never tell any of their sins nor preach repentance to them whilst I lived and that I must not deny my duty and Charity to one sort because another sort will not receive it and seeing also necessity increase and having already writen and said so much to the other party I resolved to imitate those two excellent faithful Tractates viz. 1. Mr. M. Pool's Vox clamantis in deserto in Latine calling the Non-conformable Ministers to Repentance and Mr. Lewis Stukeley's a worthy Congregational Minister in Exeter and a kinsman of the late General Monkes enumerating copiously most of the Common sins of Religious Professors and calling them earnestly and faithfully to repentance which since the writing of this I find excellently done in a book called Englands danger and only Remedy And therefore I first published some old notes written eleven or twelve years ago called Directions for weak Christians and annexed to it The Character of a sound Christian In both which I wrote that which was as like to have exasperated the impatient as this book is And yet I heard of no complaints And afterward I wrote this which I now defend and sent it to the Licenser who upon perusal refused to License it And so it lay by and I purposed to meddle with it no more But leaving it in the Booksellers hands that had offered it to be Licensed after a long time he got it done and so unexpectedly it revived The Reasons of my writing it were no fewer than all these following which I now submit to the judgement of all men truly peaceable and impartial who value the interest of Christianity and of the universal Church above their own 1. To make up my foregoing Directions to weak Christians more compleat Having directed them about the private matters of their souls I intended this as another Part to Direct them in order to the Churches Peace 2. Many good people of tender Consciences and weak judgements desiring my advice about Communion in the publick Assemblies I found it meetest to publish this general Advice for all to save me the labour of speaking to particular persons and to serve those that lived further off 3. I saw those Principles growing up apace in this time of prevocation which will certainly increase or continue our divisions if they continue and increase I am sure that our wounds are made by wounding principles of doctrine And it must be healing doctrines that must heal us And I know that we cannot be healed till doctrinal principles be healed To give way to the prevalency of dividing Opinions is to give up our hopes of future unity and peace And to give up our hopes of Unity and Peace is to despair of all true Reformation and happiness of the Church on earth If ever the Church be reduced to that Concord Strength and Beauty which all true Christians do desire I am past doubt that it must be by such principles as I have here laid down 4. But my grand reason was that I might serve the Church of Christ in the reviving and preservation of Christian Love As it was an extraordinary measure of the Spirit which Christ made his Witness in the Gospel Church so is it as extraordinary a measure of Love which he maketh the New Commandment and the mark of all his true Disciples And whether afflicting on one side and unmerciful and unjust censures on the other side one driving away and the other flying away be either a sign or means of Love And whether taking others to be intolerable in the Church and unworthy of our Communion and separating from or avoiding the Worship where they are present be likely to kindle Love or to kill it let any man judge that hath himself the exercise of Reason and unfeigned Love I know that this is the hour of Temptation to the sufferers to stir up passion and distaste and that men have need of more than ordinary grace and watchfulness and therefore of more than ordinary helps warning to preserve due Love and keep out an undue hatred of those by whom they suffer And how great a temptation also their censures and discontents will prove to their Superiours and others by whom they suffer and what unspeakable hurt it may do their sâ—uls may easily be conjectured This sin will prove our greatest loss 5. Hereupon men will be engaged in sinful Actions of injustice and uncharitableness against each other They will be glad to hear and forward to believe hard and false reports of one another And too forward to vent such behind one anothers backs And there is no doubt but many of each party already think worse of the other commonly than they are Though alas we are all too bad and some egregiously wicked And those Persons and Churches that would censure a man for Curses or Oaths should also censure men for slanders and backbitings And should I not do my best to prevent such a course of daily sin 6. Both violence and separation tend to divide the builders themselves and keep the Ministers in contending with and Preaching and Writing against each other which should be employed in an unanimous opposition to the Kingdom of Satan in the world And when all their united wisdom and strength is too little against the common Ignorance and Prophaneness of the world their division will disable them and give sin and Satan opportunity to prevail 7. It may engage them on both sides in the dreadful fin of persecuting each other one party by the Hand and the other by the Tongue even while they cry out of persecution And on both sides to hinder the Gospel and mens salvation on one side by hindering the Preachers from their work and on the other side yea on both by hindring the success For what can be more done to make men despise the word than to teach them to despise or abhor the Preacher And what more can be done to destroy mens souls than to harden them against the Word Is there any sâ—bâ—r man on either extream that dare say I would have none of the people saved that are not or will not be the hearers of our party If you dare not say that you would have all the rest to be damâ—ed dare you say you would not have them be taught by others Or that you would not have them profit by the Word they hear If not how dare you tempt them to vilifie and despise their Teachers If they will not learn of you be glad if they will learn of any other and do not hinder them 8. By these means they will cherish an hypocritical sort of Religiousness in the people which is more employed in Sidings Opinions and Censurings of others than in humble self-judging and in a holy heavenly mind and life A man need not the Spirit of God and supernatural Grace nor much Self-denyal nor Mortification of the flesh to make him choose a certain fashion of external Worship and think that now he
an exhortation and advice seem injurious or intolerable to you the Lord have mercy on your souls Is the matter of this prayer unlawful Or can he prove that I spake it jestingly when I took it to be the serious prayer of my grieved heart Or may we use no words as Lord have mercy on us c. which others use unreverently Or is it true doctrine that this is the foolish talk and jesting forbidden Eph. 5 What proof is there here of any one word of all this EXCEPT IV. p. 2. He doth very often and needlesly insist on many things that may tend to advance his own reputation The instances are added Answ. 1. I Confess Brother I am a great sinner and have more faults than you have yet found out But I pray you note that all this still is nothing to our Controversie whether we should advise men against Church divisions as contrary to Love 2. If a humble Physitian may put a probatum to his Receipt and say I have much experience of this or that I pray you why may not a humble Minister tell England that I and you have had experience of the hurt of divisions and of the healing uniting power of Love Did all the Independent Church-members whose Experiences are printed in a book take Experience to be a word of pride 3. And is it pride to thank the World for their Civilities to me in mixing commâ—ndations which I disown with their censures What! to confess the remnants of their moderation notorious in matter of fact the truth of which you durst not deny in the midst of their many false censures and calumnies 4. Or to tell you how unable I have â—ound back-biters to prove their accusations in doctrinals to my face 5. Or to tell you that some even Independents perswaded me when I was silenced to write sermons for some of the weaker Conformists such as are too many youths from the University to preach Where lieth the pride of these expressions Is it in supposing that there are any Conformists weaker than my self Whether think you this brother or I think meanlier of them Or set our selves at the greater distance from them 6. When I plead against charging forms with Idolatry I say that for my self it is twenty times harder to me to remember a form of words than to express what is in my mind without them If this be not true why did you not question the truth of it If it be why is it pride to utter it as a proof that I plead for Love and not for my own interest Is it pride to confess so openly the weakness of my memory I never learnt a Sermon without book in my life I think I could not learn an hours speech sufficiently to utter the very words by memory in a fortnights time And is it pride for a man to say that he can easier speak what is in his mind Truly brother I was so far from intending it as a boast that I meant it as a diminâ—tion of the over-valued honour of present extemporary expression and to tell you that I take it to be so far from proving that your prayers only are accepted of God before a form as signifying more grace that I take it to be an easier thing for an accustomed man that hath not a diseased hesitancy to speak extempore what is in his mind than to learn a form without book And that they thaâ— do this do serve God with as much labour and cost as you do Do I boast or do I not speak the common case of most Ministers when I truly say That when I take most pains for a Sermon I write every word when I take a little pains I write the heads but when business hindereth me from taking any pains I do neither but speak what is in my mind which I suppose others as well as I could do all the day and week together if weariness did not interrupt them I seek by these words but to abate their pride that think themselves spiritual because they can pray or preach without book Like some now neer me that account it formality and a sign that a Preacher speaketh not by the Spirit if he use notes or preach upon a text of Scripture but admire one neer them that cries dâ—wn such and useth neither 7. Is it pride to say that thâ—se darker persons whom I have been â—ain to rebuke for their over-valuing me and my understanding would yet as stiffly defend their most groundless opinions against me when I crost them as if they thought I had no understanding If you do think that you cannot be over-valued or are not so do not I. And I thought my rebuking men for it had been no sign of pride And brother I am confident if you your self did not believe that my understanding and consequently my Writings are over-valued you would never have written this book especially in such a stile against me yea in the end you profess this to be your design to undeceive those that had a good opinion of me If those on the other side had not thought the same my late Auditors at Kederminster had never had so many Sermons and that by persons so high nor would so many books have been written to the same end even to cure the people of this dangerous vice of over-valuing me The matter of fact being so publick invalidateth your exception 8. The last expression of my pride is that I give this testimony even to Christians inclined to divisions that if they think a man speaketh not to the depressing of true and serious religion they can bear that from him which they cannot bear from one that they think hath a malignant end and that on this account in my sharpest reproofs my own auditors have still been patient with me Enquire whether this be true or not Whether I have not preached twenty times more against Divisions to a people that never once quarrelled with it than I have written against it in the book with which you so much quarrel And is this probatum given against malignity a word of pride too You proceed in your Charge that I have great thoughts of my self and have learned little of Christian or moral ingenuity and am unfit to be a Teacher of it to others Answ. 1. Do you not yet perceive that you also have a silencing spirit when you and those that you separate from are agreed that we are unfit to be Teachers because we gainsay you why do you pretend so great a distance even in the point of imperious severity 2. O how hard is it still to know our selves and what manner of spirit we are of Is it pride in me to think that I am righter than you or to express it Why brother do not you think as confidently that you are righter than I and do you not as Confidently utter it I differ no further from you than you do from me And why is it not
partyes must build up the Church in Love and Peace And therefore the interest of the Protestant Religion must be much kept up by the means of the Parish Ministers and by the doctrine and worship there performed and not by the Non conformists alone And they that think and endeavour that which is contrary to this of which side soever shall have the hearty thanks and concurrence of the Papists Him therefore that is weak in the faith receive ye but not to doubtful disputations Let not him that eateth despise him that cateth not And let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth For God hath received him Who art thou that judgest another mans servant The Kingdom of God is not meat and drink but Righteousness and Peace and Joy in the Holy-Ghost For he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God and approved of men Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace and the things wherewith one may edifie another And blessed are the Peace-makers for they shall be called the children of God THE GENERAL PART OR INTRODUCTION TO THE DEFENCE OF MY CURE OF Church-Divisions Being a Narrative of those late Actions which have occasioned the Offence of men on both Extreams with the true Reasons of them And of these Writings which some account Unseasonable with the true stating of the Case of that Separation which my opposed Treatise medleth with And an Answer to several great Objections Printed in the Year 1671. I. THE GENERAL PART OR INTRODUCTION CAP. 1. The Narrative of those late Actions which have occasioned mens displeasure against me on both sides with the Reasons of them and of my Writing which I am now defending THE number of Books written against me is so great that if I should not be very suspicious of my self lest I had wronged the truth and the Church of God and given men just occasion of all this obloquy I should be very defective in humility and in that care which I am obliged to for the avoiding of such injuries And I find upon examination that if I could have let all sides alone and judged it consistent with my duty to be silent while the envious man sowed his tares and not to have contradicted any that I took to be injuring the Truth and Church nor to have sounded the trumpet against any error which arose before us I could as easily have escaped their wrath as others And I find that whereas our differences both in Doctrine and Worship and Discipline have engaged men of several minds in such writings against me Some Infidels diverse Quakers Papists Antinomians some Arminians some Anti-arminians Anabaptists Separatists Levellers Diocesans c. What one accuseth me of another doth not only acquit me of but ordinarily as sharply accuse me for the contrary and for going no further from the rest So that nothing but silence could put by their fiercest accusations And silence it self will not please the Imperious sect who think me criminal because I serve them not according to their own desire and way And silence was not that which I promised God at my ordination nor is it a doing of that work to which I was then consecrated and devoted But because some men speak in a more Sanguinary dialect than others and because the late charges of Disloyalty ought not to be disregarded by a loyal subject and because for the sakes of their own souls it hath often made me pitty Mr. Durel Dr. Boreman and many others like them who have published ugly falsehoods of me I once thought to have here exercised so much Charity to them as by a full Narrative of all those actions of my life which concern such matters as they accuse me of to have rectified all their mistakes at once and made them understand what it is which they wrote of before they understood it And the rather because this excepter followeth them in telling me how guilty I was of the wars and all the effects of them and also that I wrote a flattering book to Richard Cromwell And in this narrative I purposed to confess so much as had any truth in their accusations and to stop them in their falsifications and calumnies as to the rest But upon second thoâ—â—â—ts I cast it by perceiving by too long experience that they who are engaged against the Truth are unable to bear it and take all for an unsufferable wrong to them which detecteth the falsehood of their reports And when men do as Mr. Hinkley importune me to publish the reasons of my Non-conformity when they know that the Law forbiddeth it and there is no expectation of procuring a Licence or when the old stratagem is so visibly used of drawing us by their challenges into their Ambuscad'es or when I am eagerly provoked to gape against an oven while it is red or flaming hot If I crave their patience and exercise my own till it be grown more cool before I accept of such a challenge and suffer them to use their Art till repentance shall unteach it them and to make my name a stepping stone to those ends which they now aspire after methinks they should be content to talk on without a contradiction and to be free from the light of that Truth which they are not able to endure Or at least should pardon me if I imitate my Lord that was silent even when false accusers sought his defamation and his blood But God â—nabling me I promise them an answer as soon as they will procure me License and Indemnity In the mean time I shall now only 1. Tell you why I offended one side by saying so much against their impositions 2. And why I have since offended the other yea both sides by my late Book called The Cure of Church-Divisions Before the King was restored being then at London I was called to preach two publick sermons tâ—â— one before the Parliament the day before they voted the Kings return The other before the Lord Major and Aldermen on a day of thanksgiving for the hopes of his return In the latter I plainly shewed my sense of the case of the falling party and the Armies actions and gave as plain a warning to the then rising party with some prognosticks thereupon In the former the first that ever I preached to a Parliament and he last I spake some words of the facility of Concord with the sober godly moderate sort of the Episcopal Divines and how quickly Arch-Bishop Usher and I came to an Agreement of the termes on which they might Unite When this Sermon was Printed this passage caused many moderate Episcopal Divines to urge me to tell them the terms of that Agreement And they all professed their great desires and hopes of Concord upon such termes viz. Dr. Gulston Dr. Allen Dr. Bernard Dr. Fuller Dr. Gauden and several others Dr. Gauden desired a meeting to that end of the several parties but none came at the day appointed but he
against separation because all this spurious offspring was fathered on them and still laid at their doors And withal because they found how hard it is to stop men that begin to find real faults with other men from fancying abundance more that are not real and to keep men from running into extreams And experience told them that their own party was in danger of running from them and it was not easie to keep them stable in the sober 〈◊〉 of the truth Especially the Independents oâ— this account are obliged to be the greatest disswaders of separation because all sects are fathered on them and too many of their congregations in England and New-England have been lamentably corrupted or subverted and dissolved by them 23. There is 〈◊〉 man that is acquainted with Church history but knoweth that as Christ was Crucified between two thieves so his Church hath been 〈◊〉 and troubled between the prophane malignant persecutors and the heretical and sectarian dividers even from the dayes of the Apostles until this age Insomuch that Paul himself and Peter and Iude and Iohn were put to 〈…〉 as largely against the Dividers almost as the persecutors Iraenaeus Epiphanius Augustine Theodoret besides the rest do sadly tell us in their Catalogues and Controversies how lamentably these Dividers then hindered the Gospel and distressed and dishonoured the Church And the sad stories of Hâ—lland Munster and others in Germany Poland and especially these twenty years past in England do bring all closer to our sense And are not the Watch-men of Christ still bound to tell the Church of their danger on the one side as well as the other Yea in some respects to say more on this side than on that because Religious people are easier and ofter turned to be Dividers than to be Persecutors or Prophane 24. All these dangers lying before us and the Non-conformable Ministers being under great reproaches and lamentable hinderances from their sacred work and called by God to fidelity as in a day of tryal what guilt would be upon us what shame would be our due if we should all be silent whilest we see the principles of Division continually increase The 〈◊〉 principles which the old Non-conformists confuted greatly propagate themselves through the smart which alienateth the peoples minds And Reason doth so hardly prevail against Feeling that all that we can say will prove too little This is the true cause why they cry out now Oh the case is changed It is not with us as it was in the old Non-conformists daies Because they did but hear of what was in those daies but they see and feel what is done in ours Therefore we had so easie a work comparatively to perswade men that the old separatists were mistaken but can hardly now perswade them that the same principles are a mistake because now they smart and Passion is not easily held in by reason I can make shift to hold in a mettlesome horse while he is not provoked But if a Bishop will come behind me and laâ—h him or prick him and then blame the rider if he run away with me I cannot help it But sure if we must needs have to do with such men it concerneth us to hold the reines the harder And if after such grievous judgements as plagues flames poverty reproach and silencings and sad confusions which God hath tryed us with in these times his Ministers should through passion policie or sloth sit still and let Professors run into sinful principles and extreams it will be our Aggravated sin 25. And one reason why I set upon this work was because I saw few others do it If it must be done and others will not then I must take it for my duty 26. And another reason was because I knew but few that I was willing to thrust upon it so forwardly as my self for fear of being the author of their sufferings Many may be abler that are not in other respects so fit Some Ministers are young men and like to live longer to serve God in his Church and their Reputation is needful to their success If they be vilified it may hinder their labours And experience telleth us that the dividing spirit is very powerful and victorious in censorious vilifying of dissenters But I am almost miles Emeritus at the end of my work and can reasonably expect to do but little more in the world and therefore have not their impediment And for popular applause I have tryed its vanity I have had so much of it till I am brought to a contempt if not a loathing of it And whereas some brethren say that Censures will hinder the success of my Writings I answer No man shall do his duty without some difficulties and impediments If my writings will not do good by the evidence of truth in them and if the censures of Dividers are able to frustrate them let them fall and fail And some of my brethren have great Congregations to teach which are so inclined to this dividing way that they cannot bear their information But when I preached in my house to the most I knew scarce any of the Parish that came not to the Parish Church but such as lived in my own house Also many Ministers being turned out of all their maintenance have families and nothing to maintain them but what the Charity of Religious people giveth them Little do some know what the families of many godly Ministers suffer And some Independents are maintained by their gathered Churches and if they cast them off both reputation work and maintenance would fail For those that silence them will neither honor them nor maintain them And though I suppose that these brethren would serve God in the greatest contempt and poverty and self-denial if they perceive that God doth call them to it yet I think it a duty of Charity in me to go before them and do the more displeasing work to prevent the sufferings of such or at least not to thrust them on so hard a service For I have no Church that maintaineth me nor any people whose estimation I am afraid to lose that are dividingly inclined nor through Gods mercy have any need of maintenance from others and therefore may do my duty at cheaper rates than they 27. And I will add one reason more of the publishing though not of the writing of my book When it had been long cast by â—â—ound in the Debater and Ecclesiastical Polititian that the Nonconformists are made ridiculous and â—dious as men of erroneous uncharitable and ungovernable principles and spirits Though we subscribe to all the Doctrine of the Church of England And I thought that the publication of this book should leave a testimony to the generations to come by which they might know whether we were truly accused and whether our principles were not as much for Love and Peace as theirs and as consistent with order and government Is not the Non-conformists doctrine the same with that of the
mens mouths doth never make you scruple their Communion I intreat you do but study an answer to one that would separate from you all upon such grounds as these First for the sin consider of these texts Exod. 23. 1 2. Thou shalt not raise a false report put not thy hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil neither shalt thou speak in a cause to decline after many to wrest it Psalm 15. 3. He that backhiteth not with his tongue nor doth evil to his neighbour nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour Rom. 1. 30. Backbiters â—aters of God 2 Cor. 12. 20. Lest there be debate strifes backbibitings whisperings c. Prov. 25. 23. An angry counterance driveth away a backbiting tongue Tit. 3. 1 2. Put them in mind to be ready to every good work to speak evil of no man 1 Pet. 2. 1. Laying aside evil speakings 1 Tim. 6. 4. Whereof cometh evil surmisings Eph. 4. 31. Let evil speakings be put away from you Jud. 10. These speak evil of those things which they know not Jam. 4. 11. Speak not evil one of another He that speaketh evil of another and judgeth another speakevil of the Law and judgeth the Law Have you more and plainer texts of Scripture agninst the Common Prayer than all these are Now suppose one should say that a people of such sin as this should not be Communicated with especially where there is no discipline exercised that ever so much as calleth one man of them to repentance for it what answer will you give to this which will not confute your own objections against Communion with many Parish Churches in this Land 5. Lastly hence note how still overdoing is undoing By the Principles of Love and Peace conteined in the book which some reproach had they not disowned them they might have had their part in this just Vindication against them that accuse the Non-conformists Principles of Enmity to Love and Peace But they would have no part in it and have cast away their own vindication and so have confirmed their accusers and tempted them to believe that some Non-conformists are indeed such as they described But I must again intreat them to distinguish Many sects go under the name of Nonconformists from whom we differ incomparably more than we do from the Conformists as the Quakers Seekers Bâ—hmenists and some others We are none of those men that because we all suffer together under the Prelacy do therefore more close with these than with the Conformists with whom in doctrine and the substance of worship we agree But because it is their own resolved choice to disown the Principles and Vindication of that book I shall only say I. To our Accusers It is not these Dividers which we Vindicate that will not stand to our Vindication II. To posterity whose historical Information of the truth of matters in this age I much desire If you would know what sort of men they are that these times call sectaries and Dividers or separatists I will give you but their own Character of themselves that you may be sure I wrong them not Peruse the book called The Cure of Church-Divisions for they are persons so contrary to that book as that they take it to be an evil and mischievous thing and greatly to be lamented and detested in so much that some of them say It had been well if the Author had dyed ten years ago and others that this book hath done more harm than ever he did good in all his life So intolerable is it to them to have their Love-killing and dividing principles so much as thus contradicted while they cry out against the Imposing spirit of others The measure of their distaste against these Principles of Love and Unity I leave you to gather out of the exceptions which I am now to answer CAP. 2. The true state as the Controversie between me and those whom I call Church-Dividers BEcause the Excepter carrieth it all along as if he understood not what I say or would not have his Reader understand it I must state the Case as it standeth between us for the sake of them that love not to be deceived nor to be angry at they know not what Know therefore that the design of the Writer of that Book was to restore Love and Unity among Christians which he saw decaying and almost dying through the temptation of our sufferings from some and our differences with others and through the sidings of parties and through the passions which conquer some mens judgements and the hy 〈…〉 e of others who place their Religion in their sidings and in the forms or fashions of the words of their prayers or the circumstances of outward Worship And to acquaint Christians with the wiles of Satan who would kill their Grace by killing their Love whilst they think they do but preserve their Purity And to open to them the secret windings of the Serpent and the workings of Pride and Wrath and Selfishness against the works of Love and Peace And to shew them the great deceitfulness of mans heart which often fighteth against God as for God by fighting against Love and Unity and which oft loseth all by seeming to overcome and forsaketh Religion by seeming valiant for it And I especially intreat the Reader to note that I said much more about Principles than Practices Because I know that as to Communion with this or that Church mâ—ns practices may vary upon accidental and prudential accounts of which I pretend not to be a Judge And therefore I first speak against Love killing Principles and then against such Practices only as either proceed from such Principles or increase them If I see a man stay from Church as I know not his reasons so I judge him not unless as he doth it upon sinful causes and especially if he would propagate those Causes to others and justifie them to be of God when they are against him And whereas Hatred and Enmity worketh by driving men from each others Societies as wicked or intolerable and Love worketh by inclining men to Union and Communion and again mens distance increaseth the Enmity which caused it and their nearness and familiarity increaseth Love and reconcileth them I did therefore think it a matter of great necessity to our welfare to counsel men to all lawful nearness and Communion and to disswade them from all unnecessary alienation and separation from each other Let the Reader also understand that in this my purpose was not to condemn mens separation from the Parish Churches only nor more than any other sinful separation But from any true Church of Christians whatsoever when uncharitable Principles drive them away Whether it be from Presbyterians Independents Anabaptists Arminians Lutherans c. Only because that those I deal most with make most exceptions against Communion with the Parish Churches I bestowed most words in answering such exceptions Therefore
the truth which I assert which is as plain for it as can well be spoken The whole Chapter shewing that the weake brother that Paul speaketh of was one that with Conscience of the Idol did eate it as a thing offered to an Idol and their Conscience being weak was defiled ver 7. 9 And it is one whose Conscience is emboldened or confirmed to eate those things which are offered to idols and thereby he may perish ver 10 11. And it is he that is not displeased but made to offend And the scandalizing which Paul would avoid is called becoming a stumbling to them that are weak ver 9. Emboldening to that heinous sin ver 10. Making a brother to offend v. 13. twice over Is this think you displeasing the innocent or rather tempting those that are apt to sin and confirming the faulty Read what Dr. Hammond saith of their weakness and what 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth there and then further tell me 1. Whether you mean such weak ones that you would not have me offend 2. Whether those that are most displeased with us for Communion in the Liturgie be such as you will say are most in danger of yielding to sin 3. Whether you would do as Paul doth Call those weak brethren who to that day did eate in Idols temples and that as a thing offered to idols 4. Whether Paul commanded the Corinthians to separate from the Church because such men were in their Communion 5. Whether Paul himself in communicating with that Church did not that which you write against 6. Whether by this rule we should not take heed most of scandalizing those Christians that are aptest to sin 7. Whether this text which you so abuse well considered is not sufficient against all your Cause and for that which I maintain EXCEPT XIII p. 6. Answered Here is nothing but 1. His saying that He may well doubt of the truth of what I report viz. whether any or many faithful Ministers would so reproach their people and their honourable name which is upon them as to call them pievish and self conceited Christians Answ. 1. Are there any such Christians or not 2. If they are should their fault be healed or cherished 3. If healed should it be reproved or concealed But I will answer this further anon when it comes in again 2. He doubts not but those that thus complained to me expected so much prudence and faithfulness in me as to conceal their Complaints and not vent them now when the state of affairs is so much altered Answ. Here are two untruths implied 1. That these complaints were only made in secret with an expectation that not only the persons but the case it self should be concealed But how did he know this Might not many of them be men that since conform and make the same complaint now openly Yes I could name you more than one such Might not some be such as have done the same in print themselves Yes Old Mr. Rob. Abbot was one who after removed to Austins London and died there before Mr. Ash. If you will but read his book against separation you will see thathe silenced not such matters but hath said more than ever you are able well to answer 2. It is not true that these Complaints were only made before the state of affairs was altered for I have oft heard it since with greater sense of it than ever before Nor is it any dishonour to a Minister not to be ignorant of Satans wiles The more they know them the liker they are to overcome them 3. In his conclusion are two more mistakes but because they are prophetical I will not count them with the grossest The first is that he hopes that hereafter all that fear God will be very careful how they make any complaint unto a Person The Second who will take the next worst occasion to revile a whole innocent and Godly Party by a malicious publishing of it Whereas 1. Since the writing of his book I have had complaints against such as he by many that fear God 2. And he cannot prove what he prophesieth I will do But yet two more untruths are implied in the prophesie 1. That I will revile a whole Innocent Godly suffering Party when I protested I meant no particular party but those of every party Episcopal Presbyterian Independent Anabaptist c. who through want of Love are aptest causelesly to condemn their brethren and avoid them unless he will call all the Ignorant Proud and Uncharitable of all parties by the name of a whole Godly suffering party 2. That I will revile them maliciously unless he mean that writing for Love and Unity is a malicious act against Satan and his Kingdom EXCEPT XIV Hereafter I must number them for he is weary of it Answered This hath little worthy observation but his 12th Untruth viz. that by mentioning the separatist as a distinct body of men from the Antinomian Quaker and Anabaptist it is evident I can mean no other but my Presbyterian and Congregational brethren which he follows with An Appeal to God against this Slanderer and earnestly prayeth that he would please to rebuke him Whether this earnest prayer be a Curse and whether it be like to that rule to pray for them that curse us and whether this brother himself doth not in these very words put his error into his earnest prayer even in print and so verifie what he would so vehemently gainsay to say nothing of the Common fame in London that he that is famed to be the Author of these Exceptions kept a day of Humiliation about me and my book I leave to the Readers observation And also whether this earnest prayer or Curse and this bold Appeal to God be not prophane and rather a fruit of passion than charitable zeal And whether he here knew what spirit he was of But to his Untruth I answer 1. I protested openly that my meaning was not what he affirmeth it to be And could he know it better than I 2. An Antinomian and Anabaptist as such are distinct from Separatists as such But doth it follow that therefore they may not be Separatists also that are Antinomians and Anabaptists Though the Errors whence the Sects are denominated be various 3. I have long ago in many books told the Papists that I mean them as the Chief Schismaticks and Sect and Dr. Hide for the first page of his book what I thought of him And the Lutherans that so resist all the endeavours of Dury Calixtus Bergius Lud. Crocius and many more in refusing Communion with the Calvinists that I mean them And here I profess that I mean no other party of men at all but the Dividers of all parties whatsoever even in the beginning of my Preface And yet alas brother did you not tremble first to publish so gross an Untruth and when you had done to ground your Appeal to God and earnest prayer against me upon it