and crucified became the living way Heb. 10.20 as with God I shall shew another time Fifthly that worthy man brings men to the way but not to the Truth and Life Now Christ was all First the way for no man cometh to the Father but by me Iohn 14.6 now 't is a vain thing to keep men still in the way to stand still in the way and not to goe on by Christ into the Father into the holiest and thus was Christ the Truth Iohn 14.3 also taking us into the Father with himself for as this was eternall life to know the Father to be the onely true God Ioh. 17.3 and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent so Christ was sent or God even the Father was manifest in his flesh that we might see God in us as he was in him Iohn 17.21 23 24. and our life with him in God Lastly thus Christ is the life and thus he that hath the Son hath life that is the Son being once revealed in us reveals the Father in us also God in our flesh as in his and we living with him in God alone Joh. 14.19 20. 1 Joh. 5.11 12. This is the knowledge of Christ in the Spirit and this is the fourth step which some have attained to holding forth Christ in the Spirit as Mr. Sedgwick Mr. Sterrie Mr. Sprig and others these with their fellows are neerest Zion yet are they not come into it for as every Prophet shall one day be ashamed of his vision Zach. 13.4 yea prophesie it self shall fail So it is manifest these men are of a dark and deeper speech then can be easily understood Isai 33.19 therefore it is not Zion when there shall be such a glorious appearance of God in men that all shall see and hear him in them and as they shall see eye to eye when the Lord shall bring again Zion Isai 52.8 or bring forth himself cleerly in us who are now in captivity or he rather captive in our flesh so men shall hear God himself in us for so it is in the Hebrew Zach. 8.23 not we have heard that God is with you but we will go with you for we have heard God with you and in you Then man shall be nothing and God shall be all in all yet man shall be all in God and nothing but God shall appear in man This glorious appearance of the great God in man the three Shepherds the Pastors and Teachers doe indeed abhor they hate his appearance as I said and he abhors all their performances But who are these three Shepherds the Pastors of Churches What their cutting off is my former Letter shewed to suffer the curse of God and contempt of men How God cuts them off It is by unchurching them and by confounding or dividing them the Lord doth first unchurch them burns up the Church with fire Zachariah 11.1 there he calls Lebanon to open the doors that the fire may come in to burn up the tallest Cedars What 's Lebanon but the Temple for it was built with that Who are the Cedars but the tallest Members the principall of the flock What is the fire but the Spirit of the Lord as the Lord God calls upon Lebanon so he commands that the Church doors may be open for the fire to enter and the spirit to burn up all their chiefest members and Ministers for so it is vers 2. The mighty men or the gallants are spoiled yea there is a howling of the shepherds for their glory is spoiled v. 3. Their Church-fellowship and forms is that they glory in God spoils them and stains the pride of all their glory yea he burns it up How By fire The baptisme of the Spirit and of fire was the first Gospel-Ordinance Acts 1.4 5. or that which first set up the Church in a Gospel-order Fire will be the last that shall burn up the Churches who because they would not as the Primitive Saints did wait for the Spirit to build them the Spirit shall come to burn and consume them at last Secondly God cuts them off confounds and divides them he cuts them into three parts as we shall see by and by Thus then the three shepherds are the Pastors of all the Churches or whole Ministery of the Church Ezek. 16.30 Rev. 17.2 for as the Apostate Jewish Church was a Type of the Christian Church now under the Apostacie the whoredomes of Israel typifying the great whore whose fornications and the wine thereof in their forms of doctrine and false worships as we shall shew another time so Junius well notes the three Shepherds to signifie the whole teaching Ministery of the Jewish Church Vid. Junium in Zach. 11. for the Pharisees Sadduces and Essenes saith he were the onely Pastors or Teachers who did instruct the people in the Word of God as Prelates Presbyters and Independents are the whole Ministery of the Church of England this day These are divided not onely in Worship and Discipline but in doctrine also especially in three things 1. In the free grace of God which some call Antinomianism 2. In the free-will of man which otherscall Pelagianism 3. In the death of Christ or universal Redemption of mankind thereby which both Presbyters and Independants abhorre as Paganisme though nearest the Gospel indeed I shall not now shew the cause of all those divisions in Doctrine being engaged onely at present to prove their defilements in the worship of God and in their walking with men Yet this is one cause of their former difference and divisions in Doctrine Acts 2.42 because the Apostles Doctrine being before all Gospel-Ordinances is out of order in the Churches 1 Tim. 6.3 2. Tim. 1.13 who not content with that forme of sound words and wholsome Doctrine delivered by them doe follow the childish Dictates of Fathers the Decrees of Councels being a company of Bishops with such Creeds Confessions and Catechismes formed by them and reformed Churches whose conformities and fooleries in formes of worship though our Churches cannot chuse but see yet with a blind devotion they follow all their formes of doctrine not suffering a doubt or the least debate to passe upon their reason and judgement therein How injudicious this is with ingenuous men let all men judge Iohn 3.12 for if I tell you of earthly things saith Christ and yee beleeve not how will yee beleeve if I tell you of heavenly all outward worship is but an earthly thing Now if all Fathers and former Churches have erred in worship why not I pray you may they not erre in Doctrine in heavenly and hidden things in the high Mystery of God and of Christ especially seeing the Apostles did prophesie of such deceit to come in this by vain Philosophy Col. 2.8 and metaphysicall speculations of the Deity by the traditions and inventions of men the rudiments of the world the rudiments that is the A. B. C. or common Catechismes which
over when the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord or as another Prophet adds full of the knowledge of the glory of the Lord Ezek. 47.5 Isai 11.9 Hab. 1.14 Zach. 14.8 Rev. 22.1 compared as the waters cover the Sea Isai 11.9 Hab. 2.14 There the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb God even the Father and Christ the Fathers glory shall be fully known by men Rev. 21.22 Rev. 22.4 For as Christ is the appearance of God so when God shall appear in men they shall know how Christ was under the Law and as he is in the Gospel and will be the same for ever All that I know at present of Christ is this he was under the Law in Forms In the Gospel hee appeared in Flesh Tit. 2.13 Heb. 9.28 he will appear wholly in Spirit in Spirit onely the appecarance of the great GOD and Saviour shall be and yet manifest in the flesh of men that is all the transactions of God or all that God did in the flesh of Christ Rev. 12.5 Rev. 11.8 11 12. 1 Cor. 6.2 3. Obad. 21. compared shall visibly appear in the flesh of men the birth of Christ his life death resurrection and ascention shall be seen in us men shall see us ascend in a cloud to sit in heaven to judge the world and Angels and to bee Saviours of men in mount Zion at last For the Lamb shall bee in mount Zion and with him we shall be Rev. 14.1 having his Fathers name on our foreheads that 's the full discovery of God in us and men shall see God even the Father in us with Christ so cleerly manifest as written on our foreheads Mount Sion is not an outward Church-state as the Churches now imagine and call themselves though they be indeed the daughter of Babylon Zach. 2.7 but Zion is the state of all the Saints in the Spirit as they are in God and God in them For as Zion was the place where God dwelt so all the Saints from the beginning of the world have been still waiting for this for the full discoverie of God in them Glorious things were spoken of Zion Psal 87.3 and the people of God both under the law and in Gospel-dispensation were still going on from strength to strength Psal 84.7 till every one of them appears in Zion before God Every one appears at last in Zion Rev 14.1 not onely the hundred and fourscore and four thousand who go before and are the first fruits unto God v. 4. but a numberless company of men whose voyce was as many waters and as a mighty thunder vers 2. For as the hundred fourscore and four thousand is the just number of the sealed ones Rev. 7 4. selected out of the twelve Tribes who were first called the Church and people of God typifying those in the last dayes who shall be redeemed from men and the first fruits unto God as we said before so afterward there will be a company of people called to God whom no man can number Rev. 7.9 But these come to Zion through great tribulation through the bloud of the Lamb in them v. 14. that is through much suffering through the fellowship of Christs suffering and conformity to his death they come to rise and raign with him having palms in their hauds that life of Gospel-Saints which was hid with Christ in God Col. 3.3 shall appear in God and the life of God shall appear in the Saints at last thus Christ their life shall appear in them with glory This glorious appearing of the great God rising up in higher discoveries of himself in men is that which hath been ever most opposed and persecuted I speak not now of the times under the Law nor Gospel nor yet of former appearances since the Apostasie But to goe no further then our own age what we have heard and seen How was the appearance of God in the First Reformers yea in our Prelates and Bishops persecuted as heresie by the Popish Hierarchie Next the honest Presbyters or Puritans how were they opposed by the same Prelates who suffered before Thirdly these Presbyterians formerly themselves in a suffering condition persecuted the appearance of God in those of higher forms and fellowships as the Independent Churches and these likewise are ready to oppose and persecute the spirits of the Saints who in worship and doctrine are of higher discoveries then themselves The doctrine of God and of Christ for substance is the same in all the Saints though their apprehensions differ or are divers rather And who is ignorant of this that the appearances of God in one man hath not been the same as it was formerly in himself and yet all have been going on from strength to strength at least in their desires and aimes toward Zion Though I am but a child in underdanding and in yeares also to some of our Elders yet here I observed four great steps of Gods glorious appearance in mens preaching First how low and legall were their teachings as they learnt the way of preaching from Mr. Perkins Bolton Byfield Dod and Dike most blessed in their generation by whom and such conforming Ministers more men were converted to God then ever since in any period of time Next the Doctrine of free Grace came forth but with lesse successe or fruit of conversion by Dr. Preston Sibs Crispe yet many before converted were confirmed and comforted by their words Thirdly the letter of Scripture and the flesh of Christ hath been highly set up by both the famous Goodwins the one Master John Goodwin like Apollos being mighty in Scriptures and strength of reason the other excels in spirituall discourses of Christs death resurrection ascension and intercession yet much according to the flesh for he meddles not with the Mystery of Christ in us of his dying in us as Mr. Dell in part discovers but all of Christ without us which though a truth yet not the whole truth nor that spirit and truth which Christ spake of John 6.63 2 Cor. 3.6.18 for as the flesh profiteth nothing but the quickning spirit that dwelt therein so the the Apostles had a ministery of the spirit to carry men through the flesh of Christ into the Father that eternall Spirit dwelling in him and them and so to draw them up into the same fellowship with himself Again this good man speakes much of Christ in the flesh not as he is in the Father and we in him and be in us which is the sum of our spiritual knowledge and all we should know of Christ after his Ascension Joh. 14.20 Thirdly he brings us no further then to the vail of his flesh not through it into the holy of holiest into the Godhead it self that is into the Father for Christ was but our fore-runner Hebr. 6.19 20. Fourthly though the vail of his flesh be a new and living way into the holiest yet not that flesh as living but as dead
their formes divided in their fellowships and defiled in both Zeph. 3.9 But Babylon is yet divided into three parts for since the Apostacie the Churches have been still divided into three parts as the Greek and Latine Churches of old and the Affrican Church that made the third there was the Eastern Western and Southern Churches So in the North at the first Reformation the Calvinist Lutheran and Anabaptists in Germany Thus it is in England the Prelatick Presbiterian and Independent Churches are Babylon divided into three parts The Apostolike Churches or Churches of Christ were but one bodie had but one Baptism Eph. 4.4 as there was but one Spirit leading all the Saints in one Church way one way of worship one Church government was among all the Saints though there were differences between brother and brother yea between one Apostle and another yet never was there a division between Church and Church as in Babylon this day for the Spirit being then but one kept the body in one Baptism But now the Churches are become three bodies and these have three Baptisms Presbyterians baptise the whole Nation Independents the children of beleevers onely the baptized Churches beleevers themselves Here is Babylon in three parts Again the baptized Churches are subdivided into three parts one Church is for free will a second for universal Redemption a third count themselves more Orthodox in Doctrine as the Church of England Neither of these three baptized Churches dare communicate one with another Oh Babylon Babylon is fallen is fallen for Babylons fall is by division and confusion Isai 10.26 27 Iudg. 7.25 Ioel 3.12 the Prophet calls it The slaughter of Midian for the Midianites were destroyed by their mutual division This another Prophet calls the valley of Jehoshaphat for as the scattered bones lay in the valley Ezek. 37.1 So the valley of Jehoshaphat hath some reference to the dry bones and the divided sticks in Babylon What 's the valley of Jehosaphat 'T is the divided state of men opposing the appearance of God in his people See 2 Chron. 20.23 there is Moah Ammon and Mount Seir all three of kin to the true Church of God which those three came against as the present Churches pretend to the Primitive Church of Christ which yet they oppose in the Spirit Well let us look into the valley of Jehosaphat thither cause thy mighty ones to come down O Lord saith Joel 3.11 Oh how many mighty ones and high spirited men are come down to the valley of Jehosaphat into divided Churches Moah Ammon and mount Seir First two are against one then one against another for Moah and Ammon stood up against mount Seir utterly to slay and destroy and when they had made an end of the inhabitants of mount Seir each man helped to destroy one another 2 Chron. 20.23 Thus it was with the Prelatick Presbyterian and Independent Churches these two last stood up utterly to slay and destroy the first both Root and Branch and now they help to destroy one another as Independent and baptized Churches both against Presbytery and now these two against each other Yea the baptized Churches themselves are divided into three parts are now in destruction by their own divisions Sure it is by the annointing all this is done the Spirit of the Lord in their flesh which would unite doth now divide them because they will not hear what the Spirit saith to the Churches Therefore it is said before 2 Chron. 20.22 The Lord set ambushments against the children of Moab Ammon and mount Seir c. an ambushment in secret and sudden assault of an enemie unawares Oh how secretly and suddenly hath the Lord come upon the Churches in their march and Church-way how hath he divided them one against another before they were aware of it This is the Lords work and the wonder of men that men who are all godly cannot joyn in one Church-way why they will not they shall not they cannot for God divides them in Jacob and scatters them in Israel As this is Babylons judgement to fall by division so it is the judgement of God on the Churches for in the valley of Jehoshaphat he sits to judge That which I have heard to be Mr. Brightmans opinion and Mr. Sterries since was given into my Spirit long ago that as the seven Churches of Asia signifie the State of the Apostolike Churches inclining to an apostasie So Laodicea the last tipifies the latter Churches this day who indeed shall be the last in the world and the fall of all shall be first in England for as Mr. Brightman holds Laodicea to be the Church of England so the Churches here are Laodicea indeed lukewarm without heat or the Baptism of fire at all the Lord condemnes the other Churches in some things yet in something he commends them but the Church of Laodicea he commends not at all but condemns altogether because she was well and wanting nothing no Church-order no Ordinance is wanting to them What 's Laodicea in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but the judgement of the people the people of God are judged indeed in the valley of Jehosaphat this day by their mutuall divisions to their utter destruction Therefore thus saith the Lord Three shepherds I cut off in one moneth What 's this moneth Sure it is a Mysterie In general it is very shortly as Junius before for the Lord will now doe a short work on the earth Rom. 9.28 Isai 19.1 he comes riding on a swift cloud to judge yea the Lord is a witness toe and a swift witnesse against the Churches Mal. 3.5 he comes quickly and he will make but short work with them I will not speak of the Popish Church which continued so many hundreds of yeers look but into our own land in these last dayes wherein the mysterie of Iniquity hath been most manifest not onely by the Spirit but by sensible experience and the event of things in a very little time The King could give them no more time The Parliament gave them just so much Prelacie upheld by Kingly Power continued about seventy years inslaving the people of God like Israels captivitie of old in Babylon Presbyterie reigned but three years and a half the time of the Beast by Parliamentarie Authoritie for no longer according to Ordinance their time was to last The Armie cannot give so much time as that for time shall be no more Rev. 10.6 nor yet times nor half a time for that 's the 42. moneths the Dragons time Revel 13.5.42 moneths being three years and a half that is time times and half a time time is one year times two-years and half a year is the half time which shall be no more saith John 't is now but a moneth nor forty two nor time at all Independency is down in a moneth that 's a shorter time then the former they are fallen before they rise the whole Armie cannot help them up again But