matters by your juggling where there is none to resist you nor hold out the light in opposition to your false figures But if they were there they might not be admitted there to opose you nor to use any meanes to undeceive the people But it is an old saying though somewhat grosse that every cocke croweth on his owne miksen and that makes you so bold where you are sure you shall have no oposition But Mr. Edwards now I will counsell you to muster up all your army you bragge of and come forth set up your colours and pitch a field with the Separation bring forth all your strong reasons not only the last conceived your latter thoughts and studies but also your large tractates against the whole way of Separation which were the first conceived of old which you promised in your former booke * for you have brought no argument in your Antipologia against Separation from a false Church and false Ministry but you have challenged all high and low Anabaptists Separatists and Semiseparates c. to bring a ground from Scripture for the lawfulnesse of seperating from a true Church which thing wee never strived for for we know it is utterly unlawfull But this was your policie especially when you preached upon the house top to make the people beleeve that those who seperate from the Church of England seperate from a true Church But this is yours to prove I therfore challenge you now to prove by the Scripture that the Church of England is a true Church and the Ministry thereof a true Ministry and that they have a true outward calling which yet you have not done neither have you brought any argument neither in your former booke nor in this Antipologia that proves your Church and Ministry true And I thinke you dare not deny but that these bee substantialls and not some of your meere circumstances which you would have decided without the word of God * for if the Church be but a circumstance and the calling of the ministry a meere circumstance then you neede not stand so much for it and upon ordination from the Pope for if ever you be true Ministers of Jesus Christ it must be without that and therefore it appeareth to bee you who have ordination by persons that are not ordained and not the Ministers of the Separation for God hath ordained his Church to ordaine their owne Ministers but hath not ordained the Church of England nor the Ministry thereof at all wherefore it appeareth that you can have no true ordination unlesse you become Separate And all your arguments in your former booke tended to the keeping downe of the kingdome and power of Jesus Christ And all the tales which you tell in your Antipologia tend to the defaming of your Brethren as they came from you But as your tales are in themselves many of them turne to the praise of those whom you would defame As for instance you tell us of their humility and that they say that they dare not take upon them to determine all the waies of God For ought I know they doe well for the Prophet David who was not onely a King but a Prophet of God and a man after Gods owne heart thought not himselfe sufficient for that worke of universall determining which you may plainely see in the 119. Psalme where he so often desireth of the Lord to teach him his waies statutes precepts commandements testimonies lawes and to direct him in his word yet David refresh not there but strikes Covenant with God promising that he will run the waies of Gods commandements when hee hath learned them * and also that he would teach others when the Lord had taught him even as you say these men have done for you report that they are active for their way Now if God have made knowne his way to them more fully then he hath done heretofore they ought to be more active for it and as God enlargeth their hearts so to enlarge his praise You tell us of a sort of Anabaptists that would preach on the top of houses because they would imitate the Apostles But have you not now taken their turne for these men as you say even the Apologists with divers others have of late preached not only to the Parliament but also to the people in divers places which you name as Margrets Westminster Michaell Cornewell Magâ—es at the bridge foot and Stepney with other places These men I say preaching true doctrine there in the eares of the people you have published it as it were upon the house top for you have put them in print that so we that are Separatists who dare not come to your Church and all the men in England may know it And you have threatned to print them at large * You say their doctrines make for their way and they are active for their way Indeede Mr. Edwards though Gods waies be not as mens waies yet when men make Gods waies their waies they ought to be active for the same for they are the waies of peace the waies of truth and the waies of life and though they are narrow waies because there is no rule leading unto them but the Word of God yet he that is guided by Gods spirit shall bee led into all truth Therefore it is good for you and all persons to labour to be clothed with humility for God hath promised to teach the humble his waies You say there are foure passages in the Apologeticall Narration which are good and usefull amongst so many bad Therefore wee will consider of these which are good usefull amongst those which you say are bad The first being their acknowledgement of the Parliament Herein I conceive they give Caesar his due The second of the Assembly of Divines They did not give them the Title of a Synod nor atribute authority to them to determine for the Church of Christ lawes rites or cerimonies c. For I thinke they did not understand them to have or to be capable of any such power from God for if these had knowne they had assumed it they would not as I thinke have beene of them The third is their taking notice of the miscarriages of the Separatists In this they did very well and made a good use thereof as I may judge from your owne speeches concerning their way and I pray you tell me Mr. Edwards for what end were the miscariages of Gods people written by the direction of Gods spirit but to warne others of the Saints from falling into the like for wherefore did God at any time punish his people for their Sinnes but to recall them back that so he might bee reconciled unto them againe but never to deterre them from his holy waies wherein they walked before or when they practised those miscarriages If Adam should have offered no more sacrifice because Caine fell out with his Brother for offering a
better Sacrifice then hee he should have beene condemned of his owne conscience for the way was never the worse for Caines miscarriage And the way that Jacob walked in was the way of God though the sonnes of Jacob sinned They were godly and holy men in the maine though they missied it in selling their brother And did not God visit them in mercy to bring them to a sight of their sinnes when he caused their sheafs to bow downe to Josephs sheafe in Egypt and caused Joseph to afflict them to put them in minde of their sinne yea did it not worke that good effect upon them for which the Lord sent it by causing them to accuse themselves saying we are verily guilty concerning our brother in that wee saw the anguish of his soule when hee besought us and wee would not heare therefore this evill is come upon us Nay did not God further illustrate Josephs glory before them not only by making all their sheafes to bow downe to his sheafe but in letting it be seene that the Sun and the Moone and the eleaven starres fell downe before him when they all went downe into Egypt wee will not deny but that the sonnes of Jacob did fatally miscarry yet the way of God wherein they walked was not therefore to be abhorred and yet their miscarriages are set before us all as land-markes that we should take heede of running upon such shelves And I hope these Apologists have not forsaken the wayes of truth for the miscarriages of some that have walked in the way before them for you say they have beene active for their way since And I hope that they know that the way was Christs though Judas betrayed his Master Annanias and Saphira discembled and Symon Magus was proud and one of the Church of Corinth committed fornication and Demas forsook the way and embraced the world and Diotrephus Antichrist like sought for preheminence and many Balaamites crept into their society who preached for wages and if any should have said that the way of the Gospel was not the way of Christ because these persons and such as these did miscarry it would have discovered great ignorance in them for though they were spots in their feasts of charity yet the Church of God had alwaies power to cast them out and that without the helpe of a Synod which hath beene proved at large in my answer to your booke against Independency and Tolleration So that though the Saints of God who are chosen vessells unto him should faile as Peter did in denying his Master through the slavish feare that hee was in of that company of Priests which Crucified Christ in that time and the beleeving Corinths wrought upon to eate things sacrifised to Idolls according to the doctrine of Balaam as some of the Church of Pergamus and Thyatira were yet notwithstanding these personall infirmities the way of God wherein they walked ought not to bee abhorred but wee are to make the same use of these fatall miscarriages now as the people of God were to make then of the miscarriages of Noah Abraham Lot David Soloman Hezekiah and divers others and not to runne upon the same shelves And though these Apologists abhorred the miscariages of those that went before them in the way of Seperation yet by your report they still follow the way and so they ought for we are commanded to walke in the way of good men and to keepe the paths of the righteous But some may say can those be called righteous men that so miscarry We affirme still that the way is a righteous way and if any man that desireth from his heart to walke uprightly in it faile through infirmity hee hath an advocate with the father Jesus Christ the rihgteous and needeth not to goe to a Pope or a Synod for a pardon of his sinne Some peradventure will say you will have the Saints to bee subject to no Law If the Saints breake a just Law they must submit to the sensure of that Law if they breake their Covenant and violate it in sinning openly against any of the rules of Jesus Christ which hee hath given to his Church they are subject to bee sensured by the Church for the law was made for the disobedient But those that walke holily against such there is no law Magistrates were given for the punishment of evill doers and not onely so but for the praise of those that doe well and these are the two parts of the Magistrats duty which if they neglect they must answer it to God who sitteth in the Assembly of the Gods and weigheth all their proceedings And now what have you got by the Apologists declaration that they have observed the failings of the people of God You have meerely bewrayed your owne ignorance for if you had knowledge you might have made a better use of their speech You say their fourth thing that is good is their discription of the people of the Church of England I conceive they speake of some of whom they had hope because they conceived them to be plyable to receive what is brought them for truth and also capable to discerne error in some measure so it appeareth that if they preach errour the people are capable to discerne it But to leave this as a thing that doth not much concerne us that are Separates I will borow leave to paraphrase a little upon your applycation which you make of the miscariages of the Separation You say you would have had the Apologists to have made use of these mens fearfull sinnes to have deterd them from their way and you nominate Brown Boulton Barrow Smith and Jonson But here you commit two evills First you insinuate a slander against the dead Secondly you would have men forsake the the way of God for other mens failings For the first you speake of their fearfull sinnes but you mention nothing The greatest sin that ever I heard any of them accused withall was their going backe to communicate with the Churches of England and Rome which was a great sin indeed for Idolatry is as the sin of witchcraft and to speake the truth this is that great principle which hath caused so much division among the Separation You refer us to the stories of Brown Boulton Barrow Smith and Jonson I pray you Mr. Edwards what Stories are those and what are their fearfull sinnes therein mentioned It may be you mean some lying popish stories made by some trencher Poets for Prelates like the stories made by Mercurius Alicus at Oxford and some of those stories are by those who are best informed taâ—â—n to be like this booke of yours And like a booke written by Mr. Peter Studley my old Parish Priest which he wrote divers yeares agoe against the Professors in the Church of England concerning Enoch Abevan who because he was mad and in his madnes killed his Mother and his Brother this Mr. Studley called by the
good reason or else you shall have the conquest But you have in this your Antipologia named some learned Authors who have written against Separation amongst which Mr. Rutherford is one And I have seen Mr. Rutherfords booke and also weighed it But I could not discerne that he hath set down any thing against Separation that hath any force neither hath hee proved any thing sufficiently but hath propounded many queeries which have been both framed and answered long agoe and he hath in his discourse expressed and repeated many answers which have been made to those queeires by the Separation and running them over he telleth us what this man saith and what that man saith and what another man saith but he in declaring his owne conceptions following his blind zeale and popish Authors runneth himselfe headlong to justifie the Church and Ministry of Rome against the Separates arguments there specified bringing no sufficient proofe either of his owne or other mens against them Therefore I would have understanding men to consider whether this of his be learned or pious writing yea or no The generall scope of his booke tendeth to prove that the power of the Church resteth in the hands of her Officers But he should consider that Christ hath given the power to his Church which is his body and spouse of which and of whom he himselfe is the head and Husband neither can any Officer in the Church move Ecclesiastically without the power of the Church no more then a mans Arme or Leg or prime member can move except it derive power from the body of which it is a naturall member Yea the power of the Keyes is as absolutely the Churches which is Christs wife as the power of the Keyes of the Family are the Mistrises to whom the Husband giveth full power and I thinke no reasonâ—â—le man will affirme if her Husband give her sole power in his absence that she is subordinate to any of her servants Now the Scripture is cleere that Christ who is ascended up on high hath delivered the power to his Church therefore it is against the light and law of nature to conceive the Church to be thus subordinate to the servants but rather we may speake with reverence to Christ that her servants are subordinate unto her and it is a dishonour unto Christ for them to usurp ecclesiasticall authority over her But in case they should so doe she hath received commission from Christ her Husband to deale with them according to the offence committed by them and if need require to cast them out and then not to suffer them to enter in againe but by the dore of Repentance But as Mr. Rutherford by pleading for the Ecclesiasticall power to be in the Officers hath given great advantage to the Pope so hath he to the Anabaptists by pleading the universallity of his Church bringing in the seed of wicked men to be baptized because their fore father was a beleeving Parent but upon this ground all the Infants in the world are baptizable because a beleever was the father of them all But the Scripture teacheth us otherwise for the House of Jacob was forsaken by the Lord because they enlarged themselves from the East and were Southsayers like the Philistime and pleased themselves with the children of strangers YOu have joyned to your Antipologia certaine reasons against Tolleration which are the same in substance with those which you brought in your former And seeing they have beene largely answered there in the answer to your ten reasons and in my reply to your answer to their six reasons It is folly for you to study to relieve those reasons to serve your turne For untill you are able to stand out and prove by the word of God that the Church of England which you call your Church is the Church of Jesus Christ as it now stands in confusion And the ministry thereof either in the Synod or out of the Synod is the ministry which Christ gave to his Church when he ascended up on high Till this is proved which can never be all the arguments which you have brought or can bring against the Separates under the names of Sectaries are still against your selfe For whether there be Sectaries or Scismaticks whether Athists or Papists whether wanton witted Christians as you tearme them disobedient to Magistrates unfaithfull to King and State Obstinate Rebels nay what ever wickednesse can be named the persons practising the same are found to be Members of the Church of England Therefore I would advise you hereafter to let Baal plead for himselfe And goe not about to make the Magistrates beleive that it is their duty to suppresse the Church of Christ to heale the Rents of your confused Church state for though all the Prophets in the land would heale Babel yet she shall never be healed for in a generall Apostasie there can be no true Reformation but by a totall visible Separation of the pretious from the vile And therefore you come short when you would intimate there is nothing between you and us in point of the ministery but that our Ministers must sease from their outward temporall labours imployments or trades for our Ministers have no false calling upon them as yours have which is a great gulfe betwixt your Ministers and ours and betwixt you and us And concerning our Churches you say the controversie were at an end if our ministers would grant to our Churches that Assemblies and Synods might judge and passe sentence upon our members as often as they see just ground But truely Mr. Edwards this were to adulterate from the true patterne left unto us and as this argueth in you great slothfullnesse and pride so if your councell were followed it would make others like you but as our Ministers doe not desire to live Idly as you would have them doe neither doe our Churches desire the thing which you would have our Ministers grant them you may know that you doe not goe according to the rules of Scripture when you perswade the Ministers of the Gospel to sease labouring with their hands For when Paul called the Elders of Ephesus to give them their charge He set before them his owne example I pray you read the 20. Chapter of the Acts of the Apostles And see whether Paul required any to leave working with their hands no sure he commanded the direct contrary where he expressed that he Coveted no mans Silver or Gold or Apparrell But saith that they knew that his owne hands ministered to his necessities and them that were with him And further saith he hath shewed them in all things how that so labouring they ought to support the weake Remembring the words of our Lord Jesus how he said It is a more blessed thing to give then to receive And concerning our Churches submitting to Synods to judge their cases That were to make themselves foole * For if ther be a wise man amongst