according to them and require no more of others but to do so who doth not see sith all necessary truths are plainly and evidently set down in Scripture there would of necessity be amongst all men in all things necessary unity of opinion unity of love and a spirit of mutuall toleration By which means all Schisme and Heresie would be banished the world and those wretched contentions which now rend and tear in pieces not the coat but the Members and Bowels of Christ which mutual Pride Tyranny cursing killing and damning would fain make mortall should speedily receive a most blessed conclusion By this means indeed should the Lord be one and his name one in the Nations which onenesse is not meant of any outward form but of the onenesse of love and affection in the spirit Doubtlesse at this day the most vehement Accusers are the greatest Schismaticks and those who talk of Uniformity do drive at Tyrannie and will have peace with none but their slaves and vassals By a late learned Antagonist of the Church of Rome and that whilest the Prelates were in their pride it was truly said Nothing is more against Religion then to force Religion Humane violence may make men counterfeit but cannot make them believe and is good for nothing but to breed form without and Atheism within Besides if this means of bringing men to embrace any Religion were generally used as if it may be justly used in any place by those that have power and think they have Truth Certainly it cannot with reason be denied but that it may be used in every place by those that have power as well as they and think they have truth as well as they what could follow but the maintenance perhaps of truth but perhaps only of the profession of it in one place and the oppression of it in a thousand what will follow but the preservation perhaps of unity but perhaps only of uniformity in particular States but the Imortalizing of the great and lamentable division of Christendom and the world Therefore what can follow from it but perhaps in the judgement of carnall policy the Temporall benefit and tranquility of temporall States and Kingdoms but certainly the infinite prejudice if not the desolation of the Kingdom of Christ and therefore it well becomes them who have their portions in this life and serve no higher State then that of England Scotland or Ireland nor this neither no farther then they may serve themselves by its to maintaine by Worldly power and violence their State inframent Religion But they that the indeed lovers of Christ of Truth of the Church of mankinds ought with all courage to oppose themselves against it as Antichristian and a Common enemy to all these They that know there is a King of Kings by whose will and pleasure Kingdoms stand and fall they know that to no King or State any thing can be profitable which is unjust our experiment is too neer us at this day The desolations of our State are witnesses hereof and that nothing can be more evidently unjust then to force weak men by the profession of a Religion which they beleeve not to loose their own eternall happinesse least they loose their temporall Estates and quietnesse there being no danger to any state from any mans opinion unlesse such by which disobedience to authority or impiety is taught unlesse this bloody Doctrine be joyned with it that it is lawfull for the Magistrate by humane violence to enforce men to his own Religion Oh let not our Magistrates in this take part with the scarlet Whore who for these many Ages hath daily sacrificed thousands of poor innocent Christians under the name of Hereticks Sectaries and Schismaticks Doubtlesse if our Lord Jesus Christ himself would have submitted to the expositions and interpretations which the Priests and Doctors had at that time given out upon the Scriptures they had never crucified him and put him to such open shame But because that he and his apostles after him would according to that new light which they had received endeavour to set up a Reformation all which was yet no other then a clearer and fuller Declaration of what the Scriptures did hold forth above and beyond the light and understanding of these men who were no other then the Divine Presbyterie of those times therefore received they such hard measure from them and suffered as Blasphemers and Hereticks under them and by their censure We have a law and by this law he ought to die Joh. 14. 7. Pilate though the supream Magistrate was no other but their Executioner then as the Civill powers have been in all Generations since to this sort of men who under a pretence of holinesse have daily embrewed their hands in innocent-blood Before I end there are some Texts of Scriptures which seem repugnant to what hath been asserted and would be answered as Object That in Tit. 3. 10. Him that is an Heretick after the first and second admonition reject this Text placeth a power somewhere both of judging Hereticks and proceeding against them Answ I answer True it is in the Primitive and Apostolical Churches amongst the rest of those gifts which were powred forth by Jesus Christ upon the Saints this was one discerning of spirits 1 Cor. 12. 10. but this gift amongst others in the Apostacy and falling away of the Churches which was foretold by the Apostle 2 Thes. 2. 3. and 1 Ioh. 4. 3. where the holy Ghost saith expresly that instead of the Spirit of Christ the spirit of Antichrist should come and was already was lost and because of the want hereof the Saints whom God hath stirred up to bear witnesse to the truth in their severall Ages ever since have unrighteously suffered been persecuted and put to death under this notion and name of Hereticks Secondly In case some Heresies may be so grosse that even to this day he that runs may read and the Saints according to that small measure of the spirit which they have received might judge them so to be yet this text belongs to the Church as their portion and not to the civill Magistrate as a Magistrate and what censure or punishment soever this rejection was it was to be executed by the Ecclesiasticall and not by the Civill power so that to apply such texts as this to the power of the Magistrate is one of the most grosse and palpable wrestings of Scripture that can be and yet is too common amongst the Gentlemen of the Jus Divinum Tribe in their discourses printed and unprinted as I my self not long since before the House of Commons at a Publique Fast heard that of Rev. 2. 20. Because thou sufferest that woman Iezabel c. which was written to the Angel of the Church of Thyatira either weakly or wilfully alledged to justifie their power viz. the Magistrates in spirituall things by which you may take a scantling of that gift among them Thirdly Supposing Churches with this
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
are termed Presbyterians and who put these names upon them Who can with any face affirm that ever these men were members of any Presbyterian Churches in this Kingdom of England or ever had union or communion with them as such how can they then be said to make a Schisme or separation to part away or divide asunder from them who knows not that they are but of yesterday if so they may be said to have yet any being to this day some few it may be shuffled together after a fashion here in this great City but few or none else throughout the Kingdom and who knowes not also that many of these men who are thus reproached by them were such as they are in their opinion and practises long before there was any noise hope or expectation of any Presbyterian Government or Churches to be erected in this Kingdom Object Neither will it help them to say they were Members of the Church of England in the Bishops times and the Church consists of the same Members still Ans. But it s notoriously known that many of them were not so having long before discovered filthinesse in her skirts and if upon the common abjuration of those Officers Offices and wayes the same filthinesse Tyranny Superstition c. being generally by Discourses Conferences Arguments Debates Laws Ordinances and Oaths made known to many more ther have according to their Protestations and Covenants forsaken those wayes and are come up farther in a Reformation then the common light of the State will yet reach to who shall lay this as a crime unto their charge when as the higher powers through a speciall hand of Providence engaging men in a solemn Covenant for Reformation have necessarily forced them hereunto I answer if the Members be such as indeed it is too true this cannot but be a Just cause of breaking from them though men for such a separation ought not to be termed Schismaticks for Schisme is alwayes a causlesse seperation whilst they depart rather from their corruptions then their Communion being ready to joyn with them in such acts of Piety wherein they are not obliged to professe or practise what they are perswaded is Eroneous but I conclude this argument with this Assertion That to leave the Church and to leave the externall Communion of a Presbyterian Church is not one and the same but two distinct things the first is done by ceasing to be a Member of the Church i. e. by ceasing to have those requisites which make constitute a man a Member of it viz. Faith and obedience the second by refusing to communicate with such a Church in her publike worship and service of God I affirme this as a certain and undoubted truth that there is no necessity of communicating with true Believers in evill actions when men are Convinced know and believe they are so nay I assert farther there is a necessity herein of seperation from them and men may without scruple forsake and renounce the receiving and practise of some opinions and observances the which your Churches hold and in which they do communicate but I maintain that this is done without Heresie or Schisme because they have cause to do so and no man can have cause to be a Heretick or Schismatick and so I passe to the third Position which is That in case the name of Sectaries Schismaticks be truly applicable to any persons in this Nation that themselves and no others can so properly deserve that name and that they only make the rent and division that is amongst us my reason is because these men endeavour to force and compell others to the opinion and practise of such tenants as themselves maintain for true when others are convinced they are false a thing themselves did laetly much complaine against and which was hatefull and detestable in the old Episcopacy but is of a sudden grown very laudable and lovely in our new Presbyterie I shall hold forth this truth in these two Assertions which I shall place as Bul-warks to defend these poor harmlesse Sectaries from all the force the Presbyterian enemy can raise against them 1. That not every separation but onely a causlesse or needlesse separation from the externall Communion of any Church is the sin of Schisme If this Position be not sound there can be no justification of the Protestants separation from the Church of Rome nor of those eminent Saints who have in all Ages born witnesse against the errours of that Church 2. That Antichristian spirit and principle of persecution which makes some men to impose on others under penalties a necessity of professing known errours and practising known corruptions is a sufficient just necessary cause of separation and that this is the cause which Protestants alledge to justifie their separation from the Church of Rome now that divers things practised by the Presbyterian Churches are errors known so to be to those that depart from them None without the highest breach of charity can deny nor with lesse impudency affirm they endeavour not that others should believe the same or suffer All that men forsake in them is onely the beliefe practise and profession of their errors And for men not to forsake the belief of their errours having discovered them so to be is impossible and not to forsake the practise and profession of them is damnable hypocrisie Let them free their Churches from requiring the belief practise or profession of any errour or whether they will or no they must free such as depart from them from being Schismaticks for Schism there cannot be in leaving their communion unlesse men were obliged to continue in it And man cannot be obliged by man but to what either formally or virtually he is obliged by God For all just power is from God God the eternall Truth neither can nor will oblige us to believe the least and the most innocent falshood to be a truth that is to erreâ— nor to professe a known errour which is to lie Thus you see that whilest they require the belief practise or profession of any errour amongst the conditions of their Communion the obligation of mens communicating with them ceaseth and so the imputation of Schisme and the names of Horsticks and Secta its vanish into nothing but lie heavy upon themselves for making mens separation just and necessary by requiring unnecessary and unlawfull conditions of their Communion either let them prove then that they erre not at all or forbare those odious names or at least apply them rightly as they ought to themselves If men would be themselves and would be content that others should be so in the choice of their Religion the servants of God and not of men if they would allow that the way to Heaven is no narrower now then Christ left it if all men that believe the Scriptures would free themselves from prejudice and passion and sincerely endeavour to finde out the true sence of them live