differ from you and why not to the Quakers is it enough for any man to believe that they are irregular because you say so without any proof or dare you not mention wherein you judge it so least they should disprove you but you say there is not any they have expressed more contradiction to in matters of Religion then against you Answ. That is false for they have more contradicted the common Priests of the Nation as their books and sufferings will witness although they have according to truth contradicted you and also have more of your contradictions and confusions to declare concerning you which is not yet published but what do you account their irregular practises is it because their yea is yea and their nay is nay in all their communications and yours not so or is it because they cannot swear at all or is it because they cannot have any mans person in admiration because of advantage or because they cannot respect the person of the rich nor honour the person of the mighty is it because they do unto others as they would have others to do unto them or because they speak the Truth every one to his neighbour without partialitie or hypocrisie or is it any thing relating to these things above named if not in your next mention in what or else the wise in heart will judge you to speak onely from your imaginary conceit but what is your end in so secret smiting them do you think to excuse your selves by accusing them and who is it that doth charge you with countenancing the Quakers in their practises either Regular or Irregular I know none that hath any ground so to charge you but to men of understanding who can see beyond words you rather appear to be begging a pardon of the Episcopal and Presbyter and the wilde Boyes and Apprentices of London by accusing the Quakers as hereafter will appear and that fearfulness and unbelieving is entered into your hearts and so your spirits is betrayed into a slavish fear but if ever you be accepted or owned of God you must own that for your strength which the Quakers live in and if ever any Rule for God in this Nation they must own that light life and spirit which they are guided by and then they will not despise but have unitie with the Quakers To the fourth you say Whereas we are further charged with endeavouring an Vniversal Tolleration of all miscarriages both in things Religious and Civil under pretence of Liberty of Conscience it is in both respects notoriously false And we do before the Lord that shall judge both quick and dead yea before Angels and Men declare our utter detestation of such a Toleration for in matters Civil we desire there may not be the least Tolleration of miscarriage in any much lesse in our selves Nor do we desire in matters of Religion that Popery should be Tolerated the blood of many thousands of the people of God having been barbarously shed by the Professors thereof or any Persons tolerated that worship a false God nor any that speak contemptuously and reproachfully of our Lord Jesus Christ nor any that deny the Holy Scriptures contained in the Books of the Old and New Testament to be the Word of God and yet we are not against tolerating of Episcopacy Presbytery or any stinted form provided they do not compel any others to a compliance therewith or a conformity thereunto For whatever composers of any form of worship may possibly err it is derogating from God and his Holy Word and injurious to men to compel any to the Practise thereof Answ. What confusion is here and contradiction both to your selves and to the example of Christ as to Religion you will not tolerate Popery because the blood of many of the people of God have been barbarously shed by the Professors thereof neither will you have any persons tolerated that worship a false God nor any that speak contemptuously and reproachfully of the Lord Jesus Christ nor any that deny the Holy Scriptures contained in the books of the old and new Testament to be the Word of God And yet you are not against tolerating of Episcopacy Presbytery or any stinted form why will you not tolerate Popery as well as Episcopacie hath not the Professors of Episcopacie murthered and slain and do labour to murther and slay the people of God as well as the Papists and why will you tolerate the Common Prayer among the Episcopacie and not the Mass among the Papists seeing that the Mass was the substance out of which the Common-Prayer was extracted hear is nothing but partialitie to tolerate one thing and not another of the same kind and why will you not tolerate the persons of those that worship a false God nor the persons that deny the Scriptures to be the word of God nor the persons of those that speak contemptuously nor reproachfully of the Lord Jesus Christ An. If you will not tolerate their persons then you will murther or destroy their persons and herein you have proved the accusation against you to be true that you have a design to murther and destroy those that differ from you in matters of Religion as for instance those that worship a false God they differ from you in maters of Religion and you will not have any of their persons Tolerated then their persons must be destroyed for differing from you in matters of Religion and they that deny the Scripture that is the writings to be the Word of God that is to be Christ whose Name is called the Word of God you will not tolerate their persons then you will destroy them because they differ from you in matters of Religion and those that speak reproachfully of Jesus Christ you will not tolerate their persons then you will destroy their persons because they differ from you in matters of Religion and thus having contradicted your selves you have also contradicted the example of Christ for he came among those that worshipped false Gods even Stocks and Stones and Graven Images the works of mens hands and he was not against tolerating their persons neither came he to destroy mens lives because of such things but had a Gospel to Preach unto them whereby they might learn to know the living God and turn from dumb Idols and those that spoke Reproachfully against him and said he had a Devil yet he was not against Tolerating their Persons but Preached the Kingdom of God to them and did bid them seek it and the Righteousness thereof and told them that the Kingdom of God was within them and he was among such as denyed that there was a God or Christ Resurrection Angel or Spirit and this is more then to deny the Scriptures to be the Word of God which indeed is words and not the Word And Christ was not against Tolerating of any of the Persons as you have express'd your selves to be and so shewed forth a murthering Spirit but seeing that you
will not have any Person Tolerated that worships a false god what must be done with their Persons But what difference is there in the Ground or Cause of Toleration between those that Worship a false god or they which Worship the true God in a false way and if the Persons of neither of those should be Tolerated then the Toleration would but reach a little Compasse But who must be Judge of that Blasphemie Contempt or Reproach spoken against the Lord Jesus Christ Was it not Blasphemie in the Apostles dayes for one to say he was a Jew and was not Revelations 2. verse 9. And is it not as great Blasphemy now to say that he is a Christian or a Believer that is not And must not any person be tolerated that speak such works And must not such a Person be tolerated that denies the Scriptures to be the Word of God then it appears they must not be tolerated that faith in the beginning was the Word as John 1.4 Nor that say that Christ is the Word and that the Scriptures are they which testifieth of him as Joh. 5. And if we search out your toleration to the bottom it will be reduced into this compasse That none shall be tolerated but those that say as you say and professe what you professe and you among your selves are as a Kingdom divided that cannot stand and you are not they which are fit to Rule in the Nation to prescribe Liberty nor give Toleration but if you had been of Christs Spirit you would have professed Toleration and not destruction unto all Persons in matters of Religion and then they that have the Gospel of Christ may minister it freely among those that worship a false god and among those that worship the true God ignorantly and minister it among the Papists Episcopal Presbyterie Heathens Turks and Pagans which are all out of the way and so to convince the gain-sayers so that all the wicked impositions cruelty Persecution and killing one another about Religion would cease and then the Gospel of Peace which is the power of God would Rule over deceit and Truth and Righteousness would increase and spread over the Nations but you have appeared to be of a Spirit of Confusion and Contradiction for when you have spoken against Tolerating the Persons before mentioned Yet you say in Contradiction to it you are not against Tolerating Episcopacie Presbyterie or any stinted Form provided they do not Compel any others to a Compliance therewith or Conformitie thereunto c. Now consider and let even your own foolishness correct you Is not the Papists which ye have excepted against a stinted Form And are not those that worship a false god a stinted Form And are not the Sadduces that deny that there is either God Christ Angel Resurrection or Spirit a stinted Form And is not the Jewes a stinted Form although they speak contempteously of the Lord Jesus Christ which before you have said you will not Tolerate their Persons because they speak contempteously of the Lord Jesus Christ and now you say you will Tolerate because they are a stinted Form How must the Jewes be Converted who have spoken contempteously and reproachfully of the Lord Jesus Christ calling him a Deceiver a Blasphemer and that he â—ad a Devil seeing you will not Tolerate their Persons until they be Converted And how shall the Heathens that worship false gods be Converted seeing their Persons must not be Tolerated And what must be done with those many hundreds of Congregations in England which worship God in the Spirit and yet do deny the Scriptures as Words and Writings of the Old and New Testament to be the Word of God but do confesse them to be a Testimony of the word and of him who is the Beginning and End of the Words in whom and by whom they all come to be fulfilled to the Saints What must their Persons be done with seeing they must not be Tolerated But you may say That those things was spoken in your haste or at least in your fear whereby you were surprized in the Vproar of the rude Boyes and Apprentices of London but a little fear entering into the Hypocrisie doth try your Spirits and cause you to bring forth the intents of your hearts as in your Paper is manifest To the Last you say Forasmuch as we are Charged to Murder and Destroy those that Differ from us in matters of RELIGION We do not only abhor and detest it as a cursed practice but we hope have approved our selves both in this City and the Nation to the contrary notwithstanding the great provocation of some who have endeavoured our Ruine For that we desire is just liberty to men as men that every man may be preserved in his own just rights and that Christians may be preserved as Christians though of different Apprehensions in some things of Religion in the prosecution whereof our lives shall not be dear unto us when we are thereunto lawfully called The Designs of our Adversaries in these Calumnies are to mis-represent us to some People fearing God and also to incense the rude Multitude against us purposely to provoke them if possible to destroy us Answ. In what you have before expressed you have more given then taken away the occasion of this Charge against you by your instancing the not Tolerating of such persons before mentioned for if you did as you say desire the just Liberty of men as men then every man without respect to Apprehensions Perswasions or Worships as a man and person should be Tolerated that those who are Christians might inform them of the true God when they worship false gods and hereby you give great occasion unto those that seek occasion from you when you with a general Consent cry against Tolerating the Persons of so many sorts of People about Differing from you in Religion and as for some of them whom ye would accuse as Irregular many by experience can witnesse That neither Weapon nor Tongue formed against them can prosper and the time may come when you may be glad to be upholden with a little of their strength and not to Reject those whom God hath doth and will own for his People in the middest of their Enemies for God hath made them even as Eyes to behold the Spirits of men and the Changings of their wayes and to give them a Reproof in due season when they darken wisdom and confound their matter by words without knowledge in false fears and haste when they are out of Patience and out of Faith in God as the Baptists here have done and the fearful and unbelieving cannot accomplish the Righteousnes of God neither will he bring forth his intended Work by them but such as are of a true Spirit that looks onely at the Glory of God and setting up of his truth who are come to the spiritual weapons doth not wrestle with flesh and blood but with the powers of darkness and with
be an Ordinance c. might not I tell the Nation and City that you are not content with Magistracy except of your own Sect And might not I say Why were not you contented with that Assembly of men that last Sat And wherefore was it that you even some of you Anabaptists were the chief Instruments with Swords in your Hands to Dissolve them and so were Instruments in bringing the Nation into present confusion And whereas you speak of the publick Ministers of the Nation you are far from endeavouring to destroy them say you and it is your duty to stand by them and preserve them from all violence and injury c. To which I answer What are you about to make a League and a Covenant with Antichrist Have you for these many years been opposing them in words and are you now recanting of what you have done when you are sensible of a danger upon you and will you now bind your selves to stand by them and preserve them from all injury and even as they are Ministers too But let me ask you Do you look upon them to be Ministers of Christ or of Antichrist If true Ministers of Christ wherefore do you oppose them and cry against them in your Pulpits and hath formerly your selves and some of your Brethren yet do publickly oppose them both by word and writing Oh! ye hypocrites But if they are Ministers of Antichrist then how is it that you will stand by them and preserve them as such and would bind it upon them as their duty to stand by and preserve you Is not this a League with Hell and Death are you turned backwards into love and affection towards them again and so lost your former Principles And is your Zeal quite grown cold or are you now onely flattering and dawbing with the Ministers because you see danger from them while you seek but greater advantage against them they may indeed tell you they look upon you as not destroyers of their wayes and practises neither to ease the Nation from any burthen which they have laid upon it for it is manifest though you deny them in some particulars some of you yet you can cry against that in some of them and yet uphold the same thing I may lawfully instance that some of your Brethren some in this Nation and some in Ireland takes or have lately taken Tithes for Preaching and have yearly stipends and so much by the year out of the States Treasure for Preaching 100 l. 200 l. and 300 l. a piece by the year which indeed doth shew that you are not intending to destroy their oppressing and abominable practises but the rather that you would turn them out of great Places and Benefits and turn your selves in Oh! deceit and wickedness which I am forced to lay open upon this occasion of your own just provocation hereunto and as for their preserving you and you them against such as do oppose you they may easily joyn with you in this if they could hope in your faithfulness for some of you and your Members have shewed as much enmity have been open Persecutors even as they and their Members have been and your Members have been sending the People of God to Prison and persecuting them even as the Common Priests of the Nation and you appear to be guided by the same spirit in many things and if they be Antichristian in their wayes and practises its sure that you are not of Christ because you are like unto them in nature And in that you say you would have none tollerated in their Religion that deny the Scriptures to be the Word of God but you would tollerate Episcopacy Presbytery or a stinted form c. say you To which I say I know that spirit which you are of if it had its full Authority would tolerate none but your selves for your spirit in nature differs not from the spirit of the Church of Rome And what are you now for tollerating Episcopacy who were once your selves in your Zeal for God when your sincerity was not darkned nor your hearts so much corrupted through places of honour and through such things as now they are Instruments to the pulling down of Episcopacy and will you now tollerate it again and help to set it up and build what you have destroyed as if you recanted of what you had done but plainly shewing that you are not of the same Spirit that once you were of but have lost sincerity and can embrace Idolatry for once ye were the men that did oppose it and did violently help to pluck it down but now you are for tolleration Oh! unconstant men this is to you not herein discovering my Judgement in the case and if Episcopacy why may not Popery be tollerated seeing they are one and the self same in ground and nature and not much different in appearance and you may agree to tollerate a stinted form in others because your selves are in a stinted form also for what is yours else but a form crying up your water and bread and wine and differing from the world onely in these outward things when as the City and Nation knows you are men as covetous as worldly minded as ambitious as self-seeking of honour and places as any others in the Nation and your Religion appears to be a â—tinted form as much as others Alas poor men you have discovered your hearts in your Declaration and according to the corruption thereof I cannot but answer you and there are some that deny the Scriptures to be the Word of God and say they are the Words of God and a Declaration and a Treatise of what the Saints believed and enjoyed and Christ is the Word of God that may in time to come be tollerated in their Religion in this Nation though you have renounced them but while they are owned and regarded of the Lord they respect not your love nor hatred who are mortal men and your breath in your nostrils and must fall and perish as the dung in all your beauty and your profession of Religion before the coming of the Son of God And in your Post-script you say you have under your hands sent forth your Declaration in behalf of your selves and others of your Judgement but I must tell you I do believe there are some even of those called Anabaptists which will reject your work and to them my answer is not for I spare them but to you fearful hypocrites in a time of danger that have in this juncture of time renounced us without ground or reason in the sight of God but for your ends as if you would gain the favour of the Nation and City by denyal of us and looking upon your selves to be reproached because of us when as you are a company of unworthy men even unworthy of our reproaches and to escape them have denied us as seeming to clear your selves but you are deceived in this matter and it shall turn to work against you
in the Nation and in the City for we have a more surer witness in their Consciences even in the Consciences of all people that we are of God then you have for take but away your outward water and bread and wine and some few outward practises what do you differ from the worst sort of men in the Nation for doth not pride and hypocrisie and self-love and covetousness and the love of this world abound amongst you as much as amongst any others the witness in peoples Consciences knows it which shall be a witness for us and against you You may indeed have gained League with the worst sort of men in the Nation but you have not gained the sincerity in people and while we have that on our side to witness for us take you the rude multitude for we are not discouraged at all concerning this thing but the rather do glory in the Lord though we be denied of all for though men forsake us yet the Lord careth for us and your own doing shall return upon your own heads and thus much is sufficient to the substance of your Declaration and if I receive any reply I shall expect it under the hands of you all that I may further search and discover you unto your selves and to the Nation And whereas there is a Manuscript goes aboad consisting of five Particulars which is said that it was delivered in to the Committee of Safety as Advice and Councel to them but who the Authours of it are is something uncertain but certain it is that some of the called Independant Ministers and Pastors were the chief Promotors of it and in the Coppy which was delivered to my hands it is said These five Particulars were the result of a little Synod made up of Presbyterians Independants and Anabaptists but whether it is so or no I leave that and would say something to some of the Particulars and even to the Committee of Safety and Officers of the Army and all others of the Nation for their better information then the same Paper describeth to them The third Particular consisteth about the Magistrates Power in matters of Faith and Worship and the Authours say Though they greatly prize Christian Liberty yet they profess utter dislike and abhorrency of an Vniversal toleration as being contrary to the mind of God in his Word Answ. It appears the Authours are lovers of themselves and prizers of their own Liberty but not of the Liberty of others but do utterly dislike and abhor the Toleration of others which may indeed be more righteous then themselves and this is no less then the very Principle of the Whore of Rome which Promotes her own Liberty and makes others slaves and abhors Toleration to any but themselves and they plead Scriptures as well as you for proof of their Religion and they will say all that differs from them are contrary to the Scriptures even as you say when as there is very little better foundation in the Scriptures for your Religion then there is for theirs and it is doubtful to many what Religion this day extant is perfectly according to the Scriptures but yet thus much may be said that Church and that Religion which are not in the same Spirit as gave forth the Scriptures are not according unto the Scriptures and he that can distinguish of this and who it is that hath the same Spirit that gave forth the Scriptures are onely able to Judge what Religion is according to the Scriptures But can the Authors shew plainly out of the Scriptures that their Religion is onely according thereunto and all others the contrary and until they prove this why may not the Rulers that are or may be in this Nation give Toleration unto other sorts of people as well as to the Independants the supposed Authours of this Paper The fourth Particular consisteth concerning Tithes and say they The taking away of Tithes for Maintenance of Ministers until as full a Maintenance be as equally secured and as legally setled tends very much to the distruction of the Ministry and Preaching of the Gospel in these Nations Answ. Alas for you poor ignorant Creatures ye foolish men that seems to have no understanding of the Ministry and Gospel of Christ Do you indeed think that the true Ministry of Christ and the Preaching of the Gospel depends upon Maintenance by Tithes Oh! ye Robbers of God who have secretly dishonoured him in your hearts and publickly disgraced him as much as in you lies to the Nation as if he were not able to save his Ministrie and the Preaching of his Gospel from destruction if Tithes be taken away Surely you err in your Judgements and have no acquaintance with God nor with his Ministry nor Gospel who have thus dishonoured him in setting up that Maintenance by the forcible and unjust oppression of Tithes to be the preserving of Ministry and Gospel and as if Tithes were the upholding of Ministry and Gospel and you have thus falsly and wickedly measured God his Ministry and Gospel by the wickedness of your own hearts who seems to be indeed of those Hirelings that cheats Souls for money and runs for the gift like Baalam and for the lucre like the evil beasts and slow bellies and so I do believe that your false Ministrie indeed and your feined pretence of Preaching the Gospel doth depend upon great sums of money and upon large maintenances we believe that indeed is the chief Reason of your Preaching and of your Ministry and it is very possible that your Ministry and Preaching may fall which is Antichristian when Tithes and Hire is taken away which Ministry dependeth thereupon but the true Ministry and Preaching of the Gospel will God maintain and uphold 〈…〉 of Tithes being vanquished and I hope some of the Rulers of this Nation and officers of the Army will not believe your advice But yet you seem to be willing to renounce Tithes if you could have as full a maintenance setled another way so that however great maintenance comes you regard not so you can have that whether by this way of oppression or the other it s your maintenance you love and followes after and seekes unto the Powers of the Earth for that end and how equally and Legally Tithes have been setled which you seem to affirm let all good People judge given they were and setled first in our Nation by the Popes Authoritie to be the maintenance of that Whores Ministers and all the Laws which gave them and setled them have been Antichristian and oppression in the Nation and there is the guilt of blood and of cruel unjust sufferings lying upon this Nation in that very cause of Tithes and the hand of the Lord is gone out against it and against all contenders for it and God will redeem the Nation from under it though you be putting your strength to uphold it through your Hypocritical Prayers and Preaching and flatteries with God and men The
Spiritual wickednesse and such as are not false Accusers of others but seeks the good of all men such will the Lord honour and exalt in his work and they shall perfect his praise So Friends You have been hasty to utter words before the Lord for which his Reproof justly comes upon you Therefore let your words be few and mind the fear of the Lord God which is the beginning of wisdom and that will slay your false fears from which unsavoury unsound words hath proceeded for your Religion is vain while your tongue is not bridled for it is better to be still and keep silence then to utter words from the line of Confusion that is stretched over you thereby to get a name in the Earth which Line all people walk in but those who are led by the Spirit of God to speak words that cannot be condemned for it is the Spirit of the Lord God and his Power which must slay the Enmitie in you which is the ground of your prejudice and hard Speeches against the Lambs of Christ which when that is slain within then those evil Fruits of the Lips will cease without and then the fountain of life will open in you which brings forth Fruits of another nature and when the Fruits of your Lips is Truth Rightteousness and Peace then will you have followship with the Father and the Son and with us who walk in his Light AND whereas to the said Declaration of the Baptists something was Written in Answer to part of it in short by another hand not knowing the one of the other but being found to be both of service as to return their wickednesse upon themselves it is thought meet that the same also be hereunto annexed And here is also something in Answer to some particular Positions drawn up by the Independants so called wherein their folly and weaknesse is also discovered and all may see what enmity lodges in the hearts of all men against the despised people called QUAKERS An Answer to a Declaration of the People called Anabaptists in and about the City of London wherein their weakness and ignorance is discovered under their own Hands to the City and Nation as hereby may appear FRiends Whereas your Declaration consisteth of Five Particulars four of which is not or so much concernment to me to Answer but as for one of them for the Nations sake and for the Truths sake and that you may be reproved even you the heads and Principal men of your congregations and because you are such under whose hands your Declaration passeth therefore in that consideration with many others this I return as an Answer to you and to the City and Nation in pursuit of yours that hath proceeded from a heart of Unbelief and unto evil and malicious intents against a despised People whom the Lord hath owned and will own though you and the whole world do reject them And whereas you say You are mis-represented to the Nation that you do countenance the People called Quakers in their Irregular Practice And to clear yourselves you say It is well known to all there are none more opposite to their Irregular Practises then we are say you nor are there any that they have exprest more contradiction to then against us though their provocation therein hath not put us on a desire say you of depriving them of their just Liberty while they live Morally honest and peaceable in the Nation c. Answ. Oh ye Heads and principal men and ye chief Pastors Elders and Members so called of Churches What have ye done and wherefore have you thus proceeded why have ye renounced an innocent People that never did you harm nor ever gave any offence unto you saving in crying against the deadnesse of your forms and traditions and seeming Religious practises and reproving evil in you Alas for you ye accounted wise men do you judge an advantage will be unto your selves in this thing Or do you think to work a disadvantage unto us by your Renouncing and denial of us I must tell you we are not troubled hereat for our own sakes neither is any part of our hope or confidence concerning you made void for we never looked upon some of you to be otherwise then our enemies in your hearts Oh ye Hipocrites whom God will judge because of your hypocrisie who now so much as in you lies if it were in your power you would leave us to the mercilesness of cruel men you would save your selves and leave us to the mercy of the Devil but though you renounce us yet the Lord hath owned us and will own us to your grief and what are you become our accusers are you become chargers of us with irregular practise are you endeavouring to make us more odious in the eyes of wicked men then we are for righteousness sake but wherefore have ye done this Is it to save your selves from reproaches Have you therefore reproached us and have you sought to make us vile that your selves might appear free and have you thought to gain the favour of the wicked to make a peace with your Enemies by reviling of us unto them Is this your end O ye Dissemblers to reproach us to the Nation and City behind our backs You Church Members so called and Teachers and Pastors and Principal men that would save your selves and gratifie the Devil and joyn in union with the wicked and make your selves friends with them by slandering and renouncing the peaceable people who are more so then your selves and none of them guilty of â—rregularitie as much as some of you though you would fawn upon the Nation and City by renouncing of us as if we were irregular and so and so But do you think the Nation and City have not taken notice or however hereby they may What if I say unto them and you that none of the Quakers ever were so instrumental by illegal opposition for the turning out of Parliaments and changing the Government of this Nation into confusion like as some of you Anabaptists have been and this the City and Nation may take notice of the irregularitie of some of your selves who have been instrumental even by illegal Opposition and perfect Tyrannie in mens account and Treacherie also to the turning out Parliaments and thereby wronging the Nation for their own advantages so that the practise of some of you hath been more unlawful and conâ—â—â—rie to Law then ours hath been and the City and Nation may take notice of it as your Declaration is to them so is this my Answer never any Quaker so called in War-like posture hath stood in Defiance and been instruments to turn out peoples lawful Representatives Did not some of your brethren even of the Anabaptists take Commission from the late Parliament and no lesse then vowing Fidelity to them and yet presently rising in opposition to them and turning them out of Doors and was not this treachery and hypocrisie and irregularitie And
can the Nation charge any of them called Quakers with any such work no they cannot but some of the Anabaptists they may even with this and other the like illegal dealing And more I might instance and not only charge behind your backs falsly as you have done of us but I may affirm to your faces and justly prove these and such things upon you but why have not you named what irregular practise the Quakers are guilty of I charge you you subscribers against us and accusers of us to prove your accusation I say I charge you before the Lord and this whole Nation and City to prove your accusation and to instance what particular practises performed and owned amongst us either in Relation to just Government in Church or State that are irregular and you shall have a Reply though you say There are none more Opposite to our irregular practice then you are Oh how fain would you flatter and fawn upon our Enemies to make peace with the Devil how would you creep by craft and joyn into a League with our and your Enemies And how fain would you be at peace with them and leave us even to their mercilesness if it were in your power Have we ever dealt thus by you Have we ever sought to render you Rebels and Traytors to the Nation as you in effect have done to us have we ever sought occasions against you and to present you to the Nation as vile as we could for to save our selves and leave you to the wil of your Enemies this have you done to us and we leave you to be rewarded even by the Lord who will never renounce us nor cast us out though you do in such a time as this a time of confusion and distraction wherein if the Lord did not appear to be our Defence more then men we should be swallowed up of our Enemies and must you even a Separate People Members Pastors and Ministers of Churches so called Renounce us at this season on purpose to have us destroyed so much as you may Well we have not dealt so with you neither do we desire to uncover your nakedness to the Nation you had not had thus much if you had not been the occasion of it your selves and surely what you have done in this particular some of your own Members will not accept it from you with thanks to you but I shall say more to you when I have under all your Hands the particular Practises which you charge to be irregular and though there hath been and is Contradictions between us and you in matter of Religion and difference in particular Practises about Church and Ministry and Orders c. Yet what is this This was amongst our selves though hereof you have no reason to boast as of any Victory that you have obtained over us in any such Controversie neither hath the Spirit of God so appeared in that Authority among you as that you have gained any from us to you but rather the contrary but what of these Contentions we have never so contended with you as that we have hated your persons or sought to betray you into the hands of devouring mouths the Lord is our witness in this though you have done contrary even sought to betray our persons in this your work and I must tell you dishonestly and undiscreetly have you done in this matter who never could unto this day in any contest between us about Religious matters Convince us of Error or Irregular practises though now you have accused us to the whole Nation and not as in a way of Debate about Religion but as in matter of State Irregularity whereby plainly appears that you seek to betray us even our persons into the hands of our merciless enemies and you would make peace with them and deliver us into their merciless hands and thereby shewed hatred not unto us as upon the account of Religion only but even hatred to our persons and hath accused us as of personal irregularitie and so hath not shewed love to our persons but rather sought our destruction Oh ye wicked men to whose charge God shall lay this iniquity of treachery and unfaithful dealing to us even as with brethren which is the most deceitful iniquity And alas for you what are your desires of depriving us of our just Liberty God shall give us Liberty and from him we shall enjoy it whether you will or no and for our just liberty we shall not be beholding to you though I must tell you if our Liberty were in your power it is greatly to be doubted and even your own dealing in this your Declaration gives occasion For it that our Liberty would be enslaved if it were in your hands but we bless the Lord it is in his hand not in yours for so much of Treachery towards us hath here appeared even in giving us up so much as in you is to the will of our Enemies and the Spirit is in you which would betray Brethren that for the time to come we can never Trust you but we do not give our Power to you to enjoy our Liberty from you nor ever shall And if we walk Moraly honest and peaceable in the Nation it is more then you do in this matter for this your practise is not Morally honest in Accusing of us behind our backs to the Nation and City and Authorities thereof of Irregularity c. though as I have said never any of us had so great a hand by open opposition tending to make war in the Nation as some of you in some things I might instance even for their sakes to whom you have accused us and that we are more peaceable then some of your selves the Nation and City knows Have we thrust our selves into Arms and sought Offices and Places and Commands as some of you Have ever any of us appeared in Actual Arms against Parliament Nation as some of you Have we given the City or the Nation by any visible appearance to fear a war from us as you have done Let the Nation City the witness in all mens Consciences judge so that we are known to be peaceable as much or more then your selves for we have never sought to you to take up Arms with us as some among you have sought to others which may demonstrate that we are as peaceable in the Nation if not more then you and so you needed not to have premised such a thing on our behalf And thus I have in short returned your secret Treachery upon {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} own heads and Answered that same part of your Declaration wherein I and the Truth and the whole flock of God was any way concerned and as for the rest of your Declaration I will not seek Occasions against it though in some other things also therein exprest I might search out your Hearts and discover the rottenness of them and where you say you declare Magistracy to