A Plain Discovery OF The UNRIGHTEOUS JUDGE And FALSE ACCUSER Wherein is soberly and in the fear of the Lord brought to light and tendered to the examination of the Upright in Heart the Spirit of that Pamphlet intituled The LEPER Cleansed Published by Richard Ballamy of Tiverton As also A clear Vindication of the PRINCIPLES and PRACTICES of the people by him charged from those Reproaches therein heaped upon them under the notion of ANABAPTISTS Published by Robert Steed and Abraham Cheare Servants of Christ among his despised People Prov. 18.17 He that is first in his own cause seemeth just but his neighbour cometh and searcheth him Job 13.7 Wilt thou speak wickedly for God and talk deceitfully for him Job 31.35 36 37. And that mine adversary had written a book surely I would take it upon my shoulder and binde it as a crown to me I would declare unto him the number of my steps as a priâ—â—e would I go neer unto him Printed for Henry Mortlock at the Phoenix in Paul's Church-yard neer the little North-door 1658. To the Reader Courteous Reader IT is not without a multitude of disadvantages on our hand that the ensuing Defence cometh into open view arising not only from the Reproach that is on us and the weakness that is in us of saying any thing worthy of the cause which in the main we desire to plead but withal to say no worse from the infirmity of the age we live in the generality of men being led into the affecting and dislike of things rather by tradition and upon the credit of such as they reverence then upon a right judgement of matters in their own evidence Yet are we not discouraged from sending this Testimony forth though it hath neither Patron nor Approbation but only Truth to be its Shield and Buckler being clear in this that it was not an Affectation to appear in publick that hath led us forth to this Undertaking but a necessity of vindicating the Churches of Christ that we walk withal from such notorious slanders as also of delivering the Readers of that Pamphlet from the manifest abuse it puts upon them exposing them to a temptation of giving credit to very many untruths and mis-representations of things and therein to a disgust against the Way and all that walk therein which is the main design thereof The Book was indeed by many thought unworthy of an Answer for a time but seeing it grew into repute by the countenance of some that are accounted men of worth who scattered it abroad as an undoubted Evidence of Truth we have thought good to give men a warning at present against such artifices to deceive that for the future they may be the more cautious of giving credit to invectives of this nature which will not be much our care hereafter to make Replies unto as having it in our hearts to expect many such trials from men of perverse minds apostatizing from the Truth in this hour of temptation That the presenting this to thee comes to our lot who dwell at some distance from the place where these affairs were transacted is occasioned from our observation how that the Reproach of this falls heavier upon us in the Countries then it doth on them in that Town where the advantages of informing the Enquirers and clearing the accused are at hand by reason whereof that people being less sensible have been the less careful of performing this service which might seem more properly appertaining unto them Yet neither doth our distance of place render us uncapable of giving thee the true state of things in that our selves were eye and ear-witnesses to the Proceedings of that Congregation in the two principal matters of fact he insisteth on viz. with William Facy and this Richard Bellamy and for the other Occurrences have taken all possible care to obtain such a perfect account of things in the naked truth of them as might render us capable of giving forth the Narrative with all exactness In the whole however we had in our eye the Readers accommodation and therefore endeavoured to be as brief as possible in matters that may be so expressed yet may it not be reasonable to think we can clear our selves from such an heap of slanders in as few words as he may cast them on us especially we have been enforced to be somewhat large in giving our understanding about what he lays down as grounds from Scripture convincing him of Infants right to Baptism which he offers as a main hinge on which he turned from us and thence loads us with the common name of Infamy that we pass under among the sons of men Our Method is to follow our Accuser step by step wherein we repeat his words and have willingly omitted nothing that deserves an Answer although it be against our selves in the whole being desirous to approve our selves to him that searcheth the hearts with him we leave the undertaking to dispose of it and us and at his pleasure to him be Glory for ever Amen ERRATA Page 8. line 4. for Act. 2.34 read 39. page 9. line 49. for hating read suiting A plain Discovery of the Unrighteous Judge and false Accuser To all that love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity whom these may concern Greeting Precious and Beloved IT is not our purpose to entertain yee with the Narrative of the manner of our receiving the truths of Christ in which we stand or of the preparations of Spirit the Lord hath given in order to this work and by the help of this attire to allure your pious minds to our Cause and Persons These vails have somtimes it may be obtained their ends but being grown the common vizour of every il-favored cause we judge them not only impertinent to the matter in question but also unfit for us to publish of our selves and no less unmeet to be imposed on you whom we write unto as ignorant and simple but 〈◊〉 as such who can discern the things that differ in their own qualities Richard Bellamy since he was cast out of Comunion with us at Tiverton or whoever he be personated by him hath printed his book against us Called The Leper Cleansed The title page tels you of what the book is comprehensive Therein amongst severall laudable matters spoken of himself he pretends to lay open the Anabaptists and their unchristian wayes and wiles to deceive and seemeth desirous to be thought a person able to make great discoveries and conquests as having been througly versed in the Doctrine and Practises of the whole body of that party by his nigh two yeers converse with them in society amongst our Brethren in Tiverton But all these terrible flourishes notwithstanding we herewith tender this man and his writings against us to your examination and the true state of our Doctrine Way and Practise as it stands accused and judged by him And if indeed we be convicted for cunning deceivers lyers in wait hypocrites enemies to Godliness enemies to
or term in either of his propositions But the next work we find him upon is an impertinent confused accusation that the Anabattists obscure and darken Scripture and perswade the world that children have no right to the promise till they are actually called Wherein we shall use some patience to bear his abuses and frothy traverses to give an answer as God shall inable Our sence of the Scripture alleadged is this That ver 39. hath a necessary and plain coherence with verses 37 38. wherein we have an inquiry of the Jew wounded in conscience for sin and the Apostles full and comfortable resolution of the case to this effect that God hath made his precious promise in Christ to Jew and Centile of pardoning repenting sinners and of giving to them the holy spirit and that in this grace and promise the Jew and his children had a precedency and priority to all other people and therefore they repenting and being baptised should receive the mercy promised This resolution of this Scripture is not only pertinent to the case but also very coherent with it self and consonant to other Scriptures It was a pertinent point for comfort to the Jew that grace was tendred to all that all scruple from personal incapacity might be removed by such rich mercy and it was an additional comfort that the tender of this grace was specially reserved to be made to the Jew and his children before any others as is elsewhere also declared Rom. 2.10 Acts 13.26 46. But withal it was profitable to inform the Jew who boasted much of his birth-priviledg that although he had a priority in the tender yet as to the grace it self he was but in a parity and likeness with all others that a right frame of spirit might keep him from being puffed up under a mistake of that wherein his Interest lay and this also we have elsewhere frequently instanced Gal. 3.28 Rom. 3.29 30. Eph. 4.5 6 7. And that therefore the same common requisite of Faith and Repentance in order to Baptism must be found alike in all persons that would partake in the benefit of this grace indeed Mar. 16.15 16. He that beleeveth and is baptised c. this is the Doctrine that Christ comanded to be preached to every creature for salvation and this is the order by which it should inure to every creature first that they repent and then that they be baptised And let not your mindes be shifted aside from this truth by a pretence that the Spirit of God in these and such-like places of Scripture is onely to be understood of an invisible work of grace in the hearts of the saints and not of the principle upon which the Gospel-Church was to have its constitution Of which you have formerly in like case been warned 1. Jesus Christ came to gather the true seed into his granary the Church and not the chaff Mat. 3.12 and his sanne the Gospel-administration was fitted as a fanne to doe the thing according to the doctrine held forth he came not to set up a Church after the Jewish principle Mat. 16.18 of a natural generation of the sons of men but by spiritual regeneration to be made the Sons of God and therefore tells Peter that he will build his new Church upon the rock of personal profession And 2. who shall presume to lay a right in natural generation as a principle to give an enterance into the visibility of the Church of which there is not one titlte to be found in all the New Testament from Christ or any Apostle while in the mean time the Scriptures of the Prophets and all the New Testament doe everywhere abound with evidences that run upon a supposition of a real profession of a work of grace as the state of the Gospel-Church and many passages against the principle of a seed according to the flesh the principle of the bondage covenant as hath been promised 2. Whereas he chargeth us with perswading the world to believe that children have no right to the promise till they are actually called It is a very odious and false suggestion the man was ill instructed to publish it this we say that a right to the promise doth not conclude a right to be baptised We affirme that children have a right to the promise as well as the aged but to have a right to be baptised is not given to old or young till the rule of the word be complied with according to which baptisme is to be administred As for his discovery of our mistake which he thus rectifieth Accuser Call hath no relation to children but to them that are afar est 1. Because the children are joyned with their parents in the promise which is an intire proposition in the Text. Answer We say that his affirmation and his reason are of the like worth both made up of a meer trinkling about words his reason supposeth that in a continued discourse a word in one proposition can have no relation to words without the same which is sensless or that there may not be more then one logical proposition in the same coherence of matter which is also as vain as the other We have not yet ended with this Scripture Acts 2.39 We lay our claime to it as eminently justifying our practise of baptisme and that it speakes not in favour of our opposites at all although alledged as a chief evidence against us The promise is to you and to your children therefore repent and be baptised This is part of the Apostles argument to the Jew which plainly infers this That the reason upon which the title of the Jew and their children to the promise was to inure was repentance and baptisme thereupon otherwise there lay no force at all in the Apostles argument if the promise would inure where there was not found in the person the prescribed qualification of repentance antecedent to baptisme If the children should be admitted to baptisme before repentance then the promise carries more to the children then it would afford to the parents although the parents title to the promise be reckoned antecedent to the childs and the childs title through the parent If call in the close of the 39. vers is to be restrained to them afar off and to have no relation to children as is alledged what a disproportion would it have produced in the converts to the Church that the Gentiles and their children being comprised under them afar off must first be called and then baptised but on the part of the Jewes the effectuall calling of the parents and their baptism sufficed to justifie the baptisme of the children without calling Our Accuser proceeds with a long train of arguments we cannot pick out the coherence they have with what had been before alledged we shall therefore take them in their course as the Lord shall give assistance and make our answers to them severally without taking advantage from their inconsequential application either to his
and gives them utterance to the edification of themselves and others that they standing by may say Amen or Hallelujah at such giving of thanks Unto the performance of which work although under the shadowy dispensation there were added Musical Instruments and Singers specially appointed to attend that service which are done away in Christ And although in the beginning of the Gospels confirmation some extraordinary gifs of the Spirit adorned it which are now ceased yet the substance of it abides as a duty still in force to the which we are not convinced that the common artificial Rhymes Measures and Tunes are essential In the practice hereof according to the measure of the Light and Grace of Christ the Churches and Christians accused we trust endeavour to be found faithful to the Lord. Although whatever imperfections or defects of this kinde were apprehended among us by our Accuser yet in pretending this neglect of ours as a just ground of his withdrawment from us he shews himself to have been a very unfaithful member while he walked with us in that he never declared any offence or scruple about this matter until he had thus left us nor yet of the next thing of which he chargeth us Thus Accuser Thirdly For neglecting of Family-duty maintaining it to be a mans liberty not his duty to pray in his family Answer What our Principles and Practises are in this matter we have hinted before Touching the later clause which is here told you but very falsly to have been then presented by him as the ground of his departure as there is not the least colour why he should lay it upon the whole Church from whom he withdrew much less upon the whole of that people whom he stileth Anabaptists so neither seems it so honestly charged on the person where all the pretension that we can learn of it is the passages appear to have been thus At the time he mentioneth when some Members came to confer with him about the Reasons of his departure among others he gave this for one because we denied Family-duties It was replied to this effect We do not deny it but do own and affirm That it is the Duty of Parents and Masters fearing God to be frequent in calling their Families together instructing them in the Principles of Religion endeavouring by all means possible their Conversion and Salvation and in their presence to spread their condition before the Lord praying for them that God would set home such instructions and endeavours with power c. But afterward several things being debated a Case was put What and if the Master had an ungodly Family in which he could not judge any one did fear the Lord with whom he could joyn as with one Spirit in Prayer whether he was bound twice a day viz. Morning and Evening to joyn in Prayer with them It was replied by a Brother That if he saw advantage might come to them thereby and found the Lord making his Spirit free he might so do it was his liberty but as to any positive command that did binde him in such cases the party thus speaking said he knew none Upon which one in the company drew this conclusion from these words That we made it a mans liberty not his duty to pray in his Family How fairly this is inferred from what was said and how righteously fathered upon the whole and how certainly this instance was a ground of his leaving us which himself saith was afore this conference is left to the sober Christian to judge Accuser Fourthly For denying the power of the Magistrate for punishing evil-doers to wit Quakers Answer What the Principles of the people whom he in the general accuseth are in this point is full well known to the world by their confessions of Faith particularly that of the Congregations in London Art 47. the words are these A civil Magistrate is an Ordinance of God set up by him for the punishment of evil-doers and for the praise of them that do well and that in all lawful things commanded by them subjection ought to be given by us in the Lord not only for wrath but for conscience sake and that we are to make supplication for Kings and all that are in authority that under them we may live a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty Rom. 13. 1 Pet. 2. 1 Tim. 2. As for this particular Congregation they have not onely explicitely testified their Fellowship with these Churches in this Profession of Faith but it is well known to the Accuser that several Members have and as occasion offers still do address themselves to the Magistracy in that place for their punishment and reformation of such disorders as fall under their Observation Onely they say They are not perswaded that the sword of the Magistrate is a mean appointed by Christ in the Gospel-ministration for the punishing or reclaiming of an erring or mis-guided Conscience in matters that do depend upon the revelation of the Spirit As for the people mentioned as an instance to wit the Quakers it was affirmed by those Brethren at that Meeting and still is that wherein the Quakers should be found to commit any Offence against the Rules of good manners the Magistrate hath power as fully to proceed with them as with any other men Accuser 5. For slighting the publick ministry Answer This charge is left exceeding raw whether it relate to all the people by him called Anabaptists or to this society in Tiverton or to those members only in particular whether it be slighting a publick ministry as not being the ordinance of Christ or whether it being some kinde of testifying against that which is usually called publick ministry If the latter then whether it be only that publick ministry in Tâ—â—â—rton or else universally whether it be their persons their gift or standing that is slghted here is latitude for the Reader to make construction as he pleaseth Our understanding in this matter is we doe own and honour as an ordinance of Christ a publick spiritual ministry or service to be performed to him and his people in the things of the Gospel by persons qualified in some good measure from the Lord and called and set apart according to Christs laws in his Church both as to that ministry of the word of reconciliation and edification and to that of serving tables And though this be not as yet fully brought forth and established in that congregation it being a falshood in scorne castion them that Willtam Facie is their Pastor if by it be understood a man chosen and ordained to that office as through grace it is with some Churches with whom we have communion in the Lord yet is it that mercy in order to which they are waiting on the Lord for more of his light and spirit in making proof and tryal of the spirits of such among them as they have best ground to judg the Lord hath bestowed most of his gifts and graces on
so that God may not lose his Glory nor any of his people lose their comfort which if you tender be sure to prize those ways in which you received the first Conviction lest you one day lie down in sorrow for going away from God and from the striving of his Spirit Let me ask you that have with drawn from that Ministery to whom ye can say We are your work of the Lord have you the same tenderness the same affections to God that you once had in former days are not these much decayed O return from whence you are fallen and repent And now I shall conclude by giving the Reader an account of the sad experience that I have had in two yeers digression from the publick Ministery in Tiverton which God did at first bloss to the awakening of my soul Answer As he draws towards his Conclusion you have the Application of his miserable Doctrines after he hath with some flattering insinuations bespoke the farther attention of his ignorant young Christian as he calls him in his Title-page That now he may give a testimony of his fixed enmity to the way he was in and shew farther what Oracle he hath consulted with and what Spirit he is of he adventures on the house top in the sight of the Sun under the coverts of his two yeers sad experience to cast upon the way of the Lord and them that walk therein such horrible reproaches as the thoughts of Temperance Righteousness and Judgement to come would have made him tremble at having though seemingly aimed at them in Tiverton therein yet so shot as may indifferently reach all them anywhere that serve the Lord Jesus Christ under that name of reproach Under all which as a part of our Crown we could quietly sit down and pray Lord lay it not to his charge Father forgive him he knoweth not what he doth appealing for our Vindication to the Consciences of all serious unbyassed and unprejudiced Christians that have tasted our Doctrine and observed our walkings in the three Nations whether the things be so or nay and so leave it to the God and Father of the Spirits of all flesh who is coming out to pass righteous judgement in all such cases for his poor people that wait for him But yet for their sakes at whom he levels who being ignorant of us may be apt to be offended at such an impudent testimony we present a few animadversions on the two or three first things he saith the rest being such wretched falshoods as we abhor the thoughts of and delivered in such general termes without any particular instance wherein it is possible to trace him we reckon not worthy any other answer then that Psal 120.2 3 4. and 52.1 4. Accuser 1. I do not remember that I have had one conviction under all the sermons which I heard whilest I walked among them but that sence of my condition which I had before did abate and by little and little fall away after I turned my back upon the means which God made use of in working upon me Therefore I beg all those upon whose hearts God is working to take heed of despising or slighting those instruments with whom God is present Answer The Reader must suppose his meaning to be either that he felt no such thing as motions quicknings soule-searchings c. while with us or else that whatever of that kinde he had they are now to be accounted no other then delusions and so not worthy the name of convictions or of being remembred If the former be imagined to be his meaning we have abundant and pregnant testimonies how that many times he hath declared his having met with God to admiration while he hath with us been waiting on him so that he would not have given such opportunities as he hath reported for the world But if he mindes all these to have been the delusions of his own heart we shall not contend about it but that likely they were so or that he dissembled those pretensions of enjoying God Only it further shewes the mercy we have of being delivered from such a deceitful mâ—mber who either then belyed the spirit while he owned such operations to him as were none of his or if they were the spirits works doth now in effect deny them Nay the mistake is very great if it cannot be made good that he being shortly upon the publishing of this pamphlet in his name demanded by a member how he could date affirm such a thing that he had no convictions c. replyed that he never had sayd such a thing If so the Reader may guess what hand it 's likely himself had in compiling the book which with other evidences if we liked to produce them would put that matter out of question Accuser 2. I was drawn off by these men when I was in the greatest probability of receiving good from the ministry that I ever was for I doe remember still the impressions which were made upon my soule by those truths which I heard from Mr. Chishul a little before I was thus drawn aside which did work mightily to conviction and to resolution in me but the devill envying my prosperity sent me this thorne in the flesh and their insinuations and temptations did so prevaile with me that I left this ministry to attend on them which was but a diversion from the work of my soule and I finde that whereas before I had some things of weight upon my spirit these were soon layed aside and I had nothing to doe but to dispute about Baptisme and to raile against ministers so that my former awakenings were turned into drousiness and doting about questions Answer How unskilful this man is of judging about Convictions appears in part by what is last said How infaithful he is in reporting them is no less evident by considering that when he came at first to make out among us a profession of his faith in order to fellowship with us he testified that the first convictions that were wrought on his soule were through the word of the Lord held forth in the Church after which as himself said for worldly respects he went again to attend on the publick ministry but was there met with by some word of Mr. Chishul which put life again into his former convictions begotten by the ministry with us whereupon he returned again and on a declaration of the work of faith was baptised and admitted If this testimony of his was in truth and a true work of grace was on him then did the Lord witness to our ministry if he deceived us in that profession then hath the Lord witnessed to our rejecting him he went out from us because he was not of us Whereas he lays the stress of his coming to us upon our insinuating and tempting him after the strictest search it doth not appeare that any were urgent with him at all but that of his own voluntary inclinatition he proposed his desires of
proportioned to it and afterward fell in with it yet in all this long track of time there was no distinguishing ordinance to be administred to infants of believers or any known doctrine to that purpose notwithstanding the far-fetcht notions which some have wandered after to finde it out from that passage of the Sons of God and daughters of men Gen. 6.2 Which very probably was found in the family of holy Seth in that time of universal corruption of all man-kinde Nor in that other of the saving of Noah and his family in the Arke neither of which nor any other thing was or was deemed to be an ordinance established in the Church to be administred in infancy True it is at circumcision it began and by the law of Moses circumcision was taken in with the other institutions which went before it and there it received its full enstalment and became the head-ordinance of the Levitical ministry This administration of the Covenant of grace is usually called in Scripture the old Covenant or the first Covenant Heb. 8.7 For if that first Covenant had been faultlesse c. Ver. 13. In that he saith a new Covenant he hath made the first old It is also usually called the law Rom. 4.13 14 For the promise that he should be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law but through the righteousness of faith for if they which are of the law to wit the people of the old Covenant be heirs faith is made void to wit the people of the new Covenant And Heb. 10.1 The law having a shadow of good things to come and not the very image of the things c. Gal. 4.21 Ye that desire to be under the law doe ye not hear the law This Covenant while it stood although it were very glorious yet the Spirit of God never exalted it in dignity above the degree of an Handmaid appointed for the time being to minister to the everlasting Covenant and then to be utterly cast out of the Church together with her seed according to the flesh whom the Apostle calleth servants and not sons Gal. 4.7 All which we have prophetically yet plainly and fully instanced in the family of Abrahans under the type of the Gospel-Church under the persons of Hagar and Ishmael Gen. 21.10 11 12. Cast out this bond-woman and her sen for the son of this bond woman shall not be heir with my son with Isaac c. The mystery of this Scripture the Apostle unvaileth at large Gal. 4.22 31. Where he sheweth that the two women vers 24. under an allegory are the two Covenants the bondage Covenant and the free Covenant vers 25 26. that is the law and the Gospel and that the Isaacs were the true seed of the Gospel-administration ver s 28. called the children of the promise and saith the Apostle such was himself and all the Churches of Galatia to whom he wrote vers 31. Not borne after the flesh as was Ishmael vers 23. but borne where there were no possibilities of nature to bring forth a seed even by the power of God and spirit of adoption vers 5 6 7. By a mother which in the other respect was altogether barren and desolate vers 27. Rejoyce thou barren that bearest not c. that is shee was in no such mariage-Covenant whereby children should be brought forth unto her as were the children of the former marriage-Covenant but in that respect being left absolutely destitute should yet have many more children then that Covenant had which brought forth children by fleshly generation Again this old administration the Spirit of God Heb. 8.5 Termed a service unto the example and shadow of heavenly things And Chap. 9. vers 9. a figure for the time then present And in Chap. 7. v. 19. and cha 10. v. 1. That it made nothing perfect And that it was by the Lord Jesus blotted out as an hand-writing of ordinances that was against us which was contrary to us and took it out of the way nailing it to his Cross Col. 2 24. There ended that Covenant there expired the law the force and authority upon which that administration stood And there was the prophesie Gen. 21.10 of casting out the seed according to the flesh never more to claime a priviledge upon that account absolutely accomplished and fulfilled And thenceforth the children of the promise are counted for the seed Rom. 9.8 Two hard shifts are made use of by some to avoid the evidence of these and the like scriptures against infaint-baptisme which might be alleged to the same effect First Obj. 1 they say that what hath been alledged from Gen. 24. and Gal. 4. Tendeth only to prove that the legal Covenant and carnal seed as it stood priviledged by that Covenant was to give way to the free Gospel-Covenant To this we say Rep. 1 That the Covenant of the law and the covenant made with Abraham in the letter of circumcision had with them an eminent renovation and ratification of the everlasting covenant yet were both of one and the same nature authority and use John 7.23 Acts 15.5 Although not given together as neither were the ordinances of sacrificing and all alike signified and served unto the same heavenly mystery of the grace of God in Jesus Christ We close with them herein and crave no more from these Scriptures then the total abolishing of the legal covenant with all its apputtenances of which circumcision was a chief as hath been proved We say that the exclusion of the seed according to the flesh upon the account of the exclusion of that covenant excludes the seed according to the flesh for ever because it can claime a standing by no other right It is also suggested Obj. 2 that the Scriptures alledged unto the point of the two covenants and the two seeds in them respectively priviledged is not to be understood of any others intended by the seed of the free woman then of real or invisible saints and not of the visible subjects of the Gospel Church To which we say Rep. That if the Spirit of God hath made use of these discoveries as a standard and rule to reforme and conforme visible Churches unto both in their doctrine and practise and that also upon occasion of the corruptions which by the imposing of the legal covenant and natural seed had invaded them as is most evident to have been the case Acts 15.5 10. If no such matter at all concerning invisible faints any otherwayes considered then in visible Church-order be to be found in the scope and intention of the Apostle which also is evident Then let no person give up their reason and understanding to such impertinent and incoherent interpretations against the plain drift of the Spirit of God and the work of reformation therein pursued And thus much of the Covenant of Grace before the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh wherein we would not be understood in what hath been
for that work As for the ministry of the nation we have this to say We own and honour many of the men not only as holy but as such that have received gifts and graces from the Lord which he hath blessed in the exercise of them But as for the forme of their standing as ministers in office in the Church of Christ we judg it not to be according to the rule of the Scripture Neverthelesse we doe not own nor willingly allow that in this case any should take up railing accusations or unsound and unsavoury expressions such as gender to strife rather then to godly edifying but doe pray for exhort to and labour after this that our speech might be alwayes with grace seasoned with salt that we may know how to answer every man If the Accuser had the knowledg of and was grieved with any such hard speeches either from the whole or any members his faithfulness would have been in exercise to have testified against it in his place while he had communion with us his utter silence in bearing any witness of this kinde till now was it seemes from hence that he knew he was second to none in any language of that nature Accuser I offered to give them a farther account of my withdrawing from the hypocrisy and wickedness of one William Facy who is their present Pastor but they refused to heare and desired I would not cast dirt to their face I desired that they would please to give an account what they had against me but I could get nothing but this from them viz. you are withdrawn from us and have neglected your place among us Answer In this passage is all the colour the Accuser hath for what he pretends to be one main occasion of publishing his booke viz. that he could not have liberty to speake for himself which was thus at this conserence wherein his five unrighteous grounds were at large debated he several times began to insist on what he calls the wickedness and hypocrisy of William Facy which now being at liberty in printing he displays at large Of which the Reader may in it's place expect an examination The matters he maketh so large an outcry of came to pass while the Accuser walked as a member there who as he was acquainted with the mans sin and fall so also declared himself fully satisfied with his being humbled in the sence of it to the dust and publickly in the Church praised the Lord for his repentance and recovery But now beginning to make a narrative of all those matters in the presence of his other friends with the same rancour of spirit as may be perceived running through his book it being six moneths afore that he had so soemnly witnessed his satisfaction in the others repentance he was desired to desist from so doing unless he had any thing to lay to his charge either before or since those acts of which the Church had took such publick cognisance and had proceeded against him with such severe censure but there was nothing of any other kinde could be produced In that he sayeth I could get nothing but this from them You are withdrawn from us and have neglected your place among us These brethren came to him not as from the Church but upon his motion to speake with him neither was the place or company judged expedient to open what was to be laid to his charge besides this manifest withdrawing of his it followeth not that therefore the Church had nothing else to charge him with By this time he hath made his report how righteously let the impartial judg what principles he found among us That which remaineth except here and there a repetition of what hath been said before is only what carriages and miscarriages he met with among us with his observations on them and instructions to young Christians c. from them All which discovery of personal failings and infirmities should it be admitted that they are truth would not be of that weight upon the deliberated thoughts of the grave and spiritually judging man as that he should hence condemn the profession and way we walk in unless there appeared in the nature thereof somthing of a cause producing necessarily such effects To such a one therefore it might suffice besides the stating of our principles to declare in simplicity of heart as in the presence of the Lord that our soul loatheth such abominations in our selves and others But because this remaining part of the engine may do execution upon the simple and harmless ones toward whom it is professedly directed and our God having not left us without boldness of appeal to him righteous matter for the clearing our selves to men in divers things falsly presented touching us we presume on the readers patience to proceed Accuser Then they sollicited me again to return to them but seeing they could not prevail they summoned me to appear before them such a day I told them that if I might have the liberty to bring some friends of mine with me I would meet with them this being granted and the day assigned I desired Mr. Fortescue Lowman Minister of the word in Cadlie with some other friends to be present whom I found very ready and accordingly at the sams time appointed came with me to their meeting where were present some of the ablest of that party in these parts both from Plymouth Dartmouth Tornes Boveytracy Bampton and severall other parts whom they had invited to assist them and it is remarkable to behold the just hand of the Lord who will not bear with sin nor suffer his truth to fall to the ground as soon as we came into their meeting it pleased the Lord to strike such a damp upon their spirits and cast them into such a hurry that not a man among them would ingage to justifie their proceedings but one Thomas Glass who was not of that society but a teacher of a company of them at Boveytracy in the name of the rest of the Anabaptists desired that all such as were not members of their society would withdraw I told them if my friends should not be present with me according to appointment I would withdraw also knowing the inconveniency of being with them alone when there was no one to testify the playn truth of things He told me if I would deny the authority of Christ and his Church I might unto whom I replyed That the authority of Christ I did own but your authority I did deny William Facy not willing to be laid open joyned with this motion and desired my friends to withdraw Then Mr. Lowman told them he had somthing to propose to them before he did withdraw if they pleased Thomas Glass replyed Pray withdraw for you have nothing to doe here So we withdrew and one of my friends said Report no more that we resuse to give you a meeting which false report they have often spread to deceive the simple and to carry on
for the promise is to you Here I desire the reader to take notice how the word of command depends upon the word of promise and what an inseparable union and connexion there is between the command and the promise Answer It is a most false and sensless inference the right to the promise we grant to be the ground of the Apostles perswasion to repentance and baptism but it is no ground of a persons being baptized without repentance neither is it so layd down by the Lord or by the Apostle But observe the dealing of this man he requires baptism saith he v. 38. and what next shews the reason v. 39. the promise is to you and to your children and then on he runs that the word of command depends upon the word of promise with an inseparable union and connexion without taking notice of the conditional qualification of repentance no less in the command as he hath devised to call it then baptism yea antecedent to it What wonder if a corrupt mind drive a person headlong to maintain a justification of smaller by greater evils Having first found out in the Apostles declaration of a right to the promise in persons in order to conversion that the same imports a right in a visible Church-state That here again he also hath found out a command for baptism disjoyned from a comand to repent with an inseparable union and connexion directly against the letter of the text Accuser The same reason alleadged by the Apostle why the parent should be baptised is rendred by the same Apostle as a reason why the children should be baptised for the promise is to you and to your children Answer Let the accuser whoever he be enjoy what he demands we consent to him herein that the reason of the baptism of the parent is the reason of the baptism of the child but the reason of the baptism of the parent by vertue of this right in the promise cannot take effect at all or for ever without the qualification of repentance and if the reason rendred by the Apostle be the same for the baptising of the child then it must bring repentance with it to the water as the Eunuch did faith to Philip or it can receive no baptism if the Apostles reason be rightly alleadged Accuser Nay the very same command expressed to baptise the one is implyed to baptise the other for if some or any to whom the promise is made may not be baptised there can be no force in the Apostles argument Answer We are not willing to contend with our opponent about small matters to wit how the Apostles counsel or exhortation Repent and be baptized may pass by the name of a command But having layd down a truth for the substance in what he first affirmeth we shall joyn issue with him in it 1 we consent that the command to be baptized to parent and child is one Then what saith the comand Repent and be baptized We answer What God hath joyned together let no man put asunder The accuser was telling but now of an inseparable connexion he might have better observed it here then where he sought it But 2 Though we approve our accuser in the first part of what he affirms yet we must leave him to himself to make good his reason viz. If any to whom the promise is made may not be baptized then there is no force in the Apostles argument We make no question but that notwithstanding the multitude of Converts at this Sermon yet there were very many Jews to whom this promise was made equally with those that were converted who persisted in their obstinacy and thereby rendred themselves and their children incapable of baptism upon the Accusers own Principles nevertheless the Argument the Apostle made use of was not therefore without force because they might not be baptized The Accuser having put an end to the cruel torture with which he hath racked the Scripture beyond all bounds of sobriety he leads you to see his fair fruits of better information where we believe you will finde enough to discover the person 's very great want of a sober Spirit to say no more Accuser Thus the Lord satisfied me about Infant-baptism being thus satisfied I went to hear the publick Ministery but this coming to the ears of the Anabaptists there came three of their Society the nex day to me to have an account concerning this thing I told them If they would be pleased to come at a time appointed I would give them the Reasons of my withdrawing from them and accordingly they came the Preachers and Principalest among them where I gave them an account of my withdrawing from them as many of my Friends can bear me witness which was as followeth 1. Their denying the Children of Believers a right to the Covenant 2. Living in constant neglect of an Ordinance of Christ viz. singing of Psalms Answer Thus the Lord satisfied me c. and in his entrance on this of Baptism he saith And upon serious enquiring into the Word and earnest seeking of the Lord it pleased him to satissie me and a little after but by considering I saw their mistakes c. If the Accuser deserves the praise which seems desired by him and allowed to him of having with much search of the Scripture consideration and Prayer sound out and set in order these Grounds wherein his satisfaction lay before he departed from us would it not seem somewhat unhandsome dealing and beneath a learned Minister that above a month after our Accusels departure from us these our accusers meditations should be publickly preached in that Town in matter and form well-nigh verbatim as he here hath written them without acknowledging whose Collections they were but we leave them to agree whether the one's claim to them in the Pulpit or the other 's in the Press shall carry away the applause desired and go on to consider what he Reports of that Meeting in which he gives account of his with-drawing The first Ground whereof as he presents it we have already tendered to examination The second is our living in constant neglect of an Ordinance of Christ viz. singing of Psalms At this Meeting he charged us with denying singing of Psalms now he calls it living in constant neglect of it About which what our Light and Practice is and as then in effect was said you may take thus We do fully and cordially own speaking to our selyes teaching and admonishing one another in Psalms Hymns 〈…〉 singing and making Melody with Grace in out heart to the Lord to be the will of Christ according to which wholy men of God are bound in all generations to sound forth his high Praises in the Church by Jesus Christ which ought to be performed by them being merry in the Lord with Melody in their hearts and a distinct and chearful voice expressed either in the Songs of Moses David or otherwise as the Spirit bringeth things to their remembrance