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cause_n	call_v	day_n	lord_n	3,361	5	4.2745	3	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56305	The church of Christ in Bristol recovering her vail out of the hands of them that have smitten and wounded her, and taken it away. Being, a just and necessary vindication, from a false and scandalous imputation cast upon her by Dennis Hollister, formerly a member of her, but now an apostate from, and an opposer of those waies, truths, and people, which once he seemed zealous for. As appears by a late pamphlet put forth by him, called, The skirts of the whore discovered. With some particular words, from some particular persons whom he hath by name abused and reproached. Likewise a word by Thomas Ewen, unto what concerns him in the said pamphlet, and also to the later part of another book, called, Satan enthroned in his chair of pestilence.	Purnell, Robert, d. 1666. aut	1657 (1657)	Wing P4232; ESTC R213966	65,602	90

the Saints more together in judgement and affection into one heart and one way as the Scripture speaks 8. To make them more exact and spiritual in the use and practise of all Gospel Ordinances as Acts 2. 41. to 47. 9. To beautifie and adorn Christians with every spiritual gift and grace as Gall. 5. 22. Ezek 16. 10 11 12 13. 10. To fill them with a mighty Spirit of Faith and Prayer as the Saints in the primitive times after the pouring forth of the Spirit had In a word it is a Christians All for by it he can do all things as Phil. 1. 19. 4. 13. and without it he can do nothing well as John 15. 5. Without me ye can do nothing And thus I have declared my judgment fully about this blessed truth and what I mean by the pouring forth of the glorious Spirit which I so often mention in prayer and preaching as the great legacy privilege and portion of the Saints or believers in the New Testament c. Now then let me ask you this Question Whether it had not been better for you and those that are gone away with you that you had set your selves solemnly to seek the Lord by Supplication and Prayer and so have continued in the wayes and under the Ordinances of Christ waiting for that blessed spirit as many of the Servants of God have done and still do c. rather than to have taken up a Notion of a Light in every man and call that the eternal Spirit as some of your way do and then jeer and scoff at them that pray for the Spirit and reproach them which complain out of their sense of the want of it as poor Mris. Prince did when she came to revile me at my Lecture c. But blessed be the Lord there are many Churches in England and Wales that are now wrestling with the Lord day after day joyntly and day and night singly in the deep sense of their wants for the accomplishment of that glorious new-Testament promise and such an Answer is already given to some both Independant and Baptized as you call them that they have no cause to repent of the time they have set apart for that work and I verily believe That if the people whom you and others so much despise go on and continue praying as now they do for the pouring forth of the blessed Spirit there will shortly be such a breaking forth of the day of Christ that all the antichristian foggs of false doctrins and false worships will flie and fall as the darkness before the rising Sun And Oh that some men in England and Bristol that are now wrangling and quarrelling about their humane learning and scoffing and envying those that have it not would seriously consider this thing before their lamp go out in obscurity and their feet stumble upon the dark mountains before their arm be dried up and their eye utterly darkned c. Now before I part with this I will also clear my self about another expression that I have sometimes used and at which many have been offended and that is about an old and a new Testament Spirit though of late to avoid offence have forbore it now by those expressions I did not mean nor intend the Spirit of God so as to call that an old Testament Spirit for I know that Spirit was one and the same from everlasting but by an old or new-Testament Spirit 1. I mean the frame and temper of a mans own Spirit and so by an old-Testament Spirit I alwayes mean that dark weak childish and low frame and temper of Spirit which professors generally had in the time of the old Testament while under the Mosaical administration with that bondage and fear that weakness and sadness that did accompany it c. 2. By a new-Testament Spirit I alwayes mean that lively chearful active joyful bold son-like frame and temper of Spirit which the Saints generally in the primitive times under the new Testament did enjoy which is called a Spirit of Adoption as the other is called a Spirit of Bondage a full description of what I mean is set forth in two Scriptures as namely Gal. 4. from the 1. to the 7. and Heb. 12. from 18 to 24. In which two Scriptures is set forth First The weakness darkness childishness fear bondage c. of the old-Testament state which is that that I call the frame temper or spirit of the old-Testament And Secondly There is set forth the light life strength boldness comfort courage joy rejoycing of the new-Testament state which is that that I call the frame temper or Spirit of the new Testament c. And whether Christians be not generally more under the old-Testament frame than under the new I leave to their experiences and thus I have fully declared my self as to these two particulars and if any sober Christian into whose hands this may come shall apprehend that I am mistaken in either of them I shall be glad to receive a word from them in love but I do not expect it from you to whom I now write c. You farther tell me in your Letter that you were warned from invisible lights some months past to beware of me which you could not believe till now it breaks out like fire c. I conceive those invisible lights were some secret whisperers that did bring you many stories both of me and others c. but truly I could discern by visible light long before you left us that my speaking was but little acceptable to you and some others especially after I did begin to oppose your spleen and passion though whilst I sate still and silently approved of what you spake then I was the excellentest man that ever you met with you would often both to my face and behind my back applaud and extol me but when once I began a little to cross you as many others of the Brethren did and as some godly men had formerly done as they saw cause enough then you and your partie began to fume and fret and as it was often observed to go out of the Meetings when I had been to speak though I did oppose you with all the tenderness that possibly I could as knowing what a partie you had in the Church and what influence you had upon them but now you say the fruits doth appear and break out like fire c. Q. And what is it But that I should say That such an idle Huswife as is before mentioned should be sent to Bridwel rather than to go rayling about as she did Now I appeal to all Christians upon the face of the earth what hurt this was to this poor rayling cursing fierce creature c. Q. And was this the ground upon which some of your company spread it about the Country and place of my nativity what a persecutor I was become so that the good people there that had known me to be of another temper did wonder

and stiled them so though they had many miscarriages but those that were stiled of the Synagogue of Satan were a company of proud boasters that said they were Jews and Apostles but did lie and were not so now consider who are those at this day that call themselves Apostles and boast of perfection do any of us do so or do not they that ye own do so and hath not the Church of Bristol tryed them and their Doctrins and found them lyars and their Doctrins false as the Church of Ephesus did Rev. ● 2. witness James Naylor Christopher Atkinson and others whose Books some of us have read and tryed and have found them to be contrary to the glorious Gospel of the grace of God which was preached by the true Servants of God and therefore have upon a good ground rejected them according to the counsel of the Spirit of God Gal. 1. 8 9. 2 John 10 vers But you say possitively that we are found to be a Synagogue of Satan was it ever heard that any man either Prophets or Apostles or any that feared God or expected to give an account of his words and actions did assume that boldness as thus to judge a people professing godliness every one of which are able to give a good account of their faith in Jesus and that do strive to walk up to what they know c. Is not this to take the place of Jesus Christ whose prerogative alone it is to try hearts and judge persons c. Did you not say truly when you said you did not know Christ and might you not have said as truly you did not acknowledg him for certainly did you ever think to stand before him to give an account of your hard speeches you could never speak and write thus Oh that you would consider what you have spoken and written to the grief of Christs wounded ones Psal 69. 26 If it were better that a milstone were hanged about a mans neck and he cast into the Sea than that he should offend one of Christs little ones Matt. 18. 6. How sad is it then for you to offend and grieve judge and condemn near 60 persons calling them a Synagogue of Satan c. and that for no other cause but that after praying for you and mourning over you we sent three times in love and pity to admonish you of the evil of your way you should now break out thus violently against us O blush and roul your self in the dust that if yet the day of Grace and door of Mercy be not shut against you You say it is in answer to a charge brought against you by some of the Members c. Truly we could have been glad that you had spared us that pains and had not conscience of our duty and love to the name of the Lord and to your soul prevailed with us more than any delight we had in that work you had never heard of us in that kind You say it is by you for the sake of the simple hearted among us published blessed be the Lord there are some simple plain honest hearted amongst us had you and the rest been so no doubt you would have stayed with us and thus much for the first branch of your Title page We observe that you begin your Epistle to the Reader as likewise your Book with the word outward fellowship c. Truly we shall easily grant that your fellowship in the things of God was but outward for had it been inward and spiritual in truth and sincerity you would no doubt have continued in it but as it is written 1 John 2 19. They went out from us because they were not of us We shall not spend time to answer every passage in your Letter lest as Solomon speaks Prov. 26 4. we should be like unto you and yet we shall answer some things lest as Prov. 26 5. you should be wise in your own conceit As for those Scripture expressions in your Book though misapplied by you yet we hope we shall consider them and examine our selves by them though not as they come from you but as they are the words of God and as for those taunts scorns false accusations judgings and condemnations of which your Pamphlet is full we hope we may as we have opportunity spread them before the Lord as Hezekiah did the Letter that he received Isa 37. 14. we being otherwise taught than to render evil for evil or railing for railing but rather to bless 1 Pet. 3. 9. having the example of Christ herein as well as a Precept hereto 1 Pet. 2. 23. Mat. 5. 44. yet we cannot but take notice of the absurdity of your arguing and proceeding wherein you first beg the question and then draw what inferences you please you first stile us a Synagogue of Satan c. and then heap up threatnings against us as such c. much like the heathen persecutors of old who would first wrap the Saints in the skins of Beasts and then set the dogs upon them to tear them c. Would you not count it an absurd thing if any man should come to you and heap up all the Scriptures that speak against murderers Adulterers Drunkards Swearers Lyers Theeves c. and apply them unto you taking it for granted that you are such a one and then ask you if this be not Scripture c. Or on the other side if one should take all the Scriptures that speak comfort to the true Saints in a suffering and persecuted condition and apply them to a common thief that is cast in prison for his wickedness or to a Malefactor that is going to suffer justly for his evil deeds c. Now this is just your way of reasoning and many others with you first to heap up multitudes of Scriptures that speak against the Whore of Babylon against Anti-christ against the Beast and the false Prophets against Hypocrites and Rejectors of the Gospel and against other ungodly and wicked persons c. and apply all this to whom you please either to the Churches of Christ or to the faithful preachers of the Gospel or to any other godly people right or wrong if they stand in your way you conclude they are such because you call them so whereas they may as soon prove the former things against you as you can prove the later against them so likewise the comforts and promises made to suffering Saints may as well be applyed to a common thief c. As to some of those that you stile the Servants and Witnesses of Jesus and this we find was Rabshaketh his way of arguing with Hezekiah 2 Kings 18. 22. Now had Hezekiah been the man and had he done the things that Rabshaketh there charged him with then he had reasoned rightly but Rabshaketh was mistaken in his foundation taking the things for granted whereas there was no such matter for godly Hezekiah had done no such thing onely Rabshaketh by his wit and subtilty framed

and disputing with men of as profound Learning as some are now who boast so much of it namely the Popish Bishops and Doctors and how those poor Martyrs did by the help of the blessed Spirit without Latin or Greek confound those enemies of truth and assert and maintain both the Doctrin of Justification and other points of Christian Religion as the History of Acts and Monuments do sufficiently declare and though we have no cause to presume yet we have good ground to hope and believe that the same God will by the same Spirit give in the same supplies to his Servants in the same case if he should again call them to it or if he should call any of us to assert and maintain the bles●● Doctrin of Justification or to despute the glorious privilege of Adoption And whereas he saith page 56. That we give out our selves to be gifted Brethren and so fit for the work of the Ministry c. For my own part I do not know that ever I gave out such a word and the Lord knows that I have lower and meaner thoughts of my self and truly had not the importunity and perswasions of some prevailed with me beyond what I thought of my self I think I had never been an eye-sore to this man in Bristol nor a trouble to any others in the work of preaching and if he or any other can make it appear to me that it is the will of God that I should give over my present work I trust it is not all the Gold and Silver in Bristol that should hire me to continue in it but truly as other things so the violent opposition that I meet with from men of divers sorts do much confirm that it is the will of God that I should continue in my work of preaching c. And so long though I should meet with greater difficulties than over I have yet done I trust I shall go on with it expecting the presence of Christ with me and his blessing upon me therein I do not at all reflect upon those godly men that he quotes page 66 67. though I cannot but wonder that a man should express so much bitterness against Anabaptists as he doth in his Book and yet seem so to applaud a baptized man that is a person of honor c. Likewise how a man can speak so contemptuously against Separation and separated Churches and yet seem so to applaud that eminent Dr. Owen who is a man so eminently for the Congregational way that some men call Independency or Separation which makes me to think that if all the people in England and Bristol which are called Independents or Anabaptists were great or in high places he would love them or make them believe so c. But thirdly for that godly man Mr. Baxter whose face I never saw yet do I highly honor esteem for some of his works and for what good I hear of him yet I see no ground why I should so understand Mr. Baxter or the other two as this man seems to force their meaning for admit it be true that an ungodly learned man may know as much or more of the literal and grammatical sense 〈◊〉 Scripture than a gracious man may do which is all that they affirm doth it therefore follow that a godly unlearned man if it were proper to call any so may not understand and know publish and declare the truth of Christ to their own comfort and the edification of others for my own part I cannot see this to be an infallible consequence and I am confident that two of those men are otherwise minded and if godly Mr. Baxter should mean so yet I know there are many others of like eminency both for Learning and Godliness that are of another mind in this particular as I might abundantly shew from their works that are extant as likewise that experience God hath given us in this later age of his owning blessing and prospering such in the preaching of the Gospel to the conversion of many souls both in England and Wales c. But what I have here written may be sufficient to disprove what he doth falsly assert page 67. that the pretence of preaching by the Spirit is but a pious fraud to set up our selves in the hearts and consciences and consequently in the purses of people c which thing he again mentions pag 51 52 where he jeers at my contribution calling it a Feeling argument c. wherein he seems to compare me to the Lawyers who account a good Fee to be a feeling argument in their Clyents cause But I shall not answer him onely as the Proverb is It is the property of a covetous Man to think every thing too much that another hath But he draws up the result of all pag. 68. and concludes that the in-let and out-let the fore-door and back-door of all our miseries is an ignorant unlettered and contemptible Ministery If by the word Our he mean our misery in Bristoll then I answer Surely it is strange that so great a flood of evill and misery should come in at so narrow a door there being but one unlettered uncalled Minister in Bristoll in his sense all the rest be they what they will are learned and called constituted and established Ministers as he mentions again pag. 60 c. No doubt but the Princes of Israel through the instigation of the Prophets thought the like of Jeremiah when they were wroth with him smote him and put him in prison and when they said unto the King We beseech thee let this man be Jer. 37. 15. 38. 4 put to death for he seeketh not the welfare of this people but the hurt So likewise Amaziah the Priest of Bethel when he sent to Jeroboam King of Israel saying Amos hath conspired against Amos 7. 10. 14 thee c. Poor Amos he had not indeed been bred a Prophet neither was he the son of a Prophet but a Herdsman and a gatherer of Summer fruit and now he must be banished the Kings Chappel as a conspirator this was hard measure but God provided better for him Reader I do not compare my self with Jeremiah and Amos but onely to let thee see that as Solomon saith That which hath been is now and there is no new thing under the Sun But secondly if by the word Our misery he mean the misery and calamity of England first or last truly then I shall grant and say as he doth that the in let and out let fore-door and back-door of much of Englands misery and consequently of Bristols is an ignorant ungodly ●asie proud scandalous soul murdering Ministery who have made themselves contemptible and base in the eyes of all good men and in the consciences of many bad And though as I have heard there were two thousand of them petitioned against in the time of the long Parliament and many of them then pluckt up by the roots both in England and Wales besides what