his message his promise and obey his command We see Christ did not speak and preach only but he did and appeared really in all things to be the same which he preached prays when they were putting him to death Father forgive them they know not what they do so doth Stephen also and heals his ear who came to apprehend him which Peter had cut off gives his life for his enemies And this is that Paul speaks of Love not in dead word but in deed and in truth in the life and power of it which love as the Scriptures testifie is God and which as Paul saith thinketh none ill but it beareth all things suffers all things endures all things Love it covereth all sins Prov. 10.12 Love it worketh none ill to his Neighbour Rom. 13.10 And this is that promised in Isa 2.2,3,4 And it shall come to pass in the last days that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains and shall be exalted above the hills and all Nations shall flow unto it And many people shall go and say Come ye and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord to the house of the God of Jacob and he will teach us of his ways and we will walk in his paths for out of Zion shall go forth a Law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem And he shall judge among the Nations and rebuke many people and they shall beat their swords into plow-shares and their spears into pruning hooks Nation shall not lift up sword against Nation neither shall they learn war any more and in Isa 11.6,7,8,9 The Wolf also shall dwell with the Lamb and the Leopard shall ly down with the Kid and the Calf and the young Lyon and the Fatling together and a little childe shall lead them And the Cow and the Bear shall feed their young ones shall ly down together and the Lyon shall eat straw like the Ox And the sucking Childe shall play on the hole of the Aspe and the weaned Childe shall put his hand on the Cockatrise den They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the Sea And in Jer. 31.31,32,33,34 Behold the days come saith the Lord that I will make a new Covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah Not according to the Covenant that I made with their Fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt which my Covenant they brake although I was an husband unto them saith the Lord. But this shall be the Covenant which I will make with the house of Israel After those days saith the Lord I will put my Law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts and will be their God and they shall be my people And they shall teach no more every man his Neighbour and every man his brother saying Know the Lord for they shall all know me from the least of them unto the greatest of them saith the Lord for I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more There you have Christ promised as a living life dwelling and abiding in the soul or law written in the heart so that we shall not at all hang upon the lips of men or have any need or use of their teachings Whether this then be not in deed and in truth the very reall and true Gospe of Christ or Christ's Gospel God's Spell or good Spell is offered and left together with the several Scriptures quoted with many others coherent thereunto which for brevity sake I omit to your due inspection and serious consideration And if this be indeed and in truth Christ's Gospel God's Spel or good Spell as it 's supposed it will not by any be denied The next thing to be considered is How far any man or men whatsoever are impowered constituted ordained appointed fitted furnished enabled or anointed by Christ hereunto all these names signifying indeed but one and the same thing for he who is not fitted furnished enabled or anointed thereunto is not impowered constituted ordained or appointed by God or Christ thereunto the ordinations of men in this point will not do except they could give the thing also the inward anointing as well as the outward Therefore the Apostles although they had the promise yet they were not to stir they were not to go forth to preach the Gospel until themselves had received the Gospel the promise of the Father until they were indued with power from on high Luke 24.49 And behold I do send the promise of my Father upon you but tarry ye in the City of Jerusalem until ye be indued with power from on high Acts 1.8 Ye shall receive the holy Ghost Here 's a further confirmation of the promise but yet they stir not Acts 2.1.4 there it is said They were all filled with the holy Ghost Now have they the performance of the promise now and not before were they Commissioned ordained impowered or appointed because now and not before really and actually anoynted and then indeed were they anointed or baptised in with or unto the preaching of Christ's Gospel unto others and then they indeed do go forth preaching baptising healing all manner of diseases casting out divels and the like freely they had received and freely they were to give and so indeed they did as Peter said to the Cripple whom he healed Silver and Gold have I none but such as I have that give I unto you Rise up and walk And he lift him up by the hand healed him and he walked Thereby manifesting and declaring what the Gospel what the Anointing what the Missage or Message was they had received and accordingly did give forth the same as is declared And indeed nothing can give that which it hath not or more then it hath neither can any thing act beyond the power or ability it hath received If the power be of men the anointing of and by men why accordingly is and must needs be in its speakings and goings forth its actings and operations for no stream can run higher or above its head or spring That which is born of the flesh is flesh that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit If it be from men its living is and must needs be in and upon men and its returns unto men If of and from God its living is and will be only in and upon God and its returns only unto or into God Wherefore it is as Christ saith John 5.44 How can ye believe who receive Honour one from another and seek not the honour that cometh from God alone Whence I argue He that hath not himself received the Gospel in deed and in truth He that hath not received the message as is before declared that hath not received it in life and power that is not thus
James why John ye know not what spirit ye are on let God alone to avenge his own quarrel Vengeance is mine saith the Lord and I will repay it Think you is not your God strong enough or wise enough But hear what David saith Lord my goodness or my righteousness extends not unto thee but unto the Saints on earth And if our righteousness which is our strength reach not him as in truth it neither doth nor can do Will our unrighteousness or sins think you which is our weakness reach or exten'd to him Be not so ignorant God cannot be moved more or less either with this or that for he is wholly or altogether unchangable But let me tell you You blaspheme him in setting him below himself as he is in his own pure nature and essence ever and always the same from eternity to eternity an unchangeable IS You blaspheme him in proclaiming him to the world to be a cruel merciless and unnatural Father Will the father destroy the son of his loyns and will God do such a thing think you Doth not Christ tell you if your earthly parents know how to give good gifts unto their children much more doth your heavenly Father Will God think you punish a man that 's born blinde because he cannot see neither is it at all in his power to get himself eyes But you would have men punished for denying Christ although none can know or acknowledge him without the power help and assistance of him who is altogether above and beyond his reach and power for as hath been before cited None can know the Son but the Father And again None can call Jesus the Christ but by the Spirit No man cometh unto me except the Father draw him And yet you say This is the minde will or command of God Is not this extreme highly to blaspheme or blast the same do to speak very evilly of God and to cause others to do so also Consider who so much as your selves do in very deed and in truth blaspheme the true and very God and his Christ and the true and very Gospel of the true and very Christ Let all the world see and hear and judge Whatever is unreasonable is none of Gods spelling or telling is not the Gospel of Christ or is none of Christs Gospel Nature or rather Reason or Lightim nature saith to all men in all things Do to all men as you would be done unto but grace or Gods spell or Good spell the reason or light therein for there is Reason in Grace and Gospel as well as in Nature as I could shew you but enough saith or tells you Do good to them that do evil to you love your enemies pray for a pity save deliver help relieve succour comfort c. those who hate and envie you who blaspheme or speak evil of you those who sin against you who persecute and would destroy you And this in truth is Gospel Good-spell or true and right telling and spelling or spelling indeed and in truth when it 's thus put together that is when the speaking and doing the heart and the hand are joyned herein Christ did good to sinners loved sinners and gave his life for sinners even those who persecuted and blasphemed him The Gospel is properly and truely a Reconciliation reconciling or Reconciler rather of things that differ are at oddes or enmity it 's the doing away of all enmities the casting down or taking away all partition-walls the higher the enmity the greater the oddes the vaster the difference the greater the higher the more glorious excellent and beautiful is the Reconciliation or Reconciler It is indeed that spirit of life and power of light and love which really truely and in very deed reconciles all things unto or takes all things into it self it self being reconciled unto all things and in truth that or he which is not fully wholly and perfectly in every jot and tittle in him or it self reconciled to another cannot possibly perfectly reconcile or preach the Gospel of Reconciliation perfectly to that other It 's not a bare preaching or speaking but it 's real reconciling or uniting of those things which indeed either really do differ or at least seem so to do and that in the heighths lengths bredths and depths of oddes enmity difference or contrarieties how else could the heighths lengths bredths and depths of the Reconciliation or Reconciler appear 2 Cor. 5.18,19,20 And all things are of God who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ and hath given to us the ministery of reconciliation to wit that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself not imputing their trespasses unto them and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation Now then we are ambassadours for Christ as though God did be seech you by us We pray you in Christs stead be ye reconciled to God 〈◊〉 2.11,12,13,14,15,16,17 At that time ye wore 〈…〉 Christ being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise having no hope and without God in the world But now in Christ Iesus ye who sometimes were afar off are made nigh by the blood of Christ For he is our peace who hath made both one and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us having abolished in his flesh the enmity even the law of commandments contained in ordinances for to make in himself of twain one new man so making peace And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross having slain the enimity thereby And came and precabed unto them which were afar off and to them that were nigh In Ephes 3.8 This is the grace given to me saith Paul that I should preach the unsearchable riches of Christ that 's the grace given him he having it first preached unto him that all might see the fellowship of the MYSTERY which was HID IN GOD. In the tenth verse there you have Gods end or Intent which is that his MANIFOLD wisdom might be known and so prays in vers 16. that God would grant them according to the riches of his glory to be strengthned with all might by his spirit in the inner man that Christ might dwell in their hearts that so being rooted and grounded 〈◊〉 love they might comprehend with all saints what is the heighth length bredth and depth and to know the love of God that passeth knowledge that they might be filled with all the fulness of God and verily less will not do it for so long so far or so much as I apprehend any man or thing to be an enemy unto me so long so far and so much must I of necessity be an enemy unto him or it there it 's said God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself how was that by preaching shewing and declaring himself fully wholly perfectly every jot and tittle reconciled unto it The Gospel indeed is that Loadstone which draweth all things unto or rather and indeed and in truth that great Elixir or Philosophers stone which turneth all things it touches into its own nature but it must touch them first I could say much more but I bear with you forbear and spare you I have no evil will unto any of you I am enemy to none neither would I hurt any because no man nor no thing can hurt me but as Paul saith All things shall work together for my good To conclude were Christ or his Messengers his Apostles so fearful so timerons it 's written of them that they preached openly and boldly and waxed more and more bold by their sufferings although the powers were wholly and altogether engaged against them as these men are who if they have not the powers chiefly and wholly engaged for them yet are they very little if at all engaged against them I would offer it to consideration whether the primitive Christians would not have thought and judged it sufficient enough if the Magistrate had not engaged against them although he had not in the least declared or engaged for them And would not any reasonable any sober any quiet peaceable-minded man or men now judge him or themselves to have due and true justice and equity done them by the Commonwealth to have every way and in all things equally the same priviledges and respects with others from and by the Commonwealth which is all that is pleaded for or desired in reference to every one as to himself Who is The Commonwealths under the best and surest bonds of love unfained in all faithfulness to be commanded Robert Norwood Omitted in the Printing Pag. 21. Col. 1.16 For by him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth visible and invisible whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers all things were created by him and for him As there you see all things were made by him so in vers 20. you shall finde all things to be again reconciled or saved by him By whom that is by Christ it pleased the Father to reconcile all things to himself by him whether they be things in earth or things in heaven even you that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your minde by wicked works hath he now reconciled