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A38830
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An epistle to the several congregations of the non-conformists by Cap. Robert Everard, now by Gods Grace a member of the Holy Catholick Church of Christ, shewing the reasons of his conversion and submission to the said Catholick Church.
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Everard, Robert, fl. 1664.
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1664
(1664)
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Wing E3538; ESTC R12403
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34,789
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46
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this is far from saying that meerly her owning of infallibility doth make infallibility her own It is a very different thing to say He that must be a Minister must needs be a man and not a woman and to say That such a one must needs be a minister because he is a man and not a woman So it is one thing to say the Church which is the infallible Judge must be a Church judging and holding and professing her self to be infallible and cannot be a Church which judgeth and professeth her self to be fallible And another quite different thing to say that such a Church is the infallible Judge because she teacheth and professeth her self to be so Not be not I pray so far mistaken as some are usually and wilfully if not maliciously to think that when I speak of the Roman Church I intend the Church of the Diocess of Rome and so pretend to make a perticular Church to be an Universal and the Universal or Catholick Church of Christ No I entend by the Roman Church all that vastly extended community of christians which liveth in communion with and in subjection and Obedience unto the Bishop of Rome as to their Supream Pastour and Governour on Eearth in things appertaining unto faith next under Christ This is the Flock of Christ adhering to the true Shepheard appointed them by God And now dearest Friends I have no more to say but only entreat you in the bowels of Charity to learn by heart that most pretious lesson of our sweet Saviour viz. Learn of me for I am meek and humble of heart And that you may be in a ready way to learn this remember in order to it that Lesson which I mentioned before of his beloved Apostle St. John 4. 6. We are of God he that knoweth God heareth us he that is not of God heareth us not hereby know we the spirit of truth and the spirit of error There was nothing then required to distinguish these two spirits but to hear or to refuse to hear the Apostles and seeing St. Paul saith Faith comes by hearing It will be as necessary now to hear in our times those who are lawfully sent to teach it as it was in the times of the Apostles If therefore ye hear no body or follow those who at first and in their beginning heard no body you refuse to hear those who are sent to teach you And then according to St. Iohn it is evident you are lead by the spirit of error Consider these things and be happy according to the Prayers of Your true Friend and well-wisher in the best things ROBERT EVERARD POSTSCRIPT I apprehend that it is not impossible but that some of you will be attempting to answer this Letter and endeavouring to shake these Principles which have by Gods Grace proved of strength to win me to the Holy Catholick Faith To such I shall only give these cautions First that they will be pleased in their Answer to set down my own words as they lye intirely and without maiming them If they shall please to answer by Paragraphs and to set down each of my Paragraphs wholly and sincerely before their Answer to the same Paragraph I shall own their Candor and Iustice But if they Answer by setting up a Puppit of their own pretended to be mine they will not make mine but their own Arguments ridiculous and will not deserve a Reply from me or to be regarded by any one Secondly that they will forbear all Reproaches and Slanders against the Catholick Church or Catholicks in general or in perticular this is a fault to which Protestants are too much addicted in general but most Perticularly those of the Presbiterian and Independent perswasions they have alwaies used to deal with Catholicks as they did with His late Majesty of glorious memory and with our most dread Soveraign that now is and their party viz. to impute crimes to them without end and errors innumerable without taking care to examine whether what they charged them with was true or false So if they can throw Dirt enough upon the Catholicks and impute Opinions unto them sufficiently monstrous all is well they know the major part of the Nation to be byassed with interest and ready enough to beleive what ever is suggested against those whom they call the Common Enemy and that thousands will admit a thing for truth if they find it in Print rather then take the pains to examine whether it be true or not and therefore have no difficulty to cast forth untruths with as much confidence as if themselves were satisfied that all they publish is dictated by the Holy Ghost As for those who are and shall be guilty of these crimes I only wish them the like Repentance which St. Augustine had for the like errors committed by himself whilst he was a Manichaean of which he makes this mention St. Aug. the 6. book of his Confes c. 3. towards the end I blush even full of Joy in regard that I found my self thereby not to have barked against the Catholick Faith but against the Fancies and Fictions of carnal thoughts But yet I have been rash and impious in that I had said those things accusingly which I ought to have learnt inquitingly Nor do not I beseech you take a liberty to upbraid me as if I had some private ends in my present Change but be pleased to consider that I am now united to a Communion whose portion in this Kingdome is to suffer to be poor and scorned to want preferments and suffer affronts from every hand who shall please to give them Whilst I was at the head of a Troop of Horse in the Rebellious Army a sin which I hope my dearest Saviour hath forgiven me I having heartily asked pardon of my God as I here do of my Soveraign for the same I was in a condition to rise and thrive and glut my sences with what this world called good and pleasing But I thank my Saviour I am now brought home to that Church of His which teacheth me to suffer and be humble to give Obedience to Authorities for Conscience sake to become a servant and a learner not a master or a Teacher to hear those that are lawfully sent to take care of my Soul and not to usurps the Office of the Priests or proudly to intrude my self into that Sacred Function I must for ever hereafter cease to be contentious and let my Prince or those who are in Authority under him determine what they please in relation to my body or Estate I hope I shall at all times hereafter follow the blessed Precepts of God which I receive from the mouth of his Church and from the Holy Scriptures namely To make Supplications and Prayers and Intercessions and giving of thanks for all men for Kings and all that are in Authority that I may lead a quiet life in all godliness and honesty 1 Tim. 2. v. 1. 2. And to those who shall be otherwise minded I shall only say We have no such custome amongst us in the Church of God FINIS This is taken out of Mr. Johnsons reply to Mr. Baxter called Novelty Repressed Fo. 142. 143 c. The Books which I here intend are The Question of Questions the before mentioned Novelty repressed with Fiat Lux and that Elaborate Treatise called Infidelity Unmasked or a Confutation of a Book Published by Mr. Wil. Chil. Fagworth See Jus Divinum upon Presbytery P. 69. 70 See Answorths Advertisement to the Reader in the end of his Anotations upon Deute touching objections made against the Heb. Text. †As touching the English Translations and the Hebrew and Greek Copies which are now extant amongst us See John Goodwin his Treatise upon Divine Authority of Scripture asserted from Page 4. unto pag. 19 c.
and treatises from whence I made several Collections the Heads of which I recommend to your considerations they being such as had by the Gracious assistance of Almighty God such a prevailing power upon my understanding as to convince me of the errors of the way wherein I then was and to bring me to the Knowledge of the Divine truths of the Catholick and Christian Faith I gathered from the true interpretation of that Text of Scripture Heb. 11. 6. Without Faith it is impossible to please God And of that Mar. 16. 16. He that beleiveth not shall be damned And of that other Ephes 4. 5. There is but one Faith and one Baptisme one Lord Iesus That the faith which was to save me and by the which I was to please God must certainly be the true Faith which cannot be found in contrary Opinions it being but One and of contraries One only can be true I also collected from that Text 2. Cor. 10. 5. Bringing into Captivity every thought to the Obedience of Christ That this Faith or beleiving was to be seated in the understanding that the understanding was to submit not dispute And that this Act To beleive was a Command or Precept of Almighty God who will have his Will obeyed by all his Subjects and the not obeying of which is punished with eternal Damnation Lastly I found from that Text Heb. 10. 23. Let us hold fast the profession of our Faith without wavering for he is faithful that hath promised That Faith if truly Divine must be an infallible assent of our understanding submitting it self obediently to beleive the Revelations of God For otherwise Faith and consequently all Religion may be no more then fancy or Opinion and then no waies certain and if so then no Obligation From whence I thought it did very naturally follow first that there must be some means appointed by God by which we may know this one true Faith from all false Opinions for to require us to beleive upon pain of Damnation and not to give us any means whereby we may know what to beleive were to require us to make Bricks without Straw Secondly that these means must be infallible for we cannot be brought to an infallible ascent by fallible and uncertain means and God would not require us to assent to an Authority which may deceive us Thirdly that the understanding must submit to these means under pain of Damnation for if the understanding were at liberty to submit or not to submit to the means by which Faith is conveyed unto us it would be no fault not to beleive consequently God could not justly damne us for not beleiving Besides whosoever shall refuse to be governed by their means and that Authority which God hath appointed to govern him is a Rebel against God Fourthly that two men of two differing Faiths or beliefs cannot be saved for they both of them knowing that they are bound to be guided and governed by those means which God hath appointed to convey faith unto them and one of them flatly refusing to submit this person who refuseth must be guilty of disobedience to Gods command and consequently cannot be saved Fifthly that ignorant people by such reasonable diligence as is very tollerable to humane frailty and very possible for them may come to the knowledge of these means For otherwise God would have appointed means which would be unprofitable to the end and the far greater number of Souls for whom Christ dyed would not be sufficiently provided for by the sweet Providence of God By which that Prophesy would be ineffectual Esay 35. Say to them that are of a fearful heart be strong fear not behold your God will come and save you then the eyes of the blind shall be opened and the Ears of the deaf unstopped c. And one high way shall be there and a way and it shall be called the Holy way the way faring men though Fooles shall not err therein And thus far I met with nothing but what I esteemed very agreeable with all sorts of people professing themselves Christians All that I ever met with seemed to grant that there must be a way and a Rule there must be means appointed there must be a governing power to judge and decide all doubts and teach us the true way to Heaven with certainty But who this Rule or Iudge is that is the difficulty for when once we have found it I think all persons will agree that they are obliged to submit unto it as to the Apostles if they were actually living or to Christ himself This therefore I thought to be the only question that I was to gain satisfaction unto I therefore ceased to enquire after this doctrine or the other Article as beleiving that if I could once find out this Rule this Judge which God had appointed as the means to direct me and to which I was to submit as to that Authority which God had appointed to Rule and Govern me to teach me what I was and what I was not to beleive I should no more scruple to beleive what that Authority should teach me to be revealed by God then if I heard God himself speaking And I was no way discouraged in my resolution to search when I considered that as God spoke in Antient times by the mouthes of his Prophets before and after the Scriptures were written and by the mouthes of his Apostles before and after the New Testament was written and that the writing of what God directed to be written did not lessen the power of God but that he might still direct by the mouthes of his Prophets and Apostles so possibly I might find God still speaking by an Authority which hitherto I had not been acquainted with I found all the Rules and meanes proposed by every party to amount to four in the whole One party would set up a claim to the Spirit directing them and speaking to their spirits Another will have Reason to be this Rule and Judge A third will set up sole Scripture And the fourth assigneth the Holy Catholick Church of Christ Visible here on Earth to be that Judge and Director And finally that medium appoynted by God himself for the ends before mentioned and to which all Christians were to submit Other then these I never heard of any for I alwaies esteemed the Quakers Light to be either the Spirit or natural Reason and I resolved to rank it under one of those considerations by a name more known to the world then that which they have given it And therefore these I resolved most carefully to examine As to the first touching the Spirit bearing witness in secret with our spirits or in plainer terms the Private Spirit I considered that there is no man in the world Jew or Turk Pagan or Christian but may if he will put on confidence enough affirme that he is taught inwardly by God many of all sorts do this and yet teach contradictions some therefore must be