over when the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord or as another Prophet adds full of the knowledge of the glory of the Lord Ezek. 47.5 Isai 11.9 Hab. 1.14 Zach. 14.8 Rev. 22.1 compared as the waters cover the Sea Isai 11.9 Hab. 2.14 There the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb God even the Father and Christ the Fathers glory shall be fully known by men Rev. 21.22 Rev. 22.4 For as Christ is the appearance of God so when God shall appear in men they shall know how Christ was under the Law and as he is in the Gospel and will be the same for ever All that I know at present of Christ is this he was under the Law in Forms In the Gospel hee appeared in Flesh Tit. 2.13 Heb. 9.28 he will appear wholly in Spirit in Spirit onely the appecarance of the great GOD and Saviour shall be and yet manifest in the flesh of men that is all the transactions of God or all that God did in the flesh of Christ Rev. 12.5 Rev. 11.8 11 12. 1 Cor. 6.2 3. Obad. 21. compared shall visibly appear in the flesh of men the birth of Christ his life death resurrection and ascention shall be seen in us men shall see us ascend in a cloud to sit in heaven to judge the world and Angels and to bee Saviours of men in mount Zion at last For the Lamb shall bee in mount Zion and with him we shall be Rev. 14.1 having his Fathers name on our foreheads that 's the full discovery of God in us and men shall see God even the Father in us with Christ so cleerly manifest as written on our foreheads Mount Sion is not an outward Church-state as the Churches now imagine and call themselves though they be indeed the daughter of Babylon Zach. 2.7 but Zion is the state of all the Saints in the Spirit as they are in God and God in them For as Zion was the place where God dwelt so all the Saints from the beginning of the world have been still waiting for this for the full discoverie of God in them Glorious things were spoken of Zion Psal 87.3 and the people of God both under the law and in Gospel-dispensation were still going on from strength to strength Psal 84.7 till every one of them appears in Zion before God Every one appears at last in Zion Rev 14.1 not onely the hundred and fourscore and four thousand who go before and are the first fruits unto God v. 4. but a numberless company of men whose voyce was as many waters and as a mighty thunder vers 2. For as the hundred fourscore and four thousand is the just number of the sealed ones Rev. 7 4. selected out of the twelve Tribes who were first called the Church and people of God typifying those in the last dayes who shall be redeemed from men and the first fruits unto God as we said before so afterward there will be a company of people called to God whom no man can number Rev. 7.9 But these come to Zion through great tribulation through the bloud of the Lamb in them v. 14. that is through much suffering through the fellowship of Christs suffering and conformity to his death they come to rise and raign with him having palms in their hauds that life of Gospel-Saints which was hid with Christ in God Col. 3.3 shall appear in God and the life of God shall appear in the Saints at last thus Christ their life shall appear in them with glory This glorious appearing of the great God rising up in higher discoveries of himself in men is that which hath been ever most opposed and persecuted I speak not now of the times under the Law nor Gospel nor yet of former appearances since the Apostasie But to goe no further then our own age what we have heard and seen How was the appearance of God in the First Reformers yea in our Prelates and Bishops persecuted as heresie by the Popish Hierarchie Next the honest Presbyters or Puritans how were they opposed by the same Prelates who suffered before Thirdly these Presbyterians formerly themselves in a suffering condition persecuted the appearance of God in those of higher forms and fellowships as the Independent Churches and these likewise are ready to oppose and persecute the spirits of the Saints who in worship and doctrine are of higher discoveries then themselves The doctrine of God and of Christ for substance is the same in all the Saints though their apprehensions differ or are divers rather And who is ignorant of this that the appearances of God in one man hath not been the same as it was formerly in himself and yet all have been going on from strength to strength at least in their desires and aimes toward Zion Though I am but a child in underdanding and in yeares also to some of our Elders yet here I observed four great steps of Gods glorious appearance in mens preaching First how low and legall were their teachings as they learnt the way of preaching from Mr. Perkins Bolton Byfield Dod and Dike most blessed in their generation by whom and such conforming Ministers more men were converted to God then ever since in any period of time Next the Doctrine of free Grace came forth but with lesse successe or fruit of conversion by Dr. Preston Sibs Crispe yet many before converted were confirmed and comforted by their words Thirdly the letter of Scripture and the flesh of Christ hath been highly set up by both the famous Goodwins the one Master John Goodwin like Apollos being mighty in Scriptures and strength of reason the other excels in spirituall discourses of Christs death resurrection ascension and intercession yet much according to the flesh for he meddles not with the Mystery of Christ in us of his dying in us as Mr. Dell in part discovers but all of Christ without us which though a truth yet not the whole truth nor that spirit and truth which Christ spake of John 6.63 2 Cor. 3.6.18 for as the flesh profiteth nothing but the quickning spirit that dwelt therein so the the Apostles had a ministery of the spirit to carry men through the flesh of Christ into the Father that eternall Spirit dwelling in him and them and so to draw them up into the same fellowship with himself Again this good man speakes much of Christ in the flesh not as he is in the Father and we in him and be in us which is the sum of our spiritual knowledge and all we should know of Christ after his Ascension Joh. 14.20 Thirdly he brings us no further then to the vail of his flesh not through it into the holy of holiest into the Godhead it self that is into the Father for Christ was but our fore-runner Hebr. 6.19 20. Fourthly though the vail of his flesh be a new and living way into the holiest yet not that flesh as living but as dead
the Law had but the tenth our Preachers of the Gospel take up the fifth or fourth of mens lands and labours Fiftly the Priests who had Tithes paid them had no other portion or temporal estate as most of our Ministers have who may therefore preach the Gospel freely if they can Secondly they are more oppressive than Popish Tithes in forrain parts France the Kingdome of Asses as 't is called hath not such an oppression in Tithes for their Priests as our Protestant Teachers and Preachers of the Gospel doe burthen this free Nation for as 't is credibly reported by some who have long liv'd in France that there and in Spain also onely Tithe of hard corn is paid that is of Wheat and Rye but no Tithe of Barley Oates Pease Beans Fitches Tills much lesse Tithe of Hops Hemp Flaxe Saffron or of garden Hearbs Secondly 't is not the tenth sheaf as ours but onely the twentieth sheaf of Wheat and Rie is paid with them Thirdly if there be but nineteen Lambs there is none if thirty nine there is but one Lamb for the Priest as one of twentie and two of fortie is his Tithe but our Gospel-Priests must have one Lamb of ten yea one of seven if there be no more Fourthly ours have not onely the tenth Lamb but tithe of the Wool of the nine remaining wherers the Popish Priest hath no tithe of wool at all Fifthly They take no Tithe of calves hay hay-grasse or justments much less tithe of pigs geese apples eggs and of every thing almost the poor live on our Gospel Ministers must have their tithes Thirdly since the Independent Pastors are turnd Parsons and Preachers of the Gospel Parish Priests the burthen of Tithes hath been more oppressive in them than in the Prelates and Presbyters heretofore For first These were Nationall Ministers and did service to every Parish in the Nation therefore the National maintenance was more of right proper for them but the Independent Churches separating from the Nation and professing a Gospel-practice cannot for shame deny their own Principles as to keep up Tithes but rather to look for a maintenance from their own Churches or to live of the Gospel if they preach to the World I say of the Gospel that is to live by faith in God who will doubtlesse feed his servants and cause men freely to contribute unto them who preach the Gospel freely Secondly The Tithes formerly were never so farmed out to Commissioners friends who rackt the poor Parishioners to raise their own private gain though they get forty or fiftie shillings yearly by the bargain Thirdly as 't is more reasonable for the Parish to farm their own Tithes with the former abatements so in these times of publike Taxes Contributions and necessary burthens on the Nation the oppression of Tithes is more intollerable but our Independent friends load the people who hoped to have been eased of all by their meanes Fourthly Godly men in Wales who have suffred much for the State and in tenderness of conscience could not pay Tithes to the Prelates of old yea who were indulged in those dayes are now forced not onely to that but to pay all their Arrears of Tithes formerly spared Fifthly as Tithes under this oppressive Form was first established by the Churches of Wales who have given example for the English to follow the pattern and oppression so consider what the Churches there have gained by this even more Officers in the Church than ever Christ commanded as Commissioners Treasurers Sequestrators and Collectors for Tithes a thing which neither Law nor Gospel nor former Ages ever heard of Sixtly Hos 6 8 9. God compareth such unto Thieves and Robbers Gilead is a Citie of them that work iniquitie and polluted with bloud or as the Margen reads cunning for bloud And as Troops of Robbers wait for a man so the companie of Priests murther in the way by consent the Geneva notes Gilead to be the Citie where the Priests dwelt and the companie of them was like a Synod or Classis Independents and Presbyters agree together and consent in Tithes Seventhly Doe not the Churches by this rob God also this at least being a Typical expression of their spiritual robberie Will a man rob God yet yee have robbed me Mal. 2.10 14 17. Mal. 3.7 8 13. saith the Lord But ye said Wherein have we robbed thee In tithes and offerings Mal. 3.8 Pray observe in this and in the former Chapters how oft God seeks to convince the Priests six times together but the Priests will by no meanes be convinced by God himself of their manifest hypocrisie Secondly That God speaks to the Priests in both Chapters is plain from Mal. 2.1 And now O ye Priests this word is for you and 't is their word also Mal 3.14 What profit is it that we have kept thy Ordinances and walked mournfully Or as the Hebrew reads it walked in black that is their garbe as Baals Priests are called Chemarim Zeph. 1.4 or Black coats Now What profit is it say they that we have kept thine Ordinance It is not Ordinances but thine Ordinance the Lords Ordinance as I shall shew another time is the Spirits presence and power from on high this was the first Gospel-Ordinance the Baptism of the Spirit and of Fire for the appearance of the Spirit was on every Ordinance of the Gospel Acts 1.4 5. Acts 2.38 Acts 8.6 28. in water-Baptism there was the promise of the gift of the Spirit and the power of the Spirit in some visible gifts appeared with every one that did baptize in breaking of bread 1 Cor. 12.13 1 Cor. 14 15. 2 Pet. 1.12 they dranke into one Spirit they did sing in the Spirit pray in the Spirit preach the Gospel with the holy Spirit sent down from heaven yea in truth all outward Ordinances of the Gospel were but the Ordinances of man though appointed by God the appearance and power of the Spirit was the Ordinance of God but what profit say the Priests is it that we have kept thine Ordinances waited on the Spirit there 's no profit in this Truly the Spirits presence was more waited on and the Saints in Wales were far more spiritual before their Church-fellowship more simple-hearted sincere self-denying and dying to the world yea though they walkt in Ordinances there was no talk then of Ordinances they were dead unto them it being the worlds Religion the Saints were all drawn up to the Spirit which made them to be scoft of the world which now they follow in their principles practice and desire of profit What profit say they Oh there is no profit in the Spirits presence in the Ordinance of God the power of men the Ordinance for Tithes and maintenance for Ministers hath more profit with it Well Friends you must shortly walk in black and mournfully with your Forefathers the Prelates and Presbyters because you follow their steps in the height of your Spirits and
and crucified became the living way Heb. 10.20 as with God I shall shew another time Fifthly that worthy man brings men to the way but not to the Truth and Life Now Christ was all First the way for no man cometh to the Father but by me Iohn 14.6 now 't is a vain thing to keep men still in the way to stand still in the way and not to goe on by Christ into the Father into the holiest and thus was Christ the Truth Iohn 14.3 also taking us into the Father with himself for as this was eternall life to know the Father to be the onely true God Ioh. 17.3 and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent so Christ was sent or God even the Father was manifest in his flesh that we might see God in us as he was in him Iohn 17.21 23 24. and our life with him in God Lastly thus Christ is the life and thus he that hath the Son hath life that is the Son being once revealed in us reveals the Father in us also God in our flesh as in his and we living with him in God alone Joh. 14.19 20. 1 Joh. 5.11 12. This is the knowledge of Christ in the Spirit and this is the fourth step which some have attained to holding forth Christ in the Spirit as Mr. Sedgwick Mr. Sterrie Mr. Sprig and others these with their fellows are neerest Zion yet are they not come into it for as every Prophet shall one day be ashamed of his vision Zach. 13.4 yea prophesie it self shall fail So it is manifest these men are of a dark and deeper speech then can be easily understood Isai 33.19 therefore it is not Zion when there shall be such a glorious appearance of God in men that all shall see and hear him in them and as they shall see eye to eye when the Lord shall bring again Zion Isai 52.8 or bring forth himself cleerly in us who are now in captivity or he rather captive in our flesh so men shall hear God himself in us for so it is in the Hebrew Zach. 8.23 not we have heard that God is with you but we will go with you for we have heard God with you and in you Then man shall be nothing and God shall be all in all yet man shall be all in God and nothing but God shall appear in man This glorious appearance of the great God in man the three Shepherds the Pastors and Teachers doe indeed abhor they hate his appearance as I said and he abhors all their performances But who are these three Shepherds the Pastors of Churches What their cutting off is my former Letter shewed to suffer the curse of God and contempt of men How God cuts them off It is by unchurching them and by confounding or dividing them the Lord doth first unchurch them burns up the Church with fire Zachariah 11.1 there he calls Lebanon to open the doors that the fire may come in to burn up the tallest Cedars What 's Lebanon but the Temple for it was built with that Who are the Cedars but the tallest Members the principall of the flock What is the fire but the Spirit of the Lord as the Lord God calls upon Lebanon so he commands that the Church doors may be open for the fire to enter and the spirit to burn up all their chiefest members and Ministers for so it is vers 2. The mighty men or the gallants are spoiled yea there is a howling of the shepherds for their glory is spoiled v. 3. Their Church-fellowship and forms is that they glory in God spoils them and stains the pride of all their glory yea he burns it up How By fire The baptisme of the Spirit and of fire was the first Gospel-Ordinance Acts 1.4 5. or that which first set up the Church in a Gospel-order Fire will be the last that shall burn up the Churches who because they would not as the Primitive Saints did wait for the Spirit to build them the Spirit shall come to burn and consume them at last Secondly God cuts them off confounds and divides them he cuts them into three parts as we shall see by and by Thus then the three shepherds are the Pastors of all the Churches or whole Ministery of the Church Ezek. 16.30 Rev. 17.2 for as the Apostate Jewish Church was a Type of the Christian Church now under the Apostacie the whoredomes of Israel typifying the great whore whose fornications and the wine thereof in their forms of doctrine and false worships as we shall shew another time so Junius well notes the three Shepherds to signifie the whole teaching Ministery of the Jewish Church Vid. Junium in Zach. 11. for the Pharisees Sadduces and Essenes saith he were the onely Pastors or Teachers who did instruct the people in the Word of God as Prelates Presbyters and Independents are the whole Ministery of the Church of England this day These are divided not onely in Worship and Discipline but in doctrine also especially in three things 1. In the free grace of God which some call Antinomianism 2. In the free-will of man which otherscall Pelagianism 3. In the death of Christ or universal Redemption of mankind thereby which both Presbyters and Independants abhorre as Paganisme though nearest the Gospel indeed I shall not now shew the cause of all those divisions in Doctrine being engaged onely at present to prove their defilements in the worship of God and in their walking with men Yet this is one cause of their former difference and divisions in Doctrine Acts 2.42 because the Apostles Doctrine being before all Gospel-Ordinances is out of order in the Churches 1 Tim. 6.3 2. Tim. 1.13 who not content with that forme of sound words and wholsome Doctrine delivered by them doe follow the childish Dictates of Fathers the Decrees of Councels being a company of Bishops with such Creeds Confessions and Catechismes formed by them and reformed Churches whose conformities and fooleries in formes of worship though our Churches cannot chuse but see yet with a blind devotion they follow all their formes of doctrine not suffering a doubt or the least debate to passe upon their reason and judgement therein How injudicious this is with ingenuous men let all men judge Iohn 3.12 for if I tell you of earthly things saith Christ and yee beleeve not how will yee beleeve if I tell you of heavenly all outward worship is but an earthly thing Now if all Fathers and former Churches have erred in worship why not I pray you may they not erre in Doctrine in heavenly and hidden things in the high Mystery of God and of Christ especially seeing the Apostles did prophesie of such deceit to come in this by vain Philosophy Col. 2.8 and metaphysicall speculations of the Deity by the traditions and inventions of men the rudiments of the world the rudiments that is the A. B. C. or common Catechismes which
is the Religion of the world and of little Children Another cause of divisions in Doctrine is this the confidence of men and Ministers who conceive that Christians know God and Christ already whereas themselves are ignorant of both Rev. 1.7 03 Rev. 5.2 not minding that God is a Mystery and that the Mystery of Christ hath been a sealed Book ever since the Apostasie as I have shewn in a book of neither Truth nor Error Nor Truth nor Error c. page 6. nor Light nor Darknesse but in the evening there shall be Light Thirdly Their darknesse and divisions hath been caused by not knowing Christ in the Spirit nor understanding the Mystery of Christ for all Christian Religions have been doting onely on the flesh of Christ See the Papists how they look upon Christ in a Picture so Protestants have their pleasant Pictures also Isai 2.16 Ezek 16.17 the Image of a Male as the Prophets phrase it that is fleshly apprehensions of Christ which they adore and deifie thus the Arminians and Socinians goe no farther than Christ after the flesh and the last especially though religious and most learned men yet look no higher than flesh yea the eternall Spirit and infinite God they confine to a place in Heaven where say they his essentiall presence is though his power be every where a very carnall conceit of God and of Christ But what mystery can the Socinian see in the Man Christ if the Man be not God or God manifest in flesh is not the Man Christ the Mystery of God Rev. 10.7 Col. 2.2 Eph. 3.5 And how can the Mystery of God and of Christ be manifest but by the Spirit 't is neither strength of reason nor reading of Scripture but the Spirit onely even the Spirit of Revelation that can prove the Godhead of Christ therefore the Apostle himself had it not as he received it of man nor as he was taught it but by the Revelation of Jesus Christ when it pleased God to reveal his Son in him c. Gal. 1.12 15. For how could the Apostle preaching to the Heathen prove the Godhead of Christ by Scripture to them who owned neither Christ nor Scriptures But Christ speaking in him that is Christ in the Spirit 2 Cor. 13.3 God powerfully acting and appearing in Pauls flesh did so manifest the Mystery to them that by the power of God working in him mightily he was able to present every man in Christ that is in God and God in them and they his Off-spring and thus did he prove the Godhead of Christ Col. 1.28 29. and that God would judge the world by the man Christ Jesus even by the manifestation of God in the Saints Acts 17.28 29 32. who should judge the world with them and in him 1 Cor. 6.2 Indeed to the Jewes who acknowledged the Scriptures by Scriptures he proved that Christ was God yet not the Godhead of Christ by that for as Christ never said that he was God but sent by God so he shewed his Godhead to be the Father dwelling in him and doing all his works which though neither the Jewes nor Disciples clearly saw in the dayes of his flesh yet when he should depart to the Father and the Spirit or Promise of the Father should be sent then the power of God appearing in their flesh as in his he shewes them the Father plainly for as no man knowes the Father but the Sonne and he to whom the Sonne reveales him so I said before that God even the Father must reveal the Sonne in us by the Spirit of Revelation to us else there is no knowing the Godhead of Christ at all John 14.10 John 16.25 27 28. For no man can say that Jesus is the Lord 1 Cor. 12.3 but by the Spirit alas man what mystery is it that Christ is God because God made the Man so because God gave him that name gave him that power and glory as God 't is true that Christ even the Sonne of God had all by gift of the Father Iohn 5.19 22 26. verses The Sonne could doe nothing of himself God gave him even the Spirit gave him authority to judge gave him to have life in himself whereas we have all of him Math. 28.18 Iohn 17.2 Phil. 2.6 9. Heb. 1.8 9. and by him God gave him glory all power in heaven and earth God gave him a name above every name yea gave him to be called God for God his God annointed him to it above his fellowes all this proves not the Godhead of Christ but that he was the Man Gods fellow that is equall with God in the form if God as 't is parallell'd by the Apostle and Prophet Zach. 13.7 Phil. 2.6 9. Therefore what Socinus saith that Christ is God because God gave him that name that power that glory and honour is no mystery for God can give to a Worme to thresh the mountaines to throw down the earth to destroy and judge the world Isai 41.14 15. Jer. 51.20 But what 's the Mystery of Christ wait for the Spirit to manifest it to thee and me Till the seventh Angell sound Rev. 10.7 the Mystery of God shall not be finished nor fully known What a madnesse is it then for men to warr and wrangle about that they know not Is it not better for us to wait in peace and patience forbearing one another and embracing one another in love till the Lord God appear in all I shall therefore crave pardon of all men because I cannot chuse but say that no man yet knowes God nor Christ nor himself this makes the difference and division as I said before because men are so confident and therefore contend of the free Grace of God the free Will of Man and the Death of Christ yet they know not God as he is nor what Man is in God nor what the Man-God Christ is in the Mystery how in God and how he is in man Oh yee Protestants Papists Arminians and Socinians answer me this one question Why did the highest Apostle beg the prayers of all the Churches that he might know the Mystery of Christ that he might manifest it and that he might speak as he ought to speak Eph. 6.19 20. Col. 4.3 4. You think you know Christ and can preach him well enough we shall be all silent and God himself shall speak at last and speak himself and manifest himself unto men Oh that men could watch and wait in love together to that day This is the last thing I had to observe that all the speaking and preachings of men will be silenced by God when the Lord appeares Pray but observe in those four steps before mentioned of Gods appearance in men how the power efficacie and fruit of Conversion hath decreased The Doctrine of Free-grace converted fewer than that legall teaching before the preaching of Christ after the flesh by the purest Churches hath had lesse converts yet yea those