Doctor HILL's FUNERAL-SERMON OR A Nevv-yeers-Gift To all the CLERGIE Daynus the reviving feet of the Witnesses past and to come To shew the day and yeer of the Lord and his time accepted Printed at London 1654. And are to be sold by Richard Moon at the seven Stars in Pauls Church-yard His Epistle and Dedication to the Clergy THou sowest all life in the flesh and thou reapest life to thy self O Lord thou windest up life in the body of life thou art the Center and orency of quickning life All Creatures move in the power of that life That substance of flesh by procreation is not that saving life but thou art the quintessence of all life in the Soul The Soul in its natural condition is vayla and changeable by the instinct of Nature included in the flesh varra changeable in it self fayla not able to stand unless it be redeemed by an inclusive power spiritual and in that way God will be seen to deliver by way of imputation of life to the Soul Reeda Alda at every season Helpative Soona Plyant Dative by a dividual dividing betwixt the Marrow and the Bones Circumference Deus All-fulness Unus varius Allmagnus God the full beauty and life in him all things are computed comprized and comprehended by him he is All meritus and translatirus and doth refine all things he is the final and fountain of all perfection the life and death of all the Creatures every thing that moveth liveth in him All solestial flesh is as a flower or grass that withereth away and shall be no more in its natural perfection for nothing shall live but life that shall not dy which is the principle of God in thee called that immortality which is a spiritual reviving power that shall return to God although the flesh doth not yet the spirit shall return to him that gave it The Soul is the life of the Creation naturally in us prohibited and presented by him which is our life so preserved The Spirit is an inclusive thing of union and by an immortal marriage it hath congruity with the Soul the Soul is a high mystery it is the Virgin of the spirit and the spirit dwelleth in it till the flesh dieth which maketh a dissolution betwixt flesh and soul The spirit of grace is an high mystery and dwelleth in some but not in all every one may have life in them yet not that spitual life which is the life of eternity therefore none can live after the old Adam but shall dy the death until the quickning power of the second Adam come in which is Christ in thee and in me to renew in us that which would die for nothing carnally can live The soul is naturally sowed in the flesh and is of it self fleshly by four natural causes by a Soveraingty from God as Breath blood Heat and Food which keepeth thy natural soul alive there is a threefold life two of them be but natural life as vegetive life natural life and spiritual life and all have their being from that eternal life We see many times that young flesh droppeth off from the Tree of life the aged must do so the King must die as well as the Beggar so must the high Doctor as well as the silly poor man then behold with me the period of mans life and full of brevity fading changeable smoak or as a vapor that soon passeth away So much for mans mortality The next thing is to enquire and speak something of this our late deceased Brother Doctor Hill Doctor HILL'S Funeral-Sermon BY a singular providence of God I happened to be at the Town of Cambridge at the very instant of Doctor Hill's departure then at the same time the Lord moved me to write and he actually taught me what I should write which he the Lord preached to me This Sermon preached to me was not my desire onely yet the God of life put it upon me and supported me with matter accordingly that I could not deny but write for the Lord preached unto me the things I should write and now I declare unto you a new Sabbath which I did write with much niceness and fear of spirit yet the Lord told me that the Sabbath-Ordinances were changed by the Priests under the Law and likewise by the Ministers of our time And therefore of necessity I did write as he commanded me by way of a Funeral-Sermon or a final dissolution of the Clergellical power whereof I declare the life and death of the Creature and the stability and endless power of Christs Ministery with a description of them that call themselves Ministers of God and how they shall fall under the Worlds contempt some degrees worse then the Bishops The Prophets complaine the clamation is The Minister and Priests have robbed Gods store-house taking to themselves those priviledges that are not their own therefore they shall say no more Know the Lord from the greatest to the least and shall be free from your mouth inherently taught of God and live by faith exemplary to Abraham Noah and Christ which is to live in righteousness and not to need the teachings of men for all our teachers are failable now as well as they were under the Law so that our redemption is clearly by Christ Heb. 7.24 Christ he continued ever unchangeable as a Priest whereof he is able to save them to the uttermost that come to God by him seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them which is a plaine proof without dispute that he is the Minister of God and Priest he will put an end to your Ministery because you are failable yet Christ is infailable and therefore we cast you off in the name of the Lord and cry ye down as no Ministers of God but deceivers of the people I would bave all live up to Christ by a personal power free from all the teachings of men and that no man shall ought to teach whether he be a Minister or a lay-man for one mans tongue is no lawful testimony for one may speak of Christ as well as another so that all may prophesy one by one as they did in Christs time for in the last dayes I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh for my servants and handmaids shall prophesie Then said he unto me Prophesie son of man So I prophesied as he commanded me and the breath came into them and they lived and stood upon their feet an exceeding great Army Ezekiel 37. This Army Giddon of the Lord shall cause the River Euphrates with seven streams to dry up and there shall be many voyces heard and witnesses on their Feet Then looke to it Doctor without all dispute your trade of preaching will fall BEloved this Doctor Hill was a man of good ranke an eminent man that I did formerly know though now he was very justitious I was his Country-man about sixteen or eighteen yeers past he was a reasonable good professor called a Puritan in those dayes
which I suppose wil be betwixt 50. or 57. or sooner that your pulpits wil down Farther To vindicate thy Calling thou sayest thou art the Minister of God so wise who may gainsay it but Solomon saith There is more hope of a fool then of him that is wise in his own conceit If thou beest the Minister of God then Christ must lose his place or thou shalt lose thine for none can say I am a Minister of God without he be sent of him saying Go or go tell them of my resurrection I doubt you will hardly prove any such calling yet we finde Christ was sent God he sent his Son in the similitude of sinful flesh once for all as the Minister of eternal life then why should men hang upon Doctor Speakers that have learned their skill from Oxford and Cambridge Ye Pulpitsayans must down one witness cannot be tolerated for he appeared to the twelve Apostles and David calleth us the Ends of the Earth that God will appear to Where two or three are met in my name I will be in the midst of them which doth debarre one mans speakal tongue for Christ is Divine of himself and man is to be joyntly as one of the Brethren and shall plead for righteousness among the rest and to live by the teachings of the Holy Ghost without Dictators or cunning deceivers And let all the Doctors high Priests and Prelates know they are but as other men and have the same infirmities not able to stand then no high Priest or Minister but faylable Then let us all talk together of the goodness of the Lord and what he hath done for our Souls acknowledging our sins one to another and pray for one another and give to one another the right hand of Fellowship which will be a sweet savour of goodness to laud the Lord together Doctor I know none but Christs Disciples that were tolerated to preach and not any but such as he said unto Go and learn all the Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father Son and holy Ghost Mat. 28. he appeared to the two Maries saying Go which was a lawfuller calling then any you can shew and he gave some of his Disciples gifts of healing which you have not received Doctor one mans tongue cannot comparmise nor comprehend the full truth of God as the Church may do by many voyces and witnesses if Christ himself the eternal Priest denyed himself from his own power of speaking how ought you to be cautelous of speaking your own words though in a Pulpit I marvel how Pulpits first came up they be much a kin to your Fonts where ye disciple Babes in Clouts which is as a Monster that shall never come to perfection There be many things more that I may tell you of Malachy 3. saith Bring the Tythes into my store-house as if by an illusion he should say For the Blind the Lame the Fatherless the Widow and the Aged to relieve the Oppressed that men might be eased of Collection to the Poor in every Parish and for all such as want And you Pulpit-men work with your hands as others do for you are almost at the end of your period having so much of the Letter and so much example of Christ that I wonder with Paul when he said Who hath bewitched you that you do not obey the truth Ye Doctors are carried away from Christ by Self-ends and personal interest as great Tythes which is utterly unlawful for them that call themselves Ministers of God and yet rob his Store-house and commit Sacriledge against God Under the Law the order of Gods House was changed by the Priests and the Prophets reproved them for it under whose reproach ye Doctors and Ministers lye to this day in that ye rob God of his interest Bring the Tythes into my Store-house for now I reprove you under the testimony of Christ There was a Treasury in the time of the Apostles and Christ which the people ministred unto and brought in their gifts consecrating their love to Gods house as Joanah and Susanna ministred of their substance to the Treasury and the Widow brought in her mite which was received with great acceptation which way of Gods worship you and the Bishops have strangled Gods House and got those priviledges into your own hands Again I must tell you both Minister and People impropriations would make the poor of such places merry if they might or could have their right given them but we have so many devouring Foxes have stoln them away and you have not pleaded for them in the Pulpits but you falsly keep those benefits to your selves ye blind guides of the people that make clean the outside and the inside is full of putrification These Pulpitians have spoyled the Commonwealth of Israel you have been one of the Hornes of Oppression otherwise we might have had the Government of Christ set up before now which is by Four and Twenty as we may call Governallity which is Governation A Parliament of Four and Twenty which should be for commonality but you have stood so high in your Pulpits that the silly World believeth that your Pulpits were ordained of Christ which were nothing so but arose from Bishops Deanes Chancellors Deacons or Doctors of Divinity as ye call them men of low descent yet raised from those two Fountaines Oxford and Cambridge pethy places for learning of the stammering tongue Christ gave gifts of learning which was not to one but to more then one as if he should say Let no man silence the people as he said John was a burning and a shining Light but I have greater witnesses then that of John for the work to finish so that one mans tongue shall not stand but the talking of witnesses shall manifest every truth for Pulpittian Christ questioneth thy Authority thy People shall speak and thou must answer otherwise the truth cannot be established without much trouble and many witnesses which produceth the grand voyce of the Church And therefore ye Taskmasters down with your Hour-glasses many words in your own tongue cannot satisfie the people neither can you make out truth by your own tongue Noah was a Preacher of righteousness but not in a Pulpit and Abraham preached forth Faith he believed and it was counted for him for righteousness The good life of those two Fathers preached righteousness to the people and so should yours be to act in righteousness without partiality of the tongue It is not the hearing nor the preaching but the doing of righteousness for to enquire the way and not to walk in it is a vain thing We ought all to live up to God in truth and that is the best teaching To disciply and distinguish truths is good learning and the best preaching to answer the things of conscience by the grand power of the Church and not to rest upon the mouth of one teacher neither do I know any Minister after the flesh but like Minister like
so pure in a heavenly shape but the Priests are as Locusts that shall fall under Armegiddon Euphrates shall dry up Oh Army Army Arme of the Lord their power shall fall under thee Priest thou sayest thy power is a spiritual power yet it is but a civil power and therefore it must down and fall before Sion The overthrow of the Bishops was for calling it a spiritual and for their spiritual courts audacious to think upon full of blasphemies set up by an Antichristial power which now is thrown down as contemptible therefore all your civil Christs must down as your Spiritual Fathers the Bishops have done if you call your power Ecclesiastial it is equal with Christs if you call it Ecclesiastical you must prove it from Christs saying Go teach whose ordination ceased after the Apostles so that your Authority of Oxford and Cambridge is void and cannot stand Ephes 1.4 and 5. He hath chosen us in himself before the foundation of the world was laid he predestinated us to the adoption of children by Christ Jesus but not by your Ministery You see the Saints were first chosen predestinated and called before your Ministery stood up and yet you say you are called to convert souls in the Pulpit You Priests must have a hand in the work of renovation though you are not called yet ye run and are not sent to do such works of wonder for it is he alone that doth abound to us in love in wisdom and in prudency Having made known to us the mystery of his will vers 6. according to his good pleasure which he had purposed in himself and not by your means Ephes 3.4 and 5. God who is rich in all mercy hath quickned us which sheweth that it is not your teaching that can do it and elsewhere he saith By his grace you are saved and not of works Then down with these working teaching Christs that can learn the people salvation for it is the gift of God not of works left any man should boast Ephes 2.9 and 10. For we are his workmanship created to good works which God hath foreordained therefore it is properly and fully the work of God freely to our souls but let no durt-dawbing Priest have any hand in thy conversion for it is Gods work Let no swineherd meddle with such a pearl as if they were outward means of mens salvation He alone is our peace who hath broke down the mid-wall of our reproach having abolished the enmity even the Law of Commandments contained in Ordinances by making in himself of twain one new man for peace that he might reconcile both into one body by his cross having slain the enmity thereby Ephes 2.17 He preached peace to you afar off and to them that are nigh so that by him we have access to the Father and not by the Priests of the second hand which have little skill in the creation of salvation it is a secret work of God Let no man say he can teach but let us all be taught of God Minister and People from the least to the greatest let us all covenant to him with one consent and betroth our selves to him that he may take pleasure in his Spouse and his beloved ones may have pleasure in him the All-teacher and come out from their fained Priests the gods of their Temples that call themselves Ministers of God saying The people must reverence them as Embassadors for the works sake as if God had not power on earth aswell as in heaven he is present in all places by his omnipotency and omnipresence and by his immensity and by his all-seeing eye and by his providence that governeth the whole creation and by his inspiration and foreknowing what shall come to pass he spiritually beholdeth all things he alone hath created the earth then doth he not see and teach all and will bring all rule and power under himself Then lay down ye high Priests and say Ye are all taught of God for he will teach us of his wayes The Law shall go out of Sion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem which shall be Christ preaching from the Mount when the people shall give audience to him and cast off their fained Priests which are but as wood and straw whose stubble shall burn before the fire of his jealousie wangeable shall their power be when God shall give power to his two Witnesses and the Law shall preach out of Sion Revel 14. The everlasting Gospel shall preach to every language and nation when all your wrangling Priests shall be forced to lay down because they can establish nothing in order correspondent to his bright appearing therefore they must lay down and say We have spent our time in vain too long and besotted the simple people and yet we have said We were the ordained Ministers of God though we were destroyers and no builders historians that have preached this or that but what of the new work can we do it is not our talking of Peter and Paul that will serve the turn for God will make a new heaven and a new earth by a new discipline Ecclesiastical and Civil he will make all new to do away your carnal formes every form shall cease to a new formality God will make his latter temple more glorious then all the former All earthly builders shall not be found fit for the work of Gods house every flatterer shall be nonresidensed and cast out according to Gods extent and laid open to the sight of the grand Church to be excluded from the common community shut out of fellowship and society with the unsociable and rebukeable When God shall try Sion and search Jerusalem with lights when he shall purge the Sons of Levi and break the constellations that stand so high and remove the stars out of their places when the moon shall blush and be ashamed and all the stars come under his feet when this discipline that now standeth upon crutches shall be taken away then you may declare the great things of God saying He hath formed a new temple wherein all righteousness shall dwell Old things are become new and all fashions and forms are passed away but onely one which is called the formal Power and Government of Jerusalem and God and our Lord Jesus Christ is our Temple The Lord is our light within us he is our Sabbath the Sun shall not burn us by day neither shall the dark Night overshade thee thou shalt continually walk in the light of the Citie of the great King when thou shalt throw off thy fained lovers I mean thy Priests that erre in darkness and know not the true way for God will surely consume the smoak of Babylon and burn up all darkness before himself that he may dissolve the great blindeness and ignorance of the Priests that there may be light in the City that hath lain so long under darkness suspended from the truth lying under thick darkness Therefore we must all come
under the teachings of God which will be a stable peaceable Government when we shall strive no more for disciplying Ministers Your power that you hold up is full of many horns of the beasts pushing and persecuting in your thought such as will not come under your bow but God will have a peaceable dominion when your power lies as low as Doctor Hill's bones This is a hard doctrine to you which you have not learned at Oxford and Cambridge yet you must stoop to his dominion Christians and People how have you been deluded in your way and solely conceited in earthly Priests Is not Christ all in all Ye look upon mortal man to teach yet God hath a providence that teacheth and ruleth all things in heaven and in earth Doth he not guide Winter and Summer and every season declareth his wisdom and by his power dark things declare forth the light that the people may know there is an higher Ministery then that of men Doctor Pulpitian know this the more you tie men to your audience the more they shall break off from your tyecal ties and your hearers shall be few in number Further know this When they turn their backs upon you there will be a great consumption of your power as we may call a consumption of the lungs or an endless consuming so that you shall be a hopeless Ministery for Christ is the beginning and end of every work and all truth is from the Father and the Son Christ never resisted the powers but said Give tribute to whom tribute belongeth he further said Give Caesar his due He was circumcised he read the Law he went into the water and was baptized yet all things are failable when he cometh in power then all such customes and forms must be done away though he suffered all after the flesh yet he redeemed all by a spiritual power and shall controverse for every wrong done in the flesh contrary to the will of God Doctor there must be a falling away but not from God but shall bring them neerer to God It shall not be a falling from their Sabbath rest which is the endless Ministery of Christ but it shall be a falling away from your power that the mystery of iniquity may be dissolved or discovered for there must be a great falling away and then you Stars or Ministers called shall fall from your high perfection and shall dissolve before Sion Ministers you shall be much disconsolate at this great falling away when your sheep shall seek a new Shepherd and go to the right Shepherd Christ Jesus when the kingdoms and powers shall be all given into his hand when no man shall say I am a Priest or a Minister of God then you high Doctors may say How are the mighty fallen How be our weapons of spiritual warfare perished and we are counted as low as other men Babylon thy honour is going down thy Temple is rent for there will be a falling away from thee two parts of the people shall fall away and the other two shall be tryed in the fire of his jealousie for God will bring all things upon trial to prove who are sincere and who are not and who will lay down life and all for him and who will not This falling away from you will be a redeeming of the people to Christ by bringing them out from your adulterous power of Ministery which is not of Christ but of men and cannot stand for yours is the Gospel of men and not from above your power is literal and you as so many decoy-ducks that deceive and insnare many others so do you captivate all those that follow you and neglect the principal of all which is Christ Isai 20. and 23. The Lord saith He will make a consumption in the midst of the Land which is now to be observed by this great falling away as by a shaking or quaking of the people of God which sheweth they must fall from your Ministery and be restored to Christ their great Conquerour This Tribe of Christ called the North-Tribe shall grow and prosper until it come to be an invincible Tribe of the Lion of Judah This Lion of the North shall cause all the beasts of the field to quake and a terrible shaking shall be that have disobeyed him This great Conquerour Christ Jesus of the new covenant first appeareth to the Messenger of the covenant and so to the North-country by an alusion to Jeremiah saying As I have scattered them so will I gather them from the North country and from all the countries where they have been scattered Christ alone he shall gather the people he is King of the North-country and of all the countries when his power doth arise it shall be as water in the bowels of the world he shall gather the people he shall sit and rule upon his Throne he is the Lion of the North-skâ—…t of the Jews whose power shall go forth This Tribe of the North is the Tribe of Judah to whom every Tribe shall stoop and fall Gen. 49.8 Judah thou art as a Lion thy hand shall he upon the neck of thy enemies Judah thou art as a Lion from the prey and shalt stand up for the Scepter shall not depart from thee nor a lawgiver from between thy feet until Shiloh come and unto thee shall the gathering of the people be So that I finde this Lion of the Tribe of Judah shall gather in all the lost Sheep of Israel to their fold that Christ may separate the Sheep from the Goats which will be a great shaking and falling away from your Ministery When God shall divide your Sichem and deliver his people out of your hands to be taught of Christ and taken from your mouth Then they may joyfully say Our Moon is set and no darkness appeareth The Lord is the light of our Temple The seventh and last part of this Sermon is set forth to declare the peaceable dominion of the Son of righteousness Obj. SOme Priests may say We have fasted we have prayed we have sighed and mourned for the people All this may be yet Christ hath done so before thee for he hath laid his life down and done the work thorowly for all that can believe Then Oh Priest look to thine own soul and take no charge of other mens souls though Noah Daniel and Job should pray for others yet they can have an answer but for their own souls for Christ is the end of all happiness and salvation he is the end of war look upon Sion the City of solemnisie to see Jerusalem a quiet habitation a peaceable dominion When the people see the Ministiners shall be ashamed when the Lord of Hostes shall raigne in Mount Sion and sit before his ancient glory to judge when Christ shall sit upon his throne by a Government called Mount Sion by an Auditory of twenty four or some twelves in other places to declare and effect condigne justice to all according as God shall