and Pharisees sit in Moses Chair whatsoever they bid you observe that observe and do c. And from thence he infers would God direct them unto and punish with death for not obeying an authority which might deceive them and was this authority committed to them that was capable of mistaking Answ. It seems R. E. would narrow and pinch up the Church of God among the Jewes in a straight compass when he would confine it only to the Priests and Levites and to the Judges in those days when as all the Tribes were called the Church as well as Levy again it is said Jacob is my portion and Israel is the Lot of my Inheritance comprising the whole Tribes and Families of the Jewes but it seems these must be no part of the Church with R. E. he pinches narrower now then he will do when he tells us of the vastness of the universal Church but let that pass as by the way and to come to the matter in hand the Priests and Levites were appointed by the express Commandements of God as to be Ministers unto him and to Minister unto the people according to that Covenant that he made in those days and the Priests and Levites were endowed with the Spirit from God suitable to the Ministry and charge committed to them and they were figures of Christ the Everlasting High Priest and the Law and Judgment which was given by the Lord to Moses was delivered to the Priests and their Lips were to preserve Knowledge and good reason because they were committed unto them and the Tables of stone and the Commandements were not given to the Families and the rest of the Tribes and R. E. hath answered himself neither could sufficient Coppies have been written in any reasonable time to every particular Tribe Family or person and therefore R. E. concludes full too hastily but that his spirit indeed is byassed all along in his discourse to aime toward the mark he would be at to set up Men above the Spirit Scripture and Reason but I euquire of R. E. whether that the Priests and Levites and Judge did tell them any other thing or direct them in any other way or gave judgment after any other manner then as was written in the Tables of Stone or the Book of the Law which was written wherein the mind of God was contained both in point of Worship and also in point of Government and why might not R. E. as well and reasonably have concluded that that which was given from the mouth of the Lord concerning all Israel was the direction rule and guide and judge as well as the Priests and Levites and the reason that the people or the Church having recourse to their Ministers appointed of God waâ— because they had the Statutes and Ordinances of God committed unto them which was put in the Ark of the Covenant and in the Tabernacle and by the way I would ask R. E. or any of his Roman Catholicks a question seeing he saith that this promise is granted and intailed unto the Church without all limitation or condition as to be the only infallible rule and that they cannot err whether that these Priests and Levites ever did err yea or nay and when was the entail cut off from them seeing the Scripture saith they had violated his Law and broken his Covenant and again the Prophets prophesied for hire and the Priests bore rule by their means and the Judges judged for rewardes and as David and Paul saith concerning Israel They are all gone out of the way and there is not one that doth good no not one and whether were they the rule and true guides and judges in this revolted estate yea or nay although I do not question but they retained still their places by way of office and would claim the same power which they had before from God as they stood in the commands of God as R. E. and his Catholicks do and will lay claim to the office and power the Apostles had though they do err from the spirit the Apostles were in and whether their power of being directers guiders and true judges and infallible rule stood not upon this condition as they did continue in the Covenant of God and kept the Precepts of God in purity without violation which when they did not as sometimes they did not whether were they subject to err or whether did they err yea or nay viz. the Priests and Levites Judges and heads of the people which R. E. reckons for the Church and though Christ did exhort his Disciples to hear the Scribes and Pharisees who sat in Moses Chair and to observe and do those things which they from the Law before given read and taught and instructed the people in because as I said before the Law and the Statutes was committed to the Priests and Levites and they to read it and minister unto the people by the appointment of God and these Statutes and Ordinances were the rule that the then Church ought to have observed yet Christ exhorted the Disciples to beware of their Leaven and of their hypocrisie and said they said and did not notwithstanding all the authority which R. E. saith they had and further saith would God direct them unto and punish with death for not obeying an authority which might deceive them or would Christ command the doing of whatsoever should be done by an authority that was capable of mistaking all which makes nothing for R. E. but rather would run him upon a harder Rock if this should be true or granted for then he is bound both to believe and justifie the Scribes and Pharisees in whatsoever they did or said of which methinks R. E. should be ashamed of 't is true they that sat in Moses Chair could not err nor be deceived nor be capable of mistaking as they continued to keep unviolate the Ordinances Statutes and rule which was given unto them by the command of God but when they disobeyed and set up the Traditions of Men and mingled them with the Ordinance of God and neglected the weighty matters of the Law as Justice and true Judgment both they that taught and they that were taught came justly under reproof and seeing R. E. reckons that the authority of the Jewes Scribes and Pharisees could not be deceived nor capable of mistaking only because they bear the name of such an authority and office I query of R. E. again whether the Scribes and Pharisees were not mistaken yea or nay and whether they were not deceived yea or nay and wherefore Christ should exhort his Disciples to take heed of them and to beware of them and to take heed of their Doctrine and why did Christ pronounce so many woes against them notwithstanding their sitting in Moses Chair but in what hath been said I hope will be sufficient to convince any that what R. E. hath laid down for a seeming foundation makes altogether against himself the premises before well considered
from the Spirit of Christ as some Churches did which were as truly Christian and might lay claim unto Christs promise of preservation out of error as ever Rome could do and yet fix of the Seven Churches of Asia were reproved by the Spirit of Christ some of them for holding gross error and some for suffering it but where was the fault did not Christ perform his promise to his Church or to these and other particular Churches as Corinth and Galatia yes but there was an erring from the spirit but all that R. E. goes about is to prove which he will never be able to do that Christ is bound by promise to make it good to them that he hath once promised unto though they perform nothing of their part in taking heed to his direction and thus would limit the Lord and let men go free without obedience to his commands and he cites Mat. 28. 2â— how the promise of Christ was and lo I am always with you even to the end of the World but he hath done as the Devil did when he brought it is written to Christ left out half the words so R. E. hath left out the Conditions on the Disciples part and that which was their duty teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I command you then loe I am with you c. But R. E. likes not obedience it seems unto Christs commands and yet he will needs be a sharer in the promise and of the Power that was given and bind God unto that and he and his Church to be loose to do and to teach what they will but as to all the Scriptures he hath brought and minced them and cut them in peece meale and all the Inferences he makes this we acknowledge without multiplicity of words that whatsoever was promised to the Church of Christ and the Disciples of Christ As the Church of Christ and Disciples of Christ the same promise of Christ doth belong to the Church of Christ and Disciples of Christ in every age and stands upon the same condition viz. obedience unto his will and that they still do teach and no other thing but what he commands them then he is with them according to his promise but let not R. E. nor his Roman Catholicks look if they teach things repugnant to his mind and contrary to his will and press upon others to believe that which Christ hath never taught that then the promise of God will be so intailed to them as that they cannot err and here the deceit of thine and your hearts hath led you aside and this is one of the cuning sleights of men and craftiness whereby you lay in wait to deceive and by this you have deceived many because God hath made such large promises unto his Church how that they should be led into all truth and preserved out of error and you are their successors and must needs inherit this promise by way of intail and you cannot err you cannot be deceived because the Apostles was infallible therefore you must needs be infallible though you err and go aside never so much from the infallible spirit the true guide and judge of and in the Church of God as though you had been born to infallibility and the spirit of truth had comed by succession but the inward Light which thou scoffes at and the spirit of truth which thou calls a private spirit often hath discovered you and your spirit though thou boast of fifteen ages that your Doctrine hath been held by the Pastours and Teachers in your visible Church as in the 57. page of thy Epistle suppose I should grant the fifteen hundred years which I neither can nor will but I will lead thee to the sixteen hundred years and try thee and your Doctrine that you have held this fifteen hundred year if it be so as thou saith but this thou likes not but seeing thou pleads antiquity let us come on and joyne issue prove us Transubstantiation in the first hundred year nay I will give thee five hundred more and if I gave thee five more thou would hardly prove it before the Council of Trent prove us the Doctrine of Purgatory in the first hundred year and if thou take two it shall not offend me prove us the forbiding of Ministers to marry in the first hundred year and abstenance from Meats as though they were unclean which are created by God for the use of Believers prove us that Man hath a twofold right to the Kingdom of Heaven as your great Bellarmine saith the one by Christ the other by a Man 's own works prove us Invocation of Angels and prayer and Sacrifice for the Dead the first hundred year after Christ prove us their selling of Pardons in Christs and the Apostles days for Money prove us seting up of Images as to put Men in mind of the Saints deceased and of their Works prove us Baptism of Infants with Cream and Spittle and signing with the Cross and Godfathers and Godmothers and let us have some example beyond bare report for we dare not relie upon your infallible spirit in these things therefore convince us for we are gain-sayers and upon good ground and we do look upon all these Doctrines and many more not to be of such a great age as thou tells on neither to have any affinity or congruaty with the Church of Christ in his or the Apostles time nor sundry years after but rather look upon them as Doctrines of Devils and a very novelty a further Scripture R. E. urges 1 Tim. 3. 15. the Church of the living God the pillar and ground of truth and may we not relie of that pillar that God hath erected for us saith he and he that hears you hears me and go teach all Nations and lo I am with you always and yet if after all these promises if the Church may not be believed except she teacheth according to the Scriptures and be only infallible but when she doth her duty then the Church hath no more privilege then the Devil hath for so long as he teaches conformable to the Scripture he may be believed and so long as he teaches truth he may be believed saith R. E. in page the 58 59. Answ. The Church is in God 1 Thes. 1. and is the pillar and ground of truth she is in the world though not of the world and though the members thereof be visible in the world yet the world that lies in wickedness never owned them as such neither saw the glory of this Church but always persecuted it and was so far from owning it as rule and judge as it altogether gainsayed its direction but they that did believe in the word of life and were separated from the world and hated by it were willing to hear the Councel and to receive the instruction of the Church of God and the Church only medled with their own Members as in matter of Judgment and not of the
world further then by preaching repentance in it for the Apostle saith what have we to do to judge them that are without and this Church as in God was secure to relie upon for she had the Oracles of God committed unto her and every one may relie upon this pillar if they dare trust it which I see R. E. dare not because he likes not to be tyed to their Doctrine declared of in the Scriptures but would have all to take what they say for granted without the Scripture or the Apostle example or spirit and is not this unreasonable in thee that would have the Church to be believed or that which calls it self so by name when she teacheth not conformable to Scriptures and to the faith which was once delivered among the Saints and would thou have a Church reckoned infallible and to be believed when she doth not her duty the Churches privileges is in speaking truth and judging righteously and the Devil was a lyer from the beginning and is out of the truth and where hath thou read that he teaches conformable to Scripture and so may be believed is not the promise of God to his Disciples as they continued to the end and as they kept his Commandements and were they not known to be the Church of God and Disciples of Christ by this and was not the promise to them that hungred and thirsted after Righteousness and to them that did overcome and was not the exhortation to the Church of Philadelphia hold fast that which thou hast that none take thy Crown Rev. 3. 11 12. Was there not a possibility of leting go that which they had and of loosing the Crown or else why is the exhortation But I see R. E. would lay claim to promises and privileges without all condition and will not be tyed to keep the commands of Christ nor would not have the Church tyed to follow the Doctrine of the Primitive Church nor will not admit of any possibility or probability of failing or erring nay not so much as a mistake but as to infallibility and certainty I have said enough before and the confidence or rather the impudence of R. E. is easily seen and to make up all he concludes the Apostles as Men were subject to error in their private affaires yet were they by the assistance of Gods Spirit infallible in delivering matters of faith I say as they were assisted by the holy Spirit of God they neither erred in private affaires nor matters of faith but as they were not assisted by this they were subject to err for in this stood their only ability to teach instruct exhort and judge and as they were guided by this Spirit they were infallible and so R. E. saith that the Prelats of the holy Catholick Church as Men they are fallible in their own private actions and affairs yet when they are assembled in a general Council with their supream Pastor they are still made infallible in determining matters of Faith It is well that R. E. will grant that there is any possibility for their Prelats to fail either publick or private but I say he that is not faithful in his own actions and affaires can never be faithful in the Lords but it seems a General Council cannot fail when the supream Pastor the Pope is there but if he be not it seems by E's discourse it is more doubtful the like he also judges if the eleven Disciples and the seventy too with the Brethren and Elders if they had all been to define matters of Faith if Peter had been wanting which this Catholick Church calls the Prince of the Apostles there had been some doubt of their infallibility in point of faith as though the promise of God and the Spirit of God had not been with the rest of the Apostles as well as Peter but a word or two and more hereafter of the infallibility of General Councils the Nicean Council decreed flat Idolatry about Worshipping of Images the Council at Constantinople condemned their Proceedings and made void their Decrees yet both these in E's account must needs be infallible the Council at Basil as Albertus Phigious saith decreed against all reason and against Scriptures the Council of Calcedon which was one of the four that Gregory the great compares to the four Gospels that their Decrees were as certain and infallible yet Pope Leo did not stick to condemn it and all them as unadvised Stephanius Bishop of Rome made void the Decrees of Formosus and Sabinian the Pope commanded that Pope Gregory's Mass and all his Writings should be burned Leo the fourth abrogated and made void the Acts of Adrian the Basil Council determined that the Council of Bishops was above the Pope but the Latterine Council under Leo determined that the Pope was above the Council and they decreed also that he that should think otherwise should be held for a Heretick but the Council of Basil aforesaid decreed that they that judged that the Council was not above the Pope they were Hereticks Innumerable more instances I might give but that I will not trouble my Reader with such unprofitable stories and all these Popes said they were Peters Successors and had the keys of binding and loosing and all these Councils and many more which were of the Roman faith which in E's account could not err but must needs be infallible and yet are as contradictory one to another as light is to darkness and black to white and looks with their faces several ways like Samsons Foxes and therefore let not R. E. nor none of his Catholicks think that the Church of Christ now coming out of the Wilderness again can receive all their contradictory Decrees and invented fopperies and constitutions of Men for infallible the day is broken the light hath taken hold of the ends of the Earth the Sun is risen which shall make all the foggy mists of darkness and clouds of ignorance to fly away But R. E. ceases not here but heapes up one peece of darkness upon another till blackness of darkness appear and he tells of a visible Church Mat. 16. which is builded upon Peter that visible Rock for that Rock there spoken of is not Christ saith he but Peter for immediately after he names Peter whereas saith he if he had meaned himself or Peters confession for that saith he is too remote or mediate and anticedent for if Christ had meaned himself or Peters confession he should have spoken according to the Grammer Rule and Construction Vpon that Rock or upon this Rock I have build I do build and not I will build in the 63. page and in the 64. page he tells of a Church visible having two heads of an Independent Head and a Dependent Head and in the 66. page he saith he hopes that it will appear clear to all as it did to him that the visible Church is that Rule and Judge appointed by God and all upon pain of damnation are to submit unto
it Where R. E. hath read of a visible Church with two heads I know not and to take it for infallible I intend not and where is Peter called a visible Rock and the chief Pastor among the Apostles doth not this contradict Scripture doth not Christ say the Gentiles exercise Dominion one over another but it shall not be so amongest you he that will be greatest among you let him be your servant and he that will be chief let him be your Minister and as for thy visible and militant Church we read no such words in the Scriptures of truth we read of a Church of God and of the first born whereof Christ was the Rock and the foundation and another foundation can no man lay then that which is laid which is Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 3. 11. and Paul saith in the 10. ver as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation I hope R. E. will not be so impudent as to say he had laid Peter or that he had preached up Peter to believe in for the remission of sins nor for the foundation of faith for that had been contrary to the Apostles commission and their Doctrine for saith the Apostle We have not preached our selves but Christ the Lord and our selves your servants for his sake And I may say to thee R. E. as Paul said to the Corinthians when they were striving about Men 1 Cor. 3. 21. therefore let no man glory in men for all things are yours or as he saith in the 1 chap. 13. ver was Paul crucified for you or were you baptised in the name of Paul were they not carnal that so gloried was Peter crucified for us or were we baptised in the name of Peter is not your visible Church carnal who thus judges that Christ intended Peter to be the foundation of his Church for what was he or the rest of the Apostles but Ministers by which many believed and if thou had been present it is very like would have instructed Christ what to have said and bidden him have spoken after the Grammer Rule and Construction upon that Rock I will build my Church for Peters faith in Christ is to mediate it seems and his confession too remote and anticedent to be the Rock meant in the 16. of Mat. 18. and therefore Peter must be imediate and the Rock upon which Christ hath doth and will build his Church but as imediate as he was and a sure a Rock as he was when he began to rebuke Christ he turned him about ver 23. and said unto Peter Get the behind me Satan thou art an offence unto me for thou savours not the things of God and so say I to R. E. and his Catholicks they savour not the things of God but it is thy private spirit and your own Interpretations and not the mind of Christ and how far anticedent is Peter's Confession of Christ the Son of the Living God is it not in the 16. ver and wherein was Peter blessed but in this that it was revealed to him that Christ was the Son of the Living God the Rock of Ages and the foundation of his Church and as for thy visible Church with its two heads indipendent head and dependent head which sure must have two bodies where they can be found but that I shall leave to R. E. and I hope from the grounds that thou hast here laid which did appear so clear to thee that none will be afraid not judge that such a visible Church with two heads is to be rule and guide to all to whom all is to submit under pain of Damnation which is to have Peter for its Rock which if he had been living he would have denyed you all as seters up of Men and â—leighters of Jesus Christ the Rock of Ages the Foundation of the Church the Head of the Body the Rule of Life the Judge of quick and the dead the Law-giver directer instructer and preserver of his Church for ever but R. E. goes on and saith it only remains that we consider which among all these congregations now on Earth which pretend themselves to be this Church of Christ for having once found her and knowing that she is so assisted with the Holy Ghost that she cannot teach us an error we shall no more dispute the verity of her Doctrines then we would have questioned the Articles of Faith taught by the holy Apostles or the words of Christ himself wherefore if this Church this infallible guide shall teach us that Infants ought to be Baptised and that it is as lawful to desire the Saints departed to pray for us as to desire the Prayers of them that are alive and that the body of Christ our Saviour is really and truly present in the Sacrament of the Alter or any other article of Faith we shall no more doubt it then the first Christians did the verity of what the Apostles taught them Among all those Congregations on Earth that looks upon themselves to be this Church and spouse of Christ there is one if thy eye could behold or if thou could discern it but before thou can there is an eye in thee must be put out and there is a wisdom in thee that must be confounded and turned into foolishness before thou can discern it in its glory as it is but however that is it undoubtedly which is begotten into the faith through the publication of the immortal word of Life who are translated from death unto life who have received the power and spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ and meets in his name and power and doth witness his presence among them and have received a measure of that infallible Spirit of truth which leadeth into all truth and out of the pollutions of the World and are dead unto the World and baptised into the sufferings of Christ and are crucified with him who keep unviolated his Statutes and commands without adding to or diminishing from who walk in the order of the Gospel and are not conformable to the world nor to that which fallen men sets up but to the power of God which worketh in the hearts of all that believe to the framing of them a meet habitation for God to dwel in and abideth in the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles and are sayers and doers speakes the truth and doth the truth and holds the truth in Righteousness and the faith once delivered to the Saints in a pure heart and a pure Conscience who prayes in the spirit and with understanding who publisheth the truth and declares it in the spirit reaching to the Consciences and to the witness of God in all that hears who rejoyce only in Christ Jesus the great power of God and the wisdom of God and hath no confidence in the flesh nor fleshly performances whose faith stands not in words but in the mighty power of God which she hath received according unto the promise of God this Congregation or Congregations
Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles was nay blush for shame they brought in the Prophets for the peoples sake to prove that they had testified of the same before and had declared the coming of the just one besides they commended themselves to the witness of God in every mans conscience and upon waiting upon the Lord and in the measure of his spirit they found the things even so and by searching the Scripture as the Bareans did and found the things even so as had been declared of but upon due consideration we find not these foresaid Doctrines so propounded as to have the Testimony of the Prophets and Apostles neither doth your Doctrine and worship answer the Witness of God in every Man's Conscience and so to deny you is not to make God a lyer but God true the Prophets and Apostles and the witness of God true and you lyers who contradicts them and their Testimony and the power of God and would assume it to your selves though you be erred from the spirit and would put all under the name of infallibility and by such heavenly arguments as R. E. calls them to wit the Miracles aforesaid by which you have deceived the Nations and blinded the eyes of the people but the time is come and Light and Life is broken forth that the skirts of the Whore must be discovered and her nakedness must appear and her fornications and adulteries shall be manifest unto all so that you shall not proceed much further And I hope by this time in E's words it will appear evident to all whose eyes God in any measure hath opened that this Catholick Church so called is manifest in what hath been said to R. E. not to be the Church of Christ neither their Doctrines and practice devinely propounded neither she taken from henceforth as the only infallible judge rule and directer in all matters of faith which all are to receive upon pain of damnation as R. E. saith though she sit as a Queen and hath known no sorrow but on the contrary she to be a blind guide that hath bewitched the Kings of the Earth and the Nations which are waters which is the universality R.E. boasts of with her inchantments and sorceries which from henceforth shall not be taken as infallible but fallible and as that Church that hath not conveyed the true faith which was once delivered to the Saints but rather hath spread abroad error and false Doctrine and the traditions and inventions of Men instead of the Doctrine of Christ and would put off all this under the name of Authority and power from God and sufficiently propounded and infallibility and under the penalty of the highest curse upon not receiving it but the Sun is risen which hath discovered all your deceit lay down your carnal weapons Cain's weapons and your humane power by which you have prevailed more by force and cruelty upon the Nations then by found Doctrine or that plea of being Peters successors I say come forth with your spiritual weapons which the Church of God had in the Primitive times and prevail as far as you can but oh you want these and therefore you are necessitated to take up force and violence the Dragons power to compell all to come to your Church Further R. E. in his Postscript hath been confident of what he hath declared that it is of such force what he hath said for the Roman Catholick Church so called that he believes what he hath said cannot be answered and he saith his confidence doth not misbecome him and that it is improbable to be answered and that he hath not yet done his All neither in his first nor second Edition but hath somewhat more yet of great moment to speak as to prove the Church of Rome this only and infallible guide Unto whom I say it had been good not to have boasted when he put on his armor but when he puts it off and methinks having been so unstable and unsetled as he hath been formerly he should not have been so confident in opposition to Wisdom as to give such a challenge and make such a vapour of as that it is improbable to be answered and it is more then any of you or all of you can answer as his own words are page the 89. these words are not becoming a man indeed who saith he hath learned meekness and humility of heart and hath such great bowels of Charity as he professeth he hath page the 86. The substance of what he hath said or written which he reckons so profound and unanswerable and to be more then any or all the Nonconformists can answer they have been answered over and over again before R. E. was born by many Learned sufficient and good Men whose Reasons and weighty Arguments about the Premisses have not been made void unto this day but hath prevailed with many not only to the convincing but also to the turning of many from that usurped Authority of the Roman Church and hath discovered the errors false Doctrine and evil practices notwithstanding their pretended infallibility which R. E. will not be able to answer if particulars should be descended unto and though R. E. may reckon the reasons that he hath laid down which he hath the most what taken at the gainest and reckon them as impregnable yet I hope they will not appear so to an understanding eye which is enlightened by the spirit of the Lord nor to them who are of a sound Judgment what others have done to answer his bold Challenge I know not because I am shut up in a corner for the Testimony of Jesus and for the word of God but methinks them that are concerned should not let such boasts go unreproved neither such false Doctrine nor false suggestions as R. E. hath made to villifie and debase and set at nought all things and every thing that seems contrary unto the judgment of this pretended Catholick Church and seeing that he shuts out all Nonconformists as to be Members of the Church of God and to be without all Rule all Order all Government and to come under the great penalty of damnation by not submitting unto whatsoever this pretended Catholick Church doth impose how repugnant soever it be unto the Doctrine of Christ and how contrary soever it be unto the Spirit of God yet all must be received without question though it be that which the Spirit of God sometimes called the Doctrine of Devils but now it must become holy and of divine authority and sufficiently propounded and so received because as R. E. saith this Church cannot err I say unto him and unto all men and to the witness of God in every man either the Church in the Apostles days did err and teach false Doctrine or this pretended Catholick Church because they teach contrary one to the other and do walk by a contrary rule and as R. E. saith infallibility cannot contradict it self and he hath granted that the Apostles and Primitive Christians had an infallible spirit and did not err then let R. E. and all take a view of the Roman Doctrine and compare it with theirs and they shall find it as far wide one from the other as the Heavens is from Earth or light from darkness so that for the truths sake and for the Doctrine and faith sake that was once delivered among the Saints and for the Nonconformists sake who cannot bow their knee to Baal neither snbmit to the injunctions of changable men instead of the Doctrines of Christ. I could not do less then give Answer unto the substance of R. E. his Epistle which he boasted of to be more then any could answer and to reprove his false Doctrine and error which he would perswade all unto and not to question because the Church of Rome hath propounded it as infallible most of all those Doctrines are denyed and I cannot but give my Testimony against them as to be false and that which leads people into error and let R. E. when he brings forth his all prove to us that Infallibility as intailed to the Pope by succession and Prayer for the Dead worshipping of Angels worshipping Relicts worshipping Images Transubstantiation Purgatory sprinkling of Infants prove to us from the Scripture in thy next that these were Apostolical and Infallible Doctrines delivered and taught by the Church of Christ in the Apostles time or in the first hundred years after Christ and thou will not only gain me but many more to receive and imbrace the Catholick Church of Rome for an absolute rule and guide unto which all on earth ought to be subject unto which if thou do not we will take it for granted thou dare not least thou ingage thy self in such a Controversie as thou never ingaged in yet by which thy and your folly will more and more appear unto all I shall not trouble neither my self nor the Reader any further in traducing R. E. in his multiplicity of words although the main and weighty Arguments and reasons as R. E. looks upon them is answered which I commend unto thee and to the witness of God in every Man's Conscience to try and search out where the difference and weight lies and the truth and as the measure of Gods Spirit in every Man's Conscience doth close with or against if it can what I have said about R. E. his Epistle for unto that I dare stand to the judgment of and in it as every one believes and walks I bid my Reader Farewell F. H. Westmerland this 18. of the Fifth Moneth 1665. THE END Faults that have escaped the Press through the negligence of the Printer the Friendly Reader is desired to pass by or correct Some of which are these PAge first line 28 29. for Nonformists read Nonconformists p. 2. l. 3. for and read as l. 7. the point or stop should be after over p 3. l. 16. the point should be after the word Director and not after unto l. 37. for fanedness read fainedness p. 6. l. 34. for Christian read Christians p. 19. l. 24 for minds read mind p. 31 l. 35. for legable read legible p. 44. l. 35. for habitants read habitations p. 57. l. 28. for 9th read nine
in himself that his reasons or arguments should be of that weight to convince or convert any seeing he hath rendered himself and they that knows him can testifie he hath always been a changable man and unstablt in all his ways tossed up and down like the Waves of the Sea and now at last fallen into the black gulf of darkness but it seems by his own writing in his Epistle that it hath been his former method being filled with a scribling humour in the days of his ignorance as he saith when the vail of pride and folly hung between his eyes which appears to hang there yet for any thing I can see having condemned himself and also repented as he saith for being in the head of a Troop of the rebellious Army a Captain and yet after Conversion and illumination and repentance as he saith subscribes himself Captain Robert Everard argues both pride and folly and gives but a small shew of repentance but rather argues fanedness and flattery and him to be a time-server and a man-pleaser And whether he intend by his Epistle to all the Non-conformists to the Church of England or all the Non-conformists to the Church of Rome is doubtfull for then the Church of England hath to conform in part as well as others though I believe the Church of Rome will claim a good part of her Discipline to be theirs only it wants the formality of Language something might largely be spoken as in return of answer to the things contained in the said Book but that it may be supposed some of those people with whom he hath formerly conversed which he now calumnates with notorious error will not receive his Epistle as an infallible and Heavenly Oracle but rather will return him some publick answer for the vindicating of their own Principles and also shewing him his weakness how soon he was turned aside with and for a thing of nought and also that he should be so bold as to turn in a moment their Instructer and Teacher when he hath but newly learned within a year or two the Principles of his own Religion which he saith he adores God in and so is but a novis and unskilfull in the word of righteousness though his web be very long of Linsie Woolsie and his words be many which will pass away as wind and have small effect I hope of gaining many Proselites to be Members of that visible Church which hath ruled over Nations Kindred and Tongues which are the Waters upon which the great Whore sits I take my self little concerned or that people with whom I am joyned in the fellowship of the Gospel of Christ Jesus who are Non-conformsts to the World and ever resolves to be according to the Apostles Doctrine and to all Hypocrites and Time-servers and them that serve not our Lord Jesus Christ but their own bellies of which this Generation is full who will transgress fon a morsell of Bread and conform to any thing and every thing for the smiles of the World ease and liberty in the flesh but the followers of Christ-hath not so learned Christ for who so will raign with him must suffer with him Neither should I have said much if the quarrel had been personal or about some circumstantial matters which a Man may be with and without and they neither add to nor diminish from his goodness and vertue but seeing it is a quarrel not only against us that are alive but against the faithful sufferers who laid down their lives in flames of Fire and the very Foundation of God which is the most sure thing is struck at and the spirit of God turned out of doores in regard of its office of certainty and infallibility and the Scriptures of truth laid aside as an insufficient thing except the Interpretations of Men be added to it for its authority and the constitutions of fallible and erring Men set up for rules and Men as Men set up as Law-givers and Judges over Mens Conscientes and Lords over Faith and to be the most certain thing for any Christian Man to rely upon and to believe as the old phrase is as the Church believes to pin ones faith upon others sleeves and to hang ones hope of anothers shoulders to put ones eye out that God hath given them to see with and then see by anothers may be led into any hole or ditch and this to be published with such confidence as the only infallible guide to which all Christians are to submit world make a Man half dumb to speak and stammer forth some thing as a testimony against such palpable error and manifest darkness put off with such confidence and usher'd in among Christians in such an age as this when Light and life is broken forth as a morning without Cloudes in Goshen where Israel the true Seed Inhabits I could not but say something in vindication of that certain sure everlasting truth which the Devil is out of by which the Saints are made free indeed in their inward man from sin and Non-conformists to the World its error wayes and worship and also to shew the mistakes of the Author and how easily he hath been drawn aside to lean upon a broken Read all his particulars which are of any weight or moment shall be considered and weighed in the righteous Ballance of equity and answered in their due place for the confirmation of them that do believe and for removing the stumbling blocks out of the way of them that doubt or stagger least they fall in such dark Pits as these viz. as to deny the spirit of God to be a sufficient guide and take away its infallibility and place it in Men that have erred do erre and may erre and call them the only sure infallible guide for all Christian men to follow But to speak something to the seeming weighty matter which weighed down R. E. his Judgment and cast the Scales so far as that all his hope faith foundation religion was weighed down at one draught and by such feeble things as put him to silence which he heard from his Laycatholick as he cals him argues a very weak a poor foundation a sandy which was so soon driven away but one thing is to be minded because he hath minded it himself of his Conversion as to matter of time this Conversion hath happened to fall out since the happy Restauration of our Gracious Soveraign to his Crown and Dignity as he saith this to some will render his Conversion somewhat suspicious whether he name this time as only accidental or the Restauration of the King the cause somewhat of his Conversion I shall not determine but however he having been behind before in Conformity resolved to make a good step to before the next time to avoid suffering loss and reproach But to speak a little as to the Discourse which R. E. hath published as the weighty matter whereby he was convinced their Judgments now it seems becoming
with the like confidence to prove they were in the truth and Christianity a delusion and thy instructer said what would you reply to them We have more to reply in such Cases then time will permit now or the state of the case require seeing it is but a supposition and we take no thought what to answer the gain-sayers of truth withall but relyes upon the promise of the Father and of his Son Jesus Christ who said to his Disciples take no thought for it shall be given you what to answer in that day which promise all that are true Disciples shall find true to the end of the World but somewhat more we have to say it may be then thou said when thou suffered thy self to be made blind and carried captive with another Mans Judgment and neglected the measure of Gods spirit in thy self at home through which alone the secret things of God is revealed and in which true certainty and infallibility is witnessed and not in Men who is fallible and changable If an Arian Jew or Turk should urge their own interpretation of Scriptures which is of no private interpretation contrary to the mind of him that gave it forth I would say he perverted the words of the Scripture which is in harmony and unity one with another as to the states and conditions they were spoken to and are plain and are only read by that spirit that gave them forth except it be in some Historicall or Chronology or Genealogy of Names and Generations which might he some gathered from other hands and different hands taking notice of them as to record them there might be some variation yet the substance of the report is true but what is Calculation of yeares or dayes or reckoning up of Genealogies as to the matter of Salvation and what if we had never had them no more then we have other Histories and things that fell out among the Jewes but if there be any contradiction for ought I know we may blame the Church of Rome the most of any who will needs affirm they received all or most of the things from the Apostles and if the translations differ or be somewhat uncertain what have they been doing this fifteen hundred yeares with their infallible spirit that they could not have rectified them according to their first original and if any of the foresaid Sects should pretend the certainty of the spirit and yet not have it I should answer the spirit is known by its fruits and the fruits of the spirit are manifest and they that pretend to it and bring forth contrary fruites are manifest to be deceivers and deceived but their states are different and therefore requires different answers which time will not now permit to insist upon but over and beside all other arguments to perswade any man to or from any thing the witness of God in the party unto whom he speaketh is to be reached and that is beyond the understanding of man and greater then it and more convincing then any arguments that can be used without and he that cannot speak to this is not skilful in the word of righteousness That Christ was an infallible guide who is the way the truth and the life is granted by all Christians and that the Apostles received the promise of the Father and the infallible spirit of God which led them into all truth and this infallible assurance the Christians had that lived in the Apostles time this is granted and the Apostles were infallible guides not as Men meerly but as Men full of the holy Ghost and as Men who were filled with the spirit of God and therefore the Apostles said be followers of us as we are followers of Christ and if any controversie did arise as some there did and doutes among the then Christians the Apostles and Elders meeting together in the power of the holy Ghost did write their mindes and Letters to the Christians to pacify all and good reason that they that had believed through their word should submit unto the Holy Ghost and unto them by whom they were begotten unto God by the word of Life for the ending of strife about wordes and shadowes and outward things and they whose mindes were outward then in ages since and now ran into contention about outward things and such for the most part do erre from the spirit of God in themselves but I would have thee to take notice of this and all you Catholick Members so called the Apostles of Christ only did exhort and did not force their Decrees by penal Statutes and to be observed under the penalty of loosing life or limbes as since their pretended successors have done who have erred from the spirit and have got the Saints words and turned against the life and power but the Decrees as you call them are not many nor burdensome which the Apostles wrote at Jerusalem as the many Counsels since have made they are so endless and numberless and burdensome and so contradictory one to another in divers things who will but look into the Decrees of the Counsels since the Apostles dayes that we can find little certainty in any of their Decrees but rather as thy Instructer saith the Sword of the flesh and not the spirit hath been the rule and law to Christianity but the Masters of great wit and power and Interest have framed and made parties unto themselves and hath not Warres been raised among your selves about deciding your controversies hath not the Pope Warred against the Emperour and the Emperour against the Pope was not Wars raised about the Decrees when Pope Eujenius was deposed as a Heretick by the Counsel of Bazill and one while the Pope must be infallible as Peter's Successor and above all Counsels and Churches another while the Counsell is above the Pope excommunicates him as a Heretick and excludes his Infallibility and now where is the certainty and whether should one go or appeal for true judgment so though the Church of Rome boast of unity yet how hath one Nation made War against another and yet professing the same faith at divers times and in sundry ages And to tell thee plainly and to speak the naked truth according to the Apostles prophesie after their departure there was a great Apostacy and a great falling away from the faith and a giving heed to lying seducing spirits and doctrine of Devils and many were subverted from the faith by them that spake lies in hypocrisie and took up the Priests office for filthy lucre and they went out into the world and the world wondered after them and they had the form and the sheeps cloathing and the Saints words but were enemies to the Cross of Christ and to the power of Godliness and the Kings of the Earth were bewitched with their Sorceries and then forced all and compelled all to receive and believe such Decrees and such Articles as was then set forth by a pack of those Hirelings who minded their
are verily perswaded so or no other answer but I am sure it is the spirit of God and I am a good man and an honest man and I believe my self but other reasons or evidence can they give none Thirdly This pretending of a private spirit is against 2 Pet. 1. 20. That no prophesie of Scripture is of private interpretation Answ. This Man beats all together beside the Anvil what ever the matter is but that he is blinded and confounded in himself he sets but up a shadow and then fights with it for instead of proving the Spirit of God not to be a competent rule judge and guide and instructer in all matters of Faith necessary to Salvation he goes about to prove a private spirit a pretended spirit a spirit of error is not a sufficient guide and Judge and in this he fights without an adversary and fills the world with noise and darkness and the air with smoak and would cloud peoples understandings with multitudes of words that tend not to edification with a quareling wrangling spirit which is not for peace but I see he hath delighted in contention and sported it self in varience and like the son of the bond-woman his hand against every man Secondly I wonder why R. E. quotes so much Scripture as for the proofe of his matter in hand seeing that it is one of his great pleas that it is insufficient as to be a rule or a guide or a judge as to answer any doubts or give any satisfactory solution to him that is enquiring and seeing he hath given in so many reasons against it as insufficient and as much as in him lay to invaluedate and set it at nought and hath laboured to set it at oddes and to make contradictions in it as to render it insufficient for matter of probation in any thing which is in controversie or how he can judge that others should receive them and his sometimes false rendering of them or his own interpretations upon them seeing he denies them as uncertain as they are translated and insufficient and not fit to be a rule and who this man hath conversed with I know not that should ever affirm a private spirit or their own spirits to be a sufficient rule or guide to walk by such I deny and leave them and thee to quarel together about your imaginations and thoughts and conceptions or else the conceptions of other men who are as uncertain and fallible as the first and shall assert the sufficiency of the spirit of God teaching ruling guiding and judging all true Christian men in that certain everlasting infallible truth which is necessary and satisfaction to the souls of all them that do believe in it and shall deny all the pretenders to it who run into heaps and heads and quarels and fights one with another about shadows and can give no other account or manifestation then I am sure I have the spirit of God and I ought to be believed and I am a good man and the like which thou saith thou could never receive any other evidence or testimony and what though many have pretended to the spirit and the guidance thereof and in the mean while have brought forth the fruits of the flesh and their own imaginary false conceptions and hath put on confidence enough to say so as thou thy self it may be hath had a share in in times past shall this make the Spirit of God insufficient and uncertain in its teachings to them that believe in it and have received and bring forth the fruits of it and have the deeds of the flesh mortified by it God forbid Thirdly Why hast thou perverted the Scripture as I said at the first onset Rom. 8. 16. The Spirit it self bears witness with our spirits that we are the Children of God and this thou hath put in in a distinct Character to be taken notice of as though it were Scripture and renders it thus the Spirit being witness in secret with our spirits or in plainer termes the private spirit Thou must repent of this and take heed how thou calls the spirit of God a private spirit for it was that publick spirit which manifested it self among all the Patriarks and Prophets and by which they spoke forth the words and mind of God unto the people and prophesied of things to come and through it alone is the deep and weighty things of God revealed and was and is the only way and means by which Christ promised after his Ascension to lead guide instruct and comfort his Disciples in all truth and that it should bring to their memory whatsoever he had spoken that they were to be without care or thought for through it the Father should give them what to speak and what to answer before Rulers and Councils for his Names sake And here the sufficiency of it is proved to any reasonable man who hath the least savour or discerning of the things of God and this is that publick spirit by which the Apostles published the Everlasting Gospel of peace and which Christ the head of the Body his Church had received without measure and this is a private twyning creeping spirit of thine who hath been lost in thy own imaginations and following thy own forward rash spirit and hath found no certainty in thy self of Gods spirit to stay thy mind upon nor no patience to wait upon it but reaching grasping at things in thy dark mind last of all hath brought in thy verdict for the devil against the sufficiency of the holy spirit of God its guidance amongst his people in the later days that is thy fond conception as to say that the Spirit of God is expressly against the 2. of Pet. 1. 20. which thou calls a private spirit all along 't is true no prophefie of Scripture is of private interpretation but the holy Men of God spoke it forth as they were moved by the holy spirit which was publick and conversant among them with them and in them and they that have it can receive them as they are written and can read them and understand them as they were spoken and doth see the intent of the Holy Ghost in so speaking unto different states and conditions notwithstanding the many Copies thou tells on and diversions and different translations which thou would make a great Mountain on and raise it up so high to make the Scripture uncertain and low as not fit to be taken notice on as to answer any doubt or to be any rule or guide or any example or president for any thing that I can perceive by the course of thy Spirit which in the truth is fathomed and comprehended though it is as uncertain as the way of a Serpent upon a Rock yet they that have the spirit of God sees beyond all and hath unity with the words and minds of the Spirit of God notwithstanding the many corruptions and defects in translations and the many foul hands it hath
passed through Fourthly The spirit of Christ is the gift of God which he giveth unto all that wait for his appearance and his Sheep have it and they that are Christs have it for they that have not the spirit of Christ is none of his and it is that which is every way sufficient and no way insufficient and it is every way sufficient to lead into all truth according unto Christs promise and to convince the World of sin of righteousness and of judgment again it is that which Christ promised for a director which was with them when they healed the Sick and cast out Devils and which was in them to consolate them and comfort them in the midst of affliction as it did Peter and John and made them bold who were yet illiterate Men and had not that sufficiency which many looks upon now they have to wit natural Tongues and Languages yet it was sufficient in them to give them wisedome to declare the things of the Kingdome of God to the salvation of many that did believe through their words it was sufficient to comfort Paul and Silas when they were shut in the inner Room and their Feet fast in the Stocks when there was no outward cause of joy but rather of sorrow yet they were made to sing and rejoyce because of the great comfort and joy that the spirit of God filled their hearts with again it was sufficient in the midst of great conflicts and tribulations which Paul and the rest suffered for the Gospels sake and for Christs sake and yet as suffering did abound it was sufficient to make consolation to super abound to ballance the suffering and to make it easie Fifthly It is that everlasting Covenant which the Lord promised by the mouth of his Prophets in former dayes that he would fulfill in the latter dayes or after times that he would write his Law in their hearts and put his spirit in their inward parts and that they should not teach every Man his neighbour saying know the Lord for they shall all know me from the least to the greatest and again in another place I will power upon them the spirit of prayer and supplication and they shall see him whom they have pierced c. and again I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh and my Sons and my Daughters shall prophesie c. and this was fulfilled at Pentecost in Jerusalem when the Disciples met together and the promise of the Father came to be fulfilled and the Unbelievers said they were filled with new Wine and the Lord hath a care of his people through ages and hath not left them comfortless nor without a guide and a certain and a sure one too which spirit is manifest among some Non-conformists whom thou takes liberty to call Sects and the sufficiency of it is witnessed praised be the Lord in our Assemblies both as to convince to convert to save to judge to guide to instruct to comfort and is that alone in which all true Christian men can worship God in the silence of all flesh and fleshly motions and thoughts it 's that that giveth assurance also of acceptation with God and is that which makes the Prayers of the Saints as sweet insence in the Nostrils of the Lord it is that which makes the words of him like Butter as pleasant as Hony or sweet Oyle who speakes by it through it and from it whereby the hearts of many hath been pricked and the thoughts of many hearts hath been revealed and many hath been comforted with joy unspeakable and filled with pure love from the sensible feeling of the sufficiency of its power opperating in the inward Man even as when the harvest had been gatheredin and the Press been full of Grapes and the Fattes had over-flowen with abundance so that they could have rejoyced and sung and danced for joy as sometimes David did when the Ark of God was brought from the House of Obed-Edom and placed in Jerusalem when David danced for joy and all Israel was filled with gladness what might I say for the certainty sufficiency and all-sufficiency of this holy spirit of God I might fill my mouth with arguments and time might fail me in speech to speak of the excellency certainty and infallibility thereof against all opposers and quarellers In a word it is that alone meanes through which God conveys eternal life to all man kind and it is that rule by which all the Sons of God were led Rom. 8. 14. It is that only sure Guide Judge Way Rule in which there is certainty and assurance of the love of God to Man kind it is that by which the deeds of the flesh are mortified and Men quickned and enlivened unto God in their hearts in which the Saints are accepted by which they are regenerated and through which they become Heires of the promise what shall I say but this let all flesh be confounded before it and all deceit stop its mouth and all the sons of Men bow before it all Councils and Churches all Rulers and Elders all Reason and Comprehension all Words and Writing of Men and holy Men yea of the Scriptures of truth it gave them all a being it was it is and is to come and will remain when all visible things are past away it is that by which God will plead with all flesh and bring a Consumption upon all the honourable of the Earth and burn up the Mountains and make the hills to melt and make all a plain before Him therefore make room make room make way ye potsheards and cease all your contending and babling and bow to it and learn of it in your hearts which R. E. like an ignorant man calls a private spirit that your souls may be saved in the day of the Lord and you my escape his wrath which is to come against all resisters of it Sixthly Your Catholick Church falsely so called who hath erred from the spirit the infallible Guide though you much boast of it both in doctrine and practise abundantly insomuch that your faces seem altogether to look another way and your course to arive at another Haven then the Apostles and all the primitive Christians attained unto to wit everlasting Happiness and rest for their souls and acceptation with God in their performances and sacrifices which they offered unto him in the spirit of which they and all that believe in it and have received it received perfect assurance in their hearts by the immediate spirit of God and likewise the Protestants in general whether Lutherins or Calvins or other Sects known by denomination are of so narrow and a pinching spirit as that you would pinch and shut-up the universal love of God unto all Mankind into a narrow corner and monopalise the free grace of God that hath appeared to all Men that teaches all men that receives it to deny all Heresie falshood opinions and humours private spirits and spirits of error which leadeth from
all these and is sufficient to lead out of all ungodliness and worldly lusts and to do that which is acceptable in the sight of God and this all sects since the Woman cloathed with the Sun fled into the Wilderness viz. the true Church and all parties hath laid claim to and excluded all others that were not of their opinion as from having any share in it as though it were given only to such a company of men that succeeded the Apostles and by arts and parts and natural Language in the course and term of years and at such and such places as the Apostles were sometime conversant at and other sects besides you who have kept more nearer in Conformity in Doctrine and Worship and unto the Apostles then you have done they have laid claim to the spirit of God and to the free Grace of God only extending it self to them under such a quallification as though the Spirit of God and free and saving Grace of God had come by Generation or by succession or because of such and such a quallification or conforformity in outward practice as I said as though the free Grace of God and the infallible Spirit of God had been given to you and had been bequeathed and intailed to you or any of you under such and such a denomination and because inhabiting at such a place and thus you would limit the holy one of Israel and to stop the wind to blow where it listeth and circumscribe the infallible means which God hath given unto all Mankind for a direction and a guide a rule and a judge and pinch it up into a narrow corner and yet shut up all under condemnation who do not believe and yet exclude all but your selves from the sufficient meanes and guide and way whereby they may believe away away with this narrow partial pinching spirit for God will not be limited neither can be either to Men time or place but as they keep in Covenant with him and keeps their first love and integrity in the certain truth revealed in the first publication of the Gospel which the Roman Church above all other hath wonderfully apostatised from especially in this one thing which she can never clear her self of to wit Persecution in taking away the lives of many under the name of Hereticks and suppose any had been so as doubtless there are such yet we never read that it was Christ or the Apostles way to kill them and destroy them but on the contrary denyed them and warned others to beware of them and to have no fellowship with them and so left them to the World neither that they exhorted or stired up either Kings or Princes to take away the lives of any who did believe or not believe what as they declared to be truth but on the contrary when the Disciples in the days of their infancy would have commanded fire to have come down from Heaven as did Elias Christ rebuked them and told them they knew not what spirit they were of and again love your enemies and do good to them that hate you How your Catholick Church hath kept this precept I leave all Nations to judge where your power hath been known suppose real Schismaticks and Hereticks as some such there hath been in the world how you have done good to them and how you have loved them is manifest except you judge that shuting them up in Prisons racking tortering and cruel torments and at last of all death was in love to them and in doing good to them which methinks any reasonable man should blush and be ashamed to think or say But an old Plea comes to my mind which some of the members of the Church of Rome hath alledged to me in the days of my youth when I was conversant with them and among them in a friendly neighbourly and sober discourse of things of this nature before mentioned it was said unto me the Roman Catholick Church is that Church whereby Christianity hath been conveyed to all Nations and the great Oraccles thereof delivered unto us and the Scriptures also came from us by which you know the Mysteries of the Kingdom of God and the knowledg thereof came unto all and all her Children ought to be subject unto her as the true mother that brought them all forth and if any went astray either into Heresie or Schisme which might not only hurt themselves but also others ought not the Mother in natural love to her Children to correct them and ought not they to bear her correction and submit unto it and hath not she power to correct her Children when they go astray unto which is answered Christianity that which is truly such and them whom God will own to be Christians was dispersed through the Nations by the power of God and we say that the Church of Rome hath begotten Christendom into that mould and frame into which they are now cast more by force and awe then any sound Doctrine and as for the Scriptures coming from her that we deny We know they came from the Apostles and from the Primitive Christians according to the will of God and have been preserved to this day though through many polluted hands they have come and we know how much your rage was kindled that ever it should be Translated into the English Tongue and many felt the effect of it to the loss of their Lives as I hope many in England doth well consider But suppose a true Mother have many Children and suppose some do swerve and go astray from her precepts and under pretence of correcting of them she shut them up in Goals and nasty holes and afflict them with sundry kind of torments and at last of all kill them and destroy them what Judgment will be given by reasonable Men of such a Mother but this that she is become unnatural and cruel and hard hearted and degenerated from the nature of a loving and tender Mother and deserves not to have or ever to have had any Children and such a kind of Mother hath your Church been to all that have dissented from her that I may say of her as the Prophet Jeremiah said especially in these latter ages the Sea Monsters and Dragons of the Wilderness draw out their breasts to feed their young ones but the daughter of my people is become cruel Seventhly and lastly We know that God willeth that all Men should be saved and come to the knowledg of the truth and hath given that and doth give that unto every man that is come into the World whereby every man that doth receive it is capable of fulfilling the will of God and this gift comes not by the will of Man nor is received in the will of Man but in its own will even in the will of the giver and this free gift of God is the free and saving Grace of God which hath appeared unto all Men to wit every man that is come into the World which teaches
hath not received the spirit nor the power which the Scriptures declare of such wrangles and contends with the words and opposes the life and the power the Jews had the Scriptures and knew by them where Christ should be born and knew by them what his works should be when he was manifest and yet rejected him unto whom all the Prophets bore witness from Moses to Samuel and from him to John and they were never intended by God as to be set up as Judge and Guide to wit the words without the power and Spirit of God yet notwithstanding though I cannot set them up in the place of God and Christ and the Spirit nor contend ignorantly as some have done that they are the author of true faith and that they are the eternal word of God which the world was made by that they are the light and the way the truth and the life and that they are the desider of all Controversies and sole and absolute and only Judge of all matters of faith and of all matters that ever hath been or ever shall be in controversie to the end of the World without the spirit of God neither am I of that ignorant mind as some are that the Letter and the Spirit is unseparable as that whosoever hath the Scripture must needs have the Spirit or whosoever hath the Scripture must needs be infallible without the Spirit all that are of the aforesaid Judgment are but wranglers for the most part about words and contenders against the power of God and godliness and brings the words to oppose the life and them that have the spirit and walk in it for a Natural man may read the Scriptures and yet not perceive the things of God neither perceive the mind of the spirit but wrest to their own destruction as Peter saith because they are unlearned untaught by the spirits teaching though otherwise learned enough in Languages Tongues and Speeches Secondly Yet I cannot detract from them neither undervalue them or disesteem them as uncertain or of no use or of little use but what ever themselves declare themselves to be that I own them to be to wit the Words of God the words of Christ the words of the holy Prophets and Patriarkes and Apostles who were endued with the Holy Ghost and spake forth the Scripture as they were moved thereby in several ages of several things and unto several states and conditions as they were led thereunto by the holy Spirit and they are a certain declaration of things that were done and believed and practised by the Jewes under the first Covenant and by the Apostles and Primitive Christians in the New Covenant and contain many precious and holy precepts and commands doctrines examples exhortations admonisions reproofs and instructions and are as lively examples and holy patterns for all the Saints in light to follow by which we are given to understand what Faith what Hope what Patience what Love what mercy what long sufferings what consolation and what vertue and what inheritance the Saints in light were made pertakers of through faith in Christ Jesus Likewise what Doctrines were held forth and what practice they used in the Primitive times when they walked in the order of the Gospel and had fellowship with God the Father and the Son and one with another in the light of the Gospel which is the power of God through which they witnessed Salvation and remission of sins and published it unto others that they might believe Thirdly The Scriptures testifies of Christ and were written that they might be believed and received and read that there by every one that believed might be made wise to Salvation through faith in Christ Jesus 2 Tim. 3. and instructed in Righteousness that the Man of God may be perfect throughly furnished with all good works and whosoever doth teach any Doctrines contrary unto the holy Men of God who spake as they were moved by the spirit of God which dwelt in them the Scriptures are witnesses against such that they have not the Spirit of God but are led by another spirit which brings forth contrary Doctrine and another faith then once was delivered among the Saints and whosoever brings in sets up other precepts constitutions orders and practices in point of Worships in opposition and contrary unto those practices which were held forth in the Primitive times and would set up other Traditions then the Apostles delivered either by word or writing such are manifest to have the spirit of error and are innovaters and bringers in of other things as necessary in point of Worship among Christians which the Apostles and Ministers of Christ did not see necessary then and yet they wanted no part of the Councel of God for Paul said he had declared the whole Councel of God and further more they said we have the mind of Christ and Christs mind is not variable Fourthly Though divers of the Writings of the Prophets and Apostles be lost doubtless as is evident by divers places of Scripture yet blessed be God that there are those preserved which do bear witness of the one thing absolutely necessary unto Salvation and of the Ministrations that were appointed of the Lord for the Church of God to observe both in the first and second Covenants so that Christians of this last age are not left without example and president which all ought to have an eye unto and a diligent regard and though there be divers Coppies of that which is called the Original Tongues and divers Translations yet he unto whom the Spirit of God is given and waiteth in the measure of Christs Light shall receive it doth see and shall see the mind and will of God in every age and the mind and intent of the spirit in them that spoke forth the Scripture and can receive the matter therein contained as though they had heard them speak that spoke it at the first and though the Translaters were Men yet I have such an honourable esteem of their labour that I believe they have not varied wittingly and willingly from the best Coppies that was extant in their age neither that they were altogether void of the Spirit of God in such a good work which conduced to the benefit of Mankind but were assisted by it for so good a work and there be many figures and trophes improprieties of speech mysteries and difficulties yet all these comes to be made easie and plain to them that are witnesses of the same spirit that gave them forth and though there be deversity of judgments and professions of Religion one clashing again another and thwarting another and contradicting another and all will seem to bring the Scripture for their proofe which yet canuot maintain and prove every thing good especially when their Doctrines contradict one another This is granted it is only their private interpretation and not the Scripture and for want of that Spirit that gave it forth for that alone gives the true
understanding of it and they that are without this are like to kill one another about words and names and sounds and titles and jotas but still wants the key that opens and gives an entrance into the knowledg of the things of God which alone is the Spirit of God that gave forth the Scriptures Last of all R. E. after he saith the three former props which is the basis of the whole foundation and glided over as sleightily as he possible could although he hath never stated the matter right indeed as to remove all things out of his way which might hinder him in his cause which he drives so hard on in to wit to set up a certain company or multitude of men visible and universal as he saith to be the only infallible Judge to convey Faith to the World and to be the certain and infallible Judge in all matters that either pertaines to the Worship of God and to be believed under pain of Damnation as his term is all along without questioning at all either their Doctrine or Principles or comparing them with the Doctrine of Christ or Primitive Christians whether they be true or false whether they be with or against but all is to be received by an implisite faith hand over head and by whole sail for it will admit of no examination nor doubt but all must be received of necessity as infallible and upon so great a necessity to as R. E. saith if you will believe him would make it so that all forfeits eternal Salvation for not receiving all the Doctrines of this Church and consequently procures eternal damnation unto themselves who refuse it so that if I should say no more but even lay down his assertions which are scattered up and down his Book called an Epistle to all Nonconformists it were answer enough I hope to many whose mouthes I hope would be filled with arguments and sound and grounded ones too or at least with faith in their hearts to oppugn and not receive all these bold assertions without examination or trial only upon the account of infallibility from the Universal Church of Rome falsly so called but R. E. having removed away all the stumbling blocks which is in his way as he judges the private spirit he hath concluded not to be this rule and judge which I judge he hath no opposers in though he have spent much paper and time in his scribling humour which hath been his manner in former days as he confesseth page the first neither reason nor the Scriptures are this rule and judge but he hath concluded the Catholick Church is but all along he hath waved that which indeed is the only and alone rule and judge infallible viz. the Spirit of God but either calls it the private spirit or concludes it is intailed upon the Church so that she cannot erre page the 54. which I shall say something further unto That there hath been a Church of God and a peculiar people whom God hath singled out as to be objects of his love which feared him in their hearts and bore a Testimony of him and worshipped him according to the manifestation of his Spirit unto them whether by word or revelation which was certain and infallible unto them that received it is granted and this was alwaies but little in comparison of the multitude of the fallen Sons of Adam and the rest of the Nations and people that served and worshipped strange Gods and never made such a boast of universality and visibility as this supposed Catholick Church hath done since the Apostacy entered in which the Apostles foresaw and prophesied off before their departure out of this Tabernacle and since many have believed in Christ and the Worship of the Jewes extinguished and a fatal overthrow of their Civil Government and Kingdom are two main reasons of extinguishing their Worship and hath been no invitation to any to turn Jewes or holden in their worship seeing they have lost their Government and Dominion and are as scattered people without privilege and is no inducement for the World to joyne to them therefore seeing the face of that Government was demolished and their Worship ended but only as to themselves who remained in their unbelief and seeing that the Doctrine of Christ did so far prevail as to extingush it and put out the Glory thereof in the Apostles dayes and sometime afterwards and also the Gentiles Worship and their false Gods and dumb Idols which they were led after the power of God prevailing through the Apostles the Ministers of Righteousness by whom many were converted unto the Faith of Christ the summe and substance of all shadowes many being converted to the Faith did hold forth a publick Testimony and it became in some reputation and many preached him of envy contention and strife and for filthy lucre covetousness and self-ends and many followed their pernicious wayes and yet held the name of Christ and Christianity and thus began the mystery of Iniquity to work and the Devil to turn so far Christian in name only because it was in vain among many to hold forth the Jewes Worship or the Gentiles Worship because they had an inclination another way after Christianity that came into more repute with the World and therefore suffered the name or many to profess it and under this name and under this Cover to bring forth his works of darkness and the fruits of the flesh and the nature of Christ wanting and here was the beginning and rise of your universal visible Church Secondly For the first two thousand years before the Scriptures were written R. E. saith the Church of God was this rule and judge and infallible director which might to some indifferent man have been granted but that I see which way his course bends viz. to the setting up of Men as judge and rule and guide and detracts from the Spirit and power of God in which the ability and power of the Church of God stood and from which alone they received this proper power right because their understandings were enlightened and their judgments informed to declare the mind of God freely according as it was revealed and to give true judgment why is not this attributed rather to the spirit and power of God that was manifest in them rather then to persons seeing their ability stood and their power only as they kept in Covenant with God and as any erred from that in any age or fell from that they came to be blind guides and to give false judgment as some such there were in all ages Thirdly R. E. saith that after the Scripture was written the Church of the Jewes was rule and judge unto the Jewes cites Deu. 17. 8. Thou shalt come to the Priests Levites unto the Iudge and enquire and they shall shew thee the sentence of judgment and according to that which they shall tell thee thou shall do And likewise he quotes Mat. 23. 2 3. The Scribes
And as for all thy Collections out of the Prophets of the promise of God to his Church Isaiah 54. and 56. and of its indowments and glory and excellency and of his puting his spirit in them and of his word in their mouthes and that it should not depart from the seed nor the seeds seed for ever this is granted and the promise is not to Men as Men but to the seed which is not many but one but Israel was this true Church then in the time of this Prophesie though it have relation to future ages also and if R. E. looks that this promise should be to Israel after the flesh the Church then visible and in being he mistakes himself and he egragiously errs and contradicts the Scripture in sundry places which saith your house is left unto you desolate their Sacrifices ceased the Glory of God departed from them their Prophets prophesied a divination of their own brain and their visions were as visions of the night and the Lord spake not to the most of them yet they said falsly thus saith the Lord in their revolted estate for they were erred from the spirit and gone from the seed and joyned to another seed and their holy flesh was departed from them though as men they had the same flesh still go learn what that means and yet notwithstanding all this the promise of God was not violated neither unfulfilled on Gods part for the promise was not then neither now is to Natural Generations or that which is born after the flesh or to men as men and Creatures but as they are the seed and as they are Men of God and as they are born again and new Creatures and if thou will have an intailing here it is intailed which cannot be cut off for the Covenant stands not to Men in such a place that carries the name of Office or Authority but as they are led by the Spirit the infallible Judge rule or guide as they walk by this and in this they cannot err and they erring from this they are subject to be deceived and to be mistaken in all things and every thing of which there is evident examples in the Scriptures of truth in divers ages of them that professed themselves members of the Church of God and so visible as R. E. speaks of yea and the greater part too that have erred and their paths hath been reckoned by the Lord as crooked and perverse and their Habitants full of cruelty and this is given for an instance the visible Church of the Jewes did err and go aside notwithstanding all the promise of God to them and as they looked that it still belonged to them because they were invisible profession though they had turned their backs upon the Lord and their hearts too and violated his Covenant yet still as I said the promise of God and the Covenant of God is not made of none effect nor broken on Gods part but stands with the seed for ever who are circumcised in heart and who worshipes God in spirit and truth and in uprightness of heart and hath no confidence in the flesh nor fleshly privileges nor external performances but only trusts unto the gift of Righteousness manifest in them by which Justification comes upon all that believes and the fulness of the blessing of the Gospel of Christ and the fulness of the promise of God but these things I know though they be holy faithful and true are a sealed Book and hid from all eyes living in the flesh who hath not been baptised into the death and suffering of Christ. Fourthly That Christ by his own mouth and the mouthes of the Apostles did promise that there should be a Church which the Gates of Hell should not prevail against and this Church was established upon the Everlasting Foundation and the Rock of Ages and was indued with power from an high and with a great measure of the spirit of God according unto Christ's promise which more plentifully was poured forth after Christs departure and after his Ascension and great gifts were given unto them the word of Knowledge the word of Wisdom the Interpretation of Tongues the gift of Tongues the gift of Prophesie the gift of discerning Spirits healing the sick working of Miracles c. and all these foresaid gifts were given for the work of the Ministry for the perfecting of the Saints for the edifying of the body of Christ till we all come into the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God and unto a perfect man and to the measure and stature of the fulness of Christ Ephes. 4. 11 12 13. And all these were instrumental through the Spirit of God which was with them and in them the only means to bear witness unto those things that they had learned and believed and to publish the word of faith abroad unto the World and for all these aforesaid ends above mentioned which though R. E. and his Catholicks will need lay claim to the succession by way of office yet by their Doctrine denies in part the very end wherefore such gifts were given to wit the Doctrine of Purgatory for if they did perfect the Saints or were brought up to the knowledge of the Son of God and to perfect men in Christ Jesus and to be without sin what need had there been of raising up this damnable Doctrine out of the pit to purge from sin after they be dead seeing they were to be perfect men while they were alive and the Ministry was given for this end but yours it seems cannot have these effects on this side of the Grave and therefore they must perfect them in the grave and so be Ministers in another World And this Church thus gathered and endued before mentioned with the infallible Spirit of God if any that did sometime believe and were joyned unto it did walk disorderly as not becoming the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ they were to be admonished and exhorted and if they persisted in their disorder it was to be told to the Church or the whole body and if such a one would not hear the Church he was to be reckoned as a Publican or a Heathen and to be denyed as to have any fellowship with him till manifest repentance was shewn but we never read that this Church did shed any mans blood or burn any or give consent to destroy any instance if thou can though obstinate and Hereticks too and in this amongst many other things the spirit of your Church is seen to be contrary to the Primitive Church and you out of Christs Doctrine but R. E. argues further and saith but if Christ by his Spirit doth not preserve this Church from all possibility of teaching error instead of truth I may receive such errors as may damn me unto which I say Christ by his spirit doth preserve this Church from all possibility of teaching error if they continue in the guidance thereof and err not