A CENSURE OF That Reverend and Learned man of God Mr. JOHN COTTON Lately of New-England upon the way of Mr. Henden of Bennenden in Kent expressed in some Animadversions of his upon a Letter of Mr. Henden's sometimes sent to Mr. Elmeston 2. A brief and solid Exercitation concerning the Coercive power of the Magistrate in matters of Religion by a reverend and learned Minister Mr. Geoge Petter lately of Bread in SUSSEX 3. Mr. Henden's Animadversions on Mr. Elmestons's Epistle Revised and Chastized LONDON Printed by J. G. for JOHN STAFFORD at the signe of the George neer Fleet Bridge 1656. Mr. Hendons ANIMADVERSIONS On Mr. Elmestons EPISTLE Revised and Chastised I Will say little to your Preface but leave it to the discreet judicious and godly Reader to examine and censure as he findes cause Onely I desirâ— that the Reader may know that it is but your vain Surmise that my other Answer to your Letter as you intimate in the beginning of your Preface and hint elsewhere in your Book was the joynt-labour of sundâ—y Neighbor-Ministers concurring with me Touching which I can truly say that not any of them no not the neerâ—st to me knew much of it I am sure saw not a line of it untill I had sent a Copy of it to your selfe So farre were they from contributing their Midwifry to the Birth of it There was but unum ad unum according to the * Proverb But this is the over-weening confidence that you have of your selfe that lâ—kâ—Miles gloriosus the braggadosia Souldier in Plautus you think me too weak a man to grapple with you and indeed I boast not of my abilities What I am I am by the grace of God alone whom also I thank for that small mite of Learning humane or divine that I have But as St. Augustine saith so say I Ego parvas vires habeo sed Dei verbum magnas habet I have but small strength but the Word of God and the Truth have great power And as the learned Doctor Reynolds Bonam causam vel infans sustineat mala vix Cicero patronus sufficiat A very Babe may uphold a good cause but Cicero himselfe is fearce a sufficient Patron for a bad It savours of the like arrogant spirit that you would have my Answer to you come forth in the name and with the united forces of all our Ministers What is this but some spice of Goliah's termagant spirit who did defie the whole Host of Israel and more than an Herculean courage of whom the Proverb is Nè Hercules quidem contra duos Hercules himselfe would not take on him to dealâ— with two Methinks I heare from you the brags of that flattering Parasitâ— to his Braggadosiâ— Master that he Hostium legiones difflavit spiritu quasi ventus folia that he had blown away legions of enemies with a blast as the wind doth leaves It may be for all this your boasting you may have your hands full of one ere we have done as the Braggadosia Dares in the Poet had of aged Eutellus who upon encounter with that aged Worthy notwithstanding his insolent boast and challenge was faine to yeild him up the Bucklers upon Aeneas timely advice who saw it like else to go ill with him saying Nonne alias vires conversaque numina sentis Cede Deo Do'st thou not feale a strength above thine own And God against thee Vnto God sit down But leaving further to meddle with your Preface I passe to your Animadversions where you tell me that my Epistle comes galloping in c. Whereto I say That I was never noted among my neigbours for a Galloper but one that usually rode a sober pace The more unlikely is it that I should turne Galloper in my age or that my Epistle should come galloping in and that upon a wooden Horse who could not sure be very free of motion but as he was drawne by others strength But howsoever thus you jâ—â—re at this not wooden story as you scoff but a pleasant Poeticall fiction yet the application of it to your opinion and practise about an Universall toleration in Religion doth so fully meet with you therein that it makes you kick and lash like a Jade nettled in the breech It is a vile and lewd perverting of my words meaning to say as you doe that liberty granted to tender consciences in Religion is by me compared to this Trojan Horse For I speak plainly of an Universall toleration of all wayes and consciences in Religion and that not as established and owned by the State as some did calumniate me For I knew and know that there was an Act made against Ranterisme that they had declared themselves against Arrians in condemning Mr. Fry his book and against Socinians in ordering the Cracovian Catechisme to be burnt for which their zeal for Christ and his Truth I blesse the Lord and wish that from all Gods people they may have their deserved honour but I mentioned it onely as a thing pleaded for taken up by the head-strong practise of too many which is sadly evident to the World And is there no difference between such a vast toleration and a just liberty granted unto tender consciences If men will be blasphemouâ—Mahumetans execrable Arrians and Socinians idolatrous Papists grosse Arminians wretched Soule-Mortalists fantastick Seekers c. Are these to be tolerated as men of tender consciences in Religion Such onely have been counted men of tender consciences in Religion whose mistakes have been in matters indifferent or at least in points not fundamentall of an inferiour allay carrying themselves in an humble and peaceable way and not strugling to make parties and rents in the Church with whom much patience is to had and to whom due liberty is to be granted But surely such as erre in matters fundamentall or next to the foundation and pertinaciously persist therein after due paines taken with them to informe them in the truth and convince them of their errour yea and also openly professe and spread them abroad to seduce others are far from men of tender consciences unlesse Drunkards Adulterers Railers c. be so also with whom Hereticks are coupled Gal. 5. 20. Tender Consciences and true Grace may meet in one subject and none indeed are truly of tender Conscience but such as are truly Gracious But what spark of saving Grace can be in such whose mindes and consciences are possessed and corrupted with damnable errors and heresies as Peter calls them It is but censorious ignorance which you manifest in taxing me for the use of this Poeticall fiction of the Trojan Horse nor is it utterly unsuitable to the majesty of Divinity though in this my Epistle I treat of no speciall point of Divinity especialâ—y in controversall writings to make use of Poeticall fictions or Poetry when as the Apostle in his preaching and writing did think the speeches of Heathen Poets suitable enough to his most serious Dâ—vinity as
make Truth's victory the more glorious Answ. If they must be and that by Gods permission c. must they therefore be suffered to go on without controll or contradiction If so it is not lawfull to oppose them with spirituall weapons viz. Freaching Writing Conference Church censure c. For in so doing we shall goe against Gods providence and permission who will have them to be and that for good ends and it is in vaine to think thereby to represse them since they must needs be This permission then and necessity of them doth no more exclude the use of the civill Power to restraine them than of spirituall meanes And if notwithstanding the same there be place lâ—ft for the Spirituall weapons to represse them there mâ—y be also place for the Civill power in right order and manner against them But what are these Offences that Christ saith must needs be They are not onely Errors Heresies and false Religions but also other foule sins against the second Table as Murders Whoredomes Theft c. which as is the corruption of Mans Nature and the strengâ—h of Sathans and the Worlds Temptations cannot be avoided but doe break forth and must needes doe so and that not without Gods permission What then must there be a free Toleration of these Iniquities or must Spirituall weapons onely be used against them to represse them we should then surely have a woful world to live in which is now too too bad notwithstanding all good Laws against them And if notwithstanding this necessity and Gods permission Magistrates may yea ought as herein I presume you will concurre with us to make Lawes against such enormities and inflâ—ct civill punishments on them the like necessity and permission of Heresies and Errouâ—s in Religion is no sufficient reason against the use of the civill Power by Lawes and Punishments to oppose them There is no more force in such a reason than because it is appointed for all men to die once and so men must needs die Some should argue that therefore it were not lawfull or at least it were in vaine to prescribe rules to preserve health and life yea to make lawes against murdering men For might some say To what purpose serves such adoe Men must needs die and all these rules and lawes will not prevent their death Nor will the ends for which Errors and Heresies must come viz. to manifest the approved and make truths victory the more notable conclude for a free toleration of them For if in that respect they must be lâ—â— goe free without controll of the Magâ—strate neither should they be opposed or suppressed by spâ—rituall meanes as which in the restraint of them would hinder the manifestation of the Approved and obscure the victory of Truth Besides as other foule offences against the second Table fall out by divine permission so are they permitted amongst other even for such ends as errors and offences in Religion are viz. to manifest such the more as are just sober chast and innocent upon grounds of good conscience and to make their righteousnessâ— and innocency the more conspicuous And if all such wickednesse were left free without feare of humans punishment doubtlesse in the midst of such a wicked liberty the Righteousnesse Innocency and honest Conversation of those who did live justly and honestly would be the more eminent and notable If there were no punishment for Whoredome Theft Dâ—unkennesse c. it would make the Chastity Sobriety and Justice of such as kept themselves from those and such like Vices the more famous and praise-worthy What you say of the Mystery of Godlinesse that it rayes out with the most perfect beauty by the cleere discovery of the deepest mystery of Inâ—quity may be as truly said that in such a bad state of things if it should be the splendour of true Vertue and Innocency would â—ay forth with most perfect Beauty by the discovery of the foulest practise of reigning iniquity The more freedome there was in Sodom for all filthinesse and wickednesse the more did Lot's righteousnesse and innocency appeare But yet woe to those Mâ—gistates that in their dominions should suffer all wickednesse of that sort to goe unpunished and not restrain it by just and severe lawes that forsooth the honesty and righteousnesse of men truly good might be the better tried and the more manifest And truly Magistrates will never have comfort in granting a free course to Errours Heresies and all wayes in Religion in their respective Countreys upon such pretences that the found in the Faith may be the more manifest and Truths conquâ—st the more glorious And here I think it not amisse to insert this Observation 〈◊〉 upon search it will be found that Errors and Heresies did aâ—â—se more easily spread more swiftly continue longer in the first three Centuries after Christ where the Church wanted the authority of the civill Magistrate to put them down then afterward when the Emperours had intertained the Christian Faith in whose times they arose not so often and were much sooner stayed and repressed by the Edicts and Lawes of Emperours that were found in the Faith and did oppose them This may â—ppeare by Dauaeus his second Table upon Augustine De haeresibus where he sheweth what Heresies did arise in every câ—ntury of which the three first centuries were most fertile where are reckoned up more than sixty severall Heresies the other next three centuries afford not many above forty and the most of them did arise and flourish under prophane and hereticall Emperours Obj. Truth in a free passage may come in as well as Heresie Answ. 1. But Truth surely will come in more freely where the passage is stopped against Error and Heresie 2 In such a free passage Error and Heresie in all likelihood would most prevaile as being more suitable to our corrupt nature Mala herba citò crescit A bad weed growes apace And naughty weedes will over-run a garden sooner if they be not plucked up than good herbs and flowers replenish and adorne it 3. This makes no more agaiâ—st the use of the civill power to represse them than of spirituall meanes and Church power For if Truth in such Liberty may come in as well as Heresie why should there any opposition be made against Heresie by spiritual weapons and why should not every way as free a liberty be left for one as for the other 4. It may as well be alledged against all civill Lawes to repress any other wickednesse For why should anysuch Lawes be made when in a free Liberty for men to live as they list Righteousnesse and Vertue may come in as well as Unrighteousnesse or any other kinde of Vice Obj. Christ is as potent to ' prevaile in Light as the Prince of darknesse in Delusions Answ. Must we therefore depend upon Christs immediate and almighty power and working without use of means for the spreading Truth and restraining Heresies May we nht as well say
Why should there be any preaching any writing any praying or disputing against Heresies Christ is potent without such means to prevaile in light Nay may we not also say Why should any Lawes be made against Murder Whoredome Theft Slandering c. for God is as potent to maintaine Righteousnesse Peace Chastity and Truth c. in such a liberty as Satan is to work Unrighteousnesse Uncleannesse Envy Lying c. But if it cannot be expected that Christ should put forth his power to maintaine such Vertues where there is such a neglect of meanes as that no good Lawes are made against the foulest Vices so surely it may be feared that Satan will there more prevail with his delusions in Religion than Christ shew himself powerfull in maintaining truth where no good lawes are in force to represse Heresies or to uphold Divine truth Obj. Truth may thus be shut out and Compulsion hath proved a direct enemy to the Gospel Answ. It is true and so hath Preaching Writing and Church censures helped to shut out Truâ—h and been made direct enemies to the Gospel But that hath been not in the right use of them by preaching and writing for truth and just censuring scandalous and erroneous persons but by the abuse of them in turning them against the truth and professours of it And if this coâ—rcivâ— power which in harsh language you delight to call Compulsion exercised in matters of Religion have obstructed Truth and been an adversary to the Gospel that mischief hath not sprung from the nature of the power which is good and lawfull but from the abuse of it by seduced and ill affected Magistrates who have misimployed it And it is a grosse Paralogisme from the abuse of any thing to blemish or extinguish the right use of it And if you would clear your eyes and look abroad you may see that it hath oft helped to maintain Truth and propâ—gate the Gospel witnesse the godly Kings of Judah who did thereby put down Idolatry in their land and bring their people back to the true worship of God Witnesse the first Christian Emperours who by it banished Pagan Idolatry and promoted Christian Religion Witnesse Protestant Princes of late in England and other Countreys who by it suppressed Popish Idolatry and set up the preaching of the Gospel and countenanced the profession of it Last Compulsion of the Civil Power hath oft been an instrument of Tyranny and exercised to hinder justice and righteousnesse as Solomon sheweth And yet indeed it is not so easily and oft used against Justice and other â—uties of the second Table as it is against the Gospel For that there be more principles of civil righteousnesse and care of preserving peace and mans outward welfare left in mans nature to direct thereto and check unrighteousnesse than of Divine truth in Religion of which there are left but some generall notions that there is a God and that he is to be worshipped but nothing by any such principles doe they know of the particular manner of his worship much lesse any thing of the Gospel And if notwithstanding this abuse of civil power or compulsion against righteousnesse and traâ— quility commanded in the second Table it have its right use and that to bâ— a lowâ—d about civil matters of that table there may be a right and lawfull use of it in matters of Religion though by the abuse thereof it shut out Truth and be oft an enemy to the Gospell Obj. To what way doe you so eagerly labour to engage the Sword of the Magistrate to your own or to some other Answ. This is nothing but the spâ—tting of your rancour For where doe I mention the Sword of the Magistrate in my Epistle What are the words that I use to engage the Sword of the Migistrate against any Religion All that I doe is but briefly to decipher and complaine of that mischief that hath come of an universall toleration of all Religions that not as avowed and allowed by the State but by you and others cryed up and usurped 2. We take not upon uâ— to prescrâ—be to the Magistrate any way in Religion which he should establâ—sh but advise him specially to have recourse to the Word of God which is a sure and cleare rule out of which he may learnâ— by diligent search and prayer taking also the advice of godly and learned Ministers what is the good and right way which he himselfe should embrace and also commend yea and command unto his Subjects 3. Aâ— under the Bishops there was a power practised which was tyrannicall whereof you also aâ— well as other did complain so now also in this multiplicity of religious wayes set on foot some courses must needs be erroneous and schismaticall in which company you and your party march with the foremost Obj. Neither you nor any other sit in the Chaire of Infallibility and so have no power over the conscience which none can have but an unerring Law Answ. 1. Whence are these loud words concerning our Infallibility Our speech is not of our power but of the power of the Magistrate 2. If the Magistrate may not make lawes in matters of Religion because he is not infallible in his determinations upon that account you may as weâ—l abolish his power about Lawes in civil matters For in those he may mistake though not so oft and foulely as in matters of Religion and enact things not onely heavy and burthâ—nsome unto his people but also unjust and unrighteouâ— 3. There is an infallible and unerring rule viz the Word of God by which the Magistrate iâ— to be directâ—d in making Lawes And so farre as he keepeâ— close to that his determinations are infallible and to be observed 4. The matters that he commands in Religion ought to be the manifest precepts of God or evidently consonant to his Word and then though as being the command of the Magistrate they doe not absolutely binde the conscience yet as Godâ— Lâ—wes they have power so to doe It is then a vaine surmise to imagine that the Magistrate in making such Lawes doth encroach upon mens consciences as binding men by his meere authority unto the observance of them and that under pâ—ine of damnation when as he doth onely command externall duties of Religion to which men by Gods Law are bound in conscience Aâ— for example the sanctifying of the Lords day publique attendance upon the Word and other natural worshâ—p of God and forbidding what is manifestly forbidden by the Word the open professing and publishing of Error and Heresies and making unwarrantable Schismâ— in the Church and that onely under some temporal penalties and rewards Obj. Suppose you and others were infallible yet neither you nor any can create beliefe in the hearts of any that are contrary-mindâ—d Answ. This Argument proceeds upon a false supposition â—â— if it were affiâ—med that Magistrates should compell men to believe and repent and in case they do not were to punish
in their owne nature To suffer which would reflect upon the Magistrate to make him guilty of the sin who hath power to restrain it and doth not 1 Sam. 3. 12. Secondly The sin that arises upon the doing necessary and main duties or not doing according to the Magistrates command comes ex accidenti by accident not by the nature of the thing commanded which is not onely good in it selfe but also a necessary duty nor by vertue of the command which commands nothing but a thing manifestly good and a necessary duty but by the ill disposition and erroneous perswasion of the person doing or not doing And if the inforcing of necessary duties must be forborn upon this account that some sin by accident wilâ— ensue thereupon how can Ministers lawfully call upon men to pray or heare Gods Word since wicked men in such services will rather by their ill doing of them offend than please God Moreover Magistrates in making lawes about such weighty matters are not bound to look to particular mens consciences and opinions but to have an eye to Gods Word commanding or forbidding this or that Mens opinions and consciences are secret and not alwayes openly known Gods Word is open and manifest Mens Consciences are divers quot homines tot sententiae so many men so many mindes Gods Word is uniforme and the same Mens Consciences would be a weak and uncertaine rule for him to goe by Gods Word is sure and certaine And if Mens Consciences accord not with Lawes in such main and manifest matters made according to the Word it is their sin and errour and in such case the Magistrate ought indeed to take order that they may be instructed and brought to the knowledge of the truth and so willingly submit unto it But if notwithstanding they will persist in Idolatrous Hereticall and openly Schismaticall wayes such wholsome Lawes must not give place to stubbornly erroneous consciences but they must submit thereunto or do justly suffer the appointed penalties Further It is plaine that in sundry cases men may be compellâ—d to that in doing which they sin through their own default It is the duty of Subjects to serve the State in their wars willlingly and out of â—â—ve to the publâ—que good of Servants to serve their Masters willingly and out of love to them of Debtors to pay their Debts willingly and out of love to justice Which things if they doe not or will not doe they are justly compelled therâ— unto though in doing it there is sin committed by them in doing that upon force and grudgingly which should be done by them out of love and with a ready minde I may yet adde that this dart such as it is may be as well cast against Church censures as against this coactive exercise of civil Power For it may easily fall out that men in the Church for feare of the censure of the Church and especially in case of deposition from their Pastorall Office and so the losse of the maintenance they have thereby may dissemble their Errours and subscribe to Truth even against their conscience A notable example of it is in some Arrian Bishops Eusebius of Nicomedia Theognis of Nice who for fear of losing their Bishopricks upon the decree of the Nicene Council against Arrius and his Complices in dessembling manner against their conscience subscribed to the decree of that Council against that damnable Heresie If then no courses may be used upon which men may be driven to act against their consciences and so sin neither can Church-censures nor deposition of Hâ—reticall teachers be put in practise upon which such an inconvenience may ensue The conclusion then is that it is not lawfull to compell any man to doe that which is directly and in it selfe sinfull but that a man may be compelled by lawfull authority without any fault of theirs to the doing of manifest and necessary duties though in the doing thereof he sin and that only by his own default and evil disposition Let me yet tell you that a man doth sin much less in doing a necessary good work upon command against his misinformed conscience than in a willing and witting omitting of it And that whensoever the conscience is awakened it will more sting for this last than the former abâ—ut which we have seldome knowne any to have beene troubled in minde upon doing it And that the Magistrate must needs sin in suffering such a witting and willing neglâ—ct of a manifest necessary duty but can never be proved to have sinned in commanding and urging men to dutiâ—s manifestly good and necessary Obj. We read of none in the New Testament who commanded all to worship save the Beast Rev. 13. Answ. 1. We read of none in the New Testament that were punishâ—d for Whoredome Incest Perjury False witnesse bearing Drunkennesse c. What then may not these with your consent be punished by the civil Magistrate all the sons of Belial would much applaud you for such a toleration of wickednesse which this your pleading doth as much countenance as an Universal toleration for Religion 2. It had been fair play to have written out the whole text that the command was to worship the Image of the Beast and receive his mark in their right hand or in their forehead Rev. 13. 15 16. Such compulsion doubtlesse is detestable But what is this against compulsion to renounce the Idolatry of the Beast and all other Idolatry and to worship God in his true worship To which things we read that the godly Kings of Judah Asa Jchosaphat and Josiah compelled their Subjects to their praise and commendation The fault is not noted to be simply in the course of compulsion but in the object of False worship and open profession of Popery to which he compelled And thus have I cleared our Barque from those dangerous shelves upon which you made account to wreck us and have brought it safe to land Now it followes Obj. It is conceived that you Presbyterians you mean are in this a part of the greatest and most deceivable Schisme that ever came into the world Answ. A foule and lewd reproach but fit enough for your wide mouth Thus indeed the Papists did judge of us and so doe still who condemn the reformed Churches of a wicked Schisme in departing from them and them most which went farthest off from them in that as well in Dâ—scipline as in Doctrine with whom you and yours symbolize in this accusation of us But as one saith Non eadem est sententia tribunalis Christi anguli susurronum The Sentence of Christs righteous judgement and of whisperers in their corners is not all one Next after some pretty many lines followes a volley of slâ—nderous reproaches in matching Classicall government with Episcopacy Whereas that was a Lordly government of one over a whole Dâ—ocess this is onely a brotherly combination of many Ministers and ruâ—ing Elders to manage Church affaires by common consent and that
as much as may be according to the Word of God 2. As if we did take authority to adjudge all beside our selves to be Hereticks Schismaticks c. and did seek by humane force to captivate others to our wills and canons and were beneath a legall Spirit in dealing worse with others than we would be deale withall All which are but the lashings of a netled Jade that kicks and â—â—ings his heeles at randome at those that are about him For first Who is there of those that I name exprâ—sly that you will have the face to excuse from the blame of an eroneous Sect Which are Arminians Antinomians Soule-mortalists Antisabbatarians Seekers and Anabaptists with rigid irreconcileable Seperatists Or where doe I speak of captivating all others to our wills Our Independent Bretheren here you gloze withall and stroke them for which yet they have little cause to con you any thank For in your book you soundly box them Nâ—xt followes a blazing of the conscientious Piety and State-Fidelity of your party and some others with a plen for an Universal Liberty To which this is all that I will say that where those things are found of which you boast for your selves and others which is no great modesty as they deserve their due respect and encouragement so they may not nor can serve for a just plea to countenance any errour or erroneous course nor can challenge any other liberty than will stand with the leave of Gods Word for the Magistrate to grant And if any laid out their dear lives to purchase this vast Universall Liberty for themselves and others they spent their lives to no good purpose and with small comfort to themselves When we and many other peaceable Christians were under the Prelaticall yoak what Liberty would have been gratefull to us appeared by the writings and Petitions of Non-conformists in those dayes which was an ease from the burden of Subscription and sundry Ceremonies superstitious and plainly superflaous without any endeavour to break off communion in the publique worship of Prayer Hearing and Sacraments wherein they were willing to joyne much more without pleading for a Toleration for all wayes in Religion an abomination by them abhorred or derogating from the Magistrates power to command in matters of Religion which they did then as now unanimously maintain and your Sect did eagerly oppose When we are guilty of that calumny which you falsely charge on us we shall neede your jeering advice But in the meane while I say with the Poet Loripedem rectus derideat Ethiopem albus Let the straight foot jeere the polt-footed man And the faire face the Ethiopian To go along with you after you have smeared your paper with some foule over flowings of your gaule in charging upon me Fopperies opprobrious dealings c. without instancing any particulars which is but deceitfull dealing you schoole me for taxing your way for a Sect and Schâ—sme and assay to informe me better in the nature of these A Sect say you is a Rent a Schisme is a cutting off or dividing from the truth Answ. It is not worth the labour to make much adoe about words but it will not be amisse to let men see your ignorance in some things wherein you would seem to be acute A Sect therefore cannot rightly be Englished a Renting It comes not from any word that signifies to rent but is derived as some either à secando which is to cut whence is sectum secta and so sectu is as it were a part cut off from others or from the truth to which they should stick and adhere by which course there is a dividing into sundry sides according to that of the Poet Soinditur incertum studia in contraria vulgus The inconstant people doe themselves divide Into contrary parts from side to side Or as others à sectando which signifies earnestly to follow noting a company which doth stiffly follow some opinion or party with a resolution to cleave thereto A Schisme is a Greek word orginally and comes {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} which signifies to cut or cleave in two and as it were divide one from another and is translated Mat 9. 16. Mark 2. 21. Luke 5. 36. rather a rent than a cutting off because in an old cloath patched up with a new piece it is not meant that thereby one piece is cut off from another but that therein when it is worne out the breach is made the wider 2. Not is it rightly said that a Schisme is a cutting off or dividing from the truth but rather a dividing of mindes and affections between men and a breaking off from Church communion between those that agree in the truth of the Gospel This by Divines is usually laid downe to be the difference between Heresie and Schisme Heresie stands in the intertaining and stiffe maintaining false and perverse Doctrine Schisme is the practise of an unlawfull and undue separation from a true Church One may be an Heretick and not a Schismatick as if a man denying some prime Article of Faith doe yet adhere to a Church confessing the true Faith And one may be a Schismatick which it not an Heretick as if a man soundly holding all the articles of the Faith will not yet communicate with a true Church is Gods publique worship Schismaticum facit saith another communionâ—â— dir upta societas The breaking off from Church-society and communion doth make one a Schismatick Of which who is more guilty you in your way or we can be no question when as you display this course of Separation as the chief banner of your company in defiance of all Church-society It is true as you say that truth newly springing is often branded with the black cole of a Sect and Heresie And it is also as true that Error when it cometh abroad is wont to disguise it self under a counterfeit habit of Truth the better to in gratiâ—te her selfe with unwary persons And from whomsoever you should heare such language touching your way that it is a Sect or Schisme it may be playne but no soul language to call a Fig a Fig or a Spade a Spade Next for some touches given your company you are shrewdly passionate and kick and lash very wildly In Ovids Verses taken up by me onely in way of allusion there is nothing can be found by you but scurrility ribaldry and the language of Hell Alack good man that a verse or two of witty Poetry should be taken in so ill part by you But this is nothing but the cynicall arrogance and churlishnesse of your spirit The truth is it was such a pretty picture of your gadding and râ—mbling company that you could not see it so lively set forth with patience And if a verse or two out of Ovid be the language of Hâ—ll what language use you who alledge a verse of his but I woâ— to little purpose in the margent of your Book pag. 78. Morte
Kingdome of Heaven there is the name and whatsoever thou shalt binde on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven there is the power and efficacy of the Keyes which though the Pope and his Ministers perverted and abused yea and exercised another Key which he received from the bottomlesse pit yet it is very unsafely said That the power of the keyes was wholly resolved in the Pope and that there was no other face of Officials but amongst the Papists in Luthers time and that the visible Church the foundation of these failed and onely an elect sâ—aled number remainâ—d Fâ—â— it is evident and in Story yea and in the Revelation also 1. That the sâ—aled number was a visible Church represented to John under the resemblance of two Candlesticks Rev. 11. 4. discerned and seen not onely by John representing the faithful Rev. 14. â— but also by the Dragon and by his Vicegerent the Beast who persecuted the Woman and her seed that is the Church and her Members Râ—v. 12. 13. to 17. and cap. 13. 6 7. The Church visible to malignant persecutors was doubtlesse vâ—sible in it self and in its Members one to another 2. It is evident that in Luthers time and many ages before the Waldenses lived and when Luther came wrote to Luther and to Calvin also who not onely kept Church-assemblies amongst themselves but exercised the power of the keyes among themselves How then can the Author of the Epistle say That there was not any face of Officials but among the Papists in Luthers time What could be spoken more effâ—ctually to gratifie the Papists and to confirms their boasting that either the Church of Rome was the onely visible Church upon the face of the earth or else Christ had no visible Church upon eath for above a thousand yeares together It is a very slender and lean evasion to excuse the rooting out of Ordinances for having any being upon earth to hold they have a beeing in the Scriptures of truth and in the mindes and desires of the faithfull For we might as well say Babylon hath no being upon earth but is burnt down with fire and the New Jerusalem is come downe from Heaven because so it is in the Scriptures of truth and in the mindes and desires of the faithfull If we doe as he saith in this our returne from Babylon carry as the Israelites did of old the vessels of the Lord along with us why should we be afraid to officiate in them We dare not saith he officiate in them because we are as yet within the territories of Babylon and so shall be till we have passed by the sixth Viall over the River Euphrates Rev. 16. 12. Answ. There might be some colour for this if the Churches of Europe and of the Western America were in Scripture-phrase the Kings of the East For they that are said to passe over the Rivâ—r Euphrates in that sixth Viall are exprâ—sly styled the Kings of the East But sooner shall a man draw East and West together than prove Christian Churches to be the Kings of the East or that we are still in the territories of Babylon till we have passed by the sixth Viall over the River Euphrates yea suppose we were still in the territories of Babylon yet neverthelesse though the Jewes of old did not perform Temple-worship within the territories of Babylon because that worship was confined to the Temple yet we in the dayes of the New Testament where the worship of God is not limited to any place the true worshippers may worship the Father even in the midst of Rome And so did the Waldenses and other of our godly fore-fathers within the Roman territories The mention of the sixth Viall putteth me in minde of an wholsome warning delivered in it by Christ and that to the Saints of this age in a speciall manner Behold I come aâ— a thief not to the last Judgement which is no yet but to rob men of their garments of their former profession Blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments lest he walk naked and men see his shâ—mâ— Rev. 16. 15. AMEN Mr. Cottons Letter to Mr. Elmeston upon his writing back to thank him for this labour of love in imparting unto me his judgment upon Mr. Hendens Letter and my signifying the slight account that Mr. Henden made thereof Deare SIR I Thank you for your last Letter of March 5. 1651. whereunto I woulâ— have returned you a large Answer but that God having lately afflicted me with an Asthma I finde stooping to write somewhat painfull to me which distemper though I thank the Lord it doth not yet silence me from publick Ministry yet it keepeth me within the town that I cannot go to neighbour towns to hear else I had gone abroad to have joyned this day with the Indians at Natick about 20 miles from us in a day of Humiliation wherein they intend to give themselves to the Lord and to the worship of Christ in a Church-way It is a wise dispensation of the Lord that when many Christians with you and with us too fall off from Christs Institution and Ordinances that now God should stir up poor Pagans to seek after the same But so it was in the dayes of old Acts 13. 46 47 48. and 28. 28. As for your Neighbour I do not expect the Word should convince him till the Spirit convert him more from himself and perswade him I do not easily believe his saying that he had met before with all the things presented to him but self is self-full I should spend time in vaine to run over the particulars of his notions unlesse all his grounds were laid open in them To cut off some sprigs when other lye hid The best help for such is the prayer of faith to him that toucheth hearts as well as judgements If God returne him not I feare he will fall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and greater exâ—â—bitances till he be filled with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 way and havâ— enough of himself But the Lord Jesus redeâ—â—â— him I commâ—nd my affectionate love to you and you to the 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 grace in whoâ— I rest desirous of your praâ—â—rs and yours in 〈◊〉 â—â—rly love John Cotton Reâ—â—â—â— this 12. of the 8. 1652. FINIS Pag 94. * Erasm. Chil. 2. Cent 2. Cited by Mr. Burg. vindic. leg. in the Preface Orat. post Mich. 1573. Chiliads 1. â—ent 5. Plaut. Mil. glor. Act. 10. Scen. 1. Virg. Aen. 5. Ramus dialect lib. 1. cap. 21. Zabarel de mente bumanâ cap. 8. In his Preface to his myâ—â—ery of Iniquity not faâ— from the end Buchol in Cbron. Chiliad 2. Cent. 3. Isa. 49. 23. Zech. 4. 6. Revel 6 2. Dan. 2. 34. Psal. 110. 3. and 47. 9. 2 Cor. 5. 14. Kâ—kerman System log l. 10. sect. 2. cap. 5. 1. Chro. 29. 9. Deut. 6. 5. 2. Cor. 8. 12. Gen. 18. 19. 2 Chron. 14. 4. Eph. 6. 6 7. Col. 3. 23. Nè saevi magne Sacerdos Matt. 1â— 7. Hâ—b. 9. 27. Eccles. 3. 16. Chil. 7. cent 1. Proprio laxesordet in ore Doloâ—e agit qui versatur in generalibus 1 Cor. 9. 14. Gal. 4. 14 15 16. 1 Kings 22. 28 Error â— Answ Error 2. Answ Error 3 Answ