and Eftablishment of the truly CHURCH. Represented in an EXPOSITION On Isaiah 54. from Ver. 11. to 17. Preached to his Excellency Sir Tho. Fairfax,and the General Officers of the Army, with divers other Officers, and Souldiers, and People. At Marfton, being the Head-quarter at the Leauger before Oxford, June 7. 1646. By William Dell, Minifter of the Gofpel. Attending on his Excellency Sir Tho. Fairfax in the Army. Together with a faithful Teftimony touching that Valiant and Victorious Army, in the Epiftle to the Reader. Matth. 5. 11. Blessed are ye when men fhall revile you, and perfecute you, and fhall jay all manner of evil against you falfly, for my fake. Verf. 12. Rejoyce and be exceeding glad; for great is your reward in Heaven: for fo perfecuted they the Prophets which were before you. Pfal. 69. 9. The reproaches of them that reproached thee, are fallen upon me. Published accoding to Dzder. LONDON: First Printed in the Year, 1651. TO THE READER. H ac Aving obtained this Grace from God, to be called into fome Friendship and Familiarity with Jefus Chrift, among the rest of his poor Saints; fo, as to hear and receive from him, fomething of the mind and bofome of the Father, cording to his Free grace, who hath mercy on whom he will; and having after many tears and temptations (not unknown to many yet in the body) obtained this further grace, to speak the Word of God with boldness: I have also though most unworthy, been counted worthy to be taken into fome fellowship with Chrift, in his Sufferings, and to endure the contradiction of Sinners, and oft-times to encounter the rage and madness of men, yea, and to fight with men after the manner of beafts, altogether bruitifh and furious. And thus it hath fared with me often, especially at two remarkable times. The one at Lincoln, upon occafion of two Sermons preached there, on these words of the Prophet, Ifaiah 9. 7. Of the encrease of his Government and Peace there fhall be no end. Wherein, giving unto Chrift his own proper due, many were angry I had taken too much from men, to whom yet nothing belongs, but iniquity, fhame and confufion; they could not bear this, that the Lord alone fhould be exalted. But that Doctrine of Truth being the Lords, and not mine, the Lord himself hath strongly upheld with the right hand of his righteoufnefs, and the glory of it hath fince fhone into many hearts in this Kingdom, much contrary to their defire. The The other time, wherein I met with remarkable oppofition, was lately at Marfton, the Head quarter at the Leauger before Oxford; whither fome coming out of the City of London, in all probability out of Some Special defign (feeing the old malignity now acts in a new form, and is daily coming forth, in a fecond and more plausible, cunning, and deceiveing Edition) became exceeding angry and heady against the plain and clear Truth of the Gospel, delivered in this following Expofition (wherein the whole truth and fubftance of what was then delivered, is exactly fet down, and nothing abated; but rather fome things farther preffed, adding (as JereJer.36.32 miah in the fecond roli) many like words to the former. Now fome of these men, feeing themselves, and their new defigns, clearly difcovered by the light of the Word, and made altogether naked, fuddenly they grew fierce and furious, contradicting and blafpheming, yea, fome of them speaking the lanJoh. 8.44.guage of Hell upon Earth (of which there are some witneffes) as became men of fuch a generation. Thefe men, according to the operation of that Spirit which works mightily in the Children of difobedience, come and fill the whole City with Lyes and Slanders, laying to my Charge, things that I knew not; the falfhood and untruths whereof, there are fome hundreds, and fome of them, of great and eminent worth and piety, ready to witness. Wherefore of meer neceffity was conftrained to publish this Expofition, as a witness to this present and the following generations, of thefe mens refifting the Spirit, and acting against Christ himself in the Word. And though the Difcourfe be very plain, not favouring of any accurateness of humane wisdom and learning, yet they that are themselves Spiritual, will acknowledge fomething of the Spirit in it, and for that caufe will relish and love it; though others will therefore be at the greater enmity aginft it. But for for my part, I have fet down my refolution in the Lord, in this Caufe of Jefus Chrift, not to weigh all the power of Earth or Hell, one feather; but to put it to the utmost tryal, whether the Truth of the Gofpel, or the Slanders and Lyes of men fhall prevail; whether the fimoak of the bottomless Pit,that comes forth out of the mouth of these and many others, fhall be able to blot out or darken the brightness of Chrifts coming, in the Miniftry of the Gofpel; yea, and whether the power, and malice of the Devil and the World, fhall be stronger than the love and protection of Jefus Chrift. And I doubt not, but the more the World acts in the Spirit of the Devil, the more will Chrift enable us, to act in his own Spirit, till all at last, fhall be forced to acknowledge, that the Spirit that is in us, is ftronger, than the Spirit that is in the World. And what now have all thefe men, obtainei by all their malice and fury, but a greater and more open difcovery of the truth? and to caufe, that that light of the Gospel, that only fhone in one Congregation, should, through the printing of it, have its beams fcattered in many parts of the Kingdom? and where ever the Truth comes, the Children of the Truth will entertain it, and ask no body leave. And thus through the over-ruling power of Gods wifdom, do these men betray their own and their fellows caufe, and overthrow their own, and their ends; and whilst they think to oppress the truth, propagate it the more; and thus fhall truths Enemies perish, and the truth it felf flourish; yea, flourish, through flanders, oppofitions, contradictions, blafphemies, and all the vilencfs and villany in the world. And all this confidence in us, arifes bence, because Chrift is not as a dead man, but is rifen and afcended, and fits at the right hand of God, and fills all things, and doth all things in heaven and in earth, in the World and in the Church, among his friends, and among his enemics, till thefe be |