day of the 11th month in the yeare 1655. Richard Farnsworth To the Catechisme c. Set forth by the 42. Priests c. ANd in your Catechism you say you believe there is one only God in 3 persons I answer That there is one God is true and you are proved and have confessed that you are wrongers of his Son Christ Jesus and then of him for he and his Father is one Joh. 10.30 And there is three that beare witnesse in Heaven the Father the word and the Spirit and these three are one 1 Joh. 5.7 but where is those three persons you speake of are you not liers therein for he that abides in the doctrine of Christ hath both the Father and the Son 2 Joh. 9. and the Holy Ghost remaines within in the Saints Joh. 14.15 16 17. and these three are one and agree in the unity 1 Joh. 5.7 8. and as Christ hath said I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in one Joh. 17.23 and the unity stands in the eternity which is shut out of the reach of your carnality that are out of the unity and in the enmity and selfe separation wrongers of men and of Christ as you say you are therefore you speake of things which you are not in the true knowledge of and feeds peoples fancies with your conceivings and imaginations you say also that God made man for himselfe but you are gone farr from the end for which you were made that are turned wrongers of him in wronging people and his Son and in running further from him as your selves confesse and so under the curse for you say that he gave a law requireing perfect obedience upon paine of death and if he requires you perfectly to obey him upon paine of death are you not under that penalty and lyable to that paine and punishment that instead of yeilding perfect obedience denieth it in denying perfection and so perfect obedience who live in miscarriages growing worse and worse and running further from God and saying that the doctrine of God the Father and his Son viz the doctrine of Sinlesse perfection were bred by the Devil and detested by Christ and never received by any that had grace c. When the same doctrine was preached and commanded both by God and Christ and both believed in and received by such as had grace guiding them and such as yeild perfect obedience to the divine will and law of God them you revile and are not ashamed to call them heretiques and cast them into Prison if they do but walke up into the same things which you preach in words and speake of and seeing you out of the life of the same tell you of it though now you have confessed it that you are of what you set others to get instead of owning perfection and yeilding perfect obedience to the law and will of God you persecute them that do and lives your selves in the disobedience to the divine law and will of God and are in your covenant with sin and imperfection in the miscarriages and as you say wronging both Christ and men as thou Richard Baxter and you 42 hath done but thou and you all are seen and your covers will not hide you but leaves you bare who are out of the doctrine of Christ and under condemnation and in danger of stverlasting paine and death due to the disobedient except you consider betime and truly repent give over deceiving of soules yeild perfect obedience as you say that you may come out of imperfection and persecution and forsake your miscarriages and give over wronging Christ and men make restitution and humble your selves under the mighty hand of God and make it manifest not by your flatteries and excuses serpent-like and still continue or grow worse and worse in the miscarriages and wronging God men c. but by ceaseing your persecution and your preaching for hire and beareing rule by your meanes c. and turning to that of God which reproves in secret for your miscarriages and forsake them and your lusts and make your amendment and returne manifest by your fruits and live not in your flatteries but as you have confessed your wrong to the people and promised your amendment make good your word and go make restitution for them for the same and give over your trade of dâ—ceit there is many Scriptures which you have summed together and set people to get over mixing your deceipt and imaginations amongst them and hath not the Pope and Bishops as you do garnished and painted themselves in their masse books Pulpits and Catechisms c. with the Saints words when they was as farr from the Saints Spirit life and practise as you are and you for all your painting and garnishing your selves are as farr from the Saints life and practise as they were And if the people get all your words to say over will that change their nature which hath not yet changed yours and did not your Fore-fathers use it before you and yet left you where they was except more painted outwardly and grown more subtle but within full of venome cruelty and persecution and out of the life and power of truth as is made manifest for you say in your third Answer where you speak your own condition that as men did willfully sin and fall from God and happinesse you say in your 19 page that you are wrongers of Christ and men and in the neglect of the work of God and in miscarriages c page 3.4 in your Agreement then are not you in that condition entered willfully into them through Satans temptation and are not you in that condition under the wrath in the fall under the curse nay do I say any more herein then you have confessed for you say that man being tempted did willfully sin and I say you that are wrongers of Christ and of men you have done the same and so fell from God and hapinesse into miscarriages persecution and wickednesse under the wrath of God and curse of the law and the power of the Devill through disobedâ—ence as you are so say you in your third answer we are by nature dead in sin I say then you are not by grace yet quickened who are from the divine life and what can dead men act in that death and life of sin for God but against him and is not that the cause that the killing ignorance you speake or remaines yet unkilled amongst you and your people that are asleep as you say in security in sin unturned to God ignorance of that which concernes their salvation and therefore doth make it appeare that you are strangers from the life of Jesus and the covenant of promise and knoweth not the life of truth nor the quickening of the soule nor yet how to kill the killing ignorance that remaines amongst you unkilled and dead men that are dead from the divine life set up dead Papers and dead words without life
evill and lusts of the Devill which such continue in who are dead in sin and departed from God yet â— Pet. 1.18.22 23. notwithstanding they that are quickened and by grace saved they witnesse Gods Love and redemption from the vain conversation and from the Miscarriages which you live in unredeemed from and they that witnesse Gods Love in sending his Son and redemption from the vaâ—n conversation Miscarriages c. they also witnesse deliverance from the power of darknesse as they that write to the Saints Col. 1.12 13 14. at Collosse did who were delivered from the power of the Devill and were translated when they writ to the Saints that were at Colosse into the kingdom of the dear Son by whom redemption came and were then giving thanks unto God the Father who had made them partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light as such are now giving thanks that are in the inheritance and are quickened as the writer to and the Saints at Ephesus was that were made to sit with Christ Jesus in Heavenly places Eph. 5.8 10 12. Eph. 2.1 6. Who walked in the light reproved darknesse after they were quickened by grace and called into it But what is that to you that lives in Miscarriages doing wrong to Christ and men and are persecuters of the redeemed who witnessed the love of God in sending his Son to redeem them for whose sake they suffer and walking in the light are made to reprove your deeds of darknesse and you that say you are redeemed and are not but lives yet in Miscarriages growing worse and people as well as you in sin unturned to God your selves wronging them Christ in deceiving souls for your own ends persecuting those that are redeemed and witnesse against your deceits and you that are not redeemed but under the curse of the law wrath of God and the power of the Devill so that you are by nature dead in sin and prone to do more evill continually and to grow worse and depart yet further from God as you say you do and therefore are neither redeemed nor turned to God nor come to repentance which you say is a through turning from the Devill the world and the flesh unto God And what have you to do to call your selves Saints and Ministers of Christ and tell of redemption c. who are not yet come to repentance then not to redemption that are not yet quickned then not saved sanctified and sent nor so much as yet turned to God but instead of turning to him are running on in the broad way and as you say further from him and do not the Papists and Hereticks the same and what have you to do to talk of the Scriptures to be your rule that are out of the life of them and in Miscarriages growing worse which the Scripture forbids And what do you talke of the new birth and Saints life for that are out of their practice and your selves dead in sin and in the old birth or doth the new birth consist in Miscarriages death in sin unquickened in growing worse and yet running further from God and wronging both Christ and men as you do wherefore be ashamed and blush your deeds of darknesse are now come to light And you say in your Fifth Answer that the Lord Jesus Christ hath ordained that all they that receive him by a true effectuall faith and by true repentance are obliged or bound to forsake the Devill and the world and the flesh and heartily turn from them unto God that they may receive the pardon of their sins and become Sons of God and heirs of everlasting life then it seems you grant that such as are to repentance come who recieve Christ by an effectuall faith and therein abide who hath forsaken the Devill and the world and the flesh and are heartily turned out of them unto God such you account to be and grant that they are the Sons of God and heirs of everlasting life And I say Are not such in a state of perfection or will not you deny this again and persecute such as in spirit and truth witnesse the same But admitt it to be so and also as you therein say yet what is that to you that are not turned from the Devill and out of the world nor from the flesh unto God but are in the Miscarriages growing worse and therefore in the world and not turned out who are wrongers of Christ and men and therefore in the flesh bringing forth persecution and the fruits of the same and are yet dead in sin then not alive in the effectuall faith and being under the curse of the law then not under the grace of the Gospel and being under the wrath of God you are in the disobedience therefore being in the disobedience the wrath is that which is your desert for the same and being in the disobedience and under the wrath as in your third answer c. then you are not in the new covenant but out of the love of the pure God and being oâ—t of his love in your Miscarriages and growing worse you are not forsaking them to become better and therefore you grow not in grace who are in Miscarriages and growing worse and so you do but dissemble and flatter when you promise amendment and doth not amend nor regard to perform what you have promised but instead thereof are accusing your selves where you say you wrong Christ and men and are growing worse as well as departing yet further from God therefore you do not receive the effectuall faith nor come to repentance which you say is a through turning from the flesh and the world c unto God neither do you forsake the Devill that labours for him in doing wrong to Christ and men c. nor the world and the flesh who continues in your Miscarriages fruits of the same who are therein growing worse and worse as you say and you do not yet turn unto God who are opposite to him and running further from him and therefore according to your own words fruits and sayings you that are such are not Sons of God nor in the effectuall faith and being without repentance arid remission therefore you are not heirs of Salvation but in danger of damnation according to your fifth Answer but to this you add c. And you say they that sincerely Love the Lord Jesus and obey him to the death they shall be glorified and they that will not do all this to wit forsake the Devill the world and the flesh and not faignedly but heartily turn from them unto God and sincerely love and obey him to the death they that do not all this you say they shall be damned here be you witnesses against your selves that you do not do it all and as you say that are neglecters of the work or God page 3. and in your former and present Miscarriages unpardoned page the 4. and people in sin unturned
A TRUE TESTIMONY Against the Popes Wayes c. In a Return To that Agreement of 42. of those that call themselves Ministers of Christ but are proved to be wrongers of Men and of Christ in the County of Worcester and some Adjacent Part who subscribe their Agreement and Catechisme with the Names and the Places where they are Pastors Teachers and Rectors c. as they say or as followeth Richard Baxter Teacher of the Church at Kiderminster John Boraston Pastor of Ribsford and Bewdley Richard Eades Pastor of Beckford Glocestershire Charles Nott Minister of Shelsey James Warwick Minister at Hanley-Castle Thomas Evans Minister at Welland Tho. Wright Teacher at Hartlebury John Nott Teacher at Sheriffe Hales in Staffordshire Henry Osland Teacher of the Church at Bewdley John Hill Minister at Clifton upon Thame Tho. Baldwine Minister at Wolverley Rich. Wolley Minister at Salwarpe Joh Freeston Minister at Hampton Lovet Richard Sergeant Preacher at Kiderminster Andrew Trusteram Pastor of the Church at Clent Tho. Bromwich Minister at Kemsey Tho. Francke Teacher at Wanton-beachamp John Tayler Minister at Dudley Will. Spicer Minister of Stone Humphrey Wolden Minister of Broome Sam Bowater Rector of Astley Benjamin Baxter Minister at Upton upon Severne Will Lole Minister at Priton Tho. Francis Minister at Doderhill Tho Jackman Minister at Barrough Will Durham Pastor at Tredington Tho Easton Pastor of Batesford Glocestershire Giles Collier Pastor of the Church at Blockley George Hopkins Minister at Evesham Tho Matthews Minister at Evesham Joh Dalphine Pastor of the Church at Honiborne Joseph Treble Pastor of Church-Lench Will Willes Preacher at Littleton Rich. Beeston Preacher at Breedon Will Kimberly Preacher at Ridmerley Joseph Baker Preacher in the City of Worcester Rich Fincher Preacher in the City of Worcester Jo Willmot Preacher at Pershore Fra. Hyatt Minister at Eckington Robert Browne Minister at White Lady Aston Gervice Bryan Pastor of the Church at Old Swineford and Sturbridge Joh Dedicote Preacher at Abbotesley London Printed for Giles Calvert at the Black-spread-Eagle at the West end of Pauls 1656. To the Subscribers of the Agreement c. YOu say you are made Overseers by the Holy Ghost c. Pag. 1. But I say that such as are dead in sin and alive in miscarriages growing worse and running yet further from God wronging Christ and Men they are not made Overseers by the Holy Ghost but rather are Wolves that spare not the flock Act. 20.29 2 Pet. 2.3 and you confesse that you are such as your Agreement and fruits doth witnesse as will hereafter more clearly appear and therefore are you liars against the Holy Ghost and are not made overseers by him being such as act directly opposite to him who are as the Wolves that spare not the flock but are turned as you say wrongers of Christ and of Men and therefore in wronging him and them you are not doing his Work for such as are Labourers for him 2 Cor. 6.1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10. and abide in his doctrine they wrong him not but you say you are wrongers of him and growing worse who are running yet further from God and therefore in running further from God growing worse and wronging his Son you make it manifest that you neither abide in his Doctrine nor labour for him and so are not made overseers by the Holy Ghost for they that are made overseers by him do not as you have done but to confute your selves you go on and say you preach and teach in all wisdome that you may present every man perfect in Christ page 1. Then it seems in words you are grown preachers up of perfection the doctrine which before you so much hated opposed contradicted and denyed and so are preaching up that which before you preached against opposed contradicted crossed and denyed to wit the doctrine of perfection to shew your self-contradiction as well as self-opposition and therefore let your people and others mind if you deny it not again for if you do any more preach and teach against perfection you will further confute your selves and teach your own confutations and self-contradictions and preach against that which you call your Warrant and also deny the same and cut your selves out by your own rule as is here done for such as are in the miscarriages and growing worse wronging Christ and Men and running yet further from God as you say you are such are not yet come to repentance according to your saying that are not throughly turned from the world the devil and the flesh c. and therefore are unfit to preach up perfection You say in page 2. You have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the Oracles of God and I say the same for you have made manifest your Ignorance therein who are not yet quickned but as you say naturally dead in sin growing worse and are yet running further from God and where you say Let a man account of us as the Ministers of Christ and Stewards of the mysteries of God but I say that such as are dead in sin not quickned by Grace who are in the miscarriages unturned out of them but growing worse and running yet further from God wronging both Christ and men as you do they never were to be therein accounted so and therefore you that say you are such are not to be accounted as you would be Titus 1.6 7 8 9. to wit neither Ministers of Christ nor Stewards of the Mysteries of God for they was blamelesse but you are blameable accusing and opposing your selves therefore you are not they that are to be obeyed neither do you watch for soules but for your own ends who are as you say in the miscarriages growing worse and so it appears both by your fruits and way also be seen in this Return to your Agreement and Catechisme A Short Answer to that called The Agreement of the 42. Teachers Pastors Ministers and Rectors c. In the County of Worcester and some Adjacent parts c. YOu two and fourty Teachers Pastors Ministers and Rectors as you call your selves in your Agreement dated in page the 33. May the 4 1655. I have read over your Agreement and weighed the same in a Ballance of truth and equity in which you are found wanting and in confusion And now since the Lord hath sent some of his servants and messengers amongst you to awaken you you are made sensible of your negligences and your miscarriages and how little your people are profited by your preaching and you are reviving your old former works and setting the people as it were to make Brick without straw rather then you would have them to come from under your unprofitable Ministry to wait upon the teachings of God And you set up a worship in your wills and is it not the same that was set up by the Archbishops Bishops Priests Prelates and old Episcopals if not by the Pope and that you say is
for dead minds to feed on which will neither kill sin nor quicken the soul and so your dead Catechismes will work as little effect as your dead Sermons have done and that is so little and as you say that people are so ignorant that they can scarse speak a word of sence abort matters of salvation and how should untaught teachers teach to perfect who manifest you are not sent of God that are as you say in the third Answer of your Catechisme you say you are by nature dead in sin and therefore not quickened by grace for they that are quickened are not dead but you are not quickened and so dead but those the Lord sends he quickens before he send them but you are not quickened and therefore not sent who are Children of wrath and naturally are as you say in the present time dead in sin so servants to divers lusts and pleasures and from thence proceeds miscarriages and persecution wrong to Christ and men which are the fruits of wrath and disobedience and how should it be otherwise whil'st you continue therein seeing you are naturally dead in sin and so the naturall men who knowes not the things of the Spirit of God 1 Cor. 2.14.15 neither do you receive them because they are spiritually discerned and that is known after quickening for they that are quickened by grace discernes in the gift Eph 1.4 5 6. 1 Joh. 5.20 whereby they understand salvation and happinesse therefore saith the Apostle to such as were quickened and knew the salvation By grace you hath he quickened who were dead in sin and are raised up together and made to sit with Christ Jesus in the heavenly places who gave them an understanding to know the same that wore so quickened and knew the matters of salvation which you and your hearers are ignorant of which things are known after quickening but you are not quickened and therefore to you they are not known but as you say in your third answer you are not only dead in sin but you are prone to do more evill continually and so are Children of wrath and servants of divers lusts as is afore said and so growing worse then where is your amendment ye flatterers and hypocrits that do not grow only worse and worse but you say you depart further from God also And I say â—hat needs not to be for you are far enough from him allready that are dead in sin wronging Christ and men living in Miscarriages promising amendment and yet sayes you grow worse and so are of those that oppose themselves saying and unsaying confuting and contradicting your own sayings in your Agreement and growing worse and running further from God Jer. 5.27 28 29 30 31. Jer. 6.13 14 15. you must needs be of those that turns the grace of God into lasciviousnesse Jude 4. and of them that runs further from Goodnesse into Miscarriages and wickednesse Jer. 5.25 And so dead men cannot quicken and how should they that run from God lead unto God but you run further from God as you say then how can you lead unto God And how should they that live in Miscarriages grow worse lead others out of them into the truth to grow in grace so become better but you live in miscarriages and grow worse as your selves confesse in your Agreement and your fruits make manifest who are naturally dead in sin c. And how should the blind and dead lead others into the way of truth and into the life thereof that are out of it themselves as you are and how should you lead others from under the curse whil'st you are in the fall under the wrath c. and how should you turn people from darknesse and from the power of Satan that are yet in and under the same according to your third Answer And how should you be examples and leaders of others to come out of the Miscarriages and evill who your selves are in the miscarriages and prone you say to do more evil continually and to grow worse and depart yet further from God and then whilst you are doing that and departing from him you are not amending not yet leading to him and therefore you are very unfit to disciple the undiscipled and to be leaders of others from evill unto good that are your selves dead in sin and not alive in grace being in the self-separation and in Miscarriages continually prone to do mere evill and grow worse and depart further from God therefore you are very unfit to lead out of the evil unto God and that is the cause your people are so Ignorant as you say and in sin unturned to God because their teachers are so and the Scripture fulfilled which saith like Priest like people Hos 4.9 Whose teachers instead of turning to God run further from him and therefore you being untaught to come out of Miscarriages c. and abide not in the Doctrin of Christ are very unfit to teach others the way of God or lead into the covenant of lite and as you say you grow worse continually it appeares so by your fruits daily your actions doth declare it as well as your words but how should it be otherwise whilst you continue therein and run on in the same seeing as you say you yet depart further from God and so from grace and goodness into persecution and your Miscarriages c. And are you not under that saying of the Prophet like such that are greivous revolters Jer. 6.28 30 walking with slanders where lie saith Reprobate silver shall men call them because the Lord hath rejected them who trusted in lying words and were given to wickednesse and though they said The temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord they did not amend their wayes and their doings but lived in oppression Wrath Envy and the Miscarriages growing worse and worse and ran further from God tor they neither obeyed the voice of the Lord nor received correction truth was perished and cut off from their mouthes as appeares by the saying of the prophet Jer. 7. Chap. Jer. 7. Chap. For from the least of them even unto the greatest of them every one is given to covetousnesse and from the Prophet unto the Priest every one doth falsely Jer. 6.13 Like such as you who live in miscarriages growing worse and prone to do more evil continually and running further from God as your Agreement doth witnesse against you therefore thus saith the Lord I will lay stumbling blocks before this people and the fathers and the sons together shall fall upon them and the neighbour and his friend shall perish Jer. 6.20 And in your fourth Answer you tell of Gods love and giving his onely son to be a redeemer c. I answer yea so he did though you be Ignorant of it that are dead in sins and not quickened then not redeemed yet such as are quickned and taught by him to come out of Miscarriages and out of the
to God who scarse can speak a word of sence as in your accusation against them you say about the matters of Salvation and you are the wrongers of Christ and them page the 19. who ate dead in sin and prone to do more evil continually promising amendment but instead of amending are accusing your selves and sayes you grow worse and depart yet further from God Answer the third of your Catechisme therefore you do not truly repent that doth not heartily return out of your Miscarriages and from the flesh and the world unto God then you do not believe nor receive Christ by an effectuall faith who are turned wrongers of him and therefore in not loving the good and forsaking the evil to turn out of your Miscarriages and from the world unto God you that are wrongers of men and him and lives in such disobedience you are not doing all that which your selves say is to be done the which being neglected and undone is cause of damnation then are not you in that condition consider of it that neglects the work of God and leaves it undone and instead of doing it continues in your miscarriages the works of the Devill growing worse as you say and are running further from God therefore you are not running for him nor doing his work take notice of that And if your people get the words which you set them to get will those sayings bring them into the effectuall faith and out of their Miscarriages unto repentance and throughly to forsake the Devill the World the Flesh and heartily turn them therefrom unto God c Or may not an Hypocrite and a dissembler get the words to say over and for all that remain an Hypocrite and a dissembler still and so be a child of the Devill and if you and they get the words to repeate or say over and tell of forsaking the Devill the World and the Flesh and of turning from them unto God and do not turne from them unto him nor come out of Miscarriages but grow worse doing wrong to men and Christ as you do who are also running further from God c. saying in words and faigned flatteries they will turn from the evil to the good c. and do not forsake the Devill the World the Flesh Joh. 8.34 Math. 23.14 16 but refuses to turn from them unto God are not such Hypocrits and Dissemblers who are sayers and not doers And are not such three-fold more the servants of sin and children of the Devill consider of it and deceive not your selves with shewes and pretences flatteries colourable glosses And do not you both tell the tale and give the answer and must not the people be bound by you to say as you say and speak your condition whether they be so or no for you speaking your own conditions saying you are dead in sin continually prone to evil growing worse yet runing further from God you would have all others to be or say so if they be not so but if they through the experience of grace and goodnesse received from God make reply and say we are quickened by grace and are growing in the same having received Christ by an effectual faith which purifieth our hearts and therefore we have forsaken the Devill the World and the Flesh and are unfainedly turned from them unto God and being born of God 1 Pet. 1.22.23 and guided by his Spirit we are made the Sons of God 1 Joh. 3.1 and so are heirs of Salvation Rom. 8.14 and are made pertakers of the Inheritance of the Saints in light for which we give thanks unto the Father who made us meet to be pertakers thereof Col. 1.14 and are come to the Spirits of just men made perfect and as we have received Christ Jesus the Lord so we walk in him rooted and built up in him and stablished in the faith as we have been taught Heb. 12.22 23. Col. 2.6 7. Col. 1.3 9 10. verses a-abounding therein with thanksgiving in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdome and knowledge for in him dwelleth all the fullnesse of the God-head bodily and the Saints are compleat in him who is the head of all principality and powers as the Scripture witnesseth and if they say so and say they witnesse with them would you not call such hereticks and say it were delusion or blasphemy and the like c And do not you in your Catechisme preach up the same in words as the condition of the obedient c. and if any witness the same condition which you tell them of and say I am a Son of God and heir of Salvation grow in perfection say you are out of the life of what you exhort to but are as you confesse wrongers of Christ neglecters of his work and therefore have not received him by the effectual faith neither have you forsaken the Devill that lives in perfection nor the flesh that are in Miscarriages nor the world that are prone to do evil and growing worse continually neither are you heartily nor in the least me a sure turned from them unto God who are as you say running yet further from him and therefore running from him are not sent of him and so cannot profit the people at all and in disobeying his law and wronging of him in wronging his Son and being still in the Miscarriages and growing worse c. you are not doing what you say is to be done upon pain of damnation and therefore not doing it but neglecting and leaving the same undone may it not be concluded from your own words being found in the neglect that you are for the damnation you speak of in your Agreement but would you not persecure them which witnesse the same in life and power which you speak of as the condition of the obedient who are Sons of God c. and tell you that you are out of the life of the same and are neither Sons nor Servants of God but wrongers of him and his who are in your Miscarriages and growing worse c. To speak Truth against deceit is no rayling And this is but according to what your selves say who are witnesses against your selves both accusing your selves your people in that called your Agreement who have fully laid open your deceit if you did but see it but is not the Serpent now as blind as ever he was Ignorant in the things of the Spirit of God Joh. 8.44 doth not well know his Fathers work and what he bringeth forth who assumed to call Abraham his Father when Christ sharply reproved him for it and said to the Serpents seed You are of your Father the Devill and his works you will do yet though he so said he did neither rail not revile neither were his sayings un Gospel like being thereunto guided by a Gospel-Spirit yet you will be ready to call that railing which is in reproofe to your deceit which
people by casting a mist before the eyes of their understanding seeking to insinuate into them by flatteries and garnishing your flatteries with colourable glosses to cause them to think that your reviving that which hath been used amongst them with out-side Matth. 23.27 28.30 31 c. will now from you receive life to do that which it could not do neither by the Pope or Bishops nor by you their off-springs And with the Light are you seen at your witts end and troubled that you cannot have your wills fulfilled who are the enemies of the Living truth and wrongers both of men and God as you also in your Agreement acknowledge and therefore all your Evasions and Colourable glosses must fall with your Image and Imaginary worships as in your fore-fathers before you and the Ministry that stands out of mans will which you are yet Ignorant of must through the crosse cut down and crucifie and kill that which your Ministry doth not nor your fore-fathers or the Pope or Bishops before you and that Ministry which comes forth from the Light and power of the Spirit of God is for the discovering and killing of the Error Heresie and Miscariages which yours hath and doth leave people in and so as it kills that and the Ignorance Gala. 3.4 5. Eph. 2. Iohn 8.12 1 Iohn 3.8 9. 1. Pet. 1.18 19 22 23 1 Iohn 4.16 17 Iohn 14.20 it quickeneth and raiseth the soul out of death destroying the Ignorance Error Heresie and Miscariages and all the works of the Devill and so bringeth soules out of death and from under the power of darknesse to live in the life of the Eternall truth in the Injoyment of the Fathers love and to Enjoy and walke in the liberty of the Sons of God And saith John We know that the Son of God is come and hath given us an understanding to know him that is true and we are in him that is true even in his Son Jesus Christ and this is true God and life eternall 1 John 5.20 Whose Ministry without your familiar personall Instruction discovereth and killeth sin Error and Miscariages which you live in unkilled and therefore out of his Minstiry who killeth that and quickeneth the other that hath suffered under it raising that and them together with it saving them by grace and causing them as they at Ephesus did to sit with Christ Jesus in the heavenly place Ephe. 2.1 2 4 5 6. For by grace were they saved ver 8th Through faith and not of themselves nor of works lest any should boast Eph 2.8 9. As Paul the Gospel-Minister doth witnesse in his Affirmation who did not as you do in your confusion set up a form of words without Spirit and Life grounded upon the Popes practice or generall Councell held at Trent or at Trull And bid people get these to say and be catechized c. And say them over to the Pope or Arch-bishops Persons Preists Rectors and Curates upon pain of damnation neither doth his words warrant you so to do Therefore are they not your warrant from God for that work Neither did Paul go and write out a few words out of the 20. Chap. of Exodus and the 6. Chap. of Matthew and set the people to get them upon pain of damnation and salvation Which words he had before you and witnessed the life in the spirit and power of Christ for the killing of Ignorannce Sin Error and Miscarriages Eph. 5.13 Eph. 6.10 11 12 13 14. Gal 2.19 20. and to quicken the mortall body Rom. 8.10 11. as well for the purifying of the heart and the soul 1 Pet. 1.22 23. Which you have shewed your Ignorance in and to be out of And therefore Pauls words is not your warrant from God who are out of that righteous life And Paul said they were delivered from the law that being dead wherein they had been held their service stood in the newnes of the Spirit and not in the oldnesse of the Letter Rom. 7.6 But your service stands in the oldnesse of the Letter and the old Law and not in the Gospel and newnesse of spirit Rom. 1.16 16. as your fruits and Agreeement doth manifest Therefore you that serve in your wills and set people to serve in theirs and in the oldnesse of the Letter without the Gospel and power of God to salvation and the newnesse of Spirit Clo. 2.21 22 23. Eph. 2.14 15 16. Rom. 1.26 you are not by Pauls words warranted from God to do it who was himself a minister not of the Letter but of the Spirit as he hath witnessed 2 Co. 3.6 c. Therefore your garnishing your selves with his words and wanting his ministery and spirit to guide in the ministration and worship of God that spirit John 4.23 24. 2 Cor. 3.17 18. you are but as founding Brasse and tinkling Cymbals being in the envy and out of love the of the Father as the false Prophets was therefore let Pauls words rest where they are 1 Cor. 13. H s 16.9 Mic. 3.11 Iude 11. till you depart from your lusts and go make restitution for the Lord is against you and all such who are yet without warrant from God for all your stealing of words to garnish your selves as your fore-fathers did But thus saith the Lord therefore behold I am against them that steal my words from his neighbour I sent them not nor commanded them Therefore they shall not profit the people at all Ier. 23.30 c. And now that you are without warrant from the Scripture being out of the life of truth and reviving your fore-fathers works taking a ground from the sixth-Generall Councell held at Trent or at Trull in the time of the Pope or Bishopps Matth. 7.15 16 17 20 22 22 26 27. ver 2. and are you not also left without warrant from them then where are you now and what ground do you stand on are you not without ground or bottom and on the Sandy foundation ready to be washed away when the floods come c. Whose fall as Christ saith therefrom is like to be great and as may be Read Math. 7.26 27. Let the Priests minde and see If they know From whence they came BEhold and see from whence you came and minde your return was not your Original I head root and foundation the Pope or Arch-bishops and Bishops amongst which was not the Bishop of Rome called the Pope Chiefe Supreame head c. Untill the time or raign of Henry the 8. Late King of England as by the Lawes of this Nation may appeare c. And the Called Arch-Bishopps and such as received Orders from them to be Priests Ministers Deacons and Clarks c. Were they not called the body Spirituall and were and are they not called the English Church c. And after the Pope was put out of Tythes and that which he had begott by Henry the 8 the Arch-Bishopps your fathers Priests Ministers Deacons Rectors Clarks
said to be given only to God and the holy Church which is in the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and both without corruption and sinister affection whose ministry is free and not put to sale as yours is which is not the true Church but the false whose Teachers are men of miscarriages wronging Christ and men growing worse prone to do more evill as well as their people running yet further from God and so themselves making manifest or rendring their ministry to be unprofitable and uselesse and how should you chuse but have untaught Children and families where there is such untaught Teachers and men of miscarriages c as you are And you may see what disorder you are in now that you begin as you say to be awakened It doth appeare you were asleep in security or in the sleepie dreaming condition desiling the flesh which Jude speaks of and in sin unturned to God Jude 7.8 Isa 59.2.3.4.5 6. like those the Prophet Isaiah speaks of that saw it not before and did not the Lord send his servants to awaken you and complaine against you for it and for your own disorderlinesse first before you confessed the same which since you covertly have done but when will you amend and returne for as there is untaught Teachers men of miscarriages and growing worse c. so is there untaught Children and Families also in other places under the same professed Ministry of yours Children howling and yelling like young bruites casting stones and dirt at Christians in the streets and parents looking on countenanceing the same and some of those untaught Children confessing that there was of the magistrates also that did encourage them in it and likewise some of the Teachers hath been heard to say when boyes stoned and abused the servants of Jesus which were sent to declare against their deceipts Let the boyes alone with them and they will order them c. when they were stoning and abusing the Babes and Lambes of God And is not these boyes and untaught Children and familyes you speake of encouraged in their miscarriages unmannerlinesse and misbehaviour c. both by their parents as well as Preists their teachers and also by some of the magistrates and doth not those that are the molt untaught Children and families who lives in unmannerlinesse disorder misbehaviour and miscarriage like you their teachers that therein groweth worse and runneth further from God the most act with club and fist stoning and reviling for you the Parish Masters and untaught teachers and are they nor a great help to you and such as are in union with deceipt unmannerlinesse misbehaviour and miscarriages to help to support the Kingdom of darknesse and to help to carry on the work of Antichrist but when will you teach them better or indeed how should they do otherwise whilst they have and follow for their example such untaught teachers and men of miscarriages c. that are the cheife actors themselves in persecution and lives in miscarriages growing worse therein and wronging Christ and them as you say you do and therefore the Scripture is fulfilled upon you where it saith The leaders of the people cause them to erre and they that are led of them are destroyed Isa 9.16 For there is like Preists like people as saith the Prophet Hosea 4.9 therefore the Lord will have no joy in their young men neither will he have mercy on their Fatherlesse and widows for every one In the miscarriages wronging Christ and men growing worse and running further from God c. is an hypocrite and an evil doer Isa 9.16.17 like you the blind leaders of them and evill examples that causeth them to erre who your selves are in the miscarriages as you say wronging Christ and them c. And so it is manifest as your Agreement doth declare as well as your fruits who your selves say instead of amending and turning to God you grow worse and run yet further from him therefore may it not be concluded that the Lord will have no joy in you nor mercy on you whil'st you do so who are the hypocrits and the evill doers And you say when you come to visit the sick you would faine speake a word of comfort to their departing souls but dare not do it page 29. of your Agreement but had it not been more honest for you to have delt plainly and say when you goe to visit the sick you would speake comfort to them but cannot do it because you were never appointed for it being in the miscarriages and growing worse and wrongers both of them and of Christ But you say you dare not do it because you find them so carnall and ignorant therefore I say they are most like unto your selves naturally dead in sin as you say prone to do more evill daily growing worse and running yet further from God Therefore as the people are carnall Isa 9.15.16 Hos 6.9 Hosea 4.9 and ignorant so are the Priests and like unto like being of one evill nature and guided by a wrongfull Spirit likewise your people they may see that though they fight with club and fist for you yet you cannot help them nor speake any comfort to them when they are on their death beds and stand most in need of you if you could do them any good but cannot who in that miscarrying nature and Spirit by which you wrong Christ and them never were appointed for it And as your ministry hath not profited them in their life time so it is as uselesse to them on their death beds and yet you would not dare to take Wages and Tithes c of those that were and are so carnall and ignorant which you cannot speake a word of comfort to on their death beds because you want it for them and therefore you make it manifest that instead of preaching for the good and comfort of souls you preach for Tithes and your own ends and if they perish so that you have but your own ends accomplished and earthly gaine advanced what matter you even nothing at all for when they are on their death bed you come off with a shuffle or a shifting trick saying you dare not speak a word of comfort to them when indeed you cannot but when did you say you durst not take Tithes and hundreds a yeare because your people are carnall and ignorant but you dare take that though jour ministry profit them nothing neither in their life-time nor at their latter end Therefore it is high time for them to looke about them and cease from you that they may forsake the evill and turne to God the teacher of his people and waite upon him for instruction the manifestation festation of whose Spirit is given to such as obey him to profit withall 1 Cor. 12.7 though your ministry be uncomfortable uselesse and unprofitable yet his is usefull comfortable and profitable and also free without sale and to be had without mony or mony-worth Isa 55. Mat.
you live in and have confessed in your Agreement and say 1 Joh. 2.4 Math. 23.27 Math. 23.24 1 Joh. 1.18 16. Phil. 3.2 Acts 10.29 Luke 3.7 Math. 23.33 it is Censorious and un Gospel-like yet notwithstanding the Spirit of truth and they that were guided by it called the Serpents seed by names proper to their nature as Lyers Hypocrites blind-guides Seducers and Antichrists as well as Doggs Wolys Foxes Serpents and Vipers and if it were not un Gospel-like in them so to do being thereunto guided by a Gospel-Spirit and how comes it to be more un Gospel-like now in them that are thereunto guided so to say by the Gospel-Spirit or was not the Serpents seed then as well as now offended at it and raised persecution against them that witnessed by the Spirit of truth against their deceits as the Serpents seed now doth consider of it and Judge your selves for the tree is known by its fruits And in your sixth answer you are telling how Christ proved his doctrine but I say you do not prove by your fruits that you are in the same but out of it and confesseth as well as proveth that you are none of his Ministers but wrongers of him as your words and actions against you witnesseth and therefore you should first by your fruits and practise have proved your selves to have been following his example and the practise of the Gospel Ministers and then you had done something for both he and his to wit true Prophets and Apostles have sufficiently thereby proved theirs without you whose lives and the Spirit by which they were enspired stands to witnesse against you Joh. 14.6 Heb. 7.25 Heb. 5.8 9. 1 Tim. 3.15 Joh. 14.17 Job 1.6 Gal. 4.6 Rom. 8.14 1 Joh. 2.14 20 27 and such as are out of the way of truth and running yet further from God who through ignorance sets up the letter and your Catechisme as the way into the truth and knoweth not that Christ is the way to the Father and to salvation without you and wrongers of him c. as the letter witnesseth and so is his light Joh. 8.12 and Spirit the way out of darkesse and guide into all truth Joh. 16.13 and is the standing rule in his Church the piller and ground of truth and that the holy Spirit doth enlighten mens hearts is true but the letter doth not so nor your Catechisme as in your 7th answer it seemes you would have it neither hath it yet turned you from Sathan unto God who are in miscarriages growing worse and as you say continually prone to do evill and are running yet further from God and therefore you are neither in the faith nor joyned to Christ that are running from God and turned wrongers both of men and of Christ neither are you justified therein but are unpardoned for the same as your selves confesse and so are not made the Sons of God that are not borne of him nor quickened by grace but dead in sin and living in your former and present miscarriages growing worse and worse and so are neither sanctified nor that peculiar people you speak of in Answer the seventh in that called your Catechisme For you say The peculier people are made the Sons of God and sanctified unto him overcoming the world the flesh and the Devill and are Zealous of good works serving God in holynesse and righteousnesse c. But I say you make it manifest that you are not sanctified nor justified then according to your sayings you are not made the Sons of God nor that peculiar people which are persecuted by you who live in the miscarriages growing worse and worse your deeds proves your sayings therein against you that are yet running further from God and turned wrongers of Christ and of men but his peculiar people that are justified and sanctified they do not so but witnesseth against those that live in miscarriages that are wrongers of Christ and his whose blind Zeale carries them forth into persecution and unrighteousnesse and therefore are Zealous in an evill work like you as both your writeing casting the innocent into Prisons and your actions against you declare And where you tell of the end of the righteous and wicked in Answer the eighth of your Catechisme In reply thereunto Let me tell you that you have sufficiently proved your selves to be the wicked and therefore expect their reward or that which is due for the same for there is no respect of persons with God who will render to every man according to his deeds even Indignation and wrath unto them that are contentious and obey not the tâ—uth but obey unrighteousnesse as you do that live in Miscarriages and grow worse and worse Rom. 2.6 8 9 10 11. verses like such who after their hardnesse and Impenitent heart are running further from God are treasureing up unto themselves wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous Judgment of God and as you may read Rom. 2.20 And you say in your Ninth answer of your Catechisme that Christ hath appointed that fit men should be Ordained his Ministers to disciple the undiscipled but I say you are out of that Royall ordination and are not those fit men therefore are not appointed to be his Ministers for those that are chosen by Christ and so fitted and appointed they are his freinds and do his commands and he hath ordained that they should go and bring forth fruit that their fruit should remain and because they are not of the world but chosen out of the world to witness against the evil of it Joh. 15.14 15 16 19 20. Joh. 7.7 therefore are they hated of the World as Christ himself was but instead of being hated of the World and suffering for Christ bringing forth fruit to God you are beloved of the World and in your Miscarriages are growing worse and bringing forth fruit to the flesh who are running yet further from God and turned persecuters also of his who are wrongers of Christ and them and therefore you have made it manifest that you are neither fitted nor appointed of him whom you so wrong and run further from and therefore are you unfit to disciple or teach others to walk in the right way your selves being still in the wrong continuing therein and are yet running further on that are running from God and so run unsent and therefore are out of the Royall Ordination and Gospel appointment who are yet dead in sin continually prone to do evil and therein growing worse and so under a state of Condemnation your painting and garnishing your selves with the Saints words and living out of their practice in your continued Miscarriages and growing therein worse makes it manifest that you have not learned the lesson of self deniall to come out of them that you might follow Christ through the daily crosse and Minister in the same and so you have proved that you are very unfit to teach others who are not
for the rich man to enter the Kingdome except he be stripped of his riches Pride Pompe and Vaine-glory and be thereunto fitted to enter by being made poore in Spirit and so it is said Blessed are the poore in Spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of God therefore before you enter the Kingdom you must be stript of selfe righteousnesse and come out of your miscarriages Math. 5.3 Math. 5.20 cease wronging Christ and men and be borne againe before you can enter the same Joh. 3.3.5 Joh. 3.9.10 therefore do not seeke to cover your selves and hide your miscarriages now that you have confessed them but come forth and forsake them for he that hides his sin shall not prosper and it is not sufficient for you to confesse your miscarriages and run on in them but after confession to forsake for he that confesseth and forsaketh shall find mery but so shall it not be with them that only confesse and grow worse who do not forsake them but run further on in them therefore consider and let truth and equity enter and do not account and reckon your selves to be dead unto sin and alive unto God whil'st you are naturally dead in sin and alive in persecution lust and miscarriages therein growing worse who are running yet fâ—rther from God least you make a wrong account and reckon amisse and though the man be blessed to whom the Lord doth not impute sin what is that to you to whom sin is imputed who are bewailing your negligence miscarriages and peoples ignorance who are growing worse and râ—nning further from God except you forsake your miscarriages and obey that which convinceth you of them that you may be led out of sin and turned to God and do not account the righteousnesse of Christ to be yours whilst you are holding the truth in unrighteousnesse which the wrath from God is revealed against for what fellowship hath righteousnesse with unrighteousnesse and what communion hath light with darknesse therefore turne to the light which shews you your darknesse sin and miscarriages and come out of fellowship with sin and unrighteousnesse as well as forsake your miscarriages and waite upon the light to know the righteousnesse revealed from faith to faith Rom. 1.18 2 Cor. 6.14 2 Coâ— 4 5 6 Rom. 16.17 Coll. 3. Rom. 5. â—7 Isa 55.6 7. for you must put off the old man with his deeds and come out of unrighteousnesse and put on the new man which after God is Created if you intend to be made partakers of his holinesse and the righteousnesse which is the gift of God therefore let the wâ—cked forsake his wayes and the unrighteous man his thoughts and turne to the Lord and he will have mercy on them but if you run on in your miscarriages and grow worse you run on in unrighteousnesse and forsake the mercy who instead of turning to God runs further from him therefore do not seeke to hide your sins any longer but come out of them and forsake them and thinke not to hide your selves and to make a cover for your miscarriages that you may grow worse and continue therein with saying Peter denied his Master and after found mercy but remember that when the Cock crew to put Peter in remembrace of what he had done he wept bitterly and made his returne manifest by coming out of his sin who did not afterward run on in the same nor any more deny Christ as he had done therefore if you take Peter for your example minde to follow his practice now that you are made sensible of your miscarriages weepe bitterly as Peter did humble your selves under the mighty hand of God be seperate from your sins and touch not the uncleane thing make your returne manifest as Peter did and cease doing wrong any more to Christ and men and instead of running from God turne to him that you may stand in awe and not sin and this is love to your soules if you can receive it The Vizard and Cover plucked off from the Wolves back under which he deceived and spoiled the sheep so that his envy and fury appeares or The tree is clearely knowne by the fruit which it beares c. You guilded Tombes and whited walls who have heaped up all the imaginations of all the generations of disobedience that have gone before who exceed in Arts and Notions and changeable religions who in your Townes have set up your severall likenesses so that of Images you have choice which you contend about and fight for and some of them you have set very high above the Gods of your Fathers their Surplesses Tippits and Alters Math. 7.15 16 17 18 19 20. c. But when will you behold what you haue brought forth more then another forme and likenesse in the same power is this all that you have been doing all this while to throw downe one Image and set up divers in the stead but no more life if theirs had lesse shew and as much life shall not they be your Judges when will you begin to judge the tree by its fruit Jer. 23.10 11.12 Isa 3.15 Jer. 5.1 2. Jer. 5.25 27 28 29 30 31. and manifest your God in power and not in words only when shall it appeare that your God is not an Image that he hath power in you over your wills and perverse wayes your lusts and pleasures and cursed covetous practices that the land may no longer mourne because of oathes not the poore groane because of oppression that the works of God may praise him through you in the streets and that it may he once said againe intruth The Lord liveth even the Lord our righteousness Immanuell who worketh all our works in us and for us and not your practices to testifie against you to your faces And you Teachers of all sorts who are trying one another in your selfish natures when will you try your own hearts Isa 56 9 10 11. and Judge and suffer the light of Christ to lay open your abominations to your faces that you may see and forsake that for which you have been so often reproved Mica 3.11 Jer. 29. Ezek. 34. Math. 23. and for which you are so much offended to heare of you that pretend to be in place to reprove others do you not reprove your own selves who are in the steps of the false Prophets Scribes and pharises Is it no sin to be called of men Masters nor to seeke for your gaine from your quarter to beare rule by your meanes to preach for hire and p ophesie for money will you live in these things which did ever burthen the Spirit of God And is this all your confession amendment to call them railers who tell you of it Are these wayes lesse horrible since the Scriptures did witness against them then they were in your fore-fathers which had none or is it more raling now then it was before the Scriptures were written can you stop the cry of God