Sudent in the Vniversty of Cambridge his Contemporaries there with him have reported and witnessed of him that he ever loved to maintain and defend strange Opinions among them Whereby it seems the man Salamander-like cannot live out of the fire of contention offensive opinions notwithstanding that one of his bewitched pert if not malepert Proselytes most absurdly superciliously falsly called him A great Master in Israel and the best of men How also hath that foresaid Noble Berean I mean Mr. Prynne been yet more lately and more boldly abused by a most scurrillous proud and illitterate poor Pamphlet under the notion or title of Mr. Iohn Lilborne Letter to Mr. William Prynne Wherein how frothily fondly and falsely hath he abused not only precious Mr. Prynne whose Books in point of a Disputant he is most unworthy to bear after Mr. Prynne wilfully mis-reciting and mis-reporting his Positions point-blank against his words and writings which surely he either read not or understood not as if Mr. Prynne concurred with the Jesuites in a point wherein he is most opposite unto them complaining against the Parliaments just restraint against libellous printing even in his libellous Letter in print before ever it came to Mr. Prynne in writing But also reviling the whole Reverend Assembly of most learned and pious Divines terming them most rudely and unmannerly at least three or four times no better then Black-Cotes and The profest enemies of Christ himself yea and most audaciously daring to censure the most honourable Parliament it selfe both Lords and Commons with dishonourable breach of their Covenant But it hath pleased the most righteous Judge of all men in some measure to meet with the evill of both these most ungratefull Sons of their Mother the Church of God in way of punishment as I for my part cannot but give God the glory so account it the one by just shame in being deservedly thrust out of his Living in London by the Parliament the other by smart receiving a most dangerous wound in one of his eyes by a Pike immediately after his publishing of that most shallow and silly Letter God give them both hearts to lay these things to heart lest a worse thing follow Again if Pride give me leave I pray you without offence still to use the language of Canaan to speak in the dialect of Gods own Holy Spirit which ye seem to delight in if Pride I say and Self-seeking or Self-engagements be not the Spring of al these your most unhappy and unholy contentions with us what then means your most unjust and causelesse Schisme and separation from us and disdaining to joyn and communicate in holy Ordinances and Assemblies with us putting your selves into an unwarrantable way of gathering peculiar Churches out of Churches to your selves falling point-blank upon that complaint and crimination of palpable Schisme which I admire ye see not and ingenuously acknowledge not even to this day but most obstinately and wilfully I fear run on in which the Apostle Paul himself so complains of viz. That one is of Paul another of Apollo and another of Cephas So ye one is of Dr. Holmeses another of Mr. Goodwins and another of Mr. Lockyers Congregation the very same thing ye see that the holy Apostle Paul himself there complains of even thus as much as in you is to divide and rend Christ himself a sunder By this means also making and esteeming every particular Congregation yea every particular Saint of yours as ye eal them a true and entire Church as Mr. D. one of your Independent Brethren holds and publickly teaches to every of whom equally ye say the Keyes belong and I think by this rule to the Women-Saints as well as to the Men-Saints not being subject to any appeale or coercive-power other then your own no nor to admit of any counsell or advice from other Congregations further then ye please to ask and entertain it your selves Now if such an uncough Chaos and strange Church-way as ye call it as this is should be admitted over this whole Kingdome O I tremble to think and conceive what a Humano capiti cervicem jungere equinam c. as the Poet Horace or what a Monstrum horrendum informe ingens c. as Virgil this would prove in short time And yet you our most improvident Dissenting Brethren call and count this only Christs way and your Selves only that run in it of Christs Kingdome excluding all other Christians very many of whom every way else as godly and gracious as your selves and by some of your own learned more moderate Independents even your five Apologists themselves held to be a true Church of Christ and to have a true Ministry yet shutting out I say all these Christians from Christs kingdome even as the profest enemies thereof and accounting them and their innocent bubes and children no better then Ethnicks and Pleatheus whom ye will by no meanes admit into your Assemblies or Congregations to partake of the precious Ordinances of life and salvation Baptisme and the Lords Supper if they will not joyn with you in your Church-way and take your unwarrantable and unscripturall formall-Covenant invented by your selves or if they be poor and cannot help to support with their purses your Congregationall-way I speak but what I know herein and can produce my testimonies Tell me I beseech you where in all the whole Book of God from Genesis to the Revelations Separation from Christian Brethren every way as good and godly as your selves is either commended or communded And if ye are not able as to this day ye never were nor ever can to make this clear unto us Then how dare ye thus obstinately and causelessely separate from us into Corners and Chambers and I know not what private and unwarrantable Assemblies Whereas we can most plentifully prove yea your own consciences cannot but check and chide you for the contrary namely how clearly it is the will of God that Christian Unity and Society be maintained Witnesse that especially among many other full Texts of Scripture for it of the Apostle Ephes 4.1 2 3 4 c. I therefore Paul the prisoner of the Lord beseech yet that you walke worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called With all lowlinesse and meeknesse with long-suffering forbearing one another in love Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace For there is one body and one Spirit even as ye are called in one hope of your calling One Lord one Faith one Baptisme one God one Father of all who is above all and through you all and in you all Together I say with very many other most pregnant Scriptures to this purpose How then O my Brethren dare ye do these things except it be by that most destructive and pernicious plea for Liberty of Conscience which ye so urge and cry up and cry out for to do what ye list in pretended matters of conscience vehemently urging
it come to a dead-lift or a hard pinch you laying down this irreligious Paradox for a principle which ye make open and constant profession of and wish to be enacted as the most sacred law of all others in the midst of all other Ecclesiasticall Laws and Canons in Christian states throughout the world Not to make your present judgement and practise a binding law unto your selves for the future out of a jealousie of your own frailty keeping this Reserve to alter and retract what ever should be discovered to be taken up by you out of a misunderstanding of the rule This being the avowed profession of your five grand-Apologists to the whole world in print yet a principle so inconsistent with found faith and truth of Religion of which you so much vannt as that it suits with none but such an one whom the Apostle James 1.6 7 8. long since ye know reprehended and characterized the true character indeed me thinks of our Independent Brethren viz. A double minded man unstable in all his wayes wavering like a wave of the sea driven about with the winde and tossed Which he closeth up with this dreadfull determination Let not that man think he shall receive any thing of the Lord. And if such Scepticks as you professe your selves by this Apostles determination cannot so much as think to receive any thing of the Lord with what faces and consciences can ye think to obtrude your Independent-wayes and fancies upon us as the infallable Oracles nay Scepter and Government of God and Christ which your selves infallibly believe not to be such and take up only for the present with a Reserve of altering and not binding your very selves thereto for the future For Gods sake my Brethren take heed what ye do herein For does not the Apostle 2 Tim. 3.1 2. prophesie That in the last dayes perilous times shall come for men shall be lovers of themselves covetous boasters proud heady high-minded having a forme of godlinesse but denying the power thereof Ever learning but never able to come to the knowledge of the Truth Yea such as will not endure sound doctrine but after their own lusts will heap to themselves teachers having itching eares turning away their ears from the truth and will be turned unto fables and fictions new-lights and revelations And are not your thus pretended New-lights the very persons thus delineated by your own confessions and practises too even Murmurers Complainers desirous to walk after your own lusts and having mens persons in admiration for advantage Yea take heed I say ye be not found to be those Clouds without water carried about with windes and those Wandring-Stars which the Apostle Jude speakes of which know not when or where immutably to fix your faith and judgements Whereas our Presbyterians and all other true Believers are alwayes 1 Cor. 15.58 Phil. 1.27 Chap. 4.1 c. Stedfast unmoveable standing fast in the Lord in one spirit and in one minde striving together for the faith of the Gospell and not tossed to and fro like children carried about with every winde of doctrine by the slight of men as too too many Scepticall-Independents are to the great obloquie and scandall of Religion O my Brethren I have therefore great cause to fear you will hardly prove Martyrs for that Church-way or Discipline for the future to which you will not peremptorily so much as binde your judgement no though but only for the present Now if all this aforesaid arise not as wise King Solomon sayes from Spirituall Pride and self-seeking what meanes I say all this fruitlesse writing and wrangling if not faithlesse shuffling with and against the unquestionable heaven-honoured Truths of the Presbyterian-way never to be refuted though much quarrelled at by all the New-Speculations of our most unkinde Dissenting brethren As namely your most unjust and injurious quarrellings and I fear malicious prejudicacies against reverend Master Edwards his pious painfull and learned Preaching and Writing against your Novell-wayes especially your quarrelling against his most learned Antapologia not hitherto answered as indeed unanswerable by the best of you all How also have the elaborate labours of Reverend Master Herl learned Doctor Stuart religious and learned Master Rutterford and divers other Eminent Divines been slighted traduced and abused by you who have most copiously and conscienciously confirmed by invincible arguments Scripture and reason their Presbyteriall and most abundantly and clearly confuted your Independent-way And though in the last yet not in the least place how have ye most ungodlily and ungratefully traduced and palpably abused pious and most precious Master Prynne who as I had a late former occasion to make like-worthy and honourable mention of him in my Letter to Mr J. Goodwin for his most famous and faithfull Sufferings his most elaborate learned and divine writings and for his indefatigable and most fruitfull Services many-fold wayes both for this Church and State too can never be sufficiently honoured embraced and beloved by all true-hearted Christians over this whole kingdome yet I say how hath this most incomparable and precious Gentleman this most Eminent Saint and Servant of the Lord and famous Patriot of his Country been lately and liberally traduced and most grossely abused by almost all our most unkinde and ungratefull Dissenting brethren of the Congregationall Church-way But most especially and more lately since my foresaid Letter was published by the fore-mentioned Master John Goodwin as in all his former insulting and usavory peeces so above all in that last and worst most scandalous Pamphlet of his Entituled Calumny arraigned and Cast a most flashy and false work as I can easily prove and a most undiscreet unjust and unreasonable taske undertaken by him in taking upon him to be both Judge and Party in his own cause For who can expect any other but a totall conviction and tyrannicall censure from a profest Adversary against his Antagonist But if any impartiall and judicious Reader will but enquire for and read over seriously this Mr. John Goodwins Letter to Mr. Thomas Goodwin then in Holland not long since printed and published by Mr. Bellamy in Cornhill in London he shall then see to his deep admiration what a fit man Mr. John Goodwin so tainted with Socinianisme if not Arminianisme with most dangerous Errors in Saving-faith sometime a Presbyterian and sometime an Independent is to sit a Iudge to arraigne cast and condemne such a most constantly orthodox pious and painfull servant to God and his country as Mr. Prynne And then certainly the Reader must needs also break forth with me into an extasie of astonishment and admiration at the strange boldnesse and unblushing audacity of Mr. Iohn Goodwin so to censure others considering his own guilt levity and instability of minde and grosse errours in judgement his said vanity and unconstancy of minde and promptitude to error being lately further enformed to me by very reverend and credible testimony thus That even when he was a
that the Civill-magistrate hath no power to rule over any Christians conscience which though we easily grant in point of private believing yet we say and will justifie he has power to regulate Christians consciences in point of publick pious and peaceable practicall-eariage both in life and doctrine as is most clear from that pregnant impregnable Scripture 1 Tim. 2.1 2 3. Where the Civill-magistrate is acknowledged by the Apostle Paul himself to be the principall instrument of God to regulate mens outward consciences as I may call them as well in all godlinesse as honesty for the preservation of publick peace unity and community one with another Unlesse ye dare avouch that Christ did purchase a liberty of conscience for men to sinne in any sort which were most blasphemous so to say or think How dare ye then I say if ye will shew your selves the Sons and Daughters of Christian love peace and humility do these things even thus separate your selves from holy communion with us and thus censortously judge and think of us who do seven at this time enjoy ever blessed be the Lords free mercy for it and the Lord grant that this unholy-ingratitude and wanton-contention of yours cut us not short of the farther and freer enjoyment of the Word most orthodoxly plentifully and profoundly preached the Sacraments in sweet measure for the time purely administred and both Sacraments and Church-discipline in a most hopefull way had we but thankfull hearts godly wisdome and pious patience to wait the Lords leasure as it is our Christian duty for the perfecting cōpleting thereof and not being poor-beggars to be our own proud-carvers even ever since we most happily shook off the Antichristian yoke of our tyrannicall Prelates to be blessedly reduced and setled in a holy and unblended way free from beggarly-ceremonies and humans inventions as much as by Christian prudence and piety backed and strengthned by Gods rightest-rule the Scriptures is possible to be attain'd unto both for the present and future too Object But probably it will be here objected But Sir would you have us to submit to such a Church-government or Discipline as we fear are informed by our learned pious Pastors is as Antitichristian as tyrannicall if not more than the Prelaticall was and which Mr. John Goodwin saies in his Theomachia is a bloody unpeaceable persecuting way a way much damping and deading the flourishing improvements of the gifts and graces of the Saints Answ Whereunto I answer First that this is a most unjust injurious slander maliciously cast upon the Presbyterian-way witnesse as I said before the many thousands of most eminent Saints and rare Christians famous in their severall generations in Geneva Germany Sweden Hungary Bohemia Holland France Scotland and now in England both for most excellent and enlarged parts of learning and piety Secondly witnesse the most transcendent testimony of one of your own now prime Independent Brethren Mr. Lockyer by name who being at my house upon just occasion thereunto afforded him by my selfe professed most seriously unto me that he having been in Scotland and seen with his eyes and taken speciall notice of the most exact practicall managing of their Church-government and we all know that one eye-witnesse is better then ten eare-witnesses or then a hundred speculative-conceits or imaginary New-lights in all the particulars thereof he I say professed most seriously unto me that he was in conscience convinced and clearly perswaded that their Presbyterian-way was most Apostolicall and Evangelicall even in these very tearms and what higher Encomium could he possibly have given in this behalf Thirdly and lastly in further answer hereunto I desire to ask any ingenuous Dissenting Brother or Sister and if their conscience will but speak-out the plain truth herein let them freely say O what would they and I have given or done lesse then ten years agoe and so upward to have had the Presbyterian Government as it then was and now is in Scotland to have been established and set up among us which now like fools and most ungratefull wantons ye so contemne condemne and vilifie to your great shame be it spoken Object 3 Again it may peradventure be here objected But are not the Ministers and many others of the Independent-way very eminent Saints and Christians both for their learning and most holy lives and unspotted conversation and therefore to be as justly credited and believed in what they have delivered to us by word or writing as any of yours to the contrary Answ 2 I answer neither the parts nor piety of men though ever so outwardly pure and holy are a right rule for truly wise Christians to walk by but contrary wise very dangerous and deceivable For though from my heart I here professe as in the presence of God the Searcher of all hearts that I love and honour very many of the Independent or Dissenting Brethren both for their learning and holy lives yet give me leave as ingenuously to confesse with all that I much fear them for their judgement and opinions sake which I hold dangerous and destructive For I say as the Apostle Paul sayes Gal. 1.8 Though any of you yea or an Angell from Heaven preach any other Gospel or Word then that which Christ and his Apostles in the written Word hath delivered to us let him be accursed And my Brethren 't is not an unknown thing to Scholars and any others verst in Ecclesiasticall histories that the most dangerous Hereticks and first broachers of Hereticall and Schismaticall errours and opinions as Pelagius Arminius c. Were men of marvelous strict life and outward holinesse This rule therefore I say is no solid safe or right rule for pious and prudent Christians to walk by but the written Word of God only and clear and demonstrative deductions and necessary consequences drawne thence by comparing Scripture with Scripture and thus trying the spirits whether they are of God or not 1 John 4.1 As the noble Bereans did Now all these premises seriously considered wherein remains I pray the mighty distance and difference between our most unkinde Dissenting Brethren and us if not in the Self-flation of their spirits and in their Self-seeking and private ingagements as hence we have great cause more then to fear For they say they desire but what we desire in the main viz. Pure Ordinances Holy Assemblies and Christ upon his Throne only they dissent and differ from us in some poor punctilios some meer surmises bare pretence of what is not or not yet proved to us from Gods Word without which they must pardon us if we cannot believe them or be led by them and herein indeed I confesse they out-run us and run before us yea and I fear and believe too before God calls them What then means this Daggers-drawing at one another for poor circumstantials things not absolutely necessary to salvation and not justifiable by you from the Word What I wonder should