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
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
issue ever come to Christ as long as she had any thing left neither doth any of the sons of men return to him spiritually Mar. 5.26 till they are poor empty lost naked miserable and undone And therefore though they say they are looking for this One and onely Deliverer and talk much of him yet all their waies and practices declare the contrary And this true Deliverer is He that they speak against and oppose And as he was reproached hated spit upon and crucified by the Jews so is he in and by these men for the true Christ and the true Messiah is alwaies abused slandered crucified by the world Me it hates alwaies and therefore it hateth you even all those that hold him forth in the spirit John 7.7 c. 15.20 it cannot but hate and persecute because they testifie that all the deeds thereof are evil And why the reason is because he brings light with him and that discovers their darkness their lyes their Hypocrisy because he testifies that their goodly deeds are evil and upon this account all that know not the life of Christ in experience do really hate it and persecute it for when man hath built up to himselfe much glory riches strength wisedom and great attainments now for Jesus Christ to come and strip him and take away all his beautiful garments Ezek. 26.16 and all his glory and strength here now if man cannot be content to submit and lose all for Christ then he bussles and strives to keep up his glory to keep on his glorious garments that neither men nor himselfe may see his nakedness impurity deformity ungodliness hypocrisy and lyes T is true thou sayest in words Jesus Christ is thy only Deliverer and thou art seeking after him if so why seekest thou then the living among the dead Luk. 24.5 thinking to find Christ in dead forms and dead duties and ordinances as thou callest them and thinkst that they wil deliver and give life and when thou hast done them with some spirit and quickness here is thy comfort and thy joy and so thou settest up thy self and thy own doings for thy Saviour Helper Deliverer But why seek ye Christ and the true Deliverer without your selves for what 's all the Deliverers and Christs in the world if if he be not a Saviour in thee and a Deliverer in thee Why seek ye Christ at Jerusalem and externally and say if I do but beleeve in that person that there lived and died it is enough though I never find him a Saviour in me and to me The time is comming when ye shall neither in this Mountain nor at Ierusalem worship the Father John 4.21 c. for the true Worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth for the Father seeketh such to worship him for God is a spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and truth Now for men to come in the name of Christ and say loe here and loe there and say he is in this form and the other mountain in this ordinance and tother dipping in this manner and in the other way of breaking of bread and the like and they think by using these external things to imitate Jesus Christ and to give the holy spirit and to get grace and they come preaching in his name and in his name have done many great works Luk. 13.27 but saith Christ I never knew you depart from me ye workers of iniquity They say also they are Christs Messengers and Ambassadours and that he hath sent them forth and yet Christ hath not furnished them for their work but only being furnished from the Letter and by reading mens Labours they come forth Audaciously and say we are the Messengers of Christ when as the spirit of Christ never furnished them Ezek. 13.3 yet they say Thus saith the Lord and have seen nothing they have had no vision but say what others say and so prophesie they know not what And farther for all they say Christ sends them yet they dare not trust him not so much as for external maintenance but they must have their bag and their wallet Luk. 10.4 their scrip and their maintenance or else they will not do their work They dare not commit themselves to the wisdom and care of him whom they say sent them But in vain came these men out in the name of Christ and bring forth such fruits who can beleeve them or regard them or honour them comming forth in this manner furely none that have the power of truth and experience of the work of Christ in them and that really know him to be the true and only deliverer But those who are blind as themselvs are blind may indeed be led by them But my sheep know my voice John 10.4 5. and the voice of a stranger they will not follow those who have experience of Christ must see a proof of Christ in them 2 Cor. 13.3 or else they cannot follow them They know if Christ send them he hath spoken in them and that they have heard the word at his mouth and he hath preached in their souls first and discovered himself to be A Deliverer to them Ibid. c. 3.6 or else they bring but the voice of strangers and are but Ministers of the Letter and not of the Spirit And let the sons of men run up and down from this fellowship to the other from Ordinance to Ordinance and from Baptism to Baptism from breaking bread here and there yet is this nothing so long as thy heart is dead still and lies under the power of lust and corruption and is in bonds and fetters still for except Christ be thy Deliverer except he appear pear in thee except this root of David spring up in thee Rev. 5.5 except the Lyon of the Tribe of Judah arise in thee all thou canst do and all thou canst run unto cannot save thee nothing else in Heaven or Earth ever can save help or Deliver thee But if may be this Doctriue may seem harsh to some Obj. and they may Object and say What then shall I sit still shall I do nothing shall I not use the means shall I not prepare and fit my selfe for deliverance Consider I pray you when ye have done what you can Answ what is it you do do or what is it man can do to save or deliver himself is not man dead in trespasses and sins Eph. 2.1 and can any thing raise the dead but the voice of Christ and is there any good thing can be done by them till Christ work it is not all their works without him sin or can there be any thing properly called a means or an ordinance but only Him when men have reformed themselves and their paths and trimmed their way to seek love Jer. 2.33 they have but gone astray in all this and gone after their own lovers and sought themselves in all they
no man doth teaeh nor no man can learn but only by that great Master Father and Doctor 1 Cor. 3.7 2 Cor. 4.7 Neither is he that planteth any thing nor he that watereth but God which giveth the encrease And though it be brought in earthen Vessels yet 't is only the power of God effects it And if the carnal man open them or handle or expound them though he be never so learned yet they do but play the mad men with the sword of the spirit and know not how to use it but cut downe that which God hath planted and plant that which God would have rooted up And they help not at all in divine things For Gods time to work and speak is when all things in man as to his own workings are still and quiet and when there is the deepest silence 't is the spirit only that can make the sword of the Lord to cut to kill or make alive And he that acts or thinks otherwise 't is in him no other but Blasphemy against the most high God to say any other power can do it either in the Magistrate or Minister for 't is He that hath said it Rev. 21.5 Behold I make all things new And 't is Christ alone who is set and appointed of the Father for the fall and rising againe of many in Israel Luke 2.34 And 't is true there is also a great stir in the world among these men about three persons in the Trinity and he that will not own them according to their understanding presently they are Socinians and Atheists and I know not what when as they themselves know not what they say 1 Tim. 1.7 nor where of they affirm for they themselves deny the Holy Ghost and his operation and have not so much as once heard in themselves that there is a holy Ghost which worketh all the things of God in the sons of men But the Lord hath denounced a severe and solemne curse upon all these practices Jer. 17.5 Cursed is the man that trusteth in man Jer. 17.5 and maketh flesh his arme and whose heart departeth from the Lord And what do these men do else but withdraw their hearts from the Lord and put their trust in man and in the arme of flesh what is this but to set up Idols in his heart But all the Saints they beare out their witnesse against this Idolatry for they finde that never any of their endeavours parts or any meanes they could use hath brought them off from themselves and their own bottomes nor could cut them off from that wilde Olive Rom. 11.17 Mat. 12.29 and overcome the strong man in them and spoyle his goods but that one spirit alone And if no other power can do it then certainly all other power must fall and must be rooted up Therefore this shews the intolerable pride and the unexpressible danger of those men who will take upon them the office of the three Persons How many Church gatherings are there now in these dayes And they will undertake to plant and gather and refuse and take and pick and chuse as they judge and as they think good and they think they know the members of Christ and the Members of Satan And if they say such a one is a Believer then their Judgement must passe though they are dangerous and most abominable Hypocrites who have only washed the outside of the cup and of the platter Luke 11.39 Mat. 23.27 and are only painted Sepulchers but within are stinking and loathsome being full of pride vain-glory envyings covetousnesse and Idolatry c. My friends judge ye if these men do not take too much upon them but this truth shall and must stand against the gates of hell Ibid. 16.18 That every plant which the heavenly Father hath not planted must be rooted up For there is nothing in the whole Earth can make any one a member of Christ but the spirit of the Father which is the holy Ghost 1 cor 3.21 22 23. And therefore Let no man rejoyce in men Let no man exalt extoll or ever speak one word in praise of man for all things are yours whether Paul or Apollos or Life or Death or Cephas or the World or things present or things to come all are yours and shall all serve you but they are nothing at all but ye are Christs and Christ is Gods And when ye say I am of such a mans Church 1 Cor. 1.12 and I am of such a fellowship and I am a member here and there Are ye not carnal and walk as men 1 Cor. 3.3 is Christ divided or was Paul crucified for you Is there any other Bond or any other membership but in the body of Christ did any of the Apostles ro Prophets or any that ever had experience of the work of grace and of being brought home to the great and true shepheard speak of any other knot of any other Head but that Christ alone in that head Col. 2.19 from which all the body by joynts and hands having nourishment ministred and knit together encreaseth with the encrease of God All other Temples or Fellowships are no better then that material Temple of which Christ speakes Although men have beautified it and adorned it and carved it even to the admiration of the beholders yet Christ is not affected therewith Luke 21.6 but threatneth as glorious as it is yet The time is comming there shall not be left a stone upon a stone which shall not be thrown down I but Sir Object what do you mean to speak thus freely and so harshly against the Churches of Christ and the Saints and people of God Answ I Answer far be such a thought from my heart I would not do it fo a world But this I say if they were the people of God Eph. 3.15 and of that family of whom the whole family in Heaven and Earth is named then they would not keep such a stir about an outward gathering and an external membership But they would own the Church of Christ which is spiiritual and mystical for such is the body of Christ It is univerfal and not lockt up in this way or that forme but here they pitch their love and all others they behold afar off who are not squred to their Church way And they would own no teaching but the teaching of the spirit They would look upon man but as a meere empty pipe having no worth no excellency no goodnesse at all in him but while man is so much admired and cryed up in vain do they tell me of their Saint-ship or of being the people of God And therefore for my part while men Idolize shadowes and neglect the truth and the substance and seek not Christ HIMSELFE but content themselves with Christ litterally I must say with the Apostle Hencefrth oknow we no man after the flesh no although we had known Christ after the flesh yet
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
before the God of the whole Earth and their dead bodies shal lie in the streets of the Great City which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt where also our Lord was crucified which cannot be meant litterally for Christ in the flesh was not crucified in Sodom nor Egypt But all these are spiritually to be understood and they are GREAT Mysteries which the world hath not been acquainted with But hath generally received a Notion of God-man dying at Jerusalem And indeed they have contented themselves with a shadow of the truth and little or nothing else there have been very few that have seen beyond the shadow nor lookt beyond the vail they have not seen IMMANVEL in themselves and that he dwells in us not among us as your litteral men to justifie their Litteral and External knowledge have translated the word because they saw no farther But t is properly God in us Wherever Christ is he brings a new birth works a change upon the whole man this did not nor does Christ do by any of his actions that he did at Jerusalem neither by his holy life nor his meritorious death For was ever any of the sons of men conformed to him by that act T is true his death was infinitly meritorious and one act in him as being God equal with his Father Phill 2.16 was a sufficient sacrifice and attonement to pacifie the infinite wrath of God But yet know that Jesus Christ is not only a Sacrifice for an hour or two only for the time he suffered in the flesh under Pontius Pilat but He is that One Eternal everlasting Sacrifice which is continually offered up to the Eternal Father in the behalf of all the Elect. And also we grant that by that Act the Eternal purpose and decree of God was fulfilled in bringing forth the true IMMANVEL God and Man in One person who should more fully reveal the Father and in revealing the Father reveal himself for t is said Of Herod and Pontius Pilat Acts. 2.23 Acts 2.23 Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledg of God by wicked hands have crucified and slain But by his comming in the flesh and by his holy life and cruel suffering and death or by his external presence or company or eating and drinking with him or handling or touching him or external beleeving on him by nothing of this nature was any good done spiritually upon the souls of men nor had any one his nature changed or regenerated no no But the true comming of the MESSIAH and the fulfilling of all the promises concerning him was by being made IMMANVEL to us and being brought forth in us this is the Life and Mystery of the Word and of Christ his being made flesh and his true comming in the flesh and he that denies Christ thus come in the flesh the same is ANTICHRIST 1 Joh. 2.22 although he do acknowledge the external comming and dying of Jesus Christ at Ierusalem If he be not come in thy heart he is not yet come asto thee And there is no difference between thee and the external Jew for thou never yet confessedst him by receiving him for he is not a Iew which is one outwardly that is that onely makes a profession of God but circumcision is that of the Heart Wherfore saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 12.3 1 Cor. 12 3 I give you to understand that no man speaking by the spirit of God calleth Iesus Accursed And that no man can say that Iesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost This my Brethren is not done by an outward profession and conformity but when Christ is in us made Lord and King and that nothing within man nor nothing without him sits above Christ nor is esteemed comparable to him This man and no other hath acknowledged Christ come in the flesh and this man only saith that Iesus is the Lord otherwise he is Antichrist and calleth Jesus accursed and hath with the Jewes scourged disdained hated him spit at him 1 Cor. 12.3 and crucified him for there is no man can say that Iesus is the Lord but by the spirit of the Lord. But all that are Iews doe to this day crucify the Lord of Life and say we will not that this man shall rule over us and cry out away with him and release unto us Barabbas but let Iesus be crucified John 8.39 And this is the Language of all the World except those who have received him and they can answer with Peter when all others are ignorant of him But whom say yet that I am Thou art Iesus the son of the living God Verely those that can thus say experimentally of them we may say Verily verily flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee Mat. 16.17 but the Heavenly Father for this is that truth which never any man could teach but it is Heavenly and Spiritual And herein lies the Spirit and the Mystery which is hid from ages but revealed unto us only by the Spirit But all outward things though they were really done yet they are typical and representations still in all ages more and more lively brought forth and more near and more like unto the Truth And when ever Christ came spiritually and was received to them he was come and was the MESSIAH but all others were ignorant of him and therefore crucified him and therefore saith Peter I wot that through ignorance ye did it as did also your Rulers for had they known him Act. 3.17 they would not have crucified the Lord of Life Where Christ is thus come there it may be said indeed IT IS FINISHED but where he is come but externally it may well be said It is not finished for Christ is the Author the End and the finisher of faith and when he is come then it is accomplished compleated And it is FINISHED for there is nothing beyond him Heb. 12.2 nothing better then him nothing higher nor brighter nothing more glorious nor more excellent nor more full then Him Beloved let no man be offended at these things and think that we go about to reproach or vilifie any thing done by Jesus Christ who in all he did fulfilled his Fathers will and all things done by him or unto him were done by the Determinate Counsel and foreknowledge of God But all that we labour to do Acts 4.28 is more to exalt and magnifie the Truth and the Mystery of the Gospel of which so many though professing it are altogether ignorant of it and set up Idols in stead of God and worship shadows and indeed are to them no more but Fancies and Images for the Substance and in that case I know none doth more reproach and vilify Christ in the flesh then they though they pretend so much for him for himselfe often testifies The flesh profiteth not it is the spirit giveth life Joh. 6.63 not those that eat a little Bread or sup a little Wine that
1 Cor. 12.13 whether they be Jews or Gentiles and have been all made to drink into one spirit I also bear witness to One Ordinance and One Administrator Mediator Redeemer and Intercessor which is the Lord Jesus Christ blessed for ever Joh. 14.6 who is the way the truth and the life and no man comes to the Father but by him and it is HE that is ordained Acts 10.42 to be Judge of quick and dead by the Father and there is no name given under Heaven Acts 4.12 by which men can be saved but the name of Jesus neither is there salvation in any other for there are diversities of gifts but the same spirit and there are differences of Administrations 1 Cor. 12.4 5 6. but the same Lord and there are diversities of Operations but it is the same God which worketh all in all And I witness that it is Jesus Christ only by his spirit that makes men Able Ministers of the New Testament not of the Letter 2 Cor 3.6 but of the Spirit And do all teach and speak in and from the power of that spirit as IT is pleased to give them utterance And therfore all those that claim an Ordination by man or from man that speak from the spirit of the world from wit learning and humane reason who preach for hire Jer. 23.1 Ezek. 34.2 Zach 11.17 Joh. 10.1 and make merchandise of the souls of men I witness they are all Baals Priests and Idol-Shepherds who destroy the Sheep and are Theeves and Robbers who came not in by the door of the Sheepfold but climbed up another way And are the Magitians Sorcerers Inchanters Micah 5.12 Soothsayers Necromancers and Consulters with familiar spirits which the Lord will cut off out of the land 2 Tim. 3.8 9. so that his people shall have no more Soothsayers And as Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses so doe these resist the Truth men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning the faith but they shall proceed no farther for their folly shall be manifest to all men as theirs also was woe unto them for they have gone in the way of Cain and ran greedily after the errors of Balaam for reward and perished in the gainsaying of Core Jud. 11.12 13. These are spots in your feasts of charity when they feast with you feeding themselvs without fear Clouds they are without water carried about of winds Trees whose fruit withereth without fruit twice dead plucked up by the roots Raging waves of the Sea foaming out their own shame wandring Stars to whom is reserved the blackness of Darkness for ever And now Brethren I commend you to God and to the word of his grace Act. 20.32 which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all them that are sanctified Mind and give heed to that meek stil quiet and silent spirit of the Lord Jesus that is in you which is Pure Holy Innocent Underfiled and Righteous teaching and leading into all truth righteousness and purity like it selfe unto which if you give heed as unto a light shining in a dark place it will preserve and present you spotless and without blame before him whose eys behold no iniquity which that the Lord may fulfil in his due time in you is the Continual prayer of him who is Yours in the bonds of Love in the Lord Jesus Jo. WEBSTER To the Reader THe Author of these ensuing Sermons being cast by providence upon some imployment in the Lords work in this great City was much Carried forth in his ministration to set up the LORD JESVs in the Hearts of men in opposition to all that is of flesh and all that is of man which caused many out of an impatient spirit to distaste the things that were delivered But many that heard him being inwardly acquainted with what was spoken by him were very desirous to have that published for the benefit of all which they themselves had the happinesse to receive from his own mouth apprehending it to be the Bridegroomes voyce in him and therefore savory to them He being now at a great distance from the Presse and not in a capacity of overseeing that which the Transcriber may have failed in the Reader is therfore desired not to mind the manner of delivery but the matter of that which is here presented wherein if single-hearted he will doubtlesse finde a lively Discovery of many sweet Breathings of the spirit of Jesus Christ from One that appeares to have been long inwardly taught of God and that wholy laid aside all those Humane advantages wherewith he was and is plentifully furnished that he might commend his Message unto the hearts and consciences of men Not with enticing words of mans wisdome but in demonstration of the spirit and of power Vpon which account and no other what follows is recomended to the perusall of all that desire to benefit by what they read by Him that Teacheth to profit Thine In the service of our most holy Faith JOHN CARDELL JOSHUA SPRIG ROBERT BACON TO THE READER Dear Friends HAving obtained the sight of these ensuing Sermons and read some of the matter therein contained they yeilded such a rellish and savour to my Spirit that I could not choose but set to my Seal that it flowed from that spirit which is both pure peaceable which I do not to praise the person or the matter for to man there is none due and to the matter there is none needful because it is Truth and therefore needs not the shelter approbation or praise of men being in it self able to win praise to it self and to carry forth it self against all the oppositions of men or Devils Here thou shalt not find Terms of Art nor quirks of humane Learning and FALLEN Wisdom though the party through whom it was conveied excel in natural aquirements as much as the most but naked truth declaring it self through an earthen vessel in simplicity and plainnesse of speech evidencing thereby that our faith ought not nay doth not stand in the wisdome of mens words but in the power of God And hereby thou mayest see if thou be not blind in the carnal conceits of thy earthly wisdom as most of the Earthen Saints of our times are what self-denial is wrought in this Creature through which the Eternal Spirit hath breathed forth these ensuing precious truths that he having and enjoying all those humane Excellencies of Learning and knowledge which are so in the worlds account and lookt upon as helps to understand the things of God but used to help those that have them to worldly honour and preferment which indeed is the onely use is made of them and no other whatever is otherwise pretended but He in the height of this wisedom is made to become a fool for Christs sake and is willing to lose all honour dignity and preferment that the world and the wisdome thereof can confer upon him that he may enjoy
reform my life and the like sayes man and then these promises are mine The Jewes especially the Pharisees were ever expert and nimble at this who more strict according to Gods own rule who more searched after every Iota of the Law and as farre as they were convinced strived after conformity herein lay the top of their Religion And here they had builded up Babel Now when Christ comes and strips them of their righteousness and pulls down their Babel and by his Doctrine layes them open to the world and makes them appear as they are to be open Sepulchres dissembling Hypocrits Mat. 23.7 to be but pretenders to righteousnesse when they have none at all but to make Religion a cloak to devour Widows houses and to serve their own turns to make for their entertainment with the world Christ now He opening these filthy Sepulchers he shews what they were within how fair and beautiful and holy soever they seemed to be without This made them so mad as to persecute him even to death nothing would serve them but his blood and the cruellest death was too good for him yet these were men of no low principles as men think they were the gravest the soberest the wisest the learnedest the strictest observers of the Law and the teachers of it to others Men highest in esteem the strictest for worship according to the pattern they feared God as they and generally all men thought and loved their neighbour and did righteous theings to men and herein was their glory Now some among us go farther then all this they strive to walk according to the rule and wherein they come short they have a Mediatour and an Intercessour and that is Jesus Christ who died at Jerusalem whom the Jewes would not acknowledge but crucified and they will repent and beleeve in him And now Beloved these have builded up Babel higher then the other for alas this is nothing but wearing a garment of linsey-woolsey Levit. 19.19 Mat. 9.16 this is nothing but sewing a new peice into an old garment and making the rent worse this is but putting new wine into old bottels and the bottels are broken and both bottels and wine as to these men utterly lost They think man must do and man must teach and man must inform and see not that Jesus Christ is the only Teacher the only Master the only Guide they must find out and they must study and they must collect and they must gather here a flower and there a flower and this they present to the people as a precious posie whereof they themselves in their own experience know nothing at all but they have sought it out by their learning and stole it out of other mens labours Luk. 10.2 Are these think you Prophets and Labourers of the Lord of the Harvests sending No No all these things must be lost esteemed as dirt and dung you know what Christ sayes Luk. 5.37 put new wine into new bottels and then both are preserved If all that we do be any thing but what Christ does in us If all we teach be not Christ his teachings in us If all our works be not from the new man born of God which cannot sin if all be not the works of Christ in us whatever it be that man erects and sets up to direct or guide him but onely the wisdom from above whatever it is that strengthens him but the power from on high all must be pulled down and scattered Mat. 15. all made BABEL Every plant that the Father hath not planted must be rooted up if it be not wrought and acted by his Spirit in us it cannot stand When men think by their power and wisedome and by their Authority to act for God and they can propagate the Gospel and establish truth and settle Religion and they can make an uniformity which all ought to submit to whereto doth all this tend but that man should take upon him the work and soveraignty of the Almighty and this is the plaine English God is not wise enough nor powerful enough nor Allsufficient enough to erect the Kingdome of his Sonne Luk. 10.2 but we must do something and we will contrive and we will send forth Labourers as wee shall think meet and what we judge to be truth and wisedome and holinesse that and no other shall be established What 's all this but to establish the wisdom of man and the power of man nay indeed the weakness and ignorance and the blasphemy of men above the strength wisedom righteousness and alsufficiency of the eternal God What 's this but charging of God with weakness and insufficiency and ascribing that to man which alone is due to God Is this any other then to make the weapons of our warfare strong in man 2 Cor. 10.4 and in the power of his might Now the blessed work of God is to pull down this Babel built by the sons of men oh sayes man Le ts have the wisdome and power of the magistrate and let him shew himselfe strong for God and what he judgeth evil and sinne and schisme and heresie let that be rooted up and he will make the crooked things strait and he will undertake to make men religious and to reform their lives Luk. 3.5 What 's all this but to be wise in his own wisedome and confident in his own strength and holy in his own holinesse and that he alone is judge in the things of God What greater blasphemy can there be In stead of being strong in God and in the power of his might Eph. 6.10 they are mighty and strong in man and in themselves Now all these works also the Lord will ruin and destroy All this strong building he will make Babel CONFVSION all this Language will the Lord confound scatter and destroy Whatever it be which is of man or by man erected though pretending a service and a worship of God either found out ad invented by himselfe or else pretending a prescribed rule in the word for it and this done by the power and wisedome of man it is no other but a Babel and shall be made a City of Confusion And this the Lord will certainly doe and bring to passe in man either that both he and his works his wisdom righteousnesse power c. may be destroyed and confounded together that both himself and all his works may be burnt up together or else that his work shall be burnt and yet he may be saved yet so as by fire for this fire of the Lord shall try every mans work of what sort it is 1. Cor. 3 13. if the Lord in mercy descend and come down among the sonnes of men to burn up all their works their wisdome their strength and all things of this nature to strip man of all his abilities and righteousness and make him nothing in himselfe and abominable in his own sight this destruction of the flesh is that
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
know no Master no Father no Teacher no Leader nor no strength besides him Oh Beloved this is not to be done without the drawing of the Father or not but in a Fatherly way since he is the fountain of eternal love the Father or Fountain of love that hath made out his eternal Love himself in the similitude of flesh 2 Cor. 5.19 for God was in Christ saith the Text reconciling the world unto himself not imputing to them their trespasses It must be the love and good will of the Father made out to the soule that must call it and will draw it and cause it to come in to be at peace with him and be reconciled onely by his owne making out his love in Christ So I say this Eternal love that sent out Christ and that gives with Christ all good things it is the same eternal love and power Rom. 8.32 and everlasting goodness and good will of the Father that draws and brings the spirits of men unto Christ else they come not Draw them how is that with such a drawing as must be effectual As the Rain falleth not in vain but the earth bringeth forth fruit meet for them for whom it is appointed Heb. 6.7 So the eternal word and power of the Father made out through the flesh of Christ to the soul calls invites draws and works effectually and brings home the soul and this drawing of the Father is the eternal and everliving power of the Godhead or spirit that wonderfully draws the soules of men and when they are thus drawn they cannot but follow and being thus drawn by him this is the joy life wisdom and righteousness of the soule here it dwels rests recreates it selfe having lost its own life it lives and receives full satisfaction in the life and power and wisdom of Christ Then it is the office of the Son whom the Father hath sent to quicken it and raise it up at the last day and make it like himself even to sit together with him in heavenly places Eph. 2.6 The point I shall offer to your Considerations is this That the drawing of the Father only leads the souls of men unto Christ Doct. otherwise none can come unto him Before this truth can be beleived in us or be of benefit unto us it must become a truth of evidence and manifestation and experience in our hearts yet to witnesse this from the litteral word that this is truth you may be pleased to look upon a place or two yet they can make out nothing to us except the sam be made out by the eternal spirit in uâ— â—lse the word is but a dry tree a dead letter Cant. 1.4 The experience of the Spouse in Cant. 1.4 witnesseth the same draw me and we will run after thee her experience had known that the drawings and leadings of those cords and bands of love that are never to be broken in Jesus Christ the drawings of these bands of love only made her willing to go after that Husband Father and God of Loving-kindness and mercy otherwise man never comes nor is ever drawn but onely by these cords of his love Again the same is witnessed in Jer. 31 3. there he tells you because he had loved them Jer. 31.3 therefore with loving-kindness had he drawn them And in Hosea 11.4 he declares he had drawn them with the Cords of a man with the bands of love Hos 11.4 the soule finds it is onely the power of the Father the love of the Father that hath drawn him out of many waters as the Psalmist witnesses for David had found it so Psal 69. Ibid. 40.2 that he had delivered his soul out of the mire and horrible pit There is nothing but the eternal power of God that is able to draw a soul out of the deep and mierry pit in which it lies the drawing of the Father the power of the Father only draws men unto Christ otherwise they will not nor cannot come That this is so Divine truth witnesses and the experience of all Saints that men will not cannot do act or work nor come in unto Christ without this drawing First because Jesus Christ is not known and understood in the pretiousness excellency and value of him to the lost blind Reas 1 and carnal heart of man for man in this condition knows not the worth sweetness and excellency of him therefore man comes not unto Christ as David witnesses He looked down to see if any of the sons of men would seek after God Psal 14.2 but they are all gone out of the way there is none thath doth good no not one so I say man comes not to Jesus Christ because he is ignorant of that life glory righteousness and immortality that is laid up in him therefore the Apostle renders it as the reason why the Princes of the world Princes of learning and Princes in zeal and religion kild him why because saith he none of the Princes of this world knew him for had they known him they would not have crucified the Lord of life So I say the ground why our spirit comes not to Jesus Christ is that blindness and ignorance that is in the heart of man because he knows not the excellency and pretiousness of Christ As our Saviour said to the woman of Samaria John 4.10 Joh. 4.10 If thou knewest the gift of God and who it is that saith unto thee Give me to drink thou wouldest have asked of him and be would have given thee living water and so it was with Jerusalem Luk. 19.42 Reas 2. shee did not know the things belonging to her peace because they were bid from her eyes Again men cannot come to Jesus Christ because as he is the power of God and appears in the wisdom of God so he appears as folishness unto them and they disdaine him as a weak and mean thing as Isaiah faith in ch 53. v. 2. there is no form nor beauty in him why he should be desired Esa 53.2 as a root out of a dry ground he hath no form no comliness and when we shall see him there is no beauty that we should desire him he is despised and rejected of men a man of sorrows and acquainted with griefs and we hid our faces from him he was despised and we esteemed him not therefore the Apostle tells us 1 Cor. 2.14 the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God because they are foolishness unto him and are spiritually discerned and saith he in 1 Cor. 1 23. we preach Christ crucified 1 Cor. 1.23 to the Jewes a stumbling block to the Greeks foolishnesse so that man doth not will not nor cannot come to Jesus Christ because the spirit of Christ appears a poore despicable thing 1 Cor. 3.10 Psal 118.22.23 1 Pet. 2.7 and the heart of man is set against him and even that stone that is to be the head stone of
whether this way of man do not set him at a farther distance from his true rest for if man think he can come to Christ by any thing of himselfe by any Religious actions and performances then from this it must needs follow that he sees not his own weakness nor wickednesse nor there is no sin nor wickednesse nor misery made manifest unto him And he makes lyes his refuge Esa 22.15 and under falshood he hath hid himselfe and drawn way his heart from the living and eternal God to depend upon the lying and deceitful power and wisedome of man and digged to himselfe broken Cisterns Jer. 2.13 So that Secondly this will follow that this man hath made a Rock to stay himselfe upon for if thou thinkest that thy actions and performances will bring thee neerer unto God then other men or that any thing can draw thee neerer but the meer hand and spirit of the Father is not this I say to set up something against the power of the Father Is not this to set up errour against truth and darkness against light and Antichrist against Christ for here it is manifest that there is nothing but the power of the Father to draw men unto Christ Now seeing thou hast made Lyes thy delight and vanity thy trust see what is pronounced against thee for all thy confidence and strong opinions of thy safety and security Cursed is the man that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his Arm and whose Heart departeth from the Lord. Jer. 17.5 So I say this meerly leads man from a denyal of himself to a setting up of himselfe from a waiting and depending on the power of God to a depending and hanging on the wisedome and power of the flesh now when the soule has made experiment of this in it self to finde see and feele it really in his own heart that no hand drawes to the Father but the Spirit onely Oh then this will make the heart of man lament and say what a hard heart have I I cannot goe one step towards my Saviour Mark 10.51 this makes him cry out and say come Lord Jesus and open my blind eyes that I may receive my sight and thou Son of David haver mercy on me and there is none but thou alone can cure my leprosie and save my spirit or else I perish I perish for ever and this is that which makes man to have the true circumcision and to worship God in the Spirit Phil. 3.3 and have no confidence in the flesh Then if it be the Fathers power and spirit that onely draws men unto Christ Vse 2 Then neither man nor Magistrates can draw or drive them thither the work of the Father is his own work and he hath not substituted any other in his place for he will not give his glory to another neither suffer his holy name to be polluted Esa 42.8 Now if it be thus that unlesse the Father draw man unto Christ man cannot come then it must needs be lyes and vanity for any of the sons of men to take upon them and say they can and they must act something either to draw or drive men unto Christ we know this hath been the undertakings of all ages and times Joh. 16.2 but what was the fruit of it Under pretence of doing God good service they have shed the blood of the Saints that it might be fulfilled that not a Prophet perisheth OVT of Jerusalem Luk. 13.33 for still in all ages who have more persecuted the Gospel and the true Professours thereof then those who shew most Zeal and profession of it Christ and all the Prophets and Apostles and generally all the Martyrs have suffered upon this account that upon them might come all the blood shed upon the earth Mat. 23.35 Gal. 4.29 from the blood of the righteous Abel to this veâ—y day and that the bond-woman alwayes persecutes those that are from above Now I say for the Magistrates to say they can propagate the Gospel and keep back errours alas what is all of this nature but high presumption against the power and absolute Authority of Jesus Christ and taking the government of the Church out of his Hand and proclaiming themselves wiser then He But I shall but propose to these poor selfe-wise Creatures these one or two things Are they able to rule themselves and to keep errours out of their own hearts I suppose no man so ignorant of himselfe as to deny or affirm that he can the nature of man being so depraved that he cannot resist really one sin as it is sin And moreover is it not a truth that if the Lord watch not the City the watch-men watch in vain Psal 127.1 And yet thou that couldest not keep one sin out of thy own heart how canst thou undertake to watch over the Church of God and keep out Errours and Wolves that they come not in Alas poor ignorant man this is thy pride and the vanity of thy heart 1 Sam. 17 28. Psal 121.4 for 't is the Lord alone that keops Israel and he neither slumbereth nor sleepeth Againe dost thou not say that thou art a Christian if so then thou wouldst believe that he is a God Alsufficient I am God Alsufficient walk before me and be thou perfect Gen. 17.1 Is he alsufficieÌ„ntly Wise and Strong Holy Good Merciful c. then is not this the manifestation of thy absolute infidelity when thou thinkest he will not take care of his own Church Or else thou concludest thus if he be Wise enough yet he hath not Power enough and therefore thou must help him And is he not Alsufficiently Good and will he not take care of his own cause Never feare but he will I and take so much care Mat. 16.18 that the gates of hell shall never prevail against it And againe is it not said that it pleased the Father Col. 1.19 that in him should all fulness dwell And that in all things he might have the preheminence and saith he plainly Joh. 5.22 Mat. 28.18 Esa 9.6.7 the father judgeth no man but hath committed all judgement unto his Son And that all power in Heaven and Earth is given unto him And again to us a Son is given and the government shall be upon his shoulders And that of the Increase of his Government and peace there shall be no end upon the Throne of David and upon his Kingdome to order it and establish it with Iudgment and Iustice even for ever And that the zeal of the Lord of Hosts will perform this And againe Col 2.3 that all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hid in him Now is all the power of the father given into the Hand of Christ And have not we all said the Pope is not the Vice-roy nor Vicar of Christ and does not every man throw dirt upon him and yet we can get into the POPES place and sit in his seat
and say we are the Substitutes of Christ That which we deny him we take to our selves certainly all this is nothing else but hellish arrogancy and the pride of the man of sin and ANTICHRIST within us that exalts himself in us above all that is called God 2 Thes 2.4 that puts us into these wayes and to think that we can draw or we can drive to Jesus Christ when there is none can do this but meerly and solely that only and eternal power and spirit of the Father Thirdly if it be so as we have clearly proved and none dare deny it Use 3 neither can then the wisdome nor power nor strength nor any rules of Fellowships or Church-gatherings or any discipline of man draw nor drive others in but 't is onely the drawing and driving of the eternal power of the Fathers spirit It is true the Sons of Men may do and have done and do compass Sea and Land and what is it to doe to make a Proselyte and what then he is but twofold more the child of perdition then before Mat. 23.15 They may indeed gather men into Fellowships and Churches as they call them But to gather men into the spirit of the Lord Jesus this was never the work of man no strength nor power nor wisedome of man could ever doe it and without question every plant that the Heavenly father hath not planted Ibid. 15.13 shall be rooted up It is true and I grant there was some mention made of the Church and Churches in the times of the Apostles but what Churches were they They were no other but what were called by God himselfe in the power of his spirit and not of or by man Where do we read of this mans Church or the other mans Members but they were called the Church of God and not divided by those distinctions of vain-glorious self-seeking ambitious covetous men as they are in these dayes Nor did they Owne one another or had any relation one unto another in their love or esteem upon that account Note But they looked upon one another in what place soever as but one body and having all but one spirit meerly because thty were all baptized into One body by that One Spirit 1 Cor. 12.13 They did not know one another as they were of Paul and of Apollo of Cephas and this mans Church as they now call it But as they were all baptized by one Spirit and into one Body and as they were of one mind and of one spirit and so of one heart Heb. 12.13 and so brought to the general assembly of the Church of the first born And therefore we must conclude there is nothing that gathers or draws in the soul of man unto Jesus Christ but the everlasting power of God We know also men may worship at Jerusalem this way and that way and pretend to honour that Christ who died there and yet they doe but draw nigh to him with their lips Esa 29.13 but not with the spirit in truth but no man can do these things in the power of God nor so much as SAY that Iesus is the Lord but by the holy Ghost and by the power of Jesus Christ And be sure that every plant that my heavenly father hath not planted shall be rooted up From whence also lastly Vse 4 If the power of the Father only draws the spirit of man unto the Son and unto Jesus Christ then let every man look in and unto his own heart and see whether he doe not resist the drawing of the spirit Behold saith he I stand at the door and knock if any man hear my voice and open the door I will come in to him and sup with him Rev 3.20 and he with me enter but into thy own Chamber and be still and look into thy own brest and see whether thou be not daily and hourly resisting the Spirit of God that would draw man unto Christ didst thou but look into thy own heart thou shouldst find there was never any thought that did ever arise in thee to check or controle thee in thy evil wayes but that very thought was a light in thee if thou wouldst have heeded or regarded it And that light also did tell thee that all thy best actions were but sin and that all the wayes thou walkest in there is nothing but fear in them and death in them and misery in them And thy best and holiest services are an abomination There is a spirit within thee that is still troubling and checking thee for every proud and for every evil thought and what is this for 2 Cor. 8.2 onely to let thee see that thou art dead and reprobate to every good work and all thy deeds are evil and all that thou knowest thou knowest not as thou oughtest to know It is to let thee know that thou art naked and poor and blind and miserable It is to take away thy false strength and thy false wisedome and riches and to let thee see thy weaknesse and folly and poverty but this is thy onely misery and the general universal misery of all the sons of men that they dare not stand in the light and abide in it To abide in such a light which shewes that man hath not one good thought Psal 73.22 but is as a beast before God That he hath no holinesse nor no righteousnesse at all Now for thee so farre to presume and to think so highly of thy selfe that thou art of such abilities and wisdome and parts as to sit down at the head-end of the Table or because that thou hast gotten in thy own conceit into the best way of Religion for knowledge and practice and performances and therefore thou art Some-body and thou must be magnified and reverenced and for these men now to be brought back to look into their own hearts and see themselves as bad as the rest of the world and to see themselves the worst of men Oh Beloved what a mighty fall must these men have before ever God brings them into this condition which must be if ever they be brought or drawn home to Jesus Christ by the power of the Father And yet to adde to this besides all this thou hast gotten a covering for thy sins and hast wipt thy mouth and said thou hast done nothing when all thy wayes are nothing but resistings fightings and emnity against God Do not men resist him when they seek esteem to themselves and they must be great and respected and honoured what is all this but to rob Jesus Christ of his honour and steal it away to put upon themselves Oh that the power of God would but make men abide in the Center of their own hearts to see that there is nothing there but darkness nothing but folly in regard of God and Christ if man would but dwell and abide here to see himselfe lost and wretched miserable and undone then God would
light can discover these hidden deeds of darkness He that hath this true light and this true spirit he sees he is nothing nor cannot step one step in this work except the Lord goe with him not onely in words to say this that 's nothing but really from the light of God to know this Then hee durst not goe forth to speak of the things of God but in trembling and fear Nature it thinks it selfe alwaies ready its never unfurnished call him when ye wil he can preach he can pray he can fit you for mourning for rejoycing he is furnished for all occasions he can manage and order all his affairs and govern the very Church of Christ by his wisdome and learning John 7.6 and he is never to seeke but is alwaies ready as Christ saith These men are become Masters of their Religion I t is true for Religion was never yet Master over them But beloved t is not thus with the Saints of God nor with the Ministers of Christ but they see Christ the sole Master and the sole Orderer of the Church Cant. 2.7 and they dare not awake their beloved untill he please they know none other can furnish them nor Commission nor command them to goe forth but onely Him Mat. 23.9 10. they know there is no other Master no other Father no other Teacher but Christ alone They cannot think it enough that they have Vniversity learning that they have the most ORTHODOX Authors as they call them and sometimes Most excellent DIVINES but most blasphemously to rob Christ of his Honour For there can be no Divine but Christ Vers 7 8. no Teacher but Christ no Doctor but Christ They know they must have the inward teaching before they can open their mouthes the Coale from the Altar to touch their lips Isa 6.6 or else they dare not speak They know the spirit of their Father is an Almighty Eternall Free spirit like the wind which bloweth whether it listeth Man neither knows whence it commeth John 3.8 nor when Sometime the Cloud is removed when He pleaseth and then they may yea must goe forth then they may journey but when the day is cloudy and darke and the spirit of the Lord doth not speake in them then they must be content to sit still till the day that the Lord himself takes up the Cloud Man can never remove it no not one hour nor minute sooner but when the spirit listeth But in the day of light then they may goe forward nay then they shall go forth with power then they shall not speak as the Scribes and Pharisees but with Authority Then Mat. 7.29 they shall not regard the honour of men nor glory in those things that the foolish and vain heart of man doth As because they are sent forth by the Presbytery and they have gifts c. and they can speak and declare themselves and that they stand up in a Pulpit or high place above all their Brethren and they are in high esteem and the like All these things are banished in that soul when the Lord sends forth a messenger Far be it from me to think that I have Wisdome or Learning or Knowledge more then the meanest Saint among you what am I what is Paul what is Apollo but Ministers and your Servants and the Servants of Christ by whom ye believed for me to think because I stand in this High place therefore I am ever the better or have the more honour or more esteemed God for bid For I am nothing if Christ speak not out by me any yea every experience of the truth Therefore look onely at him Mat. 11.7 for what come ye out into the Wildernesse to see a reed shaken with the wind Oh look look not at the weak instrument but behold the Wisdom the Power the Majesty the Authority of the Almighty Rather then I should hide him let me be as I am nothing a vain and light shaken reed and I confesse a Hill or a Mountain in a Wilderness or a Stool were more fit for me or for any man Oh let no woman be heard in the Church but only the voice of Christ there every one speaks of and seeks his glory even the glory of him that sent him and that same is true Psal 26.9 Joh. 7.18 Psal 69.15 and there is no unrighteousness in him Let him encrease but let man and all the womanly weaknesse in man decrease and whatever is of man when ever he would have glory or be any thing let him be confounded and the pit shut her mouth upon him For t is not onely unseemly but a shame for The Woman to speak in the Church THE CLOUD taken off the TABERNACLE that the ISRAEL of God might journey SERMON II. Preached at Alhallows Lumbard-street EXOD. 40.36 And when the Cloud was taken up from over the Tabernacle the Children of Israel went onwards in all their journies But if the Cloud was not taken up then they journied not till the day that it was taken up WE have beloved according as God was pleased in mercy to be present with us spoken concerning the meaning of these words wherein we have manifested that the Holy Ghost holds out higher and deeper and more mysterious things then is conceived of by the meer History and Letter we have shewed and held forth the same exposition that the Author to the Hebrews hath given of them That these things were but the patterns of Heavenly things Heb. 9.23 and this Tabernacle built by Moses was but a shadow similitude and type of the true Tabernacle which God did piteh and not Man and from thence we have shewed that the Tabernacle in the mystery is the Riches of that glory life mercy and immortality which God makes out to the sonnes of men And that Jesus Christ is that spiritual Moses that spiritual high Priest who hath once entred into this holy place even once for all And that the light in this Tabernacle which is as a fire by Night is that light and fire only that guildes and directs the souls of Saints in all their journeying through the desolate Wildernesse of their own dark and blind hearts and that this Tabernacle is covered with a cloud that the eyes of men nay nor of Saints cannot see or behold it till God himselfe withdraws and removes it And the souls of Saints are not to goe on but to abide in their Tents till the Lord remove this cloud as we may see expresly and fully commanded in Deu. 9. from vers 16 Deut. 9.16 c. to the end And we have shewed that in the day when he doth not remove it they are to sit still till the day and time he pleaseth to remove it and even then in the night in the darke when all other things are become darknesse then this fire this light is a lanthorn to them in all their journeys or waies wherein they shall goe
not the patterns For saith the Apostle when that which is perfect is come then that that is imperfect shall be done away and again the same Apostle when I was a Child I did as a Child 1 Cor. 13.11 2 Cor. 5.16 I spake as a Child I understood as a Child but when I came to be a man I put away childish things and hence forth saith he know we Christ after the flesh no more Alas the Apostle had as well as other men known Christ by the way of the flesh and in outward conformity and observations and in a low carnal apprehension of him but when Christ was come into him in the Spirit Rev. 21.5 then ALL THINGS were become New Then he would not have a Christian to be judged in respect of a Holy-day New Moons or of keeping Sabbath days and the like Col. 2.16.17 which are but shadows of things to come for the body is Christ But there was a time when they were under the type of breaking of bread which was onely to shew the Lords death till he came 1 Cor. 11.29 but when Christ was come then he rebukes the Corinthians for using that ceremony of of breaking bread and said they did not discern the Lords Body For the eating his Body and drinking his Blood was a thing of a far higher nature And from hence will follow the great miserie of the sons of men seeking rest and life in the patterns and types and not in Heavenly things themselves For if a man have the exactest patterns or pictures of any meat that ever could be drawn in the world or of wine and drink would either of these feed or refresh him when he was hungry or satisfie him when he was thirsty you will say they could not and how then can the patterns of Heavenly things feed any more then they So also it is the true Manna that feeds the soul it is not that Manna that fell in the Wildernesse your Fathers they eat of it and are dead saith our Saviour No Joh. 6.49 50. it is the spiritual Manna whereof if a man eat he shall live for ever Then it must needs be a deceit of the Devil and a woful and sad delusion on the spirits of men and yet notwithstanding this is that great delusion wherewith Satan is gone forth to feed men as the Prodigal was with the husks and shells of Divine things He desired the husks and no man gave unto him But when the poor man had wasted that portion he had from his Father when that divine portion was gone and he had wasted it among Whores and Harlots that is after his own inventions thinking they should nourish him he saith he could eat Husks But he found they would not satisfie I he should sterve for hunger yet many thousands think and accordingly do could I go into such a Church-fellowship and walk as they walk I should be as well as they and yet for all that there is no man can give unto them had he them to the utmost alas they would not satisfie and fill him But he cannot have that others have he would have their Holinesse and be able to pray hear and speak and have as much freedome and power against sin and the like but it is not given unto him but if he have all these external things yet alas they are but husks and cannot satisfie So that then there is a plain and absolute necessity falls on him and he sees there is no way but to goe home to his Father else he starves and dyes Luk. 15.18 and now he sees his own weakness and poverty then he begins to come to himself and saith I will return to my Father So when the Soul is brought into this condition then it sees that it is not he that hath brought things into any good frame by his good husbandry or by a providential care now nothing will serve his turn no I must to my Father and I will goe to my Father This shews the misery of the spirits of those men that would fain feed upon husks And from hence it comes to pass that they run here and run there from one to another even as a poor creature when it is thirsty and drye and sees many Wells or Vessels thinking there is water He runs to one to see if there be any and then to another but they are all empty So alas a poor hungry soul here it picks and there it feeds and as long as it can find a crum it will never go to God it had rather go to any MOUNTEBANK then come to Jesus Christ the true Physitian One day it will be of this Church another day of the other membership to see if these things will feed them But they whom God intends to bring home finde no satisfaction herein but are ready to starve and the true Reason is because they live by the patterns pictures and resemblances of food Obj. I know thou wilt object Obj. though we are to live by the Heavenly things themselves yet we are to make use of patterns Answ I confesse carnal reason will say so Answ though to me it is not so else those Scriptures must be a lye for saith he 1 Cor. 13 10. when that which is perfect is come then that that is imperfect shall be done away and when the Apostle saith stand fast in that liberty wherein Christ hath made you free and be not entagled again with the yoak of bondage and bids them they should not turn again to the beggerly rudiments of the world Gal. 5.1 and again saith the shadows and patterns of Heavenly things consisted in washing and rudiments and was never able to make the doers thereof and commers thereunto perfect Admit Heb. 9.9 I say that breaking of bread as it is in the External use of it and admit that using of water-Baptism were used by Christ which is hard to prove they were never or could be any thing else but the pattern of the Heavenly things and of the spiritual baptisme else that Text also tells us a lye that saith there was never any but one baptism which is that of the Spirit Now the Letter tells us of divers as the Baptisme of the Children of Israel in the Red Sea and of the Baptisme of John and the Baptisme whereby an unbeliever was baptized and yet the Text saith there was but one Baptisme for these are but the shadows of the spiritual Baptisme Eph. 4.5 and when that that is perfect is come then that which is imperfect is done away 1 Cor. 13.10 If thou didst really find thus thou wouldest not then need to make so much of Outward washing and breaking of bread for to the pure all things are pure but to the unclean all things are unclean and to the impure all things are impure and even their very hearts and consciences are defiled And from hence this shews that thy soul
1. Henceforth know we no man after the flesh no though we had known Christ after the flesh yet henceforth know we him no more This same Jesus which is taken up from you into Heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into Heaven that is whatever has been done by him to your sight shall be done in a Heavenly and Spiritual manner after that same manner shall all those things be done over again of which all those things were but the symbole the pattern and the resemblance of the actions of Christ in the soul for ever You know it is all along prophesied of the Messiah what a great and mighty King he should be and that the Government should be upon his shoulders and that he should rule over all his enemies with a rod of Iron and the like Esa 9.6 Psal 2.9 That none of all the oppressing Conquerors and Nimrods of the Earth should be able to stand in the day of his power Now we know these things were not fulfilled in the days of his flesh neither are all the strong and mighty Nimrods destroyed to this day but cruelty and oppression and the Monarchyes of the World are in their full power still Therefore there must needs be a further meaning Certainly therefore they are the Mighty Nimrods in the spirits of men which are to be brought down those high thoughts and strong holds and towering Imaginations that lift up men in their own thoughts that say I am and there is none besides as Babylon Isa 47.8 Rev. 18.7 I sit a Queen and shall see no sorrow I have the onely true worship and loe Christ is in my way and in my form and in my rules and I of all other Churches come neerest the rule when Christ saith plainly go not after them for if it were possible they shall deceive the very Elect if they say he is in the street or in the wildernesse Mat. 24.23 Luk. 17.20 if they say he is in the secret chamber believe them not for the Kingdom of God cometh not with observation There is nothing to be known of Jesus Christ in the Spirit and in the Mystery by all the highest Forms and Ordinances as they call them in the whole world for we see how many men doe daily live in them use them handle them and never yet come to enjoy Christ in the Spirit And all is because they make these forms and duties and fellowships and washings and eating bread and drinking wine to be no other but graven Images wherein they rest and blesse themselves in their Idols Exo. 32 4. and say these be thy Gods O Israel For there is no one that ever entred into these Forms and Modes mending this and reforming tother and thinking this mans fashion is better then tother I say there is no one but blesses himself in kissing his Idol saying at least in their hearts now God will bless me now I am in a better condition now I have my hearts desire and to all other men they say secretly stand farther off Esa 65 5. I am holier then thou I am in a better way then any other Church and so censure all that go not in their new fashion and after their new Cut. But be assured for all these thy graven Images which thou hast so bedecked and that are so SACRED that no man may speak against them but he shall be censured for a Devil a Blasphemer a son of Belial yet the Lord when he comes with his light he will discover thy Nakedness thy Witchcrafts thy Sorceries and he will let thee see that thou art no Saint as thou wouldest be thought to be 2 Cor. 11.14 but a Devil transformed into an Angel of light and thou shalt be made to confesse this and all thy goodness shall be as the morning dew Hos 6.4 And thou shalt see that all thy Inchanters and Sorcerers and Magitians and Peepers and Southsayers with all their cunning and neat Interpretations of Scripture to serve their own turns to maintain their delusions and sorceries all these will not when Christ shall come in his light stand thee in any stead But thou and they shall be utterly ashamed and confounded together when Christ shal once speak that word in thee in the power of the Spirit Psal 97.7 Confounded be all they that worship graven Images then both the Maker the Former and the Worshipper thereof shall be in a most miserable condition In as much as men have taken more pains about their Idols and Images and made them more neat and curious and in as much as they have spent more time herein and have been OLD Worshippers of Old Idols so much the more will be their shame and their confusion 'T is true you may call them Ordinances and give them neat names but Christ will then ask who required these things at your hands And yet they were the things he did require Esa 1.12 But think you I am pleased with sacrifices or bodily worships which profit not at all and which never could make the commers thereunto perfect Heb. 10.1 If Jesus Christ appear not in these and strip thee of thy Idols and of thy Sorceries thy wayes lead down to darkness and to the bottomless pit and thou shalt never enter into the new Jerusalem but wilt be without among lyars and whormongers and sorcerers and dogs for even thou Rev. 21.8 22.15 who pretendest to serve Jesus Christ thou art the very man that hast crucified him and put him to death thou art Hee that hast slain the two Witnesses which lie dead in the street of the great City which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt Ibid. 11.8 where also our Lord is crucified When man thinks that any good thing is in him or shal deny that Jesus is alone wisdom righteousness power goodness c. he hath slain and crucified Christ and killed those two Eternal Witnesses And these are the two Olive trees Verse 4 5. and the two Candlesticks which shall for ever stand before the God of the whole Earth and these two answer one another for ever and run and empty themselves into each other for ever before the presence of God and if any man shall dare to hurt these two Witnesses which the Eternal God hath ordained to stand before him for ever then fire proceedeth out of their mouth and devoureth their enemies and if any man hurt them he must in like manner be killed When Christ will arise and will raise up these two Witnesses which are slain by all the sons of men and which lie dead in every street in every Nation and in the streets of the great City of the whole Earth This is no other but spiritually Sodom and Egypt where our Lord was and is crucified and not onely at Jerusalem where he was Litterally and Externally crucified but here in Sodom and Egypt spiritually where was and
things but Christ in us must remove and passe away else the heavenly things cannot appeare for whatever is not of the Fathers setting up and planting John 15.2 must be rooted up and t is the Lord himselfe must teach his own worship For Paul clearly confesseth he had his knowledge in the mystery of Christ by Revelation for all his great knowledge in the letter yet he saw he was blind and ignorant of that as you may see he expresseth at large in Eph. 3. at the beginning and elsewhere And none know this but the Church and those that are true members of Jesus Christ nay the Angels and Principalities and Powers know not these things which he calls the manifold wisedom of God vers 10. So that in these words read before you it appears to me there is included these two things First here is a description of mans day and what he doth in that his day He gets unto himself Horses of his own and Chariots of his own and he builds unto himself strong Cities and strong holds that is places of security of his own inventing and in that day his hand is full of Witchcrafts Delusions and Lyes and he gets to himself Southsayers and Diviners to promise to him peace safety and security and in that day he is full of graven Images of his own making and he cleaves mightily to his old ancient and standing Images which both he and his forefathers have received Secondly here is a threatning of an approach of the day of the Lord and that his hand shall be upon all these things he will cut off his Horses and destroy his Chariots and the Cities of his Land and will throw down all his strong holds and will cut off all his Witchcrafts and Southsayers and graven Images c. And however most Interpreters do take this in a Litteral sense onely and look upon it as a History of what God did outwardly and externally among the Jewes when they were destroyed and carried into captivity yet to me there is much more in it for all those relations are types of spiritual things the word of the Lord enduring for ever as David saith I have seen an end of all perfection but thy Law is exeecding broad Psal 119.96 And in this sense it is promised there shall be no more an Inchanter in Israel But we will endeavour to apply all this to our selves and make Use thereof First hence we may safely conclude that all men without distinction untill Christ be revealed in them they are all joyned in one way of Idolatry and false worship and that all those Histories and Descriptions of Idols and Idolaters in Scripture are but figures of what man does in his DAY And howerer they go not all one way in regard of themselves but many censure and condemn each other yet to God they are all Idolaters Inchanters Southsayers c. and are gone a whoring after their own inventions Psali 106.39 and are mad after Idols they all have their Horses and their Chariots and Cities of confidence and strong holds their Sorcerers and Inchanters and follow the way of Balaam Jer. 19.14 1 Kings 18.18 and their god ASHTEROTH as their Fathers have taught them All that the spirit of man can find out by his own wisdom power or invention is nothing but as Sauls going to Witches and Wizzards in the day of their distresse they every one in this way leave URIM and THUMMIM which the Lord hath commanded Exod. 28.30 1 Sam. 28.7 and they are all going to a weak woman and one that hath a familiar spirit And all this he doth by taking counsel of his own heart and following his own inventions and doth not wait upon that Divine teaching of the Father and that never failing URIM and THUMMIM which the Lord himself hath commanded him to wait upon All these inventions of man are but his Horses and Chariots to carry him away swiftly from his enemies and pursuers when conscience is awaked in man and he begins to apprehend wrath and vengeance and sees what a vile ugly creature he is and what wayes he hath taken and how he hath followed after witches and wizzards to enquire of them who have made lyes their refuge now man gets to himselfe all the refuges defences and deliverers he can possibly to save him from this wrath to come Mat. 3.7 Deu. 19.6 he rides swiftly from the pursuer of blood and the wrath of God I say let this be the first Vse we make of this point even every man befroe me and all to whom these things shal come to examin himself seriously if these things be not so let him deal plainly with his own heart let him get into his chamber and be still and there Commune with himself and he shall finde that all his goings out and seekings and inventions have been nothing else but to stop the mouth of conscience to allay the fire that began to burn within him and to get some drops to coole his tongue and to cover the fire and the smoak of the bottomlesse pit Luk. 16.24 Did not all your undertakings arise from a sight of a want an emptiness poverty and misery and have ye not gotten Horses to ride far away from this guilt of conscience have ye not with the Prodigal gone out from your fathers house and spent your patrimony upon Harlots and riotous living Ibid. 15.13 and nothing could ever cause you to return but though ye were never so poor and had spent all yet you would joyne your selves to any thing in the first place that may appear as a rich Citizen wherein ye may not fear want but for all this your povertie and misery still comming more and more upon you you rather then you will return home and discover your folly miserie and nakedness will live upon husks shadowes figures and they not being able to fill your belly nor supply that infinite emptiness in your soules then you have been forced to return and come home unto your father emptie naked ashamed miserable lost and undone And till this be there is not one of the sons of men ever can come home or return to their fathers house not untill they have nothing at all left no goodness no love no wisdom no power c. but see that all these are in their Fathers house and nowhere else Being perswaded that there is bowels of love there is the rich robe there is bread enough there is the embraces there is the kisses of love there is the dancing and the melodie Till this day comes the Prodigal is never received with joy his Father never falls upon his neck and kisses him Beloved I appeal to every soule here this day and to all the poor received Saints and people of God if they have not found all these things fulfilled in them and a thousand times more after this manner more then ever can be exprest Have all
thy goings forth to this thing or tother thing been any other then Jonahs Gourd Jonah 4 7. to sit under the shadow thereof to shelter thee from the burning sun and heat of Divine wrath examine thy heart Didst ever take up any dutie any form any way of worship purely for love to God because thou sawest him the fairest of ten thousand Cant. 5.10 because that he was the joy of thy soul thy portion thy inheritance thy All in All For till then God is not thy God if any other thing be thought good or excellent but he thou hast not chosen him for thy God doe but examine thy thoughts and thy ends in all those things and thou shalt find satisfaction to thy selfe securing thy self getting happiness and rest for thy selfe was the chiefest moving cause And being so as I am sure it is till man see himself empty naked and a miserable Prodigal what 's all thy acting doing sacrificing washing breaking bread Forms Modes what 's all thy highest rules and strictnesse and walking up to the rule as thou callest it but working for thy selfe Mat. 20.13 2 Cor. 5.14 and working for a penny and meer mercinary working by force thou doest nothing by the constraint of love t is not for the excellencie of holinesse and love to the Lord himself but so thy own head may be covered and thou mayest be cloathed and that thou mayest have Cities to dwell in and live happily Saith Satan Job 1.9 doth Job serve God for naught thou hast peace and riches and satisfaction to thy selfe and therefore thou servest him if thou hast not thy pennie thou wilt rather stand idle in the market Mat. 20.6 thy working is to be freed from miserie and to get that which thou callest HEAVEN These are thy Horses to carry thee from wrath and to the place of rest where thou mayest with the Prodigal live upon thy own and spend lavishly and indeed it tends to no other but to run thy selfe out of all and to bring thee to misery Beloved from hence let everie one every particular form every several division and distinction of Worshippers examin themselves from what principle they act and work if it be not to carry them into a far countrie Luk. 15.13 that they may not see their miserie nor remember Hell nor the wrath of God and their forms have been their Horses and Chariots which have saved and delivered them quieted their consciences shut the mouth of Hell kept off the gnawing worm And when they have got into this Chariot of Religion and these Forms of Worship then they think themselves safe and well horst How many thousands of people are now got into these ways and joyned themselves to these rich Cttizens and never yet were emptied made miserable and nothing never lost their own lives never took up the Cross of Christ nor forsook themselves but having taken up a Form suitable to their liking say they now I am safe now I am well what ever others doe I am in a good condition I have secured One I am wiser then others I am holier then they stand farther off Esay 65.5 I am now somebody and every particular Form think themselves in the best way and censure all others and applaud and deifie themselves But in the day of the Lord all thy helps hopes Idols witchcrafts shall be cut off nothing of thy planting shall stand but thou shalt be left empty naked helpless hopelesse so that thou shalt be utterly stript of thy whole selfe and no way left to escape by all thy forms wisdom inventions and thou shalt be so distressed that there is nothing left to help thee but a naked Christ onely meer mercy and the good hand of the Lord. So that except thou canst stand in this light and bear this discovery there is no help for thee And when man is brought to this condition he wil look every way for help Gen. 4.16 any man to direct and offer him any likely way any Chariot to carry him from the presence of the Lord that Hell may not pursue him and that he may out-run his own guilt with Caine he will goe dwell in the Land of Nod thinking to get from the presence of the Lord he hath now with the Prodigal loft his fathers house that is he hath put himselfe out of his fathers love care and protection and he will mannage his own portion and provide for and direct himselfe but all this is to cover with a covering but not with the Lords Spirit Esay 30.1 To the Land of NOD what 's that that is to the land of Forgetfulnesse or to the Land of Dizzinesse And there he hath a portion and patrimony upon which he spends and there he happens among Harlots and lives by his own wisdome and inventions and he gets to himselfe any thing that will but uphold his spirit though he be come almost to Beggery yet he will shift still before he will discover and acknowledge his folly and beggery he will live upon Husks upon his own duties Luk. 12 19 and his own forms shall be his life though there is no nourishment no life in them And yet he sayes to his soule Soule take thine ease thou hast goods laid up for many years and there he feasts himselfe lives Deliciously every day he eats and drinks and is merry and will not think of returning to his father nor acknowledge his rebellions And this is the far Countrey that he is departed into that so he may not see his own misery his own lost condition But in this day of the Lord all these things shall be discovered and he shall see that he is deluded and hath fed himselfe with dreams and that there was nothing reall in all he enjoyed but all even the best of his dainties was but Husks a lye and a deceit Then shall even the very sinews of all his strength be cut asunder all his foundations removed and himselfe utterly beggered and undone the very earth and the works thereof and all things therein 2 Pet. 3.10 shall be burnt up and the elements shall melt with fervent heat and he shall be at his wits end And this day of the Lord shall be like the Refiners fire and Fullers Sope Then he shall discover the Magicians and Inchanters of Egypt Mal. 3.2 to be all lyers and deceivers when they told thee Loe here and loe there In this mountain and on that hill in this way and that form thou shalt finde peace and rest Then He whom thou hast crucified and murthered by thy sinnes shall appeare in the clouds to judge thee and will set all thy sinnes in order before thee Psal 50.21 Then thou shalt see that thou hast crucified and put to death thy innocent Saviour That meek one of the earth who is all mercy pitty loving kindnesse him who came to save thee and ransome thee from thy cruell bondage and
do all men are alone in the hands of the Father he alone is Judge of quick and dead In his hands alone are the issues of life and death Acts 10.42 Ps 68.20 Joh. 6.44 And no man can come to him except the Father himself draw him and yet men will be drawing and DRIVING to Jesus Christ and they think to beget men and they like well to be called Doctors and Masters and Fathers and yet the spirit expresly sai h Of his own will begat be us with the word of truth Jam. 1.18 that we should be a kind of first fruits of his Creatures There is no power wisdome strength rules examples or precepts can do it but onely the will and power of God And he saith againe By one spirit are we all baptized into one body 1 Cor. 12.13 has one man then any more power then another can it be this mans learning or the other mans wisdom or another mans elquence or power of words or perswasions Oh let no man think so far be such thoughts from any that professe to exalt Jesus Christ for what can be more doshonour to him and yet how do the general course of the World and all pretenders to Religion run this way though they say in words Christ is All and man can do nothing and he is dead yet they in all their practices and perswasions and exhortations hold forth that they verily beleeve the power of man and that he is but half dead and may raise himselfe and uphold himselfe and chuse this plant Jesus Christ and ingraff it and nourish it and dig and hedg about it and cause it to bring forth more fruit which is alone the work of the Father Or at least wise if they give so much to God as to say he must give grace yet this they affirm that man must nurse it and water it and cherish it and maintain it else he may lose it quite say some and others to his own apprehension sight and feeling And what 's all this but to say himselfe he is the Dresser and he is the Pruner and Purger and Rectifier of all things amisse He is the True Husbandman But the Scripture holds forth otherwise that these things are done onely by the hand of God and that instruments are nothing t is onely the sword of the spirit can cut off and the word of God that is quick and powerfull and sharper then a two-edged sword Heb. 4.12 and that can divide between the soul and the spirit the joynts and the marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart There is nothing else plants nothing else cuts off from the root but only this spirit which is as the wind bloweth where it listeth and man hath nothing to do Joh. 3.8 I say the Creature hath nothing to do but to wait and expect when the Angel will move the Waters This is the Circumcision which is done without Hands Joh. 5.8 Rom. 2.28 29. And he is not a Jew that is one outwardly made by Men or any power of or in man but he is a Jew which is one inwardly and circumcision is that of the Heart and not in the Letter whose praise is not of men but of God And this work the Lord doth manageth and carrieth on by his own strength and by his owu power he is not at all beholding to mans wisedome or care but what is done in man or by man t is not he that doth it but Christ in them his work is not done by any outward and external means but by a secret invisible and spiritual power He is that secret invisible sap that communicates vertue and nourishment to every part and member through the whole body so that mans power wisdom and care is not used at all but only as an instrument or subject in which and by which it works and therefore man hath nothing at all to speak of or boast in And one man is not more holy then another or improves more because he hath more wisdom diligence endeavour or the like in the work of God all things tending in the least to lift up man are to be cut of but the spirit works where and when it listeth and man by all his care Joh. 3.8 cannot fetch in the spirit but when it self pleaseth so that no flesh may boast or glory in his presence nor one man lift up himself above another For we are alone his workmanship 1 Cor. 1.29 Eph. 2.10 1 Cor. 1.30 31. created unto good works And we are of him in Jesus Christ who of God is made unto us wisdom righteousness sanctification and redemption Therefore from hence let us make this conclusion and seal to it not in our words and judgments onely but in our hearts in our practices that we may say these are the very things that we have heard and seen with our eyes and we have looked upon and which our hands have handled of the word of life 1 Joh. 1.1 for there is nothing more usual then to consent to truth in the Notion thereof and in the Doctrinal part but when they come to the Practical and Applicatory then they declare plainly that they have no experience of the things of the work of God in themselves but they make man a Worker an Agent Heb. 12.2 and a finisher of Faith Some confesse that God he begins and layes the foundation but man must carry it on and do his part else all is nothing what an high indignity is this to the grace and power of God And hence it is that men glory and pride themselves so much in their own doing and are so forward to censure and judge other men wen alas man hath done nothing at all in this spiritual planting and watering but onely taken up a conceit of his own doing acting and working and priding himselfe in a meer empty fancy without any real doing at all For be sure this is that great work which Christ alone hath undertaken Heb. 2.10 Esa 42.8 Joh. 3.8 To bring many sons unto Glory and in this He will never give his glory unto another He will be free and his wind shall blow when he listeth and work when he pleaseth And for man to say that there must be any other power or any other meanes in the whole earth is to rob God of his glory and to give it to another But the practice of all the Saints is I do not say in words onely but in their practice they ascribe all to God only How violent was Paul against the Truth and the Professors thereof and yet he had attained to be a forward and an exact Pharisee far more strict then any we shall finde in our days And how zealous was he as he thought for the Truth Act. 26.11 Act. 9.1 2. exceedingly zealous against errours in his way and yet it was no other but madnesse against the truth and
eat or receive me but he that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood for my flesh is meat indeed and my blood is drink indeed and no man can give or take of this bread but my Heavenly Father only giveth you of that Heavenly Bread Ioh. 6. Ibid. 6. T is not the outward flesh of Christ or his external body was the life of the world But that same spirit and nature that was in Christ is to be in as many as do receive him this and no other is the life of the World viz. Christ his comming into the souls of men discovering them to be of the seed of that evil one and to be deceived to be lost to be in darkness and discovering the works of Darkness making manifest the works of the Devil and that he dwels in the soul under a disguise pretending himself to Christ when he is a Devil and Antichrist and is no other but the father of lyes Now Christ without us never does this but when he does it in us then is fulfilled that of the Apostle to the Galathians Before whose eyes Iesus Christ hath been evidently set forth Crucified among you or in you Gal. 3.1 The seeing of him then or now crucified outwardly was nothing that was but the shadow of the life and substance but really to see themselves to be the crucifiers of Christ this was the lively crucifying set out before them Then Beloved from hence t is clear against all gainsayers that it is the incomming of the Power of God in our spirits by which alone our Freedom Deliverance and Salvation is wrought T is not all the bolding forth of a Christ crucified the Letter can do it though all those things done in the Letter were true yet they are nothing to us if we be not saved delivered redeemed from our bondage and captivity therfore t is that we see many thousands in the world that can professe Christ and tell large stories of his external life and sufferings and yet never felt the power of his death or life in themselves for they can follow their own wills and they can love the world and extol and magnifie themselves and are as great in their own eyes as any other who professe him not Therefore Christ is not Salvation nor Deliverance to them Master we have eaten and drank in thy presence we have preacht and cast out Devils in thy Name Luk. 13.26 we have cast away Swearing and Lying and Whoring and Drunkenness and we have taken up this duty and the other and we have held forth thy Name to the World and we have been Sober Grave and Austere in our conversation but for all this Christ will profess I never knew you for ye are workers of iniquity For Satan had his full possession still and ye are no other but painted Sepulchres fair and glorious without but full of all rottennesse stench lothsomnesse and dead mens bones Then which nothing can stink more Therefore t is not holding forth the highest profession or Christ in the Letter or externally that sets us free except Christ come into the heart and makes us free indeed else t is not freedom indeed t is but the profession and the shew but it must be even the same Almighty power that raised up Jesus Christ from the dead we having the same spirit of faith as the Apostle saith 2 Cor. 4.13 14. knowing that he that raised the Lord Iesus shall raise us up 2 Cor. 4.13 14. Rom. 8.11 by Iesus And again in Rom. 8.11 But if the spirit of him that raised up Iesus from the dead dwell in you He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his spirit which dwelleth in you And therfore how wofully hath the professing World been mistaken still in all ages about Christ without them and of Christ according to the Letter For if they do but assent to that and say Christ suffered for them and they must apply him by an external beleeving and so he is made their Righteousnesse Sanctification and Redemption and though they sin and fall if they can but cast their eyes upon Christ suffering upon the Cross Joh. 3.14 as the Israelites by looking up upon the brazen Serpent they shall be healed and pardoned and saved and yet we know withall that all those things were done and were necessary for the accomplishing of the Fathers purpose and the mind of God but in all those things it was not FINISHED and yet here the world sticks and builds their Religion and this they think is as much as is required and he that shall speak against it and say they fall short of Jesus Christ they cry out upon him for a Seducer and an Heretick and they are as mad against him as they were against Paul when he preacht that they were no gods which were made by men And are ready to burst out upon them as full of wrath and madnesse as the Jewes upon Steven when he ript them up and spoke home to them Acts. 7.54 Acts 7.54 c. And when they heard these things they were cut to the heart and gnashed upon him with their teeth Yet for all that know that all this believing wil not serve thy turn but it must be Christ manifested in thee seeing him crucified and rising again and sitting in Heavenly places in thy heart else whatever thou talkest of Christ and of his miracles if thou hast no witness no evidence of the truth of them in thy own heart what is all that ever He did and what 's all that ever He suffered to thee It may be thou mayest have a notion and an opinion of the things of God and thou hast them by History and by Relation or Education or Example or Custom or by Tradition or because generally all or most men have received them for truths but if thou hast no evidence of his mighty miracles and God-like power in thine own soul how or which way canst thou be a witness that they are the things thou hast heard and seen for all those outward things are but Representations Figures and Patterns of the Heavenly things themselves Thou mayest have a strong opinion but yet no experience of them that Jesus Christ hath freed and delivered thy soul Again take notice hence That as Christ delivers not but as he comes Himselfe into the soules of men and is born in them so it is not opinions nor notions nor forms nor washings nor disciplines nor any external rules or conformities that can work deliverance for the soule but it must be God in us operating by his own Almighty power every man is spiritually in Sodom and in Egypt Rev. 11.8 where our Lord is Spiritually and most truly crucified And as the world is deceived in their Forms and their Notions thinking they shall help and save them So likewise they take a great deal of satisfaction to themselves in making of Books and
away their captivity Oh! that men were but to come to this condition to be sensible of their misery that they did but really see they were in Babylon in Captivity Oh then what mourning what hanging their Harps upon the Willows Psal 137.1 c. sitting down by the Rivers of Babylon weeping and crying out Oh how shall we sing the Lords song in a strange Land And wishing and saying Happy shall he be that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones Will the Ox lowgh when he hath fodder Job 6.5 saith Job Till they have deliverance they cannot but mourn Rev. 5.5 and none can deliver them but the Lyon of the Tribe of Judah to such a soul only is Iesus Christ precious others may talk of him and make a great profession of Iesus Christ in the Letter and talk of Iesus Christ his dying at Jerusalem and of beleeving and Salvation by him but they cannot love him till Iesus Christ be IMMANVEL a Saviour in them Mat. 1.23 then and never before can these Elders throw down their Crowns before the Lamb saying Thou only art worthy to receive honour and glory and power Rev. 4.10 11. for thou only hast redeemed us by thy Blood Thou seest thou canst not so much as move hand or foot to help thy self All thy tears thy prayers are nothing but as Iesus Christ prayes and cryes in thee by his spirit with groans unutterable which cannot be exprest Rom. 8.26 This take as the first difference and examination between those that are wounded and sick and condemned the one he is so and he can go to no other but only to Iesus Christ to be healed and saved The others when they are so they can finde help and rest in men in means in ordinances in fellowships in reformations and better ordering of their lives by their own power The other finde there is no resting no sitting still in any thing below Christ but they hunger and thirst and wait the good pleasure of Iesus Christ and when the spirit which bloweth where it listeth will blow upon their Hearts John 3.8 They are like a hungry man whose stomack doth so gnaw he cannot rest without food and like a thirsty man who cannot be satisfied without drink It is not husks nor shadows nor pictures nor Idols will serve his turn but he must have real food he must have Christs body which is meat indeed Ibid. 6.55 and Christs blood which is drink indeed He must have the Eternal God help him or all he can do is nothing to him Beloved were men but come to this to be really miserable and truly in bonds which men so much talk of and so little feel ye need not direct them this way and that way ye need not bid them cry or pray or run to hear or the like their very misery would constrain them whereas otherwise men take up these things for form and for custom and complement and to be thought religious and to quiet their consciences and the like But they would be like the blind man which notwithstanding they hindred him and reproved him and bid him not pray nor cry yet the sense of his blindness made him cry out after Jesus Christ Jesus thou son of David have mercy on me Luke 18.39 If men did but find see and feele the burning within them and the sting of the fiery Serpent they need not be bid to look up to the Brazen Serpent John 3.14 Secondly If thou beest a true seeker of deliverance a true waiter thou wilt abominate and scorn all other Deliverers but only this Only Deliverer Jesus Christ all other thou lookest upon them as Physitians of no value Job 13 4. Thou seest there is but one Teacher but one Counsellour but one Saviour They will not go after them that say Loe here is Christ and loe there Mat 24.23 in this way and in that form saying joyn to us we are in the best way here ye shall find rest and satisfaction but they see really and are fully convinced that there is nothing else but the Eternal Father making out himselfe through his son 1 Tim. 3.16 c. even Christ manifested in the flesh justified in the spirit seen of Angels preached unto the Gentiles beleeved on in the world and received up into Glory And sayes the Apostle Gal. 4.3 4. Even so we when we were Children were in bondage under the Elements of the world but when the fulnesse of Time was come God sent forth his Son made of a Woman made under the Law to redeem them that were under the Law that we might receive the Adoption of Sons And because ye are Sons God hath sent forth the spirit of his Son into your hearts crying Abba Father So that it is clear that soul that truly seeks deliverance it sees Jesus Christ only to be able to deliver that there is nothing lesse then Him nothing besides Him But herein lies the misery of all the Sons of men they pretend to seek Iesus Christ and think they have found him because they have heard of a Iesus Christ who died at Ierusalem and though they have no union with him yet if they can externally beleeve in him that 's enough though they never receive any vertue from him nor he was never formed in them And herein generally most men professing Christ sit down and rest and blesse themselves and never yet saw truly their own misery how they are departed from the fountain of living waters Jer. 2.13 and how they dig to themselves broken Cisterns which are empty and dry and can hold no water And in their extremity hither they come to their own Cisterns thinking to refresh themselves and quench their thirst but they are empty and dry and so many men who are great professors of Religion dig wells for themselves but they are not the Wells of Salvation Oh my dear friends Esa 12.3 my heart bleeds to think how these men delude themselves with golden dreams And they pretend great love to Christ and say he is their hope and their help and they will wait upon him and cast their soules upon him when as they do but as it is Ps 78.34 35. they returned and inquired early after God Ps 78.34 35. and remembred that God was their rock and the high God their Redeemer Neverthelesse they did but flatter him with their mouths and they lyed unto him with their tongues for their heart was not right with him neither were they faithful in his covenant How do these men keep a great stir and make a great noise for their Religion and who seem more zealous then they or more eager for worship who more flattering and smooth in their expressions and say thy Servants thy Servants and who seem to be more affected with dishonour to Christ and are very much offended at errors and heresies and blasphemies but I fear and
for when I had pondered the levity and incomposure of his Argument I could not but conclude as learned Helmont did of RODOLPHUS GOCLENIUS De Magn. vulner Curat lib. ingenui scientiae tam debilem Patronum obtigisse But alas he must needs appear a MODERATE states-man who hath hardly yet learned good manners it had been a far better adviso for him to have stayed at Jericho until his beard had been grown and kept his papers by him until Horace his advice had taught him some better experience decimum prematur in annum but a full Vessel must needs vent let us therefore hear his responsion He begins the Chapter with the words of a namelesse Author who saith Nor is any Nation without some turbulent spirits of its own the dishonour of the Gown and Pulpit the shame and sometimes ruine of their Country and amongst them ranks me as one Where we may note that though the man be ready and rash groundlesly to call others the disciples of Satan yet it is manifest he is one himself for Satan is an accuser of the brethren Rev. 12.10 and so is he in these forecited words he is also a father of Untruths Neither He nor any in the Nation can justly make it forth that I am any way guilty of turbulency of spirit either to shame or ruine my country and for Satan He was a lyar from the beginning and abode not in the truth Joh 8.44 But I can witnesse the truth of his Author in himselfe for if he had not been of a turbulent spirit he would never have began nor proceeded so boysterously nor uncivilly And if He be not the shame of the Gowne or Pulpit I am sure he is of the Presse that may well blush with those malicious falsities that he hath published against me who never thought nor did him iujury Doth his learning or Christianity teach him these things The lips of truth shall be established for ever Pro. 12.19 but a lying tongue is but for a moment And so hee repeats my third Quaery And His first entrance is still like himselfe full of poyson and evil words He saith it is a Quaery Satan himself might blush to put Surely the man was ARMIGER to Goliath or Rabshakeh from whom hee learned to rayle for I must tell him That some persons have put the same Quaere without blushing who were of more learning and piety then an hundred such as G. W. though they were all Esquires But it may be the man hath spoken truth knew not for I verily beleeve Satan would blush to put any Quaery that might unmask his deceits or discover truth and so would not willingly have this question brought to the rest lest the foundation of his Kingdom be thereby shaken Neither doth this Quaere any way disagree with the title of The Saints Guide 1 Thes 5.21 for it is they who are advised to try all things and to hold fast that which is good and that the wolfe cloaths himselfe in the lambs skin is witnessed in himselfe whose wolfish nature appears in his malicious devouring language though he would adorne it with the specious pretext of being a Christian And then he proceeds still in that work which his Master the Prince of darknesse hath set him upon to accuse unjustly and falfely for he saith that I reproach Learning which is absolutely untrue I doe onely but rank and place it where it ought to stand neither doe I blasphemously like himselfe assume or attribute any divinity to my self or words Can any thing be truly and properly called DIVINITY but the Nature and Being of God onely Surely his Learning might have taught him more fit language But he proceeds and saith That except the Old Serpent and my selfe whom he Serpent-like calls his Disciple he never found any affirming that man wanted any thing in his innocency pag. 111. Where did he finde except in his own Serpentine-heart that the Old Serpent did ever affirme that man wanted not any thing in his innocency For if he had affirmed this he had affirmed that truth which he hates Did the man never finde that the Spirit of God in the Scriptures doth affirme that Man wanted the knowledge of evil that he wanted sin corruption misery and death which all entred by the fall and after it Had man before the fall an ignorant blind and darkened soule or a bestiall nature subject to diseases and death or came not all these by and after the fall and so he wanted them before Who is the Serpents disciple I or the Armiger let all knowing men judge Thus the man argues against he neither knowes what nor whom with much railing but no reason But now he saith he comes to the question That reason was depraved and darkened by the Fall and that by the help of learning it is in some measure restored and this he allowes and affirmes Was this the question propounded by me let any man read and judge The great Logician with all his skill commits that Fallacie which every minor Sophister would be ashamed of which is Petitio principii the begging of the question For in the Quaery it is not supposed nor granted that man before the fall had reason or humane learning but is part of the question it selfe And he himself page 110 urges it as my affirmation that man wanted it in his innocency and yet now hath forgotten and lost the state of the question Therefore I must put him in mind of it againe and tell him that the question was not whether reasen were depraved by the fall or in some measure restored by learning but whether before the fall he had reason or humane learning or not and so all that he spatters forth about falling into a pit and getting out and the rest to the middle of the 112. page is but the foame of his raving fancy and to no purpose in respect of my Quaery but is altogether extra limites questionis Then he proceeds and saith The fellow seems to be a Scholler I shall therefore ask him one question I would know of this Armiger how many such fellows as my self his Worship maintains to wait upon him It may be he looks not upon me as his fellow but however he might take me to be his brother Animal Joh. 9.29 But I shall meekly and patiently passe by the Title knowing that our Lord and Master Jesus Christ was so called by the great Rabbies of the Jewes and onely wish that God would be pleased to bring him to the fellowship of his Saints in truth and sincerity If I seem to be a Scholler which I confesse is in a very little measure I wish I could see it appeare so in him for I had rather combat with solidity of Learning then with passion and uncivill language But let us heare his learned question which is this Is not Reason the specifical difference of man from a beast and was man distinguished from
one spirit which is that One Boundless Infinite and Eternal Spirit of the Father that like the wind bloweth where it lifteth and we may hear the sound and tasste the operation of it in us Joh 3.8 but know not whence it cometh nor when it will work but cometh and goeth when it pleaseth and not in the least when men will they have no command of that free and good spirit It is onely this one spirit that makes the soul one with Jesus Christ therefore the Apostle witnesses if Christ be in you Rom. 8 11 he that raised up Jesus from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by that spirit that dwelleth in you this is that spirit that searches all things and tries all things even the hidden things of God 1 Cor 2.10 this is that living spirit that blows upon the dry bones the spirit of the four winds that blows upon the dead and rotten bones Ezek. 37.4 and the blowing of this spirit brings sinew to sinew bone to bone and this makes them live and stand up before him and there is nothing else but this spirit that doth it there is nothing can be conjoined with it However men may say and keep a great deal of busling about the power of man that so it may not be said there was any to help him yet I say it is the spirit of God alone that draws man to Jesus Christ that it may not be said that his Idol hath done it for otherwise the mouths of all would not be stopped Ibid. 48.5 Rom. 3.19 Zach. 2.13 and all flesh would not become silent before him Neither would it be said that the Saints rejoyce in nothing else but in the Lord Jesus alone Obj. But I know it will be objected Oâ—bj though God doth thus and he onely draws the soule to Jesus Christ yet this is not done without means and instruments Answ First Answ truly I grant it is so but the wayes of God are like himself infinite and he is infinitly wise and his wayes are past all the thoughts and imaginations of the hearts of men for eye hath not seen Rom. 11.33 1 Cor. 2.9 nor ear heard nor is the heart of man ever able to finde out the secret wayes of the Lord. Secondly God hath not onely determined a thing but determined also by what power and instruments and means he will bring it to passe but in this it is otherwise with God then with man Man may propose a means to an end that is weak and may faile but God never intends and purposes an end but the means is as infinite as himselfe and as eternal and omnipotent as himselfe so that his meanes cannot faile he speaks and it shall and must come to pass 'T is true God hath ordained the means by which he brings men to Jesus Christ Psal 33.9 but this means is hiw own power and spirit and strength Obj. But thou wilt say Obi. Is it solely by himself alone without an Organ and Instrument is there not something subordinate Answ Truly the workings of God have alwayes a subject wherein to be manifested Answ as in man there is the soule which is the Recipient and subject in which the things of life and death are acted there is usually an Organ And how should they hear without a Preacher Rom. 10.14 yet both the Organ and the Preacher are empty dead things And if I or any man in being exercised about the things of God should look upon our selves otherwise quite laying by all thoughts of power wisdom ability to do any thing but to be only as a Pipe or Cistern through which those divine things passe and no more we take that praise to our selves which is alone due to God Now though it be so I say that this Organ is but a dead thing through which the life of God passeth if we be any thing else in our message and speaking to you but as men that have denied our selves laid aside our own wisedome strength conceits and abilities and all the workings of our own heads if we be not dead to all things that so the Lord may speak through us then I may boldly say we are not those Instruments and Embassadours by which he entreats his people to be reconciled unto him 1 Cor. 3.6 Therefore be pleased to consider that place of the Apostle in 1 Cor. 3.6 I have planted and Apollo hath watered So then Paul may be called a Planter and Apollo a Waterer but doth he goe no farther nay saith he Neither is he that planteth any thing nor he that watereth any thing Vers 7 but God that gives the encrease thoug they may improperly be called PLANTERS and WATERERS yet neither is the Planter any thing nor the Waterer any thing So that it is clear it is no otherwise but thus It pleased God out of his own love and goodnesse to condescend so low as to speak the Words of Eternal Life mercy by us and to one another that men of the same Blood and Frailtie should become Instruments and no other in the hand of the Lord taking no glory to themselves in any thing onely to be as weak and fraile and dead Instruments whereby the Lord will speak out the Words of Eternal Life But this creature is to be considered as nothing at all neither is he that planteth any thing nor he that watereth but God is all therefore I say 1 Cor. 3.7 till it be so with us that we are dead to all our own wit and reason and all our understanding till these are killed and dead and we stand onely waiting upon the Lord as Habakkuk saith Hab. 2.1 Hab. 2.1 I will stand upon my watch and set me upon the Tower and will watch to see what he will say unto me and what I shall answer I say when the soule is thus dead and silent to his own wit to his own selfeseeking to all his own opinions of wisdom or strength or parts I say there is no man which is a true Prophet or a Messenger from God till then For all the Prophets and Embassadours from God come thus qualified and they are not ashamed thus to shame themselves and to be as nothing in the eyes of themselves and others that so the Lord alone may be lifted up and exalted in them And when God appears thus in the poor dead Organ then usually God works in them and by them For saith the Apostle We have this treasure in earthen vessels 2 Cor. 4.7 God useth Organs and Instruments but there is no Efficiency in the Instruments for notwithstanding all that I can say and speak if the eternal sense and mind of the spirit be not at the back of it and goe home with it it will be but a Parable a History and a Paradox to you Mat. 13.11 Saith Christ to you it is given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom So then