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
the corner it is rejected and laid by even by those that account themselves Master builders and this is the Lords doing and it s marvailous in our eyes Again another ground why the souls of men come not to Christ Reas 3 is because the appearing of Christ in the spirit makes all the hidden things of mans heart lie open even that which man himselfe never saw nor never thought was in him and this man hates and will not abide to see nor behold that depth of pride that selfe-glorying hypocrisie c. and taht bottomlesse pit of misery mans eye never looked into himself into his own heart but in the day of the appearance of Jesus Christ all this is discovered and laid open therefore man would by no means come to Christ because the appearing of Christ discovers his sin and condemnation man loves his own life skin for skin and all that a man hath will be give for his life but he that loseth his life shall find it Job 2.4 Mat. 10.39 John 3.19 therefore our Saviour tells us plainly that this is the câ—ndemnation that light is come into the world and men love darkness rather then light because their deeds are evil for he that doth evil hateth the light neither comes to the light lest his deeds should be made manifest that they are evil So here the ground is rendred why the Gospel is Condemnation to the sons of men the Gospel brings light but men resist it hate it Certain it is that the light of Christ is in every creature for he is the true light that enlightens every one that come into the world Joh. 1.9 Mat. 6.23 And if this light that is in us be darkness how great is that darkness Here is the condemnation of all the sons of men that they dare not stand in the light of Christ not being able to behold hell in their own hearts but labour by all means to cover it for the light of Christ would shew them that there is no thought action or duty or performance that ever they did that had any thing of purity in it but it was all sin Now man not daring to see his own misery therefore he runs from this light and gets himselfe behinde any tree He runs from the appearance of him that sits upon the Throne and so resolves he will not see his own misery death and condemnation Rev. 6.16 neither will he believe it though he be told it by an Angel from Heaven he will not come to the light lest thereby he may know or be convinced that his deeds are onely evil Againe this is the work of the Father to draw men unto Christ because no lesse then infinitness and Eternity is able to bring God and man together the separation between God and man is so vast and they are at such an infinite distance since his fall that nothing but Infinitness can bring these two infinite ends together for the soul of man in one sin sins against an infinite God in any one sin it goes out and turns away from the infinitnesse of all blessednesse good joy glory and peace and so goes down into the infinitness of nothing for nothing is a kinde of infinitness and he is indeed gone into a far Country Luk. 15. 13. as the Prodigal was now therefore nothing but the infinite powers and infinite wisedome and strength that is in the Lord is able to bring life out of death something out of nothing therefore there is nothing to bring the heart of man out of that far country wherein to it is gone and out of that bottomless pit into which is is fallen nothing can do it but infinitness and eternity 2 Cor. 4.14 nothing but the same spirit that raised up Jesus Christ from the dead can quicken our mortal bodies there is nothing I say able to do it but the same spirit to bring a poor soul from hell and condemnation and make it one in unity with the spirit And therefore the Apostle witnesses Eph. 2.13 you that were aliens hath he made nigh by the blood of Christ Eph. 2.13 and you that were sometimes afar off hath he made near by the blood of Christ So now I hope this appears a truth to you and I hope the Lord will make it so in you by experience till then it is not a savour of life unto life for except you have the Scriptures made good in the power thereof in your own hearts what are the Scriptures to you And I have alledged them for that very end that you may finde and say These things are all fulfilled not only among the Jewes and at Jerusalem but really and truely in my selfe So then I hope some of you see it is the alone power of the Father that draws the soules of men unto Christ otherwise no man can come unto him But give me leave yet a little farther for the clearing it and explaining it by the way What this power of the Father is or how the Father doth draw or bring the soules of men unto Christ God is said to be a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth Joh. 4.23 God is nothing but life glory and power spirit and immortality and whatsoever thing we could have a notion or similitude of that is able to set out strength and life and glory and wisdom yet all these come infinitly short of setting out the strength and power of the Lord of Hosts the great Jehovah who is Psal 121.5 he that keeps Israel Psal 121.5 he that keepes Israel neither slumbreth nor sleepeth so that is is to be cleared what power it is that brings the spirits of men unto Jesus Christ Certainly there is nothing but the same eternal spirit that was in Jesus Christ it is the same immortal and immediate hand and power of God that doth ever raise up the soule of man and bring it unto Christ and nothing but that spirit only and therefore from hence is that of the Apostle that no man can so much as say that Jesus is the Lord but by the holy Ghost 1 Cor. 12.3 Joh. 3.5 and except a man be born of water and the spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdome of God for t is all one and t is wrought by one and the same Almighty Spirit to say that Jesus is the Lord by the spirit and to be born of the spirit for man to say confess so ten thousand times if he do not feel him to be the Lord and the Almighty in him all his confessions in words are nothing And by one spirit saith the Text ye are all baptized into one body even the whole body and they all testifie one and the same thing that there is but one spirit 1 Cor. 12.13 Eph. 4.4 one Lord one Faith one Baptisme one God and Father of all Eph. 4.4 and they have all been made to drink into
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
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
23.7 c. who love to be called RABBI or by that Blasphemous Title of DIVINE and they must be honoured above other Saints of God and they are The Clergie and others they are but the Layitie of a meaner rank then we say they And how doe they love to have greetings in the market and the uppermost rooms at Feasts and the like well let them look to it God will judge them one day for all their Sorceries and inchantments and for standing up between him and his glory To whom alone all praise is due but to every man misery shame confusion of face blacknesse of darknesse hell and condemnation But hence we may see that it is no new thing to be bewitched by the Sorcerers and Inchanters and Magicians of the World The Galathians themselves were so for there are many Antichrists in the world there are legions gone out from the Prince of darknesse to deceive the whole Earth And if any from Christ speak but the truth he by his cunning devices will disguise it under the shape of Heresie Schisme Familisme or some odious nickname or other that so the truth may not be owned nor known That so men may stop their eares against the Heavenly voyce of Christ which brings down all things adored or loved in or from man and sets up nothing else but the power wisdom goodnesse holiness and Alsufficiency of the Lord alone He cries Mans heart and all the imaginations thereof are onely evill continually and that there is none that doth good Psal 14.3 Rom. 3 10. no not one They are all gone out of the way and every one is become abominable there is none that understands or seeks GOD. And that there is nothing in man of good but all is evill sin death darkness abomination a lye and utter desolation But Satan cries in the mouthes of his Ministers Let man doe something he can pray he can heare and let him follow those rules that we prescribe and they shall bring peace and rest to his soule But if man were but content to heare the voice of Christ and to stand in the light of God he should be convinced that he had no power no goodnesse and that nothing but onely the power of God could carry him out and that he is dead in trespasses and sins Ephes 2.1 and that the voice of Christ alone can raise them from their graves and that no lesse power can quicken or raise but the eternall Almighty power which raised Iesus Christ himselfe from the dead Rom. 8.11 It is not as men say If you will come to us and joyn and walk with us and be dipt with us or break bread with us will give any life any peace to the soule but the standing in the light of God that so man may take to himselfe death and darknesse misery and wrath and here to stand and dwell and that in him is no good thing then this light would also shew him that in Christ is all life liberty fulnesse satisfaction peace and rest and nowhere else If men did but abide in this light it would debase and keep low the lofty thoughts and those great expectations of and from man it would also give Jesus Christ his due it would not suffer him in the least to act against the glory of Christ but man would be dead and buried and Christ would onely ascend and sit upon his Throne There would nothing be esteemed in Heaven or Earth Mat. 19.21 but Christ and he would be content to sell and lose all for him This light would curb every wicked act every desire of the flesh this alone is the means to crucifie and kill thy vile nature and not any outward externall thing by washing or dipping in water or eating such a poore empty carnall thing as a bit of bread or drinking a sup of wine this thing never did nor never will doe it but to eate and drink that which Christ gave which was not a little bread and wine onely but HIMSELFE Joh. 6.56 1 Cor. 11.29 Ibid. v. 20 ch 10.16 and by feeding on him eating his body and drinking his blood this will nourish to eternall life When ye are met together into one place this is not to eate the Lords body For the bread which we break is the Communion of the body of Christ and he that eateth and drinketh unworthily discerneth not the Lords body Object But may I not use these things Object Ans Yea Answ so you think your selves never the better for using them for t is not they can feed or comfort thee nor t is not going on in thy own power nor thy using of means for Christ alone is the way and the means As if you come to a Feast you are not invited to eate the platters or earthern dishes which bring the meat but you are invited to the meat they doe but bring the meat and if thou eate not the meat thou mayst starve and die if thou follow the dreams of thy own heart and thinkest thou eatest and dost not what a horrible delusion and inchantment is this But of these things we may have an opportunity to speak more fully hereafter Thus you see what are those things which the Lord will cut off in that day when he shall come Thy Horses and thy Chariots thy Cities and thy strong holds Thy witchcraft and thy Southsayers Thy graven Images and thy standing Images out of the midst of thee THE SECRET SOUTHSAYER OR Hidden SORCERER discovered By Mr. Jo. WEBSTER SERMON II. Preached at Alhallows Lumbard-street MICAH 5.10 11 12 13. And it shall come to passe in that day saith the Lord That I will cut off thy Horses out of the midst of thee and I will destroy thy Chariots And I will cut off the Cities of thy Land and throw down all thy strong holds I will cut off Witchcrafts out of thine hand and thou shalt have no more Southsayers Thy graven Images also will I cut off and thy standing Images out of the midst of thee and thou shalt no more worship the work of thine hands I Have beloved according to the appearance of God in me shewed the meaning of these words according to the Spirit and the Mysterie declaring that great work which is brought to passe by Jesus Christ when he appeares gloriously in the world in the soules of men and is exalted as Lord and King and then it is when Jesus Christ is exalted in the earth and not when men are exalted or when there is peace and plenty of outward things But all the speakings of the Prophets and of Christ himselfe tend to set out that Kingdome and PERSONALL REIGNE which generally all men know little of and neither wil nor can own for a glorious state because not accommodated with outward power riches and eternall glory But in that day when Jesus Christ will come and arise in power spiritually in the soules of men then is that
great day and a thousand yeeres will be but as one day when he will accomplish these things and also all those glorious prophesies declared by himselfe and by all his Prophets And this work is begun by way of destroying conquering and cutting off all those things that stand in the way and hinder the setting up of this glorious kingdome And that is all MANS refuges defences or strong holds whatever hath been a rock or stay or peace or rest to his soule to depend upon what ever it is that he hath trusted in to deliver him As first all his Horses and Chariots to carry him out of all danger whatever he rides upon and thinks it will carry him swiftest away from feare wrath or destruction All these things when Christ comes to raign gloriously shall all be cut off and utterly destroyed he shall have nothing left him to flie with or ride upon Secondly All his Cities and Strong-holds shall be razed and thrown down whatever hath been raised by man for his security shelter or safety to prevent or keep off the day of evil not any thing shall stand which he promised himselfe safety from but when Christ is to come he wil send before him such a destruction and overflowing deluge that shall quite carry away all mans building and there shall not a stone be left upon a stone of any thing built or set up by man Thirdly not onely so All his horses and chariots all his Cities and strong-holds shall be quite removed but whatever Witchcraft or Sorcery or inchantments he hath in his hand though they be never so cunningly contrived and full of subtilty and delusion yet all these shal be discovered and cut off So that he shall have no more Southsayers Necromancers Cheaters Sorcerers Diviners Peepers Mutterers Dreamers Then HE who is The man of Sin shall be revealed 2 Thes 2.4 c. the sonne of Perdition who opposeth and exalteth himselfe above all that is called God or that is worshipped so that HE as God sitteth in the Temple of God shewing himselfe that he is God But then shall that wicked one be revealed Rev. 20.3 whom the Lord will consume with the spirit of his mouth and shall destroy with the brightnesse of his comming this ANTICHRIST He shall no more delude nor deceive the Nations with all deceivablenesse of unrighteousness though they work as subtly as Satan himselfe shewing as if they had power and righteousnesse by their glorious pretences and great signes and shews but in that day the Lord will appeare in his own light and life and they shall be discovered to be but lying wonders and deceivablenesse of unrighteousnesse to delude those that perish The men of the world and all your professors and pretenders to Religion they shall no more deceive they shal no more make a shew of that they are not but all their neat and curious contrived juglings shall appeare to be no truth nor reality but only the form and the LIKNESS of things But the truth and light of God appearing all these things shall be laid open that the eyes of men be no more deluded with false and lying shews and pretences but they shall be discovered by the truth and light of God and thereby destroyed and cut off and they shall be no more Fourthly the Lord wil also cut off All the graven Images All those Idols and Images which man hath made and set up by his own wit and invention even all his Religion and all his Forms wherein he so much pleased himselfe And although he have bestowed never so much carving and graving and decking and painting to make them seem neat and curious to take the eyes of the beholders nay though they be made of Silver and Gold and be never so glorious that they even dazzle the eyes of the beholders and cause them to runne wondring after the glory of the BEAST Revel 13.3 yet all these graven Images shal be destroyed and quite cut off Nay not onely the graven Images but the standing Images Though they have been of never so long standing and never so generally received and owned for the truth which have scarce ever been questioned and have been received and rested on from Generation to Generation yet these shall appear in the light of God to be but Images and Lyes and shall all vanish in that day of the Lord and man shall have nothing left him of all his strength riches Horses Chariots strong holds witchcrafts images standing images so that he shall have nothing at all in his hand to trust to and these men for all their strong confidences they shall be utterly distressed and stript naked and shall no more worship the work of their own hands that is there is nothing of man can stand nothing of his righteousness wisdom power acting working worshipping nothing but onely the righteousness power and work of Jesus Christ who saith Behold I alone make all things new Rev. 21.5 Write for all these things are faithful and true Whatever men say write this for truth These things in part we have opened in the morning especially two first his Cities and strong holds for his defence Secondly his Chariots and his Horses in case the former will not secure him yet his Chariots and Horses shall and will uphold and secure him as he thinks that at last he may be free from danger and secure himself from the pursuer Thirdly the Lord promises he will cut off Witchcrafts and they shall have no more Southsayers From hence we held out this That till the day of Christ his appearing man is led by the defilements of his own heart and by no other guide but by Satan and his instruments by the father of lyes deceits and inchantments He alwayes hearkens to the Counsel of the Serpent in him which is more cunning and subtile then any other beast of the feild and so cunningly are his devices contrived Mat. 24.24 that if it were possible he would deceive therewith the very Elect. And there is none that can throw out this deceiver nor this cunning Serpent in man but onely the holy seed of the woman that alone can break his head and destroy him There is none else can overcome this Dragon but only MICHAEL the Arch-Angel nor consume the Man of Sin but onely the mouth of the Lord and the brightnesse of his comming for he is so full of signs deceit and lying wonders that none but the light and truth of God can discover his delusions Rev. 14.11 Luk. 11.21 22. but even all the world have received the mark of the Beast and they run wondring after him and they have in them the strong man armed and what power wisdom or strength of man is ever able to take off the one or bind up the other but when this day of the Lord comes then men shall no more be deluded by Sorcerers nor Inchanters nor by those that mutter and PEEP
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
garments rolled in blood hast thou seen the massacre of thy own life and the burning and the spoil and the fewel of fire in thee Then this shall be a sign to thee that to thee the Child is born and the Son given And thou hast then seen him to be the Mighty God the great Councellour the Wonderful and the Prince of peace Beloved you may talk what ye will of this mark and tother sign for saith Christ Ver. 6. Indeed the men of this Generation seek after signs but let them never once name and other sign till they finde this sign in them Have ye found this cutting off from your selves and this planting by the Lord alone Never tell me of Ordinances nor of Washings nor of Breaking bread nor of any of your rules or forms mind you only this signe this mark before ever ye look for any other of being risen with Christ and the like He that knows not these things in himself knows nothing Christ comes not to send peace before he hath sent the sword Mat. 10.34 What 's now all your doings all your dippings washings baptisms if ye have not this Baptisme all the other can never make the doers thereof nor the commers thereunto perfect Heb. 9.9 10.1 And till this be all your baptisms and worships are but from men and not from Heaven and all your Ordinances are but the Ordinances of men neither do you know what an Ordinance of Christ is for all these are but shadows your Sabbaths your new moons all things of this nature for the body is Christ Col. 2.17 If Christ himselfe will make use of these then indeed they are HIS Ordinances and there is life and power in them but as men use them they are empty cold dead and they change not the commers therunto at all for they are alive still and their spirit is yet whole in them and they have no change wrought in them from the men of the World for they are as much in love with honour and credit and all the things of the world as any other men Mat. 7.20 Col. 3.1 by their fruits ye may know them and yet they professe to be risen with Christ and to seek those things that are above why because they mistake things that are above But because they go to Church and hear and pray and fast and conform to Johns Baptism therefore they conclude they mind the things of God and seek after them Beloved to be risen with Christ is another manner of thing and it must be done by another manner of power then these men ever felt Even the very same Almighty power that raised up Iesus from the dead else they do but delude themselves This work is done by no other but by his own eternal spirit And men need not seek to any other help or means but him as thinking they can doe themselves any good But here now comes in the common Objection at which all men having not the work wrought in themselves stumble and fall Obj. and over this block they cannot get Although it is true that God does all and he must give a new heart Ezek. 11.19 and take out the stony heart and give an heart of flesh Thus far they will joyn in with you But must not man do his part and use the means that it may be effected This indeed hath been Answ and is and shall be the great stumbling block in all ages for men having not the experience of these things done in themselves they dreame of mans doing acting and working and he must put himselfe upon this duty and that when as I told you before no man seeks for Heaven as this Heaven and how then can he use the meanes for it when he never once desires the true Kingdome of Heaven but hates it opposes it runs from it useth all his inventions and weapons offensive and defensive to keep it out and desires the Lord to depart from him Job 21.14 Mat. 8.34 for be desireth not the knowledge of his wayes and with the Gergesens rather then they will part with their swinishness and that mire wherein they wallow they will meet Christ and desire him not to come neere them but to depart out of their coasts so well do all men out of Christ love him and seek after him or use meanes to come to him But to answer more particularly I do not ☜ nor never did deny the use of the meanes in the hand of the Father for the meanes do nothing but the Fathers hand only And God never intended a carnal meanes should effect a spiritual work He is a spirit and those that worship him John 4.24 must worship him in spirit and truth The weapons of our warfare are not carnal but spiritual And they are mighty in the hand of God 2 Cor. 10 4. John 3.6 not in the hand of man not in our selves but in him That which is borne of the flesh is flesh but that which is borne of the spirit is spirit And what is it that men make out about this Objection but this that men must do and men must strive and men must watch 't is true what meanes soever God pleaseth to use shall prevaile but if use by man it does nothing at all can a spiritual thing come out of a carnal can a cleane thing come out of an uncleane And therefore 't is cleare to me and to all the people of God and to their experience That the Lord makes no use of mans power or strength or wisdome or watchfulnesse or industry but what is done in man Gen. 1.3 't is purely the hand and power of the Lord. If HE say the word Let there be light in such a soul 't is done if he say to the Lepers Luke 5.12 17.17 Mark 7.34 v. 14. Chap. 5.24 be ye cleane 't is done If he say to the eares EPHPHATHA be ye opened And young man I say unto thee Arise And to the sick Arise take up thy bed and walk then the work is done But men not knowing the work and power of God they are alwayes Harping on this string on mans power acting working striving and the like I but they object further I Object but must not man use external meanes as Preaching and hearing and reading the Scripture and the like Answ Although he do Answ yet what doth all this do except the power of God be in it The Lord is pleased in this Book of the Bible to speak out the things belonging to the Kingdome of Heaven and he is pleased to stoop so low to us to represent by external things those things that are high and spiritual and saving but alasse they are all MYSTERIES and they cannot be known but in the light of God and not in the light of man but as God is pleased to make them out in man else no man knows what they meane in their own nature And
before the God of the whole Earth and their dead bodies shal lie in the streets of the Great City which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt where also our Lord was crucified which cannot be meant litterally for Christ in the flesh was not crucified in Sodom nor Egypt But all these are spiritually to be understood and they are GREAT Mysteries which the world hath not been acquainted with But hath generally received a Notion of God-man dying at Jerusalem And indeed they have contented themselves with a shadow of the truth and little or nothing else there have been very few that have seen beyond the shadow nor lookt beyond the vail they have not seen IMMANVEL in themselves and that he dwells in us not among us as your litteral men to justifie their Litteral and External knowledge have translated the word because they saw no farther But t is properly God in us Wherever Christ is he brings a new birth works a change upon the whole man this did not nor does Christ do by any of his actions that he did at Jerusalem neither by his holy life nor his meritorious death For was ever any of the sons of men conformed to him by that act T is true his death was infinitly meritorious and one act in him as being God equal with his Father Phill 2.16 was a sufficient sacrifice and attonement to pacifie the infinite wrath of God But yet know that Jesus Christ is not only a Sacrifice for an hour or two only for the time he suffered in the flesh under Pontius Pilat but He is that One Eternal everlasting Sacrifice which is continually offered up to the Eternal Father in the behalf of all the Elect. And also we grant that by that Act the Eternal purpose and decree of God was fulfilled in bringing forth the true IMMANVEL God and Man in One person who should more fully reveal the Father and in revealing the Father reveal himself for t is said Of Herod and Pontius Pilat Acts. 2.23 Acts 2.23 Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledg of God by wicked hands have crucified and slain But by his comming in the flesh and by his holy life and cruel suffering and death or by his external presence or company or eating and drinking with him or handling or touching him or external beleeving on him by nothing of this nature was any good done spiritually upon the souls of men nor had any one his nature changed or regenerated no no But the true comming of the MESSIAH and the fulfilling of all the promises concerning him was by being made IMMANVEL to us and being brought forth in us this is the Life and Mystery of the Word and of Christ his being made flesh and his true comming in the flesh and he that denies Christ thus come in the flesh the same is ANTICHRIST 1 Joh. 2.22 although he do acknowledge the external comming and dying of Jesus Christ at Ierusalem If he be not come in thy heart he is not yet come asto thee And there is no difference between thee and the external Jew for thou never yet confessedst him by receiving him for he is not a Iew which is one outwardly that is that onely makes a profession of God but circumcision is that of the Heart Wherfore saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 12.3 1 Cor. 12 3 I give you to understand that no man speaking by the spirit of God calleth Iesus Accursed And that no man can say that Iesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost This my Brethren is not done by an outward profession and conformity but when Christ is in us made Lord and King and that nothing within man nor nothing without him sits above Christ nor is esteemed comparable to him This man and no other hath acknowledged Christ come in the flesh and this man only saith that Iesus is the Lord otherwise he is Antichrist and calleth Jesus accursed and hath with the Jewes scourged disdained hated him spit at him 1 Cor. 12.3 and crucified him for there is no man can say that Iesus is the Lord but by the spirit of the Lord. But all that are Iews doe to this day crucify the Lord of Life and say we will not that this man shall rule over us and cry out away with him and release unto us Barabbas but let Iesus be crucified John 8.39 And this is the Language of all the World except those who have received him and they can answer with Peter when all others are ignorant of him But whom say yet that I am Thou art Iesus the son of the living God Verely those that can thus say experimentally of them we may say Verily verily flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee Mat. 16.17 but the Heavenly Father for this is that truth which never any man could teach but it is Heavenly and Spiritual And herein lies the Spirit and the Mystery which is hid from ages but revealed unto us only by the Spirit But all outward things though they were really done yet they are typical and representations still in all ages more and more lively brought forth and more near and more like unto the Truth And when ever Christ came spiritually and was received to them he was come and was the MESSIAH but all others were ignorant of him and therefore crucified him and therefore saith Peter I wot that through ignorance ye did it as did also your Rulers for had they known him Act. 3.17 they would not have crucified the Lord of Life Where Christ is thus come there it may be said indeed IT IS FINISHED but where he is come but externally it may well be said It is not finished for Christ is the Author the End and the finisher of faith and when he is come then it is accomplished compleated And it is FINISHED for there is nothing beyond him Heb. 12.2 nothing better then him nothing higher nor brighter nothing more glorious nor more excellent nor more full then Him Beloved let no man be offended at these things and think that we go about to reproach or vilifie any thing done by Jesus Christ who in all he did fulfilled his Fathers will and all things done by him or unto him were done by the Determinate Counsel and foreknowledge of God But all that we labour to do Acts 4.28 is more to exalt and magnifie the Truth and the Mystery of the Gospel of which so many though professing it are altogether ignorant of it and set up Idols in stead of God and worship shadows and indeed are to them no more but Fancies and Images for the Substance and in that case I know none doth more reproach and vilify Christ in the flesh then they though they pretend so much for him for himselfe often testifies The flesh profiteth not it is the spirit giveth life Joh. 6.63 not those that eat a little Bread or sup a little Wine that
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
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