Principles of Church-division and censorious unwarrantable Separation I Know there is in Holiness a contrariety to sin and Heaven and Hell must finally shew the difference for ever And to reconcile them is as unpossible as to reconcile Light and Darkness I know that it is the endeavour of every faithful Minister of Christ to make this difference plainly known and in Doctrine and Discipline to separate the precious from the vile and to make ungodly men know that they are ungodly and to give to each their proper portion and to keep the Churches as clean as they can by lawful means I know that the ruine of this purging and differencing Discipline is a great part of the lamentable ruine of the Churches and occasioneth that scandal to the Mahometans and Heathens because of the wicked lives of Christians which is one of the greatest hinderances of their conversion And that all Christians should use their utmost skill and power to recover Religion to its primitive Purity and Splendour and Discipline to the most effectual regular exercise And I know that in mens private converse there must be a great care what company we converse with and especially whom we make our familiars And that to be indifferent and to intimate an equality or likeness of the godly and the wicked in doctrine communion and familiarity is a notable sign of an ungodly person And upon these accounts I know that when persons are newly recovered from ungodliness themselves they are very much inclined to fly from the company of such as far as their safety doth require And by this inclination and their ignorance they are frequently tempted to go further from them in Church communion than God alloweth them to do and instead of separating from them in their sin to separate from them in their duty and to separate from the Churches of Christ in his true worship because of the mixture and presence of the bad And this they are drawn to 1. By forgetting the Scripture pattern and state of the Churches even in the purest age and thinking only what they desire rather than what is to be expected or done 2. By forgetting the difference between the Church visible which is alwayes mixt with Hypocrites and offenders and the Church invisible which shall all be saved 3. By forgetting the difference between their private familiarity where they are choosers of their company themselves and their Church communion where the Pastors are the Rulers and Judges of the fitness of the members Or else not understanding that this use of the Keyes and judging of the fitness of the members is indeed the Pastors Office and not theirs 4. By not considering that nothing must be done by Discipline upon Offenders but in a course of Church-Justice upon due Accusations Summons Audience Proof and patient Admonition And not by casting out any irregularly upon the expectation of every one that will say that they are ungodly and scandalous 5. By forgetting the great difference between joyning with men in sinful actions and joyning with them in their duty in which they should be encouraged 6. By forgetting the great difference of keeping in our own place and duty though bad men are present and going out of our place and duty to joyn with them in sin 7. By forgetting that God will have all mens own wills by Choosing or Refusing to have more hand in their Welfare or Misery than other mens And if they mischoose the sin will be their own 8. By forgetting that God hath not left the Church at arbitrary liberty to judge any Godly or Ungodly at their pleasure But hath given us a set Test or Rule to judge them by which is their sober Profession of Consent to the Baptismal Covenant upon which the Adult and their Infants have right to Baptism And being Baptized have Right to Church Communion in all the Acts which their Age and Understanding makes them capable of And it is Church-tyranny to refuse such as shew this Title till they are openly proved to forfeit it by Impenitency in gross sin after publick admonition and due means This is the truth and the method of Christs discipline and the Rule of our Communion 9. By superstitious placing their Religion in indifferent and undertermined things and laying a greater stress on the words of prayer than there is cause Overvaluing their several outward forms expressions and orders in the worshipping of God when instead of provoking each other to faith and fervency to Love and to good works they place more of Godliness in words and circumstances which God hath certainly left free to every mans conscience than God doth place in them And one thinks that he is irregular that prayeth without a set form and another that he is ungodly that prayeth not by the Spirit who useth a set form when both do but speak their own superstition and make Laws and Rules which God never made Superstition and our own additions in Religion even in those that cry out much against it is the occasion of most of our Church-divisions One side supposeth every disorder or unfit expression in free prayer to be a greater fault than indeed it is And that its unlawful therefore to joyn with a Church that hath no set forms Another party supposeth the forms in the Church Lyturgy to be worse than they are and that it is unlawful to joyn in them or to receive the Lords Supper when they are used When as God hath neither tyed us to set forms nor from them save only as unsuitableness to any particular persons may make one less edifying than the other And both free prayers and set forms studied prayers and sudden prayers are all the work of man as to mans part and therefore they must needs be imperfect and faulty as man is And yet in both we may pray by the Spirit even with the holy and fervent desires which the Spirit exciteth in us And the Spirit may ordinarily be a Spirit of supplication in us and help our infirmities in the one way and in the other And therefore though I will not equall them For I prefer some mens free praying before any forms and I prefer the Common prayers before some mens free prayers yet I may say that I will neither Assent and Consent to every word in the one nor in the other no not of any man that ever I heard And yet I will not take it for unlawful to joyn with Church or Family or person in the one or in the other yea upon long experience if I had fully my own choice and liberty I would use free prayer one part of the day or one day and a well composed form another part because I see commodities by both and such inconveniences of either way alone as are if possible to be avoided But when the Mind hath received a prejudice against either way by Education Custom or former distastes no reason how clear soever will overcome it till age and
should find the Evidences of Gods favour and acceptance in the life of Faith and Love and Holiness do lamentably quiet themselves instead of these with being members of such strict societies as profess even a separating conspicuous holiness 20. Lastly But one of the greatest snares of all is that men cannot bear the Censures of those that are inclined to Separation And therefore rather than be accounted and called by them Formalists Temporizers Carnal or such like they will do as they do and turn their zeal into partial and unjust censures of the persons words and outward Modes and Circumstances of Worship of those that they dissent from These and such other causes of Dividing inclinations I did upon the special necessities of the Churches and some of my own acquaintance lay open in a Book called the Cure of Church Divisions which made a great noise as water powred upon the flames But though some upon misunderstanding and some by guilt and interest muttered much against it I never had a word against it privately or publickly in writing by way of Confutation of any thing in it save only a Libell of one that now calleth himself Edward Bagshaw a man that I am not acquainted with though I have seen and spoken with him and though to my trouble when his fancy led him that way he unskilfully wrote for me against the Bishop then of Worcester I greatly rejoyce that in these times of tryal so few of the Non-conformable Ministers are by sufferings and passions hurried into the dividing extream If injuries or interest would excuse any sin I think there are few Ministers in England who have more inducements to the angry separating way than I have But shall I therefore wrong the Truth and Church of God and my own and others souls God forbid Brethren it is none of my meaning to disoblige you from your ancient faithful Ministers Nor yet to perswade you to hear any insufficient or intolerable man much less to commit your souls to the Pastoral care of such a person nor yet to prefer a worse before a better who may upon lawful terms be enjoyed But the things that I perswade you to are these 1. Not to entertain false uncharitable dividing principles in your minds which will break the peace of all societies 2. If you differ about Infant Baptism Indepencie Common prayer or such like that yet you will not think your differences oblige you to deny Communion to all you differ from 3. That if you are so sinfully partial that you cannot joyn in the same Churches you would yet live charitably and peaceably in several Churches 4. That you would not say any Church of Christ is No Church because it is not of your form or mode 5. That you would not say that Communion with any Church is unlawful because their external worshipping form is not of your fashion or before you have proved what you say My advice is calculated to the Vnion and peace of all true Churches and not those of one form or mode alone And I note it as a considerable providence of God that I am drawn in to defend the Principles of Love and Concord in these trying times against such an adversary as Mr. Bagshaw is It hath of late been Gods way to let us know the evil of Principles by their effects on the men that we have had to do with As Malignant principles would not have been sufficiently distasted by us if they had not shewed themselves in malignant practices So Dividing principles had never been sufficiently known in England if they had not ruined a Reformation silenced so many hundred Ministers and laid us in the dirt as they have done And if the Cause of Dividers must be judged of by the defenders I advise you to consider of these things following 1. How many notorious false doctrines he hath delivered 2. How many other notorious Crimes in two Libells he hath committed In special let every sober person judge whether Ignorance Temerity Pride and high self-conceitedness with malignant unconcealed calumny do not only defile but even constitute or make up his Books 3. What bitter enmity is here exprest against the Principles of Love and Vnity and Concord and Peace and Sobriety it self 4. How many score notorious untruths he shamelesly publisheth in these two Libells 5. How much he fighteth against Repentance and so with gross Impenitency aggravateth all his crimes 6. How like his own Spirit is to that which he accounteth the Spirit of imposition and persecution And how vehement he is against the same persons as such are and as impudently slandereth them and as bitterly and professedly designeth to make them odious But he that professeth to make another odious thereby disableth himself from doing it 7. Whether ever in all your lives you saw two Libells written against another which do not only perform but even attempt so little and next to nothing at all to give any answer to the Books he writes against Read mine and read his and I defie any thing but madness it self or blind partiality or wickedness to make any man think that he hath confuted what I have written I confess I admire at the mans insensibility that doth not perceive how much he hath done by pretending an Answer and giving none or worse than none to make his cause or himself contemptible Can any man in his wits think that he hath confuted the Principles of Concord which I laid down in my Directions 8. Whether such a man as this do shew himself wiser than Dod Hildersham Ames Baine and all the old Non-conformists according to the importance of his boast or whether he give us cause to believe that God hath revealed more to him than to them while he himself can no better reveal it unto others 9. When I had set down at least thirty three Vntruths which he deliberately dared to write and publish did you ever read such a pittiful vindication He hath not spoken to any considerable number of them And of those few that he speaketh to try if you can find any one of which he cleareth himself And yet he professeth not repentance for any one of them Nay to open his Impenitency he professeth falsly that I cannot justly charge him with any of them and addeth in the last Libell forty eight palpable Vntruths more Just like one that being accused of swearing should forty eight times swear that he never sware 10. How far he proceedeth in his separation and how far he would draw poor unstable souls It is not only from the Conformists and the Parish Churches that he would have you separate and all in the whole world that are worse than they but also from all the Non-conformists in England that are not better than I as his concluding Advertisement fully telleth you All of my mind and measure are unworthy of the communion of this humble tender credible man 11. What means is there left in the world to
exempt a man from the malignant calumnies of this Judge of the Churches When in one sentence he telleth you how much I have written against the Bishops and in another that I am in the same condemnation with him and yet in another that I dare look no truth in the face that bringeth suffering when he talks of one point that all Christians are agreed in and directly bringeth none And when he chargeth me with Atheistical arguing against the divine and self-evidencing authority of the Scripture and therefore to be Rejected of all as one of the worst sort of Hereticks that under the notion of being a Christian and a Protestant doth with his utmost industry and cunning labour to overthrow our foundation When I know of no one man living in this Age that hath written so much I say not so well for the things in question Scripture and Christianity as I have done May not this man as modestly charge Bishop Downame to be a Papist that hath written so much to prove the Pope to be Antichrist or say any thing else that he hath list to say 12. Doth he not fix upon you by such Libells as these an odious reproach As if he would perswade the world that you that he writeth to are so partial so blind so false to truth and to your own souls and such pernicious enemies to peace as that you will receive that which is thus falsly said to you without ever reading what is said on the other side or against all the evidence that contradicteth it and will believe all these visible untruths of his without any proof upon the bare report of so rash a man 13. Whether following such men and wayes as this is not the likeliest way in the world not only to increase the reproach of the Non-conformists and make them all thought of as we do of the Quakers and so to continue severities against them as a company of furious unsociable persons but also to harden men into a contempt of Religion it self 14. Doth not God permit such a Champion of the Cause of Division thus criminally to miscarry that you may see that you are not better than those you separate from You blame them for subscribing erroneously or falsly And which of them hath put thirty three and forty eight visible untruths deliberatly in print and Impenitently stands in them as your Champion hath done Doth not this shew you that you are not so good but that the Churches of godly Pastors are as worthy of your Communion as you are of theirs If one should admonish one of your Church-members of one single deliberate avowed lye would you not call him to Repentance And will you believe this man and follow him upon his bare word who hath published eighty such falshoods Yet I am not one that think he loveth a lye because it is a lye but one that is thus guilty through proud overvaluing his own unfurnished understanding and through an extraordinary Rashness and want of tenderness of Conscience You have heretofore had better Guides and you have better still I never met with two Ministers that approve his Libell nor any but Mr. Browne alone you have a more peaceable Rule And if you are Christians indeed you have a Peaceable Spirit and a Saviour who is the Prince of peace who hath prayed that all his Disciples may be one John 17. 21. and a God who is the God of peace Follow therefore the Wisdom that is both Pure and Peaceable and not that from beneath which is earthly sensual and devilish and worketh by envious zeal and strife unto confusion and every evil work Jam. 3. 14 15 16 17. To Mr. EDWARD BAGSHAW BROTHER it is not a little troublesome to me and will be troublesome to many peaceable Readers both that these Writings should pass between us and that I should mention your faults so plainly as I do But as I began not with you so I know not how to let you talk on without betraying the peace of the Church the credit of the Non-conformists who are by your self obliged to disown you and the souls of the weak brethren for whom Christ dyed And I am constrained plainly to name your faults 1. Because truth consisteth in speaking of things as they are 2. And because my business is now to summon you to Repentance to which end the opening of your sin is necessary 3. And because these following Scriptures are my ground and your own word seem to me to charge it on me as my necessary duty upon dreadful penalties The Scriptures that I set before me are Lev. 19. 17. after mentioned Rom. 16 17. Mark them which cause Divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which you have learned and avoid them Jam. 3. 14 15 16 17. But if ye have bitter envying or zeal and strife in your hearts glory not and lye not against the truth This wisdom descendeth not from above but is earthly sensual devilish For where envying zeal and strife is there is confusion and every evil work c. 1 Cor. 1. 10 11 12 13. 3. 1 2 3 4. John 17. 21 22. Rom. 14. 15. John 8. 44. When he speaketh a lye he speaketh of his own for he is a lyer and the Father of it Rev. 21. 8. All lyers shall have their part c. 22. 15. Whosoever loveth and maketh a lye Psal 15. 2 3. That speaketh the truth in his heart backbiteth not with his tongue nor doth evil to his neighbour nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour 3 John 9 10. I wrote unto the Church but Diotrephes who loveth to have the preheminence among them receiveth us not wherefore if I come I will remember his deeds which he doth prating against us with malicious words And not content therewith neither doth he himself receive the brethren and forbiddeth them that would and casteth them out of the Church Gal. 2. 11 12 13 14. I withstood him to the face because he was to be blamed For he withdrew and separated himself fearing them which were of the circumcision and the other Jews dissembled likewise with him insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation But when I saw that they walked not uprightly c. Tit. 3. 10 11. A man that is an Heretick after the first and second admonition reject Your own doctrine is as followeth pag. 1. It will be a favour if you look upon me as one that neither desires nor if you believe what your self have writ deserves such expressions of your familiarity Pag. 2. I hope you are not to learn that every untruth is a lye Pag. 11 12. There being little difference in the sight of God between the persecuting of brethren our selves and by not sharply reproving it seeming to approve of it in others And I hope you will say as much against approveing your own sin as other mens Pag. 14. All are commanded to turn aside from them A Church which
on these terms I shall consider of your words and help you better to understand your self Sect. 1. E. B. It will be a favour if I look on you as one that desireth not any such expressions of familiarity as to be called Brother Reply You may suppress your own Charity but not mine you may call me what you please but I will call you what I think my duty requireth me to do As Optatus initio tells the Donatist My warrant is ubi supra Lev. 19. 17. 1 Cor. 5. 11. If any man that is called a Brother be a Railer And 2 Thess 3. 14 15. If any man obey not our word by this Epistle note that man and have no company with him that he may be ashamed yet count him not as an enemy but admonish him as a Brother But it is the Spirit or tendency of your Doctrine and principles to renounce fraternity with all of Christs Church that are not liker to your self than I am Pag. 2. You tell me that I shew how much I am for a middle way neither hot nor cold for a luke warm and neutral indifferency Reply I take your warming in good part I daily beg of God that the decays of my natural spirits and fervour by frigid age and weakness may not abate the true fervour of my soul much less any abatement of the estimation of holy Truth the search of which hath been the unwearied business the almost uninterrupted pleasure of my life And specially that my love to God and Heaven and Holiness may not decay which alas was wofully cold and little at the best But I confess to you that I am for a middle way between fury and stupidity pride and baseness superstition and profaness the love of Anarchy and Tyranny and many such like pernicious extreams And you remember me of the folly of my youthful ignorance in which I presently suspected any man of tepidity and carnal indifferency who wrote for reconciliation of Contenders and for a middle Conciliatory way such as about Arminianism Pet. Molinaeus Vsher Vossius Davenant Hall Preston Fenner Crocius Martinius Camero c. and so in other points O Lord forgive the sins of my ignorant unexperienced age Sect. 2. E B. I hope you are not to learn that every untruth is a lye R. E. I suppose your citation of John 1. 62. 2. 21. is mis-printed for 1 John 1. 6. 2 21. The first of which saith If we say that we have no fellowship with him and walk in darkness we lie and do not the truth The other saith that No lie is of the truth But do either of these say that every untruth is a lie Is it not enough to hold 1. That every designed untruth which is positively voluntary is a lie 2. And that every rash and carelesly uttered untruth which is privatively voluntary that is where the will omitteth its Office is a lie Sure brother these many will be heavy enough upon you you need not contend by false doctrine for any more And supposing that you are not to learn how singular you are in this assertion is it any sign of your humility to think that so few Divines before you who so little avoid it did know what a Lie is If I had called you a wise a calm a sober and charitable man when I had no evidence of the contrary how can you prove that this had been a lie You tell us anon that Prophets Nathan Samuel and good men have been mistaken And did those Prophets lie You deny not that your Brother Powel was mistaken And yet you would not have it said that he lied Let this go therefore for your first false doctrine when you say that every untruth is a lie Sect. 3. E. B p. 2. You are not afraid to dethrone the Scripture from being a perfect Rule Par. 1. p. 99. 100 101. R. B. Though all untruth be not a lye I cannot say that this is none I have no such word or sense I maintain the Scripture to be a perfect Rule so far as it is a Rule But so far as it is no Rule it is no perfect Rule I do there maintain that it is not a particular Rule for a Watchmaker a Carpenter a Physicion a Mathematician a Musicion c. to do their work by nor what Metre or Tune to sing a Psalm in and such like but only a General Rule for these And because you charge this on me as my error if I can understand you this is your second false doctrine implyed that Scripture is a particular Rule for the things which I there exclude And a third false doctrine implyed that if it were not so it were not a perfect Rule For your words have no sense which I can discern if this be not the sense of them Whosoever denyeth the Scripture to be a particular Rule for the things instanced by R. B. p. 99 100 101. doth dethrone the Scripture from being a perfect Rule But so doth R. B. Ergo your Major includeth the two fore-mentioned false doctrines Sect. 4. E. B. The whole design of your Book was to make your Brethren that have not your latitude and cannot reach the subtilty of your distinctions odiâ—us c. R. B. Here is a former falshood justified and doubled or increased 1. It is false that this was any design of my Book 2. But that it was the whole design what man of Sobriety that ever read it could imagine 3. Yea and that these brethren that I designed to make odious were such as have not my latitude and cannot reach the subtilty of my distinctions Sect. 5. E. B. Many hundreds of sober impartial and unbyassed persons have carefully read your Book as well as my self and they all make the same judgement of it R. B. I will not number this with your bare falshoods Whether many hundreds have told you their judgement of it who have read it I know not But contradictories cannot be true on both parts It is a slander therefore of so many hundred such persons which you utter For if they were indeed sober impartial unbyassed persons and carefully read the Book it is scarce or not at all possible but indeed a contradiction that they should judge it the whole design to make my brethren odious that cannot reach the subtilty of my distinctions Sect. 6. E. B. p. 3. You call separation a crying sin nay the crying sin and you scruple not to insinuate that all the judgements which in this Nation we do either feel or fear were to be charged on separation as the principal procuring cause R. B. Here is your third falshood in matter of fact There is not a word in the places nor any where else in all my Writings if I know what I have written that chargeth all this on separation as the principal procuring cause But the contrary in the comparison is oft and plainly asserted and greater
nature very laudable 5. And I mentioned this not as a praise of him but as a Conviction of the Rebellious Army who thought they might take down all Government to set up themselves whom they could easilier believe to be good and godly than any others And whereas they pretended that it was for ungodliness that they pulled down their Superiours I shewed them that if they could not believe that the King was godly nor the Parliament godly nor the Minor part of the Parliament called the Rump godly nor their Little Mock-Parliament godly yet they should not have so accused Cromwell whom they cryed up and set him up themselves and magnified so highly as they did 6. And I meant this Commendation of some of his actions as comparative only and better than theirs that pulled down that which themselves set up 7. And yet I thank you for calling me to review those words and do hereby declare that I do take them to be unmeet as spoken to the Army that then had greatly provoked me to grief and that I unfeignedly Repent of them that you may see I love not Impenitence in my self any more than in you And I wish that they had not been written being so lyable to ill effects and it being unmeet too much to praise even the good that a Usurper doth lest it take off the odium of his Usurpation Sect. 18. E. B. Sir could you say all this of him then and do you think your partial friends can justifie you now when you compare him to the Tyrant Maximus and make him in effect to be nothing else but a Murderous and a bloody Vsurper R. B. Here is two Falshoods one expressed and the other implyed 1. That expressed is that I make him in effect to be nothing else but a Murderous c. when I never denyed any thing that was good in him but have publickly and in Print warned our Lawful Governours that they tempt not the people to dislike them by undoing any good which he did 2. The implyed falshood that I speak worse of him now than I did heretofore Whereas the truth is that I spake in the time of his own Usurpation I am confident twenty times against him for once that I have spoken since his death Not that I changed my opinion of him but that it is so cross to humane nature to insult over even malefactors in their sufferings especially when we suffer with them though by them and when their adversaries need no instigation that I have not been able to judge it my duty to speak of that very evil which I and others suffer by But have been hardly put to it these eleven years between the thoughts of open disowning those sins of self-exalting Vsurpers that have confounded us and a lothness to encrease the sufferings of those that are underfoot And this last prevailing I have greatly by it displeased my Superiours And yet lest I should harden men in impenitency having gently mentioned these Crimes it displeaseth such as are most obliged to repent And how strangely doth this man despise his Readers while he again maketh it such a thing in me to compare Cromwell to Maximus whom still he loadeth with odious Titles When in my first Book I told him p. 374. that Maximus by the Bishops was accounted a very religious Christian and pretended that the Souldiers in England made him Emperour against his will and took part with the Orthodox and greatly honoured the Bishops and promoted Religion and got a great deal of love and honour And in my Defence I told him that Maximus is by Historians made so good a man of himself that I more feared lest many would have made me a praiser of Cromwell by the comparison And I cited p. 142. the words of Sulpitius Severus of him Vir omni vitae merito praedicandus si ei diadema non legitime tumultuante milite impositum repudiare vel armis civilibus abstinere licuisset c. And the words of Beda Eccles Hist l. 1. c. 9. Maximus vir strenuus probus atque Augusto dignus nisi contra fidem per tyrannidem emersisset c. Invitus propemodum ab exercitis creatus Imperator c. But all this is not worthy the observation of this temerarious man who still puts this among my unbecoming usage of Cromwell when if he had weighed what I wrote I should have rather expected that he would have accused me again for overpraising him Sect. 19. E. B. As for your flattery to his Son which I also charged you with and you with a strange but not to your self unusual boldness do deny c. R. B. I gave a full answer to this which no reply is given to As if you were resolved to say what your list and hear nothing that is said against it As I told you that I never saw him nor ever had to do with him save that when I saw him take part against the turbulent sort of men I took it to be seasonable by that Dedication to perswade him to do good and not hurt So I told you that your words of Dedicating a flattering Book to him in common sense do distinguish between the Book and the Dedication Whether the Dedication were flattery I left to the Reader of it to judge and neither affirmed nor denyed it But only affirmed that there is not one syllable of his Son in all the Books but only in the Dedications Yet this man goeth on and falsly chargeth me to deny that which I denyed not and reciteth my words in the Dedication to prove that the Book as distinct from the Dedication was flattery Sect. 20. E. B. Deny if you can the consequence that it became not you to blame the effects who gave such rise and encouragement to the Cause I mean unless you repent of the Cause which it is evident you have not yet done And if I may not be believed in this opinion of you I doubt not but the Bishop of Worcester will who for this very thing did formerly accuse you of rebellion From which charge he that defended you then leaveth you to acquit your self now as well as you can R. B. 1. Your I mean unless you repent were none of your former words When you say one thing you think to solve and avoid the charge of falshood by saying that you Meant another 2. What you say is evident must needs be a Calumny in you 1. Because you have no Evidence of the Negative being about my heart which is to you unknown 2. Because your self did before twit me with Retraction c. 3. And did you believe your self that the Bishop of Worcesters words so many years ago are a proof that I repent not now 4. And are you yet insensible of your own partiality that then you blamed that in the Bishop which now you can freely do your self Let your followers mark what Spirit you are of if you
enclined to them R. B. Here he untruly intimated that I said more who never said so much but only that she thought they lived strictlyer than we and fell in among them And now Reader I shall again tell thee my reasons for all that I said of her Mr. Joseph Baker then Preacher in Worcester a man of unquestionable Prudence and Credit now with Christ told me all that I have said of this Woman and that she had not been at Church of a long time before and was passing along the Streets and was suddenly moved to go in to the Church at Lecture time and that she was struck as aforesaid at the hearing of the Text and before Sermon was done could hardly forbear crying out in Church and that she had on the conceit of their strictness faln in among the Quakers and been often at their meetings but hearing them speak against Scriptures and Ministers was troubled and thought that they spake that which her experience would not suffer her to consent to and that she was like in these perplexities to fall into great Melancholy and her body also to be weakened by the troubles of her mind and that through his motion or perswasion she was desirous to speak with me I had no reason to deny belief to him When I came next to his house the Gentle-woman came to me and he and she together repeated the substance of all this again and she spake not a syllable against it And speaking a few words to disswade her from the Quakers in haste I never saw her more The said Mr. Baker told me after of all her sad and Melancholy abstinence and weakness and of Mr. Browne and Mr. Jordanes frequency with her And shortly after shewed me the Book with Mr. Brownes Epistle to it and told me that which they now thus quarrel with that Mr. Browne was one of the publishers of it and was for the doctrine in it Though I discerned by the Book that she her self was taken with that point These things I long heard affirmed and confirmed and never contradicted till this day and now you hear that the Timeing of Mr. Brownes Opinion and endeavours is all that they can say any thing against themselves And thus much I thought meet to say against their rash occasions on this by-occasion Sect. 94. R. B. p. 30. I have not yet done with Mr. Bagshaw He comes on again in a Postscript with more Untruths And first he tells you how little commendation it is to my honesty to have yet such easie access now to the Licensers and Press that he can Print two Books before another man can Publish a few sheets Answ 1. I never spake with the Licensor nor saw him And if neither of those two Books were Licensed when he wrote this at least is not this still a fearless heedless man 2. Is not Honesty among these men become a word of a new signification And is it any wonder if our dishonesty make us unworthy of their Communion when our honesty is questionable for the Licensing of our Books If it be a sign of dishonesty to do any thing which our Rulers will but allow of it may next be dishonesty to speak any thing that they think worthy to be believed and to Preach the Gospel if they do but allow it And may not your honesty be as reasonably questioned because you are suffered to Preach Sure the Licensers are not so bad men as to prove all dishonest whose Books they License Sect. 95. E. B. His last Book about the Sabbath might have been wholly spared Dr. Owen having judiciously and accurately handled that Question before him R. B. 1. The Wisdom from above is without partiality and without hypocrisie Was it a blot on Dr. Owens honesty that his Books are Licensed O forgetful man 2. Who made the Law that no man must write on a subject after Dr. Owen was Dr. Owen to be blamed for needless work because he wrote on the Sabbath after Dr. Bound Dr. Young Dr. Twisse Mr. Eaton Mr. Bifield Mr. Shephard and many more 3. Mine was Written and in the Press before Dr. Owens was abroad Though I had before seen Mr. Hughes his accurate Treatise that then came out Sect. 96. E. B. His last Book about the Sabbath doth make so full a discovery of Mr. Baxters spirit in pleading for Saints dayes that is for will-worship R. B. 1. Remember Reader that it is my own Book and not his that discovereth my spirit Fetch thy judgement of it thence and spare not 2. And if thou find cause to put down the Commemoration of the Powder-plot or such other dayes for fear of will-worship do not therefore renounce all see houres for secret and family-prayer and Lectures it being equally will-worship to appoint a set hour as a set day which God in Scripture hath not appointed Sect. 97. E. B. And in Atheistically arguing against the Divine and self-evidencing authority of the holy Scriptures which he doth for many pages together that henceforth I hope he will no longer be a Snare but justly he Rejected of all as one of the worst sort of Hereticks since under the notion of being a Christian and a Protestant be doth with his utmost industry and cunning labour to overthrow our foundation in that he puts the credit of Scripture on the Truth of History and denies any certainty but what may be gathered from that which dangerous doctrine I could not but warn thee Christian Reader as thou lovest thy peace and comfort as well as the truth of Christ that thou wilt diligently beware of And I must leave it to thee to judge whether that Conformity which such a person pleads for is not justly to be suspected R. B. Here are three more visible untruths in point of fact 1. That I argue against the Divine Authority of the Scripture yea or the self-evidencing either which I have written for at large in three several Treatises 1. In the 2d Part of my Saints Rest 2. In a Book called the Unreasonableness of Infidelity 3. In my Reasons of the Christian Religion most fully but never wrote a word against it 2. That I do with my industry and cunning labour to overthrow our foundation Hath this man written more for the foundation than those three Books 3. That I deny any certainty but what may be gathered from the truth of History For which he citeth not one word in which I ever said so nor can But the contrary is legible in the forecited Volumes at large As to the matter of his Accusation I will not here write another Book to tell men what I have written in the former Read my own words even those he accuseth and my Treatise for the Christian Religion and judge as you see Cause But for them that will believe him to save them the labour of reading it in my own Books as if another man were liker to tell