violence and to perswade peace but not to threaten or enforce it For such is the nature of the Church that inward perswasion is required nowhere more then here For none may be compelled to the faith against their wils and God will be loved with the whole heart and also hypocrisy is a sin chiefly hated of God Whereby it comes to pass that the whole manner of governing the Church must have this scope that they that are perswaded may be first called unto it and after kept in it upon the same account And so the more this manner shall be free from dominion so much the more fit it is to govern increase and confirm the Church And this way onely was used as long as the Apostles lived and those that succeeded them in the same Spirit and that unquestionably for 300 years after Yea and when the Church come to be countenanced by worldly authority yet this same freedom still was allowed of which shall produce a few testimonies I read that Constantine the Emperour would have no man enforced to be of one religion more then another Also the same Constantine in his Epistle to his Subjects inhabiting the East saith Let no man be grievous one to another but what every man thinketh BEST that let him DO For such as are wise ought thorowly to be perswaded that they onely mean to live holily as they should do whom the Spirit of God moveth to take their delight and recreation in reading his holy will And if others wilfully will go out of the way cleaving to the Synagogues of false Doctrine they may at their own perill As for us we have the worthy House or Congregation of Gods verity which he according to his own goodness and nature hath given us And this also we wish to them that with like participation and common consent they may feel with us the same delectation of minde And after Let no man hurt or be prejudiciall to his neighbour in that wherein he thinketh himself to have done well If by that which any man knoweth or hath experience of he thinketh he may profit his neighbour let him do the same if not let him give over and remit it till another time For there is a great diversity between the willing and voluntary embracing of Religion and that whereunto a man is forced and constrained I read also that Ethelbert King of Kent Being converted to the faith ann 586. after his conversion innumerable others dayly did come in and were converted to the faith of Christ whom the King did especially embrace but COMPELLED NONE for so he had learned THAT THE FAITH AND SERVICE OF CHRIST OUGHT TO BE VOLUNTARY AND NOT COACTED The Church then at first consisted onely of the willing and such as were perswaded unto it by the word till Antichrist began to prevail and then they fell from perswading to forcing and they no longer went about to make men willing by the word but to get power from the Kings of the earth to force them against their wils And this main piece of the mystery of iniquity was perfectly brought forth by Boniface the third who was the first that used these words in the Church Volumus mandamus statuimus ac praecipimus We will we require we appoint we command which is not the voice of the true Ministers of Christ but the true voice of theeves and murderers And from that time the peace of the Church decayed apace when there were moe unwilling forced unto it then willing perswaded And true peace will never be restored to it again till men shall abandon the power of force and onely use the perswasion of the word that the Church may consist onely of a willing people The fourth Rule is To make void the distinction of Clergy and Laity among Christians For the Clergy or Ecclesiastical men have all along under the reign of Antichrist distinguished themselves from other Christians whom they called the Laity and have made up a distinct or several Kingdom among themselves and separated themselves from the Lay in all things and called themselves by the name of the Church and reckoned other Christians but as common and unclean in respect of themselves Whereas in the true Church of Christ there are no distinctions nor sects nor difference of persons no Clergy or Laity no Ecclesiastical or Temporal but they are all as Peter describes them 1 Pet. 2. 9. A chosen generation a royall Priesthood a holy Nation a peculiar people to shew forth the virtues of him that called them out of darkness into his marvelous light And so all Christians through the Baptisme of the Spirit are made Priests alike unto God and every one hath right and power alike to speak the word and so there is among them no Clergy or Laity but the Ministers are such who are chosen by Christians from among themselves to speak the word to all in the name and right of all and they have no right nor authority at all to this office but by the consent of the Church And so Presbyters and Bishops or which is all one Elders and Overseers in the Church differ nothing from other Christians but onely in the office of the word which is committed to them by the Church as an Alderman or Common Councel man in the City differs nothing from the rest of the Citizens but only in their Office which they have not of themselves neither but by the Cities choice or as the Speaker in the House of Commons differs nothing from the rest of the Commons but only in his office which he hath also by the choice of the House and thus and no otherwise doth a Minster differ from other Christians as Paul saith Let a man so esteem of us as of the Ministers of Christ and dispensers of the mysteries of God But Antichrist he hath cast out the simplicity of Christian people and brought Sects into the Church dividing it into Clergy and Laity and this distinction they have made visible by their garments disguising their Clergy in their habit from other Christians that they might appear holier then they and of another order from them And this distinction hath proved a Seminary of implacable discord and heart-burning in the Church For hereupon the Clergy have prefer'd themselves above others Christians and have exercised authority and coercive power and domination and very tyranny over them and have made themselves their Lords and given them Laws rules forms orders after their own mindes and agreeable to their own advantages and would not so much as suffer them to judge whether they were agreeable to the word of God or no as if other Christians were their Subject Slaves Vassals yea very dogs And hence again the Laity as they called them have envied and maligned them and hated and opposed them and as they could get power have been subduing them and have looked upon them as men of a different sect and interest from
several manner and among all these families there is no external uniformity and yet they all agree well enough in the unity of a City Nay further to bring but one man to an uniformity of life and practice by an outward Law would be the most absolute tyranny in the world and make his life worse then death To compel every man by a Law every day in the week or every Munday Tuseday c. in the week to an uniformity of life that he shall rise at the same time use the same postures speak the same words eat the same food receive the same physick sit and stand and walk and lie down at the same set times who ever heard of such a cruel bondage What an absurd and intolerable thing then is uniformity in the life of a man taking away all freedom of the soul But how much more evil and intolerable is uniformity in the life of a Christian or of the true Churches of Christ taking away all freedom of the Spirit of God who being one with God works in the freedom of God and is not to be bound with any authoritative or coercive power of poor dark ignorant vain foolish proud and sinful men What now then do the Presbyters mean by uniformity Would they have the word preached and the Sacraments administred and the name of God called on and all this done in Spirit and truth in the Churches of Christ this truly is unity and not uniformity and such an unity as no man can compel But would they have the Word preached the name of God called on Sacraments administred the spiritual Discipline of the spiritual Church mannaged the vertues of Christ and graces of the Spirit in the Saints exercised and all this in one and the same outward form or uniformity This is the burthen of the Saints the bondage of the Church the straitning of the Spirit the limiting of Christ and the eclipsing the glory of the Father And how wise so ever these men may be in natural and carnal things yet their wisdom is but foolishness in spiritual things in which there is no more uniformity then in the workings of the Spirit who works severally in several Saints and severally in the same Saints at several times And therefore they that would tye the Church to an uniformity which works not of it self but as the Spirit works in it let them first tye the Spirit to an uniformity and we are contented But these men seem to run a sad hazard who would thus reduce the workings of the Spirit in Christians and Churches to an outward uniformity according to their own mind and fancy and so would rule and order and enlarge and straiten the Spirit of God by the spirit of man seeing it is worse to sin against Christ in the Spirit then against Christ in the flesh And therefore till I be otherwise taught by the word I cannot conceive that there ought to be or is possible to be any such external uniformity in the Churches of Christ as these men strive wrastle sweat contend for I will not say are ready to fight for but that several Churches of Christ having unity of doctrine faith the Spirit ordinances c. may have divers forms of outward administrations as God and Christ by the Spirit shall lead them and that every Church is in these things to be left free and no Church forced by any outward power to follow or imitate another Church against its Will not being freely led unto it by the Spirit of God Neither do I think that God hath set up any company of men or Synod in the world to shine to a whole Nation so that all People shall be constrained to follow their judgement and to walk by their light seeing other Ministers and Christians may have more light and spirit then they Neither hath Christ promised his presence and spirit to Ministers more then to believers nor more to an hundred then two or three And if two or three Christians in the Country being met together in the name of Christ have Christ himself with his word and Spirit among them they need not ride many miles to the Assembly at London to know what to do or how to carry and behave themselves in the things of God And therefore for any company of men of what repute soever to set up their own judgement in a Kingdom for a peremptory rule from which no man must vary and to compel all the faithful people of God who are the very members of Jesus Christ himself to fall down before it upon pain of being cast into the burning fiery furnace of their indignation heated seven times more hot then ordinary through the desired access of secular power to their power is a far worse work in my eyes then that of King Nebuchadnezzars setting up a golden Image and forcing all to fall down before it seeing spiritual Idolatry is so much worse then corporal as the spirit is better then the flesh And therefore I do think let them teach me better by the word that can that uniformity the great Diana of the Presbyterians and the Image that falls down from the brain and fancy of man hath no footing in the Scriptures or in the practise of the Churches of Christ And that the Presbyterian uniformity is neer a kin to Prelatical conformity and is no other then the same thing under another word after the manner of Prelacy and Presbytery and do conclude that unity is Christian uniformity Antichristian And this I have only hinted and that briefly among many occasions to discover to the faithfull that some of the very dregs of Antichristianisme still prevail and domineer under the very name of Reformation And also to give occasion to men of more spirit and abilities and leisure to discourse more fully to this point that the Serpents head of Formality which is so carefully nourished by humane reason may be crushed in pieces by the power of the word 1 JOHN 2. 27. The annointing which ye have received of him abideth in you and ye need not that any man should teach you but as the same anointing teacheth you all things and is truth and is no lye and even as it hath taught you you shall abide in him The spiritual Church is taught by the anointing the carnal Church by Councels FINIS The Building Beauty Teaching and Establishment of the truly Christian and Spiritual CHURCH Represented in an EXPOSITION On Isai 54 from Vers 11. to the 17. PREACHED To His Excellency Sir Tho. Fairfax and the general Officers of the Army with divers other Officers and Souldiers and People At Marston being the Head-quarter at the Leaguer before Oxford June 7. 1646. By WILLIAM DELL Minister of the Gospel attending on His Excellency Sir Thomas Fairfax in the Army Together with a faithful Testimony touching that valiant and victorious Army in the Epistle to the Reader Matth. 5. 11. Blessed are ye when men shall revile you
it doth not belong Being in the mean time really against Magistracy further then it is serviceable to their own ends Whereas we reckon Magistracy not less Magistracy no less the Ordinance of GOD though we suffer under it and by it This Clergy-Antichristian power where ever it is will still sit upon the power of the Nation the power of Anti-christ so domineering over the powers of the World that none but the power of CHRIST can cast it off That will still be uppermost what power soever is supream Besides all the experience of former Ages which is the greatest wonder in the World that men consider not GOD gives you sparklings enough of it in this Age some preaching That the government of the Church which they make outward and visible and over mens estates bodies and lives belongs not to King nor Parliament but to the Ministers and their Elders and better it is there should be no government at all say they then not in their hands by whom it should be And here lies the Mystery of Iniquity in this That they make the whole Kingdom a Church then require a power authority and jurisdiction in their Church-Kingdom which the Magistrate is not to deal withal but themselves Whereas we acknowledge the whole power of the Kingdom to belong to the Magistrate and onely give unto CHRIST the power of his own Kingdom which is not of the World but spiritual and heavenly And here also fully to deliver my self from misapprehensions I understand not by the Church of CHRIST any company of men whatsoever who under the notion of a Church or Saints or any other title may plead priviledge or exemption of their lives liberties or estates from the power of the Civil Magistrate for that were to justifie the Papal Prelatical or any other government of a newer name which under pretence of Jus Divinum shall set up and exercise an outward and visible power and jurisdiction free and exempted from the authority and power of the civil Magistrate which I utterly both deny and detest as Antichristian And therefore I humbly represent how prejudicial this may prove to you in the end to suffer a Generation of men in the Kingdom under the name either of Church or Clergy whose power preferment interest is different and excentrical from the power welfare and interest of the Kingdom and what a ballance they may prove against the State where they live in turning and tumultuous times as they themselves know so I hope you clearly perceive it as well as they How they already dare lift up the Head against you who sees not How do they manifest their discontents against you in Pamphlets and Pulpits in their Sermons and Prayers because you have not setled the Government they have studied out for you as Jus Divinum and the certain and unchangeable minde of GOD though they can neither make it out to your selves nor to any body else by the Word that it is so And how do they labour to instill into the people their own discontents perswading them you have done nothing at all because you have not done all that ever they would have you do though you can see neither Scripture nor reason for it And for this cause rendring you every where odious to the people Many other things besides do they scramble up and use against you which they conceive may make for your disadvantage and dis-interest in the people because they think they shall never get much higher except they make you a little lower for they must according to the law of Antichrist set their feet on your power to get up to their own Some discoveries of this spirit you might see in Mr. Loves Sermon telling you before your faces and before the people That some call'd you a Mungrel Parliament Indeed the King as I understand call'd the Parliament at Oxford so but Mr. Love was the first for ought I can learn that ever named you so and I wish he may be the last but any Doctrine is orthodox out of a mans mouth of his Order farther threatning you with a discerning people to look into your actions and to spy out your boundless priviledges as if you must do justice not out of the love of Righteousness but out of fear of Mr. Loves discerning people Telling you also The Clergy had done as much service for you in their Pulpits as your Regiments in the Field that by this means he might minde you what they can do against you as well as for you if you be not servants to their designes for they that have heretofore been for you can if they please turn to others against you who shall be more for themselves And in many other things flying out against your worthy Commanders in the Army upon suspitions of his own and against the Articles at Oxford c. For it is no proper Presbyterial Doctrine that does not at least meddle with the affairs of the State which in time they may hopefully come to order In these and divers other things he took his full swing all of them no doubt deeply appertaining to the mystery of the Gospel The other things he spake to the disadvantage of the ignorant and weak and neither to the Truths disadvantage nor mine I shall clear in a short Reply set after the Discourse and so shall trouble you no farther with any such stuffe but only with a smart expression from one it seems of some note in the Assembly who said If the Parliament approved Mr. Dells Sermon it were no blasphemy to say They were no Parliament So that it seems you shall be no longer a Parliament then you approve what the Assembly approves but the Kingdom hopes you are built upon a better foundation And to him who hath been so bold with you I shall only crave leave to Reply in your presence If the Assembly which I hope they will not should condemn that Doctrine of the Gospel for the substance of it delivered then by Mr. Dell it will be no blasphemy to say They are the enemies of the truth of Christ And I hope the last prop of Antichrist in the Kingdom For your selves Honourable and Worthy I beseech you consider that GOD is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working that all power is given to CHRIST in Heaven and in Earth that he might give free passage to the Gospel And therefore take heed after GOD hath blest your Power and Forces in the field and subdued that Malignant power that was against you and hath given you a little peace quietness in the Kingdom you do not now begin your affaires with discountenancing disrelishing much less condemning the faithful and true Word of GOD witnessed in the Scriptures and confest to by the faithful and Martyrs of Christ in all Ages and with the setting off from you that Ministery that hath most of the Spirit in it lest the Lord withdraw his presence from you and your
understood carnally and have apprehended the whole Scriptures not according to Gods mind but according to their own not according to the sense of the Spirit but according to the sense of the flesh And thus was Antichrists kingdom first set up and thus it hath been kept up and continued even by the carnall understanding of the Scriptures For they have understood the Church the kingdom of God in the world carnally the rock on which it is built carnally the door of this Kingdom carnally the Laws of it carnally the Liberties of it carnally the Power Authority Government Glory Officers c. all carnally And to this very day which of the things of God doth not the carnal Church understand carnally Faith hope love it understands carnally Redemption Adoption Justification Sanctification Glorification Union with Christ Communion of the Spirit Access to the Father together with Christ the Head and the Church the Body in their joint union and offices and all other things they understand carnally and have a fleshly sense and apprehension of them And as they understand all other things of Gods kingdom carnally so also the Reformation of it And there are not greater and grosser Mistakes about any of the things of God then about this men imagining the Reformation of the Church which is altogether a spiritual and heavenly kingdom after the manner of the Reformation of Worldly States and Commonwealths which only stands in outward things and is brought to pass by humane Counsels and humane Power Now because this is not only a gross but a generall Error in all Sorts of People both of high and of low degree I shall indeavour at this time according to the good hand of God with me to represent in some Gospel light to this Honorable and Christian Auditory the true Reformation of the Church of the New-Testament And blessed is he who shall not be offended at it For this purpose I made choice of the Words now read Vntill the time of Reformation For the better understanding of which we must read the Context Ver. 9. The first Tabernacle was a figure for the time then present in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices that could not make him that did the service perfect as pertaining to the conscience V. 10. Which stood only in meats and drinks and divers washings and carnal ordinances it should be righteousnesses or justifications of the flesh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 imposed on them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 untill the time of Reformation In which words the Apostle shews the imperfection of the worship of the old Law because it stood in outward rites ceremonies duties performances and so could not make him that used them and was busied in them perfect as pertaining to his conscience and therefore God did not simply and absolutely impose these things on the Church to continue for ever but only untill the time wherein all things were to be reformed not only evill things but imperfect And then all that outward Religion was to be abolished Now if the Law of Moses could not make men perfect as pertaining to the Conscience much less can any new laws invented now And if any such laws should be imposed on the people of God now the Gospel hath the same strength in it self to make them void as the former and also the same ground from them because all such laws and ordinances devised by men cannot make them that obey and practise them perfect as pertaining to the Conscience and therefore are all to be at an end when the time of Reformation comes Quest Now if you ask me when this time of Reformation was Answ I answer It was when Christ came not a servant as Moses but the Son out of the bosome of the Father the great Prophet of the new Testament whose doctrine was not letter as Moses was but Spirit and life And now when Christ the Minister of the new Testament came with the ministration of the Spirit now was the time of Reformation In the time of the Law there were outward duties and performances and ceremonies and sacrifices and strict laws to injoyn the observation of these things carrying along with them the severity of death and yet notwithstanding all this there was no true Reformation but under all that outward Religion men were inwardly as corrupt and wicked as the very heathen for all their Circumcision in the flesh they were uncircumcised in heart for all their outward washing they were inwardly unclean for all their blood of buls and goats their sins remained in their natures and consciences for all their strict forcing of men to the duties of the outward worship of God the people still remained far from God even in all those duties So that notwithstanding the outward worship of Moses Law the people remained inwardly corrupt filthy and unclean and without any true Reformation before God till Christ who was God in the flesh came with the ministration of the Spirit and then indeed was the time of Reformation Vntil the time of Reformation The thing then the Spirit would have us take notice of in these words is this That the time of the Gospel is the time of Reformation When ever the Gospel is preached in the spirit and power of it that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the time of Reformation For our more orderly proceeding in this point we will observe this Method 1. Show what true Gospel-Reformation is and how it is qualified that so you may the better distinguish it from Political and Ecclesiastical Reformation Now both these I joyn together because the carnal Church hath always interested and mingled it self with the power of the world as being able to doe nothing without it 2. I will indevor to shew to whose hands the work of Gospel-Reformation is committed 3. By what means he to whose hands it is committed brings it about 4. The advantages of such a Reformation where it is wrought 5. The Vse The first General What true Gospel Reformation is and how qualified 1. What it is It is the mortifying destroying and utter abolishing out of the Faithful and Elect all that sin corruption lust evil that did flow in upon them through the Fall of Adam Or It is the taking away and destroying the body of sin out of the Faithfull and Elect by the presence and operation of the righteousness of God dwelling in their hearts by faith This is true Gospel-Reformation and besides this I know no other This the Evangelical Prophet Isaiah describeth Chap. 1. 27. Zion shall be redeemed with judgment and her Converts with righteousness Now Christ dwelling in our hearts by faith as he discovers reproves condemns and destroys sin so he is called Judgement And thus is Judgement to be understood in the Gospel sense and not terribly as in the sense of the Law And this Judgement shall at last break forth into victory that is though Christ in
him prosperous And pray now what is all this to your purpose Mr. LOVE If it was good in your Hearts to think to Reform it s much better to do it Reply Does not GOD say It was well that David thought to build a Temple and yet for all that he should not build it And do you now dare to blame this very thing Cannot the Scripture it self be quiet for you Mr. LOVE You need not fear losing a Party Reply Yea but how if God be in that Party What then Sir Is it not better keeping a little poor despised Party that hath GOD in it then a great and numerous Party without God Again Did you preach before the Parliament to make or cast off parties Doth this appertain to the mystery of Christ and the Father Reader These men are so over busie in making and marring Parties that I much fear they will in the end throw the Kingdom into more misery and blood then their Predecessors have done Mr. LOVE Reformation is no forcing Conscience it meddles not with Conscience it restrains Practice If a Jesuite come from Rome to kill a great Person he does it in Conscience but I meddle not with his conscience I restrain his Practice Reply Does not your Reformation meddle with Conscience Mr. LOVE Did you speak this of your self at random as the rest or is this the sense of your Brethren And doth your Reformation only restrain outward Practice Then to tie up mad Dogs and Beares and Tygers is your most excellent Reformation You that will not meddle with the Consciences of men it is no wonder you are making so many Iron yoaks for their necks and so many snares and fetters to hamper the outward man the proper subject it seems of your Reformation And thus taking upon your selves the Reformation of the outward man you do indeed put the Magistrates work to an end And then the Assembly may serve in the place of the House of Commons and Sion-Colledge in the place of the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Common-Councel See you not yet O ye Powers of the World how the Ecclesiastical Powers would eat you out And for your Jesuite Did you ever hear me say or hint That the Magistrate should not restrain and punish outward wickedness I wish therefore you would unriddle your selves and tell truly if you dare how far you would limit the Magistrate and enlarge your selves upon the outward man But certainly if the Magistrates power hath under it the whole outward man as indeed it hath And if Christs power have under it the whole inward man as indeed it hath what place then I pray is there left for your Ecclesiastical power when the outward and the inward man are disposed of before Sure when the Magistrate takes his own proper power to himself and Christ his own proper power to himself your power will be found to have no place either in the Worlds Kingdom or GODS but you must find out some third place for it for I will assign you none lest you prove too angry Mr. LOVE The Church of Thyatira might think she had New light and yet God saith I have a few things against thee because thou sufferest the woman Jezabel c. Reply Truly Sir when God shall make you a new Creature you will be glad of New Light for behold saith God I make all things New even the light as well as the creature the Old Light will serve the Old man well enough And for the Spirit reproving the Angel of the Church for suffering false and erroneous Teachers doth this prove as you undertake that the Angel of the Church had or exercised Civil and Secular power in the Church of Christ You err not understanding the Scripture for then any thing is suffered in the Church when it is not reproved and condemned by the Word the Word of truth taught and published in the Church will suffer no error there but you understand this suffering of outward and violent power Do you not remember that I said at the beginning that the carnal Church understands the whole Scriptures carnally Mr. LOVE And now to hear such Sermons preached and Books printed if it had been at Amsterdam it had been no marvel But at London and at Westminster c. Reply Truly such a Sermon as mine might have been preached at Amsterdam or any where else where the Gospel hath free passage and such a Sermon as yours might have been preached at Rome or any where else where the precious Word of GOD is under restraint and Ecclesiastical power exalts it self both above the power of the Word and the power of the Nation Your Sermon savours as ill to the Faithful as mine to the World Many other weak passionate inconsiderate erroneus things fell from Mr. LOVE neither worth the troubling the Reader with nor my self and so they may perish and rot in their owâ— grave if they will for they shall never receive a Resurrection from me And now at the close of all I desire the Reader to observe the difference between our Enemies and our selves in this great point of Authority and Jurisdiction which is this That We exalt Jesus Christ alone in the spiritual Church and attribute to the Magistrate his full power in the world But they exalt themselves in Christs stead in the Church and set under their feet the Magistrates power in the world And this is so evident that there is some operation of Satan more or less upon him that sees it not FINIS Praesens male judicat aetas Judicium melius Posteritatis erit THE WAY OF TRUE PEACE and VNITY In the true CHURCH OF CHRIST In all humility and bowels of love presented to them By WILLIAM DELL One of the least and unworthiest of the Servants of God in the Gospel of his dear Son Psal 120. 7. I am for peace but when I speak they are for war Utrum nos schismatici sumus an vos nec ego nec tu sed Christus interrogetur ut indicet Ecclesiam suam August contr liter Petil. l. 2. c. 85. London Printed for Giles Calvert at the Black-Spread-Eagle at the West-end of Pauls near Ludgate 1651. To the Honourable the Commons of England Assembled in PARLIAMENT IT is written that the Kingdoms of the World shall become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ and now when all almost that is great and honourable and noble and Royal and wise and learned is found against this Counsell and design of God how highly are you honoured of him and how happy are you that You yet are found for it You after a manifold Apostacy and defâ—ction of many of your Members seem yet to remain as pillars in the House of our God yet you seem to be among those called and chosen and faithful ones that now continue with the Lamb who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords in his engagement against and conquest over the TEN-HORN'D BEAST And to turn aside from
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
much yet they are but sects and schismes and divisions and factions rent from the true Church of God for such men choose and frame to themselves some singular way of worship form order c. whereby they think they excell other Christians and so cause the simple and ignorant which are the multitude of people to follow them especially having countenance of worldly authority by which means both they and their followers depart from the true unity of the Church For when this seven-fold spiritual unity is neglected Christianity is torn in pieces into as many sects as the world and Devil please till there be no foot-steps left either of faith or love So that whatever these men pretend most certain it is that all confedracies in the Church of outward orders forms rites laws ceremonies disciplines which are necessarily enforced by the secular power seduced by the Ecclesiastical will never hold the Church together but all these are and have proved and will prove rather a wall of partition in the Church then a bond of union and if they seem to work union yet it is no other then the mingling clay and iron together which no pains nor art can perfectly compound For all peace and union in the Church knit by other bonds then are here named is no spiritual union neither will it stand And therefore dear Christians and believers seeing we have seven bonds of unity all of Gods own making to make us one let not diversity of forms and rites which are but sorry things of mans making separate and divide us but seeing each of these bonds are able to make us one how much one should all of them together make us And thus having shewed from the word how all Christians and believers are made one by God the next thing I shall aim at is to shew how they may continue one among themselves in reference to that communion they have with one another whilst they sojourn in this world flowing from the former union that so all darkness and mistakes which now even many believers are grievously inwrapped in may be dispelled and done away and we may live in this pure and perfect union with one another in God making all outward things subservient hereunto and none of them prejudicial And to this purpose I conceive we are 1. To know some things And 2. To do other things And both otherwise then yet we seem either to know or do them 1. To preserve our peace we have in Christ we must be instructed aright in the matter of the Churches GOVERNMENT because the mistake in this thing is so great a cause of controversie and division among us at this day For if the true Church hath its true government without any such forms and laws and power as is now so earnestly contended for there is no reason we should fall out and divide for these things Now the Government of the Church is twofold 1. There is that Government which God exercises immediatly by himself And 2. That Government which he exercises mediately and by the faithfull The first of these that is Gods immediate Government is also two fold 1. The Government of his speciall providence 2. The Government of his spiritual presence The first sort of Gods immediate Government of his Church is the Government of his special providence and this is a most strange wonderful and glorious Government This was that Government of God over the Church of Israel when he took his own Nation out of the midst of another Nation by temptations signs wonders by a strong hand and a stretched out arm and great terrours when he led them through the red Sea and through the wilderness in paths that were not trodden when he fed them with bread from heaven and water out of the Rocks when he suffered no man to do them wrong but reproved even Kings for their sake and through multitudes of enemies and oppositions led them into the Land of Canaan Thus God led that Church from bondage to liberty from tribulation to quietness from a sordid condition to honour and renown from a strange land to a land of inheritance and from slavery to a Kingdom And this was a glorious Government indeed standing in Gods immediate conduct from heaven far above all humane councels wisdom stratagems or any thing else of mans contriving and acting and this government of God is so far beyond all humane apprehensions that according to this it is said His way is the Sea and his path in the great waters and his footsteps are not known And is not this kinde of Gods government of the spiritual Church of the New Testament every whit as wonderful and glorious as was that of the visible Church of the Old Testament For though the beginning of it was small and low in the world yet did it receive encrease with the encrease of God and was preserved maintained and enlarged in the world notwithstanding all the rage and cruelties of the persecuting Heathen Emperours for three hundred years together and ever since God himself hath taken the conduct of this Church and hath carryed it through difficulties distresses reproaches prisons torments deaths to ease liberty comfort joy salvation glory life happiness and this hath been Gods glorious government of the Church hitherto And at this present time the Church of God wants not this government among all the troubles confusions wars and desolations of the Kingdom but God is now as near his true Church as ever and supports it and comforts it and guides it as a skilful Pilot in such sort that though the flouds lift up their voice and billows against it yet they cannot sink it For the Lord on high is mightier then the mighty waves of the Sea And so still even at this day the Lord leads his flock through the midst of Wolves and Lyons yea through the midst of Devils in admirable and invincible safety and gives them light in darkness councels in difficulties and success in all attempts above and beyond both all the power and all the expectation of the world Now note here that this kinde of government of the Church God doth not mannage according to the wisdom and thoughts no not of his very people but wholly according to the councel of his own will and the thoughts of his own heart doing things that they must not know yet but must know afterwards yea such things as for the present seem absurd and absolutely destructive And this is the usual way and order of Gods governing his Saints That of Luther on Gen. 39. is worth our minding here I saith he have often endevoured to prescribe certain wayes and methods to God which he should use in the governing of his Church Ah Lord said I I would have this to be thus done in this order with this event But God did altogether contrary to what I did desire Then again thought I why my councel is not differing
now as the Church we speak of is that Church which is born of God and of the Spirit and so is not at all of this world so the power that is agreeable to this Church is the power of God and his Spirit and not at all of this world that is it is not any civil or secular power I may add nor any Ecclesiastical power according to the common understanding it that hath any place in the true Church but meerly a spiritual and heavenly power without any conjunction or mixture of the other seeing Christs power is perfect and every way sufficient for his own Kingdom and Christs Kingdom is Gods Kingdom as well as the Fathers and so men may as well carry worldly and secular power into the Fathers Kingdom as into the Sons seeing this is no other then the Kingdom of God though it be among men and no other then the Kingdom of Heaven though it be upon earth which hath not been understood nor considered by them who have been so busie to bring secular power into a spiritual Kingdom as if Christs own power in his own Kingdom were either weak or imperfect More particularly this true power of the true Church is as I said Christs power in the faithful which is the self-same with Christs power in himself and so 1. It is not a power of violence but a power of influence even such a power as the Head hath over the members and the soul over the body it is not a coercive but a perswasive power a power that makes men willing that are not willing and doth not force the unwilling against their wils 2. This power is humble and not proud as worldly power is for the power of the world sets men over others but the power of the Church sets men under others I saith Christ of himself am among you as one that serves and again He that will be the chief among you let him be the servant of all 3. This power is for edification and not for destruction as Paul acknowledges again and again that the power the Lord gave him was this and no other power viz. not to cast men out of their native Kingdoms but to translate them into Gods Kingdom not to take away their outward Liberties or Estates but to bring them into the Liberty and Inheritance of the Saints to bring men to eternal life and not to destroy men by temporal death 4. This power seeks the good of others more then its own yea good of others with the neglect of its own So Moses was not busie to have a most rebellious people blotted out of the Book of life but rather desired his own name might be blotted out of that book that if it had been the will of God theirs might have been written in And Paul desired that himself might be separated from Christ that his brethren and kinsmen after the flesh might have been united to him And if this power seek the good of others after this high rate even to the neglecting as it were and laying aside their own eternal good how much more to the neglecting and laying aside their temporal good their worldly profits advantages and dignities 5. This power doth not make others suffer to enlarge the Church but suffers it self to bring this about So Christ as Wickliff saith through his poverty humility and suffering injury and death got unto him the children of his Kingdom and not by force and the Martyrs enlarged the Church of Christ by dying themselves and not by causing others to die the blood of the Martyrs being the seed of the Church 6. This power only acts to a spiritual end salvation and only according to spiritual Laws but not to any temporal and worldly ends according to civil and humane laws And thus you see that this true Church power for the nature and quality of it both in general and in particular differs very much both from the apprehensions and practise of the most of our Ecclesiastical men 3. What is the extent of this true Church power I answer that this power extends it self full as far as the Church but no further For what hath the Church to do with those that are not of the Church What have we to do saith Paul with them that are without For Church power which is spiritual is no more sutable to the world then worldly power which is fleshly is sutable to the Church The power of the Church which is Christs power onely reaches so far as Christs Kingdom that is the people that are born of God and his Spirit True Church Government reaches as far as Christs and the Spirits effectual influence and operation but no further that is to all that are willing but to none that are unwilling As nothing hath more troubled the Church then to govern it and give it Laws after the manner of the world by secular force and power so nothing hath more troubled the world then to govern it and give it Laws after the manner of the Church by the aforesaid compulsion Wherefore as the Government of the world is not to be spread over the Church so neither is the Government of the Church to be spread over the world but as the world and the Church are distinct things in themselves so they are to be contented with their distinct Governments 4. What is the outward instrument of this power I answer The word only which is the only scepter and sword of Christs Kingdom to govern his people and subdue his enemies Christ himself the Head of the Church used no other instrument to govern his people by but the word or the preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom and declaring what he had heard from his Father and at his departure out of the world he told them That as his Father had sent him so did he send them and no otherwise that is to do all in the Church by the power of the word and nothing by the power of the world And so the true Church doth all in it self only by the Gospel by the Gospel it bindeth and looseth by the Gospel it remits and retains sin by the Gospel it quickens to life and wounds to death by the Gospel it receives in and casts out by the Gospel it works faith renues the life acts orders guides and governs all things and that Church that hath another scepter and sword besides the word that hath orders and constitutions of men to govern by and plurality of votes in Classical Provincial and National Assemblies to binde and loose by that have their own Laws and Orders to be their Scepter and the Authority of the Magistrate to be their Sword in their Kingdom I say if these be the ways and instruments of their Governments assuredly the Church they boast of is another Church then Christs and is no other in very deed but a Kingdom of sin and darkness and death and when its form of godliness which it
hath put on to deceive shall after a few years vanish away it shall return into the shape of its first beginning And therefore let us know whatever rules orders or humane inventions men do study and devise to govern their Churches by the true Church of Christ shall ever be known by the scepter and sword of the onely Gospel preached in it which is fully sufficient for the regiment of the Church else Christ were an imperfect Law-giver And all those that do affirm that the votes determinations rules and constitutions of Councels are better for the well ordering and governing the Church then the pure and naked word of the Gospel by the ministration of the Spirit in my judgement they speak blasphemously Let us now hear what Luther saith to this purpose Christians saith he ought to be governed by that word and no other whereby they are made Christians that is free from sin and this is only by the pure Gospel of God without the addition of Councels Doctors Fathers For what is it to govern Christians by that word which though they keep yet neither do they become Christians nor continue such nay they cease to be Christians and lose Christ And of this sort is every word besides the Gospel and salvation reigns in us not by the laws of men but by the power of Christ Farther they that are not Christians are to be restrained other ways then by the traditions of men for these are to be let alone and as Paul saith We are not to mingle with them There is the secular sword there is the Magistrate for these and it belongs to him to restrain those that are evil from evil deeds by the power of the sword But the Bishop or Overseer governs Christians without the sword only by the Word of God seeing it is certain they are not Christians except they be spontaneously good and such they are made by the force of the spirit of faith as Paul saith Rom. 8. As many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the children of God What madness then is it to urge them that are willingly good with the Laws of the evil And yet saith he There are not a few light and vain men that think that the business of the Gospel is to be promoted with weapons and cuffes And the same Luther in his Epistle to the Christians and Preachers of Erphurd saith Consider in your minde with what sword I subdued the Papacy and the whole state of religious men who before were dreadful to all of whom it was said Who shall fight with the Beast that hath power to make war with the Saints and to overcome them And yet saith he I never touched them with so much as one of my fingers but Christ destroyed and overthrew all that detestable Kingdom by discovering their iniquities by the Spirit of his mouth that is by the Word of the Gospel In which passages of his besides what is spoken before it is apparent that there is no other instrument of the true Churches power but the word of the Gospel which is the only scepter and sword of Christs Kingdom 5. What the true Church can do by vertue of this power Now the true Church by the power it hath received from Christ can 1. Gather it self together when and as often as it pleaseth The company of Believers have power to gather themselves togeâ—ther for their mutual good instruction preservation edification and for the avoiding or preventing of evil and that without the consent or authority of any extrinsecal and forraign power whatever else Christ were not a sufficient founder of his Church And if every free Society not subjected to tyranny hath power in it self to congregate and come together as conveniency and necessity shall require as is evident in all civil Corporations and in all Fraternities and meetings of love much more hath the Church of Christ which is the freest Society in the world power to meet together into a communion of Saints though it be without and against the consent and authority of the powers of the world And thus the Disciples immediately after Christs resurrection though the People and Rulers were wholly set against them did often meet together among themselves though privately and Christ himself came and stood in the midst of them and finding them in that way of Communion said Peace be unto them And so by his own presence did both justifie and encourage such meetings And after the Apostles with other Believers to the number of an hundred and twenty met together in an upper room to pray and to choose an Apostle in the stead of Judas Act. 1. And at the day of Pentecost they all met again Act. 2. Though the Elders of the Church and Rulers of the state were utterly against their meetings And again Act. 4. Peter and John after the threatnings of the Rulers and the Jews went and met with their own company which was now mightily encreased by the Ministery of the Gospel and declared to them all things that God had done by them and the Rulers had done against them whereupon all of them joyned together in the praise of God for the success of the Gospel against the power of the world And again Act. 6. the Church of its own accord met together to chuse seven Deacons And a multitude of other instances might be produced By all which it appears that the Church of Believers hath power of it self to appoint its own meetings as conveniency or necessity shall require for the good of the Church And therefore none are to presume to deny the Church this power which it hath received from him that hath all power in heaven and in earth Neither ought the true Church to suffer this power to be taken from them which they have received from so good a hand but still to use their own Christian meetings though the Powers of the world never so much oppose them as the Apostles and Believers in their time began and as Believers after for 300 years continued notwithstanding the barbarous cruelties of the persecuting Emperours 2. As the Church of the faithful hath power from Christ to meet together so secondly to appoint its own outward orders For the Church whilst it dwels in flesh and bloud uses some external Rites by which it is neither sanctified in soul or body but they are things meerly of outward Order and decency And these things each Church or Communion of Saints may order by it self according to the wisedom of the Spirit so it observe these Rules 1. That they do all things in love seeing all Laws without love are tyranny and so whatsoever is not from and for love is not to be appointed and if it be it is again to be abolished seeing no Text of the Scripture it self if it build not up love is rightly interpreted 2. They are to do all things for peace and all
that have most natural power and abilities are fittest to be the Officers so among spiritual men in the Church they are fittest to be the Officers that have most spiritual power that is such in whom Christ and the Spirit are most manifest and of this the faithful of all sorts are Judges Wherefore no natural parts and abilities nor no humane learning and degrees in the Schools or Vniversities nor no Ecclesiastical Ordination or Orders are to be reckoned sufficient to make any man a Minister but only the teaching of God and gifts received of Christ by the Spirit for the work of the Ministry which the faithful are able to discern and judge of 2. Out of whom these Officers are to be chosen And that is out of the flock of Christ and nowhere else Indeed Antichrist bringing in humane learning instead of the Spirit chose his Ministers onely out of the Vniversities but the right Church chuses them out of the faithful seeing it reckons no man learned and so fit to speak in the Church but he that hath heard and learned from the Father Moreover it is plain that as natural power is founded on a natural gift and he must needs be a man that is capable of humane power so supernatural power is founded on a supernatural gift and he must needs be a Believer that is capable of this spiritual power And so a man must needs first be of the Church ere he can have any power or office in it Wherefore all unbelievers and carnal men are so far from having any power in the true Church that they have no place in it and are so far from being Officers that they are not members For they that neither have nor know spiritual power themselves how can they exercise it among others 3. By whom they are to be chosen And that is by the Congregation or Community of Believers For if every free Society hath power to chuse its own Officers much more hath the true Church this power being as is said the freest Society under heaven And so the true Church is not to have Officers thrust over them by others but is to chuse them its self If any object against this that Paul commanded Timothy and Titus to appoint Elders and that Paul and Barnabas Act. 14. 23. did chuse Elders in every Church with prayer and fasting And therefore it may seem that the Congregation hath not power to chuse its own Ministers but that some chief Ministers must appoint other Ministers in each Congregation To this I answer That if there were any Ministers among us that did hold the place of the Apostles living and acting evidently in the vertues of Christ and in the knowledge and power of the Spirit I would not doubt to allow them as much authority in ordaining Ministers as Paul and Barnabas or any of the other Apostles had But since it is very evident that very few of these have the Spirit of the LORD upon them how should they have Authority to appoint Ministers who cannot themselves be reckoned Believers or spiritual But secondly If they were true Ministers through the anointing of the Spirit yet could they not appoint Ministers in other Congregations without their own consent and approbation but those whom the whole Church chuses they are to commend to God by prayer and if they should refuse to do this yet he who is chosen by the Church is sufficiently its Minister through the Churches choice alone Neither did Paul or Barnabas or Timothy or Titus appoint any Minister by their own single Authority without the consent of the Church as may appear by those Scriptures 1 Tim. 3. and Titus 1. where Paul saith The Overseers or Elders as also the Deacons or Ministers should be blameless and unreproveable Now neither Timothy nor Titus knew of themselves who were blameless in those places but onely received the Testimony of the Church which chose them to that office Further we see Act 6. that the Twelve Apostles together did not by themselves appoint any to a lower office to wit to be Deacons without the Churches own choice of them But say the Twelve to the multitude of the Disciples Look ye out among your selves seven men of honest report full of the holy Spirit and wisedom whom we may appoint over this business And those whom the Church chose the Apostles confirmed Wherefore if it were not lawful for the Apostles at their own pleasure to appoint men to minister so much as alms to the necessities of the poor without the choice and consent of the Church much less was it lawful for them to appoint any among Believers to the hard and difficult work of the Ministry without their own choice and approbation By all which it is clear that the Congregations of the faithful have power in themselves according to the doctrine of the Gospel to chuse their own Ministers And therefore seeing the true Church of God cannot possibly be without the word seeing it is born and nourished and encreased and strengthened and preserved and comforted and perfected by it And seeing the generality of the Clergy of these times are ignorant of the mystery of the Gospel and destitute of the Spirit it must come to pass that either the Church must perish for want of the word or else according to what we have heard Believers must meet together as they can conveniently up and down the Kingdom and such Meetings must chuse one or mo fit persons from among themselves to be their Elders in the Lord and then by prayer to commend them to the work of the Ministry and so to acknowledge them for their Pastors And there is no doubt but what Believers met together in the name of Christ do in this matter it is done through the working and approving of God himself And besides this way I see no other how in this great defection of the Clergy the Church may have the true word of God restored to their meetings and assemblies again Now this thing that is so directly cross to the way and working of Antichrist for many Ages together and is so opposite to Fathers Schoolmen Councels Doctors Antiquity Custom and the general praâ—ctice of the Kingdom cannot be hoped to be accomplished at once but by degrees as the lightnings of the Gospel shall enlighten the world and the Spirit shall be poured forth And therefore in this matter let some begin and the rest follow as this practice shall be cleared up to them from the Scriptures For none are to be forced in this matter if Authority should entertain this truth but the Spirit is to be allowed its own liberty to blow when and where and on whom he listeth Neither ought this to trouble any if all do not presently agree with them it is sufficient if at first a few begin whom others may follow afterwards as God shall perswade them Now as the Church hath power to chuse its Officers so if
they prove evil it hath power either 1. To reform them Or 2. To depose them 1. It hath power to reform them if so be that they may be brought to repentance and amendment Yea as all the evils of the Church do commonly first flow from the Officers so the reformation of it is first to begin with them And who shall reform the Officers of the Church but the Church it self Seeing the Officers will be sure to tolerate one another in their Vn-Gospel and Vn-Christian courses against the life of Christ and true practice of the word because it is their own case Wherefore seeing the Generality of the present Clergy are arrived to this height of evil that they will not be contented to be servants but will needs make themselves Lords over Christs Flock plotting and striving to procure and maintain their Ecclesiastical state by secular power seeing they have left off to preach Christ and the Gospel and onely preach of state-affairs raging and railing against the most just and necessary proceedings of the Supream Authority of the Kingdom as not sutable to their designs seeing they are daily depraving the sayings and writings of men more righteous then themselves yea and dare cast a veil of their fals Expositions over the very Scriptures to darken them and make them as Sack-cloth to the world that the glory of the Father and the minde of Christ might if it were possible be wholly obscured yea seeing they are become so vile that they had rather Christ himself with his Gospel and true Church should all perish then that they should suffer the least diminâ—tion of their power dignity riches dominion and tyranny What remains but that the Societies of Christians should meet together to reform these evil Officers And whereas they are now met to reform the Church it is far more necessary and would be far more profitable for the Congregations of the faithful to meet together to reform them if yet they be capable of reformation which I confess is much to be doubted seeing they sin against so clear a light 2. If the Officers of the Church prove incorrigible the Church hath power to depose them seeing they have no indelible character whatever the Romish Church affirms Wherefore as the true Church hath power to chuse its Ministers and to continue them as long as they remain faithful in their work so also it hath power to remove them if they forsake the truth and power of the Gospel For as in civil Societies not subjectd to tyranny Officers that prove evil are moveable by them that made them so likewise the Church hath power to remove if it see cause this spiritual Officer yea the spiritual Officer is so much the more moveable then the civil by how much the more he is intolerable if he be unfaithful for the civil Officer can onely hurt in the things of this life but the spiritual in the things of eternal life Wherefore the Church hath the greatest necessity to remove him and chuse another seeing this salt when it hath lost its savour is good for nothing but to be cast upon the dunghil And to this worthy Mr Tindal a blessed Martyr witnesses saying If they that is the Ministers err from the word then may whosoever God moveth his heart play Paul and correct him and if he will not obey the Scripture then have his brethren â—uthority by the Scripture to put him down and send him out of Christs Church among the Hereticks which prefer their false doctrines above the true word of Christ 4. The true Church hath power to call its Councels If the Church of the faithful stand in need of a Councel it may call one if it pleaseth and it hath power so to do and the Councel is not to call and appoint the Church as is now done but the Church is to call and appoint the Councel and the Councel is to have its Authority from the Church and not the Church from it And for the world it can no more call the Councels of the Church then the Church can call the Councels of the world the Councels of the Church and the world being as distinct as the Church and the world themselves are Now I said The Church if it need a Councel may call one because the Church of Believers now seldom needs a Councel seeing all things are so clear in the word of God with which the faithful are so well acquainted There are many other causes why the right Church may very well be without Councels As 1. Because Councels as the manner was were either called or congregated by the Pope a meer Vsurper in the Church or by secular and worldly Princes who advanced themselves to the same power in the Church though upon another account And according to their ends and designs Councels for the most part have been guided and pointed 2. Because they have for the most part been made up of Bishops and Ecclesiastical men who have onely sought the interest and advantage of the Clergie to the prejudice of the body of Christianity by which means they have set up their own Kingdom and tyranny over all other Christians 3. Because being gathered and met they have especially medled with outward rites and Ceremonies and touching these have made binding and coercive laws to the overthrow of Christian liberty and the ensnaring and enslaving mens consciences 4. Because if they have medled with Doctrine they have rather perverted and obscured the clear word of the Gospel then truly explicated and unfolded it 5. Wherein they have done well yet this evil hath always gone along with it that they have made People rather look to men then unto God and that in the very things of God and to take divine things from them by a humane saith rather then from God himself and his immediate word according to the faith of Gods Elect and so have given forth themselves in their opinions and judgements as a foundation to the Church in the stead of Jesus Christ 6. Because they always determine the things of God by the plurality of Votes and do not weigh but number the suffrages and so the greater part still overcomes the better and the many that are called carry the Vote against the few that are chosen Whereby it comes to pass that the truth is subdued and error is established by a plausible Authority 7. Because such Councels commonly attribute to themselves infallibility and so set themselves up as a peremptory rule by which the whole Church must walk and none must presume to say to them curita facitis why do ye so though they do never so ill They say they cannot be judged by any other Christians because they are subject to none but all other Christians are subject to them and are to be judged by them They say they may pronounce all other Schismaticks and Hereticks but no body must pronounce them so though they be so And
after they have once drunk of this cup of abomination what hope can there be that any thing hereafter should be done right among them 8. And lastly because after so many Councels things have not been the better but the worse in the Church through their means for it is not dead laws and orders wrtten by men will do the true Church any good but the living law of God written in their hearts by the Spirit as God hath promised to do saying I will write my law in their hearts and put in it their inward parts For as the law of sin hath been written in our natures to corrupt us so the law of the Spirit of life must be written also in our natures to reform us Wherefore after all their Decrees Laws Rules Orders c. the Church commonly hath been so far from being bettered that it hath become more ignorant of the Word superstitious formal prophane then before All these things being seriously considered the Church may very well want Councels Now if any shall say Yea but had not the Church a Councel in the Apostles times as we see Act. 15 and did not they order and decree matters in the Church I answer the Church had a Councel then but far differing from the Councels now adaies for 1. That Councel was not called nor packed together by secular power but freely met together by the general consent o◠the Church of the faithful For by the Believers at Antioch it was agreed that Paul and Barnabas should go to the Apostles and Elders at Jerusalem about the matters in controversie 2. This Councel did not consist only of the Apostles and Elders but of the brethren also and whole Church and the whole Church as well as the Apostles and Elders did agree and order what was done in that matter 3. That free Councel consisting of the Apostles Elders and Brethren did not determine any thing by their meer power and authority but debated the business by the word by the word concluded it And so it was not the Authority of the Councel did any thing but the Authority of the Word that did all in that matter as you may see in the fore named place And in these regards that Councel differs from ours Now if notwithstanding all this the Church upon some occasions desire a Councel for herein as in all other outward things it is free it must minde these things 1. That it hath power it self to call one as the Primitive Church had And what men can object against this of worldly Princes calling them let them not say what they did but what they ought to have done 2. As the Church it self is to chuse its Councel so it is to chuse it out of its self For the Councels of the Church are to be chosen out of the Church and not of the world out of the faithful and not out of unbelievers For the natural man that neither knows nor savours the things that be of God can be of no use here but he must be able to know the word of God from the doctrines of men and to separate the precious from the vile that is employed in this matter And so the natural carnal and litter 〈◊〉 man must be declined here where the things are wholly spiritual and divine and the spiritual man onely who speaks spiritual things by a spiritual rule must be heard and regarded and so a man must first be of the Church ere he can be of the Councel 3. As the Church is to chuse men out of it self for its Councel so likewise it is to chuse brethren as well as Elders and Ecclesiastical men are not to meddle alone in the matters of the Church and to thrust out other Christians as if they were necessarily to be concluded in and by them 4. In chusing Elders and Brethren to this work great care is to be had that they chuse not men of worldly power or place lest wordly power and Authority and honour might seem to bear sway in the things of the Kingdom of God but they are rather to make choyce of men destitute of these things that it may appear whatever they do is done only by the clear evidence of the word and influence of the spirit and so onely by the law of love all secular power and force being excluded 5. The Church hath power to judge of all Doctrines and that both of its Officers and Councels The Clergie and Ecclesiastical men have been wont to challenge to themselves the knowledge and judgement of Doctrines and have excluded ordinary Christians from it whereas in truth the judgement of doctrine belongeth to the people and not to the Ministers And all Christs Sheep have power to judge of the doctrine the Ministers teach whether it be Christs Voyce or a Strangers John 10. and Christ commanded them to take heed of false Prophets which come to them in sheeps cloathing being inwardly ravening wolves Mat. 7. And the Apostle commands them to try the spirits whether they be of God and hath said Let one or two speak and the rest judge 1 Cor. 14. c. by which with many other Scriptures it is evident That Ministers are not to judge of doctrine for the People but the People are to judge of the doctrine of the Ministers and according as they find it to be of God or not of God to receive it or reject it For every one is to be saved by his own faith and not by another mans and so is to take heed how he hear the things of faith at his own peril and he is not if he will be wise to salvation to take up things on trust in a matter that concerns either his eternal life or eternal death 2. As the Church is to judge of the Doctrine of its Officers so also of its Councels For the Church judges of them and their doctrine also by the word and doth not take all that they determine for truth to be certain and unquestionable Yea in the first Councel of the Apostles Act. 15. Other Churches and Christians had both liberty and power to try both the doctrine and Spirit of the very Apostles in that matter and were not to swallow it down whole as they say because the Apostles had determined it and they were holy men but the faithful were to judge whether or no they had judged according to the word and if not they might have resisted them as Paul did Peter And Paul gives this liberty to Christians yea we have it from Christ himself whether Paul had allowed it or no to try the very Apostles themselves and the very Angels of Heaven whether they bring the right word or no for Christ commanded the Apostles to teach that Nations to observe and do whatsoever he had commanded them and nothing else and saith Paul If I or an Angel from heaven bring you any other doctrine let him be accursed So that the Church
otherwise in the Church for whoever speak there the hearers are to judge of the truth of the Doctrine and accordingly are either to receive it or reject it having power to do either as they see occasion and so errour cannot prevail in that Church where the faithfull have liberty to judge of all Doctrines and do exercise that liberty But where they that publish Doctrine are also the judges of it and the people are bound up to the Doctrine of the Teachers and may not question or contradict it there errour reigns as in its proper Kingdom And thus by these means errour may certainly be kept out of the Church that the Church may live in truth and peace But here now a great question wil be moved and that is this Whether the Magistrate hath not power to suppress errour by the sword and whether the Church may not use this remedy against errour as well as all those before named I answer that many men of great eminency have attributed such a power to the Magistrate and have done him the honour besides his throne in the world to erect him a throne in Gods Kingdom at the least equal to Christ thinking that Religion would soon be lost if he should not uphold it And to make this good they have produced many Scriptures of the Old Testament which seem to arm the Magistrate against the authors and spreaders of errours But I desire the wise hearted to consider whether as clear Scriptures may not be produced out of the Old Testament to prove that temporal power in the world belongs to Ecclesiastical men as that spiritual power in the Church belongs to worldly Magistrates And to this purpose because I would not be too large in this matter now I shall desire him who hath a minde to be instructed to reade and weigh the Reply of the French Prelates to the Lord Peters which he may finde in Fox his Book of Martyrs vol. 1 p. 467. Wherefore seeing the Scriptures of the old Testament are every whit as strong to give Ministers power in temporal matters as Magistrates in spiritual it is without all question the only sure and safe way to determine this cause by the new Testament or the doctrine of Christ and the Apostles by whom in these last dayes God hath spoken fully to the Church and after whose doctrine there is no other word to be expected And because herein I finde no such power given to the Civil Magistrate to judge and determine in spiritual matters therefore I conclude he hath none Now if any shall say This is a great wrong to the Magistrate to thrust his power out of the Church and to confine it to the world I answer That to make the Church an Ecclesiastical Kingdom standing in outward Laws orders authority dignity promotion goverment all which are to be granted established and managed by state power and yet to deny the Magistrates authority and influence into these things which flow from his own power and consist in it and by it this is to streighten and to wrong him indeed But to declare the true Church to be a spiritual Kingdom as Christ hath made it and not at all of this world but the very Kingdom of heaven upon earth and thereupon to deny him power in it is no more to prejudice the Magistrate then to deny him power in heaven Seeing the Sons Kingdom which is heaven on earth is to be as free from worldly and humane power as the Fathers Kingdom which is heaven in heaven Christ being to be all in all in this as God is to be all in all in that And so to deny the Magistrate that power which Christ never granted him is no wrong to him at all but to grant him and gratifie him with such power would be a great and intolerable wrong to the truth and Church of Christ as in many other things so in this present matter we are speaking of as you may see in the following particulars For the putting the power of the sword into the Magistrates hands to suppress errour is attended with these evils 1. Hereby the Magistrate is made a Judge of Doctrines and hath power given him to pronounce which is truth and which is errour being yet no more infallible yea everywhit as liable to erre as the meanest of the people And what Magistrate is there that hath the power of the sword but will uphold his own Religion and judgement to be the truth though never so false and will sentence what ever is contrary thereunto to be errour though never so true and so the truth and word of God which only is to judge all and it self to be judged of none by this means is made subject to the judgement of vain man and shall either be truth or errour as he pleases to call it and errour when it pleaseth the Magistrate shall be adorned with the glorious title of truth and shall have his authority to countenance and uphold it And how great a prejudice this hath been and is to the truth and how great an advantage to errour it is very easie to judge Now if any shall say that the Magistrate may not judge of doctrine by himself and use his sword accordingly but he may take to him the councel and advice of godly and able Ministers as now of the Assembly and so may judge and punish according to their judgement I answer Is it fit that the Magistrate in so great matters should be blinde folded himself and see onely by other mens eyes Again if the Magistrate judge according to the judgement of â—he Ministers and depending more on their knowledge then his own shall draw his sword against whomsoever they shall perswade him What higher honour doth he attain to in all this then to become their Executioner Yea if he punish amiss he may prove a very murderer Pilate in this case may be a sea-mark to all the Magistrates in the world who following the councel and judgement of the High Priests put the Son of God himself to death as if he had been the son of perdition Which I say may serve for a sufficient warning to the end of the world to all Magistrates that they confide not on the judgement of the Clergy but that they be sure themselves in what they do 2. The putting power into the Magistrates hands to suppress error by the sword gives him full opportunity to destroy and slay the true children of God if at any time he shall mistake and judge them Heretikes For what power men ignorantly allow a godly Magistrate against true Heretikes the same power will all Magistrates arrogate to themselves as their just due against all those that differ from themselves in matters of Religion though their judgement who so differ from them be never so true And thus the Magistrate who is a most fallible Judge in these things in stead of tares may pluck up the wheat
heard and convinced by the word and not presently to be silenced and subdued by force Now secondly if upon hearing and debating things by the word it shall clearly appear that our adversaries hold such things which are so false and erroneous that they cannot be reckoned believers and members of Christ that hold them nor can retain those Doctrines without unvoidable damnation then in this case the true Church hath Authority from the word to do these things 1. To condemn the doctrine 2. To excommunicate their persons 1. The Church ought to condemn the doctrine as contrary to the Gospel and to that eternal and unchangeable and most clear and certain truth which Christ hath heard from the Father and delivered to his Church which is the faith once given to the Saints and never to be altered And so to tell the people what Doctrine it is even such as carries in it an utter enmity to Christ and his Spirit and so consequently death and damnation and that therefore they are to take heed of it as they love eternall life and would void eternall death And thus Christ condemned the Doctrine of the Scribes and of the Pharisees and of the Sadduces and bid his Disciples Beware of them and Paul the Doctrine of Hymeneus and Philetus which did eat as a canker c. 2. The Church in this case may also excommunicate the Person yea though he should be silent and not seduce others seeing believers can have no true communion with such an one who is in enmity to the word of life in which all the true communion of the faithfull stands Wherefore such persons may justly be cut off from the Society of the faithfull But herein also these Rules are to be observed to wit 1. That this censure be not proceeded to for every varying from the truth as is already said but for denying such truths or holding such errors as make a man incapable of salvation 2. That this be not done till all other wayes have been tryed to reclaim him 3. That this be done not by two or three persons but by the whole Church or communion 4. That it be done not by their own but by Christs Authority who is alwayes present in his Church as the Head of that body and that it be done not by any humane Passion or violence but by the efficacy of the holy Spirit who is alwayes present among believers as the Spirit of those members And this Excommunication thus regulated is the last punishment the Church can inflict by the warrant and authority of Christ and it cannot imprison any or banish them or fine them or put them to death for we must not expound that place of Paul Haereticum hominem devita as Hugo Charensis did to take a Heretike out of his life but him that is a Heretike we must avoid we must not kill the former being Christs rule the latter Antichrists Now these things have I spoken and propounded to the faithfull and Churches of Christ wherever the providence of God shall cast this Book which may travel farther on this errand then weak flesh can do and I so propound them all as being most ready my self to hear from any what they can propound in more light and evidence of the word And I do humbly and earnestly intreate all faithfull Christians that whatever they shall conceive of my judgement in these matters they will yet take in good part my care to recover and preserve Peace and Vnity in the true Church of Christ The desire of which through Gods goodness is much stronger in my heart then any private interest or respect of mine own FINIS Ephes 4. 11 12 13. Esai 25 7. 8. Acts 16. 2 Tim. 3. 5. Esa 2. 12. 13. Esa 14. 9. Gen 49 5. Gen 49. 10. 11. Num. 12. 14. Es 37. 12. Revel 20. 9. Es 9. 5. Acts 13. 32. Dan. 2. 31. Gal. 6. Psalm 148. vers 13. 14. a John 4 19. b John 13. 1. The summ of Christs discourse with his Disciples after his Resurrection till his Ascension (a) Psal 2. 8. (b) Dan. 7. 14. (c) Psal 72. 8. Quest Answ 1. General Doctrine Melius est nullum habere quam sacrilegum impium sceleratum ministrum qui non venit nisi ut mactet perdat sicut fur latro Luth. de instit Ministr Eccl. 2. General Doctrine 3. General Doctrine The particular handling of the words The Doctr. The Spirit is Power two wayes 1. Essentially in it self 2. Operatively in us By being in us 1. A Spirit of Knowledge 2. A Spirit of Power 3. A Spirit of Wisdom 2 Cor. 1. 10. 4. A spirit of Faith Ephes 1. 19. The power of faith inables us 1. to do the same things Christ himself did Phil. 4. 13. 2. To suffer the same things that Christ himself suffered Phil. 3. 10. Cant. 8. 5 6. 5. A spirit of Righteousness 1. Mortifying sin 2. Imparting grace 6 A spirit of the fear of the Lord. Isa 8. 13. 7. A spirit of love and Vnity Isa 41. 15. 1. Vse A necessary for Ministers to have the power of the Spirit 1. Otherwise they have no power at all 2. Without this they are insufficient for the work of the Ministry 1. They are unable to preach the Word 2. Unable to preach it powerfully 1. The Ministery cold without this power 2 Weak Acts 6. 10. 3 Unable to hold out in the Ministery Acts 4. 17. 18. Acts 4. 19. 4. Unable to reprove the world 5. Unable to wrestle with and overcome the devil 6 Unable to suffer persecution for the Word * Mihi vero qui vocatus sum decretum certum est ingredi urbem in nomine Domini nostri Iesu Christi etiamsi scirem tot diabolos mihi oppositos quot sunt tegulae in omnibus totius urbis tectis * Verum quid faciam urgent me causae inevitabiles Deus cogit vocat hic nulli creaturae tergiversandum est Age fiat igitur in nomine Iesu Christi qui est Dominus vitae mortis Nihil habeo quod possim perdere Domini ego sum si perdor Domino perdor id est invenior Alium ergo quaere quem terreas Verum ego scio certus sum Iesum Christum Dominum nostrum vivere regnare qua scientia fiducia inflatus non timebo etiam multa millia Paparum Major est enim qui in nobis quam qui in mundo est Quid si me occidat Papa aut damnel ultra Tartara Occisum non suscitabit ut bis iterum occidat damnatum vero ego voâ—â—ut nunquam absolvat Confido enim instare diem illum quo deâ—â—ruetur regnum illud abominationis perditionis Vtinam nos primi digni simus vel exuri vel occidi ab eo quò sanguis noster magis clamet urgeat judicium illius accelerari Sed si digni non sumus sanguine testificari hanc