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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A38090	Antapologia, or, A full answer to the Apologeticall narration of Mr. Goodwin, Mr. Nye, Mr. Sympson, Mr. Burroughs, Mr. Bridge, members of the Assembly of Divines wherein is handled many of the controversies of these times, viz. ... : humbly also submitted to the honourable Houses of Parliament / by Thomas Edwards ...	Edwards, Thomas, 1599-1647.	1644 (1644)	Wing E223; ESTC R1672	272,405	322

infection and to keepe the Church of God pure as Divines teach then thuogh the party offending shall pretend such sins or errours are not against his knowne light neither contrary to the received principles of Christianity universally acknowledged in all the rest of the Churches yet Excommunication ought to be exercised by them who have power in the Church And for our direction in these or whatsoever else requisite to the manage of them We had these three principles more especially in our eye to guide and steere our practise by 1. First The supreame rule without us was the Primitive patterne and example of the Churches erected by the Apostles Our consciences were possessed with that reverence and adoration of the fulnesse of the Scriptures that there is therein a compleate sufficiencie as to make the man of God perfect so also to make the Churches of God perfect meere circumstances we except or what rules the law of nature doth in common dictate if the directions and examples therein delivered were fully knowne and followed And although we cannot professe that sufficiencie of knowledge as to be able to lay forth all those rules therein which may meet with all cases and emergencies that may or sometimes did fall out amongst us or that may give satisfaction unto all Queries possible to be put unto us yet we found principles enough not only fundamentall and essentiall to the being of a Church but superstructorie also for the well-being of it and those to us cleare and certain and such as might well serve to preserve our Churches in peace and from offence and would comfortably guide us to heaven in a safe way And the observation of so many of those particulars to be laid forth in the word became to us a more certaine evidence and cleare confirmation that there were the like rules and ruled cases for all occasions whatsoever if we were able to discerne them And for all such cases wherein we saw not a cleare resolution from Scripture example or direction we still professedly suspended untill God should give us further light not daring to seeke out what was defective in our light in matters divine with human●… prudence th●… fatall errour to Reformation lest by sowing any peece of the old garment unto the new we should make the rent worse we having this promise of grace for our encouragement in this which in our publike Assemblies was often for our comfort mentioned that in thus doing the will of God we should know more From the Narration of your way and practises of your Churches you come now to shew the three great principles above all others by which you guided your selves in your practise which I come now to examine and doubt not but as you have exprest them to discover to the Readers their weaknesse and defectivenesse and easily to take off all the seeming strength of the reasons hinted in them for your selves and against us To the first Principle the supreame rule without you the primitive patterne and example of the Churches erected by the Apostles which also is exprest by you in the third page as that sacredpillar of fire to guide you by in all the positive part of Church worship and Government I answer why is the old Testament forgotten by you and in both these places not so much as mentioned What is the old Testament no patterne nor example to you in Church-worship and governement nor is there nothing recorded there any part of the sacred pillar of fire to guide you by Consider whether in this you follow not too much the example of some Heretiques and erroneous spirits who will have nothing to doe with the old Testament in the points they hold This is the way of the Anabaptists and of the Antinomians both of old and at this day and I am sorry such men as you in such a formall Apologie and Narration of your way as you hold out this to be should so farre forget your selves as to countenance such persons so farre And I must tell you that your search was insufficient and your rule too short if you looked only on the first Apostolike directions patterne and examples of those Primitive Churches erected by the Apostles For in the old Testament there are many rules directions and examples as a pillar of fire to guide the Churches now by as that Rom. 15. 4. showes namely those examples and rules of morall and common equitie else the Church of God should loose now many a good ground for many practises and you and your partie have been ill advised to fetch grounds out of the old Testament for many things you hold and practise There are some things you practise that you have no proofe for at all out of the new Testament either in example or precept As for instance in the point of Ordination by the people without Officers you alleadge the 8. Numb 20. but can bring none out of the new Testament so for the Church-covenant you multiply places out of the old as Ier. 50. 5. c. But none out of the new and so for that power which you allow Christian Magistrates in the Church you fetch from the old Testament So in the point of idolatrie against the naming the names used by Idolaters you bring all out of the old Testament as Mr Burroughs in his Exposition on Hosea 2. And without the taking in the old Testament which you so wholly forget in this your first principle you would loose much strength in severall points you hold and practise against some who differ from you As in the Baptisme of Infants from the Covenant made with Abraham and his seed and the Circumcision of Infants as in keeping the Christian Sabbath from the fourth Commandement as in speaking against humane inventions in the worship of God from the second Commandement with other particulars of the same kind Now if you will use the old Testament in some examples and commands as you doe though here you forget to mention it Then grounds out of the old Testament in matters not ceremoniall and judiciall proper to the Jewes policie Nation and times but in things of morall and common equitie will justifie other practises And how then you can escape in the way of Church government the lawfullnesse of appeales from lower Judicatories to higher and the lawfullnesse of Formes of publike prayer composed and prescribed with other particulars I see not But because you foresaw these and such like as that of a Nationall Church you here decline the old Testament and speake only of the New and but of a part only of that too namely that of the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles as your words in both pages third and ninth intimate The Churches erected by the Apostles and the first Apostolike directions patternes and examples of the Primitive Churches recorded in the new Testament which reaches no farther then the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles But though you doe not deale fairely in abridging the Scriptures and making your supreme rule so narrow as the Acts and Epistles and I might justly stand upon it to make you inlarge your rule to the books both

upon our persons in our absence began by our presence againe and the blessing of God upon us in a great measure to scatter and vanish without speaking a word for our selves or cause And if at your first appearing so many of those mists and in so great a measure were vanisht then surely by that time your writ this Apologie all might have been vanisht and scattered But let me aske you Whose mis-apprehensions doe you understand you lay under that you present this Apologie to the Parliament and appeale to them Doe you meane you have laine under the darke cloud of the manifold mis-apprehensions of the Parliament 〈◊〉 or of the people of the Kingdome Certainely not under the darke cloud of the mis-apprehensions of the Parliament They are too great and wise a Body to be guilty of manifold misapprehensions of you Besides what Ministers have had the sunne of their favour shining upon them more then your selves You all have been made Members of the Assembly by them called to preach before them upon their publike solemne occasions and some of you employed in extraordinary services But if you understand the mis-apprehensions of the body of the people why doe you present this Apologie to the Parliament what would you have them doe for you or how shall they free you from the darke cloud of manifold misapprehensions I suppose you doe not expect that the Houses should set forth a Declaration to cleere you five neither make an Ordinance that whosoever mis-apprehends you and your wayes shall be reputed ill affected to the publike though M. S. your new great friend sets the brand of malignancie on them who are against you Why doe you then appeale to them in respect of the misapprehensions of the people or trouble them with so triviall a matter Doe you not know the people will mis-apprehend persons and opinions though plainely and fully laid downe which yours never yet were And indeed for any cloud of manifold mis-apprehensions you have hitherto laine under you may thanke your selves and never appeale to the Parliament to be a refuge and Asylum for your mistaken and mis-judged innocence whenas according to your owne confessions in this Apologie going in a new and different way from all the Reformed Churches you have never yet declared what you hold and what not neither have answered the Bookes written against your way but have reserved your selves And yet whereas you pretend a cloud of manifold mis-apprehensions as the ground in this way first to present your selves and to appeale to the Parliament And 't is a usuall phrase in the mouthes of your party to put off arguments with that you are mistaken I know not for mine own part and some others of my bretheren wherein any of you have been mis-apprehended by us but we have so farre judged of you as to goe by no other rules but your known practises and your letters and other manuscripts given and sent out to your followers and from what some who are of your own Churches and your familiar friends have held out and pleaded for as your Principles together with what we find in the printed Treatises of them of New-England the New-England way being generally taken to be your way and I heard Mr Bridge since this Parliament openly affirme it for himselfe and others we agree with them of New-England and are of their Church-way And Mr Burroughs hath said so too As for the first presenting your selves to the Supreame judicatory of this Kingdome had it not been for the reasons given you above I should not have spoken against it but seeing you have appeal'd unto them unto them ye shall goe 〈◊〉 unto the Parliament as the most just and severe tribunall for guiltinesse and withall the most sacred Refuge and Asylum for innocence I appeale too humbly desiring them if their great affaires can spare any time to read this Antapologie with the Reasons I above two yeare●… since presented to the House of Commons against your Helena of Independencie and your Diana of toleration Meane time I cannot but stand and wonder that you knowing and acknowledging the Houses to be the Supreame Judicatory of the Kingdome c. how you had the face to presen●… an appeale to them in things untrue wherein many people can point to and say passages in the 25 and 26 pages are not so I heard saith one at such a Church one of the five preach of their Church-way and I heard saith another another of them at such a Church preach the like But why doe I wonder when it will appeare in the following discourse you have so much in your own cause at this time lost your selves and forgot your principles as that ye doe ascribe to the grace of God and call God to witnesse your constant forbearance of publishing your opinions by preaching c. which how untrue 't is I shall evince when I come to the 25 and 26 pages or else let me suffer And thus much for the occasion or Preface of this Apologeticall Narration The most if not all of us had ten yeares since some more some lesse severall setled stations in the Ministery in places of publike use in the Church not unknown to many of your selves but the sinfull evill of those corruptions in the publike worship and government of this Church which all doe now so generally acknowledge and decrie tooke hold upon our consciences long before some others of our brethren And then how impossible it was to continue in those times our service and standings all mens apprehensions will readily acquit us Here begins the Narration wherein we may consider the Matter of it and the Manner and way of the carriage and contrivance of it The Matter consists partly of Fact and Practise And partly of Opinions and Tenents both which all along in their Narration are interwoven within each other Their opinions and Tenents in their practises and their practises in their opinions The matter of the Narration consists of three maine parts First of their Opinion and fact before their Exile The second of their Opinions and Practises in their Exile The third of their carriage and behaviour since their returne into England from their first comming over to the time of putting forth this Apologie The Manner of carrying it all along is clothing the Narration in such words phrases and in such a way though the Church principles are laid downe and maintained in it as to make the Parliament and Kingdome believe they differ little or nothing from the Reformed Churches and from our Church now And in the things wherein there is some difference of which they give but three instances though the differences be many and so great in their account as to constitute new Churches and to forsake communion upon them yet they render them so to the Parliament and Reader as if the Reformed Churches in the differences between them could not but allow their way and practises though there

of Old and new Testament yet well knowing the Acts of Apostles and Epistles will cast you I am well contented and most ready at that weapon alone to try it with you and care not in the present controversie of the Church-way as to let all other Authours so for the old Testament and that part of the New too the Gospells to stand by And if you can make good out of the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles by any Apostolike direction patterne or example of those Primitive Churches directed by the Apostles many things you practise and maintaine as Ordination of Ministers by the people alone as your Church-covenant as a few private Christians to gather and constitute a Church as persons to be members of such Congregations where they live constantly many miles distant from their Ministers and the meeting places with other such I will yeeld the cause and if I make not good from the Acts of the Apostles and Epistles things mainly opposed by you but affirmed by us As that of particular Churches to consist of more then can meet in one place to be edified in all parts of worship with other such then blame me So that I may say of your Church-way and the questions between us as Tertullian answered long since some hereticks That if they were to be determined by the Scriptures they would not subsist Now as to the ground of this principle within you yeur consciences were possest with that reverence and adoration of the fullnesse of the Scriptures that there is therein a compleate sufficiency as to make the man of God perfect so also to make the Churches of God perfect c. First I answer Your ground here alledged doth not prove your supreame rule without you namely the Primitive patterne and example of the Churches erected by the Apostles to be compleatly sufficient to make the Churches of God perfect because that speakes as of the whole Scriptures that there is in them a compleat sufficiencie and not as of a part now though the Scriptures may be and are so full and perfect yet every part may not you can in reason conceive that the whole may be compleatly sufficient to all ends and uses for which it was intended when a part or parts may not suffice And that Scripture which you allude unto for proofe 2 Tim. 3. v. 16 17. speakes of the whole Scripture and not of a part only the Papists would have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in that text to signifie non totam sed omnem Scripturam and so would give that praise not to the whole body of the Scriptures but to particular parts of it Learned Chamier snewes the contrary how that the whole Scripture is here rather to be understood and he proves it by a threefold argument and in this great question between us and the Papists An Scriptura Christianum perf●…ctum reddat resolves the question to be understood of the whole canon in the Old and new Testament And so doth Dr Whitakers by which you may judge how unsufficient and short your first principle was being only a part of the Scriptures but not the whole and you may observe the fallaciousnesse of your reason propounded to argue from the whole to a part because the whole Scriptures have a compleat sufficiencie to make the Churches of God perfect therefore the Primitive patterne and example of the Churches erected by the Apostles have too Secondly I doe also adore the fullnesse of the Scriptures and God forbid that I should take from the Scriptures any thing God gives unto them or that which in the Scripture is attributed unto it but we must not give unto the Scriptures more then what God intended them for or what the Scripture affirmes of it selfe for that is to be wise above what is written and to adde unto the word and may be and hath been a ground of dangerous consequence in the Church of God and to cleare it from your own instances of exception Meere circumstances we except c. Now suppose some to speake as you doe and to be really acted also upon the same ground of the fullnesse and sufficiencie of the Scriptures should yet affirme of the Scriptures without all exception of me 〈◊〉 circumstances and of the rules which the law of nature doth in common dictate and should say nothing must be practised no not in meere circumstances but by some direction from the word and as for the rules the law of nature doth in common dictate in them also the Scripture gives light how to doe them and thereupon should speake as you doe all along in this Section would not this prove inconvenient and trouble you in your Churches Nay suppose some should so extoll the fullnesse and sufficiencie of the Scriptures that they should hold them so perfect and sufficient for all Christians as to be a perfect rule for all civill government and that Chrstian common-wealths ought to be governed by lawes only there recorded and by no other which opinion in substance Carolostadius held That in Courts of justice Judges should not proceed according to humane laws but according to the law of Moses and so for Military practises should hold all the way of Warre must be founded upon the Scriptures and thereupon should clamour against any other art and way of Warre then what was practised there What would you reply to these men or what strength were there in such principles would not you answer them in what sense the Scriptures were perfect and how they must understand it Men have often by giving more to the most excellent creatures and things then the Scriptures allow fallen into great errors and mistakes The Papists and Ubiquitaries speake highly of the body of Christ and 't is all in the way of magnifying it and Schuvenckfeldius did boast himselfe to be the Assertor of the glory of the flesh of Christ in Heaven which other Preachers neglected or else opposed and yet all these held great errors about the body and humane nature of Christ under the notion of advancing it So in the present controversie by giving to the Scriptures that which God hath not given to them both is and may be a ground of error And therefore I referre you for the true sense of that question concerning the fullnesse and sufficiencie of the Scriptures to make the Churches of God perfect unto the answers our Protestant Divines give the Papists in that controversie about the perfection of the Scriptures And by the way let me commend to you and all the Ministers of the Church-way to study our Protestant writers as Whitakers Chamier c. against the Papists upon the Church and of the notes of the visible Church upon the controversie concerning the