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
believe that grollish opinion of Independency For when the Lord divided the whole Earth to the severall families of the same he alwaies reserved a portion for his own children for he is the preserver of all especially of the Believers as it is related Deut. 32. and Acts 17. and 1 Tim. 4. Now as the Families of the Earth multiplied and increased they extended their habitations further and further from countrey to countrey till they had replenished all places according to Gods command and blessing Increase and multiply and as they seated themselves in any new Plantation for their safety and more secure habitation and to free themselves from incursions of any enemies they built themselves Cities and great walled Townes having learned that lesson of Cain the fruits of sin that made man both naked and afraid of every thing and that they might be furnished with all provisions and necessaries they allotted unto every City such a circuit and compasse of ground as out of the which they might have all their necessaries supplied and be accommodated with all things needfull for food and raiment and their bodily preservation which required a large extent of ground and of which they might take at pleasure there being enough and for this very end they stocked the grounds about their severall Cities with cattell and sent out as their families increased their Colonies and Semenaries as Bees use yearly to do their Swarmes and those they seated in the most convenient and fertilest places and fittest for habitation through the countries who manured and tilled the ground and planted Vineyards and built Villages and Towns all the which still were accounted Citizens as Merchants here in London that are Citizens that have houses and habitations in the countrey lose not their former denomination by their countrey habitation no more did the people in those dayes but were alwayes with all the inhabitants within the limits of that countrey reputed Citizens and call'd by the name of such a City because they were governed by the same lawes the City was and were derived from it and were under the command of the chiefe of those families who all lived as Kings at first And therefore into whose hands soever those Cities fell either by succession donation compact mariage or victory those that were the owners or conquerours of them still for the most part continued and preserved the divisions formerly made and kept all those Villages and Townes as far as the jurisdiction of those Cities extended under their command and all by the name of such Cities as at first and all the dwellers and inhabitants within that circumference or circuit were still accounted as part of the City as all Histories do relate both sacred and humane So that they that were Masters of those severall Cities were also Lords of all those Villages which were under the jurisdiction diction of those Cities and as far as the secular power of those severall Cities did extend so far did their Ecclesiasticall And as those severall cities we read of in the holy Scripture under the Kings of Juda and Israel had all their severall civill Presbyters and Elders or a Councell and Senate of Presbyters in them to govern them under their severall Kings so they had their Ecclesiasticall or Synagogicall Presbyters or a Colledge of Elders also whose authority extended over all their severall congregations Synagogues or assemblies as well within the Cities as without through all the Villages and Townes that were within the compasse and circumference of their severall jurisdictions as all imperiall Cities through the christian world were in the Primitive times governed and are at this day in many places And therefore we cannot conceive any other of the severall Presbyters placed in every City by Apostolicall institution as of those of Jerusalem Ephesus Corinth Galatia c. but as of so many corporations for we reade that both in Jerusalem and Ephesus they had both many Presbyters and many congregations under every severall Presbytery and as men in those severall Cities Parishes Townes and Villages were daily converted to the faith so those severall Colledges of Presbyters ordained them more Presbyters by common consent and took them continually under their government which congregations though many as far as their jurisdiction extended were all joyned together under one Presbyterie and made still in every severall Precinct but one church as that of Jerusalem and Ephesus and were all governed and ordered by the joynt consent and common-counsell of their severall Colledges of Presbyters the mistaking of the which kinde of government and the mis-understanding of the Scriptures was the cause of all the confusions in the Christian world and of those sad differences here in England at this day and the only occasion of that vaine opinion of Independency for so I may call it for divers reasons For the tenent of the Independents is this That in the Church of Ierusalem and in that of Ephesus and in all the other Churches spoken of in the New Testament there were no more Believers in each of them then could all meet in one place and in one congregation to partake in all acts of worship and that they were absolute within themselves and from the which there was no appeals which I affirme is a vaine and fond opinion contrary to both Scripture and reason and all antiquity and that it is both against Scripture and reason I have sufficiently as I conceive proved it in the foregoing discourse But for a further confirmation of it I shall here adde some other arguments that may if it be possible undeceive those that have by the falacies and craft of their Teachers been misled and seduced I must confesse it has been a wonder often to me to see that such multitudes of godly people and those that I had thought had been so well grounded in Religion should be so carried about with every winde of new doctrine under pretence of New-lights when they have so often been forewarn'd to take heed of deceivers by Christ and his Apostles and that in such a violent manner and with such exaspirated spirits against their Brethren that cannot assent unto those novelties For if they had ever read the holy Scriptures with understanding or been but a little acquainted with the Ecclesiasticall Histories they could never have been so suddenly deluded For if we but reade the Acts of the Apostles with attention or the Epistles of Paul and all the writings of the New Testament we shall finde in them all that by the powerfull preaching of the Gospel and by the wonderfull working of miracles of the Apostles whole cities and countries were converted unto the faith and that the Gospel was generally imbraced and whole Nations converted and brought to the obedience of the faith by it in a very short time and Saint Paul speaking of the Romans chap. 1 ver 8. saith that their faith was spoken of through the whole world and in chap. 10.
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
of the Independent Ministers both in former times and in these our dayes and how faire we offer them and then I am most assured they will see just cause of changing their opinions and returning againe with love and amity into the fellowship and communion of that people who are as truly fearers of God and those that desire Christ may be set up as King upon his Throne and may for ever rule and raigne in all mens hearts as any of those that make the greatest noise of it as if they were the only men that advanced Christs kingdome whereas on the contrary in as much as in them lyes they have rent the seamlesse garment of the Church in pieces and rejoyce at nothing more then to hear and see divisions amongst Brethren For if we consider their former practises and the mutability of many of the Independent Ministers a very few of them excepted they either ranne away when they should have stood to the cause or else temporized and that deeply a crime they lay upon their Brethren the Presbyterians and so changeable they were in their opinions as they manifested unto the world that they were unstable in all their wayes and this many of their followers have themselves confest although they now palliate it over that whatsoever they have formerly done was in regard that the truth was obscured and darkned through the cunning of the Popish and Prelaticall faction and that all men were kept hood winckt and could not rightly discerne it in its full glory and lustre till this sunshine of liberty had now againe returned and sent its raies amongst us by means of which they say they are so illuminated as now they have got the spirit of discerning and by vertue of their New-lights they well perceive their former errors and mistakes and have found that the way of Independency is that way of Church-government that God has appointed in his holy Word This many of their Disciples plead in defence of their Ministers which to say the truth is nothing for the same may be alleaged and pretended by all Hereticks and Sectaries whatsoever who will never want the same or the like answer and so there will ever be a way for the broaching of all new doctrines be they never so pernicious to the truth and never so distructive to all governement But notwithstanding what either they or their Disciples now can speak in their behalfe it is very fit that their former practises in their severall places in respect of their religion should be considered by all judicious and godly men who know that constancy and perseverance in the faith is that that crowneth all for he that persevereth unto the end he shall be saved saith Christ not such as start back like a broken Bow and are never stable and as for some of them it is well known they have been in one sit great conforming Protestants and in another mood great favourers of the Socinian tenents and for their factious spirits and opposition to the Puritanicall way were highly favoured and countenanced by the Prelates and then at another time they were Puritans and that trade growing out of date and Independency beginning to be in vogue they are now of that occupation and are as great sticklers in defence of it as the silver-Smiths of the godesse Diana in Ephesus were for the upholding of their craft and what next they will be the God of heaven onely knoweth for they will ever be following their new lights Others of them were very Prelaticall and as much aspired to Church-preferment if the greatest men in the Kingdome be not deceived and some of their own party mistaken as any other but failing of their expectation and falling into discontent turned Puritans and that weather-beaten Religion being now with too too many grown stale they are at this instant great Independents and amongst the supream Champions for that Faction and there is scarce a man of them but has been on all sides whatsoever they make the world now beleeve according as their occasions served and have ever been attempting to bring in one Novelty or other or have laboured to revive some heresie or some miraculous ceremony and all to the disturbance of the Church and for the hinderance of Reformation And therefore all judicious and godly Christians ought duly to weigh and consider with themselves that such unstable men as these are and have been are no guides to be followed for as our Saviour saith If the blinde lead the blinde they will both fall into the ditch They should therefore remember what Christ said to the people concerning John the Baptist what saith he went ye out into the wildernesse to see a reed shaken with the wind Luke 7.24 intimating unto the people that sollid stable and Orthodox Ministers in their judgements should be such as the people ought to follow and listen unto and not those reeds and unstable men that are turned about with every new winde of Doctrine and moved with every stream of opinion and such as follow every new light and that many times for base and wordly ends So that when most of the Independent Ministers are and have been such they ought not any longer by the people to be followed They should also consider their instability not onely in Religion but in the publike affaires they may remember how zealous these men were for the Parliament not long since and how forward they were to promote the publike good and to advance the honour dignity and priviledges of the great Councell and what admirers and lovers not many years since they were of our brethren the Scots and of our noble and brave Generalls and yet now all that reade the scurrilous Pamphlets or are but a little familiar with them shall hear nothing but revilings against the whole Nation of the Scots and traducing of all our gallant Commanders to whom next under God we owe most of that good we now enjoy and hope hereafter to enjoy I lay nothing to their charge but that every man that is acquainted with them can witnesse I know not any one Ordinance the Parliament maketh that pleaseth them but for that pious Ordinance they lately set forth concerning the silencing of all such Preachers and teachers as were not for knowledge and soundnesse of doctrine thought fit to instruct the people wherein the prudent Councell shewed the religious care they had of the peoples good and for which they ought ever to be had in veneration this Ordinance I say so displeased the generality of the Independents as they brake out into contumelious speeches some of them affirming that the High Court of Parliament was worse then that of the High Commission and those of the Bishops others of them in discontent said that the recruting of the Army had stood the state in an hundred thousand pounds and by this new Ordinance the whole Army would speedily be dissolved for now all the brave Commanders of the