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
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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
stark naked then you may look to find God to see Him as he is in himself consequently truth but not before And truly this work being done in the soul there is such a miracle wrought as none but only the finger of God could do He that thinks ever by his own power to bring it about is utterly deceived This is a great question now adays Whether miracles be ceased now or no But it shews that such men have little experience of these Divine sublime truths It is a most foolish ridiculous question to him who enjoys these things for he sees there are as great miracles done now every day as ever was done since the world stood but the fault is in us we see them not our eyes are blinded that we can see no miracles Oh! were they but open we should see such miracles as would make all the understandings of Men and Angels stand amazed and a thousand times greater then ever any that Christ did in the flesh And the Angel of the Lord appeared unto him in the midst of a burning bush and behold the bush burned and was not consumed In these bare literal words there is a mighty miracle yet there is hid in them a miracle far transcending this outward miracle there is couched in them an abstruse hidden sense One would wonder to what purpose God should shew such a miracle of this nature A burning bush and not consumed What did this concern the work God Almighty was about namely to bring the Israelites from under Pharaohs bondage and grievous slavery Yet it being opened and unfolded you may see how fit it was every way upon this occasion As for instance That of Iacobs vision Iacob when he was to leave his Fathers house and forsake all his kindred and friends never looking to see them again he was to walk a long tedious way and un-inhabited as the world was in those times he having many sad thoughts and knew not what he should do nor what should befall him having gone one dayes journey and meeting with no lodging at night but weary as he was lay down in the open field and having nothing to lay his head on he gathered a heap of stones and laid his head on them a hard pillow as you may well think yet at last it should seem fell asleep and dreamed such a dream as never was dreamed on a pillow of Down And his dream was he saw a Ladder reach from Earth to Heaven and God himself stood at the top of the Ladder and the Angels of God were ascending and descending on it But as I said of this vision to Moses What was all this to Jacob this seems not suitable to his necessity at that time One would think that if God had appeared to him and said Iacob I will be with thee I will provide for thee take no thought I will be thy God thou shalt want for nothing though thou hast forsaken Father and Mother and all yet fear not I will be all in all to thee This or else somewhat to this purpose had been more fit for Iacobs condition Beloved Whatever it seems to be in the History in the Mystery it was the suitablest the fittest the seasonablest vision that could possibly have been revealed to him namely to let Iacob see that while all the Creatures in Heaven and Earth which are Gods Angels or Messengers and do his will and all go of his errands He himself holds the Ladder at the top they all come from him and they all return to him again And not only so but he being their essence their being their life their motion they are all moved and actuated by him Himself there is not one Creature not one of these Angels or Messengers but doth his will and he is with them in what part of the Ladder soever they are if they be in the middle or bottom or at the top yet they are not absent from him but he rules and guides them all to do his work which he appoints them to do Now my Brethren this being fixed in Iacobs mind that every Creature was formed actuated and moved by God himself and that not any one of them could do any thing to him nor he could want nothing but a supply was at hand because he commanded it because he was so near it he was in it This was that which comforted Jacob in all his journey That whatever he met withal or wheresoever he was he still had recourse to what his vision taught him And so likewise in this vision to Moses it was the fittest that could have been shewed him upon this occasion and in this business which he was to go upon Now you may observe three kinds of Miracles to three several divisions of persons 1. To Moses and that onely this One the bush burned and was not consumed and this was sufficient to work upon Moses and to encourage him to his work But 2. The Israelites they will not beleive for one miracle but they must have three miracles But 3. The Egyptians ten miracles would not work upon them something is included in this For Moses being a man Near God being a Shepherd already he had in part resigned up himself to God and therefore one miracle was enough to make him believe for as soon as ever he saw it and God called unto him and said Moses Moses he presently answers Gods call Here am I Lord but Israel being further off from God having been long in Egypt they were so well accustomed there also to their slavery that they had as live remain there still as depart therefore before they could be perswaded to Obey and follow Moses there must be three miracles wrought 1. Moses threw down his Rod and it became a Serpent then he took it up by the tail and it became a Rod again 2. He put his hand into his bosome and pulling it out it became leprous and putting in his hand again and pulling it out it became as his other flesh 3. Says God If they will not believe for the first nor for the second miracle for the third they shall believe Take up of the water of the brook and pour it on the ground and it shall turn into blood These being further removed from God God did not live in them he was exalted in them as he was in Moses but was as dead and buried in them and to them But ten and ten to that can never work upon the Egyptians Those that will live and die Egyptians all the miracles in the world can never make them believe Moses he said at once Lord here I am he was ready to obey God and the Israelites they answered at three times But some there are that are so hardned in their own ways and so frozen on their dregs that let God do what he will with them let him strike them with sickness famine plague pestilence what he
if a man love his friend let him wrong him if he can but here is matter If ye have but the External Worship As most men content themselves with that and never care for the Internal but if once ye have the Spirit and the True sense of the Letter through the Letter then I say let him throw away the Letter if he can no no he cannot abuse but love that in its place and degree which hath been the Shel and instrument to bring him all that sweetness meat and nourishment I say Beloved once again things being thus and men being generally thus taken with the Letter and go no farther Wonder not To see All the world in A Deluge All drowned in their own ways all seeking themselves and their Own things and not the things of Iesus Christ All being taken with and Idolizing their own Conceits Wonder not To see them All in a mist Groping in darkness and every one feeding himself with his own devices I say Wonder not for Iohn the Baptist He that leapt and sprang for ioy in his Mothers Womb at the salutation of the Virgin Mary For all He as it were lived with him was his acquaintance and conversed with him for 30. years yet knew him not Wonder not to see An Universal Darkness over the whole world and scarce a man knows Him that lives in them dwels in them I am afraid it is with most men as it was with those women the Apostle Paul speaks of Alwayes learning and never came to the knowledge of the truth Yet it is well known ye have alwayes been Throâ—gers of Christ with the Jews but I fear Never yet drew any vertue from him and that ye have not yet Taken the City of the Letter Never yet had The rending of the Vail never yet took Achsah to wife For if ye had you would be so far forth Altogether spiritual and much taken up with these things knowing no man any more after the flesh but altogether in a spiritual manner knowing God to be in you and to dwell with you wherefore to stand in awe of his goodness and greatness majesty and incomprehensibleness c. But Beloved I press these things the more and the oftâ—er because I know these things had need be taught you as the Prophet Esay saith Line upon line and precept upon precept here a little and there a little For these things ye receive but slowly and by degrees like narrow-mouth'd vessels as ye are able to receive otherwise these things run over run at wasâ—e and run besides And are spoiled and ye trample these Pearls under your feet And besides I know you have enough that press the Letter but these things very rarely and therefore I take the more liberty This is such a truth that I would have it founâ—ded and well rooted in you viz. That God is He that Fills All in All I would not have you ignorant of this one thing viz. that God He is All Act a pure Act and nothing acts nor grows or increases or moves but in Him Know that not one creature stirs in any act towards you but by Commission there is no such thing as chance or fortune This is such a foundationâ— Truth that every Branch of Godliness ariseth from this root Iacob He saw this for t is said when he Awaked then he saw God was in this place God there appeared to him On purpose to convince Iacob of this very Truth not but that God was in that place before but Iacob saw him not there before God was in this place before but I knew it not saith he but his eyes being opened then he cryes out Oh! How dreadful is this place this is noâ—e other but the house of God! God dwells with us and in us and we are not aware of it All this while To this very day As suppose two men should come into a large room in which the King should be in one corner behind the hangings privately I suppose I have used the Simile before but the fitness makes me use it the oftner therefore take it and apply it and the One of these two men Espieth the King the Other knowing nothing of him He that knows the King is there he behaves himself with all Reverence and fear as before the King because he knows the King hears and sees all but the other lashes out in idle and frothy talk and behaves himself rudely as among his companions The reaon is because He sees not the King but if once he chance to espye the King or the King discover himself to him Then He humbles himself for all his idle carriage falls down Amazed intrembling and fear and carries himself so much the more Humbly and Awfully and the more submissively His carriage is quite changed he is no such man as he was before so Howsoever a man carry himself before he sees God and before he knew of him that he was so near and he knew it not yet when God once shews and discovers himself to such a man In the midst of all his pride and lofty carriage in the midst of his high and Towring imaginations and self-conceits As he did to Belshazzar when the hand-writing appeared to him on the wall His hair stood upright and his knees smote together and his joynts were loosed Even so is this man astonished at the sight of God in him he falls down and cries out with Iacob Oh! how dreadful is this place this is none other but the house of God and I never knew so much Was my God my Creator the Almighty and maker of Heaven and Earth He that the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain Is he here by me and in me all this while heard all my words and observed all my actions and I not know it I not aware of it Oh vile wretch that I am Beloved the case was thus with Iacob He over night being weary Travelling a whole days journy from his fathers house had no Inne to lodg at but in the open field having gotten some stones together for his pillow and the Heavens foâ— his Curtains He lies down in sorrow and thoughtfulness what he should do what would becom of him what course he should take He was a yoâ—ng maâ— and apt to run hiâ— own wayes and follow his own will little he had and knew not how he should be provided foâ— He was fain to run from home leave his fathers house as a banished man and it seems in these thoughts and the like he fell asleep And in a dream God appears and speaks to him and comforts him And in his dream he saw a vision A Ladder reaching up to Heaven and the Angels of God ascending and descending c. and when he awaked he finding God to be so near him anâ— present with him whithersoever he went his spirit was comforted and refreshed Then He was a changed man Then he had New
sheweth his handy Work dâ—y unto day uttereth speech and night unto night sheweth knowledge In these God rides more openly here ye may behold him with open face as it is Ier. 23. 24. Caâ— any hide themselves in secret places from him do not I fill Heaven and Earth sayes God So the Earth is a close Chariot wherein he rides God rides and abides in the close silent Earth though less glorious as to us as well as in the open and more glorious Heaven Psal. 18. 10 11. He made darkness his secret place and his pavilion round about him were dark waters and thick clouds he bowed the Heavens and came down and darkness was under his feet T is true he fills Heaven and Earth but in the Earth we cannot see him so open and manifest Sometimes he hides himself in darkness and sometimes he shews himself in light As he is light so he clothes himself with light Psal. 104. 2. like as he was to the Israelites he went before them in a pillar of a cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night Exod. 14. 19 20. He in himself is always invisible but in his expressions workings he is more secret more manifest Isa. 45. 15. Verily thou art a God that hidest thy self O God of Israel the Saviour For God was both the cloud and the fire that went before and behind the children of Israel and he it was that filled the Tabernacle he was in both though he exprest himself so diversly And when we have put off this Tabernacle of clay that hangs about us then we whom he hath appointed shall see him as he is Yet let me tell you no man can see God as he is not in his Essence no not the Angels in heaven they themselves are not capable of that nor ever shall be but then the scales of Ignorance and blindness shall fall from our eyes and then we shall see his Influence into all Creatures and how this infinite God Flowes into them all as the river of Thames or the Sea by its streams it flows into all the adjoyning Creeks Arms but into every one according to their capacity not according to their own greatness but according to the greatness or littleness of those Creeks So doth our infinite God Flow into all his Creatures yet these expressions are infinitely below him too narrow to set out God to you but something in a way of resemblance I say after this manner doth the Almighty Flow into all his Creatures into Angels Arch-Angels Cherubims Seraphims Into men into beasts birds fish into all creatures yet not according to his own infinite greatness but according as every one can receive him and according to their capacity For if God should fill his creatures or communicate himself to them beyond their capacities he should destroy his creatures As to Moses God shewed him as much as a creature could see and live for if God had shewed him more he had been blinded undone by it for things may be as well invisible by too much light as by too little by excess of light as by want of light As the Sun if it should shine unto us in that excess of light that is in it self and that it were not intercepted interrupted by vapours and by thick and dull aire or if we were nearer to it then we are we should see nothing at all But whatever we see not of God now while we are in the world it is not for want of light in God but for want of light in us because the thick scales and the thick Darkness are still before our eyes and the dark vail is upon our hearts For God is alike apparent in every creature in regard of himself yet the accidents and matter that clothes God in the creature hides him from our sight For if we ask the Sea or the Winds or Beasts or Men of God these all speak dully and darkly of him for thou art now a hidden God from our eyes though thou art in every creature thou art the action motion and being of every creature yet God himself is a hidden a close God As Iacob when he fell asleep and dreamed and when he awaked he cryes out Oh how fearful is this place this is none other but the house of God God was there before but Iacobs eyes were not opened for God is in every place alike and cannot be more in one place then another but till our eyes be opened we can never acknowledge it but as soon as they are open then we can cry nay then we shall cry out for we cannot contain ourselves with Iacob with a holy fear and reverence we seeing the fulness of his presence every where Oh how dreadful is this place this is none other but the house of God and the gate of Heaven doubtless the Lord was in this place and I was not aware Object T is true you may say I see indeed all the creatures are Gods House and his Temple but why doth he call it The Gate of Heaven Ans. Because every creature when our eyes and ears are open it plainly represents speaks out God with a loud voice it leads us to see God himself who is not onely the substance and being thereof but he is the action life and motion thereof it leads us to behold and enjoy the infinite God who is heaven it self Then we shall come to see and say Holy holy holy Lord God of Hosts heaven and earth are full of the majesty of thy glory And then shall we cry out one to another as the Seraphims Isa. 6. 3. And one cryed unto another and said Holy holy holy is the Lord of Hosts the whole earth is full of his glory Then we shall see him so fill all places and all creatures even as he filled the tabernacle with his presence and glory Insomuch that we shall be overcome by his presence and the excellency of his divine glory Take home this truth with you and the Lord fix it in your hearts meditate and often think on it till you come to see it and believe it That God fills every thing though you see him not And although he be hidden not onely from men but even from the Angels themselves in regard of his Essence yet whatever creature it be how little so ever it be it is the house of God and the gate of heaven for this is Heaven upon earth thus to enjoy God and therefore well may Iacob call it The gate of heaven He fils even the lowest hell and is as wel in the damnedst Lucifer in hell as in the gloriousest Saint in heaven in regard of his Essence because he is in that regard in all places alike But here is the difference the one seeth him not so nor yields unto him the praise and glory of his infiniteness and of his filling all things as the
This is the Shadow of that House of Clay Where dwelt a Soule that richly did Display Such Light of Trueth abroad as did Viseal The Book of God and Hidden Things Reveal But hauing left That House now dwels Aboue In those Bless'd Mansions of pure Light Loue. T. Cross Sculpsit M B THE Gospel-Treasury Opened OR The Holiest of all unvailing Discovering yet more The RICHES of Grace and Glory TO THE VESSELS of MERCY Unto whom onely it is given to know the Mysteries of that Kingdom and the excellency Of SPIRIT above LETTER POWER above FORMS TRUTH above SHADOWS In several Sermons preached at Kensington elswhere By JOHN EVERARD D. D. deceased Whereunto is added the Mystical Divinity of Dionysius the Areopagite spoken of Acts 17. 34. with Collections out of other Divine Authors translated by Dr. Everard never before printed in English 2 Cor. 3. 6. Who also hath made us able Ministers of the New Testament not of the Letter but of the Spirit for the letter killeth but the Spirit giveth life Verse 10. For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect by reason of the glory that excelleth 1 Cor. 2. 6. Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect even the hidden wisdom of God in a mysterie London Printed by Iohn Owsley for Rapha Harford at the Bible and States-Arms in Little Brittain 1657. To all those who through the power of Christ in them have attained to esteem it their Wisdom long to be despised accounted Fools by the World 〈◊〉 his sake and the Gospels whose knowledge â—isdome and Guifts hath made them not Great and 〈◊〉 according to the custome of the World but Little yea Nothing in their own esteem who notwithstanding are the True Of-spring of God the Only Right-Wise and Honourable with Him and the Excellent upon Earth TO such only are these Sermons dedicated they knowing what these things mean but not to the Great and wise men of this world For saith our 〈◊〉 All men cannot receive these sayings Mat. 〈◊〉 11. A rich man can hardly enter into the Kingâ—â—me of heaven nor he especialy who is Rich or 〈◊〉 in his own esteem Nay It is easier for a 〈◊〉 or Cable to go through the Eye of a 〈◊〉 Needle then for a Rich man to enter into 〈◊〉 Kingdome of God And saith our Lord 〈…〉 I say unto you Except ye be converted 〈…〉 little Children ye cannot enter therein But whosoever shall humble himself as a littâ—â— child The same saith he mark the word 〈◊〉 no other shall be greatest in the Kingdome of Heaven These onely are they that can Deny theâ— selves in all things and take up their Crosse daâ— ly following their Lord and Master in the samâ— path he hath trod out before them being 〈◊〉 with his own Baptisme they wait upon 〈◊〉 as his serâ—ants and covet to be like him In all his afflictions reproches and death 〈◊〉 meek how lovely how courteous how 〈◊〉 how amiable how gratious was he 〈◊〉 all his behaviour How ready to pardoâ— and pray for his enemies There was no guile founâ— in his mouth He never reproached the vildest sinner how patient meek and loving was he 〈◊〉 them how did he pitty and tender them anâ— weep over them because they were so fast bounâ—â— in Satans chains Only he fell very foul on the 〈◊〉 and dissembling Outside Religion of thâ— Pharisees their gilded seemingly Holy outsides He could never endure Because though therâ— was an unreproveable and glorious outside yâ— within nothing but Stenches rottenness and 〈◊〉 bones like unto gilded and stately Sepuâ—â—chers without but within all manner of rottenâ—ness and loathsome Stenches And he chose raâ—ther to keep company with the grossest sinner the Publicans rather then with these Because themselves and others had so high an esteem of them and thought them righteous by reason of their grave and demure outsides to make others believe it was so or rather better within when it was quite otherwise He sought not Himself nor his own glory but the glory of his Father He endured the Cross despised the shame His life was to go about doing good even to his enemies He would gladly have done good to the proud Pharisees but they could not endure him because he did not reverence and admire them as others did but dishonour them and discover their nakedness and loathsome insides Those that are his servants they in their measure strive to follow their Master in all good things They have the same spirit Full of meekness and tenderhartedness to all Free and ready to do good they love all creatures for his sake they can see no creature in want but their bowels Yearn to help them being much troubled if they have not wherewith to supply their wants These indeed like their Master can Welcome the Crosse yea kisse the Crosse every day and expect bearing of the Crosse in every thing they do whether they be Actions Civil or Spiritual in their Almes or Charities to men or their religious Worship and duties to God They in all bear the Crosse alwaies about them Therefore that of the Papists to me is a pretty Embleme of these mens lives in this regard though they abuse it in an external outward foolish and Superstitious way but the Morral and signification to this purpose is by some very aptly applyed Viz. Every thing they have to do with or what ever they begin or go about The Crosse The Crusifix as they call it must be made upon it when they rise or when they go to bed or whatever they do they will not forget that so is it very truly and really applyed to these men And the more they esteem themselves Blessed for the Papists think themselves Blessed by doing it externally and the fewer Crosses they use the more they think are their curses But in this sence I am sure t is a real truth That these Self-denied Little-Ones know by experience then whom for any to offend it were far better for him That a Milstone were hanged about his neck and sunk headlong to the bottome of the Sea That the more of the Crosse they bare they reckon they are the more Rich the more Happy This taking up the Crosse and Denial of themselves they account it their Life their Portion their Inheritance their Blessing their Crown yea indeed their Heaven upon Earth As for all the things of this world they sit as loose to them as Elijaâ—'s Mantle which as he Ascended fell from him to the Earth to which it belonged These Souls they willingly and freely have departed from the love of this World and expect no love from it but rather Hatred but they having found the Pearl of great price of invalluable price they slight all Sell All for this Pearl For they have resolved and concluded in their souls in good earnest as it is Prov. 4. Wisdome is the principal thing therefore say they I must what ever I
engrav'd sets forth His outward feature not his inward worth His body was his souls dark vail and skreen So that his excellent substance lies unseen The hearing-ear and seeing-eye are blessings rare He furnish'd was with both for â—was his care To preach and practise true Self-denial Whereof these labours give sufficient trial In 's laâ—er dayes while here he had abode His life was joyn'd and hid with Christ in God How others might this spiritual method know His Life and Doctrine in this book do show True godliness is a MYSTERY long conceal'd But truly in these Sermons 't is reveal'd What good thou findest let not man be prais'd But to the Lord let all your hearts be rais'd L. D. The Titles Contents and Texts of both parts of this Book Christ the true Salt of the Earth IN one Sermon Preached at Islington Publike-meeting place on Mark 9. 50. Have salt in your selves The Star in the East leading to the true Messiah The Mystery of Christ crucified The spiritual crucifying the true Messiah In two Sermons at a private Meeting at Kensington near London on 1 Cor. 2. 2. But I determined to know nothing among you save Iesus Christ and him crucified Of suffering and reigning with Christ. In eight Sermons at Kensington Publick meeting-place on Rom. 8. 17. If so be that we suffer with him that we may also be glorified together The dead and killing letter the Spirit and the Life Shadows vanishing some rayes of glory appearing In four Sermons at a private meeting at Kensington on Iosh. 16. 15 16. And Caleb said he that smiteth Kiriathsepher and taketh it to him will I give Achsah my daughter to wife c. The second part Militia Coelestis or the heavenly Host. In two Sermons on Psal. 68. 17 At Giles Cripplegate London The Chariots of God are twenty thousand thousands of angels the Lord is among them as in Sinai in the holy place Where Christ feedeth and where his flock resteth In two Sermons on Cant. 1. 7. at Highgate Publick-meeting place Tell me O thou whom my soul loveth where thou feedest where thou makest thy â—â—ocks to rest at noon for why c. Of eating Hidden Manna The substance of a Sermon preached at a Lecture in the Old Jury London on Rev. 2. 17. To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the Hidden Manna Covetousness Anatomized or the generality of Covetousness The substance of several Sermons preached at Putney near London on Ier. 6. 13. From the least of them even unto the greatest every one is given to Covetousness and from the Prophet even to the Priest every one dealeth falsely The PLUS ULTRA of the Creatures A brief Exposition on Psal. 148. spoken privately in Old Street London Milk for babes meat for strong men The substance of several Sermons at Kensington Publick meeting-place on Luke 2. 40. And the child grew and waxed strong in spirit filled with wisdom and the grace of God was upon him The Mystery or the Life and Marrow of the Scriptures An Exposition in two Sermons on Exod. 3. the 6. first verses at a private meeting at Kensington Moses kept the flock of Iethro his father in Law Priest of Midian and he led the flock to the backside of the desart And the Angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush c. True and divine Exorcism or the Devil conjured by Iesus Christ. The substance of several Sermons preached at Kensington Publick meeting-place on Mark 1. 25 26. And Iesus rebuked him saying Hold thy peace and come out of him and when the unclean spirit had torn him and cryed with a loud voice he came out of him All power given to Iesus Christ in heaven and earth In one Sermon preached at a Private meeting in Old-street London on Mat. 28. 18. All power is given to me in heaven and in earth Whereunto is added some Collections by Dr. Everard out of some Divine Authors as being things suitable to his preaching and giving further light each to other viz. To him who is in the light 1. DIonysius the Areopagite his mystical Divinity 2. Certain grave and notable sayings in Latin and English 3. Sayings of a certain Divine of great note and name 4. A lovely glass or example of our Lord Iesus Christ taken out of Taulerus his works 5. Another short instruction out of the same Author 6. A short Dialogue between a learned Divine and a Beggar TO THE READER OF Dr. Everards SERMONS Christian Reader AS there were many causes of delay in publishing these Sermons so there are also in bringing them to light now The time when they were preached was in the dayes of the last Bishops who endeavoured the strangling of many Truths in the birth as Pharaoh the children of Israel lest they should increase and multiply to discover and suppress their deeds of darkness to that end High-Commissioning many precious and bright-shining lights whereof this Author was in the number laying as their manner was many foul things to their charge which they never knew as David said of himself by his enemies thereby making a great noise to amuze the people in medling with such men and to colour their wicked designes for the suppression of light and men of light as if they were guilty of foul Doctrine or foul life or both and though they could prove nothing against them yet keeping them in their Courts if possible to aw and vex them if they could not suppress them The Author hereof being spotless in either especially since God in a special and extraordinary manner appeared to him in him in his latter dayes for he confâ—ssed with the Apostle Paul Eph. 4. 17 18. that in the dayes of his former ignorance and vanity he walked as other Gentiles and as men living without God in the world in the vanity of his mind having his understanding darkened being alienated from the life of God because of the blindness of his heart which no doubt our merciful and ready-pardoning God had forgiven though men could not or would not forget which he regarded not much God speaking peace and parâ—on to his soul. But afterward he desired nothing more then to bring in others to see what he saw and to enjoy what he enjoyed and to clear truth to them in either respect he oftentimes averring as to others so to the Publisher hereof that his trouble was not for self-sufferings but that truth should be any way obstructed or defamed through him And he having once obtained of their Court to refer the accusations in either kind but especially for Doctrine and for Conventicles as they called them kept by him to reason out his judgement and what he had delivered with four Bishops members thereof or any three of them In this he rejoyced so as in nothing more so he exprest and we judge and not without good ground he taking abundance of pains and travel to
be for a fire and his holy one for a flame and it shall burn and devour his thorns in one day And he is FIRE in three regards In regard of Burning Heat Light First The nature of Fire is to burn Fire cannot burn it self take notice of that fire cannot burn fire but all things else it will burn and consume So doth Christ he is that fire that burns up all our works and whatsoever is not himself and his own work INUS he consumes and annihilaâ—es The Light of Israel shal be for a fire and his holy one for a flame it shall burn and devour his thorns and his brâ—ers in one day Know this the more sin the more fire the greater burning Mal. 3. 2. Who may abide the day of his coming who shall stand when he appeareth for he is like refiners fire and like fullers sope Christ is this fire and let me tell you this burning and consuming is for your good it is that out of the old ashes of the old man you may have a new life a new resurrection Examine thy self hath this fire cut off thy hands and feet and pulled out thy right eye hath it consumed thy young men 〈◊〉 hath it burnt up thy OLD heaven and thy OLD earth that so ye may enjoy a new heaven and a new earth 2 Pet. 3. 7. Nay further let me aske thee hath it thrown all thy gods in the fire hath it burnt up all thy idols yet I tell ye this burning is not unto death but unto life as Christ said of Lazarus This sickness is not unto death but be sure that as the Lord Jesus Christ burneth up and woundeth so he healeth and maketh alive again I would and I heal Secondly the work of fire is to heat so Christ after he hath destroyed and burnt up all our actions then he breathes into us a gentle warmth and heat of his own Spirit to cherish and revive us again that so we may no longer live our own lives but the life of Christ. Thirdly The nature of fire is to give light when That day dawns to us that Christ comes into the soul we shall find He brings light with him and this is called Christs day Our first day is our own day that is a day of darkness a day of gloominess and thick clouds but the day of the Lord is a terrible day our flesh trembleth for fear of thee for who shall abide the day of thy coming and who shall stand when thou appearest for thou art like refiners fire and like fullers sope When Christ comes into the soul he comes not onely with light to discover but like fire to burn up all that building that we have made to our selves and that we have raised by our own power and breathes warmly and gently by his Spirit his own life until by degrees he brings a glorious light into the soul He then turns us from darkness to light from the power of Satan unto God And all this is done by one and the same act in God although those acts be divers and distinct in the creature that is the same act in God which comes to the obstinate and perverse and hardens them which comes to the humble and meek and softens them the same act in him Hardens and Softens as the Sun doth wax and clay That same God which was darkness at the bottom of Mount Sinai was light in the top of the Mount He is the same God in himself to all but he works diversly in regard of the creatures He is the same God in a frozen and hard heart as he is in a repenting and bleeding soul but to the one he appears not but in wrath and vengeance ready to take revenge on them for their sins but to the other he appears in mercy and love and marries himself to them he communicates to them his sweet loves and their wills are swallowed up in his and these onely are they that can say in truth Not my will but thine be done but the other they cannot forsake themselves their own will their own ends but this is but by the way And this you see in brief what the fire is Our God is a consuming fire But now what is the salt I know it is divers wayes taken and expounded Some take it to be wisdom and discretion in speech and for proof they cite that place of the Apostle Let your speech be alwayes gracious seasoned with salt for so Solomon saith A wise man may hold up his head before Princes and they give this reason As salt keeps things from stinking so doth wisdom so salt and season a mans words that his words may not be unsavoury to wise men so that he is not laught to scorn Others take it for holiness and sincerity in life and conversation as our Saviour saith Ye are the salt of the earth Mat. 5. 13. that is say they when by their living well speaking the Truth in their words and expressing holiness in all thir actions this seasons their lives maketh them savoury before God and men So also they interpret that of our Saviour Mat. 5. 13. Ye are the salt of the earth but if the salt have lost his savâ—â—r wherewith shall it be salted it is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden under the feet of men when men live not as they profess they are unsavoury and men tread such mens profession under their feet and therefoâ—e say they He admonisheth them to strive for integrity of life and soâ—ndness in doctrine and constancy in suffering for these things honour their profession and seasons them with salt and makes them savoury to God and to men But to be short and without any more circumstances that we may come to the matter intended The fire and the salt are both one and that is Christ himself as I have told you He is the fire so He is the salt as the Apostle saith Heb. 2. 11. Both he that sanctifyeth and they who are sanctified are all one So Jesus Christ he is the fire that salteth and the salt wherewith it salteth as is exprest in the verse before the Text. Indeed I confess the Apostles also were called Salt Mat. 5. 13. Ye are the Salt of the earth saith Christ himself not that they were the Salt themselves or the salt indeed but they were those which uttered the salt they taught salt as I may say and where rathâ—r as we may call them Salters those which sold and uttered the true salt which is CHRIST to the world But I say of them as the Apostle Paul saith 1 Cor. 3. 4 5. While one saith I am of Paul and another I am of Apollo who is Paul or who is Apollo but Ministers by whom you believed neither is he that planteth any thing nor he that watereth but God c. and in another
world upside down it was at his rebuke at the blast of the breath of his nostrils that the earth shook and trembled and coals were kindled by it So also he saw that it was God who sent from above out of heaven his holy place and took him out of his troubles out of many waters and delivered him from his strong enemy and he brought him out into a large place and so goes on in that 18. Psalm When the soul comes to be awaked and to see God thus filling all in all to be motion and Agent in all things then he falls down before God and is ashamed and throws down all his own pride and arrogancie all his high conceits of his acting and doing any thing for he sees now it was not he but that it was God in him that did all now down falls all conceit of power and gifts with all strong holds all principalities and powers and spiritual wickednesses in high places and he gives All glory to God who dwels so near him In his holy hill of Sion Then he no longer looks without himself but now he hearkens to know what the Lord sayes in him his eye and his ear are now to himwards he will now no longer rule and guide himself nor take his own advice but he sees how he hath gone astray from God and desires now that God onely would guide him for he finds that he is the surest and the nearest Counsellour his eye is altogether now upon God so that he trembles in his presence He sees now we need not say Who shall ascend up to Heaven to bring Christ thence or who shall descend into the grave to bring Christ from the dead for behold the word is nigh thee it is even in thy mouth Christ is in thee in the midst of thee as the Prophets often Great is thy God in the midst of thee O Israel And again The holy One of Israel in the midst of thee And again Iohn Baptist There is one in the midst of you whom ye know not he shall baptize you with the holy Ghost and with fire When our eyes are opened by Christ to come to see this even those eyes which were blind from their Mothers womb And when the strings of our tongue shall be loosed then we shall fall down before his presence and confess our own vileness our own nothingness and that we in our selves without him are meer dust and ashes poor drops poor warms And this is not out of formality or custom but unfainedly and really seeing our selves to be so and no otherwise But till this time we go on in our pride and arrogancie we exalt our selves and go on to please our own wils and say who shall bring us downe our tongues are our own we will prevail who is Lord over us we say Tush God sees not he is above can he see through the thick clouds and so we go on in our own waies and follow our own wills and regard not God who is in us and acts all our acts and works all our works for us till then we exalt our selves even into Gods throne and dethrone him as much as lies in us for we say I will and I am Power is mine and Revenge is mine many say so and multitudes more do so they will be Revenged that they will and so appropriate and arrogate to our selves the very attâ—ibutes of God Vengeance is mine saith the Lord. And as Iames Woe to them that say To morrow we will go to such a City and remain a year and there buy and fell and get gain and Isa. 9. 9. Wo to them that say in the pride and stoutness of their heart The bricks are fallen down but we will build with â—â—wn stones Beloved conclude this all power is his and all praise is his and if all be His then what hath any creature to do to take to himself any at all but this great sin of arrogancie is that which runs through the whole world great and small and who sees it and who checks himself for it saying what have I done This is that which rules in the very Devils themselves Nay this is the Devil in us For they think they have a power and so walk according to their own wills and see not that they act by the power of God for God is all power all act and no creature stirs or moves but by him he is their act and their being thoâ—gh not of evil for though God be The orderer of evil yet he is not the Author but men would hence lay the fault on God and excuse themselves And very strange conclusions men have made through mistake that because there is in God an active positive consulted and deliberate reprâ—obation of certain men before their sins were committed yea before the Creation and because also t is said we can do nothing without him for in him we live move and have our being therefore they conâ—lude that the evil of action as well as the Action belongs to Him not understanding to distinguish between the Act and the Evil of the Act no no you are deceived you conclude thus because you cannot comprehend his waies and so you would bound limit and circumscribe the Almighty by your narrow Reason But you must distinguish between the Act and the evil of the Act all Act is Gods but he is free from the evil of any Act. All evil is thine and all good is Gods And therefore Hos. 13. 9. O Israel thy perdition is of thy self but in me is thy help but this I cannot now enter upon we therefore return to our point in hand Till Christ be pleased to discover himself to be there to be in us we are stark blind until He say to our eyes Ephatha be ye opened Else how do we walk and â—et up and down in our pride and arrogancie both to wards God and men and begin to beat and oppress and lord it over our fellow-servants what an â—nseemly thing is it that such worms and nothings as men are should walk so bolt-upright in insolencie and arrogancie boasting oâ—t themselves to be something when they are nothing They will revenge themselves and begin to 〈◊〉 their fellow-servants and reproch even those who desire to do their masters business as well and better then themselves affecting nothing so much as to rule and to be great Is this the carriage of those who have their eyes upon God who they know sees all their pride insolencie and arrogancie or rather is it not clear that this is the carriage of blind men ignorant men that say We see and therefore their sin remaineth And the Lord of such servants will come in an hour when they look not for him and will cut them asunder and appoint their portion with Hypocrites there shall be weeping and grashing of teeth The hainousness of his sin is seen
well provided But by the way be not deceived to think God comes or goes for he cannot remove from place to place he cannot fill you more then he hath filled you already neither can he be nearer you then he is for he is ONE intire ACT of Being filling all things with his infinity he cannot come nor go nor remove nor be more in one place nor in one man more then in another And yet David bids us Open our gates that the King of glory may come in stand open ye everlasting doors that the King of glory may come in yet this is a certain truth he cannot come in more then he is already come in but the meaning must needs beâ— set open the eyes and doors of your knowledge and understanding Beloved take knowledge of this that the King of glory is within you already As when Elisha and his servant were invironed round about with enemies the mountains round the City full of Chariots and armed men his servant was afraid but Elisha comforts him and tels him there was no cause of fear for they had more with them to preserve and defend them then there was to offend and destroy them for saith he There is round about us Chariots and Horsemen for our defence Elisha his eyes were open and he saw them present but his servants were shut and he could not see them although as near to him then Elisha prayed that his eyes might be opened and immediately it was so and then he also saw the Chariots and Horsemen and fire round about them to defend them they were there before he saw them and his not seeing them did not make them not there So Christ doth not then come into thy soul when thou first seest him there when he works in thee and to thy sight and feeling when he lives in thee but then you come to know him and see him there and then you come to know ye are no reprobates because he dwels in you workingly to your sight and feeling for if you were reprobates yea Devils and the blackest Devils in Hell yet he is in you no place no creature can exclude him the earth and heavens yea the heaven of heavens cannot contain him no nor exclude him nor is he any more in the highest gloriousest Heaven then he is in the lowest Hell then he is in the very Prince of Devils but this they know not they cannot see him in them they are not able to see that he acts in them and by them but they think they act and live and work by their own power and think that they fulfil onely their own wills their own malice and do what they please And this also indeed is the very Devil in man this Disposition when he arrogates to himself the wisdome power or glory of God for all wisdom power glory and all good is all and alone his And as I said if all be his the creature is deceived to think it self hath any but they in whom God lives they see themselves nothings they see God is all in them they see him do all speak all work all think all in them they acknowledge freely they have no wills no affections either Natural or Divine but what are his they execute not their own wills their own lusts but they fulfil the will of him who works in them And to him and not to themselves they ascribe the glory and power of doing all O Beloved If we knew the gift that is in us our eyes our desires would alwaies be upon it Oh how precious is that gift in us could we but see it and know it as our Saviour said to the woman of Samaria O woman if thou knewest the gift of God and who it is that speaketh to thee he would have given thee living water whereof if a man drink he shall never thirst and it should be in his belly a spring of water springing up to eternal life Such a Gift such a Power such a Treasure is in every man mark well what I say that were he but acquainted with it he would presently deny renounce himself his own wisdom power parts and solely live upon this gift this wisdom this treasure I tell you you would desire to drink no more of your own waters of your own pleasures of your own wills but you would say as the woman there said to Christ Oh sir evermore give me of that water that I thirst no more that I come no more hither to draw Then you will desire never to draw your comforts from honours pleasures lands c. or from your own wills then you wil acknowledge feelingly and knowingly and not in words onely that you are nothing that you can do nothing but that he is all and in all Beloved look but inwardly and there you shal see the gloriousest things that ever â—e saw there is the City of God the Temple of God the new Ierusalem such things as never eye saw nor ear heard or ever entred into the heart of man as man but as he is a new creature in some degâ—ee Glorious things are spoken of thee O thou City of God Selah saith David There is within thee such a glorious Temple 〈◊〉 bedecked and beset with precious stones and rich pearls of Faith Repentance Love Ioy Hope c. all graces which didst thou enâ—oy would make thee rich to Eternity thou woulst never desire any more to taste thine own waters to follow thine own will but woâ—ldst say with David One day in this house of Godâ— is better then a thousand elsewhere Psal. 84. 10. It s better with David to be but a Door-keeper in this Temple then to dwel in the places of self-wil wickedness Here are â—he Beauties of God himself displayed One thing I have desired and that I will seek saith David that I may dwell in thy house all the daies of my life there to behold thy beauty and to visit thy Temple Here dwells wisdom whose wayes are wayes of pleasantness and all her paths are peace Never look nor never expect outwardly to find God for God dwells within nor expect not outwardly to hear God for God dwels in his Temple within there he preacheth and there he teacheth for outwardly are nothing but obscurities darkeness thick darkness outward darkness as the right translation renders it where is nothing but weeping and gnashing of teeth Outwardly are nothing but accidents and vails and thick clouds whiâ—h hide the everlasting beauties of our God from our beholdings within dwells the King of glories the everlasting Son of the Father who is from everlasting to everlasting even the Alpha and Omega of all the works of God Beloved when you aâ—e still and quiet upon your beds then examine your hearts then ye shall find your beloved when lust and self and flesh are all quieted and asleep so that there is no disturbance nor hurly-burly in
was never of the Fathers sending he comes unsent the true Christ is hid from thee But as the Apostle saith if our doctrine be hid it is hid to those that perish but to us who believe it is the Savour of life unto life but to all others the Savour of death unto death He is to us sweeter then the hony or the hony comb more dear to us then thousands of gold and silver This Christ is more precious whom we are now unfolding to you that truly believe then all the riches and glory yea then all the lives in the world And That we may come to open this Iesus Christ to you if so be your eyes are open or else we shall speak but parables and paradoxes to you as Christ did to the Jews and they will but make you more mad as he did them more enrage them against himself That ye may understand what we speak of and intend we must first wave the knowledge of the History of Christ externally and then we shall come to the knowledge of the Mystery of the true Christ of that Jesus Christ which is able to save your souls and to make you wise unto salvation The other knowledge cannot do so for if it could the Devils themselves should be saved Therefore it must needs be another kind of knowledge then they have it must be more then the knowledge of the Letter and outward face even of the whole Scriptures It must be a hidden knowledge and that is the knowledge of The Mystery namely a real lâ—vely and experimental knowledge of Iesus Christ wrought in thy heart by the power of himself Even like unto Flowers or Herbs or any other thing that grows on the ground by the heat and power of the Sun if there be not something communicated to them from the Sun that is of the Suns own nature they grow not at all but they wither and dye if the Sun warm them not and comfort them they grow not but dye So if there be not in every one of us something of Jesus Christ that is of his own nature the same mind the same quickning Spirit the same disposition and the same new nature something of his own off-spring we are but in a dead and perishing condition all that ever we know otherwise is meer folly in this regard be their knowledge never so excellent and glorious to those who have not Jesus Christ in them As that wicked Pope said when he had shewed such a vast treasure of riches See saith he how that Fable of Iesus Christ hath inriched me So to these men what ever they talk of Jesus Christ and of the knowledge of him to them the true Christ is a meer fable a meer tale as he thought outwardly to inrich him so they think this Fable of a deceitful Christ hath and will enrich their souls But except we know Christ feelingly experimentally so that he lives within us spiritually his own natural life insomuch that whatever any man hath known in the Letter and History of him that he know the same within him as truly done actually in his own soul as ever Christ did any thing without him in the days of his flesh else it profit nothing And to find all that ever you read of him to be verified in you experimentally It is not Jesus Christ without us can do us any good he is no Christ to us all his actions are in vain to us they are all as a meer tale a meer song to us As one of the Fathers said It was not that Christ that the Virgin Mary carryed in her womb that did save her but that Christ that she carried in her heart And our Saviours own words express as much Not blessed is the womb that bare thee and the paps that thou hast sucked but blessed are they that hear the word of God and kept it They that would have any benefit by Jesus Christ they must have him in their hearts Born within them not only to know that Christ was born at Bethlehem but born in them and not to know onely that Christ dyed at such a time so many years ago this will do you no good except you experimentally find and feel how he is crucified dead and buried within you Let no man what ever he be delude you and make you believe that any other Christ will save you Let no man upon pain of the salvation and damnation of his soul once dare to think that any other Christ will do him any good and that he experimentally feel Jesus Christ risen again within him and all other actions that ever he did that still he finds him doing the same in him as Saint Paul saith My beloved of whom I travel in birth till Christ be formed in you not Christ divided and by halves but whole Christ formed in you When you begin to find and know not onely that he was conceived in the womb of a Virgin but that thou art that virgin and that he is more truly and spiritually and yet as really conceived in thy heart so that thou feelest the Babe beginning to be conceived in thee by the power of the Holy Ghost and the most High overshadowing thee when thou feelest Jesus Christ stirring to be born and brought forth within thee when thou beginnest to see and feel all those Mighty powerful and wonderful actions done in thee which thou readest he did in the flesh For Christ is not divided saith the Apostle but yesterday and to day and the same for ever There is not one Christ without us and Another within us but that same Christ that was then upon earth must be spiritually in us growing and encreasing and doing the same actions still Now Beloved here is a Christ indeed that will save you here is a Christ A real Christ that will do you some good this is The Christ which indeed Alone and Onely will bring you to heaven If your faith hath wrought and formed such a Christ in you then you may have boldness through him Of this Christ you may boast and triumph against all the powers of darkness with St Paul Rom. 8. so that neither heights nor depths nor things present nor things to come nor Angels nor any creature shall be â—ver able to separate you and this Iesus Christ our Lord blessed for ever Rom. 8. 38 39. What ever other faith you have believe as strongly and as confidently as you will or can do be sure it is but Head-knowledge of Christ it is but a bold unwarranted presumption and no faith For Externall Jesus Christ is a shadow a symbole a figure of the Internal viz. of him that is to be born within us In our souls Beloved you know it is said of Abraham He saw Christs day and rejoyced so all the Saints that ever were are or shall be must See the day of Iesus Christ as well as Abraham did if we look for any
circumcised in us when we for his sake submit to all humane Ordinances both temporal and spiritual they not being against the Word and command of God For Christ himself though he was not bound to them yet he would do it because saith he on another occasion it becomes us to fulfil all righteousness And our Saviour puts this very question to Peter saith he Peter of whom do the Kings of the earth take tribute of the children or of Strangers Peâ—er answers of Strangers Then saith our Saviour the children are free Though our Lord knew his liberty yet he did submit himself and did not as many do now adayes upon pretence of liberty deny submission to good orders in Church and State But he commanded Peter notwithstanding he was the Son of God and knew infinitely his own liberty and the liberty of his Saints and Disciples more then we or they T is true Peter saith he the children are free yet notwithstanding go to the Sea and cast word Angle and open the mouth of the first fish that comes up and there he should find a piece of silver go and give that for me and thee so then are we circumcised with Christ when we do the same action for his sake although we be free that we may give them no offence as Christ there saith The next action that we read Christ did He came up with his Parents at the feast to Ierusalem and went into the Temple and disputed among the Doctors The same thing doth Christ in the soul for there is within every one of us A many Learned Doctors brought up in Satans University who are very subtle very acute Disputants even the rankest fool amongst us hath a whole University of Doctors within him how subtle how learned then are they in wise men Truly the more wisdome the more dangerous to dispute a man to hell and in this regard the more wise the more remote from the Kingdome of heaven more unfit to be made a fool for Christ how hard is it for such a man to be brought to vnknow unlearn and deny his own wisdom parts goodness c Thy wisdome hath made thee rebel saith Ieremiah and Isaiah We are so full of wisdom to defend our selves in our evil wayes and by custome and practice we have wonderfully profited in this University we have made a large progress in these Schools and have out-stript many of our standing Insomuch that we have not onely approved and cleaved fast and close to our iniquities but we are grown learned Doctors at it to defend thâ—â— to hold out arguments against the very World of God and the everlasting blessed truths of Jesus Christ which did we but receive and suffer our selves to be overcome by them they would make us for ever happy and Able to make the man of God wise â—nto salvation Beloved examine your selves find you not these things so What mighty learned unwearied Disputes are there held in our souls what strange and strong reasonings insomuch that the Old man carries all before Him and these Lusts these great Doctors bear away the day of it down with the Word down with Law Gospel Christ Salvation Truth all kept under and imprisoned and made to serve with our iniquities as the Prophet speaks And this you know is and hath been of old and still will be My brethren until Jesus Christ be pleased with his Almighty power to come into the soul and command a silence and that he will now manifest himself and comes in with Regal Conquering power Else our lusts make such a hurly burly such a noise such loud clamouring in the soul that Christ cannot be heard therefore he in the first place is fain to put them all to silence answering and convicting every lust and then are we mighty through God to the casting down of strong holds and every imagination that exalts it self against the knowledge kingdome and power of Iesus Christâ— otherwise if Christ come not in thus there is no silencing these Doctors He must put the Minstrels out of doors before he will raise the dead soul. Do you what you can pray fast strive against them yet they know you not they are furious and raging Iesus we know and Paul we know but who are ye Self will not be cross'd will through all knows no banks no bounds no bottom will seek it self set up and exalt it self in every thing there is no overcoming no silencing these Doctors For there is Doctor Pleasure and he pleads take thy pleasure in the life time fill and satisfie thy self with recreations and take thy fill of the good blessings of God Were they not made for mans use and art not thou Lord over the Creatures to use and enjoy them as thou pleasest And then there is Doctor Profit saith he Friend the best way for thee is to get riches for thy self it is no matter how though others pinch for it so thou canst but bring in profit this will do thee good when all thy friends will forsake thee thou mayest then take thine ease come times what wil thou hast goods laid up for many years thou shalt be rich and be a man in esteem in the parish hereby thou shalt be a great man thou shalt be heard before another and thou shalt be looked upon and advanced whereas the Poor they are despised and trampled on scarce suffered to speak for themselves And then comes Doctor Honour and sayes he what need all this stir about Religion canst not thou be content to go the old way thy fore-fathers went canst not thou be content to go that way the State goes that way that Kings and Princes and Great men go then shalt thou walk safely and enjoy thine own and be honoured for a wise man a prudent man do not the most go this way and though thou art not so forward in Religion thou shalt do as well as they There is none but a a company of poor beggerly fellows Tinkers and Coblers and schismatical and conceited fellows that are so hot and they are every where despised as it was said in derision the last day that there was none came running out of the City to hear me but a company of Coblers and slight fellows Although I would not encourage any to slight their own Pastors who teach them truth and labour to build them up in their holy faith and I know there be many able men in the City near them and therefore I marvail what they came out into the Wilderness to see a poor sinful man subject to like passions and infirmities with others a Reed shaken with the wind who hath nothing to give if God enlighten not and if he open not my mouth I cannot set forth his praise whose praise is far above the earth and heavens for if Praise or Profit or Self open my mouth I cannot set forth His praise but if this people come
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
you what I mean not that Christ in regard of dwelling can come in or go out but in regard of his workings in us and to us Christ in himself cannot grow greater or less or more exalted for his praise is far above the earth and heavens but to us he is more manifested and to us and in us he grows and increases and so his life comes to us by degrees And so far forth as we lay down our selves and all that is in us or whatsoever is acted by us at the foot of Christ and that we are ruled and guided by him then we shall see how he speaks all in us doth all in us hears all in us sees all in us for it is not ye that speak but the Spirit of your Father which dwells in you This is to have Christ come into the soul because before we are really sensible of this he is as it were not there But he being I say once come into the soul for we must make use of such expressions for our understanding then he opens those eyes that before were shut he now makes those feet that were cripple from the mothers womb so that they could not set one foot forward in his wayes now he makes their feet like hindes feet he makes them run his ways with delight and he shews his miracles in all their members he turns all into a new creature and in this sense he grows more and more in them till they come to a perfect stature even the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ Before they could not endure this life it was the old life they were taken up withal how they might please the flesh and fulfil the desires of the flesh and were by nature children of wrath even as others Those were the thoughts they were taken up withal at bed and at board all their thoughts words actions eyes ears tongues feet were all imployed in this service else they were unquiet and never contented To see Christ to be all in all in us this is to know him experimentally and if ye know him thus then you know him as you ought to know him else he is but a fable to you for so to know him is to have all the Scriptures fulfilled in you as our Saviour said This Scripture is this day fulfilled in your ears Beloved such a light such a key ye have gotten who see these things that whatever place of Scripture you read or hear that you shall be able to say and feel it in your own souls That this day is this Scripture though writ so long ago fulfilled in your ears in your souls When you read the Story of the Conception Birth Life Death Resurrection of Christ of his Whipping Crowning with Thorns Buffeting Spitting upon you shall be able experimentally to say and cry out Alas this day is this Scripture fulfilled in me And Beloved this is a daily doing all the Scriptures over again this is the enduring of the word for ever as David speaks sayes the soul Alas my soul was like a Leopard spotted from head to foot with the leprosâ—e of sin and he hath commanded I willâ— be thou clean he hath washt away with his bloud all my spots I found that I was grown crooked and bowed together with my strong sinews of lusts and he hath made me straight I found I had a continual running issue that continually ran to the polluting of my soul and to the dishonour of God and the touching of his garments hath healed me Oh happy soul to whom God hath been pleased to give this key this is saving knowledge of the Scripture all other knowledge of the Letter is but the flesh of the Scriptures that which the carnal man may comprehend and although it be never so great never so exact it is meer dirt and dungâ— it s not worth one rush for thus to know the Scriptures as I have said is to have the whole Scriptures fulfilled in us as David saith I will hearken to what the Lord saith in me Now we come to the third thing What it is to know Jesus Christ crucified I determined to know nothing among you save Iesus Christ and him crucified And again saith the Apoâ—â—le God forbid that I should rejoyce in anything save in the Cross of Christ whereby the world is crucified unâ—o me and I unto the world And again I count all things loss and dung that I may win Iesus Christ and know him crucified Before we can live the life of Jesus Christ we must of necessity know his death and find that he is crucified in us In a natural life a man must first be born and live before he can be crucified and put to death but in the spiritual life in us its contrary a man must first see that Christ is crucified before he is born Beloved I tell you if you take but this key to unloâ—k this pâ—ecious Cabinet of God you will find precious Iewels will come tumbling down to your hand Christ Jesus as he was crucified upon the cross so by way of equivalency he is still and daily crucified in us for he is the lamb slain from the beginning of the world and shall be to the end of the world You are deceived if you think the passion of Christ is past when he had suffered under Pontius Pilate Every man before he comes to be a spiritual man he was a carnal man a natural man And this natural man possessed the house and he is the strong man and not onely strong but armed and when ever I speak of the strong man or the old man or sin or the Devil or Satan or Lucifer or Antichrist c. I mean and intend one and the samething and so doth the Scripture as I conceive and I would have you well to consider this thing for they are those enemies the Scripture most minds us of and gives us warning to beware of and watch against they be our bosome enemies that betray us as for outward enemies we meddle not now with them but the Scripture hath given these Enemies or rather this Enemy of ours several names that thereby we may come to know him or by some of them at least that we may see in our selves the several effects of all those names and the several workings according to the nature of those names So long as this strong man keeps the house that is so long as our own wisdom strength gifts abilities of nature reason understanding will affections so long as these keep the house Iesus Christ is crucified these are those Jews who have Crucified the Lord of life these have kept him under and made him to serve your iniquities these have laden him as a cart is pressed with sheaves these have kept him down these have put his feet in the Stocks with Joseph and the irons have entred into his very soul. This is
other and so these dayly complaints are in the world Oh! What shall I do I have lost my estate or I have lost my good name or I have lost my dear wife or I have lost my hopeful children Oh! take heed of that of saying so They are taken away And he hath taken them that gave them to thee whose own they are He takes but what is his own and why then dost 〈◊〉 repine but that thou claimest a propriety right in them when thou hast None For did God ever Covenant with thee How long thou shouldst have thy wife or thy children or thy lands oâ— thy health or thy credit or thy honour He never did why may not He then take any of them when he pleases But here now is that faith that overcomes all To look upon God As doing all and therefore to conclude all is well done for in his government there can be no error not the least Error that can be imagined who dare blaspheme so as to imaginne that God can erre and yet in our practise we dayly Accuse him You know David how he behaved himself towards Shimei 2 Sam. 16. 7. when he railed on him Come forth thou man of blood come out thou man of Belial when some would have fallen upon him no saith David let him alone for God hath bid him curse as if he should say I will not run at the stone that is thrown but look through him to him that stands behind this creature Oh what a height in Christianity is that soul come to that not onely can endure but endure joyfully as the Apostles Act. 5. 41. they went away Rejoycing from the councel when they had been imprisoned misused and whipt That they were counted worthy To suffer such things for the name of Christ So when a man simply out of an Awful respect and Reverence of His Almighty God and Father can look upon the carrying away of his goods the burning of his house the ravishing of his wife with dry eyes and with a smooth face I say Out of an Aweful respect to God not out of a senseless stupidity mistake me not but because he dares not find fault with what Gods will is when he so behaves himself in whatever befals him for the Name and sake of Christ That he rejoyces at it That he so carries himself in Gods sight in these things as if he willed them and takes them thankfully as the Apostles did hating murmuring This is something What thou poor worm dust and clay to lift up a thought of murmuring against thy infinite wise Creator Oh tremble before him all ye Nations and let him rule in his own house in peace We daily pray Thy Kingdome come Thy will be done Beloved Gods will is never out of tune but it is thine that is for although thou hast said that Petition a thousand times over yet thou hast never yet learned that Petition till thou hast learned to render up thy will to Gods will as David 2 Sam. 12. 16. when his child was sick He fasted and lay upon the earth but when his child was dead he raised up himself and washed and called for meat Some of his servants wondred at him he answers Ver. 22. When the child was sick I knew not what Gods will was but now God hath declared his will in taking him away why should I grieve any longer I shall go to it it shall not return to me his carriage in it was wonderful That he should grieve for the child when it was alive and comfort himself when it was dead Now we having been so long in the Doctrinal part it is time for us now to look What effects this Doctrine brings about in us Let me tell you He that practises this Doctrine As he hath two eyes in his head so he hath two eyes in his mind and as he hath two feet two hands two ears to his body so to his mind the one is like the compass that stands fixt pitched in the center and the other moves and goes about and doth the work the one is pitcht upon God his will and his decree the other acts and works and goes up and down and doth what he hath to do in the world so that whatsoever fall out still he hath recourse to Gods will and decree There is his place of Refuge and security He doth the works of his calling and actions among men with chearfulness as imployment from God and however things fall out they move not him to lift him up or cast him down 2. This mans eye is not divided between God and Mammon he looks not asquint his eye is alwayes single he brings not God down to these things but he brings all things up to God he consecrates all to God 3. This man he hath resigned up his judgement To God onely He is content to let God rule his judgement he resignes his judgement wholly to him If God condemn him He accounts himself condemned but if men condemn him he can puffe at it He Regards not that So likewise This Man He resignâ— his judgement of others to God He dares judge no man saith he shall I dare to judge no no Psal. 85. 8. I will hear what God will say I will hear his judgement whatever his judgement be that is well that is best and as David saith Psal. 31. 5. Into thy hands I commend my spirit So saith this Man into thy hands O Lord I commend my judgement into thy hands I commend my taste into thy hands I commend my sight I am ignorant and know â—othing but thou knowest what is best for me and to thy judgement will I submit whatever it be 4. This Mans is gotten Above all Heights and depths above all principalities and powers above life and death for he hath tamed and brought under all fears and all hopes that which hath undone and conquered thousands He hath vanquished all his Enemies and doth lay him down and sleep for saith he with David Thou onely makest me dwell in safety Psal. 4. 8. If mountains be tumbled up and down and hurled into the midst of the sea Though the Sea Roar and make a Noise yea though the whole frame and fabrick of heaven and earth crack and heaven and earth should meet together yet He can lay him down and sleep they may kill him but he knows They cannot hurt him If all things be in peace He is a quiet man If all things be in confusion and coming to nothing He is a quiet man too For believe it Till a man be come to This He is never quiet for he that hath any propension to any one thing more then to another can never be quiet therefore this man is equally A stranger to all creatures and he that is disturbed by hearkning to the call of his lusts cannot be quiet He that Hearkens after covetousness If he be a servant to this sin
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
Exod. 14. 9. of the Chariots of new Pharaoh that arose which knew not Ioseph who pursued Israel with Chariots being drowned in the Sea He and all his Chariots And it is said of Solomon that his Chariots were twelve thousand But the greatest number we read of in Scripture is in 1 Chron. 19. 7. were Hanun hired 32000 out of Mesopotamia Syria and Zobah Now I say Chariots were used in two regards As the great men and Princes of the Earth besides that common use for ease they had them either for their state and glory and those were for triumph or else for terror and dreadfulness and those were for warre Some Chariots were drawn with two horses some with 4 some with 6 or else for the more glory they were sometimes drawn with men So also as Chariots were to several ends so they were of divers fashions some were made of wood and some of Iron and some were made with Hooks according to their several uses and Ends for which they were So our great God when he will appear in Triumph or Terror Hath Chariots at command without borrowing buying or hiting c. And these Chariots are in one word HIS CREATURES in which he rides when he pleaseth Either for Glory and Triumph or else Terrour and Battel 1 Triumphant As he is said to be fairer then all Psal. 45. 2. that is there is none like him in mercies and compassions to those he loves Thou art fairer then the children of men therefore Grace is poured into thy lips So he is terrible above all in fury and dreadfulness to those he hates Psa. 66. 5. Come and see the works of the Lord he is terrible in his doing toward the children of men Those are Gods Chariots of Triumph when hâ— rides upon the Cherubims and walks upon the wings of the wind when he is clothed with Majesty and Honour and covereth himself with light as with a garment when he layes the beams of his Chambers in the waters and maketh his spirits Messengers Psal. 104. When he is clothed with Glory and Maâ—esty and cometh forth like a Bridegroom and as the Sun is his Tabernacle Psal. 19. 5. Then we may say O Lord our God how excellent is thy Name in all the Earth who hast set thy glory above the Heavens And as it is here in the 24. vers of this Psalm so we may say They have seen thy goings O God even the goings of my God and my King which art in the Sanctuary The Singers go before and the players of Instruments followed after among them were the dâ—msels playing with Timbrels 2 For Terror Let us see which are Gods Chariots for Terror and War as he is fairer then all so he is terrible above all as I said before as he is the God of peace Rom. 16. 20. so he is the Lord of Hosts Psal. 24. 8. God then rides in his Chariots of Terror when he makes darkness his secret place and at the brightness before him thick clouds passed hail-stones and coals of fire The Lord thundered in Heaven and the Most High gave out his voyce Hail-stones and coals of fire Psal. 18. When he rents the Heavens and comes down and causeth the Mountains to flow down at his presence as when the melting fire burneth to cause the waters to boil to make his name known to his Adversaries that the Nations may tremble at his presence when he doth terrible things which they looked not for Isai. 64. 1 2 3. And as in that Psalm 18. v. 26. With the pure thou wilt shew thy self pure so with the froward thou wilt shew thy self froward That is with those that will be at peace with him he will be â—t peace with them and with those that are at war with him he will be at war with them Yet think not that God changeth But so as it is in a Looking glass you know it represents unto you such shapes as is set before it yet all the change is in your selves not in the glass for the glass is alwayes the same in it self If you frown upon it it will frown upon you if you laugh upon it it will laugh upon you if you hug it it will hug you if you strike it it will strike you if you embrace it it will embrace you if you turn your back upon it it will turn its back upon you Just so it is with our righteous God as a man behaves himself toward him so will he shew himself towards him If we forsake him he will forsake us Chr. 15. 2. If we be stubborn toward him he will be stubborn towards us But if we cleave to him he will cleave to us if we embrace him he will hug and embrace us if we run toward him he will run towards us As you know what the Prodigals father did when he was yâ—t afar off but a coming and returning to his father His father ran to meet him and fell on his neck and kissed him And yet for all this God changes not our God is alwayes the same there is no shadow of change in him but the change is in us And he appears so to us because we are changed but in himself he is not nor cannot be changed but is ever the same like Mount Sion which cannot be moved â— But we go onto our Text The Chariots of God Quest. What are these Chariots of God Answ. Look but round about thee and thou shalt see those innumerable Chariots and Angels here spoken of for so many Creatures as thou seest so many Angels and Chariots of God thou seest they are all his Host they are all his Chariots wherein he rides and whether you see it or no Thâ— Lord is among them as in Sinai in his holy place The glory of the Lord fills them all had we but our eyes open to see it so and they are all at his command and there is no creature but doth his pleasure Oh Brethren how glorious and blessed a thing it is to behold and see that look how many Creatures visible and invisible thou seest or conceivest to be For the soul now to look on them as so many fiery Chariots and Horsmen for its defence and preservation and on the other hand how a fearful a thing it is to fall into the hand of the living God who hath all these Angels and Chariots at his command to execute his will and vengeance on those that hatâ— and oppose him Amos 3. 8. when this Lion roareth who can but tremble when God by any Creature roars against a man and threatens terrour to any one for when the Creature roars and threatens or when it comforts and smiles it is God in it I say who is he then that dare comfort And if God speaks peace to a man what Creature dares nay what Creature can terrifie If God be on our side
delicate or wanton flesh and blood saith is good as to eat Calves out of the stall and Kids out of the flock and then rise up and sing to the sound of the Vial and the Harp Can there be any true comforts in these discomforts which if attained are but vanity and if not attained are vexation of Spirit Teshavah Teshelemoth nay most commonly better not attained then attained because they prove but snares and destructions But here may be applyed that of Sampsons riddle out of the sowre came forth sweet and out of the eater meat therefore O that we could behold the love of God in all conditions Indeed there is nothing happens to the wicked that hath any thing of love in it but if we belong to him how heâ—vy soever the afflictions be or how evil or unjust soever the Instrument be from him it is alwayes just and is in love and intended for our good and the issue shall be sweet just and good Shall then any servant of God grudge at whatever such a Tender father lays upon him we suffer the fathers of our bodies to correct us as the Apostle saith Heb. 12. 9. and we gave them reverence and shall we not much rather be in subjection to the father of spirits and live so verily they for a few dayes chastened us for their pleasure but he for our profit that we may be partakers of his holiness I might shew you in many things wherein our profit by afflictions ariseth but this is not our point in hand we must return to it that we may end at present and commit you to God And let not me think because there are so many men and creatures in the world in Heaven and in Earth to provide for defend and protect that therefore I shall be neglected or that he hath not Armies and Angels enough to defend me or that thou who ever thou art that trustest in him shalt be neglected no no. To think because Kings and Princes and great Ones have Angels to defend them therefore to doubt there will be none or not enough to mind or to assist me Yea yea fear not he hath Chariots enough to assist all yea all his Creatures in all places in all times through all ages Beloved those sweet Babes the Kings children that now are How pleasant are they they take their sleep their food their play and care for nothing And yet little do they think how many heads must bleed and hearts must ake before their royal persons can be touched but I say they take their play and sleep quietly in their Cradles neither fear nor care toucheth them So my beloved Let the true royal seed of God do so Let all Gods Servants lie down in peace and take their rest and say O Lord thou alone makest me dwel in safety Psal. 4. for their Gods Armies lie round about them and shall make them all dwel safely They cannot be touched or hurt For besides al this that these millions of Angels both in Heaven Earth are their Guard That great General himself the King of Kings and Lord of Lords is their Saviour Protectour and his Everlasting Arms are under them for evermore But it may be their infirmities and their ignorance wil not let them see it or confess it yet little do they know how many thousand thousands of the Armies of God must be overthrown before Gods people or any one of his children can be touched before ever any one member of Jesus Christ can be hurt for this God as he is great dreadful so he is a God infinite in bowels and compassions who fills and commands all Creatures and all his Armies and Chariots are for their defence relief and protection And therefore from henceforth and for ever let us all cry out in an holy admiration Oh the Heighth Depth Breadth and Length of his Power and Mercy and Loving-kindness 1 HEIGHTH For saith David Psal. 36. Thy Mercy O Lord is in the Heavens and thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds Thy righteousness is like the great Mount ains and thy Iudgements are a great deep O Lord thou â—reservest man and beast How excellent is thy loving kindness O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the â—adow of thy wings â—hey shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house and thou shalt make them drink of the Rivers of thy pleasures For with thee is the fountain of life and in thy light we shall see light 2 DEPTH Psal. 86. 13. Great is thy mercy toward me thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest Hell 3 BREADTH Psal. 104. 24. O Lord how manifold are thy works in wisdom hast thou made them all the earth is full of thy riches 4 LENGTH Psal. 98. 3. He hath remembred his mercy and his truth toward the house of Isaael all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God And now Brethren if this OUR great God be Lord and Governour of the House what then can be out of order If he be our spenditory our house of Store what fear of want If he be our Treasurer what fear of poverty Surely he hath enough and enough infinitely more then enough He can make the Philosophers Stone he can make gold he can and will create comforts and therefore let all these things stay your hearts and depend on him as on that Rock to whom there is none like him though all the men all the Kings Princes on earth should consult and conspire together and all contribute their utmost to make thee happy yet there is none like the God of Iesurun who rideth upon the Heavens in his help and in his excellency upon the skie for the eternal God is thy refuge and underneath are THE EVERLASTING ARMS And so I commit you to God and to the word of his grace which is able to build you up and bring you on to perfection Militia Coelestis OR The Heavenly Host The second Sermon upon Psal. 68. 17. The Chariots of God are twenty thousand thousands of Angels The Lord is among them as in Sinai in the Holy Place At Giles Criplegate in the Afternoon the Repetition omitted WE may well call this Verse The heavenly warfare wherein as I told you were contained four things 1 Their nature they are the hariots of God because God was pleased to ride in them 2 Their number the Text saith that they are twenty thousand thousands of Angels and I told you from the Text that they were Infinite 3 Their name they are called Angels 4 Their Commander and that is God The Chariots of God are twenty thousand even thousands of Angels We spake of these two in the forenoon we come now to the two last The third is their name Angels There is much adoo about this name of Angels what they are what their nature is but we will not now stand
much upon that the most do consent that all the creatures are Angels The word it self signifies especially in this plaâ—e an ambassador or a messenger now all the creatures being so messengers or ambassadors from God they must needs all be Angels But if a man should speak now unto the wisest in Israel and tell them that God sent Angels into every womb there to frame and create the Infant would he not wonder But what if I should say that the very forming-power is an Angel This could not be digested yet it is true for every particular influence in every creature is an Angel observe this that never any one Angel was sent on two errands nor never any two Angels on one errand for all the whole creation do joyntly together sing the infinite praise of their most wise Creator there is not the wickedest man alive but sings and sounds forth Gods praise as much as the holiest though it may be against their wills for if they sing not the praise of his mercy yet they sing as much to his praise the glory of his Iustice. God makes even the very worst of his creaturs sing a part of his praise Ask the craggy Mountains what part they sing and they will tell you they sing the praise of the immutableness unchangeableness of God Ask the flowers of the field what part they sing and they will tell you they sing the wisdom and liberality of God who clothes them beyond Solomon in all his glory Ask the Sun Moon and Stars what part they sing they will say the constancy of Gods promises that they shall hold their course and not alter it Ask the poor received sinner what part he sings and he will tell you he sings the infinite free mercy of a most gracious Father And ask the wicked obstinate sinner what part he sings and he will tell you he sings the praise of his patience and Iustice. And truly my beloved not one creature but sings apart and yet all together all that ever were and that are and that ever shall be put all together yet they do not sing no not the thousand thousand part of this infinite eternal God As the Queen of Sheba when she came and heard Solomons wisdom she confessed that what she heard of him in her own Countrey although incredible yet it was not the tenth part of that she saw and heard so though all creatures sing Gods praise yet All and all if they were a thousand times more then they are yet they all do not yield the thousand thousand part of that honour and praise that is due to him for he hath all perfections in him and he also gives and distributes to the several creatures those several parts and portions they have As I have often told you the perfection of any one species cannot be known by any one individual And so Gods Church is a glorious Church taken not as being in any one member but in the compleat body As the perfections of a man cannot be known by any one man for if one man have wisdom another hath sobriety if one hath patience another man hath temperance so that the beauty of the Church cannot be known by any one member be it never so excellent If Abraham hath faith Iob hath patience if Ioseph hath chastness Moses hath meekness c. so that as you must not look for the perfections of a man in one man for if one be as fair as Absalom another is as proper as Saul if one hath proportion another hath sobriety c. so neither must we look to see the admirable perfection of the Spouse of Christ that is all fair and hath no spot by one member neither by all that are now living upon the earth or that were but look upon all that ever were are and shall be and adde to them their Head Christ and then it is a beautiful Church indeed and in her no spot at all So though every creature express God One one attribute another another and they speak his praise wonderfully yet they come infinitely shorr of him and though altogether they say somewhat yet not the tenth part of him not the tenth part of his Iustice not the tenth part of his patience not the tenth part of his Mercy c. One is sent to deliver a message of his love another a message of his justice another a message of his patience another a message of his liberality and bounty all of several errands and whatever message he sends any creature on he is alwayes just they all do but his will Though they sin and transgress and therein think they do their own will that makes it sin but they all do his wil therefore it is said Ps. 103. 20. Bless the Lord all ye hosts ye Angels that do his pleasure and although it be more properly spoken of those Angels that are invisible in the air in the heavens yet it may well be also applied to all creaturâ—â— for he hath made them very little lower then the Angels onely in the Angels below matter prevails above the form but in the Angels above form prevails over the matter for if our forms were not bounded and fastned to the earth by their matter even we should be as the Angels of God so that we should no sooner think or desire to be in any place were it never so far off but we should immediately be there for how soon can my spirit convey it self in thought thousands of miles but my body cannot be there but by times and succession of gradation and by steps The reason is because the form is imprisoned in the matter earth goes to earth and ashes to ashes and dust to dust naturally because it is its center but the spirit goes upward naturally the higher we go from the earth the more pure the elements and the nearer the earth the more gross the more dull the more sad and lumpish it is impossible that a heavy body should hang in the air for every thing tends and bend to his center if it be a heavy body it will fall downward the water is purer then the earth the air then the water the light then the air the fire then the light and so more and more spiritual till you come to him who is All Spiritual Spirit it self And for those Angels are out of our sight which are said to be in heaven you know there are degrees of them some are Angels some Archangels some Cherubims and some Seraphims 〈◊〉 therefore if you have observed it if ever ye saw Angels pictured they were drawn with compleat bodies from head to foot but yet to shew they are above a man and more spirit therefore they have alwayes wings which shew that they are above us in their Nature and are carried above our element but Arch-angels they are pictured with half bodies cut off at the middle with wings shewing that they are further off
from matter but Cherubims they have faces onely with wings shewing that they are further off then all these but Seraphims they are pictured as it were without any form or matter at all onely with a kind of fiery flame or yellowishness Therefore now of these Angels that are above us we can say little of them because men being in Nature below and they above our element Even as if we should ask a Toad what man is it could say nothing because it is in a sphere below us So if we should go about to define what Angels are we might very well mistake for though we may conceive somewhat to our selves yet we may be easily deceived in the knowledge of the Nature of Angels So much at present concerning Angels But some may further Object to me and it is a strong Objection Object God being so constant so unchangeable as he is and he is in the creatures what is the reason â—hen that the creatures are so changeable the Scripture tells us God is Immutable Ans. Beloved Almighty God is like the Sun riding in his Chariot we have no better expressions to set out these unexpressable things to you the Sun shines to us yet it is much changed to us according to the several objects it shines through The Sun is not the same to us that it is in its self for it is exceeding light and exceeding hot and its shining through the dull air changes it to us though nothing changed in itself so though the creature be changed yet God is not changed but his works are changed according to the several subjects he works on Again that same beam that shines in at one window is not the same that shines in at another yet we say the Sun shines in at both and yet it alters in a very small distance in one quarrel it shines red in the next green c. now here is a change but the Sun is the same So though the creatures be changed and turned upside down and mountains be hurled here and there yet God is the same he is not changed he cannot be moved In him is no variableness nor shadow of changing Iam. 1. 17. although according to the several creatures he works in he seems to be changed to us yet in himself he is not nor cannot be Now we come to the fourth and last part and that is who this General and great Captain is that commands all these Armie of Angels this great Army of Chariots and Angels it is said they are the Chariots of God Quest. But you will say to me I pray how is God in the Creature is he in the creature as he was on Mount Sinai for then God appeared to Moses in great Majesty and Glory the mouâ—â— shook and trembled and trumpets sounded lowder and lowder and there was thunder lightnings insomuch that all the people were amazed now if we could see God in the creature thus we should then believe he were there but we see no such thing in the Creature Answ. We must not imagine that God hath either trumpets or thunders or any such things material but there was something answerable to them something equivalent God then appearing in terrour and we could not better conceive of God then by such expressions as these But although God appear not the same to us in his creatures Yet without all doubt he is as much in every creature and as infinitely present as he was on Mount Sinai as terribly as gloriously though he doth not manifest himself so much For he is as much in the basest creature in a Mouse in a Frog and yet no disparagement or abasing to his infinite Majesty and greatness as some foolishly think but it so much the more exalts him yea I lay he is as much present in a Flie in a Flea in a Pile of grass as he was on the Mount And to some God â—ounds as loud in their hâ—arts in the manifestation of himself as the trumpets then though in others more stilly and wisperingly In all he is alike but he manifests himself but where he pleaseth Some are 〈…〉 and see not God at all In Balaaâ—◠〈…〉 as as much before he spoke but when God 〈◊〉 himself in him then he spake for if God would he could raise unto himself children unto Abraham out of the very stones as well as from among the wisest men And therefore O Hierome it was thy fault it was thy weakness when thou saidst that it was an abasing of God to say he was in a Mouse in a Toad in the base creatures for it is no dispraise at all to him to say he is as much in a Flie or in a pile of grass as in an Angel as much in the damnedst Devil in hell as in the gloriousest Saint and Angel in heaven but much to his praise and glory for deny this and ye deny his 〈◊〉 his filling all places and all creatures But know this God is not in every 〈◊〉 as he is in himself but as every creature 〈◊〉 him as though it be true that thâ— sea flows into all the creeks crannies of the earth yet not according to the fulness of the sea though to every cranny and brook the sea is not spaing It is true God is in heaven yet not more in heaven then he is in the earth and I remember I was taught when I was a child by my nurse or by my mother that God was above in heaven but let us now put away childish things I pray God too too many old men be not guilty of this childishness yea and many of these litteral Divines teach no otherwise they never bring their heâ—rers any farther then to be Monsters alwayes children alwayes feeding them with milk and never learn them to eat strong meat So that if they come amongst strong men to feed with them their stomachs are so squemish they turn with at all Or else casting pearls before swine they trample them under their feet and turn again and all to rent you One thing I had almost forgotten concerning the name of Angels which I will deliver to you before I come to make use of these things In every creature there is an Angel and this Angel is as the beam that comes from the Sun and this beam goes directly in a strait line to the Sun So that let a man thâ—â—gh he be in never so dark stinking a dungeon and never so deep yet if any little beam of the Sun can but come in though it be but at a pinhole yet go lay your eye full in that beam and you shall behold the Sun it self therefore and in that regard saith our Saviour Christ Their Angels alwayes behold the face of their Father which is in heaven So though there be never so much darkness in the soul yet do but lay your eye blinding all your sight besides in this beam or Angel that comes from
for present I conclude and commit you all to the Lord and to the word of his Grace Farewell Where Christ FEEDETH AND RESTETH CANT 1. 7. Tell me O thou whom my soul loveth where thou feedest where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon for why should I be as one that turneth aside by the stocks of thy companions In two Sermons preached for Mr. Hodges at the publick meeting place at Highgate in the Forenoon THIS Text may well be called the request of a fair Lady to her dearly beloved Lord it is clear it is so for though she complains of her self in the verse before my Text that she is black the Sun hath looked upon her yet in the verse following my Text he sayes That to him she is the fairest among women and she cannot be so forward in requesting any thing at his hands as he is ready to accommodate her if she desire to have her name written in the palms of his hands he will do more he will set her as a Signet upon his heart as you may perceive in reading over this Book this Lord here spoken of is such a Lord whose judgment when you know him you cannot disallow for it is Christ Jesus the Lord of life and death and this Lady is the Spouse of this Lord viz. the Congregation or the body of this Saints and Servants and wonder not that I call her a fair Lady for though we see it not yet He her Lord says she is all fair and there is no spot in her And I tell you if we would see the beauty of the Church we must not look upon any one particular member for then we can never say she is all fair ye shall see many spots many wrinkles in them but if you look upon the whole Church then she is all Fair that is the compleat body together As any one species the excellency thereof cannot be known by any one Individual as in a horse the best that is though he may excell in one and many things yet he may want something that is excellent in another if he have strength yet he may want comliness if one have comliness he may want swiftness c. but take all together and then you may judge of the species of a horse and so of a man or any other kind it is a vain thing to judge of the perfections of a man by any one mâ—n one is comely of body another is comely in mind if one be diligent another is wise so if you look upon the whole kind of man and the excellencies of all men put together I say look upon him outwardly inwardly then you must needs say he is a glorious Creature a rare workmanpiece So O Lord Christ wherewilt thou shew us where shall we find that beautiful one thou speakest of that is Altogether fair that is Tota pulchraces amica mea if we look upon any one Member but take the religion of one and the charity of another the zeal of another the faith of another the patience of another and go through the whole body and look upon these as a compleat body and then thou mayest say truly Tota pulchraes amica mea c. There is no spot in thee Thou art all fair my Love And if any one man or member shall claim this beauty to himself except it be as he stands in relation to the body he claims a lye for if ye will claim this Perfection ye must look upon The whole body both all below upon Earth and all that are in Heaven all that ever were and all that are and all that ever shall be and adde to them Christ the head of all then we shall confess that as she requests him not to look upon her as black in any one member so he answers her and acknowledgeth that she is all Fair. This Text then is a request of a fair Lady to her dear espoused Lord whom he hath wasâ—t and purified with his own blood I hope be that is the weakest the meanest in religion will not imagine this Sons to be a Dialogue between two carnal Lovers or as Solomon and his wife complementing together if ye consider them so they are but the eâ—crements of flesh and blood and they shall perish with them But whereto then shall I liken these songs of the Canticles They are like those three Tabernâ—cleâ— that the Disciples would have made when Christ was transfigured one for Moses one for Elias and one for Christ. 1 One for Moses and for his Law that is for the legal and civil life 2 The second Tabernacle is like the Book of Ecclesiasâ—es and the Proverbs leading a man above this life when it condemns this civil legal life reprehending whatsoever is in man as man as wisdom strength power and what ever power there is in him to act and to bring any thing to pass 3 But the third Tabernacle may well be called The Holy of Holies and such is this namely this Book of the Canticles Here Christ answers his Spouse familiarly face to face even in the silence of thunder as it is in Psal. 81. 7. there he calls it the silence of thunder and yet what is more â—ud then thunder the meaning is that to that soul to whom God speaks it is as loud to him as thunder but to them that stand by it is silence and secret wispering because they hear not the voyce of Christ. Beloved this Book is a Mystical Divine High-flown Book the things herein contained are not fit for every ear to hear lest the dead Flie as Solomon saith corrupt this precious oyntment Let the flesh abuse it and turn it to fleshly liberty and for this end the Jews would not suffer their children to read this Book lest the wantonness of flesh should make them abuse it but I hope well of you that you are better instructed so that you will not abuse this Scripture to your own destruction as the Apostle saith Charity bids me judge the best I go on propound them as to the immaculate Spouse of her dear Lord. Ye may observe in the words yet rather for memory then order sake four things 1 The first is her Request Tell me she is in a doubt and cannot be satisfied therefore she desires to be taught 2 The Adjuration or the Poise or weight she hangs upon her request it is not slight weak cold or perfunctory but she is violent in her request follows him with strong arguments Oh thou whom my soul loveth she offers violence to the Kingdom of God to say the truth she doth as it were commit a Rape upon the Kingdome of God 3 The Matter of her Request and that is double she would know where he feeds where he rests at noon 4 The Reason of all this why she would be taught where he rests and where he feeds for why should I be as those that
turn aside by the flocks of thy companions 1 For her Request Tell me teach me think it not strange that this Spouse who is so great and familiar with her Husband and Lord that thi Spouse doth desire to be taught of him neither look upon her as guilty of curiosity or impertinencies Although she wants for no instruction but is acquainted with all the counsel of God and she knows all things for she hath received an unction from the holy One which abideth within her and she knows all things yet here she is complaining that she wants something In such passionate speeches as these so full of raptures of love ye must not look for method for they excel fly above the regiment of reason truth it is Logick is the Art of reason but passions are either above reason or beneath it but here above it David was a man taught of God and though wiser Then either 1 His Enemies 2 His Teachers 3 His Elders Yet he cryes teach me notwithstanding which shews that the teachings of God are far above Nature and Reason for they are but like the Sun which when it shines shews all beneath it but hides all above it This admirable and glorious Spouse of the Lamb she desires to be taught of her Lord And she doth it not remissely as if she cared not whether she sped or no but zealously earnesty tell me Oh thou whom my soul loveth she so presseth her suit as if she would not be satisfied with out granting of it tell me she would for all her knowledge still know more that so she might do more she would have her light shine before men that they may magnifie glorifie her Spouse Husband Hence take notice of the nature of the fire of Love when Jesus Christ hath once kindled it in the heart it is never satisfied still feeding ever hungry still she wonders at the glory beauty of God and of her Spouse and is never satisfied with enjoying of him she sees his excellency sweetness and glory in every thing desires more and more to see it and taste it still he fils her and still she wonders at him Oh how excellent is thy name in all the earth who hast set thy glory above the Heavens she never thinks she hath enough and that she needs no more as it is too great a fault in these self-wise dayes but like David she cries O teach me Oh direct me Oh lead me so that I may draw nearer nearer to thee she answers the desire of God Oh that there was such a heart in this people to seek after me to keep my commandements and she hath good reason for the rich full God sends empty away but he fils the hungry with good things but now adays we are rich and full with the Church in Rev. 3. and know not that we are poor blind and naked no sooner one is entered into the Church Christs School and they begin to know any thing but they will be presently Masters and Teachers and he is a great Christian now adayes that is a great fault-finder he that can pick a many holes and reprove the sins of other men and this Forsooth must go for great profession and a good progress in Christianity but for my part I would ye were all Masters Teachers I would as Moses that all the people of God could prophesy and that the Lord would put his spiâ—it upon them I would they were as sure Masters and Teachers as I am sure they are ignorant and without all knowledge for the Apostle sayes He that thinks he knows any thing he knows nothing as he ought to know and our Saviour commands Be not many Masters for one is your Master in Heaven he that will learn must still account himself a fool and I pray God our wisdom be not so great that we scorn to learn even of God himself And sure I am as long as ye go on in this conceit of your own knowledge you cannot admire God and his wisdom but you admire your selves and your own wisdome your own parts and you love your selves above God and the truth is the very summe and quintessence of this peoples Religion is to speak bitterly and largely against their neighbours sins against their brethrâ—ns infirmities and forsooth they conceive they do it out of a zeal to Gods Glory and consider not what a hook the Devil hath put into their own nostrils who draws and puls them which way he pleases and is under pretence of serving and glorifying God They consider not how they serve nothing but the Devil and their own lusts such a man say they he is a good man were it not but that he hath such and such faults he would be a good member in the Church but he lives scandalously never considering how scandalously they live themselves toward others yea far more but see it not Oh Beloved what do we in all this but say in practice though not with our mouths with that Pharisee I thank God I am not as other men he is a greater sinner then I I am better then he I am no whoremonger as such a man no Adulterer as such a man I live not in those sins as he doth You know the Scripture tells us that this poor sinner the Publican whom he despised went home to his house justified and not the other Therefore I beseech â—ou for your own sakes and for his sake that shed his blood for you Nay I beseech you for his sake that could have written every mans fault in his forehead if he had pleased Leave this office of accusing of back-biting of slandering to the Divel take not his office from him it is the nature of 〈◊〉 files to be alwayes dwelling upon sores of horses or other Beasts so thou whatever good or excellency he hath in him otherwayes thou art content to run over that and takest no notice thereof But if thou meetest with a botch with a sore there thou eaâ—est and there thou gallest and makest it worse then thou foundst it when thou shouldest rather dwell upon the other and run over this and the reason they do so is because they would seem wise be able to reprove sin I do not speak against this so that I would not have you reprove sin where you find it Yes yes do it but then do it to his face and not behind his back I confess that Christ called Herâ—d Fox not to his face go tell that Fox but he did it not blindly in a censorious way as most do but upon knowledge when he knew he ought to do it For he knew the hearts of men But you see the Spouse here not contented with that she had but she seeks still and forgets that which is behind and presses hard toward the mark what warrant then have these men that as soon as ever they are within the
pale of the Church they will be Teachers and they would fain be accounted great Rabbies and they can expound Scriptures as well as any and if need were or if they durst they can preach as well as any and these people if people will not hear them presently they are ignorant They are so well instructed they can go no whither to learn anything as though al wisdom were born with them when God knows they are as full of ignorance of pride of self-conceitedness as any men in the Town but the Spouse she cryes yea and still will cry till dooms day Tell me teach me she sees her own imperfections and strives after perfection she knows and is sensible with Paul she hath not yet attained And therefore I once again beseech you in the bowels of Jesus Christ and for your own souls sake leave off this kind of Religion although I would have you to hate even the garments spotted by the flesh We come to the second thing laid down and that is the Poise or weight that she hangs upon her suit she doth in a kind Adjure God I had thought to have gone through this Text at this time indeed I had thought when I began that you I should have waited upon this beautiful Lady our Mother our Mistress from Engedi to Eneglaim from the beginning of the Text to the end but you see here is a word hath bin cast in our way as the Carkases of Amasa and Asahâ—â— which made us to make a stand like the children of Israel at the Red Sea they could not the pass on till waters were dryed up and indeed the Red Sea is before us a whole Sea of matter but we must take what we can leave the rest Tell me O thou whom my soul loveth Here is a true expression of Prayer it is but a folly to pray to God except we can thus put up our prayers to him in this dialect O thou whom my soul lovesâ— Many think that if they can pray to God in setting forth his attributes styling him Most High Most Mighty Most Gracious and it may be adde Hebrew words as O Most mighty Iehovah then they think they have made an admirable Prayer but be sure of this except thou canst come to God truly say from thy heart O thou whom my soul love thy prayers be they never so excellent otherwise they all fal to the ground he accepts them not But when thou comest under this title it is so indeed he cannot chusâ— but hear for then it is the voyce of his Spouse but if you express his Attributes never so largely amply without this yet thou hast prayed no better then the Devil for there is no Attribute but he can inlarge amplifie above any of you all herein he is able to out-strip the best of you And the Apostle saith He that loves not the Lord Iesus let him be Anâ—thema Maranatha accursed from Christ he prayes no better then the very Devils and those that are accursed from Christ as we see still when the possessed with Devils came and met our Saviour whâ—t a large confession acknowledgement they make of him I know thee who thou art Iesus the Son of the most High God but Christ many times stopped their mouthes and would not accept their confession All thy prayers the best that ever thou madest without this title of love are but as milstones hung about thy neck and will drag thee to the bottom of the Sea But it may be you bless your selves for all this think your prayers are not so bad as we make them or if they be you hope you shall do well enough hereafter after you dye But know that as the tree falls so it lies as Solomon saith If thou dye in this condition so judgement shall find thee you hope it may be that you shall possess the Crown laid up for you in Heaven as you conceive but I fear you are so glued to the earth you can relish nothing but the earth so that that is it your souls loves And it may be you think it shall be some ponderous thing you shall have in heaven some glorious visible material or some tangible thing You think you shall have some such things as you enjoy here but alas alas thou shalt find that as soon as ever thou art unriveted from the earth And happy were it for thee if it were done here That the Kingdom of God consisteth not in meat and drinks in riches and wealth and the like for the Kingdom of heaven is not a creation but a multiplication And when you come to be received into that Kingdom it will not be demanded What riches have ye what honour have ye but Christ will ask How many loaves have ye if ye are not in possession of some loaves of some part of the Kingdome of heaven before in this world there is none to be given then Not what had you in this world But it will be asked how many loaves have ye â—hat is how many loaves of love How many loaves of Charity how many loaves of faith how many loaves of patience what wilt thou do if thou hast none wilt thou say Stay Lord I will go and buy or I will go and borrow as the foolish Virgins no no there is no body can lend they have none to spare they have but enough for themselves If thou canst not say as here O thou whom my soul loveth never look to entâ—r but ye must look for the answer those foolish Virgins had Depart I know ye not if this love be not the salt that seasons all your actions all your sacrifices he knows them not he regards them not where he sees no love in the actions let it be never so glorious a duty he knows it not Depart from me But try your love to him Try this secret seal by the Broad-seal of love to the creatures to your brethren if you be a living Member you will sympathize in love and fellow-feeling wit the rest of the members for the Apostle saith Love is the fulfilling of the Law the whole Law for take the Commandements first the Commandements of the second Table if a man love father and mother let him dishonour them if he can And so the next Thou shalt not kill if he love the creatures and his brethren he is so far from offering violence to any that he will rather lay down his own life And so the seventh if he love all he will not take the members of Iesus Christ and make them the members of an harlot And love will make him in stead of stealing from any to give plenteously and willingly and to be so far from coveting and taking away that he will rather adde what he can and love can bear no false witness nor covet any thing which is his Neighbours And so likewise for the first Table he that
root And what ever priviledge or benefit Christ hath they shall all receive of his fulness grace for grace they shall all be made partakers of all the vertues of the head but notwithstanding all these promises we are never the better without we have Christ they are all blanks without him all unsavoury it is he that seasons all Yea trust as long as thou canst and believe as much as thou wilt without Christ thou canst never come unto him God himself is nothing to us without Christ As every Iubar and Beam of light that comes from the Sun they are all included in the body of the Sun but they are not communicated to us but by those Jubars and beams that come from the Sun so God is like the Sun and whatever good benefit or blessing we have it comes from God but all these are included in God himself and there is no creature can partake of any good from him but by his Son Christ in those Iubars of light that communicates them to us This light had never come to us but for those beams so God the Father cannot communicate himself to any creature but by the Son he is the first begotten of every Creature he came being sent from the father yet God the Father is not a day not a minute Ancienter then his Son Christ he is called The word spoken in the Hebrewes As he is unspoken so he is the word with God in the bosome of his Father and this word is God as Iohn 1. 1. but being once spoken and utered he is the first begotten of God in every creature The Alpha and Omega in every creature from whom alone we receive grace for grace all the goodness and fulness of God is poured upon the head of this Aaron which runs down not only to his beard but to all the skirts of his garments to all his members God himself in himself to the creature is nothing without Christ He cannot possibly be communicated but by and through Christ. Secondly All these promises to the seven Churches they imply that which hath its beginning in this life and perfected in the life to come saith our Saviour the Kingdom of Heaven is within you if ye find not the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Heaven within you and in this world be assured ye shall never find it in the world to come He that denyes me before men him will I deny before my father which is in Heaven he that enjoys me not in this world he shall never enjoy me hereafter The poor dejected and oppressed soul it longs to taste Christ here nothing will satisfie him but to taste and eat Christ here for if he eat him not here he knows he shall not hereafter as David saith My soul thirsteth for God even for the living God when shall I come before God What to do Psal. 27. 4. To see his beauty and to taste of his goodness if you see not God here ye shall never see Him hereafter Christ will ask thee as he did the Discsples how many loaves have ye when ye come to dye what Angels food have ye to feed on what Hidden Manna How many loaves of that if ye must say none Lord what a heavy answer will this be to you but if thou hast any if but two loaves if but a little oil in thy Lamp he will then multiply thy loaves and that little oyl the barrel of meal and that cruse of oyl shall never fail And he will say come thou good and faithful servant thou hast been faithful in a little I will now multiply thy reward Come now I will feed thee to eternity If Christ shall say to thee How much peace have you if thou canst but say here is a little Lord Christ will say come come I will multiply and increase that peace infinitely what love hast thou if thou hast but any though but as much as a grain of mustard seed come saith our Lord I will cause it to grow and increase and become a mighty tree so that the fowls of the air shall build their nests therein That is I will enlarge it as my self infinitely And which way soever else a man seeks for rest and peace he shall never find it for as all the Creatures so all the action and motion of the Creatures come out from him and they can never rest till they return into him again and therefore he is called the God of Sabbath which signifies Rest in him there is Rest and no where else The soul is the breath of God and it is impossible that it should have a rest for the sole of her foot till it return and this blessed Noah put forth his hand and take her in again Lay up treasure for your selves in heaven would you have treasure hereafter ye must treasure it up while ye are on earth that ye may have the reward and the wages hereafter ye must receive here the pledge the Hire The Portion and the reward comes hereafter Your fathers saith our Saviour have eaten Manna and are dead but blessed is he that eats Manna in the Kingdom of Heaven he that feels Gods love shed abroad in his heart here shall find that love increased thirty sixty an hundred-fold in the life to come here ye feed but are not filled but then you shall be satisfied Thirdly All these seven promises that are here made to the seven Churches there is not one word to be taken according to the Letter but think not strange of such sayings be not startled I would onely quicken up your attention I undervalue not the Scriptures but desire to give them all due honour for do you think that you shall be Pillars in Heaven or that you shall eat trees or the fruit of trees there or that ye shall have rods of iron in your hand or that ye shall be burning stars or as it is in Daniel He that converteth a soul shall shine like the Stars I say there is not one word true according to the Letter yet I say in all the words that ever Christ spake or that is written in this blessed blessed Book of God they are all true there is not the least tincture not the least allay of untruth I say every word every syllable every letter is true bear me witness you are my record but they are true as he intended them that spake them they are true as God meant them not as men will have them As when Christ says my Father is an husbandman do you think or are you so childish to think that God is a husbandman and Christ sayes again I am the vine and ye the branches will you have this to be literally spoken Go to I will speak a paradox to you but I willl unfold it It is impossible for any man either to speak a precise truth or to hear a precise truth for a precise
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
roar and the fulness thereof let the fields rejoyce and all that is therein then shall the trees of the wood Sing Out at the presence of the Lord that is To him to whom God hath revealed himself and suffered His glory to pass before him All creatures yea the dumb and inanimate creatures sing out and sing aloud the infinite praises of God Almighty Psal. 145. 9 10. The Lord is good to all and his tender mereies are over all his works All thy works shall peaise thee and thy Saints shall bless thee and talk of thy Kingdom and Power And so much shall suffice for these four parts of the creatures Religion We will come to make use hereof to our selves First Let it make us ashamed of our backwardness to give God praise we that are exalted above these creatures that they are more ready and cheerful in praising their Creator then we we may blush and be ashamed for There is nothing that we can behold but puts us in mind of our slothfulness These poor servants that have received but one talent do yeild more increase of praise to God then I or you that have received many talents These poor creatures do more sing forth Gods praise then we with all our wisdom reason and understanding And let us with shame confess Saying it is I It is I that have depressed thy glory and caused thy praise to be evil spoken of and say with David when thou seest any of the creatures dye It is I Lord that have offended but what have these poor sheep done which are killed and slain for me unworthy unthankful sinner Second Use Take notice hence of the vast circumference of Gods Kingdom it reaches farther then we are aware of we think that we are the onely creatures that God esteems of Was not the earth made for me and the Sun to shine upon me and all creatures to feed and clothe me and thou thinkest that thou art left alone to praise God no no deceive not thy self Gods praise is not confined to the Church of men he hath reserved to himself seven thousand that have not bowed their knee to Baal Dost thou think poor creature that thou art onely He that I have appointed to worship me and that my infinite praise depends onely upon thee no no His Kingdom is from one end of heaven to the other and every creature praises him as much or more then thee as Col. 1. 16. All things were created by him both things in heaven and things in earth visible and invisible all things were created by him and for him for his praise and glory and Psal. 2. 10 11. That at the name of Iesus every knee shall bow of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth and that every tongue should confess that Iesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father Therefore alas alas do not think that Gods Temple is so narrowly scanted that thon onely praisest him thou art the least part of his Church and Temple Third Use Let this teach us to go to God boldly in the name of Iesus and with great encouragement to praise God for though men and Angels be unfit to praise God and they cannot do it as they ought yet he that accepts the Ravens and the Lions and all the dumb creatures when they Cry unto Him be assured he will never refuse the sighs and the groans of any poor penitent dejected soul that comes bleeding and weeping to him for mercy He that cometh to me I will in no wise cast away Joh. 6. 37. Fourth Use Let us learn also that when we look upon the creatures we take heed of being taken with any of them But let us consider that these are but as Iaco bs Ladder that by these steps by these Angels of God we may ascend to him that stands at the Top And if God do not by one means or other by one affliction and vexation in the creature or other drive us from the creature that we may look up to him we shall for ever live and dye in the creature And therefore happy is that man that God hunts from these things that they may never have any Rest till they find Him where they shall find Rest to their souls As if there be oyl put into a deep glass it lies at the bottom and will never rise to the top but if you pour water into it it will still be rising up to the top till the oyl it self run over I could apply it thus A soul that is sunk in sin and sunk in the creature except God of his infinite mercy pour upon him the water of afflictions his soul will never Arise and mount up to God this drives us upward to seek rest there for here is none and so thereby shall become more then conquerors through him that hath loved us where as if these had not been our souls had been drowned in the creatures and sunck for ever to the pit of Hell These things I thus unfold to you that you may see the unspeakable and large bounds of Gods praise That every thing may result and yield to him honour and praise A Fifth Use To teach us that though it be impossible for us to search out the unspeakable praises of God that is hid in all the creatures we may see them yet we can never search them to the bottom howbeit every creature saith to us as the Angel to Iohn when he would have fallen down and worshipped him See thou do it not for I am thy fellow servant Worship God we are ready to fall down and worship the creatures but they all cry See thou do it not I am thy fellow servant worship God And they all cry to thee Dost thou see the beauty of any creature doth the sweetness of any creature take thee I say they all cry to us Arise and depart hence for this is not your rest Doth the Pleasantness the sweetness the Comeliness c. of any creature delight thee it saith and calls aloud to thee Arise and depart hence for this is not your rest how sweet how beautiful how fair soever Rest not in that thou seest but seek for HIM thou seest not All creatures are like the waters to Noahs Dove which could find no rest for the soal of her foot but yet she brought an Olive leaf in her mouth we may taste and use these things But take not too much of them and hold them gently and be alwayes ready to let them fall take heed of resting till you come to the Ark all come out from him and all return to him again Sixth Use and the last Take heed of abusing any creature it is enough that you may use them for they are one of the family you your selves are of and they groan as well as you for deliverance as God complains that ye make him serve your
will fight and kick with those that would do them good And our Saviours counsel is Cast not your pearls before swine leâ—t they turn again and all to rent you I say again some of the Servants of God have found it so and for goodwil freeness and faithfulness and not keeping back any part of Gods counsel have been ill-rewarded rent and torn for their faithful counsel and it hath therefore been the Serpentine Wisdom of others to hide their talent in a napkin that so they might avoid the cross of Christ and sleep in a whole Skin I remember a speech of R. Moses More Nevochim part 3. chap. 34. Legem accommodatam esse ad totam gentem communiter non ad singulos the Law is fitted for the people in generall for all the Nation and not for particular persons only There was and is many a good man who wants those outward things when those that are evil have them in abundance as well then as now And shall we then say and conclude the word or promises are not true no God forbid Heaven and earth shall pass away before one tittle of his word shall fail Mat. 5. Therefore I say they in the old Testament and also we now mistake because by Moses was promised the Kingdom and the Land flowing with milk and honey temporal peace multitude of children bodily health these were in themselves temporal blessings but they figured out spiritual because these were promised but to the old man under the old Law and those that look no farther now under the Gospel what are they better then the old Jews and the CHILDREN of Israel 3. I affirm I have alwayes holden it a dangerous thing especially of late years to press God with particulars of temporal things as of health wealth honour c. but to leave all those things to the will of God walking on in our duties and calling and leave the success to him But while we are in our childish condition we are still telling God in this regard what he shall do for us and how he shall govern the world and when we would have fair weather and when rain and when a fair wind and so every man would serve his own turn and then I pray thee if thy will be done who shall take care of thy neighbour t is no matter though thousands miscarry and fail of those things so thou hast them it matters not What kind of prayers do you think are these dost thou in thy self think God were wise if he should answer thy prayers that which is for thee as thou thinkest is against multitudes of others and who shall seek their good that wind that serves thy design is as much opposite for others And therefore my advice is be very tender how you press the infinite wisdom of the Almighty Who when he will bless he will turn crosses and evil things as thou esteemest them to be the greatest blessings and therefore let the Almighty Alone in governing the Heavens and the Earth by his power and wisdom he hath upheld supported preserved and ordered the heavens and the earth to our knowledge almost these six thousand years well enough and I le warrant thee he will do it still without thy care or direction Who shall teach him knoledge and Who shall shew him the way of understanding or being his Counsellor hath taught him I remember a speech of Bernard Longe a Deoest animus qui in oratione c. That mind is farre from God or Heaven which in prayer is full of earthly requests And I say for the most part men are mistaken both in the nature and end of prayer which is first to ask things according to the will of God and our end ought to be God and the things of God in which our happiness is involved 4. I affirm it is certainly more excellent to seek the Kingdom of heaven and the righteousness thereof then to trouble God and our selves with wordly requests I say still distingue tempora distinguish of seasons there is a time when we may take more liberty because we know no better and we think it a great deal of Religion that we will acknowledge God and will come to him for temporal blessings but as the Apostle saith Behold I shew you a more excellent way covet after the best gifts Then doth God best accept thy prayer when thou onely seekest him for himself and not when thou seekest any other thing by or through him this will declare what thou lovest him for whether for thy self or himself what thou most lovest what thou most earnestly prayest for and what thou most weepest for when wanting that thou most lovedst when thou hadst it but to all true believers both in this as in all thinigs God is their end their chief love c. and therefore tis him they seek to enjoy above all things Although it be with the loss of all things Him they esteem Portion enough And to conclude I affirm as it is said of Abishai 2 Sam. 23. 19 there were three most honourable among the thirty but Abishai was the most honourable of the three therefore they chose him their Captain And so say I prayer is honourable in its time season and seeking for temporal blessings according to the will of God but more honourable in seeking graces to adotâ— the soul and inward man but when in prayer we seek God for himself having so much love to him such strong desires after him that we forget and lose our selves and mind onely him as our chief end then say I let Abishai let That Prayer be Captain for that hath done the most honourable of all the chosen Worthies the other have done worthily but this is the more Honourable of all the three for if we had time we might shew you that there can no prayer do more worthily then this for it answers first to the Lords Prayer Mat. 6. 17. Secondly to Christs Prayer immediately before he suffered Iohn 17. Self-denialls in his resignation to the will of his Father and love to his Flock Disciples and Members A most ravishing prayer and such a prayer as no man ever prayed but time will not suffer me now to open any thing about it Thirdly this prayer is most agreeable to the example of the Apostles who under-valued all the world to enjoy the life of Christ insomuch that they esteemed his Cross their Throne and his sufferings their Crown So that by all this we have said you may examine your prayers of what excellency they be consider the matter and end of your prayers whether they be of Flesh or spirit whether in them you seek God or your selves And with the words of the Apostle Rom. 7. 6. I conclude all for this time seeing God hath put it into your heart to seek him and to worship him Let it not be in the Oldness of the Letter but in the Newness of the
will yet it doth no good upon them they will never let the Israelites go to serve the Lord but if they do they will pursue them and never leave them till they themselves are drowned in the Sea and utterly destroyed Now for the vision it self in hand And the bush burned and was not consumed A strange miracle that a bush should be all over of a red glowing fire all a day and not consume Indeed trees that have stood close together by the violence of wind rushing them together have been known to set on fire but then they consumed but who ever saw wood on fire a whole day together and not consume Moses it seemeth at first took no great notice of it but seeing it burn all day and not consume I will turn aside saith he and see what the reason is and see this great sight why the bush burneth and is not consumed But before I come to the vision it self here is yet one thing that will detain us and I fear for the whole time of the these few minutes allotted us but God may offer ere long another opportunity for to speak of the vision it self It is said in this second verse That the Angel appeared to Moses in the midst of the bush and in the verses following it is said to be the Lord God how could one and the same be an Angel and God too Tell the Children of Israel I AM hath sent you unto them Which name can belong to no Creature but is proper onely to God Almighty And again you know in all the Old Testament when any Angel appeared to any man if they fell down and worshipped them never any man was blamed but St. Iohn did but offer to fall down to worship the Angel that had shewed him all those visions and he was forbidden See thou do it not for I am thy fellow-servant worship God What may be the reason of this was there any difference between the Angels of the Old Testament and the Angels of the New No certainly The truth is this and that which will bear the touch and the trial against all opposition That every Creature is an Angel a Messenger of God Almighties not the greatest nor the least nor meanest that is but is one of Gods Angels or Messengers and being so He is the Essence and Being of every Creature The Substance of all things Insomuch that nothing can have a Being but onely Himself No Creature can say I AM. If he were not so how could God say I am if any Creature could say so Truly of it self And God is so the Essence and Being of all things not onely as most men affirm and believe an Essence giving Being to all things so as every thing hath no Being in it self but from him and of him but he is the Essence of the Essence He is the Being of the Being for he it is onely that is Alpha and Omega the first and the last He onely is He that was and that is and that is to come if any Creatures were sâ—arers in this title he were not God Almighty This is such a truth as all the world shall never be able to overthrow ye may bottom upon it for The gates of hell shall never prevail aginst it God being the Substance and Form of all things the Form of Forms he is as Really and as Gloriously and as Omnipotently present in the Meanest and least Creature you can shew me as he is in the greatest Let flesh and blood and Satan and Hell and all the powers of darkness set against it with all the might they have they shall never prevail against it I say he is as Infinitely as Magnificently as Gloriously as Incomprehensibly present in the basest Creature in the least mâ—te in sticks and stones name what ye will as he is in Heaven it self and in all the world besides for He cannot be more fully present in One place then another but in all places all present at once he is as Fully as all-sufficiently as Graciously as Vnbounâ—ably present in the barrenest Mountain as in he fruitfullest Valley But where is he that câ—n see him so who can see this glory and this â—ower of God in every Creature Most certainlâ— undeniably the thing is so but we want eyes to see him so Do not I fill Heaven and Earth saith God If any thing fill Heaven or Earth besides him in the least jâ—t or period that saying were not true He is not present in the glorious Heavens in his Majesty more then He is in the Earth He is not present as most men teach and too many believe them in one place in regard of his Essence and in Another in regard of his Power and in another in regard of his Iudgment and in another in regard of his Mercy and in another by his Patience c. These be fond fopperies hearken to none of them let them be who they will be know this is truth He is in all alike Essentially but we see him not so and therefore we think him not so That we see him not so the fault is not in God for he is the same in all places and through all ages but the fault is in our selves we are so weak-sighted we cannot see him As suppose I speak to these three several Creatures to a man to a dog and to a stone the man he hears my voyce and understands me what I mean the dog hears but he understands not but the stone it doth neither And if you should ask the Stone what I said supposing there were a possibility of answering therein it would say I spake not at all if you ask the dog he would say I heard a voice a noise but he said nothing but ask the man and he would tell you That I spake and What I spake Was it therefore true that which the dog and the stone affirmed Because they either understood not or heard not or Was the fault in me they heard not or understood not No the fault is in themselves for I did speak and spoke sense but they had not a capability of hearing and apprehending So God shines Gloriously and Majestically and Super-exaltedly in all his Creatures but if we see him not so blame not God and say He is not so nor He is not there because you see him not nor cannot apprehend him there but blame your own ignorance your own blindness for God is as much in one as in another he cannot be Glorious in one and not in another but the same in all And God being there he cannot be without All His Accoutrements of Majesty and Glory Al His Glorious Attributes attend him whereever he is And he cannot be Sequestred from them nor they from him And if God hath opened your eyes so far as to see him Thus in all Creatures Do not offer to take from him His Glory or Greatness as if God where-ever
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
Beneplacit 2. Consequent As also of his Revealed and Secret Permissive and Operative Wills Are no other but Subterfuges of ignorance and so confessed by the Authors and Inventors themselves and yet withal I do profess my detestation with Augustine to say that God is the Author of evil for it is impossible that Entity should be Non-Entity for such is all evil And yet I say that Coincidence of Contraries nay of Contradictories which in any created nature are impossible may be and are in God as wisdom in him is said to be 1. Stable One yet 2. Moveable Manifold Yet in Psal. 139. 12. The light and the darkness to him are both alike and All Actions are 〈◊〉 to him though not the Evil or 〈…〉 He it is Alone That 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 slay Isa. 54. 16. So of Cain against Abel and Giants of the old world against Noah Philistiâ—s against Isaac Esau against Iacob Pharaoh against the Israelites Magicians against Moses the Tempter against Christ Simon Magus against Simon Peter Gentiles against Believers Antichrist and Christ Thus throughout the whole Creation Good is set against Evil Life against death and so are the sinners against the godly So look upon all the works of the most High and there are two and two One against Another Ecclus. 33. 16. And therefore Further know this we must not measure Eternity by temporary Moments I confess I have been a man almost fifty years longer then when I was born and never a one that now hears me but is a week elder then he was this day seventhnight but God hath not been God One Hour longer then when the world was first made Almost six thousand years yet ago I grant that here in the Kingdom of Matter as I may call it During the Hour and Power of darkness Luk. 22. 53. There may be some contest some Prevalence Moses hands may flag and the Amalekites prevail Exod. 17. 11. but what is that to God Neither hath Place any proportion to the Immensity of our God nor Time to his infinity And further to the clearing this question Vter fortior whether is the stronger I say as St. Paul 2 Cor. 13. 3. if ye seek an experimâ—nt take this for a scantling never did our Saviour Christ Command any Unclean spirit but He Obeyed when commanded but he trembled before commanded knowing the power of Christ to be above himself Look into and search the Scriptures and it will plainly appear so But if any shal further object say Si scirent etiam rabidi sculpsisse Leones If Lions should turn Limners the Devil then would draw a large story and shew manifold Examples of his power and strength He knows how many times Christ hath stood at the door and knocked And we would not let him enter How many times He hath Cryed aloud when the unclean spirit was in men and he hath been like a deaf Devil and would not let them Hear How often God himself hath called to the Creatures for their Testimony when he suffered dishonour when he like a dumb Devil in them would not let them speak What Miracles of blessings and judgements And what stupendious acts of his power and providence Christ hath wrought in the earth When yet The Vnclean spirit as a blind Devil would not let men see or perceive them And did not the Devil by his Policy and Power Sweep down The third part of the Stars of Heaven What that but the Third part of such who have been as STARS in the Profession of Christ yet are fallen from Their own Stedfastness And what can be sâ—â—d to all this 'T is true All this and a thousand times more mischiefs hath he wrought All this power hath He had hath still and will have over his own Vassal the children of Unbelief But All these Help as so many demonstrative arguments to exemplifie the Infinite Incomprehensible power of God for All the power the Devil hath is from God for as the Apostle Paul hath it There is no poâ—er but of God the powers that are are ordained of God Rom. 13. 1. Beloved let not this pass without our circumspect and diligent consideration Can there â—e think you any power stronger or greater then Gods power seeing all power is Essentially Originally and Really in God and flows from God nor no power but of God nay Every power is Under His And what powers are He constitutes appoints ordains ordereth and limiteth as he pleaseth to his own will and pleasure for judgements or mercies It was and is undeniably true what Christ said to Pilate boasting of and abusing his power Knowest thou not that I have power to crucifie thee have power to release thee said Pilate but Christ replyed Thou couldst have no power Except it was given thee from above which implies as if Christ should say That Even Thou Pilate who Accountest and judgest thy self so great and powerful why thou thy self art under Caesar Thy Power is subject to His and His how great soever it be is from God nay further though thou shouldst desire and Hunt after or purchase by bribes or favour to be instated with judicial strength and power yet it is for certain Thou even Thou couldest not obtain nor enjoy it and I know for truth what power thou now art intrusted with it is not thine own 'T is given thee and may be taken again from thee so that its plain that the very power that Pilate had over our Saviour was given to him even by our Saviour himself And now who can doubt whether is the stronger When that the strength power the Devil hath is from God and we know that God though in himself infinite yet is but finitely received in or by the Creature And what proportion or measure the creature hath of power God himself who knows the capacity of his creatures orders and distributes to them as much as he pleaseth who can doubt whose ARSENAL Magazine is better furnished When all the Fiery Darts and Arrows of the Devil are from Gods Store-house His quiver indeed may Rattle and he may shoot out sharpe and bloody arrows which wound and kill yet 't is Gods Hand that fills His Quiver and 't is Gods Power that sends and directs his arrows to the right mark and he orders every dart How deep it shall pierce In brief as Isaiah saith Isa. 26. 12. Thou O Lord hast wrought our works in us so the Devil must confess Even the worst the blackest saddest Devils must say and acknowledge that God is their life without whom they could not live God is their strength without whom they could not move God is their BEING without whom they were nothing and could not be at all Beloved these are truths But are ye able to bear them take awaye God from the creature the creature is not and therefore 't is worthy our observation that there are very few
he is where he works In his operations He works upon us As the spokes of a wheel upon the Ring and in his possession as upon the Nave As a Spider upon his Web If any one thred be Toucht He presently seizes upon the fly He is not to seek not will miss his prey for He is alwayes either watching or working to destroy Yet for all this As the earth rent with thunder blasted with fire drowned with water shaken with winds must not cannot blame the Heavens because the cause of all these distempers came forth of the Earth at first So if we be Heavily punished by the Devil we may blame our selves For we have taken into our selves of His Nature whereby he hath gotten power over us For could we but say as Christ He hath Nought in me He could have no power upon us Let therefore these spiritual Enemies keep us up as whips do Tops continually with our eyes up unto God That He may help us To leave and abhor all sin which procures and draws down such heavy and spiritual torments And here I must lay down this Maxim As all things aym either at a good or evil end so effectum testatur de causa the effect witnesseth of the cause all things proceed either from a good or Evil cause A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit nor an evil tree good Matth. 7. 28. Now we know WHOSE the good is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is none good but one which is God Matth. 19. 17. and we know likewise who is the Source and fountain of all Evil who is therefore in so many places of Scripture called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and from whom we are taught by our Saviour to pray for deliverance under that name Deliver us from Evil Matt. 6. 13. All these Actions of this sublunary world whether External or Internal Corporal or Spiritual Visible or Invisible Are divided between these two whom our Saviour calls God and Mammon Matth. 6. 24. S. Iohn Light and Darkness S. Paul Christ and Belial 2 Cor. 6. 15. Elias God and Baal 1 Kin. 18. 21. Accordingly Is that Text of our Saviour He that gathereth not together with me scattereth abroad and he that is not with me is against me Matt. 12. 30. So also that Text Rom. 14. 23. All that is not of faith is sin Hence the word of God makes it plain That many Diseases and Evils inflicted upon men are called Devils because coming from him and inflicted by him as Lunacy is called a Devil my son is Lunatick Matth. 17. 15. yet vers 19. t is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Devil came out of him so Mark 9. 17. t is said of one that was dumb that he had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a dumb Devil so also of one that was blinde A blinde man possessed with a Devil Matth. 12. 22. the like is said of of Deasness or of a Deaf Devil Luke 11. 14. So in the same manner of Crookedness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Having a spirit of infirmity Luke 13. 11. and yet at verse 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whom Sâ—tan or the Devil hath bound and thereupon Luke 8. 2. we finde that Infirmities and Devils 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are joyned together And includes One and the same thing All the plagues of Egypt Flies Frogs Caterpillars Locusts Hail Frosts Thunder-bolts c. Are all called Psal. 78. 49. Evil Angels and so also Iobs blains and botches pass under the same denomination so that as Hippocrates said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in every disease as there is something of God in it so may we say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 something of the Devil in it Now I pray you Resume and take up again what I have formerly delivered God is a God of Order Order implyes plurality and diversity Now as all the Actions of Christ are Mystical So all of the Devils are likewise and as Omnis actio Christi est nostra instructio as every action of Christ is our instruction so is every one of the Devils actions too and therefore as there is Mysterium Evangelii The Mystery of the Gospel Ephes. 6. 19. And the Great Mystery of godliness 1 Tim. 3. 16. as also The Mystery of faith 1 Tim. 3. 9. The Mystery of God Revel 10. 7. In like manner there is Mysterium iniquitatis The Mystery of iniquity 2 Thess. 2. 7. And as Paul cries out Rom. 11. 33. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Oh the depth of the Riches and Wisdom and Knowledge of God! so S. Iohn tell us Rev. 2. 24. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Depths of Satan When you consider and contemplate The mercies and miracles of Christ toward mankinde and his mighty works in the flesh Do you onely consider them as His mercies to the Bodies of men Or onely done to them then no no Duc in altum as Christ said unto Peter Luk. 5. 4. Lanch forth into the deep And Let down your Nets for a Greater draught Rest not there Look into your selves also reflect and see what God and Christ did and doth unto the souls and spirits of men even in thy self for as he cureth the one so he cureth and saveth the other He it is that gives light to them that sit in darkness of sin and ignorance and makes them to be Light in the Lord and looseth the Captives which are bound in Spiritual Captivity by Satan and maketh them free men in the Lord He healeth those that are broken-hearted and sets at liberty them that are bruised He opens the prison doors to them that are bound And lets the captives go free He maketh to grow strong in faith to grow in grace and favor with God and men He it is hath sent Redemption unto his people psa 111. 9. But all this not onely to their persons in corporal deliverances but chiefly to their souls and spirits doing the same actions over again in us And herein Is Iesus Christ yesterday and to day and the same for ever And so also when you consider the malice of Satan do you onely look upon his malice to the Estates of men or to their bodies As His vexing Iobs person with diseases and botches his blowing down the house upon Iobs children or the fire he sent to burn up his sheep or do you onely look upon the Sabeans and Chaldeans or onely upon the loss of the Girgasites swine or upon the Tempests at sea and the sicknesses which he layes on the bodies or estates of men c. O Beloved you will Catch little or nothing here Though you fish All night and though you hear all the Sermons or read all the Books you can get you will be little the better stay not your contemplations or experiences here but Duc in altum Lanch forth mind these workings in you look into your
he will Tear and Rent the Man and when he doth not though he seem to depart he keeps possession still or will Return with seven other spirits worse then himself Many perswade themselves they have grace because they are of a smooth fine affable disposition and carriage and many Prophets daub them up with untempered morter as if they had grace from their Cradles whereas indeed All men are as deep in Adams fall one as another and one as hard to be recovered as another I have shewed you upon another Text how all must suffer with Christ none excepted if they will be glorified with him and shewed you wherein viz. All and every one must be emptied and humbled as Christ was When Christ comes to cast the Devil out of these men in person himself I le warrant you he will Rend and Tear them When for Christ and to enjoy the life of Christ they must be emptied of all their fine natural endowments and come to see the ugliness the sinfulness of all their thoughts words actions and to be arraigned as the vilest Malefactors for all their great progress in Religion for even these are as far off the life of Christ as the other And they must be at the mercy of the Judge as much as the other And their Secret and Heart-Idols and defilements are as odious to God as the other I pray where is then their In-bred gracious natures If they must pass through that Condemnation and annihilation and abdication and indifferency c. as I then shewed you And must fight with the strong man Armed before he be cast out I le warrant you they will find this A Fiery Tryal Also the Apostle calls it A new birth What throws and pangs is there in natural births And do you think there is less and easier in the New birth No no deceive not your selves far far more for ye must be Slain and Crucified with Christ. I pray consider seriously of these things and be not deceived and lulled asleep nor receive not any such pillows under your Elbows from any for they cry peace peace when there is no peace and they say Thus saith the Lord when he hath not spoken unto them but they flatter you with the visions of their own heart Jet 23. 16. But be sure these unclean spirits are in every one of us naturally and they depart not without Tearing Beloved know All these are the unclean spirits in men that God will cause to pass out of the Land Zech. 13. 2. And I say t is to be suspected That when as the unclean spirit goes out without RENTING he intends a second return And contrarily where Satan departs with Renting he hath no hopes of re-possession For where he spoils and tears his lodging at his departure he finds that he that is stronger then himself casts him out and that such a soul is weary of such a troublesom Guest and turbulent intruding Inmate whom he rents he leaves and whom he Teares God Repairs whom he Rents God Renews Oh how I desire to have all our hearts Rent for then and not till then will God regard them Rent your hearts saith Ioel Joel 2. 12. And A broken heart a soul that is contrite and rent O Lord thou wilt not despise Psal. 51. 17. And therefore O sweet Saviour Rebuke thou all our unclean spirits with power command all our sins and corruptions to depart out of our hearts let them not reign or have the dominion over us but be thou our Lord our King and reign over us Other Lords indeed have had rule over us but do thou set up thy Kingdom O Lord and cast down thine Enemies under thy feet Thy Kingdom come for thine is the Kingdom power and glory for ever AMEN Come Lord Iesus come quickly ALL POVVER Given to IESUS CHRIST IN HEAVEN AND IN EARTH MAT. 28. 18 19 20. All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth c. In one Sermon Preached at a private Meeting in Old-street Augustine and others with him reckon this to be the ninth and last time of our Saviours appearing to his disciples after his Resurrection And that for this end he appeared so often to manifest the truth of his Resurrection and yet for all this some still doubted as you read in the foregoing Verse And they had great cause for though he had appeared to so many and so many times as this being the ninth time and it is also said He was seen of more then five hundred brethren at once yet for all this some doubted and although the Disciples were particularly appointed by Jesus to come at this time into this mountain and when they saw him they fell down and worshipped him yet some for all this doubted they knew they had seen him in great and extreme sorrow and anguish of soul even to the utmost that the malice of men and Devils could invent they saw him yield up the Ghost and they thought they had done their last office for him accompanying him to his execution and death and so to his grave and sepulchre but here He after many appearings to them to confirm their saith appears this once more and it seems to be very probably the last time of his appearing immediately before his ascention and now he gives them a commission and command To go and teach all Nations as it follows in the 19 and 20. Verses baptizing them in the name of the Father c. and teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you for â—o I am with you alwayes even to the end of the world And because they should be able to shew their Authoritie and Warrant if any should ask who sent them he tells them He that is IAM hath sent you IAM is with you and further tells them that their power they shall derive from Him For all power is given to me in heaven and earth And these words however they be few in number yet there is in them an Abyss of matter there is a mighty power and a vast length and breadth height and depth in all His words for His words are alwayes full of sense spoken to the highest pitch that our capacity can conceive or reach The words of Christ are most pure free from all concourse of the depravedness of the creature they are like the pure wine that he made at Canaan there is no tincture no brackishness no leaven of the old Adam or of the Pharisees Mens writings and speakings are alwayes low they have in them some Allay of humane weakness but in his words there is not the least allay they cannot admit of any moderation or modification Others it may be writ they knew not what themselves as I may so speak even the Penmen of the holy Scriptures for they wrote things beyond their own comprehension they being directed by another spirit they spake not of themselves but the holy
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
our feeling to our sight to our apprehension and comprehension but not at all in himself We cannot Honour him no nor dishonour him as to himself he is infinitely Far Above our praises or dispraises neither toucheth him as David saith My goodness extendeth not to him and Iob If I sin it toucheth not him He is neither better or worse by all our works either by sin or righteousness Beloved be sure of this we can neither diminish nor increase his praise in Himself though in regard of â—s we do for though we hold our tongues though we run upon our own destruction yet All as Creatures Praise him if he be not glorified by us in his Mercy he is and will be in his Iustice. It is said in Phil. 2. that he emptied himself of all his glory that is he as it were drew a curtain between Our eyes and His glory not between his own eyes and his glory for he was the same in himself but as to men He drew a Curtain or Vail before his glory for he honoured himself most in that he Emptied himself and therefore he saith here All power is given unto me in Heaven and in Earth not but that he had the same power before But now All power is given me that is Now men shall see it how in this very thing I honoured my self How in this very thing I manifested my self to be the Saviour of the world And though he seemed to Unclothe and dis-robe himself of all power and glory yet men shall now see and acknowledge that he still At that very instant retained it as much as ever yea manifested it more to them I seemed to lay it down and now to them I will be seen to Take it up again and they shall see that it never departed from me nor I from it But now it may be you will say to me We see you have partly cleared it and made it appear in what sense it is to be understood that All power is given to him in Earth but how is all power given him in Heaven do the Angels add any thing to him or is any thing added to them yea certainly for by the Church these things are More made known unto them for they were not created in such an estate but they may be made better nor are they so perfect but that they desire an increase in their perfection for it is said 1 Pet. 1. 12. The Angels do stoop down to pry into these mysteries therefore their knowledge and perfection is increasing And indeed it is certain They see their imperfections more then man because of the great light they have they are nearer to God who is light and therefore see their darkness and imperfection more then we for we are more dark and further off the light but alas Vain men think they see a great deal and because of their blindness they think themselves such excellent Creatures being thereby puffet up in themselves looking on themselves as Lords of all every thing was made for Him and that Christ was sent Meerly to Redeem him to save him God overlookt as he conceives All Creatures both above him and below him and had respect to none but to him as proud Haman said I onely am in the Kings favour O poor Creatures you are deceived think not so this is onely a fruit of your ignorance of your blindness limit not Gods Church to so narrow a scantling The Dominions of his Church reach infinitely further ther then you are aware of but we must not now enter upon that But hereby you may see that things in Heaven have a revelation and manifestation of Christ unto them and his power is given unto him There as well as on earth if so it be That you do take Heaven according to our general and common Notion of taking Henven which we Vulgarly conâ—eive to be above the Circumference of the Sun and God to be present more especially there but this also is a limiting The bounds of his Church and Kingdom His Kingdom as I conceive is every where and Heaven is where he is for he is Every where Yet I remember I was taught when I was a Child either by my Nurse or my Mother or Shoolmaster that God Almighty was above in Heaven viz. above the Sun Moon and Stars and I thought of a long time afterwards that there was his Court and his Chamber of presence and I thought it a great Height to come to this knowledge but I assure you I had more to do to unlearn this principle then ever I had to learn it and I am afraid too many of us are gone no further then this Childish principle whereupon follow many errours But it is more safe Taking Heaven in the largest sense Eiâ—her as God Filling all places and all things as well above the Sun as below and below as above and so Heaven to be where God is that is ever where for he cannot be excluded from any place but he is not onely in every place but in every place Alike Or else to take Heaven in that sense the Prodigal doth Luk. 15. 18. Father I have sinned against Heaven and before thee to take Heaven to be in our souls When God comes into our souls and dwels there that is when he manifests his presence in us and to us then he is said to dwell there not but that he dwelt there in regard of himself as much before but then he is there as in his Temple As in his glory to Us-ward then we see him there In the Beauty of Holiness Then He is compassed about with our praises as it is exprest in that 68 Psalm It is well seen O God how thou goest How thou My God goest when thou art in thy Sanctuary The singers go before and the minstrels follow after in the midst are the damsels with timbrels c. When God is not onely in us as he is in all Creatures but when he is there sensibly to us that we feel him and see him and Rejoyce to behold his Presence and Glory and so we come Thereby to glorisie him more Whenever we come to this Sight then are we come into a degree of the kingdom of Heaven Into Gods Chamber of Presence There we shall see all Creatures all Angels and Saints and the whole Creation compassing him round about with Glories and Hallelujahs Then as to us is He set upon his Throne And till then he is As Crucified As upon the Cross as Buffetted as Spit upon as Emptied as disrohed as Slighted Trod upon As upon the dunghil as separaâ—e from his glory but all this is but as to men not as to Himself as I said before For to him all Angels Cry A loud the Heavens and the Earth and all the Powers therein and all Creatures cry continually Holy holy holy Lord God of Sabbaths Heaven and Earth are full of the majesty of thy glory And
glorious and beautiful yet Christ is crucified and Self is alive and set in the Throne As David saith Up Lord why sleepest thou Avenge us on our adversaries God is asleep in men till this work be brought about in them and again Arise O Lord exalt thy self above the Heathen Till thou Till thy self be brought down the Heathen are exalted and Jesus Christ is trampled down as the heathen in old time typically got the upper hand and took possession of the Land and the fair houses of God and banished and carried captive the people of God kept them under made them tributary and overrun the Land Even so are those very things accomplished in us when lust and sin commands and bear rule and over-run the soul like locusts which are the very locusts of the bottomless pit Which also are ANTICHRIST and they keep him under and daily crucifie him that is crucifie his life in us And these are those enemies we continually ought to make war with and hate and pray against these are that Meroz that we ought to curse bitterly as the Angel commands and not men nor any thing which God hath made for all creatures As they are made by God are good very good but the seed of the Serpent we must war with and persecute Even to the very death and nothing else These things Brethren we ought still to find in our own experience Not onely to hear and read the history of them as done in and by others but to see and feel how they are really accomplished in our selves for except we see This fighting and resisting accomplished in us except we have found the strong man bound in us and felt those fightings and resistings that he makes till he be bound and overcome we are yet in our sins Strangers possess the Land and the Temple of God lies waste and the enemies of God roar in the midst of the Congregations and they set up their Ensigns for signs and break down the carved work with axes and hammers Could we but see all these things in our selves then we might be sure that Light was approching to us And if This Light were but set upon a candlestick then it would give light round the house and we should discover these things more and more but till then the lights is hid under a bed or under a bushel as our Saviour saith And if we have not found these things in our selves we have not been so much as in the way to union with Jesus Christ but having found it we have cause infinitely to rejoyce for then Those Masters and Lords that formerly commanded thee now thou shalt command them and they shall obey then thou shalt find that he hath in thee broken the gates of brass and cut the bars of iron in sunder Psal. 107. 16. thou through him shalt have power now to rectifie thy understanding thy will thy affections to rule and govern them As a King because Christ is exalted as King in thy soul then thou shalt be taught of God and shalt receive An unction from that holy one and thou shalt know all things In our selves indeed and in our own strength we can do nothing but by the power of Christ and by his strength in us we shall be More then Conquerours and we shall find these words true to our selves that our Saviour here saith All power is given to me in heaven and in earth you shall feel it true in your selves for you being united and made one with him you shall so derive his power to your selves that you may say All power is given to me in heaven and earth then you shall come to see such things as never eye saw nor ear heard nor ever entred into the heart of man things unutterable For till this comes to pass within you you shall never see the new heavens and the new earth so often promised in the Scriptures not till then shall we ever see the day that old things shall pass away and all things shall become new as it is exprest Rev. 21. 4. Then is the day come that God shall wipe away all tears from our eyes And thou shalt heare Christ himself in thee proclaiming Behold I make all things new Then shalt thou have power over the earth then also art thou that blessed Meek one spoken of Mat. 5. That shalt inherit the earth then shalt thou have power to meet thy Saviour Prepared And adorned as a bride to meet the bridgroom at his coming then indeed shall all those spiritual promises be fulfilled and accomplished in thee And all this by being risen again and united to thy Bridegroom Jesus Christ. And the way to this life is by being dead to the world and dead to the flesh the world being crucified to us and we to the world I le tell thee such a pass thou art now come to that as thou stinkest to the world so the world stinks to thee As all things are ready to forsake thee so thou art as ready to forsake them so that thou beginnest to see no excellency in any thing the world presents to thee no not in PROPRIETY which the whole world yea generally al esteem so highly of and are of all things lothest to forgo I say to this man even propriety begins to dye to him and he to it It departs from us and we depart from the love of propriety or with affection laying claim to any thing in the world but having it as having it not as 1 Cor. 7. That both they that have wives be as though they had none and they that weep as though they wept not and they that rejoyce as though they rejoyced not and they that buy as though they possessed not and they that use this world as not abusing it for all the fashion of this world passeth away This man is an a man dead and clean cast out of sight as David saith clean out of mind he is as a bubble that no body sets by but yet be contented hâ—ppy yea thrice happy are those men that are come to this to be dead men You know dead men are not affected with any thing dead men lay no claim to any thing dead men cannot so much as say This is I they esteem not of themselves they boast not of themselves praise and dispraise is all one to them they can let men do what they will with them they are all at one pass they claim no interest no propriety in any thing let them be merry while he lies by or let them be sad all is one to him let them be sharers of his goods One will have one part and another another part let them make merry and spend lavishly of His goods He is not moved why The reason is because he hath lost all his SENCES in this world his life is gone he is a dead man Beloved This was the condition
pious and precious proverb All things must be comprehended and keep Sabbath there must be no going up no running out nor no work done Seeing God desires not Our works but Our Sabbath and that himself in us Free and None Hindring him a MASTER and a GOD may Work Know Love Praise Pray Hear Crown and Reward HIMSELF in us Beloved without all doubt this is the ONE and Onely thing that pleaseth him And he commands All Flesh that in Divine matters it never Stir it self or desire any thing And therefore it is that I in this Book have Robbed man of all and Rejected him with all his Best Ware and most Precious Riches that he had in Divine businesses viz. Of all his Will Knowledge Wisdom Goodness All these must we Unlearn from all these must we Fast and keep Holy-day as from the Tree of knowledge of good and evil from whence Death is eaten And therefore there is in Heaven meer Peace Gladness Felicity as where there are Eternal Sabbaths and no Will but Gods Will Light Knowledge Art Wisdom in all his Saints whereby he doth Illustrate and Enlighten them And Christians do pray in the Lords Prayer that the same thing may be upon earth and that the will of God may be there done as it is in Heaven where no man Doth Wills Knows Speakes any thing but God who will have and in Christ hath Appointed this Sabbath also upon Earth This God grant unto us all Amen A most clear Glass and lovely Example of our Lord Iesus Christ which as he practised in himself so he propounded unto us to be followed and it may serve for an EPILOGUE or Perclose of this Book out of the 106 page of Iohn Taulerus his Works printed at Colen in Folio 1548. VVHosoever desireth to order his life according to the most Acceptable will of God and to be Partaker of his grace without any impediment ought warily to look into this Instruction following of the life of Christ which containeth all good things and to express it in his life and conversation Therefore every good and religious Christian ought in all things and above all things aâ—d at all times with all the strength of his soul in all his thoughts words and works purely to love and intend for God who is the eternal happiness and blessedness of all men as his own Portion which that he may the better do he shall most strictly observe himself within and in silence hearâ— what the Lord saith within him and avoiding all Imployments and Multiplicity he shall rest with God in unity He shall Shut up all his Senses in quietness Continually Praying and Calling upon God His eye being Fixt on him in all his actions He shall enjoy His Presence in every place time and thing He shall be A perpetual inhabitant of himself and shall Especially love Truth of heart and peace of conscience He shall be milde and Humble in heart as well as in word and be Divine and God-like in his life and conversation Taking Patiently All things at the hand of God He shall Praise Thank Honour and intend him in all his works He shall be always Endued with a certain humble Abnegation ordering of himself to what God wils shall submit himself not only to God but to All creatures avoiding those hateful vices Pride Envy Wrath and Arrogancy Moreover perpetually considering and marking the Goodness and Perfection of God He shall wonder and be astonished at the great love and faithfulness of God toward him and contrariwise at his own Unthankfulness and Infidelity judging himself from his heart The Least and Unworthiest of all men He shall more diligently take heed of his own Sense Estimation and of all the wickedness of his nature neither shall he think More of Himself then he hath from or of Himself which is indeed Nothing He shall alwayes take in hand a certain New life and exercise himself in New virtue and in New Truth He shall be Sober and Sparing in words but Plentiful in Holiness of life and shall desire to be Left and Despised of all men as men He shall much weigh Small sins and shall think The least defect not light He shall take so great care of Himself that he be never frustrated of the presence of God in his soul and that other men may be by him provoked to better things he shall do all his works in the most Perfect manner and shall Satisfie those things which he comprehends in his understanding He shall by his good will do nothing in this life to repent of hereafter He shall have In daily Adversity either within him or without him perpetual patience and in continual Multiplicity A Recollected mind he shall not 〈◊〉 either to Have or to Will any thing Proper in this world but be ready to distribute to others wants nor to have any Election oâ— Choise in things but receive thankfully The goodwill of His Father in every thing He shall admit nothing within himself but God continually He shall diligently Eschew and withdraw himself from all men as men and shall preserve himself Naked and Free from all Inwardly-received Images and his soul Untangled from all Accidents whatsoever that he may continually receive The Influence of His Heavenly Father into his soul. He shall often behold and Exercise himself in the Most worthy Life and Example of our Lord Jesus Christ As in a glass considering well How like or unlike He is unto Him and He shall in himself give an Ensample and Testimony to all men Of A Better life then This He shall be True in all his words Religious and Mature in His conversation He shall contemplate His beginning and Original From whence He and All things flowed forth and shall Strive with all diligence To return into the same again Finally tending diligently What He is whether He Ought what He Doth and for What cause he doth every thing and shall most constantly persevere in virtue and truth even unto Death And all this not by any power of his own but by Christ He alone Working all these things in him and not Himself nor Any His own Industry or Acquiring Another short Instruction taken from the same place in Iohn Taulerus his works pa. 107. VVE shall most certainly Attain The Various and Numerous exercises of this Book yea whatsoever can be written of a Perfect and Divine-like Life viz. by this means if we withdraw our selves from the love of all frail and mortal things if we study to attain an humble Resignation and inward Nakedness and embrace Onely God by faith and love in the bosom of our souls and hide our selves wholly with our Souls Spirit Body Heart and Senses in his Most Holy Humanity and labour by a certain lively imitation to become comformable thereunto and Finally by His life and merits Inhere and cleave continually and perpetually to his Divinity Whoâ—oever is enabled by Jesus Christ to do These things doth doubtless Obtain all
Real condemnation of our selves and not onely verbal p. 206 c. In this Condemnation three sorts of men sit Judges 1. The Carnal man p. 209. 2. The Rational man and he 〈◊〉 the Carnal p. Ibid. 3. The Spiritual manâ— and â—e â—udges both the former p. 210. The spiritualâ—ty of the 〈◊〉 opened and the first Commandment set before us as a glass to behold our condition p. 215. Further explained p. 224. Yet for all this guilt the blood of Iesus Christ purgetâ— from all sin if Christ apply it and not onely our selves p. 229. 2. Step Annihilation reducing our selves to nothing what it is p. 231 c. The effects of this Annihilation This Man 1. Receives all as from God p. 237 c. 2. He doth all by the power of God 238. to the glory of God ibid. 3. He rejoyceth in others goods as his own 239. 4. He is not glued to any temporal things but is ready to part with them when God calls ibid. 3. Step Resignation for saking all things in the world of what condition soever p. 240. 4. Step Indifferency to all conditions p. 251. Effects of indifferency This Man 1. He hath two eyes two feet as to the body so to his soul p. 264. 2. His eye is not divided between God and Mammon p. 265. 3. He resigns his judgement to God alone regards not what mans judgement is ibid. 4. He is gotten above all heights and depths principalities and powers c. ibid. 5. He is an Anabaptist his former name is changed and his Father hath given him a new name p. 268. The Author being interrupted came not to preach of the two last steps which is Conformity and Deiformity p. 270. Four Sermons on Josh. 15. 15 16. And Caleb said He that smiteth Kiriathsepher and taketh it to him will I give Achsah my daughter to wife c. THe History of Moses sending the Spies to discover the Land of Canaan of the peoples murmuring and mutining upon the ill report raised by the ten Spies of Calebs and Ioshuas faith these things run over and applyed to our selves as concerning as much 〈◊〉 as them from p. 272 to 280. Part of this Chapter and 2 Cor. 3. Compared and answering face to face as the two Cherubims p. 212 c. The words opened and explained p. 287. Kiriathsepher the City of the Letter must be smitten and taken before it can be to us Debir The word then we likewise shall marry Achsah signifying The rending of the vail p. 294 c. The Letter or Ordinances not to be thrown away nor yet to be rested in p. 295. The spirituality of the ten Commandments briefly explained applyed from p. 296 to 319. In what sense the Scriptures are and are not the word of God explained p. 318 c. The text divided into two parts 1. Onus the work 2. Honos the reward p. 334. Those that rest in the letter either are starvelings or dwarfs alwayes children in stature and grow not p. 337. Christs body and actions in the flesh symbolical p. 343. Jesus Christ the substance and soul of all creatures false conclusions hence abandoned and shewing the soul of man is infinitely below God p. 351. An Objection answered about undervaluing the Letter p. 353. The Awfulness of God in that soul that truly sees him p. 357 c. Pilates question what thing is truth answered p. 363. A short view of some Priviledges which are to be enjoyed withiâ— the Holiest of all after we have married Achsah and obtained The râ—nding of the vail p. 364 c. The two Wonderful and unknown Trees of Eden viz. The Tâ—ee of Knowledge of Good and Evil p. 379. The Tree of Life in the midst of the Paradise of God p. 385. How the Tree of Knowledge c. Is the Seed of the Serpent in mans Heart p. 389. That Great Idol a Mans Self 392. Two Sermons on Psal. 61. 17. The Chariots of God are twenty thousand thousands of Angels the Lord is among them as in Sinai in the Holy place Part 2. THe parts of the text p. 7. God hath his Chariots of Triumph and Terror p. 8. All the Creatures are Gods Chariots wherein he gloriously rides so many creatures so many chariots p. 11. God in himself alwayes invisible to men and Angels p. 17. All creatures infinitely short of God and the most excellent speak him but darkly and though he fill all creatures yet all cannot comprehend him nor all men and Angels by them p. 18. How God is said to be in Hell and in Lucifer himself p. 21. God not to be found or known by Addition but onely by subtraction p. 23. The Kingdom of Heaven commonly mistaken which consisteth not in meats or drinks or crowns or scepters musick c. or any ocular or carnal glory p. 25. All creatures the Amiable tabernacles of God p. 30 c. Two Scriptures propounded whereby to represent a a small glimps or scantling of God p. 34. None like the God of Iesurun who rideth upon the Heavens in his excellency c. p. 39. What repose of heart the people of God may take in this their infinite God and Father because his everlasting arms are under them p. 44. Angels are Messengers or Embassadours p. 48. All creatures sing aloud Gods praise even the worst and wicked st sing a part and how p. 49. What to think of the Angels above us being out of our sphere we not able to define them p. 52. That God is in all the creatures and though the creatures change yet he is unchangeable p. 53. Yet he is not in every creature according â—o his infiniteness but as every creature can receive him p. 55. 1. use To teach us love and charity toward all creatures p. 57. 2. use To learn to know our selves p. 58. 3. use That nothing comes by chance but all things ordered by providence p. 59. Considerations of the Immenseness and infiniteness of God p. 60 c. Two Sermons on Cant. 1. 7. Tell me O thou whom my soul loveth where thou feedest and where thou makest thy flocks to rest at noon for why c. THe division of the text p. 70. The nature of a soul in love with Christ though he be still filling her yet she is never fully satisfied wiâ—h him p. 71. Things in heaven are neither visible material ocular oâ— tangible c. p. 77. To try whether we have love to God by our love to our brethren p. 78. Many can come to God in prayer under this notion O thou whom my body loves but how few O thou whom my soul loves p. 80. The letter of the word but a dead resemblance of the life within p. 85. They that limit Jesus Christ according to the thirty three years he lived on earth do circumcise and cut short the large vastness of his greatness p. 88. The Question answered what need Christ any rest seeing he is in heaven p. 94. If Christ be not
when he might have been advanced and made a King he ran away from among them he was Far of another Spirit then is now in the world and alwayes was in the world among the men of the world and no greater sign of a carnal earthly low base spirit then to be alwayes seeking the great things of the world to be tickled and itching after the praises of men to lift up our selves to be some-body in the world to desire to sit above and to trample upon their brethren to have the cap and the knee and yet how many of such men forsooth must be the onely gracious and religious men of this age but you see these are far from the life of Christ As far as the East from the West As far asunder as darkness and light Are these the men that brag of Power and Wisdom and Holiness and yet are thus swallowed up in the world love the praise of men and greetings in the Market and the Highest seats in the Synagogues and the uppermost rooms at feasts Their Phylacteries must be broad and long viz. to be known from other men that they may be bowed to and reverenced of all men Are these the Doctors and Teachers of all others Are these the Disciples and Ministers Christ hath sent out to preach to us the life of Christ by their Doctrine and example Judge ye Beloved ye must know that all Christs actions which were imitable while he was here upon earth they were symbolical they shew that he is yesterday and to day and the same for ever for whatever he did then he did but shew and represent to our senses by external actions what he is still Doing in the souls of men and will be to the end of the world For did he cure diseases in the body he did it to shew us how be cured the diseases of the soul Did he heal the blind and cure the lame cast out Devils dumb Devils and deaf Devils yes yet these do but shew what he doth daily when our mouthes are shut up as to things appertaining to God and his glory his power dispossesses this dumb Devil when our ears are shut up and we can hear nothing but what pleases self and flesh and the carnal man Let the Charmer charm never so wisely now Christs power and wisdom in us dispossesses al of his nature he turns the minstrels out of doors to those deceiving pleasures and allurements of the world that in our crosses make us such deceiving musick he saith Give place and He Himself enters aâ—one and brings us to own and delight in him and in what he administers to us Those actions of his he did then upon the bodies of men do but shew what he doth upon their souls for he then cast out but some Devils not all he healed and cured but some of their diseases not all for that was not the end of his coming for had it been so he would have cast out all Devils as well as some and cured all diseases as well as some but he onely by them did teach our dull capacities which else could not conceive what he did in the soul but by representing the same thing Outwardly even by those things which were most equivalent to them Did he resist the temptations of Satan and so made him depart from him it was to shew that he doth the same in those that are his even by himself in his own person and through his own power in â—hem For whatever actions he did they were done by him onely for a resemblance of his internal workings Did he pray whole nights it doth but shew that his Spirit in us makes continual requests and expressions even with sighs and groans which cannot be expressed Did he come before Pontous Pilate and was accused arraigned whipped buffered mocked and crowned with thorns yea he was and this was to shew how our carnal judgements Arraign him and How we whip him and peirce him by our sins mock and grieve his blessed Spirit Was he nailed to the Cross did he dye and was he put to death by the Jews and was he buried and a stone rolled upon him never to rise again they did so and in these and other his actions lies all our hope and our faith this is our Anchor-hold and our trust and whoever shall deny it let his tongue cleave to the roof of his mouth Yet these were but symbols and representations of our killing of him crucifying and burying of him daily in our souls by our sinâ— by following our own wils and by our Arrogance Pride and selfness and thereby his life is crucified And also it is to shew how we have daily quenched the motions of his blessed spirit so that it lives not in us but the Old Adam the Old man is alive and Christ the New-man is dead within us And so likewise in the rest of his actions Did he â—ise again the third day and triumph over hell and death it shews How this mighty Lion of the Tribe of Iudah hath and will raise up himself and overcome all his enemies and hath and will put them all under his feet in our souls then after he is once arisen he will appears to al the brethren to five hundred brethren at once where-ever Christâ— is risen he will appear and shew himself If I be lifted up I will draw all men unto me as he saith Iohn 12. 32. As you know it is the nature of fire to draw all things to ascend upward to its own center so if Christ be risen and ascended in us he will so display his own glories and beauties in us that he will draw all our affections upto him so that we cannot buâ— eagerly and vehemently desire to be like him to draw all our love to the love of him and all our hatred to hate that which he hateth and all our love to love that which he loveth our hate and love joy and grief and all our other affections to be like his Even as fire also endeavours vehemently to make every thing like it self so doth Christ where-ever he comes with his life light and glory Thus you see that what Christ did for a time in the historie the same he still also doth as truly as really and as constantly in the mysterie he did some things visibly to shew that he doth the same things as truly invisibly he did so much as was enough to manifest himself to be Emanuel and that he was God manifested in the flesh And as I said when Christ was ready to leave the earth then he made this boast of himself and never before did he ascribe this power to himself Even so till we are made one with him till we are made like him and till we can sit so loose to the earth that we are with him ready willingly and freely to leave the earth we can never claim this power till
thou art dead to every creature thou canst never make this boast Beloved if you would have power to remove mountains and to offer violence to the Kingdom of heaven then you are to be thus qualified that thou hast experimentally seen and felt in thy own soul how that thy sins have ploughed and made long furrows upon his back as David saith and how you by your sins have quenched the light that is in you and how in thee he is crucified dead and buried and how thou hast drawn grave-stones of custome over him and how you have buried his light resisted and grieved his spirit in you and that you have found him arise in your own souls that you have really seen and felt all these things actually done within you his birth his life his death his resurrection that as his enemits have overcome and crucified him within you so himâ—rise â—rise gloriously and triumphantly within you and that he hath put down all his enemies under his feet In thee insomuch that thou hast heard him and seen him and felt him crying within thy soul Isa. 1. 24. Ha ha I will now arise I will avenge me on my adversaries Now I that was crucified am now risen again so that you see his glory and the love of him triumphing in you so that now thou canst truly say with David Psal. 27. 4. Now I am so far gotten from and forsaken the world and my self that now I desire but one thing and that will I seek after even that thou wouldest give me thy self unite me and make me One with thine own life that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life and visit his Temple You being once come to this pass Really in experience then you also may say All power is given to me in Heaven and Earth for then you are as I may say within an inch of being swallowed up into God and then are you ready to leave the earth and all things therein for this man he is become one spirit with the Lord And if we be one spirit as Chriâ—ts prayer hath purchafed Ioh. 17. 21. That they may be one as thou and I are one that thou mayest be in me and I in them and they in me that the world may believe that thou hast sent me if it be so then Christ himself lives in us and all our words are the words of Christ we have no thoughts but the thoughts of Christ we have no life but Christ lives in us as the Apostle saith I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me And then also as the Apostle again saith and so may you say All is yours and not before Whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or things present or things to come all are yours and you are Christs and Christ is Gods You being come to this as you may claim a right to all things so you may claim a Power over all things for you are already set down in Heavenly places with Christ himself in the very glory of God the Father who is blessed for ever But yet many there be that wil claim this right and appropriate to themselves this power and life when alas they are farre from it they will assume and presume that this is their condition when indeed and in truth Christ and his life is as yet buried in them He is not risen in them he hath not conquered nor gotten victory over his enemies but he is still crucified and made to serve their sins and their lusts Self-will and pride and arrogancy and vain boasting is still alive in them he hath not as yet Avenged himself on his enemies But pride and covetousnes and love of the world and praise of men these things live in them still and Christ is dead and so much the more dead and crucified in as much as they glory of that which is not conceiving Christ is theirs when as all their wayes are contrary to him and yet they conceive themselves made One with him when as it were far better they had a true sight of their opposition and contrariety to him And therefore thou must know thou art but an usurper to claim this power and right to all things in which thou hast no part For when a man is come to that life we formerly spake of then he is made Lord of the earth and hath then Real dominion over all the Creatures And made little lower then the Angels as it is exprest in Psal. 8. Then thou belongest to and art one with him who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords though you see it not A supposition of two drops reasoning together As suppose two Drops apart from the Sea should Reason together and the one should say to the other Whence are we canst thou conceive whence we are either whence we come or to whom we belong or whither we shall go something we are but what will in a short time become of us canst thou tell And the other Drop should ansâ—wer Alas poor fellow-drop be assured we are Nothing for the Sun may arise and draw us up and scatter us and so bring us to nothing Says the other again Suppose it do for all that yet we are we have a Being we are Something Why what are we saith the other Why Brother Drop dost thou not know we even we as smal contemptible as we are in our selves yet we are members of the sea Poor Drops though we be yet let us not be discouraged we belong to the vast Ocean How saith the other we belong to the sea to the Ocean how can that be We have heard of the mighty greatness of the Ocean we have heard that there is the huge Leviathan that sports himself there who is so great and terrible he feareth none whose heart is as firm as a stone and as hard as a piece of the â—ether milstone the mighty are afraid before him who feareth not the spear nor the dart nor the Habergeon who esteemeth iron as straw and brass as rotten wood the arrow cannot make him flee-darts are as stubble and he laugheth at the shaking of the spear who maketh the deeps to boyl like a pot and maketh the sea like a pot of ointment so that he maketh a hoary path to shine after him and upon earth there is not his like What that we are of the Sea how can it be We have heard the Sea is great and wide Wherein also are things creeping innumerable both small and great beasts there is that Leviathan who is made to play and sport therein and they that go down into the sea in ships and do their business in great waters they see the wonders of the Lord in the deeps there are the huge roaring waves that mount them up to heaven and suddenly they fall down into the depths and their souls melt because of trouble and those great