advice to reject all Books but the Bible alone SSSSS As for Divinity-Disputations they make large Invectives against them as Paganish and very sinful Exercises TTTTT notwithstanding all this they proclaim themselves great Patrons of all true Learning VVVVV albeit as yet they have not been pleased to let the world know what kinde of Letters and Books they will be pleased with when all that hitherto have been known are laid aside by their perswasion The Testimonies A. Barrows Discovery p. 26. In this estate what communion is to be held with the Church of England What fellowship may the children of God have with such Rebels and Apostates Can the name of a Church without blasphemy unto Christ be given unto them in these sins They then not being under Christs protection nor in the state of Grace while they continue in their sin I have often wondred how any man of sound judgement could give them the name of a Church Ibidem in the Preface Let the rest no longer tempt God or be held under the dint of this dreadful Milstone by any perswasion but let them save their souls out of this accursed false Church and joyn themselves to the faithful servants of Christ with all speed The Confession Art 31. These Assemblies standing thus in confusion cannot be said truely to have Christ their King Priest and Prophet neither in this estate can be esteemed the true visible orderly constitute Church of Christ whereof the faithful may become or stand members or have any spiritual Communion with them in their spiritual Worship and Administrations Therefore are all that would be saved bound by Gods Commandment with speed to come forth out of this Antichristian estate leaving the suppression of it to the Magistrate to whom it belongs A light for the ignorant p. 8 9. This Whorish Citie hath a Body of false Prophets whosoever heareth these or any of these breaks the first Commandment for in hearing and obeying these they hear and obey the Dragon Beast and Whore that sent them and gave them their Authority and Office they use some Divine Truths to help to set a glosse on their Inventions but both divine and invented are consecrated and dedicated by the Beast and administred by his Office B Robinsons Apologie pag. 78. Convenit nobis quatenus reformatis Ecclesiis Belgicis aliis cum Ecclesia Anglicana in Articulis fidei hujus Ecclesiae nomine scriptis idem in his Book of the lawfulnesse of the hearing of the Ministers of the Church of England Barrows Refutation of Giffard p. 21. We never doubted but the foundation of God stood firm the Lord having many thousands of his elect among you known to himself Idem in his Discovery p. 119. The errours and fauls of Baptism being purged by Repentance it pleases God in pardoning the faults to reserve and not to have repeated the outward action Their Apologie p. 93. We gladly embrace the common faith professed in this Land as most holy and sound We have a reverend estimation of sundry and good hope of many hundred thousands in the Land Their Confession p. 8. We testifie by these presents to all men That we have not forsaken any one point of the true ancient Apostolike Faith professed in our Land but hold the same grounds of Christian Religion with them C Barrows Discovery p. 26 There is no cause to doubt but any of Gods servants may avoid that Congregation which rejecteth Gods Word presumptuously as a wicked Assembly and an adulterous Church Ibid. p. 29. I deny these assemblies to be true Churches of Christ seeing they have broken the Covenant and cast off the Yoke of Christ D Barrows Refutation p 33. We further conclude from the second Commandment That whatsoever Worship is devised by man and whatsoever device of man is put in the Worship of God it is Idolatry But a great part if not the whole Worship of God in your Church is devised by man If God be not worshipped with this kinde of Worship Then to speak as the Prophets and Apostles do the devil is worshipped thereby E Apologie p. 54. None can submit unto or have any spiritual Communion with the Hierarchie aforesaid but they worship the Beast and his Image and so make themselves subject to the wrath of God Barrows Discovery p. 180. Here would not be forgotten the sweet Psalmodical harmony of the Vultures Cranes Owls Geese of the Leopards Boars Wolves Dogs Swine Foxes Goats Pordon me for thus the holy Ghost termeth the profane confused multitudes in false Churches F Barrows Discovery p. 52. Disguised Hypocrites ravening Wolves that come to us in sheeps clothing under the glorious titles of Pastors and Teachers Ministers of the Gospel men of great Learning holy Life sighers for Reformation these Pharisees these Sectaries are they that mislead the people in their crooked paths of death Ibid. p 112. No middle course can here be taken we must either make the Tree good or evil These Ministers of the Church of England are true or false if false then deliver they no true Sacraments then is all their Administration Sacraments and Sermons accursed how holy soever or neer the Truth in outward shew then are they the Ministers of Satan of Antichrist sent by God in his wrath to deceive and destroy such as are ordained to death then ought not the Prince to repair to their Sermons for comfort then is all the comfort she taketh there but delusion even the deceit of Satan then are they seducers who perswade her to go to them as whereby they draw her to the wrath of God and imminent danger and inevitable destruction except she forsake them G Vide f. also Barrows Discovery p. 154. The comfort received from their Preaching their whole Ministery being accursed is a fearful signe of the effectual working of their delusions From their Ministery in this estate no comfort is to be looked for but assured destruction they being of God in his wrath sent to deceive the children of death the Reprobates H Barrows Discovery p. 29. I deny their Sacraments to be the Ordinances of God seeing to them in this estate belong not the Sacraments and Ministery of Christ but the curse and judgement of God Ibid. p. 31. Such Sacraments can no ways be called the Ordinances of Christ but rather sure Seals of his wrath to as many as profane his holy Ordinances and joyn together in that ungodly and accursed action until they repent I Vide f. also Barrows Dis p. 43. There can be no greater allowance of joyning to them then to make them our mouth or Ministers unto God or together with such to joyn in any action concerning the Worship of God K See Master Balls Confutation of the Brownists L Barr. Dis p. 66. This Book being a publike prescript Liturgie were it the best that ever was devised by mortal man yet being brought into the Church yea into any private house would be an abominable sacrifice in the sight of
the heavens must receive till the time of the restitution of all things which God hath spoken by the mouth of all the holy Prophets since the world began This place proveth clearely the aboade of Christs body in the heaven till the time of the restitution of all things So much our Brethren grant but they deny our assumption that the time of the restitution of all things is the last day this therefore we prove not by the Testimony of all the reformed who unanimously bring this place as a maine ground against the Papists and Lutherans in the questions of Transubstantiation and Ubiquity but by three reasons from the Text it selfe First that time here is understood when all things that are spoken of by all the Prophets are performed But all things spoken of by all the Prophets are not performed till the last day Master Burrowes alleadgeance that all the Prophets are frequent and large upon the Raigne of the 1000 yeares but rare and sparing upon the doctrine of the last Judgement and life eternall might well have beene spared for the one halfe of it and left to the Socino-Remonstrants but suppose it were all true yet if any of the Prophets have spoken any thing at all of the last Judgement as the Apostle Jude puts it out of question even of Enoch it is cleare that the time of the performing of all things which any of the Prophets have spoken cannot possibly exist before the last Judgement as we may see Rom. 8. ver 21. compared ver 18.23 where the restitution of the creatures to their desired liberty comes not before the redemption of our bodyes and the glory to be revealed upon the whole Church at the last day Secondly the time here spoken of is when the Jewes to whom Peter did speake were to be refreshed by the Lords presence but this shall not be before the Generall resurrection for the Chiliasts doe maintaine that all the Jewes shall not rise neither that any of them to whom the Apostle did then speake shall be partakers of the first resurrection unlesse some of them who were Martyres for the honour and Glory of this first resurrection the most of them make it so rare and singular a priviledge that Daniel himselfe does not obtaine it but by a speciall promise Thirdly The time when God doth solemly before Men and Angels declare the absolution and blotting out of the sinnes of all his people is not before the last day But this is the time whereof the Apostle Peter speakes in the present place as appeares by the 19 verse That your sinnes may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. Take but one other place for Christs aboade in the heaven till the last day John 14.2.3 I goe to prepare a place for you I will come againe and receive you to my selfe that where I am there you may be Behold Christ goes to the heaven and comes backe againe but once for this very end to take his Disciples with him not to abide with them upon the earth but to place them in the Mansions of his Fathers House in the Heavens which he went to prepare for them wherein all the time of his absence he himselfe was to remaine A Second argument we take from Christs sitting at the right hand of God This errour how innocent soever it seeme to some yet it perverts the true sence of sundry articles of our Creed and forceth its followers to coyne new and false senses to a great many Scriptures whereupon these articles were builded This was the reason why neither Piscator nor Alstedius nor Mead when they laide too fast hold upon some of the branches of Chiliasme yet the bulke and roote of that Tree Christs comming downe to the earth in his humane nature a thousand yeares before the last day they durst never touch but our Brethren have more venturous Spirits they see much further then their Masters they scruple nothing to make all these things popular and Catecheticke doctrine The reason I spoke of is this Christ sits at the right hand of God till the last day Ergo he comes not to reigne on earth a thousand yeares before the last day The consequence is builded upon this Proposition Christs sitting at the right hand of the Father is not in earth but in heaven which many Scriptures prove Ephes 1.20 He set him at his own right hand in heavenly places Heb. 1.3 He sat downe at the right hand of the Majesty on high Heb. 8.1 He is set on the right hand of the Throne of the Maiesty in the heavens The antecedent I prove thus He sits at the right hand of God till all his enemies be made his footstoole So speakes the Psalmist Psal 110.1 But all his enemies are not made his footstoole till the last day for till then Satan Sinne Death and all wicked men are not fully destroyed Our third argument we take from the resurrection of the dead All the Godly at Christs comming from heaven doe rise immediately to a Heavenly Glory Ergo none of them doe arise to a Temporall glory of a thousand yeares upon earth The antecedent see in Heb. 9.28 Vnto them that looke for him shall he appeare the second time without sin unto salvation Christ hath but two times of comming to the earth first in weakenes to die upon the Crosse The second time in glory to give eternall Salvation without distinction to all beleevers who looke for his comming Also 1 Thes 4.14 Them which sleepe in Jesus will he bring with him The Lord himselfe shall discend from heaven with a shout and the dead in Christ shall rise first then we which are alive shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meete the Lord in the ayre and so shall we be ever with the Lord. The ground of comfort which the Apostle propounds to the Thessalonians for all their dead as well Martyrs as others was their resurrection not before the Lords comming with the voice of the Archangell but at that time when all the dead in Christ without exception do arise and non of them abide on the earth but all are caught up in the ayre to meete the Lord and all remaine with him eternally thereafter without any separation See also 1 Cor. 15.22 In Christ shall all be made alive but every man in his owne order Christ the first fruits afterward they that are Christs at his comming then commeth the end when he shall have delivered up the Kingdome to God The Apostle here speakes of the Resurrection of all and particularly of the Martyrs such as with the Apostle dyed daily and every houre were in jepoardy and fought with Beasts although he professes to distinguish the diversity of order that might be in this great worke of the Resurrection yet he affirmes that these who are Christs do not arise till his comming and his comming he makes not to be
till the last day when Christ renders up his Oeconomicke Kingdome having destroyed all his enemies especially death fully perfected the work of his mediation This Resurrection is after the sound of the last Trumpet when all the godly rise and are changed and put on incorruption and immortallity when death is swallowed up into victory and the godly inherit the Kingdome of God these things are done at the last day not a thousand yeares before it as John 6. Christ avoweth thrice in the end ver 39.40.44 I will raise him up at the last day At that time the judgement is universall both of the godly and wicked and the execution of both their sentences is immediately by the present glorification of the one and the destruction of the other as we have it Math. 25.31 When the Son of man shall come in his glory before him shall be gathered all Nations and he shall separate them one from another as a shepheard divideth his sheepe from the Goats Fourthly we reason from the nature of Christs Kingdome The conceit of the thousand yeares makes Christs Kingdome to be earthly and most observeable for all worldly glory but the Scripture makes it to be Spirituall without all wordly pompe neither doth the Word of God make the Kingdome of the Mediator of two kindes and of a different nature but one uniforme from the beginning to the end Luke 1.32 The Lord shall give him the throne of his Father David and he shall raigne over the house of Jacob for ever 1 Cor. 15.25 He must raigne till he have put all things under his feete here there is but one Kingdome and one way of ruling a Kingdome meerely Spirituall and nowise worldly Luke 17.20 The Kingdome of God commeth not with observation neither shall they say loe here or loe there but the Kingdome of God is within you John 18.36 My Kingdome is not of this world if my Kingdome were of this world then would my servants fight but now is my Kingdome not from hence Rom. 14 17. The Kingdome of God is not meate and drinke but righteousnesse peace and joy of the holy Ghost Ephes 1.20 He raised him from the dead and set him at his right hand in heavenly places and hath put all things under his feete and gave him to be head over all to the Church The Millenaries make his Kingdome to appeare in Armies and Battells in feasts and pleasures in worldly pompe and power and will not have his Kingdome to stand in any of that spirituall power which since his ascention he hath executed on principalities and powers or shall performe upon the soules of men till these thousand yeares of worldly power and earthly glory visible to the eyes of men shall begin We take our fifth argument from the nature of the Church Scripture makes the Church of God so long as it is upon the earth to be a mixed multitude of Elect and Reprobate good and bad a company of people under the crosse and subject to various temptations a company that hath neede of the Word and Sacraments of Prayer and Ordinances that hath Christ a High Priest within the vaile of heaven interceding for them But the Doctrine in hand changes the nature of the Church and makes it for a thousand yeares together to consist onely of good and gracious persons without all trouble without all Ordinances without any neede of Christs intercession For the first That Scripture makes the Church alwayes to be a mixed company See Matth. 13.40 As the tares are gathered and burnt in the fire so shall it be in the end of the world The Sonne of man shall send forth his Angels and they shall gather out of his Kingdome all things that offend and that doe iniquity and vers 49. So shall it be in the end of the world the Angels shall come forth and sever the wicked from among the just Also Chap. 24.11 Many false Prophets shall arise and deceive many because iniquity shall abound the love of many shall waxe cold Luke 18.8 When the Sonne of man commeth shall he finde faith upon the earth These places declare the mixture of the wicked with the godly in the Church to the worlds end and most about the end As for Crosses See Psal 34.20 Many are the afflictions of the righteous Mat 5 4. Blessed are they that mourne and that are persecuted for righteousnesse Acts 14.23 By many tribulations we must enter into the Kingdome of heaven Rom. 8.17 If so we suffer with him that we may be glorified together 2 Tim. 3.12 All that will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer persecution Heb. 12.6 Whom the Lord loves he correcteth and he scourgeth every child that he receives Many such places shew the condition of the Church in this life that she is ever subject to tribulation Concerning Ordinances that they must continue to the last day See Ephes 4.11 He gave some Pastors and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints for the worke of the Ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ till we all come to a perfect man And for the continuance of the Sacraments 1 Cor. 11.26 As often as you eate this bread and drinke this cup yee doe shew the Lords death till hee come That in the most godly while they live on earth sinne doth remaine and that alwayes we have neede of Christs intercession in the heaven with the Father it is cleare from 1 John 1.8 If wee say we have no sinne the truth of God is not in us And Chap. 2. ver 1. But if any man sinne we have an Advocate with the Father Heb. 9.24 Christ is entred into the heaven it selfe now to appeare in the presence of God for us Thus the Scripture describes the condition of the Church on earth but the Doctrine in hand alters much the nature of it for a great part of its time here for of the 2650 yeares which they give to the Church from the comming of Christ to the last judgement they make her to consist for a whole thousand yeares only of godly persons without the mixture of any one wicked and all the millions who are borne in the Church in that large time they are free from their birth to their death of all crosses of all sorrowes of all temptations and as it seemes of all sinne also for that is the time of the restitution of all things when old things are past and all things become new They make them to have neede neither of Word nor Sacraments or any Church-Ordinance neither of Christs Intercession in the heavens with the Father for they have him among them in the earth and they are freed from all sinne and all misery A sixth Argument Scripture makes the time of Christs second comming to be secret and hid not onely to men but to the very Angels and to Christ himselfe as he is man Marke 13.32 But of that day and that
whole preceding Prophecie especially of the peoples deliverance by Michael the Prince from the oppression of Antiochus which was not much to be understood till it came to passe Fourthly They reason from the last verse Life eternall is common to all the Saints and no singular priviledge of Daniels But the resurrection here spoken of is promised to Daniel as a singular favour Answer Mr. Archer who is deepest learned in these Mysteries affirmes That all the goldly as well as Daniel had their part in the first resurrection and indeede if once you begin to distinguish it will be hard to finde satisfactory grounds to give this glory to Daniel and to deny it to David to Moses to Abraham and many others Secondly We may well say that life eternall albeit common to all the Saints yet is so divine so rare and singular a mercy to every one that gets it that it may be propounded to Daniel and every Saint as a soveraigne comfort against the bitternesse of all their troubles Thirdly The place according to the best Interpreters speakes nothing at all of any resurrection onely it imports a promise to Daniel to live in peace all his dayes that notwithstanding all the troubles of the Church which he saw in these visions as Diodate Translates it yet so farre as concerned himself he should goe on to his end and rest stand or continue in his present honours and prosperous condition to his death and 〈…〉 of his dayes Fifthly from the 11. and 12. verse they conclude peremptorily the beginning of these thousand yeares to be in the yeare 1650 or at furthest 1695 for they make the 1290 dayes to be so many yeares and the 1335 dayes to be 45 yeares more these they make to beginne in the raigne of Julian the Apostate who after Constantine's death did re-establish Paganisme in the Empire and encouraged the Jewes to build the Temple of Jerusalem till God hindred them by an Earthquake which did cast up the foundation-stones of the old Temple Beginning their account at this time the end of their first number falls on the yeere 1650 and of the second on the yeare 1695. This is Archers calculation which T. G. and others follow precisely Answer We marvell at the rashnesse of men who by the example of many before them will not learne greater wisedome if they needes must determine peremptorily of times and seasons That they doe not extend their period beyond their owne dayes That they be not as some before them laughed at before their owne Eyes when they have lived to set the vanity of their too confident Predictions however in this calculation there seemes nothing to be sound neither the beginning nor the middle nor the later end If the thousand yeares begin in the 1650 yeare if Christ then come in person to the earth what will keepe him from perfecting his Kingdome to the 1695 yeare thereafter will he spend whole 45 yeares in warres against the Nations before they be subdued to his Scepter Secondly What warrant have they to begin their account with the Empire of Julian Did he set up any abomination at all in the Church of God He opened againe in the Territories of his Empire the Pagan Temples which by Constantine had been closed by counsell and example he allured men to idolatry but he troubled not any Christians in the liberty of their profession he did not set up idolatry in any Christian Congregation The Lord did quickly kill him and so prevented his intended persecution of Christians But although it could be verified of him that he did set up the abomination of desolation in the Temple yet how made he the daily Sacrifice to cease he was so far from this that to t◠uttermost of his power he laboured to set up againe the daily Sacrifice which some hundred yeares ceased Scripture speakes onely of two times wherein the solemne sacrifice was made to cease and the abomination of desolation was set up First by Antiochus Epiphanes and then by Titus Vespasian but of Julian his making the sacrifice to cease Scripture speakes nothing That Story of the Earthquake whereupon Mr Archer builds albeit reported by some of the Ancients seemes to be a great fable Certainely the application of it to Christs Prophesie of the Gospel A stone shall not be left upon a stone as if this had not been fulfilled till that Earthquake had cast up all the foundation-stones of the ancient Temple is very temerarious As The beginning and end of their calculation is groundlesse so also the midst and the whole body of it is frivolous What necessity is there to expound dayes by yeares especially in that place where yeares are divided into dayes In the very preceding words vers 7. the dayes here mentioned are expressed by a time times and halfe a time can they shew in any place of Scripture that ever a day is put for a yeare where yeares and dayes are conjoyned and a few yeares are extended in the enumeration of all the dayes that are in these yeares The words of the Prophet Daniel are cleare if they be taken as they lie but if they be strained to a Mysticall sense they become inexplicable The Lord is comforting the Prophet and the whole Church by the short indurance of the desolations which Antiochus was to bring upon them for from the time of his scattering of the Jewes and discharging of the solemne sacrifice unto the breaking of the yoake of his Tyranny it should be but three yeares and a halfe with a few more dayes yea unto that happy time when the plague of God should fall on his person it should be but 45 dayes more The History of Josephus and the Maccabees makes the event accord with this prediction Why then should we straine the Text any further to a new sence which neither agrees with the event nor with the words Another place alleadged by Mr. Burrowes is Psalme 102.16 When the Lord shall build up Sion he shall appeare in his glory As if this did import both the building againe of Sion and also Christs glorious appearance upon the earth Answer This place speaks of no such things the ordinary Exposition of late and old Interpreters agrees so well with the contexture of the whole Psalme that to drive it farther were needlesse the place speakes of the Babylonish Captivity and of the earnest desire of the godly at that time to have Jerusalem and Sion then in the dust againe restored This desire of the Saints is granted and a promise is made to them that Sion should be againe builded and that the Lord by this act of mercy should get great glory But for any third building of Sion after the dayes of the Messias or for any personall raigne of Christ upon earth no syllable in this place doth appeare His next place is Rom. 11.12 If the fall of them be the riches of the world and the diminishing of them be the riches
these promises upon earth till their Ierusalem were againe builded and they put in possession of the holy land to build their houses and plant their Uineyeards therein till they saw themselves put in possession of their present carnall legall hopes Yea T. G. his literall exposition of this and the like places goes beyond the most of the Iewish apprehensions For that any of the Talmudists do dreame that at the comming of the Messias the Lyon shall eate straw that the Leoparde and the Lambe the Serpent and the sucking childe shall be brought to such a sympathy of natures as not to have the least disposition to doe harme the one to the other That the life of men shall be so much at that time prolonged as one of an hundred yeares must be taken but for an Infant and a childe that the most fabulous of the Rabbins have gone thus farre in a litterall beleefe I doe not know His eight place is Heb. 2.5 8. For unto the Angells he hath not put in subjection the world to come but now we see not yet all things put under him whence he inferres that Christ in the world to come is to reigne and to have all things put under his feet which is not now performed the Apostle saying expressely that now all things are not put under him neither is this true in the life to come for then the Kingdome of Christ is rendred up to the Father Ans The world to come is not that imaginary world of the 1000 yeares whereof the Scripture speaks no thing but the dayes of the Gospell of which the Apostle is there speaking and shewing that the Gospell was administred not by Angells as the Law had beene upon Mount Sinai but by the Sonne of God himselfe This new world under the Gospell did differ more from the old world under the Law then the earth in the dayes of Noah and the Patriarchs after the floud from the earth in the dayes of Noah before the floud This new world of the Gospell began with Christs first comming in the flesh it was demonstrated in his Resurrection When all power in heaven and in earth was given to him Math. 28.18 When all the Angells of God did worshippe him Heb. 1 6. When he was set farre above all Principalities and Powers Ephes 1.21 The accomplishment of this world is not till the Last day when Death Hell and Satan which yet are not made Christs footstoole shall fully be conquered These things cannot be verified of the thousand yeares For according to Mr. Burrowes grounds before they begin many things are annihilated and so not made subject The heavens and elements are melted with fervent heate The earth and the workes thereof are burnt up with fire Also during these thousand yeares Christs chiefe enemies are not fully subdued death still hath dominion over men the devill is onely bound but yet alive and not cast into the lake His ninth place is Ier. 3.16.17 They shall say no more the Arke of the Covenant of the Lord neither shall it come to minde neither shall they remember it at that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord and all the Nations shall be gathered unto it neither shall they walke any more after the imagination of their evill heart Hence he inferres A state of the Church in the Last dayes so glorious that all things by-past shall be forgot That Judah and Israel shall returne from their captivity to Jerusalem That all Nations shall joyne with them That they shall no more walke after their old sinnes That Jerusalem which before times was at best but the footstoole of God shall then become a throne of glory Answer There is no word here of Christs abode upon earth for a thousand yeares Secondly the old things that are to be forgotten are expressed to be the Ceremonies of the Law but no Ordinance of the Gospell The Prophet names the Arke and the Temple which by Christs first comming were removed Thirdly The walking of Iudah and Israel together and the Nations joyning with them Imports no more but the calling of Iewes and Gentiles by the Gospell to the Christian Church the heavenly Ierusalem The same which the Prophet Esay hath in his second Chap. vers 5. The establishing in the Last dayes of the House of God on the top of the mountaines the flowing of all Nations thereto for out of Sion shall goe forth a Law and the Word of the Lord from Ierusalem These Last dayes were the dayes of the Apostles when they from Sion and Ierusalem did blow the Trumpet of the Gospell to all the Nations These were the times whereof Ieremy in the 15 verse of the Chapter in hand doth speake I will give you Pastors according to my heart which shall feede you with knowledge and understanding The Pastors there promised were Christ and his Apostles better Pastors then these God never sent neither ever shall send to his Church Fourthly Walking after Gods owne heart doth not import a freedome from all sinne but onely a state of grace wherein according to the new Covenant God gives his people a newheart and writes his Lawes upon the same Fifthly That whereupon the greatest weight of the argument is laid seemes to be a very groundlesse conceit That Ierusalem when it is a throne of glory must be the old Ierusalem builded againe as if Ierusalem under the Law and Ierusalem in the dayes of the Gospell the Church in the new Testament the mother of us all were but the footestoole of God This is a doctrine expresly against Scripture for in divers places Ierusalem Sion and the Arke even in the old Testament are called not onely the footstoole but the throne of God Ier. 14.21 Doe not abhorre us for thy names sake doe not disgrace the throne of thy glory Also Chap. 17.12 A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our Sanctuary The Lord did as it were sit upon the Mercy Seate as upon a chaire of State under the Canopy of the wings of the Cherubins within the Sanctuary the chamber of his most Majestuous presence Ierusalem under the new Testament is called not onely the throne of God but his footstoole Esay 40.13 To beautifie the place of my Sanctuary and I will make the place of my feete glorious This place our Brethren expound of the Sanctuary during the time of the thousand yeares However it is cleare it must be expounded of the Church in the same times whereof Ieremiah speakes in his third Chapter whence the Argument in hand is brought The tenth place is Dan. 2 44. And in the dayes of these Kings shall the God of heaven set up a Kingdome which shall never be destroyed and it shall stand for ever Whence is inferred an everlasting Kingdome of Christ a joy of Ierusalem unchangeable to any sorrow Answer Christs Everlasting Kingdome is meerely spirituall and heavenly That dominion which
Cotton if not the Author yet the greatest promoter and patron of Independency we will go on with the way it self What Master Cotton and the Apologists his followers have testified of Gods displeasure and judgements upon the way of the Brownists O is as evidently true of the way of the Independents not onely because as it will appear hereafter both wayes really are one and the same But also because in the comparison of the events which have befaln to both wayes it will be seen that the miscarriages and because of them the marks of Gods anger have been more manifest upon this latter way then upon the former Independency brought to the utmost pitch of perfection which the wit and industry of its best patrons were able to attain having the advantage of the Brownists fatal miscarriages to be exemplary documents of wisedom being also assisted and fenced with all the security that Civil Laws of its friends own framing and gracious Magistrates at their absolute devotion could afford notwithstanding in a very few lesse then one week of yeers hath flown out in more shameful absurdities then the Brownists to this day in all the fifty yeers of their trial have stumbled upon The verity of this broad assertion shall be palpable to any who will be at the pains a little to consider their proceedings in any of the places wherever yet they had any setled abode for however much of their way be yet in the dark and in this also their advantage above the Brownists is great that in their Discords none of themselves have proclaimed their own shame none that have fallen from them have of purpose put pen to paper to inform the world of their ways neither have any of them been willing to reply to any of the Books written against them that did put a necessity upon them to speak out the truth of many heavie imputations which with a loud voice by many a tongue are laid on them chusing rather to lie under the hazard of all the reproach which their unfriendly reports could bring upon them then to make an Apologie wherein their denial might bring upon them the infamy of lying or their grant the fastening by their own testimony upon the back of their party the Crimes alleadged against them Notwithstanding so much is broken out from under all their coverings as will make good what hath been said Hitherto they have had but three places of abode New-England Holland London That any where else they have erected Congregations I do not know Of their adventures in these three places we will speak a little In New-England when Master Cotton had gotten the assistance of Master Hooker Master Davenport and sundry other very worthy Ministers beside many thousands of people whom God in his mercy did send over to that new world to be freed from suffering and danger in the day of their Countreys most grievous calamities being there alone without the disturbance of any enemy either within or without What were the fruits of their Church-way First it forced them to hold out of all Churches and Christian Congregations many thousands of people who in former times had been reputed in Old-England very good Christians I have heard sundry esteem the number of the English in that Plantation to exceed Fourty thousand men and women when Master Cotton is put to it he dares hardly avow the one half of these to be members of any Church P But if we do beleeve others who were eye-witnesses also they do avow That of all who are there Three parts of Four will not be in any Church Q 1. To us it seemeth a grievous absurdity a great dishonour to God and cruelty against men to spoil so many thousand Christians whom they dare not deny to be truely religious of all the priviledges of the Church of all the benefits of Discipline of all the comfort of any Sacrament either to themselves or to their children to put them in the condition of Pagans such as some of them professe all Protestants to be who are not of their way Q 2. A second evil of their Way is That it hath exceedingly hindred the conversion of the poor Pagans God in great mercy having opened a door in these last times to a new world of reasonable creatures for that end above all that the Gospel might be preached to them for the enlargement of the Kingdom of Christ The principles and practice of Independents doth crosse this blessed hope What have they to do with those that are without Their Pastors preach not for conversion their relation is to their Flock who are Church-members converted already to their hand by the labours of other men before they can be admitted into their Church Of all that ever crossed the American Seas they are noted as most neglectful of the work of Conversion I have read of none of them that seem to have minded this matter Q 3. onely Master Williams in the time of his banishment from among them did assay what could be done with those desolate souls and by a little experience quickly did finde a wonderful great facility to gain thousands of them to so much and more Christianity both in profession and practice then in the most of our people doth appear R But the unhappinesse of these principles whereof we speak did keep him as he professeth from making use of that great opportunity and large door which the Lord there hath opened to all who will be zealous for propagating of the Gospel S Thirdly the fruits of Independency may be seen in the profession and practices of the most who have been admitted as very fit if not the fittest members of their Churches These have much exceeded any of the Brownists that yet we have heard of first in the vilenesse of their Errours secondly in the multitude of the erring persons thirdly in the hypocrisie joyned with their errours fourthly in malice against their neighbours and contempt of their Superiours Magistrates and Ministers for their opposition to them in their evil ways and lastly in their singular obstinacie stiffly sticking unto their errours in defiance of all that any upon earth could do for their reclaiming or that God from heaven almost miraculously had declared against them All this I will make good by the unquestionable Testimonies of their loving friends For the vilenesse of their Errours They did avow openly the personal inhabitation of the Spirit in all the godly his immediate revelations without the Word and these as infallible as Scripture it self T This is the vilest Montanism They avowed further with the grossest Antinomians That no sin must trouble any childe of God That all trouble of conscience for any sin demonstrates a man subject to the Covenant of Works but a stranger to the Covenant of Grace V That no Christian is bound to look upon the Law as a rule of his conversation X That no Christian should be prest to any
duty of holinesse Y Neither here did they stand but went on to aver the death of the soul with the body Z That all the Saints upon earth have two bodies AA That Christ is not united to our fleshly body but they would have him to be united to our new body BB with the same union where with his humanity is united with his Godhead That Christs Manhood was not now in the heavens CC but that his body was his Church These abominable errours and many more of this kinde to the number of Fourscore and eleven DD the New-English Independency did produce to the world in a very short time For the second The number of the erring persons this is said to have been incredible not onely multitudes of men and women every where were infected EE but almost no Society no Family of that Land was free of that Pest BB Boston the best and most famous of their Churches was so far corrupted that few there were untainted GG Concerning the Hypocrisie of these Hereticks it was exceeding great None appeared so humble so holy so spiritual and full of Christ as they HH In their speech nought but self-denial II In their prayers ravishing affections and heavenly expressions KK All their singular opinions were for the advancing of Free-grace LL For the glorious light of the Gospel for the setting up of naked Christ on his Throne MM Their malice towards all that dissented from them was so extreme that they made the life of many the most religious of their Neighbours to be bitter and a wearisome burden to them NN For their Ministers some of them they adored Master Cotton and Master Wheelwright they set up as the onely true Preachers of the Covenant of Grace they extolled them to the skies avowing that since the Apostles dayes none had received so much Gospel-Light as they OO But the rest of the Preachers not onely all in Old England PP but also all in New-England except a very few and most of all the best the most zealous and Orthodox even the instruments of their own conversion were to them Baals Priests Legal Preachers Popish Factors Scribes and Pharisees Enemies to the Gospel voide of the Spirit of Grace QQ Their contempt of the Magistrates was as great as of the Ministers Their late Governour they professed was a true friend to Christ and Free-grace RR but Master Winthrop their present Governour and the most of the Magistrates they proclaimed enemies of Grace Persecutors Antichrists Ahabs Herods Pilates whom God would destroy SS Their Preacher Master Wheelwright would exhort the people in his Sermon to deal with the Magistrates as such remembring them how Moses had killed the Egyptian TT Their Heresies did bring on so dangerous seditions as in a short time did put their Common-wealth in a clear hazard of utter ruine VV for the Heretikes had drawn to their side not onely multitudes of the people but many of the ablest men for parts in all Trades especially the Souldiers XX They kept such intimate familiarity and open correspondence with the most eminent men of the Land Mistresse Hutchinson and the late Governour kept almost every day so private and long discourse with Master Cotton that made them conclude all was their own YY and forced the wise Governour Master Winthrop to prevent their designes to put the former Governour and all that followed him from their places in the general Court and to desire him and them to be gone which was counted a real though a civil banishment out of their Land ZZ Also to disarm the most of that faction expresly upon fear least the Tragedy of Munster should be acted over again in New-England AAA Master Williams told me that he was imployed to buy from the Savages for the late Governour and Master Cotton with their followers a proportion of Land without the English Plantation whither they might retire and live according to their own minde exempt from the Jurisdiction Civil and Ecclesiastick of all others Master Williams was in so great friendship with that late Governour when he told me so much That I beleeve he would have been loth to have spoken any untruth of him Their obstinacy in all these things was truely marvellous for after all the pains which their godly Pastors took upon them in Preaching in Conference in Publike Disputations After the Magistrate had executed the Law and inflicted civil punishments upon some of their prime Seducers yea when God visibly from the Heavens had declared his anger against some of their cheif Leaders punishing Mistresse Hutchinson with a monstruous birth of more then thirty mis-shapen Creatures at one time BBB and Mistresse Dyer her principal assistant with another monstrous birth CCC of one Creature mixed of a Beast of a Fish and a Foul Notwithstanding all these admonitions their obstinacy was so great that many of them continued pertinacious without any repentance DDD For some of them separating of their own accord others being banished by the Magistrate retired into those Lands which Master Williams had bought for them and in that their new Habitation they continued not long till beside all the named Errours they fell into many more both Errours and Schisms EEE And Mistresse Hutchinson did make a new Separation retiring to a new dwelling FFF where after her long contempt of divine and humane patience at last God did let loose his hand and destroyed her sending in upon her a company of the Savages who burnt her self her house and all that she had GGG Notwithstanding all that God and man at that time and since hath done to discover the evil spirit that raged in that way yet such is the stoutnesse of many especially of the late Governour whose hand in all that businesse was cheif that to this day if you will confer with them they will assure That Mistresse Hutchinson was much mistaken and wronged that she was a most pious woman and that her Tenents if well understood were all true at least very tolerable We have oft marvelled that the Eldership of Boston did never so much as call her before them to be rebuked for any of her Errours though their general Assembly had confuted and condemned them yet still she was permitted to go on till the zeal of the new Governour and the general Court did condemn her to perpetual banishment then and not till then so far as we can perceive by the story did the Church of Boston begin a processe against her and when the processe was brought to an end Master Cotton by no means would put it in execution that burden was laid on the back of Master Wilson his Colleague how ever not the fittest instrument being the person to whom Mistresse Hutchinson from the beginning had professed her greatest opposition and when the sentence was pronounced against her they tell us That the great cause of it was none of her Heresies or Errours but her other practises especially