Causes oft assigned Nay that which without the comparison I did charge on separation was in these words conjunct Our uncharitable Divisions Alienations and Separations are a crying sin and not of separation by it self or alone 2. And by your opposition thereto you seem plainly to deny the sinfulness of the said Vncharitable Divisions Alienations and Separations Which is a crime of heinous aggravation to be committed and impenitently stood in at that very time when uncharitable divisions have broken us so much in pieces and brought us all so low and silenced so many Ministers and done that which our eyes have seen O dreadful obdurateness that after twenty years such doleful experience we will not confess the sinfulness of our divisions But will suffer and be silenced and ruined and die and yet not acknowledge that so unnatural and pernicious a thing is a sin When the world rings of it When we lye weltring in its sad effects that yet we are justifying the Cause Let not any presume to go on in sin with a purpose to Repent hereafter when it is so hard a thing to make men that think us unworthy of their communion to Repent of the very sin which they suffer by and that in the very heat and continuance of their sufferings Sect. 7. E. B. p. 3. What can make your brethren more odious and more expose them to the peoples fury and to the Rulers Revenge than thus to make them the Causes of the Naâ—ions Calamity R. B. 1. And is there not sin among us even among us also And are the sins of such as we no Causes of our publick calamities And would you thus leave us all desperate in Impenitency May not we Repent and must we not Repent if we will be forgiven When we are freed from the Condition of the Law of Works is Repentance become so intollerable and hard a Condition If we Repent not shall we not all perish Luke 13. 3 5. Do Angels rejoice at a sinners Repentance and shall we take him for their enemy that calls them to it 2. Is not Impenitency a greater Reproach to us in the eyes of those by whom we suffer than our Repentance would be And doth it not exasparate them to see men justifie unquestionable sin 3. What if God Record even good mens sins and tell a David what evil they should bring upon his house and what a plague his numbring the people brought on his Kingdom and so of others Doth he hereby expose them to be odious No but by Repentance would make them amiable 4. Is not sin odious whereever it is found And God is no respecter of persons Must we not loath our selves for it It is he that sinneth that maketh himself odious and he that calleth him to Repentance would take away his odiousness Though the sin of a penitent Manasseh may cause the Captivity And he that justifieth it and fathereth it on Christ and the Spirit and Religion would make Christ and the Spirit and Religion and the Church odious lest he should be known to be so himself 5. And do not most good Ministers and people publickly confess to God that our own sins have been the Causes of our Calamities Read Mr. Pool's Vox clamantis and Mr. Stukeley's Book and judge accordingly of others And do you think that they thereby expose good people to the Magistrates hatred or revenge Or dare you charge them with hypocrisie as if they spake not as they thought Alas man what dayes of Humiliation do you use to keep for the sins and miseries of the Land Do you only confess your adversaries sins How easily can some men Repent if it were other mens only that they were to Repent of if the confessing of such might be called Repenting Adeo familiare est omnia sibi remittere nihil aliis inquit Patercul Sect. 8. E. B. p. 3. If in separating our sin is so great that the place where we live cannot be held innocent but must suffer from the hand of God for our sakes we are certainly a people who deserve to be hated of all and the Confiscations Imprisonments and Deaths which some of us have already felt are no longer to be bewailed and grieved for as persecutions of the innocent but rather to be rejoyced and gloried in as due punishments R. B. Such stuff may go down with those that will swallow all that seems to lift them up But 1. It was not separation from forms of Worship only or chiefly that I spake of 2. None of us are absolutely Innocent but only comparatively and secundum quid 3. Here are two false Doctrines more implyed The first is that they that so sin as is here described deserve to be hated of all For though secundum quid so far as we are sinners we are loathsome and deserve to be hated yet the same person being in Christ and pardoned and having the Spirit and Image of God is amiable And therefore the Phrase must follow that which is predominant in them And according either to fitness or custom of Speech you cannot without falshood say that they deserve to be hated of all whom all are commanded specially to Love Did David deserve to be hated of all because his numbring the people brought the plague Yea or Aaron that made the Golden Calf Do you consider what you write How that thus you make all or most or very many of Gods Servants such as deserve to be hated of all For how few are they who do not so sin as that the place where they live cannot be held innocent but must suffer from the hand of God for their sakes For Chastisements are threatned to them and to the societies that they defile And they are chastned of God that they may not be condemned with the world And how few can say the place where I live is not the less innocent for me nor suffereth ever the more for me 2. And it is false doctrine that Imprisonments and Death are due to all such What kind of Politicks would you write Must every man be imprisoned and put to death who makes the place not innocent where he liveth and hath a hand in bringing down judgements on the Land God afflicteth for what sin he please But Judges must not Hang men for all that God afflicteth the Land for But alas that you should reason for Impenitency Sect. 9. E. B. p. 3. Your next attempt is to free your self from being looked upon as an earnest and active instrument in the late Wars R. B. This is another visible falshood in matter of fact Alas Brother that you should no more heed what you read or write The question that I spake to was only Whether I was as guilty in stirring up and fomenting that War as any one whatsoever And is this comparative question any kin to that which you now falsly father on me Sect. 10. E. B. p. 4. I must confess your bold and
are resolved not to know your self Do you not see now that the man who took it for so great a crime in the Bishop can speak himself 1. Against the same man 2. With the same accusation 3. In the same manner And is the same thing bad in the Bishop and good in you The matter is it seemeth now to be your concernment to speak it It s like you would then have separated from the Bishop for it And yet now it is no fault in you O what a blinding thing is selfish partiality And what reason hath any man to doubt but if it were in your power you would silence me as much as any Bishop would And will you not yet see that which you are so angry with me for telling you viz. How much of the very same Spirit is in Church-dividers with that which they most condemn in others Why then do you not separate from your selves 5. But though you may think its like that you have me here in your snares I shall make this benefit of it that you may see I am not so great an enemy to Repenting as you declare your self to be I do hereby freely profess that I Repent 1. Of all that ever I thought said wrote or did since I was born against the Peace of Church or State Against the King his Person or Authority as Supream in himself or as Derivative in any of his Officers Magistrates or any Commissioned by him 2. That I Repent that I no more discouraged the Spirit of pievish quarrelling with Superiours and Church-orders and though I ever disliked and opposed it yet that I sometimes did too much encourage such as were of this temper by speaking too sharply against those things which I thought to be Church-corruptions and was too loth to displease the contentious for fear of being uncapable of doing them good knowing the prophane to be much worse than they and meeting with too few Religious persons that were not too much pleased with such invectives 3. And I do Repent that I had not more impartially and diligently consulted with the best Lawyers that were against the Parliaments Cause For I knew of no Controversie in Divinity about it but in Politicks and Law and that I did not use all possible means of full acquaintance with the Case And that for a little while the Authority of such Writers as Mr. Rich. Hooker lib. 1. Eccles Polit. and Bishop Bilson and other Episcopal Divines did too much sway my judgement toward the Principles of Popular Power And seeing the Parliament Episcopal and Erastian and not hearing when the Wars began of two Presbyterians among them all nor among all their Lord Lieutenants Generalls Major Generalls or Colonells till long after I was the easilyer drawn to think that Hookers Political Principles had been commonly received by all which I discerned soon after upon stricter enquiry to be unsound and have my self written a Confutation of them ready for the Press many years ago 4. And all the rest of my sin in this business which I know not of particularly I do Implicitly and Generally Repent of and daily beg of God as I have done these twenty four years and more to give me a particular Conviction of them and not to suffer me to live or dye in any impenitence but so far to acquaint me with all my great and publick sins that I may openly confess them and give others warning to avoid the like This is the Repentance which upon your invitation I profess If you quarrel with it as not instancing in particulars enow I answer you that as in the Revocation of the Book which you accuse I thought it best to Revoke the whole though not as Retracting all the doctrine of it because if I had named the particular passages some would have said I had mentioned too few and some too many and few would have been satisfied so is it in the present Case 6. As to your Defence of me heretofore 1. You know I never desired it of you nor gave you thanks for it For though you took my part you understood not my Cause and therefore in the main deserted it 2. I am not at all ambitious of such an Advocate 1. Whose Defence was then judged by all that I heard speak of it to be commendable only for boldness and a handsome Epistolary Style having little of Judgement or argumentative strength 2. Whose errors and faults will disgrace the Cause which he defendeth 3. Who can blow hot and cold and when his passion and erroneous interest requireth it can change hands and take up his adversaries work and do the same thing in the main which he accused Threaten me not with so desirable a desertion As for the following insultations on supposition of the sufficiency of your snare you see now that it is to glory in your shame Sect. 21. E. B. Your mentioning with so much scorn the doctrine of the temporal Reign of Christ which you in derision call the fifth Monarchy way and your endeavour to expose all that you think favour that opinion is another evidence that you dare not look any truth in the face which brings present danger with it no though formerly you were as earnest and open an asserter of it as any R. B. I see but five express falshoods in matter of fact in these few words 1. One is that it is Christs Temporal Reign which I call the fifth Monarchy way when as I have no such words nor meaning but do my self believe Christs Temporal Reign even that now he is Head over all things to his Church Ephes 1. 21 22. and that all Power in Heaven and Earth is given him Mat. 28. 19. and all things are delivered into his hands John 1â— 3. 17. 2. that he hath power given him over all flesh and that to this end he dyed rose and revived that he might be Lord of the dead and living Rom. 14. 9. and that he is King of Kings and Lord of Lords But whether he will Reign a thousand years in corporal visible presence on earth I am not wise enough to know But I am afraid of those opinions which draw down mens minds from looking for a treasure and reward in Heaven and tempt them to expect great things on Earth But in this Age custome hath taught men to distinguish between those called Fifth Monarchy men and meer Millenaries And by the former name I mean such as they that assumed that name have been whom I will not describe lest I seem to imitate you or offend you more than needs 2. The second falshood is that I mention the Doctrine of Christs Temporal Reign with scorn and derision when I only mentioned the way by which many of my acquaintance came to hold it and the arguments which they used to defend it with pitty and dissent but not with scorn or derision much less that doctrine which he nameth 3. The third falshood is that I
should find the Evidences of Gods favour and acceptance in the life of Faith and Love and Holiness do lamentably quiet themselves instead of these with being members of such strict societies as profess even a separating conspicuous holiness 20. Lastly But one of the greatest snares of all is that men cannot bear the Censures of those that are inclined to Separation And therefore rather than be accounted and called by them Formalists Temporizers Carnal or such like they will do as they do and turn their zeal into partial and unjust censures of the persons words and outward Modes and Circumstances of Worship of those that they dissent from These and such other causes of Dividing inclinations I did upon the special necessities of the Churches and some of my own acquaintance lay open in a Book called the Cure of Church Divisions which made a great noise as water powred upon the flames But though some upon misunderstanding and some by guilt and interest muttered much against it I never had a word against it privately or publickly in writing by way of Confutation of any thing in it save only a Libell of one that now calleth himself Edward Bagshaw a man that I am not acquainted with though I have seen and spoken with him and though to my trouble when his fancy led him that way he unskilfully wrote for me against the Bishop then of Worcester I greatly rejoyce that in these times of tryal so few of the Non-conformable Ministers are by sufferings and passions hurried into the dividing extream If injuries or interest would excuse any sin I think there are few Ministers in England who have more inducements to the angry separating way than I have But shall I therefore wrong the Truth and Church of God and my own and others souls God forbid Brethren it is none of my meaning to disoblige you from your ancient faithful Ministers Nor yet to perswade you to hear any insufficient or intolerable man much less to commit your souls to the Pastoral care of such a person nor yet to prefer a worse before a better who may upon lawful terms be enjoyed But the things that I perswade you to are these 1. Not to entertain false uncharitable dividing principles in your minds which will break the peace of all societies 2. If you differ about Infant Baptism Indepencie Common prayer or such like that yet you will not think your differences oblige you to deny Communion to all you differ from 3. That if you are so sinfully partial that you cannot joyn in the same Churches you would yet live charitably and peaceably in several Churches 4. That you would not say any Church of Christ is No Church because it is not of your form or mode 5. That you would not say that Communion with any Church is unlawful because their external worshipping form is not of your fashion or before you have proved what you say My advice is calculated to the Vnion and peace of all true Churches and not those of one form or mode alone And I note it as a considerable providence of God that I am drawn in to defend the Principles of Love and Concord in these trying times against such an adversary as Mr. Bagshaw is It hath of late been Gods way to let us know the evil of Principles by their effects on the men that we have had to do with As Malignant principles would not have been sufficiently distasted by us if they had not shewed themselves in malignant practices So Dividing principles had never been sufficiently known in England if they had not ruined a Reformation silenced so many hundred Ministers and laid us in the dirt as they have done And if the Cause of Dividers must be judged of by the defenders I advise you to consider of these things following 1. How many notorious false doctrines he hath delivered 2. How many other notorious Crimes in two Libells he hath committed In special let every sober person judge whether Ignorance Temerity Pride and high self-conceitedness with malignant unconcealed calumny do not only defile but even constitute or make up his Books 3. What bitter enmity is here exprest against the Principles of Love and Vnity and Concord and Peace and Sobriety it self 4. How many score notorious untruths he shamelesly publisheth in these two Libells 5. How much he fighteth against Repentance and so with gross Impenitency aggravateth all his crimes 6. How like his own Spirit is to that which he accounteth the Spirit of imposition and persecution And how vehement he is against the same persons as such are and as impudently slandereth them and as bitterly and professedly designeth to make them odious But he that professeth to make another odious thereby disableth himself from doing it 7. Whether ever in all your lives you saw two Libells written against another which do not only perform but even attempt so little and next to nothing at all to give any answer to the Books he writes against Read mine and read his and I defie any thing but madness it self or blind partiality or wickedness to make any man think that he hath confuted what I have written I confess I admire at the mans insensibility that doth not perceive how much he hath done by pretending an Answer and giving none or worse than none to make his cause or himself contemptible Can any man in his wits think that he hath confuted the Principles of Concord which I laid down in my Directions 8. Whether such a man as this do shew himself wiser than Dod Hildersham Ames Baine and all the old Non-conformists according to the importance of his boast or whether he give us cause to believe that God hath revealed more to him than to them while he himself can no better reveal it unto others 9. When I had set down at least thirty three Vntruths which he deliberately dared to write and publish did you ever read such a pittiful vindication He hath not spoken to any considerable number of them And of those few that he speaketh to try if you can find any one of which he cleareth himself And yet he professeth not repentance for any one of them Nay to open his Impenitency he professeth falsly that I cannot justly charge him with any of them and addeth in the last Libell forty eight palpable Vntruths more Just like one that being accused of swearing should forty eight times swear that he never sware 10. How far he proceedeth in his separation and how far he would draw poor unstable souls It is not only from the Conformists and the Parish Churches that he would have you separate and all in the whole world that are worse than they but also from all the Non-conformists in England that are not better than I as his concluding Advertisement fully telleth you All of my mind and measure are unworthy of the communion of this humble tender credible man 11. What means is there left in the world to