will bee loath to loose his place aboue many others hecause hee hath stood so much heretofore vpon deniall of this which I affirme thereof yet hath hee nowe to thinke that neither the auncientie of his error nor the inconuenience hee dreameth of can yeelde him strength inough to keepe it The inconuenience shall bee met withall afterward Here I will shewe the reasons of my iudgement out of the place I wrote vnto you sayth Paul in an Epistle that you shoulde not company together with fornicators This verse you see is of shedding or sorting out our company Then followeth and not altogether with the fornicators of this worlde or with the couetous or with extortioners or with idolaters for then you must goe out of the world But nowe I haue written vnto you that you company not together If any that is called a brother be a fornicator or couetous or an idolater or a railer or a drunkard or an extortioner with such a one eate not In these verses wee are directed both what persons to shunne and also in what conuersation or company In appoynting the persons hee excepteth for those that were not as yet come to religion and setteth downe this rule to hold in all those that are counted brethren in the Church Of his exception hee rendreth two reasons first because the number of those that professed not Christ was then so great as they could not auoyde them and liue in the worlde Secondly because Christians are not charged with their censuring but they are reserued to Gods iudgement Why brethren are subiect to those priuate censures as I may speake he giueth this reason because we ought to looke into and iudge one of another The conuersation is set out by one kinde named for all to witte eating of meate which is alwayes a very notable marke and fruite of familiaritie I know your leader would haue you vnderstand this of eating bread at the Lordes table onely but the 10. verse deliuereth the whole text from this iniury For if the Apostle would haue had them taken his meaning in this place to be directly of their meeting companying at the Lordes Table as you take it what needed hee to haue excepted those that were out of the Church and no brethren with whō the Church neither had nor might haue company at the Lordes Table Yea how absurdly had he reasoned in saying thus for then you must go out of the world as though he should say if you altogether debar the wicked that are without the Church from your company at the Lordes table then may you as well get out of the worlde for you cannot liue in it When your leader is so grossely ouershot in such playne points it lieth you vppon carefully to consider whether the hand of God be vpon him in as heauy a iudgment as fell vpon Elymas the sorcerer for peruerting the straight wayes of the Lorde By this that is sayd I trust it is cleere ynough that the doctrine which he calleth so seditious is not mine but the Lords and therefore if it haue any such dangerous consequences as your replier reckoneth you see that his accusation must reach higher then mee But alas how doth it grieue me in your behalfe yours I meane with the rest of your company I would if it pleased God that you knewe or could discerne rightly with what sorowe I am sundry times affected for you when I consider which I doe often what numbers as I heare of you whereof many haue otherwise good partes in them are so intollerably abused and ouer caryed by that wretched man For euen in this doth it follow thinke you that if wee tye our selues to this rule of sorting our company in priuate conuersation that then the knot of marriage should bee loosed the bondes of obedience broken and outward acquaintances quite shaken of c. Is there no meane betwixt these two extremities but that we must be either vnnatural or carelesse Surely if we should take this course in all the Scriptures wee should make a strange religion by and by I meane if we receiue some generall sayings of the Scripture without their peculiar exceptions and declarations in other places As for example Thou shalt doe no manner worke on the seuenth day and thou shalt not kill what should the seruice and ceremonies doe in the Church or the Magistrate in the common wealth if these bee not limitted and declared by other special places and exceptions And if you grant me this that places are to be compared with places and generals declared vnderstood by specials why thē shal you see this knot sone vntied or rather that ther was no knot nor difficultie as your leader hath mislead you For that those places of dissorting our selues frō the wicked make nothing against obedience to Magistrates wee haue Matt. 22.21 Rom. 13.1.2 with diuers others to declare them Againe that they debarre no dueties in marriage 1. Cor. 7.3.4.5.12.13 with many other places that you knowe doe warrant vs. The like also may bee sayde of children to parents and in the rest So that then conferring these places together we see flatly that as on the one side we are bound generally to shun priuate conuersation with vngodly ones so on the other side we must necessarily obserue withall whatsoeuer speciall dueties are to bee required at our handes by any one And thus at length it will fall out being as from both sides resolued that touching Magistrates parentes maried folkes and masters the general prohibitions of not eating nor keeping company must bee vnderstood of shunning the malice of sinne and seducing yea that our doings must be with a kind of mourning and afflictiō for their sakes but not forbidding necessary dueties which other bonds of commandements doe straitly bind vs to Touching other acquaintances and dealing with brethren those prohibitions reach not beyond their inward familiaritie delightful accompanying which is euer stained with fowle tolerations and neglect of Christian reprehensions And therefore haue we for these cases other golden rules also to guide vs by When as Saint Paul sayth If any man obey not this our saying in this letter note him haue no companie with him that hee may bee ashamed yet count him not as an enemy but admonish him as a brother Wee must so auoyde his company as hee may not finde want of loue and brotherly kindnes in vs but onely a chiefe loue of vertue that thereby he may take shame at his sinne To the same purpose sayth hee in another place Let no man deceiue you with vaine woordes for such thinges commeth the wrath of God vpon the children of disobedience Bee not therefore companions with them Likewise a litle after And haue no felowship with the vnfruitefull woorkes of darkenes but euen reproue them rather This conferring and resoluing of places together if your leader had grace to vse hauing also vngorged himselfe of
His maner is to speake loude and doe little That there was no negligence in omitting circuncision and the celebration of the Passeouer but a necessitie and commaundement he would prooue thus and first for the Passeouer because saith he It was not to be kept after their comming out of Egypt saue at some special charge of the Lorde as Numbers 9.2 till they came into the lande of Canaan Howe prooues he this First by some testimonies of Scripture full slenderly vnderstoode and secondly by a reason taken from the ende of the Passeouer which maketh cleare against him His Scriptures testifie that they were more then once remembred to keepe the Passeouer when they came into the lande of Canaan but he sheweth vs not that they were onely then to keepe it and not ordinarily before To keepe the Passeouer in the wildernesse and to keepe it also in the lande of Canaan are in no wise contrary so as to argue from the affirmation of the one to the negation of the other But although that be so beaten vpon to preuent the securitie or forgetfulnesse of them or their posteritie when they shoulde come to the lande of rest as least they should imagine that which figured their so hastie going out of Egypt to cease when they shoulde be at ease yet must the whole institution be better considered and thereby we shall see as our Sauiour answered touching the billes of diuorce that howsoeuer the Israelites practised afterwardes yet in the beginning it was not so For the Lorde saide This day shall be vnto you a remembraunce and ye shall keepe it a holy feast vnto the Lorde throughout your generations ye shall keepe it holy by an ordinance for euer This is repeated agayne and the thirde tyme before he maketh mention of the lande of Canaan and when he commeth to that he doeth not bring it in expositiuely as with I meane To wit That is to say or any such note of further opening that which he had spoken before but hauing said in the 24. verse Therefore shall you obserue this thing as an ordinance for thee and thy sonnes for euer he addeth Be it therefore when you shall come into that lande which Iehouah euen as he hath sayde shall giue vnto you and shall obserue this worshippe Be it I say that your children asking you what this worship meaneth you shall say c. al which appeareth as I sayd to be no restraint of the former generall thryse repeated commandement but partly a further enforcing of the perpetuitie of the ceremonie by so speciall enioyning euen their land of rest to be subiect vnto it and partly to teach the deriuing of the vse thereof to the generations long after Also when he setteth downe that day to all their posterity and generations it is likely that either they must obserue it in the wildernesse or else they that then liued could not keepe the commaundement in teaching their children the practise instruction thereof Againe in the 9. of Numb it is expressely noted that they celebrated it then in the first moneth of the second yere which was the next in order to the passeouer in Aegipt the Lord as it were making him-selfe a gratious remembrancer of them for that time not vpon any speciall cause as Browne would carry it but onely because the appointed time was returned for the word of God in no case is silent to giue the reasons of any speciall exceptions of generall commandements Also if it had bin commaunded in the third or fourth yere there had bene some little colour of that he saith This is yet more euident seeing that in the same place the Lord commaundeth further that it shoulde bee kept in the appointed time namely the 14. day of the first moneth and calleth that the due season thereof Which argueth plainly that the keeping of that feast was seasonable before they came to Canaan And therefore also when they came beyonde Iordan into the lande of Canaan although they were not come to their rest yet they celebrated it euen without any speciall commaundement from the Lorde because it was the proper time of the Passeouer Nowe whereas Browne reasoneth that because it figured the hastie going out of Aegipt and through the wildernes therfore they were not ordinarily to keepe it before they came to the land of rest hee might much more reasonably haue concluded therfore they ought to haue kept c. because the oftener meditating and the mo helpes wee vse in the very action of perfourming our commaunded dueties the more likely and probable is our better performaunce of the same And that circumcision was omitted by negligence it is euident in Iosh 5 where the cause of their vncircumcision is rendered to be neither necessitie nor commaundement as Browne fableth but the very negligence of their parents for so the text saith They were vncircumcised because they circumcised them not by the way And therefore after the Lord calleth this their circumcising the taking away the shame of Egipt from thē plainly casting so in their teeth their vncircūcision as nothing else but a tricke of Egypt which they sauored of as they did of other their maners of worshipping their calues c. Neither is it any thing that he alleadgeth of their let of iourneying For first this generation at Gilgal might haue pretended the same being not yet come to their place of rest yea better in that they being men growne could not iourney after it should thereby be in euident danger of all their enemies about thē Secondly seeing God had cōmanded circuncision at a certaine day not limitted their iournying any certaine day they were to thinke in all equitie that the Lord would not dispose so of the remouing of the cloud or pillar as that they should be hurt in the obedience of this cōmandement Thirdly if they had circūcised their children as they ought at 8. daies old not deferred it vntil they were of age al men may know that the children caried of their mothers could not haue bene hurt by their mothers trauaile with thē Last of al we may see that euē in the iourney which God required of Moses that a iourney of great importāce he required notwithstanding his childes circumcision Which argueth that God gaue no dispensations in this matter for iournying And therefore it must be concluded as M.C. hath rightly reasoned that if this people omitting these necessary duties ceassed not to be the Church people of God it is plaine that many necessary poynts perteining to a sound comely stable being may bee found wanting yet the Church not presently ouerthrown therby Nowe I suppose Browne him selfe will not say that the politicall guiding of a Church by the censuring discipline is greater then these twaine And in this respect saith M. C. the Dutch assemblies whereof the greatest part in high Germanie which besides the mayme
and is rightly to be called so I speake not of what course we take in making orchards or vineyards but of what course may be taken in this busines in regard of the substance of the things And so if a man not fearing or not foreseeing such outwarde violences as a fence might keepe out doe replenish as is aforesaide his ground adioining to his house or otherwhere for the vses of orchard garden or vineyarde shall they not in deed be such things and so truely called of him And if afterward finding or conceiuing a discommoditie of the want wil he not say I must sense in my orchard-garden or vineyard If Browne scorne to be taught these things of the learned or of common sense yet at least let him lay his hand on his mouth and hearken to the prophet by whom the Lord said Ierusalem shalbe inhabited without a wall He spake so after the maner of men amongst whō that might come passe for the deepe peace and great securitie they should haue Now to become of a citie no citie is no mending but declining case but the Lord speaketh thereby of their bettering and happier state and therefore the want of a wall taketh not away the being of a citie And I pray you in a citie besieged the walles in many breeches through the batterie being entred tell me what it is that the souldiors afterwards are said to sacke must you not say they sacke the citie Also Esay doth manifestly declare that the Lord planted his vineyard yer euer he hedged it or did other cost vnto it And when he magnifieth his mercy thus towardes his church in saying that by this means he had left nothing vndone which he could do to his vineyard he therby declareth that he had done more to it than many that haue vineyards vse to do And therfore more than was necessarie to the very being of it Again by the same reason that they denie it to be a vineyard because it hath no hedge they might denie it to bee a vineyarde because it hath no watchtower winepresse and such other Moreouer when the Lord tooke away the hedge as there he threatneth he would I would knowe what the enemies of the Church did tread vnderneath their feete did they not treade the the Lords vineyard But it may bee thought a shame to stand so long in the proofe of this which Browne is not ashamed with tedious strife of words to denie When as these things by the grace of God are thus established the contrarie mistes dispelled which the aduersarie had cast in to darken the trueth and discipline founde not to be of the essence of a Church which is the verie knife whereby al the sinewes of the Brownists contentious arme against the Church of Englande from which they draw their disciples are cut asūder yet in the knitting vp of this point there be two things which in as fewe wordes as I can I woulde admonish the reader of First that although M. Cartwright in his Epistle to M. H. and I in these my defences doe thus farre speake to the iustifying of the Church of Englande wherein we haue receyued that spirituall life and comfort which doe worthily drawe out of vs these duties yet haue wee through the grace of God nothing lesse in our minds than to iustifie anie corruption that may bee espied in it So vnworthie a burthē is it therfore that Browne laieth vpō vs out of the Prophet charging vs when we auouch the Church of England notwithstanding the defects and corruptions that it hath to be yet a Church of GOD from which no faithfull man is to separate as though we pleaded for and boulstred vp iniquitie and corruption by the glorious titles of The Temple of God The Temple of God The cases are too vnlike for a man that is well in his wittes to compare together The Iewes so pleaded the prerogatiue of the Temple to confute the Prophetes threatning of iudgements for their sinnes and transgressions as though it could not be true that by any means God should forsake them to whom hee had made such plenteous promises that so long as they kept the external worship which God had appointed they thought themselues not so far chargeable with their wicked maners Directly contrary both in iudgement and affection are wee vnto them by the grace of God in all this busines We esteeme the state of our Church in some respects grieuous and lamentable ynough full of prouocations of the heauie displeasure and indignation of the Lorde which as wee acknowledge to bee most iust if they had bene powred downe vpon vs now long ago so wee are out of doubt they wil come if we find not grace to turn and seeke the Lorde more dutifully while the day of his long suffering yet endureth And for this cause we earnestly beseech those rhat are the Lordes remembrancers not to keepe silence neither to giue him rest as also the Prophets whome the Lorde hath sent to lift vp their voyces as a trumpet to tell the people their sinnes and Israel their transgressions Onely withall wee admonish that whatsoeuer the Lorde hath ioyned together no man doe separate Which being a vniuersall precept of the eternall GOD bindeth as well euerie particular member to keepe the vnitie of the Church which the Lorde hath gathered by the preaching of Christ crucified as it doth the Church it selfe to the ioint vse of all holie dueties and meanes of her encrease In both of which wee humblie craue an equall regard and consideration Otherwise as the ministerie of him that crieth to the Churches to repent and bee mindfull of those things from whence they are fallen to strengthen the rest that are readie to die that their workes may be full before the Lord. And to buy golde of Christ to enrich them and white garmentes to couer their nakednesse As I say his ministerie breaketh not the heade but is like that wine and oyle of the Samaritane powred into their woundes for a gratious recouerie of health so on the contrarie he that seeing the mournefull estate of anie Church tending to desolation and ruine shall fall a gathering by himselfe or anie way shrinke from bestowing all his strength to the vpholding and rebuilding thereof he playeth that enuious Onans part that abhorred the building of his brothers house respecting more the spread of his own name than making conscience of Gods holy ordinance And as his sinne is so much greater than Onans by how much the ouerthrow of many Churches alreadie gathered is greater than the refusall to reuiue the name of one house or familie by so much the greater iudgement also is to bee feared from the Lorde Yet was Onans sinne reuenged by GOD with death The other thing that I would haue the reader perfect in is this that this Troublechurch Browne not receyuing the loue of the trueth touching the being of a