cut off malefactors from the Church therewith But they weigh not the circumstances of the Text the Scribes and Pharisees intended not the execution of justice upon the woman but came a birding to catch our Saviour in a snare which they laid after this manner Will he judge this woman fit to be stoned according to the Law or not it he will not judge her we have a just quarrell against him for derogating from the Law of Moses if he judge her fit to suffer death and condemne her to be stoned wee shall have just cause to question him by what authority hee assumes to himselfe the office of a Judge Christ discerning the snare thus breakes it in sunder He that is without sinne among you saith he let him first cast a stone at her Which is as if he should have said The matter of fact is evident the woman is guilty and the law is as cleare shee ought to be stone◠but who are you who demand the rigour of the Law to be executed upon her are you free from this foule aspersion are you innocent from this great offence look into the book of your owne conscience or if not read what you see here written in the dust Thus touching on their sore they shrinke and withdraw themselves away one after another and the woman is left alone with our Saviour whom he dismisseth with a gracious admonition Goe and sinne no more vers 11. What will the Anabaptist conclude from hence that because Christ condemned not this woman to death according to Law that therefore no Christian may inflict corporall punishment for adultery by the same reason they might inferre against themselves and their owne practises that because Christ severed not this woman from the congregation that therefore no Minister of God or spirituall Magistrate may excommunicate for adultery or the like crimes That which we are from this example of our Saviour to learne for our instruction is first That Christ came not to destroy but to save not to punish but to forgive sinne not to bereave any of their Temporall life but to purchase for all true believers and penitent sinners a Spirituall and Eternall life Secondly that all they who are overtaken with any sinne or crime punishable by the Law ought not to prosecute the extremity against others who stick in the same mud with themselves The snuffers which were to mend the lights in the Sanctuary by Gods appointment were to be made of pure gold to teach us that they who take upon them to accuse and censure others ought themselves to be most free from blame especially in the same kind of transgression otherwise they are like to heare Physitian cure thy selfe or out of Rom. 12. 21. Thou which teachest another teachest thou not thy selfe thou which preachest a man should not steale dost thou steale thou which saist a man should not commit adultery dost thou commit adultery or as we have it Ioh. 8. 7. He that is without sinne ltt him cast the first stone Thirdly that the Ministers of the Gospell by the example of our blessed Saviour when sinners are brought before them confounded with shame in themselves and so strangled with their inward guilt that they are not able to speak a word in their own defence or for their excuse ought to have compassion on them and upon their repentance and humiliation send them away with some comfort aad godly admonitions as our Saviour doth here Hath none condemned thee neither doe I goe and sinne no more Lastly they argue very weakly ab authoritate negativè after this manner We read in holy Scripture of no Christians that ever sate upon the throne of Majesty or Bench of Justice neither in the age of the Apostles nor in the prime and best times doe we heare of any Civill Magistrate exercising any authority in the Church therefore Christians ought to exercise no such authority nor execute any such office But this argument like snow when the weather growes warme dissolves of it selfe For 1. As we read in the New Testament of no Christian Kings Judges Sheriffes or other Officers attending on Courts of justice so neither doe wee read of any that taught the Tongues Arts or Sciences or trades in foraine parts or exercised any kind of Manufactures now in use yet no man doubteth but many hundred did so and questionlesse Ministers of justice are as necessary in every City and Towne Corporate as Merchants or Artizens This argument therefore ab anthoritate negativè may justly bee answered negatively If there were no Christian Magistrates they could not bee recorded in Scriptures but it will not follow none are mentioned or recorded in Scripture Ergo there were none 2. Though the story of Abgarus King of Edessa his conversion to the Christian faith may be Apocryphall yet the story of the Eunuch related Acts 8. 27. A man of great authority under Candace Queene of Ethopia is Canonicall and Nicodemus a Ruler among the Iewes and Ioseph of Arimathea the Senatour and Theophilus to whom Saint Luke intitles his Gospell and Cornelius the Centurion and Publius the Governour of Melita and Sergius Paulus the Proconsull and Erastus the Chamberlaine and some of Neroes family whose names are registred in the book of life make good the observation of the Apostle that though not many Noble men not many mighty men not many in great place or authority yet some such were called even in the Apostles time which are sufficient to rebate the edge of this argument 3. Admit that there were few or no Converts in the Apostles dayes who held the place or executed the office of Magistrates yet that which is sufficient to prove the lawfulnesse and necessity of that calling Christ himselfe both acknowledged and submitted unto the authority of Pilat and paid tribute to Caesar and Saint Paul appeales to Augustus and complaines to Lysias of a conspiracy against him and was rescued by him Lastly though the Christian Church at the beginning was cast out as it were starke naked and lay in the open field weltring in her owne blood and no eye pitied her yet in processe of time the predictions of the Prophets were accomplished She had Kings to be her nursing Fathers and Queenes to be her nursing Mothers and all sorts of Civill Magistrates both supreame and subordinate to be her Gardians and Protectours And as the earth in Italy never bare so great a burthen on it nor yeilded so plentifull a crop as when it was turned up laureato ato vomere and the plough held by the hand of Camillus the Dictatour terra gestiente se coli à triumphali agricola so the Church and Common-wealth never so thrived as when religious Kings and Princes took the manuring and managing thereof Which happinesse God grant to these Realmes and Kingdomes even till Shilo come AMEN The Pythagoreans conceived the Celestiall Spheres to bee like Cymbals and by their regular motion to produce
either by the Roman lawes or in the opinion of the Magistrate those things of which they were accused were esteemed crimes and they punished as Malefactours their examinations and trials are truly said to bee proceedings in criminall yea and capitall causes and the patient is as much prejudiced and infinitely more wronged if he suffer death or bonds upon his confession of the fact if it be no crime at all Therefore this example serves to that end for which it is brought If it had been either unlawfull for the high Priest to require Christ to answer upon oath concerning that which the high Priest judged a capitall crime or for Christ to have given a direct answer in such a case he would have reproved the high Priest for adjuring him in such manner as he did or at least answered him with silence as he did Pilate and him also in other questions ARGUMENT III. What was appointed by the law of God cannot be in its own nature sinfull or repugnant to the law of nature For though some part of the law of God delivered by Moses doe not now bind us to the performance thereof yet wee are bound to beleive that law was just and holy and good and commanded nothing in its own nature sinfull or repugnant to the law of nature or right reason But answering upon oath in casues criminall which might tend much to the prejudice and dammage of the examined was appointed by the law of God Ergo answering upon oath in causes criminall is not sinfull and repugnant to the law of nature ANABAP ANSVVER Neither are the judicials of Moses now in force neither was any oath ex officio administred to the Jewes like to ours REPLY This argument is not brought to prove the necessity of taking an oath now in those very cases as namely of jealousie loan and the marriage of strange wives but the lawfulnesse of demanding and taking an oath in causes criminall in generall All these instances come home to the point in question and the argument holdeth strong à comparatus after this manner No sufficient reason can be alleadged why oathes may not bee imposed and taken as well by Christians under the Gospell as by Jewes under the Law in causes criminall reflecting upon themselves but oathes were lawfully demanded and taken by the Jewes in causes criminall therefore they may be so by Christians That such oathes were by Gods law injoyned to the Jewes appeareth first in case of Ioane or trust Exod. 22. 10 11. If a man deliver to his neighbour an Asse an Oxe or a Sheep or any beast to keep and it die or be hurt or driven away no man seeing it then shall an oath of the Lord be between them both that hee hath not put his hands to his neighbours goods and the owner of it shall accept thereof and he shall not make it good but if it bee stolne from him he shall make restitution unto the owner thereof In the case of jealousie Numb 5. 19. And the Priests shall set the woman before the Lord and uncover the womans head and put the offering of memoriall in her hands which is the jealousie offering and the Priest shall have in his hand the bitter water that causeth the curse and the Priest shall charge her by an oath and say to the woman if no man hath lyen with thee and if thou hast not gone aside to uncleannesse with another instead of thy husband be thou free from this bitter water which causeth the curse c. In the case of trespasse 1. Kings 8. 31. If any man trespasse against his neighbour and an oath be laid upon him to cause him to sweare and the oath come before thine Altar in this house then heare thou in heaven and doe and judge thy servants condemning the wicked to bring his way upon his head and justifying the righteous to give him according to his righteousnesse In case of prohibited marriages Ezra 10. 5. 11. Then arose Ezra and made the chiefe Priests the Levites and all Israel to sweare that they would put away their strange wives of the people of the land and they sware And Ezra stood up and said unto them ye have transgressed and have taken strange wives to increase the trespasse of Israel Now therefore make confession unto the Lord God of your fathers and doe his pleasure and separate your selves from the people of the land and from the strange wives It is true these cases are not everyway paralel to ours for our Priests have no receipt at this day to make the water of cursing nor are we prohibited to marry with forreyners so wee marry in the Lord neither doe we put men to their oathes in actions of trespasse but if the party accused deny it we convince him by witnesses yet this exception cutteth not asunder the sinewes of the former argument For though the cases in particular bee very different yet they agree in this generall that oathes have been lawfully urged and exacted of men touching matters dammageable criminall and penall to themselves and if oathes may be lawfully imposed and taken in this kind to satisfie the humour of a jealous husband or still the clamour of a private person wronged how much more is it equall and just that this be done upon the judges office who is no way privately interessed and for the satisfaction and preservation of the Church or Common-wealth to remove a common scandall and offence by the parties clearing himselfe or his condigne punishment ARGUMENT IV. What is just and equall and may bee done without breach of Gods law in Temporall Courts cannot be unjust nor derogatory to the divine law in Spirituall But oaths ex officio though not known by that name are usually taken held to be just and lawfull in temporal Courts namely Leet-Courts Sessions Assises Chancery and Court of Request For the Jury are upon oath to present all annoyances abuses and transgression of penall Statutes whereof themselves may be and often are guilty and the Defendants in Court of Request and Chancery answer upon oath to bills put against them the particulars whereof often deeply concern them and in case they give not a direct and full answer they proceed against them pro confessis and if they answer directly and fully in case they are faulty either by denying they forsweare themselves or by confessing the matter of fact they consequently condemne themselves nay which is very considerable they who are the greatest oppugners of our Ecclesiasticall Courts and greatest sticklers for the discipline of Geneva are forced to make use of the oath ex officio themselves For Comperell was appointed by the consistorie of Elders of Geneva to be examined upon oath concerning three interrogatories about dancing whereof two concerned what he had in his very purpose and intention of mind and this their practice was agreeable to the decree of a Nationall Synod held in France in the year 1565. whereby by
other his Dominions unto whom the chiefe government of all estates of this Realm whether they be Ecclesiasticall or Civill in all causes doth appertain and is not nor ought to be subject to any forrain jurisdiction The Lawes of the Realm may punish Christian men with death for heinous and grievous offences The summe of all is the Civill Magistrate is a divine ordinance and his chiefe care is or ought to be Religion for the defence and vindication whereof God hath put a sword in his hand to cut off the disturbers of the Peace as well in the Church as the Common-wealth and because he is the Minister of God for our wealth and safety his authority is to be obeyed by all sorts of men for conscience sake and not to be resisted upon paine of damnation And now Christian Reader thou hast heard a Harmony listen not to discords thou hast heard a consort of silver Trumpets hearken not to a single oat-pipe or the harsh sound of Rams hornes thou hast heard the suffrages of all the learned Divines in the Reformed Churches regard not the votes of a few illiterate Mechanicks much lesse the fancie and dreames of fanaticall Enthusiasts who because they are Anomolaes themselves would not by their good will there should bee any Rules because they are wandring Starres they would have none fixt because they are dissolute they would have no bonds of Lawes because they are Schismaticks and Non-conformists they would have no Discipline in the Church because they are dunces and ignorant both of Tongues and Arts they would have no learning nor Universities Lastly because they walke inordinately they would have no coercive power in the Magistrate to restraine them There was never more cause then now to take heed what thou hearest and to try the spirits whether they are of God or no for there is not one only lying spirit as in the dayes of Ahab but many lying spirits in the mouthes of Prophets not only Romish Priests and Iesuits who endeavour to seduce thee to spirituall thraldome idolatry and superstition but also diverse sorts of schismaticall Teachers who intice thee to carnall liberty prophanenesse sacriledge and faction When I first heard of the manner of taking Apes in the Indies I could scarce forbeare laughter but now seeing dayly men of worth and parts caught after the same manner by our new Sectaries I can hardly refrain tears The maner of taking those beasts is thus described he that goes about to catch Apes in those parts of America which abound with them brings a Bason with fair water and therein paddles with his hands and washeth his face in sight of the Apes and then steps aside for a while the Ape seeing the coast cleare steales to the Bason and seeing his face in the water is much delighted therewith and in imitation of the man dabbles with his feet in the cleare water and washes his face and wipes his eyes and after this he lyes in wait for him fetches away the Bason powres out the faire water and fills it againe with water mingled with birdlime and puts the Bason in the place where it stood before the Ape returning to the Bason and suspecting nothing puts his feet in the birdlime and with that foul mingled water washes his face and wipes his eyes which are thereby so dazled the eye-lids closed up that unawares he is easily caught In like manner these late Proselytes who invade many empty Pulpits in the City and Suburbs at the first in their Sermons set before thee as it were a Bason of the pure water of life wherin thou maist see thy face wash away the spots of thy soul but after they have got thy liking and good opinion confide in thee then they mingle bird-lime with the water of life the birdlime of Socinianisme of Libertinisme or Antinominianisme Brownisme and Anabaptisme wherewith after they have put out or closed the eyes of thy judgement they lead thee whither they lift and make a prey of thee Praemonitus praemunitus I have forewarned thee bee thou forearmed against them and the Lord give thee a right judgment in all things Gastius de exord Anabap. p. 495. Quia Anabaptistae à veritate avertunt aures idea Deus mittit illis Doctores non qui lingua medica sanarent ulcera ipsorum sed qui pruritum ac scabiem affectuum ipsorum commodè scalperent Because the Anabaptists turn away their eares from the truth God sendeth them teachers according to their desire not such as with their wholesome tongues and doctrine heale their sores but with their nailes scratch gently the itch of their carnall lusts and affections Remarkeable Histories OF THE ANABAPTISTS WITH OBSERVATIONS thereupon THE French after the first course of solid dishes entertaine their guests with Kicke-shoses and wee with fruit In the former part of this Treatise courteous Reader as well in the propounding our arguments for the orthodox faith as in the Refutation of the Anabaptists objections against it I desired to set before thee Solid and substantiall dishes to strengthen thee in the true doctrine of thereformed Church of England but in these ensuing relations and observations I make bold to set on the board Kicke-shoses and variety of strange fruits which though peradventure they will not much nourish thy faith yet eaten with a graine of Salt will some way irritate thy appetite and help thy digestion and concoction OBSERVAT. I. That the Anabaptists are an Illiterate and Sottish Sect. As Macarius who had the care and oversight of erecting that magnificent structure at Ierusalem built by Helena the mother of Constantine the great was happy in his name for Macarius in Greek signifieth blessed and as Theodoret testifieth a blessed man was he so on the contrary many Arch-hereticks and Boâ—tefeux of the Church and State have been happily unlucky in their names their God-Fathers at the Font proving Prophets and the names they gave them being presages of their qualities and fortunes and Characters of their persons Haymo noteth out of Iraeneus that Ebion the Father of the Ebionites signifieth in Hebrew poore and silly and a silly poore man God wot was he Manes the Father of the Manichees derives his name in Greeke from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 insanio or à 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 insania madnesse and verily a franticke heretick was he Aërius the Father of the AërianÌ„s carieth wind in his name and a light giddy-braind fellow was hee blowne into his heresie with the wind of ambition as Saint Augustine declareth in his bed-roll of heresies What should I descend to Maldonate whos 's very name speaketh the abuse of his filts Maldonatus quasi malè donatus and to Ignatius the Founder of his Sect Ignatius Layola who as he hath Ignem fire in his name so he and his Disciples have proved the greatest Incendiaries in the Christian world I will trouble thee but with one instance more and that is
much of their suffering for righteousnesse sake yet where they get any strength and can make head they resist the powers ordained of God and make war against their lawfull superiours as we may soe in Sleiden Gastius and Guy-de-bres Fiftly They inveigh against covetousnesse and to extirpate that root of all evill teach men to renounce all proprietie in their goods and to have all things in common Yet they rob Monasteries plunder townes and villages rifle houses and turne the wicked as they tearm them out of their possessions and hold them themselves and when they are upbraided with this their rapine they alleadge that text for themselves The meek shall possesse the earth presuming themselves to be those meeke ones though we shall prove them hereafter to be a most cruell and bloody sect Sixtly They teach that the office of a civill Magistrate cannot consist with Christian perfection yet they themselves in Munster and elsewhere had a Consul and Senatours and a Headsman of their own yea and a King also Iohn Leiden the Tayler who stitched up a Kingdome in one yeer and ravelled it out the next Seventhly They strip themselves stark naked not onely when they flocke in great multitudes men and women together to their Iordans to be dipt but also upon other occasions when the season permits and when they are questioned for it they shelter this their shamelesse act with the proverb Veritas nuda est the truth is naked and desires no vail masque or guise which reason if it were good would hinder them from holding private Conventicles as they do and when there is processe out against them running into corners to hide themselves for as the proverb is Veritas nuda est Truth is naked which warranteth them as they conceive to throw off their clothes so also there is a like proverb Veritas non quaerit angulos truth seekes no corners nor innocencie starting holes yet they doe Lastly in their Confession printed this yeer they finde themselves agrieved with the name of Anabaptist saying they are falstly so called yet it is well knowne they all of them either rebaptize or are rebaptized and consequently are properly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 actively or passively But as Corvinus in his elder age so quite lost his memory that he forgot his owne name so these are so ignorant that they know not their own proper name If these disclaime second Baptisme they are none of the sect if they practise it how can they truely say that they are falsly called Anabaptist If Anabaptists be their nicke name what is their right name whereby they may be distinguished from mother Christians Catholike or Hereticks They have hitherto been known in generall by no other names then of Anabaptists or Catabaptists and never a barrell better herring And Anabaptist deprives children of Baptisme and a Catabaptist depraves Baptisme A Catabaptist may sometimes be no Anabaptist such as was Leo Copronymus who defiled the Font at his Baptisme yet was he not Christened againe but every Anabaptist is necessarily a Catabaptist for the iteration of that Sacrament is an abuse and pollution thereof OBSERVAT. II. That the Anabaptists are a lying and blasphemous sect falsly pretending to divine Visions and Revelations All devisers of new Religions and spirituall impostures ascribe their new doctrine and worship to some divine Author either God himselfe or some Angel sent from him and this they doe not so much to amuse the vulgar as to secure their tenets from the hazard of disputes and exempt their persons and actions from the test of examination He that speaketh from the earth and beares himselfe upon humane authoritie and reason can gaine no more upon his hearers then the point of his sword or dint of his Arguments can inforce their assent thereunto but he that speaketh as from heaven captivateth our reason and easily perswades us to resigne our eyes to him who dwelleth in a light that none can approach unto In humane debates and consultations we are not to regard so much quis as quid who is he that speaketh as what it is that is spoken but contrariwise in celestriall mystries and disputes about Religion we are not so much to respect quid as quis what is that which our beliefe must embrace as who he is that commands our assent if it be he who endued us with reason all reason there is that our reason should vaile bonnet to him whence is that golden Aphorisme of Saint Gregorie Qui in factis dei rationem non invenit in infirmitate sua rationem invenit cur rationem non inveniat He who inquires into celestiall mysteries and is at a fault in his search and can finde no reason why such things should be so finds a sufficient reason in his owne infirmitie why he cannot dive into the reason thereof His meaning is the plummet of mans wit is too light and the line of his discourse too short to sound the bottome of these depths for this cause it is that the broachers of new and absurd tenets or rites in Religion which naturall reason abhorres to prevent all reasonings about them pretend to Divine Revelations for them Minos fained that he consulted with Iupiter in a deep vault and from him received his law Numa that he had private conference with the Goddesse Aegeria and from her received his rituall Mahomet that he discoursed with the Angel Gabriel whose dictates are registred in the Alcharon the Helcesaites that they had a booke sent down from heaven in which all Divine mysteries were revealed which whosoever heard read should presently receive remission of sinnes In like manner Stock Muncer Melchior Georgius Tuscoverer and others by whose hands the envious man in these latter dayes sowed the tares of Anabaptisme have deluded the people with pretended inspirations visions dreames and Revelations Nicholas Stock gave it out that God spake to him by an Angel and revealed to him his will in dreames promising him the plaee of the Angel Gabriel Next to this Nicholas Stock Thomas Muncer was most famous in the Anabaptists chronicle who when the people that were discontented with their Magistrates and encouraged by their hereticall teachers to rebell in Franconia drew themselves into the body of an Armie this Muncer marched not in the place assigned for false prophets in the taile but in the head and there made an oration to the souldiers Advance brave spirits ride on with your honour and your right hand shall teach you terrible things For God hath revealed to me that the day shall be yours he promised me he who cannot lie nor deceive assured me that he will fight for you let not the Princes Artillery terrifie you for this robe of mine shall receive and dead all the bullets shot at you look up to the sky see you not there a rainbow in the clouds the colours whereof we beare in our Streamers and Ancients and can ye doubt of victorie