One is the Pope and his Clergy and who more erroneous The other is your selves even distracted with errour The Pope venteth abundance of falshoods in doctrine and corruptions in discipline and worship and with all these errors in his hands protesteth he is infallible The Quakers all that yet have wrote to me or spoke to me pour out the greatest abundance of most impudent Lies and spue their filthy railings in the faces of almost all they come near so that I know not whether ever the Sun saw a more hardened shamelesse abominable Generation then they with their brethren the Ranters are and yet with all this filth upon their lips they confidently professe that they are infallible and without sin You may well excuse us that we be not hasty in beleeving you till we see more reason for it Your 13th Qu. is What is Hels month that the wicked go in at c. I answer 1. You are liker to know ere long then I If a miracle of grace save you not you 'le be better able to answer this Query then yet your unbelief will give you leave 2. It sufficeth me to know that Hell is a state of endlesse misery where such as you shall everlastingly bear the effects of Gods wrath and justice with the devils and his Angels that now seduce you if timely recovery prevent it not Your 14th Qu. is Whether the Bible be the Word of God and Matthew Mark Luke and John be the Gospel and whether there were any Gospel before them and whether they be the light To which I answer 1. Only Jesus Christ is the co-essentiall co-eternal Word of the Father being one with the Father 2. But the holy Scriptures are the temporal expressed Word that is the signs of Gods minde to man so that Christ and the Scriptures are nor called the Word in the same sense no more then is the Word of a mans minde and the word of his mouth or pen This signifying word was preached before it was written and then was the Gospel but it was written after it was so preached at first that it might be a standing Rule and might be kept intire and sure to the Church to the worlds end For the bare memories of men would not have kept them for us with such certainty as they have been kept in Scripture and delivered unto us This Word therefore is the light but not as Christ is the light or as the Spirit is the light for there are many lights that must concurre to give us light It is a wise Question of him that shall ask Whether the light by which a man sees be the visive faculty of his eyes or the light of a Candle or the light in the air or the Sun Why it may be all these There must be 1. A Sun 2. A light from that Sun in the air 3. An inward light in the eyes 4. And that outward received by the inward before you can see So God in Christ is the Sun Mans Reason is the Eye The Gospel or Word of God is the external Light flowing to us from the Sun The Spirit closeth these two together even the Gospel and our Reason and by its powerful work in that closure breedeth a special illumination in the soul which the Word alone could not produce I shall adde some Queries to you 1. Do you beleeve the Scriptures to be true or not If you do then you must beleeve what they say of themselves But they call themselves the Word of God Mar. 7. 13. Rom. 10. 8. 2 Cor. 2. 17. 4. 2. 1 Thes. 4. 15. 1 Pet. 1. 25. And often they are called the Laws of God his Testimonies his Statutes his Precepts his Promises Gospel Covenants c. All Scripture is written by divine Inspiration 2 Tim. 3. 16. The word of Prophecy is a sure Word 2 Pet. 1. 19. 2. Will you give us leave to smell the Pope in your endeavours to disgrace the Scriptures though your own Noses be stopt For we have been used to deal with him at this weapon and know that this is the main point of his New Religion Your 15th Qu. is Whether we own Revelations or no Ans. I own all divine Revelations and disown all diabolicall ones so farre as I know them I own all those blessed Revelations contained in the holy Scriptures for they were infallibly sealed by multitudes of uncontrolled miracles and a spirit of holinesse I believe that the Scriptures or Laws of Christ being finished and sealed we must hold these till the coming of Christ 1 Tim. 6. 13 14. and that Christ will be with the Preachers of this same doctrine to the end of the world Mat. 28. 20 21. and that these are able to make men wise to salvation without any more additions and therefore no more is to be expected But yet I beleeve 1. That God hath not tied himself from revealing particular matters in subservierty to Scripture extraordinarily as divers murders have been revealed and the like matters of fact 2. And I beleeve that all true Christians have the illuminating sanctifying Spirit of Christ to help them to know all the meaning of the Scripture which is of flat necessity to salvation and more according to their several measures of the Spirit with other helps Your 16. Qu. is about Singing Davids Psalms To which I say Till you have considered what is already written on that Question by Mr Cotton and Mr Foard I know not why I should adde any more If all Scripture be written for our use and learning why may not we speak to God in the words of Davids Psalms as well as any other Scripture Tell me if you can And further Qu. 2. They being used by the Church till the Apostles times where do you finde that they did ever forbid or abolish that use Qu. 3. Whether is it more lawful for us to speak Gods praises in the words of holy Scripture and particularly of Davids Psalms or for you to rake together all the threatnings and sharp reproofs in Scripture to serve your turn to rail and slander me with Your 17. Qu. is What 's the soul of man which the Ministers of the Gospel are to watch for as they that must give an account to God and what is it that captivates the soul and what death is it that hath passed over all c. and what is the Serpents head that must be bruised Ans. Seeing I am fallen under your Catechizing I will readily obey 1. The soul is that spiritual substance which causeth by its lower power your life growth and nourishment by its next power your feeling and by its highest power proper to man of all inferiour Creatures your Reasoning Intellective knowledge and rationall willing and affections which together with the Body constituteth the whole man Supposing that you look not for a Definition because you so abhorre Logick I think this in brief may serve your turns 2. The whole man is oft called the
almost only of This Inward Light In which I perceived 1. That you falsly intimate that we deny the necessity of an inward light when as we maintain that the external light of the Word alone is not sufficient without the inward light of the Spirit 2. You there intimate to us a supposed sufficiency of the inward light that every man in the world hath Concerning which I shall say more anon and now only demand of you 1. Whether you mean it is sufficient to leave men without excuse That we maintain as well as you or is every mans light sufficient to his salvation If so Q. 2. Was it sufficient before Christ preached the Gospel and sent his Apostles Or is it now sufficient to all that never heard the Gospel If so Is not the Gospel a vain and needlesse thing or are you Christians that dare so affirm Q. 3. If the world have sufficient light what need they your teaching or discourse or conviction Q. 4. If all have sufficient light within them what need there any converting grace Q. 5. Then why did Christ send Paul to open mens eyes and to turn them from darknesse to light if they had sufficient light before Act. 26. 18. Q 6. I pray you do not disdain to tell me when you have rub'd your eyes if all men have sufficient light within them Why you got up into the Judgement seat and pronounced me so oft to be in darknesse and to be void of the light and to have none of the Spirit If all have it why may not I have it But let me tell you further in your ear that we that you so frantickly bawl against have read Bellarmine and other Papists so oft that we cannot be ignorant who are your Teachers though your selves are ignorant We know how earnestly the Jesuites would perswade us that there is a light in every mans conscience which if he improve and husband well God is bound to give such additions as shall make it become saving and that by the good use of natural light men may certainly get supernatural and that it is in mens own power what light soever they have to improve it to salvation Your 11th Query is Whether we have seen Gods face Ans. Whether these be Learning or Teaching or quarrelling or doting Questions I leave to your consideration but what Call you had to propound them to such Serpents Dogs and Children of the devil as you call us I know not But however I 'le answer you truly 1. By the eye of reason I have seen that there is a God and that he is infinite incomprehensible most great and most good c. 2. The same I have seen more cleerly by the eyes of faith 3. But I never saw God by the eye of flesh for none can so see God and live Nor hath any man seen God at any time saving the only begotten Son who is in the bosome of his Father he hath declared him 4. Nor have I seen him in glory intuitively or as the glorified in heaven do If you say you have seen more I shall not be very forward to beleeve you till I see better fruits of it I also therefore demand of you Whether he that hath seen God do not abhor himself as Iob did in dust and ashes and whether the true knowledge of God do not ever abase the soul and make a man very mean in his own eyes And then is it likely that ever those men had the true knowledge of God who make it their businesse to exalt themselves as having the Spirit and beign perfect without sin and to revile and bedung other men with their reproaches as being all the Children of the devil and of darknesse that be not of their strain and rave not as they do The Pharisee that thanked God he was not as other men nor as the Publicane spoke humbly and modestly in comparison of you and yet was he counted a proud self-justifier If ever you come to the least saving sight of God it will mightily change the proud strain of your spirits and make you abhor the thoughts of your present evil waies Your 12. Query is Whether we have the same infallible Spirit as the holy men of God had that spoke forth the Scriptures Ans. Why must you know this Are all Dogs and Serpents with you that have not that Infallible Spirit But we hear the croakings of your Papist guides in that word Infallible that's the pillar of their Kingdom and the master-point of their New Religion That their Church is infallible For denying which Knot the Jesuite against Chillingworth and a late â—otable gawdy Orator S. W. against Dr Hammond and others of them would fain perswade us that we subvert Christianity and are little better then Infidels because we are not Infallible But I will answer you and your Masters together in a word 1. The Prophets and Apostles had infallible Inspirations of new matters of divine verity not before revealed because they were to be Gods penmen and Messengers of such New Revelations I have none such that I know of 2. The Prophets and Apostles were guided infallibly in the manner as well as the matter so that every word that they wrote to the Churches was infallibly true I have no such Infallibility nor your Grandfather the Pope neither He may erre while he pretendeth to the greatest Infallibility in deciding Controversies 3. What man soever he be in the world that beleeves any Truth he doth infallibly believe it For he that is in the right is not deceived so far and he that is not mistaken is so farre infallible which is no more then non fallitur 4. But if by Infallibility you should mean the clearnesse and subjective Certainty as distinct from the objective and the bare truth of our conceptions then I say that 's another thing then Infallibility and not to be so called and of that Certainty men have different degrees All true Christians are certain of their Fundamentals yet sometime with some doubting so that they may finde cause to say with the Apostles Lord Increase our Faith or We beleeve help thou our unbelief But in lesser controverted Points which Salvation dependeth not on the best man on earth may erre much more be uncertain So that in a word Every Church in sensu composite while a Church is infallible in the essentials of Christianity and so is every true Christian And also they know infallibly every other truth that indeed they know because Truth is Truth whether they know it or not and when they do know it they are not deceived But in many things we all erre because we know but in part and so farre are deceived Well I say still Fair fall the honest humble Christian that will confesse with Paul that we know but in part For I shall never like pretenders to un-erring Infallibility more I know but two such pretenders and they are both the most abominable deceivers and deceived
in it Though I look for no thanks from you for my charitable desires yet you shall have them whether you will or not HAving been at this labour at your command to answer your Queries may I not in reason expect that you should answer some of mine which I do but request and not command But I desire of you that you will not put me by with Gumblestool Rhetorick in stead of Answers but speak considerately truly and to the Point in question I mean first that you will answer all those Queries which I have before put to you among my Answers to yours and then that you will answer also these twenty Queries following Qu. 1. Are they not the very same Ministers which you rail at and which all the Drunkards Swearers Whoremongers and sensuall wretches in the Countrey do hate and rail at as well as you Are you not then on their side and possest with the same Spirit They despise the Preachers of the Gospel and would have them down and so would you even the very fame men as they would When they had opportunity they raged against them with Swords and so do you with filthy tongues Would not all the covetous malignant ungodly Enemies of Piety have Tythes down as well as you What think you I can witnesse it of most of my acquaintance that are such Moreover were they not the same sort of Ministers which the late Bishops silenced suspended and otherwise troubled and which you revile at Is it not then the same Spirit by which you and all these were or are acted Consider and judge Qu. 2. Whether it be not the same Spirit which moveth in you and in the Papists When the Papists say that we are no true Ministers of Christ but deceivers and teach the Divination of our own brain and delude souls and so say you The Papists say Our Congregations are no true Churches who own us as their Pastors and so say the Quakers The Papists know that the great thing that must be done before they can feduce the people among us is first to make them despise and reject their Teachers and therefore they bend all their wits and endeavours to vilifie them and draw the hearts of the people from them And so do the Quakers The Papists main errour lieth in the contempt of the Scriptures They say they will not take it for the Word of God but on the authority of the Church and that it is but part of his word The Quakers say It is not the Word of God The Papists say It is but a dead Letter and so do the Quakers The Papists say It is not fit to be the Judge of Controversies and so say the Quakers The Papists preferre the Vulgar Translation before the same words in Hebrew and Greek which the Spirit did indite the Scriptures in and so do the Quakers in English Could the Papists but get down the Regulating Authority of Scripture they would think they had won the Field For they will not endure that all Spirits should be tried by the written word no more will the Quakers The Papists maintain mans Free-will hath power before conversion to repent and believe and turn to God and that it is not only the fruit of the Spirit in the Elect and so do the Quakers The Papists tell men of the sufficiency of the common-light that is within them and so do the Quakers The Papists say that a man may be perfect without sin in this life and may fulfill all Gods Commandments and so do the Quakers The Papists make this their perfection to lie in casting off worldly callings Emploiments Relations after the flesh and propriety as their Nuns Monks and Hermites do yea and in casting off their old names as their Pope doth when he is made Pope And so do many of the Quakers and much worse as I have seen in Papers under their own hands The Papists place their Righteousnesse in their own works and perfection while they slieght the imputed Righteousnesse of Christ and so do the Quakers The Papists place this Righteousnesse of their own Pharisaically in externals and things that have a shew of wisedom and humility and neglecting of the body not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh as Touch not taste not handle not which all are to perish with the using Col. 2. 18 20 23. so do the Quakers in stead of preaching the Righteousnesse of Christ call out for a formal Righteousnesse and perfection of our own consisting in such things as these following to wit that we wear no Points nor Cuffs nor Lace nor any such like that we preach on the lower places and not as Ezra did in a Pulpit that we use not an hourglasse to discern how the time passeth whether a Clock or Watch be as dangerous I know not That we say Thou and not You to him we speak to when the word that Christ used signifieth You as well as Thou That we call not men Masters or women Mistresses when the Scripture frequently useth and alloweth it and much more though Christ forbid us to have any Sect-Masters or Masters of our Faiths In such like as these doth the Quakers Righteousnesse lie while they are ignorant of Christs Righteousnesse And just is it with God that they who set up their own righteousnesse against Christs should be given up to that hellish delusion as to take the most Satanical slanders lies heresies and railings to be their Righteousnesse Were it not tedious and not much necessary I could shew in many more particulars how the Papists and Quakets do so conspire that we may well know whence their doctrines and delusions came Qu. 3. Whether there were ever greater Monsters of Ingratitude upon the face of the earth then these are who set their hearts and tongues against those Ministers of Christ that lay out themselves for the saving of souls through all the scorns and opposition of all sorts of wicked men with whom these wretches joyn against them Yea and make their very study and labour their crime when it were much easier for us to preach without study and that I hope with somewhat more truth sense and order then they that so boast of the Spirit Qu. 4. Were not those faithful Servants of God that suffered Martyrdom under Heathen and Arian Persecutors just such Ministers as these men do now vilifie or wherein was the difference And do not these wretches justifie their murderers Qu. 5. Are not the Ministers whom these men despise of the same calling and practice as those were that suffered death in the Flames in Q. Maries daies Such as Bradford Hooper Latimer Ridly Cranmer Saunders Philpot and the rest Were not these called Masters Did they not preach in Pulpits and take Tythes or money for preaching as their due maintenance and the other things that the Quakers accuse us for And do not these men justifie the bloudy opposers of them and condemn Gods Saints afresh Qu. 6.
once accomplish this fully and separate the people from their Pastors and so assault the people alone or with weak and unlearned Teachers only they might then easily bear down all before them and one Popish Friar or Jesuite would non-plus five hundred of our most famous Sectmasters They remember yet that it was the disgracing of the Popish Clergy partly by their own notorious ignorance and vitiousness and partly by our perswading men that the Pope is Antichrist which was the main advantage which the Reformers had for the ruining of the Papall Kingdom And therefore they would partly in Policy and partly in Revenge attempt the destruction of our Churches by the same means These Papists seeing the temper of our foresaid unsetled Professors do creep in among them and use their utmost skill to unsettle them more and bring them into dislike of their Teachers without which they have no hope of succeeding Their first waies are by reproaching the setled government of the Church and by drawing men to separation and Anabaptism and then perswading them that these are glorious Truths of God which their former Teachers are unable to receive and that they are but a blinde self-seeking proud sort of men that would enthrall all men to their judgements when they are in utter darkness themselves When they have gotten them but thus farre once to despise their guides then do they proceed further with them and perswade them that they that were blinde in the points of Baptism and Church-order are so in other things as well as that and that this light which they have seen already is but a spark and that these being daies of glorious discoveries there are yet more and greater matters to be revealed Hereupon they put a handsome dresse upon many of the grossest points of Popery and recommend these as the new and rare discoveries But this they do not in the Name and garb of Papists but as the Popish Jew at New-castle they turn Anabaptists and then rise a step higher and leade others after them so that the silly people shall never know that it is Papists that are their Leaders yea they will cry out of the Pope and call all that differs from them Antichristian purposly to divert suspicions and blinde mens eyes Thus these Papists have begotten this present Sect of Quakers first pretending to strange Revelations Visions and Trances such as are commonly mentioned in the lives of their Saints in the Legends And so you have here and there a Papist lurking to be the chief Speaker among them and these have fashioned many others to their turns to supplie their rooms who yet know not their own Fathers And so the Quakers among us are The ignorant proud giddie sort of Professors first made Separatists or Anabaptists and perhaps more for the most part of them and then drawn futher by Popish subtlety and now headed with some secret dissembling Friars and by them and by the devil enraged against the Ministers of Christ and set upon the propagating of the substance of Popery If You ask me how I know that it is Papists who thus seduce them I answer 1. Because they do the Papists work and maintain their cause as far as yet they dare venture to bring it forth I could tell you of abundance of Popery that the Quakers and Behmenists maintain As that the Pope is not Antichrist which is at least to their advantage whether Popery or not and the disgracing and secret undermining the sufficiency of the Scripture the decrying of the Ministry the unchurching of our Churches the slieghting of Justification by Imputed Righteousnesse and drawing men to the admiration of their inherent righteousnesse and of their works the crying up the light within us and the sufficiency of common revelation the setting up the strength of mans free-will the asserting the necessity of a Judge of Controversie above Scripture which they are content should be the Spirit of Revelations a while till they can boldlier exchange that for the Pope the extolling of Monasticall Community and Virginity and alienation from worldly emploiments the doctrine of Perfection without sinne in this life with many more of the like nature All this the Papists have taught the Quakers If You say They might learn it without them I would ask you whether in all these great Points you think the Papists are righter then the Reformed Churches If you say they be speak out and confess your self a Papist If You say they be not then who think you should reveal all this Poperie to the Quakers Not the Spirit of God for he is not the Authour of Poperie or any falshood If it were the devil then it seems that Poperie and the Quakers Faith is hatched by the Prince of darknesse And whether it were Frias or Devils or both that make Quakers it 's not worth the while to dispute as long as we know that it is Poperie that they hold and the devil befriendeth it Perhaps You will say That they hold many certain Truths they cry down Pride and Drunkennesse and worldlinesse and cry up Mortification and Charitie and Humilitie I answer And do not we do so as well as they These are Points where we are agreed with the Papists Do You think that God would extraordinarily send these men to preach down the very same sinnes which are commonly preacht down alreadie better then they can do it by those men whom they reproach All that is good among them is only that which is as common among us and I hope a little better maintained and managed And all that wherein they differ from us is their Popish and heretical errours 2. But to give you further satisfaction it is known by certain proof that it is the Papists that do seduce and head them Many of themselves have confest such things and their present industrie among us is well known which that they may proceed in with lesse impediment they are the Zealous Defendors of Universall Toleration or Libertie for Propagating soul-poysoning Doctrines for all the torments of the Inquisition in other Countreys Have you not seen a Sheet of Paper Published by M. Prin Containing an Oath of a Citizen of Bristol taken before the Magistrates of that Citie I will transcribe You the Deposstion lest You have not seen it The Information of George Cowlishaw of the City of Bristol Ironmonger taken the 22. Day of Januarie 1654. WHo informeth on his Oath that in the Moneth of September last this Informant had some Discourse in Bristol with one M. Coppinger an Irish man formerly a Schoolfellow of his that came thither purposely for his passage into Ireland who told this Informant that he had lived in Rome and Italy eight or nine years and had taken upon him the Order of a Friar of the Franciscan Company And he told this Informant that he had been at London lately for some Moneths and whilest he was there he had been at all the Churches and Meetings Publike
which it replied to and yet so farre belived those that bad that he owned his Name at it Having received in your first Letters almost nothing but some Sheets of Thou Serpent Viper thou Childe of the Devil thou Son of perdition thou dumb dog thou false hireling thou false Liar Deceiver greedy dog thou ravening Wolf thou cursed hypocrite with much more of the like I returned you no Reply as confessing my self not so well skilled in that language and learning as you are And for the dunghil-heaps of false accusations annexed I passe them by as being well known to be impudent slanders Such as my upholding acoursed Prelatical Government false worship c. for which you dare say the vengance of the Lord is against me while you instance only one word of a Paper of mine wherein I moved that men be restrained from preaching against the Essentials or Foundamentals of Christianity which one of you tels me is a restraining men from speaking any more in Christs name and a persecuting Christs Ministers we may see what Christianity and Christs Ministers are in your account who take it for such damnable enmity to Christ for a man to be restrained from Preaching that there is no Christ or from reproaching him I doe not think if I had desired that men should be restrained from calling you damnable Hereticks or the Bastards of the Papists that you would have been so froward as to have said that herein I was your Enemy Nor do I think you would have taken it for any dangerous restraint to the Liberty of their Consciences But Christ will deal justly with you though you deal unjustly with him and his When your Praters were here I desired to know the further ground of all these heavy accusations that must prove me a childe of the devil a greedy dumb dog a Son of perdition with all the rest And I could have no proof of all but this That I was called Master That I stood in a high place to preach and that I studied and that I preached by an hour-glasse and so would limit the Spirit if I had it and that I took money for Tythes False doctrine and worship I was charged with in general but not one word of instance in any particular that I can remember To these charges I shall give you some account anon When I had received your 24 Queries I sent you my Answer that if you would but subscribe your consent that I should come to your meeting and answer them all by word of mouth without disturbance and you would receive what was made plain to your selves to be the Truth I was willing to come over to that end This motion you detest and reject with a Sheet of further Revilings in the same-language as the first were I hope you will not take it ill if I reply not in that grinning or barking Rhetorick For if I be a dumb dog you cannot expect that I should equal you in snarling or barking or howling But have you not bewraied your deceitfulnesse in refusing to consent that I should come and answer your Questions Do not you shew by this that you are children of the Darkenesse and the Works of darknesse you are carrying on When you hate the Light because your Deeds are Evil Why would you send me Queries which you would not give me leave to answer by Speech What was it that you feared But in stead of this you charge and command me in the Name of the most high God to answer them in writing that you may publish them with your Reply if need be But when I desired to see the Commission by which you claim this Authority you shew me none but tell me It is invisible And may not all the world command me on these terms as well as you In stead of admitting me to answer in your Congregation some of you came over taking a time when the Lord had shut me up by sicknesse and could not go to the publique meeting to make a disturbance in our Assembly Mar. 25. and to try your Rhetorick on the mindes of People in this place whereupon it pleased the Magistrate to binde one of you to the good behaviour for the publique Disturbance and railing at the Magistrate And upon this you send another paper with an outcry against us as persecutors when you might know that I was not concerned in the businesse and when indeed no man did so much as once ask my advice in it But as for them that did it I dare no more accuse them of persecution then I dare accuse them for persecution who shall burn a Thief in the hand Alas what impatient soules are you to cry out so much of persecution when many a poor-scold is duck in the Gumble-stool for words more incomparably sweet and Lamb-like then yours I shall now come to say somewhat to your Papers and first give you a word of my reason why I may not answer them so punctually in order and word by word as you command me to do 1. Because I dare not be guilty of losing so much precious time 2. Because I have much more profitable work to do though you accuse me for Idlenesse because I do not dig or thresh when yet your Praters when they were here did neither dig nor thresh any more then I nor do I hear that they do elsewhere as they follow their seducing imployment 3. Because you have heapt up non-sence vain repetitions and confusions so as to answer you accordingly would be of small use to any and would but prove me to be like your selves Many more Reasons I overpasse There is not a scold in all the Countrey but may as honestly and reasonably command me in the Name of God to come and scold with them in the Market-place as you may Command me thus to answer your scurrilous scolding Papers Yet you shall have no Cause to complain that I have overpassed any thing that 's worthy to be regarded YOur first Query is What 's the first Principle of the pure Religion To which I answer 1. That God is and next that he is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek him Heb. 11. 6. 2. Do you ask this as Learners No that you renounce Or as Teachers Why then do you not shew your Commission to teach And why do you not plainly Teach but ask Questions Or do you ask it for matter to feed your prating and slandring Your second Query is Whether they are a Church of Christ that beat and persecute them that witnesse forth the Truth in his Name c. Answ. Doubtlesse it 's possible for a true Church to be guilty of injuries But you have as little cause to put this Question as the Turk hath What would you answer if a Iew or a Turk or a Witch should put this Question Is it a true Church that persecuteth them that witnesse the truth Surely it 's nothing to you who witnesse abominable falshoods and dreames 2.
such Relations or honour or respect But if you were not hypocrites you would plainly speak this out and then people would better understand you when you tail as Ministers for-being called Masters But for the sake of those among you that are not past recovery I will tell you that which it seemeth you know not The Pharisees had their severall Schools Sects as the Philosohpers had and every one gloried in his Disciples and those Disciples in their own Sect-masters One cried up such a man and another such a man insomuch as sometimes the followers of these several Sect-masters would fall together by the ears and kill each other in the Temple and in the streets while they contended for their Masters honours And look what faith the Master was of the Scholars must all be of his faith They must take their belief on trust from him These leading men that were the Masters of their Schools and sects whom none must contradict were called by the Jews Rabbi's and Fathers as the Papists now call their Bishop The Pope which signifieth A Father because as children must be wholly ruled by the Fathers so would the Pharisees have their Disciples to be by them be the matter right or wrong Just thus do the Papists require that the people beleeve as the Church beleeves that is the Pope and his Consistory whatever it be and tell us that they are infallible as being guided by the infallible Spirit and therefore we must believe them by an implicit faith Now the Lord Jesus meeteth with these Pharisees and commandeth his disciples That they call no man on earth Father or Rabbi or Master as the Pharisees were called that is To have no such absolute Master of your Religion or Lord of your faith because we have all one such Absolute Father which is God and one such absolute Master which is Christ This is the very same thing that Paul meant when he chides them for saying I am of Paul and I am of Apollo as if Christ were divided or Paul had been crucified for them 1 Cor. 1. 13. And it 's the same thing that Peter means 1 Pet. 5. 1 2 3. where he giveth Ministers the honourable Title of Elders and Overseers and Pastors and bids them oversee and feed the flock of God but yet forbids them doing it as Lords over Gods heritage because the heritage is Gods and Christ is the chief Shepherd Paul cals a Bishop the Steward of God Tit. 1. 7. One that must rule the Church 1 Tim. 1. 4 5. and 5. 17. and saith He that desires the Office of a Bishop desires a good work 1 Tim. 3. 1. But yet he would not have them taken for absolute Masters of Christs School but as Christs ushers and as Stewards in his House Let a man so account of us as the Ministers of Christ and Stewards of the mysteries of God 1 Cor. 4. 1. neither more nor lesse There are divers words in the Greek tongue which the Gospel was wrote in which we translate by one word Master but if our language be more scarce of words then the Greek it doth not follow that Christs words are all one The word here used in Matthew is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and elsewhere {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} which is as much as the chief Leader of the way or the Sect-master What if this be forbidden is all Mastership therefore forbidden because this one is The word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} is translated Master too and sometime a Teacher I pray you consider here your most ignorant and sottish dealing The Gospel was not written by the Apostles in English but in Greek Because one word signifieth a Teacher and a Master such as a Schoolmaster is and our Translators sometime translate it a Teacher and sometime a Master you impudently cry out that one of them is not Scripture and yet yield that the other is When in the Greek they are the same word as you may see it used in Eph. 4. 11. Luk. 2. 46. 1 Tim. 2. 7. 2 Tim. 1. 11. Acts 13. 1. 1 Cor. 12. 28. Mat. 10. 24. Luk. 6. 40. Heb. 5. 12. Iam. 3. 1. In all which places the holy Ghost useth the word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} though we English it sometime Masters sometime Teachers and sometime Doctors yet it is all one word in the language that the Scripture was written in and therefore Scripture alloweth one as much as another And if you will stick to the English you may finde the word Master used oft enough And if it be lawfull for another man why not for a Minister Tit. 2. 9. 1 Pet. 2 18. 1 Tim. 6. 1 2. Col. 3. 22. and 4. 1. Eph. 6. 5 9. Though the word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} signifieth such a Mastership as Ministers of Christ will not own as Ministers though over their hired Servants they may own it It may be you think Paul crossed Christs rule and was a false Prophet because he cals himself a wise Master-builder 1 Cor. 3. 10. Or do you think that the holy Ghost did erre when he called Teachers The Masters of the Assemblies Eccl. 12. 11. That the Spirit is no enemy to Titles of honour you may see in 1 Pet. 3. 6. where Sarah is commended for obeying Abraham and calling him Lord And Act. 26. 25. Paul calleth Festus Most Noble Festus and calleth Agrippa King Agrippa Act. 26. 2 26 27. And Rom. 12. 10. We are commanded In honour to prefer one another So that it 's one mans duty to give those Titles which another may not ambitiously seek For my part I will gladly make this agreement with you I will never wish any man to call me Master nor be displeased with any that doth not on that account if this will satisfie you But then I confesse I dare not condemn them that use so much civility or respect because Gods Word is of more esteem with me then your most confident fancies and reproaches By this time me thinks I may well take leave to salute you with this Query Whether that man be not void of the fear of God and given over to a seared Conscience that dare go up and down to rail against the most faithfull and painfull Ministers of Christ whom they are not able to charge with any crime but humane frailties and that because they are called Masters and all this upon meer sottish ignorance of the Scripture that so commonly useth and alloweth the Title All that I could get to all this from your Prater Tho. Goodier that was here was but this I deny thy Greek and Hebrew if the Scripture be truly translated which is but to say I deny the words of Christ and the Apostles For â—â—e translating there are many words in the Original Language which have not so many and apt in English to expresse them by Translating excludeth not the necessity of explicating And
who knows not that one English word hath many significations There is a Beast called a Wolf and a Fish called a Wolf and an eating disease called a Wolf Are these therefore all one because they have one Name So a Sect-master is called a Master One that would be the Lord of mens faith is called a Master and a Teacher of the Church of Christ is called a Master Doth it follow that all these are forbidden because one is Your Prater also made a stirre with me for calling the sacred Languages the Originall because forsooth the Spirit of God is the Original And is not that a wise man to go cry down the Ministry that cannot discern the difference between the Original cause and the Original Language He charged me also to be empty of the Spirit because I studied and told me he did not study no not in speaking what to say I the lesse marvell at his non-sence But I pray God forgive me that I Study no more Do you think we cannot talk without study as well as you and I hope a little better and when the lazy fit overtaketh Ministers they are ready to preach without study as well as you do I can bring you a woman fit for the gumblestool that shall without any study talk it out with the best of you We do not so despise God his Word or our hearers as to speak before we consider what to say Reade 2 Tim. 2. 15. Psa. 1. 2. 1 Tim. 4. 15. Psal. 119. 15 23 48 78 97 99 148. and see whether it be not our duty to study and meditate continually day and night And whereas you call us to thresh and dig I professe if God would give me leave I should take it for a great recreation and refreshment to my body and should think it incomparably a more easie life then that which I endure Solomon knew and I know to my sorrow that much study is a wearinesse to the flesh and might I but plough and dig I should yet hope to live in some competent health who now spend my daies in continuall pain and languishing But then how shall I fulfill Gods command 1 Tim. 4. 15. Meditate on these things Give thy self wholly to them mark wholly that thy profiting may appear to all How should I watch over the Church day and night Act. 20. 31. yet whereas your Prater feared not before God to affirm that if I had no pay I would not preach I do here professe before the same God that he is a Liar and I prove it because I have long preached already without pay and been glad of Liberty and I would labour with my hands as far as my languishing body would bear to supply my necessities as Paul did to stop the mouths of your Predecessors rather then I would give over preaching the Gospel Judge therefore whether your Lying Spirit be the Spirit of God or the meet authour of Reformation or whether indeed you are perfect without sin Your 20. Qu. is Did ever the Lord of Heaven and Earth or Jesus Christ bid thee or any of you Go and Preach to a people or was any of the Apostles or Ministers of Christ made Minister by the will of man Ans. 1. I offered your Prater here to shew him my Comission from God if he would shew me his and he told me that it was invisible and why may not you take the answer that you give 2. The Lord called his first Apostles by his own voice and appointed them to call others and to establish an Order for the succeeding of others in that Office of the Ministry to the end of the world Matth. 28. 21. and till the Saints be one perfect man Eph. 4. 11 14. that they that should ever after be called might not expect a voice from Heaven to their ears but might be called in Christs appointed way And in this way I have been called by Christ The Signs of his Call are 1. My comperent qualifications 2. My thirst after the good of souls and the building of that house of God 3. The Ordination of authorized Church-Officers 4. The Call and consent of the people of Christ over whom he hath set me 5. And afterwards the successe of my labours 6. And some daily assistance of the Spirit in those labours 7. And some Testimony of the Spirit to my conscience of Gods Acceptance These seven set together are my evidence of mission shew you the like if you can 2. Neither Paul not any true Minister is called by the meer will of man nor are we the Servants of men Nor were the Apostles called by men at all but immediatly by Christ But all afterwards were to be called by Christ through the Ordnation of men Tit. 1. 5. For this end left I thee in Crete that thou shouldest ordain Elders in every City Act 14. 23. When they had ordained them Elders in every Church c. The gift was given Timothy by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery 1 Tim. 4. 14. Paul directeth him whom to make Bishops 1 Tim. 3. Will not all this suffice you Your 21. Qu. is Whether had any Ministers of Christan hour-glasse to preach by or took a Text and raised Doctrines Reasons Uses Motives or a carnall Bell to call people together by prove these things by Scripture or else be silent and never professe your selves to be Ministers of Christ more Ans. By your patience I must tell you that the Conclusion is but your Lordly ignorant command such as is joyned to many of the other Queries Scripture is Gods Laws and fa sufficient Rule for Doctrines and worship it self But was never intended to name to you every circumstance that is lawull about that worship Hath Scripture told you at what place you shall meet or at what hour I tell you again you speak with no more wisedom then if you should say thus Prove that ever man read the Bible with a pair of Spectacles or that ever Christ or his Apostles used a printed Bible when printing was invented but a while ago or that ever they used an English Bible when they wrote in Greek or that ever they preached in doublet breeches or stockings or else call your selves Ministers of Christ no more And why so Because you command us and yet tell us your Commission is invisible These Circumstances are purposely left by Christ to the determination of humane prudence as occasions shall require and therefore he bids us do all things to edification and decently and in order 1 Cor. 14. 26. 4. And therefore sure we must discern what is edifying decent and orderly This is plain to them that will see What came the Word of God out from you or came it unto you only If any man think himself to be a Prophet or spiritual let him acknowledge that the things that I write are the Commandments of the Lord But if any be ignorant let him be ignorant 1 Cor. 14.
Whether ever the earth bore men that did more proudly despise others in comparison of themselves and whether their language savour of the Spirit of the Lamb of God Or can he have any taste of that Spirit of Christ in himself that doth not even feel that their proud and railing language is of the devil Qu. 7. Was there ever a generation known on the earth that did more arrogantly step up into the Throne of God and censure his Servants whose faces they never saw and whom they can charge with nothing but being Preachers of the Gospel and that in a Pulpit having an hourglasse taking Tythes c. to be Ministers of the devil sons of perdition with much of the like Though Christ hath said Iudge not that ye be not judged and who art thou that judgest another mans Servant To his own Master he stands or fals Qu. 8. Was there ever a Generation of men on whom the Image of the devil was more visible then on these He is the Prince of darknesse pride and malice And the depth of Ignorance and height of pride and malice breaks out so abundantly in their carriage and discourse that all not utterly blinded may see it It is the work of the devil to be the Accuser of the Brethren and so it is the very Religion and businesse of these wretches to accuse Ministers and godly people to be hypocrites Liars children of the devil Serpents Vipers with much the like Qu. 9 Is it no kin to the blaspheming of the holy Ghost for such wretches when they have powred out the most horrid lies slanders Railings and false doctrines to professe solemnly that all this is from the Spirit of Christ within them and make God and his holy Spirit the Author and Patron of all Qu. 10. Can that man that hath one spark of grace believe that he hath no sin Can he have so little knowledge of himself And consequently of the need he hath of the Physician Dare you say to Christ we will not be beholden to thee for thy bloud to wash us any more or to thy Intercession to pard on us any more Do you not believe that In many things we offend all Jam. 3. 2. If we say that we have no sinne we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us If we confesse our sinnes he is faithfull and just to forgive us our sinnes and to clense us from all unrighteousnesse If we say that we have not sinned we make hem a lyar and his Word is not in us 1 Joh. 1. 8 9. 10. Are not all Christs Disciples taught daily to pray Forgive us our trespasses For my part I am one that is sick and have need of the Physician and dare not tell God that I will ask him pardon for no more sins nor be beholden to him for any more But O what a power hath the deceiver with these wretches that in the midst of their horrid railing flandring and other wickednesse will stand to it that they have no sin Just like the Swearer that will swear he never swore an Oath Or the Drunkard that will swear he was never drunk when he lieth drunk in the Channell Solomon saith There is not a just man upon earth that doth good and sinneth not Eccles. 7. 20. and these Quakers that Pharisaically and Papistically justifie themselves do give him the Lie Qu. 11. Whether those that deny Scripture to be Gods Word as these Quakers do and deny that there is any such Person as Jesus Christ who suffered at Ierusalem now glorified in heaven in the humane nature and only call somewhat within themselves by the Name of Christ I say whether these are not abominable Infidels having nothing to do with the name of Christians Q. 12. Is it not damnable Hypocrisie in these wretches to prate so much of Scripture and call for Scripture while they thus deny it to be Gods Word Qu. 13. Is it not damnable hypocrisie in them to call themselves Christians when they are Infidels and deny the person of Jesus Christ crucified to be in heaven Qu. 14. Is not he a Pagan and no Christian that thinks that the light which is in all the Indians Americans and other Pagans on earth is sufficient without Scripture Qu. 15. Was that light in Paul which perswaded him that he ought to do many things against the name of Jesus sufficient to convert him to the Faith of Jesus Or did Christ give him needlesly a light from heaven and by Ananias his doctrine Oâ— had Conâ—lius sufficient light within him before Peter preached to him Or had all the world sufficient light within them before Christ sent abroad his Apostles to preach the Gospel to them Or did Christ send them a needlesse light by his Apostles Have those Persecutors sufficient light within them to cause them to believe in Christ who think they do God service in killing or reproaching his Ministers and people Qu. 16. If all have sufficient light within them what need you go up and down to teach or perswade them Is it needless light that you bring then or is iâ— hellish darknesse Qu. 17. Is it not a most sottish trick of you to go up and down prating and commanding and yet refuse to shew your Commission from God And to call Ministers to shew theirs and refuse to shew your own but say it is invisible within you are you so mad as to expect any should belive an invisible and indemonstrable Commssion And might not we as well tell you ours is invisible but that indeeed it is not Or should we beleeve every one that prates of a Commission within him or no If not why should we belive you more then others that say the like Qu. 18. Seeing you cry down our Ministry and Churches tell us which is the true Ministry and Church and when yours begun and where it hath been since Christs abode on earth till now Speak plainly and let us know whether you are indeed Papists or Pagans Qu. 19. Is not that man an Infidell and a Scorner of Christ that date say he came into the world and shed his bloud to gather onely a few raging Quakers in England 1652 years after his Incarnation If Christ have no Subjects but these he is a poor King If Christ have been till now without Subjects he was no King If without a Body he was no Head If without a spouse he was no Husband Therefore shew us what Church Christ hath had or confesse your selves Infidels Qu. 20. Did not the Spirit of the Quakers speak in Num. 16. 3. just as you do now against Magistrates and Ministers And is not God very patient that causeth not the earth to open and swallow you up quick as it did them Do you understand that the Simonians or Disciples of Simon Magus and the Nicolaitans whose doctrine and deeds Christ hateth Rev. 2. and other Gnostick Hereticks in the Apostles daies did deal by them and the Church then as you do by us now and that the second Epistle of Peter the Epistle of Iude much of 1 Iohn and 2 Iohn were written purposly against them besides many other Scriptures And have you well considered those Scriptures and applied them to your selves When you have answered these Questions I require you to have no more to do with me nor any of this Church For we renounce you as Hereticks after a first and second Admonition aâ—d will have no fellowship with such self-condemned persons nor receive you into our houses or bid you God speed lest we partake of your wicked deeds Tit. 3. 10. 2 Ioh. 10 11. Kederminster March 28. 1655. Richard Baxter FINIS