day of the 11th month in the yeare 1655. Richard Farnsworth To the Catechisme c. Set forth by the 42. Priests c. ANd in your Catechism you say you believe there is one only God in 3 persons I answer That there is one God is true and you are proved and have confessed that you are wrongers of his Son Christ Jesus and then of him for he and his Father is one Joh. 10.30 And there is three that beare witnesse in Heaven the Father the word and the Spirit and these three are one 1 Joh. 5.7 but where is those three persons you speake of are you not liers therein for he that abides in the doctrine of Christ hath both the Father and the Son 2 Joh. 9. and the Holy Ghost remaines within in the Saints Joh. 14.15 16 17. and these three are one and agree in the unity 1 Joh. 5.7 8. and as Christ hath said I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in one Joh. 17.23 and the unity stands in the eternity which is shut out of the reach of your carnality that are out of the unity and in the enmity and selfe separation wrongers of men and of Christ as you say you are therefore you speake of things which you are not in the true knowledge of and feeds peoples fancies with your conceivings and imaginations you say also that God made man for himselfe but you are gone farr from the end for which you were made that are turned wrongers of him in wronging people and his Son and in running further from him as your selves confesse and so under the curse for you say that he gave a law requireing perfect obedience upon paine of death and if he requires you perfectly to obey him upon paine of death are you not under that penalty and lyable to that paine and punishment that instead of yeilding perfect obedience denieth it in denying perfection and so perfect obedience who live in miscarriages growing worse and worse and running further from God and saying that the doctrine of God the Father and his Son viz the doctrine of Sinlesse perfection were bred by the Devil and detested by Christ and never received by any that had grace c. When the same doctrine was preached and commanded both by God and Christ and both believed in and received by such as had grace guiding them and such as yeild perfect obedience to the divine will and law of God them you revile and are not ashamed to call them heretiques and cast them into Prison if they do but walke up into the same things which you preach in words and speake of and seeing you out of the life of the same tell you of it though now you have confessed it that you are of what you set others to get instead of owning perfection and yeilding perfect obedience to the law and will of God you persecute them that do and lives your selves in the disobedience to the divine law and will of God and are in your covenant with sin and imperfection in the miscarriages and as you say wronging both Christ and men as thou Richard Baxter and you 42 hath done but thou and you all are seen and your covers will not hide you but leaves you bare who are out of the doctrine of Christ and under condemnation and in danger of stverlasting paine and death due to the disobedient except you consider betime and truly repent give over deceiving of soules yeild perfect obedience as you say that you may come out of imperfection and persecution and forsake your miscarriages and give over wronging Christ and men make restitution and humble your selves under the mighty hand of God and make it manifest not by your flatteries and excuses serpent-like and still continue or grow worse and worse in the miscarriages and wronging God men c. but by ceaseing your persecution and your preaching for hire and beareing rule by your meanes c. and turning to that of God which reproves in secret for your miscarriages and forsake them and your lusts and make your amendment and returne manifest by your fruits and live not in your flatteries but as you have confessed your wrong to the people and promised your amendment make good your word and go make restitution for them for the same and give over your trade of dâ—ceit there is many Scriptures which you have summed together and set people to get over mixing your deceipt and imaginations amongst them and hath not the Pope and Bishops as you do garnished and painted themselves in their masse books Pulpits and Catechisms c. with the Saints words when they was as farr from the Saints Spirit life and practise as you are and you for all your painting and garnishing your selves are as farr from the Saints life and practise as they were And if the people get all your words to say over will that change their nature which hath not yet changed yours and did not your Fore-fathers use it before you and yet left you where they was except more painted outwardly and grown more subtle but within full of venome cruelty and persecution and out of the life and power of truth as is made manifest for you say in your third Answer where you speak your own condition that as men did willfully sin and fall from God and happinesse you say in your 19 page that you are wrongers of Christ and men and in the neglect of the work of God and in miscarriages c page 3.4 in your Agreement then are not you in that condition entered willfully into them through Satans temptation and are not you in that condition under the wrath in the fall under the curse nay do I say any more herein then you have confessed for you say that man being tempted did willfully sin and I say you that are wrongers of Christ and of men you have done the same and so fell from God and hapinesse into miscarriages persecution and wickednesse under the wrath of God and curse of the law and the power of the Devill through disobedâ—ence as you are so say you in your third answer we are by nature dead in sin I say then you are not by grace yet quickened who are from the divine life and what can dead men act in that death and life of sin for God but against him and is not that the cause that the killing ignorance you speake or remaines yet unkilled amongst you and your people that are asleep as you say in security in sin unturned to God ignorance of that which concernes their salvation and therefore doth make it appeare that you are strangers from the life of Jesus and the covenant of promise and knoweth not the life of truth nor the quickening of the soule nor yet how to kill the killing ignorance that remaines amongst you unkilled and dead men that are dead from the divine life set up dead Papers and dead words without life
the wrong c. If you walk in that wrong way wherein you miscarrie and wrong God and Men growing worse and running further therein do not the Papists the same and are not you and they therein one and so walk with them in that way whose actions proceed from one ground and Spirit though in some words and formalities you differ but in the evill and wronging God and Men c. are Joyned together and therefore may stop your mouths of condemning others for that which you are found guilty of your words as well as your actions beare witnesse against you and your bitternesse and persecuting the servants of Jesus as your Prisons and barbarous or cruel usage at Evesham and other places may witnesse for the truth and against your deceit and wrong done to men and God as you say in your agreement therefore you and the Papists goes on in one nature together the Papists you say bring all â—he people to confesse their most secret sins unto their Priests and do not you labour to bring the people to do so unto you the Parish Masters idle Shepherds and hireling Preists and then are not you and the Papists therein both one in nature and property Ezâ—k 3â— â—â— â— though differing a little in words and colourable clauses And where you tell of creeping into houses who more then you creeps into the Popes houses which you with and from them call Churches but let me aske you that run so out of them from whence you sprung wherein do you and they differ in worships and practise therein Whether in manner or matter if in manner onely you differ and not in matter then do you not agree in the maine if so then are not you and the Papists in religion and worships as well as nature and property one though differing in some words formalities c. but both in the vaine traditions and observing your fancies and braine imaginations as the Serpents seed did in all ages You resolve in your wills to set on a worke in your imaginations promising salvation upon the performance and damnation upon the refusall page 30. and so would merit Heaven by your actings in the nature from whence ariseth negligence and miscarriages page 3 4. and wrong to men and to Christ page 19. and do not the Papists hold the same thinking to merit Heaven by their own actings in that nature and spirit of deceipt which guides them to neglect the work of God and also into miscarriages and to wrong men and God like you and persecuters and seed of evill doers If so then are not you and the Papists one therein and why do you crie out against that so much in others your selves being guilty of and found in the same and doing their work onely differing here and there in words formalities some colourable glosses c. You say page 23. you have all need to joyne heart and hand to help one another safe to heaven and all little enough you say I answer yea and too little too for in that nature in will not be done which teacheth you to wrong Christ and Men for if in that nature you could do it why might not the Papist in the like nature with you do the same and are not you therein with the Papists one or if any get out of your ignorance and come from under the wrong and out of the miscarriages in obedience to the teachings of Christ the true teacher and Saviour whom you wrong that they get into Heaven before you or sit with Christ Jesus in heavenly places whilst their bodys are on the earth as the Saints at Ephesus did whil'st their bodys were there and such as are saved by grace having their souls purified in obeying the truth through the Spirit where selfe is denyed are not you through ignorance of the way that leads out of error heresie miscarriages Popery and darknesse ready to call such hereticks as are come out of that and into the glorious light and injoyments of the sons of God to worship the Father in Spirit I say are you not ready to call such hereticks who are come out of it viz the darknesse Eâ—he 1.6 Co. 1.13 1 Pet. 1.22.23 24. Reve. 21.3.23.24 Joh. 4.23.24 2 Cor. 3.16.17 Gal. 4.4 5 6 7.8 1 Cor. 4.6.7 and heresie which you live in and would rank them with the Papists under that denomination to cover and shelter your selves thinking to cast that upon them which they are freed from and you and the Papists are found in union with and guilty of being both of you out of the right way and in the wrong that are neglecters of the work of God and wronging God and men and living in the miscarriages and so in the heresies error and disobedience to the truth following your own Spirits and obeying the imagined fancy formed up in your own wills and living in the vaine traditions and customes of the Heathen as you and they do but your mist dazels the eye of none but the willfull blind and such as are in sleepy security and in sin unturned to God who are already deceived and the eye covered or blinded by which they should see both delusion and heresie in which you and they therein agree who grow worse and run yet further from God c. For the Papists believe they shall never be free from sin here in this life and therein they are reprobate concerning the true Gospel soul-saving and purifying faith and you believe the same viz that you shall never be freed from sin here in this life and then must not you with the Papists have a purgatory seeing that nothing which is uncleane shall in any wise enter into the holy City Rev. 21.27 and the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God as it is said and by the Ambassadour of Christ declared 1 Cor. 6.9 10. and are not you reprobate concerning the true Gospel Gal. 5.20 21. soul-saving and purifying faith who denieth the property of it in denying purity of heart and abiding in darknesse and the nature opposite to the true light believing or saying you believe you cannot or shall not be free from sin here in this life and therefore are not you and the Papists both one and your faith and theirs in nature and property being dead and corrupt therein agreeth together but I deny the Papists and you the wrongers of Christ and Men and that faith which doth not purifie the heart witnesseth that faith and power which doth Act. 15.89 Hâ—b 2.10.11 and as the Saints did as the Scripture witnesseth and God which searcheth the hearts beareth me witnesse as he did them who giveth the holy Ghost that purifieth the heart by faith and we know that we were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from that vaine conversation which had been received by tradition from your fore Fathers c. Who received Silver and Gold and did not the work which
10. And you say page the 9. it is undenyable that the everlasting perdition of multitudes is caused by their ignorance and I say are not you the untaught teachers the cause of their ignorance and then are not you guilty of the blood and losse of those under you and the soules of those multitudes that through ignorance go into perdition whose negligence and wrong done to God and them is a great cause of that ignorance c. Therefore you say you are brought to a deep consideration of mens ignorance through your neglects and now you say you apprehend you have wronged Christ and them page 19 but what are they mended by your confession if they go into perdition and wherein do you amend since your confession but seeing your preaching to be uselesse or profit little or nothing but to deceive soules keep people in ignorance and wrong Christ and them you pretend that you will use some personall and familiar Instruction as a meanes to prevent that killing ignorance Page the 9. and that you call Catechisme setting the people to get the Creed Lords prayer ten Commandements or any Orthodox Catechisme with your expositers the same meanes which hath beene used by Bishops Prelates Episcopals your fore-Fathers if not by the Pope and yet the killing ignorance is left unkilled amongst your hearers and you the untaught teachers and when they have followed you in that you will leave them where they are and so the ignorance being unkilled amongst you and them is left and doth remaine c. To the People c that are put upon it to get the Lords Prayer Western Creed and Ten Commandements c and are yet in sin unturned to God in the selfe separation Jer. 4.25.27.28 29 30 31. Isa 9.14.15 16 17 Isa 59.2.3 4 5 6. MInd the light in your consciences that reproves for sin and evil Joh. 1.9 Math. 5.20 Job 3 3.5 Ephe. 5.11.12.13 Col. 3.5.6 Joh. 8.12 and obey that to be led out of deceipt and filthinesse for if you get all the words your Preists requireth of you and do not come to forsake the evill and imbrace the good and so witnesse the crucifying of the old nature and be borne of God it will little or nothing availe therefore mind the light of Christ in your consciences that discovereth ignorance error and miscarriages to you to follow the light that thereby the ignorance may be killed or works of the Devill destroyed and you by following the light end Counsel of Christ may be led out of darknesse ignorance and miscarriages into the light of life Joh. 8.12 And remember that the Ambassador of Christ 2. Cor. 5.20 the Councellor that declared the Counsel of God Acts 20.27 in his message and counsel co the Church said to them Pray with the Spirit and with the understanding c. 1 Cor. 14.12.13 14 15 therefore when you pray and say our Father and be not begotten by and borne of the Spirit of God how can you pray with the Spirit and true spirituall understanding for some are bastards and not sons Heb. 12.8 therefore if the bastards pray to God as their Father they are without the true understanding 1 Joh. 5.20 and without the true Spirit guiding therein and though your 42 Priests Pastors Rectors and untaught teachers and in the miscarriages let you to act in your own wills and bid you get these words to say over and some other which they have gathered together promising you salvation thereupon and they themselves without pardon for their wrong done to Christ and to you as they themselves say yet let me tell you that the Lord Jesus hath said Math. 7.20.21 that the tree is known by its evill fruits wherefore saith he By their fruits you shall know them Math. 7.15 c and to you I say that the Lord Jesus hath said that it is not every one that saith Lord Lord that shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that doth the will of my Father which is in Heaven so that you may get words and yet be without the life and not one jot nearer Heaven and it is at postible for you and hypocrites and evil doers to get words to repeate without spirit and true spirituall understanding and live still in the killing Ignorance in you unkilled as before though you may get all the words and have them ready to say over which your Priests and Pastors in their miscarriages untaught teachers or Popish Rectors hath imposed upon you and yet for all that remain hypocrites Bastards and be Ignorant both of the new birth and out of the way to salvation and yet ye may say Lord Lord and use the words saying Our Father which art in Heaven when your hearts are from him Isa 29.13 14 15 16. And may also for all that be Bastards Heb. 12.8 and neither sonnes servants nor Children of God but like such as Christ said was of their Father the Devill and be for condemnation as it is said John 8.44 Matth. 23.33 Mark 12.38 39 40. And yet may use scripture words and be Proud Covetous Persecuting Envious Mat. 6.5 Mark 12.38 39 40. and Children of the Devill John 8.44 1 John 3.15 Math. 4.5 6. For all that not being born of God and being out of the eternall life and without the true spirit and spirituall understanding and also may be under the wrath of God And in a stare of condemnation and being unrighteous shall be shut out of the Kingdom of Heaven and so go into perdition take notice of that 1 Cor. 6.9 10. Rev. 21.8 17. Job 1.6.7 8 9 Jer. 23.1 Jer. 21.30 Joh. 8.40 41 42 43.44 45.47 48. And it is possible for the Devill to preach the letter of the Scripture in his disciples Proud Covetous Persecuting and Self-seeking Priests Pastors and Rectors and set people in the evil nature to get the same and not change it by repeating them over in the Miscarrying and wrongfull nature and being in the old birth and under the curse untaught of God and without the true spirituall understanding or the good spirit guiding them and may be for condemnation for all that Did not the Devill preach Scripture to Christ when he came to tempt him and say As it is written c. Matth. 4.5 6 Yet Christ rebuked him knowing his voice and said Get thee behind me or Go hence Satan Matth. 4.10 11. So ought all Christians to say to the Satanicall Ministers knowing their voice and their fruits to be from the Serpent that lives in Miscarriages doing wrong to God and Christ as yours say they do witnesse their own words in their Agreement page 4.19 c. But when Christ reproved Satan and denied him then he fled from him who came to have wronged him 2 Cor. 6.17 Math. 7.23 Eph. 5.11 2 Joh. 9.10 11 2 Pet. 2.3 Jude 11. as your teachers do him and you but your duty is to deny them and bid them depart because they
to God who scarse can speak a word of sence as in your accusation against them you say about the matters of Salvation and you are the wrongers of Christ and them page the 19. who ate dead in sin and prone to do more evil continually promising amendment but instead of amending are accusing your selves and sayes you grow worse and depart yet further from God Answer the third of your Catechisme therefore you do not truly repent that doth not heartily return out of your Miscarriages and from the flesh and the world unto God then you do not believe nor receive Christ by an effectuall faith who are turned wrongers of him and therefore in not loving the good and forsaking the evil to turn out of your Miscarriages and from the world unto God you that are wrongers of men and him and lives in such disobedience you are not doing all that which your selves say is to be done the which being neglected and undone is cause of damnation then are not you in that condition consider of it that neglects the work of God and leaves it undone and instead of doing it continues in your miscarriages the works of the Devill growing worse as you say and are running further from God therefore you are not running for him nor doing his work take notice of that And if your people get the words which you set them to get will those sayings bring them into the effectuall faith and out of their Miscarriages unto repentance and throughly to forsake the Devill the World the Flesh and heartily turn them therefrom unto God c Or may not an Hypocrite and a dissembler get the words to say over and for all that remain an Hypocrite and a dissembler still and so be a child of the Devill and if you and they get the words to repeate or say over and tell of forsaking the Devill the World and the Flesh and of turning from them unto God and do not turne from them unto him nor come out of Miscarriages but grow worse doing wrong to men and Christ as you do who are also running further from God c. saying in words and faigned flatteries they will turn from the evil to the good c. and do not forsake the Devill the World the Flesh Joh. 8.34 Math. 23.14 16 but refuses to turn from them unto God are not such Hypocrits and Dissemblers who are sayers and not doers And are not such three-fold more the servants of sin and children of the Devill consider of it and deceive not your selves with shewes and pretences flatteries colourable glosses And do not you both tell the tale and give the answer and must not the people be bound by you to say as you say and speak your condition whether they be so or no for you speaking your own conditions saying you are dead in sin continually prone to evil growing worse yet runing further from God you would have all others to be or say so if they be not so but if they through the experience of grace and goodnesse received from God make reply and say we are quickened by grace and are growing in the same having received Christ by an effectual faith which purifieth our hearts and therefore we have forsaken the Devill the World and the Flesh and are unfainedly turned from them unto God and being born of God 1 Pet. 1.22.23 and guided by his Spirit we are made the Sons of God 1 Joh. 3.1 and so are heirs of Salvation Rom. 8.14 and are made pertakers of the Inheritance of the Saints in light for which we give thanks unto the Father who made us meet to be pertakers thereof Col. 1.14 and are come to the Spirits of just men made perfect and as we have received Christ Jesus the Lord so we walk in him rooted and built up in him and stablished in the faith as we have been taught Heb. 12.22 23. Col. 2.6 7. Col. 1.3 9 10. verses a-abounding therein with thanksgiving in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdome and knowledge for in him dwelleth all the fullnesse of the God-head bodily and the Saints are compleat in him who is the head of all principality and powers as the Scripture witnesseth and if they say so and say they witnesse with them would you not call such hereticks and say it were delusion or blasphemy and the like c And do not you in your Catechisme preach up the same in words as the condition of the obedient c. and if any witness the same condition which you tell them of and say I am a Son of God and heir of Salvation grow in perfection say you are out of the life of what you exhort to but are as you confesse wrongers of Christ neglecters of his work and therefore have not received him by the effectual faith neither have you forsaken the Devill that lives in perfection nor the flesh that are in Miscarriages nor the world that are prone to do evil and growing worse continually neither are you heartily nor in the least me a sure turned from them unto God who are as you say running yet further from him and therefore running from him are not sent of him and so cannot profit the people at all and in disobeying his law and wronging of him in wronging his Son and being still in the Miscarriages and growing worse c. you are not doing what you say is to be done upon pain of damnation and therefore not doing it but neglecting and leaving the same undone may it not be concluded from your own words being found in the neglect that you are for the damnation you speak of in your Agreement but would you not persecure them which witnesse the same in life and power which you speak of as the condition of the obedient who are Sons of God c. and tell you that you are out of the life of the same and are neither Sons nor Servants of God but wrongers of him and his who are in your Miscarriages and growing worse c. To speak Truth against deceit is no rayling And this is but according to what your selves say who are witnesses against your selves both accusing your selves your people in that called your Agreement who have fully laid open your deceit if you did but see it but is not the Serpent now as blind as ever he was Ignorant in the things of the Spirit of God Joh. 8.44 doth not well know his Fathers work and what he bringeth forth who assumed to call Abraham his Father when Christ sharply reproved him for it and said to the Serpents seed You are of your Father the Devill and his works you will do yet though he so said he did neither rail not revile neither were his sayings un Gospel like being thereunto guided by a gospel-Gospel-Spirit yet you will be ready to call that railing which is in reproofe to your deceit which
the rule of creating of Priests Ministers Pastors Teachers and Rectors or ordering amongst them c. untill the raigne of Henry the 8th in this realme and then did not he cut the Pope out off that which he had brought forth into Parochiall rights so called as Tithes Obventions c. And did not he set up Arch-bishops and Bishops and they created or called your fore-Fathers the Priests Pastors and Rectors and Teachers c And were not the Arch-Bishops their and your Creators or Callers cut off by the late Parlirment and rendered uselesse and do not you now call and create one another and if so are not you selfe-callers to selfish Ministry and how can you cleare your selves from being instead of young Popes or like the young Bishops that were before you creating or making and calling Priests Pastors Teachers and Rectors and so self-callers of self-seekers putting out and in at your pleasure displeasure so are creating begetting or calling one another for your own ends now are found as you say wrongers of Christ and men and therefore may well fear that God will require their blood at your hands and so you are on uncertain grounds men also as you say of miscarriages growing worse and are yet without pardon for the same The papists sets up a worship in their wills and in that nature which teacheth them to neglect the great work of God according to his word and do not they excommunicate such as will not walk with them in their inventions and worship their Imaginary worship set up in that nature out of which ariseth all Miscarriages c. and do not you promise the same And then wherein do you and the Papists differ but onely in the maner if you do so agree in the matter and be all one in the main c. It is not your calling others Papists that are not that can cleare you from that root neither doth your saying that you are the Ministers of Christ prove you to be so who are found out of his doctrin and not knowing his commandes or call his ministry and worship that refuse his way and walk in the practice of his ministers who your selves are Lords and Masters and called by man approved sett up and are receiving your wages of the world and persecuting Christs messengers that are sent to witnesse against deceits and deceivers and would think to make people believe you to be that which you are not by casting that upon others which is yours received from your fore-fathers and returns upon you and Papists again to remain from whence it came and the burthen you are like to bear and judgment from God expect for the wrong against him and men which you do and have done And now that your deceits is made manifest and testified against you are seeking to revive your former work to deceive people by your flatteries and false confessions and Colourable glosses for you set up your will-worships in the nature which is contrary to God and hath taught you to neglect his work as you say according to his word in that nature by which you have been led into your miscarriages and promiseth salvation upon the performance and damnation you threaten upon the refusall and say you shall proceed with those that refuse and deal with them as the obstinate despisers of Instruction ought to be dealt withall but are not you the obstinate despisers of the Instructions of the Lord who have neglected his work c. and lives in the miscarriages wronging Christ and men c then expect to be so dealt withall in the first place your selves for all this you say you will do to others c. whilst you are bewailing your own negligence in the work of God and confessing your Miscarrigaes and wrong by you done to God and men and telling of the little effect which your ministry hath wrought and of your peoples sleep in security and being in sin unturned to God and you had then to go a begging for your pardon May 4. 1655. And yet you being in the old birth and the fall in the evil nature bringing forth such evill fruits and whilst unpardoned you frame your Image resolves to go on and states your time layes your penalty and promise how you will deal with those that refuse to worship your Image set up in your wills the old nature and will not submit you threaten to deal with them as obstinate refusers of Instructions but is but such instructions as proceeds from your obstinate spirits which hath kept you in the Miscarriages and neglect of the work of God Luke 16.11 15. Luke 12.45 46 27. Math. 25.41 42. Matth. 7.21 22 23. c. wronging both Men and his Son and wants your pardon then as you say for the same and I say you cannot tell whether the Lord in the first place will deal with you as obstinate refusers of his Instructions and cast you out as unjust stewards for both your obstinacy neglâ—gence and wrong done to men and to Christ his Son he hath good grounds to proceed against you on and needs little evidence from others for your own mouths and tongues hath confessed the same and it had been wisdom to had waited till the triall had been over and to know whether you should have a pardon or be cast out for what you in the rebellion of your hearts against the Light and Living truth of God c. have already done And to see how you should have been dealt withall your selves for the same before you should have threatened what you would do to others Rom. 2.5 6 8 9. Rev. 14.9 10 11 Rev. 20.10 13 14 15. that refuseth your Instruction Remember That when you so said you was not then in the counsel of the Living God and therefore you spake it without the fear of God rashly out of a reprobate sence presumtuously saying so before your pardon for your high contempt that wronged Men and Christ c. and knew not but that you might be condemned at the judgment seat and cast out as reprobates and neglecters of the work of God and for your Miscarrariages c. into perdition and receive according to your deserts and into the pit which for others you have digged you your selves to be cast and be tormented for Joh. 16.13 Heb. 5.8 9. at the last In page the 4. you set up your will-worships which you call Catechisme end personal familiar instruction not being then pardoned nor knowing the Spirit of Christ to guide you out of your Error Heresie Miscarriages and Wrong by you done to men and to Christ page 19. to guide out of deceits flatteries into the truth which spirit is for instruction to guide all that obey it you say that Catechisme personal Instruction is for the killing of Ignorance and quickning the understanding and so puts that instead of the Spirit Eph. 2.1 Col. 3. Rom. 8.13
these promises cleanse your selves from all filthinesse of flesh and of Spirit perfecting holinesse in the fear of the Lord. And Christ prayed to his Father for those that were given to him that they might be made perfect in one Joh. 17.23 And all these had grace and Christian experience that both received the doctrin of perfection and walked in it and some preaching it and some pressing after it and some attaining it their words and fruits and the Spirit by which they were guided who had grace and Christian experience with such as received the doctrin of the Father and the Son having grace and abiding therein doth witnesse against thee Richard Baxter and thy false doctrin who garnisheth thy self with their words and calls them thy Warrant from God when thou and you 42. Priests are without their life and not in their practice but are in your miscarriages wronging others and growing worse c. Therefore are you without your warrant from God and are none of Christs ministers but enemies of the truth and are against the doctrin of the Lord Jesus but you are made manifest and your deceit and false doctrin is denyed by the Children of Light and in and with it you are reproved and against testified You say you receive the publike maintenance to this end that you may be enabled to lay out your endeavours for the good of the whole parishes from which you do receive it c. page 13. of your Agreement But have you not made it manifest to have received the publick maintenance of your parishes whom you receive it for your evil endeavours that are men of miscarriages unpardoned growing worse and runing further from God whose work is by you neglected according to your own sayings and your people understanding little you have said or many yeares preached to them who can scarse as you say speak a word of sence concerning the matters of their salvation and here you are witnesses against them for their Ignorance c. as well as you are witnesses against your selves for your miscarriages and wrong done to Christ them and is not your negligence one chief cause of their Ignorance and Ignorance the cause of destruction and for runner of eternall perdition who say you have wronged Christ and them page 19. Therefore may it not be concluded from your own confession that you are a chiefe cause of souls destruction and by your confusion have you not run into self-contradictions and makes it manifest that you take the publike maintenance of your parishes not for good endeavours but for your miscarriages and so for evil endeavors who hath not profited the people that are so Ignorant of the work of God and their soules good that they can scarce speak a word of sence in matters of salvation as you say and you are the wrongers of them and of God according to your own sayings and so deceives souls for your own ends but the Lord hath shaken his hand against your dishonest gain and such as through covetousnesse maketh merchandize of people Ezek. 22.12 23. your Judgment of a long time lingereth not and their damnation slumbereth not that with you are such as you may read 2 Pet. 2.3 13 14 15. But let me aske you From whence you and those that pretend themselves ministers of the Gospel who receives Tythes or Hundreds a yeare c. tooke their first example and by whom to receive Tythes by compulsion and that which they and you call their publick maintenance c. had you your example so to do from the practice of the Apostles of Christ Observe Though Priests was very scant after the rot or pestilence spoken of in the time of Edw. 3. yet then the parish Priests was not by any manner of colour to receive above 6. marks wages by the yeare without the Bishops dispesnation and suspension the pain of people of holy Church so called giving above 5. or 6. Marks wages a year to a Parish Priest they was to pay the doubble of that which they gave more to any parish priest then 5. or 6. Marks wages in the yeare and it was to be converted to the use of Almes at the arbitrement of the Diocesan c Anno. 36. Ed. 3. Chap. 8. or from the constitution and decretall epistle of the Pope c. For the ministers of Christ had no command to take Tythes nor hundreds a yeare for preaching the Gospel but freely they received and freely they gave according to Christs command And I read in the law of England that Tythes after the Apostles time were free for the people was not bound to pay them so farr as I see till the Councell of Lateran in Pope Innocents time and then by his constitution and decretall epistle c. the Tythes it seems became bound c. and were to be paid by the subjects of the Realm and so came Parochiall rights as they call them c. to the Priests or Patrons of the Churches so called Then it is cleare to me that you have your ground to take Tythes and maintenance of the World for preaching c. not from the Apostles practice and order but from the Popes c. And that mist of Popish darknesse is not so farr dispelled or expelled from you as to cause you to forsake the Popes Constitutions or your Tythes and maisteries and follow the example of the Apostles and Ministers of Christ and to leave your Miscarriages great parsonages and give over wronging God and men for your own ends and to deny your selves and your preaching for filthy lucre and cease bearing rule by your meanes And if any of you receive the word and command from God become servant to all and minister freely as the ministers of the Gospel who dwelt dwell in the Light do afore-time did but before you do so you must turn from the broad way where the Lust Pride Pompe Covetousnesse earthly-mindednesse and vain glory of the world hath so much liberty in you and cease persecution take up the crosse to your wills Learn to know the bridle for your tongues And let the Issue of lyes and slanders be stopped c. that the stone may be set upon the neck and head of deceit Cook in his second part Institutes saith Before the Councell of Hateran Tythes were free or then any man might have given his Tythes to what spirituall person he would and it was provided at the Councell of Laterean c. that Tythes c. should be given to the Rector or Parson of the parish c. under pretence that he that gave spiritual food should reap temporal so farr as I gather see Cookes second part Institute about fol. 641. Here the Popes and their Priests Rectors c. it seemes like you they could call themselves spirituall men and Ministers Rectors c. as you do and they claimed or took Tythes and publick maintenance under pretence of Ministring spirituall things as
are Satanical for all their colourable glosses being in the miscarriages charging God with an Imperfect work page 18.19 of their Agreement wrongers of him of men and of Christ his Son but they are seen and made manifest and wo will be your portion that knowingly in their deceits joynes with them doth uphold them and did not the cheif Priests or the Devill in them and in the Scribes and Pharisees preach the letter of the Scriptures Isa 9.15 16. Isa 3.11 Hos 6.9 Joh. 5.39 40. Isa 2.12 Luke 20.12.19 20 21 23 27 28 45 46 47. verses but wanted the life of them as your Priests do who are wrongers of Christ and of you as they say and made use of it to tempt Christ withall but they and such like were and are for the greater condemnation as Christ hath said Marke 12.38 39 40. And doth not the Devill now in the chief Priests Persecuters Proud Covetous Envious ones and their disciples preach the letter of the Scripture and are out of the life of them seeking honour one of another as the enemies of Christ did that had the letter but wanted the life Joh. 5.39 40 41 42 43 44 And do not they make use of the letter that are out of the life make use of it to oppose the naked truth withall Do not Proude ones preach the letter of the Scripture yet live in Pride and Coveteousnesse or in union with the life of the Devill who is the King of Pride and enemy of all unrighteousnesse c. And doth not the Devill in Proud and Covetous ones as well as Envious and persecuters c. teach them to wrest the Scriptures for their own ends and to plead for pride c under such covers which are not with the spirit of the Lord though the woe from God be against them denounced Isa 3.11 Isa 20 Isa 30. 2 Pet. 3.16 Isa 30.1 c. And doth not the Devill in Covetous ones teach them to break the command of God which forbids covetousnesse And doth not the Devill in Covetous ones and self-seekers c. 2 Tim. 3.1 2. c. now in these latter dayes teach them for their own ends to make use of and preach the letter of the Scripture when they are transgressors of the commands of God and persecuting and killing the Innocent for he that persecutes and Envies the righteous seed he is a murtherer and is out of the life of the Spirit of God as faith the Scriptures 1 Joh. 3.22 15 And so in the lust of the Devill Joh. 8.44 And in union with the Image of Pride in proud flesh and bowing to it with capp and knee as well as worship an Imaginary and false worship and transgresseth the commands of God and therefore must drink deep of his wrath Rev. 14.9 10 11. And if covetousnesse is Idolatry then both Covetous Priests and People are Idolaters and therefore are they and all false worshippers and bowers to the Image of Pride one in another who are persecuters of the righteous seed both transgressors of the commands of God and out of the new bath new nature and out of the new Covenant and life of God and in old envy Wrath Lust Self-Love pride vain glory and then are they not still in union with the life of the Devill which evill fruits floweth there from and doth not the Devil in Pope Papist as well as in prelates persecuting self-seeking Priests Pastors Vicars Rectors and Proud painted Antichristian Ministers make use of and preach the Letter of the Scripture being without the life of truth and in the nature of the Devill and are not you that are wrongers of Christ and in Miscarriages c. and they guided by an evil spirit Joh. 8.39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48.52 verses and in union with that evil nature as the Jews and cheif Priests and such was that persecuted Christ Jesus yet they preached the letter and spake of Moses and the prophets for their own ends by the Spirit of the Devill Joh. 8.39 and would not receive the truth nor forsake their Sins Pride Will-worship Self-love Covetousnesse Self-righteousnesse vain glory and honour of the world but refused to deny self take up the daily crosse and come unto the life and power of truth so that Christ complained against them Joh. 5.40 and letting their visitation slip he wept over them Joh. 5.40 41 42 43 44. and therefore that you may come to understand the truth learn to pray and preach aright minde to be obedient to the Light of Christ in your consciences which reproves in secret for evil and doth convince you of sin self righteousnesse unbeliefe Pride Covetousnesse Persecution the love and honour of the world unrighteousnesse and your Miscarriages and of the wrong you do to Christ and men and as your duty is to depart from iniquity so you are to yield unto the light and follow the same that you may come out of your miscarriages and cease doing wrong to Christ men forsake the evil of your wayes by the light discovered cease to do evil and learn of that which is good for to do well which reproves you for the evil that you may come out of the wrong way unto the right and know the power of truth manifested and Christ at work in your hearts and soules destroying the Pride Lust Covetousnesse Self-love vain glory unbeliefe and so all unrighteousnesse as it is discovered to you and also beget you obeying and following the light into righteousnesse pure unfained love and out of the Hypocrisie into the faith unfained and true patience perfecting his work that it may possesâ— your soules and dispossess impatience and distrust that your soules may come into joy and peace through the working of the power of God killing sin and quickening you by his spirit begetting and bringing forth that which is pure holy just and good to be your rule and guide as in such it is where the birth is known that is of the spirit of Gods then might you call him Father by divine right and so in truth and righteousnesse with the spirit and true spirituall understanding might you pray with such a right as of Christ are taught and are guided by the Spirit of God c. to say Our Father which art in Heaven Hallowed be thy name and then would you hallow and so Sanctify the name of the Lord God in your hearts and be ready thereby without your Miscarrying priests to give an answer to every man that shall aske you a reason of the hope that is in you with meeknes and fear 1 Pet. 3.15 having a good conscience as the Saints and Children of God the Father hath and aforetime had 1 Pet. 3.16 in which the mystery of faith is held 1 Tim. 3.9 and not in your Miscarrying nature or a piece of paper from your untaught teachers that know not God nor his eternall Living word but are wrongers
you live in and have confessed in your Agreement and say 1 Joh. 2.4 Math. 23.27 Math. 23.24 1 Joh. 1.18 16. Phil. 3.2 Acts 10.29 Luke 3.7 Math. 23.33 it is Censorious and un Gospel-like yet notwithstanding the Spirit of truth and they that were guided by it called the Serpents seed by names proper to their nature as Lyers Hypocrites blind-guides Seducers and Antichrists as well as Doggs Wolys Foxes Serpents and Vipers and if it were not un Gospel-like in them so to do being thereunto guided by a Gospel-Spirit and how comes it to be more un Gospel-like now in them that are thereunto guided so to say by the Gospel-Spirit or was not the Serpents seed then as well as now offended at it and raised persecution against them that witnessed by the Spirit of truth against their deceits as the Serpents seed now doth consider of it and Judge your selves for the tree is known by its fruits And in your sixth answer you are telling how Christ proved his doctrine but I say you do not prove by your fruits that you are in the same but out of it and confesseth as well as proveth that you are none of his Ministers but wrongers of him as your words and actions against you witnesseth and therefore you should first by your fruits and practise have proved your selves to have been following his example and the practise of the Gospel Ministers and then you had done something for both he and his to wit true Prophets and Apostles have sufficiently thereby proved theirs without you whose lives and the Spirit by which they were enspired stands to witnesse against you Joh. 14.6 Heb. 7.25 Heb. 5.8 9. 1 Tim. 3.15 Joh. 14.17 Job 1.6 Gal. 4.6 Rom. 8.14 1 Joh. 2.14 20 27 and such as are out of the way of truth and running yet further from God who through ignorance sets up the letter and your Catechisme as the way into the truth and knoweth not that Christ is the way to the Father and to salvation without you and wrongers of him c. as the letter witnesseth and so is his light Joh. 8.12 and Spirit the way out of darkesse and guide into all truth Joh. 16.13 and is the standing rule in his Church the piller and ground of truth and that the holy Spirit doth enlighten mens hearts is true but the letter doth not so nor your Catechisme as in your 7th answer it seemes you would have it neither hath it yet turned you from Sathan unto God who are in miscarriages growing worse and as you say continually prone to do evill and are running yet further from God and therefore you are neither in the faith nor joyned to Christ that are running from God and turned wrongers both of men and of Christ neither are you justified therein but are unpardoned for the same as your selves confesse and so are not made the Sons of God that are not borne of him nor quickened by grace but dead in sin and living in your former and present miscarriages growing worse and worse and so are neither sanctified nor that peculiar people you speak of in Answer the seventh in that called your Catechisme For you say The peculier people are made the Sons of God and sanctified unto him overcoming the world the flesh and the Devill and are Zealous of good works serving God in holynesse and righteousnesse c. But I say you make it manifest that you are not sanctified nor justified then according to your sayings you are not made the Sons of God nor that peculiar people which are persecuted by you who live in the miscarriages growing worse and worse your deeds proves your sayings therein against you that are yet running further from God and turned wrongers of Christ and of men but his peculiar people that are justified and sanctified they do not so but witnesseth against those that live in miscarriages that are wrongers of Christ and his whose blind Zeale carries them forth into persecution and unrighteousnesse and therefore are Zealous in an evill work like you as both your writeing casting the innocent into Prisons and your actions against you declare And where you tell of the end of the righteous and wicked in Answer the eighth of your Catechisme In reply thereunto Let me tell you that you have sufficiently proved your selves to be the wicked and therefore expect their reward or that which is due for the same for there is no respect of persons with God who will render to every man according to his deeds even Indignation and wrath unto them that are contentious and obey not the tâ—uth but obey unrighteousnesse as you do that live in Miscarriages and grow worse and worse Rom. 2.6 8 9 10 11. verses like such who after their hardnesse and Impenitent heart are running further from God are treasureing up unto themselves wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous Judgment of God and as you may read Rom. 2.20 And you say in your Ninth answer of your Catechisme that Christ hath appointed that fit men should be Ordained his Ministers to disciple the undiscipled but I say you are out of that Royall ordination and are not those fit men therefore are not appointed to be his Ministers for those that are chosen by Christ and so fitted and appointed they are his freinds and do his commands and he hath ordained that they should go and bring forth fruit that their fruit should remain and because they are not of the world but chosen out of the world to witness against the evil of it Joh. 15.14 15 16 19 20. Joh. 7.7 therefore are they hated of the World as Christ himself was but instead of being hated of the World and suffering for Christ bringing forth fruit to God you are beloved of the World and in your Miscarriages are growing worse and bringing forth fruit to the flesh who are running yet further from God and turned persecuters also of his who are wrongers of Christ and them and therefore you have made it manifest that you are neither fitted nor appointed of him whom you so wrong and run further from and therefore are you unfit to disciple or teach others to walk in the right way your selves being still in the wrong continuing therein and are yet running further on that are running from God and so run unsent and therefore are out of the Royall Ordination and Gospel appointment who are yet dead in sin continually prone to do evil and therein growing worse and so under a state of Condemnation your painting and garnishing your selves with the Saints words and living out of their practice in your continued Miscarriages and growing therein worse makes it manifest that you have not learned the lesson of self deniall to come out of them that you might follow Christ through the daily crosse and Minister in the same and so you have proved that you are very unfit to teach others who are not