as the consent of all for a souldier is to be maintained by him who hath chosen him to be a souldier to set him at liberty from the intanglements of this life that so all his strength care and courage may be imployed in pursuit of the adversary If then we be souldiers of God in Christ it is the things of God which are durable that defray our charges and are our livelyhood and maintainance and not the things of the creature which perish and come to nought if the weapons of our warfare be spiritual and not carnal then is our war also spiritual and not carnal and then such is the booty and spoil we purchase unto our selves to live upon in all the accomplices thereof for if we conquer and overcome sin and death Righteouss and Life is the only riches which presents it self unto us if we vanquish ignorance and errour then is the light and streight way of the Lord our great advantage and if we subdue hatred and enmity then the love of God shed abroad in our hearts is our only Booty and bounteous reward And be that expects mens labours and estates favour and respect of worldly men for preaching that man will also expect their persons and lives for booty in case of his own advantage and his doctrine shall be moulded into such a form as may attain thereunto for it is an easie thing in point of carnal reason to make a man a sinner so as a carnal law shall take away his life and so by carnalizing the law of God they can make Christ a blasphemer an enemy unto Cesar and subject to the sentence oâ— their law unto death many a man had never lost his life by the hand of the magistrate if a carnal priesthood had not preach'd him to death but God will bring to perdition them that speak a ly the man of Bloods and deceit We conclude then that he who frames a law for carnal wages for warring the warfare of the gospel that man wars carnally and diabolically in all the designes he is put upon The second query to illustrate and confirm this point who plants a vineyard an eats not of the fruit thereof that is he eats of the same proper fruit which the same vine brings forth which he planteth and not another fruit in kind or the fruit of another vine if we plant a vine it is the fruit of that vine of fatness which doth rejoice the heart of God and man which we expect and look for and not the fruit of the bramble or any inferiour tree of the woods if we plant Israel that Noble vine as one who as a prince prevails with God or the vins Christ the Son whose father is the husbandman we expect only the fruits of righteousness and peace to spring up unto us as the proper vintage and harvest of such husbandry even the virtues of him that hath called us out of darkness into his marvellous light Such are the fruits which the planters of that vine of the gospel do only expect and not the apples of Sodom nor the grapes of Gomorrah things of another nature and kind then that which we plant such as are the tithes stipends and beggerly rudiments of this world which mortal men by worldly wealth and humane power and pollicies may indue us with but for conclusion of this If we make momentany and mortal things our priviledges in preaching the gospel it is a mortall and deadly word we bring unto the sons of men and not that gospel of life and peace which is by Jesus Christ The third point in the interrogation doth any man feed a flock â—nd not eat of the milk of the flock which hath in it a strange affirmation that no man doth and what doth the man feed and nourish the lambes of the flock with all but with the same milk which the flock afordeth so that the lambes are not fed with one kind of food and himself with another but it is the same milk which nourisheth the one and the other if therefore we lay out the brests of the consolations of that Jerusalem that is above which is the mother of us all that men may milk out and be delighted with the brightness of her glory which is that sincere milk of the word which onely brings to the growth and perfection of the Son of God then we never expect to be fed as a priviledge of the gospel with any other thing whatsoever but only with the same milk wherewith the flock of God is fed which floweth out as rivers and streams to noutish them not in temporary but in an eternal life not with the tithes and trumperies which the priesthood of this world is so wedded unto only in that unity of the harlot by adulterating the holy word of God to bring forth such a carnal and Bastardlike brood which is nothing else as it is mentioned in adulterating the word of God to lay claim thereunto but that price of a whore which is abominable unto the Lord as never to be brought into his Sanctuary And it is the law that saith these things namely that injunction which coupleth God and man together to be one and not man to any of the creatures where that spirit of conjunction is not on both sides for so the law is written with the finger or spirit of God on both sides of the tables Therefore he brings in reason to confirm the interrogation as also an inlet to a further argument viz. For it is written in the law of Moses vers 9. that is it is ingraven in all mens hearts universally to grant the truth of this threefold interrogation in all carnal men in whom Moses is vailed where the end of the law is not seen which is the ministry of condemnation there it is written for all men who preach carnally they look for and expect a return in carnal things even as a Merchant looks for his return by sea sutable to his adventure and also all men who learn or understand carnally they have a conscience to contribute carnal things to him who is their teacher for the labourer by all men is concluded to be worthy of his hire Again as Moses goes into the tabernacle to have converse with God or turns into the Lord as our Apostles phrase is where the vale is taken away there is in graven in that heart conversing with God face to face this doctrine in the truth and verity of it that is he who ministers spirituall holy and eternal things as the truth is in Jesus he looks for return in the same kind as the only liberty and plenary priviledge of the gospel and expects not else as any return of the gospel but only as things may be used as subservant to the liberty and return of it So also he that is taught in the word and learned spiritually freely makes him that teacheth partaker of all his goods that is there is not a tittle of
is the beginning and end of all things that Alpha and Omega therefore never from off the head of him who rightly runs in this race for he is never void nor destitute of that honour which is peculiar to the Son of the eternal a glory without compare ever accompanied with sufficient courage fortitude and confidence to gain the prize for time to come which is as certainly renewed in the continued act and exercise in the race as it is certainly injoyed in the present time for as the operations of the Spirit of God are in present exercise upon him so he knows that the Spirit of glory and of God shall remain and rest upon him for time to come through his suffering of the loss of the glory of this world which shall be the crown of all his exercise in the things of God unto perpetual aye and therefore he runs not as at uncertainties but upon present possession which gives us assured hope for time to come as it is certain that God is faithful and cannot deny himself So fight I not as one that beateth the air that is I give not my strokes in combate in my contending for the faith of the Son of God as one that woundeth not or as one that findeth not reality of matter for the weapons of my warfare to take place in exercising their force skill and accomplishing their ends upon but I deal with such as I accomplish like atchievments upon in the management of mine affairs in the gospel as David the beloved of God did in that 11. Psalme which is a true commentary upon this my warfare For I am not as one beating or fighting with the aire as with a thing of no substance I doing no real exploit nor it receiving any wound or foil from me but closeth up and healeth it self again as fast as it receiveth the strokes but contrarily I beat down and bring to nought that which hath in it the reality of sin and death which is the wisdome or law of the flesh As certainly as I guard and defend that which hath in it the reality of eternal life and peace namely tbat wisdome or law of the Spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus my Lord exercising it self in the one and the other in my soul and that no otherwise but as it shall be my life and peace spirit and power prowess and victorious imployment and conquest forever for the offices exercises and virtues of Christ are all of like honour worth and duration Vers 27. But I beat down my body that is the body of sin and death and it is my body as in the original and materials of it consisting of God and man as truly as Esau and Jacob came both out of loyns of Isack and Rebekkah so doth the body of sin arise of God and man being made one in that way of the body of death and also that mysticall body of life in Christ in the one the properties and heavenly disposition of the Son of God are crucified to the sin and Satan in the Son of perdition and in the other the properties and earthly disposition of man aâ—â— crucified to the life of righteousness and peace in the Son of God Again it is my body as I am considered from the earth and so have naturally in that respect the nature and disposition of all flesh as the gospel is my gospel as in the spirit of God I come down from heaven and so am one with the Son of God being of the same spirit with him who is both the authour and product thereof Again it is my body as I die thereunto dayly as the same Apostle speaks and also it dies nnto me so as it never hath any power over dominion or me or I any community or fellowship with it even as the body of Christ is mine as I rise and live in newness of life unto it and it unto me wherein consists my proper and only converse and fellowsh p. Again it is my body as I acknowledge the misery and wretchedness of all slesh destitute of the wisdome and Spirit of God and so it is gone over all in regard of the aptitude and disposition of all men naturally inclining thereunto and so I can say in that respect O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death Even as I can give God thanks as in that body of Christ acknowledging by the spirit thereof my deliverance happy condition and salvation being inabled by the same spirit to bring that body of death into subjection in all things exercising the rule and authority of the Son of God over it so as it can never prevail against me but though the enemy may come against me as a flood yet the Spirit of the Lord lifts up a standerd against him to chase him away so that in my mind that is in the formings fashionings and framings of all things in my spirit I serve the law of God but in my flesh that is as my natural disposition is found in the men of the world out of Christ there it is under sin and death being a servant thereunto forever Now the ground and reason why I thus beat down my body and bring it in subiection and not the body of another is this viz. Lest whilst I preach to others I my self should become a reprobate in these words our Apostle doth elegantly as in a figure as he speaks formerly in this epistle in a like case transferring the state and condition of all false teachers of the word of God unto himself that thereby he may with modesty set them forth and make them appear in truth to be that which indeed they are Lest while I preach to others or as the word is lest while I preach in others the word lest is not brought in here as a doubt or supposition but as a thing of certainty as if he should say he who preacheth in another he is a reprobate or he is reproved rejected or is become a castaway as disallowed of God So that the Apostles argument stands thus he that preacheth in another that which he preacheth not in himself as being matter of the gospel that minister and ministry is as reprobate silver it is disallowed of God and never passeth for currant doctrine in his kingdome So that he which forms sin in such sort as that he inveighs against it and indeavours to beat it down in another and not in himself as being free from a sin of that nature as in or of himself that is a reprobate ministry he beats the aire and doth not beat down that body which is his that ministry therefore that forms sin so as to belong to one state of men and not unto another to be a sin in one age of the world but not in another or to belong to one six or age of man and not unto another that man doth not in all things beat down his own body that
doth eternize the spirit of the creature which by its own nature and property is momentany and mortal So that in this inocculation of the wisdome or word of the creature all the motions and operations springing up in the Creatour as being the stock which in it self is eternal are all translated and changed into temporallity and mortality and so the power of God works effectually in the way of death as the wisdome of God implanted in the weakness of man the creature comes to work effectually in that way of eternal life and that whole state or tree is but one eternal Son and Saviour And in that implanting of the wisdome of man in the power of God that whole state or tree is a state of mortallity and destruction and is but one son of perdition and law of sin and death because all that spring up and what fruit it yields is of the nature of the science and doth not savour of the stock at all but is become mortal and diabolical even as a man in that way of Christ is become eternal and the real son of the immortal God So long therefore as an eternal wisdome abides to draw forth the stock in whatsoever it yields according to the nature of the science so long shall the fruits of righteousness and delight appear upon the Saints in a blessed estate and condition And so long as the power and plenty of an eternal stock yields any motion or matter of growth so long shall that graft or science of the wisdome of the flesh mortalize it and change it into corruption in it self then the which greater indignity cannot be done unto a pure and immortal word or spirit so long shall that unhappy guilty and accursed condition of the wicked abide and remain so that both estates have their pereminency arising from the eternity of the holy word of God though the one be a state of the eternal life and the other a state of eternal death and the stock of each is no proper cause of the fruit which the whole tree yields and forever brings forth Take in also Christs inference and conclusion in these words therefore you shall receive the greater damnation Mat. 23. 14. The word damnation implies a disinheriting and binding over to distruction and by greater here we are not to understand it comparatively with respect to others damned but superlatively as the greatest measure of distruction so that false interpreters are in the grand condemnation that is they receive no less then damnation of the devil who is a murtherer from the beginning and abode not in the truth or inheritance Iohn 8. 35 44. a false interpreter therefore is the grand sinner and therefore receives the damnation of the devil for as the serpent set himself nearer to God then the woman as knowing more of God then she did Gen 3. â— 2 3 4 5. So do those false interpreters these hypocritical praâ—ers as though their calling were nearer to God then others of their brethren wherein they act the part of the serpent and are in the grand condemnation of the devil so in Scripture Language the eldest is said to be the greater Gen. 25. 23. the Hebrew word Rab whereof great men are called Rabbies as first or chief in place and office is translated by the holy Ghost in Greek the greater Rom. 9. 12. so that whilst men talk of Original sin speaking they know not what for mans sin cannot be Original if there was sin in the devil before they are in the very progress thereof and are in that act of false expounding of the law of God as truly the first bringers of sin into the world as the continuation thereoâ— for a spirit cannot be devided though the kingdome wherein it works may and they have the proper spirit of the serpent which is only to make false repo t of the word of God whether to a mans self or to others which may be comprehended in this bud namely that one Saint or Son of God is nearer to God and in more fâ—vour and respect with God then another or that God was ever or at any time or in any thing at one with himself out of mankind For a man to conclude that any Saint of God fails or falls short of the grace of God in any particular wherein another hath interest is that root of bitterness or gall of wormwood which springs up to the trouble of all the world for it is that which springs up as the Greek translates en cholee with gall Dent. 29. 18. and enochlee with trouble Heb. 12. 15. having both the bitterness of death in it being the bond iniquity Acts 8. 23. and the trouble and vexation of disinheriting in the loss of the first birthright therefore the Apostle brings in the fornication and profaneness of Esau thereupon as under the guilt of sin Heb. 12. 16. as also the trouble of his being disinherited as seeking a blessing too late with tears for there is no place of repentance found in the father Heb. 12. 17. or way to change his mind forever the Apostle concludes this to be the defilement of many that is to say of all the world for so the word many is taken Rom 5. 18. We would think that man a fool that went about to teach any humane art to another if he did not conclude that the principles thereof were wrapt up as in a bud in the disciple and he only indeavours the drawing of them out in their proper luster and use otherwise a man might as well set himsâ—lf awork to teach a dog or a horse humane arts who are altogether destitute of that proper nature in which they are only found and if we understand the bud we see the whole tree therein and wrong the bud if we give it not the glory of it And though a grain of mustardseed be one of the smallest seeds yet it hath branches for the fouls of heaven to make their lodging in the branch or under the shadow of it Matt. 13 31. unto which Christ compares the kingdome of heaven So that if we give not the whole glory of the kingdome unto the seed in which it is involved we give not the seed its proper right and due which belongs unto it but are faâ—sifiers of the word of God And no man can look upon a Saint destitute of the seed of God 1 Iohn 3. 9. nor void of the Spirit of God Rom. 8. 9. he therefore that gives not the seed the glory of the whole off-spring of God he wrongs the kingdome and is a false interpreter and he that denies the Spirit of God the compleat life and virtue of the Son of God he is a false expounder of the work and operation of God and so is under that grand condemnation Matth. 23. 14. of the devil That ministry therefore that spends its time study and care in seeking and hoping for the transfusing of the Spirit of Christ into such hearts
more he imbraceth and approveth the wisdome of God the more he rejects and disallows the wisdome of the serpent 2. Cor. 11. 3. All Humane institutions reformations outward ordinances and bodily exercises practised as the scope and proper intent of the mind of God and so to conform our selves to God thereby come under this censure of the Son of God as a woful and hypocritical cleansing 2. In the second place therefore is brought in the manner of their cleansing and that is the outside things temporary and perspicuous to humane reason and to common or profane understanding therefore our Apostle saith that we look not upon things which are seen but on things which are not seen for the things that are seen are temporary but the things which are not seen are eternal 3. The third point is what they cleanse and that is the cup and platter by cup or viol in Scripture is understood a full draught or portion of any thing either joyous or sorrowful either a full measure of blessing or of the curse Psalme 16. 5. Psalme 11. 6. Psalme 23. 5. Psalme 75. 8. for the word of God is that cup of salvation Psalme 116. 13. containing the fulness of Gods bounty and liberal distributions unto his people And it is that cup of the curse filled with the dregs of that red wine of Gods displeasure which all the wicked of the earth shall suck and wring them out Psalme 75. 8. Therefore the Hebrew word Mizrak and the Greek Phialee hath the name of pouring out as in abundance so often used by the Apostle in Revel the 16. in pouring out the cups or viols of Gods wrath Again the word platter or charger in Hebrew Keghnarah and sometimes Cappoth signifies hollowness as the hollow of the hand or of a spoon as having a capacity to contain matter to be ministred for food and the Greek word Trublion used also by Christ Matthew 26. 23. Intimating it to be of such capacity that divers hands may be upon it not only Christ to dip therein but also Judas the one exercised in the food of eternal life the Spirit of God in prophesie signifying aforehand what Judas should do unto him the other receiving a sop of eternal death in which Satan makes entire who never rests till through dissimulation he hath betrayed the Lord Jesus to his own distruction In which platter dish or continent of the word of God the hands of all men are either in reception of the food of eternal life whereby they are strengthened and fitted for the work of the Lord or else they receive that bitter water of the curse to make them to swell and burst with Judas so as in him all hypocritical and dissembling confessours are made known Iohn 6 51. Numb 5. 27. Acts 1. 18 19. who seek only to purifie and cleanse according to the visible and outward form of expressions in the word of God but never look into that hidden mystry of that spiritual state and body of Christ which is the proper scope and intent of them all 1 Cor. 2. 7. 1 Pet. 3. 4. Revel 2. 17. 4. The fourth point is the manifestation of the inside of this manner of cleansing and that is fulness of bribery and excess 1. For they are full of bribery or extortion this word is of double signification for it declares how false interpretours come to God in all their indeavours as directed unto him and that is with a spirit of bribery for in all their prayers fasts thanksgivings sacraments and services their proper indeavour is to corrupt the Lord even the God of Justice and all purity in putting their services into his hand to divert him from judging according to the law of the Spirit which they call heresie Acts 24. 14 and to draw him to judge of things according to the law of the flesh in which their proper cause depends and doth consist And hence it is that Balak and Balaam indeavoured what in them lay by gifts sacrifices services and southsaying to curse that spirituall state and camp of Israel and to make it abominable and themselves acceptable before the Lord read Numbers 22. and 23. chapters And thus they are full of bribes inwardly in that they give them with desire to prevaricate the law of the Spirit to establish the law of the flesh which desires and wisdome of the flesh are enmity against God because they are not subject to the law of God neither indeed can be Rom. 8. 7. Again these men are also full of the receiving of bribes for they do nothing but out of hope and gain and receiving reward as they are related both to God and man and therefore such Balaamites are said to have forsaken the right way and are gone astray following the way of that son of Bossor who loved the wages of unrighteousness 2 Pet. 2. 15. whereas the people of God perform their works not looking for any thing again which distinguisheth them from the mercinary sinners and wicked of the world by Christ his own testimony Luke 6 34 35 36. Yea the Saints act in all things as in that proper sphere or element wherein their natural life consisteth as they are of that fountain of Israel Psalme 68. 26. and that off-spring Royal being the sons of God 3 Iohn 1. 12 13. To whom it is as natural to be exercised in wayes of worship and works of mercy as for a father to lay up for his children or the Sun to shine in the firmament without looking for any thing to be brought in thereby and added unto it self For the Saints of God move to declare what they are through grace in Christ and not to make themselves to be something which as yet they are not 2 Cor. 12. 14 15. Psalme 19. 4 5 6. 1 Cor. 15. 10. for that according to which they reckon and account of themselves is of God and not of man Galat. 1. 11. 2. Again as the word bribe imports extortion that filthiness also is in these interpretours in all their outgoings under pretence of being sent out from God for so they assume the names titles attributes and offices proper to the Lord Christ as Bishop Pastour Teacher Priest Prophet King Lord Ruler and the like which they extort violently pull from and rob the Lord Christ of who never gave nor appointed those terms titles and offices to any that serves in the earthly tabernacles or rule according to the carnal commandment and transitory office and imployment so that they are full of extortion and robbery also for never was the name of any thing given by God but the nature of the thing was found under it else should it be a vain title and if the name of God be given to any where his nature and spirit is not under it there is found nothing but a vain Idol or thing of nought what show or comportment soever it may seem to bear in the eye of the world Lastly these interpretours
maintain a King of Saints as one having rule of all and also a brotherhood of first-born having an equal share interest and act in all yet both can stand together in Christ they cannot make the woman subject unto the man obeying Abraham calling him Lord as giving him all honour and yet make her the mother of all the Israel of God as coming down from heaven having no more help of man then the Virgin hath who knows not a man in the conception and bringing forth of the Son of God or as Deborah who bears away the glory of the field they know not how to make the husband and the wife of equal authority that howsoever Pharaohs daughter forsakes her fathers house and kindred to submit only unto the glory wealth and wisdome of Solomon yet it is she that constitutes her sons as princes in all lands Psalme 45. as though no husband were concerned in any of them They cannot make the condition of a widow so honourable as a wife which she is if she be a widow indeed 1 Tim. 5. 3. For as her first husband the law of the carnal commandment is dead unto her so the rule and government of the whole house of God is upon her not being subject to any Tutour or governour but hath the power in her own hand and in her dispose which is no less honourable then Sarah to acknowledge Lordship and obedience Yea the woman can order and dispose of all things in the family yea clothe her husband and houshold in scarlet so that he is known by her when he sitteth in the gate Prov. 31. 10 31. The interpretours cannot see alike riches and honour in the diligence of a servant as in the command and authority of the master they cannot make a child newly born and a son newly given to be the everlasting father with an eternal government upon his shoulder The mighty God the prince of peace Isay 9. These things are parables unto carnal reason the rule by which false interpreters work by and therefore cannot make equal and even the things of God not knowing alike worth in the Son of God in whatsoever he is expressed They are full therefore of iniquity inequality and partiality ascribing excellency or baseness to things as it may serve only for the excellency and glory of the flesh in maintaining an earthly fading and tottering kingdome For they know not how to exalt every valley nor how to bring low every mountain and hill and to make the crooked streight and the rough places smooth and plain and therefore cannot make in the desert a path for our God Isay 49 3 4. and as they cannot equalize nor skilfully poise and make of like worth and weight all things in the word of God No more do they know how to reconcile or bring into agreement and mutual love and peace God and man but leave them at a perpetual jar and enmity and so are full of iniquity as it is considered sin in missing of Gods mind and intent or as it may imply punishment for sin procured and brought down upon men thereby Gen. 15. 16. Exod. 20. 5. Levit. 7. 18. false interpretation is full both of the one and the other The last thing to be observed in this point of application of the Metaphor of the grave unto the present purpose and persons is this that whatsoever the wisdome of God takes up and makes use of for the expressing of it self whether things in heaven or in earth or under the earth whether relations representations or acts done whether they appear to be evil or good acceptable or lothsome in the judgement of man as a grave becomes both it is a thing acceptable to bury the dead out of our sight Gen. 23. 3. 4. and it is lothsome to open and behold the putrifactions of the creature even of our own kind as in this place whatsoever it be that the word of God sounds in or utters it self by it is never brought into its proper sence nor interpreted according to its proper intent till it be brought unto the state and condition of mankind and so unto the state of the Son of God which the first man is said to be Luke 3. 38. which is found either in a state of death as false interpretours crucifie him afresh unto themselves Hebr. 6. 6. or else in a state of life as risen from the dead Rom. 8. 34. Coll. 3. 1. for man is either to be considered in the word of Gods wisdome possessed with eternal life according to the proper nature of that word or else the Son of God is formed by mans wisdome and so mortallized in and unto man whereby man comes to be possessed with an eternal death and these two conditions utter themin the world from the foundation thereof for the preaching of a true Apostle is not in the inticing words of mans wisdome but in plain evidence of the spirit and of power 1 Cor. 2. 2. it is not the wisdome of this world neither of the princes of this world that comes to naught but we speak the wisdome of God in a mystry even the hid wisdome which God hath determined before the world to our glory 1 Cor. 2. 6 7. So that as the word of God springs originally from the form of Gods wisdome in Christ who is the true mind and manifestation of the father and fountain of all things So it terminates it self in nothing as its proper scope and true intent but in the same form of Gods wisdome in the Son and we may as well conclude that some of the words of God in the beginning were framed by some other wisdome then the wisdome of God which were to frame and set up a gross Idol in the place of God for the Psalmist affirms that in wisdome of God made them all Psalme 104. 24. as to conclude that the word of God lodgeth it self in any thing as its proper intent and aim save only that form of Gods wisdome which he hath only contrived in his Son Christ and is not elsewhere to be found and a like indignity is offered unto the Son of God in denying him to be the end of all things as to deny him to be the Authour and beginning of all things as he is that everlasting father Isa 9. 6. those then who build transitory fabricks by ingaging mens consciences unto the labour of the work by the word of God as by intending the erecting of that fading form they do nothing else but bless an Idol which is nothing in the world 1 Cor. 8. 4. for it is the vanifying of the word and work of God to themselves and such as follow them therefore such false interpretours are such as bring their brethren to destruction or perdition therefore the Apostle useth the same word to such Idol worshipers and interpretours signifying what their word brings them unto namely to the state of Jadas where the same word is used of him
carnal Christ 2 Cor. 5. 16. then is his life and spirit taken away for not to give it to him is to take it away and so the true Prophet is slain and crucified for deny a Plant its residency in the earth and ye kill the Plant deny a Fish her being in the water and you kill the Fish deny the spirit of God its reall residency and aboad throughout the whole Confines and Circumference of Christ his mystical and spirituall body and you kill the spirit of Christ and have murthered the true Prophet in your selves Count therefore and reckon if you can how many killers and murtherers of the Prophets there is extant at this day who would be counted men that maintain their lives and say if we had been in the dayes of Saul Ahab Iezabel and Herod we would not have done as they did or in the dayes of the Scribes Pharisees Elders Lawyers and High Priests we would not have done as they did the proper plea of all such persons as these were is to kill the spirit of the word build up the tomb of the letter 2 They do not kill but crucifie those that are sent unto them that is they nail or fasten them to the crosse or to the Gibbet as the word Crosse signifies or Gallows which is the shamefulest Engines that man wisdom can devise to erect to take away the lives of such as are Enemies unto or Troublers of a state a death fitter for a dog than a man made in the image of God a sensible and intelligible man cannot but be ashamed of his own kind as he is a man to see a man bearing his form and visage to hang upon the gallows it is the shame of man and therefore Christ is said to be made a curse in that he was hanged on a tree Deut. 21. 23. Gal. 3. 13. Now the crucifying or nailing of the man of God unto the Crosse or hanging him on a tree is the greatest shame can be done to the Son of God which is by false interpretation of the word of God placing the glory of God a consisting in his humane offices and institutions which is indeed the proper shame of the Son of God to account or esteem of him according to any momentany or transient thing whose Kingdome is eternall Dan. 4. 3. 34. Heb. 1. 8. and therefore not of this world Iohn 18. 36. for it affords nothing whereof a Kingdome of that nature can be composed or ordered but is the very inlet of the curse and the proper maintainer thereof in the world being that whereunto the spirit of the word is fastened unto the giving up of the ghost of all those proper vertues livelihood appertaining unto the same in all those who are proper actors in tying the spirit and intent of the word of God unto the outward form of words Grammatical and Logical construction of the Scriptures who teach that the curse consists in being void and destitute of temporary Ordinances power and glory had and maintained by such institutions and that they are cursed who seek to blast and cause to wither such manner of glory in whomsoever it is promoted as chief to bear sway which is no more but to follow the Lords direction in giving Caesar his due in that which belongs unto him Matthew 22. verse 20. where Christ brings in Caesar in opposition unto God and if all manner of good be due unto God and belong unto him we must give him the glory and right of it all and then none belongs to any other therefore the due of Caesar must be all evill according to the nature of that spirit which thus comes to insnare Christ therefore nothing but p I de and cruelly subtle and mischievous devises and enterprises is to be expected or looked for from the world wherever the glory of it bears sway and the image and superscription of the Son of God is not found who is the brightnesse of the glory of the father which no man ever saw at any time neither can a carnall eye behold it and live Heb. 1. 3. Iohn 1. 18. 1 Iohn 4. 12. Exod. 33. 20. And therefore it is that the glory of the world which is obvious unto man doth vomit the spirit of the word of God out of their proper state and condition as an accursed and pernicious thing as an enemy to Caesar a Sectary Schismaâ—ick-babler broacher of new Opinions a fellow of no learning or else too much learning hath made him mad an Allegorizer of the Scriptures or spiritual Leveller though he meddle not with temporary privileges and carnall interests therefore it was that they hanged Christ upon a Tree between Heaven and Earth as cast out of their jurisdiction as being no part of their Kingdom and glory neither in point of subjection nor rule and command and as the Revolution of the Heavens serve to putrifie and corrupt a dead body hanged upon a Tree so is it with the revolutions of all wicked states in the world who corrupt and falsifie the word of God in all their motions they corrupt and putrifie that mysticall body of Christ unto themselves and become as guilty as those wicked Iews in putting the innocent unto a cruel and shameful death because his doctrine exalts the glory of God which is eternall wherein the life of Christ consists and abaseth the glory of the world which is temporary in which glory the life of Antichrist doth consist yet it is not denyed but a Servant of Christ may use the glory of the world in the outward â—orm thereof as though he used it not 1 Cor. 7. 31. taking it up only as a vanishing vapour even as a limb of Antichrist may use the name of God when he makes small account thereof but his heart is after the workes and power of Satan Ezekiel 33. 30 -33 Mat. 27. 22. 23. And because of this nailing of Christ unto the Crosse fastning his glory upon temporary and carnal things he complains against such wicked and carnall Iewes saying they pierced my hands and my feet Psalm 22. 16 that is as the feet are the instruments of motion and the hands of skilfull operation and curious works which being nailed unto a Tree there is a cessation of both so this fastning of the Spirit and glory of the word of God upon humane and carnall things as though that were the Law of the spirit of Life this takes away all that proper motion and skilfull operation which the Lord Iesus hath exercised in his Saints from the foundation of the world making a nullity of them all Therefore contrary unto this Christ nails this Law of the carnal Commandement standing in the Ordinances of men that handwriting which is against us unto that his Crosse where he is crucified in point of all spirituall life and exercise which is that accursed thing Col. 2. 14. Gal. 3. 13. even that glory of the world preverted before the glory of the Son
vanity or emptinesse through one eternall act God is truly said to fill all things through that descension and ascension of his Son Christ Ephes 4. 10. therefore Cain is said to be a possession and Seth a set one for hereby both life and death are possessed and eternally inherited That is life in that way of Seth wherin the generation of the son of God is found as the off-spring of Adam from the creation of all things firmly founded for ever and death in that way of Cain as one cast out from the family and face of God being become a Vagabond in whom Satan that son of perdition is as another generation and off-spring from the foundation of the world therefore Satan is said to be a lyer from the beginning Iohn 8. 44. as it is said of Christ in the beginning was the Word Iohn 1. 1. the one being called the seed of the Woman the other the seed of the Serpent Gen. 3. 15. Cain therefore being thus cast out and alienated from the Lord he names no house nor family from which he had his wife to signifie that he was quite cut off from the family of his father and from the creation of God Gen. 4. 16. 17. And therefore God arraigns mankind in this way of Cain concerning his sin and guilt and gives him up to be both Iudg and also Executioner in himself arguing himself in his own conscience a sinner and exercising wrath upon himself for it Gen. 4. 6. 16. for it is God in Christ who is the party offended and therefore another and not properly Christ the Saviour who sentenceth to death and performs execution therefore as God is considered in Christ he is no more the proper Judge of the wicked than he is the proper Executioner of wrath and he saith of himself in that respect anger or fury is not in me Isai 27. 4. And the Iudge and the Executioner are ever considered as one for the Iudge gives not sentence but with respect to the Executioner for otherwise his sentence is not in force Therefore it may seem strange that the Hangman sits not on the bench with the Iudge to communicate in the sentence of the Law to know upon what grounds he executes without the knowledge whereof he is no better than a Murderer as well as the Iudge hath respect to the Executioner for the finishing and perfecting of his sentence or else he is no better than a competitor with a murderer if execution be not done where just demerits appear The party offended therefore which is Christ is not the proper Iudge of the wicked no more than he hath that servile office upon him of being their Executioner for it is the proper officeof the Devil both to accuse and torment Rev. 12. 10. therefore his name in Hebrew is Abaddon and in Greek he is called Apollyon that is destroying Revelations 9. 11. 2 In the condemnation of the wicked there must be nothing sound in the fact of putting Christ to death that can savour of any goodnesse to him that condemns for then pure severity and strictnesse of justice to the uttermost cannot take place to answer that mercy exercised in Christ who is said to save to the uttermost and farthest extent Heb. 7. 25. and so must condemnation come upon the wicked unto the uttermost 1 Thes 2. 16. But God in Christ cannot behold that act of the world in crucifying of Christ but he must behold that voluntary act of his holy Son laying down his life therein as the Lamb of God taking away the sins of the World in that his being a ransome for all the Elect and chosen of God Iohn 1. 29. Hosea 13. 14. Mat. 20. 28. Therefore the sentence of death and execution of wrath must needs reside properly in the wicked themselves in whom is nothing but wrath and cruelty nor can they behold any thing that should in the least asswage or diminish the same and therefore it is wrath to the uttermost even as the Saints cannot behold any thing in Christ that may impaire or diminish their joy and therefore it is salvation to the uttermost 3 Consider that in the sentence of absolution it must be uttered compleatly in the party acquitted otherwise if any title thereof should reside in or concern an other then the party acquitted had not the full possession and fruition thereof and then it were not salvation to the uttermost in case the sentence both as it is given and also as it is received were not found in him who is acquitted the absolver and the absolved being one which is only found in that throne of grace erected in Christ where the boldnesse of him that appeals and him who is appealed unto are but one Heb. 4. 16. otherwise the King Christ could not be said to come in saving himself as the holy Ghost affirms he doth Zachary 9. 9. Likewise in the way of death and condemnation it cannot be full unlesse the sentence and the sentenced be in one the party condemning and condemned the Iudge and the Executioner else wrath cannot be to the uttermost as the wrath of God who is infinite and everlasting without limitation in all things thence it is that Christ saith to the wicked Iews even of our times I condemn you not there is one that condemns you even Moses in whom you trust Iohn 4. 45. That is the word of God according to the letter that kils 2 Cor. 3. 6. the word carnalized as those wicked Iews did the writings of Moses to the crucifying of the Son of God by their law Iohn 19. 7. Iohn 12. 34. so falsely interpreted Those then that are said to be on Christs left hand that are condemned the sentence ariseth and is utered from the curse which is not in any other but in themselves Go ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devill and his Angels Matthew 25. 41. So likewise to them on his right hand the invitation and blessing in their absolution and entrance into the Kingdom ariseth out of the blessed estate which is not in any other but in the parties blessed Maâ— 25. 34. So that the word of God preacheth it self and gives sentence according to the proper subject in whom it is both in point of life as also of death of life in the true interpretation thereof according to Gods minde and intent which is never out of but in himself who is blessed for ever Rom. 9. 5. and so is that truth and life which Christ affirms himself to be Iohn 14. 6. And it gives sentence of death in them by whom it is falsely interpreted for in them it proves a lie which the Devill is said to be Iohn 8. 44 and so it becomes to all them in whom it is falsely constructed and interpreted We conclude then that there is a righteousnesse in Hebel according to his name in Hebrew or in Abel according to the Greek or a righteousness in vanity or emptiness the name
and the adjunct being but one yea even the Son of God is made vain and empty to the end he may fill all things and is made nothing that he may substantiate all things for so much is in those words translated he was made of no reputation that is he was made vain empty nothing as the word signifies that is he is nothing in point of the spirit and life in the wicked that they may be filled with horrour mortality and wrath and he is nothing in point of the flesh and glory of man in the godly that they may be filled with the fulnesse of God in immortality and eternal life and peace and so much for present concerning the word Abel together with the adjunct righteous Abel The second point concerns the manner of this fact of murthering the Prophets which either aggravates or extenuates an act and that is said to be from blood to blood that is from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zacharia By Abels blood here that is his slaughter we are to understand the sacrifice for which he was slain for Cain slew him for the goodnesse of his work or offering 1 Iohn 3. 12. now we know that Christ is the sacrifice offered as really as he is the Sacrificer that offers it therefore in Abel he is said to be a Lamb slain from the beginning Rev. 13. 8. also our Apostle affirms that Christ our Passeover is Sacrificed for us 1 Cor. 5. 7. where he concludes him to be the Sacrifice so that the slaughter of Abel is the unnaturall murthering of the true offering or that illegall enmity which Cain hath against Christ being brought in as the only acceptable thing unto God for he that hates his brother is a Murtherer and we know that no Murtherer hath eternall life abiding in him 1 Iohn 3. 15. For Abel bringing the firstling of the Flock which is the first-born of God not at Cain was the prime according to the judgment of the flesh as one judged who the Apostle saith was deceived 2 Cor. 11. 3. But he is the first born or he that opens the womb of eternall generation and true off-spring of God to appear in mankind and that by emptying man of all humane and temporary glory and excellencies to be filled and replenished with the glory of God only in the excellencies of his holy Spirit in all the operations thereof and the nature of that firstling Cain could never abide who is that first-born after the flesh and judgment of humane wisdome who builds Cities and severall Orders and Institutions calling them by the name given to his Son to glorifie himself in an Off-spring of mortall and carnall things Gen. 4. 17. calling this City Enoch or according to the Hebrew Chanoch that is catechised instructed or dedicated as the same posterity do at this day set up new forms and orders of Religion as Monuments to declare unto men that they are the initiaters into Religion and the only Chatechizers and Instructers of the World so as the posterity to come must keep their order and walke only in their steps as Cain made provision for his Son so to do Again Christ is not only made vain according to all carnall things in this his offering in his whole and intire mysticall body but also he becomes bereaved of all things of the spirit in wicked men who are void of all the operations thereof that so the depths of Satan may take place which is as much as to say the Creator and giver of life and being to all things is become death as also in that way of Christ that the Creature is become eternall life which can have no other sound in a carnall ear but as though the Creator were dead and the Creature become God which Cain in all his Off-spring could never indure to hear of neither of the one nor of the other for in the one the glory of man is consumed as the grasse Isaiah 40. 6. which humane wisdome can never indure and in the other stands the shame of Satan in the quenching of all the fruits of the spirit which the pride of man can never indure but utterly denies both the one and the other to be the true Off-spring and Sacrifice of the Son God yea rejects and contemns and is in enmity against them both which enmity is the slaughter of the Son of God as he hath given himself to be this firstling offered for the redemption of his chosen ones for he that hates his brother kils him 1 Iohn 3. 15. as well as he that lookes upon a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her in his heart already Mat. 5. 28. even so he that hath enmity against the sacrifice of God he hath strangled it in his heart already and not taken away the blood according to Gods order and appointment which is one of those great and unsufferable abominations of the world Acts â—5 20. 25. joyned with idolatry fornication and bloodshed And thus is Abels blood shed by every false construction and interpretation of that one only and once offered Sacrisice of Christ by such as wander therein according to the way of Cain Jude 11. even the men of the World those first-born of Egypt in regard of wealth honour and humane learning who would make men beleeve thereby that they are the first-born of Israel who bring earthly momentany and transient fruits unto God as an acceptable Sacrifice as Cain did therefore they rest not in their enmity against and deniall of the true sacrifice as that Lamb slain from the beginning but they proceed also to the taking away of the life of the Sacrificer who offers the Sacrifice wherein observe that Christ is as really the Priest that offers as he is the Sacrifice offered therfore he is said to be our high Priest as well as our Passeover Heb. 2. 17. Heb. 3. 1. Heb. 4. â—4 Therefore the blood of the Priest is brought in upon the same account against them who slew Abel that they have also slain Zachariah the son of Barachiah as being that holy Prophet and Priest of God the cause and manner of whose death is recorded in that second of Chronicles Chapter twenty four So that whosoever he be that dislikes and contemns the true and reall Sacrifice offered unto God he also contemns the true Priest and Sacrificer yea whosoever is officiated by the spirit of God to be exercised in and about the offering up of the same That Christ is a Priest and the only and alone Priest in all ages is most evident where it is said the Lord hath sworn and will not repent saying Thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchizedeck Psalm 110. 4. compared with Hebrews 7. 1. 2. 3. verses see also Hebrews 7. 15. 16. 17. Yea he is our high Priest in point of offering all true Sacrifice as well as the Captain of our salvation to lead us on into all conquest
God or in the mystery of iniquity namely the root and the branch the mother as City order and her children so that as false Teachers look back they are the children of an accursed mother or seed of an adulterous law of the carnall commandement and as they look forward at the fruit and off spring of their doctrine so they are the root or mother City of an accursed off-spring whose inhabitants are no other than the accursed Iebusites enemies to Ierusalem that is above and to the Israel of God Gal. 4. 26. Gal. 6. 16. This City therefore namely Ierusalem ordered by the law of a carnall commandement which is to expound the bond and tie of the word of God as Gods intent to stand in the relation of one Creature to another in any thing wherein God expresseth himself This City is not only that mystery Babylon the â—reat the mother of Harlots and all abominations of the Earth Rev. 17. 5. But it is also the mother of all murthers and therefore called the City of bloods in the form plurall Ezek. 17. 2. Nahum 3. 1. and therefore wo is denounced against her as the bloody City Ezek. 24. 6. 9. And so much for the acclamation and ingemination of the phrase Oh Ierusalem Ierusalem and hence it is that Christ brings in that just and deserved charge which is the second point Thou that killest the Prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee wherein observe two things first that they kill the Prophets secondly that they stone them who are sent unto them 1 They kill the Prophets for this order and City government contrived by the letter of the Scripture for the maintaining of the glory wealth honour of the Creature cannot preserve it self therein but by imprisoning or cutting off what ever seems to impaire the same Now the wisdome of God which hath placed all honour wealth and happinesse only in things that indure for ever cannot but vilifie and bring to nought all fading and transient things and therefore our Apostle affirms that the wisdom of the Princes or most excellent and men of esteem of this world comes to nought 1 Cor. 2. 6. Therefore the orders and institutions of this City that is of all carnall policies and states leaning only upon the letter of the Scripture must of necessity bend their force against that wisdome and word of eternity as the only enemy of their pomp and glory being a shame and dishonour to all earthly excellency and beauty even as the glory and splendour of the Sun at noon day abaseth the appearance of a candle for the carnall laws and institutions of the world cannot retain their force if the wisdom of God take place therefore this Ierusalem in erecting of her orders and ordinances perishable she must terminate the word of God in them as the intent thereof or else they are not in force to insnare the conscience neither would they otherwise appear of any more worth than the laws given to the beasts of the field or the fowls of heaven which is neither sin to break simply considered nor righteousnesse to fulfill therefore they are bonnd over by the law of a carnall commandement to terminate the mind and will of God in humane orders and institutions in the neglect and rejecting of that glory of God which appears in Iesus Christ disallowing and disanulling in themselves that eternall word and law of the spirit of life which is in Iesus Christ Rom. 8. 2. which only frees from the law of sin and death and wheresoever that law is not acknowledged there sin reigns Now whosoever nullifies the spirit and life of the Scriptures by erecting a carnall commandement he therein nullifies the true spirit of prophecy and he that nullifies the spirit of the Prophets he takes away the life of the Prophets and so becomes a Murtherer of all the Prophets for the spirit of the Scriptures is of that comprehension in the true intent thereof as that it is the only life of all Prophets in every age of the world without any alteration of Gods proper intent therein no more than there was ever found salvation in any other but only Iesus Christ Acts 4. 10. 11. 12. And therefore every carnall spirit is bound over for the conservation of humane order in the erecting and maintaining thereof upon its proper principles to extinguish and put out the proper life and spirit of the Scriptures otherwise he cannot maintain his laws in force according to the nature of them in their height and glory which man naturally strives after and can never attain unto any eminency therein but by quenching of the spirit of God and despising true prophecy 1 Thes 5. 19. â—0 and all transitory Rites and Ordinances erected and maintained as carrying in them the scope of the word of God are as so many Engines and instruments appointed ordered and maintained for that very end and purpose wherewith they kill the spirit of the Prophets in preferring the dead carkasse and setting up a dumb Image before the spirit and reall substance 2 Therefore Christ addes the second act in his charge against them telling them that they are such as stone them that are sent unto them we heard before how true Prophets are said to be sent to these wicked Scribes and Pharisees as they are the off-spring of the Serpent and of such fathers as killed the Prophets and here it is said they are sent to the originall and mother of them that is Ierusalem from whom they spring whence we may observe that the Spirit and life of the word of God doth not only enterprise to solicite the world to break off and turn from their grosse aberrations and exorbitancies but also to reverse and repeal those Laws and Orders from whence they spring as things of no account in the Kingdome of God nor is there any justice oâ— righteousnesse to be expected from any humane or literall institution or order further than it is used by him who hath that spirit of the righteousnesse of faith to be his Instructer therein therefore it is that Christ affirms that in the Kingdome of God there is neither marriage nor giving in marriage but are as the Angels of God in Heaven and to be ignorant of this point is to be ignorant of the Scriptures and of the power of God Mat. 22. 29. 30. that is in case men acknowledge not that any temporary relation simply considered attains not unto the end of the law of God for men knowing the Scriptures and the power of God cannot but see and acknowledg that For shall we think that marriage which is the way of the multiplication of man and so the ground of all humane institutions is any point of the proper end of the law of God when as it is plain that Christ is the end of the law for righteousnesse Rom. 10. 4. but marriage as a humane act may attaine its end in a wicked man as well as in a just
out of an unclean and corrupt Fountain or habitation for Earth holds no correspondencie nor hath any congruity with Heaven the Creature with the Creator but falls infinitely short in all things not a blemish forbidden in all the Sacrifices and Offerings but in that respect he hath the defect superfluity and defilement upon him yet doth he corrupt a pure and holy thing in himself and unto himself namely the holy Word of God in the false construction thereof so that as this unclean Spirit corrupts a pure Word of Eternity in it self mortalizing it by putting it into a human form so also its return is into an house of uncleanness of like antiquity in point of the state of death and mortality and so is truly said to go out of an unclean habitation which never was otherwise and yet he makes it unclean and desolate of all the things of God unto himself by false interpretation bringing the will of God unto the mind of the Creature and not the mind of the Creature to the will of God But the Spirit of Christ coming out of a clean Fountain even from God himself and therefore is said to come forth from God and go to God Ioh. 13. 1. yet doth he purifie in himself that which by nature is otherwise unclean namely the spirit of man else were he not the son of Man as he is called a matter of eighty eight several times in the Prophecie of Ezekiel and according to the eternity of that Word or Spirit that purifies such is the state and condition of the purified for they are no more twain but one Mat. 19. 6. And thence it is that Man who otherwise is mortal lives an eternal and immortal life being that the Wisdom of God hath formed his mind according to the Will of God and not to the will or law of a creature and so Man in Christ who otherwise is mortal lives for ever and knows no death no more than En ch did Gen. 5. 24. who was translated that he should not see death Heb. 11. 5. That is that he should never tast of it or feel the nature thereof so the Psalmist saith Tast and see how gracious the Lord is Psal 34. 81. And the Son of God who otherwise is immortal doth in that way of Antichrist dye an eternal death where never any life appears but a mortal state and condition of like time of him who is mortalized therefore they are said to go into everlasting fire which must have respect to time past as well as time to come Mat. 25. 41. Therefore Tophet is prepared of old or of antiquity or from eternity as the word imports yea it is prepared for the King the burning whereof is fire and much wood and the breath of the Lord as a River of Brimstone kindles it Isaiah 30. 33. So that as antient as the breath of the Lord is so antient is that place of abode for the wicked therefore a full measure of wrath in point of time as well as present torment So that unclean spirit is said to take seven spirits worse than himself that is fulness of uncleanness and vexation which a creature simply considered could never have therefore his going out in the matters of God in a carnal manner is the way of his multiplication of mischief in himself therefore his house is empty and swept of all the things of God but furnished with all uncleanness and wickedness suitable to that unclean and wicked condition therefore the end of that man is worse than his beginning for the original and proper ground ofthis abomination ariseth from the creature whichin it self is but a finite thing as all other creatures are but his end and scope being to adorn himself with God in making him like to himself as the Psalmist speaks Psal 50. 21. thence it is that God becomes a fearfull and infinite death and torment to him which all the creatures in the world could never be And of such nature and concernment is the house or habitation of these false Teachers which is left unto them or in them desolate of all the things proper to God and filled with all the things of Satan even as Iudas was to become his own Executioner and the bursting of him in sunder that all men might see his abomination and shame who is said to goe to his own place Act. 1. 25. as one laid waste of all Apostleship and Ministry in the Faith of Christ and therfore his proper inheritance or habitation yeelds him nothing that is holy or profitable to Minister but is voyd and desolate of all Neither hath he any life or spirit to move or act in the things of God though tendred unto him for he is dead and gone to his own place and office of an eternal executioner of himself And this is the desolation of the habitation applied to Iudas the false and counterfeit betrayer of Christ with a kiss which Christ applyes hereunto all false Interpreters of the Word of God in these Scribes and Pharisees who faun upon Christ in their Doctrin in all lowly demeanour to maintain uphold him in the ways of the flesh by things mortal momentary therby give a sign unto the world for the betraying of that life and spirit of the Son of God into the cruel hands of the wicked that the law of the Spirit or Christ taught after the Spirit wilnot be suffered or endured among them the habitation of such Confessors Pharisees or Preachers of Christ with Iudas is left unto them desolate without any in-dwellings of the Spirit of God with them or any building up of the House of God by them but ruination of themselves and others with Iudas who are their maintainers and upholders The Reason of this Desolation and Destruction follows For ye shall not see me henceforth Whence observe that the want of Christs sight and revelation in the world is the cause of all ruin and desolation of the world as Christ affirms Without me saith he ye can do nothing Ioh. 15. 5. It is alike true without me ye have nothing without me ye are nothing Christ is unto man that Microsmos or little world as the Sun in the Firmament is unto this spherical world take away and annihilate the one or the other and all things therin perish and come to ruin Want of true Revelation is the cause of all Desolation and Destruction By seeing here we are to understand the communication of the sences The Apostle Paul saw Christ when he went to Damascus even that light that shined about him clearer than the Noon-day for it is said he saw no man Act. 22. 26. Act. 9. 8. That is he saw no humane shape of Christ though he opened his eyes to see but Christ according to the spirit in his mystical body was revealed unto him therefore he saith Am I not aâ— Apostle am I not free have I not seen our Lord Iesus 〈…〉 Cor. 9. 1. Paul alâ—â—â—eard
AN ANTIDOTE Against the Common Plague Of the WORLD OR An Answer to a small Treatise as in water face answereth to face intituled Saltmarsh returned from the dead And by transplacing the letters of his name this is Smartlash Ascend into the throne of equity for the Araignment of false Interpretours of the word of God Summoned out of all ages to appear under the penalty of death challenging the consent or forbidding to gainsay the common approved pâ—iesthood of this age What hast thou done the voice of thy brothers blood cries unto me from the ground Gen 4 10. LONDON Printed by J. M. for A Crook and are to be sold at his shop at the sign of the Green Dragon in Pauls Church-yard 1657. To His Highness OLIVER Lord PROTECTOR Of ENGLAND SCOTLAND and IRELAND with the Dominions thereto belonging I Am in a strait in this mine attempt in daring to dedicate this small piece unto your Highness the spirit of man standing alwayes in such readiness naturally as a croking frog in those Magicians of Egypt to procure the favour of and gain interest in the most publick and eminent men only for private ends and self-respects But the simplicity and singleness of my proper intent is such in this designe together with the freedome of my spirit to prostrate my humble disires in publick view after the prosperity of your Highness in eternal things that I am born up and incouraged hereunto For God hath shewed me what all terrene and temporary affairs amount unto yea even of the greatest men not being used to promote the honour of that one only and eternally anointed For though a man may be but of a low stature even as a shrub in his age in the view and account of men yet if he run well with Zacheus and be take himself to the top of the Sycomore tree he may come to take a just and joyful view of him who is Lord over all though otherwise the press of such as are taller then he may seem to hinder him from coming nearer but if he know the way wherein the Lord passeth along he may take a direct and fruitful view of him notwithstanding the crowd I know not but that God hath made your Highness the mirrour of this age as a so exemplary for that to come wherein the greatest glories of this world in the men thereof may take a true view of their deformed faces and that in the several feitures and figures thereof For I could never learn that you have pursued the honour thereof but only have been constrained through the urgency of a mighty hand of God pursuing your self to yield your self over thereunto when necessitie hath clothed you upon and adorned you therewith Which is a thing rare to be found in this generation or in any age and therefore a myrrour to be looked into and admired with respect unto the best of men also No man can deny but that God hath made you an instrument whereby to work wonderful changes and that in high though transitory affairs making you a terrour to your enemies and in a covert from the storm un o such as profess friendship unto the cause of Christ I must confess that the reports which I have heard the things which I have seen that have proceeded from your own lips as also what I have sensibly felt and tasted of though in a remote corner of the earth have so dissolved my heart to take the impressions thereof that I cannot but perswade my self that your spirit profoundly looks into and is in honourable and skilful motion activity and atchievements in and about that only weighty and great change which concerns the life and death humiliation and raign of the Son of God a change of state carrying in it kingdom power and glory infinitely transcending the rule and protection of England Scotland and Ireland with the dominions thereto belonging For this hath in it reallity of all kingdones in their severall and variouâ— distinctions of glory and power not exempting one of all them which the common adversary the devil proposed unto Christ but the wisdome whereby he presents them would have falsified them unto Christ in point of that whe ein the reallity of power and glory is properly terminated and for ever stands which being truly erected and rightly ordered never departs from you no more then the glory of the conquest and victory together with his strength wisdome and skill to raigne departs from the son of God but abide upon him for ever I durst not presume this small piece to your Highness which was bu briefly uttered according to our poore accustomed indeavours in our dayly exercise without either Library or time to make use of any such things in this rude incumbring and way-less wilderness But that I think it hath in it those two mites which that poor widow cast into the treasury which proved of more worth in Christs acceptation then the offerings of Scribes Pharises and Elders and all the wealthy of the world for she gave out all her living which consisted in two mites the word mite is such a diminative as that it procures and gains all increase for she gives away the wealth and glory of her husband unto diminution which is the riches and glory of the creature in which tender gift or diminution doth consist the Cross of Christ in his death to all carnal and transient things proper to the life and law of the flesh And she throws in all the miseries of mankind which might arise and grow out of her widow-hood and loss of all her former suppl es and excellencies in the loss and diminution whereof the Son of God makes manifest his own riches and power and these are mites or diminutives yea they are individuals we cannot give part of either of them into the treasury according to the nature of an acceptable offering but we must give them all for he hath all our glory humane so as to consume and diminish it upon the altar and he hath all the miseries of man thus offered to diminish it also in the bearing of it away as upon the head of that scape-goat into the wilderness or land of Shiner to set it there upon its proper base Which twain namely temporary ransient glory and misery are all that man lives upon viz. upon his own bodily or humane exercise and doings thinking thereby to obtain the favour of God or else upon his own transient and humane sufferings whereby he hopes to escape the displeasure of God which twain make but one farthing or quadril that is one state or condition of man considered naturally and originally as springing from the earth or that first Adam consisting thereof But being thus cast into the treasury or storehouse of the Son of God it is that one state and condition of Jesus Christ in whose approbation we are received as that widow of threescore yeares of age or above into that house and temple of
never a true account of Stewardship brought in by any imployd about the things of God Thus much through infinite favour and grace God hath revealed unto us that wheresoever that spirit resides not which first framed the mind of the Son of God according to the eternal wisdom to judge of all things as God judgeth the love of God was never shed abroad in that heart for the spirit of faith works by love and where the love of God is not there is the love of this world which is of that wicked ones and the love of the world is enmity with God and the spirit of envy never makes good construction of the expressions of him it doth repugn therefore where the Spirit of Christ resides not there can never be good construction given of the words of Christ for he hath a name given him that none can read but himself and he is called the word of God therefore all other readers are false interpreters and that is the only in let and progress of sin and death in the world unto this day There be many who arogate a Call to interpret the word of God Some holding themselves set a part from the common affairs of this life in such sort as they are not to intermeddle with any temporary occasions but to have all things brought in unto them that concerns this present life by the labours of and means of others who stand not in that relation neither to God nor men which themselves do being men whose Calling is spiritual and therefore not to be imployed about any carnal things assuming Scripture for that purpose not only from the equity of that Law given concerning Levy but also as the Stand in the room of Christ who is of greater deserts to be maintained then Levy was There is one Scripture looks earnestly upon me concerning this Point which such men make great use of to prove their Apostolical Authority to require Tythes Stipends and Contributions together with the honour of the upermost Seats where they come with respect unto the dignity of their Calling and Office above others of the Saints of God in which regard say they all others are become debtors unto them to contribute both wealth and honour for which they aledge as one special ground for such supply as having divine Authority on their side 1 Cor. Cap. 9. Which form of words they deal with as they do with all other expressions in the word of God using it to mans ends and intents and not according to the mind and intent of the Son of God For that which they go about to prove their Calling by to be spiritual and heavenly is a direct Declaration given out by the Spirit of God to prove their Ministry to be carnal and earthly give me leave therefore as briefly as I can to declare from that Scripture what God seems as by his eye to direct and guide unto Our Apostle in the former Chapter sheweth the difference between Knowledge and Knowledge the one in way of the fall of man from God the other in the way of Resurrection and Ascension to God the one puffeth up as an empty blader filled only with wind above others the other is filled with love to edification which ever prostrates it self to the party known where or in whatsoever he appeareth the one sitting at meat or communicating in the Idols Temple the other refusing to eat carnally so long as the world stands rather then to offend the Brother-hood And having concluded that an Idol or an Idolathite for there is a generation of them is nothing in the world and that there is but one God in truth and verity though many do assume the names and titles of that one God yet an Idolathite is nothing in the world though they so assume and arogate the tearms because the Son of God who is the Maker of all things never contributed any thing unto the form thereof no more then it can be said that the holy Son of God did ever give out any thing to the being of the uncleanness of that unclean spirit namely the Devil which an Idol is concluded to be by the Spirit of God for whatsoever the Son of God gives being unto is a work of Creation but an Idol the Devils is that Abaddon and Apollion that is destruction which is nothing of the work of God in Heaven or in earth and so is nothing in the world Therefore but one God or power of Creation of all things for an Idol is the ruin and destruction of Gods proper creating vertue where it is erected which erection of an Idol is to terminate the scope true and proper intent of any part of Gods word in any thing whatsoever besides Jesus Christ and him crucified besides which our Apostle acknowledgeth he desires to know nothing For all other knowledge besides that or without that is thus explained by our Apostle viz. If any man or any thing see thee that hast knowledge or see thee knowledge or thee that art knowledge for such as mans wisdom or knowledge is such is the man for as it gives man his being above all other creatures so it gives distinctions of men among themselves Sit at meat in the Idols Temple that is continue and abide communicating in the word and worship of God as terminating any part of or thing in the Temple or Pallace in any carnal and fading matter or thing Shall not the conscience or shall not that knowing together in thee for there is a unity in Idols worship as certainly as there is in the worship of the true God in spirit and truth Of the weak that is of such as are sick or dead being without and destitute of that healthful Spirit of grace and life in Christ Be imboldned to eat things sacrificed to Idols that is what ever is in thee or belonging unto that assembly of evil doers shall be encouraged to yeild up it self to the Rule of such knowledge for all things in man are governed by wisdom and a spirit of teaching therefore all things concerning the sons of men make their addresses to the light set up in the mind of man of what nature or mind soever it be to take their form receive commission as also instruction for their progress in execution therefore thou Idolatrous knowledg set up in the Idols Temple art become the Authour of destruction for there was never any destroyed since the world was but by this thy knowledge which puffs up with pride as an empty bladder filled with nothing but with the wind of Satannical delusion where the substantiality of the Son of God never was nor never will be Therefore he saith Through thy Knowledge or through this knowledge for the party and property to know are never separated for man is not man but by ability to know and that with respect to a God to be communicated with and worshipped Shall thy weak brother perish for whom Christ dyed that is thou
art the proper destruction of mankind and for to save mankind Christ dyed so that all thy weak brethren sick in soul void of that healthful spirit of grace in Christ who were are or ever shall be thou art the proper inlet of destruction unto them all Yea all for whom Christ died or all in whom Christ dyes that is all in whom Christ dies in regard of all the operations of his Spirit he is dead in them and therefore he thus adds when ye sin thus against your brethren ye sin against Christ that is ye are not the Authours of destruction of such as are near creatures but ye are the Authours of the death and destruction of the Son of God in and unto your selves and all that depend on this Knowledge in whom the life of his Spirit hath no being neither takes it place being tendred unto you Whence our Apostle infers If meat offend my brother that is if communicating in the word of God carnally be the destruction of the Brother-hood as that sacrifices offered by Cain carnally was I will not eat flesh while the world stands that I may not offend my brother that is I will not communicate carnally in the word and worship of God unto eternity that so I may not destroy but save that brother-hood kinded and alyed in Christ as if he should say I will vindicate and cleare the state of the Gospel in the word and worship of God so as never carnal or transitory thing was brought in by God to contribute neither in point of being nor of beauty from the first to the last from the original unto the end thereof And from this our Apostle proves himself to be an Apostle or Leader and examplary by another manner of knowledge and Ministry according to that knowledge and wisdome which transcends the knowledge of all the Idolathites in the world opened and manifested unto us in the nineth Chapter Which he first propounds unto us in a four-fold interrogation Vers 1. Am I not an Apostle Wherein is first magnifical challenge given to all false Apostles or Leaders in that way of Idolatry to bring in all their allegations to the contrary and they shall see them all frustrate and of no value except to convince and condemn themselves thereby Secondly A tryumphant interrogation or confirmation hereof unto all the Saints who can bring in their testimony and be as so many witnesses of the truth hereof being led by the same spirit and therefore eye-witnesses of the same thing 2. Am I not free that is am I not freed from all intanglements of national Priviledges natural Geneologies Families Tribes and Ceremonial Injunctions with which Vers 2. If I be not an Apostle to others or in others that is Affirmatively I am not a leader in that way of the Idolathite which sits in the carnal and idolatrous Temple as the Authour of destruction and leader thereunto Yet doubtless I am unto you that is there is no question or scruple to be made of it but the wisdom wherein I express my self is the very Authour of and Leader of you unto salvation which he confirms by argument and divine reasonings For ye are the seal of mine Apostleship that is there is not any thing which passeth out of the Office of mine Apostleship but it is under the very Prints and Characters wherein the word of God hath impressed and formed it self in your proper estate and condition by Christ in this our Lordship and Authority So that a true Minister of Christ hath the witnes of the Saints of God in all ages of the world for the confirmation of the verity and authority of his Ministry which is That great cloud of witness which compasseth every Saint of God causing them to cast away every thing that presseth down and which hangeth so fâ—st on and to run with patience the race that is set before them yea they witness not only to the truth of the Ministry but also to the manner and form of it both which are only and ever found in Christ Who is yesterdy and to day and the same for ever and that is sufficient testimony and dignity to a Minister of the Gospel so as he rests content with whatsoever befalls him or his portion may seem to be in the things of this presnt life whereas such as terminate the word of God in any thing else besides Christ they will indeavour to invest themselves into any place or dignity amongst men which is above that which at present they are in either in way of Kingdom or Priesthood if by any means they can possibly by that aspiring spirit attain unto it for their Law concludes that the highest place among men is the nearest and likest unto God and therefore binds them over to conform themselves unto God by being invested into the highest place and Office they can attain unto Whereas the Saints of God are of the same Office and Dignity under the same Seal and Authority for there is not one of them but witnesseth the same good confession before Pontius Pylate that is they all oppose the power and authority of God against all power and authority of the wicked world which is of that evil one Vers 3. My defence that is my armour weapons fortress or garrison yea my prasidium that is all manner of defence provision and comfort to answer them that examine me or them that weigh me as upon scales namely the false interpreters or apostles for whatsoever such do to my doctrine they do to me for my doctrine and I are one whatsoever the principles of a mans spirit are the man is not another but the same thing so that they who purposly as by law burn mens doctrine published by printing it in a book they do in the truth of the matter burn the Authour it is good to take heed therefore lest the spirit of God was in the inditing of it so when they weigh doctrine by laying one reason against another and one scripture against another as upon scales such Jewish scales fell from the eyes of our apostle when Christ appeared in the ministry of Ananias when he was filled with the holy spirit whereby a true apostle or minister of the gospel propounds him who is all things in every point of doctrine yea all things that really subsist and exsist in the proper work and Creation of God in Christ and if â—o then what can all false apostles and teachers bring in and lay on the scales against it to try the weight of it surely nothing but vanity emptiness and distraction which can never hold weight with that truth and substance of all things comprised in the doctrine and incomprehensible principles of the Son of God My defence then is this that is to say the sequel of this Chapter or of this whole epistle To prove therefore that mine apostleship stands not upon carnal principles as the ministry of all false apostles doth but upon such as
are spiritual and heavenly I interrogated in the sequel of the Chapter wherein are involved so many effectual and undeniable arguments affirmations and conclusions which are without all gainsayings of any false apostleship or ministry Vers 4 Have not we power to eat and to drink that is have not we who preach the gospel and go upon Gods message and errant sufficient authority liberty and licence to communicate and participate in temporary terrene things for the comfort and sustentation of our bodies being that the earth is the Lords and the fulness of it the world and all that fit therein the interrogation is in the way of a strong affirmation that we have authority and power from God for that purpose Vers 5. Have we not power to lead about a wife that is a sister or women that are sisters that is shall not we enjoy the benefit of humane society for our comfort in companionship in our journeys if they be such as communicates in the faith with us shall any debar them from like authority with us to participate in things common to all creatures and apertaining to this present life doth not God deny us the greater as to be of the faith of Jesus and shall he deny us the less namely the things of this life hath he given us his Son and shall he not in him give us all things Have not we like priviledge as other apostles the brother of our Lord and Cephas who are ministers of the circumcision even brethren of the Lord or such as are kindred of alliance in that brotherhood Lordship proper to the Son of God who is made heir and inheriter of all things doth not our faith and apostleship in that spirituall and miraculous sight of our Lord invest us into his authority rather then any carnall society or naturall alliance as might be considered in James and John and also in Peter that companion of Christ in point of corporeal presence who is here called Cephas which signifies a stone or rock of whom it is said in point of that mutuall confession between Christ and himself that upon that Rock the Church is built namely of the Lord and disciples being one in the foundation and in the top or head stone also against which no power of hell can prevail it is therefore alliance in faith which gives true Lordship and authority in the use of all things and not any naturall distinction humane Relation or companionship whatsoever shall not such therefore have liberty and authority wherever they come to partake in terrene transient things seeing that the earth is the Lords and the fulness thereof that is shall not the state of a Christian be a sufficient testimony that all things shall be in motion to contribute to his conservation in the glory of God whereever he comes without any foreseen tender of the creature certainty of stipend or contribution nor any provision made before Elijah sits down under the Juniper treee if all things were not in motion to preserve that Sonship by faith God should fail of his end for otherwise he had never existed Vers 6. Or I and Barnabas have not we power not to work as if he should say I Paul who am rest and quietness from that spirit of breathing out slaughter against the Saints of God which remains in the carnal Jew or turbulent spirit of Sauls and am ready to give rest where I come and Barnabas joyned with me that Son or seed of consolation from whom springs and grows up comfort unto the Saints in every place where we come and the Son of peace appears have not we liberty and authority to refrain and forbear to labour or to trouble our selves with any other employment but what is of this nature or conduceth thereunto nay the power and authority of the Gospel stands in doing or not to do the same thing in point of bodily exercises according as the hand of God is pleased to present the same unto us Vers 7. Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges who planteth a vineyard and eateth not of the fruit thereof or who feedeth a fl â—k and eateth not of the milk of the flock Vers 8. Say I these things as a man or saith not the law the same also that is I speak not these things as as bounding them within the confines of humane wisdome as man hath respect to eating drinking marrying and giving in marriage bodily labour rest or any such things for therein the law of God doth not consist for there is no proper law of God composed between man and any of the Creatures inferior unto man because the Spirit of God gives the relation of the law of God in all parts and it is not a law but as considered relatively but no creature did ever partake of that Spirit of God but that only which was made in the Image of God namely Man and therefore they are all put under his feet he being Lord over them all and not tied or bound unto any of them but the spirit of God gives the relation of the law of God in all respects as it stands between God and man whether as it comes down from God or goeth up unto God else no proper law of God and of Christ The law of God therefore consists of relation between God and man in all things that are proper thereunto else the law of God would suffer loss in the Saints when they cease to converse with these terrene things but one jot or title of the law shall never fail for it is the Spirit of Christ the Son of eternity which only fulfils the law in every respect and relation He therefore what ever he be that concludes the freedome liberty power authority peace or plenty of the gospel to consist in transitory eating drinking marrying giving in marriage in any bodily labour or cessation and rest in tithes stipends contributions or uppermost seats in the assemblies and synagogues that man propounds a carnal gospel to the world which is not another gospel but it is the gospel perverted ond carnallized wherein salvation did never consist but onely the state of the Curse although it may be brought in as by an angel from heaven in point of humane wisdom and Eloquence according to the judgement of humane reason viewing it For such fruits as we look to receive as the proper priviledges and crop of the gospel snch seed we sow and of such nature is the gospel which we preach if we expect any earthly and carnal priviledge as a fruit wherein the authority or the reward of glad tidings doth consist then do we preach from an earthly and carnal root and principle the very state of death and not that state of life which is by Jesus Christ Which is proved as also illustrated by this threefold interrogation First doth any man go to war at his own cost vers 7. It is taken for granted that he doth not
the wealth priviledge and state of the Son of God that he can withhold or keep back from him by whom he is taught in any thing according to the nature truth and verity of the Kingdom of God but freely yields all unto him that teacheth which himself hath learned and is blessed withall because he cannot part those goods wherewith he himself is inriched And shall we think that a Christian which cannot withhold any of those blessed priviledges proper to the Son of God from his brother but freely communicates them all with him Shall that heart so a price of any private interest as to withhold it from his brother in the season thereof shall he freely communicate in the greater and not in the less shall he communicate in thy crown and not in thy grinding at the mill verily that base ignorance of your Sonship unto God through a carnali ministry is the proper ground of all such suspition as also the onely cause of such hugging of private interests and preserving them as such treasures uuto our selves Again we see that the law of God is said here to be the law of Moses so that God honours his people as being the Authors of his law through that unity that is between God and man in the faith of Christ as though man were the proper contriver of the law of God and the giver out and Original of the word of eternity therefore our Apostle is boâ—d with respect to the rest of the Apostles and holy men of God to call it our gospel where it is said if our gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lost and again our gospel came not unto you in word onely but in power and in the holy ghost and in much assurance And again in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel and again now to him that is of power to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the mistery which was kept secret since the world began and again Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised up from the dead according to my gospel and again our word toward you was not yea and nay and again if any man obey not our word by this epistle note that man and have no company with him that he may be ashamed Yea it is indifferently expressed in Scripture through this unity of faith to be the law of the Lord or of his servant Moses and from this ground it is said the people feared the Lord and they believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses for so the words are truly rendred We conclude then that Gods Saints are honoured as being Authour of that namely his word or law which is the framer maker and conservatour of all things it is written or recorded in Moses law and here the record is an inlet unto a further argument to declare the truth of a spiritual and saving ministry the record is this Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn By treading out the corn we are to understand both the manuring of the ground in the fitting of it for the sowing of the seed and the casting of the seed into the earth and also the treading of the corn out by the feet of the ox or turning the wheel upon it to manifest the increase as the words following do declare In the sowing of the seed he is not to have his mouth tied up or any means used to terrifie him or any way to prevent him from eating of the same seed that is sown and therefore it is contrary to the law to feed him with any other grain or kinds of meat in the time of his labour onely that which sown by his labour is the proper and only food appointed for him by the law to eat For as he subdues the ground so as it brings not forth its natural ornaments so he is to feed on the seed sown which is to take root downwards therein and bring forth fruit upwards of another kind then otherwise it would naturally have brought forth Now the gospel of the Kingdom or ministry of the word of God doth not plow up the fallow ground of the heart to subdue mens outward estates but only the weeds of corruption which spring up from that law of sin and death neither is their outward things its refreshment in so doing no more then the ox is to feed of any other food but that which is sown in his labour even so the word of life and immortality the same word which we distribute and cause to fall as Manna among Israels tents that is the same which a true labourer in Gods husbandry ever feeds upon and it is his proper livelyhood to be exercised therein and shall a man be hired to feed himself it is natural and delightful for all other creatures so to do and shall the man of God become so mercinary as to be hired to do it what a shame is this Judas Iscariot-like spirit unto the gospel of God those sluggards of the world that refuse to put their hand to their mouth to feed on that which they would have the world to believe is their only food and livelyhood but as others lift it up by outward estates and giving them honour together therewith But there is no doctrine which the man of God teacheth to any man of what place office rank or degree soever he is but himself is concerned in it so as he feeds upon it either as it is the breaking of the head of Leviathan which became meat for the people in the wildernesse and so he feeds on his deliverance therefrom or else he is invested into the same thing which he teacheth and so it becomes his food and one real substance with him and to fall short of this is to carnally the seed of life the word of the Kingdom bounding it to persons places and times which is to have the word of God in respect of persons but the man of God finds sufficient food in whatsoever he soweth or laboureth in and cannot himself live without it in the distribution thereof for multiplication and increase and a good husband man needs no hire to sow his own field Vers 10. Doth God take care for oxen or saith he it for our sakes only for our sakes no doubt In these words is a two fold interrogation and an effectuall answer the first part of the interrogation hath in it a strong negation in these words doth God take care for oxen that is to say it is not oxen whom this care doth concern or the speech intends The second part contains a forceable affirmation or saith he it for our sakes onely that is the ministers of Christ are they which it only intendeth and the answer takes away all scruples or question either in the negation or affirmation in these words for our sakes no
not having in it real and substantial things or matter wherewith to fill it there the aire takes place and is the fulness of it even so whereever and in what heart the real and substantial things of the Son of God are not there doth the devil take place and is the fulness of that heart whatever it be in the judgement of men So that the true acknowledgement of weakness I am one with as it is the only capacity of the fulness of the spirit of God in the exercise of its virtues and manifestation of the power of God and not of man And by this I gain weakness in the true acknowledgement thereof to consist only in Christ the alsufficient strength of God and is not elsewhere to be found where all insufficiency must of necessity flie away and there only is all true and proper motion in way of holyness and honour whereby the power and glory of God and not of the creature comes to move upon mankind and manifest it self in all his virtues and excellencies whatsoever and by this means of becoming weak I gain all weakness or weakness to become that alsufficiency and strength of the Son of God who is able to subdue all things unto himself this weakness being the proper receptacle and place of the abode and hiding of his power So as none but himself can find out how to communicate or participate therein where only he is known in all his particular virtues goodness and love in the exercise and injoyment thereof forever I am made all things in all men or thus I am made all men in all things that is there is not any thing wherein the mind of man naturally moves with respect to God or with respect to any of the works of God or wherein any of the creatures are in motion towards mankind or among themselves but I make my self a companion therewith or a suting thereunto in point of all operations relations and respects and that to this end that by opening and disclosing of my self what I am in any such operation relation or respect in point of the reality substantiality and continuation thereof in the truth and verity of the thing as countable and of worth in the records of God I may thereby disanul and abolish and bring to nought as things of no truth and of no virtue in whatsoever the natural heart of man moves towards God and the creature and also in whatsoever man naturally contains or receives from the motions of God or the creatures towards himself and make good that all such things come within the confines of that law of the carnal commandement consisting in ordinances which are against us and therefore are nailed unto the cross of Christ and forever made sure and intailed only to that carnal and fleshly spirit of the Jew which ever crucifies the Lord of glory according to the Spirit putting him to open shame or making a mock of him and therefore in the disanulling and abrogating of all these carnal things nailed unto the cross of Christ I make it plain and manifestly to appear that the solid truth and reality of all things consist and have their proper and only being in Christ and out of whom all things are vain and empty only filled with that spirit of cruelty and persecuting Jew And by this means I strip the world lay it waste and make it vacant of all things whatsoever that turn to any account or reckoning in the records of God or that is found written in that book of life wherein all living and acceptable things are written and the rest are such as are written in the earth So that the world hath nothing left to take hold of for any stay or support in which can be any hope or confidence to trust unto for there is nothing to be found of such nature or quality that is not involved within that proper state and real condition of Jesus Christ the Son of the blessed That I may by all means save some that is that I may by the true controverting of all things make it apparent and plain that salvation doth consist in every thing according to that which Gods wisdome hath ordered and appointed all things to be and appear in Christ either as he is given as a ransome and so as lost or given up unto death in all things that are holy and spiritual in the men of the world in whom nothing of his divine and proper virtue doth appear or is in being and exercised in which estate the reality of all things appertaining to death are for ever in their heighth of operation Or else as he is the ransomed from death in his chosen and elect ones in whom all things of life righteousness and peace are in their proper being virtue and exercise thereof and so in Christ as dead or alive are all real things of death and life only found and thus by becoming all things I save some or as the word imports I save all that is as all things universally became death and destruction as Satan orders them in putting Christ to death in all spiritual respects Even so all things universally become resurrection and life as the wisdome of God orders them in the mortification and death of all carnal and sensual things in Christ whereby the life of God is revived in the son of man in all spiritual and eternal respects and thus all things are destroyed and brought to nought by Satan or by man in his defection from God which is a universal fall of mankind from his Creatour forever And it is as true that all things universally are saved and confirmed in a state of excellency and perfection by the resurrection and ascention of the Son of man through that wisdome of God into the life and reign of and in all things that are proper to God eternally And observe that this death unto all spiritual things proper to the infinite and eternal Son of God must needs be of universal comprehension and being alive unto all the things proper to the same Son of God must needs be of the same universal extent yet it is impossible that these twain should reside in one and the same individual substance and being and therefore a universal estate of death and also a universal estate and condition of life is found in the sons of men of one and the same extent because it is of the Son of God in way of his death and of his life that gives latitude and longitude to them both and therefore a two fold state and condition standing in due opposition is found in mankind and shall be forever Vers 23. And this I do for the gospels sake that is that I may give all honour and estimation unto the gospel or unto the Son of God so that whatsoever hath in it any worth or dignity utility or excellency it is only substantiated and eternized in the subject matter of the gospel and not elsewhere to
know to be natural and insident to all men and shall we think that great strife for the faith of the gospel that thrice honourable mastery over sin and Satan the vanquishing and subduing of the gates of hell and all the powers of darkness requires not a trible strength courage and magnanimity skilfulness and activity watchfulness and eager pursuit of the advantage and oportunity and that in a total abstainance from whatsoever might obstruct prevent or invalid the atchievement And yet men destitute of the Spirit of God do these things for a corruptible crown that is for a glory which passeth away and perisheth as our Apostle affirms the ministry of condemnation doth The meaning is such as seek to purchase and procure unto themselves the honour wealth fame and excellencies of the world they abstain from and decline the things proper unto the kingdome of God the offices of Christ the operations of his Spirit which ever accompany the cross of Christ and elsewhere are never found in use and exercise which cross of Christ ever blasteth and withere with that glory which the world pursues and seeks after for the prize and diadem proper to the kingdome of God cannot consist with that glory that passeth away and therefore the world to attain to this carnal and corruptible crown abstain from all the things that may hinder them of this corruptible and deadly attainment therfore wholsome and sound doctrine is cried down by such as have learned their lessons from their Tutours in schools how trimly by art they are to manage all their affairs in teaching also the Spirit of prophesie is out of date in these our dayes the immediate inspiration and revelation of the Spirit is abhorred both in prayer and prophesie but all must be hewed out by study and so kept in schools of humane learning Libraries and in men who have most means and time to exercise themselves in such things as to compose Sermons to set up particular men in temporary authority to praise the able and wealthy and to press the poorer sort with burdens of sins and snch abundance of servile obedience as to make them slaves to themselves and to others so as they may purchase the favour and reward and we must have our prayers so sollid and fitted for particular persons occasions and relations that they must be studied beforehand and piled up in the memory to be readily brought forth or else some lofty expressions affected phrases or fantastical flourishes which themselves know not what they tend unto nor have they any footing in that continued act of the intercession of Christ to set them upon and for the communion of Saints gathered together in the name and authority of Jesus Christ the Son of God as in the fellowship of his sufferings and exercise of the cross what carnal Eldership Synod Session Parliamentory assembly or Army well appointed and ordered according to the wisdome of man goes not beyond them all in the account and esteem of these men yea though there were not a true Nathaniel to be found among them all These things men do and abstain from or else they cannot attain and accomplish their ends and that in getting a mortal and corruptible crown But we for an incoruptible crown that is a crown that fades not but indures forever such as is not inferiour unto but well beseeming the state and condition of that eternal Son of the living God Shall not we then infinitely more abstain from all carnal earthly and transitory things in point of our love and liking of them our esteem and preferring of them Nay shall we not so abstain and keep a fourty dayes fast from them in excelling and expungeing of them from being any thing that can contribute in the least either to the being or well being of the gospel seeing that through this abstainance only we come to wear the crown of life and immortality for ever even as Christ our forerunner fasted from and expelled that triple temptation of the devil as being such as conclude not add unto or contribute any thing unto him And when did the gospel lose of its honour or Gods power and presence suffer any abatement by the worlds depriving of the Saints oâ— any of its glory and liberty Look into Egypt Babylon Chaldea and Assyria into the fiery furnace Lions den stocks and Elijah in the wilderness Look unto Christ under Herod Pontius Pilate beset with scribes pharises lawyers elders souldiers and lying in the grave as also to the Apostles in their reproaches imprisonments banishments beatings and all manner of outward necessities and cast up the accounts of them all justly and judge wherein ever the glory power and presence of God admitted of any abatement in the manifestation of himself in and by his servants but alwayes made these things occasions to beautifie and adorn the gospel to shew that the glory of the world can never contribute any thing unto the gospel but rather God makes use of the want of such things thereby to bring to light what power and glory the gospel hath in it self which otherwise the world would not be convinced of but assume the power and glory unto it self as usually it doth in the Pharaohs and Herods thereof The running of this race therefore consists of gathering together all the perfections of life glory and immortality into one entire and undivided consistance which is that mystical body of Christ And the trying of mastery is the abstaining from all such things whereby that body of sin and death strengthens adorns and fortifies it self and in the one and the other the state and life of true Christianity doth consist and abide forever Therefore â—he adds Vers 26. I therefore so run speaking particularly as of himself for this prize and crown so appertains unto that one body as that it wholly and compleatly belong to every member thereof it is the portion of one as all and of all as being but one therefore the Church or State of this body can say draw me singularly as being but one and we will run after thee plurally as being many in that one I therefore so run that is so that he that wins the prize for the honour of this race is applicable to every Saint and servant of Jesus Christ Not as uncertainly that is I am not uncertain of the prize because I take the gole together with my being a Christian or in my becoming a runner in this race and I wear the crown in my first setting out for a greater diadem can never be attained then to be the Son of God the first-born of God yea he that first opens that womb of the early morning in the first looking out of the glory of God upon mankind from whence I must derive my self as in time past or else I can never propagate my self to abide forever in time to come so that this crown is taken up with the first and worn unto the last yea it
where the seed of God yet is not is of like wisdome and will have like success as if a man should spend his time and study to teach a dog the art of arithmetick Astrology or navigation where the principles thereof never were nor never shall be Such persons who think that their distillations may so insinuate into â—he seed of the serpent as it shall become the seed of the woman may as well conclude that the suggestions of the serpent may so intice and inveigle the seed of the woman as to make it become Satanical and so they think in heart else would never be so fearful of errours that is of any doctrine differing from what they themselves deliver which many of that ministry called papists and others do freely teach and confidently acknowledge namely a falling away from grace which is as great blasphemy as can be spoken against the Son of God for thither it reacheth as though he might fall away from being the Son of God or that a power might countermand the strength of the Father to pluck the Saints out of his hand which Christ affirms nothing can Iohn 10. 28 29. Yet we deny not but that the devil is really cast out of mankind Luke 13. 32. Luke 8. 2. Mark 1. 34 39. but in like sense diameter wise as the Son of God is said not to be left in hell nor the holy one of God suffered to see corruption Psalme 16. 10. Acts 2. 31. which now time permits us not to open And from this indeavour of the world to convert the devil observe the ground of the third wo pronounced by Christ against thefe deceitful interpreters which is laid down in the 15. verse in these words For ye compass sea and land to make one prosalitâ— and when he is made ye make him two fold more the child of hell then your selves wherein observe 1. First their great diligence they compass sea and land 2. To what end that is to make one proselite 3. The event and issue that is when he is made he is two fold more the child of hell then they themselves First for their diligence in compassing sea and land a work suits with Satans profession who saith he walks to and fro as one without any certain rule and so uncertain of the issue of all his designs also making a circumference about them all as things earthly subject to time place the number of a man and by capacity meerly humane Revel 13. â—8 1. By sea and land here we are to understand he deep mistery of iniquity which the Apostle calls the depthes of Satan Revel compassing and making their circles and circumferences therein designing gifts places and offices to particular persons of the same house and kingdome as their only propriety which others are not to come wiâ—hin the compass of in which these hypocrites say Stand by thy self I am holyer thâ—n thou Come not near to me Isa 65. 5 By sea therefore in this place is meant deeps of iniquity as also places remote and far off Moses speaking of the law of God saith it is not hid from thee that thou shouldest say who shall go over the sea for us to fetch it Deut. 36 13. which the Apostle alledging that place applies the command or the word to Christ saying who shall go down into the deep to fetch Christ thence Rom. 10. 7. so that by sea is meant deepness by the verdict of the Spirit of God so also the earth or land is taken for deepness for the word Abyss or Abysses deep or depths is given both to sea and land therefore the Prophet saith in the person of Christ thou which hast shâ—wed me great and sore trouhles shalt quicken me again and shalt bring me up again from the depths of the earth Psalme 71. 20. So that the depths of death hidden in that letter which kills that Christ is brought out of and risen from are diligently travelled in and compassed and surrounded about by that spirit of Satan in all those offices and institutions of time which passeth away so carefully and highly promoted by the false interpreters of the world whereof not one of them can pass through death with them to accompany them after this present life Psalme 29 12 13 14. 2. Secondly by sea and land are meant places remote and afar off so explained by the Spirit of God Deut. 3. 11 12 13. apposed to things that are neer yea really present and in act Rom. 108. so sea is taken for things afar off or disjoyned from that main continent Psalme 65. 5. Psalme 89 25. By land also is understand places remote and afarâ—off therefore raised the land of forgetfulness Psalme 88. 12. and the Islâ—es shall wait for thy â—aw that is people afar off which the Apostle expounds to be the remote gentiles that shall trust in his name Isa 42. 4 Marth 12. 12. Psalme 106. 27. And it is said that the Lord gathereth his redeemed out of the laâ—â—s from the east and from the west from the north and from the sea Psalme 107. 3. as places most remote and at the greatest distance false interpreters are ever imployed about the things of Christ as the reality of them without which a thing is not of any worth being ever at a distance they only having the figures and the signes in present act but the substance is only present by reaching out an imaginary hand unto the place or time where and when the substance hath been so the death of Christ was only in the dayes of Herod in point of the time and his ascension only in the dayes of those Apostles the time of his glorious appearance in his Sanctuary to be admired in all his Saints it is still driven before them and is yet remote and to come 2 Thess 1. 10. Again for place it is remote where Christ now makes intercession for the Saints a place only where they never yet came by their own acknowledgement Rom. 8. 34. the place of his death resurrection and sitting in judgement places remote beyond the sea or in another land and for men to say that Christ doth these things in the Spirit in his Saints it will not reach to be a covering for them to wrap themselves in Isa 28. 20. For however we know that their is a spiritual death resurrection and ascention and sitting on the right hand of God and that there is a spiritual kingdome priesthood eldership Church and people of God yet we know also that to say these are become such only by having the Spirit of Christ that is to say as he is God and not as being Christ complete his body or any office thereof is to deny the Spirit of Christ to be that which it is which is a denyal of Christ himself and so a most false interpretation of Scripture for the Spirit of Christ never wrought nor appeared in way of salvation but in that way of flesh in that sense which it
people as things acceptable unto God and a satisfactory refreshment and comfort to themselves in lue of their labours which have not the fulness of the fruits of righteousness in them which are by Jesus Christ and as they get an interest in mean earthly and carnal things received from the people in Schools Synods Libraries Counsels and carnal cases propounded unto them which is the tenth received by them to live upon as the life and sufficiency of their ministry which is as plainly preached unto the world as the labours and benevolence of the people is and must be the life of their bodies or else their doctrine cannot be afforded unto them So likewise they pay tithes of like nature giving them out into the chambers of that earthly house made with hands that is to say into persons and congregations built up only in way of humane wisdome for when these things thus received have passed in their hands under the rod or authority of Egypt and not of Israel then they carry out the tenth as it falls in their ordering of it as the proper store provided by God for the food and refreshment of the poor stranger fatherless and widows in an apish imitation of that house of God not made with hands but eternal in the heavens Nehem. 10. 34 39. Deut. 14. 28 29. Deut. 26. 12. 2 Cor. 5. 1. The things therefore thar these expounders of the law do receive and pay as acceptable unto God in point of tithing for and to God are mean and transitory yea there is nothing wherein their doctrine doth consist that shall be able to pass under the natural death of the body with them but their whole religion ends and perisheth there for whereas the Apostle concludes that now abides faith hope and love these three but the chiefest of these is love 1 Cor. 13. 13. they not understanding the Apostle in that no more then in the rest of his doctrine do conclude that love is chief because it abides and the others cease at the end of this life But love according to their sence ceaseth also for in this life they teach we love God in and through another mediatly but then we shall love him immediatly which is not only love in another respect but also another kind of love even as among men in humane love a man may love a woman as a neighbour but to love her with a matrimonial love is love of another kind so that their whole religion is to seek after death yea love it self that conjugal virtue Add further their God ceaseth at death for they teach that God in this life accepts of his children in and through another but after this life he accepts of them immediately in themselves but if ever God change his relation unto and respect of a Son of his begotten of his own will Iames 1 18. he ceaseth to be God for the true God is as constant in his relation and motion in every good gift and perfect giving as that father of lights in Christ without shadow or motion of turning Iames 1. 17. as the body of the sun in the firmament which gives light to the world is free from any stain of darkness in it self or motion to turn from that course which it hath held from the beginning The doctrine and practice of false interpretours in point of tithe is mean and transitory consisting of Mint Rew and every green herb now the herb is given and appointed by God not only for food unto man but also for every beast of the field for every fowl of heaven and for every creeping thing on the earth Gen. 1. 29 30. So that the acceptable thing in the doctrine of the lawyers is that which is common to the unreasonable creatures together with mankind as the herbs of the field are wherein so much is signified unto us for if they preach the acceptable thing in rule and authority carnal and temporary wherein the Son of God Christ is not extant then have recourse to the Lion whose roaring shall make the people afraid that is his people the beasts of the Forrest Amose 3. 8. is the order of a commonwealth extolled go to the Bee-hive and you shall see wonderful devises in the desposure of things therein for the commoditie of the whole is preaching or speech forewarning of eminent danger though temporary for pharises deceitful cannot give warning concerning eternal danger because they know it not no more then they know eternal deliverance and they are ignorant of Christ in whom only it is Then go to the fowl that watcheth whilst the rest feed and you shall hear him speak in the language of the rest sufficiently for their flight that danger approacheth their doctrine of excellency in an host or army as in their sense Go to the Locusts who all go forth by bands Prov. 30. 27. though they have no king yet their natural instinct leads them in marching out to make spoil and the horse is fitted with skil for the battle Prov. 21. 31. If the observations of times and seasons be acceptable go to the Stork and the Crane who observe the time of their coming Ierem. 8. 7. yea the appointed time If you accept as a thing acceptable to God bodily exercise in all diligence with prudency and study to forecast then go to the people of the Ants or Pismires who have the art and exercise thereof without any guide or governour to teach or command them therein Prov. 6. 6. Prov. 30. 25. If you will see care in buildings and fortifications you shall find it without instruction or command in the people of the Conies whose house is the rock and the Fir-tree the Stork nestles in for there is her dwelling Proverb 30. 26. Psalme 104. 17. If you exalt conjugal ties of love in your marriage Sermons go to the Turtle-dove who hath it without your teaching or pains of study If you take pains to declare the excellency of art go to the Bulfinch and the Lenot who shall learn a musical note as well as a man and if you plead for comliness in apparel go to the Lilly Matth. 6 â—8 and know of it who taught it so modestly to aray it self in a word for eating drinking sleeping marrying giving in marriage feasting fasting procreation and the like are but as the herbs of the field which other creatures may partake of as well as man and what but such inferiour things as these doth the doctrine of the pharises imploy it self in and busie it self about which are things that the instinct of nature brings forth whereby that glorious image of the Son of God wherein man was made is villified and debased by turning it into transient and corruptible things Rom. 1. 23 Psalme 106. 20. whereas there is not one point in the true doctrine of the Gospel but it is properly eternal according to the true scope and proper intent of the Spirit of God in the Scriptures of truth for however
this wo is their gross hypocr sie in that they strain at a gnat and swallow a Camel These kind of interpretors are very strict in straining out of some things of small value as very pernicious and swallow down great abominations as things of nothing like a man which hath great care to strain a mote or flie out of his drink but can swallow without let a mountain or powerful serpent They can strain out the gnat of dipping into or sprinkling with water in their entrance into their Church as also gestures and vestures in the exercises of their Church but they can swallow down that abominable idolatry in falling down before and attributing unto the creature that which God never intended who desires mercy and not sacrifice which will pass away as the early cloud and as the morning dew and the knowledge of God more then all burnt-offerings Hosea 6. 4 5 6. Yea such perfunctory services are nothing but rebellion against Gods command in the weighty matters of the law and as the sin of witchcraft unto the people 1 Sam. 15. 21 22 23. These men can carefully strain out of office such as have not been trained up in some university and attained to orders meerly humane but they can swallow down thousands that never came to the knowledge of the mystery of God nor the operations of his spirit only expressed therein and not elsewhere to be found Yea they can strain out by death of the parties an act of adultery committed between creatnre and creature as brute beasts and in the mean time swallow down that sin of iucest in bringing the holy and eternal word of God into copulation with earthly and transitory things as a temporary Church erected in time and in time dissolved offiâ—ers ordained in time and in time may be deposed or by death abrogated and void ordinances that may not only be changed in time from one form into another but also surcease in time and be no more as though the Lord by conjunction with things that pass away should conceive and bring forth his kind and native properties whereas the word of life hath only purified it self in that undefiled bed of the mystical body of Christ for in the Son of man it is not only a word of putrifying but also putrified and therein and not elsewhere conceives and brings forth its own kind and native properties in all the fruits of righteousness w ich are by Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God Philip. 1. 11. and makes use of all other things as taking occasion thereby to express and declare the power and virtue which forever resides and dwels in that his mystical body for that end he preached in the Jewish Temple or Synagogue went up to their feasts conversed with the Samaritan at the well went to the marriage of Cana in Gallilee healed the man that was born blind and for that end the word of God hath respect unto in the expressing of it self all things that come within the compass of mans reason or found in the nature or operation of any creature not lodging it self in that but only visits it as a stronger in its going forth and return to its native home Add further these interpretours are strict to strain out bloud-shed in the several distinctions and degrees thereof but in the mean time can swallow down the killing and crucif iâ—g of the Lord of glory the Son of God by condemning the right of the first-born to belong unto that compleat mystical body of Christ and depriving it of the reallity of one and the same spirit virtue and acceptation in the sight of God in every part thereof having headship in whom or in whatsoever it put forth it self in present exercise for if the spirit of the Lord be upon any that party in that particular wherein it goes forth is the anointed of the Lord which infinitely transcends all transient things Isaiah 61. 1 2 3. And that doctrine that denies this glory to be the Spirit of Christ takes away and destroyes that wherein the life of the Son of God doth consist which is no other then the proper seed and off spring of him who is a murtherer from the beginning as also that lier who abode not in the truth Iohn 8. 44. as we are not to fear such therefore that can kill the body but have no power to torment the soul when that is done so we are to have in abomination that doctrine and those doctours which strike at the life of Christ in the Spirit of the Scriptures though they should never lay violent hands on the bodies of any of the Saints nor outward estates in point of their bodily well-being in the things that concern this mortal and temporary life Wo then unto false interpretours who highly advance mean and base things of no account in the records of God in neglect and villifying of the great and weighty things in his accounts and strain out and indeavour to clear themselves of such evils as are simply considered only evils in the judgement of man and thereby swallow up and devour as a thing of nought â—amely the things of God in Christ which is the breeding and bringing in the greatest evil yea the devil himself and hence Christ brings in the sixt wo laid down in the 25 26. verses wherein observe these particulars 1. First that there is a clensing pharisaical 2. Of what that is cups and platters 3. The manner how that is the outside 4. A manifestation of the inside and that is full of bribribery and excess 5. A taxation in these words thou blind pharisee 6. An exhortation in way of rebuke for their preposterous practice first cleanse the inside of the cup and platter 7. What would inevitably follow thereupon that the outside may be clean also 1. For the first observe that as there is a righteousness of the scribes and pharises which never enters into the kingdome of heaven Matth 5. 20. so there is a cleansing which is only the purification of the flesh in that sense as slesh and bloud cannot inherit the kingdome of God 1 Cor. 15. 50. and that stands in an indeavour to conform a mans self to the letter of the Scripture which is the proper character of all mens minds naturally according to the principles of humane reason under which as the kernel in the shell or the corn in the husk the will of God is devulged unto the world so that a man is exempted from the seed of the word of God only the conception of it makes it either a first-born or an abortive either the seed of the woman or the seed of the serpent and the more a man inclines after this purification Hebr. 9. 13. according to the law of the carnal commandment standing in outward ordinances Hebr. 7. 16. Ephes 2. 15. Col. 2. 14. the more he declines that simplicity and purity that is in Christ even as a spiritual minded man the
the breach of every law under the breach of every one Jam. 2. 10. And the multiplyed and innumerable manifestation of distinct laws and punishments for the breach of them is to declare how unreckonable the wayes are wherein that one holy mind and will of God in Christ may be contradicted and violated with the variety of plagues and punishments appertaining and annexed thereunto but every one of them of an infinite and eternal nature which cannot admit of any conteinment limitation or bounds of restraint even as it is with one Son of God to have such infinite wayes of the legal and orderly expressing of himselfe and to every one of them an eternal peace and satisfaction in God annexed To terminate the word of God therefore in the distinctions of these humane laws and institutions together with their penalties or rewards annexed is nothing else but to garnish the burying place of that righteous and equal one declaring to all the world that his spirit is ceased therein and departed therefrom so that all manner of dissimulation and cruelty is to e expected in all the wayes of their administration indevouring only to uphold the throne of iniquity by establishing the wisdome and glory of the flesh in the pulling down and demolishing that righteous Reign and Scepter of the Son of God Psal 94. 20. 23. Heb. 1. 8. Keeping him in the grave as dead and buried in regard of any of his life vertues-wisdome justice or righteousnesse appearing in such way of interpretation and administration For God as he hath formed himself in Christ is not in all their thoughts Psal 10. 4 5. Psal 56. 5. For he that forms another law to himselfe besides the law of the spirit in Christ as under the bond of the word oâ— God that man frames another God to himself besides the true God and lies under the breach and guilt of the law of God expressed in the first Commandement Exod. 20. 2 3 2 The second point in the order proposed in the Text stands in what these false Interpreters say that is in what they teach for it is their doctrine wherby they build the Tombs of the Prophets and garnish the Sepulchers of the righteous therefore where one Evangelist saith he said unto them another saith he said unto them in his doctrine Compare Mat. 13. 3. with Mark 4. 2. so that it is matter of doctrin whereby both the Kingdom of God and the Kingdome of Satan are erected and maintained 1 And first they conclude their Progenitors to be Murtherers in that they took away the lives of the Prophets by which we see that it is a maxime written in all mens hearts that the cessation of the spirit of prophefie which is done by falsifying and counterfeiting of the Scope and intent of the word of God is a grosse and capital sin which is to extort and violently to take away the life of any one that is innocent Q. But if it be a sin to take away by violence the life of the innocent is it not a sin to lay down and part with an innocent life if there be power to retain it as Christ is said to lay down his life Iohn 10. 11 12. Answ The Answer to this is twofold first it is not against law to suffer as an innocent for it is the gift of God to suffer as well as to beleeve Phil 1. 29. And it is a blessed thing to suffer for righteousnesse sake 1 Pet. 3. 14. but it is against law to take away the life of the innocent for God never made law to take away the life of his Son as the world do violently extort and take it away for then he should institute a law against himself and that eternal life for the Father and the Son are one Iohn 10. 30 Secondly we answer that Christ layes down his life properly with respect unto his death unto all the motions of sin operations of the flesh in all things which is his proper quickning and reviving in the spirit and living eternally unto God which death iâ— nothing else but his Resurrection and possession of everlasting life therefore a righteous and glorious act in the Son of God thus to lay down his life being an innocent act to crucifie all the affections and lusts of the flesh to the quickning and reviving of all the operations of the spirit of God Gal. 5. 24. Ephes 2. 16. 2 The second point in the order of the text stands in what they say in way of excusing and clearing of themselves in these words if we had been in the dayes of our Fathers we would not have taken parts with them in the blood of the Prophets wherein they acknowledge their Fathers to be murtherers â—â—t themselves reformed and become in better state and condition than their fathers were wherein they professe a better condition and a worse in the same Line Posterity Generation and Ofspring of Father and Son as though there were a better state and a worse where God is the Father and Fountain and his sons and offspring Iohn 1. 12. and a better and worse condition also where Satan is the Father and Fountain and his offspring and Children Iohn 8. 44. 1 Iohn 3. 8. This is the doctrine of all false and hypocritical Interpreters at this day who say that Satan is in a worse condition than mankind though never so wicked because the Devil sinned voluntarily without a tempter but man sinned being tempted drawn aside by another plainly declaring thereby that they know not what the Devil is who is so often in their mouths and hearts also nor what mans fall from God is nor wherein consists that great though secret inlet of sin into the world Neither can they truly teach what Christ is what his resurrection from the dead is nor wherein consists that great though secret and hidden inlet of Gods righteousnesse into the sons of men Again they teach that in the way of God there is a better and an inferiour condition as that one son of God is nearer to the father and in greater favour and dignity than another whereas they reall first-born Heb. 12. 23. or else they cannot be an acceptable gift nor are they to be consecrated unto the Lord unlesse they be the opening or emission of the womb Exod. 13. 1 2. Luk. 1. 13. therfore they are called in Hebrew Coach the first of Gods might or able strength or the beginning ofstrengths so the first-born is named Deut. 21. 17. Gen. 49. which Christ complains to be dryed up personating himselfe in those wicked Iews his persecutors Psal 22. 15. These men teach also that the Fathers who served in their generations before us were more remote from God under dark semblances and shadows the light of salvation not so appearing nor the approach and appearing of Christ so neer and perspicuous as it is to us at this day and such Fathers as were in favour with God also for we know that
condition which no man can expound otherwise Isaiah 9. 6. but he that is the son is the father also according to the true intent of the Prophet and in this respect the saints of God as naturall sons have the Spirit of a natural father namely the spirit of God Isaiah 61. 1. and as the Saints of God are taken from that naturall disposition and common reasonings of the spirit of mankind as being chosen out of the house of him who is estranged from God as mankind following the naturall propencity of his own spirit is so they are truly said to receive the spirit of adoption whereby they cry Abba father or father father Rom. 8. 15. that is they lay claim to God as sons in a twofold respect he is a father as they are naturally descended of him and he is a father as he hath taken them out of the house of a stranger as Solomon took a wife out of the house of Pharaoh and as Paul took Onesimus for his son and as the Gentiles became the family and houshold of God in Christ Psalm 45 Philemon 9. 10. Ephes 2. 11. 12. 13. And the Saints of God come not unto God but with respect nnto their Sonship in both respects beholding therein for ever from what they are delivered and set at liberty and into what they are delivered and invested with power and authority By the spirit then it is that they cry Abba father that is father by natural descent and generation as springing from God having that gracious inclination and disposition of his son from heaven and father as being freely adopted and chosen out of and from that carnal common and sensual disposition that all men by nature are subject unto Ephes 21. â—8 To be sons and heirs of that heavenly Kingdom of glory and of God Rom. 8. 15 16 17. 1 Pet. 4. 14. 4 The fourth point in the order of the text is the extent of their witnesse or that estate witnessed unto in these words Fulfill ye the measure of your Fathers that is as your Fathers by your own acknowledgement are come down unto you and are extant in you in point of generation and so no time vacant wherein they have not appeared in the defcent so fill you up the same measure of your Fathers in that your sin of false interpretation by building a Tomb upon the carkasse of the Prophet in the letter of the Scripture void of the Spirit thereof which is the bloodshed and murder of the men of the world to this day this your sin reacheth up in like manner unto them from whom yon are descended even to him who is a murderer from the beginning Iohn 8. 44. And you by vertue of that onenesse of spirit are conversant in that first act in the beginâ—ing as really as the Serpent in his seed iâ— extant in you at this day in your guileful and deceitful interpretation and this your spirit shall descend in like sort in your posterity generated by this your doctrine and their guilt shall ascend up unto you in the measure and fulnesse of the same so that the sin and guilt of the Progenitour and Offspring are the same even as the holinesse and righteousnesse of the father and the son are one and the same in Christ Ephes 4. 24. Iohn 10. 30. Phil 3. 9. Rom. 1. 17. and hence is brought in the ensuing and following sentence The 33. Verse contains a vehement acclamation inveighing against these false Interpreters wherein observe two things 1 First The names he gives unto them in these words Oh ye Serpents yee generation of Vipers 2 Secondly An Interrogation How can you escape the damnation of Hell 1 First in that he cals them Serpents in the plurall number it is to shew that all false Interpreters are of the same brood and offspring though they may seem to be divers and averse one from another and in that he cals them Vipers also it is to declare that every one hath the poysonfull disposition of all kind of venemous Serpents in him of what name or manner of poyson soever iâ— may be false interpretation hath it included in it as being the proper Cistern and continent thereof and in that he cals them Serpents he brings hem back to their proper fountaine and Originall whence they Spring as being the very spawn and seed of all deceit Oh Serpents that is ye deceivers of mankind from the beginning by false exposition of the word of God affirming in your teaching that man shall not dye but live as Gods in that way wherein God affirms death doth confist Gen. 2. 16 17. compared with Gen. 3. 4 5. Rom. 8. 13. That is by eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evill bearing men in hand that they shall communicate in a better and a worse condition then they have in their originall and first motion of their beginning Gen. 3. 1 -5 Whereas God affirms that his image which is his holy Son takes being together with man for out of man that is that Son of man God never was for he cannot be all things out of man and then he is not God for otherwise than he is God in Christ he cannot be a Creature as well as the Creator he cannot be death as well as life the receiver as well as the giver the heaterâ— as well as the speaker the obeyer as well as the commander without which salvation cannot be wholly and compleatly of God therefore the Psalmist cals him the God of salvations in the form plural as he is salvation in all and every respect for the hearing ear and the seeing eye are both alike of the Lord Psal 68. 20. Prov. 20. 12. When God affirms man to be in his image that is to have the compleat form of his Son who is the engraven form of his subsistance the Serpent affirms somthing must bee done before that be accomplished and perfected they must eat and communicate with sornthing elce to bring it about so say all false interpreters unto this day elce for what serves your water in Baptism your bread and wine on the Table your corporeall fasting and feasting ccommunicating with Schools and corporeall laying on of hands before the gifts of the Spirit your eating up of time before Christ come to Rule the Nations and before Christianity can be perfect Oh ye Serpents that teach men to communicate in somthing elce than that which is all things before that good work of God can be perfected This is the Doctrin from the begining that doth and ever did deprive men of the glory and power of God transforming men into Devils as we see him work effectually in all those destructive wayes among men at this day and thus the Serpent is discovered by his speech 2 He is discovered by his gate or motion he moves not but upon his belly Vpon thy belly shalt thou go Gen. 3. 14. For his belly is his god as is affirmed of all false
observe 1 First An act of Christ in sending Prophets Wisemen and Scribes 2. Secondly An act of these false Interpreters in these words Of them ye shall kill and crucifie and of them ye shall scourge in your Synagogues and persecute from City to City 1 The ground and reason of this miserable and wretched condition on mankind is this because they interpose something between God and their supposed or expected good and happy estate as these interpose their fathers living before them and their supposed present good estate in their not murdering the Prophets For thence it comes to passe that man becomes the Serpent even the Devil himself as Christ affirms of Judas Have not I chosen you twelve and one of you is a Devill Iohn 6. 70. 71 who interposed riches the love of money between the Son of God and himselfe Mat. 26. 14 15 16. This Spirit which interposeth something between God and it selfe is the proper Author of all mischiefe that ever came upon the sons of men which seems to be a proper maxim in the doctrine of the Priesthood of this age that in the knowledge of Christ every one must keep his Sâ—cundumidem a certain distinction or distance between Christ and a Christian that whatsoever is in Christ Beleevers have somewhat according to that or after the manner of it something resembling or like it but not the very same this is a Pillar set up which all must bow unto which is to appoint men to keep alive and preserve the life of the Serpent For to interpose any thing if but a difference in any thing between Christ and a Christian between one Son of God and the rest of sons is to keep alive the spirit of the Serpent in the world by the falsifying of that word of God uttered in Christ So it was in the beginning it is the very voice that uttered it selfe in the Serpent at the first and in his off-spring unto this day For according to his consultation with the woman or in the woman as she is taken with respect unto the fall of man from God for as the man is called Enosh with respect to shame as well as Ish with respect to honour even so the woman is called Eve as being the original of shame Gen. 3. 20. 21. 2 Cor. 11. 3. as she is called Isha of â—sh with respect to honour and dignity Gen. 2. 23. And with respect unto shame the woman is brought in as never having any other consultation but with or in the Serpent from her very first being therefore the Serpent faith as answering to a former discourse of the woman the beginning whereof cannot be terminated Yea hath God said thou shalt not eat of every tree in the Garden Gen. 3. 1 Nay but God knowes that if you eat you shall have your eyes opened in that day and be as Gods knowing good and evill and by that suggestion secretly denies them to be such for the present as were in the perfect image and likenesse of God wherein God had affirmed he had made them Gen. 1. 27. Gen. 2. 7. and so doth this Serpent by false interpretation interpose the eating of the Tree between their present estate and the compleating and perfecting of the word and work of God which was passed upon them as false Teachers ever bring in something to interpose between God and that happy and perfect estate of Christ as the spirit of bondage in the elect before the spirit of adoption the pangs of death in the terrours of the law before that peace and quiet of the law of the spirit of life which is and ever was in Christ Jesus yea a state of innocency wherein is no need of Christ before that blessed injoyment of that image and likenesse of the eternal Son of God A state of sin in the Saints wherein they are out of the favour of God a time before their participation of that righteousnesse and holinesse of Christ which hath the favour and love of God eternally annexed thereunto yea a certain womb of a woman living in such a time and age of the world before the glorious and perfect revelation and appearance of the Son of God in the sons of men yea they interpose so many hundred years between God and the perfection of the son of man Iesus Christ not knowing the divers names which the son of God hath assumed and taken up to expresse his reall appearance and presence by for he is called Adam as well as Iesus David or Solomon as well as Christ one that departs and goes away from us or else the Comforter comes not Iohn 16. 7. as well as he is said to be Emanuel God with us Isaiah 7. 14. Mat. 1. 23. Yea he is that Alpha the first Letter or Figure in the Alphabet and also that Omega the last Revel 22. 13. without which and all the figures and letters contained between them no point of the law of faith can be spelled out right so as to contain the mind and will of the Author thereof but prove a deceitful interpretation wherein the spirit of the Serpent doth ever consist for these are they who interpose the Tree of Knowledge of good and evill to be eaten of or communicated with to bring man to happinesse instead of that Tree of life eternal which is in Christ Iesus that son of eternity without whom nothing was made Iohn 1. 3. which tree of life Revel 2. 7. hath seed in it self sufficient to preserve it selfe for ever without interposition of any thing whatsoever Gen 1. 12. 1 Iohn 3. 9. For he that brings in any thing to adde unto or to perfect Gods act and workmanship to make it more wise or holy than for the pâ—esent it is as is the pretence of such as say the work of God is begun in the Saints here on earth but not perfected till death and departure hence these persons if they hold the unity of faith as they say they do that God and man are made one in Christ then are they no more twain but one Mat. 19. 5. 6. new man Ephes 2. 15. or one Flesh Ephes 5. 31. 3â— So that those who by their endeavours in bodily exercises go about to make that condition better than at present it is in it selfe as to make it more wise more holy more able and sufficient such go about to amend and make better the son of God as for present wanting wisdom holinesse power or glory which it may in tract of time and means used attain unto either by bringing in somewhat which is not yet come between God and his people as sorrow repentance baptism supper fast or some way of ministry not yet raised up or else not come to its growth and perfection or else by casting out something which for present stands between God and us as fin guilt defects insufficiency and imperfections Now the fear jealousie and suspition the pride presumption and ambition of this spirit let
us read it in the woman and the serpent from the beginning Again if we say it is we as we are men that must be made better by our endeavours and use of means and not the son of God then we divide our selves from Christ making his condition one and our own another which is to divide Christ and hath ever been from the beginning that main bar of infidelity that shuts men out from entring into that rest of God Heb. 4. 1. 2. 7. which is to interpose some good thing yet to be attained by doing or suffering that is not yet in its perfection in the state of a Saint of God this is to reckon and account of our selves according to the proportion and measure of a Creature and not according to the dimensions of the son of God which is and ever was that great contest between the Angel of God and the Devil about the body of Moses or incorporated state according to law whether it is to be measured according to the periods and limitations of the Creature or according to the illimited and immense condition and incomprehensible state of the son of God Zach. 3. 1. 2. Iude 9. Again if we interpose a thing that is evil between God and the perfection of his Son or Saints as sin Devil fall of man terrours of the law spots and breaches in our sanctification stains of conscieuce and the like then we either adde unto the death of Christ who is a lamb sâ—ain from the beginning Revel 13. 8. who was made sin for us or in our nature in them that perish proportionable unto that righteousnesse of God which we that beleeve are made in him or in that nature divine which is infinite and therefore neither sin nor righteousnesse can admit of increase or diminution 2 Cor. 5. 21. 2 Pet. 1. 4. Christ then having perfectly suffered the just for the unjust nothing is to be added thereunto under the pain of making his death ineffectuall 1 Pet. 3. 18. which it is in every one who makes it not perfect infinite and all sufficient And if the evils we bring in be such as concern us and not the son of God then we take them up upon our selves as we being the saviours and deliverers of our selves being out of that proper state and condition of the son of God and so deny the death of the son of God to be that which it is namely to comprehend and comprize aâ—l evill whatsoever as his life comprehends all good and so take upon us to bear our own burthen in that state of death and of the damned for ever And thus false Interpreters bring in a Tree of the knowledg of good and evill to be communicated with in the perfecting of the word and work of God which is the way of the Serpent in his seed at this day which ever kils and murders the true Prophet in not suffering the life and Spirit of the word of God to come forth and appear which life is ever taken away by them to raise up advance and maintain the life of the flesh in all the lusts pride glory power and abominations thereof according to their present state as they can stand with the rank and station wherein they are set or serve in way of further preferment Therefore saith Christ Behold that is look up and wonder to your astonishment and overthrow for ever for so much the word Behold imports in this place I send unto you saith he Prophets c. the persons to whom he speaks here are false Interpreters who judge falsely of the word and work of God whether in themselves teaching and declaring it to others or approving it from others it matters not it is alike detestable in all the Serpent divulging and the woman approving is all one in this point and to parties of this rank and quality the son of God utters these words Behold I send unto yon Prophets Wise men and Scribes which are all taken in a good sense as good and holy men in this place sent from the Lord our righteousnesse from whence this question may be moved namely how the word of God by good men yea by the Son of God himselfe may be said to be sent to wicked men yea to false Interpreters thereof which spirit of falshood is never found but in the Devil himselfe 1 This point narrowly scanned may breed some commotion in the mind of man for if God send his word unto the wicked which hath salvation in it then if he deal plainly with them whose nature it is so to do his intent is to do them good therby and to save them and if so then salvation depends upon the will of the Creature in the approving or disallowing in its reception or rejection thereof 2 Again if God do not intend their salvation that is of these wicked Scribes and Pharisees unto whom he sends it then he may seem to pretend one thing in sending it unto them and to intend an other which is deceit and therefore he being a God of truth which cannot lie or feign a thing to be which is not it may seem that he sends his word only unto the elect of God which is contrary unto this expression of Christ but the son of God being one is at unity in all his enterprises 3 Furthermore the waters may seem to be troubled in this point in regard that the word of God was never sincerely expressed as the word of God sent from him but by one who is of the faith of Iesus made one with God by vertâ—e of that covenant of grace in Christ for in other way the Lord never sent nor uttered himself in his own language and upon his own proper terms for otherwayes it is not the word of God but the word of man which is naught and brings to naught Therefore if the word of God be sent by a Prophet a Wise man or Scribe men that are godly and holy as the word is holy being one with it for the word of Christ never appeared nor uttered it self but in and by the spirit of man for if it come not from him in whom God and man consist in one it is not the word of Christ how then can it be sent to all wicked men seeing as many men live and dye and a godly man never cometh nigh unto them yea it may be as is like people and nations if we look but upon the Moores Indians and Barbarians in these our dayes doubtlesse it is and hath been the case of many thousand men in the world never to hear a Prophet and holy man of God speak although Scribes and Pharisees may speak plentifully for their own advantage as also many Infants dying before they have the use of reason a godly man therefore can never be sent or expesse himselfe unto them 4 Add further the voice of Satan never uttered it self but as man was really considered therein so it was in Cain in whom
Satan is said to be a murtherer from the beginning and so he is in all who wander in that way of Cain unto this day how comes it to passe then that Satan is said to tempt the Saints when no wicked man is found near nor seems to know thereof for the heart of man is deceitfull above measure who can know it save only the Lord who searcheth the same Ier. 17. 9 10. And every man is said to be tempted when he is drawn aside of his own lust Iam. 1. 14. and Christ was tempted of the Devil where we read of none to be in that place but wild Beasts at that time saving himselfe and Satan Mar. 1. 12. for at Satans departure the Angels are said to minister unto him Mat. 4. 11 if then Satan tempt not but in the wick ed men of the world how could Christ be tempted and no wicked man there Answ For answer therefore unto the question propounded to clear the point to our understandings we first addresse our selves to lay down certain conclusions whereupon to build the answer in the confirmation thereof 1 First that it is the word of God whereby God and man become one for by the word of God alone all things are accomplished and brought to passe He spake and it was done he com manded and it stood fast Psalm 33. 9. it is the word that made aâ—l things and it is the word that conserves all things unto this day Psalm 119. 89. 90. 91. Now the word of God is the will of God and the will of God is the law of God as the word signifies where it is said Thy will be don may as fitly be read thy law be don Mat. 6. 10. and there is no law without a relation therefore the word or will of God which is God himselfe never was considerable nor did acknowledge or own it selfe but in that relation of God and man in Iesus Christ for that which is not all things is not God and he cannot be a Creature as well as a Creator but in Christ he cannot be death as well as life but in Christ he cannot be in time as well as eternall but in Christ he cannot be a saved as well as a Saviour but in Christ he cannot be a son as well as a father but in Christ no he cannot be that mutuall espousall so set forth in their ornaments in that song of songs which is Solomons to bring forth his own proper offspring in the fruits of righteousnesse but in Christ so that the Almighty and illimited one not subject to time stretcheth out it selfe unto all times taking into unity mans nature or manner of being who is truly said to be in time and in that unity the word of God doth consist and out of it the creating vertue and saving power of the word of God never uttered it self nor was the will or law of God or God himselfe ever known or found out ofâ— that consistence of God and man in one undivided act or being he was never God without an act nor was he ever act without being God his operation gives form to Christ and the form of Christ is the word of God by whom and through whom and for whom are all things Rom. 11. 36. The subtle Philosophers of this age who cunningly work in that art of the Magicians or Wise men of Egypt in going about to describe God by the delineation of several names and attributes in a simple divine essence or being without respect unto or any union had with mankind these are pure and absolute Atheists and denyers of God in that they prescribe a sta e of divine being wherein the son of God as Iesus Christ is neither reckonable nor of any use this is as absolute and abominable Atheisme as to conclude that the Creature that is the whole visible Creation did produce it selfe and give it self form and motion without the Almighty power of an infinite and eternal God for to describe or bring to light the Creator in any thing without respect unto the Creature is all one as to describe and bring forth the Creature without respect unto a Creator and how abominable that is let all men judge the one is the doctrine of the Priesthood of the world in their catechizing orthodox evangelized divinity and the other is the doctrine of the Sooth-sayers and Star-gazers in their Astrological and prophetical fictions both of them alike deceiving the world in all ages thereof Isaiah 47 13. 14. 15. Dan. 1. 20. Dan. 2. 27. 28. 2 A second conclusion for the answer of the question propounded is that the word of God never uttered it selfe but as it layes it selfe in a twofold fountain for it could never utter it self in that simple and single bosom of eternity for so there were not any thing to utter it selfe unto and then there can be no publication thereof and therefore must be founded in a creature to spring up from thence therefore the Psalmist affirms that out of the mouths of babes and sucklings thou hast founded strength Psalm 8. 2. that is thou hast not only established and grounded all thy praises there but thou hast fitted and made them most perfect in that way as the greeke word Katertiâ—o signifies which the Apostle useth Mat. 21. 16. A like phrase is used concerning the enemies of Christ they set themselves and take counsell together that is as the words there import they have laid their plot and foundation as persons united to accomplish their designs Psalm 2. 2. so God hath laid the platform and foundation of the manifestation of himselfe in all his wayes and works whatsoever in Christ the weaklings of the world who have no helpe of man at all that they can any way depend upon Psalm 146. 3. 4. Psalm 60. 11. So that the word of God is laid and founded in the Creature as truly as in the Creator to spring up and utter it self from the unity of them both or else how came the Creature to exist if the word of God did not spring up in it and utter it selfe thereby only observe this that as man was the last in the Creation as the end and scope of all who only was made in the image of God even so the proper drift and scope of the word of God in a l the rest of Gods works runs properly unto mankind as being that Masterpeece of all Gods works wherin the word of God only terminates it self and not elsewhere as in any other Creature whatsoever in Heaven or Earth for all the rest of the Creatures are but as the hand in the Dyal or sound of the Clock which proclame and point at time which they themselves are not but may give true or false intelligence according to the skill of him who hath the ordering of them even so all the rest of the Creatures they point at and poclame Christ as another thing than any or all of themselves are and may
the sight of all good men making it clear and manifest unto whom they belong and of what brood and off-spring they are 5 The fifth conclusion is that the word of God is of like concernment in all men and takes hold of them with like force whether it be laid in the way of the blessing or of the curse for it is of like concernment to maintain and uphold the principles of the Creature that it is to maintain and uphold the principles peculiar to God for if the principles of the Creature were not upheld to their height which argue themselves into the place office and seat of God 2 Thes 2. 3. 4. then there were no place for the curse and then the redemption of Christ were without vertue in that it delivered from no wretched nor cursed condition and then praise-worthinesse due unto God should cease having no matter nor cause from which to take place Again if mans principles were not maintained as well as the principles peculiar to God the word and work of God should faile and be extinct for the word of God never uttered it self nor did the work of God exist but in order to Gods wisdom framing the Son of man into its own likenesse making him in conformity with it selfe which is the state of the Son of God Iesus Christ as also the wisdom of man framing the Son of God into its own similitude and likenesse conforming him into the proportion of naturall and earthly principles which is the state of Antichrist that son of perdition and if either of these should fail the word and work of God should faile which are as durable as God himself Psal 119. 89. 90. The word of God therefore takes hold of all men yea of whole mankind with like authority and force both in way of the curse as also in the way of blessednesse for each maintains its own proper principles as upon life and death for in case mans principles and reasonings should take place and beare sway in a Saint the life and spirit of God should be extinct and if the wisdom and argument of the Son of God should take place and bear sway in any wicked man then the spirit of Satan whereby he lives would be extinct so that each of them hath the foâ—ce and authority of life and death upon them than the which a greater bond cannot be for if the force and authority of the word of God were not of like power in point of wrath in the way of the curse as to hold proportion with the word of blessing and peace then could not the word of God hold proportion with it selfe which must of necessity be in all things of an infinite and illimited force and authority 6 In the sixth place we conclude that the word of God hath ordained necessitated it self to come unto all men in way of interpretation and that in all its expressions and intimations whatsoever because it speaks and utters it self in mankind from divers principles and therefore the word must be interpreted or translated â—ut of one into another that is out of one proper speech or language into another and the very formings and fashionings of the heart is the proper speech or language of man therefore the abundance of the heart is that which he speaks Mat. 12 34 Now God hath taken up all things of man as he hath respect to all Creatures to utter and reveal his secret wisdom and counsel by in Christ the spirit of God therefore in the Saints takes out the minde and meaning of God from that originall Copy naturally written in the Tables of stone in all mens hearts and translates it according to that wisdom of God in Christ into the fleshy Tables of the heart fitted to receive the impressions of God by the removal of those stony strong and earthly apprehensions and conclusions which man naturally conceivs and concludes within himselfe from the word of God so that Gods true intent according to the dictate of his spirit being taken out of that husk or shell wherein it is expressed is no more the language of the flesh but of the spirit and this is of necessity to be done in the conservation of the Spirit and life of Iesus Christ the Son of God Again the spirit of errour and false interpretation takes out of that originall copy of the wisdom of G d that law of the spirit of life in Christ and translates it into principles and conclusions humane proper to the thoughts device and invention of a Creature terminating the mind and will of God in things limited by time place and person things transitory which cannot hold proportion with the Son of God and by means of this translation it is no more the language of the spirit but the language of the flesh and so the dictates of the Serpent the mind and will of Satan who captivates man by the lusts of his own heart 2 Tim. 2. 26. Furthermore the word of God is not the word of life without interpretation as it is translated out of death into life therfore he saith Thou wilt not leave my soul in Hell neither wilt thou suffer thy holy one to see Corruption Psalm 16. 10. Neither is the spirit of God a spirit of Revelation nor hath the honour of opening the mind of the father in any without this grace of interpretation whereby man is conformed unto the image and similitude of the Son of God Add further that man cannot lay claime to his proper being and prerogative as he is wicked namely to be wiser than the beasts of the field or to have dominion over the inferiour Creatures but as he translates the excellencies of God into his own humane principles and thereby exalts himself as Lord over all the works of Gods hand and by this his translation he interprets the word of God in direct opposition unto Gods true intent and proper meaning in that originall Copy of Gods wisdome in Christ presented unto the world and hereby are the principles of humane wisdom set up to bear sway in the world in the vilifying of the wisdom of God in Christ by which means the life of Satan is continued in the sons of mortall men And this interpretation is by translating one tongue and language into another which cannot be done but by presenting the originall Copy which by this means is cast aside and vilified as to be no more imbraced nor accepted and in this presentation of the original Copy of the wisdom of God which cannot but be acknowledged by all men ought to be magnified and submitted unto by all doth the answer of the question propounded consist for in this representation of the wisdom of God unto mankinde contained in such yea the same expressions written upon every mans heart herein doth the spirit of the Prophet the Wise-men and Scribes visit all the wicked of the world yea there where never good man bodily appeared a d in their rejection
of the wisdom of God and imbracing the wisdom of the flesh they kill the spirit of the Prophets persecute and evilly intreat them to their own destruction and finall overthrow So that the word of God in way of the curse as it utters it selfe in the principles proper to a creature cannot take account of it selfe in the conservation of those principles and aptitudes but as it terminates the mind of the spirit of God in them which is an utter cessation of the proper language of the Son of God and killing of the spirit of the Prophets of which spirit and state of the Son of God there is not one Prophet wise man or Scribe in Gods esteem and account suffered to live in the world for the son of God reckons and accounts of himselfe only according to that wisdom which eternizeth all things in his estate and condition for though the Son of God be a Creature as well as a Creator yet his estate through that unity of both is an eternall estate and condition so that the spirit of the word of God is sent unto and presents it self to all men whatsoever in the very same things themselves speak as that the most Excellent is to have the preheminence who is the Author of all things and the end of them also and if this be but granted which no man can deny for Pharaoh in his sober mood will acknowledg Gods preheminency of what worth or of what excellent use then shall any temporary thing be accounted or appear to be if God have preheminence in wisdom power authority riches peace plenty friendship and the like every thing in him is full and compleat in whomsoever he communicates the same where then is there a vacuum found for or a necessary use of the glory wisdom power authority friendship riches and prosperity of the world to make the Saints of God more honourable prosperous or excellent than that wherein their proper being doth consist which the world cannot give neither can they take it away nor work a diminution thereof in the least Note hence that in regard the glory of the Creature is of no use but altogether blasted and withered as grasse wheresoever the spirit of God breaths as a North wind and as the South wind upon the garden of God that the Spices thereof may flow out when the beloved comes to eat his pleasant fruit Isaia 40. 6. 7. 8. Iames 1. 10. 1 Pet. 1. 24. Cant. 4. 16. Therefore it is that the wisdom of the Creature to exalt flesh in preferring it before the life and spirit of the Lord Iesus who lives for ever terminates the word of God in carnal and terrene things according to its own principles whereby it preserves a carnal and sensual life in its selfe contradictory to the life and spirit of the son of God and the spirit and life of all true prophesie or found interpretation of the word of God and so quencheth the spirit and despiseth prophesie 1 Thes 5. 19. 20. pursuing carnal doctrine and bodily exercises upon the life and death of his spirit being engaged and bound over thereunto by the carnall Commandement Customs and Traditions of men and thereby expungeth and evacuateth the life and spirit of the Scripture which is the life and spirit of the son of God who is the only Prophet of the Church singularly considered and all the Prophets of the Church in a true and real distribution and plural acceptation according to the minde of the Scriptures Canticles 1. 3. We conclude then in order to the question that no man can carnalize the word of God out of the Characters written in his own heart Rom. 2. 13. 14. 15. 16. in which expressions the spirit is involved but his heart is touched with a higher thing than himselfe can form in his present act therefore Christ is still to come or hath been here but is departed in the judgment or doctrine of a carnall Iew or Gentile and takes not a perfect and real form in any thing they do or say but something is of a higher nature which these steps are ascending unto shall we think that men constituting a Church of a company of people who were no such thing the other day and in a few years following it shall come to nothing are not touched with something of a higher more excellent eminent and durable nature which this is only a help or step to attain unto shall we think that men exercised in ordaining officers for their defence safety honour and instruction are not touched with higher things which these lead unto shall men be exercised in bread and wine and water chewed with the teeth taken into the naturall stomack washing and dipping the naturall body which food perisheth which water slideth away are not these men touched with matters of higher concernment then any of these things are or ever can be These touches and intimations therefore are the visitations of the spirit of the true Prophet sent unto these wicked hypocritical and dissembling Scribes and Pharisees the blind guides of the world whose vilification of the spirit in preferring carnall Rites and Ordinances is the rejection persecution and killing of the spirit of the true Prophet maintaining nothing but a dead carkasse of Religion or dead bulk or body of the Scriptures in the world for their own gaine honour cruelty and contriving of means and making of engines and instruments to exercise their enmity upon the spirit of true prophesie and interpretation in the person of whomsoever it appears in the world and herein consists the very root and rise the seed and off-spring of the Serpent which is the Devil and Satan in his operations in the men of the world as at this day Observe further in this point that the word of God as it utters it selfe according to Gods wisdom upon principles proper to the eternall Son of God cannot take an account of it selfe in the conservation and maintaining of them nor can it speak its own proper language but as the originall copy out of which it is translated presents it selfe which is the letter of the Scripture the characters written upon mans heart the very engine and instrument of Satan whereby he exalts himselfe whereupon the spirit of revelation is necessitated unto interpretation taking out the mind of God in rejection of the will and wiles of Satan and so becomes an interpreter one of a thousand to declare unto man his righteousuesse to be such as becomes the only begotten Son of God Iob 33. 23. 24. translating the language of the Creature into the proper wisdom and speech of the Son of God in whom the proper language which man naturally speakes with respect to the word of God hath no place nor do humane principles bear any sway in him at all therefore when the Mother of Christ according to the flesh would have had his glory to have appeared at the marriage feast in Canaan of Gallilee to the end
of God which is that wall of partition or separation interposed between the grace and favour of God and the sons of Adam Ephes 2. 14. 15. and where the glory and power of the arm of flesh is advanced there is the proper place of residence for the carnall Commandement that middle wall of separation for unto that is the separation from God fastned for ever and all carnall institutions in their proper nature and kind are there to be found for they are nailed there by the death of Christ in point of all spirit and life which are not in that way of ministration to be found nor never were and yet therein doth the Son of God triumph over all carnall things spoyling thereby Principalities and Powers making a shew or a shame of them openly Gal. 2. 15. for as man being made of the dust is naturally carnall but through that unity of faith is become spirituall in the word of life and thereby is made King of Salem or Prince of Peace set down at Gods right hand as having conquest over all adverse power Heb. 7. 1. 2. Heb 1. â— Heb. 10. 12. 13. even so the word of God being by nature spirituall yet through mans infidelity or that unity of the Harlot 1 Cor. 6. 16. it is become carnal by false interpretation and so is made the King of terrour and feare Iob 18. 14. and contrary to its own nature is an Executioner of wrath and vengeance whereby he triumphs over the wicked even all Principalities and Powers of that nature and is a just tormenter of them eternally thrusting down into Hell and that bottomlesse pit even as man is become a Saviour and lifts up unto the Throne of God and Diadem of Heaven and hence it is that God is said to be as a Lion as a Bear and as a Moth Lam. â— 10. Amos 5. 18. 19. 20. Hos 5. 12. and so many terms and titles of horrour and dread are given unto him in the word of God even as all power and princely authority in Christ peace reconciliation wisdom and judgement are given to the Son of man Mat. 28. 18. Iohn 17. 2. Mat. 1. 21. Iohn 5. 22 -27 3 These false Interpreters scourge the men of God in their Synagogues or Assemblies that is there is no Combination Session Consociation Coupling together or relation according to the intent and exercise of a carnall Commandement terminating the word of God in fading and mortall things but it is the framing and twisting together of a whip or scourge shamefully and ignominiously to beat or thresh out the spirit of the word of God as a Vagrant and that which they cannot approve of For as Christ wips out the Buyers and Sellers money-Changers and all carnall Commerce to clear his Temple and all the relations in his house of all such prophane and common Commerce because the intercourâ—e and mutuall exchange between God and man are full in all points through that plentifull Spirit or Spirit of plenty in Christ where no need of any thing of another nature is found all being spirituall even so false Interpreters whip out the spirit of the Scrip ures in all their mutuall converse in the way of the Harlot to bring in their own corrupt Commerce with God according to their Iewish and carnall institutions in which the Spirit of God breathes nor but is thereby extinct nor can a true Prophet be admitted amongst them without a lash of what shame dishonour or hardship they can possibly put upon him to signifie unto the world that he is rather a Vagabond than one of the houshold of Faith an Heir of Heaven and Co-heir with Christ Rom. 8. 17. and all this cometh to passe because the spirit of a Christian can not but discover the spirit of falshood hid under their hypocriticall interpretation 4 They persecute them from City to City that is they cruelly expell the Spirit of the word of God out of all the forms and orders in their institutions though they be many as the orders of Cities are in the world so are the Ordinances of worship as in way of Turk Pope inferiour Bishop Presbyterian Anabaptist Separatist but who can count how many Cities of this nature they are almost multiplyed as men for two are hardly found of one mind if their supposed principles were but ript unto the bottome there is hardly a man but he will either be shaken out of himself or run away in a rage before his nakednesse be discovered City Orders and forms of Religion are multiplyed in these dayes much like those several Nations which Israel passed by in the Wildernesse and met with in carnall Canaan as named after the son of Cham the cursed though they differ one from another among themselves yet they are all against Israel even so all forms and statues of worship they all agree in this to expell the Law of the Spirit of Life which is not extant nor upon record but only in Iesus Christ Rom. 8. 2. for whatsoever their order or institution may be if it terminate the word of God in any transient thing that vanisheth in time there is no place of residency or aboad for the Law of the Spirit in that City whosoever therefore goeth about to lay a foundation in Gods building not made with hands but eternall in the Heavens 2 Cor. 5. 1. according to the ancient customs of that Law of the Spirit as every true Zorubbabel and Nehemiah do at their happy return out of Babylon then stands up Tobiah and Sanballat to hinder the work yea to expell and persecute all such enterprise and workmanship from every order and institution of any humane constitution in the world not permitting it to take place nor abide in peace in one or other Order Exercise or Relation whatever it be where holinesse or righteousnesse is set and terminated in a vanishing and terrene thing to persecute the law of the Spirit from Order to Order is to persecute the Saints that live thereby and not to permit them a place of residency and they that persecute the Saints of God they persecute the man of God even Christ himself Luk. 10. 16. Iohn 13. 20. Now we come to the Event and issue of this false dealing with the word of God and the cruelty manifested thereby in all such in whom it appears laid down in the Verses following 35. 36. That upon you may come all the righteous blood that was shed upon the Earth from the blood of Abel the righteous unto the blood of Zacharias the Son of Barachias whom ye slew between the Temple and the Altar Verily I say unto you All these things shall come upon this geneon Luke hath it thus that the blood of all the Prophets shed from the foundation of the World may be required of this generation from the blood of Abel c. Luke 11. 50. 51. Wherein observe two points first their guilt Secondly the Progress and extent of that guilt In
the guilt observe these things 1 What manner of blood it is or whose blood it is that is righteous blood according to Matthew the blood of all the Prophets according to Luke 2 Observe how it is dealt with that is it is shed and the place where upon the Earth 3 From what time it is shed that is from the foundation of the World 4 Vnto what time that is to the present generation 5 That of them it is required that is of the present generation as Luke records it 6 And lastly that it comes upon them according to Matthew For the first the Spirit of God stiles it righteous blood and it affirms also that it is the blood of all the Prophets from the foundation of the World so that there is the same guilt in taking away the life of any of the Saints or Prophets of God that is of any true Interpreter of the word of God in the present age that ever was in the spilling of any righteous blood in the world from the foundation thereof Christ Iesus himselfe not exempted for there is but one righteous life and death as the word blood signifies both which are ever found in Christ and never elsewhere for in all the operations of life he is the Lord our righteousnesse Ier. 23. 6. by whom we live unto God now I live not I any more but Christ liveth in me Gal. 2. 20. Again there is but one righteous blood in point of death unto sin and Satan therefore Christ once suffered and once offered up himselfe 1 Pet. 3. 18. Heb. 9. 26. Heb. 10. 10. which is not found but in Christ for it is one act which comprehends all the Saints therefore the Apostle saith I now rejoyce in my sufferings for you and fill up the remainder or that which is behind of the sufferings of Christ Col. 1. 24. that is I fulfill in my flesh that off-spring or posterity of the suffering of Christ which are common unto that incorporate body according to the true intent and meannig thereof shall we think our selves to be the off-spring and posterity of Christ and not have the similitude of Christ in all things Was ever such a generation brought forth that bears not the image of the Progenitor if we be implanted into his resurrection we are implanted into his death also Romans 6. 5. if any man have not the Spirit of Christ the same is not of his Rom. 8. 9. and so it may be said of all things that are appropriated to Christ as his peculiar interest if any man have not the life of Christ the same is none of his if any man have not the wisdome of Christ the same is none of his and if any man have not the death of Christ that man is none of his we conclude then there is but one righteous life and death in the true posterity and off spring thereof wherefore he that spills the life by living carnally unto the things of the world or he that spils the death by dying carnally unto the things of God that man is guilty of blood in the highest degree for there is but one righteous blood therefore the same guilt and condemnation in the shedding thereof in whom or what age or generation soever Moreover it is but one and the same spirit of that one word of God which hath been falsified and cruelly destroyed by false interpretation from the foundation of the world which is that name of Christ that none can read but himselfe for he is called the word of God Rev. 19. 12. 13. Now if the letter of the word were Christs name or authority then any wicked man might read and know the name of Christ yea the Devill himselfe in his tentations alleged the letter of the Scripture Mat. 4. 6. compared with Psalm 91. 11. 12. who is so far from the knowledge of Christ or from acknowledging him in his vertues to be that which he is But none can know this name of Christ namely the word of God but himselfe therefore wheresoever the truth of the word of God is known there is Christ himselfe he that is guilty therefore of the neglect or rejection of the spirit of the word of God or of that law of the spirit in whomsoever it is that person is guilty of the neglect and rejection of Christ himselfe Luke 10. 16. for none hath or knoweth that name but himself 2 The second point is how they deal with this blood where it is shed that is on the Earth false interpretation lets the blood of Christ who is heavenly out of its proper place as Cain did the blood of Abel which is therefore said to cry from the ground Gen. 4. â—0 it speak but not as in its proper veines and place of its naturall residency and aboad contrary to that blood of sprinkling which is therefore said to sprinkle Heb. 12 24. as having livelyhood and spirit in it to give life and motion to the whole body and therefore speakes better things than that of Abel in as much as life is better than death But the blood being shed on the Earth as Christ affirms here in this place it is that is expounded and applyed carnally as that the death of Christ should consist in the separation of the soul and body of a man living and dying only in such an age or time of the world and not else thus to draw forth the death or the life of Christ is to shed it upon the earth and as blood shed upon the ground is a meanes for the ground to bring forth more abundantly earthly fruits which are naturall to the ground where it is shed but none of those fruits which it brings forth in the body the proper place of its residency even as the blood of a Lamb shed and sucked up by a Woulf ceaseth to have any more the livelyhood and spirit of a Lamb in it but it is now translated and changed by its community with the Woulf as the ptoper agent to work upon into the liâ—e spirit motion and nature of the Woulf so is it in that way of false interpretation for it takes the spirit and life of the word of God out of its proper place that is to say out of that mysticall body of Christ and will not give it its proper place of its aboad For they say that the Saints of God have only some created or creature-like vertue and certain influences of the spirit of Christ but not the same spirit in the reality of it which the Son of God hath They say the Saints of God have a death in them to sin and Satan but not the reality of the death of Christ They teach that the people of God have the righteousnesse of Christ else they could not be just before God but it is not in them nor theirs properly as they are Saints but it is the righteousnesse of another that is nearer to God than themselves and is only imputed to
another no more than the Mediator between God and man is separated either from God or from man but includes them both 1 Tim. 2. 5. for whoever he be that cannot indure Abels Sacrifice that man can never indure Zachariah his office and ministry for a Sacrifice of the first born without blemish that is without any thing superfluous or defective and an office springing up only from the Spirit of God which is secret and invisible with respect to mans sight without the helpe or industry of the wisdome of man nay against the very form and way of the operations thereof 1 Cor. 3. 18. 1 Cor. 1. 21. Such Sacrifice and ministry the world could never indure to be in present existence and being but only are constrained to acknowledge that such have been or such may be hereafter which all wicked men will easily yeeld unto so be it they may be tolerated for present to stand upon and practice according to their own humane and carnall principles as it was in the dayes of Cain so it is now and will be the same with all wicked men as also it was with wicked Ioash The slaughter then was in the Court of the house of the Lord as is expressed by the Prophet 2 Chron. 24. 21. And Christ opening the mystery of that Historicall Narration saith it is done between the Temple and the Altar to declare that wicked and idolatrous Kings Priests Princes and Elderships of the world false Expounders Interpreters and Prevaricators of the Law of God will never permit that such an offering or sacrifice shall be laid upon the Altar of God nor such an Officer as is only authorized and furnished with and by the Spirit of God to enter into the Temple or house of the Lord to exercise in point of worship so far as their power and authority can put forth it self to prevaile against them therefore they permit them not to come neither into the Temple nor upon the Altar but slay them betwixt them both for their act of murder in that place is referred as well unto Abel as unto Zachariah And upon that Altar which the world hath erected where no perfect thing must come but al imperfect or else not acceptable to their God which is the wisdome of the world imperfect word imperfect Sacraments imperfect Prayer imperfect Prophecy imperfect Fasts imperfect Thanksgiving imperfect Faith imperfect Hope imperfect Love imperfect Hatred imperfect Ioy imperfect sorrow imperfect Life imperfect death imperfect Priesthood imperfect Kingdome upon this Altar doth Christ never come but in the losse of his life for where he is alive he is perfect in all things Mat. 5. 48. Col. 2. 10. Col. 4. 12. Mat. 21. 16. Iohn 2. 5. 1 Iohn 4. 12. Heb. 10. 14. So also into that Temple made with hands or mans ability and not of Gods building 2 Cor. 5. 1. Heb. 8. 2. Heb. 9. 1. which the world in the wisdome of man composeth no Minister must be admitted therein whom the ordination of God only designs unto office unlesse the ordination of man be joyned thereunto nor any whom the Spirit of God only furnisheth for the exercise of his office unlesse humane learning and education be joyned therewithall nor is the operation of his ministry counted honourable or of any esteem in hardning mens hearts that they cannot convert and in blinding their eyes that they cannot see as well as in opening mens hearts and eyes to come unto the Lord Isaiah 6. 9. 10. For if a ministry according to Gods wisdome should be admitted by the world then would the wisdome of the world be in subordination to the wisdome of God and the calling of a Christian would prove more immediate from God than any other office or calling in the world and then would a Christian prove the only and supream person or state in the world which is an honour which the spirit of the world could never allow unto the King of Saints which may seem strange that they should conclude that a Christian shall have chiefty of and supremacy over all wicked men hereafter and yet cannot yeeld it unto them for the present but rather must Lord it over them according to the doctrine of the Scribes Luke 23. 2. Mat. 22. 16. 17. 18. whereas the Scripture speaks so expresly that a thousand years in Gods sight are as yesterday when it is past Psalm 90. 4. Nay the holy Ghost concludes that our time here is as nothing Psalm 39. 5. and if so then how shall we reckon a man in another condition than he shall be hereafter in Gods account according to whose reckoning and Records we ought to judge To conclude this point an Officer of Gods ordination and appointment clothed with the Spirit of God cannot be admitted into that carnall Temple where Ioash bears sway and hath rule and command but in the losse of his life for where Christ is in office he is exalted above all the ordinations of men therefore is Zachariah slain between the Temple and the Altar not being permitted to enter with life into the same the world therefore in the letter of the Scriptures only retains a dead carkasse of the Prophets being void of the life and spirit in all the vertues thereof kept in that condition only through false and counterfeit interpretation The fourth point is the Application of the Fact unto the parties present in these words whom ye slew as Matthew hath it particularly applying the fact unto them of that present age Luke saith who perished or which was slain as giving being unto the fact in times past or who perished or perisheth for of such scope and comprehension the words are noting a continued act which comprehends time past present and to come for it is but one only Sacrifice which they thus strangle Heb. 9. 26. Heb. 10. 10. and slay contrary to Gods ordinance and appointment Act. 15. 20 29 not taking the blood or the life away according to the law Lev. 17. 12. Deut. 1â— 23. so that it is but one bloodshed and it is but one Officer which is excluded their Temple who hath all offices upon him whom they thus slay denying all rule and authority that is of the nature of that installing contemning all exercise of the party so installed in all times and ages of the world Psalm 2. 1. 2. 3. Acts 4. 25 -29 Again it is but one spirit and life of the word of God which they spightfully spill and let out in an earthly manner as Cain did the blood of Abel Psalm 79. 1. 2. 3. and it is but one spirit of enmity and falsifying of the word of God which is extant in all the seed and off-spring of the Serpent Gen. 3. 15. and therefore the fact in the full comprehension and operation thereof is really applicable to parties of that race and spirit of the Serpent in all times and ages of the world as really as the whole salvation of God and not a part or
by Iebusie who when David was made King in Hebron he and all Israel went unto Iebusie which is Ierusalem which resisted David saying Thou shale not come in hither 1 Chron. 11. 4. 2 Sam. 5. 6. So also Ierusalem is called Iebusie when the land is divided unto the sons of Israel Ioshuah 15. 8. and by that name falls in the inheritance of Benjamin in whose lot the Temple was built Ioshua 18. 28. which is a Temple destroyed into which Christ never carne and a Temple reedified wherein Christ stands and preacheth Luke 4. 16 -22 of which Moses the man of God prophecies when he saith The Lord shall cover him all the day speaking of Benjamin and between his shoulders that is in the midst of the Coasts of his Land the Lord shall abide and dwell in his Temple Deut. 33. 12. So also when that Levite who sojourned on the side of Mount Ephraim fetched home his Concubine it is said they came over against Iebus which is Ierusalem which is then said to be a City of Strangers and not of the children of Israel Iedg 19. 10. 11. 12. We conclude therefore that Ierusalem is to be understood in a diverse respect according to the mind of the Scripture and that according to a reall state and condition in both for it is to be taken in that order and constitution of blessedness and peace according to that order and place of aboad of our Melchizedeck who hath his Kingdom and Priesthood there Gen 14. 18. for Salem is Ierusalem and so the Chaldees paraphrase reads that place of the Psalmist Psalm 76. 2. Jerusalem is also to be taken as it is constituted ordered or inhabited after the manner and according to the state of the curse as it is built and inhabited by the Iebusites who are of Iebus who is of Canaan who is of Cham the cursed Gen. 10. 15. 16. Gen. â— 25. Ierusalem then in this place together with her children according to Christs true intent is to be taken in the accursed state of the Iebusites Enemies to Israel as it is constituted ordered and inhabited by her proper off-spring of false and counterfeit interpreters even as the sons of men do erect constitute order and possesse the Cities and affairs of this world namely for their glory benefit safety and peace by advancing all honourable thing according to mans account in the disparadgement debasing and abandoning all things of shame discommodity and danger so far as mans wisdome in their constitution can find out with the exercising and executing their laws and edicts accordingly Even so this City and Temple of these accursed Iebusites it erects and possesseth it it self by the advancing and promoting of all things acceptable in the eyes of mans wisdom with contempt and despising of all things which might impair or any way abate the glory and lustre thereof which cannot be maintained but by debasing and despising the Spirit of God whose propertie is to blast and to wither as grasse and as the flower of the field all things set up and consisting in whatsoever that perisheth in the use thereof as all humane institutions do if ever the spirit of the Lord breath upon them they wither and come to nought where such things then are the things chiefly maintained we may safely say that the Spirit of the Lord never breathed there Isaiah 40. 6. which are the only things that false Interpreters promote and erect amongst men in the world It is not without cause therefore that Christ ingeminates upon this word Jerusalem Oh Jerusalem Jerusalem most emphatically declaring thereby that false Interpretation is cruell and accursed both in the Mother and in the Children in the Root and in all the Branches these are accursed in their Fathers who murthered the spirit of the Prophets and their Fathers are accursed in them that do the same things that spirit which is the originall and ground of their interpretation is accursed and cruell and all the fruits that flow therefrom are cruelty and accursed Oh Ierusalem yee carnally constituted and moment any Churches Oh Jerusalem yee carnally instructed Members made great of flesh Ezek. 16. 26. Ezek. 23. 19. 20. Oh Jerusalem the Mother of false Interpreters as she is in bondage with her children by the works of the Law and in all things ingendreth thereunto Now the erecting of the curse in this City is the same with the setting of it up in Canaan the son of Cham and father of Jebus Noah having planted a Vineyard after the Flood which had swept away all Cains posterity from the face of the Earth as such as have not a being in order to the new Heavens and the new Earth wherein dwels righteousnesse 2 Pet. 3. 13. yet is the curse conserved in the Ark in that spirit of the unclean Raven as well as the blessing is in that spirit of the Dove for the work of God as well as the word of God hath its operation in way of death as well as in the way of life 2 Cor. 2. 15. 16. for death springs up and revives through the resurrection of Christ in the wicked as really as life springs up and revives through his death in the godly and yet there is no savour of life in the wicked nor any savour of death in the just and this conservation of Cham in the Ark who is of Noah and so of Enoch in the destruction of all Cains posterity in the Flood is to declare that neither the blessing nor the curse is tyed or entailed to any naturall and carnall generation according to mans judgement but God hath mercy on whom he will have mercy and whom he will he hardneth Rom. 9. 10-18 But it is said that Noah drinks of the fruit of the Vine unto drunkennesse Gen. 9. 20. 21. we know that the spirit of God alludes there unto naturall drunkennesse in the stupifying of the senses through excesse of strong drink and deny not but that holy man might take liberally of the very fruit of a naturall Vine to the obstruction of the use of naturall reason as it is in the time of sleep but we affirm that God teacheth a higher thing hereby which is Gods proper intent as the Apostle affirms concerning the care of God in not mussing the mouth of the Oxe that treadeth out the Corn 1 Cor. 9. 9. 10. God therein takes care for men and not for beasts according to the true scope and intent So God in Noah teacheth what the death of Christ is personated in Noah and not what taking away of mans naturall sense is by strong drink which is common to a beast as well as man so that as out of a deep sleep in Adam a woman is brought forth that is not only the way of mans propagation and preservation on the Earth but also one who through deceit brings in the fall and death so out of this drunkennesse and sleep of Noah there is not only the blessing of Shem and
offices in Christ Iesus are of like authority and dignity and are the ground of all Law and Order in that Ierusalem which is above the Mother of all true and faithfull Interpreters who dare never divide nor put asunder those whom God hath joyned together Mar. 10 9. In the one of these is submission unto all things that are of God through death unto all the things of this world and in the other there is â—ule and authority over all the things that are of the evill one through that living unto God in Iesus Christ or that life of God which nothing can subject no more than any thing can cut it off which is eternall 1 Iohn 1. 11. 13. There is also a Kingdome and Priesthood meerly earthly and carnall which as two Tables of stone are the fountain of all Law in this earthly Ierusalem which by law stones the Prophets of God and these are never separated in a state earthly though ordered in severall persons for the mannagement thereof for the greaâ—nesse of a King destitute of the spirit of Christ hath imployment sufficient as head of so many people that time permits him not to be exercised in matters of his relation to God therefore a Priest must be appointed for that purpose to establish matters between God and man through the Kingdome and a Priest of such ordination trained up of purpose only by humane Schools and education suitable to that government for such a design being destitute of the spirit of Christ must of necessity be possessed with a spirit of jealousie and feare and therefore dare not exercise himself in such a work but under the authority and power of such as will defend and maintain him therein so that the King and Priest are never separated in an earthly state and as a King is not honourable in divulging the Laws of the Kingdome but as he hath Nobles to be conversant therein neither is he honourable in the divulging of the Laws of the Church but as he makes some of the Priesthood great in respect of some relation to himself And both King and Priest maintain a certain interest in men as a foundation of all Law by these two things that is Tribute and Tythes which two words are of great affinity and aliance for the word Tribute signifying enough or all the acknowledgement of that yeelds all unto the King and so confesseth him to supply the place and have the room and office of God upon him so that wherein the headship and royalty of the Kingdome consists there is the ground and fountain of the Law whether in one or in many and whensoever this fountain shall please to call it self aside into consultation what the result is sent out by edict that is the Law and all must obey it because it is the mind of that which is in the place of God so as no other is or others are and this must hold according to the rule of naturall reason and tenour of the letter of the Scripture written in mans heart Rom. 10. 8. Again the Priesthood of the world maintains an interest in mens hearts by Tythes which is the ground of all carnall institutions in the way of Churches for the word Tyth or the tenth signifies all or alsufficiency which indeed ought ever to be given unto God for nothing isacceptable or of any account with him but only his Son who is all in all or allsufficient so the tenth signifies all where it is said That a Bastard shall not enoâ—r into the Congregation of the Lord unto the tenth generation that is to all generations as is explained in the next words The Ammonttes and the Moabites shall not enter into the Congregation of the Lord even unto their tenth generation shall they not enter into the Congregation of the Lord for ever Deut. 23. 2. 3. so as it is said that ten women shall bake their bread in one Oven in the City in the dayes of famine that is all the women in the City shall bake but in one Oven Lev. 26. 26. even so the tyth or tenth hath the signification of all as giving the Priest an interest in the first chief or prime of all things so that whilst the tenth is acknowledged to be due unto the Priest it sets him in the place office and room of God unto whom all things are due and do appertain and belong And as this Priesthood pleaseth to take it selfe aside in its Eldership in way of Synod or Assembly to consult about the laws of relation between God and man whatsoever their consultation concludes upon to be a way pleasing to God or profitable for mans salvation setting it out as a godly principle or practice to be held and maintained that must be taken as authentique or originall of authority a bond sufficient to bind mens souls over and ingage them thereunto because these men stand in the place of God and are more immediately conversant with him than any of the rest of the people which is the very cry and voice of all false and dissembling hypocrites in the world Isay 65 4. 5. and this is the proper ground of mens pleading for tythes not only to hold an interest in mens estates but principally to be as Gods in their consciences upon whom they must depend for all peace and truth and a carnall Priesthood cannot rest till this ground of law and interest in the people be established upon them which they seek to maintain by the law of Moses and equity thereof as this Jerusalem stoned the Prophets to death by the like law of Moses and it is as much to cut off a carnall interest of a Priest in a carnall people maintained by tythes as to cut off the spirit of the Devill from the world for all carnall and earthly hearts comply with this foundation of Law and interest in the Church and all your required stipendaâ—ies and necessary free-will offerings for the maintainance of Priests before any other people stands upon the very same bottom and is a branch of the same root of bitternesse sprung up to trouble the world whereby many are defiled Heb. 12. 15. for they fall from the grace of God or they faile and come short of the grace of God that is of acknowledging the compleat and perfect grace of God in Iesus Christ in whom every beleever hath a like interest for Christ is not divided and therfore he saith Without holiness no man shall see the Lord Heb. 12. 14. there is but one holines which is the holinesse of the Son of God and that not acknowledged we set up one man as holier than another among the People of God either in person or by office which is this root of bâ—tternesse upon which the prophanesse and fornication of Esau depends Heb. 12. 6. who for a messe of red broth that is carnall and earthly things to satisfie our lusts in our hunting after the things of this life give as in
else I am not that faithfull and true witnesse the beginning of the Creation of God or that head and Master-peece of his work which carries and bears in it the excellencies and glories yea the most eminent principles of his wisedom goodnesse and power if I can witnesse thus of the light then I can witnesse how the world is in darknesse for I know that an Idol is nothing of the proper workmanship of God and that there is but one God the maker of all things what ever the world assumes to be their titles as though there were many Gods and Lords many but to us there is but one true power so that an Idol formed and set up by man is the Devill that Abaddon and Apollyon the destroyer in and unto himself the whole work of God so that in an Idolathite there is no light no life no Sonship of God no word nor law of God for they are only governed by the law of sin and death and have no more of the law of God in them than they have of the light or life God being such as are only in darknesse and death if I then bear witnesse against the world I can testifie what the world is namely that Son of perdition and not of peace that it is destruction and not salvation the Devil and not the Son of God darknesse and not light death and not life as also the true witnesse declares how the world comes to be such a thing namely how every wicked man is made a Devill as Christ speaks concerning Iudas Have not I chosen you tvvelve and one of you is a Devill For I can never give my self satisfaction how a sinner is made the Son of God unlesse it also appear unto me how Lucifer that day-star or Sun of the morning is made a Devill If I know not how it comes to passe that the Devill is justly condemned I can never know how to bear witnesse of the justice and righteousnesse of the Son of God and then I fall short of being that faithfull and true witnesse The like certainty then that I give and testifie that the son of God is perpetuated in all things to be such a thing as at any time he appears to be according to the truth of his being the like certainty I can give unto the Devill to perpetuate him in every thing wherein at any time he really appears to be that which he is for the Black moor changeth not his skin nor the Leopard his spots Neither do the true lights in the Sanctuary and holy place of God at any time go out for the Trimmer of the Lamps is skilfull faithful and watchfull neither do those two Olive-trees at any time want Oyle to contribute through those two golden Pipes of every particular relation in Christ into that one bowle or unity of continent on the top of the Candlestick for the supply of the light in the perfections thereof being seven Lamps of light which is that Vrim and Thummiâ— given unto the Holy one namely light in the perfections thereof But I am ffraid of being over tedious unto you yet you may please to see my freedome again â—o salute you by the multiplication of my lines and the rather because I perceive the ingagement for your return so speedily to England and know not whether we shall ever come to speak mouth to mouth or find a way and opportunity again to write I hope it will not be burthensome to you to peruse this no more than it would be to me to peruse a larger Epistle coming from your selves And so with my hearty respects unto you all I cease to trouble you further at this time Remaining yours as you are Christs Samuell Gorton FINIS