1. To whom the keyes of the church are given 2. What they are 3. What is the extent of this power 190 4. What is the outward instrument of it ibid. 5. What the true church can do by virtue of it And this comprehends these particulars 1. It can gather it self together 192 2. It can appoint its own Orders 193 What rules it is to observe herein 194 3. It can choose its own Officers 196 And here 1. What Officers are to be chosen 197 2. Out of whom ibid. 1. By whom 198 What the true church as the case now stands is to do in point of chusing officers p. 199 And if need be can Reform them p. 200 Or depose them p. 201 4. It can call its own Councels if it need any ibid. Certain reasons why the church may now well want Councels p. 202 And if it will have any what rules it is to observe touching them p. 204 5 It can judge of all Doctrines both of its Officers and Councels p. 205 And thus the judgement of beleevers is to be rectified in these things for the preserving peace among themselves 2. The practice of the true church is to be rectified in other things The practical Rules that are more absolute and general in the way of peace are these 1 That the true Church keep it self distinct from the world p. 206 2. That the true Church content it self with its own power for its own affairs p 207 3. That the true church do not fetch or force men unto it against their wils 209 4. That the true church make void the distinction of Clergy and Laity among Christians p. 211 5. That the true church keep equality between Christians and Churches p. 212 6. That the true church keep the Officers of the church in subordination to the Community p. 213 7. That all true Christians and Churches do take Christ alike for their Head and do not set up visible heads or Ring-leaders to themselves of men no not of the best men p. 214 8. That the true Church keep out all error in doctrine p 215 5 Wayes by which this may be effectually done without the help of the Magistrate p. 216 The great Question touching the Magistrates power to keep out error answered p. 224 9. That the true church do not inforce Uniformity in outward orders and discipline p. 225 Practical rules for peace more special and occasional in point of difference among the faithful Here the weight of things is to be first considered If the things wherein beleevers differ be circumstantial and ceremonial only then there are 5 Rules to be observed for the preserving peace p. 233 If the things wherein they differ be points of Doctrine yet such are not absolutely necessary to salvation then there are 7 Rules to be observed for the preserving of peace p. 235 If the Doctrine wherein the difference lies is such as is absolutely inconsistent with true faith and salvation yet then 1. The person is to be heard p. 237 2. If after full hearing it is manifest to be a Doctrine contrary to the faith of Gods Elect then the true Church ought 1 To condemn the Doctrine p. 241 2 To excommunicate the person ibid. And this is the last punishment the true Church can inflict p. 242 The conclusion of all ibid. THE Way of true Peace and Vnity in the true Church of CHRIST HAving now for a long time time together observed with a said heart and troubled spirit the grievous differences and dissentions among the faithful and Churches of Christ and perceiving also that there is yet no healing of this error many or most of them not clearly understanding wherein their true peace and unity ought to consist and so are still prosecuting former with later mistakes till their wound is become almost incurable I found my heart inclined and engaged by God to propound to others that way of Peace which my self have learned from the Word And this I desire to do not that I might seem to be something or be accounted of any more then the meanest of all Gods people being indeed unworthy to minister so much as a cup of cold water to the Church the Spouse of Christ much less â—o incomparable a treasure as the word of God is in comparison of which all the world is not to be mentioned but meerly out of love and compassion to the infirmities of my brethren whom I see walking in the light of their own 〈◊〉 and in the sparks which they themselves do kindle whereby they are in great danger to lie down in sorrow whilst in the mean time they neglect the true light which alone is to shine in the Kingdom of God till all ignorance and darkness be done away And aâ— my end and scope is to bring all men from all humane doctrines and conceptions of carnal wisdom and prudence to the Word of God so I desire all men that are spiritual and able to judge to allow of no more in this Discourse then they shall finde agreeable to this word and what ever the Word of God in the true sense and meaning of it shall disapprove or condemn so far let them also disapprove and condemn with it as I my self also do knowing well that no Word ought to have any place in the Church of God but the Word of God which alone carries light life righteousness wisdom and power sufficient and enough in it self to do the whole minde and work of God in his Church Wherefore what I have freely learned I shall freely communicate desiring every one to regard his own salvation seeing now after so clear a discovery of truth he can have no cloak nor the least excuse for his sin Now that he that reads may understand it is necessary for me speaking of the unity and peace of the Church to tell you now at first that I intend not to propound any way of peace either between the Church and the World or else between the carnal and spiritual children of the Church as having learned no such thing out of the word of God First Not between the Church and the world for the Lord never intended any reconciliation and agreement between these in the spiritual and eternal things of the Kingdom of God for these are two distinct seeds and sorts of people the one from beneath the other from above the one the seed of the woman the other the seed of the Serpent and between these two God hath put such an emnity that no man can take away Wherefore they who never minding these two different seeds between whom God hath put such irreconciliable enmity would make all the people of one or moe whole Kingdoms a Church at once and would reconcile all of them together in the things of God and in the ways of his worship according to devices and methods of their own these men know not what they do for they walk in the darkness of their own hearts
to enquire after variety of errors Wherefore letting alone their darkness I shall onely endeavour that the light of the word may shine unto us in this matter that herein also we may be taught of God if it be the will of God This mediate Government then of Christ in the true Church I conceive to be nothing but this Christs ordering all things by the faithful among the faithful in reference to the communion of Saints Now because many Christians desire instruction and light in this matter I shall be willing to hold forth to them that measure of knowledge which I have received herein being desirous also to learn my self of them that can teach me better by the Word And that I may proceed the more distinctly I shall propound several things to which I shall speak in order and they be these 1. To whom Christ hath committed the power of ordering and managing all things in the true Church in reference to the communion of Saints 2. What kinde of power this is which the true Church hath 3. What is the extent of this power 4. What is the outward instrument of it 5. What the true Church can do by vertue of it And this comprehends these particulars 1. It can gather it self together 2. It can appoint its own order 3. It can choose its own officers and if need be reform them or depose them 4. It can call its own councels 5. It can judge of all Doctrines both of its Officers and Councels And all these things I reckon needful for the true Church to know for the preserving among themselves that peace and unity they have in Christ They first thing then is 1. To whom Christ hath committed the power of ordering and managing all things in the true Church in reference to the communion of Saints I Answer He hath given it to the true Church it self as formerly described even to each and all the members of it for as natural power belongs to all natural men alike so spiritual power which is the true Church power to all spiritual men alike Christ in a Believer is the root of true Church-power and because Christ dwels in all Believers alike through unity of faith therefore all Believers partake alike of spiritual and super-natural power and no one partakes of this power more then another any more then he partakes of Christ more then another but Christ in them all is the self same power of God to do all things that are to be done in the Kingdom of God And according this sense that place in Math. 16. 19. is to be understood where Christ saith to Peter And I will give unto thee the keys of the Kingdom of heaven and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven The Pope and Papal Church under colour of this place have made great merchandise and have exceedingly abused and cheated the Nations for many hundred years together but the light of the Gospel hath shined forth and the days of their traffique are at end And yet since others have been trucking with the world by their false interpretations of this place and have thought to use it to their great advantage but the day hath so far dawned that their shadows also are flying away But not to keep you longer from the words themselves Peter had said to Christ Thou art Christ the Son of the living God And Christ replyed to Peter Blessed art thou for flesh and blood hath not revealed it to thee but my Father which is heaven and then adds Vnto thee will I give the keys of the Kingdom of heaven c. that is not to Peter as an Apostle or Minister but as a Believer who had the Revelation of the Father touching the Son and so also they are given equally to each faithful Christian who hath the same Revelation with Peter as also to the whole communion of Saints And so these Keys are not given to any particular person or persons consisting of flesh and blood or imployed in such or such an Office but that man whoever he be that hath the Revelation of the Father he it is to whom these Keys are given and to none else and so they are given to each Believer in particular and to the whole Church of Believers in general But what are these Keys about which there hath been so great a do in the Church I answer They are not any outward Ecclesiastical power whatever that men have devised to serve their own turns withal but to pass by the many false conceits wherewith many former and present Writers have and do still trouble the Church John doth tell us plainly Joh. 20. 22. what Matthew means by the Keys of the Church Christ saith he appearing to his Disciples after his Resurrection breathing on them said Receive the holy Spirit here are the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven and then adds Whose sins ye remit they are remitted and whose sins ye retain they are retained that is when ye have received the Spirit then you have received the Keys to binde and loose to remit and retain sin and that not according to your wils but wholly according to the minde and will and direction of the Spirit And so Christ then before his ascention gave these Keys truly to his Disciples but more solemnly and fully at the day of Pentecost when the Spirit was given by Christ glorified and after the Gentiles who by the preaching of Peter received the Spirit even as the Apostles did they also received these Keys and so all that have received the Spirit have the Keys of the Kingdom equally committed to them and the power of binding and loosing by the ministration of the Spirit And so these Keys appertain not only to greater Congregations of Christians but to the very least communion of Saints as Christ hath promised Where two or three are met together in my name there am I present in the midst of them Where we see that two or three gathered together in Christs name have as much power as Peter and all the Apostles because Christ is equally present with these as with those Again Christ hath commanded that if the offending brother will not hear the admonition of two or three other brethren the offended brother should tell the Church Mat. 18. 17. Now the Church is not the Officers but the Congregation of the faithful seeing men are not of the Church through any Office but only through faith And by all these things it is evident That the power of Church-government that is the power of acting and ordering all things among the faithful belongs to every faithful man alike in the Congregation of the faithful 2. What kinde of power this is which the true Church hath I answer in general that it is a power sutable to the Church or Kingdom whereof it is the power
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
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
and not in the light of the Word which shows us clearly that it is as possible to reconcile Michael and the Devil as the Angels of both 2. Neither secondly do I finde any way in the World to reconcile all those together who are commonly called The visible Church seeing even among these there are two distinct sorts of children as Paul teacheth us one sort of those that are born after the flesh as Ishmael and Esau and another of those who are born after the spirit as Isaac and Jacob and there is as great enmity between these in the Church as between the former in the world for they that are born after the flesh are always persecuting them that are born after the spirit but never agreeing with them Now of these two sorts of Christians one makes up the body of Christ the other the body of Antichrist The spiritual children make up Christs true body as it is written He gave him to be the Head over all things to the Church which is his body for these being born of the Spirit do also partake of the Spirit and so are the true flesh of Christ as all that flesh is in which the Spirit dwels and these all worship God in the spirit and have no confidence in the flesh that is in no fleshly Forms Ceremonies or Worship The carnal children of the Church make up Antichrists true body For as Christs body consists of spiritual Christians so Antichrists of carnal For Antichrist sets up in the temple of God as well as Christ and as Christ get his body together of spiritual Christians so Antichrist gets his body together of carnal Christians and these have a form of Religion or godliness but they have no spirit or power in that form yea under the form of godliness they exercise the greater power of ungodliness And Christ and his Spirit and all their things are nowhere more opposed then by those in the Church who have the letter of the word but want the spirit of it being taught of men only and not of God So that all that part of Christianity that is destitute of the Spirit and hath the name only and not the anointing of Christians this makes up the body of Antichrist And now there can be no more agreement between these two bodies of Christ and of Antichrist that is between spiritual and carnal Christians then between Christ and Antichrist themselves the heads of these bodies And as I finde nothing in the word so neither do I propound any thing for an agreement here for to go about to reconcile there where the Father never intended nor the Son never undertook any reconciliation would not be a work of wisedom but of weakness So then the way of peace I shall speak of is between the children of peace touching whom God hath promised That he will give them one heart and one way and for whom Christ hath prayed That they all may be one as thou Father art in me and I in theâ— that they also may be one in us And these are the elect made faithful called to be Saints and sanctified through their calling and these are the true Church of God The peace then I seek by this Discourse is the peace of the true Church Wherefore I shall first declare the Church it self whose peace I seek and then after declare wherein this Churches true peace and unity lies and also how it may be preserved among themselves it being first wrought by Jesus Christ For the Church it self what I have learned touching it I shall speak plainly and something largely because the right understanding hereof is so absolutely necessary to our present business and yet there are very many and very great mistakes and mis apprehensions touching it even among the faithfull The right Church then is not the whole multitude of the people whether good or bad that joyn together in an outward form or way of worship for in this Church there are Whoremongers Idolaters Thieves Murderers and all sorts of wicked and unbelieving persons which are so far from being the Church of Christ that they are the very Synagogue of Satan and children of the Devil and therefore I shall not speak of this Church But the Church I shall speak of is the true Church of the New Testament which I say is not any outward or visible society gathered together into the consent or use of outward things forms ceremonies worship as the Churches of men are neither is it known by seeing or feeling or the help of any outward sense as the Society of Mercers or Drapers or the like but it is a Spiritual and Invisible Fellowship gathered together in the unity of faith hope and love and so into the unity of the Son and of the Father by the Spirit wherefore it is wholly hid from carnal eyes neither hath the world any knowledge or judgement of it This true Church is the Communion of Saints which is the communion believers have with one another not in the things of the world or in the things of men but in the things of God for as believers have their union in the Son and in the Father so in them also they have their communion and the communion they have with one another in God cannot be in their own things but in Gods things even in his light life righteousness wisdom truth love power peace joy c. This is the true Communion of Saints and this Communion of Saints is the true Church of God Now this true Church of God differs from the Churches of men in very many particulars as follows 1. Members come unto the Churches of men either of their own minds or else by the perswasion or by the forcing of others and so but after the will of man but none come to this true Church but from the drawing of God the Father and his own calling according to his own purpose 2. In the Churches of men members are admitted through an outward confession of doctrine but none are admitted into this true Church but through a new birth from God and his Spirit Joh. 3. Except a man be born again he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God which is the right Church of the New Testament For that which is born of the flesh is flesh and so remains without in the world but that which is born of the spirit is spirit and so hath entrance into the true Church 3. In the Churches of men there are more wicked then righteous but in this true Church of Christ the people are all righteous not one excepted as it is written Thy people shall be all righteous Isa 60. For they all have their iniquities forgiven them and they are all redeemed and washed with the blood of the Lamb. 4. In the Churches of men the people for the most part are onely taught of men who are their heads and leaders and whose judgements they depend on
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
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
imperio hoc magis est apta regendae augendae confirmande Ecclesiae Chaâ—er de Occumen Pontific Secundum hanc itaque nostram voluntatem sano ac rectissimo judicio decrevimus nemini prorsus dâ—negandam esse potestatem christianam observantiam vâ—l religionem eligendi ac seqâ—endi sed unicuique dandam esse hanc facultatem ut animum suum illi religioni addicat quam ipse sibi competere putat quo nobis Deus consuetam in omnibus diligentiam probitatem praestet Euseb l. 10. c. 5. Fox vel 1. p. 131. Fox vol. 1. p. 150. The true Church hath no distinction of Clergy and Laity Gal. 3. 28. Equality among Churches Christ the Head is subjected in the subjection of any true Church that is of his body The true Church keeps its Officers in subordination to it self Regendae Ecclesiae ratio nâ—n imperium est sed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All true Christians and Churches take Christ alike for their Head The true Church keeps out all error in Doctrine Quest Answ The wayes whereby the true Church keeps out Error Object Answ 1 Cor. 14 36. Quest Whether the Magistrate hath power to suppress error Answ Object Answ Quest Answ Quest Answ The true Church doth not inforce Uniformity in outward Orders and Discipline Fox vol. 1. pag 72. Iraen Mehex l. 4. Nihilo tamen minus omnes illi pacem inter se retinuerunt retinemus etiamnum jejunii dissonantia fidâ—i concordiam commendat Euseb l. 5. c. 26. Socrat. l. 5. c. 19. Perspicuum est Apostolos liberam potestatem in eadem cujusque menti arbitrio permisisse ut quisque nec metu nec necessitate inductus quod bonum sit ageret Verum omnes Ecclesiarum â—itus qui in singulis urbibus regionibusque usurpantur scriptis mandare ut vaâ—de laboriosum est ita vix aut ne vix quidem fieri potest John Gerson against Uniformity Hâ—mines non non generaliâ—â—r 〈◊〉 debent per determinationes positivas Paparum ad tenendum credenduâ—r unum eunderaque gubernandi modum in rebus quae non proxime respiciunt vel siâ—e medio fidei nostrae vâ—â—itatem vel legis Evangelicae Luther against Uniformity Si una Ecclesia alteram non vult imitari externis istis quid opus est conciliorum decretis cogi quae mox in leges animarum laqueos vertuntur Imitetur ergo altera alteram libere aut suis moribus sinatur frui modò unitas spiritus salva fit in fide vero quantumvis sit diversitas vâ—rietas in carne elemento mundi Cujus exemplar sicubi aliis placuerit imitari licet sin minâ—s uâ—ctioni libenter locum dabimus parati a vobis quibusvis aliis commodiora accipere Melancton against Uniformity Cum de praecipuis articulis doctrinae Christianae inter nos constet complectemur nos mutuo amore neque dissimilitas varietas rituum ceremoniarum disjungere debet mentes nostras Rules to be observed to procure and preserve peace in the Church when the faithfull differ among themselves The weight of things wherein they differ is to be considered Rules to preserve peace when the difference among the faithfull is in circumstantial things 4. To be contented with the substance of Gods Kingdom in the faithfull 5. To take care in these three things of great importance 1. That they equally admit men of different judgements in these things into the communion of Saints 2. That they equally use and imploy them 3. That they do not destroy the one to uphold the other If the faithfull differ in very truths but such as are not absolutely necessary to salvation they must observe these rules to preserve peace Phil. 3. 15 16. If the difference be in doctrine absolutely necessary to salvation what the faithfull must do in this case Zuingl respon ad libel Strethionis tom 2. f. 302. Luther Farrag epistol tom 7. s 509. Luthers rule how the Magistrate shall deal with the Ministers to wit if they contain â—hemselves within the bounds of the Gospel to suffer them but if they 〈◊〉 seditions and disturbances to suppress or banish them Albertus Duke of Borussia Melch. Adam in vita Osiand The Bohemians Fox Mortyrolog vol. 1. p. 858. 2 Esdr 3. 2. If the doctrine after hearing of it be found damnable the community is To condemn the doctrine 2. To excommunicate the person Rules to be observed in excomunication Excommunication the Churches last punishment Conclusion
underneath them they fall sadly and desperately to the great scandal of the ways of God However if men be not called forth to such eminent doings and sufferings and so scape such manifest discoveries and downfals yet the form of godliness hath this evil in it That it brings a man onely to the troublesome part of Religion but not to the comfortable it engages a man in the same duties with the godly but supplies him not with the same strength it involves him in the same bitterness of flesh but doth not furnish him with the same joy of Spirit For as such a mans Religion doth not reach above flesh and blood no more doth his strength and comforts And so he performs duties at a low rate yea and his bare and empty form casts a black vail upon Religion and utterly obscures its beauty and glory and makes the world judge meanly of it and to think it a matter only of singularity and humour and not of power Whereas when a Christian walks in the strength of the Spirit doing and suffering the will of God beyond all strength and abilities of flesh and blood the world often times wonders and gazes at him and many are provoked to glorifie God who hath given such power to men For this power of godliness among other things hath these three advantages 1. It makes a man do every duty strongly and mightily And whatever might take a man off from duty or distract and disturbe him in it all fals to nothing before this power There is that strength in each duty performed by the power of the anoynting which declares it to be the operation of God himself in man and nothing else but the very power of God that is Jesus Christ himself in action in us 2. It makes a man inflexible in the ways of God that he shall neither turn to the right hand nor to the left but take straight steps towards the mark set before him No fear nor favours nor frowns nor flatteries nor temptations nor insinuations nor designs of others nor ends of his own can turn him aside He carries such strength in his Spirit as he can never be bended and so far forth as he partakes of the power of God is as unmoveable and unchangeable as God him self 3. It makes a man invincible by all evils and enemies Because all the power against him is but the power of the creature but the power in him is the power of God And the power of God easily overcomes the mightiest power of the creature but is never overcome by it And if this power in a Christian should be prevailed against God himself who is that power should be conquered which is impossible To conclude the power of godliness is the doer of every duty in Gods Kingdom the subduer of every sin the conquerour of each tribulation and temptation the life of every performance the glory of each grace the beauty of a Christians life the stability of his conversation the lustre of his Religion his great Honour and excellency both in doing and suffering yea it is the very glory of God himself in the Church of God for by faith the Lord arises on us and by this power of godliness his glory is seen upon us These considerations right honourable moved me to discourse of the power of the Holy Spirit coming on all Christians Ministers and People And besides the importunity of some other friends your Honours earnest desires of these notes hath especially prevailed with me to publish them Not that I am worthy to publish any thing but that the truth of God is worthy to be published be the instrument never so mean and unworthy And although I well know the doubtful success of such undertakings as these yet in this matter I am not at all carefull being most willing to be bound up in one condition with the truth of God and to have with it the same common friends and enemies Besides if Christ dwell in my heart by faith I carry in my bosome already my reward out of whom I neither regard praise or dispraise good or evil Now I was bold to prefix your Honours name to these Notes because your desire of them hath made them yours and also your many noble favors are a strong and continual engagement for me to serve you according to what God hath made me Especially I remember your extraordinary compassion and bowels towards me in the day of my deepest distress when my soul drew near to the Pit and the shadow of death sate upon my eye lids and I had not the least drop of comfort either from earth or heaven Your Honor then shewed me the kindness of the Lord and encompassed me both with your pitty and goodness though then through bitterness of spirit I tasted it not Wherefore when I remember the wonderful goodness of God to me after so great sorrow and darkness I cannot forget that part of his goodness which he was pleased to administer to me by your Honours hands And the remembrance of this causes me to pray that God would double the same goodness on you and that he would pour forth upon my Lord your Honour your noble off-spring and family this power of the holy Spirit here treated of which shall render you a thousand times more precious and excellent before God and his Saints then all worldly Honour aud Nobility whatsoever And by this means shall Religion shine in your Family in its native beauty and lustre and the Kingdom of God which stands not in word but in power shall appear in its bright glory among you till the Kingdom of the Son first fit you and then after deliver you up to the Kingdom of the Father and God be all in all immediately Which is the earnest prayer of your most humble and faithful servant WILLIAM DELL The Contents THe Context The Explication of the Words Three General Doctrines 1. That Christ gives his own people sufficient strength for their imployments his own strength for his own Works 2. That when Christ leaves his people in regard of sense he never leaves them without a promise and in that promise his Spiritual presence 3. That the pouring forth of the spirit is the means whereby God both increases and governs his Church The more special Doctrine from the words is That the receiving of the Spirit is the receiving of power For the Spirit it self is power 1. Essentially in it self 2. Operatively in us By being in us 1. A Spirit of Knowledge 2. Of Truth 3. Of Wisdom 4. of Faith which inables us To do Indure the same things with Christ himself 5. Of Righteousness in Destroying sin Imparting Grace 6. Of the fear of the Lord. 7. Of Love and Vnity The Use twofold 1. Exhortation to inforce this the necessity of having this power is urged in reference 1. To Ministers 2. To all Christians 1. Ministers stand in need of the power of the Spirit to come upon them 1.
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
not travel with child for more are the children of the desolate then of the marryed wife saith the Lord. Enlarge the place of thy tent and let them stretch forth the curtains of thy habitations Spare not lengthen thy cords and strengthen thy stakes for thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles and make the desolate Cities to be inhabited So that there shall certainly be a most wonderful and numerous increase of the faithful in the Christian Church till they become as the stars of heaven and as the drops of the morning dew that cannot be told all of them assembled in the beauties of holiness And therefore let us not be overmuch troubled though at present we see in a numerous nation but few true children of the spiritual Church for God shall bless these few and bid them increase and multiply and replenish the earth so that though the Assemblies of the Saints be now but thin and one comes from this place and another from that to these Assemblies and in many and most places of the kingdom these few are fain to come together secretly for fear of the Jews that is the people of the letter yet through the pouring forth of the Spirit it shall come to pass at last that they shall come in flocks and as doves to their windows And it shall be said to the Church by the Lord Lift up thine eyes round about and behold all these gather themselves together and come to thee As I live saith the Lord thou shalt surely clothe thee with them all as with an ornament and binde them on thee as a bride doth c. till at last the Church shall say in her heart Who hath begotten me these seeing I have lost my children and am desolate a captive and removing to and fro and who hath brought up these Behold I was left alone these where had they been Yea these very promises are now in the very act of accomplishing among us for the spiritual Church hath received a very great increase within these few years and God hath many faithfull people in many places of this Kingdom and of this my self and many more in this Army are witnesses for having marched up and down the Kingdom to do the work of God and the Sate we have met with many Christians who have much Gospel light and which makes it the more strange in such places where there hath been no Gospel Ministery which hath put me in minde of that prophecy Isa 66. 8. Who hath heard such a thing who hath seen such things Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day or shall a Nation be born at once For as soon as Sion travelled nay before she travelled she brought forth her children There was no outward Ministery of the Gospel to travel or take pains with them and yet Sion brings forth her children And one thing that is remarkable touching the increase of the Church at this day is this That where Christ sends the Ministration of the Spirit there many young people are brought in to Christ as being most free from the forms of the former age and from the Doctrines and Traditions of men taught and received instead of the pure and unmixed Word of God whereas many old professors who are wholly in the form prove the greatest enemies to the power of godliness and thus the first are the last and the last first Now this great and sudden increase of the faithful is that which doth so exceedingly trouble the World and makes them angry at the very heart For if they were but a few mean contemptible and inconsiderable persons whom they might easily suppress and destroy they would be pretty quiet but when they begin to increase in the land as Israel did in Egypt and notwithstanding all the burdens of their task-masters wherewith they are afflicted and grieved do yet increase abundantly and multiply and wax exceeding mighty till they begin to fill the land and when they consult to deal wisely with them lest they multiply too much do yet see them grow and multiply the more that they know not at what Countrey or City or Town or Village or Family to begin to suppress them this is that which doth so exceedingly vex and inrage the world and makes them even mad again as we see this day For the increase of the faithful as it is the glory of the Church so it is the grief and madness of the world But these men in vain attempt against this increase of the faithful as the Egyptians against the increase of the Israelites for none can hinder the increase of the Church but they that hinder God from pouring out his Spirit and according to the measure of God pouring forth the Spirit is and must be the increase of the Church in despite of all the opposition of the world And thus much touching the first promise of the Churches Increase Now in the words I read to you the Lord comes to another promise so that the Lord because of the Churches weakness addes one promise to another and these promises are nothing but the out goings and manifestations of his love throug the Word Christ But to look more neerly upon the words Vers 11. Oh thou afflicted Affliction in the world doth so inseparably attend the Church that the Church even takes its denomination from it Oh thou afflicted The condition of the Church is an afflicted condition For the Church being born of God and born of the Spirit is put into a direct contrariety to the world which is born of the flesh and is also of its father the devil And so the whole world is malignant against the faithful and spiritual Church and all that are not regenerate set their faces yea their hearts and their hands against the Saints and the unregenerate world is against the regenerate and the carnal world against the spiritual and the sinful world against the righteous and all the people and nations in the world are against that people and nation which the Apostle cals a holy nation and a peculiar people As the world cannot endure God in himself So neither can it endure God in the Saints and so the more God dwels in the Saints the more doth the world afflict the Saints for they oppose not the faithful for any thing of flesh and blood in them but because that flesh and blood of theirs is the habitation of God and the very presence of God himself is there as he saith I will dwell in them and walk in them Agreeable to this is that of Christ where he saith All this shall they do to you for my Names sake that is when the Name of Christ is called upon us and we are taken into his Name that is into his righteousness and life and truth and wisdom and holiness and into his Nature which comprehends all this then when the world
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
alterations it makes there And thus you see that one means that Christ useth for the Reformation of his Church is the Word But here I must further declare to you that this Word by which Christ reforms the Church is not the Word of the Law for the Law made nothing perfect but the Word of the Gospel This this is the onely Word that works Reformation For first 1. This Word works faith and therefore it is called the word of faith because faith comes by hearing of this Word Rom. 10. ver 8. and ver 17. Now as the Word workes faith so faith apprehends the Word even that Word that was with God and was God this living and eternal Word dwels in our hearts by faith as the Apostle saith That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith And this Word dwelling in us by faith changeth us into it is own likeness as fire changeth the Iron into its own likeness and takes us up into all its own vertues And so the word dwelling in the flesh reforms the flesh and it dwels in us through faith and faith is wrought by the Gospel So that the Word whereby Christ reforms is not the Word without us as the Word of the Law is but the Word within us as it is written The Word is nigh thee even in thy mouth and in thy heart and this is the word of Faith If thou live under the Word many years and if it come not into thy Heart it will never change thee nor reform thee And therefore the reforming Word is the Word within us and the Word within us is the Word of faith 2. The Gospel reformes because it doth not only reveal Christs righteousness as it is written The righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith but also it communicates it to us And therefore it is called the Word of righteousness because it works righteousness So that Christ the righteousness of God is conveyed to us through this Word of righteousness And when the righteousness of God revealed in the Gospel comes and dwels in us what Reformation of sin doth this work all sin perisheth at the rebuke of his countenance for the righteousness of God will endure no sin in us And so the Gospel reforms by working righteousness in us 3. The Gospel reforms because it shews us Christ and by shewing us him it changeth us into his Image the more we see Christ in the Gospel the more are we made like unto him that as we have born the Image of the earthly so we may bear the Image of the Heavenly Adam 2. Yea the Gospel shews us God in Christ in all his glory and changeth us into that glory of God which is shewen us we all saith Paul with open face beholding as in a glass and this glass is the Gospel the glory of the Lord are changed into the same Image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord so that the Gospel by shewing us God changeth us into the Image of God and God through the Gospel ariseth on us till his glory be seen upon us And thus you see the grounds of the Gospels Reformation So that now the Word of the Gospel is the only Reforming Word and if there be never so much preaching if it be but Legal it will reform no body aright because there can be no working Faith nor communicating righteousness nor changing men into Gods Image and so there can be no true Reformation And thus much for the first Means of Reformation which Christ useth which is the Word and this Word the Gospel 2. Means the Spirit For the Spirit accompanies the Word in the Ministery of the Gospel and therefore the Gospel is called the Ministration of the Spirit that is the Word and Spirit in union and operation In the Law there was the Letter without the Spirit and so that could do nothing but in the Gospel the Word and the Spirit are alwayes joyned and therefore saith Christ The words that I speak are spirit and Life that is they come from the spirit and carry spirit with them And this Spirit that is present in the word of the Gospel and works in it and is given by it reforms mightily and therefore it is called the spirit of judgement and burning And the Lord looking to this time of reformation promised long before to pour out his Spirit upon all flesh and so to reform all flesh Now the Spirit poured forth upon the flesh reforms it two wayes 1. By taking away all evils out of the flesh 2. By changing the flesh into its own likeness 1. The Spirit poured forth upon the flesh reforms it all by taking all evil out of the flesh As first all Sin and Corruption saith Paul If you mortifie the deeds of the flesh by the Spirit yee shall live the deeds of the flesh are not to be mortified by any power but by the Spirit all pride and envy and lust and covetousness and carnal mindedness and all other evils of the flesh are reformed by the presence of the Spirit in it and no other way 2. The Spirit reforms not only all Sins in the Church but all Errors and Heresies and false doctrines as is evident by that of Paul 1 Cor. 3. 12. If any man build upon this foundation gold silver precious stones wood hay stubble every mans work shall be made manifest for the day shall declare it because it shall be revealed by fire and the fire shall try every mans work of what sort it is c. So that a man may lay Christ for a foundation and yet build wood hay and stubble upon him that is humane doctrines and the inventions of men and false and wicked opinions 2. The destruction of this hay wood and stubble that is error heresie and humane doctrines in the Church of God that is the people built on Christ shall not be by Laws of States or Constitutions of Councels but by the Holy Spirit which is as fire The Spirit shall come into the Saints and burn up all that corrupt and false doctrine that will not indure the Spirit and error shall never be destroyed but by the Spirit of truth So that the Spirit reforms all error as well as all corruptions in the faithful 2. The Spirit doth not only reform the flesh by taking away all evil out of it whether corruptions or errors but also it changeth the flesh into its own likeness For the Spirit is as fire that changeth every thing into its self and so doth the Spirit in the flesh make the flesh spiritual like heavenly fire it changeth men into its own likeness and makes them spiritual heavenly holy meek good loving c. And thus the Spirit reforms indeed When the Spirit is poured forth upon a man how wonderfully doth it reform him this works a change in him in good earnest and no man is ever truly reformed till he
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
outward Orders in the Church must be to procure and to preserve Peace among the faithful and not to break it They are most unhappy and pernicious Orders that do not only offend a few of Christs little ones which it sefâ— is a sad thing but do grieve disquiet and prejudice the peace of the generality of the faithful 3. They must do all things after the wisdom of the Spirit and not after the manner of the world seeing the Church is not to be ordered according to the manner of the world but rather against it as the Apostle saith Be not conformed to this world 4. They must appoint nothing as of necessity For there is no more pestilent doctrine in the Church then to make those things necessary which are not necessary For thus the liberty of faith is extinguished and the consciences of men are ensnared We doubt not but Believers may order any outward things for their own good so they do not impose them necessarily on any as if the observing of them were righteousness and the omission of them sin And so the Church after all its Orders it is to leave indifferent things as it found them that is free and at the liberty of the faithful to observe or not observe as they shall see cause or judge convenient For all these kinde of things are indifferent in their own nature and God regards no more the manner and form and time and circumstances of spiritual duties then the manner and form c. of our eating and drinking and working and marrying and trading for all which it is sufficient if they be done in Christian wisdom and discretion without being tied necessarily to a set and unchangeable form 5. They may perswade their Orders if they see cause by the spirit of love and meekness but must not enforce them upon pain of secular punishment or Church censure as those use to do that make themselves Lords and Tyrants in the Church For these outward things the Church can order onely for the willing but not for the unwilling And so if some Believers shall think good upon just grounds to do otherwise in these outward things then the generality of the Church yet ought the Church to be so far from censuring them that it is to entertain Communion with them notwithstanding any such differences For when Christians are knit to Christ by faith and do receive and walk in his Spirit all other things are indifferent to them to do or not to do to use or not to use at their own freedom And Christ onely being sufficient for all his whatever is besides Christ is a perishing thing and so is so far from being to be imposed that in it self it is not to be valued Now if the Church do appoint any outward Orders these rules it is to observe yea the spiritual Church doth always observe them and never made rules in it self upon other terms then are here set down But on the contrary the carnal Church or Churches of men they especially trouble themselves about these outward things and of these they make Laws and Constitutions yea sin and righteousness and by these things they judge the Church and the members of Christ In such sort that they that will submit to their Rules and impositions shall be the Church of Christ but they that will not shall be reckoned Hereticks and Schismaticks And hereby they declare that they are fallen from the power of godliness to the form and from the substance of Religion to the circumstances inasmuch as they advance empty forms and shadows in the place of righteousness and peace and joy in the holy Spirit And to these we may say with Peter Why tempt ye God in putting such a yoak upon the Disciples and Members of Christ And though this kinde of Church will with these things still be troubling us and biting us by the heel yet in the power and prerogative of the seed of the Woman we will by degrees bruise its head till at last we break it quite in pieces Now one thing more I shall adde touching the Churches power to appoint its own Orders as conceiving it very necessary to be known and that is this That the true Church hath power to appoint these outward Orders not for it self onely but also for its Officers which also are part of it self and it is not to suffer its Officers to frame or impose such on it For the Church is not the Officers but the Officers are the Churches as Paul hath taught us saying to the Church All things are yours whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas And so the Officers are the Churches and are to be ordered by it in these things but are not to order it And if the Officers of the Church forgetting that they are servants shall presume by themselves to order outward things for the Church without the Church as now is done the Church still remains above the Officers and hath power to interpret change or wholly take away all those things as it sees occasion to wit so far as they are a stumbling block to the weak and a grief to the strong and tend to work division among the faithful Presumptuous Officers are they and know not where Christ hath set them who instead of being ordered by the Church go about to order it and make themselves the Lords of the Church being but the servants of it 3. The true Church hath power to chuse its Officers and if there because to reform them or depose them The Church hath power to chuse its own Officers True indeed it is that as in the natural so in the spiritual body every member is in office and that the Ministry of the New Testament being the Ministration of the Spirit is common to all that have received the Spirit Wherefore if every Believer hath received the Spirit to profit withall and hath power and priviledge as opportunity serves and necessity requires to speak the word that the power and vertue of Christ may be declared through them all there is no doubt but any Community of Christians may by a common consent chuse one or mo to speak to all in the name of all Agreeable to this is that of Paul 2 Tim. 2. 2. where he commands That the office of teaching be committed to faithful men who are able to teach others Where the Apostle contemning all superfluous ceremonies and pomp of ordaining onely seeks that the Ministers may be fit and able to teach and without any more ado commits the Ministry of the word unto them More parricularly in this matter we shall enquire after these three things 1. What Officers are to be chosen 2. Out of whom they are to be chosen And 3. By whom they are to be chosen For the first What Officers are to be chosen Paul teaches us this saying They must be faithful men apt and able to teach others For as among natural men in the world they
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
and kill the faithful in stead of Heretikes at his own pleasure till he have destroyed all the faithful in the land Wherefore let all Christians take heed how they favour the Magistrates with this power to punish those whom he judges Heretiks for if he shall change his minde as he easily may seeing he is but a man or if another shall succeed him of another minde that very Sword may be sheathed in their own bowels which now they draw forth against other mens 3. When the Magistrate assumes power to himself to suppress error this makes Ministers negligent in studying the Scriptures the Magistrate doing that by force which they ought to do by the word and so saves them their labour For when once the Ministers shall have so far interessed themselves in tâ—e Magistrate as to procure him to call for the Goaler and Executioner against whomsoever shall oppose their Doctrine they will then need no great paâ—ns to study the word that they may be able to convince the gainsayers and perswade the rebellious seeing the Magistrates sword at all adventure is to defend their Doctrine and all the objections against it either from reason or Scripture the hangman is to answer And so the Pastors having their work as they conceive thus done for them to their hands do commonly betake themselves to ease and idleness and to the prosecution and injoyment of worldly things and grow careless and negligent of the Scripture and word of God whereupon error steals in apace upon the Teachers themselves whereby by degrees they corrupt and seduce very many And thus whilst the Magistrate thinks to chase out error before him one way he lets it in behinde him seven wayes 4. This takes men off from the certain means to destroy errors which is the word and leads them to that which can never destroy it which is the sword of the Magistrate and so the Devil herein hath a notable Stratagem For he fears not all the Swords and Halters and Weapons and Prisons in the world to destroy error withall but as securely contemns all these things as Leviathan a Bulrush and yet doth earnestly stir up the world to use these things against him and his errors as the only meanes to subdue him Whereas the only thing he fears is the word of God which is that mighty power than can binde the Devil and destroy his Kingdom and break down all his strong holds of errors and Heresie and he is in no sort able to stand out against the power thereof Wherefore in his great cunning he causes men to lay aside this that is able to prevail against him and to go to the sword of the Magistrate which will do him no harm And thus the sword of the Magistrate presuming to lift it self up against Error in stead of the word of God is so far from destroying Error that it upholds it and strengthens Satans Kingdom whilst it seems to destroy it By these things it appears how great an Error and evil it is for any to attribute to the Magistrate or for the Magistrate to assume to himself power to suppress Error by the sword If any shall yet demand whether the Magistrate can do nothing at all towards the suppressing of Errors I answer This he may do he may and ought and if he be a godly man he will countenance and encourage faithful Ministers that are called of God and anointed by the Spirit to this work of the Gospel and having done this he need not trouble himself any farther for the word preached will do all the rest And let it not be doubted but if the truth of God do enter the Lists against Error it will be infinitely able to prevail of it self alone without calling in any power or borrowing any weapons from the world The ninth Rule is By no means to inforce Vniformity in the outward orders and discipline of the Church For such Vniformity hath been in all ages not only the hinderance but the very break neck of the Churches peace and unity Now because this is so vehemently and strongly urged by the unskilful builders of this age I shall the more fully acquaint the Reader with the State of this business from the very beginning of the Gospel and show when this part of the mystery of iniquity first invaded the Church of God Most manifest iâ— is that the Apostles and Disciples of Christ were only intent about the Doctrine of Salvation and so accordingly preached and pressed nothing but faith in Christ and love to all the Saints as being the only necessary things which Christians were to regard And for all outward Rites and Ceremonies and forms wherein Christ had made them frâ—e they commanded them to stand fast in that liberty And so they gave no heed nor regard to the observation of dayes and times neither bound the Church to any Ceremonies or Rites except those necessary things mentioned Act. 15. to wit things strangled and blood which was then ordained by the holy spirit not without urgent and necessary cause For when the murdering and blood of Infants was commonly laid to the charge of Christians by the Heathens they had no other Argument to help thâ—mselves but their own Law by which they were commanded to abstain from the blood of common Beasts much more from the blood of innocent men And therefore that Law seemeth to be given by the holy Spirit and also for the same end to be continued in the Church so long as the cause thereof that is the persecutions of the heathen Gentiles continued And besides these we reade of no other Ceremonies or Rites which the Apostles greatly regarded but left such things free to the Liberty of Christians every man to use therein his own discretion for the using or not using thereof Whereupon as concerning all the ceremonial observations of dayes times places meats drinks vestures and such others of all these things neither was the diversity among men greatly noted nor any Vniformity greatly required Thus Christian Liberty prevailed in the Church and Christian men did not much struggle about indifferent things till the Asians and Romans began to dis-agree about Easter-day to compose which controversy Polycarpus a godly Martyr went to Rome ann 157. and in the reign of Antoninus Pius to Anicetus then Bishop there and though these two to wit Polycarpus and Anicetus differed in their judgements and opinions in this matter yet they still retained Christian communion and avoided all breach of peace Afterwards in the reign of Commodus the Christians enjoying some respite from pesecution began to contend again among themselves about the ceremony of Easter and neither yet did the difference prevail so far as to break the bond of love and communion of brotherly life though they of the West pretending the tradition of Paul and Peter which yet indeed was the tradition of Hermes and Pius and not theirs kept one day and they of Asia
say any thing but what likes us or what is indeed agreeable to the word as if error should have now gotten more power to make void the word then the word power to make void error Wherefore if the word be suffered to have free passage I dare rest on that alone and so dare all that have felt the power of it in their own hearts for the conquering and destroying all errors and Heresies whatsoever in the true Church of God And now it would be profitable to hear what some other men who have walked in the same light and Spirit have said in this matter Zuinglius in his book quoted in the margent speaks thus Haec unica eaque sola via est qua ad concordiam proxime perveniri potest c. that is This is the one and only way whereby we may most suddenly attain to concord if whatsoever things may be or are commonly said for any opinion or against it be freely propounded in the Churches so that the people be allowed free judgement in all these things For God who is not the God of discord but of peace nevers suffers those who are gathered together in his spirit to erre or be deceived And if this way were observed we should shortly see the Churches of Christ enjoying sweet peace and concord But now as often as there are some Princes and Cities that would have the doctrine of the Gospel free to all presently there are others that would stop and hinder the course of it and so long there must needs arise great discords and dissentions And hence I would have you judge whether you or we are departed from the Church of God and the doctrine of it For we suffer those writings that proceed as well from you as from the Papists to be openly and freely read and read again and the evils which are taught in them we slay by the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God but you think all this business may be dispatched with PUBLICK EDICTS AND COMMANDS And therefore do you be judge whose cause is most to be suspected ours who suffer the doctrine of our adversaries to be published in our Churches and overthrow them by the word or yours who reproach our doctrine before the simple people as heretical in the mean time by your good will neither suffering them to read it nor understand it Thus far he Luther also in his Epistle to Frederick and John Dukes of Saxony speaking against that Spirit which he cals Spiritus Alstetinus a proud haughty enthusiastical spirit that despised faith and love and the cross and the whole Scriptures as low things not worth their minding and gloried in strange Revelations and superlative holiness which they had above other believers And these enemies of the Gospel especially were gathered together in Alsteta and Luther writes to the Dukes in whose Province this Town was to this purpose touching them Quod vero praesentis interest negotii nolim ab illustrissimis D. V. praedicandi officium praecludi cuiquam c. That is But for what pertains to our present business I would not that the office of preaching should be denyed to any by your most illustrious Lordships but let there be granted to them free Liberty to preach and let them exhibite the best proof of their learning For I said by the Testimony of Paul It must needs be that there must be sects and the word of God must strive and wage war in camps And therefore it is evident in Psa 67. that the Evangelists are called Armies and that Christ in the Psalms is called more then once the King of Armies Now if their spirit be a right and approved spirit it will easily subsist before us without all fear and so if our spirit be right as we hope it is it will fear neither them nor any body else But if they transgress the bounds of the Gospel and will not contain their hands but will do their work with violence it is the duty of your most Illustrious Lordships when they 〈◊〉 fierce and seditious to repress them or to banish them out of your Dominions saying we will easily grant to you to fight with the word for the proving and examining which is true Doctrine but we will restrain the fierceness of your spirits and contain your hands for these things belong to our Magistracie And therefore they that will not herein obey let them depart the Country For saith he we who are Ministers of the word may preach but we must do no violence and Daniel hath witnessed that Antichrist shall be destroyed without hands And Isaiah saith that Christ shall fight in his Kingdom with the spirit of his mouth and the rod of his lips c. Also Albertus Duke of Borussia when the great controversieâ—ell â—ell out between Andreas Osiander and Morlinus and other Ministers touching the Righteousness whereby a Christian is made righteous before God he would not forbid either side either the Pulpit or Press but left them free to both alike and desired them to forbear reproaches one against another and to debate the business quietly by the word of God Likewise the Bohemians in a certain exhortation of theirs to Kings and Princes to stir them up to the zeal of the Gospel subscribed by Procopius and Conradus and other Captains of the Bohemians have these words They say that is the Papists it ought not to be suffered that we should be heard in confessing our faith Now how may that be proved by the holy Scripture since Christ heard the devil as is written Mat 4 And they are not better then Christ nor we worse then the devil If they be righteous and have the truth with them as they say they have and we be unrighteous why do they fear since the truth ought not to be afraid of falshood and Zorobabel declared That truth is of all things the most mighty and overcometh all things For Christ is the truth John 14. I am the way the truth and the devil is the father of lyes John 8. Therefore if the Pope and his Priests have the truth let them overcome us with the word of God but if they have lyes then they cannot long abide in all their presumption Wherefore we exhort and beseech all the Imperial Cities all Kings Princes Noble-men rich poor for Gods sake and for his Righteousness that one of them write hereof to another and that there may be some means made how we may commune with you safely and friendly at some such place as shall be fit both for you and us and bring with you your Bishops and Teachers and let them and our Teachers fight together with the word of God and let us hear them and let not one overcome the other by violence or false subtilty but only by the word of God c. By all which it appears That let mens Doctrine be what it will they ought to be
hath power to examine try and judge the doctrine of the Apostles and Angels much more of other men who have not received such an anoynting neither do live in so clear a light of God And thus I have declared the things which seemed to me both convenient and necessary for the true Church to know for the preserving of that peace among themselves which they have in Christ Now as the judgement of the Church is to be rectified in these things so the practice of it is to rectified in other things for the preserving it in peace The things wherein the practice of the Church is to be rectified in the Way of Peace are either 1. More absolute and general Or 2. More special and occasional in case of difference among the faithful Among the things that are more absolute and general which are to be done to procure and preserve the peace of the Church these nine things that follow have not the least place 1. Practical Rule for Peace 1. The true Church is to preserve it self distinct from the world and is neither to mingle it self with the world nor to suffer the world to mingle it self with it For if the Church and the world be mingled together in one Society the same common Laws will no more agree to them who are of such different natures principles and ends then the same common Laws will agree to light and darkness life and death sin and righteousness flesh and spirit For the true Church are a spiritual people being born of god and so they worship God in the Spirit according to the law of the Spirit of life that was in Christ and is in them but the carnal Church is of the world and only savours the world and so will have a worldly Religion Forms Orders Government and all worldly as it self is Now whilst these two are mingled together what peace can there be for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness and light with darkness and Christ with the Devil And so what agreement have Believers with unbelievers or the true Church with the world Wherefore it is not the way of Peace to mingle the Church and the world but to separate them and to keep them distinct that those that are of one nature and spirit may be of one communion among themselves and this way of Peace God himself teacheth us by Paul 2 Cor. 6. 17. saying Come out from among them my people and be ye separate for to separate the Church from the world in its communion of Saints is the only way to preserve peace in both seeing the Church will best agree with it self and the world with it self The second Rule 2. The Church being thus distinct from the world is to be contended with its own power for its own affairs and is not to introduce or entertain any power in it that is not of it Wherefore the true Church being such a Kingdom as is not of this world stands in need of no worldly power and being a spiritual and heavenly Kingdom is only to have and exercise a spiritual and heavenly power seeing this power alone and by it self is able to accomplish the whole good pleasure of God in the Church and to work all the works in it that God hath to do And so it is strongly to be suspected that those men that dare not commit the success of their business to Christs power alone but will call in secular power over and above to help them I say it is more then probable that they have underneath some secular end seeing Christs power alone is fully sufficient to do all things that are necessary and profitable for his Kingdom Besides this worldly power never works peace but always disturbances in the Church putting all things out of Gods way and method into mans and working mans will rather then Gods yea mans will against Gods and it is wholly contrary to the very nature of the Church and how then can it agree with it in any thing If any shall reply that worldly power doth well in the Church because it keeps down many profane persons that would not be kept down by the word I answer That so far as such profane ones are governed by worldly power they are of the world and not of the Church and worldly power had better govern them in the world it s own proper sphear then in the Church which is beyond their line especially seeing the Church hath power enough in it self to govern those that are of it and they that will not be governed willingly in the Church as Christians let them be governed against their wils in the Commonwealth as men For the Government of the Church is over men as Christians as spiritual but the government of the state is over men as men as natural and carnal The first of these governments belongs to Christ and the latter to the Magistrate And if the Magistrate be faithful in his Office and headship there is no doubt to be made of Christs faithfulness in his But now if the Magistrate will not content himself with his own Kingdom and power but will needs intrude on Christs alâ—â— and not reckoning it enough to govern men a men by his world power will also by the same power be tampering with the 〈◊〉 Church this both renders him troublesome to the faithful â—nd the faithful troublesome to him Him troublesome to thâ— faithful in that he uses a power over them that is neither sutable to them nor their affairs and them troublesome to him because in Gods Kingdom as they hear not the voice so neither do they obey the command of a stranger The Pope he arrogates both swords to himself when neither belongs to him and therefore in due time shall perish by both and if the Magistrate shal assume to himself power of bothâ—ingdoms â—ingdoms Christs and the Worlds when of right but one belongs to him to wit the Worlds and not Christs it will be very dangerous lest by encroaching on Christs Kingdom he lose his own Let the Magistrate therefore use his power in the state and let him suffer Christ to use his power in the Church seeing his presence is alwayes there and then there will be quietness in both but else in neither seeing Christ will as assuredly trouble the Magistrates Kingdom as the Magistrate trouble his The third Rule is Not to bring or force men into the Church against their wills The Kingdoms of the world are unquiet because many that are unwilling are under those Regiments but Christs Kingdom is therefore quiet because all the people in it are willing and none of them are forced in but all are perswaded in as it is written God perswade Japhet to dwell in the tents of Shem That is the Gentiles were to be perswaded and not forced into the Church And so Christ commanded his Disciples to go and teach all Nations and not to offer them outward