peculiar to a Christian but Christ salvation Consists in it so that they will not have Salvation to be perfect it is a wing too sound and wholsome for the Scribes of the world to come under 5 They will not have the word and wisdom of God to be a compleat and all sufficient shelter unto a Christian to save and defend him from storms and tempests snares and intanglements arising from below or descending from above without the help of humane learning whereby to know and humane policy to consult contrive and determine as also humane lawes and Lawyers to maintain rights and interests otherwise a Christian cannot safely be Conveyed through this World we have known all these to come out against Christ and the servants of Christ in all ages but we never knew them take parts with the people of God but as God by his wisdome turned them to another intent than their proper sâ—ope and end was but for the word and wisdome of God simply and singly considered that wing false interpreters would never be gathered under for they say unto God depart from us for we desire not the knowledge of thy waies Iob 21 13 14. Psalm 119. 53. They will not have a Nest of his composure a house of building without hands onely eternall in the heavens they know nor for it is too apparent their Doctrine concerns the things of this life and so properly the state of the bodies of men and for the nature and state of the soul they Know not being void and destitute of the wisdome of God such as have not the spirit Iude 19. and therefore Christ in the words following brings in that affirmation and sentence against them 38. 39. Behold your habitation is left unto you desolate for I say unto you yee shall not see me me henceforth till that ye say blessed is he that cometh in the Name of the Lord. In which words observe 1 First a serious affirmation in these words Behold your house is left unto you desolate 2 Secondly a reason thereof rendred in these words for ye shall not see me henceforth untill ye say blessed is he that cometh in the Name of the Lord. First observe in the affirmation a note of admiration and wonder that the wisdome of God should speak and expresse it self unto men and they not give Credit thereunto Behold saith he and wonder admire unto astonishment and destruction that the prophecie which hath foretold these things is fulfilled upon you Habba 1. 5. which the Apostle applies to a like act of the wicked Iewes where he saith Behold ye dispisers and wonder and vanish away Acts 13. 41. or perish for the reiection and neglect of the wisdome of God presented unto the world and uttered in Christ is the proper condemnation and destruction of the sons of men therefore the Prophet saith For I will work a work in your daies yee will not beleeve it though it be told unto you Here is then a description of the habitation and abode as the proper brood and nest of all false Interpreters in opposition to that which Christ gathereth his own people into And this devastation here affirmed to be the portion of all false Interpreters is the very same which is prophesied of all Christs Enemies Psalm 69. 26. and is in particular applyed unto Iudas Iscariot that Confessor for hire Acts 1. 20. as his name signifies or man that praiseth the wayes of death as all such do to declare unto us that deceitfull treacherous and perfidious spirit as also that horrid destruction which ever attends the false interpretation of the Word of God which ever bereaved men of all Office and Apostleship of all Vertue and Operation of all holy Ministry and Service yea of all Life Spirit and Power that appertains to the House and Kingdom of God therefore Iudas is said to go to his own place as one estranged from that place and inheritance of the Son of God Acts 1. 25. So that this desolation and depopulation of the habitation of the wicked is the fulfilling of it with death and destruction and with all wickedness and abomination as in Simon Magus who valued the gifts of the Spirit of God according to an earthly estimation which is ever accompanyed with a destructive and perishing condition Acts 8. 20. For it is that unclean spirit which goeth out of the Man or out in a human manner in the things of God walking through dry places barren of the distillations of the Spirit of God seeking rest but hath none to give and therefore never finds it for the Spirit of Christ doth as truly gives rest as receives it But this unclean spirit consulting with it self preacheth a return to his house out of which he came that is he came out of the house of uncleanness and thither he returns for as the holy Spirit of Christ comes or proceeds out of a pure and uncorrupted Fountain as it descends from the Father yet as the spirit of man is in unity therewith there is a real separation and sanctification from uncleanness and all impurity which otherwise man naturally is therefore Christ is truly said to be made in us Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemtion 1 Cor. 1. 30. Even so that Spirit of man going out in the matters of God by human wisdom in that respect goeth