the increase of Errors there and that there was a woman Preacher there who â—ents many Heresies as that the Scriptures were not the word of God that the drowning of the old World and story of Noah were not true there were no such things with other things of that nature July the eighth a godly Minister lately of this City told me in the presence and hearing of other Ministers as a certain truth this story That at a house in Red-crosse street or thereabouts there met some Sectaries where some forty persons being present one of then exercised his gifts and in his exercise preached these Doctrines 1. That Jesus Christ was not God not the Son of God 2. That the Scriptures were not the word of God and brought many arguments to prove it 3. That the souls of men dye with their bodies Now as he was delivering these points there was a woman present that wept bitterly speaking words to this effect If this Doctrine be true what shall I do I have many yeers beleeved in Jesus Christ and hoped to be saved but now what will become of me Which words this blasphemous Sectary taking notice of said good woman you need not be troubled for though Christ be not God neither any certainty of the Scripture being the word of God yet if you live honestly and modestly you shall do well enough besides this fellow said there are two Witnesses or Prophets coming shortly that will bring Scriptures with them and then you and I shall know what to do and to beleeve There is an Independent who came some yeers ago out of new-New-England and is made a Captaine here who left a wife and many children there and after he was come over never sends nor writes to his wife nor takes no care for theâ—r subsistence but as it seems by Letters written to new-New-England and from thence this Captaine hath been sometimes neer the marrying others here in England in so much as a Letter was written to him bâ—one whom I suppose an Elder at the desire of the Church to deale with him about it which Letter I have read as also a Letter from his wise wherein she wonders she could not hear from him and prayes him to consider in what state he left her and those children and how unable both she and they are for any inployment and for to show the truth of this Relation I shall give the Reader a true copie of the Letter sent him out of new-New-England which is as followes Captaine and beloved Brother HAving an opportunity I embraced it to write unto you being also desired by the Church we earnestly desiâ—ing your good in the Lord. I wonder that you would never sens a word neither to my self nor any friend of yours we knew not whether to write unto you untill this opportunity Your wife is yet a live and never received word nor penny from you And which is most sadde we are informed by two Letters that you have been sometimes ready to marry others which you know is very evill and condemned by the Law of England as well as by the Law of God we hope you will take it to heart together with your forgetfulnesse of your wife and children It showes that your heart is declined from God and we hold it our duty to recover you if we can by the blessing of God upon the meanes we shall use Good Sir take some time to consider of your wayes the time will come when you must give account for them to the great Judge of all We shall expect to hear an answer from you concerning this businesse for God calls us to purge his Church from such evils as these are Thus with my love unto you and prayers to the Lord to recover you and humble you I rest Your loving friend Richard Blinman Glocester in New-England December 4. 1645. THere is one Sir Worts who being newly Bachelor of Arts came down into Norfolke and would have had such a place in Norfolke which some of the godly Ministers thought him not fit to take the Cure of upon him being so young having so lately commenced Bachelor whereupon this young youth being angry at the Ministers for missing the place the next newes the godly Ministers heard was that he was turned Independent had gathered a Church and people running eight or ten miles after him with a great deale of violence crying him up and amongst other of his converts that turned Independents and followed this Worts a godly Minister of that Country told me one of his Parish who would lie often in blind Alehouses and be often drunk being not admitted by him to the Lords Supper but being wished by this Minister to repent and give some testimonies of it before he came upon non-admittance turned Independent presently and followed this Worts but a while after this man was struck sick on a Munday dying on the Friday or Saturday after and would not admit his Minister to come at him but sent for Worts and in his sicknesse lay all the while speaking and extolling the Church-way to all who came to see him but not doing any thing which concerned a man in that case who had been guilty of so great sinnes and so died A godly Minister told me that he knew an old man an Anabaptist that lived at Ashford in Kent or thereabouts who will bee drunken and when he is drunk then he will weep much and bewaile the blindnesse of the Church of England About May last I was told it by two or three good witnesses that a Souldier belonging to the Army and one who had been a Dipper came not long before that to a Town in Bedfordshire called Ravensdowne and got up into the â—â—lpit against the will of the Minister preaching for Universall Grace against Poedobaptisme against Tyths whereupon for preaching whether the Minister would or no one of the Town fetcht a Warrant for him against he came down from the Pulpit to bring him before a Knight a Justice of Peace of that County and when he came before him he gave him uncivill words and carried himself disrespectively telling him that if he committed him he should be fetcht forth with honour and to the Justices dishonour but the Justice binding him over to the Sessions and being brought thither desiring some exemplary justice against him for contempt of his authority a Letter came from some Commander I am not sure who for to send his Souldier to him and so as the story was told me the Justices released him and let him go An honest godly man of good understanding told me lately that one being spoken unto about sending the Army into Ireland he said there should not go six parings of the nails of Sir Thomas's Army into Ireland though it were lost ten times over better that lost then England hazarded by sending away the Army At Hampden in Buckinghamshire there is one Potter a Smith who hath been a souldier and is come out
of their Faith as one Goodman Goffery Master Harrington upon questioning with Master Denn spak of committing him to Lincoln to which he replyed He cared not but this he took ill to be molested in his way and told the Justice he was bound to the Committee of Examinations upon a Bond of two hundred pounds to appear before them at any time at four and twenty hours warning and he made use of that as an argument against his troubling of him to whom Master Harrington replyed How can you do that appear before the Committee aâ— so short a warning when as you are now almost a hundred miles from London This Master Harrington a Justice of Peace and a religious man told me he had had several Anabaptists before him upon several occasions and they have alwayes refused to take an oath saying they would not swear There is one Beedle of Glocestar sometimes School-master there who denies the Holy Ghost to be God had a Manuscript by him of his own making pleading against the Third Person of the Trinity which being known some in Authority in that Town questioned him and getting this manuscript have sent up either the Originall or a true Coppy to some in Authority and place here but the last newes I heard of him he hath not been questioned as yet by those above Bishop Vsher that learned and godly Divine coming this summer through Gloster spake with him and used him with all fairnesse and piety as well as strength of Arguments to convince him of his dangerous Errour A Minister of the City of Glocester told me the Bishop laboured to convince him telling him that either he was in a damnable Errour or else the whole Church of Christ who had in all ages worshiped the Holy Ghost had been guilty of Idolatry but the man was no whit moved either by the learning gravity piety or zeal of the good Bishop but continued obstinate There is one Andrew Debman an Anabaptist and a Preacher among them a Cooper by trade a sorry fellow that can neither write nor read and yet is a great Preacher among the Sectaries This blind Bayard would fain Preach in the Parish Church of Algate saying if they would let him Preach there his Sermon would be worth the Parish five pounds by a collection for their poor from his followers and he hath further said if they doubt of his ability to Preach let them give him a text at the Church door when he is going in to Preach and he would Preach of that whereby they should see what he could do and one speaking to him concerning a City Colonell if he would be a member of their Church he would make a good member among them this Debman replyed that for his part he beleeved if this forenamed Colonell would give all his Lands and Estate he could not be received into their Church There was a great Sectary who had his wife lay a dying and she did die of that sicknesse to whom some wel-affected neighbour spake that he should in this dangerous case pray for his wife he answered what good would prayer do her or you either you think prayer will do much good I had this relation from them to whom he spake it An Alderman of this City and a moderate man so acknowledged by the Independents not long since received a Letter from Newcastle concerning our Brethren of Scotland which Letter he shewed to some Common Councell men and other Citizens and the Letter was written from an Independent in Newcastle to this Alderman wherin he confesses that the Scots have dealt very faithfully with the King and told him That if he would not Sign the Propositions he must expect no help from them and that they would keep to their Covenant and not desert the Parliament of England with words to that effect I saw the Originall Letter and I read it twice over written from a Townsman of Newcastle a man of some place there to an Honorable member of the House of Commons wherein he complains that in Newcastle all was like to runne to ruine for want of Government and from the faction of the Independents there that their good Ministers were so abused and discouraged by them that they would not stay but had left them or were going away as Master Prideaux and Doctor Jenison some Independent Preachers sent thither will neither Baptize Children nor administer the Lords Supper but say they came not thither to do such drudgery this was twice repeated in the Letter Doctor Jenison was sent for thither again but for a stale and he acquaints this Parliament man that the Independents have a designe one way or other either by threatning some men to give their voices or by pretending some reasons to try to get an Ordinance to bring in a man for Major this year who is a Sectary but he desires this Honourable Member of the House of Commons to stand their Friend in the House and hopes that seeing we have fought for Liberty that town shal have their liberty in free choice of a Burgesse for Parliament and of a Major the chief Officer of their Town This Gentleman also complaines in his Letter that without so much as ever acquainting the free Burgesses or once calling a Common-Councell an Ordinance was procured to appoint an Independent Deputy Major which if we should have done so as the Independent party did what out-cries would there have been of breach of Liberty Upon this Letter being communicated to me I asked a worthy Member of the House of Commons why the Scots would suffer in Newcastle the Independents to domineer so and abuse the godly Orthodox Ministers and not teach them better manners he answered the Scots because of giving offence were tender of medling in any thing with the Civil Government but rather suffered these things so much against their minds that they might give no occasion of complaint There is one Master Erbâ—ry spoken of in my first part of Gangraena who about June or the beginning of July last as he was going to Wales lay at Marlbrough one night and being in the Town he came to a house where commonly once a week many good people of that Town meet together to confer and discourse of good things and there Master Erbury spake to them many being there present to this purpose that he knew not what they might expect but he came neither to pray nor to preach but to learn of Christ and of his Saints and making a discourse to them he declared his opinions venting himself against Christ being God affirming he was only man pleading for universall Redemption speaking against Baptism all ministry using words to this effect that he knew not how they stood affected or how it was with them but with many Christians it was thus with them that they knew not what to do without a man in black cloathes or a black man among them but that was for the time when Christians were
the Socinians One of the Dutch Ministers of this Town told me when we were speaking of this purpose that a Book-seller said to him that sundry English Merchants were seeking to buy the works of Socinus Ostorodius Oniedinus Crellius and especially Socinus de servatore and when the Book-seller answered that they could not have those books in those Countries because they are discharged by Ordinance of the Generall States the Merchants said unto him Neverthelesse you may bring them from other Countries and we will give you for them what you will whereupon that Minister when he told me this said The Estate of England is lamentable for it seemeth that Socinianisme waxeth there for this practice and that excepting at the word is too great evidence thereof I heare also that Master Simons hath written unto his Congregation here very confidently that Toleration shall be granted even with these terms In spight of them who have enterprised the contrary Wherefore beloved Brethren I humbly beseech you to let me know the certainty of this matter that if possible I may give satisfaction unto wel-affected persons who think this excepting at that word to import no lesse then a condemning of or at least a departing from the Orthodox Confessions of all the Reformed Churches If in this or any other particular Occurrents it will please you to give me intelligence you may direct your Letters unto R. W. who is a Skipper and comes usually betwixt London and this Town wherein you shall do good unto many and especially unto Octob. 13. 23. 1646. Your Loving Brother There is one Andrew Wyke of the County of Suffolk a Mechanick but turned a great Preacher and Dipper who for his Preaching and Dipping being brought before the Committee of that County carried himself like Lilburne Overton and other fellow Sectaries refusing to answer the Chair-man any questions as whether he had been at the University saying I am a free man and not bound to answer to any Interrogatory I will answer to no Interrogatory either to accuse my self or any other besides he gave reproachfull words reproving the Committee as You may think to speak what you please now with such other language This Wyke or some other Sectary hath printed a Pamphlet call'd The Innocent in Prison complaining or A true Relation of the proceedings of the Committee at Ipswich the Committee at Bury St. Edmunds in the County of Suffolk against one Andrew Wyke a witnesse of Jesus in the same County who was committed to Prison June 3. 1646. In which Pamphlet the Committee and divers Members of it by name are abused resembling them to the Jewes who condemned Christ and himself to Christ and the Committee is exclaimed upon fearfully pag. 10. There is one Katherine Chidly an old Brownist and her sonne a young Brownist a pragmaticall fellow who not content with spreading their poyson in and about London goe down into the Country to gather people to them and among other places have been this Summer at Bury in Suffolke to set up and gather a Church there where as I have it from good hands they have gathered about seven persons and kept their Conventicles together who being one night very late together about their Church-affairs a mad woman breaking from her Keeper and running out of the house she was kept in happened to light upon the house where this company was and stood up in the entry of the house they being upon dissolving their meeting and going to their severall homes as they were going out there stood this woman in her smock in the entry speaking never a word which when they saw they ran over one another for fear of this white devill some one way some another almost frighted out of that little wit they had Gaffar Lanseter of Bury for so he was unlesse he hath commenced Master by preaching whom I have spoken of in the Second Part of Gangraena was a great man with Katherine Chidly and her sonne and is left Preacher to that company of Sectaries in their room and I have great reason to think by the Epistle to the Reader that Katherine Chidly and her sonne made that Book call'd Lanseters Launce because Katherine Chidly and her sons Books for the mother and the son made them together one inditing and the other writing are highly magnified and the brasen-faced audacious old woman resembled unto Jael but as for Lannâ—ters Launce for my Gangrana I shall shew it to be made not of iron or steele in no sort able or usefull to lance or enter the Gangraena but a lance of brown painted paper fit for children to play with and to assure the Reader of it I received this last week a Message to this purpose from one of the Ministers who gave intelligence about Lanseter that he was about perfecting the proofes and particulars about Lanseters businesse and I should shortly hear from him and within this two dayes a godly understanding man who was present at this meeting when Lanseter preached upon Ezra gave me an account of the businesse of the truth of the whole and hath put me in a way whereby under the hands of persons present at the meeting I may have it confirmed and so among the confutations of some other Pamphlets I shall insert this of Lanseters There is one John Hall a great Sectary who hath vented many erroneous Positions in some parts of Barkshire and thereabouts I had a copy of them from a Reverend Minister of the Assembly and in the Second Part of Gangraena in the Catalogue of Errors such Errors as he vented viz. such as were not reckoned up in the First Part of Gangraena were there inserted by me though he was not named at all in that Book but now discovering in severall Counties more Sectaries then I did formerly in the First and Second Parts I have thought good to name him among many others that the people of those parts may beware of him and shun him as a dangerous man concerning whom I received a Letter from a godly Minister in Barkshire which is as followes Sir THat I may not be wanting to the Cause of God or my promise to you I sent the last week to speak with Master F. but failed of a full answer he not being within but thus much I received that Master S. had been there and that he had taken a Copy of the Positions so that if you have any acquaintance with him he can fully inform you about this matter He is one of the Synod a Reverend and Orthodox Divine I shall send to Master F. again and when I understand more if I see just cause you shall hear further from me The Teacher of these things is one John Hall sometimes of Colebrooke but as I am informed now resident in or about Henley upon Thames Thus desiring the Lord both to direct and prosper your labours in vindicating the Truth of God and opposing Heresies I rest Yours in the Lord Christ Aâ—gust
Commons the Knights and Burgesses assembled in Parliament by the voluntary choyce and free election of the people thereof with whom and in whose just defence I le live and die maugre the malice of the House of Lords and in page 18. he in way of deâ—ision calls the Lords House the Superlative House and speaking of the Lords laughing at his answers he saith of that House such carriage such a Court For indeed Comedies Tragedies Masks and Playes are more fit for such idle kind of men And above all other Demonstrations of the outragious insolencies of the Sectaries against the House of Peeres let the Reader peruse that Pamphlet entituled An Anatomy of the Lords tyranny and injustice exercised upon Lieutenant Colonel Lilburne which is throughout insolent both for matter and manner particularly page 12 13. Lilburne writes that he being in the painted Chamber desired Master Brisco one of his Keepers to go and tell the Lords from him that seeing they had the impudencie and boldnesse to tread the Lawes and Liberties of England under their feet and did so contemne and undervalue the authority of the Honorable House of Commons to whom he had appealed as yet to go on in their illegall courses with him with whom by Law they had nothing to doe that he must be forced in the highest nature he could to contemne and despise their proceedings and therefore was resolved not to come to their Bar without a forcible compulsion and to come in with his hat on his head and to stop his eares when they read his charge in detestation and bearing witnesse against their usurpations and injustice page 14 15. Lilburne writes he thus spake to the Lords And my Lords I tell you to your faces that by right the House of Commons are your Judges as well as mine in this case and I doe not doubt but to live to see the day that they will make you to know whether you will or no that they are so and of their justice and protection I doe not in the least doubt And therefore my Lords seeing you have dealt so illegally and tyrannically with me as you have done I now bid defiance to your power and malice to doe the worst you can And therefore my Lords I protest here before the God of Heaven and earth if you shall be so unworthy as to persevere in endeavouring the destruction of the fundamentall Lawes and Liberties of England as at present you doe I will venture my life and bloud against you to oppose you with as much zeale and courage as ever I did any of the Kings party that you set us together by the eares with page 21. Lilburne saith all his catriage and expressions before the House of Lords in the case now betwixt them to be as justifiable by the Law of this Kingdome and in the eyes of all understanding men as for a true and just man to draw his sword and cut the theif or rogue that sets upon him upon the high-way on purpose to rob him of his life and goods and in page 23. hee earnestly beseeches the Honorable Committee to remember the Commoners and improve all their interest to punish or at least effectually to curb the Lords House Thus the Sectaries in their Petitions and all their Pamphlets printed speaking of the Lords House and of their proceedings they give such kind of termes as these Barbarous Tyrannicall Arbitrary Illegall unjust dealings worse then the unjust Stat-chamber it selfe Insolent unheard of usurpations intrusions and many such like And in divers Pamphlets now of late the Parliament being spoken of is understood only the Commons of England they call'd the Parliament by way of exclusion of and opposition to the H. of Peers and Books written on purpose and dispersed given freely to stir up the people to adhere to the Comons as considered apart and distinct in interest power from the Lords with unworthy reflections upon the Lords as The last warning to all the Inhabitants of London p. 7. Mind your own good and cleave fast to the House of Commons let no sorcery or sophistry divide you from them the Lords are not to go before the Commons in determining what concerns the Nations their large answer to your last City Petition for Church-government and suppression of Conventicles insinuates they would allure you from the Commons therefore observe them watchfully and trust them accordingly So A word in season to all sorts of well-minded people in this distracted Nation with Answers to the City Remonstrance and divers other Pamphlets 4. The Sectaries have been guilty of and daily are of abusing contemning and taking away the power of the House of Commons given it by the Lawes Constitutions and Customes of this Kingdome and though in many Pamphlets especially this last yeere they cry up the House of Commons and seeme to give them not only their owne power but the power of the King and House of Lords making both them meere ciphers yet it will be found by many of their principles laid downe they have destroyed the House of Commons and doe break their Priviledges speak their pleasure of them both by words and writing as often as they please Many Pamphlets and whole Books have beene written by Sectaries against the House of Commons it selfe and not only against Committees or particular Members charging the House with tyranny injustice oppression horrible pride seeking of particular interests Arbitrary Governm 〈…〉 breaking of Magna Charta and going against the Liberties of the subject resembling them to the Star-chamber High Commission Court to Strafford and Canterbury refusing to answer any questions upon the command of the House scorning to Petition the Commons either to sue for their favour or to acknowledge their justice and after such favour shown as to release without petitioning yet taxing them with dishonesty and demanding reparations for imprisonment for the abundant proofe of which I referre the Reader to many Pamphlets written by Sectaries as Englands Birthright The Copie of a Letter from Lieutenant Colonel Lilburne to a friend Lilburnes Innocency and truth justified Englands lamentable slavery with other Letters printed about that time Another word to the wise written by M. John Musgrave A Pamphlet entituled An exact collection of the Parliaments Remonstrances Declarations c. A Remonstrance of many thousand Citizens and other free borne people of England to their owne House of Commons out of which I shall faithfully transcribe some passages that the insolencies of the Sectaries against the House of Commons may be observed Lilburn in his Letter to his freind writes thus page 1 2. That Master Corbit being in the chaire and telling him he was commanded by the House to demand a question of him Lilburn instead of answering him desired to know the cause of his commitment and M. Corbit replying the House was not bound to declare unto him the cause of his commitment thereupon Lilburne answered Then I have beene a long
of the Sectaries in their writings against the Presbyterians the Assembly godly Ministers the Scots and particular persons by name have done it in the most scornfull prophane blasphemous and abusive way even to the abusing of the Scriptures the Spirit of God Proaching Prayer and other Ordinances as ever was heard of in any age witnesse The Arraignment of Persecution Martins Eccho Cretensis and divers others but in my Discoveries of the Errors Heresies Practises of the Sectaries I have shunned all such wayes setting my selfe plainly to discover the Errors and abominable Practises confuting them with Scriptures and Reason and in a serious sad manner applying the danger of those evils to the consciences of all both Presbyterians and Sectaries and thus much for removing that stone of offence out of the way taken from the manner and way of writing 2. For the matter of this Booke that there 's a Truth in the Opinions Stories Practices related in it notwithstanding the clamours and speeches of the Sectaries that they are lyes all lyes I desire the Reader to observe and remember these following particulars 1. That the Sectaries of our time are so shamelesse in this kind as to say all things written against them are lyes thus they have said the stories of the old Anabaptists in Germany written by Sleydan Bullinger Lambertus Hortens 〈…〉 s other worthy men were lyes and they would not beleeve them so Master Saltmarsh in one of his Pamphlets against Master Ley denies the truth of those stories and other Sectaries in Pamphlets before him have said the same affirming if the King had over-come the Parliament stories would have made them as bad as the Anabaptists and the Princes of Germany prevailing against them set men on work to set them out so but all was false Now if our Sectaries will speak and write thus of all the relations of the old Anabaptists how can it be expected but that they will cry all downe for false written of themselves So our Sectaries will not beleive the stories of the Antinomians Anabaptists Familists in New England of Mistris Huchinson and the rest but say all is false all lyes and some of them have cryed out of Master Wells his Booke of the Antinomians of New England as much as of mine 2. The truth of the maine substance and matter of this Booke both for opinions and matters of fact is in the Booke it selfe by quoting Books knowne to hundreds by naming of persons knowne for witnesses by relating of things common in the times and these set by the Errors in the Margents or joyned to the matter so manifest that he that runs may read it and rationally there can be no more question made of them then whether the Scots tooke New-Castle the Parliaments Forces had a Victory at Nazeby Feild there be such a man as M. Hugh Peters or John Lilburn 3. That the Sectaries have used devices and found out inventions on purpose to possesse people that relations of things in my Books are false when most true as for instance some Sectaries that have been of the same name of those Sectaries that I have related stories of though they could not but know by many circumstances and particulars in the stories they were not the men but others have said Ther 's a story related of me I am the man he speaks of and t is all false for I was at such a place then and could not do so thus one Webb an Officer in the Army did telling the people in the West where he found Gangraena that the story of Webb was of him I am that Webb in Gangraena and 〈◊〉 all false I never preached such things nor was ever questioned about such things or did such things related This a godly Minister in the â—â—st of England told me he heard one Webb an Officer in the Army speak thus to the people to possesse them against Gangraena Now I writ not of that Webb but another Webb a younger man here in London not one of the Army who put out a Booke for the vindication of himselfe where he confesses most of the things and this other Webb could not but by many passages related as of the age as of being a Schoole-Master as of the Christian name and divers others but know well enough I meant him not and yet by this did he labour to blast my Book Again some who having beene mentioned in Letters written up to friends and printed by me have come to my house denying peremptorily those things spoken of them in the Letters desiring to know who writ them that they might have â—eparations I having told them their names withall writing to those Ministers to know more fully their grounds of such relations they have returned 〈…〉 e Answers that those things were most true and they would make them good when ever they should question them in which kind I could give divers notable instances but the nature of a Preface not admitting many I will relate only one namely of Master Mascall of Dover spoken of in a Letter sent from Dover subscribed by five hands to a Member of the Assembly printed in the Second Part of Gangraena in p. 135. of the Second Edition who presently after the coming forth of that Book coming to my house with a friend of his and mine formerly denyed positively and peremptorily what was written of him in the Letter declaring he was of another judgement then to speak so of our Ministers and Synods as is expressed in that Letter holding our godly Ministers to have a lawfull calling and Synods to be needfull wherupon I writing to one of the Ministers all passages that passed betweene us and desiring to know what he said to it he sent me this Answer Worthy Sir I received your Letter dated June the 18. but could not conveniently Answer it till now because I would see the carriages of the Independents on last wednesday when we chose our Elders What we wrote of Master Mascall we can cleare and will maintaine and much more and according to your advice you shall not faile of sufficient testimony if that Letter be crossed whereas he saith that he holds our godly Ministers to have a lawfull calling he will not say it in Dover till he have distinguished the word godly into a shadow For his saying they never kept Church-meetings in time of the publicke exercises it s a very false untruth and for his seeming to accord with us in our account of Synods he knows that we hold it a duty to combine Churches and to have a combination rule the Elders and Pastor of a Congregation which we know they will never allow Thus much in breife for Master Mascall who I dare say will not challenge any man in Dover for that that is done against him or if he doth will find as ready an Answer as ever man received by man Your loving friend and Brother MICH. PORTER June 29. 1646. And thus much for
that kind beene at few meetings of that nature and do professe I am so farre from being ambitious in that way that I should account it a great happinesse to have a call to a place only to preach and write and a yeerely Pension for the maintenance rather then Tyths Thirdly I began to write my Gangrenaes and have continued to write on since which time I have beene accused to do all out of policie worldly interest in the times of the growth and raigne of the Sectaries when they have beene in their greatest power and most formidable able to sit on the skirts and to crush those who have opposed them of which there are many instances which I well knew and to preferre and honor those who adhered to them and yet in such a time have I writ against them and more and more laid them open which certainly could be no policie worldly interest but piety and duty to appeare in so open a manner against the rising side I well knew the Sectaries strengh policie activnes and how England was a bad Aire at that time and still is for zealous Presbiterians to thrive in much might be lost by it but nothing gained I understood the faithfull witnesses had not yet put off their sackcloch had I indeed written against the Sectaries when they had beene on the declining hand and cast out as the Bishops when all men in high places had turned their hand against them this might have beene interpreted Policy wordly Interest but to do it in a time when the Sectaries had so many friends in high places such an influence upon our Armies Councels c. so many for them in City and Country I beleive no wise man who considers it will call it Selfseeking or Policy I may say in this case as Job in another Is there any taste in the white of an Egge So is there any Policy in what I have done 4. I have beene so farre from getting any thing by my open and earnest appearing against the Sects that I have suffered and lost much and am exposed to all sorts of hazards and dangers for so doing I beleeve I have suffered more in my name Estate losse of Friends c. then any Sectarie in England hath done for maintaining and spreading his Errors I could have beene the darling of the Sectaries in regard of my former Interest and acquaintance with many of them so I would but have held my peace and done them no hurt though I had not beene theirs I could have had more friends among the Presbyterian party to have beene more moderate as they call it for such a time have we fallen into of Luke warmnesse and favour of Sectaries that the being earnest against them hath made some who goe for Presbyterians not to owne me as otherwise they would for feare of being taken notice of but I have lost all them and many friends more that had some relation to Independents having been deserted of many with whom I had kept unviolable friendship a long time I have suffered by that party in some places in the City where I have beene sought unto and earnestly desired by the knowne godly party I having beene kept out by the Sectaries meanes either by joyning together with Malignants against me or taking off some friends or working one way or other I have suffered much in my name all manner of evill having beene spoken of me having beene reviled scorned every Sectaries hand turned against mee been for a signe to be spoken against O the â—ard speeches and contradictions not only of sinners but of many Saints to that I have endured I have been threatned in many kinds and there have been consultations what to do with me Lawyers have beene advised with what might be done in Law in such cases of men being named the Parliament hath beene stirred up in severall Pamphlets against me as in Gangraena playes Rex Walwyns and Saltmarsh's Pamphlets they would upon pretences make the Parliament fall upon me and have said they hoped the House of Commons would be at leisure ere long to talk with me and besides what I have suffered and doe suffer I looke upon my selfe as exposed to many dangers and sufferings running a great hazard in this undertaking I know there are some desperate men among them like the Circumcelliones among the Donatists and what may not they doe if God restrain them not I am not ignorant what a strong party they have what a proud generation they are impatient of all contradiction and being crossed to whose Sheafe they think all Sheafes should bow nor what a subtile malitious revengefull people they are I am sensible what t is at this time to lay them thus open even as much as to catch an angry Lion by the beard and to stop him in his way rearing after his prey or as to meet with a chafed Beare robbed of her whelps and therefore in stead of once dreaming of worldly interest the favour of men I have laboured to prepare my self for persecutions and troubles to forecast the worst having set God and his Truth for my helpe which are stronger then all 5. I have beene so farre from Policy Selfe-Interest in wrighting against the Sectaries that I was never guilty of these things in any way I ever appeared for I never was the man since I came to years of understanding that ever put the question which was the strongest and the rising side they never fell under my deliberation but which was the good side for God and his Truth that was enough to me I looked to that and never troubled my thoughts about rising or great things in the world as never expecting them and in my adhering to one party or side before another I have still done it but so farre as they have beene for God and his Truth freely declaring my selfe at the same time I have beene theirs against wherein they have declined from the Truth and way of God 6. Whereas the Sectaries cast Policy worldly-Interest c. upon me they themselves are most faulty in this kind and if the Independents Churches and Lectures with other their worldly Interests be compared with mine their hundreds with my scores their applause being cryed up with my being cryed downe their living in pompe and feasting almost every day with my slender diet their ease with my labours it will be found many of them fell to be Sectaries out of ambition pride profit and that they might live easily Calvin in his Instruction against Libertines showes the reason why Quintinus and his companions of Taylors became Doctors were so changed that they might live delicatly and easily and not be put to labour for their Livings They thought it better for them that as the Priests and Monks got their Livings by chanting so they by prating and so no question one great reason of many Mechanicks turning preachers and Dippers is because they may leave working and live delicatly
of the Armies that is a preacher there and drawes away many people and though the Minister of the place did yeeld much to give him and others content in being willing to joyn with him and others to keep away scandalâ—us persons promising to watch over one another giving â—ree leave to this Potter and others to except and object any thing against him or others admitted to the Lords Supper yet nothing would give them content but this Potter and many others whom he hath drawn away meet in Separated meetings on the Lords day will pay no Tithes A godly Minister told me August 18. that some souldiers belonging to Colonell Iretons Regiment quartering but two nights in his Parish infected many he had rather have given a great deal of mony then they should have come thither He saith they be generally Arminians and sate with their hats on in Prayer Singing of Psalmes One of these souldiers told a godly woman in his Parish that if she did not beleeve Christ died for all she should be damned There is one John Durance spoken of in the Second part of Gangrana who was apprentise to a Washball-maker at the Three Herrings in Lumbard-street who after preaching some years without being ordained Minister doth now presume without any ordination to Baptize and administer the Lords Supper against which high presumption God hath lately witnessed by making one in this kind a fearfull example in York-shire which story most true and certain with the particulars of it I intend to give the reader in a Tractate of a Catalogue of the judgements of God upon the Se-Sectaries within these four last years Now this Master Durance besides preaching at Canterbury in one of the Churches hath gathered a Church to which in one of the Prebends houses wherein he dwels he preaches and administers the Lords Supper in the evening this man at Sandwich prayed strangly concerning the King as the Reader may remember and being spoken to about it he was so farre from repenting that he added this That he hoped ere long to see the King fettered in Newgate which I hearing could hardly beleeve a man should speak so wickedly of the King and therefore write down i 〈…〉 o Kent to enquire of the truth of it of them to whom it was spoken and I had this Answer returned me in a Letter that Master G. a Jurate of Sandwich had averred no lesse then what it should seem you have heard already concerning him Besides this Durance preaching presently after the newes of the surrender of Oxford said That for all that there would be no Peace till there were a generall Liberty of Conscience in England In Kent not fâ—rre from Greenwich there is a feirce Independent one Master Larkin a man of wh 〈…〉 I have heard many things both of his preaching aod conversation concerning whom there are many Letters come from New England attested with many hands writing of his ill behaviour and the scandals that are upon him there besides many passages related of his preaching here against the Assembly Ministery and of his carriage in severall particulars but I shall speake no further of him at this time There is one Master Powell at Dartmouth in Kent a great Sectary he sometimes preached in Crooked-lane where he vented many erroneous things and â—ow does a great deal of hurt in those parts of Kent There was a neighbour Minister a godly man that being behind in paying some of his Taxes being deeply taxed one imployed to gather up monies unpaid coming to him for monies not paid he demanded 〈◊〉 shillings for his charges in coming and used these words You are one that oppose Master Powell and if the Minister would not pay whatever he demanded would straine his Cowes There is one Brabson in Middlesex about Han 〈…〉 ll a great Sectarie and Preacher he preaches much against Tithes and broaches many Errours some of the Middle 〈◊〉 Ministers have told me of such a man and I am promised a full account of the man There is one Cornwell in Kent an Anabapeist who hath put forth divers Pamphlets one against Baptizing of Children others lately printed Dedicated to particular members of the House of Commons The first pamp 〈…〉 called The vindication of the royall Commission of King Jesus set forth about three years ago was given to divers Members at the doore of the House of Commons In which Book this Cornwell brands all the Reformed Churches and the whole Christian world at this day which Baptize their children with the odious name of an Anti-christian Faction There is one Master Blackwood about the Wild of Kent an Anabaptist who hath write about a yeare and a halse ago a Book called The storming of Antichrist the subject matter being against Poedobaptisme and for Liberty of Conscience so called wherein as I remember he is for a universall Toleration except it be in Blasphemy and denying the Scriptures to be the word of God but about a year ago a godly Minister told me he speaking with him about that book and about his limitations and whether he was of that judgement still he told him he had received thanks for that book from a great Commander in the army for so far as he had gone right but wished him to re-collect his thoughts whether be was not out in those limitationâ— bounds so that said M. Blackwood I am somewhat unsatisfied in my former limitations doubting whether there ought not to be a universall Toleration without any of those bounds and in a book since printed he is against any restraint in the c 〈…〉 of Blasphemy and denying the Scriptures retracting his â—ormer distinctions There is one Master Niobâ—las Davison of New-England who came over from New-England with accounts amounting to a good s 〈…〉 e which he was to give here in London and landing in the West at that time when all the West was in the Enemies power for feare of loosing his accounts and being taken durst not venture to come up to London but lived in Barstable unknown almost three quarters of a year which being then one of the Kings Garrisons he was glad to conceale himselfe they not knowing whence be came nor what he was now being sometimes in the company of the Cavaliers and of some of their Schollars he heard them often speaking among themselves of the Independents and of the differences among us and they spake to one another not thinking he took notice that there were from severall Colledges beyond the Seas Jesuites come over they named their names and the places from whence they came to act the pitts of Independents and Sectaries to blow up the difference and contention Now when the West was open and this man got faâ—â— to London he told this to divers to a godly Citizen among â—â—hers who acquainted me with it and this Master Davison being spoken to by some Independents as being a New-England man to go to Guildhall upon some businesse when some
he which broached the Error had done in promoting it for he did beleeve a man might serve God better in an Error then he who was in the truth Here is a brave Patron of Error and a fine fetch to plead for and uphold it for if Errour must not be condemned till men have taken so much paines it may never be spoken against or at least not till 't is grown to such a head that 't is past help For a Heretick who broaches any Doctrine against the Scripures the Trinity the humane nature of Christ Justification may say to him who opposes these Doctrines I have studied this twenty yeares these points when you have studied them as long then preach 〈◊〉 against them but not before Besides this implies as if Ministers and Christians could not be sure any Doctrines were Errors without long searching whether they were so or no and as if there were no received known principls and Doctrines of Christian Religion lay'd down so plainly and clearly in Scriptures that when errors were published contrary to them Ministers and Christians might not condemne them at first but must study and search to know whether they were Errors or no which preaching fits well with many passages in some Books of Cretensis especially his thirtie eight Queres upon the Ordinance against Heresie and Blasphemie Secondly There are many thousand truths both to be beleeved and practised that are not contained in the Scriptures as that Jesus Christ Son of the Virgin Mary was the Son of God as the Resurrection from the dead as Baptizing of Infants womens receiving the Sacrament of the Lords Supper all which could not be proved by Scripture but by a strong hand of Reason deducing them Many other passages I have from good hands of Cretensis preaching of his preferring Reason before Faith in points of Religion of holding the sleeping of the soule till the Resurrection of bodies that dye not rising the same again with divers such but I shall reserve them with the proofs of them both persons times and places till my nex Answer comes out against him and shall now instance only in one Pamphlet lately set forth by him call'd some Modest and humble Quenes upon the late Ordinance against Heresies concerning which I may say as the Holy Ghost doth of Herods imprisoning John he hath added yet this above all to write such a wicked Pamphlet and at such a time there being not a more desperate ungodly Atheisticall peece written by any man since the Reformation I have had occasion to read many Discourses and Tractats of Libertines and Scepticks that have been writ within this last hundred years and have seen much wickednesse in them both in those of other Countries and our own especially those written and newly printed within five years last past but in none of them do I find all things considered such a spirit of Libertinisme Atheisme prophanesse and laying waste of all Religion breathing as in these Queres for besides those evill spirits of Error scoffing disorder confusion irreligion that works in all the other Queres ther 's a Legion of wicked and uncleane spirits seven fold worse then those that have been cast out in that second Quere wherein it will appear manifestly to all who compare the first part of the Ordinance with that Quere that all Christian Religion is overthrown at once yea that principle written in all mens hearts by nature that there is a God for doctrines and opinions contrary unto these for ought any knowes may be the sacred truths of God and the publishers of them our Brethren according to this Quere Now I challenge any man to shew me a more desperate destenctive passage in the writings of any Libertine or Sectary then this How hath the Lord left him to himself to write such Queries I remember that in my Second Part of Gangrana in that part of it which is a Reply to Cretensis in Page 35. I write thus That I feared unlesse God gave him repentance if hee lived but one seven years hee would prove as Arch an Heretick and as dangerous a man as ever England bred and that hee would be another David George Francken Socinus and behold within a few moneths not giving God glory to repent of his evill deeds but going on to write hee hath by these Queries made good what I prophesied of him and hath filled up the measure of his iniquities so that I beleeve hee hath justified Cornâ—â—rt Sebastian Franck Francken Sâ—cinus David George with all the rest of that rabble and I doe not think 't is lawfull for Christians to receive such a one into their house or to bid him God speed but rather if they come where he is to fly from him and not to stay as Saint John did from Câ—rinthus and for his writing of these Queries I think godly Ministers speaking of him may call him as Polycarpus did Marcion I hope some good hand will make Animadversions upon them and give an Answer to those Queries Now notwithstanding all the desperate opinions and principles he pleads for and the Independent separated Church that hee is Minister of there 's one opinion hee holds and practises accordingly different from the Independent way viz. That Baptisme belongs not onely to the Children of those who are added to a particular Church and that Ministers may not onely baptize the Children of Parents of their own Church but may baptize Children to whom they have no relation viz. in any Parish or place where they are desired and two honest Citizens told me they heard him preach That Baptisme was not a Church Ordinance that required the presence of the members of the Church but might be administred any where either in the same Congregation or in another place And I conceive though he be an Independent yet he holds this and some other things in his Church way different from the other Independents as for this Reason that he may be singular in his way and in something differ from them so that hee might keep a doore open for his profit and gain and hence 't is I have been informed from severall hands that as he is a zealous man for Funerall Sermons so he is a Baptizer generall baptizing in Stepney Parish Hackney severall Parishes of London and baptizes sometimes three or foure in a day going from one place to another and that 't is thought hee many times gets fifty shillings and three pound a day by baptizing children who are not of his Church and I have spoken with some women who have been at such baptizings and have seen the gold put into his hand which I must confesse is a good wise way to the maintenance allowed him by his Church to have this additionall means from them that are without for the more comfortable maintenance of his wife and children But by the way whilst Master Goodwin baptizes those who are not of his Church which surely hee doth noâ—
give out that they will never lay down their swords whilst ther 's a Priest in England Who write and print libells full stuffed with invectives and seditious speeches against the Right Honourable House of Peers undoubtedly a Court of Record the highest Court of Iudicature in this Kingdome Who make wicked libells and spread them abroad of Noble men and persons of great place by name as that religious and Noble Earle of Manchestor the Lord Major of London a whole Kingdome as Scotland and a whole City as London Who have endeavored and do by all wayes to involve these Kingdomes into a new War more deadly and destructive then the former And yet Anabaptists of our times are guilty of all these and many more as the Reader may sind proved in this Book and divers others written in these times Thirdly speaking of himself he saith He remaines now where he was for substance fifteen years since which I cannot judge to bee true no nor that he is the same for substance which he was seven years agoe and because I will be brief I will put but one question to Master Peters and that is whether fifteen years or but seven years agoe â—e was for a Toleration of â—ll sorts of Sects Anabaptists Antinomians Seekers Papists c. and thought so lightly of Errors and Heresies as now he does or whether he ever did or durst in New-England in the time of Anabaptists and Antinomians growing there preach such Sermons for a Toleration of them and speake so favourably of them as he hath done and doth here I am of the mind if any man should have told him fifteen or seven years agoe Master Peters the time shall come that you shall live in a Kingdome where all damnable Heresies and wicked doctrines shall be vented by printing preaching and you shall be so farre from seeking to suppresse and hinder them as that you shall make nothing of them preach for a Toleration of them cry them up for Saints who hold them plot act ride work night and day for the upholding of them he would have been very angry boisterous and have said as Hazael to the Prophet Am I a dog that I should do these things nay I am so well perswaded of Mr Peters that he was so farre fifteen years agoe from being of these opinions and running these wayes that I am confident 't is but a few years agoe since he is fallen thus and that the two things that have poysoned him are his being in the Army and his converse with some wicked Politicians of these times who upon matter of worldly interest being men of small and broken estates that they may be great and the Heads of a great party countenance and patronize all kind of abominable Sectaries not caring what becomes of Religion and who prophesies falsly so they may beare rule by that meanes Fourthly Speaking of turning his cheek to the smiter hee saith with Jeremy though he neither borrowes nor lends c. yet this may be his portion Now I wonder he can say so when aâ— his hand hath been against every man medling with all sorts of men a Polupragmaticall medling in the Armies with many abusing the Common Councell and the City of London the Assembly the Reformed Churches our Brethren of Scotland Committees the King and his children and indeed who not I could name particular persons of both Houses of whom he hath spoken his pleasure who have deserved a great deale better of him Fifthly There is an unjust and scandalous passage pag. 11. reflecting upon the City and their Remonstrance as if they remonstrated about their wills and not about things needfull and just grievances and as if the increase of the plague upon the City were for any neglect towards the Parliament whereas I would have Master Peters know and all his party the City of London could not do lesse and have but done their duty the Reformed Churches Scotland the body of this Kingdome and all who are not Independents and Independentish doe bear witnesse of the faithfulnesse of this City to the cause of God and the Parliament and this Remonstrance was so farre from being a matter of meer will as Master Peters words import that I am of the mind and I beleeve not alone in it that it will never be well with England till the City of London the Ministry of the Kingdome and all the Counties as one man make a plainer Remonstrance in a more particular way and manner of all the growing mischiefs and abominations in Church and Common-wealth desiring a speedy and effectuall redresse of them And as for his hinting the cause of the increase of the plague to come from the City Remonstrance or want of the Cities full consent to a match with the Parliament I dare boldly say of him in â—o saying He is a false Prophet a dreamer of dreams speaking the visions of his own heart and declaring false burdens and do offer from the word of God to make it good against Master Peters that if the City of London would oftner Remonstrate and Petition in this kind and use the power they have by their Charter and the Lawes in force to punish Hereticks and Sectaries and disturb their meetings the plague would sooner be removed from them Sixthly That also is a false and untrue Assertion That the design of the Army is onely to obey their Masters the Parliament the slighting the Army is their money triumphant chariots would have broke our necks understood in Master Peters sense viz. of that part of the Army the Sectaries for if it were so as he speakâ— what means the bleating of the sheep and the lowing of the oxen that I and many others hear If their only design be to obey their Masters the Parliament what 's the reason they break conte 〈…〉 their Ordinances viz. that against mâ—ns preaching not ordained Ministers that for the better observing of the Monethly Fast those for the setling of Presbyteriall Government c. What means those speeches of some of them If they knew the Countries mind as well as the Countries might know theirs they would have another kind of Reformation then the Parliament is about that they have not so long fought for liberty and now to be enslaved with many such like And if the slighting of the Army is their money and triumphant chariots would have broke their necks certainly they have then had little pay and their necks would have been broken long before now for never was Army better provided for since these warres with moneys recruits all kind of things and many particular men speciall persons of that party which Master Peters counts the Army have been well rewarded over and above pay c. And for triumphant chariots there have been men on purpose employed to provide them triumphant chariots weekly to carry them throughout the Kingdom and forraign parts in the weekly newes books wherein they have been lifted up to heaven in praises
uncleane c. Now by this the Reader may see the Sectaries agree not some excluding the Lords from all power because not chosen by the universality of the people others excluding the Commons from their power because chosen by the universall people so that according to Master Goodwins doctrine the Lords being of Noble Parentage and well bred not chosen by the rifâ—e raffe of the people Atheists Drunkards the prophane world may be fitter and have more Authority to nominate and appoint who shall be the men that shall order the affaires of Christs Kingdome then the Commons And thus have I set the Pharises and Sadduces one against the other Secondly I propound some Queres to Lilburne Overton c. to Answer against I set forth a fourth part of Gangraena 1. Quere If all subjection and obedience to Governors be founded only upon the parties immediate present election of them and not other wise whether then may any obedience so much as to appeare before answer any questions or submit be given to Justices of Peace Judges Keepers of the great Seale Sheriffs Committees c. who are not chosen by the people 2. Whether any obedience respect coming without resistance upon Warrants sent for may be performed to Majors of Townes or Deputy Majors not chosen by the Town where they serve but appointed by Ordinance of Parliament 3. Whe her if men remove from one Town to another where they had no hand in chusing Majors and Magistrates must they demand a liberty and power to chuse them before they will obey any of their commands and whether must all the young youths of a Town when they come to twenty one years â—or years of subjecting demand in the places where they live a power of chusing Aldermen or Burgesses of Townes before they can submit to them 4. Whether does not a constitution of a Government for such a people and Nation made by the wisdome of Ancestors some hun-hundred years before though not by election of the people one in every year or seven or more but founded upon such and such good Lawes and in succession of persons by birth and inheritance bind a people to obey and subject as well as if chosen by them 5. Suppose in formes of civill Government and constitution of Kingdomes every particular were not so good and exact as might be desired by some and possibly might be yet whether is not a peoples submitting and accepting that forme of Government many years togethera consenting to it and equivalent to a formall Election There is one John Price an Exchange man Cretensis beloved Disciple and one of his Prophets who among others preach for him when he hath any Book to Answer or some Libertine Tractate to set forth This man hath put forth three Pamphlets one about Independencies the other two Replyes or Answers one to the City Remonstrane the other to a Vindication of the Remonstrance in all which he shewes himself to be Schollar to Cretensis and somewhat allyed to Lilburne Overton and the rest of those Sectaries who give all the supreame power of this Kingdome to the House of Commons For in his City Remonstrance Remonstrated and in his moderate Reply he is against the City Remonstrance for giving only a share of the supreame power to the House of Commons and instead of three Estates the King Lords and Commons of which the fundamentall Constitution of the Government of this Kingdome is made up he holds there is but one and that the Commons for which hee gives his Reasons such as they be and puts Queres to the Author of the Justification of the City Remonstrance their scope being all along to give the whole supreame power and not only a part to the Commons Certainly these Books of Master Price were not written in the yeare 1645. but in the yeare 1646. that they agree so with Lilburne Overton c. And if I should use his Master Goodwins Argument against him here I wonder how hee would answer it Those who are chosen by the generality of the Land Worldlings drunkards uncleane persons are not fit to have the whole supreame power of the Kingdome and neither King nor Lords to have any part with them But so are the Commons of England chosen Ergo. Now both the major and the minor are his Tutor Goodwins only the major is stronger as I put it for if according to Master Goodwin because they are chosen by the Common people and not only by Saints they are uncapable of a part of the supreame power because there is an impossibility of a spirituall extraction out of a secular root then much more should they not have the whole supreame power And as this man is bold with the power of the King and Lords to exchange it and give it to the Commons so he is with the City the Court of Common-Councell calling the City Remonstrance made by the Common-Councell the disturber of the quiet and peace of the Church and State c. And so in page 13. 22. there are passages aspersing the Remonstrance and the Common-Councell This Master Price contents not himself to preach only in London but I heare of him by a godly Minister who was lately at Edmunds-Bury that he hath preached there in a house and a godly judicious Citizen told me and some others that he maintained to him some dangerous and hereticall opinions as that men might be saved who were not elected and that if men did improve nature well God would surely give them grace So that it seems this Exchange man sells other wares besides Independency and Separation and does as the Apostle Peter speaks with fained words make marchandize of mens soules Master Price also I suppose this Price was at a meeting here in London where some of severall Sects Seekers Antinomians Anabaptists Brownists Independents met with some Presbyterians to consider how all these might live together notwithstanding their severall opinions and he was as all the Sectaries were for a generall Toleration and they agreed together like buckle and thong only the Presbyterians were not satisfied There is one Master Cradock who came out of Wales and is going thither again to be an Itinerary Preacher whom I have spoken of in page 131. that hee declined coming to the Assembly but now lately October 14. seeing the pay could not be had without the concurrence of the Lords and in all this time having made some leading men his friends hee came to be examined and is passed but besides that he hath gathered a Church administring the Lords Supper in a house at evening he hath preached many odd things in the City straines tending to Antinomianisme Libertinisme as speaking against men of an old Testament spirit and how poore Drunkards and Adulterers could not look into one of our Churches but hell fire must be flashed in their faces That if a Saint should commit a grosse sinne and upon the committing of it should be startled at it
plaine with you we are not nor shall not be so contented that you lie ready with open Armes to receive the King and to make him a great and a glorious King Have you shooke this Nation like an Earth-quake to produce no more then this for us We do expect according to reason that you should in the first place declare and set forth King Charles his wickednesse open before the world and withall to show the intolerable inconveniencies of having a Kingly Government from the constant evill practises of those of this Nation and so to declare King Charles an en 〈…〉 my and to publish your resolution never to have any more but to acquit us of so great a charge and trouble for ever and to convert the great rev 〈…〉 w of the Crowne to the publike treasure to make good the injuries and injustices done heretofore and of late by those that have possessed the same and that we expected long since at your hands and untill this be done we shall not thinke our selves well dealt withall in this originall of all oppressions to wit Kings The Just mans Justification page 10. I wish with all my soule the Parliament would seriously consider upon that Law Who so sheddeth mans bloud by man shall his bloud be shed that so wilfull murtherers might not escape the hand of Justice but especially that they would thinke upon the grand murtherer of England for by this impartiall Law of God there is no exemption of Kings Princes Dukes Earles more then of fishermen c. The Arrow against all Tyrants page 11 12. Soveraignity challenged by the King is usurpation illegitimate and illegall c. The power of the King cannot be Legislative but only Executive So Overtons Defiance to the House of Lords Overtons Petition and Appeale to the High and mighty States the Knights and Burgesset in Parliament Assembled Englands Legall Soveraignâ— power The last warning to the Inhabitants of London with divers such like 3. The Sectaries have spoken written done much against the House of Peeres the supreme Judicature of this Kingdome that House which gives to the Parliaments of England the denomination of the High Court of Parliament as t is a Court of Record and having power of judiciall triall by oath c. of the greatest subjects of this Kingdome in the greatest matters as life estates liberty whose Tribunall and Power hath ever beene acknowledged and dreaded in this Kingdom in all times by the greatest Peeres and persons of the Land and when questioned by them have given all high respect and humble submission as we see that great Favorite the Earle of Strafford did yet this Supreme Court hath beene by word and deed so used by base unworthy sonnes of the earth as the 〈…〉 st Court in England or p 〈…〉 iest Constable never was till these times and certainly the ages to come who shall read the History of these times and the Books of the Sectaries written this last yeere against the House of Lords will wonder at our times and inquire what exemplary punishment was done upon them The facts of some Sectaries abetted and pleaded for also by other of their fellows have been these 1. Refusing upon the Summons Warrants of the House of Peeres to appeare before them and resisting to the utmost so that the Officers have been necessitated to drag them and bring them by force as Overton who in print is not ashamed to relate it 〈◊〉 When they have beene committed and under custody refusing to be brought by their Keepers to the House of Peeres upon command of the House to answer to their charge as Lilburne did keeping his chamber shut refusing to come forth and resisting to the utmost so that glad to carry him by power to the House of Lords which relation also Lilburne hath printed 3. In refusing to answer any questions put them by the House of Peeres 4. In refusing to kneele at the Barre in token of any submission to the House or to be uncovered 5. In appealing from and protesting against the House of Peeres and any power they have over them both by word of mouth and writing drawn up and thrown into the House 6. In stopping their eares in a contemptuous manner that they would not heare their charge read 7. In reproving sawcie taking up and reproaching the House of Peeres to their faces in the House 8. In Petitioning the House of Commons for justice against the House of Peeres and for reparations of dammages using many reproachfull words of that Right Honourable House even in their Petitions as is to be seene in Overtons John Lilburnes and Elizabeth Lilburnes Petitions 9. Threatning the House of Peeres what they will do against them if they maintaine their power and honour and what the house of Commons will do 10. Stirring up and inciting the common People also to fall upon them to pull them downe and overthrow that House The Speeches and writings of the Sectaries against the House of Peeres within this last sixe moneths or thereabouts ever since the commitment of Learner about The last warning to the inhabitants of London are fearfull and strange many Pamphlets having beene written in that time tending apparently to the totall overthrow of the House of Peeres and of having any Lords in this Kingdome denying them all Legislative and Judiciall Power and giving it all to the House of Commons or rather to that Beast of many heads the common People allowing the Commons only so much as they please and for so long making them their meer deputies and servants at will I shall give the Reader a few passages out of their Books and referre for further satisfaction to the Books themselves A Pamphlet entituled The Just man in Bonds writes thus pag. 1. The power of the House of Lords is like a shallow uneven water more in noyse then substance no naturall issues of Lawes but the extubâ—rances and mushromes of Prerogative the wens of Just Government putting the body of the people into pain as well as occasioning deformity Sons of conquest they are and usurpation not of choyce and election intruded upon us by power not constituted by consent not made by the people from whom all power place and office that is just in this Kingdome ought only to arise A Pamphlet call'd A Pearle in a Dung-hill pag. 3 4. speaks thus And why presume ye thus O ye Lords Set forth your merit before the people and say For this good it is that we will raigne over you Remember your selves or shall we remember ye Which of you before this Parliament minded any thing so much as your pleasures Playes Masques Feastings Gaming 's Dancings c. What good have you done since this Parliament and since the expulsion of the Popish Lords and Bishops where will you begin It was wont to be said when a thing was spoyl'd that the Bishops foot had been in it and if the Lords mend not it will be
and Church government and to presse them upon every mans conscience w 〈…〉 is it but with Nebuchadnezzar to erect this golden Image and with an immortall Law of the Medes and Persians to bind all men to fall downe and worship it Or what is it but with Jeroboam and his Councell to set up the golden Calves with a strict comandement of universaâ—l conformity none daring among all those ten Tribes openly to proâ—esse the pure worship of God saving the Prophet Elijah to whom these seven thousand were not knowne The Parliament may do well to take notice that he resembles their settling Church-government and Religion among us to Nebuchadnezzars erecting his golden Image and Jeroboams setting up the golden Calves Thirdly the Pamphlet entituled The tender Conscience religiously affected descanting upon a part of the Preamble of an Ordinance made by the Lords and Commons concerning suspension of ignorant and scand alous persons from the Lords Supper where the Parliament saith never any of Gods servants since theâ— foundation of the world had 〈◊〉 high and strong engagements beartily and sincerely to endeavour the compleat establishment of purity and unity in the Church of God then we have charges the Parliament with speaking of blasphemy and aske where had the Lords and Commons this large Commission to middle in the affairs of King Jesus so farre c. 2. For the Sectaries opposing all the Ordinances of Parliament in matters of Religion and tending to Religion to say nothing now of Ordinances in civill mâ—tters as the additionall Ordinance of Accounts Lillurnes Innocency and Truth justified page 69. the Ordinance of Excise the Ordinances for Takes spoken against in Englands birth-right page 44 4â— t is so apparent that I can give not only passages out of Books written against all the Ordinances in that kind but relate insolent tumultuous practises contrary unto and in scorne and contempt of the Ordinances of Parliament There are many books and passages in books written against the Ordinance of Tyths as that Pamphlet call'd Ordinance for Tyths Dis 〈…〉 ted Englands Birthright A Copie of a Letter written to Master William Pr 〈…〉 with divers others wherein they speak both against the thing and the Parliament calling Tyths Antichristian Jewish Diaboli 〈…〉 the root and support of Popery c. charging the Parliament with breach of â—ovenant for making that Ordinance There are Sermons preached all the Kingdome over against this Ordinance of Tyths that being one of their subjects commonly in all their preachings and the Sectaries in places have abused and beaten those who have beene gathering of Tyths and themselves deny payment and provoke others not to pay by all the meanes they can A great Sectary in Bermonsey parish being call'd in question for non-payment of his Tyths by vertue of the Ordinance of Parliament said of that Ordinance the Parliament had made an Ordinance to rob men and they who executed it were theeves and robbers The Ordinance against mens preaching not being Ordained how hath it beene scoffed at in severall Pamphlets of the Sectaries and how doe souldlers and every mechanick not only disobey it but put by many godly Ministers from their Pulpits preaching whether they will or no causing many tumults and riots in Churches yea threatning and laying Ministers by the heeles for publishing it The Ordinance for the better observation of the monthly Fast how hath it beene and is slighted by the Sectaries spoken against as legall popish not observed but things done in contempt of the Fast and when civill Officers have questioned people for travelling and worldly works on those dayes some Sectaries have opposed them in the execution of their offices the proofe of which particular and that of committing a Minister to prison for reading the Ordinance against Lay mens preaching the Reader may finde it in the Letters sent from the Committee of Exeter to some in London The Nationall Covenant taken by both Houses and appointed by Ordinance with solemne instructions for all to take it how fearfully is it scoffed at and jeared in many Books of the Sectaries Arraignment of Persecution c. and forced Jesuiticall equivocations and interpretations put upon it by many as by Walwyn in A word more to Master Edwards as by Cretensis in his large Preface to the Reader before his Anapologesiates Antapologias The Nationall Covenant is called a double faced Covenant the greatest make-bate and snare that ever the Devill and the Clergy his Agents cast in among honest men in England in our age which I dare pawne my head and life so to prove it to be in a fair and publick discourse against the greatest maintainer thereof in England Lilburns Londons liberty in chains discovered page 42. The Directory established by Ordinance is in severall Books of the Sectaries spoken much against resembled to Jeroboams calves said to have contradictions to the Canonicall Scriptures Turners Heavenly confidence for Syons Saints page 64 65. scoffed at in a Ballad call'd A Prophecie of the Swinâ—herds destruction The Ordinances for the Presbyteriall Government and the Government it selfe in the going to set it up have beene preached written against and all manner of wayes opposed by the Sectaries What hath beene more familiar and common with the Sectaries in their Pulpits and Books then to call the Presbyterian Government Antichristian a â—lim of Anti-christ Tyrannicall Lordly cruell a worse bondage then under the Prelates a bondage under Taskmasters as the Israelites in Egypt besides many bitter jeares and scoffs have beene made both of the Government and Ordinances as 〈◊〉 The Arraignment of Persecution Martins Eccho Ordinance for â—yâ—â—s dismounted The last warning to all the Inhabitants of London as also they have made disgracefull pictures of the Presbytery one printed and joyned to a paper call'd Severall Votes of tender consciences another to a Pamphlet call'd The tender Conscience religiously affected But among all the Sectaries Books abusing the Parliaments Ordinances about Presbyteriall Government let the Reader take notice of the Pamphlet call'd Tender conscience religiously affected propounding questions of weighty consequence in which the Author descants upon the Ordinances of Parliament and charges them with speaking blasphemy and many other crimes and the Ordinance for Tyths dismounted where that Sectary speaking occasionally of the Ordinance of Parliament for the Lords Supper saith For indeed at the first onset it was not policie to rush such a diabolicall and villâ—nous invention point blanck upon us with an It is decreed and ordained by the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament But after a more mysterious manner of Ordination slily intrude it upon us unawares in the godly and specious vizor of Rules and Directions as if our Parliament men â—ad such a spirituall and holy care â—ver â—s to give us such wholsome and 〈…〉 directions 〈…〉 indeed under this innocent apparition in the shape of Lam 〈…〉 they are no other then ravening Woolves rending and tearing us in p 〈…〉 ces
held it not lawfull to go fight against them others of the Sectaries have reasoned against sending releif thither as saying whom should we releive to â—e Protestants there were an unworthy people that Kingdome had cosâ— us more to keep it then ever we goâ— by it that it was 〈◊〉 to hazard that Army upon it which was so faithful and 〈◊〉 for much for us with other words to this purpose other Sectaries have laughed at the Presbyterians being so forward in preaching and praying for releif to be sent over in all hast into Ireland A Gentleman in publick place told me not long since he had heard an Independent say upon discoursing of the hazard of the losse of Ireland that it was not a three penny matter to England if Ireland and Scotland both were lost England had no need of them severall strange speeches have fallen from the Sectaries in reference to Ireland Tenthly the Independents and Sectaries have spoken written and dealt most unworthily with the City of London a whole book might be written of all the calumnies reproaches abuses that have beene offered the City of London within this last twelve months especially about that late excellent Remonstrance how hath the late Lord Major the whole Court of Common-councell and City Remonstrance been written preached spoken against by the Sectaries of the Army City and Country giving reproachfull names raising wicked lies upon them and for nothing but for petitioning the Parliament for setling the Government and declaring themselves for the Covenant against Hereticks Scismaticks and Blasphemers Cretensis that great Sectary cals the late Lord Major of London and the Common-councell Brethren in iniquity with me the Author of the Pamphlet call'd the Lord Majors farewell from his Office of Majoralty resembles the late Lord Major to wicked Ahaz saying the Saints will say of him in succeeding ages this is that Lord Major of London Thomas Adams by name Lilburne in his Pamphlet entituled Londons Liberty calls by way of scoffing the Prerogative Lord Major Adams A Sectary in the Army call'd him rascall The Common-councell and Citizens have beene commonly call'd the Sect of the Adamites and in print to in the Pamphlet The just mans justification pag. 16. The Sectaries frequently cal the Citizens Preist-riden slaves They have in Pulpits beene call'd the great mountaine that hinders the liberty of the people refined Malignants and that if ever this Kingdome was brought into slavery the City would be the cause of it some of the Sectaries have said that the King the Scots and the Common-councell did drive on one designe it were too long to reckon up al the abuses offered the City of London and the Honorable Court of Common-councell by some of the weekly Pamphleters as the Moderate Intelligencer Perfect Occurrences and by some Sectarian souldiers threatning that they would as willingly come against the City as ever against the Cavaliers The City Remonstrance hath beene branded by them one Captaine in the Army said the Remonstrance was as devilish a thing as ever was penned by man Lilburne in his Londons liberty in chains discovered page 36. speaking of the City Remonstrance calls it that most devilish wicked bloudy unchristian Papisticall Remonstrance of the Prerogative men of London c. Other Sectaries have call'd it that monster with many heads the â—ifteene headed monster a base railing Remonstrance M. Peters hath spoken his pleasure of it in the Pulpit and the Moderate Reply to the City Remonst with the City Remonstrance remonstrated have many naughty passages against the Common-councell and City Remonstrance as that it was the disturber of the quiet and peace of the Church and State c. but I shall passe them by and transcribe only one passage out of M. Burtons Conform Deform where in the Epist Dedicatory to the present Lord Major he writes thus Give me leave tobeseech you that you would improve the whole power of your office among other evils for the not only suppressing but utter obliterating out of all Records of memory or mention that late Remonstrance of London which like the Trojan horse is stuffed with such matter as if the importunity of some might have had its desire would unavoidably hale in ruine both to City and Country Nor doth any thing more clearly demonstrate that spirituall judgement of blindnesse and hardnesse of heart to be upon all those who have their heads and hands in that Remonstrance and wilfully persist in the prosecution of it now in cold bloud then the unnaturall hating and hunting after the destruction of those very men as our mortall enemies who have with the extrem hazard of their lives been honoured of God to be the preserâ—ers of them our City and Country c. For the spirit of that ten-horned beast is now making warre with the Lamb and this spirit warreth under new colours not red but white whose word is Reformation and this under afair colour of a Covenant by vertue wherof pretending a just title to the War he hopes by the help of the Remonsstrance and the prime Authors thereof and their adherents to erect a new bestiall Tyranny over soules bodies and estates under new names and notions Elevently the Sectaries have carried themselves towards the Assembly with the greatest scorne and reproach that ever any sort of men carried themselves towards such a company of Ministers learned and godly and called by a Parliament to advise with in matters of Religion O how many books have beene written against them within these two last yeers or thereabouts as The Arraignment of Persecution Martins Eccho and their fellowes O the railing bitter disgracefull passages in Li 〈…〉 ns Letter to Mr. Pryn Tender Conscience religiously affected and divers other Pamphlets against the Assembly calling them the black-coats in the Synod Dâ—ivines good for nothing but to be burnt having two hornes like a Lamb but a mouth like a Dragon teaching the Parliament to speak blasphemy against those Saints that dwell in heaven O how commonly by word of mouth and in writing is the Assembly call'd Antichristian Romish bloudy the plagues and pests of the Kingdome Baals Preists Diviners Southsayerâ— all manner of evill being spoken of them A Ballad hath beene made of them having a first and second part wherein they are scoffed with the title of Black-bird Divines the name of the Ballad is A Prophecy of the Sâ—ynâ—eards Destruction to the â—uâ—â— of the merry Souldier or the jovâ—â—ll Tiâ—ker this Ballad calls the Assembly Swinheards saith these Swineheards are sitting to build old Babels Tower The Assemby â—â—th beene abused all kind of wayes threatned if they give advise to the Parliament against a Toleration of Independents they shall be chastised as evill Councellors disturbers of Church and State no lesse then great Strafford or little Canterbury all kind of imputations charged on them and they made by the Sectaries the cause and ground of all evilâ— that are upon the Kingdome The lâ—st warning to
said again and again of his Protestation Protested I will if he will not be angry with him it was this that in that Book there was grosse Brownisme which he nor his Brethren no way agreed with him in and that for his part he would as soon subscribe to the Book of Common-Prayer as to divers things there Shall I tell him what Mr. Symonds of Roterdam one of the moderatest and modestest of that way said upon the comming forth of his last Book Conformities Deformitie to a friend of his that shewed it him and asked him of it no I will forbear least it should trouble the old man too much I could tell some stories of Mr. Burton and his Church I have a relation given me in writing by 〈◊〉 whâ— was present and heard all about a difference that fell out in the time of the Church-meeting between M. Burton and a Butcher and some others of his Church about prophecying but 't is too long to insert here and I promise it the Reader in the 4 part of Gangraena I have been told a late famous story by divers godly Ministers of the City of a great falling out betweene Mr. Burton and some of his Church about singing of Psalmes Baptising of Children prophecying and somewhat else and upon some Brethren cal'd in to hear the businesse how far M. Burton yeelded in those particulars both against his judgment and his practise but I must reserve that too I could make large Animadversions on his Pamphlets and show many strange positions in them beside contradictions falshood weaknesse hard speeches against the faithfull servants of God much pride and arrogancie but I will for present animadvert a few things only on his last Book Conformities Deformitie in a Dialogue between Conformity and Conscience and I shall refer all I have to say at this time to three heads 1. To show the scope of Mr. Burtons Book and what the man would have in it 2. To represent to M. Burton and the Reader the great evill of it and how unlike Mr. Burton is to what himselfe was formerly 3. Propound some queries to Mr. Burton to show him how he is mistaken all along in the ground he goes upon For the first his main scope is under the name of Conscience to represent the Sectaries as the only conscientious men and under that colour to plead for a Toleration of them all and an indempnity from all restraint by the civill Magistrate and under the name of Conformity to brand all Presbyterians and to speak against all establishment of Religion and Church-Government by Magistrates and Synods as great Hypocrisie Idolatry rejecting Christ from being King c. destroying the foundation of faith and in his prosecuting this besides Sion Colledge the Assembly the City of London the Ordinance for preventing the growth of Heresies which he fals fouly upon he railes fearfully and speaks most wickedly against the Generall Assembly and the Scottish Church-Government saying that in the Generall Assembly there is the like Supremacie set up which the Pope 〈…〉 selfe claimeth â—ver Kings States Kingdomes Common-wealths that 't is a spirit of Antichristian pride and tyranny of rebellion and treason in lifting up a Papall Throne above Kings and Kesars above Kingdomes and Common-wealths to the ensâ—aving of the whole Nation in their soules bodies aâ—d estates that it sets up in the Church an Oracle of Infallibility and such a Supremacie as no true-bred English Christian can interpret for other then Antichristian Tyranny and all under the name of a Christian Presbyterian Church-Government that if that Presbyterian Government be set up thereby our Fundamentall Lawes Priviledges and power of Parliaments Liberties and freedome of all true-bred English Subjects would be brought under perpetuall bondage worse then that eitherof Egypt or Babilon all which and much more the Reader may find in page 19 20 21. of-that Booke For the second Mr. Burtons great evill and how unlike Mr. Burton now is to Mr. Burton formerly it may apppeare thus in that M. Burton in all this booke builds up againe the things he formerly destroyed undoing all his owne acts agreeing with Canterbury Pocklington c. in their Principles and Practises against the Reformed Churches particularly the Scots and their Church-Government M. Burton being Cantuariensis redivivus nay let me not wrong the dead though they were great Enemies to the Scots and Presbyteriall-Government yet in all their writings I doe not find such rancorous malicious passages against the generall Assembly as in this Booke of M. Burtons he makes use indeed of the Bishops and their creatures Arguments and weapons against the Presbyteriall Government and the Reformation but withall goes higher and in patronizing and pleading for all Errours and Heresies under specious pretences as they did Arminian Popish and Socinian Doctrines not writing one word against all the Heresies and Blasphemies of these times but speaking against my books and Dr. Bastwicks for the discovering of them O how is M. Burton fallen I heard a godly and â—â—arned Divine say lately of him upon reading his Conformities Deformity that he had alwaies thought M. Burton to be a godly man but he now thought him the greatest Apostate in England He should not have wondered much to have seen such a book written by John Goodwin but that M. Burton should he could not have believed it had he not read it and certainely in his writing this Booke and many others God left him the man is departed from all his former principles of zeale and love to truth he can finde no Deformitie now in Heresie nor Blasphemy but onely in Conformity to Presbyteriall-Government and the Magistrates non-Toleration of Errours The Lord hath made him a fearfull example and all men may take warning by M. Burton for turning Independents who before he turned Independent was so zealous against the least Errours and the least Innovation in Worship as that he would straine things and make a great matter of a little but now he hath no heart against the greatest Errours he can doe nothing in all his Pamphlets for the honour of Christ he can see no deformitie in all the Blasphemies Heresies of these times but onely in the Orthodox Reformed Churches and Presbyteriall-Government and that which aggravates his sin is he hath done this after sad and serious admonition given him in the fourth Corollarie of the first Part of Gangrâ—na and after a great sicknesse this Book being stiled by himself in his Title page The first fruits of his late recovery from death to life If any man 9 or 10 years ago when M. Burton was upon the Pillory for writing against some great men who favoured Popish and Arminian Tenets should have said to the people this man whom you now see thus suffer and whom you so love and adore the time is coming when he shall plead for a Toleration of all Religions and speak against the Magistrate for defending Religion by Lawes and Edicts this man
to speak with me but must send others I am easily enough to be spoken with refusing none as all know who come to me besides how did Master Burroughs know any such had been with me to make me such offers and that I refused and what if some reported to him that which was false might not he be easier abused by a report for he speaks not this of his own knowledge he never came to me nor was the man ever desired to confer with me about any of these particulars then I can be mistaken in this businesse to whom these offers of conferences and satisfactions should have been made 3. For that Master Burroughs page 18. taxes me with concerning what I related about his going out of the Kingdom in my Antapologie that had I been willing to have conferred with him about it as he desired before I printed he should have so fully satisfied me that I could never have stumbled at this I Answer I never was unwilling to confer with Mastet Burroughs about this or any other thing that he should have desired and I can say it truely if he had sent the least boy at any time to me to have desired a conference with me and appointed me where to meet him I should have waited on him but for what is here written I neither know nor remember any such thing that Master Burroughs either by writing or word of mouth ever desired to have spoken with me about his going out of the Kingdom and certainly at that time when I was writing my Antapologie there was no such great distance between Master Burroughs and me but that he might either have come to me or spoke to me of it when he met me occasionally or I should have come to him none of which ever were moved to me and I cannot but wonder at Master Burroughs writing of this and divers other passages 2 As for that hee said hee should have satisfied me upon conference that he went out of the Kingdom not upon the ground I alledge but upon another a call from the Church of Roterdam which he relates page 19 20 21 22. I must confesse I am unsatisfied in it now and so I beleive are all rationall men and let the Reader but aske Master Marshall and Master Calamie who knew the businesse well and Master Burroughs at that time whether they do not beleive he went over to Roterdam upon a complaint made of some words spoken about the Scottish Warre and if I should have given the Reader all that I have drawn up by way of Answer to this it would abundantly clear me and lay open Master Burroughs weaknesse very much but I shall only hint this Suppose the King had in this War prevailed over the Parliament and taken the City and just upon that time Master Peters and Master Wels had gotten away in all haste to New England and suppose after this some man writing of Master Wels and Master Peters departure from England should have expressed this as the ground the danger they were in upon the Kings taking London now if Master Peters and Master Wels should by way of Answer have denied this to be any cause and have alledged their solemne call to their Churches in New England being sâ—nt for again and again and their purposes of going expressed yea and that in the Pulpit before ever the King was in a way of taking London would not all men laugh at such an Answer For is not the contrary evident by the experience of their staying in England now they may stay safely notwithstanding all their call and being sent for they stirre not and just so it was with Master Burroughs and I am confident that had it not been for the danger of those words he would no more have gone to Roterdam then Master Peters and Master Wels go to New England and as himselfe tels the story his putting of giving his resolution of going defering from time to time and from place to place to make any conclusion â—ill the businesse of words grew to a height declares plainly as much besides Master Burroughs at that time was not of the Independent judgement as appears by his Book put out in the yeare 38. writing By Jeremiah Burroughs Minister of the Gospel which was not long before his going over whereas all his Books he hath put forth since he went to Roterdam are By Jeremiah Burroughs without Minister of the Gospel which to them who know the Controversie is a clear proofe he was in the yeare 38. no Independent though afterwards in the writing his other Books he was and therefore declined that Title Minister of the Gospel And whereas in the body of this Third Part in two or three severall places I take occasion to relate some things of Master Burroughs which may by some be ill taken because he cannot answer for himselfe and may be interpreted a speaking evill of the dead I desire to let the Reader know they were both written and printed off long before Master Burroughs sicknesse and death and indeed no understanding man will once imagine a Booke of above Forty sheets could be made written out and printed in a month especially by one who Preaches often and hath many irons in the fiâ—e at the same time and to put it out of all question besides my own testimony the Book-seller and Printer can testifie this Third Part hath been above this quarter of a yeare in the Presse a printing Aâ— for that Pamphlet written against my Second Part Entituled Gangraena playes Rex I Answer breifly Gangraena playes the Parliament that is conforms to what the Parliament hath expressed in the foure or five first yeares of their sitting against the Sectaries and I do offer to make good what I have written in Gangraena against the Sects out of the Declarations Remonstrances Ordinances Covenant Messages and Transactions of the Parliament with Scotland and their Instructions to the Assembly upon divers occasions and could make a better Parallel between the passages in Gangraena and the passages in Declarations Remonstances c. against the Sectaries then the Author of that Pamphlet hath done and am likely to do it though a Postscript is not the proper place for it only I say this would to God there had not beene some men among us and that in place too to have so carried things and brought matters to that passe as to give too great occasion unto many to say The King was a true Prophet in what he spoke in his Declarations concerning Anabaptists Brownists and Sectaries As for that Pamphlet cald Lanceters Lance for Edwards Gangraena I have lately received from two godly Ministers in Suffolk a large relation by way of justification and proofe of what in my Second Part of Gangraena was written of Lanceter as also some other passages related in those papers concerning Lanceter one Chidly and Barrowe but they containing a whole sheet of paper are too much to