garments rolled in blood hast thou seen the massacre of thy own life and the burning and the spoil and the fewel of fire in thee Then this shall be a sign to thee that to thee the Child is born and the Son given And thou hast then seen him to be the Mighty God the great Councellour the Wonderful and the Prince of peace Beloved you may talk what ye will of this mark and tother sign for saith Christ Ver. 6. Indeed the men of this Generation seek after signs but let them never once name and other sign till they finde this sign in them Have ye found this cutting off from your selves and this planting by the Lord alone Never tell me of Ordinances nor of Washings nor of Breaking bread nor of any of your rules or forms mind you only this signe this mark before ever ye look for any other of being risen with Christ and the like He that knows not these things in himself knows nothing Christ comes not to send peace before he hath sent the sword Mat. 10.34 What 's now all your doings all your dippings washings baptisms if ye have not this Baptisme all the other can never make the doers thereof nor the commers thereunto perfect Heb. 9.9 10.1 And till this be all your baptisms and worships are but from men and not from Heaven and all your Ordinances are but the Ordinances of men neither do you know what an Ordinance of Christ is for all these are but shadows your Sabbaths your new moons all things of this nature for the body is Christ Col. 2.17 If Christ himselfe will make use of these then indeed they are HIS Ordinances and there is life and power in them but as men use them they are empty cold dead and they change not the commers therunto at all for they are alive still and their spirit is yet whole in them and they have no change wrought in them from the men of the World for they are as much in love with honour and credit and all the things of the world as any other men Mat. 7.20 Col. 3.1 by their fruits ye may know them and yet they professe to be risen with Christ and to seek those things that are above why because they mistake things that are above But because they go to Church and hear and pray and fast and conform to Johns Baptism therefore they conclude they mind the things of God and seek after them Beloved to be risen with Christ is another manner of thing and it must be done by another manner of power then these men ever felt Even the very same Almighty power that raised up Iesus from the dead else they do but delude themselves This work is done by no other but by his own eternal spirit And men need not seek to any other help or means but him as thinking they can doe themselves any good But here now comes in the common Objection at which all men having not the work wrought in themselves stumble and fall Obj. and over this block they cannot get Although it is true that God does all and he must give a new heart Ezek. 11.19 and take out the stony heart and give an heart of flesh Thus far they will joyn in with you But must not man do his part and use the means that it may be effected This indeed hath been Answ and is and shall be the great stumbling block in all ages for men having not the experience of these things done in themselves they dreame of mans doing acting and working and he must put himselfe upon this duty and that when as I told you before no man seeks for Heaven as this Heaven and how then can he use the meanes for it when he never once desires the true Kingdome of Heaven but hates it opposes it runs from it useth all his inventions and weapons offensive and defensive to keep it out and desires the Lord to depart from him Job 21.14 Mat. 8.34 for be desireth not the knowledge of his wayes and with the Gergesens rather then they will part with their swinishness and that mire wherein they wallow they will meet Christ and desire him not to come neere them but to depart out of their coasts so well do all men out of Christ love him and seek after him or use meanes to come to him But to answer more particularly I do not ☜ nor never did deny the use of the meanes in the hand of the Father for the meanes do nothing but the Fathers hand only And God never intended a carnal meanes should effect a spiritual work He is a spirit and those that worship him John 4.24 must worship him in spirit and truth The weapons of our warfare are not carnal but spiritual And they are mighty in the hand of God 2 Cor. 10 4. John 3.6 not in the hand of man not in our selves but in him That which is borne of the flesh is flesh but that which is borne of the spirit is spirit And what is it that men make out about this Objection but this that men must do and men must strive and men must watch 't is true what meanes soever God pleaseth to use shall prevaile but if use by man it does nothing at all can a spiritual thing come out of a carnal can a cleane thing come out of an uncleane And therefore 't is cleare to me and to all the people of God and to their experience That the Lord makes no use of mans power or strength or wisdome or watchfulnesse or industry but what is done in man Gen. 1.3 't is purely the hand and power of the Lord. If HE say the word Let there be light in such a soul 't is done if he say to the Lepers Luke 5.12 17.17 Mark 7.34 v. 14. Chap. 5.24 be ye cleane 't is done If he say to the eares EPHPHATHA be ye opened And young man I say unto thee Arise And to the sick Arise take up thy bed and walk then the work is done But men not knowing the work and power of God they are alwayes Harping on this string on mans power acting working striving and the like I but they object further I Object but must not man use external meanes as Preaching and hearing and reading the Scripture and the like Answ Although he do Answ yet what doth all this do except the power of God be in it The Lord is pleased in this Book of the Bible to speak out the things belonging to the Kingdome of Heaven and he is pleased to stoop so low to us to represent by external things those things that are high and spiritual and saving but alasse they are all MYSTERIES and they cannot be known but in the light of God and not in the light of man but as God is pleased to make them out in man else no man knows what they meane in their own nature And
and ORDAINE Ministers and they speak of giving the Holy Ghost but alasse I say all these are but resemblances and shadows they are not the true Ordinances of Christ and notwithstanding mens using of these things with so much appearance of strictnesse and exactuesse yet they have them not For they are in bondage still they were never yet delivered set free indeed nor never Baptized with the Baptisme of Christ never yet fetcht off their own bottoms never taken into Vnion with Christ who will undertake to give the Spirit and the Holy Ghost and yet never had it themselves and therefore all those things that these men use are nothing but shadows Outsides Shels and Carkasses of the true Ordinances of Christ You know many came to Johns Baptisme even of the Pharisees and yet they wre but a Generation of Vipers their consciences told them that John was a true Prophet Mat. 3.7 and they began to smite them and they thought it was a duty they were bound to that thereby they should prevent the wrath to come and they presently take it up as having power of their own to do any thing in Religion and here they thought themselves secure and that they had really prevented the wrath to come But the true Baptisme and the true Ordinanes and the true Worship are things of a farre higher nature There is a HEAVENLY Baptisme and a Heavenly Worship and an Heavenly Ord inance I saith John Baptize with Water but there is one that commeth after me Ver. 11 12. who is preferred before me He shall Baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire I must decrease but HE must increase My Baptisme is nothing I must stand by when he comes I baptize but unto repentance but He gives repentance and the Holy Spirit The Heavenly things are of a far higher nature These are but the pictures and the shadows the shells and the outsides the other the Life and the Power the Holy Ghost and the Fire it self Now they that receive these things are indeed the Children of the Free-Woman and are the true seed of Abraham All other are the Children of the Bond-Woman and are HAGAR who is in bondage with her Children to this very day For as it was with Hagar so is it now and hath been alwayes in all ages and generations The children of the Bond-woman do alwayes exalt themselves and are very sawcy and peremptory toward the children of the Free-woman why because they are Circumcised and submit to Ordinances and think themselves of the seed of Abraham therefore they grow proud lofty and censorious and usurp too much over the Children of the Free-woman even as their mother before the Hagar she despised her Mistress and lifted up her selfe more then was fit for her Therefore this is determined concerning her Cast out the Bond-woman and her Son for the Son of the Bond-woman shall not be heir with the Son of the Free-woman Gal. 4.25 When once the Handmaid who is in the house but by sufferance will exalt her selfe above THE MISTRESSE and her SON born after the flesh begin to persecute him that is born after the spirit then away with her cast out both her and her Sons too And farther know this that when the appearance of the power of Christ comes into the soul that is when the Bond-woman and her son is cast out then the soul doth not as some imagine and teach work out its own liberty nor is it made free by its own power Ibid 5.1 but Christ brings in this liberty with him and from this liberty the soule acts and works The children of the Free-woman do not work to be set free but because they are set free therefore they work freely and cannot but so work And herein lies a broad difference between the children of the Bond-woman and the children of the Free-woman When the sons of the Bondwoman hear of any thing that man is required to do presently they think to work themselves to it by their care watchfulnesse resolution c. But now it is quite contrary with the sons of the Free-woman they having a Principle of Freedom act and work from this the one worships God from an internal Principle in the power of the spirit the other from an outward compulsory cause and not from the power of love So likewise the one doth all his actions out of love to men doing good to all men in the world being willing to serve all out of love Pittying all Counselling all willing to help all so far as lies in them Imitating their Heavenly Father who doth good to all to the good and evil just and unjust Mat. 5.45 and meerly from a Heavenly Principle of mercy pitty and loving kindnesse and bowels of mercy But the other His Religion consists in outward forms in washings and dippings and conformity to Fellowships and whatever they do it is not from the power of love or from the nature of their heavenly fater in them but from some external cause from something without them from fear or hope either to prevent some danger or to procure something which they conceive in a general notion to be good for them to make them happy and the like because Hell they hear is a terrible place and full of Horrour and Destruction and Heaven is a place of peace joy and rest and there they shall live for ever in pleasure which shall never end upon these two grounds most men act and take up the strictest forms of Worship and hereupon they may be very constant and very zealous and sincere as they conceive when alas all these things are nothing at all so nor so for the truth is Hell they love and live in and yet know not that they are in it and that which is true heaven to the soule they hate and run away from as being the place of misery death and torments to them Therefore ye may see what a miserable delusion and cursed vaile is generally upon the Hearts of most men which call themselves Men fearing God and that which they call the Worship of God is no other but inventions of their own as they practice them and WILL-WORSHIP And though they keep a great deal of stirre about Ordinances and breaking of bread yet alas how far they are from the Ordinances of Christ let the effects of their practice and lives declare how little do they feed on Christ as they pretend to do He that feeds on Christ partakes of his nature and Christ in them turns the stock into his own Nature as Peter speaks Luk. 11.28 Ibid. 22.19 and they hear the word and keep it and these truly feed on Christ and do it in remembrance of him But these pretenders to Ordinances and outward duties they in stead of feeding on Christ or being fed by him they are fed indeed but by whom even by Satan himselfe for he makes them live and rest upon these shadows and
Pharisees hearing of this they knew he spake of them and being very much offended that he so much reproached them and so much laid them open and took away their glory estimation and high esteem with the people hereupon I say they became greatly bitterly and maliciously offended with him and the Disciples hearing and observing of it they being somewhat troubled in themselves as not seeing so much into them as he did they come to him and tell him Master knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended after they heard this saying Vers 12 Now our Saviour presently makes them this answer Every plant which my Heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up As if he should say t is true generally all men take the Scribes and Pharisees and it may be you your selves have taken them to be men of great holiness and purity and to be very strict in their lives and indeed they seem to be men of great learning and to be very consciencious and zealous Teachers of the Truth But I would not have you so deceived true Religion stands not in outsides in observing of rites and cerementes in washing of cups and platters and observing outward Ordinances But know these men are no other but Hypocrits and Dissemblers and well did Esaiah Prophesie of them Esa 29.14 saying This people draw nigh unto me with their mouthes and honour me with their lips but their heart is removed far from me Therefore though they be offended at my speech yet be not you offended let them alone they be blind leaders of the blind And if the blinde lead the blind both shall fall into the ditch And for all their great learning and great shews of zeale and knowledge in the Letter yet Christ saw their inside how there was nothing but impurity blackness and ignorance And indeed men may have and attaine to much strictnesse therein and yet have no saving knowledge of God in the spirit nor of the truth as it is in Jesus Now saith Christ Let them alone Eph 4.21 I know they have a high opinion of themselves and they would by no means lose their glory in the esteem of others but be you not troubled Let them alone they are blind though they will not see it and both the leaders and the led shall both fall together Now upon this account Christ using such cutting cauterizing words can any wonder that they should be offended I and deeply offended Hereupon it is that the Children of the Letter and of the Bond-woman alwayes hate and persecute the Children of the Mystery and the Free-woman Gal. 4.29 As the Children of the New Jerusalem are Heavenly Divine and Spiritual like their Mother for they are born of the Second Adam which is the Lord from Heaven and they bear the very Image of the Heavenly And as is the Heavenly such are they that are Heavenly And as is the Earthy such are they that are Earthy 1 Cor. 15.47 c. They are still carried out very zealously to outward observations and carnall things And if any shall in the least touch them in them they are presently offended raging and mad for ye touch their Absolom their very lives The flesh alwayes lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh Gal. 5.17 for these are directly contrary the one unto the other these two Principles are so directly opposite and contrary one to an other that they can never agree but ever were and shall be at enmity never to be reconciled These Pharisees are alwayes very much offended with the neglect ofo smal matters and of things indifferent which either the doing or leaving undone is no sign of sincerity or insincerity but they can neglect the weighty matters of the Law themselves and suffer others to do so and never be offended As here in the second verse of this chapter the Scribes and Pharisees which were of Jerusalem that is they were the chief Preachers of the Nation because they were Preachers at the Chief and Metropolitan City JERVSALEM Yet these Great and Learned and Sage DIVINES as they were esteemed come to Christ And what was the great businesse they had to offer to him Why do thy Disciples transgresse the tradition of the Elders Mat. 15.2 for they wash not their hands when they eat bread Jesus Christ answers them very pertinen tly Why do you transgresse the Commandement of God by your traditions They were more strict in observing the traditions of their Church and of Men then of the Commandements of God and the weighty matters of the Law they were careful in observing washings and constant in outward forms of worship and times of prayer and the like but never minded what was in their hearts as Evil thoughts Murders Adulteries Fornications Vers 19 Thefts Lyes Malice Falsewitnesse Blasphemies verse 19. These things they neglected and passed by as smal matters they could hate the truth and bely the truth and persecute the true Professours thereof even to the death But they could not endure any should speak a word against their formal and outward worships they could neglect releiving their Father and Mother Vers 5 and shewing love to others and with them this was nothing so they did but bring a small gift to the Temple and call it CORBAN this should excuse them and cut off all other Charity or whatever others might be profitted by them Now Christ throughly discovering their Hypocrisie in their shewing great care of the outside and of that which was obvious and apparent to the sight of men but they had litle or none of their heart and inside upon which the Allseeing eye of God was fixed therefore he applyes to them the words of the Prophet Esay and tells them that they were the men He spake of when he said These people draw nigh to me with their mouthes Esa 29.14 and honour me with their lips but their hearts are far from me For these are not the things God looks at or regards and therefore all their worships and all their washings and all their prayings and all their conformity to these things were all in vain and this was no Religion at all nor was no more accepted then the offering up of swines blood or the cutting of a dogs neck Esa 66.3 and he that sacrificed as if he were a murtherer and he that offered incense as if he blessed an Idol They were with him no better then Murtherers and Idolaters for all their fine forms although they were never so curious and exact about them neatified carved or contrived with never so much wisdome yet if they were done meerly by the art wisdom power industry of man and not by the wisdom and hand of Jesus Christ in them all was nothing and they were in all their prayers and duties no other but as sounding Brass and as tinkling Cymbal That which defiles man is not any thing without him but that evil and sinne which is
written Rejoye thou barren that bearest not and cry thou that travellest not for the desolate hath many more children then she that hath an busband Now we brethren saith he as Isaac was are the children of the promise But as then he that was borne after the flesh persecuted him that was borne after the spirit even so it is now Neverthelesse saith the Scripture Cast out the Bond-woman and her son for the son of the Bond-woman shall not be Heire with the son of the Free-woman And then he concludes in the last verse So then Brethren we are not children of the Bond-woman but of the Free We that is those who believe are not now tyed unto Ceremonies nor live in the forme and shaddow of the Heavenly things or in bondage to external and worldly rudiments resting in them Rom. 2.28 29. as the outward Jew did for he is not a Jew that is one outwardly neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh but he is a Jew which is one inwardly and circumcision is that of the heart and of the spirit and not that of the Letter And this kinde of doctrine the Iew and he that Idolizeth his outward formes could not endure but as then so now this divine teaching and the Teachers thereof could never be endured but have been persecuted in all ages and most of all by these who have pretended most strictly to worship God according to the rule of his word these ever had and ever will have a contrariety thereunto the children of the Bond-woman are alwayes at enmity and have a continual hatred against the children of the Free-woman And these are Hagar as the Apostle there saith in verse 25. Gal. 4.25 For this Hagar is mount Sinai in Arabia and answereth to Ierusalem which now is and is in bondage with her children if men go no farther but here stick in shaddowes and formes and the outward worship of that at Ierusalem though it be never so glittering and glorious yet all this is but mount Sinai and gendreth to Bondage But saith our Saviour John 4.21 The houre commeth and now is that enither in Ierusalem nor in this mâ—untaine shall men worship the Father but the true worshippers shall worship him in spirit and truth These two mountaines alwayes stand in opposition one to another because the one is to bring men into Bondage and the other is still labouring to set men free The one kinde of worshippers are altogether busied and exercised and are very zealous for worldly Ordinances and external worships duties and formes an conclude that those who submit and take them up zealously and constantly are the true worshippers and exclude all other Now the other worshippers who worship the Father in spirit and truth they see and bear witnesse against these outward formes as rested in as generally all the other worshippers do whatever they say and their great Zeal for them is because they derive suck and draw life from the exercise of them But the other know there is no power no life no excellency in them neither could they any longer live or depend upon them but they see that their life power righteousnesse freedome is in those things which are from heaven heavenly in the spirit 1 Cor. 15.48 not in the letter they receive their nourishment and influence from the Heavenly Ierusalem not from the outward and external not from carnal Ordinances as the Apostle calls them but they suck the brest of the true mother whose milk is spirit and life And here they live and here they feast and here they dwell and have not their life nor content nor their abode with the Bond-woman which in them is cast out with her children for she can never inherit the blessing nor the life nor the power nor the liberty but is with all her children alwayes in Bondage And the Apostle appeales to all Believers their own experience Gal. 3.2 Did ye ever receive the promise by the workes of the Law that is by whatever man as man could do with all his learning power strivings acquirings c. but only by the hearing of Fath So that you may see from thesr and many other arguments the Apostles drawes this exhortation by way of conclusion in the verse now read Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free and be not intangled againe with the yoake of Bondage Some of the Galathians had seen and felt this true liberty which he had cleared out to them and they had lived in it and enjoyed it But some false Apostles crept in after his departure and told them they must still hold the formes of the Law Heb. 9.10 and they must be circumcized and observe outward and carnal Ordinances Now the Apostle very earnestly presseth them to stand fast in their liberty received and not to suffer themselves to be intangled with those yoakes of bondage for Christ is their liberty and Christ alone is their life and their freedome their peace their joy their salvation and herein to stand against all those who would set up any thing with him and upon that account the Apostle calls them carnal Ordinances though appointed by the Lord himselfe And 't is a wonder the men of the Letter which stand so much for outward formes do not cry out BLASPHEMY and HERESY All those other things being included in naming Circumcision because that was the most high absolute and unquestionable Ordinance ordained by God himselfe to Abraham and which none could remove or abolish but the Son himselfe the Heire himselfe who being come to Age must inherit and take possession of his own of his Inheritance Kingdom and Glory And shall any servant resist and keep out THE LORD Heb. 1.12 Matth. 3.3 The Heire of all things and all these things say Prepare ye the way of the Lord for whom all things were made and created and all other excellencies and glories whatsoever are but to Vsher in this great and mighty King and shall any Harbinger or servant say he will not or he must not remove or be so impudent to say that the inheritance is his No sayes the Apostle I testifie to every man and I Paul say unto you if ye be circumcised Christ shall profit you nothing and ye are under the Law Gal. 5.3 4 and under bondage and he is a debtor to do the whole Law and Christ is become of none offect and ye are fallen from grace This is that which so much moved the Apostle that they being once set free had tasted of the liberty which came by Jesus Christ that they should be againe intangled with the yoake of bondage That they who had received the new teaching and Christ to be the Teacher should now hearken to false teachers Ibid. 3.3 and having begun in the spirit should once think to be made perfect by the flesh as if Christ were not enough but they must joyne with
Attendants except by a Shop-keeper who seemed his Companion I doubt he scarcely discerns the cunning juglings of Romish JESUITES And I am sure he understands not Satans jugling in his own brest who hath bewitched him that he doth not obey the truth but oppose it Poor Creature he can see and discern others to be evil and wretched without him but knows not the familiar spirit in his own bosome that deludes and deceives him He saith this habit of sin is destroyed but tells not in whom where how far nor in what respect it is destroyed no alas all that must be understood by the Readers for he understands none of them at all It had been his part to have shewed how farre sinne as it is inherent in us by nature and habitual by exercise and custome is destroyed or annihilated doth there no relicts nor remnants of it remaine in a beleever what was that Law that Paul found in his members rebelling against the Law of his mind Rom. 7.23 and bringing him into captivity to the Law of sin was all sin both Original and Habitual destroyed ad killed in him If we say we have no sin 1 Joh. 1.8 we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us And whereas he saith the Habit of Learning is not in the lest diminished much lesse destroyed I answer that it is destroyed in the same manner and in respect that sin is Rom. 6.12 to wit that it should not reign in our mortal bodies that we should obey it in the lusts thereof so is Learning destroyed that it should not reign in the sanctified soul nor take place of the divine teachings of the spirit of truth but be kept under and so be destroyed And I am sure the Apostle Saint Paul had more learning then this Armiger and yet in him it was so kept down and destroyed that he came not unto the Corinthians in the wisdom of mens words lest the Crosse of Christ should be made of none effect 1 Cor. 1 1â— And is not mans wisdome or learning destroyed according to the meaning of the Holy Ghost when it is made foolishnesse Cor. 3.1 If any man seem to be wise let him become a fool that he may be made wise and thus if the man had been blind indeed he had had no sin but he saith he sees Joh. 9.41 and therefore his sin remains Secondly he urges that the whole man with all his endowments is sanctified as 1 Thes 5.23 24. 1 Thes 5.23 c. c. And then concludes that either Learning must be sanctified or something remains unsanctified A wondrous learned Conclusion and sure it is with him a great absurdity to say that something remains unsanctified doth not some sin remain and can sin ever be said to be sanctified Therefore I plainly affirm that something remaines unsanctified and because it is a mystery to the man I shall a little open it There is mention made in the scripture of a double or two-fold man first the new man which after God is created in righteousnesse and true holinesse and this is the immortal seed of the second Adam that sins not but is sanctified throughout Secondly there is the old man Eph. 4.22.24 or the body of sin from the first Adam which is corrupt according to the deceivable lusts and this is to be put off and destroyed is never sanctified but must be burnt up with unquenchable fire and humane learning is the wisedom of this old man which is earthly sensual and devilish and must be put off and destroyed And the Scripture he alledgeth doth not say that the work of sanctification is done but in doing faithful is he that calleth you who also will do it Thirdly he saith that acquired Learning of it selfe and of its own nature is not sin and thinks he proves it by saying sin is a transgression of the Law and then supposeth no Law forbiddeth learning and asks where it is written Thou shalt not be learned c. I answer that still he is besides the limits of the Question for we are not disputing whether a man may be learned or not learned but whether acquired learning in a Theological respect as it is ignorant of the mystery of the Gospel be sin or not and in this respect I must tell him that it is a transgression of the Law of God and declared to be sinful and though it be not written Thou shalt not be Learned yet it is written that the wisdom of the flesh is emnity against God and is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be and it is undeniably true that whatsoever is emnity against the law of God and is not nor can be subject unto it is a transgression of it From whence the Argument lies thus All the wisdom of the flesh is enmity against God But all acquired learning is the wisedome of the flesh Ergo All acquired learning is enmity against God The Major is the clear words of the Text Rom. 8.7 Rom. 8.7 If the Minor be denyed it is proved thus The greatest knowledge that man by acquisition can attain unto must needs be the wisdom of the flesh But humane learning is the greatest knowledge that man by acquisition can attain unto Therefore humane learning must needs be the wisdom of the flesh nay doth not the Text tell us plainly that all the imaginations of mans heart are evil Gen. 6.5 and that continually and is not all humane learning the imaginations of mans heart Joh. 3.6 and therefore evil continually And is not that which is born of the flesh flesh and flesh and blood shall not inherit the Kingdom of God for to be carnally minded is death and is not all humane learning born of the product of flesh and so lusteth against the spirit and is therefore sinful and accursed Farther he saith And sure were learning either in it self sin or lesse unsanctified in a sanctified heart we should not finde the Apostle Paul giving thanks for it in 1 Cor. 14.18 1 Cor. 14.18 I thank God I speak with tongues more then you all c. What consequence is there in this may we not give thanks for things that are sinful many things are good as they come from God but made sinful in us and by us and may we not give thanks unto God for them seeing he gave them to us as they were good not as they were sinful Our affections desires and senses are all good as they are given to us of God but we exercising them in sin lusts may we not give God thanks for them because it is our faults that have made them sinful If Learning were plac't where it ought and mov'd not above its own sphere it were one of the greatest blessings that man enjoyes in this fraile life and is onely condemnable in a relative sense as it will intermeddle with the things of God and yet when
The Judgement Set AND The BOOKES Opened RELIGION TRIED whether it be of GOD or of Men. The Lord cometh to visit his Own For the time is come that Judgement must begin at the House of God To separate The Sheep from the Goats and The Precious from the Vile And to discover the Blasphemy of those that say They are Apostles Teachers Alive Rich Jewes but are Found Lyars Deceivers Dead Poore blind naked The Synagogue of Satan In severall Sermons at Alhallows Lumbard-street By JOHN WEBSTER A servant of Christ and his Church Micah 3.5 c. Thus saith the Lord concerning the Prophets that make my people erre that bite with their teeth and cry peace and he that putteth not into their mouths they prepare war against him Therefore night shall be upon them that they shall not have A vision c. The Sun shall goe down over the prophets and the Day shall be dark Their Seers shall be ashamed and the Deviners confounded yea they shall All cover their lips for there is no answer of God LONDON Printed for R. Hartford at the Bible and States-Arms in little Brittain and N. Brooks at the Angel in Cornhil 1654. To All those Dear and Pretious Soules that have been Hearers and are in any measure partakers of the power of those Truths delivered in these following Discourses Deare Friends IT was for your sakes that the good pleasure of the Heavenly Father who maketh all things work together for the benefit of those that love him Rom. 8.28 who are called according to his purpose carried me forth and made use of me who am less then a worm and most weak in my selfe yet strengthened through his Almighty power to manifest these things unto you And it was for your sakes that the goodnesse of that Father of all mercies 2 Cor. 1.3 and God of all consolation kept me so long to sojourn amongst you for I can truly say that what I am or have been unto you in the way of Christ it was his good pleasure and grace that made me so for the mutual comfort both of you and me for I cannot do any thing against the truth but for the truth for I am not able to think or say any thing as of my self 2. Cor. 3.5 but my sufficiency is of God and I am able to do all things yet no otherwise but through Christ who strengthens me Phil. 4.13 And therefore it is unto you that I direct and be queath these insuing Discourses who have been Ear-witnesses unto what God gave me a door of utterance to deliver amongst you And I hope in the Lord Jesus Christ that they are not onely written in your papers or table-books but in the fleshly Tables of your Hearts 2 Cor. 3.3 not with the hand of man but with the finger of God And being requested that they might be made publick the Lord led me unto a willingnesse thereunto for these Reasons I shall now declare 1. That you whom God in some measure hath endued with the spirit of discerning and made you to heare the voice of Christ and not the voice of strangers Joh. 10.3 4.5 may judge and beare witness out of what principle these things are spoken whether they proceed from that wisdom which is from above Jam. 3.15.17 that is first pure then peaceable or from that which is from beneath which is earthly sensual and devilish Mat. 11.19 for wisedome is only justified of her Children and of no others for it is Christ in you the hope of glorie who is that quickning spirit Col. 1.27 or spiritual man that judgeth all things 1 Cor. 2.15 yet he himself is judged of none 2. That those who are alienated from the life of Christ Eph. 4.18 through that ignorance that is in them and are The JEW in the Mysterie that alwaies resists the Holy Ghost and as their Fathers did so do they Act. 8.54 55 56 57. may know that though they gnash upon the Saints of God with their teeth cry out with a loud voice stop their ears run upon them with one accord cast them out of the City and stone them yet do those holy ones of God look up steadfastly into Heaven and see and behold the glory of God the Heavens opened and Jesus standing on the right hand of God and do freely cry aloud unto the Lord that he may not lay this sin to their charge 3. That those poor creatures who are wise in their own eyes and think they know someting Pro. 3.7 when they know nothing as they ought to know may behold and see that the stone which is rejected and set at naught by those who think and call themselves Master-builders and would have others to think also so of them Mat. 21.42 is becom'd the head stone in the corner and it is the Lords doing though wonderful in the eyes of men 4. That those who have spoken evil of these Truths accounting them as blaspemous erroneous and heretical may know that according to that way which they call Heresie Act. 24.14 I worship the God of my Fathers And if there be any thing in these Discourses that the wisdom learning or reason of men can overthrow then it is not of God for Mat. 15.13 every plant that the Heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted out but what is of him must stand And therefore if the wisdom of the Serpent hath any thing to say against any thing herein conteined let it be brought forth for I hope and know that the Lord in me and in all his will defend his own truth so that the gates of Hell shall not be able to prevaile against it Mat. 16.16 and I can truly say the Lord is on my side I will not feare what man can do unto me 5. That the Lord alone may be magnified who hath carried forth my spirit to bear witnesse against all unrighteousnesse of men who withhold the truth of God in unrighteousness Rom. 1.18 and that without respect of persons and especially against all those Churches Worships Professions Confessions Opinions Covenants Gatherings Traditions of men observations of Times Idol-Pastors Hirelings false Teachers Forms and such like which are made appointed constituted ordained set up and practiced by men by the carnal wisdom learning wit reason and policy of the world Eph. 4.4 5 6. For I witness One body and One spirit even as I am called in one hope of my calling one Lord One Faith one Baptisme Heb 8.7 one God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in all And this is the Tabernacle that God hath pitched and not man in which Temple all the Saints are living stones 1 Cor. 3.9 are Gods building Gods workmanship and are all gathered into this body by the spirit and power of God and not by man for by one spirit they are all baptized into one body
White Stone with a New Name which none can know but such as receive it They see themselves delivered I and are at rest from themselves They see their owne wisdome their owne power their owne holinesse to be as it is nothing but sin and hell and misery and a delusion And this they rejoyce in to see this Pharaoh overwhelmed in the sea this makes themselves sing the song of Moses and the Lamb and to see all this to be done not by their power nor by their wisdom nor by their watchfulnesse nor by any endeavours of theirs but that the whole work in every part of it was Christ alone that t is he alone that is mighty to save he that is also glorious in apparel Esa 63.1.2 and travelling in the greatnesse of his strength none assisted him no man stood by him but he alone made bare his own arme that so he might have all the glory These things seen and accomblished in themselves is their feast of Fat things their Wine on the Lees their keeping the Sabbath their day of praise and Thanksgiving They have none to praise nor to speak well of but of him alone They find that he alone was their deliverer and he was their Captain and their Conquerer that he alone was their leader their guide their teacher And that all teachers were but Deluders Southsayers Lyars and Deceivers but onely Him they can call no man Master and Father upon earth Mat 23.9 for one is their Master and Father which is Christ alone As Paul saith he received not his Gospel of man or by man Gal. 1.12 but by the revelation of Jesus Christ so they receive not their power not their wisedome nor their teaching of or from man but onely by and from Jesus Christ alone Then also Vse 2 in the next place let us farther make this Use of this point to take notice of the misery and desperate condition of all men by nature what a deluge of destruction is upon them because of the face of the Covering of all people because they seek help and strength and riches and glory and wisdome in other mountains besides this Mountain because they find strength and wisdom and rest and rejoycing and feasting in their own mountains And the more comfort and delight men take in their own wisedome or holinesse or the like so much the more miserable so much the farther from the Kingdom of Heaven when men look upon themselves as being strict or holy more then others because they are under such and such forms such rules and are so comformable to the word and mind of Christ and here solace and feast themselves Luk. 17.21 and cry Loe here is Christ and there is Christ in this form or that fellowship and think therefore they are in a safe condition but it will go ill with all others Esa 65.5 stand farther off I am holier then thou The dangerousnesse of these mens condition I say you may discover from the present point when they make any other thing their rock or their mountain but Christ alone when they think they can guide themselves provide for themselves teach themselves these are in a very miserable condition these are those of which Christ saith go not after them for they are deceivers and deluders Luk. 17.20 for the Kingdome of God cometh not with observation as they say by observing this rule and this form or that fellowship or any way that man hath found out to cover himselfe withall All these are but fig-leaves which will not bear out the wrath of God these are but mens Coverings which cover themselves with a covering as they think from all evil and wrath Esa 28 20 but 't is not the Lords Spirit The Bed is too broad and the Covering is narrow it will not defend them from the Lords fierce wrath These are they that have kindled a fire to warm themselves at Ibid. 50.11 but they shall lie down saith the Lord in the fire that they have kindled and in the sparks that they have gathered together And for all their forms and prayers and duties and ordinances and holinesses and washings and baptizings and receiving the Sacraments and the like yet this is that they shall receive at my hand They shall lie down in sorrow for when you did all these things did you them at all unto me and not unto your selves did you at all fast unto me though ye pretended to seek me early and to seek me daily and did delight to know my wayes as a Nation that did righteousnesse and as if they forsook not in the least the ordinances of their God and take delight in approaching to God yet for all this saith the Lord to the Prophets Cry aloud Esa 58.1 lift up your voices like a Trumpet and shew my people their Transgression and the House of Israel their sins All these things will not deliver thee from wrath but thou rather then any other shalt lie down in sorrow and Publicans and Harlots for all your holinesse and strictnesse shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven before you Mat. 21.31 11.22 And it shall be easier with Tyre and Sydon in the day of judgement then for these that have done these and these things in his name yet for all this will Christ say depart from me I know you not ye workers of iniquity there was nothing but iniquity in your righteousnesse in all your duties in all your forms and professions you of all other I will not know you of all others depart from me you of all others are workers of iniquity you above all shall lie down in sorrow and in the sparks that you have kindled you thought your selves better then others holier then others when you are indeed and in truth the vilest and worst of all others Therefore most desperate and most miserable are these above all in as much as they thought themselves before all when they think because of their holiness because of their conformity because of their moderation because of their abstinence because of their meeknesse because of their gravity therefore they are better then others here is the great and unspeakable delusion of their own hearts For grace and true religion never teacheth any man to think highly of himself but to think highly of Jesus Christ grace debaseth man more and more and brings him to see the Bottomlesse deceit and delusion of his own heart It teacheth men not to think better and better of themselves but worse and worse and makes men not to desire praise or high esteem from others but it would have Christ have all the glory and praise and it selfe to be less and less and worse and worse it its own esteem for the more grace the more light which discovers more and more the infinite and bottomlesse vilenesse and delusion of their own natures Beloved this is the true teaching which comes only and alone from Jesus
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
the corner it is rejected and laid by even by those that account themselves Master builders and this is the Lords doing and it s marvailous in our eyes Again another ground why the souls of men come not to Christ Reas 3 is because the appearing of Christ in the spirit makes all the hidden things of mans heart lie open even that which man himselfe never saw nor never thought was in him and this man hates and will not abide to see nor behold that depth of pride that selfe-glorying hypocrisie c. and taht bottomlesse pit of misery mans eye never looked into himself into his own heart but in the day of the appearance of Jesus Christ all this is discovered and laid open therefore man would by no means come to Christ because the appearing of Christ discovers his sin and condemnation man loves his own life skin for skin and all that a man hath will be give for his life but he that loseth his life shall find it Job 2.4 Mat. 10.39 John 3.19 therefore our Saviour tells us plainly that this is the câ—ndemnation that light is come into the world and men love darkness rather then light because their deeds are evil for he that doth evil hateth the light neither comes to the light lest his deeds should be made manifest that they are evil So here the ground is rendred why the Gospel is Condemnation to the sons of men the Gospel brings light but men resist it hate it Certain it is that the light of Christ is in every creature for he is the true light that enlightens every one that come into the world Joh. 1.9 Mat. 6.23 And if this light that is in us be darkness how great is that darkness Here is the condemnation of all the sons of men that they dare not stand in the light of Christ not being able to behold hell in their own hearts but labour by all means to cover it for the light of Christ would shew them that there is no thought action or duty or performance that ever they did that had any thing of purity in it but it was all sin Now man not daring to see his own misery therefore he runs from this light and gets himselfe behinde any tree He runs from the appearance of him that sits upon the Throne and so resolves he will not see his own misery death and condemnation Rev. 6.16 neither will he believe it though he be told it by an Angel from Heaven he will not come to the light lest thereby he may know or be convinced that his deeds are onely evil Againe this is the work of the Father to draw men unto Christ because no lesse then infinitness and Eternity is able to bring God and man together the separation between God and man is so vast and they are at such an infinite distance since his fall that nothing but Infinitness can bring these two infinite ends together for the soul of man in one sin sins against an infinite God in any one sin it goes out and turns away from the infinitnesse of all blessednesse good joy glory and peace and so goes down into the infinitness of nothing for nothing is a kinde of infinitness and he is indeed gone into a far Country Luk. 15. 13. as the Prodigal was now therefore nothing but the infinite powers and infinite wisedome and strength that is in the Lord is able to bring life out of death something out of nothing therefore there is nothing to bring the heart of man out of that far country wherein to it is gone and out of that bottomless pit into which is is fallen nothing can do it but infinitness and eternity 2 Cor. 4.14 nothing but the same spirit that raised up Jesus Christ from the dead can quicken our mortal bodies there is nothing I say able to do it but the same spirit to bring a poor soul from hell and condemnation and make it one in unity with the spirit And therefore the Apostle witnesses Eph. 2.13 you that were aliens hath he made nigh by the blood of Christ Eph. 2.13 and you that were sometimes afar off hath he made near by the blood of Christ So now I hope this appears a truth to you and I hope the Lord will make it so in you by experience till then it is not a savour of life unto life for except you have the Scriptures made good in the power thereof in your own hearts what are the Scriptures to you And I have alledged them for that very end that you may finde and say These things are all fulfilled not only among the Jewes and at Jerusalem but really and truely in my selfe So then I hope some of you see it is the alone power of the Father that draws the soules of men unto Christ otherwise no man can come unto him But give me leave yet a little farther for the clearing it and explaining it by the way What this power of the Father is or how the Father doth draw or bring the soules of men unto Christ God is said to be a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth Joh. 4.23 God is nothing but life glory and power spirit and immortality and whatsoever thing we could have a notion or similitude of that is able to set out strength and life and glory and wisdom yet all these come infinitly short of setting out the strength and power of the Lord of Hosts the great Jehovah who is Psal 121.5 he that keeps Israel Psal 121.5 he that keepes Israel neither slumbreth nor sleepeth so that is is to be cleared what power it is that brings the spirits of men unto Jesus Christ Certainly there is nothing but the same eternal spirit that was in Jesus Christ it is the same immortal and immediate hand and power of God that doth ever raise up the soule of man and bring it unto Christ and nothing but that spirit only and therefore from hence is that of the Apostle that no man can so much as say that Jesus is the Lord but by the holy Ghost 1 Cor. 12.3 Joh. 3.5 and except a man be born of water and the spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdome of God for t is all one and t is wrought by one and the same Almighty Spirit to say that Jesus is the Lord by the spirit and to be born of the spirit for man to say confess so ten thousand times if he do not feel him to be the Lord and the Almighty in him all his confessions in words are nothing And by one spirit saith the Text ye are all baptized into one body even the whole body and they all testifie one and the same thing that there is but one spirit 1 Cor. 12.13 Eph. 4.4 one Lord one Faith one Baptisme one God and Father of all Eph. 4.4 and they have all been made to drink into
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
this discovers to us who is that ONE Tree that the Father onely hath planted And that is only the Root of Jesse which Isaiah speaks of Esa 11.10 And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse which shall stand for an Ensigne of the people and to it shall the Gentiles seek and his rest shall be glorious Which the Apostle applyes particularly to Jesus Christ Rom. 15.12 Rom. 15.12 There shall be a root of Jesse and he shall arise to reigne over the Gentiles Rom. 15.12 and in him shall the Gentiles trust Then what wickednesse is this in the sons of men to think that any thing they plant shall stand or that they have any holinesse love purity goodnesse power wisedome or the like Esey 64.6 And why are menstruous rags termed graces For whatever is out of Jesus Christ and whatever is not planted in man by the Father and so rooted in the Father and in the eternal and ever blessed Being must be rooted up And take that for a second use and know it for certain Vse 2 for you must receive it as an undeniable truth that no other Tree ever did doth or shall stand but onely this and indeed this is the Tree of life in the Garden of Eden Gen. 3.24 Gen. 3.24 Rev. 2.7 And that spoken of Rev. 2 7. In the midst of the Paradise of God and there is no other Tree growes or encreases or prospers but onely He neither is there any True fruit but what growes out of this root and therefore for men to say either in word or practice that there is any other wisedome any other fruit any other power any other righteousnesse is to rob Christ of his honour and to give that to man which alone is due to him No no there is no other plant but He none loved of the Father but He he is the choise and chosen Olive whose fruit is onely accepted and our actions onely as they are his actions if we be in him we then are branches in this Tree and so the root beares us and not we it as most men assert in their practice that they must do and they must work and they must conforme themselves to Christ what 's all this but they to bear the root and not the root them and they to bring forth Christ and not Christ them And therefore men should be more cautious and understand and minde what they say and do When they say I will do this and I can and I must performe this and that duty Alasse poore creature what canst thou do and who is it that beares thee canst thou bring forth God and Jesus Christ and the Spirit or rather doth not he beare and bring forth thee hast thou any thing of thine own but evil hest thou any fruit unto holinesse Rom. 6.22 any flower or blossome that can be accepted which is not received from this Tree and from this root why then doest thou so much look upon thy selfe and talk of thy selfe and why doest thou boast and glory as if it were thine own and thou hadst not received it In this thou dishonourest thy head Christ 1 Cor. 11.4 for he that can do any thing either pray or preach or prophesie or do any thing in the Church of God with his head covered he dishonoureth Christ who is the head who ought to have the sole glory of all good or all grace of all power wisedome righteousnesse Ibid. v. 5. But let the woman be covered all weaknesse and sin be laid upon man but let the husband have all the glory all the praise for the Spouse of Christ hath no riches but in his riches nor no righteousnesse but in his righteousnesse nor no glory but in his glory And therefore in all your sayings actings speakings carriages expositions exhortations see that ye never dishonour your Husband Psal 29.2 96.8 give him the glory due to his name and take shame and confusion of face to your selves do not so much as once think that man can do or act or believe or repent or work or do any thing of this nature for ye belye him and dishonour and blaspheme your husband what do you in all this but forstake the Tree of life which is healing to the Nations Rev. 22.2 and turne to the Tree of knowledge of good and evil which is so strictly forbidden to all the sons of men as much as to Adam from whence they continually eate Death and Damnation And they can do no otherwise while they forsake their Father and Husband and run a whoring after their own inventions Psal 106.39 Beloved what a do is there in the world everywhere about mans doing and mans working and he must strive and he must improve grace he must cherish this plant and do something that he may be accepted and he must watch and he must water and he must Lop and Prune this Bough and the other Branch and by his power and wisedome and watchfulnesse he must cut off this sin and the other evil And this is the great Religion of the world in all Ages And alasse what does he all this while by doing of these things in his own name and by his own wisedome and power he does but undoe himselfe for what else can he doe but bring misery and sin and darknesse upon himselfe and plunge himselfe deeper in the pit For when man is bid to do any thing repent or believe or watch or pray Phil. 2.12 1 Pet. 1.10 or to work out his salvation with feare or trembling and make his calling and election sure what doe you think it was ever meant that he should do these of himselfe or do them out of Christ No no there was never any such thing intended by the holy Ghost But say they man hath received a power and a Talent from Jesus Christ And of this he must take care and use it Object and imploy it to his Masters use I answer t is false Answ there is no such thing for a Christian enjoyes nothing out of hrist nor done apart from him but all in him and his works if right 't is Christ doth them in him and not he yet how ordinary is it with men to put man to do and why is not he so and so And men are so senslesse that they are not sensible that man is dead in trespasses and sins though they acknowledge it in words yet in truth they deny it and declare that they know not what they say For Ephes 2.1 can any other thing raise the dead but onely the voice of the son of God Though Jesus Christ hath said That every plant that the heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up John 5.28 yet for all this say they man must be doing and planting and he cannot wait the Lords time and this is the reason why men have so little experience of the true work of God because
are still in snares and lockt fast in their fetters for who else can deliver and set free the soule of man but he that is Lord of all Rev. 1.18 and is subject to none He alone hath the keyes of Hell and death he alone is the soules Captaine and deliverer This is that which all the Saints have experience of when they finde themselves delivered from the bondage of flesh of selfe of the world if they feel this work done within them they know experimentally t is the very finger and power of Christ and that he is only Christs free man that none hath brought it to pass to set them at liberty to knock off their chains and lead them out of prison and set their feet upon a rock but only the Almighty power and meer mercy of the Lord Jesus they know that it hath been he that hath opened their eyes and their eares Psal 40.2 that hath raised them from death and given them feet to walk and there is none know this truly but only those that feele it done in themselves And for proofe of this point though I might prove it by Scripture very pleatifully to shew how many yea all the Saints there spoken of have found it in their own experience that they were delivered from death and from prison by the power of God and by the hand of Jesus Christ yet what is this to thee except thou sinde their experience true in thy selfe else their experience is but notions and riddles to thee and such things whereof thou hast no knowledge except thou see and know thy selfe to be under deth and kept fast in prison and except thou hast found Jesus Christ restoring recovering delivering and redeeming thee from this death And that thou findest that he hath said to thy soule Arise and stand up on the feet Acts 14.10 and hath given thee strength and life to what end is it to bring all the examples in Scripture and in the world if this death and life be no experimented in us Insomuch that thou canst say This word is true to me because done in me as the Apostle saith in Heb. 1.1 2. Heb. 1.1 2. God who at sundry times and divers manners spake in times past unto the Fathers and by the Prophets hath in these last days spoken unto us by his son whom he hath appointed Heir of all things Those truths which he spake before by the Prophets he hath now spoken in us by his Son so that we now know them to be the word and speakings of God But as our Saviour saith Mat. 12.39 40. An evil and an Adulterous Generation seeketh after a sign They expect every speaking should be made good by an external word and ye must go no farther so that the truth is never witnessed to in their hearts but as he sayes there There shall no sign be given them but the sign of the Prophet Ionas For as Ionas was three days and three nights in the Whales belly even so shal the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the Earth Except you find the same things done in you the same miracles the same death the same lying in the grave three days and three nights except you find Jesus Christ taking thee by the hand and restoring thee to life thou art of an evil and adulterous Generation seeking after an external sign and thou art a meer stranger to these things But I shall for their sakes who feel the work of Christ within them give you two or three places of Scripture being the experience of the Saints of old that you may see how the Saints bear witnesse to each other in experience First Scripture Esa 61.1 2 3. Esa 61.1 2 3. speaking there of Christ being the only deliverer saith The spirit of the Lord God is upon me because he hath anoynted me to preach good tidings to the meek he hath sent me to bind up the broken hearted to proclaim liberty to the Captives and the opening of the prison to them that are bound c. To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion to give them beauty for ashes and the oyl of joy for mourning and the garments of praise for the spirit of heavinesse c. Christ only is the breaker open of the soules prison doors he alone gives deliverance to the Captives and he alone brings them forth from prison and sets them free and this he is to his people in all ages for he is yesterday and to day Heb. 13.8 and the same for ever and when the same word appeared in flesh he testifies the same of himself Luke 4.18 Luk. 4.18 21. where he rehearseth the same words and applyes them to himself vers 21. This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears And this was that which he still held forth in all his teachings that there is no other Saviour nor Deliverer but himself never was nor is nor ever shall be to the end of the world Moses was only an outward and external Captain or Deliverer but His leadings and deliverings are spiritual and there is none can be delivered but by him Heb. 12.24 as he is a better Mediator then Moses so he is a better deliverer t is he alone that frees the soul from the pit from death and hell his Kingdom is within us The Jewes and Pharisees they still excepted an outward deliverer and could not own Him as a Prince and Saviour but were blind and saw not what he still held forth in all his teachings They could not see the truth that they were blind and miserable and full of Hypocrisie and were no other but painted Sepulchres glorious outwardly but within were full of rottennesse stench and dead mens bones They could not endure to stand in the light of this truth Mat. 23.27 but hated it and persecuted him to the death for holding it forth What are we blind also what we the learned the wisest the holiest what we that are strict our selves and call upon others to be so this was death to them But now had they but seen this and owned it he would have been their righteousness their deliverer their redeemer to have set them free but because they said we see therefore their sin remained and their fetters and bondage was not taken off And again Christ tells them Iohn 8.31 32. If ye continue in my word then are ye my Disciples indeed and ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free Now these things they could not see nor understand that they were in bondage but answered to him we are Abrahams seed and were never in bondage to any man how sayest thou ye shall be made free then Jesus answered them Verily verily I say unto you He that committeth sin is the servant of sin the servant abideth not in the House for ever but the son abideth for ever And if the son shall make you
did and all was nothing else but sin and abomination in the sight of the Lord. The sons of men are very inquisitive after that which pleases their fancy and their own inventions and seem to press after high things and great questions but they really oppose and desire to be ignorant of the truth as it is in Jesus They speak of Deliverance but they really hate it though they may say whatever thou doest with us reform us and make us holy and the like but the truth is they would not have it so nor they mean not as they say for if Christ should take his own way with them viz. to bring man down in himself and to strip him of his beautiful garments what would become of these mens smooth words and long prayers and seeming devotion would not their hearts give their mouths the lye in all they said and discover themselves to be grosse and abominable Hypocrits and indeed would with the Gergesites rather goe out and beseech him to depart out of their Coasts Mat. 8.34 and withall really pray depart from us Job 21.14 for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways So that when men who were never yet lost undone and confounded in themselves pray for the grace of God and mortification and to be crucified to the world alas alas they pray they know not what And again these men because they can deliver the outward word and the Letter and bring their matter into a handsome form and method they think they have preached the word of God to the people when alas this is nothing for the outward letter is not the word but what is there exprest litterally is only as a witnesse to the word and the truth and of what the Saints of God have found and shall finde in themselves and if Christ be a Delivervr to them they shall find the like things in themselves And there is none can understand the Letter in the Mystery but they in whom the same things are done 2 Cor. 3.15 These only have the Vail taken off the Letter and none but Jesus Christ himselfe can doe this And particularly many Object Obj. What shall we not pray that we may have this Deliverance I Answer No man ever truly prayed Answ but out of a sense of want if you wert brought into a true sense of thy empty naked and lost condition of thy poverty beggery and starved condition then Christ and his spirit would pray in thee with sighs and groans unexpressible Rom. 8 26 then thou wouldest pray indeed and couldst not but cry and pray and groan indeed and this is true prayer prayer is not to get together a many fine smooth words and to collect this fine expression and the other and observing this and that time and that hour but prayer is words or sighs from so deep a sense of misery and want that we verily see we starve and die except we prevail Men if they truly prayed they would not come dreaming out with such beggerly questions what then shall we not pray and shall we not hear and the like these questions shew they never did any duty rightly but only in a way of form or complement or to qualifie the cry of conscience and the like but if men be really in misery in hell in bitternesse they cannot chuse but cry and pray and beg I 'le warrant you you need not bid them for you cannot keep them from it nor will they ask shall we not pray or hear and the like for they pray by the power of the spirit and that speaks in them with groans which are unutterable and beyond all expression of words We read of some of the Heathen persecuting Emperors that in a way of cruelty would constrain the Christians though they were under tortures and torments yet they should not cry nor complain if they did they would torture them the more but it is not so in the tortures and torments of the soul they cannot but they must cry out and complain and seek deliverance when the soul is in bitterness it cannot but cry And farther though they have done these things as doing them by necessity yet those that are truly delivered by Jesus Christ that only Deliverer they do not esteem the doing of these things their deliverance or them their Deliverer wherein lies the misery of the most of the sons of men that if their consciences begin to smite them and sin begins to appear and hell looks them in the face sayes the soul I must now look out for a remedy I must do something to quench this fire and to allay this burning and then what do they they then think to reform their lives and they will go pray and hear or join themselves into this and that fellowship and Church-gathering and there they will conform to the use of Ordinances and it may be get into the best reformed fellowship as they conceive and nearest the rule of Christ and here they rest here they are quiet and all is well and wrath is past and they are delivered Alas alas poor souls In this very thing they have turned aside from the true Deliverer and mist their Deliverance But the true way to Deliverance is to stand in thy misery and abide condemned in thy self till Christ himself take pitty of thee and then Christ himself would pray in thee and he would carry thee out to reading and hearing and praying after a spiritual manner for while these works are thine own and thou seekest for to deliver thy self thou art so much the more in bondage for these duties if done rightly are the work of the Deliverer and the fruit of thy deliverance and not the cause of thy Deliverance nor the Deliverer and when he doth them in thee then they are done with power thou prayest from a reall sense of want and thou hearest with a circumcised ear and then thy reading is in the power of the spirit and be awaketh thine ear to hear Esa 50.4 for that is not true or spiritual reading and hearing and praying which every man may doe outwardly though it be never so often and never so constantly and yet men call these DVTIES and ORDINANCES and conformity and holy walking when they are never so except Christ the Deliverer perform them in them by the power of his spirit and otherwise they are not spiritual nor holy duties as men falsly call them for they are but outward and carnal and nothing of the spirit in them but done onely by the power of self and of the carnal natural man And therefore when Christ teacheth Mar. 7.34 35. He openeth the ear and He gives sight to the blind his work is not an empty cold dead thing Joh. 6.63 but his word is spirit and life and he requires an ear in an ear and an eye in an eye He that hath ears to hear Luke 8.8 let him hear and eyes to see let him see
in the definition Now whether the Armiger or I be in an error He that saith it is an indifferent thing or I that say it is sin let the world judge And therefore his long story of making a mans end in Learning the Glory of God that thereby he may be better enabled to read converse dispute and speak concerning the mysteries of Salvation with his Quaeryes in the end are as frivolous as the rest For man naturally knows not wherein the glory of God consists For he hath sinned and comes short of the glory of God neither knows he the true way that God is to be glorified in Mat. 11.27 No man knows the Father but the Son and he to whom the Son will reveal him And therefore this is but an Hypocritical pretence Job 11.12 vain man would seem to be wise though he be born a wild Asses Colt And for man to labour to know the mysteries of God in a way that God hath not intended to discover them in is but to fight against him and to labour to build up what God hath declared that he will destroy For he will destroy the wisdom of the wise 1 Cor. 1.19 and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent And therefore it is not an holy pretence that will make the thing holy We must not do evil that good may come thereof And I must tell him that I could have written and spoken as he doth by the help onely of humane Learning but I could not write nor speak that Mystery which hath been hidden from Ages and Generations and is now made manifest unto his Saints Col. 1.27 without the Supernatural and miraculous teachings of that Spirit which leads into all truth And therefore leaving his Physicall Acts and Morall Circumstances I shall from what hath been said shew him in what respects Theologically humane Learning is sin 1. As it is nescient and ignorant of the mysteries of Jesus Christ and the true spiritual worship for nothing reveales that but the Son only and so even as privation and deficiency it is sin and sinful 2. As it is the Act Fruit and product of mans corrupt heart so it is altogether sin and evil and that continually And therefore I truly conclude against him as I did before in the first Solution that in this case and in these respects no more can be predicated of Learning then of sin He goes on in the 127. and 128. pages and asks whether all reading hearing and teaching be like the principles from whence they flow which he need not have reiterated For I must let him know that all these are either done in the power of that w sedome which is from above and then they are not sinfull or else in the power of that wisedome that is from beneath and then it is sinfull and defileth Therefore the Gospel to such is as a Parable because they seeing see not and hearing they hear not Mat. 13.13 neither doe they understand and so did the Scribes and Pharisees they preached to others read heard and made long prayers and yet died in their sinnes and all they did was but like the principle from whence it came earthly sensual and devilish And so are all the Arguments this Adversary hath yet vomited forth Againe he makes a great noise about outward means and the inward assistance of the Spirit but gives us no definitions what they are nor what he means by them I shall tell him in one word There is no means under Heaven but Jesus Christ only that either brings the Fathers love unto man or man unto the Father And therefore he might have remembred that we are not arguing whether man may heare or not heare read or not read but whether Humane Learning bee sin or no And therefore all that he hath said here nay anywhere else is but impertinent and not to the state of the Question And for that Scripture it is neither wrested nor mistaken as he would insinuate for if either he or any other look but to the beginning of 1 Cor. 3. 1 Cor. 3.1 c. he shal find that the comparison is made betwixt the Apostle Paul and those that were but ministers of the letter for he saith Do we begin againe to commend our selves or need we as some others Epistles of commendation to you v. 1. and so positivly concludes what kind of Ministers he and such like are made namely of the new Testament not of the Letter but of the Spirit for the Letter killeth but the Spirit giveth life v. 6. And if the Comparison lay betwixt the Ministers of the Law and the Gospel it will be clear That he that is but A Minister of the Letter can do no more but kill but the Ministry of the Spirit saves and so that I urged right and not improperly as he suggests Well the Man is so civil to take leave of me but yet not without uncivil languge he must needs end as he began a Leopard cannot change his spots nor a Blackamore his hew and so he wishes some able Pen would take him to task and unmask the Impostor I never perceived until now that the man knew the weaknesse of his own strength and therefore calls for aide I thought he had done sufficient to confute me and must he now have assistance from some other able Pens Alas hath he plaid so decevingly with himself that he never knew until now that truth is great and will prevaile A TESTIMONY Freely Given BY Mr. Jo. Webster of Dr. Everards late Printed Sermons in his publick speaking in the meeting place at Alhallows Lumbard street Which are to be sold by R. Harford at the Bible and States-Arms in Little Brittain AND therefore I cannot but take notice and I much wonder at that precious Book lately printed which it may be many of you have not taken notice of being Sermons preached by Dr. Everard call'd Gospel Treasures opened wherein he among other Divine things expresseth this point in several of his Sermons most Divinely and Elegantly and I could not but recommend it to you having my self found so much sweetnesse in it and I wonder much at the Heavenliness and sweetness of his spirit for to me it is as clear a piece as any I know extant Setting forth as to this particular the infinite and deep condescention of the Son of God being God equal with his Father yet to stoop lower and beneath the unexpressable misery of man to bring him up again He there shewing that herein lay the great and unconceivable suffrings of Christ far beyond his external suffrings of whipping revising spitting upon crowning with Thorns or his crucifying upon the Crosse and the like all being far below and not worth the naming the same day with these suffrings And shewing also how these things are to be also in every Christian And that this Liberty purchased by Christ is not to encourage the flesh or purchase liberty for it but t is for the inward man and the spirit And how he once having such a principle of life he cannot give way to sin but sin is his bondage and how the power of Christ in him slayes all fleshly actings in the love of them And that all things of man shall be slain and crucifide in him by the death of the Son of God And that these are the things which shall be burnt up for ever and ever with unquenchable fire And although many self-wise Professors in the world are offended at the Book and stick not to asperse and bely it with their common slanders of Error and Heterodoxal opinions and the like Yet we know the World can do no other but will bely the Truth as it alwayes hath done And the more Divine any truth is the more they oppose it Why Because the Light thereof Condemnes their Darknesse Sinne and Ignorance and their Practices And they are not able to stand in or beare the Light thereof For either they must Condemne the Truth to Justifie themselves or else Condemne themselves by the Truth which they can never doe till they are overcome and Captived by the Truth FINIS