10. Ib. But he professeth that he dealeth thus in Zeal to the Glory of God Love to the Cause of Christ and Non-conformity which I have deserted Where 1. It is a repeated falshood that I have deserted the Cause of Non-conformity I challenge him openly to name even one point of it in which I have changed my judgment these 31 yeares which I speak not as my praise who in those things have grown no wiser except in knowing the same things better to this day 2. What sin will you call it to father all these falshoods on the Glory of God and the Cause of Christ Doth his Cause and Glory need mens Lies How many hundreds thus in a few more Libels may you publish if Satan bless them as hitherto he hath done with an Increase and Multiply Sect. 11. pag. 5. He reciteth many words of my Disputations of Church Government and laboureth whether by gross Ignorance or malice I know not to perswade the Reader that I retract or contradict them and saith We stand amazed you should so soon and so much forget all that you have said This is not a single falshood but maketh up no small part of his Book Reader do but hear and judge whether any thing except his Amareduci can excuse such horrid deliberate untruths 1. I never retracted any of that book setting aside the Dedication 2. I do still profess that I am of the same judgment which that book expresseth 3. I have in the greatest audience told the Bishops that I stand to it and provoked them to answer it 4. There is not a word of contradiction to that Book in my Cure of Church-Divisions which he writes against And am I not as like to understand my own writings as this man is 5. That very Book pleadeth as much and much more for a moderate Episcopacy the lawfulness of a Liturgy and those circumstances or ceremonies which I judge lawful as kneeling at the Sacrament than my later Books have done 6. It was to me a considerable Providence which drew me when the Sectaries were at the very highest to write that Book which had I written since the King returned they would have imputed to temporizing or a change 7. The very same men that now rail so loud against me said nothing that ever I could hear of against that book that contained more than Now I have written for But then it passed uncontradicted by them that now rail at half as much So Is it not a strange fate which that poor Book incurreth that the men of both sides plead it as for them and commend it whilst they condemn the Author as if he were himself against it The Reverend Bishop whom Mr. Bagshaw wrote against alledged it in the greatest audience before his Majesty Dukes Lords and Bishops with no less commendation than these words No man hath spoken better of this than Mr. Baxter And now Mr. Bagshaw citeth it with applause Reader who is in such a case as I The Bishop is for my Book Mr. Bagshaw is for it And I am the man that am against my self whilst I openly tell them both that I still stand to it as my judgment only not owning any words that any party shall justly find to be too sharp Surely they labour to bring me to that reputation among these contenders as Plato was among the Philosophers whom every Sect took to be the second or next the best Sect. 12. But pag. 6. he thinks that he talketh like a man of brains when he inferreth that if they be such kind of persons as I have represented them they ought immediately to be forsaken and forborn as to any acts of Church-communion Answ. But 1. I never said of them that they printed besides false Doctrines fourscore untruths in two small Libels as you have done and give the world neither vindication nor repentance And yet you or your disciples will not inferr thus against your self 2. Deceitful man Did I ever lay the charge you mention against all the honest conformable Pastors of the Parish Churches in the Land who have no hand in any thing that you can call an imposition or a persecution Nay that own not as they think the Diocesan Prelacy as such but only Episcopacy in general and Diocesans as the Kings Officers Did I ever lay that charge against all the Christians in the Parish Churches No nor against all the Bishops neither 3. And must all the Churches in a Kingdome be excommunicated or forsaken for the cause of a few men whom few of them ever knew or saw This is like the Popes interdicting Kingdomes 4. And if you separated but from the individual offenders should it not be done in a regular way Why go you about to blind the ignorant with such palpable fallacies as these Is it truth that men must be thus cheated into with errours Sect. 13. pag. 6. From what I said the Episcopal Churches would then have been if they had but had a meer toleration in the times that openly discountenanced them when the countenanced parties should set up by themselves he inferreth as if I had called them such now when no other are tolerated and that in all those Parishes where are good Ministers and no other Churches Thus palpable falshood is the very life of all his Libel Sect. 14. Ib. The self-contradicting man professeth to follow the Light which I once had in this and yet that my present Light is nothing else but confusion of darkness when I said the same then in that very Book that now I do and now own that book which I wrote then And all to carry on a cheating falshood as if in this I had changed my judgment Sect. 15. I had almost pass'd over a shameless falshood pag. 4. And that you may know I do not speak at randome particularly when at Gloucester you preached upon Curse ye Meroz and now you say you do repent do you expect ever to be believed again which is a mere composition of Vntruths 1. I never preached on Curse ye Meroz in my life if he mean that text or those words I never was at Gloucester but about one month before the Wars in which I preached thrice or four times of which one on a Fast had respect to the times which was on Ezek. 37. 3. Son of man Can these bones live And my business was to shew the Difficulty of the reparation and reformation of a sinful lapsed Church In which I mentioned many things and sorts of people that would hinder it but neither my Notes which I yet have by me or memory have any thing at all that tended unto War or resistance of Authority Yet if any other Sermon there did touch the times which I remember not I am sure it was not on that Text which I never preached on 2. And he as falsly insinuateth that I say I repent of what I preached at Gloucester so hard is it to him to speak that which is not
must bear with unless you will separate from your own leaders Deal but impartially Is there one Parish Minister yea or one Parish Church Member of many that was ever convict of so much sin as Mr. Bagshaw hath published and silently but impertinently lyeth down under Is there many of them that ever defended half so much sin so obstinately without confession and yet so impotently without sence Separate from no Ministers or people that are not proved as guilty as this man and I will never more write against your Separation 2. And now the world and posterity shall see in this mans writings how the cause of unlawful Separation was defended in this age I openly profess that this is a great reason that drew me to Defend my Cure of Church Divisions by three following Defences that Posterity may see what interest and passion will not now suffer some to see I look to the times to come And if there be any wiser men among them that can say more for the Separating-cause they are best set to it For if they leave it on such hands as Mr. Bagshaws it is easie to foresee that it will be shamed for ever Yet do I solemnly profess that to my utmost remembrance I never in my life did venture upon or manage one dispute by word or writing through a confidence in my own ability to make good what I undertook but in a confidence of the goodness of my Cause and of the great advantage which the evidence of plain truth doth give to any man of good reason to defend it even against the cunningest Sophister that shall oppose it Sect. 3. And now I shall add my Admonition to you as not being quite ignorant of Satans Wiles to tell you what a snare is laid for you all in Mr. Bagshaw's Writings and as one that hath no interest but Christs and the Churches to move him to it to tell you how great the danger is if you swallow the bait 1. If he prevail with you he will draw you into the guilt of all those sins of his own fore-mentioned by your approbation consent And how great an addition will that be to your load 2. It would draw you to the entertainment of all those Love-killing Malignant and Dividing Principles which I cast down and he sets up And you little know what an evil it is to have an understanding so blinded and a heart so defiled 3. By this means that true universal Love to Godly men and Christians as such will be destroyed And when you should bear Gods Image who is Love it self you will be made like Satan the enemy of God and Love And instead of loving your neighbour as your self you will take your neighbours yea Christs members for your enemies 4. And as Love is the fulfilling of the Law so your death of Love will be the death of all your true obedience and lead you to the breach of every Law You will deny all the acts of Love in word or deed to others that you owe them to you will censure you will backbite freely you will receive false reports and vend them again to others And Christ may say to you Inasmuch as you did it not to one of the least mark the least of these my brethren you did it not to me 5. You will be tempted into Treason against Christ under pretence of piety denying his interest in almost all his Churches in the world Even as if you should say that the King is King of one or two Towns only in all his Kingdoms on pretence that all the rest are not good enough to be his Subjects I profess openly that nothing in the world more moveth me to do what I do than this That there is much within me that will not suffer me without abhorrence to think of either unchurching all Churches in the world that use a set Liturgy yea that use one worse than ours or yet to hold that they should all be separated from And had I ever Vowed and Covenanted to do this as I did not it had been a sinful Vow 6. And moreover it will possess you with a degenerate and false kind of Religion consisting in sidings and partial opinions and obeying your selves instead of God 7. And it will make you Satans instruments to disturb all Churches that you joyn with if you do not want occasion and temptation For the Principles which I wrote against will let no Church be quiet where they prevail And a Kingdom or house divided cannot stand 8. You will be drawn from true spiritual worshipping of God and your worship and Church-communion will be corrupted Instead of holy and heavenly Sermons Prayers praises c. you will be infected with a contending and envying passion and puffed up with the conceit of your own judgments and grow zealous for your personal opinions and your parties and turn your preaching and praying into a strain that savoureth of this disease and defile them with unsounder passages for your errours or divided interests than any can be found in the Common Prayers which you shun 9. And if you be thus overcome it will heinously aggravate your sin that you will do all this as a part of your Religion and so will father it all on God as if such doing pleased him and proceeded from his spirit and were commanded by his word And as Matth. 12. it is made the unpardonable sin to blaspheme the Holy Ghost by ascribing his Miracles to Satan so though it be pardonable you should easily see that it cannot be small to say that those things which are pleasing to the Devil and proceed from his will and malicious suggestions are pleasing to God and proceed from his spirit and word 10. By these means Satan would make your Churches to do his work against the Lord whom they profess to worship and and to be the very Nests where PRIDE and IGNORANCE shall breed their like and shall cherish sinful Love killing principles and passions and animosities against your brethren And so your Assemblies will be acted too much by his suggestions and become his Work-houses while you think that they are serving God and mens wisdom will be earthly sensual and diabolical when they verily think it is from above Iam. 3 15 16. 11. Thus he would fain bring an odium upon your selves and cause you to go under such a character as the Munster Anabaptists and the Familists Quakers and such others do That men may say of you that while you take on you to be stricter than others it is but in abhorring other mens Prayers and extolling your own And that sin is no sin when you find it in your own party or your selves And that Lyars and most impudent Calumniators and proud Revilers c. go among your selves for Godly persons while the uprightest men that use the Common Prayer do go for Idolaters and Ungodly And if Satan can but get such an odious Character fastened on you what
dissent And what hinders me from doing so at Common-Prayer He saith I must joyn in that form or none at all True And so must I when the Minister either prayeth freely or in a stinted form of his own You must joyn in that or none at all for that time I told him of old Mr. Fen a zealous Non-conformist at Coventry that would say Amen loud to every Prayer of the Liturgy save that for the Bishops Did he not use as much liberty here as he could have done at free prayer 2. And for fore knowledge he passeth by all the answer I oft gave to that objection and singeth over the same song again Fore-knowing what will be said doth more enable me to know what clause to forbear my consent to than in sudden Prayer not foreknown And what if by his constant custome I foreknow that Iohn Simpson Randal Iohn Goodwin Saltmarsh Dr. Crisp Canne Iohnson Blackwood or any other tolerable Opinionist will put his opinion into his Prayers Doth not that make them in this all one with an imposed prayer as to fore-knowledge And when I fore-know that the Matter of the Liturgy used on the Lords dayes by the Minister and people is sound this fore-knowledge maketh it not evil in the use Sect. 28. When I gave him no less than twenty Queries containing plain evictions of the falseness of his Doctrine about the Scriptures his answer is that he will answer them when I have satisfied him that I sinned not greatly in raising such mists and doubts and when I give him security that I will not ask him as many more Reader Is not this man an easie disputant Did you ever know any that answered all with less ado than so silly a reason Why he should not answer it Sect. 29. He concludeth by telling us that he is to say no more your best your equal I know what he meaneth though not what he saith And really it was but need that he should tell the world how good or worthy a man he is or else a sober person that had but read one of his three Libels would hardly have believed it Sect. 30. Having ended the second time he begins again with a Postscript to tell us his reasons for his refusing the Oath of Allegiance which he is imprisoned for But I have no mind to meddle with him where I have no call And shall only say that had it been more even the Oath of Supremacy it self if he will regard either Non-conformist Independents or Anabaptist Mr. Bradshaw Mr. Nie and Mr. Tombes have each written enough to teach him better to understand that English CHAP. IV. An Admonition to that part of the Church which is inclined to Mr. Bagshaw's Errours Sect. 1. VVEre it not my present Duty to Tell the Church I should take it to be as inconvenient as unpleasing to open Mr. Bagshaw's sins But as Christ did it by the Pharisees yea and Peter himself and as Paul in his Epistles did it by many so I think it is now become my duty though he and his believers be displeased by it I shall but desire the impartial sober Readers that have perused his Writings and mine to judge 1. Whether so great Ignorance as he discovereth in himself be not scandalous in a Preacher of the Gospel 2. Whether such dangerous errours in Doctrine against the very foundations of our faith with many other proved against him make him not an unsafe Guid for souls And give not incomparably greater occasion for renouncing him as an Heretick to such as are apt to take such occasion than most called Hereticks in the ancient Churches gave 3. Whether it be not rare among the worst of men to meet with so many evidences of Insolent Pride above the common measure of Proud men as his three Libels do contain 4. Whether it be not a hard matter to find among the worst of men on earth two Libels so small containing above fourscore visible Vntruths in matter of fact And a third to follow them substantially constituted of the like Vntruths scarce now to be numbred any more than drops that are aggregate in a Pond 5. Whether it be not rare to meet with more malicious contrived snares to make up his ends upon the person instead of defending of his Cause 6. Whether ever you saw a controversie so managed by any sort of men of what heresie soever that said so little for their Cause as he hath done for his Love-killing Principles I confess I remember not one no not excepting the very Quakers Read over several debates and see whether ever a cause so hotly contended for had so little said for it 7. Whether ever you saw Books so answered as mine are by him In all his three Libels not medling at all with any considerable part of my Books as to any answer But silently passing them over as if he had never read them And yet going on to repeat the same things which I had confuted 8. Whether his Calumny or false accusations of me and of Calvin Perkins Hildersham Preston c. be not an unchristian act 9. Whether it be not rare among the worst to find such footsteps of great Impenitence as he giveth in so silent a passing over his guilt of the fore-mentioned fourscore Vntruths without any considerable Vindication and after Admonition adding so many worse 10. Whether it be not rare to meet with so much audacious impudence in sinning 11. Whether the slandring of so many millions yea almost all Christs Churches on Earth as differ from him in point of Forms c. as guilty of Idolatry be not a most heinous sin against Christ and them as representing them as odious in the world 12. And is it not a sin to draw so many poor souls as will beieve him so far towards the hatred of Christs Churches and â—om Communion with them and to confine all their Communion 〈◊〉 so narrow a compass 13. Whether Fathering all this on God and Religion make â—â—t the sin to be yet greater 14. Whether according to his power he shew not as Cruâ—â— and bloudy and silencing a disposition as any of those that 〈◊〉 he accused of it 15. Whether he do not injuriously to labour by his insiâ—tions to bring many honest well-meaning Christians 〈◊〉 into the same guilt with himself or into the shameâ—â— reputation of it Insomuch that â—lready the common 〈◊〉 dishonoureth many of the Semi-separatists saying that they 〈◊〉 rejoyce at his Writings and so hate my Treatise against Church-dividing Principles as that for the sake of it they will read no other of my Books And if that hurt them no more than me the matter is but small Sect. 2. And when you have well considered of these things I shall next desire you to consider Whether this man hath not brought you as great a Care or Caution against unlawful Separations and Divisions as most men ever did in the world For 1. Here you see how much you