of God that will exercise a Judicature in Heaven and determine of things of the Kingdom of God which the Spirit hath kept in his own hands you may break one the other earthen potsheards But if you joyn against the Spirit and be one as Jew and Gentile Herod and Pilate against Christ it will be your everlasting breaking so that a man cannot gather a Sherd of you to take fire from the hearth or water out of the Pit for God hath set his King upon his holy Hill and you are but sheaves against a hearth of fire The Power of Christ is coming forth happy they that wait for it The Lord shall send the rod of his power out of Sion be thou Ruler in the midst of thine enemies Psal 110. All Forms and Shadows shall flie away and the new creature only abide and they that walk after this Rule peace be on them and mercy and upon the Israel of God The spiritual Church shall rise and be established in the beauty of holiness These are the tidings of this Book And I heard a voyce saying Hallelujah Praise the Lord from the Heavens prayse him all ye heights prayse him all ye Angels of his all the wisdom of man Prayse him Sun and Moon all worldly Magistrates praise him all the Stars of light all Ministers Pastors Teachers prayse him ye Heavens of Heavens all Forms and Churches and what ever of you excel and are lifted up above others exalt the Lord not your selves for his name only is excellent his glory is above the Earth and Heavens he also exalteth the Horns of his people the prayse of all his Saints even of the children of Israel a people neer to him Thy part be among these who ever art the Reader it is the desires and prayer of him who knows no greater no other happiness Who is thine as to it Christop Goad CHRIST'S SPIRIT A Christians Strength OR A plain discovery of the mighty and invincible power that all Believers receive through the gift of the SPIRIT First held forth in two Sermons on Act. 1. 8. and after published for the instruction and use of those that are spiritual Anno 1645. By WILLIAM DELL Minister of the Gospel of JESUS CHRIST at Yelden in the County of Bedford 1 Cor. 4. 19. 20 I will come to you shortly if the Lord will and will know not the speech of them that are puffed up but the power For the Kingdom of God is not in word but in power 2 Tim. 3. 5. Having a form of Godliness but denying the power of it from such turn away London Printed for Hen. Cripps and Lod. Lloyd 1651. To the Right Honorable the Lady ELIZABETH Countess of BULLINGBROOK Right Honourable THe form of Godliness is very common in these dayes of ours but the power of it is very rare How few persons shall we finde in the visible Church who live and act in the strength of God But generally men do what ever they do in their own strength and that not onely in humane things but in divine How seldom do we see either in Ministers or Christians in the discharge of their duties in their several places more then the power of men The greatest part by far not onely of those who are called Christians but also of forward Professors being ignorant what it is to be strengthened with might in the inner man according to the glorious power of the great God How little is there among all our plenty of that preaching which is not in the plausible words of mans wisdom but in the demonstration of the Spirit and Power How few Congregations among the many that are in the Kingdom are gathered together in the Spirit and Power of our Lord Jesus Christ How few of those Christians are there in whom is the exceeding greatness of Gods power together with the effectual working of it But the form of Godliness is now become almost the covering of all flesh and in these dayes of light and knowledge it is accounted by all that are not down-right Atheists a great shame not to seem to be religious And when men and families and Congregations are gotten into this form they think themselves both safe and happy as being near the suburbs of the Kingdom of God and close Neighbours to the Saints And this form of godliness as it is of very easie compliance with flesh and blood in this particular in that according to this men onely make their actions new retaining still their old natures so it is also of great credit and esteem with carnal Gospellers But the spiritual man judgeth all things and yet he himself is judged of no man and he being partaker of the power of God himself can in some measure discern both the presence and want of it in others both which he knows in his own experience Now this form of godliness is when men are godly without God and anoynted without Christ and regenerate not having the Spirit that is when they have a semblance of holiness but not the thing it self a semblance of grace retaining their old natures And such Christians as these perform spiritual duties with natural strength heavenly duties with earthly strength the works of God with the power of men In the Religion of these men there is the outward duty done and it may be very speciously and plausibly but there is none of Christ nor the Spirit in the duty There is their own working towards God which is faint and faithless and not Gods own working in them towards himself which is lively and mighty and all the religious acts they do are onely their own operations and not the operations of God in them This form of godliness how pleasing soever it be to a mans self and of what reckoning soever with others who are like himself yet is indeed of very evil and woful consequence whether we regard the doings or sufferings unto which this form necessarily engages For first when men by occasion of this form are called forth to do the great works of God and yet are destitute of the power of God their duties are above their strength and their strength bears no proportion to their duties And so sooner or later meeting with difficulties they faint and languish as a Snail their works being too high for their faculties For nature being strained above its power and offering at that which is beyond its abilities by degrees grows weary and returns to its old temper again And he that sought that glory which was not his own at last lies down in his own shame Again the form of godliness exposes a man to those evils that are incident to the faithful because of godliness Now when a man hath the same evils with the faithful and not the same power to support him under those evils when men have the same evils in the flesh but not the same power in the Spirit the same burthens on their shoulders but not the same everlasting arms
them and have taken up a Proverb to entertain them with Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming it stirreth up the dead for thee and all the chief ones of the earth it hath raised up from the thrones all the Kings of the nations all they shall speak and say unto thee art thou also become weak as we art thou become like to us The worm is spread under thee and the worms cover thee c. Humane Learning the excellency of power and strength created thou Ruben my first born the head of this world thou shalt be made the tayl thou that wilt comprehend Christ thou that wilt bring God into thy compass and under thy span and weigh him in thy ballance thou that knowest no spirit nor wisdom besides thy self thou that condemnest that which is not there for folly and weakness thou Lucifer son of the morning that hast said I will ascend into heaven and set my Throne above the Stars I will be like the most high thou spirit of the world that wilt acknowledge none above thee Thou shalt not excell because thou didst ascend into my bed he went up to my couch I will rise out of the weak and foolish things to confound thee I will ordain strength out of the mouth of babes and sucklings to undoe thee I will fight against thee in the Carpenters Son and the Fishermen Judah shall have the Scepter binding his Foal unto the Vine and his Asses Colt unto the choyce Vine The King that rides on the Ass and the Foal of an Ass whom the Boys and Girls follow with the voyce of Hosanna shall destroy your Place and Nation O ye Scribes Pharises Lawyers Rabbies after that you have mocked him and crucified him done to him what ever you listed he will rise again and fear will take hold of you as sorrow upon a woman and you wil call to the Rocks and Mountains to fall upon you and so go unto your own Place And thou Independency the fairest Form the most beautiful Face as yet that the Sun hath looked on The world hath thrown dirt on thee and disguised thee which thou hast washed off take heed thy Father spit not in thy Face that will make thee ashamed indeed Thou art Rachel thou hast with great wrestlings prevailed and brought forth Gad a Troop and hast routed pursued destroyed taken if thou lift up thy self against thy root that bears thee that spirit that hath lifted thee up thou shalt be so dealt withal in thy high mindedness if thou work not out thy salvation in fear and trembling And thou Righteousness that derivest thy pedegree from Adam and standest in the Law and walkest like a Queen in mans wisdom and Forms of Religions shinest in the outward Court that is given to the Gentiles to be trodden under foot thou hast a beauty as if it were of the holy place and lookest like the Spouse and Bride of the Lamb but thou shalt be discovered a base Harlot and Strumpet whilst thou settest up thy self against the righteousness of the Spirit And when thou shalt fight against him as a Blasphemer and thinkest to destroy him as thou hast Episcopacy and Presbytery when thou shalt look that Jerusalem should fall before thee as the gods of the Nations Gozan and Haran and Reseph and the children of Eden which were in Telassar when thou shalt come to lay hold on Christ as a blasphemer and shalt go forth like Sampson thinking to do as thou hast done at other times when thy zeal shall gather an Army that goes upon the breadth of the earth and thou compassest the Camp of the Saints about and the beloved City then shall fire come down from God out of Heaven and devour thee Then shalt thou find that sword of the Lord which hath drunken blood and eat flesh to fall out of thy hand and shalt see a battel fought in a way of war that thou never knewest having only known carnal weapons a battel not with confused noyse and garments rowled in blood but this shall be with burning and fuel of fire for his name is wonderful who hath the Government on his shoulders in the day of his begetting which is his manifestation or declaratiou with power Then no more Iron against Iron flesh against flesh the potsherds against the potsherds of the earth The naked power of the Spirit the holy arm of the Lord made bare shall make a supper to the â—â—wls of the ayr of the flesh of Kings and Captains and mighty men and horses and them that sit thereon and there shall the beast be taken and the false Prophet No more carnal weapons thenceforth they shall all be beaten into mattocks and pruning hooks when the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the Sea then I looked and every Iland fled away and the Mountains were not found I saw none but the Lamb standing on the Mount Sion and with him a hundred forty and four thousand having his Fathers name written on their foreheads and I heard the voyuce of Harpers harping with their Harpers and they sung a new Song This manner of War God was pleased to come forth in in the Apostles and Primitive Christians who had laid the world on its back and made it like Sodom and Gomorrah had not the Trumpet sounded a retreat and that power which was abroad retired again that the world might recover its deadly wound and get up upon his legs again that the man of sin might be fully revealed in the return of this power to be utterly consumed when it shall come in the brightness of its glory And thou Rule authority and power earthly that wilt not acknowledge the Lord thou earth that dost not tremble at the presence of the Lord his day will be on thee to put thee down if the Host of Heaven those Powers be shaken thou must not look for a priviledge and exemption and though thou hast been made like Nebuchadnezzar the servant of the Lord to pull down those heavenly powers that kept not their first estate and hast been a scourge upon the Powers of the Earth and smote them in wrath though thou hast been a feller among the Cedars of Lebanon thou that hast broken the Gold and Silver and the Brass with thy Iron feet remember that the Iron is mixed with clay that shews thy weakness thou shalt be shattered to pieces by that stone cut out of the mountain without hands when Satan shall lead thee against him as against a Blasphemer Therefore you Heavens and Religious Forms that are putting for the Government of the world and sadling Kingdoms and Re publiks and making them the Beast to carry the false Prophet which now begins to kick and winch and look upon thee that rideth And you Mountaines of the earth worldly Powers that say in your hearts We will ascend into Heaven and set our throne above the Stars
What wild and woful work do men make when they will undertake to be building the Church by their own humane wisdom and prudence and counsel when they think we will have the Church of God thus and thus and we will make it up of such and such men and we will govern it by such and such Laws and we will get the power of the Magistrate to back ours and then what we cannot do by the power of the Word and Spirit we will do by the power of flesh and blood Poor men that think that these new Heavens wherein the Lord will dwell must be the work of their own fingers or that the new Jerusalem must of necessity come out of the Assembly which is to come down from God out of Heaven or that they can build the house of God all of precious stones whereas this must be Gods own work and his own doing and no State or Councel in the World can bring this about and after much tryal and paines and weariness the Lord will at last teach his own that the gathering and laying these pretious stones together must be the Lords own doing even his own doing When the building of the Church is left to men how wofully is it mannaged why saith one we must needs admit such an one he is the chief man in the Parish or he is a man of good esteem in the world or he is a Noble man or he is my neer kinsman or is thus and thus related to me or he is a good civil fair dealing man and we must needs admit him and thus will flesh and blood be ever making a carnal temple for God to dwell in but Gods true habitation can never be framed but by the Spirit And therefore for the building of the Church let us look higher then the highest instruments for it must be the Lords own work by the word and Spirit and though every man be against it and oppose it yet the Lord will do it when there are no hands to build it up he will build it up without hands I will lay thy stones with c. It follows Ver. 13. And thy children shall be taught of the Lord and great shall be the peace of thy children See here how the prophet by the Spirit carries up the Saints above all visible and sensible things even as high as God himself God saith he to the Church shall build thee and God shall teach thee all thy children shall be taught of the Lord. The note is this That all the true and genuine children of the Church have Gods own teaching in all the things of God they have the Father and the Son to teach them by the Spirit This truth Christ himself confirmes where he saith It is written that they shall be all taught of God he therefore that heard and learned of my father commeth to me And again the spirit when he is come he shall lead you into all truth Which doctrine John after preached thus 1 Joh. 2. 27. The anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you and ye â—ceed not that any man should teach you but as the same anointing teacheth you all things Hereby now we perceive how few true children of the Church there be among those who are commonly called Christians for among all these how few are there who have the teaching of God but most have their teaching only from men and no higher Consider therefore I pray whether the knowledge you have be from the teaching of God or the teaching of man you all pretend to know that Christ is the Son of the living God and that redemption and salvation is by him alone but how came ye by this knowledge did you read it in the letter or did some body tell you so or hath God himself taught you this For no man knows the Son but the Father and he to whom the Father will reveal him and therefore when Peter said thou art Christ the Son of the living God Christ answered flesh and blood hath not taught thee this but my Father which is in heaven And so though all of you profess your selves Christians yet none of you know Christ truly but only such as are taught of the Father And this holds in all other points as touching calling and faith and union and justification and sanctification and the gift and sealing of the Spirit touching the spiritual Kingdom of Christ and the Government of it oh consider whether you have the teaching of God in these things or no and if you have not the teaching of God you are none of the children of the Church what ever truth thou knowest from the letter if thou hast not the teaching of the Spirit it will do thee no good thou knowest not any thing spiritually and savingly wherein thou hast not the teaching of God All thy children shall be taught of the Lord. And therefore what a sad thing is it when men look for their teaching no farther then men they onely look to the Minister or to such an able learned Orthodox man as they phrase it or at the highest to the Assembly and what they shall teach them they are resolved to stand by it and build upon it for their foundation in the mean time never regarding in truth the teaching of God but say what can so many grave learned godly men err and shall not we believe what they determine why now these are none of the children of the spiritual Church for they neither have Gods teaching nor care for it but the spiritual Church is all taught of God Object But you will say doth God teach without means Answ I answer no God teacheth but it is by the Word and that chiefly in the Ministery of it and he that pretends to be taught of God without the Word is not taught of God but of the Devil And therefore no man is to despise the Ministery of the Word which is Gods own Ordinance and to depend upon I know not what revelations and inspeakings without the word seeing God teacheth all his children by the word and none without it And therefore it is not the Prophets meaning when he saith all thy children shall be taught of the Lord that they should neglect and despise the Word and the Ministery of it but that we ought so to use the Word and the means as not to look for our teaching from them but from God himself in and through them and when you come to hear not to think I will hear what Mr. such an one or Mr. such one will say but with the Psalmist I will hear what the Lord God will say And truly I would not care to hear what any man in the world would say in whom Christ himself did not speak Now much more might be said of this teaching of God but that I intend brevity in all as namely that this teaching 1. Is a clear and evident teaching that you shall have certainty in what
to that some to this aid and some to that but the spiritual Church scorns to trust to any creature for establishment but looks to be establisht onely in righteousness and because of this neither men nor devils shall prevail against it And therefore you that are of this Temple and building which is made by God seeing you have so many enemies on all hands pray look to your establishment which is in righteousness In righteousness shalt thou be established Thou shalt be far from oppression for thou shalt not fear and from terror for it shall not come neer thee The fear and teror he speaks of here is inward fear and terror from which the Church shall be free in the midst of all outward evils for though the Church be full of danger and persecution without yet it is free from fear and terror within Nay the Church hath trouble without but peace within affliction without joy within weakness without strength within imprisonment without liberty within persecution without content within against all the sorrows and sufferings on the flesh they have refreshings comforts hopes sweetnesses rejoycings triumphs in the spirit and so in the midst of evil are free from evil and in the midst of sufferings are free from pain yea they rejoyce in tribulations and in the midst of evil are fild and satisfied with good Vers 15. Behold they shall surely gather together but not by me whosoever shall gather together against thee shall fall for thy sake A very strange thing it is that the spiritual Church being this builded and taught and establisht and should yet be so blinde and mad as to ingage against it and yet the world and the carnal Church especially doth this yea the more pure and spiritual the Church is the more enmity the world and Formalists have against it Behold they shall surely gather together When they shall see the Churches gathering together into the true communion of Saints then will they gather themselves together against the Churches And why do these men blame the Churches for gathering together unto Christ when they themselves gather together against the Church as we daily see Indeed the gathering together of the Saints the world doth most hate of all other things Oh this is a dreadful and terrible thing to them it makes their hearts ake within them and looseth the joynts of their loynes they think their exaltation will be their own abasement and their gathering together their own scattering and their glory their own shame and their strength their own undoing and out of these conceits the world acts so strongly and furiously to scatter abroad again Christs own gatherings together But the Lord hath decreed and promised to hew that little stone of Christs spiritual Church out of the mountain of the World with out hands and will certainly accomplish it and is now about that very business but the world that never looks beyond sense they think this is surely a plot of ours and that we have a great designe in hand and so we have indeed but the design is not our designe but Gods contrived in eternity and discovered to Daniel chap. 2. and this is the setting up a Kingdom of Saints in the world under Christ the King of Saints wherein the people shall live alone in point of spiritual worship and communion and shall have nothing to do with the rest of the Nations This counsel of God begins to be accomplished and the world thinks that we are subtile and we are mighty whereas they are clearly mistaken in us for the wisdom and strength whereby this is done is Gods and not ours For it is the Lord must build this spiritual Church and set it up in the world and preserve it against the world and cause it to increase till it fills the world so that the designe and the accomplishment of it belongs to God and not to us and they that are displeased at it let them go and quarrel against God and so they will certainly do through the operation of the Devil Behold saith he they shall surely gather together As soon as ever the Church separates from the world the world gathers together against the Church Yea this place is not only to be understood of those that are open enemies without the Church but of a generation in it that are not of it and so the gathering together against the Church shall be in the Church and so Calvin interprets and such a thing will assuredly come to pass that the Church as well as the Kingdom will have domestick enemies it hath been soo in all ages and what wonder will it be if it be so in this The first division in this Kingdom was between common profession and open prophaness and if ever there be another it is like to lie between the form and the power of godliness and the children that are born after the flesh will up and be persecuting them that are born after the Spirit and the deepest wounds we shall receive will be in the house of our friends not our friends indeed but of such who seem to be so for they pray as well as we and preach and hear and receive the Sacraments and use the same ordinances with us and yet their enmity of all other will be the greatest against us and we shall receive deeper wounds in the house of these friends then in the streets of our enemies They shall gather together in thee against thee But not by mee The Saints gather together by God having the Spirit of God to bring them into Vnion and Communion but the carnal Church gathers together agaist thee spiritual not by God but without him for worldly base ends and interests and profits and advantages But mark the end of such gathering together Whosoever shall gather together against thee shall fall for thy sake We have seen the accomplishment of this promise with our eyes even a great party of the greatest men in the Kingdom as well as of mean ones gathered together against the Church but all fallen What is become of the great Power and Armies that were in the West and the North and other parts of the Kingdom are they not fallen through the strength of this promise and if any new party shall arise up again they shall also fall in like manner For thy sake For the Lord loves the Church the body of Christ even as he loves Jesus Christ himself thou hast loved them as thou hast loved me he loves Head and Members with the same love The Lords people are his portion on Earth as he is theirs in Heaven and so he will give Nations and Kingdoms for them and hath said the Nations and Kingdoms that will not serve thee shall perish yea those Nations shall be utterly wasted Oh that this Kingdom in it self and in its representation would avoyd this evil as they would escape this end The four Monarchies for opposing the spiritual Church have fallen
him prosperous And pray now what is all this to your purpose Mr. LOVE If it was good in your Hearts to think to Reform it s much better to do it Reply Does not GOD say It was well that David thought to build a Temple and yet for all that he should not build it And do you now dare to blame this very thing Cannot the Scripture it self be quiet for you Mr. LOVE You need not fear losing a Party Reply Yea but how if God be in that Party What then Sir Is it not better keeping a little poor despised Party that hath GOD in it then a great and numerous Party without God Again Did you preach before the Parliament to make or cast off parties Doth this appertain to the mystery of Christ and the Father Reader These men are so over busie in making and marring Parties that I much fear they will in the end throw the Kingdom into more misery and blood then their Predecessors have done Mr. LOVE Reformation is no forcing Conscience it meddles not with Conscience it restrains Practice If a Jesuite come from Rome to kill a great Person he does it in Conscience but I meddle not with his conscience I restrain his Practice Reply Does not your Reformation meddle with Conscience Mr. LOVE Did you speak this of your self at random as the rest or is this the sense of your Brethren And doth your Reformation only restrain outward Practice Then to tie up mad Dogs and Beares and Tygers is your most excellent Reformation You that will not meddle with the Consciences of men it is no wonder you are making so many Iron yoaks for their necks and so many snares and fetters to hamper the outward man the proper subject it seems of your Reformation And thus taking upon your selves the Reformation of the outward man you do indeed put the Magistrates work to an end And then the Assembly may serve in the place of the House of Commons and Sion-Colledge in the place of the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Common-Councel See you not yet O ye Powers of the World how the Ecclesiastical Powers would eat you out And for your Jesuite Did you ever hear me say or hint That the Magistrate should not restrain and punish outward wickedness I wish therefore you would unriddle your selves and tell truly if you dare how far you would limit the Magistrate and enlarge your selves upon the outward man But certainly if the Magistrates power hath under it the whole outward man as indeed it hath And if Christs power have under it the whole inward man as indeed it hath what place then I pray is there left for your Ecclesiastical power when the outward and the inward man are disposed of before Sure when the Magistrate takes his own proper power to himself and Christ his own proper power to himself your power will be found to have no place either in the Worlds Kingdom or GODS but you must find out some third place for it for I will assign you none lest you prove too angry Mr. LOVE The Church of Thyatira might think she had New light and yet God saith I have a few things against thee because thou sufferest the woman Jezabel c. Reply Truly Sir when God shall make you a new Creature you will be glad of New Light for behold saith God I make all things New even the light as well as the creature the Old Light will serve the Old man well enough And for the Spirit reproving the Angel of the Church for suffering false and erroneous Teachers doth this prove as you undertake that the Angel of the Church had or exercised Civil and Secular power in the Church of Christ You err not understanding the Scripture for then any thing is suffered in the Church when it is not reproved and condemned by the Word the Word of truth taught and published in the Church will suffer no error there but you understand this suffering of outward and violent power Do you not remember that I said at the beginning that the carnal Church understands the whole Scriptures carnally Mr. LOVE And now to hear such Sermons preached and Books printed if it had been at Amsterdam it had been no marvel But at London and at Westminster c. Reply Truly such a Sermon as mine might have been preached at Amsterdam or any where else where the Gospel hath free passage and such a Sermon as yours might have been preached at Rome or any where else where the precious Word of GOD is under restraint and Ecclesiastical power exalts it self both above the power of the Word and the power of the Nation Your Sermon savours as ill to the Faithful as mine to the World Many other weak passionate inconsiderate erroneus things fell from Mr. LOVE neither worth the troubling the Reader with nor my self and so they may perish and rot in their owâ— grave if they will for they shall never receive a Resurrection from me And now at the close of all I desire the Reader to observe the difference between our Enemies and our selves in this great point of Authority and Jurisdiction which is this That We exalt Jesus Christ alone in the spiritual Church and attribute to the Magistrate his full power in the world But they exalt themselves in Christs stead in the Church and set under their feet the Magistrates power in the world And this is so evident that there is some operation of Satan more or less upon him that sees it not FINIS Praesens male judicat aetas Judicium melius Posteritatis erit THE WAY OF TRUE PEACE and VNITY In the true CHURCH OF CHRIST In all humility and bowels of love presented to them By WILLIAM DELL One of the least and unworthiest of the Servants of God in the Gospel of his dear Son Psal 120. 7. I am for peace but when I speak they are for war Utrum nos schismatici sumus an vos nec ego nec tu sed Christus interrogetur ut indicet Ecclesiam suam August contr liter Petil. l. 2. c. 85. London Printed for Giles Calvert at the Black-Spread-Eagle at the West-end of Pauls near Ludgate 1651. To the Honourable the Commons of England Assembled in PARLIAMENT IT is written that the Kingdoms of the World shall become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ and now when all almost that is great and honourable and noble and Royal and wise and learned is found against this Counsell and design of God how highly are you honoured of him and how happy are you that You yet are found for it You after a manifold Apostacy and defâ—ction of many of your Members seem yet to remain as pillars in the House of our God yet you seem to be among those called and chosen and faithful ones that now continue with the Lamb who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords in his engagement against and conquest over the TEN-HORN'D BEAST And to turn aside from
this work would be to give up your selves to double ruine to wit both from heaven and earth And therefore the Lord make you faithful that you may do this work for God and to fulfill his Word and not for your selves and to fulfill your own Ends. And now as you are busie about the Peace of the Kingdom to settle and establish that upon a right and sure foundation so God hath engaged my heart to meditate the peace of the Church And though I have excluded your power from having a hand in this Work yet I have not in any measure wronged you as you shall perceive but rather endevoured to preserve you from dashing your selves against that Rock against which all the ignorant and unwise Rulers and Kingdoms of the world both have and yet shall dash themselves in peeces It shall be your wisdom to be built up together with the Church on Christ but it would be your confusion to go about to build the Church on your selves and your power seeing this building is too weighty for any foundation but Christ himself Your power will do well in the Kingdoms of the world but not in Gods Kingdom which is Christs inheritance from the beginning to the end You shall be happy to be subject in it but none must be Lord or Law-giver here but Christ himself Let not the Devil who in these last times hath in many places translated the mystery of iniquity from the Ecclesiastical Kingdom of the Clergy into the temporal Kingdom of the Magistrate any longer keep it there seeing it will be as pernicious in this as in that for it will be no less dangerous an evil for the Magistrate to make himself Lord and Law-giver in the Church then for the Pope or General Councel in all the Kingdoms called Christian or for the Archbishop or National Assembly in particular Kingdoms Men have commonly thought that to preserve the godly in worldly peace and prosperity is to preserve the Church whereas to preserve them in faith hope love in union and communion with Christ and the Father in and through the Spirit this only is to preserve the Church and this oft-times is better done by Christ whose work only it is in affliction then in prosperity Wherefore do You look to the care of the State and trust Christ with the care of his Church seeing he is both faithful and able to save it perfectly The peace of the Church lies in Christ only and no part of it out of him no not for a moment and this their peace Christ is able to preserve in Himself in the midst of the most cruel and desperate evils of the world Now what the true Church of Christ is and wherein its Peace and Unity lies is here in some measure declared for the good of the faithful every-where and particularly for Your good lest you being glorious instruments in the hand of God for one work should miscarry in another And this I have done through God not because I was worthy to do it but because it was worthy to be done For why should the Church any longer be ignorant of the things that belong unto its peace and why should the Members of it any longer lie as scattered bones dry and dead and not gathered up into the unity of a living body and who could longer indure to see unskilfull Physitians under pretence of healing the Church wound it still deeper and under pretence of procuring its peace hurry it into endless dissentions and divisions In this case of necessity I could not but speak both out of duty and love and I hope none of You will despise to hear who consider that God when he layes aside the wise and prudent chooses Babes and Sucklings to perfect his praise out of their mouths that so he himself may be the more glorified and admired in his weak and mean instruments Now let his praise be above the earth and the heavens and let him give you the honor that all his Saints have and this is his hearty desire who humbly writes himself Your servant in the Gospel William Dell. To his Excellency the Lord General FAIRFAX And the Honorable Lieutenant-General CROMWEL Together with the Councel of VVar. THE presence of the Lord having turned your course backward like Jordan from what it was a year ago and all former inchantments and divinations used against you being dissolved through the renewing of the same presence of God with you after a manifest with-drawing of it and You through a blessed necessity being now doing that work of God which once you had little minde to viz. The procuring the Peace of the Kingdom by subduing the great enemies of Peace and removing all the enmity against peace that was inwrapped in our very Laws and degenerated Constitution of the Kingdom I thought good whiles You are thus busie about the peace of the Kingdom which is a peace without you to put you in minde of the true peace of the true Church which is a peace within you and an eternal peace as the former is but a temporal for what advantage will it be for you to have peace among men to want peace with God to do the work of God in the world and to be destitute of the work of God in your own hearts to destroy the enemies to worldly peace and yet to maintain in your own hearts the corruptions of unrenewed nature which are the enemies of heavenly peace Take heed therefore that your present employments do not so over-ingage you in this world that you neglect the world to come take heed lest by seeking your selves you have your reward here but do the work of God for God and whilst you act for God live in him and let him be your reward and not the creature And now here in this Dicourse shall you see a better Peace and Agreement then you are striving for though your work also be excellent and glorious even such a Peace and Agreement of which Christ himself is the immediate Author and Prince and which he communicates not to the world but to them he chooses out of the world even the Peace of God in Jesus Christ by the Spirit which hath its foundation in Christ and its influence into each Communion of Saints all the world over And this Peace can no more be brought about by your Sword then by the Magistrates Scepter and therefore take heed lest you now having power in your hands to another purpose should so far forget your selves as to do that your selves which you have condemned in others Therefore suffer the Word only to be both Scepter and Sword in the Kingdom of God and let the true Church remain free in the Freedom which Christ hath conferr'd upon it or else the Lord whose own the Church is will as certainly in his due time take the sword out of your hands as he hath done the Scepter out of the Magistrate's and throw you into one destruction