Through faith they have entred 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 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 flight and an hundred a thousand And this was performed in the very letter of it at that famous and memorable battel at Naseby Many more instances I could relate of the power of faith in this Army but that I should thereby grieve and afflict many too much 4. The spirit of Prayer and this the Lord hath poured forth upon many of them in great measure not onely upon many of the chief Commanders but on very many of the inferiour Officers and common Troopers some of whom I have by accident heard praying with that faith and familiarity with God that I have stood wondering at the grace We never undertook any thing of weight but God was always sought to of us again and again and we have found God neer to us in all things we have call'd upon him for Yea God hath been found of us whilst yet we have been seeking him hath given us the answer of our prayers into our bosoms 5. The special presence of God with them I have seen more of the presence of God in that Army then amongst any people that ever I conversed with in my life There hath been a very sensible presence of God with us we have seen his goings and observed his very footsteps for he hath dwelt among us and marched in the head of us and counsel'd us and led us and hath gone along with us step by step from Naseby to Leicester and from thence to Langport and Bridgewater and Bath and Sherborn and Bristol and the Devises and Winchester and Bazing and Dartmouth and Exceter and into Cornwal and back again to Oxford and all along his presence hath gone along with us and he hath been our strength and glory How often hath fearfulnesse and trembling taken hold upon the enemy and the stout men been at a losse for their courage and the men of might for their hands because of the presence of God with us yea because of this they have melted away in their strong Holds and delivered up their fenced Cities into our hands and every place we have come against we have taken in and every battel wherein we have fought we have prevailed And because God hath been in the midst of us we have not been moved our selves and our enemies have perished not by our valour and weapons and strength but at the rebuke of his countenance This shall be written for the generation to come seeing so many of this present generation so little regard it and the people that are to be born shall praise the Lord 6. The sixth remarkable thing in the Army is their faithfulnesse to the state How have they gone up and down in wearines and labours and dangers and deaths to do the kingdomes worke when was it that they sate idle have they not as soone as one field was fought prepared to another as soon as one city was taken advanced to another and so gone on from one strong hold of the enemies to another till all have been reduced that peace might be hastned to this kingdome if it were the will of God and not come as a snaile but as on Eagles wings yea have they not been active even all the winter long in a most cold and frosty season that continued so for two months together beating the enemy out of the field and taking their strong Holds when other Armies use to lie still Have they taken the pay of idlenesse or lived the life of luxury upon the State-maintenance Have they sought to lengthen the Wars for their own advantages Have they not made even a short work I challenge all the former generations of the world to stand forth to shew so much work of this kind done in so little time And farther by all this successe have they ever been lifted up so much as to petition the Parliament in any thing or to remonstrate any thing proudly and undutifully to them as some people surfeted with peace and plenty have done Or though the Kingdom next under God and the Parliament owes its protection and deliverance and freedom from Tyranny and Popery to this worthy Army have they for all this ever appeared to contest against the Kingdom for any thing or to stand with their swords in their hands to make demands Nay I declare this to all the Kingdom that as God hath made them glorious in doing so he hath made them contented to be perfected by suffering if it be the will of God And most confident I am that though some men for private ends and interests are murmuring and others speaking out against this Army as the perverse Israelites against Moses and Aaron yet the Lord in his due time will take away the reproach of all his people therein and that we shall hear songs from all the ends of the kingdom even glory to the righteous This I have spoken in truth and sincerity to the Kingdom And to that Army I shall say Who is like unto thee O people saved by the Lord who is the shield of thy help and the sword of thine excellency and thine enemies shall be found lyers unto thee and thou shalt tread upon their high places I have been longer in this Epistle then I intended but seeing there was such a cause as this no ingenious man will blame me Christian Reader I am Thine to serve thee in the Lord and in the Gospel of his Son WILLIAM DELL An EXPOSITION Of the 54 Chapter of Isaiah from Vers 11 to the end The words are thus Vers 11. Oh thou afflicted tossed with tempest and not comforted behold I will lay thy stones with fair colours and lay thy foundations with Saphires 12. And I will make thy windows of Agates and thy gates of Carbuncles and all thy borders of pleasant stones c. THis place of Scripture is very useful to the Church of God in these times wherein we live yea verily this Prophet did not so much prophesie to his own age as to ours nor to the Jewish Church as to the Christian For unto them it was revealed that not unto themselves but unto us they did minister the things which are now reported unto you The Prophet Isaiah prophesied in the Spirit touching the Kingdom of Christ which stands not in the flesh but in the Spirit and delivers from the Father by the Spirit many excellent promises to be fulfilled in the Son Incarnate head and members The first promise in this Chapter is touching the great increase
some of them very godly Christians and did acknowledge the grace of God in them and that for mine own part I did not allow any such distinction of Christians as Presbyterians and Independents this being onely a distinction of mans making tending to the division of the Church and added that as in Christs kingdom neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but a new creature so in this same kingdom of Christ neither Presbytery availeth any thing nor Independency but a new creature and that the kingdom of God stands not in Presbytery or Independency but in righteousnesse and peace and joy in the holy Ghost 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 stomack again but because he seems to be a Christian the Lord lay 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 higth 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 spritual Church again some carnal Christians may be among those that are called Independents 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 wisedom from God as to let the distinction 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 spiritual 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 strength comfort and happinesse and the great terrour 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 knâ—w 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 faithfulnesse diligence activity labours hunger thirst cold wearines 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 guiltlesse 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 indowments 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 successe 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 councell with that unity that sometimes not so much as one hath contradicted 2. Their humility which hath been admirable aswell 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 the 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 guesse where there is most of God by observing where the greatest hatred of the world lies 3. Their faith There are many in the Army â—en of great and precious faith through which they have wrought righteousnesse obtained promises stopped the mouthes of lions quenched the violence of fire escaped the edge of the sword out of weaknesse 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 cast them out as dirt in the streets
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 righteousnesse and life and truth and wisedom and holinesse and into his Nature which comprehends all this then when the world perceives the Name of God in the Sons of men and the nature of God in the natures of men then presently they fall a persecuting the Saints for this Name and Natures sake and he that strikes at God in his Saints would if he could strike at God in himself And therefore let the world take heed what they do in this point for while they persecute the Saints they are found fighters against God himself because God is one with them and they are one with God in Christ And let the Saints be admonished so to hide and retire themselves into God through Christ that whoever is an enemy to them and opposes them may rather be an enemy to God and oppose God then them they living and acting in God and not in themselves Now this affliction the Church meets with in the world is profitable for the Church it is good for it that it should be afflicted for the more it is afflicted in the flesh the more it thrives in the Spirit this affliction stirres us up to the exercise of our faith and prayer yea then is our faith most active and vigorous and our prayers most fervent till they fill the whole heavens again then are we most in the use of the Word then are we set off furthest from the world then do we keep closest to God then have we neerest intercourse and communion with him so that we could better want fire and water and the sun then want affliction which God out of his meer love through his over-ruling power and wisedom causes to work unto us for good So that we who are placed in the hand of Christ are set in such a condition wherein nothing can do us any harm for ever but evil it self must work good unto us But we proceed tossed with tempest Where we see that the Church is not onely afflicted but violently afflicted one wave comes against it after another as in a tempest and the more spiritual the Church is the more doth the world become as a raging sea against it because the more spiritual the Church is made it is set in the more contrariety to the world and the world to it The Psalmist describes this temper in the world against the Church They came upon me like a ramping and a roaring Lion And again They came upon me to eat up my flesh as they would eat bread When the Saints have appeared in the Spirit and acted in the Spirit how violent and enraged hath the world been against them it would tosse them as in a tempest from place to place from post to pillar as they say till it hath quite tost them out of the world Yea men naturally meek and moderate how fierce have they become against the Saints when there hath appeared any glorious discoveries of Christ in them For the enmity that is in the seed of the Serpent against the seed of the woman will be still breaking forth And though it may for a time be covered under many moral vertues and a form of godlinesse yet when God leaves them to themselves and lets them act outwardly according to their inward principles how ernelly and maliciously and fiercely and desperately do they act against the Saint of God Yea there is not that enmitie between Turk and Jew as there is between carnac Gospellers and spiritual Christians the former hating these and being angry against these to the very death And whenever the Lord shall suffer these to exercise their enmity against the Church then shall the Churches condition become such as it is here described afflicted and tossed with tempest and not comforted The Chuurch of God in all the evil it meets withal in the world hath not one drop of comfort from the world it hath affliction tribulation persecution from the world but no comfort This we see in Christ the Head you know what he suffered in the world in the days of his flesh he was despised and rejected of men and so full of sorrows that he took his name from them and was called A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief At last out of meer envie and malice they apprehended him bound him buffeted him spit on him crucified him and all this would have been but a small matter to have suffered from the Heathen but he suffered all this from the onely visible Church of God in the world who put him to the most painful and shameful death of the Crosse between two malefactors to bear the world in hand that he was the third and the chief And in all this evil he had no body to pitie him or have compassion on him but they laughed at him and derided him and mocked and jeered him but no body comforted him And as it was with Christ the Head so it is with Christ the body and members they in all the evils and woes and sorrows and oppositions and persecutions they have from the world have no body to comfort them or take compassion on them Refuge failed me saith David no man cared for my soul Lover and friend hast thou put far from me and mine acquaintance into darknesse saith Heman Psal. 88. 18. Brethren and Beloved ye that are partakers of the heavenly calling and of the divine nature if ever the Lord suffer the world to prevail against you to afflict you and tosse you from one evil â—o another as in a tempest to reproach you throw you out of your comforts banish you imprison you c. you shall finde no body to comfort you no body will take notice of you or regard you or own you or pitie you or be so sensible of your condition as to say Alas my brother You must look for affliction in the world but you must look for no comfort there When God shall cast us into sorrows and sufferings let us not look for one worldly man to stand by us no not of those that now smile upon us and pretend friendship to us no nor yet of our neer relations but then that shall be fulfilled I was a stranger to my brethren an alien to my mothers children Nay yet further they that are weak or worldly Christians will stand aloof from thee and will be shye to own and countenance and encourage and comfort thee publikely The disciples of Christ when he was led to the Crosse they all forsook him and fled and left him to tread the wine-presse alone And so if you suffer in the righteousnesse and truth of God you shall finde little comfort from men O thou
full sense of these words I shall give you forth in several particulars 1. You see here the matter of which the Church of the New Testament is made and that is not of common but of precious stones elect and precious stones and such are the faithful For 1. They have a more excellent nature then other men have for they are born of God and so partake of the nature of God and so in this sense may be said to come forth from God as the childe from the father and the Lord Jesus did not more truely partake of the nature of man then these do partake of the nature of God and therefore saith Peter Great and precious promises are made to us that we should be partakers of the divine nature Others have onely the nature of men in them or which is worse the nature of the devil but the faithful have in them the nature of God communicated to them through a new birth 2. They have a more excellent spirit then others have as it was said of Daniel that there was a more excellent spirit found with him then with all the other wise men Now the excellency of each creature is according to the spirit of it but the Saints have the Spirit of God even the Spirit of the Father and the Son dwelling in them they have the same Spirit of God dwelling in their flesh as Christ had dwelling in his flesh so that the very Spirit of God is found in the faithful and therefore they are more glorious then the rest of the world 3. They have a more excellent lustre then other men One thing that appertains to the excellency of precious stones is the lustre of them Now this lustre in the faithful is the glory of God upon them The Lord shall arise upon thee and his glory shall be seen upon thee saith Isaiah Chap. 60. And Paul saith We all beholding as in a glasse the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord So that as Christ was taken into the glory of the Father so are we taken into the glory of Christ as he saith Joh. 17. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them for the head and members are taken into the same glory according to their proportion 4. They have more excellent operations for the faithful are not such precious stones that are onely for shew but they also have some vertue in them even the very vertues of Jesus Christ for they having the same Nature and Spirit of God as he had are able according to the measure of the gift of Christ to do the same works that he did and so the Saints are excellent in the operations of faith hope love humility meeknesse patience temperance heavenly mindednesse c. and in this regard also are more precious then the rest of the world And therefore the Lord calls them his Jewels In the day wherein I make up my jewels and elsewhere they are called the precious sons of Sion The people of God are a most precious people men and women of a precious anointing though some wicked and scurrilous libellers against the spiritual Church will not allow them this name but according to the anointing they have received from Satan reproach it And yet still it is a truth that the gates of hell shall not prevail against That the truely faithful are precious stones in the building of the Church partaking of the Nature and Spirit of God and of the lustre and operation of both Whereas on the contrary other people are the vile of the earth the true filth and off scouring of all things Psal. 15. in whose eyes a vile person is contemned a man that is a natural man a sinful and unregenerate man who hath no other nature in him but that corrupt nature he brought into the world though in this present world he may be a Gentleman or a Knight or a Noble-man or a King yet in the eyes of God and his Saints he is but a vile person and a poor mean Christian that earns his bread by hard labour is a thousand times more precious and excellent then he according to the judgement of God and his Word And thus much for the first thing The matter of which the Church of the New Testament is made and that is of precious stones 2. Now the next thing observable is the variety of these precious stones For the spiritual Church is not built up of precious stones of one sort onely not all of Saphires or all of Agates or all of Carbuncles but of all these both Saphires Agates Carbuncles and many other precious stones of fair colours And this notes the diversity of gifts in the Saints of God For though all of them are precious stones yet they are of diversity of colours and lustre and operations And this also makes for the greater glory of the Church for the variety of lustre addes to the beauty and ornament of it In the body of a man there is not one member but many If the body were all but one member it would be but a lump of flesh but the variety of members with their several gifts and operations are the glory of the body And so it is in the Church the Body of Jesus Christ wherein are divers members with diversity of gifts and operations excellently set forth by Paul 1 Cor. 12. 4. c. Now there are diversity of gifts but the same Spirit and there are differences of administrations but the same Lord and there are diversities of operations but it is the same God that worketh all in all But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every one to profit withal for to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisedom to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit to another faith by the same Spirit to another the gift of healing by the same Spirit to another the working of miracles to another prophecie to another discerning of spirits to another divers kindâ—s of tongues to another interpretation of tongues but all these workâ—â— that one and the same Spirit dividing to every 〈…〉 he will Here you see are diversity of gifts and administrations and operations in the faithful but all proceed from one and the same Spirit and whatsoever gift proceeds from the Spirit there is an excellent beauty a heavenly lustre in it And therefore labour to distinguish between those gifts that are connatural to thee and flow from thy own spirit and those gifts that are supernatural and flow from Gods Spirit In all the operations of thine own spirit in all thy natural abilities parts wisedom learning actings there is nothing but ungloriousnesse deformity darknesse death how specious soever they may appear to the world but in the gifts and operations that flow from Gods Spirit there is a heavenly beauty and lustre and glory yea even in weak Christians that are true
Christians you shall oft see and discern an excellent beauty in some gift or other which they have received from the Spirit which shines not forth so clearly in some stronger Christians And therefore let us not expect all gifts in all men and that every man should excel in every gift for then one would be saying to another I have no need of thee But God hath given diversity of gifts to divers Saints that each may acknowledge something in another which he hath not himself and may reckon his perfection to lie in his union 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 meeknesse 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 is a glorius thing in this building that the lustre of each stone addes 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 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 carefully 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 doubtful 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 evil of one extends to all Where thou canst finde 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 wisdome 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 preciousnesse 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 addes 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 onely 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 kinred or nation his Church but gathers his Church out of every people and kinred 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 truely precious yet it is so like one in shew and colour that it can hardly be discerned to be other but 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 truely 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 adde 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 4. We are to take notice who is the builder of such a structure as this all made up of pretious stones and you shall finde in the Word that the builder and maker of it is God I will doe it saith the Lord behold I will lay thy stones with faire colours and I will lay thy foundations with Saphirs and I will make thy windowes
of Aggates it is all Gods worke from the beginning to the end For who can build unto God a living temple to dwell in but himselfe 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 what wild and wofull work do men make when they will undertake to be building the Chuâ—ch by their owne humane wisedome and prudence and counsell when they think we will have the Church of God thus and thus and we will make it up of such and such men and we wâ—ll govern it by such and such Lawes and we will get the power of the Magistrate to back ours then what we cannot do by the power of the Word Spirit we will do by the power of flâ—sh and blood Poore men that think that these new heavens where in the Lord will dwell must be the work of their own fingers or that the new Ierusalem must of necessity come out of the Assembly which is to come down from God out of heaven or that they can build the house of God all of pretious stones whereas this must be Gods own work and his own doing and no State or Councel in the world can bring this about and after much tryall and paines and wearinesse the Lord will at last teach his own that the gathering and laying these pretious stones together must be the Lords owne doing even his own doing When the building of the Church is left to men how wofully is it mannaged why saith one we must needs admit such an one he is the chiefe man in the Parish or he is a man of good esteem in the world or he is a Nobleman or he is my neere kinsman or is thus and thus related to mee or he is a good civill faire dealing man and we must needs admit him and thus will flesh and blood bee ever making a carnall temple for God to dwell in but Gods true habitation can never be framed but by the Spirit And therefore for the building of the Church let us look higher then the highest instruments for it must be the Lords own work by the Word and Spirit and though every man be against it and oppose it yet the Lord will doe it when there are no hands to build it up he will build it up without hands I will lay thy stones with c. It followes Vers 13. And thy children shall be taught of the Lord and great shall be the peace of thy children See here how the Prophet by the Spirit carries up the Saints above all visible and sensible things even as high as God himselfe God saith he to the Church shall build thee and God shall teach thee all thy children shall be taught of the Lord The note is this That all the true and genuine children of the Church have Gods own teaching in all the things of God they have the Father and the Sonne to teach them by the Spirit This truth Christ himselfe confirmes where he saith It is written that they shall be all taught of God he therefore that heard and learned of my father commeth to me And againe the spirit when he is come he shall lead you into all truth Which doctrine John after preached thus 1 Ioh. 2. 27. The anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you and ye need not that any man should teach you but as the same anointing teacheth you all things Hereby now we perceive how few true children of the Church there be among those who are commonly called Christians for among all these how few are there who have the teaching of God but most have their teaching only from men and no higher Consider therefore I pray whether the knowledge you have be from the teaching of God or the teaching of man you all pretend to know that Christ is the Son of the living God and that redemption and salvation is by him alone but how came ye by this knowledge did you read it in the letter or did some body tell you so or hath God himselfe taught you this For no man knowes the Sonne but the Father and he to whom the Father will reveale him and therefore when Peter said thou art Christ the Son of the living God Christ answered flesh and blood hath not taught thee this but my Father which is in heaven And so though all of you professe your selves Christians yet none of you know Christ truly but only such as are taught of the Father And this holds in all other points as touching calling and faith and union and justification and sanctification and the gift and sealing of the Spirit touching the spirituall Kingdome of Christ and the Government of it oh consider whether you have the teaching of God in these things or no and if you have not the teaching of God you are none of the children of the Church what ever truth thou knowest from the letter if thou hast not the teaching of the Spirit it will doe thee no good thou knowest not any thing spiritually and savingly wherein thou hast not the teaching of God All thy children shall bee taught of the Lord And therefore what a sad thing is it when men look for their teaching no farther then men they only look to the Minister or to such an able learned Orthodox man as they phrase it or at the highest to the Assembly and what they shall teach them they are resolved to stand by it and build upon it for their foundation in the meane time never regarding in truth the teaching of God but say what can so many grave learned godly men erre and shall not wee believe what they determine why now these are none of the children of the spirituall Church for they neither have Gods teaching nor care for it but the spirituall Church is all taught of God Object But you will say doth God teach without meanes Answ. I Answer no God teacheth but it is by the Word and that chiefly in the Ministry of it and he that pretends to bee taught of God without the Word is not taught of God but of the Devill And therefore no man is to despise the Ministry of the Word which is Gods own Ordinance and to depend upon I know not what revelations and inspeakings without the word seeing God teacheth all his children by the word and none without it And therefore it is not the Prophets meaning when he saith all thy children shall be taught of the Lord that they should neglect and despise the Word and the Ministry of it but that we ought so use the Word and the meanes as not to look for our teaching from them but from God himselfe in and through them and when you come to heare not to think I will heare what Mr such an one or Mr such one will say but with the Psalmist
heaven and so he will give Nations and Kingdomes for them and hath said The Nation and kingdome that will not serve thee shall perish yea those Nations that be utterly wasted On that this Kingdome in it selfe and in its representation would avoid this evill as they would escape this end The 4. Monarchies for opposing the Spirituall Church have fallen for its sake and so shall every other Kingdome and Common wealth that undertakes against it Verse 16. Behold I have created the Smith that blowes the coales in the fire and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work and I have created the waster to destroy Verse 17. But no weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper c. Thou art saith God to the Church a small weak despised contemned persecuted people but thy safety protection blessing lyes in me and in my power and wisedome and lovs Behold I have created the smith c. That is I have formed him that makes the Sword and Gun and Pike and that prepares the Ammunition and both he that makes the weapon and he that useth it are in my hands and they shall only do what I would have them do and no more and so No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper God blunts the edge of the weapon and weakens the hand and puts fear into the heart of him that useth it and so no weapons that have been used have prospered hitherto and if any more weapons shall be used hereafter they shall be as unprosperous as these And every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgement thou shalt condemn Two wayes you see the enemies of the Church assault the Church by their hands and by their tongues and this latter way is the more dangerous of the two by the former they scourge the Church with rods by this latter with Scorpions This weapon of the tongue is the most dangerous weapon that ever was used against the Church in any age and the last refuge of the Devill and his instruments to annoy the Church And thus when the enemy failes at the strength of his weapons he undertakes againe with the malice of his tongue and with this the enemy strikes against the Saints that professe the truth and against the truth it selfe professed by the Saints Against the Saints that professe the truth clothing them with odious names and loading them with base aspertions Independents and Sectaries and Schismaticks and Hereticks some such there are indeed in the Kingdome but they abuse the precious Saints of God with these and other reproaches and so crucifie Christ againe in his body not between two theeves but between two hundred theeves that so it may be the greater difficulty to discerne him Their tongues rise up in judgement against them it intimates they shall have specious pretences against the Church Oh these are the men that would turn the world upside downe that make the Nation full of tumults and uproares that work all the disturbance in Church and State it is fit such men and Congregations should be suppressed and that they should have no imployment in Church or State it will never be a quiet world till some course be taken with them that we may have truth and peace and government againe And thus they have faire pretences against the godly and use the glorious names of truth peace and government to the destruction of them all And this is the sense of these words for their tongues to rise up in judgement against them Yea me thinks this phrase intimates thus much as if they would call in the aide and power of the secular Magistrates against the spirituall Christians and then their tongues rise up in judgement against them indeed and except they engage the Magistrates power against the Saints they think they can never doe them mischiefe enough And thus their tongues rise up in judgement against the Saints that professe the truth 2. As the enemy strikes with their tongue against the Saints that professe the truth so also against the truth professed by the Saints and this they call by way of reproach new light as their predecessors at the beginning of the breaking forth of the Gospel in this Kingdome called it New learning yea they call the truth error and the very minde of Christ in the word heresie and the power of godlinesse Independency and the contending for the faith once given to the Saints faction and sedition and the like and this grieves the Saints a thousand times more then any personall reproaches to heare the truth and light and life and spirit of the Gospel despised and spoken against and blasphemed this is that that fetches not only teares from their eyes but even drops of blood from their hearts the truth of God being much dearer to them then their estates or names or lives But see how God conquers this weapon of the enemies tongue to the faithfull aswell as the former weapons of their hands every tongue that riseth up in judgement against thee thou shalt condemne All that speake and rage and raile and reproach and slander and vilifie and abuse the Saints either by their tongues or pens thou by thy uprightnesse integrity innocency truth faithfulnesse shalt condemn them thy wayes and thy works that are led and acted in Christ and his Spirit shall be the condemnation of all thine enemies and their misreports and slanders shall be done away as a mist before the Sun and thy righteousnesse and integritie shall break forth in that clearnesse and brightnesse and strength that they shall sit down astonished and amazed and they shall be condemned not only by the word and by the Saints but by all the common morality of the world yea and by their own conscience so that they shall carry their guilt with them night and day and shall not be able to look the godly in the face whom they have so reproached the very presence of the Saints shall be the condemnation of their enemies who have before so unworthily judged them yea the whole world shall see the faithfulnesse and integrity of the Saints of God and shall justifie them and condemne their enemies and shall say lo these are the men that the world judged for Sectaries and Schismaticks and what not see how faithfull they have beene to God and the true Church of God and to the State and surely thâ—y must needs be bad men that are enemies to these And thus while our enemies judge us they shall be condemned themselves And this shall certainly be done as sure as the word of God is true and as sure as the Lord lives to make good his word For This is the heritage of the Servants of the Lord That is you shall have this by as sure right as any man hath an inheritance that is entailed upon him This is your heritage O ye servants of the Lord to make voyd the force of every weapon that is used against you and to condemne every tongue that judgeth you This promise is our portion the lot of our inheritance and in this we rejoyce that while we serve the Lord truly and faithfully neither the hands nor tongues of the enemy shall hurt us but in the end we shall be more then Conquerours over all Let my portion fall in this pleasant place and I shall have a goodly heritage And their righteousnesse is of me saith the Lord That is these servants of mine are not men of a humane and morall righteousnes only but they pertake of the righteousnes of God in Christ Their righteousnesse is of me or thus though they are sinners before the world for as the world reckons their own sinne for righteousnesse so it reckons Gods righteousnesse for sin yet they are righteous before me and in my eyes So that how ever the world reckons us evill doers and not worthy to live in the world yet God reckons us righteous and our righteousnesse is before him To conclude seeing God hath engaged himselfe to secure us in his wayes both from the weapons and tongues of men Goe and tell the Foxes that we will walk without feare in the world both to day and to morrow and the third day we shall be perfected FINIS Jer. 36 32. John 8. 44. Deut. 33. 29. 1 Pet. 1. 12. Revel. 5. 9. Vse Vers 11.