never a true account of Stewardship brought in by any imployd about the things of God Thus much through infinite favour and grace God hath revealed unto us that wheresoever that spirit resides not which first framed the mind of the Son of God according to the eternal wisdom to judge of all things as God judgeth the love of God was never shed abroad in that heart for the spirit of faith works by love and where the love of God is not there is the love of this world which is of that wicked ones and the love of the world is enmity with God and the spirit of envy never makes good construction of the expressions of him it doth repugn therefore where the Spirit of Christ resides not there can never be good construction given of the words of Christ for he hath a name given him that none can read but himself and he is called the word of God therefore all other readers are false interpreters and that is the only in let and progress of sin and death in the world unto this day There be many who arogate a Call to interpret the word of God Some holding themselves set a part from the common affairs of this life in such sort as they are not to intermeddle with any temporary occasions but to have all things brought in unto them that concerns this present life by the labours of and means of others who stand not in that relation neither to God nor men which themselves do being men whose Calling is spiritual and therefore not to be imployed about any carnal things assuming Scripture for that purpose not only from the equity of that Law given concerning Levy but also as the Stand in the room of Christ who is of greater deserts to be maintained then Levy was There is one Scripture looks earnestly upon me concerning this Point which such men make great use of to prove their Apostolical Authority to require Tythes Stipends and Contributions together with the honour of the upermost Seats where they come with respect unto the dignity of their Calling and Office above others of the Saints of God in which regard say they all others are become debtors unto them to contribute both wealth and honour for which they aledge as one special ground for such supply as having divine Authority on their side 1 Cor. Cap. 9. Which form of words they deal with as they do with all other expressions in the word of God using it to mans ends and intents and not according to the mind and intent of the Son of God For that which they go about to prove their Calling by to be spiritual and heavenly is a direct Declaration given out by the Spirit of God to prove their Ministry to be carnal and earthly give me leave therefore as briefly as I can to declare from that Scripture what God seems as by his eye to direct and guide unto Our Apostle in the former Chapter sheweth the difference between Knowledge and Knowledge the one in way of the fall of man from God the other in the way of Resurrection and Ascension to God the one puffeth up as an empty blader filled only with wind above others the other is filled with love to edification which ever prostrates it self to the party known where or in whatsoever he appeareth the one sitting at meat or communicating in the Idols Temple the other refusing to eat carnally so long as the world stands rather then to offend the Brother-hood And having concluded that an Idol or an Idolathite for there is a generation of them is nothing in the world and that there is but one God in truth and verity though many do assume the names and titles of that one God yet an Idolathite is nothing in the world though they so assume and arogate the tearms because the Son of God who is the Maker of all things never contributed any thing unto the form thereof no more then it can be said that the holy Son of God did ever give out any thing to the being of the uncleanness of that unclean spirit namely the Devil which an Idol is concluded to be by the Spirit of God for whatsoever the Son of God gives being unto is a work of Creation but an Idol the Devils is that Abaddon and Apollion that is destruction which is nothing of the work of God in Heaven or in earth and so is nothing in the world Therefore but one God or power of Creation of all things for an Idol is the ruin and destruction of Gods proper creating vertue where it is erected which erection of an Idol is to terminate the scope true and proper intent of any part of Gods word in any thing whatsoever besides Jesus Christ and him crucified besides which our Apostle acknowledgeth he desires to know nothing For all other knowledge besides that or without that is thus explained by our Apostle viz. If any man or any thing see thee that hast knowledge or see thee knowledge or thee that art knowledge for such as mans wisdom or knowledge is such is the man for as it gives man his being above all other creatures so it gives distinctions of men among themselves Sit at meat in the Idols Temple that is continue and abide communicating in the word and worship of God as terminating any part of or thing in the Temple or Pallace in any carnal and fading matter or thing Shall not the conscience or shall not that knowing together in thee for there is a unity in Idols worship as certainly as there is in the worship of the true God in spirit and truth Of the weak that is of such as are sick or dead being without and destitute of that healthful Spirit of grace and life in Christ Be imboldned to eat things sacrificed to Idols that is what ever is in thee or belonging unto that assembly of evil doers shall be encouraged to yeild up it self to the Rule of such knowledge for all things in man are governed by wisdom and a spirit of teaching therefore all things concerning the sons of men make their addresses to the light set up in the mind of man of what nature or mind soever it be to take their form receive commission as also instruction for their progress in execution therefore thou Idolatrous knowledg set up in the Idols Temple art become the Authour of destruction for there was never any destroyed since the world was but by this thy knowledge which puffs up with pride as an empty bladder filled with nothing but with the wind of Satannical delusion where the substantiality of the Son of God never was nor never will be Therefore he saith Through thy Knowledge or through this knowledge for the party and property to know are never separated for man is not man but by ability to know and that with respect to a God to be communicated with and worshipped Shall thy weak brother perish for whom Christ dyed that is thou
art the proper destruction of mankind and for to save mankind Christ dyed so that all thy weak brethren sick in soul void of that healthful spirit of grace in Christ who were are or ever shall be thou art the proper inlet of destruction unto them all Yea all for whom Christ died or all in whom Christ dyes that is all in whom Christ dies in regard of all the operations of his Spirit he is dead in them and therefore he thus adds when ye sin thus against your brethren ye sin against Christ that is ye are not the Authours of destruction of such as are near creatures but ye are the Authours of the death and destruction of the Son of God in and unto your selves and all that depend on this Knowledge in whom the life of his Spirit hath no being neither takes it place being tendred unto you Whence our Apostle infers If meat offend my brother that is if communicating in the word of God carnally be the destruction of the Brother-hood as that sacrifices offered by Cain carnally was I will not eat flesh while the world stands that I may not offend my brother that is I will not communicate carnally in the word and worship of God unto eternity that so I may not destroy but save that brother-hood kinded and alyed in Christ as if he should say I will vindicate and cleare the state of the Gospel in the word and worship of God so as never carnal or transitory thing was brought in by God to contribute neither in point of being nor of beauty from the first to the last from the original unto the end thereof And from this our Apostle proves himself to be an Apostle or Leader and examplary by another manner of knowledge and Ministry according to that knowledge and wisdome which transcends the knowledge of all the Idolathites in the world opened and manifested unto us in the nineth Chapter Which he first propounds unto us in a four-fold interrogation Vers 1. Am I not an Apostle Wherein is first magnifical challenge given to all false Apostles or Leaders in that way of Idolatry to bring in all their allegations to the contrary and they shall see them all frustrate and of no value except to convince and condemn themselves thereby Secondly A tryumphant interrogation or confirmation hereof unto all the Saints who can bring in their testimony and be as so many witnesses of the truth hereof being led by the same spirit and therefore eye-witnesses of the same thing 2. Am I not free that is am I not freed from all intanglements of national Priviledges natural Geneologies Families Tribes and Ceremonial Injunctions with which Vers 2. If I be not an Apostle to others or in others that is Affirmatively I am not a leader in that way of the Idolathite which sits in the carnal and idolatrous Temple as the Authour of destruction and leader thereunto Yet doubtless I am unto you that is there is no question or scruple to be made of it but the wisdom wherein I express my self is the very Authour of and Leader of you unto salvation which he confirms by argument and divine reasonings For ye are the seal of mine Apostleship that is there is not any thing which passeth out of the Office of mine Apostleship but it is under the very Prints and Characters wherein the word of God hath impressed and formed it self in your proper estate and condition by Christ in this our Lordship and Authority So that a true Minister of Christ hath the witnes of the Saints of God in all ages of the world for the confirmation of the verity and authority of his Ministry which is That great cloud of witness which compasseth every Saint of God causing them to cast away every thing that presseth down and which hangeth so fâ—st on and to run with patience the race that is set before them yea they witness not only to the truth of the Ministry but also to the manner and form of it both which are only and ever found in Christ Who is yesterdy and to day and the same for ever and that is sufficient testimony and dignity to a Minister of the Gospel so as he rests content with whatsoever befalls him or his portion may seem to be in the things of this presnt life whereas such as terminate the word of God in any thing else besides Christ they will indeavour to invest themselves into any place or dignity amongst men which is above that which at present they are in either in way of Kingdom or Priesthood if by any means they can possibly by that aspiring spirit attain unto it for their Law concludes that the highest place among men is the nearest and likest unto God and therefore binds them over to conform themselves unto God by being invested into the highest place and Office they can attain unto Whereas the Saints of God are of the same Office and Dignity under the same Seal and Authority for there is not one of them but witnesseth the same good confession before Pontius Pylate that is they all oppose the power and authority of God against all power and authority of the wicked world which is of that evil one Vers 3. My defence that is my armour weapons fortress or garrison yea my prasidium that is all manner of defence provision and comfort to answer them that examine me or them that weigh me as upon scales namely the false interpreters or apostles for whatsoever such do to my doctrine they do to me for my doctrine and I are one whatsoever the principles of a mans spirit are the man is not another but the same thing so that they who purposly as by law burn mens doctrine published by printing it in a book they do in the truth of the matter burn the Authour it is good to take heed therefore lest the spirit of God was in the inditing of it so when they weigh doctrine by laying one reason against another and one scripture against another as upon scales such Jewish scales fell from the eyes of our apostle when Christ appeared in the ministry of Ananias when he was filled with the holy spirit whereby a true apostle or minister of the gospel propounds him who is all things in every point of doctrine yea all things that really subsist and exsist in the proper work and Creation of God in Christ and if â—o then what can all false apostles and teachers bring in and lay on the scales against it to try the weight of it surely nothing but vanity emptiness and distraction which can never hold weight with that truth and substance of all things comprised in the doctrine and incomprehensible principles of the Son of God My defence then is this that is to say the sequel of this Chapter or of this whole epistle To prove therefore that mine apostleship stands not upon carnal principles as the ministry of all false apostles doth but upon such as
and affairs which themselves are freed from so that they only may be drawn out in prayer as a continned act office trade or calling belonging only in that point unto them as their peculiar calling and office this is a false pretence and meer colour and deceitful gloss set upon prayer to beguile the world when men ingross the holy and free spirit of supplication monopolizing it unto themselves by denying the rest of the Saints of God to injoy it in like extent and by as just and good right in the exercise of it continually and as not being of like concernment in every one of the godly as it is or ever was in any one or as thongh others of the Saints stood not so near unto God therein nor came into the holy of holyest by virtue of office as themselves do This is a meer pharisaical and hippocritical deceit concerning praying to delude the world namely to draw out prayer as a continned act and exercise and to be of more concernment in some mens calling then in others of the people of God for the spirit of intercession is of like virtue extent and concernment when and in whomsoever it doth appear otherwise the bloud of sprinkling should not be of like virtue to speak the same good thing in one of the Saints of God as it doth in another for it is the same eternal spirit by which he offereth up himself without spot unto God Hebr. 12. 24 Hebr. 9. 14 in all as one and in one as all And by this pharisaical and hypocritical deceit is the widows house devoured for whosoever he be that sets himself by office nearer to God then the rest of his brethren that man must of necessity exclude and shut them out of that holy place of Gods habitation and dwelling which is that state and faith of the Lord Jesus that habitation of God through the Spirit Ephes 2. 22. and so defrauds the desolate of that plentiful supply which God hath appointed for all such as come unto him by enterposing himself between God and them for he that sets one Saint of God nearer unto God then another he devours and spoils the habitation of God that is he corrupts the state of the Lord Jesus in which holy habitation God is only a father to the fatherless and a Judge of the widow For therein and not elsewhere is he become their head and only Lordship there is he their protection and defence there is he their provision and bountiful supply there is he their only instruction and instructour and there and not elsewhere is he that happy multiplication and multiplier of himself in all those fruits of righteousness which are of God by Jesus Christ Rom. 7. 4. Philip. 1. 11. Therefore Christ saith in opposing these false interpreters to all true disciples be not ye called Rabbi for one is your master even Christ or yet have one mastership even that unction which teacheth you all things John 2. 20. Hebr. 8. 11. and ye are all brethren or ye are all one brotherhood that is equal in any point of dignity and call no man father on the earth for one is your father in heaven You are not the off-spring of any earthly progenitour but are the royal seed of heaven and have alike fatherly authority in your selves to produce a like posterity therefore he saith he that is greatest among you shall be your servant that is the greatest dignity in any of the Saints is to be a servant unto all the Saints therefore did the Lord of all wash the disciples feet and wiped them with the towel wherewith he had girded himself to give them an example of performing the like service John 13. So Christ saith to the disciples Whether is greater he that fitteth at meat or he that serveth is not he that â—itteth at meat but I am among you as he that serveth Luke 2â— 27. 1. He then whosoever he be that in pretence of being exalted by the word of God into place and office above any of the servants of God that is such servants as are the Lords freemen 1 Cor. 7. 22. that man is a false interpreter of the word of God yea an hypocritical scribe and pharisee it is he that loves the uppermost seat in the synagogue for it is not the sitting in any seat but the love of a high seat that he may appear as the nearest to God in all acts of worship and to come more immediately from God in all his commands and exortations then any of his brethren Matth. 23. 6. These are they that devour the widows houses by setting themselves nearer to God then others and thereby shut the desolate out of the place of Gods holy habitation where only the Lord is the present and full supply of them Psalme 68. 5. 2. These are they who loved the uppermost roomes at feasts as being the proper cause of all festivity they being the only instruments of peace the procurers of plenty and chief cause of the joyful condition of the people and so interpose themselves between God and such as are in plenty also that the praise may redound unto them and so deprive God of his glory in their deceiving of the people Matth. 23. 6. 3. These are they that love greeting in the market place and to be called of men Rabbi Rabbi Matth. 23. 7. they love to be honoured as masters and lords of the market that is of all commerce and trade not only between man and man but also between God and man and so in the feasts also for who must be an instrument to feast thâ— soul but only they and who must rejoyce and sing when they see cause of mourning this point is not only practised amongst them who are raised bâ— the help and addition of school-divinity to their natural spirit for it is evident amongst these Indians the Barbarians amongst whom we live for if any of the superiours mourn if there be found any of the inferiours rejoycing if he escape with his life it is much if it be not taken away by one means or other But these must be masters and lords of the market also in that they appoint the place the time the manner of commerce for weights measures kinds of coyn with the value of it keepers of the peace quieters and stillers of the people and he that keeps not time comes to the place holding weight and measure acknowledging the rates and valuation set by elders of church or state that man is a sinner culpable of punishment what are they then who love to be called lord â—ord but such as are nearer God then others stand in the place of God which the rest of their brethren do not these devour the habitation of the widow by shutting the desolate out of Gods holy habitation where he hath related himself alike unto all in that judgement which he pass th upon all of them whose first husband the law of the carnal
is said the word was made flesh or is made flesh and tabernacles in us as the words are and we saw his glory as the glory or as the word is verily the glory of the only begotten of the father full of grace and truth Iohn 1. 14. So that he maintains a Spirit of Christ early or late without the complete matter whereof Christ consists that man is ignorant of Christ and interprets the word in the denyal of him being that spirit denies that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh which is not of God but is that spirit of antichrist 1 Iohn 4. 2 3. for to confess Christ Jesus as born of the Virgin Mary only in the dayes of Herod is not confession which the Apostle intends for it that his coming in the flesh in the confession thereof were to speak by the Spirit of God I think then all that ever spoke the Latine tongue would prove speakers by the Spirit of God and then such as they stile Papists would be the most eminent confessours of Jesus which are so cried out against as hereticks for as concerning that act of his doctrinal coming in the flesh who have more images crucifixes Sacraments and Idolatrous monuments then they amongst whom there is no speaking by the holy Spirit of God at all but are such as compass sea and land walking to and fro without certainty and pitching the points of their circumference at such a distance as the coming of Christ in the flesh never admitted of the Jews propounded a time remote wherein he would come the Gentiles a time remote that he was here in the flesh and neither the one nor the other led by that spirit never would nor will acknowledge him his true and real appearance Psalme 2. 1. 6. 2. The second point in the pronouncing of this wo is the end for which they are in this care and travel and that is to make one proselite that is one religion to have all men of the same profession that so the arm of flesh might bear the sway without controul or disturbance this the world hath travelled in from the beginning thinking it can never be glorious and secure till it be effected at the least in great measure so as to be the major vote at the least to this eomes the study of reformation that great toil of preaching after the manner of the doctrine of the pharises that rigour of executions in carnal governments that all may come to be of one mind to make a glorious Church and state to have no gainsayers nor such as shall offend These cannot be content to give unto Cesar the things that are Cesars and unto God the things that are Gods Matth. 22. 21. but they will make Cesar to be God and so convert the devil and cannot rest till light and darkness Christ and Belial be made one 2 Cor. 6. 14 15 16. These men are remote from hearing of that voice my graâ—e is sufficient for thee for if they know that the power of God were only made manifest and perfected through the weakness of man that is by an utter cessation of all humane abillities in the matters of God they could not but know also shat the force of man by means of multitude can be no hinderance of the good successe of the Saints though never so few in number in any age of the world for that day of small things in the eyes of carnal contemners and dispisers break forth into those seven eyes of God or seven fold light of the Spirit which are about the throne of God Zachar. 4. 10. Revel 1. 4. together wit that plummet or plumm-line in the hand of our Zorubbabel to give a â—ight form unto all things belonging to the temple in the perfecting thereof then is the time for power to appear in the oxes goad Iudge 3. 31. and strength in the jaw bone of an asse Iudges 15. 15 16. then will terrour arise out of the whistling or the wind in the top of the Mulberry trees 1 Chron. 14 â—4 15. and fear from the appearance of Gidians Barley cake Iudges 7. 13 22. If men knew the manner of the resurrection of Gods power in the Spirit of a Saint how it perfects it self through mans own deficiency they would never be so industrious to make the world become of one religion for fear of a multitude of opposites Not but that the Saints of God may be furnished with abillity to know any art or science as well as any other man and have the practice of it only with this two fold caveat they know all humane and temporary things through the valing of them and the vanishing of them if they know them so as Christ is propagated uâ—to them by the knowing of them as he is the true end of all things Rom. 10. 4. Rom. 11. 36. So to know them is to vale them in point of all glory or excellency appearing in them heing so truly known even as Tamar was valed when Judah knew her in the propagation of Phares Gen. 38. 13. 13 14 15 16 19 20 21. of whom Christ came Matth. 1. 8. so that in knowing her he knew her not the Saints look upon the glory of the world as an inticing harlot nsing it as though they used it not and buy as though they possessed not for the fashion of it passeth away 1 Cor. 7. 31. Therefore in the second place they know the things of the world to the vanishing of them as a leaf tossed with the wind Iob 13. 25. Isa 34. 4. and as the flower of grass when the wind hath passed upon it Isa 4 6 7. even as Tamar was vanished when the kid was sent to receive the robes of honour from her Therefore the Apostle speaking of that glory which seems to be in the administration of the law which he calls the ministry of condemnation saith it hath no glory when the ministration of the spirit appears which he calls the exceeding or excellent glory 2 Cor. 3 9 10. To conclude this point those who see such excellencies to appear in the multitude as to use all their pollicy and industry to bring all into a uniformity they never saw the excellent glory but they are such men of renown as were in the beginning the Giants of the world who to bring forth a mighty and monstrouse generation bring into contract and covenant the posterity of Cain and Seth in the point and matter of increase abroad have been the ruine of the world ever since it existed Gen. 6. chap. the only composers of sea and land to the production of the deluge of Gods displeasure upon the sons of men 3. Therefore the third point is the issue when you have made him he is two fold more the child of hell then you your selves that is when false interpretation of the law hath begotten a spirit of pride and cruelty to execute according to those lying and dissembling dictates which is the bringing forth
expound the word so as it may be applied to poor silly women whom they can intangle and trap in their talk and so make such the guilty persons and authours of mischief But the Temple and he that dwells therein is one undivided and never was nor shall be separated whatsoever the pharises teach to the contrary which our Apostle elegantly declares saying and hath put all things under his feet and gave him to be head over all things in the church which is his body the ful ness of him thht filleth all Ephes 1. 22. 23. in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord in whom you are builded together for an habitation of God in the spirit Ephes 2. 21 22. Thirdly Christ useth another argument to evince the truth against these false interpretours which is an explication of the former saying And he that sweareth by heaven sweareth by the throne of God by him that sitteth thereon that is he that is ingaged and bound over as by oath unto heaven he is ingaged to the throne of God that is to the kingly authority of the Son of God Psalme 132 11 12. and to him that sits thereon to sit is to abide and continue or dwell Psalme 1. 1. Psalme 2. 4. in the execution of that authority the word translated seat or to sit signifies also an assize session or assembly for the use and skilful ordering and disposing of all things so the Hebrew word Moshab is taken in Psalme 107. 32. see what follows to the end of the Psalme the throne and him that sits thereon are one entire thing for the unction is upon none but Christ the anointed of God and the exercise of this unction cannot be found extant but in the Son of God alone And whereas he brings in heaven and the throne of God to be one and the same so that he that swears by heaven swears by the throne and him sits thereon it is to explicate his former argument that as by heaven here we are not to terminate our thoughts in these visible heavens or in any thing or place limited according to the bonnds of a creature but according to the throne or authority of the Son of God even so we are not to terminate our thoughts in a Temple or altar in what sence soever they may be taken if their edifice and form were either erected or shall pass away in time which is the doctrine of the pharisaical and false interpretours But true interpretours terminate the subject matter of their doctrine in that state of the Son of God who is the first and the last yea it is he alone who is and was and will be the same Revel 22. 13. Revel 1. 8. out of whom or out of which the heart of man can never enter into rest Hebr. 4. 6 11. And these deceitful prevaricatours of the law in dividing Christ in matter of doctrine they divide themselves from Christ by unbelief And thence is brought in the ground of the denunciation of the fift wo laid down in the 23 24. verses which consists in their tything of mint Annis and Commin and neglecting the weighty matters of the law wherein observe 1. First what they do they tithe mint annis and Commin 2. Their Neglect that is of the weighty matters of the law 3. Wherein these weighty matters do consist that is in judgement mercy and fidelity 4. Wherein their doctrine and practice out to appear that is in doing these weighty things not leaving the inferiour undone 5. A severe charge laid upon them to be blind guides 6. Their gross hypocrisie in straining at a gnat and swallowing a camel 1. For the first they take tithe and they also pay tithe as Matthew and like compared together declare for so the law appoints in tithing or taking the tenth two things are to be considered as the first born are known to be the Lords in that they first open the womb and none can deny but the right of inheritance belongs unto them Yea that first born of God Jesus Christ is known to be the Royal off spring of the most high by opening the womb of eternal life unto us or in us so that none can call into question the blessing of the birth-right being he is descended of God But the tenth as considered in the flock or in the field none can give a reason why the rod should pass upon this rather then upon that Levit. 27. 30 32 33. even so the sons of God as they spring out of the earth and are formed of the slime and dust of the ground Gen. 2. 7. no man can give a reason why the rod or scepter of Jesus Christ should fall into the hand of this man rather then that which God hath left in their sins and given up unto wrath for by nature in that refpect we are the same which they are Ephes 2. 3. 2. Again the word tithe or the tenth comprehends all of that kinde which is presented even as the whole law is comprehended in one of those ten words for so the phrase is Deut. 10. 4. which God spake unto Moses for it is fulfilled in this one word love Gal. 5. 14. Rom. 13. 10. The tenth also is taken for eternity by the verdict of the word of God the tenth generation is expounded to be eternity Deut. 23. 3. by the Spirit of God so that the tenth comprehends all times and all things which nothing but the Son of God can do who only is that all in all Ephes 1. 23. who is an inheritance falling by lot in way of tithe Psalme 16. 5 6. as well as in way of a purchased possession Ephes 1. 14. as really as he is a son by adoption taken out of the house of a stranger as he is man and a natural son the true off-spring of almighty God also as he is begotten of the father of lights Iohn 1. 13 14. Iames 1. 17 18. So that as the Hebrew word Mas is often used for tribute signifies sufficiency or enough and is so translated Deut. 15. 8. because it gives an interest in him that payes it and to all that he hath if occasion be even so the tithe comprehends an alsufficiency or enough of all thiugs whatsoever which is not elsewhere to be found but only in Christ Let earthly tithe-mungers who translate the Gospel into transient things weigh this point well and know they are these deceitful pharises 3. Add further that in tithes the priest is to pay tithe as well as to receive it for he is appointed to pay the tenth of the tenth Nehem. 10. 38. Therefore the Spirit of God saith by Matthew ye pay tithes of mint Annnis and Commin speaking to these hypocritical teachers or expounders of the law But Luke hath it ye tithe as taking tithe the Mint the Rew and all manner of green herbs Luke 11. 42. So that they receive inferiour and base things of the
delighted in Gallatians 6. 14. It never attains to the offering up unto God the fruits of an Eternall spirit as that which is onely acceptable to God without the institution or addition of any things transient and temporary whatsoever for Christ who is onely acceptable to God so offereth up himself once and for ever in the true operation and continued act of acceptation thereof for the act and acceptation are of like continuance and have the same place of residenccy for where the one is found there is never the absence of the other Hebrewes 9. 14. For Christ is both the one and the other Again false Interpretation can never make God its onely inheritance and portion to live on him onely in the exercise of its Ministery because it terminates the word in carnall things and therefore is bound over to seek some certainty and settlement in the things of this present life and cannot as a pilgrim in point of all transitory things where ever he comes commit himself to God as his onely and allsufficiency as the true Priests and Prophets of God have ever done according to that Royall Ordination and apointment of God Deut. 18. 1 2. Num. 18. 20. 21. who is become their lot and happy inheritance Psal 16. 5 6. even of all true worshippers who are made Kings and Priests unto God Revel 5. 10. Revel 1. 6. False interpretation never invests into the spirit of intercession an office of the Priest which Scribes and Pharisees Hypocrites never received nor gave out the spirit of prayer never accompanies false interpretation and it is the Spirit only that helps our infirmities and makes intercession in us or by us otherwise we know not how to pray as we ought Rom. 8. 26. and the spirit of prayer never moves but upon the words of truth Psam 45. 4. for it ever comes to God in the name of Christ or in the power and authority of the Son of God Iohn 14. 13 14. Iohn 16. 23. which onely consists in the true understanding of his Word Isay 11. 4. Revel 2. 16. For all things receive their being form and proper vertue from it Moreover false interpetation never attaines the Priests office to make an Atoment and Reconciliation between God and man to reconcile the Word of God so as to accord and agree with it self in all things and at all times having a like cessity of the utteriug of it self upon the same foundation 1 Cor. 3. 11. in the same termes and form of Words according to the true scope and intent 2 Tim. 1. 13. and of the same attainments in point of the end and issue 2 Tim. 4. 8. Iames 1. 1â— without which there was never peace wrought between the Creator and the Creature nor form given unto the Faith of Christ for the Word of God never came out as from God but in that onenesse of spirit which appears in the man Christ and he that cannot bring the Word of God into an agreement and harmony in it self without neglect of what hath been spoken or want of somewhat which hath not yet appeared he Can never utter the truth as it is in Iesus Ephes 4. 21. and without the Truth as it is in Iesus no peace with God appears for he onely is our peace Ephes 2. 14. And this reconciliation of the Word of God is as strange a thing to a naturall minde as to bring the strict Iew and the profane Gentile to become one and that to the minde of a carnall interpreter takes a man being a Iew or a Confessour according to the letter as far from the Word of God as it is the ground of his beleese as the Apostle Paul that Minister of the Gentiles was taken away from his religion as it consisted of the orders of Ierusalem the minde letters and power of the High Priest and Elders and those breathings out of slaughters against all that called upon the name of the Lord Acts 9. 1 -14 And as it takes a strict Iew that is one outward and according to the letter so far from his religion and so from his God which hee flies unto as his onely help So also it takes the carnall Gentile as far from his religion and God who walkes at large without any tie or bond upon him in the liberall and licencious use of all things as Corneliâ—s was taken far from being a thing common and unclean to become a devout man one that feared God with all his houshold giving much almes and praying unto God yea became Baptized or ingrafted through the Apostle Peters Ministery who was a Minister of the Circumcision into the grounds and true principles of the whole Law of God Acts. 10. To bring therefore the carnall Iew into liberty as from under the Law in all things and the profane Gentile who hath no bond upon him in the use of Gods works buâ— can use them all at his pleasure to become as under the bond of the law of the Spirit in all things This power of God in freeing from the law of the flesh and bringing men under the law of the spirit is in a carnall mans eyes as though religion cast off both the Word of God as also the works of God as though he would not be ruled by the one nor acknowledge any thing to be in the other as though religion sprung from neither of them both neither from word nor work of God but did annihilate both and verily so it doth according to that judgement which a carnall Interpreter passeth upon them according to which he can never reconcile the Word of God and therefore his proper work is to set God and man at variance Adde further that false Interpretation never blesseth nor speaketh well of the King Christ it never attaines unto the Office of Priesthood so as to speak well of the King of Saints therefore he saith ye shall not see me so as to blesse praise or commend him that comes in the Name of Lord it is a definitive sentence given by Christ that the spirit of a false Interpreter will never speak well of the power and authority of the Son of God who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords Revel 19. 16. Revel 17. 14. that is his Kingdom consists of none but Kings for they all Reign over the things of this life as things put under their feet Psal 8. 6 7 8 9. as really as they are all in subiection unto what soever is of God which no earthly Kingdom can ever attain unto 1 Whosoever comes therefore in the Name of the Lord as having authority to command by vertue of the law of the spirit of life which is in Christ Iesus Carnall interpreters ever prefer the commands of men according to the law of the flesh before that Iohn 19. 7. Setting up the glory of the Creature before the glory of the Creatour 2 Whosoever comes in the authority of Gods Wisdome to order and contrive all things according to that
life no more is the gospel beholding unto or stands in need of any memontany thing whatsoever to add any thing in the least to the glory and virtue of it For as the holy Son of God contributes nothing of himself or heavenly thing to the form of Satan or to his being such an unclean spirit as he is so there is no earthly or corruptible thing whatsoever that contributes any thing to the form or fulness of the gospel and therefore free from being ingaged to the world in or for any thing No it stands in no need oâ— the riches of the world for it hath hiden treasures in it self in abundance nor honour from the world for it hath an exceeding and transcendent glory in it self neither hath it need of any power from the world for it is in it self a supereminent power and virtue no nor of any liberty of conscience as from any man or men of the world for it hath the freedome and liberty of the son of God in it self and if the Son make you free then are you free indeed all that I propound to my self in preaching the gospel therefore is to make it free that the world make not an apprentice or rather a slave of it unto themselves setting themselves up by it and above it That I abuse not my liberty in the gospel that is that I impair it not nor suffer any infringement or diminution of the authority and freedom thereof that nothing detract from it by setting it self so above it as it cannot be well without it whatsoever is not of its own nature and substance or enter into co-partnership with it as adding unto the stock and treasury thereof for then is a thing abused when it is villified and denyed to be that which it is when it is lessened weakned or deprived of that which is proper unto it and of right appertains and belongs thereunto but the gospel hath all things whatsoever both in point of form and substance that can properly be said to be the work of God therefore to add any thing thereunto that is not of its own nature hath been and ever shall is to abuse that great grace of the liberty and freedome of the gospel Vers 19. For though I be free from all men in these words the Spirit of God in our Apostle seems to change the subject of his speech in that whereof he treats transferring that unto himself which before he gives to the gospel for the liberty of the gospel he makes here to be his liberty saying for though I be free and that I abuse not my liberty which before he affirms that it is only the freedome of the gospel which he labours for giving us to understand hereby that the Saints of God are the subject matter of the gospel and not onely the Sainrs of God in general as that mystical and universal body of Christ but every one in particular is the same subject matter and of the same concernment that the gospel of God is for Christ cannot be divided neither can the spirit be received by measure nor can one lyne or letter in that book of the covenant be cancelled but the whole covenant is void and of none effect so that God hath respect to his Saints as collecting all into one and distributing one into all and therefore the whole and every particular are of the same concernment So that we cannot teach the true state of one Christian in any respect but we teach the state of the whole body in that respect and we cannot teach the state of the mystical body of Christ but we teach the state of Christ himself and if we preach Christ we preach the gospel and if we teach ought else as any point or particular of salvation we pervert the gospel to our selves and all that hear us with approbation to distruction For a true Christian and the gospel have one and the same form they consist of the same matter they have the same spirit and are of the same spirit they are of the fame degree and dignity and of the same respect and continuation before God yea Davids seed is as the sun that sure witness in heaven that faiâ—eth not and therefore the Apostles are said to be the lights of the world as Christ himself is truly delineate a Christian then and you truly discribe Christ villifie imprison reject and kill the one and ye villifie imprison reject and kill the other for Christ is the subject matter of the gospel not as a man alone or particular person without being composed and consisting of his mystical body even as one shed forth and defused into all and as all gathered up and united in every particular so that the Saint of Israel singularly or the Saints of Israel plurally is or are the subject matter of the gospel so that open and set forth one Saint or souldier of Christ and the whole host of heaven appears in the same rank and do you order and amplifie the host never so magnifically and it shall contract imbody and convey it self into one particular No man can describe a Christian but that which he takes his form from must appear which is the gospel or form of wholsome words nor can any man preach the gospel or set forth that form of wholsome words but as it or they give form to a Christian therefore the freedome of the gospel is the freedome of our Apostle and the freedome of an Apostle is the freedome and liberty of the gospel or thus as the word imports the power and authority of the gospel is the proper power and authority of a Christian and the power and authority of a Christian is the proper power and authority of the gospel For though I be free from all men or from all things as the word will beat without straining it as if he should say there is no man or thing that can lay claim unto me or hath any right or interest in me so as to challenge or countermand mine authority as a superintendent power being my freedome is the freedome of the gospel the subject matter whereof is the Son of God So that nothing can challenge any title in me save only the same spirit whereof I am or the same body wherein I consist because nothing can add any thing to the fulness of that one body nor can be of like nature or constitution to be joyned therewith by any ligament or bond whatsoever so also contribute unto me in any respect as having the least desert whereby to require any thing at all from me in way of requital as its proper right no all schools of humane learning never contributed any thing neither unto my being nor form for I received it not from man neither can they challenge right or interest in any point of doctrine in which I teach according to the nature and true intent thereof and however it be true that my freedome and authority be such
not having in it real and substantial things or matter wherewith to fill it there the aire takes place and is the fulness of it even so whereever and in what heart the real and substantial things of the Son of God are not there doth the devil take place and is the fulness of that heart whatever it be in the judgement of men So that the true acknowledgement of weakness I am one with as it is the only capacity of the fulness of the spirit of God in the exercise of its virtues and manifestation of the power of God and not of man And by this I gain weakness in the true acknowledgement thereof to consist only in Christ the alsufficient strength of God and is not elsewhere to be found where all insufficiency must of necessity flie away and there only is all true and proper motion in way of holyness and honour whereby the power and glory of God and not of the creature comes to move upon mankind and manifest it self in all his virtues and excellencies whatsoever and by this means of becoming weak I gain all weakness or weakness to become that alsufficiency and strength of the Son of God who is able to subdue all things unto himself this weakness being the proper receptacle and place of the abode and hiding of his power So as none but himself can find out how to communicate or participate therein where only he is known in all his particular virtues goodness and love in the exercise and injoyment thereof forever I am made all things in all men or thus I am made all men in all things that is there is not any thing wherein the mind of man naturally moves with respect to God or with respect to any of the works of God or wherein any of the creatures are in motion towards mankind or among themselves but I make my self a companion therewith or a suting thereunto in point of all operations relations and respects and that to this end that by opening and disclosing of my self what I am in any such operation relation or respect in point of the reality substantiality and continuation thereof in the truth and verity of the thing as countable and of worth in the records of God I may thereby disanul and abolish and bring to nought as things of no truth and of no virtue in whatsoever the natural heart of man moves towards God and the creature and also in whatsoever man naturally contains or receives from the motions of God or the creatures towards himself and make good that all such things come within the confines of that law of the carnal commandement consisting in ordinances which are against us and therefore are nailed unto the cross of Christ and forever made sure and intailed only to that carnal and fleshly spirit of the Jew which ever crucifies the Lord of glory according to the Spirit putting him to open shame or making a mock of him and therefore in the disanulling and abrogating of all these carnal things nailed unto the cross of Christ I make it plain and manifestly to appear that the solid truth and reality of all things consist and have their proper and only being in Christ and out of whom all things are vain and empty only filled with that spirit of cruelty and persecuting Jew And by this means I strip the world lay it waste and make it vacant of all things whatsoever that turn to any account or reckoning in the records of God or that is found written in that book of life wherein all living and acceptable things are written and the rest are such as are written in the earth So that the world hath nothing left to take hold of for any stay or support in which can be any hope or confidence to trust unto for there is nothing to be found of such nature or quality that is not involved within that proper state and real condition of Jesus Christ the Son of the blessed That I may by all means save some that is that I may by the true controverting of all things make it apparent and plain that salvation doth consist in every thing according to that which Gods wisdome hath ordered and appointed all things to be and appear in Christ either as he is given as a ransome and so as lost or given up unto death in all things that are holy and spiritual in the men of the world in whom nothing of his divine and proper virtue doth appear or is in being and exercised in which estate the reality of all things appertaining to death are for ever in their heighth of operation Or else as he is the ransomed from death in his chosen and elect ones in whom all things of life righteousness and peace are in their proper being virtue and exercise thereof and so in Christ as dead or alive are all real things of death and life only found and thus by becoming all things I save some or as the word imports I save all that is as all things universally became death and destruction as Satan orders them in putting Christ to death in all spiritual respects Even so all things universally become resurrection and life as the wisdome of God orders them in the mortification and death of all carnal and sensual things in Christ whereby the life of God is revived in the son of man in all spiritual and eternal respects and thus all things are destroyed and brought to nought by Satan or by man in his defection from God which is a universal fall of mankind from his Creatour forever And it is as true that all things universally are saved and confirmed in a state of excellency and perfection by the resurrection and ascention of the Son of man through that wisdome of God into the life and reign of and in all things that are proper to God eternally And observe that this death unto all spiritual things proper to the infinite and eternal Son of God must needs be of universal comprehension and being alive unto all the things proper to the same Son of God must needs be of the same universal extent yet it is impossible that these twain should reside in one and the same individual substance and being and therefore a universal estate of death and also a universal estate and condition of life is found in the sons of men of one and the same extent because it is of the Son of God in way of his death and of his life that gives latitude and longitude to them both and therefore a two fold state and condition standing in due opposition is found in mankind and shall be forever Vers 23. And this I do for the gospels sake that is that I may give all honour and estimation unto the gospel or unto the Son of God so that whatsoever hath in it any worth or dignity utility or excellency it is only substantiated and eternized in the subject matter of the gospel and not elsewhere to
foreskin of the flesh which is the proper cause of the seed of immortallity it s not taking effect which must be laid aside or cast off as that which is the only filthiness and enmity against God 1 James 1. 21. This eternal wisdome therefore thus ingrafting it self into the stock of mans spirit doth by virtue of that nature life and spirit proper to it self transform and change whatsoever is in motion or springs up in the stock into its own nature and kind namely into things not of time but of eternity so that whatsoever springs up or fruit yielded by that whole tree consisting of stock and science are the proper fruits of the Spirit of God and not of the nature of the spirit of man though that whole tree of righteousness hath the virtue glory and benefit and is the proper cause of the abounding and bring forth of them all Christ therefore as he is the fountain and proper producer of all spiritual and eternal fruit so is the fruit thus brought forth the proper food and refreshment of the Son of God on which he feeds as his only delight and proper preservation of eternal life Cant. 4 13 14 15 16. Cant. 5. 1. Iohn 4 32. Iohn 6. 54. Wherefore the distributions and receptions of the things of God mutually in Christ is the only conservation of that one state being made of twain unto eternity Ephes 2. 14 15. Whence we may observe wherein that broad difference appears even in this life that is betwixt the holy ones of God and the wicked of the world though they may use the like expressions and perform like bodily actions which is not so visible but by the intentions and extention of spirit that is the Saints of God make it their only errant in their passage through this life to propagate and promote the things of eternity peculiar to that state of the Son of God with the villification of and sitting loose from all things of time as they being no part of their designe in their appearing in this mortal and transitory life and so demean themselves in all things of time if they abound they think not themselves the better nor place any of their delight courage or confidence in them Psalm 62. 10. If they be deminished they judge not themselves the worse because they reckon not their estates according to the value of any or all of them and therefore are not under the vexation of an incumbred spirit in the absence of them Iob 1. 21. by which they shew themselves plainly unto all men that they belong to another citie and countrey in which God is not ashamed but counts it his glory and honour to be called their God and proper and peculiar interest in whatever he is being they are but sojourners pilgrims and strangers upon the earth Heb. 11. 9. 14 15 16. Therefore Christ saith unto all despised by this shall all men know that you are my disciples or are taught and learned in me if you love one another Iohn 13. 34 35. that is if your love be shed forth only in the acknowledgment of that new law of relation and mutuall community which is only found in that mystical body of your Lord as nothing else being worthy to be the object of that conjugal love of the spirit as a mutual help meet for it Gen. 2. 20. then this shall be your badge and cognizance or cognominâ—s that you have my name upon you as a spouse the name of her Lord so that I will own and acknowledge you whereever you shall become either in respect of time people place or condition as my peculiar and exempted people from the rest of the world But the wicked and unbelievers make it their principal designe to propagate and promote the things of time and villifie and disregard the things of eternity and in respect of that wherein their true virtue and glory doth consist abhor them in their hearts only make use of them in way of adultery submitting them to their own lusts only to propagate and promote the things of time â—alsly calling the names proper to the eternal Son upon them and thereof weave a spiders web as the only garment to cover them after the end of this mortal life Iob 8. 13 14 Isa 59. 5. and in all their travels through the same their whole scope and indeavour is to bring forth promote possess and indeavour the continuation of things of time Therefore it is that they call their sons their houses and lands by their own name Psalme 49. 11 12 13. therefore the Psalmist in uttering of his parable wherein he shows mans mortal condition by nature and his baseness and brutishness in setting his heart upon temporary things he calls them inhabitants of time or dwellers upon transitory things saying here this all people give eare all ye inhabitants of time for so the word translated world doth properly signifie in the Hebrew phrase Psalme 49. 1. As a man therefore in his house and dwelling place all his indeavours are to maintain reform repair promote and honour the same yea and he is never at his proper home but when he is there nor in content nor at rest so are the wicked in point of the things of time being from home out of imployment seeing nothing worth promotion therein nor yielding satisfaction and rest when the proper home and imployments about the Son of God appear which are only eternal and fade not 1 Pet. 1. 4. 1 Pet. 5. 4. and the only imployment and dwelling place of all the Saints which are not only Symptoms but evident acts of separation between the just and unjust which he that runs may read where-ever they both appear And for conclusion of this point note this that as the wisdome of God is as a graft in the spirit of the creature so as to eternize it in himself even so also the wisdome of the creature ingrafts it self in the spirit of the Creatour to the mortalizing and temporizing it in himself for the wisdome of man beholding the visible works of God which were all made before him cannot but conclude of an almighty power and wisdome which gave them their being virtues and relation and seeing none below him fit to communicate his wisdome with seeks up unto God as the serpent which is the same thing did at the first and so in that way of the fall seeking for God in the light and ability of principles proper to a creature he doth ingraft his wisdome in the Spirit of the Creatour as a sciene into the stock which is of another nature by cutting of that Branch which springs out of a dry ground Isaia 53. 2. and not out of any moisture of mans wisdome submitting the stock to humane wisdom and conjectures coming within the capacity and proper sphere of a creature through which he doth as absolutely temporize and mortallize the eternal Spirit or word of God as the wisdome of God in Christ
are the ornaments of your offices unless the Church in your estimation prefer you and where are those treasures of gifts you have if the Church have not distributed them unto you Again ye fools and blind is not the Son of God he that makes holy as well as he that is made holy and are ye bound more strictly to the one then the other when as they are both one individual subsistance Hebr. 1. 2 3. Ephes 2. 14 15. neither is there any place of glory worship or holiness but in that mystical body in Gods account Ephes 2 16. nor is there any gift person place or office in that Temple and dwelling place of the most high that is preferred in dignity one above another save only as Gods oportunity calls for present use and exercise of any of them and that prefers every one or every thing in Christ our true and only Temple to be chief and have preheminency in its proper time and place Eccles 3. 1 11. Again whosoever swears by the altar it is nothing but he that swears by the gift that is thereon he is a debter that is say these false interpreters he that is ingaged to the altar may dispence with his being present thereat and his attendance thereupon even as there is a liberty in the alter it self to be erected not alwayes of the same materials for sometimes it is an altar of earth Exod. 20. 24. and it is also an alter of wood Exod 27. 1. Sometimes it is an altar of stone Exod. 20. 25. and sometimes an altar of brass Exod. 39 39. Yea and sometimes it is a golden alter Exod. 39 38. and yet the truth is the difference of the materials whereof the altar is appointed to consist gives not the least liberty to dispence with the bond or oath so as to be freed of or absent from the altar in any respect For the difference of the matter whereof the altar consists is only to declare unto us that when Christ Gods true and only memorial is erected and proclaimed unto the sons of men in the world when they through a misconceiving spirit and miscarrying womb Hosea 9. 14. do cast that memorial of God into a form carnal and set up a statue destitute of the life of God then are the Saints of God by his authority and appointment to erect the worship of God to consist in things as far differing from their carved form as wood differs from earth and stone from wood brass from stone and pure gold from brass and yet no declining nor departure from the altar in any respect Hence it is that the Spirit of God in its metaphorical expressions by the prophets in the appointments of the worship of God in holy Writ by its elegant allusions to things within the sphere of humane capacity concerning the ceremonies and services of the law which carnal Israel understanding according to humane reason framing and erecting forms unto themselves accordingly The same Spirit of God in the prophets thereupon inveighs against them cries them down and disanuls them as being mans meer inventions and no part of the scope of the Prophet nor any thing of the mind and intent of the Spirit of God Isaia 1. 11 15. Psalme 40. 67. Hebr. 10. 1 9 Again these false interpreters will confess that Christ is the true altar because the Apostle affirms so much Hebr. 13. 10 11 12. but their confession is meerly verbals for they say Christ is the altar only as he is God and the sacrifice as he is man when as the truth is there is no office or act appertaining unto the Son of God that can be ascribed unto a nature which is not of twain made one Ephes 2. 15. for if God at any time or in any thing had reckoned himself one of or absent from the son of man no possibility had been left to have cast up or found out another form for he is the Lord that changeth not Mallac 3. 6. But these men say however men may be ingaged to the altar yet they are not bound alwayes to attend uoon and be present with the Lord Christ who is the true altar for he now only resides in heaven a place remote from the Saints on earth as though Shâ—cinah according to the Chaldee phrase the divine presence or grace were so bound up in one Son of God as not extending it self to another as a first born of God also of whom our Apostle affitms that there is an assembly and Church of them Hebr. 12. 23. or as though humane nature in one of Gods holy ones were nearer to divine grace and fatherly compassion then in any of the rest of that stock whereas the Apostle affirms that through the great and precious promises we are made partakers of the divine nature 2. Pet. 1. 4. plainly shewing that the proper subject of the promise which Christ in us the hope of glory and the divine nature are never seperated which is the subject matter and mysterie of the Gospel Coll. 1. 27. 2 Cor. 1. 20. Wherefore to hold our selves not bonnd to the reality of the presence of the alter is to deny and falsifie the mysterie of the Gospel for the whole form and frame of the worship of God consists therein Therefore it is called in Hebrew Mizbeach and in Greek Thusiasterion that is the Sacrificatory or place of slaying the sacrifice as being that whereby the world is crucified unto us we unto the world Gal. 6. 14 15. therefore when the prophet foretels the calling of the Gentiles under the term of Egyptians he saith In that day the alter of the Lord shall be set up in the midst of Egypt and a piller by the border thereof unto the Lord and it shall be for a signe and witness unto the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt Isa 19 20. that is it shall testifie the deliverance of the people from all wayes of Idolatry and their investment into the whole frame of the pure worship of the true God Somet â—es the altar is called Ariel that is the Lion of God Isa 29. 1. as that which devours all adverse power which opposeth any part of the purity of Gods worship as it is erected in Christ who is that true pattern shewed only in the mount Acts 7. 44. Exod. 25. 40. Hebr. 8. 5. therefore the altar is sometimes called Haâ—el that is the mountain of God Ezekiel 43. 15. as that which is lifted up and established above the heights and tops of the principallities and powers of this world the platform whereof cannot be seen by any but only him who is taken up into the mount to converse with God therein But the false interpretours affirm that whosoever swears by the gift on the altar he is a debter or bound and ingaged thereby that is such as are ingaged in the gifts laid on the altar or exercised in the form of worship as the gift of tongues the knowledge of arts the gift
people as things acceptable unto God and a satisfactory refreshment and comfort to themselves in lue of their labours which have not the fulness of the fruits of righteousness in them which are by Jesus Christ and as they get an interest in mean earthly and carnal things received from the people in Schools Synods Libraries Counsels and carnal cases propounded unto them which is the tenth received by them to live upon as the life and sufficiency of their ministry which is as plainly preached unto the world as the labours and benevolence of the people is and must be the life of their bodies or else their doctrine cannot be afforded unto them So likewise they pay tithes of like nature giving them out into the chambers of that earthly house made with hands that is to say into persons and congregations built up only in way of humane wisdome for when these things thus received have passed in their hands under the rod or authority of Egypt and not of Israel then they carry out the tenth as it falls in their ordering of it as the proper store provided by God for the food and refreshment of the poor stranger fatherless and widows in an apish imitation of that house of God not made with hands but eternal in the heavens Nehem. 10. 34 39. Deut. 14. 28 29. Deut. 26. 12. 2 Cor. 5. 1. The things therefore thar these expounders of the law do receive and pay as acceptable unto God in point of tithing for and to God are mean and transitory yea there is nothing wherein their doctrine doth consist that shall be able to pass under the natural death of the body with them but their whole religion ends and perisheth there for whereas the Apostle concludes that now abides faith hope and love these three but the chiefest of these is love 1 Cor. 13. 13. they not understanding the Apostle in that no more then in the rest of his doctrine do conclude that love is chief because it abides and the others cease at the end of this life But love according to their sence ceaseth also for in this life they teach we love God in and through another mediatly but then we shall love him immediatly which is not only love in another respect but also another kind of love even as among men in humane love a man may love a woman as a neighbour but to love her with a matrimonial love is love of another kind so that their whole religion is to seek after death yea love it self that conjugal virtue Add further their God ceaseth at death for they teach that God in this life accepts of his children in and through another but after this life he accepts of them immediately in themselves but if ever God change his relation unto and respect of a Son of his begotten of his own will Iames 1 18. he ceaseth to be God for the true God is as constant in his relation and motion in every good gift and perfect giving as that father of lights in Christ without shadow or motion of turning Iames 1. 17. as the body of the sun in the firmament which gives light to the world is free from any stain of darkness in it self or motion to turn from that course which it hath held from the beginning The doctrine and practice of false interpretours in point of tithe is mean and transitory consisting of Mint Rew and every green herb now the herb is given and appointed by God not only for food unto man but also for every beast of the field for every fowl of heaven and for every creeping thing on the earth Gen. 1. 29 30. So that the acceptable thing in the doctrine of the lawyers is that which is common to the unreasonable creatures together with mankind as the herbs of the field are wherein so much is signified unto us for if they preach the acceptable thing in rule and authority carnal and temporary wherein the Son of God Christ is not extant then have recourse to the Lion whose roaring shall make the people afraid that is his people the beasts of the Forrest Amose 3. 8. is the order of a commonwealth extolled go to the Bee-hive and you shall see wonderful devises in the desposure of things therein for the commoditie of the whole is preaching or speech forewarning of eminent danger though temporary for pharises deceitful cannot give warning concerning eternal danger because they know it not no more then they know eternal deliverance and they are ignorant of Christ in whom only it is Then go to the fowl that watcheth whilst the rest feed and you shall hear him speak in the language of the rest sufficiently for their flight that danger approacheth their doctrine of excellency in an host or army as in their sense Go to the Locusts who all go forth by bands Prov. 30. 27. though they have no king yet their natural instinct leads them in marching out to make spoil and the horse is fitted with skil for the battle Prov. 21. 31. If the observations of times and seasons be acceptable go to the Stork and the Crane who observe the time of their coming Ierem. 8. 7. yea the appointed time If you accept as a thing acceptable to God bodily exercise in all diligence with prudency and study to forecast then go to the people of the Ants or Pismires who have the art and exercise thereof without any guide or governour to teach or command them therein Prov. 6. 6. Prov. 30. 25. If you will see care in buildings and fortifications you shall find it without instruction or command in the people of the Conies whose house is the rock and the Fir-tree the Stork nestles in for there is her dwelling Proverb 30. 26. Psalme 104. 17. If you exalt conjugal ties of love in your marriage Sermons go to the Turtle-dove who hath it without your teaching or pains of study If you take pains to declare the excellency of art go to the Bulfinch and the Lenot who shall learn a musical note as well as a man and if you plead for comliness in apparel go to the Lilly Matth. 6 â—8 and know of it who taught it so modestly to aray it self in a word for eating drinking sleeping marrying giving in marriage feasting fasting procreation and the like are but as the herbs of the field which other creatures may partake of as well as man and what but such inferiour things as these doth the doctrine of the pharises imploy it self in and busie it self about which are things that the instinct of nature brings forth whereby that glorious image of the Son of God wherein man was made is villified and debased by turning it into transient and corruptible things Rom. 1. 23 Psalme 106. 20. whereas there is not one point in the true doctrine of the Gospel but it is properly eternal according to the true scope and proper intent of the Spirit of God in the Scriptures of truth for however
conversant in as well as man these persons are such of what rank soever they may be as do debase undervalue and have in contempt the grand principles and main pillars of that law of the Spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus and prefer things which perish in the use before the things of duration wherein the grace of salvation doth only consist 3. The third point therefore declares wherein this grace and weighty matters of the law doth consist and that is 1. In judgement that is ability to discern and authority to give sentence of all things according to the nature and end of them designing them to their proper use not villifying or exalting not shortning or extending any thing above or below the proper nature and end thereof 2. These weighty matters of the law consists in mercy now this word mercy by conference of the Scriptures is of large comprehension the Hebrew word Châ—seâ— signifies a sacred affection of mercy piety grace piety grace benignity and bountiful good will to any without respect of person or reward sometimes it is taken for bountious and liberal exercise of mercy in giving sometimes for the mercy or bounty received for clemency commiseration compassion tenderness and love gracious kindness or glorious grace called in Greek sometimes Doxa glory 1 Pet. 1. 24. Sometimes Eleos mercy which are used indifferently one for the other as appears by comparing Hosea 6. 6. with 9. 13. and hence it is that a godly man is called in Hebrew Chasid that is gracious or merciful Psalme 4. 3. In the former they neglect and despise the law as it is concerned in the true and strict view and sentence of things as a righteous Judge and in the second they villifie and contemn the law as it comprehends all that tender care compassions givings and forgivings of a gracious and merciful father Of such like consequence is that mint-like washing in outward and bodily baptisme that cummin-like eating and drinking in that humane frame of the Sacrament of the supper that Annis-like gathering together a temporary congregation which men call a Church and that Rew-like sensure of excommunication out of such a corruptible incorporation with all the green herbs of such like nature which may be food for the beast as well as at the use and service of the son of man 3 The third thing wherein the weight of the law consists and that is fidelity which is ready seasonable equal just and fruitful disposure of whatsoever is committed to any in trust now God hath committed his word and law unto man to be interpreted wherein he alone himself is expressed and made manifest therefore mankind only expresseth and welleth out that Image and ingraven form of his subsistance Hebr. 1. 3. And to falsifie this word and law terminating it in trivial temporary and transient things and bodily exercises is to falsifie the Son of God in whose heart only the law is and is the very frame and form thereof Hebr. 10. 5. 10. Psalme 40. 6 7 8. which is no less then to disallow of the whole workmanship of God and to charge his Royal intention concerning the son of man to be that which it never was which is no less then to give that which is truth it self the lie Rom. 1. 25. but let God be true and all such interpretours shall be found liers Rom. 3. 4. 1 Iohn 1. 10. No man can deny but that the whole word and so the whole work of God is committed to every one of the sons of men for the management thereof even as certainly as the whole kingdome of Israels and not a part was committed unto Saul in point of government and it was the whole kingdome which was rent from Saul and given unto David 1 Sam. 15. 26 29. for the ordering and government thereof for it is the difference of unction that breeds the difference of kingdomes in point of acceptation before God Therefore it is that David desires that the head o l or the oyl of the head come not upon him as the words ought to be rendred Psalme 141. 5. that is that chief and principal ointment which is the headship of Sâ—ul my potent enemy Psal 140. 9 namely that wisdome humane in the glory of the flesh set forth in the sparing of Agag so honourable a Captive subjected unto him for glory and the beasts to offer in sacrifices to God as mans wisdome being as far from attaining the things of God according to his judgement that is the judgement of God as a beast is from attaining the things of man So that Saul hath the management of the whole kingdome turned into a kingdome of darkness by disposing of it by that oyly supplement of mans wisdome the headship thereof But as it translated unto David it is managed by the wisdome of God that unction which teacheth all things preferring the things of God in the villification of things humane things eternal not seen by the reason of man villifying things which are seen and transitory obvious to carnal sence 2 Cor. 4. 17 18. and upon Saul the anointed David will not lay his hand that it may appear unto all men that there is in that way of Rule sufficient matter of destruction in point of handling that sword of the Spirit which is the word of God Ephes 6. 17. turning it upon his own brest for his own voluntary ruine 1 Sam. 31. 4. 5. but when David cut off a lap of Sauls garment as a testimony that the honourable ornaments and robe of the kingdome was translated unto him through that holy unction of the Spirit he was touched in heart that is felt and was really sensible through that Spirit of God of that weight of the glory of God put upon him for the governing and ordering of all the things of the house and kingdome of God 1 Sam. 24. 5. as all the Saints of God are which partake of the same Spirit Phil. 1. 27. though the spirit of Saul think so meanly of Davids hold or cave that he makes it a place wherein to uncover his feet which base and mean spirit of Saul ends in the justification of Davids innocency and vindication of his glory and the just condemnation and shame of his enemy in the guilt of his own conscience 1 Sam. 24. read the whole chapter To conclude this point the whole word of God is committed to every man in trust for the interpretation of the whole as really as in any part for the law is full in one word as in all words Gal. 5. 14. and there is a vacuity and breach in all if in any one Iames 2. 10. He that interprets therefore by the rules of humane wisdome which education and bringing up in the Schools may attain unto he falsifies the word of God not only in point but in all and every particular that concerns the glory of God in mans salvation by Christ and whosoever interprets according to the wisdome
this wo is their gross hypocr sie in that they strain at a gnat and swallow a Camel These kind of interpretors are very strict in straining out of some things of small value as very pernicious and swallow down great abominations as things of nothing like a man which hath great care to strain a mote or flie out of his drink but can swallow without let a mountain or powerful serpent They can strain out the gnat of dipping into or sprinkling with water in their entrance into their Church as also gestures and vestures in the exercises of their Church but they can swallow down that abominable idolatry in falling down before and attributing unto the creature that which God never intended who desires mercy and not sacrifice which will pass away as the early cloud and as the morning dew and the knowledge of God more then all burnt-offerings Hosea 6. 4 5 6. Yea such perfunctory services are nothing but rebellion against Gods command in the weighty matters of the law and as the sin of witchcraft unto the people 1 Sam. 15. 21 22 23. These men can carefully strain out of office such as have not been trained up in some university and attained to orders meerly humane but they can swallow down thousands that never came to the knowledge of the mystery of God nor the operations of his spirit only expressed therein and not elsewhere to be found Yea they can strain out by death of the parties an act of adultery committed between creatnre and creature as brute beasts and in the mean time swallow down that sin of iucest in bringing the holy and eternal word of God into copulation with earthly and transitory things as a temporary Church erected in time and in time dissolved offiâ—ers ordained in time and in time may be deposed or by death abrogated and void ordinances that may not only be changed in time from one form into another but also surcease in time and be no more as though the Lord by conjunction with things that pass away should conceive and bring forth his kind and native properties whereas the word of life hath only purified it self in that undefiled bed of the mystical body of Christ for in the Son of man it is not only a word of putrifying but also putrified and therein and not elsewhere conceives and brings forth its own kind and native properties in all the fruits of righteousness w ich are by Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God Philip. 1. 11. and makes use of all other things as taking occasion thereby to express and declare the power and virtue which forever resides and dwels in that his mystical body for that end he preached in the Jewish Temple or Synagogue went up to their feasts conversed with the Samaritan at the well went to the marriage of Cana in Gallilee healed the man that was born blind and for that end the word of God hath respect unto in the expressing of it self all things that come within the compass of mans reason or found in the nature or operation of any creature not lodging it self in that but only visits it as a stronger in its going forth and return to its native home Add further these interpretours are strict to strain out bloud-shed in the several distinctions and degrees thereof but in the mean time can swallow down the killing and crucif iâ—g of the Lord of glory the Son of God by condemning the right of the first-born to belong unto that compleat mystical body of Christ and depriving it of the reallity of one and the same spirit virtue and acceptation in the sight of God in every part thereof having headship in whom or in whatsoever it put forth it self in present exercise for if the spirit of the Lord be upon any that party in that particular wherein it goes forth is the anointed of the Lord which infinitely transcends all transient things Isaiah 61. 1 2 3. And that doctrine that denies this glory to be the Spirit of Christ takes away and destroyes that wherein the life of the Son of God doth consist which is no other then the proper seed and off spring of him who is a murtherer from the beginning as also that lier who abode not in the truth Iohn 8. 44. as we are not to fear such therefore that can kill the body but have no power to torment the soul when that is done so we are to have in abomination that doctrine and those doctours which strike at the life of Christ in the Spirit of the Scriptures though they should never lay violent hands on the bodies of any of the Saints nor outward estates in point of their bodily well-being in the things that concern this mortal and temporary life Wo then unto false interpretours who highly advance mean and base things of no account in the records of God in neglect and villifying of the great and weighty things in his accounts and strain out and indeavour to clear themselves of such evils as are simply considered only evils in the judgement of man and thereby swallow up and devour as a thing of nought â—amely the things of God in Christ which is the breeding and bringing in the greatest evil yea the devil himself and hence Christ brings in the sixt wo laid down in the 25 26. verses wherein observe these particulars 1. First that there is a clensing pharisaical 2. Of what that is cups and platters 3. The manner how that is the outside 4. A manifestation of the inside and that is full of bribribery and excess 5. A taxation in these words thou blind pharisee 6. An exhortation in way of rebuke for their preposterous practice first cleanse the inside of the cup and platter 7. What would inevitably follow thereupon that the outside may be clean also 1. For the first observe that as there is a righteousness of the scribes and pharises which never enters into the kingdome of heaven Matth 5. 20. so there is a cleansing which is only the purification of the flesh in that sense as slesh and bloud cannot inherit the kingdome of God 1 Cor. 15. 50. and that stands in an indeavour to conform a mans self to the letter of the Scripture which is the proper character of all mens minds naturally according to the principles of humane reason under which as the kernel in the shell or the corn in the husk the will of God is devulged unto the world so that a man is exempted from the seed of the word of God only the conception of it makes it either a first-born or an abortive either the seed of the woman or the seed of the serpent and the more a man inclines after this purification Hebr. 9. 13. according to the law of the carnal commandment standing in outward ordinances Hebr. 7. 16. Ephes 2. 15. Col. 2. 14. the more he declines that simplicity and purity that is in Christ even as a spiritual minded man the
the men which walk over them perceive not Luke 11. 44. Declaring plainly that men as they are indued with humane wisdome and secular learning may travel and walk constantly over doctrine springing from like principles and never perceive those gross and filthy abominations which lie hid under the same Christ therefore perceiving their outward trappings paintings and pargeting humane traditions with the name of God to make them acceptable for the deluding of carnal minds he openeth their inside unto the world and tells them that these graves however they may appear to simple men unlearned in the mystry of God yet in truth they are full of dead mens bones and of all filthiness and uneleaness 1. Now we know that when men rifâ—le into a grave where nothing appears but dead mens bones they appear in a confused heap there is no order nor comliness to be found among them they are scattered from the original unity of all things yea they are therefore Babylon with respect unto that Jerusalem which is compact and a city in unity with it self forever Psalme 12â— 3. such is the condition of all them where false interpretation of the word of God takes place there is not a jot of Gods order or unity to be sound amongst them 2. They are dead bones also being destitute of any marrow wherewith to oil the points for motion they move not in the way of God Psalme 115. 7. 3. Again they are dead bones without marrow to supple them and make them capable of conjunction with that which was their ornament such are false interpretours not having the Spirit Iude 19. they are not in any capacity of conjunction with that which is the only ornament of the sons of men which is the son of God Psalme 3. 3. no more then dead mens bones are capable of unity with flesh and blood vains sinews muscles arteries and the like 2. Secondly he tells them that as graves they are full of all filthiness and uncleanness wheresoever doctrine is not filled with the marrow of the Spirit of God there is a defiling and corrupting of all the holy things of God for as Christ sanctifies and makes holy mans nature in himself which otherwise is unholy and unclean even so antichrist by false doctrine in misconceiving of the word of God makes that unholy and filthy in himself which otherwise is most holy and undefiled Mallac 2. 11. Ezekiel 22. 26. For as Christ saith in like case if the light that is in you be darkness how great is that darkness Matth 6 23. for there remains nothing to inlighten it or cure it if the light be darkness it self So likewise if their paintings and pargettings their purity and cleanness in their whited tombs and glosses set upon their doctrine amiable and delightful in the eye of humane reason be nothing else in the truth of the matter but rottenness putrifaction and corruption how great is that uncleanness when there remains nothing to cure it for their cure is the proper corruption for their proper way of cure is to turn the truth of God into a lie Rom. 1. 5. by terminating the word of God in vanishing things which is to erect avain Idol for it is all one to deny the Son of God to be the only Authour of all things as to deny him to be the only end of all things For we may as well and safely conclude that something in the word of God comes from some other then the Son of God Iohn 1. 12. who is the only mind wisdome consistance and exsistance of the father as to conclude that any thing in the word of God points at any thing short of or inferiour to the same Son of God in its proper intent and scope then the which nothing can be greater Idolatry either in one respect or in the other for he only is that Alpha and Omega the first and the lâ—st the beginning and the end Revel 22. 13. All things therefore are from Christ as their Authour and to Christ as their end and in him in their exercise Rom. 11. 36. For we know that an Idol is nothing in the world 1 Cor. 8. 4. but a meer vainifying or falsifying of the word of God which is indeed the devil 1 Corinth 10. 19 20. 21. To conclude this point false interpretours are corrupt and unclean by defiling the holy things of God turning the glory of God into shame Rom. 1. 21. 25. by denying Christ the right of inheritance and present possession of all things whether office or execution within the confines of his kingdome which is no other then that Spirit of Saul that ever denies David the present right and possession of the whole kingdome of Israel in all the administrations thereof whatsoever Psalme 4. 2. for to attribute or design an office or administration to another beside Christ is to defame and callumniate the Son of God as though he were unworthy of it or wanted power and skill to accomplish and perform it or as one being in exile and not really present to undertake it which must either deny the incomprehensible vertue of his mystical body or else such officer must exclude the Spirit of Christ out of the world in their dayes and then themselves must of necessity work by another spirit then his body is quickned by Rom. 8. 9 10 11. 2. The second general point noted in this wo is the application of the Metaphor according to its real intent declaring the nature of the doctrine of false interpretours in the inside thereof not discerned by humane learning or the traditions of men therefore they are said to appear righteous before men because it is the letter that kils which they teach which comes within the capacity of mans wisdome according to the judgement and wisdome of God and therefore it can never stand before his tribunal Psalme 1. 5. however men of like principles judge them to be righteous which is only in appearance without the reallity thereof 1. For in truth they are full of hypocrisie that is deceit and guile being of the same spirit which beguiled Eve at the first as she is the mother of all living according to the flesh 1 Cor. 6. 16. 2 Cor. 21. 3. 2. Again they are full of iniquity unequal and uneven in all things they never reconcile the word of God so as to have alike weight and worth in it self all things and of like use in all the Saints of God who are all Kings and all Priests all first-born all servants and all freemen of the city of God Revel 5. 10. Hebr. 12. 23. 1 Cor. 7. 22. They cannot give like dignity unto the Son as to the father at all times and in all things as having received the inheritance and hath the disposure thereof in all things as truly it is the donation of the father which twofold act can stand together in Christ though not in earthly relation nor carnal mind and that perpetually they cannot
but that they dissemble the same in point of any present being of them Thus these Hypocrites in expounding of the word of God dissemble the Fall of man as a thing that was and is not the Concepcion Birth Life Death Resurrection and Ascencion of Christ as things past and now are not but only in Records and Histories These Stage players do not only pick the purses of their brethren but pick out their eys in beholding vain Idols not knowing the wisdom and power of God that hath appointed his Kingdom in Christ to bee alike present of like glory power peace and plenty and of like noble acts and operacions in all ages of the world where ever and in whomsoever the mystery of God in Christ appears and is made manifest Col. 1. 26. 29. otherwise let us only hear that Christ prayed but never pray in our selves and so in all things that Christ did or sayd for such is their doctrin The third particular noted in the Text is the Ground and Reason of this their wo wherein observe these particulars 1 First their act what they do and that is twofould 1 They build the Tombs of the Prophets 2 They garnish the Sepulchers of the righteous 2 Secondly observe their speech what they say that is If we had been in the dayes of our fathers we would not have partaken with them in the blood of the Prophets wherein observe 1 First they confesse blood or murder to be a capitall sin 2 Secondly that they have washed and reformed themselves and are become better than their fathers 3 Thirdly they translate and remove the cause or act of blood-guiltinesse from themselves unto their fathers 3 In the third place note what they are in point of their condicion or office in these words wherefore ye be witnesses unto your selves that ye are the children of them that killed the Prophets 4 Fourthly observe the extent of the thing witnessed unto in these words Fill yee up then the measure of your fathers The first is their act being twofould and first they are said to build the Tombs of the Prophets Wee have heard before that a Tomb is a Monument or Memoriall of that which is not in present and reall being and by Tomb in this place is meant the Historicall Narracions or Literall Form of the word of God as it utters it selfe in tearms comming within the capacities of the naturall and racionall conjectures of mans heart or words which mans wisdom teacheth 1 Cor. 2. 4. So that these men assume the word of God according to the literall form and verball expressions of the Prophets and therby build and erect monuments of Constituted Churches Offices therein Governments Orders and painted Excellencies in the world beginning and ending in Time not compatible to the Son of God thereby expelling the proper intent and minde of the Spirit which is the soul or life of the Scriptures and so set up a dead karkasse and livelesse memoriall void of the life and spirit of our great and only Prophet Iesus Christ Deut. 18. 15. For there is nothing wherein the heart of man expresseth it selfe by bringing forth som what wherein to employ himselfe for a time in this world being temporary But it is a grave wherein Christ is buried if the angell or messenger of God roul not away the stone or take away the difficulty guard props and defence thereof and sit upon it as an inferiour and subjected thing Mat. 28. 2. making it the footstool of his feet 1 Cor. 15. 24 25. Yea the Ordinance of humane Marriages is a grave to bury Christ in that he appear not in his espousall when the conjugall ty of the word of God is terminated there For it is in that point as it was at that Marriage in Canah of Galilee performed according to the Iewish Rites or the Dictates and naturall Ceremonies of mans heart where Christ came to declare that the proper power of the word of God consists not in such things no more than that water filling up those six water pots according to the purification of the Iewes was like unto that wine which Christ commanded to be drawn out of the same for when his mother taken according to the flesh offered to terminate the businesse of the day wherefore Christ was bid thither in that temporary feast or marriage teling him there wanted wine to have his power and presence to honour that his answer is woman what have I to do with thee my hour is not yet that is my time and authority consists not in these things But when his mother who brought him forth submitted to his will saying unto the servants whatsoever hee commands that do yee then Christ commands those weak and water-like Ordinances of the Iewes or of the sons of men to bee drawn out having the vigour and vertu of new and strong wine to admiracion Iohn 2. 1. declaring thereby that transcendent power and glory that is in the time and presence of Christ in all his Commands and Appointments beyond all the Ordinances and Appointments of the sons of men the naturall Dictates of whose hearts lead them unto such Orders in all temporary Institucions as naturally as in that of Feastivity or Marriage however the hypocriticall Pharises solemnize them with the intent of the word of God The Tomb of the Prophets erected in these things in the departure of the soul and spirit stands upon four pillars which enervate the sift and the sixt Commandements 1 First in point of Superiority 2 Secondly in point of Inferiority 3 Thirdly in Equality which is the sum of the fift Commandement and first with promise Ephes 6. 2 3. 4 The fourth is our demeanour and carriage towards friends and enemies in killing and preserving life which is the sum of the sixt Commandement First in point of Superiority Rule false interpreters cannot finde any visible power upon the Earth but in Fathers according to the extent of the phrase in the Commandement which phrase of Father and Mother include all exercise of Authority Neither can they utter any Glory of Submission and Obedience but as Children are there to be extended that is to all wayes of yeeldings of obedience and these they resolve to be exercised between man and man creature and creature which is no better than a Tomb wherein the great Prophet is buried yea the tru spirit of all the Prophets is thence departed and the mysticall body of the Son of God corrupted by such Doctrin For the truth of relacion in point of Authority and Submission Command and Obedience stands properly according to that reall intent of the word of God in the relacion and respect that is between God and man in the faith and subsistance of Christ Where the Spirit of God is the proper supply of the party in both respects that is in the exercise of obedience as well as in the power of Command and may as truly be found and exercised in one
18. 19. Therefore to terminate Equality in temporary relacions as the meaning of the word of God is a strong pillar to bear up and establish the Tomb of the Prophet And in these three points of Supportacion of the Tombs of the Prophets wherin their spirit is departed stands the enervating and disanulling of the fift Commandement and he that is guilty of one hee is guilty of all James 2. 10. 4 The fourth pillar supporting the Tombs of the Prophets for the expunging of their spirit out of the world that men may send gifts and gratifications one to another rejoyceing in the glory of the flesh by abandoning the deeds of the spirit Revel 11. 7. 8. 9. 10. stand in the abrogacion of the sixt Commandement Thou shalt not kill but shalt preserve life wherin all meanes of offence and defence are strictly given in charge for the effecting whereof how many are the terms relacions and respects of Honour contrived and composed in Military affaires and Disciplin according to the differing peoples and Nacions wherein it is exercised with their severall Engines and Instruments to attayn their ends and that from the Law of the carnall Commandement as it is written in all mens hearts Rom. 2. 14. 15. And when the word of God is expounded so as to consist in any thing as is naturally brought forth in the heart of man destitute of the spirit of Christ that is a meer karkasse of the Scripture voyd of the spirit of true prophesy so that to place the word of God in warlike affaires attayning its end in gaining or recovering temporary interests of honour riches lands places offices revenues safety or destruction of body goods and the like this may be done as a karkasse of the Law voyd of the spirit and life of it and so no more but a Tomb wherein the Prophet lies buried And the parties thus teaching and submiting to such Doctrin by working accordingly may and are destitute of the current of the Law how it runs wherein the proper plea stands and what is the tru point of issue For the Law is spirituall but the mind of man never so much refined by humane Learning gives a carnall construction therof Rom. 7. 14. But true Martiall Discipline that is of God must have Eternity in it elce it is not of God And all warlike affaires temporarily managed without the spirit of Christ is an unclean thing yea the Tombes of the Prophets and all the strength manifested therein is but as dead mens bones accompanied with rottennesse and filthinesse For the Military affaires intended by the word of God calling him The Lord of Hosts or of Armies Psalm 46. 7. Psalm 48. 8. is to be followers of the Lamb upon mount Zion as an Army of an hundred forty and four thousand every one of the twelve Tribes being multiplied into twelve thousands to signify unto all men that in whom soever Christ Iesus becomes a Root in Israel whether the Root in David Revel 5. 5. or a Root in Iesse Isay â—1 10. or the Root in Ephraim or any of the Tribes Judges 5. 12. 13. 14. 15. he multiplies himselfe into a compleat and triumphant Host for the conquering of whatsoever opposeth him who have their fathers name as the Motto in their Ensigne written in their foreheads that is the authority and power of God alone openly chearfully and boldly professed and maintayned amongst them Revel 14. 1 And for the Harnesse wherewith the spirit of the Prophet strengthens and animates it selfe it is the whole armour of God for a good souldier of Christ hath his loynes girt about with truth and hath the breast-plate of righteousnesse the helmet of salvacion the shield of faith his feet shod with the preparacion of the Gospell of peace the sword of the spirit which is the word of God and therefore a spirituall war praying with all supplication in the spirit watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all Saints Ephes 6. 14 -18 And for their Onsets and Assaults it is to resist the Devill in the stedfastnesse of Faith 1 Pet. 5. 9. to quench the fiery darts of Satan Ephes 6. 16. and war a good warfare according to the Prophesies that are gone before of every son of God 1 Tim. 1. 18. centring themselves in each of them as their proper intent in whom they are fulfilled and made good by which wee are made able to war a good warfare For the weapons of our warfare are not carnall but spirituall mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds casting down imaginacions and every high thing that exalts it self against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ 2 Cor. 10. 4. 5. And so much for the four Pillars upon which the Tombs of the Prophets are erected and are every one of them a compleat grave wherein Christ is buried that he appears not in the world but in a sensuall respect 1 For the Superiority and Authority of the world is a grave wherein Christ as King is covered with that dust or earth and men walk over it and perceive it not Luke 11. 44. 2 The Inferiority and temporary Subjection of the world is a grave wherein the High-priest of our profession lies hid and covered mens eyes being directed unto that Monument that they perceive not the Subjection of the Son of God who humbled himselfe and became obedient unto death even the death of the Crosse 1 Phil. 2. 8. Hebr. 3. 1. 3 The Doctrin of Equals in the world is a Monument to cover Christ as he is the First-born of God when they state Equals in King and King earthly in Priest and Priest made by men in Captain and Captain only for the slaughter or preservacion of an earthly body or corporacion these things in Equality being made the scope of their Doctrin do fill the eys of men as a Monument set upon a grave and so hide the state of the first-bornship that is in Christ Iesus where every one hath equall Dignity for every Saint and Son of God is the first prime and chief act of God for the tru form of Christ Gal. 4. 19. is the principall and chiefe work that ever God did and all other things whatsoever are subservient thereunto Rom. 11. 36. P ov 16. 4. No direct nor tru Equality can bee found therefore out of the Son of God which is hid and buried by false interpretacions of the Word of God 4 The fourth particular is a grave to bury Christ as he is the Captain of our Salvacion Hebr. 2. 10. whilst men set up a Hearse of temporary Conquest over the bodies of men to be the end and accomplishment of the word of God for which their prayse is to be returned which hath not Eternity in it for they dare not lay prayses upon the Altar for that they have thrust mens souls down to Hell therefore a temporary act that mens eyes must be held
of Office that is they are witnesses unto themselves or as the word will allow witnesses in themselves That they are the childreu of them that murthered the Prophets In which observe two things first that respect which the fathers after the flesh have to them as being their originall and predecessors secondly the respect which they have to the fathers as being their children and off-spring 1 First they confesse that their fathers were murtherers they killed the prophets therefore they acknowledg according to the tru intent of the Law that they themselves are murderers for whatsover may be said of an ancestour that may be truly said of the off-spring and therefore Levi is truly said to pay Tythes in his father Abraham being in his loynes when Melkizedek met him Hâ—br 7. 9 10. For in all the works of God Time weares not out in the off-spring the tru nature disposicion and quality of the progenitor for the off-spring retaines the properties of the progenitor in all points What might be sayd of a Lion in the beginning the same may be sayd of him now what might be sayd of a Lamb in the beginning the same may be sayd of him now and so of all the creatures upon the Earth What was sayd of the Serpent in the begining the same is tru of his off-spring at this day if falsifying of the word of God was the spirit of the Devill in the Serpent at the begining then false interpretacion of the word of God is the same spirit of the Devill in the actors thereof at this day what or whomsoever they may be or seem to appear 2 Secondly as they are the children of such parents wee know that none can assume a child like relacion but he must therein assume the fathers operacion or elce how should the child come by his being therefore they conclude themselves under the act and guilt of murder even of taking away the life of the Prophets in that they are the seed and off spring of them who did it before for the disposicion and operacion of the progenitor departs not from the tru seed and off-spring Exod. 20. 5. therefore the sins of the fathers are visited in the children unto the thirds and to the fourths of them that hate the Lord the word generacion is not in the Hebrew Text the thirds signifying the full and compleat condicion of all haters of God as Three that bear witnesse in Heaven are a compleat and perfect testimony and yet but One 1 Iohn 5. 7. and the fourths being the Number of Extension as the four Corners of the Earth comprehend the whole World in all the parts thereof signifying unto us that all and every sin in that whole estate of the haters of God are inflicted upon every particular party found therein and therefore accordingly in point of opposition there is no period or bound set unto Gods mercy in them that love him in the preservacion of his Law in the purity thereof he therefore that is related unto God in Christ as a son bears the same disposition and hath the same operacions of the Father really reckoned upon him and is in the exercise thereof according to the tru intent of the word of God therefore is that speech uttered by Christ hitherto the Father works and I work Iohn 5. 17. and however the carnall eye of the Iew never saw the man Iesus making this visible World yet without him was not any thing made that was made Iohn 1. 3. and the spirit of the Son being one with the Father is a sufficient testimony and witnesse in every Saint of God of his unity with the Father in his whol work as really as the same spirit witnesseth a unity or faith between the Creator and the creature so that hee which denies unity in the whol work of God not having the witnesse thereof he denies also unity in the Contract and Covenant of God not having any witnesse in himselfe thereof but remaines in the state of unbelief and hath that spirit which as it witnesseth relacion in generacion to him who is a murderer from the beginning so hath it the testimony of unity in the act in it self of being under the guilt of crucifying the son of God for if we confesse a certain innocency in our Progenitours in the act of creation destitute of the righteousness of God in Christ we therin testifie our selvs to be destitute of the righteousnes of God in Christ at this day and a Pharasaical righteousnesse is the most we attain unto and if we confesse our Progenitors of whom we properly do proceed to be actors in falling from God under guilt of sin and out of the favour of God for a moment or any point of time we have the witnesse in our selves that we are now in the way of the fall under guilt and condemnation and out of Gods favour and love unto this day for the spirit of Satan comprehends the parent and the posterity to witnesse in and of both alike as really as the Spirit of God comprehends the father and the son to testifie of them as one undenied act Note here that the children of the Devil as Christ cals them are of him who is a Murderer from the beginning a Lyer and therefore aboad not in the truth for when he speaks a lye he speaks his own it is himself both a father and son for he is a lyer or he is a lye as the product and the father thereof as the original of the same so that wickednesse was never brought forth but by the wicked one who is from the beginning as ancient as the son of God himself Iohn 8. 44. Also the Son of God is he in whom life is preserved from the beginning and therefore an eternal life as ancient as himself and so is said to be the way the truth and the life so that no man can come to the father but by or in him Iohn 14. 6. Whosoever then finds a time when the Lier was not and the Murderer he may as well find a time when truth and life eternal was not and he that goeth about to make a separation of just and unjust and not from the first motion of God towards man which is from everlasting as also to keep each of them that is the way of life and the way of death intire in the whol course of their progresse that man can never preserve and keep the word of God in its native purity but is a false Interpreter thereof and a betrayer of the just and holy One into the hands of the wicked Note further in conclusion of this point that when Abraham is said to be the father of beleevers as the Saints being reckoned as from him Rom. 4. 11 16. Abraham is personated in that high father according to the Etymology of his name or in that eternal father as the Prophet cals him in whom he plainly concludes both father and son as one state and
us read it in the woman and the serpent from the beginning Again if we say it is we as we are men that must be made better by our endeavours and use of means and not the son of God then we divide our selves from Christ making his condition one and our own another which is to divide Christ and hath ever been from the beginning that main bar of infidelity that shuts men out from entring into that rest of God Heb. 4. 1. 2. 7. which is to interpose some good thing yet to be attained by doing or suffering that is not yet in its perfection in the state of a Saint of God this is to reckon and account of our selves according to the proportion and measure of a Creature and not according to the dimensions of the son of God which is and ever was that great contest between the Angel of God and the Devil about the body of Moses or incorporated state according to law whether it is to be measured according to the periods and limitations of the Creature or according to the illimited and immense condition and incomprehensible state of the son of God Zach. 3. 1. 2. Iude 9. Again if we interpose a thing that is evil between God and the perfection of his Son or Saints as sin Devil fall of man terrours of the law spots and breaches in our sanctification stains of conscieuce and the like then we either adde unto the death of Christ who is a lamb sâ—ain from the beginning Revel 13. 8. who was made sin for us or in our nature in them that perish proportionable unto that righteousnesse of God which we that beleeve are made in him or in that nature divine which is infinite and therefore neither sin nor righteousnesse can admit of increase or diminution 2 Cor. 5. 21. 2 Pet. 1. 4. Christ then having perfectly suffered the just for the unjust nothing is to be added thereunto under the pain of making his death ineffectuall 1 Pet. 3. 18. which it is in every one who makes it not perfect infinite and all sufficient And if the evils we bring in be such as concern us and not the son of God then we take them up upon our selves as we being the saviours and deliverers of our selves being out of that proper state and condition of the son of God and so deny the death of the son of God to be that which it is namely to comprehend and comprize aâ—l evill whatsoever as his life comprehends all good and so take upon us to bear our own burthen in that state of death and of the damned for ever And thus false Interpreters bring in a Tree of the knowledg of good and evill to be communicated with in the perfecting of the word and work of God which is the way of the Serpent in his seed at this day which ever kils and murders the true Prophet in not suffering the life and Spirit of the word of God to come forth and appear which life is ever taken away by them to raise up advance and maintain the life of the flesh in all the lusts pride glory power and abominations thereof according to their present state as they can stand with the rank and station wherein they are set or serve in way of further preferment Therefore saith Christ Behold that is look up and wonder to your astonishment and overthrow for ever for so much the word Behold imports in this place I send unto you saith he Prophets c. the persons to whom he speaks here are false Interpreters who judge falsely of the word and work of God whether in themselves teaching and declaring it to others or approving it from others it matters not it is alike detestable in all the Serpent divulging and the woman approving is all one in this point and to parties of this rank and quality the son of God utters these words Behold I send unto yon Prophets Wise men and Scribes which are all taken in a good sense as good and holy men in this place sent from the Lord our righteousnesse from whence this question may be moved namely how the word of God by good men yea by the Son of God himselfe may be said to be sent to wicked men yea to false Interpreters thereof which spirit of falshood is never found but in the Devil himselfe 1 This point narrowly scanned may breed some commotion in the mind of man for if God send his word unto the wicked which hath salvation in it then if he deal plainly with them whose nature it is so to do his intent is to do them good therby and to save them and if so then salvation depends upon the will of the Creature in the approving or disallowing in its reception or rejection thereof 2 Again if God do not intend their salvation that is of these wicked Scribes and Pharisees unto whom he sends it then he may seem to pretend one thing in sending it unto them and to intend an other which is deceit and therefore he being a God of truth which cannot lie or feign a thing to be which is not it may seem that he sends his word only unto the elect of God which is contrary unto this expression of Christ but the son of God being one is at unity in all his enterprises 3 Furthermore the waters may seem to be troubled in this point in regard that the word of God was never sincerely expressed as the word of God sent from him but by one who is of the faith of Iesus made one with God by vertâ—e of that covenant of grace in Christ for in other way the Lord never sent nor uttered himself in his own language and upon his own proper terms for otherwayes it is not the word of God but the word of man which is naught and brings to naught Therefore if the word of God be sent by a Prophet a Wise man or Scribe men that are godly and holy as the word is holy being one with it for the word of Christ never appeared nor uttered it self but in and by the spirit of man for if it come not from him in whom God and man consist in one it is not the word of Christ how then can it be sent to all wicked men seeing as many men live and dye and a godly man never cometh nigh unto them yea it may be as is like people and nations if we look but upon the Moores Indians and Barbarians in these our dayes doubtlesse it is and hath been the case of many thousand men in the world never to hear a Prophet and holy man of God speak although Scribes and Pharisees may speak plentifully for their own advantage as also many Infants dying before they have the use of reason a godly man therefore can never be sent or expesse himselfe unto them 4 Add further the voice of Satan never uttered it self but as man was really considered therein so it was in Cain in whom
the sight of all good men making it clear and manifest unto whom they belong and of what brood and off-spring they are 5 The fifth conclusion is that the word of God is of like concernment in all men and takes hold of them with like force whether it be laid in the way of the blessing or of the curse for it is of like concernment to maintain and uphold the principles of the Creature that it is to maintain and uphold the principles peculiar to God for if the principles of the Creature were not upheld to their height which argue themselves into the place office and seat of God 2 Thes 2. 3. 4. then there were no place for the curse and then the redemption of Christ were without vertue in that it delivered from no wretched nor cursed condition and then praise-worthinesse due unto God should cease having no matter nor cause from which to take place Again if mans principles were not maintained as well as the principles peculiar to God the word and work of God should faile and be extinct for the word of God never uttered it self nor did the work of God exist but in order to Gods wisdom framing the Son of man into its own likenesse making him in conformity with it selfe which is the state of the Son of God Iesus Christ as also the wisdom of man framing the Son of God into its own similitude and likenesse conforming him into the proportion of naturall and earthly principles which is the state of Antichrist that son of perdition and if either of these should fail the word and work of God should faile which are as durable as God himself Psal 119. 89. 90. The word of God therefore takes hold of all men yea of whole mankind with like authority and force both in way of the curse as also in the way of blessednesse for each maintains its own proper principles as upon life and death for in case mans principles and reasonings should take place and beare sway in a Saint the life and spirit of God should be extinct and if the wisdom and argument of the Son of God should take place and bear sway in any wicked man then the spirit of Satan whereby he lives would be extinct so that each of them hath the foâ—ce and authority of life and death upon them than the which a greater bond cannot be for if the force and authority of the word of God were not of like power in point of wrath in the way of the curse as to hold proportion with the word of blessing and peace then could not the word of God hold proportion with it selfe which must of necessity be in all things of an infinite and illimited force and authority 6 In the sixth place we conclude that the word of God hath ordained necessitated it self to come unto all men in way of interpretation and that in all its expressions and intimations whatsoever because it speaks and utters it self in mankind from divers principles and therefore the word must be interpreted or translated â—ut of one into another that is out of one proper speech or language into another and the very formings and fashionings of the heart is the proper speech or language of man therefore the abundance of the heart is that which he speaks Mat. 12 34 Now God hath taken up all things of man as he hath respect to all Creatures to utter and reveal his secret wisdom and counsel by in Christ the spirit of God therefore in the Saints takes out the minde and meaning of God from that originall Copy naturally written in the Tables of stone in all mens hearts and translates it according to that wisdom of God in Christ into the fleshy Tables of the heart fitted to receive the impressions of God by the removal of those stony strong and earthly apprehensions and conclusions which man naturally conceivs and concludes within himselfe from the word of God so that Gods true intent according to the dictate of his spirit being taken out of that husk or shell wherein it is expressed is no more the language of the flesh but of the spirit and this is of necessity to be done in the conservation of the Spirit and life of Iesus Christ the Son of God Again the spirit of errour and false interpretation takes out of that originall copy of the wisdom of G d that law of the spirit of life in Christ and translates it into principles and conclusions humane proper to the thoughts device and invention of a Creature terminating the mind and will of God in things limited by time place and person things transitory which cannot hold proportion with the Son of God and by means of this translation it is no more the language of the spirit but the language of the flesh and so the dictates of the Serpent the mind and will of Satan who captivates man by the lusts of his own heart 2 Tim. 2. 26. Furthermore the word of God is not the word of life without interpretation as it is translated out of death into life therfore he saith Thou wilt not leave my soul in Hell neither wilt thou suffer thy holy one to see Corruption Psalm 16. 10. Neither is the spirit of God a spirit of Revelation nor hath the honour of opening the mind of the father in any without this grace of interpretation whereby man is conformed unto the image and similitude of the Son of God Add further that man cannot lay claime to his proper being and prerogative as he is wicked namely to be wiser than the beasts of the field or to have dominion over the inferiour Creatures but as he translates the excellencies of God into his own humane principles and thereby exalts himself as Lord over all the works of Gods hand and by this his translation he interprets the word of God in direct opposition unto Gods true intent and proper meaning in that originall Copy of Gods wisdome in Christ presented unto the world and hereby are the principles of humane wisdom set up to bear sway in the world in the vilifying of the wisdom of God in Christ by which means the life of Satan is continued in the sons of mortall men And this interpretation is by translating one tongue and language into another which cannot be done but by presenting the originall Copy which by this means is cast aside and vilified as to be no more imbraced nor accepted and in this presentation of the original Copy of the wisdom of God which cannot but be acknowledged by all men ought to be magnified and submitted unto by all doth the answer of the question propounded consist for in this representation of the wisdom of God unto mankinde contained in such yea the same expressions written upon every mans heart herein doth the spirit of the Prophet the Wise-men and Scribes visit all the wicked of the world yea there where never good man bodily appeared a d in their rejection
ruine and overthrow unresistably even as the spirit of God departing from Saul an evil spirit from the Lord troubles him and nevers gives him â—est till he had brought him to destruction 1 Sam. 16. 14. 1 Chron. 10. 4. 5. 6. false interpretation is a transformation of the spirit of the Lord into a spirit of trouble and torment as really as it transforms the truth of God into a lye Rom. 1. 25. and therefore it is said of the Lord I will be unto them as a Lion as a Leopard by the way will I observe them I will 〈◊〉 them as a Bear that is bereaved of her Welps and will rent the caul of their heart and there will I devour them like a Lion the wilde beast shall tear them Hos 13. 7. 8. So that it is a reall truth that God destroyes the wicked with a mighty and unresistable power in that way of Antichrist aâ—d unbelief though otherwise a God of salvation and deliverance Psalm 68. 20. even as it is a reall truth that man in that way of Christ saves the chosen of God though otherwise a worm and no man and as a beast before the Lord Psalm â—2 6. Psalm 73. 22. and thus much for the first point namely the guilt that cleaves to false Interpreters the second is the manner of their Progresse in which observe these things 1 First A discription of the parties on whom this cruelty is exercised and they are described first by their Names that is Abel and Zacharias Secondly by an adjunct in the one and by the ancestor of the other Abel the righteous and Zachariah the Son of Barachiah 2 Observe the manner of the Fact which doth greatly agravate or extenuate a matter that is said here to be from blood to blood from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zachariah 3 The Application of the Fact done so long before unto the â—arties then present in these words whom ye slew 4 The place where the Fact is done that is between the Temple and the Altar 5 A serious asseveration or an affirmation of a just and proportionable recompence to come upon the Murtherers in these words verily I say unto you all these things shall come upon this generation 1. And first they are described by their names upon whom this cruelty is exercised the first being Abel as Luke hath it from the blood of Abel but Matthew addes righteous Abel whence observe that we are not to take up a name or to use it uponany occasion title or epithite given in the word of God but as we consider the nature of the thing therin included otherwise we use the name in vaine it is an empty and fruitlesse title unto us without truth and substance and carrieth not in it as conveying unto us the weight of Gods purpose and appointment unto his people Therefore when we use the word Lord as speaking from the Lord unto others if there arise not in our hearts a royal courage and authority as having dominion over whatever might oppose his truth with confidence of prosperous successe to accomplish his holy ends otherwise we participate not in the nature of the name used in that respect and God never gave name without the nature accompanying the same therefore every Creature in the beginning had its name according to its nature if the name of God therefore be called upon us or we called by his name Jer. 14. 9. we have the nature of it also or else it is an empty and vain title which the wisdom of God never gives to any Again if we use the name Lord as speaking to God in Prayer or Thanksgiving then there is annexed unto it in our hearts a ready willing chearfull and voluntary submission and obedience unto his will in all things otherwise it is but an empty and fruitlesse title Likewise if we use the title or tearm Father as we exercise the place of gravity beseeching men in Christs stead to be reconciled unto God 2 Cor. 5. 20 then are our hearts possessed and replenished with a spirit of tendernesse and bowels of compassion earn within us Hosea 11. 8. or else we take that name of God in vain in that respect it is an empty title unto us and God will not hold him guiltlesse that takes his name up as a bare and empty term Exod. 20 7. Also if we use the name Father as we appeal unto God for instruction protection and supply then doth the disposition of a Child fill our hearts as though we stood in no other relation but of a Child to a tender and compassionate father for the Spirit of God is full in all its operations Adde further but that which might be added in this point is infinite if we take up the name or title of King we must bring in therewith the true nature of eternity and immortality the only wise God who reigns in peace is glorious and hath everlasting life Psalm 93. 1. Heb. 7. 1. 2. 1 Tim. 1. 17. unto whom all glory doth appertain and belong and to none else what ever he be where that Princely spirit is not found otherwise we measure and account of our selves according to transient titles offices and actions a rule wherby the Son of God never took form unto himself nor doth he account of any thing in his condition and Kingdome according to the worth or dignity of any momentany thing whatsoever but only takes them up as Gideons souldiers did the water out of the Brook with their hands not to lodge and lie down by the River but took up that contained in the River as a furtherance and helpe to their proper intent and design and those that lie down by them by lodging the word of God in them they may turne back into Egypt from whence they came for they are no souldiers of our Lord Iesus Christ they do but take up his name in vaine without the nature annexed to the same Iudg. 7. 5. 6. 7. 8. Note further in this name together with the adjunct Abel the righteous according to the Etymologie of the name Abel it signifies vanity or emptinesse or a soon vanishing vapour such is every mans life said to be Iames 4. 14. and here the spirit of God annexeth righteousnesse unto it saying Righteous Abel whence we observe that there is a righteousnesse in vanity which being rightly considered it is a vanity or emptinesse wherein all things are contained both good and evill and so the righteousnesse of Condemnation and the righteousnesse of Absolution are adjoyned and annexed thereunto for there is a vanity and emptinesse to be found in all unbeleevers and also in all the elect or chosen of God and that Christ Iesus is personated in Abel is most evident for in Abel he is said to be a Lamb slain from the beginning Rev. 13. 8. even as Satan in that wicked act of Cain in staying his brother is said to be a Murtherer from the beginning Iohn 8. 44.
And as Abel hath a respect and a reall relation unto Cain his brother who takes away his life so as in a true sense it may be said of Abel as Iacob said of Ioseph he is not so also he hath a real respect and relation unto his brother Seth who is given or set instead of Abel Gen. 4. 25 in whom his life is upheld and preserved and there Abel is brought in by the Apostle speaking in the way of faith in Seth as well as in the way of terrour and wrath in Cain Heb. 11. 4. Gen. 4. 10. 11. In Seth being dead to the things of sin and Satan he yet speaketh and in Cain he being dead to the things of God speaketh also and accordingly there is a twofold vanity and also a twofold righteousnesse appearing in his blood and therefore it is said to be the voice of thy brothers bloods in the form plurall There is then a vanity accompanied with vexation of spirit as in Cain who is emptied of the glory and peace of God who fears that all that sees him will kill him Gen. 4. 14. And there is also a vanity accompanied with the breath and spirit of the Lord in the propagating of the Son of God in the way of Seth in whom the spirit of the Lord breaths in the blasting of all humane glory and emptying man of all carnal reasonings that the glory and wisdome of God may take place and become the fulnesse of that state and condition Isaiah 40 6. 7. 8. The vanity filled with vexation which is that evill spirit of Saul is man emptied of all the vertues proper to that holy Son of God which emptinesseis the filling of him with that evil spirit of Satan which is that enmity against Christ and if there were not through Gods devise a spirit a state and condition of this Satanicall nature corrupt and vile and that in all respects and eternally otherwise there had never been footing for the appearances of Gods glory in the salvation of any of the sons of men nor had his power and proper vertue ever been made known to the Creature to render to the Creator the praise thereof For if there were not a damnable and destructive estate and condition in man that is in man so depraved and corrupted there had never been deliverance of man into the glory and purity of the Son of God yea and that the destruction be of the same capacity and duration that the deliverance is otherwise there had never been ground for deliverance and salvation such as becomes the presence the onely Son and excellency of the work of an infinitely wise allsufficient and an eternall God For what is salvation in reality more than the destruction that it saveth from and how can the reality of mercy be extended further than the nature of the misery which it taketh the commiserated from and what is an acquitting and clearing either for sum or substance further than there is weight and duration in the guilt and condemnation Yea the glory of God vanisheth and comes to nought in point of any eternall salvation of man if there be not an eternall damnation and destruction of man For what thanks worthy is there to save from nothing for if mankind be not eternally destroyed then man is saved from nothing if no eternall destruction be and if man be saved from temporary evils then hath he only a temporary salvation and than the creature hath the glory of the salvation noâ— God for every Creature hath an instinct or skill to save it selfe that doctrin then of universall salvation makes man no better than a beast and is no better than grosse Atheism for denying a salvavation compatible to the Son of God is to deny God himself Therefore Abel is become vain and empty in his brother Cain though propagated of the same stock to the fulnesse of vexation in that spirit of enmity being in him made void and emptied of all that love life and vertue which is proper to the Son of God else were there no place for the glory of God in salvation to be found nor had it ever been heard of among the sons of men nor had it any ground or basis to stand upon and to enervate salvation is no lesse then to enervate the Son of God himselfe for it is he alone who is our salvation Psalm 27. 1. Psalm 14. 7. let such as hold a universall salvation of all men take notice of this point and let others observe their abominable lascivious and loose tenent that they hold in the truth and intent of their doctrine that there is neither God nor Devill nor man in better estate than a bruit beast Again there is a vanity in Abel as he hath respect and relation unto his brother Seth who is set in Abels stead in whom the image of the father is upheld and preserved Gen. 5. 3. and this is a vanity or emptying not unto vexation but unto salvation which is an emptying and a vanishing of all things proper unto that spirit of Cain or that first-born after the flesh that so all the things of God proper unto the first-born of God may take place and therefore Seth is reckoned in the Geneology as the only and first begotten of Adam Luke 3. 38. which emptying of Abel or of Christ personated in Abel of all carnall and cruel things which is the slaying of the enmity in himself Ephes 2. 15. 16. is the putting of them into their proper place for they are the proper right and inheritance of Cain that first born after the flesh and therefore he is called Cain that is a possession as the proper inheritour of corruption and all things pertaining thereto for as there is an inheriting of the promise Heb. 6. 1â— and blessing 1 Pet. 3. 9. so there is an inheriting of the threat and the curse Psalm 109. 16 -20 Ier. 16. 19. or as the Hebrew word following after his name signifies I have gotten Kanuhi a man of Iehovah that is according as all men judge that the prime and chiefe things of nature shall have preheminence and are most acceptable to the Lord. Faith therefore in its expression of vanity comprehends both the emptying of man of all the things proper unto man as he is made of the dust of the Earth and in that respect subject to corruption to the filling of him with all things peculiar to the Son of God which the Apostle affirms is the fulnesse of God Ephes 3. 19. Col. 1. 19. Col. 2. 9. As also the emptying of man or his vanity in regard of all things peculiar to the Son of God as man was made in the image of God and so capable of life and immortality to the filling of him with all things proper unto Satan which is that fulnesse of sin Gen. 15. 16. fulnesse of curse and bitternesse Rom. 3. 14 fulnesse of that deadly poyson of the Serpent Iames 3. 8. yea it is that
and the adjunct being but one yea even the Son of God is made vain and empty to the end he may fill all things and is made nothing that he may substantiate all things for so much is in those words translated he was made of no reputation that is he was made vain empty nothing as the word signifies that is he is nothing in point of the spirit and life in the wicked that they may be filled with horrour mortality and wrath and he is nothing in point of the flesh and glory of man in the godly that they may be filled with the fulnesse of God in immortality and eternal life and peace and so much for present concerning the word Abel together with the adjunct righteous Abel The second point concerns the manner of this fact of murthering the Prophets which either aggravates or extenuates an act and that is said to be from blood to blood that is from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zacharia By Abels blood here that is his slaughter we are to understand the sacrifice for which he was slain for Cain slew him for the goodnesse of his work or offering 1 Iohn 3. 12. now we know that Christ is the sacrifice offered as really as he is the Sacrificer that offers it therefore in Abel he is said to be a Lamb slain from the beginning Rev. 13. 8. also our Apostle affirms that Christ our Passeover is Sacrificed for us 1 Cor. 5. 7. where he concludes him to be the Sacrifice so that the slaughter of Abel is the unnaturall murthering of the true offering or that illegall enmity which Cain hath against Christ being brought in as the only acceptable thing unto God for he that hates his brother is a Murtherer and we know that no Murtherer hath eternall life abiding in him 1 Iohn 3. 15. For Abel bringing the firstling of the Flock which is the first-born of God not at Cain was the prime according to the judgment of the flesh as one judged who the Apostle saith was deceived 2 Cor. 11. 3. But he is the first born or he that opens the womb of eternall generation and true off-spring of God to appear in mankind and that by emptying man of all humane and temporary glory and excellencies to be filled and replenished with the glory of God only in the excellencies of his holy Spirit in all the operations thereof and the nature of that firstling Cain could never abide who is that first-born after the flesh and judgment of humane wisdome who builds Cities and severall Orders and Institutions calling them by the name given to his Son to glorifie himself in an Off-spring of mortall and carnall things Gen. 4. 17. calling this City Enoch or according to the Hebrew Chanoch that is catechised instructed or dedicated as the same posterity do at this day set up new forms and orders of Religion as Monuments to declare unto men that they are the initiaters into Religion and the only Chatechizers and Instructers of the World so as the posterity to come must keep their order and walke only in their steps as Cain made provision for his Son so to do Again Christ is not only made vain according to all carnall things in this his offering in his whole and intire mysticall body but also he becomes bereaved of all things of the spirit in wicked men who are void of all the operations thereof that so the depths of Satan may take place which is as much as to say the Creator and giver of life and being to all things is become death as also in that way of Christ that the Creature is become eternall life which can have no other sound in a carnall ear but as though the Creator were dead and the Creature become God which Cain in all his Off-spring could never indure to hear of neither of the one nor of the other for in the one the glory of man is consumed as the grasse Isaiah 40. 6. which humane wisdome can never indure and in the other stands the shame of Satan in the quenching of all the fruits of the spirit which the pride of man can never indure but utterly denies both the one and the other to be the true Off-spring and Sacrifice of the Son God yea rejects and contemns and is in enmity against them both which enmity is the slaughter of the Son of God as he hath given himself to be this firstling offered for the redemption of his chosen ones for he that hates his brother kils him 1 Iohn 3. 15. as well as he that lookes upon a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her in his heart already Mat. 5. 28. even so he that hath enmity against the sacrifice of God he hath strangled it in his heart already and not taken away the blood according to Gods order and appointment which is one of those great and unsufferable abominations of the world Acts â—5 20. 25. joyned with idolatry fornication and bloodshed And thus is Abels blood shed by every false construction and interpretation of that one only and once offered Sacrisice of Christ by such as wander therein according to the way of Cain Jude 11. even the men of the World those first-born of Egypt in regard of wealth honour and humane learning who would make men beleeve thereby that they are the first-born of Israel who bring earthly momentany and transient fruits unto God as an acceptable Sacrifice as Cain did therefore they rest not in their enmity against and deniall of the true sacrifice as that Lamb slain from the beginning but they proceed also to the taking away of the life of the Sacrificer who offers the Sacrifice wherein observe that Christ is as really the Priest that offers as he is the Sacrifice offered therfore he is said to be our high Priest as well as our Passeover Heb. 2. 17. Heb. 3. 1. Heb. 4. â—4 Therefore the blood of the Priest is brought in upon the same account against them who slew Abel that they have also slain Zachariah the son of Barachiah as being that holy Prophet and Priest of God the cause and manner of whose death is recorded in that second of Chronicles Chapter twenty four So that whosoever he be that dislikes and contemns the true and reall Sacrifice offered unto God he also contemns the true Priest and Sacrificer yea whosoever is officiated by the spirit of God to be exercised in and about the offering up of the same That Christ is a Priest and the only and alone Priest in all ages is most evident where it is said the Lord hath sworn and will not repent saying Thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchizedeck Psalm 110. 4. compared with Hebrews 7. 1. 2. 3. verses see also Hebrews 7. 15. 16. 17. Yea he is our high Priest in point of offering all true Sacrifice as well as the Captain of our salvation to lead us on into all conquest
Iaphet brought forth but also that cursed condition of Cham and Canaan so that Noah in this drunkennesse ceaseth from all carnall argumentation in the things of God even as a man drunk with Wine is bereaved of the use of naturall reason and common sense Noah therefore according to Gods intent and meaning is drunk in that sense of the Apostle where he saith be not drunk with Wine wherein is excesse but be filled with the spirit or as the word is be drunk in the spirit Ephes 5. 18. that is as Iohn is said to be in the spirit on the Lords day Rev. 1. 10. even as a man being in drink it hath dominion over his senses carrying him beyond the common operations of them therefore it is said that a man sâ—outeth because of wine Psal 78. 6â— Even so a man being in the spirit it carries him beyond all naturall reason common sense and humane argumentation to resolve conclude and determine of things according to the wisdom power and glory of God and not of the Creature therefore it is that the Spouse in the Canticles saith Eat O friends drink abundantly or as the word is drink and be drunke O well-beloved Canticles 5. 1. The truth is that the argument or wisdome of a Saint encouraging him to stand in opposition unto all the world which he cannot but do though there were not another to stand by him in the cause of God is to carnall reason liker to a man bereaved of his senses than one in his right mind and thence it is that C ham the youngest son of Noah or the least son being so diminished in point of Sonship that he comes not within the compasse of inheriting any part of his fathers blessing because he looking upon his father as being uncovered of all the ornaments of mans power and wisdome and so asleep or dead to them all whom Cham declares to his brethren as the shame of his father looking upon him with that unclean spirit of the Raven but Sem and Iaphet beheld not any shame in that nakednesse but know it to be the only capacity of their father to be clothed with those honourable robes of righteousnesse which they bear upon their shoulders as the Levites carry the Ark of God and go backwards unto their father a quite contrary way than Cham doth therefore Noah awaking unto God or being alive unto the spirit as really as dead to the flesh exercising himself in the wisdom of the spirit knows what his sons have done through this his sleep and drunkennesse ministring unto them according to their deed and therefore denounceth a curse against Canaan not naming Cham but Canaan his son wherein a deep mystery is couched namely that the curse doth not in the least arise out of the Ark wherein salvation is but out of a spirit propagated and ingendred by concluding that the glory of salvation consists in that which it doth not namely in the glory of the Creature and not in that glory which is immediately of God even as C ham lookt at the blasting of mans glory through the power of the holy spirit of God to be the shame of his father and not the true glory Neither doth the curse arise and spring out of any proper work or operation of God in any particular but from a false construction and interpretation made of that good work of God therefore the act of ingendring Canaan as accursed merchandizing as his name signifies by a false construction concerning our deliverance given by Cham comes between Noah and the blessing distributed to his sons and however Cham be not named in denouncing the curse yet he is included else the curse were not full in originall and off-spring even as the blessing is pronounced upon the root and originall of blessing and therefore he saith blessed be the Lord God of Shem but Shem the true off spring is included and so it is full in the root and branch also So is the curse denounced upon Canaan but Cham is included also else the curse were not full in root and off-spring and as Noah here in this place is not the immediate root of Canaan the accursed no more is the Lord of all the Earth the immediate root of any particular in the curse That spirit therefore that stands for mediate Ordinances and offices of God it stands for and upholds the proper propagation of the curse and as the curse goeth out unto Canaan the son of perdition including Cham the father of lies so Christ here denounceth desolation upon the Mother Ierusalem including all false Interpreters her Children in the Scribes and Pharisees as her proper off-spring and thus comes the curse to be propagated in all the men of the World and the orders thereof constituted and established if we may call it order established in all the Cities of the Iebusites namely by preferring the wisdome power authority and glory of man before the wisdome power authority and glory of God maintaining the wayes and operations of the Creature in the vilifying of the operations of the spirit of God as a shamefull thing in that way of the crosse of Christ and in this stands all those mother like conceptions in the orders of the World to produce and bring forth a brood and generation of false Interpreters as the orders of Ierusalem had brought forth these Scribes and Pharisees as her children ingendred by that bond woman or spirit of bondage For the orders constituted and established in the world beget false Interpreters as naturally as every Creature begets and conceivs its own kind for according to the form of order established in any nation Kingdom or jurisdiction such is the officer it brings forth for he must be produced and established according to that law or else he is a Usurper so that the immediate call and invisible vertue of the Spirit of God is thereby to be rejected in whomsoever it appears for the Officer must be a child of that order and law wherin he exerciseth of what order and constitution soever it be which this City order of Iebus or Ierusolem hath ordained and erected and herein she becomes murtherous and diabolicall in her self and in her children or the children are such in the mother and the mother is such in the children in that they reject all immediate revelation of Christ and his Spirit putting it off by their law to a time past or to come or to both and so kill it in the present time as these Interpreters did and as the City ordains and appoints such laws to bring forth children by so the children are bound to promote maintain and justifie that law and order by which they are brought forth Even as children do their Parents whilst they stand in that relation of children for when they are once betrothed they become a root in themselves and these two taken spiriritually according to the intent of Scripture are never separated whether in the mystery of
man or else it were sinfull to consent to the marriage of unbeleevers Again if marriage simply considered were any part of the end of the law then would Christ Iesus the fulfiller of the Law Mat. 5. 17. never have neglected that relation but he doth it of purpose to declare that as naturall conception is not intended to be that which brings forth the Son of God and therefore he is conceived by the holy Ghost in like manner naturall marriages and contracts is not the thing intended by the word of God in the fulfilling of the Law and therefore he enters not into that relation for the consultation of the grossenesse of mans cogitations therein Therefore the spirit of the Scriptures solicite carnall Ierusalem as having relation to the Iebusites for the abrogation of her sinfull and murthering laws as she sets the scope of the word of God in vanishing things which is as durable in its proper end in all things as in its foundation Rev. 22. 13. and beginning Such laws therefore as receive strength by terminating the word of God in transient and momentany things as the Laws and orders of Ierusalem that now is and is in bondage with her children ever did Gal. 4. 24. 25. and therefore the Prophets ever cry out and inveigh against their Sacrifices Sabbaths New Moons and solemn Assemblies Temple Priesthood Fasts and all manner of exercises which God himself had commanded only they understood and used them in a litteral and carnall manner terminating the end of the commandement in things that fade and vanish which laws are the very ground and fountain of all uncleannesses and abhominations springing up among the sons of men in the World Isaia 1. Isaia 58. Ezek. 23. 38. 39. the mistake and misconstruction of the word of God in this point is the proper prophanation of all things amongst the sons of men therefore Ierusalem is said to stone them that are sent intimating thereby that she doth it by her Laws and Ordinances alluding to the Law of Moses which appointed Malefactors to be stoned to death Lev 2. 2. 27. Deut. 13. 10. Deut. 17. 5. and in that includes all other laws instituted by a false construction of the word of God whereby in her executions she brings the word of God for what she doth for her defence as though she did nothing but by the command and direction thereof which is only brought in as the Devill did the word of God in the tempting of Christ which Christ gives a quite contrary meaning thereof than the Devill intended Mat. 4. 5 -10 which is the proper overcoming of the tentation and by this false and satanicall alleging of the word of God false Interpreters do blind both themselves and the world and thereby direct the force of their law against a wrong object and so exercise their cruelty upon the innocent instead of the guilty party for we shall hardly find a wicked Lawyer or judge in the world that cannot by this means find some fault with a godly man according to his interpretation of the law of God for it is easily said thou art an Heretick Scismatick or a Blasphemer a mover of Sedition troubler of the state or enemy to Caesar Acts 24. 5. Acts 18. 12. 13. Iohn 19. 12. 13. Acts 17. 6. 7. But the question is by what law he is made such a one whether by the law of faith or by the law of sin and death for if the Judge be not able to interpret the word of God according to the Law of faith and so be a Preacher of righteousnesse 2 Pet. 2. 5. otherwise the word of God is become in him a law of sin and death directing him to the innocent instead of the guilty and therefore his judgement must needs passe according to the will and law of Satan and not of Christ Not that we deny that the sentence and execution of death may passe amongst men upon the face of the earth we only plead for a just and righteous law by which it is done otherwise the judgement is as ready to take hold of the innocent as of the malefactor for the maintaining of the Judges own ends and honour for if a wicked Iudge did it not for sinister ends and respects he would only bend the force of the l aw against the godly of the Land and not against them of his own spirit as all wicked men are only they become Tormenters one of another If a man should aske many who sit in judgement according to the law of Jerusalem in bondage with her children how it comes to passe that an Adulterer or an Adulteresse is by the law of God to be stoned to death and yet Christ acquits one taken in the act notwithstanding a grave Eldership are her accusers Iohn 8. 3 -11 or how a Murderer is by the law of God guilty of death Numb 35. 16. 17. 19. 21. and is to dâ—e the death and yet God sets a mark upon Cain that grosse Murderer that no man shall kill him Gen 4. 15. or how it comes to passe that a Usurper or Tyrant is not to be suffered therefore David complains of Saul for usurping the Kingdome Psalm 4. 2. as appears by the word translated men in that place which is â—sh a name given to man with respect to dignity authority and power as Saul had and yet David though a Warriour will not lay his hand on Saul when he was in his power to put an end to such usurpation though God had said the Kingdome was rent from him and given to David 1 Sam. 24. 6. 1 Sam. 15. 27. as one better than he and many the like which no carnall Iudge can reconcile to any satisfaction of a rationall mind and he that cannot reconcile the word of God to be at one and in an eternall agreement in it self as it is the word of God that man can never bring forth a pure law of God and he that works by a corrupt and crooked rule must needs misse or sin in all his operations for he that cannot bring the word of God to agree in all things he can never bring God and man to agree in Christ in whom only all righteousnesse dwels and abides for ever and out of whom is nothing but wickednesse in all the sons of men The Law of God then applyed unto false priuciples is the ground of all disorders in the world for can we think that if men did not put a certain Deity in worldly wealth by terminating a blessing of the word to consist in riches that ever men would spend their time and strength use such deceits and sleights in trades to deceive ingrosse monopolize and inhaunce the price to grind the faces of the poor alienating themselves from friends family and house or people of God to abide among infidels for that end and purpose to grow rich in the world Nay would men steal rob and slay but to get wealth or to attain some other
Christian is brought into a point of time as really as that act through the Spirit of God hath in it the extension of Eternity but this false interpreters will not be gathered into 2 They will not have Christ so to neglect himself in the world that there is no stamp of the Image and Spirit of God in wicked men as peculiar to his nature nor so â—o neglect himself as he is Man in the just that there is no excellency or glory of man in any reckoning or account in him that so he may in the fulnesse of God and vacancy and vanity of all the things of man make of these twain one new man in himself this false interpreters will not be gathered into Ephes 2. 15 16 3 They will not have the same life and spirit transfused into every Saint of God which is in the Son of God as he hath respect to the Father or not that however which is in the Father himself but some Secondary or mediate influence else it is not a wing for the children and the bond-woman earthly Ierusalem to come under they are all bound by law of humane learning and their School Divinity to keep with all care and study their Secundâ—m Idem which is a principall pillar set up by Satan to underprop the Nest they belong unto Revel 18. 2. 4 They will not have the form and fulnesse of Christ to be compleated at once where ever or in whom it appears but must have it made up gradually by peece-meal hating inconsistent to the increasings of God and impaires that Salvation that is by Christ for there is nothing peculiar to a Christian but Christ salvation Consists in it so that they will not have Salvation to be perfect it is a wing too sound and wholsome for the Scribes of the world to come under 5 They will not have the word and wisdom of God to be a compleat and all sufficient shelter unto a Christian to save and defend him from storms and tempests snares and intanglements arising from below or descending from above without the help of humane learning whereby to know and humane policy to consult contrive and determine as also humane lawes and Lawyers to maintain rights and interests otherwise a Christian cannot safely be Conveyed through this World we have known all these to come out against Christ and the servants of Christ in all ages but we never knew them take parts with the people of God but as God by his wisdome turned them to another intent than their proper sâ—ope and end was but for the word and wisdome of God simply and singly considered that wing false interpreters would never be gathered under for they say unto God depart from us for we desire not the knowledge of thy waies Iob 21 13 14. Psalm 119. 53. They will not have a Nest of his composure a house of building without hands onely eternall in the heavens they know nor for it is too apparent their Doctrine concerns the things of this life and so properly the state of the bodies of men and for the nature and state of the soul they Know not being void and destitute of the wisdome of God such as have not the spirit Iude 19. and therefore Christ in the words following brings in that affirmation and sentence against them 38. 39. Behold your habitation is left unto you desolate for I say unto you yee shall not see me me henceforth till that ye say blessed is he that cometh in the Name of the Lord. In which words observe 1 First a serious affirmation in these words Behold your house is left unto you desolate 2 Secondly a reason thereof rendred in these words for ye shall not see me henceforth untill ye say blessed is he that cometh in the Name of the Lord. First observe in the affirmation a note of admiration and wonder that the wisdome of God should speak and expresse it self unto men and they not give Credit thereunto Behold saith he and wonder admire unto astonishment and destruction that the prophecie which hath foretold these things is fulfilled upon you Habba 1. 5. which the Apostle applies to a like act of the wicked Iewes where he saith Behold ye dispisers and wonder and vanish away Acts 13. 41. or perish for the reiection and neglect of the wisdome of God presented unto the world and uttered in Christ is the proper condemnation and destruction of the sons of men therefore the Prophet saith For I will work a work in your daies yee will not beleeve it though it be told unto you Here is then a description of the habitation and abode as the proper brood and nest of all false Interpreters in opposition to that which Christ gathereth his own people into And this devastation here affirmed to be the portion of all false Interpreters is the very same which is prophesied of all Christs Enemies Psalm 69. 26. and is in particular applyed unto Iudas Iscariot that Confessor for hire Acts 1. 20. as his name signifies or man that praiseth the wayes of death as all such do to declare unto us that deceitfull treacherous and perfidious spirit as also that horrid destruction which ever attends the false interpretation of the Word of God which ever bereaved men of all Office and Apostleship of all Vertue and Operation of all holy Ministry and Service yea of all Life Spirit and Power that appertains to the House and Kingdom of God therefore Iudas is said to go to his own place as one estranged from that place and inheritance of the Son of God Acts 1. 25. So that this desolation and depopulation of the habitation of the wicked is the fulfilling of it with death and destruction and with all wickedness and abomination as in Simon Magus who valued the gifts of the Spirit of God according to an earthly estimation which is ever accompanyed with a destructive and perishing condition Acts 8. 20. For it is that unclean spirit which goeth out of the Man or out in a human manner in the things of God walking through dry places barren of the distillations of the Spirit of God seeking rest but hath none to give and therefore never finds it for the Spirit of Christ doth as truly gives rest as receives it But this unclean spirit consulting with it self preacheth a return to his house out of which he came that is he came out of the house of uncleanness and thither he returns for as the holy Spirit of Christ comes or proceeds out of a pure and uncorrupted Fountain as it descends from the Father yet as the spirit of man is in unity therewith there is a real separation and sanctification from uncleanness and all impurity which otherwise man naturally is therefore Christ is truly said to be made in us Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemtion 1 Cor. 1. 30. Even so that Spirit of man going out in the matters of God by human wisdom in that respect goeth
out of an unclean and corrupt Fountain or habitation for Earth holds no correspondencie nor hath any congruity with Heaven the Creature with the Creator but falls infinitely short in all things not a blemish forbidden in all the Sacrifices and Offerings but in that respect he hath the defect superfluity and defilement upon him yet doth he corrupt a pure and holy thing in himself and unto himself namely the holy Word of God in the false construction thereof so that as this unclean Spirit corrupts a pure Word of Eternity in it self mortalizing it by putting it into a human form so also its return is into an house of uncleanness of like antiquity in point of the state of death and mortality and so is truly said to go out of an unclean habitation which never was otherwise and yet he makes it unclean and desolate of all the things of God unto himself by false interpretation bringing the will of God unto the mind of the Creature and not the mind of the Creature to the will of God But the Spirit of Christ coming out of a clean Fountain even from God himself and therefore is said to come forth from God and go to God Ioh. 13. 1. yet doth he purifie in himself that which by nature is otherwise unclean namely the spirit of man else were he not the son of Man as he is called a matter of eighty eight several times in the Prophecie of Ezekiel and according to the eternity of that Word or Spirit that purifies such is the state and condition of the purified for they are no more twain but one Mat. 19. 6. And thence it is that Man who otherwise is mortal lives an eternal and immortal life being that the Wisdom of God hath formed his mind according to the Will of God and not to the will or law of a creature and so Man in Christ who otherwise is mortal lives for ever and knows no death no more than En ch did Gen. 5. 24. who was translated that he should not see death Heb. 11. 5. That is that he should never tast of it or feel the nature thereof so the Psalmist saith Tast and see how gracious the Lord is Psal 34. 81. And the Son of God who otherwise is immortal doth in that way of Antichrist dye an eternal death where never any life appears but a mortal state and condition of like time of him who is mortalized therefore they are said to go into everlasting fire which must have respect to time past as well as time to come Mat. 25. 41. Therefore Tophet is prepared of old or of antiquity or from eternity as the word imports yea it is prepared for the King the burning whereof is fire and much wood and the breath of the Lord as a River of Brimstone kindles it Isaiah 30. 33. So that as antient as the breath of the Lord is so antient is that place of abode for the wicked therefore a full measure of wrath in point of time as well as present torment So that unclean spirit is said to take seven spirits worse than himself that is fulness of uncleanness and vexation which a creature simply considered could never have therefore his going out in the matters of God in a carnal manner is the way of his multiplication of mischief in himself therefore his house is empty and swept of all the things of God but furnished with all uncleanness and wickedness suitable to that unclean and wicked condition therefore the end of that man is worse than his beginning for the original and proper ground ofthis abomination ariseth from the creature whichin it self is but a finite thing as all other creatures are but his end and scope being to adorn himself with God in making him like to himself as the Psalmist speaks Psal 50. 21. thence it is that God becomes a fearfull and infinite death and torment to him which all the creatures in the world could never be And of such nature and concernment is the house or habitation of these false Teachers which is left unto them or in them desolate of all the things proper to God and filled with all the things of Satan even as Iudas was to become his own Executioner and the bursting of him in sunder that all men might see his abomination and shame who is said to goe to his own place Act. 1. 25. as one laid waste of all Apostleship and Ministry in the Faith of Christ and therfore his proper inheritance or habitation yeelds him nothing that is holy or profitable to Minister but is voyd and desolate of all Neither hath he any life or spirit to move or act in the things of God though tendred unto him for he is dead and gone to his own place and office of an eternal executioner of himself And this is the desolation of the habitation applied to Iudas the false and counterfeit betrayer of Christ with a kiss which Christ applyes hereunto all false Interpreters of the Word of God in these Scribes and Pharisees who faun upon Christ in their Doctrin in all lowly demeanour to maintain uphold him in the ways of the flesh by things mortal momentary therby give a sign unto the world for the betraying of that life and spirit of the Son of God into the cruel hands of the wicked that the law of the Spirit or Christ taught after the Spirit wilnot be suffered or endured among them the habitation of such Confessors Pharisees or Preachers of Christ with Iudas is left unto them desolate without any in-dwellings of the Spirit of God with them or any building up of the House of God by them but ruination of themselves and others with Iudas who are their maintainers and upholders The Reason of this Desolation and Destruction follows For ye shall not see me henceforth Whence observe that the want of Christs sight and revelation in the world is the cause of all ruin and desolation of the world as Christ affirms Without me saith he ye can do nothing Ioh. 15. 5. It is alike true without me ye have nothing without me ye are nothing Christ is unto man that Microsmos or little world as the Sun in the Firmament is unto this spherical world take away and annihilate the one or the other and all things therin perish and come to ruin Want of true Revelation is the cause of all Desolation and Destruction By seeing here we are to understand the communication of the sences The Apostle Paul saw Christ when he went to Damascus even that light that shined about him clearer than the Noon-day for it is said he saw no man Act. 22. 26. Act. 9. 8. That is he saw no humane shape of Christ though he opened his eyes to see but Christ according to the spirit in his mystical body was revealed unto him therefore he saith Am I not aâ— Apostle am I not free have I not seen our Lord Iesus 〈…〉 Cor. 9. 1. Paul alâ—â—â—eard
false interpreters ever preferre Carnall policies and speak well of them in the vilification of that wisdom which approves of the Crosse of Christ preferring it as the onely thing to be rejoiced in Gal. 6. 14. 3 Whosoever comes in the certainty of truth as it is in Iesus fals interpreters prefer the certainty of Grammer Rules â—ogicall Reasonings Synods and Councills oâ— men before â—he Evidence and Demonstration of the Spirit and power of God 1 Cor. 2 4 5. 4 Whosoever comes in the authority of conquest and victory of the King subiecting all spirits unto the power of God either voluntarily or else by constraint false interpreters ever prefer the Conquest over mens bodies and subjecting their estates before that placing their chief if not only cause of thank fâ—lness in the success of the temporal Sword and therefore can never blesse praise nor speak well of the King Christ or of that Anoynting of the Spirit whose weapons of Warfare are not Carnall but Spirituall yea mighty through God to cast down holds Casting down the imaginations and every high thing that is exalted against the Knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ and having ready the vengeance against all disobedience when obedence is full and Compleated which it ever was and is in the Lord Christ 2 Cor. 10. 4 5 6. We conclude therefore considering the premisses that it is a most righteous thing in Christ to pronounce this sentence against the spirit of false interpretation in whomsoever it appeares that it shall never bear that Vrim and Thumâ—im that Light and Perfection so to see the Son of God as to install into the office of the Priest who enters into the Holy of Holies and therefore shall never be authorised to blesse or speak well of such as come or spring up by the power of the Spirit in the Name and authority of the Lord that King of Saints and Holy one of God separated marvellously and exempted by signes of honour from all common and profane use to the exercise of holinesse and manifestation of Gods vertues for ever 1 Pet. 2. 9. whom the Spirit of false interpretation doth ever vilific preferring the Kings of the Nations round about Ierusalem that is above who are appointed onely to profane and common uses before that holy one of God Iohn 19 12 13 14 15. Acts 17. 6 7. therefore let that house be desolate and that spirit of false interpretation let it be for ever ashamed Amen So be it FINIS Certain Copies of Letters which passed betwixt the Penman of this Treatise and certain men newly come out of Old England into New Who when they were arrived at Boston in the Massachusets-Bay the Governour being informed they were such as are called Quakers he sent Officers to fetch them ashoar and being forthwith brought into examination what their business was into these parts they answered To spread the Gospel and to do the worke of the Lord whereupon they were all committed to prison both Men and Women there to remainâ— till the return of the Ship and then to be carried back into England the Master being bound in 500l with others for security with him to set them ashoar in England againe and that upon his own cost and charge lesâ— the purity of the Religion professed in the Churches of New-England should be defiled with Errour Warwick Septemb. 16. 1656. The Superscription To the Strangers and out-casts with respect to carnall Israel now in prison at Boston for the name of Christ these with trust present in Massachusets New-England Christian Friends THE report of your demeanour with some others of the same mind with you formerly put in possession of the place of your present aboad as is reported to us as also the errand you professe you come with into these parts hath much taken my heart so that I cannot with hold my hand from expressing its desires after you which present habitation of yours our selves have had a proof of from like grounds and reasons that have possessed you thereof under which in some measure we still remain in point of banishment under pain of death out of these parts a prohibition from that liberty which â—o Christian ought to be infringed of And though we have a larger room in bodily respects than for present your selves have yet we desire to see the prison doors open before we attempt to go out either by force or stealth or by intrâ—aâ—y which we doubt not but the boâ—s will fly back in the best season both in regard of your selves and us but we apprize more of the appearance of an evident hand of God exalting himself in his own way than we do of our bodily livelyhood for we fear not the face of man for God hath shewed us what all flesh is otherwise we would visit you in the place where you remain though we came unto you on our bare feet or any that professeth the Lord Iesus opposing his authori y against all the powers of darknesse If God have brought you into these parts as instruments to open the excellencies of the Tabernacle wherever the Cloud causeth you to abide no doubt but this your imprisonment shall be an effectual preface to your work to bring the Gain-sayers to nought which my soul waits for not with respect to any particular mans person but with respect unto that universall spirit of wickednesse gone out into the world to deceive and tyrannize and in that respect my soul saith O Lord I have waited for thy salvation the bringing to nought of which spirit is ever made manifest in the blessing of the Tribes for the Scepter of Israel is never erected but in bringing to nought the Crown of pride which Dan or true judgement ever brings to nought by our spirituall Sampson I may not presume to use a word of exhortation unto you being I had rather as having more need to be admonished by you not doubting but you are plentifully enabled to admonish one another let me make bold to say thus much to my self Stand still and behold the salvation of the Lord we are Persons lie here as buried unto the Sons of men in a corner of the Earth grudged at that we have this present burying place But our God may please to send some of his Saints unto us to speak words which the dead hearing them shall live I may not trouble you further at this time ouely if we knew that you had a mind to stay in these parts after your inlargement for we hear you are to be sent back for England and what time the Ship would set Saile or could have hope the Master would deliver you we would endeavonr to have a Vâ—ssell in readinesse when the Ship goeth out of Harbour to take you in and set you where you may enjoy your liberty Iâ— arvell what manner of God your Adversaries trust in who is so fearfull of being infected with errour or how they
to any of their principles our faith depends not upon any of their principles our love embraceth not upon any of their principles our hope expects not upon any of their principles nor doth our power and sufficiencie stand upon any of their principles And therefore as brute beasts are unto them so are they to us in the things of God and we are unto them as men bereaved of their wits for they cannot but discern a certain power of argument in us beyond all brutish cogitations whatsoever yea such as transcends and over-tops what is in themselves for the Wisdom of God though a meek and descended Wisdom yea foolishness in the worlds estimation yet it over-powers and over-tops the highest Cedars standing in the worlds Lebanon and is bottomed and founded upon grounds and undeniable reason and true argument in Gods Wisdom yea argumentation for conviction and confirmation infinitely surpassing and transcending all Logical and artificial argument coming within the compass of human device and learning therefore we conclude that the Wisdom of God though become foolishness unto the world yet doth it contain sufficiencie of power in argument to over-top any Council Synod Synedrion or Assembly composed by humane art and learning And that makes them so fearfull and of such care to guard themselves from the apparition therof For as it is in that way of the devil to propose his temptations from the Letter of the Scriptures thinking to win or subdue Christ thereby So is there sufficiencie of spirit and wisdom in the true interpretation thereof to confound and bring them in the party proposing them to nought And whereas you say There is a thing underneath which cannot be satisfied vvith the divings into the mystery of the Scriptures of truth which phrase as it seems to import cannot be a â—ruth for the mystery of the Gospel is described to be Christ in you the hope of Glory Now this Christ the Son of the Eternal comprehends all things really and eternally good so that there is nothing so low but it is raised up in him nor any thing so high but it is descended in him and so becomes a plain path wheron our God passeth in the wilderness so that dive into him as to lay open this Mystery of the Word of Truth and there is nothing so low underneath nor any thing so high and above that can possibly faile or come short of satisfaction which appertains unto the Saints and Sonnes of God now that hee ascended what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth he that descended is also the same that ascended up far above all heavens that he might fill all things therefore discover the mysterie of the Word and it fills all things to satisfaction for no man hath ascended up to heaven but hee that came down from heaven even the Son of Man which is in heaven So that as you cannot goe above him who is height it self nor below that which is depth it selfe so you cannot hide any thing above or beneath but the mysterie of the Word is the light which finds it out and brings satisfaction therewith for the life the light are one ever in conjunction with Christ from whom nothing is hid Therefore we honour that phrase in the true intent thereof that when you are clouded you vvait and vvhen moved you journey for we know the cloud to be the glory of Israel in the Wilderness that wayless place in point of any of the Nations who cannot take a step therein but onely to the fall of their carkasses yea even of carnal Israel For this cloud is a cloud of witness presenting unto us a record and testimony of the acts and deeds of all the Saints of God Therefore as a pillar remains and abides with us day and night and is a cover in the day not to darken that light and leading of the Angel of his face but to over-shadow us as we are the Virgin of Israel than none of those scorching beams or rayes of that Sun-shine or light of the Nations takes place upon us nor contributes no more to our being than Ioseph that just man according to the law or letter did unto the conception of Mary And in its stay and abode upon our Tabernacle we so wait on God as in exercise in uncovering the Ark of his presence ordering the instruments and glories thereof according to appointment and with Moses turn in unto the Lord without either vale or covering which abides on the heart of carnal Israel when Moses is read unto this day when we with open face behold the glory of the Lord as in a mirrour and are changed into the same image from all that glory of the Ministry of condemnation consisting in the letter unto that exceeding glory of the Spirit wherein we stand with Moses conversing with God face to face as a man talks with his friend And this state and manner of waiting upon God he hath perpetuated in our host wherein according to the prayer of Moses the Lord returns unto the many thousands of Israel for we have the record of them all in this cloud and their order and exercise about the Ark. The Lord hath not left us without the testimony of the motion of the cloud also which he hath in like sort perpetuated unto us and that in the dissipation and scattering of the Nations who are Enemies unto God And we daily find that praier of Moses in use and fulfilling it selfe in us and about us viz. Arise O Lord and let thine enemies be scattered let them also that hate thee fly before thee For we daily have to doe with that people of that spirit amongst whom you now are yea and from the floud unto the worlds end by a spirit of Praier and Prophecie which all the world can never bound nor Herods Stone Seal nor Watch keep in the grave But as it goes before the Disciples into Galilee so it rebukes the Nations and brings the mad people to nought else had you not seen those lye dead before you on the shore in your approach so evidently as now you doe in point of any life or light of Iesus Christ And in this dismal and darksom night which is now upon the world this Cloud is a most firm and stately pillar of fire to give light unto us and according to its motion either by night or by day we advance unto the vanquishing and vexation of the world For the spirit of a Christian knows how to grasp and gripe in the Nations so as to cut off the spirit of Princes and to be a terrour to the Kings of the earth so as Herod and all Israel after the flesh in all their Iewish institutions shall be in trouble A Christian becomes a fool in point of Serpents wisdom in Herods Wisemen and Pharoahs Magicians is a comprehensive thing no less than the proper continent of an omnipotent power who is able to
them in all particulars and upon as reall and substantiall grounds as we can give for the appearing of the day and succeeding of the night or as we can give the reason why we eat why we drink why we sleep marry and give in marriage without which things man can neither multiply nor tarry upon the face of the Earth and we know the nature of all things that God reveals unto us as well as we know the nature of the fire by putting a finger into it either the things of Satan in that body of sin as we dye unto it and it is dead to us or the things of God in Christ as we live to them and they live in us and such are our imaginations And for our wandring from Mountain to Hill we do professe our selves to be gone from that rigid and mountainous power and pride of Pharaoh under which in a Figure you now are three dayes journey a perfect and perpetuall departure therefrom into that Wildernesse that is waylesse of the tracts of Pharaoh and his Host else we had not come to Sinai or Horeb that hill of God where he calls us up to converse with him in the height of his own Son where we meekly receive that law of the spirit in the laver of the People yea that fiery law that borns up all combustible and corruptible matter in us purifying and trying our faith as silver is tryed in the fire We also are gone from that Mount with the Ark of God and law therein three dayes journey to seek a resting place for the Ark which is a perfect and perpetuall removall from the place of the giving and receiving the law of the flesh the earnall commandement in all the terrours fears effects and operations thereof or else we had never come to Mount Zion the Hill which God doth love and where he will dwell for ever where glorious things are spoken in that City of God for in Iudah is God known his name is great in Israel at Salem is his Tabernacle and his dwelling place in Zion and there he breaks the Arrowes of the Bow the Shield and the Sword and the Battel Selah Yea there is he more glorious and puissant than the Mountains of prey even than all the Host of Sennacâ—arib which compasse about Ierusalem thinking to make a prey and a booty thereof but it becomes a heavy stone and a cup of trembling beyond all their expectations unto them Whereas you say the meek and lowly Spirit is not of this World but bears vvitnesse against it we freely own it so to be and that you bear vvitnesse also unto the life in the measure given you vvhich is eternall and therefore seems to be immeasurable for he receives not the spirit by measure we do heartily rejoyce in any that God stirs up to testifie to his truth inthat verity of his word and life and light of his Son which is to us as lise from the dead knowing it to be as honourable an office as ever a Saint can attain unto to be that faithful and true witnesse only found in the Son of God who only is an eye and ear witness of all the doings of the father and therfore he only can give true testimony and a just account of them which we count to be as great a Crown and royall diadem unto our selves to hear as to be inabled to speak thereof and therefore can freely suffer our own eclipse for ever so that the splendent brightnesse of that Sun of righteousnesse may break forth and have its proper place seat and course being made marvelous in his Saints even in all that beleeve so as it may be said with admiration suitable to such an Aspect Who is this that looks forth as the morning fair as the Moon cleer as the Sun terrible as an Army with Banners A true witnesse is truly honourable being one who only can give true testimony of the state of all things so as true judgement passeth to give every thing its due without which there is no righteousnesse on the Earth He only can witnesse against the world concerning the nature of their act in crucifying the Lord of glory whom they know not for they that know him never do it and onely they which can witnesse what it is to take away and destroy such a life and to put out such a light they only can witnesse what that light and life is in all such in whom it appears namely what the eternall and everlasting Sonship is which is that which is in time as well as that which is eternall which being gathered into one by that spirit of eternity it is made one state or incorporation wherein all the severall and various relations therein consist of and are become a spiritual and an eternal law which gives unto it self an orderly being and form in all its operations which operations offices are known onely by that name which is writ upon them which is that particular power and authority they carry in them and expresse and this is such as none can read but himself and he is called the Word of God which word is the law of the spirit of life and this life is the light of men and this light gives a true form unto all things which it testifies unto therefore it is said by the Lord unto Iob Hast thou commanded the morning since thy dayes or caused the day-spring to know his place that it might take hold of the ends of the Earth that the wicked may be shaken out of it it is turned as clay to the Seal and they stand as a garment but from the wicked their light is with-holden and the high arm shall be broken So that this true light lights us up to see the Son of God as being of twain made one for in what respect soever he appears there is a true relation considerable in it or else it is not that Son of God the Saviour or salvation of the world for he is of twain made one new man in which is the Vnity as also the fellowship of the Gospell in all things for there is nothing in Christ without its proper relative and without relation the word or law of God is not as in creation the thing made as well as the thing making in knowledge the thing known in love the thing beloved in a Father the respect to a Son in a Husband the respect to a wife which gives to each other their proper being so as if one cease the relative ceaseth also from being such So that if I witnesse to the Son word light life Law or peace of God I must witnesse unto the being of such a thing that such a thing it is as also to the manner of its being how it comes to be such a thing together with its necessary and proper operations which must inevitably accompany such a manner of being with the comprehensions extensions of such operations and motion or
Christ Jesus the Son of God who is the subject matter and summ of the Gospel is a man a creature of time as truly as he is God the Creatour and eternal yet he is not to be reckoned or accounted of in any thing according unto man but of God for as his conception is so are all the things of Christ Matth. 1. 20. which is not by man but by the holy Ghost for as the womans name is not reckonable in marriage but only the name of the man therefore in the beginning the woman and the man are both called Adam Gen. 5. 2. so all the things of Jesus Christ have their denomination of God and not of man and are to be extended according to the dimentions that are in God and not bounded within the compass of humane capacity in any point of the Gospel whatsoever his power is the power of God and not of man 1 Cor. 1. 18. Rom. 1. 16. his wisdome is the wisdome of God Prov. 8. 1 Cor. 1. 24. and not humane the wisdome of the world his love is the love of God shed abroad in the heart that many waters or that all waters cannot quench neither can the floods drown it Cant. 8. 7. and not love humane the love of the world which is enmity with God Iames 4. 4 his compassions are the compassions of a God and not the compassions of man Hosea 11. 8. whose mercies are cruel Prov 12. 10. Wo be to the scribes and pharises therefore who falsly interpret the word of God for the deceitful construction thereof was that which first hatched sin and brought it out in the world and hath been the continuation thereof in the sons of men unto this day Gen. 3. Therefore the true ministers of the Gospel and interpretour of the word of God receive nothing as the tenth as an acceptable offering unto God whatever it be that hath not an alsufficiency and eternity in it bearing the proper form of the wisdome of God and not the wisdome humane which wisdome of God is only extant in the faith of Christ and this they offer according to its proper nature and distinct quality unto the Lord as a heave offering as is appointed Numb 18. 21. 32. and a wave-offering the tithes are a heave-offering unto the Lord as being such as are lifted up and transcend all temporary things whatsoever otherwise of on acceptation before God or esteem of an holy minister or a messenger of the Gospel They are also offered as a wave-offering shaken to and fro or as the word signifies and is sometimes translated sifted in a sieve Jsa 30. 28. that is the tithe which God intends in his word are sifted from all earthly and transitory things or commixtures consisting only of that simplicity which is in Christ Jesus that only acceptable thing before God in all the men of God 2 Cor. 11. that ever lived or shall in this transitory world Contrary to this is Satans desire in all the men of Belial to winnow or sift as in a sieve the disciples of Christ that if it were possible nothing should be left in them of that simplicity that is in Christ but turn all things into that which is corruptible and perish in the use as they do the doctrine of receiving and paying of tithes Luke 22. 31. The ministers of the Gospel therefore even men the Levites as they are said to pay tithes unto Melchisedech in the loins of Abraham Hebr. 7. 9 10. are offered to the Lord as a wave-offering sifted as in a sieve and cleansed from all humane conjectures and carnal interpretations of the word Numb 8. 11. so the Apostles were waved or as the Greek translates the word separated unto the Gospel as sifted from all the carnal traditions of men and earthly conjectures in the opening of the wotd of God Rom. 1. 1 Acts 13. 2. approving of nothing as being the scope or any part of the mind of God therein which hath not an alsufficiency and eternity therein and thereby themselves are a sifted offering or gift as the Greek translates for the ministers of the word of God are called gifts Ephes 4. 8. 11. Wherefore when he ascended on high and led captivity captive he gave gifts unto men or gave gifts in the man or gâ—ve men of gifts Therefore the first fruit were given as an oblation and heave offering to the Lord the fiâ—st fruits signifying as the Hebrew phrase is plenty r peness or fulness or as the word first imports the beginning or original or fruit Exod. 22. 29. Exod. 23. 19. which is found only in Christ the fulness of him that fills all in all who is the beginning of the creation of God and in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God Ephes 1. 23. Revel 3. 14. Iohn 1. 1. And so is the tribute signifying sufficiency or enough given as a heave offering to the Lord Numb 31. 14. which is the proper portion of Jacob that when he gives a present to E au of things not naturalized to himself as his wives and children were he retains in himself with respect to them enough or sufficiency all or all things as the word imports Gen. 33. 11. Therefore when the â—ithes yea the tenth of the tenth is given out into the chambers of the house of the Lord Num. 18. 26. Nehem. 10. 38. Exod. 22. 28. 29. as the store and provision for the poor the stranger the fatherless and the widow which indeed are the places of abode the chambers treasuries and storehouses of the word of God that is to say such as are poor in spirit whose proper interest is the kingdome of heaven the stranger alienated and as outcasts with respect unto carnal Israel the fatherless that is such as are not begotten of flesh nor of bloud nor of the will of man but of God and the widow namely such unto whom the law of works their first husband is dead Matth. 5. 3. Psalme 147. 2. Iohn 1 12 13. Rom. 7. 2. And he that gives not in unto these chambers and treasuries of the house of the Lord that which is food convenient and in due season is a wicked steward and false interpretour of the word of God which is not done in any thing wherein there is not ripeness and plenty in the thing commended unto them as also it must be seasonable that is of the time and age of the Son of God even the first-fruits or beginning of all fruits and the choice fulness and perfection thereof as being ripe in the present time and necessity 2. Whereupon the second point is brought in that where this is wanting there is neglect of the weighty matters of the law that is where or in whomsoever transitory things are strictly exacted and stood upon as being the subject matter in the intenâ— of God of the doctrine of the Gospel yea such things as other creatures may after a sort be