strength and according to each mans measure of the Spirit so is his measure of grace And thus the Holy Spirit by being a Spirit of righteousness is also in us a Spirit of power 6. The Holy Spirit is a Spirit of power in us by being in us a Spirit of the fear of the Lord and so he is by representing God to us in his Glory and Majesty according as he hath revealed himself to us in his word from which knowledge of God springs his fear For what is the reason that the men of the world fear not God but sin securely against the great and glorious God every day Why the reason is because they know not the Lord. Now the Spirit comes and reveals the Father in the Son and presents God to the soul through his word in his infinite and eternal power and justice and wisdom and truth and faithfulness and love and mercy and goodness c. and shines to the soul in each attribute of God and now when a man sees God by his own light and knows him by his own teaching then first doth he begin truely to fear God and the fear of God is his strength For he that fears God is free from all other fear he fears not men of high degree nor men of low degree nor the united power of all the creatures he fears not the fear of other men in their evils but in the midâ—â— of all fearful things he is without fear because he sanctifies the Lord of hosts in himself in his heart and makes him his fear and his dread And by this means amidst all evils he hath admirable confidence and assurance because he knows that no evil can befall him from any man or from any creature till first it be the will of God and also that what ever evil befalls him according to the will of God it shall work for good unto him in the end Thus the fear of the Lord is a Christians confidence and a beleevers strength whereas he that fears not God fears every thing yea not onely reall but imaginary evils and as evils multiply his fears so his fears again multiply his evils till at last he be swallowed up of both But the Holy Spirit being in us a Spirit of the fear the Lord is also in us a Spirit of strength 7. The Holy Spirit is a Spirit of power in us by being in us a Spirit of love and unity The Holy Spirit is a Spirit of love and unity in the Godhead for the Father loves the Son with the Spirit and the Son loves the Father with the Spirit and the Father is one with the Son in the Spirit and the Son is one with the Father in the Spirit and the Spirit is both the bond of love and unity between the Father and the Son and God being most love and most one is also most strong Now what the Spirit is in the Godhead he is the same in the Church of God which is the true temple and habitation of the Godhead and that is a Spirit of love and unity For why is there such constant love and unity between the members of the same body but because one Spirit runs through them all and so there is such constant love and unity between all beleevers because one Holy Spirit runs through them all And hence we may take notice of a remarkable difference between nature and grace for nature of one makes many for we all who are many among our selves even a whole world of men were but one in Adam omnes eramus ille unus homo but grace of many makes one for the Holy spirit which is as fire melts all the faithfull into one mass or lump and makes of many one body one thing yea it makes them one in the unity of God according to that of Christ John 17. 21. that they all may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us mark the words for they are wonderful that they all may be one that is that all beleevers who are many among themselves may be all made one one How one As thou Father art in me and I in thee that is as thou and I being two persons are yet but one God after this highest example of unity let them be made One in us as long as they remain in themselves they are many and how much they remain in themselves they are many for their unity is not in themselves but they are one in us who are one that is how much the saints by the Spirit are carried into the Father and the Son who are one so much also are they made one not onely with the Father and the Son but also with one another You may see in the Acts how the multitude of beleevers after they had received the Spirit so far forth as they had received the Spirit Were of one heart and of one minde And this unity of beelievers is their strength and when God shall take away all those prejudices and suspicions and jealousies and particular ends and interests and divisions and separations and Schismes that are among his own people and the people of God shall be reduced into this blessed unity among themselves and the Lord be one and his name one among them all then shall the Church also be of admirable and invincible power So that all they that strive with it shall perish and all they that war against it shall be as nothing yea then shall the Lord make the Church as a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth and it shall thresh the Mountains that is the Kingdomes of the world and shall beat them small and shall make the hills that is the lesser Common-wealths as chaffe But till the Church of God attain to this unity it shall not do any excellent thing it shall not work any notable deliverance in the earth neither shall the inhabitants of the world fall When the Spirit of God shall be a Spirit of unity in the faithful and shall heal all the sad differences and dissensions that are now between them then also shall it be a Spirit of admirable power in them And thus much for the explication of the point The Vse is twofold 1. The first is to exhort all men everywhere to endeavour to partake of this supernatural spiritual and divine power of the Holy Spirit which is certainly communicated to all the faithful and Elect in Christ Jesus And let no man think it is a thing indifferent whether he have this power or no but know that the having of this power of the Spirit is of absolute necessity and that both for Ministers and for all other Christians 1. There is a necessity of this power of the Holy Spirit for Ministers and to them this present place doth chiefly relate 1. For first if they have not this power of the Holy Spirit they have no power at all For
first and chief work of the Spirit upon the Elect whereby he prepares them to receive himself For the more empty a man is of other things the more capable he is of the Spirit If you would fill a vessel with any other liquor then it holds you must first empty it of all that is in it before if you would fill it with Wine you must empty it of Beer or Water if any such liqour be in it For two material things cannot possibly subsist in the same place at the same time the substances of each being safe and sound And so if the Holy Spirit who is God must come into us all mortal and unstable creatures together with sin and our selves and what ever else is in us must go forth Humane reason and humane wisdom and righteousness and power and knowledge cannot receive the Holy Spirit but we must be emptied of these if ever we would receive him We must thus suffer our selves to be prepared by the Spirit to receive the Spirit but with this caution That when the Spirit of God hath wrought this in us we do not attribute it to our selves as our own work nor think any thing of our selves but descend into our own meer nothing Otherwise we shall be a hinderance to the Spirit that he cannot work in us after a more excellent manner And when a man is thus empty of himself and of other things then he becomes poor in spirit and such the Spirit alwayes fills and descends into with a wonderful and unresistible power and fills the outer and inner man and all the superior and inferior faculties of the soul with himself and all the things of God And this is the second work of the Spirit to fill those whom he hath emptied Now the usual and ordinary means through which the Spirit doth this are these three 1. The hearing of the Word preached But here we must distinguish of the Word For the Law is the word of God but St. Paul saith that by that word the Spirit is not given but by the Word of the Gospel And therefore how beautiful are the feet of them that bring the Gospel of peace for nothing is so sweet and precious as the word of the Gospel which brings with it the Holy Spirit This you may see Act. 10. 44. where it is said that whilest Peter yet spake the Holy Ghost fell on all them that heard the Word And therefore also the Gospel is called the ministration of the Spirit because as it proceeds from the Spirit and the Holy Spirit gives utterance so it also conveyes the Spirit to the faithful Now the gift of tongues and miracles and other such like gifts are at the present ceased in the Church but the gift of the Spirit is not ceased and this the Lord still joynes with the Ministery of the Gospel that he may keep up in our hearts the due respect of this ordinance and may preserve us from the wayes of those men who seek for the Spirit without the Word 2. Means is faith in the word heard For it is not every one that hears the word that receives the Spirit but onely they that hear with the hearing of faith For if thou hear the word of the Gospel a thousand times and wantest faith thou shalt never receive the Spirit for unbeleef shuts up the heart against the Spirit and ever opposes and resists the Spirit and never receives it But faith opens the heart to receive the Spirit By faith we lay hold on Christ in the word and through our union with Christ we obtain the Spirit For we have not the Spirit immediately in it self but in the flesh of Christ And when we by faith are made the flesh of Christ then we partake of that Spirit that dwels in the flesh of Christ Now through these two things the Word and Faith the Spirit communicates to us a new birth it begets us unto God and so we partaking of the nature of God partake also of the Spirit of God They are born of men have nothing in them but the spirit of men but they that are born of God have the Spirit of God That which is born of the flesh is flesh hath no spirit in it but that which is born of the Spirit is spirit and hath spirit in it So that there is no means to partake of the Spirit of God but by being born of God and the means by which we are born of God are the Word Faith 3. Means is Prayer For Christ hath said the Spirit is given to them that aske And the Disciples when they were to receive the promise of the Spirit continued with one accord in prayer and supplication Act. 1. 14. For God who hath promised to give us his Spirit hath commanded us to aske it and when God hath a minde to give us the Spirit he puts us in minde to ask it yea God gives us the Spirit that by it we may ask the Spirit seeing no man can ask the Spirit but by the Spirit Now in asking the Spirit there is no difference whether we ask it of the Father or of the Son seeing the Spirit proceeds from both and is the Spirit of both And therefore Christ promiseth the sending of the Spirit from both From the Father Joh. 14. The Spirit which the Father will send in my name From himself Joh. 16. Except I go the Comforter will not come but if I go I will send him to you So that both the Father and the Son give the Spirit and it is no matter whether we ask him either of the Father or of the Son so we ask him of the Father in the Son or of the Son in the Father And thus you see the way to obtain this power is to obtain the Spirit and also by what means this is done 2. The way to increase this power is to increase the Spirit And therefore it is as needful for us to know the means to increase the Spirit as to receive it And they among others are these 1. To continue in the use of the Word As the Spirit is first given by the word so by the same word it is increased and the more any Christian is in the use of the word the stronger and more vigorous and mighty is the Spirit in him but the neglect of the word is the quenching of the Spirit Let a Christian that is strong in the spirit neglect the word a while and he will soon become weak and as a man without strength For the Spirit is not bestowed on us but through the word neither doth it dwell in us but by the word and the more the word dwels in our hearts by faith the more the spirit dwells in our hearts by the word And according to the measure of the word in us is the measure of the Spirit 2. To increase faith For the more we beleeve the more we receive of
to do it to the great prejudice and disturbance of both 2. That you would be pleased to think that Christ 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 Kingdom 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 the assemblings of the Saints both publikely and privately as occasion serves seeing this can be no prejudice to the State but a great advantage in as much as they meet peaceably and make no tumulâ—s and in their assembling pray for the peace and welfare of this divided and distracted Kingdom And also that you take heed of scattering those Churches that meet in the Name and Spirit of Jesus Christ which are Christs own gatherings together least Christ so scatter you abroad that you never be gathered together again 5. That you take heed you do nothing to the prejudice of the faithful Gods own people as he hath warned you by the Spirit saying Touch not mine anoynted and do my Prophets no harm This place hath been miserably mistaken for the Kings of the Earth and the Clergy have shared it between themselves whereas indeed it belongs to neither for Gods anoynted are the faithful that are anoynted with the Spirit the oyl of God and so are anoynted as Christ was anoynted And these anoynted ones are the Lords Prophets and the Lord hath no Prophets but such as are anoynted with the Spirit Thus Christ was made the Lords Prophet The Spirit of the Lord is upon me for he hath anoynted me to preach the Gospel and thus are all his Brethren made Prophets being fellows with him in his Unction And therefore take heed how you meddle with the Lords anoynted ones and with the Lords Prophets for as it is said He suffered no man to do them wrong yea he even reproved Kings for their sakes saying Touch not c. So the Lord hath still the same care of the same people and will suffer no man to do them wrong but will reprove Kings and Parliaments and Kingdoms and Cities and Counties and Committees he will reprove them all for their sakes and say Touch not mine anoynted and do my Prophets no harm for they that are anoynted with the Spirit are the flesh of Christ and the Prophets of God therefore touch them and harm at them your own peril It grieves me to see the rest of the Kingdom touching these anoynted ones of God and doing harm to these his Prophets abusing and spoyling and imprisoning them It would grieve me much more if I should see you doing the same for this would bring you as well as the Kingdom under Gods own reproof and the reproof of God who can indure Sixthly and lastly Take heed you do not hinder the free passage of the Gospel When God hath put his Spirit into the hearts of men take heed how you resist the Word in those mens mouths for the Word of God in the meanest instrument can never be resisted but will carry all before it The Honour Power Dignity Authority Nobility Magistracy of the Kingdom if they should once stand up to hinder the Word of God the Word of God would carry them all before it And therefore it grieves me to see how the City Countrey Counties Towns Villages do all rise up for the most part against the ministration of the Spirit for this is a certain sign of the undoing of them all God will suffer and endure any sin long but onely the contempt and opposition of the Gospel but when men once rise up against the Gospel in the Spirit and Power of it they are sure to be undone by it and to be shattered all in pieces for this brings swift Vengeance And therefore when I see the generality of the people of all sorts rise up against the Ministration of the Spirit which God hath now in these dayes of ours set up even in every County for salvation to his people but for a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence to the rest I am then exceedingly distressed and pained at the very heart for thee O England and for all thy Cities and Towns and Inhabitants for thou that dashest against the Spirit in the Gospel how shalt thou be dashed in pieces thy self and there shall be no healing for thee I could hope for Peace again and good dayes suddenly in this Kingdom but for this sin of the contempt and opposing the Gospel and this makes my hopes even at an end and the day of my fear is come forth upon me But oh you honourable and beloved Christians let not your soul enter into those mens secrets neither yet walk in their open and publike wayes for ruin and destruction are in their pathes and the way of peace they shall never know seeing God is about to enter into controversie with all flesh for their rising up against the Ministration of the Spirit And therefore be Wise here I beseech you that in the shattering of the Nation if there be no remedy you may be kept together as a blessed remnant and a hopeful seed of the following generation To conclude Honourable and Worthy we will be willingly contented to do and suffer all things with you we will chearfully run through honour and dishonour with you fame and infamy gain and loss trouble and quietness War and Peace Life and Death and do desire to reserve nothing to our selves Nisi unicum verbum domini but onely the Word of God in its own purity and liberty to preach it and to publish it and to profess it and to practise it for the glory of God and his only begotten Son and for the good of his Kingdom and this Kingdom And thus much unto you from the Lord. A REPLY To Mr. LOVE'S Contradictions SIR BEcause I would not wrong you in any measure in what you said I went to one who took your Notes in short-hand and he gave me what I here set down for yours which I well remember are the things you then spake for the substance of them To which I give you this following Reply Mr. LOVE Cast your eyes upon the begun Reformation though peradventure cryed down with Confidence No such thing as the Reformation of the Church c. Reply I taught indeed That the Kingdom of Christ is
their imployments for their sufferings and for their doings And as Souldiers that are under a wise and carefull Commander when they are neer an ingagement are not suffered to run rashly upon the enemy nor permitted to go forth to battle till they are armed and mounted so Christ would not suffer his Disciples to go forth in his warfare to incounter so many evils and oppositions and persecutions and the whole power of the world and of the Devil till first he had armed them with the power of Holy Spirit Ye shall receive power when the Holy Ghost is come upon you c. Christ alwayes gives unto all those whom he sends forth and imployes of his own power for his own works heavenly power for heavenly works spiritual power for spiritual works the power of God to do the works of God Indeed Christ gives unto some a greater measure of power and to some a lesser according as he intends to use some in greater works and difficulties and some in lesser but still they have of Christs power whether more or lesse who are imployed by Christ and a little of that power that is communicated by Christ will inable a man to do great things far greater then the world suspects or imagines So that we may judge of our calling to any business and of our imployment in it by the power we have received from Christ for it If we have none of the power of Christ we were never set on work by Christ for Christ never sets any on his work with out communicating unto them of his power And hereby we may certainly know and conclude that those in the Ministery that are loose and vitious and idle and negligent and insufficient for that work were never called to it nor imployed in it by Christ but they run of their own heads when they were not sent and minister in the Church for the gain of money and preach onely that they might live Whereas if Christ had imployed them in that calling he would have furnished them with abilities for it and they being destitute of such abilities it is most evident they were not sent by Christ Judge then what a kinde of Reformation this church were like to have if some men might have their minds who would have ignorant and insufficient men yea loose and prophane men tolerated in the Ministry under pretence of keeping up ordinances when yet such men were never imployed by Christ nor supplyed with any power from him Yea and what ordinances I pray are those like to be which are kept up by men that are carnal not having the Spirit But you see here that Christs way and wisdom was different from this for he first gives the Apostles the power of the Spirit and then sent them to preach when he had first inabled them to preach 2. You see here that Christ being to leave his Disciples in regard of his bodily presence yet leaves behind him the promise of the Spirit of power and this was some establishment to them yea this gave great joy and comfort to them who before had their hearts filled with sorrow Christ though sometime he leave his people in regard of sense yet he never leaves them without a promise The soul sometimes in the hours of temptation and desertion may want the sense and feeling of Christ but it never wants a promise from Christ and the promise makes Christ present in his absence For Christ himself is spiritually present in the promise and not Christ onely but the Holy Spirit also for Christ and the Spirit are never asunder but as the Father and the Son are one so is Christ and the Spirit one and all are in the promise And so the promise is able to uphold the soul in any condition not because of its own nature but because God and Christ and the Spirit are present in the Promise and they are infinitely able to support the soul through the Promise under the greatest evils either of earth or hell Now this injoyment of God in the Promise is the injoyment of faith and not of sense and this injoyment of faith is the most excellent and intimate injoyment of Christ And thus may the soul injoy Christs presence in his absence his presence according to faith in his absence according to sence And therefore Christ departing from his Disciples in regard of his bodily presence leaves with them the promise of the Holy Spirit and in that promise his spiritual presence And this is the worst condition that Christ ever leaves his true Church in he leaves them his presence in a Promise when in regard of sense he forsakes them 3. Note that Luke being to speak in this Book of the Acts of the Apostles of the propagating and inlarging and governing the Christian Church doth first make mention of the pouring forth of the Spirit and that both upon the Apostles and afterwards upon the Disciples Signifying hereby that there is nothing so necessary for the increase and well ordering of the true Church of Christ as the pouring forth of the Spirit And therefore they are altogether deceived and walk in the light of Nature and not of God who think the increase and propagation and preservation and establishment and order and ordering of the Church of God depend especially upon the Councels and Decrees and Constitutions of men and that without these the Church of God would soon come to woful disorder yea to utter ruine and confusion as if Christ and his Spirit sate idle in heaven and had left the whole business of his Church to men and the sacred power confirmed with the secular were abundantly sufficient for the increase and well ordering of the Church In the mean time not regarding the promise of the Father or the pouring out of the Spirit by the Son And this is the very mystery of the mystery of iniquity among us and the very head of Antichrist which is yet to be broken And therefore let us know that as the Psalmist saith Except the Lord build the house they labor in vain that build it and except the Lord keep the City the watchman watcheth but in vain so also except the Lord through his Word pour forth the promise of the Spirit and by that Spirit of his in and through the Word inlarge and govern the Church they labor in vain that undertake these things of themselves For it is the Spirit alone that through the faithful ministry of the Word makes the increase of the Church and layes hold on all the elect and brings them through faith into the unity of the Son and of the Father and teaches them and orders them and governs them and preserves them And therefore you see here that the promise of the Spirit is first performed before the Church of God hath any inlargement or government And now from these general things we proceed to the words more particularly Ye shall receive power when the
Christ sent them only as his Father sent him and so Christ never gave unto them any earthly or humane or secular power no power of words or prisons no power of outward constraint and violence Christ gave them no such outward and worldly power for the inlargement of his Kingdom as not being at all sutable to it For his Kingdom is spiritual and what can carnal power do in a Spiritual Kingdom His Kingdom is heavenly and what can earthly power do in a heavenly Kingdom His Kingdom is not of this world and what can worldly power do in a Kingdom that is not of the World And though Antichrist and his Ministers have arrogated and usurped such a carnal and earthly and worldly power to themselves in their pretended managing the Kingdom of Christ yet the faithful Ministers of Christ cannot And therefore seeing the Ministers of the Gospel have no power from beneath they must needs have power from on high seeing they have no fleshly power they must needs have Spiritual power seeing they have no power from earth and from men they must needs have power from heaven and from God that is the power of the Holy Spirit coming on them or else they have no power at all 2. The Ministers of the Gospel must needs have this power of the Holy Spirit because otherwise they are not sufficient for the Ministery For no man is sufficient for the work of the Ministery by any natural parts and abilities of his own nor yet by any acquisite parts of humane learning and knowledge but onely by this power of the Holy Spirit and till he be indowed with this notwithstanding all his other accomplishments he is altogether insufficient And therefore the very Apostles were to keep silence till they were induced with this power they were to wait at Jerusalem till they had received the promise of the spirit and not to preach till then Yea Christ himself did not betake himself to the work of the Ministery till first the spirit of God came upon him and anointed him to preach And therefore for thirty years together he did not preach publikely and ordinarily till at Johns Baptism he received this power of the spirit coming on him Now if Christ himself and his Apostles were not sufficient for the Ministery till they had received this power from on high no more are any other Ministers whatsoever For as I said it is not natural parts and abilities and gifts and learning and eloquence and accomplishments that make any man sufficient for the Ministery but only the power of the Holy Spirit coming upon him So that who ever is destitute of the spirit of power is insufficient for the work of the Ministery and that in these regards 1. Without this power of the spirit Ministers are utterly unable to preach the Word that is the true spiritual and living Word of God For to preach this Word of God requires the Power of God One may speak the word of man by the power of man but he cannot speak the Word of God but by the power of God And Christ himself in all his Ministery spake nothing of himself in the strength of his humane nature but he spake all he spake by the power of God and without this power of God he could not have spoken one word of God And so in like manner no man is able to preach Christ but by the Holy Spirit which is the power of God For Christ is the power of God and can never be represented but by the Holy Spirit which is the power of God For as we see light in his light that is the Father who is light in the Son who is light or else the Son who is light in the Holy Spirit who is light So we know power in his power that is the Son who is power in the Holy Spirit who is power And Christ who is the power of God can never be made known to the Church but by the ministration of the spirit which is the power of God So that it is not an easie thing to preach Christ the power of God yea none can do it aright but by the power of the Holy Spirit comming upon him 2. Without this power of the Spirit Ministers are unable to preach the word powerfully They may it may be happen upon the outward word yet there is no power in their Ministry till they have received this power of the spirit comming upon them Otherwise their Ministery is cold and there is no heat in it it is weak and there is no strength in it 1. It is cold and there is no heat in it Without men have received the power of the spirit there is no fire in their preaching Their ministery is unlike the ministery of Elias whose ministery was as fire and unlike John Baptists who in his ministery was a burning and shining light and unlike Christs whose ministery made the Disciples hearts burn within them and unlike the Apostles who having received this spirit were as men made all of fire running through the world and burning it up Without this spirit a mans ministery is cold it warms the hearts of none it inflames the spirit of none but leaves men still frozen in their sins 2. It is weak and hath no might in it There is no strength in a Ministery where there is no spirit Whereas when men have received the spirit then their ministery is a powerful ministery as Paul 1 Thess 1. 5. The Gospel came to you not in word onely but in power and in the Holy Ghost and therefore in povver because in the Holy Spirit And again 1 Cor. 2. 4. My speech and preaching was not with the entising words of mans wisdom but in demonstration of the spirit and power Where you see the spirit and power in the work of the Ministery are alwayes conjoyned as the Sun and light are And that Ministery that is in the spirit is alway in power And being in power it is alwayes effectual either to convert men or to inrage them And the inraging of men is as evident a sign of the spirit of power in a mans ministery as the conversion of men Whereas a cold and dead ministry that is destitute of this power doth as we use to say neither good nor harm neither converts nor inrages neither brings in righteousness nor destroyes sin neither kils nor quickens any but leaves men in their old temper for many years together and never stirs them But the ministration of the spirit and power is operative and mighty and carries all before it And though evil and carnal men will ever be murmuring and wrangling and opposing and contending against such a ministry yet they are never able to resist the wisdom and spirit of it as the Libertines Cyrenians and Alexandrians were not able to resist the wisdom and spirit by which Stephen spake And therefore let them that will needs be striving
Divine nature and again he hath predestinated us that we should be conformable to the Image of his Son That is as in other things so also in all his vertues So that the power of the Spirit implants grace in our nature and each grace is so much of the power of the Spirit in our flesh as was said before Wherefore we must needs learn to know whose power the power of grace is For though grace be a power in our flesh it is not the power of our flesh for Paul saith in me that is in my flesh dwels no good thing but and if any good be in my flesh it dwels not in my flesh but in Gods Spirit which dwels in me As light is in the ayr but dwels in the Sun so when men are regenerate good is in the flesh but dwels in the spirit For grace in the soul is nothing but so much of the power of the Spirit immediately dwelling and working in us and when the Spirit is gone all grace goes along with him as all light with the Sun but it dwels in him and is inseparable from him 3. All Christians stand in need of the power of the spirit to enable them to mortifie and destroy sin There is no power in our flesh against sin but all the power of our flesh is for it and therefore it must be another power then the power of our flesh that must destroy sin and that can be no other then the power of Gods Spirit And the power of the Spirit destroys the whole body of sin and each particular strong corruption 1. The whole body of sin in all the parts and members and branches of it each several influence and operation of the Spirit being a several destruction of some sin or other For as the spirit that is in us lusts after envie or pride or vain-glory or covetousness or uncleanness or the like so the Spirit we have of God according to its mighty power destroys all those sinful works of our corrupt spirit and mortifies all the deeds of our flesh according to that of Paul if ye mortifie the deeds of the flesh by the Spirit ye shall live The flesh will never mortifie its own deeds but the spirit must mortifie the deeds of the flesh and this will mortifie them according to the whole Latitude of them 2. Again as the power of the Spirit sudues the whole body of sin so also it over powers each particular strong corruption and keeps a Christian straight and upright in the ways of God Every man hath some one corruption to which by nature he is more inclined then to another and this is the byas of a man but the strength of the Spirit will over-power this A boul if it be thrown with strength knows not its byas but is carryed on strait as if it had no byas at all So the Godly have still some flesh in them which is their byas and carries them from God to themselves and the World but the strength of the spirit takes away this byas and makes us take straight steps to God 4. All Christians-stand in need of the power of the Spirit to inable them to perform duties to perform them aright that is spiritually For spiritual duties may be performed for the outward work carnally and in such duties there is no strength but weakness because there is none of the Spirit in them For there is no power in any duty except there be something of the spirit in the duty There is no more power in praying nor in preaching nor in hearing nor in meditation nor in reading nor in resisting evil nor in doing good nor in any duty of sanctification or of mortification then there is of the Spirit in them And according to the measure of the spirit in each duty is the measure of power in the duty If there be none of the Spirit in a mans duties there is no power at all in them but onely weakness and deadness and coldness and unpofitableness If a little of the spirit there is a little power if abundance of the Spirit there is great power and that duty that is most spiritual is the most powerful And therefore saith Paul I will pray with the Spirit and I will sing with the spirit and all the worship of the faithful is in the spirit Philip. 3. 3. We are the Circumcision which worship God in the Spirit and have no confidence in the flesh So that there is no more power in any duty then there is of the Spirit in it and there is no more acceptance of any duty with God then there is of power in it Fifthly all Christians stand in need of the Power of the Spirit to inable them to the use of the Word and that both in private and in publique as occasion serves 1. In private for no man can say that Jesus is the Christ but by the Holy Spirit No man can speak of Christ spiritually but by the Spirit and without this spirit which searches the deep things of God and reveals them to us Christians are unable to give the Sense of the Word of God in their families and among their friends and acquaintance and are also ashamed to do it Whereas the Spirit of God gives both ability and boldness as Aquila and Priscilla his wife did not onely speak the word in their family but also took Apollos a Minister home when they perceived him somewhat ignorant in the mystery of Christ and instructed him in the way of God more perfectly 2. They have need of the power of the spirit to inable them to speak the word of God in publike as every Christian may do if he come where people are ignorant of Gods Word and there be no Minister to do it This I say in such a case he may do by vertue of his anointing with the spirit And for this you may see the practise of Stephen and Philip who were but Deacons and not Elders or Ministers and yet published the Word where the people were ignorant yea you may see Act. 8. how all the Disciples except the Apostles were by reason of a great persecution scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria and they that were so scattered went everywhere preaching the Word because the people among which they were were ignorant and there was no body else to do it And God having made known Christ unto them they could not but declare him unto others the love both of Christ and of their brethren constraining them But this is in case of necessity and where other fuithful Christians are absent otherwise when Christians are present no man can take that to himself without the consent of all which belongs to all Sixthly all Christians stand in need of this power of the spirit to inable them to confess the word before Kings and Rulers and Magistrates when they are called thereunto Whereas without this power they
Christ and the more we receive of Christ the more we receive of the spirit in Christ For faith doth not apprehend bare Christ but Christ with his Spirit because these are inseparable Now alwayes according to the measure of Christ in us is the measure of the spirit and according to the measure of faith is the measure of Christ in us 3. To be much in prayer For the prayer of the spirit increases the spirit The more we have the spirit the more we pray and the more we pray the more we receive the spirit So that when we have the spirit in truth we shall have daily a greater and greater increase of it till we be filled with the spirit For the spirit comes from Christ in whom is the fulness of the spirit and carries us back again to Christ that we may receive still more of the spirit And so by the spirit that is in our hearts we lay hold on the spirit that is in Christ and receive more and more of it 4. To turn our selves daily from the creature to God For the more we inlarge our hearts towards the creature the less capable are we of the Spirit of God For to live much upon the creature is to live much according to the flesh and this quenches and straitens the spirit in us And therefore we must live abstractedly from the creatures and so use them as if we did not use them and so minde them as if we did not minde them and abandon the contents and satisfactions of flesh and blood and wean our selves from all things but the necessities of nature And the more free and loose we are from the creature the more capable are we of Gods spirit and the operations of it He that lives at greatest distance from the world and hath least communion with the things of it hath alwayes the greatest proportion of Gods spirit For as the Apostle saith If any man love the world the love of the Father that is the Holy Spirit is not in him so if any man love the Father the love of the world is not in him now the more any one loves the Father the less he loves the world and the less he loves the world the more the spirit dwels in him 5. To cease daily from our own works The more we act our selves the less doth the Spirit act in us And therefore we must must from day to day cease from our own works from the operations of our own minds and understandings and wils and affections and must not be the Authors of our own actions For we being flesh our selves what ever we do is fleshly seeing the effect cannot be better then the cause And if we mingle the works of our flesh with the works of Gods Spirit he will cease from working in us But the less we act in our selves according to the principles of our corrupt nature the more will the spirit act in us according to the principles of the divine nature But our own works are alwayes a mighty impediment to the operations of the Spirit 6. To encrease the spirit in us we must give up our selves to the Spirit that he only may work in us without the least opposition and resistance from us That as the soul acts all in the body and the body doth nothing of it self but is subject to the soul in all things so the spirit may do all in us and we may do nothing of our selves without the Spirit but be subject to the Spirit in all its operations For the Spirit of God cannot work excellently in us except it work all in all in us And in such a man in whom the Spirit hath full power the Spirit works many wonderful things that he according to humane sense is ignorant of For as the soul doth secretly nourish and cherish and refresh the body and disperses life and spirits through it even when the body is asleep and neither feels it nor knows it so the Holy Spirit dwelling in the soul by a secret kinde of operation works many things in it for the quickning and renewing it whilst it oftentimes for the present is not so much as sensible of it 7. The seventh means to encrease the spirit is to attribute the works of the spirit to the spirit and not to our selves For if we attribute to the flesh the works of the Spirit and take from the Spirit the glory of his own works he will work no longer in us Wherefore we must ascribe unto the Spirit the whole glory of his own works and acknowledge that we our selves are nothing and can do nothing and that it is he only that is all in all and works all in all and we our selves among all the excellent works of the Spirit in us must so remain as if we were and wrought nothing at all that so all that is of flesh and blood may be laid low in us and the Spirit alone may be exalted first to do all in us and then to have all the glory of all that is done And thus you see the means to encrease the Spirit and so consequently strength as well as to get it And by the daily use and improvement of these means we may attain to a great degree of spiritual strength that we may walk and not be weary and may run and not faint and may mount up as Eagles yea and may walk as Angels among men and as the powers of heaven upon earth to his praise and honour who first communicates to us his own strength and then by that strength of his own works all our works in us And thus is he glorified in his Saints and admired in all them that believe FINIS Uniformity Examined Whether it be found in the GOSPEL OR In the PRACTICE of the Churches OF CHRIST By WIL. DELL Minister of the Gospel 2 Cor. 4. 13. We having the same spirit of Faith according as it is written I believed and therefore have I spoken we also believe and therefore speak Published according to Order London Printed 1651. Vniformity Examined OBserving that our Brethren of Scotland together with the Assembly of Divines and the rest of the Presbyterian judgement do often both in their Discourse and writings exceedingly press for Vniformity I have been urged in my spirit to think upon the matter and to consider whether there could be any such thing found in the Word of the New Testament or in the practice of the Churches of Christ And for my part I ingenuously profess I cannot yet discover it and would be glad if any would instruct me further in this particular so he do it from the Word Now Vniformity what is it but an unity of form and the form they mean no doubt is outward for the inward form as it cannot be known by the outward senses so neither can it be accomplished by outward power And therefore till I know their meaning better I conceive that by uniformity they understand an unity
Christ speaking in me which to you wards is not weak but mighty who ever is the instrument Christ is the only Preacher of the New Testament and that which is the true Gospel is the ministration of the Spirit for holy men spake as they were moved by the holy Spirit and were first anointed with the Spirit before they preached Judas who preached the word and was not anointed with the Spirit proved a traitor to Christ and who ever preach the word without the Spirit are the successors of Judas and also traitors to Christ 11. The Churches of men have the government of them laid on mens shoulders whether single persons as Pope or Archbishop or combined as the General Councel or a National Assembly but the true Church hath its government laid only on Christs shoulders as the Prophet fore-told Isa 9. Vnto us a child is born a Son is given and the government shall lie on his shoulders and Zech. 6. 12. He shall build the temple of the Lord c. and he shall sit and rule upon his throne for none can rule the true Church but he that built it For if the Church be gathered together in Christ as the true Church is Christ is alwaies in the midst of them and if Christ is ever present with them his own self how cometh it to pass that Christ may not reign immediately over them Wherefore the true Church reckons it sufficient authority that they have Christ and his Word for the ground of their practice and what ever they finde in the word they presently set upon the practice of it and never ask leave either of civil or ecclesiastical powers but the Churches of men will do nothing without the authority of the Magistrate or Assembly though it be never so clear in the word of God For in their Religion they regard the authority of men more then the authority of God 12. The Churches of men are still setting themselves one above another but the assemblies of the true Church are all equal having Christ and the Spirit equally present with them and in them and therefore the believers of one congregation cannot say they have power over the believers of another congregation seeing all congregations have Christ and his Spirit alike among them and Christ hath not anywhere promised that he will be more with one then with another And so Christ and the Spirit in one congregation do not subjected neither are subject to Christ and the Spirit in another congregation as if Christ and the Spirit in several places should be above and under themselves But Christ in each assembly of the faithful is their head and this head they dare not leave and set up a fleshly head to themselves whether it consist of one or many men seeing Antichrist doth as strongly invade Christs headship in many as in one man in a Councel as in a Pope Lastly The churches of men the gates of hell which are sin and death shall certainly prevail against but the true church of Christ though the gates of hell do always fight against it yet they shall never prevail against it as Christ hath promised Mat. 16. 18. Vpon this rock I will build My church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it In these things among other the true Church of Christ differs from the churches of men By which we may clearly see that the true Church is not an outward and visible society or corporation neither can it be pointed out by the finger loe here or loe there seeing it is not confined to any certain place time or person but it is wholly a spiritual and invisible society as I have said that is assembled in the Son and in the Father who are the true pale and circumference of this Church and out of whom no part of it is to be found Now hereupon it will presently be said if the true Church be invisible as you have affirmed then 1. How shall we know it 2. How can we joyn our selves to it To both which I hope I shall return a clear answer And first to this Question How shall we know the true Church seeing it is invisible I answer Just so as Christ the head is known is the church his body known and no other way now Christ is known 1. By the revelation of the Father when Peter confessed Christ to be the Son of the living God Christ told him that flesh and blood had not revealed it to him but his Father now the members of Christ can no more be known without this revelation of the Father then Christ the head of these members seeing the Apostle hath said that as he is so are we in this world so that he had need of other eyes then the world sees withal that would discern the true Church and of another Revelation then any that flesh and blood can make 2. Christ was known by the Spirits resting on him Joh. 1. 33. And I knew him not said John Baptist but he that sent me to baptize with water the same said unto me Vpon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining on him the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Spirit and I saw and bare record that this is the Son of God After the same manner the Church of Christ is known to wit by the Spirits comming and remaining on it So that whatever people have received the Spirit of Christ of what sort or condition soever they be they are the Church of Christ and they that are destitute of this Spirit are not of the Church 3. Christ was known by the works he did Joh. 10. 37. If I do not the works of my Father believe me not but if I do though you believe not me believe the works that ye may know that the Father is in me and I in him And thus also is the true Church known by doing the works of Christ seeing Christ hath said He that believes in me the works that I do shall he do c. And thus the body of Christ is known by its living the life of the head which is the life of faith and love and the members of Christ are known by their doing the works of the head Thus then you see that though the true Church be spiritual and cannot be known by our outward senses yet we have certain tokens of her spiritual presence whereby we may reckon that in this or that place there be certain of her members As by a natural example though the soul of man in it self be spiritual and invisible and cannot be discerned by any of our senses yet may we have sure tokens of its presence by the effects and operations of the soul in that body wherein it dwels as the exercise of reason understanding discourse c. so likewise the true Church which is invisible in it self may yet be known by some certain signs as by the word of faith which sounds no where but in
the Spirit which is the onely true Church and body of Christ he that lives out of this spiritual body though he live in the most excellent society in the world yet he breaks the unity of the Church not living in one body with it And thus many break the Churches unity that never think on it 2. Again they break this bond of the Churches unity that live in this one body but not as members And such are they who having got the advantage of the Magistrates power will needs lift themselves up above their fellow-members and exercise authoritative coercive domineering power over them whereas the very Apostles themselves were not Lords of the Church but fellow-members with the faithful living in one body and under one head with them and so did all by love and perswasion and nothing by force and violence Now those members that exalt themselves above their fellow and equal members what do they else but usurp the place of the Head and so break in sunder the unity of the body which stands in the unity of the Head He that in a single or combined unity sets himself up above other Believers by giving Laws and by prescribing and commanding Forms and Rules to those that are every way his equals he advances himself as another head besides Christ and so Anti-christ is nearer to us then we are aware and many men that are so forward and fierce to make and enforce Rules and Orders colourably to procure the Churches peace they are the first men that do themselves break this first bond of the Churches Vnity to wit Vnity of Body which makes all Believers equal members equally subject to one Head The second bond of the true Churches unity is ONE SPIRIT There is one body and one Spirit saith Paul and through unity of Spirit they become one body Now as the body of man consists of many members and but one soul comprehends quickens moves and governs all these members making the eye to see the hand to work the foot to walk c. So the body of Christ which is the Church consisting of many members hath yet but one and the same HOLY SPIRIT which comprehends quickens moves and governs them all and brings them into a most near and intimate society together and inables each member to its several office according to its place and use in the body of Christ And as a member being cut off from the body the soul doth not follow it to cause it to live out of the unity of the body So he that is divided from the true body of Christ the Spirit doth not follow him to make him live single by himself and so neither is the body of Christ without the Spirit nor the Spirit of Christ without the body And as the same soul in several members acts severally and yet is but one and the same soul in all so the same holy Spirit in several Believers works severally as it pleaseth and yet is but the same holy Spirit in them all So that the whole body of Christ that is all Believers in the world have but one and the same holy Spirit in them and this unity of Spirit in the Church is one strong bond of its peace Among mankinde in general and more nearly among kindred there is unity of flesh but because there is difference of spirit there is much envie hatred strife and variance in that unity of flesh but now the members of the body are not only one flesh but one soul or spirit too and so there is always peace and agreement between them And so the true Church of Christ is not only one body but one Spirit too and this makes it one indeed For as this Spirit is the love and connexion of the Father and the Son so it is also our love and connexion in the Father and the Son and as the Father and the Son live in unity of Spirit so all Believers live the unity of the same Spirit in them Now they on whom the Spirit was first given after Christ was glorified had also with the Spirit the gift of tongues the Spirit given being for the communion of the Church so they spake with the tongues of all the Church having through the communion of the Spirit its society and consociation For he that speaks by the Spirit in the Church where all are one Spirit in Christ he speaks with the tongues of all and when a Believer hears another speak it is as if he himself did speak and when one speaks it is as if all spake for he speaks in the unity of Spirit with them and so speaks the same doctrine of the Gospel and minde of Christ which they all have equally heard and learned from God Hence it is evident that it is nothing to have the outward from of a Church even as our souls could wish except there be inwardly in that Church the Spirit of Christ for it is not unity of form will ever make the Church one but unity of Spirit That Church then that is destitute of the Spirit in its laws orders constitutions forms members officers what true unity can that have in all its uniformity And this is the second bond of the true Churches Vnity Vnity of Spirit Now they break this bond of the Churches unity that live in their own spirits and not in Christs for they that live in a different spirit from the true Church what unity can they possibly have with it They then that live in their own humane reason understanding thoughts councel wils ends they live quite and clean out of the unity of this Church yea in direct enmity against it seeing our own corrupt and earthly spirits are most contrary to the Holy and Heavenly Spirit of Christ in which the Church lives Wherefore we may learn hence what to judge of those men that cry out much for the peace of the Church and yet themselves neither live in nor are led by the Spirit of the Church but either by their own Spirits or Antichrists 2. They that labour to joyn men into one body with the Church that are not one Spirit with it do marr the peace of it For as unity of Spirit in the Church is the bond of peace so diversity of Spirit is the breach of peace and therefore to preserve the peace of the Church none are to joyn themselves to this one body that are not of this one Spirit 3. They that being of the Church do any thing in it by their own Spirits and not by Christs prejudice the peace of the Church for the true Church is such a body which is to have all its communion in the Spirit And therefore when any pray or prophesie or the like in the strength of natural parts or humane studies and invention onely and do not pray and prophesie in the Spirit they break the unity of the Church for the faithful have communion with one another onely so far
forth as the Spirit is manifested in each Now if any shall say How may I know Christs Spirit in these acts and duties from a mans own I answer That as by the Word of God we can judge of all other Words and Doctrines and as by the Faith of Christ we can judge of all other beliefs so by the Spirit of Christ we can judge of all other spirits and can know where is the same spirit and where is a different or a contrary spirit as the members of the body can judge of the one-ness of Spirit that is among themselves The third bond of the true Churches unity is ONE HOPE OF OUR CALLING Even as ye are called in one hope of your calling As all Believers are called by one calling which is the inward and effectual voyce of God to the soul by his Spirit through the Gospel so they are all called into one blessed hope of obtaining the Kingdom and glory of God And no one is called to this hope more then another or hath more interest or share in it then another Fishes that live in the Sea though some be greater and some less yet none hath more interest or share in it then another but all being alike produced in it enjoy it alike and creatures that live on the earth though some be greater and some less yet all enjoy the Sun and Ayr alike and yet nearer the members of the body though of different quantity form and office yet all have alike interest in the head and all its senses and in the soul and all its faculties So all the faithful enjoy Christ alike and in him the Spirit and the Father and no Believer hath more interest in Christ and God then another So that all the faithful are called to the same things and God gives not more nor better things to one then to another but he gives immortality glory eternal life the Kingdom of Heaven which is the inheritance of the Saints or which is all one himself alike to all and makes all to sit alike in heavenly places in Christ and in the Father All the faithful then are equally called to an Vnity of hope and none can hope for greater or better things then another It was a very carnal thing in the Mother of Zebedee's children to desire of Christ That one of her Sons might sit at his right hand and another at his left hand in his Kingdom where all alike sit at his right hand and none at all at his left Indeed in the Kingdoms of men some have greater estates then others and are in higher Honour and Authority and this breeds envie and emulation and strife and distances c. but in the Sons Kingdom and in the Fathers all that are counted worthy to dwell therein do alike inherit all things All things are yours saith Paul And he that overcomes shall inherit all things saith John And the least believer hath no less and the greatest hath no more and this causes unity and peace among them We see what a strong bond of peace and agreement unity of hope is in them that travel together that fight together that labour together and so much more in them who are equally called by God to the Kingdom of God And this is the third bond of the true Churches Vnity Vnity of Hope Now they break this bond of the Churches Vnity that live out of this hope of the Church whose hope is in earthly carnal base things who pretending to be Christians yet live onely in the hopes of men in hopes of worldly profit honour preferment and the attaining and enjoyment of the things of this life which they according to the eagerness of their hopes prosecute mightily by all ways and means These men I say break the Vnity of the Church for what true Vnity can they have with the true Church that live not in unity of hope with it Seeing worldly hopes carry men one way and the hopes of Believers carry them another carnal hopes make men leave God for the world and the hope of Saints make them leave the world for God Wherefore they that differ in their hopes which are their ends must needs differ in their ways and works and so he that lives out of the hope of the Church lives also out of the unity of it The fourth bond of the true Churches unity is ONE LORD The right Church hath not many Lords but One and this one and only Lord is the Lord Jesus Christ And so all the subjects of this Kingdom are fellow servants to one Lord to whom they do owe equal obedience and this also is a strong bond of Vnity For when there are divers Lords there are divers minds and wils and ends and so divers laws and these breed divisions and dissentions and wars among men but where there is but one Lord there is also but one Law and where people live by one Law under one Lord unto whom all are equally subject this breeds peace and union Now the Lordship of the Church is the Royal Prerogative of Christ and no creature must presume to arrogate this honour to himself seeing unto the very Angels he hath not put in subjection this world to come whereof we speak And for men Christ hath charged his own Apostles who if there were any difference among Believers might undoubtedly challenge the preheminence I say Christ hath charged even them on this sort Matth. 23. 10. Be not ye called Masters for one is your Master even Christ but he that is greatest among you shall be your servant That is you may and ought to be servants to one another but not masters and this same doctrine the Apostle James preacheth Jam. 3. 1. My brethren saith he be not many Masters knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation it is not fit for brethren who are equal among themselves to make themselves masters over one another Christ also hath spoken again so plainly to this matter Math. 20. that one would wonder that ever the Beast or his image should dare to arrogate to themselves Lordship over the People of God in so clear a light Ye know saith Christ to the twelve that the Princes of the Gentiles exercise Dominion over them and they that are great exercise authority over them but it shall not be so amongst you he speaks it peremptorily that some Believers should not exercise dominion and authority over Believers no not the greatest over the least all being fellow servants alike under one Lord. Wherefore they that are puffed up in their hearts against their fellow servants might better think thus with themselves why Christ is our Lord as well as theirs and is as much over us as over them and we are not over our fellow servants nor they under us but both of us are equally under Christ and Christ is equally over us both and so Christ hath given us the same laws he hath given them to
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
them and have taken up a Proverb to entertain them with Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming it stirreth up the dead for thee and all the chief ones of the earth it hath raised up from the thrones all the Kings of the nations all they shall speak and say unto thee art thou also become weak as we art thou become like to us The worm is spread under thee and the worms cover thee c. Humane Learning the excellency of power and strength created thou Ruben my first born the head of this world thou shalt be made the tayl thou that wilt comprehend Christ thou that wilt bring God into thy compass and under thy span and weigh him in thy ballance thou that knowest no spirit nor wisdom besides thy self thou that condemnest that which is not there for folly and weakness thou Lucifer son of the morning that hast said I will ascend into heaven and set my Throne above the Stars I will be like the most high thou spirit of the world that wilt acknowledge none above thee Thou shalt not excell because thou didst ascend into my bed he went up to my couch I will rise out of the weak and foolish things to confound thee I will ordain strength out of the mouth of babes and sucklings to undoe thee I will fight against thee in the Carpenters Son and the Fishermen Judah shall have the Scepter binding his Foal unto the Vine and his Asses Colt unto the choyce Vine The King that rides on the Ass and the Foal of an Ass whom the Boys and Girls follow with the voyce of Hosanna shall destroy your Place and Nation O ye Scribes Pharises Lawyers Rabbies after that you have mocked him and crucified him done to him what ever you listed he will rise again and fear will take hold of you as sorrow upon a woman and you wil call to the Rocks and Mountains to fall upon you and so go unto your own Place And thou Independency the fairest Form the most beautiful Face as yet that the Sun hath looked on The world hath thrown dirt on thee and disguised thee which thou hast washed off take heed thy Father spit not in thy Face that will make thee ashamed indeed Thou art Rachel thou hast with great wrestlings prevailed and brought forth Gad a Troop and hast routed pursued destroyed taken if thou lift up thy self against thy root that bears thee that spirit that hath lifted thee up thou shalt be so dealt withal in thy high mindedness if thou work not out thy salvation in fear and trembling And thou Righteousness that derivest thy pedegree from Adam and standest in the Law and walkest like a Queen in mans wisdom and Forms of Religions shinest in the outward Court that is given to the Gentiles to be trodden under foot thou hast a beauty as if it were of the holy place and lookest like the Spouse and Bride of the Lamb but thou shalt be discovered a base Harlot and Strumpet whilst thou settest up thy self against the righteousness of the Spirit And when thou shalt fight against him as a Blasphemer and thinkest to destroy him as thou hast Episcopacy and Presbytery when thou shalt look that Jerusalem should fall before thee as the gods of the Nations Gozan and Haran and Reseph and the children of Eden which were in Telassar when thou shalt come to lay hold on Christ as a blasphemer and shalt go forth like Sampson thinking to do as thou hast done at other times when thy zeal shall gather an Army that goes upon the breadth of the earth and thou compassest the Camp of the Saints about and the beloved City then shall fire come down from God out of Heaven and devour thee Then shalt thou find that sword of the Lord which hath drunken blood and eat flesh to fall out of thy hand and shalt see a battel fought in a way of war that thou never knewest having only known carnal weapons a battel not with confused noyse and garments rowled in blood but this shall be with burning and fuel of fire for his name is wonderful who hath the Government on his shoulders in the day of his begetting which is his manifestation or declaratiou with power Then no more Iron against Iron flesh against flesh the potsherds against the potsherds of the earth The naked power of the Spirit the holy arm of the Lord made bare shall make a supper to the â—â—wls of the ayr of the flesh of Kings and Captains and mighty men and horses and them that sit thereon and there shall the beast be taken and the false Prophet No more carnal weapons thenceforth they shall all be beaten into mattocks and pruning hooks when the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the Sea then I looked and every Iland fled away and the Mountains were not found I saw none but the Lamb standing on the Mount Sion and with him a hundred forty and four thousand having his Fathers name written on their foreheads and I heard the voyuce of Harpers harping with their Harpers and they sung a new Song This manner of War God was pleased to come forth in in the Apostles and Primitive Christians who had laid the world on its back and made it like Sodom and Gomorrah had not the Trumpet sounded a retreat and that power which was abroad retired again that the world might recover its deadly wound and get up upon his legs again that the man of sin might be fully revealed in the return of this power to be utterly consumed when it shall come in the brightness of its glory And thou Rule authority and power earthly that wilt not acknowledge the Lord thou earth that dost not tremble at the presence of the Lord his day will be on thee to put thee down if the Host of Heaven those Powers be shaken thou must not look for a priviledge and exemption and though thou hast been made like Nebuchadnezzar the servant of the Lord to pull down those heavenly powers that kept not their first estate and hast been a scourge upon the Powers of the Earth and smote them in wrath though thou hast been a feller among the Cedars of Lebanon thou that hast broken the Gold and Silver and the Brass with thy Iron feet remember that the Iron is mixed with clay that shews thy weakness thou shalt be shattered to pieces by that stone cut out of the mountain without hands when Satan shall lead thee against him as against a Blasphemer Therefore you Heavens and Religious Forms that are putting for the Government of the world and sadling Kingdoms and Re publiks and making them the Beast to carry the false Prophet which now begins to kick and winch and look upon thee that rideth And you Mountaines of the earth worldly Powers that say in your hearts We will ascend into Heaven and set our throne above the Stars
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
Holy Ghost is come upon you And here we may note two things 1. What he promises them and that is Power you shall receive power 2. How they should be made partakers of that power and that was by the Holy Spirits coming upon them The point we will insist on from both is this That the receiving of the Spirit is the receiving of power till we receive the Spirit we are altogether without power and when we receive the Spirit then first of all do we receive power power from on high By nature we are all without strength weak impotent creatures utterly unable to any thing that is truly and spiritually righteous and good For by nature we are nothing but flesh for that which is born of flesh is flesh and all flesh is grass a fading withering and decaying thing together with all the flowers of it that is the perfections and excellencies of it So that by nature we are all without power because we are nothing but flesh of which weakness is an inseparable adjunct But when we receive the Spirit we receive power for power is an inseparable adjunct of the Spirit as weakness is of flesh yea the Spirit it self which is given us is power and that both essentially and operatively in it self and in us 1. The Spirit is power essentially in it self for it is one God with the Father and the Son co-essential co-equal co-eternal and so as Christ is the power of God so also is the spirit the power of God yea the spirit is the God of power aswel as the power of God So that the Spirit is power in himself essentially and he that partakes of the power of the spirit partakes of that power which is God and no creature 2. The Spirit is power operatively in us by being in us 1. A Spirit of Knowledge for the Holy Spirit teaches us to know the things that are freely given to us of God yea he teaches us to know what sin is and what righteousness what death is and what life what Heaven is and what hell what our selves are and what God is and these things he teaches us to know otherwise then other men know them In a word the spirit teaches a Christian to know all things that is to know God and the Kingdom of God and all the things of both all other things being nothing in comparison of these Thus the Holy Spirit is a Spirit of knowledge in us and so of power for knowledge is the strength of a man Whereas an ignorant man is a weak man you may carry him whither you will but knowledge renders a man strong and unmoveable And in all things wherein the Holy Spirit is a spirit of knowledge in us he is also a spirit of strength The Holy Spirit is a spirit of Power in us by being in us a spirit of Truth And so the spirit is because it doth not onely lead us unto the truth that is unto the word which is the onely truth as it is written Sanctifie them through the truth thy Word is truth but also the Spirit leads us into the Truth it leads us into the truth and the truth into us till we and it become one by an inseparable union The Holy Spirit takes a beleever and leads him into one truth after another till at last it lead him into all truth Now wherein the Spirit is a Spirit of truth to us it is a Spirit of Power for through the truth we learn from the Spirit of truth we are altogether stedfast and unmovable among variety of different and contrary winds of Doctrine And this is the very cause that among so many divisions and factions and errours and heresies which wofully prevail in these present times of ours the people of God are not seduced and overcome to wit because they are all taught of God of God and not of men and have the Spirit of truth to lead them into the truth the Spirit I say and not men and so it is impossible that they should fully and finally be deceived For wherein we are taught by the Spirit of God it is unpossible we should be perverted by men Whereas on the contrary the true ground why so many are seduced and overcom by the errors and heresies of this age is because they have taken up their religion onely from mans teaching and have received their opinions or doctrine from men and so what one man hath taught us another man can unteach yea if we be led to the truth it self onely by man man can again lead us from it For all the world cannot lead any man into the truth till the Spirit lead him into it and when the Spirit doth lead us into the truth all the men in the world cannot lead us out of it but we are so sure of those things wherein the Spirit hath been a teacher to us that if all the Councels and Churches in the world yea all the Angels of Heaven should teach us contrary we would hold them accursed But a man that hath not been taught of the Spirit every day you may win him into new opinions by the power and authority of men together with the strength of other advantages But he that hath been led into the truth by the Spirit of truth is unmoveable and invincible among all doctrines And thus also the Holy Spirit by being a Spirit of truth is also a Spirit of Power in us 3. The Holy Spirit is a Spirit of Power in us by being in us a Spirit of Wisdom and so it is because it makes us wise with the wisdom of God wise upon earth after the rate of heaven wise to salvation There is no man wise without the Spirit of God for the wisdom of carnal men is but foolishness before God yea before Angels and Saints but the wisdom of the Spirit is most gracious and heavenly wisdom And this wisdom of the Spirit is the strength of a Christian the more he hath of it the more mighty he is both in all his doings and indurings It is said Eccles 9. 15. That there was a poor wise man delivered a small city from the power of a mighty King and therefore Solomon concludes that wisdom is better then strength for it can do greater things then strength can When David carried himself wisely Saul a great King was afraid of him he thought himself too weak to deal with David and David too mighty to deal with him because of his wisdom and Solomon asked Wisdom of God above all things for the strength of his Government all Government without this being but weak and brittle Thus wisdom contributes strength to us whereas we say of a man that wants wisdom he is a weak man And so the Holy Spirit being a Spirit of wisdom in us is also a Spirit of Power 4. The Holy Spirit is a Spirit of Power in us by being in us a Spirit of Faith For
faith is a work of the Spirit of power and no less power would work faith in us then that which raised up Christ from the dead when he lay under all the sin of man and all the Wrath of God and all the sorrows of death and all the paines of hell it must be a mighty power indeed that must raise Christ then and that power was the power of the Spirit and no less power will work faith So that whoever truely beleeves by this faith of the operation of God is sensible in his own soul of the self same power that raised Christ up from the dead And thus the Holy Spirit is a Spirit of Faith in us and so of Power For unbelief keeps a man in himself but faith carries a a man out to Christ now there is no man weaker then he that rests on himself and there is no man stronger then he that forsakes himself and rests on Christ And so a man through the power of Faith is able both to do and indure the self same things which Christ himself did and indured 1. He is able to do the same things that Christ himself did and therefore saith Christ all things are possible to him that beleeveth so that a beleever hath a kinde of omnipotency and all things are possible to him because by faith he lays hold upon the power of God and all things are possible to the power of God and so all things are possible to a beleever who is partaker of that power of God And hence Paul saith I can do all things through Christ that strengthneth me This Christ that strengthned him was the power of God and this power of God is not a finite power but an infinite nor a particular power but an universal and so can do not some things only but all things and so also can all they who are truly partakers of it by faith Yea Christ himself hath a greater expression then this yea such an one that I never durst have spoken if Christ himself had not first spoken it and that is this John 14. 12. He that beleeveth in me the works that I do shall be do and greater works then these because I go to the Father Where Christ saith a beleever shall not only do the same works with himself which also had been a great thing but also greater works then himself and this indeed is altogether admirable and wonderfull That a beleever shall do greater works then Christ But how is this made good Why thus Christ he overcame the Law and Sin and Death and Hell and the whole power of the Devill in a body and soul free from sin his humane nature being the immediate formation of the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary and so had not the least spot of sin in it But now beleevers overcome the same evils even the Law Sin Death Hell and the whole power of the Devil in corrupted and polluted nature in bodies and souls at the first full of sin and afterwards defiled through many corruptions The Devil came to Christ and found nothing in him and so he overcame but he comes to a beleever and findes much in him and yet he overcomes And this truly is a greater work then Christ did And these works we do but not through our own power but through Christs of which we truly partake through faith 2. A Christian through the power of faith is able not only to do but also to suffer the same things that Christ himself sufferd Now the sufferings of Christ were the most grievous and intolerable to nature that ever were For how did Christ for the present as it were lay aside his Divine nature that he might suffer in his humane and how did he suffer in this the whole weight and condemnation of sin to the very utmost and the whole wrath of God to the utmost and all the sorrows of death and the pains of hell to the very utmost And among all the sufferings had not the least drop of comfort either from heaven or earth and yet through the power of the Spirit he indured and overcame all And so each Christian is able to indure and overcome the same evills by the same power and therefore Paul desired to know Christ truly and not onely the power of his resurrection which any one would desire to know but also the fellowship of his sufferings which flesh and blood trembles at yea and to be made conformable to his very death Yea I add yet further that if a Christian should chance to fall down into Hell as we beleeve Christ descended into Hell and so also many of his Saints have done as David and Hezekiah c. Yet a Christian through the power of the Spirit were able to overcome both the sins and the pains of Hell and therefore saith Solomon Love which is the power of the Spirit is too strong for death and too hard or too cruel for Hell As is evident in that Godly woman for I will name but one instance instead of many who thinking of the torments of hell and of the hatred and blasphemy of God which reigned in the damned did earnestly entreat God ut etiamsi damnaretur tamen Deum diligeret that though she were damned yet still she might love God Here love was too hard for Hell indeed And thus a beleever through faith is inabled both to do and indure the self same things which Christ himself did and endured and the Holy Spirit by being a Spirit of faith is a Spirit of Power in us 5. The Holy Spirit is a Spirit of power in us by being in us a Spirit of Righteousness and so he is two waies 1. In regard of mortifying sin For the Spirit of God dwelling in us is not idle in us but continually active and so from day to day mortifies sin And this is the proper work of the Spirit in our flesh to destroy out of us whatsoever is contrary to it self and that is every sin lust and corruption Now our sins are our weakness a mans pride and passion and envy and covetousness and lust and intemperance and every sin is his weakness Now the Holy Spirit by being in us a Spirit of righteousness mortifies and destroyes all our sins and so takes away our weakness 2. Again as the Holy Spirit is a Spirit of righteousness in us in regard of mortifying sin so also in regard of imparting grace to us For all grace is the fruit and operation of the Spirit in our flesh and as all light is from the sun so is all grace from the Spirit Now every grace is so much strength in the soul Faith so much strength Hope so much strength Love so much strength and so humility and patience and temperance and godliness and brotherly Kindness and all other graces are so much strength and according to each mans measure of grace so is his measure of
against such a ministery know that they strive against more then a meer man they strive against power from on high against the greatest power that ever God put forth against the power of Christ himself and his eternal spirit and so they shall never be able to prevail against this power but shall surely sinke under it But to return from whence we have a little digressed 3. Without this power of the spirit as Ministers are not able to preach the Word nor to preach it powerfully so neither are they able to hold out in their ministry and to carry it on strongly against all opposition and contradiction Peter and John preached the Gospel but presently the Rulers and Elders and Scribes convented them and straightly threatned them and commanded them not to speak at all nor to teach in the name of Jesus And now if the Apostles had wanted this power of the spirit they would presently have been snibd and awed and would have sneaked away and you should have heard no more of them But they having received this power all the threatnings and scornings of the Rulers and Magistrates could not deterr them from the discharge of their office and that ministery they had received from Christ But though before they were fearful and trembling and daunted at the apprehension of the least danger yet now having received this power they are altogether undaunted and said to the Rulers and Elders whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more then unto God judge ye As if they should have said O ye Rulers and Elders of the people our case is a plain case wherein we are most willing that even your own selves should be Judges For we have received a command from God to preach the Gospel of his Son Jesus Christ and you forbid us to do that which God hath commanded us Now do you your selves be Judges who is fittest to be obeyed God or you the great and glorious God of heaven and earth or poor wretched men such as your selves Nay what God hath commanded us we must and will obey against all your threatnings and punishments and what ever you can say or do We cannot conceal but must publish what we have seen and known of our Lord Jesus Christ of his incarnation life death resurrection ascension kingdom glory and of that great redemption and salvation which he hath wrought and purchased for all the Elect of God Now I would to God that the unjust commands of all Magistrates and secular Powers whatsoever might be no otherwise obeyed then this unjust command of the Rulers was by Peter and John and that no man would dare to yield more obedience to the creature then to the Lord of all For no Princes or Magistrates in the world have any power to forbid the preaching of the everlasting Gospel which God hath commanded should be published to all Nations for the obedience of Faith I say they have no power at all to forbid the preaching of this Gospel or of any one truth of it though never so cross to their designs And if they should yet herein ought we to know no more obedience then Peter and John did here We ought to obey God and not them and to make known the whole minde of God though it be never so contrary to their minde After the example of Peter and John who having received this power of the Holy Spirit held on their Ministery against all the countermands and threatnings and punishments of the Magistrates Whereas without this power they had soon fainted and failed and had never been able to have gone through with it 4. Without this power of the Holy Spirit Ministers are not able to reprove the world For every man by nature seeks the amity of the world and no man by his good will would provoke the enmity of it against himself And therefore flesh and blood will never reprove the world of sin but allows it and countenances it in sin But now the Spirit when he is come he will reprove the world of sin When a man hath this power of the Spirit in him then presently he reproves and argues the world of sin and so by his ministery bids defiance to the whole world and provokes the whole world against himself And this no man either can do or dares do except he be first indued with this power of the Spirit coming on him And therefore saith Micah Cha. 3. vers 8. I am full of power by the Spirit of the Lord and of judgement and of might to declare unto Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin The world of all other things cannot indure the reproof of sin and the declaration of its evil wayes And therefore it is exceedingly offended yea and extreamly rages against the faithful teachers of the Word with all sorts of punishments and persecutions as the examples of all the Prophets Apostles and faithful teachers of the Word of God in all ages do declare Yea and Christ himself testifies touching himself therefore the world hates me because I testifie of it that the works thereof are evil But now they that will connive at sin and flatter the world in its own wayes these are the onely men of reckoning and live in all worldly Honour and prosperity And all ages can witness that all Teachers are not of that strength and resolution to contemn the hatred and fury of the world Nay the most are quite overcome with the prosperity of this present life and with the desire of friends and riches and preferment and so wink at the sins of the world and are Ministers in whose mouths are no reproofs though the whole world lye in wickedness For thus they escape the rage and violence and obtain the favour and love of the men of this world And thus weak and unworthy are those men who are onely indued with their own Spirits But now saith Micah I am full of power by the Spirit of the Lord and of judgement and of might to declare unto Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin As if he should have said the power of the Spirit of the Lord dwelling in me puts forth its self two wayes in judgement and in fortitude 1. In judgement and this signifies the reproving and the condemning sin and wickedness as the Prophet himself explicates saying that I might declare unto Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin But seeing their being full of judgement doth not want danger but exposes a man to a thousand evils in as much as the world can indure nothing less then the reproof of sin therefore I am by the power of the Spirit not onely full of judgement but also Secondly full of Might and as the Spirit of judgement exposes me to danger so the Spirit of might inables me to contemn those dangers So that though the world because of the Spirit of judgement threatens never so many evils yet the
Prophet is not frighted from his office but through the Spirit of might discharges it faithfully in despight of all those threatnings And whatever Ministers want this Spirit of might though out of danger they may be confident yet at the very first incounter of evil they will bend and yeeld and speak and do all things for the favour of the world rather then for the truths sake they will expose themselves to the hatred and opposition of the world 5. Without this power of the Spirit they are unable to wrestle with and overcome the Devil whose subtilty and wrath and malice and power they must needs encounter with in the work of the Ministry Christ as soon as he was indued with this power and anointed by the spirit to preach was immediately led into the wilderness to be temped of the devil who would fain have taken him off from the work of the Ministery if it had been possible But Christ being indued with this power overcame the divel And Christ before he sent his Apostles to preach the Kindgdom of God as you may see Luke 9. 1. called them together and gave them power and authority over all devils and when they returned they told him that the devils themselves were subject to them But now the seven sons of Sceva who were destitute of this power when they took upon them to call over one who had an evill spirit the name of the Lord Jesus and to say we adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth The evil spirit answered and said Jesus I know and Paul I know but who are ye and so the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped upon them and overcame them and prevailed against them and they fled away naked and wounded Acts 19. So that they being destitute of this power from on high the devil was presently too hard for them and they were overcome by the devil But now they that are invested with this power of the Holy Spirit are able to wrestle with principalities and powers and the rulers of the darkness of this world and to out-wrestle them and to tread Satan himself under their feet Sixthly without this power of the Holy Spirit they are unable to suffer persecution for the Word but the least touch of evil causes them to pull in their hornes and each reproach and opposition and persecution shakes them down Whereas this power makes them confident couragious comfortable and invincible in the midst of all evils See this in some examples Our Lord Jesus Christ being anointed with the Holy Spirit and with power did not onely preach the truth in his life but also witnessed a good confession before Pontius Pilate and sealed to the truth with His death Paul who was indued with the same power when Agabus foretold him by the Holy Spirit his bonds at Jerusalem and the brethren hearing it came weeping to Paul and besought him to keep himself out of bonds by not going up thither Paul reproved them and told them that he was ready not onely to be bound but to dye at Jerusalem for the Lord Jesus Chrysostome was indued with the same power and so resolved to preach the truth and not to depart from the truth though the whole world should wage war against him alone And professed that he desired nothing more then to suffer for the cause of Christ and that if it were offered to him of God whether he would immediately go to heaven or stay on earth and suffer for Christ he would a thousand times rather chuse this latter then the former Because in going immediately to heaven he should seek himself but in staying on earth to suffer for Christ he should wholly deny himself and seek his honour alone Luther was indued with the same spirit of power and so when he was called to Wormes before the Emperour Charls the fifth and before all the estates of the Empire to render a reason of his Doctrine and some of his friends perceiving undue dealing among his adversaries perswaded him not to go to expose himself to danger but he answered with a mighty spirit I have decreed and am resolved because I am called to go into the City in the name of our Lord Jesus Christi though I knew there were so many Devils to oppose me as there are tiles on all the houses of the City And when he was called to return to Wittenberge by the people which he could not do without most evident and apparent danger he being already condemned by the Edicts and Authority both of the Pope and Emperour and so in regard of them could expect no less then a violent death every day yet for all this he was resolved to return to his charge and upon this occasion hath this passage to the Duke of Saxony But what shall I do unavoidable causes urge me God himself calls and compells me and here I will turn my back to no creature Go to then let me do it in the name of Jesus Christ who is Lord both of life and death Again in his answer to the Dialogue of Sylvester Prierias who had threatned him he saith I have nothing that I can loose I am the Lords and if I am lost I am lost to the Lord that is I am found And therefore seek some body else to fright for me you cannot Again in his answer to Ambrosius Catharinus he saith of the Pope and his Instruments they seek not to overcome me with Scriptures but to destroy me out of the earth but I know and am sure that Christ our Lord lives and reigns And being even filled with this knowledge and confidence I will not fear many thousands of Popes For greater is he that is in us then he that is in the World And again in his Epistle to his Father he hath this remarkable passage What if the Pope shall kill me or condemn me below hell He cannot rayse me up again when I am slain and kill me a second and third time And having once condemned me I would never have him absolve me For I am confident that the day is at hand wherein that Kingdom of abomination and destruction shall be it self destroyed But would I might first be counted worthy either to be burned or slain by him that so my blood might cry the lowder and urge his judgement to be the more hastened But if I am not worthy to testifie with my blood let me at least intreat and implore this mercy that I may testifie by my life and Doctrine that Jesus Christ alone is our Lord and God blessed for ever and ever Calme Melancton was indued with the same Spirit of power and so when his enemies threatned him not to leave him a place in all Germany whereon to set his foot he said avido tranquillo animo expecto exilia I expect banishment with a desirous and peace able mind Many more Examples might be produced to show that when Ministers are indued with the
would tremble and bite in the truth In the 10. Chap. of Mat. Christ tells his Disciples that they should be brought before Governours and Kings for his names sake But saith he vers 19. When they shall deliver you up take no thought how or what ye shall speak for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak For it is not ye that speak but the Spirit of your Father that speaketh in you Here Christ tels his Disciples that they should be brought before great men yea before the greatest in the world to give testimony to his truth And surely it is a very hard thing for a man not to be daunted then but to be unmoveable before all worldly power and glory and all the terrible frowns and threats of mighty men Now saith Christ at such a time when you are to speak before the armed power of the world be not troubled beforehand how or what to say For if you have Christ and his Spirit in your hearts you cannot want words in your mouths And the truth which you profess is most glorious when it is most naked and destitute of the garnishings of humane eloquence and wisdom And therefore be not fearful before hand no nor yet careful touching what you shall say for it shall be given to you in that same hour in that same moment you shall have most present help How so for it is not ye that speak but the Spirit of your Father that dwels in you The spirit of truth that dwels in you shall inable you to speak the words of truth when you are called to it And though you it may be are plain and mean men and your lips would tremble and be quite closed up before such an Assembly of power and Majesty yet Gods spirit shall give you a mouth to speak even then And because if you were only supplied with a mouth to speak at such a time you would be ready to speak rashly and foolishly to the great prejudice and disadvantage of the truth therefore he will give you not only a mouth but wisdom too and he himself will manage his own cause with your mouths And you shall so speak as all your adversaries shall not be able to resist the truth that you speak but shall be so convinced in their consciences that their tongues shall not know what to say You shall have a mouth and wisdom and they shall want both And thus have many poor mean simple Christians when brought before Rulers and Magistrates been able to carry out the truth in that strength that all their adversaries have been put to silence and shame as you may see in a multitude of examples in the Book of Martyrs And all this they did by the power of the Spirit coming upon them Seventhly and lastly all Christians stand in need of the power of the Spirit to overcome afflictions and persecutions from which it is impossible they should be free in this world they being contrary to the world and the whole world to them A natural man who hath no strength in himself but his own strength faints and fails under affliction and persecution but the faithful have in them strength above natural strength strength above the strength of men even the strength of the Spirit coming on them and so they indure and overcome Our spirits are weak spirits and are conquered by every evil but when they are strenghtned by the power of Gods Spirit they are over all evils more then Conquerors And this is one thing observable between natural and spiritual strength in the overcoming of evil Natural strength seeks alwayes to throw off the evil and so it prevailes but spiritual strength neever seeks the removing of the evil but let the evil be what it will it stands to it and overcomes it For the strength of the Spirit is easily able to overcome all evils that can happen to flesh and bloud whether they arise from earth or hell And thus those blessed Martyrs mentioned Hebr. 11. and thousands and ten thousands of their consorts since have overcome cruel mockings and scourgings and bonds and imprisonment and stoning and sawing in sunder and slaying with the sword and all the woes of poverty and want and banishment and of living in wildernesses and caves and dens of the earth these and all other evils they have mightily overcome by this only power of the Spirit comming upon them Thus we stand in need of the power of the Spirit to overcome affliction and persecution and how much power we have in affliction and persecution to indure them and overcome them just so much of the power of the Spirit we have and no more And thus also have I declared unto you what necessity all Christians have of the power of the Spirit coming on them as well as Ministers And this was to strengthen the Vse of exhortation The second Use is for information and instruction after this manner If the receiving of the Spirit be the receiving of power then it clearly informs us that the way to partake of this power is to obtain this Spirit and the way to increase this power is to increase this Spirit I shall endeavour to speak to both these things and so shall conclude 1. The way to obtain this power is to obtain the Spirit And that we may obtain the Spirit we must first prepare our selves to receive the Spirit Now this Preparation doth not stand as Papists teach and many ignorant persons among our selves think in sweeping the soul from sin and then strewing it with graces that so we may be fit to receive the Spirit For first the sweeping of the soul from sin is not a work of our own before the coming of the Spirit but a work of the Spirit it self after it is come For no flesh can clear the soul of one sin it is the Spirit must do that And secondly for the strewing of the soul with grace neither is this a work of our own but a work of the Spirit it self after it is come For the Spirit it self brings all grace with it and before the comming of the Spirit there is no grace at all So that we cannot by any acts of our own prepare our selves to receive the Spirit but only by the Spirit we prepare our selves to receive the Spirit For it is not any work of our own upon our selves but the immediate work of the Holy Spirit upon us that can make us fit to receive himself It lies wholly in his own power and goodness first to prepare in us a place for himself and then after to receive and entertain himself in that place he hath so prepared Now the workes of the Spirit whereby he first prepares us for himself and then entertaines himself in us are these two especially 1. He empties us and 2. he fills us with himself whom he hath made empty 1. He empties us And this emptying is the
and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsly for my sake Vers 12. Rejoyce and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven for so persecuted they the Prophets which were before you Psal 69 9. The reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me Published according to Order London Printed for G. Calvert at the Black Spread Eagle at the West-end of Pauls 1651. To the Reader HAving obtained this grace from God to be called into some friendship and familiarity with Jesus Christ among the rest of his poor Saints so as to to hear and receive from him something of the minde and bosome of the Father according to his Free-grace who hath mercy on whom he will and having after many tears and temptations not-unknown to many yet in the body obtained this further grace to speak the Word of God with boldness I have also though most unworthy been counted worthy to be taken into some fellowship with Christ in his sufferings and to endure the contradiction of sinners and oft-times to encounter the rage and madness of men yea and to fight with men after the manner of beasts altogether brutish and furious And thus it hath fared with me often especially at two remarkable times The one at Lincoln upon occasion of two Sermons preached there on these words of the Prophet Isaiah 9. 7. Of the enâ—crease of his Government peace there shall be no end Wherein giving unto Christ his own proper due many were angry I had taken too much from men to whom yet nothing belongs but iniquiry shame and confusion they could not bear this that the Lord alone should be exalted But that Doctrine of Truth being the Lords and not mine the Lord himself hath strongly upheld with the right hand of his righteousness and the glory of it hath since shone into many hearts in this Kingdom much contrary to their desire The other time wherein I met with remarkable opposition was lately at Marston the Head quarter at the Leaguer before Oxford whither some coming out of the City of London in all probability out of some special design seeing the old malignity now acts in a new form and is daily coming forth in a second and more plausible cunning and deceiving edition became exceeding angry and heady against the plain and clear Truth of the Gospel delivered in this following Exposition wherein the whole truth and substance of what was then delivered is exactly set down and nothing abated but rather some things farther pressed adding as Jeremiah in the second role many like words to the former Now some of these men seeing themselves and their new designs cleerly discovered by the light of the Word and made altogether naked suddenly they grew fierce and furious contradicting and blaspheming yea some of them speaking the language of Hell upon earth of which there are some witnesses as became men of such a generation These men according to the operation of that spirit which works mightily in the children of disobedience come and fill the whole City with lyes and slanders laying to my charge things that I knew not the falshood and untruths whereof there are some hundreds and some of them of great and eminent worth and piety ready to witness Wherefore of meer necessity I was constrained to publish this Exposition as a witness to this present and the following generations of these mens resisting the Spirit and acting against Christ himself in the Word And though the Discourse be very plain not favouring of any accurateness of humane wisdom and learning yet they that are themselves spiritual will acknowledge something of the Spirit in it and for that cause will rellish and love it though others will therefore be at the greater enmity against it But for my part I have set down my resolution in the Lord in this Cause of Jesus Christ not to weigh all the power of earth or Hell one feather but to put it to the utmost tryal whether the truth of the Gospel or the slanders and lyes of men shall prevail whether the smoak of the bottomless Pit that comes forth out of the mouth of these and many others shall be able to blot out or darken the brightness of Christs coming in the Ministery of the Gospel yea and whether the power and malice of the Devil and the World shall be stronger then the love and protection of Jesus Christ And I doubt not but the more the World acts in the spirit of the Devil the more will Christ enable us to act in his own Spirit till all at last shall be forced to acknowledge that the Spirit that is in us is stronger then the spirit that is in the World And what now have all these men obtained by all their malice and fury but a greater and more open discovery of the truth and to cause that that light of the Gospel that only stone in one Congregation should through the printing of it have its beams scattered in many pars of the Kingdom and where ever the truth comes the children of the truth will entertain it and ask no body leave And thus through the over-ruling power of Gods wisdom do these men betray their own and their fellows cause and overthrow their own and their ends and whilst they think to oppress the truth propagate it the more and thus shall truths enemies perish and the truth it self flourish yea flourish through slanders oppositions contradictions blasphemies and all the vileness and villany in the world And all this confidence in us arises hence because Christ is not as a dead man but is risen and ascended and sits at the right hand of God and fils all things and doth all things in heaven and in earth in the World and in the Church among his friends and among his enemies till these be made his foot-stool which is the very thing we are now in expectation of Now one thing more which I think fit to acquaint the world withall in this Epistle is this That none of these thorny hearers durst after come to Discourse with me or to look me in the face but one among them that seemed of a better temper then the rest upon the urging of a godly Citizen then present did speak with me and the question he asked of me was this Whether I thought that all Presbyterians were carnal Gospellers I told him I was far from thinking any such thing for I knew some of them very godly Christians and did acknowledge the grace of God in them and that for mine own part I did not allow any such distinction of Christians as Presbyterians and Independents this being onely a distinction of mans making tending to the division of Church and added that as in Christs Kingdom neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but a new creature so in this same kingdom of Christ neither Presbytery availeth any thing nor Independency but a new creature and that
divers Saints that each may acknowledge something in another which he hath not himself and may reckon his perfection to lie in his Vnion and Communion with them that so the Communion of Saints may be kept up in the world in despight of the world One Christian hath the gift of Faith another the gift of Prayer another the gift of utterance in preaching another the gift of courage another the gift of meekness and the like and no man hath all things in himself that every man in the sight of his own wants may be kept humble And this a is glorious thing in this building that the lustre of each stone adds to the lustre of all and the lustre of all is communicated to each stone and so in the Spiritual building what one hath from the Spirit it is for all and what all have is for each one If thou hast the gift of utterance in the ministration of the Spirit it is to build up me if I have the spirit of Prayer it commends thee as caâ—efully to God as my self one watches over another as over his own soul and if any be weak the strong support them if any be doubtfull they that have the gift of knowledge direct them If one be troubled the rest mourn with him if one be comforted the rest rejoyce with him and they are all so linked together in the body of Christ that the good and evill of one extends to all Where thou canst fince such another communion there joyn thy self but if this be the onely excellent Communion in the world who would not willingly joyn himself to that spiritual people where no man calls his grace his own but all gifts are in common among all every one having a share in the faith hope love prayer peace joy wisdom strength of all and all having a share in these gifts and graces that are in any one And thus much for the diversity of the stones as well as the preciousness of them 3. The third thing that reveals the sense of the words is to observe that this spiritual building of the Church of the New Testament is made up all of precious stones without any mixture of common stones is made up of Saphires Agates Carbuncles and adds And all thy borders of pleasant stones Here then must be no mingling of the precious and the vile the holy and the profane the faithful and the unbeliever the spiritual and the carnal but all must be precious If a man had a Jewel that had here and there only a precious stone in it and all the rest common pebbles there would be no great glory in such a Jewel but the common stones would take off from the lustre of the precious ones And so the Church is Gods Jewel in the world and it must be made up onely of precious stones as you see here And where are their eyes that perceive not this There be some that talk much against New Doctrine which is the old reproach of the Gospel but surely there was never newer Doctrine then this That the Spiritual Church of the New Testament should be made up of all the People that live in a Kingdom and that all that are born in such a Nation should necessarily be stones for the building up the New Jerusalem This is a new Doctrine indeed which neither the Old nor the New Testament owns but was conveyed into the world by the spirit of Antichrist For God doth not now make any People or kindred or Nation his Church but gathers his Church out of every people and kindred and Nation and none can be stones of this building but those that are first elect and after made precious through a new birth and the gift of the Spirit And this Doctrine the Word will justifie against the world for Paul writing to the Churches of Ephesus and Corinth c. doth he mean all the people that lived at Ephesus or Corinth No but the faithful and elect Children by adoption Saints by calling and saith So it was meet for him to judge of them all And if any were mistaken for a Saint that was none surely he carried himself very like one he was outwardly in sheeps clothing or he had not been reckoned among the flock and so if a stone be taken into this building that is not truly precious yet it is so like one in shew and colour that it can hardly be discerned to be other but by a very skilful Lapidary And indeed such a mistake there may be in Christs Kingdom here that a few counterfeit stones may be taken up among many precious ones but that is the mistake of a false Church where a thousand counterfeit ones are taken in for one truly precious wherein for one faithful Christian there are many Formalists and many more profane This is not such a building the Prophet speaks of for this is all of elect and precious stones But I cannot enlarge on these things because this exercise I intend chiefly as an Exposition onely I will add one or two things more touching this particular and so go on 1. If the Church of the New Testament is to be built all of precious stones what a building is that where the onely care is to keep these stones out of the building lest by their glory and lustre they should darken the rest 2. Consider when the Church shall be built up all of such precious stones what a glorious Church will that be when the glory of the Lord shall shine forth in every stone of this building how will there be then glory upon glory till the glory of the Church first darken and then put out all the glory of the world 3. Consider what great enemies they are to the true and native glory of the Church that would have every man in a Kingdom a member of the Church and would have those taken into the flock that are none of Christs sheep and those taken into the Church of God that are not of God and would gather up any stones to make up this Temple of God These are the men that would keep off those glorious things from being fulfilled in the Church which are spoken of it in the Word 4. We are to take notice who is the Builder of such a structure as this all made up of precious stones and you shall finde in the word that the builder and maker of it is God I will do it saith the Lord behold I will lay thy stones with fair colours and I will lay thy foundations with Saphires and I will make thy windows of Aggates it is all Gods work from the beginning to the end For who can build unto God a living Temple to dwell in but himself This the Prophet speaks plainly where he saith The man whose name is the branch he shall build the Temple of the Lord even he shall build it It lies in the power of no man to make such a building as this is
What wild and woful work do men make when they will undertake to be building the Church by their own humane wisdom and prudence and counsel when they think we will have the Church of God thus and thus and we will make it up of such and such men and we will govern it by such and such Laws and we will get the power of the Magistrate to back ours and then what we cannot do by the power of the Word and Spirit we will do by the power of flesh and blood Poor men that think that these new Heavens wherein the Lord will dwell must be the work of their own fingers or that the new Jerusalem must of necessity come out of the Assembly which is to come down from God out of Heaven or that they can build the house of God all of precious stones whereas this must be Gods own work and his own doing and no State or Councel in the World can bring this about and after much tryal and paines and weariness the Lord will at last teach his own that the gathering and laying these pretious stones together must be the Lords own doing even his own doing When the building of the Church is left to men how wofully is it mannaged why saith one we must needs admit such an one he is the chief man in the Parish or he is a man of good esteem in the world or he is a Noble man or he is my neer kinsman or is thus and thus related to me or he is a good civil fair dealing man and we must needs admit him and thus will flesh and blood be ever making a carnal temple for God to dwell in but Gods true habitation can never be framed but by the Spirit And therefore for the building of the Church let us look higher then the highest instruments for it must be the Lords own work by the word and Spirit and though every man be against it and oppose it yet the Lord will do it when there are no hands to build it up he will build it up without hands I will lay thy stones with c. It follows Ver. 13. And thy children shall be taught of the Lord and great shall be the peace of thy children See here how the prophet by the Spirit carries up the Saints above all visible and sensible things even as high as God himself God saith he to the Church shall build thee and God shall teach thee all thy children shall be taught of the Lord. The note is this That all the true and genuine children of the Church have Gods own teaching in all the things of God they have the Father and the Son to teach them by the Spirit This truth Christ himself confirmes where he saith It is written that they shall be all taught of God he therefore that heard and learned of my father commeth to me And again the spirit when he is come he shall lead you into all truth Which doctrine John after preached thus 1 Joh. 2. 27. The anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you and ye â—ceed not that any man should teach you but as the same anointing teacheth you all things Hereby now we perceive how few true children of the Church there be among those who are commonly called Christians for among all these how few are there who have the teaching of God but most have their teaching only from men and no higher Consider therefore I pray whether the knowledge you have be from the teaching of God or the teaching of man you all pretend to know that Christ is the Son of the living God and that redemption and salvation is by him alone but how came ye by this knowledge did you read it in the letter or did some body tell you so or hath God himself taught you this For no man knows the Son but the Father and he to whom the Father will reveal him and therefore when Peter said thou art Christ the Son of the living God Christ answered flesh and blood hath not taught thee this but my Father which is in heaven And so though all of you profess your selves Christians yet none of you know Christ truly but only such as are taught of the Father And this holds in all other points as touching calling and faith and union and justification and sanctification and the gift and sealing of the Spirit touching the spiritual Kingdom of Christ and the Government of it oh consider whether you have the teaching of God in these things or no and if you have not the teaching of God you are none of the children of the Church what ever truth thou knowest from the letter if thou hast not the teaching of the Spirit it will do thee no good thou knowest not any thing spiritually and savingly wherein thou hast not the teaching of God All thy children shall be taught of the Lord. And therefore what a sad thing is it when men look for their teaching no farther then men they onely look to the Minister or to such an able learned Orthodox man as they phrase it or at the highest to the Assembly and what they shall teach them they are resolved to stand by it and build upon it for their foundation in the mean time never regarding in truth the teaching of God but say what can so many grave learned godly men err and shall not we believe what they determine why now these are none of the children of the spiritual Church for they neither have Gods teaching nor care for it but the spiritual Church is all taught of God Object But you will say doth God teach without means Answ I answer no God teacheth but it is by the Word and that chiefly in the Ministery of it and he that pretends to be taught of God without the Word is not taught of God but of the Devil And therefore no man is to despise the Ministery of the Word which is Gods own Ordinance and to depend upon I know not what revelations and inspeakings without the word seeing God teacheth all his children by the word and none without it And therefore it is not the Prophets meaning when he saith all thy children shall be taught of the Lord that they should neglect and despise the Word and the Ministery of it but that we ought so to use the Word and the means as not to look for our teaching from them but from God himself in and through them and when you come to hear not to think I will hear what Mr. such an one or Mr. such one will say but with the Psalmist I will hear what the Lord God will say And truly I would not care to hear what any man in the world would say in whom Christ himself did not speak Now much more might be said of this teaching of God but that I intend brevity in all as namely that this teaching 1. Is a clear and evident teaching that you shall have certainty in what
you are taught and shall be so taught of God that no man or Angel shall be able to unteach you again 2. It is an inward teaching though by the outward Word reaching to the inward soul and spirit to the hidden man of the heart 3. It is a successeful teaching he so teaches as men learn he that hath heard and learned of my Father hearing and learning go together he teaches faith and we beleeve humility and we are humble patience and we endure c. But I cannot enlarge any farther in this point It followes And great shall be the peace of thy children That is when men are taught of God then there is nothing but peace among them when God comes and teacheth thee and me and another and many then we all agree because we are all taught of God and see all things by the same light and apprehend all things by the same knowledge and perceive all things by the same spirit because all have the same teaching And so they that are taught of God though one come out of the East and another out of the West and another out of the South and never had any former communion together yet they all agree in the same truth and think and speak the same things and so there is love and amity and peace and unity among them because they are all taught of God and have learned the truth not as it is in this or that man or assembly of men but as it is in Jesus And truly this is the true ground of all the differences and dissentions and heats that are in the Kingdom at this time to wit because some are taught of God and some are not taught of God but men onely the carnal Church is onely taught of men and goes no higher but the spiritual Church is truely taught of God Now they that are taught of God and they that are taught of men see the same truths with a great deal of difference and hereupon arises the Controversie and Quarrel for one will have the truth as he sees it in the light of God another will have it as he apprehends it in his own fancy and the carnal man will not yeeld to the spiritual and the spiritual man cannot yeeld to the carnal Saith one this is the minde of God and I have learned it from his own teaching saith another this is not the mind of God for such a learned Minister or Ministers taught me otherwise and so I apprehend it and thus as the flesh and spirit are contrary so are their teachings and hence our divisions and troubles But when men are all taught of God then they are all at peace one with another and all do agree in the substance of the truth of the Gospel and if some do not know the same things they do they can wait with patience till God also reveal that unto them for they know with all their hearts that they themselves could never have known those things except God had taught them and so they cannot be angry at others whom the Lord as yet hath not vouchsafed to teach and so they are meek and gentle towards all as beseems the spirit as well as at peace among themselves All thy children shall be taught of the Lord and great shall be the peace of thy children For they know that no man is higher or lower then another in the Kingdom of God but all are equall in Jesus Christ they know that no man can challenge Christ more to himself then another but all have equal interest in him and Christ is alike neer to all in whom he dwels yea they all as willingly communicate their own things to the brethren as they themselves do partake of Christs things and so there is nothing but peace When men know that no man is any thing in himself but every one is all that he is in Christ and when men love Christ meerly for himself and where they see most of Christ there love most and if Christ be more in another then himself can love such a one more then himself not for his own sake but for Christs sake then there is nothing but peace Great shall be the peace of thy children Vers 14. In righteousness shalt thou be established c. This spiritual Church had need of establishment for when God hath done all this for it when he hath built it and taught it himself it shall not want trouble and opposition and contradiction and persecution in the world and therefore it stands in great need of establishment But how shall this be done Why saith he In righteousness shalt thou be established That is not by any outward power or force or armies or fortifications or factions or confederacies all these are but a staffe of reed but in righteousness and that is both in the righteousness of Christ received by us and working in us the first is the righteousness of justification the second is the righteousness of sanctification and our establishment lies in both 1. In the righteousness of Justification which is called the righteousness of faith or Christs own righteousness received into us and in this sence it is said Except ye believe ye shall never be established for by faith we partake of the righteousness of God through Christ and this is an infinite and everlasting righteousness that hath neither spot nor blemish in it this is able to establish us for ever and ever so that the Church hath no more establishment then it hath of the righteousness of Christ by faith and as the Church goes from faith to faith so it goes from establishment to establishment 2. Our establishment lies in the righteousness of our sanctification which is nothing but Christ working in us as the former was Christ dwelling in us for the same Christ that is the righteousness of our justification is the righteousness of our sanctification Now the establishment of the Church is when we let the righteousness of Christ worke all in us and we work all in the righteousness of Christ then are we established mightily and invincibly indeed and how much Christians swerve from this Rule so much they become weak and unsetled sometimes Christians will be living out of Christ in themselves and they will be moving and acting and working according to humane wisdom and prudence and the counsels and devices of flesh and blood but in all this they have no establishment at all And therefore ye that are faithful see to it that ye turn aside neither to the right hand nor to the left through any worldly hopes or fears but do ye live and act in the righteousness of Christ and as the Lord lives though you have Kingdoms and Nations for your enemies you shall not be moved but shall be established more firmly then the earth And therefore I pray consider your establishment where it lies and that is in righteousness and in righteousness only Some trust to this strength and some
latter end be not answerable to your beginnings It might be easily shewed unto you how many great and wise Kings and Magistrates acting according to humane wisdom and prudence despising or neglecting the wisdom of the Word have with all their own wisdom prudence and designes destroyed themselves and their Kingdoms For it is written He takes the wise in their own craftiness And again The Lord knows the thoughts of men that they are but vain And therefore renounce the wisdom of the world with all its fleshly Counsels and cleave close to the true faithful and sincere Doctrine of the Gospel and then though you have many enemies and Kingdoms against you you shall not be moved but GOD will yet establish you in all the shakings of the World and your Enemies shall be as a thing of nought I shall no longer detain you but only desire this in the behalf of the faithful GODS peculiar portion in the Kingdom That you would not suffer us to be oppressed by our Adversaries who would use your power against us not for you but for themselves neither would suffer them thus publickly and shamelessely to call us Sectaries and Hereticks who do believe and profess the truth of the Gospel in sincerity and simplicity of heart according to what we have received from GOD but that you would suffer yea procure us to live quietly and safely under you in the faith and practice of the Gospel we in all things obeying you as becomes Christians The Remainder is to assure you That there is no man shall serve the State more sincerely according to his place and calling nor in more faithfulness and humility tender the Truth of GOD either to your selves or the Kingdom as occasion serves according to the measure of the gift of CHRIST Then Your Servant in the Gospel W. DELL To the Reader Christian Reader THE Times we live in are dangerous times it is dangerous to conceal the truth and dangerous to publish the truth if we publish the truth God hath taught us and we have heard and learn'd from the Father we fall into the hands of men if we conceal it we fall into the hands of God And therefore in this case in a contrary choice to David I reckon it much better to fall into the hands of men then into the hands of God seeing the wrath of men can but reach the body but the wrath of God body and soul I shall therefore willingly confess Christ amidst an adulterous and sinful generation not doubting but Christ will confess me before his Father and before his Angels And for the reproaches of men it is best conquering them as Luther was wont to say Silendo contemnendo by silence and contempt of them seeing a man may as easily restrain Satan himself in his various workings as stop the mouthes of his instruments And therefore it is good for us Christians to do the work of God without so much as taking notice of such men and if sometimes we are sensible of these things because we are flesh yet as we are Christians we are above them in the Spirit and see already in certain faith and hope all evils and enemies under our feet And therefore for Mr. Love and other men of the same mold and mettal I am resolved neither now nor hereafter to take them into any more consideration then the business it self necessarily requires and where they may be omitted without prejudice to the truth to let them quite alone being every day through the use of affliction enabled to patience and through patience brought to experience and so to a proportionable measure of hope And this carries me above the shame of the world in the strength of the love of God For the Doctrine contained in this Discourse thou shalt not finde it New light as some men slanderously affirm but the ancient light that sprang forth in the first morning of the Gospel but was since obscured by the New darkness of Antichrist which these men love better then that old light and will by no means exchange the one for the other But this light that now after a long night breaks forth again in some of its first glory let these men set their hearts at rest for they shall never be able to obscure it again and the fire of the Spirit that GOD hath kindled in the Kingdom they shall never be able to quench with any fire either of Earth or Hell And therefore we fear them not though they breath forth threatnings now and ere long are like to breath forth blood For by all their subtile and industrious actings in the end they shall not work the truths ruine but their own And these as well as their forefathers of the same race and lineage in whose stead they are now risen up shall in due time become a reproach and a shame and their name shall be for a curse to all Gods chosen Reader It is my earnest desire that the Lord would deliver thee from this new form of the Mystery of Iniquity which in every Age puts on a several form when the old one is discovered by the light of the Word And in this present Age it is become so Exceeding cunning and so furnished with all deceiveableness of unrighteousness under the form of Righteousness that it seems to be the last and subtilest work of Antichrist that is now in hand and he that prevails in this encounter hath Antichrist under his feet for ever but none are like to prevail here but the Faithful and Elect alone And therefore hold fast that which thou hast that no man take thy Crown and consider Christs encouragement to this work in the following verse Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the Temple of my God and he shall go no more out and I will write upon him the name of my God and the name of the City of my God which is New Jerusalem which commeth down out of Heaven from my God and I will write upon him my New Name Christian Reader I commit thee and the Word now offered to thee in this Discourse to God and his powerful blessing and wonderful working Remaining Thine in the Difficult and Despised Service of Jesus Christ in the Gospel W. DELL Right Reformation OR The Reformation of the Church of the New Testament represented in Gospel-Light Heb. 9. 10. Vntill the time of Reformation THe natural man saith Paul 1 Cor. 2. knows not the things of the Spirit neither can he for they are spiritually discerned Now a man that is not born of God and his Spirit with all his parts abilities reason wisdom prudence learning is but a natural man still and so hath no right knowledg of the things of God and his Spirit And hence it hath come to pass that the things of God and his spirit have been so grosly and dangerously mistaken by the World and the carnal Church For all the spiritual things of God they have
us hath to do with many strong Corruptions and Lusts in the Soul yet at last he prevails against them all and Judgement breaks forth into victory because Christ the Judgement of God in the Soul must needs in the end prevail against every sin of man Again Christ the Righteousness of God as he makes us righteous with his own righteousness and makes us the righteousness of God in him so he is called Righteousness not in himself onely but in us he is the Lord our Righteousness and by this Judgement and Righteousness is Zion and her converts redeemed and reformed And so true Gospel reformation is the destruction of sin out the faithfull by the presence of righteousness And therefore you see how grosly they are mistaken who take Gospel Reformation to be the making of certain Laws and Constitutions by the sacred power or Clergy for external conformity in outward duties of outward worship and government and to have these confirmed by civil sanction and inforced upon men by secular power when in the mean time all that inward corruption and sin they brought with them into the world remains in their hearts and natures as it did before After this manner the old Prelates reformed who were wont to say to the Kings We will study out the faith and you shall maintain it and the faith they studied and broughâ— to the Kings the Kings must maintain and not questâ—on but that it was Jure Divino And thus you see in general what Gospel Reformation is and that it is a cleer different thing from Civil Ecclesiastical Reformation 2. Now in the next place let us see how this Gospel Reformation is qualified whereby the difference between this and the other will appear yet more cleerly First then it is a spiritual Reformation For as the Kingdom of Christ is a spiritual Kingdom so all the things that belong to it are spiritual things and so the Reformation of it A carnal Reformation is not sutable to a spiritual Kingdom And spiritual it is because it proceeds from the Spirit and stands in spiritual things as you shall see more full anon But now the Reformation of the Civil and Ecclesiastical State is but a carnal Reformation wrought by the powes of flesh and blood and stands in outward and fleshly things as you shall presently see Secondly it is an inward Reformation For as the Kingdom of God is an inward Kingdom the kingdom of God is within you so the Reformation that belongs to it is an inward Reformation This true Gospel reformation lays hold upon the heart and soul and inner man and changes and alters and renews and reforms that and when the heart is reformed all is reformed And therefore this Gospel Reformation doth not much busie and trouble it self about outward forms or external conformity but onely minds the reforming of the heart and when thâ— heart is right with God the outward form cannot be amiss And therefore saith Christ touching the worship of the New Testament God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth but speaks not one word of any outward form So that God in this Gospel Reformation aims at nothing but the heart according to the tenour of the new covenant Jer. 31. 33. This shall be the covenant that I will will make with them after those dayes saith the Lord I will put my Law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts so that they shall not onely have the word of the letter in their books but the living word of God in their hearts and God intending to reform the Church begins with their hearts and intending to reform their hearts puts his word there and that living word put into the heart reforms it indeed But now Civil Ecclesiastical Reformation is onely outward and busies it self in reforming the outward man in outward things and so is very industrious and elaborate about outward forms and outward orders and outward government and outward confession and outward practice and thinks if these be put into some handsomeness and conformity they have brought about an excellent Reformation though the heart in the mean time remain as sinful vile and corrupt as ever and so altogether unreformed And so this Reformation is like that Reformation of the Scribes and Pharisees notorious hypocrites who made clean onely the outside of the cup or platter leaving them all filthy and unclean within and whited over sepulchres to make them beautifull outwardly when inwardly they were full of rottenness and corruption So Civil Ecclesiastical Reformation makes a man clean outwardly with an outward Confession of faith c. when inwardly he is all filthy through unbelief and whites him over with a few handsom forms of worship when inwardly he is full of ignorance of God and Atheism Object Now if any ask But must there be no change of outward things in the Reformation of the Gospel Answ I answer Yes an outward change that flows from an inward but not an outward change without an inward much less an outward change to enforce an inward 3. It is a thorow Reformation for it reforms the whole man it reforms not the soul onely but the body too and the very spirit of the mind the spirit as it animates and quickens and acts the body is called the soul as it is in it self in its own nature and essence so it is called the spirit of the mind and this Gospel Reformation reforms all that is both inward and outward and outward and inward man yea the inwardest of the inward man and not only the operations of the soul in the body but of the soul in its self But Civil Ecclesiastical Reformation reforms by halfs it reaches the body and orders that but attains not to the soul much less to the spirit of the mind Again Gospel Reformation reforms sin wholly aswell as the man it reforms all sin whatsoever I will turn my hand upon thee saith God by this Gospel Reformation and will purely purge away thy dross and take away all thy tin It reforms a man not only of outward sins but of inward It reforms him of those sins that seldome come forth into the view of the world as Atheisme ignorance of God pride vain glory self-seeking hypocrisie carnal mindedness and all the evil desires of the flesh and of the minde Yea it doth not only reform all evil things in us but all imperfect things doing away imperfect things by the coming of perfect things doing away our own strength by the coming in of Gods strength and our own wisdome and righteousness by the coming in of Gods wisdome and righteousness But now Civil-Ecclesiastical reformation reforms sin by the halfs aswel as the man and so only reforms outward and gross sins such as run into the eyes of the world which are the least by a thousand times of the evils that a man hath and
the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked And Antichrist himself his greatest Enemy he destroys by the Spirit of his mouth and the brightness of his coming 2. Neither did Christ command his Apostles to use any such outward power but he sent his Disciples to preach and bid them say into what house soever they entered Peace be to this house and if men would not receive peace and the doctrine of peace not to force them but to depart thence and to shake off the dust of their feet as a witness against them that they had been there according to the will of Christ and the Father and offered them mercy and salvation which they refused And this is all that the Ministers of the Gospel can do to any that refuse their doctrine and not to go presently to the secular Magistrate to ask power to punish them or imprison them or sell 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 terret mundum When doth it not call upon the secular power and terrifie the world with both deaths Surely Christ and the Word approve 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 avyd an Heretick but not to imprison him or kill him or banish him and again they that do these things shall not inherite the Kingdom of God and again he that beleeves not shall be 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 saving 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 to 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 thousands times better then all the Laws of men and they are these three The Law of a new nature The Law of the spirits 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 well be found in a combination of men as in one single person But would you have no Order Yes the best thas is even such an Order as is in the body of Christ where every Member is placed by Christ and none by it self 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 judgement and burning But would you have sinners suffered No but punished more severely then any powers of the world can punish them For he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth and with the breath of lips he shall 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 everlong I pass by these things and so proceed no farther in this Discourse But now being brought hither by an unexpected providence I shall 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 Kingdom is that you would regard the oppression of the poor and the sighing of the needy Never was there more injustice and oppression 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 oppressors 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 fatherless 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 business discharge your duty if you will not then hear what the Lord saith Psal 12. 5. for the oppression of the poor for the sighing of the needy now will I arise saith the Lord and Gods rising in this case would prove your ruine If you will not do Gods work in the Kingdom which he hath cal'd you too he will do it himself without you as it is written He shall deliver the needy when he cryeth the poor also and him that hath no helper he shall 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 Christ Kingdom and the Kingdoms of the world are distinct So you would be pleased to keep them so and not mingle them together your selves nor suffer others
with him But I am perswaded better things of you though I thus speak and even such things as are suitable to the light of the Gospel and to the vertues and graces of Christ and his Spirit which have been hitherto and I hope will yet still be very manifest not only in You Honorable Ones who have the chief Conduct but also in very many of the Councel and Army besides And upon such a gathering together of Gods people and Saints let the world if it please still laugh at that word who can but think he hath some choice and singular work in hand for his own glory The Lord God Almighty hath already done great and wonderful works by you and is yet doing greater if you will continue to beleeve and obey and in all these things he only is to be exalted and not You. For hath not that Day of the Lord of Hosts dawned yea the morning of it is already gone forth Which is upon every one that is proud and lofty and upon every one that is lifted up and he is to be brought low and the Lord alone is and must be exalted in this day Now the Lord cause you to dwell and continue in that Church which is the body of Christ and habitation of God and give you peace with those that are reconciled to God by Christ and to one another in Christ by the Spirit in which union and communion I remain Your assured Servant W. D. TO THE READER SUCH are the noises of waters and thundrings and earthquakes among us and so great and continued are our shakings and confusious through hatred and love hopes and fears joyes and sorrows triumphs and indignations that there is no silence in heaven for so much as half an hour Wherefore though I discourse here touching so sweet and glorious a thing as PEACE and do declare from the very word or else I had said nothing wherein the true peace of the true Church consists and also how the faithful and Churches may preserve that peace in their Communion with one another which they have in the Son and in the Father yet mens heads and hearts are now so full that it is to be doubted but few will regard it Notwithstanding considering that there is among us an election of grace and a flock of Christ who both know and will hear his voyce at any time I thought good to speak this in their behalf for whose profit all the creatures of God were made in the world and all the gifts of Christ are given in the Church And though I am very conscious of my rudeness of speech in this Discourse as also of my weakness and infirmity in many things having not yet attained to a perfect man and to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ and so dare not say that every jot and tittle here is of the pure river of water of life without any humane mixture yet they that are spiritual and able to judge will own all in it that is of the word and spirit of truth and will not reject silver tryed four or five times because it is not tryed seven times And what is weak and imperfect in it the true Church of Christ for whose dear sake and love I have spoken all this seeing it is as Luther speaks The Queen of Mercy whose very bowels are meer compassions and forgivenesses of sins will easily pass it by and forgive it And as for men haughty and high in their own spirit contemning and disdaining any thing that agrees not to their palate I do as easily despise their censure as they lightly pass it It is enough that I seek the glory of Jesus Christ the Son of the living God and the welfare of that Church that is his body and for the rest let me become as vile as the Apostles were made to the world who were counted the filth and offsouring of all things or as Mr Baily Rutherford Bastwick Pryn Love or any other of my old enemies in Parliament and City not worth the naming have sought to make me All whom unless God give them repentance to life I cite as once Hierom of Prague did his enemies in the like cause To appear within a few years before the most high and righteous Judge Jesus Christ to answer all that they have done wickedly if not maliciously against his Name Truth Gospel Spirit People and that under the form and pretence of godliness And now well knowing that the more any thing is of Christ the more enmity and opposition it will meet with from the world and from the worldly Church I commit Christs own word and cause to his own care and protection who lives and reigns for this very purpose to uphold his own despised truth against the glorious but deceitful doctrines of men and to make all his enemies his foot-stool And so waiting in this assured hope if thou love Christ I remain Thine in him VVilliam Dell. The Contents THE Introduction pag. 149 The Gospel propounded is neither 1. Between the Church and the world p. 150 2. Nor between the Spiritual and Carnal children of the Church ibid. 3. But between the faithful or true children of the true Church p. 151 The true Church described p. 152 The true Church of God differs from the Churches of men in 13. particulars from p. 153 to p. 157 How this Church may be known p. 158 How we may be joyned to it p. 159 The Church a great mystery as well as Christ p. 160 Seven bonds of this Churches Vnity viz. ibid. 1. One body p. 161 2. One Spirit p. 165 3. One Hope of our calling p. 167 4. One Lord. p. 169 5. One Faith p. 172 6. One Baptisme p. 175 7. One God and Father of all who is above all through all and in all p. 176 These seven bonds are sufficient for the Vnity and Peace of the Church without any additions of mans devising 178. How the true Church of believers thus made one by God may be preserved one in their communion among themselves p. 180 To this end 1 They must know some things otherwise then yet they do ibid. Particularly they must be instructed touching the government of the church ibid. This Government is twofold 1. Immediate And this also is twofold 1. The Government of Gods speciall Providence p. 181 2. The government of his spiritual presence p 182 These two Governments the true church never wanted in any age nor in this p. 184 2. Mediate This also is Christs Government and not mans p. 185 And it is Christs ordering all things by the faithful among the faithful in reference to the communion of Saints ibid. This is drawn forth into several particulars which are these 1. To whom Christ hath committed the power of ordering and managing all things in the true Church 186 2. What kinde of power it is which the true Church hath set down in 6. particulars 188 And here
the Church through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit as also by the life of Christ and presence and operations of his Spirit c. And thus you see how the Church though it be spiritual may be known Well but how can we be joyned to such a spiritual and invisible Church I answer Is not Christ a spiritual and invisible head And how canst thou be joyned to such a head Sure our joyning to Christ the head and to the Church his body is of one nature and that which joyns us to Christ the head will assuredly joyn us to the Church his body Now through faith and the spirit onely are we joyned to this head and through faith and the Spirit onely are we joyned to this body and we cannot be of this spiritual body and society but by being taken up into one faith and spirit with them And so it is no more a difficult thing to be joyned to the true Church because it is spiritual and invisible then to be joyned to Christ himself upon the same account that is it is no more difficult to be joyned to a spiritual and invisible body then to a spiritual and invisible head and all acknowledge Christ to be such a head and all must acknowledge the Church to be such a body If any shall say that they cannot presently agree to these things because they have had far different apprehensions of the Church heretofore I desire all such to consider that if the true Church were onely an outward and visible society and corporation of men that were to be governed by outward and visible officers according to outward and visible forms and orders there would then be no great mystery in the Church for these things lie within the easie reach of every mans reason But now whole Christ is a great mystery hid from ages and generations that is not onely Christ the Head of the Church but also the Church the body of Christ Ephes 5. 32. This is a great mystery but I speak concerning Christ and the Church And this latter mystery though both indeed make up one and the same mystery of the Church or Christ the body can no more be known by humane sense or reason then the former of Christ the head the revelation of the Father and the anointing of the Spirit being equally necessary for the right knowledge of both And as Antichrist hath had his mystery of iniquity in opposition to Christ the Head in setting up a visible and carnal Head instead of the invisible and spiritual so also he hath had his mystery of iniquity in opposition to the Church the body in erecting a visible and carnal body or Church instead of an invisible and spiritual for without all peradventure the head and the body must be sutable each to other and of the same kinde and nature And so as a visible and carnal head the Pope was in no measure sutable to an invisible and spiritual body the true Church so likewise a visible and carnal body or Church made and constituted by a mixture of Civil and Ecclesiastical laws and power is in no measure sutable to a spiritual and invisible head But what a kinde of Head the true Christ is such a kinde of body or society the true Church is and both are spiritual and invisible And as the Lord in the former age hath been pleased to reveal to the Church the mystery of the Head after a long time of its obscuring and darkning under the reign of Antichrist so now we wait in hope that he will in this present age reveal the mystery of the body which hath been no less obscured then the former that so the whole mystery of whole Christ may both be known and accomplished among us according to the riches of his glory by the Gospel Wherefore all the faithful are desired as occasion serves to make known what God hath taught them in this matter to supply what is here spoken weakly and imperfectly And thus having declared what the true Church of Christ is and rectified some ancient and general mistakes touching it I shall now proceed to make known from the clear and evident word the true and onely bonds of the Churches union peace and agreement as the Apostle hath delivered them to us by the Spirit Ephes 4. 4 5 6. There is one body and one spirit even as yee are called in one hope of your calling One Lord one Faith one Baptism One God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in you all Where note in general that among all these bonds of the Churches unity the Apostle makes not so much as any mention of UNIFORMITY Indeed the Rhemists being through the just judgement of God blinded from this very place urge and press Vniformity which is the very word they use as being the great and mighty engine first to advance the mystery of iniquity to its Throne and after to preserve it there But it will appear anon by the Apostles Doctrine that no Conformity or Vniformity are any bonds of the true Churches peace and union seeing the Church is such a Kingdom as is not preserved in its peace by any outward forms and orders as the Kingdoms of the world are but by inward principles Wherefore I shall proceed to speak of those spiritual bonds of the spiritual Churches unity which the Apostle names and they are in number seven the first whereof is ONE BODY There is one body saith Paul The right Church of Christ is but one body consisting of many members and this is not a natural or Political but a spiritual body even the body of Christ Paul in several of his Epistles takes pleasure to set forth the unity of the Church by this similitude as in Rom. 12. 4 5. As we have many members in one body and all members have not the same office So we being many are one body in Christ and every one members one of another And again 1 Cor. 12. 12. As the body is one and hath many members and all the members of that one body being many are but one body so also is Christ Where he cals the body by the name of the head both making up one Christ Now this Unity of Body comprehends believers of all ages and of all sorts 1. Of all ages for all believers that hath been in the world heretofore or now are or shall be hereafter do all make up but one body of Christ though born and brought forth of God in several times and ages of the world as in a natural example a childe is not born all in a moment but is brought forth by degrees and though one part be born and another not yet born this doth not hinder unity of body in the child so the bringing forth the Church into the world in several ages doth in no wise hinder this unity of body 2. As this unity of body comprehends
is a mistake among some brethren to call the Congregations of Christ by the names of men though godly and eminent and to say Mr. such an ones Church or Mr. such an ones Church and so to put the Church under several Heads which works distinction and division whereas they should rather say the Church of Christ in such or such a place it being wherever it is one Church under one Head and Governor Jesus Christ And therefore let us know that it is part of the mystery of iniquity for the Church or faithful to have one or moe visible Heads to go to not being contented with Christ alone And though this hath been and will be the practice of the carnal Church yet the spiritual Church and people do only own and have recourse to Christ their true and spiritual Head And so they all living as one body and members one of another under one onely Head live all in invincible peace and unity whereas difference of outward Heads and Ringleaders alwayes breeds difference and divisions among Christians The eighth Rule is For the true Church to keep out all error in Doctrine seeing this breeds not onely division but confusion and ruine also in the Church Wherefore the Congregations of Christ must be the more careful and watchful in this matter When some false Apostles taught at Antioch that Except Christians were circumcised after the manner of Moses they could not be saved which was a most dangerous error against Christ and the Gospel the whole Church first at Antioch and presently after at Jerusalem met together to keep it out which accordingly through God they did So that what ever Doctrines are evidently against the Word of truth and Gospel of our salvation the Church is to take care to keep them out as it loves its own peace and unity Now if any say By what means may the Church be able to keep out error I Answer It may certainly keep out Error by these means 1. Let the Church suffer none to teach among them that are not themselves taught of God though they have never so great natural parts and never so much humane learning For when they are the Teachers that are taught of God they will only teach the truth which they have heard and learned from God And the line of every mans teaching must extend no further But when they teach that are not so taught they will in many things vary from the truth as it is in Jesus yea and under a form of sound doctrine will give forth an unsound and false sense to the deceiving of many that are weak and simple and so under pretence of Christ will utter the voice of a stranger and endanger the mis-leading of some sheep for a time 2 Let the faithful examine every thing that is taught by the Word of God and not receive doctrines upon trust from their Teachers who through the reputation of their learning and holiness may easily lead them unawares into error And therefore let the Church compare the present Doctrine Preached and Printed and generally received with the Doctrine of the Prophets and Apostles which without doubt is sure and certain seeing those holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit And whatever Doctrine shall be found contrary to or different from that Doctrine let them reject it as reprobate silver seeing the Church is to be built upon no other foundation of Doctrine then that of the Prophets and Apostles And though through Gods especial goodness the Doctrine of the Gospel be again revived among us at this present time yet ought we not to sit down content with the present state of things but to search and see if our present Doctrine do not yet err from the Primitive purity and brightness of the Gospel and that in many considerable points and whether some or many corruptions do not yet remain among us to be purged out by the light and truth of the Apostles Doctrine Wherefore to conclude this thing let us know that the Church cannot possibly keep out Error longer then it precisely keeps it self to the bare and naked Word of God and tries all Doctrines of their Teachers by it 3. The Church that it may be able to keep out Errors must desire of God the Spirit which he hath promised that this Spirit of Truth may lead them into the true and spiritual knowledge of the word and understanding of the minde of Christ For no man can make any right Judgement of the word he hears or reads without the teaching of the Spirit And by this Anointing as we shall be certainly taught which is Truth so also we shall discern which is Error and that by so clear and true a light that we shall not mistake Wherefore Christians must take heed that they do not think with carnal people that the ability to judge of divine truths and humane and Antichristian errors depends upon humane learning Arts and Sciences for thus it will come to pass that they judging themselves unable to judge of matters of Religion will wholly leave the judgement of them to those whom they conceive after this manner learned whereby they leave open a wide door through which the Teachers may bring in all sorts of Errors upon them But Believers must know that the gift of the Spirit onely without all humane learning is sufficient to teach us perfectly which is Truth and which Error and to make us able to judge of all doctrines of men and Angels and that all humane learning in the world without the Spirit is not able to do this And so a poor plain Country man by the Spirit which he hath received is better able to judge of Truth and Error touching the things of God then the greatest Philosopher Scholar or Doctor in the world that is destitute of it 4 Another notable means to keep Error out of the Church is to restore in it that most antient Gospel-Ordinance of Prophesying which how much soever it have been out of use during the reign of Antichrist yet is no other then the very commandment of the Lord as Paul witnesseth 1 Cor. 14. 31. where he saith When the whole Church is met together ye may all prophesie one by one that all may learn and all may be comforted and adds vers 3â— If any man think himself to be a Prophet or spiritual let him acknowledge that the things I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord Wherefore brethren labour that ye may prophesie So that prophesying in the Church is Gods own Commandment as every Prophet and spiritual man must acknowledge Now this divine Ordinance of prophesying is three wayes helpful to keep out Error 1. For first When one man only speaks in the Church and no man is suffered to speak besides him as he is very subject to be puffed up and to conceit that wisdom onely dwels with him so he iâ— more ready to vent the
thoughts of his own heart to speak the Dreams and Visions of his own head But when he knows the Word of God is not come to him only but to others also and that they have wisdom and spirit to speak in the Church as well as he this will both keep down his pride and make him careful what he speaks when he knows there are those present in the Congregation that are able to reprove his darkness by light And this prophesying is a strong bit and bridle in the jaws of Error that it cannot run that race in the Church it doth desire 2. When one man only speaks and the doctrine he preaches proves to be erroneous as it is ordinarily in the common Ministry of the Kingdom it comes to pass that Error is not onely preached but also goes away uncontrouled and no way is left for the restraining Error proportionable to that of propagating it no body being permitted to speak to keep the people from the poison of it And thus whilst the liberty of publike speaking is permitted onely to one man in a Congregation and to onesort of men in the Kingdom any Error may suddenly be spread over the whole Kingdom as we see by daily experience without any sufficient and proportionable remedy to prevent it But now when the right or power of prophesying is allowed to the whole Church the Minister can no sooner vent any Error but there is some believer or other whose heart God shall move ready to convince it by the word of God And so Error is as soon discovered and detected as it is published and as soon destroyed as it is detected the word of God though from a private Christian being more mighty to destroy Error then Error can be to uphold it self against the word 3. Prophesying is a most useful means to keep out Error in this regard because it gives the Church light how to chuse faithful Teachers out of its own children when it stands in need of any supply in this kinde Seeing through the exercise of prophesying the Church knows and discerns which of its members are most spiritual and most clearly taught of God in divine things and who have received the most excellent gifts from Christ and so are most fit and able to hold forth the word of life in most evidence and power of the Spirit that so the Church may be supplied with Pastors of her own Sons and not seek oâ— after unknown persons nor be constrained to use mercenary men who have been brought up to preaching as their trade to live by whereupon but few of them can be expected to be other then hirelings who will make their Ministry serve their own advantage and frame the Scripture to sound such doctrine as may best serve their own turns And in these three regards the use of prophesying helps the Church to keep out Error Now if any shall object against this That it may seem very rash and absurd after an able learned man hath spoken in the Church for an unlearned Mechanick presenly to rise up and speak I return this answer That the true people of God are all taught of God and the true Church is a Kingdom of Prophets through the anointing of the Spirit and so they esteem not that to be learning in the Church which is from man but onely that which is heard and learned from the Father and so they neither reckon him that hath humane learning to be learned here nor him that is destitute of it to be ignorant Yea farther in this society God will have him who is most unlearned according to humane literature to speak that the vertues of Christ may the more evidently appear in the Saints and the knowledge of heavenly and divine truths may not be attributed to gifts parts learning or studies but onely to his Spirit which can even in a moment teach the ignorant and make the simple wise and open the mouthes of babes and sucklings yea and of the very dumb to perfect his praise by Whereas when a man of great parts and learning speaks with wisdom and knowledge in the Church this is commonly attributed to his wit and study and so God loses all or most of his praise but if a plain ignorant man shall speak spiritually and divinely and hold forth the mystery of the Gospel in a clear light then men must needs acknowledge God to be the Author of such grace and say God is in him of a truth and so God is acknowledged the Author of his own giâ—ts and he himself is admired in his Saints It will be again objected Yea but if every one have liberty to speak in the Church will not this breed great confusion and disturbance I answer no not in the true Church which are a people met in the name of Christ and who have Christ himself present in the midst of them and so every one demeans himself answerably to the presence of Christ that is in the wisdom meekness and modesty of the Spirit And there also every one speaks not after the rashness of his own brain but according to the revelation of Gâ—d as it is written If any thing be revealed to another let the first hold his peace So that no man is to speak here but by Revelation or an inward teaching and discovery of God And where men speak thus as the true Church is to speak there can be no confusion but most excellent order and decency Yea God himself who is not the Author of confusion but of peace in all the Churches of the Saints he hath appointed and commanded Prophesying as the way of peace and therefore do not thou dare to say it is the way of confusion seeing God knows better how to order the affairs of his own Church then thou doest Wherefore seeing Prophesying is Gods Ordinance in the Churh for the peace of it if any sort of men shall notwithstanding what hath been said still attribute to themselves a proper and incommunicable Ministry or the onely power to speak in the Church I shall but use the Apostles words to them and so pass on from this thing What came the word of God onely unto you and is it to come out onely from you Nay it is come to every believer as well as to you and it is also to come forth from all them unto whom it is come seeing they cannot but speak what they do believe 5. The last means I shall name whereby the true Church may keep errour out of it self is To exercise its power in judging Doctrines as Paul commandeth 1 Cor. 14. 29. Let the Prophets speak two or three and let the rest judge If they that publish Doctrine should also be judges of it and the people be bound to subscribe to their judgement error would not only by this means have opportunity to be vented but would also be established and confirmed without the least contradiction But now God hath appointed it
And therefore let not the true Church suffer it self to be reduced under this bondage again through specious pretences of Reformation but let the Church know it may use what forms seem good to it self and that its true unity stands in being one body and one spirit c. as hath been before declared And thus onely the Church in all ages is one yea thus onely the Church in earth and heaven is one And therefore I desire the faithful to know that Vniformity is to be kept out or if it be brought in it is to be cast out for the preserving of peace in the Church For that God might make Jews and Gentiles one He abolished the Laws of Commandments contained in Ordinances Ephes 2. 15. Whence it is evident that God so highly valued the peace of the faithful that to bring this about he repeals his own Institutions and dissolves his own outward Ordinances Now if the Ceremonies of Gods own ordaining were to be made void rather then to continue to the prejudice of the Churches unity how much more any Ceremonies or outward rules of our own or other mens devising Let him that reads understand And these are the practical rules in the way of the Churches peace that are more absolute and general And now we hasten to the rules that are more special and occasional in case of difference among the faithful In which case we are necessarily in the first place to consider the weight of the things wherein they differ to wit whether those things be such as are necessary to salvation or no. If they be not such things as are necessary to salvation then first they are either things Ceremonial and Circumstantial Or secondly very truths themselves yet such wherein a Christian may for the present erre without danger of salvation If the difference be in Circumstantial and Ceremonial things we should minde these things to preserve peace 1. That we ought not to contend for vanities nor to trouble our selves and the Church of God with trifles and things of no weight or moment at all It is a wonder to us in these days that the ancient Christians should so earnestly contend about the day on which Easter as they called it was to be celebrated and upon difference herein should divide into Sects as they did seeing there always shone light enough in the Gospel to declare this to be a slight circumstance not worth the minding The Apostle exhorts the Philippians to strive together for the faith of the Gospel but no where for the form of it in one thing or other 2. We ought not for contrary mindedness in these things to avoid Christian converse and communnion with one another for strangeness of Christians in these cases both breeds and increases suspitions and jealousies causes that we harbour hard thoughts brother against brother and it takes away all opportunities of conference and of understanding and perswading one another and so of Reconciliation 3. In these things whereof neither commend us to God we are not to condemn one another for to condemn one another for every difference in judgement produces innumerable Sects in the Church then which nothing can be more destructive to the peace of it seeing such deadly enmity arises among Sects as we see by daily experience And therefore that rash judgement that produces these Sects is the great enemy to the peace of the Church and the great advancer of the Devils work of division 4. Let us know wherein the essence of Gods Kingdom stands to wit in righteousness and peace and joy in the holy Spirit in Faith and Love c. and not in outward Ceremonies and Orders and where the power and substance of Gods Kingdom is let us be contented though there 's a difference in form and circumstances Let us take careful heed that we do nothing against the power and substance of godliness under pretence of the form and circumstance The highest good in the Church is salvation in Christ and the end of all gifts given to all Apostles Prophets Evangelists Pastors Teachers is to bring us all to the unity of the faith and knowledge of the Son of God And if so be that this be done the Church is not to be troubled with other things yea all other things are to give way to this Where the heavenly things themselves are present we ought not in these dayes of grace and truth to contend about the shadows of them 5. In case men differ in judgement in these circumstantial things such as are in present power ought take care especial 1. That they do not entertain men into the communion of Saints that are onely of one judgement but that every one to whom the keys of the Kingdome of Heaven are given may have free liberty to go in and out and finde pasture It is a most Antichristian thing to make another key to the Kingdom of Heaven or true Church besides that which Christ hath given for then it will soon come to pass that Christs keys will not be sufficient without mans also yea soon it will come to pass that mans key shall be sufficient without Christs that is it will not be reckoned sufficient for men to be believers and to have received the gift of the Spirit to make them of the Church unless they also conform to the judgements of such and such men but to be of their judgements will be enough to make them of the Church though they be destitute of faith and the Spirit And thus by making another key to Gods Kingdom besides the key that Christ hath given and so to let in those that should be kept out and keep out those that should be let in this must needs be avoided as extreamly prejudicial to the peace of the Church 2. They must take care that they do not prefer Christians to places of publike Ministry and imployment that are onely of one judgement but that they dispose of them alike to godly men of 〈◊〉 judgement lest otherwise many smell the design of Anti-christ underneath which is that none shall buy or sell or have any place in the Church or Universities but only such as have taken a certain mark into their foreheads and right hands And though the outward mark of the mystery may change yet the inward minde and meaning of it doth not change with the change of form 3. If one sort of Christians be not to be admitted as members or preferr'd as Officers in the Church more then another much less is one party to be destroyed for another for thus would Satan also be a Prince of Peace who would destroy Christs Kingdom to exalt his own that he might possess all quietly and alone but Christs way is to reconcile those that differ in these things and of twain to make them one new man in himself And so we shall be like Christ if we seek to bring both into one in
love and not to destroy either by force These Rules are to be observed as means of peace if the things be circumstantial Now if they be very truths wherein Christians differ yet such wherein they may erre without danger of salvation then these Rules are of use 1. To hear them speak their judgements with freedom and not to condemn them unheard for thus mayst thou soon condemn the innocent and make thy self guilty 2. To understand fully what thy adversary means before thou contend against him lest it thou want this wisdom and patience thou oppose not so much his judgement as thy own conceit Much better is it calmly to hear a mans minde from himself then hastily to guesse at it yea to conclude it is so before thou hast heard him speak If thou canst but have patience to hear him relate his own minde perhaps in the end thou shalt understand it differs little from thy own in substance 3. Reproach not any thing thy adversary speakes with this That thou never heardest it before for this may not so much discover his error as thy ignorance and that which seems to thee a new error if it be truly examined by the word may prove an old truth And if thou wilt needs condemn whatever savours of novelty how shall the truths we yet know not be brought in or the errors that yet remain with us be purged out 4 Be not over-confident in what thou holdest upon thy own judgement or other mens strengthened from multitude custom and antiquity for men have erred most grossely even in those things wherein they have thought themselves most certain And therefore Prove all things that thou mayst hold fast that which is good It is much better to hold fast the truth upon clear grounds from the word then upon the strongest presumptions of thy own heart 5. In these differences make the word the Judge and not men The word of God is the sole and perfect Judge in all the things of God And therefore one said well Qui ponit legem judicem ponit Deum qui autem addit hominem addit bestiam That is He that makes the Law Judge makes God Judge but he that makes man Judge makes a beast Judge For every man is brutish in his knowledge And then only are we sure of any thing when we have the word of God for it Neither is it sufficient to take the word in any fashion for Judge in these matters but we must necessarily attain the knowledge of it by the teaching of the Spirit seeing we see so many differences of judgements among men that make use alike of the same outward word for their rule Now though all have the same outward word yet all are not of one minde except they attain to one Spirit for Paul saith 1 Cor. 2. that only the Spirit of God knows the things of God Neither doth mans sense or reason understand the things of the Spirit but the spirituall man judgeth all things And hence it follows that we can onely judge aright of divine truths by the word and we can onely judge aright of the word if we have the Spirit to be the interpreter of it to us 6. If thou canst not prevail with him by the word that he should agree with thee wherein he differs then observe that moderate and Christian rule of Paul where he saith As many as be perfect be thus minded if any be otherwise minded God shall also reveal this to him And so let us wait with patience will God of his good pleasure shall please to teach him as he hath been pleased to teach us because without this teaching he can never know it aright though thou teach him never so much 7. And lastly When in many inconsiderable points of Religion we cannot agree with many that are truly faithfull nor they with us let us according to Pauls rule leave the finall judgement of these things to the due time appointed of God as Paul hath said Judge nothing before the time And if you ask what time this is Christ hath told us saying If any one hear my word and believe not I judge him not but the word that I have spoken the same shall judge him at the last day For the things of God are so far beyond the sense reason knowledge judgement and discerning of all the men in the world that many times the purest thâ—ngs are reckoned vile and the most spiritual things carnal and the very highest things of the mystery of God and Christ but conceits or errors and therefore it is fit that the judgement of these things which are so far beyond humane comprehension should be deferred to the last day Gods judgement being better in his own time then in ours Now in case the doctrine wherein we differ be such as is absolutely necessary to salvation and without beleeving which men can have no interest in Christ yet even in this case 1. Hear them speak and be rather confident that the truth of God will prevail over their error then fearfull that their error will prevail against the truth and so strive not for secular power to shut up mens mouths and to restrain mens writtings though they speak and print things that seem never so contrary to the truth of God and doctrine of the Gospel For if men have not liberty to divulge their doctrines publikely they will spread them privately to infect and corrupt many ere it can be known or prevented and if men vent errors publikely if there be as publick liberty to preach the truth I doubt not the success of the truth against it at any time with all that belong to God And it is the only Gospel way to conquer error by the truth and all humane yea and devilish doctrines by the Gospel which is the ministration of the Spirit and therefore so mighty that all false teachers and false doctrines must needs fall down before it seeing stronger is that Spirit that is in it then that spirit that is in the world which is its own spirit and the devils And if the Gospel of Christ have given already such proof of its power in former times when the whole world lay in horrible ignorance and error darkness covered the earth and gross darkness the people and yet the Gospel alone without any conjunction of earthly power of States and Kingdoms with it did binde the devil and cast him out of his possessions and dominions and overthrow all false Religions men had received from their fore-fathers through many generations and changed the manners customes opinions Religions and very natures of men and utterly dispelled errrors and heresies of all sorts I say seeing the Gospel hath already given such large testimony of its power and made so great a conquest of the world when it was wholly under the power of the devil I see no reason that we should now so doubt the power of it as to suffer no man to