but the cursed people followed Christ meaning the poor and Saint Paul saith not many mighty but the poore and mean things hath God chosen and the Protestants of France were usually called the poor men of Lyons and the Puritans were all counted a company of poor fellows now the Independent Ministers they have got all the rich sheep from out of their fellow Pastors folds it seems they are the best Purvey ours for the kingdome of Heaven they have already got abundance of rich Saints in these latter dayes so that when the World groweth poorest the Independent-churches and congregations and their Pastors grow all richest and I am afraid they will make merchandize of a great many more simple Ewes if their Watchmen and Pastors be not the more carefull and vigilant to look to their flocks for they have a singular faculty of plundering and have their Emissaries for that purpose in all the parts of the Kingdome and yet the World is so blinde they cannot discerne into the juglings of these men They blame in the Papists as it is blame-worthy indeed that they not only Lord it over Gods heritage by their own tyrannicall traditions but for that they most sacrilegiously mutilate the Sacrament of the Lords Supper and take away the Cup from the people and they notwithstanding are guilty of both these crimes in a more deep manner then the Papists for they impose in a most Lordly manner their traditions and novelties as Gods own lawes upon the people and not as traditions and they take not away the cup only from the people but take away both the bread and wine from them also and that from the deer servants of God and from such as against whom either for their knowledge or conversation they have no just exception and debar both men and women through beleevers and such as are baptized from the Sacrament and deny baptisme the feal of the Covenant to their Children then the which shew me in the world either a greater and more Lordly tyranny or a more horrid sacriledge And this and many more such insolencies of their Lording it over Gods heritage might be instanced to the dishonour of God and the Gospell and yet the people have not eyes to see it nor hearts to consider what a yoak of slavery they have voluntarily now put themselves under when by the exceeding kindnesse of God towards us and through the wisdome and help of this Parliament we were freed from the unsupportable yoak and tyranny of the Prelates Truely when I read their railing and blasphemous Pamphlets and when I hear their bitter expressions both against the Parliament and Presbytery and all their Christian brethren whom they stile Presbyterians and persecutors of the wayes of God and when I consider their Lording of it over their brethren and their under-hand practises for the upholding of their Faction and their unchristian dealing in all respects I have admired the patience of the great God and the humanity of the people I say I have admired the patience of the great God that hath no more severely punished this Nation for their so great ungratitude towards him for his longanimity and so many deliverances of us both from our Enemies and from our feares and for those unheard of blasphemies both against his Divine Majesty and all authority they dayly utter besides their despising of his Ministers and Ordinances and I have also wondred to see the lenity and curtesie of the people towards these men that although both in their preachings and in their writings they proclaim them all enemies of Jesus Christ and his Kingdome and thrust them all from the holy things and count of them all as a company of Infidels they yet endure all their abuses with moderation neither do I think that the humanity of this Nation towards them can be parallell'd by any other country under heaven who I am most assured would never have suffered half those insolencies they dayly exercise towards them And yet I dare say for all the godly Presbyterians in England whom they count such persecutors there is not one of them that desires a hair of any of their heads should fall to their detriment or that would not be as sorry that any evill should betide any of them as they would be glad and rejoyce to see them return again into the bosome of the Church that they might live in love unity as they ought and formerly they have done and joyn all their prayers and forces unanimously against the common enemies of Christ and his Gospell and so take away the scandall they have already given and heale up all those breaches that by their wantonnesse in opinions have been made to the great dishonour of God And if there were any spark of godly love or any bowels of compassion in our brethren towards their Christian brethren and towards their countrey they would easily be induced now to make up all breaches and lay aside all those novelties that have proved so pernitious already to us all For what is it that any thankfull Christian can desire that God hath not done for us He hath delivered his people in this famous City and in many other parts of the Kingdome from the Antichristian yoake and from all the ceremonies and what soever was really offensive to tender consciences and by his Divine providence has put it into the hearts of the great Counsell to make such Ordinances as by which the Ministers are inabled through the Kingdome to admit of none to the Sacrament but such as for their knowledge and godly life shall be thought sit communicants so that now there is no just cause of separation from our Assemblies seeing all scandals are taken away and the Gospell is preached in such purity as it never was since the Apostles times and that by as godly orthodox painfull and able Ministers as any are in the World Why therefore should our Brethren so slight what God hath done for us and count all that nothing without they may establish a bondage unto themselves more heavie then ever yet lay upon any mans shoulders as surely their Independency will prove For the people of themselves I have that confidence in them such is my opinion of their moderation that when they shall duly and upon deliberation consider the sad effects these Novelists have already brought forth they will relinguish them and give God thanks that the danger of them was so timely discovered and they will againe returne into the bosome of the Church and follow their own Ministers and by whom they shall be built up in their holy faith and continually fed with the sincere milke of the Word and with such wholsome doctrine as tends both to the peace of their own souls and the quiet of Church and state But that they may at last get their feet out of the snare and free themselves from their slavery and bondage I shall desire them but to consider a little the practises
was no place left for a Moderator amongst them and that All art of perswasion would be thought but a flattery or cowardize and hearing and seeing also how slight opinions they had of indifferent men and how they onely made use of a moderation for the strengthning of their party I then gave my self really to discover the frauds and juglings of many of their Ministers and all to see that if by this means when their falcaies were once discovered the truth might more oriently appear which would the better make way for a Moderator if any thing may undeceive a poor deluded multitude And so well acquainted I was with the language of many of them as I easily discerned that if they could but once make a party strong enough they would then give lawes to all men and for the strengthning of their faction in the meane time they pleade for a tolleration of all Religions an opinion though pleasing to the flesh yet so diabolicall as I wonder any Christian truly fearing God should so much as open his mouth in defence of it or that any Christian truly fearing God can with patience heare such Beasts plead for a tolleration it being a thing so abominated by God himself and so odious to all the holy Prophets and Apostles And yet notwithstanding this is the doctrine of all the Independents for the strengthning of their party and they abuse Scripture for this purpose and use many impious and vaine cavils for this very end to some of the which I have answered in my former Book and the chiefest of those that I ever yet saw are in a railing Pamphlet set forth against M. William Prynne Esq called The falsehood of M. William Prynnes truth triumphing in the antiquity of Popish Princes and Parliaments In the which Treatise amongst many things against all authority and power of Parliaments which I leave to the consideration of the great Councell of the kingdome whom it most nighly concernes he greatly pleads for a toleration of all Religions and to that end sets downe six Impossibilities as he tearms them which do necessarily accompany persecution for cause of conscience for all opposition of error is persecution with these men though they oppose truth it selfe for the maintenance of their novelties the which his impossibilities I shall set down forthwith in order and answer them severally after I have made my just defence against such of their calumnies as are worthy the taking notice of as for some of their scurrilous reproaches all men that are honest and know my conversation can testifie the contrary and therefore I slight such things as savouring of nothing but rancour and venome which they accused me of before they had seen my book But whereas they calumniate me as the greatest Incendiary of the Kingdome they most shamefully abuse me and I have been freed from that reproach by both Houses of Parliament who adjudged all my sufferings unjust as against the law and liberty of the Subject And if it were a thing that could be any way usefull unto me I could prove by the testimony of many of the brave Gentlemen in the Kings Army who in great assemblies did acknowledge when I was a prisoner amongst them that I had great injury done me Yea the Papists themselves have often averred it that never any Subject suffered more unjustly then I did in that I was cast in prison and fined for maintaining the Prerogative Royall of the King against the Pope and for defending of that Religion which was established by the Lawes of the Land and further added that had any Catholick writ as well in defence of their Religion as I did for the maintenance of the Protestant Profession he should have been so farre from suffering for it as they would not only greatly have honoured him but also highly have rewarded him for his endeavour and this that I now write I am able to prove by a cloud of witnesses and my unjust suffering in their opinion made me finde more favour amongst all the Governours that were Papists which I doe ever acknowledge for a singular curtesie from them then ever I found from Protestant Gaolers And therefore whereas the Independents do accuse me for the greatest Incendiary of the kingdome all men may see they speak as untruly so most malitiously For it is well known till I declared my dissenting opinion from them I was much magnified by most of them though now they have other thoughts of me and accuse me not only to be an Incendiary and that my Book deserveth to be burnt by the hand of the common Hangman but that I am a man crased in my braine But whereas they reproach me that I am an Apostate this all that know me will free me from yea the very Brownists and Anabaptists will be my witnesses besides my former writings which have been set forth to the view of the World for all men know that an Apostate is one that either diserteth his Generall or Captaine and fals to the Enemy or renounceth his Religion and opposeth that way he hath formerly made profession of both which rather agreeth to many of the Independents then to my self as the ensuing discourse I am confident will sufficiently declare And now that I may say something of my education which many at this instant in the City and them men of emunency can witnesse for me that have known me from my childe-hood At sixteen years of age after I had following the customes of youth spent my tender dayes in the pleasures of Hawking and Hunting I was sent by my Christian Kindred to a Village in Essex called Wethersfield under the Ministery of that learned and reverend Preacher Mr. Richard Rogers who writ that divine Book called The seven Treatises by whose means under God I came to the knowledge of the truth and to that learning that God hath given me for he out of his tender love unto me took me into his Family and in a short time by the rare dexterity he had in educating of youth being a brave Scholar and one of the best Latinists of the Kingdome through the blessing of God upon his endeavour made me fit for the University in which space he had an especiall care to season me well in all the principles of the true Protestant Religion And as his whole life was a preaching he so instructed me as before my departure from him I was able to give an account and reason of my hope to any that asked me of my Beliefe And in all his Ministery doctrine and preaching he swarved nothing from the doctrine received in all the Reformed Churches beyond the Seas as those in France Germany and the Low-countries saving in the point of the Sabbath and sanctifying of the Lords day of which to his honour be it spoken he was a diligent observer ever teaching and urging upon the people the holy and religious keeping of that day which to say the truth is one of the
and have undergone great persecution for Religigion as they publish to the world in their writings If it be tolerable therefore and praise-worthy in the Independents to oppose the Truth notwithstanding they have been sufferers will any rationall man count it an intolerable thing in me to oppose the errors and novelties of the Independents which they would impose upon the people of God as his lawes when they are but their own inventions and as things necessary to salvation And will any reasonable creature call this a persecution in any if in his own person to the uttermost of his abilities he labours to defend the truth and convince error and exhort all those that fear God to do the same because he hath been a sufferer I conceive upon deliberation he will have a more charitable opinion of such an one And if this be a crime in such as have suffered for Religion to resist Error the Independents are guilty of the same as deeply as any other for they also should remember they have bin sufferers yet they maintain their Novelties for truths and exhort all their followers to do the same and to oppose all gain-sayers which they do to the uttermost of their power in words and deeds and count this their honour and a great virtue yea valour and yet blame it in me and in all the Presbyterians and I know no reason why I or any Presbyterian should not be as valiant for truth as others should be for the upholding of their errours and Innovations especialiy when they fly so high in their Expressions as to make them the onely way to heaven and that whosoever is not in that their way they are in the broad street to perdition and exclaim against all such as oppose their opinions as persecutors of the wayes of God for this is their usuall dialect yea their ordinary language and custome to call all writing and preaching against the Errors and Heresies of the time Persecution in all the faithfull Ministers and people which duty notwithstanding they are bound unto by Christ and all the holy Prophets and Apostles who are by them commanded to lift up their voyces like a Trumpet to oppose and rebuke all gainesayers and to contend for the faith once delivered to the Saints And this is the language of that Author that writ the Arainment of Persecution and he that writ that malicious Pamphlet against M. Prynne who calls him and all the Presbyterians Persecutors whose wicked and vaine Cavils by which he laboureth to prove the necessity of a tolleration of all Religions are these following His words are these Six impossibilities which do necessarily accompany Persecution for cause of conscience 1. It is impossible that the Gospell should come to be preached unto all Nations if men may be questioned for matters of conscience 2. It is impossible that such as know but in part should grow in knowledge or from one measure and degree of Faith unto another 3. It is impossible that in a rationall way there should be a firme secure peace throughout the World nay not in a Province City or Towne so long as men may make a point of conscience to compell one another to their opinions 4. It is impossible to prescribe such a way for suppressing new and different opinions whatsoever which to any State or Church may seem Hereticall but there will still be left a gap a possibility of fighting against God even when such State or Church think they fight for him most of all 5. It is impossible that either the weak Believers mis-believers or unbelievers can be wonne by our godly conversation as is required 1 Pet. 2.12 and 3.1 2. and 1 Cor. 7.12.16 so long as we will not suffer them to live amongst us 6. It is impossble for a man to hold fast the truth or be fully perswaded in his owne heart of what he does of what Religion he makes choise of unlesse after he hath searched the Scriptures and tryed the spirits whether they be of God or no it be lawfull for him to reject that which shall appear to him as evill and adhere to that which seems good in his own judgement and apprehension These are the formall words of the Author that writ that Pamphlet by which he endeavours to maintaine that hellish opinion The tolleration of all Religions To the which I shall briefly answer after I have set down some testimonies out of holy Scripture concerning Persecution Yet before I go any further I desire all men by the way to take notice that whiles I labour to shew the vanity and invalidity of this Cavillers assertions I animate no man to persecute the truth For I know that persecution of the true Religion is the greatest sin in the world one only excepted and therefore that all men should ever be carefull to offend in this kinde lest they bring speedy distruction upon themselves by it but they must also be as diligent to take heed lest whiles they would shew a vice they neglect not their duty and decline a vertue which is to oppose all errors and falsehood in Religion for that is as great a sin on the other side But now I will produce some testimonies out of holy Scripture and reasons from thence to shew that to be questioned for matters of conscience or persecution as they call it for cause of conscience imposes not an impossibility as they would infer that the Gospel by this meanes should be preached unto all Nations nor hinders not the growth of grace in Christians nor the measure and degrees of faith in them which is the first and second of these Propositions and the which to speak the truth are the main and chiefest of all the Independents Arguments by which they labour to evince the necessity of a tolleration of all Religions that prodigious Tenent lest forsooth otherwise the course of the Gospel and the increase of grace in the Saints should be hindred if men should as they pretend be persecuted for cause of conscience which is no better then whiles they seeme to dispute to blaspheme and to give Christ and the Spirit of God the lye who teach the contrary and to fight against the holy Scripture and truth it self as will by and by appear First therefore I shall desire that Christs own words may be heard and then what the holy Apostles have spoken concerning these points Christ in Matth. 10.17 18 19 c. speaking to his Disciples saith Beware of men for they will deliver you up to the Councels and will scourge you in their Synagogues and ye shall be brought to the Governours and Kings for my sake for a testimony against them and the Gentiles but when ye are delivered take no thought how and what ye shall speake c. For the Brother shall betray the Brother to death and the Father the Sonne and the Children shall rise up against their Parents and shall cause them to dye and yee shall be
the kingdome as they all deserved they are all now murmured against as Moses and Aaron were by those Bricklayers as soon as they were delivered from their fiery furnaces and with them we desire to returne into Egypt and wish our old Masters againe and think their tyranny a good government and all this is done not by the Malignants and the ordinary Protestants only but by those that seem the greatest promoters of reformation such as would be thought the only Christians Saints as they term themselves bidding all others depart from them as being more holy than they and flye in the very face of one of those men who they had with singular encomiums a few years since magnified as one of the worthies of the kingdome and predicated as one of the witnesses spake of in the book of the Revelation and whom they had received in his return from banishment with their acclamations of joy I mean that learned Gentleman Master William Prynne Esquire my brother in afffiction and fellow sufferer who is now the same that ever he was and one that for the testimony of Jesus I am most confident would dare to suffer more then many that now traduce him dare thinke And if any fiery tryall should indeed really come he would I doubt not undauntedly stand in the defence of truth when they would flye and take their heels as formerly they have done or squlke in holes or play lest in sight or temporize howsoever they now vapour when there is no danger yet of this very man whom they idolized before they now speak of as of one inspired with the devill and as of a man of no religion and professe that they are sorry they ever prayed for him and wish that when he had lost his eares he had lost his head and athousand such expressions they dayly utter and not only against all those I have above specified do they vent their passion by their railing lauguage but they abuse any man whatsoever that opposeth their Novelties although they had never so honourable thoughts of him before conceived never so well of him for his godly life by which they declare their unconstancy and the ficklenes of their unstable minds so that we have just cause to remember that of David Psal 146. Put not your trust in Princes nor in the son of man in whom there is no help his breath goeth forth he returneth to his earth in that very day his thoughts perish So unstable creatures are men won with an apple and lost with a nut imitating the Jews one day crying Hosanna and another day crucifie him one day with the foolish Galathians they would put out their eyes to do Paul good and another they counted him their enemy But what I pray is the cause of this their so great displeasure against our brethren in Scotland against the Parliament against our noble Generalls against all the godly learned and painfull Ministers of the Kingdome and against Master Prynne and indeed against all their faithfull brethren for they rail and murmur against all but those of their own faction as it is well known It is because forsooth they would set up a Presbytery and desire to establish that kinde of Government in the Church which is Gods Ordinance which they say to the precious Saints for so they terme themselves will be more unsupportable then the Prelaticall Government and because they would have the people enter into a publike Covenant for the bringing in and setting up a through reformation and because they have appointed a set day of fasting and humiliation through the Kingdome which they in no sort allow of because say they there may be an occasion of rejoycing that very day and so there might have been a cause also of mourning amongst the Jews at such very times as they had their appointed seasons of rejoycing and feasting but that is not all why they are offended with the Scots and with the Parliament and with the godly Ministers and with all their brethren but this displeaseth them exceedingly Because they have made a late Order that none shall Preach publikely but such as for their sufficiency and learning and soundnesse of Doctrine are able rightly to instruct and teach the people the right way both of serving God and obeying men and how they may live comfortably here and be usefull and profitable to others and be kept from heresies and schisms and ereonious doctrines which tend to nothing but faction and destroying of their own souls and the disturbing of the Church and State and for the bringing in of a confusion of all Religions and for the alienating of the affection of brethren one from another and for the overthrowing of all order in Families Villages Towns Cities Countries and Kingdomes and for the bringing men in time that they shall neither know what to beleeve nor what to practise as by sad experience we already finde to be frequent Now because our brethren of Scotland and the Parliament and the godly and faithfull Ministers and those that as truely fear God as any of them desire such a reformation and such a Government as by which Truth and Peace may be established amongst us and heresies and schisms and factions may be rootedout the disturbers of Peace that we may all live happily here and gloriously hereafter This kinde of government not suiting with their humour nor with their opinion therefore they abhor it and all such as indeavour to establish it and desire and wish rather that all the old trumpery were brought in again and professe it that they had rather have the Government of the Prelates then this kinde of Government yea some of them have not been ashamed to protest unto some Malignant and Prelaticall Priests with whom they can very well comply when occasion serves that before the Presbyters shall rule over them they will cut all their throats and joyn with them for there-establishing of the Hierarchy and this the Priests themselves with great joy have related And there must needs be some great Mistery of Iniquity that is not yet brought to light in these new factions for it is notoriously known to many thousands in the Kingdome that the Malignants at home and abroad as their words and Letters do declare confide as much in these Sects for the attaining unto their designes as they do in all the Cavaliers So that it is high time for the great Councell of the Kingdome and for all that love the true Religion and wish the peace and welfare of both Church and State to stand upon their guards at home as well as abroad and to shew their vigilency and care for the preventing of the intended evill against us all And truely it might awaken any man if he take but notice of the great distractions and of the sad effects these new opinions have produced not onely in London and in the Counties round about it but also in Yorke-shire Lincolnshire and in
they become perfect men and perfect Saints unto the measure of the stature of the fulnesse of Christ Ephes 4.12 13. These are his formall words so that the Independents doctrine is this That there is no growth in grace from one degree of saith to another untill we become perfect men and perfect Saints unlesse they believe most things with a reserve which tenent of theirs whether or no it be not to bring a sceptisme into Religion according as M. Prynne doth from them conclude I refer it to the judgement of those that are more judicious Divines then the Author of that Pamphlet And this as men may observe is the profest doctrine of all the Independents and they account it their glory to be ever in uncertainties which is the only reason as I conceive that they could never yet be induced to set downe what forme of government they would have and to what doctrine and discipline they would subscribe and stand to with their followers by which all men may easily discerne the dangerousnesse of these men and well perceive that they that have to deale with them will never finde an end for they will ever be starting of some new doctrines And to speak the verity all the Shismaticks that have troubled the Church in this last age of the World and hindred all reformation are yet more can did then many of the Independent Ministers through the Kingdome For the Brownists as M. Ainsworth and M. Robinson both learned men and more orthodox in their Tenents then many of them yet they with all their several congregations agreed in their principles and have ingenuously in their Apologies and writings with modesty for in hoste virtus laudanda declared unto the World both what they held and what they desired and wherein they would rest contented if the Magistrates would but gratifie them in it The Anabaptists in like manner though farre more erronious in their opinions then the Brownists yet they also many times in word and print have set downe their Tenents to which they both stand and in the which if the Magistrates will but condescend unto them they will sit downe and yeild all cheerfull obedience to their just commands The same may be said of all other Sects But as for our Brethren the Independent Ministers they are like a company of Rats among Joyne-stooles every one can see and heare them but none can catch them No man can tell where to catch or lay hold certainly of any point or tenent they preach or what they either are in their opinion or will be for what they conceived to be a truth to day may be an error with them to morrow for certainty in any opinion is as great a Heresie to them as eating of flesh on a Good-Friday is to a Papist Neither will they binde themselves or their followers to any Doctrine they hold to day for it may be they will both preach and practise the contrary to morrow if it make for their gaine and emolument So that all men may boldly conclude of them that they are as the most uncertaine so in that the most dangerous Sect that ever came into the World since the Sunne and Moone ruled over the Earth And this will the better appeare if we consider the multitudes and variety of Sectaries that have sprung from them in a short space since their comming over amongst us with their underhand dealings how ever they themselves play least in sight and act privately their juglings and make use of others in venting their severall poysenous opinions and can say and on-say and affirme and deny any thing at pleasure as can be proved Before their apparition on our horison there were but three or four Sects known among us and they were few in number and well conditioned and such as were full of charity and love one towards another and carried themselves humbly towards all men as the Brownists Anabaptists Antinomians and Familists But out of the Independents lungs are sprung above forty severall sorts of straglers which before their comming over were never heard of amongst us And for proof of what I now say I had it from a Brother of mine in tribulation and a fellow-sufferer who though he differ from me in opinion yet I truly love him and shall never decline any christian office to do him good for soule and body I meane M. John Lilburne Lieutenant Colonel who himself relathed it unto me and that in the presence of others that returning from the warres to London he met forty new Sects and many of them dangerous ones and some so pernicious that howsoever as he said he was in his judgement for tolleration of all Religions yet he profest he could scarce keepe his hands off them and had no patience to heare them so blasphemous they were in their opinions So that he gathered that these were now the last dayes wherein so many Heresies abounded And amongst other of the Tenants one of those wicked Sects held They denied the Scriptures both of the Old and New Testament and accounted them things of nought whereas by Gods command They that despised Moses his Law by the mouth of two or three witnesses were to be put to death and these wicked and ungodly creatures despise both the Law and Gospell and that in the presence of a Cloud of witnesses And innumerable other diabolicall Sects there are and so prodigiously impious that it is not for a Christian to name their opinions And most of them if not all were first Independents and such as separated from our Congregations as from a people unholy and were of their new gather'd Churches and followers of their Ministery And many of them have jangled so long about the Church that at last they quite have lost it and goe now under the name of Expectants and Seekers and doe deny that there is any true Church or any true Ministers or any Ordinances and some of them affirme that the Church is yet in the Wildernesse and they are seeking for it there others say that the smoke is yet in the Temple and they are groping for it there where I leave them praying God to open their eyes and give them repentance that they may consider from whence they are fallen and returne againe into the bosome of that Church from which they have to the great dishonour of God and the scandalizing of the Gospel made so fearfull a desection But I can truly say without wronging the Independent Ministers that they have been one of the principall causes of all those new hidious and monstrous opinions and of all the sad differences amongst Brethren for their doctrines give way to all such errors and ever will as long as they give liberty for the finding out of new truths and the changing of their opinions according to their New-lights But amongst all their errors this is none of the least that all Magistracy is by them despised and made nothing of no further
must confesse was a question that did not beseem them of all other men for they think that any gifted man as they call them may dispute write and preach not onely privately but in a publike way and glory that the very boyes and women in the Congregations can confute the learnedest of the Presbyterians and many of them as it is well known that were none of their Pastors have set forth many scurrilous and blasphemous pamphlets in defence of their Independency which have been allowed of by them with great applause and that these men now should demand of me what calling I had to defend any truth in Religon against the errors of the times I say it may seem strange to any rationall man But for answer in brief though I am not solicitous to please them in all things let them take notice of this That if it be lawfull in any of their fraternities to maintain their erronious opinions it is likewise lawfull in any other Christians to oppose them and to defend their truth for they also must give an account how they have imployed all those severall talents of knowledge learning or any other thing God hath bestowed upon them and this they also in their Pamphlets frequently make mention of to warrant their scribling in divinity But Saint Paul in the fourth of the Colossians vers 6. Saith Let your speech be alwayes with grace scasoned with salt that you may know how to answer every man And Saint Peter in his first Epistle chap. 3. v. 15. Saith sanctifie the Lord God in your hearts and be ready alwayes to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meeknesse and fear And Saint Paul in his Epistle to the Philip. chapt the 1. ver 27. Onely saith he let your conversation be as it becommeth the Gospell of Christ that whether I come and see you or else be absent I may hear of your affaires that ye stand fast in on spirit with one minde striving together for the faith of the Gospell And Saint Iude in his Epistle Generall ver 3. Exhorteth all Christians That they should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the Saints And many other places to this purpose might be produced which warrants Christians that they may strive for the faith and earnestly contend for it against what enemies of it so ever and in speciall we are command that we should be alwayes ready to give an answer to every man that asketh us a reason of our hope and that we should know how to answer every man Now then when many of the Independents came to me and asked a reason of my faith concerning the Presbytery I demande of any well-grounded Christian whether or no I have not a very good calling to answer them which when they are so much displeased at me and so highly magnifie it in their own party I have very good reason to believe that they contend not for truth but for victory and to make a faction and division in Church and State And Saint Paul in Phil. 3. vers 2. speaking of the false Teachers of his time that but urged the ceremoniall Law Cals them Dogs and bids them take heed of them Beware saith he of Dogs beware of evill workers beware of the concision all such were to be taken heed of as made divisions and cut the Church into little pieces and sucking congregations and therefore are called them of the concision for they indeed made separations and therefore Saint Paul bids them beware of them as of a company of doggs that are ever snarling or biting and as of evill workers that spoyled the work of the Gospell which was to unite men first to God and then one to another that they might be of one spirit and one minde and these evill workers divided them all one from another and made factions and therefore they and all such as they are are to be detested and abhorred that make strifes and divisions in all Churches and Countries where they are while they contend for their own novelties and new born truths and all those that oppose them have a call from God and his Word for their warrant in their so doing But others of them carried themselves as more craftily so more gentily and seemed to come to me in the way of love pretending they honoured me and they demanded of me Whether or no I intended to practice Physick again and told me that if I had such a purpose they would yeeld me their best furtherance for the procuring of me Patients for which their love I returned them many thanks telling them withall that for practising of Physick I had little hopes of doing any good that way in the City for some Independent Doctors of Physick and others had so villified me amongst all good people and had made such a peece of ignorance or nothing of me in that faculty as they had taken away my reputation in as much as in them lay so that were my skill or knowledge in that Art never so great yet I might not in this place ever expect to regain any esteem in it so powerfull all black-mouths are to darken any mans credit though I blesse God I had known as well what belonged unto that faculty as they that maligned me and had through his assistance done as great cures as ever they did any and added farther that I doubted not in time to make it appear that those that had so abused me had neither honesty nor learning in them whatsoever the world esteemed of them for their seeming Religion which they had ever made use of but for their base and covetous ends And they demanding the names of those men I told them ingenuously and that their calumnies were one of the chiefe causes of the ruin of me and my poor family as I could prove by a cloud of witnesses if that could do me any good to which they replyed they were very sorry and confest that those men were never heard speak well of any and that which makes me wonder I never came in the company nor never changed a word with them that thus traduced me But then they offered their service unto me and profest they should be very willing to do me any curtesie that lay in their power to get me some honourable imployment by which I might comfortably support my family for they thought that my means was not great and they thought truly in that and they knew that the charity of many was now waxed cold and that since my being at London there was a great change of mens mindes and those that were formerly my friends went now another way and they heard that I was for the Presbytery which they conceived would be worse then the Prelaticall government and if I should write any thing in the defence of that cause that then I would totally lose those that as yet were well affected to me
to contaminate the reputation of those that have deserved so well from us and therefore all such as have neither a bridle for their tongues nor their unruly passions ought to have a bit put in their mouthes to teach them better manners more humanity and gratitude But this has ever bin the practice of all the enemies of God his government in all ages to make all his Servants the holy Prophets yea Christ himself and his blessed Apostles hatefull to the people under that notion of disturbers of all Kingdomes enemies of Caesars and of all government And this made the Popish faction in Qu. Maries dayes when they heard that those Ministers that fled out of England to Frankford in Germany and into other places intended to set up the Presbyterian government in England if the Lady Elizabeth ever came to the Crown so to bestir themselves and set their wits on work to hinder and frustrate that their intention for they said among themselves if that government were once established in the Kingdome their Catholick Religion could never get place or take rooting here any more and therefore seeing they could not take away the life of that most excellent Lady nor any way keep her from the Crown after her Sisters decease now all the policy would be to hinder that work Whereupon they suborn'd many of the most famous wits out of both Universities that under pretence of religion and zeale to the Protestant profession should flye over to Frankfort and to the other places where those Ministers were as if they had done it out of conscience and pure love to the Protestant religion and seemed in all points of doctrine to be as zealous as any of those that were there and the only desirers and advancers of the true Protestant Religion but they professed unto them that for the manner of government the Hierarchicall way of ruling the Church in their opinion the purity of religion being once established would most tend to the preservation of it as being most powerfull for the suppressing of Sects and Schismes and for the upholding also of the Kingdome and that the Presbytery would tend to nothing but the bringing in of Anarchy and what with their craft subtilty and wranglings as the Independents now do in the Assembly they so interrupted their proceedings as they could not then bring their good designe to perfection and so hindered that glorious work of Reformation for that time and all under the pretext of piety and good to the peace of the Church and Kingdome And as soon as Queen Mary was dead and that the Lady Elizabeth was preclaimed Queen of England then they all repaired home and having a strong party in the Court all seeming zealous Protestants though Papists in their hearts they commended these men as wise and moderate men and such as were lovers of Monarchies and regall government to the Queen and disgraced all those that stood for a Presbytery as such as were factious and affectors of innovation and such as were no way to be preferred to eminent places in the Church but because as they said they had suffered for their conscience they were willing they should have good Parsonages and Benefices through the Towns and Villages where they might preach to the people but they were all set in the Black Bill as men not fit to preach in Courts and as men uncapable of great places and high promotion in the Church were ever kept under as those that were seditious and not fit for Ecclesiasticall honours And all the other that were either Papists in their hearts or ill affected to the Protestant Religion though seeming Protestants were advanced to all Church-dignities and made Archbishops Bishops and Suffragates Deans Archdeacons and the Queens and Noblemens Chaplains And in a very short time they established their High Commission Court under pretence of suppressing Popery whereas they intended nothing but the rooting out in time of all true Religion and the re-establishing again of their old worm-eaten and rotten profession And they had in a good measure accomplished this their diabolicall plot and had really effected it had it not pleased our God to call this Parliament and Assembly who by their vigilancy and care frustrated this their designe And all this they then brought about by bringing the Presbytery into hatred and disgrace as the Papists themselves have often gloried and bragged among their Companions when they would shew how they had ever out-witted the Puritans And at this instant of time they have their complices that foment all these factions by whose means they labour to hinder the Presbyterian government knowing very well that if it ever be establied the Kingdome of Antichrist will never get head againe amongst us nor none of their abominable Sects have rooting in these Kingdomes but that the truth by that means will flourish maugre all the maligners of it and be propagated through the world which is the only cause that not only the Devill but all ungodly men and straglers are so inraged against the Presbyterian-government which they know is so prevalent for the suppressing of all Heresies and eronious opinions and for the curbing of all vice wickednesse and all prophanenesse as that they will never be permitted to roost in these dominations And whereas they look upon all the Presbyterians as they tell us in their writings as the enemies of JESUS CHRIST and his Kingdome I look upon all the Sticklers against the Parliament and Presbytery by what names and titles soever distinguished what seeming piety soever they make shew of as on a company of Juglers And truly as the Juglers in Saint Pauls time bewitched the foolish Galathians so these by their cunning craftinesse have infatuated too many well meaning and godly people who howsoever they have learned to forget the very lawes of civility and common charity and to condemne all those of a different opinion from themselves as enemies of Christ yet I shall ever learne to distinguish between the people that are mislead and they that seduce them for I conceive of many of them as such as desire to serve God with all sincerity and in the purest way of worshipping him and because their Teachers perswade them that these their new wayes are the wayes of God and they not being able to discern truth from error and to discover their hypocrisie are all deceived by them as the poor Widows were by the Scribes and Pharisees in Christs time who our Saviour said devoured their houses under pretence of long prayers and as they brought in the leven of their own doctrine and inventions into Gods worship and service so do the false teachers of these our times bring in their own grolleries and Baggatellies prefer their own traditions before the Commandements of God and violate all the lawes of love and charity for the establishing of the same And as ignorance in all people is the cause of error for so our blessed Saviour
saith Matth. 22. Ye erre not knowing the Scriptures so in these perilous and dangerous times these deceivers creepe into houses and leade captive silly Women and ignorant Men to the danger of their own soules and the hurt of others And lamentable it is that such multitudes of Men and Women should none of them take notice how they are deluded for whiles their Pastors as they call them seem to give the congregation and the Church such power and authothority as if they could do nothing without their consent and good liking yet all this is to make themselves Lords over them and as very Popes in their Conclaves who if they be crafty and cunning make their Conclaves say Amen to their own wills and doe whatsoever they have a liking to and a purpose to bring to passe For what man is there that hath any discerning spirit or is but of any ordinary capacity that doth not by dayly experience finde that the Pastors of their new gathered Churches do whatsoever pleaseth them in their severall Congregations so that howsoever to humor the people they say they can do nothing without the consent of the whole Assembly it is a meer jugling to my own knowledge for the poor people count all that their Ministers speak as an Oracle and take for truth whatever they say and if they do at any time dissent from them in their thoughts they dare not declare it openly especially the poor members for incurring their Ministers displeasure for they ordinarily have the chiefest hand in the distribution of all the collections that are made for the releeving of the indigent and can at any time either pleasure or displeasure them and therefore they endeavour to keep in favour with them to avoid their frowns which they know may be very prejudiciall unto them so that their teachers upon all occasions do what they themselves think fit especially when it makes for their owne advantage and gain which the most of them have alwayes an eye unto or else they are extramely abused by some of their own fraternity And if at any time any in their Churches seem unwilling to comply with them in their proceedings yet commonly they have such a party in their Congregations as they carry all before them and if for some short season the greater part oppose them if their pastors be learned and cunning what with their Policy Rhetoricke and fine Art of perswasion and seeming reasons they will soon turn the whole Congregation which way they please So that howsoever they amuse the people and tell them of the great priviledge the Church hath both in choosing of Officers and admitting of members and in transacting all things in fine all is as they will have it and all the ignorant people follow their severall Pastors as a company of silly Goslings do the old Goose And the truth is they make their Congregation but a company of ninnies as the false Apostles used to do as Paul affirmes in 2 Cor. 11. and all for their own base ends as will ere long be sufficiently proved and exercise as great a domination lordship and power over them in respect of ording things in their severall Churches as Popes in their Conclave and Kings and Princes in their severall Councells who if they be wise and Politicke and be Masters indeed in their Art and King-craft as they call it they will turn their Councells which way they please and make use of them no farther then stands with their own designs and use them onely as a screen between them and the people ever for their own defence and safeguard so that if at any time upon extraordinary pressures and grievances their subjects grow into a heat or discontent and begin to murmur then one or two of the Councellors must for fashion-sake be in disgrace and frown'd on for some space as if they had given bad councell to satisfie the people when in the mean time there is nothing but collusion the King and they remaining very good friends as who did nothing nor councelled nothing but what they knew the King himselfe would have done and used them onely as his instruments for the effecting of it and all this to delude the people and to regain their good opinion for all wise Princes ever shew themselves favourably to the people upon any complaints seeming to greeve at nothing more that their subjects who they look on as children should in the lest thing suffer under their Government and especially by their own servants and this method of dealing gives great content to subjects in all kingdomes and that Princes know well After the very same manner do the crafty Independent Pastors deal with their Churches upon all occasions and when they desire to bring any plot of theirs to passe that may be advantageous and profitable unto them then they put the people upon it so that if any disgrace be like to come by it then the congregations must have that lye upon them as who have the chiefe ordering of things in their severall assemblies for they professe themselves all servants of the Church and to be at their disposing and to go and come at their appointment and to do nothing but by their good liking and Pope-like they say they are Servi Servorum And then for the colouring of all their juglings they tell them of the Church in Jerusalem and that of Corinth who had the power of Choosing their Officers and casting out of offenders and doing whatsoever they pleased within themselves and they stand they say as single persons and may not in the least infringe or impeach the rights and priviledges of the Church when notwithstanding nothing is done but according to their own direction and by their speciall instigation and so they ever preserve their own reputation and seem to be friends to such as they mortally hate and lay all upon the Church of Jerusalem whose example they affirm all Churches are to follow and whose pattern they must imitate now that being but one Congregation and Assembly for so they perswade the ignorant people ever having had plenary power within it self as all the other Churches the severall congregations through the world as they assert have within themselves the same power and authority of ordering and transacting all things that concerne the Church as the Church of Jerusalem and those other severall Churches had and from the which there is no appeal and all this is but miserably to abuse the people and cunningly to make themselves Lords over them whiles they seem highly to honour the professing to be their servants for my part I shal ever pray that all the Independent Ministers through the world may be indeed the servants of the Churches and States wherein they live and never become their Masters for all men may see by the very beginning of their domination how they would Lord it over all congregations if they were once established by authority when they speak so big