THE Church of Christ IN BRISTOL Recovering her Vail out of the hands of them that have smitten and wounded her and taken it away BEING A just and necessary Vindication from a false and scandalous imputation cast upon her by Dennis Hollister formerly a Member of her but now an Apostate from and an opposer of those Waies Truths and People which once he seemed zealous for As appears by a late Pamphlet put forth by him called The Skirts of the Whore discovered With some particular words from some particular persons whom he hath by name abused and reproached Likewise a word by Thomas Ewen unto what concerns him in the said Pamphlet and also to the later part of another Book called Satan enthroned in his Chair of Pestilence 1 Tim. 4. 1. Now the Spirit speaketh expresly that in the later times some shall depart from the faith giving heed to seducing Spirits and doctrins of Devils Acts 20. 30. Also of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them Isa 10. 24. O my People that dwellest in Sion be not afraid of the Assyrian London Printed for Thomas Brewster at the three Bibles at the West-end of Pauls 1657. TO THE READER Courteous Reader IT is but little pleasure or delight to the Authors of the ensuing Papers that they should fill the world or take up thy pretious time with matters of this nature there being at this day so many things of so much higher concernment for the minds of immortal Souls to be taken up with and seriously imployed about But we being to our grief and against our wills forced hereunto for the vindication of the Truth and justification of the waies thereof by a late scandalous and ridiculous Pamphlet put forth and published by one Dennis Hollister of Bristol once a Member of this Church and a man as famous for professing the Truth as now infamous for and by his Apostacy from it opposition to it and violence against it Who upon the first coming of the People called Quakers to this City did in a short time fall in with them own them and plead for them and by his so doing drew many a poor Soul out of the waies of Christ and into the waies of those miserable deluded People so that with himself there rent from this Church about eighteen or nineteen persons who are now wandring in the dark and blind paths of deceit and delusion towards death and destruction Whereupon the remaining part and through Grace the major part by far of the Church did after seeking the Lord and seriously advising together send Brethren first to enquire after him and them and to know the grounds of their absenting but some would return no answer at all others very contemptuously slighting and scorning the Church in this their act with many revilings as the manner of those People is After some months time the Church sent three Brethren to admonish them of their great evil and danger c. A Copy of which Admonition is in the following Papers as likewise a particular Admonition to Dennis Hollister setting before him five sore and palpable evils which we knew he was guilty of and that every tittle of it was both true and obvious though he doth with a most impudent and shameless face deny it railing at the Church for their so doing and instead of hearing the Admonition or acknowledging his evils did prepare a Letter with this Inscription For the People called Independents And by his subtilty engaged two of our Brethren to present it to the Church putting such conditions upon them as might best accomplish his designs as that it must be openly read in a full meeting c. He likewise speaking to some of the Church whom he had still an influence upon and hopes to draw off that they should be sure to be there at the reading of that Letter by which some of us came to understand his design and that his Letter was not to give any account to the Church of the things whereof he was admonished but rather to stagger and draw away more of the Congregation to himself and to those People and waies unto whom he was already departed Which thing is since evident by many passages in his Papers as that in his Epistle to the Reader where he hath these words viz. My just and necessary defence is kept from the simple hearted amongst them after whom my soul longs and for whose sakes it was principally intended c. By which all men may see that his principal intent was not to answer or satisfie the Church but rather to draw away some from it he also giving out there were yet such a certain number of persons naming of them that should yet come away which the Lord through the riches of his Grace hath hitherunto prevented and those persons in particular are more confirmed and established in the Truth and against the principles and waies of those People and much by his late Book it being so filled with rage and fury envy and bitterness false accusations and rash condemnations having nothing in it like the Spirit of Christ but the Church taking into consideration his Letter and first finding that he himself was cut of Gods way secondly that he had refused to hear the Church by their Messengers sent unto him thirdly that he did not own us as a Church in the Superscription of his Letter and fourthly understanding his design to be as aforesaid to draw away more if he could c. Hereupon his Letter was not opened but returned back and delivered to his Man-servant in his Shop himself being then absent but this did so enrage him he seeing himself so far disappointed of his ends and aims and the Church in some short time after sending three Brethren again the second time to admonish him and the rest according to Scripture rule Mat. 18. Tit. 3. 10. that he hath herevpon published that most scandalous Pamphlet called The Skirts of the Whore discovered and the mingled People in the midst of her c. In which he doth most unchristian-like abuse the whole Church stiling her a Synagogue of Satan and a Cage of unclean and hateful Spirits with many heaps of slanders and falsities c. to the dishonor of the name of Christ and the reproach of his waies and People and to the defaming of many of those whom God thorow rich Grace hath preserved faithful in this apostatising day We could not therefore without being guilty of or accessary to his sin and evil let his folly go unreproved but have set forth these few plain words of truth and soberness aiming at his confutation the truths justification our own vindication and others information and satisfaction desiring the Christian Reader to weigh well our coddition judge impartially of our wrong and help us affectionately by thy prayers and so we commit both thee and our selves unto him who will one day clear the innocent bringing forth
Harlot the truth of which sensoriousness the whole Church can testifie yea we could give many particular instances were it necessary but what need we go further than your present Letter where in your Reply to this third particular you call the Church a Harlot c. and page 20. where you rehearsing what you had said amongst us before you left us confess that you did at last say our Church was but a Harlot and yet now you say this charge is false and from the Father of lies and that the Church of Christ you do own dearly c. Now here you come in again with your mental reservation saying you did not call the Church of Christ so but the People in Bristol which you say is a Harlot now is this honesty or any thing else but deceit and hypocrisie did not we send to admonish you for calling this Church in Bristol a Harlot which you confess you did and yet you say this charge is false and from the Father of lies we wonder who is your Father in this thing and what appears in you but meer deceit and subtilty equivocation and mental reservation O! for shame lay aside these unchristian practises and here we desire all Christians to consider whether this were a studied and false accusation as you say The fourth branch of your Admonition is your asserting in the Church Doctrins contrary to truth three of which are mentioned many more might have been c. First you asserted at a Meeting in your own house that as Christ was the great light of the World so he was the great Faith of the World and that Christ and Faith was all one and that Christ was not the object of Faith Our question was not about the oneness or nearness that there is between Christ and Faith but whether the person of Christ and the grace of Faith were not to be distinguished and whether Jesus Christ in his person as God-Man be not the object of Faith as him whom man is to believe in for Salvation Your assertion was we did not know what Faith was and that Faith was an eternal thing alleging that Scripture 2 Cor. 4. last But the things which are not seen are eternal This occasioned many Scriptures to be brought to prove that Christ and Faith were to be distinguished and that Christ was the object of Faith and though the word object be not used in Scripture in that sense yet we are often bid to look unto Christ for Salvation as Isa 45. 22. Zach. 12. 10 Heb 12 2. which Scriptures were then alleged against what you asserted Now in your Reply you allege 1 Tim. 1. 9 you say faith is a Mistery held in a pure conscience hid from al ignorant and vulturous eyes c. in which Reply of yours you shew your weakness in abusing the words and sense of the Apostle as any judicious Christian may perceive by comparing your Book with that Scripture c. but upon the matter you do now say as much as we did then admonish you of And whereas you demand why we did not then question you and that if it be for conscience sake why had we not done it sooner and why had we not disproved you by the Scripture and why would we suffer things contrary to truth to be asserted among us without rebuke c. We answer you were presently opposed and blamed for asserting such things as you were at several other times for asserting such things which in the 20 page of your Book you call some manifestation of truth that was breaking forth in you some years past at which some were offended and contradicted it c. though for a solemn dealing with you we did not till you left the Church which perhaps was our sin and your misery but considering your spirit and the state of the Church we knew not how to set about it though some saw ground enough to do it c. The fifth branch of your Admonition which was for speaking against the Scriptures affirming they were blind and a plague to souls and that they were not the Word of God nor the Rule of Life c. For the first part of this branch you did at a Meeting again at your own house affirm which many took notice of as well those that were not of the Church as those that were whereby the thing was publickly known in the Citie and became a reproach to the Church an eminent person of the Citie enquiring of one of us about it and that you did speak these words is as certain as ever you did speak word in your life some of us sitting over against you do well remember with what kind of passion you spake it clapping your hand upon the Book or Table saying that that Book or Scripture was one of the greatest blinds and plagues to mens souls this day in England and these words became a reproach to the Church upon which we did admonish you and though now in your Book you say that this charge is utterly false and from the Father of lies and invented by his instruments yet we do again affirm and will set our hands to it that you did speak these very words Secondly for that expression that the Scriptures are not the Word of God c. did not you at the red Lodge in the Gardenhouse before near twenty people say so when one of us being by bid you for shame not to speak so it is true you did at a Meeting a little before you left us propose it to consideration as a thing wherein we had been mistaken yet so as your very proposing of it did imply the negative other instances also we could give at private conferences that some of us had with you about the same thing but what need we say more do you not demand in your Book page 19. where doth the Scripture call it self the Word of God to which we answer we shall give you four plain places instead of many Jer. 30. 2 4. Rev. 17. 17. Prov. 30. 5. Mark 7. 8 9 13. But what should we go to light a candle to the Sun have not many judicious and godly Writers long ago proved against former Athiests and Hereticks that the Scripture is the Word of God though neither they nor we deny that glorious Tittle that God the Father hath put upon the person of Jesus Christ that his Name should be called the Word of God Rev. 19. 13. And thirdly whereas you demand to whom was the Scripture the Rule of Life We answer to all the People of God to whom they were given Deut. 4. 8. and 5 31 32. Mat. 5. 6. 7. chap. Rom. 12. All which containeth Rules and Directions for Christians to walk by but it is the character of wicked men that they cast the Law of God behind their backs And thus we have proved every tittle you are charged with in your Admonition to be true and clear so that we are no liars
godly men I did sometimes hear expressions to this effect That there was a two-fold coming of the Spirit of Christ into the hearts of Believers The first was that by which the eyes of mens understandings are opened and they turned from darkness to light Faith and Repentance wrought in the Soul conversion regeneration or the new birth effected and so he that was once a dead sinner becomes a living Saint or Believer though as yet but weak a babe in Christ c. The Second work or coming of the Spirit is that by which the Soul is sealed confirmed established filled with joy and peace in believing and fitted and furnished to every good work that God calls them whether doing or suffering c. Now this put me upon the search of the Scripture as first Ephes 1. 13. After you believed you were sealed which Scripture relates to that Acts 19. 2. Have you received the holy Spirit since you believed c. So Acts 8. 14. to 17. Samaria having received the Word of God and believed in the Lord Jesus Christ were baptized by Philip the Deacon the Church at Jerusalem or rather the Apostles sent forth Peter and John that they should pray that they might receive the holy Ghost for as yet he was not fallen upon any of them c. Another Scripture I find Joh. 7. 37 38 39. In the last day the great day of the feast Jesus stood and cryed saying If any man thirst let him come unto me and drink he that believeth on me as the Scripture hath said out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water but this spake he of the Spirit which they that believe on him should receive for the holy Ghost was not yet given because that Jesus was not yet glorified So Luke 11. 9. to 13. such as God is a Father unto are bid to pray to ask to seek and to knock c. with assurance by many Arguments that they should receive the holy Spirit So in the 14 15 16 Chapters of John our Saviour speaking to such as did believe in him love him and keep his Commandments c. he promiseth to send the Comforter unto them even the holy Spirit which the world could not receive c and to this agree many of the Prophecies both in Isa Jer. Ezek. Joel Zach. and others Now then as to the first work or coming of the Spirit namely to make a man to become a Saint a Christian a Believer a new Creature c. I never denied but alwayes affirmed that whosoever did believe in the Lord Jesus Christ or had the least beginning of a work of Grace in their Souls it was by the Spirit of God and they had the Spirit of Christ in the first sense according to Rom. 8. 9. now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his c. But in the second or latter sense namely to seal stablish fill with joy and comfort c. with many other glorious effects which the Scripture speaks of and which the Saints in the primative times did enjoy in this sense I have often said that I did question Whether I then had or whether many others in the Church had received the Spirit and to this you did then assent c. And therefore I did often press it in the Church that we might pray more for that blessed Spirit according to the command and promise of Christ Luke 11. 9. 13. as before and this is that which I have often called the great legacie of the new Testament and as Jesus Christ was the great promise of the first or old Testament so this blessed Spirit is the great promise of the second or new Testament which all believers are to wait pray and long for as the believers under the first Testament were to wait and long for the Messiah and this was my meaning when I have sometimes said That a man may be a Christian a Believer a converted Soul or a babe in Christ and not as yet have received the Spirit I mean still in this latter sense in respect of sealing establishing c. yet I neither did nor do expect the Gift of tongues or working Miracles c. neither do I find that the great promise of the Spirit was principally to that end though that was accomplished by it when and how the Lord pleased as Heb. 2. 4. with divers miracles and gifts or distributions of the holy Ghost according to his own will but I find rather that the great promise of the Spirit is for such glorious ends as these c. 1. To open and reveal the hidden Mysteries of the kingdome of heaven as Matth. 13. 11. to you it is given to know the Mysteries of the kingdom of Heaven c. So 1 Cor. 2. 9. to the 14. we read that those things which the eyes of men as men have not seen neither can the natural man perceive yet God doth reveal by his Spirit c. So it is promised in John to lead and guide into all truth therefore Eph. 1. 17. the Apostle prayes for believers that they might receive the Spirit of wisdom and revelation c. 2. To comfort and chear up poor drooping believers filling them with all joy and peace consolation and refreshment which is one main end for which it is promised as in 14 15 16 Chapters of John to which agree many of the sayings of the Prophets c. 3. To heighten and strengthen the Saints with boldness courage constancy and resolution in their Spirits to do or to suffer for God as Acts 4 8. Then Peter filled with the Holy Ghost said c. so to the 19. vers So Acts 5. 41. And they rejoyced that they were counted worthy to suffer c. which thing neither they nor Peter could do a little before as Mark 14. 50 66 to 71. But observe they had not then received the Spirit so Acts 16. 25. Paul and Silas sang in prison 4. To purge and purifie clense and sanctifie believers and make them holy as Isa 4. 3 4. so Ezek. 36. 25. to 29. Joel 3. 17. then shall Jerusalem be holy that is when the Mountains shall drop new wine and the hills flow with milk as vers 18. And the fountain come forth of the house of the Lord to water the valley of Shittim 5. To make poor dry barren empty souls to become fruitful to God and to grow in grace Isa 32. 5. until the Spirit be poured from on high and the wilderness become a fruitful field Isa 44. 3 4. I will pour my Spirt upon thy seed c. and they shall spring up c. so Hos 14. 5. I will be as the dew unto Israel and he shall grow c. 6. To fill the Saints with meekness and love yea with end cared love towards Christ and bowels of pity towards men as we see it was with the Saints in the primitive times but is much wanting now 7. To unite
And when I had spoken these words I went from her and she went her way and never was questioned nor punished for any of these abuses and those words I spake but once to her and this was all I did and the occasion of it upon which you build your great structure concluding that I am no Minister of the Gospel but a Persecutor of the truth c. as in your large Letter to me thereupon you declared and that now in the title page of your Pamphlet you proclaim to the Nation c. but I wish you lay a better foundation for your other buildings lest you prove a foolish builder Now I would ask you a few sober Questions First How comes it to pass that you can stile Sarah Latchet a Servant of Jesus and publish her so to the world who is an Apostate and an Excommunicate person going on in such a rayling reviling fierce manner as hath been now declared and as divers witnesses can prove whereas there are many pretious Servants of Jesus and Saints of the most High now living in England and Bristol that have been known to walk with God for many years in uprightness their foot having held its steps and not declined from the good wayes of the Lord neither gone back from the Commandments of his lips but have esteemed his words before their appointed food and have stood fast in the worst of Times and sorest of Tryals c. and yet they must be censured judged condemned and cryed out against by you as if they were the vilest Persons on earth and all because they cannot close in with you and your way c. Secondly How durst you in your Conscience say That those raylings revilings cursings and lies c. which she uttered are a testifying from the Lord Do you not blush to name or write such a word Will Jehovah the great and glorious God of Heaven and Earth ever own such raylings revilings c. to be a testifying from him Or will he ever justifie you in what you have here written and published to the world O be ashamed and confounded poor deceived man Thirdly How will you bring both ends of your Parallel together you endeavour in your Letter to parallel Sarah Latchet with Paul and Sarah Latchet 's sufferings with Paul 's sufferings and me with Paul 's Persecutors Now then let me a little examine your Parallel 1. Paul the Apostle of Jesus Christ having received a Commission from heaven doth accordingly preach and publish the glorious Gospel of the grace mercy and love of God in Christ to poor sinners and likewise sets forth the Lord Jesus in his person virtues and offices inviting and beseeching with all love and tenderness those where ever he came to receive this grace and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ c. And Sarah Latchet comes forth rayling reviling cursing c. Ergo Sarah Latchet and Paul are alike 2. After Paul had with meekness and love tendred the grace of God and the person and vertues of Jesus Christ the Saviour as before some did rise up against him beat him stone him imprison him and whip him so that five times he received forty strips save one with many other fore and cruel abuses as you mention in your Letter out of 2 Cor. 1. c. And Sarah Latchet after she had rayled reviled and pronounced curses against people it was said to her It were fitter such an idle Huswife were sent to Bridwel Ergo Sarah Latchets sufferings and Pauls sufferings are both alike c. 3. Pauls Persecutors after they had heard the pretions glad-tydings of the Gospel and the report of Jesus Christ made unto them as before did actually take and cruelly beat stone whip and imprison Paul c. And I after I had been revised rayled upon c. said of Sarah Latchet it were fitter she were whipt and sent to Bridwel Ergo Pauls Persecutors and I were both alike and under the same condemnation c. Is this good Logick May not all that read your lines read your folly c. But to go on Fourthly Will you ask your Conscience this question Did you not publish and set forth this thing to wit of my not being a Minister of the Gospel c. to lay me if you could under contempt and scorn both in the City and Nation though you know in what sence and upon what ground I had denyed the title and dignity of a Minister as I have before declared but you knowing that this was a nail that would go and therefore you strick here and was not this such another piece of envie and hypocrisie as poor Mris. Prince did manifest when she came to rayl at me and reproach me at my Lecture at Nicholas when in her Conscience she durst not object against any thing that was delivered though it were often put to her by me but instead thereof after much bitter revilings against me called to the People and bid them to beware of me for she had heard me say I had not the Spirit of God c. Now suppose this had been true That I had at any time uttered my complaint to her or any others in the sadness and bitterness of my soul when under temptation as the Lord knows what sad hours and dark dayes I have passed through since I came to Bristol though you and many others little observed it or enquired after it but suppose I say I had uttered my complaint to her as she and many others have done to me was it a Christian-like part in her to publish this in the face of a Congregation many of which might be apt enough to take up a prejudice against me c. would you or she or any other think it either honesty christianity ingenuity civility or humanity in me if I should publish to the world what you or she or they have at any time uttred to me as a matter of grief burden trouble sadness affliction or temptation that lay upon your or their spirits now both you and she also knew full well the sad complaints of my soul under the sense of my own weakness the fore and terrible temptations that I encountred with the greatness and weightiness of my work the many eyes that were upon me and the great dishonour that would have come to the name of Christ if I should have miscarried in my work which made me to see the necessity and prize the excellency and long for the supplies of the Spirit of Christ and often to complain of that small measure I apprehend I had of it c. But Secondly Both you and she and some others know in your Consciences that there was another ground upon which and another sense in which I had sometimes questioned whether I and many other Christians had yet received the Spirit which for the Readers information end my own vindication I shall now declare When I lived in London and sate under the Ministry of some choice
the Saints more together in judgement and affection into one heart and one way as the Scripture speaks 8. To make them more exact and spiritual in the use and practise of all Gospel Ordinances as Acts 2. 41. to 47. 9. To beautifie and adorn Christians with every spiritual gift and grace as Gall. 5. 22. Ezek 16. 10 11 12 13. 10. To fill them with a mighty Spirit of Faith and Prayer as the Saints in the primitive times after the pouring forth of the Spirit had In a word it is a Christians All for by it he can do all things as Phil. 1. 19. 4. 13. and without it he can do nothing well as John 15. 5. Without me ye can do nothing And thus I have declared my judgment fully about this blessed truth and what I mean by the pouring forth of the glorious Spirit which I so often mention in prayer and preaching as the great legacy privilege and portion of the Saints or believers in the New Testament c. Now then let me ask you this Question Whether it had not been better for you and those that are gone away with you that you had set your selves solemnly to seek the Lord by Supplication and Prayer and so have continued in the wayes and under the Ordinances of Christ waiting for that blessed spirit as many of the Servants of God have done and still do c. rather than to have taken up a Notion of a Light in every man and call that the eternal Spirit as some of your way do and then jeer and scoff at them that pray for the Spirit and reproach them which complain out of their sense of the want of it as poor Mris. Prince did when she came to revile me at my Lecture c. But blessed be the Lord there are many Churches in England and Wales that are now wrestling with the Lord day after day joyntly and day and night singly in the deep sense of their wants for the accomplishment of that glorious new-Testament promise and such an Answer is already given to some both Independant and Baptized as you call them that they have no cause to repent of the time they have set apart for that work and I verily believe That if the people whom you and others so much despise go on and continue praying as now they do for the pouring forth of the blessed Spirit there will shortly be such a breaking forth of the day of Christ that all the antichristian foggs of false doctrins and false worships will flie and fall as the darkness before the rising Sun And Oh that some men in England and Bristol that are now wrangling and quarrelling about their humane learning and scoffing and envying those that have it not would seriously consider this thing before their lamp go out in obscurity and their feet stumble upon the dark mountains before their arm be dried up and their eye utterly darkned c. Now before I part with this I will also clear my self about another expression that I have sometimes used and at which many have been offended and that is about an old and a new Testament Spirit though of late to avoid offence have forbore it now by those expressions I did not mean nor intend the Spirit of God so as to call that an old Testament Spirit for I know that Spirit was one and the same from everlasting but by an old or new-Testament Spirit 1. I mean the frame and temper of a mans own Spirit and so by an old-Testament Spirit I alwayes mean that dark weak childish and low frame and temper of Spirit which professors generally had in the time of the old Testament while under the Mosaical administration with that bondage and fear that weakness and sadness that did accompany it c. 2. By a new-Testament Spirit I alwayes mean that lively chearful active joyful bold son-like frame and temper of Spirit which the Saints generally in the primitive times under the new Testament did enjoy which is called a Spirit of Adoption as the other is called a Spirit of Bondage a full description of what I mean is set forth in two Scriptures as namely Gal. 4. from the 1. to the 7. and Heb. 12. from 18 to 24. In which two Scriptures is set forth First The weakness darkness childishness fear bondage c. of the old-Testament state which is that that I call the frame temper or spirit of the old-Testament And Secondly There is set forth the light life strength boldness comfort courage joy rejoycing of the new-Testament state which is that that I call the frame temper or Spirit of the new Testament c. And whether Christians be not generally more under the old-Testament frame than under the new I leave to their experiences and thus I have fully declared my self as to these two particulars and if any sober Christian into whose hands this may come shall apprehend that I am mistaken in either of them I shall be glad to receive a word from them in love but I do not expect it from you to whom I now write c. You farther tell me in your Letter that you were warned from invisible lights some months past to beware of me which you could not believe till now it breaks out like fire c. I conceive those invisible lights were some secret whisperers that did bring you many stories both of me and others c. but truly I could discern by visible light long before you left us that my speaking was but little acceptable to you and some others especially after I did begin to oppose your spleen and passion though whilst I sate still and silently approved of what you spake then I was the excellentest man that ever you met with you would often both to my face and behind my back applaud and extol me but when once I began a little to cross you as many others of the Brethren did and as some godly men had formerly done as they saw cause enough then you and your partie began to fume and fret and as it was often observed to go out of the Meetings when I had been to speak though I did oppose you with all the tenderness that possibly I could as knowing what a partie you had in the Church and what influence you had upon them but now you say the fruits doth appear and break out like fire c. Q. And what is it But that I should say That such an idle Huswife as is before mentioned should be sent to Bridwel rather than to go rayling about as she did Now I appeal to all Christians upon the face of the earth what hurt this was to this poor rayling cursing fierce creature c. Q. And was this the ground upon which some of your company spread it about the Country and place of my nativity what a persecutor I was become so that the good people there that had known me to be of another temper did wonder
done with the substance of your Letter I intend to add a short word to the ensuing part of your Book but I shall first make a little digression by joyning an occasional word to what I have now written c. I shall desire you to Consider Whether you are not by this act of yours in publishing me thus to the world tickled the hearts and pleased the fancies of many who were full enough of prejudice against me before nay are you not joyned as a Brother in bitterness with him that wrote the late Book called Satan Enthroned in his chair of Pestilence Let any judicious Christian compare your Book with the latter part of his and see whether those two bitter streams do not both arise from one corrupt fountain namely the Spirit that is from beneath may not I return your own words upon you which you unjustly charge upon me and this Church from Obediah 11 Thou wast like one of them c. and is this the kindness of a friend or the part of a brother O how truly are those Scriptures fulfilled in you Mic. 7. 5. Trust ye not in a friend c. Jer. 9. 4. Take ye heed c. for every brother will utterly supplant and every neighbour will walk with slanders You had written your Letter to me about a year ago and if you had known ought by me you might have written more but for you now to publish it to the world and to proclaim it in your Frontispiece and that in such a subtile manner that he that reads your title page and my name would verily think if they did not know otherwise that I were some dreadful persecutor and that I had caused some Servant of Christ to be whipt and punished but I trust the Lord will look upon my wrong and your envie my innocency and your hypocrisies c. but I know it is in vain to write farther to you and truly had it not been for the vindication of the truth and satisfact on of some poor souls in this City and Nation I should have cast your Book and the other mans Book aside and never have troubled my self to have answered you or him but since it is so that both your Books are spread abroad and read by many at which some are grieved others staggered and people generally apt to conclude that things are so as he and you have said because I am silent and say nothing as I remember it was with me once before when a publick Scandal was raised and cast upon me at my first coming to Bristol which the Lord knew and I in my own Conscience knew I was as innocent in as any man or child under heaven and therefore sate still about half a year resolving my innocency should answer for me c. which made many conclude I was guilty because I was silent till at length I was forced to seek a publick Vindication by the Magistrate which I had and then the mouths of bad people were stopped and the minds of good people satisfied So I conceive it might be now if I were wholly silent as to what you and he do write though indeed I had resolved silence and to have given you and him and others leave to have trampled upon me and were I in a private capacity I think I should do so but forasmuch as the Lord hath set me as a publick instrument in his work and that that which you and he have written of me tends much to the defaming of me and the hindrance of my work by laying stumbling blocks of prejudice into the minds of people against me I therefore think my self bound for the truths sake and for the sake of some good people in this City being thereunto also advised and perswaded by godly friends to set forth a few words of truth and soberness both to your Book and his And I desire that neither you nor he will be offended that I joyn you both together in this my Answer for first you are much alike Brethren in bitterness against the people called Independants and Baptized as may be seen throughout your Book and in the latter part of his Secondly I find that he hath often joyned you with me therefore I think it not improper to coupple him with you and I hope that neither your friends nor his will look upon my so doing as any disparagment to you or him Yet I must needs say in some things he is more modest than you in that he doth not name me as you often do though in some things you are more serious than he in that you do not 〈◊〉 as he often doth but both you and he have done what you could to lay me under contempt and scorn to the whole City and Nation and therefore I shall now address my self to answer some few passages in his Book though not for your information but for my own Vindication and for publick and general satisfaction c. And first in the 48 page of that his Book called Satan enthroned in his Chair of Pestilence c. he tells a story how they meaning the Church in Bristol send for a Taylor out of Wales to be their Teacher c. in which he deals very dis-ingeniously for first he knew that I was sent for by the Major of the City some Aldermen many of the Council and other Gentlemen and Commissioners of the City of Bristol which I take to be the Representative of the City c. As likewise I was sent for by many of the godly inhabitants as I have elsewhere declared and that not only to be a Teacher in the Church of Bristol but to be a publick Preacher of the Gospel in the City as I have through the help and grace of Christ hitherto continued and he himself at my first coming gave me the right hand of fellowship and professed he was satisfied in my Call But secondly I was no more a Taylor in Wales than he was any of his former Callings after he came to Bristol For when I was called to Preach the Gospel in Wales I left my former Employment as he did leave his several Callings when he took to Preaching the next thing concerning me in his Book is page 50. where he mentioneth a great Woman that had three Children unbaptized the truth of which I shall relate by which the falseness of his Relation will appear c. There was about the time of my coming first to Bristol a godly woman one at whose Husbands house the Church did often use to meet she having been delivered of a Child did about a month after desire the Church to meet at her house to render praise to the Lord and to spend some time in Prayer and conference c. accordingly the Elder that then was did upon the first day of the week appoint that the next Meeting should be at such a place to such an end now when the Church was met she desired that her Children might also
that blessed Spirit of the Lord Jesus in any of its Offices operations effects or different administrations in and among the People or Church of God I say I should advise them to take heed lest when God sets the solitary in families the rebellious dwell in a dry land and whilst some are like trees planted by the waters never ceasing to yeild their fruit others be like the Heath in the Desart that should not see when God cometh but inhabite the parched places in the wilderness For all the Trees of the field shall know that the Lord can bring down the high Tree and exalt the low Tree he can dry up the green Tree and make the dry Tree to flourish yea and by the pouring forth of the Spirit from on high can make the Wilderness become a fruitful Field and the fruitful Field to be counted for a Forrest as Ezek. 17. 24. Isa 32. 15. He layes it upon some as a reproach page 62. That we teach by the Spirit c. I desire humbly to acknowledge and attribute it unto the blessed Spirit of Christ that I have at any time been or now am enabled in any measure to speak or publish any truth of God either to the conversion of sinners or to the edification or consolation of the Saints and People of God and truly if this man do not lean and depend upon the help of the Spirit in his work of preaching I shall not much wonder if his Ministry prove as I have sometimes said or feared many mens have done as a miscarrying Womb and dry breasts notwithstanding all their great learning of which they seem to boast He further demands page 62. whether all that have the Spirit can teach publickly c. First if by teaching publickly he mean preaching and publishing what God hath done for them and likewise declaring to others what the Lord hath taught them c. Then I answer it is the duty of all Christians so to do 1 Pet. 4. 10. As every man hath received the gift so let him minister the same c. as Eldad and Medad did Numb 11. though one man envitd and another complained as some do now yet Moses the man of God he approved of it c. But secondly if by preaching publickly he mean a publick and solemn undertaking the work of preaching c. Then I answer I do not think that every one that hath the Spirit of Christ in him or the work of grace in his soul is fit to be a publick Preacher for there are diversities of gifts and differences of administrations as appears 1 Cor. 12. 4. to the 11. Yet where the Spirit of God hath fitted any and the People of God that know them well do see them fit and judge them fit and approve of them publickly calling them thereunto these may be fit to teach publickly at lest to their own Nation as the 70 Disciples were Luke 10. 1. though they had no gifts of Tongues as we read of no more than the twelve Apostles had during the time of their preaching to their own Nation before the Assention of Christ and that they were to preach to all Nations according to their second Commission Matt. 28. Mark 16. yet I do not in the least slight despise or undervalue learning nor learned men that have grace with it and do not scornfully trample upon them that want it but to say that no man may preach without it is to make a law where Christ hath made none for the seventy Disciples and twelve Apostles did preach long before the day of Pentecost c. He likewise demands who will step forth and tell him and not lie that the Spirit doth teach them to understand the meaning of the word Justification or Adoption c. I answer if none but such as can speak Greek and Latin can understand what Justification and Adoption is c. how then can any that have not Greek or Latin believe they are justified or adopted seeing that it is another Maxim in the Schools that no man can believe more than he doth understand But surely those Souls that have been first enlightened by the Word and Spirit of Christ to see and know their lost condition while under sense of condemnation and hath also been led by the same Spirit through the Word of grace to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ with all ther hearts and by his pretious blood to see themselves freed from condemnation and in his righteousness to be made righteous aod so to find the comfort of it in some measure in their own souls they can speak of it to the praise of God and to the edification of others and that by the help and assistance of the same blessed Spirit yea perhaps more sensibly feelingly plainly and profitably than the most learned Doctor in the world that knows it onely speculatively by learning reading and studying As for that scornful word unlettered which he doth so often use and cast as a reproach upon some men c. I answer truly some of us do know our Letters as well and can put them together into Syllables and Sentences as right and pronounce them as distinct and plain perhaps as himself but I shall not ad to this onely conclude with Prov. 3. 34. Surely the Lord scorneth the scorner and giveth grace to the lowly And I desire seriously to weigh and to commend to all sober Christians those words of the Apostle 1 Cor. 1. from 19. to 29. and Chap. 2. from 1. to 15. and Chap. 3. 18 19 20. by all which it appears the great Apostle of Christ was of another mind than this man seems to be He demands page 65. what an unlettered Teacher or Ignoramus would say if he were to discourse with a Papist or an Adversary about Justification c. Truly I would say this if any should out of pride curiosity and vain confidence run without a call to discourse with an Adversary Papists or others about that or any other point of Christianity c. he might expect that the Lord might justly leave him to himself and so he might betray or shame the truth and so might it be with the most learned Teacher in the world But secondly if a godly man were providentially or clearly called to maintain or defend that or any other truth of God against an Adversary Papist or others he going in the fear of the Lord and in a sense of self-insufficiency in faith and hope of the presence and assistance of the grace and Spirit of Christ he might expect according to his promise Matt. 10. 9. Take no thought for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak And verse 20. For it is not ye which speak but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you And how truly was this fulfilled in the Martyrs both in plain Country-men and also Women yea young Youths and Mayds who discoursing about points of Christian Religion
hath been since laid aside for scandall and insufficiency by other Committees and Commissioners appointed for that purpose yet I think England hath cause enough still to mourn for complain of and pray against a great part of the Ministery thereof I do not speak this of all nor intend it to all for I doubt not to affirm against the Quakers that God hath many pretious servants in the Ministery both among those called Presbyterians and them called Independents and the Baptized and some that are of or under none of these names yea both learned and unlearned c. who yet are faithfull to the Lord Jesus and do prefer the conversion and salvation of pretious souls before all the treasures in the world and who do rejoyce to see that work of God carried on by any either learned or unlearned as men now speak and I trust that as the Lord who holds the Stars in his right hand will establish such So the time is near when men shall not wear a rough garment or a propheticall garb to deceive but that the false Prophets and unclean spirits shall pass out of the Land and that God will raise up and give Pastors according to his own heart for faithful is he that hath promised who also will do it And whereas he saith page 68. That you shall know them to wit the ignorant and unlettered Ministers by this Badge or Character they are separating factious and schismaticall c. I remember these were words much in use and cast as brands upon the godly people called Puritans by the Bishops and their Clergie about 20 or 30 years agoe and how it comes to pass that these words are taken up again I know not unless it be that the same spirit that was in the Bishops and their Clergy is again revived and if so then they in whom it is had best take heed that they apply those Nicknames righter than the former did lest c. But I shall give another Badge or Character of those that I mean and that is you shall alwayes know them by their pride envy and covetousness or their scorning reviling and persecuting all those that differ from them and therefore as he commends the caution and counsel of the Apostle Rom. 16. 17. 18. So shall I make bold humbly to recommend the caution and counsel of our Lord Jesus Christ Matth. 7. 15 16. Beware of false Prophets c. for by their fruits you shall know them I do not speak this of any godly man or men for I know no godly men can do so as above Now for his closing word to the Ministers that are lawfully called c. if by lawfully called he mean Pastors or Elders called chosen constituted ordained and appointed to office in Churches and by Churches according to the New Testament and according to the example and practice of the Churches of Christ both in New England and Old then I freely close with him therein for such a Calling and Ordination I own and plead for according to Scripture But if by Ministers lawfully called he mean all the Parish Ministers in England or Bristoll as such then I cannot but wonder how any man pretending to godliness durst so to abuse that pretious Scripture Acts 20. 28. and how he will be able to prove that Parishes are such Churches and that all Parish Ministers are such and by the holy Ghost made Overseers in the sense of that Scripture for my own part I must be silent and so I think might he well have been It is true the 29. verse may in a sense be rightly applied to some men in England that call themselves Ministers who since the Apostles times and the apostasie that followed have like grievous Wolves entred in not sparing the flock c. I write not this of nor intend it to any godly man of any judgement whatsoever But as for the rest of his jerks jeers quibles scoffs derisions reproches and untruths which he hath cast upon me with all the injury and wrong that he hath thereby done to me I shall lay it at my feet looking upon it as the fruits of a froathy brain and the products of a spleenish temper and shall not bestow a pen full of ink or one minutes time to answer it but do rather in my heart wish and desire that he may so repent of this piece of folly and wretchedness whereby he hath hardened the hearts and opened the mouthes of many against me that it may do his soul no more hurt another day than it doth me at present in the mean time I resolve to sit down in silence as to him c. And now I return again to you Dennâ—â— Hollister to close up my answer to your Book and I cannot but take notice as many others do of your shamefull abusing that pretious upright servant of Jesus Christ Robert Simson though I suppose he will clear himself or at least his innocency will answer for him and stop your mouth another day In the mean time I cannot but bear a testimony of his integrity and your impudency in that you do so fiercely and faisly charge him to be a lyar whereas I can testifie that the thing was true which he as messenger of the Church did admonish you of namely that you should say that the Scripture was a blind and plague to Souls which thing you did speak at a publick meeting in your own house as I doubt not but there are more than twenty persons some of the Church and others not of the Church who can also testifie the same Whether your meaning was then as now you write pag. 18 19. I shall not dispute but that you did speak those words is true and no lye invented nor lye prosecuted c. Therefore if there be any lyar in this thing you are the lyar yet I durst nor judge you to the Lake but rather pray hope that God may shew a miracle of mercy in saying you from it and do advise you to take heed how you throw them into the Lake or under condemnation whom Jesus Christ hath by his pretious blood and perfect righteousness graciously freed from it And as for the sin of lying you will do well to east the beam out of your own eye c. For Robert Simpson is a man as well known in Bristoll to be a truth speaker and a just upright conscientious dealer as any of those that do accuse him I shall say no more but let every man prove his own work Gal. 6. 4. But passing by many of those impertinencies in your book I find that after your letter to me there is an answer to 16. Queries formerly sent to you or to the people called Quakers and afterwards printed by that pretious servant of Christ John Pendarves before his death I might commend your wit in putting forth your answer after the man is dead Secondly I observe that these sixteen Queries have been once answered in a fashion
a Christian but as for your ends in so publishing I shall leave to him by whom Actions and Spirits are weighed who will preserve the faithful and plentifully reward the proud doer I shall therefore with all plainness soberness and faithfulness declare both unto your self and also to the world upon what grounds and in what sense I have sometimes denied to be called Minister though I never denied my self a Preacher of the Gospel But the first ground upon which I denied the title of Minister was this When you with many others as I shall farther shew had prevailed with me to come to Bristol I gave it under my Hand to the Mayor Aldermen and Commissioners That I should not come as a Parish Minister to take any Parochial Charge upon me but rather as a Publike Preacher of the Gospel in the City by way of Lecture and so I have sometimes by word sometimes by writing as I had occasion denied my self to be a Minister of any Parish in Bristol so that I never did nor I hope never shall own my self a Minister of any Parish c. so that this is the first ground and this you know in your Conscience to be true and that I did it in tenderness of Conscience though now you make it matter of reproach Secondly I have sometimes as it is like in your hearing and some others denied my self a Minister in Office I having not then been Called Constituted or Ordained to any Office in any Church otherwise than by the unanimous Consent Approbation and Request of this Church of Bristol to serve them in the Lord as that other godly man who left the City at my coming hither had done before me I alwayes distinguishing between a Person sent forth to preach the Gospel to the World and a Person Called set apart and Ordained to Office in a Church whether this distinction were right or no I shall not now dispute but this was your judgement then and therefore in this you deal unworthily in publishing this to the world to my reproach whereas you know in your Conscience that I never denied my self to be a Preacher of the Gospel nor a Minister or Servant to this Church but only that I was not a Minister by Office at least by an actual and solemn Ordination Thirdly There is yet another ground as the Lord only who is the searcher of hearts knows upon which I have often put off that honour and dignity when you and others have put that stile or title upon me my heart hath secretly answered What am I that I should be called so I being a poor inconsiderable worm the least in my fathers house which have often brought those words to my mind Amos 7. 14 I was no Prophet neither the Son of a Prophet c. and this did arise from the sense I had of the honour and dignity weight and excellency of that high Calling and the great unworthiness and unfitness that I saw in my self of so glorious an employment and this also I am perswaded you know in your Conscience that I have often hinted unto you in private discourse and when you have spoken of me and to me more indeed than was fit for any wise man to speak to the face of any Christian namely what God had done in Bristol by me since I came hither c. But that I have been and am through the grace of Christ though the unworthiest upon earth yet a Preacher and publisher of the glorious Gospel of the grace of God both in Wales and now in Bristol I have no need to seek a proof of you nor of any other man I having had First The approbation and recommendation of a Church of judicious Saints in London where I had been for some time a Member and unto whom my Principles as to matters of Religion my Gift as to the work of Preaching and my manner of life was well known Secondly I having been solemnly sent forth by a Church of Christ in Wales with Prayer and Supplication recommending me to the Work and Grace of God appointing me to Preach the Gospel in Wales where though I was accompanied with manifold weaknesses and temptations yet the Lord was pleased to give me some Seal of my Ministry the lawfulness of which Call and sending forth to my work of Preaching I could sufficiently prove both from Scripture and from the practises of the Churches of Christ but of that more hereafter Now having continued Preaching in Wales about the space of three years it came to pass that some Overtures were made by the people of this City for my coming hither and your self with a Minister then of this City came as Messengers to treat with the Church of Lannachas in Wales to spare me to this place which though at first they denied yet the importunity of many here and as some have said the incessancy of Prayer prevailed so that that Church did consent that I should come and ordered that a Letter should be written to acquaint the City and Commissioners That if they could prevail with me I should come unto them c. Whereupon as you know there was two Letters sent unto me the one from the City signed by the then Major some Aldermen one of which was then a Parliament man with divers others of the Council and Commissioners of the City of Bristol your self being then one Some of the words of which Letter I shall here insert c. We being met together to consider and advise of able and godly men to Preach the Gospel in Bristol and having experience and much assurance of your faithfulness and sufficiency for that Work do desire you Sir that you will please to come unto us And they adding farther their care of my maintainance c. Another large Letter I then received from divers godly people the inhabitants of the City some of which words I shall also here insert Dearly beloved since after much waiting upon the Lord the hearts of the People generally throughout the City is so much set upon you desiring to enjoy you in the service of the Gospel c. And since our Motion formerly made by our Messengers hath been so much prospered by the Lord in the hearts of our Brethren there c. We do therefore earnestly and very seriously beseech you in the Name of our Lord Jesus that you will with all convenient speed come to Bristol and help us c. Upon the receipt of which two Letters and some advise had with godly friends I resolved in the strength and garce of Christ That I would come though I had much fear and trembling in my own heart from the apprehension I had of the greatness of the Work of Christ in Bristol and the insufficiency I saw in my self so that it was not Riches nor Honours that drew me hither but meer Conscience and Obedience to that Call which I judged was of and from the Lord the thing having never been
sought or desired by me which hath much supported my Spirit under many tryals and temptations which I have met with since But all this is little in comparison of what I have yet through grace farther to speak and that is That the Lord hath been pleased through his goodness to own me in my Work so that though I am the unworthiest in the world yet I trust I may say with a holy reverence and humble boldness that my record is on high and that God hath given me a seal of my Ministry in Bristol there being many Souls in this City that lay weltring in their bloud of ignorance and ungodliness when I came hither that are now through the riches of grace made living and pretious stones and are able to give to any man that shall ask them a clear account of the time when the place where the manner how and the word and instrument by which the Lord was pleased to turn their Souls unto himself several of which are since received into this Church and though they seem contemptible now in your eyes and in the eyes of some others yet I have good ground to believe that they are pretious in the sight of the Lord Jesus and will be found in him at his appearance Likewise I doubt not but I have a testimony in your conscience though now it seem obliterated that you have found by experience that Christ was with me in my Work and I am sure I have often heard it from your mouth if that were worth any thing c. But I trust there are hundreds in Bristol that can say That the Lord hath been and still is with my Ministry quickning comforting teaching and refreshing their Souls however you and others make it your work to traduce and reproach me casting contempt upon me to weaken my hands and sadden my Spirit and what in you and them lyeth to discourage and take off people from hearing of me you saying to one in this City That I Preach the Doctrine of Devils c. And to another That I do wors hurt to your Way than all the Preachers in Bristol Others cry me down as an Vsurper Vncalled Vnlearned Ignoramus c. And another in his late Book loads me with Scoffs Jeers 〈◊〉 c. which makes me wonder That you and they which are so different in other things yet can all agree to cast stones at me and discouragements upon me who never intended them or you any hurt c. But through grace I find this by experience That all your and their labour as to this particular is in vain for the more you and they strive to beat me down and to cast me out of the hearts of the people the more room the Lord gives me in them and the more prosperous and successful I trust and some think my work is among them through the help grace and goodness of my dear Lord Jesus I write this with lowliness and humility without boasting or vanity to the praise of God and to the stoping the mouth of envie c. It is true I am no Preacher of that thing which you and some of your way call the Gospel namely To bid every man turn to a Light within him neither did I ever read or hear that any of the Prophets Apostles or holy men of God did preach such a Gospel c. But that Gospel of good newes and glad tydings which Jesus Christ gives commission and commanded to be published and preached to all Nations and to every creature that Gospel I preach and you have sometimes born witness to me therein though now your testimony be vailed even the Gospel of the grace of God as Acts 20. 24. wherein the everlasting love grace and good-will of God in Christ is freely published and declared to poor lost and one sinners and the way to eternal life by Jesus Christ through Faith in his bloud and righteousness c. this Gospel I preach pressing all that receive it to give up themselves to Christ in love and obedience according to the scope and tenor of the Gospel But the great Argument by which you would prove me to be no Minister of the Gospel is my speaking as you say in the second branch of your title page of having Sarah Latchet whipt and sent to Bridwel c. Now that the Reader may be informed and you if possible convinced of your weakness and folly in publishing this thing I shall here faithfully relate the truth of that story This Sarah Latchet was sometime a Member with the Baptized people in Bristol but Apostatizing from them was Excommunicated by them and so doth seem to have the greater hatred to and rage against the truth wayes and people of Christ this Sarah Latchet being one of the fiercest sort of the people who call themselves Quakers hath come several times to disturbe us in our Meetings I shall mention three times especially First Once in the publick Place after Sermon was done she fell a rayling at me as their manner is with fierce and cruel words at which time she was only turned out of the place and nothing done to her Secondly Another time the Church being assembled to break Bread and to celebrate the Lords Supper this Sarah Latchet came into the place I having spoken to the Church a word of Exhortation in reference to that Ordinance and addressing my self to administer it to the Church this Sarah Latchet came rushing up towards the Table and in the face of me with a loud shrill voice began thus O thou deceiver the plagues of the eternal God c. I spake not a word to her but desired the Church to be still in their spirits and to mind the work in hand one of our Brethren stept forth and took her by the arm and led her to the door and put her forth and this was all the hurt she had at that time Thirdly Another time the Church being assembled at the usual time and place of Meeting one of our Brethren being in Prayer as soon as ever he had done she being present in the room did again with a loud shrill voice begin thus The Prayers of the wicked are abomination to the Lord c. and so ran on a long time with railing menacing dreadful expressions wher upon I did endeavour to stop her by casting in some words but it would not be she still continued to heap up and threaten plagues and judgements against us then I went near thinking to speak a word to her but she let flee at me with a multitude of rayling reviling terms such as they use to give to the Ministers of the Nation and that in such a fierce and furious manner as hardly any Scould in the street could parrallel whereupon I spake these words or to this effect That it were fitter such an idle Huswife as she was should be whipt and sent to Bridwel to work than to go about railing at people as she did