after me with a hungring and thirsting after truth and without slighting other worthy Teachers I here profess be they what they will be rich or poor if they have a feeling of these things in their own souls I profess they are more welcome to me then so many Princes or Potentates and for ought I know one of them may enjoy more of God then most Kings or Princes or Noblemen and shall enter into their Masters joy when they themselves shall be shut out for the poor are alwaies despised in the world You know the Prophet Esay saith ch 43. 8. Bring forth the blind people that have eyes and the deaf that have ears And saith our Saviour Go tell Iohn the poor receive the Gospel This is a digression by the way we return to our matter And although the storm and the lightning be now very terrible be not afraid change not your countenances nor be not so amazed stand fast our God is able to defend us Attend mind the business in hand and fear not we are about the Lords business our fathers business we are now discovering the powers of Darkness if we should now be snarcht away doing this work we should have comfort in it though the earth be removed saith David and the Mountains be hurled here and there we will not fear though the heavens should kiss the earth and all things be reduced to their first Chaos yet stand stil fear not but attend and we shall go on Saith Doctor Honour Be wise for thy self art thou willing to be counted such a Fool to be so hot in religion do any of the learned any of the great and wise men go this way canst not thou go on in a fine smooth moderate way and so shalt thou please all the World And thus these Doctors will dispute against those wayes which are of absolute necessity if ever a man come to Heaven If thou wilt go this way we go and seek for honour riches c. thou shalt be a man of some account all the world shall bow to thee thou shalt be accounted some body people shall flock to thee for counsell else if thou wilt not hearken and obey our counsell thou art like to lead an obscure And beggerly life Again there is Doctor Arrogance and he saith Be thou some body in thine own esteem exalt thy self seek thine own praise thou hast wisdom and power and parts they are thine arrogate and appropriate these to thy self and walk confidently and boldly on in thinâ— own worth and so he looks on himself as a Peacock and saith Am not I some body have not I done this and this and that Is not this great Babel sayes Nebuchadnezzar that I have built for mine honour and greatness Oh Beloved this little word 1 little do you think what a comprehensive vast word it is it is a little one as the Apostle Iames saith concerning the tongue but full of evil have not I brought about this and have not I effected that and so prides himself therein as if he had brought things to pass and sees not God acting and doing all in him and by him and in and by all the creatures This Doctor is none of the lowest but is every where in request he runs through the whole world but unobserved Arrogance you may observe almost in every man in setting up himself praising and admiring himself what great Acts he hath done being tickled and delighted with the praises of others but cannot endure to hear any other praised but Himself and though all men say not thus with their tongues because of their subtilty The Devil will not suffer them for they would noâ— be observed to do so yet t is the end of their discourse and in their hearts they say no less And men are ignorant how dangerously The Devil in them disputes and whereto it tends in taking from God that which belongs to him and arrogaâ—ing it to himself no less sin then pulling God from his throne as much as lies in them and advancing themselves into his seat Oh! poor crawling worms nothings worse then nothings to attempt this high Treason to the King of kings and Lord of lords for all power wisdom goodness and praise All is Gods and if all be his what right hath any creature to say or think any part thereof is his This is no less then the sin of Lucifer which threw him down from heaven This is Lucifer within us being not content to be as he was created but would be someâ—hing of himself he would aim at Gods seat Thou hast said in thine Heart I will ascend into Heaven I will exalt my Throne above the Stars of God I will be like the most High c. And this doth all the world by appropriating any good to themselves or any power to act without God for the creature is but a meer instrument in the hand of the Almighty and hath nothing of his own but sin and therefore they should in themselves be vile and nothing little in their own eyes else we cannot enter into the Kingdom of God as our Saviour saith Except ye be converted and become as little children ye cannot enter that so all praise and goodness and all power to act be ascribed to God alone And then comes up Doctor Reason Oh! He is a great man he is a learned Doctor indeed he is Doctor of the Chair at least when all the rest are â—â—â—enced yet he must be heard and he will believe nothing that you cannot bring within his bounds within his element whatever ye shew him if you shew him a reason for it then he is on your side If you tell him its reason he should regard his body he will believe you and that he should regard his soul above his body as the more precious and look out for the good of that that it may be saved hereafter he will believe you also because ye speak but reason to him but if you go beyond reason tell him any thing you cannot make him understand by reason he will if he can have you hist out of the Schools Tell him he must deny himself he must deny his own wisdom parts goodness he must become a fool that he may be made wise Tell him It is written I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring to nought The understanding of the prudent Oh! This is Harsh Doctrine then he cannot hear he cannot understand But when Iesus Christ comes into the soul he puts all these Doctors to sielnce he opposes and answers all he comes and preaches with authority and not as the Scribes he disputes with such power and authority with such a plain demonstration of truth in all his questions and answers that he makes the standers by amazed and astonished at his understanding and answers and brings all things into such a peace and tranquillity in the soul that there is no more jars
thoughts and all his former thoughts were banished Even so doth this man behave himself when once God hath spoken to him and discovered himself to be so near He doth as David sayes he did Set the Lord alwayes before his eyes then he minds God and observâ—s his workings his out-goings and incomings he alwayes then puts God forward in him He must do all Before He was the forward man and who but he All Gods acts in him he arrogated to himself and as he thought the actions were His done by His power wisdom and parts so he took home The glory and praise of all to himself But now Upon Gods appearing to him this man is Undonâ— slain crucified Then he can with all his heart let God Be all and Do All Speak in him Move in him Live in him Work all his works in him and for him He now minds God in whatsoever any creature saith or doth to him He no longeâ— lives his own life but the life of God t is true He lives as the Apostle saith Yet not He but Christ in him He now As a New man Hath no words but the words of Christ no thoughts but the thoughts of Christ made One spirit and life with Him and so he becomes throughout A changed Man A New man But the other he that is not aware of God He that is a Reprobate who knows not That Christ is in Him He takes no knowledge of all this but does what he list and as he thinks He speaks his own words and thinks his own thoughts and All their thoughts words and actions All their aims and endeavours tend to the fulfilling the desires of the flesh Either more gross and open or else more subtile and refined and more hid from the eye of the world Their desires and aims are How they shall procure such a benefit to themselves such an estate or how he shall be delivered from the danger of the times and he is full of carking and caring how his flesh shall be provided for and the like And truly beloved it cannot be otherwise for whatsoever is born of the flesh is flesh and whatsoever is born of the Spirit is Spirit for it can never act without its own sphere and compass were we born of the Spirit we could not but dye to the flesh and seek the things of the Spirit then all his thoughts for the advantage of the flesh Cease and he is altogether fot Increasing and Perfecting This life of God begun in him let God live more and more and himself less and less As John Baptist saith he must increase but I must decrease This is his life now which before was his death and contrary his death is his life God is now A welcom Guest Yet Not that God is more or less there you being alwayes Gods Temple as well before you see him as when you see him for Christ cannot Alter his lodging in the reality of it This is a certain truth Nothing can make Christ depart in regard of his Essence and Being but to you he may depart and so you are to understand all such expressions for if you think and as some preach that God comes and goes from place to place from earth to heaven oâ— from heaven to earth departs and returns and that you can stay Him and change Him or make him return These are all childish fopperies in this ye do as it were Create another God to your selves and make the true God an Idol but it is spoken in refâ—rence to the Creature in regard of our sight and apprehensions As To you He is departed and dwels above far remote And indeed and really he is as having no being and is as no God to thee However thou mayest flatter and deceive thy self Until thou hast smitten and taken Kiriathsepher and marryed Achsah Calebs daughter Till there be power given To rend the vail But then you shall see Him who is the truth of all things The substance of all things and not before for whatever you can see are but Shaddows and not the Truth As in this my body you cannot see the Internality and the Truth of it for the truth and Substance of it doth not consist either in the coldness or in the hotness for it hath been hotter and it hath been colder neither in the Oldness nor Youngness for it hath been younger and may be older neither in the heaviness nor lightness for it hath been lighter and may be heavier nor in no accidents you can name Then if so none hath ever heard or seen or spoke that which is the Truth of me for my Substance cannot be seen but onely Accidents the truth consists in things internal and t is the like for any other thing you behold besides And so likewise such is the Word of God it consists not in any thing you can hear or see or can perceive or comprehend for Gods Word is as himself Mighty Incomprehensible Omnipotent c. not included in any place His Word is the Being and life of all things the Letter cannot possibly contain the Eternal Majesty of the Word it is not the Word of God till it be expounded to the heart and made a word of power and quickning in the hearts of his people The Word is Eternal and was before any Letters or Scriptures were and shall be for ever when all those things Cease Gods speaking is His creating Let it be done there can be no resisting sayes David whatever he commanded it was wrought God Hath spoken As many Words as he hath made Creatures But He hath spoken One Great and mighty word and that One WORD includes All those Words and that One Word is Jesus Christ the Onely begotten of his Father and the first born of every creature all the rest of the creatures are but as so many Letters of this GREAT Word for he is called the Word He being in the bosome of his Father He was Unspoken Unuttered Unpronouncedâ— there was not then any one creature in heaven or earth but God was ALL there was then Neither Father Son nor Spirit as divided But He being Once pronounced He is the Word Spoken then immediately there is Father Son and Spirit For these are expressed Several or TRINE onely in relation to the creatures which to me is clear for there is not diversity in God but God is one and in Himself cannot be more and I hope it is clear to you If any should think or say unto me the words of Pilate Oh Sir What thing is truth I must answer thus truth is not possible to be either spoken or heard for God onely is truth and nothing else can be now it is impossible to see or hear God saith our Saviour No man hath seen God at any time for we cannot see him and live we must depart Out of the nature of man and return into God and be one with God Else we can never know
God and you shall behold God Now we come to make some use The first let it be this To teach us charity and love towards all the creatures be they never so base for we have all one Father maker God is in them though he manifests not himself as he doth in thee wherein he is most manifested for how came he to be manifested in thee was it by thy pains or industry or by his good will pleasure he might as well have refused to shine into thee as into another might have made thee in his case whom thou despisest Therefore behold and look upon all the creatures as thy brethren yea they are all more truly thy brethren then if you had been begotten by one father and brought forth by one mother in this regard because Almighty God is the common-common-Father of all and therefore when thou lookest on any creature though never so base account and esteem it as thy brother for it is a son to that Father of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is 〈◊〉 And therefore however some of our litteral and ignorant Divines do laugh at that of St. Francis that he called every creature his Brother he called the Ox his brother the Ass his brother and all creâ—tures his brothers if it came from an humble lowly mind in him I think him the better Christian for man is apt enough to boast himself and to look upon his endowments but he will fill the hungry the humble with good things I tel you here is such a brotherhood as shall never end the other shall have an end and therefore more cause of love to these then to the other for we are all begotten by one Father the other brotherhood ceases for saith our Saviour You are deceived not knowing the Scripture nor the power of God for in heaven there is no marrying nor giving in marriage but they are as the Angels of God in heaven Vse 2. Le ts learn to know our selves and then we shall learn also to pay the creatures that which is due to them Let us give them all due respect shew no cruelty to them but use them as brothers those creatures God hath appointed for mans use and used so they serve their Creators will and appointment let us use them so though many of them lose their lives for us yet shew as much compassioâ— to them as we may let us not exercise cruelty or our dominion or authority over them beyond what we are allowed do not begin to strike thy fellow-servant shew no rigor or wrath to them no not to the dumb creatures no nor to men When thou seest a wicked man thy heart rises against him thou wouldest have God presently destroy him not knowing thy own heart how bad that is and thou art ready to cal for fire from heaven as the Disciples did but what answer makes Christ to their desire Ye know not what spirit ye are of no no leave them to God Thou wonderest that God doth not send fire from heaven presently and destroy them as he did Sodom or open the earth to swallow them up as it did Corah c. O fools when will ye learn wisdom certainly God knows what to do without thy directions yet vain man will be so wise as to teach God wisdom Isa. 40. 14. and censure his actions But who art thou that contendest with thy maker Isa. 45. 9. Though it be said in Psal. 8. 6. He hath given him dominion over the works of his hands yet know though they were made for thy use they were much more for his they were not made for thee to use as you list nor for thy will and pleasure but to be used soberly according to his pleasure and appointment Vse 3. And lastly learn from hence that there is nothing of Fortune but all comes and falls out by an infinite wise Providence That the name of Fortune is an Idle a Heathenish and a wicked word taking it as the word imports for nothing comes by Chance or Fortune but t is God that guides all And yet knowing the right use of that word it may be used for it is used in the Scriptures saith Solomon For Time and chance or fortune for 't is the same happeneth to all things Though it first arose from an evil ground from the Heathens who because there were such cross events in the world that when a business was brought to the heads and period yet one thing or other oftentimes came between the cup the lip as we say and quite turned all about now hereat they were so amazed and at their wits end they could not tell how this should come to pass except there was a God call'd Forune and therefore they sacrificed to him But I say the ground and mis-use being forgotten it may come in time to be lawful to use it at least by such who know how to use it But what it imports is wicked and is condemned by this Doctrine as abominable We poor creatures stand and wonder at many events in the world here now God calls all the creatures Fools for instance When two dear friends that have been long apart not having seen one another in twenty or fourty years he one falls to come in some great danger his dear friend chanceth to come at a very instant and saves his life here now we stand and wonder it is no wounder at all if we eye God ye are herein but fools and blinde Again for example if you see me strike these two hands together if you saw not my body that guides these we may wonder at it but what wonder is it if you see me strike these two togther so far as you are blind and see not God so far ye wonder for it is as easie with God to do any of these things as for me to make my hands meet I can also by the power and guidance of the soul that is in me lay my finger in the darkest night upon any place about me why because my soul within me guides it so it is as easie for God in any case he being as it were the soul of the creatures can cause the creatures to do whatever is his Will to have done both in Heaven and earth and in the Seas as David saith Thus I have spoken to you of this our Immense Unknown Unexpressible Great God But O my Beloved I have spoken but according to man all this while infinitey short of him himself and therefore never scanty or circumscribe God by these things I have said for he is this and he is infinitly more for if men Men and Angels and Cherubims Seraphims should all joyn together to set out his praise to the utmost that they could conceive or relate yet look further further still for when they have said what they can they have said nothing in comparison of what he is As if a
an Angel to worship him I sin or if I fall down to Jesus Christ as included in that man or in any Creature I sin likewise But if in men and beasts and trees and in all I behold God 〈◊〉 Immutable Incomprehensible Incircumscriptible Essence so I may praise God and take any occasion to fall down before him and say O thou God That Fillest Heaven and Earth O thou God that Fillest and movest every thing and thou thy self art not moved nor changed in all things I see thee who art One and for ever the same If you shall now ask me how you may behold God thus I will tell you In every Creature is a beam of the Divinity which is an Angel and that Angel be it never so small beholds The face of God Almighty that beam that lives in me or thee that beam I say sees the very face of God And therefore saith our Saviour Christ Take heed ye despise not one of these little ones for their Angel always beholds the face of your Father which is in Heaven Although you see not the Sun when you behold a beam that comes in at the window yet if you do but lay your eye in that beam you shall see the Sun it self So though you cannot see God Almighty in any Creature yet if you do not despise any of these little ones They behold God and if you lay your eye in that beam you shall come to behold God himself and then in the name of God praise God even with all your might and with all your strength then you can never praise him enough in all his Creatures Only take this along with you Thar so long as you are capable to see touch or understand what you see so long you see not God it is but a Creature but if you let that little spark guide you That Angel within you it will bring you to the very face of God For God is in the Midst of the bush in the midst of the Creature yet he is not The burning bush though he be in the Creature yet he is not the Creature So long as he appeared to Moses under any form he was but an Angel The Angel of the Lord appeared unto Moses in the midst of a burning bush And if Moses had worshipt that burning bush he had been blamed as well as S. Iohn But God is Hid he is Vailed from our sight by Accidents He is not in the Out-parts but he is Within Beloved if God would be pleased to unfold these things to you and me and make us understand them aright I know that Then neither heights nor depths nor Angels nor Principalities nor any thing should ever be able to separate between us and these blessed truhs nay nothing could hinder us from union with this Our ever Blessed God for these are such infallible Truths such glorious Truths Against which the gates of hell shall never prevail When Iacob was to go three or four hundred miles from his Fathers house He saw a vision in his first nights sleep and it was a Ladder that reached from heaven to earth and the Angels of God went up and down ascending and descending on it and at the top of the Ladder stood God himself What do you think was the meaning of that Ladder We deny not the truth of the Story for let that heart that hath such a thought consume for ever in endless flames but let us labour to find out the mind and meaning of God in all his words God stood at the top of Ladder what God is in himself we meddle not with we have nothing to do with that O blessed God! be thou what thou art thou hast said I AM that I AM and we say so too THOU ART that THOU ART Holy and Blessed be Thou in what thou Art for ever and ever And as Thou art in Thy Self we neither know thy Name nor thy Sons Name But the Word became flesh and dwelt amongst us Christ Jesus is the Substance and Being of all things Hee is Hee in whom all Types and visions ended This Book of God is a great Book and many words are in it and many large Volumes have been drawn out of it but Christ Jesus Hee is the Body of it Hee is the mark all these words shoot at Hee is the Truth and Substance of all those Types Shadows Metaphors Allegories Parables and Paradoxes Hee is The MARROW in that Bone and the Kernel in that SHEL There cannot one Creature come into the world nor go out of the world not one Angel ascends or descends upon that Ladder but it comes from God and by Jesus Christ He is the Substance and Being thereof and there is not One Creature but doth the Errand God sends him on And therefore David ascribes the very worst of actions to him when Doeg curst him he said Let him alone for God hath bid him He knew no Creature could move towards him to do him either good or hurt but what God bid it do And therefore saith he in whatever befel him I held my tongue and spake nothing because thou didst it Beloved know this the interpretation of visions is from the Lord as Ioseph said to Pharaoh It is not in me to interpret dreams or visions but God shall give Pharaoh an Answer of peace And so say I of this A vision it is and we shall find it no where expounded but God hath set it down It is thrown amongst us and writ for every one to read some take it one way and some another As Pilate said What I have written I have written he that can find the interpretation let him Beloved we spent much time the last Sabbath but we could not get from under the cloud nor espy the bright pillar of light and comfort to discover the meaning of the VISION but you know I was forced to leave my discourse as to the Vision it self Muâ—â—led up in those Sacred and Holy discontents which yet are like physick though a little distastful yet exceeding whollom My beloved is a garden walled about and as a fountain sealed up And saith Daniel to Nebuchadnezzar the interpretation of dreams and visions is from the Lord. There is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets And he that Ploughs not with his heifer shall not find out his riddle He which sent that vision to Iacob taught him also how to interpret it For in the bare relation of the vision what is in it to comfort Iacob in the condition he was in And so here to what purpose was this vision shewed to Moses what concerned this the business in hand as you may conceive Beloved He that can find out Gods meaning in these visions shall find Hidden Manna to nourish him But he that thinks by his wit and by his policy and by his own strength to find it out be sure shall find nothing but a bone to choke him
Ghost In them for all Scripture was given by inspiration 2 Tim. 3. 16. after they were once set apart by God to write the holy Scriptures they all spake as they were moved by the holy Ghost as Dan. 12. 4. God commands Daniel Shut up the words and seal the Book even till the time of the end These holy men being once set apart for this use they prophesie Beyond themselves and out of course and latter and after-times shall make known that which they themselves which wrote them knew not for they spake as inspired by God but Christs words are alwayes absolute and perfect truth he knew and saw very well what he said there is nothing useless in his words there is no Tautologies as we call them no vain repetitions when Christ speaks they are words of weight words of power they carry vertue with them as for instance if ever the winds blow and the storms arise in thy soul Then thou shalt find experimentally and feelingly that One word from Christs mouth will do thee more good then all the words and all the power of men To Still those winds and storms those who have experience here of know it full well as we see when the ship was like to be Overcome by the winds and storms and Christ was asleep you may see there how One word from him Ceased them No more but Peace and be still and t is the same in the soul and Psal. 107. 29. He maketh the storm a calm so that the waves thereof are still These words we have now read All power is given to me in heaven and earth They signifie that Christ is God equal with the Father but there seems to be a great difficulty in the words in that Christ never said before he was ready to leave the earth All power is given unto me in heâ—ven and earth The question is What power had Christ now committed to him that he had not before what new power received he that when he was to leave the earth and had given his Disciples a Commission and it was to be sealed at the day of Pentecost that he should say now and never before All power is given me in heaven and earth what addition of power had he now which he had not before if he be God equal with his Father and he saith many times The Father hath committed all judgement to the Son and again Before Abraham was I am and many such like words which shews he is God and of Equal power and Authority with his Father and yet he saith in the 14 of Iohn The Father is greater then I Can God receive any new Access of power No certainly but these words are so hard and difficult to reconcile that in the daies of Arius it filled the Church full of Errors and Heresies the Church fell much at Odds for many from hence denied the Divinity of Christ because they could not reconcile these Scriptures And by the way if he be Lord of all power then he leaves none for man to claim to himself But that I may answer this doubt and make it clear I will lay down two grounds First Although God receive no new power in himself yet he doth receive power by being made further known unto man And Secondly By mans being made further known unto him First By his being made further known unto man the revealing and discovering of God unto man making himself more known the manifestation of this is said To Adde power to him but not That any thing can be added to him who is infinite if there could he were not infinite and He were not God But know this whatever attribute God hath ascribed to him it is in regard of his creatures not in regard of himself for there are no such things in God Neither in regard of his incommunicable or communicable Attributes as Eternity Infiniteness Omnipotency Immensness c. Or in regard of his communicable as Wisdome Iustice and Mercy and Patience c. as if these were several things in God for God is One and cannot be more for when he is said to be any of these Iust or Good or Severe or the like these are all One and the same thing in him they are but Attributed to him that we may conceive of him it is but spoken of him according to the several workings of God on the creatures As for instance the Sun makes the Roâ—e to smel sweet and pleasant and it makes the Nettle to sting it makes the fields to grow and cast a Pleasant savour but it makes the Carrion and the Dunghil to stink and all this variety is by one and the self-same Sun the same light and heat doth divers things causes divers effects in the subjects Says the Rose it makes me fragrant and sweet and says the Dung-hill but it makes me stink and be unsavoury says the Wax it makes me soft and pliable but says the clay it makes me hard and obdurate yet the Sun doth not do one thing to one and another thing to another Even so Beloved it is with our God One man He finds God A comfort and a rejoycing to his heart another he finds God A Terror and an Amazement to him One he finds God A sweet guide and direction to him and thereby and therefore he draws nearer to God loveth and embraceth him Another apprehends God an enemy to him and this makes him run away from God Is God therefore thus various no no He is the self-same God to the One and to the Other and the self-same action in him is to the One and to the other He that is a Hammer to the Hard heart he is also mollifying and softning Oyl to the Penitent soul He that is A comfort to the fatherless and widow he is as an Enemy A Revenger and a consuming fire to the obstinate and rebellious And yet for all this Our God is always the same he is not nor cannot be changed in him is no shadow of change And therefore we cannot imagine that he can grow greater or less in regard of himself but as To us he doth that is if he manifest himself more to us more within us in our souls then he is said to be greater and if he lessen the knowledge of himself As to us then he is said to grow less And in this sense also he is said to come nearer to us and go further from us As also he is said so to do when he expresses as to us more or less some act of justice or mercy or any other artribute then I say he is onely said to be so in regard of us To grow greater or less to come nearer or depart further but He in himself is for ever blessed and perfect Unchangeable Immoveable always the same we can no way Touch him or Alter him but it is onely We the Creature is Altered and he is altered to us as to
waves make them roll to and fro and stagger like a drunken man so that they are at their wits end In the Sea also we hear there be those huge and mighty rocks whose foundations are unmoveable Thou sayest that we are of the Sea and we belong to the Ocean where is any such vastness in us where is any of all those wonderful and mighty things in us therefore we cannot be of the Ocean No t is true saith the other for the present we are not of the Ocean because we are not yet joyned to the Ocean and except we perish and be dissolved as it were to nothing we are nothing but if the Sun draws us up and dissolve us to nothing that we are not seen to be much as drops then are we like to be something for then we shall return into the Ocean to which we belong Then we are those thâ—t have in us those rocks and those ships and those Leviathans and fish innumerable both small and great And they have room to play and sport themselves in us Then we may claim and appropriate to our selves whatever may be appropriated to the Sea or to the Ocean as well as any other drop for we are united and made One with the Ocean The Application by way of Dialogue So just so in like manner suppose Two mortal men reasoning together the one in Iealousie and the other in Revelation What are we says the one We are Nothing sayes the other we are but a Shadow a Dream a Bibble not so much as the drop of a bucket or as the dust of the ballance we are but as stubble before the fire and as smoke before the wind ready to be consumed scattered and dissolved into nothing Oh says the other though in our selves we are poor drops and as thou sayest we are no more then a drop a bubble soon up and soon down we have no power the least and weakest of all things imaginable yet we are we have a Being nay we are more then thou canst imagine Why what are we Why I le tell thee what we are we are members of the very body of Jesus Christ we are as I may say flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone And we are to be made one spirit with him and therefore be contented though we in our selves are Poor and contemptible and apart from him Nothing yea worse then Nothing yet by the grace of God we are what we are we in our selves cannot say I am or â—â—â—ve we cannot call our selves I I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me and in time I shall see my self to live in him and then I may And thou mayest claim the same life the same power with him for we shall return into Him who is Almighty we shall be dissolved into him who is infinitely Vaster then then ten thousand Seas or Oceans Ah Brother Saith the other how can these things be we have heard that Jesus Christ is God equal with his Father that he is Almighty incomprehensible Immense c. we have heard that he hath All power given him in heaven and in earth that he Rules over all his enemies and treads them all under his feet that he Rules them with a rod of iron and crushes them in pieces like a potters vessel and He is set upon his Throne and Triumphs in glory and majesty and is Set down in holy and heavenly places with his Father in his Throne and full Authority In us behold There is None of these things we are poor drops and weak creatures as little as we are we are full of nothing but sin and corruption we are empty and vile and despicable not only because of our smalness and nothingness but by reason of our sinfulness and impureness We have none of our enemies at command we are empty and changeable and no stability in us all our actions declare and render us to be always in a dying perishing condition but Jesus Christ to whom thou sayest we belong He is glorious and blessed and lives for ever And therefore I will not I cannot beleive wilt thou make me believe I am a part of him it can never be Oh! saith the other be contented Corn cannot bring forth fruit except it dye neither can a drop return to the Ocean except it be dissolved in it self and from its own proper being So Even so We poor drops in our selves we are nothing empty poor despised Nothings less then Nothings Apart from the immense Ocean But If we can be Content to dye forsake our selves Then should we Return and be made One with that immense Ocean Could we but be contented to annihilate our selves to be brought to Nothing we should be made Something If That Sun of righteousness would but arise and dissolve us and draw us up into Himself then we even we as poor as we be should be united and made one with the Almighty Beloved Beloved The Only Reason Why WE Remain such Empty Drops is because we esteem our selves to be Somewhat when indeed we are nothing while we set such a great price upon our selves and look on our selves as good holy and pure and take notice of our selves what a progress in Religion we have made and despise others This keeps us from being united to him Oh! those High-swelling towering thoughts must be brought down those Thrones and Powers and principalities set up in us by Satan The Prince of this world Those strong holds that keep us from being overcome and being brought to nothing must be brought down that so we may be joyned to the Lord himself to be made partakers of his life and glory My eye can never be united to the Sun till I behold and look upon it Then those beames that come from it draw my eye in a direct line to be joyned to it so thou art never united to Christ till the Lord himself by the eye of faith which is as a beam that comes from him unites and draws up thy soul in a direct line to him again As long as thou art Something in thy self so long thou art Nothing and when thou beginnest to be nothing in thy own esteem then thou beginnest to be really Something then is Jesus Christ Beginning to Arise and to Exalt himself in thee Then is I said before hast thou a right to All things and thou mayest claim all those great things spoken of before to thy self to be thine though not to thy self individual and as separated But as united to him to whom all power is given both in heaven and in earth but till this work be done Christ is kept under and thy self is exalted and it rules thee governs thee terminates all thy actions However they seem to thee and to other men as much lift up in themselves as thou art though I say to thee and to others in the same sphere with thee they seem never so
they are helps to better things and as they fit us for the service of God A fair pretence but delude not your own souls many have been hindred by these things few or none ever furthered and yet forsooth all the world of Professors uses them but as furtherances as they say But we know that thousands have been hindred by wives and hindred by children and hindred by houses and lands and hindred by honours and pleasures and they are most commonly if I may not say Alwayes snares and hinderances for who ever found his heart as willing to part with them as if he never had them Therefore they are hinderances and pul-backs and no furtherers ye are deluded ye are blinded by them when ye say so and your souls are so much the more dangerously snared in them for God commands in Deut. 13. 6. That if the wife that is in thy bosome entice thee to Idolatry secretly thou shalt not hearken neither have pity thy hand shall be first upon her c. and I say take heed thou makest not an Idol of that thou pretendest to love but to further thee And that of our Saviour Mat. 18. 8. They are both such places and aim at such high things and such deep self-denial as flesh and bloud cannot indure to think on If thy hand or thy eye or thy foot off end thee cut it off pluck it out c. shewing that these outward things that thou lovest so dearly may do thee the greatest mischief as Wolsey said to Cromwel when he was to dye Oh if I had but loved God as well as I have loved honour or riches or health â— he would not have forsaken me as these will do very shortly so that you see these outward things for the most part hinder us from Heaven and minding the honour of God and the good of our souls The prosperity of wicked men is but a ripening of them fatning and fitting them for destruction Object I but Sir this is strange would you not have us love our wives would you not have me love my children would you not have us love our money Love money and it will love me as the Proverb is make much of it and it will make much of thee These are the good blessings of God that he hath bestowed upon me sayes every one and will you have me so unthankful as not to love them Answ. Yes yes by all means I disswade you not from loving your wives or from loving your children far be it from me to think much less Teach That children should not obey their parents wâ— have not so learned Christ far be it from me to teach you so for Christ commands that you should love your neighbours and to love them as our selves and our wives as our selves as S. Paul saith Ephes. 5. 25. And shall I diswade you from loving your wives and your children or father or mother God forbid But know what our Saviour saith Mat. 5. 46. If ye love them that love you what thank have ye If ye love Father Mother Wife Children Goods Honour Credit what great acts have ye done what have you done more then Heathens do But as ye are Christians I injoyn you A Love above all these You are to love That Noble that Divine that Internal part that is in them do but separate the precious from the vile and then I will say ye cannot love too much But take heed these outward things do not privily and secretly withdraw your hearts from God For They stâ—al away the heart insensibly you must love them in the Lord and the Lord in them it is all one Therefore those that are true Christians as they love All in the Lord so they love the Lord above all and love the Lord in all for he that loves not God in all cannot love God above all and he that loves not God in them cannot but be snared by them Thus loving all things in God you wil be ready to part with all things for God This is the Abdication I speak of which is done by faith by faith only And further thou oughtest to have thy affections to stand so indifferently to them as still and alwayes Listning when God shall bid thee Depart from them that when God shall say Depart from this thing or let it depart from thee whatever it be that if he call for thy eye or thy ear or thy hand or thy foot to cut it off or things as dear and precious That then this shall be no sad message to thy soul and then I will say with thee That thou lovest them for God and in God and as blessings from God as All are ready to pretend But if it be otherwise ye are befooled and gulled by them Look upon Abraham did God bid him forsake his own Land and leave all behind him Gen. 12. 1. yes and in such a manner as I think you can hardly shew me his pattern he must leave all Get thee out of thy Country and from thy kindred and from thy Fathers House and whither must he go to a Land that I will shew thee He knew not whither So likewise did Abraham offer his son his onely son and the son in whom all the Nations of the earth should be blessed yea he did That is It was done in purpose and affection and had been done in action had not the Angel staied his hand here now was Abrahams faith that stood so indifferently to all things that he as readily parted from them as enjoyed them Beloved what think ye were not these sore Trialls And so Moses did he forsakes Egypt and all the pleasures and preferments there and chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God and those in the 11 of the Hebrews that forsook all kindred and friends and wandred up and down in sheep-skins and goat-skins in dens and caves of the earth whom the world was not worthy of and all this was through faith Faith must be the ground of all this Blessed Abdication they were weaned to all these things through saith as David saith surely I have behaved and quieted my self as a child that is weaned of his mother My soul was even as a weaned child You know a child when it is weaned it is froward and pettish nothing will still it it would have the milk the breast still and will not indure strong meat David complains that he was even so Nothing would content him but That he should not have give him what ye would if he might not have 〈◊〉 will he would throw all away as children do nothing was so bitter to him as This Weaning yet for all this The child must be Weaned Though it wrangle and though it cry and is never so froward yet all is one The child must be weaned T is for its Health for its Good and for its strengthning That it may grow to be A Man And
mincing terms and call it the infirmity of the flesh and your weakness when indeed it is no less then Rebellion and as the sin of witchcraft as Samuel told Sauâ— when you take little notice of this High Crime and High treason against the Most High yet you pass it by and make light of it as Saul did when as in plainterms it is no less then the renouncing oâ— God Rejecting him and his Government And iâ— you were in His place you think you would do otherwise in this thing and in that Oh poor Drop why contendest thou with thy Maker Who shall set him A Rule wilt thou Sit above him and Rule him according to thy mind wilt thou give Laws to the Almighty Oh tremble before him Ye Earthen Pitchers ye poor Dust of the ballance tremble before him the whole earth and let them not dare thus presumptuously to strive with thtir Maker who is able for One of these thoughts to undo thee and it is his infinite mercie he pasheth thee not to nothing Oh! learn learn Poor Dust of the ballance and poor Drop of a Bucket to be pleased with whatever he doth whether he pleases thee or pleases thee not be thoâ— pleâ—sed with him If he drives down The Banks before him like a mighty Ocean if he Rend the Rocks and overwhelm the Mountains if he make the Sea Roar and the whole earth to Shoot for fear learn we To tremble before him and be Afraid to withstand him lest he â—onsume thee and bring thee to nothing Learn to be ruled and guided by His wisdom Learn of faithful Abraham to obey God Learn to deny thine own will and to take up his Cross Readily and follow him As Abraham when God had made him Rich and he was setled in Uâ— of the Chaldees God Of A suddain Bids him Leave All and follow him he presently obeyed and went But whither must he go Whither I shall shew thee He told him not whither no he inquires not what conveniencies and accommodation the country had whirher he was to goe but this was all Follow me Even Any where where God shall shew thee thou shouldst willingly go if he bid thee leave Health that thou leave it willingly and if he will have thee go with him into sickness that thou go with him willingly if he lead thee into any condition yea even into the vale of tears as David saith and into the shadow of death that thou go with him readily and cheerfully And so likewise consider Abraham in the sacrificing his onely son How readily he did it and consulted not with flesh and blood For consider if it be Gods will that thou shalt go this way Thou must go it Why wilt thou do that unwillingly which thou must do Again in the seventh Commandment with Moses he that did not commit Actual adultery with a woman was not guilty of the bâ—each of this Commandment And our Saviour goes further In inteâ—pâ—eting the very letter He that lusts after a woman in his heart hath committed adultery already But the spirituality of this Commandement is Take heed of spiritual Adultery Take heed of turning Aside from the Creator and going a Whoring after the creatures to set thy affections on any creature above the Lord God Almighty and not to love Him withal thy mind with al thy might and with al thy heart To set them upon any thing below God Thou hast therein plaid the Adulterer in the highest degree And this is that Adultery set out in the 7. of the Proverbs of the strumpet and the simple young man Void of understanding She had Attired her self like an Harlot and she was subtile in heart and she caught him and kissed him with an impudent face And tels him How she had decked her bed with tapestry and perfumed her bed Come let us take our fill of love until the morning And with much fair speeches she caused him to yield and her flattering lips forced him But saith the Holy Ghost He goeth after her but it is as an Ox to the slaughter and as a fool to the stocks till a dart strike through his liver And he hasteth as a bird to the snare and knoweth not that it is for his life This is the letteâ— But yet All this is chiefly To set out to us that all the sons of men are This simple Young man and that the beauty of the creatures woes us to go a whoring after them they Court us as she did the young man and tell us What pleasure and delights we shall have if we will follow them and by this means the spirit of man is defiled and goes a whoring from the Lord. All those excellencies and beauties in the creatures should be As so many Beams from the sun to draw up and fix our eyes upon the Sun it Self but we Are like PENELOPES Suitors Many hearing of Her admirable and incomparable Beauty and Comeliness Attempted to come to her but few or none ever came at Her For She had many Fair Damsels attending Her to Conduct Her lovers to her which were so fair and Amiable that they thought none so fair as they and so fell in love with them and never came at The Mistris of All Beauty of whom the Handmaids were but shadows All which is a lively emblem of God and man God is compassed about with various and Beautiful Creatures which should onely serve to lead us and to bid us look higher then them And though we all pretend To aim at God at perfect bliss and happiness yet How Few Attain to him How many fall short And by the way they are wholly taken up with the creatures His Handmaids and thereby their souls are caught As a bird in a snare And they know not That it is for their lives But yet know the creature may be loved and used so we could but use it rightly and love it râ—ghtly but that is very hard to do if we could use it and love it as if we used it not or loved it not As not appropriating it to our selves And always being ready to leave it willingly and freely so that thou sufferest No Rending No Tearing in thy soul to part with it and using it so thou usest it for God and in God and to Ends appointed by God Then for the eighth Commandment Every one will be ready to justifie themselves from theft That is a poor base beggerly sin But as I said I say still the outward part of this Commandment and so of the rest you may keep exactly It is the easiest part of all The Outward man may keep it without any Divine or spiritual assistance Every natural man may attain The keeping of them According to the letter and yet They are deeply guilty of the spiritual breach thereof Foâ— there is a spiritual Theft and besides you know the external part of this Commandment and so of others God can
therein who can stand before his indignation and who can abide the fierceness of his anger his fury is poured out like fire and the rocks are thrown down by him and darkness shall pursue his enemies Think upon this all you that forget God lest he tear you in pieces and there be none to deliver Psal. 50. ult But saith he Psal. 61. 3. The Lord is good and is a strong Hold in the day of trouble and he knoweth them that trust in him Oh Beloved Let us all then give glory from our souls to this our great God to this infinite and everlasting Being who fills all things let us all poure out oâ—r souls before him like Water and be melted to nothing in his presence And to that end First Let us subscribe to the infiniteness of our â—od in all his Attributes in all his ways in all his Creatures Let us alwayes believe it and have him continually before us that we may tremble to offend him even the wickedest man And that godly men may both fear and love him and that they may with strong confidence be rooted resting and depending on him who is the rock of Ages And Secondly Let us cry out with Moses in continual acclamations in that powerful Orarion when ever we think of him or behold him There is none like the God of Iesurun who rideth upon the Heavens for thy help and in his excellency upon the skie For the eternal God is thy refuge and underneath are the Everlasting Arm. Thou canst be in no trouble but he is by thee with thee in the fire or in the water where ever thou art Ps. 34. 7 8. The Angels of the Lord encamp round about them that fear him O taste and see that the Lord is good blessed is the man that trusteth in him O fear the Lord ye his Saint for there is no want to them that fear him The young Lions may lack and suffer hunger but they that seek the Lord shall not want any thing Iacob when he went from his fathers house was afraid he should have wanted Gen. 28. but God appeared to him in a dream and he beheld a Ladder reaching from Earth to Heaven The longest Ladder that ever was read of or ever heard of and the greatest builder hath made it and onely for his own use And Iacob by it saw that the providence of God was every where and Angels were continually passing up and down upon it being sent of the Almighties Errands not onely for protection but to be ministring spirits sent forth not onely for the good of those who shall be heirs of Salvation but for the good of all his Creatures So that we may say of the providence of God as David saith of his presence for they are both one Psal. 139. 7. Whither shall I go from thy presence if I ascend into Heaven thou art there there is the top of the Ladder if I descend into the deep thou art there there is the bottome of the Ladder The builders of Babel aimed to make such a Ladder but that which they could never do the builder of Heaven and Earth hath done but were they not very fools to think to build a Tower of ten thousand times 1000000 miles high But let us labour to see the eternal God at the top of this Ladder and everlasting arms at the foot of it then how can we doubt He that hears the Ravens when they cry unto him who have neither faith nor understanding shall he not hear thee O thou of little faith It is against both the promise against the practice of your Father that any of you should want any good thing Yet how full of complaints are all the sons of men one wants children another friends others honour others riches others health others preferment some all these but certainly you are deceived you do not want any of them for if they were good for you you had them not then indeed you wanted them but being not good for you you want them not for they in such a case will do you more hurt then good Therefore I say let the servant of God that thinks he wants any of these things pray for what he will he shall have it if he do really want them for not onely all inanimal or unreasonable Creatures which are Gods Angels when he pleaseth do owe their Suit and Service unto those that fear the Lord but even all the Angels of God in heaven they are all ministring spirits sent forth to minister for their sakes which shall be heirs of Salvation Heb. 1. 14. Nay let me tell thee if thou wilt command the Sun to stand still and the Moon in the valley of Ajalon as Ioshuah did it shall be done or the Sun to go backward upon the Dial as Hezekiah did or the Rocks to gush out water and the Heavens rain down Manna or the waters to be divided and the Sea to stand up as a wall as Moses did all shall be done and they shall obey rather then any of Gods people shall want any good thing Or if he will command Iron to swim as Elisha did Nay let him command the Covenant of night and day to be broken and time to be no more and it shall be done for Gods word can never fail nay heaven earth shall pass away but not one jot of his word shall fail But for all this I know and methinks I hear your murmuring thoughts still for all this you are not yet satisfied And you say with Iob Doth the wild Asse bray when he hath grass or loweth the Oxe over his fodder can that which is unsavoury be eaten without salt or is there any taste in the white of an egg We are sure we do want these things or else we would not complain we are sure we have them not and is there any sweetness in nothing had we fodder we would not lowe nor complain I answer Indeed that may be that you are without them 1. It may be you are not of the family of your heavenly father then what right or interest have you to expect them but you are servants to sin and to his enemies and yet would have him let you want nothing 2. There is a great difference between not having and wanting It may well be that you have not riches and honour and preferment c. but if you be the true servants of God it cannot be that you should want them David saith it was good for him that he wanted and that he was in trouble There is oftentimes more mercy from God and more comfort to us in Gods Rods then in these outward things which are onely esteemed Blessings for they are often no other but rods or else meat to fat us for slaughter for our happiness and comfort lies not in that which the tender
that he emptied himself of all his glory took upon him the form of a Servant made himself of no reputation and One action from him was sufficient this you will not deny And therefore in all the Scripture you may observe that from the very instant of the Creation the second person in Trinity took upon him a body he had a body from the beginning from the first man and shall have a body to the last man as David saith of him a Body hast thou prepared me consider of this and compare it with the Scriptures and see if this be not more agreeable unto the vastness of the largness of Christ then to confine his body onely to the short time of 33 years He it is that suffers in man in the first man and shall suffer in the last man from the time of his suffering in the first righteous Abel to the last to the last righteous Abel from the time of taking his Kingdom of his Father till the time that he shall render up the Kingdom to his Father it is he that suffers I know when at any time ye hear of Christs Body and of his sufferings you presently fly to that short time that he lived upon Earth to those 33 years that he was visibly seen to walk upon Earth and I doubt many Divines intend no less when they speak of his sufferings they presently have recourse to that time and to Pontius Pilate and Herod and the Iews and intend no more but Beloved Christ is yesterday and to day and the same for ever Christ suffers now as much as he did then and before that as much as he doth now for while any of his members suffers he suffers I appeal to you examine this truth whether this be not more agreeable to truth and to the Scripture to acknowledge this Vast Largness of Christ then to narrow and scant his body to that short time for if ye say he wrought our redemption and satisfied Gods wrath in those whole thirty three years then you contradict your selves for none can deny but any one of his actions alonâ— considered was abundantly sufficient and the Apostle Paul saith That he did fill up in his body the measure of the sufferings of Christ and certainly he that thus suffered in him doth still and shall do so to the end of the world And so I say concerning this request of the Spouse to Christ it is a strange question if ye consider it according to the three thirty years he was on earth in the dayes of Herod for to ask him where he fed and where he rested we know in that regard where he fed and where he rested at that time but she asks where he feeds now and where he rests now to the very very last day and from the first day this is the Spouse her question where he feeds and where he feeds at noon But by the way God forbid that we should go about to deny Christs coming in the flesh for he did come in the flesh and whatever the Scripture saith he did in the flesh is really undeniably true and let his tongue cleave to the roof of his mouth that shall deny it But yet give me leave to tell you that is but the History there is a mystery in all the words there is a symbolical truth hid in them that is not obvious to every eye T is true he cured the eyes of the blinde and healed the lame and cured the deaf but that is but the letter the history that dyed with them for they are dead their eyes are shut up and their members are dissolved and returned into their first elements But he by that resembled to us how he hath ever since and before and will for ever cure the eyes of the blind and heal the lame and cast out Devils and cure the bloudy Issue in our souls for the other was but the outside the visible sensible part of his actions and miracles but that which Christ would represent to our understanding by that that is the fixed and eternal truth And so Christ still hath and shall have his food and his resting place And whoever shall eat of this Food shall never hunger again whosoever shall drink of this water that he shall give them shall never thirst again Your Fathers have eaten Manna in the Wilderness and are dead saith he but whosoever shall eat of this manna shall never dye Those actions Christ did then but these actions that those represents he doth alwayes those were visible representations presentations of them which he invisibly and mystically doth now yet as really Not onely I say as truly but more truly The spirituality of those actions never end for put all together that ever Christ raised from death or cast out devils out of and healed c. they were but few he could have healed and cured all if he pleased but that was not the end of his coming but he did so much and enough to manifest God come in the flesh that he will always do the same things to the end of the world Spiritually Where thou feedest what then may be Christs food for even Christ now hath his diet and food though not of figs after which he hungred nor of flesh which he did eat nor of boiled fish which he seemed to eat c. But Christ himself tells us My meat is to do the will of my Father and to finish his work and he tells us where he rests Cant. 6. 2 3. Among the beds of spices among broken and contrite hearts and his delight is to be among his lilies and among his roses in his garden there doth he refresh himself Christ is fed in his members Take heed then ye suffer not Christ to starve within you lest at the last day it be laid to your charge I was a hungry ye gave me no meat thirsty and ye gave me no drink naked ye clothed me not in prison and ye visited me not c. But do you think that Christ is fed with corporal food I assure you this for your comfort that those that feed Christ shall never perish but now to feed the hungry with bread externally to put clothes upon the naked to give drink to them that are A-Thirst to go to them that are shut up in prison this every man may do by his natural power ye may do this and yet give where there is no need you may do this and yet suffer your Saviour to starve This is not a true feeding on Christ no no it is Another-guess feeding that he requires or that he will Reward The meaning is I had a spiritual hunger and a spiritual nakedness this ye did not relieve satisfie and supply when I lay begging knocking at your door for relief in this kinde ye would not hear me and now I will not Hear you You suffered me
Goodness the Wisdom Excellency and Beauty of him You may say these indeed in themselves are glorious creatures but say withal Where is He that enlightens them and makes them so glorious Oh! What and How glorious is He that thus shines in them and through them And as they All testifie the glory of their Creator so they All suffer him to be their Lord and Ruler Every thing is contented to stand in his place and be obedient to him the beasts they are appointed for food to man as other things are for beasts every one increasing and yielding their sweetness and fatness to the next creature above them and this they do willingly without grudging And All these creatures though they do speak God yet that they say of Him it is nothing in comparison of him Though they say something yet they all say not All of him but in us there is such a deal of ignorance which I was about to say was the greatest sin that we are so far from using them as we should making them serviceable to us and keeping them in their place that we are rather serviceable to them and are their servants and we make them Masters we are sooner turned into their kind then they into ours And the creatures though they speak God and speak aloud of him yet know this they still cry Plus ultra plus ultra there is more behinde still look beyond us for we are nothing when thou beholdest The Beauty glory sweetness or Excelencie of any Creature or of all the Creatures together Hear This voice from Them Look Beyond us for we All are Nothing Nothing to Him who made us and gave us to be What we are And we all speak infinitely short of Him As when I see This Church or House I know he was a workman that built it yet I know not All of him I neither knew what age he was of nor what means he had but that he was a workman this his works do tell me So in the works of Creation when I look upon any of the creatures I must needs acknowledge he was a Rare workman and a wise that contrived and made it but they come infinitely far short of him And they still cry with that man in the Gospel We believe But Lord help our unbelief 2. For their prayers You know prayer consists of two parts Of Prayer or Invocation Of Praise and Adoration As I told you every creature praises God the work praises the workman and every creature praises God I and with a loud voyce But whoever heard and understood the noise and the language of the stones and the voyce of the still and quiet earth But even All these praise God Aloud and he receiveth it at their hands They all praise him in his Sanctum Sanctorum The whole world and the Heavens and the Heaven of Heavens are all but His Temple as David saith In this Temple doth every one speak of His glory In this Temple they all sing praise and Hallelujahs to him every one even as it were vocally as Psal. 84. 3. David complains that the Swallows and the Sparrows were more happy then he for they might draw nigh unto God in his Temple to praise him for what is their chirping crying and singing but the voice of nature and to whom do they cry and to whom do they sing but to their Creator and God knows their voice and their cry as David saith He feeds the young Ravens when they cry unto him As a mother knows the signs the Child makes knows by the nuzling what it craves even so doth God by all his creatures The eyes of all things look up unto thee and thou givest them their meat in due season What the eyes of all men nay of all things You know one creature understands the voice of another they understands one anothers complaints one anothers singing and rejoycing one Dog understands the voice of another and so every creature in its kind and shall not God who is the God of nature he knows whereof we are all made and He knows all our complaints and wants The Lions seek their prey of God and he feeds the Ravens when they cry unto him But if these should not preach Gods praise yet the very stones do speak his praise and cry unto him but yet in such a language as God understands who made them and therefore you to whom God hath given rongues and understanding if you do not praise God and glorifie him if you hold your tongues all these dumb creatures and even these senseless stocks and stones shall rise in judgement against you for this is a true rule Nature hath done nothing in vain What 's the reason the poor sheep bleats when it comes to the slaughter and the swine Roars when he is killed do you think they cry to us that pursue them kill them no no but to God who is witness of their surrendring up their precious lives according to his will STEVEN when he was stoned to death nor Jesus Christ when he was crucified and said Father into thy hands I commend my spirit they did not cry more Audibly I say not more Audibly in Gods eares to God to take notice of their innocent yielding up their lives then these creatures do Cry to God when they suffer cruelly and unjustly crying to God Lord lay not this sin to their charge And Father into thy hands I commit my life and my spirit and fall asleep as Steven did and return to their rest 3. The third thing is their Decalogue but this belongs onely to us because they need none they never broke their law they alwayes walk according to Gods will The water and the sea summer and winter hay-time and harvest with all other things these all keep their appointed time they all obey thy will O God True it is they have not that reason that we have and therfore they have not so exact A Decalogue Yet God hath power even to break this exact Law yea man also may if God give him a dispensation and then if he break any of these Laws it is no sin as God commanded Abraham to kill his son and he did kill him in his intention and he had killed him had not the Angel staid his hand and it was not Evil but Obedience in Abraham But if any one shall do this from their own will then it were sin for he that gave the Law may break the Law And for this third part we need say no more 4. For their Sacrifices or Sacraments I do not say they sacrifice as of themselves but they are not onely an occasion of our praising God and sacrificing to him but they are also the matter of our sacrifices yet David in that of I Chron. 16. 31 32 33. Exhorts Let the Heavens be glad and the earth rejoyce and let men say among the Nations The Lord reigneth so withal saith he Let the sea
iniquities so may they complain to God of you and say thou hast appointed me to serve and comfort man and to make him more fit to serve thee but he abuses us and prostitutes us to serve his own inordinate will and lust and regards not thee And God himself calls upon you Oh take heed you do not abuse them and make them to serve your sins and lusts by Drunkenness Gluttony Pride and Wantonness for they are of that family of whom is named the whole family in heaven and earth They all call me Father and Maker as well as your selves And he that can look upon every creature as his BROTHER he can never abuse it he will never begin to strike his fellow-servants and say My Master deferreth his coming and therefore I take that to be a godly speech of St. Francis as they call him for all he was of the Church of Rome and therefore some of our literal Divines deride and mock at it I would God they would practice it in a godly and reverent manner It was his manner to call all the creatures his Brethren the Ox his Brother the Ass his Brother the Dog his Brother For God is Father of them as well as of thee But proud man is ready to put honour upon himself when no honour belongs to him All honour is Gods if all be his what right hast thou to claim any take heed of abusing then any of these thy brethren at thy pleasure and thinking that they were made Only to please and satisfie thee Solomon saith A good man is merciful to his Beast that is he useth them respectfully and for necessity and forbears Execrations and cursings of them and tortures to them And so to conclude let us and all creatures together sing and sound forth the Honour and Praise of our great God from Generation to Generation throughout all Ages Amen OF MILK FOR BABES AND OF Meat for Strong Men. Luk â— 2. 40. And the Câ—ild grew and waxed strong in Spirit filled with wisdom and the Grace of God was upon him Preached at Kensington Publick Meeting-place AS it is said of Iohn Luk. 2. ult That the child grew waxed strong in spirit was in the desarts till the day of his shewing unto Israel so likewise here the same is said of Jesus Christ yet with this exception and difference Iohn hath an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or set time after which he decreaseth and grows less Iohn 3. 30. He must increase but I must decrease And so it is with Believers they must grow less and less and come to nothing that so Jesus Christ may become all in all according to that in Dan. 2. 34 35. That stone cut out of the mountain without hands which smote the Image and brake it to pieces and it became a great mountain and filled the whole earth This stone is Jesus Christ which breaks to pieces all things That is That all Worships and Religions and whatever is mixt with Iron and Clay and whatever is of Man may decrease that himself may increase and grow great and fill the whole earth with the knowledge and manifestation of himself He being all in all But I must forbear for I prevent my self The Text contains 1. A Histâ—ry 2. A Mystery And this as I was speaking before comes under the second part viz. The Mystery For the History that is brief and shews onely the truth of his humane nature which though Hypostatically united to the Divinity even from the instance of his conception as it followeth in the Text that he was filled with wisdom and the Grace of God was upon him Vers. ult that he increased in wisdom and stature and in favour with God and man which cannot be meant in regard of his Divine nature as if there could be any Access or increase of or to that which is infinite but onely in the expression and manifestation thereof in those Organs which the God of Order had therefore ordained and co-apted So that if any shall ask How that which is full and perfect can be said to increase I Answer as before not in Augmentation but in Manifestation God cannot grow greater or lesser be more or less excellent or glorious but his greatness power and glory is further manifested more spread and made known according to that promise Numb 14. 21. and Isa. 6. 3. All the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord Our great and infinite God filleth the whole earth and the Heavens yea and the Heavens of Heavens with his majesty and Glory at all times and in every place Alike but then he is said to fill the Earth or Heavens with his glory and greatness when he is manifested more to men or Angels and when he enlargeth the knowledge of himself And of his Power and Greatness As we have often shewed you concerning Iacob Gen. 28. He dreamed and saw the Ladder reaching from earth to heaven and the Almighty The God of Abraham and Isaac was at the top thereof and from him Angels ascending and descending continually thereby God manifesting himself to be with him whereever he was and that he would keep him in all places whereever he went and that he would not leave him but fulfill all he had promised Iacob awaking he saw God as present there as at home in his Fathers house and cryes out The Lord is in this place and I knew it not whereat he was â—ore afraid and burst out into this ravishing acclamation How dreadfull is this place this is none other but the house of God! God was as much present in his glory and majesty over night as well as then but Iacobâ—aw â—aw not his presence God was not more there but there was a greater manifestation Iacobs sight was opened to see the presence of God more Iacobs Portion and Treasure was nigh him alwayes but he saw him not as Hagar God opened her eyes and then she saw the well of water Gen. 21. 19. Know this that the fountain of all good is alwayes with us nigh at hand if we could but see him and we need never fear nor never despond and doubt so as we do For as Moses saith concerning the command Deut. 30. 14. It is not hiddeu from thee neither is it far off the not in heaven nor beyond the sea but nigh unto thee in thy mouth and in thy heart So the Apostle Rom. 10. 6 7. he applies that Scripture to Jesus Christ who is Col. 1 16. the first begotten of all creatures by whom all things consist and in whom they live move and have their being But the second part is the Mystery of the Text. That which is more materiall is the Mystery Though all Scripture be written for instruction yet know The Scripture is a Mystery of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which as Eustathius saith comes from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉