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
his wisdom knowledge dignity and preferment in Jesus the Eternal Saviour of his Soule therefore I say here may any that live in the light see the great work of the Lord even when the greatest wisedome is made folly the greatest knowledge made ignorance and all that Gods wisdom may appear Oh what a wonder is it yea a Beautiful thing in this case to see a rich man spoild of his riches a strong man robbed of his strength and a spirit adorned with All carnal exercises made willing to suffer the loss of all that it may enjoy be filled with the fulness of him that filleth all in all there is none but such spirits as His that are made willing to suffer the losse of all that will forsake the Worlds Crown for Christs Crosse yet his spirit hath chosen with poor Moses rather to suffer afflictions with the people of God then to enjoy the pleasures and profits of the world for a season As doth appear plainly in that he is not afraid to declare and witnesse forth to the unbeleeving world what great things the Lord hath done in and for his soule though he receive nothing from the world but scandal persecution and reproach which was and is all the reward that the people of God doe or ever shall receive from the world because they bear forth the witnesse of the Lord against all its formal covetous self-ended Religion which covers it self under the mantle of Christ thereby to gain the honour riches and pleasant endowments of the earth and makes the mercy and goodnesse of God which leads into all charity towards All creatures a cloak for them to hide their carnal and selfish practices under but this Poor heart having cast off and abandoned the cloaks of shame and renounced the hidden things of dishonesty deals not craftily neither handles the word of God deceitfully but declares the truth to every mans conscience in the sight of God For first here is laid open the foundation declaring that there is no peace life power wisdom righteousnesse nor Eternal happinesse in any other but in Jesus Christ and the heart of the Fathers love made manifest in flesh And also that there is no way to attain to the knowledge of this Jesus but by his own life power and wisdome And this is that which makes the professing ones in this as in all ages to bend their utmost power and strength against it For now cryes BABEL that 's hunting after God on purpose to get worldly power and riches into its hand that when by its pretended Religion it hath got earthly power it may oppresse persecute and undoe the poor groaning and distressed Saints of Jesus Christ who have relinquisht the world that they may serve him in doing good to every one of his creatures if this truth saith shee go forward then the hope of all our gain is gone and we shall no longer be applauded esteemed or set by for this teaches all men to deny themselves to forsake the world The riches pleasures and profits thereof and alwayes to doe good by relieving the oppressed and paying the debts of the imprisoned and that every poor captive may goe free Nay and not only so but also it declares the emptinesse of all our Forms Negative Religions Duties precise Walkings preachings prayings and all other of our Customes and Observations therefore is she forc't to seek the downfal of it or otherwise to lose all her self-glory But O yee Religious Ones let me ask you one Question or two Did Christ or his Apostles deny all ouâ—ward grosse sins as drunkennesse swearing lying and the like that they might become covetous proud and powerful in the world as it is too too apparent by your practice YE do as I shal clearly evince and demonstrate in these ensuing particulars 1. Is there any that have increased and advanced their carnal and worldly estates more then you in these times 2. Is there any that flatter men in Authority more then you and if for any other end then earthly preferment let the effects and fruits speak I know your pretences are that you aim at the glory of God but what are the fruits are they not self-glory for who are more self-seeking who more rich who more high and potent then you who are more desirous of worldly honour and rule then you And why do you say the Scriptures are a rule of life and make them no lesse then God and walk not according to their Rule Do you ever read in Scripture that Christ or his Apostles grew rich and mighty in the world by declaring and witnessing forth the truth in life and doctrine and wherefore are you not like them And ought not all to follow their examples if They ought then why doe not you Where is that self-denial and forsaking the world that Christ so often commands and exhorts to amongst you who are imbracing and thrusting after the world with all eagernesse and love to go in long cloathing to be known from other men that ye may receive Greetings in Markets and the chief seats in the Synagogues and the uppermost rooms at Feasts these are the things that please you How can you believe who thus love to receive Honour of men and seek not that which is of God Would it not be a happiness to you to have the Scripture changed into another form where it saith forsake the world deny thy selfe that it might say embrace the world and cleave to thy selfe for sure I am the one agrees more with your wayes then the other But now to my second Question did ever Christ or his Apostles persecute and hate any that were not of their minds yea or no if they did not then why do you And where is that spirit of love amongst you that is kinde to the evil and unthankful and why do you seek to civil Governours to assist in upholding that you call your Religion and in punishing all those that are contrary to it seeing Christ and his Apostles did not so doth it not hence plainly appear that you own the Scripture in words but denies it in your practice Oh my dear Hearts Are you talking of the Word being a rule of being frequent in duties of becomming obedient to Gods revealed will and walk not according to that rule but in words and outward restraint of some common vices have any of you at any time given freely of your goods to the poor or relieved poor Captives imprisoned for debt or visited the poor Widows and Fatherlesse children in their necessities purely for Christs sake nay this is not with you and if it were what were it available if it should not be from a right Principle yet I know you can speak well but alas that helps not Well thus I have clearly declared your estate it therefore now remains to shew unto you why you do all these things even because you have not known Christ nor the father working in you death
know no Master no Father no Teacher no Leader nor no strength besides him Oh Beloved this is not to be done without the drawing of the Father or not but in a Fatherly way since he is the fountain of eternal love the Father or Fountain of love that hath made out his eternal Love himself in the similitude of flesh 2 Cor. 5.19 for God was in Christ saith the Text reconciling the world unto himself not imputing to them their trespasses It must be the love and good will of the Father made out to the soule that must call it and will draw it and cause it to come in to be at peace with him and be reconciled onely by his owne making out his love in Christ So I say this Eternal love that sent out Christ and that gives with Christ all good things it is the same eternal love and power Rom. 8.32 and everlasting goodness and good will of the Father that draws and brings the spirits of men unto Christ else they come not Draw them how is that with such a drawing as must be effectual As the Rain falleth not in vain but the earth bringeth forth fruit meet for them for whom it is appointed Heb. 6.7 So the eternal word and power of the Father made out through the flesh of Christ to the soul calls invites draws and works effectually and brings home the soul and this drawing of the Father is the eternal and everliving power of the Godhead or spirit that wonderfully draws the soules of men and when they are thus drawn they cannot but follow and being thus drawn by him this is the joy life wisdom and righteousness of the soule here it dwels rests recreates it selfe having lost its own life it lives and receives full satisfaction in the life and power and wisdom of Christ Then it is the office of the Son whom the Father hath sent to quicken it and raise it up at the last day and make it like himself even to sit together with him in heavenly places Eph. 2.6 The point I shall offer to your Considerations is this That the drawing of the Father only leads the souls of men unto Christ Doct. otherwise none can come unto him Before this truth can be beleived in us or be of benefit unto us it must become a truth of evidence and manifestation and experience in our hearts yet to witnesse this from the litteral word that this is truth you may be pleased to look upon a place or two yet they can make out nothing to us except the sam be made out by the eternal spirit in uâ— â—lse the word is but a dry tree a dead letter Cant. 1.4 The experience of the Spouse in Cant. 1.4 witnesseth the same draw me and we will run after thee her experience had known that the drawings and leadings of those cords and bands of love that are never to be broken in Jesus Christ the drawings of these bands of love only made her willing to go after that Husband Father and God of Loving-kindness and mercy otherwise man never comes nor is ever drawn but onely by these cords of his love Again the same is witnessed in Jer. 31 3. there he tells you because he had loved them Jer. 31.3 therefore with loving-kindness had he drawn them And in Hosea 11.4 he declares he had drawn them with the Cords of a man with the bands of love Hos 11.4 the soule finds it is onely the power of the Father the love of the Father that hath drawn him out of many waters as the Psalmist witnesses for David had found it so Psal 69. Ibid. 40.2 that he had delivered his soul out of the mire and horrible pit There is nothing but the eternal power of God that is able to draw a soul out of the deep and mierry pit in which it lies the drawing of the Father the power of the Father only draws men unto Christ otherwise they will not nor cannot come That this is so Divine truth witnesses and the experience of all Saints that men will not cannot do act or work nor come in unto Christ without this drawing First because Jesus Christ is not known and understood in the pretiousness excellency and value of him to the lost blind Reas 1 and carnal heart of man for man in this condition knows not the worth sweetness and excellency of him therefore man comes not unto Christ as David witnesses He looked down to see if any of the sons of men would seek after God Psal 14.2 but they are all gone out of the way there is none thath doth good no not one so I say man comes not to Jesus Christ because he is ignorant of that life glory righteousness and immortality that is laid up in him therefore the Apostle renders it as the reason why the Princes of the world Princes of learning and Princes in zeal and religion kild him why because saith he none of the Princes of this world knew him for had they known him they would not have crucified the Lord of life So I say the ground why our spirit comes not to Jesus Christ is that blindness and ignorance that is in the heart of man because he knows not the excellency and pretiousness of Christ As our Saviour said to the woman of Samaria John 4.10 Joh. 4.10 If thou knewest the gift of God and who it is that saith unto thee Give me to drink thou wouldest have asked of him and be would have given thee living water and so it was with Jerusalem Luk. 19.42 Reas 2. shee did not know the things belonging to her peace because they were bid from her eyes Again men cannot come to Jesus Christ because as he is the power of God and appears in the wisdom of God so he appears as folishness unto them and they disdaine him as a weak and mean thing as Isaiah faith in ch 53. v. 2. there is no form nor beauty in him why he should be desired Esa 53.2 as a root out of a dry ground he hath no form no comliness and when we shall see him there is no beauty that we should desire him he is despised and rejected of men a man of sorrows and acquainted with griefs and we hid our faces from him he was despised and we esteemed him not therefore the Apostle tells us 1 Cor. 2.14 the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God because they are foolishness unto him and are spiritually discerned and saith he in 1 Cor. 1 23. we preach Christ crucified 1 Cor. 1.23 to the Jewes a stumbling block to the Greeks foolishnesse so that man doth not will not nor cannot come to Jesus Christ because the spirit of Christ appears a poore despicable thing 1 Cor. 3.10 Psal 118.22.23 1 Pet. 2.7 and the heart of man is set against him and even that stone that is to be the head stone of
is that true Crucifying that every beleever experienceth in himself for else how suffered he in Sodom and Egypt When Christ appeareth thus in man then he appeareth as the great and true MESSIAH then he comes into his own Temple and takes his own Throne then he casts out the Prince of darkness who hath all this while usurped his Throne in man who is his Temple here he makes a whip of many cords and whips out the buyers and sellers and the money-mongers Mark 11.17 who trade for themselves and aime at their private ends seek their own glory and not his glory who is Lord of the Temple and when he does this in man then and never before can it be call'd the House of Prayer then is Jesus Christ Mediatour and Intercessour then hath the Father made him King Priest and Prophet over his Church then all that he did in the flesh is made good acted and fulfilled in thee then thou hast experience that Jesus Christ is he who was dead Rev. 2.8 and is alive then hast thou experience of those two Eternal and Immutable Witnesses then hast thou those two Olive trees in thee and the two Candlesticks which continually run one into another and continually feed one the other and this light is the light of God which cannot be put out but stands for ever before God here are the true discoveries of life and death these are the great changes and mutations of which all the changes and mutations all the lives and deaths in the world are but Types Shadows and Symboles Here now is Jesus Christ indeed whom the Father sends Mark 24.23 Mark 13.21 Luke 17.23 But if man say Loe here is Christ or loe there or he is in the wilderness or he is in the secret chambers beleeve them not go not after them If they say Loe he is in this form or that mode in this rule or that discipline and this mans Church is modelled after the purest form and the neatest cut here thou shalt find rest and satisfaction here is He whom thou seekest here is thy Beloved Know all things of this nature are but lyes and delusions except thou finde Jesus Christ comming thus in thee and seest that thy heart is become an habitation of Devils and the hold of every foul spirit and the cage of every unclean and hatefull Bird. Christ manifests in thee where death and life is really and he discovereth Death and Hell and Darkness and Sin and the Bottomlesse pit and Sathan and Antichrist and the Dragon and the like mentioned througout all the Scriptures to be all in the soules of men and that these are the things that are to be destroyed and consumed and that here Babylon is fallen within man and is that great WHORE whom the Lord will Judge Rev. 18.2 Vers 11. Ibid. Ch. 19.6 Then shall the Merchants of the earth weep and mourn because they can Merchandise no more and stand afar off and bewail her downfall and here it is that the Saints sing Allelujahs to him that sitteth upon the Throne because he hath taken unto him his great power and will raigne for ever and ever If Jesus be not thus manifesting himself in thee doing over again all those things spoken of in Scripture under several and divers Allegories and Metaphors then is the Prince of Darknesse still raigning and sitting in full power upon his Throne in thy soule and there he sits and there he raignes Luk. 11.21 22. Ch. 10.18 the strong man yet keeps possession Lucifer is not yet thrown down nor Satan fallen from Heaven like Lightning Rev. 17.1 Antichrist and the great WHORE are still sitting upon the seven Hills and many Waters arrayed in Purple and Scarlet and decked with Gold and precious Stones yet full of filthiness and fornications and thou art not yet come out of her That great Word COME OVT OF HER MY PEOPLE Ch. 18.4 is not yet spoken by Jesus Christ in thy heart though thou hast been many years a Worshipper of Christ and pretended to him yet if these things be not effected in thee whatever duties forms or fellowships thou hast taken up or any exact observances Jesus Christ is not in thee since he is not in this mans way nor in that mans Church as men blaspemously speak for hath any one a Church but only Jesus Christ will any man dare to assume to himself any part of the Immaculate Church or of any one member of Jesus Christ and say this or these are my Churches and my people and my Congregation Oh Blaspemy in the highest degree And though these talk of Heresies and Schismes and charge them upon others yet judge ye who are those that make rents and utter blasphemies against the honour and glory of Jesus Christ Heb. 13.20 that one eternal Saviour and that great Shepherd of the Sheep And who is Paul and Apollo and others but Ministers and Servants by whom ye beleeved are they any thing or is there any glory due to them But if Jesus Christ come into thy soul discovering himself by casting out the strong man and Antichrist and letting thee see death and hell and all evil to be in thee and hath quite slain man in all his excellencies and glory then he will arise in thee and appear to be life alone glory alone power alone and till then men meerly delude themselves under all forms pretending strictness conformity and obedience to Christ when indeed though they have preacht and prophesied Mat. 7.22.23 and in his name done so many great works which shall amaze the people of the world and the general sort of professours yet Christ who searches the heart shall professe unto them I never knew you depart from me ye workers of iniquity though men may admire them and esteem them the highest the wisest the holiest the meekest the gravest the strictest of all the sons of men yet he sees them to be the worst the wickedest the profanest the greatest workers of iniquity the purest Hypocrits for that which is highly esteemed among men Luk. 16.15 is in the sight of the Lord abominable For man hath nothing of good in him but all his imaginations are evil and onely evil and continually evil and Jesus Christ is good all good and continually good and nothing else but good and he that gives other testimony either in word or deed is a lyar and the truth is not in him Rev. 11.8 And those two Eternall Witnesses are in him slain and lie dead in the streets of the great City that is in the whole nature of Mankind which two Witnesses can never be raised and stand up upon their feet till Jesus Chirst himselfe come and revive them and cause them to live HERE IS WISDOME Ibid. 13.8 and let him that readeth understand and he that hath read these things in himself he alone can understand these things And when the Lord is thus
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
pictures and to have their dependance and life on them and to make IDOLS of them Ps 106.37 1 Cor. 10.20 21. and in this case saith David and the Apostle Paul They sacrifice unto Devils and not unto God And yet none more precise none more holy in words and gestures and in their Apish Imitations and carriages then they none pretend more justice and carriages then was it not thus with the Pharisees They made it a great matter to be outwardly just to men and stood much upon their praying fasting paying Tythes not keeping back so much as that of the smalest consequence Mint and Cummin yet what were they for all this but Hypocrits Dissemblers painted Sepulchres without Mat. 23.27 but full of rottenness and dead mens bones within But those that are indeed Saints and Members of the true body of Christ their minds are first changed and they have a new nature and from this they work and worship and do acts of Justice and Mercy The other whatever they pretend change but the outside and wash but the outside of the cup and platter Ibid. v. 25 but the inside is as foul and loathsome as ever they can be very strict in their performances and carriages they can make long prayers and seem very devout but then they must be thought to be Somebody and they must be honoured or else all the fat is in the fire as the proverb is and they must have the uppermost seats and grave greetings by the Name of RABBI RABBI and they must be thought to be the only holy men are mighty circumspect to keep their distances with all but whom they think wel of and hereby they think to keep up their honor and respect and they are very conversant in reading praying and expounding the Scriptures as they themselves understand them and this is their Holiness and their Religion and these things make them to be feared and honoured as they think and this makes them bold and this strikes an awfulnesse on the spirits of others and makes them TERRIBLE alas poor ignorant deluded soules these things may be called holiness and holy duties and their many words and long bablings they may be called prayer by themselves and others who are as blind as themselves who cannot see their pride and vain-glory and self-confidence and lifting up themselves and indeed men know them not for saith Christ Luke 11.44 Luk. 11 44 They are as graves which appear not and men are not aware of them but as for those who have the spirit of God in them and a spirit of discerning in them they see plainly that all this is vanity They see that all their highest and strictest zeal and performances are a meer sound of words without any real life to be no other but as sounding Brass 1 Cor. 13.1 or a tinckling Cymbal which vanishes and comes to nothing it being no more but air and emptimesse having nothing of truth or reallity in it The Pharisees long prayer was no prayer at all but was rejected when the poor dejected Publicans saying but a few words was esteemed a prayer and was accepted and he went home justified and not the other These Pharisees they are furnished at all times Luk. 18 13. they can preach and pray and do any thing they are fitted at all times they can at any houre command themselves they can pray either in the Chamber or in the Temple or in the Closet and keep their set rules and houres And this is their Holiness and all that do not follow their Modes and their Forms are loose and prophane and they can judge and censure a brother for a Mote in his eye but perceive not a Beam in their own eye Mat. 7 3. These are the men our Lord so much aimd at Mat. 23.26 33 and had so much to do to uncase and convince and him they so much hated because he had such a slight opinion of them and of their holinesse and because he censured them for Hypocrits and blind Pharisees nay the worst of all men yea worse then Whoremongers Thieves and Murtherers Nay he calls them Serpents But the other who worship God in the spirit and have their help strength and dependance on the Lord they see really their own insufficiency and they receive all by waiting on God they cannot speak nor preach nor pray but when he doth all this in them they will not be unjust to men because they have an inward principle that conforms them to the mind of Christ 1 Cor. 29.16 1 John 5.18 having a new nature they work all their works from that being good they cannot but do good but the other they do good things thinking thereby to make themselves good and to procure favour and acceptance But the sons of God know that whatever is not acted from the spirit of God working in such is no other but from the Devil is no other but Witchcraft Sorcery Inchantment c. In brief the one keep a great deal of stir and are very busie and exact about outsides and forms and times and places and the like when as the other see the vanity and folly of such things and having a principle of holinesse within from thence doe they act and work This they know is the true circumcision who worship God in the spirit Phil. 3.3 and rejoyce in Jesus Christ and have no confidence in the flesh and doing any duty from this principle of the new man or the new creature in them this they esteem to be an ORDINANCE because it is done with life and power and in the spirit of Jesus Christ and they cannot call any thing an Ordinance but only this whatever all the Wizzards Southsayers Diviners Inchanters in the world say to the contrary THE ROOTING up of every Plant not Planted by the Heavenly Father Preached at Alhallows Lumbard-street Matth. 15.13 14. But Jesus answered and said Every Plant which my Father hath not planted shall be rooted up Let them alone they be blind leaders of the blind And if the blind lead the blind both shall fall into the ditch THese words contain an answer of our Lord unto his Disciples For they having heard how the Scribes and Pharises were much offended at some things he had preached they being very strict for the outside and formal part of Religion and being generally taken for great Professours and our Saviour knowing their hearts knew that though the outside was clean aimable and beautiful yet the inside was foul stinking and loathsome for all their observances of washings and fastings and the like Hereupon our Saviour to undeceive the people concerning them calls the multitude together and tells them plainly wishing them not to be foold and deluded but hear and understand in the eleventh verse saith he It is not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man but that which cometh out of the mouth that defileth a man Vers 11 The
figure there is alwayes something resembled or shadowed out to us besides and beyond the Allegory or Metaphor Therefore by the Plant here mentioned is mean the New Creation or the New Man created in Jesus Christ Eph. 4 24. And there is nothing can thrive or flourish but onely this which is onely planted by God himself every other plant must be rooted up this new man is of God spiritualized like himself of his own nature and it knows and understands the things of God let there be a thousand Religions in the world yet onely that which the Father hath planted and is from Heaven that alone shall stand I would for testimony to this truth refer you to two or three places of Scripture to consider of I will not name nor multiply many for I will not weary you with tumbling over the Letter as the manner of some is neither is it of much use or of any proof or convincement to any but those who have the things themselves made good in them Take that in John 15.1 2. Joh. 15.1 2. There is the same similitude used as is here I am the true Vine and my Father is the Husbandman Every branch in me which beareth not fruit he taketh away and every branch which beareth fruit he purgeth it that it may bring forth more fruit So that this shews that Jesus Christ is the onely vine and his father onely minds and husbands this Vine and every branch in it for the root and branches are all but ONE Vine and the Father he alone hath planted it and he dresseth it and waters it and prunes it Jesus Christ in himselfe and members he is the true root of Jesse whom the Lord will establish upon the Throne for ever And t is onely the root of David that hath prevailed Rom. 15.12 Esa 11.10 and no other All other Vines are as a wilde Olive and bear no fruit in him and therefore must be taken away and cut off for except they abide in him they cannot bring forth fruit Without me you can do nothing Joh. 15.4 5. That which is a wild vine or a wild Olive it bears no good fruit therefore men reject it and root it up as good for nothing but to cast into the fire to burn and so doth the Heavenly Husband man reject whatever is wilde and not planted by himself Out of him all the fruit they bring withers and dyes nay they are fruitlesse without they be graffed into him and that they have his spirit and his divine nature that they are members of his body flesh of his flesh bone of his bone Eph. 5.30 So that by this place you may see that the Heavenly Father is the true Husbandman and the onely true plant is Jesus Christ and every one which beareth true fruit they are branches proceeding and growing in and from this root Again look on that place Rom. 6.5 Rom. 6.5 if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection So that still the Scripture carries it along in the person of Christ and not to own any thing or any fruit brought forth by any of the sons of men but as they are rooted and bring forth fruit in him He is the choise and tender VINE which brings forth fruit acceptable to the Heavenly Father He is the tree of life in the City of God spoken of in Revel 21.2 planted by the River bearing twelve manner of fruits Rev. 12.2 and yielding her fruit every moneth and the leaves of this tree are for the healing of the Nations And HEE is the tree spoken of Psal 1.3 He shall be planted by the Rivers of Waters that bringeth forth fruit in his due season whose leaf shall not wither Ps 1 3. and whatsoever he doth shall prosper Every beleever is a mameber of Jesus Christ A plant planted by the Lord in him and none can possibly cause any branch in him to wither all else out of him cannot but wither and dye Ps 92.13.14 So also take notice of that place Psal 92.13 14. The righteous shall flourish like the Palm Tree and shall grow like a Cedar in Lebanon Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the Courts of our God They shall bring forth fruit in their old age they shall be fat and flourishing Jesus Christ is also that spirituall house which the Heavenly Father hath builded not made with hands but eternal in the Heavens and every Saint is a Spiritual Stone in this spiritual house and these are all beautiful stones being placed in this house These are fruitful Trees being planted there and shall bring forth fruit and shall flourish when they are old and bring forth fruit to eternity One place more shall suffice that in Jer. 17.7 8. Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord Jer. 17.7 8. and whose hope the Lord is For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters and that spreadeth out her roots by the River and shall not see when beat commeth but her leaf shall be green and shall not be careful in the year of drought neither shall cease from yeilding fruit These places are sufficient I need not farther enlarge for they give testimony and witness as far as the Letter can But what is the Letter to that man who hath no Testimony nor Witnesse of the truth thereof in his own heart he can never set his seal to the truth thereof and it can do him no good except it be a word of evidence and he hath a witnesse within it being true in his heart But the mon of the Letter if they hold forth any truth then they heap up Scriptures as they conceive to prove it and think they have done such an act when as if there be not a convincement and a witness thereof within the Letter will never convince men but when the same thing is written in the heart then man closes with it and answers to it and then the Word is as David saith sweeter then the Honey and the Honey-comb Ps 19.10 and more to hbe desired then Gold yea then much fine Gold else t is no other but a dead Letter and then is fulfilled that promise of the New Covenant Jer. 31.33 Heb. 8.10 Jer. 31.33 Not according to the Covenant I made with their Fathers which Covenant they brake But I will put my Law into their inward parts and write it in their hearts and they shall no more teach every one his neighbour and his brother saying know the Lord for they shall all know me from the least to the greatest c. And thus I hope there are many here find this truth made good in themselves and will set to their seal that all other plants which the Father hath not planted must be rooted up And if this be so Vse 1 as most certainly it is then
this discovers to us who is that ONE Tree that the Father onely hath planted And that is only the Root of Jesse which Isaiah speaks of Esa 11.10 And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse which shall stand for an Ensigne of the people and to it shall the Gentiles seek and his rest shall be glorious Which the Apostle applyes particularly to Jesus Christ Rom. 15.12 Rom. 15.12 There shall be a root of Jesse and he shall arise to reigne over the Gentiles Rom. 15.12 and in him shall the Gentiles trust Then what wickednesse is this in the sons of men to think that any thing they plant shall stand or that they have any holinesse love purity goodnesse power wisedome or the like Esey 64.6 And why are menstruous rags termed graces For whatever is out of Jesus Christ and whatever is not planted in man by the Father and so rooted in the Father and in the eternal and ever blessed Being must be rooted up And take that for a second use and know it for certain Vse 2 for you must receive it as an undeniable truth that no other Tree ever did doth or shall stand but onely this and indeed this is the Tree of life in the Garden of Eden Gen. 3.24 Gen. 3.24 Rev. 2.7 And that spoken of Rev. 2 7. In the midst of the Paradise of God and there is no other Tree growes or encreases or prospers but onely He neither is there any True fruit but what growes out of this root and therefore for men to say either in word or practice that there is any other wisedome any other fruit any other power any other righteousnesse is to rob Christ of his honour and to give that to man which alone is due to him No no there is no other plant but He none loved of the Father but He he is the choise and chosen Olive whose fruit is onely accepted and our actions onely as they are his actions if we be in him we then are branches in this Tree and so the root beares us and not we it as most men assert in their practice that they must do and they must work and they must conforme themselves to Christ what 's all this but they to bear the root and not the root them and they to bring forth Christ and not Christ them And therefore men should be more cautious and understand and minde what they say and do When they say I will do this and I can and I must performe this and that duty Alasse poore creature what canst thou do and who is it that beares thee canst thou bring forth God and Jesus Christ and the Spirit or rather doth not he beare and bring forth thee hast thou any thing of thine own but evil hest thou any fruit unto holinesse Rom. 6.22 any flower or blossome that can be accepted which is not received from this Tree and from this root why then doest thou so much look upon thy selfe and talk of thy selfe and why doest thou boast and glory as if it were thine own and thou hadst not received it In this thou dishonourest thy head Christ 1 Cor. 11.4 for he that can do any thing either pray or preach or prophesie or do any thing in the Church of God with his head covered he dishonoureth Christ who is the head who ought to have the sole glory of all good or all grace of all power wisedome righteousnesse Ibid. v. 5. But let the woman be covered all weaknesse and sin be laid upon man but let the husband have all the glory all the praise for the Spouse of Christ hath no riches but in his riches nor no righteousnesse but in his righteousnesse nor no glory but in his glory And therefore in all your sayings actings speakings carriages expositions exhortations see that ye never dishonour your Husband Psal 29.2 96.8 give him the glory due to his name and take shame and confusion of face to your selves do not so much as once think that man can do or act or believe or repent or work or do any thing of this nature for ye belye him and dishonour and blaspheme your husband what do you in all this but forstake the Tree of life which is healing to the Nations Rev. 22.2 and turne to the Tree of knowledge of good and evil which is so strictly forbidden to all the sons of men as much as to Adam from whence they continually eate Death and Damnation And they can do no otherwise while they forsake their Father and Husband and run a whoring after their own inventions Psal 106.39 Beloved what a do is there in the world everywhere about mans doing and mans working and he must strive and he must improve grace he must cherish this plant and do something that he may be accepted and he must watch and he must water and he must Lop and Prune this Bough and the other Branch and by his power and wisedome and watchfulnesse he must cut off this sin and the other evil And this is the great Religion of the world in all Ages And alasse what does he all this while by doing of these things in his own name and by his own wisedome and power he does but undoe himselfe for what else can he doe but bring misery and sin and darknesse upon himselfe and plunge himselfe deeper in the pit For when man is bid to do any thing repent or believe or watch or pray Phil. 2.12 1 Pet. 1.10 or to work out his salvation with feare or trembling and make his calling and election sure what doe you think it was ever meant that he should do these of himselfe or do them out of Christ No no there was never any such thing intended by the holy Ghost But say they man hath received a power and a Talent from Jesus Christ And of this he must take care and use it Object and imploy it to his Masters use I answer t is false Answ there is no such thing for a Christian enjoyes nothing out of hrist nor done apart from him but all in him and his works if right 't is Christ doth them in him and not he yet how ordinary is it with men to put man to do and why is not he so and so And men are so senslesse that they are not sensible that man is dead in trespasses and sins though they acknowledge it in words yet in truth they deny it and declare that they know not what they say For Ephes 2.1 can any other thing raise the dead but onely the voice of the son of God Though Jesus Christ hath said That every plant that the heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up John 5.28 yet for all this say they man must be doing and planting and he cannot wait the Lords time and this is the reason why men have so little experience of the true work of God because
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
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
are still in snares and lockt fast in their fetters for who else can deliver and set free the soule of man but he that is Lord of all Rev. 1.18 and is subject to none He alone hath the keyes of Hell and death he alone is the soules Captaine and deliverer This is that which all the Saints have experience of when they finde themselves delivered from the bondage of flesh of selfe of the world if they feel this work done within them they know experimentally t is the very finger and power of Christ and that he is only Christs free man that none hath brought it to pass to set them at liberty to knock off their chains and lead them out of prison and set their feet upon a rock but only the Almighty power and meer mercy of the Lord Jesus they know that it hath been he that hath opened their eyes and their eares Psal 40.2 that hath raised them from death and given them feet to walk and there is none know this truly but only those that feele it done in themselves And for proofe of this point though I might prove it by Scripture very pleatifully to shew how many yea all the Saints there spoken of have found it in their own experience that they were delivered from death and from prison by the power of God and by the hand of Jesus Christ yet what is this to thee except thou sinde their experience true in thy selfe else their experience is but notions and riddles to thee and such things whereof thou hast no knowledge except thou see and know thy selfe to be under deth and kept fast in prison and except thou hast found Jesus Christ restoring recovering delivering and redeeming thee from this death And that thou findest that he hath said to thy soule Arise and stand up on the feet Acts 14.10 and hath given thee strength and life to what end is it to bring all the examples in Scripture and in the world if this death and life be no experimented in us Insomuch that thou canst say This word is true to me because done in me as the Apostle saith in Heb. 1.1 2. Heb. 1.1 2. God who at sundry times and divers manners spake in times past unto the Fathers and by the Prophets hath in these last days spoken unto us by his son whom he hath appointed Heir of all things Those truths which he spake before by the Prophets he hath now spoken in us by his Son so that we now know them to be the word and speakings of God But as our Saviour saith Mat. 12.39 40. An evil and an Adulterous Generation seeketh after a sign They expect every speaking should be made good by an external word and ye must go no farther so that the truth is never witnessed to in their hearts but as he sayes there There shall no sign be given them but the sign of the Prophet Ionas For as Ionas was three days and three nights in the Whales belly even so shal the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the Earth Except you find the same things done in you the same miracles the same death the same lying in the grave three days and three nights except you find Jesus Christ taking thee by the hand and restoring thee to life thou art of an evil and adulterous Generation seeking after an external sign and thou art a meer stranger to these things But I shall for their sakes who feel the work of Christ within them give you two or three places of Scripture being the experience of the Saints of old that you may see how the Saints bear witnesse to each other in experience First Scripture Esa 61.1 2 3. Esa 61.1 2 3. speaking there of Christ being the only deliverer saith The spirit of the Lord God is upon me because he hath anoynted me to preach good tidings to the meek he hath sent me to bind up the broken hearted to proclaim liberty to the Captives and the opening of the prison to them that are bound c. To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion to give them beauty for ashes and the oyl of joy for mourning and the garments of praise for the spirit of heavinesse c. Christ only is the breaker open of the soules prison doors he alone gives deliverance to the Captives and he alone brings them forth from prison and sets them free and this he is to his people in all ages for he is yesterday and to day Heb. 13.8 and the same for ever and when the same word appeared in flesh he testifies the same of himself Luke 4.18 Luk. 4.18 21. where he rehearseth the same words and applyes them to himself vers 21. This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears And this was that which he still held forth in all his teachings that there is no other Saviour nor Deliverer but himself never was nor is nor ever shall be to the end of the world Moses was only an outward and external Captain or Deliverer but His leadings and deliverings are spiritual and there is none can be delivered but by him Heb. 12.24 as he is a better Mediator then Moses so he is a better deliverer t is he alone that frees the soul from the pit from death and hell his Kingdom is within us The Jewes and Pharisees they still excepted an outward deliverer and could not own Him as a Prince and Saviour but were blind and saw not what he still held forth in all his teachings They could not see the truth that they were blind and miserable and full of Hypocrisie and were no other but painted Sepulchres glorious outwardly but within were full of rottennesse stench and dead mens bones They could not endure to stand in the light of this truth Mat. 23.27 but hated it and persecuted him to the death for holding it forth What are we blind also what we the learned the wisest the holiest what we that are strict our selves and call upon others to be so this was death to them But now had they but seen this and owned it he would have been their righteousness their deliverer their redeemer to have set them free but because they said we see therefore their sin remained and their fetters and bondage was not taken off And again Christ tells them Iohn 8.31 32. If ye continue in my word then are ye my Disciples indeed and ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free Now these things they could not see nor understand that they were in bondage but answered to him we are Abrahams seed and were never in bondage to any man how sayest thou ye shall be made free then Jesus answered them Verily verily I say unto you He that committeth sin is the servant of sin the servant abideth not in the House for ever but the son abideth for ever And if the son shall make you
not without demonstration enough that they do but flatter Christ with their MOVTHS when their hearts are far from him sayes Iehu 2 Kings 10 16. See my zeal for the Lord of Hosts but we know his zeal was but for himself So these men are offended if any thing be said to touch them or their wayes pretending dishonour to Christ and they cry out BLASPHEMY because it reproves their blindnesse or ignorance shewing that they are the blind leaders of the blind and both fal into the ditch Luk. 6.39 so do it out of pretence of love to Christ and zeal for the Lord of Hosts If so be it were so that they did make God their zeal and Christ their rest and their dependance as they would have all beleeve what is the reason that these men professing themselves Servants to Christ and Messengers from Christ what 's the reason I say they are so in love with the world who more hunting after Honour after Riches after Applause and in all things seeking themselves as much or more then others making no profession what 's the reason that they must come forth as messengers sent out from Christ and yet they must have two coats Mark 6.9 contrary to their Masters command and they must have their scrip and their bag and who more taking care to provide for the body for food and rayment and the like and yet they say they are doing the Lords work yet dare not trust their Master for outward things shall any man think these men have trusted their souls with him who dare not trust their bodies with him but they must have so much a year and they must indent with the people or else they will not work how say you are not these those that make merchandise of the word of God certainly these men can never make out themselves messengers from Christ 2 Cor. 4.2 approving themselves to every mans conscience in the sight of God neither hath he Commissioned them nor given them their errand nor revealed his secrets to them but they run before they are sent and say thus saith the Lord when he sent them not Jer. 14.23 neither have they seen any vision as the Prophet saith Certainly these are not the men that preach the word of God out of a ready mind and constraint of love depending on the Lord for their recompence and reward 1 Pet. 5.2 but for filthy lucre sake These men never yet received the truth in the love of it in themselves but preach for honour and for praise and because it is a place in credit and this delights them and is very pleasing to the flesh and because they are had in honour and so much they will speak forth and no more then may stand with those things and they dare not venture either their honour or riches or credit c. upon the account of truth no not for their lives Are these of Pauls mind who cryed out woe is me if I preach not the Gospel but these men if they can have but the accomodations that attend a Minister in these dayes 1 Cor. 9.16 as riches and honour and praise and full tables and entertainments and feasting and uppermost seats and the like they will doe well enough for dispensing the Gospel and do that warily and tenderly enough without prejudicing their own esteem or offending others And are not these men faithful Stewards think ye as they would fain be esteemed that can thus order their wayes and keep up themselves and dare not for their ears commit themselves nor their works to the Lord nor to the Authority and power of truth in the hearts of men I am much grieved to see these things and yet who seem more zealous then these men who say they are doing their Lords work just so did the Pharisees up and down whom Christ so sharply reproves for Hypocrisie and Blindness and Covetousnesse and Deceivers c. being blind leaders of the blind and both fall into the ditch Mat. 15.14 But the reason of all this is because these men were never yet emptied in themselves they never took up the crosse of Christ Ibid. 10.38 or denied themselves but are rich and full and holy and wise and sober and very strict as they would be thought and think so of themselves for though they talk and babble of these things in a litteral way yet they never had them in experience but boast of things in another mans line 2 Cor. 10.14 15. and stretch themselves beyond their own measure borrowing this mans words and the other mans experience and because Paul and others have been witnesses to the truth and of high manifestations of God brought forth in them this they appropriate and arrogate and say t is their condition when t is no such matter but having a shew of humility and godlinesse they deceive the simple and are such who serve not the Lord Iesus Christ but their own belly and by good words Col. 2.23 and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple and are such who cannot give testimony to the truth in themselves they are full of curious collected choise words but if you bring those words to experience they plainly discover they know nothing of them but do indeed oppose the truth in themselves for they love honour and greatnesse and the praise of men of whom Christ saith plainly How can YEE believe who thus seek honour one of another and not that honour which commeth from God only Joh. 5.44 Certainly these men whatever they talk of Christ and preach of Christ and make a great noise in words yet they will be found to be no other but as sounding brass and tinkling Cymbals 1 Cor. 13 1 They will undertake to invite others to Christ and never found Jesus in themselves for no man can come after him but he that denies himselfe Mar. 8.34 and takes up his cross and follows him and though they in words and notions talk of self-deniall and selling all for the PEARL yet they are wise in themselves and holy in themselves and rich in themselves and they have a power to act in the waies of God and to conform them selves to the rule have these men sold all think you and though they say men are dead in trespasses and sins yet how many MVSTS do they lay upon them and doe Thus and Thus And whence is all this but because indeed they never yet followed Christ never yet found him never yet believed in him never yet denied themselves were never reduced to emptiness and nothingness but are still alive and whole in themselves except it be for a few outward neglects or omissions now and then and that they can make up again with a little double diligence and this is their way and herein lies the life and top of their Religion And truly brethren how can these things be otherwise Did the woman with the bloody
did and all was nothing else but sin and abomination in the sight of the Lord. The sons of men are very inquisitive after that which pleases their fancy and their own inventions and seem to press after high things and great questions but they really oppose and desire to be ignorant of the truth as it is in Jesus They speak of Deliverance but they really hate it though they may say whatever thou doest with us reform us and make us holy and the like but the truth is they would not have it so nor they mean not as they say for if Christ should take his own way with them viz. to bring man down in himself and to strip him of his beautiful garments what would become of these mens smooth words and long prayers and seeming devotion would not their hearts give their mouths the lye in all they said and discover themselves to be grosse and abominable Hypocrits and indeed would with the Gergesites rather goe out and beseech him to depart out of their Coasts Mat. 8.34 and withall really pray depart from us Job 21.14 for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways So that when men who were never yet lost undone and confounded in themselves pray for the grace of God and mortification and to be crucified to the world alas alas they pray they know not what And again these men because they can deliver the outward word and the Letter and bring their matter into a handsome form and method they think they have preached the word of God to the people when alas this is nothing for the outward letter is not the word but what is there exprest litterally is only as a witnesse to the word and the truth and of what the Saints of God have found and shall finde in themselves and if Christ be a Delivervr to them they shall find the like things in themselves And there is none can understand the Letter in the Mystery but they in whom the same things are done 2 Cor. 3.15 These only have the Vail taken off the Letter and none but Jesus Christ himselfe can doe this And particularly many Object Obj. What shall we not pray that we may have this Deliverance I Answer No man ever truly prayed Answ but out of a sense of want if you wert brought into a true sense of thy empty naked and lost condition of thy poverty beggery and starved condition then Christ and his spirit would pray in thee with sighs and groans unexpressible Rom. 8 26 then thou wouldest pray indeed and couldst not but cry and pray and groan indeed and this is true prayer prayer is not to get together a many fine smooth words and to collect this fine expression and the other and observing this and that time and that hour but prayer is words or sighs from so deep a sense of misery and want that we verily see we starve and die except we prevail Men if they truly prayed they would not come dreaming out with such beggerly questions what then shall we not pray and shall we not hear and the like these questions shew they never did any duty rightly but only in a way of form or complement or to qualifie the cry of conscience and the like but if men be really in misery in hell in bitternesse they cannot chuse but cry and pray and beg I 'le warrant you you need not bid them for you cannot keep them from it nor will they ask shall we not pray or hear and the like for they pray by the power of the spirit and that speaks in them with groans which are unutterable and beyond all expression of words We read of some of the Heathen persecuting Emperors that in a way of cruelty would constrain the Christians though they were under tortures and torments yet they should not cry nor complain if they did they would torture them the more but it is not so in the tortures and torments of the soul they cannot but they must cry out and complain and seek deliverance when the soul is in bitterness it cannot but cry And farther though they have done these things as doing them by necessity yet those that are truly delivered by Jesus Christ that only Deliverer they do not esteem the doing of these things their deliverance or them their Deliverer wherein lies the misery of the most of the sons of men that if their consciences begin to smite them and sin begins to appear and hell looks them in the face sayes the soul I must now look out for a remedy I must do something to quench this fire and to allay this burning and then what do they they then think to reform their lives and they will go pray and hear or join themselves into this and that fellowship and Church-gathering and there they will conform to the use of Ordinances and it may be get into the best reformed fellowship as they conceive and nearest the rule of Christ and here they rest here they are quiet and all is well and wrath is past and they are delivered Alas alas poor souls In this very thing they have turned aside from the true Deliverer and mist their Deliverance But the true way to Deliverance is to stand in thy misery and abide condemned in thy self till Christ himself take pitty of thee and then Christ himself would pray in thee and he would carry thee out to reading and hearing and praying after a spiritual manner for while these works are thine own and thou seekest for to deliver thy self thou art so much the more in bondage for these duties if done rightly are the work of the Deliverer and the fruit of thy deliverance and not the cause of thy Deliverance nor the Deliverer and when he doth them in thee then they are done with power thou prayest from a reall sense of want and thou hearest with a circumcised ear and then thy reading is in the power of the spirit and be awaketh thine ear to hear Esa 50.4 for that is not true or spiritual reading and hearing and praying which every man may doe outwardly though it be never so often and never so constantly and yet men call these DVTIES and ORDINANCES and conformity and holy walking when they are never so except Christ the Deliverer perform them in them by the power of his spirit and otherwise they are not spiritual nor holy duties as men falsly call them for they are but outward and carnal and nothing of the spirit in them but done onely by the power of self and of the carnal natural man And therefore when Christ teacheth Mar. 7.34 35. He openeth the ear and He gives sight to the blind his work is not an empty cold dead thing Joh. 6.63 but his word is spirit and life and he requires an ear in an ear and an eye in an eye He that hath ears to hear Luke 8.8 let him hear and eyes to see let him see
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