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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A34668	A censure of that reverend and learned man of God, Mr. John Cotton, lately of New-England, upon the way of Mr. Henden of Bennenden in Kent, expressed in some animadversions of his upon a letter of Mr. Henden's sometimes sent to Mr. Elmeston (2) a brief and solid exercitation concerning the coercive power of the magistrate in matters of religion, by a reverend and learned minister, Mr. Geo[r]ge Petter ... (3) Mr. Henden's animadversions on Mr. Elmestons's epistle revised and chastized.	Elmeston, John.; Cotton, John, 1584-1652. Censure ... upon the way of Mr. Henden.; Petter, George. Brief and solid exercitation concerning the coercive power of the magistrate in matters of religion.	1656 (1656)	Wing C6415; ESTC R20949	43,719	60

Kingdome of Heaven there is the name and whatsoever thou shalt binde on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven there is the power and efficacy of the Keyes which though the Pope and his Ministers perverted and abused yea and exercised another Key which he received from the bottomlesse pit yet it is very unsafely said That the power of the keyes was wholly resolved in the Pope and that there was no other face of Officials but amongst the Papists in Luthers time and that the visible Church the foundation of these failed and onely an elect s●aled number remain●d F●● it is evident and in Story yea and in the Revelation also 1. That the s●aled number was a visible Church represented to John under the resemblance of two Candlesticks Rev. 11. 4. discerned and seen not onely by John representing the faithful Rev. 14. ● but also by the Dragon and by his Vicegerent the Beast who persecuted the Woman and her seed that is the Church and her Members R●v. 12. 13. to 17. and cap. 13. 6 7. The Church visible to malignant persecutors was doubtlesse v●sible in it self and in its Members one to another 2. It is evident that in Luthers time and many ages before the Waldenses lived and when Luther came wrote to Luther and to Calvin also who not onely kept Church-assemblies amongst themselves but exercised the power of the keyes among themselves How then can the Author of the Epistle say That there was not any face of Officials but among the Papists in Luthers time What could be spoken more eff●ctually to gratifie the Papists and to confirms their boasting that either the Church of Rome was the onely visible Church upon the face of the earth or else Christ had no visible Church upon eath for above a thousand yeares together It is a very slender and lean evasion to excuse the rooting out of Ordinances for having any being upon earth to hold they have a beeing in the Scriptures of truth and in the mindes and desires of the faithfull For we might as well say Babylon hath no being upon earth but is burnt down with fire and the New Jerusalem is come downe from Heaven because so it is in the Scriptures of truth and in the mindes and desires of the faithfull If we doe as he saith in this our returne from Babylon carry as the Israelites did of old the vessels of the Lord along with us why should we be afraid to officiate in them We dare not saith he officiate in them because we are as yet within the territories of Babylon and so shall be till we have passed by the sixth Viall over the River Euphrates Rev. 16. 12. Answ. There might be some colour for this if the Churches of Europe and of the Western America were in Scripture-phrase the Kings of the East For they that are said to passe over the Riv●r Euphrates in that sixth Viall are expr●sly styled the Kings of the East But sooner shall a man draw East and West together than prove Christian Churches to be the Kings of the East or that we are still in the territories of Babylon till we have passed by the sixth Viall over the River Euphrates yea suppose we were still in the territories of Babylon yet neverthelesse though the Jewes of old did not perform Temple-worship within the territories of Babylon because that worship was confined to the Temple yet we in the dayes of the New Testament where the worship of God is not limited to any place the true worshippers may worship the Father even in the midst of Rome And so did the Waldenses and other of our godly fore-fathers within the Roman territories The mention of the sixth Viall putteth me in minde of an wholsome warning delivered in it by Christ and that to the Saints of this age in a speciall manner Behold I come a● a thief not to the last Judgement which is no yet but to rob men of their garments of their former profession Blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments lest he walk naked and men see his sh●m● Rev. 16. 15. AMEN Mr. Cottons Letter to Mr. Elmeston upon his writing back to thank him for this labour of love in imparting unto me his judgment upon Mr. Hendens Letter and my signifying the slight account that Mr. Henden made thereof Deare SIR I Thank you for your last Letter of March 5. 1651. whereunto I woul● have returned you a large Answer but that God having lately afflicted me with an Asthma I finde stooping to write somewhat painfull to me which distemper though I thank the Lord it doth not yet silence me from publick Ministry yet it keepeth me within the town that I cannot go to neighbour towns to hear else I had gone abroad to have joyned this day with the Indians at Natick about 20 miles from us in a day of Humiliation wherein they intend to give themselves to the Lord and to the worship of Christ in a Church-way It is a wise dispensation of the Lord that when many Christians with you and with us too fall off from Christs Institution and Ordinances that now God should stir up poor Pagans to seek after the same But so it was in the dayes of old Acts 13. 46 47 48. and 28. 28. As for your Neighbour I do not expect the Word should convince him till the Spirit convert him more from himself and perswade him I do not easily believe his saying that he had met before with all the things presented to him but self is self-full I should spend time in vaine to run over the particulars of his notions unlesse all his grounds were laid open in them To cut off some sprigs when other lye hid The best help for such is the prayer of faith to him that toucheth hearts as well as judgements If God returne him not I feare he will fall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and greater ex●●bitances till he be filled with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 way and hav● enough of himself But the Lord Jesus rede●●● him I comm●nd my affectionate love to you and you to the 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 grace in who● I rest desirous of your pra●●rs and yours in 〈◊〉 ●●rly love John Cotton Re●●●● this 12. of the 8. 1652. FINIS Pag 94. * Erasm. Chil. 2. Cent 2. Cited by Mr. Burg. vindic. leg. in the Preface Orat. post Mich. 1573. Chiliads 1. ●ent 5. Plaut. Mil. glor. Act. 10. Scen. 1. Virg. Aen. 5. Ramus dialect lib. 1. cap. 21. Zabarel de mente bumanâ cap. 8. In his Preface to his my●●ery of Iniquity not fa● from the end Buchol in Cbron. Chiliad 2. Cent. 3. Isa. 49. 23. Zech. 4. 6. Revel 6 2. Dan. 2. 34. Psal. 110. 3. and 47. 9. 2 Cor. 5. 14. K●kerman System log l. 10. sect. 2. cap. 5. 1. Chro. 29. 9. Deut. 6. 5. 2. Cor. 8. 12. Gen. 18. 19. 2 Chron. 14. 4. Eph. 6. 6 7. Col. 3. 23. Nè saevi magne Sacerdos Matt. 1● 7. H●b. 9. 27. Eccles. 3. 16. Chil. 7. cent 1. Proprio laxesordet in ore Dolo●e agit qui versatur in generalibus 1 Cor. 9. 14. Gal. 4. 14 15 16. 1 Kings 22. 28 Error ● Answ Error 2. Answ Error 3 Answ

Why should there be any preaching any writing any praying or disputing against Heresies Christ is potent without such means to prevaile in light Nay may we not also say Why should any Lawes be made against Murder Whoredome Theft Slandering c. for God is as potent to maintaine Righteousnesse Peace Chastity and Truth c. in such a liberty as Satan is to work Unrighteousnesse Uncleannesse Envy Lying c. But if it cannot be expected that Christ should put forth his power to maintaine such Vertues where there is such a neglect of meanes as that no good Lawes are made against the foulest Vices so surely it may be feared that Satan will there more prevail with his delusions in Religion than Christ shew himself powerfull in maintaining truth where no good lawes are in force to represse Heresies or to uphold Divine truth Obj. Truth may thus be shut out and Compulsion hath proved a direct enemy to the Gospel Answ. It is true and so hath Preaching Writing and Church censures helped to shut out Tru●h and been made direct enemies to the Gospel But that hath been not in the right use of them by preaching and writing for truth and just censuring scandalous and erroneous persons but by the abuse of them in turning them against the truth and professours of it And if this co●rciv● power which in harsh language you delight to call Compulsion exercised in matters of Religion have obstructed Truth and been an adversary to the Gospel that mischief hath not sprung from the nature of the power which is good and lawfull but from the abuse of it by seduced and ill affected Magistrates who have misimployed it And it is a grosse Paralogisme from the abuse of any thing to blemish or extinguish the right use of it And if you would clear your eyes and look abroad you may see that it hath oft helped to maintain Truth and prop●gate the Gospel witnesse the godly Kings of Judah who did thereby put down Idolatry in their land and bring their people back to the true worship of God Witnesse the first Christian Emperours who by it banished Pagan Idolatry and promoted Christian Religion Witnesse Protestant Princes of late in England and other Countreys who by it suppressed Popish Idolatry and set up the preaching of the Gospel and countenanced the profession of it Last Compulsion of the Civil Power hath oft been an instrument of Tyranny and exercised to hinder justice and righteousnesse as Solomon sheweth And yet indeed it is not so easily and oft used against Justice and other ●uties of the second Table as it is against the Gospel For that there be more principles of civil righteousnesse and care of preserving peace and mans outward welfare left in mans nature to direct thereto and check unrighteousnesse than of Divine truth in Religion of which there are left but some generall notions that there is a God and that he is to be worshipped but nothing by any such principles doe they know of the particular manner of his worship much lesse any thing of the Gospel And if notwithstanding this abuse of civil power or compulsion against righteousnesse and tra● quility commanded in the second Table it have its right use and that to b● a low●d about civil matters of that table there may be a right and lawfull use of it in matters of Religion though by the abuse thereof it shut out Truth and be oft an enemy to the Gospell Obj. To what way doe you so eagerly labour to engage the Sword of the Magistrate to your own or to some other Answ. This is nothing but the sp●tting of your rancour For where doe I mention the Sword of the Magistrate in my Epistle What are the words that I use to engage the Sword of the Migistrate against any Religion All that I doe is but briefly to decipher and complaine of that mischief that hath come of an universall toleration of all Religions that not as avowed and allowed by the State but by you and others cryed up and usurped 2. We take not upon u● to prescr●be to the Magistrate any way in Religion which he should establ●sh but advise him specially to have recourse to the Word of God which is a sure and cleare rule out of which he may learn● by diligent search and prayer taking also the advice of godly and learned Ministers what is the good and right way which he himselfe should embrace and also commend yea and command unto his Subjects 3. A● under the Bishops there was a power practised which was tyrannicall whereof you also a● well as other did complain so now also in this multiplicity of religious wayes set on foot some courses must needs be erroneous and schismaticall in which company you and your party march with the foremost Obj. Neither you nor any other sit in the Chaire of Infallibility and so have no power over the conscience which none can have but an unerring Law Answ. 1. Whence are these loud words concerning our Infallibility Our speech is not of our power but of the power of the Magistrate 2. If the Magistrate may not make lawes in matters of Religion because he is not infallible in his determinations upon that account you may as we●l abolish his power about Lawes in civil matters For in those he may mistake though not so oft and foulely as in matters of Religion and enact things not onely heavy and burth●nsome unto his people but also unjust and unrighteou● 3. There is an infallible and unerring rule viz the Word of God by which the Magistrate i● to be direct●d in making Lawes And so farre as he keepe● close to that his determinations are infallible and to be observed 4. The matters that he commands in Religion ought to be the manifest precepts of God or evidently consonant to his Word and then though as being the command of the Magistrate they doe not absolutely binde the conscience yet as God● L●wes they have power so to doe It is then a vaine surmise to imagine that the Magistrate in making such Lawes doth encroach upon mens consciences as binding men by his meere authority unto the observance of them and that under p●ine of damnation when as he doth onely command externall duties of Religion to which men by Gods Law are bound in conscience A● for example the sanctifying of the Lords day publique attendance upon the Word and other natural worsh●p of God and forbidding what is manifestly forbidden by the Word the open professing and publishing of Error and Heresies and making unwarrantable Schism● in the Church and that onely under some temporal penalties and rewards Obj. Suppose you and others were infallible yet neither you nor any can create beliefe in the hearts of any that are contrary-mind●d Answ. This Argument proceeds upon a false supposition ●● if it were affi●med that Magistrates should compell men to believe and repent and in case they do not were to punish

will not infer a rejection of the Gentiles but rather their resurrection and provocation to farther zeale Rom. 11. 12. 15. Much lesse will these places argue that there is no visible Church-marriage from the Apostacy till this time of the conversion of the Jewes For beside what hath been said of the open and visible estate of these Churches out of which the seven Angels came it is evident that during all the time of Antichrist's reign the woman and her seed were nourished in the wildernesse and there persecuted of the Dragon and his Vicegerent the Beast Rev. 12. 14. to 17. Now the Woman is the Church and the Seed her Members and their Wildernesse-estate doth not argue them invisible For the Church of Israel in the Wildernesse was visible and goodly even in the eyes of Pagans Numb. 23. 9. and 24. 5. yea so visible were they that the Dragon and Beast could see them and persecute them yea and make war against them Rev. 13. 7. The two witnesses are said to be two Candlesticks Rev. 11. 4. and Allegoricall Candlesticks are ever in St. Johns Divinity taken for visible Churches In the Canticles before the returne of the Shulamite that i● before the coversion of the Jews Cant. 6. 13. there were sixty Queenes and eighty Concubines besides one precious Spouse above them all Cant. 6. 8 9. Now Queenes are Churches in Marriagecovenant The Scriptures alledged for the restraint of the Spirit from breathing on Churches and Ordinances after the Primitve times doe not argue an Abolition or Cessation of all Churches and Ordinances but at most a corruption and pollution onely of the most of them when yet in some Churches the Ordinances were preserved in due purity that the Saints walked in them as Virgins in whom was found no guile nor fault Rev. 14. 4 5. The onely Text that seemeth to look a contrary way Rev. 7. 1. doth rather beare witnesse to this truth For the four Angels that restrained the four Winds from breathing on the Earth Sea and Trees they did not execute that charge untill a stronger Angell than they had sealed all the Servants of God in their foreheads even twelve times twelve thousand ver. 2. to 8. which argueth that all the times of the Antichristian Apostacy though it lasted twelve centuries of years and somewhat upwards Rev. 11. 3. yet there never wanted in any century at least twelve thousand that worshipped the Lamb in spirit and truth by the vertue of the spirit breathing on them in their Church-fellowship as there wanted not 7000. breathed on by a still small soft voyce in the sorest Tyranny of Jezabel and deepest Apostacy of Israel Nor doe the places quoted for the returning of the breathing of the spirit at the brightnesse of Christs coming speak of Christs future coming but of the coming past and present save onely that of Ezek. 37. 9. which apparently speaketh of the Jewes and the Spirit breathing on them in their future conversion and not of Christians That of Isaiah 32. 15. is most fitly accomplished in Christe first coming as likewise that of Ps. 97. 4. That other place of Mat. 24. 27 28. sheweth onely that the Gospel shall shine forth from the East to the West as from Christs time ●o this it hath ever done the Gospel still spreading it selfe westwa●d unto this day In all which time if any enquire where Christ is he telleth you wherever the Eagles that is the clear-sighted and high-soaring spirited Christians are gathered together ver. 28. The third Error discovereth in his distinction of Gospel-ordinances and his exp●ication and application thereof We conceive saith he that Gospel-ordinances are of two sorts 1. Such as are founded more immediately upon our spirituall Vnion in the Covenant of Grace as Ministry Baptisme the Lords Supper Prayer Profession 2. Such as are footed upon Church-stating and appert●ine to the officials as Ordination Confirmation Excommunication Admission Absolution c. The fi●st of these we say the Gates of Hell never prevaile against them as Teaching Baptisme Bread Wine Prayer Profession c. But the second sort to wit the keyes deemed essentiall to officials were not alwayes truly used c. This Distinction and the Explicat●on and Application thereof is not sound nor convenient 1. Ministry Baptisme and the Lords Supper are essentiall to Officials and more essentiall too than Admission Excommunication Confirmation Absolution For these may all of them be dispensed by an Homogeneal Church without Officers But Ministry Baptisme and the Lords Supper cannot be dispensed without Officers Christ sent forth none to administer Baptisme and the Lords Supper but such Officers as he sent forth for the Ministry of the Gospel 2. The Gates of Hell prevailed as much against Teaching Baptisme Bread and Wine Prayer and Profession as against the power of the Keyes For as the Keyes were not alwayes truly used so neither were any of the rest Teaching was corrupted with many fundamentall Heresies and Errors Baptisme with many superstitious Ceremonies and undue Power The Bread transubstantiated into the Body of Christ and the Wine into the Blood and both transformed into a propitiatory Sacr●fice for the Quick and the Dead the Wine also taken from the People Prayer was perverted into the Idolatrous worship of Angels Saints Images and publickly offered in a strange tongue And profession of Christianity degenerated into the profession and pract●se of Antichristian Idolatry and Superstition Greater abuses than these have not prevailed upon the Keyes True it is that the former sort of these were soone● purged from sundry grosse Pollutions than the exercise of the Keyes But two things would be considered 1. That a● all the former Pollutions were no● brought into the Church and Ordinances at once so neither were they purged ou● at once but by degrees And why may we not perceive the Keyes to be at length purged and scoured as well as all the former 2. It can never be proved that in the da●kest times of the Antichristian Apostacy the Ordinances of Christ were any of them wholly polluted in all the Churches no not the power of the Keyes For the promise of building the Church upon a Rock against which the gates of hell should not prevaile was given to such a Church as to whom the power of the Keyes was given expresly Mat. 16. 18 19. I know not what place there was a mistake in the Letter quoting Isa. 65. for 56. which is the cause that Mr. Cotton's answer is not punctuall to that allegation the Author alludeth to when he saith the name of the Keyes was foreprophecied to be everlasting yet the hand or keyes held forth by the hand in the interpreted place is not so specified Isa. 66. 5. but was wholly resolved in the Pope c. which is as unsafe as the former For in that place Mat. 16. 19. where the Keyes are pr●mised the power and efficacy of them is given also To thee will I give the keyes of the