i. e. the Pope is the native Father of the Bishops and therefore he must be at least the Grand-father of you Presbyters Yet some of you are so ashamed to have it said that as Ministers of Christ you receive your orders and standing as such from Antichrist that you professe not to act in your ordinations to and executions of the ministerial function as from Gregory the Great but to renounce that and to ordain now not as Presbyters that were in orders from such as were in orders from the Pope but rather as persons deputed so to do by the ordinances of Parliament extant to that purpose and by the power and appointment of the Civil Magistrate who say you is he that only hath power to raise all again since the treading down in matter of both Ministry and Ordinances and may as well do it with his own hands if he please as appoint you to do it making him the chief officer that Christ hath set in his Church to redresse all that 's amisse in it such a Mish-mash as this was once more largely uttered by Mr. Glenden in a discourse at Swevenock in order to the proving the Ministry of the Church of England to be a true Ministry But if the Magistrate were any Church officer as at all he is not so as that men that have their orders from his ordinances as it seems the Junior Sophisters of this age have are as to the outward call or ordination true Ministers of Christ yet that makes nothing to the proving of you to be so that stand Ministers of the old stamp from the hands of the old Lord Bishops besides some yea it may be the most of you that hold your present authority to ordain in from the Parliament scarce held the Parliament while it stood of any authority at all since the last new modelling of it so discontented were you that your Northern model was in no more request yea though you held it such a lawful and sufficient power when they made an ordinance for Tith and Trebble dammages that you held your selves bound in conscience to God or rather your own good to obey it and improved you selves to the utmost to see it executed on conscientious delinquents against it yet when ordinances for double service came as solemn fasts witnesse that of Iun. 13.1652 so strictly enjoined to be observed by the Ministers of every parish how many of you drew your necks out of the coller as not owning the then Parliament to be a power that you might lawfully submit to thus an ordinance that is charged topful of benefice you durst venture to let off but when one came that had nothing but bare office in the mouth of it then they by whose orders you pretended to stand in both benefice and office might give order to discharge it twice before you would once discharge it And as your meet Mongrell Caesarean Magistratical Pope-episcopall kind of Ordination together with that unworthy unPastorlike forcible Obtrusion of your selves as Pastors on people without their free election so your Popelike practises and unministerly management of your selves in all other particulars doth proclaim you plainly to be no true Ministers of Christs Gospel nor true Pastors of the flock but rather to be Wolves Theeves Robbers Hirelings that come not in by the dore Jesus Christ but climb into the folds some otherwaies to wit the recommendation of great men and sometimes buying the gift of the spirit i. e. a spiritual living yet modestly saying No thrice as the Bishops when they had given a thousand pound for the place and improvement of your interest in your Patrons and do come into spoil steal destroy and serve your own selves of them as well as you can while you are with them and so away again to make a prey of some other parishes for verily if you can spie out any flocks that have better fleeces then other leaving those you lived with before to shift for themselves without their leave with the leave of such as pretend to the power of presentment you l be their Pastors whether they will or no but if any of you be chosen for their churchmen by a poor people that want a great Benefice for their Cure they must for you want the Benefit of a Curaâ—e Yea what maintenance is in this or that vacant parish which you are harping after is one of the main Questions thats about it yea Ye minister for maintenance ye teach for reward ye preach foâ— hire ye divine for money ye turn the Gosspel into a meer trade to the learning of which you put men out as Apprentices about some seven years to the universities and then allow them as free men therof to set up for themselves and get as good livings by it as they can where you may be sure of sufficient wages you will tell men a little of the truth and truely t is not much of it that you know but you care not how little you preach of that little you have to preach where you can hope to have but little pay for your pains Wo to yee O ye National PPPriesthood t is too too eviden that you are not the Shepheards of the sheep yea you are the idol-shepheards that leave the flock to provide for your selves not regarding their welfare when by sâ—incking away from them you can provide but a little better for your own you are exceptis excipiendis saving some few hundreds among many thousands Hirelings ' that flee to prefer better secure advance or advantage your selves because you are Hirelings and care not for the sheep you are Pastors that are become bruitish you have not sought the Lord but your selves for the most part therefore shall ye not prosper but your sheep shall be scattered away from you Ier. 10. yea verily you drive them from you dayly more and more not onely by many pieces of your dry divinity but specially with your terrible doctrine of trebble damages in which you drive so furiously upon them that you drive them both out of your dores and their own also you have an evill eye of covetuousnesse and greedinesse upon the tenth of every mans substance and therefore you loose no time while the law of man favours you in it though not the man Christ Jesus and spare no pains but take scrape strive streign ride run rake wrangle weary out your selves and neighbours and all Courts and Committees in City and Country to have something out of every thing for doing worse then nothing till you not onely trebbly endamage but totally undo many poor mens wives and childrens bodies and your own souls too except ye repent little considering that an inheritance gotten hastily in the beginning shall not be blessed in the end you devour widowes houses and for a pretence make long prayers and therefore will receive greater damnation you Tith mint and rue and all manner of herbs corn lamb
Evangelist whence Philip was called Evangelista that being the very thing made him an Evangelist and not his Deaconship besides which he had no other office because he did Evangelizare no man can give a reason why the scattered disciples that did Evangelizare or preach the Gospel with him should not be denominated Evangelists as well as he and indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 differ no more then a Preacher and he that preaches and though every Pastor be both an Evangelist and a Prophet yet he that saies every Evangelist and Prophet is a Pastor or an ordained officer qua sic or that either of these are nomen officii or sounding forth more then a person thus or thus gifted viz. the Evangelist to preach the Gospel for the conversion of such as are yet without the Prophet to speak to the exhortation edification and comfort of the Church and people already converted and both these occasionally only and not as by vertue of an ordination to an office may say it ten times over before the Scripture rightly understood will furnish him to make proof of it once And as these ordinary disciples for the Apostles abode still at Ierusalem Act. 8.1 went every where as well as Philip pro suo modulo Evangelizantes preaching Christ according to their abilities so the hand of the Lord was with those occasional preachers that a great number believed and turned to the Lord by their means and were baptized also undoubtedly by their hands yea the famous Church of Antioch had its foundation from this and grew into a Church which they could not do without baptism before any actual officer came neer them for though Paul and Barnabas walked with them for a year and improved their gifts for their edification yet neither of these were yet actually any more then Evangelists and Prophets though before by God intended and not long after by the Church visibly ordained to their Apostleship i. e. men of excellent gifts and this will appear Act. 11. from verse 19. to the end with Act. 13. v. 4. and backward to the beginning you do therefore greatly err not knowing the Scriptures which tell you also plainly that though Paul converted all the Corinthians yet his own hands baptized but a few committing that dispensation as an inferiour work to his preaching to the hands of inferiour disciples as Mr. Baxter himself also confesses to your confutation asserting it from 1 Cor. 1 17. so though Peter converted the company in Cornelius house yet surely he baptized them not all if any at all with his own hands but left the administration to the hands of others some one or more of the brethren that came with him And the manner of speech implies plainly no lesse for he commanded that they should all be baptized in the name of the Lord yea so far is the word from tying up the dispensation of baptism to an office that we have much more president and proof after Christs ascension of comon disciples then you have of officers baptizing You therefore make much more a do in this then needs you strain indeed at a goat and swallow a camel and busy your self so about the truth of administrators that you have lost the truth and substance of the administration it self were your baptism true baptism indeed there is no necessity that ordained Ministers must administer it but unlesse it were truer then it is no matter if it were never administred at all Know therefore Sirs I beseech you that the verity worth weight and efficacy of baptism depends not upon the quality of the person administring but upon the truth of the subject to whom and the true form wherein t is administred the Scripture prescribes plainly who they are that shall and in what manner these shall but not at all by whom they shall be baptized t is the duty of them that believe to be baptized and his duty that baptizes to baptize indeed not rantize only and to baptize such as being taught the Gospel do believe it but who they must be that are to baptize those is neither here nor there to the baptism for ought I find in the word so they be but Masculine disciples nay though the person baptizing be not only no officer but in the case above named as yet unbaptized himself yet if the person baptized be not only a believing disciple but also baptized really and indeed his baptism is never the worse for the other Experience tells me and I believe many more that have been baptized according to truth that t was drawing neer to Christ with true hearts in his true ordinance that made us accepted in his sight not the qualifications of the baptizers whose baptism and ministerial functions were they invested with both could add never the more validity nor verity to our baptism as neither could the non-entity of either of those in them have possibly made the baptism so sincerely submitted to be in any measure void and of no effect the placing so much in persons administring as to think our selves ere the better for that was that fantastical fopery of the Corinthians for a while one saying I am of Paul another I of Apollo another I of Caephas i. e. I was baptized by such or such which made the Apostle Paul who with his own hands baptized but some of them well nigh wish he had baptized none of them at all when he saw their carnall glories in the persons administring and blesse God that he baptized no more least they should have thougt the better of themselves and of their baptism for its dispensation of it by his hands The administrators therefore being baptized or not baptizd minister or no minister maketh the baptism if elsewise warrantable neither better nor worse of it self all this I speak all this while not as granting that our baptism is by unbaptized persons and that my self am no minister of the Gospel for neither of these shall be yielded by any meanes unlesse you were more able then you are to prove them I speak it suppositively that if these were both so yet both my baptizing and being baptized may be warrantable enough notwithstanding or else if we deemed it worth while to seek out what succession our baptism hath had from the Apostles in a series without interruption t is possible there were some disciples in all ages that owned the truth though so few and despised that their generation can scarcely be declared for who can declare his generation whose life in himself and his was still cut off from the earth but we go by the word that is above all Church and Ministry in our account of our baptism and ministry and not by succession in either and as for your selves that hold so much on succession and boast of a lineal descent of your ministry and Rantism from the Apostles t will pussle you no lesse to prove that if we put you to
in thus To all which viz. their introduction ground and question I answer as followeth First I deny not but that hands were laid on men then by several sorts of administrators godly and wicked in the several seasons of before and after baptism to and upon several ends purposes and accounts though all the several ends and cases you here distinguish by do not make so many several kinds of imposition of hands neither so substantially distinct each from other as you would seem to make them for imposition of hands on baptized believers before admission and after that before ordination to office were one and the same in kind distinguished onely by the different capacities of membership and ministership eldership messengership to each of which laying on of hands was Antecedent yea these were one and the same kind of imposition of hands used all in order to one and the same end in general viz. receiving the holy spirit or as occasion was more and more of the spirit in a measure answerable to their places diversified onely by the different degrees or stations in the Church to which they were thereby visibly designed but what if there were never so many kinds of laying on of hands is it therefore so impossible to determine as by your query you seem to imagine which among all the rest is meant in such or such a place shall we think the Apostles meant to deliver the mind and doctrine of Christ and that in the very principles or first rudiments of it too which ought to be the plainest in such obstruse dark and ae igmatical wayes that men should scarcely be capable possibly to know what they meant there 's several sorts of baptism spoken of in the Scripture is it therefore so difficult if men be not willing as some are to puzzle themselves besides the practise of water baptism to know when he speaks of water when of sufferings when of the spirit But to the question sith some will needs though needlesly query which of all these layings on of lands the Scripture speaks of is called the foundation principle or beginning doctrine I answer that laying on of hands that t was dispensed with prayer on baptized believers not as yet to be set apart to office mentioned Act. 8.15 16.17 not in order to gifted mens giving it for though you will mistake us do what we can and bring us in as confessing it here yet we ever utterly deny that any men were ever so gifted as that they could give it but in order to Gods giving and our receiving the holy spirit from the Lord that laying on of hands I say is it which in Heb. 6.1.2 is called a principle a part of that foundation of Christs doctrine on which the visible Church is built In proof of which let this Argument be considered viz. It s none of all the other kinds of laying on of lands mentioned by you that is meant Heb. 6.2 therefore it must necessarily be that Most undoubâ—edly t is not that mentioned Luke 21.12 where it s said prophetically as concerning the wickeds persecution of the Saints thâ—y shall lay their hands on you c. which we read of also as fulfilled accordingly and spoken of historically Act. 5.18 they laid their hands on the Apostles and put them in prison c. First because that is not simply a laying on of hands but a laying on of violent hands and so it should be read if the word there used were rightly rendred and translated into its true English out of the Greek for t is not the same but a word of a far different sense from that which is used every where else where this doctâ—ine of imposition of hands is spoken of for one sounds forth as much as a violent handling the other a gentle putting or laying our hands upon the persons Secondly as for that violent laying on of hands in way of persecution wherby the saints suffer that 's included in the doctrine of baptisms immediately foregoing it belonging to one of the three viz. the bitter baptism of sufferings as a branch thereof so that it were but confusion and tautology to expresse that ore again as if t were anoâ—her doctrine which was but a part of the doctrine going before by another name and such a one too as is never given it in the original viz. of imposition of hands Thirdly whatever doctrine is called a principle or part of the foundation of the doctrine of Christ Heb. 6.2 the same is called Heb. 5.12 one of the principles of the oracles or the holy things of God But the laying on of violent hands on the saints in way of persecution is one of the principles of the devils doctrine and a principal part of the very foundation of his kingdome yea one of the most wicked things that the devil does or delivers as Christs doctrine to his disciples Nor was it a laying on of hands though such a one was used some times in order to healing the sick or curing the blind that was taught as a principle and practically ownd and laid as a part of the foundation among all the Hebrewes Heb. 5.12.6.1 2. for they were neither all sick surely nor all blind when they past under this dispensation so as to have all need to have hands laid on them all upon such accounts as healing or curing Nor was it in order to ordination of them to offices that they might be gifted and fitted by the spirit thereunto for the laying on of hands there spoken of was laid as a principle as a part of the foundation on which the Church stood but the laying on of hands to set apart men to administer either temporal things or spiritual things in the Church is no principle nor beginning thing nor foundation antecedent to the Church as every foundation must be to the building for the visible Church ever since the first Apostles whose doctrine was the foundation to it was antecedent to its officers and not they to it the churches were first collected and constituted upon the foundation or first form of doctrine delivered by the Apostles and then officers were ordained in every Church for the true visible Church may be without officers though not without ordinances but Church officers cannot be chosen nor ordained in it till there be a Church besides this imposition Heb. 6.2 was learnt owned and laid by the whole body of the Church whom he reproves saying ye might have been teachers but ye had need to be taught again which be the first principles of the oracles of God but they were not all at first surely by laying on of hands ordained to office As to the sixth question of the Enquirers which is also the last that I am to speak to having spoke to the seventh and eighth above which with the ground thereof runs thus it is grounded upon such a grosse and grievous mistake that I am almost amazed that of the
you could tell how become guilty of the body and blood of the Lord however repent or repent not this I say unto you from the Lord that your bloody principle of persecution for conscience and forced conformity to your foolish forms canons creeds chatechisms dictates directories shall utterly perish from off the ear h. I wish the Independents for their turn 's next look to it in time and take heed of turning aside too much from that precious principle of depending upon no King but Christ in conscience cases neither state Councells nor Church councells nor Classes save onely for conscience to Christ to be subject freely in all meer civill cases to the one and for cognizance sake to consult in meer church and conscience cases with the other and whom else they please keeping Church and State as distinct as t is possible which the CCClergy have confounded so together that we have lost the true Peculiarities of either and as not suffering such sawcy doings as to have most general Assemblies of the Kirk quâ Church Assemblies to be tampering at all with state affairs so not troubling any officers of state qua State officers no not the highest nor Committees nor Sheriffs to wearinesse with representations of things pertaing purely to churches and church orderes expecting no more then a passive permissive influence from them to the church-ward i. e. to let all Churches and all religions Jewes themselves alone to their light till they see the true one so be they live faithfully under them and quietly peaceably and civilly one by another but me thinks I smell a mixt mongrel Independency too much on foot and creeping on an Indepency by the halves a Presbyterian Independency Independency too dependant in church work upon the state for state pay enquiring after parish maintenance telling some truth and taking as much tith as they can lay their hands on lending liberty to themselves to have no supper in the parishes when they please yet resolving to make the people pay for it so long as they preach whether they eat a bit of it at all yea or no A thing I cannot well tell what to call it that has a smack too much of Smectimnuus and yet t is not so tyrannical neither nor yet so tender towards a toleration of all consciences and Religions though of all tender conscienced Christians as that the poor Jew or natural Israelite can have any room or creep hole by it into the Common-wealth in order to his conversion he must keep out unlesse he be so converted before he come as to resolve heel own Christ and not speak against him as not the Christ which what power in any State under heaven can banish a Jew out of any nation for doing I plainly know not an Independency that is willing to let Israel go but not to let another Isâ—ael come into the Land so as to promulgate his principle which I'm sure is contrary to the principles of Christian Religion or if the Jew may deny Christ and yet live in the world in quiet why not another unlesse the word can gain him to the belief of it as well as he Independents a word or two with you by the way no hurt I hope if you will have but patience I find proposals presented Feb. 11. 1651. that make me amazâ—d to think that they should come from Independents for I took Independents till of late to be genuine Independents indeed but I see there 's nothing but may have something like it which is not the same and such is your Semi-demiindependency to me For supply of all parishes in England with Orthodox Ministers it s propounded that the Sheriff of each County give account to the Committee what parish hath no Minister â—hat maintenance each such parish hath what Ministers that reside in each County have no livings and such of them as are Orthodox be placed there as the â—ommittee shall think sit For settling right constituted Churches that all Churches that are or shall be gathered signifie to the Committee of the Vniversities or elsewhere whom they have or shall choose for their Pastors and that such and such onely shall be declared right constituted Churches whose Pastor shall be approved by the Committee to be able godly and orthodox Fye Fye Sirs that you will still have such a minglement of Sheriffs Committees Ministers Churches in a kind of Omnigatherum about the Gospell and your Churchwork and that you will trouble the Sheriffs to find what pay is in parishes what parishes want Ministers and what Ministers lack means if your Ministers lack meanes cannot they look aftâ—r it themselves and bestow themselves in some honest calling or other to get a living out on or if they cannot cannot your Churches see to them a little what they lack or do you lack to have the tithes and parish pay turned ore to you now as the Presbyters gaped after augmentations from the Bâ—shops Deans and chapters lands if you do I hope the State will save your longing as they did theirs and take them sheer away root and branch and let those Churches that have Ministers maintain them if they need and let the Gospel be preached freely by Messengers from Churches to the Gentiles to the world without charging them with it till converted to it for such you suppose the nation to be now as well as we and not a Church of Christ why else do you gather Churches of Christ out of it will you gather Churches of Christ out of Churches of Christ what rule have you for that surely Churches must be gathered out of the world and if so that the nation be no true constituted Church of Christ it s no true Church of Christ for Christ hath no falsely constituted true Churches that I know of and so her Ministers no true Ministers of Christ for Christs Ministers are not Ministers of no Church but such as came remotely as to their ordination and parish posture baptism and all from the Pope whom if you also look upon with such favourable construction as to own him and his ordinations and his baptism and administrations and what the Prelate and Presbyter sucks in a way of succession from thence as Apostolical so as to stand Ministers and baptized by it I shall think the world goes round then indeed and that whoever chances to get on horseback and sit in the Saddle here in England whether Prelate Presbyter or Independent they cannot chuse for customes sake but face about still and ride back at least a little way toward Rome or do you hold as some Presbyters do your ordination O Independents from the Magistrate if so he was ordained a minister of God in other cases but neither per se nor per alios to ordain and authorize Ministers for Christ Churches yet me thinks I sent you comming somewhat neer that when you propose onely that such shall be declared right constituted Churches whose Pastor shall be approved by
were but Natural at least but Temporal men besides themselves thus the Bishops were called Lords Spiritual and other Lords Lords Temporal so that of Priests see the book of Common-prayer and of ordination of Priests and Deacons whereas these are titles afforded by the spirit to all the Saints of God as well as some 1 Cor. 3.15 1 Pet. 2.9 Rev. 1.6.5.10 yet I call them by these names because these are now the most common names whereby they are known or else properly I cannot call them by these nor by any other names whereby they commonly call themselves I cannot call them the Spiritualty for not one of many of them hath any Spiritualnesse in him I cannot call them Divines for they are rather Humanes if they have their due whilst they teach Gods fear after mens precepts and for doctrines the Traditions of men I cannot call them the Tribe of Levi for Levi though he took Tith according to the Law whereof he was the Priest in the loines of Abraham paid Tithes to the person of that high Priest that we are under viz. Melchizedeck or the King of Righteousnesse Christ Iesus but these are so far from paying Tithes to Christ that they most grievously gripe his people if they pay it not to them I cannot call them Ministers i. e. servants of Christ of the Church for they are rather Lords and Masters over his heritage unlesse Servus Servorum and Dominus Dominorum may stand together I cannot call them Pastors or Shepheards till I can own their Parishes for Christs Sheep for if we denominate them by the General temper of their people they profess to stand Pastors too they seem to be Swinheards rather by their people swallowing in the mire I cannot call them Presbyters or Elders though some of them be Seniores annis unlesse they were Saniores Animis then they are for they are not yet sound nor Orthodox in either their judgements doctrine or practise so long as they are against the truest baptism and abide unbaptized I cannot call them Preachers of the Gospel for they preach down that Gospel which was at first preached concerning Christs dying for the sins of the whole world I cannot call them Bishops or Overseers of Christs flock in the spirits sense i. e. in respect of their care to take heed to or feed it but Overseers in another sense rather I may properly stile them for verily Christs flock is so little and low poor and plain mean and base hated and dispised and themselves so lofty and high minded that as not many noble and mighty so few or none of these wise men after the flesh can stoop or look so low as it is and so for the most part they oversee it and lastly if those be the true Clergy and Priests of God that are obedient to his word as the Scripture saies they are the CCClergy need not find fault as they do with the Mar-priests of these times for in very deed the CCClergy PPPriests and Presbiters have been the truest Priest-biters Claw-clergies and Mar-Priests themselves * Rem enim indignam esse putant c. saith Calvin Inst. li. 4. c. 11.5.15 they deem it a disparagement that they should be made to answer in their own personall causes before any civil Magistrate and suppose both the liberty and dignity of the Church i. e. the Clergy to ly in an exemption from the common seats of judicature and their laws but the Bishops of old who were otherwise strict enough in pleading the priviledges of the Church did judge it no disgrace either to themselves or their function to subject themselves to civill powers * whose work lay mostly in reading service in old time till the Gospel came again to be pâ—eached in these latter daies Act. 19.24 to 39. * who saw some truth in their daies wherein t was twilight but not all that is now to be seen for though I reverence the men as I do every man that sees truth as far as it shines clearly in his time yet Luther left much truth unseen to himself behind him and some of Calvinsâ—nstitutions â—nstitutions too are none of Christs * For verily these Starrs for their light of learning as Dr. Featley confesses p. 165.166 have been the Authors devisers and broachers of Heresies yea peruse saith he if thou please all the antient Heresies listed by Epiphanius Austin Philastrius Alphonsus a castro Ambrosius de Rusconibus and others and therein thou shall find the Ring-leaders great Clerks and accute Sophisters whence is that true observation of Tertullian Philosophi Hereticorum Patriarchae Philosophers have been the great Grandfathers of Hereticks Nahum 3. thy crowned are as the locusts O King of Assyria Apollyon in the Antitype * Of which chain of succession of Ministry if but one link fail or chance to be lost so that it meets with interruption you confesse all your Ministry lies on the ground too and cannot at any hand be counted valid or raised again and yet if there was not a breach of that line in the link of Pope Joan aliâs Gilberta an English woman born at Lin who was both literally and mystically the Whore of Rome and therefore far I wot from being a true Presbyter or Minister of Christs Church in which women are forbid to usurp authority then my understanding failes me not a little * Who by Austin the Monk dispatcht an Ordination hither with resolution about infants viz. that in case of necessity they might be baptized by which ordination men have ever since bin authorized to ordain here and such as have been ordained to baptize * For the civil Magistracy may reside in women as is also shewed above who though by Pope Ioanes example they may yet by Pauls rule they may not usurp authority in the Church * For now that 's put down also as to the present session as every power will be and that suddenly and with shame that puts down others for tyranny covetousness unrighteousness self settlement in greatnesse and delay of justice to poor people that cry for it in these latter daies and yet succeeds them in the same sins and in such security as to say Populus me sibilet at mihi plaudo Ipsa domi simulac nummos contempler in Arca. * I mean take tith for you pay none * of which you have the fift not the tenth if the husbandmans charges be all considered * If you were not blind your selves you would gather thus much from that viz. that while men are blind they sat under your ministry but when once they begin clearly to see they can see no ground to sit under you any longer * Nicholas the first was I think the first that prohibited the Clergy marriage saying that it was more honest to have to do with many women privately then openly to take one wife Insomuch that a Priest of Placentia being accused to have a wife and children was deprived of his Benefice but
may read as it were in text letters your own abstract from that of mine when you please and signing the Titles of the CCClergy whether true or surreptitious with three letters in the front as C. C. C. PPP c. most commonly when I speak of â—hem in the lump to denote the three PPParts into which that great City B B Babylon which they make stands divided I proceed as followeth That Heresies must be the Apostle hath said yet it makes no more for a tolleration of them in the true Church I mean though others mean in the civil state than that of our Saviour of offences saying foreseeing no question how by means of the Clergies crying out Heresie Heresie Schism against the way of truth being once turned aside to Heresie themselves the world would be offended at his little ones for walking in it They must come but wo to the man by whom they come the Apostle reckons Heresies among the works of the flesh Idolatry Witchcraft c. Gal. 5.20 which alone is argument sufficient against the Patronage and Invitation of them unless withal license in the true Church should be given to all other carnal sins why should the Church of God upon Earth make much of those against whom the Kingdome of Heaven shall be shut her pale is not so strong to keep them out from breaking in upon her like wild bores and wolves to spoil and wast her but her good will should not be so great to them as to wellcome them in to her fellowship till they repent from their dead works of superstition bloody tenet of persecution for cause of conscience worshipping God after mens traditions blaspheming the name of God and his Tabernacle and them that dwell in heaven trampling the holy City Heresie Schism from the primitive truth c. Neverthelesse howbeit to tolerate and harbour Hereticks in communion with them whilest they oppose the true way of Christ would be an error and an evill too intollerable in a true Church of Christ yet I hold that opinion of the C C Clergy not onely intollerably Heretical in it self but intollerably hurtful also to themselves that Hereticks may not be tolerated in a civil state for if Fines Prisons Banishments Racks Wâ—ips Tortures headings hangings burnings and such like punishments with the civil sword were the due of every Heretick and Schismatick in the faith as the C C Clergy have for ages and Generations born the world in hand that they are to the causing of all these their national Church censures to be inflicted on the Saints when they have once blindly sentence them to be Schismaticks to the civil power if this I say were the due of every Heretick or Schismatick and every true Heretick and Schismatick had his due too good Lord how have the C C Clergy condemned themselves out of their own mouthes to devastation when the civil powers shall find them to be the Arch-Hereticks in the world if taking them at their word they shall do with them as they say they ought to do in this case concerning others but God forbid that with what judgement they judge they should be judged and with what measure they meet it should be measured to them again at our suggestion if their own Cheek-by-jole carriage to the Stern-men of the State do not pull it unavoidably upon themselves yea verily though as far as those that oppose themselves against the truth of Christ they may well challenge the name of Schismaticall Hereticks and though Amen might justly be said by the Magistrate in this point to the opinion of Gangraena and his Gang and might Amen be said to his wise wishes as concerning us who teach and practise baptism in its primitive fashion we could expect to be suffered in the Common-wealth no more then High-way Murderers yet dare we not desire their exâ—irpation out of any of their native rights in the several states wherein they are nor such uncivill suppression of them meerly for their erroneous Tenets as they have sollicited the higher powers to concerning us we have not so learned Christ nor would they if they had heard him and had been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus for howere it comes to passe that the C C Clergy whose own the worst would he if that were true and execution done accordingly are so besotted as to believe that Hereticks and Schismaticks from the faith men of false waies worships religions though elsewise never fo peaceable and innocent must not onely be dischurched but discommunicated also from the patronage of the civil power and cut off from the priviledges of other Subjects yet neither Christ nor any of his Apostles as from him gave any order for such rigid rejection indeed the Apostle Paul wills in his Epistle to Titus cap. 3. who was a Church officer that a Heretick after a second and third admonition be rejected i. e. from the Church and Gal. 5.12 wishes that they were cut off from the Church that did trouble the Church and Rev. 2.20.21 the Church of Thyatira was reproved for suffering that woman Iezebel which calleth her self a prophetesse to teach and seduce his servants to fornication i. e. false worships c. but it will noâ— follow therefore that such may not have license to live civilly in civil states for the weapons of the Churches warfare wherewith she is to fight against Heresies and which she is ever to have in readinesse to revenge all disobedience to Christ by are noâ— carnall 2 Cer. 10.4 5 6. not such as are used by the officers of States but onely spirituall as admonition reproof and in case of obstinacy putting out from among them delivering up to Satan and not delivering up to the secular power as the Popish Priesthood used to do when any of their creatures specially of their Clerico-creatures turned Hereticks i. e. departed from their Heresies to the truth saying pray take him into your power and be merciful to him meaning hang or burn him for a Heretick The Church I say is neither to use the carnal weapons of the State nor yet to stirr up the State so to use them on her and truths behalf as to imprison fine hang burn or banish false worshippers unbelievers misbelievers or Hereticks further then they are withall as by meer unbelief they are not offenders against the civil State I find the Lord Christ foretelling by himself and his Apostles that for the most part the more is the pitty the Rulers Kings Governours and Princes of the world would be such enemies against his Gospel that his Disciples should be â—ald before them as evill doers for his names sake Matth. 10.18 that not many mighty and noble men would own his truth 1 Cor. 1.26 that rich men would oppresse the Church and draw them before their Judgement seats and blaspheme that worthy name wherby the poor in this world which commonly are the richest in faith are called Ia. 2.6 that the Kings
of the very Christian Nations would throw down their crowns and give up their power and strength unto the beast commit fornication with the W W Whore and at her instigation make war with the Lamb and at last be overcome by him Rev. 17.14.17 and be put down together with all their rule authority and power as very enemies though once his ordinance under his feet 1 Cor. 15.24.25 I find also Ephe. 4. that he hath set in his Church Apostles Pastors c. for the work of the Ministery and affairs of it but I no where find in his will and Testament that Christ intended the Magistracy as his Ordinance though undoubtedly in other cases the supreme ordinance of God to men whether in the Church or out of it for civil good to officiate so immediately in matters of Religion faith church order c. as to execute Church-discipline Church censure for meer Church disorders Church Divisions Church offences or so as to make all men within their jurisdiction and yet though their Churches be no true Churches neither so the CCClergy would have it to believe as the Church believes worship as the Church worships and be members of the Church whether they will or no if not to pray with them yet at least to pay to them or else to be excommunicated out of all they have and under the name of Hereticks dischurcht out of the world for so verily they do doctrinally at least who teach such false doctrine that men of false relegions whether heathens Jewes Turks or Pagans or men erring most grosly about the true as Papists or whatever else though never so submissive in all civil things to the civil Powers yet may not lawfully be licensed to live in civil States or in any Common-wealth under the Sun for by the same reason that Iews Turks Heathens Hereticks may not without sin be tolerated in one Nation but must ex officio be rooted out of it upon that meer account of denying and defying Christ which is as high as ever any Heretick went they may not without sin be permitted to be in another and so either some nations mâ—st sin in allowing these to live in them or else though de facto they cannot by reason of their number yet de jure they ought as far as they well can by Kings and Princes among whom few or none are so well acquainted as they should with what is Heresie and what truth to be driven quite out of the world and so the poor Iewes whose conversion the Priests pray for with much zeal and compassion must in quiet live no where at all that they may be converted but must belike be turned altogether into the sea Besides the notion of their being Christians adds nothing to mens power as Magistrates so but that if such magistrates as are Christians are Church officers as Magistrates then other Magistrates as heathen Magistrates must be Church officers as well as they and then how well that Christian Church is likely to be served and governed whose head church-Church-officers are Heathens a fool may see Yet whether the Magistracy be Heathens or Christians it matters not to the Church so long as they are the ministers of God and Christ to them and others too for civill good to punish evil doers that are injurious against the common or any mans proper weal Church-member or other in body goods or name by stealing lying murder defiling defaming defrauding c. whereby any are prejudic'd in point of their outward well being mean while whether he be the minister of God onely or Christ also and that not onely as God but God man also it matters not so long as he is an ordinance to us for civil good so that if any matter of Division of inheritances or of wrong and wicked lewdnesse be brought before the Magistrates committed whether by a church-member or any other it is all one reason wills that the Magistrate should hear it and be they Heathens or be they Christians who stand before him determine and destribute according to the equity of his civil Law and as much as Mr. Baxter looks askew at this assertion p. 120. as if he thought the Magistrate were to do a Pagan no right against a Christian without partiality not favouring a Christian in a civil cause against a Heathen a Turk an Egyptian a Pagan so as to take the Christians part further then the equity of his cause in hand may justly call for it more then the others though the Magistrate himself also be a christian and a brother to the christian whose cause depends before him or a member of the self same congregation with him not balking to do civil justice against Church-members they deserving punishment as if the church were exempted from his jurisdiction in civil things because he is no christian but a heathen nor yet denying to do right to church-members if they be injured by others for if he do any of this I am sure he does no justice in his place whereupon Gallio the Depuputy Goâ—ernour of Achaia who was not a little to be commended in one thing was no lesse to blame in another Act. 18.17 in that when the Greeks in a rude and barbarous manner took Sostenes the chief Ruler of the Synagogue and beat him for letting Paul preach in it before his face and before the very judgement Seat too yet he cared for none of those things for those were the things that fell duly and directly under his cognizance as he was a magistrate and so the minister of God to men for good whether they be Christs disciples or no for the redresse of such civil abuses neither is Christ yet in his own person Luke 12.13.14 nay nor yet by any Church-officers of his qua sic unlesse they be civil Magistrates also and then as in that capacity they must do that right that concerns them as such as meer church-church-officers to be judge in those outward cases and as therein the outward man onely is concerned for then Paul one of the chief Apostles and officers of the Church being then present might have taken upon him in the behalf of Sostenes and himself as the Pope and the P P Priesthood do for the most part in their religions to have determined for themselves in that civill dissention but Christ as man and his church as his Church are yet no judgers nor dividers over men but the Magistrate by Gods and if I say by Christs appointment it hurts us not is made as onely in such so the only judge and divider in such civil matters but if it be a question and a brabble about Heathenism Turcism Iudaism Christianism and about Religion worship and faith and Iesus and words and names as Antinomists Arminians Anabaptists Pelagians Socinians Anti-christians Pedobaptists Sectaries c. and about his law and about Heresie and spiritual Truth and Schism in the Church and Ministry and such like about which the eares
no and are bid to let them grow together with the Wheat are not the Civil Magistrates but Christs Disciples who had nothing to doe to pluck them up and so the civil Magistrate may do it no withstanding to this purpose I have been answered when I have askt in way of querie the sense of that place To which I say First that by the Field is most necessarily meant the World and not the Church First Christ so expounds it himself the field saith he is the World but say they the World is oft used to expresse the Church and so may here I reply first I deny that the word world in any one place of Scripture signifies the Church onely it signifies sometimes the fabrick of the Universe Secondly it signifies all man kind good and bad collectively Thirdly sometimes the wicked onely that lie in wickednesse 1 Iohn 1.13 Iohn 17. abstract and in contradistinction to the godly and the Church but never at all the Church the godly the Elect alone abstract and as in contradistinction to the wicked and though I know how far forth to maintain their absurd doctrines in other cases some Divines divine such a matter yet till they shew more for it then they have ever shewed to me or I am sure can shew out of the word not denying but that there is a number electorum i. e. all that believe and obey Christ exmundo electus their Mundus electorum is haud mundus dialectus Secondly here it cannot be the Church however because it is vox secundae intentionis a speech that is expounded by Christ to be the sense of the other speech of field he used before for if the word world were ever used for the Church it must be by a figure synechdoche whereby a smal snip of it is signified by the whole and then Christ speaks figuratively again in his Exposition of the other figurative word field which were incertum per incertum to open one paraboricall expression by another as paraboricall as that which who can think Christ did to his Disciples to whom his intent was to speak more plain that they might understand him but understand him they could not well if while he spake figuratively at first he did not speak properly at last however for whereas he had told them the field was the World they had as much need to have asked again what the world was if they could not think he meant plainly as he said Thirdly the Church is exprest usually by the name of Christ's Garden Vineyard c. which are places more peculiar and sequestred as Cant. 4.12.16 Isaiah 5.6 Ez. 15. and the world or part without the Church by the name of Field Forrest c. wherein Tares wild bores briars thornes as well as wheat and Saints may live Fourthly if by Field and World here is meant the Church then t will follow that sith the Tares i. e. false Worshippers Hereticks Antichristians are bid to be let alone untill the harvest that such as these may be tolerated not in the world or civil state onely with the Church but also in the very Church it self which toleration cannot be for God chides that Church that suffers Iezebel to teach fornication in her and if the P P Priesthood plead for such a Toleration as this as he had need considering how his Church is filled with tares more then he is either able or willing to root out then â—e is for a tolleration far more intollerable then that we plead for for we would have Hereticks and Schismaticks and Erroneous false worshippers and nominall Christians Antichristians no neerer the Church then in the world with them i. e. the same States Towns houses but not in one and the same Church-fellowship or Congregation but they would have them stand in the Church for which sure Christ gives no permission much lesse a strick Commission as here is that they should But say you Christ does not here mean that they shall stand as if none had to do pluck them up but onely forbids these servants who were his disciples from meddling with them to evâ—ry of whom he gives not Authority to pass censures and punish but some may have Authority for it for all that Some who are those I trow it must be then either the Ministry or the Magistracy not the Ministry for it is far more cleer that by the servants here that took notice of the tares to the housholder is meant the servants of Christ in the office of Ministers that would fain have been meddling as the false Ministry ever does to root out all both out of Church and world too that is not of institution by Christ in their opinion and such a spirit may too much shew it self in the true too see the like Spirit in his own disciples the first Ministers Luke 9.54.55 Mat. 15.12.13.14 for which Christ gives them a check and tells them they knew not what spirit they were of and bids them let the false plants alone to the heavenly Father to pluck up in his time saying let them alone they be blind leaders of the blind and will both in due time fall into the ditch t is far more clear I say that t is his Ministry he here forbids then common disciples for why should not their Ministry complain of them aswell as they yet he bids these let them alone which shewes too that t is the World and not the Church they are to stand in for it belongs properly enough and primarily to the Ministers with consent of the Church executively to passe the censure of putting them out of the Church Secondly not the Magistracy for if it were the Church as they say it is how miserably do they mope and yet so the Priest does that make him the highest officer in the Church to cast persons out of the Church who is though the highest officer over the Church and World too yet in truth no Church officer or Minister in the Church qua Church at all Besides lastly which puts all out of doubt the prohibition is to all men as well as some and sounds forth the mind of Christ to be that the tares shall stand in the Field till the harvest and not be pluckt up by any at all but stand till the harvest they cannot according to his will if according to his will either Magistrate or Minister might pluck them up out of the field what field ere t is that is here spoken of his will is not only that such shall not pluck them up but that they shall not be pluckt up until the harvest i. e. the end of the world till he sends his Angels to gather the tares all things that offend every plant that the heavenly father hath not planted out of his Kingdome which taken at large is the whole world and to bundle them for the fire To all these many more reasons may be added why the Magistrate may not force men at all
enemy came and sowed among the wheat i. e. in the same parts and places of the world Towns Countreyes c. locally considered the children of the wicked one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the same as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Thes. 2. that wicked false worshippers of God after their own inventions mens precepts not his will people and priests grown up into a Church worship ministery religion insensibly by little and little from false principles and foundations custome forefathers prudential additions of orthodox men c. not the pure naked word it self a people born to their religion yea their christian religion in the way of flesh and blood and the will of man of the Pope and councells constituting and civil powers from them commanding not of God by the word of truth The Enemy that sowed them is the devil for he indeed filled the whole world even the whole Christian world with false worshippers false principled Clergy men and when he could not kill the wheat the Christians in the ten persecutions in his open war against them by the mouth of thâ— beast or empire heathen wherein he prosecuted them under their own names because Constantine a Christian was come now to the crown then he turned Christian himself and would have Christianity imbraced by all meanes by a law and sowed the seed of false principles of stablishing Christian religion as the onely religion before which all other shall now down promoting Christianity in the shell that he might kill it in the substance causing great honours revenues Peters patrimonies to be given in favour of Christianity from which principles selfish ambitious lazy luxurious Ministers as the Pope formall meer nominal Christians grew up and overtopt the truth and true Saints that kept close to the truth in the midst of all this mock shew wherin the devil hath kept an apish imitaon of Christs church all along and ministry ordinances baptism supper church censure but all corrupt and trod the holy city to the ground Rev. 11. the same subtle one now he sees his trade of forcing men from the truth by the principle of conformity to the false Christianity and the old Spiritualty fail is now shifting himself undoubtedly in to another Spiritualty that will as much corrupt delude the world by the principle of liberty of conscience abused and turnd by the Ranter into license though we who plead for liberty of truth say in maxima libertate est minima licentia in the greatest liberty of conscience to serve God there 's the least licence to serve the devil by our lusts and corrupt our selves in what we know naturally as bruit beasts nor is that conscience that makes conscience of nothing The harvest is the end of the world the reapers the Angels by whom at that time Christ will throughly purge his floor and gather his wheat into his barn and burn up all chaff Tares husks weeds bryers thornes idolators hypocrites subtle seducers and sinful subverters of the truth whoever shall appear to have been such and all other trash with unquenchable fire Matth. 3.12 Mean while I say still Tares may stand among wheat locally in one Country yet not lawfully in one church society Weeds and flowers Roses and nettles Lillies and thornes Vines and brambles Idolatours and true worshippers Believers and infidells the children of the Kingdome and of the wicked one the Temple of God and idols Christs church and the Devils chappel discovered hypocrites and sincere Saints Christians of all sorts save such whose very principle prohibits toleration and they make the case uncapable to be which will win or loose all stand alone or not at all as whether the P P Priesthoods do not or at least did not let all men judge Jews Turks and Pagans may be lawfully allowed their religions living in subjection under one civil power if the whole world were but one Monarchy in one World in one Field or Common-wealth though not in one Garden not in one Vineyard or Church and may not be made to be of the true religion whether they will or no yea I appeal to the conscience of any sober minded man whether if Pontius Pilate whom the Scripture stiles the Governour of Iudaea and a lawful Governour over the church a very heathen may be but no heathen lawfully a member much lesse an officer or a Governour in the Church whether I saie if Pilate should have been converted by Christ at the bar while he sate on the bench and truely believed in him it would have pleased Christ that he should have improved his civil power to have established Christianity in Iudaea and forced all men under penalty to believe in christ and renounce all meer Jewish worships or whether it had been as lawful a decree in Augustus Caesar to have forced all men to be Christians under a penalty as t was in him to issue out a decree that all the world should be taxed I suppose not but that he must have left all to their waies and have practised it himself and protected it from injury and propounded it to all in way of preaching but not prosecuting any by his civil power if they would yet remain Jewes or heathens and Christ might as easily have made Emperors his Disciples had he meant that the Gospel should be established by civil power And this is for the further safegard and advantage to the wheat as I sayd before for Christ gives this reasâ—n why he would have the tares to be let alone least by rooting out the tares the wheat be rooted out also for if all religions may stand then the true one may stand in quiet without disturbance if all people may walk every one in the name of his God Mich. 4.5 then we may walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever but if all be beaten down in a state and but one stand ten thousand to nothing it is not the truth that is there established for truth may be trodden down but treads not down others in a violent way of persecution Besides if true Religion establish it self alone in some States by forcing men to subject to it its gives a bad example to false religions in other states that think themselves in the right to do the like and force men that love the truth there to submit to them and so there 's quit for quo and no end of disturbances they saying that we are Tares we that they are and so there is nothing but pulling up by the roots if toleration be not tolerated as the most peacemaking principle and so in these bussles if the wheat grow alone some where it must fall elsewhere even every where where the tares are resolved to stand alone and so Homo Homini Lupus Christianus Christiano Diabolus men must be wolves and devils each to other throughout the world Besides if the power in any place be ignorant and under an erring conscience that conscientia errans
Church and Schismaticks in the Church c. wherewith you astonish the vulgar but I protest this day before God and men not onely against him against whom you are Protestants also but against your selves also his Schismatical sons who own his ordinations and still walk in some of his ordinances viz. Rantism Parochial posture c. as those that are little lesse ignorant then he and his good sons of both the true Church and true peace thereof whilst the truth to which she should submit is not regarded by you and the very things that make a true visible Church and are de esse and constitutive of it so that abstract them and you null it viz. true matter i. e. believers baptized and true form i. e. free and not forced fellowship both which are so in the Churches of England Scotland Italy France and Spain are not onely wanting but also trodden under your feet Fourthly the peaceable way wherein we propagate these opinions were you as sure they are erroneous as I am that you 'l once find them to be truth will yet excuse and acquit us from all guilt of disturbing the peace of either the world or your Church which is the world in reference to the true one and unlesse you can say the Gospel of peace which where ere it comes occasions dissentions is the cause of them as in no wise it is but mens lusts rather that rage and take on against it you cannot say our Gospel is for it propounds them to the world in no other way then that and that way was no other then bare propounding them and as Christ and his disciples did not judge them here though they will judge them most severely hereafter who reject their words by the power of the Magistrate by the civil sword by nailing to pillories cutting off ears slitting noses whippings â—ines confiscations prisons bonds banishments fightings fire and fagot the bloody wayes whereby BBBabilon hath edified it self to that height of abomination the Arguments whereby the CCClergy were wont to convert Hereticks quickly from all error to dust and ashes so if any man hear our words and reject them well may we rebuke him sharply as they also did but we judge him not in that way whereby the Tribe of Levi that hath levied war for his lusts sake against the whole earth hath bereft all men of peace neverthelesse the words that we speak to him being those that Christ and his disciples have spoken in the world the same will judge him at the last day Secondly why sith it must needs be supposed there be many Godly men among the Ministers of the Nations though the most of them be wicked yet I do not except and exempt them when I inveigh so heavily against the CCClergy or why I do not rather forbear and spare to speak so broad at all and so generally as I do against that generation as an evill one for the sake of those good ones that are among them To which I say First that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 godly men properly are those onely that worship God aright i. e. according to his own will and institution 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which well weighed might possibly put the best men among you to your trumps to make good your title to that title and denomination of godly by Scripture record sith while you stand among the rest even you as well as the worst do preach and practise for doctrines of Christ some traditions of man if you had no more enjoined you by them on whom you wait for your instructions then barely the sprinkling of infants by which you make void what in you is the true baptism of Christ. Yet not denying but that there is a sprinkling of honest hearts quorum meliori luto finxit praecordia Titan whom the sun of righteousnesse as he lightens every man that cometh into the world hath hatcht up into a higher predicament of Godlinesse then their fellowees who are drawn up into some higher streins of devotion then the rest I adde further Secondly what are these littles to the lump what is the gleaning to the vintage here and there one good man to the whole corrupt crue of them that like Locusts and Caterpillars have spread themselves together with the smoak of errors over the earth in three several swarms or armies can some scores of well meaning Priests give the denomination of an holy PPriesthood godly Ministry to those legions of them that lie in wickednesse you may as well say there 's a million of Saints among the men of the world therefore reprove not the world for their sakes such as these who out of meer simple honestly rather then sinful sophistry and mystical iniquity do stand and act and argue against the true way as they do are Rarae aves very few to the multitude of humanists and sensual ones and subtle subverters of the Gospel which yet they would seem to be Ministers of for their own ends by whom they are commonly so hated too so far as they have any more strictnesse and sincerity then ordinary that they are among the other of their brethren as I was for querying after truth while I stood among them as owles and bats baited by other birds which few good grapes were they better then they are cannot denominate the whole vintage as una hirundo non facit ver BBBabilon is BBBabilon still and SSSodom is SSSodom and must be called so though Lot live in it and he called out of it too unlesse he mean mean to perish with it Thirdly those good men that are there the mores the pitty that they are so ought not to be suffered nor spared but spoke to the rather themselves and that very roundly too for being and abiding in a bad way and not the way it self and those many bad men that are in it scape declaring against as bad because of them there must be down-right dealing with upright men when they are in a wrong way and that indeed is the most upright dealing with them of all yea Sirs you that are upon the Account of these times for godly Ministers let me say this to you for verily I have sorrow of heart for some of you of my old acquaintance my own flesh and blood for whose sakes fâ—esh in me would fain be silent as knowing flesh in you would fain be let a lone but I must urge you to be serious in seeing how unsafely you satisfie your selves in your present fellowship with a carnal Clergy what make you among the prophane Ministry of the Nations that hath in all ages sate with such weight upon them as to sink them into a gulf of error so that all truth almost is heresie with them now and under hazard of being smoothered as soon as it peepes out from under that veil of traditions that hath covered it what make you keeping a Court of guard among the Babilonians to help to hold them in
reward how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation which at first began to be spoken by the Lord and was after confirmed to us by them that heard him Heb. 2.1.2.3 whosoever shall be ashamed of me or my words of him will I be ashamed when I come in the kingdome of my father with my holy angels Mark 8.38 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * as indeed I find thee to be of the whole Scripture which though Paul bids Timothy give attendance to the reading of 1 Tim. 4.13 2 Tim. 3.15.16.17 yet thou hast left off to read disswading others also from the reading of it as unprofitable as no other then the writings and inventions of men to keep the world in awe so that it cannot come to enjoy that liberty alias license for lewdnesse and fleshly lusts which thou promisest and pleadest for and that makes thee to be such a weather cock such a well without water such a wandring star as thou art such a cloud tost to and fro with a tempest because thou hast no steady rule to steer by no whither goest thou to talke with or to take heed to to recall or to fix thee to any one point but onely the whifling multifarious fancies and foolish figments of thy own aiery brain and unconstant spirit * Isa 8.13 14. Eze. 11.16 1 Pet. 3.20 21 * Heb. 10.25 * all which will fall to the share of the silken snapsack to carry in the end * See how Mr. Baxter defines him out of Bullinger p. 259. Hereticum cum dico intelligosectarum Authorem qui ecclesiam scindiâ— c. when I talk of an Heretick I mean an Author of Sects who rendeth the Church who pertinaciously proceedeth by false and erroneous doctrine to infringâ— trouble the unity of the Church and out of Viguerios Hereticus est qui relicta fide et ecclesiae doctrina alicujus temporalis commodi gratia et maxime gloriae falsas et novas opiniones gignit vel sequitur ut vel fiâ— maneat ab ecclesia divisus * such words as none of you parrish PPPriests in CCChrist'ndome do can or ever did preach in for if your people Ask the Priest what they must do you say repent but be not baptized yea take heed every one of you that at any hand you be not baptized * Dr. Featley p. 161. * For Tent makers such as Paul was to make the Gospel chargeless you are mostly too proud to be †Sine qua Christianismus non constat saith Calvin * Calvin inst lib 4. c 2. s. 1. verbi eâ— sacramentotum Ministerium nobis perpetua tessera digno scendae ecclesiae * divsion * which whether in the Antitype it be not that woman the CCClergy by whom the Kings of the earth have bin as Ahab by the other stirred up to all mischief against the the truth may be seen moâ—e clearly Rev. 17. * witness the case of Iohn Sawtrey the first English Martyr of whom we read thus viz. that Arundel Archbishop of Canterbury 1399 first denouncing him an Heretick 2 in the name of all his fellow brethren the Bishops and of the whole Clergy condemning digrading him from his priestly orders from all his priestly honors in token therof taking from him as he was a Priest the patent and chalice the authority of saying Masse the casul and vestment as a Deacon the book of the New Testament as a Subdeacon the Albe and Maniple as an Acolite the Candlestick and taper as an Exorcist the book of Conjuration as a Reader the book of the Church Legend of lies as Sexton the keyes of Church door and surplice and then rasing his crown and putting the cap of a lay prrson on his head delivers him up to the secular power saying pray be favourable to him who after burns him being called on by the Bishops in the City of London * Whether the magistrate be the minister of Christ as God onley or as Mediatour also I mean God man is a question about which I find some fill the world with a world of confusion viz. Mr. Gelaspie and Mr. Rutherford who are together by the ears about it and Mr. Baxter also who makes much more ado then needs p. 228. c. to prove that Christ exerciseth some of his Government as Mediator by Ministers and some by Magistrates by which if he mean that Magistrates are officers in Christs Church of Christs appointment I pitty his blindness when I read Eph. 4. where its shewed what officers Christ sets in his Church for the edifying and establishing thereof if he mean that the Magistrate is Christs officer and ordinance to the worldward for the Government of it under him and of the Church too as t is a part of the world so far as he doth yet administer in the world and judge it I will not greatly deny that howbeit that he as man yet judgeth the world and as Mediatour governs it as once he is to do by appointment from the father Acts 17.31 at his appearing his kingdome 2 Tim. 4.1 when he shall put that power in full execution for which he hath now but the commission when he shall return personally to set up and rule in that Kingdome which he is now gon to heaven to receive Luke 19.11.12.15 c. when the Prince of this world for so Christ himself who is Prince of the world to come is pleased to call the devill now John 14.30 who is dominus fac totum here by permission and rules over Kings Princes and People by the Beast and whore that rides it Rev. 17. to whom he hath given his seat power and great Authority Rev. 13.2 shall once be judged and bound up in the bottomlesse pit from domineering over and deceiving the Nations any more that Christ I say yet judges the world as once he is to do when the Kingdome appointed by the Father to him in reward of his for them and by him to his disciples in reward of their sufferings for him Luke 22.28 is come this I utterly deny nay rather he is yet in his Saints an underling to the civil powers the miserable ignorance of which time wherein Christ shall take unto himself his great power and reign and be de facto as he was de jure before King of Kings and Lord of Lords makes the Divines so dote as to Interpret that place Isa. 49.23 of Kings being nursing fathers and Queens nursing mothers and bowing down and licking the dust of the Churches feet and a hundred more as fulfilled now in this his day of small things in this his personal absence which when the divel is blind at least and bolted up in the bottomless pit Rev. 20. they l surely see are not in esse actuali till then and to suppose Magistrates to be now Christs chief Church officers Supremely under him to rule in it when as were they not already blind themselves they could not but see it to be
nought but shame belongs to man and pray for those that desire as the conversion of others to it so thy preservation in the truth which oh how hard is it to abide by in these evil times of temptation from the fals Churches the non-chuches which both seek what they can to unchurch the true which thou continuing faithfully in it to the death shall onely lead thee unto everlasting life but if any man will be ignorant let him be ignorant Now as to the Apologetical part I say thus to you O ye Priests you are of all men the generation whose great and general displeasure I expect to fall under and for this present works sake to become your enemy more universally then ever yet because I here tell you the truth but as little hope as I have to be heeded by you in what I say I must tell you and the Lord judge between you and me whether I speak the truth or not I am so far from desiring the temporal much more the eternal destruction of any one of you that as far as t is possible I would prevent both yea if by the publication of all this I seek any thing next to Gods glory more then the salvation as well of your own souls as of such as are seduced and insnared by your spiritual sorceries in wayes of false worship heresie and Schism from the primitive truth will not the Lord at last find me out nay verily I love the persons of you all as well as other mens indeed I love you too well to spare sharpness toward you or in silence suffer you to perish as I verily believe and therefore speak the more plainly to you that by any means I may save some of you without remedy you will do persisting in your wonted obstinacy against the Gospel this being the faith which God hath begotten me to by a serious search and observation of the word and world together the faith which he hath for some years made me to live in and will I trust if he call me to it strengthen me to die in rather then deny one jot of it to please men good or bad friend or foe unlesse it be discovered to me to be a false one I must not be ashamed to professe it for fear of them that kill the body for then wo unto me from him that is able to destroy both soul and body in hell and should I be altogether silent as my fearful flesh would fain be least I should prove an intollerable offence to my friends and seem to be as O my God thou knowest how far I am not a self avenger on my foes and expose my self as at no hand I desire to do might it be avoided to the hatred and hard censure of you all the light of this truth would arise many other wayes yea the Lord pleadeth it before you day by day by the tongues and pens of others besides my self but I neverthelesse might be destroyed I had at first illumination and strong impulsions of spirit not perceiving like Samuel who thought it had been Eli that called him and not the Lord whether it were the suggestion of Gods spirit or my own and when at last I understood clearly that t was the Lord himself that told me he would do such a thing to the house of Eli i. e. the Generation of the Priesthood as should cause the eares of all that â—ear it to tingle I feared likewise to shew Eli the vision and was as loath to declare as you OPPPriests are to hear the things concerning you here declared I was ready to say to the Lord send this message by the hand of him by whom thou wilt send but necessity was upon me yea wo unto me my God had been a terrible one to me had I refused it yea I may say as Ieremy Ier. 20.7.9 O Lord thou hast deceived me and art stronger then I and hast prevailed for I said I will not make mention of this nor speak it in thy name but his word was within me as fire in my bones and I was weary with forbearing and I could not stay he whose face onely I seek that I may not be deceived the light or louring of whose countenance is more to me then the favours or frowns of all faces hath prest me in spirit to tell that on the house tops which he hath told me in the ear in a closet what shall befal me in so doing I know not save that the spirit witnesseth that afflictions do every where abide me and all those that will live godly in Christ Jesus yet none of these things move me neither count I my life dear unto me that I may finish my race and the ministry I have received of the Lord Jesus to testifie the Gospel of the grace of God Act. 20.24 if your Ministry Gospel doctrine Baptism be right then ours is wrong and if ever it appear we shall come back to you if ours be right then yours is wrong and must be declared that you may return to the truth I know there are many things you will question not to say quarrel with me about First you 'l ask me why I do not for the peace sake of the Church forbear and keep my opinions in these points to myself rather then publish them so plainly in print as well as by word and penne to the disturbance thereof To which I say if it be the truth I hold and matter of weight withall it wil excuse the promoting of it self if it were to the distraction of the Church which is to be subject to the truth and not the truth to her also to the distruction of the world fiat justitia aut pere at mundus Secondly the matters held forth here by me which are mainly the falsness of your Ministry and baptism are as truth so of such consequence as to be well worth discovering if either Luther did well to declare against the Pope and Clergy of Rome or your selves O Presbyters against Prelates Deans and Chapters c. without regard to the several disturbances that were like to be consecutive thereto yea the true subject and manner of administration of baptism which when it serves your turn so to do you call a circumstantial matter a ceremony for which if you should erre therein none but weak querulous consciences will complain and separate an indifferent thing for which why should we make so much ado aâ—gâ—at not to be streind at and such like is so necessary a matter one of the most necessary points of Religion which those that erre in do most fearfully erre and are totally deserted by the spirit of God these are your own words Thirdly you talk much and t is the language of the Pope to your selves since you rent from his Church of the Church and our holy mother the Church and Ghostly fathers of the Church and good and true tempered sons of the Church and the peace of the
contrary unto truth for women may be Magistrates but not Church Ministers and may be Supreme in authority in a State as Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth but are bid to be under obedience and fordid in Church matters so much as to speak much more to usurp authority in the Church 1 Tim. 2.11.12 1 Cor. 14.34.35 viz. in refusing to be judge in matters of faith and religion * For Custos et vindex ut ciusque tabulae under the Gospel because it was sounder that typical standing of the Law is but a tale and a trick of our Priests whereby to curry â—avour with their princes the truth is that whole Jewish State which was also a Church as no one whole nation under heaven now is was a type and both the Kingly Priestly and Prophetical office that then headed that Church were typical of that tripple true head of the Gospel Israel Christ Jesus and are no more to be drawn in as an example so as to argue more warrantably from the Kings then to the civil Rulers now then from the High-PriestHood to the Popedome * my Petition to the powers on behalf of the Church is that it may have as much peace and as little preferment as they please for ever Cum Ecclesia peperit divitias filia devoravit matrem y Two spritualties whereof as bad as the first is the latter will be more sensuall then the former having not the Spirit Jude 17. though pretending to it more supremely then the other under which last the devil now acts as under a new vizard to the deceiving of people from the way of truth perceiving his old vizard worn so thin that all men begin now to see through it * Luk. 9.53.54 55. * Witness the Iesuites that may kil Kings if Hereticks the Northen presbitery that may lawfully fight England if it receive not their directory and the Episcopal war against the State * So Iulius the second who seeing himself vanquisht â—hrew away Saint Peters keyes into the River Tyber protesting he would thence forth help himself with S Pauls sword * The contrary to which where ere t is well may men submit out of fear till they can help themselves but never out of love while the world stands for conscience is a tender thing and though but a worm yet if trod upon wil turn again * Howbeit they shall never want flatterers to perswade them that they are Abj. Ans. * Vid. Tho. Beacons Reliques of Rome set forth cum privilegio 1563. Pope Servitius ordained that Hereticks should be banisht An. 588. fol. 214. Pope Pelagius the first that all Hereticks and Schismaticks should be put to death by the secular power provided that the Bishops in their spiritual courts do first prosecute convict and condemn them for Hereticks and then commit them to the temporal Magistrate to dispatch them out of the way by fire sword or halter for they say as the chief priests to Pilate it is not lawful for us to put any to death In the councel of Lateran by Innocent the third 2 Patriarchs 70 Arch-bishops 400 Bishops twelve Abbots 800 Priests the Legates of the Greek and Roman Empire the Embassadors of Spain Jerusalem France England Cyprus it was decreed that all Hereticks and so many as should in any point resist the Catholique faith should be condemned that the secular power of what degree soever should be compelled openly to swear for the defence of the Catholique faith and to the utmost of their power to root out and destroy in their kingdomes all such persons as the Catholique Church should condemn for Hereticks and if any King should be a Heretick or defender of them and not reform within a year then his subjects should be absolved by the Pope from yielding any further subjection or obedience to him or keeping any fidelity with him and so t was in the case of John here in England who resigned to the Popes Legate his Crown kissing his knee as he came into England which John was after poisoned by a Monk who having his pardon from the Pope poisoned himself first to poison the King and also that the Pope may give that land to Catholiques to possesse peaceably and without contradiction all Hereticks being rooted out of it Obj. Ans. * 1 Sam 5.24 * which he hath more faith then I that believes they ever will for surely the CCClergies Win all or lose all will pull them down at last * 2 Es. 15.5 to the 12.49 to 57. Rev. 11.10.6.19.2 * for howbeit it was the Roman civil power in Potius Pilate passing sentence yet it was the Priestly malice that caused him to be crucified or else Pilate had released him so its Princely power but PPPriestly malice crying out crucifie him crucifie him that hath caused him under the Gospel be crucified in his truth and Saints or else many of the civil Powers would release him * Rom. 13.1 1 Pet. 2.13 Magistrates are called the ordinance of God as the materiality of the thing we call government is of him the ordinance of man as to the particular form of government viz. whether it shall be by Kings Parlia c. and also the particular persons that shall execute that form is altogether in choice of the people * Act. 18.12.13.14 * Se supra p. 279. * For that name Clergy however by themselves improperly impropriated to themselves as if they onely were the heritage of God for that 's the plain English of that Anglico-greek word Clergy yet in plain truth pertains properly to all Christs people and that in contradistinction too from the Ministry for the spirit speaking of the Elders and Pastors of the Church charges them not to Lord it over the heritage i. e. in other location not to domineer over the Clergy 1 Pet. 5.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. we see therefore God calls the flock and not the Sheepheards muchlesse the Sheepshearers by the name of Clergy but the Pope as if he had projected purposely to betheeve Gods people out of all their priviledges and rights leaves them not so much as their own proper name to be known by but bestows the name of Clergy upon the Creatures of his own creating and leaves them the name of Laicks in its stead telling them when they begin to charge his CCClergy with impropriation of preaching and pay to themselves that they are but a Clergy of Laicks see Featleys Epistle but to say the truth excepting some few of his sons of the Episcopal and Presbyterian CClergy that are come from him two wayes viz. by dissent and descent who may be honester and wiser then the rest and yet are not so wiâ—e as to know their own father the rest are mostly A CCClergy of Lazicks or lazy locusts In like manner hath he ingrost other titles to himself and his CCClergy all which the Scripture gives to all Christs people as namely that of Spiritual men as if all the world