miserable and undone man If once man come to be thus lost undone and brought down in himself then will Jesus Christ make him a Feast of fat things if once his peace be lost his righteousnes lost his joy lost his help lost his strength lost then will Jesus Christ be all these unto him he will make out a peace for him a righteousnesse for him a glory for him he will be to him a feast of fat things full of marrow and wine on the lees well refined And so as he saith in the next verse I will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people and the vail that is spread over all Nations That is mans opinion of his own goodnes his seeming righteousnes which was as a covering as a vail that man could not see himself miserable and under wrath and hell and darknesse This is the covering every man naturally hath an opinion of his own goodness he hath something or other to cover himself withall but some have finer and as they conceive richer coverings then others they think they have more holines and more repentance and more love and more good works these are by so much the worse these are at a farther distance from the Kingdom of Heaven Matth. 21.31 And Publicans and Harlots and the vilest sinners shall goe into the Kingdom of heaven and they themselves that have so much holiness shall be shut out Luk. 23.45 Here now The vail of the Temple must be rent from the top to the bottom The rock of their righteousness must be rent their shame must be laid open Ibid. 12.3 what they have done in the secret chambers of their own hearts must now be proclaimed upon the house top they cannot conceal it the covering is removed Now they come to see that Jesus Christ is only the rock of their righteousness and that they have none at all all other rocks all other righteousnesses must be rent that so their want their misery their condemnation their hell their horrour their darkness and delusion may be discovered and if men be once brought to this to be content to be miserable as indeed all mankind is by reason of the fall to be content to see themselves undone to be shut up under the wrath of God condemnation sealed upon them and the pit to have shut her mouth upon them having once thus lost all their power wisdom righteousnes then all death hell and darknes shal be swallowed up in the death of Christ Then he wil as it is in the eighth verse Esay 25.8 Swallow up death in victory and the Lord God shall wipe away all tears from all faces In this mountain he will take away all sorrow and the rebuke of their sins all guilt all condemnation all bonds all captivity all strong holds all chains all death all fears griefs terrors and all things of that nature This rock this mountain will swallow up all and so take away the rebuke of his people When a man is brought into this mountain he shal be thus fed with fat things and wine on the lees and all tears washed away nothing left of that nature and this is that day of the Lord this is the Lords resting day and this is the souls Sabbath and resting day when all rebukes all frowns all griefes are removed All other Sabbaths and rests externall are but figures and representations of this true rest And then it follows in the ninth verse And it shall be said in that day Loe Esay 25.9 this is our God we have waited for him this is the Lord we have waited for him he will save us and we will be glad and rejoyce in his salvation for in this mountain shall the hand of the Lord rest c. when Christ hath thus appeared to the destruction of all things in man and hath brought him out of himselfe and hath ruined all his strength righteousnes wisdom c. then Christ wil be all in all to him then will he feast him in this mountain and the soul seeing all these things accomplished in it self then it cannot chuse but rejoyce triumph and sing Even the Song of Moses and the Lamb This is our God that we have waited for This is the Lord in him alone is power and wisdom and righteousnes loving kindnesses and tender merecies Thou O Lord only art worthy to receive honour Rev. 4.11 and glory and power thou alone art our strength and Our salvation all their happines is concentred in this One God and they have no God but him no Saviour but him they have but One God and one faith and one baptisme Eph. 4.4 5 6. One body one spirit one hope One Lord one God and father of all who is above all and through all and in all They rejoyce in this that they see themselves made nothing that they are emptied of themselves of their power wisdom righteousnes they now rejoyce triumph and sing because the vail of covering of the all Nations is removed in their hearts that their high thoughts are brought down that their wisdom is made folly that their opinion of their own glory of their own somethingness of their own holiness is removed and Christ alone is He in whom they enjoy all things From hence ye may conclude upon this point That Christ alone is the Saints strong mountain Doct. and their feast of all good things He is only their mountain of strength he is their joy and their song he hath rent and destroyed the face of the Covering which is upon all people they see that none can remove this Covering but Christ alone and therfore he having done this in them and for them Psal 4.7 this rejoyceth their hearts far more then if he had increased their Corn or their Wine or their Oyle here is their feast here is their day of Thanksgiving here is their Sabbath which shall never end here is their marrow and fatness here their wine and their fat things full of marrow He is their mountain their glory their rock and all this they see is wrought in them by the power only of Jesus Christ And this adds to their rejoycing that they see they had no hand in it they see that they did not chuse him but he chose them that they instead of chusing him ran away from him opposed him fought against him and yet he followed them and never left them till he had conquered them and this now is their joy and their praise and their song and nothing in heaven or earth shall be exalted or magnified by them but only Jesus Christ their strong mountain their feast of all good things These Souls only come to see that there is a vail and that this is the vail of Covering spread over all Nations all those upon whom the vail is see not the vail but he only in whom 't is rent from whom it s removed And all their desire
that and the other duty but this cure being not throughly wrought but as the Prophet Jeremy saith The Prophets have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people sleightly for they having submitted to their directions Jer. 6.14 they have hereupon comforted them and told them now all was well and they were converted and both concluded that he was their spiritual father that had begotten them again But for all this the day of the Lord hath afterward come upon them as a thiefe in the night 1 Thes 5.2 and they have been robd of all their comfort and confidence and have laine many yeers after in misery and bondage and no man could speak any peace to them till Jesus Christ himselfe came and then they found him indeed to be The Deliverer And that he alone was annointed to preach good tidings to the meek to bind up the broken-hearted to proclaime liberty to the Captive Esay 61.1 c. and the opening of the prison dores to those that are bound to proclaim the acceptable yeare of the Lord and to comfort all that mourn To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion beauty for ashes joy for mourning c. that HE might be glorified Therefore from hence I would presse a word or two upon all those that think themselves delivered It is worthy your consideration that so your confidence may not deceive you If thou art DELIVERED by the power of Christ and that the Lyon of the Tribe of Judah hath ransommed and redeemed thy soule from the power of the grave Rev. 5.5 Then thy testimony and thy witnesse will be this That nothing in Heaven or Earth can deliver but solely the power of Christ and this thou wilt and canst hold forth not in general words but really and from experience that there is no deliverer but Christ alone Thou wilt I say bear out thy witnesse if so be thou art delivered that it was not Ordinances as men improperly call them could do it it was not in the power of the Letter of the word nor in any thing whatsoever nor in the power of thy doing nor thy watchfulness nor strictness could in the least help thy soul to rest but only the mighty arm and power of Christ He hath trod the Wine-presse alone He can in experience give Testimony freely Esay 63.3 c. to that Scripture in Esa 63.3 Who is this that commeth from Edom with died garments from Bozrah travelling in the greatnesse of his strength t is I that speak in righteousnesse being mighty to save T is I that have trodden the Wine-presse alone And of the people there was none with me for the day of vengeance is in mine heart and the year of my redeemed is come therefore mine own arm brought salvation And I will tread down the people in mine anger and make them drunk in my fury and I will tread down THEIR STRENGTH to the Earth Here Beloved is a true description of MANS deliverance it can never be till Christ will do it and till the year of his redeemed be come and he doth it alone and no man stands by him no man can help And in that day they shall drink in his fury ☞ and he will tread down THEIR STRENGTH t is not mans power nor wit nor learning nor endeavours nor doings nor fellowships nor Ordinances can help him or stand by him But his own right hand hath brought salvation If it be not by the hand and power of God alone thou wert never yet delivered For in that day all the strength of man the wisdom of man the righteousness of man all their strength must be all trodden down Esay 63.6 Jer. 25.15 c. and in that day he must be content to drink in the Lords fury and he must stand condemned and abominable in his own sight and take the cap of this fury at the Lords hand Oh sayes that soul whom Christ hath delivered I find He alone was my Saviour my Deliverer there was none with him If his hand had not laid hold on me and saved me I had gone down to hell into the Nethermost pit Oh Beloved he cannot endure to hear any lift up any thing equal with Jesus Christ or join any thing with him to help him in this work in the least He had rather you should kill his dear Father nay himselfe rather then hear any one speak against or undervalue the work of Jesus Christ And this is the witness he bears forth for he testifies what he knows and what his eyes have seen and what his hands have handled of the word of life 1 John 1.1 Nay the very work of Christ it self bears testimony that this was Christ his own work in them for t is such a work as none other could do saith our saviour The works that I doe bear witness of me John 15.24 for if I had not done such works as no man ever did or could do why should you beleeve on me For to make duties or those things falsly call'd Ordinances his rest or his peace or his Saviour this is DEATH to a true experienced soul he cannot endure any should wear that crown but Jesus Christ alone he knowes experimentally as Peter when Christ asked them Ibid. 6.68 Will ye also go from me Lord Whither shall we go thou alone hast the words of Eternal life They had experience of this in themselves that he alone had power and wisdom and strength and to turn away from him they turned to death to sin to misery to weakness to helplesse and dumb Idols whatever it was but only Himself and the work of Christ gave testimony to this work they felt the workings thereof they had it not by reading or hearing or observing this or that rule nor by Notions or fancies or opinion or perswasion or self-confidence but they in themselves have had experience of the breaking of thier own bonds and loosing off their own yoaks and that in them HE hath preached good tidings to the meek and hath bound up the broken-hearted Esa 61 ◠c. and proclaimed liberty to the Captives and hath opened the prison doors and delivered them from death and guilt and hell And that the Tabernacle of God is with these men and to them there is no more death neither sorrow nor crying for the former things are passed away And he that now sits upon the Throne saith in them Rev. 21.3 Behold I alone make all things new These things Write saith the BRIDE and also this Soule for these words are true and faithful Beloved can you give testimony to this work of Christ in you have you seen it felt it believed it Oh! know it is not much talk of Christ or much talk of sin or talking of Deliverance nor thy perswasion or the like but hath Christ wrought it in thee by himself alone Esa 63.3 4. when no man stood by him not thy selfe by thy
his wayes past finding out For who hath known the mind of the Lord or who hath been his Counsellour Or who hath first given to him and it shall be recompensed unto him again For of him and through him and to him are all things to whom be glory for ever Amen Seeing him to be so high and so rich and so full and so perfect that He is so full of glory and Majesty and yet to stoop so low to debase and disrobe himselfe to make himself so poor so low so much nothing to redeem and recover MEE Oh how great is this Freedom which is wrought by him alone without any seeking or desire of mine nay till he descended to finde me out I never knew my own misery nay when he did appear and condescended so low to deliver me I was not willing to be delivered but opposed him and fought against him and hated him and used all the devices and shifts I could invent to avoid this deliverance and to remain still in bondage and sided with the Devil as my friend and lookt upon him as an Enemy and a Devil and a Tormentor Herein was love indeed that HE should thus far overcome himselfe to become nothing and lesse then nothing for me who am really so and that he who is so infinitly rich ful and blessed in himself should shew so much love patience long-sufferings and bear so many affronts and indignities from such a miserable forlorn creature as man is and would never leave me till he had perswaded and overcome me Oh! herein was love indeed transcendent love incomparable love My Friends you that talk so much of Jesus Christ and are very zealous for him outwardly as one would think none more And all you that keep such a stir about your Forms and Fellowships and Orders and Washings c. except you have found Jesus Christ thus acting in you in vaine do you pretend to him for you doe but draw nigh him with your lips but your hearts are removed for from him This is the word of the Lord concerning you Esa 1.10 c. Hear ye the word of the Lord ye Rulers of Sodom and give ear to the Law of our God ye people of Gomorrah Why Sodom and Gomorrah He speakes to Judah and Jerusalem in the first vers But because they were no other to him but were as prophane as Sodom and Gomorrah for all their Sacrifices Sabbaths Prayers New Moons c. Esa 1.11 12 13 14 15. To what purpose is the multitude of your Sacrifices unto me saith the Lord I am full of the burnt-offerings of Rams and the fat of fed beasts and I delight not in the blood of Bullocks or of Rams or of he-Goats When ye come to appear before me who hath required this at your hand to tread my courts Bring no more vain Oblations Incense is an abomination unto me the New Moons and Sabbaths the calling of assemblies I cannot away with it is iniquity even the solemn meeting Your New Moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth they are a trouble unto me I am weary to bear them And when ye spread forth your hands I will hide mine eyes from you yea when ye make many prayers I wll not hear your hands are full of Blood c. Nay and I dare be bold to say if Jesus Christ should but come to you to convince you of your bondage and deliverance you would hate him spit at him crucifie him with as much Malignity as ever the Jews did For in truth the whole world in all their Religion and Forms love not Jesus Christ nor aym at him nor worship him but love and seek themselves and certainly this is THAT LIGHT which shall break forth in these latter days of the world to strip unmask and discover all the Religion OF MAN In this Sermon was that Testimony given to Dr. Everards Sermons which is placed at the end of this Book A RESPONSION To certaine pretended Arguments against my Book called The Saints Guide I Find a Book lately published called The Modern Statesman by one who subscribes his name by two letters G. W Esquire it may be the man is Armiger for I will not controvert what I know not but I am sure he is not very morigerous nor manifests much either of generosity or civility for his usual appellations are Fellow Wretch Caitiffe Jesuite and the like which I am sure are Epithites in a Gentleman as he would be thought otherwise he would not have written the word Esquire at length and not in figures that all Civil men will account to be Contra bonos more 's and yet the man ranks himselfe not only in a Moral but Christian account but how justly let all men and Christians judge This man pretends to answer to some Objections against Learning in a Book of mine entitled The Saints Guide in his 15. chap. pag. 109. And first mark his mistakes in the contents of his Chapter For he saith it is an answer to some Objections in my book Against Learning now in my book there is The clear definition of Learning and the division also a plain position laid down and five arguments to make good the several branches thereof and afterwards two Objections answered and sure this is something more if the man understand his own terms then some Objections barely and no more yet the man is so wise that he dare not meddle with the Position nor any one of the single Arguments but only snatcheth at one of my Queries and fixeth on a hint in my first solution A bold Adversary that bites behinde but dares not grapple face to face Secondly there is nothing at all in my Book spoken or argued against Learning under a general term or acceptation but with limitation and yet this man makes his Arguments against me as though I had opposed learning simpliciter when all that I say is but secundum quid But doubtlesse the man will prove A great Logician he begins so learnedly Thirdly there is nothing in my Book spoken against Humane learning neither in any general way but under a precise respect and punctual restriction as it cannot per se ex propriâ naturâ understand nor apprehend the Mystery of the Gospel nor any way of its own nature be advantagious unto it and this it holdeth out not in an abstract notion but in a concrete Consideration yet the man as Lucian saith of fortune and folly like a mad blind person laies about him not caring nor seeing where he smites or wounds and answers as though I had argued against Learning in general which how false is evidently manifest thus the man hath made a Giant of straw and will now Combat with him when he hath done doubtlesse here will be good game ecce Don Quixot and his Wind-Mils The man seems a great Zealot for that which he imaginarily accounts Learning and I could wish he were a fit Champion but alas impar congressus Achilli
to all these devilish deceits that your soules might come to live in him who is Truth it selfe And then you would not onely be professors but possessors of that Eternal love which would lead you into the truth and goodnesse in sincerity But because this friend of truth will not nor cannot own your outside worship he having by Gods power found the deceit thereof he is therefore by you cast out as a Heretick and so are all those that in truth and uprightnesse of heart are led and acted forth by God to work his own works for Wisdom is justified of her Children The second thing that is breathed forth in this book is this that as Christ is the Foundation so he alone it is that doth build upon this Foundation that building that will stand when all other shall and must fall and not only so but he likewise begins the work of his own power in every particular soule and carries on the same with his own hand in despight of all opposition causing flesh and all the power thereof to fall down before his face into death misery judgment and condemnation where all the glory of the first creation is seald down under the covenant of death never to rise again in its own strength power wisdom nor righteousnesse but if ever it rise again it may rise in the power wisdom and righteousnesse of Jesus the Eternal Son of the living God And thus God exercises his people under the administration of his power by bringing life out of death mercy out of misery fulnesse out of emptinesse strength out of weaknesse sufficiency out of insufficiency joy out of sorrow peace out of war and doth not break the bruised reed nor quench the smoaking flax until he hath brought forth judgment into victory and as he begineth and carrieth on his own work so also he it is and none but he that perfects it as saith the Apostle he that hath begun a good work will perfect it For it was the Eternal love of the Lord which by his Son planted the righteous seed in every soule of his and it is the same power and love that causeth it to grow in the spirit of man above all carnal power strength or policy for the pure seed shal reign till all its enemies be subdued and the spirits of those in whom it is perfectly redeemed from the Shrines and Vizzards of mortality Oh how it doth chear my heart to see our near and dear IMMANVEL springing forth unto the blind world in and through earthen vessels to the praise of the glory of Gods great grace who hath made us accepted in his beloved Therefore Reader if thou findest any of these workings in thy own soul then mayst thou know that they are no fictions but the real operations of Gods great power but if thou look not on them in the light of truth there will be no unity between thee and the party through whom they were uttered for he lives in the life of that which here is declared by words and if thou live in the same life and look upon them in the same light then will they be matter of rejoycing to thy soul but if thou look upon them any other way they will be nothing to thee but Parables and Riddles Thus hoping and knowing that God will make this work and every other work together for good to them that love him I commend thee to God and to the work of his grace Resting thy Brother and Companion in tribulation in the Kingdom and Patience of Jesus Christ THO. SOMERTON THE TITLES CONTENTS And TEXTS contained in this Book 1. THe Vail of the Covering spred over All Nations What it is and How removed with a Discovery of that Mountain of Fat things full of Marrow and Wine on the Lees well refined Delivered on a Publick Day of Thanksgiving the 23. of June 1653. at Alhallowes Lumbard street Upon ESA. 25.6 7. In this mountain shall the Lord of Hosts make unto All people a Feast of Fat things A Feast of Wines on the Lees c. In one Sermon 2. THe Builders of Babel confounded in their Language Being an Exposition by Mr. Webster at the end of a Disputation at Alhallows Lumbard street He being requested to dismisse the multitude with some profitable exhortation which was from Gen. 11. the nine first verses And the whole Earth was of one Language and of one Speech and it came to pass as they journyed from the East they found a Plain in the land of Shinar and they dwelt there and they said one to another Go too let us make brick and burn them throughly c. 3. THe Power of Divine Attraction or The Fathers great love in drawing poor Sinners unto his Son Delivered at White-hall On JOH 6.44 No man can come unto me except the Father which hath sent me draw him and I will raise him up at the last day In one Sermon 4. THe Cloud taken off the Tabernacle that the Israel of God may journey At Alhallows Lumbard street In two Sermons EXOD. 40.36 37 38. And when the Cloud was taken up from over the Tabernacle then the Children of Israel went onward in all their journeys But if the Cloud were not taken up they journyed not until the day it was taken up c. 5. THe secret Southsayer or Hidden Sorcerer discovered At Alhallows Lumbard street In two Sermons MICAH 5.10 11 12 13. And I will cut off the Cities of thy land and throw down all thy strong holds I will out off Witchcrafts out of thine hand and thou shalt have no more Southsayers Thy graven Images also will I cut of and thy standing Images out of the midst of thee c. 6. THe rooting up of every plant not planted by the Heavenly Father Delivered at Alhallows Lumbard street In two Sermons MATTH 15.13 14. Jesus answered and said Every plant which my Heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up Let them alone they bee blind leaders of the blind and if the blind lead the blind both shall fall into the ditch 7. THe Saints perfect freedom or Liberty in Christ asserted in opposition to all yoaks of bondage At Alhallows Lumbard street In two Sermons GALA 5.1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us Free and be not entangled again with the yoak of bondage 8. IN the second of these last Sermons Mr. Webster was freely drawn forth to give that Testimony to Dr. Everards Sermons lately printed which is placed at the end of the Book and are all the Sermons can be expected of his there being not any more preserved Which are sould by R. Harford at the Bible and States-Arms in Little Brittain 9. LAstly hereunto is added A Responsion by Mr. Jo. Webster to certain pretended Arguments against his Book call'd The Saints Guide Reader THere are some few faults escaped at the Press some litteral others in some owrds mistaken but being only such as an
indifferent understanding may perceive and rectifie we have not set them down in an Errata But tender all as it is to the Experience Love and Acceptation of all to whom these things shall come Greeting If any thing be obscure to the Reader let him reflect into himself to see whether the cause be not want of experience in the Mysteries of Heaven before ever he adventure to Censure For till men are really judged in themselves they are not fit to judge But if thou canst Feed here fall too And Much good doe thee and if thou canst not censure not those that can Farewel THE Vaile of the Covering spread over All Nations What it is And how removed With a Discovery of that Mountain of Fat things full of Marrow And Wines on the Lees well refined Delivered on a publique day of Thanksgiving June 23. 1653. ESAI 25.6.7 c. In this Mountain shall the Lord of Hosts make unto all people a Feast of fat things a Feast of Wines on the Lees of Fat things full of Marrow of Wines on the Lees well refined And he will destroy in this Mountain the face of the Covering cast over all people and the Vaile that is spread over all Nations c. THE Prophet in the former part of the Chapter having seen and taken notice of those wonderfull works wrought by Jesus Christ both in his Judgements and Mercies he breaks out into wonderful praise rejoycing and admiration of his wonderful Works and of his Counsels of old O Lord thou art my God I will exalt thee I will praise thy name V. 1. for thou hast done wonderful things thy Counsels of old are faithfulness and truth In which he gives thanks as in the person of Jesus Christ or as a member of him and expresseth the deep and wonderful things which have been wrought onely and alone by Him From whence we may take notice that the songs and praises of all Saints are only and alone to magnifie and lift up Jesus Christ Psal 29.9 In his Temple every one speaks of his glory they have nothing to say in praise of man of the power of man wisdom of man or the glory of man of the faithfulness of man of the counsels of man but of the Lord alone They are not telling forth what they have done to bring glory to themselves or to set up their wisdome or power or parts or any thing in them of their righteousnesse of their holiness of their love of their joy of their peace or any thing of this nature Luk 18.11 as the Scribes and Pharisees I am not so and so and I do thus and thus thereby to magnifie themselves or to make others think highly of them no but their songs and their praise is alone to exalt Jesus Christ and to tell of his doings of his counsels of his faithfulness and truth of his mercies and loving kindnesse of his righteousnesse and judgements this is their glory and this is their song In the Second verse you may see how he sets out the spoiles and the ruins that Jesus Christ hath made Great and glorious Cities made heaps of a defensed City a ruine That strong city Babel built up by the power and wisdom of man Gen. 11. for his protection and defence which he would raise up to Heaven to prevent destruction hereafter that the deluge of wrath may not swallow him up The soule having seen the Almighty power of Jesus Christ ruining and bringing down this Tower and this BABEL in himself and making all this work power wisdom providence of man of self and flesh to be made Bable Confusion here now the Saints give all the glory to Jesus Christ alone Man finds that he was raising a Temple setting up a Worship of his own devising for what end that he may secure himself provide for himself deliver himselfe from wrath from hell from the overflowing scourge from the devouring flood he thought himselfe to be wonderfull in working and glorying in his own devices Esa 28.15 in his own religion in his own forms and thereby thought this Tower would secure him no deluge could reach him he was above all danger as Paul he was marching on confidently and boldly in his own uprightnesse and thought he acted all things according to the rule Acts 9. ch 26.9 Psal 49.11 Dan. 4.30 Now in the height of all his pride and confidence Jesus Christ brings him down smites him from his horse he had built a city as it were and called it by his own name mangified his own strictnesse his own holinesse and said as Nebuchadnezzer Is not this great Babel that I have builded Now the soule seeing all this to be a lye to be confusion and a deceit and a delusion and all turned by Jesus Christ into ruine and confusion in his own soule and not a stone left upon a stone which is not thrown down Matth. 24.2 this the soule comes to see is alone the work of Christ that he hath made of a glorious city an heap Esai 25.2 and of a defenced City a ruinous place of strangers and this to be no City and shall never be built againe when once Jesus Christ pulls down Babel in us it shall never be built againe He hath laid it all flat to the ground All of mans setting up must be utterly ruined no part of that building set up upon the ruins of mans power wisdome strength parts will Christ make any use of for his kingdome but all must be ruined Luke 21.6 Ezek. 21.27 laid flat to the ground and he will not leave a stone upon a stone The work of Christ is an overthrowing overturning overturning work the work of Christ is to slay strip and undo men to strip them of all conceit of themselves to lay them flat to the earth to equal and level them with the worst of men The work of the Devil is to build up man in his own wisdom in his own strength to make him something to cry peace peace to him when there is no peace Jer. 6.14 to put wrath far away and to tell him he is thus and thus he hath such love and charity and meeknesse and conformity to the will of Christ and therefore fear not Matth. 16.22 none of all those things shall happen to thee When indeed this is nothing but the work and wisedome of the Devil in man Esai 28.15 to make him secure and put the evil day far from him and thereby hath made a covenant with death and hell and of all men he shall be preserved from ruin why he is a holy man he hath submitted to ordinances he is under the purest forms most agreeable to the wil and mind of Christ Whenas all this may be nothing but the work of the divel in man meerly to delude him and to keep away guilt that he may not see the bottomless gulph of sin and delusion that is in
Christ mans teaching can never bring this about but this teaching and learning is from the Father from Heaven men learn this lesson onely in the Schoole of Christ Joh. 6.45 there God is made something and indeed all in all and man is nothing but an infinitnesse of sin and misery Let every one therefore examine himselfe by this rule and lay it close to his own heart if he feeds himself or glories or feasts himself with any other thing then this that he is brought to nothing that God alone may in him and in the whol earth be all in all let him be sure he hath not his teaching from this one Father Esa 29.13 and this own Master but his teaching is onely by the precepts of men And till a man be come to know this in experience whatever he thinks of himself and whatever acquired parts or holinesse he hath and though he be never so much admired by others he feeds but on the wisdome of the flesh and lives and depends on that the World adores for their gods either on the external lusts and pleasures of the world or else on Silver and God riches and honour Lands or preferments c. which cannot profit a man in the day of wrath Prov. 11.4 or else they feed upon their own righteousnesse their own duties on their leaving this sin Prov. 11.4 or that sin or as they suppose all sin all grosse sin and it may be conceive that their obedience is according to the rule and mind of Christ conforming strictly to the highest and perfectest formes and fellowships and resting in this they feed but upon husks and vanity and delude their poor souls as the Prodigall he would fain have filled his belly with the husks but no man gave unto him Luk. 15.16 none of all these things can satisfie they will not deliver nor keep off the wrath of God they will prove no covering no shelter at all but the wrath of God will break in upon them and make them appear wretched and miserable vile naked and abominable And that soule that is brought to this to be stript of all its garments and made naked and lost and undone as to it selfe and all things of man this is the happy Soul the blessed Soul The other all others put their trust in the arm of flesh and are departed from the fountain of life Jer. 2.13 from the living God and therefore are not nor cannot be blessed but are those that are cursed Therefore we would that ye should take special notice of these two things First Note these two things Jam. 3.15 1. What the Vail is Gen. 3.6 what this Cursed disposition in man is what the Vail is wherewith he so deludes deceives himself and Secondly how this Vail is removed First what it is It is that earthly sensual and devilish wisdome in the hearts of the Sons of men perswading them to be that which they are not that they are holy and just and good that they have goodness and holinesse and wisdom and power c. and if they improve these say they as they may they may bring themselves into a happy and a safe condition and conclude that they can forsake sin and they can be righteous and holy this is that devilish wisdome that the Devil infused into Adam in his fall this was and is his eating the forbidden fruit When God had created him dependant upon himselfe for all his power wisdome goodness holiness he fell from this condition to have a dependance upon himself and on the creaturely being on his own wisdome and holinesse c. to have a power in himselfe and thus he departed from the fountain of all good to seek a happiness in himselfe in his own nothingness and thus he became lost cursed and miserable This is THE VAILE The Covering the deceit that is upon all flesh the Vaile of the Covering of all Nations And it is called a Covering because it hides and keeps away the light that so man cannot see himselfe as he is cursed and hellish and infinitly miserable Now this Vail wil not suffer the light to come upon him to see himself as he is because man by all means and wayes labours to maintain a good opinion of himself and for others to have the same and would by no means see himself lost and undone this Vail hides that darkness and gulf of sin that is in him and tels him that it is not so nor so with him but he is holy and righteous and hath wisdome and power and the like This is the Vaile that is upon the heart which must be rent if ever man come to be happy if ever he hopes to feast in this mountain of fat things You know we use Vailes that the defects and deformity of things may not appear and so man doth by his own heart he would by no means see the ugliness the monsterous deformity thereof he would by no means once think that hell and the bottomless pit is in him he would by no meanes see the smoak of that bottomless pit arise out of his own heart but t is certain though men hide this from their sight and Beholding yet all men have covered themselves with this Vail and 't is the covering of all Nations In Adam all die 1 Cor. 15.22 not a man upon the face of the earth but all have eaten of this forbidden tree and because we have eaten all the endeavour of man now is to keep away the sight of guilt he would not see his deformity his lost condition but with Adam he runs among the bushes and hides himself among the trees from the presence of the Lord Gen. 3.8 he labours to keep away the light that he may not see his own blackness and deformity What sayes he Have I no wisdome no power no holiness no love no faith no power to repent no ability to any good thing this he cannot endure to hear of this he runs away from as from death and the devil this cuts him to the very heart Therefore all his endeavour is to keep this Vail whole that is may stil phiremain thus he remains under the Old Testament 1 Cor. 3.14 and the Vail is unrent and is still upon the heart But in the day that the soule turns to the Lord it is content to see and acknowledge its own misery it s own darkness then is the Caul of his heart rent Hos 13.8 then is hell laid open in him and the bottomless gulfe seen in himselfe And that Hell men so much talk of he sees to be really in himself and that himself is the very Image of the Devil Secondly take notice how this Vaile comes to be removed and taken away Now this Vail is only rent and done away by Jesus Christ Secondly How the Vail is rent Rev. 5.5 9.1 not all the power nor all the art of all the Sons of men is ever
if I do not discover my self and make their folly and madnesse and their misery appear they are running on confidently never to return Therefore I will go down and confound their Language I must bring to naught all their works wisdome confidence and inventions that I may save man from destruction Now the work of the Lord is to pull down ruin and destroy all this stately building of mans erecting and to lay it all flat and to let man see that whatever he plants is in vain Every plant which the Father planteth not Mat. 15.13 must be rooted up whatever man hath wrought by his own power and in his own wisdom must be brought to confusion Luk. 21.6 and be made Babel and not a stone left upon a stone Though the Temple which the Sons of men have set up be never so glorious and precious in their beholdings yet all must be destroyed and they and all their works and endeavours all their forms and inventions turned into a ruinous heap Esa 17.1 25.2 And the Lord will not onely say this but he will also do it vers 8. So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the Earth and they left off to build the City When men is once convinced of his miserable condition and sees himself and all the sons of men thus deluded and befooled and begins to see that all their confidence is madness and all their works sin Ibid. 64.6 and all their duties as menstruous rags and all their forms and inventions no other but Babel and destruction then and not before they leave off to build this City for then they see themselves as it were swallowed up in death and misery and that their best actions are but dung and drosse and abominable things and that there is no stability in any of the sons of men and this is the Lords work alone this man hath no hand in t is the Lord that saith and doth it Ezek. 22.14 to confound this Language and scattereth men from this building so that they can now no more contribute their wisdome or counsel their strength or endeavours to this City of Confusion Vers 9. Therefore is the Name of it called Babel because the Lord did there confound the Language of all the earth All that is of man from the power wisdome excellency righteousnesse of man let it be never so beautiful and never so esteemed all is meer BABEL but a City a Temple a refuge of confusion And the Lord will scatter and confound every builder therof that is he will commix confound their language they shall be all amazed confounded to behold what the Almighty hath done to see their strong mountains so removed and their strong City of refuge ruined and blown down My Friends so far as the Lord hath declared to me this is the Mystery and the living sense of this portion of Scripture Mat. 11.10 19.12 He that hath ears to hear let him hear and he that hath eyes to see shall see he that can receive it let him The truth and things of God carry light power and demonstration in themselves he that thinks by his own power or by his own wisdom or his own light or his own learning to discover them he is still in darknesse he is to this day raising Babel and the Lord is not yet come down to confound his Language and the truth is hid and sealed up from him Now that I may come to make a little farther application of these things to our selves The first Use let it be this Vse 1 from what hath been spoken we may conclude that all the sons of men the whole race and every particular person is equally in one and the same condition they are all of one masse of one Lump not one wise and another foolish one righteous and another sinful not one earthly and another heavenly not one in light and another in darknesse not one carnal and another spiritual bue the whole earth is of one language They all even the best the righteousest they act nothing but sin and rebellion death and emnity Jer. 2.13 Psal 1413 they are all carnal all departed from the fountain of living waters they are all gone astray and become abominable and not one that doth good no not one every one of the sons of men are under wrath with ALL their works and righteousness every one is no other but a child of hell and a son of perdition and confusion And there is no good that any of them can appropriate or lay the least claim to for there is no wisedome but the wisedome of God nor no righteousnesse but the everlasting righteousnesse of that only ONE and Alsufficient Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ He that sayes there is any good thing in man any righteousnesse wisedome power any endeavours after any good or the like he is no other but a most abominable blasphemer And this conceit and presumption the Lord hath cursed and will confound Mat. 12.33 for can an evil tree bring forth good fruit Either make the tree evil and his fruit evil or else make the tree good and his fruit good can man be evil and wholly evil and yet bring forth any thing that is good or is there any good or any holiness but what is from the fountain of good for any to dare to say otherwise is high blasphemy to God and Jesus Christ to take that which is proper and peculiar to the ever blessed God and to ascribe it to a sinful nothing empty creature for any man to take the Crown from off the head of Jesus Christ and to set it upon his own head and say this is his what greater indignity what higher blasphemy then to say that which is crooked is strait Esa 5 20. Job 38.2 and to call darkness light and evil good Who are these that darken counsel by words without knowledge From what principle think you cometh all the religion of this nature and from whence cometh this kind of teaching That man must be something and MAN must do and HEE must act and HEE must beleeve and HEE must repent and there is something required of him to doe by way of condition or else the grace of God is frustrate Certainly these men are no other but Babel builders they never yet knew the confusion of Languages in themselves they were never yet undone made nothing nor stript of their own power wisedome righteousnesse nor convinced of the vanity and nothingness of all their power and endeavours they never yet saw that these things were alone proper to Jesus Christ but they must work and they must doe and they must act These certainly whatever they say never yet were convinced that man was a lump of sin and weaknesse never yet saw where the bottomless pit is never yet cryed out misery and shame upon themselves but think they have some goodnesse and some power and
he may be delivered from death and wrath Ezek. 20.43 1 Cor. 5.5 and that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord and that he may bring him to rest peace wisdom righteousness and glory in that alone and Aâ—sufficient Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ in whom alone are all these but in the creature nothing but trouble confusion death sinne hell and condemnation in which All the sonnes of men are concluded and all their best workes and Christ alone is ordained of the Father to be our strength wisdom righteousness redemption 1 Cor. 1.30 and salvation Him alone hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and Saviour to give repentance to Israel and forgivenesse of sins Him alone I say being made unto us wisedome righteousness sanctification and redemption 1 Cor. 1.29 That so no flesh should glory in his presence but according as it is written He that glorieth let him glory in the Lord and in the Lord alone THE Power of Divine Attraction or the Fathers great Love in drawing poor sinners unto his Sonne Delivered at Whitehall on the Sixth of John verse 44. No man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him and I will raise him up at the last day BEloved when the power of God from Eternity which was himself was made out in the appearance of flesh at Jerusalem when this eternal word I say was in that Vaile which was the making out of the true body of Christ when the Saviour of the world appeared in the flesh to make out himselfe to the Sonnes of men in all his actings and speakings we finde nothing else sought acted or spoken by him but the fulfilling and accomplishing of the work and will of the Father about which he was sent Joh. 6.38 and therefore whatsoever he did or said was onely that he might finish and accomplish that great work about which the Father had sent him therefore in that regard he said he had meat to eat that man knew not of John 4.32 understood not did not see And as he came to fulfil the work of the Father not onely in the flesh in those manifold and unparalleled sufferings he underwent but also in the power of that spirit that he might convey life and salvation to the soules of men this was his meat and drink so that this is it that in all his speakings he chiefly holds out so here he having declared that he was that bread that came down from Heaven that only true and spiâ—itual Manna which cometh down from Heaven Joh. 6 33. that nourisheth the soules of men and besides which there is none other Hereupon he holding forth this so boldly and so clearly the Jewes the scribes and Pharisees those Religious and learned men of the times not knowing the mystery of this bread became extreamly offended and despised and derided him saying Vers 41 Hew can this man give us his flesh to eat Truly Beloved that which is held out to us by this is That the Jew is in every man by nature and is discontented at the speaking out of the spiritual things of Jesus Christ When it is holden out that there is no other Wisdome Strength Righteousness and Holiness but that which is onely in and from the Son of God and that this is the only meat and drink of the soule And that there is not any one of the sonnes of men that hath either wisdom or holinesse or power or any good thing of his owne this is a hard saying to flesh and blood 1 Cor. 2.14 for the natural man receives not the things of the spirit of God neither indeed can he for they are spiritually discerned The Words now read are the answer of our Saviour to the murmuring objection of the carnall minded man or Jew saying how can this man be bread unto us or Manna or meat and drink Joh. 6.42 Is not this the Son of Joseph and the reason is because they saw onely the Vail but not the Godhead the eternity or everliving WORD that was under that Vail viz. his flesh or his external appearance Now he therefore gives an answer to this their murmuring and shews the reason and ground why it could not be otherwise with them that their carnal minds could do no other but murmur at these spiritual makings out of the minde of God Because no man could know him love him and believe in him but those that were given him of the Father those that were drawn by the spirit and love of the Father onely would understand love and beleeve and know him but otherwise all others they would nor could do no other but murmur and repine for all others in seeing they did see and not understand for their foolish heart was blinded and darkened with impenitency of heart therefore saith he no man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him First here is discovered by way of Negation and Exclusion the impossibility of man as man to come to Christ no man c. Secondly here is laid down the power way and means by which man comes on to Christ and that is in and by the drawing of the Father when the FATHER draws man cannot but come and when the Father draws not man cannot come unto Christ No man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him and I will raise him up at the last day as if he should say if he be not drawn and raised up by me he can never come and I never raise nor draw till the last day till mans day mans power wisdom strength holiness all that is in or of man is at an end and that he is lost distressed and undone Then at that last day I will raise him up I will come in and stay no longer for while mans day that is mans life wisdom and strength lasts there is nothing but resistance blindnesse fightings and oppositions First no man can come that is In his natural blind dead and lost condition wherein he is as a dead bone Ezek. 37. there is no life at all in him wherein he is stark blinde and sees not the things that concern his peace therefore he hath no will nor power nor mind to come unto me UNTO ME Luk. 19.42 who am the Saviour of the world the truth righteousnesse and Sactification it selfe to come unto me that is to ME indeed for men had power enough to come to Christs bodily appearance while he was on the earth but this is not the comming to him to come in conceit notion opinion or in a verbal or litteral way according to the History and relation of him But to come to Christ is to come in the life of Christ in the power of God to come unto him in the eternall power that HE may onely teach them lead them and guide them and be their onely Master that they may
lead him and bring him unto salvation but this is the condemnation Joh. 3.19 that light is come into the world and men love darkness rather then light because their deeds are evil I make no question but are all here pretend at least to be seekers of God Now enter into thy owne heart and tell me what is the end of all thy Religious actions are they not done for this purpose that thereby thou mayest gain and get a good opinion to and of thy self that thou hast served God in a way he commands and when thou hast done thinkest thou now art accepted is this thinkest thou the free-will offering that is in Jesus Christ wherein we serve him not as Slaves or as Servants but as Sons Sons that are begotten out of love and out of love serve him without fear all the dayes of our life Now I say Luk. 1.74 when thy Religious actions are onely made use of to hide over thy sin and to get a good opinion of thy selfe this is not the work of the spirit of God this is not a drawing to God but from God this is a drawing into thy selfe to depend on flesh and to feed on the dead ashes of thy own heart Esa 44.20 and not to know that there is a lye in thy right hand But now if thou didst but see thy owne sinne and thy owne evil heart thou wouldest not dare to speak of God but with much trembling but know if thou speak of him or of Divine things thou speakest as vainely and as dissemblingly as wickedly and hast nothing of Divine nature more then another then the world of men for all thy many words and large professions thou wilt not say We see for then thy sin remaineth But if thou goest out mourning and weeping over thine owne misery and over thy cursed heart to thee I say the Lord will draw thee and lead thee in the everlasting power so that thy own carnal heart and all the power of hell shall not be able to keep thee from Christ but thou shalt understand and find that it is the power of the Father onely that draws every man unto Christ And he will cause thy captivity to return as the streams in the South Psal 126.4.6 and thou shalt find that he that goeth forth weeping shall doubtlesse come againe with rejoycing bringing his sheaves with him that so thou mayest rejoyce and magnifie him alone utterly renouncing thy selfe and all the power of man as having no hand in His Almighty work THE CLOUD taken off the TABERNACLE that the ISRAEL of God might journey Preached at Alhallows Lumbard-street EXOD. 40.36 37 38. And when the Cloud was taken up from over the Tabernacle then the Children of Israel went onward in all their journeys But if the Cloud were not taken up then they journeyed not until the day it was taken up For the Cloud of the Lord was upon the Tabernacle by day and the fire was on it by night in the sight of all the House of Israel throughout all their journeyes THis Book out of which we have taken these words is called EXODUS that is the Book of the goâ—ng out or the Book of the goings forth for it shews the manner of the going forth of the children of Israel out of Egypt being brought out thence by a strong and mighty hand But Beloved if we look on the things contained in this Book of the goings forth or going out onely as an History of the Jewes going out of that Land of Egypt wherein they were inslaved in their cruel bondage we fall farre short of what the Holy Ghost intends For their going out is the type and representation of all the people of God in all generations and of their going forth from under the bondage of spiritual Pharach and out of the Kingdome of Darknesse When Moses as you may see had obeyed the command of God he shewing him the form of the Tabernacle and Moses setting up all things therein according to the pattern then 't is said Heb. 8.5 Ver. 34.35 in the preceding verses when Moses had finished the work then a cloud covered the Tent of the Congregation and the glory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle so that Moses was not able to enter in for the glory thereof Which Tabernacle was alwayes to be carried before the children of Israel and if the cloud was not taken up from off the Tabernacle then they journeyed not but sate still but if it was taken up then they were to arise and goe on upon their journey this rule they must observe and this was to be their Leader and their Guide in all their journyings Thus it is in the History and this is the Letter now if there were no more in it then so what advantage is it to us but onely to deduct and raise some moral observations and directions which every carnal man may do and be never the nearer the meaning of the Scriptures or to eat of the tree of life and of the Hidden Manna or knowing the mind of God and having no more we have but the Letter that kills Gen. 3.3 and is no other but the eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil whereof God hath commanded ADAM that is whole ADAM all Mankind not to eat thereof For to think that that eternal infinite and most spiritual and divine wisdom should have no greater depth nor no farther wisdom to imploy it self in then in relating Histories of an outward Tabernacle and of silken blew and purple curtains and of the Pot of Manna and of outward sacrifices and washings what depth of wisdom answerable to that infinite wisdom in the Almighty Jehovah were this in him To tell of Solomons State 2 Chro. 9. and his Throne and his Majesty of his Gold and Silver and of the magnificent stately Temple that he builded of the workmanship and great cost and the like what were all this if there were not more in it then the Letter and what every man by his study and reason and learning can finde out but without all question there is that Mystery and depth of wisdom and knowledge hid and covered in all these things which none can find or know with all their utmost endeavours unlesse we be anoynted with that holy anoynting which teacheth all things 1 Joh. 2.27 Mat. 19.11 neither can we ever know them except they be given us from above that so these things may be spoken out onely by that divine teaching in us And for that History for which this Book is called Exodus that we are now upon the Book of the goings forth without all question and to be briefe Satan in us is that true Pharaoh which keeps the true Israel in bondage which is here held forth by that external Pharaoh for what is that Pharaoh to us except we find in our selves all those things acted and done And Egypt there to us is no other thing
Mat. 5.15 He is the light set upon the Candlestick giving light to all that are in the House and Hee is the Hidden Manna to nourish us to eternal life Col. 1.19 2.9 and it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell even the fulness of the Godhead bodily Oh Beloved He is that true Tabernacle which the Lord hath pitched and not man From this Tabernacle must the soul expect all its leadings all its teachings and not from the wisdom of man or the ordinances of man for here they are all taught of God and they shall no more teach every one his Brother Heb. 8.10 11. saying know the Lord for they shall all know me from the least to the greatest And whosoever is not led by this light and by this Star onely to behold the Lord Jesus Christ as his only and true Guide if he look any other way he does the same thing that the Prophet said of old to them that followed the Tabernacle of Moloch and the Star of their god Remphan and followeth after lyes and the inventions of their own evil Adulterous hearts Acts 7 42 Amos. 5.25.26 figures which they have made to worship saith the Holy Ghost in the fifth Chapter of Amos and the twenty fifth and twenty sixth verses Now then you may hence see and take notice that until the cloud be removed by the Lord himself there must be no journying no going forward by any of the sons of men and t is the Lord and not man can remove it the children of Israel must wait the Lords time when he pleaseth man he is alwayes furnished and ready your time is alwayes ready saith our Saviour Joh. 7.6 but my time is not yet There are certain days and times while the Cloud is upon the glory of this Tabernacle and till the Lord remove it man can do nothing but wait he must sit still in his Tent And that is when all things are in darknesse in man both within him and without him and he sees himself lost as to all his own wisdom power endeavours in this case t is in vain for man to arise and think to create a light and a wisdome and a power to himselfe for then he goes on in his own power and light and not in the light and power of God Ye know the fire in the Tabernacle never went out there was alwayes light there Lev. 6.13 but if there be a Cloud upon it and thou canst not see it and yet wilt be journying and doing and acting this will be thy fall and stumbling and a curse will be upon thee and not a blessing and thou shalt not prosper When that fire kindled the word in the mouth of Jeremiah the Prophet then that word was a light to them a command to depart out of their Captivity and to return to their own land till then the cloud was upon their way and they were as in a waylesse wilderness where no man passed a land of desarts and of pits a land of drought and shadows of death where no man dwelt Jer. 2.6 as in that second chapter of Jeremiah While man is in this condition and in this night of blindnesse and darknesse and land of death and drought he knowes not his way until the Lord shew him a light till He remove the cloud there is no finding the place of rest nor any feeding on the Hidden Manna nor drinking at the Wells of Salvation Esa 12.3 When man is in this dark night how can he arise but if he sit still as to all his own powers really seeing his own weaknesse and utter inability then this light in due time will shine forth and if he ever stir before this day he arises and works and walks unto his own ruin and destruction It may be this Doctrin may seem harsh and very unwelcome to most men That they shall not be doing and going on and journying Phil. 2.12 and working out their own Salvation many are hereat much offended at which I do not wonder for they not being able to see the Mystery of the Scripture onely rest in the Letter and know not the teachings of the spirit and think they must do something by way of condition or else all is nothing And herein is the great mistake of most men who though never so highly esteemed by themselves and others Luk. 6.39 yet herein are no other but blind leaders of the blind and both fall into the ditch But those who are acquainted with these things in their own experience know and feel this mysticall interpretation to be the truth and all other in the Letter to be but resemblances and shadows under which the truth is hid and covered from all save onely such to whom it is given to know the mystery of the Kingdome Mat. 13.11 but to others in parables that seeing they may see and not perceive and hearing they may bear and not understand As in that seventh and eighth Chapter to the Hebrews where the Apostle speaking of the Law and of many particulars appertaining to that Priesthood he shews that the Law made nothing perfect but the bringing in of a better hope did by which we draw nigh unto God and so there by several arguments he proves that Jesus Christ alone was the true Priest and the true ORDINANCE Now in the first verse of the eighth chapter Heb. ch 7. 8. he applyes all that he had before spoken to Jesus Christ alone that perfect high Priest Ch. 7.19 Now of the things which we have spoken this is the summe And so he goes on and applyes it to Jesus Christ that true high Priest who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty on high a Minister of the Sanctuary and of the true Tabernacle which the Lord pitched and not man which things serve but unto the example and shadow of Heavenly things Ch. 8.1 c. he having obtained a far more excellent ministry by how much he is made the mediatour of a better covenant and established upon better promises he is not a high Priest of a Temple or contained in any Temple made with hands 2 Chron 6.18 but he is such a one whom the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain And he offers not sacrifices but himself his own body And He and all his members are the true Tabernacle wherein the Lord is served and well pleased for the Law made High Priests which have infirmitie Heb. 7.28 saith the Apostle but the word of the Oath which was since the Law maketh the Son who only is consecrated for evermore But what shall we say then of all those things wherein Moses was commanded to be so exact and to make all things according to the pattern and here he calls Christ the true Tabernacle what was theirs a false one I Ibid. 8.2 it was in regard of Christ who is the
be nothing but A sink of sin A body of death A bottomlesse pit of abominations Mark 4.21 Rom. 7.24 Rev. 9 2. that I was a fool and madness was in my heart in all I did And that he alone was goodness mercy power wisdom eternity salvation and Alsufficiency this he freely and with all readinesse acknowledgeth and this he is not ashamed to declare as those are that would be esteemed holy Ones but to tell it to all the world though all the wise and holy men of the world esteem him a foole and a madman yet this is his glory to take shame to himselfe But all your wise and righteous men all their contriving is to hide all their shame and they would be thought to be holy men and strict men and that they walk exactly and according to the rule of the word and this is their glory that others have this esteem of them they would not for a world be thought as vile and finful as others they hate that Jesus Christ should so far lay them open to the world and themselves Psal 56.8 Ezek. 8.11 What are they to come before the Lord and have no Goodnesse no Endeavours no Watchfulnesse no Bottles of Prayers to offer no sweet incense to offer no Duties thereby to think well of themselves this would be Death and Destruction and Desolation to them When God knows when once he will arise in them Psal 50 21. and set their sins in order then all their delusions and coverings will be removed and they made naked Then all their fine and neat contrivances to disguise themselves before God and men shall be rent and destroyed Joh. 9.39 when the Lord will arise and come to Judgment in their hearts then all their inward parts shall be laid open and what they have dâ—ne in secret shall be proclaimed upon the house top Mat. 24.15 When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the Prophet stand in the holy place whoso readeth let him understand then shall there be in those dayes great tribulation in them Luk. 8.17 Mat. 24.21 Mark 13.14 Luk. 21.25 and the Moon shall not give her light and the Stars shall fall from Heaven and the powers of the Heavens shall be shaken Then he that is on the house top shall not come down to take any ting out of his house he shall not go down to fetch any of his Riches or Gold or Silver none of his fine utensils for worship none of his fine and workmanlike duties none of his strictnesses none of his holy walkings he is stript of all left naked and how are their houses left unto them desolate in one moment Babylon in them is fallen is fallen and shee that said in her heart I shall sit a Queen and am no Widow and shall see no sorrow therefore shall her plagues come upon her in one day Rev. 18.2 c. death and mourning and famine and she shall be utterly burnt with fire for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her Then is the houre of Judgment come and the Lord will arise and nothing can hinder or stand before him This will be a miserable day to these men a day of blackness and gloominess and thick Clouds the Sun turned into darkness and the moon into blood A deluge of wrath is now irresistibly comming upon them and then the Heavens shall be rolled together as a scrole and the earth shall melt with fervent heat and all their works burnt up 2 Pet. 3.10 Then from hence we may conclude that at that day all men even the wisest men of the world will be at their wits end to cover and hide themselves from the wrath of the Lamb and from him that sits on the Throne Rev. 6.16 Then all those Merchants of Babylon shall lament for her That their Whore their Strumpet with whom they have all their dayes committed fornication is made desolate c. their trade of Religion is quite overturned Mich. 3.11 those that made Merchandise of the Word and Preacht for money and for hire and to get bread or to make themselves great and to that end got into forms and duties and fellowships that men might have high thoughts of them and made long prayers under pretence and to grow rich by devouring widows houses Mat. 23.14 and yet these things these pretences these prayers and duties they heap to themselves thinking they may please God with them and these things as foule and abominable as they be they think to be a goodly sacrifice But when this day comes that the Lord will arise and plead his own cause all these things will stand in no stead all their works must be burnt up then he will remember how these foolish men blasphème his name Psal 74.22 23. Psal 74.22 23. And if they should bethink themselve wherewithal to come before the Lord and to offer thousands of Rams and ten thousand Rivers of Oyle nay if they give the fruit of the Body for the sin of their Soul Micah 6.7 all were to to no purpose For the Father the Eternal Majesty of Heaven can be pleased with nothing but that One Eternal and Alsufficient sacrifice the blood of his own dear Son For men to call themselves Christians and Saints and for others to esteem them so is a poor covering now in this day it will not cover their nakednesse The bed is too short to stretch themselves on it and the covering is too narrow they cannot cover nor wrap themselves in it Esa 28.20 T is not all their fellowships and Congregatings nor washings nor External eatings and sitting down with Christ at his Table nor their Perswasions that they do the mind of God and conform exactly to the rule and letter of the word All things of this nature is but of man Phil. 3.19 and they glory in their own shame Thou dishonourest thy head Christ to pray or prophesie and thy head not BARE if thy self be not stript naked t is a dishonour to Christ who is the head of the Church for all honor all praise all wisdom all goodness all righteousnesse is Christ's crown and no creature is to wear that Crown but himself alone If thou takest these or any part of these which are due alone to him thou makest Christ ashamed he is dishonoured for there is no Goodnesse no Love no Beauty no Life but onely in the Son of God and whatever is in him is his for the Church not that they enjoy it in themselves but in him all glory be to him and all shame and confusion upon themselves and hereby is their head magnified Christ alone is their Covering their Righteousnesse their Wisedome their Redemption their Saviour their Beauty they have no shelter no hiding place but in him Those that are ashamed thus to acknowledge and confess him before men Mat. 10.32 he will be ashamed to confess them
light can discover these hidden deeds of darkness He that hath this true light and this true spirit he sees he is nothing nor cannot step one step in this work except the Lord goe with him not onely in words to say this that 's nothing but really from the light of God to know this Then hee durst not goe forth to speak of the things of God but in trembling and fear Nature it thinks it selfe alwaies ready its never unfurnished call him when ye wil he can preach he can pray he can fit you for mourning for rejoycing he is furnished for all occasions he can manage and order all his affairs and govern the very Church of Christ by his wisdome and learning John 7.6 and he is never to seeke but is alwaies ready as Christ saith These men are become Masters of their Religion I t is true for Religion was never yet Master over them But beloved t is not thus with the Saints of God nor with the Ministers of Christ but they see Christ the sole Master and the sole Orderer of the Church Cant. 2.7 and they dare not awake their beloved untill he please they know none other can furnish them nor Commission nor command them to goe forth but onely Him Mat. 23.9 10. they know there is no other Master no other Father no other Teacher but Christ alone They cannot think it enough that they have Vniversity learning that they have the most ORTHODOX Authors as they call them and sometimes Most excellent DIVINES but most blasphemously to rob Christ of his Honour For there can be no Divine but Christ Vers 7 8. no Teacher but Christ no Doctor but Christ They know they must have the inward teaching before they can open their mouthes the Coale from the Altar to touch their lips Isa 6.6 or else they dare not speak They know the spirit of their Father is an Almighty Eternall Free spirit like the wind which bloweth whether it listeth Man neither knows whence it commeth John 3.8 nor when Sometime the Cloud is removed when He pleaseth and then they may yea must goe forth then they may journey but when the day is cloudy and darke and the spirit of the Lord doth not speake in them then they must be content to sit still till the day that the Lord himself takes up the Cloud Man can never remove it no not one hour nor minute sooner but when the spirit listeth But in the day of light then they may goe forward nay then they shall go forth with power then they shall not speak as the Scribes and Pharisees but with Authority Then Mat. 7.29 they shall not regard the honour of men nor glory in those things that the foolish and vain heart of man doth As because they are sent forth by the Presbytery and they have gifts c. and they can speak and declare themselves and that they stand up in a Pulpit or high place above all their Brethren and they are in high esteem and the like All these things are banished in that soul when the Lord sends forth a messenger Far be it from me to think that I have Wisdome or Learning or Knowledge more then the meanest Saint among you what am I what is Paul what is Apollo but Ministers and your Servants and the Servants of Christ by whom ye believed for me to think because I stand in this High place therefore I am ever the better or have the more honour or more esteemed God for bid For I am nothing if Christ speak not out by me any yea every experience of the truth Therefore look onely at him Mat. 11.7 for what come ye out into the Wildernesse to see a reed shaken with the wind Oh look look not at the weak instrument but behold the Wisdom the Power the Majesty the Authority of the Almighty Rather then I should hide him let me be as I am nothing a vain and light shaken reed and I confesse a Hill or a Mountain in a Wilderness or a Stool were more fit for me or for any man Oh let no woman be heard in the Church but only the voice of Christ there every one speaks of and seeks his glory even the glory of him that sent him and that same is true Psal 26.9 Joh. 7.18 Psal 69.15 and there is no unrighteousness in him Let him encrease but let man and all the womanly weaknesse in man decrease and whatever is of man when ever he would have glory or be any thing let him be confounded and the pit shut her mouth upon him For t is not onely unseemly but a shame for The Woman to speak in the Church THE CLOUD taken off the TABERNACLE that the ISRAEL of God might journey SERMON II. Preached at Alhallows Lumbard-street EXOD. 40.36 And when the Cloud was taken up from over the Tabernacle the Children of Israel went onwards in all their journies But if the Cloud was not taken up then they journied not till the day that it was taken up WE have beloved according as God was pleased in mercy to be present with us spoken concerning the meaning of these words wherein we have manifested that the Holy Ghost holds out higher and deeper and more mysterious things then is conceived of by the meer History and Letter we have shewed and held forth the same exposition that the Author to the Hebrews hath given of them That these things were but the patterns of Heavenly things Heb. 9.23 and this Tabernacle built by Moses was but a shadow similitude and type of the true Tabernacle which God did piteh and not Man and from thence we have shewed that the Tabernacle in the mystery is the Riches of that glory life mercy and immortality which God makes out to the sonnes of men And that Jesus Christ is that spiritual Moses that spiritual high Priest who hath once entred into this holy place even once for all And that the light in this Tabernacle which is as a fire by Night is that light and fire only that guildes and directs the souls of Saints in all their journeying through the desolate Wildernesse of their own dark and blind hearts and that this Tabernacle is covered with a cloud that the eyes of men nay nor of Saints cannot see or behold it till God himselfe withdraws and removes it And the souls of Saints are not to goe on but to abide in their Tents till the Lord remove this cloud as we may see expresly and fully commanded in Deu. 9. from vers 16 Deut. 9.16 c. to the end And we have shewed that in the day when he doth not remove it they are to sit still till the day and time he pleaseth to remove it and even then in the night in the darke when all other things are become darknesse then this fire this light is a lanthorn to them in all their journeys or waies wherein they shall goe
not the patterns For saith the Apostle when that which is perfect is come then that that is imperfect shall be done away and again the same Apostle when I was a Child I did as a Child 1 Cor. 13.11 2 Cor. 5.16 I spake as a Child I understood as a Child but when I came to be a man I put away childish things and hence forth saith he know we Christ after the flesh no more Alas the Apostle had as well as other men known Christ by the way of the flesh and in outward conformity and observations and in a low carnal apprehension of him but when Christ was come into him in the Spirit Rev. 21.5 then ALL THINGS were become New Then he would not have a Christian to be judged in respect of a Holy-day New Moons or of keeping Sabbath days and the like Col. 2.16.17 which are but shadows of things to come for the body is Christ But there was a time when they were under the type of breaking of bread which was onely to shew the Lords death till he came 1 Cor. 11.29 but when Christ was come then he rebukes the Corinthians for using that ceremony of of breaking bread and said they did not discern the Lords Body For the eating his Body and drinking his Blood was a thing of a far higher nature And from hence will follow the great miserie of the sons of men seeking rest and life in the patterns and types and not in Heavenly things themselves For if a man have the exactest patterns or pictures of any meat that ever could be drawn in the world or of wine and drink would either of these feed or refresh him when he was hungry or satisfie him when he was thirsty you will say they could not and how then can the patterns of Heavenly things feed any more then they So also it is the true Manna that feeds the soul it is not that Manna that fell in the Wildernesse your Fathers they eat of it and are dead saith our Saviour No Joh. 6.49 50. it is the spiritual Manna whereof if a man eat he shall live for ever Then it must needs be a deceit of the Devil and a woful and sad delusion on the spirits of men and yet notwithstanding this is that great delusion wherewith Satan is gone forth to feed men as the Prodigal was with the husks and shells of Divine things He desired the husks and no man gave unto him But when the poor man had wasted that portion he had from his Father when that divine portion was gone and he had wasted it among Whores and Harlots that is after his own inventions thinking they should nourish him he saith he could eat Husks But he found they would not satisfie I he should sterve for hunger yet many thousands think and accordingly do could I go into such a Church-fellowship and walk as they walk I should be as well as they and yet for all that there is no man can give unto them had he them to the utmost alas they would not satisfie and fill him But he cannot have that others have he would have their Holinesse and be able to pray hear and speak and have as much freedome and power against sin and the like but it is not given unto him but if he have all these external things yet alas they are but husks and cannot satisfie So that then there is a plain and absolute necessity falls on him and he sees there is no way but to goe home to his Father else he starves and dyes Luk. 15.18 and now he sees his own weakness and poverty then he begins to come to himself and saith I will return to my Father So when the Soul is brought into this condition then it sees that it is not he that hath brought things into any good frame by his good husbandry or by a providential care now nothing will serve his turn no I must to my Father and I will goe to my Father This shews the misery of the spirits of those men that would fain feed upon husks And from hence it comes to pass that they run here and run there from one to another even as a poor creature when it is thirsty and drye and sees many Wells or Vessels thinking there is water He runs to one to see if there be any and then to another but they are all empty So alas a poor hungry soul here it picks and there it feeds and as long as it can find a crum it will never go to God it had rather go to any MOUNTEBANK then come to Jesus Christ the true Physitian One day it will be of this Church another day of the other membership to see if these things will feed them But they whom God intends to bring home finde no satisfaction herein but are ready to starve and the true Reason is because they live by the patterns pictures and resemblances of food Obj. I know thou wilt object Obj. though we are to live by the Heavenly things themselves yet we are to make use of patterns Answ I confesse carnal reason will say so Answ though to me it is not so else those Scriptures must be a lye for saith he 1 Cor. 13 10. when that which is perfect is come then that that is imperfect shall be done away and when the Apostle saith stand fast in that liberty wherein Christ hath made you free and be not entagled again with the yoak of bondage and bids them they should not turn again to the beggerly rudiments of the world Gal. 5.1 and again saith the shadows and patterns of Heavenly things consisted in washing and rudiments and was never able to make the doers thereof and commers thereunto perfect Admit Heb. 9.9 I say that breaking of bread as it is in the External use of it and admit that using of water-Baptism were used by Christ which is hard to prove they were never or could be any thing else but the pattern of the Heavenly things and of the spiritual baptisme else that Text also tells us a lye that saith there was never any but one baptism which is that of the Spirit Now the Letter tells us of divers as the Baptisme of the Children of Israel in the Red Sea and of the Baptisme of John and the Baptisme whereby an unbeliever was baptized and yet the Text saith there was but one Baptisme for these are but the shadows of the spiritual Baptisme Eph. 4.5 and when that that is perfect is come then that which is imperfect is done away 1 Cor. 13.10 If thou didst really find thus thou wouldest not then need to make so much of Outward washing and breaking of bread for to the pure all things are pure but to the unclean all things are unclean and to the impure all things are impure and even their very hearts and consciences are defiled And from hence this shews that thy soul
must needs be wavering and unstable like the waves of the Sea and still casting up mire and dirt while thou seekest any refreshment in the patterns themselves whatsoever pattern thou canst imitate or build upon that is made by hands and be sure God dwels not in them for saith the Apostle Acts. 7.43 Ch. 17.24 25. â— he dwels not in Temples made with hands neither is he worshipped with mens hands as though he needed any thing seeing he gives breath and life and being and motion unto all Whatever Tabernacle or Temple man builds they are but like man they are fading and perishing Mark 13.2 Heb. 12.23 and there shall not one stone of them be left upon another but when the soule comes to the true assembly of the Saints to spirits of just men made perfect to the spiritual Manna and to the Heavenly Jerusalem to the true Tabernacle Jesus Christ and eats that Manna that doth not perish but is meat indeed and life indeed then t is silled and satisfied and never before So that while the soule is seeking after a life and to get food in the pattern and shadow and form of Heavenly things it is sure to find nothing but emptinesse bitternesse and vanity he shall be like the hungry man Isaiah speaks of Esa 29.8 who dreams and thinks he eates and when he awakes finds nothing So the Carnal men they are praying and reading and keeping themselves strict to outward rules and when they have done they think they find comfort and refreshment by them and they break bread and they are speaking one to another and think they have consolation by it but alas this food will all fail thou thinkest thou hast eaten Christ when thou hast used these but when the wrath of God falls upon thy soul and thou art summoned to judgement thou wilt finde there was no meat to feed thee in these things thou callest Ordinances nor there is no water in these Vessels to quench thy parched soul for though God of his good pleasure gave patterns of heavenly things yet they were not those heavenly things themselves but are onely the type and shadow of that divine heavenly Tabernacle which God did pitch and not man Heb. 8.2 And hence it apparently appears that the power life and the meat and drink of a child of God is onely and alone Jesus Christ for he never eats and drinks nor moves out of God for he eats and drinks and doth all in God and thus he is come to that which is perfect to the fountain of all fulness Heb. 12.27 28. to the Mount that cannot be shaken now he is gone over and passed by all the similitudes and shadows and patterns and is come to that living fountain of the water of life it selfe of which whoever drinks shall live for ever and it shall be in him a well of water springing up to eternall life Joh. 4.14 Then this further discovers to us that the Tabernacle of God is a hidden thing that the mysteries of God in Christ are covered so that the Saints themselves cannot see them except they be given unto them from above 1 Cor. 2.8 14. then much more the natural man perceives not the things of God which are spiritually discerned and which none of the men nor Princes of this world knew for had they known him they would not have crucified the Lord of life Ibid. 1.21 and when the world by wisdom knew not God it pleased the Lord by the foolishnesse of preaching to save those that believe So that I say it is even now too true according as we have a proverb and receiv'd as a Maxim but from whence it arose I am not certain that the place of PARADISE doth not now appeare in the earth no man knows where it is but sure I am that Paradise and place of pleasure which is the enjoyment of Jesus Christ is vanished and disappears is gone away and almost quite removed from the beholdings of all the sonnes of men Adam was turned out and you never heare where it is nor of any that can describe the way to come to it Even so is the true knowledge of Jesus Christ in the mystery So that the light of God and the spirituall Manna it is a thing that is utterly hidden and removed from all the wisdom and endeavours of any of the sonnes of men and unlesse the Lord himselfe come forth and reveale it and make it manifest the wisest of men in the worlds esteem may doe as those wicked men in Sodome when the Angel was sent to bring out Lot being stricken blind Gen. 19.11 they laboured to finde the dore but could not so he that is in the dark knows not whither he goes so this is cleare and true to this very day that the true Tabernacle of the Lord is still covered with a cloud no man can see it till God discover it to him Now notwithstanding this being so yet what are the waies of men what doe they undertake to doe Doe not all men that come out under the name of being the Ministers of Christ undertake the opening and revealing the Tabernacle of God yes but what is the light by which they can shew it unto us Is it any other but what man hath within himselfe and what he hath attained by his wits and industry by the Vniversity and searching severall Authors Yet notwithstanding they will discover this Tabernacle and undertake to take off the cloud that covers it and they will shew how the pattern leads to it and yet if they be put to it they themselves must deny they ever saw it truly and really what it was or is but they will be guessing and imagining the way that leads to it Now for a man to direct another the way that never understood that way may very easily make good what Christ saith If the blind lead the blind both fall into the ditch And there be other men that are so grosly ignorant as to tell us That if they goe but to an Academy a few yeeres and gather a little Philosophy and although it be that of the worst sort relishing of those that hold the immortality of the World and mortality of the Soule now even these they come out as they think furnished and by this they will undertake to discover to us the heavenly Canaan and Tabernacle of God Generally most men what ever they be though they differ in judgement yet say they are either Papists or Socinians c. And they have the boldnesse to hold forth these things though they be never so blind and dark in the things of God And I finde very few but generally all take up this for truth that Humane learning is the way to discover this by Now I beseech you see whether this be any lesse then the hellish pride of Satan to make men goe out in the pride of their hearts Jer. 29.23 and Ezek. 13.7
8. Matth. 15.14 and say they have heard the word of the Lord and they have seen a vision when the Lord hath not spoken by them and they have seen nothing If the blind lead the blind both shall fall into the pit for he that comes out and saith that he can discover the Tabernacle or that any can remove the cloud from the Tabernacle but the Lord himselfe he is a blasphemer and a lyer But I know they will object and say Obj. 2 Indeed if we consider men naturally in their sinfull condition they are ignorant in the things of God and are even as the Heathens but we have the Scriptures given to us and they contain the mind of God And having this help we by our wits and learning and industry are able to know the mind of God for we know and understand the Hebrew and Greek and Syriack Languages Truly Answ if it were so that they did so it were well but that very word to which they appeale in the very Letter of it witnesses against them for the word witnesses that it is a sealed book Esay 29.11 12. Rev. 5.3 1 Cor. 12.3 2 Cor. 3.6 Luk. 8.10 Mark 4.11 Matth. 11.15 Mark 4.9 Luke 8.8 Luke 24.45 whether delivered to the learned or unlearned and none is found worthy to open it but the Lamb the Lyon of the Tribe of Judah and that none can so much as say Iesus is the Lord but by the Holy ghost and again that the letter kils but the spirit gives life and to you it must be given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom or you cannot know them and when Christ spake with a lively and audible voyce and spake and preacht so as never man did yet said he very often he that hath eares to heare let him heare and so t is said of the Disciples that Christ opened their understandings when he was risen again although he himselfe had taught them the same things before his death yet t is said Luke 24.45 then opened he their understandings that they might know the Scriptures that it behoved him according as it was written in the Prophets and Psalms to suffer and rise again the third day So that hence it is clear there is not any wisdom learning or knowledge in the world that can unseale this book for though it be the declaration of the mind of God through those Saints and Apostles by whom it was written yet never can any man read the mind of God in it but by the same spirit that taught it and unless the same Spirit that raised up Iesus Christ from the dead doe quicken us Rom. 8.11 2 Cor. 6.14 Although the learnedest men in the world open it it will not raise up our mortall bodies nor be any savour unto life Now from hence let but the world judge who are the BLASPHEMERS and what is blasphemy if this be not We say none can truly teach the spirits of men but God himself and none can come to the Father but by the Sonne and he to whom the Sonne will reveale him And they say Matth. 11.27 the way to understand the Scriptures is to get learning and the tongues and to reform their lives to get into this or that fellowship I say this sharply reproves them that say they can open it with the WOODDEN and fleshly key of carnall wisdom and humane learning for we have shewed how there is a cloud upon the tabernacle to this day that none can remove but only God Himselfe not onely in regard of men but of Saints for though a Saint be brought to see into the Tabernacle and to behold the glory of the Lord yet when God pleaseth a cloud shall interpose it selfe that this Tabernacle shall be hid and covered again and again nay it shall be in hiding and opening continually unto the soule * Mark this for the glory of the Tabernacle would not be made out were there not a cloud to make it out by the strength of the Lord would not be made out were there not weaknesse to make it out by the light of the Lord would not be made out were there not darknesse to make it out by and therefore there is a cloud on the tabernacle and t is the Lord only that removes it that they may goe on in all their Journeys and when he doth it not they must sit still and he doth it for this very end that the glory of God may be more made out and that the soule of man might more fully more gloriously and more welcomly enjoy those discoveries Light cannot be made out in light and wisdom in wisdome but light in darkness and wisdom in folly and strength in weakness and fullness in emptiness and riches by poverty and grace by sin Alsufficiency by insufficiency and nothingness and even things that are high in things that are low one deep calls unto another the DEEPNESSE of that glory and FVLLNESS that is in God calls upon that DEEPNESSE and EMPTINESSE and nothingness that is in and upon the poor Creature and this is that Cloud that is still covering and removing from over the Tabernacle that the Glory of the Lord may be made out in and by that cloud that we may know and behold that glory that was hid from us and that we may know how pretious it is by the cloud that with-holds and covers it from us And again that we may know light is not in mans hand as Peter said Master let us be here and build three Tabernacles c. So I say Luk. 9.33 it is that man may not build a Tabernacle of his own least he should say he was Master of it and would think to give and carry the light where he pleased but with a Christian it is otherwise ordered that he might walk in darkness Esa 50.10 and stay himself upon his God so that the condition of a true Christian is not like the men of the world with their light for they are the Orderers and Masters of it But it may indeed be said of your ordinary formal Christians that they have a light never goes out in regard of their forms of Church-Government so that their candle is always burning and they are Masters of their own light and if it be out they can light it again and recover it by their own pains and industry but it is not so with those that truly fear God For when the light appears then they walk and journy but when their light appears not then they must stand still for they dare not go nor stir till the glory of the Lord appears and leads them and that the Lord Himselfe goes before them Further if this Cloud be removed onely by the hand of the Lord then I say First it shews plainly the vanity pride folly and uselessness of mens labouring to remove it in their taking upon them that which belongs to God and First I say it discovers
that is in thee be darkness how great is that Darkness Are they repentings beleevings actings and workings if these be as thou thinkest the means to remove the Cloud off the Tabernacle is not this to trust in man Jer. 2.13 Ch. 17.5 in the power of man and to distrust the living God But is not this rather to repent and believe and trust in God to say Lord I am really blind open thou my eyes thou Son of David have mercy upon me why Luk. 18 39. now this soule seeing this it cryes to and waites upon none but God and then indeed is the heart fixed upon him where it should be from whom comes salvation and deliverance Psal 57.7 And whoever waited upon him that is faithful and strong and only can deliver and was not in due time delivered And from hence it appears when the soul walks in the light he knows full well it will be in vain for him to think to remove the cloud till the Lord remove it It may be the time hath been when thou hast felt the heat of the Divine displeasure and thy ear was then boared and thy uncircumcised heart circumcised and then light appeared and thou blessedest the Lord in that day But now there begins to come darknesse over thy eyes again and thou beginnest to see thy selfe lost again and the Cloud is upon the Tabernacle and thou art gotten into the pathless way Jer. 2.6 and alas thou sayst to thy self and concludest though I am out of my way I will up and be doing I will come to it again and I will recover it and so the poor man begins to wrestle and struggle it out now at this thing and then at that thing so that the poor Saint having lost the light he once had he runs through mire and dirt thinking to come to the light by his prayers and holinesse and so recover himself Then the poor soul thinks he is running to Canaan when indeed he is going back to Egypt And therefore it is clear to me both by the Scriptures and by the experience of the preciousest Saints I ever met with that in this condition its best to sit still For he that believeth maketh not haste Esa 28.16 but waits till the Lord will remove the cloud but if thou wilt turn from the Lord and go by another guide and captain and not by that Moses God hath sent and art going to make a Golden Calfe and and Idol to go before thee if so thou mayest expect that thy carkass shall fall in the Wilderness for thy unbelief Num. 14.29 and not waiting the good pleasure of the Lord for not one entred the promised Land but Caleb and Joshuah know this is the condition and disposition of a Saint that he only rejoyceth in the Lord all his expectations are from him who hath made light and darknesse I have learned saith the Apostle Phil. 4.11 in whatever state I am therewith to be content So that the happiness of a Saint is when he can glory in infirmities as Paul saith and rejoyce in darkness and misery 2 Cor. 12.9 10. for he sees this is his portion and he cannot remove the cloud and he is willing to sit still there till the day dawn and the Day-star arise in him 2 Pet. 1.19 Esa 50.10 Happy is the soule that can sit in darkness and when he hath no light can stay himselfe upon the Lord his God Happy I say is that soul though there be a cloud on the Tabernacle that can sit still and wait the Lords good pleasure and cry unto the Lord till he please to lead him onward towards Canaan And there was a cloud on it by day and a pillar of fire appeared on it by night Know this further from hence That in the time of a Saints greatest light there is stil a cloud upon the Lords Tabernacle at the greatest height of light liberty and enjoyments to his own feeling and apprehension even then there is some darknesse upon the Tabernacle especially immediately after such great light and glory When Paul was wrapt up into the third heaven 2 Cor. 12.7 there was a messenger of Satan sent to buffet him least he should be exalted above measure there was again a cloud let fall over the Tabernacle when he was in the height of his joys a prick was sent him in the flesh a Messenger of Satan to buffet him and therefore he concludes in another place we walk by faith and not by sight T is so with every Christian in the day of his light 2 Cor. 5.7 and the time of his greatest shinings usually and then especially there is a cloud upon the Tabernacle why to let man know thus much that he must not live upon the GIFT but on the GIVER that man must not gather to day for ever but he is to gather to morrow and every day as the children of Israel in gathering Manna for if thou layest up store it will be dead the next time thou commest to feed on it it will all stinke and it will not nourish thee but wait still on the giver and then his mercy will be sweet fresh flourishing and green Lastly from this that the fire shined on the Tabernacle by night we shall onely note that when the Light of the Tabernacle shines upon the soules of men all things else become dark t is night in that soule to all things but the light of the Tabernacle in the night there was a fire and in the day a cloud now I say when the fire shined all things were dark round about it And herein observe these two things first when mans spirit is shut up and sees he no light then is the time for the appearing of this light And secondly this light never appears but when all things are dark in man for light discovers darknesse if any thing else be light to thee and all things else be not darknesse thou never yet discoveredst this light To this soule there is nothing in the whole creation that seems to be glorious and excellent but when the Sun of righteousnesse in him hath shined upon it then it appears to be all darkness when the light of the Tabernacle shines in the soule of man then riches honour pleasure preferments all things below God are darknesse Then the light of his reason wit moralitie and holy qualities that seemed to be a great light and shined before gloriously being compared one with another or with things inferiour Now when the light of the Tabernacle appeares then all these things appeare to be nothing but darknesse emptiness and blindness and are all as meer vapours before the Sun of righteousnesse as the Prophet saith Therefore thy goodnesse is as the morning dew and as the cloud that wears away so that I say Hos 6.4 whensoever the fire in the Tabernacle shines on man then this will be the sure effect in that soule
nothing else but their own Idols and Groves and Images the inventions and works of mens hands And when they have decked and trimmed their Idols gloriously they not onely fall down themselves to them as Nebuchadnezzar did Dan. 3.11 but enjoyn this Idol-worship to all others and he that will not fall down to what they say is truth and Religion Him they persecute and brand with those odious names of Hereticks Sectaries Schismaticks Familists and the like But in the day when the Lord will appeare to make all these Magicians and Southsayers to be lyars which day they hate and hide themselves from because they hate the light John 3.20 Neither come they to the light lest their deeds should be made manifest and declared that they are not wrought in God but are acted in the power of man by the wonderful working of Antichrist in all power and signs and lying wonders and in all deceivableness of unrighteousnesse 2 Thes 2.8 10. And the Lord when he shall rise wil discover and consume them with the breath of his mouth and with the brightnesse of his comming and all those glorious Images and fine contrived modes and forms and lying wonders wherein they trusted in so much that all the world wondred after the beast Rev. 13.3 as if that these were the only religious men But when God appeares with his light all these shaddows deceits and delusions all these Inchantments and Sorceries wherewith men have cloathed themselves shall be cut off These Cities that the sonnes of men have builded for their safety security and preservation they shall all be cut off from their hands Now of all things in the world these men hate nothing more then this light and this day of the Lord. These Sorcerers use all the means they can to keep away this light and to darken this glory by their reproaches slanders lyes and scandals And they will tell you all this is false light why because it discovers their Inchantments and delusions And they will tell you that all these prophesies concern other things they were onely literally fulfilled when the people of Israel were carried captive into Babylon and there can be no such Mystery in them And so for the promises they will tell you are to be fulfilled externally and litterally or at the most they will carry out the prophesies to be fulfilled onely in the Great Messiah who was born at Bethlem and was crucified at Ierusalem yet indeed know him not And he that shall goe farther then thus is with them a deceiver which sense is no other then those low poore and carnall thoughts and expectations which the Jewes had of him expecting an outward and externall deliverer and all things to be fulfilled in a litterall way As if the holy and divine spirit of the Lord onely busied it selfe about shadows and forms and external worshippings bodily exercises which profit nothing carnal ordinances and things of the world and that he had no higher aym then what every one may come to act and doe when indeed and in truth his main end is to declare the Kingdom of Heaven and set forth the new Ierusalem Rev. 21.2 comming down from God out of Heaven and to shew that his Kingdom is not of this world and consisteth not in meats and drinks touching tasting Rom. 4.17 or handling or any thing the outward man can be exercised in but that his Kingdom consists in righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost Yet some yea most men who pretend very much in the knowledge of Christ yet carry all prophesies of him no higher then his appearing in the flesh and therein say all Scriptures were fulfilled As that prophesie here exprest in the second verse of this chapter The virgin of Israel is fallen Amos 5.2 she shall no more arise she is forsaken upon her Land and there is none to raise her up some say this concerned Israels captivity when all her glory departed from her and she was stript of all her beautiful attire and virgin rayments to which it may be applicable I deny not but that is but in an outward literall and externall way but the spirit of God hath a far higher aym then this viz. That outward and externall glory when men trust to that and professe themselves to be the Israel of God because of that then the Lord threatens that the pride of all their externall forms shall all be forsaken and no man shall regard them and there shall be none to raise them up And that place in Micah chap. 5. vers 2. they say is the promise of the restauration of the Church Micah 5.2 and that she shall be restored and her Rulers But some who would seem to goe further carry it to the highest interpretation as they conceive to Jesus Christ his comming in the flesh and they have referred to this place and cited it in the margin in Matth. 2.6 Thou Bethlem in the land of Iudah art not the least among the Princes of Iudah Math. 2.6 for out of thee shall come a Governour that shall rule my people Israel That in regard he was the MESSIAH which was then born and given to the world and was to suffer and die and rise again All which things are true in a lower and externall sense but there is more in it then so for Christ is yesterday and to day Heb. 13.8 and the same for ever and his goings forth have been of old from everlasting and therefore cannot he be limited according to the short time he was in the flesh But Christ is the same in all generations and he is chiefly manifested in the spirit and all his words expresse no lesse he still takes our eyes off his fleshly appearance and sayes his Kingdome is not of this World Luke 17.21 Joh. 18.36 John 6.51 Luke 22.20 and his Kingdome is within you and his body is the bread which commeth down from heaven and the cup which he gives is The cup of the New Testament in his blood T is not the eating the bread made by men or wine of grapes in that whcih feeds the soule And so for Christs death and his going away there is more in it then his fleshly dying or the application of that But this is held out he must goe away else the Comforter which shall lead into all truth John 16.7 will not come His bodily presence and our apprehending of his fleshly appearing and fleshly suffering Hee in this sence must depart or else the Kingdome of God cannot come upon us nor the Comforter come Touch me not in this way for I am not ascended to my Father And while ye look upon my fleshly presence I cannot send the comforter Acts 1 11. But that must go away Ye men of Galilee why stand ye gazing up into Heaven Why do ye gaze upon his External appearing Sayes the Apostle 1 Cor. 5.16 Acts
doing this work we may see the manner of his working and proceeding with the sons of men in the following words I will cut off thy Horses out of the midst of thee and I will destroy thy Charets this is one part of his acting He will cut off his Horses and destroy his Charets that is whatever it be that man rides on or trusts in or thinks to be delivered by all his helps or refuges all his hopes or confidences that are below or less then Jesus Christ himself hee will cut off and destroy though his confidence be never so great and that wherein he trusts be never so strong and his Charets never so many In that day when the Lord wil arise they shall be all cut off all utterly overwhelmed like Pharaoh and his Charets in the Sea Let it be what it will wherein thou trustest Exod. 14. and thinkest to sit safely in the midst of all wrath and storms if thou puttest trust in riches honour power of men wisdom parts or any thing thou hast chosen and thinkest thy self ever the better or safer for them all these shall be cut off from thine hand Nay though thou art in the very Chariot of Religion Mich. 5.12 and highest profession of the truth and hast chosen to thy selfe the purest forms and Ordinances as thou callest them and Church-felloships washings breaking of bread or any thing else in thine hand which can be named except Jesus Christ himselfe whereby thou hast quieted thy spirit and hast thereby gotten to thy selfe a peace and a rest all is a delusion and an Idol It may be Thou when thy conscience began to accuse thee and wrath appeard to amaze and affright thee thou saidst within thy self I must now do something that I may deliver my soule from this guilt I must quench this flame for I am not able to bear it I will run to this duty and take up that form and observe such and such rules and then I shall do well and I shall secure my self from wrath and hell As the Pharisees what think you drove them to the Baptism of John certainly it was this fear and this guilt upon their spirits For saith he to them O Generation of Vipers Mat. 3.7 who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come bring forth fruits meet for repentance as if he should say when ye were affrighted and terrified you thought comming to my Baptisme would secure you but you are but Vipers for all this and this submitting to Baptisme doth not declare true repentance But know the Ax is now laid to the root of the Tree Vers 10. and every Tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewen down and cast into the fire And further you boast of being the children of Abraham and the seed of the faithful and because ye are members of the true Church but all this is to little purpose for God is able of these stones to raise up Children unto Abraham So that you see for all your Forms and Fellowships wherein you trust you shall be in that day of the Lord stript naked of all your garments and of all your refuges all those Horses and Chariots which you thought should preserve you and carry you out of all danger they shall all be broken and cut off and thy soul plunged into the bottomlesse pit Psal 38.3 and thou shalt have no rest in thy bones because of thy sin and by reason of thy misery for thou shalt not know which way to turn thee for all thy Idols and all thy Images shall not in that day be able to help or deliver thee Jer. 4.4 for the wrath of the Lord shall burn as an Oven and then thou must stand naked before the presence of the Lord who is a consuming fire Heb. 12. c. to burn up and consume every thing but Himself And not onely so but as it follows in the next words I will cut off the Cities of thy Land and throw down all thy strong holds As when outward enemies came upon the people of Israel and invaded their Land and the Lord had said they should go into captivity then nothing should be a defence to them but the enemy should break into their strongest places and their Cities should not secure them nor any of their strong holds which they had made for their defence do them any good This now was true in the Letter but this is also as true in the Mystery in the living and spiritual sense When men have made themselves defences and think they are secured from wrath and hell and all storms and no evil shall touch them neither will they be carried captive by Satan nor by the Prince of Darknesse and although by their wisdom they contrived these forts and strong holds and thought themselvs never so secure therin yet all of them shall be vain hopeless and helpless and nothing within them nor without them shall help them and the wrath of the Lord shall make them vile odious and abominable which before they got coverings for now whether they will or no they shall see themselves as they are and they shall not be able to have one good thought of themselvs but the contrary for this light of the Lord discovers their blackness their deformity and that there is no power nor wisdom can help them but onely the good will and the good hand of the Lord nothing but his meer goodnesse and they shall see that there is no power no goodnesse no mercy anywhere but in the Lord alone and if he doe not pitty them there is no mercy at all for them And not only so That men have their horses to ride on to carry them swift away that no danger may overtake them and Chariots wherein they ride and put their trust so likewise that they have Cities and Strong-holds for their security so that all the wisdome and power of man cannot make them more strong and safe to beare off the wrath of God but also saith he in the next verse Vers 13 I will cut off witchcraft out of thine hand and thou shalt have no more Southsayers Men have their Juglers and Diviners their Southsayers and their Witches All that witchcraft whereby men have deluded and deceived their souls in that day shall be discovered those false SEERS who cryed peace peace when there was no peace All that Witchcraft which men used in the things of God in setting up Images and forms and shadows and herein deluded men making them believe they were the things themselves And though they have wrought them up never so curiously and made them as neere the life as might be yet in that day they shall come to see they were but Images and dead things which could not help at all And now they shall no more live upon them or hang depend or call upon them for help or reliefe though they were made after the best pattern and never
so like the things of God yet they shall then come and see clearly they were deluded and bewitched and all discovered to be meer fancies and inchantments but then 't is here promised they should have no more Southsayers no Inchanters to deceive their eyes who have so much cunning to keep up their trade and their credit and their maintenance that they can make things appeare as they are not Acts 10.27 and to keep things from appearing as they are as you know that is the way of Iuglers and those that use Ledger-de-main and HOCUS-POCUS tricks they deceive and delude the eyes of the beholders with their nimblenesse and with a sleight of hand So doe these spirituall Juglers by their wit and by their learning they blind the truth of the Gospel and make you take shels for the substance and counters for gold Now when the Lord himselfe will arise with his light all these inchantments shall vanish and all the Inchanters be confounded you shall be no more deceived with fine smooth soft words and there shall be no more a Magician nor a Southsayer nor a Peeper nor a Sorcerer nor any that worketh a Divination And he will deliver his people out of their hand Ezek. 13.23 Numb 23.23 As Balaam said when he would fain have curst the Israelites and wrought by divination and put upon them an Inchantment he saith Surely there is no enchantment against Iacob neither is there any Divination against Israel That soule that is enlightned by the God of Israel and hath experience of the truth cannot be inchanted by these lyers or by these Southsayers they have no power over them for they are built on a rock on Jesus Christ that eternall and unchangeable rock of Ages Mat. 7.25 Deu. 32.4 who is that immovable BASIS on which all the Saints in all generations have built and rested on for their faith stands not in the wisdom of man or on the power of man but in the wisdome and power of God And then he goes on in the next words The graven Images also will I cut off ☞ and thy standing Images out of the midst of thee and thou shalt no more worship the work of thine own hands Now what is an Image but the picture and form of that thing to which it relates those Images and pictures which men by their own inventions have framed to imitate the things of God and have squared them as they conceive very like the pattern and have made them very neat and curious so that they passe for current and they are generally received and the men themselves esteemed rare workmen yet this day of the Lord will discover all these things they shall all be taken away nay though they be Old-received Idols and of LONG standing and made by the most exact and curious workmen and scarce ever questioned in many generations but received as if made by God himselfe yet even these things shall be discovered and detected and the Idols and Idol-makers shall be confounded together And why shall all these things be done It follows in the last words read And thou shalt no more worship the work of thy hands Beloved what doe all men when they by their wisdom and inventions cut out forms and platforms of Religion and one squares his Idol this way and another tother way this Church hath this way and rule tother another form as every one thinks best so many Churches as they call them so many severall forms and these they pranke and adore and admire themselves in admiring them this form and that new cut and that mode and the next he must mend and pare and adde and he thinks to neatifie it and make it more passable and commendable and so more generally to be received that the more may like it that he may have the more to be of his members and Church and they may be esteemed the best reformed and nearest the rule what I say doe all these men doe but worship the work of their own hands And because they are squard according to the rule as they say and have stood long in the esteem of the world therfore he that shall question their way and their wisdom and their Religion or their principles must be no lesse then an Hereticke a deceiver a Iesuit any thing Look upon the Papists and observe how many generations they have stood in their form of worship and how generally it hath been received in one halfe of the world yet we conclude they are no other but Idolaters And if we shall examine and bring to the touch many received opinions concerning Christ and concerning the Scriptures and the word of God and washings and baptizings and breaking of bread as they are now used and as they are and have been generally in use we shall finde them no other but inventions of men according as they understand the Scriptures and say these are the things themselves though not in words yet in their practices they say no lesse and are no other as they use them but Idols and the work of their own hands and these they worship adore and blesse themselves in using thereof And though they may goe so far as to give the sense and hit the litterall meaning yet they may be and are farre from the mystery the true meaning and the mind of Christ as the Apostle calls it and the knowledge of truth as it is in Iesus For if they doe hit the letter Eph. 4.21 and square their discipline according to it alass they have not the life and power for all that they who think themselves most exact and think to hit it and imitate it to a tittle yet they reach but the shaddow and the Image 2 Cor. 3.6 the dead letter and not the life and the things themselves for they are of a farre more excellent and spirituall nature which no man as man could imitate nor follow nor observe but onely he who is taught of God and that it is given him from above to believe and comprehend for the dead letter is not the life but all things that the eye sees and the eare heares are things that must passe away they must remove that so the heavenly things may come in the room thereof even those things of which all externall things are but the patterns and similitudes Even Christ himselfe after the flesh and this is that Mysterie of Christ which is hid in God Eph. 3.5 9. Col. 1.26 Heb. 9.23 kept close from ages and generations but is now revealed in his Sonne only by the holy spirt for saith the Apostle it was necessary that the patterns of things in the Heavens should be purified with these but the Heavenly things themselves with better Sacrifices then these for Christ is not entred into the holy places made with bands whihc are figures of the true but into heaven it self now to appeare in the presence of God for us Therefore all
things but Christ in us must remove and passe away else the heavenly things cannot appeare for whatever is not of the Fathers setting up and planting John 15.2 must be rooted up and t is the Lord himselfe must teach his own worship For Paul clearly confesseth he had his knowledge in the mystery of Christ by Revelation for all his great knowledge in the letter yet he saw he was blind and ignorant of that as you may see he expresseth at large in Eph. 3. at the beginning and elsewhere And none know this but the Church and those that are true members of Jesus Christ nay the Angels and Principalities and Powers know not these things which he calls the manifold wisedom of God vers 10. So that in these words read before you it appears to me there is included these two things First here is a description of mans day and what he doth in that his day He gets unto himself Horses of his own and Chariots of his own and he builds unto himself strong Cities and strong holds that is places of security of his own inventing and in that day his hand is full of Witchcrafts Delusions and Lyes and he gets to himself Southsayers and Diviners to promise to him peace safety and security and in that day he is full of graven Images of his own making and he cleaves mightily to his old ancient and standing Images which both he and his forefathers have received Secondly here is a threatning of an approach of the day of the Lord and that his hand shall be upon all these things he will cut off his Horses and destroy his Chariots and the Cities of his Land and will throw down all his strong holds and will cut off all his Witchcrafts and Southsayers and graven Images c. And however most Interpreters do take this in a Litteral sense onely and look upon it as a History of what God did outwardly and externally among the Jewes when they were destroyed and carried into captivity yet to me there is much more in it for all those relations are types of spiritual things the word of the Lord enduring for ever as David saith I have seen an end of all perfection but thy Law is exeecding broad Psal 119.96 And in this sense it is promised there shall be no more an Inchanter in Israel But we will endeavour to apply all this to our selves and make Use thereof First hence we may safely conclude that all men without distinction untill Christ be revealed in them they are all joyned in one way of Idolatry and false worship and that all those Histories and Descriptions of Idols and Idolaters in Scripture are but figures of what man does in his DAY And howerer they go not all one way in regard of themselves but many censure and condemn each other yet to God they are all Idolaters Inchanters Southsayers c. and are gone a whoring after their own inventions Psali 106.39 and are mad after Idols they all have their Horses and their Chariots and Cities of confidence and strong holds their Sorcerers and Inchanters and follow the way of Balaam Jer. 19.14 1 Kings 18.18 and their god ASHTEROTH as their Fathers have taught them All that the spirit of man can find out by his own wisdom power or invention is nothing but as Sauls going to Witches and Wizzards in the day of their distresse they every one in this way leave URIM and THUMMIM which the Lord hath commanded Exod. 28.30 1 Sam. 28.7 and they are all going to a weak woman and one that hath a familiar spirit And all this he doth by taking counsel of his own heart and following his own inventions and doth not wait upon that Divine teaching of the Father and that never failing URIM and THUMMIM which the Lord himself hath commanded him to wait upon All these inventions of man are but his Horses and Chariots to carry him away swiftly from his enemies and pursuers when conscience is awaked in man and he begins to apprehend wrath and vengeance and sees what a vile ugly creature he is and what wayes he hath taken and how he hath followed after witches and wizzards to enquire of them who have made lyes their refuge now man gets to himselfe all the refuges defences and deliverers he can possibly to save him from this wrath to come Mat. 3.7 Deu. 19.6 he rides swiftly from the pursuer of blood and the wrath of God I say let this be the first Vse we make of this point even every man befroe me and all to whom these things shal come to examin himself seriously if these things be not so let him deal plainly with his own heart let him get into his chamber and be still and there Commune with himself and he shall finde that all his goings out and seekings and inventions have been nothing else but to stop the mouth of conscience to allay the fire that began to burn within him and to get some drops to coole his tongue and to cover the fire and the smoak of the bottomlesse pit Luk. 16.24 Did not all your undertakings arise from a sight of a want an emptiness poverty and misery and have ye not gotten Horses to ride far away from this guilt of conscience have ye not with the Prodigal gone out from your fathers house and spent your patrimony upon Harlots and riotous living Ibid. 15.13 and nothing could ever cause you to return but though ye were never so poor and had spent all yet you would joyne your selves to any thing in the first place that may appear as a rich Citizen wherein ye may not fear want but for all this your povertie and misery still comming more and more upon you you rather then you will return home and discover your folly miserie and nakedness will live upon husks shadowes figures and they not being able to fill your belly nor supply that infinite emptiness in your soules then you have been forced to return and come home unto your father emptie naked ashamed miserable lost and undone And till this be there is not one of the sons of men ever can come home or return to their fathers house not untill they have nothing at all left no goodness no love no wisdom no power c. but see that all these are in their Fathers house and nowhere else Being perswaded that there is bowels of love there is the rich robe there is bread enough there is the embraces there is the kisses of love there is the dancing and the melodie Till this day comes the Prodigal is never received with joy his Father never falls upon his neck and kisses him Beloved I appeal to every soule here this day and to all the poor received Saints and people of God if they have not found all these things fulfilled in them and a thousand times more after this manner more then ever can be exprest Have all
thy goings forth to this thing or tother thing been any other then Jonahs Gourd Jonah 4 7. to sit under the shadow thereof to shelter thee from the burning sun and heat of Divine wrath examine thy heart Didst ever take up any dutie any form any way of worship purely for love to God because thou sawest him the fairest of ten thousand Cant. 5.10 because that he was the joy of thy soul thy portion thy inheritance thy All in All For till then God is not thy God if any other thing be thought good or excellent but he thou hast not chosen him for thy God doe but examine thy thoughts and thy ends in all those things and thou shalt find satisfaction to thy selfe securing thy self getting happiness and rest for thy selfe was the chiefest moving cause And being so as I am sure it is till man see himself empty naked and a miserable Prodigal what 's all thy acting doing sacrificing washing breaking bread Forms Modes what 's all thy highest rules and strictnesse and walking up to the rule as thou callest it but working for thy selfe Mat. 20.13 2 Cor. 5.14 and working for a penny and meer mercinary working by force thou doest nothing by the constraint of love t is not for the excellencie of holinesse and love to the Lord himself but so thy own head may be covered and thou mayest be cloathed and that thou mayest have Cities to dwell in and live happily Saith Satan Job 1.9 doth Job serve God for naught thou hast peace and riches and satisfaction to thy selfe and therefore thou servest him if thou hast not thy pennie thou wilt rather stand idle in the market Mat. 20.6 thy working is to be freed from miserie and to get that which thou callest HEAVEN These are thy Horses to carry thee from wrath and to the place of rest where thou mayest with the Prodigal live upon thy own and spend lavishly and indeed it tends to no other but to run thy selfe out of all and to bring thee to misery Beloved from hence let everie one every particular form every several division and distinction of Worshippers examin themselves from what principle they act and work if it be not to carry them into a far countrie Luk. 15.13 that they may not see their miserie nor remember Hell nor the wrath of God and their forms have been their Horses and Chariots which have saved and delivered them quieted their consciences shut the mouth of Hell kept off the gnawing worm And when they have got into this Chariot of Religion and these Forms of Worship then they think themselves safe and well horst How many thousands of people are now got into these ways and joyned themselves to these rich Cttizens and never yet were emptied made miserable and nothing never lost their own lives never took up the Cross of Christ nor forsook themselves but having taken up a Form suitable to their liking say they now I am safe now I am well what ever others doe I am in a good condition I have secured One I am wiser then others I am holier then they stand farther off Esay 65.5 I am now somebody and every particular Form think themselves in the best way and censure all others and applaud and deifie themselves But in the day of the Lord all thy helps hopes Idols witchcrafts shall be cut off nothing of thy planting shall stand but thou shalt be left empty naked helpless hopelesse so that thou shalt be utterly stript of thy whole selfe and no way left to escape by all thy forms wisdom inventions and thou shalt be so distressed that there is nothing left to help thee but a naked Christ onely meer mercy and the good hand of the Lord. So that except thou canst stand in this light and bear this discovery there is no help for thee And when man is brought to this condition he wil look every way for help Gen. 4.16 any man to direct and offer him any likely way any Chariot to carry him from the presence of the Lord that Hell may not pursue him and that he may out-run his own guilt with Caine he will goe dwell in the Land of Nod thinking to get from the presence of the Lord he hath now with the Prodigal loft his fathers house that is he hath put himselfe out of his fathers love care and protection and he will mannage his own portion and provide for and direct himselfe but all this is to cover with a covering but not with the Lords Spirit Esay 30.1 To the Land of NOD what 's that that is to the land of Forgetfulnesse or to the Land of Dizzinesse And there he hath a portion and patrimony upon which he spends and there he happens among Harlots and lives by his own wisdome and inventions and he gets to himselfe any thing that will but uphold his spirit though he be come almost to Beggery yet he will shift still before he will discover and acknowledge his folly and beggery he will live upon Husks upon his own duties Luk. 12 19 and his own forms shall be his life though there is no nourishment no life in them And yet he sayes to his soule Soule take thine ease thou hast goods laid up for many years and there he feasts himselfe lives Deliciously every day he eats and drinks and is merry and will not think of returning to his father nor acknowledge his rebellions And this is the far Countrey that he is departed into that so he may not see his own misery his own lost condition But in this day of the Lord all these things shall be discovered and he shall see that he is deluded and hath fed himselfe with dreams and that there was nothing reall in all he enjoyed but all even the best of his dainties was but Husks a lye and a deceit Then shall even the very sinews of all his strength be cut asunder all his foundations removed and himselfe utterly beggered and undone the very earth and the works thereof and all things therein 2 Pet. 3.10 shall be burnt up and the elements shall melt with fervent heat and he shall be at his wits end And this day of the Lord shall be like the Refiners fire and Fullers Sope Then he shall discover the Magicians and Inchanters of Egypt Mal. 3.2 to be all lyers and deceivers when they told thee Loe here and loe there In this mountain and on that hill in this way and that form thou shalt finde peace and rest Then He whom thou hast crucified and murthered by thy sinnes shall appeare in the clouds to judge thee and will set all thy sinnes in order before thee Psal 50.21 Then thou shalt see that thou hast crucified and put to death thy innocent Saviour That meek one of the earth who is all mercy pitty loving kindnesse him who came to save thee and ransome thee from thy cruell bondage and
thou hast murthered him And that thou hast chosen Barabbas a murtherer rather then this innocent one And in that thou hast followed thy own waies and thy own wisdom and bin thy own Guide and by this hast crucified and murthered the Honour and glory of thy glorious Saviour And all this was because he would have condemned his and thy adversaries because he would have destroyed thy Hellish and divellish spirit Mat. 27.66 therefore thou hast laboured to destroy and crucifie him and hast buried him and rolled a stone upon him so that thou thoughtest he should never rise again But t is not all the powers of Darknesse can keep him under for after three daies he will rise again and triumph over his enemies and appeare in glory and Majesty Then it will be discovered who are those deluders that cried Loe here and loe there and said he is the chambers or he is the wildernesse or he is the secret places Then he will speak that word in thy soule Goe not after them joyn not with them for they lead thee from thy beloved then thou shalt see Luk. 17.23 that He whom thou calledst a seducer a divel a blasphemer shall now be thy Judge and those thou runnedst after and thoughtedst thy friends will be found lyers deceivers and blasphemers Now this day of the Lord man would fain put off with all his wit wisdome and inventions and this day of the Lord cannot be meant of a litterall day or a naturall day for that cannot be for who is able to put off one day And as man cannot put off a naturall day nor the rising and setting of the Sunne nor day nor night so cannot he put off this day of the Lord but when it will come it shall come and he cannot put it off with all the art wisdome power and all the inventions and subtilties he can devise but Christ shall be born in BETHLEM Micah 5.2 as it is prophecied of him In Bethlem that is in the house of Bread for he is the true bread and the bread of life man never had true satisfaction or any true bread till He was born in him Joh. 6.55 for his body is bread indeed and his blood is drink indeed Then all mans wisdome and power and all his Fortifications and Strong holds shall be blown down Jos 6.20 then shall the walls of Iericho fall at the sounding of these Rams-horns And then when Christ is once born Herod and all Ierusalem shall be troubled Mat. 23.18 then is the day when Rachel shall mourn for her children and will not be comforted yea all those children which the children of men have begotten and thought they would be a comfort and rejoycing to them and a support to them they in this day shall all be slain with the sword And that light of God that is in every man shall tell them that all their wisdome and endeavours that all their righteousnesse and conformity is nothing worth and that when they have done the utmost that they can Luk. 17.10 they are but unprofitable servants and the best of their strictnesse is not worth one bit of bread Ibid. 13.27 and that God is not bound to them in the least when they have done never so much but Hell is their due Luk 13.27 and their portion for all this therefore depart from me ye workers of iniquity And this day of the Lord will come on a sudden when neither men nor all their Magicians nor Southsayers nor their Sorcerers nor all their Witchcrafts that delude the eyes of the understanding shall be able with all their wisdome and cunning to put it off but they themselves shall be cut off and destroyed though they have used their utmost devices to delude the soule and carry it captive and won them to a liking of their wayes and though Satan hath so deluded people that he appears not a Devil and seducer as he is 2 Cor. 11.14 15. but hath transformed himself into an Angel of light and his Ministers into Ministers of righteousnesse And for proofe of this consider but of two or three places of Scripture and you shall see it clear As First 2 Thes 2.9 10. the Apostle in 2 Thes 2.9 10. speaking of Antichrist and his workings in man saith he shall be revealed and made known and consumed with the spirit of the Lord and with the brightness of his coming even He whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signes and lying wonders and with all deceivablenesse of unrighteousnesse Though they seem Saints and to be endewed with power yet they are but lying wonders and though they seem to have righteousnesse yet it is deceivable righteousnesse righteousnesse wrought by the power of Inchanters and Sorcerers and Magicians to deceive and blind the understanding for there is no such thing but the contrary for t is no other but the power of Satan and the working of Satan and they are his signs and lying wonders And in that day of the Lord all these things shall be discovered and made naked Nay farther that Satan may hide himselfe and not be known to be Satan he hath this farther policy and inchantment he can cry down an Inchantment in one form that he may be more secure in another and yet be Satan still and all to conceale himself from being known for if he be discovered and the day of the Lord reveal him then ye shall see him fall down from Heaven like Lightning Luk. 10.18 therefore Satan will change his shape and cast out himselfe and in this case Belzebub will cast out Belzebub the greater Devil will cast out the less that so he may take fuller possession And all this is done by no other art but by Magick Inchantments and Sorcery Nay often times the Devil will call that Inchantment which is farthest from it even the wisdome power and righteousness of Christ Because he knows that if he can but make men so apprehend of it they will fly from it for he knows himself hated And except he be disguised he can do nothing yet many men will cry out against Sorcery and Inchantment and Heresie and Errours and Delusions when they know not what they are nay when they themselves are most deluded and surprized by Inchantment So that Satan he is furnished with his subtile devices and yet keeps men ignorant of his devices and they shall not know they are inchanted but cry out upon others to be so They cry out such are Hereticks and Ranters Seducers and Jesuites and see not the real Divination in themselves So that by this you may see when God or the Scriptures speak of Sorcerers Magicians Charmers Inchanters Southsayers Diviners Necromancers Peepers a Woman with a familiar Spirit or the like they not onely mean that External way of Magick though some things in that case may be lawful which may through ingorance be railed against but
23.7 c. who love to be called RABBI or by that Blasphemous Title of DIVINE and they must be honoured above other Saints of God and they are The Clergie and others they are but the Layitie of a meaner rank then we say they And how doe they love to have greetings in the market and the uppermost rooms at Feasts and the like well let them look to it God will judge them one day for all their Sorceries and inchantments and for standing up between him and his glory To whom alone all praise is due but to every man misery shame confusion of face blacknesse of darknesse hell and condemnation But hence we may see that it is no new thing to be bewitched by the Sorcerers and Inchanters and Magicians of the World The Galathians themselves were so for there are many Antichrists in the world there are legions gone out from the Prince of darknesse to deceive the whole Earth And if any from Christ speak but the truth he by his cunning devices will disguise it under the shape of Heresie Schisme Familisme or some odious nickname or other that so the truth may not be owned nor known That so men may stop their eares against the Heavenly voyce of Christ which brings down all things adored or loved in or from man and sets up nothing else but the power wisdom goodnesse holiness and Alsufficiency of the Lord alone He cries Mans heart and all the imaginations thereof are onely evill continually and that there is none that doth good Psal 14.3 Rom. 3 10. no not one They are all gone out of the way and every one is become abominable there is none that understands or seeks GOD. And that there is nothing in man of good but all is evill sin death darkness abomination a lye and utter desolation But Satan cries in the mouthes of his Ministers Let man doe something he can pray he can heare and let him follow those rules that we prescribe and they shall bring peace and rest to his soule But if man were but content to heare the voice of Christ and to stand in the light of God he should be convinced that he had no power no goodnesse and that nothing but onely the power of God could carry him out and that he is dead in trespasses and sins Ephes 2.1 and that the voice of Christ alone can raise them from their graves and that no lesse power can quicken or raise but the eternall Almighty power which raised Iesus Christ himselfe from the dead Rom. 8.11 It is not as men say If you will come to us and joyn and walk with us and be dipt with us or break bread with us will give any life any peace to the soule but the standing in the light of God that so man may take to himselfe death and darknesse misery and wrath and here to stand and dwell and that in him is no good thing then this light would also shew him that in Christ is all life liberty fulnesse satisfaction peace and rest and nowhere else If men did but abide in this light it would debase and keep low the lofty thoughts and those great expectations of and from man it would also give Jesus Christ his due it would not suffer him in the least to act against the glory of Christ but man would be dead and buried and Christ would onely ascend and sit upon his Throne There would nothing be esteemed in Heaven or Earth Mat. 19.21 but Christ and he would be content to sell and lose all for him This light would curb every wicked act every desire of the flesh this alone is the means to crucifie and kill thy vile nature and not any outward externall thing by washing or dipping in water or eating such a poore empty carnall thing as a bit of bread or drinking a sup of wine this thing never did nor never will doe it but to eate and drink that which Christ gave which was not a little bread and wine onely but HIMSELFE Joh. 6.56 1 Cor. 11.29 Ibid. v. 20 ch 10.16 and by feeding on him eating his body and drinking his blood this will nourish to eternall life When ye are met together into one place this is not to eate the Lords body For the bread which we break is the Communion of the body of Christ and he that eateth and drinketh unworthily discerneth not the Lords body Object But may I not use these things Object Ans Yea Answ so you think your selves never the better for using them for t is not they can feed or comfort thee nor t is not going on in thy own power nor thy using of means for Christ alone is the way and the means As if you come to a Feast you are not invited to eate the platters or earthern dishes which bring the meat but you are invited to the meat they doe but bring the meat and if thou eate not the meat thou mayst starve and die if thou follow the dreams of thy own heart and thinkest thou eatest and dost not what a horrible delusion and inchantment is this But of these things we may have an opportunity to speak more fully hereafter Thus you see what are those things which the Lord will cut off in that day when he shall come Thy Horses and thy Chariots thy Cities and thy strong holds Thy witchcraft and thy Southsayers Thy graven Images and thy standing Images out of the midst of thee THE SECRET SOUTHSAYER OR Hidden SORCERER discovered By Mr. Jo. WEBSTER SERMON II. Preached at Alhallows Lumbard-street MICAH 5.10 11 12 13. And it shall come to passe in that day saith the Lord That I will cut off thy Horses out of the midst of thee and I will destroy thy Chariots And I will cut off the Cities of thy Land and throw down all thy strong holds I will cut off Witchcrafts out of thine hand and thou shalt have no more Southsayers Thy graven Images also will I cut off and thy standing Images out of the midst of thee and thou shalt no more worship the work of thine hands I Have beloved according to the appearance of God in me shewed the meaning of these words according to the Spirit and the Mysterie declaring that great work which is brought to passe by Jesus Christ when he appeares gloriously in the world in the soules of men and is exalted as Lord and King and then it is when Jesus Christ is exalted in the earth and not when men are exalted or when there is peace and plenty of outward things But all the speakings of the Prophets and of Christ himselfe tend to set out that Kingdome and PERSONALL REIGNE which generally all men know little of and neither wil nor can own for a glorious state because not accommodated with outward power riches and eternall glory But in that day when Jesus Christ will come and arise in power spiritually in the soules of men then is that
great day and a thousand yeeres will be but as one day when he will accomplish these things and also all those glorious prophesies declared by himselfe and by all his Prophets And this work is begun by way of destroying conquering and cutting off all those things that stand in the way and hinder the setting up of this glorious kingdome And that is all MANS refuges defences or strong holds whatever hath been a rock or stay or peace or rest to his soule to depend upon what ever it is that he hath trusted in to deliver him As first all his Horses and Chariots to carry him out of all danger whatever he rides upon and thinks it will carry him swiftest away from feare wrath or destruction All these things when Christ comes to raign gloriously shall all be cut off and utterly destroyed he shall have nothing left him to flie with or ride upon Secondly All his Cities and Strong-holds shall be razed and thrown down whatever hath been raised by man for his security shelter or safety to prevent or keep off the day of evil not any thing shall stand which he promised himselfe safety from but when Christ is to come he wil send before him such a destruction and overflowing deluge that shall quite carry away all mans building and there shall not a stone be left upon a stone of any thing built or set up by man Thirdly not onely so All his horses and chariots all his Cities and strong-holds shall be quite removed but whatever Witchcraft or Sorcery or inchantments he hath in his hand though they be never so cunningly contrived and full of subtilty and delusion yet all these shal be discovered and cut off So that he shall have no more Southsayers Necromancers Cheaters Sorcerers Diviners Peepers Mutterers Dreamers Then HE who is The man of Sin shall be revealed 2 Thes 2.4 c. the sonne of Perdition who opposeth and exalteth himselfe above all that is called God or that is worshipped so that HE as God sitteth in the Temple of God shewing himselfe that he is God But then shall that wicked one be revealed Rev. 20.3 whom the Lord will consume with the spirit of his mouth and shall destroy with the brightnesse of his comming this ANTICHRIST He shall no more delude nor deceive the Nations with all deceivablenesse of unrighteousness though they work as subtly as Satan himselfe shewing as if they had power and righteousnesse by their glorious pretences and great signes and shews but in that day the Lord will appeare in his own light and life and they shall be discovered to be but lying wonders and deceivablenesse of unrighteousnesse to delude those that perish The men of the world and all your professors and pretenders to Religion they shall no more deceive they shal no more make a shew of that they are not but all their neat and curious contrived juglings shall appeare to be no truth nor reality but only the form and the LIKNESS of things But the truth and light of God appearing all these things shall be laid open that the eyes of men be no more deluded with false and lying shews and pretences but they shall be discovered by the truth and light of God and thereby destroyed and cut off and they shall be no more Fourthly the Lord wil also cut off All the graven Images All those Idols and Images which man hath made and set up by his own wit and invention even all his Religion and all his Forms wherein he so much pleased himselfe And although he have bestowed never so much carving and graving and decking and painting to make them seem neat and curious to take the eyes of the beholders nay though they be made of Silver and Gold and be never so glorious that they even dazzle the eyes of the beholders and cause them to runne wondring after the glory of the BEAST Revel 13.3 yet all these graven Images shal be destroyed and quite cut off Nay not onely the graven Images but the standing Images Though they have been of never so long standing and never so generally received and owned for the truth which have scarce ever been questioned and have been received and rested on from Generation to Generation yet these shall appear in the light of God to be but Images and Lyes and shall all vanish in that day of the Lord and man shall have nothing left him of all his strength riches Horses Chariots strong holds witchcrafts images standing images so that he shall have nothing at all in his hand to trust to and these men for all their strong confidences they shall be utterly distressed and stript naked and shall no more worship the work of their own hands that is there is nothing of man can stand nothing of his righteousness wisdom power acting working worshipping nothing but onely the righteousness power and work of Jesus Christ who saith Behold I alone make all things new Rev. 21.5 Write for all these things are faithful and true Whatever men say write this for truth These things in part we have opened in the morning especially two first his Cities and strong holds for his defence Secondly his Chariots and his Horses in case the former will not secure him yet his Chariots and Horses shall and will uphold and secure him as he thinks that at last he may be free from danger and secure himself from the pursuer Thirdly the Lord promises he will cut off Witchcrafts and they shall have no more Southsayers From hence we held out this That till the day of Christ his appearing man is led by the defilements of his own heart and by no other guide but by Satan and his instruments by the father of lyes deceits and inchantments He alwayes hearkens to the Counsel of the Serpent in him which is more cunning and subtile then any other beast of the feild and so cunningly are his devices contrived Mat. 24.24 that if it were possible he would deceive therewith the very Elect. And there is none that can throw out this deceiver nor this cunning Serpent in man but onely the holy seed of the woman that alone can break his head and destroy him There is none else can overcome this Dragon but only MICHAEL the Arch-Angel nor consume the Man of Sin but onely the mouth of the Lord and the brightnesse of his comming for he is so full of signs deceit and lying wonders that none but the light and truth of God can discover his delusions Rev. 14.11 Luk. 11.21 22. but even all the world have received the mark of the Beast and they run wondring after him and they have in them the strong man armed and what power wisdom or strength of man is ever able to take off the one or bind up the other but when this day of the Lord comes then men shall no more be deluded by Sorcerers nor Inchanters nor by those that mutter and PEEP
and have familiar spirits and such as do no other in all their Religion but enquire after the dead as the Prophet speaks what 's that Esa 8.19 Mark 5.3 who enquire not after the living the substance and the truth but after the dead and all their delight is to be among the Graves and the Tombs and dead things which have no power nor life in them being men very cruel and fierce But all things of this nature in man shall be cut off when Christ shall arise in us and become Lord and King and be all in all viz. to be alone King Priest and Prophet in us Then we shall hearken and give ear alone to him having no other Guide nor no other Teacher or Master but him when these things come to pass in us then all the delusions within us and all in others without us shall all be discovered and vanish And indeed we can never discover those Spiritual Sorcerers and Inchanters without us till we have sound them out and discovered them within us Then he alone shall shortly tread down Satan under our feet Rom. 16.20 Rev. 18.23 Then this MICHAEL will throw down out of Heaven the Dragon and his Angels which deceived the Nations Onely the Breath and Comming of the Lord can discover those depths of lyes and infinite deceits that are received and rooted in the heart of man and nothing but the good hand wisdom and power of the Lord Almighty can deliver the soule From hence then we may hold out thus much and 't is very clear First that there is no greater Deceiver to be found then is within Man No cunninger Devil no greater ANTICHRIST nor no worse WITCH then what Man hath in his own heart so that HE hath in him all things described by the Name of EVIL There is in him the Devil Sin Antichrist the red Dragon the Jims and Ziims of the Desart There is in him Lucifer and the beast with seven Heads and ten Horns There are in him Conjurers Sorcerers Southsayers Witches Mutterers Peepers consulters with the dead that is delighting and resting in formal and dead Ordinances and with Women which have familiar Spirits with the GREAT WHORE and what not even with all things that belong to the Kingdom and power of Darknesse And all these things and whatever else can be named of this kind they all make up but one body all these are but Satan and his Members and they all have but one and the same Head As Jesus Christ consisteth of whatever is good righteous holy pure undefiled and the seed and sons of God and all things of that nature are his body and he their Head so all the seed and sons of Satan make up but one body and one building which is ANTICHRIST and the Great Whore and the Dragon and Lucifer and the rest And however man is carried out to look for all these things without him yet be sure these Sorcerers these Wizzards these Necromancers these Dragons Devils Antichrists all are in thine own bosome Here is the true Necromancy and Witchcraft the true Antichrist all other without are but shadows pictures and representations of the true and reall body of Antichrist and the Great Whore and the like If thou wouldest find out Antichrist and the true Necromancer and Southsayer It is thy selfe When thou enquirest and askest counsel of thine own heart then thou consultest with a familiar and lying spirit when thou makest a shew of that which thou art not then thou art a Necromancer and a Sorcerer and so every one of these evil ones according to their names you shall find in your own practice the nature thereof And truly Beloved herein lies the great and mighty Delusion and Witchcraft amongst the sons of men that Satan in them is so cunning that he alwayes carryes them out of themselves to find out Antichrist and Wizzards and Southsayers and Lucifer and the Great whore and the like And the true reason is because the Divel he would not by any means have these things be discovered to be in mans own breast where indeed is his Temple and SEAT more then at Room externally or litterally in any other place There is Antichrist there is Belial and there be the Southsayers and the Sorcerers in thine own heart But man will by no means indure this Doctrine And so long as Satan can blind delude and deceive man making him look for that evil one and the son of Perdition 2 Thes 2.3.7 and the MYSTERY OF INIQUITY out of himself so long Satan rests secure and safe But if the Light of God comes and discovers where his lurking and hiding place is viz. to be within and at home while we have been ruuning up and down far and neer to find him Then the soule either fights against this light or else blushes and is ashamed and confounded in it selfe And now it will trust no longer to it self now it sees the greatest cheating and witchcrafts to be acted in it selfe But till this day of the Lord come and this great light shine round about him man rides on boldly and confidently as Saul to Damascus and is not smitten down from his Horse neither sees he what he is doing Acts 9.1 2 but blesses himself and thinks all is well and he censures this wicked man and the other and he can curse the Devil and Antichrist without him bitterly thee whom he thinks to be at Rome and concludes that there he must fall and be brought down but never remembers that there is ONE in him whom he knows not but if any shall say unto him as Nathan to David Thou art the Man Antichrist is in thee and Adam is in thee and the Serpent is in thee and in whatever is said or related of Adam or Satan or Antichrist or Lucifer or of Eve What they did behold I say unto thee 2 Sam. 12.7 Thou art the man all this thou mayest read in thine own actions in thy own practices But oh how tart and harsh is this Doctrine to all the wise sober grave holy and learned men of the world Oh how do they hate and deride this Doctrine But let me tell them before the Lord Angels and Men That for all this while they are blessing themselves 1 Cor. 4.9 from the Devil and Antichrist and the rest and scorning these things should be in them and think that they have discovered them here and there Behold they are nigh them they are within them in their hearts and mouths though they see them not But if ever with all thy learning and parts and righteousnesse thou hadst had but the light of God in thee it would have shewed thee the Divil and the true Necromancer and let thee know that for all thy vain boasting and swelling and high and proud conceits of thy selfe that thou never yet hadst the light of God and that God never yet answered thee by that true URIM and THUMMIM
before the God of the whole Earth and their dead bodies shal lie in the streets of the Great City which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt where also our Lord was crucified which cannot be meant litterally for Christ in the flesh was not crucified in Sodom nor Egypt But all these are spiritually to be understood and they are GREAT Mysteries which the world hath not been acquainted with But hath generally received a Notion of God-man dying at Jerusalem And indeed they have contented themselves with a shadow of the truth and little or nothing else there have been very few that have seen beyond the shadow nor lookt beyond the vail they have not seen IMMANVEL in themselves and that he dwells in us not among us as your litteral men to justifie their Litteral and External knowledge have translated the word because they saw no farther But t is properly God in us Wherever Christ is he brings a new birth works a change upon the whole man this did not nor does Christ do by any of his actions that he did at Jerusalem neither by his holy life nor his meritorious death For was ever any of the sons of men conformed to him by that act T is true his death was infinitly meritorious and one act in him as being God equal with his Father Phill 2.16 was a sufficient sacrifice and attonement to pacifie the infinite wrath of God But yet know that Jesus Christ is not only a Sacrifice for an hour or two only for the time he suffered in the flesh under Pontius Pilat but He is that One Eternal everlasting Sacrifice which is continually offered up to the Eternal Father in the behalf of all the Elect. And also we grant that by that Act the Eternal purpose and decree of God was fulfilled in bringing forth the true IMMANVEL God and Man in One person who should more fully reveal the Father and in revealing the Father reveal himself for t is said Of Herod and Pontius Pilat Acts. 2.23 Acts 2.23 Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledg of God by wicked hands have crucified and slain But by his comming in the flesh and by his holy life and cruel suffering and death or by his external presence or company or eating and drinking with him or handling or touching him or external beleeving on him by nothing of this nature was any good done spiritually upon the souls of men nor had any one his nature changed or regenerated no no But the true comming of the MESSIAH and the fulfilling of all the promises concerning him was by being made IMMANVEL to us and being brought forth in us this is the Life and Mystery of the Word and of Christ his being made flesh and his true comming in the flesh and he that denies Christ thus come in the flesh the same is ANTICHRIST 1 Joh. 2.22 although he do acknowledge the external comming and dying of Jesus Christ at Ierusalem If he be not come in thy heart he is not yet come asto thee And there is no difference between thee and the external Jew for thou never yet confessedst him by receiving him for he is not a Iew which is one outwardly that is that onely makes a profession of God but circumcision is that of the Heart Wherfore saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 12.3 1 Cor. 12 3 I give you to understand that no man speaking by the spirit of God calleth Iesus Accursed And that no man can say that Iesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost This my Brethren is not done by an outward profession and conformity but when Christ is in us made Lord and King and that nothing within man nor nothing without him sits above Christ nor is esteemed comparable to him This man and no other hath acknowledged Christ come in the flesh and this man only saith that Iesus is the Lord otherwise he is Antichrist and calleth Jesus accursed and hath with the Jewes scourged disdained hated him spit at him 1 Cor. 12.3 and crucified him for there is no man can say that Iesus is the Lord but by the spirit of the Lord. But all that are Iews doe to this day crucify the Lord of Life and say we will not that this man shall rule over us and cry out away with him and release unto us Barabbas but let Iesus be crucified John 8.39 And this is the Language of all the World except those who have received him and they can answer with Peter when all others are ignorant of him But whom say yet that I am Thou art Iesus the son of the living God Verely those that can thus say experimentally of them we may say Verily verily flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee Mat. 16.17 but the Heavenly Father for this is that truth which never any man could teach but it is Heavenly and Spiritual And herein lies the Spirit and the Mystery which is hid from ages but revealed unto us only by the Spirit But all outward things though they were really done yet they are typical and representations still in all ages more and more lively brought forth and more near and more like unto the Truth And when ever Christ came spiritually and was received to them he was come and was the MESSIAH but all others were ignorant of him and therefore crucified him and therefore saith Peter I wot that through ignorance ye did it as did also your Rulers for had they known him Act. 3.17 they would not have crucified the Lord of Life Where Christ is thus come there it may be said indeed IT IS FINISHED but where he is come but externally it may well be said It is not finished for Christ is the Author the End and the finisher of faith and when he is come then it is accomplished compleated And it is FINISHED for there is nothing beyond him Heb. 12.2 nothing better then him nothing higher nor brighter nothing more glorious nor more excellent nor more full then Him Beloved let no man be offended at these things and think that we go about to reproach or vilifie any thing done by Jesus Christ who in all he did fulfilled his Fathers will and all things done by him or unto him were done by the Determinate Counsel and foreknowledge of God But all that we labour to do Acts 4.28 is more to exalt and magnifie the Truth and the Mystery of the Gospel of which so many though professing it are altogether ignorant of it and set up Idols in stead of God and worship shadows and indeed are to them no more but Fancies and Images for the Substance and in that case I know none doth more reproach and vilify Christ in the flesh then they though they pretend so much for him for himselfe often testifies The flesh profiteth not it is the spirit giveth life Joh. 6.63 not those that eat a little Bread or sup a little Wine that
otherwise whatever man may call them they are none of his Ordinances but they most prophanly put their empty cold dull blind and lame sacrifices upon him And hereupon thus thinkst and concludest that He hath been thy Deliverer I say whoever thou art that makest thy duties and thy conformity and indeed thy Ordinances for they are none of his thy support thy comfort thy rest in the least herein thou hast turned from the true deliverer Heb. 10.29 the true Saviour and hast trod him under foot and crucified him and hast made thy self thy God thy Deliverer thy Redeemer thy Saviour And the day of the Lord is comming when these things will be made to appear to thee and wrath will come upon thee unexpectedly even then when thou thinkest thy selfe secure and safe and all is well and when thou thinkest that thy peace is made and wrath is removed and there is no more frowns and storms from the Almighty when indeed thou hast all this while but made a covenant with death and hell Esa 33.8 1 Thes 5.2 and then the day of the Lord shall come upon thee as a thief in the night when thou thinkest all is well and thou mayst sleep securely then will Christ summon thee to Judgment 1 Cor. 15.52 Luk. 18.8 Rev 1.7 Mat. 24.41 and the Trumpet shall sound in thy own breast And when the Son of man cometh shall he find faith on the earth No but then all the Tribes of the earth shall wait and lament because of him Even so AMEN Then two shall be grinding at the Mill and two in one Bed the one taken and the other left then he that is on the house top shall not come down to take any thing out of his house for the day of the Lord shall surprize them on a suddain and as a thief cometh when no man expects him and as our Saviour saith of his doctrine so do I of these things he that hath ears to hear let him hear and he that hath eyes to see let him see and he that hath an heart let him read and understand Mark 4.9 I know Beloved men talk much of what they should doe as if they were so willing to do any thing Christ commanded but really and in truth what do all these men that seem to be so much for doing I say what do they doe doe they not in all these doe quite contrary to what they should doe If Christ hath smitten them then He alone can heal them and yet they will be healing themselves and delivering themselves when they should be seeking to Jesus Christ and looking to him and waiting upon him for deliverance And the way to be delivered is not to run to this man and tother Minister and hang upon this mans preaching and tother mans counsel no but thou wouldest see that all mans preaching and teaching and counsel is in vaine and that there is no other way nor no other Deliverer but only Jesus Christ thou wouldest not be tyed to this man or the other but thou wouldest say of all even of the wisest the gravest the soberest miserable comforters are ye all But thy trouble and thy guilt and thy sting within thee would make thee hearken when Iesus Christ would qualifie thy conscience and draw forth thy sting and quench the burning of Hell fire within thee so thou mightest but hear the voice of Christ If thou beest wounded for any tydings of Christ Amos 8.11 12. thou wouldest run from country to country from land to land and from sea to sea to hear the word of the Lord for thou wouldest see that in all men there is a famine Amos 8.11 12. not of bread but of the word of the Lord for Christ only gives forth his word he is the bread of life Joh. 6.51 the true bread which commeth down from Heaven t is not Moses nor any man can give this bread but only Our heavenly Father And when thou hast done all that is commanded thee yet thou must not rest in thy doing nor in thy using means nor in thy praying but stil in all must count thy self but an unptofitable servant Luke 17.10 Thou must not sit down and say I have done my part I have prayd and heard and walkt strictly and joyn'd my selfe to the best reformed Church Alas if thou rest in these things and thinkst now I have done well and it shall be wel with me all this praying and doing Christ calls vain babbling Mat. 6.7 and vain repetitions which is but to doe like the Heathen who think to be heard for their many words and much babbling all this thy doing which thou keepest such a stir about Esay 5.20 is no other then calling darknesse light and evil good And when thou goest out to look for any Minister or servant of Jesus to heale thy wounds take heed of the Idol-shepheards Jer. 6.14 which wil prophesie peace when there is no peace to speak deliverance when Christ hath not bid them for none can heale thee but he that hath wounded thee Ezek. 13.11 And so for any other who prophesie lyes and dawb with untempered morter who say to thee goe thou and repent and believe on Jesus Christ and thy sins shal be forgiven thee know this is not the way neither are they true Prophets for repentance and faith is alone Gods gift and his work And if he be a true messenger of the Lords sending all he can say is I am but an instrument I cannot give nor help thee to repentance nor faith neither can I direct thee to get them but only by waiting on Jesus Christ who alone is the Giver I am but the forerunner to the Bridegroom I have nothing to give nor I cannot direct thee where to get that thou seekest before he comes or before his pleasure is to bestow it whoever he be that undertakes to be any other but a Messenger as John Baptist was crying I am not he but I am the voice of one crying Mark 1.7 8. Prepare ye the way of the Lord I baptize with water but he that commeth after me is mightier then I he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost He cries there is no Teacher but Jesus Christ no Prophet but he we have nothing to give there is no riches but His. Examine thy self how thou staiest thy heart what quiets thy conscience hast thou it from man or from Christ hast thou found that all thy runnings too and again from this man and to the other hath done thee any good but thou hast found that let man say what he could yet stil thy trouble continued and thou couldst rest in nothing below Christ I have known some that by running hither and thither they have for a time for a yeere or two or more somwhat allayed the rage of conscience being directed to outward conformity and getting of repentance and taking up constancy in this and