Now it was that the true church fled into the wilderness, that is, from superstition and violence, to a retired, solitary, and lonely state; hidden, and as it were out of sight of men, though not out of the world: which shows that her wonted visibility was not essential to the being of a true church in the judgment of the Holy Ghost; she being as true a church in the wilderness, though not as visible and lustrous, as when she was in her former splendour of profession. In this state many attempts she made to return, but the waters were yet too high, and her way blocked up, and many of her excellent children, in several nations and centuries, fell by the cruelty of superstition, because they would not fall from their faithfulness to the truth. The last age did set some steps towards it, both as to doctrine, worship, and practice. But practice quickly failed, for wickedness flowed in a little time, as well among the professors of the Reformation, as those they reformed from; so that by the fruits of conversation they were not to be distinguished. And the children of the reformers, if not the reformers themselves, betook themselves very early to earthly policy and power to uphold and carry on their reformation, that had been begun with spiritual weapons; which I have often thought has been one of the greatest reasons the Reformation made no better progress, as to the life and soul of religion; for whilst the reformers were lowly and spiritually minded, and trusted in God, and looked to him, and lived in his fear, and consulted not with flesh and blood, nor sought deliverance in their own way, there were daily added to the church such as, one might reasonably say, should be saved. For they were not so careful to be safe from persecution, as to be faithful under it, being more concerned to spread the truth by their faith and patience in tribulation, than to get the worldly power out of their hands, that inflicted their sufferings upon them; and it will be well if the Lord suffer them not to fall by the very same way they took to stand. In doctrine, they were in some things short; in other things, to avoid one extreme they ran into another; and for worship, there was, for the generality, more of man than of God. They owned the Spirit, Inspiration, and Revelation indeed, and grounded their separation and reformation upon the sense and understanding they received from it, in the reading of the Scriptures of Truth; and this was their plea, the Scripture was the text, the Spirit the interpreter, and that to every one for himself. But yet there was too much of human invention, tradition, and art, that remained both in praying and preaching, and of worldly authority and worldly greatness in their ministers, especially in this kingdom, Sweden, Denmark, and some parts of Germany. God was therefore pleased among us, to shift from vessel to vessel: and the next remove humbled the ministry, so that they were more strict in preaching, devout in