walke after the custome of the World I say If thou livest not after the example of Christ thou art a Minister of sinne and thy life doth not teach others then thou maist preach to others and be a cast-away thy self Alas poor fleshly man thou teachest the Letter and yet art ignorant of the truth thou hast set thy self high in a say-Pulpit to speak great things in a seenal way of repetitions speaking many things to please the people Ye be subtil Sophisters men-pleasers and self-seekers that can derive themselves into many formes contrary to the truth of God by setting up Sub-ordination in the place of Ordination to set themselves higher then Christ And in that they are made equal with him for he was made a little lower then the Angel meaning the Angels of your Churches that still keep him upon the Cross and crucifie his power Christ was ordained Minister of God but ye ordained your selves I can give a relation of one within the County of Lincolne a Minster called Mr. Male as I understand doth ordaine Ministers and that some petty Ministers have come many Miles to be ordained of him which is intolerable I wonder his heels are not pictured upwards Thus they may do though not by Lawful means But be you sure all sub-powers must down as things in Heaven and things on Earth and things under the Earth must bow at the name of Jesus He is the Prince of Peace and Prince of Power the Lord shall be exalted in all the Earth and your powers shall come down as low as dry Bones Ye high Priests know this that your state is failable for as you have cryed down the Bishop and his Surplis so now the Witnesses shall cry down with your Pulpits and your Fonts you are spiritual high in your own conceit full of pride sedition and covetousness self-seeking full of envy and bitterness in that ye differ not from the general world yet you can say you are the Ministers of God yet not walk after the example of Christ This that I declare is called your Funeral-Sermon or wind-up for ye shall be eclipsed by the bright appearings of the Lord. This eclipse took its first entrance in the year 1650. which shall cause the greatest earth-quake that ever was since the creation and the power of it shall decline towards the fourth or fifth yeer after 50. here in England Doctors what will ye do when your Tythes fail and your Ministery fails your new-Moons and Sabbaths fail then it shall be to you as the mourning of Hadadrimmon or a destructive time when ye shall have no audience or accommodation of the people for every one shall have a personal power put in them to stand alone without Preachers They shall be so inherently taught of God that the Minister shall say no more to them Know the Lord for they shall all be Prophets inwardly and shall stand by a personal faith as Abraham and Noah did in fulness of Spirit for the Lord saith In the last dayes I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh and my servants and hand-maids shall prophesie When ye Ministers may say We are Vine-dressers and Husbandmen to till the waste Commons for our weekly Sabbaths are changed into one Sabbath once a year we shall go up to worship the Lord and to keep a Feast of Tabernacles which is a true Sabbath according to Christs Resurrection to keep a good conscience which is a Feast in the heart of the Creature and that is the best Sabbath to live in all righteousness every day which is a Sabbath And though the Jew have have lost his new-Moon and thou O Gentile thy new-Moon yet thou shalt remember the Lord and once a year consecrate thy gift to him and keep a new Sabbath by an offering to God in his new Covenant to worship him with all thy substance and then it will appear that thou art one of the new Sabbath Thou must deny thy self-ends and all sinister engagements and so betroth thy self unto God in righteousness to covenant with him according to the new-Sabbath Though the Constellations may fail yet his Sabbath-Ordinance shall stand it shall not be disannulled Heaven and Earth may pass away but not one jot or tittle of his word shall fail For Christ is the word of the Sabbath and in him we shall have rest if we enter into Covenant and that is to acknowledge him by a new Sabbath for in those dayes and at that time saith the Lord I will make with them a new Covenant not according to the old for this shall be the Covenant that I will make never to turn from them or take away the Ordinance of Sabbath from them Yet the Lord saith I hate your Sabbaths because your hands are full of blood As if he should say Ye keep Sabbaths to your selves and transgress my holy day Once a year thou shalt come up to keep a Feast of Tabernacles and all that will not come to the worship of Jerusalem shall have no rain or raigning power in this new Sabbath of rest Silly Priest I question not though thy Sabbath be taken away for Christ is thy eternal Sabbath and thou shalt worship him according to the order of Jerusalem for all your subordinances shall stoop at ordination your Sabbaths shall change into one Sabbath If thou wilt walk in my wayes and do that I command thee this day then thou shalt ride upon the high places of the Earth that is whoever shall Covenant to this new Sabbath shall enjoy all the promises the Lord saith I will dwell in you and ye in me Ministers your Sabbaths are failable therefore they be called your Sabbaths by illusion as if he should say If ye keep a day keep it to me for you observe dayes and do no righteousness therefore your new Moons and Sabbaths shall change and be taken away for I will make a new Covenant with them saith the Lord not according to the old but this shall be my Covenant never to turn from them that truely Covenant to me saying I will betroth thee unto me in mercy and loving kindness and thou shalt know the Lord for my counsel shall stand Doctor the taking away your Sabbath shall cause the Lords Sabbath to shine out more clear for ye have changed my Ordinances Mal. 3. Therefore the Land is cursed with a curse and your moonorital Sabbaths shall change if ye keep one day keep it to me saith the Lord. So that we ought to keep every day as a Sabbath once a year to make out our accompts which is Easter-day and the six dayes before it for every year shall be called as a Sabbath-day and so from year to year ye shall keep my Sabbath Ordinances and live in them that is from year to year ye must come to Jerusalems worship Zachary 14. Christ preached every where and made every day a Sabbath It is not for thee and me to keep a day once
ordain and appoint without the help of man Let no man say He can teach for no man can teach life and salvation Then down with all teachers that we may live under a peaceable Government our own Vine Christ Jesus for he will teach us of his wayes without all differing disputations Those that call themselves teachers they live as drone-bees by the sweat of other mens brows Therefore let them stop their mouths for the people will not give ear to them but will live under their own vine by a new Sabbath Covenantial and you shall bewitch the people no longer when fulness comes God will teach and the people shall declare what God hath done for their souls Then all these Dromidaries of Midian must break off your heavenly teaching and come under the peaceable Dominion of Christ You high Doctors blame me not for speaking where life is it will branch it self forth Who shall hinder my speaking the truth the silly Worm to the cold Earth the Sallamander to the Fire so all things to their proper use to the honour of God Oh that these rotten Priests would lay down their power and make Christ all in all Fat Priests that live as Drones belly-godded persons proud and delicious God is angry with you because no power will throw you down God will give his people wisdom to come out from you and to live by a higher teaching which is from the holy Ghost for there will be a great falling away that the iniquity of the Priests may be discovered I have tried all your Ministeryes and can have no rest in them my spirit is so universally taken up with the appearings of Christ that I unfailably see an absolute doing away of your Forms your Sabbaths your Sacraments your Baptism your common-Churches your separate-Churches your Anabaptist-Churches your Papist Churches all your set forms must return to the ancient Church of the Jews which is the stable perfection of Christ for now he apeareth all your forms must be done away Christ at the first came under a state of imperfection yeilding to the laws of men but now he cometh in perfection and will do away all your forms and shadows for when that which is perfect is come the unperfect must be done away My desire is to see the Priests thrown down and let the Lord preach alone for all the Ministers under the cope of heaven are not able to define or make out the truth neither can they speak truth till they give up their Ministery to Christ for all teaching belongeth to him and I know not any as can teach but shall run themselves into errors for it is God that teacheth and not fleshly man for by mans teaching the curse hath continued on the earth to this day neither shall it be till Christ hath the full pre-eminency and all powers yeilded up to him by an endless Covenant saying When that which is perfect is come then that which is not shall be done away when he cometh in power your illegal forms and relecks shall be done away for his formal power shall throw off your shadows as all the creatures declare the glory of God and preach forth his excellency but not as a Priest to Minister in Christs place but to shew what the Lord hath done for the creation and to acknowledge Christ alone to teach life He preacheth forth peaceable dominion to them that are nigh and to them that are afar off from him righteousness doth arise which is the end of all preaching Christ is the stability of the Church I do not say of named Churches but of one Church without difference or dividual dividing he is the husband of one spouse his perfection shall guide us unto all truth and for want of setting up Christ in his oriency of power men set themselves up and destroy his heritage but the chosen people of God must act against every thing that is opposite to Christ for he is Prince of peace and Prince of power and for his cause sacrifice thy life otherwise thou art no Christian for we must look no more upon the Ark of the Covenant it must not be once named amongst us The letter of the Scripture shall be failable when the testimony truly dwelleth in us by faith then all our outward shadows shall be done away Christ hath redeemed us from all typical shadows and from the curse of the letter being once made a curse for us that the blessing may come upon the people by faith and not by literal forms and shadows Gal. 3.13 Cursed is every one that hangeth upon a tree Shewing the miserable condition of all such that hold so much by the tree of the Law and deny the freedom of the Spirit they might have in the Son of God for as many as rely upon works are men-workers lie still under the curse for Christ is the free Abraham he hath done all the work of renovation and we are free in him without works and saved in him without mens works if once in Christ then free indeed from all mens traditional teaching while we are justified in Christ we acknowledge our selves sinners in that we see nothing in our selves and Christ to be just in all It is the believing Abraham that shall be justified and not the working Abraham For grace is of faith and not by works lest any man should boast for if the inheritance be of the letter it cannot be of faith God gave it to Abraham as he believed so the Lord promised to him and to his seed for ever according to the Covenant of faith which is the Law and Testimony written in the conscience called two Witnesses within which do Christian a creature and baptize him into the promised Covenant of Abraham and Christ which is far above all your teaching forms and shadows I speak to the people saying Stand fast in the liberty wherein Christ hath made you free and be no more entangled with the yoke of bondage but know your selves at liberty as children of the day and rejoyce with Jerusalem all that love her be glad and rejoyce for the amplitude and stability of the Church when all the Churches shall be maried to Christ in the new Covenant that they may suck and be satisfied with the brest of consolation for the Lord will extend peace to his Church as a river and to the people as a flowing stream from a fountain of teaching from above GOod men may sometimes deny Christ not knowing the end of disciplying This Doctor Hill was an eminent man and without all question declared forth many good things in his time yet subject to erre as we be by relation of some of the Souldiers that quartered in the town of Cambridge as they told me I cannot tell but as they related a sad story of this Doctor Hill by relation he was intended to persecute with the tongue whether right or wrong his spirit knoweth it best I cannot prove it yet it was certified me
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