Spirit and principle of persecution contrary to the great command of Iesus Christ which he calls the Royall Law of love and to the great duty of Christians love which is termed the fulfilling of the Law by this saith Christ shall men know ye are my disciples i. e. Reall Christians if ye love one another this is the duty which in Scripture is every where pressed and was slighted and neglected generally by all before our troubles and sorrows came upon us the want of this was the true cause of that bitter and cruell persecution of the godly in regard of their consciences by the Bishops and their adherents in their Popish and Antichristian Courts of High Commission Commissaries and Chancellors and the want of this love was the cause too of our oppressions in our estates in the other Courts of the Kingdom both legall and illegall so that all these were turned into gall and wormwood and our Laws by wresting of them were instead of remedies no better then nets and snares unto us and the further men went this way commonly the more were they insnared and entangled But you will say these Courts are now removed with their judges there is now no more fear of these these yokes are taken from off our necks wherefore do you yet complain I answer Though we have fought and sworn down Archbishops Bishops with all their rabble and dependents and so are likely to receive no further damage by them and these yokes which they created for us are castaway yet if the same Spirit and principle remain within us and amongst us it will act the same things though in another form and shape and Persecutions Fines and Imprisonments to the utter ruin of Families shall yet be the portion of the Saints in this Kingdom the beginnings whereof as they are felt by some already so are they feared almost by all and are too visible to every discerning eye And if you yet further demand of me what this Spirit and Principle is which will thus manifest it self to the persecution and destruction of the innocent and faithfull in this Kingdom I answer It is that very spirit of Satan and Antichrist most contrary to the Gospel spirit of love which is described by the Apostle in 2. Thes. 2.4 which is yet remaining amongst us even this that some of the sons of men sit as God in the Temple of God exalting themselves above all that is called God or is worshipped Every Saint is a Temple of the living God 2 Cor. 6.10 Whoever then whether a particular person or a collective body in this temple exalts himself above God or that which is worshipped which is nothing else but God for God only is to be worshipped this is the Antichrist the meaning is when God hath given Commands Rules and Directions in his word to those that are his in Iesus Christ for his worship and service and Iesus Christ hath sent his spirit into their hearts to perswade them of the force of these commands and of the manner of this worship For his sheep hear his voice and will not follow a stranger if there be any man sort or rank of men whatever that take upon them to judge of these commands and to interpret these rules for others so as to enforce obedience from others to their interpretations this I conceive is the Antichrist who sits as God in the Temple of God the Spirits and consciences of men and so exalts himself above all that is called God or worshipped i. e. will be obeyed in the place and stead of God and above him God commanding one thing to the conscience and He another This is Popery and the very top of all Popery the very life blood and spirit that runs through the whole body of it for what makes the Pope but this that he takes upon himself to be the infallible Interpreter and judge of the Scriptures and all the Papists that do not acknowledge him so to be yet place this Infallability some where either in the Church or in a Generall Counsell and when that cannot be had the Pope with his Consistory are in the place of it so that the Papists do all of them professe an infallibility of judgement and interpretation of the Scriptures and this makes them to impose upon men according to their own pleasure yet with some shew of truth and reason But for other men amongst us who do in their own words deny this infallibility of interpretation and yet to impose upon others what they do interpret as if they were infallible as it is in it self ridiculous so is it in my thoughts an aggravation of the crime and makes it more Antichristian in them then in the Pope himself who peradventure acts in this according to what he holds but these just contrary to what themselves believe and professe I could tell you of a people who deny themselves infallible yet use to determine all their Ecclesiasticall controversies and they are very large for In Ordine ad Spiritualia i. e. in reference to the Church they can take in much by a Nationall Assembly and in a vacancy of that by a Committee or Commissioners chosen from amongst them with a Chair-man or a Consistory rather answering that of the Cardinals with the Pope to whom if obedience be not yielded processe is made to Excommunication and after that to confiscation banishment and death whether this copy do not answer the originall pattern at Rome you that know judge and tell me if it be not as like it as ovum ovo and one apple to another Now if this be that Reformation which men so earnestly pursue that which is the very spirit life soul of Popery which hath given denomination and being to it by which it hath grown up and come to his full height strength by which it is upheld to this very day whereby it brought into the world all its Hereticall hellish doctrines all its damnable Paganish idolatries all its apish childish Fopperies Ceremonies Superstitions and from which it acted all its cruel burnings hangings imprisonings murthers massacres Rebellions Treasons Powder-plots and what ever men can call detestable and Devilish If I say this spirit must yet be kept amongst us put it into what form or beautifull shape you please call it by what name you will let it act out under what notion of Religion or Reformation you can imagine it is the same Antichrist still no other And now fellow Covenanters I think it is time for us to lay our hands upon our hearts and consider where we are what we are doing and whether we are going if instead of having our faces Sion ward we be not posting back again to Rome though not in the old road If it be so as alas it is too true be not deceived God is not mocked it s not crying the Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord Reformation Government suppressing
Sects and Heresies these vain words will not save us whilest we foment this spirit of Antichrist this principle of hatred persecution division in one another that some of us must judge for our selves and others too in the things of Christ that we must interpret the Word as if we were infallible when we acknowledge we are not so and must impose our own fullible sences and interpretations upon others and in case of non-Conformity must force obedience from them whilest we thus bite and devour one another let us take heed that we be not devoured one of another this Reformation is not after the Gospel God is love and he that dwels in love dwels in God and God in him and Christ so loved us as to lay down his life for us leaving us an example that we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren and not to take away the lives of the brethren because they differ from us our Lord Jesus Christ and his Ministers are of another minde all the New Testament over the weapons of our warfare saith St. Paul are not carnall but mighty through God and not through the arme of flesh So 2 Tim. 2. 24 25. the servants of the Lord must not strive but be gentle unto all men patient with meeknesse instructing them that oppose themselves if God peradventure will give them repentance And Tit. 3. 2. shewing all meeknesse to all men look also into the 14. chap. of the Romans and you shall see of what different judgement and practises the Saints were there as they held contradictions so did they practise them too one would eat another would not eat one would regard a day and he did this to the Lord i. e. Because he was perswaded the Lord had so Commanded another would not regard a day and he did this to the Lord too being perswaded the Lord required no such observations friends here were contradictions amongst Saints in things of the highest nature in point of Worship most of the old Puritans and non-Conformists of this Kingdom know well what it is to keep or regard a day they can tell you that the most spirituall worship and the highest and chiefest service of Iesus Christ was concerned in it and was meant by it It was surely no indifferent thing as we have been perswaded to believe matters of religious cognisance were contained in it the Apostle speaking of it as done unto the Lord men observing or not observing as conscious of that duty which the Lord had enjoyned them or of that liberty wherewith Iesus Christ had made them free Now what is the Apostles councel in this controversie doth he advise to censuring condemning fining Imprisoning or killing one another no such thing but the contrary let not the weak Judge the strong and let not the strong despise the weak Chap 14. ver. 3. which he confirms with severall reasons every man stands or fals to his own master ver. 4. according to that of our Saviour Christ Math 23. 8. call no man Rabbi for one is your master and all ye are brethren and ver. 10. we shall all stand before the Judgement Seat of Christ and then ver. 12. every one shall give an account of himself to God and Chap. 15. 1. The strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak and not please themselves and ver. 2. let every one please his neighbour for good to edification which he backs with this inforcing reason ver. 3. for even Christ pleased not himself and the conclusion of the whole matter is this ver. 7. Wherefore receive you one another as Christ also received us to the glory of his Father if Christ love receive and imbrace you although of differing Judgements and practises go ye and do likewise do ye love receive and imbrace each other These Scriptures are full and if opened would spin the thred of my discourse longer then I intended but there is very much in them if the Lord would give us an understanding that we might beleeve themâ— Friends they are our Gospell and I shall leave them with you as those which shall one day rise up in Judgement against such as have imbraced them and yet walk contrary to what they report unto us Undoubtedly the meanes that Christ hath appoynted to propagate his Gospell and to advance his Kingdome is the sword of the Spirit and not the sword of Stâ—â—le by this it is that Antichrist hath so enlarged his dominions as you may see Revel. 13. 7. and therefore heare his Doom which shall surely be accomplished on him and all such too as in this kind take part with him ver. 10.th that leads into Captivity must go into Captivity and he that kills with the sword must be killed with the sword here is the patience and faith of the Saints according to that of our Saviour Matth. 26. 52. they that take the sword shall perish by the sword and before I shall passe from this I beseech you as you tender the comming of Iesus Christ his Kingdom which you daily pray for and the peace and welfare of this your own native Kingdome where you live that you would seriously consider with your selves whether this usurpation of power over the bodies of the Saints in respect of spirituall things as Antichrist himself hath done in all ages may not be the true and adequate cause why the Lord hath suffered the sword to bathe it self in blood and to make it selfe drunk with the blood of the slain in these parts for divers past and for many more in the parts beyond the seas so Rev. 16. 6. They have shed the blood of Saints and Prophets and thou hast given them blood to drink for they are worthy and what improbability is there of Peace amongst us whilest this devillish spirit of hatred and persecution for the devill was a murtherer from the beginning which hath given Antichrist his denomination life and being doth yet abide is nourished and maintained by us And so I come to the second Point wherein I shall be brief which is That though the Presbyterian Churches were truly constituted and ordered according to the rule of the word as indeed they are not yet maintaining any errour either in judgement or practise that the rest of the Christians in the Kingdom who joyn not themselves to them cannot truly and properly be termed Schismaticks for this I have told you formerly in this discourse whilest I opened the severall words that according to the true nature of the word Schisme signifies a dis-union division or cleaving asunder of parts which were before united in a solid body Let us apply this to the businesse in hand and Schisme is nothing else but a division or separation in judgement and practise of persons from some Church or body to which they were before united and when I pray was it that those who are now called Hereticks Sectaries and Schismaticks were joyned together in a body with those who
gift of discerning and so this power among them yet can it not be lawfull for them to proceed against men who hold Heresies nor indeed can they be properly so called unlesse they have acknowledged and profest the contrary thereunto before and so have departed from that truth which in their Communion they maintained which appears from this next verse to that we have in hand Tit 3. 11. where the Apostle saith that a Heretick is self condemned {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} i. e. that light which he had formerly received doth now judge him condemn him as it was in Iulian the Apostat who was forced to confesse at last vicisti Galilee I conceive men who never made any more profession of Christian Religion then what they have been passive in from their forced Baptisme and education having at no time attained to any thing which hath been so much as like a New birth or change in them and so were never reckoned or esteemed by Saints among the number of Saints or admitted into their fellowship or communion such men what Tenets or Errours soever they take up are rather to be accounted prophane persons or Atheists then Hereticks As it were improper to call either a Jew or Turk a Heretick in Scripture-sense though they deny Christ to be the Son of God which I confirm from that place of 2 Pet. 2. 1. where the Apostle mentioning false Teachers which should being in damnable Heresies he saith they were such as did deny the Lord that bought them i. e. though their Consciences had received such Convictions from the spirit that Iesus Christ was the Lord and Saviour of the world and so had given themselves up to him as such yet they afterward brought in those Doctrines which denied this again Object The next place Objected is Rom. 13. 4. where the Magistrate is said to be a Minister of God for wrath upon him that doth evil Now if you adde to this Gal. 5. 10. it appears that Heresie is an evil work being there reckoned among the deeds of the flesh and so punishable by the civill power Answ These places thus united I suppose do enforce the Objection and make it stronger then I have yet anywhere met with it But I answer there are in the same Gal. 5. 20 21. severall other works of the flesh numbred up together with Heresies which yet I conceive the Civill power cannot possibly take cognifance of as hatred emulations envyings and the Civill Magistrate can no more draw his sword against the One then against the Other no more against Heresie then against hatred emulation and envy Secondly for that place of the Romanes it was a Scripture written to the Christians living under heathen Magistrates thâ—se surely had no cognizance of the severall controversies or opinions which might fall in amongst the Christians in the profession of their Religion which the Heathens so much hated and therefore Heresie cannot fall under the power of the sword there mentioned and if so let all men judge how truly and properly these men apply the word and whether this be not a wringing of the Scripture like a nose of wax and a perverting of it to their own and other mens destruction I should have spoken more fully to this point but that I finde my self prevented by Mr. Iohn Goodwin in his late book called Hagâ—â—mastix from pag. 58. to paâ— 66. A piece worthy the sight of such men who enquire after Truth One great question yet remains to which I shall speak a word or two and so end Q. If Heresie Schism be of such a doubtfull nature and so hard to be found out if Hereticks and Schismaticks prove to be such whom we least suspected if that gift of discerning whereby they should be known be lost in the Apostacy of the Churches if the imposing our own fallible thoughts and expositions upon the consciences of other men be Antichristianisme and a setting up of the man of fin what shall be done in regard of our Solemn League and Covenant whereby we are engaged to endeavour the extirpation of Hâ—râ—sta and Schisme and to bring the Churches in the three kingdoms to a Vniformity c. Answ. I say concerning the Covenant in reference to the Presbyterians as they sometimes spake of the Church in reference to the Prelates they dazle the eyes and astonish the senses of poor people with the glorious name of the Covenant This is the Gorgans head that hath enchanted them and held them in bondage to their Presbyterian Errours All their speech is of the Covenant the Covenant neglecting in the mean time God and the Scriptures It matters not for other things in the Covenant as you may see in the next answer so as men will but walk according to the same in their interpretation in an outward uniformity of Religion and in a visible form of Church Government and worship then which nothing can be more against the power of godlinesse which consists in an invisible and internall breathing panting working and acting of the soul toward God for God is a spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth All outward Forms imposed do but ordinarily and commonly breed Atheisme and hypocrisie It were well therefore that the Civill powers would be carefull how they engage carnall men in Religious Covenants and about spirituall things I answer we seem very zealous for extirpation of that which is neither in our cognizance nor power and for prophanesse and such things as are against the power of godlines which in the same clause we covenant against and against which the laws of God and men are in force and which are certainly and undoubtedly in the cognizance of the civill power and for which he must give an account to God how doth every one cry out upon the neglect of these whose eyes and ears are not full of the Reelings Railings Belchings Vomitings Swearings Cursings Lyings Stealings Brawlings and Fightings of Drunkards Liars Adulterers Whoors Prophane Gracelesse Godlesse persons and yet these are altogether or in a great measure unpunished due execution of Laws against these were a right Reformation indeed acceptable to God and all good men Sin open grosse palpable sin doth so abound every where that no just man can walk up and down without vexing his righteous soul for the unclean conversation of the wicked Remember who those men are reproved by our Saviour Matth. 23. 24 that thus strain at a gnat and swallow a camel I answer That we are in our severall places and callings to endeavour against these in like manner Art 2. now God calls us out against these men in case we could discern them infallibly not with a sword of steel but the sword of the spirit the word of God which is mighty through God to convince gain-sayers and the servant of the Lord must strive no otherwise then thus as I shewed before If men will but truly and