by the Authority of the Scripture and deny either of them and prove against them if you be able Againe your second Argument to prove the Church of England a true Church is this That Ministry which doeth accomplish the same and which the Ministry of the Apostles did must needs be a true Ministry But the Ministry of the Church of England doeth accomplish the same ends that the Apostles Ministry did namely conversion and confirmation Therefore the Ministry of the Church of England must needes be true But to prove your Argument you bring not one Place of Scripture but take that for granted which I confidently thinke neither you nor none in the Ch. of Engl. are ever able to prove therefore I absolutely in every respect deny your Arg. two manner of waies prove against it 1. I will prove that if the Ministry in the Ch. of Engl. did accomplish the same ends that the Ministry of the Apostles did yet for all that that is not sufficient to prove it a true Ministry for to judge the cause by the effect is a Leaden and false Rule 2. I will prove that the Ministry in Engl. doth not accomplish the same ends that the Ministry of the Apostls did therfore by your own Arg. is no true Ministry Now for the first of these which answers the Major of your Arg. I say it hath beene and still may be possible for a man to accomplish the same ends that you here speake of namely to be an Instrument to bring Gods people to the manifestation of Faith also to build them up yet be no true Officer or Minister in the Ch. of God I prove it out of the Acts of the Apostles in which we read that when the Ch. began to encrease Saul raised a great persecution against it upon which all the brethren viz. the members of the Ch. were scattered abroad they went up down preaching the word Act 8.3 but the Apostles themselves they stayed still at Jerusalem Vers 1. Now all those that were scatterd abroad were not true Officiall Ministers for they were but Lay-men according to your distinction in the Church of England yet divers of them who were no true Officers but Bretheren Disciples or private men as you call them yet they preached the Word to the Gentiles there begot by their preaching maany of them to the Faith for the Text saith The hand of the Lord was with them and a great number of them beleeved and then came Barnabas from Jeausalem who was yet no true Officer in the Church of God being as yet uncalled to his Apostleship and he confirmed and strengthened and more fully built them up in the Faith of Christ and in the Knowledge of the wayes of God Also Aquilah and his wife Priscilla did further instruct and build up that Eloquent man Apollos Act. 18.26 Also there were certaine women that laboured with Paull in the Gospell Phil. 4.3 So that here you see and I have proved it that people may be called to the manifesttaion of Eaith and further built up by those that are no true Officers or Ministers in the Church of Chirst but if your Argument were true then it would follow that all those men yea and the women too were true Officers and Ministers in the Church of Christ because they were Instruments of bringing Gods people to the manifestation of Faith and further built them up but your Argument is rotten and unsound and falls here flat to the ground and therefore if I should grant it which I doe not that your Ministers by their Ministry did accomplish the same ends that the Apostles by their Ministry did yet this would not be sufficient to prove them true Officers or Ministers for the excecution of an Office doeth not prove an Officer but only a true and lawfull call into the Office which all your Priests and Minnisters in England want and therefore are no true Officers nor no true Ministers of Jesus Christ For you know that a King hath many in his Kingdome besides himselfe that doe those actions administer those administrations that is peculiar to him alone to doe and administer unlesse they were Authorized by virtue of a power given and derived from him to do such actions without a lawfull Authority given and received from him they might loose their lives for the doing of them but now if your Argument were true that all those men that are meanes or Instrumensts to bring Gods People to the manifestation of Faith and obedience to the Law and will of Christ were true Officers and Ministers of Christ it would follow by the same Argument that all those men that doe the actions of a King or accomplish the same ends that Kings by their actions doe accomplish are true Kings but so to conclude in England is little better then High Treason Therefore your Argument is erroneous and false and hath not validity in it for if so be you will have their Administrations to prove the lawfulnesse of their Office then I pray you wherein doth the execution of their Office consist for an Office and the execution of it are two distinct things for a man by virtue of being instated into the Office of a Judge though he never live to execute any of those acttions or Administrations that belong to his place or Office but he must first receive power to sit in Court of Judicature before he dare take upon to fit there as Judge and when he hath receiced power from the King by virtue of which he is instated into his Office and doth become an Officer then doth he lawfully sit in Court of Judicature and condemneth fellons and guilty persons and acquit the innocent and doth there passe sentence according to the Lawes for the King under whom he is a Judge But now if this Judge should usurpe his place and come into it by virtue of a false Authority and then condemne the Kings Subjects to death though they be theives and malefactors yet he would be in danger of loosing his life for all that though he doe the act and actions that belong to a true Judge to doe because he had no lawfull Authority from the King so to doe for it is the Kings Authority placed upon a man that doth make that person to be an other kind of person then before he was for before he had received this power he was but a private man but now he is an other kind of man namely a a publike person in Office and Authority and may lawfully do those actions now which if he should have done before would have cost him his life Even so is it with the Ministers and Officers which Jesus Christ hath instituted in his New Testament and left personally to officiate in his Church they must be members of an incorporated or constituted City body or visible Church and then if the Church find any amongst themselves fitted or qualified according
to those guifts and qualifications which the Apostle layes downe in the first of Timothy the 3. 5. chapters and the first or Titus then the Church hath authority to chuse them for her Officers Num. 8.9.10 Ezeck 33.2 Acts 1.23.6.3.5 14.24 but though they be never so fitted guifted and qualified yet they are not to take upon them to officiate in the Church of God by virtue of an Office before they have a true and lawfull Call from the Church who only and alone hath power from Christ her only King and Head to instate them into that Office and whereas before they were but members or private men as you in the Church of England call them and could not lawfully doe those actions that belong to a true Minister or Officer in the Church of God to doe yet now they may doe them upon grounded grounds for it is only their lawfull Call into their Office that puts a distinction betwixt them and the other members or Brethren of the Church as is plaine out of the first of the Acts where Joseph and Matthias were by the Apostles and Brethren set a part for the Apostleship and Joseph for any thing I know was as well fitted for the Office as Matthias was for the Church was not able to put a difference betwixt them which was the more fit but yet for all this they were not both Apostles but only Matthias who was lawfully chosen and immediatly called by God into the Office and then those actions that he did and Adminstrations that he administred was the execution of his Office so that it any should have questioned him whether he was an Apostle or no he would not runne to the Administration or Execution of his Office to prove himselfe a true Apostle but he would goe to his Call into his Office which was from God and which gave him a being in his Office and power to Officiate and doe those actions that he did and though he had nevâ—â— lived to have executed any of those actions that belonged to his Office yet he had been a true Apostle for all thae by virtue of his Call into his Apostleship So that I say to you of your Ministers it is not sufficient for them when they tre questioned about their Calling and put upon it to prove it whether it be from God or the Diuell the one of which it must needs be to runne to the Execution and Administration of their Office to prove the lawfullnesse of their standings in their Office but they should goe to the power and Authority that instituted them into their Office of Priesthood and prove it whether it be true or no which if they cannot doe I say they are all false and Antichristain Officers and Ministers which all Gods people are bound in Conscience to detest as the Divell and oppose to the utmost of their power and strength and therefore I put you upon it to prove if you can the lawfulnes of their standing for doe you thinke that they which are Antichrists Ministers have a greater priveledge of exempion from proving the lawfulnes of their Calling and Office when they are questioned then either that great Prophet Jihn the Baptist or Josus Christ the sonne of God and his Apostles had truly I see no Ground nor Reason for it unlesse you will say their bare word is of greater Authority then the words of the Eternall Sonne of God and his Apostles For first of all John the Baptist when he was questioned by the Scribes and Pharisees what he was he doeth not say It is sufficient that I doe the worke of a Prophet and therefore you need not nor have noe ground to question me any further about my Authority no he knew such an Answer would not serve their turne and therefore when they aske him what he was he confessed that he was not the Christ what then art thou say they to him art thou Elias and he saith I am not who then art thou he said I am the voyce of one caying in the Wildernesse make straight the way of the Lord as saith the Prophet Esay as Joh. 1.19.20 and so forward So you see John brings Authority from the Scripture to prove his Office doeth not runne as your Priests doe to the Administration or Execution of his Office to prove his Office or the lawfulnesse of his standing in it Also Christ himselfe when he was questioned by the Jewes about his miracles and those great workes which he wrought by virtue of what authority he did them he answers and saith If I beare witnesse of my selfe my witnesse is not true and therefore he brings his Father and John the Baptist and the holy Scripture to beare witnes of him that he did not take up his authority that he exercised of himselfe neither did he come unto them of his owne head and in his owne name but brings the voyce of his Father and the authority of the Word to bear witnes that he was sent of God prophesied of old to be the Messias John 5.31.32.37.46 8.17.18 Also the Apostle Paul when he was questioned by his enemies about his authority or the lawfulnes of his office he goes unto his Call into his office and that authority that placed him in it and by that proves that he tooke not that authority that he exercised upon him without good grounds but had it placed upon him by Jesus Christ himselfe Acts 22.10.11 so forward Also when he was questioned by the false Apostles at Corinth and Galatia about his authority he answers for himselfe that he was an Apostle and was free for I have saith he seen Jesus Christ who placed me in my office and by his authority gave me my Apostleship and called me by his voyce thereunto so that my authority and calling is not from men as you false Apostles are nor by men as the Ordinary Officers of the Church are who are called by the Church who hath authority from God so to doe but immediately from Jesus Christ our Lord as all his true Apostels are 1 Cor. 9.1 Gal. 1.1 So that you see Paul proved he was an Apostle and a true officer of Jesus Christ before ever he preached his Gospell and before ever he was an instrument to bring any to the knowledge and obedience of the truth and before ever the Corinthes became being begot by his Ministery the Seale of his Apostleship And doth John Baptist Christ and his Apostles whensoever they are questioned about their authority by their opposers prove their calling into their office by virtue of which they doe officiate and administer those administrations they administer and thinke your Ministers those Preists and Deacons of Antichrist to have more exemption then Christ or his Apostles had and therefore if they be ministers of Christ as they say they are I put you and them upon it to prove their calling and office from him that they were instated into their Ministry by
nationall churches cityes or daughters that depend vpon her one of which England is and woe to that man at that day that is found within her territories or the Paile of her great catholike church or the walls of her great wide and farre spread spirituall citty Alas man there is a great deale of difference betwixt King Edwards and Queen Maryes times and ours now the martyrs and people of God were then but newly enlightned to see the blake and spirituall darke Kingdome of Satan and Antichrist in which they were brought up the darkenesse whereof was so great the Sun and the Aire was both clouded Rev. 9 2. and the bright shining light of the old and new Testament shut vp in much obscurity to what it is now and they did but see the abominable wickednes of his kingdome a farre of like the man in the Gospell whose eyes Christ opened who at his first looking up did see men walking a farre off like trees even so they saw but the truthes a farre off which made them rejoyce at a little Reformation and highly to esteeme of those things in the worship and service of God that now are made manifest by the light of truth before the open Sun to be no fitter for Gods worship and Service then kennell dirte being meer Idols and those Idolaters that communicate with them and though they rejoyced at a little Reformation of Antichrists errours but now it is made manifest that no Reformation of his Kingdome will serve the turne but it must be now annihilated and nullified before the visible Kingdome of Christ can flourish and become the praise of the whole Earth and you know and confesse they would have no Communion with the Church of Rome from which they thought they had seperated neither with that abominable Idoll the Masse which you confesse they counted detestable though they had communion with the Church of England and the Service-Booke but now the Church of England is proved againe and againe by hundreds of the Seperation and others in their disputes Sermons and writings to be as Antichristian as the Church of Rome and the Service Booke to be as detestable as the Idol of the Masse being even one and the same with it saving that it is in Latine and this in English as Noble Dr. Bastwicke hath proved And what though the abomination and fornication of that great Red WHOORE of Rome in King Edwards time was not so fully laid open but that the Martyrs and chosen people of God did then commit some spirituall Fornication with her must we therefore doe the like no God forbid for the Lambe that standeth upon mount Syon with an Hundred fourty and four Thowsand of his Elect and chosen ones having his Fathers name written in their Foreheads hath proclaimed and made it manifest that Babilon or spiritaall Rome is now fallen and is become the habitation of Divells and tho hold of every soul spirit and the Cage of every uncleane and hatefull Bird with whom Gods people now at no hand are not to be mixed in spirituall Society or Communion And what though the everlasting Gospell then was not so fully preached and revealed as now it is so that Gods people then were exceeding ignorant of it and by their blindnesse thought they thought they had seperated away from the Beasts Kingdome yet were they in it and did worship him must it then follow that we must doe so too no for now the great City Rome is much more fallen and descovered then it was and now a third Angell hath proclaimed it with a lowd voyce having his Commission from God so to doe that seing now the Booke is opened and the trueth of the everlasting Gospell is preached and Light is now brought into the world so that now if after all this a man worship the Beast and his Image or receive in his right hand or in his forhead his marke the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God which is powred out without mixture into the Cup of his Indignation and he shall be tormented with Fire and Brimstone in the presence of the Angells and in the presence of the Lambe and the smoke of their Torment ascended up for ever and ever and they have no rest day nor night that worship the Beast or his Image or receive the marke of his Name Rev. 14.8.9.10.11 Wherefore saith the Spirit of God Came out of her any people that ye be not partakers of her sinnes and that yee receive not of her plagues chap. 18.5 here is the expresse command of God himselfe to all his chosen and elect ones to separate away from all Antichristian Assemblies and not in the least to partake with them in any of their worship ordinances or administrations which precept if any of them refuse to obey let them know that God will plague them and though for his Covenant sake he save their soules yet it will be through much difficulty accompaned with many an heavy and sad heart and many a bitter uncomfortable Crosse Therefore let all Gods people that yet are in her or in the bosome of the Church of England her daughter as they love their own inward peace and spirituall joy and looke that their soules should prosper and florish with grace and Godlines looke to it and withdraw their spirituall obedidience and subjection from all Antichrists Lawes and worship and now joyne themselves as fellow Cttizens of the City of God to worship and serue him in mount Syon the beauty of holynesse and there only to yeild all spirituall obedience to Christs spirituall Lawes and Scepter Now my Opposite I have fully by the authority of the sacred and pure word of God particularly answered your trifling childish and frothy arguments and proved against you and them that the church ministery and worship in England is all of them Antichristian from which all Gods people are bound in consolence ind in paine of undergoing the Lords high displeasure hnd indignation and heing portakers of his fearfull and dreadfull plagues to separate away from it and to have no communion with it Therefore to you my Opposer I say with the Prophet to backstyding Israel Iâ— God be God follow him or if Baall or Antichrist or Rome he God then follow him And so much for the Answering of your erronious Arguments BUt now you will it may be say if salvation as you have confessed and proved may be had in a false Ch. yea in no Gh. then wherefore doe you enter into and become a member of a true Church My Answ to this is in the first place negatively I doe not enter thereinto for to be saved thereby or for to seeke for Jesus Christ as though I wanted either for I have both Christ and salvation as all those ought to have that become fellow citzens of the City of God as I have before largely proved neither doe I enter into into it to live securely and carelesly in sin
my Sorrow for you to see you who are so mighty a Champian as you boast your selfe to be to reason so shallowly and ungroundedly for if your Argument be true then all the Nations under Heaven are true visible Churches of Christ for it is not possible that the Heathenest Nation in the World should runne out of Gods Voyce and Call Psal 139.7.8.9 For saith Dauid If I ascend up into Heaven thou art there if I make my Bed in Hell behold thou art there if I take the Wings of the Morning and dwell in the uttermost part of the Sea even there shall thy hand lead me and thy right hand shall hold me if I say surely the darknes shall cover me even the night shall be light about me yea the darknes hideth not from thee but the night shineth as the day the darknes and the light are both alike to thee And also see Amos. 9.1.2.3 Where you may also read that no place can hide a people from Gods presence or call so that I say no place can exempt a people from Gods voyce but wheresoever they are he can find them out and by his Judgements laid upon a Nation or Peeple whether they be Pagans Heathens and Infidels that professedly serve and worship Idols and nothing else or whether they be a Nation of seeming Christians as England is no more like the Samaritanes that professe the Worship of the true God and yet serve their Idols 2. King 17.32.33 yet take them in which sence you will I say they are within the Voyce and call of God and by his Judgements and Plagues laid upon them for their sinnes he calls them to Repentance that so they might not perish but be saved as the Apostle Paull in the first of the Romans doth largly prove Vers 18.19 and so forward So that by your Argment all the Nations under Heaven are visible Churches of Christ for I thus frame my Argument according to your owne grounds All the Nations of the Earth that are within the Voyce and call of God calling them to Faith and Repentance that so they may be saved are true Churches But all the Pagan and Heathen Notions in the World are within the Voyce and call of God as I have already proved Ergo. They are true visible Churches Deny any part of the Argument if you can and prove against it But for the proofe of your Argument you cite Math. 20.16 where it is said Many are called but few chosen the first part of the words Many are called you say but doe not prove that we are to understand them of the visible Church which are called to the outward preaching of the word to which I answere and say you are not an Oracle of God that we must beleeve your sayings without ground for you bring no proofe for what you say but your owne bare Affirmations but if you will be an Oraclo it is but a lying Oracle and not of Gods you say they are called to the outward preaching of the Word it seemes to me that you will have all the people in a Nation that are within Gods call to be Preachers and then what shall become of all your Preists for if this be not your meaning I know not what you drive at but for that place of Scripture many are called but few are chosen I understand it thus many there was that heard the Word of God and seemingly professed it as they that came to Johns Baptisme and Herod that reformed many things and those many great multitudes that Christ preached unto many of which made an outward profession of him for a time but it was but for the loaves as he himselfe doth witnesse John 6.26.27 so here are many called to the outward profession of the Gospell but saith the Text few are chosen that is to say ehough there be many that make a formall profession of Christ and have the ouiside of Christianity yet few are they that are chosen either to Christs glorious kingdome with his father or are chosen and admitted as visible members and Subjects in his visible Church or Kingdome which in Scripture hath many and divers names as Syon Jerusalem his holy Mountaine the Lords holy place the kingdome of Heaven Psal 54.7.147.12 Fsa 62.6.65.9.11 Psal 68.17.33.46.4 Mat. 20.1 Rev. 21.1.10 this exposition of the place I plainly prove from Christs preaching to so many as he did the most of which for a time did outwardly prosesse him yet all those great multitudes that he preached unto and wrought Miracles amongst at his death there was but an hundred and twenty that entered into communion to worship him in a visible Church Acts 1.15 and in the second of the Acts Peter preached to a great multitude of people yet that multitude were not members of a true visible Church neither before he preached to them nor after but only so many of them as declared and manifested faith which were to the Number of three Thowsand and they were added or joyned to the Church and the Apostle commands them to save or seperate themselves from the rest of the multitude which he preached unto seing they did not peleeve nor were never the better for his preaching saying Save your selves from thes untoward Generatron Vers 40.41 For the Lord would not have them to joyne Riffe Raffe and all sorts of people to the Church to whom the Word was preached but only those that declared the worke of Grace to be wrought in their hearts therefore the Spirit of God saith The Lord added to the Church daily such as should be saved Now though I grant the Kingdome of England is within the Voyce and call of God calling the people thereof to Repentance that so they may be saved yet I grant no more then what all the Nations under Heaven are therefore you cannot conclude from this Ground that the Church of England is a true Church of Christ seing the Whol Nation good or bad wicked or righteous godly or ungodly have all one and the same Priviledge by virtue of their being professed Membees of your Ch. therefore from that which hath been said I frame this Argument That the true visible Church of Christ under the Gospell doeth not consist of all sorts and kinds of people to whom the word of God is preached but only to such persons who by their outward Conversation may be judged to be true Beleevers Esay 4.3.35.8.9.10.51.11 Rom. 1.7 1. Cor. 1.7 Rev. 22.14 But the Church of England is not made up nor doeth not consist of true Beleevers that is to say Saints by calling and practice but of all sorts and kinds of wicked persons as Witches Sorcerers Whoremungers Drunkards Idolaters Swearers Blasphemers all sorts of Prophane Lewd Wicked livers Ergo It is no true Church of Christ but a false and Antichristian Church of Antichrists 2. Cor. 6.9.10 Rev. 9.20.21 and 13.8.16.17 and 21.27 and 22.15 Both the Proposition and Assumption I have already strongly proved
of England Antichristian And when you or any other doe by the Authority of the unerring and pure Word of God sufficiently confute what I have writ against it I doe promise you I will be a member of the Church of England againe but if that be not done I will by the strength of the Lord of Hosts for ever separate from Church Ministery and worship in England as all and every one of them Antichristean and false yet thus much I say and doe acknowledge and the Scripture proves it that God hath a people or an elect number in spirituall Babylon yea in the Kingdome of Antichrist part of which the ch of England is and none of them shall perish but â—e eternally saved yet I say it is the duty of all Gods Elect chosen ones that as yet in the whorish â—osâ—… of the ch of Engl. or in any part of Antichrists regiment iâ— separate away from it and come out of it least God plague them for their staying there 〈…〉 and 〈◊〉 forward 51.6.9.11 2 Cor. 6.16.17 Rev. 14.9.10 18.4 Now from all that which hath been said I frame these Arguments First that every lawfull Pastor Bishop Minister or Officer in the visible Church of Christ ought to have a lawfull call and be lawfully chosen into his Office before he can be a true Officer in the Church of Christ Acts 1.24.25 26. 24.23 Gal. c 11. Heb. 5.4 But the Ministers and Officers in the Church of England have not a lawfull call neither are lawfully chosen to be Officers in the Church of Christ see the Booke of Ordination of Bishops Preists and Deacons compared with the Scripture Therefore all your Ministers are false and Antichristian Officers Rev. 9.3 2. Secondly The doing of those actions that belong to the execution of an office doth not prove a man to be a lawfull officer but a lawfull power instating him into his office Acts 8.4 11.28.24 18.24.26 But all the Ministers in the church of England have nothing to prove the lawfulnes of their standing in their Ministery but the actions of a Minister and are not able to prove that they are instated into their Ministery by vertue of a lawfull power and authority Therefore they are not true Ministers of Christ but false and Antichristian Ministers of Antichrist 3. Againe in the third place upon your own grounds I frame this Argument Those that by their Ministery doe not accomplish the same ends that the Ministery of the Apostles did are no true ministers But the ministers of the church of England doe not accomplish the same ends by their ministery that the ministery of the Apostles did 1 Cor. 12.2 Therefore your ministers are no true ministers So you see I have overthrown your second Argument and that in your own way and deny that which I have said and prove against it if you be able 3. Againe your 3. Arg. to prove your scratched and deformed mother a true visible church is this Whatsoever people doe enjoy outwardly submit themselves to the true worship of God they are a true visible ch of Christ But the people of Eng. dâ—e outwardly enjoy and submit themselves to the true worship of God Ergo the people of England are a true visible Church Answ 3. And for the proofe of your Arg. you say that the Separation grant and teach the proposition but the assupmtion they stifly deny as well they may do but you will stifly maintaine and prove it to their shame But first of all I will prove your Arg. false to your shame and then I will examine your proofe of it Therefore I deny your proposition assumption and conclusion And first you say the Separation teach where there is true worship there is a true Church what they teach I doe not very well know for I never heard any of their Sermons but only one neither have I read but very few either of their Books or writings but yet I say your Major is not found for true worship doth not prove a company of people to be a true visible church of Christ for they must be a true visible church before they tender and offer up any publike worship to him therefore true worship doth not provâ— a true church but rather a true church proves true worship for the cause must ever goe before the effect which it produceth but a true Church produceth true worship and not true worship a true Church Now to the makeing of a true Church there must not only be true matter but also a true forme 1 Cor. 15.13 Col. 2.5 or an entrance into that heavenly state or spirituall city called the New Jerusalem which comes downe from heaven and which is in the last end described in the Word of God and so becoming a politike Kingdome or Body that makes them a true church or an vniting joyning or combining of a company of Beleivers together amongst themselves and so unto Christ their only and alone head and King promising perfect obedience to all his Lawes and to walke in all his wayes that gives them the denomination of a true visible church of Christ by virtue of which they come to have Christs power to execute all the Lawes that Jesus Christ hath left and bequeathed in his last will to his welbeloved Spouse and to administer all his administrations which out of this state cannot lawfully be administred as I have already proved at large in my Answer to W. G. an eminent Professâ—… in your Church but yet an earnest pleader for Antichrists Kingdome and dominion as well as your selfe and therefore for this particular I referre you to that And as for your Minor and Assumption which is that you in the Church of England doe enjoy and outwardly submit your selves to the true worship of God It is most false and a notorious lie and untruth and as well might wicked Faux and the rest of the Gun-pouder plotters say that they submitted unto noble King James Lawes and Septer when they went about to blow up the Parliament House that so they might destroy him and all his for you doe not only oppose and justle out the true worship of God and throw downe and trample upon the Septer of Jesus Christ his Son but also you set up a false and Antichristian worship the inventer of which is the Divel and the man of Sin his eldest and most obedient Son Therefore I am ashamed to heare you who boast your selfe to be such a mighty champion as you â—ay you are having as I heare you have said that you have confuted many of the Separation to reason so shallowly and ungroundedly and against the knowne and confessed truth and therefore you are but like Goliah the Philistins great champion who exceedingly reviled as you doe the Hoast of the Lord and kept a mighty challinging of them as though none of Gods people had been able to encounter and graple with him when as poore David that yongue
stripling with his sheepheards staffe and a company of smooth stones flung out of a slinge overcame and destroyed that mighty Giant who thought none so stronge as himselfe 1 Sam. 15. and justifieth an one are you and will prove to be for you fight for the spirituall Philistims the enemies of the Lord namely for Antichrist and his Kingdome and you send forth great bragges boastes against the truth of God amongst your ignorant acquaintance but indeed they are nothing but wind and chaffe not able to stand before the breath of Gods sacred truth which his weake servants for their conquering weapons make use of as I have already and shall more fully by the strength of God make it appeare in my following lines and therefore to confute your Argument and lay it even with the ground I will bring your owne Writers weapons who were members in the Church of England who doe not plead for Separation but for Reformation therein read but the Lincolne-shire Ministers Abridgment and Mr. Cartwrights Defence against Bishop Whiteguift sometime Pope of Lambeth and Dr. Ames his Fresh Suite against Humaine Ceremonies and you shall see your worship proved to be Antichristian and none of Christs but of the Divels invention Also read the Scots Dispute printed in Holland the last Summer and you shall see the greatest part of your worship and all your humaine Ceremonies with which you serve God proved to be Idols as your holy garments and your invented gestures of bowing and cringing and your kneling at the act of receiving the Sacrament c. Also read a litle Booke of Mr. Damfords sometime Minister of Colmanstreet in London against the Service And noble Dr. Bastwickes book called The Vanity and Impiety of the old Letany and you shall see the Wickednes Sinfulnes and Vngodlines of it set forth to the utmost for there it is proved to be an Idoll which as he there faith sends more soules to Hell in a yeare then all the prophanenesse deboystnesse wickednesse and ungodlynes in the Kingdome doth besides and that nothing could have been invented either by the Divell or the Pope for a greater meanes to pull downe the Kingdome of Christ and for the maintaining and building up the Kingdome of Antichrist and therefore I put you upon it to Answer their writings and confute the Arguments of your own Authors which have fully proved that your worship is no divine but humane worship and therefore not a true but a false worship Now if you should deny that your humaine invented diabollicall Booke of Common prayer and your sacred Ceremonies as your Lords and masters the Bishops cals them are not the worship with which you in the Church of England worship and serve God the Booke of Common prayer it selfe will confute you for there in the Preface before that Booke of devised Service and wicked mans invention they ascribe to the dumbe Ceremonies a Sacramentall naature and the very Office and worke of the spirit of God the doing of which makes them all to become Idols and all those Idolaters that use them or partake with them that doe it for there they say they are apt to stirre up the dull mind of man to the remembrance of his duty to God by some notable and speaciall signification whereby he might be edefied Also in the act of vniformity they themselves doe confesse that they are but of mans Invention and device and to worship God with mans devices and Inventions is odious and detestable unto him as before I have fully proved and therefore you in England have not the true Worship of God and so by your owne confession are not a true Church of Christ But now to answer your Argument which you bring to prove your Assumption which is this You have had those that have lived and dyed in the same Worship which you still have and have beene saved in it therefore it must needes be a true Worship This you say but doe not prove it in the least but still take that for granted which I deny which is that it doth not therefore follow because some in the Church of England have been saved that have used your Worship that therfore it is true Worship for then it would follow that the Worship in the Papistry which in some respects is more grosser then yours is a true Worship for you dare not deny it which if you doe you are not able to prove it that in the Papistry there hath not beene many people that have lived and died therein that have been saved for the Scripture doth declare that God hath a people there which he calls uppon to come out thence Rev. 18.4 for he ownes his Elect even in Spirituall Babilon yet for all this it doth not follow that their Worship is or ever was a true Worship though the Riches of the Grace and unfathomable Goodnes of the Kindnes and Love of God doth reach and extend so far as to save some that live and dy in that Worship as well as in the Worship of England yet I say it is as extraordinary a worke as the manifestation of Gods love to the Thiefe upon the Crosse was but for all that I will maintaine it that none of those that yeild and submit themselves unto your or their Worship cannot by the Scripture prove himselfe to be a visible Christian or a true beleever if they should be put by Gods people to prove it Joh. 14.21.23.24 15.8.14 Col. 15.19 to the end Eph 5.8 Col. 1.21 Tit. 1.16 2.14 1 Pet. 2 9. Heb 9.14 Jam. 2.17 18. 1 Joh. 3.8 2 Joh. 9. Rev. 13.8 14.1.4.9.10 19.20 Now from that which I have said I frame these Arguments 1 That Worship which is of the Divells and Antichrists Invention Institution setting up is no true divine Worship But the Worship of the Church of England is of the Divells Antichrists Invention Institution setting up as the forenamed Authors and the 13. Chap of the Rev. doth fully prove Ergo. The Worship in the Church of England is no true Morship 2. That Worship which is a main meanes cause of pulling downe the Kingdome of Jesus Christ establishing maintaining upholding of the Kingdome of the Devell Antichrist sends more Soules to Hell then all the wickednesse Impietie ungodlinesse in the Kingdome doth besides is no true Worship of Godâ— but ought to be detested and abhorred of all his people But such is the Worship of the Church of England as worthy Dr. Bastwicke in the third part of his Letany doth prove Ergo. It is no true Worship but ought to be detested separated from by all Gods faithfull ones And thus much for the answering of your third fourth Arguments which you say are so strong and true that you say you need spend no more time in the proofe of them but indeed you are exceedingly mistaken for you have not in the least proved either of them as I have
which the Theife was hanged was a true church for there he had salvation the apprehension of Gods love his assurance of his enterance into the Kingdome of glory as fully as ever any in the ch of En. had and also it will follow that the Chariot in which the Eunuch rode Acts 8. was a true ch for there he came to the knowledg of his salvation the apprehension of the true love of God in Christ also you know God by his almighty power saved Daniel the three children alive even in the Lyons den and in the hot burning furnace and because God by his power did this shall I therefore goe cast my false into the fire and among the Lyons say they have no power to burne me or kill me but I am safe enough because God preserved Daniel and the three children alive in the like condition every wise man would conclude surely I were out of my wits So you see how erronious rotten insufficient unsound all your grounds arguments are in the lying downe of which you run with your deceitfull Logike like a blind horse in a mill about about and still come to the same place where you begun never in the least prove any thing you say by the authority of the word of God nor yet by any grounded reason but ruly your false affirmations for the wind that comes out of you mouth is so weak and feeble that it will scarce blow away a straw if it lie in your way And then in the last place you bring an Arg. in the necke of this being of the same nature with the former and it is this That because Latimer Hooper Bradford with many others were martyrs in your ch and were saved ssâ—… by the judgment of charity not infalibly wee may judge were saved and knew the corruptions of your church and yet did not separate away from it therefore it is a true Church and need not be separated from seeing men may be saved in it Truly I must confesse unto you I am almost weary with answering your paultery old rotten mouldy stuffe and you are such a novice in the misteries of God and godlynesse and the Kingdome of his Son Jesus Christ not understanding what you say or affirme nor bow to prove an Argument that I am almost loath any more to contend with you in regard the victory in overcomeing you will be so poore and meane and your wares are such paltery and peplary commodities that I am even tyred with lookeing upon them and turning them over but yet for all this I will a litle reply to this your last Argument but I hope you do not hold that maxime in the Church of Rome extra ecclesia nulla salus that is out of the Church no salvation if you doe it is most erronious for I have proved it and the whole New Testament doth declare it that it is possible for a man to be saved though he be a member of no visible Church yea and that some that are joyned to a false Church may be saved but yet if they may be so it is no ground for their staying or abiding there for God cals and commands all his people to be separated from the World and all false churches 2 Cor. 6.16.17.18 Rev. 18.4 but it seemes by your reasoning you hold that if a man get salvation and get to heaven and so get his own ends served let Gods glory goe a begging and lye at the stake a bleeding for all you but truly such a servant deserves no wages but rather punishent for alas man this is but selfe seeking at the best in which a man can have no spirituall comfort and joy But God would have his people to joy and rejoyc in walking in his wayes and sing and be merry and be of a chearefull countenance as it doth become the heires of the Crowne of glory and he would have them not only as it were creep into Heaven but to strive and labour to have an abundant enterane thereinto 1 Pet. 19.10.11 but by your reasoning you would have them never be merry joyfull nor chearfull for in false wayes there is no peace nor comfort Esa 59 8 9.11 Mal. 2.2 but live like forlorne men destitute of all comfort hanging downe their heads like bulrushes and so dishonour their God and their Christ in the eyes of the men of the world who will glory and triumph over them as though there were not that sweetnes beautifulnes amiablenes fulnes satisfaction and contednes in the enjoying of God in his Son Christ that might make them walke with merry counterances chearfull hearts and reioycing soules as it becomes the Sons and heires of the King of glory disdaining contemning and lightly esteeming the base and empty moth eaten contents of this present world and to have their affections crucified to it and it to them and though they be in the world yet to walke as those whose conversation is already in Heaven longing and desiring to be dissolved to be with Christ which is best of all Away man Christ hath no need of such unserviceable selfe seeking servants as you on are to weare his glorious and rich Livery and let me tell you God never sent his sonne Christ to save us for that end to live at ease and delight as we lift or in the fashion of the World but that we should glorifie him in being unlike to the World in our lives and conversation by an unblameable walking in all his wayes labouring and endeavouring to yeild obedience to all his Lawes and commaunds not suffering our hearts to be possessed with base feares of the world nor be in love with the things thereof but that wee should hold forth the profession of the purity of his truth and Gospell without feare before the eyes of the world and though wee suffer persecution affliction and tribulation for it that wee should joy and rejoce in it and esteem it our Crown and happines that the Lord counts us worthy to suffer for his sake And truly let me tell you he that seekes but his own ends and so that he could be but saved cares for no more not regarding or takeing thought what becomes of Gods glory honour and praise it is an evident and demonstrable signe that that man doth not belong to God nor never shall be heire of glory John 14.23.24 25.8.14 1 John 3.8.10 2.9 Rev. 12.11 14.4 And what if Latimer and the rest of the martyrs had communion with the Church of England is that a sufficient ground that therefore wee must not separate away from it I hope not for what if God winked at their blindnes darkenes and ignorance yet now let me say with Paul that in truth he will have all his people to come to the knowledge of his truth and wayes Acts 17.20 because he hath appoynted a day wherein he will shortly judge that great scarlet whore of Rome and all her