Selected quad for the lemma: order_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
order_n	church_n	power_n	set_v	2,412	5	5.6684	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A82317	Right reformation: or, The reformation of the church of the New Testament, represented in Gospell-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 faithfull, at their desire. / By William Dell, minister of the Gospel, attending on his Excellency Sir Thomas Fairfax.	Dell, William, d. 1664.	1646 (1646)	Wing D927; Thomason E363_2; Thomason E363_3; ESTC R201227	36,729	61

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 spirituall 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 carnall 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 godlinesse and honestie Reply Well argu'd now indeed Babes and sucklings you shall come forth and answer this Master i● Israel The sense of this place is evidently this That Christians should pray for Kings Governors that God would so incline their hearts that whilest we live in godlinesse 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 inforce godlinesse but protect us in godlinesse 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 ●●r hands The justling out the Magistrate have you not made it the chief part of your businesse 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 forwardnesse 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 Wee see cleerly 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 Iudgement 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 Jewes 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 For asmuch as thou art sent of the King and his seven Councellors to enquire concerning Iudah and Ierusalem according to the Law of thy God that is in thy hand c. And ver. 21. ● 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 ver. 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 inforce all the Jewes 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 lawes 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 true sense of it as Satan dealt with Christ in his temptations Such Sermons bring an Houre 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 inforce upon us any Clergy constitutions 3. And thirdly That he may deterre you and the rest of the Kingdome that are of the like minde from resisting and bindering this work which hath its authority from Heaven That so the Saints the Kingdome of Christ may pray for the Magistrate and Christ the King of Saints may blesse the Magistrate and make him prosperous And pray now what is all this to your purpose Mr. LOVE If it was good in your Hearts to think to Reform it s much better to do it Reply Does not GOD say It was well that David thought to build a Temple and yet for all that he should not build it And do you now dare to blame this very thing Cannot the Scripture it self be quiet for you Mr. LOVE You need not fear losing a Party Reply Yea but how if God be in that Party What then sir Is it not better keeping a little poor despised Party that hath GOD in it then a great and numerous Party without God Again Did you preach before the Parliament to make or cast off parties Doth this appertain to the mysterie of Christ and the Father Reader These men are so over-busie in making and marring Parties that I much feare they will in the end throw the Kingdome into more misery and blood than their Predecessors have

sel their goods as is now practised in some parts of the Kingdom even upon the Saints and if men be wicked is it not misery enough for them to refuse eternal life except also they inflict on them Temporal death Is it not misery enough for men to refuse the good things of heaven except they also deprive them of the good things of this present life and yet as Luther said of the Clergy Quando non invocat brachium seculare morte utraque terrat mundum When doth it not cal upon the secular power and terrifies the world with both deaths Surely Christ and the Word approved not these ways For Math. 18. Christ imposeth no other punishment on them that would not hear the Church then that he should be reckoned as a heathen and Paul Titus 3. Teacheth us after once and twice admonition to avoyd an Heretick but not to imprison him or kil him or banish him and again they that do these things shal not inherite the Kingdome of God and again he that beleever not shal bee damned but not one word of outward or corporal punishment in all the Gospel 3. Yea Christ reproveth his Disciples for discovering such a spirit of tyranny as to punish men for not receiving him Luk. 9. when the Apostles of a Prelatical and Antichristian Spirit in that particular desired fire to come down from heaven upon them that would not receive him Christ did severely rebuke them saying Ye know not of what spirit ye are not of Christs Spirit which is meek but of Sathans who was a murderer from the beginning and of Antichrists his first begotten in the world and he adds the Son of man came not to destroy mens lives but to save them and therefore to go about to turn the Gospel not to save mens lives but to destroy them and so to change Christ himself from a Saviour into a Destroyer this is Antichrist Triumphant All these things shew that worldly power hath no place at all in the Reformation of the Gospel Now I should have proceeded here to answer some Objections as namely 1. That of Luke 14. compel them te come in this I forgetting named not May a Christian then live as he list No by no means for he hath the Word and Spirit in him to keep him from living as he list and he knows that no man in Gods Kingdom may live as he wils but as God wils But would you have no Law No Laws in Gods Kingdom but Gods Laws and these are a thausand times better then all the Laws of men and they are these three The Law of a new nature The Law of the spirit of life that is in Christ The Law of love But would you have no Government Yes but the government of Christ the Head and the Holy Ghost the Spirit in and over the Church the body They that would govern the faithful the Members of Christs own body make themselves the head of those Members and so Antichrist may as wel be found in a combination of men as in one single person But would you have no Order Yes the best that is even such an Order as is in the body of Christ where every Member is placed by Christ and none by itself The Order of the spiritual Church is a spiritual Order and not a carnal But would you have sin suffered No but more truly and throughly destroyed then any power of the world can destroy it even by the Spirit of judgment and burning But would you have sinners suffered No but punished more severely then any powers of the world can punish them For he shal smite the earth with the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips he shal slay the wicked And as for those that are outwardly wicked the Magistrate is to keep them in order for the quiet of the State he having power over their persons estates and lives I should also have proceeded to the next thing The advantages of such a Gospel Reformation where it is wrought together with the Vses but because I would not be over long I passe by these things and so proceed no farther in this Discourse But being brought hither by an unexpected providence I shal crave liberty to speak a few words to you in the behalf of two Kingdoms that is this Kingdom and Gods 1. That which I have to request of you for this Kingdome is that you would regard the oppression of the poore and the sighing of the needy Never was there more injustice and oppession in the Nation then now I have seen many oppressed and crushed and none to help them I beseech you consider this with all your hearts for many who derive power from you are great appressors And therefore I require you in the name of God to discharge the trust that God hath put into your hands and so to defend the poor and fatherlesse to do justice to the afflicted and needy to deliver the poor and needy and to rid them out of the hands of the wicked This is your businesse discharge your duty if you wil not then hear what the Lord saith Psa. 12. 5. for the oppression of the poor for the sighing of the needy now wil I arise saith the Lord and Gods rising in this case would prove your ruine If you wil not do Gods work in the Kingdome which he hath cal'd you too he wil do it himself without you as it is written He shal deliver the needy when he cryeth the poor also and he that hath no helper he shal save their souls from deceit and violence the common evils of the times And this is all that I have to say for this Kingdom 2. I have a few more things to say touching Gods Kingdom and the first is this 1. That as Christs Kingdom and the Kingdoms of the world are distinct So you would be pleased to keep them so not mingle them together your selves nor suffer others to do it to the great prejudice and disturbance of both 2. That you would be pleased to think that Christs Kingdom which is not of this world hath sufficient power in it self to mannage all the affairs of it without standing in need of any ayd or help from the world Seeing the power of man is of no place or use in the Kingdom of God which is not a Temporal or an Ecclesiastical Dominion but a Spiritual 3. That you would suffer the little stone of Christs Kingdom to be hewen out of the Mountain of the Roman Monarchy whereof this Kingdome is a part without hands even by the power and efficacy of the word and spirit seeing the hands of men cannot help but hinder this work which is to be done without hands And that your might and your power would please to let God do this work of his without might and without power and by his Spirit only 4. That you would be pleased to suffer