against him was an act of Persecution 3. Nor did I ever see cause to doubt but that in some cases such as this of his was Banishment is a lawfull and just punishment if it be in proper speech a punishment at all in such a Countrey as this is where the Jurisdiction whence a man is banished is but small and the Countrey round about it large and fruitfull where a man may make his choice of variety of more pleasant and profitable seats then he leaveth behinde him In which respect Banishment in this Countrey is not counted so much a confinement as an enlargement where a man doth not so much loose civill comforts as change them And as for spirituall liberties liberty of Church Ordinances they were a burden and bondage to his spirit here And therefore he cast them off before they left him neither doth he to this day look at it as a way of God for any Christian man to look after the Ordinances of God in a Church-estate at all As conceiving that the Apostasie of Antichrist hath so farre corrupted all that there can be no recovery out of that Apostasie till Christ shall send forth new Apostles to plant Churches anew But as for the true cause why I medled not in his civill Censure it was chiefly because Civill Censures belong unto another Kingdome then that which we are called to administer Civill Censures are not the weapons of our warfare and partly also because I was carried as still I am with a compassion of his Person and likewise of his wife a woman as then of a meek and modest spirit who a long time suffered in spirit as I was informed for his offensive course which occasioned him for a season to withdraw communion in spirituall duties even from her also till at length he drew her to partake with him in the errour of his way But Mr. Williams affirmeth That in Letters past between him and me he proved and exprest that if he had perished in that sorrowfull winters flight onely the bloud of Christ could have washed me from the guilt of his Answ That he did expresse such a thing in some Letters to me as I doe not remember it so neither will I deny it but that he proved it I may as safely deny it as he boldly affirme it Could he then have given any such proofes doubtlesse he would not have concealed them now when he undertaketh to cleare to the world the pretended innocency of himselfe and the supposed iniquitie of his supposed Persecutors How precious the bloud of Christ is to me and how needfull I blesse the Lord my soule knoweth but that I needed it to wash away the guilt of any injurious proceedings against the bloud of Mr. Williams I speake it in holy confidence I never discerned it to this day The proofes which he alledgeth in the sequell for my hand in his Banishment I shall God willing cleare them anon in due place Meane while what answers I made to him concerning the same in other Letters he wisely concealeth but contenteth himselfe to tell us that my finall Answer was That had he perished in his flight his bloud had been upon his own head It was his sinne to procure it and his sorrow to suffer it If this was my finall Answer it seemeth I gave him other former Answers what they were I have now forgotten but I suppose had they been insufficient or impertinent I should have heard of them But what is amisse in this finall Answer The margent noteth it as an unmercifull speech of a mercifull man But when it shall please the Father of mercies of soften the heart of Mr. Williams and to give him an heart and eare to hearken unto the wholesome Counsell of his true friends he will at length see the speech was truly mercifull as well as the man that spake it When a Fountaine is opened to Hierusalem for sinne and for uncleannesse the Prophets who have deceived the people shall at length see and acknowledge their errour and being demanded the cause of the wounds in their hands They shall answer each of them for himselfe thus was I wounded in the house of my Friends Zach. 13.1 with verses 4 5 6. An heart softened with the Bloud of Christ will judge the wounds of his friends faithfull Prov. 27.6 I meane such reproofes for sinne which though they may seeme to wound yet wound to heale David thought such smiting to be a kindnesse yea an excellent Oyle which doth not breake the head but heale the heart Psal 141.5 There is one thing more in his Epistle to the Reader which calleth for Answer It cannot now saith he be justly offensive that finding this Letter publick by whose procurement I know not I now present to publick view my formerly intended Answer Answ It had not been offensive to me that he did present his Answer to publick view if he found my Letter publick without his own or his friends procurement especially if his Answer had been returned in words of truth and faithfulnesse Which how farre they fall short of I hope by the help of Christ will appeare in the sequell Meane while I feare it is justly offensive to the Spirit of Grace and Love That whereas he judged me to allow my selfe and others to rest securely in the Doctrine and Practise of bloudy Persecution that all this while even for the space of nine or ten yeares he suffered me to sleep so long so quietly under the guilt of such a crying sinne Nay it may seeme by his own words if he had not found my Letter publick it may be doubted whether ever I should have heard any further word from him hereabouts at all If I had been esteemed as a Brother sinne should not have been suffered to lie so long upon a Brother Levit. 19.17 If an enemy yet the very Oxe or Asse of an enemy is not to be suffered to lye so long groveling under his burden Deut. 22.4 But when he addeth in the next sentence That he rejoyceth in the goodnesse and wisedome of him who is the Father of lights and mercies in ordering the season of his own present opportunitie of Answer I confesse we on the contrary have cause to admire and adore the wisdome and dreadfull Justice of God herein That seeing Mr. Williams hath been now as a branch cut off from the Church of Salem these many yeares he should bring forth no spirituall good fruits in due season and that which he bringeth forth now at the last is bitter and wild fruit and that in such a season when the Spirit of Error is let loose to deceive so many thousand soules of our English Nation So that now their hearts are become as Tinder ready to catch and kindle at every sparke of false light Even so O Father because thy good pleasure is such to let loose this Spirit of Error in the mouth of this Backslider in the very houre and power of darknesse
that they will doe it without some excitement from the Angells no more then the Angells powred out their vialls till they were stirred up by a great voice out of the Temple Revelations 16.1 It is an evasion as groundlesse as the former that Elijahs stirring up of Ahab to kill all the Preists and Prophets of Baal was figurative For all Figures in the old Testament have their Accomplishment â—n the New Now evident it is Ahab an Apostate Idolater was no Type of Christ nor was Israel after their Apostacy a Type of the true Church of Christ A Tabernacle it was but not a Tabernacle of Christ Aholah but not Aholibah To make this act in Israel a Type of Christs act in Christian State or Church is to make darknesse a type of light Ceremoniall Lawes were generally Typicall not so Moses his Judicialls especially those which had in them morall equity It is Morall equity That Blasphemers and Apostate Idolaters seducing others to Idolatry should be put to death Levit. 24.16 Deut. 13.5 Ahab forfited his owne life because he did not put Benhadad to death for his blasphemy 1 Kings 20.23 28. and ver 42. yet Benhadad was no Israelite nor was his blasphemy bleched out in the Land of Israel but the externall equity of that Judiciall Law of Moses was of morall force and bindeth all Princes to expresse that zeale and indignation both against blasphemy in such as fall under their just power which Ahab neglected and against seduction to Idolatry which Ahab executed or else Elijah or some others by his consent But before I leave this dispute touching the meaning of those words Let them alone let me add another Interpretation which I see doth rather more satisfie others and it may wel stand Let them alone is not a word of precept by way of Ordinance But a word of permission by way of Providence God in his Providence will permit some or other Tares ever to be found in his Church to the last Judgement Which yet he would not have his servants offended at For them he will pluck up by his Angells at the last Harvest CHAP. 28. A Reply to his 28th Chapter VVhich is a Recaptulation of what Points the Discusser supposeth He hath proved in opening this Parable Defender The Discusser in this Chapter is onely a Rehearser of what he conceiveth himselfe to have evidently demonstrated to the Conscience from Chap. eighteene to this Chapter twentieight Five Points Negatively and Five Points Affirmatively But because what he rehearseth hath been reversed in the Reply to those severall Chapters I will not Actum Agere nor Dictum dicere CHAP. 29. A Reply to his twentininth Chapter Discussing the Text in Matth. 15.14 Letter The second Scripture brought against such Persecution for Cause of Conscience is Matth 15.14 where the Disciples being troubled at the Pharises cariage towards the Lord Jesus and his Doctrine and relating how they were offended at him The Lord Jesus commaundeth his Disciples to Let them alone and giveth this Reason that the blinde lead the blinde and both should fall into the ditch Answ of the Letter Christ speaketh not there to publick Officers whether in Church or Common-wealth but to his private Disciples concerning the Pharises over whom they had no power And the command he giveth to Let them alone is spoken in regard of troubling themselves or regarding the offence which they tooke at the wholesome Doctrine of the Gospel As who should say Though they be offended at this wholesome saying of mine yet doe not you feare their feare nor be troubled at their offence which they take at my Doctrine not out of sound Judgement but out of blindnesse But this maketh nothing to the cause in hand Discusser To passe by this Assertion of the privacy of the Apostles in that the Lord Jesus commanded to Let them alone that is not onely to be offended themselves but not to meddle with them It appeareth it was no Ordinance of God nor of Christ for his Disciples to have gone further and have complained to and excited the Civill Magistrate to his duty Which if it had been an Ordinance of God and Christ either for the vindicating of Christs Doctrine or the recovering of the Pharises or the preserving of others from infection the Lord Jesus would never have commanded them to omitt that which should have tended to these holy ends Defender Reply 1. To passe by the Assertion of the Privacy of the Apostles It is not an Act of courtesie and loathnesse to strive but out of defect of just pretence to make any colourable exception against it For though the Apostles were called to a publique Ministery Math. 10. yet it seemeth not as then to a constant office but to a transient Administration pro illa vice for that time Their constant calling required to attend continually upon Christs Ministry to prepare and ripen them for the publique constant office which they were to be called to after Christs Resurrection Acts 1.21 22. Besides in that transient Administration they were not sent to the Scribes and Pharises who were no bitter then Wolves and Foxes but to the lost sheepe of the House of Israel Matth. 10.6 And therefore the Apostles not being sent to the Scribes and Pharises they had no power over them but stood as private men to them Reply 2. And as they had no calling nor power to correct or censure them themselves so neither had they a calling to excite the civill Magistrate against them For first it was no just cause for the civill Magistrate to punish the Pharises for that they tooke unjust offence against Christs wholesome doctrine For neither was the doctrine it selfe a fundamentall truth nor was their offence against it a fundamentall errour though it was dangerous Besides the civill Magistrates had no Law established about doctrines or offences of that nature And therefore they could take no judiciall cognizance of any complaint presented to them about the same Moreover our Saviour who sent forth his Apostles to preach to the lost sheepe of the house of Israel gave them a charge of caution to beware how they medled with Scribes and Pharises Behold saith he I send you forth as sheepe among wolves Be ye therefore wise as serpents innocent as doves Beware of men c. Mat. 10.16 17. The Apostles therefore having received this caution could not meddle with the Scribes and Pharises but trespasse against this rule of serpentine prudence as much as for a flocke of lambes to complaine to a kennell of wolves of the wolves out-rage Yea Christ himselfe was sparing to reprove them himselfe though called to a publicke Ministery till the last yeare of his Ministery when his houre was comming of departure out of the world as knowing they would not be able to beare it and their exasperation might have been some hinderance to the free passage of his Ministery before his houre was come CHAP. 30. A Reply to his Chap. 30.
knew it was out of Question all persecution was unlawfull whether by the Church or the Magistrate an unjust excommunication is as true persecution as an unjust Banishment But if persecution be taken more largely and loosely as it is by the Author of the Letter and by the Discusser for any affliction or persecution for cause of Conscience whether good Conscience or evill whether rightly informed or erroneous If that be the intent of the Letter as it seemed to me to beare witnesse against that then any testimony of Scripture that justifieth a lawfull censure of false and erroneous Teachers doth evince the scope of the Letter to be erroneous which is against all persecution for cause of Conscience Let therefore the Discusser admire at his owne admiration and be astonished at his owne astonishment that wondereth to see an universall negative argued against by a particular affirmative The Letter denyeth the lawfulnesse of all persecution in cause of Conscience that is in matter of Religion I seek to evince the falshood of it by an instance of lawfull Church-prosecution in case of false Teachers Discusser But if the Churches and Angels thereof had sufficient power to suppresse Balaam and Jezabel then all power of Magistrates and Governours in Pergamus and Thyatira though they had been Christian must needs fall to the ground as none of Christs appointment Defender The power of the Churches and Angels of Pergamus and Thyatyra were sufficient for those ends for which Christ ordained Church-power to wit for the healing of the soules of such seducers if they belonged to Christ as also for keeping those Churches pure from the fellowship of the guilt of their Act in teaching false Doctrines whom they had duly censured But the power of those Churches and Angels was not sufficient to prevent the further spreading of the Leaven of their false Doctrines both in such as were out of the Church and in private amongst the members of the Church who might adhere to them Much lesse was the putting forth of the Church-power against them sufficient to cleare the Magistrates of a Christian State from the guilt of Apostasie in suffering such Apostates amongst them who would be ready to solicite many simple soules either to with-hold and with-draw themselves from the Fellowship of the Churches or in the Churches to withdraw from the Lord Jesus Discusser Lastly from this perverse wresting of what is writ to the Church and the Officers thereof as if it were writ to the Civill Officers and State thereof all may see how since the Apostacie of Antichrist the Christian world so called hath swallowed up Christianity how the Church and Civill State that is the Church and the world are now become one flock of Jesus Christ c. Defender Here is no wresting much lesse perverse wresting of any Scripture at all from the Church to the Civill State I intended to apply the Scripture written to the Churches and to the Officers thereof no further then to other Churches and their Officers The Scriptures upon which we call in the Magistrate to the punishment of Seducers are such as are directed to civill States and Magstrates of which divers have been mentioned and applyed before CHAP. 56. A Reply to his Chap. 58 and 59. Discussing the Testimony of some Princes Discusser I Proceed to the second Head of Reasons against persecution for cause of Conscience taken from the profession of famous Princes King James Stephen of Poland King of Bonemia Vnto whom the Answerer returneth a treble Answer 1. Wee willingly acknowledge saith he that none is to be persecuted at all no more then any may be oppressed for righteousnesse sake Again we acknowledge that none is to be punished for his Conscience though misinformed unlesse his errour be fundamentall or seditiously and turbulently promoted and that after due conviction of his Conscience that it may appeare he is not punished for his Conscience but for sinning against his Conscience Furthermore we acknowledge none is to be constrained to believe or professe the true Religion till he be convinced in Judgement of the truth of it but yet restrayned he may be from blaspheming the Truth and from seducing any into pernicious errours This first Answer I believe I have sufficiently cleared the weaknesse of the Foundations thereof in the former discourse Defender And I doubt not but by the help of Christ I have formerly declared and convinced the feeblenesse of the opposition made against them and what firme foundations those Answers are built upon from the Scriptures of Truth Discusser His second Answer is this what Princes professe and practise is not a Rule of Conscience They many times tolerate that in State Policy which cannot justly be tolerated in point of true Christianity Againe Princes many times tolerate Offendors out of very necessity when the Offenders are too many or too mighty for them to punish In which respect David tolerated Joab and his murder but against his will It may be here observed how the Answerer dealeth with Princes one while they are nursing Fathers to the Church not onely to feed but also to correct and therefore consequently bound to judge what is true feeding and correcting and consequently all men are bound to submit to their feeding and correcting Defender The Discusser doth partly falsly and partly fraudulently fasten upon me this dealing with Princes That I make them nursing Fathers of the Church I therein follow the footsteps of the Holy Ghost before me teaching what Princes should be and foretelling what they shall be in the latter dayes Isaiah 49.23 In which place It was not the intent of the Holy Ghost nor mine to threaten the Church with a red of Correction But to comfort the Church with a double blessing First of the Fatherly provision and protection of Princes for the Church Secondly of their subjection to the Church in respect of their spirituall Estate What Princes may doe in case the Church should Apostate and become no Church or in case they should breake forth into Sedition and Rebellion against the Civill State It is another Question which I have not medled with in all this Discourse Neither have I spoken of Princes as bound to Judge what is true feeding or correcting least of all have I said that all men are bound especially in Conscience to their feeding and correcting These are calumnies devised by the Discusser All I have said to my remembrance this way is that Princes are bound to be wise and Learned with holy knowledge that they may kisse the Sonne and be subject to him Psal 2.10.11 And therefore able to discerne of such corrupt feeding as destroyeth the Foundation of Religion and the soules of Gods people that they may be able to restraine such and to preserve the Church from such ravenous Wolves and I deny not that their Subjects are to submit to them herein when they judge according to the Word or howsoever patiently to suffer for well-doing without resistance
once and againe out of the Church of Alexandria once whist he was Deacon as Sozomene reporteth in Lib. 1. Ecclesiast Historia Chap. 14. And though afterwards he got into the Church againe yet he was againe excommunicated when he was Presbyter and cast out of his Presbytery as Socrates reporteth in his lib. 1. Ecclesiast Hastoria Cap. 6. of the Greek Edition Chap. 3. of the latine So that Hierome complaining of the great hurt which the sparke of Arius did because he was not timely put out he did not meane of putting out of the Church which was done timely enough and twice for failing but because he was not put out either out of the world or at least out of the Confines of Neighbour Churches Say not yet Paul doubtlesse spake of putting out of the Church For though that be true yet now the Question is not of Pauls judgement in this place but of Hieromes judgement which the Author of the Letter alledgeth as a witnesse for himselfe and the Discusser would maintaine it though Ieromes words will not beare it It argueth men are more led by will then judgement to uphold a cause when the witnesses which themselves produce beare witnesse against them Neither let any man say That this graunt of his That Heresie must be cut off with the Sword of the spirit doth imply an absolute sufficiency in the Sword of the Spirit to cut it downe according to 2 Cor 10.4 5. For though Spirituall weapons be absolutely sufficient to the end for which God hath appointed them as hath been opened above to wit for the conviction and if he belong to God for the conversion of the offender for the mortifying of his flesh for the saying of his soule and for the cleansing of the Church from the fellowship of that guilt yet if an Hereticke still continue obstinate and persist in seducing creepe into Houses lead captive silly soules and destroy the faith of some it may be of many such Gangrenes would be cut off by another Sword which in the hand of the Magistrate is not borne in vaine Discusser But the eye of this Answerer could never be so obscured as to run to a Smiths shop for a Sword of Iron and steele to help the Sword of the Spirit if the Sunne of righteousnesse had once been pleased to shew him That a Nationall Church which elswhere he professeth against a State-Church whether explicite as in Old England or implicite as in New is not the Institution of the Lord Jesus Christ The Nationall Typicall-State-Church of the Jewes necessarily called for such weapons But the particular Churches of Christ in all parts of the world consisting of Jewes and Gentiles is powerfully able to defend it selfe and offend men and Divells although the State and Kingdome wherein the Churches be had neither carnall Sword nor Speare as once it was in the Nationall Church in the Land of Canaan 1 Sam. 13. Defender I should think mine eye were very obscure indeed if I should run to a Smiths shop to fetch the Authority of the civill Magistrate from thence or if I should thinke his Authority could not be put forth against all evill doers and amongst others against Hereticks without a Sword of Iron or Steele If their be stones in the streets the Magistrate need not fetch a Sword from the Smiths shop nor an Halter from the Ropers to punish an Heretick A pleasant wit can play with a feather of every flying Fancy and yet which is to be lamented bring in such light conceits into grave Discourses and Disputes about the holy things of God But two things let the Discusser understand 1. That the Lord through his grace hath opened mine eye many a yeare agoe to discerne that a Nationall Church is not the Institution of the Lord Jesus And himselfe confesseth that elswhere I have profest against such a Church State nor will he ever be able to make it good that the Church in New-England is implicitely any Nationall or State-Church 2. Let him understand further that I should thinke mine eye not onely obscured but the sight of it utterly put out if I should conceive as he doth That the Nationall Church State of the Jewes did necessarily call for such weapons to punish Hereticks more then the Congregationall State of particular Churches doth call for the same now in the dayes of the New-Testament For was not the Nationall Church of the Iewes as compleately furnished with spirituall Armour to defend it selfe and to offend men and Divells as the particular Churches of the New-Testament be Had they not power to convince false Prophets as Elijah did the Prophets of Baal Had they not power to seperate all evil doers from the fellowship of the Congregation what power have our particular Churches now which their Nationall Church wanted or what efficacy is their found in the exercise of our power which was wanting to them If it be said Their Nation was an holy Nation and an uncleane person might not live amongst them Ans It is true he might not enter into the Congregation with the rest of the Israelites to worship the Lord but he was permitted to live in the Common-wealth of Israel men uncercumcised both in heart and flesh It is therefore a Sophystical imagination of mans Braine to make a mans selfe or the world believe that the Nationall Church-State of the Iewes required a civill Sword whereas the particular Church-State of the Gospel needs no such help Why not I pray you Because particular Churches are powerfully able by the Sword of the Spirit to defend themselves and to offend men or Divells And was not the Nationall Church of Israel as powerfully able by the same Spirit to doe the same Surely it was both spoken and meant of the Nationall Church of the Iewes Not by might nor by power but by my Spirit saith the Lord of Hostes Zach. 4.6 And doth not the Discusser himselfe observe that time was in the Nationall Church of the Land of Canaan when there was neither carnall Speare nor Sword to be found 1 Sam. 13. And was not then the Nationall Church powerfully able by the Spirit of God to defend it selfe and to offend men and Divells aswell as particular Churches now CHAP. 69. A Reply to his Chap. 72. discussing the Testimony of Brentius Discusser BRentius upon 1 Cor. 3. saith no man hath power to make or give Lawes to Christians whereby to binde their Consciences For willingly freely and uncompelled with a ready desire and chearfull minde must those that come run unto Christ To this the Answerer returneth Brentius saith he speaketh not to your cause Wee willingly graunt you that man hath no power to binde Conscience but this hindereth not that men may see the Lawes of God observed which doe binde Conscience But the graunting this That men have no power to make Lawes to binde Conscience overthroweth such his Tenent and practise as restraine men from their worship
the Church be not nursed with poison in stead of milke And in so doing they keepe the first Table Reforme the Church judge in causes Ecclesiasticall Againe If the the same Princes shall bow down to the Church with their faces towards the earth and lick the dust of her feet as the same Text expresseth then they being members of the Church shall be subject also to Church-Censure In one word Princes sit on the Bench over the Church in the offensive Government of the Church yet may themselves being members of the Church be subject to Church-Censure in the offensive Government of themselves against the Rules of the Gospel The Examiner himselfe contesseth that in severall respects He that is a governor may be also a Subject Behold here are severall respects to wit severall objects of Judicature In the Mal-Administration of the Church the Magistrate sitteth as Judge and Governor in the Mal-Administration of a Church-Member-Magistrate contrary to the expresse rules of the Gospel he is subject to the power of Christ in the Church If it be said nay rather The Church is subject to the Magistrate in civill causes and the Magistrate is subject to the Church in spirituall causes I Answer That easeth not the difficulty no more then the other For suppose the Magistrate a Church member live in Incest breake forth into murder and notorious oppression these are all civill causes belonging to the second Table If the Magistrate sit as Judge and supreme Governor in this case then must the Church tolerate him herein to the dishonour of the great Name of Christ to the leavening of the Church and to the perdition of his soule If it be granted that in such a case though civill the Church is bound to deale faithfully with the Magistrate and not to suffer sinne upon him let the like power be granted to the Magistrate to deale faithfully with the Church in the notorious transgressions of the first Table as is granted to the Church to deale with the Magistrate in the notorious transgressions of the second Table and the controversie is ended If any further matter be claimed in making the Supreme Magistrate the Supreme Judge and Governor in all causes aswell Ecclesiasticall as civill I doe not understand that the Ministers or Churches of Christ are called to acknowledge such a meaning Sure I am the Interpretation of that high stile which godly learned Reynolds made of it in the 10. Chap. of his Conference with Hart It was accepted of the State in the dayes of Queene Elizabeth And the same Interpretation if no more be intended by that stile doth well stand with our defence But wherefore doe I put my Sicle into the Harvest of my Brethren my Brethren who penned that Modell are richly furnished by Christ with ability to defend it I therefore leave it to them whom it cheifly concerneth to maintaine the Truth which themselves have witnessed in that Modell And the Lord Jesus Christ himself the God of Truth who came into the world that he might beare witnesse to the Truth be pleased to beare witnesse from Heaven to his owne Truth and bl … that peace a fraudulent and false peace which the Examiner proclaimeth to all the wayes of falshood in Religion to Heresie in Doctrine to Idolatry in worship to blasphemy of the great Name of God to Pollution and prophanation of all his holy Ordiannces Amen Even So Come Lord Jesus A REPLY TO Mr. VVILLIAMS his EXAMINATION And Answer of the Letters sent to him by JOHN COTTON SUch a Letter to such a purpose I doe remember I wrote unto Mr. Williams about halfe a score yeares agoe But whether this printed Letter be a true Copie thereof or no I doe not know for the Letter being sent so long since and no Copie of it that I can finde reserved by me I can own it no further then I finde the matter and style expressing the judgement which I then had of his cause of Separation and the affection I bare unto his person And for ought I see the Letter doth not unfitly expresse both But how it came to be put in print I cannot imagine Sure I am it was without my privitie and when I heard of it it was to me unwelcome Newes as knowing the truth and weight of Plinies speech Aliud est scribere uni aliud omnibus There be who thinke it was published by Mr. Williams himselfe or by some of his friends who had the Copie from him Which latter might be the more probable because himselfe denieth the publishing of it and it sticketh in my mind that I received many yeares agoe a refutation of it in a brotherly and ingenuous way from a stranger to me but one as I heare well affected to him Mr. Sabine Staresmore To whom I had long agoe returned an Answer but that he did not direct me where my Letter might find him But I doe not suspect Mr. Staresmore nor Mr. Williams himselfe to have published it but rather some other unadvised Christian who having gotten a copie of the Letter tooke more libertie then God alloweth to draw forth a private Admonition to publick notice in a disorderly way But howsoever it was upon the publishing of this Letter Mr. Williams hath taken occasion as is observed by some who are acquainted with the Spirit of the man first to rise up against me the meanest of many in the examining and resuting of that Letter And then as if one Mordecai were too small a morsell to stand forth against all the Churches and Elders in New-England in his Bloudy Tenent And then as if New-England were but an handfull from thence to rise up against the choisest Ornaments of two populous Nations England and Scotland the reverend Assembly of Divines together with the reverend Brethren of the Apology and above them all to addresse himselfe according to his high thoughts to propound Quaeries of high concernment as he calleth them to the High and Honourable Court of Parliament So a Bird of prey affecting to soare aloft getteth first upon the top of a molehill and from thence taketh his rise from Pale to Tree till he have surmounted the highest Mountaines In this apprehension of him they are the more confirmed as having discerned the like frame of Spirit in his former walking amongst us Time was when of all Christian Churches the Churches of New-England were accounted and professed by him to be the most pure and of all the Churches in New-England Salem where himselfe was Teacher to be the most pure But when the Churches of New-England tooke just offence at sundry of his proceedings he first renounced communion with them all and because the Church of Salem refused to joyne with him in such a groundlesse Censure he then renounced communion with Salem also And then fell off from his Ministery and then from all Church-fellowship and then from his Baptisme and was himselfe baptized againe and then from the Lords Supper and
Common Prayer Booke which though they then seemed sandy to me yet since I have acknowledged to be rocky and have seene cause so to publish to the world in my Discourse to Mr. Ball against set formes of Prayer For a reply let me begin where he leaveth How ready he is to build upon sandy grounds may appeare by this very Passage where he maintaineth his rockinesse For here he avoucheth I have seene cause to publish to the world the rockinesse of his grounds in a Discourse to Mr. Ball against set Formes of Prayer What rocky ground doe you thinke this Assertion of his standeth upon I know no other but this He findeth such a Discourse published to the world and he thence concludeth for other Grounds he hath none that I published that Discourse and that I saw cause to publish it both which hang upon that ground like ropes of sand The truth is I did not publish that Discourse to the world much lesse did I see cause to publish it upon the Grounds he speaketh of A briefe Discourse in defence of set formes of Prayer was penned by Mr. Ball much briefer then that which since is put forth in Print That briefe Discourse a religious Knight sent over whether to my selfe or to a Gentleman of note then dwelling in my house I remember not but with desire to heare our judgement of it At his request I drew up a short Answer and sent one Copie of it to the Knight and another to Mr. Ball divers yeares agoe How it came in processe of time to be published to the world or by whom I doe not know And yet Mr. Williams doubteth not to affirme it that I published that Discourse to the world and saw cause to doe it Rocky spirits can expresse all their conceits in rocky firmnesse though upon sandy conjectures Besides when he saith That himselfe discovered to me and to other servants of God his grounds against our using of the Common Prayer which then seemed sandy to us but now in New-England I have acknowledged to be rocky in my Discourse to Mr. Ball. I could have wished he had expressed what grounds those were which he discovered to us For my selfe I can call to minde no such matter that ever I heard or received from him either by word or writing any solide grounds against that Practise But this I am sure of that the grounds of altering my judgement touching that practise did chiefly stand upon the exposition of the second Commandement which if I should say I received from him I should greatly feare my forehead were more rocky then his grounds were I thinke it no disgrace to change either my judgement or practise upon better grounds then I formerly discerned Nor would I thinke it a disgrace to learne any grounds of truth and to professe that I had learned them from himselfe if so I had done But sure I am it hath not been wont to be the manner of the servants of God to upbraid their Brethren with their Retractations of their former Aberrations I have read of the Churches of Judea that when they heard Paul now preached the Faith which once he destroyed they glorified God for him Gal. 1.23 24. but I never read that any of the Churches of Christ or any sincere member of the Churches did ever upbraid Paul for his former Persecution or for his present change The other part of the Chapter he spendeth in relating the grounds of the sentence of his Banishment and in the avouchment of his confidence of the firmenesse of them The grounds of the sentence of his Banishment some whereof He saith I am pleased to discusse in the Letter and others not to mention He saith were rightly summed up by one of the Magistrates after his publick Tryall and Answers Mr. Williams said that publick Person holdeth forth these foure particulars 1. That we have not our Land by Patent from the King but that the Natives are the true owners of it and that we ought to repent of such a receiving it by Patent 2. That it is not lawfull to call a wicked Person to sweare to pray as being actions of Gods worship 3. That it is not lawfull to heare any of the Ministers of the Parish-Assemblies in England 4. That the Civill Magistrates Power extends onely to the bodies and goods and outward state of men c. These particulars he hopeth that as he maintained the rockie strength of them to his own and other Consciences satisfaction So through the Lords assistance he shall be ready not onely to be bound and banished but to dye also in New-England as for most holy Truths of God in Christ Jesus It was not my intent in that Letter which he examineth to discusse the Grounds of his Civill Banishment at all neither did I discusse one or other of them And it is a preposterous shifting of the State of the Question to put it upon me to give account of the causes of his Banishment who neither did banish him nor provoked the Court to banish him out of the Countrey The Magistrates and Deputies of the Common-wealth who were then the Members of that Court are all of them of age and able themselves to give account of their own actions To them or some of them he should in reason have addressed himselfe for satisfaction in this case if any were due and not to me who am as seldome present at any Civill Court if not more seldome then any man of our calling in Towne or Countrey where the Courts are kept It were more then Aegyptian bondage to me and more then Pharaonicall tyranny in him to exact of me an account of all the capitall or notable sentences of Judgement which passe in all the Civill Courts of Justice in the Countrey unlesse I had a calling to sit amongst them But why did I then endeavour in my Letter to shew him the sandinesse of those grounds upon which he had banished himselfe c. If I did not meane to declare and discusse the causes of his Banishment He doth very well and wisely to expresse the Grounds upon which I said he banished himselfe with an c. For he knows that if he had related my whole sentence in my own words he had cut off himselfe from all opportunitie of pleading with me the causes of his Civill Banishment My words are plaine I endeavour to shew you the sandinesse of those grounds upon which you have banished your selfe from the fellowship of all the Churches in these Countreyes It is one thing to banish ones selfe or to be banished out of the fellowship of all the Churches in the Countrey another thing to banish ones selfe or to be banished out of the Countrey There be at this day that banish and separate themselves from all the Churches in the Countrey and yet are not banished out of the Countrey and there be that are banished out of the Countrey and yet are not banished out of the
against my person which might weaken the fruit of my counsell to him I told him I had not hasted forward the sentence of his Civill Banishment and that what was done by the Magistrates in that kinde was neither done by my Counsell nor consent Whereto he answereth first That he observeth I cannot but confesse that it is hard for any man to doe good or to speake effectually to the soule or Conscience of any whose body he afflicteth and persecuteth and that onely for their soule and Conscience sake Reply All that can truely be observed from my words is That it is hard for any to take good from those against whom they have conceived a prejudice whether justly or unjustly But when he subjoyneth a Serpentine that is a subtile and venomous insinuation as if I had afflicted and persecuted his body and that onely for his soule and Conscience sake Answ I have been so farre from afflicting or persecuting his body especially for his soule or conscience sake that in very truth whilest I had any hope of prevailing for him I may say as David said for himselfe against a like slander Psal 7.3 4. I have sought to deliver him who without cause reproacheth me Let not Mr. Williams please himselfe as he doth in this Paragraph in comparing the dealing of the Elders with him here to the Persecutions of the Bishops against the godly Preachers in England If the Bishops had dealt no worse with the godly Preachers there and upon no more unjust causes then the Elders dealt with him here they might with good conscience and good countenance have looked with comfort and confidence both God and man in the face even now when God hath laid their carnall pompe and worldly honour in the dust Neither let him please himselfe as he doth in the next Paragraph in his undoubted Assertion That what Mr. Cotton and others did in procuring his sorrowes was not without some regret and reluctancy of Conscience and affection as David in procuring Uriah's death or Asa in imprisoning the Prophet For neither was he so innocent as was Vriah and that Prophet nor had my selfe the like hand in his sufferings as David and Asa had in the other nor did I ever see cause of regret and reluctancy of conscience for any act of mine own about his sufferings Onely I confesse I had as he saith some regret and reluctancy of affection and of compassion to see one who had received from God stirring and usefull gifts to bestirre himselfe so busily and eagerly to abuse them to the disturbance of himselfe his family the Churches and the Common-wealth That I consented not to his Banishment he in part admitteth For what need was there saith he of that being not one of the Civill Court As if I might not have consented to it though I needed not to have done it I might have drawn up Articles against him I might have come in as a witnesse against him I might have solicited and stirred up the body of the Magistrates against him to rid the countrey of him and then I had consented before-hand to what was done by the Magistrates in that kinde though my selfe had been none of the Court but none of all these acts nor any such like were done by me But be it that I consented not yet I counselled it and so consented and to prove that he saith He will produce a double and unanswerable Testimony for it First That I publickly taught and still doe Teach except lately Christ hath taught me better that body-killing soule-killing and State-killing Doctrine of Persecuting all other Consciences and wayes of worship but mine own in the Civill State and consequently in the whole world if the Power or Empire thereof were in mine hand Reply Were it not that I have learned from the word of truth that when men are cast out of the Church of Christ they are delivered up unto Satan and so neither their wits nor their tongues are their own I could not easily have beleeved that Mr. Williams could so confidently and openly have avouched such a notorious slander Since the Lord taught me to know any thing what conscience or the worship of God meant it hath been my constant judgement and doctrine and practise to the contrary Besides To teach the killing of the bodies of all such Consciences and wayes of worship as are not mine own is to make mine own conscience and way of worship the infallible Rule and soveraigne Standard by which all consciences and wayes of worship throughout the world were to be regulated yea and as if this were a light measure of arrogancy and usurpation I make it a capitall crime a body-killing offence for any man to swerve from my conscience and way of worship even in such Points wherein the Holy Ghost hath given expresse charge that we should not judge nor condemne one another Rom. 14.3 But I durst appeale even unto the conscience of Mr. Williams himselfe if it were now in the gracious keeping of Christ or of himselfe as in former times that himselfe knoweth I doe not thinke it lawfull to Excommunicate an Heretick much lesse to persecute him with the civill Sword till it may appeare even by just and full conviction that he sinneth not out of conscience but against the very light of his own conscience Sure I am such a Point he reporteth is received from me to the very same purpose and he reporteth it truely in his Bloudy Tenent pag. 8. This Answer may suffice to his first as he calleth it unanswerable Testimony His second unanswerable Testimony is That some Gentlemen that did consent to his Sentence have solemnly testified and with teares since confessed to himselfe that they could not in their soules have been brought to have consented to the Sentence of his Banishment had not Mr. Cotton in private given them advice and counsell proving it just and warrantable to their Consciences Reply I might here justly plead the equitie of the Romane Custome to excuse my selfe from this accusation untill the accusers come before me face to face And truely if Apocryphall witnesses may goe for unanswerable Testimonies it is an easie matter to oppresse any innocency I might also plead the incompetency of such a witnesse as haply lying under some censure from our Church and removing himselfe from our fellowship might take more liberty to speake against me in a pang of passion what he would be loath to justifie in cold bloud I might likewise alledge that one or two Magistrates makes not a Court nor was his Sentence cast by the vote of one or two So that if I had counselled one or two to it it would not argue that the act of the Magistrates and of the Deputies which is the body of the Court had been done by my counsell or consent And indeed it was the very true meaning of my speech that for the hastening of the Sentence of the Court against Mr. Williams that act of the
sword of Persecution of such as doe not joyne in worship with him I cannot say that I have sworn but I thanke God I have waded through credit and discredit through evill report and good report as a deceiver and yet true And for profit I have neither abounded in superfluities nor through mercy have been long destitute of necessaries but whether this be a badge of Antichrist and not compatible to the witnesses of Christ I have not yet learned And for smiting with the fist and sword of Persecution if Persecution be affliction for Righteousnesse sake I would willingly learne of the Examiner whom of all the Righteous I have smitten with the fist or wounded with the sword I speake according to his own meaning meaning as I suppose himselfe doth neither bodily fist nor materiall sword but let him then Instance in some one or other that hath felt the heavinesse of my fist or the keennesse of my sword or else let him remember what the Spirit of God hath said Psal 31.18 concerning such as speake bitter things proudly and contemptuously and I also adde injuriously and falsely against those whom himselfe in the next line styleth holy and beloved To the second the Censure which he calleth unrighteous and uncharitable He confesseth it pleased God to bring him neere unto death But his Answer he returneth in two things 1. By deriving the cause of his sicknesse not from his excessive heate in disputing against the testimonies and writings of the Churches and Elders but from his excessive Labours on the Lords dayes and thrice a weeke at Salem by labours day and night in the field with his own hands by travels day and night also to goe and returne from the Court. Reply The Court being held within twelve or fourteene miles distance from Salem travell to and fro was no likely cause of such distemper And whatsoever his Labours were in Towne or Field on the Lords Dayes or weeke dayes I detract not from them but this is all I would say That that sodaine distemper fell not upon him neither in the field at his labour nor on the weeke dayes or Lords dayes in his Preaching but in his vehement publick arguing against the writings and testimonies of the Churches and Brethren sent to him and to the Church of Salem against his corrupt wayes Wherein though I know All things fall alike to all yet if Moses himselfe as well as Balaam meet with a check in his journey from the hand of God I beleeve it is a just call to consider Is there not a lye in my right hand Or is there not an Idol in my heart or doe I goe about the worke of God in a way of God Howsoever it was farre from me to upbraide your sicknesse as your marginall note taxeth but rather to call you to consider of your unprofitable and perverse use of it The second part of his Answer is a Recrimination of the Officer of Justice by whom in this time he was unmercifully driven from his Chamber to a winters flight Reply When he saith in this time if he meane as the words foregoing expresse the time wherein he was neere unto death it is a manifest untruth James Bonne For the Officer of Justice who then was is a man fearing God and of a tender Conscience and who dare not allow that liberty to his tongue which the Examiner often useth in this Discourse He testifieth he then spake with Mr. Williams and that he discerned no signe of sicknesse upon him much lesse of neernesse unto death He testifieth further that upon the mourning complaint of some of Mr. Williams his neighbours who did adhere to him he left onely the Warrant with him but left him in his house to take the time for his departure limited in his warrant which was not that night though he doe not well remember how many dayes were set him But this I have been given to understand that the increase of concourse of people to him on the Lords dayes in private to the neglect or deserting of publick Ordinances and to the spreading of the Leaven of his corrupt imaginations provoked the Magistrates rather then to breed a winters spirituall plague in the Countrey to put upon him a winters journey out of the Countrey Gangraenam amoveas no pars sincera trahatur TO CHAP. IX TO his 9th Chapter I shall not need to returne any large Reply Let him read over my words againe which he examineth and answereth in this Chapter and they may serve for a just Reply unto his Answer so farre as it is needfull Onely let me touch a Passage or two When he saith That after the first manifestation of the countenance of God reconciled in the bloud of Christ unto his soule it hath been with him as with one whom he saith I told him off his Questions and Troubles have not been concerning his Reconciliation and Peace with God but concerning Sanctification c. I would it might please the Lord to perswade his heart that that one of whom I spake to him was but one to whom the Lord dispensed himselfe in that manner and he a man though he suffered much and wrote much yet no where magnified his sufferings nor vilified the Authors of his sufferings A man that cleaved to the Ordinances and Saints of God and not willing to manifest his dissent from his Brethren no not there where he did dissent as willing to attribute more to the judgements of other servants of God then to arrogate to himselfe But surely the ordinary manner of Gods dispensation of himselfe to his servants is otherwise even to those that have been most precious in his sight Job hath sometimes complained that God tooke him for his enemy Job 13.24.26 David sometimes complaineth that he was cut off from before Gods eyes Psal 31.22 And that God sometimes hid his face from him Psal 30.7 That his soule was also sore vexed with the sence of Gods anger and hot displeasure Psal 6.1 3 Asaph also complaineth of the same in Psal 77. and Heman the Ezrahite in Psal 88. and Hezekiah in Isai 38. If the Lord have dealt more indulgently with Mr. Williams he hath the more cause to walke humbly and circumspectly and fruitfully before the Lord which is the worst that I wish him And let him also consider that whilest he liveth under the Sunne himselfe is not exempted from the dangerous Inmate of a deceitfull heart As for Master Smith he standeth and falleth to his own Master whilest he was Preacher to the Citie of Lincolne he wrought with God then what temptations befell him after by the evill workings of evill men and some good men too I choose rather to tremble at then discourse of If I had made use of his Principles and Arguments as this Examiner saith I have it is more then my selfe know for I have not been acquainted with sundry of his writings as being discouraged with that one wherein he maketh
dust and ashes Reply 1. It is an exorbitant Hyperbole to make every passage of spirituall whoredome a sinne infinitely transcendent above bodily whoredome For spirituall whoredome is not infinite in the act of it but onely in respect of the object of it to wit in respect of the infinite God against whom it is committed And is not bodily whoredome infinite in that respect also Can a man defile himselfe with bodily whoredome and not sinne against the infinite God What saith Joseph Gen. 39.9 2. What if spirituall whoredome though lesse evident be more sinfull then bodily The nature of true Evangelicall Repentance standeth not in seeing and bewailing every sinne no nor alwayes of the greatest but of those which are most evident and notorious A Christian man may more safely omit repentance of greater sins if unknowne then of lesse sinnes knowne I suppose the Israelites were guiltie of many Idolatries and superstitions in the dayes of Samuel yet their repentance was chiefly fastned upon their asking of a King of which they were then principally convinced 1 Sam. 12.19 And such Repentance was then accepted of the Lord and of Samuel ver 22 23. The very truth is the ground and roote of the Examiners Error in this case is That he maketh Church-Covenant to be no better then a Covenant of workes whereas indeed if Church-Covenant be not a branch of the Covenant of grace the Churches of Christ are not built upon Christ In a Covenant of workes all sinnes must be avoyded or if not avoyded yet repented of expresly and the greatest sinnes most But in Evangelicall Repentance God dealeth not with us after our sinnes nor rewardeth us according to our Iniquities Psal 103.10 The Grace of Christ is not given either to his Church or to any Christian upon the perfection of our Repentance nor upon our Repentance of our greatest sinnes in the greatest measure But if the heart be truly humbled for any knowne sinne as sinne though the sinne knowne be often lesse hainous then others unknowne yet God accepteth his own worke and putteth away all sinne in the acknowledgement of one Yea in sinnes that be knowne the compunction of the heart is sometimes more expressed for the occasions and inducements of the sinne which are lesse hainous then for the greater sinnes which are more grievous and dangerous Solomon in his solemne Repentance in the Booke of Ecclesiastes doth more expresly bewaile his entanglement with lewd women Eccles 7.27 28. then all his Idolatrous Temples and worship which were erected and maintained at his charge By the Examiners Doctrine Solomon had never been received and restored to the Church upon that Repentance His second Answer is That though the converted Jewes did not see all the leavenings of the Pharisees yet they mourned for killing of Christ and embraced him in his Worship Ministery Government c. and thereupon necessarily followeth a withdrawing from the Church Ministery and Worship of the false Christ c. Reply This answer doth not reach the defence of his cause to wit That it is absolutely necessary unto Church-fellowship to see and bewaile not onely actuall whoredomes but also whorish speeches gestures appearances provocations Yet here he granteth that the converted Jewes did not see all the leavenings of the Pharisees which yet were such as in the end of that Paragraph he implyeth they had deteined them under a false Christ But whereas he saith that they by embracing Christ in his Worship and Ministery there necessarily followed a withdrawing from the Church Ministery and worship of the false Christ It may truely be Replyed 1. That he will not grant us that liberty that upon our embracing of Christ in his worship Ministery there necessarily followeth our withdrawing from the Church Ministery and Worship wherein we had been formerly polluted in any sort Is not this to deteine the glorious Truth of our Lord Jesus with respect of Persons 2. It is evident by the Story that some of those members of the Church of Hierusalem who had been leavened by the sect of the Pharisees they did neither see nor bewaile nor did come off from fellowship with the Pharisees in their Ministery and false Doctrine which taught the necessitie of Circumcision and of the whole Law of Moses to justification and salvation Acts 15.1.5 As for the confession of sinne by the Disciples unto John Baptist Mat. 3. and by the Gentiles unto Paul Act. 19. though it be not said that the one sort confessed their Pharisaicall pollutions nor the other all their Deeds Yet saith he if both these confest their notorious sinnes as Mr. Cotton confesseth why not as well their notorious sinnes against God their Idolatries superstitions worships c Surely throughout the whole Scripture the matters of God and his worship are first and most tenderly handled c. Answ It is not true that the matters of Gods worship and defects there are alwayes most tenderly acknowledged throughout the Confessions of the Saints in Scripture Solomon in his Repentance was most sparing of confession of his Idolatrous Temples and worships And the People in Samuel did more repent of asking a King then of all their other sinnes and yet their Idolatries were then flagrant 1 Sam. 12 9 10 11. Besides wee never reade of such deepe Humiliation of David for carting the Arke after the manner of the Philistims as of his bodily adultery with Bathshebah and murder of Vriah The substance of my other Answer to his former Objection which was to prove a necessitie lying upon godly men to see and bewaile their pollutions in a former Church-fellowship before they can be fit matter for a new It was to this purpose that we have not been wanting through the guidance of the grace of Christ to performe that which he pleadeth for so farre as God hath called us to it the which I expressed in my Letter in two particulars 1. That the body of our members doe in generall Professe that the reason of their coming over to us was that they might be freed from the bondage of humane Inventions and Ordinances under which as their soule groaned there so they have professed their sorrow so farre as through ignorance or infirmitie they have been defiled there 2. That in our daily meetings especially in the times of our solemne Humiliations we doe generally all of us bewaile all our former Pollutious wherewith we have defiled our selves and the holy things of God in our former Administrations and Communions the which we have rather chosen to doe then to talke of and therefore doe marvell that he should so resolutely renounce us for that which he knew not whether we had neglected or no and before he had admonished us of our sinfulnesse in such neglect if it had been found amongst us Whereto his Answer is That we make no mention what such Inventions and Ordinances what such Administrations and Communions were which we confessed and bewailed Reply And yet lest he should