honoured with a soul or the shape and lineaments of an infant From this self conceit arise those sublimated disputes of Faith which make men forget their Charity of Predestination till they Prove themselves none of the Elect as also about the blessed Trinity till at last they believe there is no such thing a mysterie wheâ—ein our quickest sight is as but one degree above blindnesse and yet there are who have boasted to make it so cleare and easy as if they enjoyed the beatifical vision in this life wil have Christ's presence in the Eucharist to â—e as visible as though by a miraculous multiplying eye they saw him bodily move in each crum of bread and drop of wine And why should I call for day where God will have night and covet to see that brightnesse whose least â—ay wil instantly blind me I wil rather with Moses fall flat upon my face humbly admire that Dietie which I cannot conceive and bee content to know the Almightie no farther then his Word shall reveal where this light leavs me I wil cease the quest and boast of my ignorance never desiring that illumination which leads to utter darknesse nor that holinesse which will unholy me And this points at the other parallel before mention'd the whitenesse of the Lillie and the innocencie or holinesse of the Spouse As the Lillie so is my love Christianitie a bare name Religion a â—â—eer shadow not as they appear in themselvs but as made so by the Seemers of this age who use Gods cause as Hunters do a Scand the more covertly to shoot at what game they please making their Religion their Part and onely personating their godlinesse their devotion being like the hangings of the scene which they can take off and tack on as they list Thus Saul's sparing of Agag and the best of the spoil was pretended for ends holy not for his own private table at any hand but Gods Altar whose command he neglected to observe his worship and offered up disobedience in a sacrifice And thus about an age since that rebellion of the frantick Sectarists in Germany was anabaptiz'd with the sanctified name of a Reformation and those barbarous Armies slick'd over with the plausible title of lawful brotherly Assemblies and a Christian Congregation their burning of Libraries was pretended for the encouraging of Learning persuading the people that to take up arms against Charles their Emperor was onely to protect his office and to destroy his person that they might the better preserve his dignity make his Crown the greatest Prince in Christendom And yet these were esteem'd no Saints indeed but meer innocent holy men But now our Lillies whitenesse is not of this colour Chist's Spouse her innocencie and holinesse not of their Religion the Kings daughter in the 45 Psal was all glorious within if wee bee good Christians we are both sides alike and best at the core No matter then for this bark and outside of Religion this skin and shell of Christianitie the heart and the reins are those that God looks after God I and man too For this Love this Spouse in my text as she is most fair so most eied and worst censured by the unbelieving world Thus if an Apostle rub but an ear of corn on the Sabbath 't is breaking of the day the Infidels moats are the Christians beams and his indifferencie my evil somthings being expedient in respect of the man which are scandalous mâ—erly for his Calling None then to keep within so strict lines as the Christian being one ever under monitors for behold saies the Apostle wee are made a gazing stock to the world to Angels and to men Inâ—omuch that wee live not our own lives alone but the life of the whole world as if at our Regeneration we took upon us no private persons but the common nature and were not baptized men but mankinde our actions being therefore not personal but oecumenical whether good or bad are held authentick Thus had not our Saviour paid tribute it would have been thought sufficient argument why others should not it being enough for the Rout that their betters did so No wonder then if Sechem ravish when the first-born of Jacob commits incest if an Aegyptian falls down to an Oxe when an Israelite worships a Calf if Simon Magus offers to buy the Holy Ghost when an Apostle dares sell his Master Holinesse then becoms every man well but best of all the baptiz'd who is the Mirrour in which the unbeliever beholds heaven and the Convoy to direct him thither Now if the glasse be spotted instead of an Angel we look upon a furie and if the conduct be fals there is more danger in the guide then the way which hath caus'd many Pagans to step back having had one foot in the Church when they have seen Christians believe so well and live so ill breaking the Commandements against the Creed and contradicting the doctrine of the seventh day by the practice of the other six And here though I plead for holinesse yet not the Pharisees Touch me not for I am holier then thou no holinesse of the Separation but what is diffusive and holds communion with all for our Lillie is the Lillie of the valleys and not of the garden and this Love in my text is seated among the daughters the daughters of the whole world and neither of a Parlour nor a Cloister a Conventicle nor a Nunnerie which leads me to my next particular the seat or standing of the Lilly it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the middle or among this thorns The blessed Trinitie is therefore most perfect cause most one and man is more or lesse God's image as he does more or lesse resemble that Trinitie which is one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saies Nazian Ora. 12. as well in respect of agreement as essence being therefore styl'd in Scripture Peace and Love to shew that the next way to set thee at opposition with thy God is to divide thee from thy brother and to hazard thy interest in the head is to dis-joint thy self from the members being thus an enemy not onely to thine own salvation but thy neighbors to thine own by refusing their goodnesse to thy neighbours by not communicating thine To prevent this the Almightie hath made thee a sociable creature and every part of this world as accessible and sociable as thy creation the Scythian may embrace the Moor. and the East join hands with the West-Indian Whilst then thou hold'st no communion with thy brother thou unman'st thy self separating from thy humane nature nay more being not among these Thorns thou art not with this Lillie but like Donatus confining to som Africk thou excommunicates thy self out of the Church Militant below and perchance the Triumphant above as the ambition of those apostate Angels no sooner distinguish'd them from the rest but it threw then from heaven Nor is this separation destructive onely of thy self but of the whole
her antient Chappel-grots and caves as flowers in hard weather depart to visit their mother-root yet those places shall not prove her grave but sanctuarie and the enemies of Gods Church be no more able to burie it in those vaults then was the stone guard of our Saviours â—epulchre to lock him up at the third day or then our graves shal be to keep us down at the general Resurrection for God hath set bounds to the Divel as well as the Sea and chain'd him up from devouring his Church as he did that from drowning his Israelites And after this manner do we meet with in Ecclesiastical storie now the full face of a Church and by and by but one cheek and an eâ—e yet still the same hand that drew out protecting both Thus when the believing world was gathered together in Noah's floating Isle what a wonder of providence do I here meet with one poor family call'd out of the world and as it were eight granes of corn fann'd from a barn-full of chaffe and yet for the increase but of these eight granes was the whole earth preserv'd under the flood else a shower of fire had purg'd that world which could not be cleans'd by a deluge And here how securely doth the Prophet Noah ride out this uproare of heaven and waters knowing that planted paradise was not so firm as his Arke whose anchor was his God and he that owed the waters steering the vessel After this when the Church was upon the Altar and now about to be sacrific'd in Isaac when the sword was drawn and the blow ready how did the Almighty prevent the execution the sacrificer Abraham in the mean time whom it nearest concern'd being least touch'd faith having wrought that in the Patriarch which crueltie would in others not to be sensible of his own action he contemns all fears and overlooks all impossibilities his heart telling him that the same hand that had rais'd Isaac from the dead wombe of Sarah could raise that same Isaac again from his own urne and the God who promis'd to increase a single person to the number of the stars might for all he knew make this single persons very dust to conceive and bring forth and so perform that almighty promise out of the ashes of his sacrifice Last of all when this Isaac was multiplied to an Israel and this Israel God's Church was shackel'd perchance for their forefathers selling Joseph to be a slave shackel'd I say with the Irons of Egypt where their burthens were turn'd into bondage and their bondage into blood their souls also being ever on the rack of continual fear and suspence least their bodies might be thrown into the same Brick-kills they had built and become the fire to harden their own handy-work yet here how did God tie up Pharaoh's hands with plagues and the same voice that cried Touch not mine Anointed commanded likewise and my Anointed touch not mine turning their poisons into cordials and their enemies malice to their greatest improvement in that he made them grow under their burthens and propagate through that inhumane destruction of the male-fruit of their bodie So still does Gods Vine bear the better for the pruning-hook and looks much fresher by being let blood And thus with the same Prospective might I shew you God's providence over-shadowing the Christian Church no lesse then the Jewish which hath had her Pharaohs and her Wildernesse as also her guardian fires and clouds our persecutions being as many and our deliverances as great and as the Jewish Church did multiplie by afflictions so also the Christian whose custome it was to bring her Martyrdoms to the Bank and to put out persâ—â—utions to Use and Interest Thus a single grain of the Church cast into the ground hath returned an harvest the blood of a private Christian baptiz'd a Citie of Unbelievers and from the Martyrdom of the Twelve Apostles have sprung as many nations of the same Faith their blood like a second Deluge covering the face of the earth and their fires as well as their Gospel being the light of the whole world And may thy Church O Lord shine still the light of the world but not still thus O Lord in fire may thy Spouse thy Love look ever beautiful and ruddie but not with her own blood and martyrdom To this end let thy Providence lie alwais thy Churches Leiger here upon earth working and counterplotting against â—ll Agents of the Prince of darknesse Protect we beseech thee thy Lilly both in radice and in flore from Rooters there and from Branchers here I mean from such as strike either at her vitals by Heresie or at her outâ—imbes by persecution and this even till that day when thy Love shall bee married to thy Lambe and this Lillie transplanted into thy Paradise where it shall flourish with a continual spring and remain like those Lillies of our Saviours in Saint Matth. That neither toile nor spin changing her wreath of Thorns for a crown of Stars and her rod for a Scepter And this blessed day God of his mercie hasten for his Churches sake Amen Lord Jesus Amen FINIS THE Fourth Sermon Which is that in the PRESBYTERIAN Style or Way of Preaching Delivered before the Citie at the Cathedral Church of Saint PAUL in London MAT. 25. 34 35. 34. Come yee blessed of my Father inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world 35. For I was an hungred and yee gave me meat I was thirstie and yee gave mee drink I was a stranger and yee took me in LONDON Printed for Edward Archer at the Adam and Eve in Little Britain Anno Dom. 1656. Luke 16. 9. And I say unto you Make to your selvs friends of the Mammon of unrighteousnesse that when yee fail they may receive you into everlasting habitations THis Parable presents to your view the reckoning or bill of accounts of the unjust Steward and my text is the summa totalis of that bill or the moral to this parable in which our Saviour taught his Disciples then and doth us now how we should provide against that great Audit the day of Judgment As for this unjust Steward whether he were Saint Paul before his Conversion as Theophylact would have him or the Jews as Tertullian whether he be onely the Rich-man or onely the Statesman or onely the Church-man or rather every man to whom any charge is committed by God as the Doctors have severally given in their opinions I will not dispute as being not much to our purpose sure I am he was bad enough yet not so bad neither but our Saviour pickes good out of him at your physical Confectioner the Apothecarie extracts Treacle from the Viper and the most cordial of Antidotes from the deadliest poison For what S. Paul makes the Law to his Galathians Christ hath made this unjust Steward unto us a Schoolmaster to bring us unto God and by his care for this world doth point us
all the furniture and provision of it both all the moveables So Psal 50. 11. 12. the cattel and the fowles upon a thousand hills are mine saith he and also all the standing goods the corne and the oyle which you set and plant are mine Hos 2. 9. yea and the Psalmist in the same 24. Psal adds further that they who dwell therein are his also not the house and furniture only but the inhabitants themselves And this by the most sure and most Soveraigne title that can be better then that of purchase or inheritance of and from another for he hath made them all is thine because all comes of thee saith the same David 1 Chron 29. 11 12. And all things are not only of him but through him Rom. 11. 36. i e. they cannot stand nor subsitst without him Thirdly he must give largely it is not bounty else now God is therefore said to be rich in goodnesse because he is abundant in it so we find it comparing Psal 33. 5 with Psal 104. 24. in which it is said that the earth is full of his goodnesse and his riches which we may judge of by what he saies vers 27. of Psal 104. of what an house he keepes and what multitudes he feedes all these saith the Psalmist wait on thee c. King Ahasuerus to shew his bounty made a feast to his cheife Subjects but it was but for halfe a yeare and not to all some few halfe yeares more would well nigh have beggard him but God doth this continually The greatest and most bountifull of men when they would expresse the largest of their bounty speake but of giving halfe of their Kingdomes so Herod and he did but talke so neither but God bestowes whole worlds and Kingdomes as Daniell speakes Dan. 4. 35. and gives them to whom hee pleases Fourthly he that is bountiful must give all he gives freely and willingly which though I put together yet may imply two distinct things as first that he that gives must be a free agent in it who is at his choice whether he would give any thing away or no. The Sun doth much good to the world it affords a large light and even half the world at once is full of its glorie yea and all this light is its own not borrowed as that of the Moon and Stars is yet this Sun cannot be called good or bountiful because it sends forth this light necessarily and naturally and cannot chuse but do so neither can it draw in its beames but God is a free giver hee was at his choice whether he would have made the world or no and can yet when he pleaseth withdraw his Spirit and then all things perish Psal 104. 29. Secondly it must be willingly also i. e. no way constreined or wrung from him who is to be called bountiful Now of God it is said that he gives all away with delight for Psal 104 31. having spoken of â—eeding every living thing and of other the like works of his goodness he concludes with this God rejoiceth in all his works i. e. doth all the good he doth with delight It doth him good as it were to see the poor creatures feed The last requisite in bountie is to look for no recompence for the time to come So saith Christ Luke 6 34. If you give c. but ver 35. So doth not your heavenly father For saith hee Do good and hope for nothing againe so shall you bee like your Father and the reason is because he is so great and so high a God as nothing we do can reach him as David speaks Psal 16. 2. My goodnesse extends not unto thee hee is too high to receive any benefit by what we do And this shall suffice for the four General Rules of giving Alms and also of the first general part which we observed in the division of these words the quid the matter what we are to do and that is to provide for our selves by making us friends The second General that we held out to you in the division was the Manner to use the best means to get these friends unrighteous Mammon Where in the first place I shall resolve a doubt and withall the meaning of this expression The Mammon of unrighteousnesse How comes it to passe that this Mammon which is the subject of so much good should deserve a name so bad why is it styled the Mammon of unrighteusnesse you are to know therefore that wealth is call'd the Mammon of unrighteousnesse for two reasons the first taken from the cause the other from the effect 1. First from the cause for that wealth is an instrument and cause of much iniquity In Cyrus his Court the Counsellours shall be fee'd that the building of the Temple may not go on Ezra 4. and if Saint Paul would but have said tantum dabo to Felix in the Acts there had been more Rhetorick in the Apostles fee then in all Tertullus his starched Oratory For this reason Simon Magus when he sued in the 8 of the Acts for the holy Ghost trusted more to his Mammon then his Familiars being consident there was greater power in money then in all the Devills in hell to have conjured if it might have been even the Apostles themselves And therefore it was the Devills last assault and battery against our Saviour in the 4 of St. Matt For it any promise could have seduced Christ it had been that of the worlds Kingdome and glory he is the Sonne of God indeed that for such againe will not cast himselfe from the pinacles of the Temple It would be no hard work to manifest this truth through every age of the Church were it not too visible in our own And therefore I shall from hence in the first place draw an use of reproofe for the Ministers of these times I would to God I could not say but I must even of our own divine Profession that which our Saviour of his Twelve Yee are clean but not all for how many have these few yearâ— brought forth which having been heretofore forward and eager for conformitie to the doctrine and discipline of this Church do now seek to wave and decline both and that not out of malice or ambition vices that move with a kinde of life and spirit but out of that base earthie dunghil-sin Avarice These are they that long for the Wedge of gold more then the Babilonish garment and so themselves may put up the means of a Bishop care not who puts on the robes These are they which make use of the Priest's office like him in Samuel onely for a piece of bread and will with that Chaplain of Micah's Judg. 17 set you up Idols if you give them but silver Men that measure their religion by their fortunes inclining ever not to what weighs most but what advantageth Saint Augustines Amphibions in Christianitie Hermophrodite Divines now a Sectarist and then a Conformist and next a Sectarist
come in his glory And again foreseeing likewise that the same men would lose their souls to save their lives he tells them that whosoever will save his life shall lose it and whosoever shall lose his life for my sake the same shall save it ver 24. Lastly understanding by the same divine foresight of his that diverse who were now his profess'd Disciples and throng'd after him would upon his imprisonment and trial forsake him and follow him no longer then they might follow him in safety hee laies them down in my Text the nature and condition of a Disciple and the necessary dutie of every Christian telling them plainly in this 23 ver what they must trust to if they ever intend to be his Disciples followers of him And he said unto them all all of them his own twelve Apostles as well as the rest of the people he excepts none if any man will come after mee let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow mee Which words according to the best expositors hold out this sence unto you in their Paraphrase If any man will be my Disciple will be a Christian for that is the meaning of coming after mee of following me let him denie himself i. e his honors preferments riches pleasures and not onely these carnal outward things but all inward and spiritual endowments likewise all administrations ordinances gifts graces hopes comforts enjoiments nay even our religion and heaven it self must be denied by us resigned up of us and laid at Christ's feet For this is to deny a man'sself when there is nothing left of self nothing left to self but every thing condemned in us taken from us and made odious unto us in comparison of Christ Now the taking up of the Cross will be easily explain'd what its full importance extends to namely the voluntarie embracing of shame and contumelie for the Cross was a contumelious death Heb. 12. 2. as likewise the losse of your goods liberties and lives for Christ which are said in the Text to bee taken up not when we bring them unnecessarily upon our own shoulders for that is to pull the Cross upon us but when by the providence of God they are laid in our way to Christ so that we cannot follow Christ wee cannot bee Christ's Disciples but it must becom detriment and damage to us then voluntarily to undergo that detriment or damage whatever it is to take up that Cross bee that cross never so painful and bloodie and patiently and chearfully to bear that cross is the duty without which a man cannot bee Christ's Disciple cannot be a Christian And these two duties that of self-denial and this of taking up the crosse I may very properly call peculiar-Christian-Gospel duties because they were neâ—er so much as in kinde required before by God in the Old Testament nor yet by the laws of nature nor thirdly by the Canons of any other Religion in the world I shall at present insist onely upon the first of these two duties In the making ouâ— of the which unto you I shall present you with these five particulars of self-denial First the denial of our honors preferments riches pleasures lusts and all our carnal sinful enjoiments Secondly the denial of our will and affections Thirdly of our gifts and graces Fourthly our very Religion and Christianitie which you may perchance think it is the highest sin to deny yet we must deny even that And further that which concerns us something nearer then our Religion we must in the Fift and last place deny even our own salvation and heaven its self And these Five parts I shall call the Five steps or stairs that make up the storie and lead to the top the very highest point of Self-denial I call them stairs because that one iâ— still higher then the other as the Second degree of Self-denial is an higher step or stair then the First and so likewise in the rest I will begin at the first and lowest step or stair of Self-denial the denying of our honours preferments riches pleasures losts and all our carnal finful enjoiments And here first for your honors preferments and greatnesse you must be ready to deny these first by doing secondly by suffering for Christ first by doing by an humble submission to the meanest service God shall call you to for his Name and Churches sake though that service may seem to cloud your honours and eclipse your greatnesse never so much in the eye of the world You should count it an honorable emploiment to draw water and cut wood for the use of the Sanctuarie and a far greater addition to your birth and place to bee a poor door-keeper in the house of your God then to be a Lord Chamberlain to Princes Secondly by Suffering you are to denie your selves herein by being willing to suffer the greatest scandals and indignitics that can be thrown upon you for the cause of Christ Though all your friends and acquaintance your father mother husband wife should cast you off and abandon you for ever you must be content to be deprived of all your relations and allies of all you are born unto or hope for to lose your honors libertie and life to booâ— if God shal call you to it for his Names sake with that brave resolution of Hesters If I perish I perish Hest 4. 16. If I be undone I am undone for God's glorie and his Churches good And the reason wherefore Christ teacheth you to denie your selves herein is ' cause you are to take up your Crosse and follow Christ i. e. must expect reproaches afflictions tribulations for the name and sake of Christ Joh 16. 33. A man that hath not learn'd this lesson of Christ can never suffer with comfort and joy O saith wise Self when it eyes those persecutions that are like to befall those that follow Christ may I not passe by such a truth and such a practise and yet get heaven What need I to adventure my self upon such hardships when perchance by the neglecting of such or such an opinion or practise I may attein my libertie my reputation but on the contrary the self-denying Christian when he comâ— to submit to Gospel-Ordinances which are contemptible in the eies of the world for which hee is like to suffer shame and disgrace yet let me submit to Christ saith he to every Truth to every Ordinance although I suffer losse in the world reproach and shame from my friends and acquaintance though I lose the love of my best friends whether father mother husband wife yet saith the self-denying Christian Christ hath said that whosoever loveth father or mother better then me is not worthie of me And this love of Christ constraineth mee to deny my self follow Christ in all conditions Thus you see the self-denying soul and none else is meet to be a disciple a follower of Christ because hee is most ready to take up the Crosse and follow him
all from Christ yet we work with it as it were our own stock and so glorie as the Apostle speaks as if we had not received it And thus though the sap and livelinesse which stirrs us to any spiritual dutie is really and indeed efficiently from Christ yet wee work with it as if all proceeded from our selves because wee neither receive our strength by faith nor act by faith that strength received as men acted by Christ and working in Christ being supported with the pride and self sufficiencie of our own gifts and parts whereas all true believers are emptied first of their own strength and abilitie and so walk as those who can do nothing without Christ as those who are not able to love or believe one moment more without him And therefore a true believer being thus sensible of his own insufficiencie and unabilitie doth when hee is at any time assisted in spiritual duties attribute all to Christ when he hath done he glories not in himself as of himself but as he is a man in Christ and that as he is a man in Christ he did it and no otherwise So the Apostle 2 Cor. 12. 2. 5. I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago c. Of such an one will I glorie yet of my self I will not glorie but in mine infirmities And yet it was himself he speaks of but yet not in himself as of himself but as he was a man in Christ and no otherwise Wee have done with our third step or degree of Selfe-denyal the denial of our gifts and graces both natural and spiritual And as we have denied these natural and spiritual endowments so in the fourth place we must deny our very religion our christianity for Christ This seemes at the first sight a contradiction but it is onely a high expression or if you Please to call it so a new light of Self-denyal For I do not mean so to deny our Christianity as to become Jewes Turkes or Infidels but so to deny it as to resigne it up unto Christ to lay it at Christs feet so to deny it as not to rely upon it as the onely dispensation and appearance whereby God is able to reveal himselfe unto his people for can'st thou measure the waies thoughts and various appearances of God whom thou thy selfe callest infinite and unmeasurable Art thou sure he can appeare no otherwisa then according to what thou exspectest he will Call but to mind the religion of the Jewes what religion that ever was since the foundation of the world I will not except our own Christian religion was more confirmed by miracles then this what religion for it's time had the presence of God more in it set up by the peculiar appointment of the Almighty the Doctrine written in Tables of stone with his own finger the discipline in every circumstance and ceremony and Punctilio dictated not by his Spirit onely but by the expresse word of his own mouth Had the Christian religion for doctrine and discipline been as punctually set down and enjoyned the Real Presence had not erected so many stakes and gibbets nor the ceremonies of the Church raised so many armies in Christendom as we find by woful experience they have done And now what is become of all the divine right and confirmation of all the pompe and glory of the Jewish Church and religion Is it not called off all and the drosse and dung even in the very righteousnesse of it Phil. 3. 8. And the doctrine and discipline base and beggarly elements by the same Apostle Gal 4. 9. Insomuch that I here professe before you all that ever since I knew any thing of religion nothing hath more amazed and stagger'd my reason then that God should first establish and afterwards disanull the same relgion and secondly that the Apostles should set so low a rate upon should have so mean base and contemptible an esteem of any thing that was at any time set up and avowed by God Neither know I how to answer the Jew should he urge this very argument home to me then by crying out with the Apostle upon the same account and ground we now mention O the depth of the riches of the wisdome and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments and his wayes past finding out Rom. 11. 33. Thou seest therefore that the Jews were cozen'd who were as confident as thou can'st be that it should not be so with them as it was is it then so impossible that thou shouldest ever be deceived in what thou further expectest because thou hast gone a step or two beyond these Jewes Is that which thou hast attained and hoped for of such an enduring nature that it can never passe away The Jewes knew Christ under the law and it was a very glorious knowledge compared with any knowledg the heathen had but what became of that knowledge It vanished and became of no account as you have heard And so likewise Christians have known Christ under the Gospel and this kind of knowledg doth far excell that which was imparted to the Jewes Gospel-faith Gospel-love Gospel-obedience do infinitly surpasse any legal qualifications and performances whatsoever but with all consider this may not these Gospel dispensations passe away may not these duties be swallowed up in higher and more spiritualiz'd duties and the glory of these fall before a greater glory In all these then thou must deny thy selfe thou must resigne them up lay them all at Christs feet And how this religion of ours which we now professe must be denyed by us and be resigned up of us I shal endeavour to shew you in these following particulars First we muâ—t deny all ordinances administrations so as to rest relie upon them and here first for the ordinance of ministerial preaching we must not â—est not put our confidence and faith upon that because as it is Isa 54. 13. We shall be all taught of God Now the teaching of men and the teaching of God differ as the light of the Moon and the light of the Sun that shines by the helpe of this this from it's own light The teachings of men is this Moon-light which in Gods time must vanish For this Moon-light this conveying knowledge to others by helps and meanes is to be swallowed up into the light of the Sun that God may become all in all Jer. 31. 34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour and every man his brother saying Know the Lord for they shall all know me from the least of them unto the greatest of them saith the Lord for I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more By the mentioning of Sun and Moon in this place God speakes to the capacity of men and points out the whole creation of night and day and that all creature-helps and meanes should fail though they were and are as glorious helps as the Sun that gives light to the
therefore when the Prophets Isa Jerem. and Ezekiel spake what they saw from God they spake Thus saith the Lord out of experience of what they saw and felt and they were call'd true Prophets But when others rose up that spake their words writings and then applied them to another age and generation of men saying Thus saith the Lord as the other did they were called false Prophets because they had seen nothing themselves of God but walked by the legs and saw by the eyes of the true Prophets For God doth not threaten death to every city of every age of the world as to Sodom and Gomrorha neiâ—her captivity to every people as he did to Israel under Nebuchadnezar in Babilon Neither doth he promise victory or deliverance to every army or people from enemies as he did to Irsael in Jehosophats time Now if any man speake and assures others of victory when God purposes distruction or speakes destruction when God purposes a victory these men speake at randome and though they speake the very words of the Scriptures yet they speake not the mind of him that gives life or destroyes and so having seen nothing from him they are to be reckoned among the false Prâ—phets they run before they are sent A man may know the Scripture and yet be an arch enemie to the God of the Scripture as the Jewes were They knew the writings of Moses who writ of Jesus Christ and yet they persecuted and killed Jesus Christ because they knew him not For if they had known him to have been of the power of God they would not have kill'd him And so many nowadayes do know Scripture yet may do persecute the spirit of the Scripture through ignorance and unbeliefe Truely friends it is not the knowledge of the Scripture onely but the knowledge of the God of the Scripture as God is pleased to make known himselfe by his mighty working in you that gives life and peace to you If you know and speake Scripture and can see nothing of God you are like Parrats that speake the words of another as you have been taught by humane education But if the same annointing or power of God dwel in you as did appeare in the Prophets and Apostles that writ then you can see into that mistery of the Scripture and so can speake the mind of the Scriptures though you should never see heare nor read the Scripture from men If your peace and comfort in God should onely remain with you while you are either hearing or reading Scriptures or while you have any society of such as can speake and discourse thereof and then find again that your peace and comfort is gone when you are deprived by any occasion of that society of Saints truely let me tell you that though you prize and know the Scripture yet there is a great strangeness betweene you and the God of the Scripture Many enjoy outward reading and hearing and Saints Communion and they are in peace and they live in heaven as they conceive and it is a sweet life but it is not the life For if the wisedom of God hedge up all these enjoyments with thornes and leave these poor souls alone as it was Christs case all forsooke him and fled why then here is your triall For when God hath denyed you the opportunities of hearing reading praying and Saints fellowship doth not your heart now looke for those helps and mourn in their absence If it be so with you as I know it is with you then where is your knowledge experience and peace in and with God It shewes plainly that at such a time we suck'd refreshment from the creatures brests but not from God We are now come to the â—ast particular in respect of which we must deny our religion and that is in respect of the Author of it our blessed Saviour And herein we must first deny all false Christs secondly all false opinions of the true Christ thirdly we must deny but in a Christian qualified sence even the true Christ himselfe First then we must deny all false Christs you will find false Christs coming with signes and wonders Matt 24. 24. For there shall arise false Christs and false Prophets and shall shew great signes and wonders insomuch that if it were possible they shall deceive the very elect You shall have Christs to do what you desire Christs to shew you signes and wonders as you gape after but they shall be false Christs and this shall be your judgement God in judgement hath false Christs for false Seekers false Inquirers This is the plague of the flesh it shall have what it doth desire one that will open Scriptures do mighty miracles shew great gifts and yet all this is but a false Christ and the very elect so far as is possible shall be deceived therewith Therefore let it be our speciall care to deny these false Christs most especially in these antichristian times wherein we live in which you shall have Christs come upon you more then you would have If you go into the desert there is Christ if into the city there 's Christ some shall say lo here others lo there you shall have false Christs every where a false spirit a false resurrection a false glory a false god continually offering themselves unto you lo here lo there Such excellent glorious high ravishing wonderfull discoveries of spirituall things that they shall say plainly to you I am Christ Such things so far excelling all that ever you have known so heavenly so glorious as thereby you shall be able to say with open face here is Christ You shal have a light above men and Angels and yeâ— all this shall bâ— but a delusion I suppose you are not acquainted with this as yet but you shall have â—uch glorious discoveries in such illustrious brightnesse majesty and authority that shall absolutely say in you I am the Christ I am the Lord I am the Son of the living God In Fzekiel 28. 2. There 's a type of the false appearance of God in the world Because thine heart is listed up and thou haist said I am a God I sit in the seat of God in the midd'st of the seas yet thou art a man and not God though thou set thine heart as the heart of God You shall be so enlarged in understanding that you shall thinke your selves wiser then Daniel that you shall see through all the mysterie of Daniel through all the darke prophesies of Daniel as a clear thing yet there will be a false Christ an antichrist under all this go not after saith our Saviour Luke 17. 23. And they shall say to you see here or see there go not after them nor follow them Such appearances will present themselves unto you and invite you to the discovery and clear understanding of the darke places of Scripture but saith God follow them not They are such as if it were possible they should deceive the very elect