as is in the world. No; life alone, the Spirit alone, the humble feed alone, the truth alone, the grace alone, muft rule among them; and God forbid the authority and government thereof fhould be ftopt in any. It cannot be well with the church that it fhould be fo, that God's Spirit fhould be grieved or quenched, or ftopped in its holy way of governing and ordering the church of its own building. Second, That which would exalt itfelf because of the gifts it hath received, and would bring others into fubjection; this fpirit must be fubdued among Chrift's difciples, or it will ruin all. God alone, Chrift alone, the Spirit alone, the truth alone, the feed alone, is to be exalted in the church; not flesh, not felf, not the afpiring, lofty, ruling spirit. Third, The Lord gives grace and knowledge for another end, than for men to take upon them to be great, and rule over others because of it. Man, without grace and true knowledge, is high and exalted, and would be ruling over, and fubjecting others; but true grace and knowledge brings man down, and keeps him low, even out of every defire of afpiring and ruling over others, in earnest breatheings and endeavours that both the grace and spirit may teach and rule both over himself and others. Fourth, Because God hath given a man knowledge, he must not take upon him to rule over others with his knowledge. Chrift did not rule over his difciples with his knowledge, nor require them to believe what he knew to be truth. Nor may any man at this day, though ever fo full of God's holy Spirit and power, take upon him (above what his Lord and master did) to rule over other mens confciences. If he do, he will do it out of the leadings of life, and of God's holy Spirit; and fo will wound and hurt his own life thereby, and fo far as herein he prevails on others, he will hurt their life too. Fifth, Therefore this fpirit (which Chrift never was of himself, nor encouraged in his difciples) the church is to watch over, beat down, testify against, turn from, lay flat, and keep beneath all, and so not suffer it to arife. Quest. But doth all this hinder, deny, or oppofe Chrift's Spirit, Chrift's power, Chrift's truth and grace from arifing in the church, in a way of Spiritual and holy government? Because man is not to afpire, nor take upon him to reign or rule, because of grace, gifts, or knowledge received; fhall not therefore the head govern the body? Shall not life, and truth, and the wisdom of God, fpring in the church, to order and govern the church? But muft every man be left to the dictates of what he calls light in him, and not be reproved or teftified againft, though the Spirit of God manifeft it (to them that are indeed in the light, life, Spirit, and power) that it is not light, as perfons may pretend and imagine; but real darkness, grofs darkness, darknefs that may be felt, even by the leaft babes that are in the true, living sense? .::The The next Citation. F this rule of Christ had been kept to, antichrift's power could never have got up, nor the poor innocent lambs fo often have been worried by the wolves. Confirm. It is most certainly true, if the wrong authority and government had been kept down; if the aspiring, lofty fpirit, which exalts itself, and loves to have the preheminence over that which it fhould be subject to both in itself and others, had been judged, beat down, denied, turned from, & how could the fpirit of antichrift, which is the fpirit that would be exalting itself above all that is indeed of God, have got up? This is the wolf that worries the lambs; and if this power and fpirit be kept out of the church, how can there be any wolf found there, to worry the innocent lambs and fheep of Chrift? Queft. But did ever antichrift's power get up by the exercise of the power of Chrift in his church? Doth not that power turn against antichrift, and keep out antichrift? Did that power ever worry the lambs? Nay, rather doth it not cherish, feed, build up, and preferve the lambs? And is it poffible but antichrift's power fhould get up, unless this power be watched to, and obferved, in its ordering and governing the church, and discovering the fubtil working of the wolfifh fpirit of antichrift; which appears in the fheep's cloathing, and may pretend to the light within, that it might draw men from that which is indeed the light within, into that which is indeed darkness in the fight of the Lord, and in the fight of all that are kept truly living and fenfible by him? TH The next Citation. HE great work of the minifters of Chrift, is to keep the confcience open to Christ, and to preserve men from receiving any truths as from them, further than the Spirit opens, or to imitate any of their practices, further than the Spirit leads, guides, and perfuades them; for perfons are exceeding prone to receive things as truths, from thofe they have an high opinion of, and to imitate their practices, and fo hurt their own growth, and endanger their fouls. Confirm. When the minifter of Christ comes with the gospel of Chrift, he finds men in darkness, with their confciences defiled, with the door of the heart fhut against Christ. Now his great work is to turn them to the light, Spirit, and power, whereby their hearts may be opened, their confciences washed, and there may be a ready entrance for Chrift's Spirit and power Dddd 2 into into them. Then the confcience being opened to Chrift, their great endeavour, labour, and work, is to keep it open, and that that may not be let in again by them, which will shut it againft Chrift. For as there is one fpirit opens to Chrift, fo there is another will fhut, even after the heart and confcience is opened, if a man hearken to it. And the way of receiving truth, is in the evidence and demonstration of God's Spirit in one's own particular; and this is for ever the aim and care of the ministers of Chrift to keep men to, and not to allure men to receive truths as from them, but from Chrift; or to imitate their practices, further than the Spirit leads, guides, and perfuades them. For the minifters of Chrift are fenfible how exceeding prone perfons are to receive things as truths, from those they have an high opinion of; and to imitate their prac tices, and fo hurt their own growth, and endanger their fouls. Now it lies on my heart to teftify, upon this occafion, that I have found the minifters of Chrift, whom I have converfed with in this age, walk fo towards me and others, ftill turning me to that light, Spirit, and truth in my own particular, wherein the knowledge of truth was to be given me by the Lord, and not impofing upon me that which they knew to be truth, before the Lord had prepared and fitted my heart for the knowledge thereof. And this is ftill the course and practice of the minifters of Chrift to this day. Queft. But must not the minifter of Christ, who is ordained of God to watch for the foul, watch against that, which (if hearkened to by any particular) will shut the confcience against Christ, and open it to another fpirit, who is often working in a mystery to deceive it? And if they fee the workings of this other fpirit in any, ought they not, in faithfulness to Christ, and to the fouls of fuch, to warn them of it? And if any, having let in the wrong fpirit, turn from, and deny, the practices which the Lord once taught them (and wherein the teftimony of truth ftands) into practices which are of the world, and anfwer the world's fpirit, and tend to weaken the faithful teftimonies of others in the true light and Spirit; ought the minifter of Chrift to leave these perfons to their openness to a wrong fpirit, and wrong practices, wherein they deny the Lord that bought them and enlightened them, and are fhut up against the vifitations and teftimonies of God's true Spirit and power in his children, who keep their habitations in that light which these are departed from, though they make ever so great pretences to it? The next Citation. \H poor hearts! bow fimply do they come thither where they once tafted re A freshment, to find wholesome advice, not juspecting what is got up there fince; and fo give dominion to a wrong thing, and take directions from a wrong fpirit, and betray their own fimplicity? Therefore the main thing is to keep the confcience pure to the Lord, and not to take things for truths because because others fee them to be truths, but to wait till the Spirit makes them manifeft to me; nor to run into worships, duties, performances, or praclices, because others are led thither, but to wait till the Spirit lead me thither. He that makes baste to be rith (even in religion, running into knowledge, and into worships and performances before he feel a true and clear evidence) fhall not be innocent, nor the Lord will not bold him guiltless, when be comes to vifit for spiritual adultery and idolatry. Confirm. This hath been experienced in this our day, more than once; when fome, having departed from the power whereby the innocent lambs had tasted sweet nourishment and refreshment through them, and have come afterwards for that which is wholesome, not fufpecting what was got up in them fince, and fo gave dominion to a wrong thing, and took directions from a wrong fpirit, and betrayed their own fimplicity. Quest. But had thefe reforted to the church, and waited for judgment, from the church, to whom God has given eyes to fee, in fuch cafes as may pass the eye-fight of the particular, and a mouth to speak; might not the church have been inftrumental to have opened the true eye in them, also, and so have preserved them from being infnared, by any that ran out from the truth in their own particulars, and loft their habitation therein? And mark, when the church was in its great glory, cloathed with the fun, and the moon under its feet, and crowned with a crown of twelve stars, yet the dragon, even then, might prevail upon fome ftars, and with his tail fweep them down from their place; but the church he could not prevail upon. The gates of hell, the power of the dragon, the mouth of the dragon, nay the tail of the dragon (which what if I fhould fay is the false prophet within) cannot. Further Confirm. Indeed, the main thing is to keep the confcience pure to the Lord. To bring men to that which purifies the confcience, and to keep them to it, this is the great work. Men must not take things for truths, because others fee them to be truths (that is not God's way, nor did his ministers ever so teach) but to wait till God's Spirit makes them manifeft to the particular. Nor muft men run into worships, duties, performances, or practices, because others are led thither, but wait till the Spirit lead every one in his own particular thither. Quest. Where is the faithful minifter that teacheth otherwife, or practiseth otherwife at this day? I am fure I never met with any thing of this nature from any of them, but only one that ran out in his own particular, who first endeavoured to draw me from efteeming or taking directions from others, and then would have given me directions himfelf, and would speak and undertake to prophefy great things of me, that he might have raised up that part in me, which could have anfwered him. And though he himfelf be dead, yet his fpirit is alive in others at this day, which the Lord difcover and preferve his people from ! Further Further Confirm. It is not good to make hafte to be rich (no not in religion). He that rightly believeth, and abideth in the true and living faith, makes not hafte to run into knowledge, worthips, and performances, before he feel his guide! but rather chufeth to be as a weaned child, lying low before the Lord, in brokenness of fpirit, and not meddling with things too high for him; and fo he is kept in innocency, poverty, and humility before the Lord, and preferved out of the bed of the ftranger (the ftrange fpirit and power), and fo not judged or condemned by the Lord, for either spiritual adultery or idolatry. Queft. But he that lets in a wrong fpirit, that mistakes about the light in him, and judgeth that which is indeed darkness to be it, and errs from the true church, and denies the authority of God's Spirit and power in it, and is not preferved thereby, but entangled and bewitched with this wrong spirit, and in it teftifies against the true church and the true Spirit, and the miniftry and minifters of Chrift; is not he joined to the fpirit of whoredom in his own particular? And hath not he fet up an idol in his own heart, instead of the true light there? And doth not he worship and obey that idol, that wrong fpirit, that wrong power? And will not the Lord vifit and judge him for his fpiritual adultery and idolatry from the true ? The next Citation. N the apostles days, Chriftians were too apt to ftrive after a wrong unity and uniformity in outward practices and obfervations, and to judge one another unrighteously in these things. And mark, it is not the different practice from one another that breaks the peace and unity, but the judging one another because of differing practices. He that keeps not a day, may unite in the Jame Spirit, in the fame life, in the fame love with him that keeps a day; and he who keeps a day, may unite in heart and foul with the fame Spirit and life in him who keeps not a day; but he that judgeth the other because of either of thefe, errs from the Spirit, from the love, from the life, and Jo breaks the bond of unity. And he that draws another to any practice, before the life in his own particular lead bim, doth as much as in bim lies to deftroy the foul of that perfon. This was the apostle's rule, for every one to perform fingly to the Lord what he did, and not for one to meddle with the light or confcience of another, &c. but every one to keep close to their own measure, &c. and here is the true unity in the Spirit, in the inward life, and not in an outward uniformity; that was not necessary in the apoftles days, nor is it neceffary now and that eye, which so dotes upon it, overlooks the one thing which is necessary. Confirm. This is so manifest from that fcripture quoted by me, which is here omitted, that he that shall read that fcripture, which is Rom. xiv. may eafily observe the apostle affirming and teaching these things. That |
