an exhortation and advice seem injurious or intolerable to you the Lord have mercy on your souls Is the matter of this prayer unlawful Or can he prove that I spake it jestingly when I took it to be the serious prayer of my grieved heart Or may we use no words as Lord have mercy on us c. which others use unreverently Or is it true doctrine that this is the foolish talk and jesting forbidden Eph. 5 What proof is there here of any one word of all this EXCEPT IV. p. 2. He doth very often and needlesly insist on many things that may tend to advance his own reputation The instances are added Answ. 1. I Confess Brother I am a great sinner and have more faults than you have yet found out But I pray you note that all this still is nothing to our Controversie whether we should advise men against Church divisions as contrary to Love 2. If a humble Physitian may put a probatum to his Receipt and say I have much experience of this or that I pray you why may not a humble Minister tell England that I and you have had experience of the hurt of divisions and of the healing uniting power of Love Did all the Independent Church-members whose Experiences are printed in a book take Experience to be a word of pride 3. And is it pride to thank the World for their Civilities to me in mixing commâ—ndations which I disown with their censures What! to confess the remnants of their moderation notorious in matter of fact the truth of which you durst not deny in the midst of their many false censures and calumnies 4. Or to tell you how unable I have â—ound back-biters to prove their accusations in doctrinals to my face 5. Or to tell you that some even Independents perswaded me when I was silenced to write sermons for some of the weaker Conformists such as are too many youths from the University to preach Where lieth the pride of these expressions Is it in supposing that there are any Conformists weaker than my self Whether think you this brother or I think meanlier of them Or set our selves at the greater distance from them 6. When I plead against charging forms with Idolatry I say that for my self it is twenty times harder to me to remember a form of words than to express what is in my mind without them If this be not true why did you not question the truth of it If it be why is it pride to utter it as a proof that I plead for Love and not for my own interest Is it pride to confess so openly the weakness of my memory I never learnt a Sermon without book in my life I think I could not learn an hours speech sufficiently to utter the very words by memory in a fortnights time And is it pride for a man to say that he can easier speak what is in his mind Truly brother I was so far from intending it as a boast that I meant it as a diminâ—tion of the over-valued honour of present extemporary expression and to tell you that I take it to be so far from proving that your prayers only are accepted of God before a form as signifying more grace that I take it to be an easier thing for an accustomed man that hath not a diseased hesitancy to speak extempore what is in his mind than to learn a form without book And that they thaâ— do this do serve God with as much labour and cost as you do Do I boast or do I not speak the common case of most Ministers when I truly say That when I take most pains for a Sermon I write every word when I take a little pains I write the heads but when business hindereth me from taking any pains I do neither but speak what is in my mind which I suppose others as well as I could do all the day and week together if weariness did not interrupt them I seek by these words but to abate their pride that think themselves spiritual because they can pray or preach without book Like some now neer me that account it formality and a sign that a Preacher speaketh not by the Spirit if he use notes or preach upon a text of Scripture but admire one neer them that cries dâ—wn such and useth neither 7. Is it pride to say that thâ—se darker persons whom I have been â—ain to rebuke for their over-valuing me and my understanding would yet as stiffly defend their most groundless opinions against me when I crost them as if they thought I had no understanding If you do think that you cannot be over-valued or are not so do not I. And I thought my rebuking men for it had been no sign of pride And brother I am confident if you your self did not believe that my understanding and consequently my Writings are over-valued you would never have written this book especially in such a stile against me yea in the end you profess this to be your design to undeceive those that had a good opinion of me If those on the other side had not thought the same my late Auditors at Kederminster had never had so many Sermons and that by persons so high nor would so many books have been written to the same end even to cure the people of this dangerous vice of over-valuing me The matter of fact being so publick invalidateth your exception 8. The last expression of my pride is that I give this testimony even to Christians inclined to divisions that if they think a man speaketh not to the depressing of true and serious religion they can bear that from him which they cannot bear from one that they think hath a malignant end and that on this account in my sharpest reproofs my own auditors have still been patient with me Enquire whether this be true or not Whether I have not preached twenty times more against Divisions to a people that never once quarrelled with it than I have written against it in the book with which you so much quarrel And is this probatum given against malignity a word of pride too You proceed in your Charge that I have great thoughts of my self and have learned little of Christian or moral ingenuity and am unfit to be a Teacher of it to others Answ. 1. Do you not yet perceive that you also have a silencing spirit when you and those that you separate from are agreed that we are unfit to be Teachers because we gainsay you why do you pretend so great a distance even in the point of imperious severity 2. O how hard is it still to know our selves and what manner of spirit we are of Is it pride in me to think that I am righter than you or to express it Why brother do not you think as confidently that you are righter than I and do you not as Confidently utter it I differ no further from you than you do from me And why is it not
praying by habit Marvel not if it burn you within and without and when your own passions have scorched you other mens hatred of your prayers as you hate theirs do trouble you also And if you hate the quenching of these fires even when the Churches by them are all on a flame as sober men as you will be of another mind I tell you again brother you greatly wrong and dishonour God if you think that he layeth so much upon that which he never gave any law about or spake one word for or against as to tell the World that he hateth all prayer that is put up by a form or book And that he that denyeth this speaketh meanly of prayer The Lord teach you to know what manner of spirit you are of which request I shall reitâ—rate for you instead of praying with your earnestness The Lord rebuke him Have you the bowels of a Christian and the spirit of Christian Love and Unity and can you think that God hateth for that was my word all the prayers of all the Churches and Christians in the World that use a form Even of all the Greek Churches the Armenians Abassines Jacobites Syrians Copâ—ies Lutherans and Calvinists of all the English publick Churches and the prayers of such holy men as Dr. Preston Dr. Sibbes Mr. Perkins Mr. Hildersham Mr. Cartwright Dr. Stoughton Mr. Whateley Mr. Bolton and all such as they that used some the Liâ—urgie and some other forms And that God hateth the prayers of all Christian Families and Christians that use a form Do you dislike adding to God's word and will you adde to it so boldly as to say he hateth that which he never once forbad If you would make your reader think that I make God indifferent to all modes and words in prayer you would abuse him For though I never heard a man swear in prayer I think you curse in prayer a little before and I have heard many rail in prayer and traduce men for truth and duty and vent their own errors But I beseech you promote superstition no more and feign no Divine Laws which you cannot shew us And teach not this unhappy age to feign things necessary that are not and paint out the most holy gracious God as the patron of every one of their fancies Your words Doth not God regard the manner of our addressing our selves to him Must we not pray in the spirit Do still make me pray that you may know your spirit Do you well to intimate that I say the contrary When I maintain that God so far accepteth them that worship him in spirit and truth that he will accept their prayers with a form or without and hateth neither yea hath left both indifferent to be varied as mens occasions and use for either vary as he hath done a form or notes in preaching It is an easie thing to turn formalist either way by thinking God loveth our prayers either because they are in the same words or in various words The second part of this Exception calleth me a trifler that doth neither believe the Scripture nor himself but tries to abuse c. Because I say about a Liturgie 1. Certainly in Christs time both Liturgies by forms and prayers by habit were used 2. That it is like that the Pharisees long Liturgie was in many things worse than ours And yet Christ and his Apostles oft joyned with them and never condemned them Answ. 1. Let the Reader observe whether ever Christ his Apostles or the Pharisees medled with the Controversie about the lawfulness of forms Whether ever Christ condemned them 2. Let the Reader note that when I say that Certainly forms were used I say not whether in the Synagogue or Temple or House nor do I say that they were other forms than Divine But when I say that it is like in many things the Pharisees Liturgie was worse than ours I mean that it is like though not certain that part of it was of humane invention and used publickly And 1. The word Liturgie as Martinius and other Etymologists agree hath three significations 1. The largest is for any publick office of ministry and specially of distribution 2. For the publick service of God in reading teaching praying c. 3. For stated orders and forms of that publick service To which Bellarmine addeth a 4th as the narrowest sense of all viz For the sacrificing offices only which is no usual sense Now the second and third being the now-Common sense I thought there had been no question about them That the Jews had a Divine Liturgie in both senses as a service and as a prescript form I proved in my 5th Disput. of Liturgies many years ago 1. In the Temple they had most punctual prescripts for their sacrifices of all sorts and their offerings and the manner of performance and the actions of Priests and people about them In the Synagogues Moses and the Prophets were read every Sabbath day And the Psalms were purposely penned many of them and recorded to be Prayers and Praises for the publick and private worship and were committed to several Church-officers to be publickly used And David and Solomon appointed the Instruments Singers and order manner in which they should be used A form of prayer for the Priests is prescribed in three benedictions Numb 6. 23. Hezekiah commanded the Levites to sing Praises to the Lord with the words of David and of Asaph the Sâ—â—r 2 Chron. 29. 30. 1 Chron. 16. 7. On that day David delivered first this Psalm to thank the Lord into the hands of Asaph and his brethren Exod. 15. The song of Moses is a form And Rev. 15. 3. the Saints are said to sing the song of Moses and of the Lamb. Most Expositers think that the Hymne that Christ sung at his last supper was the usual form If not it was a new form Moses form at the moving and resting of the Ark is set down Numb 10. 35 36. Deut. 21. 7 8. There is a form for the people to use Iudg. 5. Deborahs song is recorded so is Hannahs praise 1 Sam. And Ioel 2. 17. there is a form for the Priests in their Humiliation And Iohn taught his Disciples to pray And when Christ was desired to teach his Disciples as Iohn had done his he gave them a form Now let the sober Reader judge whether the Jews had no form or Liturgie of God's appointment If he say I thought you had meant a humane form I answer If you will think that which I say not and choose rather to revile than observe what you â—ead I cannot help it 2. When I speak of a Probability afterward I do mean of a humane Liturgie of which I will now only say 1. That it seemeth very improbable to me that the Pharisees who so abounded with Traditions should not so much as have any humane forms of prayer or praise 2. When Christ speaketh of their long prayers I desire them on both
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.
the dangerous guilt of Adding to the Word of God under pretence of strict expounding it and defending its perfection and extent 3. By the same Rule as they deal thus by one Text as the second Command they may do so by all And if all or much of the Scripture were but thus expounded I leave it to the sober Reader to consider what a body of Divinity it would make us and what a Religion we should have 4. It altereth the very Definition of the holy Scripture and maketh it another thing That which God made to be the Record of his holy Covenant and the Law and Rule of Faith and Holiness and the General Law for outward Modes and Circumstances which are but Accidents of Worship is pretended by men to be a particular Law for that which it never particularly medleth with 5. It sorely prepareth men for Infidelity and to deny the Divine Authority of the Scripture and utterly to undo all by overdoing If Satan could but once make men believe that the Scripture is a Rule for those things that are not to be found in it at all and which God never made it to be a Rule for he will next argue against it as a delusory and imperfect thing He will teach every Artificer to say That which is an imperfect Rule is not of God But the Scripture is an imperfect Rule For saith the Watch-maker I cannot learn to make a Watch by it saith the Scrivener I cannot make a Legal Bond or Indentures by it saith the Carpenter I cannot build a House by it saith the Physician I cannot sufficiently know or cure Diseases by it saith the Mathematician Astronomer Geographer Musician Arithmetician the Grammarian Logician Natural Philosopher c. it is no perfect particular Rule of our Arts or Sciences The Divine will say It tells me not sufficiently and particularly what Books in it self are Canonical nor what various Readings are the right nor whether every Text be brought to us uncorrupted nor whether it be to be divided into Chapters and Verses and into how many Nor what Metre or Tune I must sing a Psalm in nor what persons shall be Pastors of the Churches nor what Text I shall choose next nor what Words I shall use in my next Sermon or Prayer with abundance such like Only in General both Nature and Scripture say Let all things be done in Order and to Edification c. Spiritually Purely Believingly Wisely Zealously Constantly c. He that believeth it to be given as such a particular Rule and then findeth that it is silent or utterly insufficient to that use is like next to cast it away as a delusion and turn an Infidel or Anti-scripturist 6. This mistake tendeth to cast all Rational Worship out of the Church and World by deterring men from inventing or studying how to do Gods work aright For if all that man inventeth or deviseth be a forbidden Image than we must not invent or find out by study the true meaning of a Text the true method of Praying or Preaching according to the various subjects Nay we must not study what to say till we are speaking nor what Time Place Gesture Words to use no nor the very English Tongue that we must Pray and Preach in Whereas the Scripture it self-requireth us to meditate day and night to study to shew our selves workmen that need not be ashamed to search and dig for knowledge c. Do they not err that devise evil but mercy and truth shall be to them that devise good Prov. 14. 22. I Wisdom dwell with Prudence or subtilty and find out knowledge of witty inventions Prov. 8. 12. The Preacher sought to find out acceptable words Eccles. 12. 10. Banish study and you banish knowledge and Religion from the world The Spirit moveth us to search and study and thereby teacheth us what to judge and say and do and doth not move us as I play on an Instrument that knoweth not what it doth 7. This Opinion will bring in all Confusion instead of pure reasonable Worship While every man is left to find that in the Scripture which never was there and that as the only Rule of his actions one will think that he findeth one thing there and another another thing For it must be Reality and Verity which must be the term of Unity Men cannot agree in that which is not 8. Yea it will let in impiety and error for when men are sent to seek and find that which is not there every man will think that he findeth that which his own corrupted mind brings thither 9. And hereby all possibility of Union among Christians and Churches must perish till this Opinion perish For if we must unite only in that which is not in being we must not unite at all If we must all in singing Psalms agree in no Metre or Tune in the Church but one that Scripture hath prescribed us we shall sing with lamentable discord 10. And hereby is laid a snare to tempt men into odious censures of each other Because studied Sermons printed Books Catechisms and Forms of Prayer are Images and Idolatry in these mens conceits all Gods Churches in the world must be censured as Idolatrous And almost all his Ministers in the world must be accounted Idolaters Children must account their Parents Idolaters and disobey them that would teach them a Catechism Psalm or Form of Prayer Our Libraries must be burnt or cast away as Images And when Ministers are diminished and accounted Idolaters if Satan could next but perswade people against all the holy Books of the Ministers of Christ such as Boltons Prestons c. as Images and Idols had he not plaid a more succesful game then he did by Iulian and doth by the Turks who keep the Christians but from humane Learning 11. Hereby Christian Love will be quenched when every man must account his Brother an Idolater that cannot shew a Scripture for the hour the place of Worship the Bells the Hour-glasses the Pulpit the Utensils c. or that studieth what to say before he Pray or Preach 12. And hereby backbiting slandering and railing must go currant as no sin while every Calvin Cartwright Hildersham Perkins Sibbs c. that used a Form of Prayer yea almost all the Christians in the world must be accused of Idolatry as if it were a true and righteous charge 13. And all our sins will be fathered on God as if the second Commandment and the Scripture perfection did require all this and taught Children to disobey their Parents and Masters and say your Prayers and Catechisms are Images and Idols c 14. It will rack and perplex the Consciences of all Christians when I must take my self for an Idolater till I can find a particular Law in Scripture for every Tune Metre Translation Method Word Vesture Gesture Utensil c. that I use in the worshipping of God When Conscience must build only in the air and rest only on
consented not to this at all Are we made by it the by-word and hissing of the Nations and the shame and pitty of all our friends And yet is all this to be justified or silenced and name of it at all to be openly repented of I openly profess to you that I believe till this be done we are never like to be healed and restored and that it is heinous gross impenitence that keepeth Ministers and people under their distress And I take it for the sad Prognostick of our future woe and at best our lengthened affliction to read such writings against Repentance and to hear so little open profession of Repentance even for unquestionable heinous crimes for the saving of those that are undone by these scandals and for the reparation of the honour of Religion which is most notoriously injured To see men still think that their Repentance is the dishonour of their party and Cause whose honour can no other way be repaired To see men so blind as to think that the silencing of these things will hide them as if they were not known to the World That man or party that will justifie all these heinous Crimes and still plead Conscience or Religion for them doth grievous injury to Conscience and Religion I have told you truly in the book which is bitter to you that Gods way of vindicating the honour of Religion is for us by open free Confession to take all the shame to our selves that it be not injuriously cast upon Religion And the Devils way of preserving the honour of the Godly is by justifying their sins and pleading Religion for them that so Religiousness it self may be taken to be hypocrisie and wickedness as maintaining and befriending wickedness For my own part I thought when I wasted my strength and hazarded my life in the Army against these fore-named Crimes and afterwards preached and wrote against them so openly and so many years that I had not been so much guilty of them as you here affirm But if I was I do openly confess that if I lay in sackcloth and in tears and did lament my sins before the World beg pardon both of God and man and intreat all men not to impute it to Religion but to me and to take warning by my fall which had done such unspeakable wrong to Christ and men I should do no more than the plain light of nature assureth me to be my great and needful duty EXCEPT II. ib. There is daily much greater prophaneness and the Consequent of prophaneness Immorality acted by those 4 whom yet Mr. Baxter never mentioneth but with honour As if no sins or miscarriages were to be blamed but theirs who are unable to defend themselves Answ. 1. IF this were true I were much too blame it being the very usage of others against my self which I have great reason to complain of 2. But if it was possible for you to believe your own words that I never mention them but with honour I shall think that there are few things that you may not possibly believe Reader if thou peruse the book and yet believe this Author I am not capable of satisfying thee in this nor will I undertake it in any thing else Are these terms of honour Pref. p. 18. How long Lord must thy Church and Cause be in the hands of unexperienced furious fools c. Do I honour them when I so much display their sin And when in the scheme in the conclusion I describe it And when I tell you of many of such Ministers and that it is a duty to separate from them or disown them And when in the history of Martin I tell you how neer it I am my self as to such as Martin separated from And when I cite Gildas calling such no Ministers but enemies and traytors c. Were you not very rash in this 3. But what if in this book I write neither against the prophane nor the Iews nor the Mahometans Is it nothing that I have written the greater part of above fifty books besides against them 4. What if there be Prophaneness to be reproved doth it sollow that we must not be reproved also Must we not repent because they must repent 5. O how hard is it to please all men What man in Eagland hath been less suspected to be a flatterer of such as he moaneth than my self or more accused of the contrary that hath any reputation of ministerial sobriety Ask the Bishops that Conferred with us at the Savoy 1660 Ask your self that read our Reply then Ask any that ever did Converse with me whether ever I was suspected of flattery or dawbing with men sins 6. But seeing you so far honour me as to vindicate me from other mens accusations I shall confess that it is my judgement both that we should honour all men 1 Pet. 2. 17. especially our superiors and also that in our eyes a vile person should be contemned while we honour them that fear the Lord Psal. 15. 4. EXCEPT III. He alloweth himself a great and masterly liberty to call his brethren fierce self-conceited dividers feaverish persons c. Answ. IF there be none such or but a few I will joyfully confess my error But if all ages of the Church have had such and if this Kingdom have been so troubled by such as all men know and if they yet live in this sin to their own trouble and ours why should it be contrary to meekness to mention it Should I hate my Brother in suffering sin to lie upon him Every paragraph almost inviteth me to remember Christs words to the two fierie Disciples and to say O how hard is it to know what manner of spirit we are of Tell me Reader whether this be not true that if I had called the Bishops sacrilegious silencers of a faithful Ministry murderers of many hundred thousand souls perjurious proud tyrannical covetous formal hypocrites malignant haters of good men c. I might not very easily have come off with many of these angry brethren without any blame for want of Meekness Nay whether they would not have liked it as my zeal when as such a gentle touch upon themselves doth intollerably hurt them Is there not gross partialitie in this Note also that these brethren that plead for Libertie do call it a masterly Libertie in me thus to name their faults And do you think that they would not have silenced my book if it had been in their power Note then whether the silencing imperious Spirit be not common to both extreams EXCEPT Ib. He useth the same frothy and unsavoury words that others prophane Prayer and the name of God by and which at the best is that foolish talking or jesting which we are commanded not so much as to mention Eph. 5. 3 4. Answ. THE words are I am only perswading all dissenters to Love one another and to forbear but all that is contrary to love And if such
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
if they that hold more things to be lawful must agree in practice with them that hold the fewest lawful than such must 1. Forsake their own understandings and live in many sins and 2. They must be alwayes at an uncertainty in their practice because some may yet arise that may count more things unlawful And so the whole party may change their practice every year as new scruples or errors arise in any 3. And so the most scrupulous though the most erroneous must be the Standard and Rule of all the rest 4. And so we should tempt others still to new scruples and to make more and more things sinful that so they might obtain the Rule of all I ever thought therefore that without any combinations our way is every man to know the truth as well as he can and practice accordingly and live in Love and Peace with those that differ from him in tollerable things And thus I hope most Non-conformable Ministers do In the year 1663 divers learned and reverend Non-conformists of London met to Consider how far it was their duty or lawful to Communicate with the Parish Churches where they lived in the Liturgie and Sacrament and we agreed the next day to bring in our several judgements in writing with our reasons Accordingly I brought in mine in which I proved four propositions 1. That it is Lawful to use a form of prayer 2. That it is Lawful to joyn with some Parish Churches in the use of the Liturgie 3. That it is lawful to joyn with some Parish Churches in the Lords supper 4. That it is to some a duty to joyn with some Parish Churches three times a year in the Lords supper They being long I read over to them the last only which being proved by 20. Reasons included all the rest Upon Consideration whereof no one of the brethren seemed to dissent but to take the reasons to be valid save only that one Objection stopt them all to which I also yielded and we concluded at the present to forbear Sacramental Communion with the Parishes And that was because it was a time when great severities were threatned against those that could not so far Conform and most of the Independents and some others were against it And our brethren verily believed that if we should then Communicate those that could not yield so far would be the sharplier used because they yielded not as far as we I yielded to them readily that God will have Mercy and not Sacrifice and even Gods worship otherwise due as prayer or preaching or sabbath-keeping may be omitted for an act of Mercy even to pull an Oxe or Ass out of a pitt And therefore pro tempore I would forbear that sacrament which was like to cause the imprisonment or undoing of my neighbour In mentioning this these three things are my end 1. To tell the world the judgement of these Ministers who are misjudged by their actual forbearance of publick Communion that they take it for a thing unlawful whereas they are thus accidentally hindered from it Besides many other accidents not here to be mentioned this before named is one 2. To shew the Prelates who and what it is that hath hindered mens nearer Communion with them And that while rigor and severity is trusted to as the only means to further it it proveth the principal means of hindering it 3. To shew the Independents that we have been so far from dealing hardly or uncharitably with them that we have forborn that Communion which else our own judgements would have charged on us as our duty either only or chiefly for fear of being the least occasion accidentally of their sufferings And if yet they are impatient with us for obeying our Consciences who can help it What the rest did after this consultation in their practices I enquired not But for my own part on the same argument I forbore Communion with the Parish Churches in the sacrament a long time till at last I saw that the Reason seemed to me to cease and I durst not for I knew not what go against my judgement But lest it might possibly have any such hurtful consequents I chose a very private Country Parish to Communicate with where I sometime sojourned and where there was neither that nor any other reason to hinder me But yet after many years further observation lest men that know not of my practice should be scandalized or insnared to think that I forbore Parish Communion as unlawful and so to do the like themselves I once chose an Easter day to Communicate in a very populous Church in London purposely that it might be the further known But having some reasons to forbear at the Parish where I lived most constantly it so far provoked the Parson that I may suppose no Independent suffered so much through my Communicating as I have done by forbearing for their sakes At last in the year 1667. observing how mens minds grew every day more and more exasperated by their sufferings and whither all this tended and what was like to be the issue I wrote this book called The Cure of Church-Divisions the Reasons whereof I am next to give you But being not used to publish any thing unlicensed nor thinking it fit to break the Law of Printing without necessity nor knowing how to get it Printed unlicensed if I would I knew that if I put any thing into it very provokingly it would not be licensed and would frustrate all the rest And yet my Conscience told me that it looked so like partiality to tell one party of their faults and call them to their duty and not the other that I resolved to say as much to the Bishops and Imposing Clergy as should signifie my judgement plainly to any intelligent man and tell them what sense I had of narrowing Impositions and Severities and what is the way of Unity and Peace though not to cloath it in exasperating language And if they would not not license it all together I purposed to cast it all aside And to confess the truth the deep sense of the sin and infatuation of this age hath long made me desirous to have written one Book with the Title in dying Bradfords words REPENT O ENGLAND and that in several parts professing first my own Repentance in several Particulars then calling severally the Bishops and Conformable Clergy the Presbyterians the Independents and the Sectaries Corporations and Country to Repent But I knew the Bishops would not endure it and I could not get it Licensed or Printed and I had greater things to write and many wise men whose judgements much rule me disswaded me and laughed at my weakness that I should think that such men would regard what I said or that it would have any better effect than exasperation And I long purposed not to speak to one sort till I might speak to all to avoid partiality and evil consequents But at last considering that by this rule I might
related to me by Mr. Vaughan a worthy Minister lately discouraged and come from thence would make a Christian heart to bleed To hear how strict and regular and hopeful that plantation once was And how one Godly Mininister by separation selecting a few to be his Church and rejecting all the rest from the sacrament the rejected party are grown to doleful estrangedness from Religion and the selected party much turned Quakers and between both how wofull are the fruits But the Case of England Scotland and Ireland which I foretold in my book of Infant Baptisme is yet a more lamentable proof what separation hath done against Religion so full a proof that it is my wonder that any good man can overlook it 16. Yea it tendeth to make Religiousness contemptible and the professors of it a common scorn when we are perceived to place it in unwarrantable separations and singularities and when we make men think that the greatest difference between those that they call Precise or Religious and others is but this that one of them prayeth without book and the other by the book that one of them will not joyn with those that use the Liturgie and the other will If we let men see that in indifferent things we are indifferent and that lesser evils we avoid as lesser and greater evils as greater and that the great difference between us and the ungodly is in our seriousness in our Christian profession and in our heavenlyness and true obedience to Christ it would much convince them of their misery and honour Religion in the world But when they perceive that the greatest contention which our houses and our streets do ring of is whether we shall hear a man that conformeth or not Or whether we shall pray with them that use the Liturgie Or whether we may sometimes Communicate with a Parish Church or not This turneth the thoughts of the careless and carnal the worldling and the sensualist from the necessary condemning of himself for his ungodliness and sets him on thinking that these stricter people do differ from him in things of no importance and that they are but an erroneous self conceited sort of persons and that he is much the wiser man Thousands in England are hardened into a neglect of Godliness to our suffering and the apparent danger of their own damnation by occasion of the unwarrantable singularities and the scandalous sins especially of those professors that have been most addicted to sinful separations 17. I am not causelesly afraid lest if we suffer the principles and practices which I write against to proceed without our contradiction Popery will get by it so great advantage as may hazzard us all and we may lose that which the several parties do contend about Three waies especially Popery will grow out of our divisions 1. By the odium and scorn of our disagreements inconsistency and multiplied sects they will perswade people that we must either come for Unity to them or else all run mad and crumble into dust and individuals Thousands have been drawn to Popery or confirmed in it by this argument already And I am perswaded that all the arguments else in Bellarmine and all other books that ever were written have not done so much to make Papists in England as the multitude of sects among our selves Yea some Professors of Religious strictness of great esteem for Godliness have turned Papists themselves when they were giddy and wearied with turnings and when they had run from sect to sect and found no consistency in any For when they see so many they say How can I tell that this or that is in the right rather than the other This it is that they ring continually in our ears Which of all these sects is in the right And what assurance have they of it more than all the rest that are as confident And how small a Church doth any one sect make And â—f hâ—w late original for the most But the poor deluded souls consider not that in going to the Papists they go but to another sect that is worse than any of the rest And though greater yet not past the third part of the Christians in the world And that Christianity is but one And that the way to rest is to unite upon the common terms of simple Christianity 2. And who knoweth not how fair a game the Papists have to play by the means of our divisions Methinks I hear them hissing on each party and saying to one side Lay more upon them and and abate them nothing and to the other stand it out and yield to nothing And who is so blind then as not to see their double game and hopes viz. that either our divisions and alienations will carry men to such distances and practices as shall make us accounted seditious rebellious and dangerous to the publick peace and so they may pass for better subjects than we or else that when so many parties under sufferings are constrained to beg and wait for liberty the Papists may not be shut out alone but have Toleration with the rest And shall they use our hands to do their works and pull their freedom out of the fire We have already unspeakably served them both in this and in abating the odium of the Gun powder plot and their other Treasons Insurrections and Spanish invasion of which read Thuanus himself that openeth all the mystery 3. And it is not the least of our danger nor which doth least affect me lest by our follies extremities and rigors we should so exasperate the Common people as to make them readier to joyn with the Papists than with us in Case of any competitions or their invasions or insurrections against the King and Kingdoms peace Sure I am that the Parliaments and peoples resolutions against them after the late fire and in the time of the last war when they were so much feared did discourage and depress them more than all the rest of their opposers And though we cannot rationally believe that the people of England much less wise and sober Governors will ever be such enemies to themselves as to subject themselves to the Romish Tyranny and to forget what Ireland and England have seen and felt yet because it is not only oppression that maketh wise men mad let us do nothing by unlawful alienations and singularities or fierce and disobedint oppositions which tend to make the people like better of the Papists than of us 18. I am not able to bear the thoughts of separating from almost all Christs Churches upon Earth But he that separateth from one or many upon a reason common to almost all doth virtually separate from almost all And he that separateth from all among us upon the account of the unlawfulness of our Liturgie and the badness of all our Ministry doth separate from them upon a reason common to almost all or the far greatest part as I conceive 19. Though Ministerial Conformity be to us another
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
and plain answer to the Papists about our separation from their Church and remembred how many Volumes they have troubled the World with by obscuring our plain and ordinarie answer I told them that must have Volumes to hide the sense that if this answer seem not plain and full to them it is because they understand not Christian sense and reason and not for want of plainess in the matter or through defectiveness as to satisfie a reasonable impartial man This brother chargeth this saying to be insolent and from intolerable Pride because I dare so Charge another with want of Christian sense and reason c. Answ. 1. This is his eleventh untruth I only named sense and reason objectively not subjectively It is not because the Answer which I give the Papists and which Protestants commonly give is not full and plain or wanteth sense or reason but because the Papists understand it not He that hath sense and reason may be hindred from using it aright by interest partialitie and wilful negligences which it is no new thing for Protestants to think that Papists are too oft guilty of But how proud am I then intolerably proud that in several books have maintained that all Papists that hold Transubstantiation do make it an Article of Faith and necessarie to Salvation flatly to contradict all the senses of all the sound men in the World that shall judge whether bread be bread and wine be wine How much more insolent a Charge is this But brother Popish absurdities have need of a better defence than to call the adversarie insolent and proud 2. And is the thing I say true or false I prove it true The Answer of the Protestants about Luther's Reformation which I give is Christian◠Sense and Reason But the Papists or any that deny it seriously and take it not to be plain and full understand it not Ergo they understand not Christian sense and reason That is In this For I never said that they understand not Christian Sense and Reason in any other thing nor is there the least appearance of such a sense Now if this brother will deny either of the premises he may expect an answer Till then I adde 3. Are not you brother by your own censure notoriously insolent and intolerably proud if this hold good as well as I Do you not take all that you say against me or some part at least to be plain and full and to be Christian sense and reason And do you not suppose me to think otherwise of it And do you not think that this is because I understand it not Thus some mens hands do beat themselves 4. And do you not implicitly charge all or most Protestant Writers with insolence and intolerable pride as well as me Do they not all think their reasons against the Papists plain and full at least some of them And do they not think that the Papists denie them because they understand not the Christian Sense and Reason which is in them 5. And have not all mankind a deficiencie of understanding And is it pride and insolence to say so 6. But judge of your own spirit by your own rule Do not you think those that you before charged with persecution and making our dividing engines and whose Communion you think it a duty to avoid to be such as understand not Christian sense and reason in the arguings which I and others have used against them And is it not as lawful to think so of the Papists EXCEPT X. Answered I used the phrase of Local presential Communion in Contradistinction 1. To the Catholick Communion of persons absent which is by Faith and Love 2. And the Communion by Delegates and Representatives And our brother here 1. Calleth this phrase insignificant Iargon which was not said through any redundancy of Sense and Reason above othets Nor do I acknowledge his authoritie in the sentence without his reason 2. He saith Unlawful terms are imposed on us Answ. Brother Do you think men must trust their souls on your naked word Where in all this book have you done any thing that with an impartial understanding can go for proof that in all the Parish Churches of England that use the Liturgie that is imposed as a Condition of our Communion in hearing or praying which it is not lawful sometimes to do Answer this as to Mr. Nie about hearing and to me about Praying if you can and do not nakedly affirm 3. You say you do not so much separate as forbear Communion and your reason is for we were never of them Answ. I take you for a Christian and a Protestant Are you not so far of us Is not a member of the same Universal Church of Christ obliged to hold Communion as he hath a special Call or occasion with more Churches than that particular one which he ordinarily joyneth with If you purposely avoided and denied Communion with all the Independent Churches in England save one and wrote to prove it unlawful I think this were a separating from them as they are parts of the Church Universal that are neer you EXCEPT XI Answered 1. The word Sect though oft taken but for one party in a division was not by me applied to all the names before going but to the last named only and such other 2. I spake nothing at all of the truth or falshood of the Censurers words but of the requitals that Censurers have by other mens Censures which may be sharp and passionate and a rebuke to the Censured and modally Culpable when the words are true Yet I am content to undergo the Censure you here cast out of me rather than to censure that a Papist cannot go beyond a reprobate unless you do as Mr. Perkins doth to make it good be so charitable to all the millions else among them as not to call them Papists except they practically hold the most pernicious opinions of their Councils and Divines I confess I affect none of the honour of that Orthodoxness which consisteth in sentencing millions and Kingdoms to Hell whom I am unacquainted with EXCEPT XII Answered Here we have first a meer magisterial dictate without proof that I speak triflingly about Scandal and shew how little I understand it But where 's his reason or Confutation 2. Why all is but this Paul would not eate flesh rather than he would offend his weak brother c. Judge Reader whether the bare citing of these words be any proof that in Scripture Scandal is not taken more for tempting ensnaring and laying before men an occasion of stumbling or sinning than for meer displeasing men which is the thing that I affirmed But sure Brother if you soberly review it you will find that you deal very hardly with the Scripture and the souls of men First the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which our Translators turn make to offend you read offend instead of scandalize And 2. You bring a text against