But if you shall will fully neglect the means and we be not Reconciled what will ANSWER when God ariseth up and in Iudgment shall say who hath REQUIRED this offering or Sacrifice at your hands Oh! forget not VVhat manner of measure you have made Therefore if you expect mercy and pardon for your Sins and Trespasses If you desire your iniquities to be Covered with the imputation of the Righteousness of JESVS If you would find Deliverance in Distress or Grace to help in time of Tryal are you not in the Exercise of your faith To offer up your prayers and performances of your Duties unto the Lord as a means in order to obtain these mercies But my Beloved When thus you do Then remember that Obedience is better and more acceptable than such your Sacrifice and forget not to remember your own Evil ways and to consider VVhether your abused Brother hath not ought against you Knowing that your Prayers are unacceptable to the Lord until you have done your Duty that is to say To be reconciled to your abused Brother If you will not perform this your first work or do not Believe it your Duty so to do Tell me I pray how can you believe that you shall obtain mercy Is not the Case Plain He shall have Judgment without Mercy that hath Shewed no Mercy If therefore you believe the VVord of God and that he will be as good as his VVord have a care you add not Sin to Sin but hast for Reconciliation that so the obstruction which hinders the acceptation of your Duties may be removed out of the way But there is yet one Objection behind for possibly you may say That he Preacheth up Holiness and Godliness of life and Conversation and Rebuketh and Admonished Persons many times that are worthy of Blame and therefore we cannot but in Charity Judg the best of Him and accordingly must Love Him To which I Answer That I know all this may be true for the most Counterfeit Coyn is guilded all over with some good mettal and the greatest Hypocrisy walks in a Masque of sanctity so is his Lordly Tyrannical Authority vailed with the fairest pretences of the greatest degree of Love and Humility I accuse him not for those things which are good But be not deceived what if he had Faith so as to remove Mountains Suppose he gave all his Goods to relieve the poor or which is more than all that should he give his body to be Burned If he hath not Charity what will all this avail him and do you not know that true Charity and solid Honesty are both wanting Are not all his plausible pretences like rotten wood in the dark of more shew than Substance A Pharisaical Holiness like painted Tombs finely varnished over but within nothing but stench and Putrefaction Let not then shews and outsides Words Titles and Gestures deceive you bring all his Practises to the Touchstone Compare all his motions with the Sacred Dyal and weigh his pretended Gold in the Ballance of the Sanctuary but let neither Superstition nor prejudice touch the Scales And let Sound Iudgment not your Affections hold the Ballance And then as you find him regard him still remembring that the before mensioned wicked Seducer Hacket did express as great Zeal for Gods glory as much Care to reforms the Church and defend it against its Adversaries nor was there any one thing whereby he might shew himself Famous omitted by him nor doth your Leader go beyond him in any respect But well do I know that he cannot be idle but will use all means Just and Unjust to maintain his interest in your affections But though he sould raise a thousand Reasons or if it were possible for him to make fire come down from Heaven in your sight to make you believe that his practises are approved of by the Lord on high yet if they are not warranted in Scripture Let it Signify no more to you than if he had a Thousand Leggs without Ground to stand upon For if he should venture to walk over the Sea notwithstanding all his Leggs he must sink to the Bottome So if his mighty reasons have not the word of God for their sure Foundation they cannot stand but in a little time must Sink into the bottomless Pit from whence he had them Nor think it my Friends notwithstanding your great Confidence a thing impossible or incredible That so many of you sould be mistaken 't is no new thing for a Congregation to be deluded And why may not you as well as others conceit That you are rich and have need of nothing and yet whilst you insult over others and justifie your selves take heed lest you appear in his presence who seeth not as man seeth wretched and miserable poor blind and naked Consider the state of the Laodicean Church and remember that if your Zeal for God be more then Lukewarm yet considering what you have done you may perceive your Zeal hath been much more servent for the Adoration of your Idol Be not overwise in your own conceits why should you who call your selves weak think your selves wiser than those knowing and eminent Brethren who at London had the hearing of the matter and though they knew not of half his Devices declared their dislike of his illegal practises Asking him How he dared to do such a thing having not one VVord of God for it How can you now call me obstinate because I will not conform when your selves slight all Admonition anb Advice and rather then acknowledg your Errors will create a Schism and Division so far as to contemn our City Friends and disown them Why should your Envy my Brethren be thus stirred up against me Have I been such an one as have to your discredit and the dishonour of the Truth which I have professed lived in any notorious Sins or have I through infirmities transgressed against my God and refused to be reformed Have I ever despised any orderly rebuke if any such hath been given slighted any Christian Counsel or cast Admonition behind me Have I not been careful to make good my Place at the Meeting to which I usually went insomuch that some in time of Persecution said If they could but perswade me not to come or were it not tor me they would not spare you but by means of my constant being there your Meeting was never yet disturbed whilst all those round about were visited Have I failed to supply your wants or came short of any one therein Have I carried my self loftily to the meanest or would I not willingly be in peace with those who without cause are my Enemies and envy my prosperity Or can you think that I now neglect my Business and spend my Time and Labour hereby to make a Party or for any self-ends to engage you to my self Be not mistaken my Friends it is the knowledg of your dangerous Condition into which you are betrayed that moveth me to perform my Duty of Love unto you These things my Beloved according to what I believe I am bound to do have I endeavored to lay before you and all others whom it may concern That it may if possible awaken and convince you and that the Iniquities before mentioned may not be laid to my charge for concealing thereof nor to the charge of the Innocent who do not allow of but abhor the same And now whether you my deluded Friends will hear or whether you will forbear I know not But if the Case should be with you as it was with the Church of God in the days of the Prophet who rebuked them for that they embraced Idols And you through hardness of Heart and blindness Eyes should Answer as they did and say There is no hope no we have loved strangers and after them we will go Yet I have discharged my Conscience and I hope done my Duty to my Ability which I trust may be-profitable to you and my self and all read it feaâ—ing the Lord so as they in spirit and truth do serve and obey him according to his own Word which is the alone infallible and unerring Rule But if notwithstanding all I have said and all the Admonition Chrisian Counsel and Advice of the faithful Ministers and Officers of the Church Of Christ you still persist in and justifie your Acts of Vsurpation Oppression Tyranny Cruelty c. or shall endeavour to defend or excuse what hath been done by Lyes Falshood and Deceit or by refusing to Testifie the Truth of the Case then again must I say Adieu to you my dearly Beloved although deluded and unmerciful Brethren whom my Soul mourneth for Adieu to you who were my Beloved Ones and to Him whom you have Adored and by your Actions declare to be Infalling I bid Adieu for ever unlesa he shall Repent and Acknowledg his VVickedness FINIS
Nevv Lords Nevv Lavvs OR A DISCOVERY OF A Grand Usurpation In Opposition to the Holy Laws of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Good Laws and Royal Prerogative 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Supream Magistrate as it hath been lately practised by the Lordly MATTHEW CAFFIN A Pretended true Apostle of our Blessed Lord and Saviour and Ruling Head of his Congregation usually meeting at Southwater near Horsham in Sussex By R. H. Submit your selves to every Ordinance of Man for the Lords sake whether it be 〈◊〉 the King as Supream Or unto Governours as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Doers and for the praise of them that do well As free and not using your Liberty as a Cloak of Maliciousness but as the Seâ—â—â—â—…of God Honour all Men Love the Brother-hood Fear God Honour the King 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. v. 13. 14. 16. and 17. London Printed in the Year 1674. THE AUTHOR TO THE READER Christian Reader HAving certain knowledge of the many Scandals and Abuses cast upon those who are the Faithful Professors of the ways of truth I should be most heartily Sorry to give any just occasion of encreasing the same yet do believe it my Duty to do my part for the Defence and Vindication of the Innocent And conceivng my self as will appear by the following Discourse to have received no small injustice from a pretended Apostle of our Blessed Lord and Saviour by Name Matthew Caffin though his Acts of Vsurpation Tyranny and Partiality have in part already made manifest to the world that he is far otherwise and for that his and his deluded confederates Tyrannical dealing with me by way of Excommunication was for my doing a thing which is so far from being any transgression of any known Law That both the Law of God and the Law and Royal Prerogative of the Supream Magistrate of this Nation and as I am informed all Neighbour Kingdoms do allow of and justifie the same I therefore think it my duty to publish to the world his Usurped Authority his new Laws strange Prerogative and acts of Injustice all which are to my certain knowledge utterly disowned by all the Officers of the Baptized Congregations both in Country and City that I have as yet had the opportunity to treat with those only that are under this pretended Apostles awful wings excepted All which I am not only induced but constrained to publish for thâ—se Reasons following First because it doth appear to me and others that the Authority by which he and his Consederates have executed such his new laws and inventions is an Usurped Authority and therefore the timely Publication of the matter is to prevent the like errors from creeping into the Church of Christ as heretofore have done being brought in by such Lordly Spirits whereby the Church of Rome once the Spouse of Christ is Apostatized and become an Harlot as he the said Matthew Caffin hath said on which account I conceive it my duty by this means to do my part in order to the suppressing this growing and dangerous Distemper which otherwise like a Gangrene may destroy the whole body Secondly that the Truth and honest Professors thereof may be preserved from those reproachful abuses and Censures which by this means are apt to be cast upon them That so the burthen may be laid on the right shoulder and a whole Profession not be condemned for the proud Extravagancies of 〈◊〉 or some few more particular men for so it is that some otherwise judicious and sober persons hearing of such strange Carriage daily say that these Professors are a crooked and perverse generation running into a thousand errors that their pretence of Holiness is but deceit to cover a design of mischief And some persons of good quality and repute no enemies to the Truth or its Professors have by this means been provoked to entertain hard thoughts and open their mouths against them to say both in words and writing that we are of dangerous opinions accompanied with rancour and malice against all that will not go along with us be it right or wrong For say they we can expect no better fruit from them then what you have had from your Saint meaning the Lordly Apostle aforesaid all which and much more of that nature doth abound to the great dishonour of the Gospel and the Professors thereof wholly upon the account of this Busie-body The third reason for Publication hereof is because all other Admonition and Advice which was publickly given him in full Meeting by several Church Officers of known integrity to wit Mr. G. Mr. W. Mr. P. Mr. C. and Mr. T. and divers others the most or however the most Eminent in London was and still is wholly slighted and could no way incline his mind to Humility but he still goes on to justifie his Practise of Tyranny notwithstanding this meeting was singly for the hearing and determining of his case only Fourthly Because I would thereby have the World to know that I know not one Professor in the way of the Baptized Congregations to be of the like quarrelsome and dangerous principle unless it be those who are at his own dispose or in servise subjection to his own Laws as aforesaid And now Impartial Reader this one thing I humbly beg of thee and I pray deny me not viz. That thou wouldst not by means of any thing contained in the ensuing discourse accuse or condemn the Innocent with the Guilty nor the peaceable Loyal and Obedient with the Peace-breaker Contentious and Disobedient For although it may appear in thy Judgment that we are both unworthy yea although I my self through the Instigation of the Devil should become an Adversary to all good for I dare not hoast of my future Perseverance though I can through mercy say I have more than a little Confidence notwithstanding I say thy worst Imaginable should happen yet be intreated I pray ever to love and â—â—ver to be offended with the honest godly and peaceable 〈…〉 walk in the ways of truth which according to the Holy 〈…〉 the Royal Road and Kings high-way to Life and Glory which Profession I hope I may say I never in all my Life did yet despise And if I know my heart I had rather a thousand times suffer the â—â—proaches and Censures of him who now through malice and a lying Tongue may abuse me at his pleasure than that the way to Glory and those that humbly and devoutly walk therein should be corrupted abused and evil spoken of And this I pray further take notice of that I do declare that the Publication of the ensuing matter to the world in this manner was wholly contrary to my own will and desire neither had I so much as the laise thoughts of so doing had not they to wit Mr. Caffin or his Confederates first published my Excommunication to the World and particularly to such as they had reason to believe did hate me most and this they did within less than three
otherwise who knows into what Extreams you may run which brings me back further to answer your aforesaid objection That I am upon the Extreams As to what I have supposed was poss ible to be accomplished by this pretended holy Politician and those his weak Brethen if power and opportunity were not wanting For I pray what shall hinder your Extreams in Action from answering my Extreams of Imaginations since it is plain that your Liberties are in his own Judgment boundless mark that For let the Case be lawful or unlawful Civil or Ecclesiastick if it do but offend the weak Brother 't is all one as he most vainly endeavoured to inser from those words of St. Paul If meat make my Brother to offend I will eat no meat whilst the world stands whence he concluded That the weak ought to be born with in all Cases so that if one that were strong had a just and lawful right to do or act any thing in Civil matters it might not be suffered if any weak Brethren should say they were offended with it But say you can it be believed that any such wickedness as you suggest should be ever attempted by M. C. What an Innocent a Turtle to turn devouring Eagle or a Lamb Couchant on a sudden start up into a Lion Rampant surely no wise people will think it possible To which I answer That his Brethren Innocent the third and others as honest as himself did pretend to as great holiness and humility as himself can do declaring themselves in words to be so far from affecting the Supream Dignity that they alwaies stiled themselves Servants of the Servants of Christ nothing seemingly more humble nothing more Innocent But observe if either Emperor King or Prince offended them down they must to receive Correction and on their Knees they must Kiss the Great and perhaps the Gouty Toe of this Metamorphosed Creature Remember that no man grows horrible wicked all at once Usupations steal upon us by Degrees and several steps What is once done by permission shall next time be exacted as by Right and every President of Encouragements pact serve as a Lam to justifie those to come Till at last having forsaken the Polestar of Gods word which ought to limit all Spiritual Authority they come to Launch into a boundless Ocean of Tyranny where they have no Card to steer their Course by but the meer will and pleasre of an Usurper Now my Brethren although this new deluding principle which faith A man shall either submit to the wills and pleasures of the weak Brethren in all cases whether lawful or unlawful or otherwise be damned and that all others who oppose this Doctrine must be dealt seberely with be such an one as I never heard of before either here or beyond the Seas yet is it a most proper Engine to mount an ambitious and domineering Spirit unsuspectedly to a state of Suâ—remacy For now he would have you believe the weak Brethren who shall certainly be on his side are Infallible if he can but prevail with them to say they will be offended if a thing be not done thus or thus so it must be without any dispute upon what grounds or warrants which indeed is a flie new Cheat not inferior to any invented by the most politick and ingenuousest Jesuit whatever as seeming to have nothing of self in it but wholly guilded over with tender innocence and in tire love to the weak Brethren And for as much as your pretended Apostle Caffin when the Author of this new minted Cheat which leads no man knows whether it 's pity he should be denied the glory of the Invention and therefore I case not if I call it The Caffetman or Caffinian error Be not deluded my Brethren why should you that acknowledg your selves weak conceit your selves wiser than the strongest certain it is Christian Emperors Kings and Princes yea whole Churches have been deluded and abused by their pretended innocent holy Fathers Thus Pope Innocent III. called his Brethren before him as your pretended innocent Lord may do and being assembled it was Enacted by them That this Innocent Lamb the Pope and his Successors should have the correction of all Christian Kings and Princes And also That no Emperor should be acknowledged to be Emperor until he had sworn obedience unto him verifying that saying of the wise King Solomon I have seen a sore evil under the Sun Servants on horse-back and Princes as Servants walking on the earth For he being thus mounted and set up above all makes open protestation That his Pontificial Dignity was rather to give Laws to Emperors Kings and Princes than to receive any from them As your innocent Leader would do who saith What have we to do with the Laws and Statutes of men And what I pray shall hinder your new Lord or Chief Officer from doing as well as saying the same thing if his Horn were but as strong as his Brother Innocent's was What do all his pretences to holiness signifie to the contrary since with your consents he can do as it pleaseth himself without Scripture Authority No doubt Pope Innocent could alleadg as plausible holy ends for what he acted as your pretended innocent Lamb can do for correcting the King 's Royal Prerogative as it hath relation to the lawfulness of Letters Patents And why may not he correct the same in other cases as well as this if by his instigation the weak Brethren should be offended therewith I therefore think it my duty to oppose this dangerous erroneous Principle and crush this Cockatrice in the Egg before it be grown into a devouring Serpent Further my Friends I pray consider whether he hath not deluded and seduced you to believe that he is a most innocent humble and faithful Apostle by means of his Hypocritical exclaiming against the Pope for Usurpation and Tyranny against Bishops for their Lordly authority against Presbyters for being as Rigid and Corrupt as any against Independants for Errors and with a high hand against the Quakers charging them with Pride and Self-conceitedness that they will not say most noble Festus but despise Dominions and speak evil of Dignities and that their look it more stout then their Fellows see his Book against Quakers page 55. After all this judging and condemning Pride Usurpation Cruelty and unwarrantable Teners and Practices in others who amongst the weak and blind would suspect That this meek seeming Lamb or gentle Dove should be or act like a ravenous Woolf or Lion Rampant himself But may not the Quakers and those that he doth thus Condem Reply to him in the words of our blessed Saviour Thou Hypocrite first cast out the Beam out of thine own Eye and then mayst thou see more clearly to cast out the Mote out of thy Brothers Eye For is it not hiypocrisie for your new Lord to condemn his Brother at Rome for that which he himself doth practise and allow of at home For if at Rome a
Conscience of my Duty and that I accuse younot as you are the Servants of the most high God nor him as an holy Apostle Minister or Messenger of Christ For all such I truly love and honour as they are faithful and so I did him whilst his wickedness lay covered with Sheeps cloathing But now I justly must and cannot but Accuse him as an Vsurper a Rebel against God a Tyrant to his â—rethre â— as he is guilty of partiality and wickedness Not that these Crimes are committed through weakness or Infirmities or acknowledged and Repented of But as they were done willfully persevered in and still endeavoured to be justified by Authority And therefore know ye that if it be any thing it will be his own words and deeds not mine That shall Condemn him But whereas he hath said to me that what he and you have done against me is also in like manner done in Heaven except I submit I answer That the thing for which you have Excommunicated me is none other but my contempt of his Lordships usurped authority and therefore as I am not convinced of any sin therein committed so I cannot nor shall repent thereof until you do by Scripture authority prove it to be the transgression of a righteous Law or that his unlimitted power is equal to or greater than the holy Scriptures or till he have so proved that such his usurped authority is more lawful than the Royal prerogative of the Supream Magistrate and that he or his weak Brethren whose part at least pretendedly he hath taken be infallible in the mean time for as much as I was not conscious of any known sin by me committed but what through Grace was repented of so as that with a good conscience I through mercy do and then did to my great comfort believe that I whom you have unmercifully condemned my Lord and Saviour doth and will justifie and therefore I believe and that upon good grounds to that such his sentence of Excommunication is no more then as though his Triple-Crown'd Brother beyond the Seas with his Bell Book and Candle had done it And so my unkind Friends As you are erred from Truth and Righteousness to conceal and defend wickedness I must tell you that according to what is my farther duty I am resolved to prosecute what I have undertaken against him as though I never knew him but as an usurping Tyrant for I do believe if a godly man transgress a righeteous Law he ought to suffer as an other man much rather such an one who is so far from godliness as to justifie and by Lies and deceit defend his Acts of Impiety Therefore let none think that I am become a persecutor of those whom I own to be my Brethren or that I oppose any but as the oppressed may lawfully endeavour for the execution of Justice upon the unmerciful and tyrannical oppressor For if I should persecute the People of God in their Innocency doubtless as the holy Apostle in another Case said I then of all men should be most miserable For I verily believe heartily wish that all good people were of the same Faith from the King on his Throne to the meanest Subject That to persecute and afflict the People of God in their Innocence for doing that which upon Scripture Authority they ought to do is a great and most dangerous sin and of the highest provoking nature that can be committed it appearing in my judgment so grievous to the most High That he can in no wise bear therewith For saith he the Lord to his persecuted Children He that toucheth you toucheth the Apple of my Eye whence I observe that the Lord hath not by any Metaphor expressed any such intollerable provocation to him as that of persecution And oh that none would give entertainment to that dangerous persecuting spirit until they can bring their Commission from Christ himself and until they see and have an infallible knowledge that it is the will of their Maker and that themselves be without sin and errors for the Almighty ordaineth his Arrows against Persecutors and be sure he will not miss the Mark He will not do as men shoot at a rebellious or stubborn Sinner and kill an humble penitent Saint Besides I observe and wish it might be the observation of all That many through Grace in time and others too late have repented of this grievous Sin But never did I hear of any good man nor scarce any so wicked As to repent because they had not been Persecutors or that they had not persecuted more than they did Oh! that due consideration might swage the judgments of all Persons who are inclin'd to this Evil which is subject to so great danger Nevertheless Wickedness ought not to be tolerated anywhere much less in the Church of Christ especially when practised and defended for doubtless in such Case great will be the Sin of him that shall know it a not endeavour to the utmost of his Power to Oppose and Reform it Wherefore since you have again and again Contemned my other Lawful Means and Endeavours that so Iustice might be wrested and Wickedness justified saying All Excommunicated Persons will Complain and that 't is nothing if I do so let me tell you It had bin good for all such Confederates that they had at first hearkened to the voice of the Oppressed and done their Duty But seeing there is no probability thereof I hope not to omit any lawful means whereby I may discover whether you do not ldolize your New Lord to that degree as to love him more than God and your own Souls by defending him with Lyes or by refusing to speak the Truth where by his wicked VVords and Deeds may be discovered and made manifest And whatever you may think yet may you not expect any Favour upon the Account of your outward Profession of Holiness but as you are Loverg of Truth and Kighteousness therefore be advised to take heed how you make your solemn Proteâ—ations when called to bear Withess to the Truth lest you sell Heavens glory and purchase to your selves Hells eternal misery For Lyers Idolaters c. shall have their Portion in the Lake Beware likewise of False Accusations As for my own part I have not nor will Accuse you or him with any thing but what I know is true or can make appear by those who were never known to be false Accusers But for my own part this I say That as I would not part with my Just Civil Temporal Priviledg to gratifie the quarrel some boundless Humour of that unjust Judge whose part you have taken so will I not God assisting part with my Spiritual Priviledg or sell my Birthright in Heaven purchased for me by the precious Blood of my dear Lord and Saviour only for a Mess of Pottage or that by which I may only please my self or any other Beware my Friends how you sin against light and your own knowledge to desend
that which is no less than a Damnable Erroneous Principle For if it be true as you have in words said That the Church of Rome he become a Harlot which once was the Spouse of Christ Then Vsurpation is a Damnable Error For if she had not Usurped Authority to Compel Persons to do and practise more or less then what is by their Supream Lord and Master required and appointed for Discipline and. Government of the Church according to the Holy Scriptures then no doubt but she had continued a true Church unto this day Again If the Church Officers had not through Usurpation been corrupted but had governed the Church according to the Will of our Lord and Saviour revealed in Scripture and not mixt their own Inventions with Christs Institutions Then doubtless the Officers of the Church of Rome had still deserved the Honour to be stiled The Holy Successors of the Holy Apostles But if as you say by usurpation she be now come a VVhore and her Officers none of Christs Ministers Then I infer that Usurpation is a Damnable Sin For ever since such Usurpation her Officers are ceased to be the holy Successors of the Apostles and are become the Antichristian Successors of Usurpers Tyranâ—s and Murtherers and notorious Enemies to all true Christian Emperours Kings and Princes Whence 't is evident that Usurpation is a Damnable destroying Sin and most dangerous to Church and State But you may possibly say That Usurpation cannot be the greatest and most damnable Sin since it is the Sin of the Holy Ghost that is the greatest Sin and never to be forgiven To which I answer That the Sin committed against the Holy Ghost in my opinion is that Sin only which is committed under the highest degree of saving means to wit God by his holy Spirit and Word opposing and the person persevering in his intended wickedness so that whether it be the Sin of Usurpation Rebellion Tyranny Hypocriste Idolatry c. any of these may thus be committed against the Holy Ghost and so become impardonable And therefore my Brethren look to your Consciences if Baal be God serve him but if the Lord be God how dare you go beyond his Word and unerring Rule Believe not trust not the best of men in matters of Religion in any thing that is not according to the Word of the Lord remember that a man of God was torn in pieces by a Lyon because he believed one who was not as then a Prophet an Example worthy the observation of those that incline to trust any private man rather than the Word of God Be no longer deluded Oh ye my Beloved although unkind Friends and bear with me for endeavoring at once to defend my own Innocent Just Cause and shew you your Delusions and how you are Betray'd For hath he not corrupted your Authority and Government so as to render it to be Lordly Arbitrary and Tyrannical contrary to the Will and Mind of Christ whom you suppose is the Head of your Church Yea and I do also believe That you think that you Act under Christ by vertue of Authority and Commission received from Him only and not otherwise which if really true then are you the true Church or part of the true Church and so ought to go no further than the Lords Commission which so long as you observe you are undoubtedly his beloved Children and true Subjects to him here and such as shall Reign with him in his Kingdom forever which I also believe is your hope and expectation And to this you are often encouraged by your pretended true Apostle and to believe that the Order of his present Government will bring you to this happy estate But if like a pretended Angel or Light he with smooth Words and hypocritical Speeches and Pretences of Tender Love to you and Honour to the Church have led you out of this good way and order in which you might stand and remain in safety and hath inveigled you into a Government under which you are become Servants to another Master and Rebels to Him whom you conceit you serve and honour like those grievous Transgressors of whom the Lord complains Isaiah 58. 2. Yet they seek me daily and delight to know my ways as a Nation that did Righteousness and forsook not the Ordinance of their God They ask of me the Ordinance of Justice they take delight in approaching to God What I pray have you done more than they Oh! that you would lay it to heart and consider Whether you are not as much deluded as they were Which if so Then beware of vain Confidence and be sure that you are in danger wherefore for your Reformation I pray consider First That you ought to do nothing in obedience to your true Lord and Master but what you believe is your duty because Whatsoever is not of Faith is Sin Secondly That your Faith and Belief hath a firm and sure Foundation for what you do and especially for what you do compel in matter of Religion otherwise your Building may come to sudden ruine Add not therefore sin to sin but haste haste for Reformation apply yourselves to the Law and to the Testimonies In case he compells person to submit to his or your Wills without that Authority then know It is because his pretended Holiness is turned into VVickedness Haste then I say and do Justice when by the Lord it is required of you although it be to the cutting off of your right hand when by reason of a Gangrening malignant distemper it is destructive to the whole Body But if notwithstanding all that I have said you are so strongly deluded that he cannot appear in your Judgments a Rebel and an Usurper Then tell me I pray who it is gave him Commission and Authority to Accuse Condemn Judge and pass sentence against a member of the Church for that which is no Transgression and not suffer him to plead his Cause with the Congregation whom in words you declare are the proper Judges or reason with those that were offended in order to give them Satisfaction But contrary to the way of peace and peace-makers perpetually to Interpose with malicious Agravations So that we were not suffered to propose any Terms of Reconciliation each to other Do you verily believe Christ gave him Commission to Exercise this Arbitrary Government If you do shew me good grounds for such your faith and I will believe it also otherwise remember the Popes Acts of Tyranny are of as good Authority as yours and he as honest as your Apostle and not half so much an Hypocrite Secondly Who requires you to be so Slavishly at the dispose of this pretended Apostle as through his Instigation to Condemn a member before ever it was proved that he had Transgressed any known Law wronged Man Woman or Child or ever dispised any Admonition or indeed that he was ever so much as Admonished at all by any Two persons or that there ever was any occasion
days The consideration of all which together with the Effects that did every day attend it to the great dishonour of the truth did after some time upon just grounds engage me to publish the matter and manner of their proceeding against me and accordingly I did make preparation for it and that long before the Publication hereof But if it demanded why I did not publish it sooner I faithfully and sincerely can answer my reason was this viz. Because I greatly feared that by this means not only the Offenders would be ill thought of as justly they may but that the way of truth it self and honest Professors might happen to be Censured by some inconsiderate people and evil reported of to the dishonour of God and prejudice or discouragement of the innocent Wherefore I did rather resolve to use all fair and safe means to prevent these ill effects and bring the matter to be heard determined and composed without such Publication To which purpose I read part of what I had written to a person pretending much kindness to me who I well knew did intend also to serve my causeless Adversary to his power yet 〈…〉 thought he haâ—h been such 〈◊〉 one as 〈◊〉 he 〈◊〉 〈…〉 person after I had so shewed him the substance of what I 〈…〉 for publick view did intent me to forbear to which 〈…〉 consented upon condition I might have the matter heard by 〈◊〉 London Friends that had power to do justice and did promise that 〈…〉 were done I would totally desist 〈…〉 ways This my 〈◊〉 being made he 〈…〉 perswade me to 〈◊〉 it to some 〈…〉 Congregation by which means the matter might be com 〈…〉 but I considering that all or most of the Congregations 〈…〉 respects inferior to him and he much adored and e 〈…〉 them did 〈◊〉 refuse so to do whereupon he ac 〈…〉 undertook to perswade Mr. C. and other 〈…〉 London 〈…〉 did I apply my self to an Elder with whom only I had a little 〈…〉 for his advice and he appointed both time and place and also did speale to several Church Officers to be there because my self had little 〈◊〉 acquaintance with any of then This is that Elder that first advised me to a appeal to the General Assembly and thought it no unfit that such of the Nation as I thought meet might be present at the heating of the Cause notwithstanding they were not in Fellowship However at this meeting the matter on M. Caffins said was generally disliked of and he admonished by the persons aforesaid to wit Mr. G. Mr. W. Mr. 〈◊〉 Mr. T. Mr. C. and divers others there present To go home and call 〈…〉 together and reform the matter Accordingly home they 〈…〉 me but when I came home which was about six days after 〈◊〉 general Reports went contrary to my expectation some relating they 〈◊〉 Justified in what they had done but that being opposed as a 〈◊〉 by one that heard the matter debated Then one of them to wit the same that would have a man Damned for displeasing their Lord C. rather then for offending the most High as you may see in the ensuing Treat se replyed that they were not to regard what our London Friends did for said he VVe not own them Which indeed prâ—â—es to be very true for all their Grave and Pious Council and Advice for Peace and Reconiliation was rejected and contemned And since that time their pretended Apostle Mr. C. hath also declared in the Assambly of his Congregation the same thing saying As for those London friends meaning those who gave him such Admorition before named we do not own them And this was the end of my first proposal and willing endeavours in order to prevent this Publication and the ill effects if any should attend it Yet notwithstanding their obstinate persisting in their illegal practice without any 〈◊〉 President on Example for their Authority I still resolved to wait hoping in time their eyes might be opened and 〈◊〉 minds incline to Repentance But when after a long and 〈…〉 ctation I perceived no appearance or probable hope of their 〈…〉 mation I then again began to think of publishing the matter 〈…〉 still feared my so doing might tend to their greater confusion c. 〈…〉 Whereupon I again said it by with resolution to make my appeâ—â—â— the next General Assembly of Church Officers at London in hope some good might be done by them and accordingly I made my preâ—â—â— Friends acquainted therewith and not only by word of mouth 〈…〉 ral of the Confederates whom I desired to be there to 〈…〉 mony to the truth of what they knew but also by a 〈…〉 their publick Meeting and desired the messenger 〈…〉 of that Congregation to deliver and desire M. C. to 〈…〉 gregation But althought it were delivered into his 〈…〉 that he the said M.C. not only promised at other times that he 〈◊〉 by no means prevent the matter from being heard but also said he 〈◊〉 do what he could to have it determined there yet when the time came and the Church Officers assembled together I appearing amongst them with several persons that were my Witnesses Matthew Caffin himself moved the matter saying that there was present a certain person that had been dealt withall in the Country that did make his Appeal to them and sail he I perceive he is resolv'd to move the cause to you and therefore you were as good hear what he hath to say now or to that effect Whereupon I who had been before made to doubt by M. C. and other that my cause could not be heard in this Assembly because of an agreement they had made not to hear any there before it had been heard by some Neighbour Congregation first desired to know whether they would intermeddle in such case and determine a matter in controversie between a Congregation and a single person whereto it was forthwith replyed by Mr. M. we can chuse out a party six or more persons and refer the matter to them who may determine it presently before we part or to that effect Then said I I am ready for it but then Matthew Caffin how agreeably to his former promises and pretences let sincerity judge interposed saying But the matter concerns the Congregation and they are not heâ—e and therefore it cannot be heard now which was seconded by one of his Assistants and so the matter put off The Consideration of this acting so palpably contrary to such promise that he would no ways hinder the matter from being heard but do what he could that it might be here determined puts me in mind of that Cardinal of whom it is reported he should declare That an honest man ought not to be a Slave to his word and might make a stranger apt to imagine this high pretender endued with such Cardinal Policies 〈…〉 with the honesty of a true Apostle For nothing imaginable 〈…〉 and design to 〈◊〉 the Heating by that excuse did hinder 〈…〉 having