it be remembred that we never Vowed that God should not bring us back to the same case which had been blasphemy And therefore it had been bad enough if we had vowed not to do what was our duty in that state if God should return us to it 2. I earnestly intreat the doubting Reader that thinketh his duty and the Churches peace to be worth so much labour but to read over some of the old Non-conformists books against separation And if you there find the very same objections answered or more and greater than judge your selves whether their case and ours was as to this cause the same The books I would desire you to read are Mr. Iacobs the Independent against Iohnson Mr. Bradshaws against Iohnson with Mr. Gatakers defence of it against Canne Mr. Gifford Mr. Darrel Mr. Paget Mr. Hildersham Dr. Ames Mr. Cartwright Mr. Brightman and last of all and fulliest at the beginning of our troubles Mr. Iohn Ball in three books But of this having spoken already I shall repeat no more but only to profess my judgement that our ordinary boasters that think they know more in this Controversie than the old Non-conformists did as far as I am able to discern are as far below them almost as they are below either Chamier Sadeel Whitaker or such others in dealing with a Papist which of them can say that about Episcopacy as Gersom Bucer Didoclaue Blondell Salmasius have done and so of the rest QUEST IIII. Quest. 4. IS it not a shameful receding from our Reformation now to use an unreformed Liturgie and a pulling down of what we have been building Answ. 1. It is not fit here to enquire who it is that hath pulled down and destroyed Reformation though it be easie to discern it But this is certain that God hath set up the Government that is over us and that our Governours take down by their Laws that which we accounted Reformation This is not our worke but theirs And that they permit us not otherwise publickly to worship God And that a man in Goal doth ordinarily joyn in no publick worship at all And where men do venture on other manner of worship in forbidden assemblies the fears of some and the passionate discontent of others and the disturbances by souldiers and officers and such like do take off much of the edification and hinder us from such a frame of mind as is most agreeable to the work and day And to worship God no where is to go farther from Reformation than to worship him by the Liturgie 2. To do it of choice is one thing and to do it as a duty put upon us by Gods providence and our Governours when we can do no better is another thing It is God that hath pulled down our liberty and opportunity to serve him otherwise and we must obey him It is no faulty mutability to change our practice when God by changing our condition doth change our duty No more than it was in Paul who to the Jews became a Jew and circumcised Timothy and shaved his head for his Vow c. and became all things to all men And no more than it was in Augustine who professeth that he would worship God as to formes and ceremonies according as the Church did with which he joyned where ever he came Nor no more than it is in a traveller or merchant to joyn in several Countries in several fashions and ceremonies or rites of outward worship QUEST V. Quest. 5. WIll it not strengthen and encourage the adversaries of Reformation Answ. 1. We must not make such carnal policies our guides as to forbear that which God doth make our duty for fear of encouraging other men If we take this to be uncharitable factiousness in others to desire rather all these distractions in the Church than that the Non-conformists should be encouraged and strengthned by seeming to have justly desired a Reformation let us not be guilty of what we blame 2. If you will believe themselves it is the unwilling Conformists that they are most in danger of who profess that they conform of necessity and desire a Reformation As Dr. William Smith hath shewed in a book written to that end The Assembly of Westminster that set up the Presbytery were such Conformists 3. It is sinful pride and tenderness of their own honour which maketh some men avoid their duty and wrathfully grudge at them that speak for it because those that are against them thence take occasion to insult over them or reproach them If men do but say you are now turncòats and time servers and where is your reformation now and you are now glad to do as we do they think this reason enough why they should forbear that Communion and worship which is their duty Are these beseeming self denying humble persons Could they suffer death for their duty sake that cannot bear a little reproach for it Object If we knew it were our duty we would suffer for it Answ. But is it not this very suffering and reproach and insulting of others which maketh you think that it is not your duty And so carnal persons use to do They will believe nothing to be their duty which they must suffer by Let Gods honour be all to you and your own be nothing and you will not much stick at such things as these QUEST VI. Quest. 6. BUT will not this course divide us among our selves while one goeth to the Parish Churches and another doth not Answ. 1. Mr. Tombes did not stick at dividing the Anabaptists when he wrote for Parish Communion And Mr. Philip Nye did not stick at the fear of dividing the Independents when he wrote a M. S. as I am credibly informed for the hearing of the Parish Preachers though another wrote against it presently after And if an ordinary attendance on their publick doctrine be lawful this will go further than many think to prove the rest of the Communion lawful 2. We are already so far divided in our judgements as for one to hold it to be lawful and another to be unlawful And who can cure this division And why should it divide us more if mens practice be according to their judgements rather than for them to sin against their Consciences 3. The great thing in which we differ from the Prelatists yea and Papists too is that we would have our Union laid only upon Necessary things and liberty and Charity maintained in the rest And shall we now contradict our selves and say that things necessary are not sufficient for our union Cannot we hold union among our selves if some go to the publick assemblies and some do not What is this but to have the imposing domineering Spirit which we speak so much against We cannot better confute the uncharitable dividing Spirit of the world than by shewing them that we can hold Love and Union notwithstanding as great differences as this yea and much greater QUEST VII Quest. 7. SHall we not hereby
thing by reason of the new impositions than it was to our predecessors yet to the people conformite is the same if not easier especially to them that I now speak to For it is the Liturgie Ceremonies and Ministry that most alienate them as I said before and not so much the subscription against the obligation of the Covenant And the Liturgie is a little amended as to them by the change of the Translation and some little words and by someâ—onger prayers And the Ceremonies are the same and thirty years ago there was many bare Reading not Preaching Ministers for one that there is now Therefore our case of separation being the same with what it was of old I take it to be fully confuted by the antient Non-conformists And I have so great a veneration for the worthy names much more an estimation of the Reasonings of Mr. Cartwright Egerton Hildersham Dod Amesius Parker Baines Brightman Ball Bradshaw Paget Langley Nichols Hering and many other such that I shall not think they knew not why they chose this subject and wrote more against separation than the Conformists did Nor do I think that the reasons of Mr. Iohnson and Mr. Canne can stand before them And it pittieth me to hear now many that differ from them say we are grown wiser and have more light than they when as our writings upon the same subjects shew that we are far in that below them And in other parts of knowledge alâ—s what are we to Reignolds Ames Parker and several of the rest But the world knoweth that the turn of the times put most of us into the sudden possession of our opinions without one half of the study it may be with most not the hundredth part which Cartwright Ames Parker c. bestowed upon these points And I never yet saw cause to believe that our present Dividers do learn more in a days study than those learned holy men did in twenty Nor do they shew more wisdom or holiness in the main I am very glad that the Pious Lectures of Mr. Hildersham Mr. R. Rogers and such other old Non-conformists are in so good esteem among good people where they will read them urging the people not only against separation but to come to the very beginning of the publick worship and preferring it before their private duties As for them that say If Dod Ames Hildersham c. had lived till now they would have been of our mind I desire them to prove it or not affirm it Is not the Liturgie Ceremonies and Ministery the same And what signs of such mutability did they shew Could your Reasons have conquered them more than Mr. Ainsworths Iohnsons or Cannes They were not so Light to be changed causelesly And I pray you mark that if you are wiser in this point of separation than all these old Non-conformists were than Iohnson and Canne and Howe were wiser also in that than they which doth not appear to us by their writings And then for all the greater Light that you think you have yet Iohnson Canne and Howe had as great Light and were in this as wise as you though Ames and the rest of the Nonconformists were not O that our brethren would but seriously read over the writings of these men especially Iacob Paget Ball and Bradshaw and Gifford against the separatists and try whether the case was not the same 20. Yea I must confess that when I think what Learned Holy Incomparable men abundance of the old Cenformits were my heart riseth against the thoughts of separating from them If I had come to their Churches when they used the Common-prayer and administred the Sacrament could I have departed and said It is not lawful for any Christian here to Communicate with you What! to such men as Mr. Bolton Mr. Whateley Mr. Fenner Mr. Dent Mr. Crook Mr. Dike Mr. Stocke Mr. Smith Dr. Preston Dr. Siâ—bes Dr. Stoughton Dr. Taylor and abundance other such yea such as Bishop Iewel Bishop Grindal Bishop Hall Bishop Potter Bishop Davenant Bishop Carlâ—tâ—n c. Dr. Field Dr. Smith Dr Iohn White Dr. Willet c. yea and the Martyrs too as Cranmer Ridley Hooper himself Farrar Bradford Philpot Sanders c. To say nothing of Luther Melanebthon Bucer and the rest of the forreign worthies Could I separate from all these on the reasons now in question Yea Calvin himself and the Churches of his way were all separated from by the separatists of their times 21. At least I cannot easily condemn the ancient Independents who were against separation as well as the Presbyterians Mr. Henry Iacob is accounted the Father of the English Independents And he hath wrote a book against Mr. Iohnson the separatist or thâ—s Title A Defence of the Churches and Ministery of England written in two Treatises against the Reasons and Objections of Mr. Francis Johnson and â—thers of the separation Commonly called Browâ—â—â—s And in the end he hath A short Treatise concerning the truness of a Pastoral Calling in Pastors made by Prelates And I intreat the Reader to note that Mr. Iohnson there chargeth the Church of England and their worship with no fewer than 91. Antichristian abominations And I would ask any of the dividers whether they have more than 91. Antichristian abominations to charge upon it now I am content that those I write to now will cast by my book if they will but read Mr. Iacobs And Dr. Ames was half an Independent and yet against separation I need not mention the great moderation of New-England where their late healing endeavors greatly tend to increase our hopes of reconciliation O that the rest of the Churches were as wise and happy Whose experience hath possessed them with a deep dislike of the spirit of separation and division Yea if any thing may be believed which I have not seen Mr. Ph. Nie himself hath writen to prove the Lawfulness of hearing the Preachers in the Parish assemblies And yet it is as confidently confuted by another of the Brethren as my book is by this Excepter And he that proveth it Lawful to joyn with them that profess themselves a Church in their ordinary Doctrine and pulpit prayers and Psalms of praise I think can never prove it unlawful at all times to joyn with them in the use of the Liturgie or in the Sacrament supposing the scruple of Kneeling removed For the most of the Liturgie is the reading of the Scripture it self and the rest is sound matter though in an imperfect mode and fashion of words 22. Is sects and heresies increase among us the blame of all will be laid upon the Non-conformists And so it now is They commonly say It is you that open the door to them all And how injuriously soever this be said it becometh our duty not only to see that it be not true but also to do our part against them And this was one great reason why the old Nonconformists wrote and preached so much more thâ—â— the Bishops
I say for these reasons I shall give you as my Conclusion the Order of the Governour and Council of the Massachusets in New-England to all the Elders and Ministers in their Jurisdiction for Catechizing and private labours with all the Families under their Charge Dated at Boston Mar. 10. 1668. To the Elders and Ministers of every Town within the Jurisdiction of the Massachusets in New-England The Governour and Council sendeth greeting Reverend and Beloved in the Lord WHereas we find in the Examples of holy Scripture that Magistrates have not only excited and commanded all the people under their Government to seek the Lord God of their Fathers and do the Law and Commandment 2 Cro. 14. 2 3 4. Ezra 7. 25 26 27. but also stirred up and sent forth the Levites accompanied with other principal men to teach the good knowledge of the Lord throughout all the Cities of Iudah 2. Chron. 17. 6 7 8 9. which endeavours have been crowned with Gods blessing Also we find that our Brethren of the Congregational Perswasion in England have made a good Profession in their Book entituled A Declaration of their Faith and Order Pag. 59. Sect. 14. where they say That although Pastors and Teachers stand especially related unto their particular Churches yet they ought not to neglect others living within their Parochial Bounds but besides their constant publick Preaching to them they ought to enquire after their profiting by the word instructing them in and pressing upon them whether young or old the great Doctrines of the Gospel even personally and particularly so far as their strength and time will permit We hope that sundry of you need not a spur in these things but are consciously careful to do your duty yet forasmuch as we have cause to fear that there is too much neglect in many places notwithstanding the Laws long since provided therein We therefore think it our duty to emit this Declaration unto you earnestly desiring and in the bowels of our Lord Jesus requiring you to be very diligent and careful to Catechize and Instruct all the people especially the Youth under your Charge in the Sound and Orthodox Principles of Christian Religion and that not only in publick but privately from house to house as blessed Paul did Acts 20. 20. or at least three four or more Families meeting together as strength and time may permit taking to your assistance such godly and grave persons as to you may seem most expedient And also that you labour to inform your selves as much as may be meet how your Hearers do profit by the Word of God and how their Conversations do agree therewith and whether the Youth are taught to read the English Tongue taking all occasions to apply suitable Exhortations particularly unto them for the rebuke of those that do evil and for the encouragement of them that do well The effectual and constant prosecution hereof we hope will have a tendency to promote the Salvation of Souls To suppress the growth of Sin and Prophaneness To beget more Love and Unity amongst the people and more Reverence and Esteem of the Ministry and will assuredly be to the enlargement of your Crown and Recompence in Eternal Glory Given at Boston the 10th of March 1668. by the Governour and Council and by them Ordered to be Printed and sent accordingly Edward Rawson Secret FINIS I desire the â—â—ader to 〈◊〉 the most judiâ—ious â—oâ—â—rate Expositioâ— oâ— thâ— sâ—cond Commandment a oâ— all the est iâ— Mr. George Lawson's Thâ—opolitica 1 Untruth False Worship what seven senses of that word 2. Untruth 3. Untruth Of my mentioning former things Whether I were as guilty as any in stirring up the War And guilty of all which he calleth the Effects Whether nothing past must be repented oâ— The Reader must note that I wrote the full Narrative of my Actions herein which this presupposeth but after cast it away because neither part of the accusers can bear it 4 Untruth Whether I never mention the prophane but with honour Of partial genderness Of my foolish talking Of my Pride Whether it be easier to pray extempore or by memory of words Who is to be judged Proud More mistakes Whom we must come out from Whom we must disown as no Church The Corruption of the Scripture Churches 5 Untruth Of concealing the faults of Dividers Of concealing the faults of Dividers * Read but Hornius his description of the English Sects Eccles. Hist. and see what strangers think of us Of my revealing Secrets 7 Untruth 8 Untruth 9 Untruth The Cause of Popery tried Of Mr. Iohnson's Reply to my Book 10 Untruth Whether it be intollerable Pride to say that the Papists understand not Christian sense and reason 11 Untruth Of Separation Of Censuring Papists Of Pauls not scandalizing the weak I know that Expositors much differ about the weak brother here described but not in the point that I now urge the â—ext for More of revealing secrets 12 Untruth Whom I mean by Dividing And of his Curse 13 Untruth Whether I slight prayer And whether wisdom is to be got by prayer alone without any other means 14 Untruth 15. Untruth Whether I speak slightly of Christ How Christ increased in wisdom Whether Christ needed Prayer for himself Of melancholy misinterpretations of Scripture 16 Untruth Whether God hates book-prayers or forms Whether the Jews had a Liturgie in Christs time See Psal 92. and 102 c. 1 Chr. 16. 4. and 25. 2 Chron. 8. 14 15. Of jeasting at other mens â—â—ayers The temptations of sufferings Many are overcome by suffering who think they overcome It 's a reproach to our Nation that Hornius Hist. Eccl. saith Ita ut seperatismus sive Brownismus non alios habeat authores quam cum Tyrannide superstitione Episcopos Dominantes pag. 244. So much good suffering doth Whether all that use any thing in Gods worship not commanded and in particular a form of prayer be Idolaters And what this censure of Idolatry signifyeth Whither we are guilty of consenting to all that is faulty in the prayers that we are present at 17 Untruth Of flattering Christians Whether any 〈◊〉 be 〈…〉 ignorant and injudicious See my book of Directions to weak Christians to grow in grace The greatness of the sin of thus flattering Christians How sad is it to read in Hoâ—nius Salmasius and others abroad such horrid descriptions of the English sects and scandals Though the Actors were not so many as some of them thought Of the loud voice of the Preacher and a sound judgement 18 Untruth 19 Untruth Whether I have left off the Lords work Note how ordinarily Christ himself and his Apostles avoided persecution by removing Of the judgement of the Univeâ—sal Church Of the judgement of Learned men in difficult speculations 20 Untruth Whether honest people be not apt to stray after one anothers example Whether we should mark and avoid the sins of Christians in the time and places where we live Whether the Religious sort may not have some common errour to be avoided 21 Untruth 22 Untruth 23 Untruth Of Justification Whether we can speak bad enough of nature See Act. 17. and 14. And Rom. 1 and 2. 24 Untruth 25 Untruth Whether there be any free-will Whether he that counts all natural men as bad as he can name will not hate them and say bad of them without fear of slander 26 Untruth Whether no persecution can consist with Love 27 Untruth 28 Untruth 29 Untruth Of the fewness of Believers 30 Untruth Whether the same spirit may not be restored to the ancient forms 31 Untruth Maximus Imperator Râ—mpub gâ—bernahat Vir omni vitae merito praedicandus si ei vel diadema non lâ—gitâ—mâ—â—umultuaâ—te milite impositum repudiâ—re vel armis civilibus abstinere licuissâ—t sed mâ—gnum Imperium nec sine peâ—iculo renâ— i nec sine armis potuit teneri Sulp. sevâ—rus Dialog 3. cap. 7. Beda etiam â—ist Eccl. l. 1. c. 9. Maximus vir strâ—nâ—us pâ—obus atque Augusto dignus nisi contra Sacramenti fidem per tyrannidem emersisset c. Invitus propemodum ab exercitu câ—eatus Imperator c. Had not this man brought the Catholick-Church into a little room
and heresies in meer opposition to their afflicters I know that the great objection is That under pretence of Love I would bring ungodly persecutors into reputation and tempt men to unlawful Communion with them and that I make an ill application of good principles to hide the odiousness of their sins that care so little for the souls of men as their usage of Ministers and people doth openly declare If I had only perswaded you to unite in Love to one another and not to think better of the destroyers of the Church nor to comply with them in their Idolatrous way of worship you could have born it Brethren will you that take it for injustice in a Iudge who will condemn a man before he hear him speak for himself be intreated but to repress your passions for a little while till you have calmely considered these things following 1. Did I ever perswade you to think well of the faults of other men while I perswaded you to love their persons unless you call the Communion a fault of which we are to speak anon Did I ever seek to abate your dislike of the sins which you most speak against Either malignity cruelty persecution or any other 2. The thing which I perswaded men to in that book was Communion with all Christians but differently as they differ in degrees of purity That which I motioned and pleaded for I summed up in the latter end with the contrary extreams which you may there read in five propositions 1. To adhere to the primitive simplicity and make nothing necessary to our Concord and Communion which is not so 2. To love your neighbours as your selves and receive those to Communion whom Christ receiveth and that hold the foresaid necessary things be they Episcopal Presbyterian Independents Anabaptists Calvinists Arminians Lutherans c. so they be not proved heretical or wicked Peruse the rest When you come to your selves you will confess that this was no unreasonable nor unchristian motion Which of all these Parties is it that you are angry with me for perswading you to Communion with Must every one of the Parties renounce Communion with all the rest O how unlike is this doctrine to that of the Holy Ghost 1 Cor. 1. 10. 3. 1 2 3. Rom. 14. 15. c. If not every one which of them is it Is any one of all these Parties the whole Church of God who dare say so Why should I refuse Communion with any one of these while I scruple not Communion with all the rest Or if it must be but with one sort how shall I know which of them it must be I know some men judge of others by their Own opinions and self interest But is that indeed the Christian Rule Some of the Episcopal way are angry with me for including the Independents when I doubt not but the far greater part of them are the sincere servants of Christ And since their Synods late moderation I know not many Churches in the world besides the Waldenses of the Bohemian Polonian and Hungarian Government who are neerer to my own judgement in Order and Discipline than those in New England are and none that for Piety I prefer before them Some are angry with me for taking in the Anabaptists when it is not such as the Munster Anabaptists that we have to do with but godly men that differ from us in a point so difficult that many of the Papists and Prelatists have maintained that it is not determined in Scripture but Dependeth on the tradition of the Church I am not of their mind and I have given them my reasons in my book for Infant Baptism But having had more invitation to study the point throughly and treat of it largely than most of those that are offended herein let them give me leave to say that I know it to be a very difficult point And I know as good and sober men of that mind as of theirs that are most against them And I know that in the dayes of Tertullian Nazianzene Augustine men had liberty to be baptized or to bring their children when and at what age they pleased and none were forced to go against their Consciences And I know not that our Rule or Religion is changed or that we are grown any wiser or better than they I once motioned terms of Concord to the Anabaptists and was in as hopeful a way for Peace with them as with most others till Some are offended that I put in the Arminians when I am confident that there is not one of many hundreds whoâ— are against Communion with them that know what Arminianisme is and truly understand the difference And the same men refuse not Communion with those Anabaptists who are Arminians And it hath been the work of not only Mr. Dury but many other excellent men for many years to reconcile the Lutherans with the Calvinists and it hath justly been thought a blessed work to draw them to Communion with each other And yet the Lutherans are not only of most of the Arminan opinions but also have superintendents liturgies ceremonies exorcisme Church-images c. When so much labour hath been bestowed in this work and so many excellent Treatises written for it by pious Dury Junius Paraeus Calixtus Ludov. Crocius Joh. Bergius Conrad Bergius Hattonus Amyraldus Hall Davenant Morton c. When all sober Protestants have prayed for their success or approved this design are we now come to that pass that those that seem the zealousest for the Church and mutuall Love shall think it to be a sin either to hold Communion with the Lutherans or to write for it But the great offence is that I put in the Episcopal as fit for our Communion which I suppose is principally because of their manner of worship in which we must have Communion with them Which foreseeing I answered more objections against this than against the rest which hath occasioned some falsly to affirm that I write only to draw men to Communion with the Church of England I will therefore here proceed to some further expostulations of this point 3. Is there ever a word in all my Book perswading you to Communion with a Diocesan Church as such 4. Is there one word in it for your Communion with a national Church that hath one political spiritual Constitutive Head under Iesus Christ though the Kings supremacie none of us question Do I once meddle with any such thing 5. Is there a word to perswade you to Communion with Persecutors Though I am forced to displease you by answering that objection and telling you that we should be Impartial and remember what most parties or many have done to others which you were not able it seems to bear though it was plainly necessary to the due resolution of the Case in question whether any Persecutors may be Communicated with 6. Is there one word to perswade you that every Parish is a true Church and fit to be Communicated
with If none of all this be there I hope your Patience is not very hard put to it if I do but intreat you to repent if you have said that of it which is untrue whoever told you so or at least not to proceed in untruths when you are so often warned of them 7. Do you think that it was done like tender conscienced Christians for so many to say that I write against your meetings yea that I conformed my self And this before ever they saw my book or ever spake with man that saw it And that men dare yet continue such sayings while the book is visible to prove them false and revile against it when they confess that they never read it Is this the fruit of the spirit of Christ But give me leave after these expostulations to come a little nearer to your objection and to tell you openly where we differ 1. You would have me speak for Love and Unity among the Nonconformists And I know no man that hath done it more frequently and more openly than I have done having these 24 years been offering or publishing terms of peace But God forbid that ever I should be of their opinion if there be any such who think that our union must be only with a Party and not with the whole Church of Christ or that we must Love none or seek peace with none but thâ—se that are in such points of our own opinion I am united first to Christ and the universal Church and consequently to all the parts as such though in divers degrees as they differ themselves in their Conformity to Christ. 2. I beseech you endure me with patience to tell you that I never took either the Non-conformists alone or the Conformists to be the whole Church of Christ or to be his only people in this Land nor the only faithful Ministers of the Gospel Bâ—ethren let not wrath and the faults of some deceive us to become injurious to others or to deny them Love and Iustice because that many of their opinion are bad Where in all the world do you know a Kingdom where the greater part are not too bad and where those that are of the Rulers Religion be it never so right do not comply with it to serve their flesh The Low Countries have no Bishops nor Ceremonies nor no such Liturgie as most are offended at with us but are under the Presbyterian Government And yet what the Commâ—n sort are there and in other such Countries I need not tell you Forgive me for telling you that if you know no godly persons Ministers or others of the Episcopal way I do and long have done And as my acquaintance increaseth I know more and more You that take me to be so bad as the Antidote describeth me will think it no great commendation to them that I profess to know those of them whom I take to be much better than my self Therefore I will say a greater word that I know those of them whom I think as godly and humble Ministers as most of the Nonconformists whom I know I doubt not but there are many hundred Parish Ministers who are no Persecutors nor ever consented to Persecution who Preach holily and live holily though I could wish that they were more And what reason have you to charge any other mens sins on them I am not ignorant what may be said to make them consequentially partakers But I must say this in answer to all that if God will charge undiscerned consequences upon them and us there will none of us all be found meet for Church Communion or for heaven I am judged by your selves to be too censorious of you and too sharp in telling you of that which I doubt not to be your sin why then are you so offended with me for being no more censorious and sharp towards others was I ever thought to be kinder to them than to you Is not every man naturally most favourable to those of his own opinion Is it Conformity or Non-conformity which I have most defended Is it as a Conformist or a Nonconformist that I have been judged and used these 33. years It is they that have lately written reproachfully against me It is they that have I need name no more But for the Non-conformists I must bear witness of their kindness to me that they never rejected me never forbad me to preach but one Sermon nor except particular angry parties whom I wrote against they never denyed me their good word What then can you think should draw me to be too sharp against them and too favourable to the other I look for no worldly advantage or benefit from them Surely be that is apt to be too sharp is liker to be so against dissenters from whom he suffereth than against those that have ever been his friends But truth is truth and the wisdom from above is without partiality and without hypocrisie Do but mark how both parties justifie me while both condemn me though I am too Conscious of my faultiness to justifie my self The one side think that I am not half sharp enough against the Anabaptists Sâ—pâ—ratists and Independents And you that I now write to think that I am not half sharp enough against the Conformists so that one side doth not only justifie me from the charge of câ—nsâ—â—iousness or sharpness against the other but blame me for the contrary and are angry with me that I am no sharper But Gods judgement of us all is right and his seal is sure The Lord knoweth who are his whoever shall deny it God will not judge of upright Christians as they judge of themselves when they unjustly accuse themselves Much less according to the judgement of their adversaries Brethren I think verily that I have as much to say against conformity as it is required of us Ministers as most of you that are most angry have And yet I tell you again that I believe there are many hundred Godly Ministers in the Parish Churches of England and that their Churches are true Churches and that I think not my self worthy to be compared with Mr. Bolton Whately Fenner Dr. Preston Sibbes White Field Uâ—her Jewel and abundance other old Conformists And you might forgive me if I compare them with your selves and if I again profess to you that if they were all alive and used now the same Liturgy and Ceremonies as they did then I could not find in my bea rt to think their Communion in Prayer and Sacrament to be unlawful nor to censure that man as injurious to the Church who should write to perswade others not to separate from them on that supposition I am sure the Assembly of Divines that sate heretofore at Westminster were so conformable when they went thither that I never heard of five Non-conformists among them besides the five dissenting brethren Their judgement was as Mr. Sprints that Confâ—rmity was lawful in case of necessity rather than to be deprived of
liberty to preach the Gospel but that it was a burden which they should cast off as soon as they had liberty so to do And I knew some who urged them to declare their Repentance for their former conformity and to have confessed it to have been their sin But I never heard of any considerable number of them that ever did it or that changed their minds And though Ministerial Conformity as to Engagements is now much altered many of them that are yet living do again confâ—rm And though I then was not nor yet am of their mind my self yet I would not shun Communion with the Reverend members of that Assembly Twisse Gatâ—ker Whittaker and the rest if again they werâ—â—sers of the Liturgie among us 3. But what if in all this I be mistaken and if Communion in the Liturgie prove unlawful should you be so impatient as not to bear with one that in such an opinion differeth from you As I write for my opinion so do you for yours And why should not you bear with my dissent as well as I do with yours My judgement commanded me First to exhort all sober Christians to draw neerer and to lay by those principles which drive them from each other as not to be Communicated with And Secondly where that cannot be obtained to bear with one another in our several Assemblies or Churches and to manage them with Love and peace This was my exâ—â—rtation And the time once was even when the five Dissenting brethren pleaded their cause with the Assembly at Westminster that this motion would have been accepted or at least not judged so great an injury as now it is O brethren do not expose your selves and cause so much to the censure of impartial men and of posterity as to let them know that you are grown so high or that in the very day of our humiliation these terms seem so injurious to you as these exceptions intimate Mr. Nye and Mr. Tho. Good win were so friendly with Dr. Prâ—ston as to publish his works when he was dead And I verily think if you had been acquainted with such Conformists heretofore as he was and Dr. Stoughton and Dr. Taylor and Mr. Downam and those forenamed and abundance more you could not choose but have thought them both tolerable and lovely if you had not thought it lawful to Communicate with them Much more you should have endured such as the Non-conformists of that age who used Parish Communion and pleaded for it against the Separatists in far sharper language than ever I used to you as their books against Johnson and Cann and Brown and Ainsworth do yet visibly declare If you think their Reasons and mine for the Lawfulness of Parish Communion to be insufficient so do I think of yours against it I have read divers that charge the Liturgie with Idolatry Did I ever lay so heavy a charge on you Did I ever say that it is unlawful to have Communion with you as you say it is to have Communion with others Why then should you not bear with lesser Contradiction when others must bear with far greater from you Will you proclaim your selves to be the more impatient You will then make men think that you are the most guilty You say of such men as those before named your worship is Idolatry and it is unlawful for any Christian to hold Communion with you in it and all that are present and joyn with you are guilty of the Idolatry I do but say that you make the Case more odious than it is and injure others by this charge What a world are we come to when those that you count unworthy of your Communion must not take your charge of Idolatry as too sharp and yet you that should be most patient take it for a heynous crime and injury to be told that you wrong them and that you judge too hardly of them and that their Communion is not unlawful Nay is it seemly for thâ—se men that have said and done so much I say so much for Liberty of Conscience and would never consent to the Westminster Assembly to declare against it even as to those parties whom you counted very erroneous your selves to be yet so impatient of our liberty to tell the Church our judgement about the Lawfulness of other mens Communion Is it meet for them who are offended with those that silence us and restrain us of our liberty to be so tender as to shew by such language as this Excepter useth and by such unjust fames as some others have dispersed how little themselves can bear dissenters I know that displeasure and impatience in the divers parties is expressed different wayes But O that yet you would consider how near of kin the principles are and how much defect of Love and Patience there is in you as well as others 4. And I intreat you to mark but what your own objection intimateth You could endure it if I had only pleaded for Peace and Concord among the Non-conformists But doth not this intimate that Peace and Concord in it self is desirable among all those that should agree and be united Why I am as well able to prove that all true Christians should have Peace and Love and Concord for the strength of the Universal Church as any of you all are able to prove that any one Party should have Concord in it self The Episcopal part would have all possible Concord among those that are Episcopal and the Presbyterians among Presbyterians and the Independents among Independents and the Anabaptists among Anabaptists no party is for Divisions among themselves till the particular temptation doth prevail And yet I am not pardonable for motioning that all sober Christians as Christians may have all possible Love Peace and Concord among themselves Brethren I am sure that Christs body is but one I do not despise all those words of Christ and the Spirit which I cited in my book I know that the diversity of knowledge and gifts among true Christians should not make diversities of Churches 1 Cor. 12. When I know this and cannot choose but know it why should any be angry with me for knowing it I know that the Godly Conformists and Non-conformists in England should be united as well as each party among themselves I know that our division gratifieth the Papists and greatly hazardeth the Protestant Religion and that more than most of you seem to believe or to regard I know that our division advantageth Profaneness and greatly hindereth the success of Ministers on both sides I know that it greatly pleaseth Satan and buildeth up his Kingdom and weakneth the Kingdom of our Lord His own mouth hath told us so And shall I not believe him As in our Worcestershire Agreement heretofore we proceeded on terms which excluded not the Episcopal so in our desires and terms of Concord we must still go the same way and shut out none from our Love and Communion whom Christ receiveth and would
and Dr. Bernard and Dr. Manton and I where I spake these words which he Printed without the limitation annexed which I set right in my next Printed Book viz. That I found then little or nothing in the doctrinal part of the Common prayer Book which was not sound having but as favourable an exposition as good mens writings usually mnst have He left out the doctrinal part At last when the Earle of Oâ—ery perswaded me to be his Majesties Chaplain in Ordinary and was present when the Earl of Manchester gave me and Mr. Ash an oath of fidelity it being he that first brought me acquainted with Bishop Usher the mention of the same business fell in Whereupon we shortly after were told by the Lord Chamberlain that it was his Majesties pleasure that there should be a treaty for Union between the Episcopal party and the Presbyterians And Dr. Reignolds Mr. Calamy Mr. Ash and my self being first Employed when we had made some entrance we desired that some might be chosen by the Ministers throughout the land to signifie their sense because we could speak in the name and sense of none but our selves But his Majesty not consenting to that we desired an addition of many brethren at hand which was granted and the liberty for all Ministers that would to meet with us for consultation as many did at Sion-Colledge and elsewhere In this Treaty we all professed our Judgements for the Lawfulness of a Liturgie and desired the Reformation of that which we had with the addition of new forms in Scripture phrase fitted to the several Offices with Liberty to the Ministers to use this or that Whereupon we drew up such a Liturgie our selves which though it fell to my share yet the rest of our brethren examined and approved of it saving that Dr. Reignolds disliked the displeasing the Bishops by such large additions and a Liturgie seeming entire of it self instead of some additional prayers to theirs How many weeks we were employed from first to last in these debates how fully and freely we took that opportunity to plead for reformation and against unnecessary impositions whilest the men that now quarrel with us said nothing that we know of how hard a province fell to my own lot as to the offending of the Bishops under whose hot displeasure I thereby in obedience to my Conscience did cast my self our writings which somebody hath published for the greater part of them shew and our Savoy conference and my prohibition to preach in Worcester Diocess shortly after before other Ministers were silenced and the published writings against me did all sufficiently acquaint the world And the particulars of this business I now pass by Only I think meet to make this twofold profession to the two parties on the Extreams 1. That the true reason why I wrote and spake so much so long and so vehemently had it been possible to have prevented many Impositions was principally because I undoubtedly foresaw how great a number of faithful worthy Ministers would else be silenced by them and how ill the Church could spare those Ministers while there are so many hundred thousands of ignorant and ungodly people in the land and what sort of Ministers in too many places must unavoidably succeed them unless the Church doors should be shut up and I foresaw how the people under such Ministers would be affected to Religion and to the Bishops and Ministry And I foresaw what multitudes of Religious persons would take the things imposed as unlawful and would separate from Communion with the publick Churches and would worship God in private meetings with the silenced Ministers I foresaw how many Ministers and people that did Conform with a grudging Conscience would do more at last to undermine the Impositions than the Non-Conformists I foresaw easily what jealousies displeasure severities imprisonments c. would follow the private preaching of the silenced Ministers and the private meetings of the people And I knew well that other Ministers as well as I would judge it no better than perfidious sacriledge to forsake the holy calling to which they were consecrated and devoted and to desert so many thousand needy souls But above all I foresaw how certainly and sadly the Churches divisions would be hereby increased and the Love of each party to the other would be abated if not destroyed How hard it was for one side to Love and Honour the Non-conformists that accounted them Persecutors and unconscionable men And how hard it was for the other side to Love and Honour those that they suffered by And how little Reproaches Fines and Imprisonments do use to increase mens Love to others I â—orâ—knew that one side would call the other Rebellious Schismatical Phanaticks and the other side were like enough to account them Perjured Perfidious Persecutors and that in the midst of such thoughts such words such usage Love was no more like to prosper than fire in the sea And I knew that whatever zeal be pretended for Obedience and Order on one side or for purity of Worship on the other when Love dieth Religion dieth and they that are destroyers of Love are destroyers of the Church and of Christianity and of the souls of men and to increase Love is to save sâ—iâ—ls And I foresaw that the further they go in this way the further they will go from God and Godliness from peace and safety and that it will be the longer the worse till they retire For one hard usage on one side and hard censure on the other side after another will by degrees raise men to the height of bitterness and make them think that their interest conâ—isteth in the hurt and ruine of each other Also I foresaw that while we worried and weakned one another as all Sects would grow under the discontents of one party so the Papists were like to be the principal gainers And they would be ready to offer their service to strengthen one of the parties against the other and would be glad to take up the reproaches against the most religious people that were by angry adversaries brought unto their hands And that when we had made our selves a Common scorn by our manifold divisions and by our biting and devouring one another they would plead this as our shame to draw people to themselves as the only stable and consistent Church and would make us giddy that we might rest on them as our Supporters and when they saw us weak enough would be ready to devour us all And I easily foresaw how calamitous a thing it would be to the Kingdom to have most Towns and Parishes set all together by the ears and for the neighbours to be as Guâ—lphes and Gibellines every man employed in censuring and reproaching others instead of living together in neighbourly and Christian Love And I foresaw what an injury this would be to the King to have the suffering party under these temptations and wise men made mad and his people weakned
never tell any of their sins nor preach repentance to them whilst I lived and that I must not deny my duty and Charity to one sort because another sort will not receive it and seeing also necessity increase and having already writen and said so much to the other party I resolved to imitate those two excellent faithful Tractates viz. 1. Mr. M. Pool's Vox clamantis in deserto in Latine calling the Non-conformable Ministers to Repentance and Mr. Lewis Stukeley's a worthy Congregational Minister in Exeter and a kinsman of the late General Monkes enumerating copiously most of the Common sins of Religious Professors and calling them earnestly and faithfully to repentance which since the writing of this I find excellently done in a book called Englands danger and only Remedy And therefore I first published some old notes written eleven or twelve years ago called Directions for weak Christians and annexed to it The Character of a sound Christian In both which I wrote that which was as like to have exasperated the impatient as this book is And yet I heard of no complaints And afterward I wrote this which I now defend and sent it to the Licenser who upon perusal refused to License it And so it lay by and I purposed to meddle with it no more But leaving it in the Booksellers hands that had offered it to be Licensed after a long time he got it done and so unexpectedly it revived The Reasons of my writing it were no fewer than all these following which I now submit to the judgement of all men truly peaceable and impartial who value the interest of Christianity and of the universal Church above their own 1. To make up my foregoing Directions to weak Christians more compleat Having directed them about the private matters of their souls I intended this as another Part to Direct them in order to the Churches Peace 2. Many good people of tender Consciences and weak judgements desiring my advice about Communion in the publick Assemblies I found it meetest to publish this general Advice for all to save me the labour of speaking to particular persons and to serve those that lived further off 3. I saw those Principles growing up apace in this time of prevocation which will certainly increase or continue our divisions if they continue and increase I am sure that our wounds are made by wounding principles of doctrine And it must be healing doctrines that must heal us And I know that we cannot be healed till doctrinal principles be healed To give way to the prevalency of dividing Opinions is to give up our hopes of future unity and peace And to give up our hopes of Unity and Peace is to despair of all true Reformation and happiness of the Church on earth If ever the Church be reduced to that Concord Strength and Beauty which all true Christians do desire I am past doubt that it must be by such principles as I have here laid down 4. But my grand reason was that I might serve the Church of Christ in the reviving and preservation of Christian Love As it was an extraordinary measure of the Spirit which Christ made his Witness in the Gospel Church so is it as extraordinary a measure of Love which he maketh the New Commandment and the mark of all his true Disciples And whether afflicting on one side and unmerciful and unjust censures on the other side one driving away and the other flying away be either a sign or means of Love And whether taking others to be intolerable in the Church and unworthy of our Communion and separating from or avoiding the Worship where they are present be likely to kindle Love or to kill it let any man judge that hath himself the exercise of Reason and unfeigned Love I know that this is the hour of Temptation to the sufferers to stir up passion and distaste and that men have need of more than ordinary grace and watchfulness and therefore of more than ordinary helps warning to preserve due Love and keep out an undue hatred of those by whom they suffer And how great a temptation also their censures and discontents will prove to their Superiours and others by whom they suffer and what unspeakable hurt it may do their sâ—uls may easily be conjectured This sin will prove our greatest loss 5. Hereupon men will be engaged in sinful Actions of injustice and uncharitableness against each other They will be glad to hear and forward to believe hard and false reports of one another And too forward to vent such behind one anothers backs And there is no doubt but many of each party already think worse of the other commonly than they are Though alas we are all too bad and some egregiously wicked And those Persons and Churches that would censure a man for Curses or Oaths should also censure men for slanders and backbitings And should I not do my best to prevent such a course of daily sin 6. Both violence and separation tend to divide the builders themselves and keep the Ministers in contending with and Preaching and Writing against each other which should be employed in an unanimous opposition to the Kingdom of Satan in the world And when all their united wisdom and strength is too little against the common Ignorance and Prophaneness of the world their division will disable them and give sin and Satan opportunity to prevail 7. It may engage them on both sides in the dreadful fin of persecuting each other one party by the Hand and the other by the Tongue even while they cry out of persecution And on both sides to hinder the Gospel and mens salvation on one side by hindering the Preachers from their work and on the other side yea on both by hindring the success For what can be more done to make men despise the word than to teach them to despise or abhor the Preacher And what more can be done to destroy mens souls than to harden them against the Word Is there any sâ—bâ—r man on either extream that dare say I would have none of the people saved that are not or will not be the hearers of our party If you dare not say that you would have all the rest to be damâ—ed dare you say you would not have them be taught by others Or that you would not have them profit by the Word they hear If not how dare you tempt them to vilifie and despise their Teachers If they will not learn of you be glad if they will learn of any other and do not hinder them 8. By these means they will cherish an hypocritical sort of Religiousness in the people which is more employed in Sidings Opinions and Censurings of others than in humble self-judging and in a holy heavenly mind and life A man need not the Spirit of God and supernatural Grace nor much Self-denyal nor Mortification of the flesh to make him choose a certain fashion of external Worship and think that now he
a word which never was 15. It will have a confounding influence into all the affairs and business of our lives 16. Lastly It will affright poor people from Scripture and Religion and make us our Doctrine and Worship ridiculous in the â—ight of all the world The Doctrine which we hear maintained which hath no better fruits than these must be avoided as well as the contrary extream which would indeed charge the Law of God with imperfection and cause man to usurp the part of Christ. And we must first know How far God made the Scripture for our Rule and then we must maintain its sufficiency and perfection II. Also on that extream we must do nothing to countenance those Practices which tend to alienate Christians hearts from one another and to keep up Church-Wars or to feed bitter censures scorns and reproaches And we that must not scandalize the Religious sort must avoid all that thus tempteth them which is the real scandal But of this I have said enough in the Book which I am now defending Part II. An ANSWER to the Untrue and unjust Exceptions OF THE ANTIDOTE Against my TREATISE for LOVE and UNITY DEar Brother for so I will call you whether you will or not the chief trouble that I am put to in answering your Exceptions next to that of my grief for the Churches and your self by reason of such Diagnosticks of your Malady is the naming of your manifold Untruths in matter of fact It is it seems no fault in your eyes to commit them but I fear you will account it unpardonable bitterness in me to tell you that you have committed them If I call them Mistakes the Reader will not know by that name whether it be mistakes in point of Fact or of Reason And Lies I will not call them because it is a provoking word Therefore Untruths must be the middle title EXCEPT I. Page 1. Tâ—e whole dâ—sâ—â—n of this Book being â—â— make such as at this day are carefull to kâ—â—â— themselves Pure from alâ— defilements in False worship Odiâ—us it may well be affirmed iâ— was neither seasonable nâ—r hâ—nest Answ. THat 's the fundamental Untruth which animateth all the râ—â—â— when 〈◊〉 had got a false apprehension of the design of the Book you seem to expound the particular passages by that Key That which you call The whole design is not any part of the design but is expresly and vehemently oft disclaimed and protested against in the Book And whoever readeth it without a Partial mind will presently sâ—â— that the whole design of the Book is to deliver weak Christians from such mistakes and sins as destroy their Love to other Christians and cause the divisions among the Churches 2. False worship is a word of various sensâ—â— Either it signifieth 1. Idolatry in worshipping a false God 2. Or the Idolatrous worshipping of Images as representations of the true God 3. Or worshipping God by Doctrines and Prayers that consist oâ— falshoods 4. Or devising Worship-Ordinances and falsly saying they are the Ordinances of God 5. Or making God a Worship which he forbiddeth in the subâ—â—anâ—e and will not accept 6. Or worshipping God in an inward sinful manner through false principles and ends as hypocrites do 7. Or in a sinful outward manner through disorder defectiveness and unhandsome or unfit expreâ—â—ions Oâ— these I suppose you will not charge the Churches you separate from as guilty of the first second fourth or sixth which is out of the reach of humane judgment For I suppose you to be sober As for the third through Gods great mercie the Doctrine of England is so â—ound that the Independants and Presbyterians have still offered to subscribe to it in the 39 Articles according to which if there were any doubtfulness in the phrases of their Prayers they are to be interpreted For the fifth if you accuse them of it you must prove it which is not yet done supposing that you take not Government for Worshipâ— nor can you do it So that it must lie only on the seventh And for that if you will take the word false-worship in that sense do not you also worship God falsly when you worship him sinfully And are not your disorders and unmeet expressions sins as well as theirs Alas how oft have I joyned in Prayer with honest men that have spoken confusedly unhandsomly and many waies more unaptly and disorderly than the Common Prayer is How oft have I heard good old Mr. Simeon Ash say that he hath heard many Ministers pray so unfitly that he could heartily have wished that they had rather used the Common Prayer When did any one of us pray without sin How ordinarily do Anabaptists Antinomians Arminians Separatists c. put their Opinions into their Prayers and so make them false Prayers and so false Worship Nay could you lay by partiality and knâ—w your self a very hard thing you would presently see that you who wrote these Exceptions are liker to Worship God falsly than they that do it by the Liturgie that is in the third sense Because the Doctrine of the Prayers in the Liturgie is sound but if you account this Script of yours to be Worship and why not writing as well as preaching or if you put the same things into your Worship which you put into your writings as is very usual with others then it is false Worship indeed as consisting of too many falshoods If you pray to God to encline men against all that Communion which you write against or lament such Communion as a sin this is falser worship than any is in the Liturgick Prayers And if you will call all those modes of worship false which God in Scripture hath not commanded what a false worshipper are you that use a translation of Scripture a Version and tunes of Psalms a dividing the Scripture into Chapters and Verses yea the Method and words of every Sermon and Prayer or most and abundance such like which God commanded not God never bid you use the words of Prayer in the Liturgie Nor did he ever bid you use those which you used last without it O Brother if you knew your self and judged impartially you would see that whatever you say against mens communicating with other mens tolerable failings as false worship may be as stronglie urged for avoiding communion in disordered prayers that are without book and much more in the prayers of honest erroneous Separatists Anabaptists Antinomians c. which yet for my part I will not so easily avoid I confess if my judgment were not more than yours against dividing from each other in the general I should be one that should be as forward to disclaim Communion with many zealous Parties now received by you and that as false worshippers as you are to disclaim Communion with others I am sure you worship God falsly that is sinfully every time that you worship him 3. But seeing my Book disswadeth you equally from unjust avoiding Communion
with all sound and sober Christians I ask you whether all these several parties are false worshippers save you alone Did not the Presbyterians and Independants agree in worship when you gathered Churches out of their Churches and when thousands separated from all the Parish Churches almost then existent Indeed the Anabaptists charged us also with false worship but it was not truly But the ordinary Dividerâ— had not that pretense 4. O how easie a thing is it Brother for a man without any supernatural Grace to reproach another mans Words in Worship and then to abhor it and avoid it and think I am one that keep my self Pure from false Worship But to keep our selves pure from pride censoriousness uncharitableness contention evil speaking and sensual vices is a harder work Others can as easily without mortification or humilitie keep themselves pure from your false worship as you can do from theirs EXCEPT ib. Since the crying sin this day is not separation but unjust and violent Persecution ½ which Mr. Baxter speakâ—eth very little against Answ. 1. A Las dear Brother that after so many years silencing and affliction after flames and Plagues and dreadful judgments after twenty years practice of the sin it self and when we are buried in the very ruines which it caused we should not yet know that our own uncharitable Divisions Alienations and Separations are a crying sin Yea the crying sin 〈◊〉 well as the uncharitableness and hurtfulness of others Alas will God leave us also even us to the obdurateness of Pharaoh Doth not judgment begin with us Is there not crying sin with us what have we done to Christs Kingdome to this Kingdoms to our friends dead and alive to our selves and alas to our enemies by our Divisions And do we not feel it Do we not know it Is it yet to us even to us a crime intolerable to call us to Repentance Wo to us Into what hard-heartedness have we sinned our selves Yea that we should continue in the sin and passionately defend it When will God give us Repentance unto life 2. And whither doth your passion carry you when you wrote so strange an untruth as this that I speak very little against it â— Was it possible for you to read the Book and gather Exceptions and yet to believe your self in this Doth not the Book speak against Church-Tyranny Unjust impositions Violence and taking away mens Liberty and rigor with Dissenters from end to end If any man that readeth but the Preface as page 14 15 16 17 18. and all the second part besides much more can possibly believe you I will never undertake to hinder him from believing any thing 3. But suppose I had said little against it will you charge me with Negatives or omissions before you know my Reasons Or would you have no better people hear of their sin and duty till Persecutors will endure to hear of theirs Exod. 6. 12. Behold the children of Israel have not hearkened unto me how then shall c. â— saith Moses Have most or many of the Separation said more against severities than I have done 4. But could you possibly be ignorant that a License is not to be expected for such a Discourse as you seem here to expect You deal by me as the late Perswasive to Conformity that vehemently calls to me to publish my Reasons for Nonconformity while he knew my hands were tied by the Laws and Licensers 5. But what if I had not in this Book spoken much against Persecution Is it not enough that I have done it in others I have not here written on many subjects which in other Volumes I have written of And why should I If I had would you not have blamed me for writing one thing so oft But you most unhappily chose this Instance for your quarrel I think in the judgment of all the Land that have read my writings Besides my five Disputations of Church Government how oft have I written against Persecution The few Publick Sermons that ever I Preached had somewhat against it Read our Papers to the Bishops in 1660. especially the Reply to their Exceptions and the Petition for Peace Enquire again of the long provoking Conference at the Savoy and the reason of the following indignation against me and afterwards read this Book again and then I modestly chalenge you 1 to name those men in England especially of the Separatists that have said and done more against that severity which you call Persecution than I have done 2. To name me one Licensed Book since the silencing of the Ministers and since the Printing Act That hath said so much against Severity and Persecution as the Book which you quarrel with hath done EXCEPT II. Mr. B. mentioneth with much bitterness what was formerly done in the time of the War which is in him a most unbecoming practice because first Mr. B. was as guilty of stirring up and fomenting that War as any one whatsoever and none ought to blame the effect who gave rise and encouragement to the Cause Answ. 1. IF you mean that my words taste bitterly to you I cannot deny it You know best But for my part any Reader may see in the Book which the Preface referreth to that I only lament our too open undeniable uncharitableness and divisions and the effects thereof and use the mention of some mens former faults with whom they and I can hold communion to prove by way of Argument that they ought not to avoid communion with others for the like or less And I know not how to convince men well if I must pass by all such experimental Arguments 2. Do you not mark your partialitie Brother In our Reply to them 1660. pag. 7 8. et alibi and in my 5 Disput. c. I tell the Bishops of faults past of Silencings and Suspendings c. of the excellent Ministers afflicted and laid by and how ordinarily are they told of the things charged on Bishop Laud Pierce Wren c. in their Articles to the Parliament And when did you blame me or others for so doing Can I believe that this offendeth you And is it sin to tell your selves of your former sins and none to tell the Bishops of it O that we could know what spirit we are of 3. Your third untruth in point of fact is that I was as guilty of stirring up and fomenting that war as any one whatsoever Could you possibly believe your self in this 1. I suppose you never saw me till above ten years after I had done with Wars 2. I suppose you lived far from me 3. If you know whom and what you speak of you know that I was never of the Assembly I never Preached to the Parliament till the day before the King was Voted home I was forced from home to Coventry There it was that I did speak my Opinion but refused their Commission as Chaplain to the Garrison In Shropshire my Father was twice imprisoned that
never did any thing against the King nor medled with Wars For two Months I did something there to little purpose and once got my father out of Prison by causing another to be seized to redeem him but I never took Commission Office or pay all that time I never entred into the Army till after Nasâ—by fight and openly declared I went thither for this purpose To discharge my Conscience in disswâ—â—ing the Souldiers from the Overturning of the Government and to have turned them from the purpose which I perceived among them of doing what afterwards they did If you and others that know not what they talk of will but ask Dr. Brian Dr. Grew Mr. King or others whom assembled I twice consulted about it or any Survivers of the Coventry Committee what business I went on into the Army you will change your mind And did no man whatsoever do more than this What not the Parliament themselves Not any of the chief Speakers there Not any of their acquaintance What not any of the other party neither Not any of the Armies neither of the Earl of Essex nor of Cromwel himself How then came the Armies on both sides to be raised and proceed so far in Wars before ever I saw one man of them to my remembrance or any Parliament man or Souldier had ever spake with me or saw me or ever had a line of writing from me Why do you find none of my Parliament Sermons in Print 4. But if indeed I was as guilty as you mention why is it in me a most unbecoming practice to blame that which you think I did occasion Is this good Divinity that it is unbecoming a Minister to mention heinous sin with bitterness which we have bin guilty of How then shall we repent Or is Repentance an unbecoming thing I hope the Act of Oblivion was not made to frustrate Gods Act of Oblivion which giveth Pardon to the Penitent Doth it forbid us to Repent of sin or to perswade our brethren to repent Where sin is hated Repentance will not be hated And if sin were as bitter as it must be Reproof would not be bitter 5. Do you think that you Preach sound Doctrine when you say that None ought to blame the effects who gave rise and encouragement to the Cause If this Doctrine be part of Gods worship which you offer him who should be avoided as a false worshipper that is a false teacher sooner than your self What a scandal is it to the world and dishonour to your self that such Doctrine should be found thus under your hand deliberately delivered If this be true then he that first encouraged the War on either side must not blame any of the Murders Robberies or other Villanies therein committed Then he that hired the French man to set London on Fire must not blame the burning of it Then a man ought not to blame any sin which ever he was a cause of Then when a man hath once sinned he must despair and never must repent nor blame his crime If you had found such Doctrine as this in the Common Prayer Book you would have had a fowler charge against it than now you have as to Doctrinals Which I mention but to shew you that if we must run away from one another for every thing that is unsound we shall never have done and others must avoid you as much as you do them 6. But your deceit in the word That War hath a transparent covering Which War is it that you mean Do you think all that is done in one land or one age or by one Army is one War Where there are several causes especially if also several parties sure they are several Wars The first War was made under the Earl of Essex when the Commissions run for the King and Parliament The second War begun under Fairfax and Cromwell when for the King was left out of the Commissions Another War was by Cromwell against the Londoners and Parliament when he garbelled them though it came not to blows Another War was against the Scots Army and the English that rose for the Kings Deliverance Another was in Ireland Another in Scotland Another between Cromwel and the Levellers And many others there were afterwards under several Usurping Powers And do you call all these one or which of them do you mean 7. I suppose you grosly call the meer consequents the effects Sure that which was the Effect of a later War might be but the Consequent of a former Or else you must say that the Parliament raised War against themselves to pull down themselves and set up a Protector This was the Consequent of their first War but whether the effect I leave to Logicians to determine But by this you may see that you again preach false doctrine The King may give rise and encouragement to a War and yet may lawfully blame such Consequents as you call effects What if the Kings own Army should plunder and murder and blaspheme and depopulate yea or depose or hurt or any way injure the King himself Shall a man that separateth from the Liturgie as false worship come and tell us that the King ought not to blame any of this because he gave rise and encouragement to the War Extremities and Passion do thus unhappily use to blind men 8. But seriously Brother I beseech you let us review the Effects you mention or respect Is it possible for any sober Christian in the World to take them to be blameless or to be little sins What! both the violating the person and life of the King And the Change of the fundamental Government or Constitution And an Armies force upon the Parliament which they promised obedience to First upon eleven members next upon the greater part of the house and lastly upon the remainder The taking down the house of Lords The setting up a Parliament without the peoples Choice or Consent The invading and Conquering Scotland The making their General Protector The making an Instrument of Government themselves without the people The setting up their second Protector The forcing him to dissolve the Parliament The pulling him down whom themselves had lately set up The setting up the remnant of the Commons again The pulling them presently down again The placing the Supremacy in a Council of themselves and their adherents Was all this lawful And to do all this as for God with dreadful appeals to him Dare you or any man not blinded and hardened justifie all this If none of all this was Rebellion or Treason or Murder is there any such Crime think you possible to be committed Are Papists insulting over us in our shame Are thousands hardened by these and such like dealings into a scorn of all Religion Are our Rulers by all this exasperated to the severities which we feel Are Ministers silenced by the occasion of it about eighteen hundred at once even many hundreds that never were in any Wars and such as
as much sign of pride in you to think you know more than I as in me to think that I know more in this than you The truth is Pride is not a true valuing but an over-valuing our selves and our own understandings If either you or I be in the right and both think our selves confidently to be so he is the Proud person which ever he be that is in the wrong For it is he that over-valueth his own understanding Here therefore the Evidence must decide the Case EXCEPT V. p. 3. Answered Your 5th Exception implieth more Untruths The first is that I did not consider that fault of the Imposers which I have written in that very book so much against and elsewhere and before said more against than any man that I know in England This was not considerately spoken The second is that all or most of those that you separate from made tearing engines and dividing impositions If this be not implied you speak not to the point But you may easily know that in all the Parish-Churches of England there is not one man or woman no not one Minister of very many that ever made or imposed such Engines The third implied untruth is that I plead either for subscribing Assent or for such Communion as cannot be had without subscribing Assent to what you know is sinful when you may joyn as far as I desire you without subscribing any Assent at all EXCEPT VI. Answered 1. As to the sense of 2 Cor. 6. 14 15 16. and Rev. 18. 6. You confess that the Texts do directly and properly concern only Infidels and Idolaters there mentioned 2. You say It belongs to others that are guilty of the same Crimes under the name of Christians proportionally Answ. Very true If it be not a contradiction If any called Christians be notorious Infidels and Idolaters they are not Christians and so not fit for Christian Communion But from the Societies of such we must flie our selves But not from the societies of Christians alwaies when some such shall intrude 3. You say We are commanded strictly to separate from every one that is called a brother if he be covetous or a railer c. Answ. The Church and not a private man must exclude such a one from Church-Communion And you your self must exclude him from your private familiarity But you are not commanded to separate from the Church if they exclude him not I am not bound to separate from the Church where you are for this Book which you have written though I could prove it railing How few separated Churches know you on earth that have no Covetous person or railer Or at least where the people hold it their dutie to separate from their own Church if any Covetous person or railer be there 4. You add that if notwithstanding all admonition any Church will still retain them we are not to own such a Church as a Spouse of Christ and therefore must come out of it c. Answ. 1. I have in that Book proved the contrarie by abundant Scripture instances And in the next exception you your self confess the primitive corruptions and lay the stress of your Separation only on Imposed Conditions of Communion 2. You give us no proof of this naked assertion If a Scolding woman or a Covetous Professor be reteined in a Church otherwise pure you are not therefore bound to separate much less to take it for no Church For that is a true Church which hath the true essentials of a Church But so may one that reteineth a Covetous man or a Scold Ergo By your rule you must Separate not only from Parish Churches but from most of the Separated Churches that ever I was acquainted with I find no particular Church called A Spouse of Christ but the universal only As a Corporation is not a Kingdome but a part of a Kingdome 5. Above twenty Arguments in my book for Infant Baptism shew that you did not truly say that the best argument that all learned men have ever defended it by is the proportion it hath to Circumcision EXCEPT VII Answered You say that I impertinently recite the Corruptions of the Scripture Churches to prove that we are not to separate c. your reason is Because many Errors in Doctrine and life were formerly admitted yet none of them were imposed as conditions of Communion Answ. Do you not see that here you seem to deny what you said so confidently in the last Exception There you say We must come out if they will receive such for members after all admonition and retein them Here you seem plainlie to yield that up and to lay all on imposed Conditions of Communion as if else you could communicate with Churches so corrupt You can bear your own contradiction better than mine 2. What is imposed on you as a condition to your Communion in the Doctrine and Prayers of the Parish Churches but your actual Communion it self If you will say that their bad Minister and their imperfect form is imposed as a Condition because you must be present so they may say that you also impose your imperfect manner and expressions on them as Conditions of their Communion in your Churches And thus you are all Imposers EXCEPT VIII Answered First you say I said that I met with many Conscientious Professors c. That 's your fifth untruth I said no such thing but only many Censorious professors 2. You say It is hardly possible to believe it But that is possible to men that use to be more careful of speaking truth themselves and that are acquainted with the people of England by such means as Conference which is hardly possible to others 3. You ask Ought not such things to be concealed And you abuse Scripture to confirm it But 1. Are you not here partial Is it your judgement that we should conceal the faults or ignorance or errors of the Bishops Conformists and Parish members Or be they not commonly multiplied and aggravated And yet must the Separatists ignorance and error be concealed 2. Do you desire their Repentance and humiliation whose faults you would have concealed And do you imitate Nehemiah and others of Gods Servants that use to Confess the sins of all ranks and sorts of men 3. Do you use in publick humiliations to confess this ignorance of Professors or not If not what a kind of humiliation do you make If you do do not you publickly reveal this secret 4. How grosly are you unacquainted with England that take this for a secret or for hardly to be believed when we have Congregations and multitudes of such and the land and world ringeth of them 5. Do you not thus harden them that charge us with factiousness when you shew your self so solicitous for the Concealment of the ignorance of your party while you have no such care for others 4. But it is your sixth Untruth in point of fact when you say
The Lord give you a meeker spirit and a tenderer conscience And that I mean not an Independent as such for the Presbyterians will not suspect me I will stop your mouth with this sufficient proof 1. That the chief Independants have written excellently against separation as Mr. Iacob by name And they pretend that Mr. Bradshaw and Dr. Ames were Independants 2. That I rejoyce in the state of the Churches of New England since the Synods Concessions there and good Mr. Eliots propositions for Synodical constant Council and Communion of Churches as much as in any Churches State that I hear of in the World Though as to the form of Government my judgement most agrees with the Waldenses or Bohemian published by Lascitius and Commenius especially since the Magistrates late printed Order that all the Ministers shall take especial care to Catechize and personally instruct all the people under their Charge even from house to house at least 3 or 4 Families meeting together c. which I much rejoice in It is evident then that though a man may be a Divider that is Episcopal Presbyterian Independant or Anabaptist yet as such as their denominations signifie I mean none of them for many of all these names are no Dividers though a Papist is so by the essence of his Religion un-churching all beside his Sect. And if you had done me but common justice you would have noted that in my scheme in the end the second Proposition of the way of Love which I plead for is in these words Love your neighbours as your selves Receive those that Christ receiveth and that hold the necessaries of Communion be they Episcopal Presbyterian Independants Anabaptists Arminians Calvinists c. so they be not proved heretical or wicked Judge now of your Truth and Charity by these evidences EXCEPT XV. p. 8. Answered Here is the 13th visible Untruth He saith He speaks very slightly of Prayer in comparison of study for the attaining of wisdome calling it too cheap a way which sheweth you how little he understandeth the nature of true Prayer c. Answ. I love you the better for your zeal for the honour of Prayer though I had rather knowledge and truth had guided it Reader I intreat thee to peruse my book and if thou find there what he saith condemn me more than he doth and spare not I tell those men that will do nothing for knowledge but ask for it that God hath not promised you true understanding upon your prayers alone without all the rest of his appointed meaâ—s Nor that you shall attain it by those means as soon as you desire and seek it For then prayer would be a pretence for laziness c. That praying is but one of the means which God hath appointed you to come to knowledge by Diligent reading hearing and meditation and Counsel of the wisest is another And will any Christian deny the truth of this except the Enthusiasts Or should any Godly Minister rise up against it Is any of this true 1. That I have here one word of Comparing prayer and study 2. Or that I prefer study or reading or other means before prayer 3. Or that I speak lightly of prayer in Comparison of the other 4. Or that I make prayer it self an easie thing Is not this that I call his 13th Untruth composed of many When it is visible that I put prayer first that I only say that it is but one means and not all and that others must be added and that praying alone without other labour is too easie a way What should one answer to such dealing as this I beseech you brother preach not the contrary whatever you think lest you justifie the silencers while you blame them And if really you are against my words satisfie the World by experience how many you ever knâ—w that came to the understanding but of the Articles of Faith or the Decalogue or Catechism or Christianity it self that I say not to your degree of knowledge above me and such as I by prayer alone without hearing reading meditation or conference And why Paul bids Timothy give himself to Reading and meditate on these things and give thy self wholly to them And why Hearing and Preaching are so much urged And whether it be any great fault to silence you and me and all the Preachers in the Land if prayer be the only means of knowledge And whether you do not before you are aware still agree with them whom you most avoid who cry up Church-prayers to cry down Preaching And why you wrote this book against me if your earnest prayers against me and the people be the only means And when you have done I can tell you of many Papists and others that you your self suppose never pray acceptably who have come to a great deal of knowledge Though there be no sanctified saving Knowledge after the first Conversion without prayer I am sorry you put me to trouble the Reader about such things as these It follows Neither doth Solomon direct to any other way principally c. Answ. Did I speak one word of the principality or which was the principal way Did I not put prayer first and other means next This is not well brother Truth beseemeth our Calling and our work And yet he that said I was found of them that sought me not in my opinion which yet expecteth your reproach doth give so much knowledge as is necessary to mens first faith and repentance and conversion by the hearing or reading or considering of his word ordinarily to them that never first asked it by sincere prayer For I think that Faith goâ—tâ— before a believing prayer You adde We cannot but wonder that any dares so expresly go against the very letter of Scripture but that we have done with wondering at Mr. Baxter's boldness Answ. This I may well put as your 14th Untruth Reader try if you can find one syllable of what he speaks in all my book Doth he that saith prayer is but one of the means contradict the letter of Iam. 1. 5. If any man lack wisdome let him ask it of God O how hard is it to know what spirit we are oâ— That a man should go on in such dealing as this and make his own fictions the ground of such tragical exclamations when he hath done Yea he proceed For what follows in justification of his unwarrantable conceit exceeds all bounds of sobriety whither will not Pride and overweening carry a man He that had so trampled upon his brethren without any regard to their innocency or sufferings now speaks but slightly of our Lord Christ himself Answ. Your anger I pass by I like you the better for speaking against Pride For by that you shew that you love it not under that name But still How hard is it to know our selves I am sorry 1. That you are so sore and tender as to account it trampling on you to be intreated to Love your
extreams to consider that If it was a long Liturgie they should not compare the Puritane to the Pharisee in his long prayers as they use to do but to others But if they were extemporate Prayers 1. To one side I say that if Christ had been against extemporate praying he would have put that into his rebukes 2. To the other side I say If the Pharisees had the gift of long extemporate prayers we must take heed of over-valuing such a gift and ascribing it too much to the spirit so that the Pharisees long prayers as a two edged sword cut both extreams in this pievish Controversie 3. This Controversie whether the Iews had a Liturgie is handled so largely by Mr. Selden that I must refer the Reader to him that would see what is said for the affirmative in Eutych Alexandr pag. 35 to p. 63. Where he shews that till Ezra's time there was none but the Scripture Liturgie And that in Ezra's time eighteen Prayers were made and shews how far they might or might not adde Where having cited abundance of Rabbins he shews that however the Jewish Rabbins are fabulous these historical testimonies are our best means of information and are credible and addeth the words of Ios. Scaliger Hic fuit vetus Ritus Celebrationis Paschae temporibus Messiae Quod vetustissimi Canones in Digestis Talmudicis manifesto probant Nisi quis eos neget antiquos esse Quod idem ac si quis capita Papiniani Pauli Ulpiani aliorum Iurisconsultorum in Digestis Iustiniani producta neget esse eorum Iurisconsultorum quorum nomine citantur Quod nemo sanus dixerit EXCEPT XVIII p. 10. Answered Here you except against me if for any thing for being grown so scrupulous and so tender as to be offended if any break jeasts upon Common Prayer Answ. 1. I spake of jesting on both sides at one anothers devotions and not of one alone 2. If you are for that way of breaking jeasts and scorns at other mens prayers with what measure you mete it will be meted to you again They will requite you to the full with jeasts and scorns at yours also 3. Brother do you like this way or do you not If you do what a spirit are you of If you do not why do you quarrel with this advice And whereas you cite my own words in the Reply to the Bishops I must tell you 1. That I know nothing in any of those Papers or Treaty as to the matter that I have changed my judgement in or repent of And I admire that the Prelates that ask so often What will satisfie us and others that carry it to the World as if we had said nothing should to this day leave that Reply and our Liturgie then offered them and our Petition for Peace so much unanswered Which few that knew them will believe is for want of will and fervour or indignation against them 2. That yet the sentence cited by you Whether it be that the Common-Prayer-Book hath never a Prayer for it self I confess is sarcastical and I unfeignedly thank you for calling me to review it and I do unfeignedly repent of it and desire pardon of God and men for speaking words of so much derision Though I then no more perceived my fault than you do yours I mentioned some that were scandalized at the scorns of men at the Liturgie heretofore And 1. He calls it a prophane story fitter for Ranters 2. He challengeth me to tell the names of them that used those expressions 3. He thinks I did greatly sin in repeating them 4. Else he will think I invented them on purpose to make my brethren odious and justifie the persecution against them Answ. 1. If it be so bad why are you so angry with me for being against it and thâ— like or â—ny scorns at other mens tolerable devotion 2. Your challenge is but a drop of your unrighteousness I told you I knew them that were inflamed by those words but not that I knew the Speaker And how should a man know the names of all that look in at a Church-door How oft have I had Quakers in the face of the Market and of the publick Congregation revile me and curse me as in the name of God and speak as bad words as those when I seldome asked what their names were And yet I must name them or be to you a malicious lyar And shall I noâ— be so with you if I obey your challenge Is it not unsâ—voâ—â—y to name men in such stories Well I will thus for this once obey you In 1640. coming up to London to the Physitians I lay at Bosoms-Inn in Laurence-â—â—â—â—e On the Lords-day the Inn-keeper an old man Mr. Hawkshead as I remember his name was came in from Laurence Church with some guests in a very great passion We ask'd him what the matter was He answered that as he went into the Church a fellow look'd in and spake those very words I recited save that he said The Deele instead of The Devil And from very sober honest people I have I believe many score times heard them call the Common Prayer Porridge and say He is not out of his Porridge yet 3. If I sin in repeating them I pray you justifie not that spirit that uttered them Nor be not of the mind of the Councellor of the wicked in this age whose policy is to perswade men to commit such heinous sins Perjury Lying c. which sound odiously in the naming and then no man may ever accuse them lest he be guilty of railing incivility c. 4. Brother a very low degree of ingenuity would have taught you to have judged such a Plea for Love by one that in this book speaketh more against Persecuting you than ever you read I believe in a Licensed book since the printing Act to have come from no malicious persecuting intent Yet as if you were so eagerly set on the Defence of the dividing scandalous miscarriages of this age as to take it for persecution so much as to lament them or pray against them you gather the same conclusion from my very prayers to God for pitty to his Church that is distracted and endangered by such usage And here seeing your sufferings are so much talk'd of and I am numbred by you among your persecutors endure me to tell you that suffering hath its temptations as well as prosperity And that the temptations to passion and to run too far from those we suffer by and to lose our charity to them and their adherents are so much stronger to me I leave others to judge themselves than the temptations to fear and timerous complyances that I was much more jealous of my heart in this when I suffered most than at other times For I knew that it is one of Satans designs to rob me of my Charity and Integrity in which he would more triumph than in depriving me of my maintenance reputation and liberty And I must
confess to you brother that though I once hoped that we should have been great gainers by our sufferings the fruit of them now appeareth to me to be such in many as maketh me more afraid of imprisonment for the sake of my soul than of my body lest it should stir up that passion which should bear down my judgement into some errors and extreams and corrupt and destroy my Love to them by whom I suffer And truly Brother I am fully convinced that many that think their sufferings are their glory and prove them better men than others are lamentably lost and overcome by their sufferings I think your companion and you are no gainers by it who presently by preaching and writing thus bring water to the extinguishing of Christian Love I think those two Gentlemen before mentioned that turned Quakers in prison and left their Religion as many more have done were losers by it And I think many thousands in these times that are driven into various errors and extreams and have lost their charity to adversaries and dissenters have lost a thousand times more than their liberties and money comes to Woe be to the World because of offences And woe be to them by whom offence cometh Experience of too many maketh me less in love with sufferings than I have been And to think that the quiet and peaceable preaching of the Gospel though under many other disadvantages if God would grant it us would be better for our own souls EXCEPT XIX Answered You proceed But Mr. B. being once got into the chair of the scornful will not easily out and therefore goes on It is an odious sound to hear an ignorant rash self-conceited person especially a Preacher to cry out Idolatry Idolatry against his brethrens prayers to God because they have something in them to be amended Whereas we do not therefore think any thing to be guilty of Idolatry because it hath something in it to be amended but because it is used in the worship of God without any command of God to make it lawful And this we must tell our Dictator is a species of Idolatry and forbid in the second Commandement And if he will not receive it so it is to use his own arrogant and imperious words because he understands not Christian sense and reason Answ. 1. The charge of Idolatry against the Liturgie and Conformable Ministers I found in Iohn Goodwins book and Mr. Brownes and others But this Brother carrieth it much further 2. He contradicteth himself in his Negation and Affirmation For whatsoever is to be amended which is used in Gods worship hath no command of God to make it lawful For it is sin But whatsoever is used in Gods worship without any command of God to make it lawful he affirmeth to be Idolatry Ergo whatsoever is used in Gods worship which is to be amended he maketh to be Idolatry 3. Reader if this one Section do not make thy heart grieve for the sake of the Church of Christ that our poor people should be thus taught and our Congregations thus distracted and unholyness that is uncharitableness fathered upon the God of Love and our sufferings and non-conformity thus turned to our reproach and wrath and reviling pretended to be Religion thou hast not a true sense of the concernments of Christianity and the souls of men I shall propose here these few things to thy consideration Quest. 1. Whether an Idolater be not an odious person and unfit for Christian Communion That these men think so their practise sheweth Q. 2. Whether he that writeth and preacheth to prove others Idolaters do not write and preach to make them so far seem odious and to perswade men from loving them and having communion with them as Christians Q. 3. Whether he that preacheth up hatred causelesly and preacheth down Christian love do not preach down the sum of true Religion and preach against God who is Love Q. 4. Whether preaching against God and Religion be not worse than talking against it in an Ale-house or in prophane discourse And fathering all this on God and Religion be not a sad aggravation of it Q. 5. Whether this brother that affirmeth this to be Idolatry that he speaketh against should not have given us some word of proof especially where he calleth me that deny it a Dictator And whether both as Affirmer among Logicians and as Accuser among men of justice the proof be not incumbent on him Q. 6. Whether here be a syllable of proof but his angry affirmation Q. 7. Whether thou canst receive this saying of his if thou have Christian sense and reason so far as to believe that all the Churches of Christ fore-named the Greek the Abissine the Armenian the Coptics the Lutherans and all the Reformed Churches that fall under his Charge are Idolaters And couldst bring thy heart accordingly to condemn them and separate from them And whether thou canst take all the holy Conformists of England such as Bolton Preston Sibbes Stocke Dike Elton Crooke Whateley Fenner c. for Idolaters yea and all the non-Conformists that used and joyned in the Liturgie Q. 8. Whether thou canst believe that this same brother himself that writeth at this rate do use nothing in Gods worship which hath no command of God to make it lawful Is all this reviling all this false doctrine all his untruths commanded of God Or doth he not make himself an Idolater Q. 9. Whether if he teach true doctrine there by any Church or person in the World that worshippeth not God with Idolatry I give my reasons 1. There is no one but sinneth or useth sin in the worship of God But no sin is commanded or lawful Ergo there is no one according to his doctrine but useth Idolatry in the worship of God 2. There is no one that useth not some things not commanded to make them lawful in the worship of God Therefore if he teach true doctrine there is no one but useth Idolatry The antecedent I have oft proved by many instances The method of every Sermon and Prayer the words the time and length the translation of the Scripture whether it shall be this or that the dividing of the Scripture into Chapters and Verses the Meeter of Psalms the Tunes Church utensils Sermon notes which some use Catechisms in forms c. the Printing of the Bible or any other books c. none of these are commanded And all these are used in the worship of God And must all Christians in the World be taught to fly from one another as Idolaters Is this the way of Love and Unity Q. 10. Why should this brother be so extream impatient with me for calling Dividers weak and pievish and censorious Christians If in his own judgement all men be Idolaters that use any thing in Gods worship not commanded Is not this to censure all men as Idolaters And yet is a censure of previshness on these Censurers a justifying of persecution Q.
you never read 1 Cor. 10. 1. 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12. It 's too long to transcribe Did you never read Heb. 3 and 4 Nor read of the sins of the Polygamy the putting away of wives and other faults of the better sort and the generality of the Jews Did you never read how common the high place-worship was even under godly Kings Nor yet how the Law was neglected till the book was almost unknown Did you never read of the sins of Noah Lot and his Family Abraham Isaac Iacob Moses Aaron and his sons the company of Corah David Solomon Peter c Did you never read of Christs rebuke of his Disciples for their hardness of heart their ignorance their striving who should be greatest And how he took that occasion to warn them by the comparison of a child and by his washing and wiping of their feet Nor yet of his rebuking their common expectation of a temporal Kingdom Are not the errors of the several Religious Sects reproved by the Ancient Writers Irenaeus Tertullian Epiphanius Augustine c. Did you never read any writing counselling men to avoid the errors and sins of the Donatists nor the Novatians the Monothelites the Nestorians Eutychians c The errour of the Religious sort among the Lutherans is Consubstantiation Church-Images Ceremonies c. The error of the Religious Calvinists is too much neglect of the Lords day What those of the Arminians and the Anabaptists and many other sorts are I leave to you Did you never read any man that warned others to avoid these sins and errors Did you never find in the Antimonians writings that the stricter sort of good people went too far in pressing humiliation tears and degrees of sorrow so as to be too dark and sparing in pressing the doctrine of Grace and Love And it was partly true Did you never hear or read how superstition â—remetical and monastical lives excessive fastings and austerities were caused by the strictest people Nor yet of touch not taste not handle not Nor of some lawful things feigned to be unlawful Nor yet that ever Paul wrote to the Corinthians Galatians c. And Christ by Iohn to six of the Asian Churches to know and avoid the sins of Christians together with the hereticks among them Nor yet that Paul said Act. 20. Of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw away Disciples after them Nor yet that he said I have no man like minded as Timothy for all seek their own things and not the things that are Iesus Christs Nor that all forsook him at his appearing before Nero Nor that all his Disciples forsook Christ and fled Nor that Paul said that the Ministers of Satan transformed themselves into Ministers of Righteousness In a word that beside all other sins the carnal siding and divisions which Paul reproved the Corinthians for most ages have among the stricter sort been guilty of Would you teach your hearers to put their doctrines or practices to a Major Vote of Professors Do you think we know the sincere from hypocrites Or that either hypocrites or sincere are without sin Or that we must take no warning by good mens falls Must we all do over again all the faults that Religious men have done these 30 years You make my heart grieve Brother to think that there should be a man among us that thinketh the Church must be built up by such doctrines and such means as yours You say We are commanded not to conform our selves to the World Answ. Nor to sinning Christians neither But first say you to suppose that the Religious party have generally some common errors among them and then to advise that we should carefully study to escape them This counsel we think Mr. Baxter may be the father of nor do we envy him the honour of it Answ. 1. Have the Religious sort among the Greeks Abassines Nestorians Iacobites Armenians Lutherans Anabaptists Arminians c. no common error among them 2. Are you for more Infallibility and Perfection than the Papists themselves 3. Will any Christian besides you that is sober deny that we should study to escape them 4. Did you ever read any sober Writer of another mind I beseech you take heed of this pernicious flattery of Professors And I beseech all the Religious that love their souls to take heed of being ensnared by such flattery into a proud impenitent state And in the grief of my heart here I must say to the people that which I expect this brother should impute to enmity to godliness You see by this manner of teaching what you have brought your selves and your Teachers to I have oft grieved to observe that many look that Preachers should make it their business to flatter them and extoll them in the highest praises and to prick others as deep and vilifie them as much as may be and this is the preaching that they are best pleased with I know that the precious and the vile must be widely differenced and he is no Preacher of the Gospel that doth not do it But when the Preacher must notifie our party as precious and cast dung on those as vile whom uncharitable men without proof think vile and must hide all our sins as if to touch them were to reproach Religion it self and must aggravate theirs even the greatest that differ from us or else be a flatterer and temporizer O that such knew but what manner of spirit they are of You adde that I make my advice ridiculous by forgetting that I bid men agree with the Universal Church Answ. I said expresly In the necessary Articles of Faith And must we therefore agree with them in all their sins and errors Or may I not say separate not from most or any Christians as to things true and necessary and yet avoid their sins and he followers of them as they are of Christ. Alas poor Christians that ever you should either be instructed at this rate or yet have need to be instructed against it EXCEPT XXIX Answered Why Brother did you never till now hear either Familists Socinians or the grosser Quakers such as Major Cobbet writes against and Smith called by the name of a Sect Had you no greater thing to quarrel with You shall call them how you will Your anger I pass by EXCEPT XXX Answered Yâ—â— say May we not justly suspect that to be bad in the worship of God which the wicked sort do love Answ. I spake not of what they love but what they are for This change of my words is unrighteous I only advised men not to reject a good cause because it is owned by some or most bad persons And why did you not answer my instance of the Pharisees long prayers We have had many Religious persons or sects that have of late been some against Infant Baptisme some against singing Psalmes some against Ministry and Church-meetings and some against Sacraments and instituted Ordinances and some against Tythes
the wicked and our enemies And therefore let them that think they can never speak bad enough of nature take heed lest they run into excess And the capacity of the good of holiness and happiness is part of the good of nature Would you think now that any man alive should find error or heresie here or should deny this Yet saith this brother This is strange counsel to them that have learned from Scripture that every imagination is evil c. So that we do not see if we will allow the spirit of God to be the best Counsellor how we can speak bad enough of corrupted nature as the nature of every man now is Answ. Truly brother that man that would not have Professors of Religiousness in England humbled in these times may find in your book a greater help to cure his error than in the Debater or the Eccles. Politician 1. Your not bad enough is sure a hyperbole For you can speak as bad as the Scripture doth And if that speak not bad enough you accuse it of deficiency or error 2. But I suppose you meant not too bad What do you think then of such sayings as these following If you speak truth then 1. Mans nature is not capable of grace or of any amendment or renovation 2. Nor is it capable mediately of Glory 3. Mans nature is not Reasonable nor better or nobler than a bruit 4. The argument would not be good against murdering of any but a Saint Gen. 6. 9. Who so sheddeth mans blood by man shall his blood be shed for in the Image of God made he man 5. No man can grow worse than he is if he never so much despise God and all his means of grace and commit every day Adultery Murder Treason c. 6. Then there are no degrees of evil among natural men nor is one any worse than another 7. Then men on earth are as bad as those in hell and as the Devils 8. Yea ten hundred thousand times worse than Devils and the damned for so bad you can call them 9. Then mans nature hateth good formally as good and loveth evil formally as evil 10. Then there are in mans nature no testimonies for a deity or the immortality of the soul nor no conscience of good or evil nor no principles or dispositions to common honesty or civility or else all these are bad 11. Then no wicked man is culpable as sinning against any such innate Light Law or Principles 12. Then natural men are as much void of power to read consider or do any good at all or forbear any sin at all even hourly murder thest perjury c. as a stone is void of power to speak or to ascend And so that all such that are damned are damned for not doing that which they had no more power to do and for not forbearing that which they had no more power to forbear than a stone to speak Or else that all such power it self is evil 13. Then it may be said that there is nothing in all the nature of man which is the work of God or else that Gods work it self as well as mans is evil That man is not a man or else it is evil to be a man 14. Then there is nothing in mans nature that God can in any kind or measure Love or else that God loveth that which is evil even with complacence 15. Then there is nothing in mans nature which we should love in one another and no man is bound to love yea every man is bound perfectly to hate all that are not Saints or else we must not perfectly hate but love that which is perfectly evil 16. Then no man should love his children or friends for any thing in them till they have grace 17. Then no natural man should love himself Or else goodness is not the proper object of rational love 18. Then if every man be armed with utmost malice against others and persecute and destroy them imprison torment murder all good men yea Kingdoms if he were able it would be but that which we are naturally no more able to forbear than the fire to burn or a stone to be heavy 19. Then seeing every man ought to look upon every natural man as perfectly evil and a perfect enemy to all mankind if they all murder one another it is but the destroying of such as have no good either natural or moral and so are far worse than toads or serpents 20. Then every natural man hath no reason saving only Gods command which it is impossible for him to obey to forbear the murdering of himself or his children any more than others 21. To conclude Then man is not Bonum Physicum and in Metaphysicks Ens Bonum non convertuntur You adde And had not Mr. Baxter told us before that he understood by Flesh only the sensitive Appetite Answ. This is your 24th Untruth and a meer fiction And your not nothing the place was no sufficient hiding of it I have oft in many a writing declared otherwise what I understand by Flesh. Viz. 1. The sensitive apprehension imagination appetite and passion as it is grown inordinate And 2. The understanding will and executive power as they are corrupted to a sinful inclination to the objects of sense and become the servants of the sensitive part and are turned from the love of God and things spiritual unto the fleshly interest You proceed Now we see one firm reason to deny the least allowance of free will in the things of God since those that hold it in any degree are strongly inclined to deny original sin and corruption which if Mr. B. hath not felt c. Answ. 1. This is plainly assertive of me and is your 25th Untruth I never denied it but have in my Divine Life and other Writings said more to prove it than ever you have published 2. If no degree of free will even Physical or Civil be to be allowed those that deny us liberty to preach or if it were to live do no more in your account than they are as absolutely necessitated to do as your pen was to write this And sure you will alter our course of Justice and equal murder man-slaughter and chance-medley as they call it And whereas he that killed a man by the head of his axe flying off unwillingly had an excuse and refuge from death by the Law of Moses you will allow every man that killeth another or that hurteth beateth or slandereth you this much excuse as to say I had no more liberty of will to do otherwise than I have to hate felicity as such Or I could no more do otherwise than your pen can forbear writing when you move it And out of this Section of your judgement of humane nature I ask you 1. Do you not tell the world here the reason why you write so vehemently against my Principles of Love What wonder if you should hate all