nor false accusers but we must turn that back again upon your self professing to all the World that you have wronged us in what you have written against us As for the other part of your Letter wherein you sometimes flatter your self and commend your self about your righteousness faithfulness diligence and deserving as likewise how freely you had served us and been a keeper of our Vineyard and that now it is time to look to your own Vineyard and to mind your eternal habitation c. We answer first as Prov. 27. 2. Let another man praise thee and not thine own mouth a stranger and not thine own lips But we never did blame you nor admonish you for any good you did among us but for your departing from that which was good Jehu was not blamed for the good he did but because he took no heed to walk in the Law of the Lord God of Israel with all his heart neither was Amaziah blamed for any good he did but because he did it not with a perfect or upright heart and as for your gift of discerning c. most of us know it was a thing you did much pretend to and boast of c. though we could observe your gross mistake therein c. And for your now looking to your own Vineyard and minding your eternal habitation c. truly we hoped you had done that when you were among us and that your care and diligence which now you speak of had been as well about your own soul as others but if it were not we wish you may make better use of your present time than you have done of that which is past As for any manifestations of truth breaking forth in you as you say page 20. at which some of our hearts burned and others were offended c. We know not any one Truth that ever you spake in the Church but it was readily assented to and seconded by those that sate by whether you did press to believing or holy walking but for other things which were not according to Scripture nor did not tend to faith or holiness c. some of us did sometimes manifest our dissent from you yet with all tenderness as knowing your spirit and the spirits of some others now with you we were not willing to offend you or them And as for that which you so often asserted in the Church and now mention page 20 21. That you did not know Christ and that that knowledge we had of him should profit us nothing and that our habitation is in deceit and through it we refuse to know the Lord c. First we did not violently oppose you in that thing as thinking that it arose from a sight and sense of the want of the Spirit of Christ to open and reveal the glory of his person virtues Offices and Mysteries more clearly unto you according to what is written Ephes 1. 17 18. Col. 2. 2. John 16. 14 15. and herein we could and did joyn with you in complaining of the littleness or smalness of our knowledg of Christ yet some of us did often tell you that our comfort stood not so much in a speculative knowing as in a believing acknowledgment of Christ to be that which he is said to be in the Scriptures and so to own him believe on him love him and obey him and therefore we did then and have since and do now declare that we owned no other Christ but that one annointed glorious person who was born of the Virgin and who is made both Lord and Christ who died rose and ascended and is now sitting at the right hand of God and is the Mediator between God and man who shall one day come again according to the Scriptures Secondly we do own no other knowing of Christ but that which is according to the Scripture namely understandingly to know him in his person without us and experimentally to know him in his Virtues or by his Spirit within us and so through grace we do know him in our measure and are waiting and praying daily for a further and clearer knowledge of him in his Virtues and powers by the revelation of his glorious Spirit according to the Scripture in the mean time we desire to acknowledge him believe on him love and reverence him as our Lord and King and do submit to his Laws and Commands lest in his Word but we did little think that your meaning had been as now you declare both in your Book and by your practice that you and we should take up that kind of notion of Christ as to call that light that is in every man both Heathens and others Christ and so to slight and nullifie that glorious person now in heaven from being the object of Faith c. as many of your way do and have done to some of our faces scoffing and jeering at us for speaking of the person of Christ and for thinking to be saved by the blood of him that died at Jerusalem and as you your self did jeeringly ask one of this Congregation to this effect whether we did believe Christ to be an old man sitting in a chair in heaven c. You further tell us page 21. That many who desired to see Christs first Appearance in the flesh became his betrayers and murderers so now in his second Appearances in life power and spirit would be found the greatest enemies to him and that some of us would betray him and then appeal to all that have any discerning to judge how sadly this is already fulfilled in us c. We grant that many did stumble at Christ when he came in the flesh and that many in all ages have stumbled at the truth and waies of Christ as likewise many do now at his person his Gospel his waies and his Ordinances c. which might put you to consider two things First whether you be not one that do so and secondly whether you be not one that have caused many to do so c. But you seem to beg the question and take it for granted that Christ is now come in life power and spirit in you and your party but truly you must give better demonstrations of it before we or any other judicious Christians will believe you for we have read much and know something by experience through grace what the sweet gentle dove-like spirit of Christ is we have seen and known by sad experience how unlike your spirit is to that Secondly how can you call this a murdering and betraying of Christ namely our sending brethren three times in love and pitie to enquire after and admonish you and the rest that departed from us we shall leave this to the Lord to determine c. As for those strange and unchristian expressions page 21. of our sporting our selves and making a wide mouth and drawing out the tongue and the hand against you c. and then calling us children of transgression a seed of falshood
godly men I did sometimes hear expressions to this effect That there was a two-fold coming of the Spirit of Christ into the hearts of Believers The first was that by which the eyes of mens understandings are opened and they turned from darkness to light Faith and Repentance wrought in the Soul conversion regeneration or the new birth effected and so he that was once a dead sinner becomes a living Saint or Believer though as yet but weak a babe in Christ c. The Second work or coming of the Spirit is that by which the Soul is sealed confirmed established filled with joy and peace in believing and fitted and furnished to every good work that God calls them whether doing or suffering c. Now this put me upon the search of the Scripture as first Ephes 1. 13. After you believed you were sealed which Scripture relates to that Acts 19. 2. Have you received the holy Spirit since you believed c. So Acts 8. 14. to 17. Samaria having received the Word of God and believed in the Lord Jesus Christ were baptized by Philip the Deacon the Church at Jerusalem or rather the Apostles sent forth Peter and John that they should pray that they might receive the holy Ghost for as yet he was not fallen upon any of them c. Another Scripture I find Joh. 7. 37 38 39. In the last day the great day of the feast Jesus stood and cryed saying If any man thirst let him come unto me and drink he that believeth on me as the Scripture hath said out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water but this spake he of the Spirit which they that believe on him should receive for the holy Ghost was not yet given because that Jesus was not yet glorified So Luke 11. 9. to 13. such as God is a Father unto are bid to pray to ask to seek and to knock c. with assurance by many Arguments that they should receive the holy Spirit So in the 14 15 16 Chapters of John our Saviour speaking to such as did believe in him love him and keep his Commandments c. he promiseth to send the Comforter unto them even the holy Spirit which the world could not receive c and to this agree many of the Prophecies both in Isa Jer. Ezek. Joel Zach. and others Now then as to the first work or coming of the Spirit namely to make a man to become a Saint a Christian a Believer a new Creature c. I never denied but alwayes affirmed that whosoever did believe in the Lord Jesus Christ or had the least beginning of a work of Grace in their Souls it was by the Spirit of God and they had the Spirit of Christ in the first sense according to Rom. 8. 9. now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his c. But in the second or latter sense namely to seal stablish fill with joy and comfort c. with many other glorious effects which the Scripture speaks of and which the Saints in the primative times did enjoy in this sense I have often said that I did question Whether I then had or whether many others in the Church had received the Spirit and to this you did then assent c. And therefore I did often press it in the Church that we might pray more for that blessed Spirit according to the command and promise of Christ Luke 11. 9. 13. as before and this is that which I have often called the great legacie of the new Testament and as Jesus Christ was the great promise of the first or old Testament so this blessed Spirit is the great promise of the second or new Testament which all believers are to wait pray and long for as the believers under the first Testament were to wait and long for the Messiah and this was my meaning when I have sometimes said That a man may be a Christian a Believer a converted Soul or a babe in Christ and not as yet have received the Spirit I mean still in this latter sense in respect of sealing establishing c. yet I neither did nor do expect the Gift of tongues or working Miracles c. neither do I find that the great promise of the Spirit was principally to that end though that was accomplished by it when and how the Lord pleased as Heb. 2. 4. with divers miracles and gifts or distributions of the holy Ghost according to his own will but I find rather that the great promise of the Spirit is for such glorious ends as these c. 1. To open and reveal the hidden Mysteries of the kingdome of heaven as Matth. 13. 11. to you it is given to know the Mysteries of the kingdom of Heaven c. So 1 Cor. 2. 9. to the 14. we read that those things which the eyes of men as men have not seen neither can the natural man perceive yet God doth reveal by his Spirit c. So it is promised in John to lead and guide into all truth therefore Eph. 1. 17. the Apostle prayes for believers that they might receive the Spirit of wisdom and revelation c. 2. To comfort and chear up poor drooping believers filling them with all joy and peace consolation and refreshment which is one main end for which it is promised as in 14 15 16 Chapters of John to which agree many of the sayings of the Prophets c. 3. To heighten and strengthen the Saints with boldness courage constancy and resolution in their Spirits to do or to suffer for God as Acts 4 8. Then Peter filled with the Holy Ghost said c. so to the 19. vers So Acts 5. 41. And they rejoyced that they were counted worthy to suffer c. which thing neither they nor Peter could do a little before as Mark 14. 50 66 to 71. But observe they had not then received the Spirit so Acts 16. 25. Paul and Silas sang in prison 4. To purge and purifie clense and sanctifie believers and make them holy as Isa 4. 3 4. so Ezek. 36. 25. to 29. Joel 3. 17. then shall Jerusalem be holy that is when the Mountains shall drop new wine and the hills flow with milk as vers 18. And the fountain come forth of the house of the Lord to water the valley of Shittim 5. To make poor dry barren empty souls to become fruitful to God and to grow in grace Isa 32. 5. until the Spirit be poured from on high and the wilderness become a fruitful field Isa 44. 3 4. I will pour my Spirt upon thy seed c. and they shall spring up c. so Hos 14. 5. I will be as the dew unto Israel and he shall grow c. 6. To fill the Saints with meekness and love yea with end cared love towards Christ and bowels of pity towards men as we see it was with the Saints in the primitive times but is much wanting now 7. To unite
learned and godly that are of my judgement in this particular so as to hold communion with persons differing in that point and so I do administer the Lords Supper to this people in Bristol as they are a Church of godly sober Christians believing in Christ though some of them mis-baptized yet none of them deny the Ordinance of Christ onely some of them have not light to see the right Administration of it but reckon their Infant Baptism sufficient yet as further light comes in they are willing to walk up to it in the mean time we can bear with them in love as we desire them and others to bear with us in other things As for that mis-construed passage in my Lecture about dry breasts which he applies to Infant Baptism c. 1 I deny that ever I spoke those words in such terms 2. Much less to that sense but I have often prayed against that sore judgement threatned Hosea 9. 14. and that I might not have a miscarrying womb so as not to bring any soul to Christ by conversion or dry breasts so as not to feed or refresh any poor thirsty soul that comes to wait upon God in his Ordinances as I fear it is with many Congregations in England and this was the substance and sense of what I spake though as for Infant-Baptism I have declared and do declare my dislike of it yet so as not to judge or condemn any godly man that thinks he hath Warrant to do it c. And whereas he saith That the professed thorow-paced Anabaptists leave me and would not joyn with me and therefore commends them that they are true to their principles and do not juggle implying that I am not so but do juggle c. Truly I know no thorow â—ac'd godly man either Anabaptist or others in Bristol but do shew love and respect to me in their way onely in this they walk according to their light and so do I but they think I am too large in my Principles and I think they are too strait in theirs yet we do not differ but can bear with each other in love though for my juggling or dis-ingenuity I pass not to be judged by him c. though I know it would please him better if I were of a furious impetuous violent spirit so as to break all in pieces and set the Citie and this Church in a flame and thereby make my self to be abhorred of all both good and bad but I trust as the Lord hath so he will graciously give me a more sober sweet spirit to walk tenderly towards all and to do good to all And truly I can say through grace that I do not love any man the more or less for his judgments sake whether he be Presbyterian Independent Baptized c. But where ever I see the Image of Christ appear which is love and holiness there I desire to love and honor And for his large Parentheses from page 52. to page 55. wherin he makes an Apologie for his bitterness passion as he had need enough to do and then closes with a proposal that if we will but acknowledge his Ministery Churches and Ordinances to be according to the Institutions of Christ and such as with whom we will hold communion then he will write a Retractation c. I answer let him first but prove that they are so and then we will soon acknowledge it but till then though he be so wise as to propse it we shall not be so foolish as to grant it c. And as for his Marginall Note upon page 55 about our being thought to own their Ministery because we hear some of them Truly I think he had need not speak of that for few of us do hear him or intend it till he be of another temper yet I do not refuse to hear any sober godly man though I must needs say I have but little comfort in or incouragement to the hearing of some who are so often venting their passion and bitterness c. The next thing concerning me is pag. 55. where he layes an accusation against me and the Society with whom I walk that we neglected for a long time the Declarations of his Highness for solemn meetings c. whereby he endevours if he could to render me and this Church obnoxious in the eyes of the Governours of England but through mercy the chief Magistrate and chief Governours of this Common-wealth have more wisdom and grace than to hearken to such accusations especially from men of his temper but if I were so wicked and void of ingenuity as to go about to accuse men for such neglects I might find matter enough to write and publish against my neighbours but I abhor and detest such an envious and unworthy spirit c. But I do not remember that ever this Church neglected one such meeting neither did I ever omit above once or twice at the most preaching publickly as I durst appeal to the whole Citie to bear me witness but suppose I had upon the change of the Government being scrupled or dissatisfied so as to omit once or twice preaching are there none in England or Bristoll have done the like and is it the part of a Minister to rake up old Stories to present to the ears of the Magistrate and to publish to the Nation to incense them against a person or people that live peaceably under are subject unto and make supplication for those that are in authority as the Scriptures require Titus 3. 1. 1 Tim. 2. 1 2. and as we are well known to do c. I shall say no more but the Lord rebuke the Spirit of Envie c. As for many other things in his Book both concerning me and the Church with whom I walk as first his jeering at our cutting out Churches according to our fancied primitive patern and our being mar'd in the shaping c. wherein he pleaseth himself and men like himself And secondly his gross mistake in laying the blame of all the mischief the Quakers have done in Bristoll with many other evils and falsities to the charge of this poor Congregation some of whom bave stood as much and born as full a testimony against the principles and practices of those miserable deluded people as ever he hath done and perhaps to better purpose c. Now as for his large and unlearned Discourse about an ungodly learned man being fitter to preach than a godly man that wanteth onely human learning in respect of divers Tongues as likewise his supposed insufficiency of the Spirit of Christ to furnish and accomplish fit and enable men to that work c. I shall not undertake to answer every particular that he asserts about this matter from pag. 62. to pag. 66. Onely if I might be thought worthy to inform such a man as he is or any other of his mind I should advise them to take heed of grating upon jerking against slighting or undervaluing of
that blessed Spirit of the Lord Jesus in any of its Offices operations effects or different administrations in and among the People or Church of God I say I should advise them to take heed lest when God sets the solitary in families the rebellious dwell in a dry land and whilst some are like trees planted by the waters never ceasing to yeild their fruit others be like the Heath in the Desart that should not see when God cometh but inhabite the parched places in the wilderness For all the Trees of the field shall know that the Lord can bring down the high Tree and exalt the low Tree he can dry up the green Tree and make the dry Tree to flourish yea and by the pouring forth of the Spirit from on high can make the Wilderness become a fruitful Field and the fruitful Field to be counted for a Forrest as Ezek. 17. 24. Isa 32. 15. He layes it upon some as a reproach page 62. That we teach by the Spirit c. I desire humbly to acknowledge and attribute it unto the blessed Spirit of Christ that I have at any time been or now am enabled in any measure to speak or publish any truth of God either to the conversion of sinners or to the edification or consolation of the Saints and People of God and truly if this man do not lean and depend upon the help of the Spirit in his work of preaching I shall not much wonder if his Ministry prove as I have sometimes said or feared many mens have done as a miscarrying Womb and dry breasts notwithstanding all their great learning of which they seem to boast He further demands page 62. whether all that have the Spirit can teach publickly c. First if by teaching publickly he mean preaching and publishing what God hath done for them and likewise declaring to others what the Lord hath taught them c. Then I answer it is the duty of all Christians so to do 1 Pet. 4. 10. As every man hath received the gift so let him minister the same c. as Eldad and Medad did Numb 11. though one man envitd and another complained as some do now yet Moses the man of God he approved of it c. But secondly if by preaching publickly he mean a publick and solemn undertaking the work of preaching c. Then I answer I do not think that every one that hath the Spirit of Christ in him or the work of grace in his soul is fit to be a publick Preacher for there are diversities of gifts and differences of administrations as appears 1 Cor. 12. 4. to the 11. Yet where the Spirit of God hath fitted any and the People of God that know them well do see them fit and judge them fit and approve of them publickly calling them thereunto these may be fit to teach publickly at lest to their own Nation as the 70 Disciples were Luke 10. 1. though they had no gifts of Tongues as we read of no more than the twelve Apostles had during the time of their preaching to their own Nation before the Assention of Christ and that they were to preach to all Nations according to their second Commission Matt. 28. Mark 16. yet I do not in the least slight despise or undervalue learning nor learned men that have grace with it and do not scornfully trample upon them that want it but to say that no man may preach without it is to make a law where Christ hath made none for the seventy Disciples and twelve Apostles did preach long before the day of Pentecost c. He likewise demands who will step forth and tell him and not lie that the Spirit doth teach them to understand the meaning of the word Justification or Adoption c. I answer if none but such as can speak Greek and Latin can understand what Justification and Adoption is c. how then can any that have not Greek or Latin believe they are justified or adopted seeing that it is another Maxim in the Schools that no man can believe more than he doth understand But surely those Souls that have been first enlightened by the Word and Spirit of Christ to see and know their lost condition while under sense of condemnation and hath also been led by the same Spirit through the Word of grace to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ with all ther hearts and by his pretious blood to see themselves freed from condemnation and in his righteousness to be made righteous aod so to find the comfort of it in some measure in their own souls they can speak of it to the praise of God and to the edification of others and that by the help and assistance of the same blessed Spirit yea perhaps more sensibly feelingly plainly and profitably than the most learned Doctor in the world that knows it onely speculatively by learning reading and studying As for that scornful word unlettered which he doth so often use and cast as a reproach upon some men c. I answer truly some of us do know our Letters as well and can put them together into Syllables and Sentences as right and pronounce them as distinct and plain perhaps as himself but I shall not ad to this onely conclude with Prov. 3. 34. Surely the Lord scorneth the scorner and giveth grace to the lowly And I desire seriously to weigh and to commend to all sober Christians those words of the Apostle 1 Cor. 1. from 19. to 29. and Chap. 2. from 1. to 15. and Chap. 3. 18 19 20. by all which it appears the great Apostle of Christ was of another mind than this man seems to be He demands page 65. what an unlettered Teacher or Ignoramus would say if he were to discourse with a Papist or an Adversary about Justification c. Truly I would say this if any should out of pride curiosity and vain confidence run without a call to discourse with an Adversary Papists or others about that or any other point of Christianity c. he might expect that the Lord might justly leave him to himself and so he might betray or shame the truth and so might it be with the most learned Teacher in the world But secondly if a godly man were providentially or clearly called to maintain or defend that or any other truth of God against an Adversary Papist or others he going in the fear of the Lord and in a sense of self-insufficiency in faith and hope of the presence and assistance of the grace and Spirit of Christ he might expect according to his promise Matt. 10. 9. Take no thought for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak And verse 20. For it is not ye which speak but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you And how truly was this fulfilled in the Martyrs both in plain Country-men and also Women yea young Youths and Mayds who discoursing about points of Christian Religion
their righteousness as the light and their just dealing as the noon day in the mean time we rest and remain Reader thy friends if thou be one that art grieved for the afflictions of Joseph and art sensible of this day of Jacobs trouble and art longing for the welfare of Sion and walking in the Faith of the Gospel Then are we thy companions in tribulation for the Faith and Testimony of Jesus The Brethren of the Church in BRISTOL R.P. T.E. I.A. R.M. R.S. B.H. READER THou art desired further to take notice that Separation from a true Church of Christ and Communion of Gods People is a dangerous thing First it is sharply threatned by God Heb. 10. 38 39. Secondly severely punished 2 Pet. 2. 20 21 22. Thirdly by this they discover themselves both to the Church with whom they walked and also to those that are without that they are the men and women who have not a true foundation but onely have received some large measures of illumination and common gifts and graces of the Holy Ghost and so fall away and by their Apostacy evidence their hypocrisie Let no man think that the good can depart from the Church wind blows not away the Wheat but the vain Chaff 1 John 2. 19. They went out from us but they were not of us for if they had been of us they would no doubt have continued with us but they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not of us Now to prevent the spreadings of the spirit of Anti-christ and his subtil endeavours to draw more from Jesus Christ ought not the Church from whom these persons are departed in obedience to the Command of God and out of love to the souls of those that have cast the Ordinances of God behind their backs send two or three of their Members in the Name of the Lord Jesus and in the tender bowels of pity to beseech admonish and warn them to repent of their sins and refrain from their evil waies and return to the Truth Faith and waies of the Lord Jesus Christ recorded in the Gospel 2 Tim. 2. 25 26. and so in meekness instruct those that oppose themselves if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the Devil who are taken captive by him at his will c. Let the Reader seriously consider whether the Church is not engaged by her Head and Husband Jesus Christ Mat. 18. from 15. to 20. vers compared with Titus 3. 10. c. thus to admonish and warn her deluded back-slidden Members although perhaps some of them will not hear as in Prov 10 17. Others reject both the Reproof and the Reprovers Prov 15 10 12. And lastly perhaps another laies open his folly to the whole Nation in casting dirt in the face not only of the Reprovers but on the whole Church it self that sent them and so endeavour to shame them both see Prov 9 7. compared with Prov 15 12. Our Saviour tels us Mat 11 19. that Wisdom is justified of none but of her Children and therefore his Church may not expect justification but rather condemnation from those that are gone out from her as the snuff of a Candle If it be sufficient to be accused who can be found innocent it is the crown of those that remain stedfast in their substantial Principles to be reproached by those that did once seemingly own them and afterwards for want of grace backslid from them c. An ANSWER of a Church of Christ in Bristol who desireth and endeavoureth according to the measure of light and strength that they have received from Christ their Head to comply with him in waiting upon him in all the Ordinances of the Gospel which many cast behind their backs unto Dennis Hollister once a visible Member but now a professed Quaker c. Dennis Hollister DId you never read that the Church of Christ in Scripture is resembled to a natural Body wherein are many Members united each to other and most of them to one Head and by one Spirit now as in the natural Body there may be many infirmities so also in the mistical Body sometimes it may be subject to distempers by undigested humors the want of through closing with divine truths or the receiving in of untruths may occasion a surfeit sometimes windy humors pride high mindedness and giving heed to lying Spirits by some of its Members may distemper it sometimes feverish heats of violent headiness instead of well tempered zeal for God and godliness may inflame it so that many parts of it are sorely laid open to infections from divers that seem to be of it or converse with it Art not thou the man or at least one of them oh who hath his eyes in his head and doth not see who hath his ears open and doth not hear who hath his tongue untyed and doth not speak to vindicate the undeceived's innocency as well as to publish your folly in answer to a little Pamphlet called The Shirts of the Whore discoveyed c. containing in it many things too low and beneath a serious Christians perusing or reading much more the answering it being in the middle and both ends stuft with so many unsavoury and unchristian like expressions yet we shall take the Lords connsel Prov. 26 5. and so answer the Author lest he should be wise in his own conceit in which Answer we shall not recite all the Absurdities and vain hoastings and untruths c. yet being as before beneath a Christian much more a whole Church to spend pretious time either to read or answer c. neither shall we at present so lay open your folly in all things that we have heard or seen lest our Answer should be seven times as big as your charge Now to proceed consider that as every word of God is true so hath it some more special time of fulfilling now we read Acts 20. 30. Also of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them O how truly is this Scripture fulfilled this day upon us and you first in your departing from us and now in those perverse things written and spoken by you to draw away disciples after you as is clear in many of those expressions in your Letter We have of late met with a little Book put forth by you the Title of which when we had read and seriously considered the People included and intended by you in those expressions we could not but even stand amazed to think unto what a height of Impudency and Malignity you are already come and whither may not a poor fallen creature run if God stop him not Is it not a high degree of Luciferian pride for a poor creature to set his foot upon the necks of all the Assemblies and Churches of the Saints this day in England and Wales calling them the Whore as your
not made our Saviour to stink in the nostrils of all the Nation at the least of so many as do not know you and us but will credit your untruths c. O! stand still smite upon your thigh blush for shame at what you have done Suppose the things had been true which the Lord knows they are not true which you lay to our charge was it not the part of wicked Ham to proclaim his Fathers nakedness but as you say to us so say we now unto you what should we advise we perceive your heart is heardned and you will not hear O! that we could mourn for you your last clause in your Letter is That from henceforth we should not trouble you or our selves by word or writing when we have performed the last Ordinance that Christ hath left for persons in your condition unless God give you a new heart which we should be glad to hear of we shall not trouble you And so to close up what at present we shall say to you take notice that whereas you lay blame upom our Brethren whom we sent to admonish you of whose saithfulness we doubt not in discharging their trusts to you and the rest we do desire them to answer for themselves that their faithfulness may appear as visibly as your folly Signed in the Name and by the consent and appointment of the whole Church by us Robert Purnel John Andrews Robert Simpson Thomas Ewen Richard Moon Brian Hanson A Reply of the three Messengers of the Church to an untrue Charge or Report of Dennis Hollister in a little Pamphlet called The Skirts of the Whore discovered Dennis Hollister BEfore we make our defence to your passionate heady untrue report of us we shal set down in order the Churches order our commission from God by them to admonish your self and many others in your case Viz. The Church taking into consideration the great dishonor brought to the Name of God the publick scandals and reproches cast upon the wayes of Jesus Christ to the wounding and piercing of him afresh and to the grieving of the hearts of many pretious Saints stumbling the weak and opening the mouthes of the adversaries We the whole Church do again the second time according to the Scripture rule Mat. 18. 15 to the 20. Tit. 3 10 c. in the name of the Lord Iesus our Saviour and in tender bowels of pitie and love to your souls beseech admonish and warn you to repent of your sins and refrain from your evil ways and to return to the truth faith and ways of the Lord Jesus Christ recorded in the Gospel that if it be possible the glory of God may be recovered reproches scandals and stumbling-blocks removed our souls refreshed and your soul eternally saved which is the desire and end of the Church in the performance of this their duty to the Lord and service to your souls We do also appoint and desire three of our brethren viz. Robert Simpson Richard Moon Robert Purnel to admonish them to whom we shall give the particular things to admonish each person of c. We the three Messengers of the Church above named having knowledge of the Churches order and having received our Commission from God by them as to this work We three only met together and considered seriously of the particulars that we were to admonish our back-slidden brethren and sisters of Most of which we knowing our selves they were guilty of and for those things we knew not our selves we were fully satisfied by the mouthes of many faithful true witnesses that were eye and ear-witnesses to the rest so we being fully satisfied in every particular we did in the name of the Lord and in obedience to his command in a filiall fear to God love and pitie to your souls admonish one after another as we had opportunity c. Now Dennis Hollister you have falsly accused us in your pamphlet pag. 3. in saying we charged you with false accusasations and as soon as we had done fled away as men surprized with fear or accused by their own consciences c. For the first of these that the things we charged you withall are true in every syllable of it doth at large appear in the fore-going answer to the whole Church and for the second whereas you say as soon as we had done that we fled away as men surprized with fear or accused by our own consciences c. this is as false as the rest for through grace we did not fear you neither did our consciences accuse but excuse us in what we did as being then and still are fully satisfied we had done that which was our duty Now if you will know the reason why we did not stay with you after we had done our work with you then let us tell you that you may remember when we were sent by the Church with the first admonition some of us staid with you above an hour and found your spirit in such an ill frame even as a boyling Furnace boyling over and scalding all that stand near it this made us resolve in the strength of Christ not to stay so with you the second time unless we could discern your spirit to be in a better frame but as soon as we perceived you not to hear the Messengers of the Church but in stead thereof we discerned some violent headiness breaking forth as before c. So we left you as one not in a capacity for Christians to converse withall Much more we might say but we judge your tongue or pen can be no slander to us as to any serious Christians our stability as to all substanciall principles of religion being as well known as your mutability We subscribe this with our hands Robert Simpson Richard Moon Robert Purnel Prov. 18. 17. He that is first in his own cause seemeth just but his neighbour cometh and searcheth him Vers 19. A Brother offended is hardern to be won than it strong Citie and their contentions are like the Bars of a Castle Jude 22. And of some have compassion making a difference 23. And others save with fear pulling them out of the fire hating even the garment spotted with the flesh A true Answer of Robert Simpson to a Pamphlet lately put forth by Dennis Hollister intituled The Skirts of the Whore discovered I Intend by the grace of God to forbear giving like for Mat. 5. 38. to the end Luke 6. 27 28 29. Rom. 12. 17. to 22. Heb. 12 15. like an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth reproach for reproach through the infinite abounding grace of God extended to me by Christ in some measure I have learned otherwise And your censorious bitter language and judging without nay against the Rule which God hath set as bounds for us not to pass over in which judgings of yours you climb up as high as the Temple of God I shall say little or but small to you about but in
reference to that seriously consider these places 2 Thes 2. 1 to 13. Rom. 14. 4 9 10 11 12 13. The Lord give you to see your wickedness in your bitter censorious spirit which sure is not small though you Ezek. 16. 1 2. Isal 30. 1. seem not to discern it but cover it with a covering that is not of Gods Spirit and so add sin to sin and the good Lord give you repentance for it you have not hurt or injured me at all by it though your self you do God hath of his infinite goodness made your hard false speeches and censorious judgings of me of good use to me though no thanks at all to you for it nor any thing but what is sad to think on can you reap from it As I have said to you somtimes upon the like occasion when you affirmed unto me that some men to wit such as then you had in admiration though for that in which they exceeded or God owns above others I never saw nor yet heard but this you affirmed to me concerning them that when they were in the light they could see what mens inward states was before God some of which as you said they saw you named to me though such as they never saw Matth. 7. 16. 19 20 1 Cor. 4. 5. Deut. 29. 22. nor yet heard of any thing visibly apparently evill by them by which man by the blessed Rule of the Scriptures of truth is to judge otherwise our rule is to judge nothing before the time until the Lord come who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts and then shal every man have praise of God My answer then to you in that affirmation concerning Isai 8. 20. 1 Cor. 4 4. Job 10 15. 2 Cor. 10. 17 18. 2 Cor. 5. 9. them was this in words or to the same effect that as I could give no credence to such assertions groundedly but contrarily had more than ground of jealousie to be suspitious they were delusions as all such things and pretended revelations be which have not the Law and the Testimony to warrant them So what if all the men in the world did approve me what is that in order to certain ground of holding up my head before God in reference to it So if all did disapprove me yet upon from such a ground as that I have a sure word certain witness of Gods approving of me I should not flagg in my Spirit nor hang down in reference to that That use besides others as to my self I have endeavoured to make of those great charges you lay upon me and if your considerations Were otherwise of me as sometimes it hath been and also of others I would not in Phil 3. 3. the least heed or give any regard to it so as to flesh my self from it Phil. 3. 3. The charges indeed that you lay upon me and send me cloathed with before the world if so indeed how sad were my condition well might my countenance be changed and my thoughts be troublesome unto me and the joynts of my loyns be loosed and my knees smite one against another as if I did inhabit deceit and devise wicked imaginations and speak lies to you and that in the name of the Lord and the like Sore charges they be wickedness of the highest degree and of the dangerousest attendance that can be But truly it is sufficient to me that under all the charges you load me with that I have alwayes a witness in heaven Rom. 8. 33 34. Psal 3. 3 4 5. Job 34. 29. and brought into my own heart from thence and confirmed unto me by the Spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father and the Son by which I am cleared of your charges and so by that means they take no hold upon me God To wit your own private spirit and consideration 2 Pet. 1. 20 21. gives me much case under all your clamors Truly it is a very small matter to me to be judged of you I say of you who are more than apt to judg all both persons and things to be light that bears no weight in your Ballance By which Ballance I know you must not your self be weighed at the great day and appearing of the Lord Iesus but by that Ballance or Rule that who ever walk according to it peace and mercy shal be upon them the Word that John 12. 48. Christ hath spoken must judge all at that day But truly Dennis Hollister I pitie thee me thinks I could even mourn over thee in the consideration of thy being in Rev. 12 10. Luke 3. 14. Mat 12 43 44 the Divels work and imployment to wit an accuser of the brethren as I am sure thou art in thy printed Papers And for that false charge as it is altogether of my speaking lies to you in the name of the Lord. That charge of yours I know hath reference to my being as you slightly say the mouth of three Messengers sent to you by the Church to admonish you of your sins which sins of yours I am sure was obvious visible and clear Truly in order to that I knew well what I spake Mat. 28. 18. Mat. 18. 16 17 18. when I spake on that rate I did unto you I with my brethren that came with me had a Warrant sealed and given forth to us from him who hath all power given unto him in Heaven and Earth for what we did And if I may speak it without boasting as I trust I do so we did attempt it as those that God had vouchsafed that grace unto to take up into the Mount with him to confer with his Majesty by Christ about it before we did dare to attempt upon it his Majesty being pleased graciously to incline our hearts in some measure of holy reverence feare and trembling and in faith to wait upon his Majesty by Christ our Mediator and Iutercessor and we had a gracious answer from him by Christ to our very hearts about it And so we are strenthened to that work of the Lord which otherwise we had rather any had been Exod. 3. 11. Jer 6. 7 8 9 sent about than we And then we went not staggeringly nor yet ignorantly but knowingly and understandingly about it God having in some measure fitted us for it and left us not without some sure witness that he was with us in it And not any reluctancie have I or my brethren had for what we did but are fully satisfied that what ever was set upon you and laid at your door as your sin to a tittle Isal 28 17. is true and will be so found when the Lord shall lay Judgment to the Line and Righteousnesse to the Plummet and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies and the waters shall overflow the hiding-place And whereas you say in the first line of your Letter to me that it
And when I had spoken these words I went from her and she went her way and never was questioned nor punished for any of these abuses and those words I spake but once to her and this was all I did and the occasion of it upon which you build your great structure concluding that I am no Minister of the Gospel but a Persecutor of the truth c. as in your large Letter to me thereupon you declared and that now in the title page of your Pamphlet you proclaim to the Nation c. but I wish you lay a better foundation for your other buildings lest you prove a foolish builder Now I would ask you a few sober Questions First How comes it to pass that you can stile Sarah Latchet a Servant of Jesus and publish her so to the world who is an Apostate and an Excommunicate person going on in such a rayling reviling fierce manner as hath been now declared and as divers witnesses can prove whereas there are many pretious Servants of Jesus and Saints of the most High now living in England and Bristol that have been known to walk with God for many years in uprightness their foot having held its steps and not declined from the good wayes of the Lord neither gone back from the Commandments of his lips but have esteemed his words before their appointed food and have stood fast in the worst of Times and sorest of Tryals c. and yet they must be censured judged condemned and cryed out against by you as if they were the vilest Persons on earth and all because they cannot close in with you and your way c. Secondly How durst you in your Conscience say That those raylings revilings cursings and lies c. which she uttered are a testifying from the Lord Do you not blush to name or write such a word Will Jehovah the great and glorious God of Heaven and Earth ever own such raylings revilings c. to be a testifying from him Or will he ever justifie you in what you have here written and published to the world O be ashamed and confounded poor deceived man Thirdly How will you bring both ends of your Parallel together you endeavour in your Letter to parallel Sarah Latchet with Paul and Sarah Latchet 's sufferings with Paul 's sufferings and me with Paul 's Persecutors Now then let me a little examine your Parallel 1. Paul the Apostle of Jesus Christ having received a Commission from heaven doth accordingly preach and publish the glorious Gospel of the grace mercy and love of God in Christ to poor sinners and likewise sets forth the Lord Jesus in his person virtues and offices inviting and beseeching with all love and tenderness those where ever he came to receive this grace and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ c. And Sarah Latchet comes forth rayling reviling cursing c. Ergo Sarah Latchet and Paul are alike 2. After Paul had with meekness and love tendred the grace of God and the person and vertues of Jesus Christ the Saviour as before some did rise up against him beat him stone him imprison him and whip him so that five times he received forty strips save one with many other fore and cruel abuses as you mention in your Letter out of 2 Cor. 1. c. And Sarah Latchet after she had rayled reviled and pronounced curses against people it was said to her It were fitter such an idle Huswife were sent to Bridwel Ergo Sarah Latchets sufferings and Pauls sufferings are both alike c. 3. Pauls Persecutors after they had heard the pretions glad-tydings of the Gospel and the report of Jesus Christ made unto them as before did actually take and cruelly beat stone whip and imprison Paul c. And I after I had been revised rayled upon c. said of Sarah Latchet it were fitter she were whipt and sent to Bridwel Ergo Pauls Persecutors and I were both alike and under the same condemnation c. Is this good Logick May not all that read your lines read your folly c. But to go on Fourthly Will you ask your Conscience this question Did you not publish and set forth this thing to wit of my not being a Minister of the Gospel c. to lay me if you could under contempt and scorn both in the City and Nation though you know in what sence and upon what ground I had denyed the title and dignity of a Minister as I have before declared but you knowing that this was a nail that would go and therefore you strick here and was not this such another piece of envie and hypocrisie as poor Mris. Prince did manifest when she came to rayl at me and reproach me at my Lecture at Nicholas when in her Conscience she durst not object against any thing that was delivered though it were often put to her by me but instead thereof after much bitter revilings against me called to the People and bid them to beware of me for she had heard me say I had not the Spirit of God c. Now suppose this had been true That I had at any time uttered my complaint to her or any others in the sadness and bitterness of my soul when under temptation as the Lord knows what sad hours and dark dayes I have passed through since I came to Bristol though you and many others little observed it or enquired after it but suppose I say I had uttered my complaint to her as she and many others have done to me was it a Christian-like part in her to publish this in the face of a Congregation many of which might be apt enough to take up a prejudice against me c. would you or she or any other think it either honesty christianity ingenuity civility or humanity in me if I should publish to the world what you or she or they have at any time uttred to me as a matter of grief burden trouble sadness affliction or temptation that lay upon your or their spirits now both you and she also knew full well the sad complaints of my soul under the sense of my own weakness the fore and terrible temptations that I encountred with the greatness and weightiness of my work the many eyes that were upon me and the great dishonour that would have come to the name of Christ if I should have miscarried in my work which made me to see the necessity and prize the excellency and long for the supplies of the Spirit of Christ and often to complain of that small measure I apprehend I had of it c. But Secondly Both you and she and some others know in your Consciences that there was another ground upon which and another sense in which I had sometimes questioned whether I and many other Christians had yet received the Spirit which for the Readers information end my own vindication I shall now declare When I lived in London and sate under the Ministry of some choice
the Saints more together in judgement and affection into one heart and one way as the Scripture speaks 8. To make them more exact and spiritual in the use and practise of all Gospel Ordinances as Acts 2. 41. to 47. 9. To beautifie and adorn Christians with every spiritual gift and grace as Gall. 5. 22. Ezek 16. 10 11 12 13. 10. To fill them with a mighty Spirit of Faith and Prayer as the Saints in the primitive times after the pouring forth of the Spirit had In a word it is a Christians All for by it he can do all things as Phil. 1. 19. 4. 13. and without it he can do nothing well as John 15. 5. Without me ye can do nothing And thus I have declared my judgment fully about this blessed truth and what I mean by the pouring forth of the glorious Spirit which I so often mention in prayer and preaching as the great legacy privilege and portion of the Saints or believers in the New Testament c. Now then let me ask you this Question Whether it had not been better for you and those that are gone away with you that you had set your selves solemnly to seek the Lord by Supplication and Prayer and so have continued in the wayes and under the Ordinances of Christ waiting for that blessed spirit as many of the Servants of God have done and still do c. rather than to have taken up a Notion of a Light in every man and call that the eternal Spirit as some of your way do and then jeer and scoff at them that pray for the Spirit and reproach them which complain out of their sense of the want of it as poor Mris. Prince did when she came to revile me at my Lecture c. But blessed be the Lord there are many Churches in England and Wales that are now wrestling with the Lord day after day joyntly and day and night singly in the deep sense of their wants for the accomplishment of that glorious new-Testament promise and such an Answer is already given to some both Independant and Baptized as you call them that they have no cause to repent of the time they have set apart for that work and I verily believe That if the people whom you and others so much despise go on and continue praying as now they do for the pouring forth of the blessed Spirit there will shortly be such a breaking forth of the day of Christ that all the antichristian foggs of false doctrins and false worships will flie and fall as the darkness before the rising Sun And Oh that some men in England and Bristol that are now wrangling and quarrelling about their humane learning and scoffing and envying those that have it not would seriously consider this thing before their lamp go out in obscurity and their feet stumble upon the dark mountains before their arm be dried up and their eye utterly darkned c. Now before I part with this I will also clear my self about another expression that I have sometimes used and at which many have been offended and that is about an old and a new Testament Spirit though of late to avoid offence have forbore it now by those expressions I did not mean nor intend the Spirit of God so as to call that an old Testament Spirit for I know that Spirit was one and the same from everlasting but by an old or new-Testament Spirit 1. I mean the frame and temper of a mans own Spirit and so by an old-Testament Spirit I alwayes mean that dark weak childish and low frame and temper of Spirit which professors generally had in the time of the old Testament while under the Mosaical administration with that bondage and fear that weakness and sadness that did accompany it c. 2. By a new-Testament Spirit I alwayes mean that lively chearful active joyful bold son-like frame and temper of Spirit which the Saints generally in the primitive times under the new Testament did enjoy which is called a Spirit of Adoption as the other is called a Spirit of Bondage a full description of what I mean is set forth in two Scriptures as namely Gal. 4. from the 1. to the 7. and Heb. 12. from 18 to 24. In which two Scriptures is set forth First The weakness darkness childishness fear bondage c. of the old-Testament state which is that that I call the frame temper or spirit of the old-Testament And Secondly There is set forth the light life strength boldness comfort courage joy rejoycing of the new-Testament state which is that that I call the frame temper or Spirit of the new Testament c. And whether Christians be not generally more under the old-Testament frame than under the new I leave to their experiences and thus I have fully declared my self as to these two particulars and if any sober Christian into whose hands this may come shall apprehend that I am mistaken in either of them I shall be glad to receive a word from them in love but I do not expect it from you to whom I now write c. You farther tell me in your Letter that you were warned from invisible lights some months past to beware of me which you could not believe till now it breaks out like fire c. I conceive those invisible lights were some secret whisperers that did bring you many stories both of me and others c. but truly I could discern by visible light long before you left us that my speaking was but little acceptable to you and some others especially after I did begin to oppose your spleen and passion though whilst I sate still and silently approved of what you spake then I was the excellentest man that ever you met with you would often both to my face and behind my back applaud and extol me but when once I began a little to cross you as many others of the Brethren did and as some godly men had formerly done as they saw cause enough then you and your partie began to fume and fret and as it was often observed to go out of the Meetings when I had been to speak though I did oppose you with all the tenderness that possibly I could as knowing what a partie you had in the Church and what influence you had upon them but now you say the fruits doth appear and break out like fire c. Q. And what is it But that I should say That such an idle Huswife as is before mentioned should be sent to Bridwel rather than to go rayling about as she did Now I appeal to all Christians upon the face of the earth what hurt this was to this poor rayling cursing fierce creature c. Q. And was this the ground upon which some of your company spread it about the Country and place of my nativity what a persecutor I was become so that the good people there that had known me to be of another temper did wonder
and were troubled until they understood what you and your company meant by such things and that it was because I would not joyn with you and your new Religion and with the people that call themselves Quakers Again Was this the ground upon which you did so often cry out against Judases in the Church a little before you left us but blessed be the Lord we can now rejoice that the innocencie of the upright is cleared and the Judases are discovered c. and whether I or you have betraied and crucified the Lord Jesus in his Saints in his waies in his name and in his truth I shall humbly leave c. I do not boast but desire with all humilitie and reverence to acknowledge and admire the power grace mercy and goodness of him by whom I a poor worm have been preserved whilst such a Cedar or Star as you were taken to be is so sadlie fallen but it is no more than what some have thought and said long ago That pride and arrogancie would have a fall as Prov. 29. 23. But let him that thinketh he stands take heed lest he fall c. 1 Cor. 10. 12. But now you say I openly oppose the appearance of Christ where it is found in life and power c. What because I said of that poor deluded Creature It were fitter she were sent to Bridwel O poor deceived man that you should be a professor of Religion so long and now come to publish such a piece of folly to the world as to call the Since this I have been three times disturbed for which one is now imprisoned fierce raylings c. of these people the appearances of Christ in life and power and my speaking that one word to her once an opposing of Christ c. whereas she had no hurt done her not a word spoken to any Magistrate against her nay though she and others of your way have 16 or 17 times opposed me and rayled at me yet never but one and that but once was questioned or imprisoned for it and yet I am cried out against in word and writing by you and your companie as the great persecutor which now you tell the world you have been warned by invisible lights some months past to beware of me But how can you call Sarah Latchet the Servants of God and Witnesses of Jesus in the plural number whereas it was but to she only and that but once I spake those words though she rayled at me many times but ask your own heart whether your Design were not to draw out my supposed Offence to the world and then consider whether instead thereof you have not let out your own folly envie and hypocrisi But where is that meekness and bearing that some of you boast of that you would not return evil for evil but being cursed you bless c. poor-creatures it is an easie thing to flatter your selves and speak words c. but let any one touch you though but in a word and they shall find you as rough both in rayling and writing as any But what would you have done unto me if I should have come into your Meetings and disturbed you and railed at you c. as she and others have done at me you would have sent me not to Bridwel but to the bottomless pit if words could have done it You close your Letter with many seeming expressions of love and pity as 1. That I might see the sandiness of my foundation 2. Know the things that belong to my peace 3. Escape the pit 4. Not shut up the kingdom of Heaven against my self and others c. 1. As for my foundation I know no other nor preach no other than that foundation and Corner stone which is laid in Sion even Jesus Christ the Son of God and Son of man in one person upon whom through grace I have cast my soul for eternity and other foundations I look not for c. 2. As to my knowing the things that belong to my peace c. I bless the Lord it is the groaning of my soul to him for that blessed Spirit of revelation in the knowledge of the Mysterie of God and of the Father and of Christ that I may believe more love more and obey more c. 3. As for my escaping the Pit I desire the like for you and in order to that I have consented to and helped on the Admonitions that have been sent by the Church to you and the other poor souls that are with you c. 4. But fourthly As for my shutting up the kingdom against my self and others c. I can say through grace it hath been and is daily my great care and work to preach the kingdom of God freely to sinners and to set forth the Lord Jesus Christ as the way to that kingdom and to invite and encourage all poor souls to come into that kingdom by Jesus Christ the true door or way and by the strait gate of believing which the Scribes and Pharisees by putting men upon working for life did shut up against themselves and others and who doth so now but those that bid all men turn to a Light within them and so take them off from believing on the person of Jesus Christ or looking to be saved by what he hath done and suffered wrought and accomplished for man c. But I suppose your meaning is That I should give over preaching and come to you and your way I know this hath been the longing desire of many of you a great while for these were the words of one of your way the last time I was in your house That I kept many from receiving or embracing the Light but I desire to bless the Lord that through the riches of his grace to my soul I have been hitherto preserved and I have seen my Call to and Work in this City clearer since you left us than ever I did before both as to this poor desolate Church and likewise to many precious souls in Bristol among both of which I trust I may say with humility and comfort that God hath made me of some use though I be as nothing c. And truly I do hope that God who chuseth the things that are not to confound the things that are c. wil yet use me as an instrument for good unto his people in this City and the rather because both you with them of your way and others that are of other waies do so violently and causelesly set against me which makes me sometimes take up the complaint of the Prophet Jeremiah Jer. 15. 10. Wo is me c. I have neither lent upon usury nor have men lent me upon usury and yet every one of them doth curse me or speak evil upon me as some translations read it but blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ that yet my lamp is not gone forth in obscure darkness c. And thus I have
and disputing with men of as profound Learning as some are now who boast so much of it namely the Popish Bishops and Doctors and how those poor Martyrs did by the help of the blessed Spirit without Latin or Greek confound those enemies of truth and assert and maintain both the Doctrin of Justification and other points of Christian Religion as the History of Acts and Monuments do sufficiently declare and though we have no cause to presume yet we have good ground to hope and believe that the same God will by the same Spirit give in the same supplies to his Servants in the same case if he should again call them to it or if he should call any of us to assert and maintain the blesâ—â— Doctrin of Justification or to despute the glorious privilege of Adoption And whereas he saith page 56. That we give out our selves to be gifted Brethren and so fit for the work of the Ministry c. For my own part I do not know that ever I gave out such a word and the Lord knows that I have lower and meaner thoughts of my self and truly had not the importunity and perswasions of some prevailed with me beyond what I thought of my self I think I had never been an eye-sore to this man in Bristol nor a trouble to any others in the work of preaching and if he or any other can make it appear to me that it is the will of God that I should give over my present work I trust it is not all the Gold and Silver in Bristol that should hire me to continue in it but truly as other things so the violent opposition that I meet with from men of divers sorts do much confirm that it is the will of God that I should continue in my work of preaching c. And so long though I should meet with greater difficulties than over I have yet done I trust I shall go on with it expecting the presence of Christ with me and his blessing upon me therein I do not at all reflect upon those godly men that he quotes page 66 67. though I cannot but wonder that a man should express so much bitterness against Anabaptists as he doth in his Book and yet seem so to applaud a baptized man that is a person of honor c. Likewise how a man can speak so contemptuously against Separation and separated Churches and yet seem so to applaud that eminent Dr. Owen who is a man so eminently for the Congregational way that some men call Independency or Separation which makes me to think that if all the people in England and Bristol which are called Independents or Anabaptists were great or in high places he would love them or make them believe so c. But thirdly for that godly man Mr. Baxter whose face I never saw yet do I highly honor esteem for some of his works and for what good I hear of him yet I see no ground why I should so understand Mr. Baxter or the other two as this man seems to force their meaning for admit it be true that an ungodly learned man may know as much or more of the literal and grammatical sense 〈◊〉 Scripture than a gracious man may do which is all that they affirm doth it therefore follow that a godly unlearned man if it were proper to call any so may not understand and know publish and declare the truth of Christ to their own comfort and the edification of others for my own part I cannot see this to be an infallible consequence and I am confident that two of those men are otherwise minded and if godly Mr. Baxter should mean so yet I know there are many others of like eminency both for Learning and Godliness that are of another mind in this particular as I might abundantly shew from their works that are extant as likewise that experience God hath given us in this later age of his owning blessing and prospering such in the preaching of the Gospel to the conversion of many souls both in England and Wales c. But what I have here written may be sufficient to disprove what he doth falsly assert page 67. that the pretence of preaching by the Spirit is but a pious fraud to set up our selves in the hearts and consciences and consequently in the purses of people c which thing he again mentions pag 51 52 where he jeers at my contribution calling it a Feeling argument c. wherein he seems to compare me to the Lawyers who account a good Fee to be a feeling argument in their Clyents cause But I shall not answer him onely as the Proverb is It is the property of a covetous Man to think every thing too much that another hath But he draws up the result of all pag. 68. and concludes that the in-let and out-let the fore-door and back-door of all our miseries is an ignorant unlettered and contemptible Ministery If by the word Our he mean our misery in Bristoll then I answer Surely it is strange that so great a flood of evill and misery should come in at so narrow a door there being but one unlettered uncalled Minister in Bristoll in his sense all the rest be they what they will are learned and called constituted and established Ministers as he mentions again pag. 60 c. No doubt but the Princes of Israel through the instigation of the Prophets thought the like of Jeremiah when they were wroth with him smote him and put him in prison and when they said unto the King We beseech thee let this man be Jer. 37. 15. 38. 4 put to death for he seeketh not the welfare of this people but the hurt So likewise Amaziah the Priest of Bethel when he sent to Jeroboam King of Israel saying Amos hath conspired against Amos 7. 10. 14 thee c. Poor Amos he had not indeed been bred a Prophet neither was he the son of a Prophet but a Herdsman and a gatherer of Summer fruit and now he must be banished the Kings Chappel as a conspirator this was hard measure but God provided better for him Reader I do not compare my self with Jeremiah and Amos but onely to let thee see that as Solomon saith That which hath been is now and there is no new thing under the Sun But secondly if by the word Our misery he mean the misery and calamity of England first or last truly then I shall grant and say as he doth that the in let and out let fore-door and back-door of much of Englands misery and consequently of Bristols is an ignorant ungodly â—asie proud scandalous soul murdering Ministery who have made themselves contemptible and base in the eyes of all good men and in the consciences of many bad And though as I have heard there were two thousand of them petitioned against in the time of the long Parliament and many of them then pluckt up by the roots both in England and Wales besides what
hath been since laid aside for scandall and insufficiency by other Committees and Commissioners appointed for that purpose yet I think England hath cause enough still to mourn for complain of and pray against a great part of the Ministery thereof I do not speak this of all nor intend it to all for I doubt not to affirm against the Quakers that God hath many pretious servants in the Ministery both among those called Presbyterians and them called Independents and the Baptized and some that are of or under none of these names yea both learned and unlearned c. who yet are faithfull to the Lord Jesus and do prefer the conversion and salvation of pretious souls before all the treasures in the world and who do rejoyce to see that work of God carried on by any either learned or unlearned as men now speak and I trust that as the Lord who holds the Stars in his right hand will establish such So the time is near when men shall not wear a rough garment or a propheticall garb to deceive but that the false Prophets and unclean spirits shall pass out of the Land and that God will raise up and give Pastors according to his own heart for faithful is he that hath promised who also will do it And whereas he saith page 68. That you shall know them to wit the ignorant and unlettered Ministers by this Badge or Character they are separating factious and schismaticall c. I remember these were words much in use and cast as brands upon the godly people called Puritans by the Bishops and their Clergie about 20 or 30 years agoe and how it comes to pass that these words are taken up again I know not unless it be that the same spirit that was in the Bishops and their Clergy is again revived and if so then they in whom it is had best take heed that they apply those Nicknames righter than the former did lest c. But I shall give another Badge or Character of those that I mean and that is you shall alwayes know them by their pride envy and covetousness or their scorning reviling and persecuting all those that differ from them and therefore as he commends the caution and counsel of the Apostle Rom. 16. 17. 18. So shall I make bold humbly to recommend the caution and counsel of our Lord Jesus Christ Matth. 7. 15 16. Beware of false Prophets c. for by their fruits you shall know them I do not speak this of any godly man or men for I know no godly men can do so as above Now for his closing word to the Ministers that are lawfully called c. if by lawfully called he mean Pastors or Elders called chosen constituted ordained and appointed to office in Churches and by Churches according to the New Testament and according to the example and practice of the Churches of Christ both in New England and Old then I freely close with him therein for such a Calling and Ordination I own and plead for according to Scripture But if by Ministers lawfully called he mean all the Parish Ministers in England or Bristoll as such then I cannot but wonder how any man pretending to godliness durst so to abuse that pretious Scripture Acts 20. 28. and how he will be able to prove that Parishes are such Churches and that all Parish Ministers are such and by the holy Ghost made Overseers in the sense of that Scripture for my own part I must be silent and so I think might he well have been It is true the 29. verse may in a sense be rightly applied to some men in England that call themselves Ministers who since the Apostles times and the apostasie that followed have like grievous Wolves entred in not sparing the flock c. I write not this of nor intend it to any godly man of any judgement whatsoever But as for the rest of his jerks jeers quibles scoffs derisions reproches and untruths which he hath cast upon me with all the injury and wrong that he hath thereby done to me I shall lay it at my feet looking upon it as the fruits of a froathy brain and the products of a spleenish temper and shall not bestow a pen full of ink or one minutes time to answer it but do rather in my heart wish and desire that he may so repent of this piece of folly and wretchedness whereby he hath hardened the hearts and opened the mouthes of many against me that it may do his soul no more hurt another day than it doth me at present in the mean time I resolve to sit down in silence as to him c. And now I return again to you Dennâ—â— Hollister to close up my answer to your Book and I cannot but take notice as many others do of your shamefull abusing that pretious upright servant of Jesus Christ Robert Simson though I suppose he will clear himself or at least his innocency will answer for him and stop your mouth another day In the mean time I cannot but bear a testimony of his integrity and your impudency in that you do so fiercely and faisly charge him to be a lyar whereas I can testifie that the thing was true which he as messenger of the Church did admonish you of namely that you should say that the Scripture was a blind and plague to Souls which thing you did speak at a publick meeting in your own house as I doubt not but there are more than twenty persons some of the Church and others not of the Church who can also testifie the same Whether your meaning was then as now you write pag. 18 19. I shall not dispute but that you did speak those words is true and no lye invented nor lye prosecuted c. Therefore if there be any lyar in this thing you are the lyar yet I durst nor judge you to the Lake but rather pray hope that God may shew a miracle of mercy in saying you from it and do advise you to take heed how you throw them into the Lake or under condemnation whom Jesus Christ hath by his pretious blood and perfect righteousness graciously freed from it And as for the sin of lying you will do well to east the beam out of your own eye c. For Robert Simpson is a man as well known in Bristoll to be a truth speaker and a just upright conscientious dealer as any of those that do accuse him I shall say no more but let every man prove his own work Gal. 6. 4. But passing by many of those impertinencies in your book I find that after your letter to me there is an answer to 16. Queries formerly sent to you or to the people called Quakers and afterwards printed by that pretious servant of Christ John Pendarves before his death I might commend your wit in putting forth your answer after the man is dead Secondly I observe that these sixteen Queries have been once answered in a fashion