grieved that they should have started that Question at all among them and if it were to do again would be better advised and are very desirous to have the divisive Distempers of the People cured and the Preachers of Schism discountenanced And yet this Historian with two or three of the younger sort would contrary to the mind and heart to the tears and prayers of all his Brethren increase the Disease which they were studying to cure and encourage these rash and inconsiderate Youths to cast more fire-brands and add Oyl to the flame I have considered the 47 48 49 Verses of the 7th Chap. of John with Mr. H's Notes and the more I consider it I think it the more impertinently alledged For these Pharisees and Rulers were Enemies of Christ they believed not themselves and they endeavoured to hinder others to believe on Christ and are enraged that the People did believe on him Now the Ministers of whom he is speaking are not Enemies of Christ but his Servants and faithful Servants and zealous for his Glory and are so far from hindering People from believing in Christ or from looking on them as ignorant and cursed upon that account that they study to bring People to believe in Christ and are grieved that this Author and his Associates withdraws them from Christ by withdrawing them from his Ordinances where he comes and blesses his People and is in the midst of them and withdraws them from hearing these whom Christ sends to Preach to them and so hinders them from believing for Faith comes by hearing and it increases by hearing Mr. H. takes notice that these Pharisees were puffed up and I leave it to the consideration of the Reader if the way of these Faithful and Zealous Ministers seems not to be farther from this than the way that this Historian hath taken in this History He shews it's an old Engine to keep men from Christ by the opposition of able and eminent Church-men But the stress of the Argument which he proposes to answer did not lie most upon that that they were Church-men in eminent place of great parts but on that that they were Faithful and Zealous Ministers and that they were not seeking themselves or their own things but the things of Christ and the Edification of the Body of Christ appears in this that they are not like the Historians Youths who cry down all but themselves and draws away the People from all others to hear themselves and tells the People there is a cursed thing in other Meetings and warns them to beware of it But their Faithful Ministers does not seek to engross all the Peoples affection to themselves but they are for their hearing of others they behave as the Lords Ministers were wont to do in the Primitive times and as we find the Apostles doing in their Epistles they commend and recommend their fellow-labourers to the Churches and strengthens their hands Again these Pharisees took it as an evidence of the Ignorance and Misery of the People that they believed on Christ These who speak of the Ignorance of the People who withdraw from hearing Indulged Ministers are far from thinking them Ignorant and Cursed upon that account But they know that many of them are very ignorant of Christ and of the way of Salvation and it 's sad to them that are drawn away from the means of Knowledge Preaching and Catechising from learning the grounds of Religion and their Heads filled with vain janglings And they learn not to know their own sins in order to their Humiliation and Self-denial but learns to know the sins of others more than their own and that readily puffs them up What he adds about the Peoples guiding and breaking the Ice it blows up the People with a conceit that God hath made them Guides and Leaders to go before the Ministers and made the Sheep to lead the Shepherds There was enough of wind in this Bladder before the Historian might have without any hazard spared his breath here and not blown up the People with the ill wind of an anti-scriptural conceit When the Lord guides his People in his way he guides them according to his Word in the use of the means that he himself hath appointed he leads his People like a Flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron and for my part when I observe that these whom the Lord hath not made Guides and Leaders and Shepherds wilfully refusing to be guided and led by these whom God hath made Guides and Shepherds and confidently taking upon them to lead their Leaders I am very suspicious that all is not right and that both the Leaders and they who are led by them are wrong But this is an old trick used by these who stir up People to Schism or Sedition to give the People fair words and make much of them Corah Dathan and Abiram do highly complement the People All the Congregation say they is holy every one of them and the Lord is among them Such fair words will easily beguile unstable Souls I remember a judicious and sober Countrey-man said of one of these Preachers who made it a great part of his work to draw away the People from hearing Indulged Ministers That he thought he clapped the Bairns heads too much The Historian was mistaken if he thought that withdrawing from the Indulged Ministers had it's rise from the People for it was some Preachers who by private conferences and publick Preaching drew them away He alledges that the matter about hearing the Curats is a sufficient instance of the Peoples good guiding Yet I perceive by what he says that he would not follow the Peoples guiding even in this matter for he does not think the Baptisms administrated by them to be no Baptisms But some of the People have thought their Baptism to be the mark of the Beast and that 's much worse than nothing He does not think the hearing of Curats simply unlawful and thinks if there were no other to hear they should be heard But some of the leading People have thought the hearing of them simply unlawful I heard of some who said that the hearing of them was as unlawful as Fornication Adultery as the Worshipping of the Calves of Dan and Bethel And I suppose the Historian will not deny that Fornication c. are simply unlawful Some have been so far from thinking that hearing them could ever become Lawful that they have placed their Religion and Sincerity in this A Minister informed me that when he was enquiring concerning the estate of a dying woman he got no other account of any Evidence that it was well or would be well with her but this that she had never heard a Curate and I suppose the Historian would have looked on this as a Soul-deluding and destructive Error to make that an Evidence of Sincerity which a Lazy Profane Atheistical Person can so easily forbear and that from a Principle of Laziness Profanity or Atheism From
ye were with If the person be silent and give no answer the suspicious Inquisitor will be more confirmed in his suspicion and readily conclude the man guilty If the man be really guilty and yet clears himself he sins by lying If he confess his guilt he makes a scandal in an unwarrantable divulging of his sin and though it may be he hath behaved himself blamelesly yet a tender person upon such an enquiry may readily be put to a demur and suspect that he may at least have omitted something which he ought to have done and so cannot give any present account of the serenity of his foul in that matter which will encrease the sinful suspiciousness of his Inquisitor and though he be altogether blameless and his Conscience serene yet the very questioning of such things is apt to breed suspicions and scandals But to come to his Question His design in it is to find the Indulged Ministers guilty by their own Confession of the neglect of a Testimony against the wickedness of this Invasion made by the overturners of the Work of Christ The Question is Whether it was the duty of those Ministers at that time to give in a Testimony of that nature He determines they should have done it then or never Now he hath so conceived his Question that whether they answer yea or nay he will conclude them guilty for not giving in such a Testimony as he requires at that time for if they say they were helped to witness a good Confession against this wickedness then he will conclude that then it was duty to give in such a Testimony as he requires at that time for to make a Confession good it 's required that it be seasonable an unseasonable Confession is not a good Confession for the seasonableness of a Confession is one of those things which are required to the goodness of it and a good thing is made up of intire causes but any defect makes a thing evil Again it cannot be said that men with serenity of soul can have confidence to give Christ thanks for helping them to give an unseasonable Confession or a Confession out of season But again if they answer that they were not helped by Christ to give such a good Confession then he will conclude that they are guilty of neglecting to give in that Confession at that time seeing it was a good Confession and so seasonable which if they had given they would have done it by the help of Christ and would have had matter of thanksgiving and seeing they have not done it they have not been helped by him to that which was good and their duty at that time Thus whether they answer his Question affirmatively or negatively he will conclude them guilty The Author made his Address as he says not as an acute disputant but as a poor blunt plain open-hearted man in a few plain Questions he should not after such a profession of plain-dealing in the very Entry begun with Sophistry with a Caption from many Interrogations Solomon says Prov. 9.8 Reprove not a Scorner lest he hate thee So that a man may forbear to reprove a Scorner and yet not be guilty of a sinful neglect but by such a captious Question as this any man who hath been with and heard Scorners will be found guilty for if ye spear at him were ye helped by Christ to witness a good Confession against such a Scorner or to give a good reproof to such a scorner if he answer that he was not helped to give him a good reproof then ye conclude that he omitted good and so sinned in not reproving him whereas Solomon forbids to reprove him If he say he gave him a good reproof then he calls that good which the Scripture forbiddeth or if this question be moved to one who hath not reproved a man when he was not in a case to receive reproof suppose when in drink or in the height of rage or when in such distemper and under such prejudice as the reproving of him would hinder him from doing some good that he were about to do and in all probability make him worse if the person perceive not the captiousness and sophistry of the Question but answer yea or nay he will be intangled but such may easily answer the Question thus 1. That they did not reprove such a person in such a case and 2. That it was not good to reprove him in such a case or at such a time and that therefore he was not guilty of neglecting a good reproof because it was not seasonable to reprove at that time If the Prefacer would have dealt as plainly as he promised he should have plainly proved that these Ministers should at that time have given in such a Testimony as he requireth The command that requires the making of Confession is an affirmative Precept and though it be obliged at all times yet doth not oblige to give a Testimony at all times we must never deny the truth but we must not ever make Confession of it as all Casuists grant We do not hear that Moses and Aaron made any formal protestation against Pharaohs Blasphemy and avowed Rebellion against God they heard him say Who is the Lord that I should obey his voice to let Israel go I know not the Lord neither will I let Israel go They make no Protestation nor Declaration against this blasphemous Speech and avowed Rebellion against God they only shew their Warrant and humbly insist in their Petition and yet these extraordinary Embassadours of God were in another manner of capacity for doing this if it had been necessary and seasonable than ordinary Ministers are read Exod. 5.2 3. Nor do we hear that the other Children gave any written or verbal Protestation against the making of the Image and Proclaimation to worship it Nor did Daniel give any written subscribed or verbal Declaration against the making signing publishing of that Decree which discharged all Petitions to be given to any for thirty days but to Darius which was to make him God alone All that they did was they did not obey but acted contrary to those godless Decrees and chused rather to suffer death than obey them Nor did our Saviour speak any thing before Herod though a vile man when he was before him Christ held his peace a long time before the Council and when he spoke he gave in no written or verbal Protestation against the Council it 's constitution and corruptions nor against the sentence they pronounced against him as a Blasphemer Nor when Paul compeared at Rome do we hear of any Protestation against the monstrous abominations and persecutions of Nero. Many Martyrs and Confessors did forbear to make publick Protestation against the Idols and Idolatry of their Persecutors and all that many of them said was this That they were Christians and upon that suffered How many both private Christians and Ministers have appeared before the Council since the Supremacy was established
Speeches are Persecutions Matth. 5.11 Jer. 18.18 they incite one another to devise devices against Jeremiah and to smite him with the Tongue I remember not of any thing in the Letters which I have missed except his Predictions for the Historian is a sort of a Prophet he hath a faculty of foretelling things to come I know not how he hath fallen upon it or whether it be be ill come or not he very confidently affirmed in the year 1677. That if Mr. John Welsh had hearkened to the desire of drawing near to the shelter of an house for meeting with the people but for one Sabbath though that might have contributed for taking off all Sentences against himself and others and to an Universal Liberty for all outed Ministers to preach without Molestation that then he would have forefaulted all the protection and countenance he had singularly enjoyed before that time This was far said No sober judicious Person will think that it could be unlawful in such Circumstances at least to preach at a house but though there had been somewhat wrong in it how comes he to know that for that failing Mr. Welsh would have lost the Protection and Countenance which he had formerly enjoyed it was presumptuous boldness for him to take upon him to determine so peremptorily concerning the forefaulting of the Protection and Countenance of God who hath mercy on whom he will have mercy and does for his names sake even when his peoples sins testifie against them and remembers his Covenant and Mercy for his People Another of his Predictions is That all indifferent Spectators will judge as he says and that Posterity will see and say as he says whether the indulged men will or not But I think they are over-credulous who will believe that he had the foreknowledge what way the Judgments of men present and of the Generations to come would incline and determine There is yet a third Prediction of another Author which is That the Indulgence should become as odious and detestable to all the godly in the Land as ever Prelacy was To this Prophecy the Author of the History and Letters makes an Addition while he says in one of his Letters That what that person was perswaded of will quickly appear the first had only said it would be but he says it will quickly appear augur augurem but these Prophets were so fearfully mistaken in seeing things that were that there is very good reason to doubt of their foresight of things to come yet there is more Art in this inartificial Argument founded upon the Authority of a man who hath but confidence to say boldly what he says concerning things to come than in many artificial Arguments and these Predictions will go further with weak credulous people than very solid reasons for people of that sort especially if they be curious think more of a man who will take upon him to tell but some things that will be though the event be of small consequence than they will think of a solid judicious man who can tell them from the word of God what they should do that they may glorifie and enjoy God and therefore there is such flocking of people to Fortune-tellers Speamen Dummeos Wizzards and Southsayers Now if curious people have such a conceit of those who foretel though they be suspected to have their Knowledge from the Devil they will think much more of men who are in reputation for Religion if they take on them to foretel things to come they will readily be very desirous that such Predictions may not fail I know one who pressed some of his acquaintaince to get weapons for fighting in such a year upon this ground That if there were not Blood that year then such a person who had foretold that there would be Blood would prove a false Prophet These Predictions are very taking when they suit with peoples Inclinations and when the fulfilling of these Predictions contribute to their honour and when they who are not active in fulfilling them are casten as ungodly and despicable and therefore these Predictions of Ministers which did foretel That the Indulgence would become despicable could not but be very taking with people who were inclined to despise it and this could not but be very effectual to press them to despise it that if they did it not then they would be known to be none of the godly and this would press others to despise it that they might not be ranked among the ungodly I have observed that several have an Art of bringing about several things by foretelling them some make people offend at these things which they would never have offended at by foretelling that the people will be offended So Satan hath brought about many mischiefs by foretelling them and the Actors of them this was a very effectual trick to render the Indulgence despicable to foretel that it would become odious and detestable to all the godly for they who believe these Predictions would reason them If we do not detest and hate the Indulgence we cannot list our selves among the godly and then if the Indulged Ministers did not relinquish the Indulgence and hate it that they could not be reckoned among the godly and if they did not make haste to hate it and detest it very shortly that then they could not be accounted godly because this Prediction was to be quickly accomplished It was no great matter to foretell that the Indulgence and indulged Ministers would become odious when there was so many Letters and Copies of printed Books full of odious reproaches cast at the Indulgence and Indulged Ministers when such causes were working and such Fire-balls cast and the people were so prepared to take fire it was an easie thing without any Spirit of Prophesie to foretel a Fire when such trains were laid and kindled Again when a poor Church is going to ruin the ordinary Forerunner of that ruin is the contempt of the Ministers 2 Chron. last They mocked the Messengers of God and despised his words and misused his Prophets until the wrath of the Lord rose against his people till there was no remedy O Jerusalem Jerusalem thou who killest the Prophets read Matth. 23. ver 34. to the end so that if these two Ministers had spoken a little more indefinitely they might have passed for pretty good Guessors if they had said only that the Indulgence would be detestable to the godly but taking on them to foretel that it would be detestable to all the godly and that quickly hath quite broken their credit as Prophets for there are many of the godly who have always been far from detesting the Indulgence and they are much further from detesting it now than before And the Authors of these Predictions have by these Predictions and some other Practices of that nature much wronged their own Reputation This is ordinary when a Church is going to ruin the Despisers of the Lords Servants go before this contempt uses
show that those of the outed Ministers to whom the Magistrate had granted the peaceable publick exercise of their Office in some Parishes in their returning to those Parishes where they were formerly ordained Ministers or not having access to the peaceable exercise of their Ministry in their own Parishes upon the â—nvitation of destitute Congregations with the consent of Presbyterian Ministers concerned going to exercise their Office in those destitute Congregations till they might have access to return â—o their own Parishes That these Ministers in so doing did sin Of what Law of God is this practice of theirs a Transgression Is it a sin for Ministers whom God hath called to the work of the Ministry to exercise their Office in the Parishes where they were ordained Ministers or to help destitute Congregations who desire them to come and help them Is it a sin because the Magistrate permits them to preach The Author himself dare not say this as appears from his first Answer to the first Objection A Minister â—ins not in preaching the Gospel though an Uâ—urper a Robber permit him to preach and much â—ess doth the Permission of the lawful Magistrate render his preaching sinful Object The Magistrate appoints them to preach and to preach in such or such a parish and therefore it 's sinful Ans 1. If it were a sin in the Magistrate to appoint a Minister to preach in such or such a place and a sin for the Minister to preach because the Magistrate appointed him to preach in such a place then the Ministers who wrote the first Book of Discipline and the Church of Scotland who approved it did sin in desiring the Magistrate to appoint Ministers to preach in such and such Parishes We did shew from the first Book of Discipline That they desired the Magistrate to do this and more too even to compel them to preach 2. This Author grants in his Answer to the third Objection That the Magistrate may place Ministers when the Church is corrupt and all things are out of order the vanity of his evasion by which he seeks to elude that Argument taken from the 10th Chapter of the second Book of Discipline is before discovered 3. Suppose it were unlawful for the Magistrate to appoint a Minister to exercise the Office of the Ministry in a particular Parish yet it would not be sinful for that Minister to preach in that Parish if the Parish were vacant and earnestly desired him to exercise his Ministry among them and if his preaching there were not injurious to any if the Magistrates appointing a Minister to preach c. in a Parish render the Ministers preaching in that Parish sinful then the Magistrate by such appointments might make the exercise of the Ministry in any Parish or in all Parishes in his Dominions sinful which is a most absurd Conceit Or is it sinful to accept of the peaceable exercise of their Ministry in such or such Parishes because the Magistrate gives them Injunctions and Rules to regulate them in the exercise of their Ministry But 1. These Injunctions were the Magistrates Acts and not the Ministers 2. The Ministers accepted not of these Injunctions but declared they could receive no such Ecclesiastick Rules from the Magistrate and that they had full Prescriptions from Christ which they behoved to observe as they would be answerable to him of whom they had received their Ministry 3. The Act of Instructions as it was distinct from the Act of Indulgence in which the publick peaceable exercise of their Ministry was granted and came not to the Ministers hands for a considerable time after they had received the Act of Indulgence so there was a great difference in the nature of the Acts and the Indulged Ministers did right in making use of what was good and refusing what was evil 4. If the Magistrates sending Injunctions to Ministers renders the exercise of their Ministry sinful then the Magistrate may render the exercise of the Ministry in any place in every place of his Dominions sinful by sending Instructions to all the Ministers in his Dominions which is another absurd Conceit which if it were received would make it easie for an ill-disposed Magistrate to mar all preaching by writing and sending Acts of Instructions to all the Ministers in his Dominions Object The Act of Indulgence flowed from a sinful Supremacy and therefore it was sinful to make any use of it Ans To say nothing of the making use of a Pass given by a Captain of Robbers or of a Covenant of peaceable commerce made with an Usurper who hath no just title which Casuists do not condemn I answer That that Act which indeed was the Act of Indulgence and which the Indulged Ministers made use of viz. The Relaxation of the Civil Restraint which hindred the peaceable exercise of their Ministry or the granting of the publick peaceable exercise of Ministry was no Act of any sinful Supremacy but the exercise of that power which the Magistrate hath from God for doing good As from the right stating of the question it evidently appears That this accepting of the publick peaceable exercise of the Ministry was not sinful so it evidently appears That it was lawful and commendable and a duty to which they were obliged as the work of the Ministry is a good work so the peaceable setled exercise of it under the protection of lawful Authority is a great mercy that hath many blessings and advantages in it it 's a promised blessing it 's a blessing for which the people of God should pray and because the peaceable setled exercise of the Ministry cannot be where Magistrates are without their allowance or permission therefore it 's duty to pray That the Lord would incline the heart of Rulers to grant the peaceable publick exercise of Religion in their Dominions and when the Lord inclines the hearts of Rulers to this we should not slight such a promised Mercy nor refuse the return of our Prayers but thankfully receive this blessing of God conveyed by the hand of the Magistrate and make use of this Talent to the Glory of God and edification of his Church I remember I have spoken before of the advantages of the peaceable setled exercise of the Ministry and of the necessity of accepting of it especially in answering the last head of the Authors Arguments and shall say no more of the state of the question but this That they who but understand the terms of the question will see that all the Arguments which the Author brings to prove the accepting of the Indulgence sinful do evanish as smoke and lose all colour when they compere before the light of naked Truth And they will see that what these Ministers did in exercising their Ministry in these desolate Congregations when the Lord in his good Providence had given them peaceable access thereto was so evidently a religious work a labour of love a work of mercy a seasonable expedient necessary work
make it appear so but the pertinency and clearness of it is manifest to all who will not shut their eyes and the impertinency of his confused questions which have their rise from his own confused fancy and not from the matter which gave no occasion for them is sufficiently discovered He says it 's defective Answ I refer the Reader to the Answers of the fore-going Questions which are the words or the obvious and manifest sense of their words before the Council and then to the consideration of all the genuine consequences which necessarily and clearly follows from these truths asserted in these Answers and then let him judge whether their Testimony was defective In denying to the Magistrate a Power formally Ecclesiastical all Erastianism properly so called is excluded and in asserting that in the matters of the Ministry they are Christs Servants and consequently not the Servants of men in these matters and in designing Acts burdening their Ministry by the name of impositions they have clearly shewed that these matters are not at the will and pleasure of men for if the Magistrate might warrantably command what he pleased in these matters his commands would not be impositions but Lawful commands Now if the Lord would incline the hearts of Rulers to forbear to assume a Power formally Ecclesiastical that 's the Power of the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven and to forbear to burden the Church with impositions commanding what the Lord hath forbidden or forbidding what the Lord alloweth or hindring and marring the Servants of Christ in his Service I suppose none who were judicious would complain though they used their objective Power in commanding what God hath commanded and forbidding what he hath forbidden and pressing these commands where there is need with Civil Penalties And the Servants of Christ would rejoyce to see the Civil Magistrate using the Civil Power which he hath from God for the glory of God in putting the Ministers of Christ to their Duty He says There was in this way of vindicating Truth much pusillanimity disingenuity carnal consultation occasioning misconceptions and blindness Answ The Historians blindness in and misconceptions of this matter hath occasioned and caused this false and uncharitable accusation All who know these Ministers knows their candour and ingenuity and their Brethren who were with them at their meetings at that time can witness their integrity and their words uttered before the Council do evidence They evidenced much more courage before the Magistrate than the Author did when brought before the Magistrate for any thing I can hear but ordinarily men who have least courage are most vehement exacters of it in others and most ready to upbraid others with pusillanimity they use to talk much of courage when they are at a good distance from the place where danger is but when they come where the fray is they are as afraid as other folk The Brother who hath answered this History relates that a Minister who was brought before the Council in the year 1662. for calling his Neighbour a Knave because contrary to his promise he had gone to the first Diocesan Synod being interrogate wherefore he called his Neighbouring Minister a Knave He answered because he said one thing and did another This Answer was much more general and abstract from Prelacy or Supremacy and Covenant-breaking than the Answers of the Indulged Ministers the reason why he called him a Knave really was his conforming to Prelacy established by the Supremacy and his Covenant-breaking But the Brother who is so much for particular plain distinct Testimony in others he contented himself with this confused general He adds that another Brother who in the preceeding year was brought before the Parliament for asserting the Obligation of the Covenant in a Sermon when he compeared all his Testimony was a mincing of these expressions made use of in that Sermon But saith he I pitied him because he was in hazard of his Life And yet both these Brethren have exclaimed much against the Indulged Ministers for not giving a plain open full Testimony before the Rulers Several People would have a Testimony as the Cat would have fish without wetting their feet Catus amat piscem sed non vult tangere lympham or as the Ape would have Chesnuts out of the fire without burning their own fingers and therefore makes use of the Cats foot to pull them out They would have Indulged Ministers giving plain Testimonies to the Magistrates face but all their own Testimonies are given behind the Magistrates back and they look rather like Satyrick invectives and railing accusations than the Gospel-Testimonies of Gospel-Ministers who should with meekness Instruct even those who oppose themselves if God peradventure will give them Repentance and who should not do any thing that really tends to harden or irritate but do all things that are allowed of God to mollifie the hearts even of these who oppose themselves Their way puts me in mind of the way of some fresh-water Souldiers who when they are called to fight and shoot have neither heart nor hand to draw or present their Muskets let be to give fire but flees as fast and far as their feet will carry them and when they are at a great distance they give brave fire and shoots abundance of great volleys at the wind and if upon the Report of these volleys they be enquired after they disappear nusquam apparent The Historian shuts up this matter by desiring the Informer to tell him If he think not that more plain clear and full expressions might have been fallen on Answ Here he seems to grant that their expressions were plain clear and full for the comparative supposes the positive and must honest men be condemned of Treachery because they fell not upon the plainest words and fullest expressions Must there be Confusion and Treachery in every Testimony that is not clear in the superlative degree These Brethren used the expressions which Divines who writ most deliberately and distinctly and soundly in these matters use and I am very confident if they had known clearer expressions to have exprest their mind in that matter they would have used them The Author of this History hath noâ— fallen upon more distinct words for any thing Is remember For the words which he suggests pag. 75. where he says Why was it not more distinctly and in fewer words said that they could not receive the Instructions as being intrinsecally and formally Ecclesiastical Regulating them who were the Servants of Christ in these matters For 1. Though this had been distinct yet it would not have been true for by his own confession the confinement was wholly Political 2. It 's confused at least I do not distinctly understand what matters these matters are which are in the end of his distinct words no doubt these words mean matters but what matters he means I can hardly imagine If he had spoken before of the matters of the Ministry as Mr. H. did
kindly to it and it takes well with them and they with it And Error is like a fretting gangreen the longer it continues it rots and spreads the more And it 's observed that when People drinks in erroneous Doctrines upon the bare word of these who teach Division and their heart and affection takes with Error though they have neither shadow of Scripture or Reason for it that they are hardly recovered from these delusions for People who are misled by some wrested Scripture or captious Reasoning they may be more easily recovered by shewing the true meaning of the wrested and mis-applyed Scripture and the captiousness of the false Reasoning But when People will err and love to wander and will stumble though they wot not at what and are so affectionately addicted to their erroneous Opinions that they will hear nothing that makes against them there is little probability of Cure for as they received them without Reason because they would receive them so they retain them against Reason and cannot endure to have these beloved tenets brought under examination and tryal and therefore they readily flee out in Passion upon any who would inform them as mens Lusts are their Idols so are their Errors when they are once settled in their hearts Augustine said that his error was his God Error meus erat Deus meus Now if this Historian who was a man of letters be so confounded and confused in stating this Question and is involved in gross contradictions what wonder if the poor people who are not fit for Debates be whirled round by such whirl-winds and contrary winds into a confused giddiness that they wot not what they say or affirm and know not what to do and be like Children that have so long run about that they fall down as unable to stand or move any more So they are so confounded with these perplexed Questions about hearing which cannot be propounded and far less resolved without manifest Absurdities and Contradictions that many of them are fallen over in a careless laziness and indifferency about all hearing of the Word and spends the Lords day in sleeping loytering and idle wandring The Historian doth but waste time and paper when he says that in our best times People were not so tyed to the hearing of their Ministers as that they might never or in no case hear others for that is not the Question But this is the true state of the Question Whether People who have these Ministers to hear who were formerly Ordained by the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery to be their Pastors and those who have these Ministers to hear whom they invited to come and help them when they were destitute and had none to Preach to them If these People who have consented to receive the Lords Ordinances from these Ministers and have waited on their Ministry and joyned with them in the Lords Worship if they ought to break off that Church-fellowship and though they acknowledge these Ministers to be Ministers of the Gospel and though these Ministers Preach the Gospel and dispense the Lords Ordinances according to the Lords Institution yet if they ought to withdraw constantly from hearing them and that because it 's unlawful to hear them and there is sin wrapt up in hearing them and that they are called of God to withdraw that in doing so they may bear witness against the sinful Usurpations manifest in the Indulgence and the many evils in accepting it or more shortly If it be sin for these People to hear these Ministers and if it be their Duty to desert them and separate themselves from these Congregations where they exercise their Ministry This Historian seemeth to be for the Affirmative and so confident that these People do right in withdrawing that he says One might think it strange that there should be any necessity to vindicate them considering what he hath said above I am one of these who have considered what he hath said above and I thought it very strange how he could vent such gross and manifestly false Calumnies against faithful Ministers and how he could wrest and pervert their true right honest words contrary to common sense and equity that he might wring out of them that which never entred in the thoughts or heart of these Ministers And again I think it strange that by these false and groundless Calumnies which he hath cast upon these honest Ministers he should labour to rent the Church of God by Schism by breaking these who will listen to him off from communicating with the true Church in the true Worship of God and by pressing them to disown and desert these Ministers whom they formerly owned and countenanced and whom they are still obliged to own and have no just cause to desert except his false Calumnies be accounted just causes Having observed the confusion and contradictions in which the Historian hath involved himself in stating the Question it remains to consider what he says for the vindication of these who scruple to hear and own the Indulged Ministers But seeing he says nothing but what he hath said before and is formerly refuted I hope the Reader will not expect that I should play the goke in repeating again his Cuckows and refuting them although I followed him before in his extravagant wandrings when he without and contrary to all sense and reason imagined that this or that or the other thing was the meaning of the Indulged Ministers words yet I cannot have any pretext for making meer repetitions in his wandrings there was variety of vain imaginations which made the refutation of them less tedious but to repeat the same things to no purpose but to waste time and paper would be intolerably tedious and nauseating I shall onely by answering his first Question shew the way of answering the rest 1. Seeing by what is said under our first head of Arguments c. Answ Seeing by what is said in answer to your first head of Arguments it is manifest that the Indulged in and by their accepting of the Indulgence have not wronged our Lord Jesus Christ who is the onely Head of the Church and King in Zion in any of these nine several particulars which are nine several Calumnies the ordinary Arguments which he makes use of against the Indulged Ministers for he could find no true Arguments to his purpose against them How can they but be blamed who out of a sinful credulity make up or take up such vile Reproaches against faithful Ministers and then out of these Calumnies create to themselves scruples which scare them from hearing these whom the Lord hath sent to Preach the Gospel to them And so through the rest of his Questions where he refers to his heads of Arguments I refer to the Answers which cuts off both heads and tails of these captions As for the Arguments taken out of the late Apology which contrary to the intention of the Apologist he abuses for he perverts the words
this it appears that the People are none of the best Guides in the matter of hearing seeing they have been so far from breaking the Ice in the right Foord that they have broken it above Whirlpools and have plunged themselves so palpably that the Historian himself could not follow them And I am so far from seeing sufficient Evidences of the Peoples good guiding of their Guides that I am very hopeful that all sober People will upon serious consideration of the Errors and Confusions that some People who would needs guide matters have run unto will acknowledge that it is the good and acceptable will of God that every one should keep within the bounds of their own vocation and not take upon them that which the Lord hath not called them to and that the sheep should not lead the Shepherds but be led by them And I suppose that several Ministers have by sad experience found that they have been indeed led upon the Ice by following the humours of some head-strong leading People who were fitter to break themselves and the hearts of their Ministers than to break the Ice to make safe passage for their followers The 5th Object Now when we are in hazard to be over-run with Popery is it seasonable that such Questions should be started to break the remnant in pieces and thereby to make all a Prey to the man of sin Were it not better that we were all united as one to withstand the Inundation He Answereth That he fears that the Lord by Popery and Blood will avenge the quarrel of his Covenant and the contempt of the Gospel I Reply He should have remembred that we did covenant to extirpate Schism which he endeavours to plant and water in this History And hath he not exposed the Gospel to contempt in tempting the People to cast off all the Indulged Ministers as no Ministers of Christ and all almost who are not Indulged as acted by the spirit of Supremacy the spirit of Anti-christ He could not have taken a more compendious way to render the Preaching of the Gospel contemptible than to render the Ministers of the Gospel contemptible Then he Advises That we should acknowledge our selves the basest of sinners This Advice is good but his Schismatick directions are contrary to it A Schismatick Spirit is a proud and self-conceited Spirit They who see themselves the basest of sinners would if they could rather separate from themselves than others they will in lowliness of mind esteem others better than themselves they will acknowledge themselves less than the least of mercies unworthy of any remnant of the Lords Ordinances unworthy to whom the Lord should send any of his Messengers such will be far from casting at any of the Lords Servants or Ordinances Then he says Union so long as the accursed thing is amongst us is a Conspiracy I suppose the Indulgence is the accursed thing which he means but the Magistrates permitting and allowing the peaceable exercise of the Ministry is a good thing This is a curse of his own making a causeless curse this is one of the tricks of the Devil to divert People from taking notice of the sins they are really guilty of by bogling them with imaginary sins alledging that there is sin wrapped up in hearing the Ministers of the Gospel Preach the Gospel and so he turns Duty to sin and by making them take up the peaceable exercise of the Ministry under the protection of Lawful Authority as if it were a curse or cursed thing and so flegging poor People that they flee from and forsake their own mercies and it 's a dreadful delusion to mistake blessings as if they were curses He adds If we be not tender of Christs headship and of what depends thereupon and of the least pin of his Tabernacle pitched among us I Answer If he had been more tender of Christ as head of his Church he would have been more tender of the Union of the Members of his Body and would have been afraid to have rent the members of that Body asunder His divisive Doctrine looses all the pins of the Tabernacle he hath cast fire into the Lords Tabernacle which if the Lord prevent not may burn up the Synagogues of God in the Land His Doctrine tends to dissolve all Meetings for the publick Worship of God except these who meet at the Separate Meetings moulded after his conceit He Prophesieth That they who follow his way shall find a shelter and a Chamber of Protection But he hath been so far mistaken in taking up things past and present they are not wise who will believe him when he Prophesies of things to come a false Historian is not an Infallible Prophet He is so far wrong in his Precepts for Direction that I have no Faith to believe his promises of Protection He recommends Union upon the old grounds of our received and sworn Principles and Maximes But they who know these old grounds see his grounds to be the grounds of the English Brownists which were solidly refuted by the old Non-Conformists Next He threatneth That if there be not an Union in the way that he prescribes that is if there be not a Separation from these Congregations where Indulged Ministers are and also from these Meetings where Non-indulged Ministers who are for hearing Indulged Ministers Preach for he Reproaches these Ministers also as Acted by the Spirit of Supremacy the Spirit of Anti-christ that then this Division from his Separated party will be the certain fore-runner of a dark and dismal Dispensation And then he Advises every man that would have Peace in the day of Gods contending against these back-sliders and revolters to mourn for this Abomination of the Indulgence among other Abominations and to adhere to the Lord and to our Principles which the Lord hath owned and countenanced though he should be in a manner left alone Answ This Division and Schismatick renting of the Lords People this driving of them away from the Lords Ordinances is more than a fore-runner of a dark and dismal Dispensation it 's an Evidence of the continuance of the Lords Anger and that his hand is stretched out still Schism is a grievous sin a dreadful plague which uses to end in ruine and desolation and they who drive on this vile and destructive Schism and scare the Lords People from joyning together in the Worship of God they are back-sliders and revolters from the Principles and Covenant of true Presbyterians They adhere not to the Lord who hath commanded his People not to forsake the Assembling of themselves together and hath promised to be with them when met in his Name and to come and bless them where he Records his Name and to be with his Servants Preaching and Baptizing in his Name to the end of the World They who forsake the Ordinances in which the Lord hath trysted a meeting betwixt himself and his People they who will not come where the Lord comes they who will be
suggesting that such or such a Scripture makes for his deluding suggestions Peter roved even when he was in the Mount beholding Christs Transfiguration when he moved that Christ might abide in the Mount and after he had given that excellent Confession of Christ That he was the Son of God which not flesh and blood but the Father had revealed to him Satan suggests to him to disswade Christ from going to Jerusalem to suffer which drew that sharp rebuke from the blessed mouth of Christ Get thee behind me Satan The Devil can back his suggestions with Scriptures which he perverts as we see he did when he tempted Christ to cast himself down from the Pinacle of the Temple and therefore there is the more need to search the Scripture and to compare Scripture with Scripture and to consider what goeth before and what followeth in the Scripture and to know the Analogy of Faith from the Scriptures that are more clear and as it is holden forth from the Scriptures in the Confession of Faith and Catechisms that ye may not receive any sense of Scripture which is contrary to the Analogy of Faith to the Doctrine which is according to godliness received in the Reformed Churches Beware of adding to the word of God by making these things Duties which God hath not commanded or making any thing sinful which God hath not forbidden there are too many who will confidently impose their Conceits upon others and too many who are easily imposed upon simple people who believe every word and are tossed to and fro with every wind Study to be well founded in the Scriptures that with the Bereans ye may try Doctrines and Practices by the Rule of the holy Scripture It 's lamentable that there is so great ignorance of the Scriptuees and many are more in reading other writings than in reading the holy Scriptures Walk exactly according to the light which the Lord hath given to you from his word detain it not in unrighteousness and beware ye go no further than the light of the word directs you for if ye go out of the light and be in the dark ye know not how far ye may wander they who without direction from the word do blindly follow the example of others and know not whether it be right or wrong or take what others do to be right because such or such persons does it they are in an ill taking Beware ye go not without the word walk in the Law of the Lord in the light of the word which is a light to the feet and a Lamp to the paths 4. And that ye may be nourished up in the knowledge of the Scriptures of truth go to the publick Ordinances forsake not assembling together with the Lords people who meet in his name the Lord hath commanded his Ministers to teach and baptize c. and hath promised to be with them to the end of the world and hath promised That where he records his Name there he will come and bless his people he hath appointed Ministers for this end to feed his people with the knowledge and understanding of the word with the sincere Milk of the word and therefore if ye would glorifie the Name of the Lord if ye would have fellowship with God if you would have his presence and his Blessing if ye would know his mind and will revealed in his word frequent his Ordinances beware of those who would draw you away from the Shepherds Tents for they draw you away from Christ himself for it 's there that he feeds and makes his Flocks to rest Believe not those who say That he is not to be found in his own Ordinances for there he is and hath trysted his people to meet him there and he hath promised to come there and bless them whenever they are met in his name He is present he is not to come when they are met in his Name for he is come already There am I saith he in the midst of them The sins of those who are present at the Lords Ordinances shall not deprive those who upon his call comes to record his Name of his Presence and blessing for he is faithful who hath promised and they who come according to his appointment to glorifie his Name in his own Ordinances may be assured that he comes and blesses them though it may be they do not sensibly discern it and they are bound to believe it that he hath come and blessed them because he hath said it Beware of those who think they are the best and most tender Christians who are readiest to cast Ministers as no Ministers and Churches as no Churches there were many great faults in the Church of Corinth in several of the Churches of Asia and their Angels and yet Christ himself owns them and their Angels as Chuches and Angels and we find not that the Lord directs any to separate from these Churches or their Assemblies for publick worship because of those scandalous sins which were among them We find Christ himself present in the Church of Lacdicea which was the worst of them and standing at their door and knocking It 's insolent boldness to cast these as no Churches and Ministers whom Christ owns or who condemn going to these Meetings where Christ himself comes and blesses his people remember that your great busines in Ordinances is with the Lord himself for they are his Ordinances he hath appointed them the efficacy of them depends upon his Institution and Blessing and not upon the worthiness and intention of Ministers whoever absent themselves ye may be sure he is present whom your soul should seek come because he calls you and because he comes and blesses his people where he causes his Name to be recorded Learn to hear the Word not as the word of man but as the word of God Esteem the Ministers of Christ very highly in love for their works-sake and for their Masters sake Beware of the way of those who cast at the Ordinances if they be not dispensed by Ministers of the most eminent gifts or by Ministers who are in all things of their opinion receive the Lords message of the hand of any of his Messengers Beware of idolizing any Minister Remember that neither he that planteth nor he that watereth is any thing but God who giveth the encrease And beware of undervaluing any of the Lords Ministers seeing they are the Ministers of Christ 1 Cor. 4.1 In which Chapter the Apostle disswades the Corinthians who overvalued some and undervalued others of their Ministers from this comparing and rash judging of Ministers and among other Arguments uses this That they judge before the time he desires them to let alone that judging till the Lord come ver 5. who knew the counsels of the heart and the hidden things of darkness Neglect not the private exercises of Religion upon the Lords day but beware of the way of those who neglect the publick Ordinances though they have the