my Sorrow for you to see you who are so mighty a Champian as you boast your selfe to be to reason so shallowly and ungroundedly for if your Argument be true then all the Nations under Heaven are true visible Churches of Christ for it is not possible that the Heathenest Nation in the World should runne out of Gods Voyce and Call Psal 139.7.8.9 For saith Dauid If I ascend up into Heaven thou art there if I make my Bed in Hell behold thou art there if I take the Wings of the Morning and dwell in the uttermost part of the Sea even there shall thy hand lead me and thy right hand shall hold me if I say surely the darknes shall cover me even the night shall be light about me yea the darknes hideth not from thee but the night shineth as the day the darknes and the light are both alike to thee And also see Amos. 9.1.2.3 Where you may also read that no place can hide a people from Gods presence or call so that I say no place can exempt a people from Gods voyce but wheresoever they are he can find them out and by his Judgements laid upon a Nation or Peeple whether they be Pagans Heathens and Infidels that professedly serve and worship Idols and nothing else or whether they be a Nation of seeming Christians as England is no more like the Samaritanes that professe the Worship of the true God and yet serve their Idols 2. King 17.32.33 yet take them in which sence you will I say they are within the Voyce and call of God and by his Judgements and Plagues laid upon them for their sinnes he calls them to Repentance that so they might not perish but be saved as the Apostle Paull in the first of the Romans doth largly prove Vers 18.19 and so forward So that by your Argment all the Nations under Heaven are visible Churches of Christ for I thus frame my Argument according to your owne grounds All the Nations of the Earth that are within the Voyce and call of God calling them to Faith and Repentance that so they may be saved are true Churches But all the Pagan and Heathen Notions in the World are within the Voyce and call of God as I have already proved Ergo. They are true visible Churches Deny any part of the Argument if you can and prove against it But for the proofe of your Argument you cite Math. 20.16 where it is said Many are called but few chosen the first part of the words Many are called you say but doe not prove that we are to understand them of the visible Church which are called to the outward preaching of the word to which I answere and say you are not an Oracle of God that we must beleeve your sayings without ground for you bring no proofe for what you say but your owne bare Affirmations but if you will be an Oraclo it is but a lying Oracle and not of Gods you say they are called to the outward preaching of the Word it seemes to me that you will have all the people in a Nation that are within Gods call to be Preachers and then what shall become of all your Preists for if this be not your meaning I know not what you drive at but for that place of Scripture many are called but few are chosen I understand it thus many there was that heard the Word of God and seemingly professed it as they that came to Johns Baptisme and Herod that reformed many things and those many great multitudes that Christ preached unto many of which made an outward profession of him for a time but it was but for the loaves as he himselfe doth witnesse John 6.26.27 so here are many called to the outward profession of the Gospell but saith the Text few are chosen that is to say ehough there be many that make a formall profession of Christ and have the ouiside of Christianity yet few are they that are chosen either to Christs glorious kingdome with his father or are chosen and admitted as visible members and Subjects in his visible Church or Kingdome which in Scripture hath many and divers names as Syon Jerusalem his holy Mountaine the Lords holy place the kingdome of Heaven Psal 54.7.147.12 Fsa 62.6.65.9.11 Psal 68.17.33.46.4 Mat. 20.1 Rev. 21.1.10 this exposition of the place I plainly prove from Christs preaching to so many as he did the most of which for a time did outwardly prosesse him yet all those great multitudes that he preached unto and wrought Miracles amongst at his death there was but an hundred and twenty that entered into communion to worship him in a visible Church Acts 1.15 and in the second of the Acts Peter preached to a great multitude of people yet that multitude were not members of a true visible Church neither before he preached to them nor after but only so many of them as declared and manifested faith which were to the Number of three Thowsand and they were added or joyned to the Church and the Apostle commands them to save or seperate themselves from the rest of the multitude which he preached unto seing they did not peleeve nor were never the better for his preaching saying Save your selves from thes untoward Generatron Vers 40.41 For the Lord would not have them to joyne Riffe Raffe and all sorts of people to the Church to whom the Word was preached but only those that declared the worke of Grace to be wrought in their hearts therefore the Spirit of God saith The Lord added to the Church daily such as should be saved Now though I grant the Kingdome of England is within the Voyce and call of God calling the people thereof to Repentance that so they may be saved yet I grant no more then what all the Nations under Heaven are therefore you cannot conclude from this Ground that the Church of England is a true Church of Christ seing the Whol Nation good or bad wicked or righteous godly or ungodly have all one and the same Priviledge by virtue of their being professed Membees of your Ch. therefore from that which hath been said I frame this Argument That the true visible Church of Christ under the Gospell doeth not consist of all sorts and kinds of people to whom the word of God is preached but only to such persons who by their outward Conversation may be judged to be true Beleevers Esay 4.3.35.8.9.10.51.11 Rom. 1.7 1. Cor. 1.7 Rev. 22.14 But the Church of England is not made up nor doeth not consist of true Beleevers that is to say Saints by calling and practice but of all sorts and kinds of wicked persons as Witches Sorcerers Whoremungers Drunkards Idolaters Swearers Blasphemers all sorts of Prophane Lewd Wicked livers Ergo It is no true Church of Christ but a false and Antichristian Church of Antichrists 2. Cor. 6.9.10 Rev. 9.20.21 and 13.8.16.17 and 21.27 and 22.15 Both the Proposition and Assumption I have already strongly proved
to those guifts and qualifications which the Apostle layes downe in the first of Timothy the 3. 5. chapters and the first or Titus then the Church hath authority to chuse them for her Officers Num. 8.9.10 Ezeck 33.2 Acts 1.23.6.3.5 14.24 but though they be never so fitted guifted and qualified yet they are not to take upon them to officiate in the Church of God by virtue of an Office before they have a true and lawfull Call from the Church who only and alone hath power from Christ her only King and Head to instate them into that Office and whereas before they were but members or private men as you in the Church of England call them and could not lawfully doe those actions that belong to a true Minister or Officer in the Church of God to doe yet now they may doe them upon grounded grounds for it is only their lawfull Call into their Office that puts a distinction betwixt them and the other members or Brethren of the Church as is plaine out of the first of the Acts where Joseph and Matthias were by the Apostles and Brethren set a part for the Apostleship and Joseph for any thing I know was as well fitted for the Office as Matthias was for the Church was not able to put a difference betwixt them which was the more fit but yet for all this they were not both Apostles but only Matthias who was lawfully chosen and immediatly called by God into the Office and then those actions that he did and Adminstrations that he administred was the execution of his Office so that it any should have questioned him whether he was an Apostle or no he would not runne to the Administration or Execution of his Office to prove himselfe a true Apostle but he would goe to his Call into his Office which was from God and which gave him a being in his Office and power to Officiate and doe those actions that he did and though he had nevâ—â— lived to have executed any of those actions that belonged to his Office yet he had been a true Apostle for all thae by virtue of his Call into his Apostleship So that I say to you of your Ministers it is not sufficient for them when they tre questioned about their Calling and put upon it to prove it whether it be from God or the Diuell the one of which it must needs be to runne to the Execution and Administration of their Office to prove the lawfullnesse of their standings in their Office but they should goe to the power and Authority that instituted them into their Office of Priesthood and prove it whether it be true or no which if they cannot doe I say they are all false and Antichristain Officers and Ministers which all Gods people are bound in Conscience to detest as the Divell and oppose to the utmost of their power and strength and therefore I put you upon it to prove if you can the lawfulnes of their standing for doe you thinke that they which are Antichrists Ministers have a greater priveledge of exempion from proving the lawfulnes of their Calling and Office when they are questioned then either that great Prophet Jihn the Baptist or Josus Christ the sonne of God and his Apostles had truly I see no Ground nor Reason for it unlesse you will say their bare word is of greater Authority then the words of the Eternall Sonne of God and his Apostles For first of all John the Baptist when he was questioned by the Scribes and Pharisees what he was he doeth not say It is sufficient that I doe the worke of a Prophet and therefore you need not nor have noe ground to question me any further about my Authority no he knew such an Answer would not serve their turne and therefore when they aske him what he was he confessed that he was not the Christ what then art thou say they to him art thou Elias and he saith I am not who then art thou he said I am the voyce of one caying in the Wildernesse make straight the way of the Lord as saith the Prophet Esay as Joh. 1.19.20 and so forward So you see John brings Authority from the Scripture to prove his Office doeth not runne as your Priests doe to the Administration or Execution of his Office to prove his Office or the lawfulnesse of his standing in it Also Christ himselfe when he was questioned by the Jewes about his miracles and those great workes which he wrought by virtue of what authority he did them he answers and saith If I beare witnesse of my selfe my witnesse is not true and therefore he brings his Father and John the Baptist and the holy Scripture to beare witnes of him that he did not take up his authority that he exercised of himselfe neither did he come unto them of his owne head and in his owne name but brings the voyce of his Father and the authority of the Word to bear witnes that he was sent of God prophesied of old to be the Messias John 5.31.32.37.46 8.17.18 Also the Apostle Paul when he was questioned by his enemies about his authority or the lawfulnes of his office he goes unto his Call into his office and that authority that placed him in it and by that proves that he tooke not that authority that he exercised upon him without good grounds but had it placed upon him by Jesus Christ himselfe Acts 22.10.11 so forward Also when he was questioned by the false Apostles at Corinth and Galatia about his authority he answers for himselfe that he was an Apostle and was free for I have saith he seen Jesus Christ who placed me in my office and by his authority gave me my Apostleship and called me by his voyce thereunto so that my authority and calling is not from men as you false Apostles are nor by men as the Ordinary Officers of the Church are who are called by the Church who hath authority from God so to doe but immediately from Jesus Christ our Lord as all his true Apostels are 1 Cor. 9.1 Gal. 1.1 So that you see Paul proved he was an Apostle and a true officer of Jesus Christ before ever he preached his Gospell and before ever he was an instrument to bring any to the knowledge and obedience of the truth and before ever the Corinthes became being begot by his Ministery the Seale of his Apostleship And doth John Baptist Christ and his Apostles whensoever they are questioned about their authority by their opposers prove their calling into their office by virtue of which they doe officiate and administer those administrations they administer and thinke your Ministers those Preists and Deacons of Antichrist to have more exemption then Christ or his Apostles had and therefore if they be ministers of Christ as they say they are I put you and them upon it to prove their calling and office from him that they were instated into their Ministry by
virtue of his power and Lawes which he hath left recorded in his last Will and Testament for the bodies of his particular visible Churches to elect chuse and ordaine their owne Officers either let them doe this or else I say and will against them all maintaine it that they are Antichrists Ministers set in by the power of Satan in the Kingdome of the seaven headed and ten horned Beast in direct opposition and professed hatred against the Kingdome and Septer of Jesus Christ the eternall Sâ—n of God for they are but false Prophets false Shee Pheards and false Teachers like those in Jeremiahs time that runne before ever God sent them and say they are of his sending when as indeed thiy lye Jer. 14.14 23.21.32 Ezeck 18.6.7 for he never sent any of them Rev. 9.3 Therefore doe you and all those that are under their Jurisdiction looke to it as they and you love your owne soules for the Lord hath not only threatned to plague false Prophets false Ministers and false sheepheards but also all those that give care and submit unto them and are seduced by them Esa 9.16 Jer. 14.15.16 23.15.16.34.39 27.15 29.8.9.18 Ezeck 13.8.9.10 So that it is not enough for a man that takes upon him to be a Prophet and a Sheepheard to come in the name of the Lord and doe part of those things which a true Prophet and Sheepheard of the Lord doth but first of all he must prove his Authority and that he is of the Lords sending else none of Christs Sheep are to give eare unto him John 10. the beginning for Christ hath bid them beware of such seeing many of them were and still aâ—e to come abroad into the World coming in such a foule deceiving flattering way that they should deceive if it were possible the very Elect Mat. 7.15 24.11.24 Mar. 13.22.23 2 Pet. 2.1 1 Jâ—hn 4.1 and the reason wherefore they should beware of them and try and examine their Authority from whence it is as the Church of â—â—â—â—esus did for which she is highly commended Rev. 22. is because that false Apostles and false ministers all of them are deceitfull workers transforming themselves into the Apostles of Christ and ministers of righteousnesse Therefore all Gods people had need exceedingly to labour for true knowledge and understanding is it is their duty that so they may be able to try and know false Ministers and Sheepeards from true ones least their soules run vpon the Rockes and so be in great danger of suffering shipwrake in submitting and giving â—eare unto those Ministers and Preachers that never were of the Lords sending nor never received their errand from him in the number of which are all the Ministers in England as well the best as the worst done of them being Christs true Ministers but Antichrists Locusts which came out of the smoake of the bottomlesse pit and are fully described in the ninth of the Revelation But I know what evation you will have to prove your Bishops Preists and Deacons true which is to fetch and derive their lineall succession which Rabby Pocklington in his Sunday no Sabboth boasts of from his impiety of Rome that Antichrist and man of Sin and Son of Perdition 2 Thes 2.3 and so thinke to avoyde all that I have said against them and also you will rune to your greasie mouldy Consecration and laying on hands by which you give them your own Holy Ghost namely the spirit of errour of blindnesse and ignorance and therefore if you goe to the Pope and derive their authority from him as of absolute necessity you must this being your best and only Argument you have to prove them true which Mason to the utmost makes use of against the Papists who deny your Bishops Preists and Deacons to be true ones because you schismed away from them and so they want Cannonicall Ordination as they call it and therefore Mason in his booke of Ordination of Bishops Preists and Deacons proves it at large to be a false accusation and that they are true having had an inviolable canonicall Ordination and Consecration from the Bishops of Rome as there you may largly read pag. 10. 41. 58. 62. 64. 88. and so forward to the end Now if you goe this way to worke too as of necessity you must having no other way at all to goe to prove them true then what doe you else but even you your selfe prove your Ministers to be Antichristian whom Mason in his foresaid Booke pag. 77 doth prove by the authority of the Scripture that if they be so it is the duty of all Gods people to seperate from them And as for laying on of hands I say it was but a Ceremony which ceased when the visible working of miracles ceased which if you say to the contrary I put you upon it to prove it a durable and permanent action in the Church of God absolutely essentiall to the making of a true Pastor Teacher Elder or Bishop Also you will say one minister must make an other but your ministers and officers are made by other ministers and officers therefore they are true But I deny that either he that is made or he that made your ministers is true But for the Argument I absolutely deny the proposition and I affirme that it is not essentiall to the makeing of a true Bishop or elder which is all one Titus 1. to be made by other Bishops or Elders for those Bishops Elders and Deacons that were made in the Apostles times were elected and made by the Church who only hath power for that end and the Apostles and Evangelists did nothing else by that action of laying on of hand but shew their likeing and approbation of that action that the Church had performed and of those persons that the Church had made Officers to officiate in her and at the laying on of the Apostles hands God was pleased to worke miracles even to give the Holy Ghost unto those upon whom they was layd which were no officers in the Church Acts 8.17.18 19.6 and also at the curing the Father of Publius of his Feaver Paul laid his hands upon him and healed him Acts 28.8 yea Ananias who was no officer in the Church but a Disciple or a private man as you call them yet he laid his hands upon Saul at the doing of which he received his sight and also the Holy Ghost Acts 8.20.17 So that you see lâ—ying on of hands in the primative time was not only peculiar to the Apostles and Evangelists themselves bat also to others which were no officers but Brethren out of office and was not only used at the shewing their approbation and likeing of those men that the Church had chosen into office but also at the workeing of miracles as the giving of the Holy Ghost and healing of the Sicke so that I affirme that Action ceased when the visible working of Miracles ceased and is not in the least essentiall to the
making of Officers Againe in the New Testament you doe not find neither are you able to prove or shew one example that an Apostle was made by anorher Apostle or that on Evangelist was made by another Evangelist or that one Bishop or Elder was made by another Bishop or Elder or ever that one Officer made another Officer in the same Office that he himselfe was in so that your making of Bishops by other Bishops is an Invention of the Man of Sinne and his Fellowes therefore to make Officers by Officers will never be proved by you nor any others to be Essentiall to the making of an Officer and therefore I say of your Officers that both the makars and those that are made by them are all of them false not only in regard this action is a siction of your owne Invention but also because your Church is false and Antichristian Therefore if every Parish in England had power in themselves which in the least they have not to chuse and make their owne Officers yet for all this they would be false for a false and Antichristian Church as yours is can never make true Officers and Ministers of Jesus Christ and though that the Churches of the Seperation want the Apostles in personall presence to lay hands upon their Officers which lawfully they chuse out from among themseves yet have they their Lawes Rules and Directions in writing which is their Office and is of as great Authority as their personall presence Mat. 7.12 Luk. 16.29.31 Joh. 5.45 Act. 13.27 15.21 21.21 2. Cor. 3.15 All these writings doth shew that the Scriptures Lawes of Moses the Prophets was their Office for they themselves were dead long before Christs time but their writings did still remaine wherefore the spirit of God is pleased to call them by their names shewong that they are of as great Authority as their personall presence were and those that now read them if they doe not obey them is as inexcusable as those that lived in their daies heard them from their mouthes and yet rejected them Even so now though we have not Peter Paul the rest of the Apostles in personall presence yet we have now their Lawes Rules Epistles directions which they sent gave to the Churches of God that was planted in their times these are there Office are of as great Authority Sufficiency as their personall presence yea and of greater as the very false Apostles themselves those enemies of Paul doe confesse for his letters say they are waighty powerfull but his bodily presence is weake his speech contemptible 2. Cor. 10.10 For Paul in the writing of the Scripture was so powerfully guided by the Spirit of God that it was not possible for him to erre in the doing of it whereas in his other personall actions he was subject to sin failings as well as Peter was Gal. 2.11 the rest of the Apostles some of which we read of Act. 22. which was his going into the Temple with others after the Ceremoniall Law of Moses to purifie himselfe when he knew his Lord Master Christ at his death had abolished and put an end both to the Temple all the Mosaicaâ—â— Rites Ceremonies Worship and he himselfe with the rest of the Apostles Act. 15. but the Spirit of God had decreed the same which they commanded the Churches inviolably to observe and also he himselfe before did preach the same so that I say the Apostes Lawes is their office and is of as great yea greater authority then if now we had them in personall being therefore in my judgement those that doe maintaine Apostles now in personall being doe maintaine an errour seing that the Apostle Paul calls himselfe and Barnabas the last as it were men apoynted to death 1 Cor. 4.9 if they were the last then none were to follow or succeed them in their Office therefore your Bishops are all Liars in calling themselves the Apostles successours for they are Antichrists Locusts Frogges which are said to come out of the smoke of the bottommlesse pot or out of the mouth of the Dragon Beast false Prophet Rev. 9.3 16.13 So that I affirme the Officers in the true Churches of the Sepearion that are called by virtue of the Apostles Lawes though they want them to lay hands upon them to shew their aprobation of their fitnesse for their Office yet they are as true Officers as those that they themselves caused to be made and laid their hands upon And thus have I sufficiently by the authority of the sacred word of God proved all your Officers Ministers false Antichristian none of Christs which if you can groundedly contradict shew your best skill challeng I you put you toâ— prop to hold up your tottering sandy Ch. Min. or else your great brags will prove no better then wind and fables and you your selfe found to be a liar 2. Againe in â—he second place if your Preists by their ministery do not accomplish the same ends that the Apostles by their ministery did then by your own grounds they are no true Ministers of Christ and that they doe not by their ministery accomplish the same ends that the Ministery of the Apostles did I prove it out of the 1 Cor. 11.2 where the Apostle doth praise the Corinthians that they did remember him in all things keep all the ordinances as he had delivered them unto them here was one maine end that the Ministery of the Apost did accomplish namely to bring the Saints in the ch of God to the obedience not only of some but of all the Lawes of Christ but your Ministery never did never will nor never can so long as they stand in their present calling and office accomplish this end in the heart lives of those that heare and give eare vnto them but rather by their Ministery they teach them flat Rebellion to the Lawes and Ordinances of Christ 1. As first Christ is not only the alone Preist of his Church and people to reconcile them by his blood to God his Father but also he is the alone and only Prophet of his Church to whom alone they are to goe for counsell and knowledge and to whose voyce only they are to give eare and to no other Prophet and this did his Apostles teach his people to observe Acts 3.22.23 for Moses truly said unto your Fathers a Prophet shall the Lord God raise up unto you of your Brethren like vnto me him shall you heare in all things whatsoever he shall say vnto you and it shall come to passe that every soul that will not heare that Prophet shall be destroyed from among the people and Gal. 5 1 there Paul bids them stand fast in the Liberty wherewith Jesus Christ hath made us free and bâ— nâ—t againe entangled in the yoke of bondage And in his giving Lawes to the Corinthians he would
by the Authority of the Scripture and deny either of them and prove against them if you be able Againe your second Argument to prove the Church of England a true Church is this That Ministry which doeth accomplish the same and which the Ministry of the Apostles did must needs be a true Ministry But the Ministry of the Church of England doeth accomplish the same ends that the Apostles Ministry did namely conversion and confirmation Therefore the Ministry of the Church of England must needes be true But to prove your Argument you bring not one Place of Scripture but take that for granted which I confidently thinke neither you nor none in the Ch. of Engl. are ever able to prove therefore I absolutely in every respect deny your Arg. two manner of waies prove against it 1. I will prove that if the Ministry in the Ch. of Engl. did accomplish the same ends that the Ministry of the Apostles did yet for all that that is not sufficient to prove it a true Ministry for to judge the cause by the effect is a Leaden and false Rule 2. I will prove that the Ministry in Engl. doth not accomplish the same ends that the Ministry of the Apostls did therfore by your own Arg. is no true Ministry Now for the first of these which answers the Major of your Arg. I say it hath beene and still may be possible for a man to accomplish the same ends that you here speake of namely to be an Instrument to bring Gods people to the manifestation of Faith also to build them up yet be no true Officer or Minister in the Ch. of God I prove it out of the Acts of the Apostles in which we read that when the Ch. began to encrease Saul raised a great persecution against it upon which all the brethren viz. the members of the Ch. were scattered abroad they went up down preaching the word Act 8.3 but the Apostles themselves they stayed still at Jerusalem Vers 1. Now all those that were scatterd abroad were not true Officiall Ministers for they were but Lay-men according to your distinction in the Church of England yet divers of them who were no true Officers but Bretheren Disciples or private men as you call them yet they preached the Word to the Gentiles there begot by their preaching maany of them to the Faith for the Text saith The hand of the Lord was with them and a great number of them beleeved and then came Barnabas from Jeausalem who was yet no true Officer in the Church of God being as yet uncalled to his Apostleship and he confirmed and strengthened and more fully built them up in the Faith of Christ and in the Knowledge of the wayes of God Also Aquilah and his wife Priscilla did further instruct and build up that Eloquent man Apollos Act. 18.26 Also there were certaine women that laboured with Paull in the Gospell Phil. 4.3 So that here you see and I have proved it that people may be called to the manifesttaion of Eaith and further built up by those that are no true Officers or Ministers in the Church of Chirst but if your Argument were true then it would follow that all those men yea and the women too were true Officers and Ministers in the Church of Christ because they were Instruments of bringing Gods people to the manifestation of Faith and further built them up but your Argument is rotten and unsound and falls here flat to the ground and therefore if I should grant it which I doe not that your Ministers by their Ministry did accomplish the same ends that the Apostles by their Ministry did yet this would not be sufficient to prove them true Officers or Ministers for the excecution of an Office doeth not prove an Officer but only a true and lawfull call into the Office which all your Priests and Minnisters in England want and therefore are no true Officers nor no true Ministers of Jesus Christ For you know that a King hath many in his Kingdome besides himselfe that doe those actions administer those administrations that is peculiar to him alone to doe and administer unlesse they were Authorized by virtue of a power given and derived from him to do such actions without a lawfull Authority given and received from him they might loose their lives for the doing of them but now if your Argument were true that all those men that are meanes or Instrumensts to bring Gods People to the manifestation of Faith and obedience to the Law and will of Christ were true Officers and Ministers of Christ it would follow by the same Argument that all those men that doe the actions of a King or accomplish the same ends that Kings by their actions doe accomplish are true Kings but so to conclude in England is little better then High Treason Therefore your Argument is erroneous and false and hath not validity in it for if so be you will have their Administrations to prove the lawfulnesse of their Office then I pray you wherein doth the execution of their Office consist for an Office and the execution of it are two distinct things for a man by virtue of being instated into the Office of a Judge though he never live to execute any of those acttions or Administrations that belong to his place or Office but he must first receive power to sit in Court of Judicature before he dare take upon to fit there as Judge and when he hath receiced power from the King by virtue of which he is instated into his Office and doth become an Officer then doth he lawfully sit in Court of Judicature and condemneth fellons and guilty persons and acquit the innocent and doth there passe sentence according to the Lawes for the King under whom he is a Judge But now if this Judge should usurpe his place and come into it by virtue of a false Authority and then condemne the Kings Subjects to death though they be theives and malefactors yet he would be in danger of loosing his life for all that though he doe the act and actions that belong to a true Judge to doe because he had no lawfull Authority from the King so to doe for it is the Kings Authority placed upon a man that doth make that person to be an other kind of person then before he was for before he had received this power he was but a private man but now he is an other kind of man namely a a publike person in Office and Authority and may lawfully do those actions now which if he should have done before would have cost him his life Even so is it with the Ministers and Officers which Jesus Christ hath instituted in his New Testament and left personally to officiate in his Church they must be members of an incorporated or constituted City body or visible Church and then if the Church find any amongst themselves fitted or qualified according
have them follow him no further then he followed Christ 1. Cor. 11.1 But your Ministers in their actions and practise do declare and say unto the people that they will not owne Jesus Christ for the only Prophet or his Church and therefore they teach the people to worship the Lord with Ceremonies and Wil-worship as Capping Cringing and Duking clean contrary to the seccond Commandement and also with Holy Gâ—â—ments as they call them and with booke prayer translated out of the Popes cursed Masse-booke as worthy Dr. Eustaricke doeth in the third part of hâ—s Letany declare and prove by which they teach the people to leave the naked simplicity of that worship which Jesus Christ hath instituted in his New Testament John 4.23.25 saying to the woman of Samaria the hower cometh and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth for the Father seeketh such to worship him for God is a spirit and they that worship rim must worship him in spirit and in truth and tie and bring the people to worship God with a worship which is meerly and altogether sinfull mens inventions and foolish devises which worship is odious detestable hatefull abominable to God Esa 1.11.12.13 66.3.4 Jer. 6.19.20 25.6.44.21.22.23 Amos 5.21.22 Mat. 15.8.9 Marke 7.7.8 Col. 2. So that I may truly say of the Church of England and the worshippers therein as the spirit of God said of Judah in the second of Esa 8.9 their Land also is full of Idols they worship the workes of their owne hands that which their owne fingers have made and the meane man boweth downe and the great man humbleth himselfe therefore forgive them not 3. Againe in the third place as Jesus Christ is the only Preist and Porphet of his Church so he is the only King and Lawgiver of it and to it and none else Psal 2. 149.19 Esa 9.6.7 83.20 for the Lord is our Judge the Lord is our Lawgiver saith the Church of God the Lord is our King he will save us now the Apostles by their ministery taught this to the Saints and Churches of God That Jesus Christ is the only King and Lawgiver of and to his Church vnto whose Lawes and Septer alone and to none other they must stoope submit and yeild unto Ephes 1.21.22 2.22.23 Col. 2.2.3.6.7 Heb. 3. begin 20.28.29 12.25 But your Ministers by their Ministrery teach the people to rebell and bid defiance against the Septer Lawes and Commands of Christ as though he had not had wisedome and power enough to have erected and governed his owne spirituall Kingdome and to have instituted sufficient Offices as voyd places for his people by virtue of his Lawes to elect and chuse Officers to administer therin for the building of them up till they come to perfect then in the knowledge of God and unto the measure of the fulnes of Christ contrary to what the Apostle affirmes by the spirit of God Ephes 4.11.12.13 and therefore they teach the people to run to Antichrist and seeke for more Officers Away with such horrible wickednes as this which your Bishops Preists and Deacens those litle toes of Antichrist dayly and howerly perpetrate and commit as if so be Jesus Christ had not been so faithfull in his House as Moses was in his and as though he had not had so sufficient a care of his Church under the Gospell as Moses had under the Law and therefore they goe unto Antichrist Christs professed enemie and there would teach the people to seeke for Lawes for the governing of the Church of God under the Gospell rakeing them out of his cursed counsels Bookes of Articles and diabolicall Traditions and in their doing of this which is their constant practises they teach flat Rebellion and High Treason againg the Septer and Kingdome of the everlasting Son of God who will have his church governed by his owne Lawes which he instituted and left recorded in his last Will and Testament which he hath bequeathed to his church commanding them as they will answer it before his dreadfull appearing to observe and keep them strictly without violation in the least and also by his owne Officers therein expressed who are only five who are to be permanent officiating in personall presence and Being for the freedome of his church namely Pastor Teocher Elder Deacon and Widdow Rom. 12.7.8 Phil. 1.1 1 Tim. 3. 5. chap. But they teach the people to goe to the Lawes and Officers of Antichrist which are a great multitude in number as Patriarkes Primates Metrapolitanes Arch-Bishops Lord Bishops Deanes Chancellours Vicar generall Prebends Doctours of the Civill Law Doctours of Divinity Proctours Registers Arch-Deacons Sub-Deacons Preists Jesuites Parish-preists Parsons Vicars Curates Cannons Petty Cannons Chanters Vestrey men Church wardens Sworne men Side men Parish clarkes damnable and divelish Pursevants Summers Apparritours with a great many more And therefore in this respect doe not by their Ministery accomplish the same ends that the Ministery of the Apostles did and so by your owne grounds are no true Ministers And aâ— for those two things of conversion and confirmation or building up in the wayes of God which you speake of if you meane by conversion an opening of the eyes to turne them from drunkenes to light and from the power of Satan unto God Or if you meane by conversion a deliverance from the power of darkenes and a translation into the Kingdome of the Son of God both of which the Apostles Ministery did accomplish in the hearts and lives of Gods people Asts 26.18 Col. 1.13 I absolutely deny it that your Ministery in England doth this And therefore I desire you to declare what you meane by conversion and prove your definition by the holy Scripture and also prove that you in England are so converted which when you have done I shall further answer you by Gods assistance And as for their building them up in the wayes of God as all true Sheepheards ought to build up their sheepe as Acts 20. 1 Pet. 5. yet I deny it that your ministers doe it for how can they build them vp in that which they themselves are ignorant of and enemies unto for as Jannes and Jambres which withstood Moses so doe these men also resist the truth being men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth 2 Tim. 3.8 and doe feed you with huskes and chaffe being neither willing to embrace it themselves nor to let those that would as their constant preaching and speaking against the truth of God and the Kingdome of his Son doth witnesse And in the conclusion of this your Argument you say when the Separation can prove conversion in an Antichristian Church you will say more to them this belongs to you to prove for we doe not plead for Antichrist but against him and all his And therefore have I taken the paines by the Word of God and demonstrable Argument grounded therevpon to prove the Church
of England Antichristian And when you or any other doe by the Authority of the unerring and pure Word of God sufficiently confute what I have writ against it I doe promise you I will be a member of the Church of England againe but if that be not done I will by the strength of the Lord of Hosts for ever separate from Church Ministery and worship in England as all and every one of them Antichristean and false yet thus much I say and doe acknowledge and the Scripture proves it that God hath a people or an elect number in spirituall Babylon yea in the Kingdome of Antichrist part of which the ch of England is and none of them shall perish but â—e eternally saved yet I say it is the duty of all Gods Elect chosen ones that as yet in the whorish â—osâ—… of the ch of Engl. or in any part of Antichrists regiment iâ— separate away from it and come out of it least God plague them for their staying there 〈…〉 and 〈◊〉 forward 51.6.9.11 2 Cor. 6.16.17 Rev. 14.9.10 18.4 Now from all that which hath been said I frame these Arguments First that every lawfull Pastor Bishop Minister or Officer in the visible Church of Christ ought to have a lawfull call and be lawfully chosen into his Office before he can be a true Officer in the Church of Christ Acts 1.24.25 26. 24.23 Gal. c 11. Heb. 5.4 But the Ministers and Officers in the Church of England have not a lawfull call neither are lawfully chosen to be Officers in the Church of Christ see the Booke of Ordination of Bishops Preists and Deacons compared with the Scripture Therefore all your Ministers are false and Antichristian Officers Rev. 9.3 2. Secondly The doing of those actions that belong to the execution of an office doth not prove a man to be a lawfull officer but a lawfull power instating him into his office Acts 8.4 11.28.24 18.24.26 But all the Ministers in the church of England have nothing to prove the lawfulnes of their standing in their Ministery but the actions of a Minister and are not able to prove that they are instated into their Ministery by vertue of a lawfull power and authority Therefore they are not true Ministers of Christ but false and Antichristian Ministers of Antichrist 3. Againe in the third place upon your own grounds I frame this Argument Those that by their Ministery doe not accomplish the same ends that the Ministery of the Apostles did are no true ministers But the ministers of the church of England doe not accomplish the same ends by their ministery that the ministery of the Apostles did 1 Cor. 12.2 Therefore your ministers are no true ministers So you see I have overthrown your second Argument and that in your own way and deny that which I have said and prove against it if you be able 3. Againe your 3. Arg. to prove your scratched and deformed mother a true visible church is this Whatsoever people doe enjoy outwardly submit themselves to the true worship of God they are a true visible ch of Christ But the people of Eng. dâ—e outwardly enjoy and submit themselves to the true worship of God Ergo the people of England are a true visible Church Answ 3. And for the proofe of your Arg. you say that the Separation grant and teach the proposition but the assupmtion they stifly deny as well they may do but you will stifly maintaine and prove it to their shame But first of all I will prove your Arg. false to your shame and then I will examine your proofe of it Therefore I deny your proposition assumption and conclusion And first you say the Separation teach where there is true worship there is a true Church what they teach I doe not very well know for I never heard any of their Sermons but only one neither have I read but very few either of their Books or writings but yet I say your Major is not found for true worship doth not prove a company of people to be a true visible church of Christ for they must be a true visible church before they tender and offer up any publike worship to him therefore true worship doth not provâ— a true church but rather a true church proves true worship for the cause must ever goe before the effect which it produceth but a true Church produceth true worship and not true worship a true Church Now to the makeing of a true Church there must not only be true matter but also a true forme 1 Cor. 15.13 Col. 2.5 or an entrance into that heavenly state or spirituall city called the New Jerusalem which comes downe from heaven and which is in the last end described in the Word of God and so becoming a politike Kingdome or Body that makes them a true church or an vniting joyning or combining of a company of Beleivers together amongst themselves and so unto Christ their only and alone head and King promising perfect obedience to all his Lawes and to walke in all his wayes that gives them the denomination of a true visible church of Christ by virtue of which they come to have Christs power to execute all the Lawes that Jesus Christ hath left and bequeathed in his last will to his welbeloved Spouse and to administer all his administrations which out of this state cannot lawfully be administred as I have already proved at large in my Answer to W. G. an eminent Professâ—… in your Church but yet an earnest pleader for Antichrists Kingdome and dominion as well as your selfe and therefore for this particular I referre you to that And as for your Minor and Assumption which is that you in the Church of England doe enjoy and outwardly submit your selves to the true worship of God It is most false and a notorious lie and untruth and as well might wicked Faux and the rest of the Gun-pouder plotters say that they submitted unto noble King James Lawes and Septer when they went about to blow up the Parliament House that so they might destroy him and all his for you doe not only oppose and justle out the true worship of God and throw downe and trample upon the Septer of Jesus Christ his Son but also you set up a false and Antichristian worship the inventer of which is the Divel and the man of Sin his eldest and most obedient Son Therefore I am ashamed to heare you who boast your selfe to be such a mighty champion as you â—ay you are having as I heare you have said that you have confuted many of the Separation to reason so shallowly and ungroundedly and against the knowne and confessed truth and therefore you are but like Goliah the Philistins great champion who exceedingly reviled as you doe the Hoast of the Lord and kept a mighty challinging of them as though none of Gods people had been able to encounter and graple with him when as poore David that yongue
and till you have proved it true all the paines that you have taken in proving that it is possible for corruptions and wicked livers to be in a true Ch. is spent in vaine and to no purpose and I am confident that you nor none else will ever be able to prove the Ch. of Eng. true nor any other Nationall Ch. for Jesus Christ by his death did abolish the National Church of the Jewes with all there Lawes rites and Ceremonies thereof and in the new Testament did never institute no nationall Ch. nor left no Lawe nor Officers for the governing thereof but the Church that he instituted are free and indedendant bodies or Congregations depending upon none but only upon Christ their Head Therefore nationall Churches under the Gospell are of Antichrists that man of sins institution and ordaining who only hath ordained Lawes and officers of his owne for the governing of them as I have sufficiently proved at large in my foresaid Answer to W. G. and but put the ease the Ch. of Eng. had been a true Ch. as it never was yet those abominable corruptions and most detestable grosse open notoriovs wickednes and prophanes would have utterly destroyed long ere this her Essence and Being and have made her utterly to have forfeited her Charter and have ceased to a true Ch. for if God threatned to unchurch the Ch. of Ephesus Rev. 2. and to take his heavenly state Charter and Candlesticke frow her for but forsakeing her first Love and the Gh. of Pergamus for having some in her that taught the Doctrin of Balam and the Ch. of Thiatira for suffering Jesabels doctrine to preached amonst them doe you think that he would haue spared the Ch. of Eng. to this day who for many hundred yeares even ever since her first constitution take her at her best hath been ten times worse then all these in which all manner of false doctrines have been manifestly maintained and preached and all kind of prophanes wickednes by her nembers practiced perpetrated Therefore for you or any other to say and affirme that this monsterous ugly botched and skabbed body is Christs true Spouse is dishonourable to his blessed Being and Mediatorship who gave himselfe for his Ch. that he might sanctifie and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word that he might preserve it to himself a glorious Ch. not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish Ephes 5.26.27 for the name of this City is the Lord is there Ezr. 48.15 all the true Inhabitants of which are to be righteous as the servants and elect ones of the Lord Esa 60.21 65.2 but in the Ch. of Engl. he that is most acute in teaching false doctrine and setting up Antichrists wicked Kingdom climbes to the highest preferment and Church dignity as they call it witnes the prophane ignorant sottish athiesticall Bishops who are so voyde of understanding in the misteries of God and godlines that they dare not publikely dispute with the yonguest boy that doth oppose them though they have been challenged to it Also he that commits the most widkednes and ungodlynes is the best loved and respected and those that labour to oppose false doctrine and walke more holyer then others are the most hated despised and reejcted and this even in the bosome of your Church even by the Pillars and corner stones thereof witnes those late bloody barbarous and tyrannicall cutting of mens eares at the Pillory and whipping others at the Cart that even for conscience sake therefore doe you thinke or have you any ground to imagine that if ever your Ch. had been true but that these transcendant exceeding grosse vile corruptions would not have nullified destroy'd and annihilated her and â—â—â—e made Christ long ere now to have given her a Byll of Divorce as he did to â—…keslyding Israel and to have taken her Charter from her as he hath done from all those famous flourishing renouned Churches recorded in the New Testament It is true The Ch. of the Jewes had grosse mighty corruptions in her which was the height of her sin for which God severly plagud and punished her many times And what if she had such things in her that will not in the least defend the mighty corruptions in your Ch. seeing as I have proved it never was a true Ch. no nor never so long as she stands in that falfe Antichristian Nationall state as she doth but as for the Ch. of the Jewes it was a true Ch. unto whom God truly gave his Lawes Ordinances in the observation keeping of which she might have continued lovely amiable and beautifull in his eyes but yours hath not her Power Lawes and Ordinances from God but from the Divell Antich Rev. 13.2.4 It is true it was the sin of the Jewes to commit such grosse evils as they did and to suffer the offenders amongst them to goe unpunished contrary to their wholesome Lawes Gods own commaund who had ordained commanded them that the soule that committed such such evils should be out off destroyed from amongst the people as you may largely read in the 4. last Bookes of Moses because the Land as well as the people was an holy Land by virtue of Gods institution of it and setting it a part for himselfe as well as the people and therefore he would have had haynous transgressours to be destroyed or killed least the Land should be polluted desiled with their wickednes as he himselfe speakes now because they would not observe the Lawes Ordinances that he had given them though he suffered their manners long and bare much with their sin in that he fatherly chastised and corrected them againe againe before he utterly destroyed them and anhialated their nationall Ch. that so they might be left without excuse but seeing no Reformatton after so many corrections could not be had but their prophanations and grosse abominations were so great and continued in it caused him at the last utterly to renounce them and for ever put an end unto their nationall C. and Ceremoniall Law which was done at the death of Christ when he spake and said it is finished and now he will never any more returne againe unto them to become an husband as he was to the Nation of the Jewes though yet he hath as the Scriptures declare an elect remnant and company amongst them and at the end of their Nationall Church Jesus Christ the eternall Son of God by virtue of that power which he had received of and from his Father changed their Lawes Ordinances as the History of the Acts of the Apostles with the rest of the new Testament doth fully declare and he institued no nationall but particular Churches or Congregations many of which may be in one Countrey or nation all of them independant bodyes depending upon none but only upon Christ their head and withall