Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	worship_v	worshipper_n	zeal_n	16	3	7.8483	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96143	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.	Webster, John, 1610-1682.	1654 (1654)	Wing W1210; Thomason E805_13; ESTC R207390	257,953	337

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 m●untaine shall men worship the Father but the true worshippers shall worship him in spirit and truth These two mountaines alwayes stand in opposition one to another because the one is to bring men into Bondage and the other is still labouring to set men free The one kinde of worshippers are altogether busied and exercised and are very zealous for worldly Ordinances and external worships duties and formes an conclude that those who submit and take them up zealously and constantly are the true worshippers and exclude all other Now the other worshippers who worship the Father in spirit and truth they see and bear witnesse against these outward formes as rested in as generally all the other worshippers do whatever they say and their great Zeal for them is because they derive suck and draw life from the exercise of them But the other know there is no power no life no excellency in them neither could they any longer live or depend upon them but they see that their life power righteousnesse freedome is in those things which are from heaven heavenly in the spirit 1 Cor. 15.48 not in the letter they receive their nourishment and influence from the Heavenly Ierusalem not from the outward and external not from carnal Ordinances as the Apostle calls them but they suck the brest of the true mother whose milk is spirit and life And here they live and here they feast and here they dwell and have not their life nor content nor their abode with the Bond-woman which in them is cast out with her children for she can never inherit the blessing nor the life nor the power nor the liberty but is with all her children alwayes in Bondage And the Apostle appeales to all Believers their own experience Gal. 3.2 Did ye ever receive the promise by the workes of the Law that is by whatever man as man could do with all his learning power strivings acquirings c. but only by the hearing of Fath So that you may see from thesr and many other arguments the Apostles drawes this exhortation by way of conclusion in the verse now read Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free and be not intangled againe with the yoake of Bondage Some of the Galathians had seen and felt this true liberty which he had cleared out to them and they had lived in it and enjoyed it But some false Apostles crept in after his departure and told them they must still hold the formes of the Law Heb. 9.10 and they must be circumcized and observe outward and carnal Ordinances Now the Apostle very earnestly presseth them to stand fast in their liberty received and not to suffer themselves to be intangled with those yoakes of bondage for Christ is their liberty and Christ alone is their life and their freedome their peace their joy their salvation and herein to stand against all those who would set up any thing with him and upon that account the Apostle calls them carnal Ordinances though appointed by the Lord himselfe And 't is a wonder the men of the Letter which stand so much for outward formes do not cry out BLASPHEMY and HERESY All those other things being included in naming Circumcision because that was the most high absolute and unquestionable Ordinance ordained by God himselfe to Abraham and which none could remove or abolish but the Son himselfe the Heire himselfe who being come to Age must inherit and take possession of his own of his Inheritance Kingdom and Glory And shall any servant resist and keep out THE LORD Heb. 1.12 Matth. 3.3 The Heire of all things and all these things say Prepare ye the way of the Lord for whom all things were made and created and all other excellencies and glories whatsoever are but to Vsher in this great and mighty King and shall any Harbinger or servant say he will not or he must not remove or be so impudent to say that the inheritance is his No sayes the Apostle I testifie to every man and I Paul say unto you if ye be circumcised Christ shall profit you nothing and ye are under the Law Gal. 5.3 4 and under bondage and he is a debtor to do the whole Law and Christ is become of none offect and ye are fallen from grace This is that which so much moved the Apostle that they being once set free had tasted of the liberty which came by Jesus Christ that they should be againe intangled with the yoake of bondage That they who had received the new teaching and Christ to be the Teacher should now hearken to false teachers Ibid. 3.3 and having begun in the spirit should once think to be made perfect by the flesh as if Christ were not enough but they must joyne with

issue ever come to Christ as long as she had any thing left neither doth any of the sons of men return to him spiritually Mar. 5.26 till they are poor empty lost naked miserable and undone And therefore though they say they are looking for this One and onely Deliverer and talk much of him yet all their waies and practices declare the contrary And this true Deliverer is He that they speak against and oppose And as he was reproached hated spit upon and crucified by the Jews so is he in and by these men for the true Christ and the true Messiah is alwaies abused slandered crucified by the world Me it hates alwaies and therefore it hateth you even all those that hold him forth in the spirit John 7.7 c. 15.20 it cannot but hate and persecute because they testifie that all the deeds thereof are evil And why the reason is because he brings light with him and that discovers their darkness their lyes their Hypocrisy because he testifies that their goodly deeds are evil and upon this account all that know not the life of Christ in experience do really hate it and persecute it for when man hath built up to himselfe much glory riches strength wisedom and great attainments now for Jesus Christ to come and strip him and take away all his beautiful garments Ezek. 26.16 and all his glory and strength here now if man cannot be content to submit and lose all for Christ then he bussles and strives to keep up his glory to keep on his glorious garments that neither men nor himselfe may see his nakedness impurity deformity ungodliness hypocrisy and lyes T is true thou sayest in words Jesus Christ is thy only Deliverer and thou art seeking after him if so why seekest thou then the living among the dead Luk. 24.5 thinking to find Christ in dead forms and dead duties and ordinances as thou callest them and thinkst that they wil deliver and give life and when thou hast done them with some spirit and quickness here is thy comfort and thy joy and so thou settest up thy self and thy own doings for thy Saviour Helper Deliverer But why seek ye Christ and the true Deliverer without your selves for what 's all the Deliverers and Christs in the world if if he be not a Saviour in thee and a Deliverer in thee Why seek ye Christ at Jerusalem and externally and say if I do but beleeve in that person that there lived and died it is enough though I never find him a Saviour in me and to me The time is comming when ye shall neither in this Mountain nor at Ierusalem worship the Father John 4.21 c. for the true Worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth for the Father seeketh such to worship him for God is a spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and truth Now for men to come in the name of Christ and say loe here and loe there and say he is in this form and the other mountain in this ordinance and tother dipping in this manner and in the other way of breaking of bread and the like and they think by using these external things to imitate Jesus Christ and to give the holy spirit and to get grace and they come preaching in his name and in his name have done many great works Luk. 13.27 but saith Christ I never knew you depart from me ye workers of iniquity They say also they are Christs Messengers and Ambassadours and that he hath sent them forth and yet Christ hath not furnished them for their work but only being furnished from the Letter and by reading mens Labours they come forth Audaciously and say we are the Messengers of Christ when as the spirit of Christ never furnished them Ezek. 13.3 yet they say Thus saith the Lord and have seen nothing they have had no vision but say what others say and so prophesie they know not what And farther for all they say Christ sends them yet they dare not trust him not so much as for external maintenance but they must have their bag and their wallet Luk. 10.4 their scrip and their maintenance or else they will not do their work They dare not commit themselves to the wisdom and care of him whom they say sent them But in vain came these men out in the name of Christ and bring forth such fruits who can beleeve them or regard them or honour them comming forth in this manner furely none that have the power of truth and experience of the work of Christ in them and that really know him to be the true and only deliverer But those who are blind as themselvs are blind may indeed be led by them But my sheep know my voice John 10.4 5. and the voice of a stranger they will not follow those who have experience of Christ must see a proof of Christ in them 2 Cor. 13.3 or else they cannot follow them They know if Christ send them he hath spoken in them and that they have heard the word at his mouth and he hath preached in their souls first and discovered himself to be A Deliverer to them Ibid. c. 3.6 or else they bring but the voice of strangers and are but Ministers of the Letter and not of the Spirit And let the sons of men run up and down from this fellowship to the other from Ordinance to Ordinance and from Baptism to Baptism from breaking bread here and there yet is this nothing so long as thy heart is dead still and lies under the power of lust and corruption and is in bonds and fetters still for except Christ be thy Deliverer except he appear pear in thee except this root of David spring up in thee Rev. 5.5 except the Lyon of the Tribe of Judah arise in thee all thou canst do and all thou canst run unto cannot save thee nothing else in Heaven or Earth ever can save help or Deliver thee But if may be this Doctriue may seem harsh to some Obj. and they may Object and say What then shall I sit still shall I do nothing shall I not use the means shall I not prepare and fit my selfe for deliverance Consider I pray you when ye have done what you can Answ what is it you do do or what is it man can do to save or deliver himself is not man dead in trespasses and sins Eph. 2.1 and can any thing raise the dead but the voice of Christ and is there any good thing can be done by them till Christ work it is not all their works without him sin or can there be any thing properly called a means or an ordinance but only Him when men have reformed themselves and their paths and trimmed their way to seek love Jer. 2.33 they have but gone astray in all this and gone after their own lovers and sought themselves in all they

the corner it is rejected and laid by even by those that account themselves Master builders and this is the Lords doing and it s marvailous in our eyes Again another ground why the souls of men come not to Christ Reas 3 is because the appearing of Christ in the spirit makes all the hidden things of mans heart lie open even that which man himselfe never saw nor never thought was in him and this man hates and will not abide to see nor behold that depth of pride that selfe-glorying hypocrisie c. and taht bottomlesse pit of misery mans eye never looked into himself into his own heart but in the day of the appearance of Jesus Christ all this is discovered and laid open therefore man would by no means come to Christ because the appearing of Christ discovers his sin and condemnation man loves his own life skin for skin and all that a man hath will be give for his life but he that loseth his life shall find it Job 2.4 Mat. 10.39 John 3.19 therefore our Saviour tells us plainly that this is the c●ndemnation that light is come into the world and men love darkness rather then light because their deeds are evil for he that doth evil hateth the light neither comes to the light lest his deeds should be made manifest that they are evil So here the ground is rendred why the Gospel is Condemnation to the sons of men the Gospel brings light but men resist it hate it Certain it is that the light of Christ is in every creature for he is the true light that enlightens every one that come into the world Joh. 1.9 Mat. 6.23 And if this light that is in us be darkness how great is that darkness Here is the condemnation of all the sons of men that they dare not stand in the light of Christ not being able to behold hell in their own hearts but labour by all means to cover it for the light of Christ would shew them that there is no thought action or duty or performance that ever they did that had any thing of purity in it but it was all sin Now man not daring to see his own misery therefore he runs from this light and gets himselfe behinde any tree He runs from the appearance of him that sits upon the Throne and so resolves he will not see his own misery death and condemnation Rev. 6.16 neither will he believe it though he be told it by an Angel from Heaven he will not come to the light lest thereby he may know or be convinced that his deeds are onely evil Againe this is the work of the Father to draw men unto Christ because no lesse then infinitness and Eternity is able to bring God and man together the separation between God and man is so vast and they are at such an infinite distance since his fall that nothing but Infinitness can bring these two infinite ends together for the soul of man in one sin sins against an infinite God in any one sin it goes out and turns away from the infinitnesse of all blessednesse good joy glory and peace and so goes down into the infinitness of nothing for nothing is a kinde of infinitness and he is indeed gone into a far Country Luk. 15. 13. as the Prodigal was now therefore nothing but the infinite powers and infinite wisedome and strength that is in the Lord is able to bring life out of death something out of nothing therefore there is nothing to bring the heart of man out of that far country wherein to it is gone and out of that bottomless pit into which is is fallen nothing can do it but infinitness and eternity 2 Cor. 4.14 nothing but the same spirit that raised up Jesus Christ from the dead can quicken our mortal bodies there is nothing I say able to do it but the same spirit to bring a poor soul from hell and condemnation and make it one in unity with the spirit And therefore the Apostle witnesses Eph. 2.13 you that were aliens hath he made nigh by the blood of Christ Eph. 2.13 and you that were sometimes afar off hath he made near by the blood of Christ So now I hope this appears a truth to you and I hope the Lord will make it so in you by experience till then it is not a savour of life unto life for except you have the Scriptures made good in the power thereof in your own hearts what are the Scriptures to you And I have alledged them for that very end that you may finde and say These things are all fulfilled not only among the Jewes and at Jerusalem but really and truely in my selfe So then I hope some of you see it is the alone power of the Father that draws the soules of men unto Christ otherwise no man can come unto him But give me leave yet a little farther for the clearing it and explaining it by the way What this power of the Father is or how the Father doth draw or bring the soules of men unto Christ God is said to be a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth Joh. 4.23 God is nothing but life glory and power spirit and immortality and whatsoever thing we could have a notion or similitude of that is able to set out strength and life and glory and wisdom yet all these come infinitly short of setting out the strength and power of the Lord of Hosts the great Jehovah who is Psal 121.5 he that keeps Israel Psal 121.5 he that keepes Israel neither slumbreth nor sleepeth so that is is to be cleared what power it is that brings the spirits of men unto Jesus Christ Certainly there is nothing but the same eternal spirit that was in Jesus Christ it is the same immortal and immediate hand and power of God that doth ever raise up the soule of man and bring it unto Christ and nothing but that spirit only and therefore from hence is that of the Apostle that no man can so much as say that Jesus is the Lord but by the holy Ghost 1 Cor. 12.3 Joh. 3.5 and except a man be born of water and the spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdome of God for t is all one and t is wrought by one and the same Almighty Spirit to say that Jesus is the Lord by the spirit and to be born of the spirit for man to say confess so ten thousand times if he do not feel him to be the Lord and the Almighty in him all his confessions in words are nothing And by one spirit saith the Text ye are all baptized into one body even the whole body and they all testifie one and the same thing that there is but one spirit 1 Cor. 12.13 Eph. 4.4 one Lord one Faith one Baptisme one God and Father of all Eph. 4.4 and they have all been made to drink into

and say we are the Substitutes of Christ That which we deny him we take to our selves certainly all this is nothing else but hellish arrogancy and the pride of the man of sin and ANTICHRIST within us that exalts himself in us above all that is called God 2 Thes 2.4 that puts us into these wayes and to think that we can draw or we can drive to Jesus Christ when there is none can do this but meerly and solely that only and eternal power and spirit of the Father Thirdly if it be so as we have clearly proved and none dare deny it Use 3 neither can then the wisdome nor power nor strength nor any rules of Fellowships or Church-gatherings or any discipline of man draw nor drive others in but 't is onely the drawing and driving of the eternal power of the Fathers spirit It is true the Sons of Men may do and have done and do compass Sea and Land and what is it to doe to make a Proselyte and what then he is but twofold more the child of perdition then before Mat. 23.15 They may indeed gather men into Fellowships and Churches as they call them But to gather men into the spirit of the Lord Jesus this was never the work of man no strength nor power nor wisedome of man could ever doe it and without question every plant that the Heavenly father hath not planted Ibid. 15.13 shall be rooted up It is true and I grant there was some mention made of the Church and Churches in the times of the Apostles but what Churches were they They were no other but what were called by God himselfe in the power of his spirit and not of or by man Where do we read of this mans Church or the other mans Members but they were called the Church of God and not divided by those distinctions of vain-glorious self-seeking ambitious covetous men as they are in these dayes Nor did they Owne one another or had any relation one unto another in their love or esteem upon that account Note But they looked upon one another in what place soever as but one body and having all but one spirit meerly because thty were all baptized into One body by that One Spirit 1 Cor. 12.13 They did not know one another as they were of Paul and of Apollo of Cephas and this mans Church as they now call it But as they were all baptized by one Spirit and into one Body and as they were of one mind and of one spirit and so of one heart Heb. 12.13 and so brought to the general assembly of the Church of the first born And therefore we must conclude there is nothing that gathers or draws in the soul of man unto Jesus Christ but the everlasting power of God We know also men may worship at Jerusalem this way and that way and pretend to honour that Christ who died there and yet they doe but draw nigh to him with their lips Esa 29.13 but not with the spirit in truth but no man can do these things in the power of God nor so much as SAY that Iesus is the Lord but by the holy Ghost and by the power of Jesus Christ And be sure that every plant that my heavenly father hath not planted shall be rooted up From whence also lastly Vse 4 If the power of the Father only draws the spirit of man unto the Son and unto Jesus Christ then let every man look in and unto his own heart and see whether he doe not resist the drawing of the spirit Behold saith he I stand at the door and knock if any man hear my voice and open the door I will come in to him and sup with him Rev 3.20 and he with me enter but into thy own Chamber and be still and look into thy own brest and see whether thou be not daily and hourly resisting the Spirit of God that would draw man unto Christ didst thou but look into thy own heart thou shouldst find there was never any thought that did ever arise in thee to check or controle thee in thy evil wayes but that very thought was a light in thee if thou wouldst have heeded or regarded it And that light also did tell thee that all thy best actions were but sin and that all the wayes thou walkest in there is nothing but fear in them and death in them and misery in them And thy best and holiest services are an abomination There is a spirit within thee that is still troubling and checking thee for every proud and for every evil thought and what is this for 2 Cor. 8.2 onely to let thee see that thou art dead and reprobate to every good work and all thy deeds are evil and all that thou knowest thou knowest not as thou oughtest to know It is to let thee know that thou art naked and poor and blind and miserable It is to take away thy false strength and thy false wisedome and riches and to let thee see thy weaknesse and folly and poverty but this is thy onely misery and the general universal misery of all the sons of men that they dare not stand in the light and abide in it To abide in such a light which shewes that man hath not one good thought Psal 73.22 but is as a beast before God That he hath no holinesse nor no righteousnesse at all Now for thee so farre to presume and to think so highly of thy selfe that thou art of such abilities and wisdome and parts as to sit down at the head-end of the Table or because that thou hast gotten in thy own conceit into the best way of Religion for knowledge and practice and performances and therefore thou art Some-body and thou must be magnified and reverenced and for these men now to be brought back to look into their own hearts and see themselves as bad as the rest of the world and to see themselves the worst of men Oh Beloved what a mighty fall must these men have before ever God brings them into this condition which must be if ever they be brought or drawn home to Jesus Christ by the power of the Father And yet to adde to this besides all this thou hast gotten a covering for thy sins and hast wipt thy mouth and said thou hast done nothing when all thy wayes are nothing but resistings fightings and emnity against God Do not men resist him when they seek esteem to themselves and they must be great and respected and honoured what is all this but to rob Jesus Christ of his honour and steal it away to put upon themselves Oh that the power of God would but make men abide in the Center of their own hearts to see that there is nothing there but darkness nothing but folly in regard of God and Christ if man would but dwell and abide here to see himselfe lost and wretched miserable and undone then God would

so like the things of God yet they shall then come and see clearly they were deluded and bewitched and all discovered to be meer fancies and inchantments but then 't is here promised they should have no more Southsayers no Inchanters to deceive their eyes who have so much cunning to keep up their trade and their credit and their maintenance that they can make things appeare as they are not Acts 10.27 and to keep things from appearing as they are as you know that is the way of Iuglers and those that use Ledger-de-main and HOCUS-POCUS tricks they deceive and delude the eyes of the beholders with their nimblenesse and with a sleight of hand So doe these spirituall Juglers by their wit and by their learning they blind the truth of the Gospel and make you take shels for the substance and counters for gold Now when the Lord himselfe will arise with his light all these inchantments shall vanish and all the Inchanters be confounded you shall be no more deceived with fine smooth soft words and there shall be no more a Magician nor a Southsayer nor a Peeper nor a Sorcerer nor any that worketh a Divination And he will deliver his people out of their hand Ezek. 13.23 Numb 23.23 As Balaam said when he would fain have curst the Israelites and wrought by divination and put upon them an Inchantment he saith Surely there is no enchantment against Iacob neither is there any Divination against Israel That soule that is enlightned by the God of Israel and hath experience of the truth cannot be inchanted by these lyers or by these Southsayers they have no power over them for they are built on a rock on Jesus Christ that eternall and unchangeable rock of Ages Mat. 7.25 Deu. 32.4 who is that immovable BASIS on which all the Saints in all generations have built and rested on for their faith stands not in the wisdom of man or on the power of man but in the wisdome and power of God And then he goes on in the next words The graven Images also will I cut off ☞ and thy standing Images out of the midst of thee and thou shalt no more worship the work of thine own hands Now what is an Image but the picture and form of that thing to which it relates those Images and pictures which men by their own inventions have framed to imitate the things of God and have squared them as they conceive very like the pattern and have made them very neat and curious so that they passe for current and they are generally received and the men themselves esteemed rare workmen yet this day of the Lord will discover all these things they shall all be taken away nay though they be Old-received Idols and of LONG standing and made by the most exact and curious workmen and scarce ever questioned in many generations but received as if made by God himselfe yet even these things shall be discovered and detected and the Idols and Idol-makers shall be confounded together And why shall all these things be done It follows in the last words read And thou shalt no more worship the work of thy hands Beloved what doe all men when they by their wisdom and inventions cut out forms and platforms of Religion and one squares his Idol this way and another tother way this Church hath this way and rule tother another form as every one thinks best so many Churches as they call them so many severall forms and these they pranke and adore and admire themselves in admiring them this form and that new cut and that mode and the next he must mend and pare and adde and he thinks to neatifie it and make it more passable and commendable and so more generally to be received that the more may like it that he may have the more to be of his members and Church and they may be esteemed the best reformed and nearest the rule what I say doe all these men doe but worship the work of their own hands And because they are squard according to the rule as they say and have stood long in the esteem of the world therfore he that shall question their way and their wisdom and their Religion or their principles must be no lesse then an Hereticke a deceiver a Iesuit any thing Look upon the Papists and observe how many generations they have stood in their form of worship and how generally it hath been received in one halfe of the world yet we conclude they are no other but Idolaters And if we shall examine and bring to the touch many received opinions concerning Christ and concerning the Scriptures and the word of God and washings and baptizings and breaking of bread as they are now used and as they are and have been generally in use we shall finde them no other but inventions of men according as they understand the Scriptures and say these are the things themselves though not in words yet in their practices they say no lesse and are no other as they use them but Idols and the work of their own hands and these they worship adore and blesse themselves in using thereof And though they may goe so far as to give the sense and hit the litterall meaning yet they may be and are farre from the mystery the true meaning and the mind of Christ as the Apostle calls it and the knowledge of truth as it is in Iesus For if they doe hit the letter Eph. 4.21 and square their discipline according to it alass they have not the life and power for all that they who think themselves most exact and think to hit it and imitate it to a tittle yet they reach but the shaddow and the Image 2 Cor. 3.6 the dead letter and not the life and the things themselves for they are of a farre more excellent and spirituall nature which no man as man could imitate nor follow nor observe but onely he who is taught of God and that it is given him from above to believe and comprehend for the dead letter is not the life but all things that the eye sees and the eare heares are things that must passe away they must remove that so the heavenly things may come in the room thereof even those things of which all externall things are but the patterns and similitudes Even Christ himselfe after the flesh and this is that Mysterie of Christ which is hid in God Eph. 3.5 9. Col. 1.26 Heb. 9.23 kept close from ages and generations but is now revealed in his Sonne only by the holy spirt for saith the Apostle it was necessary that the patterns of things in the Heavens should be purified with these but the Heavenly things themselves with better Sacrifices then these for Christ is not entred into the holy places made with bands whihc are figures of the true but into heaven it self now to appeare in the presence of God for us Therefore all

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