for their living in their former Trades and Callings but had maintenance by the preaching of the Gospel and had power to receive it And Paul himself tels them there as you have seen that he and Barnabas did not work for this that they had no power to receive maintenance by the Gospel as well as the other Apostles and power to leave working with their hands but they did it for other ends Hence now as you say if you be not quite blinde ye may see that liberall maintenance is due to the Ministers of the Gospel as Ministers for their works sake That they have power to take this from the people and power to leave working with their own hands for their maintenance Let me hear what you have to say to these things Again see 1 Tim. 4. 15. Meditate on these things give thy self wholly to them that thy profiting may be known to all Answer me what doth Paul mean by bidding Timothy to give himself wholly to these things had it not sounded like a contradiction if it had run thus Labour with thy own hands at some trade for thy living and give thy self wholly to reading exhortation doctrine meditation do you see your simplicity and ignorance now in this malicious objection against us Farther yet I hope by this reasonable men may be convinc'd that it is a divine right that Ministers should have a maintenance and that for their preaching the Gospel And for the proportion distribution the manner of the peoples paying and their receiving that maintenance their use and enjoyment of it if you look upon it and we acknowledge it to be of a civill right Then if by the Laws of the Kingdom the proportion of Tithes be allowed us and we by the same Laws hold and possesse them there being nothing in the whole written Word to forbid such a way and such a proportion it appears to rationall men that we have as lawfull a Freehold in our Tithes as any man hath to his Lands and can enjoy and possesse them without being guilty of abominable heresie and without a denying of Christ to be come in the flesh Again as for our receiving so for your paying Tithes know this that it being the Apostles doctrine that Ministers of the Gospel should live by the Gospel And the Ministers of this Kingdom being allowed and authorized by the just Laws and lawfull Magistrates of this Kingdom to receive Tithes of their people and every man being compell'd under the penalty of the Law of this Kingdom to the payment of them there being nothing no not a word in the Word of God to forbid such a law I say Tithes becoming this way due to us by the Law of the Land and the Apostle commanding all Christians Rom. 13. 7. to render to all their dues whosoever shall go about to defraud or to deny their Minister this his due he is in this most impious and sacrilegious Will you be ashamed now of your ignorance and be a little more wary for the time to come how you give liberty to your unbridled tongues and distempered passions to censure misreport or slander or scandalize the persons parts callings maintenance of such men against whom Timothy was not to receive an accusution without two or three witnesses 1 Tim. 5. 19. and to take notice of the ill consequences of the same you do not onely contract the guilt of sin to your selves but you expose your selves in your madnesse ignorance malice and folly to be the object of sorrow and grief to those that know you and pitie your poore souls and the object of laughter to all others that have any knowledge of the truth In your next passage you expresse more of that bitternesse that is in your spirits poore men There be some Symons crept in amongst you which as he did in Act. 8. do bewitch you who seems to you to be some great one and as the people beleeved of him so do many now give heed to many that be abroad as if they were the great power of God whereas indeed in the end they will prove to be but sorcerers And as for all your wicked and false accusations I shall onely say to you as Peter did to Simon Repent of this your wickednesse and pray God if perhaps the thoughts of your hearts may be forgiven you For 't is easie for a Christian to perceive that these are the expressions of those who are in the very gaul of bitternesse and bond of iniquity Look upon some of them and you your selves shall be Judges Paper You say peremptorily that we strike at the very foundation of Truth as he that is spirituall may easily discern c. Ans I answer First I will not undertake to judge your spirits but this I must tell you that how spirituall soever you pretend to be that spirit that charges us with striking at the very foundation of Truth is a spirit of envie hatred malice reviling evill speaking lying and slandering and what spirit this is I leave it to your selves to judge 2ly Me thinks you should not so cruelly have condemned us for this but you should have told us what truth we did ever strike at you have quickly forgotten your own rule but now given to us concerning heresie and hereticks you told us that the Gospel way was first to prove men such and then to reprove but it seems you walk not in the same Gospel way Remember here that of Paul Rom. 2. 1 3. Thou art inexcusable O man whosoever thou art that judgest for wherein thou judgest another thou condemnest thy self for thou that judgest doest the same things And thinkest thou this that judgest another and doest the same things that thou shalt escape the judgement of God you should first prove us such and then condemne us 'T is your own counsell and therefore I hope will not be rejected by you I desire that this may be proved against us else surely 't will condemne you 3ly I doubt not but in the end and upon the tryall it shall be made appeare that in those very things wherein you rashly condemne us for striking at the foundation of truth the Lord himselfe whose eyes are upon the truth and all that are acquainted with any of the truths of God will acquit and justifie us as contending only for the truth that was once delivered to the Saints and striving for the faith of the Gospel which is now invaded and miserably wounded by those spirits that are already whom as the Apostle fore-told the way of truth is evill spoken of Paper In the next place you charge us with deceiving the hearts of the simple and endeavouring to deceive the very elect that we make truth looke every way like Janus faces that you have need of the wisdome of God to discover us and the depths of Satans deceipts and wiles that the Lord who hath begun to uncover unvayl unmask uncloath c. will do it fully and
of wilde-fire c. Remember what St. James saith of an evill tongue Jam. 3. 6 c. The tongue is a fire a world of iniquity and is set on fire of hell the tongue that dares cast iniquity upon God or his Word is surely set on fire of hell Pap. 4ly In that you charge us as seeing-blind Pharisees and say that 't is our condition to sin with our eyes open because you cannot but remember our carriage and zeal for those whom we now condemne Oh what pains say you was spent in their behalf what prayers put up for them c. is all this buried in the grave of oblivion and what is the reason have these Worthies say you fallen from their faithfulnes No no. I answer In this case you nor I must not judge at least say whether they have or no onely all that we desire is that the Lord may judge betwixt us and them I shall say no more of this in this place because I have spoken something to it already in my Answer to your first dislike of our praying for and against Paper I shall speak but one word more to your second head and that is this you speak of the honorable service of some in bringing Delinquents to justice and punishment and that from this that the Scripture saith That Righteousnesse exaâ—ts a Nation Ans For answer let me onely tell you here that that justice which exalts a Nation must be both for the matter and merit as also for the manner and form of doing it unquestionable and clear and must not be executed without an orderly Authority derived either immediately from God Dr. Gaud. Rel Prot. or mediately from those Politick Laws and settled Magistracies which are Gods ordinances amongst men But where the execution of Justice is unjustly usurped and carried on without any warrant from Gods Word or mans Laws either as precept and rule or example such an execution of justice is a turning of judgement into wormwood and doth depresse and bring a Nation lowe under the judgements of God rather then exalt it I speak not this in reference to any persons or actions onely to inform your judgement a little Paper In the next place you charge me with praying that the Lord would bring the King out of the hands of those that had restrained him and what was this say you but a stroaking Malignants on the breast and a making the Army odious in the eyes of the simple deluded ones Ans To this I answer First that this accusation is from the father of lyes too if ten more of you had subscribed it This you take upon trust too from those who it seems have already given so much libertie to their consciences as to make no conscience of a lye having forgotten it seems or counting those places Apocrypha where the Spirit of God tels us that a lying tongue is one of those seven things which is an abomination to the Lord and which he hates Prov. 6. 17. And if this be an old Testament text that of the Apostle Ephes 4. 25. Putting away lying speak every man truth to his neighbour and if you had as much truth and honesty as you seem to lay claim to no disparagement to your honesty I could bring twenty and ten as honest men as your selves to testifie the contrary What I said I trust I am able to make good as being nothing but what was and yet is justifiable before God and men and that was this I prayed that God would deliver the King out of the hands of those that sought his destruction and this was no more then what I was bound in conscience to do while he was living being one of his Subjects and having many Oaths Protestations and Covenants sacred and civill tyes and bonds lying upon me obliging and ingaging me to obedience and loyaltie and to indeavour in my place the preservation of his person and the promoting of his honour and safetie And certainly you have not lived so long nor undergone so many Offices in the Common-wealth as some of you have but some of the same Oaths and Covenants have been more then once taken by your selves Now I must plainly confesse to you that what new Religion soever you have lately met with to absolve your consciences from so many oaths and obligations in all which you have call'd the Almighty and all seeing God of heaven to be both a witnesse to you and an avenger upon you I for my part am as yet ignorant of any power under heaven that can absolve me from such oaths taken before God to my lawfull Soveraign I know but one power that pretends to it and undertakes to do it and that is the Pope But for God I doubt not but you who pretend so much to walk by the rule of the Word do know what a swift witnesse the Lord is against such as swear falsly by his name and what a revenger he is to such sins Read Zach. 5. 4 first verses there 's a flying roll of curses that shall enter into the house of him that swears falsly it shall remain in the midst of his house and shall consume it with the timber thereof and stones thereof Now I say though you may perchance have found liberty of conscience yet for my part I cannot yet find liberty to swallow down such a camell as this is without choaking Pap. 2ly Whereas you say that in this we stroaked the Malignants and had this end in it to make the Army odious that these prayers savour more of flesh then spirit more of zeal then knowledge that they proceeded from self ends c. Ans I answer I blesse God I have learnt to bear with patience these and more such reproaches as these are the Lord forgive you what my prayers were and from what spirit they proceeded and what I aymed at in them as my end the Lord knows that 's my comfort and you shall know too one day when the secrets of all hearts shall be made manifest Again whereas you charge us with not laying down our Call from the Bishops I shall more fully speak to that hereafter you give me occasion in the following part of your Paper to clear that and therefore I shall not meddle with it here Paper In the fourth part you say I prayed that the Lord would take the Sword out of those hands in which now it was c. Ans Ten of you have subscribed this too Pray how many of you dare say that you heard me speak the words This you take upon hear-say too And let me tell you that if you give credit long to the informations of those who have thus learnt to stretch their mouthes you 'l forfeit your own credit quickly I say in this to you again if the number were trebled I am able to make it good by as good and far greater testimony hat this too is false for there was not such a word spoken you tell
God in his word that putting away lying every man should speak truth with his neighbour Ephes 4. 25. Now I thinke I have made it appeare and shall make it appeare farther that this Paper which you have set your hands to hath not one page of it but what is stuft with lyes and falsehood I leave to the Lord and to the world to judge betwixt us of them And therefore here again you have walked contrary to the revealed will of God Againe 'T is the revealed will of God that you should not backbite with your tongue nor doe evill to your neighbour nor take up a reproach against your neighbour Psal 15. 3. Againe that all bitternesse anger wrath clamour and evill speaking be put away with all malice Ephes 4. 31. Now looke upon your Paper There you call us Praters Time-servers Weathercocks blinde Pharisees Ministers of Antichrist Popish persecutors of the Saints haters of godlinesse lovers of prophanesse false Apostles selfe seekers penny Masters Drunkards Swearers Lyars men that endeavour to keep others in ignorance Seducers men of no religion proud covetous blood thirsty men for-swearers vain teachers men of perfidious opinions that we preach destructive and damnable doctrines destroyers of truth and true religion perfidious men that will destroy soules for gain Ale-house hunters Hereticks Jews Monsters men that condemne the practice and precepts of Christ for heresie enemies to true grace Ministers of Antichrist nay Divels This is the language you afford us in your Paper and you have set your hands to it that we are such as these Now whether this be a walking according to the Word or contrary to the revealed will of God in his word let your own consciences be Judges or else let the Lord the righteous Judge judge betwixt you and us I thinke I need goe no farther in this particular I hope this may be sufficient to convince you if the Lord will set it on upon your consciences and if so then be thankfull and blesse God for it if there be any truth or ingenuity in you Paper In the next particular you tell me you are grieved in spirit to see and heare my light and frothy carriage in the mentioning of Scripture as to say that 's a nimble Place You say a carnall and wâ—cked heart will abuse the best thing even grace mercy and love you say a Stage Player could doe no more nor the Divell himselfe to abuse and mock at Scripture and you close thus for shame come not in publick to act such Diabolicall parts Ans I answer This whole accusation is from the Divell the Father of lyes too you are grieved you say to see and heare pray how many of you ten dare say you saw and heard me in that carriage or that expression which you have here set your hands to if I am not much mistaken not neare the one halfe of you and yet you have set your hands to it I hope you will not turn Knights of the post these be some steps towards it Me thinks you should not call men Divels meerly upon heare say if you had any Charitie in you you could not he or they that informed the rest of you of this may be ashamed to looke an honest man in the face as we say to come to Publicke ordinances under a pretence of worshipping and to bely the truth of God in this manner the Lord will finde out such one day But as you say a carnall and wicked heart will abuse the best things I am able to bring you twenty for one of your informers of this who will passe I beleeve both in the presence of God and account of men for as honest conscientious Christians as your informer whosoever he be of you that will be witnesses that there was no such word spoken and I call God that heard and recorded every word to witnesse of it You tell me that a Stage Player a Devill could have done no more I answer For what I did and speak then and there in publicke the Lord knows that as David said to Michal it was before the Lord and for the Lord and if this be to be vile and a carnall wicked man a Stage Player a Divell I shall desire that I may be more vile yet Paper You bid me not come in publick for shame to act such Diabolicall parts Ans When the Lord shall again call me I shall not be ashamed to come again in publick and to act that part which the Lord hath put me upon as for your expression Diabolicall the Lord forgive you I do and I value it not The Lord Jesus hath taught me that the disciple is not above his Master nor the servant above his Lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub how much more shall they call them of his houshold Fear them not therefore for there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed and hid that shall not be known Matth. 10. 24 25 26. In the next place you come to make your requests to me Paper First that I would define what heresie is Ans I define heresie thus Heresie is a voluntary chusing of an opinion against some Article of Faith without ground of Scripture and an obstinate maintaining of it against all lawfull determinations of the true Church for some sinister and particular respects Or if you will have it more briefly thus Heresie is an error in the foundation of Christian Religion taught and defended with obstinacy Thus Paul saith Tit. 3. 11. that an Heretick is perverted that is put besides the foundation and condemned of himself in his sin that is he erres obstinately This heresie is differenced from a simple error by its obstinate maintaining from a schisme for that schisme is in discipline heresie in doctrine from Heathenish superstition Jewish perversnesse stupâ—d Mahometisme and the like because heresie is a revolt from the faith contrary to the Word of God which such never had no profest The father of it is the devill the mother pride the nurse singularitie the attendant hypocrisie the promoters of it inticing perswasions and peremptory will-worship Apostacie is an eminency in it it being a falling away from the truth profest self-condemning the top of it The outrages of it will be blasphemy against God virulent persecution of his Church and children The end finall impenitencie and despair the dismall fore-runners of eternall damnation Having thus shewed you what Heresie is you may easily resolve your selves the 2d Quaere what an Heretick is And can likewise best satisfie your selves in the 3d. viz whether there be any such among you The Lord help you to search narrowly and to deal truly with your selves that if there be any amongst you you may see them and beware of them For your 4th desire to satisfie you in that I give you all this under my hand And for the 5th I leave it to the world to judge whether I have answered it or no. And whereas in your close you again desire a meeting in a sober and in a Christian way I have told you my mind before and here tell you again that the most safe and sure way to cleare up the truth to satisfie doubts to discover errors to establish Saints that are wavering wil be to deal by setting down under yours and my hand what we would speak face to face at such a meeting one thing we shall more probably avoid this way which would frustrate our endeavours in the other that is clamour passion and tumults Again from written words we shall not so soone start and fly as from words spoken which in such a way with such people have seldome proved any better then wind For my part I professe it in the presence of God that it is and by Gods grace shall be my endeavour that love may be increased that jealousies heart burning and evill surmisings may be removed And that we may live in love and peace as becomes Christians I trust the Lord Jesus who is the great Prophet of his Church and the teacher of Israel will alwayes direct me not onely to speak of but to endeavour after the peace of the Church by convincing and stopping the mouthes of gainsayers who are crept in to disturbe our Peace by perverting the truths of God once delivered to the Saints And my prayers in speciall are that that God whom I serve in my spirit who knoweth the heart and prayers of his servant would onely so be with me in these endeavours of mine as it is the truth which I endeavour to maintain Amen You subscribe your selves My loving friends so farre as I love the Lord Jesus For your love and friendship to me I know not how I have of late forfeited it There are but few signes of it at present to be seen But for love to the Lord Jesus I here set my heart tongue pen to that of Paul as the conclusion of his Epistle 1 Cor. 16. 22. If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema Maranatha March 1648. Kemble Yours to serve you in the work of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus THO THACHE Postscript FRiends If hereupon you finde grace to see and heal your Errors we shall with all brotherly meeknesse love and humilitie be willing to receive you and shall blesse God on your behalf But if the sway of your mis informed and mis-resolved Conscience be heady and unresistable and your return hopelesse Even these poore endeavours of mine shall one day be a fearfull and materiall evidence against you before that awfull Judge who hath already said That judgements are prepared for scorners and stripes for the back of fools FINIS
stand for truth and justice as now they doe Secondly We dislike the misapplication as indeed is your common practice whereby youleade people in dark paths of that expression the base are risen up against the honourable who do you mean by base and who by honourable this Riddle wants an Interpreter these are but bals of wilde-fire to set the Kingdome fresh on fire and to fill the hearts of the sons of Belial with dishonourable thoughts of the Kingdoms Worthies in the Army But if truth may take place with our time-serving generation who are base but such who are content to be basely cheated out of all their priviledges spirituall and temporall by a few fine empty notions who basely betray the lives and liberties of themselves and posterities for present shadows who are base but such as basely falsifie and betray the trust reposed in them but such as seek their own advancement by a Kingdomes ruine And who honourable but such that venture their lives rather then they and theirs should be vassels to the base wils of any though never so great Is not that honourable service to bring Delinquents to punishment such Vipers that would eat out the heart of our liberties which is as dear as our lives which the Army only doth Doth not the Scripture declare that Righteousnesse exalts a Nation but what shall we say to this gainsaying generation or generation of gainsaiers who will not understand may it not be truly said to them as Christ said to Nicodemus Art thou a Ruler in Israel and knowest not these things or rather as Christ said to seeing blinde Pharisees that sin open-eyed Ioh. 9. last If you were blinde you should have no sinne but now you say we see therefore your sinne remaineth and this we fear is your condition because we cannot but remember carriage and zeal for those who you now condemn Oh! what pains was spent in their behalf what praiers was put up for them what The ANSWER Friends SO in charity I call you because you subscribe your selves so though your Paper from the beginning to the end be full of gall and bitternesse and savours as much as may be of that enmitie which God from the beginning did put 'twixt the seed of the woman and the seed of the Serpent Having received your Letter and perused it I took it and as Hezekiah did with the reproachfull letter of Sennacherib 2 King 19. I did spread it before the Lord who knoweth the secrets of all hearts and judgeth righteously And for Answer to it which you desired speedily in that I have been thus long about it I must say as Paul did to his Thessalonians 1 Thess 2. 18. I would have come unto you even I Paul once and again but Satan hindred me So I say to you in this case I would have answered you once and again ere this but Satan hindred me You desire me to answer you in Scripture language I promise you here in the beginning that I will indeavour in 2 Tim. 2. 2 last ver meeknes and love to answer and to instruct you with much patience if God peradventure will give you repentance to the acknowledging of the truth and that you may recover your selves out of the snare of the devil But me thinks 't is strange that you who desire Scripture language from others you who pretend so much to the Spirit should yet so farre forget Scripture language and so far put off the meeknesse of the Spirit in this your Letter as you do for I appeal to the world or rather to God who knows the hearts from whence these expressions come whether it be not fill'd up with that which St. Paul saith grieves the Spirit viz Bitternesse wrath anger clamour evill speaking malice Ephes 4. 31. whether it savour not of many of the works of the flesh reckoned up Galat. 5. 20 21. viz. hatred variance emulations wrath strife seditions envie with that reviling which the Apostle reproves 1 Cor. 6. 11. Look upon some of your expressions you call us Time-servers Weather-cocks blinde Pharisees Ministers of Antichrist false Apostles blood-thirsty men Popish swearers forswearers drunkards lyars seducers Jews Hereticks men of no Religion that our Doctrines are destructive and damnable yea Devils and the like and this you have set your hands to But I shall indeavour with the Apostle being reviled to blesse or as the Apostle commands us to imitate Christ who being reviled reviled not again but committed himself to God who judgeth righteously 1 Pet. 2. 23. I would willingly speak something to every materiall passage in your Letter but I shall passe by many of those extravagancies which I am willing charitably to beleeve did unadvisedly drop from your pen and not take notice of them for should I stay upon every piece of your madnesse and folly the profit redounding to you or me of such a work would not countervail the labour I shall therefore passe over all your bitternesse base slanders your reproaches your reviling and railing accusations with the words of Michael the Archangel contending with the Devill The Lord rebuke you and the Lord help you to see from what spirit they come I heartily pitie you as knowing the Author of these and that nothing of what you have sent comes immediately from your selves though by reason of your ignorance you have been easily seduced and led to set your hands to and in that to speak evil of those things you know not I shall therefore speak onely to such passages in your Letter as do demonstrate to any common eye the undeniable footsteps of the spirit of Error walking amongst you I hope the Lord will inable me so to discover it to you that you may at present be ashamed and grieve that you have been nursing fathers to any of Satans brood and that for the time to come ye may with all carefulnesse learn to avoid the deepdeceit of that seeming Angell of light To begin You first say you present me with such particulars as you could not but dislike except you should be as many now adayes meer Time-servers and men-pleasers and so prove perfidious to your principles and profâ—ssions and make shipwrack of faith and a good conscience and betray your freedoms into the hands of your blood-thirstie adversaries that have so long sought your downfall To this I answer First that many of your dislikes presented in your Paper are such that if you father the ground of them upon me you are false accusers if you look into the 8. Joh. 44. ver Christ will tell you that the Devill is a lyar and the father of lyes And therefore look to it if I am not mistaken the one half of you at least who have subscribed this Paper and these exceptions against my praying and preaching were not present when either of those Sermons were preached yet it seems that beleeving by an implicite faith you have set your hands to them 't was bravely and boldly ventured 2ly
me in the next branch that true Ministers should be no false accusers May the people be such The same spirit tels us that every righteous man will hatelying Prov. 13. 5. The Lord in mercie give you grace to repent if that be not too legall a grace to be wisht to such high flown Christians but however let me tell you that except you repent the Scripture saith that A false wiâ—nâ—sse shall not be unpunished and he that speaketh lyes shall not escape Prov. 19. 5. Paper In the fifth place you say you cannot but wonder at that abominable assertion and false aspersion hinted in our expressions as if the Army would down with truth with Government faithfull Ministers and set up false Apostles c. and how false this is the world sees Ans 1. I cannot but wonder at your abominable ignorance and impudence to call that a false assertion and aspersion and so cruelly to condemne it as abominable and a false accusation which yet in the same place you say was but hinted at in some expressions blush and be ashamed if you be not past it 2ly For what the Army puls down or intends to set up it is not for you nor me to meddle with now therefore no more of that let it suffice that the world sees as you say Paper 3ly That only which I chiefly would answer in this fift place is this you say you conceive that none are true Ministers in our account but such as come by State approbation and have their call from the Bishops and they from the Pope and such is ours if you mistake not Ans To these things I will answer particularly First whereas you say that you conceive that none are true Ministers in our account but such as come by State approbation 1. I answer I shall herein give you a certain account of my judgement and opinion herein which I hope I shall be able to make good against you and all other gainsayers To proceed plainly and by degrees First then I say that our Lord Jesus Christ as he doth invisibly teach and govern his Church by his holy Spirit so in gathering preserving instructing building and saving thereof he uses Ministers as his instruments and hath appointed an order of some to teach and others to learn in the Church and that some should be the flock and others the Pastors Again besides the first founders of the Church of Christ extraordinarily sent and furnished with the gift of miracles whereby they might confirm the doctâ—ine of the Gospel he appointed also ordinary Pastors and Teachers for the executing of the Ministery even untill his coming again unto judgement See Ephes 4 11 12 13. 2ly I say that it is not lawfull for any man how fit soever and how much soever inriched with gifts to undertake this Office of the Ministery in the Administration either of the word or Sacraments by the will of private persons or others who have not power and right to call much lesse is it lawfull for any by their owne judgement or arbitrement to assume arrogate the same to themselves But before it be lawfull to undergo that sacred Ministry in Churches constituted a speciall calling yea beside a lawfull Election which alone is not sufficient a mission or sending or as commonly it is termed ordination is necessarily required I say necessarily required not only to avoid confusion and to shut out Imposters but by reason of divine institution delivered to us in the holy Scriptures See these places Rom. 10. 15. How shall they preach except they be sent 1. Tim. 3. 10. where the Apostle shewing how Bishops and Deacons should be qualified saith Let these first be proved and then let them use the Office Againe 1. Tim. 4. 14. Neglect not the gift that is in thee which was given thee by Prophesie with the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery Againe 1. Titus 5. For this cause left I thee in Creet that thou shouldest ordaine Elders in every City as I had appointed thee Again Acts 13. 2. 3. c. where you find that the Holy Ghost commanded the Prophets and Teachers in the Church at Antioch to separate Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto he had called them and the Text saith that when they had prayed and fasted and layd their hands on them they sent them away Can any thing be more cleare Barnabas and Saul were questionles gifted men they had a Call from the Holy Ghost the text saith so plainly but yet this was not sufficient till the Prophets and Teachers there had fasted and prayed and layed their hands on them Once more see the 5. Heb. the first 4 verses Every High Priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God that he may offer c. And in the 4 th verse And no Man taketh this Honour to himselfe but he that is called of God as Aarou was Now you must know that there is a double calling necessary to a dispencer of the myderies of Salvation viz. inward and outward the inward inableth them the outward authorizeth them to discharge their sacred Function Where there are gifts if God incline the heart of the heart of the Party to enter into the Ministry there is an inward calling yet this alone as I have shewed sufficeth not without an outward calling either ordinary or extraordinary extraordinary callings seeing miracles are ceased we are not now to expect and if any as many now do pretend to such we are not easily to believe and give way thereunto to the ordinary calling by fasting and prayer and the imposition of the hands of the Presbytery as before mentioned 1 Tim. 4. 14. and by the way you may take notice that though the word Presbytery be in these dayes so distastfull yet 't is Scripture proof From hence now my account which you said before you did conceive is this that all that take upon them to execute the office of a Minister of the Gospel ought to have a Calling not only inward but outward thereunto I say not by the Approbation of the State but the probation and approbation of the Presbytery the imposition of their hands And they who presume to undertake to be your Ministers without these whatever their gifts be which many Lay-men Artizans Mechanicks and broken Tradsmen in these dayes pretend to they are no Ministers of the Gospel but deceivers and Intruders And thus I have shewed you whom we account Gospel Ministers In the next place I shall indeavour to remove the great block at which you stumble so often that Crum which troubles you so much even to your choaking almost and that is the Ordination of some of our Ministers by the Bishops Paper You say we have our call from the Bishops and they from the Pope and such is our Call if you mistake not Ans T is well you put in an if here if you mistake not T is no news for you to
yet heard or read of or have spoken with I doubt not but to make it appear to you that these are onely the fancies and devices of Phanaticall Enthusiasts and not to be deduced from Scriptures who because they be dissolute would have no bonds of Laws because they are Schismaticks would have no discipline in the Church and because they walk inordinately they would have no coercive power of the Magistrate to restrain them This is onely the spirit of those Schismaticall Teachers who under a pretence of spirituall freedome will lead you into all carnall libertie prophanenesse sacriledge and faction And have they nor you nothing else to prove Magistracie to be Antichristian and to have no footsteps in the Gospel but Rev. 13. 7. 15. 16. Poore men did not I tell you but now what miserable Expositors and applyers and wresters of Scripture you were to your own destruction will you see how ridiculous you are in this place and how simply and sinfully you abuse Scripture The text alledged plainly shews that power was given to Antichrist to wage warre with the Saints and by his Armies to overcome them and this you bring to prove that the Sword of Justice in the hand of the Civill Magistrate under the Gospel is Antichristian oh miserable ignorance and impudence he that thus teacheth you to understand and apply Scriptures is a blinde leader of the blinde and if the Lord open not your eyes the sooner you will both fall into the ditch Again you urge Revel 12. 11. where the text saith that the Saints overcame Satan by the blood of the Lambe and the word of their testimony and this you bring to prove that the Power of the Magistrate under the Gospel in restraining and punishing errors and maintaining truth is an indirect and an Antichristian way may not he that hath but half an eye see how grosly absurd you are in these things The plain meaning of the place is no more then this That by the death and sufferings of Jesus Christ the Lambe of God slain the devill and all his Angels all the enemies of mans salvation are overcome and the Saints are said to overcome him by his blood as they have their garments washt in the blood of the Lambe as they are justified and sanctified by his blood and by his Word the victory of Christ over the devill and his Angels being obtained not in his own name but for us we that beleeve in his blood and the word of his testimony are said in him to have overcome Satan and his Angels the enemies of our salvation Do you see now how simply you have quoted Scripture here and how little to your purpose Surely this is no small fin thus to abuse and wrest the Word and the truth of God to the maintaining of errors therefore repent for it Again you say the power of the Magistrate under the Gospel is an Antichristian way and you have fairly prov'd it Let me tell you just thus did John of Leyden in Munster all Power of the Magistrate amongst Christians was by him and his followers cry'd down as Antichristian and persecution of tender consciences till he himself had gained power by his seduced ones to murther and banish all the Magistrates in Munster and John himself was got up into the Throne of Soveraignty made and proclaimed by them his followers to be King of the new Jerusalem in Munster where he exercised a great deal of most barbarous and unheard of cruelty and then Magistracie was no longer Antichristian when the Saints there as they call'd themselves were once become Magistrates I onely minde you of this story because the Town and Countrey Note that Giles Hancox one of the Subscriters hath since this taken his Oath for Iustice of the Peace and now executes that office in Cirencester speaks it that some of you that have here subscribed Magistracie to be Antichristian are designed and appointed and are ready to undertake the office of being Magistrates among your neighbours I hope when you your selves come to be Magistrates and Justices then Magistracie will no longer be accounted Antichristian amongst you when the Sword is once in the Saints hands But that I may not discourage you in your young undertakings I will take a little pains to inform your ignorance and to shew you what foot-steps the Magistrates executing of Justice upon transgressors both against the first and second Table hath in the Gospel I hope I shall make it appear plainly to you that 't is so farre from being Antichristian that it is Gods own ordinance and that under the Gospel and you shall see 't is onely ignorance that makes you so impudent as to say that this hath no foot-steps in the Gospel In the first place let me tell you that all the best reformed Churches in Christendome do renounce and detest these Anabaptisticall dreams of yours and most harmoniously and willingly confesse and acknowledge it to be Gods will that the world be governed by Laws by the way remember that the Church is within the Common-wealth and God himself hath appointed the Civill Magistrate and hath delivered to him the Sword to the protection and praise of good men and for punishment on the evill And by this bridle mens vices and wickednesses should be restrained whether committed against the first or against the second Table 2ly They confesse the Power and Authoritie of Magistrates to be the ordinances of God himself appointed as well to the manifestation of his own glory as to the singular profit of mankinde That by reason of the will of God himself revealed in his Word we must not onely suffer and be content that they should rule but also to love them fear them and withall reverence and honour and embrace them as the Embassadors and Ministers of the most high God being in his stead and preferr'd for the good of their Subjects that we should poure out prayers for them pay tributes to them and in all businesses of the Common-wealth which are not against the Word of God to obey their Laws and Edicts 3ly They beleeve also and do willingly acknowledge that every lawfull Magistrate being by God himself constituted the keeper and defender of both Tables of the Law may and ought first and chiefly to take care of Gods glory and according to his place to preserve Religion when pure and to restore it when decayed and corrupted and to this end to restrain and punish as well Atheists Blasphemers Hereticks and Schismaticks as the violaters of Justice and Civill peace Now by what spirit you are led to run out of and to cry down the opinions and practises of all the Churches of Christ in this point as Antichristian every man may judge And the Lord help you timely to see whither you are running headlong not onely beyond the Churches of Christ but into abâ—urdities and extremities which even the Law of Nature teaches poore Pagans and Heathens to avoid who have
Again you shall finde that the want of a Civill Magistrate to sway the Sword of Justice was noted by the holy Ghost as a great plague and a fearfull judgement on the Jews See Judg. 17. 6. and Chap. 18. 1. v. and 21. 25. So likewise on the contrary 't was fore-told and promised as a singular blessing to the Christian Church under the Gospel Isa 49. 23. And Kings under the Gospel are required and commanded to imploy their power to the advancement of Christs kingdom Psal 2. 10 11 12. The Psalm is clearly expounded of Christ and his kingdom by the Apostle Act. 4. 25. and Act. 13. 23. Now saith the Psalmist Be wise O ye kings be instructed O ye Judges Serve the Lord with fear Now ye must Dr Featly in his Dipper dipt know that Kings and Judges serve God two manner of wayes First as men by leading a godly life agreeable to the rules of the Gospel 2ly as Kings and Judges they serve God by enacting and executing Laws with convenient severity commanding just things and prohibiting evill So did Hezekiah and Josiah And then properly do Kings and Judges serve God as Kings and Judges when they do those things in and for the service of God which none can do but they Farther yet ye shall see how in the Gospel Christ himself and his Apostles have approved of the Authoritie of the Civill Magistrate and have commanded obedience to them Matth. 22. 21. Christ commands all to pay unto Cesar the things that are Cesars And he himself payed tribute and acknowledged even Pilates power over him to be from God Joh. 19. 11. Again the Apostle commands all people to submit and to obey the Magistrate and to obey for the Lords sake and for that they are the ordinance of God And therefore surely the Authority of the Magistrate is establisht by the Gospel See Rom. 13. 1 4 5. Tit. 3. 1. 1 Pet. 2. 13 14 15. Again the Apostle commands us to offer up prayers in speciall for them as Magistrates 1 Tim. 2. 1 2 3 4. that we may leade a quiet and peaceable life under them in all godlinesse and honesty Which we could not do except the Lord blesse their government over us May not a man now say to you here as Christ did to the Pharisees Ye erre not knowing the Scriptures what a grosse error is this in you to set your hands to such a falshood as this is That the office of a Magistrate under the Gospel is Antichristian and hath no foot-steps in the Gospel Ye see it hath those foot-steps there which neither you nor all the Anabaptists in England nor all the Devils in Hell shall be able ever to raze out The Lord give you understanding that you may see your error be ashamed of it and repent for it and from it Let 's see what you say next Truly in 20 lines together or more nothing but a throwing out your very gaul in most unchristianlike slanders and reproaches in which too the Divel hath holpen you to belch out as hellish lyes as ever the father of lyes himself vented Oh what a Saint-lik spirit this savours of to rayl and brawl and speak evill of Magistrates and Ministers and all that come in your way In your following page of your Paper ye pretend much to the carriage of Christ and his Apostles you say you are commanded to be gentle and meek and curteous to be moderate to walk as brethren and to beseech men and that you are condemned for following these I leave it even to your selves and to all the world to judge of the meeknesse and lambe-like spirit which you have in this Paper exprest to be in you I leave it upon your own consciences if they be not seared if they be the Lord soften them and give you speedily a sence of your condition for my part I shall beseech God to pardon you Paper You call us vain time-serving self-seeking Teachers turning with every winde perfidious men who will be any thing nay nothing for a little pelf though under pretences of piety penny masters hirelings false prophets that our means is the prop of our ministery That we will not trust God that we are at every word of command from men facing about and turning as we were that we have sworn to maintain Episcopacy with cetera Ans We shall not revile again but as I said commit our selves to God who judgeth righteously We may say of you as Paul said of Alexander the Copper-smith you William and Thomas and John and Caleb c. you have done us much wrong the Lord help other men to beware of you onely before I leave this let me ask you one question or two Pray let me know 't is but a reasonable request from you who have charged us with it in what have you found us vain Teachers hath our teaching been in vain to you we are sorâ—ie for you and say as Paul 2 Cor. 4. 3. If our Gospel be hid 't is hid to them that are lost In whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which beleeve not lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ who is the image of God should shine unto them For we have not preached our selves but Christ Jesus our Lord and our selves your servants for Jesus sake Again how many winds and times have you known us to turn withall we have the Lord knows desired and we hope we have hitherto held fast the profession of our faith without wavering and we trust through Christ that strengthens us that we shall yet stand fast in the faith and quit our selves like men though we have strong shakings we blesse God we have not as yet said a confederacie nor feared the fear of men Again which of us and which way can you make it appear that we are self-seeking men who amongst us have for Pelf or honour proved perfidious to our trust and to our charges we trust that the Lord hath seen that we have noâ— we do not seek our own but every man anothers wealth and the things which are Christ Jesus As Paul enjoyns 1 Cor. 10. 2. And for your parts I think you have as little cause or ground to charge us with this as any for in our labours to you wards even to this day we are able to say as Paul 2 Cor. 12. 14. We are ready to come again unto you and we will not be burthensome to you for we seek not yours but you Again which of us can you charge justly with prophecying or preaching false things to you name the men if you can that are false prophets and prove it against us we tell you again that we are not of those that handle the Word of God deceitfully and we desire to renounce the hidden things of darknesse and we blesse God we can say as Paul 1 Cor. 11. 23. We have received of the Lord that which we also have delivered unto
will tread Satan under foot Ans I answer in that wee are charged as deceivers I tell you here againe we can we blesse God speake it before God that we are not as many that deale deceitfull with the word of God but as of sincerity as of God in the sight of God speake we in Christ and as Paul said 2 Cor. 6. We shall endeavour under all your reproaches to approve our selves as the Ministers of God in much patience by honour and dishonour by evill report and good report as deceivers and yet true 2ly We cannot but smile at your comparison Can you Tho. Clutterbuck or you Tho. Sheppard or the Ironmonger or Shoomaker or Boddice-maker or any of you tell what Janus faces meane Poore men though you seeme to scorne the pretious fountaines as you call them yet it seems you do sometimes so farre forget your selves as to make use of heathen histories 3ly The Lord give you his wisdome if it be his will that you may be once able to discerne the depths of Satans deceipts and wiles And let the Lord go on in much mercy to your soules to pluck off Satans maske and vizard to uncloath unvaile and uncover to you the hidden things of darknesse which are at present so imbraced by you as new light 'T is the desire of our soules the Lord knowes to have Satan discovered and trodden under foot Paper In the next place you say though you have been as Balaams Asse to carry the false Prophets and to call them Divines yet God having now opened your eyes you dare not goe forward in that practise Ans I answer if ever in your lives you carried the burthen of Balaams Asse you doe now we have given you some descriptions already out of these two Apostles Peter and Jude wherein as in a glasse I told you you might see the faces of those whom yee follow And both those Apostles doe likewise add this of them they have forsaken the right way and are gone astray following the way of Balaam the sonne of Bosor who loved the wayes of unrighteousnesse 2 Pet. 2. 15. Againe Woe unto them for they have gone in the way of Caine and runne greedily after the error of Balaam for reward Epistle of Jude ver 11. And if your eyes were were but so farre open'd if you were not more blind then Balaams Asse was yee might see the Angel with his drawne Sword in his hand ready to destroy you for your running on thus to curse the people of God Paper Next you say that we run you through with the Sword of reproach and had wee the Sword of the Magistrate in our hands we would have slaine you because you would not obey us rather then God Ans All that I say to this is as formerly I have spoken to some of the like stuffe the Lord rebuke thee thou false tongue the righteous God judge betwixt you and us in these things which of us or in what have any of us at any time desired you to obey any of us rather then God Set us know or else recant and repent however this is our comfort that the Lord will cleare this one day Paper In your next part you cry out of the monstrous desperate hereticks of these times that condemne your gentle meeke curteous carriage your civility and your moderate brotherly walking for symptomes of heresie Ans I beleeve this comes from a marke of a false Prophet which was lately given you amongst other notes by which you were directed to know them this was given to you as one viz a counterfeit humility and this is no other marke then what Saint Paul himselfe gives of false Prophets Colos 2. 18 23. therefore sure this is no such abominable monstrous and desperate heresie as you call it And for your parts whether your meeknesse gentlenesse courteousnesse civility moderation walking as brethren which you pretend so much to be in you in truth or whether it be counterfeit I leave it to God who sees the inside to judge and to the world to whose eyes this Paper of yours may come ye have here indeed given us a Tast of your meeknesse of your civility gentlenesse moderation and of the Saint-like Lamb-like spirit that is in you Paper In your next place you tell us that we owne in words Christ to be our Lord and Master and call our selves his Ministers if you are so then say you we hope you are able to produce his commission for what you doe And if Christ be your only Lord and Law-giver how comes it to passe that you winde and turne at every command of men Ans I answer wee doe owne Christ to be our Lord and Master and Christ hath and we doubt not but he ever will owne us to be his Ministers so long as wee are able to produce his commission for what we do That we have his commission for our office and ministery that I have shewed you before Paper But say you if Christ be your onely Lord and Law-giver how comes it to passe that you turne and wind at every command of men Ans I answer we acknowledge Christ to be our only Lord and Law-giver But we desire for the information of your ignorance to let you know that Christ gives Laws either immediately or mediatly The immediate laws of Christ are those which are set downe in his written Word But 2ly he gives laws mediately by those lawfull Magistrates who are Gods ordinance amongst men Now when the commands of lawfull Magistrates whom you call men and God cals Gods are such as are no way contrary to or disagreeing from but agreeable to the written word of Christ in a word when their commands are onely in things lavvfull honest just and good our obeying them vvhich you call vvinding and turning is no lesse then an obeying of Christ our Lord and Lavv-giver vvho by his Apostles hath commanded us to be subject to the higher povvers for the povvers that be are ordained of God and hath told us likevvise that vvhosoever resisteth resists the ordinance of God and they shall receive to themselves damnation for he is the Minister of God to thee for thy good Wherefore vve must needs be subject not only for vvrath but for conscience sake Rom. 13. 1 2 3 4. c. And againe submit your selves to every ordinance of man for the Lords sake whether it be unto the King as supreame or unto Governours as unto those that are sent by him 1 Pet. 2. 13 14. Novv on the other side I desire you to make it good to me if you can vvhere any of us have turned and winded at any other commands of men then such as have been the lawfull commands of lawfull Magistrates whom I say we are commanded to obey for the Lords sake and for conscience sake Paper In the next place If Christ be your Lord say you where is his command that you should go seven yeers or more to the University to