BREACH upon BREACH OR AN ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF Judiciall Breaches MADE UPON US PROCURED BY SINFULL BREACHES FOUND AMONGST US With Instruction Admonition and encouragement yet to turn to him that smites us and the sum of it was delivered at the Funerall of Mr. Jeremiah Colman late Preacher of the Gospell at Hetherset in Norfolk February 18. 1658 9. By Tho. Moore Junior If they shall confesse their iniquity And that they have walked contrary to me and I also have walked contrary to them Then will I remember my covenant and I will remember the Land Levit. 26. 40 41 42. If any say I have sinned and perverted that which was right and it profitted me not he will deliver his soul from going downe to the pit and his life shall see the light for he hath found a Ransome Job 33. 24. 27. 28. For this cause vide not so discerning the Lords Body that was broken for us as to examine and judge our selves in the light thereof many are weake and sickly among you and many sleepe for if we would judge our selves we should not be judged c. 1 Cor. 11. 28 29 30 31 32. LONDON Printed by J. B. for the Author 1659. The Epistle to the Reader THis our beloved Brother deceased had his conversation in times past among a people zealous about some lighter matters of the Law as to outward order and discipline in the worship of God while yet neglecting the weighty matters as judgement and the love of God ernest in building Churches but slighting if not as there is too much cause of jealouâ—y of many of their builders refusing that stone for the foundation and head of the corner which God hath laid in Sion for that purpose too much like though it may be hoped not so much out of order as Israel of old who when forgetting his maker And counting the great things of his Law even Christ the end of the Law and the knowledge of God in Christ and his righteousnesse the things witnessed in the Law and Prophets as a strange thing were yet zealous in building Temples and multiplying Altars and sacrifices Hos 8. 11 12 14. with ch 6. 6 7. Psal 118. 22. Math. 21. 42. and 23. 23. Luk. 11. 42. Act. 4. 11. with Isa 28. 12. 16. and 29. 11. But God who is rich in mercy for the great love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in sins and â—respasses and that he might thereby shew the exceeding riches of his grace to others inclined his heart more dilligently to enquire into the great things of his Law or doctrine summed up in the testimony God hath given of Christ and gave him to perceive the faithfulnesse of that saying that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners By the light of which he karned to relinquish the former apprehensions he had of Christ and so of other persons and things after the flesh or as that teacheth and to account losse and dung for Christ and for the excellency of the knowledge of him such things as before were gain to him that he might farther win him and be found in him And so in receiving his word as the word of God and not of men Christ as testified in the scriptures the son of God the Saviour of the world became precious to him And having tested that the Lord is gracious to whom comming as to a living stone disalowed indeed of men but chosen of God and precious he also as a lively stone was therein built up in him and so made of the spirituall house and holy Priesthood to offer up spirituall sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ the love of Christ constrained him with much earnestnesse to perswade and beseech others to be reconciled to God and to seeke help in the name of God in Christ to warne the unruly comfort the feeble-minded support the weake to be patient towards all men in meeknesse instructing them that oppose themselves and to encourage and stir up such as had believed through grace to abide in him as they had received him and to provoke them to love and good works and so to help forward and strengthen the hearts and hands of the fellow-helpers to the truth As one that had his heart seasoned with those principles of certainty and truth that one died for all so effectually with the father that all have died in that death of one as all have sinned and death passed on them in and by the sin of one And that he therefore died for all that they which live in their severall ages by the grace of God bringing salvation to them as it doth to all men in due time should not henceforth live to themselves but to him that dyed for them and rose again knowing also in this knowledge of the greatnesse and truth of Gods grace in Christ to manward the unspeakable terror of the Lord against those that will not know him but are contentious and do not obey the truth or by an evil heart of unbelief depart from him and go on in their trespasses and backslidings till the day of grace pass and the master of the house be rissen up and have shut to the dore And in this his earnest seeking the good of all and the edifying of the Body of Christ he was much stirred up espâ—cially in his latter days to press for more fellowship in the Gospell with them that did know and acknowledge the grace of God in truth and so callon the Lord out of a pure heart And that such should joyn together as the heart of one man for the promoting that designe To which purpose he moved it as of great advantage and very necessary that brethren in the Gospell should often gather together as they might have opportunity frroâ— divers parts to consult one with another and together with the Scriptures and the testimony of God concerning Christ as contained in them how they might walk and strive together in more joint order for for the faith of the Gospell This though much upon his spirit to his latter end Yet was too little considered by us Our generall dulness and loss of our first love by wandering out of the way of understanding made us insencible both of the advantage to be sâ—â—â—net within such endeavouring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond if peace and so seeking the Lord and his things and therein the things and good of others after the due order and also of the necessiry of it especially in these evill times It seemed to me that Gods removing this instrument in the midst of his days and while his spirit was so earnestly set for the promoting and carrying on so good a worke and yet it was so little apprehended or considered by us had in it a great reproofe of our dulnesse and a loud voice signifying necessity of timely listening to it to awaken us to righteousnesse in this particular that standing up from the dead Christ
preaching of the Cross is to them that perish foolishness but to us that are saved its the power of God 1 Cor. 1. 14 18. So also there are other appointments for decency and order in assemblings and observance of ordinances as to say men in praying or prophesying to have their head uncovered and women to have a covering on the head as likewise we find in the Scriptures plentiful directions to the use of reverend gestures as kneeling or standing in prayer to God Yet about these or such like things the Apostle saith We have no such custome nor in any of the Churches as from them to be contentious 1 Corinthians 11. 1 16. That in all things to be contended and earnestly striven for is onely the faith of the Gospel Jude 3. Phil. 1. 27. Gal. 2. 5. with Rom. 14. and 1 Cor. 8. and 9 in and 10. 23 23. So then to seek the Lord regularly or after the due order is in all our seeking chiefly to mind and be exercised in the great things of Gods law the things in which the Kingdome standeth yea even for our understanding and direction to the usefulness of the lighter matters as may be subservient to the greater They then sought him not after the due order that spent their â—eal and laid the stress of their Religion in multiplying Altars Sacrifices and Washings yea in lighter matters as Tything mint Annis Cummin and regarded not but neglected the great things of Gods law as judgement mercy and saith Matth. 23. 23. judgment and the love of God Luke 2. 42. For he desired mercy and not Sacrifice and the knowledge of God rather then Burnt offerings but they like men trasgressed the covenant Israel hath forgotten his maker and buildeth Temples Hosea 6. 5 6 7. chap. 8. 11 12 14. In lik manner were they irregular in all their seeking and worship of God who refusing Gods councel to run into his name in Christ as witnessed in the Law and Prophets as their rest and as the foundation and key of knowledge unto all precepts did esteem and look upon the great things of his law contained in that name witnessed as strange things to the precepts for their worship or as having no relation to them or influence upon them And so made the word of the Lord to themselves Precept upon Precept Line upon Line here a little and there a little c. Isa 28. 12 13 16. Hos 8. 12. with 1 Tim. 1. 5 6 7. 3 To seek the Lord regularly or in a right way and so after the due order is To seek him in the preparation and sanctification of his Sanctuary with the whole heart prepared engaged and devoted to him in the instruction encouragement and acknowledgement of his name as by his preventing and following grace therein bringing salvation they are taught moved and strengthned 1 In the light teaching and instruction of his name to look unto and seek him in Christ according to his will therein declared viz. for such things and in such manner as we are instructed by the Spirit in that testimony of Christ and Gods name in him for so he helpeth our infirmities thereby teaching and instructing us To seek with earnestness fervency and violence the Kingdome of God and his righteousness Those things which God hath certainly treasured up for us in Christ and promised to give unto us with him as wisdome in the knowledge of him strength to receive and abide in him And so all things pertaining to life and godliness through the knowledge of him these things to be sought in him with such earnestness fervency and holy boldness and confidence without wavering wrath or doubting as certainly knowing that God hath treasured them up in Christ for us and that he will freely give them with him to us and that it is his good and acceptable will that we should be made partakers of them in and through him for he made him that knew no sin to be sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him and hath made the witnesses of his goodness through him especially his glorious Gospel his arm or power to save us to open our eyes and turn us from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God that also in turning we might through it receive the forgiveness of our sins and inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith that is in Jesus 2 Cor. 5. 21. Acts 5. 31. and 20. 32. and 26. 17 18. Therefore these things so to be sought in all our seekings 1 Tim. 2. 8. Jam. 1. 5 6. Prov. 2. 1 6. and 4 5 7. Matth. 7. 7 8. Ephes 1. 17 18 c. and 3. 13 17 c Psal 32. 6. And so with some degree of that earnestness and fervency of spirit to seek and beg of God such blessings of this life as by the light of his testimony we may know do most conduce unto life and godliness for ovr selves and others as the peace good and prosperity of Jerusalem Psalm 122. The preservation and encrease of a seed of faithfull labourers to serve him in the world that such may not fail from among men but more of them be raised up and thrust forth into his harvest Matth. 9. 37 38. In like manner the pardoning the iniquities and healing the diseases that procures such judgments as the cutting off such in the midst of their dayes or in the midst of their work and the healing and restoring such when there being so cut off is threatned these things may be sought and prayed for with more fervency and earnestness then other blessings pertaining to this life for as much as we know by the light of his testimony they tend more especially and directly to the promoting the things of Christ and so the good of others in the world And that therefore its Gods good and acceptable will â—o lade us wiâ—h such benefits and one of the special fruits of the mediation of Christ to preserve such and procure the continuance of them and a great judgement to have such so cut off and failing from us and such as to which he is not willingly provoked nor till by great iniquities and much stubborness in them and when so is yet ready to repent of the evils framed against us on our turning to him that smites yea ready to prepare our heart and to cause his ear to hear And the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much unto it See James 5. 13 16 c. with Isa 45. 11. Rom. 15. 30 31. Phil. 1. 19 24 27 and 2 25 28. So likewise for the saving or granting life of sparing unto such especially of our brethren in any peculiar sense as we see have sinned even to the procuring a speedy cutting off in their iniquities while yet we see it not finished unto death we are to seek and pray for sparing mercies for such with a degree of that earnestness and fervency fore-mentioned
them because they testified concerning us that our works were evil though they did it in bearing witness to his infinite grace in Christ for and towards us It was one of the greatest griefs and burchens on the Spirit of this Servant of the Lord much complained of by him towards his end That he had preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ in this place till it was made a reproach and derision to him till it was even snuffed at and become contemptible a burthen yea a Savour of Death to them that sometime had heard it with gladness and rejoyced in it 2 If we look farther even upon the generality of those that have a great zeal of God and pretend to be earnest seekers and worshippers of him in these parts where this light shined yea even among those that were willing for a season to rejoyce in his light as John 5. 33. 35. Yet how few seeking the Lord after the due order But first seeking to frame their hearts unto and do something for God that thence they may conclude God hath a gracious affection towards and hath done great things for them in Christ First seeking to know their love to him that from thence they may conclude his love to them First seeking to know or rather guess or imagine their election before they will know or believe Christs death for them yea that they may gather the knowledge of that from the other And being so fundamentally out of order The Vision of all is become to them as a sealed book The great things of his Law a strange thing having no understanding or perswasion of the truth of it they can have no usefulness of it as to any of their worship but their fear towards him is taught by the precepts of men according to which they prefer and lay the stress of their Religion in the lighter matters yea in the ordinances of men such as Tonch not Taste not Handle not neglecting the weighty matters of the Law as Judgement Mercy and Faith Yea how is the foundation and head of the corner laid aside by the chief builders and teachers that they heap up to themselves May not this complaint be taken up of the generallity of those that profess them selves the Churches of Christ and are called by his name and gathered into societies and pretended order Though it may be feared of the greatest part of them not by him not entring by the door but climbing up or creeping in some other way into such houses or societies as the Apostle fore-tells us such shall do in the latter dayes as under a form of godliness privily deny the power of it the Gross of Christ the Lord that bought them I say may not this complaint be taken up of the generality of them That take away but their disorder and irregularness and what will be left them of all their Religions or of all their fear or worship towards God It s to be feared of the greatest part of them very little if any thing their fear or worship it self is little else but a bundle of confusion and disorder their very stock is a Doctrine of vanity and lyes their root rottenness and confusion at least in a great part of it and what then can be expected in any of the blossomes or branches as springing from such a root but disorder and confusion like as in the Land of Darkness where there is no order and where their light is as darkness as hath been oft bewailed by this servant of the Lord concerning many of them among whom he formerly had his conversation And with whom and for whose good he still laboured exceedingly as he had opportunity notwithstanding the many discouragements he met with from them but God hath taken him from the evil 3 If we go yet farther to take a view of the true worshipers or such as in some measure call on him in truth or at least are more fundamentally in order then the former Yet what disorder and confusion hath been found with them Yea what pollution in their holy things had they as they have been redeemed from among men and gathered together unto him by the powerfull effecacy of his precious blood discovered Had they even so in the light and power of that grace cleaved together in his name and sought the Lord after the due order they might have prevented this breach yea had we yet after the judgement was devised and framed against us as a punishment and correction of our disorder Had we I say yet sought him after the due order in this thing and so for the healing and restoring to us this our now deceased Brother While yet there was hope as the taking him away was along time evidently enough threatned before finished to give us opportunity to seek him in due manner while he might have been found and intreated by us in that matter If we would have judged our selves surely we should not thus have been judged had we diligently in the opportunity which is now past for that prepared our selves to the search and consideration what is the meaning of the voice in such judgements threatned and searched and tryed our wayes in the true glass and with a true heart that what is halting might be healed And so run into his name together to see what we might have sought for with servency in such a case as this and on what ground and in that instruction incouragement sought it of him or rather sought him in it with a hearty acknowledgement of the evil of our ways and doings humbling our selves under his mighty hand lifted up That he would graciously teach us what we see not and make us willing to see and be ashamed of give up what is discovered reproved that he would prepare our hearts and cause his ear to hear that we might turn from our iniquities and understand his truth and he might turn from the evil threatned and not bring it upon us Surely this judgement might have been prevented God would have repented him of the evil even when he had devised and prepared it against us as Jer. 11. 8. 11. with 1 Cor. 11. 30 31. For this shall every one that is godly every true worshipper of God that worship in spirit and truth yea such true worshippers joyntly and together standing fast in one Spirit with one mind or soul and so in personal fellowship one with another as they have opportunity they shall strive together in their prayers in a time of finding even for this To prepare our hearts to him that we may not still hide our iniquity under our tongue or set up the Idol of it in our hearts but heartily acknowledge and confess it unto him together and resign it up to him that is ready to pardon and heal And to cause his ear to hear That he may do for us for his Names-sake forgiving the iniquity of our sin Surely in the Floods of great Waters they shall
they were of the first witnesses and preachers of the resurrection of Christ the Evangelists tell us and that they may as any of them is through grace sitted thereto both pray and prophecy and that in the presence of others in some assemblys of believers is clearly fignified 1 Cor. 11. 5. and in other Scriptures but the sense of the saying in both parts together is this They ought not nor is it seemly for them otherwise to speak either in praying or prophecying as the mouth of others or in propounding questions nor otherwise to act no not in the Church or any the assemblys thereof then so as therein they be under obedience and in quiet silence and subjection to the man so as in the Lord and therein to the wise and holy order and disposition of God They then are not capable of any office of rule or oversight in the Church as Elders and Deacons but to be in subjection Yea farther I suppose That in any assemblys of believers where there are men in presence fitted for speaking in prayer or prophecy or in propounding and answering questions for the edification of others it may be convenient for the women there to be silent yea a shame for them to speak unlesse in some extraordinary cases or on some particular occasione and so as desired or appointed as to the order and time of such their speaking by such brethren in presence with them or that are also over them in the word of the Lord as they may judge it needfull and convenient for the man was first formed then the woman likewise the woman was first in the transgression neverthelesse neither is the man without the woman nor the woman without the man in the Lord. But I forbear to urge my apprehensions of these things and leave what is said to correction by better judgement The women then for decency and ordersake observing such cautions as 1 Cor. 14. 33 34 35. 1 Timothy 2. 11 12. c. with 1 Cor. 11. 5 10. and so every one man or woman keeping their place and attending that place and service to which they are sitted and called The whole Church of unfeigned believers may all prophecy one by one as God hath dealt to them such a gift or exercise any other gift they have according to their severall abillity in this shift for the faith of the Gospell that all may learn and all may be comforted according as God hath dealt to every man For as there are many members in one body and all members have not the same office so we being many are one body in Christ and every one members one of another to every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ he who hath set the members in the body as it hath pleased him divides to every man severally as he will for there are diversities of gifts but the same spirit and differences of administrations but the same Lord and diverfities of operations but it 's the same God which worketh all in all but the manifestation of the spirit is given to every one to profit withall according to his measure for to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisedom to another knowledge by the same Spirit to another faith c. And so these severall gifts were set in the Church Apostles Prophets Teachers rancked under five heads Ephes 4. 11. there were also other gifts added with these to the Church to accompany the first proclamation of the Gospell to the Gentiles by the first witnesses which gifts were not so set for continuance as the former unto which they were added and therefore not mentioned among those which were given to continue in the Church till it come to its perfect state compare 1 Cor. 12. 28. with Eph. 4. 11 12 13. Now the Apostles themselves as they were appointed and chosen to peculiar service that by them the preaching might be fully known and that all the Gentiles might hear so they were not onely immediately from the Lord but also peculiarly gifted with all spirituall gifts to fit them to that service they had all the scriptures of the Prophets so opened to them and their understandings so opened and strengthened to understand them and the revelation of the mystery even of the truth of all as fulfilled come forth and manifested in Christ raised from the dead so immediately and fully given them from the Lord himselfe and were so gifted with all wisedom knowledge and utterance that they was therein perfectly accomplished and therefore sent in his name to make known the mystery as now revealed and to make it known out of the Scriptures of the Prophets according to the commandment of the everlasting God for the obedience of the faith among all Nations for his name and so as wise Master-Builders to lay the foundation for others to the end of the world to build on and so their gift as it was peculiar to them is yet left us in the fruit of it in their word and doctrine confirmed and set in the Church And so also their gift even the gift of Apostles in a secondary and inferiour sense is still found in the prime degree of the gift of Prophecy as set in the Church which therefore is mentioned as the head or chief of the best gifts now to be coveted by believers by other believers since or besides the Apostles such as believe through their word 1 Cor. 12. 31. with câ— 14 1. of which gift there are degrees or diversity of measure and so of administrations and operations accordingly Whence it is expressed in that to the Ephesians under these two heads Prophets Evangelists The prime degree hath in it such an understanding of the Scriptures of the Prophets even as the Testimony of Christ witnessed by them as now manifested by the Apostles is confirmed in the heart As also such acquaintance with the Scriptures and such skill in the word of righteousnesse vide The vision of all the great things of the Law or doctrine delivered by the Prophets and Apostles and as the foundation of and key of knowledge for opening all other things namely the testimony of Jesus as in which they are furnished and apted to a plain and cleare opening the foundation as laid by the Apostles and that out of the Scriptures of the Prophets by the revelation of the mistery given by the Apostles And so to shew the things of Christ by the Scrriptures even the things already done in his owne body which the Prophets said should come to passe and the powerfull efficacy of them with the Father for men and in the name of the Father unto then Through his powerfull mediation betweene God and men as also therein to shew the things yet to come in his glorious appearing and Kingdome and with this word of righteousnesse so distinctly and convincingly to instruct teach exhort reprove c. By the Scriptures of the Prophets as opened by