they cry it is a Preclous VVord tho no sense nor truth deliver'd You that talk so much of Free Grace Remember it is free tho Devils and Damned Souls be not at last sav'd as some here say Tho all Men the worst of Men go not to Heaven when they dye as that Fool that Calls himself Elijah the Prophet says Who hath Written an Aurea Clavis about Miracles to confirm his Faith that he is the Elijah promis'd Yet this Barber cannot talk English and will not say it positively he is Elijah Shall his Lying Miracles convince us that he says do not make him conclusive Every Idle Jack now shall be ready to flee in the Face of Ministers and leave them as no Gospel Preachers tho never so serious sound or accurate This Barbers Doctrine is That God is the Author of Sin and when they haâ—â— serv'd his end be makes them amends and takes them to Heaven Antinomianisut is a lovely thing with now not a few We read of such of Old I enquire whether the words we Translate Sons of Belial which the Septuagint sometimes render Lawless Children or Sons against Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Sam. 2.12 Might not be rendred by our Translatours had they known such a Tribe as we do The Antinomian Children When the Angels in Heaven thus turn'd Antinominians Heaven was no place for them And when these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pestilent Children by which the Septungint elsewhere calls Sons of Belial perswaded our first Parents to turn Antinomians to Gen. 3.1 4 5. Yea hath God said Paradise was no place for them And when some among us turn Antinomians may it not be a Query whether the Church should any longor be a plaâ—e for them I affirm Dr. Crisp doth often question the usual methods of Conversion confirmed by Scripture Divines and all Christians Experience whether they marr'd not all the work till he hung out his new light I humbly pray our Accusers to be at leasure for a while and not for Expeditions sake pass sentence on us before they hear our Cause For such as are come to that higth Ministers and People that they will not some Confess Sin others not Pray for Pardon I think they are of all Creatures most miserable You as your Old Brethren the Crucifyers of the Lord Jesus are not Christ Exalters but D basers you do as they Bow the Knee before him with a Hail but all but a Mockery You say you put the Crown on the Head of Jesus Christ but it is one of Thorns and the Scepter in his hand but it is a Reâ—den one Mat 27.28 29. You kiss Christ as one did But He may say to you as to him Judas betrayest thou the Son of Mun with a kiss When Mr. Baxter saw so many Armed Men turn Antinomians and justifying-Justifying-Faith was to believe a Man was justified And after all their strictness grew Licentious he in a great Zeal and Fury wrote his Aphorisms of Justification When this Book cause out he was not then known in Oxon and they thought it was a Jesuit tiâ—â— they saw his Infant Church Membership and baptism came forth the best Booâ— by the way that ever was Written oâ— that Subject they began to valuâ— him Many Presbyterians follow'd him and still do but none under that Denomination that I know of followed Crisp Some unwary Independents in as great Zeal and Fury follow Crisp none of them Mr. Baxter that I know of And now between these two Contenders Tâ—â— Question is Which is in the right 〈◊〉 Which brings to my mind a Story Sir W. Rawleigh in his History tell us When two were contending which was the best Soldier The Frenchman or the Spaniard one standing by after all said the Englishman So the Calvinists say I or Old Protestant But to return to our Right Antinomian for remember I am far from Condemning all that are so call'd that cry down all sadness for sin c. Pray Sirs yet I Pray That that Jesus the Lord and King startle not at this who in the Days of his Flesh cur'd many Demoniacks That he would take you in cure tho your Evil Spirits Name be Legion we are many Should we now be silent the stories of the Streets may cry out against us A word is sufficient Remember the followers of Mr. D. your Meteor Lantren hath lead your Preachers into Confusion in their Pulpit Harangues He that looks for a Connexion or Correspondency either of sense or truth may look in Vain And for you it hath led you into Lakes and Precipices and there left you Your Preachers coming any where is Omnious as is said of a Comet or the coming of a Whale into a River Your Arguments are of no Value too mean for any Man to insist much on a solution of them yet if I cannot put your passions and my own to a demur I know not what I may in time be forst to do I close this part of my work with a known certain story a worthy Congregational Minister lately wrote thus to one of the same perswasion I ever valued you which made me at last take up with your Antinomian Principles I often Preached them up to this Congregation to which I belong which I found a sober People but now I have Preacht a Congregation of Christians into a Congregation of Devils * Two of my hearers went away and committed uncleanness immediately I therefore resolve to Preach up the Old Protestant Doctrine c. May you all thus repent and reform as this Man Amen Amen As I ever have been careful to decline Stories upon common fame not because I doubted them but could not prove and therefore mention what I know I shall now take the like method about our Mecanick Preachers such as I knew One with whom I was acquainted when Dead I saw his Notes after he had been a Preacher Thirty Years the Text was Heb. 11.6 For without Faith it is impossible to please him He that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek him In these words saith he are these three things 1. An impossibility for without Faith it is impossible to please God 2. A proposition with a direction He that cometh to God must believe that he is 3. Here is a reward and a rewarder of them that diligently seek him I shall enquire saith this Shooe-maker for such he had been 1. What God is 2 What Faith is 1. God is an Omnipotent Omniscient and Omnipresent God 2. He is an Almighty God c. There are two sorts of Faith 1. The Faith of adherence 2. The Faith of relyance And you may easily imagine how all was prov'd and spelt Another Preacht in a Town to which I was no stranger on that Text God hateth the wicked He said it appear'd God hated them 1. Because he did not Love them 2. Because he could not endure them 3. Because he was
AN APOLOGY FOR Congregational Divines Against the charge of 1. Crispianism or Antinomianism 2. Countenancing Incompetent Tradesmen as Preachers 3. Causeless Separation from the Publick Worship Under which Head are Published Amicable Letters between the Author and a Conformist a Man of Renown known ewhere to be such about Liturgies and Ceremonies By a PRESBYTERIAN Also a Speech delivered at Turners-Hall April 29. Where Mr. Keith a Reformed Quaker with the leave of the Lord Mayor and Bishop required Mr. Penn Mr. Elwood c. To appear to Answer his Charge against them By Trepidantium Malleus With an Account of his being knockt down and a Stone flung at his Head till the Blood run down his Cloaths after a threat about Ten Days before from Friend J. F. openly in the Coffee-House That a Church Friend of theirs Vow'd he would do it Jud XIX 30. Consider of it take advise and speak your Minds London Printed for John Harris at the 〈…〉 To the Reverend and Learned Congregational Divines in the City of London said to be afflicted for the New sprung Antinomian abominations and therefore just Censurers of a Linnen Draper now a Speaker who understands not the Doctrine he would defend and therefore is only a Crispian Would-be Mr. Griffith Mr. Mead Mr. â—rosse Mr. Nesbet Mr. Taylor Mr. Lardner Mr. Harris and others Reverend Sirs IT hath been often and long charged on some of your Brethren who have appear'd in a great Figure that they were Antinomians and those not of the best Edition Crispians but some of your Presbyterian Brethren as well as you could not believe it till 1. They saw some open Vouchers for Dr. Crisp his Notions which occasion'd shame and sorrow to some of you and Ingenious Confessions that they had betrayed your Cause One of which is indeed an Ingenious Man and discovers in his Writings good reading He is a good Philologist Philosopher Divine and Satyrist and it is believed he hath made the best of a bad Cause tho not without many and considerable flaws It was his unhappiness more then his Antagonists to charge him with a Bombastick Style This I knew not being a stranger in London till very lately 2. Till they saw others open Abettors and Fautors of an Impudent Ignorant Corrupt Impertinent The following Account will prove this to be his true Character I think it Sirs proper to begin with a short very short Scheme of Dr. Crisp his Doctrine which I had about Six Months since occasion to look into being charged by his Son in a friendly Letter I confess with wronging his Father in my Vindiciae Anti-Baxterianae and also being often told by others that I was mistaken not only in the Dr's sence but phrases too This gave me the Curiosity of a further inquiry with a resolution to Acknowledge my mistakes if any such But I found much worse then I expected or then I knew others had taken notice of I sent for his Son whom I yet value desiring him to come to my Lodgings or to appoint me a time when I might wait on him He refused passing as I hear a Complement upon me I was a ready Man c. This seem'd to me to argue guilt The Scheme is this That God Loveth the elect with a Complacential Love in the State of unregeneracy when in the heigth of all their Wickedness Whoredoms Murthers Thefts and that he hath no more to lay to their charge then to the charge of any Saint in Heaven That they are not the Sinners but Christ was the Sinner That when Christ said My God my God why hast thou forsaken me He was separate from God and odious to him as a Toad to a Man and so continued till he Rose from the Dead and then was there a kind of renewing the Sonship That not only the guilt of our Sins and Obligation to punishment lay on Christ but the Loathsomness Abominableness and Pollution of Sin it self till he breath'd it out And that as the stain of in it self was on him so he bore all the sadness due for Sin and that whoever hath any sadness for Sin is out of Christ the way And therefore Paul did not speak of himself but only personated a scrupulous Man when he said Rom. 7.28 O wretched Man that I am who shall deliver me from this Body of Death That Faith is an Etcho of the Soul Answering the Call I come without any change in Man That Pauls Justification Rom. 5.1 c. Was not a Justification before God but in the Heart and Conscience of Man That Justification cannot be known or evidenced by sanctification altho Paul saith Blessed is the Man to whom the Lord imputeth Righteousness without works God justified the Heathen by Faith c. 1. Not by Universal obedience and here he most unphilosophically attempts to prove that no such thing can be and that this would infer perfect obedience 2. Not by Love to the Brethren c. And therefore it is a Disparagement to the Spirit to be tryed by the word But no end is there of Naming the black horrid and blasphemous Notions and Expressions in that Book Which I have not by me and therefore it cannot be expected I should Cite Chapter and Page yet I challenge any of his Advocates to charge me with mis-representing him I will not boast how exactly I have kept as to sence so words Tho when I saw the Book last I little thought to have this occasion to appear against it for which now this among other things shall be my Apology It was reported I was gotten to the height of Crispianism by I suppose those who would have it to be so who also say every Lecturer at Pinners-Hall are theirs It is high time such be undeceiv'd about me and some of them But some of the Drs. Creatures or Friends or Well-wishers or however we phrase it thus plead for him That tho they will not justify the Dr. his hard phrases yet will his mistaken Notions That the Famous Witchius the Dutch Divine in a Latin Tract that that truly great Man Mr. How and that honest Dr. Beverly and others charge not the Dr. so high as many others do To all which I Answer 1. Are hard dangerous Expressions nothing if your Plea were not a mistake Which by no means must be granted you What if at a full Table All the Dishes there were accounted good and wholesom only of one Dish some said The Meat was very unsafe dangerous unwholesom others said no All was good and safe Only they granted with all the Company the sawce was very bad and such as some said the Meat was would not a wise Man especially if weak and sickly leave that one suspected Dish and Eat of the unexceptionable good ones What need we meddle say I with this at least suspitious book but others know to be worse then Heterodox when we have such excellent Tracts done by Men of great Learning and Men very Orthodox all
as well say The words are plain Therefore A Man Converted is the very Body that hung on the Cross If you say our senses tell us it is the same Body in substance as before So our senses tell us the same of the Bread If you say the asserting of this would be Monstrous Not one jot more then yours as I could easily prove Gen. 41.26 The Seven Ears and Kine are Seven Years We say looking on a Picture against the Wall This is my Father Brother Husband Wise Some of you confess your Doctrine here cannot be prov'd from Scripture tho some attempt to do it and that we have taken the more favourable sense of the words had not your Church chosen the contrary I say again Do any of these I write of assert such a Monstrous Doctrine as is Transubstantiation Or do they pray in an unknown Tongue Your Priests here in England were more ignorant then some Coblers among us It is well known one of them reading the Questions to the Sponsors for the Child in Baptism Anno abrenunciabis Diabolum cum omnibus suis operibus Wondred how the Devil should get in his Christning Book he blotted out the word Diabolum and put in Christum So the Question was Dost thou Renounce Christ with all his Works Another Baptis'd a Child in Nomine Patria Filia Spiritu sanctu which one construed I baptize with the Fathers Countrey the Daughter and the he she Spirit And it was question'd whether this should go for a good Baptism but the Old Numpsimus is better then the New Sumpsimus Pray Gentlemen How was the Creed said formerly Creco in Deum Parem orientem crixus fixus Ponki Pilaki remissurum peccaturum In the English Popish Homilies of Old the People were told How Old Father Adams Bones did ake in his Old Age and he sent his Son to Paradise for some of the Gum from the Tree of Life the Angel gave him some They told how the Devil was whipt by St. Francis about the Church till he did Roar for Pissing in the Holy Pot. How St. Kentigern's Mother conceiv'd as the Virgin Mary and a Thousand such trifles your Priests understood as much Divinity as one of your Justices who presented a Man for Frying of Bacon as contrary to Law which was Firing a Beacon Dalton of Sher. Before I go any further I see a necessity to Answer one Objection now on Foot against me Oh! This is he that hath talkt of an Impossibility of a Legerdemain trick of teaching a Child Nine Year old very lately The chief things in the Greek Grammar and to read exactly construe parse and say without Book the Ten first Verses of the Gospel of John in Greek and all in three Days I affirm and affirm again and again that it is true and he was examined before Mr. Woodhouse Mr Gillard Mr. Keith and Mr. Bolton who know there was no Trick in the thing as knows well Mr. Larner the Father of the Child I am ready for another Proof if it be doubted or denied I have heard of one that in an Afternoon taught one to read all that Chapter wonder at it who will I do not but think it feasable tho I never tried it I hear I am in some Cabals call'd Lyar and I know not what have pity on your selves Sirs if you have none on me come forth and face me you that smite me in the Dark And now I close this with a few Words to those Congregational Divines whom I plead for You see Brethren That I have once more put my Hand into a Nest of Wasps for your sakes tho' I am not of your mind about Church Discipline I own Presbytery and the Divine Right of it How as my Opinion not as an Article of Faith and therefore will never plead for it as such only I disown that little Creature called the Lay-Elder and think if it be no Creature of God's making it is a woful one of Man's making Not that I think the thing so novel as some do or no older then Calvin for I am well assured Ambrose that ancient Father says That it was a Church-Officer of Old but that the Pride or Negligence of Ministers cast him out How far he might be out here I will not say I am sure he was in his Exposition on the 8th of Romans where he says Olim viri mulieres docebant baptizabant I paay you Sirs advise your Brethren not to be easily imposed on by unqualified Men. One wrote me He desired to serve God in the Ministry and should be glad if he could do him any good They were his Words When I advised him to keep to his Trade he told me he was my Convert When he had no help from me he marries a rich Wife took up much plate from the Goldsmith and ran away Mr. H. of B. was a notorious Example He was bowed and cringed to as if a Bishop how he lived undesired for his Covetousness Oppression and died unlamented of all is too well known as well as his Preaching other Mens Sermons Such Men shall talk much of the Spirit and what God hath revealed to those Babes and his from the Wise and by such Cants the People take them to be Oracles Just as Van Helmont would have the World believe he had his new Discoveries in Philosophy Physick and Divinity as inspired by God Then he Cants and then tells of a Dream of a great Tree laden with Fruit His Causes and Beginning of Natural Things 4 Chap. 32. Well after all we are told what a Horse is and it is put into the Contents of the Chapter that we may the more note it That the Horse is the Son of his Fourfooted Parents created by the vertue of a Word into a living Horselike Soul We have a common Saying in some Places That to hear some things would make a Horse to break his Halter And because that Man hath so many Followers in this City I shall say the more of him and see whether he hath not ripled some places of Scripture for his wild Notions as our giddy Antinomians have for theirs In his Two Hundred Queries about the Revolution of Human Souls See how this Man after Prayers to God to discover Mysteries to him most vilely and foolishly plays with Scripture John 12.35 Are there not twelve Hours of the Day saith he tweve several times to be born in the World for Man Ephesians 16. Redeem the time not twenty or thirty Years only but hundreds they bad misspent before in other Bodies Here is your Man your Expositer for you What is the Old Man the Body of Sin but that which they had had bundred of Years As weak is the Talk of this Heretick about the Ending of the Torments of the Damned Pride will put Men on strange Delusions as if Inspirations Raphiel he says was promised him in a Dream The things I defend you in Brethren are of great Weight and Importance