people by casting a mist before the eyes of their understanding seeking to insinuate into them by flatteries and garnishing your flatteries with colourable glosses to cause them to think that your reviving that which hath been used amongst them with out-side Matth. 23.27 28.30 31 c. will now from you receive life to do that which it could not do neither by the Pope or Bishops nor by you their off-springs And with the Light are you seen at your witts end and troubled that you cannot have your wills fulfilled who are the enemies of the Living truth and wrongers both of men and God as you also in your Agreement acknowledge and therefore all your Evasions and Colourable glosses must fall with your Image and Imaginary worships as in your fore-fathers before you and the Ministry that stands out of mans will which you are yet Ignorant of must through the crosse cut down and crucifie and kill that which your Ministry doth not nor your fore-fathers or the Pope or Bishops before you and that Ministry which comes forth from the Light and power of the Spirit of God is for the discovering and killing of the Error Heresie and Miscariages which yours hath and doth leave people in and so as it kills that and the Ignorance Gala. 3.4 5. Eph. 2. Iohn 8.12 1 Iohn 3.8 9. 1. Pet. 1.18 19 22 23 1 Iohn 4.16 17 Iohn 14.20 it quickeneth and raiseth the soul out of death destroying the Ignorance Error Heresie and Miscariages and all the works of the Devill and so bringeth soules out of death and from under the power of darknesse to live in the life of the Eternall truth in the Injoyment of the Fathers love and to Enjoy and walke in the liberty of the Sons of God And saith John We know that the Son of God is come and hath given us an understanding to know him that is true and we are in him that is true even in his Son Jesus Christ and this is true God and life eternall 1 John 5.20 Whose Ministry without your familiar personall Instruction discovereth and killeth sin Error and Miscariages which you live in unkilled and therefore out of his Minstiry who killeth that and quickeneth the other that hath suffered under it raising that and them together with it saving them by grace and causing them as they at Ephesus did to sit with Christ Jesus in the heavenly place Ephe. 2.1 2 4 5 6. For by grace were they saved ver 8th Through faith and not of themselves nor of works lest any should boast Eph 2.8 9. As Paul the Gospel-Minister doth witnesse in his Affirmation who did not as you do in your confusion set up a form of words without Spirit and Life grounded upon the Popes practice or generall Councell held at Trent or at Trull And bid people get these to say and be catechized c. And say them over to the Pope or Arch-bishops Persons Preists Rectors and Curates upon pain of damnation neither doth his words warrant you so to do Therefore are they not your warrant from God for that work Neither did Paul go and write out a few words out of the 20. Chap. of Exodus and the 6. Chap. of Matthew and set the people to get them upon pain of damnation and salvation Which words he had before you and witnessed the life in the spirit and power of Christ for the killing of Ignorannce Sin Error and Miscarriages Eph. 5.13 Eph. 6.10 11 12 13 14. Gal 2.19 20. and to quicken the mortall body Rom. 8.10 11. as well for the purifying of the heart and the soul 1 Pet. 1.22 23. Which you have shewed your Ignorance in and to be out of And therefore Pauls words is not your warrant from God who are out of that righteous life And Paul said they were delivered from the law that being dead wherein they had been held their service stood in the newnes of the Spirit and not in the oldnesse of the Letter Rom. 7.6 But your service stands in the oldnesse of the Letter and the old Law and not in the Gospel and newnesse of spirit Rom. 1.16 16. as your fruits and Agreeement doth manifest Therefore you that serve in your wills and set people to serve in theirs and in the oldnesse of the Letter without the Gospel and power of God to salvation and the newnesse of Spirit Clo. 2.21 22 23. Eph. 2.14 15 16. Rom. 1.26 you are not by Pauls words warranted from God to do it who was himself a minister not of the Letter but of the Spirit as he hath witnessed 2 Co. 3.6 c. Therefore your garnishing your selves with his words and wanting his ministery and spirit to guide in the ministration and worship of God that spirit John 4.23 24. 2 Cor. 3.17 18. you are but as founding Brasse and tinkling Cymbals being in the envy and out of love the of the Father as the false Prophets was therefore let Pauls words rest where they are 1 Cor. 13. H s 16.9 Mic. 3.11 Iude 11. till you depart from your lusts and go make restitution for the Lord is against you and all such who are yet without warrant from God for all your stealing of words to garnish your selves as your fore-fathers did But thus saith the Lord therefore behold I am against them that steal my words from his neighbour I sent them not nor commanded them Therefore they shall not profit the people at all Ier. 23.30 c. And now that you are without warrant from the Scripture being out of the life of truth and reviving your fore-fathers works taking a ground from the sixth-Generall Councell held at Trent or at Trull in the time of the Pope or Bishopps Matth. 7.15 16 17 20 22 22 26 27. ver 2. and are you not also left without warrant from them then where are you now and what ground do you stand on are you not without ground or bottom and on the Sandy foundation ready to be washed away when the floods come c. Whose fall as Christ saith therefrom is like to be great and as may be Read Math. 7.26 27. Let the Priests minde and see If they know From whence they came BEhold and see from whence you came and minde your return was not your Original I head root and foundation the Pope or Arch-bishops and Bishops amongst which was not the Bishop of Rome called the Pope Chiefe Supreame head c. Untill the time or raign of Henry the 8. Late King of England as by the Lawes of this Nation may appeare c. And the Called Arch-Bishopps and such as received Orders from them to be Priests Ministers Deacons and Clarks c. Were they not called the body Spirituall and were and are they not called the English Church c. And after the Pope was put out of Tythes and that which he had begott by Henry the 8 the Arch-Bishopps your fathers Priests Ministers Deacons Rectors Clarks
c. called the body Spirituall and the English Church c. Were they not endowed with Tythes c or the Popes honors and such Parochiall rights c. As the Pope had begot and were put out of when your fore-fathers and you his of-spring entred into his seat and were they not adorned as well as endowed with the Popes Bringings forth into Parochiall rights c. And your fore-fathers the called Arch-Bishopps and Bishopps and you and such as received orders from them to be Priests Ministers Deacons Rectors Parsons Vicars Curates and Clarks were they not as before is said called the English Church as by the statute of Henry the 8. may appeare and did not the Kings and Nobles endow the said Church both with honours 24 Hen. 8.12.25 Hen. 8. Cha. 20. and possessions the Popes ornaments viz. Tythes Oblations Obventions c. to keep them from corruption and sinister affection which it hath not done as you confesse that are in the miscarriages Neglecters of the work of God and wrongers both of men and of Christ as your Agreement witnesseth Page 3 4 19 c. And the Pope and the See of Rome had the Triall amongst other things of the right of Tythes Oblations and Obventions c. And by that statute The Statute 24 Hen. 8 Cap. 12.26 Hen. 8. Cap. 1. is it not ordained and declared that all spiritual Prelates Pastors Ministers and Curates c. as they are called may Use Minister Execute and Do all Sacraments and Sacramentalls and Divine service unto the subjects of the same and is not there the ground of your sacraments or proofes of calling them so The Pope had the Peterpence pensions c. till the time Hen. the 8. who endowed the Bishops and Priests c. in the Popes pensions peterpence fruits sutes c. See your selves and read 25. Hen. 8. Cap. 21. and not the Scriptures in which there is not one word that speaks of Sacraments and Sacramentals as they are called and is not King Henry the 8. and his Successors declared there the onely Supreame head in earth of the Church of England And by the Statute of the 25. Hen. 8.20 Is it not said that the Annals or first fruits which were paid by the Arch-Bishopps of England unto the Bishop of Rome called the Pope c. should cease and not be paid to him c. And by the Statute of the 26 of Hen. 8. Chap. 3. Is not the first Fruits and profits of every Arch-Bishoprick and Bishoprick Parsonage Vicaridge c. said to be taken given to Hen 8. and his successors and ever and besides a yearly Tenth of all spirituall livings c. as they are called And did not the Bishopps c. receive their places and rewards from him c. See more at large in the 26. Hen. 8. Chap. 3. How they did Proceed to the Election of an Arch-Bishop FOr by the statute of the 25 of Hen. 8. Chap. 20. Is it not said to be Ordained and Established that the King and his successors may grant to the Prior and Covent or the Dean or Chapter of the Cathedral Churches or Monasteries a licence under the great seal as of old time hath been accustomed to proceed to the election of an Arch-Bishop at every Avoidance of any Arch-Bishoprick or Bishoprick within the Realm of England with a Letter Mislive containing the name of the person which they shall elect and chuse c. See more at large concerning the same in the 25. Hen. 8. Chap. 20. aforesaid The Ordination of a Priest or pretended Minister c. BY a Statute made the 13. of Eliz. Chap. 12. Is it not said to be ordained that every person under the degree of a Bishop which doth or shall pretend to be a Priest or Minister of Gods holy Word and Sacrament c. shall in the presence of the Bishops declare his Assent and subscribe to all the articles of religion which concern the confession of the true Christian faith and the doctrine of the Sacraments in a book imprinted entituled Articles And whereupon was it not agreed by the Arch-Bishops and Bishops and the whole Clergy in the Convocation holden at London in the year 1562. And that none should be made Minister or admitted to preach or adminster the Sacraments in England under the age of 24. yeares or unlesse he be approved by the Bishop of the Diocesse being a Deacon at the least c. And all admissions to benefices c. And all licences or tolerations made to the contrary to be meerly void in law as if they never were c. Therefore minde where you are and see if you know A Manifestation of your Down-fall c. or your Foundation shaken and razed c. FOr is it not manifest that the Foundation of your fore-Fathers the late Arch-Bishops and Bishops c. here in England was man c. viz. Kings and Queenes of England with the Priors and Covent of Monasteries and the Deans 3 Elizae Cap. 1.12 and the Chapters of the Cathedralls And that the ministers Pastors Rectors Parsons Preachers Vicars Curates and Clarks c. as they call them were Members and Branches arising from that root and body viz. The Arch-Bishops and Bishops of which the Bishops of Rome called the Pope was head till Henry the eight and King Henry the eight put him out and let him in c. Which Arch-Bishops and Bishops by a Late Ordinance of Parlament were and are taken away and also rendered uselesse And by another Ordinance or act of Parlament is not the Kingly Power and Goverment by which they had been set up taken away c. And is it not therefore manifest by the lawes statutes and ordinances afore said that the called Priests Ministers Rectors Pastors Preachers Vicars Curates and Clarks c. were Members and Branches of the late Arch-Bishopps and Bishopps of this Nation and had their risings and sprung from that root and body and of that root and body were members and branches and that the Arch-Bishopps and Bishopps themselves were made and had their Rise from the Kings and Queens Priors Covents Monasteries Deanes and Chapters Arch-Bishops and Bishops Root and Branch and their power and Authority being disanulled rendered and declared uselesse abolished and taken away as afore said c. Doth it not clearly appeare that all the Priests so called and is it not manifest that they and the ministers in England with the called Rectors Parsons Pastors Preachers Vicars Clarks and Curats being branches and members of that body and root are or ought to be as branches taken away disanulled and abolished and the Root of their root The Kings and Queens of England c. And it being clearly made manifest and proved that their foundation and yours is of man and from man and them and their foundation and the root of their root by man razed taken away made null and rendered uselesse are not they and you
left without foundation and bottom c. Who were not one amongst themselves 24. H 8.12 and the 25.8.20 neither are you the same this generation that was the last before but alters and changes with times and men c. As your fore-fathers and Priests of England and their predecessors have done and is it not manifest that in the time of Henry the Eight the late King of England their predecessors denied the Pope for their head 2. and 3. of Ed. 6. Chp. 1. and owned Henry the Eight for their head c. viz. the Priests Arch-Bishops and Bishopps c. And in the time of Edward the sixth did not their predecessors viz. the Priests and your fore-fathers denie the Masse-Book and instead thereof received the Common prayer-book at this hand c And again in Queen Marry her time they denied the Common prayer-book and received the Masse book c. Sessio secunda Anno Mariae primo Chap. 2.3 And after that in the time of Queen Elizabeth they denied the masse-book and again received the common prayer-book c. 1 Eliz. Chap. 2. And in the time of the late Parliament was not the Common Prayer Book denied and the Directorie received by you rather then you would deny your worldly honours and possessions and what you now own is manifest to all the Children of light c. And how that you are setting up your fore-fathers works and though you be made sensible of your deceipts and the unprofitablenesse of your Ministry yet rather then you will deny your selves of what you have received by tradition from your forefathers and forsake your deceipts you rather would keep people still by force as it were under your dead dark cold barren Ministrie and destroyes their soules for your own ends who are wrongers both of them and of Christ and are made sensible of it as you say pag. 19. and feares least God require their blood at your hands c. And Richard Baxter and the other 40. and odd who calls your selves Ministers of Christ and are the untaught teachers out of the doctrine of Christ and are in the miscarriages growing worse as you say you have in the grounds and reasons in your Agreement and Catechisme acknowledged the same and so hath made your selves also manifest to be both the untaught teachers and the unprofitable servants and wants your pardon and then you must needs want your warrant from God for the same therefore as you are proved by Law and Gospel to be without warrant you are also proved by your own confession so to be in your Agreement for you say page 3 We the Ministers of Christ whose names are under written c. do humbly bewaile our too great neglect that we have not employed our care and time and labour on so great a work according to the strict and holy precepts and paterns in Gods word c. We earnestly begg of God to pardon this our great neglect c. Here you have proved your selves to be the untaught teachers that are neglecters of the work of God Act. 6.4 Act. 20.20 21 22 23.24.25.26 27. for such as are taught of God and abide in his doctrine are diligent in the work of the Lord and do not neglect it as you do who are the idle loyterers and now you idle loyterers and unprofitable servants are you made so farr sensible of your idlenesse and negligence in that work which as you say is according to the strict and holy precepts patterns in Gods word and yet you would shelter your selves under the name of Christ whilâ—st you are such and also wrongers of men and of Christ page 19. c. And calls your selves the Ministers of Christ whil'st you are acknowledging your idlenesse negligence miscarriages page 4. c and the wrong you do to men and to Christ and yet without a pardon for the same Be ashamed of your idlenesse and negligence in that which you have professed and for which you have taken peoples monys for your idlenesse and negligence miscarriages and wronging men and Christ which you your selves also confesse therefore be ashamed of your deceipt and of your miscarriages and the wrongs you have all this time done to men and to Christ and have taken their mony for the same Goe and restore four-fold and cease your deceivings be ashamed also of your lies never call your selves the Ministers of Christ whil'st you are the idle loyterers wrongers of men and Him and such as neglects his work as you do and have all this while done and that according to your own saying too If you have all this while beene in the miscarriages unpardoned as you say you must needs be the untaught teachers as you are and if you have all this time beene wrongers of men and of Christ as you say and unpardoned for the same you must needs be the enemies of God and good men and so no Ministers of Christ for he doth not teach his Ministers to live in miscarriages as you do nor to wrong him and men as you do who are not taught yet to deny and forsake the same therefore you are out of his doctrine who receive not his teachings and so are ye untaught teachers as well as the unprofitable servants and cursed deceivers for if you have all this while beene in the miscarriages doing wrong to God and Men and also idle and out of the work of God and now being sensible of it confessing the same and bewailing your idlenesse and negligence and wants yet your pardon for the same whose works have you done all this while Mica 3.5.11 Isa 56.10.11 Jer. 5.30 31. Isa 55.2 3. Ezek. 34. the Devils or your own and for what have people spent their meanes and money on you for your idlenesse and negligence keeping them in blindnesse and ignorance and for doing God and them wrong who have confessed the same and that you have beene idle and neglected to do the great work of God according to his word therefore in neglecting that and being idle therein and instead of doing the same Your third Answer agreeing with page 3.4.17 have beene wronging both Men and Christ himselfe you have cleared your selves from being his Ministers and proved your selves to be the cursed deceivers and are found and proved to be the unprofitable servants being idle and neglecters of the great work of God by you left undone and then you must needs have beene doing the works of your Father the Devill John 8.44 and your own who are wrongers of God and men and so hath deceived their soules and taken their meanes and mony for the same and for that which is not bread as the false Prophets and idle Shepherds aforetime did therefore you that are such your judgment and condemnation will be the greater Mark 12.38.39.40 Have you both wronged men and of them sought your own ends and gaines and luld them asleepe in security and taken their money
you and their off spring from that succession now do when they was carnally minded c. as you are And Tythes by a decretall epistle of Pope Innocent the 3. dated at Lateran directed to the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury c. in or about the yeare 1200. It is said by Cook that then Tythes became lex terrae and the subject became bound to pay them c. Cook saiths that of Antient time before a new Constitution made by the Pope the patron of one Church might grant his Tythes to another parish and saith Cook second part Institutes thus began portion of Tythes that the parson of one parish hath in another vide Concilium Leteran Anno Domini 12 15.17 of Jo. regis So that Tythes it seems were free for any man to give c. till the time of Pope Innocent and were they not then divided into portions to the Priests and Rectors c. from Pope Innocent the 3 For since saith Cook that which is called parochiall right of Tythes were established c. And Pope Innocent by his Bull discharged those of the order of Praemonstratenses of the payment of Tythes of such lands as were of their own manurance or other Improvement and Pope Adrian the 4. said all Orders should pay tythes c. And so it appeares Tythes sprang up the second time by one Pope and so from one to another and did not they spring from the Popes to the Bishops Rectors and those parish Priests Consider well of it and see if you know your succession And had not the Popes the ordering and rule amongst Tythes and other things till the time of King Henry 2 Hen. 4.28 Hen. 8. Chap. 16 for saith Cook by the statute of Henry 4. not only Cisterciences but all other religious and seculars which put any of the Popes bulls in execution for discharge of Tythes of their lands in the hands of their farmers should be in danger of a praemunire as saith Cook second part Institures And by the statute of the 28. of Henry the 8. Chap. 16. saith Cook there it is Enacted that all Bulls Brieffes Faculties Dispensations of what names natures or qualities whatsoever they be of had or obtained from the Pope or Bishop of Rome or any of his predecessors or by authority of the See of Rome c. should from thence forth by that Act be clearly void and never after that to be used admitted or pleaded in any places or Courts of this Realm as they had been c. or any other the Kings Dominions upon pain contained in the statute of praemunire c. See Cookes second part Institute Fol. 641. and 652. c. And doth it not appeare hereby that the Pope c. that had begot Tythes by his constitution to be distributed into parishes by his decretall epistle and councell c. were himself thrust out of those Parochiall rights of tythes as he called them which he had begot and by his constitution and councell brought forth c. And as the Pope was thrust out of Tythes c. in England did not the Bishops Priests Pastors Teachers Rectors c. their off-spring from that root enter in their stead and was not they let into the same And being grafted or let in did not they take the Popes places and rewards at the hands of him that disinherited them viz the Popes c. Consider and see where you are And was not the Bishops Priest Pastors Teachers and Rectors c. adorned or endowed by Hen. the 8 c. with honours and possessions or with the Popes ornaments viz. Tythes oblations obventions c. And was they not said to be given to God and holy Church c. and to keep them from corruption and sinister affection c. 24. of Henry the 8.12 Cap. And seeing that Tythes c. by the lawes and statutes of this Nation were said to be given to God and holy Church c. And being that both by God the holy Church Tythes are denied as the Scripture under the Gospel dispensation doth witnesse And seeing that the called Church of England the body spirituall as they call it and by them called the spirituality who receive Tythes are now found to be unholy and not being free from corruption but pleads for sin and so for corrption for tearm of life c. and sinister affection and stands in need of the worlds honours and possessions to keep them which rather corupts them the more and cannot nor doth not keep them from corruption and sinister affection for which end they viz. Tythes c. are said to be given as by the statute of Henry the 8. it appeareth therefore by the lawes and statutes of England it is cleare to me that the called Priests Ministers Preachers Rectors c. which names you bear who are unholy and corrupt c. have no right to Tythes c. for by the lawes of the Nation they are said to be given to holy Church c. and you are unholy that are in miscarriages and neglecters of the great work of God as you say and are mongers both of men and of Christ growing worse and running yet further from God therefore you are unholy and corrupt and are not running for God that runnes further from him as you say and so are cut out of Tythes his ministry by your own rule and confessions c. And now stop your mouthes and do not cry up your selves to be ministers of Christ and neither pleade for old Levi his right that neglects his work Nor for any of the Saints priviledges Nor for Tythes from the law of the land till you come out of Miscarriages and give over wronging Christ and men and become holy free from corruption and sinister affection 2 Tim. 3.11 12. Heb. 11.36 37 38. c. And as you come off from the old rotten root and out of the old nature and be born again c. when you are made Christs Ministers you will deny your Tythes and maisteries and be content with what he sees meet for you and instead of persecuting be persecuted and suffer of the world and that generation which you are yet in union with as the Ministers of Christ do now and aforetime did Whose approbation c. was not of the men of the world but of God 2 Cor. 6.1 2 3 4 5 6. 2. Cor. 11.23 24 25. c. And as you are neglecters of the work of God page 3. and your selves in the Miscarriages unpardoned page 4. your hearers can scarce speake a word of sence about the matters of salvation 1. Thes 1.1 1 Thes 1.1 and you are wrongers both of them and of Christ page 19. So you say there are many untaught Children and families page 29. Therefore you make it manifest that you are unholy and corrupt and that you are not the holy Church who are unholy and profain teachers and people and therefore have no right to that which is
14. 1 Joh. 5 20 Joh. 14.26 which is to Instruct and kill Ignorance and quicken the understanding by bringing the things of Christ to remembrance as Christ hath said Joh. 14.26 but wanting the Spirit you set up your personal and familiar Instruction to do it as it appeares by page 21. you Intreat them there to come for some familiar conference and personal instruction for the lesse they know and remember the more help they need and you are there calling them to come to you that are untaught to deny your Miscarriages c. And coming from the sprituall teaching to your personall Instruction they come from the true meanes and helps and that is the cause why they do not profit andy on set up your paper and personal Instruction instead of the spirit of truth which is the guide into all truth John 16.13 and the remembrancer also killing Ignorance and is the meanes that prevents and keeps from it c. but you say your Catechisme and familiar and personall Instruction is so because you are Ignorant of the same you say you observe that the younger when they are once married will come no more to be Catechised publiquely and too many forget that which before they had learned which this course you say may prevent but it hath not prevented you the personall familliar structers for running into miscarriages and doing wrong to others neither doth it lead you out of it who are therein and without pardon for the same c. and is people so silly to think it will do it in them your hearers when it hath not yet done it in you their teachers and wrongers whereby you manifest your selves to be meer deluders and also deceivers though the blind see you not yet are you seen and your wayes and windings with the true light are discovered comprehended and with the light which you act contrary unto Joh. 8 12. stoh 14.6 Joh. 15.6 Heb. 5.8 9. Heb. 7.25 are you to be condemned You say page 4. that Catechising and personall Instruction is the doctrin of salvation You speak you know not what and without understanding of the way of salvation putting that in the rome of Christ who is the way to salvation John 14.6 he is the way to the father Then your Catechisme and familiar personall Instruction is not the way for it is not Christ and no man can come to the Father but by him John 14.6 And he is perfctely able to save to the utmost all those that come unto God by him Gal. 1.9 10. Heb. 7.25 without your Catechisme or personall and familiar Instruction which is set up in your old evil and miscarrying nature Prge 19. and 29. who yet know not the way of salvation that are seting up a way of your own and turning thereby people as much as in you lieth from Christ the true way to walk in yours who are cursed Children neglecters of the work of God and in your miscarriages wanting your pardon for that and your wrong done to Christ and to men c. when you so said and then you set up your Image and stayed your time saying you would set a convenient stated time for that work in your Parishes telling people you will grant their desires and examine some privatly some openly or as they please and so manifest your selves to be men pleasers and time-servers when you will and as you will to please people for your own ends rather then lose your gain and if their soules perish you will take their moneyes and meanes and tell them on their death bed when you visit the sick that you dare not speak a word of Comfort unto them yet you dare take their money in their life time for your deceiving and dead dark dry barren and uncomfortable doctrine and now that your preaching is found so useless you cry up your Catechisme and personal familiar Instructions at a very high rate saying it is that which life or death must depend upon page 10. but what will it effect more then your preaching hath done even leave people as they was except in conceits higher and grow into Ignorance of the power of truth and way of salvation for all that when they have done as they yet are and also Ignorant of what you your solves have many years taught them whose doctrin deceives their soules and deprives them of understanding the same And if they perish in their Ignorance are not you the cause of it who sayes in page 11. you find by experience that the people understand not your publick preaching though you study to speak as plain as you can Isa 55.2 Jer. 23.30 31 32. c. but do you not take their money for the same and so for that which is not bread neither doth it profit their souls and that after many years too many you say can scarce tell any thing you have said therefore you and they may see how little they are benefited by you and what little use your studied stuffe is of and how uselesse that is which you study and invent in that old miscarrrying nature which doth deprive peoples understandings of knowing the truth and so keeps them in blindnesse and Ignorance of the onely true God And therefore as you say in page 19. you are wrongers of Christ and of them and may well fear that God will require their blood at your hands who make it manifest that you have run unsent and your ministry doth not profit the people at all And how should it be otherwise being untaught your selves to come out of your self-ends but are in the negligence of the work of God and the miscarriages c. ministring from the same spirit your fore-fathers time servers and men pleasers did Jer. 23.1.16.20 21 ver it appeares by the Statute of 25. H. 8. Cap. 21. The Pope cast out for his miscarriages and usurpation and beguiling the people c that were not the servants of Christ and now you are mainfest to be the unprofitable servants and ministry for to be accounted or rendered vselesse as theirs is or be holden accursed as it is said in Gal. 1.8 9. 2 Cor. 16.22 The Pope that had the rule amongst Tythes and such like things c. till Hen. 8. here in England was not he put out for his miscarriages and after the Pope was put out by Hen. 8. did not then the Arch-Bishops bear rule in his stead and set up Priests Rectors and Curates and did not they as you do and all their Branches as Prelates Episcopals Priests Rectors and Curates c. open their mouthes wide to speak first in their own cause and behalf to cry up themselves by the name of the Ministers of Christ as you do and did not they cry up their ministry and meanes as Jure divino but they were discovered and made manifest that they was not so And your fore-fathers the Arch-bishops Bishops c. were found in Miscarriages
these promises cleanse your selves from all filthinesse of flesh and of Spirit perfecting holinesse in the fear of the Lord. And Christ prayed to his Father for those that were given to him that they might be made perfect in one Joh. 17.23 And all these had grace and Christian experience that both received the doctrin of perfection and walked in it and some preaching it and some pressing after it and some attaining it their words and fruits and the Spirit by which they were guided who had grace and Christian experience with such as received the doctrin of the Father and the Son having grace and abiding therein doth witnesse against thee Richard Baxter and thy false doctrin who garnisheth thy self with their words and calls them thy Warrant from God when thou and you 42. Priests are without their life and not in their practice but are in your miscarriages wronging others and growing worse c. Therefore are you without your warrant from God and are none of Christs ministers but enemies of the truth and are against the doctrin of the Lord Jesus but you are made manifest and your deceit and false doctrin is denyed by the Children of Light and in and with it you are reproved and against testified You say you receive the publike maintenance to this end that you may be enabled to lay out your endeavours for the good of the whole parishes from which you do receive it c. page 13. of your Agreement But have you not made it manifest to have received the publick maintenance of your parishes whom you receive it for your evil endeavours that are men of miscarriages unpardoned growing worse and runing further from God whose work is by you neglected according to your own sayings and your people understanding little you have said or many yeares preached to them who can scarse as you say speak a word of sence concerning the matters of their salvation and here you are witnesses against them for their Ignorance c. as well as you are witnesses against your selves for your miscarriages and wrong done to Christ them and is not your negligence one chief cause of their Ignorance and Ignorance the cause of destruction and for runner of eternall perdition who say you have wronged Christ and them page 19. Therefore may it not be concluded from your own confession that you are a chiefe cause of souls destruction and by your confusion have you not run into self-contradictions and makes it manifest that you take the publike maintenance of your parishes not for good endeavours but for your miscarriages and so for evil endeavors who hath not profited the people that are so Ignorant of the work of God and their soules good that they can scarce speak a word of sence in matters of salvation as you say and you are the wrongers of them and of God according to your own sayings and so deceives souls for your own ends but the Lord hath shaken his hand against your dishonest gain and such as through covetousnesse maketh merchandize of people Ezek. 22.12 23. your Judgment of a long time lingereth not and their damnation slumbereth not that with you are such as you may read 2 Pet. 2.3 13 14 15. But let me aske you From whence you and those that pretend themselves ministers of the Gospel who receives Tythes or Hundreds a yeare c. tooke their first example and by whom to receive Tythes by compulsion and that which they and you call their publick maintenance c. had you your example so to do from the practice of the Apostles of Christ Observe Though Priests was very scant after the rot or pestilence spoken of in the time of Edw. 3. yet then the parish Priests was not by any manner of colour to receive above 6. marks wages by the yeare without the Bishops dispesnation and suspension the pain of people of holy Church so called giving above 5. or 6. Marks wages a year to a Parish Priest they was to pay the doubble of that which they gave more to any parish priest then 5. or 6. Marks wages in the yeare and it was to be converted to the use of Almes at the arbitrement of the Diocesan c Anno. 36. Ed. 3. Chap. 8. or from the constitution and decretall epistle of the Pope c. For the ministers of Christ had no command to take Tythes nor hundreds a yeare for preaching the Gospel but freely they received and freely they gave according to Christs command And I read in the law of England that Tythes after the Apostles time were free for the people was not bound to pay them so farr as I see till the Councell of Lateran in Pope Innocents time and then by his constitution and decretall epistle c. the Tythes it seems became bound c. and were to be paid by the subjects of the Realm and so came Parochiall rights as they call them c. to the Priests or Patrons of the Churches so called Then it is cleare to me that you have your ground to take Tythes and maintenance of the World for preaching c. not from the Apostles practice and order but from the Popes c. And that mist of Popish darknesse is not so farr dispelled or expelled from you as to cause you to forsake the Popes Constitutions or your Tythes and maisteries and follow the example of the Apostles and Ministers of Christ and to leave your Miscarriages great parsonages and give over wronging God and men for your own ends and to deny your selves and your preaching for filthy lucre and cease bearing rule by your meanes And if any of you receive the word and command from God become servant to all and minister freely as the ministers of the Gospel who dwelt dwell in the Light do afore-time did but before you do so you must turn from the broad way where the Lust Pride Pompe Covetousnesse earthly-mindednesse and vain glory of the world hath so much liberty in you and cease persecution take up the crosse to your wills Learn to know the bridle for your tongues And let the Issue of lyes and slanders be stopped c. that the stone may be set upon the neck and head of deceit Cook in his second part Institutes saith Before the Councell of Hateran Tythes were free or then any man might have given his Tythes to what spirituall person he would and it was provided at the Councell of Laterean c. that Tythes c. should be given to the Rector or Parson of the parish c. under pretence that he that gave spiritual food should reap temporal so farr as I gather see Cookes second part Institute about fol. 641. Here the Popes and their Priests Rectors c. it seemes like you they could call themselves spirituall men and Ministers Rectors c. as you do and they claimed or took Tythes and publick maintenance under pretence of Ministring spirituall things as