own gatherings together) leaft Chrift fo fcatter you abroad, that you never be gathered together again.

5. That you take heed, you do nothing to the prejudice of the faithful, Gods own people; as he hath warned you by the Spirit, faying, Touch not mine anoynted, and do my Prophets no harm; This Place hath been miferably mistaken; for the Kings of the Earth, and the Clergy have shared it between themfelves, whereas indeed it belongs to neither; for Gods anointed are the faithful, that are anointed with the Spirit, the oyl of God, and fo are anoynted as Chrift was anoynted. And these anoynted ones, are the Lords prophets, and the Lord hath no prophets, but fuch as are anoynted with the Spirit. Thus Chrift was made the Lords prophet, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he hath anoynted me to preach the Gofpel; and thus are all his Brethren made prophets; being fellows with him in his Unction. And therefore take heed how you meddle with the Lords anoynted ones, and with the Lords prophets; for as it is faid, He fuffered no man to do them wrong, yea he even reproved Kings for their fakes, faying, Touch not, &c. So the Lord hath still the fame care of the fame people, and will fuffer na man to do them wrong, but will reprove Kings and Parliaments, and Kingdoms,, and Cities and Counties, and Committees, he will reprove them all for their fakes, and fay, Touch not mine anoynted, and do my Prophets no harm: for they that are anoynted with the Spirit, are the flesh of Christ, and the Prophets of God, and therefore touch them and harm at them your own peril. It grieves me to fee, the rest of the Kingdom, touchching thefe anoynted ones of God, and doing harm to these his Prophets, abufing, and spoyling and imprisoning them; It would grieve me much

more

more if I fhould fee you doing the fame; for this would bring you as well as the Kingdom under Gods own reproof; and the reproof of God who can indure?

Sixthly and laftly, Take heed you do not hin-. der the free paffage of the Gospel. When God hath put his Spirit into the hearts of men, take heed how you refift the word in thofe mens mouths; for the word of God in the meanest inftrument, can never be refifted, but will cary all before it; The Honour, Power, Dignity, Authority, Nobility, Magiftracy, of the Kingdom, if they should once ftand up, to hinder the Word of God, the Word of God would carry them all before it.

And therefore it grieves me, to fee how the. City, Countrey, Counties, Towns, Villages, do all rife up for the most part against the miniftration of the Spirit; for this is a certain fign of the undoing of them all: God will fuffer and endure any fin long, but only the contempt and oppofition of the Gospel: but when men, once rife up, against the Gospel, in the Spirit and power of it, they are fure to be undone by it, and to be fhattered all in pieces; for this brings fwift Vengeance.

And therefore when I fee, the generality of the people of all forts, rise up againft the Ministration of the Spirit (which God hath now in these days of ours, fet up even in every County for falvation to his people, but for a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence to the reft) I am then exceedingly diftreffed, and pained at the very heart, for thee O England, and for all thy Cities, and Towns and Inhabitants; for thou that dafheft against the Spirit in the Gospel, how shalt thou be dafhed in pieces thy felf, and there fhall be no healing for thee.

I could

I could hope for Peace, again and good days, fuddenly in this Kingdom, but for this fin of the contempt and opofing the Gofpel, and this makes my hopes even at an end; and the day of my fear, is come forth upon me.

But oh you honourable and beloved Christians, let not your foul enter into thofe mens fecrets, neither yet walk in their open and publick ways; for ruin and deftruction are in their pathes, and the way of peace they fhall never know, feeing God is about to enter into controverfie with all flesh, for their rifing up against the Ministration of the Spirit. And therefore be wife here I befeech you, that in the fhattering of the Nation (if there be no remedy) you may be kept together as a bleffed remnant and a hopeful feed of the following generation.

To conclude, Honourable and worthy, we will be willingly contented, to do and fuffer all things with you; we will cheerfully run through honour and difhonour with you; fame and infamy, gain and lofs, trouble and quietnefs, war and peace, Life and Death; and do desire to referve nothing to our felves, Nifi unicum verbum domini, but only the word of God, in its own purity and liberty, to preach it, and to pubilh it, and to profefs it, and to practise it, for the glory of God and his only begotten Son, and for the good of his Kingdom, and this Kingdom,

And thus much unto you from the Lord.

A

A

REPLY

To Mr. LOVE's

CONTRADICTIONS.

SIR,

B

ECAUSE I would not wrong you in any measure in what you faid, I went to one who took your Notes in Short-Hand; and he gave me what I here fet down for yours, which I well remember are the things you then fpake, for the fubftance of them: To which, I give you this following Reply.

Mr. LOVE.

Caft your eyes upon the begun Reformation, though peradventure cried down with Confidence, No fuch thing as the Reformation of the Church, &c.

Reply.

I taught indeed, that the Kingdom of Chrift is a Spiritual Kingdom, and the Reformation of it is anfwerable; and that Chrift himself, who is the Lord, the Spirit, is the Reformer of this Spiritual Kingdom, by his Word and Spirit; but little thought that any man would have been fa blind or worse, as to have affirmed, the Preaching of this Spiritual and Glorious Reformation, was to Preach against all Reformation. Is the Reformation of Jefus Chrift, which he works by his Word and Spirit in all the Faithful, and

in all the Churches of the Saints, no Reformation at all? How durft you affirm this, Mr. Love? Mr. LOVE.

As if all were encompassed within the narrow heart of man.

Reply.

Yet I faid plainly enough, When the Heart is reformed, all is reformed; and Gofpel-Reformation, though it begins in the inward man, ends in the outward. Did you, Sir, accufe me rightly then, or no?

Mr. LOVE.

If this be fo, Race out the first Article of the Co

venant.

Reply.

I had rather the whole Covenant raced out, than the leaft truth contained in the word of God: Though I like the Covenant well enough, according to the true intention of it.

!

Again, if the thing be truly confidered, it will appear, that you are more against the Covenant than I; for the Covenant engages us to reform, according to the word of God; but you (it feems) would reform without, yea against the Word, with Outward and Secular Power; which you will not fuffer in the Magiftrates hands neither, but will needs have it in your own.

Mr. LOVE.

If this Doctrine be true, That Gofpel-Reformation be only Spiritual, then I wonder how Paul was so out, who faid, When I come, I will fet all things in Order? Surely that was a Church-Order.

Reply.

But pray, What Outward or Secular Power, had Paul, (who fuffered not only much from the World, but most from the falfe Apoftles) to fee the Church in Order? Did Paul (think you) use any worldly power to fet the Church in Order; or

only