grace of God the Father being the prime and chiefe cause therof the body and blood of Christ the second principal or mediate cause faith the instrumentall and inferiour cause and the justified are said also to live and to be saved by the grace of God by the flesh and blood and life of Christ and by faith And in this consideration because Christ is the onely mediator and reconciler between God and man doth he so often speake of himselfe and say My Father giveth you the true bread from heaven the bread of God is he which commeth downe from heaven and giveth life unto the world I am the bread of life this is the bread of life which commeth down from heaven that a man may eate thereof and not dye I am the living bread which came down from heaven if any man eate of this bread he shall live for ever and the bread that I will give is my flesh which I will give for the life of the world except yee eate the flesh of the Son of man and drinke his blood yee have no life in you who so eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternall life and I will raise him up at the last day For my flesh is meate indeed and my blood is drinke indeed he that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me and I in him as the living Father hath sent me and I live by the Father so he that eateth me even he shall live by me c. And in this manner spake he afterwards of the Sacrament of the Supper which hee left and commanded unto his Church to bee done to shew forth his death untill his second comming saying of the Bread Take â— eate this is my Body and of the Cup Drinke yee all of this for this is the Blood of the New Testament which is shed for many for the remission of sinnes Matth. 26. 26. 27. 28. And Saint Paul likewise saith of the same Sacrament The cup of blessing which wee blesse is it not the communion of the Blood of Christ and the Bread which wee breake is it not the communion of the Body of Christ for wee being many are one Bread for wee are all pertakers of that one bread 1 Cor. 10. 16. 17. as if he should say is not this the spirituall intent and true meaning or signification thereof doth it not shew forth and give us to understand the Communion that is betweene Christ and his Church and every member of it how hee hath purchased it and life and eternall salvation for it with his owne Body and Blood and that although the members thereof bee many yet they being by faith made partakers of him the true and living Bread are all in a spirituall manner one body with him and one bread and doe live by him The like whereof hee had said before to the same Corrinthians of the forefathers Moreover brethren I would not that yee should bee ignorant how that all our fathers were under the cloud and all passed through the Sea and were baptized unto Moses in the Cloud and in the Sea and did all eate the same spirituall meate and did all drinke the same spirituall drinke for they dranke of that spirituall Rocke which followed them and that Rocke was Christ 1. Cor. 10. 1. 2. 3. 4. So that all the holy fathers not onely they that had passed through the Sea with Moses whom Saint Paul doth here instance for proofe but all that were before them and after them to his dayes were baptized with the same spirituall Baptisme wherewith hee himselfe and all the faithfull to this day have beene and are Baptized and did all eate the same spirituall meat and drinke the same spirituall drinke as wee now doe having all the same benefit of Christ and of the Sacrifice of his Body and Blood as wee now have and are all of him and one body with us and wee with them as Saint Paul also further manifesteth saying For as the body is one and hath many members and all the members of this one body being many are one body so also is Christ For by one spirit are we all Baptized into one body whether we be Iewes or Gentiles whether we be bond or free and have beene all made drinke into one spirit 1. Cor. 12 12. 13. For although Christ dyed but once in the latter time and in one place of the world yet his death was as avayleable with God with whom all things to come and past are present before his comming in the flesh and death as since and as effectuall to his elect of all nations in all times and in all places then as now for there is but one way of salvation in him and by him unto all in all times and in all places though it be not declared in a like manner and measure to all in all times and in all places These things I doe beleeve to be true for which if I shall still be judged vile and continued a prisoner I must still have patience If otherwise and that I shall find reliefe I hope I shall be thankfull unto God and not forget my duty to my relievers From the new Prison in Maiden-lane in London 1627. I doe now confesse againe that after all these things I having indured three yeares imprisonment and having often petitioned to the Court within the same time shewing my wrongs and grievances and requesting my liberty those two fore-mentioned Bishops of Winchester and Rochester Doctor Neâ— and Doctor Buckridg furthering my request to the Arch-Bishop I was discharged and released without any kind of justification either of the Courts proceedings or the witnesses depositions or any part of Denisons doings or acknowledging my selfe guilty of the things wherewith I was charged further then I have declared The last Court day of Michaelmas terme in the yeare 1629. for if I would but have acknowledged to the Court that I had been judicially convicted which I could not doe I might have beene discharged long before But notwithstanding this that I am now at libertie from prison yet the scandalls and reproaches of my adversaries remain still all over this Land and other parts likewise by reason not onely of that unrighteous sentence of the Court passed on me upon those insufficient and false depositions but especially of those wicked infamous Sermons and bookes which my accuser and prosecutor Denison hath published against me and are disperst through the Kingdome So that not onely my person but my name is odious and hatefull to many my friends my children and all that beare my name suffer by this meanes But why should it so much grieve me or trouble them seeing that the more any one suffereth for the truth sake the more he hath cause to rejoyce because so much the greater is his reward in heaven as the Lord himselfe Who is the way the truth and life hath said Mat. 5. So commending the judicious true Christian Reader To the grace of God and of the Lord Iesus Christ I rest his true Christian friend JOHN ETHERINGTON And if any shall thinke I have not yet answered that Booke of the Sermon preacht against me at the Crosse tituled The white wâ—olfe by Doctor Denison for he hath now by reason of that worke as it seemeth obtained the name of Doctor which before he had not let such a one but consider well without partiallity what is declared in this my defence and I hope he shall see every thing in the Doctors White wâ—olfe that conserneth me in substance fully answered and whether he or I have played the ravening Woolves part I refer to the judicious Christian Reader that hath read both to consider And so I rest his christian friend wishing him all true wisdome from above whereby to discerne betweene truth and falsehood and betweene true Prophets and false that so he be not deceived I. E. Errata IN pag. 1. l. the last after invent read spoken against him In pag. 2. l. 19. read mind iâ— In pag. 12. l. 23. for dareth read dareth not In pag. 31. l. the 1. for his read this In pag. 36. l. 18. for Sabbath read Sabbaths In pag. 38. l. 19. read could not In pag. 38 1. 25. for oposition read exposition In pag. 38. l. 28. for used read useth In pag. 39. l. the last recit read receive In pag. 41. l. the 7. for answers read adversaries In pag. 41. l. the 16. for suscribe read subscribe In pag. 42. l. 6. for or may read are may In pag. 44. l. 14. for walks read walt Matth. 25. Acts 20. John 5. 39. Matth. 24. 5. Revel. 1. 3. Heb. 3. 12 13. Heb. 10. 24. 25. Mat. 24. 22. Heb. 6. Mark 1. 1 2 3 4. Mat. 16. 18. 1 Pet. 2. 4. 5. 1 Cor. 10. 17. 12. 12 13. 1 Joh. 2. 19. Heb. 3. 6. Esay 58. Col. 2. Gal. 4. Page 70 71. Mat. 4. 8. Mat. 11. 17. Mat. 3. 11. 12. Esay 61. 1. 2. â— Act. 10. 37. Act. 13. 23. 24. Mat. 11. 5. Luke 7. 22. Heb. 6. Luke 24. 47. 48. Mar. 1. 15. Act. 2. 38. Act. 3. 19. Act. 20. Deut. 30. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. Esay 57. 14. 15. Esay 66. 1. 2. Iere. 4. 4. Hose 10. 12. Ioel 2. 12. 13. Psal. 51. 16. 17. Psal. 95. 7. 8. 11. c. Rom. 16. 14. 1 Cor. 16. 24. 2 Cor. 13. 14. Gal. â— 18. Philip 4. 23. 1 Thes. 5. 28. Rev. 22. 21. 2 Cor. 3. 3. Col. 2. 12. Iohn 6. 54. Ver. 35. 40 and 47. Ioh. 6. 32. 33. 35. 48. 51. 53. 55. 56. 57. 58. c.
the first saying Repent and believe the Gospell this did the Apostles Preach after him as he commanded them Act. 2. 38 Act. 〈◊〉 and Act. 20. 20. 21. Where Saint Paul saith I kepte â—â—ching backe that was profitables but taught and testified both to the Iewes and also to the Greeks repentance towards God and saith in our Lord Iesus Christ This did Moses and the Prophets also before Christ came in the flesh Preach and require of the people as the most necessary things to be attained if they would be saved This Abel Hen cb Noah and all the blessed of their times attained unto and had it wrought in them from above And Abraham also before circumcision in the flesh was required This all the holy Patriarchs Prophets and righteous men and women of the Jewes had And that woman which is so specially remembred unto us in the Gospell whose Baptisme of repentance is so truely manifested by her plentifull teares wherewith she washed Christs feet And her Baptisme of the holy Ghost and justification by faith from her sins by her true and much love to Christ expressed in her washing and kissing his feet and anoynting them with oyle For every one that is borne from above of water and of the Spirit is inwardly of the same heavenly nature all the dayes of his life after whose fruit doth alwayes in his due times and seasons according to his measure like the tree planted by the river side shew forth the fame This al the elect of God that ever were now are or hereafter shal be have had have must have yea the youngest child dying in the birth or the womb if not in outward expression yet inwardly in the true nature thereof for no one child of man begotten of flesh can be saved except he be begotten from above of water and of the Spirit and so changed or renewed from the polluted and inthralled estate of nature which we all had and received originally in the very conception into the estate of grace and love with God in Christ And God may worke this change this new birth or rebegetting in the wombe if it pleaseth him as he did in Iohn the Baptist or at the time of outward baptisme if he so please or before it as he did in Abraham before circumcision in the flesh and as in the Apostles times he did to some or after it as he had done formerly after circumcision and now most usually doth since all are so generally baptized in their young estate For we may not limit God neither hath he tyed himselfe to any time or estate of nature in us nor to any one outward action performed by man unto us although he hath ordained sundry excellent holy out ward meanes whereby he doth direct and lead us as it were by the hand to the things that are spirituall and indeed necessary which we are bound to imbrace with much thankfulnesse to God and to use with reverence and not to despise the least of them nor in any part wilfully neglect them in paine of Gods high displeasure But the death and resurrection of Christ the sacrifice of his body and blood the value vertue price and purchase thereof he hath tyed himselfe unto so as that without it and some powerfull administration the same to the soule of man there is no salvation as Christ pronounceth saying Except yee eate the flesh of the Son of man and drinke his blood yee have no life in you Iohn 6. 53. The Sacraments of Baptisme and the Lords Supper have both respect unto this Baptisme to the new birth wherein weare set in the estate of life thereby the Lord Supper to the continuall Commmunion which every one that is once made alive by it hath therein to eternall life and so the flesh of Christ Is meat indeed and his blod is drinke indeed to them according to the word of Christ Iohn 6. 54. 55. Not as if any man did or could eat the very flesh or drinke his blood carnally as Doctor Cosins affirmed not that the bread of the Sacrament or the wine is turned into the flesh or blood of Christ either before we receive them or after so conveied into us as some would make us beleev nor any other kind of way is the flesh or blood of Christ conveied or infused into our bodies or soules to set us in the estate of life or to continue us in the same nay then how could they that were before Christ came in the flesh be saved for the same necessity of eating his flesh and drinking his blood was to them then even from the first fall of Adam as is now to us but it is the grace purchased thereby which we doe receive in our hearts by faith and which by his mediation is continued with us For as the Law which is the Minister of death came by Moses â—oâ— grace and truth which bringeth life is by JESUS GHRIST And therefore the Apostles so often Write and say The grace of our Lord Iesus Christ bee with you c. For although the very body and blood of Christ be the price of the purchase in that respect the only mediate cause of our life and salvation yet doth not his body and blood enter into us to revive and save us nay so it profiteth nothing as Christ himselfe said against some that conceived his words in such a carnall manner as now at this time many doe What and if you shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before It is the spirit that quickneth the flesh profiteth nothing the words that I speake unto you they are spirit and they are life Iohn 6. 62. 63. Neither doe we by the acts of eating the bread or drinking the wine of the Sacrament eate or drinke the grace of God purchased by the body and blood of Christ neither is grace conferred or any way secretly conveied to our hearts in the bread or wine or by them nor by any thing inferior unto it selfe but it is conferred to the heart of man by the Spirit of God through the word of his promise therefore called the word of his grace And the instrument hand or mouth wherewith wee doe receive the same is faith in the heart caused also therein by the operation of the same spirit as Paul declareth for the habit and estate of eternall life and the promise of raysing up at the last day which Christ doth certifie to those that eate his flesh and drinke his blood doth he assure to them that beleeve in him so that to beleeve in Christ is to eate his flesh and drinke his blood according to his meaning and therefore a sinner is sometimes said to be justified by grace sometimes by the blood of Christ sometimes by faith because in the act of our justification all these doe concur and are together the
the reason why they that fell in the Wildernesse entred not in was their hardnesse of heart and unbeleefe as in the 15. ver. of the 3. chap. and the 2. ver. of the 4. chap. He declareth and saith further That they that are so entred â—â—ve ceased from their owne workes as God did from his that is from seeking their owne pleasures and speaking their owne words from all their corrupt carnall and sinfull pleasures and delights of the world wherein their soule as well as their bodie and members thereof had walked the whole man being corrupted through the fall and which are therefore called their owne workes and their owne pleasures and their delight is now in the Lord and in his holy and heavenly wayes seeking his face continually honouring him c. as the Prophet Esay saith And they that are so entred here by faith and keepe the Lords holy Sabbath will the Lord cause to ride upon the high places of the earth and will feed them with the heritage of Iacob their father for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it which heritage of of Iacob is the everlasting Kingdom the heavenly Country and Citty promised which all the holy Fathers looked for and is to be manifested and fully accomplished when Christ shall come in his glory and all things shall be restored according to the Prophets And so I hold the Sabbath spirituall and eternall to be in force and that the outward rest of man and beast commanded the Jewes on the seaventh day was but a shaddow thereof and is now ceased to Christians So that as wee are 〈◊〉 bound to Circumcision nor other ceremonies of the Law which is manifest by Acts 15. Gal. 4. and other places of Scripture neither are we to the strict observation of any litterall Sabbaths of yeeres times moneths or dayes as the Jewes were by the Law but are free as Saint Paul sayth Let no man judge you in meates or in drinkes or in respect of an holy day or of the new Moone or of the Sabbath day which are a shaddow of the things to come but the body is Christ And he said to them of Galatia who were by false Teachers brought to an extreame in that kind more then the Law it selfe ever intended Ye observe dayes and moneths and times and yeares I am afraid of you c. in both which places the Apostle speaketh of the seventh day Sabbath and concludeth of it as of the rest In Gal. he beginneth with it before the monthly Sabbathes as besides which before the monthly there is not another to be rekoned and in Colâ— He ends with it in reckoning next after the new Moones or monthly Sabbathes except which after the monethly there is not another to be named and counteth it with the rest a shadow of things to come And this no doubt was the reason why the Apostles and Christian Churches to this day have left it with the rest of the signes and shadowes of the law as holding that Christians are free as touching their consciences in all such respects If this be true that the litterall rest of the seventh day commanded in the Law be a shadow as by the Apostles words is most cleere and past all contradiction then the first day of the weeke used in the Apostles times and ever since in the Christian Churches for the assembling together of the people of God to breaking of bread and prayer and preaching and hearing the word of God for exhortation spirituall communion edification and comfort one another praysing the Lord c. Was taken up freely and is a free observation and not by force of any commandement of the Law or of the Gospell And this doth the Apostle further declare in Rom. 14. where he plainely sheweth as he doth also in Colo. 2. the inâ—iferency now under the Gospell of eating and not eating of meates and of esteeming and not esteeming one day above another So that although Christians be now free in these things as touching the conscience in respect of the Law and are not bound yet they not only may observe a day to the Lord for the ends before mentioned and forbeare therein their common worldly affaires but ought it so being ordained and appointed by the state and Church wherein they live and so farre wee are bound by the command of the word of God in all good and lawfull things to obey And some day or time is needfull and the more time the bettâ—r and hee that makes the most use of the same time to the same ends doth the best and the first day of the weeke may very well be the day rather then any other because it was for some reasons no doubt taken up and used for those ends in the Apostles times whither because they might be more free therein in respect of the Jewes then on the Sabbath day or for what reason else it is not written being not so needfull to be knowne And so in respect of this spirituall use and end it hath beene and is appointed and imployed unto it may be called a Sabbath day though not by force of the commandement But whosoever shall lay such a burthen upon the consciences of Christian touching the day as Master Denison and some others have done charging the people upon heavy curses and condemnation to doe and not to doe such and such kind of things as they prescribe These things Which although you may lawfully leave them undone upon any other day and not sinne you are bound to doe them in this day in paine of condemnation And these and those kind of things or actions which although you may lawfully doe them on any other day and not sinne you are bound not to doe any of them in this day on paine of condemnation and whosoever doth not constionably so observe the day cannot be a true Christian wherewith they have so inthralled the minds of many people some of tender consciences zealously affected towards God and have brought them to such distraction and unquietnesse of spirit by reason they are not nor can be satisfied in every particular action what they are so bound to doe and what not to doe upon that day when to begin and when to end that there is more talke and questioning among them and and more resorting to Ministers for satisfaction about the same then about any matter of religion whatsoever This doctrine I say is very unsound and just like unto that which the false Apostles and Teachers taught and charged them of Antioch and them of Galatia touching Circumcision and the Sabbath of the Law which was very erroneous even in the time of the Law and a burthen as Saint Peter saith which they nor their fathers were able to beare for such doctrine had beene taught the Jewes by such Pharisees and false Teachers a long time before Peters dayes and is by the Church in Acts 15. and by Saint Paul in Gal. 4. condemned for
have beene a meanes of the withdrawing and disswading some from Schisme Separation Anabaptisme Familisme and other corrupt opinions and unlawfull practises so that their testimonies to these things also are all likewise false This hath beene the passage and proceeding of this businesse and cause against me these be the things contained in the sentence and these be the testimonies that are for proofe of them for which and whereupon I was censured by the high Commission Court on the last day of November 1626. not having any defence nor being heard what I could say for my selfe The sentence or judgement of the Court is this I was fined five hundred pounds to the King to pay cost of suit I was committed to the new prison there to remaine during the pleasure of the Court and injoyned to make a publike recantation in such words as should be set downe by the Court And although Master Denison had prevailed thus farre and that I was layed up in prison yet was he not herewith satisfied but in the beginning of Hillary terme next following he moved and requested to the Arch-bishop and the Court that he might preach at Pauls crosse the last Sunday in the said Terme and that I should bee brought to stand there before him during his Sermon which his request as unreasonable and unnaturall as it was by Sir Henry Martins meanes was soone granted him And I was by a Pursuivant and a keeper the same day brought to stand there before him in the view of the people and being come to the place they having a Paper contayning the chiefe things of the sentence Written with large Letters which I taking in my hand protested against unto the people as falsly charg'd upon me and falsly by false witnesses deposed against me But they the Pursuivant and keeper laying hold of my armes took the Paper from me and pinned it on my brest and so held me till I intreated them to let my armes loose and promised that I would not remove it that so he my adversary and prosecutor might make open shew of me the person whom he had so long hunted for and having me now under his clawes might prey on me at his pleasure and make knowne to all men that what he had done before in his Pulpits without against all Law and Christianity he could doe now boldly with authority And how maliciously contemptuously and falsly he there spake and dealt reviling me by the names of this seducer this Woolfe Iohn Etherington that stands heere before you this Varlet Hereticke Faruilist with sundry other vile false and evill speeches which he there uttered of me many that then heard him can witnesse And so I having stood there before him about the space of three houres he took forth a Paper wherein the words for my recantation which the Court had ordered were Written and began to read them saying Whereas I Iohn Etherington stand by the depositions of sundry witneses judicially convicted before the Kings Majesties Commissioners appointed for causes Ecclesiasticall for that since the 20 of December 1623 I have maintained c. The words following being all the matters contayned in the sentence which they would have had me to acknowledge as justly proved and so condemne my selfe and justifie all their proceedings So hee having read a part twice over called upon me twice to say after him which I refused to doe knowing my selfe to be cleere as I have before declared onely I answered and testified to the people that the witnesses were false witnesses and their testimonies false and that he had delivered many lyes and false things of me and so I was taken away from the Crosse to the prison againe And yet further for after all this he got lycence to publish a Booke of that Sermon in Print partly refined of some of the palpable untruths and bitter reviling speeches he then uttered and partly filled with more malice and falshood by which in the most disgracefullest manner as I thinke ever was knowne He hath devised to defame me my name and posterity for ever if it be possible for the spirit of wickednesse by evill inventions and lyes to doe it And except Christ had foretold that men should not onely revile and persecute his servants but that they would falsly say all manner of evill against them for his name sake all manner of evill nothing excepted that the evill heart of man can invent I should never have beleeved that there had beene or would be such manner of evill things invented spoken and practised published and beleeved against any one as hath beene all fasly God knoweth against me the most unworthy to be so blessed and to have such cause of rejoycing as Christ testifieth and promiseth to such though for the present as touching the body and outward name and estate I with my wife and children doe suffer and undergoe distresses scandals defamations and reproaches of the world In all which how unchristian-like and unnaturally I have beene delt withall by this Steven Denison how evill false and dishonest his witnesses have manifested themselves to be in their practises and depositions And how rightly and upon what just grounds the Court hath proceeded judged imprisoned appoynted and given way for all these things to passe and be done against me I referre to the judicious understanding Christian Reader of what estate or calling soever to weigh and consider I doe confesse that after Master Denison had done his pleasure against me at the Crosse I having complayned of the great wrong I had sustained by him his witnesses first by a letter that I wrote to the Bishop then of Durham now of Winchester whom I made bold to acquaint with the matter by reason I had beene with him some few dayes before this unexpected sentence was passed against me to speake with him about the conveyance of water to his house of Akeland in the County of Durham and was by his apoyntment to come to him againe to speake further of the same but being now prevented by imprisonment I wrote giving him to understand the cause therof for he was not at the Court when I was cenred And requesting his favourable helpe to relieve me who hereupon with the Bishop of Rochester tooke the matter into their consideration began to commiserate my case so that when my Petitions of complaint came to the Court they were willing to have them read moved for me to the Arch-bishop that things should be yet further examined according to my request Whereupon the matter was referred unto them and I acknowledge they took pains therein were very willing to relieve me perceiving that I was wronged as they found the falshood of the accusations and of the depositions of the witnesses caused the Register to write them downe But Denison my adversary accuser and prosecuter being there present at my elbow when things were now examining and knowing that my cleering would discover his unjust