be presented to the Lord by Prayer both that which she then lay in with and one more about the age of two years whether any more of her Children were then present I do not remember but the like was done again about two years after when the Lord gave her another Child and as it hath been done for many others upon the like occasion and as I have known it often done in Wales and I here recommend it to all sober Christians especially such as are dissatisfied in their judgments and Consciences about Infants Baptism namely That when any godly Woman a Member of a Congregation hath received such a mercy she should at some convenient season present her self with her Child in the Church that Praise may be rendred to the Lord on her behalf presenting her Child also to the Lord by Prayer c. at which time the Parents may declare in the Congregation the name of the Child that it may be entered into the Book where the names of the Congregation are written as the Children of the Church who upon occasion may be mentioned to the Lord as the seed of the faithful that when these Children come to age and the Lord shall give them to profess Faith in Christ and that they do believe with all their hearts as Acts 8. 37. they may then be admitted to the Ordinances of Christ both Baptism and the Lords Supper as Believers were in the Primitive times Acts 2. 41 42. this I leave to the Consideration of all but especially such as do not see ground to sprinckle their Children and I the rather mention this because there are many who since they left of Infant Baptism that are as I conceive too remiss in the duty of thankfulness and too careless of the pretious Souls of their Children c. Now this was all that I know that was in the eye and intent of this godly Woman and this was the utmost which was done at that time concerning the Woman and her two children which this man calls a blood-daring attempt which I desire the judicious Reader to consider c. As for this jerking jeering quibling and scoffing at the learned Teacher the reverent Congregation the mock-Ordinance and dry Baptism c. I shall not answer him lest I should be like unto him neither can I say what discourse she had with the other discreet Gentlewoman which he mentioneth but this I know the Woman was a very judicious Christian and was well informed and satisfied about the unwartantableness of Infant-Baptism and was her self shortly after Baptized according to the true intent manner and administration of that Ordinance so that this was no invention to give her satisfaction as he saith neither did she or any of the Congregation look upon this as Baptâ—â—m for both she and they for ought I know were fully satisfied against that practice before I had ever any acquaintance with her or them and for his jerking and jeering again about prayer before and after and about the words of Institution to the new Ordinance c. All which might better become the mouth of a Stage-player than the pen of a Minister And for his saying the Children were as much heathen as before truly I trust they had more benefit by this solemn act of the Churches prayer than if he had in his way baptized them but I did not think till now that he had held that Children were made Christians by Baptism The next thing he mentions is about my being Baptized at London c. I had two reasons for my being Baptized there rather than here First because I am a Member of a Church there who are of the same judgement as to this particular Secondly because I knew none there that had that latitude in their Principles as to Baptize me unless I should come off from this Church in point of Communion which in my conscience I could not do I knowing them to be a pretious godly people how ever now under contempt but that I did it there or that I concealed it at all to save my Maintenance that is not true for I did publickly own it as soon as I did come home though with that moderation and tenderness as not to grieve or offend any but as for his jerking and jeering at my falling from dry Baptism to Dipping c. I shall not answer him But for that godly man Mr. Jesse whom he calls an Anabaptist Teacher of London I shall not say much for him he hath grace enough to bear his reproches onely this I must say his coming hither was not to perform any Bishop like confirmation as this man seems to intimate but rather to endeavour the setling and establishing the minds of the People of this Citie against the pernicious Doctrin of the Quakers and I believe his endeavours were not successless in that thing Again for my becoming an open professed Dipper as he saith though I abhor his jeering yet I do own the word and practice and therein I do no more than all the Preachers in Bristol do for they Baptize and Preach and I Preach and Baptize onely they Baptize Infants and I Baptize Men and Women as Philip did Acts 8. 12. and whose practice is most justifiable theirs or mine I refer to the Scriptures in their proper and genuine sense to determine and to any judicious impartial Scholar to interpret as Iohn 3. 23. Acts 8. 37 38 39. Acts 10. 47 48. Acts 22. 16. But for my unchristening him and his Children I never uttered such a word but if my practice grounded upon Scripture do it J ought not to be blamed Likewise for his unchristian-like dealing with that godly man Mr. Tombs publishing his name to the World I shall say little for he hath wisdom and grace either to answer him or to bear his reproaches onely this I perceive by a Letter from Mr. Tombs that the thing is false And for his calling Mr. Tombs our greatest Champion c. truly the man is much mistaken for we do not lean upon Man for our practice we having both the Command and example of our Lord Jesus Christ and his blessed Apostles recorded in Scripture as Matt. 28. Mark 16. Luke 3. 23. Christ himself was Baptized when he was about 30 years of age so that Mr. Tombs is not our Champion But for his mis-drawn consequences how I can give the Lords Supper to the Devils children if Mr. Tombs had said so as he writes of him would it therefore follow that I and all others must be of Mr. Tombs his mind in that thing I cannot see this to be a necessary consequence c. but I do abhor and detest any such uncharitable sensoriousness and I believe Mr. Tombs doth so also c. He asketh further by what authority I make a single judgement to my self I ask again how he durst to say that I make a single judgement to my self when as there are many Churches and many men both
and stiled them so though they had many miscarriages but those that were stiled of the Synagogue of Satan were a company of proud boasters that said they were Jews and Apostles but did lie and were not so now consider who are those at this day that call themselves Apostles and boast of perfection do any of us do so or do not they that ye own do so and hath not the Church of Bristol tryed them and their Doctrins and found them lyars and their Doctrins false as the Church of Ephesus did Rev. â— 2. witness James Naylor Christopher Atkinson and others whose Books some of us have read and tryed and have found them to be contrary to the glorious Gospel of the grace of God which was preached by the true Servants of God and therefore have upon a good ground rejected them according to the counsel of the Spirit of God Gal. 1. 8 9. 2 John 10 vers But you say possitively that we are found to be a Synagogue of Satan was it ever heard that any man either Prophets or Apostles or any that feared God or expected to give an account of his words and actions did assume that boldness as thus to judge a people professing godliness every one of which are able to give a good account of their faith in Jesus and that do strive to walk up to what they know c. Is not this to take the place of Jesus Christ whose prerogative alone it is to try hearts and judge persons c. Did you not say truly when you said you did not know Christ and might you not have said as truly you did not acknowledg him for certainly did you ever think to stand before him to give an account of your hard speeches you could never speak and write thus Oh that you would consider what you have spoken and written to the grief of Christs wounded ones Psal 69. 26 If it were better that a milstone were hanged about a mans neck and he cast into the Sea than that he should offend one of Christs little ones Matt. 18. 6. How sad is it then for you to offend and grieve judge and condemn near 60 persons calling them a Synagogue of Satan c. and that for no other cause but that after praying for you and mourning over you we sent three times in love and pity to admonish you of the evil of your way you should now break out thus violently against us O blush and roul your self in the dust that if yet the day of Grace and door of Mercy be not shut against you You say it is in answer to a charge brought against you by some of the Members c. Truly we could have been glad that you had spared us that pains and had not conscience of our duty and love to the name of the Lord and to your soul prevailed with us more than any delight we had in that work you had never heard of us in that kind You say it is by you for the sake of the simple hearted among us published blessed be the Lord there are some simple plain honest hearted amongst us had you and the rest been so no doubt you would have stayed with us and thus much for the first branch of your Title page We observe that you begin your Epistle to the Reader as likewise your Book with the word outward fellowship c. Truly we shall easily grant that your fellowship in the things of God was but outward for had it been inward and spiritual in truth and sincerity you would no doubt have continued in it but as it is written 1 John 2 19. They went out from us because they were not of us We shall not spend time to answer every passage in your Letter lest as Solomon speaks Prov. 26 4. we should be like unto you and yet we shall answer some things lest as Prov. 26 5. you should be wise in your own conceit As for those Scripture expressions in your Book though misapplied by you yet we hope we shall consider them and examine our selves by them though not as they come from you but as they are the words of God and as for those taunts scorns false accusations judgings and condemnations of which your Pamphlet is full we hope we may as we have opportunity spread them before the Lord as Hezekiah did the Letter that he received Isa 37. 14. we being otherwise taught than to render evil for evil or railing for railing but rather to bless 1 Pet. 3. 9. having the example of Christ herein as well as a Precept hereto 1 Pet. 2. 23. Mat. 5. 44. yet we cannot but take notice of the absurdity of your arguing and proceeding wherein you first beg the question and then draw what inferences you please you first stile us a Synagogue of Satan c. and then heap up threatnings against us as such c. much like the heathen persecutors of old who would first wrap the Saints in the skins of Beasts and then set the dogs upon them to tear them c. Would you not count it an absurd thing if any man should come to you and heap up all the Scriptures that speak against murderers Adulterers Drunkards Swearers Lyers Theeves c. and apply them unto you taking it for granted that you are such a one and then ask you if this be not Scripture c. Or on the other side if one should take all the Scriptures that speak comfort to the true Saints in a suffering and persecuted condition and apply them to a common thief that is cast in prison for his wickedness or to a Malefactor that is going to suffer justly for his evil deeds c. Now this is just your way of reasoning and many others with you first to heap up multitudes of Scriptures that speak against the Whore of Babylon against Anti-christ against the Beast and the false Prophets against Hypocrites and Rejectors of the Gospel and against other ungodly and wicked persons c. and apply all this to whom you please either to the Churches of Christ or to the faithful preachers of the Gospel or to any other godly people right or wrong if they stand in your way you conclude they are such because you call them so whereas they may as soon prove the former things against you as you can prove the later against them so likewise the comforts and promises made to suffering Saints may as well be applyed to a common thief c. As to some of those that you stile the Servants and Witnesses of Jesus and this we find was Rabshaketh his way of arguing with Hezekiah 2 Kings 18. 22. Now had Hezekiah been the man and had he done the things that Rabshaketh there charged him with then he had reasoned rightly but Rabshaketh was mistaken in his foundation taking the things for granted whereas there was no such matter for godly Hezekiah had done no such thing onely Rabshaketh by his wit and subtilty framed
THE Church of Christ IN BRISTOL Recovering her Vail out of the hands of them that have smitten and wounded her and taken it away BEING A just and necessary Vindication from a false and scandalous imputation cast upon her by Dennis Hollister formerly a Member of her but now an Apostate from and an opposer of those Waies Truths and People which once he seemed zealous for As appears by a late Pamphlet put forth by him called The Skirts of the Whore discovered With some particular words from some particular persons whom he hath by name abused and reproached Likewise a word by Thomas Ewen unto what concerns him in the said Pamphlet and also to the later part of another Book called Satan enthroned in his Chair of Pestilence 1 Tim. 4. 1. Now the Spirit speaketh expresly that in the later times some shall depart from the faith giving heed to seducing Spirits and doctrins of Devils Acts 20. 30. Also of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them Isa 10. 24. O my People that dwellest in Sion be not afraid of the Assyrian London Printed for Thomas Brewster at the three Bibles at the West-end of Pauls 1657. TO THE READER Courteous Reader IT is but little pleasure or delight to the Authors of the ensuing Papers that they should fill the world or take up thy pretious time with matters of this nature there being at this day so many things of so much higher concernment for the minds of immortal Souls to be taken up with and seriously imployed about But we being to our grief and against our wills forced hereunto for the vindication of the Truth and justification of the waies thereof by a late scandalous and ridiculous Pamphlet put forth and published by one Dennis Hollister of Bristol once a Member of this Church and a man as famous for professing the Truth as now infamous for and by his Apostacy from it opposition to it and violence against it Who upon the first coming of the People called Quakers to this City did in a short time fall in with them own them and plead for them and by his so doing drew many a poor Soul out of the waies of Christ and into the waies of those miserable deluded People so that with himself there rent from this Church about eighteen or nineteen persons who are now wandring in the dark and blind paths of deceit and delusion towards death and destruction Whereupon the remaining part and through Grace the major part by far of the Church did after seeking the Lord and seriously advising together send Brethren first to enquire after him and them and to know the grounds of their absenting but some would return no answer at all others very contemptuously slighting and scorning the Church in this their act with many revilings as the manner of those People is After some months time the Church sent three Brethren to admonish them of their great evil and danger c. A Copy of which Admonition is in the following Papers as likewise a particular Admonition to Dennis Hollister setting before him five sore and palpable evils which we knew he was guilty of and that every tittle of it was both true and obvious though he doth with a most impudent and shameless face deny it railing at the Church for their so doing and instead of hearing the Admonition or acknowledging his evils did prepare a Letter with this Inscription For the People called Independents And by his subtilty engaged two of our Brethren to present it to the Church putting such conditions upon them as might best accomplish his designs as that it must be openly read in a full meeting c. He likewise speaking to some of the Church whom he had still an influence upon and hopes to draw off that they should be sure to be there at the reading of that Letter by which some of us came to understand his design and that his Letter was not to give any account to the Church of the things whereof he was admonished but rather to stagger and draw away more of the Congregation to himself and to those People and waies unto whom he was already departed Which thing is since evident by many passages in his Papers as that in his Epistle to the Reader where he hath these words viz. My just and necessary defence is kept from the simple hearted amongst them after whom my soul longs and for whose sakes it was principally intended c. By which all men may see that his principal intent was not to answer or satisfie the Church but rather to draw away some from it he also giving out there were yet such a certain number of persons naming of them that should yet come away which the Lord through the riches of his Grace hath hitherunto prevented and those persons in particular are more confirmed and established in the Truth and against the principles and waies of those People and much by his late Book it being so filled with rage and fury envy and bitterness false accusations and rash condemnations having nothing in it like the Spirit of Christ but the Church taking into consideration his Letter and first finding that he himself was cut of Gods way secondly that he had refused to hear the Church by their Messengers sent unto him thirdly that he did not own us as a Church in the Superscription of his Letter and fourthly understanding his design to be as aforesaid to draw away more if he could c. Hereupon his Letter was not opened but returned back and delivered to his Man-servant in his Shop himself being then absent but this did so enrage him he seeing himself so far disappointed of his ends and aims and the Church in some short time after sending three Brethren again the second time to admonish him and the rest according to Scripture rule Mat. 18. Tit. 3. 10. that he hath herevpon published that most scandalous Pamphlet called The Skirts of the Whore discovered and the mingled People in the midst of her c. In which he doth most unchristian-like abuse the whole Church stiling her a Synagogue of Satan and a Cage of unclean and hateful Spirits with many heaps of slanders and falsities c. to the dishonor of the name of Christ and the reproach of his waies and People and to the defaming of many of those whom God thorow rich Grace hath preserved faithful in this apostatising day We could not therefore without being guilty of or accessary to his sin and evil let his folly go unreproved but have set forth these few plain words of truth and soberness aiming at his confutation the truths justification our own vindication and others information and satisfaction desiring the Christian Reader to weigh well our coddition judge impartially of our wrong and help us affectionately by thy prayers and so we commit both thee and our selves unto him who will one day clear the innocent bringing forth
nor false accusers but we must turn that back again upon your self professing to all the World that you have wronged us in what you have written against us As for the other part of your Letter wherein you sometimes flatter your self and commend your self about your righteousness faithfulness diligence and deserving as likewise how freely you had served us and been a keeper of our Vineyard and that now it is time to look to your own Vineyard and to mind your eternal habitation c. We answer first as Prov. 27. 2. Let another man praise thee and not thine own mouth a stranger and not thine own lips But we never did blame you nor admonish you for any good you did among us but for your departing from that which was good Jehu was not blamed for the good he did but because he took no heed to walk in the Law of the Lord God of Israel with all his heart neither was Amaziah blamed for any good he did but because he did it not with a perfect or upright heart and as for your gift of discerning c. most of us know it was a thing you did much pretend to and boast of c. though we could observe your gross mistake therein c. And for your now looking to your own Vineyard and minding your eternal habitation c. truly we hoped you had done that when you were among us and that your care and diligence which now you speak of had been as well about your own soul as others but if it were not we wish you may make better use of your present time than you have done of that which is past As for any manifestations of truth breaking forth in you as you say page 20. at which some of our hearts burned and others were offended c. We know not any one Truth that ever you spake in the Church but it was readily assented to and seconded by those that sate by whether you did press to believing or holy walking but for other things which were not according to Scripture nor did not tend to faith or holiness c. some of us did sometimes manifest our dissent from you yet with all tenderness as knowing your spirit and the spirits of some others now with you we were not willing to offend you or them And as for that which you so often asserted in the Church and now mention page 20 21. That you did not know Christ and that that knowledge we had of him should profit us nothing and that our habitation is in deceit and through it we refuse to know the Lord c. First we did not violently oppose you in that thing as thinking that it arose from a sight and sense of the want of the Spirit of Christ to open and reveal the glory of his person virtues Offices and Mysteries more clearly unto you according to what is written Ephes 1. 17 18. Col. 2. 2. John 16. 14 15. and herein we could and did joyn with you in complaining of the littleness or smalness of our knowledg of Christ yet some of us did often tell you that our comfort stood not so much in a speculative knowing as in a believing acknowledgment of Christ to be that which he is said to be in the Scriptures and so to own him believe on him love him and obey him and therefore we did then and have since and do now declare that we owned no other Christ but that one annointed glorious person who was born of the Virgin and who is made both Lord and Christ who died rose and ascended and is now sitting at the right hand of God and is the Mediator between God and man who shall one day come again according to the Scriptures Secondly we do own no other knowing of Christ but that which is according to the Scripture namely understandingly to know him in his person without us and experimentally to know him in his Virtues or by his Spirit within us and so through grace we do know him in our measure and are waiting and praying daily for a further and clearer knowledge of him in his Virtues and powers by the revelation of his glorious Spirit according to the Scripture in the mean time we desire to acknowledge him believe on him love and reverence him as our Lord and King and do submit to his Laws and Commands lest in his Word but we did little think that your meaning had been as now you declare both in your Book and by your practice that you and we should take up that kind of notion of Christ as to call that light that is in every man both Heathens and others Christ and so to slight and nullifie that glorious person now in heaven from being the object of Faith c. as many of your way do and have done to some of our faces scoffing and jeering at us for speaking of the person of Christ and for thinking to be saved by the blood of him that died at Jerusalem and as you your self did jeeringly ask one of this Congregation to this effect whether we did believe Christ to be an old man sitting in a chair in heaven c. You further tell us page 21. That many who desired to see Christs first Appearance in the flesh became his betrayers and murderers so now in his second Appearances in life power and spirit would be found the greatest enemies to him and that some of us would betray him and then appeal to all that have any discerning to judge how sadly this is already fulfilled in us c. We grant that many did stumble at Christ when he came in the flesh and that many in all ages have stumbled at the truth and waies of Christ as likewise many do now at his person his Gospel his waies and his Ordinances c. which might put you to consider two things First whether you be not one that do so and secondly whether you be not one that have caused many to do so c. But you seem to beg the question and take it for granted that Christ is now come in life power and spirit in you and your party but truly you must give better demonstrations of it before we or any other judicious Christians will believe you for we have read much and know something by experience through grace what the sweet gentle dove-like spirit of Christ is we have seen and known by sad experience how unlike your spirit is to that Secondly how can you call this a murdering and betraying of Christ namely our sending brethren three times in love and pitie to enquire after and admonish you and the rest that departed from us we shall leave this to the Lord to determine c. As for those strange and unchristian expressions page 21. of our sporting our selves and making a wide mouth and drawing out the tongue and the hand against you c. and then calling us children of transgression a seed of falshood
to and fro or at the least word of yours sent to me to desire it and I judge I should not have denied it But I conceive you had not spoke when you did but that you were heared by that fire that is sure from beneath by my contesting against that held out by you which I desire to war against by the Spirit and spirituall weapons so long as I have any being and not otherwise as being fully satisfied Rom. 6. 13. 2 Cor. 10. 4 5 6. that onely such a war of that kind and nature is to be maintained the wrath of man and carnal weapons not being appointed of God and so not under a promise of 2 Thess 2. 8. 2 Tim. 2. 24 25 26. 1 Tim. 1. 18 19. 1 Sam. 17. 45. 47. 50. Rev. 12 7 8 9 11. a blessing from him to bring down and to naught such wickedness And indeed I am clearly and in some measure satisfied by God from that most sure word of prophesie whereunto we do well to take heed that one main cause why the Lambs Warriours and Souldiers gain no more ground than they do against the Lambs and their enemies and opposers both those enemies within and those enemies they combat withall without is because such contests and combats with them the war is so little maintained by the Spirit and spiritual weapons which if it were sure they would she and fall before them And immediatly after you have subscribed the Letter you sent me in the third line of the next page you say concerning your Letter that you sent me you have received no answer of me this is true but did I promise to send you an answer If so you might charge me home which I know you would not spare But I did not neither indeed could you groundedly expect any answer from me of it if in a sober mind but yet that had been done but that the bearer by whom you sent the Letter to me by some thing that he proposed to me which had weight in it did perswade me not to meddle in such vain fruitless janglings as to that effect some of his words was to me by which I was detained from writing to you and indeed his counsell in that was sound and savourie And whereas you mention that Festus a Heathen Roman Governor was so noble that he heard Pauls defence as to the accusation made against him by his own Countreymen and King Agrippa said Thou art permitted to speak for thy self but say you you are falsly accused condemned and refused to make your defence First I say you are not falsly accused condemned and refused to make your defence that is but your own saying it is a meer a rie vapour Secondly were you not desired nay intreated to come and appear and so if you had any thing to say to speak and make your defence Do you not wel know that libertie was never denied unto you but what ground I pray you hath one in your case to expect the making his defence that way you would do by a Proxes as I may say with refusing to come face to face as Paul did before Agrippa and Festus that you know you were intreated and desired to do and therefore in your naming of them in order to that you name them for you speak nothing at all you were permitted to do it as they were and might have done as Paul did and I hope that groundedly an evener Rule and another kind of dealing had you found than what Paul was tried by or he found from them though I know you are more than apt to conclude otherwise of all that is not of your stature but I fear sense of guilt lay so open upon you as that if you speak truth that was it that kept you away from making your defence in that way that was clear by that Rule we are to go by in the managing of the things of Gods House and so not any would have denied or excepted against you in a warrantable way which you had free liberty to do and then before your self it not falling down under the sins charged upon you all in every particular had been proved so as that you could not justly have excepted against the Charge in no part of it and I believe that would have been done by some of those if not all for whose sakes as you say you made that you sent and was not read visibly So simple honest hearted they were and so remain as that they to save you out of the snare of the Divel would have in soberness of Spirit in conscience of their duty to God and in love to your soul witnessed before you that which was charged upon you But I forget my self now a true Answer you have of all that Letter which in particular you sent to me with a small Isal 43. 2. 1 Pet. 4. 19. 1 Pet. 2. 15. 3. 1. 16. Psal 37 5 touch upon some thing that in order to the not sending you an answer you speak to me afterward I confess I have more words in my answer than I would or intended But I could not tell how plainly to answer it so as to satisfie the Reader in a briefer way It is probable a flood you will cast after me but I pass not such floods shall not drown me nor such fire burn me I resolve in the strength of Christ in the way of wel doing to commit my self to him who in this I know will bring forth my righteousness as the light and my judgement as the noon-day and so to labour by well doing to put you to silence in this as not knowing any way otherwise better to do it And for your self I have if my heart deceive me not no coar at all against you but could be glad I might be of any use unto you and could rejoyce to see God recovering of you out of the snare of the Divel by giving of you repentance to the acknowledging of the truth the which I am sure you are departed from which is the groans of your Friend who is a lover of your Soul though a Witness against your falshood and deceit Robert Simpson A WORD to DENNIS HOLLISTER BY THOMAS EWEN Dennis Hollister I Have of late met with a Book put forth by you in which there is a Letter formerly written by you to me which Letter I acknowledge I received above a year since and having read it I laid it by intending never to have Answered you lest as Solomon saith Prov. 26. 4. I also should be like unto you but now you having published it with your folly to the world I take my self bound to Answer you lest as Prov. 26. 5. you should be wise in your own conceit c. In the second Branch of your Title page you say That I have before several witnesses often denied my self to be a Minister of the Gospel in which you deal like your self though not like a friend nor like
done with the substance of your Letter I intend to add a short word to the ensuing part of your Book but I shall first make a little digression by joyning an occasional word to what I have now written c. I shall desire you to Consider Whether you are not by this act of yours in publishing me thus to the world tickled the hearts and pleased the fancies of many who were full enough of prejudice against me before nay are you not joyned as a Brother in bitterness with him that wrote the late Book called Satan Enthroned in his chair of Pestilence Let any judicious Christian compare your Book with the latter part of his and see whether those two bitter streams do not both arise from one corrupt fountain namely the Spirit that is from beneath may not I return your own words upon you which you unjustly charge upon me and this Church from Obediah 11 Thou wast like one of them c. and is this the kindness of a friend or the part of a brother O how truly are those Scriptures fulfilled in you Mic. 7. 5. Trust ye not in a friend c. Jer. 9. 4. Take ye heed c. for every brother will utterly supplant and every neighbour will walk with slanders You had written your Letter to me about a year ago and if you had known ought by me you might have written more but for you now to publish it to the world and to proclaim it in your Frontispiece and that in such a subtile manner that he that reads your title page and my name would verily think if they did not know otherwise that I were some dreadful persecutor and that I had caused some Servant of Christ to be whipt and punished but I trust the Lord will look upon my wrong and your envie my innocency and your hypocrisies c. but I know it is in vain to write farther to you and truly had it not been for the vindication of the truth and satisfact on of some poor souls in this City and Nation I should have cast your Book and the other mans Book aside and never have troubled my self to have answered you or him but since it is so that both your Books are spread abroad and read by many at which some are grieved others staggered and people generally apt to conclude that things are so as he and you have said because I am silent and say nothing as I remember it was with me once before when a publick Scandal was raised and cast upon me at my first coming to Bristol which the Lord knew and I in my own Conscience knew I was as innocent in as any man or child under heaven and therefore sate still about half a year resolving my innocency should answer for me c. which made many conclude I was guilty because I was silent till at length I was forced to seek a publick Vindication by the Magistrate which I had and then the mouths of bad people were stopped and the minds of good people satisfied So I conceive it might be now if I were wholly silent as to what you and he do write though indeed I had resolved silence and to have given you and him and others leave to have trampled upon me and were I in a private capacity I think I should do so but forasmuch as the Lord hath set me as a publick instrument in his work and that that which you and he have written of me tends much to the defaming of me and the hindrance of my work by laying stumbling blocks of prejudice into the minds of people against me I therefore think my self bound for the truths sake and for the sake of some good people in this City being thereunto also advised and perswaded by godly friends to set forth a few words of truth and soberness both to your Book and his And I desire that neither you nor he will be offended that I joyn you both together in this my Answer for first you are much alike Brethren in bitterness against the people called Independants and Baptized as may be seen throughout your Book and in the latter part of his Secondly I find that he hath often joyned you with me therefore I think it not improper to coupple him with you and I hope that neither your friends nor his will look upon my so doing as any disparagment to you or him Yet I must needs say in some things he is more modest than you in that he doth not name me as you often do though in some things you are more serious than he in that you do not 〈◊〉 as he often doth but both you and he have done what you could to lay me under contempt and scorn to the whole City and Nation and therefore I shall now address my self to answer some few passages in his Book though not for your information but for my own Vindication and for publick and general satisfaction c. And first in the 48 page of that his Book called Satan enthroned in his Chair of Pestilence c. he tells a story how they meaning the Church in Bristol send for a Taylor out of Wales to be their Teacher c. in which he deals very dis-ingeniously for first he knew that I was sent for by the Major of the City some Aldermen many of the Council and other Gentlemen and Commissioners of the City of Bristol which I take to be the Representative of the City c. As likewise I was sent for by many of the godly inhabitants as I have elsewhere declared and that not only to be a Teacher in the Church of Bristol but to be a publick Preacher of the Gospel in the City as I have through the help and grace of Christ hitherto continued and he himself at my first coming gave me the right hand of fellowship and professed he was satisfied in my Call But secondly I was no more a Taylor in Wales than he was any of his former Callings after he came to Bristol For when I was called to Preach the Gospel in Wales I left my former Employment as he did leave his several Callings when he took to Preaching the next thing concerning me in his Book is page 50. where he mentioneth a great Woman that had three Children unbaptized the truth of which I shall relate by which the falseness of his Relation will appear c. There was about the time of my coming first to Bristol a godly woman one at whose Husbands house the Church did often use to meet she having been delivered of a Child did about a month after desire the Church to meet at her house to render praise to the Lord and to spend some time in Prayer and conference c. accordingly the Elder that then was did upon the first day of the week appoint that the next Meeting should be at such a place to such an end now when the Church was met she desired that her Children might also
learned and godly that are of my judgement in this particular so as to hold communion with persons differing in that point and so I do administer the Lords Supper to this people in Bristol as they are a Church of godly sober Christians believing in Christ though some of them mis-baptized yet none of them deny the Ordinance of Christ onely some of them have not light to see the right Administration of it but reckon their Infant Baptism sufficient yet as further light comes in they are willing to walk up to it in the mean time we can bear with them in love as we desire them and others to bear with us in other things As for that mis-construed passage in my Lecture about dry breasts which he applies to Infant Baptism c. 1 I deny that ever I spoke those words in such terms 2. Much less to that sense but I have often prayed against that sore judgement threatned Hosea 9. 14. and that I might not have a miscarrying womb so as not to bring any soul to Christ by conversion or dry breasts so as not to feed or refresh any poor thirsty soul that comes to wait upon God in his Ordinances as I fear it is with many Congregations in England and this was the substance and sense of what I spake though as for Infant-Baptism I have declared and do declare my dislike of it yet so as not to judge or condemn any godly man that thinks he hath Warrant to do it c. And whereas he saith That the professed thorow-paced Anabaptists leave me and would not joyn with me and therefore commends them that they are true to their principles and do not juggle implying that I am not so but do juggle c. Truly I know no thorow â—ac'd godly man either Anabaptist or others in Bristol but do shew love and respect to me in their way onely in this they walk according to their light and so do I but they think I am too large in my Principles and I think they are too strait in theirs yet we do not differ but can bear with each other in love though for my juggling or dis-ingenuity I pass not to be judged by him c. though I know it would please him better if I were of a furious impetuous violent spirit so as to break all in pieces and set the Citie and this Church in a flame and thereby make my self to be abhorred of all both good and bad but I trust as the Lord hath so he will graciously give me a more sober sweet spirit to walk tenderly towards all and to do good to all And truly I can say through grace that I do not love any man the more or less for his judgments sake whether he be Presbyterian Independent Baptized c. But where ever I see the Image of Christ appear which is love and holiness there I desire to love and honor And for his large Parentheses from page 52. to page 55. wherin he makes an Apologie for his bitterness passion as he had need enough to do and then closes with a proposal that if we will but acknowledge his Ministery Churches and Ordinances to be according to the Institutions of Christ and such as with whom we will hold communion then he will write a Retractation c. I answer let him first but prove that they are so and then we will soon acknowledge it but till then though he be so wise as to propse it we shall not be so foolish as to grant it c. And as for his Marginall Note upon page 55 about our being thought to own their Ministery because we hear some of them Truly I think he had need not speak of that for few of us do hear him or intend it till he be of another temper yet I do not refuse to hear any sober godly man though I must needs say I have but little comfort in or incouragement to the hearing of some who are so often venting their passion and bitterness c. The next thing concerning me is pag. 55. where he layes an accusation against me and the Society with whom I walk that we neglected for a long time the Declarations of his Highness for solemn meetings c. whereby he endevours if he could to render me and this Church obnoxious in the eyes of the Governours of England but through mercy the chief Magistrate and chief Governours of this Common-wealth have more wisdom and grace than to hearken to such accusations especially from men of his temper but if I were so wicked and void of ingenuity as to go about to accuse men for such neglects I might find matter enough to write and publish against my neighbours but I abhor and detest such an envious and unworthy spirit c. But I do not remember that ever this Church neglected one such meeting neither did I ever omit above once or twice at the most preaching publickly as I durst appeal to the whole Citie to bear me witness but suppose I had upon the change of the Government being scrupled or dissatisfied so as to omit once or twice preaching are there none in England or Bristoll have done the like and is it the part of a Minister to rake up old Stories to present to the ears of the Magistrate and to publish to the Nation to incense them against a person or people that live peaceably under are subject unto and make supplication for those that are in authority as the Scriptures require Titus 3. 1. 1 Tim. 2. 1 2. and as we are well known to do c. I shall say no more but the Lord rebuke the Spirit of Envie c. As for many other things in his Book both concerning me and the Church with whom I walk as first his jeering at our cutting out Churches according to our fancied primitive patern and our being mar'd in the shaping c. wherein he pleaseth himself and men like himself And secondly his gross mistake in laying the blame of all the mischief the Quakers have done in Bristoll with many other evils and falsities to the charge of this poor Congregation some of whom bave stood as much and born as full a testimony against the principles and practices of those miserable deluded people as ever he hath done and perhaps to better purpose c. Now as for his large and unlearned Discourse about an ungodly learned man being fitter to preach than a godly man that wanteth onely human learning in respect of divers Tongues as likewise his supposed insufficiency of the Spirit of Christ to furnish and accomplish fit and enable men to that work c. I shall not undertake to answer every particular that he asserts about this matter from pag. 62. to pag. 66. Onely if I might be thought worthy to inform such a man as he is or any other of his mind I should advise them to take heed of grating upon jerking against slighting or undervaluing of
by Iames Naylor a man then highly admired and cried up by you or those of your way as a man of great infallibility which perhaps might help to puff him up with pride by which he came to fall into this fad condemnation c. Now whereas some of your way boast much of your being all led by one and the same Spirit so that though they were at a great distance yet they all speak but one thing c. Now let any man read and compare your answers with Iames Naylors and see how near they come together unless it be in railing judging and censuring though therein I must needs say his answers are more moderate than yours And whereas a late Writer for your way puts it by way of derision to the Preachers in England that if six of the most able Doctors should have a portion of Scripture given them to interpret and they shut up in six several rooms c. that perhaps not two of the six agree in their interpretation Now suppose you had taken four more of your Teachers such as some of you had challenged the whole world to accuse of sin and made them six in number and have given them these sixteen Quaeries apart to answer perhaps they would have come as rear as you and Naylor do in your answers or as six of the weakest Preachers in England might have done in their interpreting a place of Scripture As for your word to England I shall say little to that but desire rather to mourn for the evils and abominations therein as I know it is my duty and yours also if you knew how to do it and so I conclude expecting that I shall have many sharp Arrows of bitter words shot at me both by you and others but for that I matter not much being conscious to my self that I have written in plainness words of truth and soberness and that I have been pressed by others to do what I have done and that rather for the vindication of truth than of my self and rather for the sakes of some godly people who may read it than for your sakes to whom I direct it and if you or others shall dip your pens in Vineger or Gall to write again I hope I shall bear it or modestly reply to it though my thoughts are rather to suffer my self to be trampled upon then again to answer a word seeing that of making many Books there is no end and much study is a weariness of the flesh Eccles 12. 12. And knowing also that neither you nor others can speak or write me so vile as I can and do see and acknowledge my self to be as in my self yet is my perfection and compleatness in another even in Christ Jesus my Lord in whom is all righteousness all strength and all fulness laid up for all those that sensibly see and feel that in them that is in their flesh dwelleth no good thing c. and thereupon do look unto him to receive of his fulness grace for grace in which glorious person all that do believe are justified and by whose grace and blessed Spirit they are in a measure sanctified and through whose pretious blood and perfect righteousness mediation and intercession they shall be eternally saved and in whose way I could as gladly now as ever subscribe my self Your Friend T. E. FINIS There is now in the Press a Book written by Robert Purnel entituled A little Cabbinet richly stored with all sorts of heavenly varieties wherein there is a Remedy for every Malady viz. Milk for Babes and Meat for strong Men and the ready way for both to obtain and retain assurance of Salvation being an Abridgment of the sum and substance of the true Christian Religion and to be fold at the Three Bibles in Paul's Church-yard
and were troubled until they understood what you and your company meant by such things and that it was because I would not joyn with you and your new Religion and with the people that call themselves Quakers Again Was this the ground upon which you did so often cry out against Judases in the Church a little before you left us but blessed be the Lord we can now rejoice that the innocencie of the upright is cleared and the Judases are discovered c. and whether I or you have betraied and crucified the Lord Jesus in his Saints in his waies in his name and in his truth I shall humbly leave c. I do not boast but desire with all humilitie and reverence to acknowledge and admire the power grace mercy and goodness of him by whom I a poor worm have been preserved whilst such a Cedar or Star as you were taken to be is so sadlie fallen but it is no more than what some have thought and said long ago That pride and arrogancie would have a fall as Prov. 29. 23. But let him that thinketh he stands take heed lest he fall c. 1 Cor. 10. 12. But now you say I openly oppose the appearance of Christ where it is found in life and power c. What because I said of that poor deluded Creature It were fitter she were sent to Bridwel O poor deceived man that you should be a professor of Religion so long and now come to publish such a piece of folly to the world as to call the Since this I have been three times disturbed for which one is now imprisoned fierce raylings c. of these people the appearances of Christ in life and power and my speaking that one word to her once an opposing of Christ c. whereas she had no hurt done her not a word spoken to any Magistrate against her nay though she and others of your way have 16 or 17 times opposed me and rayled at me yet never but one and that but once was questioned or imprisoned for it and yet I am cried out against in word and writing by you and your companie as the great persecutor which now you tell the world you have been warned by invisible lights some months past to beware of me But how can you call Sarah Latchet the Servants of God and Witnesses of Jesus in the plural number whereas it was but to she only and that but once I spake those words though she rayled at me many times but ask your own heart whether your Design were not to draw out my supposed Offence to the world and then consider whether instead thereof you have not let out your own folly envie and hypocrisi But where is that meekness and bearing that some of you boast of that you would not return evil for evil but being cursed you bless c. poor-creatures it is an easie thing to flatter your selves and speak words c. but let any one touch you though but in a word and they shall find you as rough both in rayling and writing as any But what would you have done unto me if I should have come into your Meetings and disturbed you and railed at you c. as she and others have done at me you would have sent me not to Bridwel but to the bottomless pit if words could have done it You close your Letter with many seeming expressions of love and pity as 1. That I might see the sandiness of my foundation 2. Know the things that belong to my peace 3. Escape the pit 4. Not shut up the kingdom of Heaven against my self and others c. 1. As for my foundation I know no other nor preach no other than that foundation and Corner stone which is laid in Sion even Jesus Christ the Son of God and Son of man in one person upon whom through grace I have cast my soul for eternity and other foundations I look not for c. 2. As to my knowing the things that belong to my peace c. I bless the Lord it is the groaning of my soul to him for that blessed Spirit of revelation in the knowledge of the Mysterie of God and of the Father and of Christ that I may believe more love more and obey more c. 3. As for my escaping the Pit I desire the like for you and in order to that I have consented to and helped on the Admonitions that have been sent by the Church to you and the other poor souls that are with you c. 4. But fourthly As for my shutting up the kingdom against my self and others c. I can say through grace it hath been and is daily my great care and work to preach the kingdom of God freely to sinners and to set forth the Lord Jesus Christ as the way to that kingdom and to invite and encourage all poor souls to come into that kingdom by Jesus Christ the true door or way and by the strait gate of believing which the Scribes and Pharisees by putting men upon working for life did shut up against themselves and others and who doth so now but those that bid all men turn to a Light within them and so take them off from believing on the person of Jesus Christ or looking to be saved by what he hath done and suffered wrought and accomplished for man c. But I suppose your meaning is That I should give over preaching and come to you and your way I know this hath been the longing desire of many of you a great while for these were the words of one of your way the last time I was in your house That I kept many from receiving or embracing the Light but I desire to bless the Lord that through the riches of his grace to my soul I have been hitherto preserved and I have seen my Call to and Work in this City clearer since you left us than ever I did before both as to this poor desolate Church and likewise to many precious souls in Bristol among both of which I trust I may say with humility and comfort that God hath made me of some use though I be as nothing c. And truly I do hope that God who chuseth the things that are not to confound the things that are c. wil yet use me as an instrument for good unto his people in this City and the rather because both you with them of your way and others that are of other waies do so violently and causelesly set against me which makes me sometimes take up the complaint of the Prophet Jeremiah Jer. 15. 10. Wo is me c. I have neither lent upon usury nor have men lent me upon usury and yet every one of them doth curse me or speak evil upon me as some translations read it but blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ that yet my lamp is not gone forth in obscure darkness c. And thus I have