THE NUT-CRACKER Crackt by the Nutt And the Backers cake starke Dow Being the Vindication of honest men from The scandalous aspersions of Thomas Bakewell the Baker in hanging-sword Court neere Fleetstreete Conduite Thomas Bakewell heretofore a Baker Yet now through want is turnd a Nut-crack maker Who for abusing much the word of God Without repentance cannot escape his rod Whose want is not of money nor of learning But poore soule 't is of spirituall discerning AS You may see in his learned book called the confutation of the Anabaptists with a Nut-cracker THE Which is Crackt by the Nut against whom it was made who admonisheth Bakewell to turne to his old trade of Baking again and mend his manners therein lest his false Wayte cause that trade to fail as his writing lyes hath spoiled his Poetrie in the which he abuseth the Word of God to proove his lyes As also he belyeth the Licencer to Authorize his book who denying the same faith he never saw it till he saw it in Print on the Exchange THUS In this following Discourse you shall see the slanderous lyer fouund out The fool answered according to his foolishnesse and the Bakers Cake starke dow By Thomas Nutt LONDON Printed in the Yeare MDCXLIV TO THE READER GEntle Reader if you defire to see his learned booke called the confutation of Anabaptists with a Nntcracker wherein he as his Father being a lyer from the beginning Ioh. 8.44 He taxeth those to be the despisers of government who most earnestly long and pray for more strict execution of justice therein in the mean time him self so resisting the Government of God and good Laws that his heart and brain his hand and pen not only unchristianly but also uncivilly plotteth mischiefe and setteth abroach lyes And judge which is easiest numbred the ounces which his bread wants of waight or the lies printed in his book of which whosoever will have a batch let them enquire for Mr. Bakewell in hanging sword Court neere Fleetestreet Conduite where I thinke you may have his booke of lies but first read over this following discourse and see if I doe not slander him with the truth And perswade him if he hath done or written truth that he would come to the light that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in God Jo. 3.21 and mine if it be false by the light wil reproved and so let the evill doer undergoe the blame either before honest men godly Magistrates or Parliament which he please and if either in my Preface or following matter it shall appear I have wronged him I will acknowledge it and to my power give him satisfaction Thomas Nutt in Angel ally in Whitechappel who in regard of my selfe although he libels against me and my booke would not answer him but being against God and his people although not worth the answering yet I cannot forbeare but must answer a foole according to his foolishnesse least he be wise in his own conceit Thus if I reprove a scorner he will hate me but if a wise man hee will love me Pro. 9.8 Bakewell heretofore a baker and now turned Nut-crack maker Plaspheming the word of God in his Nutcrack Must feele his heavie rod upon his back Aâ— Solomon saith A whip for the horse and a bridle for the asse and a rod for the fooles back The Nutcracker crackt by the Nutt being the vindication of honest men against private aspersions ALthough the people of God are commanded to render to no man evill for evill nor rebuke for rebuke nor to revenge themselves nor be overcome of evill but to overcome evill with good and although Solomon saith answer not a foole according to his foolishnesse least thou be like him yet hee saith again answer a foole according to his foolishnesse least he be wise in his own conceit and for as much as he saith hee that is wise in his own conceit there is more hope of a Foole then of him and again a foole is wiser in his own eyes then seven men that can render a reason again seeing the natural man discerneth not the things that are of God they being spiritually discerned 1 Cor. 2.14 And seeing I must answer a foole accor-to his foolishnesse least â—e be wise in his own conceit I must herein endeavour to walke circumspectly and overcome thy evill with good And yet as Paul saith 1 Tim. 5.20 Them that sinne rebuke before all that others may fear I am I confesse naturally apt to answer thee with scoffs for thy reproaches wherewith thou hast reproached God which are fallen upon me But I say to thee as Michaell the Arch Angell to Satan The Lord rebuke thee so say I to thee which art in this action his Sonne the Lord rebuke thee for Christ denominates the children of the devill by doing his lusts which was these two first a murtherer 2. a lyer John 8 44. and Paul calleth Elimas the childe of the devill because hee perverted the strait way of the Lord as thou here by lying doest in the title of thy book For thou bringest the word of God to maintain thy ly for thou callest part of thy booke a Nut cracker for an unnaturall Nutt whose shell thou saist is as hard as the scales of Leviathan and the kernel of his heart as hard as the nether milstone I pray thee Bakewell didest thou ever see my face or seeke to enforme me if not how impudent is this ly of thine which thou blasphemously bringest the sacred Word of God to prove Iob. 41.15 24. See I pray thee if that prove thy affirmation if not confesse thy ly and bee ashamed of it And further I say if by Anabaptists thou meanest Antebaptists that is opposers of the Baptisme of the Gospell let all judge whether thou be not the man for thou maintaining the sprinkeling of infants without any warrant from the Law or Gospell to be the Ordinance of Christ and neglect the dipping beleevers held out in the whole Tenour of the Gospell peculiarly to be the alone Ordinance of Christ and to keepe the poore people in ignorance the Priests being the translators of the Bible where they should have set the English word Dip that all might understand they have set the Greeke word Baptize that so they keeping the people ignorant might sprincle infants pretending it the Ordinance of Christ without any Scripture to prove the same and being ashamed of the name due to your practise namely antebaptists you cast the aspertion of that name upon them that practise the dipping beleevers according to the Ordinance of Christ in the teanour of the Gospell as a cunning thiefe being pursued cryeth among others stop thiefe stop thiefe to cause the people not to suspect him And further for as much as thou hast not one word of God to beare thee out judge thy self if thou be not exceeding audacious to say that thou hast fully answered in this they libellous booke
whatsoever is or can bee said against it So that you conceive although God doth not shew mecanick fooles his misteries as you say my booke teacheth yet mecannick wisemen such as your selfe he doth and that in such sort as none can after argue against it but he is already answered Now I shall without scoffing or deriding thee as a man who art a wise man or else thou art deceived but I think few else judge thee so and pittying thee as considering thee a poor ignorant selfe-conceited man Yet I must not hate thee in my heart but I must reprove thee Deut. 19. And that before all that others mny fear 1 Tim. 5.20 but any thing thou hast done against me the Lord lay it not to thy charge Act. 7. First thou falsly saist I am an Anabaptist and so as I said before the Thiefe cry stop thiefe and secondly thou saist that thou supposest me to be the son of the old Mouse-catcher who some yeers since cried Mouse traps Doe not thine owne conscience give thee the lie for if thou doest not suppose so art thou not a liar and of thy father ther the Devill as aforesaid And thirdly thou saist I profered ten pounds to be Hangman hath thy father aforesaid prevailed with thee so to byely me and my Father whom thou never knewst who neither of us ever attempted to be hangman no nor to make a Pillorie for Bakewell the false baker Again thou saist that having but little trading for my Axe I use it to cut off men in bodies politicke What more lies yet I confesse thou mightest not lie so willingly as before for I instanced indeed in bodies politick for illustration but thou mayst see that I conclude that our Saviour speaks there of a spirituall bodie or Church of visible Saints or such as visibly appeard so to be which he owns for his visible Church and searcheth the heart himself Again thou saist I dare not tell what the offence is lest I should be hanged see thou wilt imagine lies rather then thou wilt be out of the exercise of them whereas the Reader may see I did but suppose such a thing for illustration as in the Offending Eye pag. 25. Again as never wearie of lying thou saist that for his being a Magistrate that offending the Anabaptists is that for which I would have him cut off although he were faithfull to King and State the which I and those whom thou Antebaptist reproachfully callest Anabaptists do utterly denie and abhorre and do heartily desire the execution of all civill Laws established by the Word of God and grieve that the good Laws of England are no better executed And thou further saist that I think Magistrates ought to be cut off for maintaining the Wars wherein both Parliament and Magistrates will condemne thee for a liar who know that I have used my utmost endeavours to further their designes but indeed with desire of as much spare of bloud as might lawfully be Then thou chargest me that I say that the members of the mysticall bodie whereof I used not the phrase must be cut off but I shew not the offence wherefore I answer thee poore ignorant soule that if thou knewest what it were to be a member of a Church of Christ thou wouldest know that owning and maintaining any sin against God is offence to his true Church and to every true living member in it And whereas thou saist that I would have them cut off for every sin I answer the Churches of Christs dare not cut off any member till they appeare to be such as Christ would have to be cut off namely rotten or unsound ones which the wilfull owning any knowne fin against admonition denominates any to be And whereas thou saist thou wilt rake the hammer of Gods Word anti-spirit my shell and give a farther taste of the devillish kernell that is in me pâ—â—re soule if the Lord would please to make thee an instrument in â—â—â—s hand to discover to me that devillishnesse that is in mee which yet I see not I hope I should thankfully take notice of my sin and praise him for thee as his instrument but poore heart thou knowest not yet how to handle that hammer to break thine own heart if thou canst cast the beame or if but a moat out of thine eye thou shalt see the cleerer to help thy brother Mat. 7.5 And whereas thou demandest of me if the not cutting off a member from the visible bodie or Church cause the body to bee cast into hell Judge you whether if a foot that carrieth the bodie or a hand that draws or drives or an eye that directs the bodie thitherward if it be not cut off will not bring it thither Again thou saist that if Christ were on earth again I would be offended at him for many were offended at him it is true and thou poore soul art offended at him and opposest his way as truly as Paul did when he was going to Damascus although thou thinkest not so The Lord if it be his will shew thee himselfe as he did to him Then thou affirmest that the meaning of cutting off a member is the cutting off the corruption of the members then I conceive it would be said Wash or clense thy members as else where clense your selves from all filthinesse of flesh and spirit 2 Cor. 7.1 But thou affirmest that if wee cannot cut off lusts without the members we must cut off the member and saist we shall have it at the Resurrection I pray thee doth not the Apostles say No man ever hated his own flesh but nourished it and whereas thou saist we should be as much offended with the evill of sin that is in the eye as the evill of pain in the tooth I pray thee coÌ„sider doth not Christ say that from within namely from the heart comes evill thoughts and lusts and so do not the heart employ the eie the tongue the care the hand and all to serve its turn And so as our Saviour saith An evill man out of the evill treasury of his heart bringeth forth evill things he doth not say Out of the evill treasure of his eie or hand or foot but of his heart and marke thy absurdity which poor soule thou canst not see Thou saist when all means is used our eie hand or foot will not be reclamed we must cut them off or pluck them out rather then employ them to our eternall ruine of bodie and soul Marke you said even now if wee could not reclaime them and now yee say wee employ them then if the fountain fill the channels will it find fault and cut them off for running when being filled from it they cannot ceasse running so if the heart employ the eie hand and foot and enforce their acting and without it they act not good or evill will or can the heart cut them off for obeying its command Again thou as never weary of thy lying chargest me that I say
to Christ if thy hand foot or eye offend thee do so and so whereas there is not such a word in my book Again where as thou blinde soul saist I speak of two eyes two hands two feet in his mysticall bodie and carnally aske which is the right eye or the right hand I answer thee pittying thy ignorance though a body politicke loose half the members it is a whole body still As the Corporation of London if there were a 1000 members more it were but a body so if it loose 2000 it is a compleat body still although if many of them taken away were eminent it would seem as a maimed body in comparison of what it was before And whereas thou saist that all the brains in the Nutt knows not how to answer thee I answer if he do know no thank to him but whereas thou speakest of two eyes in a Church and saist if one offend and be excommunicate and the other die in the mean time that so it leave all blinde I answer thy carnall objection thus that in a body politick every member in a greater or lesser measure should execute the office of the eye hand and foot and of every other member for the good of the body ye may all prophesie one by one that all may learn and all may be comforted 1 Cor. 14. and so ought all to bee helpfull to the body although the bodie may especially chuse those best gifted Then thou saist Well thus you see that Christ here speaketh of our naturall members but doest thou judge so or thinke that any that have any spirituall knowledge of God do judge it so surely if thou dost it is because thou fearest not God for he revealeth his secrets to them that fear him Ps 25.14 Again thou saist that a man in grace must needs grieve to see his members act sin I aske thee whether the heart or some other part of the body it be that grieves for those actions of the eye hand or foot if it be the heart consider I pray thee do that grieve that its servants do its will for from it they speak look act And whereas thou saist that the Word if is not a word of diffedence where it is said If God be God follow him I say so also and never said against it yet I do say it implies if he be not God do not follow him and so of the rest thou bringest for that purpose And whereas thou saist we should binde our eyes hands feet with the cords of a Covenant and then instancest Iob 31.1 and saist Iob made a covenant with his eyes not to look on a maid whereas hee saith no such thing but saith I made covenant with mine eyes why then should I think upon a maid Whence I infer that through grace he having resolved against acting sin through the strength given him of God he is now grieved with himself and implore strength from God against the first thoughts and motions thereunto And thus I conceive he intends I am by grace resolved not to commit a lustfull action with nor cast a lustfull look on a woman but then why am I yet troubled with the first motions and thoughts of it Lord help me aginst them also and speaks not of nor intends any other covenant as if the heart and the members were at one time different one from the other for then that body were divided against it self and so as a Kingdome divided could not stand Mat. 12.25 so there needs no tying together with the cords of a Covenant as you affirme Then as never weary of lying thou saist that my expositiou is that the eye there intended is the Minister I answer so it is But thou saist I say if he be blinde all the Annabaptists are blinde also whereas I say no such thing but if he be an hereticall wicked man and they walk by his light they namely every man and woman of that body walking by the light of their wicked eye or Minister which is darknes they namely all the body or Church will be full of darknes Mat. 6.23 and except they obey God in plucking out this wicked eye they are not his true Disciples but seeming so and so they being blinde are led by their blinde eye or Minister till both fall into the ditch namely Hell Again to leave many of thy ignorant foolish erationall reasonings because answering a fool according to all his foolishnesse were to be like him which were to make my book tedious as thine is but now another palpable lye as the thief crying stop thief thou fatherest upon me as any that will be pleased to read my book called the offending eye hand and foot which they may have for a penny being that which thou opposest may see But to returne to another lye of thine that it seemes cannot refrain lying thou saist I flatly contradict Christ saying that I say that the taking away of corruptions wounds the man which is the exposition of thy blinde guides whom thou so adorest and that the reader may know thy lying and falsehood I will quote the pages in my book which thou opposest this thy last lie may be found in pag. 21. of my book called The offending eye hand and foot Again thou askest how I will conster the two hands two feet or two eyes of the visible bedy of Christ for that is my term not mysticall as thou falsely affirmest thus I answer that it is Christs comparison taken from a naturall body that hath but two of each of those members and thefore he speakes so of them in the name of 2 of each of those members but you see in civill bodies politique as in this City there is every yeere a new hand of power nomely a L. Major so alwaies in bodies politicke either spirituall or temporall though many be cut off by death or otherwise yet there are more to come in their places by order of the surviving or living members but poore soule thou having not received the love of the tryth but rejected it Christs words are given to thee yet in parables that hearing thou understandest not and seeing thou perceivest not the Lord open thy spirituall eyes and eares and give thee unnerstanding what his Spirituall body is and make thee a true spirituall member thereof for his glory and thy comfort After this thou falsely taxest me to say that your Ministers have no faith which I deny but do say they are not faithfull Ministers by vertue of any thing they had from the unpurged fountaines of the Universities Then you come to prove yours the Ministers of Christ and you begin to shew that he received his ministery of his Father And the Apestles delivered what they received of Christ in his power and way which we grant and them we own for his Ministrs but as the Devill said Iesus we know and Paul we know but who are ye so Christ we acknowledge and the Apostles we acknoshledge but who are your Ministers if you or they can prove themselves the Ministers of Christ we will thankfully hear and joyfully ebrace them Again you say if your Ministers build their doctrines upon the Apostles and Prophets without addition or detraction the Gospell will remain in its integrity Alasse silly creature can any thing destroy the integritie of the Gaspel Wherefore break off thy blasphemies and intreat God with Simon Magus if it be possible the thoughts of thy heart may be forgiven thee which my soul humbly entreats the Lord to do for thee for his glory and thy comfort Farewell FINIS