the Kingdom of God stands not in Presbytery or Independency but in righteousness and peace and joy in holy the Spirit and that if I saw any thing of God or Christ or the Spirit in any one I reckoned him as a brother not taking any such opinion into consideration and that the unity of Spirit and not of opinion is the bond of Peace in Christs Kingdom The man then pretended to be satisfied and to rejoyce in his satisfaction but since as is related hath shewed his stomach again but because he seems to be a Christian the Lord lay it it not to his charge And truly Reader it is a sad thing that ever these names of Presbyterians and Independents grew up to this height in the Church and that these Opinions should be reckoned more in a man then the presence and dwelling of God himself and the Spirit in him For my part I utterly disclaim all such distinctions of mans making and will allow of no distinction of men but what God himself hath made and that is this The world and they that are taken out of the world or The Church and they that are without and in the Church the children that are born after the flesh and the children that are born after the Spirit or which is all one carnal and spiritual Christians This distinction of men God hath made and this I do and must needs use though the world as it appears likes this worse then the other For the distinction of seeds in the Church is the true distinction and the more this is brought about by the Word and Spirit the more glorious will the Church be Now some spiritual Christians may be among those that are called Presbyterians and some among those that are called Independents and all these though called by different names are of one spiritual Church And again some carnal Christians may be among those that are called Independents and some among those that are called Presbyterians and all these though called by different names are of one carnal Church And therefore I could wish we had obtained such wisdom from God as to let the distinction and division of men lie onely there where God hath made it and not where flesh and blood hath made it and so shall the true spriritual Church be delivered from these distinctions of flesh and blood and be separated from the world and be gathered together in it self and be at unity with it self which will be Gods great glory and its own great strength comfort and happiness and the great terror and dread of all profane men and formalists Another thing which I finde my heart stirred up within me to do is to testifie to the world what I know in mine own experience touching the Army under the command of that most faithful and worthy General Sir Tho. Fairfax and that because I am not ignorant of the great undervaluing and despising and reproaching of it by many even of those whose blood runs warm in their veins and who enjoy all the comforts they have in the world through the faithfulness diligence activity labors hunger thirst cold weariness watchings marchings engagements stormings wounds and blood of these men instruments in the hand of God for the subduing that malignant power that rose up against the State and Saints of God yea instruments of Gods own chusing and calling forth to his foot for this great and glorious service which after-ages will wonder and stand amazed at as well as at the vile ingratitude of this age to such instruments as these for which God will not hold it guiltless This then for mine own part I am most confident on that there are as many gracious and godly Christians in it as in any gathering together of men in all the world again men full of faith and the Spirit and the admirable endowments of it More particularly there are these six things most remarkable in this despised Army 1. Their Unity which is admirable it being more the Unity of Christians then of men more a Unity in the Spirit then in the flesh in the Father and Son then in themselves And this hath been one great means of their great success they being all both in Counsel and Action but as one man The Lord hath taken them and knit them up in one bundle and so their Enemies could not break them but have been broken by them Many of their matters of greatest moment have been carried in Councel with that Unity that sometimes not so much as one hath contradicted 2. Their humility which hath been admirable as well as the former For after great and glorious Victories to the wonder of the Kingdom and of the World when Kings of the Army did flee apace and the men of might ran away as women I have never heard any of the worthy and godly Commanders or Officers ever to say I did this or that or to boast of his own counsel or his own strength or to attribute any thing to himself or any body else of what God had done but every one to say This was the Lords own doing and it is marvellous in our eyes and it was not our own sword or bowe but the Lords right hand and his arm and light of his countenance And they have been most willing to be nothing themselves that God might be all And this hath been one means to keep them humble because though God hath been much with them yet the world hath been much against them not for their own sakes who have done the work of the Kingdom faithfully and honestly but for Gods sake in them because there is more of God among these men then among other men therefore are they so maligned by many men For the world always most hates where there is most of God and you may have a shrewd guess wherethere is most of God by observing where the greatest hatred of the world lies 3. Their faith There are many in the Army men of great and precious faith through which they have wrought righteonsness obtained promises stopped the mouths of Lyons quenced the violence of fire escaped the edge of the sword out of weakness were made strong waxed valiant in fight turned to flight the Armies of the Aliens Through this faith they have pursued their Enemies and overtaken them and turned not again till they had consumed them they have beaten them small as the dust before the winde and cast them out as dirt in the Streets Through faith they have entered strong Cities and I can truly and particularly say let them that will needs be offended stumble and fall at it that Bristol among other places was conquered by faith more then by force it was conquered in the hearts of the godly by faith before ever they stretched forth a hand against it and they went not so much to storm it as to take it in the assurance of faith Through faith one of them hath chased ten and ten put an hundred
of God that will exercise a Judicature in Heaven and determine of things of the Kingdom of God which the Spirit hath kept in his own hands you may break one the other earthen potsheards But if you joyn against the Spirit and be one as Jew and Gentile Herod and Pilate against Christ it will be your everlasting breaking so that a man cannot gather a Sherd of you to take fire from the hearth or water out of the Pit for God hath set his King upon his holy Hill and you are but sheaves against a hearth of fire The Power of Christ is coming forth happy they that wait for it The Lord shall send the rod of his power out of Sion be thou Ruler in the midst of thine enemies Psal 110. All Forms and Shadows shall flie away and the new creature only abide and they that walk after this Rule peace be on them and mercy and upon the Israel of God The spiritual Church shall rise and be established in the beauty of holiness These are the tidings of this Book And I heard a voyce saying Hallelujah Praise the Lord from the Heavens prayse him all ye heights prayse him all ye Angels of his all the wisdom of man Prayse him Sun and Moon all worldly Magistrates praise him all the Stars of light all Ministers Pastors Teachers prayse him ye Heavens of Heavens all Forms and Churches and what ever of you excel and are lifted up above others exalt the Lord not your selves for his name only is excellent his glory is above the Earth and Heavens he also exalteth the Horns of his people the prayse of all his Saints even of the children of Israel a people neer to him Thy part be among these who ever art the Reader it is the desires and prayer of him who knows no greater no other happiness Who is thine as to it Christop Goad CHRIST'S SPIRIT A Christians Strength OR A plain discovery of the mighty and invincible power that all Believers receive through the gift of the SPIRIT First held forth in two Sermons on Act. 1. 8. and after published for the instruction and use of those that are spiritual Anno 1645. By WILLIAM DELL Minister of the Gospel of JESUS CHRIST at Yelden in the County of Bedford 1 Cor. 4. 19. 20 I will come to you shortly if the Lord will and will know not the speech of them that are puffed up but the power For the Kingdom of God is not in word but in power 2 Tim. 3. 5. Having a form of Godliness but denying the power of it from such turn away London Printed for Hen. Cripps and Lod. Lloyd 1651. To the Right Honorable the Lady ELIZABETH Countess of BULLINGBROOK Right Honourable THe form of Godliness is very common in these dayes of ours but the power of it is very rare How few persons shall we finde in the visible Church who live and act in the strength of God But generally men do what ever they do in their own strength and that not onely in humane things but in divine How seldom do we see either in Ministers or Christians in the discharge of their duties in their several places more then the power of men The greatest part by far not onely of those who are called Christians but also of forward Professors being ignorant what it is to be strengthened with might in the inner man according to the glorious power of the great God How little is there among all our plenty of that preaching which is not in the plausible words of mans wisdom but in the demonstration of the Spirit and Power How few Congregations among the many that are in the Kingdom are gathered together in the Spirit and Power of our Lord Jesus Christ How few of those Christians are there in whom is the exceeding greatness of Gods power together with the effectual working of it But the form of Godliness is now become almost the covering of all flesh and in these dayes of light and knowledge it is accounted by all that are not down-right Atheists a great shame not to seem to be religious And when men and families and Congregations are gotten into this form they think themselves both safe and happy as being near the suburbs of the Kingdom of God and close Neighbours to the Saints And this form of godliness as it is of very easie compliance with flesh and blood in this particular in that according to this men onely make their actions new retaining still their old natures so it is also of great credit and esteem with carnal Gospellers But the spiritual man judgeth all things and yet he himself is judged of no man and he being partaker of the power of God himself can in some measure discern both the presence and want of it in others both which he knows in his own experience Now this form of godliness is when men are godly without God and anoynted without Christ and regenerate not having the Spirit that is when they have a semblance of holiness but not the thing it self a semblance of grace retaining their old natures And such Christians as these perform spiritual duties with natural strength heavenly duties with earthly strength the works of God with the power of men In the Religion of these men there is the outward duty done and it may be very speciously and plausibly but there is none of Christ nor the Spirit in the duty There is their own working towards God which is faint and faithless and not Gods own working in them towards himself which is lively and mighty and all the religious acts they do are onely their own operations and not the operations of God in them This form of godliness how pleasing soever it be to a mans self and of what reckoning soever with others who are like himself yet is indeed of very evil and woful consequence whether we regard the doings or sufferings unto which this form necessarily engages For first when men by occasion of this form are called forth to do the great works of God and yet are destitute of the power of God their duties are above their strength and their strength bears no proportion to their duties And so sooner or later meeting with difficulties they faint and languish as a Snail their works being too high for their faculties For nature being strained above its power and offering at that which is beyond its abilities by degrees grows weary and returns to its old temper again And he that sought that glory which was not his own at last lies down in his own shame Again the form of godliness exposes a man to those evils that are incident to the faithful because of godliness Now when a man hath the same evils with the faithful and not the same power to support him under those evils when men have the same evils in the flesh but not the same power in the Spirit the same burthens on their shoulders but not the same everlasting arms
goodly heritage And their righteousness is of me saith the Lord. That is these servants of mine are not men of a humane and morall righteousness only but they partake of the righteousness of God in Christ Their righteousness is of me or thus though they are sinners before the world for as the world reckons their own sin for righteousness so it reckons Gods righteousness for sin yet they are righteous before me and in my eyes So that however the world reckons us evil doers and not worthy to live in the world yet God reckons us righteous and our righteousness is before him To conclude seeing God hath engaged himself to secure us in his wayes both from the weapons and tongues of men Go and tell the Foxes that we will walk without fear in the world both to day and to morrow and the third day we shall be perfected FINIS Right Reformation OR The Reformation of the CHURCH of the NEW TESTAMENT Represented in GOSPEL-LIGHT In a Sermon preached to the Honourable House of COMMONS on Wednesday November 25. 1646. Together with a REPLY to the chief Contradictions of Master LOVE'S Sermon preached the same day All published for the good of the Faithful at their desire By WILLIAM DELL Minister of the Gospel attending on His Excellency Sir THOMAS FAIRFAX John 7. 12. And there was much murmuring among the people concerning him for some said He is a good man others said nay but He deceiveth the people John 16. 3. And these things will they do unto you because they have not known the Father nor Me. Credo me Theologum esse Christianum in regno veritatis vivere ideo me debitorem esse non modo affirmandae veritatis sed etiam asserendae defendendae seu per sanguinem seu per mortem Luth. London Printed by R. White for Giles Calvert at the Black-Spread-Eagle near the West-end of Pauls 1651. TO THE HONOVRABLE THE COMMONS Assembled in PARLIAMENT Honourable and Worthy AS the LORD represented these Truths to you before in the Ministery of the Word so now again He offers them to your second consideration in this Printed Book because he hath a minde you should take notice of them And I must needs say it is the LORD'S voyce to you and I hope he will move your hearts to regard it though Satan hath mightily bestirr'd himself by casting an ill Vizzard upon the Truth to make you dislike it But if you like CHRIST the worse for a Face spit on and buffeted you may want a SAVIOUR And if you like the truth of CHRIST the worse for a scratcht Face you may make your dwelling place with Errour and Humane Doctrines which are all one Micaiah had no sooner delivered the truth of God but there was a False Prophet to smite him on the face the LORD no sooner prepares Instruments to reveal his Truth but Satan hath his Instruments ready to turn the truth of GOD into a lye And this GOD suffers to be done to exercise your skill and wisdom that you might learn not to be offended at the Truth with the World but to receive and love the Truth notwithstanding all the indignities and reproaches of men When you reade what you have heard you must needs acknowledge it to be the minde of GOD if you have received the anointing of the Spirit and the truth herein contained shall prevail with all that belong to GOD. For my part I am not careful touching the success of it I can trust GOD with that whose Word it is For as the Doctrine of the World hath the weak power of the World to carry on that so the Doctrine of Jesus Christ hath the mighty power of GOD to carry on that and the power of GOD in the World shall as soon be made void as the true Doctrine of the Gospel though called Error Heresie and Schism and have all the misguises of Hell put upon it The truth you then heard delivered and may here reade again shall carry all opposition and opposers before it and none shall be able to stand against it that engage against it And of this both your selves and this generation shall be Witnesses If any think that I gave too much power to CHRIST in the Reforming of the Church his own Body let them consider again that too much cannot be given to CHRIST in GODS Kingdom seeing he is all in all in it Neither is that exaltation the Gospel gives to CHRIST in this Business any diminution to your selves neither by making CHRIST all in the Kingdom of GOD are you made ever the less in the Kingdomes of this World But what ever power the Word of GOD hath given you I will deny you none of it nay I will be among the first that shall attribute it to you And do desire you would no more any of you be displeased for attributing the Reformation of the Church to CHRIST alone then the Redemption Iustification Sanctification or Glorification of it to CHRIST alone The former being every whit as great and glorious a work of CHRIST as the latter I do most willingly allow you your Thrones in the Kingdoms of this World but only desire to reserve to Christ his own Throne in the Kingdom of GOD. There are those indeed that would lift you up to this Throne not because they would have you sit there but place them there they would ascribe to you the power only due to the Son of GOD not because they would have you use it but would use it themselves they would derive power from you to do that which they say you cannot do the power they attribute to you in the things of GOD they say is not well in your hands but in theirs And here I would desire you to take notice of the working of the Mystery of Iniquity from the Head to the very Little-toes of the Man of Sin At first you know the Pope interested himself in the Emperour and Powers of the World for his own advantage and support no doubt rather then for theirs after the Prelates successively said to worldly Kings Lend us your power and we will lend you ours Let our spiritual power deal in temporal things and your temporal power shall deal in spiritual things and still the Clergy-power which call'd it self spiritual so linkt it self with the temporal that the power that was not of God might be upheld by the power that was of God and having got this advantage they cried Destroy one Destroy both and so the Prelates were wont to say No Bishop no King And their successors in the Kingdom of Antichrist still cry No Minister no Magistrate and so still mingle interests and powers with the civil Magistrate that under the Magistrate the power of GOD they might cunningly shrowd that power that is not of GOD. And thus they still under the name of the Magistrate seek themselves the drawing off that power that is only his from him to themselves to whom
Several SERMONS AND DISCOVRSES OF William Dell Minister of the Gospel Sometimes attending both the Generals in the ARMY AND Now Master of GONVIL and CAIUS Colledge in CAMBRIDGE Heretofore published at several times and on several occasions and now gathered in one Volumn for the benefit of the faithful and conviction of the world LONDON Printed for Giles Calvert at the Sign of the Black-Spread-Eagle at the West-end of Pauls towards Ludgate 1652. A Preface to the Reader WE are almost at the end of Bookes these paper works are now preaching their own Funerals whilst they are holding forth the spirit the letter is growen old and is dying into the newness of the spirit and there looks to be found into which all things shall be resolved being restored out of their enmity as into their Original whence they came even Preaching and Preachers Apostles Prophets Evangelists Pastors and Teachers given for the perfecting of the Saints for the edifying of the body of Christ till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ till we come into a spiritual uniformity in Christ being all filled and cloathed with him beyond all external forms which are the rudiments and elements of children with which state there is no uniformity consistent there being in it so many several statures and ages And the Design of Vniformity upon that is from none but Satan to kill Christ whilst he is a Child and stifle him in his swadling cloathes though the pretence be with Herod to give him honour and worship But how vain are these plots upon him who shall subdue all things to himself and swallow up death or the vail a part whereof external forms are into victory and bring forth judgement with triumph He shall swallow up all and rise up out of that which hath swallowed him and been his grave and that have we been and made every thing to be who are now giving up our dead expecting to live in the liberty of of our prisoner whom we see at last to be our Lord and Life We are now by an earthquake and the shaking of the prison beginning to awake and to make to our Prisoners feet as the Jaylor at Philippi did to Paul and Silas his looking for Salvation there waiting when he will lead his Captivity Captive and convert us from being Goales and Tombs to be his City and Temple built of precious stones in whom he will live and walk and cause us to live and walk in him We are giving up our own life which is death finding in these present earthquakes the true life which hath been buryed in us now rising and are with the whole Creation groaning to be found in him giving up all that we thought gain as loss and rejoycing in our decrease seeing his encrease and our dying dayly because he lives And we glory in him who hath wrought us to this to be content to lose our lives that we might find them now that the day is coming when all that will find their life shall lose it and whatsoever comes not into him the fire of destruction shall take hold of it and it shall be thrown with death and hell into the lake The ensuing Treatises have begotten this in me or driven it forth into a Preface or Epistle for which the book came into my hands by a Friends direction which office of love I could not refuse however conscious of my own unworthiness And I cannot dismiss it with so short a Preface having the Author and book in my heart and that venting it self out of its abundance yet not as Solomons fool who hath his heart in his mouth pouring out all that is in it or more then is convenient for an Epistolary Designe which is only to be a signe to acquaint the Reader of what good entertainment there is to be found within It is time now for us to hear of power which is in the Spirit who so long have been opposing it and languishing in flesh in man in forms external in wisdom of words in Ministers Preachers Writers Books Vniversities Moralities Councels Synods Assemblies Civil and worldly Power instead of standing upright and being strong in the Lord and the power of his might we have only exhibited a shell and carcase of Religion and have held out our selves the generation which these last Times by the expresse prediction of the spirit were to bring forth Having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof It hath been the hour and power of Darkness the man of sin his revealing and sitting in the Temple of God and holding forth himself to be God The Spirit hath given this Man large Rope he hath suffered this Absolom the underminer of his Father David his hair to grow and is now coming forth the strong and spread and tall oak where this man is hanging and twisting himself for his destruction He hath been contented to become the stone though precious and the head of the Corner to be rejected by the builders that Satan and all his Kingdom might fall upon him and dash themselves to pieces and he is pleased to make his way through these clouds and to rise more gloriously the King of Israel from under the stuff higher by the head and shoulders then any annointed with the oyl of gladness above his fellows This is the Child set for the fall and rising of many in Israel and a sign to be spoken against Christ the power of God and wisdom of God the foolishness and weakness of man What destructions do we see already made what heaps upon heaps by a Jaw-bone of an Ass the weakness of God stronger then man and the foolishness of God wiser then man How far is the day of the Lord already risen upon the tall Cedars of Lebanon and the oakes of Bashan and the high mountains and Hils upon the high Towers and fenced Wals what ruine upon these how many gallant Ships wrackt how many pleasant Pictures defaced And yet the rest of the trees and ships and Towers the high things which yet stand do not fear nor lay to heart nor begin to stoop and bow of themselves but say we sit as a Queen and shall see no sorrow they see not who is risen They bribe their own consciences as they did the Soldiers least they should speak the truth they are far from asking the question What ayled thee O sea that thou fleddest and thou Jordan that thou wast driven back ye mountains that ye skipped like Rams Tremble thou earth at the presence of the Lord Power belongs to God he puls down one and sets up another How hath he broken the staff of the wicked the Scepter of the rulers how hath hell enlarged her self and what glory and pomp is sent down thither which stand exspecting those by whose hand they were thrown down to come to
Greek to the Greeks to the weak as weak to the strong as strong all things to all men that he might win some and what external Vniformity was here And then for the Sacraments Christ administred the Sacrament of the Supper immediately after Supper Paul at midnight and it may be others in the morning or at noone and what external Vniformity in all this And for Government sometimes the Apostles met together into a Councel and in that Councel ordered things not of their own heads or by plurality of voyces but by the Word and Spirit and what they ordered by the Word and Spirit they put in execution by the power of the Word and Spirit and not by the power of the World At other times Ministers and Believers did things by the Word and Spirit among themselves by the mutual consent of both or else Believers alone among themselves if there were no Ministers present And where the number of Believers were more they stood in need of more Officers and where fewer of fewer Officers and all these things are the free ordering of the Churches who have Christ the Spirit and the Father among them and in them and so are taken out of the bondage of men into the freedom of God That truly I see not the Gospel more setting its spirit against any thing of Antichrist then against this point of external uniformity For if we have one Lord Christ Spirit Faith Baptism and God all other things are free to the Churches as God shall order by them and no otherwise and the reason and wisdom and prudence of man have no place in this world where the Sun of righteousness shines as the only light But against this that hath been said do lie some objections as first The Prophet foretold that the Lord should be one and his name one and doth not this imply external uniformity I answer nothing less for the Apostle explicates plainly and clearly what it is to have the Lord one and his name one among believers Eph. 4. ch 4. 5. 6. where he saith there is in the spiritual Church one Body and one Spirit one hope of our calling one Lord one Faith one Baptism one God and father of all who is above all through all and in all Where you see that among believers there is a manifold unity but no external uniformity yea the prayer of Christ the Son for the Church unfolds clearly the promise of God the Father to the Church Joh. 17. Christ prays that they all who are many among themselves according to the flesh may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that is according to the unity of the Spirit not external uniformity that after this manner they also may be one in us But again it is objected out of 1 Cor. 14. that the Apostle requires that all things may be done in the Church decently and in order and doth not this imply external uniformity I answer that they will hardly admit in their Parish Churches such a decency and order as the Apostle there means neither are they capable of it For he saith before When the whole Church is come together into some place that all may prophesie one by one that all may learn and all may be comforted and that during this exercise of prophesying if any thing be revealed to another the former to give place and he must speak that hath the clearest light seeing the Spirit to whomsoever it is given it is given to profit withall And that though all may prophesie one by one yet all may not prophesie at once for then it would not be order but confusion which the Apostle would have avoided saying Let all things be dâ—ne decently and in order And this decency too he perswades to by the word he doth not enforce by secular power And if they will call this uniformity for beleevers to prophesie one after another according to the variety of the gifts of the Spirit and not many or two or three at once or the same time we willingly agree with them but how far this thing is from their sence every one knows Thus you see these objections answered and I am confident there are no more can be brought but may as clearly and easily be answered as these And therefore I say I wonder and wonder again that we having covenanted and agreed together solemnly to endeavour for a Government most agreeable to the word of God should in the mean time be left so void of the spirit and light of the Gospel as to fall upon external uniformity which is nowhere to be found in the Gospel nor in the practise of primitive Christians Yea while I consider more seriously of the Matter me thinks external uniformity is a monstrous thing how glorious soever in their eyes and not to be found either in nature or in grace either in Christs Kingdom or the Kingdoms of the World In nature is no external uniformity extended to all the works of nature for look into the world and see if there be not variety of forms heavenly and earthly bodies having several form and in the earth each bird beast tree plant creature differs one from another in outward form If the whole creation should appear in one form or external uniformity what a monstrous thing would it be nothing differing from the first chaos But the variety of forms in the world is the beauty of the world So that though there be a most admirable unity among all the creatures yet there is nothing less then external uniformity Again as there is no external uniformity spread over the great world so nor yet over the little world or man For look upon a man consisting of head and members unto which the Apostle compares the Church and you shall not finde all the members like one another neither in regard of their outward forms nor operations for the hand doth not move as the foot nor the foot act as the hand and if all the members should appear and act in one form what a monster would a man be And yet among the members though there be no external uniformity yet there is admirable unity And yet again look into the Kingdoms of the world and you shall see no such thing in them as external uniformity Here in England you shall observe that York is not governed as Hull nor Hull as Hallifax nor that as Bristol c. neither is one County governed uniformly as another there is no uniformity in the government of Kent and Essex nor one town governed like another in Godmanchester the youngest son inherits in Huntington the Eldest nor one Corporation governed like another nor one Company in the City governed as another and yet between all Counties Cities Towns Corporations Companies there is unity though no external uniformity Yea look upon the famous City of London and there are it may be an hundred thousand families or more in it and each one governed after a
to that some to this aid and some to that but the spiritual Church scorns to trust to any creature for establishment but looks to be establisht onely in righteousness and because of this neither men nor devils shall prevail against it And therefore you that are of this Temple and building which is made by God seeing you have so many enemies on all hands pray look to your establishment which is in righteousness In righteousness shalt thou be established Thou shalt be far from oppression for thou shalt not fear and from terror for it shall not come neer thee The fear and teror he speaks of here is inward fear and terror from which the Church shall be free in the midst of all outward evils for though the Church be full of danger and persecution without yet it is free from fear and terror within Nay the Church hath trouble without but peace within affliction without joy within weakness without strength within imprisonment without liberty within persecution without content within against all the sorrows and sufferings on the flesh they have refreshings comforts hopes sweetnesses rejoycings triumphs in the spirit and so in the midst of evil are free from evil and in the midst of sufferings are free from pain yea they rejoyce in tribulations and in the midst of evil are fild and satisfied with good Vers 15. Behold they shall surely gather together but not by me whosoever shall gather together against thee shall fall for thy sake A very strange thing it is that the spiritual Church being this builded and taught and establisht and should yet be so blinde and mad as to ingage against it and yet the world and the carnal Church especially doth this yea the more pure and spiritual the Church is the more enmity the world and Formalists have against it Behold they shall surely gather together When they shall see the Churches gathering together into the true communion of Saints then will they gather themselves together against the Churches And why do these men blame the Churches for gathering together unto Christ when they themselves gather together against the Church as we daily see Indeed the gathering together of the Saints the world doth most hate of all other things Oh this is a dreadful and terrible thing to them it makes their hearts ake within them and looseth the joynts of their loynes they think their exaltation will be their own abasement and their gathering together their own scattering and their glory their own shame and their strength their own undoing and out of these conceits the world acts so strongly and furiously to scatter abroad again Christs own gatherings together But the Lord hath decreed and promised to hew that little stone of Christs spiritual Church out of the mountain of the World with out hands and will certainly accomplish it and is now about that very business but the world that never looks beyond sense they think this is surely a plot of ours and that we have a great designe in hand and so we have indeed but the design is not our designe but Gods contrived in eternity and discovered to Daniel chap. 2. and this is the setting up a Kingdom of Saints in the world under Christ the King of Saints wherein the people shall live alone in point of spiritual worship and communion and shall have nothing to do with the rest of the Nations This counsel of God begins to be accomplished and the world thinks that we are subtile and we are mighty whereas they are clearly mistaken in us for the wisdom and strength whereby this is done is Gods and not ours For it is the Lord must build this spiritual Church and set it up in the world and preserve it against the world and cause it to increase till it fills the world so that the designe and the accomplishment of it belongs to God and not to us and they that are displeased at it let them go and quarrel against God and so they will certainly do through the operation of the Devil Behold saith he they shall surely gather together As soon as ever the Church separates from the world the world gathers together against the Church Yea this place is not only to be understood of those that are open enemies without the Church but of a generation in it that are not of it and so the gathering together against the Church shall be in the Church and so Calvin interprets and such a thing will assuredly come to pass that the Church as well as the Kingdom will have domestick enemies it hath been soo in all ages and what wonder will it be if it be so in this The first division in this Kingdom was between common profession and open prophaness and if ever there be another it is like to lie between the form and the power of godliness and the children that are born after the flesh will up and be persecuting them that are born after the Spirit and the deepest wounds we shall receive will be in the house of our friends not our friends indeed but of such who seem to be so for they pray as well as we and preach and hear and receive the Sacraments and use the same ordinances with us and yet their enmity of all other will be the greatest against us and we shall receive deeper wounds in the house of these friends then in the streets of our enemies They shall gather together in thee against thee But not by mee The Saints gather together by God having the Spirit of God to bring them into Vnion and Communion but the carnal Church gathers together agaist thee spiritual not by God but without him for worldly base ends and interests and profits and advantages But mark the end of such gathering together Whosoever shall gather together against thee shall fall for thy sake We have seen the accomplishment of this promise with our eyes even a great party of the greatest men in the Kingdom as well as of mean ones gathered together against the Church but all fallen What is become of the great Power and Armies that were in the West and the North and other parts of the Kingdom are they not fallen through the strength of this promise and if any new party shall arise up again they shall also fall in like manner For thy sake For the Lord loves the Church the body of Christ even as he loves Jesus Christ himself thou hast loved them as thou hast loved me he loves Head and Members with the same love The Lords people are his portion on Earth as he is theirs in Heaven and so he will give Nations and Kingdoms for them and hath said the Nations and Kingdoms that will not serve thee shall perish yea those Nations shall be utterly wasted Oh that this Kingdom in it self and in its representation would avoyd this evil as they would escape this end The four Monarchies for opposing the spiritual Church have fallen
of the Church is as great a work as the Redemption of it you will acknowledge the work is too great for you and that it belongs only unto Christ seeing the Father hath committed the care of this work only to him and he hath taken this care and charge upon himself and it is onely sutable to him as being the Head of the Church and he only is able for it as being the Son of God and equall to God The third General By what means Christ brings this Reformation about And that is by these two and them onely to wit the Word and the Spirit The first means whereby Christ reforms the Church is the Word By this Christ doth all that ever he doth in his Kingdom by this he cals and rejects by this he binds and looseth by this he comforts and terrifies by this he enlightens and makes blind by this he kils and quickens by this he saves and damns and all that ever he doth in this Kingdom he doth by his word and without this he doth nothing of all that he doth Christ doth all in his Kingdom by the word only but Antichrist doth all things without the word even by the Decrees and Constitutions of men Now as Christ doth all other things in the Church by the word so he reforms too Now are ye clean through the word that I have spoken to you All the powers in the world cannot reform the Church as the word of God can do for this is quick and powerful and sharper then a two-edged sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart and doth change and renew and reform all And therefore Christ when he comes to reform the Church comes with no worldly power or weapons but onely with the word in his mouth yea though God set him King upon his holy hill of Sion yet he reforms not by outward power but by preaching saying I will publish the decree whereof the Lord hath said unto me Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee And again The Spirit of the Lord is upon me for he hath annointed me to preach the Gospel And again The Redeemer shall come to Sion and then follows the Covenant of God with the Redeemer My word shall never depart out of thy mouth Isa 59. 10. and in Psal 45. the Church saith by the Spirit to Christ Ride on prosperously in the word of truth meekness and righteousness which is the word of the Gospel And so Christ when the time of Reformation was come went up and down preaching the word And thus he brought to pass the glorious Reformation of the New Testament by preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom and nothing else And when he was to eave the world he sent his Disciples to carry on the work of Reformation as he himself had begun it as he saith As my Father sent me so send I you not with the power of the world but with the power of the word and so he bid them go teach all Nations and preach the Gospel to every creature and by teaching and preaching to the world to reform the world and so accordingly they did Mark 16. ver 20. They went forth and preached everywhere the Lord working with them So that Christ sent them not forth with any power of swords or guns or prisons to reform the world or with any power of States or Armies but sent forth poor illiterate mechanick men and only armed them with the power of the word and behold what wonders they wrought by that power alone They turned the world upside down they changed the manners customes religion worship lives and natures of men they carryed all oppositions and difficulties before them they won many in most Kingdoms unto Christ and brought them into willing subjection and obedience to him and all this they did I say not with any earthly or secular power but by the ministery of the Gospel alone Christs great and onely Instrument for the conquering subduing and reforming of the Nations And so the power appeared to be Gods onely and not the creatures And thus you see how the word is one means Christ useth for Reformation And this word only works a right Reformation For this reforms truly and indeed all other power reforms but in appearance So that there is no true reformation of any thing but what is wrought by the word but what ever evill is reformed and not by the power of the word it is not truly reformed it is onely reformed in the flesh and not in the spirit it is only suspended in the outward operation of it but the seed and nature of it still remains in the heart to grow up and work again as opportunity serves And therefore what ever evil or corruption is reformed in thee see it be reformed by the power of the word if the word hath killed it in thee it is killed indeed if not it is alive in thee though it seem to be dead The outward power of the world may set up an image of Reformation but it is the word onely can work true Reformation And therefore let us learn to rely on the word for the Reformation of the Church For this is much for the honour of the word which God hath magnified above all his Name when we can neglect the power of the world and leave the whole work of Reformation to the power working and efficacy of the word alone which is Almighty and able to bring off the heart from all things to God As on the contrary it is a great dishonour to God and his word when men dare not relie on the word alone to reform the Church though it be stronger then men and Angels and all the creatures but will needs be calling in the power of the world and rest and rely on that for this work as if the power of the word were not sufficient But let such men know that if the power of the word will not reform men all the power of the world will never do it And therefore well said Luther Praedicare annuntiare scribere volo neminem autem vi adigam I will Preach and Teach and Write but I will constrain no body Oh therefore that our Civil and Ecclesiastical powers would so much honour Christs Word as to trust the reformation of his Kingdom with it and that as it is sufficient to reform the Church so you would be pleased to think it sufficient and thus shall you give Christ and his Word due honour as well as declare your own faith And if you would commit this work to the power of the word to which onely it belongs you should soon see what the Word would do There is no such glorious sight under heaven as to see the Word in the spirit and power of it come in to an unreformed world and to observe the changes and
a spiritual Kingdom and the Reformation of it is answerable and that Christ himself who is the Lord the Spirit is the Reformer of this spiritual Kingdom by his Word and Spirit but little thought that any man would have been so blind or worse as to have affirmed the preaching of this spiritual and glorious Reformation was to preach against all reformation Is the Reformation of Jesus Christ which he works by his Word and Spirit in all the faithful and in all the Churches of the Saints no Reformation at all How durst you affirm this Mr. Love Mr. LOVE As if all were encompassed within the narrow heart of man Reply Yet I said plainly enough When the heart is reformed all is reformed and Gospel Reformation though it begins in the inward man ends in the outward Did you Sir accuse me rightly then or no Mr. LOVE If this be so Race out the first Article of the Covenant Reply I had rather the whole Covenant were raced out then the least truth contained in the word of God Though I like the Covenant well enough according to the true intention of it Again if the thing be truly considered it will appear that you are more against the Covenant then I for the Covenant engages us to reform according to the word of God but you it seems would reform without yea against the Word with outward and secular power which you will not suffer in the Magistrates hands neither but will needs have it in your own Mr. LOVE If this Doctrine be true That Gospel-Reformation be only spiritual then I wonder how Paul was so out who said When I come I will set all things in Order surely that was a Church-Order Reply But pray What outward or secular power had Paul who suffered not onely much from the world but most from the false Apostles to set the Church in order Did Paul think you use any worldly power to set the Church in order or only the power of the word and spirit But these men think if the Church be to be set in order by the word and spirit onely which were sufficient in Pauls time it 's like to be out of order for them Mr. LOVE To cry down all kinde of Government under heart-government and all Reformation as carnal because you have the Civil Magistrates hand to it is against that place of Paul 1 Tim. 2. 2. Pray for Kings and all that are in Authority that we may lead a quiet and a peaceable life in all godliness and honesty Reply Well argu'd now indeed Babes and sucklings you shall come forth and answer this Master in Israel The sense of this place is evidently this That Christians should pray for Kings and Governors that God would so incline their hearts that whilst we live in godliness under them they would suffer us to live in peace and not make us fare the worse in the world for our interest in the Kingdom of God And what one drop can Mr. Love squeeze out of this Scripture to cool the tip of his tongue For the meaning is not That the Magistrate should enforce godliness but portect us in godliness Mr. LOVE To justle out the Magistrates power is to justle out the first Article of the Covenant What again and they that justle out that will justle out you shortly Reply Good Sir Ascribe not your own work to our hands The justling out the Magistrate have you not made it the chief part of your business now for a long while together and are you not still so diligently acting it every day that now you think your work is in some forwardness and you are pretty well able to deal with him And now because you would not be mistrusted your selves you publickly slander us with it We see clearly thorow all your slender disguises Mr. LOVE Ezra was of another mind Ezra 7. 26. Whosoever will not do the Law of thy God and the Law of thy King let Judgement be executed speedily upon him whether it be unto death or unto banishment or to confiscation of goods or to imprisonment Reply Well Sir will you stand to this place and shall this end the Controversie Pray mark then This was part of the Decree of Artaxerxes a King of the Nations touching the Jews for the rebuilding of the material Temple That they should have liberty to do it and not be molested in the doing of it but should have what assistance the State could afford The Decree was this Ezra 7. 13. I make a Decree That all they of the people of Israel and of the Priests and Levites in any Realm which are minded of their own free will to go up to Jerusalem go with thee Forasmuch as thou art sent of the King and his seven Councellors to enquire concerning Judah and Jerusalem according to the Law of thy God that is in thy hand c. And vers 21. I Artaxerxes the King do make a Decree to all the Treasurers beyond the River That whatsoever Ezra the Priest shall require of you it be done speedily unto two hundred Talents of silver And then vers 26 follows Whoever will not do the law of thy God and the law of thy King Let him be so and so punished as you have heard 1. Here then you see That Artaxerxes made no Decree to enforce all the Jews to go build but as the Text saith Those that were minded of their own free will See you not here that even a King of the Nations thought it unreasonable to force any man to go to build Gods material house against his will 2. And secondly you see How he gave them no laws how to build but permitted them to do it according to the law of their God that was in their hands 3. And thirdly you see How he deterred any from hindering them from this work upon pain of death banishment c. Do you not perceive now by this time how you then deceived the people by giving them the letter of the Word without the 〈◊〉 sense of it as Satan dealt with Christ in his temptations Such Sermons bring an Hour of Temptation upon the people This then is the force of the place 1. First That the Magistrate may make a Decree for all that are minded of their own free will to build the Spiritual Temple of Jesus Christ and to gather up into a Communion of Saints 2. Secondly That he ought to permit this to be done according to the law of our God that is in our hands or rather according to the law of the Spirit of life that is in our Hearts and not to enforce upon us any Clergy constitutions 3. And thirdly That he may deter you and the rest of the Kingdom that are of the like minde with you from resisting and hindering this work which hath its Authority from Heaven That so the Saints the Kingdom of Christ may pray for the Magistrate and Christ the King of Saints may bless the Magistrate and make
much yet they are but sects and schismes and divisions and factions rent from the true Church of God for such men choose and frame to themselves some singular way of worship form order c. whereby they think they excell other Christians and so cause the simple and ignorant which are the multitude of people to follow them especially having countenance of worldly authority by which means both they and their followers depart from the true unity of the Church For when this seven-fold spiritual unity is neglected Christianity is torn in pieces into as many sects as the world and Devil please till there be no foot-steps left either of faith or love So that whatever these men pretend most certain it is that all confedracies in the Church of outward orders forms rites laws ceremonies disciplines which are necessarily enforced by the secular power seduced by the Ecclesiastical will never hold the Church together but all these are and have proved and will prove rather a wall of partition in the Church then a bond of union and if they seem to work union yet it is no other then the mingling clay and iron together which no pains nor art can perfectly compound For all peace and union in the Church knit by other bonds then are here named is no spiritual union neither will it stand And therefore dear Christians and believers seeing we have seven bonds of unity all of Gods own making to make us one let not diversity of forms and rites which are but sorry things of mans making separate and divide us but seeing each of these bonds are able to make us one how much one should all of them together make us And thus having shewed from the word how all Christians and believers are made one by God the next thing I shall aim at is to shew how they may continue one among themselves in reference to that communion they have with one another whilst they sojourn in this world flowing from the former union that so all darkness and mistakes which now even many believers are grievously inwrapped in may be dispelled and done away and we may live in this pure and perfect union with one another in God making all outward things subservient hereunto and none of them prejudicial And to this purpose I conceive we are 1. To know some things And 2. To do other things And both otherwise then yet we seem either to know or do them 1. To preserve our peace we have in Christ we must be instructed aright in the matter of the Churches GOVERNMENT because the mistake in this thing is so great a cause of controversie and division among us at this day For if the true Church hath its true government without any such forms and laws and power as is now so earnestly contended for there is no reason we should fall out and divide for these things Now the Government of the Church is twofold 1. There is that Government which God exercises immediatly by himself And 2. That Government which he exercises mediately and by the faithfull The first of these that is Gods immediate Government is also two fold 1. The Government of his speciall providence 2. The Government of his spiritual presence The first sort of Gods immediate Government of his Church is the Government of his special providence and this is a most strange wonderful and glorious Government This was that Government of God over the Church of Israel when he took his own Nation out of the midst of another Nation by temptations signs wonders by a strong hand and a stretched out arm and great terrours when he led them through the red Sea and through the wilderness in paths that were not trodden when he fed them with bread from heaven and water out of the Rocks when he suffered no man to do them wrong but reproved even Kings for their sake and through multitudes of enemies and oppositions led them into the Land of Canaan Thus God led that Church from bondage to liberty from tribulation to quietness from a sordid condition to honour and renown from a strange land to a land of inheritance and from slavery to a Kingdom And this was a glorious Government indeed standing in Gods immediate conduct from heaven far above all humane councels wisdom stratagems or any thing else of mans contriving and acting and this government of God is so far beyond all humane apprehensions that according to this it is said His way is the Sea and his path in the great waters and his footsteps are not known And is not this kinde of Gods government of the spiritual Church of the New Testament every whit as wonderful and glorious as was that of the visible Church of the Old Testament For though the beginning of it was small and low in the world yet did it receive encrease with the encrease of God and was preserved maintained and enlarged in the world notwithstanding all the rage and cruelties of the persecuting Heathen Emperours for three hundred years together and ever since God himself hath taken the conduct of this Church and hath carryed it through difficulties distresses reproaches prisons torments deaths to ease liberty comfort joy salvation glory life happiness and this hath been Gods glorious government of the Church hitherto And at this present time the Church of God wants not this government among all the troubles confusions wars and desolations of the Kingdom but God is now as near his true Church as ever and supports it and comforts it and guides it as a skilful Pilot in such sort that though the flouds lift up their voice and billows against it yet they cannot sink it For the Lord on high is mightier then the mighty waves of the Sea And so still even at this day the Lord leads his flock through the midst of Wolves and Lyons yea through the midst of Devils in admirable and invincible safety and gives them light in darkness councels in difficulties and success in all attempts above and beyond both all the power and all the expectation of the world Now note here that this kinde of government of the Church God doth not mannage according to the wisdom and thoughts no not of his very people but wholly according to the councel of his own will and the thoughts of his own heart doing things that they must not know yet but must know afterwards yea such things as for the present seem absurd and absolutely destructive And this is the usual way and order of Gods governing his Saints That of Luther on Gen. 39. is worth our minding here I saith he have often endevoured to prescribe certain wayes and methods to God which he should use in the governing of his Church Ah Lord said I I would have this to be thus done in this order with this event But God did altogether contrary to what I did desire Then again thought I why my councel is not differing
from the glory of God but it will make much for the sanctifying of thy name the gathering and encreasing thy Kingdom the propagating the knowledge of thy word and to be brief it is a most excellent and profitable design But God no doubt laughed at this wisdom of mine and said Go to now I know thee to be wise and learned but this was never my manner that either Peter or Martin meaning himself should teach or form or govern or lead me For I am not a passive but an active God who use always to lead govern form Now saith he it is very grievous that our wisdom should be only passive and that we are commanded to mortifie and slay it and therefore many who could not endure this mortification have fallen horribly And thus this kinde of Gods government is wholly according to his own wisdom and councel and wholly without yea contrary to ours And thus we are in some measure acquainted with the government of Gods special providence over his Church 2. The second sort of Gods immediate Government of his Church is the Grvernment of his spiritual Presence or Gods government within us For the right Church is the City of God and hath God in the midst of it being built and framed and that according to every part of it by the Spirit to be the habitation of God this is the temple of the living God as God hath said and God is in it of a truth And if any would know what this Church is called the name of it is THE LORD IS THERE And so the whole guiding and ordering of this Church depends wholly on God who dwels within it For God will not dwell in his own Church and sit still whilst others that are without it shall govern it but the government of the right Church lies on his shoulders who is Immanuel God with us and in us And so this government of the Church is one of the invisible things of God in the Church Christ who fils it governing it by a most present and powerful but invisible influence leading it into truth by the Spirit of truth into patience by the Spirit of patience into love by the Spirit of love into power by the Spirit of power into humility meekness patience heavenly mindedness and into the fulness of all Righteousness by that Spirit which contains all these graces in it self and works them in all those in whom it dwels In this government we hear the voice behind us saying This is the way walk in it when we turn either to the right hand or to the left In this government we have not outward laws to order us as the Kingdoms of the world have but an inward law written in our hearts by the Spirit of God as God hath said I will write my law in their hearts and in their inward parts and this law is the word of life for the living Church or body of Christ can only be governed by a living word which is called the law of the spirit of life And according to this Government also God guides the true Church wonderfully the soul not seeing the ways and councels of God whereby he forms and fashions the Church according to his own minde and good pleasure clean contrary to humane reason and judgement for he brings them to mourning to bring them to comfort brings them to despair to bring them to faith to death to bring them to life yea even to hell to bring them to heaven leading his chosen people after such a manner that nothing would follow but faith which looks not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen And thus when the soul is in the midst of many fears woes agonies temptations till it feel in good earnest the true sorrows of death and pains of hell and in this darkness sees no beam nor the least glimmering of light and wants all counsel and knows not which way to turn it self then Christ comes and manifests himself to the soul and counsels and directs and comforts it and leads it into the path of life and redeems it from all distress subduing the world and the devil and sin and death and hell under it yea and carrying it into all the fulness of God Now these two sorts of Governments to wit the one of his special providence and the other of his spiritual presence the true Church never wanted in any Age And in this present Age when the Prelatical Government hath been dissolved for several years together Can any Christian think that the right Church of Christ hath been without all Government Nay all this while it hath been governed most powerfully by his special providence and most sweetly by his spiritual presence So that neither the world nor the devil have been able to prevail neither against its grace nor comforts And for an outward formal visible enforced Government after the manner of civil Corporations or worldly Kingdoms the true Church can as well want such a Government at all times as at any time yea and it is best without it as being farthest removed from the tyranny of men and more immediately under the Government of Christ its onely King and Law-Giver And therefore they that are so violent for an outward and visible Government of the Church after the manner of the Kingdoms of the World I do heartily wish that if it be the good pleasure of God they might sometime or other be exercised with temptations of despair and with the sence of the wrath of God and everlasting burnings For by this means their idle and vain thoughts and speculations of governing the Church of God by humane power and methods would soon vanish and they would soon give over to trouble themselves and the faithful about things that have neither power in them to free from eternal death nor to procure eternal life And thus much for that two-fold Government of the Church which God himself exercises immediately in and over it whereof we must not be ignorant if we desire to preserve the peace of the Church both in our selves and others Now besides this immediate Government of God there is another sort of Government of the Church which Christ exercises mediately by the Church And this also is Christs Government and not mans and men who have not known nor understood the former Government of Christ have mistaken this also through the same unbelief wherefore they not so much as minding the former Government of Christ which is immediate and by himself have made this mediate Government of the Church by man to be all And this also I say they have understood most grossly and carnally and not according to the Word but according to their own ignorant and seduced hearts I shall not trouble the Reader with their particular mis apprehensions in this matter seeing it is far more profitable to content our selves with the plain and evident truth then