Because without they have this power they are destitute of all power 2. Without this power they are insufficient for the work of the Ministery As being unable 1. To preach the Word that is the true Spiritual and living Word of God 2. To preach it zealously and powerfully But without this presence of the Spirit of power 1. Their Ministery is cold and hath no heat in it 2. Weak and hath no strength in it 3. To persevere in their ministery and to carry it on against all opposition and contradiction 4. To reprove the world of sin For the Spirit of judgement must needs be accompanied with the spirit of might 5. To incounter and overcome the Devil 6. To inable them to be comfortable and invincible against all evils and enemies 2. Christians this Spirit of power and power of the Spirit is necessary for all Christians as well as Ministers Object But do all Christians receive the Spirit of God as well as Ministers Answ Yes equally and alike without any difference Now this Spirit of power is necessary for them 1. To distingush them from reprobates and Devils 2. To exalt them above all the rest of mankinde who are destitute of the Spirit 3. To unite them unto Christ And the power of the Spirit is necessary for them 1. To change their natures which is the daily work of the Spirit till all be renewed 2. To work grace in them and each grace is so much of the power of the Spirit in the flesh 3. To inable them to mortifie sin and the power of the Spirit mortifies 1. The whole body of sin in all its parts and members and 2. Each particular strong corruption 4. To performe duties For no more strength in any duties then of the Spirit in them 5. To confess the Word before Kings and Magistrates 6. To publish the word and that both 1. In private 2. In publique in case of necessity 7. To suffer and overcome affliction Natural strength withdraws it self from the evil Spiritual strength stands to it and overcomes it The second Vse is for information and instruction shewing that the way to obtain this power is to obtain the Spirit and to encrease this power is to encrease the Spirit Now that we may obtain the Spirit we must first prepare our selves Wherein this preparation doth not consist Wherein it doth consist that 〈◊〉 1. In emptying us 2. The work of the Spirit afâ—er he hath emptied us is to fill us The means through whâ—ch the Spirit is conveyed to us 1. By the Word and his word the Word of the Gospel 2. By Faith whicâ— carries us to Christs flesh to receive of his Spirit Through the word and faith we are born of God and so partake of the Spirit of God 3. Prayer and in prayer we may ask the Spirit either of the Father or the Son Again that we may encrease the Spirit 1. We must be constant and continual in the use of the Word 2. We must daily encrease faith 3. Must be much in prayer 4. Must withdraw our seves from the creatures and live loose from them 5. Must cease from our own works 6. Must give our selves up to the Sprit that he may work his work in us 7. The works of the Spirit we must attribute to the Spirit and not to our flesh Christs Spirit a Christians strength OR A plain discovery of the mighty and invincible power that all Believers receive through the Gift of the SPIRIT Acts 1. 8. But ye shall receive power when the Holy Ghost is come upon you and ye shall be witnesses unto me c. Or You shall receive the power of the Holy Ghost coming upon you THese words are the more remarkable because they are the very last words in the conference between the Son of God and his beloved Apostles immediatly before his ascension into heaven Now you know when dear and intimate friends are to part as their love then runs strongest and their affections are most intire and vehement so then also they especially discourse of those things wherein most of all they desire to be satisfied and resolved Thus was it between Christ and his Apostles never was there such dear and intimate friendship and such sincere and burning love between any as between them The Apostles all of them loved Christ most truly and passionately and Peter who had three times denied him three times professed his love to him and being sorry that Christ should question his love the third time he thus answered Lord thou knowest all things thou knowest that I love thee And Christ also loved them dearly yea he loved them first and having loved his own he loved them to the end and so he was not discontented with them for their leaving and forsaking him through-humane infirmity when he was led away to judgement and to death For though death quite puts out all natural love yet spiritual love is not extinguished but enlarged by death Now when such loving friends as these were even now ready to take their last leave one of another in regard of bodily presence who would not most willingly have been present to have heard what discourse passed between Christ and his Disciples at this their last parting Now Luke acquaints us with the Whole summe and substance of Christs discourse with his Apostles all the time he lived together with them after his Resurrection till the day wherein he Ascended into Heaven In the third verse of this Chapter he saith he did discourse with them De Regno Dei touching the Kingdome of God That is not only touching his Spiritual Kingdom which he sets up in each particular Christian and which begins at our regeneration and is consummate in glorification but also touching his Mediatory and Monarchical Kingdom which in the time appointed of his Father he should set up in the world When he should have the Heathen for his inheritance and the utmost ends of the earth for his possession and all people and Nations and Languages should serve him and he should reign from sea to sea and from the river to the worlds end This was the summ of Christs discourse with them And the Apostles were fully satisfied touching the thing onely they were unsatisfied touching the time For besides that the setting up of this Kingdom of the Messias in the power beauty and glory of it was at that time the common discourse and expectation of all Israel the Apostles themselves remembred many Prophesies and promises of the Old Testament for the restoring the Kingdom of David And this they thought Christ would have done in the daies of his flesh but presently all their hopes were blasted by his death But when they saw him risen again from the dead then presently their hearts were revived into their former hopes but yet again seeing nothing done all the time he conversed with them after the resurrection when now he was ready to Ascend into Heaven
Holy Ghost is come upon you And here we may note two things 1. What he promises them and that is Power you shall receive power 2. How they should be made partakers of that power and that was by the Holy Spirits coming upon them The point we will insist on from both is this That the receiving of the Spirit is the receiving of power till we receive the Spirit we are altogether without power and when we receive the Spirit then first of all do we receive power power from on high By nature we are all without strength weak impotent creatures utterly unable to any thing that is truly and spiritually righteous and good For by nature we are nothing but flesh for that which is born of flesh is flesh and all flesh is grass a fading withering and decaying thing together with all the flowers of it that is the perfections and excellencies of it So that by nature we are all without power because we are nothing but flesh of which weakness is an inseparable adjunct But when we receive the Spirit we receive power for power is an inseparable adjunct of the Spirit as weakness is of flesh yea the Spirit it self which is given us is power and that both essentially and operatively in it self and in us 1. The Spirit is power essentially in it self for it is one God with the Father and the Son co-essential co-equal co-eternal and so as Christ is the power of God so also is the spirit the power of God yea the spirit is the God of power aswel as the power of God So that the Spirit is power in himself essentially and he that partakes of the power of the spirit partakes of that power which is God and no creature 2. The Spirit is power operatively in us by being in us 1. A Spirit of Knowledge for the Holy Spirit teaches us to know the things that are freely given to us of God yea he teaches us to know what sin is and what righteousness what death is and what life what Heaven is and what hell what our selves are and what God is and these things he teaches us to know otherwise then other men know them In a word the spirit teaches a Christian to know all things that is to know God and the Kingdom of God and all the things of both all other things being nothing in comparison of these Thus the Holy Spirit is a Spirit of knowledge in us and so of power for knowledge is the strength of a man Whereas an ignorant man is a weak man you may carry him whither you will but knowledge renders a man strong and unmoveable And in all things wherein the Holy Spirit is a spirit of knowledge in us he is also a spirit of strength The Holy Spirit is a spirit of Power in us by being in us a spirit of Truth And so the spirit is because it doth not onely lead us unto the truth that is unto the word which is the onely truth as it is written Sanctifie them through the truth thy Word is truth but also the Spirit leads us into the Truth it leads us into the truth and the truth into us till we and it become one by an inseparable union The Holy Spirit takes a beleever and leads him into one truth after another till at last it lead him into all truth Now wherein the Spirit is a Spirit of truth to us it is a Spirit of Power for through the truth we learn from the Spirit of truth we are altogether stedfast and unmovable among variety of different and contrary winds of Doctrine And this is the very cause that among so many divisions and factions and errours and heresies which wofully prevail in these present times of ours the people of God are not seduced and overcome to wit because they are all taught of God of God and not of men and have the Spirit of truth to lead them into the truth the Spirit I say and not men and so it is impossible that they should fully and finally be deceived For wherein we are taught by the Spirit of God it is unpossible we should be perverted by men Whereas on the contrary the true ground why so many are seduced and overcom by the errors and heresies of this age is because they have taken up their religion onely from mans teaching and have received their opinions or doctrine from men and so what one man hath taught us another man can unteach yea if we be led to the truth it self onely by man man can again lead us from it For all the world cannot lead any man into the truth till the Spirit lead him into it and when the Spirit doth lead us into the truth all the men in the world cannot lead us out of it but we are so sure of those things wherein the Spirit hath been a teacher to us that if all the Councels and Churches in the world yea all the Angels of Heaven should teach us contrary we would hold them accursed But a man that hath not been taught of the Spirit every day you may win him into new opinions by the power and authority of men together with the strength of other advantages But he that hath been led into the truth by the Spirit of truth is unmoveable and invincible among all doctrines And thus also the Holy Spirit by being a Spirit of truth is also a Spirit of Power in us 3. The Holy Spirit is a Spirit of Power in us by being in us a Spirit of Wisdom and so it is because it makes us wise with the wisdom of God wise upon earth after the rate of heaven wise to salvation There is no man wise without the Spirit of God for the wisdom of carnal men is but foolishness before God yea before Angels and Saints but the wisdom of the Spirit is most gracious and heavenly wisdom And this wisdom of the Spirit is the strength of a Christian the more he hath of it the more mighty he is both in all his doings and indurings It is said Eccles 9. 15. That there was a poor wise man delivered a small city from the power of a mighty King and therefore Solomon concludes that wisdom is better then strength for it can do greater things then strength can When David carried himself wisely Saul a great King was afraid of him he thought himself too weak to deal with David and David too mighty to deal with him because of his wisdom and Solomon asked Wisdom of God above all things for the strength of his Government all Government without this being but weak and brittle Thus wisdom contributes strength to us whereas we say of a man that wants wisdom he is a weak man And so the Holy Spirit being a Spirit of wisdom in us is also a Spirit of Power 4. The Holy Spirit is a Spirit of Power in us by being in us a Spirit of Faith For
power of the Spirit coming on them then they are stronger then all opposition and Persecution whatsoever otherwise when these evils encounter them they with Demas leave the Work and imbrace the World And thus you see what necessity all the faithful Ministers of the Gospel have of the power of the Holy Spirit coming upon them and without this power though they be called Ministers yet they are none For without this power they are unable to preach the Word to preach it powerfully and to persevere and hold out in the course of the Ministery they are unable to reprove the World to wrestle with and overcome the. Devil and to suffer that Persecution which necessarily attends that calling And so without this power they may Minister to themselves but cannot Minister to others the manifold graces of God they may do their own work but they cannot do Gods work they may seed themselves but not the Flock of Christ they may domineer over the sheep but cannot drive away the Wolf they may build up their own houses but cannot build up God house Secondly as the Holy Spirit and the power of it is necessary for Ministers so also for all other Christians whatsoever But some here will be ready to say yea but do all believers receive the Spirit of God and the power of the Spirit as Ministers do Yes Equally and alike with them without any difference This is evident Act. 11. 15. where Peter tels the Jews who contended with him for conversing and eating with the Gentiles that when he began to speak the Word to them the Holy Spirit fell on them saith he as on us at the beginning And again ver 17. Forasmuch then as God gave unto them the like gift as he did unto us who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ what was I that I could withstand God So that God gave the Holy Spirit to as many Gentiles as believed in like manner as he did unto the Apostles themselves and they received the same power of the Holy Spirit coming on them as the Apostles did Whereby you may perceive that not Ministers only are Spiritual men and all others temporal as the Papists have taught and many Ignorant people among our selves are still perswaded but all true Believers are spiritual as well as they being born of the Spirit and Baptized with the Spirit equally as they are And so all true Believers as well as Ministers being indued with the Spirit are also indued with the power of the Spirit and so have more then an Earthly power in them They have all of them power of another nature then the power of the World they partake of spiritual heavenly and divine power even of the very power of Christ himself which infinitely transcends all the power of the creature You see then clearly that all faithful Christians have the Spirit of power and the power of the Spirit coming on them aswel as Ministers And they stand in need of both these for these causes 1. They stand in need of the Spirit of power first to difference and distinguish them from Reprobates and Devils for without the gift of the Spirit there is no difference between us and them For Michael doth not differ from the Devil nor Gabriel from Belzebub but only by the Spirit And Moses differs not from Pharoah nor Abel from Cain not Jacob from Esau nor Peter from Judas in regard of their substance but in regard of the Spirit which the one received and the other were counted unworthy of 2. To advance them above the condition of flesh and blood and above all those in whom is none of Gods Spirit The excellency of each creature is according to its Spirit for the more excellent the spirit of the creature is the more excellent is the creature it self and each creature is valued and rated according to the Spirit of it How excellent then must they be above all the World who have received the Spirit that is of God Surely these are people of the most excellent spirit And hence it is that the righteous is more excellent then his neighbour because his spirit is more excellent then his neighbours 3. To unite them unto Christ The Spirit is the bond of Vnion between the Father and the Son in the Godhead and the Father and the Son are one in the Spirit as we spake before And now the same spirit is our bond of Vnion with Christ and makes us one with Christ as Christ is one with God and unites us unto Christ in the unity of God for as Christ is one with the Father in the Spirit so are we one with Christ in the Spirit For he that is joyned to the Lord is one Spirit and he that is not one Spirit with the Lord is not joyned to him 4. All faithful Christians stand in need of the power of the Spirit as well as of the Spirit of power 1. To change their nature which is impossible to all power but the power of the Spirit It would be a great power to change clay into Gold and a pibble into a Diamond but it is a greater change that is wrought in a Christian and requires a greater power For the power of the Spirit when it comes into our flesh changes the nature of it For it finds a man carnal it makes him spiritual it finds him earthly it makes him heavenly it finds him a drunkard it makes him sober an adulterer it makes him chast a swearer it makes him fear an oath proud it makes him humble it finds him darkness makes him light in the Lord in a word it finds him nothing but a lump of sin and makes him the righteousness of God in Christ Thus the power of the Spirit changes our whole corrupt nature and makes it conformable to the divine nature as fire makes the Iron in which it prevails like unto it self communicating its own nature to it After this sort the power of the Spirit changes our nature and our nature cannot be changed without it But without this power of the Spirit we shall always remain the same we were born without any change at all Yea our corruption will by daily use and exercise encrease in us till at last it quite eat out that common natural good which God hath given to every one of us for the common benefit of mankind 2. All Christians have need of the power of the Spirit to work grace in them For our natures are wholly carnal and corrupt and nothing can implant grace in them but the mighty power of Gods Spirit And it is as great a Miracle to see the Grace of God dwelling in the corrupt nature of man as to see the Stars grow upon the Earth And yet the power of the Spirit doth this as it is written truth shall spring out of the earth and again great and precious promises are made to us that we should be partakers of the
first and chief work of the Spirit upon the Elect whereby he prepares them to receive himself For the more empty a man is of other things the more capable he is of the Spirit If you would fill a vessel with any other liquor then it holds you must first empty it of all that is in it before if you would fill it with Wine you must empty it of Beer or Water if any such liqour be in it For two material things cannot possibly subsist in the same place at the same time the substances of each being safe and sound And so if the Holy Spirit who is God must come into us all mortal and unstable creatures together with sin and our selves and what ever else is in us must go forth Humane reason and humane wisdom and righteousness and power and knowledge cannot receive the Holy Spirit but we must be emptied of these if ever we would receive him We must thus suffer our selves to be prepared by the Spirit to receive the Spirit but with this caution That when the Spirit of God hath wrought this in us we do not attribute it to our selves as our own work nor think any thing of our selves but descend into our own meer nothing Otherwise we shall be a hinderance to the Spirit that he cannot work in us after a more excellent manner And when a man is thus empty of himself and of other things then he becomes poor in spirit and such the Spirit alwayes fills and descends into with a wonderful and unresistible power and fills the outer and inner man and all the superior and inferior faculties of the soul with himself and all the things of God And this is the second work of the Spirit to fill those whom he hath emptied Now the usual and ordinary means through which the Spirit doth this are these three 1. The hearing of the Word preached But here we must distinguish of the Word For the Law is the word of God but St. Paul saith that by that word the Spirit is not given but by the Word of the Gospel And therefore how beautiful are the feet of them that bring the Gospel of peace for nothing is so sweet and precious as the word of the Gospel which brings with it the Holy Spirit This you may see Act. 10. 44. where it is said that whilest Peter yet spake the Holy Ghost fell on all them that heard the Word And therefore also the Gospel is called the ministration of the Spirit because as it proceeds from the Spirit and the Holy Spirit gives utterance so it also conveyes the Spirit to the faithful Now the gift of tongues and miracles and other such like gifts are at the present ceased in the Church but the gift of the Spirit is not ceased and this the Lord still joynes with the Ministery of the Gospel that he may keep up in our hearts the due respect of this ordinance and may preserve us from the wayes of those men who seek for the Spirit without the Word 2. Means is faith in the word heard For it is not every one that hears the word that receives the Spirit but onely they that hear with the hearing of faith For if thou hear the word of the Gospel a thousand times and wantest faith thou shalt never receive the Spirit for unbeleef shuts up the heart against the Spirit and ever opposes and resists the Spirit and never receives it But faith opens the heart to receive the Spirit By faith we lay hold on Christ in the word and through our union with Christ we obtain the Spirit For we have not the Spirit immediately in it self but in the flesh of Christ And when we by faith are made the flesh of Christ then we partake of that Spirit that dwels in the flesh of Christ Now through these two things the Word and Faith the Spirit communicates to us a new birth it begets us unto God and so we partaking of the nature of God partake also of the Spirit of God They are born of men have nothing in them but the spirit of men but they that are born of God have the Spirit of God That which is born of the flesh is flesh hath no spirit in it but that which is born of the Spirit is spirit and hath spirit in it So that there is no means to partake of the Spirit of God but by being born of God and the means by which we are born of God are the Word Faith 3. Means is Prayer For Christ hath said the Spirit is given to them that aske And the Disciples when they were to receive the promise of the Spirit continued with one accord in prayer and supplication Act. 1. 14. For God who hath promised to give us his Spirit hath commanded us to aske it and when God hath a minde to give us the Spirit he puts us in minde to ask it yea God gives us the Spirit that by it we may ask the Spirit seeing no man can ask the Spirit but by the Spirit Now in asking the Spirit there is no difference whether we ask it of the Father or of the Son seeing the Spirit proceeds from both and is the Spirit of both And therefore Christ promiseth the sending of the Spirit from both From the Father Joh. 14. The Spirit which the Father will send in my name From himself Joh. 16. Except I go the Comforter will not come but if I go I will send him to you So that both the Father and the Son give the Spirit and it is no matter whether we ask him either of the Father or of the Son so we ask him of the Father in the Son or of the Son in the Father And thus you see the way to obtain this power is to obtain the Spirit and also by what means this is done 2. The way to increase this power is to increase the Spirit And therefore it is as needful for us to know the means to increase the Spirit as to receive it And they among others are these 1. To continue in the use of the Word As the Spirit is first given by the word so by the same word it is increased and the more any Christian is in the use of the word the stronger and more vigorous and mighty is the Spirit in him but the neglect of the word is the quenching of the Spirit Let a Christian that is strong in the spirit neglect the word a while and he will soon become weak and as a man without strength For the Spirit is not bestowed on us but through the word neither doth it dwell in us but by the word and the more the word dwels in our hearts by faith the more the spirit dwells in our hearts by the word And according to the measure of the word in us is the measure of the Spirit 2. To increase faith For the more we beleeve the more we receive of
diversity of gifts are in no wise to divide where there is unity of faith Further among them that believe where there is the more gift there is only the more labour but there is not another or a better Christ and where there is the less gift there is the same Christ equally enjoyed through faith He that had five Talents given him brought in five that he had gained and he that had ten ten but he that brought in most Talents had not more of Christ then he that brought in fewer and he that brought in fewer had not less of him then he that brought in more but each having Christ alike by faith brought in the exercise of his several gifts And so unity of Faith is to keep us one notwithstanding diversity of inward gifts And secondly it is to keep us one notwithstanding diversity of outward works For unity of Faith makes all believers righteous alike though they differ in outward work For in Christs Kingdom each ones righteousness is reckoned by his faith not by his outward works And therefore Paul Heb 13. 7. having reckoned up many excellent works of the Fathers doth not enjoyn us to follow their works but their faith saying Whose faith follow considering the end of their conversation seeing the unity of the Church stands in unity of faith and there may be unity of faith in diversity of works for faith uses freely any outward laws manners forms works so farr as they may tend to the mortifying of our bodies and the edifying of our neighbours wherein faith also will judge for it self and will suffer no body to judge for it and in all change of works faith is the same and changes not and the Church still remains one through unity of faith in the midst of variety and diversity of outward works And therefore where men are accounted Christians for such and such outward works sake and this unity of faith is not taught and received there the gates of hell do certainly prevail And this is the fifth bond of the true Churches unity Vnity of Faith Now they break this bond of the Churches unity that live out of this faith of Gods Elect seeing it is written That the just shall live by faith And therefore they that live by sense in the things of the world or by form in the things of God they live out of this faith and unity of the Church 1. They that live by sense in the things of the world break this bond of the Churches unity even such as minde and affect and love and desire earthly things and have all their joy comfort sweetness satisfaction support and confidence in the creature these live out of the unity of the Church seeing the life of sense is clean contrary to the life of faith Faith carrying us to live in God out of the creature and sense carrying us to live in the creature out of God 2. They that live by form in the things of God whether it be called Conformity as the Prelates called it or Vniformity as the Rhemists do also break this bond of the Churches unity For to live upon this or that form of religion or worship so as to think our selves good Christians therefore and others evil that shall live otherwise is to fall apparently from the faith of the Church seeing faith doth not live upon this or that form of Religion but it lives on Christ only in every duty and whatsoever form it may use for a help to the infirmity of the flesh yet in the use of forms it lives above forms in Jesus Christ and his fulness The sixth bond of the true Churches unity is ONE BAPTISME The true Church which is the body or flesh or Christ hath but one and the self same Baptism by which it is purified which is the Baptism of the Spirit For the Apostle speaks here of that Baptism wherein the whole Church is one which is not the Baptism of the sign which hath often been altered and changed but the Baptism of the substance which comprehends all believers and all ages and under several and various dispensations and was the same before Christs comming in the flesh as since believers both of the Jews and Gentiles of the Old and New Testament drinking all alike into one Spirit though these more plentifully then those So that though many have wanted the Baptism of water yet not one member of the true Church hath wanted the Baptism of the Spirit from whence our true Christianity begins Now this Baptism of the Spirit is the onely Baptism that hath power and efficacy to make Christians one For through the Baptism of the Spirit it is that the Church is made one body as Paul saith 1 Cor. 12. 13. For by one Spirit we are all baptized into one body whether we be Jews or Greeks whether we be bond or free and have been all made to drink into one Spirit The true Church drinks all into one Spirit as ye have heard and not into many and through one Spirit are baptized into one body and not into many and believers are never truly one till they partake of this one Baptism Now this Baptism of the Spirit as it is but one so it is administred onely by one Christ as John Baptist witnesseth Math. 3. 11. saying I indeed baptize you with water unto reprentance but he that cometh after me is mightier then I whose shoes I am not worthy to bear he shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire For as none can give the Son but the Father so none can baptize with the Spirit but the Son for this is Christ proper and peculiar Baptism from the Throne of his glory and no mans whatsoever this he hath reserved in his own power and hath not given it into any mans power And this is the sixth bond of the true Churches unity One Baptism Now they break this bond of the Churches unity that content themselves onely with the Baptism of water being destitute of the Baptism of the Spirit and so remain in the uncleanness of all their old corruptions and lusts and in all the filthiness and pollutions of flesh and spirit by reason of which they can have no true peace and agreement in heart and Spirit and Nature with those who are cleansed from these pollutions and are washed and justified purified and sanctified in the name and by the Spirit of God For what agreement can there be between them that live in all the corruptions of sinful men and them that live in the renewing of the Holy Spirit So that it is not the washing of water but the washing of the Spirit that is the true ground of the true Churches unity and they that want this Baptism of the Spirit though they have been baptized with water never so much live quite and clean out of the unity of the Church The seventh bond of the true Churches unity is ONE GOD AND FATHER OF
ALL WHO IS ABOVE ALL AND THROUGH ALL AND IN YOU ALL. And this though it be last named yet it is the first fountain and original of the Churches unity even One God and Father of all The true Church is a Kingdom of brethren who have all one God and Father from whom all receive alike the divine nature which being one and the same in all without any difference makes them all one and equal that are born of God For among these none have a better Father then another nor none hath a more excellent nature then another but all receive the same nature from the same God and Father and so are brethren in the Lord and this also is another strong bond of unity For they having all one God an Father First all are alike dear to him because all are alike born of him and so he loves not one more or less then another but comprehends all in one and the same love with Jesus Christ And this truly known will restrain believers from wronging one another when they know that such are every whit as dear to God as themselves and that God hath as great and tender love to them and care over them Secondly All are alike near to us because of this one God and Father and so among true Christians there can be no such divisions and factions and sidings as among worldly people because one Christian is not nearer to us then another and so we do not take part with one against another but all are alike near to us and so without any respect of persons we embrace all that are born of God with an equal love and seek the good of each one yea of every one as well as any one Now this God and Father of the Church he farther describes that he is 1. ABOVE ALL The Father is above the children and they are not above one another but he is above them all ruling and over-ruling them and so they are not to live in their own wills which might cause difference but in their Fathers will which causes unity and thus his being above them all keeps them in peace Whereas we see where children live without due subjection having no body above them as it falls out sometimes among Orphans there they are often unquiet and grievous to one another But God is above all his children and so keeps them in due subjection to him and in quietness and love with one another daily composing their differences through his unity 2. He is THROUGH ALL as having communicated to all his own nature and so according to this nature of his which he hath communicated to all alike and all alike possess he is through them all And hereupon they all must needs be one because God never differs from himself but his nature is at unity with it self in all in whom it dwels and brings them all out of the differences of their natures into the unity of Gods 3. He is IN THEM ALL. God is such a Father as hath his presence in all his Children he hath a special presence in them dwelling in them after the maner he dwelt in Christ though not in that measure for God dwels in Christ and Christians otherwise then in the rest of the creatures to wit by communicating his nature to them through his union with them And wherever God communicates his nature there he is present most truly powerfully and gloriously indeed And such a presence of God in his Church as this keeps it in constant and unchangeable unity For how can they who have God thus dwelling in them and who again thus dwell in God be at odds among themselves And this is the seventh bond of the true Churches unity ONE GOD AND FATHER c. Now they break this bond of the Churches unity who have not this one God and Father of the Church to be their God and their Father who will needs call God Father and yet are none of his children who will be of the Church of God and yet are not born of God and so live according to their own natures and not according to Gods all these I say break the unity of the Church seeing we can no longer live in peace then this one God and Father is above us and through us and in us All they then that will needs be members of the Church through outward profession and yet are none of this spiritual brother hood as having no descent from this heavenly Father they break this unity of the Church even all the children that are onely born after the flesh and so still live according to the natures of men and are not born of the Spirit to live after the nature of God These now are the seven bonds of the true Churches true unity and peace and there is no other bond of unity necessary for the Church besides these For if there had the Apostle being guided by the Spirit would never have omitted it And therefore the more are they to blame who making a great noise and lifting up their voyce on high for unity peace and agreement in the Church yet do wholly neglect these seven bonds of the true Churches unity and cry up one instead of them all and that is External Vniformity So that now among them one body and one Spirit and one hope of our calling and one Lord and one Faith and one Baptism and one God and Father of all are nothing at all to the Churches unity but their uniformity is all in all and whoever breaks that which yet they have no Scripture of God to enjoyn no nor once to name he is the man with them that breaks the Churches peace and so Antichrist-like they have exalted their single uniformity above this seven-fold unity of the Church and so have as much as in them lies made the word of the Spirit void through their carnal that I say no more traditions For a man may break all these seven bonds of the Churches unity and yet be a very good member of their Church if he onely observe their uniformity but if he break this he is a Schismatike and an Heretike and not worthy to live in their account though he live in all the bonds of this true and spiritual unity Wherefore to escape these snares let all believers know assuredly that these seven bonds named by the Apostle which are all spiritual and of God and not one of them carnal or of man are the onely bonds of the true Churches true unity and that whoever of their own minds presume to add to these are guilty of adding to the word of God themselves being but wretched creatures and so involve themselves in all the curses written in his Book among which death and hell have their place And let us further know that whoever do combine together to make themselves one out of the fore-named unity though they call themselves the Church never so
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
against such a ministery know that they strive against more then a meer man they strive against power from on high against the greatest power that ever God put forth against the power of Christ himself and his eternal spirit and so they shall never be able to prevail against this power but shall surely sinke under it But to return from whence we have a little digressed 3. Without this power of the spirit as Ministers are not able to preach the Word nor to preach it powerfully so neither are they able to hold out in their ministry and to carry it on strongly against all opposition and contradiction Peter and John preached the Gospel but presently the Rulers and Elders and Scribes convented them and straightly threatned them and commanded them not to speak at all nor to teach in the name of Jesus And now if the Apostles had wanted this power of the spirit they would presently have been snibd and awed and would have sneaked away and you should have heard no more of them But they having received this power all the threatnings and scornings of the Rulers and Magistrates could not deterr them from the discharge of their office and that ministery they had received from Christ But though before they were fearful and trembling and daunted at the apprehension of the least danger yet now having received this power they are altogether undaunted and said to the Rulers and Elders whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more then unto God judge ye As if they should have said O ye Rulers and Elders of the people our case is a plain case wherein we are most willing that even your own selves should be Judges For we have received a command from God to preach the Gospel of his Son Jesus Christ and you forbid us to do that which God hath commanded us Now do you your selves be Judges who is fittest to be obeyed God or you the great and glorious God of heaven and earth or poor wretched men such as your selves Nay what God hath commanded us we must and will obey against all your threatnings and punishments and what ever you can say or do We cannot conceal but must publish what we have seen and known of our Lord Jesus Christ of his incarnation life death resurrection ascension kingdom glory and of that great redemption and salvation which he hath wrought and purchased for all the Elect of God Now I would to God that the unjust commands of all Magistrates and secular Powers whatsoever might be no otherwise obeyed then this unjust command of the Rulers was by Peter and John and that no man would dare to yield more obedience to the creature then to the Lord of all For no Princes or Magistrates in the world have any power to forbid the preaching of the everlasting Gospel which God hath commanded should be published to all Nations for the obedience of Faith I say they have no power at all to forbid the preaching of this Gospel or of any one truth of it though never so cross to their designs And if they should yet herein ought we to know no more obedience then Peter and John did here We ought to obey God and not them and to make known the whole minde of God though it be never so contrary to their minde After the example of Peter and John who having received this power of the Holy Spirit held on their Ministery against all the countermands and threatnings and punishments of the Magistrates Whereas without this power they had soon fainted and failed and had never been able to have gone through with it 4. Without this power of the Holy Spirit Ministers are not able to reprove the world For every man by nature seeks the amity of the world and no man by his good will would provoke the enmity of it against himself And therefore flesh and blood will never reprove the world of sin but allows it and countenances it in sin But now the Spirit when he is come he will reprove the world of sin When a man hath this power of the Spirit in him then presently he reproves and argues the world of sin and so by his ministery bids defiance to the whole world and provokes the whole world against himself And this no man either can do or dares do except he be first indued with this power of the Spirit coming on him And therefore saith Micah Cha. 3. vers 8. I am full of power by the Spirit of the Lord and of judgement and of might to declare unto Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin The world of all other things cannot indure the reproof of sin and the declaration of its evil wayes And therefore it is exceedingly offended yea and extreamly rages against the faithful teachers of the Word with all sorts of punishments and persecutions as the examples of all the Prophets Apostles and faithful teachers of the Word of God in all ages do declare Yea and Christ himself testifies touching himself therefore the world hates me because I testifie of it that the works thereof are evil But now they that will connive at sin and flatter the world in its own wayes these are the onely men of reckoning and live in all worldly Honour and prosperity And all ages can witness that all Teachers are not of that strength and resolution to contemn the hatred and fury of the world Nay the most are quite overcome with the prosperity of this present life and with the desire of friends and riches and preferment and so wink at the sins of the world and are Ministers in whose mouths are no reproofs though the whole world lye in wickedness For thus they escape the rage and violence and obtain the favour and love of the men of this world And thus weak and unworthy are those men who are onely indued with their own Spirits But now saith Micah I am full of power by the Spirit of the Lord and of judgement and of might to declare unto Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin As if he should have said the power of the Spirit of the Lord dwelling in me puts forth its self two wayes in judgement and in fortitude 1. In judgement and this signifies the reproving and the condemning sin and wickedness as the Prophet himself explicates saying that I might declare unto Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin But seeing their being full of judgement doth not want danger but exposes a man to a thousand evils in as much as the world can indure nothing less then the reproof of sin therefore I am by the power of the Spirit not onely full of judgement but also Secondly full of Might and as the Spirit of judgement exposes me to danger so the Spirit of might inables me to contemn those dangers So that though the world because of the Spirit of judgement threatens never so many evils yet the
Divine nature and again he hath predestinated us that we should be conformable to the Image of his Son That is as in other things so also in all his vertues So that the power of the Spirit implants grace in our nature and each grace is so much of the power of the Spirit in our flesh as was said before Wherefore we must needs learn to know whose power the power of grace is For though grace be a power in our flesh it is not the power of our flesh for Paul saith in me that is in my flesh dwels no good thing but and if any good be in my flesh it dwels not in my flesh but in Gods Spirit which dwels in me As light is in the ayr but dwels in the Sun so when men are regenerate good is in the flesh but dwels in the spirit For grace in the soul is nothing but so much of the power of the Spirit immediately dwelling and working in us and when the Spirit is gone all grace goes along with him as all light with the Sun but it dwels in him and is inseparable from him 3. All Christians stand in need of the power of the spirit to enable them to mortifie and destroy sin There is no power in our flesh against sin but all the power of our flesh is for it and therefore it must be another power then the power of our flesh that must destroy sin and that can be no other then the power of Gods Spirit And the power of the Spirit destroys the whole body of sin and each particular strong corruption 1. The whole body of sin in all the parts and members and branches of it each several influence and operation of the Spirit being a several destruction of some sin or other For as the spirit that is in us lusts after envie or pride or vain-glory or covetousness or uncleanness or the like so the Spirit we have of God according to its mighty power destroys all those sinful works of our corrupt spirit and mortifies all the deeds of our flesh according to that of Paul if ye mortifie the deeds of the flesh by the Spirit ye shall live The flesh will never mortifie its own deeds but the spirit must mortifie the deeds of the flesh and this will mortifie them according to the whole Latitude of them 2. Again as the power of the Spirit sudues the whole body of sin so also it over powers each particular strong corruption and keeps a Christian straight and upright in the ways of God Every man hath some one corruption to which by nature he is more inclined then to another and this is the byas of a man but the strength of the Spirit will over-power this A boul if it be thrown with strength knows not its byas but is carryed on strait as if it had no byas at all So the Godly have still some flesh in them which is their byas and carries them from God to themselves and the World but the strength of the spirit takes away this byas and makes us take straight steps to God 4. All Christians-stand in need of the power of the Spirit to inable them to perform duties to perform them aright that is spiritually For spiritual duties may be performed for the outward work carnally and in such duties there is no strength but weakness because there is none of the Spirit in them For there is no power in any duty except there be something of the spirit in the duty There is no more power in praying nor in preaching nor in hearing nor in meditation nor in reading nor in resisting evil nor in doing good nor in any duty of sanctification or of mortification then there is of the Spirit in them And according to the measure of the spirit in each duty is the measure of power in the duty If there be none of the Spirit in a mans duties there is no power at all in them but onely weakness and deadness and coldness and unpofitableness If a little of the spirit there is a little power if abundance of the Spirit there is great power and that duty that is most spiritual is the most powerful And therefore saith Paul I will pray with the Spirit and I will sing with the spirit and all the worship of the faithful is in the spirit Philip. 3. 3. We are the Circumcision which worship God in the Spirit and have no confidence in the flesh So that there is no more power in any duty then there is of the Spirit in it and there is no more acceptance of any duty with God then there is of power in it Fifthly all Christians stand in need of the Power of the Spirit to inable them to the use of the Word and that both in private and in publique as occasion serves 1. In private for no man can say that Jesus is the Christ but by the Holy Spirit No man can speak of Christ spiritually but by the Spirit and without this spirit which searches the deep things of God and reveals them to us Christians are unable to give the Sense of the Word of God in their families and among their friends and acquaintance and are also ashamed to do it Whereas the Spirit of God gives both ability and boldness as Aquila and Priscilla his wife did not onely speak the word in their family but also took Apollos a Minister home when they perceived him somewhat ignorant in the mystery of Christ and instructed him in the way of God more perfectly 2. They have need of the power of the spirit to inable them to speak the word of God in publike as every Christian may do if he come where people are ignorant of Gods Word and there be no Minister to do it This I say in such a case he may do by vertue of his anointing with the spirit And for this you may see the practise of Stephen and Philip who were but Deacons and not Elders or Ministers and yet published the Word where the people were ignorant yea you may see Act. 8. how all the Disciples except the Apostles were by reason of a great persecution scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria and they that were so scattered went everywhere preaching the Word because the people among which they were were ignorant and there was no body else to do it And God having made known Christ unto them they could not but declare him unto others the love both of Christ and of their brethren constraining them But this is in case of necessity and where other fuithful Christians are absent otherwise when Christians are present no man can take that to himself without the consent of all which belongs to all Sixthly all Christians stand in need of this power of the spirit to inable them to confess the word before Kings and Rulers and Magistrates when they are called thereunto Whereas without this power they
the Kingdom of God stands not in Presbytery or Independency but in righteousness and peace and joy in holy the Spirit and that if I saw any thing of God or Christ or the Spirit in any one I reckoned him as a brother not taking any such opinion into consideration and that the unity of Spirit and not of opinion is the bond of Peace in Christs Kingdom The man then pretended to be satisfied and to rejoyce in his satisfaction but since as is related hath shewed his stomach again but because he seems to be a Christian the Lord lay it it not to his charge And truly Reader it is a sad thing that ever these names of Presbyterians and Independents grew up to this height in the Church and that these Opinions should be reckoned more in a man then the presence and dwelling of God himself and the Spirit in him For my part I utterly disclaim all such distinctions of mans making and will allow of no distinction of men but what God himself hath made and that is this The world and they that are taken out of the world or The Church and they that are without and in the Church the children that are born after the flesh and the children that are born after the Spirit or which is all one carnal and spiritual Christians This distinction of men God hath made and this I do and must needs use though the world as it appears likes this worse then the other For the distinction of seeds in the Church is the true distinction and the more this is brought about by the Word and Spirit the more glorious will the Church be Now some spiritual Christians may be among those that are called Presbyterians and some among those that are called Independents and all these though called by different names are of one spiritual Church And again some carnal Christians may be among those that are called Independents and some among those that are called Presbyterians and all these though called by different names are of one carnal Church And therefore I could wish we had obtained such wisdom from God as to let the distinction and division of men lie onely there where God hath made it and not where flesh and blood hath made it and so shall the true spriritual Church be delivered from these distinctions of flesh and blood and be separated from the world and be gathered together in it self and be at unity with it self which will be Gods great glory and its own great strength comfort and happiness and the great terror and dread of all profane men and formalists Another thing which I finde my heart stirred up within me to do is to testifie to the world what I know in mine own experience touching the Army under the command of that most faithful and worthy General Sir Tho. Fairfax and that because I am not ignorant of the great undervaluing and despising and reproaching of it by many even of those whose blood runs warm in their veins and who enjoy all the comforts they have in the world through the faithfulness diligence activity labors hunger thirst cold weariness watchings marchings engagements stormings wounds and blood of these men instruments in the hand of God for the subduing that malignant power that rose up against the State and Saints of God yea instruments of Gods own chusing and calling forth to his foot for this great and glorious service which after-ages will wonder and stand amazed at as well as at the vile ingratitude of this age to such instruments as these for which God will not hold it guiltless This then for mine own part I am most confident on that there are as many gracious and godly Christians in it as in any gathering together of men in all the world again men full of faith and the Spirit and the admirable endowments of it More particularly there are these six things most remarkable in this despised Army 1. Their Unity which is admirable it being more the Unity of Christians then of men more a Unity in the Spirit then in the flesh in the Father and Son then in themselves And this hath been one great means of their great success they being all both in Counsel and Action but as one man The Lord hath taken them and knit them up in one bundle and so their Enemies could not break them but have been broken by them Many of their matters of greatest moment have been carried in Councel with that Unity that sometimes not so much as one hath contradicted 2. Their humility which hath been admirable as well as the former For after great and glorious Victories to the wonder of the Kingdom and of the World when Kings of the Army did flee apace and the men of might ran away as women I have never heard any of the worthy and godly Commanders or Officers ever to say I did this or that or to boast of his own counsel or his own strength or to attribute any thing to himself or any body else of what God had done but every one to say This was the Lords own doing and it is marvellous in our eyes and it was not our own sword or bowe but the Lords right hand and his arm and light of his countenance And they have been most willing to be nothing themselves that God might be all And this hath been one means to keep them humble because though God hath been much with them yet the world hath been much against them not for their own sakes who have done the work of the Kingdom faithfully and honestly but for Gods sake in them because there is more of God among these men then among other men therefore are they so maligned by many men For the world always most hates where there is most of God and you may have a shrewd guess wherethere is most of God by observing where the greatest hatred of the world lies 3. Their faith There are many in the Army men of great and precious faith through which they have wrought righteonsness obtained promises stopped the mouths of Lyons quenced the violence of fire escaped the edge of the sword out of weakness were made strong waxed valiant in fight turned to flight the Armies of the Aliens Through this faith they have pursued their Enemies and overtaken them and turned not again till they had consumed them they have beaten them small as the dust before the winde and cast them out as dirt in the Streets Through faith they have entered strong Cities and I can truly and particularly say let them that will needs be offended stumble and fall at it that Bristol among other places was conquered by faith more then by force it was conquered in the hearts of the godly by faith before ever they stretched forth a hand against it and they went not so much to storm it as to take it in the assurance of faith Through faith one of them hath chased ten and ten put an hundred
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
receive the Spirit And thus you see the means that Christ useth to work this Reformation and these are the only Means Object Yea but I hope you will allow secular power too May not the Spiritual Church of Christ be Reformed with worldly and secular power Answ I answer by no means and that for these Causes 1. Forceable Reformation is unbeseeming the Gospel for the Gospel is the Gospel of peace and not of force and fury Civil-Ecclesiastical reformation reforms by breathing out threatnings punishments prisons fire and death but the Gospel by preaching peace And therefore it is most unbeseming the gospel to do any thing rashly and violently for the advancement thereof for the gospel of peace is not to be advanced by violence and therefore violent Reformers live in contradiction to the Gospel of Peace and cannot be truly reckoned Christians but enemies to Christianity sith Christianity doth all by the power of the Anointing but Antichristianity doth all by the power of the world 2. Forceable Reformation is unsutable to Christs Kingdom For Christs Kingdom stands in the Spirit and the force of flesh and blood can contribute nothing to this 2. Again the faithful the Subjects of this Kingdom are a Spiritual people and so they are without the reach of any outward force You may as well go about to bring the Angels of heaven under an outward and secular power as the faithful who being born of the Spirit are more spiritual then they And what hath flesh and blood to do with them that are born of the Spirit in the things of the Spirit And therefore touching this Kingdom which is spiritual and beyond not only the power but the cognisance of the world God hath said There shall be none to kill nor hurt in all my holy mountain And again Violence shall no more be heard in thy streets wasting nor destruction within thy borders 3. As they are a spiritual people so also a willing people and what needs outward power to force a people made willing by the Spirit Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power The very day of Christs power is not to force men against their wills but to make them willing The Spirit of God that brings them to this Kingdom makes them willing to obey God there and gives them pleasure in that obedience by shedding abroad the love of God in their hearts They that are not a willing people belong not to Christs Kingdom but to the world 3. By this Forceable Reformation humane Institution is set up for the power of the world reforms by the prudence of the world and men never use humane power in the Church but they first make humane laws in it and humane laws are the rule of humane power And so by this means the authority of men is made to have power not in the things of men but in the things of God which is the great dishonour of God and his Authority 4. It brings man into blind obedience and makes them obey what is commanded on pain of punishment though they know not whether it be right or wrong with the Word or against the Word So that a man shall say that which I do I am constrained to do and therefore I do it because I am constrained I read in Frithes Answer to the Bishop of Rocehester that a youth being present at his fathers burning the officers seeing him resolved to examine him also to try if they might find him a Sectary or an Heretick but the youth dismayed at the sad sight of his fathers death and fearing the like end himself being asked of one of them how he beleeved Answered Sir I beleeve even as it pleaseth you And so the more outward and violent power is used upon men the more of this kind of faith and obedience you shall have When men shall see prisons and banishments and loss of goods and death walking up and down the Kingdom for the Reformation of the Church you shall at last have men say Sirs we will beleeve and do even as it pleaseth you We will beleeve as the State pleaseth or we will beleeve as the Councel pleaseth And let them make what confession they will we had rather beleeve them then indure them And thus by fear and punishment may men be brought to say and do that which they neither beleeve nor understand and how acceptable such popish faith and obedience is unto God all spiritual Christians know and every mans conscience me thinks should be convinced 5. It makes men Hypocrites and not Saints for it forceth the body and leaves the heart as it was for the heart cannot be forced by outward power but by the Inward efficacy of the truth Now the hearts of men being corrupt what are all outward duties they are forced to but so much Hypocrisie So that forceable Reformation makes only Hypocrites and gilded Sepulchres putting a form of godliness upon the outward man when there is no power of godliness in the inner man but a power of ungodliness That Reformation with which the uncleaness of the heart stands is none of Christs Reformation What is the Reformation of the outward man when the heart is full of Atheism Ignorance of God Adultery Pride Murder c. and all the corruptions of Nature Call you this a Reformation of the Church of Christ This Reformation makes none Saints but all Hypocrites forcing mens actions contrary to their natures 6. It causes disturbances and tumults in the world when men are foced by ouward power to act against their inward principles in the things of God what disturbances and tumults this hath bred in States and Kingdoms who knows not So that they that lay hold on the power of men and go about to Reform hearts and consciences by outward violence are never the cause of Reformation but always of tumult And this renders the cause of the Gospel grievous and odious to the world rather then commends it And therefore let all that love the Gospel of Christ abstain from outward violence for they that use the sword in this kind shall in the end perish by the sword A man when he sins not against the State may justly stand for his State-freedom and to deprive a man of his State-Liberties for the Kingdom of Christs sake as it causeth disturbances in the world so let any man shew me any such thing in the gospel 7. Christ useth no such outward force himself for he is meek and lowly in Spirit and not boysterous and furious in the flesh And it was foretold of him that he should not strive nor cry nor lift up his voyce in the streets to call in outward and secular ayd and power He never used the power of the world but did all by the power of the Word even his very punishments and destructions he executes by the Word He shall smite the earth with
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
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
themselves whose prosperity was their ruine and whose power was their inslaving and all this was to the making void Christian brotherhood and communion Wherefore the right Church to preserve in it the peace of Christ must admit of no such distinction of Laity and Clerg but all Christians must equallâ—â—â—main â—â—main it it Kings Priests and Prophets unto God The fifth Rule is To keep equality in the Church and that both between Christians and Churches for this also is an excellent way to preserve peace 1. To keep equality between Christians For though according to our first Nativity whereby we are born of men there is great inequality some being born high some low some honourable some mean some Kings some Subjects c. yet according to our new or second birth whereby we are born of God there is exact equality for here are none better or worse higher or lower but all have the same faith hope love the same God Christ Spirit the same divine nature the same precious promises the same incorruptible Crown and inheritance of Saints in light And therefore saith Paul speaking of this true Church There is neither Jew nor Greek nor bond nor free nor male nor female but all are one in Christ Jesus Indeed in the world and before men I say again there is distinction of persons and inequality but in Christs Kingdom and before God all Believers aae equal and this equality preserves peace But when in this Kingdom some will be advancing themselves above others like Diotrephes that would have the preheminence and some will be striving to sit at the right hand and some at the left whilst they leave others to sit at the footstool this is that which breeds difference among the very Disciples who envied Zebedees children for such a desire And therefore Christ to preserve peace forbad Lordship in his Church and commanded service and tells them that the nature of his Kingdom is not to place men one over another but one under another and that the greatest must be the least the greatest in the way of the spirit must be the least in the way of the flesh 2. As equality among Christians is to be kept for the preserving of peace so also among Churches For all Churches are equal as well as all Christians and there is no Church can set it self before or above another all being sisters of one Mother beams of one Sun branches of one Vine streams of one Fountain members of one Body branches of one golden Candlestick and so all equal in all things Wherefore there may and ought to be a consociation of Churches but no subordination which makes void at once both equality and unity And so that Church or those Churches that will set themselves above other Churches that are their equals as the Classical above the Congregational c. they are the breakers of Christian peace and unity and the unskilful vote of the Assembly for the subordination of Churches was not a way to make peace but to mar peace in the Church of God Moreover no Church can be subjected to another but Christ who is present in it and is King and Lawgiver is subjected too which not true Church will either require or allow For if the true Church will not subject the Word of God which they have received to any men or Angels but will judge all by it and will suffer none to judge it much less will they subject Christ the Lord of all to any other power or authority for so they should dishonour and disanul their Head Where two or three are met in Christs name Christ himself is among them and the Head of them and so they can submit to no body else seeing Christ hath made no greater nor surer promise of his presence to any body then to them The sixth Rule is To keep the Officers of the Church in subordination to the whole Church or community and not to suffer them to get head over it seeing the very nature of ruling the Church is not Dominion but Service We reade Act. 11. 2. that when Peter had preached in the house of Cornelius a Gentile or Heathen the Church of the circumcision to whom Peter was Minister contended with him that he went in to men uncircumcised and did eate with them for as yet they knew not that the Gentiles were to be called And Peter was fain to give an account to them of the whole matter and to shew them that he was warned of God in a Vision to do so c. And this was a sign that Peter was a servant of the Church and in subordination to it and no Lord over it And after vers 22. when the Church at Jerusalem heard that the Grecians at Antioch had received the Gospel they sent Barnabas to Antioch to forward and perfect the Work And also the Church at Antioch sent forth Paul and Barnabas to the work of the Ministry in divers Towns and Countries All which are an evident sign that the Church was above the Officers and not the Officers above the Church Now this also will preserve peace in the Church to keep the Officers in their proper place and to let them remain as servants in the Church which Christ hath commanded and not to let them grow up to be Lords and Masters which Christ knowing the evil and inconvenience thereof hath forbidden For if the Officers get above the Church though they be never so good they are masterful and troublesome and though never so bad yet will they get a party in the Church for themselves and so work disturbance but if the Church remain as it ought above the Officers it quits them when they grow evil and unruly and chooses better in their stead and so preserves union Whereas fixed and unmoveable Officers when they do degenerate are the causes of all disturbances and confusions both in Church and State The seventh Rule is For all true Christians and Congregations to take Christ alike for their Head and not to set up visible heads or Ring-leaders to themselves of men no not of the best men For whilst some said we are of Paul others we of Apollos others we of Cephas they were all in this matter carnal and divided both from Christ and among themselves whilst several set up several heads whom they especially owned and after whom they were called Whereas each that believed by the Ministry of Paul or Apollos or Cephas were through the same faith and spirit with them as neer to Christ as themselves were and so were not to set up a fellow member as a Head to the division of the body I say each believer and Communion of Saints hath Christ equally for their Head and so ought not to set up any outward or visible Head for them to joyn to for this is to rend the body in pieces and to work great division and distraction among the faithful And therefore I conceive it
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
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
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
faith is a work of the Spirit of power and no less power would work faith in us then that which raised up Christ from the dead when he lay under all the sin of man and all the Wrath of God and all the sorrows of death and all the paines of hell it must be a mighty power indeed that must raise Christ then and that power was the power of the Spirit and no less power will work faith So that whoever truely beleeves by this faith of the operation of God is sensible in his own soul of the self same power that raised Christ up from the dead And thus the Holy Spirit is a Spirit of Faith in us and so of Power For unbelief keeps a man in himself but faith carries a a man out to Christ now there is no man weaker then he that rests on himself and there is no man stronger then he that forsakes himself and rests on Christ And so a man through the power of Faith is able both to do and indure the self same things which Christ himself did and indured 1. He is able to do the same things that Christ himself did and therefore saith Christ all things are possible to him that beleeveth so that a beleever hath a kinde of omnipotency and all things are possible to him because by faith he lays hold upon the power of God and all things are possible to the power of God and so all things are possible to a beleever who is partaker of that power of God And hence Paul saith I can do all things through Christ that strengthneth me This Christ that strengthned him was the power of God and this power of God is not a finite power but an infinite nor a particular power but an universal and so can do not some things only but all things and so also can all they who are truly partakers of it by faith Yea Christ himself hath a greater expression then this yea such an one that I never durst have spoken if Christ himself had not first spoken it and that is this John 14. 12. He that beleeveth in me the works that I do shall be do and greater works then these because I go to the Father Where Christ saith a beleever shall not only do the same works with himself which also had been a great thing but also greater works then himself and this indeed is altogether admirable and wonderfull That a beleever shall do greater works then Christ But how is this made good Why thus Christ he overcame the Law and Sin and Death and Hell and the whole power of the Devill in a body and soul free from sin his humane nature being the immediate formation of the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary and so had not the least spot of sin in it But now beleevers overcome the same evils even the Law Sin Death Hell and the whole power of the Devil in corrupted and polluted nature in bodies and souls at the first full of sin and afterwards defiled through many corruptions The Devil came to Christ and found nothing in him and so he overcame but he comes to a beleever and findes much in him and yet he overcomes And this truly is a greater work then Christ did And these works we do but not through our own power but through Christs of which we truly partake through faith 2. A Christian through the power of faith is able not only to do but also to suffer the same things that Christ himself sufferd Now the sufferings of Christ were the most grievous and intolerable to nature that ever were For how did Christ for the present as it were lay aside his Divine nature that he might suffer in his humane and how did he suffer in this the whole weight and condemnation of sin to the very utmost and the whole wrath of God to the utmost and all the sorrows of death and the pains of hell to the very utmost And among all the sufferings had not the least drop of comfort either from heaven or earth and yet through the power of the Spirit he indured and overcame all And so each Christian is able to indure and overcome the same evills by the same power and therefore Paul desired to know Christ truly and not onely the power of his resurrection which any one would desire to know but also the fellowship of his sufferings which flesh and blood trembles at yea and to be made conformable to his very death Yea I add yet further that if a Christian should chance to fall down into Hell as we beleeve Christ descended into Hell and so also many of his Saints have done as David and Hezekiah c. Yet a Christian through the power of the Spirit were able to overcome both the sins and the pains of Hell and therefore saith Solomon Love which is the power of the Spirit is too strong for death and too hard or too cruel for Hell As is evident in that Godly woman for I will name but one instance instead of many who thinking of the torments of hell and of the hatred and blasphemy of God which reigned in the damned did earnestly entreat God ut etiamsi damnaretur tamen Deum diligeret that though she were damned yet still she might love God Here love was too hard for Hell indeed And thus a beleever through faith is inabled both to do and indure the self same things which Christ himself did and endured and the Holy Spirit by being a Spirit of faith is a Spirit of Power in us 5. The Holy Spirit is a Spirit of power in us by being in us a Spirit of Righteousness and so he is two waies 1. In regard of mortifying sin For the Spirit of God dwelling in us is not idle in us but continually active and so from day to day mortifies sin And this is the proper work of the Spirit in our flesh to destroy out of us whatsoever is contrary to it self and that is every sin lust and corruption Now our sins are our weakness a mans pride and passion and envy and covetousness and lust and intemperance and every sin is his weakness Now the Holy Spirit by being in us a Spirit of righteousness mortifies and destroyes all our sins and so takes away our weakness 2. Again as the Holy Spirit is a Spirit of righteousness in us in regard of mortifying sin so also in regard of imparting grace to us For all grace is the fruit and operation of the Spirit in our flesh and as all light is from the sun so is all grace from the Spirit Now every grace is so much strength in the soul Faith so much strength Hope so much strength Love so much strength and so humility and patience and temperance and godliness and brotherly Kindness and all other graces are so much strength and according to each mans measure of grace so is his measure of
strength and according to each mans measure of the Spirit so is his measure of grace And thus the Holy Spirit by being a Spirit of righteousness is also in us a Spirit of power 6. The Holy Spirit is a Spirit of power in us by being in us a Spirit of the fear of the Lord and so he is by representing God to us in his Glory and Majesty according as he hath revealed himself to us in his word from which knowledge of God springs his fear For what is the reason that the men of the world fear not God but sin securely against the great and glorious God every day Why the reason is because they know not the Lord. Now the Spirit comes and reveals the Father in the Son and presents God to the soul through his word in his infinite and eternal power and justice and wisdom and truth and faithfulness and love and mercy and goodness c. and shines to the soul in each attribute of God and now when a man sees God by his own light and knows him by his own teaching then first doth he begin truely to fear God and the fear of God is his strength For he that fears God is free from all other fear he fears not men of high degree nor men of low degree nor the united power of all the creatures he fears not the fear of other men in their evils but in the midâ—â— of all fearful things he is without fear because he sanctifies the Lord of hosts in himself in his heart and makes him his fear and his dread And by this means amidst all evils he hath admirable confidence and assurance because he knows that no evil can befall him from any man or from any creature till first it be the will of God and also that what ever evil befalls him according to the will of God it shall work for good unto him in the end Thus the fear of the Lord is a Christians confidence and a beleevers strength whereas he that fears not God fears every thing yea not onely reall but imaginary evils and as evils multiply his fears so his fears again multiply his evils till at last he be swallowed up of both But the Holy Spirit being in us a Spirit of the fear the Lord is also in us a Spirit of strength 7. The Holy Spirit is a Spirit of power in us by being in us a Spirit of love and unity The Holy Spirit is a Spirit of love and unity in the Godhead for the Father loves the Son with the Spirit and the Son loves the Father with the Spirit and the Father is one with the Son in the Spirit and the Son is one with the Father in the Spirit and the Spirit is both the bond of love and unity between the Father and the Son and God being most love and most one is also most strong Now what the Spirit is in the Godhead he is the same in the Church of God which is the true temple and habitation of the Godhead and that is a Spirit of love and unity For why is there such constant love and unity between the members of the same body but because one Spirit runs through them all and so there is such constant love and unity between all beleevers because one Holy Spirit runs through them all And hence we may take notice of a remarkable difference between nature and grace for nature of one makes many for we all who are many among our selves even a whole world of men were but one in Adam omnes eramus ille unus homo but grace of many makes one for the Holy spirit which is as fire melts all the faithfull into one mass or lump and makes of many one body one thing yea it makes them one in the unity of God according to that of Christ John 17. 21. that they all may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us mark the words for they are wonderful that they all may be one that is that all beleevers who are many among themselves may be all made one one How one As thou Father art in me and I in thee that is as thou and I being two persons are yet but one God after this highest example of unity let them be made One in us as long as they remain in themselves they are many and how much they remain in themselves they are many for their unity is not in themselves but they are one in us who are one that is how much the saints by the Spirit are carried into the Father and the Son who are one so much also are they made one not onely with the Father and the Son but also with one another You may see in the Acts how the multitude of beleevers after they had received the Spirit so far forth as they had received the Spirit Were of one heart and of one minde And this unity of beelievers is their strength and when God shall take away all those prejudices and suspicions and jealousies and particular ends and interests and divisions and separations and Schismes that are among his own people and the people of God shall be reduced into this blessed unity among themselves and the Lord be one and his name one among them all then shall the Church also be of admirable and invincible power So that all they that strive with it shall perish and all they that war against it shall be as nothing yea then shall the Lord make the Church as a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth and it shall thresh the Mountains that is the Kingdomes of the world and shall beat them small and shall make the hills that is the lesser Common-wealths as chaffe But till the Church of God attain to this unity it shall not do any excellent thing it shall not work any notable deliverance in the earth neither shall the inhabitants of the world fall When the Spirit of God shall be a Spirit of unity in the faithful and shall heal all the sad differences and dissensions that are now between them then also shall it be a Spirit of admirable power in them And thus much for the explication of the point The Vse is twofold 1. The first is to exhort all men everywhere to endeavour to partake of this supernatural spiritual and divine power of the Holy Spirit which is certainly communicated to all the faithful and Elect in Christ Jesus And let no man think it is a thing indifferent whether he have this power or no but know that the having of this power of the Spirit is of absolute necessity and that both for Ministers and for all other Christians 1. There is a necessity of this power of the Holy Spirit for Ministers and to them this present place doth chiefly relate 1. For first if they have not this power of the Holy Spirit they have no power at all For
Christ and the more we receive of Christ the more we receive of the spirit in Christ For faith doth not apprehend bare Christ but Christ with his Spirit because these are inseparable Now alwayes according to the measure of Christ in us is the measure of the spirit and according to the measure of faith is the measure of Christ in us 3. To be much in prayer For the prayer of the spirit increases the spirit The more we have the spirit the more we pray and the more we pray the more we receive the spirit So that when we have the spirit in truth we shall have daily a greater and greater increase of it till we be filled with the spirit For the spirit comes from Christ in whom is the fulness of the spirit and carries us back again to Christ that we may receive still more of the spirit And so by the spirit that is in our hearts we lay hold on the spirit that is in Christ and receive more and more of it 4. To turn our selves daily from the creature to God For the more we inlarge our hearts towards the creature the less capable are we of the Spirit of God For to live much upon the creature is to live much according to the flesh and this quenches and straitens the spirit in us And therefore we must live abstractedly from the creatures and so use them as if we did not use them and so minde them as if we did not minde them and abandon the contents and satisfactions of flesh and blood and wean our selves from all things but the necessities of nature And the more free and loose we are from the creature the more capable are we of Gods spirit and the operations of it He that lives at greatest distance from the world and hath least communion with the things of it hath alwayes the greatest proportion of Gods spirit For as the Apostle saith If any man love the world the love of the Father that is the Holy Spirit is not in him so if any man love the Father the love of the world is not in him now the more any one loves the Father the less he loves the world and the less he loves the world the more the spirit dwels in him 5. To cease daily from our own works The more we act our selves the less doth the Spirit act in us And therefore we must must from day to day cease from our own works from the operations of our own minds and understandings and wils and affections and must not be the Authors of our own actions For we being flesh our selves what ever we do is fleshly seeing the effect cannot be better then the cause And if we mingle the works of our flesh with the works of Gods Spirit he will cease from working in us But the less we act in our selves according to the principles of our corrupt nature the more will the spirit act in us according to the principles of the divine nature But our own works are alwayes a mighty impediment to the operations of the Spirit 6. To encrease the spirit in us we must give up our selves to the Spirit that he only may work in us without the least opposition and resistance from us That as the soul acts all in the body and the body doth nothing of it self but is subject to the soul in all things so the spirit may do all in us and we may do nothing of our selves without the Spirit but be subject to the Spirit in all its operations For the Spirit of God cannot work excellently in us except it work all in all in us And in such a man in whom the Spirit hath full power the Spirit works many wonderful things that he according to humane sense is ignorant of For as the soul doth secretly nourish and cherish and refresh the body and disperses life and spirits through it even when the body is asleep and neither feels it nor knows it so the Holy Spirit dwelling in the soul by a secret kinde of operation works many things in it for the quickning and renewing it whilst it oftentimes for the present is not so much as sensible of it 7. The seventh means to encrease the spirit is to attribute the works of the spirit to the spirit and not to our selves For if we attribute to the flesh the works of the Spirit and take from the Spirit the glory of his own works he will work no longer in us Wherefore we must ascribe unto the Spirit the whole glory of his own works and acknowledge that we our selves are nothing and can do nothing and that it is he only that is all in all and works all in all and we our selves among all the excellent works of the Spirit in us must so remain as if we were and wrought nothing at all that so all that is of flesh and blood may be laid low in us and the Spirit alone may be exalted first to do all in us and then to have all the glory of all that is done And thus you see the means to encrease the Spirit and so consequently strength as well as to get it And by the daily use and improvement of these means we may attain to a great degree of spiritual strength that we may walk and not be weary and may run and not faint and may mount up as Eagles yea and may walk as Angels among men and as the powers of heaven upon earth to his praise and honour who first communicates to us his own strength and then by that strength of his own works all our works in us And thus is he glorified in his Saints and admired in all them that believe FINIS Uniformity Examined Whether it be found in the GOSPEL OR In the PRACTICE of the Churches OF CHRIST By WIL. DELL Minister of the Gospel 2 Cor. 4. 13. We having the same spirit of Faith according as it is written I believed and therefore have I spoken we also believe and therefore speak Published according to Order London Printed 1651. Vniformity Examined OBserving that our Brethren of Scotland together with the Assembly of Divines and the rest of the Presbyterian judgement do often both in their Discourse and writings exceedingly press for Vniformity I have been urged in my spirit to think upon the matter and to consider whether there could be any such thing found in the Word of the New Testament or in the practice of the Churches of Christ And for my part I ingenuously profess I cannot yet discover it and would be glad if any would instruct me further in this particular so he do it from the Word Now Vniformity what is it but an unity of form and the form they mean no doubt is outward for the inward form as it cannot be known by the outward senses so neither can it be accomplished by outward power And therefore till I know their meaning better I conceive that by uniformity they understand an unity
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
latter end be not answerable to your beginnings It might be easily shewed unto you how many great and wise Kings and Magistrates acting according to humane wisdom and prudence despising or neglecting the wisdom of the Word have with all their own wisdom prudence and designes destroyed themselves and their Kingdoms For it is written He takes the wise in their own craftiness And again The Lord knows the thoughts of men that they are but vain And therefore renounce the wisdom of the world with all its fleshly Counsels and cleave close to the true faithful and sincere Doctrine of the Gospel and then though you have many enemies and Kingdoms against you you shall not be moved but GOD will yet establish you in all the shakings of the World and your Enemies shall be as a thing of nought I shall no longer detain you but only desire this in the behalf of the faithful GODS peculiar portion in the Kingdom That you would not suffer us to be oppressed by our Adversaries who would use your power against us not for you but for themselves neither would suffer them thus publickly and shamelessely to call us Sectaries and Hereticks who do believe and profess the truth of the Gospel in sincerity and simplicity of heart according to what we have received from GOD but that you would suffer yea procure us to live quietly and safely under you in the faith and practice of the Gospel we in all things obeying you as becomes Christians The Remainder is to assure you That there is no man shall serve the State more sincerely according to his place and calling nor in more faithfulness and humility tender the Truth of GOD either to your selves or the Kingdom as occasion serves according to the measure of the gift of CHRIST Then Your Servant in the Gospel W. DELL To the Reader Christian Reader THE Times we live in are dangerous times it is dangerous to conceal the truth and dangerous to publish the truth if we publish the truth God hath taught us and we have heard and learn'd from the Father we fall into the hands of men if we conceal it we fall into the hands of God And therefore in this case in a contrary choice to David I reckon it much better to fall into the hands of men then into the hands of God seeing the wrath of men can but reach the body but the wrath of God body and soul I shall therefore willingly confess Christ amidst an adulterous and sinful generation not doubting but Christ will confess me before his Father and before his Angels And for the reproaches of men it is best conquering them as Luther was wont to say Silendo contemnendo by silence and contempt of them seeing a man may as easily restrain Satan himself in his various workings as stop the mouthes of his instruments And therefore it is good for us Christians to do the work of God without so much as taking notice of such men and if sometimes we are sensible of these things because we are flesh yet as we are Christians we are above them in the Spirit and see already in certain faith and hope all evils and enemies under our feet And therefore for Mr. Love and other men of the same mold and mettal I am resolved neither now nor hereafter to take them into any more consideration then the business it self necessarily requires and where they may be omitted without prejudice to the truth to let them quite alone being every day through the use of affliction enabled to patience and through patience brought to experience and so to a proportionable measure of hope And this carries me above the shame of the world in the strength of the love of God For the Doctrine contained in this Discourse thou shalt not finde it New light as some men slanderously affirm but the ancient light that sprang forth in the first morning of the Gospel but was since obscured by the New darkness of Antichrist which these men love better then that old light and will by no means exchange the one for the other But this light that now after a long night breaks forth again in some of its first glory let these men set their hearts at rest for they shall never be able to obscure it again and the fire of the Spirit that GOD hath kindled in the Kingdom they shall never be able to quench with any fire either of Earth or Hell And therefore we fear them not though they breath forth threatnings now and ere long are like to breath forth blood For by all their subtile and industrious actings in the end they shall not work the truths ruine but their own And these as well as their forefathers of the same race and lineage in whose stead they are now risen up shall in due time become a reproach and a shame and their name shall be for a curse to all Gods chosen Reader It is my earnest desire that the Lord would deliver thee from this new form of the Mystery of Iniquity which in every Age puts on a several form when the old one is discovered by the light of the Word And in this present Age it is become so Exceeding cunning and so furnished with all deceiveableness of unrighteousness under the form of Righteousness that it seems to be the last and subtilest work of Antichrist that is now in hand and he that prevails in this encounter hath Antichrist under his feet for ever but none are like to prevail here but the Faithful and Elect alone And therefore hold fast that which thou hast that no man take thy Crown and consider Christs encouragement to this work in the following verse Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the Temple of my God and he shall go no more out and I will write upon him the name of my God and the name of the City of my God which is New Jerusalem which commeth down out of Heaven from my God and I will write upon him my New Name Christian Reader I commit thee and the Word now offered to thee in this Discourse to God and his powerful blessing and wonderful working Remaining Thine in the Difficult and Despised Service of Jesus Christ in the Gospel W. DELL Right Reformation OR The Reformation of the Church of the New Testament represented in Gospel-Light Heb. 9. 10. Vntill the time of Reformation THe natural man saith Paul 1 Cor. 2. knows not the things of the Spirit neither can he for they are spiritually discerned Now a man that is not born of God and his Spirit with all his parts abilities reason wisdom prudence learning is but a natural man still and so hath no right knowledg of the things of God and his Spirit And hence it hath come to pass that the things of God and his spirit have been so grosly and dangerously mistaken by the World and the carnal Church For all the spiritual things of God they have
us hath to do with many strong Corruptions and Lusts in the Soul yet at last he prevails against them all and Judgement breaks forth into victory because Christ the Judgement of God in the Soul must needs in the end prevail against every sin of man Again Christ the Righteousness of God as he makes us righteous with his own righteousness and makes us the righteousness of God in him so he is called Righteousness not in himself onely but in us he is the Lord our Righteousness and by this Judgement and Righteousness is Zion and her converts redeemed and reformed And so true Gospel reformation is the destruction of sin out the faithfull by the presence of righteousness And therefore you see how grosly they are mistaken who take Gospel Reformation to be the making of certain Laws and Constitutions by the sacred power or Clergy for external conformity in outward duties of outward worship and government and to have these confirmed by civil sanction and inforced upon men by secular power when in the mean time all that inward corruption and sin they brought with them into the world remains in their hearts and natures as it did before After this manner the old Prelates reformed who were wont to say to the Kings We will study out the faith and you shall maintain it and the faith they studied and broughâ— to the Kings the Kings must maintain and not questâ—on but that it was Jure Divino And thus you see in general what Gospel Reformation is and that it is a cleer different thing from Civil Ecclesiastical Reformation 2. Now in the next place let us see how this Gospel Reformation is qualified whereby the difference between this and the other will appear yet more cleerly First then it is a spiritual Reformation For as the Kingdom of Christ is a spiritual Kingdom so all the things that belong to it are spiritual things and so the Reformation of it A carnal Reformation is not sutable to a spiritual Kingdom And spiritual it is because it proceeds from the Spirit and stands in spiritual things as you shall see more full anon But now the Reformation of the Civil and Ecclesiastical State is but a carnal Reformation wrought by the powes of flesh and blood and stands in outward and fleshly things as you shall presently see Secondly it is an inward Reformation For as the Kingdom of God is an inward Kingdom the kingdom of God is within you so the Reformation that belongs to it is an inward Reformation This true Gospel reformation lays hold upon the heart and soul and inner man and changes and alters and renews and reforms that and when the heart is reformed all is reformed And therefore this Gospel Reformation doth not much busie and trouble it self about outward forms or external conformity but onely minds the reforming of the heart and when thâ— heart is right with God the outward form cannot be amiss And therefore saith Christ touching the worship of the New Testament God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth but speaks not one word of any outward form So that God in this Gospel Reformation aims at nothing but the heart according to the tenour of the new covenant Jer. 31. 33. This shall be the covenant that I will will make with them after those dayes saith the Lord I will put my Law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts so that they shall not onely have the word of the letter in their books but the living word of God in their hearts and God intending to reform the Church begins with their hearts and intending to reform their hearts puts his word there and that living word put into the heart reforms it indeed But now Civil Ecclesiastical Reformation is onely outward and busies it self in reforming the outward man in outward things and so is very industrious and elaborate about outward forms and outward orders and outward government and outward confession and outward practice and thinks if these be put into some handsomeness and conformity they have brought about an excellent Reformation though the heart in the mean time remain as sinful vile and corrupt as ever and so altogether unreformed And so this Reformation is like that Reformation of the Scribes and Pharisees notorious hypocrites who made clean onely the outside of the cup or platter leaving them all filthy and unclean within and whited over sepulchres to make them beautifull outwardly when inwardly they were full of rottenness and corruption So Civil Ecclesiastical Reformation makes a man clean outwardly with an outward Confession of faith c. when inwardly he is all filthy through unbelief and whites him over with a few handsom forms of worship when inwardly he is full of ignorance of God and Atheism Object Now if any ask But must there be no change of outward things in the Reformation of the Gospel Answ I answer Yes an outward change that flows from an inward but not an outward change without an inward much less an outward change to enforce an inward 3. It is a thorow Reformation for it reforms the whole man it reforms not the soul onely but the body too and the very spirit of the mind the spirit as it animates and quickens and acts the body is called the soul as it is in it self in its own nature and essence so it is called the spirit of the mind and this Gospel Reformation reforms all that is both inward and outward and outward and inward man yea the inwardest of the inward man and not only the operations of the soul in the body but of the soul in its self But Civil Ecclesiastical Reformation reforms by halfs it reaches the body and orders that but attains not to the soul much less to the spirit of the mind Again Gospel Reformation reforms sin wholly aswell as the man it reforms all sin whatsoever I will turn my hand upon thee saith God by this Gospel Reformation and will purely purge away thy dross and take away all thy tin It reforms a man not only of outward sins but of inward It reforms him of those sins that seldome come forth into the view of the world as Atheisme ignorance of God pride vain glory self-seeking hypocrisie carnal mindedness and all the evil desires of the flesh and of the minde Yea it doth not only reform all evil things in us but all imperfect things doing away imperfect things by the coming of perfect things doing away our own strength by the coming in of Gods strength and our own wisdome and righteousness by the coming in of Gods wisdome and righteousness But now Civil-Ecclesiastical reformation reforms sin by the halfs aswel as the man and so only reforms outward and gross sins such as run into the eyes of the world which are the least by a thousand times of the evils that a man hath and
of the Church is as great a work as the Redemption of it you will acknowledge the work is too great for you and that it belongs only unto Christ seeing the Father hath committed the care of this work only to him and he hath taken this care and charge upon himself and it is onely sutable to him as being the Head of the Church and he only is able for it as being the Son of God and equall to God The third General By what means Christ brings this Reformation about And that is by these two and them onely to wit the Word and the Spirit The first means whereby Christ reforms the Church is the Word By this Christ doth all that ever he doth in his Kingdom by this he cals and rejects by this he binds and looseth by this he comforts and terrifies by this he enlightens and makes blind by this he kils and quickens by this he saves and damns and all that ever he doth in this Kingdom he doth by his word and without this he doth nothing of all that he doth Christ doth all in his Kingdom by the word only but Antichrist doth all things without the word even by the Decrees and Constitutions of men Now as Christ doth all other things in the Church by the word so he reforms too Now are ye clean through the word that I have spoken to you All the powers in the world cannot reform the Church as the word of God can do for this is quick and powerful and sharper then a two-edged sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart and doth change and renew and reform all And therefore Christ when he comes to reform the Church comes with no worldly power or weapons but onely with the word in his mouth yea though God set him King upon his holy hill of Sion yet he reforms not by outward power but by preaching saying I will publish the decree whereof the Lord hath said unto me Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee And again The Spirit of the Lord is upon me for he hath annointed me to preach the Gospel And again The Redeemer shall come to Sion and then follows the Covenant of God with the Redeemer My word shall never depart out of thy mouth Isa 59. 10. and in Psal 45. the Church saith by the Spirit to Christ Ride on prosperously in the word of truth meekness and righteousness which is the word of the Gospel And so Christ when the time of Reformation was come went up and down preaching the word And thus he brought to pass the glorious Reformation of the New Testament by preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom and nothing else And when he was to eave the world he sent his Disciples to carry on the work of Reformation as he himself had begun it as he saith As my Father sent me so send I you not with the power of the world but with the power of the word and so he bid them go teach all Nations and preach the Gospel to every creature and by teaching and preaching to the world to reform the world and so accordingly they did Mark 16. ver 20. They went forth and preached everywhere the Lord working with them So that Christ sent them not forth with any power of swords or guns or prisons to reform the world or with any power of States or Armies but sent forth poor illiterate mechanick men and only armed them with the power of the word and behold what wonders they wrought by that power alone They turned the world upside down they changed the manners customes religion worship lives and natures of men they carryed all oppositions and difficulties before them they won many in most Kingdoms unto Christ and brought them into willing subjection and obedience to him and all this they did I say not with any earthly or secular power but by the ministery of the Gospel alone Christs great and onely Instrument for the conquering subduing and reforming of the Nations And so the power appeared to be Gods onely and not the creatures And thus you see how the word is one means Christ useth for Reformation And this word only works a right Reformation For this reforms truly and indeed all other power reforms but in appearance So that there is no true reformation of any thing but what is wrought by the word but what ever evill is reformed and not by the power of the word it is not truly reformed it is onely reformed in the flesh and not in the spirit it is only suspended in the outward operation of it but the seed and nature of it still remains in the heart to grow up and work again as opportunity serves And therefore what ever evil or corruption is reformed in thee see it be reformed by the power of the word if the word hath killed it in thee it is killed indeed if not it is alive in thee though it seem to be dead The outward power of the world may set up an image of Reformation but it is the word onely can work true Reformation And therefore let us learn to rely on the word for the Reformation of the Church For this is much for the honour of the word which God hath magnified above all his Name when we can neglect the power of the world and leave the whole work of Reformation to the power working and efficacy of the word alone which is Almighty and able to bring off the heart from all things to God As on the contrary it is a great dishonour to God and his word when men dare not relie on the word alone to reform the Church though it be stronger then men and Angels and all the creatures but will needs be calling in the power of the world and rest and rely on that for this work as if the power of the word were not sufficient But let such men know that if the power of the word will not reform men all the power of the world will never do it And therefore well said Luther Praedicare annuntiare scribere volo neminem autem vi adigam I will Preach and Teach and Write but I will constrain no body Oh therefore that our Civil and Ecclesiastical powers would so much honour Christs Word as to trust the reformation of his Kingdom with it and that as it is sufficient to reform the Church so you would be pleased to think it sufficient and thus shall you give Christ and his Word due honour as well as declare your own faith And if you would commit this work to the power of the word to which onely it belongs you should soon see what the Word would do There is no such glorious sight under heaven as to see the Word in the spirit and power of it come in to an unreformed world and to observe the changes and
believers of all ages so also of all sorts and conditions Jews and Gentiles bond and free c. all which are made one body in Christ Paul in Ephes 2. 15. speaking of Jews and Gentiles saith That Christ of these twain who differed as much as mankinde could he hath made in himself one new man For Christ melting these two by his Spirit which is as fire causes each to depart from himself and makes both together one new man or body of Christ in himself and thus makes peace For as long as men remain different bodies or men there is no peace amongst them but when Christ makes them one body in himself he makes peace between them unity of body being a most necessary bond of peace in the Church as the Apostle testifies Col. 3. 15. Let the peace of God rule in your hearts to the which ye are called in one body Now from this unity of body in the true Church we may note very considerable things all to our present purpose 1. That unity of body in the Church flows from unity of head for here the members do not first conspire into an unity of body among themselves and after choose a head to their body but first these members are united to the Head and then to one another in and with the Head and so because there is but one true head Christ there is but one true body the Church 2. As the members of the natural body are born such through a natural birth before they do or can exercise and acts or offices sutable to such members and do not first exercise such offices and then after are made such members as for instance the eye doth not first see and then or therefore is made an eye in the body or the ear first hear and then or therefore is made an ear in the body but the eye is first born an eye in the body and then sees and the ear is born an ear and then hears c. So in the spiritual body of Christ each Christian hath his membership meerly from a new or spiritual birth and hath his office from his membership and not from any action or operation of his own before he was a member In this spiritual as in the natural body the eye is born an eye and therefore it sees and the foot is born a foot and therefore it walks and each believer is only that which he is through a new birth and cannot be placed in such and such an office by men no more then men can place a seeing eye or walking foot in the natural body but they must be born there ere they can be there Each member in the true Church is born in his place and office by God and is not placed there by man and when the Church perceives this grace in its members it suffers them to exercise those places and offices in the body in which God hath produced or brought them forth by his Spirit 3. This unity of body stands well with a difference or distinction of members and the difference of members doth not hinder but help the unity of body for saith Paul The body is not one member but many and if they were all one member where were the body And therefore in the body there are diversity of members and each member hath its several form and office If the whole body were an eye where were the hearing and if the whole were an ear where were seeing smelling walking c. So in the unity of Christs body there are diversity of members with diversity of gifts and offices and so one hath the word of wisdom another the word of knowledge another the word of faith another the gift of healing c. Every member in this body being in office and having received the Spirit to profit withal And so again Rom. 12. 6. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us he speaks of all the members of the body which have some of or other gifts given to them if it be prophesie let us prophesie according to the proportion of faith if ministry let us wait on our ministring or he that teacheth on teaching or he that exhorteth on exhortution c. So that in the true Church unity stands with diversity but in the false unity will not stand without uniformity 4. In this true Church or one body of Christ notwithstanding diversity of members and offices there is still an equality among them all seeing all alike make up one body in which regard one member is as necessary to the body as another and no member can say to another that I contribute more to the making up of the body then thou the most honourable member cannot lay thus to the most mean not the Apostles themselves to Believers among the Gentiles for we are the body of Christ as well as they and they are the body of Christ no more then we wherefore no member for diversity of office is to lift up himself above another member who is as necessary as it self to the making up the body and also is every whit as useful in its place 5. As in the natural body each member is contented with its own place and office in the body so is every member through the grace given unto it contented with its place and office in the spiritual body and not one either envies or despises another 6. The members of the natural body do not each live to themselves but all of them serve one another and each of them serves all as the eye sees for the foot and the whole body and the hand works for the eye and the whole body c. So among believers none lives and acts for himself only but each believer serves all and all serve each one in love 7. Members that are united into one body have a true sympathy with one another both in good and evil things 1 Cor. 12. 26. And whether one member suffer all the members suffer with it or one member be honoured all the members rejoyce with it 8. Among the members of the body there is no law of force but only a law of love no member compelling another but each member serving another by love and if one member be infirm the rest help it and do not reject it the more they care for it and do not the more despise it And this now is the first bond of the true Churches unity Vnity of body Now they break this first bond of unity that either live out of this one body of Christ or else live in it but not as members 1. They that do content themselves in joyning to some outward and visible society and corporation of men though called a Church and think that by being knit to them in wayes of outward worship and ordinances they live in the unity of the Church when as yet all this while they live out of that one body that is born of
now as the Church we speak of is that Church which is born of God and of the Spirit and so is not at all of this world so the power that is agreeable to this Church is the power of God and his Spirit and not at all of this world that is it is not any civil or secular power I may add nor any Ecclesiastical power according to the common understanding it that hath any place in the true Church but meerly a spiritual and heavenly power without any conjunction or mixture of the other seeing Christs power is perfect and every way sufficient for his own Kingdom and Christs Kingdom is Gods Kingdom as well as the Fathers and so men may as well carry worldly and secular power into the Fathers Kingdom as into the Sons seeing this is no other then the Kingdom of God though it be among men and no other then the Kingdom of Heaven though it be upon earth which hath not been understood nor considered by them who have been so busie to bring secular power into a spiritual Kingdom as if Christs own power in his own Kingdom were either weak or imperfect More particularly this true power of the true Church is as I said Christs power in the faithful which is the self-same with Christs power in himself and so 1. It is not a power of violence but a power of influence even such a power as the Head hath over the members and the soul over the body it is not a coercive but a perswasive power a power that makes men willing that are not willing and doth not force the unwilling against their wils 2. This power is humble and not proud as worldly power is for the power of the world sets men over others but the power of the Church sets men under others I saith Christ of himself am among you as one that serves and again He that will be the chief among you let him be the servant of all 3. This power is for edification and not for destruction as Paul acknowledges again and again that the power the Lord gave him was this and no other power viz. not to cast men out of their native Kingdoms but to translate them into Gods Kingdom not to take away their outward Liberties or Estates but to bring them into the Liberty and Inheritance of the Saints to bring men to eternal life and not to destroy men by temporal death 4. This power seeks the good of others more then its own yea good of others with the neglect of its own So Moses was not busie to have a most rebellious people blotted out of the Book of life but rather desired his own name might be blotted out of that book that if it had been the will of God theirs might have been written in And Paul desired that himself might be separated from Christ that his brethren and kinsmen after the flesh might have been united to him And if this power seek the good of others after this high rate even to the neglecting as it were and laying aside their own eternal good how much more to the neglecting and laying aside their temporal good their worldly profits advantages and dignities 5. This power doth not make others suffer to enlarge the Church but suffers it self to bring this about So Christ as Wickliff saith through his poverty humility and suffering injury and death got unto him the children of his Kingdom and not by force and the Martyrs enlarged the Church of Christ by dying themselves and not by causing others to die the blood of the Martyrs being the seed of the Church 6. This power only acts to a spiritual end salvation and only according to spiritual Laws but not to any temporal and worldly ends according to civil and humane laws And thus you see that this true Church power for the nature and quality of it both in general and in particular differs very much both from the apprehensions and practise of the most of our Ecclesiastical men 3. What is the extent of this true Church power I answer that this power extends it self full as far as the Church but no further For what hath the Church to do with those that are not of the Church What have we to do saith Paul with them that are without For Church power which is spiritual is no more sutable to the world then worldly power which is fleshly is sutable to the Church The power of the Church which is Christs power onely reaches so far as Christs Kingdom that is the people that are born of God and his Spirit True Church Government reaches as far as Christs and the Spirits effectual influence and operation but no further that is to all that are willing but to none that are unwilling As nothing hath more troubled the Church then to govern it and give it Laws after the manner of the world by secular force and power so nothing hath more troubled the world then to govern it and give it Laws after the manner of the Church by the aforesaid compulsion Wherefore as the Government of the world is not to be spread over the Church so neither is the Government of the Church to be spread over the world but as the world and the Church are distinct things in themselves so they are to be contented with their distinct Governments 4. What is the outward instrument of this power I answer The word only which is the only scepter and sword of Christs Kingdom to govern his people and subdue his enemies Christ himself the Head of the Church used no other instrument to govern his people by but the word or the preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom and declaring what he had heard from his Father and at his departure out of the world he told them That as his Father had sent him so did he send them and no otherwise that is to do all in the Church by the power of the word and nothing by the power of the world And so the true Church doth all in it self only by the Gospel by the Gospel it bindeth and looseth by the Gospel it remits and retains sin by the Gospel it quickens to life and wounds to death by the Gospel it receives in and casts out by the Gospel it works faith renues the life acts orders guides and governs all things and that Church that hath another scepter and sword besides the word that hath orders and constitutions of men to govern by and plurality of votes in Classical Provincial and National Assemblies to binde and loose by that have their own Laws and Orders to be their Scepter and the Authority of the Magistrate to be their Sword in their Kingdom I say if these be the ways and instruments of their Governments assuredly the Church they boast of is another Church then Christs and is no other in very deed but a Kingdom of sin and darkness and death and when its form of godliness which it
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
saltem oremus imploremus misericordiam ut vitâ voce testemur quòd Iesus Christus solus est Dominus Deus noster Benedictus in secula seculorum Luther in Epist ad Patr. The Holy Spirit and the power of it necessary for all Christians Question Answer They need the Spirit of power They need the power of the Spirit 1. To change their nature 2. To work Grace a Psal 25. 11. 2 Pet. 1. 14. 3. To mortifie sin 1. The whole body of sin Rom. 8. 13. 2. Particular strong corruptions 4. To perform duties To inable them to the use of the word In private Act. 18. 16. In publike To inable them to confess the word 7. To overcome afflictions and persecutions Second use The way to get this power is to get this Spirit To this end we must prepare our selves Wherein preparation doth not consist Wherein it doth 1. The Holy Spirit empties us A caution 2. Fills us The means are 1. The hearing of the Word 2. Faith 3. Prayer 2. The Way to increase this power Jer. 36. 32. Joh. 8. 44. Deut. 33. 29. 1 Pet. 1. 12. The great incâ—ease of the spiritual â—huâ—ch Rev. 5. 9. Vse The affliction of the Spiritual Church The spiritual Church is violently afflicted The spiritual Church in affliction hath no comfort from the world The spiritual Church in affliction comforted by a promise The special promise that comforts the Church is that God himself shall build it up gloriously The matter of which the spiritual Church is made The variety of the precious stones in the building of the spiritual Church The spiritual Church is made up only of precious stones The Builder of the spiritual Church is God The teacher of the Spâ—ritual Church is God The Spiritual Church being taught of God is peaceable in it self The establishment of this Spiritual Church The Spiritual Church being established is without fear and terror The worlds enmity against this spiritual Church thus built taught and establisht The world hath no success in their undertakings against the spiritual Church Rev. 3. 11 Antichrists Kingdom set up by the carnal understanding of the Scriptures The Reformation of the Church understood carnally The imperfection of the worship of the old Law No outward law can make men perfect as pertaining to the conscience and so the Gospel abolishes all such outward laws imposed on conscience as well now as heretofore Doctr. Gospel Reformation 1. What it is Christ Judgement Christ Righteousness Gospel Reformation is 1. Spiritual 2. Inward Latth 23. 25. 3. Thorow Isa 1. 25. 4. Powerful 5. Constant Christ the Reformer Note 1 The care of the Church given to Christ 2 Christ takes it 1. Out of obedience 2. Love 3. The work of Reformation only sutable to Christ 4. Christ only able for the work of Reformation 1. The Word The Gospel-Reformes 1. Works faith 2. Cummunicates Righteousness 3. Shews Christ 2. The second means Christ useth to reform the Church withall 2. All errours Object Answ 1. Unbeseem the the Gospel * Though the truth carry its evidence in it self theâ—ord â—ord of God is greater then all the testimonies of men yet for their sakes that are weak I have inserted the judgements of some godly men as I have accidentally met with them who have spoken of these things in the spirit that so you may see the truth though it hath but few followers yet it hath some Melancton on Psal 110. v. 3. habebis populum non coastum gladio sed verbo collectum laeto corde amplectentem evangelium te sponte celebrantem Diâ—cernit igitur ecclesiam ab imperiis mundanis externam servitutem a cultibus cordis accensis voce evangelii a spiritu sancto Ag. Religio cogi non vult doceri expetit Immanitate non stabilitur sed evertitur Polan This Charls to whom Leo gave the title of the most Christian King was a great conqueror and overcame many Nations with the sword and as the Turk compelleth to his faith so he compelled with Violence to the faith of Christ but alas the true faith of Christ whereunto the Holy Ghost draws mens hearts through preaching the Word of truth he knew not c. Tindal Fides sua sponte non coacte agere vult Luth. Christus non voluit vi igne cogere homines ad fidem Luth. Haereticos comburere est contra voluntatem spiritus Luth. He hath given in the Church the sword of the spirit to inforce with and not the sword of the Magistrate Prorsus diversa ratio est regni Christi mundi Mundani Magistratus quae volunt imperant subditi coguntur obedientiam praestare At in Regno Christi quod non est mundana aut pontificia Dominatio sed spirituale regnum nihil simile geritur sed quivis alterius judex quilibet alteri subjectus est At tyranni animicida illi nihil morantes vocem Christi regnum meâ—m non est de hoc mundo ex Ecclesia Politiam civilem seu potius Pontificium imperium constituerunt Luth. Quare ipsam sedem Bestiae nego nihil moratus sit ne bonus vel malus qui in ea sedet Sedes inquam quae fit super omnes sedes nulla est in Ecclesia super terram jure divino sed omnes sunt aequales quia una fides unum baptisma unus Christus c. Luth. Where there is no wordly superiority over one another there is no worldly compulsion of one another In the natural body there is no convocation of many members to govern one or of more members to govern fewer but the foot performs its office without being under the authoritative power of the hands yea each member performs its office aright without being in subordination to another by the guidance of that head to which it is united and of that Spirit that dwels in it each member having an immediate influence of the head upon it self though it may outwardly seem to be further from the head then another member And thus it is in Beleevers and Congregations Quid autem vi coactione opus vobis est qui hujusmodi certamen decertatis in quo cogi nemo debet Ulrichus ab nutren to the Councel of Priests What need you the power of the Magistrate to defend the truth who have so many Scriptures to defend it the truth of God being to be defended by the Word of God and not by the power of men Idem I could produce many more Testimonies but these are sufficient to shew that I am not alone in this point against Forcible reformation but have the Armory of David to defend it withall on which there hang a thousand bucklers all shields of mighty men 2. Unsutable to Christs Kingdom This stand in the Spirit 2. The Subjects of it are a spiritual people Isa 11. 9 Isa 60. 18. 3. A willing people Psal 110. 3. 3. Humane institution is set up 4. It brings men into
the Spirit which is the onely true Church and body of Christ he that lives out of this spiritual body though he live in the most excellent society in the world yet he breaks the unity of the Church not living in one body with it And thus many break the Churches unity that never think on it 2. Again they break this bond of the Churches unity that live in this one body but not as members And such are they who having got the advantage of the Magistrates power will needs lift themselves up above their fellow-members and exercise authoritative coercive domineering power over them whereas the very Apostles themselves were not Lords of the Church but fellow-members with the faithful living in one body and under one head with them and so did all by love and perswasion and nothing by force and violence Now those members that exalt themselves above their fellow and equal members what do they else but usurp the place of the Head and so break in sunder the unity of the body which stands in the unity of the Head He that in a single or combined unity sets himself up above other Believers by giving Laws and by prescribing and commanding Forms and Rules to those that are every way his equals he advances himself as another head besides Christ and so Anti-christ is nearer to us then we are aware and many men that are so forward and fierce to make and enforce Rules and Orders colourably to procure the Churches peace they are the first men that do themselves break this first bond of the Churches Vnity to wit Vnity of Body which makes all Believers equal members equally subject to one Head The second bond of the true Churches unity is ONE SPIRIT There is one body and one Spirit saith Paul and through unity of Spirit they become one body Now as the body of man consists of many members and but one soul comprehends quickens moves and governs all these members making the eye to see the hand to work the foot to walk c. So the body of Christ which is the Church consisting of many members hath yet but one and the same HOLY SPIRIT which comprehends quickens moves and governs them all and brings them into a most near and intimate society together and inables each member to its several office according to its place and use in the body of Christ And as a member being cut off from the body the soul doth not follow it to cause it to live out of the unity of the body So he that is divided from the true body of Christ the Spirit doth not follow him to make him live single by himself and so neither is the body of Christ without the Spirit nor the Spirit of Christ without the body And as the same soul in several members acts severally and yet is but one and the same soul in all so the same holy Spirit in several Believers works severally as it pleaseth and yet is but the same holy Spirit in them all So that the whole body of Christ that is all Believers in the world have but one and the same holy Spirit in them and this unity of Spirit in the Church is one strong bond of its peace Among mankinde in general and more nearly among kindred there is unity of flesh but because there is difference of spirit there is much envie hatred strife and variance in that unity of flesh but now the members of the body are not only one flesh but one soul or spirit too and so there is always peace and agreement between them And so the true Church of Christ is not only one body but one Spirit too and this makes it one indeed For as this Spirit is the love and connexion of the Father and the Son so it is also our love and connexion in the Father and the Son and as the Father and the Son live in unity of Spirit so all Believers live the unity of the same Spirit in them Now they on whom the Spirit was first given after Christ was glorified had also with the Spirit the gift of tongues the Spirit given being for the communion of the Church so they spake with the tongues of all the Church having through the communion of the Spirit its society and consociation For he that speaks by the Spirit in the Church where all are one Spirit in Christ he speaks with the tongues of all and when a Believer hears another speak it is as if he himself did speak and when one speaks it is as if all spake for he speaks in the unity of Spirit with them and so speaks the same doctrine of the Gospel and minde of Christ which they all have equally heard and learned from God Hence it is evident that it is nothing to have the outward from of a Church even as our souls could wish except there be inwardly in that Church the Spirit of Christ for it is not unity of form will ever make the Church one but unity of Spirit That Church then that is destitute of the Spirit in its laws orders constitutions forms members officers what true unity can that have in all its uniformity And this is the second bond of the true Churches Vnity Vnity of Spirit Now they break this bond of the Churches unity that live in their own spirits and not in Christs for they that live in a different spirit from the true Church what unity can they possibly have with it They then that live in their own humane reason understanding thoughts councel wils ends they live quite and clean out of the unity of this Church yea in direct enmity against it seeing our own corrupt and earthly spirits are most contrary to the Holy and Heavenly Spirit of Christ in which the Church lives Wherefore we may learn hence what to judge of those men that cry out much for the peace of the Church and yet themselves neither live in nor are led by the Spirit of the Church but either by their own Spirits or Antichrists 2. They that labour to joyn men into one body with the Church that are not one Spirit with it do marr the peace of it For as unity of Spirit in the Church is the bond of peace so diversity of Spirit is the breach of peace and therefore to preserve the peace of the Church none are to joyn themselves to this one body that are not of this one Spirit 3. They that being of the Church do any thing in it by their own Spirits and not by Christs prejudice the peace of the Church for the true Church is such a body which is to have all its communion in the Spirit And therefore when any pray or prophesie or the like in the strength of natural parts or humane studies and invention onely and do not pray and prophesie in the Spirit they break the unity of the Church for the faithful have communion with one another onely so far