the reason why they that fell in the Wildernesse entred not in was their hardnesse of heart and unbeleefe as in the 15. ver. of the 3. chap. and the 2. ver. of the 4. chap. He declareth and saith further That they that are so entred â—â—ve ceased from their owne workes as God did from his that is from seeking their owne pleasures and speaking their owne words from all their corrupt carnall and sinfull pleasures and delights of the world wherein their soule as well as their bodie and members thereof had walked the whole man being corrupted through the fall and which are therefore called their owne workes and their owne pleasures and their delight is now in the Lord and in his holy and heavenly wayes seeking his face continually honouring him c. as the Prophet Esay saith And they that are so entred here by faith and keepe the Lords holy Sabbath will the Lord cause to ride upon the high places of the earth and will feed them with the heritage of Iacob their father for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it which heritage of of Iacob is the everlasting Kingdom the heavenly Country and Citty promised which all the holy Fathers looked for and is to be manifested and fully accomplished when Christ shall come in his glory and all things shall be restored according to the Prophets And so I hold the Sabbath spirituall and eternall to be in force and that the outward rest of man and beast commanded the Jewes on the seaventh day was but a shaddow thereof and is now ceased to Christians So that as wee are 〈◊〉 bound to Circumcision nor other ceremonies of the Law which is manifest by Acts 15. Gal. 4. and other places of Scripture neither are we to the strict observation of any litterall Sabbaths of yeeres times moneths or dayes as the Jewes were by the Law but are free as Saint Paul sayth Let no man judge you in meates or in drinkes or in respect of an holy day or of the new Moone or of the Sabbath day which are a shaddow of the things to come but the body is Christ And he said to them of Galatia who were by false Teachers brought to an extreame in that kind more then the Law it selfe ever intended Ye observe dayes and moneths and times and yeares I am afraid of you c. in both which places the Apostle speaketh of the seventh day Sabbath and concludeth of it as of the rest In Gal. he beginneth with it before the monthly Sabbathes as besides which before the monthly there is not another to be rekoned and in Colâ— He ends with it in reckoning next after the new Moones or monthly Sabbathes except which after the monethly there is not another to be named and counteth it with the rest a shadow of things to come And this no doubt was the reason why the Apostles and Christian Churches to this day have left it with the rest of the signes and shadowes of the law as holding that Christians are free as touching their consciences in all such respects If this be true that the litterall rest of the seventh day commanded in the Law be a shadow as by the Apostles words is most cleere and past all contradiction then the first day of the weeke used in the Apostles times and ever since in the Christian Churches for the assembling together of the people of God to breaking of bread and prayer and preaching and hearing the word of God for exhortation spirituall communion edification and comfort one another praysing the Lord c. Was taken up freely and is a free observation and not by force of any commandement of the Law or of the Gospell And this doth the Apostle further declare in Rom. 14. where he plainely sheweth as he doth also in Colo. 2. the inâ—iferency now under the Gospell of eating and not eating of meates and of esteeming and not esteeming one day above another So that although Christians be now free in these things as touching the conscience in respect of the Law and are not bound yet they not only may observe a day to the Lord for the ends before mentioned and forbeare therein their common worldly affaires but ought it so being ordained and appointed by the state and Church wherein they live and so farre wee are bound by the command of the word of God in all good and lawfull things to obey And some day or time is needfull and the more time the bettâ—r and hee that makes the most use of the same time to the same ends doth the best and the first day of the weeke may very well be the day rather then any other because it was for some reasons no doubt taken up and used for those ends in the Apostles times whither because they might be more free therein in respect of the Jewes then on the Sabbath day or for what reason else it is not written being not so needfull to be knowne And so in respect of this spirituall use and end it hath beene and is appointed and imployed unto it may be called a Sabbath day though not by force of the commandement But whosoever shall lay such a burthen upon the consciences of Christian touching the day as Master Denison and some others have done charging the people upon heavy curses and condemnation to doe and not to doe such and such kind of things as they prescribe These things Which although you may lawfully leave them undone upon any other day and not sinne you are bound to doe them in this day in paine of condemnation And these and those kind of things or actions which although you may lawfully doe them on any other day and not sinne you are bound not to doe any of them in this day on paine of condemnation and whosoever doth not constionably so observe the day cannot be a true Christian wherewith they have so inthralled the minds of many people some of tender consciences zealously affected towards God and have brought them to such distraction and unquietnesse of spirit by reason they are not nor can be satisfied in every particular action what they are so bound to doe and what not to doe upon that day when to begin and when to end that there is more talke and questioning among them and and more resorting to Ministers for satisfaction about the same then about any matter of religion whatsoever This doctrine I say is very unsound and just like unto that which the false Apostles and Teachers taught and charged them of Antioch and them of Galatia touching Circumcision and the Sabbath of the Law which was very erroneous even in the time of the Law and a burthen as Saint Peter saith which they nor their fathers were able to beare for such doctrine had beene taught the Jewes by such Pharisees and false Teachers a long time before Peters dayes and is by the Church in Acts 15. and by Saint Paul in Gal. 4. condemned for
and strange poynts of doctrine and also to expound the holy Scriptures unto them and that he the said Etherington doth take upon him as a Teacher in matters of doctrine and is so generally reputed among his proselites and followers as he this deponent hath heard and beleeveth The deposition of Robrowgh To the first Article he deposeth and saith that he hath knowne the articulate Etherington for these foure or five yeares past or thereabout and knoweth that he for most part of the time articulate professed himselfe to be a man able to interpret the Scriptures and that to those which are not of his owne family or houshold because he hath opposed some Ministers of the Church of England in disputation which his writings between him and this deponent and likewise his printed bookes doe plainly shew and also because this deponent once meeting with him and his company to dispute of matters of Religion told him the said Etherington that he this deponent was exhorted by a Minister not to trouble himselfe in disputation with him whereupon the said Etherington replyed that the said Minister so spake it because he was afraid to contest with him the said Etherington These are the words as they stand recorded by the Register My answer and defence Here Mr. Denison and his Witnesses at their very first entrance doe plainly shew forth and discover their evill conspiring mindes against mee for it is well knowne which they could not be ignorant of neither if they were will it in this case excuse them that although I left the trade that I had used which they so often mention by the name of a Box-maker in scorne and derâ—sion as any man may well perceive though it may beseeme a poor Christian like my selfe well enough if it were meaner then it is yet did I not then or thereupon betake my selfe to the expounding or interpreting of the Scriptures as a teacher or instructer to many persons as they speake neither did I leave it for any such end nor to live or have any maintenance thenceforth for such a thing as they my accusers by their cunning Article and deceitfull testimonies would make the Court and the world beleeve but I betooke my selfe to another kinde of trade or worke as low and servile as it touching the conveyance of water in pipes that I made of earth which I had used seven or eight yeares before and had now necessary occasion requiring me to follow altogether by reason of a worke I had to do for the serving of the City of Westminster with water and not utterly leaving or forsaking the other as they depose but made use thereof also as need required in things concerning this which I have followed with much labour and paines night and day as well for the maintenance of my selfe my wife and children as for the good and benefit of others as all or most of the Inhabitants of Westminster and sundry other Gentlemen and Inhabitants of London and other parts of the Kingdome for whom I have done the same kinde of worke will testifie for me and wherein I should at this present time also be imployed for the supply of my own and my wife and childrens present wants and for the good of the Common-wealth if I were not through the envy of my for-mentioned enemies pleasure of the Court restrained by imprisonment for God doth know that as I hold it to be a more blessed thing to give then it is to receive as Christ hath said and St. Paul testifieth so I doe desire in my heart to give and doe service in that kinde to others rather then to receive of any Neither have I ever in my life taken upon me or any way assumed to my selfe the office name or place of a teacher or instructer over any people in any private conventicle or meeting whatsoever nor have so much as to imitate Ministers or teachers in any manner of forme gesture expounding or interpreting or to be as a chiefe leader or to have proselites or followers or a company as they my accusers charge me but doe utterly dislike all such bold presumptuous practices and have opposed and reproved them as some that know me well and things that I have writ can witnesse Neverthelesse this I confesse that not onely for five or six yeares past but for these five or six and thirty yeares since the time that it pleased God of his gracious goodnesse to call me from the pleasures of the sinnes of my youth to seeke him I have given my minde with earnest desire of my heart and prayer unto God to reade heare and understand the word of God to the end that understanding the truth and way of life conteined in the same I might walke therein all the dayes of my life to the honour of God and my owne comfort and salvation For I remembred that Christ commanded to search the Scriptures and foretelling of the abomination of desolation that was to come warneth his people that who so readeth should understand and how he doth pronounce them blessed that reade and heare the words of his prophecy and keepe those things which he hath spoken because the time of his comming is at hand and as God vouchsafed to shew his grace and mercies unto me and give me understanding in the same his truth and way of life so I have endeavoured to impart that which I understood with admonition to my wife and children neighbour and friend desiring in my heart and praying unto God in secret that he would vouchsafe the same grace unto them This I confesse I have done though in great weaknesse and so as holding it alwayes a speciall poynt of wisdome to be more ready in this respect to receive then to give to heare then to speake and I confesse I have not been in all this time of thirty-five yeares so conversant and sociable with the prophane multitude of the world as I have been with the sober and well disposed the wise in heart I have desired to converse with such especially above all other wheresoever I have come to talke and confer together of the word of God which wee have either heard or read or had in our hearts and memories edifying one another in the faith hope of eternall life This on the first day of the weeke and so daily as opportunitie might permit I confesse I have done in societie with such persons remembring the charge given by St. Paul to every Christian saying Take heed brethren least there be in any of you an evill heart of unbeliefe in departing from the living God but exhort one another daily while it is called to day least any of you be hardened through the deceitfulnesse of sinne And againe Let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good workes not forsaking the assembling of our selves together as the manner of some is but exhorting one another and so much the more as
of December 1623 they are very carefull to have set down because they would not have King Iames his pardon by any means to relieve me against their wicked conspiracy And Henry Robrowgh he sayth not that I have often times taken upon me to expound sundry places of Scripture and to instruct many persons in his presence and hearing c. Which he might have deposed as safely as they having all one and the same ground hereby seeming to have some more honesty in him But that I professe my selfe to be a man able and sets downe the reason thereof to be because I have opposed some Ministers in disputation naming himselfe onely and the writing that passed betweene him and me for proofe thereof Whereas as it is well knowne he was the man that desired it and promised faire and friendly proceeding though he now hath shewed himselfe otherwise and mentioning also my printed bookes as in his deposition for further ground As if a man may not reason or dispute with a Minister nor speake or write of Religion or of the Scriptures but he therein taketh upon him as a teacher or instructer and professeth himselfe to be a man able for this is the thing Robrowgh drives at as well as Thomson and Rogers to prove against me to the Court which for my part I never did professe nor take upon me although I know a man may through the grace and gift of God be in some measure able that dareth presume to take the office name or profession of a Teacher or Instructer upon him And such gifts of God as to prophecy if in a man of the lowest degree place or calling in the Church of God Shepheard Clown Carpenter or other ought not to be dispised or envied at for his low estate or meannesse of his person sake Nay a greater Messenger of God then ever Mr. Robrowgh was or will be sayd once of some that for the same causes were so envied and complained of I would that not onely they but the whole host of Israel did prophecy And St. Paul sayth without excepting the meanest artificer Desire the best gifts and chiefly that yee may prophecy Mr. Robrowgh forgets that they were but envious scorners though Scribes and Pharises who once upon such tearmes so slighted and dispised the Lord himselfe his works and words So that Mr. R. comes nothing short of Thomson and Rogers in false witnes-bearing and scorning I will not equall him with the old Scribes and Pharises because of the honour and grace of him whom they so dispised And for Nicholson the other witnesse a man that I was never in any sort conversant with nor have had one halfe houres time of speech with in my life whose testimony therefore is altogether as he hath heard and beleeveth and so what he hath heard and beleeveth he presumeth to sweare what those new or strange poynts of doctrine are in his deposition he nameth not nor any one of those sundry persons that I should expound the Scriptures unto whom he calls my proselites and followers and me their Teacher in matter of doctrine But howsoever though his deposition be but upon hearesay onely and as he verily beleeveth yet the Court hath so credited his testimony that the most of the words and matters of this first accusation in the sentence are his words and grounded chiefly upon his deposition and so he is and will be found a false witnesse like the rest and the Count I suppose cannot be excused but I referre all to the understanding Reader to judge how rightly I have been dealt withall by my accusers and the Court But now let me yet give the Reader a little further to understand That before Mr. Denison began his suite in Court against me after he had begun to revile me in his Pulpits and I having used all meanes both by writing and friends of his and my own to speake with him to informe him rightly of things concerning my selfe and my minde in matters of Religion before some men of understanding that they might heare and discerne truly thereof and so pacifie him and stay his violent course and could by no meanes obtaine either the one or the other but that he still persisted both at Cree-Church and great Allhallowes for neere halfe a yeare together reviling me by name in most bitter manner calling me Viper Serpent Heretique Familist and many other vile reproachfull and scandalous names unseemly to be spoken and shamefull to be uttered by a Minister in a Pulpit and charging me with many very false and wicked things and saying to the people This is one Etherington a Box-maker whither he be dead or alive with God or the devill I cannot tell I know him not if I meet him in my dish c. And utterly refusing still to be spoken with gave out in his Pulpit as a flat deniall saying Must I speake with every Heretique before I may reprove him openly nay it hath been told me by them of the houshold of Cloe and I beleeve it to be true Then I being much urged and provoked by reason of some that began to conceive and say If things were not so and that I were not such a one as he had charged me to be I would complaine Hereupon I confesse I did complaine by Petition to Doctor Martin who was then Chancellor for so I was advised certifying him how matters had passed and requesting that he would send for Mr. Denison and examine the reason of his so strange and unlawfull proceedings and to stay the same and appoint that the things of difference in opinion or howsoever might be heard before some Ministers if he thought fit to which he answered You have brought me here a strange Petition I know Mr. Denison to be a very honest man I know not you I will not send for him Dic ecclesia Then as thinking it but my dutie to seeke to the Rulers of the people whose office is to defend the innocent and to rebuke the offenders and as hoping still things would be heard examined and ended in peace I did complaine to the Bishop of London to the same effect who granted my Petition and sent for Mr. Denison who at the time appointed came bringing with him his friend Mr. Robrowgh to assist him And so the Bishop having questioned some thing about the matter and a little blaming him spake when to have another time of hearing which Mr. Denison presently opposed saying I meant to have had him into the high Commission Court if he had not prevented me Dr. Martin being also there present and speaking to his purpose as his speciall friend furthering his motion the Bishop answered you may then doe so yet which when I perceived and that Mr. D. had such a friend of Dr. Martin I did with as much speed as I could Petition to the Archbishop of Canterbury certifying him also how things had passed and requesting that he would be pleased to send for
false and very erroneous doctrine and to be a dangerous step of falling from Christ for Saint Paul testifieth plainly that the Gentiles which had not that Law of Circumcision and the Sabbaths c. might have the truth and effect thereof in their hearts and be a Iew inwardly in the spirit though not outwardly in the flesh so that there was never such a necessity as those false Teachers taught and most part of the Jewes conceived nay they ought to have knowne that although themselves that had the Law to whom especially it was given were bound to observe it to the utter-most of their power yet if they fayled in any part as all did in many and so in all parts they might be saved another way through the grace and mercy of God in the Gospell and that of this there was alwayes a necessitie and without the same no man could be saved and that a Gentile having the same grace should be saved though he were ignorant of the Law for this is the effect which was signified by those signes and shadowes which are now as it was a law to the Iewes ceased to Christians Unto all this doe agree the best approved writers of the Christian Church both of the antient and latter sâ—â—ce the Apostles times as Hierome upon Gal. 4. Augustine in his Epistles ch. 19. and in his booke Conscientiae Diaeta and of the Spirit and letter chap. 14. and upon these words of Christ Take up thy bed and walke Tract. 17. Tertullian also in his booke Adversus Iudaeâ—s and others And of the latter Master Tindall in his answer to Master Moores first booke page 287. Doctor Barnes in declaration of the cause of his condemnation page 106. Master Fâ—ith in his declaration of Baptisme page 96. Master Calvin and others and as it is contayned in the Harmony of consessions of the Reformed Churches page 473. and page 499. besides sundry writers of this present age So that in this I am not singular though I differ from Master Denison Their fift accusation That the Bookes of Esdras are and ought to be esteemed part of the Canonicall Scripture They that testifie to this are Rowland Tomson and Susan Price their testimonies are both according to the words of the Sentence My Answer and defence Their testimonies to this also as they have given it into the Court are false for I never said that the two last Bookes of Esdras which it seemeth they meane are or ought to be held canonicall or part of the canonicall Scripture But this I say and doe beleeve that Esdras was a holy Prophet and true servant of God and that those his two last Bookes are as well as the rest holy and true as sundry Divines have esteemed him and written of them and one Booke now publike Printed first in Queene Elizabeths dayes and presented to the Lord Robert Devoreux Earle of Essex upon the 11. chap of the last Booke of Esdras wherein matters of great moment are manifested worthy I dare say to be regarded of every true Christian that desires understanding And I dare say further that they have done and doe very wickedly which rayle against him calling and counting him a counterfeit a lyer a blasphemer as some have done it had beene farre more wisdome for them to have left him in these his last Bookes and suspended their judgements untill time the tryer and discoverer of truth from falshood should manifest things more clearely that so upon cleare proofe of experience they might have judged rightly of that which through want of understanding they could see before Their sixt accusation as it is in the Sentence That the said Iohn Etherington within the time aforesaid hath kept private Conventicles or exercises of Religion by the Lawes of the Realme prohibited and taken upon him in such Conventicles to be the chiefe speaker or expoundâ—r of the Scripture and hath many adherents disciples and followers of his doctrine and giveth many oppositions contrary to the received opinions taught in the Church of England saying that outward ordination of a Minister doth snot make a true Minister And hath useth many reproachfull speeches to and of the Ministers of the Church of England And by this meanes hath seduced and drawn many from th Church of England to be Scismatiques and separatists and caused them or some of them to forbeare to participate with us in the celebrating of Devine service and Sacraments They that testifie to this are Rowland Tomson Thomas Rogers Christopher Nâ—cholson Peter Worcester Susan Price Henry Robrough Iohn Okey George Dunne Here like pursuers of blood they cry out together with open mouth as if they meant now at last to swallow me up quite and cleane this being the maine toyle which they from the beginning had layed whereby above all they made sure account to take me Their depositions to this sixt Accusation are not onely many but so long and tedious that if I should set them all downe with answers to every particular thing in them it would require more time and space then all that is already past and would weary any sober mind to read them over I will therefore give my answer defence to that which is contained in the words of the Sentence as being the maine and summe of all as also to the chiefe of their depositions and leave the rest untill some further occasion shall serve My Answer and Defence To the first concerning private Conventicles and exercises of Religion by the Lawes of this Realme prohibited my answer is It is a false accusation I never kept any such nor have done otherwise then I have acknowledged in my Defence to their first Article as one Christian neighbour or friend may and ought to doe to and with another which I am out of all doubt the lawes of this Realme doe not forbid neither I hope ever will And secondly whereas they say that I take upon me to be a chiefe speaker or expounder of the Scriptures and to have many adherents disciples and followers c. My answer is They charge me in this also very falsely I am so farre from taking upon me such things as that I doe reject the very thought thereof in my selfe especially and have opposed and reproved such as have so done and beene so affected as some can witnesse although I confesse I have beene free and alwayes ready to speake to my neighbour and friend and children c. whatsoever I have knowne and understood of the word and wayes of God as I have beene also to heare and recite and so I hope I shall continue to doe as time and occasion shall serve so long as I live Thirdly in that they charge me to give many expositions contrary to the received opinions taught in the Church of England The chiefe besides those before mentioned of Repentance c. which I confesse are contrary to Mâ—ster Denisons and Robroughs doctrine being as it seemeth this contained in the Sentence