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
The Judgement Set AND The BOOKES Opened RELIGION TRIED whether it be of GOD or of Men. The Lord cometh to visit his Own For the time is come that Judgement must begin at the House of God To separate The Sheep from the Goats and The Precious from the Vile And to discover the Blasphemy of those that say They are Apostles Teachers Alive Rich Jewes but are Found Lyars Deceivers Dead Poore blind naked The Synagogue of Satan In severall Sermons at Alhallows Lumbard-street By JOHN WEBSTER A servant of Christ and his Church Micah 3.5 c. Thus saith the Lord concerning the Prophets that make my people erre that bite with their teeth and cry peace and he that putteth not into their mouths they prepare war against him Therefore night shall be upon them that they shall not have A vision c. The Sun shall goe down over the prophets and the Day shall be dark Their Seers shall be ashamed and the Deviners confounded yea they shall All cover their lips for there is no answer of God LONDON Printed for R. Hartford at the Bible and States-Arms in little Brittain and N. Brooks at the Angel in Cornhil 1654. To All those Dear and Pretious Soules that have been Hearers and are in any measure partakers of the power of those Truths delivered in these following Discourses Deare Friends IT was for your sakes that the good pleasure of the Heavenly Father who maketh all things work together for the benefit of those that love him Rom. 8.28 who are called according to his purpose carried me forth and made use of me who am less then a worm and most weak in my selfe yet strengthened through his Almighty power to manifest these things unto you And it was for your sakes that the goodnesse of that Father of all mercies 2 Cor. 1.3 and God of all consolation kept me so long to sojourn amongst you for I can truly say that what I am or have been unto you in the way of Christ it was his good pleasure and grace that made me so for the mutual comfort both of you and me for I cannot do any thing against the truth but for the truth for I am not able to think or say any thing as of my self 2. Cor. 3.5 but my sufficiency is of God and I am able to do all things yet no otherwise but through Christ who strengthens me Phil. 4.13 And therefore it is unto you that I direct and be queath these insuing Discourses who have been Ear-witnesses unto what God gave me a door of utterance to deliver amongst you And I hope in the Lord Jesus Christ that they are not onely written in your papers or table-books but in the fleshly Tables of your Hearts 2 Cor. 3.3 not with the hand of man but with the finger of God And being requested that they might be made publick the Lord led me unto a willingnesse thereunto for these Reasons I shall now declare 1. That you whom God in some measure hath endued with the spirit of discerning and made you to heare the voice of Christ and not the voice of strangers Joh. 10.3 4.5 may judge and beare witness out of what principle these things are spoken whether they proceed from that wisdom which is from above Jam. 3.15.17 that is first pure then peaceable or from that which is from beneath which is earthly sensual and devilish Mat. 11.19 for wisedome is only justified of her Children and of no others for it is Christ in you the hope of glorie who is that quickning spirit Col. 1.27 or spiritual man that judgeth all things 1 Cor. 2.15 yet he himself is judged of none 2. That those who are alienated from the life of Christ Eph. 4.18 through that ignorance that is in them and are The JEW in the Mysterie that alwaies resists the Holy Ghost and as their Fathers did so do they Act. 8.54 55 56 57. may know that though they gnash upon the Saints of God with their teeth cry out with a loud voice stop their ears run upon them with one accord cast them out of the City and stone them yet do those holy ones of God look up steadfastly into Heaven and see and behold the glory of God the Heavens opened and Jesus standing on the right hand of God and do freely cry aloud unto the Lord that he may not lay this sin to their charge 3. That those poor creatures who are wise in their own eyes and think they know someting Pro. 3.7 when they know nothing as they ought to know may behold and see that the stone which is rejected and set at naught by those who think and call themselves Master-builders and would have others to think also so of them Mat. 21.42 is becom'd the head stone in the corner and it is the Lords doing though wonderful in the eyes of men 4. That those who have spoken evil of these Truths accounting them as blaspemous erroneous and heretical may know that according to that way which they call Heresie Act. 24.14 I worship the God of my Fathers And if there be any thing in these Discourses that the wisdom learning or reason of men can overthrow then it is not of God for Mat. 15.13 every plant that the Heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted out but what is of him must stand And therefore if the wisdom of the Serpent hath any thing to say against any thing herein conteined let it be brought forth for I hope and know that the Lord in me and in all his will defend his own truth so that the gates of Hell shall not be able to prevaile against it Mat. 16.16 and I can truly say the Lord is on my side I will not feare what man can do unto me 5. That the Lord alone may be magnified who hath carried forth my spirit to bear witnesse against all unrighteousnesse of men who withhold the truth of God in unrighteousness Rom. 1.18 and that without respect of persons and especially against all those Churches Worships Professions Confessions Opinions Covenants Gatherings Traditions of men observations of Times Idol-Pastors Hirelings false Teachers Forms and such like which are made appointed constituted ordained set up and practiced by men by the carnal wisdom learning wit reason and policy of the world Eph. 4.4 5 6. For I witness One body and One spirit even as I am called in one hope of my calling one Lord One Faith one Baptisme Heb 8.7 one God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in all And this is the Tabernacle that God hath pitched and not man in which Temple all the Saints are living stones 1 Cor. 3.9 are Gods building Gods workmanship and are all gathered into this body by the spirit and power of God and not by man for by one spirit they are all baptized into one body
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
issue ever come to Christ as long as she had any thing left neither doth any of the sons of men return to him spiritually Mar. 5.26 till they are poor empty lost naked miserable and undone And therefore though they say they are looking for this One and onely Deliverer and talk much of him yet all their waies and practices declare the contrary And this true Deliverer is He that they speak against and oppose And as he was reproached hated spit upon and crucified by the Jews so is he in and by these men for the true Christ and the true Messiah is alwaies abused slandered crucified by the world Me it hates alwaies and therefore it hateth you even all those that hold him forth in the spirit John 7.7 c. 15.20 it cannot but hate and persecute because they testifie that all the deeds thereof are evil And why the reason is because he brings light with him and that discovers their darkness their lyes their Hypocrisy because he testifies that their goodly deeds are evil and upon this account all that know not the life of Christ in experience do really hate it and persecute it for when man hath built up to himselfe much glory riches strength wisedom and great attainments now for Jesus Christ to come and strip him and take away all his beautiful garments Ezek. 26.16 and all his glory and strength here now if man cannot be content to submit and lose all for Christ then he bussles and strives to keep up his glory to keep on his glorious garments that neither men nor himselfe may see his nakedness impurity deformity ungodliness hypocrisy and lyes T is true thou sayest in words Jesus Christ is thy only Deliverer and thou art seeking after him if so why seekest thou then the living among the dead Luk. 24.5 thinking to find Christ in dead forms and dead duties and ordinances as thou callest them and thinkst that they wil deliver and give life and when thou hast done them with some spirit and quickness here is thy comfort and thy joy and so thou settest up thy self and thy own doings for thy Saviour Helper Deliverer But why seek ye Christ and the true Deliverer without your selves for what 's all the Deliverers and Christs in the world if if he be not a Saviour in thee and a Deliverer in thee Why seek ye Christ at Jerusalem and externally and say if I do but beleeve in that person that there lived and died it is enough though I never find him a Saviour in me and to me The time is comming when ye shall neither in this Mountain nor at Ierusalem worship the Father John 4.21 c. for the true Worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth for the Father seeketh such to worship him for God is a spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and truth Now for men to come in the name of Christ and say loe here and loe there and say he is in this form and the other mountain in this ordinance and tother dipping in this manner and in the other way of breaking of bread and the like and they think by using these external things to imitate Jesus Christ and to give the holy spirit and to get grace and they come preaching in his name and in his name have done many great works Luk. 13.27 but saith Christ I never knew you depart from me ye workers of iniquity They say also they are Christs Messengers and Ambassadours and that he hath sent them forth and yet Christ hath not furnished them for their work but only being furnished from the Letter and by reading mens Labours they come forth Audaciously and say we are the Messengers of Christ when as the spirit of Christ never furnished them Ezek. 13.3 yet they say Thus saith the Lord and have seen nothing they have had no vision but say what others say and so prophesie they know not what And farther for all they say Christ sends them yet they dare not trust him not so much as for external maintenance but they must have their bag and their wallet Luk. 10.4 their scrip and their maintenance or else they will not do their work They dare not commit themselves to the wisdom and care of him whom they say sent them But in vain came these men out in the name of Christ and bring forth such fruits who can beleeve them or regard them or honour them comming forth in this manner furely none that have the power of truth and experience of the work of Christ in them and that really know him to be the true and only deliverer But those who are blind as themselvs are blind may indeed be led by them But my sheep know my voice John 10.4 5. and the voice of a stranger they will not follow those who have experience of Christ must see a proof of Christ in them 2 Cor. 13.3 or else they cannot follow them They know if Christ send them he hath spoken in them and that they have heard the word at his mouth and he hath preached in their souls first and discovered himself to be A Deliverer to them Ibid. c. 3.6 or else they bring but the voice of strangers and are but Ministers of the Letter and not of the Spirit And let the sons of men run up and down from this fellowship to the other from Ordinance to Ordinance and from Baptism to Baptism from breaking bread here and there yet is this nothing so long as thy heart is dead still and lies under the power of lust and corruption and is in bonds and fetters still for except Christ be thy Deliverer except he appear pear in thee except this root of David spring up in thee Rev. 5.5 except the Lyon of the Tribe of Judah arise in thee all thou canst do and all thou canst run unto cannot save thee nothing else in Heaven or Earth ever can save help or Deliver thee But if may be this Doctriue may seem harsh to some Obj. and they may Object and say What then shall I sit still shall I do nothing shall I not use the means shall I not prepare and fit my selfe for deliverance Consider I pray you when ye have done what you can Answ what is it you do do or what is it man can do to save or deliver himself is not man dead in trespasses and sins Eph. 2.1 and can any thing raise the dead but the voice of Christ and is there any good thing can be done by them till Christ work it is not all their works without him sin or can there be any thing properly called a means or an ordinance but only Him when men have reformed themselves and their paths and trimmed their way to seek love Jer. 2.33 they have but gone astray in all this and gone after their own lovers and sought themselves in all they
1 Cor. 12.13 whether they be Jews or Gentiles and have been all made to drink into one spirit I also bear witness to One Ordinance and One Administrator Mediator Redeemer and Intercessor which is the Lord Jesus Christ blessed for ever Joh. 14.6 who is the way the truth and the life and no man comes to the Father but by him and it is HE that is ordained Acts 10.42 to be Judge of quick and dead by the Father and there is no name given under Heaven Acts 4.12 by which men can be saved but the name of Jesus neither is there salvation in any other for there are diversities of gifts but the same spirit and there are differences of Administrations 1 Cor. 12.4 5 6. but the same Lord and there are diversities of Operations but it is the same God which worketh all in all And I witness that it is Jesus Christ only by his spirit that makes men Able Ministers of the New Testament not of the Letter 2 Cor 3.6 but of the Spirit And do all teach and speak in and from the power of that spirit as IT is pleased to give them utterance And therfore all those that claim an Ordination by man or from man that speak from the spirit of the world from wit learning and humane reason who preach for hire Jer. 23.1 Ezek. 34.2 Zach 11.17 Joh. 10.1 and make merchandise of the souls of men I witness they are all Baals Priests and Idol-Shepherds who destroy the Sheep and are Theeves and Robbers who came not in by the door of the Sheepfold but climbed up another way And are the Magitians Sorcerers Inchanters Micah 5.12 Soothsayers Necromancers and Consulters with familiar spirits which the Lord will cut off out of the land 2 Tim. 3.8 9. so that his people shall have no more Soothsayers And as Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses so doe these resist the Truth men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning the faith but they shall proceed no farther for their folly shall be manifest to all men as theirs also was woe unto them for they have gone in the way of Cain and ran greedily after the errors of Balaam for reward and perished in the gainsaying of Core Jud. 11.12 13. These are spots in your feasts of charity when they feast with you feeding themselvs without fear Clouds they are without water carried about of winds Trees whose fruit withereth without fruit twice dead plucked up by the roots Raging waves of the Sea foaming out their own shame wandring Stars to whom is reserved the blackness of Darkness for ever And now Brethren I commend you to God and to the word of his grace Act. 20.32 which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all them that are sanctified Mind and give heed to that meek stil quiet and silent spirit of the Lord Jesus that is in you which is Pure Holy Innocent Underfiled and Righteous teaching and leading into all truth righteousness and purity like it selfe unto which if you give heed as unto a light shining in a dark place it will preserve and present you spotless and without blame before him whose eys behold no iniquity which that the Lord may fulfil in his due time in you is the Continual prayer of him who is Yours in the bonds of Love in the Lord Jesus Jo. WEBSTER To the Reader THe Author of these ensuing Sermons being cast by providence upon some imployment in the Lords work in this great City was much Carried forth in his ministration to set up the LORD JESVs in the Hearts of men in opposition to all that is of flesh and all that is of man which caused many out of an impatient spirit to distaste the things that were delivered But many that heard him being inwardly acquainted with what was spoken by him were very desirous to have that published for the benefit of all which they themselves had the happinesse to receive from his own mouth apprehending it to be the Bridegroomes voyce in him and therefore savory to them He being now at a great distance from the Presse and not in a capacity of overseeing that which the Transcriber may have failed in the Reader is therfore desired not to mind the manner of delivery but the matter of that which is here presented wherein if single-hearted he will doubtlesse finde a lively Discovery of many sweet Breathings of the spirit of Jesus Christ from One that appeares to have been long inwardly taught of God and that wholy laid aside all those Humane advantages wherewith he was and is plentifully furnished that he might commend his Message unto the hearts and consciences of men Not with enticing words of mans wisdome but in demonstration of the spirit and of power Vpon which account and no other what follows is recomended to the perusall of all that desire to benefit by what they read by Him that Teacheth to profit Thine In the service of our most holy Faith JOHN CARDELL JOSHUA SPRIG ROBERT BACON TO THE READER Dear Friends HAving obtained the sight of these ensuing Sermons and read some of the matter therein contained they yeilded such a rellish and savour to my Spirit that I could not choose but set to my Seal that it flowed from that spirit which is both pure peaceable which I do not to praise the person or the matter for to man there is none due and to the matter there is none needful because it is Truth and therefore needs not the shelter approbation or praise of men being in it self able to win praise to it self and to carry forth it self against all the oppositions of men or Devils Here thou shalt not find Terms of Art nor quirks of humane Learning and FALLEN Wisdom though the party through whom it was conveied excel in natural aquirements as much as the most but naked truth declaring it self through an earthen vessel in simplicity and plainnesse of speech evidencing thereby that our faith ought not nay doth not stand in the wisdome of mens words but in the power of God And hereby thou mayest see if thou be not blind in the carnal conceits of thy earthly wisdom as most of the Earthen Saints of our times are what self-denial is wrought in this Creature through which the Eternal Spirit hath breathed forth these ensuing precious truths that he having and enjoying all those humane Excellencies of Learning and knowledge which are so in the worlds account and lookt upon as helps to understand the things of God but used to help those that have them to worldly honour and preferment which indeed is the onely use is made of them and no other whatever is otherwise pretended but He in the height of this wisedom is made to become a fool for Christs sake and is willing to lose all honour dignity and preferment that the world and the wisdome thereof can confer upon him that he may enjoy
reform my life and the like sayes man and then these promises are mine The Jewes especially the Pharisees were ever expert and nimble at this who more strict according to Gods own rule who more searched after every Iota of the Law and as farre as they were convinced strived after conformity herein lay the top of their Religion And here they had builded up Babel Now when Christ comes and strips them of their righteousness and pulls down their Babel and by his Doctrine layes them open to the world and makes them appear as they are to be open Sepulchres dissembling Hypocrits Mat. 23.7 to be but pretenders to righteousnesse when they have none at all but to make Religion a cloak to devour Widows houses and to serve their own turns to make for their entertainment with the world Christ now He opening these filthy Sepulchers he shews what they were within how fair and beautiful and holy soever they seemed to be without This made them so mad as to persecute him even to death nothing would serve them but his blood and the cruellest death was too good for him yet these were men of no low principles as men think they were the gravest the soberest the wisest the learnedest the strictest observers of the Law and the teachers of it to others Men highest in esteem the strictest for worship according to the pattern they feared God as they and generally all men thought and loved their neighbour and did righteous theings to men and herein was their glory Now some among us go farther then all this they strive to walk according to the rule and wherein they come short they have a Mediatour and an Intercessour and that is Jesus Christ who died at Jerusalem whom the Jewes would not acknowledge but crucified and they will repent and beleeve in him And now Beloved these have builded up Babel higher then the other for alas this is nothing but wearing a garment of linsey-woolsey Levit. 19.19 Mat. 9.16 this is nothing but sewing a new peice into an old garment and making the rent worse this is but putting new wine into old bottels and the bottels are broken and both bottels and wine as to these men utterly lost They think man must do and man must teach and man must inform and see not that Jesus Christ is the only Teacher the only Master the only Guide they must find out and they must study and they must collect and they must gather here a flower and there a flower and this they present to the people as a precious posie whereof they themselves in their own experience know nothing at all but they have sought it out by their learning and stole it out of other mens labours Luk. 10.2 Are these think you Prophets and Labourers of the Lord of the Harvests sending No No all these things must be lost esteemed as dirt and dung you know what Christ sayes Luk. 5.37 put new wine into new bottels and then both are preserved If all that we do be any thing but what Christ does in us If all we teach be not Christ his teachings in us If all our works be not from the new man born of God which cannot sin if all be not the works of Christ in us whatever it be that man erects and sets up to direct or guide him but onely the wisdom from above whatever it is that strengthens him but the power from on high all must be pulled down and scattered Mat. 15. all made BABEL Every plant that the Father hath not planted must be rooted up if it be not wrought and acted by his Spirit in us it cannot stand When men think by their power and wisedome and by their Authority to act for God and they can propagate the Gospel and establish truth and settle Religion and they can make an uniformity which all ought to submit to whereto doth all this tend but that man should take upon him the work and soveraignty of the Almighty and this is the plaine English God is not wise enough nor powerful enough nor Allsufficient enough to erect the Kingdome of his Sonne Luk. 10.2 but we must do something and we will contrive and we will send forth Labourers as wee shall think meet and what we judge to be truth and wisedome and holinesse that and no other shall be established What 's all this but to establish the wisdom of man and the power of man nay indeed the weakness and ignorance and the blasphemy of men above the strength wisedom righteousness and alsufficiency of the eternal God What 's this but charging of God with weakness and insufficiency and ascribing that to man which alone is due to God Is this any other then to make the weapons of our warfare strong in man 2 Cor. 10.4 and in the power of his might Now the blessed work of God is to pull down this Babel built by the sons of men oh sayes man Le ts have the wisdome and power of the magistrate and let him shew himselfe strong for God and what he judgeth evil and sinne and schisme and heresie let that be rooted up and he will make the crooked things strait and he will undertake to make men religious and to reform their lives Luk. 3.5 What 's all this but to be wise in his own wisedome and confident in his own strength and holy in his own holinesse and that he alone is judge in the things of God What greater blasphemy can there be In stead of being strong in God and in the power of his might Eph. 6.10 they are mighty and strong in man and in themselves Now all these works also the Lord will ruin and destroy All this strong building he will make Babel CONFVSION all this Language will the Lord confound scatter and destroy Whatever it be which is of man or by man erected though pretending a service and a worship of God either found out ad invented by himselfe or else pretending a prescribed rule in the word for it and this done by the power and wisedome of man it is no other but a Babel and shall be made a City of Confusion And this the Lord will certainly doe and bring to passe in man either that both he and his works his wisdom righteousnesse power c. may be destroyed and confounded together that both himself and all his works may be burnt up together or else that his work shall be burnt and yet he may be saved yet so as by fire for this fire of the Lord shall try every mans work of what sort it is 1. Cor. 3 13. if the Lord in mercy descend and come down among the sonnes of men to burn up all their works their wisdome their strength and all things of this nature to strip man of all his abilities and righteousness and make him nothing in himselfe and abominable in his own sight this destruction of the flesh is that
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
whether this way of man do not set him at a farther distance from his true rest for if man think he can come to Christ by any thing of himselfe by any Religious actions and performances then from this it must needs follow that he sees not his own weakness nor wickednesse nor there is no sin nor wickednesse nor misery made manifest unto him And he makes lyes his refuge Esa 22.15 and under falshood he hath hid himselfe and drawn way his heart from the living and eternal God to depend upon the lying and deceitful power and wisedome of man and digged to himselfe broken Cisterns Jer. 2.13 So that Secondly this will follow that this man hath made a Rock to stay himselfe upon for if thou thinkest that thy actions and performances will bring thee neerer unto God then other men or that any thing can draw thee neerer but the meer hand and spirit of the Father is not this I say to set up something against the power of the Father Is not this to set up errour against truth and darkness against light and Antichrist against Christ for here it is manifest that there is nothing but the power of the Father to draw men unto Christ Now seeing thou hast made Lyes thy delight and vanity thy trust see what is pronounced against thee for all thy confidence and strong opinions of thy safety and security Cursed is the man that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his Arm and whose Heart departeth from the Lord. Jer. 17.5 So I say this meerly leads man from a denyal of himself to a setting up of himselfe from a waiting and depending on the power of God to a depending and hanging on the wisedome and power of the flesh now when the soule has made experiment of this in it self to finde see and feele it really in his own heart that no hand drawes to the Father but the Spirit onely Oh then this will make the heart of man lament and say what a hard heart have I I cannot goe one step towards my Saviour Mark 10.51 this makes him cry out and say come Lord Jesus and open my blind eyes that I may receive my sight and thou Son of David haver mercy on me and there is none but thou alone can cure my leprosie and save my spirit or else I perish I perish for ever and this is that which makes man to have the true circumcision and to worship God in the Spirit Phil. 3.3 and have no confidence in the flesh Then if it be the Fathers power and spirit that onely draws men unto Christ Vse 2 Then neither man nor Magistrates can draw or drive them thither the work of the Father is his own work and he hath not substituted any other in his place for he will not give his glory to another neither suffer his holy name to be polluted Esa 42.8 Now if it be thus that unlesse the Father draw man unto Christ man cannot come then it must needs be lyes and vanity for any of the sons of men to take upon them and say they can and they must act something either to draw or drive men unto Christ we know this hath been the undertakings of all ages and times Joh. 16.2 but what was the fruit of it Under pretence of doing God good service they have shed the blood of the Saints that it might be fulfilled that not a Prophet perisheth OVT of Jerusalem Luk. 13.33 for still in all ages who have more persecuted the Gospel and the true Professours thereof then those who shew most Zeal and profession of it Christ and all the Prophets and Apostles and generally all the Martyrs have suffered upon this account that upon them might come all the blood shed upon the earth Mat. 23.35 Gal. 4.29 from the blood of the righteous Abel to this veâ—y day and that the bond-woman alwayes persecutes those that are from above Now I say for the Magistrates to say they can propagate the Gospel and keep back errours alas what is all of this nature but high presumption against the power and absolute Authority of Jesus Christ and taking the government of the Church out of his Hand and proclaiming themselves wiser then He But I shall but propose to these poor selfe-wise Creatures these one or two things Are they able to rule themselves and to keep errours out of their own hearts I suppose no man so ignorant of himselfe as to deny or affirm that he can the nature of man being so depraved that he cannot resist really one sin as it is sin And moreover is it not a truth that if the Lord watch not the City the watch-men watch in vain Psal 127.1 And yet thou that couldest not keep one sin out of thy own heart how canst thou undertake to watch over the Church of God and keep out Errours and Wolves that they come not in Alas poor ignorant man this is thy pride and the vanity of thy heart 1 Sam. 17 28. Psal 121.4 for 't is the Lord alone that keops Israel and he neither slumbereth nor sleepeth Againe dost thou not say that thou art a Christian if so then thou wouldst believe that he is a God Alsufficient I am God Alsufficient walk before me and be thou perfect Gen. 17.1 Is he alsufficieÌ„ntly Wise and Strong Holy Good Merciful c. then is not this the manifestation of thy absolute infidelity when thou thinkest he will not take care of his own Church Or else thou concludest thus if he be Wise enough yet he hath not Power enough and therefore thou must help him And is he not Alsufficiently Good and will he not take care of his own cause Never feare but he will I and take so much care Mat. 16.18 that the gates of hell shall never prevail against it And againe is it not said that it pleased the Father Col. 1.19 that in him should all fulness dwell And that in all things he might have the preheminence and saith he plainly Joh. 5.22 Mat. 28.18 Esa 9.6.7 the father judgeth no man but hath committed all judgement unto his Son And that all power in Heaven and Earth is given unto him And again to us a Son is given and the government shall be upon his shoulders And that of the Increase of his Government and peace there shall be no end upon the Throne of David and upon his Kingdome to order it and establish it with Iudgment and Iustice even for ever And that the zeal of the Lord of Hosts will perform this And againe Col 2.3 that all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hid in him Now is all the power of the father given into the Hand of Christ And have not we all said the Pope is not the Vice-roy nor Vicar of Christ and does not every man throw dirt upon him and yet we can get into the POPES place and sit in his seat
and say we are the Substitutes of Christ That which we deny him we take to our selves certainly all this is nothing else but hellish arrogancy and the pride of the man of sin and ANTICHRIST within us that exalts himself in us above all that is called God 2 Thes 2.4 that puts us into these wayes and to think that we can draw or we can drive to Jesus Christ when there is none can do this but meerly and solely that only and eternal power and spirit of the Father Thirdly if it be so as we have clearly proved and none dare deny it Use 3 neither can then the wisdome nor power nor strength nor any rules of Fellowships or Church-gatherings or any discipline of man draw nor drive others in but 't is onely the drawing and driving of the eternal power of the Fathers spirit It is true the Sons of Men may do and have done and do compass Sea and Land and what is it to doe to make a Proselyte and what then he is but twofold more the child of perdition then before Mat. 23.15 They may indeed gather men into Fellowships and Churches as they call them But to gather men into the spirit of the Lord Jesus this was never the work of man no strength nor power nor wisedome of man could ever doe it and without question every plant that the Heavenly father hath not planted Ibid. 15.13 shall be rooted up It is true and I grant there was some mention made of the Church and Churches in the times of the Apostles but what Churches were they They were no other but what were called by God himselfe in the power of his spirit and not of or by man Where do we read of this mans Church or the other mans Members but they were called the Church of God and not divided by those distinctions of vain-glorious self-seeking ambitious covetous men as they are in these dayes Nor did they Owne one another or had any relation one unto another in their love or esteem upon that account Note But they looked upon one another in what place soever as but one body and having all but one spirit meerly because thty were all baptized into One body by that One Spirit 1 Cor. 12.13 They did not know one another as they were of Paul and of Apollo of Cephas and this mans Church as they now call it But as they were all baptized by one Spirit and into one Body and as they were of one mind and of one spirit and so of one heart Heb. 12.13 and so brought to the general assembly of the Church of the first born And therefore we must conclude there is nothing that gathers or draws in the soul of man unto Jesus Christ but the everlasting power of God We know also men may worship at Jerusalem this way and that way and pretend to honour that Christ who died there and yet they doe but draw nigh to him with their lips Esa 29.13 but not with the spirit in truth but no man can do these things in the power of God nor so much as SAY that Iesus is the Lord but by the holy Ghost and by the power of Jesus Christ And be sure that every plant that my heavenly father hath not planted shall be rooted up From whence also lastly Vse 4 If the power of the Father only draws the spirit of man unto the Son and unto Jesus Christ then let every man look in and unto his own heart and see whether he doe not resist the drawing of the spirit Behold saith he I stand at the door and knock if any man hear my voice and open the door I will come in to him and sup with him Rev 3.20 and he with me enter but into thy own Chamber and be still and look into thy own brest and see whether thou be not daily and hourly resisting the Spirit of God that would draw man unto Christ didst thou but look into thy own heart thou shouldst find there was never any thought that did ever arise in thee to check or controle thee in thy evil wayes but that very thought was a light in thee if thou wouldst have heeded or regarded it And that light also did tell thee that all thy best actions were but sin and that all the wayes thou walkest in there is nothing but fear in them and death in them and misery in them And thy best and holiest services are an abomination There is a spirit within thee that is still troubling and checking thee for every proud and for every evil thought and what is this for 2 Cor. 8.2 onely to let thee see that thou art dead and reprobate to every good work and all thy deeds are evil and all that thou knowest thou knowest not as thou oughtest to know It is to let thee know that thou art naked and poor and blind and miserable It is to take away thy false strength and thy false wisedome and riches and to let thee see thy weaknesse and folly and poverty but this is thy onely misery and the general universal misery of all the sons of men that they dare not stand in the light and abide in it To abide in such a light which shewes that man hath not one good thought Psal 73.22 but is as a beast before God That he hath no holinesse nor no righteousnesse at all Now for thee so farre to presume and to think so highly of thy selfe that thou art of such abilities and wisdome and parts as to sit down at the head-end of the Table or because that thou hast gotten in thy own conceit into the best way of Religion for knowledge and practice and performances and therefore thou art Some-body and thou must be magnified and reverenced and for these men now to be brought back to look into their own hearts and see themselves as bad as the rest of the world and to see themselves the worst of men Oh Beloved what a mighty fall must these men have before ever God brings them into this condition which must be if ever they be brought or drawn home to Jesus Christ by the power of the Father And yet to adde to this besides all this thou hast gotten a covering for thy sins and hast wipt thy mouth and said thou hast done nothing when all thy wayes are nothing but resistings fightings and emnity against God Do not men resist him when they seek esteem to themselves and they must be great and respected and honoured what is all this but to rob Jesus Christ of his honour and steal it away to put upon themselves Oh that the power of God would but make men abide in the Center of their own hearts to see that there is nothing there but darkness nothing but folly in regard of God and Christ if man would but dwell and abide here to see himselfe lost and wretched miserable and undone then God would
but mans bondage and miserable slavery under the Prince of darkness and sheweth what cruelty is exercised upon the true children of Israel and what mighty signes and wonders the Lord is faine to work before the soul can be brought from under this bondage and without question he that hath not found it so in himself was never yet brought out of Egypt he never yet found the true MOSES which is Jesus Christ pleading with spiritual Pharaoh that the soul may depart out thence to serve the Lord for till then man serves but himselfe even in his highest forms and duties And likewise the children of Israels passage through the red Sea and Pharaohs pursuing and their journyings and fightings and meeting with so many enemies in their passage to Canaan what are all these things but the oppositions and dangerous passages of the soul to the heavenly Canaan the pursuing thereof by the Prince of darkness and the god of this world what is this but the violence used by the Prince of the power of the air which continually works in the children of disobedience 2 Cor. 4.4 Eph. 2.2 that is in all the sons of men till they are by a mighty and strong hand brought out of this their Egypt and bondage All this trouble and shaking is that which the Lord promiseth in Heb. 12.26 I will once more shake the Heavens and the earth Heb 12.26 what he did then externally he will once more do that is after the same manner but now spiritually And this is that work and that birth of Christ at which Herod and all Israel is troubled The spiritual Birth of Christ causeth the whole power of the natural man to shake and tremble even those under the purest external forms And when the people of Israel were led a long and tedious passage to Canaan being carried up and down backward and forward what is all this to us and them in the substance and mystery but holding forth mans lost and miserable condition in the way of his own heart in the way of sin shewing the desolations the darkness the forlorn and lost condition of all men by nature that even when the heart of man thinks he is upon the borders of Canaan and he is now in the right way and shal surely by his travel and industry possess that good Land he is for all this deceived and brought back again to the very borders of Egypt Esa 14.15 and is brought down to the very sides of the pit And t is revealed and made known to him for all his fair progress in his religion and for all his forms and inventions that he is still under misery and darkness and sinne and condemnation and that all those things were but things taken up of himself and were no other but shewes and pretences and coverings to delude himselfe and the world because he could not abide to see the internal misery and that bottomlesse gulfe in himself he could not endure to see the smoak of the bottomless pit arise out of his own heart Rev. 9.2 and those innumerable Locusts crawling and covering the whole earth that there are in his heart pride and Lust and Malice and Murder and Covetuosnesse and Idolatry and Witchcrafts and Sorceries and Lyes and every thing that worketh abomination which cannot enter into the new Jerusalem Rev. 21.26 Therefore I say because man cannot abide to see himselfe thus nor that any other should see him thus vile and abominable as indeed he is therefore he gets himselfe a covering for all these things he makes himself Aprons because he knowes he is naked and he would cover himselfe as to himself so to others Gen. 3.17 and from the face and sight of God himself and having done this with all the Art and Cunning he can invent then he thinks he hath covered the gulf he labours having thus seen himself in this gulf to forget what manner of man he is Jam. 1.23 24. he stops the guilt and cry of his own conscience by these aprons coverings and forms and be begins to be secure and he is holy both in his own sight and in the sight of others and he thinks he shall enter and possesse the good Land flewing with Milk and Honey Now for this man to be uncovered and laid open Exod. 3.8 to be emptied of all this goodness and stript of all his forms and holiness and to be brought back to the borders of Egypt and to let him see he is as far from the promised Land as the worst of men nay Publicans and Harlots are nearer then himself this cuts the very caule of his heart this undoes him Mat. 21.31 and he is no more able to abide these words then the Pharisees could the preaching of Jesus Christ who sought in all his Teachings to pull off their coverings and to make them appear as they were and not to be such as they would have the world believe them to be with their holy shewes and pretences Now every man the best of men being in this condition if they could but be content to see themselves so that they are filthy and abominable in all their works and that they were utterly lost and destroyed and confounded in themselves and knew not what to do nor which way to turn themselves then indeed would the Lord come in and shine upon them with light and life and the Tabernacle of the Lord should guide them and it would shew them the way the truth and life and the holy spirit would guide them into all truth Joh. 16.13 Rev. 21.23 The cloud and the darknesse should be taken up and the Lord himselfe would be their Sun their Light and their Guide then they should see experimentally by the teachings of the Father in them Esa 60.19 Heb. 8.2 and not by the outward teachings of men that Jesus Christ is the True Tabernacle which the Lord pitched and not man as the Apostle applyes all to Jesus Christ in the ninth of the Hebrews at the beginning Ibid. 9.1 c. As the Sanctuary and all things therein contained viz. The Candlestick and the Shewbread and the Golden Censor and the Ark of the Covenant and the Golden pot of Manna and Aarons rod that was alwayes green flowrishing and budding c. The Holy Ghost signifying that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest which were onely figures for that time and could not make him that did the service perfect as pertaining to the conscience which stood in meats and drinks and divers washings and carnal Ordinances imposed on them until the time of reformation But Christ being become an high Priest of good things to come by a greater and more perfect Tabernacle and not made with hands that is to say not of this building and so he goes on Of which tings I must say as the Apostle doth that of them we cannot now speak particularly Jesus Christ
nothing else but their own Idols and Groves and Images the inventions and works of mens hands And when they have decked and trimmed their Idols gloriously they not onely fall down themselves to them as Nebuchadnezzar did Dan. 3.11 but enjoyn this Idol-worship to all others and he that will not fall down to what they say is truth and Religion Him they persecute and brand with those odious names of Hereticks Sectaries Schismaticks Familists and the like But in the day when the Lord will appeare to make all these Magicians and Southsayers to be lyars which day they hate and hide themselves from because they hate the light John 3.20 Neither come they to the light lest their deeds should be made manifest and declared that they are not wrought in God but are acted in the power of man by the wonderful working of Antichrist in all power and signs and lying wonders and in all deceivableness of unrighteousnesse 2 Thes 2.8 10. And the Lord when he shall rise wil discover and consume them with the breath of his mouth and with the brightnesse of his comming and all those glorious Images and fine contrived modes and forms and lying wonders wherein they trusted in so much that all the world wondred after the beast Rev. 13.3 as if that these were the only religious men But when God appeares with his light all these shaddows deceits and delusions all these Inchantments and Sorceries wherewith men have cloathed themselves shall be cut off These Cities that the sonnes of men have builded for their safety security and preservation they shall all be cut off from their hands Now of all things in the world these men hate nothing more then this light and this day of the Lord. These Sorcerers use all the means they can to keep away this light and to darken this glory by their reproaches slanders lyes and scandals And they will tell you all this is false light why because it discovers their Inchantments and delusions And they will tell you that all these prophesies concern other things they were onely literally fulfilled when the people of Israel were carried captive into Babylon and there can be no such Mystery in them And so for the promises they will tell you are to be fulfilled externally and litterally or at the most they will carry out the prophesies to be fulfilled onely in the Great Messiah who was born at Bethlem and was crucified at Ierusalem yet indeed know him not And he that shall goe farther then thus is with them a deceiver which sense is no other then those low poore and carnall thoughts and expectations which the Jewes had of him expecting an outward and externall deliverer and all things to be fulfilled in a litterall way As if the holy and divine spirit of the Lord onely busied it selfe about shadows and forms and external worshippings bodily exercises which profit nothing carnal ordinances and things of the world and that he had no higher aym then what every one may come to act and doe when indeed and in truth his main end is to declare the Kingdom of Heaven and set forth the new Ierusalem Rev. 21.2 comming down from God out of Heaven and to shew that his Kingdom is not of this world and consisteth not in meats and drinks touching tasting Rom. 4.17 or handling or any thing the outward man can be exercised in but that his Kingdom consists in righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost Yet some yea most men who pretend very much in the knowledge of Christ yet carry all prophesies of him no higher then his appearing in the flesh and therein say all Scriptures were fulfilled As that prophesie here exprest in the second verse of this chapter The virgin of Israel is fallen Amos 5.2 she shall no more arise she is forsaken upon her Land and there is none to raise her up some say this concerned Israels captivity when all her glory departed from her and she was stript of all her beautiful attire and virgin rayments to which it may be applicable I deny not but that is but in an outward literall and externall way but the spirit of God hath a far higher aym then this viz. That outward and externall glory when men trust to that and professe themselves to be the Israel of God because of that then the Lord threatens that the pride of all their externall forms shall all be forsaken and no man shall regard them and there shall be none to raise them up And that place in Micah chap. 5. vers 2. they say is the promise of the restauration of the Church Micah 5.2 and that she shall be restored and her Rulers But some who would seem to goe further carry it to the highest interpretation as they conceive to Jesus Christ his comming in the flesh and they have referred to this place and cited it in the margin in Matth. 2.6 Thou Bethlem in the land of Iudah art not the least among the Princes of Iudah Math. 2.6 for out of thee shall come a Governour that shall rule my people Israel That in regard he was the MESSIAH which was then born and given to the world and was to suffer and die and rise again All which things are true in a lower and externall sense but there is more in it then so for Christ is yesterday and to day Heb. 13.8 and the same for ever and his goings forth have been of old from everlasting and therefore cannot he be limited according to the short time he was in the flesh But Christ is the same in all generations and he is chiefly manifested in the spirit and all his words expresse no lesse he still takes our eyes off his fleshly appearance and sayes his Kingdome is not of this World Luke 17.21 Joh. 18.36 John 6.51 Luke 22.20 and his Kingdome is within you and his body is the bread which commeth down from heaven and the cup which he gives is The cup of the New Testament in his blood T is not the eating the bread made by men or wine of grapes in that whcih feeds the soule And so for Christs death and his going away there is more in it then his fleshly dying or the application of that But this is held out he must goe away else the Comforter which shall lead into all truth John 16.7 will not come His bodily presence and our apprehending of his fleshly appearing and fleshly suffering Hee in this sence must depart or else the Kingdome of God cannot come upon us nor the Comforter come Touch me not in this way for I am not ascended to my Father And while ye look upon my fleshly presence I cannot send the comforter Acts 1 11. But that must go away Ye men of Galilee why stand ye gazing up into Heaven Why do ye gaze upon his External appearing Sayes the Apostle 1 Cor. 5.16 Acts
and have familiar spirits and such as do no other in all their Religion but enquire after the dead as the Prophet speaks what 's that Esa 8.19 Mark 5.3 who enquire not after the living the substance and the truth but after the dead and all their delight is to be among the Graves and the Tombs and dead things which have no power nor life in them being men very cruel and fierce But all things of this nature in man shall be cut off when Christ shall arise in us and become Lord and King and be all in all viz. to be alone King Priest and Prophet in us Then we shall hearken and give ear alone to him having no other Guide nor no other Teacher or Master but him when these things come to pass in us then all the delusions within us and all in others without us shall all be discovered and vanish And indeed we can never discover those Spiritual Sorcerers and Inchanters without us till we have sound them out and discovered them within us Then he alone shall shortly tread down Satan under our feet Rom. 16.20 Rev. 18.23 Then this MICHAEL will throw down out of Heaven the Dragon and his Angels which deceived the Nations Onely the Breath and Comming of the Lord can discover those depths of lyes and infinite deceits that are received and rooted in the heart of man and nothing but the good hand wisdom and power of the Lord Almighty can deliver the soule From hence then we may hold out thus much and 't is very clear First that there is no greater Deceiver to be found then is within Man No cunninger Devil no greater ANTICHRIST nor no worse WITCH then what Man hath in his own heart so that HE hath in him all things described by the Name of EVIL There is in him the Devil Sin Antichrist the red Dragon the Jims and Ziims of the Desart There is in him Lucifer and the beast with seven Heads and ten Horns There are in him Conjurers Sorcerers Southsayers Witches Mutterers Peepers consulters with the dead that is delighting and resting in formal and dead Ordinances and with Women which have familiar Spirits with the GREAT WHORE and what not even with all things that belong to the Kingdom and power of Darknesse And all these things and whatever else can be named of this kind they all make up but one body all these are but Satan and his Members and they all have but one and the same Head As Jesus Christ consisteth of whatever is good righteous holy pure undefiled and the seed and sons of God and all things of that nature are his body and he their Head so all the seed and sons of Satan make up but one body and one building which is ANTICHRIST and the Great Whore and the Dragon and Lucifer and the rest And however man is carried out to look for all these things without him yet be sure these Sorcerers these Wizzards these Necromancers these Dragons Devils Antichrists all are in thine own bosome Here is the true Necromancy and Witchcraft the true Antichrist all other without are but shadows pictures and representations of the true and reall body of Antichrist and the Great Whore and the like If thou wouldest find out Antichrist and the true Necromancer and Southsayer It is thy selfe When thou enquirest and askest counsel of thine own heart then thou consultest with a familiar and lying spirit when thou makest a shew of that which thou art not then thou art a Necromancer and a Sorcerer and so every one of these evil ones according to their names you shall find in your own practice the nature thereof And truly Beloved herein lies the great and mighty Delusion and Witchcraft amongst the sons of men that Satan in them is so cunning that he alwayes carryes them out of themselves to find out Antichrist and Wizzards and Southsayers and Lucifer and the Great whore and the like And the true reason is because the Divel he would not by any means have these things be discovered to be in mans own breast where indeed is his Temple and SEAT more then at Room externally or litterally in any other place There is Antichrist there is Belial and there be the Southsayers and the Sorcerers in thine own heart But man will by no means indure this Doctrine And so long as Satan can blind delude and deceive man making him look for that evil one and the son of Perdition 2 Thes 2.3.7 and the MYSTERY OF INIQUITY out of himself so long Satan rests secure and safe But if the Light of God comes and discovers where his lurking and hiding place is viz. to be within and at home while we have been ruuning up and down far and neer to find him Then the soule either fights against this light or else blushes and is ashamed and confounded in it selfe And now it will trust no longer to it self now it sees the greatest cheating and witchcrafts to be acted in it selfe But till this day of the Lord come and this great light shine round about him man rides on boldly and confidently as Saul to Damascus and is not smitten down from his Horse neither sees he what he is doing Acts 9.1 2 but blesses himself and thinks all is well and he censures this wicked man and the other and he can curse the Devil and Antichrist without him bitterly thee whom he thinks to be at Rome and concludes that there he must fall and be brought down but never remembers that there is ONE in him whom he knows not but if any shall say unto him as Nathan to David Thou art the Man Antichrist is in thee and Adam is in thee and the Serpent is in thee and in whatever is said or related of Adam or Satan or Antichrist or Lucifer or of Eve What they did behold I say unto thee 2 Sam. 12.7 Thou art the man all this thou mayest read in thine own actions in thy own practices But oh how tart and harsh is this Doctrine to all the wise sober grave holy and learned men of the world Oh how do they hate and deride this Doctrine But let me tell them before the Lord Angels and Men That for all this while they are blessing themselves 1 Cor. 4.9 from the Devil and Antichrist and the rest and scorning these things should be in them and think that they have discovered them here and there Behold they are nigh them they are within them in their hearts and mouths though they see them not But if ever with all thy learning and parts and righteousnesse thou hadst had but the light of God in thee it would have shewed thee the Divil and the true Necromancer and let thee know that for all thy vain boasting and swelling and high and proud conceits of thy selfe that thou never yet hadst the light of God and that God never yet answered thee by that true URIM and THUMMIM
saith he there is no truth in him he was a lyar from the beginning and the father thereof and so continues he doth nothing but lye in all his Religious servants for they will take up any form of Religion and are as conformable as may be as though they were the true servants of Christ but in all this they do but lye and dissemble and inchant and delude And my brethren is not the Devil as fair in his pretences now adayes in taking up forms duties conformity strictnesse and following the mind of Christ many say they will do nothing but they will have the rule of the word for it and they will undertake to open the Scriptures and give out the mind of Christ These Servants of Satan come not on the account of prophaness or ignorance but professing Knowledge and Religion and Learning and they are the great searchers into all knowledge and think themselves not ignorant of any thing but obedient in all things and indeed who more knowing or obedient according to the external Letter then they These are very high and fair pretences yet who were more learned and knowing more seemingly zealous then the Pharisees whose abilities were still manifested in their marvailous cunning catching questions to intrap Jesus Christ these men though they know not the wisdome and the knowledge of God or Christ yet they are notable Apes and Imitatours of them though they know not the truth they will pretend they do and think verily they do and they will frame themselves and their notions as near as man can to understand the Scriptures by his learning wit and industry but alas while they make a shew of knowledge and yet are ignorant of the Truth and the Mystery and this is nothing but a lye and t is no other but the Language of the Beast For mans bucket can never reach the truth and the water of life and no man in Heaven or Earth was counted worthy to open this Book and loose the Seales thereof but onely the Lyon of the Tribe of Judah Rev. 5.5 And there is no man knows the Father but the Son Luk 10.22 and him to whom the son will reveal him Beloved all things in the world are from these two Principles or Roots they are either from the wisdome that is from above which is pure peaceable humble meek long-suffering Jam. 3.17 Vers 15. full of good works or else they are from the wisdome which is from beneath which is earthly sensual and devilish It is given to catching carping insnaring reviling lying slandering c. Now the wisdom from above never teaches men to carp and lie lurking to catch the innocent and guiltlesse man such was and is the wisedome of the Pharisees in all ages Psal 10.9 they will be very forward to argue as though they would willingly know all truth but they do but argue to catch and insnare and when they cannot understand or comprehend then they will invent some gin and forge some lye or other Again this wisdome from beneath it s very full of judging Jam. 3.15 and full of pride and it magnifies all things of mans inventing and whatever man magnifies But do you think any of this is from God or from the Divine Wisedome No no the property of Divine Wisdome is to become humble to lay aside all things of self and flesh and to become teachable and nothing in its own power or wisdom This is the property of Divine Wisdome in man but when man would act and be Something and undertake to observe this rule and the other and they can undertake the alone work of the spirit to lead men into all truth before Christ comes in by his light power and wisdome Joh. 16.30 and they will be journying before the Lord remove the Cloud Exod. 40.36 2 Cor. 11.14 All this is from the Wisdome of the Serpent in man who can transform himself into an Angel of light and his Ministers into Ministers of righteonsness What do these men more then the Pharisees for they by their own power conformed to all outward rules and indeed unquestionable Ordinances appointed by God himselfe and how exact were they in performing them even far beyond the strictest now adayes of all those things they say are Ordinances and yet they are not sure they are so though they cry out The Temple of the Lord The Temple of the Lord Jer. 7.4 and call for the wayes of Christ and the rules and minde of Christ yet how sharply doth Christ fall upon them and call them Hypocrits Mat. 23.27 15.14 Joh. 8.44 and painted Sepulchres and blind leaders of the blind nay and calls them Devils for all their strictnesse ye are of your father the Devil and his works and his will ye doe in all this that ye pretend to serve God by For in all this wherein they seem so holy and strict and to surpasse and outrun all other men 't is onely the Devil that carries them out in their own power and the fruit of it is nothing else but to glory in men and in the flesh The Jewes they had an outward and worldly sanctuary 1 Cor. 3.21 and a formal worship and this they boasted of and gloried in And so t is now men have taken up some things equivalent and like unto these For now Satan appears in things that men call ORDINANCES as outward washings and in call this the true baptisme and Church-order and Fellowships and say his is according to the rule of the Gospel and partaking of Bread and Wine in the Sacrament they call this the eating of the Body and drinking of the Blood of Christ Now in nothing doth the Devil more delude men then in these things calling them the Ordinances of Christ when indeed they are not As you see how the Jews stood upon it justified themselves that they were the true seed of Abraham when he told them of being made Freemen and would have convinced them of their unknown bondage they answered We are Abrahams seed and were never in bondage to any Joh. 8.33 and howsayest thou ye shall be made free Now indeed there was a kind of truth in it that they were the fleshly seed of Abraham and they had submitted to Circumcision and to those external iules commanded and this seemed to be somewhat as to outward appeanance as if they were the true seed of Abraham but that was not it and they had Circumcision and yet were not Circumcised in heart neither were they his true seed And so many boast of Ordinances and Washings and Baptisme and breaking bread and Church-fellowships and laying on of Hands and observing the rules of Christ and following the pattern of the Apostles when alasse poor soules they quire mistake the matter t is true t is like Baptisme but t is not it and they are like the Ordinances of Christ but they are not such they would seem to make
Pharisees hearing of this they knew he spake of them and being very much offended that he so much reproached them and so much laid them open and took away their glory estimation and high esteem with the people hereupon I say they became greatly bitterly and maliciously offended with him and the Disciples hearing and observing of it they being somewhat troubled in themselves as not seeing so much into them as he did they come to him and tell him Master knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended after they heard this saying Vers 12 Now our Saviour presently makes them this answer Every plant which my Heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up As if he should say t is true generally all men take the Scribes and Pharisees and it may be you your selves have taken them to be men of great holiness and purity and to be very strict in their lives and indeed they seem to be men of great learning and to be very consciencious and zealous Teachers of the Truth But I would not have you so deceived true Religion stands not in outsides in observing of rites and cerementes in washing of cups and platters and observing outward Ordinances But know these men are no other but Hypocrits and Dissemblers and well did Esaiah Prophesie of them Esa 29.14 saying This people draw nigh unto me with their mouthes and honour me with their lips but their heart is removed far from me Therefore though they be offended at my speech yet be not you offended let them alone they be blind leaders of the blind And if the blinde lead the blind both shall fall into the ditch And for all their great learning and great shews of zeale and knowledge in the Letter yet Christ saw their inside how there was nothing but impurity blackness and ignorance And indeed men may have and attaine to much strictnesse therein and yet have no saving knowledge of God in the spirit nor of the truth as it is in Jesus Now saith Christ Let them alone Eph 4.21 I know they have a high opinion of themselves and they would by no means lose their glory in the esteem of others but be you not troubled Let them alone they are blind though they will not see it and both the leaders and the led shall both fall together Now upon this account Christ using such cutting cauterizing words can any wonder that they should be offended I and deeply offended Hereupon it is that the Children of the Letter and of the Bond-woman alwayes hate and persecute the Children of the Mystery and the Free-woman Gal. 4.29 As the Children of the New Jerusalem are Heavenly Divine and Spiritual like their Mother for they are born of the Second Adam which is the Lord from Heaven and they bear the very Image of the Heavenly And as is the Heavenly such are they that are Heavenly And as is the Earthy such are they that are Earthy 1 Cor. 15.47 c. They are still carried out very zealously to outward observations and carnall things And if any shall in the least touch them in them they are presently offended raging and mad for ye touch their Absolom their very lives The flesh alwayes lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh Gal. 5.17 for these are directly contrary the one unto the other these two Principles are so directly opposite and contrary one to an other that they can never agree but ever were and shall be at enmity never to be reconciled These Pharisees are alwayes very much offended with the neglect ofo smal matters and of things indifferent which either the doing or leaving undone is no sign of sincerity or insincerity but they can neglect the weighty matters of the Law themselves and suffer others to do so and never be offended As here in the second verse of this chapter the Scribes and Pharisees which were of Jerusalem that is they were the chief Preachers of the Nation because they were Preachers at the Chief and Metropolitan City JERVSALEM Yet these Great and Learned and Sage DIVINES as they were esteemed come to Christ And what was the great businesse they had to offer to him Why do thy Disciples transgresse the tradition of the Elders Mat. 15.2 for they wash not their hands when they eat bread Jesus Christ answers them very pertinen tly Why do you transgresse the Commandement of God by your traditions They were more strict in observing the traditions of their Church and of Men then of the Commandements of God and the weighty matters of the Law they were careful in observing washings and constant in outward forms of worship and times of prayer and the like but never minded what was in their hearts as Evil thoughts Murders Adulteries Fornications Vers 19 Thefts Lyes Malice Falsewitnesse Blasphemies verse 19. These things they neglected and passed by as smal matters they could hate the truth and bely the truth and persecute the true Professours thereof even to the death But they could not endure any should speak a word against their formal and outward worships they could neglect releiving their Father and Mother Vers 5 and shewing love to others and with them this was nothing so they did but bring a small gift to the Temple and call it CORBAN this should excuse them and cut off all other Charity or whatever others might be profitted by them Now Christ throughly discovering their Hypocrisie in their shewing great care of the outside and of that which was obvious and apparent to the sight of men but they had litle or none of their heart and inside upon which the Allseeing eye of God was fixed therefore he applyes to them the words of the Prophet Esay and tells them that they were the men He spake of when he said These people draw nigh to me with their mouthes Esa 29.14 and honour me with their lips but their hearts are far from me For these are not the things God looks at or regards and therefore all their worships and all their washings and all their prayings and all their conformity to these things were all in vain and this was no Religion at all nor was no more accepted then the offering up of swines blood or the cutting of a dogs neck Esa 66.3 and he that sacrificed as if he were a murtherer and he that offered incense as if he blessed an Idol They were with him no better then Murtherers and Idolaters for all their fine forms although they were never so curious and exact about them neatified carved or contrived with never so much wisdome yet if they were done meerly by the art wisdom power industry of man and not by the wisdom and hand of Jesus Christ in them all was nothing and they were in all their prayers and duties no other but as sounding Brass and as tinkling Cymbal That which defiles man is not any thing without him but that evil and sinne which is
do all men are alone in the hands of the Father he alone is Judge of quick and dead In his hands alone are the issues of life and death Acts 10.42 Ps 68.20 Joh. 6.44 And no man can come to him except the Father himself draw him and yet men will be drawing and DRIVING to Jesus Christ and they think to beget men and they like well to be called Doctors and Masters and Fathers and yet the spirit expresly sai h Of his own will begat be us with the word of truth Jam. 1.18 that we should be a kind of first fruits of his Creatures There is no power wisdome strength rules examples or precepts can do it but onely the will and power of God And he saith againe By one spirit are we all baptized into one body 1 Cor. 12.13 has one man then any more power then another can it be this mans learning or the other mans wisdom or another mans elquence or power of words or perswasions Oh let no man think so far be such thoughts from any that professe to exalt Jesus Christ for what can be more doshonour to him and yet how do the general course of the World and all pretenders to Religion run this way though they say in words Christ is All and man can do nothing and he is dead yet they in all their practices and perswasions and exhortations hold forth that they verily beleeve the power of man and that he is but half dead and may raise himselfe and uphold himselfe and chuse this plant Jesus Christ and ingraff it and nourish it and dig and hedg about it and cause it to bring forth more fruit which is alone the work of the Father Or at least wise if they give so much to God as to say he must give grace yet this they affirm that man must nurse it and water it and cherish it and maintain it else he may lose it quite say some and others to his own apprehension sight and feeling And what 's all this but to say himselfe he is the Dresser and he is the Pruner and Purger and Rectifier of all things amisse He is the True Husbandman But the Scripture holds forth otherwise that these things are done onely by the hand of God and that instruments are nothing t is onely the sword of the spirit can cut off and the word of God that is quick and powerfull and sharper then a two-edged sword Heb. 4.12 and that can divide between the soul and the spirit the joynts and the marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart There is nothing else plants nothing else cuts off from the root but only this spirit which is as the wind bloweth where it listeth and man hath nothing to do Joh. 3.8 I say the Creature hath nothing to do but to wait and expect when the Angel will move the Waters This is the Circumcision which is done without Hands Joh. 5.8 Rom. 2.28 29. And he is not a Jew that is one outwardly made by Men or any power of or in man but he is a Jew which is one inwardly and circumcision is that of the Heart and not in the Letter whose praise is not of men but of God And this work the Lord doth manageth and carrieth on by his own strength and by his owu power he is not at all beholding to mans wisedome or care but what is done in man or by man t is not he that doth it but Christ in them his work is not done by any outward and external means but by a secret invisible and spiritual power He is that secret invisible sap that communicates vertue and nourishment to every part and member through the whole body so that mans power wisdom and care is not used at all but only as an instrument or subject in which and by which it works and therefore man hath nothing at all to speak of or boast in And one man is not more holy then another or improves more because he hath more wisdom diligence endeavour or the like in the work of God all things tending in the least to lift up man are to be cut of but the spirit works where and when it listeth and man by all his care Joh. 3.8 cannot fetch in the spirit but when it self pleaseth so that no flesh may boast or glory in his presence nor one man lift up himself above another For we are alone his workmanship 1 Cor. 1.29 Eph. 2.10 1 Cor. 1.30 31. created unto good works And we are of him in Jesus Christ who of God is made unto us wisdom righteousness sanctification and redemption Therefore from hence let us make this conclusion and seal to it not in our words and judgments onely but in our hearts in our practices that we may say these are the very things that we have heard and seen with our eyes and we have looked upon and which our hands have handled of the word of life 1 Joh. 1.1 for there is nothing more usual then to consent to truth in the Notion thereof and in the Doctrinal part but when they come to the Practical and Applicatory then they declare plainly that they have no experience of the things of the work of God in themselves but they make man a Worker an Agent Heb. 12.2 and a finisher of Faith Some confesse that God he begins and layes the foundation but man must carry it on and do his part else all is nothing what an high indignity is this to the grace and power of God And hence it is that men glory and pride themselves so much in their own doing and are so forward to censure and judge other men wen alas man hath done nothing at all in this spiritual planting and watering but onely taken up a conceit of his own doing acting and working and priding himselfe in a meer empty fancy without any real doing at all For be sure this is that great work which Christ alone hath undertaken Heb. 2.10 Esa 42.8 Joh. 3.8 To bring many sons unto Glory and in this He will never give his glory unto another He will be free and his wind shall blow when he listeth and work when he pleaseth And for man to say that there must be any other power or any other meanes in the whole earth is to rob God of his glory and to give it to another But the practice of all the Saints is I do not say in words onely but in their practice they ascribe all to God only How violent was Paul against the Truth and the Professors thereof and yet he had attained to be a forward and an exact Pharisee far more strict then any we shall finde in our days And how zealous was he as he thought for the Truth Act. 26.11 Act. 9.1 2. exceedingly zealous against errours in his way and yet it was no other but madnesse against the truth and
henceforth know we him no more 2 Cor. 5.16 Were the Apostle here among us and should bring such dctrine it would seem very strange to tell us That all our fleshly and external apprehensions of Christ must passe away And if he himself must not be regarded in that kinde For the comforter cannot come except he go away John 16.7 Ibid. 6.63 And the flesh profits nothing it is the spirit that giveth life or quickneth Then much more call your shadowes formes Ordinances washings breaking bread For while you rest in these and esteem of these Christ in the spirit or the comforter cannot come Therefore 't is expedient for you that I go away as to all these things else I cannot send the comforter who shall lead you into all truth I but this doctrine overthrowes the power both of the Magistracy and Ministry Object for we had thought they had been the only men to propagate the Gospel I answer Answ Did Christ ever command you to go to Cesar or to the Ministers to propagate his Gospel He bids you only Mar. 12.17 Give unto Cesar the things that are Cesars viz to yeild them Civil obedience and pay them tribute and afford them your help for carrying on of the publick charge for the preservation of the Nation but it was far from his thoughts to make the Magistrate a Judge in spiritual things How uncertain a way were this And how often are ignorant and blinde men sat up who know nothing in divine things And indeed where shall we finde men fit to Judge or fitly qualified for that businesse If it were so Christ had laid a ground for the setting up the greatest persecution that ever the Sun saw For the Magistrate and too commonly also the Ministers call evil good and good evil Esay 5.20 light darknesse and darknesse light And for the Ministers when did Christ ever or his Apostles send you to them but he saith The Harvest is great and the labourers few Luke 10.2 pray ye the Lord of the Harvest that HE would send forth faithful labourers into the Harvest Is man able to Judge who are fit to be labourers to work in the Lords Harvest If he be blind as most certainly he is he is only fit to lead the blind Indeed 't is true in all ages the Harvest is great and the Labourers few How few are there of those that pretend to be Ministers and Labourers and Pastors and Gatherers of the Lords Sheaves in his Harvest that do so much as know truly the Lords errand but bring things taken up on trust and borrow here and there Jer. 23.21 and yet say Thus saith the Lord when he hath not sent them nor spoken to them but bring forth the dreames and visions of their own heart so leading people on with meer fancies and dreames that they are Christians and they are brought into the Sheepfold when 't is neither so nor so And againe what strange contradicting doctrine do these men bring to say Christ does all and we cannot do the spirits work without the strength of the spirit and without this we are in Bonds and cannot stir one foot and he accepts no service but what comes from himselfe and much to this purpose And yet by and by man must improve grace and he must nourish this plant and cherish it and he must preserve the seed of God in him that it may not dye And he must repent and believe and performe the conditions required on his part to doe and apply the promises and the like doth not all this clearely shew they understand not what they say nor whereof they affirme 1 Tim. 1.7 Is not this to affirme and deny the same thing both at once If this be not to begin at the wrong end I know not what is but this is the course of the world to put men upon getting and doing Whereas the way of God is to strip man of all his power to reduce him to his own nothingnesse to work the work himselfe And he that hath found God in him acting and doing he sees it was none of his work but while men set man thus upon his own doing man comes to be lifted up in his own sight and he glories in himself and in his own power and he thinks himself a forward Christian and he is some body and he is a wise man in his own conceit And those that do not as he does they are ignorant wicked and prophane but a true Christian he finds no power no deliverance no planting but by the band of the Father and he lives on that sap and nourishment which he receives from the root Jesus Christ And though he act or live Gal. 2.20 Esay 26.12 yet it is not he but Christ liveth in him and workes all his workes for him And he finds and knowes if he attempts to doe any thing in his own name or power or thinks that he must do this or he can do that That he in that takes the crown from off the head of Jesus Christ and crownes himselfe therewith Then which to a true Christian nothing is more hateful and he knowes in experience That every plant the Heavenly Father hath not planted must be rooted up And as the Prophet Isai saith 41.29 Behold they are all vainity Esay 41.29 their works are nothing and their molten Images are winde and confusion THE SAINTS Perfect Freedome OR Liberty in CHRIST asserted In opposition to all Yokes of Bondage By Mr. Jo. WEBSTER Preached at Alhallows Lumbard-street GALAT. 5.1 Stand fast therefore in the libertie wherewith Christ hath made us free and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage THe Apostle Beloved that he might establish the hearts of the Galathians upon that foundation which is Eternal unalterable and unmovable he useth in this Epistle many arguments to confirme their faith and among many other arguments in the latter end of the fourth Chapter he speaks there of the roots or the two seeds that are in all the sons of men And the one are the children and off-spring of the bondwoman being alwayes in bondage as Hagar was with her children and are not to inherite the blessing but to be cast forth and in the MYSTERY this is that outward Jerusalem wherein the Jew so much boasted viz. of his formes and outward worships and because they were the outward and carnal seed of Abraham and were circumcised and the like all which was nothing for all those things did typifie and hold forth the true seed and the children of the Free woman and the seed of the promise for these also are like their mother which bore them even that Jerusalem which is above which is free and is the mother of us all that is of all the children of the promise and though this mother be a long time barren and beareth no children yet she shall bring forth then it shall be said of her as it is
written Rejoye thou barren that bearest not and cry thou that travellest not for the desolate hath many more children then she that hath an busband Now we brethren saith he as Isaac was are the children of the promise But as then he that was borne after the flesh persecuted him that was borne after the spirit even so it is now Neverthelesse saith the Scripture Cast out the Bond-woman and her son for the son of the Bond-woman shall not be Heire with the son of the Free-woman And then he concludes in the last verse So then Brethren we are not children of the Bond-woman but of the Free We that is those who believe are not now tyed unto Ceremonies nor live in the forme and shaddow of the Heavenly things or in bondage to external and worldly rudiments resting in them Rom. 2.28 29. as the outward Jew did for he is not a Jew that is one outwardly neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh but he is a Jew which is one inwardly and circumcision is that of the heart and of the spirit and not that of the Letter And this kinde of doctrine the Iew and he that Idolizeth his outward formes could not endure but as then so now this divine teaching and the Teachers thereof could never be endured but have been persecuted in all ages and most of all by these who have pretended most strictly to worship God according to the rule of his word these ever had and ever will have a contrariety thereunto the children of the Bond-woman are alwayes at enmity and have a continual hatred against the children of the Free-woman And these are Hagar as the Apostle there saith in verse 25. Gal. 4.25 For this Hagar is mount Sinai in Arabia and answereth to Ierusalem which now is and is in bondage with her children if men go no farther but here stick in shaddowes and formes and the outward worship of that at Ierusalem though it be never so glittering and glorious yet all this is but mount Sinai and gendreth to Bondage But saith our Saviour John 4.21 The houre commeth and now is that enither in Ierusalem nor in this mâ—untaine shall men worship the Father but the true worshippers shall worship him in spirit and truth These two mountaines alwayes stand in opposition one to another because the one is to bring men into Bondage and the other is still labouring to set men free The one kinde of worshippers are altogether busied and exercised and are very zealous for worldly Ordinances and external worships duties and formes an conclude that those who submit and take them up zealously and constantly are the true worshippers and exclude all other Now the other worshippers who worship the Father in spirit and truth they see and bear witnesse against these outward formes as rested in as generally all the other worshippers do whatever they say and their great Zeal for them is because they derive suck and draw life from the exercise of them But the other know there is no power no life no excellency in them neither could they any longer live or depend upon them but they see that their life power righteousnesse freedome is in those things which are from heaven heavenly in the spirit 1 Cor. 15.48 not in the letter they receive their nourishment and influence from the Heavenly Ierusalem not from the outward and external not from carnal Ordinances as the Apostle calls them but they suck the brest of the true mother whose milk is spirit and life And here they live and here they feast and here they dwell and have not their life nor content nor their abode with the Bond-woman which in them is cast out with her children for she can never inherit the blessing nor the life nor the power nor the liberty but is with all her children alwayes in Bondage And the Apostle appeales to all Believers their own experience Gal. 3.2 Did ye ever receive the promise by the workes of the Law that is by whatever man as man could do with all his learning power strivings acquirings c. but only by the hearing of Fath So that you may see from thesr and many other arguments the Apostles drawes this exhortation by way of conclusion in the verse now read Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free and be not intangled againe with the yoake of Bondage Some of the Galathians had seen and felt this true liberty which he had cleared out to them and they had lived in it and enjoyed it But some false Apostles crept in after his departure and told them they must still hold the formes of the Law Heb. 9.10 and they must be circumcized and observe outward and carnal Ordinances Now the Apostle very earnestly presseth them to stand fast in their liberty received and not to suffer themselves to be intangled with those yoakes of bondage for Christ is their liberty and Christ alone is their life and their freedome their peace their joy their salvation and herein to stand against all those who would set up any thing with him and upon that account the Apostle calls them carnal Ordinances though appointed by the Lord himselfe And 't is a wonder the men of the Letter which stand so much for outward formes do not cry out BLASPHEMY and HERESY All those other things being included in naming Circumcision because that was the most high absolute and unquestionable Ordinance ordained by God himselfe to Abraham and which none could remove or abolish but the Son himselfe the Heire himselfe who being come to Age must inherit and take possession of his own of his Inheritance Kingdom and Glory And shall any servant resist and keep out THE LORD Heb. 1.12 Matth. 3.3 The Heire of all things and all these things say Prepare ye the way of the Lord for whom all things were made and created and all other excellencies and glories whatsoever are but to Vsher in this great and mighty King and shall any Harbinger or servant say he will not or he must not remove or be so impudent to say that the inheritance is his No sayes the Apostle I testifie to every man and I Paul say unto you if ye be circumcised Christ shall profit you nothing and ye are under the Law Gal. 5.3 4 and under bondage and he is a debtor to do the whole Law and Christ is become of none offect and ye are fallen from grace This is that which so much moved the Apostle that they being once set free had tasted of the liberty which came by Jesus Christ that they should be againe intangled with the yoake of bondage That they who had received the new teaching and Christ to be the Teacher should now hearken to false teachers Ibid. 3.3 and having begun in the spirit should once think to be made perfect by the flesh as if Christ were not enough but they must joyne with
his wayes past finding out For who hath known the mind of the Lord or who hath been his Counsellour Or who hath first given to him and it shall be recompensed unto him again For of him and through him and to him are all things to whom be glory for ever Amen Seeing him to be so high and so rich and so full and so perfect that He is so full of glory and Majesty and yet to stoop so low to debase and disrobe himselfe to make himself so poor so low so much nothing to redeem and recover MEE Oh how great is this Freedom which is wrought by him alone without any seeking or desire of mine nay till he descended to finde me out I never knew my own misery nay when he did appear and condescended so low to deliver me I was not willing to be delivered but opposed him and fought against him and hated him and used all the devices and shifts I could invent to avoid this deliverance and to remain still in bondage and sided with the Devil as my friend and lookt upon him as an Enemy and a Devil and a Tormentor Herein was love indeed that HE should thus far overcome himselfe to become nothing and lesse then nothing for me who am really so and that he who is so infinitly rich ful and blessed in himself should shew so much love patience long-sufferings and bear so many affronts and indignities from such a miserable forlorn creature as man is and would never leave me till he had perswaded and overcome me Oh! herein was love indeed transcendent love incomparable love My Friends you that talk so much of Jesus Christ and are very zealous for him outwardly as one would think none more And all you that keep such a stir about your Forms and Fellowships and Orders and Washings c. except you have found Jesus Christ thus acting in you in vaine do you pretend to him for you doe but draw nigh him with your lips but your hearts are removed for from him This is the word of the Lord concerning you Esa 1.10 c. Hear ye the word of the Lord ye Rulers of Sodom and give ear to the Law of our God ye people of Gomorrah Why Sodom and Gomorrah He speakes to Judah and Jerusalem in the first vers But because they were no other to him but were as prophane as Sodom and Gomorrah for all their Sacrifices Sabbaths Prayers New Moons c. Esa 1.11 12 13 14 15. To what purpose is the multitude of your Sacrifices unto me saith the Lord I am full of the burnt-offerings of Rams and the fat of fed beasts and I delight not in the blood of Bullocks or of Rams or of he-Goats When ye come to appear before me who hath required this at your hand to tread my courts Bring no more vain Oblations Incense is an abomination unto me the New Moons and Sabbaths the calling of assemblies I cannot away with it is iniquity even the solemn meeting Your New Moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth they are a trouble unto me I am weary to bear them And when ye spread forth your hands I will hide mine eyes from you yea when ye make many prayers I wll not hear your hands are full of Blood c. Nay and I dare be bold to say if Jesus Christ should but come to you to convince you of your bondage and deliverance you would hate him spit at him crucifie him with as much Malignity as ever the Jews did For in truth the whole world in all their Religion and Forms love not Jesus Christ nor aym at him nor worship him but love and seek themselves and certainly this is THAT LIGHT which shall break forth in these latter days of the world to strip unmask and discover all the Religion OF MAN In this Sermon was that Testimony given to Dr. Everards Sermons which is placed at the end of this Book A RESPONSION To certaine pretended Arguments against my Book called The Saints Guide I Find a Book lately published called The Modern Statesman by one who subscribes his name by two letters G. W Esquire it may be the man is Armiger for I will not controvert what I know not but I am sure he is not very morigerous nor manifests much either of generosity or civility for his usual appellations are Fellow Wretch Caitiffe Jesuite and the like which I am sure are Epithites in a Gentleman as he would be thought otherwise he would not have written the word Esquire at length and not in figures that all Civil men will account to be Contra bonos more 's and yet the man ranks himselfe not only in a Moral but Christian account but how justly let all men and Christians judge This man pretends to answer to some Objections against Learning in a Book of mine entitled The Saints Guide in his 15. chap. pag. 109. And first mark his mistakes in the contents of his Chapter For he saith it is an answer to some Objections in my book Against Learning now in my book there is The clear definition of Learning and the division also a plain position laid down and five arguments to make good the several branches thereof and afterwards two Objections answered and sure this is something more if the man understand his own terms then some Objections barely and no more yet the man is so wise that he dare not meddle with the Position nor any one of the single Arguments but only snatcheth at one of my Queries and fixeth on a hint in my first solution A bold Adversary that bites behinde but dares not grapple face to face Secondly there is nothing at all in my Book spoken or argued against Learning under a general term or acceptation but with limitation and yet this man makes his Arguments against me as though I had opposed learning simpliciter when all that I say is but secundum quid But doubtlesse the man will prove A great Logician he begins so learnedly Thirdly there is nothing in my Book spoken against Humane learning neither in any general way but under a precise respect and punctual restriction as it cannot per se ex propriâ naturâ understand nor apprehend the Mystery of the Gospel nor any way of its own nature be advantagious unto it and this it holdeth out not in an abstract notion but in a concrete Consideration yet the man as Lucian saith of fortune and folly like a mad blind person laies about him not caring nor seeing where he smites or wounds and answers as though I had argued against Learning in general which how false is evidently manifest thus the man hath made a Giant of straw and will now Combat with him when he hath done doubtlesse here will be good game ecce Don Quixot and his Wind-Mils The man seems a great Zealot for that which he imaginarily accounts Learning and I could wish he were a fit Champion but alas impar congressus Achilli
for when I had pondered the levity and incomposure of his Argument I could not but conclude as learned Helmont did of RODOLPHUS GOCLENIUS De Magn. vulner Curat lib. ingenui scientiae tam debilem Patronum obtigisse But alas he must needs appear a MODERATE states-man who hath hardly yet learned good manners it had been a far better adviso for him to have stayed at Jericho until his beard had been grown and kept his papers by him until Horace his advice had taught him some better experience decimum prematur in annum but a full Vessel must needs vent let us therefore hear his responsion He begins the Chapter with the words of a namelesse Author who saith Nor is any Nation without some turbulent spirits of its own the dishonour of the Gown and Pulpit the shame and sometimes ruine of their Country and amongst them ranks me as one Where we may note that though the man be ready and rash groundlesly to call others the disciples of Satan yet it is manifest he is one himself for Satan is an accuser of the brethren Rev. 12.10 and so is he in these forecited words he is also a father of Untruths Neither He nor any in the Nation can justly make it forth that I am any way guilty of turbulency of spirit either to shame or ruine my country and for Satan He was a lyar from the beginning and abode not in the truth Joh 8.44 But I can witnesse the truth of his Author in himselfe for if he had not been of a turbulent spirit he would never have began nor proceeded so boysterously nor uncivilly And if He be not the shame of the Gowne or Pulpit I am sure he is of the Presse that may well blush with those malicious falsities that he hath published against me who never thought nor did him iujury Doth his learning or Christianity teach him these things The lips of truth shall be established for ever Pro. 12.19 but a lying tongue is but for a moment And so hee repeats my third Quaery And His first entrance is still like himselfe full of poyson and evil words He saith it is a Quaery Satan himself might blush to put Surely the man was ARMIGER to Goliath or Rabshakeh from whom hee learned to rayle for I must tell him That some persons have put the same Quaere without blushing who were of more learning and piety then an hundred such as G. W. though they were all Esquires But it may be the man hath spoken truth knew not for I verily beleeve Satan would blush to put any Quaery that might unmask his deceits or discover truth and so would not willingly have this question brought to the rest lest the foundation of his Kingdom be thereby shaken Neither doth this Quaere any way disagree with the title of The Saints Guide 1 Thes 5.21 for it is they who are advised to try all things and to hold fast that which is good and that the wolfe cloaths himselfe in the lambs skin is witnessed in himselfe whose wolfish nature appears in his malicious devouring language though he would adorne it with the specious pretext of being a Christian And then he proceeds still in that work which his Master the Prince of darknesse hath set him upon to accuse unjustly and falfely for he saith that I reproach Learning which is absolutely untrue I doe onely but rank and place it where it ought to stand neither doe I blasphemously like himselfe assume or attribute any divinity to my self or words Can any thing be truly and properly called DIVINITY but the Nature and Being of God onely Surely his Learning might have taught him more fit language But he proceeds and saith That except the Old Serpent and my selfe whom he Serpent-like calls his Disciple he never found any affirming that man wanted any thing in his innocency pag. 111. Where did he finde except in his own Serpentine-heart that the Old Serpent did ever affirme that man wanted not any thing in his innocency For if he had affirmed this he had affirmed that truth which he hates Did the man never finde that the Spirit of God in the Scriptures doth affirme that Man wanted the knowledge of evil that he wanted sin corruption misery and death which all entred by the fall and after it Had man before the fall an ignorant blind and darkened soule or a bestiall nature subject to diseases and death or came not all these by and after the fall and so he wanted them before Who is the Serpents disciple I or the Armiger let all knowing men judge Thus the man argues against he neither knowes what nor whom with much railing but no reason But now he saith he comes to the question That reason was depraved and darkened by the Fall and that by the help of learning it is in some measure restored and this he allowes and affirmes Was this the question propounded by me let any man read and judge The great Logician with all his skill commits that Fallacie which every minor Sophister would be ashamed of which is Petitio principii the begging of the question For in the Quaery it is not supposed nor granted that man before the fall had reason or humane learning but is part of the question it selfe And he himself page 110 urges it as my affirmation that man wanted it in his innocency and yet now hath forgotten and lost the state of the question Therefore I must put him in mind of it againe and tell him that the question was not whether reasen were depraved by the fall or in some measure restored by learning but whether before the fall he had reason or humane learning or not and so all that he spatters forth about falling into a pit and getting out and the rest to the middle of the 112. page is but the foame of his raving fancy and to no purpose in respect of my Quaery but is altogether extra limites questionis Then he proceeds and saith The fellow seems to be a Scholler I shall therefore ask him one question I would know of this Armiger how many such fellows as my self his Worship maintains to wait upon him It may be he looks not upon me as his fellow but however he might take me to be his brother Animal Joh. 9.29 But I shall meekly and patiently passe by the Title knowing that our Lord and Master Jesus Christ was so called by the great Rabbies of the Jewes and onely wish that God would be pleased to bring him to the fellowship of his Saints in truth and sincerity If I seem to be a Scholler which I confesse is in a very little measure I wish I could see it appeare so in him for I had rather combat with solidity of Learning then with passion and uncivill language But let us heare his learned question which is this Is not Reason the specifical difference of man from a beast and was man distinguished from
Attendants except by a Shop-keeper who seemed his Companion I doubt he scarcely discerns the cunning juglings of Romish JESUITES And I am sure he understands not Satans jugling in his own brest who hath bewitched him that he doth not obey the truth but oppose it Poor Creature he can see and discern others to be evil and wretched without him but knows not the familiar spirit in his own bosome that deludes and deceives him He saith this habit of sin is destroyed but tells not in whom where how far nor in what respect it is destroyed no alas all that must be understood by the Readers for he understands none of them at all It had been his part to have shewed how farre sinne as it is inherent in us by nature and habitual by exercise and custome is destroyed or annihilated doth there no relicts nor remnants of it remaine in a beleever what was that Law that Paul found in his members rebelling against the Law of his mind Rom. 7.23 and bringing him into captivity to the Law of sin was all sin both Original and Habitual destroyed ad killed in him If we say we have no sin 1 Joh. 1.8 we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us And whereas he saith the Habit of Learning is not in the lest diminished much lesse destroyed I answer that it is destroyed in the same manner and in respect that sin is Rom. 6.12 to wit that it should not reign in our mortal bodies that we should obey it in the lusts thereof so is Learning destroyed that it should not reign in the sanctified soul nor take place of the divine teachings of the spirit of truth but be kept under and so be destroyed And I am sure the Apostle Saint Paul had more learning then this Armiger and yet in him it was so kept down and destroyed that he came not unto the Corinthians in the wisdom of mens words lest the Crosse of Christ should be made of none effect 1 Cor. 1 1â— And is not mans wisdome or learning destroyed according to the meaning of the Holy Ghost when it is made foolishnesse Cor. 3.1 If any man seem to be wise let him become a fool that he may be made wise and thus if the man had been blind indeed he had had no sin but he saith he sees Joh. 9.41 and therefore his sin remains Secondly he urges that the whole man with all his endowments is sanctified as 1 Thes 5.23 24. 1 Thes 5.23 c. c. And then concludes that either Learning must be sanctified or something remains unsanctified A wondrous learned Conclusion and sure it is with him a great absurdity to say that something remains unsanctified doth not some sin remain and can sin ever be said to be sanctified Therefore I plainly affirm that something remaines unsanctified and because it is a mystery to the man I shall a little open it There is mention made in the scripture of a double or two-fold man first the new man which after God is created in righteousnesse and true holinesse and this is the immortal seed of the second Adam that sins not but is sanctified throughout Secondly there is the old man Eph. 4.22.24 or the body of sin from the first Adam which is corrupt according to the deceivable lusts and this is to be put off and destroyed is never sanctified but must be burnt up with unquenchable fire and humane learning is the wisedom of this old man which is earthly sensual and devilish and must be put off and destroyed And the Scripture he alledgeth doth not say that the work of sanctification is done but in doing faithful is he that calleth you who also will do it Thirdly he saith that acquired Learning of it selfe and of its own nature is not sin and thinks he proves it by saying sin is a transgression of the Law and then supposeth no Law forbiddeth learning and asks where it is written Thou shalt not be learned c. I answer that still he is besides the limits of the Question for we are not disputing whether a man may be learned or not learned but whether acquired learning in a Theological respect as it is ignorant of the mystery of the Gospel be sin or not and in this respect I must tell him that it is a transgression of the Law of God and declared to be sinful and though it be not written Thou shalt not be Learned yet it is written that the wisdom of the flesh is emnity against God and is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be and it is undeniably true that whatsoever is emnity against the law of God and is not nor can be subject unto it is a transgression of it From whence the Argument lies thus All the wisdom of the flesh is enmity against God But all acquired learning is the wisedome of the flesh Ergo All acquired learning is enmity against God The Major is the clear words of the Text Rom. 8.7 Rom. 8.7 If the Minor be denyed it is proved thus The greatest knowledge that man by acquisition can attain unto must needs be the wisdom of the flesh But humane learning is the greatest knowledge that man by acquisition can attain unto Therefore humane learning must needs be the wisdom of the flesh nay doth not the Text tell us plainly that all the imaginations of mans heart are evil Gen. 6.5 and that continually and is not all humane learning the imaginations of mans heart Joh. 3.6 and therefore evil continually And is not that which is born of the flesh flesh and flesh and blood shall not inherit the Kingdom of God for to be carnally minded is death and is not all humane learning born of the product of flesh and so lusteth against the spirit and is therefore sinful and accursed Farther he saith And sure were learning either in it self sin or lesse unsanctified in a sanctified heart we should not finde the Apostle Paul giving thanks for it in 1 Cor. 14.18 1 Cor. 14.18 I thank God I speak with tongues more then you all c. What consequence is there in this may we not give thanks for things that are sinful many things are good as they come from God but made sinful in us and by us and may we not give thanks unto God for them seeing he gave them to us as they were good not as they were sinful Our affections desires and senses are all good as they are given to us of God but we exercising them in sin lusts may we not give God thanks for them because it is our faults that have made them sinful If Learning were plac't where it ought and mov'd not above its own sphere it were one of the greatest blessings that man enjoyes in this fraile life and is onely condemnable in a relative sense as it will intermeddle with the things of God and yet when
in the definition Now whether the Armiger or I be in an error He that saith it is an indifferent thing or I that say it is sin let the world judge And therefore his long story of making a mans end in Learning the Glory of God that thereby he may be better enabled to read converse dispute and speak concerning the mysteries of Salvation with his Quaeryes in the end are as frivolous as the rest For man naturally knows not wherein the glory of God consists For he hath sinned and comes short of the glory of God neither knows he the true way that God is to be glorified in Mat. 11.27 No man knows the Father but the Son and he to whom the Son will reveal him And therefore this is but an Hypocritical pretence Job 11.12 vain man would seem to be wise though he be born a wild Asses Colt And for man to labour to know the mysteries of God in a way that God hath not intended to discover them in is but to fight against him and to labour to build up what God hath declared that he will destroy For he will destroy the wisdom of the wise 1 Cor. 1.19 and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent And therefore it is not an holy pretence that will make the thing holy We must not do evil that good may come thereof And I must tell him that I could have written and spoken as he doth by the help onely of humane Learning but I could not write nor speak that Mystery which hath been hidden from Ages and Generations and is now made manifest unto his Saints Col. 1.27 without the Supernatural and miraculous teachings of that Spirit which leads into all truth And therefore leaving his Physicall Acts and Morall Circumstances I shall from what hath been said shew him in what respects Theologically humane Learning is sin 1. As it is nescient and ignorant of the mysteries of Jesus Christ and the true spiritual worship for nothing reveales that but the Son only and so even as privation and deficiency it is sin and sinful 2. As it is the Act Fruit and product of mans corrupt heart so it is altogether sin and evil and that continually And therefore I truly conclude against him as I did before in the first Solution that in this case and in these respects no more can be predicated of Learning then of sin He goes on in the 127. and 128. pages and asks whether all reading hearing and teaching be like the principles from whence they flow which he need not have reiterated For I must let him know that all these are either done in the power of that w sedome which is from above and then they are not sinfull or else in the power of that wisedome that is from beneath and then it is sinfull and defileth Therefore the Gospel to such is as a Parable because they seeing see not and hearing they hear not Mat. 13.13 neither doe they understand and so did the Scribes and Pharisees they preached to others read heard and made long prayers and yet died in their sinnes and all they did was but like the principle from whence it came earthly sensual and devilish And so are all the Arguments this Adversary hath yet vomited forth Againe he makes a great noise about outward means and the inward assistance of the Spirit but gives us no definitions what they are nor what he means by them I shall tell him in one word There is no means under Heaven but Jesus Christ only that either brings the Fathers love unto man or man unto the Father And therefore he might have remembred that we are not arguing whether man may heare or not heare read or not read but whether Humane Learning bee sin or no And therefore all that he hath said here nay anywhere else is but impertinent and not to the state of the Question And for that Scripture it is neither wrested nor mistaken as he would insinuate for if either he or any other look but to the beginning of 1 Cor. 3. 1 Cor. 3.1 c. he shal find that the comparison is made betwixt the Apostle Paul and those that were but ministers of the letter for he saith Do we begin againe to commend our selves or need we as some others Epistles of commendation to you v. 1. and so positivly concludes what kind of Ministers he and such like are made namely of the new Testament not of the Letter but of the Spirit for the Letter killeth but the Spirit giveth life v. 6. And if the Comparison lay betwixt the Ministers of the Law and the Gospel it will be clear That he that is but A Minister of the Letter can do no more but kill but the Ministry of the Spirit saves and so that I urged right and not improperly as he suggests Well the Man is so civil to take leave of me but yet not without uncivil languge he must needs end as he began a Leopard cannot change his spots nor a Blackamore his hew and so he wishes some able Pen would take him to task and unmask the Impostor I never perceived until now that the man knew the weaknesse of his own strength and therefore calls for aide I thought he had done sufficient to confute me and must he now have assistance from some other able Pens Alas hath he plaid so decevingly with himself that he never knew until now that truth is great and will prevaile A TESTIMONY Freely Given BY Mr. Jo. Webster of Dr. Everards late Printed Sermons in his publick speaking in the meeting place at Alhallows Lumbard street Which are to be sold by R. Harford at the Bible and States-Arms in Little Brittain AND therefore I cannot but take notice and I much wonder at that precious Book lately printed which it may be many of you have not taken notice of being Sermons preached by Dr. Everard call'd Gospel Treasures opened wherein he among other Divine things expresseth this point in several of his Sermons most Divinely and Elegantly and I could not but recommend it to you having my self found so much sweetnesse in it and I wonder much at the Heavenliness and sweetness of his spirit for to me it is as clear a piece as any I know extant Setting forth as to this particular the infinite and deep condescention of the Son of God being God equal with his Father yet to stoop lower and beneath the unexpressable misery of man to bring him up again He there shewing that herein lay the great and unconceivable suffrings of Christ far beyond his external suffrings of whipping revising spitting upon crowning with Thorns or his crucifying upon the Crosse and the like all being far below and not worth the naming the same day with these suffrings And shewing also how these things are to be also in every Christian And that this Liberty purchased by Christ is not to encourage the flesh or purchase liberty for it but t is for the inward man and the spirit And how he once having such a principle of life he cannot give way to sin but sin is his bondage and how the power of Christ in him slayes all fleshly actings in the love of them And that all things of man shall be slain and crucifide in him by the death of the Son of God And that these are the things which shall be burnt up for ever and ever with unquenchable fire And although many self-wise Professors in the world are offended at the Book and stick not to asperse and bely it with their common slanders of Error and Heterodoxal opinions and the like Yet we know the World can do no other but will bely the Truth as it alwayes hath done And the more Divine any truth is the more they oppose it Why Because the Light thereof Condemnes their Darknesse Sinne and Ignorance and their Practices And they are not able to stand in or beare the Light thereof For either they must Condemne the Truth to Justifie themselves or else Condemne themselves by the Truth which they can never doe till they are overcome and Captived by the Truth FINIS
God by those names chiefly intends to discover and set out the Prince of Darknesse in man and the Man of sin and Antichrist in man and the working of Satan in man 2 Thes 2.3 Joh. 16.11 this the Scripture chiefly and ultimately intends all along but men will not see it nor acknowledge it because they are under the power thereof and cannot endure the light neither will thy come to the light lest their deeds should be made manifest Joh. 3.19 20. Adde to this another Scripture Exod. 7.11 Then Pharaoh also called the wise men and the Sorcerers Exod. 7.11 Now the Magicians of Egypt they also did in like manner with their Inchantments These were Jannes and Jambres which withstood Moses which were the names of some of the Magicians which wrought against Moses which are in all the Sons of men and cited by the Apostle 2 Tim. 3.8 9. 2 Tim 3.9 where he applys it to the working of Satan in man Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses so do these also resist the truth men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning the faith But they shall proceed no farther for their folly shall be made manifest to all men as theirs also was They would undertake to do the same things by their power which Moses did by the finger and power of God They would be Apes and Imitators to make the world beleeve they did the same thing and by the same power but it was made manifest that they were no other but Deceivers Inchanters Magicians and wrought by the Devil and such shall all those be discovered to be who pretend to obey Christ and work by the power of Christ but are no other then Dreamers Inchanters and Charmers And who these were that we may know them he plainly layes them forth there They were men that had the form of Godlinesse Ibid. vers 5. but denied the power thereof For they were lovers of themselves boasters proud blasphemers unthankful unholy Truce-breakers Ibid. vers 3 4 6. false accusers feirce despisers of those that were truly good lovers of pleasure more then lovers of God Of this sort are they which creep into Widows houses and lead captive silly women Vers 1 and these men make the last daies perillous times And as Jannes and Jambres resisted and affronted and laboured to weaken the credit of him who came with true miracles and with the power of God So these resist and oppose and counterfeit the Spiritual Moses as if their works were wrought in God and done by the power of Christ all which is no other but Magick Sorcery Delusion Charming and Inchantment Also take one place more that in Esa 8.19 And when they shall say unto you Esa 8.19 seek unto them that have familiar spirits and unto wizzards that peep and mutter should not a people seek unto their God for the living to the dead To the Law and to the Testimonies If they speak not according to this word it is because there is no light in them Now according to the Letter there are none in words will openly counsel to to Wizzards as such and to such as Peep and Mutter and that they know deal with the Devil but of necessity these words are spoken secretly in the hearts of men and there they hearken and obey the Counsel and Wisdome of the flesh There is the chief Magick wrought which Satan useth in deluding and drawing away the soule of man to hearken to these Inchanters who can Counterfeit the Graces and things of Christ that so they may be taken for Members and Ministers of Jesus Christ And that those who truely have his Life and Power may be counted Deceivers this is one of Satans greatest-depths as we may see in the Prophet Jer. 27.9 when he had told the people of Moab and Ammon and Tyrus and word of the Lord Jer. 27.9 that they should go into Captivity and therefore should submit and put their necks under the yoak of the King of Babylon Now there were others that pretended that they were Prophets also and brought the word of the Lord and told them they should not consent to serve him Sayes the Lord in that ninth verse Hearken ye not unto your Prophets nor to your Diviners Vers 9 nor to your Dreamers nor to your Inchanters nor to your Sorcerers which speak unto you saying ye shall not servs the King of Babylon For whatever they prophesied was but the devices of their own heart and therefore they should not hearken to them but that which he threatned because it was the word of the Lord that should and must come to passe And the Apostle useth the same word in Gal. 3.1 Gal. 3.1 which includes all those words of Sorcery Inchanting Witchcraft c. O foolish Galatians who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth crucified among you Which word Bewitched is the same word in the Greek which signifieth witchcraft Sorcerie Charming or the like thereby signifying that what ever it was that was set up in man to cause him to mistake Jesus Christ or is set up in the room of him was Inchantments Witchcrafts Sorceries though they were never so like him if they were not Him and turned us away from the true Jesus Christ they are Foolish and Worldly rudiments and are ye so foolish sayes he in the third vers Ibid. v. 3. that having begun in the spirit ye should think to be made perfect by the flesh Ibid. ve 3. If any fleshly or carnal or external thing be set up in the room of Christ this is no lesse then Witchcraft Sorcery and Delusion And whatever name the Scripture gives to any External Witchcraft or Sorcery it is to hold out unto us that spiritual deep hidden and wonderful Charming that Satan useth to cause us to mistake Jesus Christ and that his power may be taken for the power of Jesus Christ and his wisdom and seeming holiness for the wisdom and holinesse of Jesus Christ Beloved these things as our Saviour saith I have spoken unto you and have often pressed them upon you That when ye find them true and come to passe Joh. 14.29 ye may beleeve for except ye find these things in experience ye cannot beleeve them But whoever shall teach no more but that these things are only Litterally fulfilled they do Delude Deceive Inchant and Charm you but the same things which have been done externally must be fulfilled in us for what is it to us what they did and what they saw what dost thou meddle with or talk of Christ his Miracles and Sufferings and Resurrection if these things be not done in thee art thou ever the better for all that was then done Without controversie great is the Mystery of Godliness for as he was manifested in the flesh so he was justified in the spirit What is it to thee what enjoyments Paul
had or John or any of the Apostles if thou experiment not the same things without question this is the truth and the life whatever the men or the Masters of the Letter or of the City of the Letter say unto you The words that I speak unto you saith our Saviour they are spirit and they are life Joh. 6.63 they are not onely a dead Letter to the ear and to the understanding but they are quickning spirit declaring true death and true life in us The Scripture in every part there of holds forth either evil or good death or life light or darknesse heaven or hell the Temple of God or the Temple of Idols Christ or Belial that is either man in his lost miserable blind dark undone and helish condition or else Christ the Saviour the life the light the glory the happiness the Redeemer of man Now if we have not experience of either of these two in our selves all reading hearing preaching praying sacrificing is in vain 2 Cor. 3.6 and the Scriptures are no other to us but the killing and deadly letter Lastly we will name one more of their Sorceries and Inchantments and so conclude and t is a very great one In that they take upon them the very Office and place of Christ they think themselves and call themselves Teachers and Divines and men must come to them as to the Oracles of God and they are the Priests lips which shall preserve knowledge come to us and hearken to us and we will direct you and teach you what means and what rules and ordinances ye shall use and which is the way to Heaven when as Christ saith plainly call no man Father nor no man Master upon earth for one is your Master and one is your Father Luke 14.11 c. Joh. 6.44 which is in Heaven but he that is greatest among you let him be your servant And whosoever shall exalt himselfe shall be abased and he that shall humble himselfe shall be exalted And saith again No man can come to me but by the Father and except the Father draw him And again I am the way the truth and the life And yet they say come to us joyn your selves in fellowship with us and conform to us and walk with us for we have the best means we will shew you the best way we have overlookt and examined all other Church-fellowships and none like ours we are squared according to the primitive pattern and to the mind of Christ 1 Cor. 2.16 and the word it self justifies all our rules and our way of worship And they say moreover we have the word of the Lord with us and for us and we have the mind of Christ with us we have a dream and we have a revelation and we have seen a vision when indeed they have seen nothing but have stole the word of the Lord from others and borrowed of their neighbour of this and that Authour and have searched what this man saies or that man writes of such and such points and then come and cry the word of the Lord when the Lord hath not spoken in them nor to them but boast of things without their measure 2 Cor. 10 14 c. 1 Joh. 1.1 speak not the things that they have seen and heard and that their hands have handled of the word of life but as the Apostle saith 2 Cor. 10. Who seek to commend themselves boasting of other mens labours and experiences and not of their own boasting beyond their line of things not distributed to them 2 Cor. 10. Vers 15. Ezek. 13.6 7. and yet will say The Lord hath spoken and this is the Word of the Lord and yet never found it The Word of the Lord in them or to them neither have they seen any thing nor the Lord hath not spoken unto them And therefore what ever they may say they cannot make it out to the hearts of others but they talk of it at random and by guesse and they say t is so and it must not be questioned for all other received Orthodox men forsooth have said it Are these Prophets think you of the Lords sending have these received the Word at his mouth Ibid. 3.17 No no but they are furnished by their learning and parts and acquirements and so of and from Man And so likewise not onely is the Prophet deluded but the people also for they have joyned themselves with these Prophets and there they will stick and their faith is pind upon their sleeves Oh such a man he is a sound man and he cannot erre and they will heare no where else And so this Prophet as thou takest him to be becomes Thy Pope and thy Holy Father for to him thou givest heed and him thou followest and obeyest And this is the great inchantment in our times when men forsake Jesus Christ the true and only Teacher and depend upon men This is a great mischiefe and a grievious plague but the world is not sensible thereof but blesse themselves in this great evil What say they shall we forsake our Ministers shall we let the Gospell and the preaching of the Word fall to the ground God forbid As though men upheld the Gospel and men could teach the Gospel It is then Gospel to thee when Jesus Christ makes it glad tidings in thy heart and when there is nothing in Heaven and Earth more wellcome to thee and when thou hast forsaken and laid down thy selfe to receive it But till we come to see that there is no other father no other Master but Jesus Christ in all the world in heaven or earth we are certainly inchanted and deluded and are under a spirituall CHARM But be it so Object then what reason is there that we should heare you or receive what you say T is true if I should say otherwise in regard of my selfe Answ I should also be a deluder a lyer and a charmer and a Southsayer I would by no means you should look at me or regard me as if I could doe anything I desire to be no other but as a dead instrument used by the Lord and would not be thought of or esteemed any thing I am no more fit to speak then any of you all if God will speak by you ye may all prophesie one by one as the Apostle saith God forbid that I should think my selfe better then any other Saint of God or think my selfe more honoured by standing in a high place above you the Lord hee knows my heart An hill or a mountain in the field were as fit for me any place I passe not but onely for conveniency of Hearing So the Lord wil but set up himselfe and magnifie his own name which he will doe let my praise my glory lie in the dust and I would be no more stirred and disquieted in spirit with any such thing then a man that is naturally dead And therefore let them look to it Math.