to pray the Lord Protector to dissolve the Parliament Whereupon I told the party that brought it That the Parliament were wise enough for state-affairs with which they were intrusted And for me or any private person to medle with such great matters were very foolishnesse and so refused to sign it The party that brought this petition told me that it was to be signed onely by seven of the Church in the name of the whole And accordingly it was signed by some few of the Church and sent up others of the Church not knowing thereof untill the rumor thereof was spread about the whole City The which my wife observing said This is no fair dealing and desired me to be wary what I did This being the first disrelish my wife had of their proceedings it was seconded by a friend that came to my house who asked me whether I had signed the Petition that the Church had sent up To whom I answered I had not he replyed I am glad with all my heart you did not for said he there is that in the Petition for which some eminent States-men have lost their heads and said It was judged by the long Parliament to be Treason for any one to Counsel or perswade the King to dissolve the Parliament as you may see in the Cases of the Archbishop and Strafford My wife hearing this discourse her heart began to grow and could not but vent her self a little saying that she feared the Church carried on some particular mans interest and begged me I would be exceeding wary what I did and have respect to my self her and our children But yet as to the Church was very quiet the next time that we went to the Church-meeting was a day of prayer At which time one amongst the rest prayed much after the rate of the Petition And had this passage concerning the Lord Protector Lord humble him what would he have Is he not high enough already And a great deal more of such stuff when I and my wife came home she asked me how I like those passages and said me thinks it is like Mr. Feaks praying I answered her and said If he pray so again I will never hear him more Hereupon my wife began to flagg in her affection towards their way and now every thing that was amisse began to be thought on by her and in particular the expressions of some of their members who in making out their experiences at their admissions spake of such sins as are not to be named which thing she said bordered too nigh Auricular confession The next time my wife went to the meeting was a day appointed by the Church for thanksgiving for that God was pleased to prevent some insurrection by the fift-Monarchy-men for that the Lord Protector would not accept the Kingly office when she had waited long at the place the people were dismist without doing any thing for that time for that the Lord Protector had then given but his first negative answer My wife returned home much discontented that I had not told her the occasion of that days meeting before she went and said that for her part she apprehended that some of them did carry on a selfish carnal design After this there was a Covenant brought into the Church to be debated in order to the taking there of and all or a great part thereof was assented unto by them but my wife having a Copy thereof from the Elder she utterly dislik't it especially two perticulars therein The one whereof was a Tying of them up wholy to hear them when they preach't and no other without their leave and the other was that we were to exspect a greater blessing from God on their Ministry then any others All these particulars being laid together made such impressions on her thoughts that she resolved not to joyn any longer with them on such termes or in the manner as formerly But forthwith went and joyned her self to Mr. Marke Downes Church from whence she formerly departed professing her hearty sorrow for her departure thence and saying she was perswaded the Lord had manifested his displeasure against her for the same which she apprehended by reason of those many visitations on herself and the death of her children The Thursday next before the Sacrament at Mr. Stucleys Church I did notwithstanding desire her to go with me to the meeting in way of preparation thereunto but she refused alleadging the reasons before mentioned whereupon one of Mr. Stucleys Church that was likewise absent from the meeting seing my wife at work in her porch asked her what was the reason that she was not at the meeting she answered I think I shall not come there any more thereupon he asked her saying why then did you come among us you may go among the Presbyterians to Mr. Forde who is for general admission as said he he declared at the last general meeting of the Ministers in Exeter hereupon my wife desired me to go with her to Mr. Forde which I did and she asked of him whether he did ever declare himself to be for general admission to the Lords Supper who answered he was never of that opinion and whosoever said that he was did much wrong him This traducing of Mr. Forde and their common slighting of others that are not of their way though never so godly helped to heighten her dissatisfaction Within few dayes after came one now an Elder of their Church to admonish my wife for not coming to their private meetings To whome she answered she intended to come no more amonst them for that there was such kind of praying and carrying on designs that she could no way close with and referred him to me for the farther knowledge of her mind shortly after he brings with him one more and after that others came but she would give them no other answer then formerly nor admit of any other private discourse with them remembring how Mr. Parr was entangled by them unless they would admit two persons whom she should appoint to hear their discourse This would not presently be granted pretending that no others were to have to do with the busines of their Church which I look upon as a dangerous principle but at length they consented and when both parties met together They were asked what they had to lay to her charge who answered to this effect that they charged her for going from their Church which they said was Schisme and no other thing had they to charge her withall to whom the other party answered saying you are the Schismaticks in rending from other Churches and produced Mr Cawdries Book to prove the same which was all the substance of the debate at that meeting Shortly after this Mr. Stucley desires to speak with my wife who sent him word that she would not come to him single or alone but if he Mr. Mall pleased to meet two other Ministers with her that she should nominate she would submit to
Lewis Stucley Preacher of the Gospel and his Church in Exon. This Letter was carried and delivered unto Mr. Stucleys hands when he was assembled with his Church at the house of Mr. Andrew Raddon Post-master in Exon the Eighth of March 1657 to excommunicate Mris Parr and my Wife in the morning before he began his own exercise in order to that work And the messenger according to directions at the delivery thereof spake aloud so as all the people might hear him saying to Mr. Stucley Sir here is a Letter from Mrs. Parr and Mrs. Allein which they desire may be communicated to the Church who thereupon opened it and he with two others of his Church having lookt it over pocketted it up and did not communicate the same to the Church but afterward told the people that he had received a paper that had more of design in it then any shew of humility or repentance and that he thought it not fit to be communicated to the Church And so proceeded on in his Sermon since in print wherein having desamed them with the highest defamations almost imaginable he stood up and pronounced the sentence following The Sentence FOrasmuch Brethren as Mrs Susanna Parr and Mrs Mary Allein have been convicted of great sins and forasmuch as they have neglected to hear the Church we therefore in the name of Christ deliver them over to Satan for the distruction of the flesh that the spirit may be saved in the day of Christ Upon pronouncing of which Sentence the Church made a hideous howling cry that did even astonish divers then present which occasioned the party that noted Mr. Stucleys Sermon to write his prayer which he made after he had pronounced the Sentence which was as followeth The Prayer BLessed Lord we have left them where thou bidst us leave them and we pray thee let them have such awakenings by Church-censures that they may not stay long there Lord O that God would be pleased for them fetch them away thence Lord there-hence Lord if they belong unto thee fetch them back again Lord back again O let them not rest there O let them have no quiet in their spirits there Lord O let Satan torment them home O let them be driven by Satan among us we pray thee Lord if they had not fallen out with thy Law they had not fallen out from thy house they begun with thee yea long time before before we gave this sentence And now it is given the Lord second it upon them that they may know that we have not done it in a revengeful way give them to understand that we have wished well to their souls to day and that we had not set upon this work but that we know not how to answer the contrary we know not how to answer the neglect thereof one day longer and therefore we delivered them up that their souls may be saved in the day of Christ we beseech thee that thou wouldest make them know that they are under the curse of God Let them know that they are gone out of this place accursed O let them know that all their prayers are accursed prayers and all the bread they presume to eat is accursed bread to them And let them know that their estates and priviledges are accursed to them and that if they live and die in their sin they are accursed for ever Awaken them throughly O Lord would to God they had beene here to day but they are gone with the curse of God at their heels all their company will be accursed company to them and we can see them no more we may not go unto their houses any day more we may not come near them as in the daies of old O Lord That they might be ashamed let them be ashamed They have foreheads of brasse but O that they might be ashamed O Lord how glad would we be to see these poore worms crawling to this house another day surely there is that upon their backs that they will not get off till they repent there is that upon them will damn them unlesse they return there is that upon them will cost them eternal flames unlesse they return Now the Lord pitty them we would fain have these wretches their flesh destroyed some of us have seene a great deal of pride and a great deal of self conceitednesse and a great deal of hatred and a great deal of self confidence and a great deal of deceite and a great deal of hipocrisie O how hath Satan befool'd these creatures they thought to have gotten themselves a name in thy house and thou hast turned them out of thy house thou wilt not allow them a name in thy house they shall not be so much as within our gates O for ought we know they shall be no more dwellers where God dwells what a sad thing is this but Lord pare off that flesh and then they may return and stand at thy gate beg a blessing O that this day may come O this ordinance hath been strangely wronged in our days neglected by some and dispised by some and wronged by others But it is thine own appointment Lord And good Lord If it be thy will let this be the fruit the return of their Spirits to thee by giving them repentance and endeavors to be brought in and reconciled to the house of God that they might know what it is to break covenant with thee good Lord let them never be quiet O we know there be many Agents here will be endeavouring to bear to them this very sentence O let them remember to write down in their books this dayes curses let it lye upon their hearts when they ly adying O let not thy name be taken in vain this day It will not there is a righteous God in the heavens in the heavens their is a holy God above a God that will find out this sin and make them know that they have offended one of thy little ones O it were better a mill-stone had been hung about their necks to day O surely this is worse then a mill stone a heavie mill-stone and therefore likelie they have offended many little ones in so doing we shall pray for ought we know no more for them let us not pray for them avoid their company but remember in ours prayers that such and such persons are this day accursed and the influences of heaven shall be taken from them their reading hours shall not prosper to them and their hearing hours shall not prosper to them before they hear his Rod all the influences shall be stopt till they return to thee God is banished out of their presence O we pray thee let us beware to look to our feet to walk in thy waies and be with us in the remaining part of this day we blesse thee Lord we have done the work we were long a doing of it and blessed be God we have some peace in our consciences since we have done it yea blessed
be God we have done it and blessed be God we go according to our light and blessed be God we do not endure a Rebel among us a Rebel among us make us fathful to thee upright before thee and to live as becometh thy people and so pray and engage together and Covenant with thee and one with another that this might be the last hour that we take the rod into our hand O we pray thee let this be the last Excommunication let this be the last rod we take into our hand and let it be the last hour we are put upon cursing work we pray thee let 's be put upon blessing work the Lord be with us in the remaning part of this day And all we beg for the Lord Jesus sake The prayer being ended Mr. Mall stood up and said to the Congregation Now we have separated the precious from the vile let 's renew our solemne league and covenant And taking his text out of Nehemiah 9. last ver preached thereupon and vented most uncharitable and invective passages and reflections on my wife Some of which are insinuated in his pretended reasons set down in the Booke after Mr. Stucleys Sermon the particulars whereof I shall here omit as too tedious to relate and in regard he was so modest as to print but a piece of his Sermon being it seems ashamed of the rest as he might well be I shall here passe it over without troubling the reader therewith it sounding much to the same tune with Mr. Stucleys Sermon of some part whereof I shall give you a brief account by and by And now having given you a true account of the whole story and state of the businesse as to the matter of fact that hath been so transacted and falsely represented by Mr. Stucley I leave it to all unbyassed judicious Christians to consider and judge upon the whole matter whether there were any just cause or ground c. warrantable by the Lawes of God or man for this their practice and proceeding or whether it was not meerly and onely for her deserting them and returning to her former Pastor And so having finished my Narrative I now come to take notice of and make brief answers or solutions to some of the most notorious passages and pieces of defamation set down in Mr. Stucleys printed Sermon and herein it is not my purpose to take any notice of such passages therein as seem to Reflect upon the Presbyterian Ministers in general or those of this City in particular Onely as I am bound in duty I shall endeavour to clear the innocency of her who is in so near relation to me And this if I should forbear to do well might the world think me an unworthy man in suffering my wifes reputation and honour to be buried under the reproach and calumny he hath cast upon her In Mr. Stucleys printed Sermon in Mr. Malls Book pag. 7. The ground of our union with them was their visible closing with Christ now when that visibility ceaseth the union is to be dissolved c. Solution What visibility or outward appearance of Religion ceased in my wife except that she for just reasons refused any longer to hold communion with Mr. Stucleys Church and betook her self again to her former Pastor It seems by this that visible holiness ceaseth in all that have no longer a mind to continue in their separation what a reproach is here cast on all the Churches of Christ that are not independent that there is no visible holinesse in the members of them nay more that they oppose God and Christ in his Laws as it followeth in the same 7. page for my part I know no opposition my wife hath made to the Laws of Christ more then formerly whil'st she was a member of Mr. Stucleys Church but that she hath of late left them I am sure her behaviour towards me and my family is with the same circumspection as formerly cannot a person outwardly close with Christ except in Mr. Stucleys Church must they needs be held to cast away Christs cords to have broken the covenant with God and neglected his house that like not the wayes of Mr. Stucleys congregation Reader this might serve to satisfy the members of that Church who were engaged as far as himself But I hope will not satifie any understanding and indifferent men But she contemned admonition private publick Sol. The Truth is this whatever Mr. Stucley was pleased to say that she did not refuse admonition even by them Onely Knowing that they waited for her haltings she refused to appear before Mr. Stucley or to talk with any of his Church unless she might have leave to bring some Ministers or friends with her and there was good cause for she knew that Mrs Parr going to and treating with them alone had been overreacht by them whilest they had witnesses of what passed and she had none Besides what if she had refused admonition from Mr. Stucley and his Church so long as she was no more a member of it but was in actual communion with her former Pastor she had left Mr. Stucleys Church and all communion with it and therefore was under no special obligation to receive admonition from him or any of his Church and to speak the Truth that was her onely fault that she left them And her refusing admonition was her not submitting to be treated withall alone for fear she might be again entangled by them Neither my wife nor Mrs Parr were look't on as Refractory and Rebels to God and man till they had no more any mind to stay with them this was their fault which I hope God hath forgiven them though for this they are excommunicated by Mr. Stucley and his Church These reject him as their Law-giver and head c. Sol. What because they refuse to be of Mr. Stucleys Church that 's the matter that hath kindled all this fire ther 's no Church but Mr. Stucleys and such like all other are look't upon as Babylonish and Synagogues of Satan wonder not I so charge them Besides many expressions sounding this way Consider how Mr. Stucley applies 2 Cor. 6.14 15 16. And to put it out of all doubt when I my self was reasoning with Mr. Stucley to this purpose That I thought I might communicate in the Lords Supper with his Church and others also meaning the rest of the Churches in Exon He told me that I could not partake of the table of the Lord and of the table of Divels And whereas Mr. Stucley makes it so intollerable an evil for good men to be forced to live amongst wicked men I grant it But say withall that these excommunicate persons as they communicate in ordinances with godly Christians so they have frequent civil society with no other then if comparisons be not odious give as good Testimony of the grace of God as Mr. Stucley himself or the best of his Church He stiles them Dogs c. Sol.
daily As for my absence from your private meetings to me it seems unreasonable any one should aske a reason thereof you know what debates and discourses you have had about my wife and how disagreeing to a husbands affection would it have been if I should have been there especially being of another apprehension as to that thing then you were for I perceive after long and serious consideration that the first ground of my wifes distaste with you was her earnest love to me fearing some evil might happen as to my life or estate by joyning with you in a Petition you sent up to my Lord Protector which was occasioned thus There was a man of good understanding came to visite me Amongst the rest of our discourse he asked me whether I had signed the Petition the Church sent up I answered no He replyed I am glad with all my heart you did not for there is that in it for which some eminent States-men have lost their lives And that was for seeking to dissolve the Parliament which my wife hearing desired me I would have a care After wards other things followed which increased this dissatisfaction and truly made me to stagger Such things as these indeed are the onely way to break and Ruine the Church Besides this how am I perplext to hear daily the Scoffs and Taunts wherewith some of our brethren have every where at their doores and shops and tables vilified her for whom I am to leave father and mother For my Forbearance of the Lords Table I have I confesse desired to be humbled for it abstained too long too long But you know who is unsatisfied with me Thomas Savery and as I suppose can hardly sit with me And as to the other Churches of Christ here I have forborn in part to partake with them because I would not offend you But having well consulted with those more wise and godly then my self I have taken up this resolution to seek the Lord to prepare me to partake with both as occasion offers and I shall endeavour to wipe off what I can that ill name which I fear is too justly laid on us separatists Now I shall desire you to send me word whether I shall meet you at the Lords Table the next time that I may dispose of my self according as I shall hear from you If you have any thing to offer me in writing I shall kindly receive it and return you answer with all humility praying daily for you all I recommend you to God remain Yours to command in any service for Christ Toby Allein Exon. 4. Feb. 1657. To my honoured friend Mr. Lewis Stucley to be communicated to the Church who they say are unsatisfied This Letter was sent and delivered into Mr. Stucleys hands at the meeting of the Church who did not communicate the same according to the direction thereof and therein I think was neither faithfull to me nor his Church But the reason thereof as one of the members told me was for that he apprehended there wes somewhat in it that might dissatisfie the Church But what that should be I know not unlesse he feared it might hinder their proceedings against my Wife neither could I ever get their answer thereunto whether I might partake with them and other Churches of Christ also as occasion should present whereof I speaking to some of their members their answer was That they were loath to admit me to partake with them in my sins and I demanding of them what were the sins they charged me withall they told me it was disorderly walking and being asked in what particulars They did instance in my carrying my child and baptizing it at Master Downes Church and my not coming to their private meetings The next news we heard was a Summons in writing sent by Mr. Stucley unto my Wife giving her notice of his Churches resolutions to proceed to Excommunication of her on Monday the eighth of March then following which was in these words The Summons Mrs Allein This paper is to give you notice that all our endeavours for the reducing you having proved ineffectual The Church is resolved to proceed upon you on Monday next and then to Excommunicate you unlesse the Lord give you grace to endeavour the satisfying of the Church before that day And this I thought fit to enform you of that you may attend the said meeting my prayer is daily for you for surely whatever you think I am Your soul-friend Lewis Stucley March 4. Exon 1657. To Mrs Mary Allein at her house These in Exon. My Wife having received this Summons did for the present return answer to Mr. Stucley by the messenger that brought it onely by word of mouth That before he proceeded to the work he should read the 58. of Isaiah But afterwards she understanding that he had sent the like Summons to Mrs Parr who was also a late member of his Church long since deserted them The said Mrs Parr and my Wife being willing to do what they conceived becomed them in such a case and if it might be prevent their violent proceedings sent unto them this ensuing Letter in answer to their said Summons as followeth Mrs Parr and Mrs Allein their answer to Mr. Stucleys Summons SIr having received a summons under your hand we have sent you our answer as followeth That we know our selves guilty of no crime that may justly deserve Excommunication from any Church of Christ However as we desire not to be Iudges in our own cause so we think it not equal to be put upon triall by you and your Church who are also parties as well as we we desire to have our cause heard by understanding and impartial men whosoever they be and when we shall see reason from Scripture to convince us you may rest assured that we shall submit to the Law and will of Christ If this will not satisfie but that you and your Church will proceed against us we hope to suffer with more comfort then you can lay on your censure because we remember what Solomon saith Prov. 26.2 And know what our Saviour foretold Ioh. 16.2 And that even Gods servants have suffered as much as this from Gods enemies we tremble to think you are not afraid to draw that sword against us who through grace we hope are no way faulty as those were whom we read to have been delivered to Satan 1 Cor. 5. and 1 Tim. 1.20 We hope we haue and desire still to lament and repent those evils we know our selves guilty of before the Lord But we think it no evil in us to communicate in the Ordinances of Christ with any of Gods people that will admit us into communion with them and therefore we desire you seriously to consider what you do And this we desire as those that wish very heartily well to your soul and all the souls that are of your Church Susanna Parr Mary Allein Exon March 7. 1657 These for Mr.