of more credit concerning the Antiquity of Infant-baptism then Augustines who as I shew Apology sect 6. and elsewhere did often inconsiderately call that an Apostolical tradition which was commonly observed in his dayes within the compass of his acquaintance Cyprians speech if it be rightly brought by Mr. B. will prove all still-born Infants to be lost being not of the visible Church Catholick That which Mr. B. page 266. saith fully satisfies him part of it is false the rest so frivolous that I can impute his satisfaction to no other cause then his inconsiderateness The very same or like plea will serve for communion of young children in which yet Mr. B. is not satisfied But to me it is very good satisfaction that baptizing of Infants is but an innovation neither agreeing with the institution of Christ nor the Apostles practise nor known till it began to be conceived necessary to give grace and to save from perishing yet then disswaded and not practised but in case of iminent danger of death nor maintained on any other ground till Zuinglius his dayes What the Churches of Anabaptists so called have done in London that Mr. B. should so much lament till I know what it is I take to be a Calumny That Anabaptists have been in danger by the instigations of Preachers and writers it is a marvel to me that Mr. B. should not understand who can hardly be ignorant whence the ordinance against blasphemies and heresies came That any of my Antagonists are turned out of house and home is unknown to me surely not for non-conformity to rebaptizing most certain that if any such thing hath been done it was never by my procurement nor I think any of the Churches of Anabaptists That which Mr. B. page 267. saies that the same men that subscribe the Anabapiists confession have many of them written other kind of doctrine elsewhere I doubt whether it be true I find him onely naming Paul Hobson page 147. and citing some passages of his of which that which is most liable to exception Mr. B. himself gives us this excuse in his Saints evelasting rest part 2. chap. 1. sect 2. page 169. not understanding that they affirm and deny the same thing in several expressions so that however his expressions be dangerous yet it is probable he held not the Socinian opinion which he contradicted in the subscription to the confession but onely discovered his weakness And yet Mr. B. I think is not ignorant that so holy learned a man as M. Pemble near the beginning of his Vindicae gratiae hath a like conceit of Gods never hating the elect but being reconciled from eternity taking reconciliation for an immanent act in God which as I imagine Mr. B. would excuse in Mr. Pemble so might he with a like charity excuse the other in Paul Hobson What he cites out of Cyprian I wish Mr. B. had Englished it and that both Anabaptists and their opposites would learn it Page 268. he saith if my book of scandals were read men may perhaps receive a preservative from my own hand from the danger of my opinion to which I say I wish my book of Scandals were more read nor do I fear that my doctrine will be the lesse embraced for reading it if my interpretation of my own words justified even by Mr. B. be received as I shew before Page 269. he tells us the Levellers were Anabaptists but I cannot yet learn of any of them he names except Den that was so though I deny not but there might be sundry of them such likely of the Free-willers disclaimed by the seven Churches in London and that they were but few in comparrison of the rest by the Newes-books I gather the Levelling businesse was carried on by such as were in no gathered Church but lived above ordinances As for Mr. Bs. dark criminations I can give no answer to them unlesse I could plow with his heifer and find out his riddle But my hope is those great instruments of God to break the enemies of those that are termed Sectaries though Mr. Bs. words seem to forebode and misdeem evil of them will and do prove better then he discribes them though I imagine they be not Anabaptists Nor do I like Mr. Bs. obscure satyrical criminations they having some shew of a malevolent mind Whatever Mr. B. may conceive of the danger of the Anabaptists way in other things I am sure if they would keep themselves onely to this to be baptized upon profession of faith they should be in a safe way even in the way of Christ. SECT XXII The speech that no one Countrey is gathered into Christs visible Church contains no malignancy to Christ but is a manifest truth MOst of that which is in Mr. Bs. answer to the last section of my Antidote hath either been replied to before or in some other part of my writings or will fall into the main of the dispute wherein I doubt not but I shall fully vindicate my argument against the visible Church-membership of Infants from the different cause of the Jewish and Christian Church though the thing be so manifest to wit that the Christian Church was otherwise gathered then the Jewish that I see nothing but meer wrangling in the questions Mr. B. propounds And to his words page 279 280. Sir if you were my Father I would tell you that when you say Christ makes no one City Countrey Tribe his Disciples you speak most malignantly and wickedly against the Kingdome and dignity of my Lord Jesus I answer I meet so often with Mr. Bs. high charges upon palpable mistakes and weak proofs that I fear his misguided zeal or natural distemper hath brought him to an habit of ill-speaking My words were not as Mr. B. sets them down but thus no one Countrey or City or Tribe together were gathered by the Apostles or other Preachers into the Christian visible Church but so many of all as the Lord vouchsafed to call by his word and spirit which hath neither wickedness nor malignancy against the Kingdome and dignity of the Lord Jesus but a manifest truth expressely taught in the Holy Scripture as congruous to the glory of God and the Lord Jesus 1 Cor. 1. 26 27. 28 29. Not many wise men c. Ergo not the whole Nation Revel 5. 9. out of every Nation Ergo not the whole Nation as he did the Jewes in the Wilderness The relations in the Gospel and Acts of the Apostles plainly prove it true that by John Baptist Christ the 12. and 70. Disciples was no entire Nation City Countrey or Tribe gathered into the visible church-Church-christian but parts of them and those fewer then the adversaries who in every place were so numerous when the Christians are counted at some few thousands as that even at Jerusalem and elsewhere they prevailed to disperse Christians by persecution Nor do Mr. Bs. questions prove that into the Christian visible Church any one whole Countrey City or
with men Page 165. what he speaks of my exceeding high and passionate disposition was but his misdeeming likely upon misinformation neither my words nor carriage shewed it Page 166. what the supposed girds were is set down before out of his now printed book whereby it seems my few disciples as he miscalls them are at least excused and no notorious falshood chargeable on them That which he saith I forced him to the disputation I conceive is not right how it came to passe is shewed above that there were thousands of people there I think is overlasting the tale of the dispute is made to prepossesse men with prejudice I told him before that such a dispute was not fit to satisfy and I gave him my reasons and I propounded the way used at the Conference at the Hague judged best by Dr. Raynolds but the way Mr. B. took he liked best and his carriage of it looks like an artifice cunningly contrived to please the common sort of Schollers and others of which few can discerne between sleight and solid proofs But I doubt not my answer will prove Mr. Bs. arguments to be meer trifles The untruths charged on me page 167. are upon his mistake of the words written before him I said not to be used by Mr. B. but by others mentioned next before That his passage was like to be the beginning of a schism among those of Bewdley was no jest but a conjecture which the event hath proved true how he misrepresents my words of charging their blood on them and hypocrisy to them is before shewed it 's not true I had been long time working a fearful schisme unlesse by accident it being true which Mr. Allen and Mr. Shepherd say Advertisement to the Reader pag. 27. scarce truth or error can now adaies be received but in a way of schisme His lines were likely to be the beginning of a schisme in that it was taken as if Anabaptists and with them my self were adjudged hereticks by him which if it were an untruth yet it is so like a truth that I think he that shall read in one period what Mr. B. sayes of Hereticks that they end in wicked lives and in the next find the instance in Anabaptists and after me named as one of them will conceive he called them and me hereticks And however he protest he doth not yet his asserting me a Sect-Master page 188. and his inclining to Vossius c. their definition of an Heretick page 171. and his words page 259. make me think he comes not much short of counting me an heretick To his allegations of my speeches concerning Mr. M. and Independents I have answered before I may say the doctrine was one of the first heresies yet not censure the men that hold it as heretical it 's one thing to be formally an heretick and another thing materially to hold that which denominated a party heretical In my Examen I tell Mr. M. and now Mr. B. that I think none of those glorious lights mentioned held Mr. Ms. position I do not judge all hereticks that be against my opinion but that they may be more justly stiled heretiques then my self Mr. Bs. quicknesse in replying afore he weighed my speeches or perhaps my scantnesse in expressions out of warinesse what I said to him whom I found very captious hath I perceive created me these hard censures That which Mr. B. saies page 172. he dare say of me I dare say is false The inference which he calls strange is none of mine the passage and time of writing it do still prevaile with me to conceive that he wanted a spirit of love through ill surmises of me Page 174. Infant-sprinking or pouring water on them will not be proved baptisme I shall not ease sinners that own their infant-sprinkling as baptism by my assertion that I tell them they never sinned against their baptisme and engagement is a fiction of Mr. B. in which he hath a pretty art I said not Mr. B. gave us a title to make us odious but that might make us odious which imports the term might make us odious not that Mr. B. had that purpose in using it Page 175. He hath a discourse from the end of the accuser and the opposition of justification to accusation and condemnation to prove That it is proper language to say he accuseth another who denies a supposed priviledge to be due to him By the same reason the accusers accusation may be said to be condemnation and execution too for that is the end of the accuser I had thought accusation noted the accusers act not his end that justification is opposed to accusation and condemnation shewes they are distinguished the one being the charging with a fault the other passing sentence I must confesse I yet understand not his language of accusing without charging with a fault nor do I think any law-dictionary doth so define accusation I do not think the non-visible churchmembership of infants is poenal or deprivation of a mercy now it being only by the alteration of the Church-frame Whether the not acknowledging infants visible churchmembership be a denying a mercy reall or imaginary whether there be injustice scorne or any error in my tenet about it is to be examined in answering his book What I do hold I do it not without natural affection to my children out of conscience of maintaining truth The very same he chargeth upon me for denying infant-baptisme might mutatis mutandis by the same reason be charged on him for denying infant-communion I do judge this Rhetorical or Satyrical passage of Mr. B. to be a meer trifling in a serious matter That which is said page 176. of my disputing my children out of the Church by denying them to be visible Church-members is Mr. Bs mistake in defining visible Church-membership as I shall shew in examining the 27. chap. of the first part of his book It 's not true I deny all infants to be in Covenant with the Lord their God or that title to salvation which upon promise they have in point of law Mr. Bs. conditional Covenant gives no title till the condition be put which he will not say is true of any infants but the elect who alone are children of the promise in the Apostles language Rom. 9. 8. pag. 177. he saith I do all I can to keep infants out of the visible Church but I deny that to hinder their baptisme is to keep them out of the visible Church or that to baptize them is to bring them in If it be why have they not the communion according to that which we reade 1 Cor. 12. 13 Are Janizaries who were baptized children of Greek Christians therefore visible members of the Christian Church Mr. B. though he had the Copy of my Sermon yet misrepresents my words I said not that it is the Devils part to say that the infants of believers are members of the visible Church but my words were it being an error
and such pernicious effects following that people think therefore they are Christians because baptized which opinion of theirs is confirmed by Mr. Bs. words For they are visible Christians that are baptized into the name of Christ if they have not since by word or workes renounced him and rest therein and are thereby held in carnal presumption we ought rather to think those that maintain infant-baptisme play the Devils part which expressions of mine being added the vanity of Mr. Bs. arguings will appear That which he hath page 178. that it is no more thankes to me then to Satan that I keep not God from making promise to his people which intimates I would do it if it were in my power for if there be no more thanks to me then Satan it is because there 's no more hindrance in me from doing it then in Satan̄ and so the same will is a suggestion that exceedes all moderation as if Mr. B. were bent not onely to rake up all the dirt he can to cast in my face but also to put an ill construction on all I say My answer was a faire answer to a virulent charge In 2. senses I conceived it might be said that Infants are disputed out of the Covenant of Christ the one as if my dispute made Christ not Covenant to them the other as if it made them not Covenant to Christ. I said neither was true What saies Mr. B. 1. Election is not a Covenant Nor did I say it was And then addes nor are they in Covenant because elected which speech is most false contrary to Rom. 9. 8. where the children of the promise is all one with the Elect as the Analysis shewes as may be seene in the Authors cited by me in my Examen part 3. sect 4. Besides whom more may be produced I will add two now Mr. Rutherfurd in that piece of his which is the exactest of his workes Exercit Apol. 2. c. 2. num 7. Soli electi dicuntur in Scripturis foederati filii haeredes promissionis Rom. 9. 8. The elect alone are said in the Sctiptures to be in Covenant children and heires of the promise Rom. 9. 8. and Mr. Norton in resp ad Apollon c. 2. pag. 30. Objectum foederis gratiae sunt soli electi The object of the Covenant of Grace are the elect alone Next he saith that I deny that God Covenanteth with our infants to be their God in Christ and to take them to be his peculiar people which is the Covenant he formerly made with infants and which he now affirmes What he affirmes distinctly I cannot well tell he doth so confusedly expresse himself in his bookes He distinguished between an absolute and a conditional Covenant of Grace The absolute he saies belongs onely to the elect but this he will not be thought to meane when he speakes of infants of believers being in Covenant or baptism's sealing of it yea he blames me often for so conceiving of him and page 223. he disputes against that tenet as my fifth error The conditional is a Covenant of justification and salvation upon-condition of faith this he saith is sealed by baptisme not the other and this he makes belonging to all the posterity of Adam elect and reprobate And this it seemes most likely he meanes when he speaks of infants of believers being in Covenant because it is that which baptisme seales and they that are in Covenant are to be sealed thereby But according to this conditional Covenaat either all are in Covenant with God whether elect or reprobate infants of believers or unbelievers or else none till they performe the condition which is faith and so not all infants of believers Mr. B. in his additions to the Saints everlasting rest part 3. sect 3. prop. 2. A conditional promise puts nothing in being till the performance of the condition nor gives any certainty but of such performance As for any Covenant of God or Christ besides these containing onely the promise of visible Church-membership or such like imagined priviledges in the New Testament to infants of Gentile believers I take to be a phantasme and when I come to examine Mr. Bs. opinion of infants visible Church-membership which I could not do till I had his book I doubt not to make it appear to be so that not one text he hath brought proves such a promise and that he hath not proved more to belong to infants by promise then I acknowledge and yet neither visible Church-membership nor right to baptisme in infancy ordinarily will follow thereon As for that he saith in general termes that I deny that God covenanteth with infants of believers to be their God in Christ and to take them to be his peculiar people is said like a Calumniator my words being so plaine to the contrary in that very place In a word I have said that the Covenant or promise of regeneration sanctification forgivenesse of sins adoption and eternal life is not made to all the natural children of the most godly believers no not of Abraham himself or to any barely because they are their children but because elect or believers in their own persons which Mr. M. and Mr. Geree in their answers to me confesse to be true as being expresly delivered Rom. 9. 8. and by the streame of Protestant writers maintained But I deny not that many infants of believers are in the Covenant of Grace nor dare I say that no infants of unbelievers are in the Covenant of Christ in this sense I onely say I neither know which of the one or the other are thus in the Covenant of Grace As for the arguings that he that denies Infants baptisme doth deny them to be in the Covenant of Grace they are built on these fancies that to be a seale of the Covenant of Grace is of the essence of baptisme that there is a certain connexion between being in the Covenant of Grace and right to be baptized which with other hypotheses of Paedobaptists I shall examine in my Review Mr. B. addes That I flatly deny infants Covenanting with God whereas my words were farre from such flat denial being onely these for my part I know not how any person should Covenant with Christ till he promise c. which were not such a peremptory or flat denial as Mr. B. saies they are and they are true it being against all experience that infants do so Covenant but on the contrary when they are baptized cry and shew their unwillingnesse as August lib. 1. de remiss et mer. pecc c. 23. flendo et vagiendo cùm in eis mysterium celebratur ipsis mysteriis vocibus obstrepunt Then Mr. B. saies I disswade parents from so engaging their children in Covenant and promising in their names which yet they ever did in the Church before Christ and it was their duty to do as Deut. 29. and other places shew But in which words I perswade parents not to do as he saies I do he
drink of that cup and this example 1 Cor. 10. 16 17. The cup of blessing which we blesse is it not the Communion of the blood of Christ the bread which we break is it not the Communion of the body of Christ For we being many are one body and one bread for we are all partakers of that one bread But for command or example that an ordained Presbyter onely should administer the Lords Supper by breaking bread c. let them that say there is shew it Mr. B. goes on But by this time you may see whither Mr. T. would reduce the Ministerial office 1. Others may baptize 2. And administer the Lords Supper 3. And then preaching is all or almost all that is left for he gives them far lesse in government than I do And how well he defended the Ministerial privilege of publique preaching in his disputes with Captain Bray is too well known And what need the people allow so much of their meanes then to maintain Ministers is not this next to the utter extirpation of them acoording to the doctrine of their learned Martin-Marpriest Answ. Pastors and Teachers or Presbyters to teach and govern the Church of God I am assured are a Divine institution and a very merciful gift of Christ Ephe. 4. 11 12 13. 1 Cor. 12. 28. Acts 14. 23. 1 Tim. 3. 1. Tit. 2. 5. to whom people should yield obedience Heb. 13. 17. and yield maintenance liberally 1 Cor. 9. 14. Gal. 6. 6. 1 Tim. 5. 17 18. If any go about to extirpate them let him be accursed as an enemy to Christ and his Church The railing bookes of Martin-Marpriest and such like on the one side and the slanderous books of Mr. Edwards Mr. Baillee c. on the other side I abhorre Yet I fear more danger to the Ministry by the pragmaticalnesse of the Ministers especially their meddling with State matters then either by Martin-Marpriests libels or my assertions Would Ministers keep to their studies and the work of Christ in preaching in season and out of season it would better establish their maintenance and Ministry then the asserting such a juridical government and power of dispensing the seales as they are called as they do I ascribe as much to the Ministry as the Scripture gives them Though the office of preaching whether publique or private be proper to the Minister so as to be his constant imployment and he ought not to be hindred in it sith he is to be accountable to God for it yet publique or private preaching I do not annex to ordained Presbyters as a peculiar priviledge to them so as none else may be said to be sent or called of God to preach in Scripture sense but they Notwithstanding what Mr. Thomas Hall in his Pulpit guarded or my quodam scholar and worthy friend Mr. Giles Workman in his better temper'd book intitled Private men no pulpit men have said I still conceive that not onely for trial of expectants but also upon other occasions persons not ordained may be permitted yea desired to preach in the pulpits I find these words in Bilsons Difference between Christian subjection and Antichristian rebellion part 4. Strangers also if they were in place were suffered both to teach and blesse in the Church as well as others that were tied to their cures by reason that many were sent by the Apostles and by the Holy Ghost to visite the Churches and comfort the Christians as they travailed and such were according to their knowledge and gift not onely permitted but also desired to exhort the people and to give thanks to God in other mens charges Grot. annot in Mat. 4. 23. Mansit is mos aliquandiu in Ecclesia Christiana ut concessu Episcoporum Scriptur as interpretarentur non presbyteri tantum aut diaconi sed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vide Eusebium qui Origenis aliorumque exemplo probat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spectant quae leguntur 1 Cor. 24. 19. Neverthelesse I am against the courses of many Souldiers and others who against the denial of able teachers to whom the teaching of the people is committed love to get into the pulpits of the ablest men to vent their peculiar conceits and oft-times their pernicious errors not reguarding to preach to the ignorant the clear truths of faith and a holy life in places where they have no Preacher but to new converts to pervert them and withdraw them from their able Teachers and to disquiet them and their congregations by frivolous exceptions And for this reason I was unwilling Captain Bray should preach at Bewdley when I was there and when he would preach and bent himself to assert a liberty to all that had Gods sanctifying spirit and could expresse their minds to take upon them to teach publiquely what 's the meaning of the Scripture and what doctrines are true and what false without any skill in arts yea though he taught error I did oppose him Which if it were not so skilfully and happily done as Mr. B. better acquainted with such mens way might have done yet me thinks my good will might have been accepted But I see very little I do is well taken and therefore see it necessary to wait patiently on God till my words and actions though intended for the furthering of reformation and good of the Ministry in my Examen part 2. sect 7 in my Apology and elsewhere be better resented and considered The fourth and fifth error Mr. B. chargeth me with as dangerous and the root of my error about baptism will more fitly come into the body of the dispute in which I doubt not but I shall shew that both himself and Mr. Blake however he esteem his writings do recede from the Scripture and other approved authors in their making the New Covenant common to elect and reprobates in making reprobates interest in the Covenant a fruit of Christs death denying the absolute promise to be most fitly called the Covenant of Grace hold that a person may not be baptized that is not known to belong to the Covenant of Grace that God actually seals the Covenant of Grace to reprobates with sundry other mistakes about Sacraments in general as if their essence were in being seals of the Covenant of Grace and deriving thence a right to baptism for believers Infants though the Covenant be conditional and common to all The fith error of mine he confutes is about the Magistrates not being an officer of Christ as Mediator And he excepts against me for saying in pulpit at Bewdley it was of dangerous consequence which he held though he named not me at any time and he wrote to me and I would not dispute it with him To which I answer It is true preaching on Mat. 28. 18. the argument leading me to it I did oppose that doctrine that the Magistrate is an officer of Christ the Mediator and because Mr. Bs. book was in some of my Auditors hands did reade the passage in his Aphorismes
to judge who dies wicked who not The wisest Divines do advise caution in judging the final estate even of selfe-murtherers that have died with horrible speeches in their mouthes not long before their death I thinke God onely fit to judge of mens final estate and therefore think him fit onely to resolve Mr. Bs. question If I should aske Mr. B. where hath there been known a society of Antiprelatists that have not in the end proved wicked I think it would be as hard a thing for Mr. B. to give answer to it as for me to give answer to his question When men speak of men they speak as they are affected some magnifying whom others debase some counting that wicked which others count pious he 's canonized as a Saint a Martyr by some who is judged a Traitor Malefactor by others They that passe such a censure must trust much to informations which whether they be partial or impartial true or false who can tell Nor is it necessary to answer Mr. Bs. question For to what end Is it thereby to conclude against me the doctrine they held But what may be known by the certain rule of Scripture without this uncertain sign And therefore I conceive of this question not unlike the artifice of the Jesuites to deterre people from the plain doctrine the Protestants hold by calling for Catalogues of Protestants in all ages demanding where was your Church before Luther As if we must not own a manifest truth we find in Scripture unlesse we can produce teachers of it in former dayes and societies of professors of it that were not wicked Yet I gave for answer some instances of some societies now in Londor 500. years ago in France and some later in Germany As for those now in London Mr. B. saies 1. They are not yet come to the proof when they have reached to the end of what they are tending to then it will be seen what they will prove if they do not return and repent Answ. What he meanes by the end of what the societies in London under baptisme I mean are tending to I know not If he mean Levelling or Ranting or universal grace they have as much for their number and quality opposed them as any other in London if he know any other dangerous end they aime at it were fit it should be named that their designe may be prevented if not who can interpret this speech of Mr. B. but as from a man out of a settled hatred to the opinion unwilling to hope well of the persons against the rule of charity 1 Cor. 13. 7. which hopeth all things in them for the future whom he knows not for present to be desperately bad which he wil not say of the Churches of Anabaptists in Germany Holland England of whom Mr. B. in his book against Mr. Bedford page 310. saith thus Yea what will you say to all the Churches of the Anabaptists in Germany Holland England c. Have none of them grace till baptized Are you sure so many thousands are all unpardoned or that God is not wont to pardon them and give them grace I dare not think so uncharitably of them And after Who dare think that it is of the Anabaptists such an error as excludeth them from grace There have been societies of them for a great while though somewhat latent afore these times and of them many of the leaders are fallen asleep in the Lord many remain unblameable in respect of their faith and life And therefore why Mr. B. should so forebode as he doth the wicked end of the societies remaining I know no reason but his ill opinion of them But should God in his just judgement let it fall out so that they should prove wicked as some Churches yea the most famous as the seven in Asia have done which have begun well and ended ill it is no certain evidence against their doctrine sith their miscarriages may come from other causes whereof here and Examen part 2. sect 5. some are assigned by me and are such as have befallen others as well as they 2. Saith Mr. B. It is hard with your cause when you cannot name one society of them that ever lived in the world that proved not wicked except those now alive whose ends we yet see not Answ. 1. It were not hard with our cause though we name no society or person before our selves that were Antipaedo baptists as long as we have the Scripture for it 2. If I could not name one society yet there may be many we have but obscure intelligence of many Churches in the East and other places The Georgians children or the Christians children of Cholcis say Heylin in his Geography in the description of Armenia out of Brerewood Alex. Rosse in his censure of religio medici c. are not baptized till they be eight years old How they live what they be we have no clear intelligence probably honest though poore Christians The certain state of them in London is not known to many much lesse the state of those farre off 3. We have seen the ends of many of the societies to have been blessed and how otherwise we now alive should see the end of a successive society I do not well conceive until is be quite dissolved Mr. B. addes 3. If I were never so able to answer this yet as the world goes it is not safe to speak all or half the wickednesse of the Anabaptists now living which the history of this age will speak to posterity Answ. 1. Why it should not be safe for Mr. B. to speak half the wickednesse of the Anabaptists now living I cannot divine except it be because if he or others speak of them while they live they may be convinced of lying as Beza did the tale of his dying a Papist They are not so many nor so formidable in power or so spiteful in spirit that it should be unsafe for Mr. B. to tell the worst he knowes of them However me thinks of any man Mr. B. being according to his declaration of himself in such expectations of death as neare and so resolute to speak truth should not be moved by the unsafenesse of speaking truth Yea if Mr. B. should speak all he could I think he should not more exasperate them then he hath done part 2. chap. 14. Those that sit at the sterne I cannot yet learne have such hard thoughts of them as Mr. B. And he that reades Mr. Edwards Gangraena Mr. Baillee his Anabaptism and other writings may imagine that if there were worse matters to charge them with they would not be spared in this age especially by those that are out of their reach After-Historians may relate as partially as the present and therefore I shall not think it lawful to condemne them upon such dark intimations as this but think the better of them till their wickednesse be laid open 4. Saith Mr. B. Yet if you had named that society that