to bestow pitie and sorrow vpon you and your wrong You entertaine both harshly and with a churlish repulse What should a man do with such dispositions Let him stroke them on the backe they snarle at him and show their teeth Let him shew them a Cudgell they flie in his face You allow not our actions and returne our wrong Ours is both the iniurie and complaint How can this be You are the agents we sit still and suffer in this rent Yet since the cause makes the Schisme let vs inquire not whose the action is but whos 's the desert Our Church is deepe drencht in Apostacie and wee crie Peace Peace No lesse then a whole Church at once that not sprinkled or wetshod but drencht in Apostacie What did we fall off from you or you from vs Tell me were we euer the true Church of God And were we then yours We cannot fall vnlesse we once stood Was your Church before this Apostacie Show vs your ancestours in opinion Name me but one that euer taught as you doe and I vow to separate Was it not Then we fell not from you Euery Apostacie of a Church must needs be from the true Church A true Church and not yours And yet can there be but one true See now whether in branding vs with Apostasie you haue not proued yours to be no true Church Still I am ignorant Queene Maries dayes you say had a true Church which separated from Poperie chose them Ministers serued God holily from thence was our Apostacie But were not the same also for the most part Christians in King EDVVARDS dayes Did they then in that confused allowance of the Gospel separate Or I pray you were Cranmer Latimer Ridley Hooper and the rest parts of that Church or no Was there any other ordination of Ministers then from them Reiect these and all the world will hisse at you Receiue them and where is our Apostacie What Antichristianisme haue we whereof these were freed But you leape backe if I vrge you farre from hence to the Apostles times to feâ—ch our once true Church from farre that it might bee deare You shall not carue for vs we like not these bold ouer-leapes of so many Centuries I speake boldly you dare not stand to the trial of any Church since theirs Now I heare your Doctor say this Challenge sauors of Rome Antiquitie is with you a Popish plea We haue willingly taken vp our aduersaries at this by pretence their owne weapon You debarre it in the conscience of your owne nouell singularitie Yet your Pastor can be content to make vse of Tertullian alone against all Fathers That such things are iustly to be charged with vanitie as are done without any precept either of the Lord or of the Apostles And the Apostles did faithfully deliuer to the nations the Discipline they receiued of Christ which we must beleeue to be the tumultuary Discipline of the refined house-full at Amster dam What all in all ages and places till now Apostates Say if you can that those famous Churches wherein Cyprian Athanasius Ambrose Hierome Austen Chrysostome and the rest of those blessed lights liued were lesse deepe in this Apostacy then ours O Apostaticall Fathers that separated not yea say if you dare that other reformed Churches are not ouer the Ankles with vs in this Apostacy What hard newes is this to vs when as your Oracle dare say not much lesse of the Reformed Churches of Netherlands with whom you liue Thus he writes For not hearing of them in other Congregations in these countries this I answer That seeing by the mercie of God we haue seene and forsaken the corruptions yet remayning in the publique Ministration and condition of these Churches if they be all like to these of this Citie we cannot therfore partake with them in such case without declining and Apostasie from the truth which we haue our selues already receiued and professed See here to partake with them in Gods seruice is Apostacy If so in the accessoryes Alas what crime is in the principall It were but Apostasie to heare an English Sermon a Dutch is no lesse Woe is you that you dwell still in Meshech Good men it were not more happy for you then the Church that you were well in heauen No lesse then Apostasie Let no Reader bee appalled at so fearefull a word this is one of the tearmes of Arte familiar to this way Find but any one page of a Duch printed volume without Apostasie Excommunication Commingling Constitution and suspect it not theirs Heresie is not more frequent at Rome then Apostacy at Amsterdam nor Indulgences more ordinary there then here Excommunications Common vse makes terrible thinges easie Their owne Master Sl. for holding with the Dutch Baptisme and read-prayers is acknowledged to be cast our for an Apostate yea their Doctor Mr. Aâ—nsworth is noted with this marke from themselues there is much latitude as happy is in their Apostasie For when Stanshall Mercer and Iacob Iohnson were to be chosen Officers in their Church and exception was taken by some at their Apostacy answere was made It was not such Apostacy as debarred them from office it was but aslippe Iohn Marke whether as Isychius and Theophilact think the blessed Euangelist or some other holy Minister is by the whole Parlour at Amsterdam branded with this same Apostasie who departed indeed but from Paul in his iourney not from Christ in his faith and therefore his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is expounded by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Act. 15. 38. why do we think much to drinke of an Euangelists cuppe Yet let this ignorant Epistler teach his censorious answerer one point of his owne that is the Separatists skill and tell him that hee obiects two crimes to one poore Church which are incompatible want of Constitution and Apostasie Thus writes your Master of vs If it were admitted which can neuer bee proued that they sometimes had beene true established Churches Loe here we neuer had true Constitution therefore we are not capable of Apostasie If we once had it and so were true Churches heare what your Pastor saith As Christ giueth to all true Churches their being so wee must leaue it vnto him to take it away when and as he pleaseth And therefore since he hath not remoued his Candlesticke nor taken away his Kingdome in spight of all obiected Apostasies we still continue so and by consequent your separation vpon this ground is most vniust An Apostate had wont to bee the fearefull surname of damned Iulian Tortus was an easie accusar to whom yet we may say with Elihu Num dicis regi Apostata Behold now so many Apostates as men Holy Cyprian describes him by forsaking Christs colors taking vp arms for Gentilisme in life or herefie in iudgment And Augustine telles vs there cannot bee a greater sinne then Apostasie making else-where this sinner
worse then the Infidell And the olde vulgar can giue no worse tearme to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where he findes it yea to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rebels themselues What doth this brand to a Church not Christian onely though you denie it but famous Of whom is truely verefied after all your splene that which the spirit writes to the Angel of Ephesus Laborasti non Defecisti Say if you can what Article of the Christian and Apostolike faith haue we renounced What heresie maintaine wee Wherein haue wee runne from the tents of Christ What hold we that may not stand with life in Christ and saluation VVe challenge all men and Diuels in this point for our innocence Distinguish for starke shame of so foule a word or which is better eate it whole and let not this blemish be left vpon your soule and name in the Records of God and the world that you once said of a Church too good for yours Drencht in apostacy If we crie Peace whiles you crie Apostasie surely we flatter whiles you rayle betwixt these two dangerous extremes wee know an wholsome meane so to approue that we foster not security so to censure that we neither reuile nor separate and in one word to doe that which your Pastor could exhort the separators from your Separation for euen this Schisme hath Schismes If we should mislike yet to rest in our differences of iudgement and notwithstanding peaceably to continue with the Church Had you taken this course you should neither haue needed to expect our pitie nor to complaine of our cruelty Surely whether our loue be cruell or not your hatred is whereof take heede least you heare from old Iacob Cursed be their wrath for it was fierce and their rage for it was cruell How can you expect compassion when you breath fire and write gall Neuer mention the fury of others indignation till the venemous and desperate writings of Barrow and Greenwood bee evther worne out with time or by the Thunder-bolts of your not rare censures be strucke downe to hell whence their maliciousnesse came I forbeare to recapitulate how much rather had I helpe to burie then to reuiue such vn-christian exprobrations SECTION XIIII The Separatists acknowledgements of the graces of the Church of England INgratitude and vnnaturalnesse to your Mother is obiected In that you flie from her yea now wo is me that you spit in her face and mark her for an harlot VVould God the accusation were as farre from being iust as from being triuiall Yet perhappes you intend it not in the lightnesse of this charge but the commonnesse you haue caused me to smart for my charity yet I forbeare it not VVhat is your defence That you haue done her no wrong to your knowledge Modestly spoken but doubtfully we know your wrong but we know not your knowledge it is well if your wrong be not wilful an ignorant wrong is both in more hope of amends and of mercie But is not this caution added rather for that you thinke no hard measure can possibly be a wrong to so vile a Church I aske and would be denied No you doe freely and with all thankefulnesse acknowledge euery good thing she hath VVhatsoeuer you doe to vs I will not any more in fauour of you wilfully wrong my selfe you haue bidden men now to take you as a complete Separatist and speake this for your selfe and yours Let the Reader now iudge whether the wrong of your Sect be wilful and acknowledgment of our good free and thankfull Your first false-named Martyr shall giue the first witnes of the titles of our Church VVho saith he that were not drunke and intoxicate with the VVhores cuppe could affirme this confuse Babell these cages of vncleane Birds these prisons of foule and hatefull spirits to be the Spouse of Christ And else-where he calles the people of our Church Goates and Swine Is this any wrong to your knowledge The same Author They haue not saith he in their Churches any one thing in their practise and proceedings not one pin naile or hooke according to the true patterne Doe you not now freely and thankefully acknowledge our Churches good things VVhat is more ordinary with him and his brother in euill I. Greenewood then to call our worthie Ministers Baals Priests Cainites the marked seruants of Antichrist sellers of the VVhores wares worshippers of the Beast Is this yet any wrong to your knowledge Pastor Iohnson sticks not to say that the Ministerie and worshippe of the Church of England were taken out of the VVhores cuppe and plainely stiles our Church as which of you doe not daughter of the great Babilon that mother of whoredomes and abhominations of the earth yet more That Hierarchy Worshippe Constitution and Gouernement which they professe and practise being directly Antichristian doe vtterly destroy true Christianity so as their people and Churches cannot in that estate be iudged true Christians Do you not now freely and thankfully acknowledge our good things What can any Diuell of hell say worse against vs then this That we are no Christians Or what good can there be in vs if no true Christianity If wee denied euery Article of the Christian Creed if we were Mahumetans as your good Pastor stickes not to compare vs if the most damned Heretiques vnder heauen what could he say but no Christians Your teacher and Pastour which is a wonder agree For your Doctor Ainsworth makes this one head of his poysonous Counterpoyson that Christ is not the head Mediatour Prophet Priest King of the Church of England You their Disciple are not yet promoted to this height of immodestie yet what are your good things Euen to you we are Apostates Traytors Rebels Babylonish This is well for a learner Hereafter if you will heare me keepe our good things to your selfe and report our euill Yea that your vncharitablenesse may bee aboue all examples monstrous You doe not onely denie vs any interest in the Church of Christ but exclude vs what you may from all hope and possibilitie of attaining the honour of Christendome For when a godly Minister protested to Master Barrow the trueth of his ministerie vpon the approbation also of his people hee receiued this answere from him Though you had such allowance it could nothing auaile but rather ouerthrow your Ministerie they being as yet vngathered to Christ and therefore neither may not in this estate chuse them a Minister nor any exercise a Ministerie vnto them without hainous sacriledge O desperate iudgement we neither are Christians nor can be No Christianitie without faith no faith without the Ministerie of the word no word to vs without sacriledge What are we that the very offer of bringing vs to God should be criminall These are your acknowledgements of our good Who haue learned of your Pastour to kisse and kill all at once to
negatiues outward force takes away both sinne and blame and alters them from the patient to the actor so that now you see your straight bonds if they were such loosed by obedience and ouer-ruling power SECTION XIX The bonds of Gods word vniustly pleaded by the Separ BVT what bonds were these straight ones Gods word and your owne necessity Both strong and indissoluble where God hath bidden God forbid that we should care for the forbiddance of men I reuerence from my soule so doth our Church their deare Sister those worthy forraine Churches which haue chosen and followed those formes of outward gouernment that are euery way fittest for their owne condition It is enough for your Sect to censure them I touch nothing common to them with you While the world standeth where will it euer be shewed out of the sacred booke of God that hee hath charged Let there be perpetuall Lay-Elders in euery Congregation Let euery Assembly haue a Pastor and Doctor distinct in their charge and offices Let all decisions excommunications ordinations be performed by the whole multitude Let priuate Christians aboue the first turne in extremity agree to set ouer themselues a Pastor chosen from amongst them and receiue him with prayer and vnlesse that ceremony be turned to pompe and superstition by imposition of hands Let there be Widdowers which you call relieuers appointed euery where to the Church-seruice Let certaine discreete and able men which are not Ministers be appointed to preach the Gospell and whole truth of God to the people All the learned Diuines of other Churches are in these left yea in the most of them censured by you Hath God spoken these things to you alone Pleade not Reuelations and wee feare you not Pardon so homely an example As soone and by the same illumination shal G. Iohns proue to your Consistory the lace of the Pastors wiues sleeue or rings or Whale-bones or other amongst you as your Pastor confesseth knit stockings or Cork-shooes forbidden flatly by Scriptures as these commanded We see the letter of the Scriptures with you you shall fetch blood of them with strayning ere you shal wring out this seÌ„se No no M. R. neuer make God your stale Many of your ordinances came from no â—ier then your own braine Others of them though God acknowledges yet he imposed not Pretend what you will These are but the cords of your owne conceit not bonds of Christian obedience SECTION XX. The necessity of their pretended Ordinances THE first of these then is easily vntwisted your second is necessity Then which what can bee stronger what law or what remedy is against necessity What we must haue we cannot want Oppose but the publique necessitie to yours your necessity of hauing to the publique necessity of withholding and let one of these necessities like two nailes driue out another So they haue done and your owne necessity as the stronger hath preuailed for that other necessity might bee eluded by flight you haue sought and found else-where what the necessity of our lawes denied and the necessity of your conscience required Beware lest vniustly Sinne is as strong bond to a good heart as impossibility Christians can not doe what they ought not Contrary to the lawes of your Prince and Countrie you haue fledde not onely from vs but from our Communion Either is disobedience no sinne or might you do this euil that good may come of it But what necessity is this simple and absolute or conditional Is there no remedy but you must needes haue such Elders Pastors Doctors Relieuers such Offices such executions Can there be no Church no Christians without them What shall we say of the families of the Patriarkes of the Iewish Congregations vnder the law yea of Christ and his Apostles Either denie them to haue beene visible Churches or shew vs your distinct Offices amongst them But as yet you say they were not Therefore God hath had a true Church thousands of yeares without them Therefore they are not of the essence of the Church You call me to the times since Christ I demand then was there not a worthy Church of God in Hierusalem from the time of Christs Ascension till the election of the seauen Deacons Those hundred and twentie Disciples Act. 1. 15. and three thousand Conuerts Act. 2. 41. Those continuall Troupes that flocked to the Apostles were they no true Church Let the Apostles and Euangelists bee Pastors and Doctors where were their Elders Deacons Relieuers Afterwards when Deacons were ordained yet what news is there of Elders till Act. 11 yet that of Hierusalem was more forward then the rest We will not as you are wont argue from scriptures negatiuely no proofe yet much probability is in Saint Paules silence Hee writes to Rome Corinth and other Churches those his Diuine letters in a sweet Christian ciuility salute euen Ordinary Christians And would hee haue vtterly passed by all mention of these Church-Officers amongst his so precise acknowledgment of lesser titles in others if they had beene ere this ordained yet all these more then true Churches famous some of them rich forward and exemplary Onely the Philippian Church is stiled with Bishops and Deacons but no Elders besides them The Churches of Christ since these if at least you will graunt that Christ had any Church till now haue continued in a recorded succession through many hundreds of yeares Search the Monuments of her Histories Shew vs where euer in particular Congregations all these your necessary Offices as you describe them were either found or required It was therefore a new-no-Necessity that bound you to this course or if you had rather a Necessity of Fallibility If with these God may be well serued he may be well serued without them This is not that Vnum necessarium that Christ commends in Mary you might haue sate still with lesse trouble and more thanks SECTION XXI The enormities of the Church in common BVt besides that we ought to haue had somewhat which we want we haue some what which wee should haue wanted Some yea many Antichristian enormities To say we are absolute and neither want nor abound were the voice of Laodicea or Tyrus in the Prophet Our Church as shee is true so humble and is as farre from arrogating perfection as acknowledging falshood If she haue enormities yet not so many or if many not Antichristian Your Cham hath espied ninety one nakednesses in this his Mother and glories to shewe them All his malice cannot shew one Fundamentall errour and when the foule mouth of your false Martyr hath said all they are but some spottes and blemishes not the old running issues and incurable botches of Egypt The particulars shall plead for themselues These you eschue as hell While you goe on thus vncharitably both alike Doe you hate these more then Master Smith and his faction hates yours His Character shall
can they deny this right to persons qualified besides common graces with wisedome learning experience authority Eyther their Bishoppricke makes them no Christians a position which of all the world besides this Secte would be hissed at or else their handes imposed are thus farr by their rules of Separatists effectual Now your best course is like to an Hare that runnes backe from whence she was started to flye to your first hold No Church therefore no Ministery So now not the Church hath deuised the Ministery but the Ministery hath deuised the Church I follow you not in that idle Circle Thence you haue beene hunted already But now since I haue giuen account of ours I pray you tell me seriously Who deuised your Office of Ministery I dare say not Christ not his Apostles not their Successors What Church euer in the world can be produced vnlesse in case of extremity for one turn whose conspiring multitude made themselues ministers at pleasure what rule of Christ prescribes it What Reformed Church euer did or doth practise it VVhat example warrants it where haue the inferiors laid hands vpon their Superiors VVhat Congregation of Christendome in all records affoorded you the necessary patterne of an vnteaching Pastor or an vnfeeding Teacher It is an old policy of the faulty to complaine first Certainely there was neuer Popish Legend a more errand deuise of man then some parts of this ministery of yours so much gloried in for sincere correspondence to the first institution SECTION XXVIII Confused Communion of the prophane YOVR scornefull exception at the confused communion of the prophane multitude sauors strong of a Pharisee who thought it sinne to conuerse cum terrae filijs the base vulgar and whose very Phylacteries did say Touch me not for I am cleaner then thou This multitude is prophane you say and this communion confused If some be prophane yet not all for then could be no confusion in the mixture If some be not prophane why do you not loue them as much as you hate the other If all maine truthes be taught amongst some godly some prophane why will you more shunn those prophane then cleaue to those truths and those godly If you haue duely admonished him and detested and bewailed his sinne what is another mans prophanenesse to you If prophanenesse be not punished or confusion be tolerated it is their sinne whome it concerneth to redresse them If the Officers sinne must we runne from the Church It is a famous and pregnant protestation of God by Ezechiell The righteousnesse of the righteous shall be vpon him and the wickednesse of the wicked shall be vpon himself And if the fathers sower Grapes cannot hurt the childrens teeth how much lesse shall the neighbours But whither will you runne from this communion of the prophane The same fault you find with the Dutch and French yea in your owne How well you haue auoided it in your separation let Master White George Iohnson Master Smith be sufficient witnesses whose plentifull reports of your knowne vncleannesses smothered mischiefes malitious proceedings corrupt packings communicating with knowne offenders bolstering of sinns and willing conniuences as they are shamefull to relate so might well haue stopt your mouth from excepting at our confused Communion of the prophane SECTION XXIX Our Errours intermingled with Truth HOw many and grieuous errors are mingled with our Truths shall appeare sufficiently in the sequell If any want let it be the fault of the accuser it is enough for the Church of Amsterdam to haue no errors But ours are grieuous Name them that our shame may be equall to your griefe So many they are and so grieuous that your Martyr when he was vrged to instance could find none but our opinion concerning Christs descent into hell and except hee had ouer-reached not that Call you our Doctrines some generall truthes Looke into our Confessions Apologies Articles and compare them with any with all other Churches and if you finde a more particular found Christian absolute profession of all fundamētall truths in any Church since Christ ascēded into heauen renounce vs as you do we wil seperate vnto you But these truths are not soundly practised Let your Pastor teach you that if errours of practise should be stood vpon there could bee no true Church vpon earth Pull out your owne beame first we willingly yeeld this to be one of your truths that no truth can sanctifie errour That one heresie makes an Hereticke but learne withall that euery error doth not pollute all truthes That there is hay and stubble which may burne yet both the foundation stand and the builder be saued Such is ours at the worst why doe you condemne where God will saue No Scripture is more worne with your tongus and pennes then that of the leauen 1. Cor. 5. 6. If you would compare Christs leauen with Pauls you should satisfie your selfe Christ sayes the kingdome of heauen is as leauen Paule saies grosse sin is leauen Both leauens the whole lumpe neither may be taken precisely but in resemblance not of equalitie as he said well but of qualitie For notwithstanding the leauen of the kingdome some part you grant is vnsanctified So notwithstanding the leauen of sinne some which haue striuen against it to their vtmost are not sowred The leauening in both places must extend onely to whom it is intended the subiects of regeneration in the one the partners of sinne in the other So our Sauiour saith Yee are the salt of the earth Yet too much of the earth is vnseasoned The trueth of the effect must bee regarded in these speeches not the quantity It was enough for Saint Paule to shew them by this similitude that grosse sins where they are tollerated haue a power to infect others whether it be as Hierome interprets it by ill example or by procurement of iudgements and thereupon the incestuous must be cast out All this tends to the excōmunicating of the euill not to the seperating of the good Did euer Paule say if the incestuous be not cast out seperate from the Church Show vs this and wee are yours Else it is a shame for you that you are not ours If Antichrist holde many truths and we but many we must needes bee proud of your prayses We holde all his truths and haue showed you how we hate all his forgeries no lesse then you hate vs Yet the mistery of iniquity is still spun in the Church of England but with a siner threed So fine that the very eyes of your malice cannot see it yet none of our least motes haue escaped you Thankes bee to our good God wee haue the great mistery of godlinesse so fairely and happily spunne amongst vs as all but you blesse God with vs and for vs As soone shall you finde charity and peace in your English Church as heresie in our Church of England SECTION XXX Whether
more weight that complaine of ease The discourse that I rol'd downe vpon you was weake and weightlesse you shall well finde this was my lenitie not my impotence The fault hereof is partly in your expectation not in my letter I meant but a short Epistle you look't belike for a volume or nothing I meant onely a generall monition you look't for a solide prosecution of particulars It is not for you to giue taskes to others pennes By what Lawe must wee write nothing but large Scholasticall Discourses Such Tomes as yours May we not touch your sore vnlesse wee will launce and search it I was not enough your enemie forgiue me this errour and you shall smart more But not onely my omissions were of ignorance but my censures though seuere and solemne An easie imputation from so great a Controuler I pardon you and take this as the common lot of enemies I neuer yet could see any Scribler so vnlearned as that he durst not charge his opposite with ignorance If Dr. Whitaker M. Perkins M. Gyfford and that Oracle of our present times Dr. Andrewes went away content with this liuerie from yours how can I repine If I haue censured what cause I knew not let me bee censured for more then ignorance impudencie but if you know not what I censured let all my trust lie on this issue take both ignorance boldnesse and malice to your selfe Is your cause so mysticall that you can feare any mans ignorance What Cobler or Spinster hath not heard of the maine holds of Brownisme Am I only a stranger in Hierusalem If I know not all your opinions pardon me Your owne haue not receiued this illumination I speake boldly not your selfe Euery day brings new conceites and not one day teaches but corrects another you must be more constant to your selues ere you can vpbraide ignorance or auoide it But whether I knew your prime fancies appeares sufficiently by a particular discourse which aboue a yeare since was in the hands of some of your Clients and I wonder if not in yours Shortly am I ignorant If I were obstinate too you might hope with the next gale for me your more equall aduersarie at Amsterdam As I am my want of care and skil shal I hope loose nothing of the trueth by you nor suffer any of your foule aspersions vpon the face of Gods Church and ours But whiles we striue who shall be our Iudge The Christian Readers who are those Presume not yee more zealous and forward Countrey men that you are admitted to this Bench so farre are wee meere English from being allowed Iudges of them that they haue already iudged vs to be no Christians We are Goates and Swine no Sheepe of God since then none but your Parlour in the West and Amsterdam must bee our Iudges who I beseech you shall be our aduersaries God be iudge betwixt you and vs and correct this your vnchristian vncharitablenesse SECTION III The parties written to and their Crime I Wrote not to you alone what is become of your partner yea your guide Woe is me he hath renounced our Christendome with our Church and hath wash't of his former water with new and now condemnes you all for not separating further no lesse then we condemne you for separating so far As if you could not be enough out of Babylon vnlesse you be out of your selues Alas miserable countrimen whither runne you Religion hath but his height beyond which is errour and madnesse Hee telles you true your station is vnsafe either you must forward to him or backe to vs. I obiected separation to you yet not so extreame as your answere bewrayes a late separation not the first my charity hoped you lesse ill then you will needes deserue you graunt it odious because it casts imputation of euil vpon the forsaken Of euill Yea of the worst an estate incurable and desperate He is an ill Phisitian that will leaue his patient vpon euery distemper his departure argues the disease helpelesse were wee but faulty as your Landlord Churches your owne Rules would not abide your flight Hence the Church of England iustly matches Separatists with the vilest persons GOD himselfe doth so who are more vile then Patrons of evill yet no greater woe is to them that speake good of euill then those that speake euill of good So wise Generalls punish mutinous persons worse then Robbers or Adulterers So Corah and his companie a Storie cunningly turned vpon vs by your Martyr for their opposition to Moses were more fearefully plagued then the Idolatrous Israelites These sinnes are more directly against common societie the other more personall and if both haue like iniquitie yet the former haue both more offence and more danger And if not so yet who cannot rather brooke a lewdâ— seruant then an vnduetifull sonne though pretending faire colours for his disobedience At least you thinke the Church of England thinkes her selfe Gods Church as wel as your Saints of Amsterdam You that so accurse Apostacie in others could yee expect shee should brooke it in you But your reasons are iust and well grounded euery way of a man is right in his owne eyes Said wee not well that thou art a Samaritane and hast a Diuell say the Iewes What Schisme euer did not thinke well of it selfe For vs wee call heauen and earth to record your cause hath no more iustice then your selues haue charitie SECTION IIII. The kinds of separation and which is iust YEt there is a commendable and happie separation from the world from the Prince and men of the world and whatsoeuer is contrarie to God who doubts it There were no heauen for vs without this no Church which hath her name giuen by her father and husband of calling out from other Out of the Egypt of the world dooth God call his sonnes But this separation is into the visible Church from the world not as yours out of the Church because of some particular mixtures with the world or if you had rather take it of profession out of the world of Pagans and Infidels into the visible Church not out of the world of true though â—aultie Christians into a purer Church That I may here at once for all giue light to this point of separation we finde in Scripture a separation either to good or from euill To good so the Leuites were separated from among the children of Israel to beare the Arke and to minister so the first borne first fruites and Cities of refuge So Paul was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 separated which some would haue allude to his Pharisaisme but hath plaine reference to Gods owne words Act. 13. 2. separate me Barnabas and Saul Though this is rather a destination to some worthy purpose then a properly called separation From euill whither sinne or sinners From sinne so euery soule must eschew euill
blesse and curse with one breath your mercies are cruell SECTION XV. The vnnaturalnesse of some principall Separatists BVT who can wonder at your vnnaturalnesse to the Church that heares what measure you mete to your owne Errour is commonly ioyned with cruelty The outragious demeanures of the Circumcelliones in Augustines time and more then barbarous tyranny of the Arrians before him are wel knowen by all Histories and not enough by any God forbid that I should compare you to these Heare rather of Nouatus the father of a not-vnlike Sect of whom Cyprian reports that he would neither bestow bread on his father aliue nor buriall on him deade but suffred him both to starue and stinke in the street and for his wife least he should be mercifull to any hee spurned her with his heele and slew his owne childe in her bodie What need I seeke so far I grieue to thinke and report that your owne Pastor hath paralleled this cruelty His owne brother which is no lesse sauadge though one of your Sect is the publick accuser and condemner of him in this crime to all the world who after a pittifull relation of his eight yeares quarrels with him and foure years excommunication in his Epistle before a large volume to this purpose writes thus After all these hath not our kind carefull and old Father come a long iourney to make Peace Hath he not laboured with you the Elders and the Church to bring you to peace Hath hee not vsed the helpe and counsell of the Reformed Churches herein Yet will you not be reclaimed but adding that sinne aboue all haue also â—â—â—strously excommunicated your father the peace-seeker c. and straight How oft desired he you as if he had beene the sonne and you the father euen with teares that you would repent In a word how came he and I to your doore shewing you that it might bee vpon his departing you should see his face no more c. Yet you forced him by your ill dealing still to leaue vpon you his curse and all the curses writen in Gods booke against vnthankfull and disobedient children Thus farre a brother concerning a brother against father and brother Other strangely-vnkind vsages of both I had rather leaue to the discouery of Master White and this miserable plaintiue who haue written enough to make an enemy ashamed But whereupon was all this fearefull broile in a pure Church For nothing but a little lace and whale-bone in his wiues sleeue The Troian warre could not be slaundered with so weighty a beginning As for your Elder Daniel Studly whom your Pastor so much extolleth if Master Whites Apostasie may be your shift against his relation let him speake who should haue beene a fellow-elder with him banished for your trueth though erected by your censure Marke saith G. Iohns of this Studly how the Lord hath iudged him with vnnaturalnesse to his owne children suffering them to lie at other mens feete and hang on other mens hands whiles he his wife and her daughter fared daintily and went prankingly in apparell euen in this place of banishment It is no ioy to me to blazen these or your othersins would God they were fewer and lesse in vs all Onely it was fit the world should know as how vndutiful you are to your common parent so that Father Brother Children beare part with your mother in these your cruelties SECTION XVI what the Separatists thinke themselues beholden to the Church of England for IF then such bee the good things of our Church What good can you acknowledge to haue receiued from her Nothing giues what it hath not A Baptisme perhaps Alas but no true Sacrament you say yea the seale of gracelesnesse and mischiefe As little are you beholden to the Church for that as the Church to you for your good acceptation Why are you not rebaptized You that cannot abide a false Church why doe you content your selues with a false Sacrament especially since our Church being not yet gathered to Christ is no Church and therefore her baptisme a nullity What else doe you owe to the liberality of this Step-dame You are close your Pastor is lauish for you both who thus speakes of himselfe and you and vs I confesse that whiles I was Minister in your Church of England I stood in an Antichristian estate yet doubt I not but euen then being of the Elect of God I was partaker through faith of the mercy of God in Christ to saluation but as for you Master Iacob and his fellow-Christians whiles you thus remaine you cannot in that estate approue your selues to haue the promise of saluation Behold here the Church of England gaue you but an Antichristian estate if God giue secret mercy what is that to her Gods superabundant grace dooth neither abate ought of her Antichristianisme nor moue you to follow him in couering and passing by the manifold enormities in our Church wherewith those good things are inseparably commingled Your owne mouth shall condemne you Doth God passe ouer our enormites and doe you stick yea separate Doth his grace couer them and do you display them Haue you learned to be more iust then your Maker Or if you be not aboue his iustice Why are you against his mercie God hath not disclaimed vs by your owne confession you haue preuented him If Princes leisures may not be stayed in reforming yet shall not Gods in reiecting Your ignorance inwrapped you in our errours his infinite wisedome sees them and yet his infinite mercie forbeares them so might you at once haue seene disliked stayed If you did not herein goe contrary to the courses of our common God how happy should both sides haue beene yea how should there be no sides How should wee be more inseparably commingled then our good and euill But should you haue continued still in sinne that grace might haue abounded God forbid you might haue continued here without sinne saue your owne and then grace would no lesse haue abounded to you then now your sinne abounds in not continuing What neede you to surfet of another mans Trencher Others sinnes neede no more to infect you then your graces can sanctifie them As for your further light suspect it not of God suspect it to be meere darkenesse and if the light in you be darknesse how great is that darkenesse What so true and glorious a light of God and neuer seene til now No worlds times Churches Patriarches Prophets Apostles Martyrs Fathers Doctors Christians euer saw this truth looke foorth besides you vntill you Externall light was Gods first creature and shall this spirituall light whereby all Churches should be discerned come thus late Mistrust therefore your eyes and your light and feare Isayes woe and the Iewes miserable disappointment we wait for light but loe it is darkenesse for brightnesse but we walke in obscuritie SECTION XVII
The Motherhood of the Church of England how farre it obligeth vs. THE Church of England is your mother to her small comfort she hath borne you and repented Alas you haue giuen her cause to powre out Iobs curses vpon your birth-day by your not onely forsaking but cursing her Stand not vpon her faults which you shall neuer proue capitall Note only the best Parent might haue brought forth are bellious sonne to be stoned What then Doe we preferre duetie to piety and so plead for our holy mother Church that we neglect our heauenly Father yea offend him See what you say It must needes be an holy mother that cannot be pleased without the displeasure of God A good wife that opposes such an husband a good sonne that vpbraides this vniustly Therfore is she a Church your mother holy because she bred you to God cleaues to him obeyes his commaundements and commaunds them And so farre is shee from this desperate contradiction that she voweth not to hold you for her sonne vnlesse you honour God as a father It is a wilful slaunder that you could not but heynously transgresse vnder her I dare take it vpon my soule that all your transgression which you should necessarily haue incurred by her obedience is nothing so heynous as your vnchariblenesse in your censures and disobedience Conscience is a common plea euen to those you hate we inquire not how strong it is but how well informed not whether it suggest this but whereuppon To goe against the conscience is sinne to follow a mis-informed conscience is sinne also If you do not the first we know you are faulty in the second He that is greater then the conscience will not take this for an excuse But wherein should haue beene this transgression so vnauoidable heynous against conscience First in the want of many Ordinances to which we are most strictly bound both by Gods word and our owne necessities SECTION XVIII The want of pretended Ordinances of God whether sinfull to vs and whether they are to be set vp without Princes CAn you thinke this hangs well together You should here want many of Gods ordinances why should you want them Because you are not suffered to inioy them who hinders it Superior powers Did euer man willfully and heynously offend for wanting of that which he could not haue What hath conscience to doe with that which is out of our power Is necessity with you become a sinne and that haynous Dauid is driuen to lurke in the wildernesse and forced to want the vse of many diuine Ordinances It was his sorrow not his transgression He complaines of this but doth he accuse himselfe of sinne Not to desire them had beene sinne no sin to be debat'd them Well might this be Sauls sin but not his Haue you not sinnes enow of your owne that you must needes borrow of others But I see your ground You are bound to haue these Ordinances and therefore without Princes yea against them so it is your transgression to want them in spight of Magistrates Gaudentius the Donatist taught you this of old And this is one of the Hebrew songs which Master Bâ—rrow sings to vs in Babylon that we care not to make Christ attend vpon Princes and to be subiect to their lawes and gouernment and his Predecessor the roote of your sect tels vs in this sense the kingdome of heauen must suffer violence and that it comes not with obseruation that men may say Loe the Parliament or loe the Bishops decrees and in the same treatise The Lords kingdome must wait on your policy forsooth and his Church must be framed to your ciuill state c. Iust as that Donatist of old in Augustine Quid vobis c. What haue you to doe with worldly Emperours and as that other in Optatus Quid Imperatori cum Ecclesia What hath the Emperour to doe with the Church Yea your Martyr feares not to teach vs that Gods seruants being as yet priuate men may and must together build his Church though all the Princes of the world should prohibit the same vpon paine of death Belike then you should sin haynously if you should not be rebels The question is not whether we shold aske leaue of Princes to be Christians but whether of Christian Princes wee should aske leaue to establish circumstances of gouernment God must be serued thogh we suffer our blood is wel bestowed vpon our maker but in patience not in violence Priuate profession is one thing Publique reformation iniunction is another Euery man must doe that in the maine none may doe this but they of whom God saies I haue said ye are Gods and of them There is difference betwixt Christian and Heathen Princes If at least al Princes were not to you Heathen If these should haue beene altogether stayed for Religion had come late If the other should not be stayed for Religion would soone be ouer layd with confusion Lastly the body of Religion is one thing the skyrts of outward gouernment another that may not depend on men to be imbraced or with loyalty prosecuted these vpon those generall rules Christ both may and doe and must If you cut off but one lappe of these with Dauid you shall be touched To denie this power to Gods Deputies on earth what is it but ye take too much vpon you Moâ—es and Aaron all the Congregation is holy wherefore lift ye your selues aboue the Congregation of the Lord See if herein you come not too neere the walles of that Rome which ye so abhorre and accurse in ascribing such power to the Church none to Princes Let your Doctor tell you whether the best Israelites in the times of Abijah Asa Iehosaphat Ezekiah Iosiah tooke vpon them to reforme without or before or against their Princes Yea did Nehemiah himselfe without Artahshaht though an heathen King set vpon the walles of Gods City Or what did Zerubbabel and Ieshua without Cyrus In whose time Haggai and Zechariah prophesied indeede but built not And when contrary Letters came from aboue they laid by both Trowels and Swords They would bee Iewes still they would not be rebels for God Had those Letters inioyned Swines flesh or Idolatry or forbidden the vse of the law those which now yeelded had suffered and at once testified their obedience to authority and piety to him that sittes in the assembly of these earthen Gods I vrge no more Perhaps you are more wise or lesse mutinous you might easily therefore purge your conscience from this sinne of wanting what you might not perforce enioy Say that your Church should imploy you backe to this our Babylon for the calling out of more Proselites you are intercepted imprisoned Shall it bee sinne in you not to heare the Prophesies at Amsterdam The Clinke is a lawfull excuse If your feete be bound your conscience is not bound In these
be iudge So doe we value your detestation as you his It were well for you if you eschued these enormities lesse and hell more Your sinfull subiection to these vnchristian humours will proue more fearefull then to our Antichristian enormities SECTION XXII The Church of England is the Spouse of Christ. SHE may be your Mother you say and not the Lords Wife It is a good Mother that hath Children and no husband Why did you not call her plaine whore Your old Embleme is As is the Mother so is the Daughter These are the modest circumlocutions of a good sonne who cares not to proue himselfe a bastard that his mother may bee mark't for an Harlot Be you a true Lo-ammi but England shall neuer I hope proue an Apostate Israel We haue no Calues in our Dan and Bethel none of Ieroâ—oams Idolatry VVee haue still called God Ishi and neuer burnt incense to Baalim It is your sinagogue that hath fallen away from vs as Israel from Iuda But these children were bidden to plead Gods command shields them from the note of vngracious Abraham must sacrifice his sonne and this sonne must condemne his Mother shew vs either our equall desert or your equall warrant VVhere hath God proclamed our Church not his By whose hand hath he published her diuorce You haue shamed her wombe not she her bed not God her demeanure Your tongues are your owne who can forbid you VVe know you will plead and excuse and censure and defend till all the world be weary we may pray with Hierome to this sense that of the Psalmist Increpa Domine bestias calami yet wee see your pens tongues and presses busie and violent I will not apply to you that which Augustine of his Donatists Though truth compell you to be dumbe yet iniquitie will not suffer you to be silent But if you write whole Marts and worlds of volumes you shall neuer be able either to iustifie your innocence or excuse your fault In the meane time the noyse of your contentions is so great that your truth cannot bee heard Learned Iunius and our learnedst Diuines and neighbour Churches haue oft heard your clamors neuer your truth So little haue you of this and so much of the other that we are ready to wish as he of old either our selues deafe or you dumb SECTION XXIII How the Church of England hath separated from Babylon THe spirit of your Proto-Martyr would hardly haue digested this Title of Babylon Mother of Gods people a murdering Step-mother rather She cannot be a Mother of Chilâ—ren to God and no Church of God Notwithstanding Gods people would he say may be in her not of her So Babylon bore them not but Sion in Babylon But I feare not your excesse of charity You fly to your Doctors challenge and aske what we say against you for vs which Rome wil not say for her selfe against vs Will you iustifie this plea of Rome or not If you will why doe you reuile her If you will not why doe you obiect it Heare then what we say both to you and them our enemies both and yet the enemies of our enemies First we disclaime and defie your Pedigree and theirs The Church of Rome was neuer our Mothers Mother Our Christian faith came not from the seuen-hilles Neither was deriued either from Augustine the Monke or Pope Gregory Britanny had a worthy Church before either of them look't into the world It is true that the ancient Roman Church was Sister to ours here was neare kindred no dependance And not more consanguinitie then while she continued faithfull Christian loue Now she is gone a whoring her chast Sister iustly spitteth at her yet euen still if you distinguish as your learned Antagonist hath taught you betwixt the Church and Papacy Shee acknowledges her Sisterhood though she refraines her coÌ„uersation as she hath many slauish and factious abettors of her knowne and grosse errors to whom we deny this title affirming them the body whereof Antichrist is the head the great whore and mother of abhominations so againe how many thousands hath shee which retayning the foundation according to their knowledge as our learned Whitakers had wont to say of Bernard follow Absolom with a simple heart all which to reiect from Gods Church were no better theÌ„ presumptuous cruelty It were well for you before God the world if you could as easiely wash your hands of vn-naturall impiety and trecherousnesse as we of bastardy vniust sequestration There can be no bastardy where was neuer any motherhood wee were nephews to that Church neuer sons vnlesse as Rome was the Mother citie of the world so by humane institution we suffered our selues to bee ranged vnder her Patriarchall authority as being the most famous Church of the West a matter of courtesie and pretended Order no necessity no spirituall obligation As for our sequestration your mouth and theirs may be stopt with this answer As all corrupted Churches so some things the Church of Rome still holds aright a true God in three persons true Scriptures though with addition a true Christ though mangled with foule and erroneous consequences true Baptisme though shamefully deformed with rotten traditions many other vndenyable truths of God some other things and too many her wicked Apostasie hath deuised and maintained abhominably amisse the body of her Antichristianisme grosse errours and by iust sequel heresies their Popes supremacy infallibility illimitation transubstantiation idolatrous and superstitious worshippe and a thousand other of this branne In regard of all these latter we professe to the world a iust and auncient separation from this false faith and deuotion of the Romish Church which neither you will say nor they shall euer proue faulty yea rather they haue in all these separated from vs who stil irrefragably professe to hold with the auncient from whom they are departed In regard of the other we are stil with them holding and embracing with them what they holde with Christ neither will you I thinke euer prooue that in these we should differ As for our communion they haue separated vs by their proude and foolish excommunications if they had not wee would iustly haue begunne from their Tyranny and Antichristianisme from their miserable Idolatrie but as for the bodie of their poore seduced Christians which remaine amongst them vpon the true foundation as doubtlesse there are thousands of them which laugh at their Pardons Miracles Superstitions and their trust in merites reposing only vpon Christ we adhere to them in loue and pitty and haue testified our affection by our blood ready vpon any iust call to doe it more neither would feare to ioyne with them in any true seruice of our common God But the full discourse of this point that honourable and learned plesses hath so forstalled that whatsoeuer 〈◊〉 say would seeme but borrowed Vnto his rich Treatise I referre my Reader for full satisfaction
Would God this point were throughly known and well weighed on all partes The neglect or ignorance whereof hath both bred and nursed your separation and driuen the weake and inconsiderate into strange extremities This say we for our selues in no more charity then truth But for you how dare you make this shamelesse Comparison Can your heart suffer your tong to say that there is no more diffrence betwixt Rome and vs then there is betwixt vs and you How many hundred errours how many damnable heresies haue we euinced with you in that so compounded Church shew vs but one mis-opinion in our Church that you can proue within the ken of the foundation Let not zeale make you impudent Your Doctor could say ingenuously sure that in the doctrines which she professeth she is farr better and purer then that Whore mother of Rome and your last Martyr yet better If you mean saith he by a Church as the most doe that publique profession whereby men do professe saluation to be had by the death and righteousnesse of Iesus Christ I am free from denying any Church of Christ to be in this land for I know the Doctrine touching the holy Trinity the natures and Offices of the Lord Iesus free iustification by him both the Sacraments c. published by her Maiesties authority and commanded by her lawes to be the Lords blessed and vndoubted truthes without the knowledge and profession whereof no saluation is to be had Thus he with some honesty though little sense If therfore your will do not stand in your light you may well see why we should thus forsake their Communion and yet not you ours Yet though their corruptions be incomparably more wee haue not dared to separate so farre from them as you haue done from vs for lesse Still wee holde them euen a visible Church but vnsound sicke dying sicke not of a consumption onely but of a leprosie or plague so is the Papacy to the Church diseases not more deadly then infectious If they be not rather in Sardies taking of whom the spirit of God saieth Thou hast a name that thou liuest but thou art dead and yet in the next words bidds them awake and strengthen the things which are ready to die And though our iudgement and practise haue forsaken their erroneous doctrines and seruice yet our charity if you take that former distinction hath not vtterly forsaken and condemned their persons This is not our coolenesse but equality your reprobation of vs for them hath not more zeale then headstrong vncharitablenesse SECTION XXIIII The Separation made by our holy Martyrs BVt how could you without blushing once name Cranmer Latimer and those other holy-Martyres which haue beene so oft obiected to the conuiction of your schisme Those Saints so forsooke the Romish Church as wee haue done died witnesses of Gods truth in that Church from which you are separated Liued Preached gouerned shed their blood in the communion of the Church of England which you disclaime and condemne as no Church of God as merely Antichristian Either of necessity they were no Martyrs yea no Christians or else your separations and censures of vs are wicked Chuse whether you will They were in the same case with vs wee are in the same case with them no difference but in time eyther their blood will be vpon your heads or your owne This Church had then the same constitution the same confusion the same worshippe the same Ministery the same gouernement which you brand with Antichristianisme swayed by the holy hands of these men of God condemne them or allow vs. For their separation They found many main errours of doctrine in the Church of Rome in the Papacy nothing but errours worth dying for shew vs one such in ours and wee will not onely approue your separation but imitate it SECTION XXV What separation England hath made THE Church of England dooth not now wash her hands of Babilonish abhominations but rather shewes they are cleane Would God they were no more foule with your slander then her owne Antichristianisme Here will bee found not pretences but proofes of our forsaking Babylon of your forsaking vs not so much as wel-coloured pretences You beginne to be ingenuous while you confesse a reformation in the Church of England not of some corruptions but many and those many not sleight but maine The gifts of aduersaries are thankelesse As Ierom said of his Ruffinus so may we of you that you wrong vs with praises This is no more praise then your next page giues to Antichrist himselfe Leaue out Many and though your commendations be more vncertaine we shall accept it so your indefinite proposition shall sound to vs as generall That we haue reformed the maine corruptions of the Romish Church None therefore remaine vpon vs but sleight and superficiall blemishes so you haue forsaken a Church of a foule skinne but of a sound heart for want of beauty not of truth But you say many not All that if you can picke a quarrell with one you might reiect all yet shewe vs that one maine and substantiall error which we haue not reformed and you doe not more embrace those truths with vs which we haue receiued then we will condemne that falshood which you haue reiected and imbrace the truth of that Separation which you haue practised The degrees whereby that strumpet of Babylon got on Horse-back you haue learned of vs who haue both learned and taught that as Christ came not abruptly into the world but with many presages and prefigurations The day was long dawning ere this Sunne arose so his aduersary that Antichrist breaks not suddenly vpon the Church but comes with much preparation and long expectance and as his rise so his fall must be graduall and leisurely Why say you then that the whole Church euery where must at once vtterly fall off from that Church where that man of sinne sitteth His fall depends on the fall of others or rather their rising from vnder him If neither of these must be sudden why is your hast But this must not be yet ought as there must be heresies yet there ought not It is one thing what God hath secretly decreede another what must be desired of vs If we could pull that Harlot from her seate and put her to Iezebels death it were happy Haue we not endeuoured it VVhat speake you of the hyest Towers and strongest pillers or tottering remainders of Babylon we shew you all her roofes bare her walles raced her vaults diged vp her monuments defaced her altars sacrificed to desolation Shortly al her buildings demolished not a stone vpon a stone saue in rude heapes to tell that here once was Babylon Your strife goes about to build againe that her tower of confusion God deuides your languages It wil be wel if yet you build not more then we haue reserued SECTION XXVI The maine grounds of separation YOV will now
be free both in your profession and gift You giue vs to haue renounced many false Doctrins in Popery and to haue imbraced so many truths We take it vntill more You professe where you sticke what you mislike In those foure famous heades which you haue learned by heart from all your predecessors An hatefull Prelacy A deuised Ministery a confused and prophane communion and lastly the intermixture of grieuous errors What if this truth were taught vnder an hatefull Prelacy Suppose it were so Must I not imbrace the truth because I hate the Prelacy What if Israel liue vnder the hatefull Egyptians What if Ieremy liue vnder hatefull Pashur What if the Iewes liue vnder an hateful Priesthood What if the disciples liue vnder hatefull Scribes What are others persons to my profession If I may be freely allowed to be a true professed Christian what care I vnder whose hands But why is our Prelacy hatefull Actiuely to you or passiuely from you In that it hates you Would God you were not more your owne enemies Or rather because you hate it Your hatred is neither any newes nor paine Who or what of ours is not hatefull to you Our Churches Belles Clothes Sacraments Preachings Prayers Singings Catechismes Courts Meetings Burialles Mariages It is maruell that our aire infects not and that our heauen and earth as Optatus said of the Donatists escape your hatred Not the forwardest of our Preachers as you tearme theÌ„ haue found any other entertainment no enemy could be more spightfull I speake it to your shame Rome it selfe in diuers controuersary discourses hath bewrayed lesse gall then Amsterdam The better they are to others you professe they are the worse yea would to God that of Paule were not verified of you hatefull and hating one another But we haue learned that of wise Christians not the measure of hatred should be respected but the desert Dauid is hatred for no cause Michaiah for a good cause Your causes shall be examined in their places onwards it were happy if you hated your owne sinnes more and peace lesse our prelacy would trouble you lesse and you the Church SECTION XXVII The truth and warrant of the Ministery of England FOr our deuised office of Ministery you haue giuen it a true title It was deuised indeed by our Sauiour when he said go teach all Nations and Baptise and performed in continuance when hee gaue some to be Pastors and Teachers and not only the office of Ministery in generall but ours whom hee hath made both able to teach and desirous seperated vs for this cause to the worke vpon due tryall admitted vs ordayned vs by imposition of handes of the Eldershippe and prayer directed vs in the right diuision of the word committed a charge to vs followed our Ministery with power and blessed our labours with gratious successe euen in the hearts of those whose tongues are thus busie to denie the truth of our vocation Behold here the deuised Office of â—our Ministery What can you deuise against this Your Pastor who as his brother writes hopes to worke wonders by his Logicall skill hath killed vs with seuen Arguments which hee professeth the quintessence of his owne and Penryes extractions whereto your Doctor referres vs as absolute I would it were not tedious or worth a Readers labour to see them scanned I protest before God and the world I neuer read more grosse stuffe so boldly and peremptorily faced out so full of Tautologies and beggings of the Question neuer to bee yeelded Let mee yet mention the maine heads of them and for the rest be sory that I may not be endlesse To proue therefore that no communion may be had with the Ministery of the Church of England he vses these seuen Demonstrations First Because it is not that Ministery which Christ gaue and set in his Church Secondly Because it is the ministerie of Antichrists Apostasie Thirdly Because none can communicate with the ministery of England but he worshippes the beasts Image and yeeldeth spirituall subiection to Antichrist Fourthly Because this ministery deriueth not their power and functions from Christ Fiftly Because they minister the holy things of God by vertue of a false spirituall calling Sixthly Because iâ— is a strange ministery not appointed by God in his word Seuenthly Because it is not from heauen but from men Now I beseech thee Christian Reader iudge whether that which this man was wont so oft to obiect to his brother a crack't braine appeare not plainely in this goodly equipage of reasons for what is al this but one and the same thing tumbled seuen times ouer which yet with seuen thousand times babling shall neuer be the more probable That our ministery was not giuen and set in the Church by Christ but Antichristian what is it else to be from men to bee strange to be a false spirituall calling not to bee deriued from Christ to worship the Image of the beast So this great Challenger that hath abridged his nine Arguments to seuen might aswell haue abridged his seuen to one and a halfe Here would haue beene as much substance but lesse glory As for his maine defence First wee may not either haue or expect now in the Church that ministery which Christ set Where are our Apostles prophets Euangelists If we must alwayes looke for the very same administration of the Church which our Sauiour left why doe wee not challenge these extraordinary functions Doe we not rather thinke since it pleased him to beginne with those Offices which should not continue that herein he purposely intended to teach vs that if wee haue the same heauenly busines done we should not be curious in the circumstances of the persons But for those ordinary callings of Pastors and Doctors intended to perpetuity with what forehead can hee denie them to bee in our Church How many haue we that conscionably teach and feede or rather feede by teaching Call them what you please Superintendents that is Bishoppes Prelates Priests Lecturers Parsons Vicars c. If they preach Christ truly vpon true inward abilities vpon a sufficient if not perfect outward vocation such a one let all Histories witnesse for the substance as hath bin euer in the Church since the Apostles times they are Pastors and Doctors allowed by Christ We stand not vpon circumstances and appendances of the fashions of ordination manner of choyce attire titles maintenance but if for substance these be not true Pastors and Doctors Christ had neuer any in his Church since the Apostles left the earth All the difficulty is in our outward calling Let the Reader graunt our graue and learned Bishoppes to be but Christians and this will easily be euinced lawfull euen by their rules For if with them euery plebeian artificer hath power to elect and ordaine by vertue of his Christian profession the act of the worthiest standing for all how
our Prelacy be Antichristian TO the particular instances I aske where are the proud towers of their Vniuersall Hierarchy You answere roundly One in Lambeth another in Fulham c. What Vniuersall Did euer any of our Prelates challenge all the world as his Diocesse Is this simplicitie or malice If your Pastor tell vs that as well a world as a Prouince Let me returne it If he may be Pastor ouer a Parlour full Why not of a Citie And if of a Citie why not of a Nation But these you will proue vnruinated Towers of that Babell You aske therefore whether the office of Archbishops Bishops and the rest of that ranke were not in Queene Maries daies partes of that accursed Hierarchy and members of that man of sin Doubtlesse they were Who can deny it But now say you they haue the same Ecclesiasticall iurisdiction continued This is your miserable Sophistry Those Popish Arch-bishoppes and Bishoppes and Clergie were members of Antichrist not as Church-Gouernours but as Popish While they swore subiection to him while they defended him whiles they worshipt him aboue all that is called God and extorted this homage from others how could they be other but limmes of that man of sinne shall others therefore which defie him resist trample vpon him spend their liues and labours in oppugnation of him be necessarily in the same case because in the same roome Let me helpe your Anabaptists with a sound Argument The Princes Peeres and Magistrates of the land in Queene Maries dayes were shoulders and armes of Antichrist their calling is still the same therefore now they are such Your Master Smith vppon no other ground disclaimeth Infants Baptisme crying out that this is the maine relique of Antichristianisme But see how like a wise Master you confute your selfe They are still members of the bodie though the head the Pope bee cutte off The head is Antichrist therefore the body without the head is no part of Antichrist Hee that is without the head Christ is no member of Christ so contrarily I heare you say the very Iurisdiction and office is here Antichristian not the abuse What in them and not in al Bishops since and in the Apostles times Alas who are you that you should oppose al Churches times ignorance of Church-story not distinguishing betwixt substances and appendances personall abuses and callings hath ledde you to this errour Yet since you haue reckoned vp so many Popes let me helpe you with more Was there not one in Lambeth when Doctor Cranmer was there One in Fulham when Ridly was there One in Worcester when Latimer was there One at Winchester when Philpot was there We will goe higher Was not Hilarius at Arles Paulinus at Nola. Primasius at Vtica Eucherius at Lyons Cyrill at Alexandria Chrysostome at Constantinople Augustine at Hippo Ambrose at Milaine What should I be infinite Was not Cyprian at Carthage Euodius and after him Ignatius in S. Iohns time at Antioch Polycarpus at Smyrna Philip at Cesarea Iames and Simeon and Cleophas at Hierusalem and by much consent of Antiquity Titus in Creet Timothy at Ephesus Marke at Alexandria yea to be short was there not euery where in all ages an allowed superiority of Church-Gouernours vnder this title Looke into the frequent Subscriptions of all Councels and their Canons Looke into the Registers of all times and finde your selfe aunswered Let reuerend Caluin be our Aduocate I would desire no other words to confute you but his He shall tell you that euen in the Primitiue Church the Presbiters chose one out of their number in euery City whom they titled their Bishop least dissention should arise from equality Let Hemingius teach you that this was the practise of the purest Church Thus it was euer and if Princes haue pleased to annexe either large maintenances or stiles of higher dignity and respect vnto these doe their additions annihilate them Hath their double honour made voide their callings Why more then extreme needinesse If Aristotle would not allow a Priest to be a tradesman yet Paul could yeeld to homely Tent-making if your Elders grow rich or noble doe they cease to bee or beginne to be vnlawfull But in how many volumes hath this point beene fully discussed I list not to gleane after their full Carts SECTION XXXI The iudgement and practise of other Reformed Churches FRom your owne Verdict you descend to the testimonies of all reformed Churches I blush to see so wilfull a slaunder fall from the penne of a Christian That all Reformed Churches renounce our Prelacy as Antichristian what one hath done it Yea what one forraine Diuine of note hath not giuen to our Clergy the right hand of fellowshippe so farre is it from this that I. Alasco was the allowed Bishoppe of our first Reformed strangers in this land so farre that when your Doctor found himselfe vrged by M. Spr. with a cloud of witnesses for our Church and ministery as Bucer Martyr Fagius Alasco Caluin Beza Bullinger Gualter Simler Zanchius Iunius Rollocus and others he had nothing to say for himselfe but Though you come against vs with Horse-men and Chariots yet wee will remember the name of the Lord our God and turnes it off with the accusation of a Popish plea and reference to the practise of the Reformed And if therefore they haue so renounced it because their practise receiues it not VVhy like a true make-bate doe you not say that our Churches haue so renounced their Gouernement These sisters haue learned to differ and yet to loue and reuerence each other and in these cases to enioy their owne formes without prescription of necessity or censure Let reuerend Beza bee the Trumpet of all the rest who tells you that the Reformed English Churches cōtinue vpheld by the authority of Bishops Archbishopps that they haue had men of that ranke both famous martyrs and worthy Pastors and Doctors and lastly congratulates this blessing to our Church or let Hemingius tell you the iudgement of the Danish Church Iudicat caeteros ministros c. it iudgeth saith he that other ministers should obey their Bishoppes in all things which make to the edification of the Church c. But what doe I oppose any to his name-lesse All his owne silence confutes him enough in my silence SECTION XXXII Our Synodes determination of things indifferent THere was neuer a more idle and beggerly cauill then your next your Christian Reader must needs thinke you hard driuen for quarrels when you are faine to fetch the Popes infallibility out of our Synode whose flat decree it was of old That euen general Councels may erre haue erred But wherin doth our facred Synod assume this infallibility in her determinations VVherefore is a Synode if not to determine But of thinges reputed indifferent VVhat else are subiect to the constitutions of men Good and euill are either directly or by
must face it out Let any Reader iudge how farre our practise in this hath dissented from our doctrine would to God in nothing more Yes saith this good friend in the most other things our wordes professe our deeds denie at once you make vs hypocrites and your selues Pharises Let all the world know that the English Church at Amsterdam professeth nothing which it practiseth not we may not be so holy or so happy Generality is a notable shelter of vntruth Manie moe you say Popish deuises yet name none No you cannot Aduanced aboue al that is called God surely this is a paradoxe of slaunders you meant at once to shame vs with falshoode and to appose vs with Riddles we say to the highest whom haue wee in heauen but thee and for earth your selfe haue granted we giue too much to Princes which are earthen Gods and may come vnder Pauls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eyther name our Deity or craue mercy for your wrong certainely though you haue not remorse yet you shall haue shame SECTION XLV The Churches still retained in England THe Maiesty of the Romish Petty-gods I truely told you was long agone with Mythra and Serapis exposed to the laughter of the vulgar you straine the comparison too farre yet we follow you Their Priests were expelled for as your Doctor yeeldeth other Actors came vpon the same Stage others in religion else it had beene no change Their Ministery and Monuments exposed to vtter scorne Their Masses their oblations their adorations their inuocations their anoylings their exorcizings their shrift their absolutions their Images roode loftes and whatsoeuer else of this kind But the Temples of those olde Heathens were demolished and raced Here is the quarrell ours stand still in their proude Maiesty Can you see no difference betwixt our Churches and their Temples The very name it selfe if at least you haue vnderstood it Kirke or Church which is nothing but an abbreuiation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lords house might haue taught you that ours were dedicated to God and theirs to the Diuel in their false gods Augustine answeres you as directly as if he were in my roome The Gentiles saith he to their Gods erected Temples we not Temples vnto our Martyrs as vnto Gods but memorials as vnto dead men whose spirits with God are still liuing These then if they were abused by Popish Idolatrie is there no way but downe with them downe with them to the ground Well fare the Donatists yet your olde friends they but washed the walles that were polluted by the Orthodoxe By the same token that Optatus askes them why they did not wash the bookes which ours touched and the heauens which they look't vpon What are the very stones sinfull what can be done with them The very earth where they should lie on heapes would be vncleane But not their pollution angers you more then their proud Maiesty What house can be too good for the maker of all Things As God is not affected with state so is he not delighted in basenesse If the pompe of the Temple were ceremoniall yet it leaues this morality behinde it that Gods house should be decent and what if goodly If we did put holines in the stones as you doe vncleanenesse it might be sinne to be costly Let mee tell you there may bee as much pride in a clay wall as in a carued Proude Maiestie is better then proud basenesse The stone or clay will offend in neither we may in both If you loue Cottages the auncient Christians with vs loued to haue Gods house stately as appeares by the example of that worthie Bishoppe of Alexandria and that gratious Constantine in whose daies these sacred piles began to lift vp their heads vnto this enuyed height Take you your owne choice giue vs ours let vs neither repine nor scorne at each other SECTION XLVI The Founders and Furnitures of our Churches ALl this while I feared you had beene in Popish Idolatrie now I finde you in Heathenish These our Churches are still possessed by their Flamins and Arch-Flamins I had thought none of our Temples had beene so auncient Certainely I finde but one poore tuinous building reported to haue worne out this long tyranny of time For the most you might haue read their age and their Founders in open Records But these were deriued from those surely the Churches as much as the men It is true the Flamins and what euer other heathen Priests were put down Christian Bishoppes were set vp Are these therfore deriued from those Christianity came in the roome of Iudaisme was it therefore deriued from it Before you tolde vs that our Prelacy came from that Antichrist of Rome now from the Flamins of the Heathen Both no lesse then either If you cannot bee true yet learne to be constant But what meane you to charge our Churches with carued and painted Images It is wel you write to those that know them Why did you not say wee bow our knees to them and offer incense perhaps you haue espied some old dustie statue in an obscure corner couer'd ouer with Cob-webs with halfe a face and that miserably blemished or perhappes halfe a Crucifixe inuerted in a Church-window and these you surely noted for English Idols no lesse dangerous glasse you might haue seene at Geneua a Church that hates Idolatrie as much as you doe vs What more Massing copes and Surplices some copes if you will more Surplices no Massing Search your Bookes againe you shall finde Albes in the Masse no Surplices As for Organ-musicke you should not haue fetch 't it from Rome but from Ierusalem In the Reformed Church at Middleburgh you might haue found this skirt of the Harlot which yet you grant at least crept out of Babylon Iudge now Christian reader of the weight of these grand exceptions and see whether ten thousand such were able to make vs no Church and argue vs not only in Babilon but to be Babilon it selfe Thus Babilonish we are to you and thus Sion-like to God euerie true Church is Gods Sion euerie Church that holdes the foundation is true according to that golden rule Ephes. 2. 21. Euery building that is coupled together in this corner stone groweth vnto an holy Temple in the Lord No aduersarie either man or Diuell can confound vs either in our euidences or their owne Challenges wee may be faulty but we are true And if the darknes you finde in vs be light how great is our light SECTION XLVII On what ground separation or Ceremonies was obiected HE that leaues the whole Church in a grosse and wilfull error is an hereticke he that leaues a particular Church for appendances is a schismaticke such are you both in the action and cause The act is yeelded the cause hath beene in part scanned shall be more This I vainely pretended to be our consorting in ceremonies
like some Anti Lot to call for fire and Brimstone from heauen vpon your Zoar. SECTION XLIX The state of the Temple and of our Church in resemblance HOw you would haue behaued your selfe in the Temple to the mony-changers you will aunswer when we proue our Church to be Gods Temple built of that matter and in that form which God hath prescribed and here you send vs to 1. K. 5. 17. 2. Chr. 2. 8. Ignorantly as if Salomons Temple had stood till Christs time when neither the first nor second though called Beth Gnolam out lasted more then foure hundred yeares Or as if the Market had beene vnder the very roofe of that Temple whether Herods were built of the same matter with Salomons and in full corespondence to it I dispute not it was certainely dedicated to Gods seruice and that which you would hardly digest in a solemne anniuersary holy-day though not erected vpon the word of any Prophet But to let passe Allegories we must proue our selues the true Church of God Thus we doe it VVe are true Christians for we were baptized into the name of Christ we truely professe our continuance in the same faith into which we were baptized we ioyne together in the publique seruices of God we maintain euery point of the most ancient Creeds wee ouerthrowe not the foundation by any consequence therefore what euer is wanting to vs what euer is superfluous in spight of all the gates of Hell we are the true Church of God Let me aske you Were not the people of the Iewes in the Prophets and in Christs time a confused heape of dead and defiled and for I will vse your Tautologies polluted stones and of all rubbish of Bryers and brambles of the VVildernesse for the most part fitter for burning then building Can we be worse then they If wickednesse can defile a Church they shal iustifie vs did either those Prophets or our Sauiour rather shewe their obedience to God in departing from it then their valour in purging it you haue well imitated these heauenly patternes But what Can your charity finde nothing but rubbish Not one square stone not one liuing You will bee iudging till God iudge you if you take not heede of these courses you will so runn with the Hee goates that you wil stand with the Goates on the left hand That God whose place you haue vsurped giue you more wisedome and loue SECTION L. Whether Ministers should endure themselues silenced THe valour of our most zealous Reformers hath truely shewed it selfe in yeeldance As in Duels so here he is the most valiant that can so master himselfe as not to fight you according to the common opinion of Swaggerers blame the peaceable of cowardise and accuse them of suffering Behold a newe crime That they suffer themselues to be driuen out VVhat should they haue done Should they haue taken armes and crie the sword of God and Gedion You that wil not allow a Prince to compell subiects VVill you allow subiects to compell Princes God forbidde This were high Treason against Gods annointed what then Should they approue the Ceremonies by subscription by practise This you exclaime vppon as high Treason against the highest VVhat yet more Should they haue preached with their mouthes stop't This is it which you haue learned of your founder and through not many handes receiued and required with no lesse violence Clamour and tumult is that you desire still let our sinne be peaceable obedience yours fury and opposition Your headstrong conceit is that it is a sinne to be silenced Men must preach euen when they may not all times before you would haue wondred at this Paradoxe For how euer the Apostles which had not their calling from men would not be silenced by men yet wee finde that all their successours held that those hands which were layd vpon their heads might be laid vpon their mouthes looke into all Histories Those Constitutions which though not Apostolike yet were auncient in the seuenth Canon punish a Bishop or Presbiter that vpon pretence of Religion separates from his wife with deposition and if any Presbiter shall shift his charge without licence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and lastly inflicts the same penalty vpon fornication adulterie periury The great Nicene Councels take the same order with some misliked Bishops and Presbiters in diuers Canons Gaudentius in the Councell of Sardi takes it for graunted that a Bishop may by Bishops be deposed so the second Councell of Carthage Can. 13. so the fourth Councell of Carthage more then once imposes degradation so Leo the first threats to put some offending persons from the office of their Ministrie so that I may not be endlesse blessed Cyprian aduises Rogatianus a good olde Bishop which was abused by a malapert Deacon by the authority of his Chaire to right himselfe and either to depose or suspend the offender Leontius in Socrates is depriued of his Priesthood yea what Councell or Father giues not both rules and instances of this practise See how farre the auncient Church was from these tumultuous fancies No no M. R. we well finde it is doing that vndoes the Church not suffering If your fellowes could haue suffered more and done lesse the Church had bin happy As for our Church officers you may raile vpon them with a lawlesse safety there is a great ditch betwixt you and them else you might pay deare for this sinne of slandering them with their cheape peny-worths How idly doe you insult ouer those whom your Mony-changers haue driuen out of their Pulpits When you confesse after all your valour that they haue driuen you both out of Church and Country who can pitty a miserable insulter SECTION LI. Power of reforming abuses giuen to the Church and the issue of the neglect of it YOu that can graunt there will be corruptions in all other Churches will endure none in ours If England should haue either vnleauened Wafers or drunken Loue-feasts though no other blemishes she could not but be Babilon Wee enuie not your fauours These or whatsoeuer like enormities Christ hath giuen power vnto his Church to reforme but what if the Church neglect to vse it What if those euils which are brought in by humane frailty will not by diuine authority be purged out Now the errour by your doctrine is growne fundamentall so Christ is lost and the foundation raced if wee shall then assume against our friends to conuince our enemies The Church of Geneua hath been seriously dealt with in this corruption and disswaded by vehement importunity yet still persisteth How can you free them and charge vs see how we loue to be miserable with cōpany This power to purge out all corruptions Christ hath not giuen vs if he hath giuē it you you must first begin to purge out your selues you haue done it but still there remaine some would God wee had as much execution as power Our Church should be
Tâ—uth Sime reprehendas errantem patere me quae so errare cum talibus Aug. Hiâ—r Fr. Iohnsonin his Anâ—w to T. VVh p. 26. Aunsw ag Broughton p. 17 These Dutch Ch. offend not only in practicall disorders but in their Constitution Gouerament wâ—â—sh p c. Troubl and Excom at Amsterd p. 10. Brown charged with it by Barr. Letter to M. Egert â— Iohnson ibid. p. 194. Fr. Iohnson Inq. Act. 15. 38. Departing â— not going with them Barr. Pres. to the Separation dâ—fend In his obseruations p. 251. VVe doe not there condemne the parish Assemblies as separated from Christ but trâ—ue them not as yet gathered to Christ. So Conser â—â—th Sperin p. 9. Fr. Iohnson Inquir pag. 36. H. Bar. Obseruat 242. No faults disanull the being of a Church vntill contempt of Gods word be added thereunto after due conuiction The faults errors of a Church may be seuerely reproued and conuinced according to the quality thereof and yet the Church not be condemned N. B. Iob. â—4 19. Vulg. edit Câ—pr Epi ad Cornel. Non est maius pechcaatum quam Apostat are a Deo Aug. in Ps. 18. Prou. 6. 12. Iob 34. 18. Ezec 2. 3. Apocal. 2. 3 Thou hast laboured and not giuen in Tertâ—l de Pat Si hominibus Plaâ—â—tâ—r Dominus offenditur sivero illud entimur laboramus vt 〈◊〉 dco piacere 〈◊〉 maledicta debemus humana contemnere confessed by M. Iohâ—s loc seq Inq. of Th. VVhite p. 65. Gen 49. 7. Sep. But I will not discourage you in this affection least we find few in the same fault the most in stead of pitty and compassion affoording vs nothing but fury and indignation Cypr. de sâ—â—â—plic prael Quid facit in corde Christiano luporum seritas canum rabies August Confess l. 9. c. 9. Qualâ—a solet eructare turgens indigesta discordia Seâ— The first action laid against vs is of vnnaturalnes and ingratitude towards our mother the Church of England for our causelesse separation from her to which vniust accusation and triuiall querimony our most iust defence hath beene and is that to our knowledge we haue done her no wrong we do freely and with all thankfulnesse acknowledge euery good thing she hath and which our selues haue there receiued H. Barr. Praef. to the separ defended Causes of separ def p. 12. Confer with D. Andr. Praef. to separ def Gyff refuted touch Donat. Obseruat of M. H. Bar. p. 239. Fr. Iohns Reas. 9 ag M. Iac. p. 74. Iohns ag M. Iac. Except 3. Nota Bene. Ibid. Counterpoys pag. 127. 131. Barr. Confer With M. Sperm as Bar hims hath written it pag. 9 Fr. Iob. 7. Reas. aga Iac p. 64. G. Iohns Praef. to the Pastor Russin l. 2. Eccl. hist. c 3. Aug. Epist. Possid in vita Aug. Euseb hist. eccl Damnis grauissimis caedibus afficiebant armati diuersis telis Socrates l. 2. c. 22. 30. Cypr. l. 2. Ep. 8. Nouati pater in vico fame mortuns nec postea ab illo sepultus Sic Optat. l. 1. Purpurus Donatista occidit sororis filios c. G. Iohns Discourse of troubles and Excommunications at Amsterdam printed 1603 Ibid. p. 5. Discouery of Brownisme Vid. G. Iohns booke Inq. into Th. VVh Discou Same Epist. p. 15 They say Fiâ—â—a â—ponsae Mihi accusatio etiam vera contra fratrem displâ—cet Hieron aduersus Ruffin Bar. exam before the Archb. and L. Anderson Browne state of Christians d. 39 Qui non habet quod det quomodo det vox Donat. Opta l. 1 Barrow supra Fr. â—â—hns ag M. Iâ—cob p. 41. 〈◊〉 2. Sep. The superabundant grace of God couering and passing by the manifolde enormitiâ—s in that Church wherewith these good things are inseparably commingled and wherein we also through ignorance and infirmity were inwrapp ed. Sep. But what theÌ„ should we still haue continued in sinne that grace might haue abounded If God haue caused a further truth like a light in a darke place to shine in our hearts should wee still haue mingled that light with darkenesse contrary to the Lords owne practise Ge. 1. 4. and expresse precept 2. Cor. 6. 14. Gen. 1. 2. Es. 5. 20. VVoe to them that put darknesse for light Es. 59. 9. Deu. 21. 22 23. Sep. But the Church of England say you is our Mother and so ought not to be auoided But say I we must not so cleaue to holy mother Church as we neglect our heauenly father and his commandements which we know in that estate we could not but transgresse and that heynously and against our consciences not onely in the want of many Christian Ordinances to which we are most straightly bound both by Gods word and our owne necessities Mater Ecclesia mater est etiam matris nostrae Aug. Ep. 38. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nemo per exteriorem violentiam corrumpitur si interior innocentia custodiatur c. â— q. 3. Custodi c. Ad docendum populum Israeliticum omnipotens deus prophetis praeconium dedi non regibus imperauit Aug. l. 2. contr Gau. c. 11. Barr. causes of scpera def p. 6. Brow Reform without tarrying Aug. contr Petilia n. l. 2. Optatus Mileuit lib. 3â— Barr. 2. Exaâ—â—iâ— nation before the L. Archb. and L. Chiefe-Iustice compar with his reply to M. Gyff Art 5. â— Sam. 24. 6. Num. 16. 3. Counter poys p. 230. 2. Chr. 13. 2. Chr. 14. 15 2. Chr. 29. 2. Chr. 30. 2. Chr. 34. Ezr. 2. 3. 2. Ezr. 4. 23. 24 a August Ep. 58 Pastores autem doctores quâ—s maxime vt discernerem voluisti eosdem puto esse sicut tibi visum est vt non alios Pastores alios Doctores intelligeremus sed ideo cum praedixisset Pastores subiunxisse Doctores vt intelligerent Pastores ad officium suum pertinere doctrinam Barr. ag Gyff inueighs for this cause against the Consistory of Geneâ—a Fr Iohns complaints of the Dutch and Fr. Churches Discription of a visible Church cannot make a Distinct. in the Definition of their Offices State of Christians 119. Descript. of vis Ch. H. Clap. Epist before his treatise of sinne ag the holy Ghost Brownists fourth Position Trouble and â—xcom at Amsterdam Fr. Iohns in a Letter to M. Smith Nulla necessitas maior est charitate Hâ—eron Apol. ad Ruff. Fr. Iun. de Eccl. Sed accidunt persaepe tempora quibus aut noua Ecclesia generatur aut altera pars interumpitur scilicet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 et tamen Ecclesia esse non dâ—sinit formà nimirum essentiali adhuc permanente Act 7. beg Cypr. l. 3. Ep. 9. Meminisse diaconi debent quoniam Apostolos id est Episcopos praepositos Dominus elegit Diaconos autem post ascensum Domini in caelos Apostoli sibi constituerunt Episcopatus su Ecclesiae ministros Rom. 1. 8. 1. Cor. 1. 5. 1. Thess. 1. 7. Gal 4. 15. Phil. 1. 2. Sep. But also in our most sinfull subiection to many Antichristian
as cleane as yours is schismaticall if you should measure faculties by their exercise Naturall rest should be the greatest enemie to vertue and the solitarie Christian should be miserable This power of ours is not dead but sleepeth When it awaketh vnto more frequent vse which we earnestly pray for looke you for the first handsell of it None can be more worthy as it is we offend not more in defect then you in excesse Of whom that your Lazarello of Amsterdam G. I. could say that you haue excommunications as ready as a Prelate hath a prison Christ is in many that feele him not but wee want not the power onely but the presence of Christ How so He was with vs while you were here Did he depart with you will the separatists engrosse our Sauiour to themselues and as Cyprian said of Pupianus goe to heauen alone yea confine the God of heauen to Amsterdam What insolence in this we haue him in his Word wee haue him in his Sacraments we haue him in our hearts we haue him in our profession yet this enemie dare say we want him Wherein I suppose in our censures VVe haue Peters keyes as his true successours both in office and doctrine our fault is that we vse them not as you would VVhat Church doth so your first Martyr doth as zealously inueigh against the practise of Geneua and all other reformed Congregations in this point as against vs both for the wooden dagger as he termes it of suspension and for their Consistoriall excommunications VVoe were to all the world if Christ should limit his presence onely to your fashions Heere you found him and heere you left him VVould to God wee did no more grieue him with our sinnes then you please him in your presumptuous censures in the rest you raile against our Prelates and vs Can any man think that Christ hath left peaceable spirits to goe dwell with railers Indeed yours is free-hold so you wold haue it free from subiection free from obedience This is loosenesse more then liberty You haue broken the bonds and cast the cordes from you but you miscall our Tenure VVe hate villenage no lesse then you hate peace and hold in capite of him that is the head of his body the Church vnder whose easie yoake wee doe willingly stoope in a sweet Christian freedome abhorring and reprouing and therefore notwithstanding our personall communion auoiding all abhominations In these two respects therefore of our confusion and bondage wee haue well seene in this discourse how iustly your Sion accounts vs Babylon since it is apparent for the one that here is neither confusion nor Babylonish nor without separation For the other no bondage no seruility Our Prelats being our Fathers not our Masters and if Lords for their external dignity yet not Lords of our Faith and if both these your respects were so yet so long as we doe inviolably hold the foundation both directly and by necessary sequell any railer may terme vs but no Seperatist shall proue vs Babylon you may flye whether you list would God yet further vnlesse you had more loue SECTION LII The view of the sinnes and disorders of others whereupon obiected and how farre it should affect vs. I Neede no better Analyser then your selfe saue that you doe not onely resolue my parts but adde more whereas euery motion hath a double terme from whence and whither both these could not but fall into our discourse hauing therefore formerly expostulated with you for your since you will so terme it impiety in forsaking a ceremonious Babylon of your owne making in England I thought it not vnfit to compare your choice with your refusall England with Amsterdam which it pleaseth you to intitle a substantiall Babylon impiety and madnes are titles of your owne choice let your guiltinesse be your owne accuser The truth is my charity and your vncharitablenes haue caused vs to mistake each other my charity thus Hearing both at Middleburgh and here that certaine companies from the parts of Nottingham and Lincolne whose Harbinger had beene newly in Zeland before me meant to retyre themselues to Amsterdam for their full libertie not for the full approbation of your Church not fauouring your maine opinions but emulating your freedome in too much hate of our ceremonies and too much accordance to some grounds of your hatred I hoped you had beene one of their guides both because Lincoln-shire was your Country and Master Smith your Oracle and Generall Not daring therefore to charge you with perfect Brownisme what could I thinke might bee a greater motiue to this your supposed change then the view of our so oft proclaimed wickednesse and the hope of lesse cause of offence in those forraine parts this I vrged fearing to goe deeper then I might bee sure to warrant Now comes my charitable answerer and imputes this easines of my challenge to my ignorance and therefore will needes perswade his Christian reader that I knew nothing of the first separation because I obiected so little to the second It were strange if I should thinke you gather Churches there by Town-rowes as we in England who know that some one prison might hold all your refined flocke you gathered here by Hedge-rowes but there it is easier to tell how you diuide then how you gather let your Church be an intire body inioying her owne spirituall communion yet if it be not a corrasiue to your heart to conuerse in the same streetes and to be ranged in the same Towne-rowes with Iewes Arians Anabaptists c. you are no whit of kinne to him that vexed his righteous soule with the vncleanenesses of foule Sodom That good man had nothing but ciuill society with those impure neighbours he differed from them in Religion in practise yet could hee not so carelesly turne off this torment His house was Gods Church wherein they had the spirituall communion of the Saints yet whiles the Citie was so vncleane his heart was vnquiet We may you graunt haue ciuill society with ill men spirituall communion onely with Saints Those must be accounted the world these onely the Church your owne allegations shall condemne you They are not of the world saith Christ as I am not of the world Both Christ and they were partes of the Iewish Church The Iewish Church was not so sanctified but the most were extreamely vncleane therefore wee may bee partes of a visible vnsanctified Church and yet be separate from the world Saint Paul writes to his Corinthians sanctified in Christ Saints by calling True but not long after he can say ye are yet carnall In his second Epistle Come out saith he from among them But from whom From Infidels by profession not corrupted Christians SECTION LIII The nearenesse of the State and Church and the great errours found by the Separatists in the French and Dutch Churches THE Church and State if they be two