them all together viz. it unchristens the whole Church of God c. I say thus confessing that our doctrine unchristens whole christendome which the Pope hath called the Church of God but is indeed the whole world of Gentiles that hath got into the outer court the meer outward form and name of christianity and hath trod down the holy City and true worship for 1260 years that whole world that hath for ages and generations wondered after the beast nor is this inconsistent with the truth of Christs promises of his presence and guidance among those that are his true Church and people indeed for howbeit he hath according to the word left those to their own wayes that left and liked not his wayes yet he ever hath still doth and ever will lead those into truth that love the truth and will be led by his spirit when he will lead them yea though he tied not himself to teach them that should chuse the Pope for their Tutor yet according to his promise he hath bin more or lesse with those that observed what he commanded them in his word from the beginning and so shall be even to the end Review Lastly it doth the devils work in the shape of angels of light to make men renounce their baptism and if from Nero's hating the Christian Religion the antient Apologetist of the Church did rightly gather the goodnesse of it we may the validity of infants baptism from the devils hatred of it it hath ever been said of him he will not make a bargain with any soul till it hath renounced its first bargain which was made with Christ at baptism the Anabaptists are his Proctors and do it to his hand Re-Review Of which desire of his to have us renounce our baptism being not a little aware though immediately after I renounc't that Rantism I once had unawares to my self in the innocency and ignorance of my infancy in the room thereof received real baptism I had one messenger from Satan to buffet me and beat me off from further proceeding in and owning of that practise yet through the goodness of God and that grace of his wherein I still stand I was so far from being removed that I was much more settled strengthned and stablisht in the present truth wherein I walk and I trust shall walk in unto the end unlesse I receive more evidence to the contrary then ever I have done from any writings or any discourses of any that ever I met wiâ—h of what principle or profession soever which messenger whose name was William Everard after the flesh but the name that the father had given him was Chamberlin as he said for he lived in the secret chambers of the most high though he came to my house pretending that he was immediately sent from God with a message to me in particular viz. to renounce that practice of baptizing which himself had sometimes walkt in also but now relinquisht did to my self and some others after half a dayes most serious observation of his speeches strange extasies and uncouth deportment by many prodigious passages blasphemous pratings and as by experience we then proved them flatly false pretences to what he had not and most presumptuous yet successeless undertakings and frivolous fopperies of which I am willing at any time but not capable under a hours time to give fuller account to any that shall desire it discover himself to be one of the Archangels of darknesse which the devil now sends forth a new in the shape of angels of light and is now no lesse apparently I think to all that know him and where he is And howbeit it hath bin more then once but once especially as I have hinted to the Reader in a shrewd shake of sicknesse that befel me above a twelve moneth since to the great retarding of this work reported that I was shaken sheer out of my mind and judgement concerning this way and baptism so as to have recanted and renounced it yet I call my God to witnesse to whom also I give thanks for his mercy toward me in that particular that partly by the more then ordinary advantages I then had through my sequestration from all other occasions to seek the Lord to search and try my wayes and turn again unto him partly by the more then ordinary ingagements that were then upon me so to do and that seriously and sincerely through my dayly expectation to be clapt up in clods of earth till the great day of acccounts I have bin much more sweetly satisfied since then concerning the truth of this way then ever I was in all my life before neither did I then find any cause to repent me of coming to Christ in it as neither shall any that renouncing your Rantism do rightly receive it so they continue to walk uprightly in it to the end but this I must confesse I found good cause to repent of it that I had not honoured it so much as I might have done since I ownd it nor walked so profitably serviceably blamelesly holily and worthily in it nor so suitably to so holy and worthy a way as it is in it self not withstanding the account of basensse and foolishness that it hath in the world 1 Cor. 1.30 So that ever since that forenamed sifting I had from Satan by the mouth of that his Agent by whom he solicited me to forgo my baptism I side with you in this viz. that t is the Devils worke in the shape of an Angell of light to make men renounce their baptism and though I am somewhat otherwise opinioned about the Divels affection to infants baptism then you are for I think if he hate it t is as he hates holy water or any other of his own inventions wherby he hath juggled away the truth and imitated Christs ordinances out of doors yet I am fully of your mind that he so hates the true baptism I mean the baptizing of professed believers from whence I gather the goodnesse and validity of it against him that it is most of the business about which he is at work in the shape of an Angel of light in these daies wherein his time growes short and his old kingdome begins to fail him by means of the true baptism to erect to himself a new kingdome and in order thereunto to make men renounce that baptism as knowing that he cannot strike a downright bargain with a soul to become fully his as the high Notionists and spiritual Sensualists of these times do till it hath renounced its first bargain made with Christ in baptism not what was made with Christ at infant rantism for infants are not capable per se to bargain with Christ and how they do it per alios I do not see sith such as say they do it for them were never appointed by them so to do nor by Christ neither that I know of nor do I remember any bargain to own Christ and not be ashamed of
began again to practise the word worship and ordinances of the old Testament so long abolished agreeably to Gods will by the same I say may the Gospel Church having now both light and liberty so to do return from under the power and tyranny of mystery Babylon and betake her self to her own border from whence she was driven to her own City Temple form of worship old Church order ordinances and service which were all by violence trod down and caused to cease for a time times and an half for 42. moneths or a 1260. years as that which by the might of men suppressing it hath lest not a jot of its right as that which is required of us now as the other was of them till Christ by his first comming put an end to that administration as he shall by his second unto this Thou tellest us no there is not the same reason Because First it was foretold that they should return again after a set period of time and how long Ierusalem should be trodden under foot even for seventy years and after that be built and her old form of worship restored Secondly they had extraordinary prophets Haggai and Zachary to attend them and dictate to them the mind of God in those things they did from God But I tell thee and thou wouldest see it thy self but that thou art minded to be blind First those Prophets spake nothing as by command from God to them then what they had a written word and Testament for out of Moses and the other prophets whom if they had in the least contradicted they must have been rejected as extraordinary as they were neither were they inciters of them to any new thing nor yet to any thing save what they stood bound to do before and had done still had those prophets never came neer them viz. to build the house of the Lord and set up their old worship according to the Testament of Moses those Prophets were sent because of their sluggishnesse and backwardnesse to act in it their preposterous caâ—e first to build and ceâ—l their own houses and let the Temple ly wast the while and to quicken them to that duty of building Gods for duty all the world may see it was or else how could the neglect therof have bin punishable and punished as it was with drought and blasting of all their endeavors to be rich before those Prophets spake to them Hag. 1.2 3 4 5 6 7 8 those Prophets came but upon occasion of their frustrating Gods expectation who looked that they should have begun to build the Temple of themselves but because he took them tardy in that work was put to it further then they had thank for even to send men of extraordinary spirits to stir them up as he may do if yet he do not and that not without need to us in these daies considering our untowardnesse and aversnesse to repair the breaches to build the old wasts and the Church desolations of many generations and our subjection to sleight the clear commands of his first Apostles it had been more thnnkeworthy and more accepâ—able to God if the Jews had acted by the Law of Moses and according to the written rule of the other Prophets then it was to forbear and to say that time was not a time wherein to build the Lords house and so it will be thank-worthy in us seeing as they had Moses and the Prophets so we have Christ and the Apostles to hear them and to act still according to their old commandements but to sit down under a written Testament in meer speculation and contemplation suspending all execution of Christs Antient known will unlesse there be some strange and unpromised manifestation of a new or of that old a new by some extraordinary messengers or by some sent unto us from the dead is that which God will con Christian men no more thanks for I think at the last then he did the redeemed Jews upon whom the like pretence was charged and punished by him as iniquity Hag. 1.4 Again are there not promises and prophecies of the like things to us in the New Testament as there were in the like case of treading down their worship to them under the old and as if not more clear then they had of a restitution was it not as distinctly foretold for how long our Gospel Babilonish captivity and treading down of the holy City Temple and true worship should last viz. for 42. months or a 1260 years as theirs was for 70 years after which it s most evident therefore it must rise again or else the spirit could not have determined the time of the treading down by a certain term of 42 moneths but would surely have said thus the holy City shall they tread down for ever or to the end of all time for if the old Jerusalem the Jewes their Temple and worship even the self same that was troden down for a resurrection or restoration is of the self same thing still and not another that was troden down or decayed had never been in the mind of God to have been raised again and restored the time of its laying wast could not properly be prefixed by such a period nor be stiled a 70 years devastation also was is not foretold to us that the little book of the New Testament that was to be shut up by that smoak of traditions and fog of errors that should arise out of the bottomlesse pit by means of the star or Bishop of Rome that opened the pit should be opened again and prophecyings be out of it before the world Rev. 9.1.2.3.10.1.10.11 yea is not the Gospel in that primitive purity and plaines from the simplicity of which all people have been bewitched by the whores sorceries begun again accordingly to be preached though as yet by too few practised is not that little book now open in the hand of the Angel Christ Jesus and are there not prophets that having eaten up that little book as Ezekiel did his role and Ieremy did the words of God when he found them Ezek 3.1.2.3 Ieremy 15.16 are paind within to speak the word to Peoples Nations Tongues and Kings as they were though for so doing they are like them also viz. men of strife and contention to the whole earth who so far as they incourage us to no more then what there is a written word for must be heeded by us in these daies as those Prophets were by them and is there not now a written Testament a sure word to give heed to and be a rule to us in our raising of the Aâ—â—ient form and order of Churches and Ordinances even the Testament of Christ himself who was as faithful to deliver his will punctually to his house as Moses was to a tittle to deliver the old will of God to his Heb. 3.5.6 in which word of his are we not bid as they Zach. 2 6.7 to come out of Babilon and be separate 2. Cor.
b. c. darians in the School of Christ but Sirs what need so much peccavi and precari if your ware were currant it would go off with acceptance without such a deal of cap and congee and pittiful intreaty to the Reader to cover the weakness of your Arguments the strength of which onely should cause him to gather the goodness of your cause and not strong intreaty to take it for good though the Arguments you plead it by are but weak Vino vendibili non opus est haedera if your Arguments and reasons for baby-baptism be strong and solid your Reader if rational will receive them if weak as you say they are he is a Reader scarce worth writing reason to who will be prevailed with by your desire so to cover their weakness as in charity to suffer himself to be overcome and carried away by them notwithstanding that their weakness to close with you in your cause and to be beaten into a belief of your baptism as good though it hath but broken reeds and bulrushes to maintain it by the force of bare beggings and beseechings or if in this request of yours to us to cover the weakness of your Arguments your meaning is not that we should be so silly as to build our belief and practice upon them though weak by your own confession whose they are but onely that we should not publish discover and divulge their weakness to the world but in charity be content to think our think or to see and say nothing truly Sirs what others will do at your request in this kind I know not but I assure you I cannot possibly for my part grant your desire in this case forasmuch as your selves have engaged me several waies not to be silent on pain of giving away the cause which if it were onely my own too the matter were so much the less you should have it with all my heart yea verily and my own life too to do your souls good for I know I could freely part with it to be a means of effecting your salvation but since it is the cause of God which he hath intrusted me with the pleading of against you who presume to enter the lists against it with such silly tools and weak weapons on behalf of a Babish-baptism which is not from heaven but of men I dare not give place so far as in foolish pitty to spare the Cittie Babylon or in Charity not to bewray a Breach or weakness in her walls of defence when I spie it for that were in Charity to betray the truth of of God and such Charity is more Antichristian by far then Christian what ere you call it and such as could have small hope of acceptance before God however esteemed of among men wherefore I desire you to have me excused if I cannot in charity cover the weakness of your Arguments for in Charity to poor souls that are led aside from the way of truth by your piteous pious pretences and weak reasonings for your way 〈◊〉 I am concerned in the very next place after I have done with this of yours to the Reader to discover to the world the weakness of them besides sith you have made so bold with your selves as to proclaime the weakness of your own Arguments for Infant-baptism I hope the Counties of Kent and Sussex will consider this that their choise Ministry that stood up to maintain Infant-Baptism at Ashford did after in their own Account theerof give out of their own accord that there was weakness in the Arguments they brought for that purpose men mutire nefas I hope it shall be no offence to you for me to second you in your own saying 't is you who have publisht your arguments to be weak my business shall be only publickly to prove them so to be as you assert them yet if it be offensive to you it shall be no wonder to me for I know already that you can bear it better to have your Disputation ly under disgrace and disparagement under shame and censure of weakness from your selves in print then from your supposed Adversary and true Friend my self so much as in a private Letter only and that some men as the Proverb is may more safely steal the horse then some so much as peep o're the hedge Pre. Not to suffer the cause to be wronged thorow the desects of those who had more zeal to maintain it then abilities c. Post. T is both usual and lawfull for us to judge of causes by the effects that naturally and necessarily flow from them for qualis causa i. e. naturalis per se talis effectus Retró e. g. Infant-sprinkling hath been a cause efficient and per se from whence much evil hath necessarily crept into the world for it hath been a means of confounding the Church and the World together of letting the Gentiles or Nations by whole sale into the outter Court of filling the world with meer nominal Christians and carnal Christianity whereby they have got advantage ever since to tread down the holy City and true worship and worshippers as Heresie Hereticks of bringing the nations into one Catholick Church whereof the Pope was universall Bishop or overseer for ages together thorow the eyes of his creatures the Clergy the very Stirrup whereby he and his Ministers who have blended themselves into a blind and beastly uniformity have become Masters of the Kingdomes and have got up to ride them a plea and president for traditions it being one it self which ever make Gods commands void and mens worship of God in vain an inlet of these and innumerable more mischiefs and absurdities for posito hoc uno absurdo sequuntur mille therefore it is undoubtedly an ill cause also t is lawfull to judge of a cause by the common Consequents which come from it not as caused properly but meerly occasioned by it and in respect of which it is called only causa sine quâ non i. e. that without which the other would not be and yet no other then the bare accidentall occasions of those effects which flow from something else as the cause thereof perse and most especially when those consequents are declared by the word of God to be such as will upon that occasion universally and unavoidably come to pass and thus we may give a shrew'd guess that our cause is good viz. that our Gospel Ministery Church-way and Baptism is the true one because we see it is seconded now and ever hath been with what it was of old seconded and foretold also that it should ever be even every where to the worlds end viz. divisions in families two against three and three against two the Father against the Son the Daughter against the Mother c. offences of friends and fleshly relations the account of Heresie and baseness hatred of men persecution cavils stirs tumults about it by which things Christs people Gospel Ministers and Ministrations are ever
solid answer for if that be of force to prove a disannulling of that administration then it s of force much more against the acting of faith it self for as it s not said there from what the falling away shouâ—d be so it s expressely said elsewhere there should be a departure from the faith 1 Tim. 4.1.2 so that if the foretelling that there should be a falling away from the truth of ordinances prove that therefore there must be no practising of them now at all then there being a prophecy of a falling away from the right belief of the Gospel will evince that there ought now to be no right believing and so belike we do as ill in believing the Gospel now as in practising the ordinances of it but this will not not hold and therefore certainly not the other More over that thou maiest see how contrary thou art to the Apostles not in thy actings only but in thy arguings also consider that whereas thou admonishest men thereupon to be carelesse as concerning ordinances they even from their own predictions of a falling away from the purity of the primitive way stir the Saints up to so much the more dilligent and strict attendance to it Iude ver 3.4 from the very consideration of a future falling away exhorts the Saints not therefore to let go but earnestly to contend for that faith which was once delivered to the Saints and I appeal to the understanding of any one that hath not shut up his eyes from seeing and searching afteâ— the mind of God in the Scripture whether Paul doth not charge Timothy 1 Tim. 4 16.5.21.6.13 1 Tim. 3.14 to whom he had told it before in 1 Tim. 4.1 that there should be a departure from the faith even therefore as he would answer it before God to observe those things concerning outward discipline and Church order offices and ordinance in point of laying on of hands and other things of that kind as well as other that he in the name of the Lord had commanded him and to keep them without spot and unrebukeable even to the appearing of Jesus Christ and not onely to continue himself in the doctrine and things that he had learnt from Paul among which many were instructions for the right ordering of Churches 1 Tim. 3.15 but also to take special order for the continuation thereof downwards to succeeding generations without the least hint of any term or period of time wherein they of right should cease the things which thou hast heard of me among many witnesses the same commit thou to faithful men that shall be able i. e. after thy decease to teach others also 2 Tim. 2.2 and not onely so but whether he doth not in that very place thou alledgest viz. 2 Thess. 2.15 even therefore enjoin the Saints to hold fast the traditions or ordinances for so the same word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is used here is truely enough reâ—dred 1 Cor. 11.2 because he had told them above that there should come one that should delude many with lyes whereas if Paul had argued as thou O Reasonâ—esse doest he must have said thus viz. there shall come a falling away from the purity of ordinances by a wicked one that shall tread them down therefore be not too stiff in standing for them but let go the ordinances which have been taught you whether by word or Epistle Peter also foreseeing and accordingly foreshewing that there should come scoffers in the last daies walking after their own lusts not Christs commands wills the Saints that should be in those last times as Malachi did the Jewes after a long deformation to remember the Law of Moses with the statutes and judgements Mal. 4 4. in which we now live to look back to and be mindful of the words that were spoken before by the holy prophets and the commandments of the Apostles of the Lord and Saviour 2 Pet. 3.2 as Iude also does in the self same words and upon the self same account Iude 17. And this I find to be the course of the Apostles all along upon foresight of the dark and declining time to refer the Saints of the last times to their primitive orders and by Arguments drawn from the stedfastnesse of the word of the old Testament in every tittle to shew much more a stedfastnesse in the new and a liablenes to punishment for every transgression and disobedience to this as there was for that Heb. 2 2-10.28 every jot of which was so stedfast that even tith of Mint Annis and Cummin which the Pharisees did ill indeed in so doting upon as to neglect the weightier matters of judgement mercy c. was neverthelesse not to be neglected Matth. 23.23 on pain of being accounted Robbers of God Mal. 3.8 and howbeit the greater and higher things of the Gospel as faith holinesse of life c. are not to be forgotten while we attend to lesser and lower yet how the law of Christ was so stedfast as that of Moses if it ly in the power of man or Angel to disannul the least particle of it till Christ himself who is the only abolisher of old dispensations and establisher of new do by his own next personal comming put an end to this as he did by his first comming unto that I am not able to imagine Thou tellest us Suppose the Saints and churches ought to have held fast their administration of ordinances to this day yet what of that the Churches have lost and let go that first outward form of service and Iezebe◠〈◊〉 â—hore hath got into the Temple and filled all with Idolatry and trod all the true way under foot and instead thereof set up her own ordinances and traditions the Clergy hath corrupted and depraâ—ved all that first face of outward worshâ—p therefore it s now no more to be meddled with for ever there must be no more raising the holy City in that form and way wherein it stood before no more Churches nor ordinances but did every any rational spirit argue thus viz. because the true appointed way of Gods worship was lost when it should have been therefore it must not be found recover'd nor returned to again when it may be surely the same rule reason warrant and command by which the Church was bound to have stood in the way of truth without falling away by the same is she now bound to rise from whence she is fallen or else I know not what Christ means when he saies to the Church at Ephesus Rev. 2.4 5. Remember from whence thou art fallen and repent and do thy first works c. Secondly by the same reason and ground that the Jewes returned from Babylon to Ierusalem and built the holy City and Temple that was the type when by the enemy Typical of our Gospel Babylonians the Priesthood and his people that have led the Church captive from her own border for a time times and a half even 70 years it was trodden underfoot and
in matters of faith repentance Religion worship see Barbers answer to the Essex watchmens watch-word p. 7. c. the Magistrate receives no charge from God about Religion neither is cura ammarum but cura corporum onely committed to him Luther himself was of this mind that the Lawes of the Magistrate extended no further then to the bodies and goods that which is external and that God would have none to rule in the soul but himself therefore where the Magistrate goes about to govern in the conscience he usurps that jurisdiction which God reserves to himself certainly this is that great arrogany in the Whore or Woman of sin which God will severely punish in that S S Shee gives lawes to the conscience and sits in the Temple and Church of God as a God King Iames in Parliament 1609 said That it is a sure rule in Divinity that God never loves to plant his Church with violence and blood and again in his Apology for the oath of Allegeance p. 4. speaking of the Papists that took the said oath That he gave a good proof of it that he never intended persecution for conscience but onely desired to be secured of them for civil abuses that it was usually the condition of Christians to be persecuted but not to persecute Again Faith and repentance to acknowledgement of the truth is Gods gift and if wee 'l believe our Clergy no way in every mans power no not by gift from God to perform and so the Magistrate must punish men belike because God who gives where he lists does not give them to believe c. Again Blasphemers Persecutors as Paul Idolators as the Corinthians yea Iewes Turks and Pagans may be converted in time by the word therefore are not to be plucked up out of the Earth for then they can never possibly repent Again persecution was never taught by Christ nor practised by his Apostles but arose among Heathens and was continued by the Roman Antichrist and his Ministers Yet there 's one way more whereby they evade all this and that is by denying that by the Tares here are meant Hereticks False Worshippers and Antichristians and asserting them to be Hypocrites in the Church and this is the way of Mr. Cotton whereby you may see again how Divines are divided among themselves in all things almost as well as some which Mr. Cotton in a book which the Bloody Tenet relates to gives out as I remember that by tares is meant hypocrites in the Church who are so like the wheat that they cannot well be discovered nor discerned from it and so must be let alone in the Church by the Ministers of the Church least they mistake and pluck up wheat instead of tares and cast out men for hypocrites who its possible may be sincere for ought we know In answer to which I must confesse men that cast out persons for Hypocrites had need be pretty wary and not overhasty yea better an inconvenience than a mischief betâ—er erre in letting some Hypocrites stand in the Church then for hast cast out one that seemes to be so to us and yet is not But this is not the sense of our Saviour in this place for as it cannot be the Church that the Tares are here bid to be let alone in as I have shewed above so much lesse by the tares can be meant hypocrites so neer the wheat i. e. true Saints in shew and likenesse and pretence as to be hardly discerned from them For First Though Hypocrites are like Saints and appear so to be oft it may be alwaies to the deceiving of us yet the Tares are not at all like the wheat nor at all to any but such as are stark blind appearing to be wheat Secondly an Hypocrite in the Church who is one that appâ—ars to be what he is not must be supposed while he is in the Church to be discovered or not discovered so to be when not discovered he is no hypocrite to us to whom things are as they appear what ere he may be to God but as true a Saint as the rest and when discovered till when to us he is a Saint and must stand under the notion of a Saint then he must not stand in the Church which is not to harbor any that are palpably wicked and who is so palpable as he whose simulata sanctitas is dulplex iniquitas But now First the tares hee spoken of are plainly said and seen to be tares and appeare to be tares and a distinct stuff from the Wheat and yet for all that they are bid to be let alone in the Field as hypocrites must not be in the Church when they appear to be such But in the field i. e the world t is true enough that hypocrites may stand even after they are cast out of the Church unlesse they act any thing that civil justice will reach them for and so also may Antichristians and all false Worshippers T is evident then that in this place as well as Matth. 15.13.14 that in the time of the Gospel Church Tares that much hinder the wheat that are mingled in the same Field world Civil States Countreyes Common-wealths of Satans sowing among the Wheat Weeds Nettles Bryers Thorns Plants that are not of the heavenly Fathers planting Faâ—se worshippers Hereticks men and their Ministryes of false Religions doctrines faiths waies of serving God may and ought by permission and commission from Christ be let alone and allowed to stand by no means in the same Church by all means in the same world or part of the world locally considered for the Church is not locally considered as a place measured by and consistent of such or such a compasse of ground as the Popes parish Churches did whereupon they went on procession once a year lest they should forget the bounds of their Church but mystically of such or such a company of men however scattered locally here or there yet in one fellowship I say in the same part of the world nation City Countrey civill corporation with the wheat Saints true Church under the protective power of civil Magistracy free from molestation meerly for their religion so be they live justly soberly and peacably with all men any thing said to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding by the Priest who of all men hath least reason to be against toleration of tares in the world and of plants which the heavenly father never planted if he consider what he is himself and unlesse he desire to be rooted out in hast by the civill power before his time See the parable and read it with the exposition of it Mat. 13.37 c. He that sowed good seed in the field is the son of man i. e. Christ the field is the world therefore not the Church the good seed or wheat are the children of the Kingdom i. e. the Saints the true Church and worshippers the tares which while men slept and did not mind it the
for indeed the civil power whom you in your pulpits sub pena'd to it did it corrective who I say did a way most sacrilegiously the sacred crosses viz. Coventry Cheapside Charing others who councel'd away the curious crucifixes who spoiled the holy Cathedrals of their holy Organs and Popish pipes and pictures who prophaned the holy Fonts in all the holy Churches and Chappels because they found the people Idolizing them upon which account they ought as well to demolish the very churhces themselves who profaned all the holy dayes and feasts dedicated to the honour of Saints by the Pope which were more then daies in the year and those that were in use under Prelacy viz. Easter Christmas Whitsunday c. didst not thou O Presbyter who altered the holy Altars and alienated to other use the holy Altar Clothes who robbed the old Church robbers the Bishops and the sons of that Hierachy of their holy Robes and Divested the Church-men of the holy vestments wherewith they were adorned and wherewith also they adorned much more then by their conversations the doctrine of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ viz. the 4 cornerd cap and holy hood the sacred Sandals and costly cassokes lawn sleeves and consecrated copes silken girdles plush velvet and Sattanical gowns and cancelled that very Canons themselves that their Holinesses contrived wherein they commanded the wearing of them who pul'd away the holy railes from before the sanctum sanctorum in every holy quire where they were stated did not ye O Presbyterians hear therefore ye deaf that ye may understand and look ye blind that ye may see for if this be sacriledge and Church-robbing and holy theft and robbing God c. to casheere all the forenamed consecrated commodities then thou O Priesthood art deeper in the guilt of it then any Baptists yea we are not so much as accessary to that violent ablation of these things as whose principle leads us to lend leave to those not in the Church but in the world that will use these fooleries to use them yea if we wish the abolition of what your Divines call sacriledge to remove yet our strength against them is to sit still and save our paines and see all this kind of Sacriledge committed on them to our hands but in very deed as we are not the men so this you call so is not the thing you wot of but a meer scarcrow and bugbear to fright fools with indeed and not a purloining of holy things for as for outward things contradict it O ye classicall Clergy if ye can there is no holinesse in them now as of old there was neither in places nor in Vtensils nor in Ornaments nor in Monuments nor Emoluments nor in Altars nor Glebes for those things that are truly holy are laid up in the soul and to answer your Doctors question though I have heard of a two-fold holinesse viz. inherent and relative in the subject and in the object yet as I may truly say this with the Dr. that inherent holinesse no intelligent man ever attributed to inanimate things so this against him that relative holinesse none but a superstitious Christian ever attributed to any thing under the Gospel that is of mans invention donation and dedication as almost all Dr. Featleys furniture and rinkets are but such onely as are Relatively holy as are in such special relation to Gods that he claimes and challenges peculiar interest in as his by donation dedication ordination institution c. in which regard some Temples are holy e. g. his people in Church-fellowship living stones built up an habitation of God through the spirit but not such Temples as Dr. Featley meanes of dead stones as are by men hallowed to his name some dayes as the feasts dedicated by himself but not any dedicated by men to his honour some persons as Priests and Levites under the law Presbyters and Deacons calld i. e gifted and qualified by him not ungifted dumb dogs drones and drunkards so denominated dedicated donated by meer men under the Gospel some lands profits and preferments reserved and assigned by God as the inheritance of his Saints and Ministers i. e. servants viz. not Glebes Tithes Centries but the heavenly Canaan the holy City the holy Ierusalem that comes down from God out of heaven incorruptible indefiled that fadeth not away some certain Vtensils instruments Ordinances and means of serving him and of communion with him here for a time till we come to the perfect and immediate injoyment of him viz. the Table the Font not such as Dr. Featley means but the Lords Table and Baptism it self the laver of regeneration some Vessels but not silver Chalices nor the whores Golden cup full of trash abomination and filthinesse but the Earthen Vessels i. e. homely and to outward appearance silly empty weak plain dispensations and administrations which Christ hath chosen whereby to save them that believe and to bring to nought the gawdy formes and wayes of mans wisdome some vestments not the Cope nor the Miter black coat nor surplice stained with the filthinesse of the whores fornication but fine linnen white and clean i. e. the righteousnesse of the Saints imployed in the immediate service and worship of God for I will be sanctified of every one that comes neer to me saith the Lord any of which holy things to alienate unjustly detain deprave profane or purloin from any of those places or persons to whom what ere the law of the Land doth the law of God and the Gospel hath appropriated and apportionated them is that call you it what you will which we call sacriledge and is a sin that was never so much committed by any rank of men under the sun as it is by you CCClergy men that yet of all men seem most to abominate it and of all sins in the world cry out against it for if as ask who Lords it over Christs holy heritage who hath trodden down the holy City who slew the parsons of the witnesses who hath broken the Laws changed the ordinances broken the everlasting Covenant for which a curse now is devouring the earth who hath made void Christs commands by their own traditions who hath taken away from the sacraments the right subjects and manner of administration who have justified the wicked for reward and taken away the righteousnesse of the righteous from him who hath defiled the true Temple and made the house of God a house of Merchandize slaves and souls of men Rev. 18. a den of theeves have not you the CCClergy yea your Dr. talks of the Font and the communion Table and the pulpit but who stole away baptism and the supper and preaching it self so that there 's nothing but sprinkling bells babies and confusion and one moity of a dinner and more Pulpit and Pew and Belcony and Canopy and Cloth and Cushion then preaching and plain publication of the Gospel as it is in Jesus you talk off robbing God in
a tradition though more antient and reverent then some others as Mr. Rogers said of it and of which the church hath been posâ—est for 1500 years as Mr. Marshall a little more then he could undoubtedly prove too said of it is confest not onely by the Italian Clergy as Bellarmine who said it could not be proved by Scripture but as simply as our Clergy wrests the Scripture into the proof on t by the Remonstrants also who held it but as a very antient Rite that could scarcely be left off without great offence yea and Dr. Gouge also that would not be intreated to say ay or no to it at Dr. Chamberlains request now he sees people begin to pry into it did once acknowledge that it was a tradition of the church see Dr. Chamb. to Mr Bakewel p. 3. where he saies he hath under Mr. Barbers hand that he said so and used it as an argument to perswade him to take the oath ex officio And I desire all men to understand by these presents before whom we may happen to dispute this point hereafter that we declare against infant-sprinkling as a novelty in the faith and when we plead the dipping of believers as we are not in jest intending otiosam disputationem such idle dribling demi disputes and dainty dispatches as the Priesthood put us off with wherein he flams us i th mouth for an hour or two with the flap of a fox tail and lends us two or three licks of Latine and Logick and away again but a more serious earnest and constant course of conferring till the truth be tryed to the utmost so what we are so careful to contend for it is no new one but that old faith and baptism which was once delivered to the Saints this course of continued discourse though it suits not with such as seeing see not whose waies and courses are so much the more suspitious to be naught by how much the lesse they abide the light And a Modern Author whose Learning and Judgement lives in the Memories of many of our Kentish Clergy passed this sentence on it Pruritus disputandi scabies Ecclesiae yet I say is that the very life of the truth is so far concerned in that there 's very little of it comes to light in the CCClimate of the CCClergy by reason of their subtle sneaping things as much as may be out of sight that make against them I know the perverse disputings against the truth of men of corrupt minds destitute of the truth supposing that gain is godlinesse that t is reformation enough to mend the means of Presbyters out of the Bishops superfluities is the scabb of the Church of England indeed but I speak not of the pravity but purity of the disputation when plain minded men destitute of all self ends are minded to be serious and self denying and single-hearted in this work in order to more then either money or meer dispute it self nor is it Pruritus disputandi an itching simply after dispute for who are we simple Coblers Cartars Smiths Fishermen Farmers c. to stand before the wise and the Scribe and the disputer of this world in that work if God had not rejected them and made his wisdome foolishnesse but it is pruritus disprobandi a deep desiring of disproving your practises as Popish dispelling your smoak of errors and endeavouring to the utmost of our power according to what you have sworn us to in that kind to root out not by the civil sword but the plainnesse of the word your superstition heresie Schism and whatsoever shall be found contrary to sound doctrine that disposes us to desire it Indeed The Heathen said it was a wicked custome to dispute about the Gods for thereby things certain are oft called into question nor have they said thus without reason considering what little strength of Reason they had wherwith to assertain it that their Gods were Gods at all but me thinks it should not be counted therefore a wicked custome among true Christians that own the true God unless to put forth such curious questions about God as the Schoolmen do viz. An deus potius non fuisse whether God could have chosen whether he would have been God or no and such like fooleries to dispute about their God and about his worship for fear it should grow more doubtful by discussing and howbeit considering the strong causes that commonly stiffen and harden the CCClergy in their Heresies or the utmost of their ends in disputing and some of those sorry effects that ensue there is but little encouragement to that work of disputing with them yet sith truth can likely be no looser by comming to the light nor is diminisht but displayed the more by how much it is discussed I see no reason why it should be declined and why Heteticks are not to be disputed withall and here it cannot be amisse If we consider 1 the Causes 2 the deâ—ign of Hereticks 3 the Common effects of disputation with them Among the causes of the CCClergies Heresies may be reckoned Amor sui a conceit of themselves a fancied perfection and purity in them more then others Amor sui primum aedificavit civitatem diaboli saith St. Austin self love first set up the divels Kingdome Even that great City BBBabylon that in three PPParts reigns over the Kings and nations of the earth for though there were many superstitions grown in uppon the Christians before in the first three hundred years yet the pompous Kingdome of Priests had no foundation whereupon to rise so long as the Roman Empire remained Heathen for then the very Bishops of the Church of Rome whom the Devil hath since made his Vice-gerents in the world were persecuted to the death by the devil himself acting in the heathen Emperors in bloody butchery against Christians yea the Ministers went under miserable martyrdome as well as others and kept indifferent close to the truth but when once the Dragon who fought against Michael and his Angels with open rage before and acted against them under the very name of Christians by his Angells the heathen Emperors and massacred Millions of Christians when he saw the Emperor himself Constantine the Great turned Christian and resolved to vindicate Christs cause and rescue the Christians from their bloody sufferings and finding that Michael and his Angels did now prevail against him and his cruel Cutthroats so that place must be no more found for them in heaven i. e. the high places of power in the Empire and that he could execute his wrath now no longer by them against the saints as Christians a Christian being now come to the Crown he had no other remedy now then to play his cards about another way and turn Christian also himself that he might have the fairer advantage to crush the true Christians that kept the commands of God and the faith of Jesus under the new nicknames of Hereticks Schismaticks c. that
illuminated Tradesmen Christ the Carpenter Peter the Fisherman Paul the Tentmaker Aquilla and his wife Priscilla from which kind of poor folks and babes to whom it seems good in gods fight to preach the plain Gospel and reveal by his word and spirit what he hides from wise men when they will not see this prudent PPPriesthood if he were not proud might learn more truth and Gospel purity then ever was taught him by his Grand-father the Pope or any of those Clerical Councells or Ghostly fathers which he consults more with then with Christ and Scriptures The Reason of all his obstinacy against tradesmens teachings is this he knows that his trade of teaching for hire and divining for money Must fall if tradesmen begin once to turn divines and to teach truth for nothing ye know that by this craft quoth he Act. 19.25 c. we have our wealth moreover ye see and hear c. he is well aware and so are we that if he lose the lives of persecution for conscience and sprinkling of infants Iachin Boaz the two main pillars grand Supporters of his kingdom his Temple will quickly rend in to more pieces then 3 PPPs from the top to the very bottom and all his matchlesse magnitude and numberlesse priestly Prerogatives drop directly to the ground viz. his Lieutenantship to the prince of this World his Lordship over the heritage his headship over the Church his dominion over the faith his title to the tenth of every mans estate his merchandize of slaves bodies and souls of men his leave to trample the holy city and slay at pleasure the truth tellers that torment him his rich revenues dignity glory power seat and great Authority together with all the priviledges profits liberties immunities thereunto belonging All this his royalty must fail if he give ground but a little and would have failed ere this time If he had a face could blush at his own abominable blindnesse or ingenuity to confesse himself hurt or own the plain truth while his lungs will serve him in reply or Amor sui constrain him to cry heresie against the truth therefore this Diotrêphes that loves to have the preheminence over all for ever because he hath had it for a while receiveth not truth but prates against it in the pulpit and elsewhere with malicious words and though he contradict himself ever and anon in his own Sermons and discourses yet if he say any thing at all he thinks it much when wisemen weighing it find it little to the purpose Tertullian thus describes Hermogenes Loquacitatem facundiam existimaret Impudentiam constantiam deputaret c. so he when he bumbasts the pulpit and slashes the Saint Schismaticks in their absence before his people supposes he hath spoken with no small grace when t is for want of grace that he did it and that when he is most audacious against all reformation as at Rome and even that he hath sometimes sworn himself and others to as here in England when he finds it more crosse to his credit then he thought of when he undertook for t he counts them fickle unconstant that change their minds and mend their manners and himself only stable and constant to the CCChristian Religion Hence it is that the effects of Disputation with him have been not onely fâ—ustrate but dangerous dangerous I say to him no otherwise then as it overturned his Kingdome that the truth of Christ might take place but to them that disputed with him in this respect as it hath been no lesse then their pretious lives were worth once to oppose or open their mouths against him witnes Wickliff Hus Ierome of Prague and all the executions done in Queen Maries daies upon such as durst dispute against the Pope or meddle against the mass and those done in Queen Elizabeths upon Barrow Greenwood and Penry who were hang'd by Episcopal malice for professing against them and the Common-prayer which now well nigh all England hath renounc't as a corruption and what should have been done upon such as disputed against or depraved the Presbyterian directory is well known for that Clergy hath shew'd themselves so much in their Fathers colours that ere long all England will renounce both it and them and in this respect it hath been also frustrate as to peoples conviction for truths witnesses to dispute never so clearly against him for as much as he hath still stopt their mouths with the stake prison or gallows and kept his own wide open against them in the pulpit when he hath secured them from all capacity of storming him there for The common sort are apt to think those have the victory that live to speast last and that their CClergies cause is never wrackt by the cause of Christ as long as one is left alive that can speak a word in that against the other And by how much error takes with our corrupt nature more then truth by so much there is more danger of its spreading where the Roots i. e. the self love vain glory ambition covetousnesse pride Lordlines universality and cruelty of the CCClergy who are plants that our heavenly father never planted Stocks from whom stemes out a stench from whom abomination branches it self out to the corrupting therof in al quarters of the Earth Rev. 11.18.17 5.19.2 are not plucked up and rooted out for from the Priest and the Prophet profanness heresie hath gone out into all the world and spread it self like a leprosie or some raging canker and for the most part such is the resolvednesse of the CCClergy to bind the people still to a blind obedience to their blind guidance of them beside the word that Disputations with them if not carefully I mean clearly and also coolly proceeded in with love to their persons and almost without zeal against their evils which yet we must not abate them an ace of for all their anger pacem cum hominibus cum vitiis bellum they Raise more evil spirits of wrath and divellishnesse in them then we can lay because they see them raise more good spirits of doubts and earnest enquiries after truth in the people who before were wont to take their ware on trust without trial then then they can lay again while they live by all the shifts and subtleties they can devise for when once people are resolved to believe things to be heresie by hearsay no more but to fancy them according as they find them in the word and to see into the plainness of speech that is in the Scripture with their own eyes they see so much disproportion between the national Church wayes and those of the primitive Churches of the Gospel that they commonly resolve not to see at all adventures through the unclear eyes of CCClergy men any more This makes them fret and fume and fain and fiddle hither and thither which way to fasten their Heretical opinions further if it be possible on them in whom they they