one spirit which is that One Boundless Infinite and Eternal Spirit of the Father that like the wind bloweth where it lifteth and we may hear the sound and tasste the operation of it in us Joh 3.8 but know not whence it cometh nor when it will work but cometh and goeth when it pleaseth and not in the least when men will they have no command of that free and good spirit It is onely this one spirit that makes the soul one with Jesus Christ therefore the Apostle witnesses if Christ be in you Rom. 8 11 he that raised up Jesus from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by that spirit that dwelleth in you this is that spirit that searches all things and tries all things even the hidden things of God 1 Cor 2.10 this is that living spirit that blows upon the dry bones the spirit of the four winds that blows upon the dead and rotten bones Ezek. 37.4 and the blowing of this spirit brings sinew to sinew bone to bone and this makes them live and stand up before him and there is nothing else but this spirit that doth it there is nothing can be conjoined with it However men may say and keep a great deal of busling about the power of man that so it may not be said there was any to help him yet I say it is the spirit of God alone that draws man to Jesus Christ that it may not be said that his Idol hath done it for otherwise the mouths of all would not be stopped Ibid. 48.5 Rom. 3.19 Zach. 2.13 and all flesh would not become silent before him Neither would it be said that the Saints rejoyce in nothing else but in the Lord Jesus alone Obj. But I know it will be objected Oâ—bj though God doth thus and he onely draws the soule to Jesus Christ yet this is not done without means and instruments Answ First Answ truly I grant it is so but the wayes of God are like himself infinite and he is infinitly wise and his wayes are past all the thoughts and imaginations of the hearts of men for eye hath not seen Rom. 11.33 1 Cor. 2.9 nor ear heard nor is the heart of man ever able to finde out the secret wayes of the Lord. Secondly God hath not onely determined a thing but determined also by what power and instruments and means he will bring it to passe but in this it is otherwise with God then with man Man may propose a means to an end that is weak and may faile but God never intends and purposes an end but the means is as infinite as himselfe and as eternal and omnipotent as himselfe so that his meanes cannot faile he speaks and it shall and must come to pass 'T is true God hath ordained the means by which he brings men to Jesus Christ Psal 33.9 but this means is hiw own power and spirit and strength Obj. But thou wilt say Obi. Is it solely by himself alone without an Organ and Instrument is there not something subordinate Answ Truly the workings of God have alwayes a subject wherein to be manifested Answ as in man there is the soule which is the Recipient and subject in which the things of life and death are acted there is usually an Organ And how should they hear without a Preacher Rom. 10.14 yet both the Organ and the Preacher are empty dead things And if I or any man in being exercised about the things of God should look upon our selves otherwise quite laying by all thoughts of power wisdom ability to do any thing but to be only as a Pipe or Cistern through which those divine things passe and no more we take that praise to our selves which is alone due to God Now though it be so I say that this Organ is but a dead thing through which the life of God passeth if we be any thing else in our message and speaking to you but as men that have denied our selves laid aside our own wisedome strength conceits and abilities and all the workings of our own heads if we be not dead to all things that so the Lord may speak through us then I may boldly say we are not those Instruments and Embassadours by which he entreats his people to be reconciled unto him 1 Cor. 3.6 Therefore be pleased to consider that place of the Apostle in 1 Cor. 3.6 I have planted and Apollo hath watered So then Paul may be called a Planter and Apollo a Waterer but doth he goe no farther nay saith he Neither is he that planteth any thing nor he that watereth any thing Vers 7 but God that gives the encrease thoug they may improperly be called PLANTERS and WATERERS yet neither is the Planter any thing nor the Waterer any thing So that it is clear it is no otherwise but thus It pleased God out of his own love and goodnesse to condescend so low as to speak the Words of Eternal Life mercy by us and to one another that men of the same Blood and Frailtie should become Instruments and no other in the hand of the Lord taking no glory to themselves in any thing onely to be as weak and fraile and dead Instruments whereby the Lord will speak out the Words of Eternal Life But this creature is to be considered as nothing at all neither is he that planteth any thing nor he that watereth but God is all therefore I say 1 Cor. 3.7 till it be so with us that we are dead to all our own wit and reason and all our understanding till these are killed and dead and we stand onely waiting upon the Lord as Habakkuk saith Hab. 2.1 Hab. 2.1 I will stand upon my watch and set me upon the Tower and will watch to see what he will say unto me and what I shall answer I say when the soule is thus dead and silent to his own wit to his own selfeseeking to all his own opinions of wisdom or strength or parts I say there is no man which is a true Prophet or a Messenger from God till then For all the Prophets and Embassadours from God come thus qualified and they are not ashamed thus to shame themselves and to be as nothing in the eyes of themselves and others that so the Lord alone may be lifted up and exalted in them And when God appears thus in the poor dead Organ then usually God works in them and by them For saith the Apostle We have this treasure in earthen vessels 2 Cor. 4.7 God useth Organs and Instruments but there is no Efficiency in the Instruments for notwithstanding all that I can say and speak if the eternal sense and mind of the spirit be not at the back of it and goe home with it it will be but a Parable a History and a Paradox to you Mat. 13.11 Saith Christ to you it is given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom So then
the corner it is rejected and laid by even by those that account themselves Master builders and this is the Lords doing and it s marvailous in our eyes Again another ground why the souls of men come not to Christ Reas 3 is because the appearing of Christ in the spirit makes all the hidden things of mans heart lie open even that which man himselfe never saw nor never thought was in him and this man hates and will not abide to see nor behold that depth of pride that selfe-glorying hypocrisie c. and taht bottomlesse pit of misery mans eye never looked into himself into his own heart but in the day of the appearance of Jesus Christ all this is discovered and laid open therefore man would by no means come to Christ because the appearing of Christ discovers his sin and condemnation man loves his own life skin for skin and all that a man hath will be give for his life but he that loseth his life shall find it Job 2.4 Mat. 10.39 John 3.19 therefore our Saviour tells us plainly that this is the câ—ndemnation that light is come into the world and men love darkness rather then light because their deeds are evil for he that doth evil hateth the light neither comes to the light lest his deeds should be made manifest that they are evil So here the ground is rendred why the Gospel is Condemnation to the sons of men the Gospel brings light but men resist it hate it Certain it is that the light of Christ is in every creature for he is the true light that enlightens every one that come into the world Joh. 1.9 Mat. 6.23 And if this light that is in us be darkness how great is that darkness Here is the condemnation of all the sons of men that they dare not stand in the light of Christ not being able to behold hell in their own hearts but labour by all means to cover it for the light of Christ would shew them that there is no thought action or duty or performance that ever they did that had any thing of purity in it but it was all sin Now man not daring to see his own misery therefore he runs from this light and gets himselfe behinde any tree He runs from the appearance of him that sits upon the Throne and so resolves he will not see his own misery death and condemnation Rev. 6.16 neither will he believe it though he be told it by an Angel from Heaven he will not come to the light lest thereby he may know or be convinced that his deeds are onely evil Againe this is the work of the Father to draw men unto Christ because no lesse then infinitness and Eternity is able to bring God and man together the separation between God and man is so vast and they are at such an infinite distance since his fall that nothing but Infinitness can bring these two infinite ends together for the soul of man in one sin sins against an infinite God in any one sin it goes out and turns away from the infinitnesse of all blessednesse good joy glory and peace and so goes down into the infinitness of nothing for nothing is a kinde of infinitness and he is indeed gone into a far Country Luk. 15. 13. as the Prodigal was now therefore nothing but the infinite powers and infinite wisedome and strength that is in the Lord is able to bring life out of death something out of nothing therefore there is nothing to bring the heart of man out of that far country wherein to it is gone and out of that bottomless pit into which is is fallen nothing can do it but infinitness and eternity 2 Cor. 4.14 nothing but the same spirit that raised up Jesus Christ from the dead can quicken our mortal bodies there is nothing I say able to do it but the same spirit to bring a poor soul from hell and condemnation and make it one in unity with the spirit And therefore the Apostle witnesses Eph. 2.13 you that were aliens hath he made nigh by the blood of Christ Eph. 2.13 and you that were sometimes afar off hath he made near by the blood of Christ So now I hope this appears a truth to you and I hope the Lord will make it so in you by experience till then it is not a savour of life unto life for except you have the Scriptures made good in the power thereof in your own hearts what are the Scriptures to you And I have alledged them for that very end that you may finde and say These things are all fulfilled not only among the Jewes and at Jerusalem but really and truely in my selfe So then I hope some of you see it is the alone power of the Father that draws the soules of men unto Christ otherwise no man can come unto him But give me leave yet a little farther for the clearing it and explaining it by the way What this power of the Father is or how the Father doth draw or bring the soules of men unto Christ God is said to be a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth Joh. 4.23 God is nothing but life glory and power spirit and immortality and whatsoever thing we could have a notion or similitude of that is able to set out strength and life and glory and wisdom yet all these come infinitly short of setting out the strength and power of the Lord of Hosts the great Jehovah who is Psal 121.5 he that keeps Israel Psal 121.5 he that keepes Israel neither slumbreth nor sleepeth so that is is to be cleared what power it is that brings the spirits of men unto Jesus Christ Certainly there is nothing but the same eternal spirit that was in Jesus Christ it is the same immortal and immediate hand and power of God that doth ever raise up the soule of man and bring it unto Christ and nothing but that spirit only and therefore from hence is that of the Apostle that no man can so much as say that Jesus is the Lord but by the holy Ghost 1 Cor. 12.3 Joh. 3.5 and except a man be born of water and the spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdome of God for t is all one and t is wrought by one and the same Almighty Spirit to say that Jesus is the Lord by the spirit and to be born of the spirit for man to say confess so ten thousand times if he do not feel him to be the Lord and the Almighty in him all his confessions in words are nothing And by one spirit saith the Text ye are all baptized into one body even the whole body and they all testifie one and the same thing that there is but one spirit 1 Cor. 12.13 Eph. 4.4 one Lord one Faith one Baptisme one God and Father of all Eph. 4.4 and they have all been made to drink into
Attendants except by a Shop-keeper who seemed his Companion I doubt he scarcely discerns the cunning juglings of Romish JESUITES And I am sure he understands not Satans jugling in his own brest who hath bewitched him that he doth not obey the truth but oppose it Poor Creature he can see and discern others to be evil and wretched without him but knows not the familiar spirit in his own bosome that deludes and deceives him He saith this habit of sin is destroyed but tells not in whom where how far nor in what respect it is destroyed no alas all that must be understood by the Readers for he understands none of them at all It had been his part to have shewed how farre sinne as it is inherent in us by nature and habitual by exercise and custome is destroyed or annihilated doth there no relicts nor remnants of it remaine in a beleever what was that Law that Paul found in his members rebelling against the Law of his mind Rom. 7.23 and bringing him into captivity to the Law of sin was all sin both Original and Habitual destroyed ad killed in him If we say we have no sin 1 Joh. 1.8 we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us And whereas he saith the Habit of Learning is not in the lest diminished much lesse destroyed I answer that it is destroyed in the same manner and in respect that sin is Rom. 6.12 to wit that it should not reign in our mortal bodies that we should obey it in the lusts thereof so is Learning destroyed that it should not reign in the sanctified soul nor take place of the divine teachings of the spirit of truth but be kept under and so be destroyed And I am sure the Apostle Saint Paul had more learning then this Armiger and yet in him it was so kept down and destroyed that he came not unto the Corinthians in the wisdom of mens words lest the Crosse of Christ should be made of none effect 1 Cor. 1 1â— And is not mans wisdome or learning destroyed according to the meaning of the Holy Ghost when it is made foolishnesse Cor. 3.1 If any man seem to be wise let him become a fool that he may be made wise and thus if the man had been blind indeed he had had no sin but he saith he sees Joh. 9.41 and therefore his sin remains Secondly he urges that the whole man with all his endowments is sanctified as 1 Thes 5.23 24. 1 Thes 5.23 c. c. And then concludes that either Learning must be sanctified or something remains unsanctified A wondrous learned Conclusion and sure it is with him a great absurdity to say that something remains unsanctified doth not some sin remain and can sin ever be said to be sanctified Therefore I plainly affirm that something remaines unsanctified and because it is a mystery to the man I shall a little open it There is mention made in the scripture of a double or two-fold man first the new man which after God is created in righteousnesse and true holinesse and this is the immortal seed of the second Adam that sins not but is sanctified throughout Secondly there is the old man Eph. 4.22.24 or the body of sin from the first Adam which is corrupt according to the deceivable lusts and this is to be put off and destroyed is never sanctified but must be burnt up with unquenchable fire and humane learning is the wisedom of this old man which is earthly sensual and devilish and must be put off and destroyed And the Scripture he alledgeth doth not say that the work of sanctification is done but in doing faithful is he that calleth you who also will do it Thirdly he saith that acquired Learning of it selfe and of its own nature is not sin and thinks he proves it by saying sin is a transgression of the Law and then supposeth no Law forbiddeth learning and asks where it is written Thou shalt not be learned c. I answer that still he is besides the limits of the Question for we are not disputing whether a man may be learned or not learned but whether acquired learning in a Theological respect as it is ignorant of the mystery of the Gospel be sin or not and in this respect I must tell him that it is a transgression of the Law of God and declared to be sinful and though it be not written Thou shalt not be Learned yet it is written that the wisdom of the flesh is emnity against God and is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be and it is undeniably true that whatsoever is emnity against the law of God and is not nor can be subject unto it is a transgression of it From whence the Argument lies thus All the wisdom of the flesh is enmity against God But all acquired learning is the wisedome of the flesh Ergo All acquired learning is enmity against God The Major is the clear words of the Text Rom. 8.7 Rom. 8.7 If the Minor be denyed it is proved thus The greatest knowledge that man by acquisition can attain unto must needs be the wisdom of the flesh But humane learning is the greatest knowledge that man by acquisition can attain unto Therefore humane learning must needs be the wisdom of the flesh nay doth not the Text tell us plainly that all the imaginations of mans heart are evil Gen. 6.5 and that continually and is not all humane learning the imaginations of mans heart Joh. 3.6 and therefore evil continually And is not that which is born of the flesh flesh and flesh and blood shall not inherit the Kingdom of God for to be carnally minded is death and is not all humane learning born of the product of flesh and so lusteth against the spirit and is therefore sinful and accursed Farther he saith And sure were learning either in it self sin or lesse unsanctified in a sanctified heart we should not finde the Apostle Paul giving thanks for it in 1 Cor. 14.18 1 Cor. 14.18 I thank God I speak with tongues more then you all c. What consequence is there in this may we not give thanks for things that are sinful many things are good as they come from God but made sinful in us and by us and may we not give thanks unto God for them seeing he gave them to us as they were good not as they were sinful Our affections desires and senses are all good as they are given to us of God but we exercising them in sin lusts may we not give God thanks for them because it is our faults that have made them sinful If Learning were plac't where it ought and mov'd not above its own sphere it were one of the greatest blessings that man enjoyes in this fraile life and is onely condemnable in a relative sense as it will intermeddle with the things of God and yet when
1 Cor. 12.13 whether they be Jews or Gentiles and have been all made to drink into one spirit I also bear witness to One Ordinance and One Administrator Mediator Redeemer and Intercessor which is the Lord Jesus Christ blessed for ever Joh. 14.6 who is the way the truth and the life and no man comes to the Father but by him and it is HE that is ordained Acts 10.42 to be Judge of quick and dead by the Father and there is no name given under Heaven Acts 4.12 by which men can be saved but the name of Jesus neither is there salvation in any other for there are diversities of gifts but the same spirit and there are differences of Administrations 1 Cor. 12.4 5 6. but the same Lord and there are diversities of Operations but it is the same God which worketh all in all And I witness that it is Jesus Christ only by his spirit that makes men Able Ministers of the New Testament not of the Letter 2 Cor 3.6 but of the Spirit And do all teach and speak in and from the power of that spirit as IT is pleased to give them utterance And therfore all those that claim an Ordination by man or from man that speak from the spirit of the world from wit learning and humane reason who preach for hire Jer. 23.1 Ezek. 34.2 Zach 11.17 Joh. 10.1 and make merchandise of the souls of men I witness they are all Baals Priests and Idol-Shepherds who destroy the Sheep and are Theeves and Robbers who came not in by the door of the Sheepfold but climbed up another way And are the Magitians Sorcerers Inchanters Micah 5.12 Soothsayers Necromancers and Consulters with familiar spirits which the Lord will cut off out of the land 2 Tim. 3.8 9. so that his people shall have no more Soothsayers And as Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses so doe these resist the Truth men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning the faith but they shall proceed no farther for their folly shall be manifest to all men as theirs also was woe unto them for they have gone in the way of Cain and ran greedily after the errors of Balaam for reward and perished in the gainsaying of Core Jud. 11.12 13. These are spots in your feasts of charity when they feast with you feeding themselvs without fear Clouds they are without water carried about of winds Trees whose fruit withereth without fruit twice dead plucked up by the roots Raging waves of the Sea foaming out their own shame wandring Stars to whom is reserved the blackness of Darkness for ever And now Brethren I commend you to God and to the word of his grace Act. 20.32 which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all them that are sanctified Mind and give heed to that meek stil quiet and silent spirit of the Lord Jesus that is in you which is Pure Holy Innocent Underfiled and Righteous teaching and leading into all truth righteousness and purity like it selfe unto which if you give heed as unto a light shining in a dark place it will preserve and present you spotless and without blame before him whose eys behold no iniquity which that the Lord may fulfil in his due time in you is the Continual prayer of him who is Yours in the bonds of Love in the Lord Jesus Jo. WEBSTER To the Reader THe Author of these ensuing Sermons being cast by providence upon some imployment in the Lords work in this great City was much Carried forth in his ministration to set up the LORD JESVs in the Hearts of men in opposition to all that is of flesh and all that is of man which caused many out of an impatient spirit to distaste the things that were delivered But many that heard him being inwardly acquainted with what was spoken by him were very desirous to have that published for the benefit of all which they themselves had the happinesse to receive from his own mouth apprehending it to be the Bridegroomes voyce in him and therefore savory to them He being now at a great distance from the Presse and not in a capacity of overseeing that which the Transcriber may have failed in the Reader is therfore desired not to mind the manner of delivery but the matter of that which is here presented wherein if single-hearted he will doubtlesse finde a lively Discovery of many sweet Breathings of the spirit of Jesus Christ from One that appeares to have been long inwardly taught of God and that wholy laid aside all those Humane advantages wherewith he was and is plentifully furnished that he might commend his Message unto the hearts and consciences of men Not with enticing words of mans wisdome but in demonstration of the spirit and of power Vpon which account and no other what follows is recomended to the perusall of all that desire to benefit by what they read by Him that Teacheth to profit Thine In the service of our most holy Faith JOHN CARDELL JOSHUA SPRIG ROBERT BACON TO THE READER Dear Friends HAving obtained the sight of these ensuing Sermons and read some of the matter therein contained they yeilded such a rellish and savour to my Spirit that I could not choose but set to my Seal that it flowed from that spirit which is both pure peaceable which I do not to praise the person or the matter for to man there is none due and to the matter there is none needful because it is Truth and therefore needs not the shelter approbation or praise of men being in it self able to win praise to it self and to carry forth it self against all the oppositions of men or Devils Here thou shalt not find Terms of Art nor quirks of humane Learning and FALLEN Wisdom though the party through whom it was conveied excel in natural aquirements as much as the most but naked truth declaring it self through an earthen vessel in simplicity and plainnesse of speech evidencing thereby that our faith ought not nay doth not stand in the wisdome of mens words but in the power of God And hereby thou mayest see if thou be not blind in the carnal conceits of thy earthly wisdom as most of the Earthen Saints of our times are what self-denial is wrought in this Creature through which the Eternal Spirit hath breathed forth these ensuing precious truths that he having and enjoying all those humane Excellencies of Learning and knowledge which are so in the worlds account and lookt upon as helps to understand the things of God but used to help those that have them to worldly honour and preferment which indeed is the onely use is made of them and no other whatever is otherwise pretended but He in the height of this wisedom is made to become a fool for Christs sake and is willing to lose all honour dignity and preferment that the world and the wisdome thereof can confer upon him that he may enjoy
to all these devilish deceits that your soules might come to live in him who is Truth it selfe And then you would not onely be professors but possessors of that Eternal love which would lead you into the truth and goodnesse in sincerity But because this friend of truth will not nor cannot own your outside worship he having by Gods power found the deceit thereof he is therefore by you cast out as a Heretick and so are all those that in truth and uprightnesse of heart are led and acted forth by God to work his own works for Wisdom is justified of her Children The second thing that is breathed forth in this book is this that as Christ is the Foundation so he alone it is that doth build upon this Foundation that building that will stand when all other shall and must fall and not only so but he likewise begins the work of his own power in every particular soule and carries on the same with his own hand in despight of all opposition causing flesh and all the power thereof to fall down before his face into death misery judgment and condemnation where all the glory of the first creation is seald down under the covenant of death never to rise again in its own strength power wisdom nor righteousnesse but if ever it rise again it may rise in the power wisdom and righteousnesse of Jesus the Eternal Son of the living God And thus God exercises his people under the administration of his power by bringing life out of death mercy out of misery fulnesse out of emptinesse strength out of weaknesse sufficiency out of insufficiency joy out of sorrow peace out of war and doth not break the bruised reed nor quench the smoaking flax until he hath brought forth judgment into victory and as he begineth and carrieth on his own work so also he it is and none but he that perfects it as saith the Apostle he that hath begun a good work will perfect it For it was the Eternal love of the Lord which by his Son planted the righteous seed in every soule of his and it is the same power and love that causeth it to grow in the spirit of man above all carnal power strength or policy for the pure seed shal reign till all its enemies be subdued and the spirits of those in whom it is perfectly redeemed from the Shrines and Vizzards of mortality Oh how it doth chear my heart to see our near and dear IMMANVEL springing forth unto the blind world in and through earthen vessels to the praise of the glory of Gods great grace who hath made us accepted in his beloved Therefore Reader if thou findest any of these workings in thy own soul then mayst thou know that they are no fictions but the real operations of Gods great power but if thou look not on them in the light of truth there will be no unity between thee and the party through whom they were uttered for he lives in the life of that which here is declared by words and if thou live in the same life and look upon them in the same light then will they be matter of rejoycing to thy soul but if thou look upon them any other way they will be nothing to thee but Parables and Riddles Thus hoping and knowing that God will make this work and every other work together for good to them that love him I commend thee to God and to the work of his grace Resting thy Brother and Companion in tribulation in the Kingdom and Patience of Jesus Christ THO. SOMERTON THE TITLES CONTENTS And TEXTS contained in this Book 1. THe Vail of the Covering spred over All Nations What it is and How removed with a Discovery of that Mountain of Fat things full of Marrow and Wine on the Lees well refined Delivered on a Publick Day of Thanksgiving the 23. of June 1653. at Alhallowes Lumbard street Upon ESA. 25.6 7. In this mountain shall the Lord of Hosts make unto All people a Feast of Fat things A Feast of Wines on the Lees c. In one Sermon 2. THe Builders of Babel confounded in their Language Being an Exposition by Mr. Webster at the end of a Disputation at Alhallows Lumbard street He being requested to dismisse the multitude with some profitable exhortation which was from Gen. 11. the nine first verses And the whole Earth was of one Language and of one Speech and it came to pass as they journyed from the East they found a Plain in the land of Shinar and they dwelt there and they said one to another Go too let us make brick and burn them throughly c. 3. THe Power of Divine Attraction or The Fathers great love in drawing poor Sinners unto his Son Delivered at White-hall On JOH 6.44 No man can come unto me except the Father which hath sent me draw him and I will raise him up at the last day In one Sermon 4. THe Cloud taken off the Tabernacle that the Israel of God may journey At Alhallows Lumbard street In two Sermons EXOD. 40.36 37 38. And when the Cloud was taken up from over the Tabernacle then the Children of Israel went onward in all their journeys But if the Cloud were not taken up they journyed not until the day it was taken up c. 5. THe secret Southsayer or Hidden Sorcerer discovered At Alhallows Lumbard street In two Sermons MICAH 5.10 11 12 13. And I will cut off the Cities of thy land and throw down all thy strong holds I will out off Witchcrafts out of thine hand and thou shalt have no more Southsayers Thy graven Images also will I cut of and thy standing Images out of the midst of thee c. 6. THe rooting up of every plant not planted by the Heavenly Father Delivered at Alhallows Lumbard street In two Sermons MATTH 15.13 14. Jesus answered and said Every plant which my Heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up Let them alone they bee blind leaders of the blind and if the blind lead the blind both shall fall into the ditch 7. THe Saints perfect freedom or Liberty in Christ asserted in opposition to all yoaks of bondage At Alhallows Lumbard street In two Sermons GALA 5.1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us Free and be not entangled again with the yoak of bondage 8. IN the second of these last Sermons Mr. Webster was freely drawn forth to give that Testimony to Dr. Everards Sermons lately printed which is placed at the end of the Book and are all the Sermons can be expected of his there being not any more preserved Which are sould by R. Harford at the Bible and States-Arms in Little Brittain 9. LAstly hereunto is added A Responsion by Mr. Jo. Webster to certain pretended Arguments against his Book call'd The Saints Guide Reader THere are some few faults escaped at the Press some litteral others in some owrds mistaken but being only such as an
is that it may be removed from all people that others may see that which he sees and enjoy that which he enjoyes that Christ may be a mountain to them as he is to him a rock to them as he is to him a feast to them as he is to him And they can say truely and name this mountaine Jehovah-jireh onely in the mount of the Lord can this be seen Abraham could not sacrifice his Son till he came up into this mount once come in to this mountain then the soule can part with all things for the love of Christ nothing is so dear as Christ And this is the conclusion wrought by the Spirit in Abraham Jehovah-jireh saith he in the mount of the Lord it shall be seen there is no seeing any of these things nor there is no true feasting till we come into this mount of the Lord. What was that going up of Abraham to the mount Moriah think you In the truth of it it was no other thing but this his going up from himself and out of himself forsaking all things for this one thing and comming up to this mountain of the Lod where the Lord alone was all in all Beloved know this for truth there is no wisdome no rightousnesse no strength c. nowhere else but here In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen and nowhere else There is no self-denial no true repentance no conquering of the least sin no true peace no joy no love no wisdom but onely in this mount whatever men pretend that they are wise or holy and the like 't is all but deceit and a delusion till we come up to the Mount till this Vaile be removed we can never bind the strong man we can never cut off our right hands or pul out our right eye til then Matth. 29 30. we can never forsake our selvs we can never deny our own power wisdome and holinesse Here now is this mountain of strength here it was that Abraham staggered not through unbelief but was strong in faith giving glory to God Rom. 4.17.20 Here he 〈◊〉 and was fully perswaded that he that had promised was able to performe that though Isaac were sacrificed yet God was he who could quicken the dead and calleth things which are not as though they were Herein was Abraham the father of the faithful and Isaac the seed of many Nations and all the faithful are his seed in this And his going up to the Mountain is no other but what is done by all the faithful that litteral mountain was not the truth but onely the figure of this strong mountain Jesus Christ he is that mountain spoken of Esai 2.2 called there the mountain of the Lords house Esa 2.2 which shall be established on the top of the mountains and shall be exalted above the Hills and all Nations shall flow unto it Jesus Christ is that mountain who is unalterable unmovable unchangable never to be shaken nor never to be removed and to be established on the top of all mountaines above all the mountaines of man the mountaines of mans wisdome of mans righteousnesse which were esteemed by men never so high never so strong yet this mountain shall overtop them all and be established above all Beloved none come to know these things but those in whom they are wrought in whom the Vaile of the covering is removed men may pretend to these things and be very confident they enjoy them when indeed they are under the Covering to this very day This is that stone also that Daniel speaks of Dan. 2. which was cut out of the mountain without hands which smote the Image which was so terrible in the form thereof Dan. 2. he head being of fine Gold his brest and armes of Silver his belly and thighs of Brass his legs of Iron and his feet part Iron and part clay Now the stone cut out without hands smote this terrible Image and it self became a great mountain V. 25. and filled the whole earth However this may be applicable as by some it is to the outward Monarchyes in the world one succeeding and overcomming another yet all those things are but figures of the truth for those things are not done without hands but the truth is done in spirit whatever it is that men set up to shelter themselves under any form any religion to defend themselves from the wrath of God from the guilt of sin from seeing themselves odious with all their righteousnes and rags All things of that nature are Images and are such Images and so Terrible that no man is able to break them to peices 't is only The Stone cut out of the Mountain without hands can bring them down or break them to peices These Images are diverse and of several tempers and conditions some are of Clay that is some are of low rudiments poor and mean things that Men set up and rely upon and shelter themselves with all their good meanings and good hopes and the like and these may be esteemed but as the feet of this Image others goe higher and they depend up on things of more worth and strength that seem to be made of Iron they cloath themselves with moral vertues and put confidence in them and these they thinke will defend and save them But there are some that goe higher then all these and they pretend to cloath themselves with the garments of Jesus Christ himselfe and the graces of the Spirit and in these they glory and this glisters like Gold but it is not Gold and they seem to have faith but have not faith and love but 't is not love and patience but t is not patience c. And they are no other but Images and Idols upon which many men professing Religion and under the strictest formes and fellowships rely and shelter themselves under and think these will defend and protect them from hell and destruction and Gods wrath these things cover them and cover the wickednesse of their hearts that they cannot see themselves how vile they are how infinitly wicked in the sight of God Esay 30.1 these cover themselves with a covering but not with the Lords spirit Wo be to all such for these poor souls do most pitifully and miserably delude themselves these instead of putting on the rich and glorious robe of Christs righteousnesse doe cloath themselves with the stinking loathsome abominable and divelish righteousnesse of man I and they preferre it before the excellency of the Lord Jesus Christ and of these Christ himselfe saith verily such can never enter into the Kingdome of Heaven but Publicans and Harlots and the vilest of sinners shall enter into the Kingdome Matth. 21.31 when they shall be shut out For these are those that have put the stumbling block of their iniquity before their face as the Lord saith by Ezekiel and have set up their Idols in their heart Ezek. 7.19 14.4 c. and yet
he may be delivered from death and wrath Ezek. 20.43 1 Cor. 5.5 and that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord and that he may bring him to rest peace wisdom righteousness and glory in that alone and Aâ—sufficient Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ in whom alone are all these but in the creature nothing but trouble confusion death sinne hell and condemnation in which All the sonnes of men are concluded and all their best workes and Christ alone is ordained of the Father to be our strength wisdom righteousness redemption 1 Cor. 1.30 and salvation Him alone hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and Saviour to give repentance to Israel and forgivenesse of sins Him alone I say being made unto us wisedome righteousness sanctification and redemption 1 Cor. 1.29 That so no flesh should glory in his presence but according as it is written He that glorieth let him glory in the Lord and in the Lord alone THE Power of Divine Attraction or the Fathers great Love in drawing poor sinners unto his Sonne Delivered at Whitehall on the Sixth of John verse 44. No man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him and I will raise him up at the last day BEloved when the power of God from Eternity which was himself was made out in the appearance of flesh at Jerusalem when this eternal word I say was in that Vaile which was the making out of the true body of Christ when the Saviour of the world appeared in the flesh to make out himselfe to the Sonnes of men in all his actings and speakings we finde nothing else sought acted or spoken by him but the fulfilling and accomplishing of the work and will of the Father about which he was sent Joh. 6.38 and therefore whatsoever he did or said was onely that he might finish and accomplish that great work about which the Father had sent him therefore in that regard he said he had meat to eat that man knew not of John 4.32 understood not did not see And as he came to fulfil the work of the Father not onely in the flesh in those manifold and unparalleled sufferings he underwent but also in the power of that spirit that he might convey life and salvation to the soules of men this was his meat and drink so that this is it that in all his speakings he chiefly holds out so here he having declared that he was that bread that came down from Heaven that only true and spiâ—itual Manna which cometh down from Heaven Joh. 6 33. that nourisheth the soules of men and besides which there is none other Hereupon he holding forth this so boldly and so clearly the Jewes the scribes and Pharisees those Religious and learned men of the times not knowing the mystery of this bread became extreamly offended and despised and derided him saying Vers 41 Hew can this man give us his flesh to eat Truly Beloved that which is held out to us by this is That the Jew is in every man by nature and is discontented at the speaking out of the spiritual things of Jesus Christ When it is holden out that there is no other Wisdome Strength Righteousness and Holiness but that which is onely in and from the Son of God and that this is the only meat and drink of the soule And that there is not any one of the sonnes of men that hath either wisdom or holinesse or power or any good thing of his owne this is a hard saying to flesh and blood 1 Cor. 2.14 for the natural man receives not the things of the spirit of God neither indeed can he for they are spiritually discerned The Words now read are the answer of our Saviour to the murmuring objection of the carnall minded man or Jew saying how can this man be bread unto us or Manna or meat and drink Joh. 6.42 Is not this the Son of Joseph and the reason is because they saw onely the Vail but not the Godhead the eternity or everliving WORD that was under that Vail viz. his flesh or his external appearance Now he therefore gives an answer to this their murmuring and shews the reason and ground why it could not be otherwise with them that their carnal minds could do no other but murmur at these spiritual makings out of the minde of God Because no man could know him love him and believe in him but those that were given him of the Father those that were drawn by the spirit and love of the Father onely would understand love and beleeve and know him but otherwise all others they would nor could do no other but murmur and repine for all others in seeing they did see and not understand for their foolish heart was blinded and darkened with impenitency of heart therefore saith he no man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him First here is discovered by way of Negation and Exclusion the impossibility of man as man to come to Christ no man c. Secondly here is laid down the power way and means by which man comes on to Christ and that is in and by the drawing of the Father when the FATHER draws man cannot but come and when the Father draws not man cannot come unto Christ No man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him and I will raise him up at the last day as if he should say if he be not drawn and raised up by me he can never come and I never raise nor draw till the last day till mans day mans power wisdom strength holiness all that is in or of man is at an end and that he is lost distressed and undone Then at that last day I will raise him up I will come in and stay no longer for while mans day that is mans life wisdom and strength lasts there is nothing but resistance blindnesse fightings and oppositions First no man can come that is In his natural blind dead and lost condition wherein he is as a dead bone Ezek. 37. there is no life at all in him wherein he is stark blinde and sees not the things that concern his peace therefore he hath no will nor power nor mind to come unto me UNTO ME Luk. 19.42 who am the Saviour of the world the truth righteousnesse and Sactification it selfe to come unto me that is to ME indeed for men had power enough to come to Christs bodily appearance while he was on the earth but this is not the comming to him to come in conceit notion opinion or in a verbal or litteral way according to the History and relation of him But to come to Christ is to come in the life of Christ in the power of God to come unto him in the eternall power that HE may onely teach them lead them and guide them and be their onely Master that they may
know no Master no Father no Teacher no Leader nor no strength besides him Oh Beloved this is not to be done without the drawing of the Father or not but in a Fatherly way since he is the fountain of eternal love the Father or Fountain of love that hath made out his eternal Love himself in the similitude of flesh 2 Cor. 5.19 for God was in Christ saith the Text reconciling the world unto himself not imputing to them their trespasses It must be the love and good will of the Father made out to the soule that must call it and will draw it and cause it to come in to be at peace with him and be reconciled onely by his owne making out his love in Christ So I say this Eternal love that sent out Christ and that gives with Christ all good things it is the same eternal love and power Rom. 8.32 and everlasting goodness and good will of the Father that draws and brings the spirits of men unto Christ else they come not Draw them how is that with such a drawing as must be effectual As the Rain falleth not in vain but the earth bringeth forth fruit meet for them for whom it is appointed Heb. 6.7 So the eternal word and power of the Father made out through the flesh of Christ to the soul calls invites draws and works effectually and brings home the soul and this drawing of the Father is the eternal and everliving power of the Godhead or spirit that wonderfully draws the soules of men and when they are thus drawn they cannot but follow and being thus drawn by him this is the joy life wisdom and righteousness of the soule here it dwels rests recreates it selfe having lost its own life it lives and receives full satisfaction in the life and power and wisdom of Christ Then it is the office of the Son whom the Father hath sent to quicken it and raise it up at the last day and make it like himself even to sit together with him in heavenly places Eph. 2.6 The point I shall offer to your Considerations is this That the drawing of the Father only leads the souls of men unto Christ Doct. otherwise none can come unto him Before this truth can be beleived in us or be of benefit unto us it must become a truth of evidence and manifestation and experience in our hearts yet to witnesse this from the litteral word that this is truth you may be pleased to look upon a place or two yet they can make out nothing to us except the sam be made out by the eternal spirit in uâ— â—lse the word is but a dry tree a dead letter Cant. 1.4 The experience of the Spouse in Cant. 1.4 witnesseth the same draw me and we will run after thee her experience had known that the drawings and leadings of those cords and bands of love that are never to be broken in Jesus Christ the drawings of these bands of love only made her willing to go after that Husband Father and God of Loving-kindness and mercy otherwise man never comes nor is ever drawn but onely by these cords of his love Again the same is witnessed in Jer. 31 3. there he tells you because he had loved them Jer. 31.3 therefore with loving-kindness had he drawn them And in Hosea 11.4 he declares he had drawn them with the Cords of a man with the bands of love Hos 11.4 the soule finds it is onely the power of the Father the love of the Father that hath drawn him out of many waters as the Psalmist witnesses for David had found it so Psal 69. Ibid. 40.2 that he had delivered his soul out of the mire and horrible pit There is nothing but the eternal power of God that is able to draw a soul out of the deep and mierry pit in which it lies the drawing of the Father the power of the Father only draws men unto Christ otherwise they will not nor cannot come That this is so Divine truth witnesses and the experience of all Saints that men will not cannot do act or work nor come in unto Christ without this drawing First because Jesus Christ is not known and understood in the pretiousness excellency and value of him to the lost blind Reas 1 and carnal heart of man for man in this condition knows not the worth sweetness and excellency of him therefore man comes not unto Christ as David witnesses He looked down to see if any of the sons of men would seek after God Psal 14.2 but they are all gone out of the way there is none thath doth good no not one so I say man comes not to Jesus Christ because he is ignorant of that life glory righteousness and immortality that is laid up in him therefore the Apostle renders it as the reason why the Princes of the world Princes of learning and Princes in zeal and religion kild him why because saith he none of the Princes of this world knew him for had they known him they would not have crucified the Lord of life So I say the ground why our spirit comes not to Jesus Christ is that blindness and ignorance that is in the heart of man because he knows not the excellency and pretiousness of Christ As our Saviour said to the woman of Samaria John 4.10 Joh. 4.10 If thou knewest the gift of God and who it is that saith unto thee Give me to drink thou wouldest have asked of him and be would have given thee living water and so it was with Jerusalem Luk. 19.42 Reas 2. shee did not know the things belonging to her peace because they were bid from her eyes Again men cannot come to Jesus Christ because as he is the power of God and appears in the wisdom of God so he appears as folishness unto them and they disdaine him as a weak and mean thing as Isaiah faith in ch 53. v. 2. there is no form nor beauty in him why he should be desired Esa 53.2 as a root out of a dry ground he hath no form no comliness and when we shall see him there is no beauty that we should desire him he is despised and rejected of men a man of sorrows and acquainted with griefs and we hid our faces from him he was despised and we esteemed him not therefore the Apostle tells us 1 Cor. 2.14 the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God because they are foolishness unto him and are spiritually discerned and saith he in 1 Cor. 1 23. we preach Christ crucified 1 Cor. 1.23 to the Jewes a stumbling block to the Greeks foolishnesse so that man doth not will not nor cannot come to Jesus Christ because the spirit of Christ appears a poore despicable thing 1 Cor. 3.10 Psal 118.22.23 1 Pet. 2.7 and the heart of man is set against him and even that stone that is to be the head stone of
whether this way of man do not set him at a farther distance from his true rest for if man think he can come to Christ by any thing of himselfe by any Religious actions and performances then from this it must needs follow that he sees not his own weakness nor wickednesse nor there is no sin nor wickednesse nor misery made manifest unto him And he makes lyes his refuge Esa 22.15 and under falshood he hath hid himselfe and drawn way his heart from the living and eternal God to depend upon the lying and deceitful power and wisedome of man and digged to himselfe broken Cisterns Jer. 2.13 So that Secondly this will follow that this man hath made a Rock to stay himselfe upon for if thou thinkest that thy actions and performances will bring thee neerer unto God then other men or that any thing can draw thee neerer but the meer hand and spirit of the Father is not this I say to set up something against the power of the Father Is not this to set up errour against truth and darkness against light and Antichrist against Christ for here it is manifest that there is nothing but the power of the Father to draw men unto Christ Now seeing thou hast made Lyes thy delight and vanity thy trust see what is pronounced against thee for all thy confidence and strong opinions of thy safety and security Cursed is the man that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his Arm and whose Heart departeth from the Lord. Jer. 17.5 So I say this meerly leads man from a denyal of himself to a setting up of himselfe from a waiting and depending on the power of God to a depending and hanging on the wisedome and power of the flesh now when the soule has made experiment of this in it self to finde see and feele it really in his own heart that no hand drawes to the Father but the Spirit onely Oh then this will make the heart of man lament and say what a hard heart have I I cannot goe one step towards my Saviour Mark 10.51 this makes him cry out and say come Lord Jesus and open my blind eyes that I may receive my sight and thou Son of David haver mercy on me and there is none but thou alone can cure my leprosie and save my spirit or else I perish I perish for ever and this is that which makes man to have the true circumcision and to worship God in the Spirit Phil. 3.3 and have no confidence in the flesh Then if it be the Fathers power and spirit that onely draws men unto Christ Vse 2 Then neither man nor Magistrates can draw or drive them thither the work of the Father is his own work and he hath not substituted any other in his place for he will not give his glory to another neither suffer his holy name to be polluted Esa 42.8 Now if it be thus that unlesse the Father draw man unto Christ man cannot come then it must needs be lyes and vanity for any of the sons of men to take upon them and say they can and they must act something either to draw or drive men unto Christ we know this hath been the undertakings of all ages and times Joh. 16.2 but what was the fruit of it Under pretence of doing God good service they have shed the blood of the Saints that it might be fulfilled that not a Prophet perisheth OVT of Jerusalem Luk. 13.33 for still in all ages who have more persecuted the Gospel and the true Professours thereof then those who shew most Zeal and profession of it Christ and all the Prophets and Apostles and generally all the Martyrs have suffered upon this account that upon them might come all the blood shed upon the earth Mat. 23.35 Gal. 4.29 from the blood of the righteous Abel to this veâ—y day and that the bond-woman alwayes persecutes those that are from above Now I say for the Magistrates to say they can propagate the Gospel and keep back errours alas what is all of this nature but high presumption against the power and absolute Authority of Jesus Christ and taking the government of the Church out of his Hand and proclaiming themselves wiser then He But I shall but propose to these poor selfe-wise Creatures these one or two things Are they able to rule themselves and to keep errours out of their own hearts I suppose no man so ignorant of himselfe as to deny or affirm that he can the nature of man being so depraved that he cannot resist really one sin as it is sin And moreover is it not a truth that if the Lord watch not the City the watch-men watch in vain Psal 127.1 And yet thou that couldest not keep one sin out of thy own heart how canst thou undertake to watch over the Church of God and keep out Errours and Wolves that they come not in Alas poor ignorant man this is thy pride and the vanity of thy heart 1 Sam. 17 28. Psal 121.4 for 't is the Lord alone that keops Israel and he neither slumbereth nor sleepeth Againe dost thou not say that thou art a Christian if so then thou wouldst believe that he is a God Alsufficient I am God Alsufficient walk before me and be thou perfect Gen. 17.1 Is he alsufficieÌ„ntly Wise and Strong Holy Good Merciful c. then is not this the manifestation of thy absolute infidelity when thou thinkest he will not take care of his own Church Or else thou concludest thus if he be Wise enough yet he hath not Power enough and therefore thou must help him And is he not Alsufficiently Good and will he not take care of his own cause Never feare but he will I and take so much care Mat. 16.18 that the gates of hell shall never prevail against it And againe is it not said that it pleased the Father Col. 1.19 that in him should all fulness dwell And that in all things he might have the preheminence and saith he plainly Joh. 5.22 Mat. 28.18 Esa 9.6.7 the father judgeth no man but hath committed all judgement unto his Son And that all power in Heaven and Earth is given unto him And again to us a Son is given and the government shall be upon his shoulders And that of the Increase of his Government and peace there shall be no end upon the Throne of David and upon his Kingdome to order it and establish it with Iudgment and Iustice even for ever And that the zeal of the Lord of Hosts will perform this And againe Col 2.3 that all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hid in him Now is all the power of the father given into the Hand of Christ And have not we all said the Pope is not the Vice-roy nor Vicar of Christ and does not every man throw dirt upon him and yet we can get into the POPES place and sit in his seat
and say we are the Substitutes of Christ That which we deny him we take to our selves certainly all this is nothing else but hellish arrogancy and the pride of the man of sin and ANTICHRIST within us that exalts himself in us above all that is called God 2 Thes 2.4 that puts us into these wayes and to think that we can draw or we can drive to Jesus Christ when there is none can do this but meerly and solely that only and eternal power and spirit of the Father Thirdly if it be so as we have clearly proved and none dare deny it Use 3 neither can then the wisdome nor power nor strength nor any rules of Fellowships or Church-gatherings or any discipline of man draw nor drive others in but 't is onely the drawing and driving of the eternal power of the Fathers spirit It is true the Sons of Men may do and have done and do compass Sea and Land and what is it to doe to make a Proselyte and what then he is but twofold more the child of perdition then before Mat. 23.15 They may indeed gather men into Fellowships and Churches as they call them But to gather men into the spirit of the Lord Jesus this was never the work of man no strength nor power nor wisedome of man could ever doe it and without question every plant that the Heavenly father hath not planted Ibid. 15.13 shall be rooted up It is true and I grant there was some mention made of the Church and Churches in the times of the Apostles but what Churches were they They were no other but what were called by God himselfe in the power of his spirit and not of or by man Where do we read of this mans Church or the other mans Members but they were called the Church of God and not divided by those distinctions of vain-glorious self-seeking ambitious covetous men as they are in these dayes Nor did they Owne one another or had any relation one unto another in their love or esteem upon that account Note But they looked upon one another in what place soever as but one body and having all but one spirit meerly because thty were all baptized into One body by that One Spirit 1 Cor. 12.13 They did not know one another as they were of Paul and of Apollo of Cephas and this mans Church as they now call it But as they were all baptized by one Spirit and into one Body and as they were of one mind and of one spirit and so of one heart Heb. 12.13 and so brought to the general assembly of the Church of the first born And therefore we must conclude there is nothing that gathers or draws in the soul of man unto Jesus Christ but the everlasting power of God We know also men may worship at Jerusalem this way and that way and pretend to honour that Christ who died there and yet they doe but draw nigh to him with their lips Esa 29.13 but not with the spirit in truth but no man can do these things in the power of God nor so much as SAY that Iesus is the Lord but by the holy Ghost and by the power of Jesus Christ And be sure that every plant that my heavenly father hath not planted shall be rooted up From whence also lastly Vse 4 If the power of the Father only draws the spirit of man unto the Son and unto Jesus Christ then let every man look in and unto his own heart and see whether he doe not resist the drawing of the spirit Behold saith he I stand at the door and knock if any man hear my voice and open the door I will come in to him and sup with him Rev 3.20 and he with me enter but into thy own Chamber and be still and look into thy own brest and see whether thou be not daily and hourly resisting the Spirit of God that would draw man unto Christ didst thou but look into thy own heart thou shouldst find there was never any thought that did ever arise in thee to check or controle thee in thy evil wayes but that very thought was a light in thee if thou wouldst have heeded or regarded it And that light also did tell thee that all thy best actions were but sin and that all the wayes thou walkest in there is nothing but fear in them and death in them and misery in them And thy best and holiest services are an abomination There is a spirit within thee that is still troubling and checking thee for every proud and for every evil thought and what is this for 2 Cor. 8.2 onely to let thee see that thou art dead and reprobate to every good work and all thy deeds are evil and all that thou knowest thou knowest not as thou oughtest to know It is to let thee know that thou art naked and poor and blind and miserable It is to take away thy false strength and thy false wisedome and riches and to let thee see thy weaknesse and folly and poverty but this is thy onely misery and the general universal misery of all the sons of men that they dare not stand in the light and abide in it To abide in such a light which shewes that man hath not one good thought Psal 73.22 but is as a beast before God That he hath no holinesse nor no righteousnesse at all Now for thee so farre to presume and to think so highly of thy selfe that thou art of such abilities and wisdome and parts as to sit down at the head-end of the Table or because that thou hast gotten in thy own conceit into the best way of Religion for knowledge and practice and performances and therefore thou art Some-body and thou must be magnified and reverenced and for these men now to be brought back to look into their own hearts and see themselves as bad as the rest of the world and to see themselves the worst of men Oh Beloved what a mighty fall must these men have before ever God brings them into this condition which must be if ever they be brought or drawn home to Jesus Christ by the power of the Father And yet to adde to this besides all this thou hast gotten a covering for thy sins and hast wipt thy mouth and said thou hast done nothing when all thy wayes are nothing but resistings fightings and emnity against God Do not men resist him when they seek esteem to themselves and they must be great and respected and honoured what is all this but to rob Jesus Christ of his honour and steal it away to put upon themselves Oh that the power of God would but make men abide in the Center of their own hearts to see that there is nothing there but darkness nothing but folly in regard of God and Christ if man would but dwell and abide here to see himselfe lost and wretched miserable and undone then God would
of the subtile Serpent within him then followed Death Hell Misery and Condemnation then he sees his folly and madnesse in harkning to and giving way to this false Lyar who before told him he should better his condition and he should be like God himself And thus seeing and beholding his nakednesse his folly and misery he being not able to behold it nor live in the sight thereof for he is not able to behold the wrath of God and Hell-fire flashing in his face then he bethinks himselfe of some Covering some Shelter some Cloaths to cover his nakedness he is not able to behold his own condition and he invents a thousand wayes to shelter himself runs to this duty and that rule and he will find out somthing he will do something to quench the fire in him that is kindled by the breath of the Lord. And is not man in this more mad Esa 30.33 and more vain and more miserable For by all these things he doth but adde fuell to this fire for doth he think till one stronger then himself come even to be delivered Alas Luk. 11 22. thus are all the sons of men deluded but when Christ who is the true Mediatour comes when he sets up his light in man then he convinces him of his Emptinesse of his Weaknesse of his Nothingnesse and that he cannot arise Joh. 11.43 nor live without the loud and mighty voyce of the son of God quicked him when this light and life comes upon him then though he be naked in himself yet he is not ashamed but he standing in this condemnation all sin and darknesse and condemnation vanish before the glory of these heavenly things and come to nothing and empty themselves into their own nothingness that so the glory of Jesus Christ may come in the room thereof who is truth and life and fulness and perfection and all things But while man walks by the light of his own fire Esa 50.11 and in the sparks which he hath kindled he is holy and good and pure and excellent and great in his own sight and high in his own wisedome but when once he comes to be guided by the fire and light of the Tabernacle then he is a Miserable Empty Bare Beggerly thing nothing in him of Wisdom Power Glory Riches Goodnesse a meer naked empty and simple thing except he be made happy in the light of God and in the union with Jesus Christ wise in the wisdom of God and holy in the holinesse of God Here sayes the Apostle I permit not a woman to speak in the Church 1 Cor. 14.34 Ibid. 11.16 here let her head be covered that is let not man speak any thing in the Church in the presence of the Lord of his wisdom of his goodness of his upright walking but let Christ be all these in the Church There let all the Weaknesse and Womanishnesse of man come upon him and let him be covered with shame in the presence of this Bridgroom for t is a shame for a woman to speak in the Church let not her shew so much pride but let her ask her Husbad at home let him have all the glory Let not the Bride speak any thing of her riches of her beauty in the presence of her Lord but to see her selfe rich in his riches and glorious in his glory wise in his wisdom let her not meddle herein without her head be covered so that she sees she hath nothing of glory nothing praiseworthy nothing beautiful in her but that her head be perfectly covered with the righteousness riches and glory of Jesus Christ All the men in the world be they of what parts learning strength or excellencie can be named are but WOMEN in this respect and are to cover their heads in the presence of Christ in the Church of Christ In thy Temple every one speak of thy glory Psal 26.9 saith David If a Woman offer to speak in the Church this is but weaknesse this is but shame and confusion of face in the CHURCH what 's that think you without question the meaning of the Apostle is not to be taken Litterally of a material Church nor t is not meant of a Congregation of men or women assembled or congregated together as the wisest of men take it for this in the Scripture sense is not called A CHURCH much lesse in a low and vulgar acceptation of a meeting place built of bricks or wood or stone But the CHURCH is the Temple of God the House of God the Body of Christ in which the Lord discovers his Riches Glory Wisdome Bounty and the Treasures of Wisdome and knowledge and his everlasting power and goodness to the soules of Beleevers and in this Church where the Lord is present let not weaknesse discover its pride insolency or vain-boasting for this is the Church and this is the Woman that ought not to speak there Now this fire of the sanctuary is that which discovers all this Weaknesse Darknesse and Blindnesse in the soul when this light of God appears then all shadows vanish then all coverings are removed and all things in and of Man appear as they are to be nothing but Darknesse Deformity Delusion Lyes Confusion and Misery and God appears to the soul to be onely Light Life Happinesse and Perfection Gen. 2.25 and the soule is not ashamed to be thus naked because this makes way that God may have all the glory all the wisedome all the excellency and man may come to be nothing but sin and emptinesse Thus the soule comes with the Apostle to rejoyce in and to glory in his infirmities 2 Cor. 12.5 and that the power and wisedom of God is made perfect in his Weakness and Folly As a good Wife she is not ashamed to be as nothing in the presence of her Husband but rejoyces that He is esteemed and that he is made all in all to her So doth the true Spouse of Christ let her be nothing so He may be all for she acknowledges that she is only rich in her Husbands riches and wise in his wisdom and strong in his strength 1. Pet. 1.7 she sees she lives not by her own care and industry but in the love and care of her Husband and thus she glories not in her selfe but in her Husband This is to become NAKED and yet not ashamed as was Adam in his Innocency Rev. 3.17 2 Cor. 10 5. To have a poor sinner freely to confess to the glory of Christ Time was when I was rich and had high imaginations of my self and I was in my own esteem able to guide and rule and direct my self and all my affairs and I thought my selfe in a blessed and secure condition but I finde now that was nothing but a lye and a delusion But even then the meer love and tender compassion of my Saviour and Redeemer set up a candle and light in my soul whereby I was discovered to
be nothing but A sink of sin A body of death A bottomlesse pit of abominations Mark 4.21 Rom. 7.24 Rev. 9 2. that I was a fool and madness was in my heart in all I did And that he alone was goodness mercy power wisdom eternity salvation and Alsufficiency this he freely and with all readinesse acknowledgeth and this he is not ashamed to declare as those are that would be esteemed holy Ones but to tell it to all the world though all the wise and holy men of the world esteem him a foole and a madman yet this is his glory to take shame to himselfe But all your wise and righteous men all their contriving is to hide all their shame and they would be thought to be holy men and strict men and that they walk exactly and according to the rule of the word and this is their glory that others have this esteem of them they would not for a world be thought as vile and finful as others they hate that Jesus Christ should so far lay them open to the world and themselves Psal 56.8 Ezek. 8.11 What are they to come before the Lord and have no Goodnesse no Endeavours no Watchfulnesse no Bottles of Prayers to offer no sweet incense to offer no Duties thereby to think well of themselves this would be Death and Destruction and Desolation to them When God knows when once he will arise in them Psal 50 21. and set their sins in order then all their delusions and coverings will be removed and they made naked Then all their fine and neat contrivances to disguise themselves before God and men shall be rent and destroyed Joh. 9.39 when the Lord will arise and come to Judgment in their hearts then all their inward parts shall be laid open and what they have dâ—ne in secret shall be proclaimed upon the house top Mat. 24.15 When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the Prophet stand in the holy place whoso readeth let him understand then shall there be in those dayes great tribulation in them Luk. 8.17 Mat. 24.21 Mark 13.14 Luk. 21.25 and the Moon shall not give her light and the Stars shall fall from Heaven and the powers of the Heavens shall be shaken Then he that is on the house top shall not come down to take any ting out of his house he shall not go down to fetch any of his Riches or Gold or Silver none of his fine utensils for worship none of his fine and workmanlike duties none of his strictnesses none of his holy walkings he is stript of all left naked and how are their houses left unto them desolate in one moment Babylon in them is fallen is fallen and shee that said in her heart I shall sit a Queen and am no Widow and shall see no sorrow therefore shall her plagues come upon her in one day Rev. 18.2 c. death and mourning and famine and she shall be utterly burnt with fire for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her Then is the houre of Judgment come and the Lord will arise and nothing can hinder or stand before him This will be a miserable day to these men a day of blackness and gloominess and thick Clouds the Sun turned into darkness and the moon into blood A deluge of wrath is now irresistibly comming upon them and then the Heavens shall be rolled together as a scrole and the earth shall melt with fervent heat and all their works burnt up 2 Pet. 3.10 Then from hence we may conclude that at that day all men even the wisest men of the world will be at their wits end to cover and hide themselves from the wrath of the Lamb and from him that sits on the Throne Rev. 6.16 Then all those Merchants of Babylon shall lament for her That their Whore their Strumpet with whom they have all their dayes committed fornication is made desolate c. their trade of Religion is quite overturned Mich. 3.11 those that made Merchandise of the Word and Preacht for money and for hire and to get bread or to make themselves great and to that end got into forms and duties and fellowships that men might have high thoughts of them and made long prayers under pretence and to grow rich by devouring widows houses Mat. 23.14 and yet these things these pretences these prayers and duties they heap to themselves thinking they may please God with them and these things as foule and abominable as they be they think to be a goodly sacrifice But when this day comes that the Lord will arise and plead his own cause all these things will stand in no stead all their works must be burnt up then he will remember how these foolish men blasphème his name Psal 74.22 23. Psal 74.22 23. And if they should bethink themselve wherewithal to come before the Lord and to offer thousands of Rams and ten thousand Rivers of Oyle nay if they give the fruit of the Body for the sin of their Soul Micah 6.7 all were to to no purpose For the Father the Eternal Majesty of Heaven can be pleased with nothing but that One Eternal and Alsufficient sacrifice the blood of his own dear Son For men to call themselves Christians and Saints and for others to esteem them so is a poor covering now in this day it will not cover their nakednesse The bed is too short to stretch themselves on it and the covering is too narrow they cannot cover nor wrap themselves in it Esa 28.20 T is not all their fellowships and Congregatings nor washings nor External eatings and sitting down with Christ at his Table nor their Perswasions that they do the mind of God and conform exactly to the rule and letter of the word All things of this nature is but of man Phil. 3.19 and they glory in their own shame Thou dishonourest thy head Christ to pray or prophesie and thy head not BARE if thy self be not stript naked t is a dishonour to Christ who is the head of the Church for all honor all praise all wisdom all goodness all righteousnesse is Christ's crown and no creature is to wear that Crown but himself alone If thou takest these or any part of these which are due alone to him thou makest Christ ashamed he is dishonoured for there is no Goodnesse no Love no Beauty no Life but onely in the Son of God and whatever is in him is his for the Church not that they enjoy it in themselves but in him all glory be to him and all shame and confusion upon themselves and hereby is their head magnified Christ alone is their Covering their Righteousnesse their Wisedome their Redemption their Saviour their Beauty they have no shelter no hiding place but in him Those that are ashamed thus to acknowledge and confess him before men Mat. 10.32 he will be ashamed to confess them
but the Apostle tels us of another Ruler and Teacher As many as are Christs are led by the spirit of Christ Rom. 8.14 Acts 17.7 And in the Acts it is said the Apostles would have gone into Bithynia After they were come to Missia they assayed to goe into Bithynia but the spirit suffered them not for they found trouble and opposition there was the Lord leading of them and guiding of them otherwise they did not set a foot forward their eye was still upon the Lord so till the cloud be removed from over the Tabernacle the soule will finde nothing but trouble and destruction if it goe onward and the Lord hath not discovered the light of the Tabernacle and himselfe goe before it Then in the first place this discovers to us that there are usually two things in the way of Christ which oftentimes in the world are mistaken and taken one for another there are I say the heavenly things themselves and there are the Patterns of them now the Pattern is not set forth for it selfe but in reference and Relation unto the thing of which it is a pattern And a copy or exemplar it is not for it selfe but in relation to what we should act imitate or doe by it so there are the heavenly things themselves and the patterns or types or similitudes of them Take speciall notice of these two things Now we shall finde it apparent if we consider it that the world hath alwayes been quick-eyed to see the one but not at all to discern the other The world and especially the great professours of Religion have been quick-sighted to discern the form pattern and similitudes of Heavenly things and there they have been satisfied But I say to find feel and enjoy and to live in the Heavenly things themselves Heb. 9.23 Col. 1.26 1 Joh. 7.6 this is that Mystery that hath been hid from ages and Generations your time that is the time of the flesh is always But My time that is the time of Christ is not always as to man though always as to God I say the world in all Ages could never be found to be without living upon and in the patterns forms and shapes of Heavenly things according as they fancied but to find the sons of men living in under and by the power of Heavenly things themselves that is the Mystery that hath I say been hidden from ages and generations as Paul saith We all find the Jews in the time of Moses they all lived under the Law in that form they all saw the outward form of the Tabernacle had a reverent esteem of that and there rested And so how many are there now who rest on the outward forms of washing and dipping these I take to be the Familists the world so much hates and talks of for they are all of this Family and Society and herein lies so far as I can see their Church-membership which they so much Idolize And for all this how few are there of them that are of the inward assembly of the Saints that are come to the general assembly of the Church of the first born which are written in Heaven they are come and are brought but only to the mount that may not be touched and that burneth with fire Heb. 12.18 22. and unto blackness and darkness and tempest How many of them I say are these that are brought to Forms Fellowships and Washings which as they are used produce nothing but blackness and darkness and fire and Tempest not into the Unity of that one Spirit But Onely to be baptized with Moses in the Cloud and in the Sea 1 Cor. 10.1 c. Ps 95.11 Heb. 3 17.18.19 for with many of them saith the Apostle God was not well pleased whose Carkasses fell in the Wilderness And the Text saith they entred not into his Rest but were overthrown in the Wilderness because of unbelief Now we shall finde no age in the world where the people have wanted their forms of things in one kind or other but ye shall hardly find any age wherein people have lived under and upon the Heavenly things themselves How many patterns and similitudes have the Papists in their Church the Pope himself in imitation of Christ can wash the feet of twelve Pilgrims once in the year and fares it any better with those that call themselves members of other Churches to be only Apostles in imitation some have one pattern some another one thinks he hath the true Baptisme because he hath the similitude and pattern of spiritual Baptism which was then by some used by way of dipping in water Another hath the pattern and similitude of eating Christs Body and drinking his Blood in their breaking of Bread which was but the type of the Heavenly bread that was the Body of Christ But Christ saith Joh. 6.53 except a man eat his flesh and drink his blood he hath no life in him How many Churches partake of the patterns and shadows and whatever they say they conclude from thence they are the Church of God because say they we have the right use of the Sacraments which is a sign of a true Church because they have the patterns types and shadows observing onely outward rules forms and carnal ordinances which all perish with the using wherefore Col 2.20 if ye be dead with Christ from the Rudiments of the world why as though living in the world are ye subject to Ordinances yet impudently and blasphemously wil they dare to say they are not Church of Man but of God when they know not the mystery nor live according to the power of the Heavenly things themselves and therefore herein that Scripture comes to be fulfilled that men shall have a form of godliness 2 Tim. 3.5 but deny the power of it for the one may be where the other is not and the Apostle tells us That he is not a Jew that is one outwardly but he is a Jew that is one inwardly Rom. 2.28 29. whose circumcision is of the heart and spirit whose praise is not of men but of God So from hence it is clear many Churches and many hundred thousands of souls may have an exact pattern and yet want the Heavenly things themselves they may have the pattern as the Jews had that were sanctified and washed only with the Blood of Bulls and Goats but to have the Heavenly things themselves viz. that Lord Jesus Christ the Lord of life and to have the Purifications and Sanctifications that are onely by his blood this they are strangers to This is the spiritual and living fire and where ever it is in the soul of man it cannot but break forth to the destroying of all things of man and flesh and magnifying and exalting all things of the Spirit of God So that hence it is clear that it would be the wisdome of the sons of men to see whether they have the heavenly things themselves and
must needs be wavering and unstable like the waves of the Sea and still casting up mire and dirt while thou seekest any refreshment in the patterns themselves whatsoever pattern thou canst imitate or build upon that is made by hands and be sure God dwels not in them for saith the Apostle Acts. 7.43 Ch. 17.24 25. â— he dwels not in Temples made with hands neither is he worshipped with mens hands as though he needed any thing seeing he gives breath and life and being and motion unto all Whatever Tabernacle or Temple man builds they are but like man they are fading and perishing Mark 13.2 Heb. 12.23 and there shall not one stone of them be left upon another but when the soule comes to the true assembly of the Saints to spirits of just men made perfect to the spiritual Manna and to the Heavenly Jerusalem to the true Tabernacle Jesus Christ and eats that Manna that doth not perish but is meat indeed and life indeed then t is silled and satisfied and never before So that while the soule is seeking after a life and to get food in the pattern and shadow and form of Heavenly things it is sure to find nothing but emptinesse bitternesse and vanity he shall be like the hungry man Isaiah speaks of Esa 29.8 who dreams and thinks he eates and when he awakes finds nothing So the Carnal men they are praying and reading and keeping themselves strict to outward rules and when they have done they think they find comfort and refreshment by them and they break bread and they are speaking one to another and think they have consolation by it but alas this food will all fail thou thinkest thou hast eaten Christ when thou hast used these but when the wrath of God falls upon thy soul and thou art summoned to judgement thou wilt finde there was no meat to feed thee in these things thou callest Ordinances nor there is no water in these Vessels to quench thy parched soul for though God of his good pleasure gave patterns of heavenly things yet they were not those heavenly things themselves but are onely the type and shadow of that divine heavenly Tabernacle which God did pitch and not man Heb. 8.2 And hence it apparently appears that the power life and the meat and drink of a child of God is onely and alone Jesus Christ for he never eats and drinks nor moves out of God for he eats and drinks and doth all in God and thus he is come to that which is perfect to the fountain of all fulness Heb. 12.27 28. to the Mount that cannot be shaken now he is gone over and passed by all the similitudes and shadows and patterns and is come to that living fountain of the water of life it selfe of which whoever drinks shall live for ever and it shall be in him a well of water springing up to eternall life Joh. 4.14 Then this further discovers to us that the Tabernacle of God is a hidden thing that the mysteries of God in Christ are covered so that the Saints themselves cannot see them except they be given unto them from above 1 Cor. 2.8 14. then much more the natural man perceives not the things of God which are spiritually discerned and which none of the men nor Princes of this world knew for had they known him they would not have crucified the Lord of life Ibid. 1.21 and when the world by wisdom knew not God it pleased the Lord by the foolishnesse of preaching to save those that believe So that I say it is even now too true according as we have a proverb and receiv'd as a Maxim but from whence it arose I am not certain that the place of PARADISE doth not now appeare in the earth no man knows where it is but sure I am that Paradise and place of pleasure which is the enjoyment of Jesus Christ is vanished and disappears is gone away and almost quite removed from the beholdings of all the sonnes of men Adam was turned out and you never heare where it is nor of any that can describe the way to come to it Even so is the true knowledge of Jesus Christ in the mystery So that the light of God and the spirituall Manna it is a thing that is utterly hidden and removed from all the wisdom and endeavours of any of the sonnes of men and unlesse the Lord himselfe come forth and reveale it and make it manifest the wisest of men in the worlds esteem may doe as those wicked men in Sodome when the Angel was sent to bring out Lot being stricken blind Gen. 19.11 they laboured to finde the dore but could not so he that is in the dark knows not whither he goes so this is cleare and true to this very day that the true Tabernacle of the Lord is still covered with a cloud no man can see it till God discover it to him Now notwithstanding this being so yet what are the waies of men what doe they undertake to doe Doe not all men that come out under the name of being the Ministers of Christ undertake the opening and revealing the Tabernacle of God yes but what is the light by which they can shew it unto us Is it any other but what man hath within himselfe and what he hath attained by his wits and industry by the Vniversity and searching severall Authors Yet notwithstanding they will discover this Tabernacle and undertake to take off the cloud that covers it and they will shew how the pattern leads to it and yet if they be put to it they themselves must deny they ever saw it truly and really what it was or is but they will be guessing and imagining the way that leads to it Now for a man to direct another the way that never understood that way may very easily make good what Christ saith If the blind lead the blind both fall into the ditch And there be other men that are so grosly ignorant as to tell us That if they goe but to an Academy a few yeeres and gather a little Philosophy and although it be that of the worst sort relishing of those that hold the immortality of the World and mortality of the Soule now even these they come out as they think furnished and by this they will undertake to discover to us the heavenly Canaan and Tabernacle of God Generally most men what ever they be though they differ in judgement yet say they are either Papists or Socinians c. And they have the boldnesse to hold forth these things though they be never so blind and dark in the things of God And I finde very few but generally all take up this for truth that Humane learning is the way to discover this by Now I beseech you see whether this be any lesse then the hellish pride of Satan to make men goe out in the pride of their hearts Jer. 29.23 and Ezek. 13.7
that is in thee be darkness how great is that Darkness Are they repentings beleevings actings and workings if these be as thou thinkest the means to remove the Cloud off the Tabernacle is not this to trust in man Jer. 2.13 Ch. 17.5 in the power of man and to distrust the living God But is not this rather to repent and believe and trust in God to say Lord I am really blind open thou my eyes thou Son of David have mercy upon me why Luk. 18 39. now this soule seeing this it cryes to and waites upon none but God and then indeed is the heart fixed upon him where it should be from whom comes salvation and deliverance Psal 57.7 And whoever waited upon him that is faithful and strong and only can deliver and was not in due time delivered And from hence it appears when the soul walks in the light he knows full well it will be in vain for him to think to remove the cloud till the Lord remove it It may be the time hath been when thou hast felt the heat of the Divine displeasure and thy ear was then boared and thy uncircumcised heart circumcised and then light appeared and thou blessedest the Lord in that day But now there begins to come darknesse over thy eyes again and thou beginnest to see thy selfe lost again and the Cloud is upon the Tabernacle and thou art gotten into the pathless way Jer. 2.6 and alas thou sayst to thy self and concludest though I am out of my way I will up and be doing I will come to it again and I will recover it and so the poor man begins to wrestle and struggle it out now at this thing and then at that thing so that the poor Saint having lost the light he once had he runs through mire and dirt thinking to come to the light by his prayers and holinesse and so recover himself Then the poor soul thinks he is running to Canaan when indeed he is going back to Egypt And therefore it is clear to me both by the Scriptures and by the experience of the preciousest Saints I ever met with that in this condition its best to sit still For he that believeth maketh not haste Esa 28.16 but waits till the Lord will remove the cloud but if thou wilt turn from the Lord and go by another guide and captain and not by that Moses God hath sent and art going to make a Golden Calfe and and Idol to go before thee if so thou mayest expect that thy carkass shall fall in the Wilderness for thy unbelief Num. 14.29 and not waiting the good pleasure of the Lord for not one entred the promised Land but Caleb and Joshuah know this is the condition and disposition of a Saint that he only rejoyceth in the Lord all his expectations are from him who hath made light and darknesse I have learned saith the Apostle Phil. 4.11 in whatever state I am therewith to be content So that the happiness of a Saint is when he can glory in infirmities as Paul saith and rejoyce in darkness and misery 2 Cor. 12.9 10. for he sees this is his portion and he cannot remove the cloud and he is willing to sit still there till the day dawn and the Day-star arise in him 2 Pet. 1.19 Esa 50.10 Happy is the soule that can sit in darkness and when he hath no light can stay himselfe upon the Lord his God Happy I say is that soul though there be a cloud on the Tabernacle that can sit still and wait the Lords good pleasure and cry unto the Lord till he please to lead him onward towards Canaan And there was a cloud on it by day and a pillar of fire appeared on it by night Know this further from hence That in the time of a Saints greatest light there is stil a cloud upon the Lords Tabernacle at the greatest height of light liberty and enjoyments to his own feeling and apprehension even then there is some darknesse upon the Tabernacle especially immediately after such great light and glory When Paul was wrapt up into the third heaven 2 Cor. 12.7 there was a messenger of Satan sent to buffet him least he should be exalted above measure there was again a cloud let fall over the Tabernacle when he was in the height of his joys a prick was sent him in the flesh a Messenger of Satan to buffet him and therefore he concludes in another place we walk by faith and not by sight T is so with every Christian in the day of his light 2 Cor. 5.7 and the time of his greatest shinings usually and then especially there is a cloud upon the Tabernacle why to let man know thus much that he must not live upon the GIFT but on the GIVER that man must not gather to day for ever but he is to gather to morrow and every day as the children of Israel in gathering Manna for if thou layest up store it will be dead the next time thou commest to feed on it it will all stinke and it will not nourish thee but wait still on the giver and then his mercy will be sweet fresh flourishing and green Lastly from this that the fire shined on the Tabernacle by night we shall onely note that when the Light of the Tabernacle shines upon the soules of men all things else become dark t is night in that soule to all things but the light of the Tabernacle in the night there was a fire and in the day a cloud now I say when the fire shined all things were dark round about it And herein observe these two things first when mans spirit is shut up and sees he no light then is the time for the appearing of this light And secondly this light never appears but when all things are dark in man for light discovers darknesse if any thing else be light to thee and all things else be not darknesse thou never yet discoveredst this light To this soule there is nothing in the whole creation that seems to be glorious and excellent but when the Sun of righteousnesse in him hath shined upon it then it appears to be all darkness when the light of the Tabernacle shines in the soule of man then riches honour pleasure preferments all things below God are darknesse Then the light of his reason wit moralitie and holy qualities that seemed to be a great light and shined before gloriously being compared one with another or with things inferiour Now when the light of the Tabernacle appeares then all these things appeare to be nothing but darknesse emptiness and blindness and are all as meer vapours before the Sun of righteousnesse as the Prophet saith Therefore thy goodnesse is as the morning dew and as the cloud that wears away so that I say Hos 6.4 whensoever the fire in the Tabernacle shines on man then this will be the sure effect in that soule
nothing else but their own Idols and Groves and Images the inventions and works of mens hands And when they have decked and trimmed their Idols gloriously they not onely fall down themselves to them as Nebuchadnezzar did Dan. 3.11 but enjoyn this Idol-worship to all others and he that will not fall down to what they say is truth and Religion Him they persecute and brand with those odious names of Hereticks Sectaries Schismaticks Familists and the like But in the day when the Lord will appeare to make all these Magicians and Southsayers to be lyars which day they hate and hide themselves from because they hate the light John 3.20 Neither come they to the light lest their deeds should be made manifest and declared that they are not wrought in God but are acted in the power of man by the wonderful working of Antichrist in all power and signs and lying wonders and in all deceivableness of unrighteousnesse 2 Thes 2.8 10. And the Lord when he shall rise wil discover and consume them with the breath of his mouth and with the brightnesse of his comming and all those glorious Images and fine contrived modes and forms and lying wonders wherein they trusted in so much that all the world wondred after the beast Rev. 13.3 as if that these were the only religious men But when God appeares with his light all these shaddows deceits and delusions all these Inchantments and Sorceries wherewith men have cloathed themselves shall be cut off These Cities that the sonnes of men have builded for their safety security and preservation they shall all be cut off from their hands Now of all things in the world these men hate nothing more then this light and this day of the Lord. These Sorcerers use all the means they can to keep away this light and to darken this glory by their reproaches slanders lyes and scandals And they will tell you all this is false light why because it discovers their Inchantments and delusions And they will tell you that all these prophesies concern other things they were onely literally fulfilled when the people of Israel were carried captive into Babylon and there can be no such Mystery in them And so for the promises they will tell you are to be fulfilled externally and litterally or at the most they will carry out the prophesies to be fulfilled onely in the Great Messiah who was born at Bethlem and was crucified at Ierusalem yet indeed know him not And he that shall goe farther then thus is with them a deceiver which sense is no other then those low poore and carnall thoughts and expectations which the Jewes had of him expecting an outward and externall deliverer and all things to be fulfilled in a litterall way As if the holy and divine spirit of the Lord onely busied it selfe about shadows and forms and external worshippings bodily exercises which profit nothing carnal ordinances and things of the world and that he had no higher aym then what every one may come to act and doe when indeed and in truth his main end is to declare the Kingdom of Heaven and set forth the new Ierusalem Rev. 21.2 comming down from God out of Heaven and to shew that his Kingdom is not of this world and consisteth not in meats and drinks touching tasting Rom. 4.17 or handling or any thing the outward man can be exercised in but that his Kingdom consists in righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost Yet some yea most men who pretend very much in the knowledge of Christ yet carry all prophesies of him no higher then his appearing in the flesh and therein say all Scriptures were fulfilled As that prophesie here exprest in the second verse of this chapter The virgin of Israel is fallen Amos 5.2 she shall no more arise she is forsaken upon her Land and there is none to raise her up some say this concerned Israels captivity when all her glory departed from her and she was stript of all her beautiful attire and virgin rayments to which it may be applicable I deny not but that is but in an outward literall and externall way but the spirit of God hath a far higher aym then this viz. That outward and externall glory when men trust to that and professe themselves to be the Israel of God because of that then the Lord threatens that the pride of all their externall forms shall all be forsaken and no man shall regard them and there shall be none to raise them up And that place in Micah chap. 5. vers 2. they say is the promise of the restauration of the Church Micah 5.2 and that she shall be restored and her Rulers But some who would seem to goe further carry it to the highest interpretation as they conceive to Jesus Christ his comming in the flesh and they have referred to this place and cited it in the margin in Matth. 2.6 Thou Bethlem in the land of Iudah art not the least among the Princes of Iudah Math. 2.6 for out of thee shall come a Governour that shall rule my people Israel That in regard he was the MESSIAH which was then born and given to the world and was to suffer and die and rise again All which things are true in a lower and externall sense but there is more in it then so for Christ is yesterday and to day Heb. 13.8 and the same for ever and his goings forth have been of old from everlasting and therefore cannot he be limited according to the short time he was in the flesh But Christ is the same in all generations and he is chiefly manifested in the spirit and all his words expresse no lesse he still takes our eyes off his fleshly appearance and sayes his Kingdome is not of this World Luke 17.21 Joh. 18.36 John 6.51 Luke 22.20 and his Kingdome is within you and his body is the bread which commeth down from heaven and the cup which he gives is The cup of the New Testament in his blood T is not the eating the bread made by men or wine of grapes in that whcih feeds the soule And so for Christs death and his going away there is more in it then his fleshly dying or the application of that But this is held out he must goe away else the Comforter which shall lead into all truth John 16.7 will not come His bodily presence and our apprehending of his fleshly appearing and fleshly suffering Hee in this sence must depart or else the Kingdome of God cannot come upon us nor the Comforter come Touch me not in this way for I am not ascended to my Father And while ye look upon my fleshly presence I cannot send the comforter Acts 1 11. But that must go away Ye men of Galilee why stand ye gazing up into Heaven Why do ye gaze upon his External appearing Sayes the Apostle 1 Cor. 5.16 Acts
do all men are alone in the hands of the Father he alone is Judge of quick and dead In his hands alone are the issues of life and death Acts 10.42 Ps 68.20 Joh. 6.44 And no man can come to him except the Father himself draw him and yet men will be drawing and DRIVING to Jesus Christ and they think to beget men and they like well to be called Doctors and Masters and Fathers and yet the spirit expresly sai h Of his own will begat be us with the word of truth Jam. 1.18 that we should be a kind of first fruits of his Creatures There is no power wisdome strength rules examples or precepts can do it but onely the will and power of God And he saith againe By one spirit are we all baptized into one body 1 Cor. 12.13 has one man then any more power then another can it be this mans learning or the other mans wisdom or another mans elquence or power of words or perswasions Oh let no man think so far be such thoughts from any that professe to exalt Jesus Christ for what can be more doshonour to him and yet how do the general course of the World and all pretenders to Religion run this way though they say in words Christ is All and man can do nothing and he is dead yet they in all their practices and perswasions and exhortations hold forth that they verily beleeve the power of man and that he is but half dead and may raise himselfe and uphold himselfe and chuse this plant Jesus Christ and ingraff it and nourish it and dig and hedg about it and cause it to bring forth more fruit which is alone the work of the Father Or at least wise if they give so much to God as to say he must give grace yet this they affirm that man must nurse it and water it and cherish it and maintain it else he may lose it quite say some and others to his own apprehension sight and feeling And what 's all this but to say himselfe he is the Dresser and he is the Pruner and Purger and Rectifier of all things amisse He is the True Husbandman But the Scripture holds forth otherwise that these things are done onely by the hand of God and that instruments are nothing t is onely the sword of the spirit can cut off and the word of God that is quick and powerfull and sharper then a two-edged sword Heb. 4.12 and that can divide between the soul and the spirit the joynts and the marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart There is nothing else plants nothing else cuts off from the root but only this spirit which is as the wind bloweth where it listeth and man hath nothing to do Joh. 3.8 I say the Creature hath nothing to do but to wait and expect when the Angel will move the Waters This is the Circumcision which is done without Hands Joh. 5.8 Rom. 2.28 29. And he is not a Jew that is one outwardly made by Men or any power of or in man but he is a Jew which is one inwardly and circumcision is that of the Heart and not in the Letter whose praise is not of men but of God And this work the Lord doth manageth and carrieth on by his own strength and by his owu power he is not at all beholding to mans wisedome or care but what is done in man or by man t is not he that doth it but Christ in them his work is not done by any outward and external means but by a secret invisible and spiritual power He is that secret invisible sap that communicates vertue and nourishment to every part and member through the whole body so that mans power wisdom and care is not used at all but only as an instrument or subject in which and by which it works and therefore man hath nothing at all to speak of or boast in And one man is not more holy then another or improves more because he hath more wisdom diligence endeavour or the like in the work of God all things tending in the least to lift up man are to be cut of but the spirit works where and when it listeth and man by all his care Joh. 3.8 cannot fetch in the spirit but when it self pleaseth so that no flesh may boast or glory in his presence nor one man lift up himself above another For we are alone his workmanship 1 Cor. 1.29 Eph. 2.10 1 Cor. 1.30 31. created unto good works And we are of him in Jesus Christ who of God is made unto us wisdom righteousness sanctification and redemption Therefore from hence let us make this conclusion and seal to it not in our words and judgments onely but in our hearts in our practices that we may say these are the very things that we have heard and seen with our eyes and we have looked upon and which our hands have handled of the word of life 1 Joh. 1.1 for there is nothing more usual then to consent to truth in the Notion thereof and in the Doctrinal part but when they come to the Practical and Applicatory then they declare plainly that they have no experience of the things of the work of God in themselves but they make man a Worker an Agent Heb. 12.2 and a finisher of Faith Some confesse that God he begins and layes the foundation but man must carry it on and do his part else all is nothing what an high indignity is this to the grace and power of God And hence it is that men glory and pride themselves so much in their own doing and are so forward to censure and judge other men wen alas man hath done nothing at all in this spiritual planting and watering but onely taken up a conceit of his own doing acting and working and priding himselfe in a meer empty fancy without any real doing at all For be sure this is that great work which Christ alone hath undertaken Heb. 2.10 Esa 42.8 Joh. 3.8 To bring many sons unto Glory and in this He will never give his glory unto another He will be free and his wind shall blow when he listeth and work when he pleaseth And for man to say that there must be any other power or any other meanes in the whole earth is to rob God of his glory and to give it to another But the practice of all the Saints is I do not say in words onely but in their practice they ascribe all to God only How violent was Paul against the Truth and the Professors thereof and yet he had attained to be a forward and an exact Pharisee far more strict then any we shall finde in our days And how zealous was he as he thought for the Truth Act. 26.11 Act. 9.1 2. exceedingly zealous against errours in his way and yet it was no other but madnesse against the truth and
eat or receive me but he that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood for my flesh is meat indeed and my blood is drink indeed and no man can give or take of this bread but my Heavenly Father only giveth you of that Heavenly Bread Ioh. 6. Ibid. 6. T is not the outward flesh of Christ or his external body was the life of the world But that same spirit and nature that was in Christ is to be in as many as do receive him this and no other is the life of the World viz. Christ his comming into the souls of men discovering them to be of the seed of that evil one and to be deceived to be lost to be in darkness and discovering the works of Darkness making manifest the works of the Devil and that he dwels in the soul under a disguise pretending himself to Christ when he is a Devil and Antichrist and is no other but the father of lyes Now Christ without us never does this but when he does it in us then is fulfilled that of the Apostle to the Galathians Before whose eyes Iesus Christ hath been evidently set forth Crucified among you or in you Gal. 3.1 The seeing of him then or now crucified outwardly was nothing that was but the shadow of the life and substance but really to see themselves to be the crucifiers of Christ this was the lively crucifying set out before them Then Beloved from hence t is clear against all gainsayers that it is the incomming of the Power of God in our spirits by which alone our Freedom Deliverance and Salvation is wrought T is not all the bolding forth of a Christ crucified the Letter can do it though all those things done in the Letter were true yet they are nothing to us if we be not saved delivered redeemed from our bondage and captivity therfore t is that we see many thousands in the world that can professe Christ and tell large stories of his external life and sufferings and yet never felt the power of his death or life in themselves for they can follow their own wills and they can love the world and extol and magnifie themselves and are as great in their own eyes as any other who professe him not Therefore Christ is not Salvation nor Deliverance to them Master we have eaten and drank in thy presence we have preacht and cast out Devils in thy Name Luk. 13.26 we have cast away Swearing and Lying and Whoring and Drunkenness and we have taken up this duty and the other and we have held forth thy Name to the World and we have been Sober Grave and Austere in our conversation but for all this Christ will profess I never knew you for ye are workers of iniquity For Satan had his full possession still and ye are no other but painted Sepulchres fair and glorious without but full of all rottennesse stench lothsomnesse and dead mens bones Then which nothing can stink more Therefore t is not holding forth the highest profession or Christ in the Letter or externally that sets us free except Christ come into the heart and makes us free indeed else t is not freedom indeed t is but the profession and the shew but it must be even the same Almighty power that raised up Jesus Christ from the dead we having the same spirit of faith as the Apostle saith 2 Cor. 4.13 14. knowing that he that raised the Lord Iesus shall raise us up 2 Cor. 4.13 14. Rom. 8.11 by Iesus And again in Rom. 8.11 But if the spirit of him that raised up Iesus from the dead dwell in you He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his spirit which dwelleth in you And therfore how wofully hath the professing World been mistaken still in all ages about Christ without them and of Christ according to the Letter For if they do but assent to that and say Christ suffered for them and they must apply him by an external beleeving and so he is made their Righteousnesse Sanctification and Redemption and though they sin and fall if they can but cast their eyes upon Christ suffering upon the Cross Joh. 3.14 as the Israelites by looking up upon the brazen Serpent they shall be healed and pardoned and saved and yet we know withall that all those things were done and were necessary for the accomplishing of the Fathers purpose and the mind of God but in all those things it was not FINISHED and yet here the world sticks and builds their Religion and this they think is as much as is required and he that shall speak against it and say they fall short of Jesus Christ they cry out upon him for a Seducer and an Heretick and they are as mad against him as they were against Paul when he preacht that they were no gods which were made by men And are ready to burst out upon them as full of wrath and madnesse as the Jewes upon Steven when he ript them up and spoke home to them Acts. 7.54 Acts 7.54 c. And when they heard these things they were cut to the heart and gnashed upon him with their teeth Yet for all that know that all this believing wil not serve thy turn but it must be Christ manifested in thee seeing him crucified and rising again and sitting in Heavenly places in thy heart else whatever thou talkest of Christ and of his miracles if thou hast no witness no evidence of the truth of them in thy own heart what is all that ever He did and what 's all that ever He suffered to thee It may be thou mayest have a notion and an opinion of the things of God and thou hast them by History and by Relation or Education or Example or Custom or by Tradition or because generally all or most men have received them for truths but if thou hast no evidence of his mighty miracles and God-like power in thine own soul how or which way canst thou be a witness that they are the things thou hast heard and seen for all those outward things are but Representations Figures and Patterns of the Heavenly things themselves Thou mayest have a strong opinion but yet no experience of them that Jesus Christ hath freed and delivered thy soul Again take notice hence That as Christ delivers not but as he comes Himselfe into the soules of men and is born in them so it is not opinions nor notions nor forms nor washings nor disciplines nor any external rules or conformities that can work deliverance for the soule but it must be God in us operating by his own Almighty power every man is spiritually in Sodom and in Egypt Rev. 11.8 where our Lord is Spiritually and most truly crucified And as the world is deceived in their Forms and their Notions thinking they shall help and save them So likewise they take a great deal of satisfaction to themselves in making of Books and
Catechisms and prescribing of Rules in mending this way and the other form and are still in mending and altering and making their ways and forms better and more reformed as they think when alas all this is nothing but man taking upon himself to cut pare and mend the worship of God This man he thinks to cut out a neater way then his neighbour-gathered-church and a another he thinks to mend and make his way more handsome then he and another then both Every one hath a Doctrin a Psalm hath a Tongue 1 Cor. 14.26 hath a Revelation hath an Interpretation none done to the edifying of the body of Christ For all this is but to rend and tear the Seamlesse coat of Christ in that man would fain be something do something by his own wisdom and power and his righteousnesse must not be sleighted nor vilified nor all his glory must not be laid in the dust all these Worshippers and pretenders to Christ they live on the shadow and rely on the shape and form of Christianity but not on the life and power How have men beat their wits and layd their counsels together to form and model Religion to make it passe for currant in the world that they may be accounted Artists and Pastors and Doctors and according to that fine invented word ORTHODOX and some adding that blasphemous title DIVINE and they will prescribe Rules and make Articles of faith for all men to beleeve and receive and conform to and still they are new-modelling to cut it and square it as like the Letter of the Word as may be and then they are pleased and others applaud them as wise Master Builders And yet we may say of them as the Apostle Peter saith 2 Pet. 2.17 c. 2 Pet. 2.17 18 19. They are those which have forsaken the right way and are gone astray following the way of Balaam who loved the wayes of unrighteousness These are Wells without water clouds carried with a tempest to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever For when they speak great swelling words of vanity they allure through the lusts of the flesh those who were clean escaped from them who live in error And while they promise them libertie they themselves are the servants of corruption for of whom a man is overcome of the same is he brought in bondage They are alwaies learning and teaching others to do this and do that and yet they themselves are the servants of lust and corruption Therefore be not deceived but if they cry loe here or loe there Go after such a Man and such a Man Luk. 17.23 joyn with this Church or that Fellowship and ye find Christ but go not after them believe them not for they do but deceive they cannot deliver nor redeem themselves And therefore this point is clear that none but Jesus Christ could ever free the soul or deliver it from bondage and this is a truth against which the Gates of Hell shall never prevail Mat. 16.18 Therefore we may conclude that whatever spirit goes out any other way or to any other thing to find Rest or Liberty or Redemption by but only by Jesus Christ he is deceived for t is only in Immanuel God with us there is no Redeemer no Deliverer no Saviour but only He All the Saints who have all experience therof in themselvs know this to be true and give out their witnesse that in vain did they run out to any thing else and these only are the true Wayters for the Kingdom of God and the consolation of Israel Mar. 15.43 here was the true Wayting and the true using of Ordinances Oh that men did but know what this waiting upon the Father was that they knew that there was no life but in Christ no power but in him that they had no wisdom nor goodness nor that they could never be delivered but by and in the power light and life of Christ Oh that men knew in experience as they pretend in words and notions Joh. 5.22 that all judgment is committed to the Son And that in him alone was the power of life and death and that he alone had the keys to unlock the Mysteries of Salvation then whether if they were perswaded of this could the heart of man go for relief If it saw its own utter emptiness nothingness and that all Creatures and all Ordinances and forms were broken Cisterns Jer. 2.13 how could they depend and wait on them If then Jesus Christ be the only fulness the only power the only riches the only joy the only treasure then would they sell all to buy this Pearl Mens running out to this thing and to that is because they are unsatisfied Luk. 11.24 and are in want of peace and rest and this makes them go out and walk through dry places to find rest but can find none this want makes them heap to themselves so many varieties of things to give them peace their souls fly to and again from florwe to flowre but cannot rest any where they fly to this duty and tother form but they are all emptie they are no other but dry places Oh wonderful to see how Satan hath deluded the sons of men and all is because they cannot be content to sit down in their own poverty to see themselves naked and miserable and then to wait upon Him who would certainly come in in due time with true Peace Riches Rest Power Righteousnesse Satisfaction Fulnesse and whatever is good But because men are not able to stand in the sight of their own nothingness how doth Satan continually carry them out they cannot endure to stay within to see themselves but either they are carried out to Lust or Luxury or Wantonnesse or Drinking or Company and the like and if that will not hide and cover the pit so that the mouth of conscience will not be stopt then it runs out to Duties and Forms and wayes of Worship and thinks that will do it when alas they are meer delusions and things which the soul hath invented to play withal to get peace and liberty by to make it forget its Misery Poverty and Emptinesse but the end of this peace is death and misery and the end of this liberty is confusion Rom. 6.21 And what fruit have ye of those things whereof ye are now ashamed But oh happy is that soul that can say from experience and not onely in words but really Job 16.2 That they are all miserable comforters and that all below and besides Christ Esa 28.20 all gender to death and bondage and that he hath found the Bed too broad and the Covering too narrow so that he could not wrap himself therein and that he is resolved never to run out to any thing to relieve or stay his spirit but only to the Riches Power and Fulnesse of Christ not to the grosse lusts of men nor to the riches of the world to
escaped from the snare of the Hunter Hast thou really seen thy selfe lost undone made miserable hast thou seen that thy self was in Captivity and that thou wast deaf and dumb and blind and lame that thou wert shut up in darknesse and death and that there was none in Heaven or Earth able to help thee in the least but thou seeing thy selfe so miserable and hopeless that thou wert at thy wits end and no help at all appeared If this have not been thy condition though thou couldst speak never so excellently of the Letter and the History and though thou submittedst to the highest forms and to the soberest and most strict course of life being constant and austere in observing of thy rules for hearing and reading and set times of prayer and constant examining thy self to keep thy selfe up the stricter to thy Rules alas poor soul all this is nothing though thou couldest speak with the Tongue of Men and Angels 1 Cor. 13.1 and pray with such sweet words and language as might ravish all the men on earth If thou doest not finde Christ Jesus in thee breaking every bond and loosing every yoak and that no other in Heaven or Earth could do it but he thou wert never yet delivered but art still under wrath death and bondage The chief thing that every soul is to mind in reading and hearing is to examine whether the same thing be wrought in them whatever we find in the Letter if it be not made good in us what are the words to us we must see how Christ is crucified and buried in us and how he is risen and raised from death in us the chief thing I say is to look into our own breasts All generally that hold forth a profession of Christ they say in words that Christ is the Deliverer but that is not the thing but is he a Deliverer to thee Is that glorious MESSIAH promised Rom. 11.26 and the Deliverer out of Sion come with power into thy soul hath he exalted himselfe there and hath he made bare his arm and been a glorious CONQVERER in thee hath he taken to himself his great power to raign in thee Rev. 11.17 Is he King of Kings and Lord of Lords in thee c. Beloved all preaching and reading and praying and duties is to this end to examine thy inward man and thy spiritual condition Thou joinest thy self in fellowship and walkest conformable to all thy rules and thou art washed and thou breakest bread with them and thinkest herein thou hast obeyed the commands of Christ alas this is nothing if Jesus Christ have not joined thee to himself and made thee a member of him what good doe all these things for by all these outward actings thou dost not discern the Lords body To discern the Lords body is to eat him to be united to him to be made one spirit with him that so he may be made experimentally a Saviour and a Deliverer in thee That he hath taken thy soul out of the mire and clay Ps 40.2 and out of the horrible pit thou canst say experimentally and by feeling that it was an horrible pit and that there thy soul stuck fast and thou hadst no hope ever to get forth and if Christ hath set thee free thou knowest full well no power could do it but only his Eph. 1.19 only the same power which raised Jesus Christ from the grave and no lesse And thou whoever thou art who hast experience of this work thou art in one of these two conditions either thou art set free and delivered by the power of Jesus Christ or else thou seest thy self in the pit in straits in misery in a hopelesse condition and art sighing and groaning for deliverance and waiting when Christ will deliver thee And if thou beest but in either of these two conditions thou art in a safe and good Condition but if thou hast been in this misery and condemnation and thou hast used all means to put this off and sought out deliverance for thy selfe and by thy wisedome and strength and conformity and holinesse hast got thy selfe a covering by any thing under Heaven then Jesus Christ never was a Deliverer to thee but though thou thinkest thy selfe delivered yet thou art for all thy peace and for all thy Coverings under a worse bondage then before Therefore I say I would have every soul before me examine it selfe whether he be a true seeker of Deliverance which is to examine in which of these two Conditions he is in whether he hath been under these Terrors and death in hell and condemnation seeing himself lost and miserable and that instead of seeing any wisdom or power or righteousnesse in himself that he hath seeen and doth still see himself to be a meer sink of sin and a cage of unclean birds and that in him is nothing but weaknesse Rev. 18.2 wickednesse and all abominations And let me ask thee when thou wast in this condition whither wentest thou for help whether to dumb Idols that could not help that have eyes and see not and ears and hear not or to the living God in whom alone is help and deliverance And if thou art at present in this condition and distresse Joh. 5.4 thou art one that lies waiting at the pool till the Angel stir the waters expecting when Christ will put thee in Thou wilt not run to this duty and that form to ease thy self and to allay these Terrors and to quench these flames but if help come not there thou waist and there thou standest and remainest in this condemnation and goest up and down sighing and mourning all the day long and thou seest t is not in the power of all the Ministers under Heaven not in all the forms and rules that can be invented but only in the tender mercy and good will of Jesus Christ All other wayes thou lookest upon but as going out to Asher Hos 7.11 and to Egypt and to seek after dumb Idols that have a picture of eyes and ears and hands promising as though they could help but they can neither see nor hear nor help though to others they appear glorious and goodly things and they blesse themselves in using them yet to thee they are dead cold and helplesse so that now here thou waitest and sittest alone like the Pelican in the Desart Ps 102.6 and there thou mournest and bemoanest thy condition and with David thou hast no rest in thy bones because of thy sins Ibid. 38.3 Try thy self now in which is thy condition if in neither of these thou art in a most sad miserable condition indeed and so much the more sad because thou seest it not Or it may be thou hast cured thy self and healed thy selfe but art not cured nor healed Jer. 6.14 but the Prophets have healed the Daughter of my people slightly as the Prophet speaks have not throughly discovered their iniquity to turn
not without demonstration enough that they do but flatter Christ with their MOVTHS when their hearts are far from him sayes Iehu 2 Kings 10 16. See my zeal for the Lord of Hosts but we know his zeal was but for himself So these men are offended if any thing be said to touch them or their wayes pretending dishonour to Christ and they cry out BLASPHEMY because it reproves their blindnesse or ignorance shewing that they are the blind leaders of the blind and both fal into the ditch Luk. 6.39 so do it out of pretence of love to Christ and zeal for the Lord of Hosts If so be it were so that they did make God their zeal and Christ their rest and their dependance as they would have all beleeve what is the reason that these men professing themselves Servants to Christ and Messengers from Christ what 's the reason I say they are so in love with the world who more hunting after Honour after Riches after Applause and in all things seeking themselves as much or more then others making no profession what 's the reason that they must come forth as messengers sent out from Christ and yet they must have two coats Mark 6.9 contrary to their Masters command and they must have their scrip and their bag and who more taking care to provide for the body for food and rayment and the like and yet they say they are doing the Lords work yet dare not trust their Master for outward things shall any man think these men have trusted their souls with him who dare not trust their bodies with him but they must have so much a year and they must indent with the people or else they will not work how say you are not these those that make merchandise of the word of God certainly these men can never make out themselves messengers from Christ 2 Cor. 4.2 approving themselves to every mans conscience in the sight of God neither hath he Commissioned them nor given them their errand nor revealed his secrets to them but they run before they are sent and say thus saith the Lord when he sent them not Jer. 14.23 neither have they seen any vision as the Prophet saith Certainly these are not the men that preach the word of God out of a ready mind and constraint of love depending on the Lord for their recompence and reward 1 Pet. 5.2 but for filthy lucre sake These men never yet received the truth in the love of it in themselves but preach for honour and for praise and because it is a place in credit and this delights them and is very pleasing to the flesh and because they are had in honour and so much they will speak forth and no more then may stand with those things and they dare not venture either their honour or riches or credit c. upon the account of truth no not for their lives Are these of Pauls mind who cryed out woe is me if I preach not the Gospel but these men if they can have but the accomodations that attend a Minister in these dayes 1 Cor. 9.16 as riches and honour and praise and full tables and entertainments and feasting and uppermost seats and the like they will doe well enough for dispensing the Gospel and do that warily and tenderly enough without prejudicing their own esteem or offending others And are not these men faithful Stewards think ye as they would fain be esteemed that can thus order their wayes and keep up themselves and dare not for their ears commit themselves nor their works to the Lord nor to the Authority and power of truth in the hearts of men I am much grieved to see these things and yet who seem more zealous then these men who say they are doing their Lords work just so did the Pharisees up and down whom Christ so sharply reproves for Hypocrisie and Blindness and Covetousnesse and Deceivers c. being blind leaders of the blind and both fall into the ditch Mat. 15.14 But the reason of all this is because these men were never yet emptied in themselves they never took up the crosse of Christ Ibid. 10.38 or denied themselves but are rich and full and holy and wise and sober and very strict as they would be thought and think so of themselves for though they talk and babble of these things in a litteral way yet they never had them in experience but boast of things in another mans line 2 Cor. 10.14 15. and stretch themselves beyond their own measure borrowing this mans words and the other mans experience and because Paul and others have been witnesses to the truth and of high manifestations of God brought forth in them this they appropriate and arrogate and say t is their condition when t is no such matter but having a shew of humility and godlinesse they deceive the simple and are such who serve not the Lord Iesus Christ but their own belly and by good words Col. 2.23 and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple and are such who cannot give testimony to the truth in themselves they are full of curious collected choise words but if you bring those words to experience they plainly discover they know nothing of them but do indeed oppose the truth in themselves for they love honour and greatnesse and the praise of men of whom Christ saith plainly How can YEE believe who thus seek honour one of another and not that honour which commeth from God only Joh. 5.44 Certainly these men whatever they talk of Christ and preach of Christ and make a great noise in words yet they will be found to be no other but as sounding brass and tinkling Cymbals 1 Cor. 13 1 They will undertake to invite others to Christ and never found Jesus in themselves for no man can come after him but he that denies himselfe Mar. 8.34 and takes up his cross and follows him and though they in words and notions talk of self-deniall and selling all for the PEARL yet they are wise in themselves and holy in themselves and rich in themselves and they have a power to act in the waies of God and to conform them selves to the rule have these men sold all think you and though they say men are dead in trespasses and sins yet how many MVSTS do they lay upon them and doe Thus and Thus And whence is all this but because indeed they never yet followed Christ never yet found him never yet believed in him never yet denied themselves were never reduced to emptiness and nothingness but are still alive and whole in themselves except it be for a few outward neglects or omissions now and then and that they can make up again with a little double diligence and this is their way and herein lies the life and top of their Religion And truly brethren how can these things be otherwise Did the woman with the bloody
issue ever come to Christ as long as she had any thing left neither doth any of the sons of men return to him spiritually Mar. 5.26 till they are poor empty lost naked miserable and undone And therefore though they say they are looking for this One and onely Deliverer and talk much of him yet all their waies and practices declare the contrary And this true Deliverer is He that they speak against and oppose And as he was reproached hated spit upon and crucified by the Jews so is he in and by these men for the true Christ and the true Messiah is alwaies abused slandered crucified by the world Me it hates alwaies and therefore it hateth you even all those that hold him forth in the spirit John 7.7 c. 15.20 it cannot but hate and persecute because they testifie that all the deeds thereof are evil And why the reason is because he brings light with him and that discovers their darkness their lyes their Hypocrisy because he testifies that their goodly deeds are evil and upon this account all that know not the life of Christ in experience do really hate it and persecute it for when man hath built up to himselfe much glory riches strength wisedom and great attainments now for Jesus Christ to come and strip him and take away all his beautiful garments Ezek. 26.16 and all his glory and strength here now if man cannot be content to submit and lose all for Christ then he bussles and strives to keep up his glory to keep on his glorious garments that neither men nor himselfe may see his nakedness impurity deformity ungodliness hypocrisy and lyes T is true thou sayest in words Jesus Christ is thy only Deliverer and thou art seeking after him if so why seekest thou then the living among the dead Luk. 24.5 thinking to find Christ in dead forms and dead duties and ordinances as thou callest them and thinkst that they wil deliver and give life and when thou hast done them with some spirit and quickness here is thy comfort and thy joy and so thou settest up thy self and thy own doings for thy Saviour Helper Deliverer But why seek ye Christ and the true Deliverer without your selves for what 's all the Deliverers and Christs in the world if if he be not a Saviour in thee and a Deliverer in thee Why seek ye Christ at Jerusalem and externally and say if I do but beleeve in that person that there lived and died it is enough though I never find him a Saviour in me and to me The time is comming when ye shall neither in this Mountain nor at Ierusalem worship the Father John 4.21 c. for the true Worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth for the Father seeketh such to worship him for God is a spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and truth Now for men to come in the name of Christ and say loe here and loe there and say he is in this form and the other mountain in this ordinance and tother dipping in this manner and in the other way of breaking of bread and the like and they think by using these external things to imitate Jesus Christ and to give the holy spirit and to get grace and they come preaching in his name and in his name have done many great works Luk. 13.27 but saith Christ I never knew you depart from me ye workers of iniquity They say also they are Christs Messengers and Ambassadours and that he hath sent them forth and yet Christ hath not furnished them for their work but only being furnished from the Letter and by reading mens Labours they come forth Audaciously and say we are the Messengers of Christ when as the spirit of Christ never furnished them Ezek. 13.3 yet they say Thus saith the Lord and have seen nothing they have had no vision but say what others say and so prophesie they know not what And farther for all they say Christ sends them yet they dare not trust him not so much as for external maintenance but they must have their bag and their wallet Luk. 10.4 their scrip and their maintenance or else they will not do their work They dare not commit themselves to the wisdom and care of him whom they say sent them But in vain came these men out in the name of Christ and bring forth such fruits who can beleeve them or regard them or honour them comming forth in this manner furely none that have the power of truth and experience of the work of Christ in them and that really know him to be the true and only deliverer But those who are blind as themselvs are blind may indeed be led by them But my sheep know my voice John 10.4 5. and the voice of a stranger they will not follow those who have experience of Christ must see a proof of Christ in them 2 Cor. 13.3 or else they cannot follow them They know if Christ send them he hath spoken in them and that they have heard the word at his mouth and he hath preached in their souls first and discovered himself to be A Deliverer to them Ibid. c. 3.6 or else they bring but the voice of strangers and are but Ministers of the Letter and not of the Spirit And let the sons of men run up and down from this fellowship to the other from Ordinance to Ordinance and from Baptism to Baptism from breaking bread here and there yet is this nothing so long as thy heart is dead still and lies under the power of lust and corruption and is in bonds and fetters still for except Christ be thy Deliverer except he appear pear in thee except this root of David spring up in thee Rev. 5.5 except the Lyon of the Tribe of Judah arise in thee all thou canst do and all thou canst run unto cannot save thee nothing else in Heaven or Earth ever can save help or Deliver thee But if may be this Doctriue may seem harsh to some Obj. and they may Object and say What then shall I sit still shall I do nothing shall I not use the means shall I not prepare and fit my selfe for deliverance Consider I pray you when ye have done what you can Answ what is it you do do or what is it man can do to save or deliver himself is not man dead in trespasses and sins Eph. 2.1 and can any thing raise the dead but the voice of Christ and is there any good thing can be done by them till Christ work it is not all their works without him sin or can there be any thing properly called a means or an ordinance but only Him when men have reformed themselves and their paths and trimmed their way to seek love Jer. 2.33 they have but gone astray in all this and gone after their own lovers and sought themselves in all they
Exod. 28.30 where thou oughtest to enquire but thou hast still enquired of BAAL and ASHTEROTH and of Wizzards and familiar Spirits and the Counsels of thine own heart otherwise all thy high conceits had been laid low but thou goest out to Sorcerers and Southsayers to ASHDOD or any thing and consultest with them and they tell thee of a thousand Devils but themselves and they will tell thee thou art a wise a godly a holy man who more holy nay that thou art a Saint and all others especially such and such are Devils to thee this man sees every thing naught and evil and out of order but in his own heart And what deep and desperate Witchcraft and Lyes are these when all these are in himself But when Christ comes then the mind is quite turnd altered and changed then he sees that HIS heart is deceitfull above all things then he is amazed to see those unspeakable deceits that are there how loathsome and vile he is then he wonders that Christ should descend so low as Hell to bring his soule out thence then he sees how all those things which before he would never beleeve to be in him they are now laid open and now he sees that Christ is Hee alone that hath led Captivity Captive Secondly this Doctrine notes out unto us the vanity of the minds of all men while they are anywhere exercised but within themselves in their own hearts for all good and evil comes out of the heart and 't is that which cometh out thence which defileth the man And again a good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth good things Mat. 12.35 but an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth evil things Therefore the maine of all is to know a mans selfe for a man to have high and great thoughts of himself and in the mean time to be no other but a Devil a Wizzard a Sorcerer to be an enemy and a deluder to himself to think himself to be in light when he is in thick darknesse to call in himself evil good and good evil darkness light and light darkness This is one of the Devils great Delusions Exo. 10.21 Esa 5.20 and Witchcrafts in man to carry him still out of himselfe even in point of Religion to look abroad and meddle with this man and the other man and neglect himselfe other mens faults are heynous but he neither sees nor once finds fault with his own Some men also are much carried out in company and are full of talk and high discourses and curious notions and these they trade withall and think to be Somebody and get themselves a name and all these things tend to this main end to make man seem to be what he is not something when he is nothing as the Apostle speaks Gal. 6.3 and to cover and hide these Devils these Witchcrafts these Sorceries these Inchantments from his own and others beholding If the Devil can but hide himselfe that he be not known to be as he is he knows he shall rest secure enough then the soul is quiet enough and thinks all is well and so the man sleeps in the Devils arms and knows nothing of his own misery until he lie down in sorrow and condemnation with the Devil for ever and this is that which the Divel labours to do in man with all his might This hiding and eovering and deluding is meerly the work of the Devil Now the work of Christ is to undermine and to Counter-work all this viz. by discovering and laying open all these mischiefs and deceits and by letting man see his own folly delusion and misery for the Devil would by no means be discovered least he should be cast out Therefore he cannot abide that man should dwell at home and be over busie with his own heart to see the Inchantments and cheatings that are there For there it is the Prince of Darknesse rules and fits as King of the Bottomlesse pit and he knows he can delude and deceive and be too hard for all the men in the world except Jesus Christ undertake to uncover and unmask his delusions But when Christ will discover him in thee then thou shalt see thy selfe to be all these things that we have spoken and that all those lying Divinations are in thee then all thy deceits and lyes shall lie under the sentence of condemnation then and never before canst thou discover or bear witnesse against Antichrist and the Prince of Darknesse then thou shalt come to know whether thou art indeed a member of Jesus Christ viz. by finding these discoveries to be made in thee Mat. 16.17 for then thou canst witnesse that flesh and blood never revealed these things to thee Then thou shalt see experimentally what it is to be in captivity what it is to be in Egypt in Babylon and that thou wast in such cruel bondage once and bound with such strong fetters as no hand could deliver thee but onely the hand of the meer mercy of God and that it is that onely which maketh thee to differ and not any power wisdom or watchfulnesse of thine own nothing but that Almighty hand hath delivered thee from the Witch and the Deluder and the Sorcerer and destroyed the Destroyer and all this out of meer mercy and good will to thee And then also this will follow if thou hast found these things done and acted in thy self thou canst not chuse but pitty and pray for all those who are yet under the same Inchantments When thou beholdest them thou canst not chuse but say alas poor-soules I know full well that there is none but only the hand of Jesus Christ that can help and deliver them I was in the same condition what was I more then they that so much mercy hath been shewed to me and in seeing their misery thou canst not but remember thine own and so thou seest thy self in seeing them This the Apostles did when they beheld others they confessed that they were by nature Children of wrath as well as others 'T is onely the mercy of God that pulls thee as a brand out of the fire Eph. 2.3 Zach. 3.7 Jude 23. while others are burning there still And t is onely his infinite and undeserved goodnesse that hath delivered thee from all those great Deluders and Inchanters from the Devil and from Antichrist for thou hast truly seen and found that the same principle of Hell and Darknesse is in thee that is in any other and that there be none that do good Psal 14.2 none that seek after God though they pretend never so much to him All this considered and seeing it true in thy own heart who art now set at liberty Mark 5.9 and knowing all these LEGIONS of Devils cast out of thee thou wilt be so far from insulting and upbraiding any in this condition that thou wilt pitty them in thy very soul from a fellow-feeling
of the same misery Again farther this will be another effect If Satan and Antichrist be discovered and cast out in thee it will bring thee not to wonder to see such infinite multitudes of men carried away with the spirit of Inchantment and Delusion for t is a wonder any one is brought from under these delusions There are but two Spirits in the world either we are carried away with the spirit of Inchanting or else with the spirit of Christ All the Saints can bear witnesse to this and none else for they onely have experience of both states They know the snares of the Hunter and they are not ignorant of his devices and they have the voice the leadings Psal 124.7 2 Cor. 2.11 Joh. 10.5 1 Cor. 2.15 Rom. 2.2 the teachings of their only Master and they know what Doctrine savours of his life and what savours of the flesh they know his voice from the voice of a stranger and a stranger they will not follow for this is the spiritual man who judgeth all things and he himself is judged of no man they hear his judgement for they know his judgment is true and they know the voice of God from the voice of all the Inchanters Diviners Southsayers or from any stranger in the world he cannot be as formerly he was deluded with lyes shews and pretences Beloved this is that the world cannot endure to hear of that their Doctrine or their wayes should be censured or judged But the Saints who are really freed they have such experience of all these things that they do know God from the Devil and their own dear Master who hath done so much for them from all Deluders Necromancers and Southsayers in the world and the spiritual man he hears and ownes and follows and loves his Master and knows him not in conceit or notion and opinion or perswasion but by a clear Revelation and Manifestation of the day of Jesus Christ in him He found that till then he was in darknesse and the strong man kept the house Mar. 3.27 and he had an opinion that he was alive and yet was really dead before he had high opinions of himself and of his serving God and pleasing God and conceited that he had brought every high thought and every imagination into subjection to Christ 2. Cor. 10.5 and that they had observed every rule not omitting the least command without conformity to it He did not pick and chuse but he was universal in his obedience as he thought and he scarce knew any thing amisse by himself He was conformable to forms and duties and washings c. but alas to an experienced Saint all this is but delusion for his very speech will bewray him since he cannot but speak of himself and of his doing and acting ye shall never hear him complain of himself really from a true sense of evil but formally he may but he is still vomitting out his own pride and vain-glory shewing his guifts and parts and glorying in his wisedome and holinesse and stil telleth what great and goodly things he did But all this is but MAN Man in the beginning and Man in the middle and Man in the end For this man was never fetcht out of him self never yet saw the abominations of his own heart Ezek. 20.43 never yet loathed himself and how can any thing of God come from him who never in himself had any thing of God but all his actings were from man and from self and from parts gained and acquired by his own diligence and improvement Mat. 7.16 and do men gather Grapes of Thorns or Figs of Thistles From hence also t is farther clear that all Charmes Lyes Inchantments Sorceries and all the secret workings of Satan and Antichrist lie hid and undiscovered until the day of Jesus Christ for Satan will never discover himself Belzebub will never really cast out Belzebub Mat. 9.34 though he by the Pharisees lyingly cast that upon Christ meerly to hide and keep himself undiscovered for his subtile working is that he would have Christ taken to be the Devil and he would be the Christ and this is the grand policy of the Devil ' who hath wonderfully prevailed in the world upon this account True Christ is the Devil to the world and to all false Professours and the working of man and self and of the Devil in man this is received as the Christ and this is in such a white and glorious and innocent Devil to the world that not all the men in the world nor all out of Christ could never have discovered him convincingly or cast him out t is only the finger of God that discovers cuts off and destroyes this witchcraft from among us But so this Devil may not be cast out he will shift any way to save himself he will take up any form any way to worship Christ be conformable to any external thing being no other but false Apostles And his Ministers shall be Ministers of righteousnes though they be deceitful workers transforming themselves into the very likenesse of the Apostles of Christ as they are called in the Corinthians 2 Cor. 11.13 14 15. And no marvaile for Satan himsel will transform himself into an Angel of light Nay though he be a Devil yet he will have a form of godliness as the Apostle saith 2 Tim. 3.3 2 Tim. 3.3 The word there translated false Accusers is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Therefore the Devil must by no means appear to be a Devil for then he loses his credit and possession he knowing that if once he appears as a Devil as a Devourer as a Destroyer Tormenter as seeking the death of the soule as a red Dragon thirsting after blood If Jesus Christ once discovers him thus far there is no staying for him in that soule for then out he must but still this is the Divels method and his deep designe to hide himself still to appear in a way of Jugling and Conjuring as you know the Serpent did to Eve speaking to this purpose I come not but for thy good I come not to hurt or destroy thee I come to make thee more glorious more happy and more like unto God more wise c. The Devil never appears as a destroyer but as a friend to man he alwayes governs his subjects especially in the Religious part of the world as an Angel of light as hating ungodliness and the wayes of sinne 2 Cor. 11.14 and loving the wayes of righteousness and conformity to the external letter and rule of Christ which these men call GODLINESSE As our Saviour told the Jews John 8. Ye are of your father the Devil and his works ye will doe Beleeve it this was very strange and harsh Doctrine to such great and learned and eminent Professors and Teachers of Religion but he not onely saith but proves that they are of their Father the Devil for all their great shews and external srictnesse for