Imatges de pàgina
PDF
EPUB

RIGHT REFORMATION,

OR

THE REFORMATION OF THE CHURCH

OF

THE NEW TESTAMENT,

REPRESENTED

IN GOSPEL LIGHT.

IN A SERMON, PREACHED BEFORE THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, ON WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 25TH, 1646.

BY WILLIAM DELL.

Minister of the Gospel.

JOHN vii. 12.

And there was much murmuring among the people concerning him ; for some said, He is a good man; others said, Nay, but He deceiveth the people.

JOHN XVI. 3.

And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me.

Credo me theologum esse christianum, & in regno veritatis vivere; ideo me debitorem esse, non modo affirmandæ veritatis, sed etiam asserendæ, & defendendæ, seu per sanguinem seu per mortem. Luth.

P

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 learned 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, than 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, amids 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 mouths of his instruments. 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 I am resolved, neither now nor hereafter to take them any more into consideration, than the business itself 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.

And

For the doctrine contained in this discourse, thou shalt not find it new light, (as some men slanderously affirm) but the anbient 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 than that old light, and will by no means exchange the one for the other. But considering 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 threatenings now, and ere long, are like to breath forth blood: For by all their subtil and industrious actings, in the end, they shall not work the truth's ruin, 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 God's 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 deceivableness 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, Rev. iii. 11. and consider Christ's 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 cometh 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,

WILLIAM DELL.

« AnteriorContinua »