the Scripture where is the Divine Right either for Tithes or the other great Revenues you Clergy-men Compel the Nations to pay you It is not from Christ's Command nor the Apostles nor from any of their Examples neither Apostles Bishops Pastors nor Teachers You are without Warrant from the Scripture you have neither Precept nor Precedent for your Practices either as in respect to your great Revenues that you seek after and enjoy nor your manner of forcing People to pay you All we see in Christ's Ordination that was to be done to them that would not receive them and relieve them was they were to shake off the Dust of their Feet as a Witness against them And then Christ shews the danger of their rejecting but refers it to the day of Judgment But this will not serve you though ye pretend to be spiritual Men yet it plainly appears you are for your carnal Ends you cannot trust your selves under Christ's Care to live of the Gospel and what that freely produceth in the Hearts of the People as Christ's Ministers did And you may see what they answered when he questioned them as in Luke 22. 35. And he said unto them when I sent you without Purse and Scrip and Shooes lacked ye any thing and they answered Nothing So here is Faith and Obedience and the Effects also of the Faith and Obedience of Christ's Ministers set before us for an Example But it 's evident you do no more love to follow the Example of the Primitive Ministers than you love to submit to what Christ hath ordained as appears by the great bustle thou makest and the many shuffling Arguments thou usest to invalidate the good Example of the Apostle in that godly Care that was upon him that he might not make the Gospel chargeable which is no more than the real duty of every true Minister of Christ although you make it not your concern as is evident from your practices And what if the Apostle had Power and asserted his Power Thou seest what Power he asserts in these Words Have we not power to eat and to drink and again Have we not power to forbear working c as in 1 Cor. 9. So thou may'st still see that he pretended to no power above his Master's Commission who said They might Eat such things as were set before them The Labourer was worthy of his Meat So still this makes nothing for thee and thy Brethren his Power you will not be content with no more than his Example for then you know you must not live in Pride Highth Fulness and Idleness as ye do And so being his Power will not answer your Ends you fly from his Power which was the Gospel which they that Preached it were to live by to Man's Power and Law for your Maintenance and by that Force and Compel People to pay you for whom you do no Work and to whom you cannot say as he did 1 Cor. 9. 1. Are not you my Work in the Lord But alas how many Thousands do you Compel in Ireland to pay you that are not your Work in this sense he speaks of You have no concern in their Conversion if they be Converted but whether they be or not you matter not you will have your Revenue from among them But thou tellest him He does not consider that the Gospel of Christ was but in its Infancy Paul was but then planting it endeavouring to make it the established Religion of the Nations as now it is Answer That Paul was planting it we grant but that the Religion which he endeavoured to establish is now the Established Religion of the Nations we deny For first there is no such Unity Nationally in Religion as he endeavoured to establish as in 1 Cor. 1. 10. Now I beseech you Brethren by the Name of our Lord Iesus Christ that ye all speak the same thing that there be no Division among you that ye be perfectly joined together in the same Mind and in the same Iudgment Secondly They are not established in Holiness and that Perfection which he laboured to establish and present them in as Col. 1. 28. Warning every Man and teaching every Man in all Wisdom that we may present every Man perfect in Christ Iesus And likewise in Ephes. 4. we read that he gave Ministers and Gifts for the Ministry for the perfecting of the Saints and for the edifying of the Body of Christ c. till they all come in the Unity of the Faith to a perfect Man c. And 2 Corinth chap. 7. verse 1. His Labour was To bring them to perfect Holiness in the Fear of God This is the Religion Paul and others endeavoured to Establish in the Nations and to Establish People in and for this end Peter exhorts the Believers To be holy in all manner of Conversation that as he which had called them was holy so they might be holy 1 Pet. 1. 15. Here is that which they laboured to make the Established Religion of the Nations viz. Unity Perfection and Holiness in all manner of Conversation Thou affirmest That now it is made as he to wit Paul endeavoured to make it If this were true then the Nations would be gathered into Righteousness and Holiness Unity and Peace Love and Good will But alas there appears no such Fruits of the true Religion amongst the generality of the People of the Nations which doth demonstrate that there is no such Establishment of it as thou hast asserted what-ever may be professed in words We take notice how much thou art offended at his telling thee That the Ministers wrought with their Hands and takest occasion at the Word Ministers as if he had said All laboured and then affirmest it 's very false whereas he only saith Ministers in the plural Number not All which is proved true by the Scripture and thy own Confession who grantest That Paul and his Fellow-travelling Apostles did labour with their Hands And then when thou hast Asserted it to be false thou challengest him to shew another Apostle besides them in the New Testament that wrought For sayst thou They for sook their Boats their Nets their Trades for his sake and the Gospel and the New Testament doth not inform us that they ever returned to these Trades again for a Livelihood Answ. We read Iohn 23. that Peter above three years after he was called by Christ with several other Disciples after they had so forsaken their Boats c. went a Fishing and that Peter then had his Fisher's Coat not a long Gown as those called Ministers now wear and we do not believe they went for Pleasure but to get Fish From whence we may groundedly conclude that they used that Imploy for a Livelihood at times when they were not immediately imployed in Preaching the Gospel And we challenge thee to prove the contrary if thou canst Concerning thy querying for a Command for keeping the First Day of the Week or calling it the Lord's Day We say we Meet together on the First Day of the Week for to Meet is our Duty and
Friends in quietness sitting still only one who reasoned the matter with him he at last went out and all his Company to the Stable and there took all the Horses and Friends Horses all they could find in the Town But after Meeting we got them again they being then taken without any colour of Law But the next day being the 3 d day of the 10 th Month the said Informer went to one William Pugh of Mathauern a Justice of Peace so called who came along with him and met Iohn Burnyeat and Thomas Ellis upon the Road and stopt them both and caused them to turn back to an Ale-house where this Informer and another Man which was William Pugh's Bayliff Swore against them for Preaching at the aforesaid Meeting for which the Justice Fined them and wrote a Warrant and sent for a Constable who by that Warrant seised upon Iohn Burnyeat's Mare and Thomas Ellis's Horse with Saddles and Bridles and so they were constrained to Travel on their Way on Foot till they could get to an Ale-house to get Lodging This Reward the Lord's Servants Received at their Hands for their Love and Good will to the Souls of People Iohn Burnyeat's Mare was worth about 8 l. Thomas Ellis's Horse about 3 l. 10 s. Iohn Burnyeat's Mare Dyed within an hour and an half after Seizure and the other Friends took the Mange and Dyed in the Informer's Hands within six Months time J. B. Dear and Well-beloved in the Lord WITH you my Soul hath Precious Unity in the Spiritual Fellowship and Nearness and Heavenly Oneness which stands in that Life by which we were first Quickened in which we Live and in the Increase of which we grow into a Heavenly Understanding and true Soundness in Discerning and Judgment whereby the Faithful come to be more and more accomplished for their Places and fitted for every good Work that so they may answer their Office and Membership in the true Body whereof Christ Jesus is the Head of which Body we are made living Members through his Love who hath called us and in his Son chosen us to be Heirs of Life Dear Friends your selves know that he who through his Bounty hath blessed us with Spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus so that we are made Stewards of his Manifold Graces who now doth require answerable Service from us all according to our gifts received from him and whosoever is found Faithful to their Gifts and Places shall certainly witness an Increase and so grow in Grace and in the Knowledg of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and so come more and more into true soundness and to the Spirit of a sound Mind For you know how richly the Power of Christ was Manifested in us and among us in the beginning and how wonderful it did work for the Redeeming of our Hearts out of the World the Vanity and Pleasures of it that we might Love and Affect Heavenly things and delight in the glory of that which comes from Heaven And in that day you may remember the glorious and Heavenly Raptures we many times were raised up into and with admiration were ready to turn about and say We will Behold this Wonder the Bush which Burns and is not Consumed But since that time many have been the Exercises and weighty have been the Tryals that have been met with in our Spiritual Progress through which the Lord hath led us and many Temptations hath the Lord delivered us from and led us out of and many Weaknesses hath he passed by and Trespasses hath he in his great Mercy forgiven so that to this day we remain and that in covenant with him Therefore have we cause to Praise him and to Sing unto him Now our present state and capacity to which he hath brought us is to be minded and our duty therein for now many are come to be Free from being Servants or Slaves unto the old Task-masters and though but in our Journey yet there is something to be done which was truly Figured out in Israel's Travel they were to fit the Tabernacle with all the Services and Ornaments belonging thereunto though in the Wilderness in their Travel and the Men and Women were both concerned as you may read in the work to prepare for the Fitting of the Tabernacle according to the Command of the Lord. And this was after the Lord had appeared unto Moses shewed his Wonders in Egypt wrought that great Salvation at the Red Sea and manifested his dreadful Presence upon Mount Sinai and given forth his Holy Law and his Manifestations by which he Taught Israel to do his Will so that in the observation of which they were blessed a lively Figure of what our Souls are Witnesses of in the Heavenly Substance So that now we are not to be negligent for it would not have been well in Israel to have answered Moses when according to the Command of God he put the People upon it both Men and Women to Work for the Fitting of the Tabernacle We had no such thing when we came out of Egypt we had no such thing put upon us when we began our Iourney we will do as we did in the beginning This would have been Rebellion against him that by the Hand of Moses brought them out of Egypt and freed them out of Bondage And you know what Judgments and Destruction he brought upon them that did rebel and gainsay as Corah and his Company who withstood the Ordinance of God Oh! my dear Friends methinks I am as if I were talking with you of the Lord's Mercies and former Loving Kindnesses and Dealings with us and being also under a present sense of our present state and capacities to which he hath brought us my Bowels within me are even Melted with a Holy Love and Tenderness towards you and in that Love I send these Lines as the Salutation of my Soul in that which Lives for ever and as a signification of that entire love which in my Heart lives towards you Wherein I desire that both you and I forever may so mind our present state and our growth and the increase of the Mercies of our God unto us as to answer them by a Faithful Serving of him and one another in that love which thinks no Evil and is never weary of doing good and yet will not vaunt it self Now this is that which lives in my view the Power of Christ which was so Richly Manifested in the beginning did then Work to the preparing of us to be a People fit to do his Will and so it wrought unto a Cleansing Washing and Sanctifying of us that we might be Holy Vessels fit for his use Now being Prepared the same power in the Faithful works mightily to the Fitting and Furnishing of us unto every Good Work that we might be to the praise of his grace who hath called us and if we so be to his praise we must grow in Grace and in the knowledg of our Lord and Saviour
also upon other Days and for this Practice we have both Command and Example The Saints were commanded not to forsake the assembling of themselves together Heb. 10. 25. and we account every day is the Lord's and He that regardeth a Day ought to regard it to the Lord and he that regardeth not the Day to the Lord he doth not regard it Rom. 14. 6. But what Scripture have ye for all such Days as you observe which are called such and such Saints Days Thou sayst Thou hast been the longer on this particular because thou findest it galls us most Answ. When thou hast read our Answer which by reason of thine being so long hath caused ours to be so too thou mayst consider of it and of thy impertinency in quoting the Scriptures to prove your Practice which being well observed doth witness against you and then we doubt not but it will prove that which will gall thee and thy Brethren who are so found in such Covetous practices as the Scriptures plentifully testifie against And for a further Testimony against your Practices read these following Scriptures of which for brevity's sake having been so long already we shall forbear to write the Words they that can may read them in the Bible Isa. 59. 9 10 11 12. Ier. 5. 30 31. Ezek. 13. 19. Ezek. 34. ch Mich. 3. 5 11. Ioh. 10. 12. Tit. 1. 10 11. 1 Tim. 3. 1 2 3. 2 Pet. 2. 14 15 16. Iud. 11 12 13. In the next place thou undertakest to inform him of some Defects in that Religion he had chosen and first thou sayst Our Teachers have no lawful Call to Preach the Gospel and quotest the Apostle's saying Rom. 10. 15. How shall they Preach except they be sent That is sayst thou how can they Preach the true Doctrine of Christ unless they be sent by him or by those Apostles of Christ who received immediate Commissions from him c. Answ. We grant what the Apostle saith How can they Preach except they be sent c But that our Teachers are not so sent thou neither undertakest to prove by Argument nor Scripture although thou hast the confidence to affirm that they have no lawful Call or Commission to Preach the Gospel which we turn back upon thee as a false Accusation and demand of thee to prove and make it appear to be true if thou canst For we do believe that none can be true Ministers but such as are sent by Christ and have their Call and Commission from him and also receive the Gospel which they Preach and their Ability from him For the Scripture is plain that the Gospel-Ministers were sent by him and received the Gospel they Preached and Ability to Preach it from him and not from Men as in Gal. 1. 11 12. And in 2 Cor. 3. 6. the Apostle saith They were made able Ministers of the New Testament not of the Letter but of the Spirit and in the foregoing verse he saith Our sufficiency is of God And Ephes. 3. 7. he declares That he was made a Minister according to the Gift of the Grace of God given unto him by the effectual working of his Power And Peter saith 1 Pet. 4. 11. If any Man speak let him speak as the Oracles of God if any Man Minister let him do it as of the Ability which God giveth that God in all things may be glorified c. And so from him we say we have received our Call by his Eternal Spirit and do wait upon him to receive our Ability daily that what we do may be by the Gift of the Grace of God given unto us that God in all things may be Glorified And if this be not according to the Scripture and the way of God do thou in thy next shew what is And prove your way of being bred up at Schools and Learning your Tongues and taking your Degrees there and observing your Ceremonies in your Ordination and coming forth according to your Traditions and then looking for a Benefice the greatest you can get and then setling in a Parish for so much a Year until you can hear of a Place with a greater Benefice and then remove for Greater Gain and Preferment And while you stay in a Parish take such Lordship upon you that none of your Church or Hearers may have Liberty to Speak or Preach but such as are so Ordained as you are Clear these things in thy next to be according to Scripture if thou canst In the mean while we charge this Method and these doings not to be according to the Rule of the Gospel or Example of the Primitive Ministers That this is your Practice we believe thou canst not deny But in the true Church this Order and Liberty was Ordained by the Apostle as in 1 Cor. 14. 30 31 32. If any thing be revealed to another that sitteth by let the first hold his peace for you may all Prophesie one by one that all may learn that all may be comforted and the Spirits of the Prophets are subject to the Prophets But this Liberty which the Apostle Ordained you do not admit of no more than you do of other things which were the practice of the true Church and Christ's Ministers but instead thereof are gone into things which are of Man's Ordaining and setting up And therefore Robert Lacky and all in whom God hath opened an understanding to see you a right have reason enough to forsake you and your Church And as for those Scriptures thou quotest to prove a successive Power to send others They make nothing for your method of Ordination at all for Matth. 28. he said He would be with them c. doth not say They should send others In Acts 1. the Apostles desired one in the place of Iudas to be numbered with them and he was chosen by Lot So here was the Lord's Lot And in Acts 14. 23. it is said They Ordained Elders in every Church Now how these Scriptures do prove a true Succession to your Call and Ordination let all that are wise in heart judge Secondly Thou sayst We have no Sacraments administred in our Religion neither that of Baptism whereby People are admitted into the Christian Church nor that of the Lord's Supper by which they are strengthned and preserved in it Ans. First We demand whence thou hast this Term Sacraments and what is the proper Signification of it We are sure thou hast it not from Scripture And Secondly We put it upon thee to prove whence you have your Authority for that which thou callest Baptism by which thou sayst People are admitted into the Christian Church viz. Sprinkling Infants We deny that you have any Authority from Scripture either by Command or Example for it For we never read in all the Scriptures of either Baptising or Sprinkling Infants There is no such thing in that Scripture by thee quoted Therefore thou