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
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
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
honour or praise or the like nor to the Religion of the world nor of the Nation as ye know many usually do and if that will not do then they fly higher and they will be of the strictest sort of the Pharisees and joyn themselves with men of Learning Gravity and Religion and men esteemed Orthodox and sound in the Faith and he will follow their ways in hearing and reading and praying and walking without offence and the like but all these do but sow to the flesh Gal. 6.8 and of the flesh can reap nothing but corruption Do but examine thy selfe although thou hast joined thy selfe here and there and gone from one Church-society to another and put thy neck under the yoak of such a form and such a religion what was the cause was it not thy fears thy terrors within or was it not that thou mayst cover thy filthy and corrupt heart from the sight of others hast thou not for all this conformity the same heart the same nature still though thou hast hid and covered it by these inventions and when the fire hath still broke out and thy misery and undone condition would not be concealed hast not thou said within thy self is there not some other way some better remedy is there no better Physitians then these I have joind my self to the Presbyterians and I have found their way too short that would not do I have come over to the Independents and thought that way seemed before a better and more refined way yet it is too narrow I cannot wrap my self in that covering well sayes thy heart is there no other nor no better Physitians so I could but secure my self and prevent this fire and this burning I would be content to do any thing and take up every yoak and submit to the strictest forms Then say the Anabaptists come over to us and we shall give thee satisfaction we have the true Baptism according to the word none so near the word of God as we But when thou hast done all these things to find rest and to quench the fire which began to burn and to hide thy deformities from men dost thou think there is any thing of Christ in all this is not this rather to run away and turn thy back upon Christ and to live by thy own wits and inventions and by thy own power meerly to prevent death and destruction and the losing of thy own wisdom and righteousnesse and that thou mayest not come into the light of God least it should discover thy darknesse and blacknesse And now seeing these things are so how dare any of the sons of men boast of these things when they cannot free nor deliver the soul but rather increase their misery and lengthen out their bondage I say dare any man stand forth and call these the Ordinances of Christ as they use them what greater what higher blasphemy an Ordinance of God is a thing of another nature wherein the wisdom and power of God is effectual to bring in the heart to cause man to renounce his own wisdom power c. to empty him of all his power and goodnesse and to cause the soul to submit to the righteousnesse of faith else t is but an ordinance of man and the word is but a dead Letter and t is no more but the word of man Matth. 7.29 2 Cor. 10.5 Psa 50.16 except it come with authority and power upon the heart bringing every high thought and every imagination into the obedience of Christ What hast thou to do to take my word into thy mouth and yet hatest to be reformed Truly friends there are many pretenders to Christ and the world makes a great noise of serving and worshipping him and there is great talk everywhere of fearing God in notion and opinion and delusion For who else more persecute and crucifie Christ and hate and oppose the true power of godlinesse and the teachings of the spirit and the work of Christ in redeeming and delivering the soule then these men Therefore Beloved these things that men so much cleave to and magnifie cannot be the rest of a Christian nor the Ordinances of Christ as used by them but of Antichrist because they may be used and lived in and admired and prized and yet they are without any power they let those that use them and live in them to be carried away with divers lusts 2 Tim. 3.6 2 Pet. 2.19 they pretend liberty but themselves are the servants of corruption and enemies to the power of Christ and the life of Christianity and are acted by Antichrist who as God sitteth in the Temple of God 2 Thes 2.4 shewing himself that he is God Though he be a Devil and Antichrist yet he would not be known all his policy is to conceal himself and be thought to be righteous and pure and to be the very Christ the son of the living God May not one be dipt and receive water baptisme and yet be a Sorcerer Yes was not Simon Magus so Acts 8 12. May not one be at breaking of bread with Christ and yet be a Devil Mat. 26.23 Yes for so was Iudas though he was not there when Christ gave them his body to eat and his blood to drink which was himself which he gave to all the rest yet he was at supper with him at the Paschal Lamb and externally brake bread with him May not a man be full of good words and make great professions of strictnesse and yet be far from the Kingdom of of Heaven Yes Mat. 23.14 for so were the Pharisees they were the only Learned men and the Interpreters of the Scriptures and used much and long praying and uttering many outward good words sweet and smooth in their carriage and were very strict as to the outward command and were generally taken for the holiest and the gravest and the soberest men if any lend to them they would lend to them again yet you know what Christ saies of them Ibid. v. 27. they were but painted Hypocrits and compares them to lothsome stincking Sepulchres As the Apostle saith concerning charity though a man go never so far in actions of love though he give his body to be burned 1 Cor. 13.3 and have not true love all is nothing Men may come so far as to burn for Religion and yet have nothing of Christ at all Therfore these outward external actions of men do not truly declare a Christian whether he act from the power of Christ in him for he may do the same acts by way of imitation that a true Saint may do Therefore Beloved it lies us very much upon to discover and find out wherein the truth lies how we may know it from all forms shadows pictures patterns to know that which is true real unchangable and cannot deceive for there can be no true peace nor no real satisfaction but where Christ is an indweller in the soul where all of man
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
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
and whither they shall be led For in this case Esay 30.7.8 and under this dispensation they are not to walk or work but Their strength is to sit still But I know these things greatly offend some who are wise and strong in themselvs Yet saith the Lord vers 8. Write it before them in a Table and note it in a book that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever First we have shewed that the divine fire of this Tabernacle is that onely which guides and directs the souls of men in their way towards the spirituall and heavenly Canaan we have shewed thereupon the happiness of the soul that follows and keeps with this Tabernacle that alwaies sees and beholds this fire of the Altar that knows the fire that commeth down from Heaven that burns up all things but it self but that remains and abides for ever And this is the soul that in not a stranger unto the Lord and the Lord is his Guide Oh! happy is the soul that knows this waits upon it is onely led councelled and conducted by it We have likewise spoken of the misery of all men In offering strange fire upon the Lords Altar in seeking for another Star but not the Star of Jacob Levit. 10.1 c. but following the Tabernacle of Molech and the Star of their God Rempham Amos 5.26 Acts 7.43 Esay 50.11 and thinking to goe on in the light therof and shewing the misery of those men who are kindling fires of their own compassing themselves with their own sparks and thinking to goe on and walk in the light thereof yet this they shall have of the hand of the Lord to lie down in woe and everlasting sorrow The next thing we shall observe is concerning the Cloud that is over or upon the Tabernacle wherein in the first place this is apparent that the Tabernacle that contains all the Mysteries of life and mercy all the glory of life and eternal Salvation But this Tabernacle hath a cloud upon it that it cannot be seen till the Cloud be taken away and removed which all the power of man can never remove And secondly that the remover and taker away of this cloud is God and not man that God I say is he alone that draws and takes up the cloud from the Tabernacle and again lets it descend upon the Tabernacle when it pleaseth him T is the Lord that draws away the vaile and man with all his wisdom learning industry c. cannot pull it off of himself t is the Lord alone that opens the eys of the blind and not the holiest man can doe any thing in this work of himself T is the Lord that circumciseth the heart 1 Cor. 12.13 t is the Lord who baptiseth the spirits of men with the true baptism and all by one spirit into one body whether they be Jews or Gentiles and I have shewed that one man cannot baptize another as they undertake to doe in an Ape-like imitation of the thing for it is the Lords work only he alone can remove the cloud from off the Tabernacle and gives the true Baptism otherwise it abides and must remain thereupon and the soule is not washed nor baptized Thirdly take notice that no man naturally walks by a true guide and he that when the cloud is upon the Tabernacle offers to journey or move towards the heavenly Canaan I say when he offers or attempts any things in the way of God and Christ he acts but blindly and presumptuously and he cannot chuse but stumble and fall for when the cloud is not taken off the Tabernacle by the hand of the Lord then he ought to sit in his tent and abide in his habitation till the Lord remove the cloud and then is the time of his travel and day of his journey and not before First then it is clear that by the Tabernacle is meant the Mysteries of the Tabernacle for whether it be the pot of Manna the Censers or Rod of Aaron and the rest All these be the mysteries of Christ and all these have a cloud upon them so that none can see them or discern them or behold the glory that is in them till the cloud be taken away and removed In the beginning God made the heavens and earth Gen. 1.1 2. and the earth was without form and void and darknesse was upon the face of the Deep till God commanded the darknesse to withdraw and say Let there be light so till God make a separation between light and darknesse otherwise there is a darknesse on the whole depth the depth of HUMANITY or Creaturely nature there was and is a darknesse on it all till the Lord said Let there be Light and there is light there is a darknesse on all flesh till the spirit of the Lord blowes upon it and saith Come thou spirit of the four winds O Breath Ezek. 37.9 and breath upon these slain and dry bones that they may live When the Spirit of the Lord that blows every way and where it listeth comes and blows on these dry bones and they heare the word of the Lord then they are moved and finews and nerves and flesh come upon them and then they are joyned together and breath enters into them that they may live so that darknesse is upon the Deep and the cloud is over the Tabernacle none can remove it take it up or disperse it but the Lord alone When the Lord takes away the cloud from the Tabernacle then the Tabernacle and the MYSTERIES thereof appears otherwise they are hid and no mortall eye nor the sharpest understanding nor the greatest Scholler nor by the use of all externall Ordinances are they able to discern them Secondly when this cloud is removed then is the time for the souls of Saints to act and walk when the cloud is upon the Tabernacle then they should sit still and therefore saith James We ought not speaking of the Saints to determine this or that we will goe this way or that Jam. 4.13 c. threatning a woe to them that say To morrow we will goe to such a City or place and remain there a yeere and there we will buy and sell and get gain but we must from our soules say if the Lord will when we once come under the tuition and tutorage of the Sonne of God and come to be of the congregation of Israel then we goe not when we list or would but we are to attend the Lords hand in removing the cloud from the tabernacle and if he remove it not to day we are to stay till the next day and whensoever he removes it then is the day of our journey and going onwards Therefore the Apostle tels us of a Councellor and Leader they had and I know also the world tels of a guide and rule but it is a Rule which they themselves know not nor understand when it is crooked and when t is straight
must needs be wavering and unstable like the waves of the Sea and still casting up mire and dirt while thou seekest any refreshment in the patterns themselves whatsoever pattern thou canst imitate or build upon that is made by hands and be sure God dwels not in them for saith the Apostle Acts. 7.43 Ch. 17.24 25. â— he dwels not in Temples made with hands neither is he worshipped with mens hands as though he needed any thing seeing he gives breath and life and being and motion unto all Whatever Tabernacle or Temple man builds they are but like man they are fading and perishing Mark 13.2 Heb. 12.23 and there shall not one stone of them be left upon another but when the soule comes to the true assembly of the Saints to spirits of just men made perfect to the spiritual Manna and to the Heavenly Jerusalem to the true Tabernacle Jesus Christ and eats that Manna that doth not perish but is meat indeed and life indeed then t is silled and satisfied and never before So that while the soule is seeking after a life and to get food in the pattern and shadow and form of Heavenly things it is sure to find nothing but emptinesse bitternesse and vanity he shall be like the hungry man Isaiah speaks of Esa 29.8 who dreams and thinks he eates and when he awakes finds nothing So the Carnal men they are praying and reading and keeping themselves strict to outward rules and when they have done they think they find comfort and refreshment by them and they break bread and they are speaking one to another and think they have consolation by it but alas this food will all fail thou thinkest thou hast eaten Christ when thou hast used these but when the wrath of God falls upon thy soul and thou art summoned to judgement thou wilt finde there was no meat to feed thee in these things thou callest Ordinances nor there is no water in these Vessels to quench thy parched soul for though God of his good pleasure gave patterns of heavenly things yet they were not those heavenly things themselves but are onely the type and shadow of that divine heavenly Tabernacle which God did pitch and not man Heb. 8.2 And hence it apparently appears that the power life and the meat and drink of a child of God is onely and alone Jesus Christ for he never eats and drinks nor moves out of God for he eats and drinks and doth all in God and thus he is come to that which is perfect to the fountain of all fulness Heb. 12.27 28. to the Mount that cannot be shaken now he is gone over and passed by all the similitudes and shadows and patterns and is come to that living fountain of the water of life it selfe of which whoever drinks shall live for ever and it shall be in him a well of water springing up to eternall life Joh. 4.14 Then this further discovers to us that the Tabernacle of God is a hidden thing that the mysteries of God in Christ are covered so that the Saints themselves cannot see them except they be given unto them from above 1 Cor. 2.8 14. then much more the natural man perceives not the things of God which are spiritually discerned and which none of the men nor Princes of this world knew for had they known him they would not have crucified the Lord of life Ibid. 1.21 and when the world by wisdom knew not God it pleased the Lord by the foolishnesse of preaching to save those that believe So that I say it is even now too true according as we have a proverb and receiv'd as a Maxim but from whence it arose I am not certain that the place of PARADISE doth not now appeare in the earth no man knows where it is but sure I am that Paradise and place of pleasure which is the enjoyment of Jesus Christ is vanished and disappears is gone away and almost quite removed from the beholdings of all the sonnes of men Adam was turned out and you never heare where it is nor of any that can describe the way to come to it Even so is the true knowledge of Jesus Christ in the mystery So that the light of God and the spirituall Manna it is a thing that is utterly hidden and removed from all the wisdom and endeavours of any of the sonnes of men and unlesse the Lord himselfe come forth and reveale it and make it manifest the wisest of men in the worlds esteem may doe as those wicked men in Sodome when the Angel was sent to bring out Lot being stricken blind Gen. 19.11 they laboured to finde the dore but could not so he that is in the dark knows not whither he goes so this is cleare and true to this very day that the true Tabernacle of the Lord is still covered with a cloud no man can see it till God discover it to him Now notwithstanding this being so yet what are the waies of men what doe they undertake to doe Doe not all men that come out under the name of being the Ministers of Christ undertake the opening and revealing the Tabernacle of God yes but what is the light by which they can shew it unto us Is it any other but what man hath within himselfe and what he hath attained by his wits and industry by the Vniversity and searching severall Authors Yet notwithstanding they will discover this Tabernacle and undertake to take off the cloud that covers it and they will shew how the pattern leads to it and yet if they be put to it they themselves must deny they ever saw it truly and really what it was or is but they will be guessing and imagining the way that leads to it Now for a man to direct another the way that never understood that way may very easily make good what Christ saith If the blind lead the blind both fall into the ditch And there be other men that are so grosly ignorant as to tell us That if they goe but to an Academy a few yeeres and gather a little Philosophy and although it be that of the worst sort relishing of those that hold the immortality of the World and mortality of the Soule now even these they come out as they think furnished and by this they will undertake to discover to us the heavenly Canaan and Tabernacle of God Generally most men what ever they be though they differ in judgement yet say they are either Papists or Socinians c. And they have the boldnesse to hold forth these things though they be never so blind and dark in the things of God And I finde very few but generally all take up this for truth that Humane learning is the way to discover this by Now I beseech you see whether this be any lesse then the hellish pride of Satan to make men goe out in the pride of their hearts Jer. 29.23 and Ezek. 13.7
he shall look upon all things in himselfe as nothing but darknesse and man will then no longer call light darknesse nor darknesse light but he will say Woe is me verily I thought my righteousness my holinesse my performances and duties and worshippings of God I thought these to be BRIGHT THINGS but now the Lord hath appeared upon me I see that all my goodness is as the morning dew and as the cloud that passeth away And he alone is my help my deliverer my holinesse my Sanctification and my Redemption He alone is my song and my salvation and of him alone will I make my boast THE SECRET SOUTHSAYER OR Hidden SORCERER discovered By Mr. Jo. WEBSTER Preached at Alhallows Lumbard-street MICAH 5.10 11 12 13. And I will cut off the Cities of thy Land and throw down all thy strong holds I will cut off Witchcrafts out of thine hand and thou shalt have no more Southsayers Thy graven Images also will I cut off and thy standing Images out of the midst of thee and thou shalt no more worship the work of thine hands BEloved there is in all the sons of men a spirit of hatred and opposition against the wisdom power and righteousnesse of God ever since their going out and departing from the presence of the Lord having forsaken him their rock and their stay they have turned down into their own wisdom and power and having chosen that for their God and their guide they will not by any means be turned back to the Lord to forsake themselves their own wisdom and righteousnesse power and parts but they use all their study and endeavours to goe on with all confidence after the gods of their own hands which they have made and chosen and man never returns to that love peace and amity with the Lord but by the Almighty hand of the Lord by the very same power and no other but only that which can raise the dead out of their graves Rom. 4.24 ch 8.11 Jer. 2.13 and the same spirit that raised Jesus-Christ from the grave And ever since this departing from the fountain of life to the broken and empty Cisterns of the creature there are but only two Leaders two Guides two Masters two Teachers which all the sons of men follow there are but only two seeds Gen. 3.14 15. ch 4.2 1 John 3.9 the seed of the woman and the seed of the Serpent There are but only two Brethren Cain and Abel the Immortal and perfect seed of God which is holy pure and undefiled which cannot sin and that wicked cursed hellish seed of Satan which never did nor never doth nor never shall doe any thing else but sin rebel and fight against the wisdom light and power of God There is no middle seed between these two All actions all thoughts all industry all inventions all Religions are either from the wisdom which is from above Jam. 3.15 17. 1 Cor. 15.47 48 49. or else from that earthly and humane wisdom which is from man and from below As the one is from Heaven Heavenly so the other is from the earth earthly the first man is of the earth earthly the second is the Lord from Heaven heavenly And as are the earthy such are they that are earthy and as is the heavenly such are they also that are heavenly and as we have born the image of the earthy so shall we also bear the Image of the heavenly The one of these Guides is light and truth and glory and leads to rest peace fulnesse satisfaction the other leads to darknesse misery and destruction and yet pretends to light and truth and wisdom but the waies thereof goe down to the chambers of death This earthly guide alwaies draws downward to seek rest in the creature Pro. 7.27 in something either without man or within him and so drawes and deludes away the poore soule of man from that Eternal Al-sufficient JEHOVAH to sit down satisfied with the empty and broken comforts and helplesse Idols that the inventions of men have made and set up and say These be thy Gods O Israel Exo. 32.4 which will bring thee out of bondage and give thee possession of the land of Canaan the one is the true light and the true vision the true URIM and THUMMIM which never can mislead or deceive Ibid. 28.30 the other is the spirit of darknesse ignorance deceit witchcraft sorcery a lying and a familiar spirit And it pretends to seek after God and after holiness and after peace and rest but t is meer Sorcery and Witchcraft This is that Jannes and Jambres that alwaies will withstand Moses for they pretend to imitate Moses but they are no other but Wizzards Southsayers and deceivers they pretend for the truth and yet withstand the truth and saies the Apostle As Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses so doe these also resist the truth 2 Tim. 3.8 being men of corrupt minds and reprobate concerning the faith But they shall proceed no farther for their folly shall be made known unto all men as their also was They shall be found to be no other but Deceivers Magicians Southsayers These words we have now read they shew us what man is and what all men doe before they come to the light of God they shew that he is blind in himselfe 2 Tim. 3.13 deceiving and being deceived that he is confident in his own power in his own wisdom and that he chuseth to himselfe Horses and Chariots for his defence and preservation and he will have a Captain and a Leader of his own chusing whom he will follow And he useth all his inventions to secure himselfe against all that shall oppose him Esay 30.16 Jer. 2.23 he hath builded himselfe Forts and Castles and Strong-holds and Bulwarks and he hath the Charitos of Egypt and swift Dromedaries as the Prophet speaks to secure and deliver him on which he rests trusts and depends and on which he rides and thinks that those things shall defend and deliver him And the truth is so great and so deep and so subtily contrived are all his witchcrafts that all the wisdom of all the sonnes of men is never able to discover them to be so but only the wisdom spirit of God and that onely can discover these seeret and close and fine contrived inchantments like Pharaohs Magicians how did they act and imitate and doe the same things Moses did for a long time as if they had wrought by the same power Moses did Exo. 7.11 22 c. when as they were no other but Deceivers and Enchanters and Magicians In the same way doe Magicians worke in all ages Whatever the Saints and people of God doe by the power of God they can contrive and imitate the same in all their spirituall inchantments they have their Temples and their Worship and their Groves their forms and inventions Mark 13.21 and cry loe here and loe there when these are
God by those names chiefly intends to discover and set out the Prince of Darknesse in man and the Man of sin and Antichrist in man and the working of Satan in man 2 Thes 2.3 Joh. 16.11 this the Scripture chiefly and ultimately intends all along but men will not see it nor acknowledge it because they are under the power thereof and cannot endure the light neither will thy come to the light lest their deeds should be made manifest Joh. 3.19 20. Adde to this another Scripture Exod. 7.11 Then Pharaoh also called the wise men and the Sorcerers Exod. 7.11 Now the Magicians of Egypt they also did in like manner with their Inchantments These were Jannes and Jambres which withstood Moses which were the names of some of the Magicians which wrought against Moses which are in all the Sons of men and cited by the Apostle 2 Tim. 3.8 9. 2 Tim 3.9 where he applys it to the working of Satan in man Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses so do these also resist the truth men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning the faith But they shall proceed no farther for their folly shall be made manifest to all men as theirs also was They would undertake to do the same things by their power which Moses did by the finger and power of God They would be Apes and Imitators to make the world beleeve they did the same thing and by the same power but it was made manifest that they were no other but Deceivers Inchanters Magicians and wrought by the Devil and such shall all those be discovered to be who pretend to obey Christ and work by the power of Christ but are no other then Dreamers Inchanters and Charmers And who these were that we may know them he plainly layes them forth there They were men that had the form of Godlinesse Ibid. vers 5. but denied the power thereof For they were lovers of themselves boasters proud blasphemers unthankful unholy Truce-breakers Ibid. vers 3 4 6. false accusers feirce despisers of those that were truly good lovers of pleasure more then lovers of God Of this sort are they which creep into Widows houses and lead captive silly women Vers 1 and these men make the last daies perillous times And as Jannes and Jambres resisted and affronted and laboured to weaken the credit of him who came with true miracles and with the power of God So these resist and oppose and counterfeit the Spiritual Moses as if their works were wrought in God and done by the power of Christ all which is no other but Magick Sorcery Delusion Charming and Inchantment Also take one place more that in Esa 8.19 And when they shall say unto you Esa 8.19 seek unto them that have familiar spirits and unto wizzards that peep and mutter should not a people seek unto their God for the living to the dead To the Law and to the Testimonies If they speak not according to this word it is because there is no light in them Now according to the Letter there are none in words will openly counsel to to Wizzards as such and to such as Peep and Mutter and that they know deal with the Devil but of necessity these words are spoken secretly in the hearts of men and there they hearken and obey the Counsel and Wisdome of the flesh There is the chief Magick wrought which Satan useth in deluding and drawing away the soule of man to hearken to these Inchanters who can Counterfeit the Graces and things of Christ that so they may be taken for Members and Ministers of Jesus Christ And that those who truely have his Life and Power may be counted Deceivers this is one of Satans greatest-depths as we may see in the Prophet Jer. 27.9 when he had told the people of Moab and Ammon and Tyrus and word of the Lord Jer. 27.9 that they should go into Captivity and therefore should submit and put their necks under the yoak of the King of Babylon Now there were others that pretended that they were Prophets also and brought the word of the Lord and told them they should not consent to serve him Sayes the Lord in that ninth verse Hearken ye not unto your Prophets nor to your Diviners Vers 9 nor to your Dreamers nor to your Inchanters nor to your Sorcerers which speak unto you saying ye shall not servs the King of Babylon For whatever they prophesied was but the devices of their own heart and therefore they should not hearken to them but that which he threatned because it was the word of the Lord that should and must come to passe And the Apostle useth the same word in Gal. 3.1 Gal. 3.1 which includes all those words of Sorcery Inchanting Witchcraft c. O foolish Galatians who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth crucified among you Which word Bewitched is the same word in the Greek which signifieth witchcraft Sorcerie Charming or the like thereby signifying that what ever it was that was set up in man to cause him to mistake Jesus Christ or is set up in the room of him was Inchantments Witchcrafts Sorceries though they were never so like him if they were not Him and turned us away from the true Jesus Christ they are Foolish and Worldly rudiments and are ye so foolish sayes he in the third vers Ibid. v. 3. that having begun in the spirit ye should think to be made perfect by the flesh Ibid. ve 3. If any fleshly or carnal or external thing be set up in the room of Christ this is no lesse then Witchcraft Sorcery and Delusion And whatever name the Scripture gives to any External Witchcraft or Sorcery it is to hold out unto us that spiritual deep hidden and wonderful Charming that Satan useth to cause us to mistake Jesus Christ and that his power may be taken for the power of Jesus Christ and his wisdom and seeming holiness for the wisdom and holinesse of Jesus Christ Beloved these things as our Saviour saith I have spoken unto you and have often pressed them upon you That when ye find them true and come to passe Joh. 14.29 ye may beleeve for except ye find these things in experience ye cannot beleeve them But whoever shall teach no more but that these things are only Litterally fulfilled they do Delude Deceive Inchant and Charm you but the same things which have been done externally must be fulfilled in us for what is it to us what they did and what they saw what dost thou meddle with or talk of Christ his Miracles and Sufferings and Resurrection if these things be not done in thee art thou ever the better for all that was then done Without controversie great is the Mystery of Godliness for as he was manifested in the flesh so he was justified in the spirit What is it to thee what enjoyments Paul
and have familiar spirits and such as do no other in all their Religion but enquire after the dead as the Prophet speaks what 's that Esa 8.19 Mark 5.3 who enquire not after the living the substance and the truth but after the dead and all their delight is to be among the Graves and the Tombs and dead things which have no power nor life in them being men very cruel and fierce But all things of this nature in man shall be cut off when Christ shall arise in us and become Lord and King and be all in all viz. to be alone King Priest and Prophet in us Then we shall hearken and give ear alone to him having no other Guide nor no other Teacher or Master but him when these things come to pass in us then all the delusions within us and all in others without us shall all be discovered and vanish And indeed we can never discover those Spiritual Sorcerers and Inchanters without us till we have sound them out and discovered them within us Then he alone shall shortly tread down Satan under our feet Rom. 16.20 Rev. 18.23 Then this MICHAEL will throw down out of Heaven the Dragon and his Angels which deceived the Nations Onely the Breath and Comming of the Lord can discover those depths of lyes and infinite deceits that are received and rooted in the heart of man and nothing but the good hand wisdom and power of the Lord Almighty can deliver the soule From hence then we may hold out thus much and 't is very clear First that there is no greater Deceiver to be found then is within Man No cunninger Devil no greater ANTICHRIST nor no worse WITCH then what Man hath in his own heart so that HE hath in him all things described by the Name of EVIL There is in him the Devil Sin Antichrist the red Dragon the Jims and Ziims of the Desart There is in him Lucifer and the beast with seven Heads and ten Horns There are in him Conjurers Sorcerers Southsayers Witches Mutterers Peepers consulters with the dead that is delighting and resting in formal and dead Ordinances and with Women which have familiar Spirits with the GREAT WHORE and what not even with all things that belong to the Kingdom and power of Darknesse And all these things and whatever else can be named of this kind they all make up but one body all these are but Satan and his Members and they all have but one and the same Head As Jesus Christ consisteth of whatever is good righteous holy pure undefiled and the seed and sons of God and all things of that nature are his body and he their Head so all the seed and sons of Satan make up but one body and one building which is ANTICHRIST and the Great Whore and the Dragon and Lucifer and the rest And however man is carried out to look for all these things without him yet be sure these Sorcerers these Wizzards these Necromancers these Dragons Devils Antichrists all are in thine own bosome Here is the true Necromancy and Witchcraft the true Antichrist all other without are but shadows pictures and representations of the true and reall body of Antichrist and the Great Whore and the like If thou wouldest find out Antichrist and the true Necromancer and Southsayer It is thy selfe When thou enquirest and askest counsel of thine own heart then thou consultest with a familiar and lying spirit when thou makest a shew of that which thou art not then thou art a Necromancer and a Sorcerer and so every one of these evil ones according to their names you shall find in your own practice the nature thereof And truly Beloved herein lies the great and mighty Delusion and Witchcraft amongst the sons of men that Satan in them is so cunning that he alwayes carryes them out of themselves to find out Antichrist and Wizzards and Southsayers and Lucifer and the Great whore and the like And the true reason is because the Divel he would not by any means have these things be discovered to be in mans own breast where indeed is his Temple and SEAT more then at Room externally or litterally in any other place There is Antichrist there is Belial and there be the Southsayers and the Sorcerers in thine own heart But man will by no means indure this Doctrine And so long as Satan can blind delude and deceive man making him look for that evil one and the son of Perdition 2 Thes 2.3.7 and the MYSTERY OF INIQUITY out of himself so long Satan rests secure and safe But if the Light of God comes and discovers where his lurking and hiding place is viz. to be within and at home while we have been ruuning up and down far and neer to find him Then the soule either fights against this light or else blushes and is ashamed and confounded in it selfe And now it will trust no longer to it self now it sees the greatest cheating and witchcrafts to be acted in it selfe But till this day of the Lord come and this great light shine round about him man rides on boldly and confidently as Saul to Damascus and is not smitten down from his Horse neither sees he what he is doing Acts 9.1 2 but blesses himself and thinks all is well and he censures this wicked man and the other and he can curse the Devil and Antichrist without him bitterly thee whom he thinks to be at Rome and concludes that there he must fall and be brought down but never remembers that there is ONE in him whom he knows not but if any shall say unto him as Nathan to David Thou art the Man Antichrist is in thee and Adam is in thee and the Serpent is in thee and in whatever is said or related of Adam or Satan or Antichrist or Lucifer or of Eve What they did behold I say unto thee 2 Sam. 12.7 Thou art the man all this thou mayest read in thine own actions in thy own practices But oh how tart and harsh is this Doctrine to all the wise sober grave holy and learned men of the world Oh how do they hate and deride this Doctrine But let me tell them before the Lord Angels and Men That for all this while they are blessing themselves 1 Cor. 4.9 from the Devil and Antichrist and the rest and scorning these things should be in them and think that they have discovered them here and there Behold they are nigh them they are within them in their hearts and mouths though they see them not But if ever with all thy learning and parts and righteousnesse thou hadst had but the light of God in thee it would have shewed thee the Divil and the true Necromancer and let thee know that for all thy vain boasting and swelling and high and proud conceits of thy selfe that thou never yet hadst the light of God and that God never yet answered thee by that true URIM and THUMMIM
pictures and to have their dependance and life on them and to make IDOLS of them Ps 106.37 1 Cor. 10.20 21. and in this case saith David and the Apostle Paul They sacrifice unto Devils and not unto God And yet none more precise none more holy in words and gestures and in their Apish Imitations and carriages then they none pretend more justice and carriages then was it not thus with the Pharisees They made it a great matter to be outwardly just to men and stood much upon their praying fasting paying Tythes not keeping back so much as that of the smalest consequence Mint and Cummin yet what were they for all this but Hypocrits Dissemblers painted Sepulchres without Mat. 23.27 but full of rottenness and dead mens bones within But those that are indeed Saints and Members of the true body of Christ their minds are first changed and they have a new nature and from this they work and worship and do acts of Justice and Mercy The other whatever they pretend change but the outside and wash but the outside of the cup and platter Ibid. v. 25 but the inside is as foul and loathsome as ever they can be very strict in their performances and carriages they can make long prayers and seem very devout but then they must be thought to be Somebody and they must be honoured or else all the fat is in the fire as the proverb is and they must have the uppermost seats and grave greetings by the Name of RABBI RABBI and they must be thought to be the only holy men are mighty circumspect to keep their distances with all but whom they think wel of and hereby they think to keep up their honor and respect and they are very conversant in reading praying and expounding the Scriptures as they themselves understand them and this is their Holiness and their Religion and these things make them to be feared and honoured as they think and this makes them bold and this strikes an awfulnesse on the spirits of others and makes them TERRIBLE alas poor ignorant deluded soules these things may be called holiness and holy duties and their many words and long bablings they may be called prayer by themselves and others who are as blind as themselves who cannot see their pride and vain-glory and self-confidence and lifting up themselves and indeed men know them not for saith Christ Luke 11.44 Luk. 11 44 They are as graves which appear not and men are not aware of them but as for those who have the spirit of God in them and a spirit of discerning in them they see plainly that all this is vanity They see that all their highest and strictest zeal and performances are a meer sound of words without any real life to be no other but as sounding Brass 1 Cor. 13.1 or a tinckling Cymbal which vanishes and comes to nothing it being no more but air and emptimesse having nothing of truth or reallity in it The Pharisees long prayer was no prayer at all but was rejected when the poor dejected Publicans saying but a few words was esteemed a prayer and was accepted and he went home justified and not the other These Pharisees they are furnished at all times Luk. 18 13. they can preach and pray and do any thing they are fitted at all times they can at any houre command themselves they can pray either in the Chamber or in the Temple or in the Closet and keep their set rules and houres And this is their Holiness and all that do not follow their Modes and their Forms are loose and prophane and they can judge and censure a brother for a Mote in his eye but perceive not a Beam in their own eye Mat. 7 3. These are the men our Lord so much aimd at Mat. 23.26 33 and had so much to do to uncase and convince and him they so much hated because he had such a slight opinion of them and of their holinesse and because he censured them for Hypocrits and blind Pharisees nay the worst of all men yea worse then Whoremongers Thieves and Murtherers Nay he calls them Serpents But the other who worship God in the spirit and have their help strength and dependance on the Lord they see really their own insufficiency and they receive all by waiting on God they cannot speak nor preach nor pray but when he doth all this in them they will not be unjust to men because they have an inward principle that conforms them to the mind of Christ 1 Cor. 29.16 1 John 5.18 having a new nature they work all their works from that being good they cannot but do good but the other they do good things thinking thereby to make themselves good and to procure favour and acceptance But the sons of God know that whatever is not acted from the spirit of God working in such is no other but from the Devil is no other but Witchcraft Sorcery Inchantment c. In brief the one keep a great deal of stir and are very busie and exact about outsides and forms and times and places and the like when as the other see the vanity and folly of such things and having a principle of holinesse within from thence doe they act and work This they know is the true circumcision who worship God in the spirit Phil. 3.3 and rejoyce in Jesus Christ and have no confidence in the flesh and doing any duty from this principle of the new man or the new creature in them this they esteem to be an ORDINANCE because it is done with life and power and in the spirit of Jesus Christ and they cannot call any thing an Ordinance but only this whatever all the Wizzards Southsayers Diviners Inchanters in the world say to the contrary THE ROOTING up of every Plant not Planted by the Heavenly Father Preached at Alhallows Lumbard-street Matth. 15.13 14. But Jesus answered and said Every Plant which my Father hath not planted shall be rooted up Let them alone they be blind leaders of the blind And if the blind lead the blind both shall fall into the ditch THese words contain an answer of our Lord unto his Disciples For they having heard how the Scribes and Pharises were much offended at some things he had preached they being very strict for the outside and formal part of Religion and being generally taken for great Professours and our Saviour knowing their hearts knew that though the outside was clean aimable and beautiful yet the inside was foul stinking and loathsome for all their observances of washings and fastings and the like Hereupon our Saviour to undeceive the people concerning them calls the multitude together and tells them plainly wishing them not to be foold and deluded but hear and understand in the eleventh verse saith he It is not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man but that which cometh out of the mouth that defileth a man Vers 11 The
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
persecuting both men and women that were of that way that he might bring them bound to Jerusalem dragging them out of every City and breathing out threatnings and slaughter and compelled them to blaspheme Who now do you think turned Paul about and of a Saul made him Paul was there any other hand did this but the good hand of the Heavenly Husbandman who of a Devil made him a Saint No no he clearly saw he opposed salvation fought against it and he had onely a Notion of Salvation and Happinesse in his mind but really to desire Salvation he neither did nor Knew not what salvation was Gal. 1.16 1 Tim. 1.13 but it pleased the Father to reveal his Son and Salvation in me and to receive me to mercy because I did it ignorantly and through unbelief It was alone his good pleasure to cut me off from the wild Olive and to plant me into the true Olive And as the Apostle saith so say I Such were some of you but ye are washed 1 Cor. 6.11 but ye are sanctified and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God There is not one natural man in the whole world that can desire salvation but under a false notion as he thinks it will bring peace and rest honour and glory and happinesse but salvation indeed all men who are not possessed of it oppose it fight against it and should it be revealed to them in the true nature thereof they would persecute it and breath out slaughters against the Professors of it Then certainly no man loves Salvation nor no man seeks after it nor can use any means to attain it as men ignorantly affirm and beleeve For can a man love his own death can any man love crucifying and hate his own life I tell ye nay but he must be changed new moulded and be leavened with a new leaven that he may be a new lump And therefore when men talk of such things 1 Cor. 5.7 they know not what they say That man must do and man must act and man must use the means and the like it declares to me they were never yet met in the way going to Damascus they were never yet un-horst and laid flat to the earth Oh Beloved this work of Salvation it is a marvellous work for the Lord to reveal his Son in man Gal. 1 16. the world knows nothing of it but they have some notions of Heaven without them and of a Christ without them and Religion is now made an easie and a common thing almost every one is Religious Religion is the fashion of the Age and its a shame to be otherwise and they think this is enough But to make Christ in us the hope of Glory this is none of mans work but t is the Lords doing and t is marvellous in our eyes For Christ to dye for us when we were sinners and enemies to salvation Col. 1.27 Psal 118.23 Rom. 5.8.10 and for him then to dye for us and to reconcile us by his death this the world knows little of I appeal to every renewed soul here whence is it that any of you are come to be Christians and of men and women of a Devillish nature to be made partakers of the Divine Nature of a Bryar and a Thorn and a Bramble 2 pet 1.4 which was fit for nothing but the fire and burning to become a Heavenly plant and a branch in the true Vine Jesus Christ How came this about was it ever your own work or your own seeking nay did you not fight against this work and oppose it he that findes it not so never yet was partaker of it He never yet could say Vnto me a Child was born and a Son given whose name is called Wonderful Councellour the Mighty God the Everlasting Father and the Prince of peace except he have found in himself as the Lord saith there in Isaiah 9.5.6 Esa 9.5 6. Every battel of the Warriour is with confused noise and garments rolled in blood this must be with burning and fewel of fire This * As that precious instrument in the hand of the Lord Dr. Everard expounds that place in his Sermons call'd Gospel Treasure opened pag. 61. c. alwayes goes before that Christ is given to any of the sons of men Beloved do but examine your own hearts and you shall finde it was thus and it must be thus was ever the strong man bound and cast out of his house and possession without resisting will man lose his life and suffer all his riches and goods to be taken away and never strive nor oppose And was this work ever done by a still-work and using of Ordinances and joyning here and there and man never disturbed but that out of his natural and dead condition he hath dreamed and slept himself into a new nature and into the condition of a Christian No my brethren conversion is an otherguesse thing then most men hold forth And if men see but a want in themselves and then resolve that they must seek after a Heaven to fill up this want and to that end run to this duty and tother fellowship and think he must be constant in the use of Ordinances and if he do but beleeve in an external Christ then the work is done and the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs Alas all this is but the way of man and by all this they do but make a Proselyte and those that teach thus they do but sew pillows under all arm-holes and cry peace peace when there is no peace but have made themselves Aprons Ezek. 13 18. and blesse themselves in an unsound condition and heale the wound of the daughter of my people slightly Wo to these Women saith the Prophet there for this is nothing but Weakness nay herein they have made them two-sold more the Children of Hell then before Mat. 23.15 Col. 3.1 If men are risen with Christ let them shew me how they were crucified dead and buried with him if they are come to Canaan let them shew me how the alone Mighty and Outstretched hand of the Lord hath brought them out of Egypt and how they came through the Sea and through the Wilderness Indeed I confesse these people they talk of signs and marks of the people of God Mat. 12 38 c. but to them there shall be no sign given but that of the Prophet Jonah as he was three days and three nights in the Whales belly so must the Son of man be buried in the heart of the Earth Go ye and learne what this means Art thou cut off from thy old root from the wilde Olive hast thou felt this burning hast thou lost thy own life art thou buried with Christ hast thou been three dayes in the heart of the earth and in the Whales belly hast thou had in thee the battail of the Warriours and the confused noise Esa 9.5 and the
dare not stand in his Own condemnation he dare not let this light shine on his works because They know they are evil Therefore they hate it preach against it cry out upon it as damnable doctrine and call the Professors thereof Seducers Familists Quakers Jesuits any thing to make them the most odious to the sonnes of men and they themselves resolve to smother it in themselves and will not be guided or directed by it they are resolved not to be weake not to be poore not to be fools not to be vile but make the world still think that they are wise strong holy sober grave regular in all they do and obedient to the very smallest and strictest rules of Christ and he that shall tax them or conceive or declare otherwise of them is to them a Fiend a Serpent a Divel Lastly from this ONENESS of the Deliverer we may conclude As there is but One Deliverer so there is but one way of Deliverance though there may be in the world thousands of inventions of men some worshipping this way and some that some after one form and some after another yet this is certain there is but one Deliverer and one way of Deliverance Eph. 4.5 As the Apostle saith Ephes 4.5 There is a unity in the spirit which is the bond of peace There is one body and one spirit One Lord that is One Deliverer one Faith one Baptism that is one way of deliverance One God and father of all who is above all and through all and in all One Saviour and One way of salvation and there is no more And this way is Christ in man bringing forth the light of God to empty kill and destroy the glory and wisdom of man to make a man as poore as Job having lost all and lying upon the dunghill full of boiles scabs and sores from the crown of the head to the sole of the feet and as miserable as Lazarus with his sores which the dogs came and Licked and to make them lie begging for he smallest crums to relieve them Whosoever thou art if thy deliverance be not wrought this way let me tell thee freely thou wert never yet dilivered however thou flatterest thy selfe to the contrary You may talk of forms and disciplines and dippings and of eating and drinking with Christ and breaking of bread and of Baptismes and all other externall things But this alone is the true Baptisme and the true eating of Christ his body and the drinking his blood This is the One way wrought by this One deliverer and whoever he be that lives in multiplicity of forms and diversity of worships or holds these things forth as Christs way without this Baptism of the spirit he holds forth a lye and a delusion and misery and wrath and desolation of spirit will come in the end for this is that one and only way which Jesus Christ hath used in all the Saints from the beginning of the world and will doe to the end to bring man low in himselfe that he alone may be exalted As there is but One God and Father of all but one Husband who is rich unto all so there is but one Church but one Spouse but one body and this one Spouse body or Church they are all joyned married or brought home to Christ but in this one way And there is but one power but one wisdom but one strength whereby all the people of God were and ever shall be delivered Beloved what a stir does all the world make about setting up a world of severall inventions with variety of washings rules dippings forms and every individuall fellowship say we are in the right way our way is the best and we are neerest the rule and the Primitive practise and our way is the way of peace and rest such and such they miss the rule of the word in this and in that but our way is the most exact and most perfect of all All which is no other but that which Christ foretels shall come when they say Loe here is Christ or Loe he is there but Christs command is Goe not after them for the Kingdom of God comes not with observation Luke 17.20 nor consists not in outward observations nor in eating or drinking nor in dipping in water Col. 22.21 22. nor in meats and drinks nor in obeying the commands and rules of men As touch not taste not handle not which all perish in the using for All things of that nature are far below those spirituall things in which consists the Kingdom of God which is righteousnesse peace joy in the holy Ghost Rom. 14.17 and in being Baptized with the spirit and with fire There is but one eating of Christs body and drinking his blood and this is no other but what is given by Jesus Christ himselfe 1 Cor. 11.24 and whoever eats not nor drinks not of this He it is that eats damnation not discerning the Lords body And though men eate and drink and break bread together never so often and be never so constant and observant therein yet the Apostle says plainly This is not to eat the Lords body but t is onely the eating the Hidden Manna that can nourish to everlasting life Rev. 2.7 T is onely the eating of the Tree of life in the midst of the Paradise of God that can make us live for ever And of this bread all the Saints doe eat And what one Saint is fed with the same are all Saints and what a Sint lives by he eates daily and this is his food and nourishment the bread that feeds them is not eating for an houre or the like but for ever t is his daily food by which he is nourished and fed to the Kingdom of God He does not one day feed like a Saint and another day like a divel He does not onely examine himselfe to eate a little bit of bread and drink a sup of wine but he daily examines himselfe and he daily and continually eats of this bread 1 Cor. 10.17 and drinks of this cup for they being many are one bread and one body for they are all partakers of that one bread and what ever they doe and when ever they eate Luke 22.19 1 Cor. 11.24 they doe it in remembrance of him They live upon Christ in all things they see Him to be their life their motion their rule and ruler their righteousnesse wisdom redemption They see there is not one creature acts or moves nor is there one change of providence but they see Christ do it more truly then they see the creature doth it They see him the Soveraign Lord and Commander ruling and doing all things as in themselves so in the whole creation of Heaven and earth and this is that they live by and feed upon They have such meat to eat Joh. 4.32 which none knows the vertue of but only they who eat it such meat it is the world knows
did and all was nothing else but sin and abomination in the sight of the Lord. The sons of men are very inquisitive after that which pleases their fancy and their own inventions and seem to press after high things and great questions but they really oppose and desire to be ignorant of the truth as it is in Jesus They speak of Deliverance but they really hate it though they may say whatever thou doest with us reform us and make us holy and the like but the truth is they would not have it so nor they mean not as they say for if Christ should take his own way with them viz. to bring man down in himself and to strip him of his beautiful garments what would become of these mens smooth words and long prayers and seeming devotion would not their hearts give their mouths the lye in all they said and discover themselves to be grosse and abominable Hypocrits and indeed would with the Gergesites rather goe out and beseech him to depart out of their Coasts Mat. 8.34 and withall really pray depart from us Job 21.14 for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways So that when men who were never yet lost undone and confounded in themselves pray for the grace of God and mortification and to be crucified to the world alas alas they pray they know not what And again these men because they can deliver the outward word and the Letter and bring their matter into a handsome form and method they think they have preached the word of God to the people when alas this is nothing for the outward letter is not the word but what is there exprest litterally is only as a witnesse to the word and the truth and of what the Saints of God have found and shall finde in themselves and if Christ be a Delivervr to them they shall find the like things in themselves And there is none can understand the Letter in the Mystery but they in whom the same things are done 2 Cor. 3.15 These only have the Vail taken off the Letter and none but Jesus Christ himselfe can doe this And particularly many Object Obj. What shall we not pray that we may have this Deliverance I Answer No man ever truly prayed Answ but out of a sense of want if you wert brought into a true sense of thy empty naked and lost condition of thy poverty beggery and starved condition then Christ and his spirit would pray in thee with sighs and groans unexpressible Rom. 8 26 then thou wouldest pray indeed and couldst not but cry and pray and groan indeed and this is true prayer prayer is not to get together a many fine smooth words and to collect this fine expression and the other and observing this and that time and that hour but prayer is words or sighs from so deep a sense of misery and want that we verily see we starve and die except we prevail Men if they truly prayed they would not come dreaming out with such beggerly questions what then shall we not pray and shall we not hear and the like these questions shew they never did any duty rightly but only in a way of form or complement or to qualifie the cry of conscience and the like but if men be really in misery in hell in bitternesse they cannot chuse but cry and pray and beg I 'le warrant you you need not bid them for you cannot keep them from it nor will they ask shall we not pray or hear and the like for they pray by the power of the spirit and that speaks in them with groans which are unutterable and beyond all expression of words We read of some of the Heathen persecuting Emperors that in a way of cruelty would constrain the Christians though they were under tortures and torments yet they should not cry nor complain if they did they would torture them the more but it is not so in the tortures and torments of the soul they cannot but they must cry out and complain and seek deliverance when the soul is in bitterness it cannot but cry And farther though they have done these things as doing them by necessity yet those that are truly delivered by Jesus Christ that only Deliverer they do not esteem the doing of these things their deliverance or them their Deliverer wherein lies the misery of the most of the sons of men that if their consciences begin to smite them and sin begins to appear and hell looks them in the face sayes the soul I must now look out for a remedy I must do something to quench this fire and to allay this burning and then what do they they then think to reform their lives and they will go pray and hear or join themselves into this and that fellowship and Church-gathering and there they will conform to the use of Ordinances and it may be get into the best reformed fellowship as they conceive and nearest the rule of Christ and here they rest here they are quiet and all is well and wrath is past and they are delivered Alas alas poor souls In this very thing they have turned aside from the true Deliverer and mist their Deliverance But the true way to Deliverance is to stand in thy misery and abide condemned in thy self till Christ himself take pitty of thee and then Christ himself would pray in thee and he would carry thee out to reading and hearing and praying after a spiritual manner for while these works are thine own and thou seekest for to deliver thy self thou art so much the more in bondage for these duties if done rightly are the work of the Deliverer and the fruit of thy deliverance and not the cause of thy Deliverance nor the Deliverer and when he doth them in thee then they are done with power thou prayest from a reall sense of want and thou hearest with a circumcised ear and then thy reading is in the power of the spirit and be awaketh thine ear to hear Esa 50.4 for that is not true or spiritual reading and hearing and praying which every man may doe outwardly though it be never so often and never so constantly and yet men call these DVTIES and ORDINANCES and conformity and holy walking when they are never so except Christ the Deliverer perform them in them by the power of his spirit and otherwise they are not spiritual nor holy duties as men falsly call them for they are but outward and carnal and nothing of the spirit in them but done onely by the power of self and of the carnal natural man And therefore when Christ teacheth Mar. 7.34 35. He openeth the ear and He gives sight to the blind his work is not an empty cold dead thing Joh. 6.63 but his word is spirit and life and he requires an ear in an ear and an eye in an eye He that hath ears to hear Luke 8.8 let him hear and eyes to see let him see
all his power wisdom parts righteousnesse and whatever man as man adores All true Saints are brought to see this in experience they see all the world seeking themselves following after the gods that they have made and crying up their Diana they see all the whole earth alwaies and continually crying out Not this man but Barabbas Mat. 27.21 And they know them to be all Theeves and Robbers But these onely come to the light and walk in the light Joh. 10.8 And the light of Christ in them hath discovered that in man is nothing but sin and darkness and misery and condemnation This they really see both within themselves and without themselves that he that would be exalted is in them brought low and he that humbleth himself is exalted Luk. 14.11 Christ in them and to them is all in all and this is their Glory this is their Kingdome this their Pearl for which they have sold all this is their Heaven Then they come to see Mat. 13.46 as the truth is that they have no power wisdom excellency nothing at all but what is to be condemned and that all their works which are accepted are wrought in God Joh. 3.21 1 Cor. 1.30 That Jesus is their Wisdom Rgihteousness Justification Sanctification and Redemption they come to this light and they walk in this light they continually see that Jesus Christ hath all power and wisdom in himself he hath not given any part of his excellencies out of himselfe but whatever is wrought in them is wrought by Him they dare not say I must doe and I must act and I must pray that I may be accepted nor think as others do I must perform the conditions on my part to do Heb. 6.6 and then I shall be accepted All Doctrine of this nature is no other but crucifying the Son of God afresh and putting him to open shame and walking in darknesse Those that preach this Acts 20.29 John 3.31 are those grievous wolves which Paul speaks of Acts 20.29 30. I know that after my departure shall grievous wolves enter in among you not sparing the flock also of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw disciples after them Of your own selvs that is men that hold forth the same doctrine and preach Jesus Christ too and hold him forth for a Saviour yet under that pretence crucifie him and make him as no Christ and his Crosse of no effect But those that are in the light they come to the light and follow this light live in this light that their deeds may be made manifest whether wrought in God or no Then he sees this is the true wisdom from above Jam. 3.17 which is pure peaceable easie to be entreated full of good works 't is not high and stern and subtile and rigid to keep at distance from all but whom they like but they are easie to be entreated meek ready to doe good to all they see no such excellency in houses inheritances money honour praise but for the love of Christ they are not deare to them they know if they have these they are not given to make them great or high or praised among the sonnes of men but that by them Christ in them may make himselfe great That they may be of another spirit then any other naturall man in the world Acts 26.18 shewing forth the vertues of him that hath called them from darkness to light from the power of Satan to God Then is their Tongue Touched with a coal from the Altar Esay 6.6 and they must declare Jesus Christ to make him alone glorious powerfull wise mighty eternal c. And then it is no longer they that speake Mark 13.11 but the spirit of their Father that is within them My beloved breathren if men were but come to the sight of this light and were able to stand in it and walk in it They would not goe forth as they doe in their own name and in their own wisdom and power having furnished themselves by their study and by their Books and by their borrowed matter but all this is because they have no light in them How many Speakers be there now in the world and with what confidence doe they come unto you when this spirit from on high never came upon them Pro. 8.34 Luke 24.49 they never yet waited at Wisdoms gates never yet stayed at Jerusalem for the promise of the Father but runne before they are sent and they of themselves have found a way to be furnished they can goe to the Vniversity and there lay the foundation and they can have the laying on of the hands of the Presbyterie and then they can study Authors and they have wisdom and parts and eloquence of their own and thus they come furnished and are as they think able Ministers of the Gospel 2 Cor. 3.6 John 10.1 Alas poore soules Christ cals these no other but thieves and Robbers which come not in at the doore they come not in by him but climb up some other way These have not made Christ the doore and the way for did They but live in the true light they durst not doe thus they durst not speak till he had opened the dore they durst not walk till the fire of the Sanctuary guided them till this cloud of ignorance not knowing themselves nor the work of Christ were taken up else they sit still And I say there would not be so many speakers as there be they would not covet so much to be some body that they may be taken notice of to be wise to be learned to be holy to be sober to be endowed with the gifts of Christ as they would be thought to be All this is but putting new wine into old bottles Luk. 5.37 and both are lost but if this light of God this spirit from on high this fire of the Sanctuary were upon them then this new wine would be put into new bottles and both preserved Oh my brethren it woes my very heart to see how confident and bold men are in their own light and he that will say to the contrary but that 't is the light of God he must be a deceiver and he must be a Schismatick a Familist any thing yea the most odious of all men Oh that these men did but know from whence they speak Oh that they did but know whether they were Moseses or Magicians whether sent from God or the Divel whether from Christ or Antichrist who indeed sit in the Temple of Christ as if sent from Christ Nay let me tell you they come with such deceivablenesse of unrighteousnesse with such signes and lying wonders 2 Thes 2.9.10 that they are able to deceive the very Elect of God if it were possible but the truth is t is onely they can discover them t is only the spirit of Christ that can lay them open onely He that hath the true
Exod. 28.30 where thou oughtest to enquire but thou hast still enquired of BAAL and ASHTEROTH and of Wizzards and familiar Spirits and the Counsels of thine own heart otherwise all thy high conceits had been laid low but thou goest out to Sorcerers and Southsayers to ASHDOD or any thing and consultest with them and they tell thee of a thousand Devils but themselves and they will tell thee thou art a wise a godly a holy man who more holy nay that thou art a Saint and all others especially such and such are Devils to thee this man sees every thing naught and evil and out of order but in his own heart And what deep and desperate Witchcraft and Lyes are these when all these are in himself But when Christ comes then the mind is quite turnd altered and changed then he sees that HIS heart is deceitfull above all things then he is amazed to see those unspeakable deceits that are there how loathsome and vile he is then he wonders that Christ should descend so low as Hell to bring his soule out thence then he sees how all those things which before he would never beleeve to be in him they are now laid open and now he sees that Christ is Hee alone that hath led Captivity Captive Secondly this Doctrine notes out unto us the vanity of the minds of all men while they are anywhere exercised but within themselves in their own hearts for all good and evil comes out of the heart and 't is that which cometh out thence which defileth the man And again a good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth good things Mat. 12.35 but an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth evil things Therefore the maine of all is to know a mans selfe for a man to have high and great thoughts of himself and in the mean time to be no other but a Devil a Wizzard a Sorcerer to be an enemy and a deluder to himself to think himself to be in light when he is in thick darknesse to call in himself evil good and good evil darkness light and light darkness This is one of the Devils great Delusions Exo. 10.21 Esa 5.20 and Witchcrafts in man to carry him still out of himselfe even in point of Religion to look abroad and meddle with this man and the other man and neglect himselfe other mens faults are heynous but he neither sees nor once finds fault with his own Some men also are much carried out in company and are full of talk and high discourses and curious notions and these they trade withall and think to be Somebody and get themselves a name and all these things tend to this main end to make man seem to be what he is not something when he is nothing as the Apostle speaks Gal. 6.3 and to cover and hide these Devils these Witchcrafts these Sorceries these Inchantments from his own and others beholding If the Devil can but hide himselfe that he be not known to be as he is he knows he shall rest secure enough then the soul is quiet enough and thinks all is well and so the man sleeps in the Devils arms and knows nothing of his own misery until he lie down in sorrow and condemnation with the Devil for ever and this is that which the Divel labours to do in man with all his might This hiding and eovering and deluding is meerly the work of the Devil Now the work of Christ is to undermine and to Counter-work all this viz. by discovering and laying open all these mischiefs and deceits and by letting man see his own folly delusion and misery for the Devil would by no means be discovered least he should be cast out Therefore he cannot abide that man should dwell at home and be over busie with his own heart to see the Inchantments and cheatings that are there For there it is the Prince of Darknesse rules and fits as King of the Bottomlesse pit and he knows he can delude and deceive and be too hard for all the men in the world except Jesus Christ undertake to uncover and unmask his delusions But when Christ will discover him in thee then thou shalt see thy selfe to be all these things that we have spoken and that all those lying Divinations are in thee then all thy deceits and lyes shall lie under the sentence of condemnation then and never before canst thou discover or bear witnesse against Antichrist and the Prince of Darknesse then thou shalt come to know whether thou art indeed a member of Jesus Christ viz. by finding these discoveries to be made in thee Mat. 16.17 for then thou canst witnesse that flesh and blood never revealed these things to thee Then thou shalt see experimentally what it is to be in captivity what it is to be in Egypt in Babylon and that thou wast in such cruel bondage once and bound with such strong fetters as no hand could deliver thee but onely the hand of the meer mercy of God and that it is that onely which maketh thee to differ and not any power wisdom or watchfulnesse of thine own nothing but that Almighty hand hath delivered thee from the Witch and the Deluder and the Sorcerer and destroyed the Destroyer and all this out of meer mercy and good will to thee And then also this will follow if thou hast found these things done and acted in thy self thou canst not chuse but pitty and pray for all those who are yet under the same Inchantments When thou beholdest them thou canst not chuse but say alas poor-soules I know full well that there is none but only the hand of Jesus Christ that can help and deliver them I was in the same condition what was I more then they that so much mercy hath been shewed to me and in seeing their misery thou canst not but remember thine own and so thou seest thy self in seeing them This the Apostles did when they beheld others they confessed that they were by nature Children of wrath as well as others 'T is onely the mercy of God that pulls thee as a brand out of the fire Eph. 2.3 Zach. 3.7 Jude 23. while others are burning there still And t is onely his infinite and undeserved goodnesse that hath delivered thee from all those great Deluders and Inchanters from the Devil and from Antichrist for thou hast truly seen and found that the same principle of Hell and Darknesse is in thee that is in any other and that there be none that do good Psal 14.2 none that seek after God though they pretend never so much to him All this considered and seeing it true in thy own heart who art now set at liberty Mark 5.9 and knowing all these LEGIONS of Devils cast out of thee thou wilt be so far from insulting and upbraiding any in this condition that thou wilt pitty them in thy very soul from a fellow-feeling