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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A91187	A fresh discovery of some prodigious new wandring-blasing-stars, & firebrands, stiling themselves nevv-lights, firing our church and state into new combustions. Divided into ten sections, comprising severall most libellous, scandalous, seditious, insolent, uncharitable, (and some blasphemous) passages; published in late unlicensed printed pamphlets, against the ecclesiasticall jurisdiction and power of parliaments, councels, synods, Christian kings and magistrates, in generall; the ordinances and proceedings of this present Parliament, in speciall: the national covenant, assembly, directory, our brethren of Scotland, Presbyterian government; the Church of England, with her ministers, worship; the opposers of independent novelties; ... Whereunto some letters and papers lately sent from the Sommer-Islands, are subjoyned, relating the schismaticall, illegal, tyrannical proceedings of some Independents there, in gathering their new-churches, to the great distraction and prejudice of that plantation. / Published for the common good by William Prynne of Lincolnes Inne, Esquire.	Prynne, William, 1600-1669.	1645 (1645)	Wing P3963; Thomason E261_5; ESTC R212456	96,461	90

a true married estate and condition even so say I the Church of England neither is nor never was truly married joyned or united to Jesus Christ in that espousall band which his true Churches are and ought to be but is one of Antichrists Nationall Whorish Churches or Cities spoken of Rev. 16. 19. Vnited joyned knit to the Pope of Lambeth as Head and Husband thereof being substitute to the Pope of Rome from whom he hath received his Arch-Episcopall power and Authority Pag. 18. Your Church is false and Antichristian Therefore if every Parish in England had power in themselves which in the least they have not to choose and make their own Officers yet for all this they would be false for a false and Antichristian Church as yours is can never make true Officers and Ministers of Iesus Christ and though that the Churches of the Separation want Apostles in personall presence to lay hands upon their Officers which lawfully they choose out from among themselves yet have they their Laws Rules and Directions in writing which is their Office and is of as great Authority as their personall presence Pag. 19. And thus have I sufficiently by the Authority of the Sacred Word of God proved all your Officers and Ministers false and Antichristian and none of Christs which if you can groundedly contradict shew your best skill chalenge I you and put you to prop to hold up your tottering and sandy Church and Ministry or else your great brags will prove no better then winde and Fables and you your self found to be a Liar Pag. 22. And as for these two things Of Conversion and confirmation or building up in the wayes of God which you speak of if you mean by conversion and opening of the eyes to turn them from darknesse to light and from the power of Satan unto God or if you mean by conversion a deliverance from the power of darknesse and a translation into the Kingdom of the Son of God both of which the Apostles Ministry did accomplish in the hearts and lives of Gods people Act. 26. 18. Coll. 1. 13. I absolutely deny it that your Ministery in England doth this And therefore I desire you to declare what you mean by Conversion and prove your definition by the holy Scripture and also prove that you in England are so converted which when you have done I shall further answer you by Gods assistance and as for their building them up in the wayes of God as all true Shepherds ought to build up their sheep as Acts 26. 1 Pet. 5. Yet I deny it that your Ministers do it for how can they build them up in that which they themselves are ignorant of and enemies unto for as Jannes and Jambres which withstood Moses so do these men also resist the Truth being men of corrupt mindes and destitute of the truth 2 Tim. 3. 8. And do feed you with husks and Chaffe being neither willing to imbrace it themselves nor to let those that would as their constant preaching and speaking against the truth of God and the Kingdom of his Son doth witnesse c. I have taken the pains by the Word of God and demonstrable Arguments grounded thereupon to prove the Church of England Antichristian I do promise you I will by the strength of the Lord of Hosts for ever seperate from Church Ministery and Worship in England all and every one of them as Antichristian and false Yet thus much I say and do acknowledge and the Scripture proves it that God hath a people or an elect number in spirituall Babylon yea in the Kingdom of Antichrist part of which the Church of England is and none of them shall perish but be eternally saved yet I say it is the duty of all Gods Elect and chosen ones that are yet in the Whorish bosome of the Church of England or in any part of Antichrists Regiment to separate away from it and come out of it least God plague them for their staying there Pag. 23. All the Ministers of the Church of England are not true Ministers of Christ but false and Antichristian Ministers of Antichrist Pag. 24. And as for your Minor and Assumption which is that you in the Church of England do enjoy and outwardly submit your selves to the true worship of God It is most false and a notorious lie and untruth and as well might wicked Faux and the rest of the Gunpowder-Plotters say that they submitted unto Noble King James Laws and Scepter when they went about to blow up the Parliament House that so they might destroy him and all his for you do not only oppose and justle ou● the true worship of God and throw down and trample upon the Scepter of Jesus Christ his son but also you set up false and Antichristian Worship the inventer of which is the Devil and the Man of sin his eldest and most obedient Son Pag. 26 27. Now from that which I have said I frame these Arguments 1. That Worship which is of the Devils and Antichrists invention institution and setting up is no true Divine worship But the Worship of the Church of England is of the Devils and Antichrists invention institution and setting up as Revel 13. doth fully prove Ergo the Worship of the Church of England is no true Worship 2. That Worship which is a main means and Cause of pulling down the Kingdom of Iesus Christ and establishing maintaining and upholding the Kingdom of the Devil and Antichrist and sends more souls to Hell then all the wickednesse impiety ungodlinesse in the Kingdom doth besides is no true worship of God but ought to be detested and abhorred of all his people But such is the worship of the Church of England Ergo c. Pag. 29. I absolutely deny your Argument and affirme that your Religion neither is the true Religion nor that it leads men the true way to salvation Pag. 37 38. I groundedly and absolutely deny that either the Church of England is or ever was a true Church and till you have proved it true all the pains that you have taken in proving that it is possible for corruptions evil livers to be in a true Church is spent in vain and to no purpose and I am confident that you nor none else will ever be able to prove the Church of England true nor any other Nationall Church for Christ Jesus by his death did abolish the Nationall Church of the Iews with all their Laws Rites and Ceremonies thereof and in the New Testament did never institute no Nationall Church nor left no Laws nor Officers for the governing thereof but the Church that he instituted are free and Independent bodies or Congregations depending upon none but only upon Christ their Head Therefore Nationall Churches under the Gospel are of Antichrists that man of sins institution and ordaining who only hath ordained Laws and Officers of his own for the governing of them Therefore for you

or any other to say and affirme that this monstrous ugly botched and scabbed body is Christs true Spouse is dishonourable to his blessed being and Mediatorship His Schismaticall seditious conclusion from all these Premises is this pag. 35. Therefore let all Gods people that yet are in the bosome of the Church of England as they love their own inward peace and spirituall joy and look that their souls should prosper and flourish with grace and godlinesse look to it and withdraw their spiritual obedience and subjection from all Antichrists Laws and worship and joyne themselves as fellow Citizens of the City of God to worship and serve him in Mount Sion the beauty of holinesse and there only to yield all spirituall obedience to Christs spirituall Laws and Scepter This language and opinion of his concerning our English Church and Ministry is seconded by most Independents in their late Pamphlets of which you have had a bitter taste in the preceding Sections and their practice proves as much For first though they proclaime Liberty of conscience to all Sects and Religions whatsoever yet they have so harsh an opinion of Presbyterians and all others who submit not to their Independent Modell that they esteem them no better then Heathens Infidels unbelievers and proclaim them in their Books to be * Men who deny disclaim and preach against Christs Kingly Government over his Churches men unconverted or at least converted but in part vvanting the main thing to wit Christs kingly Office men visible out of the Covenant of Grace who have not so much as an outward profession of Faith who deny Christ to be their King to whose persons and infants the very Sacraments and seals of grace with all Church Communion may and ought to be denied which is in effect to un-Christian un-Church un-Minister all Presbyterians and to make them cast-awayes If this be their charity to us already what may we expect from them hereafter if their Faction bear the sway Secondly when they gather any Independent Congregation their practise is for their Ministers solemnly to renounce and abjure their former Ordination in and the people their Pristine Communion with the Church of England and all Congregations else whereof they have been Members and then to new-mould themselves into an Independent Church which practise they have lately begun in the Plantations of the Summer Islands as a Friend of mine from thence informed me by a Letter dated May 14. 1645. in these insuing termes The Independent Church was set up here the last year wherein they have covenanted to stand unto the death but their Covenant is not fully exprest reserving power in themselves especially in their Pastor to alter it when they will and as they think good they have exprest nothing in writing though often urged to it but he that joyns with them must do it by a kinde of implicite faith to imbrace what their Church doth or shall imbrace not knowing what it is or will be When they began it their Minister called a Fast for all that would be present where in the publique Congregation our Ministers being then but three Did lay down and renounce their Ordination and Ministry received in the Church of England and so become as they said no Ministers but did joy● themselves together in Covenant by words only to become a Church first making a kinde of confession of their sins and signifying that others might also joyn themselves to them if they were such as after such confession they should approve of and there was one principall Officer did then joyn himself with them they then continued weekly Lecturers still yet as they said not as Ministers but only as private men to exercise their gifts wherein they laboured to draw others to joyn with them and every week received in some but that confession of sins grew daily more and more out of date the rather for that * some were threatned to be called in question at the Assises for some things which they confessed there so that at this time all is in a manner implicite and though little or nothing be expressed by the party to be received in yet he is not put back But when they had gotten about thirty to joyne with them they again called a Fast for all that would be present where it seems having appointed one of our assistant Governors for their Prolocutor he nominated Master White to be their Pastor which the rest confirmed by erection of hands then it seems Master White nominated our other two Ministers Master Copland and Master Golding for his ruling Elders yet they continue to preach constantly as before but Master White only doth Administer the Sacraments and that only to such as have joyned themselves in their implicite Covenant with them Their practise therefore and their writings demonstrate what ungratefull sons and unnaturall Vipers they are to our Mother Church and Ministers of England which hath little cause to harbour these Rebellious Apostate sons who thus abominate renounce both her and her Ministers as Antichristian Surely some of their own Independent Faction had other thoughts of her and her Ministry unlesse they dissembled before God and man as they commonly do without blush or check but very few years since and among other the five Independent Apologists and Master Hugh Peter Solicit●r generall of the Independent Cause and Party whose Subscription before the Bishop of London concerning our Church of England in the late Prelaticall times when far more unreformed then now I shall here present you with the Originall whereof I found in the Archbishops study under Master Peter his own hand c●dorsed with the Archbishops thus Master Hugh Peters Subscription before the Bishop of London August 17. 1627. RIght Reverend Father in God and my very good Lord being required to make known to your Lordship my Judgement concerning some thing propounded at my last being before your Lordship from which Propositions though I never dissented nor know any cause why I should be suspected yet being ready and willing to obey your Lordship in all things especially in so just a demand as this I having consulted with Antiquity and with our modern Hooker and others humbly desire your Lordship to accept the satisfaction following 1. For the Church of England in generall I blesse God I am a member of it and was baptized in it and am not only assured it is a true Church but am perswaded it is the most glorious and flourishing Church this day under the sun which I desire to be truly thankfull for and for the Faith Doctrine and Articles of that Church and the maintenance of them I hope the Lord will inable me to contend Tanquam ut pro aris focis Yea I trust to lay down my life if I were called thereunto 2. For the Governour and Government thereof viz. The reverend Fathers the Archbishops and Bishops I acknowledge their Offices and jurisdictions and cannot see

on fire As for those furious Champions and Emissaries of theirs who have most presumptuously opposed your religious Ordinances by word deed and presuming on the strength of their Freinds within your Wals the opinion wherof with your former Lenity towards them hath much increased their spreading Leprosy intend now at last to try this issue with your Honours whether your just Ordinances or their willfull Contempts against them shall take place It is presumed you will so proceed gainst them and the Authors Printers Publishers of the execrable Libells h●re presented to your veiw that they and all the world shal know You a●e a Soveraigne Court of Parliament whose priviledges Honour you have all joyntly Covenanted to mantain with your Lives Power Fortunes and to proceed against all such secret Underminers or open Impugners of them as Capital Delinquents and these Mutineers experimentally know that no one Member of your Honorable Assembly will so far dishonour himself or violate his publike trust Covenant as to countenance such audacious willfull offenders in the least degree nor yet for Fear or Favour of any Faction any Person how great soever decline one hairs-bredth from that straite path of Truth and publike Justice the greatest Security and support of Parliaments Kingdoms especially in these Leading-cases wherein you are most concerned and as much obleiged to maintain your own Priviledges Power Reputations Ordinances against Seditious Sectaries as against Rebellious C●valeers or else dissolve give over your intended almost-accomplished Reformation and so render your selves with your Proceedings contemptible to all the world which God forbid If any should Object that the Punishment of these grosse Libellers Ring-leaders of sedition would discontent and disengage the Independents with all other Sectaries of their opinion who are a considerable party now which might prove dangerous to the state in this juncture of our publike Affaires I answer 1. That I doubt not all moderate and juditious persons of that party wil willingly disclaime if not excomunicate banish them their Congregations and yeeld them up to publike Justice as persons worthy the severest Censures else all the world will cry shame upon them Secondly Admit your executing Justice on them should discontent their party yet thankes be to God for all their vapouring they are not so potent so considerable as to over-aw a Parliament from doing Justice on such of their party who Libel against or affront their power proceedings in which case our whole three Kingdomes are solemnly engaged by publike Covenant to assist you to the utmost with their very lives and fortunes Thirdly The greatnes of the Kings Power party hath not retarded you from executing Justice upon Strafford Canterbury Tompkins sundry other delinquents Shall then the lesse considerable Faction of Anahaptists and other Sectaries hinder you from proceeding against a few seditious Libellers and Delinquents of their party Fourthly Either you must permit them to go on to libel and affront your Authority Orders proceedings still without exemplary punishments to your great dishonour infamy or else proceed against them now whiles your Ordinances and their contempts against them are fresh their party small else they will plead prescription and you will be lesse engaged lesse able to punish them hereafter in case they should grow stronger and more numerous Principiis obstandum is ever the best policy Fiftly Let their party be as considerable as potent as is falsely surmised by themselves yet I humbly conceive it stands neither with the Majesty Honour Power nor Wisdome of a Parliament to be afraid of doing Justice especially in maintenance of their own Ordinances Priviledges whoever they discontent In such a case Fiat Justitia ruet Caelum is the safest Resolution Majestrates and inferiour Judges much more then supreamest Courts of Judicature must not fear the faces nor Frowns of any Mortalls in discharging their duties but execute Justice and Judgement what ever comes of it and trust God with the Event Sixtly The not doing Exemplary Justice in such leading cases of publike Concernment will render your Parliamentary Authority Ordinances Proceedings more contemptible to your own party then ever they were unto the Kings yea animate the Country Club-men and every inconsiderable Sectary not only to Jeat contemn disobey your Ordinances and Commands but at last to prescribe Laws unto you as Iack Cade and his Confederates did to the Parliament in the 29. of Hen. 6. Which will by consequence bring Parliaments into contempt and so speedy desolation upon all our Dominions after so many successefull proceedings Up therefore and be doing Justice upon some few chiefe offenders of this kinde for the present to prevent execution upon many others if not ruin on us all for the future and God himselfe will no doubt be with you You neede not fear what flesh can do unto you or Sectaries speake or write against you whose ensuing scurrilous Libellous Seditious passages will so publikely discover their uncharitable unchristian Libellous slandering tumultuous dispositions and hypocriticall false froward licentious tempers to all the world as will render them odious to all sober minded peaceable consciencious modest Christians if not to themselves and all ingenious persons of their own Sects and so through Gods blessing reduce many of them to the bosome of our Church from which they have formerly revolted It is not my intention by any the premisses to soure or exasperate your Honours in the least degree against any peaceable Consciencious Orthodox or truly Religious Christians seduced by the Independent party or to stir up any kind of persecution against such whose consciences will I doubt not in due time be fully satisfied perswaded to submit to that Presbyteriall Church-Goverment and Discipline which you have now resolved to establish in our Churches there being nought there in repugnant to Gods word or which any well-informed Conscience can have cause to scruple at Towards such as these it is most just and reasonable all Christian Charity meeknesse long-suffering brotherly love and fitting liberty should be Indulged for the present till God shall further open their eyes and turn their hearts unto us For whose better sati●faction in the irregularities of their new concealed Independent way I have here-unto subjoyned some Letters and other Papers lately sent me from the Summer Islands whereby they may discover the faction arrogance pride and Cruelty of the Independent Ministers there and that the Liberty of conscience they plead for pretend they grant to Presbyterians others and the peaceablenesse of their way is but a meere fiction contradicted by their practise and likewise discern how they lead their followers by a meere implicite faith impose upon them a Popish blind Obedience exercise a meere Papall Authority and unlymited dangerous Arbytrary power over them and others pretending an Vtopian Government after the mind of Christ which is no where written in his word nor in any classicall Authors Ancient or Modern but founded only

'l not only fall upon your bones himselfe but hee l set his celestiall brother Christopher Scal●●kie his catechisticall brother Rouland Rattle-priest his divine Brethren Martin Claw-Clergy Bartholmew Bang-priest all upon your back and amongst us all we shall in time turne up the foundation of your classicall supremacy and pull down your Synod your Spheare about your ears behold a troop commeth Sir Simon Martin is of the Tribe of Gad though a host of Sir Iohns overcome him yet he shal over come at last yea heel 'e jeere you out of your black Cloaks and make you ashamed of King Henry the seventh's Chappell and he glad to work with your hands or to be content with the good will of the vulgar and then it will too late to compound with reverend MARTIN and his divine Brethren therefore consider with your selfe Sir Simon before the mighty Acts of the house of Martin be come forth against you we do not intend to dally with you wee 'l handle you with Mittins thwack your Cassocks rattle your Jackets stamp upon the panch of your villany and squeze out the filth and garbidge of your iniquity till you stink in the nostrils of the common people yea wee 'l beat you and your sonne JACK guts and all into a Mouse-hole There 's no one of MARTINS Tribe but is a man of Mettall and hates a Tithe-devouring persecuting Priest as he hates the Devill scornes their bribes and bids defiance to their Malice These are to advise you Sir Simon turne ye to MARTIN in Tolleration-street ye stiffe necked generation of Priests lest the fierce wrath and sore displeasure of mighty MARTIN fall upon you confound you and your whole Sir Johns generation Root and Branch hearken ye rebellious Assembly unto MARTIN persecute no more take no more Tithes be content with the good will of the Vulgar Whether these most seditious menacing passages and railing Libels against the Assembly Presbytery and all Ecclesiasticall Parliamentary proceedings be not published in print by seditious Seectaries to stirre up the people to mutinie against the Parliament Assembly Ministery to fire us into new Civill warres and commotions among our selves and that by the underhand plots of some Jesuiticall spirits and Malignant Royallists I shall humbly submit to the saddest thoughts of our supreame Councell which is best able to judge of them and most able to prevent the eminent dangers which they doe portend I shall close this Section with a new printed Libell intituled The Nativity of Sir Iohn Presbyter Dedicated To the Right Worshipfull the ASS of Divines assembled at Westminster with a most rayling libellous Epistle to which these Verses in derision of it are subjoyned Reverend Assembly up arise and jogge For you have fairly fisht and caught a Frog Now have you set two years pray can you tell A man the way that Christ went downe to Hell In these two years what can a wise man think That ye have done ought else but eat and drink Presbyterie climb'd up to the top of fame Directory and all from Scotland came O monstrous idlenesse alack and welly Our learned Rabbies minds nought but their belly Section V. Containing libellous scurrilous prophane and unchristian passages against the Directory established by Ordinance of Parliament YOU have met with some of these Invectives already in the preceding Sections which I shall not repeat but only adde two or three passages more of this nature full of Athesticall and blasphemous scurrillity The Araignment of Persecution p. 44. desires That his Holinesse Sir Simon Synod my Synodecate a full resolution to these ensuing Queres Whether it would not have been more profitable for the kingdome of England to have forth with hired a Coach and twelve Horses to have set a Directory from Scotland then to have spent the learned consultations pious debates and sacred conclusions of such an holy such a reverend such a heavenly such a godly such a learned such a pious such a grave such a wise such a solid such a discreet such a spirituall such an Evangelicall such an infallible such a venerable such a super-celestioll Queer of Angels such a suparlative Assembly of Divines for almost these two yeares space after the profuse and vast expence of above forty thousand pounds besides their goodly fat Benefices upon their devouring Guts for an English DIRECTORY of worship equivalent to the Scotch DIRECTORY Whether this Directory standing in so many thousands to sumble it together and the Copy sold at 400 and 50 l. be not of more value then the writings of the Prophets and Apostles The sacred Synodicall Decretall or Hue and Cry useth the like Dialect p. 23. Be it secula seculorum as authentick as the Directory c. We had better have set two years longer in our most holy Consultations and made our forty thousand four hundred pound Directory a Directory of fourscore thousand eight hundred pound value Pag. 5. Martin will tell the Country That we sanctifie our new DIRECTORY Gospell but to the temper of the City Tell the City That the Country people know not what to do with it except to stop their Bottles unlesse we spend the State the other odde trifle of 40000 pounds to divide it into Chapters and Verses the Lord put it into their hearts and that as the truth is its sanctity is only grounded upon the Divine Ordinance for Tithes some wiser then some for no longer Penny no longer Pater-noster I will defile no more Paper with such horrid blasphemies only adde That Martins Ecco p. 12. makes the Parliaments endeavouring to establish the Directory the cause of the losse of Leicester in these words And now the Parliament being busied to fortifie your Directory c. in the mean time Leicester is taken thousands are put to the sword c. Which is sufficiently answered by Sir Thomas Fairfax routing the Kings whole Army and re-taking Leicester even whiles the Parliament was most busie in fortifying the Directory But I proceed to another Section Section VI. Containing their libellous scandalous seditious passages against our Brethren of Scotland to raise divisione between us and them contrary to the Act of Pacification and the late solemne League and Covenant MAny are their intolerable libellous Invectives of this kinde I shall transcribe but few Hen. Robinson in his Answer to M. Py●nes 12 Questions made the first assault upon our Brethren in this Language And what think we made our Brethren the Scots so successelesse here in England whilest the warres are now beginning to kindle in their own Countrey if it were not that they joyne with this Nation or rather provoke them to establish their so much idolized Presbyteriall discipline of persecutions when they themselves thought they had just cause to be highly offended with the same their own persecuting spirit in Episcopacy When the Lord required the Israelites to appear before him at Jerusalem thrice a yeare he promised that no man should invade their habitations in

but there would a fearfull ataxy follow without the present Government whereof I so approve that I have and do willingly submit to it and them and have and will presse the same upon others 3 For the Ceremonies that are in use among us as I have already subscribed so I shall diligently and daily practise neither have I ever been accused for neglect therein where I have formerly exercised my Ministry but to them do give my full approbation and allowance 4. For the Book of Common-Prayer the Lyturgie of the Church and what is in them contained finding them agreeable unto the word of God I have used as other Ministers have done and am resolved so to do and have not been Refractory in this particular at any time nor do I intend to be God willing and to these I Subscribe with my heart and hand humbly submitting them and my self to your Lordships pleasure Your Lordships in all humble service HUGH PETER London the 17. of August 1627. IF Master Peter be now of another Judgement it manifests either his grosse ignorance or temporizing then or his levity now and that he is as unsteady in his opinion as in his excentrick motion from place to place But this is in verity the essentiall property of our Lunacy New sights who like the Moon whose light Predominates in them are alwayes changing yea ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the Truth which they continually intricate with their Independent doubts Section IX Containing Libellious Scandalous unchristian Censures and Invectives against those Persons who out of conscience have Written or Preached against the Independents Seditious Schismaticall wayes and Practises I Shall first begin with such Invectives as concern my self What large Encomiums beyond my deserts I received from the Independent party before I writ against their new wayes opinions only in a moderate modest manner by way of Questions is very well known to themselves and others being such and so many that modesty forbids me to relate them lest I should be thought the Herald of my own praises and deserts How many Libells Scandals and false reports of all kindes they have causlesly published of me since by Speech and Printed Libells only because I differ from them in opinion and have in point of conscience being requested so to do declared my opinion of their new groundlesse wayes and Tenets is very well known unto many who have leisure to peruse the severall empty Pamphlets and Invectives daily published a gainst me I shall give you a taste of some few in lieu of many It pleased Iohn Lilburne among others for whom I have done some courtesies but never the least injury or discourtesie in word or deed upon the coming out of my Truth Triumphing over Falshood c. Licensed by a Committee of Parliament for the Presse before ever he had read the Book to write a Libellous Letter to me concerning it which he sent to the Presse and published in Print without License before I received and perused it which though answered in Print by others without my privity openly complained of in the Commons House who referred it to the Committee of Examinations as a most Seditious Libell against the Parliament and Assembly yet I deemed it more worthy contempt then any Answer as refuting not one syllable in my Book In this Letter he stiles me An inciter of higher Powers to wage war with the King of Saints and his Redeemed ones An endeavourer to set the Princes of the earth together by the ears with Christ to pluck his Crown from his head his Scepter out of his hand and his Person out of his Throne of State that his Father hath given him to raign gloriously in He most falsely chargeth me with this false Position That there is no rule left in the word how we may worship God but that Kings and States may set up what Religion they please or may mould it to the manners of their people Whereas there is not any such syllable in any of my Books but the contrary profe●sedly asserted and the Controversies therein debated concerne not the substance of Gods worship or Religion but only the Circumstance of Church-Government which I asserted then on such grounds as their party hath not yet refu●ed not to be precisely set down determined in the New Testament in all particulars but yet conclude that no Church Government ought to be set up but that which is agreeable to the Scriptures though not dogmatically and precisely prescribed in them ●o that if this Libeller were not past all shame he might have blush● to Print and ●●print so notorious a falshood without retractation After this he thus proceeds Had I not seen your name to your Books I should rather have judged them a Papists or a Iesuits then Master Prynnes and without doubt the Pope when he sees them will CANONIZE YOU FOR A SAINT in throwing down his enemy Christ Certainly no Book of mine either in the Front or Bulke carries the least badge of a Priest or Jesuit in it and so far am I from demeriting any thing from the Pope or to be Canonized by him for a Saint that I can without vanity or ostentation affirme before all the world that I have done more disservice to Priests Iesuits and the Pope made more discoveries of their Plots and written more against them and Popery then all the whole generation of Sectaries and Independents put together and I challenge all their Sects to equalize or come near what I have really performed in this particular so that if any man this day breathing in England deserve an Anathema Maranathae from the Pope his party I have more cause to expect itthen any other The whole Kingdom therefore will Proclaim him a notorious slanderer in this particular He proceeds yet further Surely he writes but his words are no Oracles you have given away your ears and have suffered as a busie-body in opposing the King and the Prelats without doubt all is not Gold that glisters for were you not a man that had more then truth to look after namely your own ends and particular interests which I am afraid you strive to set up more then the publike good you should have importuned the Parliament to have continued their favour and respect to that people that cannot prostrate their consciences to mans devices Surely my conscience tells me that I am free from this injurious calumny For my ears I blesse God I gave them not away but lost them in a just quarrell against all Law and Iustice as both Houses of Parliament have unanimously adjudged But whether you did not justly lose your ears for Sedition then and deserve not to lose he remainder of them that I say no more for your Seditious and Libellious carriage now is a great question among your most intelligent friends For my opposing King and Prelates as a busie-body perchance it might be your

the Parliament and their faithfull friends and servants and that my actions and practises tend to no better end but to make him and his partie VS to be sleighted and contemned and that they a faithfull conscientious AND CONSIDERABLE PARTY IN THE ARMY and KINGDOM MIGHT BE DISINGAGED and CAVSED TO LAY DOWN THEIR ARMES c. After which he concludes thus pag. 7. Now I appeal to everie true hearted Englishman that desires a speedie end of these Wars of what evil consequence it would be to the Parliament and Kingdoms to have such a faithfull and considerable partie as Mr. Prynne calumni●teth and reproacheth as bad if not worse then ever the Bishop of Canterbury did should be causleslie cut off with the sword or be disingaged by his means especiallie seeing the Kingdoms necessities is such that they stand in need of the help of Forrainers In which Passage he intimates First that those Anti-Parliamentary seditious Sectaries who confederate with this Libeller know their own particular pretended strength in the Army and Kingdom Secondly that they fight only for their own private interests and to erect their own Church Government not for Religion not the publick Cause since my very writing against their Schismaticall seditious wayes but in meer generall terms as this Libeller one of their privy Cabinet Councell intimates and that by Authority of a Committee of Parliament in just defence of the Parliaments undoubted Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction and Authority which they most affront of any men whatsoever Is a means to disingage and cause them to lay down their Armes Thirdly I answer that if he his party be such faithfull friends and servants to the Parliament and such a conscientious considerable party both in the Army and Kingdom as he pretends my writing in defence of the Parliaments jurisdiction which they pretend to fight for can be no dis-ingagement or dis-couragement to them And therefore himself alone must be the Incendiary twixt them and the Parliament and the dis-ingager of them to lay down their Armes by these his slanderous Libells against the Parliaments jurisdiction Priviledges Proceedings not I who have only Cordially maintained them according to my solemn Vow and Covenant by publike encouragement and speciall approbation I shal therefore challenge so much Iustice from this Epistoler as publikely to retract all these his malicious Libellous slanders of me without the least provocation given him on my part or else he must expect from God all good men yea from his own best friends and party the brand of a most malicious Libeller slanderer Incendiary and undergoe the punishment due to such To this I might adde a whole bundle of Calumnies and injuries against me in Master Iohn Goodwins Calumny Arraigned and cast wherein he chargeth me pag. 2. for aspersing the Honourable Committee for Plundered Ministers and himself in averting that he was suspended and sequestred by that Committee which all the Committee then and himself with his Confederates since experimentally know to be a reall truth however they outfaced it for a time His other Calumnies are so grosse and triviall that I will not waste Paper to refute them These Libellers are not single but thus seconded by a Brother of their Sect one Henry Robinson in his Pamphlet intituled The Pretences of Master William Prynne c. A meer empty Libell fraught with nothing but railings and slanders against me and in his latter Libell intituled The Falshood of Master William Prynnes Truth Triumphing in the Antiquity of Popish Princes and Parliaments To which he attributes a sole Soveraign Legislative Coercive power in all matters of Religion Discovered to be full of absurdities contradictions Sacriledge and to make more in favour of Rome and Antichrist then all the Books and Pamphlets which were ever published whether by Papall or Epi●copall Prelats or Parasites since the Reformation with twelve Queries eight whereof visit Master Prynne the second time because they could not be satisfied at the first Printed in London 1645. Here is a large Libellous Title but not one syllable of it so much as proved or made good in the Book wherein he convinceth me neither of Falshood nor absurdities nor Contradictions nor Sacriledge And whereas he chargeth That my Truths Triumphing c. Makes more in favour of Rome and Antichrist then all the Books and Pamphlets which were ever published by Papall or Episcopall Prelats or Parasites since the Reformation of which he makes not the least offer of proof in his Book I shall aver to all the world I hope without ostentation being thus enforced to it and appeal to all men of Iudgement who have read it that it makes more against Rome Antichrist and the usurped power of Popish Lordly Prelates and Clergymen in points of calling Councels the Authority of Prelates Clergy men and Synods in making binding Canons c. and other points therein debated then any Book or Pamphlet whatsoever of this Subject written by any Prelate Clergy man Laicke or by all the whole Mungrell Regiment of Anabaptists Sectaries or Independents put together Therefore this Title of his is a most false malicious impudent slander of a Libeller past shame void both of truth and conscience His passage against me pag. 9. 10. Is much of kin to his Title Page where thus he writes The truth is I cannot deny but Master Prynne was once by more then many and they godly too held to be a man of Piety and was highly honoured in whose Books and Pamphlets notwithstanding which have been published of late may be observed more corrupted Principles and a far worse spirit of persecution then ever was discovered in the late Delinquent Decapitated Archbishop from his first ascending unto his highest growth of Authority and greatnesse and in the Diary of his life which I suppose Master Prynne Printed not to do him honour though after Ages will not be tyed to be no wiser then Master Prynne I finde such eminent signes of a Morall Noble pious minde according to such weak principles as he had been bred up in his own persecuting disposition disabling him from being instructed better and particularly so ingenious a passage in his Funeral Sermon whereby he justifies the Parliament in putting him to death as I may safely professe to all the world I never yet could discerne any thing near of like piety or ingenuity to be in Master Pryune by all that ever I yet heard of him from first to last or by all the books of his which ever came to my hands wherein yet I have hitherto done him the honour in being at charges to buy as many I mean one of every sort as I could ever meet withall Surely I am much beholding to this Gentleman for proclaiming me a man of more corrupt principles and a person possessed with a worse spirit of persecution then the late Decapitated Archbishop but the Archbishop far more obliged to him in Canonizing him for such a Saint As for his Diary

Goodwin or they shall at last after long expectation set down in Writing If yea that contradicts their owne Profession and Prot●station in their Apollogy takes away that liberty of conscience they contend for and Attributes a greater Authority to them alone to oblige their party then to the whole Parliament or Synod If no then certainly it is vaine to exspect a set 〈◊〉 of Church-government from those fluctuating Divines who till neither under-take to oblige themselves or others for the future by anything they resolve on or practise for the present and a meare sottishnesse for any people to depend upon such unstable weather-cocks and roling stones who know not where to rest or settle And that way certainly can be none of Christs on which the very prime sticklers for it d●re not absolutely and immutably to fasten for the future what ever they pretend for the present 5. Whether publike preaching prophefying and expounding the Scriptures by Independent Souldiers Taylors Weavers and other illiterate Mechanicks neither publikely called to not fitted for the Ministry especially when and where there are able painfull preaching Ministers to instruct the people be not a most exorbitant arrogant scandalous and disorderly practice no where warranted by Gods word but directly condemned by Numb 18. 21. 22 23. c. 16. 3. to 41. 2 Sam. 6. 6. 7 2 Chron. ●6 16. to 23. Ier. 14. 14. c. 27. 19. Hosea 4. 4. 9. Mal. 2. 7. 2 Chron. 17. 8. 9. Neb. 9. 4 5. c. 12. throughout Mat. 28. 18. 19. 20. Mar. 16. 14. 15. 20. Acts 20. 28. Gal. 6. 6. Hebr. 13. 17. c. 5. 4. 1 Tim. 3. 2. c. 4. 14. 16. 2 Tim. 4. 2. 5. Rom. 10. 14. 15. 1 Cor. 12. 28. 29. c. 14. 29 to the end Tit. 1. 7. 9. Contrary to the very light of Nature the Priests among all heathen Nations whatsoever being distinguished from t●e people and not all promiscuously Priests Gen. 42. 22. 26. 2 King 17. 32. 1 Kings 12. 31. 32. Zeph. 1. 4. Acts 14. 13. And quite opposite to the practice of all christian Churches in all ages ● 6. Whether Mr. Hanserd Knols the illitterate Anabaptist his Moderate Answer to Dr. Bastwicks booke p. 19. 20. where he averres That the condition upon which people are to be admitted into the Church are Faith Repentance and BAPTISME and NONE OTHER And whosoever poore as well as rich bond as well as free servants as well as masters did make a profession of their faith in Christ Iesus land would be baptized he meanes re-baptized into he should say in the name of the Father Son and holy Spirit were admitted Members of the Church but such as did not beleeve and would not be baptized though formerly baptized by others they would not admit into church communion And that this hath bin the practise of some churches in this city ●ithout urging or making any particular covenant with members upon admittance Doth not herein diametrally contradict his other Independent brethren who exact particular covenants from their new admitted Members and do not re-baptize them Whether he hath not plaid the Anabaptisticall jugler with Mr. Cranford in printing onely Imprimatur IA CRANFORD in the title of his Booke and leaving out the preceding formall words of his License to the great abuse both of the Reader and Licenser viz. I have perused this Treatise called A Moderate Answer to Dr. Bastwick which THOUGH● IUDGE ERRONIOUS yet to satisfie the desire of a Friend and prevent the cavils of some Adversaries I oppose Imprimatur Ia Cranford And whether these and such like practices proclaim not the Anabaptists such as Dr. Foa●ly proves them A False and lying sect if not blasphemous too as the premised Sections declare some of them to be A Transcript of a Letter lately written from the Sommer Islands to William Prynne of Lincolnes Inne Esquire relating the Schismaticall Tyrannicall and Seditious Proceedings of the Independents there and how they Lord it over the soules and bodies of those who dare oppose them how contemptuously they speak against the power of Parliaments the Church of England and scandalize all others whatsoever who are not of their Faction Which Gods Providence newly brought to my hands from thence when I was closing up the premised Discovery Worshipfull Sir ALI health happinesse and prosperity wished unto you as to mine owne soule The occasions moveing me at present to trouble you with these unprofitable papers are great and many and happily I being a stranger unto your Worship you may account it more then boldnesse yea even peremptory saucinesse in me to presume to write and crave favour to and from one who never had the least knowledge of me But the manifold reports I have heard of you by divers good Christians emboldeneth me but especially seeing your good works which I have perused with care and diligence which from Mr Sparks his brother I procured enforceth me so much the more in this my boldnesse not doubting but that you are a true hearted Christian truly fearing God embracing piety and hateing iniquity a faithfull well-willer to the Church of God and to all the Israel of God and to all true Israelites who with faithfull hearts love the Sion of God truly and sincerely without hypocrisie or halting between opinions dessenting from it in any by or false respects the which are the only causes moving me hereunto And for which I have suffered and a●● and have beene these thirteen mōnthes prisoner in bonds for standing in defence and an opposite unto or against a certaine Independent Church hatched and forged in the braines of our Divines and by them constituted erected and fully accomplished and with us held in great repute and adoration yea and the Actors of it not as men but even as demy gods attributing that unto them which is only proper unto God especially unto their Pastor Mr VVhite the chiefe Actor of their Faction a most seditious turbulent and hatefull malicious person and as politick as Achitophell and as crafty and subtle as the Devill having as he holds the world in hand that by his wisedome none can excell him in the lawes both Ecclesiasticall and Civill and therefore amongst us a company of poore simple ignorant and undiscerning people he is so accounted of as all his words are oracles and himselfe no lesse sent from God and therefore whatsoever he saith is and must be a law whether it concernes Body Soule or Conscience for he cannot crre so perfect is he in their conceits And if Christians in griefe and distractions of soule and conscience at their courses shall sue unto our Rulers for redresse of their factious aud seditious courses by way of humble petition for a cessation of those things till we shall heare from England what Discipline the high Court of Parliament and Synod hath concluded upon and that to embrace and follow then shall we presently be summoned to an Assizes and there undergoe such penalties as by

my new yeares gift of which I heard not a word for three weeks space in which time yea so soon as he had it he shewes it to the Ministers who all this time perused scanned and sifted it upon the which Mr White comes to my Schoole salutes me kindely with one with him to catch and beare witnesse what proceeded from me at length uttered his mind amongst many other passages that I perverted the Scripture to my own ends saying I had abused the words of our Saviour Luk 10. where he commandeth little children to come unto him and forbid them not you maintaine saith he he meanes such children as suck the breast here is your errour saith he and for this you shall smart but saith he his meaning was such as were newly converted to the faith these saith he are those that Christ calls little children or babes as in 1 Iohn 2. 1. Therefore for this your absusing and wresting the Word you shall answer it and I doubt not but to crave so much favour of the Governour as to call a Councell table where you shall answer your abuses and peremptory scandalous and libellous writings and so at length we parted The next week following I writ a Letter to the Governour giving him to understand I had taken him for an honest Christian friend telling him withall I sent it not to them but unto him supposing himselfe only would have made use of it for some better ends and withall laving open Schismaticks more plainer then before advising him upon them five marks or tokens to know them by to search and see if he knew none or could finde none Then I shewed that Faction and Sedition did spring from these sinnes Pride Hypocrisie and Ambition and from these three did arise presumption and rebellion both against God and man shewing how and wherein praying these sinnes were not found amongst us but neither named nor pointed at any that hold could be taken The next Sahbath a warrant was served on me for my appearance at a Councell table the thirteenth of February 1644 where being as before I was so baited and banded to and againe as wonder it was and shortly after clapt in prison however nothing traverst that day save only the Letter nor my new years gift never questioned when and where I made mine appeale for England where God blessing me would I have beene at present had it not fallen out that in October last in the dead of the night my house with all I had therein was burned to my great losse and prejudice so that being altogether unable I am forced with sorrow to stay behinde as not being able to put clothes on my back having also burnt all my writings which hath beene more griefe to me then the losse of all my meanes and goods which was more then of mine owne I shall ever see againe But having digressed from the proceeding of this Sect I returne againe where I left and having given over the baptizing of infants for a good season at length they gave over preaching as being no Ministers as being made so in an Antichristian manner and no true Ministers till such time as they were new called and ordained by their holy Church which at length was accomplished in which time they still continued their weekly Lectures whereat there was added and they received members unto and into their Church daily but after a most strange manner their exercise being ended those that were to enter in came upto the Chancell with great sobriety and shew of humility and sorrow with contrition and wounding of conscience for sinne and there stand but with much hypocrisie and dissimulation and there before the Pulpit with all the holy brethren and sisters about them they make a consession of their sinnes are in outward shew sorry for them with great contrition upon which enquiry is made among them what they think of their confession and contrition and whether they are not worthy as members of their holy Church to bee received in answer is made yea then they tell them they do accept of them and with great applause they all receive them all shaking and embracing and hugging them with great joy biding welcome brother welcome sister But such confessions and doings as you never saw the like insomuch that Law might justly take hold of many of them but these open confessions have a pretty while bin left off they being ashamed of it in regard the people mock them telling them that this open auricular confession is meere idolatry and superstition therefore now they have private confessions and whosoever entereth into their church must also enter into covenant to stand to and to maintain their church and church-discipline orders governours and government to the uttermost of their powers and abilities yea they must endeavour and strive therein even unto blood And concerning baptizing of infants at the taking up againe of their ministery they also have taken up againe the use of the Sacraments but only among themselves but for any that are not in or of their church their children shall not bee baptized unlesse they will enter into their church and covenant with them neither for the Sacrament of the Lords Supper shall any partake thereof but only their owne Flocks and Members by which cause many people who have an ardent desire thereunto have beene deprived of it some two yeares some three yeares some more some lesse to their great griefe and sorrow And for the manner forme and order of the Sacrament amongst themselves it is according to their Faction derogating from our mother Church as I heare and for all such as are not of them nor adheres unto them we are accounted as heathens yea even as dogs or swine and so reputed Thus in briefe have I laid you downe the order and manner of their Church from the beginning to this present which hath beene in agitation these foure or five yeares and whether it be yet fully perfected I think themselves are ignorant of but now is their maine hope that their great Pastor of their Church is now come for England and that from and by the Parliament he will accomplish a full and absolute setling and establishing this their Church amongst us by vertue and power from the Parliament and by friends that he will raise especially by the meanes of one Mr Holland one that beares some place of eminency in Parliament who is a great and extraordinary friend of his the which if he should accomplish this their wicked desires then will they tyrannize over us and bring a great confusion upon our whole Countrey and raise civill warres among us to our utter subversions being in comparison but a handfull of people to the great griefe and hearts sorrow of many honest Christian hearts who desire the peace of Gods true Church but for all false wayes we utterly abhorre And now Worshipfull Sir with favour give

the Ministry I have no such meaning neither doe I think a worthy Minister to be unworthy or unfit for other the most eminent Offices or callings in Church or Common-wealth were it not that he hath a most eminent calling already sufficient to take up the whole man and unmeet to be yoaked with other callings as the Apostle saith who is sufficient for these things And the Apostles doe reject such employments with a kinde of contempt saying It is not meat that we should leave the word of God to serve Tables and a little after we will give our selves continually to prayer and to the Ministry of the Word intimating that these things would hinder them from prayer and the ministry of the Word whereby it appeares they would not be Deacons nor take upon them any other Office in or over the Church but spend themselves wholly in the word and prayer the like might be manifested by sundry other Scriptures And the evill of it hath beene so generally observed in England that as I heard Queene Elizabeth when she had conferred upon a Minister authority and power to rule was wont to say I have spoyled a good Preacher to day And surely if we observe it the desire of Superiority and Dominion in or over the Church in Ministers and Clergy men and the readinesse of Princes and people to conferre it upon them hath been a principall if not the principall cause in corrupting Religion from time to time and of setting up the great Antichrist and many others as might easily be shewed if it were not an argument too long for this place Thus farre through the gracious assistance of God I have expressed my minde in this matter to the intent I might stop so much as in me lies the setting up of a new Discipline and Government of our owne framing seeing we are already freed of all those things that have usually beene burthensome and offensive to good Christians in England and that we expect daily the further determination and decree of the Honourable Assembly of Parliament in these things Or if I cannot prevaile so farre as to stop it yet that wee might look before we leap and understand well what we doe before we doe it Or if neither that may be obtained yet hence it will appeare that my selfe and some others deserve no blame much lesse such evill speeches as are usually vented against us by some because we will not rashly runne with them we know not whether And lastly I desire that this may be a publike testimony of my judgement in these things For to be present and heare them daily pressed and to bee alwayes silent is taken for a signe of consent and approbation March 1. 1642. RICH. NORWOOD Postscript SInce this Advertisement of mine came abroad though but a month what horrible forespeakings threatnings imprecations and censures have beene publikely denounced against me in severall parts of the Countrey I shall not need to repeat being too well knowne Neither will I answer them accordingly lest I also be like them I will only in the feare of God and by the comfortable assistance of his holy Spirit apply that saying How should they curse where God hath not cursed Or how should they detest where the Lord hath not detested And those words of David It may be that the Lord will look on mine affliction and doe me good for his cursing this day A desperate thing it is for men to blaspheme against some good light and what is it to acknowledge the good gifts and graces of God in those which they so bitterly preach against and to overwhelm them all with most foule and feigned susspicions and aspersions without cause As when they say Satan will not use profane and wicked men but he makes choise of those that are of good and able parts men of a religious life of a blamelesse conversation these close hypocrites he makes his instruments to oppose the Kingdom of Christ that is their intended Discipline c. with other like speeches I say it is very dangerous for men thus to give way to wrath and malice The Scribes and Pharisces did see and would no doubt have acknowledged the eminent gifts and graces that shined in our Saviour if he would have applied them to the establishing of their Faction But because he would not doe so they maliciously traduced him and said he had an uncleane spirit but he reproves their desperate wickednesse shewing how nearly they did approach or became guilty of the sinne against the Holy Ghost And let every man take heed how they doe cunningly fasten slanders or otherwise shew despight unto the spirit of Grace because it will not be subordinate unto their ends I could wish also they would consider the words of Marsilius Patavinus in his Book entituled Defender of the Peace Where speaking of those that presume to frame or presse Orders Decrees and other parts of Discipline without license of the true Law-giver or Prince and endeavour to draw people to the observation of them by surreptitious words as it were compelling them by threatning eternall damnation to such as transgresse them or denouncing execrations reproachfull speeches excommunications slanders revilings or other maledictions against them or any of them in word or writing such saith he are to suffer corporall punishment in a most high degree as conspirators and stirrers up of civill schisme or division in a Common-wealth For it is saith he a most grievous kinde of treason because it is committed directly against the Royall Majesty of the Prince and his Soveraigne Authority and tendeth to set up a plurality of supreame authorities or powers and so of necessity to the dissolution or overthrow of every civill Government They object also that I am but a Lay-man and therefore should not meddle with matters of Divinity applying that Proverb Ne sutor ultra crepidam and saying that even the Sunne Moone and Starres wherein he hath skill should teach him that lesson which alwayes move in their owne spheares except they be wandring starres for whom the blacknesse of darknesse is reserved for ever with many other bitter expressions But this is an old plea of the Popish Clergy to hold the people in ignorance and thraldome and should not be taken up by those that would seeme to be more opposite to Popery then Protestants are That eminent and blessed Divine Doctor Sibbes was of another minde who speaking in commendation of Mr Sherland that was no Preacher disdaines not to say he had good skill in controverted points of Divinity and that he was a good Divine And surely the calling of a Christian is of that importance that he must if need so require omit whatsoever calling he have besides to make good that one most necessary neither can he justly be charged to move out of his spheare whensoever he meddles with matters of Christianity and Religion especially such points as he is pressed to embrace and submit