should find the Evidences of Gods favour and acceptance in the life of Faith and Love and Holiness do lamentably quiet themselves instead of these with being members of such strict societies as profess even a separating conspicuous holiness 20. Lastly But one of the greatest snares of all is that men cannot bear the Censures of those that are inclined to Separation And therefore rather than be accounted and called by them Formalists Temporizers Carnal or such like they will do as they do and turn their zeal into partial and unjust censures of the persons words and outward Modes and Circumstances of Worship of those that they dissent from These and such other causes of Dividing inclinations I did upon the special necessities of the Churches and some of my own acquaintance lay open in a Book called the Cure of Church Divisions which made a great noise as water powred upon the flames But though some upon misunderstanding and some by guilt and interest muttered much against it I never had a word against it privately or publickly in writing by way of Confutation of any thing in it save only a Libell of one that now calleth himself Edward Bagshaw a man that I am not acquainted with though I have seen and spoken with him and though to my trouble when his fancy led him that way he unskilfully wrote for me against the Bishop then of Worcester I greatly rejoyce that in these times of tryal so few of the Non-conformable Ministers are by sufferings and passions hurried into the dividing extream If injuries or interest would excuse any sin I think there are few Ministers in England who have more inducements to the angry separating way than I have But shall I therefore wrong the Truth and Church of God and my own and others souls God forbid Brethren it is none of my meaning to disoblige you from your ancient faithful Ministers Nor yet to perswade you to hear any insufficient or intolerable man much less to commit your souls to the Pastoral care of such a person nor yet to prefer a worse before a better who may upon lawful terms be enjoyed But the things that I perswade you to are these 1. Not to entertain false uncharitable dividing principles in your minds which will break the peace of all societies 2. If you differ about Infant Baptism Indepencie Common prayer or such like that yet you will not think your differences oblige you to deny Communion to all you differ from 3. That if you are so sinfully partial that you cannot joyn in the same Churches you would yet live charitably and peaceably in several Churches 4. That you would not say any Church of Christ is No Church because it is not of your form or mode 5. That you would not say that Communion with any Church is unlawful because their external worshipping form is not of your fashion or before you have proved what you say My advice is calculated to the Vnion and peace of all true Churches and not those of one form or mode alone And I note it as a considerable providence of God that I am drawn in to defend the Principles of Love and Concord in these trying times against such an adversary as Mr. Bagshaw is It hath of late been Gods way to let us know the evil of Principles by their effects on the men that we have had to do with As Malignant principles would not have been sufficiently distasted by us if they had not shewed themselves in malignant practices So Dividing principles had never been sufficiently known in England if they had not ruined a Reformation silenced so many hundred Ministers and laid us in the dirt as they have done And if the Cause of Dividers must be judged of by the defenders I advise you to consider of these things following 1. How many notorious false doctrines he hath delivered 2. How many other notorious Crimes in two Libells he hath committed In special let every sober person judge whether Ignorance Temerity Pride and high self-conceitedness with malignant unconcealed calumny do not only defile but even constitute or make up his Books 3. What bitter enmity is here exprest against the Principles of Love and Vnity and Concord and Peace and Sobriety it self 4. How many score notorious untruths he shamelesly publisheth in these two Libells 5. How much he fighteth against Repentance and so with gross Impenitency aggravateth all his crimes 6. How like his own Spirit is to that which he accounteth the Spirit of imposition and persecution And how vehement he is against the same persons as such are and as impudently slandereth them and as bitterly and professedly designeth to make them odious But he that professeth to make another odious thereby disableth himself from doing it 7. Whether ever in all your lives you saw two Libells written against another which do not only perform but even attempt so little and next to nothing at all to give any answer to the Books he writes against Read mine and read his and I defie any thing but madness it self or blind partiality or wickedness to make any man think that he hath confuted what I have written I confess I admire at the mans insensibility that doth not perceive how much he hath done by pretending an Answer and giving none or worse than none to make his cause or himself contemptible Can any man in his wits think that he hath confuted the Principles of Concord which I laid down in my Directions 8. Whether such a man as this do shew himself wiser than Dod Hildersham Ames Baine and all the old Non-conformists according to the importance of his boast or whether he give us cause to believe that God hath revealed more to him than to them while he himself can no better reveal it unto others 9. When I had set down at least thirty three Vntruths which he deliberately dared to write and publish did you ever read such a pittiful vindication He hath not spoken to any considerable number of them And of those few that he speaketh to try if you can find any one of which he cleareth himself And yet he professeth not repentance for any one of them Nay to open his Impenitency he professeth falsly that I cannot justly charge him with any of them and addeth in the last Libell forty eight palpable Vntruths more Just like one that being accused of swearing should forty eight times swear that he never sware 10. How far he proceedeth in his separation and how far he would draw poor unstable souls It is not only from the Conformists and the Parish Churches that he would have you separate and all in the whole world that are worse than they but also from all the Non-conformists in England that are not better than I as his concluding Advertisement fully telleth you All of my mind and measure are unworthy of the communion of this humble tender credible man 11. What means is there left in the world to
resolute disclaiming any Activeness in that War did so much stagger me R. B. This is yet more than the former Alas have you cast off all heed what you say and all common modesty in your reports Where did I ever deny any Activeness I argued thus He that never medled with the War till long after it was raised that never shot struck or hurt any man that never was Officer or Common-Soldier that never took Commission to be Chaplain of the Garrison where two years of the War I did continue but preached a Lecture to them without any Commission that never went into the Field Army till after Naisby Fight and then went thither by the solemn Advice of an Assembly of Divines many yet living twice assembled and that upon an open profession to the Committee that my Reason and Business was in the apprehension of our Common danger from the Army to discharge my own Conscience in disswading as many of the Souldiers as I could from overturning the Government of the State and Church which I was fully satisfied they intended and that spent his time among them under their displeasure in such work I say that he that did thus was not so guilty of stirring up and fomenting the War as were those that first raised it and those that were Generals Commanders or Souldiers and as those that preached for it to the Parliament or as those that went on in the many following Wars to the end And is there any thing in all this that saith I was no way Active in it My Activity was principally in the City of Coventry which never saw an Enemy while I was there And it was in telling my opinion to others and twice going out with their Souldiers to the Siege of neighbour Garrisons The rest I intimated to you before And this is it that I meant in the words of the Book which you recite I askt you whether the Parliament nor the chief Speakers in it nor the Earl of Essex nor Cromwell did no more with more to that purpose which you give no answer to but defend your falshood with the addition of more such falshoods as if your design in writing were practically to tell men to what boldness in sinning mans vitiated nature will proceed if it be not seasonably restrained Yea as if you had quite forgotten what you were to prove you say Sect. 11. E. B. p. 4. Nor do I delight to expose you to the scorn of your enemies and to the pitty of your friends but I cannot help it R. B. Reader because I have met with so strange a Judge I freely appeal to thee if thou be but sober who it is that by this mans Writings is here exposed to scorn and pitty Whether I that so fully disproved his Calumny that I was as guilty of stirring up and fomenting the War as any whatsoever as that he hath not a word of sense to say in confirmation of it or he that with such strange audaciousness addeth such falshoods as have not one syllable in all my Writings to countenance them and taketh up another charge against me that I boldly and resolutely disclaim any Activity c. Did he trust that his Readers would so far believe him as rather to venture upon the scorn and pity which he would move them to than once to examine my Book whether I wrote such a word or not I confess too many of his own Spirit are like to do so and to believe what such a man as this reporteth and think that he cannot be so impudent as thus insultingly to say that I say thus and thus when I never wrote or spake such a word But what if he attain this end and be believed Will it add to his innocence or felicity to have his many hundreds live in the sin of lying and calumny and have no excuse for it but Mr. E. B. confidently wrote it It s a wonder that corrupted nature should be so eager to have companions in sin when it doth but tend to its own confusion Sect. 12. E. B. p. 4. You will not be beholding to an Act of Indempnity but stand upon your Innocency R. B. These are two more gross falshoods in matter of fact 1. I am and wil be beholden to the Act of Indempnity and write all this as under the protection of that Act. 2. I did not I do not stand upon my Innocency nor speak a word of such importance Sect. 13. E. B. Nothing but your hopes that all is forgotten as well as pardoned which is past could ever embolden you to so peremptory denyal R. B. This is another gross falshood 1. It is spoken of my heart which he knoweth not 2. It is twice contradicted by his own Pen. 1. He even now said that I will not be beholden to an Act of Indempnity and yet now he makes the hope of Pardon received to embolden me 2. He rebuketh me for the less seasonable Retractation of that which now he saith not only that I hoped it was forgotten but that nothing but that hope could embolden me c. Why did I Retract that which I thought forgotten Could I think that Book forgotten which remaineth visible which so many Books accuse me of and one which he mentioneth and wrote against himself and which so many have publickly preached against both formerly and of late Could I think that part of my life forgotten which all in the City of Coventry who thirty years ago were at years of discretion may remember Sect. 14. E. B. p. 4. You ask me many malicious and ensnaring questions R. B. That 's another Falshood They were not malicious And another crime to take him for malicious who calleth sinners to necessary repentance in a time of Judgements with words of love Sect. 15. E. B. In your Writings you do highly approve of that which was the worst part of the change the setting up of Cromwell to he Protector R. B. This also is notoriously false as my Writings which have no such word and as those that I converst with know Indeed Oliver Cromwells first Troop did under their Officers hands invite me to be their Pastor which I refused as dissenting from the way into which I saw them entring and not willing to leave my peaceable habitation at Coventry where I had the society of very many worthy Ministers and leisure for my Studies and was out of the heats of War And after he expostulated with me himself for refusing his desires But the very first hour that I went to his Army which was after Naseby fight he having notice of my words and intentions from a friend of his of the Coventry Committee I was entertained by the jeers of his most intimate friends as one that came forsooth to Reclaim the Army and save the Kingdom c. And in a year and halfs time while I stayed among them he would never once speak to me nor was I ever at
me was He that is not sound in the Doctrine of Justification or to that sense And what made them threaten to disown him if he would not cease such wayes Did ever sober men go about with such general accusations and expect that men answer to they know not what 6. But what are the few words that would satisfie you A yea or a nay What if I say Sir I think I am sound in the doctrine of Justification and I think you speak evil of the things you know not Would that have satisfied you Sect. 32. E. B. And in another place you tell me that you have written the better part of above fifty Books against the prophane the Jews and the Mahumetans I will not enquire to what purpose for I am very confident none of those did ever read what you have written against them But add to these your several other Treatises your Books will in all amount to as many Volumes as Tostatus writ concerning whom and all such kind of Writers you once gave this true Character though since you have most unhappily forgotten it I cannot but account all those Tostatus's as impudently proud who think the world should read no bodies works but theirs Pray Sir read this passage again and compare it with what you have already written and what as I hear you do yet further intend to write and then tell me in earnest what you think of your self R. B. 1. Seeing our debates about Church-dividing must needs be turned to this Whether I am proud I grant you the conclusion that I am proud and what would you have more 2. Your ductile followers that never saw Tostatus know not how you cheat them by these words and that you measure by Number and not by bulk and twenty of some of my Books will not make one of Tostatus's for bigness If you go to number how many more wrote Origen But a Sheet is not so big as a large Volume in folio 3. I never accused Augustine Chrysostom Calvin Zanchy c. as imitating Tostatus And I have not wrote so much as they 4. The best way to cure one that writeth too much is to perswade men not to buy and read it and then the Booksellers will not print it And till you can do that you see that all men are not of your mind And by what obligation am I bound to be of your mind alone rather than of many thousands that are of another and those that still importune me to write more Is it pride only to differ from you and to write against your judgement Or were not the Fathers and Divines fore-mentioned with Rivet Chamier Beza Luther c. yea and Dr. Owen too proud if large Writings be a sign of Pride 5. When you question to what purpose it is to write Books against the Prophane and Jews and Mahumetans that is against Infidelity and to defend the Christian faith you shew what a Guide you are to the Church 6. When you are confident that none of the Prophane c. did ever read what I wrote against them either you believe your self or not If you do how unfit are you to be believed of any that know no better what is credible in a matter of fact Could you think for instance that my Call to the Vnconverted hath been printed so oft I think some scores of thousands and translated into French by Mr. Eliots as he said he was doing into the Indian Tongue and no prophane person ever read it You will take this very instance its like for my pride which you make necessary to shew your temerity and deceit But if you do not believe your self how much less should others believe you 7. Will no sober Readers think that you set your self to do the Devils work against the service of the Church of God by seeking to silence us from writing by your contumely and scorns even from writing against the Prophane and Infidels at a time when we are by others silenced from publick preaching Let your conscience tell you if I had obeyed you from the first and never written whether the Devil or most that have made use of what I wrote would have thankt you more 8. Did not the Primitive Teachers Apostles and others leave us their Examples for Writing as well as for Vocal Teaching And are they not two wayes of predicating or publishing the same Gospel And if so would he serve God or the Devil that would scorn us all as Proud for preaching so much as the best men do 9. And do you not yet see how much you have of the same silencing Spirit which you profess to separate from 10. But your warning for a review hath brought me to Repent of and Retract that passage against Tostatus as being too rashly uttered Because 1. He wrote when good Writers were more scarce than now 2. Because he might be willing that other mens works should be preferred before his and that his own should not be wholly read but partly perused on particulas occasions 3. And it is unseemly to reprove industry Now we come to the Question after all this Sect. 33. IN stating of this Question You do E. B p. 10. your self grant so much that you scarce leave any thing to be either disputed or denyed R. B. Remember Reader that my Professed design on the Title page is 1. To invite all sound and sober Christians by what names soever called to receive each other to Communion in the same Churches 2. And where that which is first desireable cannot be attained to bear with each other in their distinct Assemblies and to manage them all in Christian Love 3. And that under the first head I particularly prove that It is lawful to hold Communion with such Christian Churches as have worthy or tolerable Pastors notwithstanding the Parochial order of them and the Ministers Conformity and use of the Common-Prayer Book This last is the true state of the Question which I affirm with these two limitations or explications That is 1. That it is lawful statedly to communicate as a member with such a Parish Church where we cannot consideratis considerandis have Communion with a better upon lawful termes 2. That those that can have stated Communion with a better may yet lawfully communicate sometimes with such a Parish Church as we may do on just occasion with a Church of Neighbours or Strangers where we live or come Yea that we ought to do so when some special reasons as from Authority Scandal c. do require it These are the summ of my Assertions Though my main cause oblige me as much to prove to a Conformist that he may have Communion with a Church of Non-conformists yet I had no call to prosecute that particularly as I had to the other for the reasons which I rendred at large And this being the Case judge now of this mans Dissent and furious opposition whether sober people have reason to
question What a Book is which you never read I will help you out and mend your cause You dispraise it that never read it and you name some that read it and dispraised it And I that wrote it am far from praising it Therefore I hope you are gratified and who will now contradict you Though I confess for my own part I think I shall not think my self fit to tell the world in Print what any mans Book is at the same time when I confess that I never read it But you may possibly avoid that way because it is mine 2. But he that employeth you shall miss of his design of engaging me against the names of Mr. Herle and Mr. Cawdrey and against your unnamed person It is sufficient to me that I honour their names and abhort all motions contrary to the Laws of Christian Love But I was not bound that they should love or honour me and if they did not that is not my sin But if my sin deserve it I have farr greater accounts on which to be displeased with that sin And I do with hearty willingness hear the Prophesie of him that told your friend I would end in flesh and blood to awaken me the more to the necessary fear and vigilancy lest his Prophesie should prove true But whether these stories be true or not it little concerneth me to enquire If they be not I pray name not the reporters or witnesses Sect. 64. E. B. You have promised me that you will make no Reply R. B. It was but conditionally if you write at the former rates And your alterations by venturing to dispute for separation have declared me not obliged And because I fear you were by those words encouraged the more to all your untruths I will promise you silence no more though I purpose it I have done this that you might have a second Admonition to Repent and the simple may not believe your multiplyed falshoods But now he that will be hereafter deceived by you let him be deceived Sect. 65. E. B. 20. When you write next I intreat 1. That you will be short 2. And significant R. B. Your Counsel is Prudent Sir but all men cannot attain to your exactness and significancy Nor will I follow your Rule till I see better effects of it Nor pretend Brevity for leaving a Book almost wholly unanswered which I pretend to answer as you do And I will better shew that I understand common English before I call to others for significancy Sect. 66. E. B. 1. That you will not mistake the thing you write about but labour clearly to understand the question R. B. But I will not undertake to make you understand it Sect. 67. E. B. Do not ramble and talk of Nature as it is Pure when you should write about nature corrupted R. B. 1. Remember that it is not you but I that am the Respondent and had the stateing of the Question Here therefore are two more falshoods intimated 1. That the question was only about Nature as corrupted 2. That I spake of Nature as pure and not as corrupted For the question put by me was about Nature as Nature and that men should not so speak against the corruption as to dishonour Gods part Nature as Nature nor yet as it is corrupted to make it worse than it is So that I spake not of it as Pure but I spake of it both abstractedly as Nature and also as corrupt Sect. 68. E. B. Do not discourse about Free-will at large when you should only handle free-will in the things of God R. B. This implyeth another Untruth that I did not speak of Free-will in the things of God To forbear the breaking of some of Gods Laws and to do somewhat commanded are the things of God I shew that men have some free-will to forbear Murder Adultery Theft Treason Perjury Perfecution yea and writing falshoods If not why do you cry out of Persecution Silencing Atheism when men have not the least free-will to forbear them Why do you refuse the imputation of your own Untruths if you have not the least free-will to forbear them Your words were Now we see one firm reason to deny the least allowance of free-will in the things of God since those that hold it in any degree The Synod of Dort taught other Doctrine And so doth Mr. Fenner in his Book of wilful Impenitence And in the second Sheet of Mr. Dods sayings when one had been restrained from swearing at Dinner by his presence contrary to his use he took occasion to shew that men can do more than they do and can forbear more evil than they forbear Sect. 69. E. B. And because many Professors of Christianity are ignorant and injudicious do not think that therefore you do well to call Christians considered as Christians so These are evident and apparent Sophisms which abound in your last Treatise R. B. These are deliberate written words And if all this be the meer fiction of your brain If I have not one syllable that hath any such importance Nor one word in my Books have the least shew of such a thing Nay if the clean contrary be most openly and plainly expressed in them and yet rather than confess your former falshood you fear not before God and man to second it with this most immodest additional forgery which hath no Cloak let your Reader judge and let your Conscience judge at last whether Repentance was your duty He that saith Christians considered as Christians are ignorant injudicious c. layeth his charge on Christianity more than on the men Had you no way to hide your former falshood but by this impudent forgery that I speak against Christianity it self Had not Repentance been a better reparation of your prostituted honour than this Sect. 70. E. B. Do not love to jumble absurd and insignificant Phrases together as to say A defective faulty true Church R. B. Reader if thou expect that he should tell thee the absurdity or insignificancy of any one of all these words thou must not put him to so much condescension but take it on his word or rest unsatisfied Whether Defective or faulty be insignificant words or whether no True Church be defective and faulty if you believe him perhaps you may hear in his time Sect. 71. E. B. To mention a Political Spiritual Constitutive Head R. B. More wisdom still which of these is the non-sense Is it that the Pope pretendeth to be a Political Head Consult D. Lud. Moulins Jugulum Causae and all Goldastus his three Volumes with Chamier Rivet Whitaker Blondel and all that write against him Or is it that he claimeth to be a Spiritual Head or Governour Then all his own defenders and all our opposers of him wrong him till Mr. Bagshaw came to reform this language Or is it because he claimeth not to be the Constitutive Head of the Church Ask all those Papists that say it is Essential
enclined to them R. B. Here he untruly intimated that I said more who never said so much but only that she thought they lived strictlyer than we and fell in among them And now Reader I shall again tell thee my reasons for all that I said of her Mr. Joseph Baker then Preacher in Worcester a man of unquestionable Prudence and Credit now with Christ told me all that I have said of this Woman and that she had not been at Church of a long time before and was passing along the Streets and was suddenly moved to go in to the Church at Lecture time and that she was struck as aforesaid at the hearing of the Text and before Sermon was done could hardly forbear crying out in Church and that she had on the conceit of their strictness faln in among the Quakers and been often at their meetings but hearing them speak against Scriptures and Ministers was troubled and thought that they spake that which her experience would not suffer her to consent to and that she was like in these perplexities to fall into great Melancholy and her body also to be weakened by the troubles of her mind and that through his motion or perswasion she was desirous to speak with me I had no reason to deny belief to him When I came next to his house the Gentle-woman came to me and he and she together repeated the substance of all this again and she spake not a syllable against it And speaking a few words to disswade her from the Quakers in haste I never saw her more The said Mr. Baker told me after of all her sad and Melancholy abstinence and weakness and of Mr. Browne and Mr. Jordanes frequency with her And shortly after shewed me the Book with Mr. Brownes Epistle to it and told me that which they now thus quarrel with that Mr. Browne was one of the publishers of it and was for the doctrine in it Though I discerned by the Book that she her self was taken with that point These things I long heard affirmed and confirmed and never contradicted till this day and now you hear that the Timeing of Mr. Brownes Opinion and endeavours is all that they can say any thing against themselves And thus much I thought meet to say against their rash occasions on this by-occasion Sect. 94. R. B. p. 30. I have not yet done with Mr. Bagshaw He comes on again in a Postscript with more Untruths And first he tells you how little commendation it is to my honesty to have yet such easie access now to the Licensers and Press that he can Print two Books before another man can Publish a few sheets Answ 1. I never spake with the Licensor nor saw him And if neither of those two Books were Licensed when he wrote this at least is not this still a fearless heedless man 2. Is not Honesty among these men become a word of a new signification And is it any wonder if our dishonesty make us unworthy of their Communion when our honesty is questionable for the Licensing of our Books If it be a sign of dishonesty to do any thing which our Rulers will but allow of it may next be dishonesty to speak any thing that they think worthy to be believed and to Preach the Gospel if they do but allow it And may not your honesty be as reasonably questioned because you are suffered to Preach Sure the Licensers are not so bad men as to prove all dishonest whose Books they License Sect. 95. E. B. His last Book about the Sabbath might have been wholly spared Dr. Owen having judiciously and accurately handled that Question before him R. B. 1. The Wisdom from above is without partiality and without hypocrisie Was it a blot on Dr. Owens honesty that his Books are Licensed O forgetful man 2. Who made the Law that no man must write on a subject after Dr. Owen was Dr. Owen to be blamed for needless work because he wrote on the Sabbath after Dr. Bound Dr. Young Dr. Twisse Mr. Eaton Mr. Bifield Mr. Shephard and many more 3. Mine was Written and in the Press before Dr. Owens was abroad Though I had before seen Mr. Hughes his accurate Treatise that then came out Sect. 96. E. B. His last Book about the Sabbath doth make so full a discovery of Mr. Baxters spirit in pleading for Saints dayes that is for will-worship R. B. 1. Remember Reader that it is my own Book and not his that discovereth my spirit Fetch thy judgement of it thence and spare not 2. And if thou find cause to put down the Commemoration of the Powder-plot or such other dayes for fear of will-worship do not therefore renounce all see houres for secret and family-prayer and Lectures it being equally will-worship to appoint a set hour as a set day which God in Scripture hath not appointed Sect. 97. E. B. And in Atheistically arguing against the Divine and self-evidencing authority of the holy Scriptures which he doth for many pages together that henceforth I hope he will no longer be a Snare but justly he Rejected of all as one of the worst sort of Hereticks since under the notion of being a Christian and a Protestant be doth with his utmost industry and cunning labour to overthrow our foundation in that he puts the credit of Scripture on the Truth of History and denies any certainty but what may be gathered from that which dangerous doctrine I could not but warn thee Christian Reader as thou lovest thy peace and comfort as well as the truth of Christ that thou wilt diligently beware of And I must leave it to thee to judge whether that Conformity which such a person pleads for is not justly to be suspected R. B. Here are three more visible untruths in point of fact 1. That I argue against the Divine Authority of the Scripture yea or the self-evidencing either which I have written for at large in three several Treatises 1. In the 2d Part of my Saints Rest 2. In a Book called the Unreasonableness of Infidelity 3. In my Reasons of the Christian Religion most fully but never wrote a word against it 2. That I do with my industry and cunning labour to overthrow our foundation Hath this man written more for the foundation than those three Books 3. That I deny any certainty but what may be gathered from the truth of History For which he citeth not one word in which I ever said so nor can But the contrary is legible in the forecited Volumes at large As to the matter of his Accusation I will not here write another Book to tell men what I have written in the former Read my own words even those he accuseth and my Treatise for the Christian Religion and judge as you see Cause But for them that will believe him to save them the labour of reading it in my own Books as if another man were liker to tell
nature very laudable 5. And I mentioned this not as a praise of him but as a Conviction of the Rebellious Army who thought they might take down all Government to set up themselves whom they could easilier believe to be good and godly than any others And whereas they pretended that it was for ungodliness that they pulled down their Superiours I shewed them that if they could not believe that the King was godly nor the Parliament godly nor the Minor part of the Parliament called the Rump godly nor their Little Mock-Parliament godly yet they should not have so accused Cromwell whom they cryed up and set him up themselves and magnified so highly as they did 6. And I meant this Commendation of some of his actions as comparative only and better than theirs that pulled down that which themselves set up 7. And yet I thank you for calling me to review those words and do hereby declare that I do take them to be unmeet as spoken to the Army that then had greatly provoked me to grief and that I unfeignedly Repent of them that you may see I love not Impenitence in my self any more than in you And I wish that they had not been written being so lyable to ill effects and it being unmeet too much to praise even the good that a Usurper doth lest it take off the odium of his Usurpation Sect. 18. E. B. Sir could you say all this of him then and do you think your partial friends can justifie you now when you compare him to the Tyrant Maximus and make him in effect to be nothing else but a Murderous and a bloody Vsurper R. B. Here is two Falshoods one expressed and the other implyed 1. That expressed is that I make him in effect to be nothing else but a Murderous c. when I never denyed any thing that was good in him but have publickly and in Print warned our Lawful Governours that they tempt not the people to dislike them by undoing any good which he did 2. The implyed falshood that I speak worse of him now than I did heretofore Whereas the truth is that I spake in the time of his own Usurpation I am confident twenty times against him for once that I have spoken since his death Not that I changed my opinion of him but that it is so cross to humane nature to insult over even malefactors in their sufferings especially when we suffer with them though by them and when their adversaries need no instigation that I have not been able to judge it my duty to speak of that very evil which I and others suffer by But have been hardly put to it these eleven years between the thoughts of open disowning those sins of self-exalting Vsurpers that have confounded us and a lothness to encrease the sufferings of those that are underfoot And this last prevailing I have greatly by it displeased my Superiours And yet lest I should harden men in impenitency having gently mentioned these Crimes it displeaseth such as are most obliged to repent And how strangely doth this man despise his Readers while he again maketh it such a thing in me to compare Cromwell to Maximus whom still he loadeth with odious Titles When in my first Book I told him p. 374. that Maximus by the Bishops was accounted a very religious Christian and pretended that the Souldiers in England made him Emperour against his will and took part with the Orthodox and greatly honoured the Bishops and promoted Religion and got a great deal of love and honour And in my Defence I told him that Maximus is by Historians made so good a man of himself that I more feared lest many would have made me a praiser of Cromwell by the comparison And I cited p. 142. the words of Sulpitius Severus of him Vir omni vitae merito praedicandus si ei diadema non legitime tumultuante milite impositum repudiare vel armis civilibus abstinere licuisset c. And the words of Beda Eccles Hist l. 1. c. 9. Maximus vir strenuus probus atque Augusto dignus nisi contra fidem per tyrannidem emersisset c. Invitus propemodum ab exercitis creatus Imperator c. But all this is not worthy the observation of this temerarious man who still puts this among my unbecoming usage of Cromwell when if he had weighed what I wrote I should have rather expected that he would have accused me again for overpraising him Sect. 19. E. B. As for your flattery to his Son which I also charged you with and you with a strange but not to your self unusual boldness do deny c. R. B. I gave a full answer to this which no reply is given to As if you were resolved to say what your list and hear nothing that is said against it As I told you that I never saw him nor ever had to do with him save that when I saw him take part against the turbulent sort of men I took it to be seasonable by that Dedication to perswade him to do good and not hurt So I told you that your words of Dedicating a flattering Book to him in common sense do distinguish between the Book and the Dedication Whether the Dedication were flattery I left to the Reader of it to judge and neither affirmed nor denyed it But only affirmed that there is not one syllable of his Son in all the Books but only in the Dedications Yet this man goeth on and falsly chargeth me to deny that which I denyed not and reciteth my words in the Dedication to prove that the Book as distinct from the Dedication was flattery Sect. 20. E. B. Deny if you can the consequence that it became not you to blame the effects who gave such rise and encouragement to the Cause I mean unless you repent of the Cause which it is evident you have not yet done And if I may not be believed in this opinion of you I doubt not but the Bishop of Worcester will who for this very thing did formerly accuse you of rebellion From which charge he that defended you then leaveth you to acquit your self now as well as you can R. B. 1. Your I mean unless you repent were none of your former words When you say one thing you think to solve and avoid the charge of falshood by saying that you Meant another 2. What you say is evident must needs be a Calumny in you 1. Because you have no Evidence of the Negative being about my heart which is to you unknown 2. Because your self did before twit me with Retraction c. 3. And did you believe your self that the Bishop of Worcesters words so many years ago are a proof that I repent not now 4. And are you yet insensible of your own partiality that then you blamed that in the Bishop which now you can freely do your self Let your followers mark what Spirit you are of if you
matters when all your curious Enquiry into an open matter of fact what so many persons hold could do no more to save you from mistaking it If you never read what lrenaeus Lactantius and others of old held If you never read what is written by Mr. Mead Dr. Twisse Mr. Archer c. Did you never read any Pamphlets within these thirty years that say more Did you that converse so much among such never hear what I that so seldom converse with them have heard so oft and seen offered me in Writings that I might have procured the Printing of them Do you believe that none of the Levellers or those whom Oliver Cromwell suppressed under the name of Fifth Monarchy men held no more Did Venner and his company think you hold no more 2. But so strange is your forgetfulness or your self-contradicting faculty that you need none to tell your Readers that you write untruths but your self Do you take no notice that all that is my words is that such a Holy and Righteous Government is desirable and may justly be sought as all Christians agree But your profession is that most of your converse is with those that do in faith expect it And could you see no difference between seeking it and in faith expecting it I desire the conversion and salvation of all the men I know and I seek it of God in prayer and of as many of them as I have fit opportunity or ought so to do at least I desire the Conversion of all the Kingdoms and people of the world but whether I may in faith expect it I am so ignorant that I cannot tell I desire and seek by prayer of God that all the world may have holy and just Governours but I cannot boast of so much faith or hope in this as those that you converse with As proud as I am I freely confess my Ignorance to you But certainly they that take it for an Article of their faith do carry the Notion further than I can do who profess that I am ignorant of it whether it be a promised thing or not Sect. 24. E. B. p. 7. Because you dare not own any hazardous and persecuted truth and you find it far easier in your Notional Divinity to recant all that formerly you were convinced of than to bring your heart to a willingness for Martyrdom R. B. 1. You spake of danger before you now add Persecution and Martyrdom intimating that this is such a persecuted point which as far as ever I heard who live in the same Land and have as hard thoughts of persecution as many others have there is not any thing true in your intimation Name the Law that is against the Opinion of the desirableness of a holy Government of all the world Name the person that ever suffered for that Opinion Though those that will resist or pull down Governours because they take them justly or unjustly to be ungodly may suffer for it Again therefore to imply danger of Martyrdom for that which no man that ever I heard of suffered for and to feign the avoiding of that danger to be the Chief Cause of my recanting or changing my mind or words which I never recanted or changed is a monstrous course of fiction and temerity 2. Your talk of Recanting all that formerly I was convinced of implyeth more temerity and falshood Any man of humane modesty would have thought All too bigg a word when the instances produced by him prove nothing If you refer to the Revocation of my Book you should have opened your eyes and seen that I profess not to Recant all the doctrine of it though I revoke all the Book and wish men to take it as non-scriptum And sure that passage had no peculiar recantation 3. But if Recantation be so easie to me remember that I pretend not to Infallibility nor am altogether unwilling to Repent As for Martyrdom I take it to be every Christians duty yea necessary to salvation to prepare for it that is to deny his life and to forsake all in true resolution for the sake of Christ and hopes of Heaven But how far my heart is brought to a willingness of it though I am sure you know not and therefore venture to speak what you know not yet I have no reason to boast nor to be self-consident nor to be high-minded but to fear Sect. 25. E. B. And this alone I take to be the true cause why so weakly and so unlike a Minister of the Gospel you inveigh against sufferings For you have never yet experienced either the comfort or the cleansing of them and therefore venture rashly to speak evil of what you know not and which I fear you have neither courage nor affection to venture the tyral of I speak it to your shame R. B. 1. Thus sin useth like a River to run on the longer the greater Wonderful that you can believe the people that fear God to be so sottishly credulous of all the falshoods that you shall tell them as not so much as to open the Book which you accuse and to see that you deceive them If you will prove that true which you say it must be by this argumentation He that telleth men that sufferings have their temptations as well as prosperity and warneth men to fear and avoid those temptations doth weakly and unlike a Minister of the Gospel inveigh against sufferings But so doth R. B. Ergo But the Major is false and therefore insufficient to support your false Conclusion Let the Reader but peruse my words and if he find one syllable of inveighing against sufferings let him believe you the next time and take you for a man that hath not quite forfeited his credit 2. And what friendship to sin and continued enmity to vigilancy and repentance do you express when you were told an unquestionable truth and but warned of an unquestionable danger and duty to reject all so senslesly and that with such false retortions Tell your followers 1. Is it false or true that sufferings have their temptations as well as Prosperity and in particular to drive us into uncharitableness and extreams from them that we suffer by 2. Are not you and others that suffer in danger of such temptations and sin in sufferings 3. Should not such temptation and sin be carefully watcht against Is there any falshood in all this 4. And is he fit to glory in the cleansing fruit of sufferings that shall falsly say that such a necessary warning is an inveighing against sufferings c. 5. Do you believe that they that turned Quakers in Prison are gainers by their sufferings or they that lose more of their Love than of their Liberties 3. If I never experienced the comfort or cleansing of sufferings I have cause of great lamentation as having suffered very much in vain I will not with Paul here glory in my infirmities but I shall confess that they greatly aggravate my sin
strictly upon a quarter of what you have writ you could not be guilty of so strange forgetfulness For in your Premonition to the Saints Rest you have these very words Many think that by Flesh is meant only Indwelling sin when alas it is the sensitive appetite that it chargeth us to subdue For which you quote Rom. 8. 3 4 5 c. R. B. You begin comfortably with a promise to Conclude but you proceed sadly 1. Is not the inference as strong against many words in your Preaching as in mine and other mens writings that in many words there cannot want much sin 2. You proclaim the aggravation of your sin when you speak for meditating strictly on what we write Can you heap up untruths in Book after Book and commit all these Crimes even when you have strictly meditated what you write Do you sin so studyedly and deliberately and yet will you not Repent 3. Reader if ever thou wilt pitty a poor self-conceited troubler of the Church pitty this poor man who here openly tells thee that either he understands not common sense or else takes no heed what he saith but bringeth a new untruth to justifie a former even into the open light and triumpheth in his act He telleth you the charge which he undertaketh to prove viz. that I have written that by Flesh is only meant the sensitive appetite He now undertaketh to prove that I said so in the Premon to the Saints Rest which is another Vntruth because I said Many think that by Flesh the Scripture meaneth only our Indwelling sin when alas it is the inordinate sensitive appetite which it chargeth us to subdue Here he first leaveth out several words especially the word inordinate because he read not the later Editions And yet he put in the word only which the Printer in the last Editions hath left out and which openly sheweth the falshood of his charge Is it all one to say that by Flesh is meant not only Indwelling sin and to say It is not meant at all Do you think he took any heed of the word only when he wrote it My business not in the Premonition as he mis-reports but in the Epistle was to prove the sinfulness of flesh-pleasing and that when the Scripture bids us subdue the flesh and make no provision for it c. It doth not only mean subdue the habits of Indwelling sin in the understanding and will and make no Provision for them but also that we must prevent actual sin by subduing the sensitive appetite unto reason and ruling it by faith and that even Original and habitual sin it self consisteth partly in the Inordinateness of that Appetite And here I implyed this proof from the Notation of the Name q. d. If the sin to be subdued be called Flesh then the Fleshly appetite is not wholly to be excluded For there is some reason why sin is called Flesh rather than Spirit And what can the reason be but that 1. The sensitive appetite it self is Inordinate and so part of the seat of sin and 2. The understanding and will are enslaved to the sense or flesh and are vitiated with a sinful inclination to serve the flesh or sense it self And therefore he that readeth in Scripture such passages as require us to subdue the flesh he must not deceive himself by thinking that it is only Indwelling sin that is in the superiour faculties that is meant by flesh and that the sensitive appetite is not here meant at all When as 1. Original sin it self is partly in the sensitive appetite And 2. Actual sin is to be resisted by subduing the sensitive appetite to reason and bringing the body into subjection as well as Indwelling sin to be extirpated And if the Name of Flesh be put upon Indwelling sin from the Fleshly interest and Inordinate appetite then surely this it self is not wholly to be excluded as no part of the sense of the word Flesh in Scripture And when my words plainly express this sense with what face could this man not only put other words upon me which were none of my own but also another sense and a sense clean contrary to the words And this to justifie a former falshood And this after that in divers Writings I have fully and plainly disputed of Original sin as it is the corruption of the superiour faculties and in divers Books about Conversion shewed the necessity of the cleansing and renewing of those faculties And here the word only was before his eyes a confutation of his calumny Sect. 62. E. B. And indeed Sir that I may confess a secret to you this very passage of yours I looked on as so conceited and singular and many years agoe it gave me so great offence that I threw away your Book upon it and never would read it over as not thinking it possible that one who erred in the very entrance in so plain a truth was able to instruct me in any thing that was worth my knowing R. B. 1. The Book was written about twenty one or twenty two years agoe and you are a Young man yet You surely begun very early to be past possibility of being taught any thing by such as I. Is this only to declare your humility or that you speak evil of the Books which you never read and that you are the fittest man to be the accuser of them 2. It may be there was some early antipathy between our judgements For I will confess such another secret to you That about twelve years ago a Latine small discourse came to my hand as famed to be yours against the Species of Monarchical Government and the arguments against Monarchy in it seemed to me such poor injudicious slender stuff that though I did not as you cast away the Book till I came to the end it was one occasion of my writing the twenty Arguments against Democrasie which I put into the Book which I have revoked my Polit. Aph. 3. Do you not tell the world how fit a Champion you are for any truth or reformation who when you read not only indwelling sin expound it not at all Indwelling sin and then glory that you cast away the Book as that which could not possibly teach you And are you not by this time an excellent Scholar and a very wise man if you did so by all your other Books Sect. 63. E. B. p. 26. I am much confirmed in that judgement of your Book since a person yet living and one worthy of credit accuainted me that when the learned and judicious Mr. Herle had read that cryed-up Book of yours he told him It had been happy for the Church of God if your friends had never sent you to School Mr. Cawdry had the same opinion of it And another person as knowing in the Mysterie of Godliness as either of them told a friend of mine that notwithstanding the noise about you you would end in flesh and blood R. B. 1. A worthy
rightly what I have written than the Books themselves I leave them to judge and do as they are and as such men lead them And how far Tradition or History or Humane aide and Testimony is necessary to our Reception of the Scripture I have long agoe opened at large in the Preface to the second Part of my Saints Rest and shewed you that Dr. Whitaker Chemnitius Davenant Rob. Baronius and other Protestants usually say the same that I do and that otherwise by casting away such subordinate means Proud-ignorance and pievish wrangling will cut the throat of faith it self and undermine the Church of God Reader I will conclude also with an Admonition as my Accuser doth As thou lovest Christianity Scripture and thy soul take heed of those Ignorant destroying-defenders of the Scripture who would tell the Infidel world that they may continue Infidels till we can prove that the Scripture alone by its own light without humane Testimony History or Tradition will bring it self to all mens hands without mans bringing it and will translate it self without mans translating it or in the original tongues will make all English men and all that cannot read at all to understand it or being translated will tell you sufficiently which is the true translation and where the Translater failed or will tell you among many hundred divers Readings which is the right and which Copy is the truest and which particular text is uncorrupted or rightly translated For instance whether it should be in Luke 17. 37. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Matth. 24. 18. and Beza saith In uno exemplari apud Theophilactum Scriptum est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 id est Cadaver sicut etiam in nonnullis codicibus testatur selegisse Erasmus Videturque haec lectio magis accomodata c. Hundreds of such may be named And believe not these men till they can name you one man that ever knew before some man told him by the Book alone whether Esther and the Canticles were Canonical and the Book of Wisdom and Pauls Epistle to the Laodioaeans Apocryphal and knew what was the sense of the Original Text and what Copies and Readings and Translations were true and what false Yea or that knew these particular Books were the same that the Apostles wrote without alteration till some one told it them Would not that man reduce the Church into less than one single person who would have no man believe the Scripture nor take it for Gods word till he can do it without any help of man or humane History or Testimony or Tradition But of this I put him twenty Questions before It shall now suffice to tell you this much of the plain truth that such furious false Teachers as shall take the foresaid course may not utterly subvert your faith The Scripture and Christian Religion taken together as one frame or Body hath that in it self which may prove that frame and all the essential parts of our Religion to be of God And the true proof of the Divine Authority of the Scripture is by the evidence of the spirit not a new Revelation of the spirit But by a double Impression of Gods own Image made by the Holy Ghost one upon the Scripture it self The other by the Scripture in its continued efficacy on Belivers souls And both these Images are the Impresses of the Trinity of Divine Principles even of the Power Wisdom and Goodness of God which are unimitably done in both This is the true proof that Scripture is the word of God But this proof excludeth not but supposeth the Ministry and Testimony of man as a subservient help and means even to bring it to us to translate it to teach us how to know both the sense and verity of it and to testifie which is the true Canon Copies Reading Translation c. And they are ignorant subverting deceivers and destroyers of your souls who would separate the Word the Spirit and the Ministry which Christ hath conjoyned as necessary together for your faith and that would cast out subservient helps as unnecessary under pretence of the sufficiency of the Scripture As if Printing it were needless because Scripture is sufficient of it self And the fore-said self-evidencing Light is not sufficient without humane help and Testimony to make you know every Canonical Book from the Apocryphal nor to know the truest Copies in the Original nor the rightest readings nor this or that particular verse to be uncorrupted nor the translation to be true nor this or that to be the true meaning of the Greek or Hebrew word nor that the Minister readeth truly to the unlearned that cannot try it by his own skill nor read himself And he that would make the contrary supposition to be the foundation of your faith would destroy your faith the Church and you Postscript REader since the Writing of this two things have faln out which make it a more displeasing work to me than it was before And I am sorry that Mr. Bagshaw made it necessary The one is that as the current report saith he is again in Prison for Refusing the Oath of Allegiance And I naturally abhorre to trample upon a suffering person which hath caused me to say so little against the Armies and Sectarian miscarriages since their dissolution and dejection in comparison of what I did before in the time of their prosperity The other is The Printing of the Life of Mr. Vavasor Powel which hath so many good things in it that I fear lest the mention of his false Prophecies extorted by Mr. Bagshaw who first published also his name as the Author of them should abate their exemplary use But yet I must give this notice to forreigners and posterity that they must not judge either of the JUDGEMENT or the SUFFERINGS of the Non-conformists by these mens It is not for refusing the Oath of Allegiance that they are silenced and suffer as they do nor do they consent to the words which conclude the life of Mr. Powel That since such a time he hath learnt that we must pray for our present Rulers as sinners but not as Magistrates No man can truly say that such Doctrines as these have been proved against any considerable part of the Ministers that are now cast out or that they were deposed and silenced for such things seeing they commonly take the Oathes of Allegiance and Supremacy And how far the ejected Ministers of Scotland are from the Principles of Separation Mr. Browne a Learned Scottish Divine hath shewed in the Preface of a Learned Treatise Newly Published in Latine against Wolzogius and Velthusius even while he saith most against receding from a Reformation overthrowing the Tenents maintained by our two or three English Brownes which formerly were called Brownisme Though the same mans numerous reasonings against the derivation of the Magistrates Office from the Power of the Mediator I waite
his Quarters but kept at a distance as one of their adversaries and those that I had interest in were discountenanced for my sake And had not a sudden bleeding brought me very near to death and separated me from the Army about the very day that they had their first open Consultation for the following Treasonable Changes which they made I had hazarded my life upon their displeasure in the contradicting them and drawing off as many from them as I could at the time when many did desert them For by the advice of a second meeting of the Ministers at Coventry I stayed with them for that very end when I had peaceable opportunity to have returned to my former auditors And I did openly and boldly from that day until Cromwells death declare to those that I converst with that I took him and his Army to be guilty of most perfidious Treason and Rebeilion and himself for an unquestionable Usurper And I never spake one word to the contrary And being once before his death being at London invited to speak with him I expostulated with him by what Right our Government was changed and how he could prove that all the people of England had lost their own Right to their ancient Government and laboured to convince him that this change of his and Instrument of Government which you charge me to approve was an unjust depriving the Kingdom of their ancient and never forfeited right till I made him so angry that it was time to say no more But let us hear the proof of your accusation Sect. 16. E. B. p. 5. You hugg and embrace the Traytor For you greatly commend that absurd tool The humble Petition and Advice which was Cromwells Instruments of Government And you say of it A more excellent Law hath not been made for the happiness of England concerning Parliaments at least since the Reformation R. B. Here is no proof at all of your false accusation but the addition of two more falshoods one exprest and the other intimated 1. That I hug'd and embraced the Traytor Let the Reader judge by what I have truly said 2. That I greatly commend the Instrument of Government as making the change and setting up of Cromwell to be Protector when you could not easily choose but know that he that will but open my Book where the words are which you cite may presently perceive your fraud and falshood and that I say not a word to commend or approve of that Instrument as such or as making the change or as setting up Cromwell or a Protector but only for this one thing that it excluded Atheists Blasphemers Anti-Scripturists Cursers Swearers Drunkards Denyers of Sacraments Prayer Magistracy and Ministry c. from being Parliament men And is not this fallacy a dicto secundum quod ad dictum simpliciter a notorious cheat and falshood Is this to approve the setting up of Cromwell to be Protector Do you think by such a rate of Reasoning as this is to be accounted a wise faithful Teacher Sect. 17. E. B. And of Cromwell himself though he dyed in his sinful Vsurpation without manifesting any Repentance you give this Saint-like Character in your Preface to the Army The late Protector did prudently c. R. B. 1. In that very Preface against the Army this man might see such words as these reprehending the Armies rebellions and changes The fabrication of an Instrument of Laws without a Parliament and many other actions of these times we doubt not but you will ere long repent of having instanced in their other changes before and many Texts cited to them in which their actions are condemned as heinous crimes And The best Governours in all the world that have the Supremacy have been resisted or deposed in England It was not then safe or necessary to Name all And A Heathen persecuting Nero must be obeyed not only for wrath but for conscience sake And among the changes which I reprehended are Next this we had the Minor part of the House of Commons in the exercise of Soveraign Power the Corrupt Majority as you call them being left out And by them we had the Government changed Regality It was then death to say The King and House of Lords being cast off Next this we had nothing visible but a General and an Army Next this we had all the whole Constitution and Liberties of the Commonwealth at once subverted Certain men being called by the Name of a Parliament and the Soveraign power pretended to be given them that never were chosen by the people but by we know not whom such a fact as I never heard or read that any King of England was guilty of since Parliaments were known Next this we had a Protector governing according to an Instrument made by God knows who After this we had a Protector governing according to the Humble Petition and Advice and sworn to both And now we are wheeled about again Reader did this man read all this and all the rest that in that Book especially the Preface and Conclusion I then wrote in the bitterness of my soul against the Army and did he believe himself or could he possibly believe himself that I approved of the setting up of Cromwell to be Protector If he do really believe himself How unfit a man is this who understands not humane language to be the great refiner of the Church and to pretend to be wiser than the Old Non-conformists c. If he do not believe himself how unfit is he to separate from us for our sinfulness or to be believed by the people whom he seduceth 2. The words which he citeth are only in a Parenthesis concerning which take this true information 1. Men used to distinguish between a Tyrant quoad jus and a Tyrant quoad exercitium And I ordinarily declared Cromwell a Tyrant quoad jus that is an Usurper 2. I never thought it laudable to belye any man whomsoever nor to make his actions worse than they are I did not dislike any good because Cromwell did it I will not renounce God or Christ or Piety because that Cromwell professedly owned them All that was good in him was not made bad as to the nature of the thing because he did it I never censured Sulpitius Severus Beda or any other Historians for extolling the Christian Piety of Maximus while they call him a Tyrant as to Title I will not fall out with God or Scripture or Honesty because that Cromwell did speak well of them all 3. Note that I spake only of his Exercise of Government and not of his Right which I still declared to be Null 4. And I instanced what his Prudence was before His prudent shunning of Engagements that he put not upon us any Oaths or Promises of Allegiance to himself For he knew that we would refuse them and thereby disturb his peace It is known unquestionably that Cromwell did many things that were in their
Congregation should take heed of what you say Do you not preach or talk to your own auditors and expect observation What if another E. B. were among them and should say How proud are you to expect that we should all regard your words as if you were our Pole-star These are not meet Lessons for a sufferer to teach the people Sect. 30. E. B. I look upon it also as a strange piece of boasting when you tell us that men of all judgements have written against you Is it indeed true that you offend all and please none and can you glory that you are accounted the Ishmael of the age R. B. Alas poor man Is this Conscience scrupulous of Communion with us Publicans and sinners Here are no less than three more visible Vntruths thrast together 1. That I say That men of all judgements have written against me when my words are these Whereas our differences in Doctrine Worship and Discipline have engaged men of several minds in such Writings against me Where did I say that men of the judgement of Peter or Paul of Augustine or Prosper wrote against me Are those Infidels Quakers with the c. All 2. That I glory that I am accounted the Ishmael of the age which is intimated in the question or boast of mens contradiction Which is so notorious a falshood that I mention it only as other mens contradiction of each other who blame me for contrary things and as my own trouble I only told you how impossible it is for me to please all men while men expect so many contrary things of me The Anabaptists are quite displeased with me for writing for Infants Baptism The Conformists are angry because I will not subscribe that It is certain by Gods Word that Children which are baptized dying before they commit actuall sin are undoubtedly saved without excepting those that are wrongfully baptized Turks Heathens c. The Antinomians are offended with me for opposing their subversion of the Gospel under pretence of extolling free grace And others are angry that I come so near them as to the cessation of Moses Law And so it is with all the rest How vain therefore is it to turn a Man-pleaser when the task is as impossible as unprofitable But O saith E. B. what a strange boast is this to tell us that men of all judgements have written against you That which I recite as my tryal and trouble he falsly tells the world I boast of 3. The third known falshood is intimated that I offend all and please none As if he did believe that those whom I mentioned even with an c. were all and there were no others in the world 2. But besides these falshoods he again condemneth himself for his accusation For 1. If it be a matter of Pride to declare that I am written against why will this man write himself against me and tempt me to be more proud when he accuseth me of pride Is not his Writing published by himself Why then will he publish that which himself supposeth to be my glorying and so advance my reputation which few adversaries ever did more effectually 2. And if I offend all and please none what need he be at all this labour to save men from being pleased by me But it is fatal or natural to men of his vice to have bad memories The former untruth he again implyeth You would be grieved for grieving them and not put it in among your triumphs that you had provoked so many able worthy men He that hath once ventured upon an untruth may do it boldlier the second time and may come at last to believe himself As for the worthy Opponents whom he nameth 1. I can honour and love them as much as he without thinking them infallible And I can differ from them without disaffection 2. Which of them is it that the man would have me grieve for grieving Doubtless those that are in the points controverted of his mind So kind is he to them or himself It cannot be all unless he would have me either say nothing of the matter or write contrary things to please contrary parties 3. And doth he not differ from most whom he nameth himself by his Separation And yet he sticketh not thus to grieve many more than them Sect. 31. E. B. p. 9. When I said in one of my exceptions that I feared you were not sound in the doctrine of Justification by faith alone without works instead of answering directly and satisfying my scruple which you might have done in few words you refer me to five or more Treatises which you say you have written on that subject R. B. 1. Did you believe when you wrote this that this reference was a proof of my Pride 2. Why would you no more regard your reputation than to recite such a passage as this Will your Reader doubt whether you should repent of such things as words of Impudency unbeseeming a man of understanding For 1. Was it modesty in you to divulge such an accusation as this I am afraid you are not sound in the doctrine of Justification without reciting one word of mine which you accuse or telling the Reader or me any reason of your fears 2. And could you expect that he that had written so many Books to declare his judgement in that point must write part of another to tell you what he holds and consequently write as many or as oft as men shall so by their Fears invite him 3. And do you not at that very time prove me proud for writing so many Books when by this and other passages you call for an answer that is for more 4. Could you think that a few words would open a mans mind so plainly as many Books can do 5. Could humane ingenuity expect more from one thus slightly questioned than to be referred to those Books which were purposely written both to stand as a full Confession of my faith in that point after other mens suspicions and also to give the reasons of it and to defend it against all that 's said against it And could I expect that he that will disdain to read these Books will read another that repeateth the same things And shall I write more to remove his Fears who will rather blindly vent them by calumny than read for his satisfaction what I have said If you have read them why would you say you Fear which signifieth uncertainty When you might have come to a certain knowledge If you read them not why would you not use a visible means to discuss your fears before you divulged them And if this way be right in the eyes of others what made Dr. Owen and other Congregational Brethren admonish your Brother Mr. Powell for preaching openly almost as soon as he came out of Prison particularly against me and another then thought to have been Mr. Nie but he said he meant Mr. Tombs by description and the description of
he know that it is the Truest Copy that falleth into his hands and that all that differ from that are false Do not corrupt Copies come to other mens hands Why then might they not do so to his 10. How can he judge of the various Readings of all the rest of the Copies which he never saw 11. If a Translation will serve him to judge of the various readings in the Original are they not in the Translation fore-judged of to his hand 12. Is any man Infallible in Translating Is there a promise of Infallibility to them 13. Do not the Translations differ 14. How shall men know which Translation is truest when none is perfect 15. Must he see all Translations that shall judge or will one serve as aforesaid And how shall he judge of those he seeth not 16. Is it by Inspiration from Heaven such as the Prophets had that the true Reading must be known or to ordinary at least sanctified Reason by evidence in the Text it self If the former none but Prophets can know it If the later you can prove it to a Rational or sanctified man from some intrinsick evidence For instance suppose a man never saw but two Printed English Bibles and was never told which is right by others and in one is Printed Heb. 12. 2. he despised the same viz. the Cross and in the other he despised the shame for so two of them do differ how shall he prove which Printer erred 17. Do all the Men and Women that are Godly actually know the true and uncorrupt copies and readings by the Book it self without mans testimony Or what is the name of that one Man or Woman in the World that you know who without ever hearing it from man could tell all the true readings from the false or could tell that the Canticles or Ecclesiastes or the Book of Jonas were Canonical and that the Book of Baruck Wisdom and Pauls Epistle to the Laodiceans and Clemens to the Corinthians were not Do you know his name that ever knew this by Reading the Bible only without being ever told it by any If not and if it be sine quâ non to mens receiving of the Bible it self that some one brings it to their hands judge how wisely and fairly you deal with poor souls to talk at such a confident and yet confused rate And 18. Let me ask you one question more Is it necessary to Salvation that men be able to read Hath God promised it to all or most that shall be saved Faith cometh by hearing as the most ordinary way of old And he that will Preach the Gospel to most Nations under Heaven must Convert more than can read or but a few And if you Preach the Gospel to a Congregation that cannot read do you recite all the various readings in the Hebrew and Greek to them If not can they judge of that they never heard If you do are they ever the wiser as to know of themselves which of them is the right 19. But if you say that you suppose not only Grace but great Learning and Study to discern these things how cometh it to pass that the most Learned Studious and Godly men do still so much differ about the various Readings as Lud. Capellus Vsher Heinsius Bootius De Dieu and others And how come the Churches in the Ages next the Apostles to leave out so many Books of the Canon as many of them did while others received them And Luther Althamar and others to set no more by James's Epistle than they did And so many Godly men long and yet to receive much of the Apocrypha 20. How durst you that speak so hardly of the Jesuits honour them so much as to make your silly ones believe that their doctrine in this is no worse than mine when in so many Books I have left that at large which may confute you And you wisely ask me to tell you whether I will take the Jesuits into my Communion because they hold the same with the Arminians with whom I will communicate so they hold the same with all Christians that there is a God and a Christ and the Scripture true But it is not for this that I renounce their Communion but for some things else Will you communicate with none that holdeth any thing yea any errour which the Jesuits hold Or did you dream that the Arminians hold all that the Jesuits hold Or did you dream that the Arminians hold all that the Jesuits hold Sir I am ashamed to spend time-upon such triflings Sect. 59. E. B. The former Non-conformists thought there was no possibility of salvation for a Papist But you tell us that you affect not the honour of this Orthodoxness R. B. It is confutation enough of such an accuser to recite the words which he accuseth which are Vnless you do as Mr. Perkins doth to make it good be so charitable to all the millions else among them as not to call them Papists except they practically hold the most pernicious opinions of their Councils and Divines I confess I affect none of the honour of that Orthodoxness which consisteth in sentencing Millions and Kingdoms to Hell whom I am unacquainted with So that I distinguish of Papists properly so called who practically hold all the Popish errours and Nominal Papists that call themselves such or are called so by others who know not or practically hold not the pernicious part of their errours These latter I refused to undertake to judge to Hell and consequently to damn all in France Spain Italy Germany c. who are called Papists And if this accuser be more valiant and dare damn them all I do not wonder that he dare damn me for not damning them For he that can eat and digest an Oxe will never stick at one crumme more But he should not be also so cruel to the Reader as to put him to read my words twice over because he dismembers them to make them seem to have some loathed sense Sect. 60. E. B. p. 19. The former Non-formists said The filth of nature cannot be sufficiently spoken of But you c. R. B. 1. When you tell us in what common Confession of theirs they say so I shall try whether you say any truer than in the rest 2. Reader I answered him on this point before by no less than twenty instances proving that Nature may be too ill spoken of And he saith nothing to any of them but sings over his old song again Is not this a fine man to dispute with Sect. 61. E. B. I shall conclude with mentioning one thing more I affirmed that by Flesh you had told us war only meant the sensitive appetite This you reply is an untruth and a meer fiction for you never said so Sir you had need have a good memory for you have writ many Books in which as containing many words there cannot want much sin and vanity And indeed had you meditated
wonder if others do it by slandering them and perswading all to separate from them And if they say Rom. 3. 7. If the Truth of God hath more abounded through my Lye unto his Glory why yet am I also judged as a sinner But God and Truth may be better served by Truth But falshood must by falshood be upheld But Sir my Reputation is at your service for an honester use but seeing it was but for the destruction of Christian Love and Peace that you designed to make a stepping-stone of it try whether you be not slipt beside it into the dirt Sect. 77. E. B. I thought it my duty to reprove you and to see your sin and error herein in order before you R. B. I have much more sin than you are aware of which all such invitations do call me to renew my sorrow for and vigilancy against But when I once take the Principles of Christian Love and Vnity for sin and the principles and practice of Enmity and Division for my duty I shall then avoid sin as sinfully and lamentably as many in this age have done Sect. 78. E. B. If you will still go on and under pretence of writing for Love do what you can to keep up a mixed disorderly persecuting and imperfect Church-State leaveing us no hope nor possibility of reformation R. B. 1. This is another implyed Untruth that I keep up a persecuting Church-State when I have written so much more than you against it yea that I do what I can to do it as if you thought that we can do no more evil than we do and our power were as small to sin as you make it to be to good But you will find at last that separating from Churches for mixture and imperfection and such disorder as we have now in question and to cloak this with slandering the honest Conforming Ministers with Persecution who lament it in others and never practise it though I am not one that take them to be blameless this will prove a greater hinderance to Reformation than a sober peaceable Christian conversation will be 2. And thus unskilful builders do pull down Did our Separations and Church-divisions these six and twenty years last past promote our Reformation Wonderful That men can yet take that for the reforming way which hath destroyed Reformation and brought us into all the confusions we are in Will all this experience teach us nothing I will cease wondering at the words Luke 16. 31. If they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be perswaded though one rose from the dead And do you not know how your erronious reasonings and practices do occasion men even to scorn at your talk of Reformation and if we did not disown you and renounce your errors and mis-doings the Non-conformists were like to be exposed to common derision for your sake and accounted a sort of men at enmity with sobriety and peace and multitudes were like to be hardened by you into greater evils and enmities than I will name And can any ignorant Mountebanks more mortally and perniciously practise Physick than you thus practise the Reformation of the Churches Which are wounded and torn by such Reformers Sect. 79. E. B. My miscalling you Learned Judicious Mortified is indeed the only untruth which you can justly charge me with R. B. Alas Sir is that sin such a jesting matter Will you end as you begun When you said you had done will you not have done writing untruths When you have no other matter for Vntruths will you make this another to say that no one of thirty three which I named to you can be justly charged on you Ask any sober impartial man who hath read your Book and mine whether you have cleared your self of any one of them or spoken any thing that is considerable and probable to such a purpose Sect. 80. R. B. 23. Mr. Bagshaw having done begins again to call me to recant unseemly abuses of Mr. Brown and one that a Book prefaced by him is written of And he reciteth both their Letters As to Mrs. Letter I give her this account of my thoughts of her and the Book that 's written of her 1. That I make no doubt but all the holy truth which she hath learned all the mortification of sin and reformation of life all the faith in Christ and Love to God and holiness which is in her are the true fruits of the Spirit of God and he is a wretched person that will ascribe these to Melancholy 2. And I doubt not but in a Melancholy distemper as Satan findeth his advantage for some special temptations so God can make his advantage to further the sanctification of such a soul 3. But he that giveth me that Book to read and would have me ignorant that Melancholy had a great hand in her fastings temptations and several conceits there mentioned and this after my experience of multitudes in the like condition yea when I am still wearied out with the Cases of such from time to time doth put an utter impossibility upon me For if my Ignorance herein would gratifie such it is not in my power to be ignorant when I will But I can bear with it in others Therefore her words If this be the effect of Melancholy go on an untrue supposition I have told you what were the effects And her sorrow that I am found deriding the effects she mentioneth is the effect of worse than Melancholly as being founded in her untruth Next this Woman accuseth me with all these following untruths 1. That Brother Browne was the Author of that Book Answ Not a true word I only said that it was published by him as uncontrolled fame affirmed but not that he was the Author I can find no such word in my writings If you can tell me where And doth not his Epistle before it shew that he was one of the Publishers 2. That I was suddenly moved to go hear Mr. Baxter Answ False again I only said was suddenly moved to go into the Church that is As she was passing by in the street not knowing who Preached 3. That ought of his Sermon had any impression upon me which I could not attend to because I was so terrified with the words of the Text Rom. 6. 21. Answ False again I have no such words that ought of my Sermon had any impression on her but only of the Time that before the Sermon was done she oould hardly forbear crying out 4. That I went away resolved upon a holy life Answ Another mistake I said only she went home a changed person Resolved that is did resolve for a holy life That she went home changed she denyeth not for her terrours were some change That she Resolved for a holy life her self and her Book profess But whether as soon as she went home or how many dayes after I never undertook to tell But how could she be Converted without resolving
of a holy life 5. That Brother Browne instructed me in the fifth Monarchy principle whereas he then opposed it Answ I said Mr. Browne and others were her Instructers who were very zealous for the way called the fifth Monarchy and having instructed her in those opinions c. If I did mistake here I recant my errour But I will tell you my grounds 1. That the others were of that opinion as they deny not so I have heard no others deny 2. At the publishing of that Book same spake the same of Mr. Browne and of his companion 3. The Book doth plead for that opinion 4. His Epistle is before the Book as a Publishing applause of it 5. He professeth that opinion to this day And all these appearances might induce such a judgement of him But if he took it up between the Action and the publication of the Book on what day or week it is none of my business to declare He better knoweth those himself 6. That I imposed abstinence upon my self as to meat when I would gladly have eaten but durst not because I apprehended I had no right to the Creature being out of Christ This is all false and untrue and I am astonished that Mr. Baxter should with so much confidence affirm these things Answ 1. The good Woman understandeth not that she contradicteth her self She did not impose abstinence on her self but she durst not eat for the reason here given that is She did not impose abstinence on her self but she did impose it for fear upon this reason These untruths and nonsence in a Woman are more excusable than in her Teachers Why doth She render a Reason why She durst not eat if by that fear and for that reason she did not impose abstinence on her self Did any other impose it or shut her mouth Is not that our own doing which we give a reason of and say that we did it through fear Doth not he that giveth a Thief his Purse consent himself to it and make it his own act to save his life If she knew not what she did why is she angry for being thought Melancholy which is many a Godly persons case If she did know why doth she falsly call it an untruth that she imposed it on her self By this taste you may see that even in well-meaning people the same principles will oft have the same practices when here are five untruths in this short Letter and four at least of her accusation of my words are visible untruths But I would know of Mr. E. B. or her whether it be true doctrine that one out of Christ should not eat because they have no right and whether almost to consume her self with Famine was well done If so must all wicked men do so If it be false doctrine as undoubtedly it is I further ask whether it was the spirit of God or Satan that was the Author of it I hope she dare not father sin and falshood on Gods Spirit And if it was a Temptation of Satan as it was I ask whether to yield so far to a Temptation so much against the light of Scripture nature and self-preservation in a case so plain that common people know the errour of it and to proceed so long almost to famishment in that errour and sin I say whether this shewed not some flaw at that time in natural understanding and reasoning as well as in grace If it did as sure it did what could it be less than Melancholy And I hope it was never the mind of Mr. Jordan or Mr. Browne in that Book to father this opinion or practice on Gods spirit I doubt not but God thus oft tryeth his own but it is as little doubt but that he oft leaveth them under Melancholy as the Tempters opportunity and advantage And its pitty that poor souls should be angry with those that know their case better than they themselves and truly pitty them Sect. 81. R. B. I come now to Mr. Brownes Letter wherein I will not reckon it as it is with his untruths that my two last Treatises give great occasion to the Adversaries of Truth and Purity to reproach and Blaspheme God and his people For the man speaketh as his ill cause and principles have made him think And that this is no more than some of my Disciples have suggested to him whether it be true or false I know not What men that I have been eleven years driven from may be drawn to by cruelties on the one hand and seducers on the other I can give no account of at this distance Let them answer for themselves The first untruth I charge him with is that I have uttered many falshoods of himself and others The case is anon to be tryed Sect. 82. Mr. Browne P. 27. How the present Conformists can be excused from some degree of Idolatry remains to be better proved R. B. An answer to what I said had been more congruous than this put-off And that you take it for no Railing to call almost all Christs Churches on Earth even the Reformed Idolatrous and yet take it for railing to be told that you so accuse them ignorantly rashly and self-conceitedly doth but shew the blinding power of selfishness and dividing principles when there is so vast a disparity 1. In the matter of the charge 2. And in the persons charged That your Brother Bagshaw liath as you call it now deceived your expectation and wronged his cause that is hath been fain to leave his untruths unjustified I suppose you cannot deny in consistence with your own expressions Sect. 83. Mr. Browne p. 28. Indeed sir in two lines there are no less than two Vntruths published to the world concerning me The first is that I am the Author and Publisher of that Book which is affirmed by him against the most notorious evidence in the World to the contrary The Author Mr. Timothy Jordain and all that I did was being desired to write an Epistle wherein I acquaint the Reader that I am not the Author of it but only did joyne in Testimony to signifie what was recorded in the ensuing Treatise was true R. B. Reader wouldst thou think it possible for a man that voluminously accuseth the Churches and chargeth them with Idolatry and had read my detection of his Brothers Untruths to face men down with such words as these that I say that which I never said I have many times over read my own words and I can find no syllable of what he saith that I affirm him to be the Author of that Book I only said the Publisher and he addeth the Author as may presently by the Readers eye-sight be convicted I say Published by Mr. Browne as is uncountroledly affirmed And is not this also a rash and careless man that no better heedeth what he readeth and what he writeth And doth he not here declare himself a Publisher of it when he confesseth he put an Epistle to it