practise at Leyden viz. that one Samuel Terry was received from the French Church there into communion with us also the wife of Francis Cooke being a Walloone holds communion with the Church at Plymouth as she came from the French to this day be vertue of communion of Churches There is also one Philip Delanoy born of French parents came to us from Lâ—yden to New-Plymouth who comming to age of discerning demanded also communion with us proving himself to be come of such parents as were in ful communion with the French Churches was here upon admitted by the Church of Plymouth and after upon his removal of habitation to Dâ—xburrow where M. Ralph Partridge is Pastor of the Church and upon Letters of recommendation from the Church at Plymouth hee was also admitted into fellowship with the Church at Duxburrow being six miles distant from Plymouth and so I dare say if his occasions lead him may from Church to church throughout New-England For the truth is the Dutch and French Churches either of them being a people distinct from the world and gathered into an holy communion and not Nationall Churches nay so far from it as I verily beleeve the sixth person is not of the Church the difference is so small if moderately pondered between them and us as we dare not for the world deny communion with them And for the Church of Scotland however wee have had least occasion offered to hold communion with them yet thus much I can and doe affirme that a godly Divine comming over to Leyden in Holland where a Booke was printed 〈◊〉 1619 as I take it shewing the nullity of Perth Assembled whom we judged to bee the Author of it and hidden in Holland for a season to avoid the rage of those evill times whose name I have forgotten This man being very conversant with our Pastor Mr. Robinson and using to come to hear him on the Sabbath after Sermon-ended the Church being to partake in the Lords Supper this Minister stood up and desired hee might without offence stay and see the manner of his administration â—and our participation in that Ordinance To which our Pastor answered in these very words or to this effect Reverend Sir you may not onely stay to behold us but parâ—k with us if you please for wee acknowledge the Churches of Scotland to be the Churches of Christ c. The Minister also replyed to this purpose if not also in the same words That for his part hee could comfortable partake with the Church and willingly would but that it is possible some of his brethren of Scotland might take offence at his act which he desired to avoid in regard of the opinion the English Churches which they held communion withall had of us However he rendered thanks to Mr. Robinson and desired in that respect to be onely a spectator of us These things I was earnestly requested to publish to the world by some of thè godly Presbyterian party who apprehend the world to bee ignorant of our proceedings conceiving in charity that if they had been knowne some late Writers and Preacher would never have written and spoke of us as they did and still doe as they have occasion But what they ignorantly judge write or speak of us I trust the Lord in mercy wil passe by In the next place for the wholsome counsell Mr. Robinson gavâ— that part of the Church whereof he was pastor at their departure from him to begin the great worke of Plantation in New-England amongst other wholsome Instructions and Exhortations hee used these expressions or to the same purpose We are now ere long to part asunder and the Lord knoweth whether ever he should live to see our faces again but whether the Lord had appointed it or not he charged us before God and his blessed Angels to follow him no further then he followed Christ And if God should reveal any thing to us by any other instrument of his to be as ready to receive it as ever we were to receive any truth by his Ministery For he was very confident the Lord had more truth and light yet to breake forth out of his holy Word He took occasion also miserably to bewaile the state and condition of the Reformed Churches who were come to a period in Religion and would goe no further then the instruments of their Reformation As for example the Lutherans they could not be drawne to goe beyond what Luther saw for whatever part of Gods will he had further imparted and revealed to Calvin they will rather die them embrace it And so also saith he you see the Calvinists they stick where he left them A misery much to bee lamented For though they were precious shining lights in their times yet God had not revealed his whole will to them And were they now living saith hee they would bee as ready and willing to embrace further light as that they had received Here also he put us in mind of our Church-Covenant at least that part of it whereby wee promise and covenant with God and one with another to receive whatsoever light or truth shall be made known to us from his written Word but withall exhorted us to take heed what we received for truth and well to examine and compare and weigh it with other Scriptures of truth before we received it For saith he It is not possible the Christian world should come so lâ—tely cut of suâ—h thick Antichristian darknesse and that full perfection of knowledge should breake forth at once Another thing hee commended to us was that wee should use all meanes to avoid and shake off the name of Brownist being a meer nick-name and brand to make Religion odious and the professors of it to the Christian world and to that end said hee I should be glad if some godly Minister would goe over with you or come to you before my comming For said hee there will bee no difference between the unconformable Ministers and you when they come to the practise of the Ordinances out of the Kingdome And so advised us by all meanes to endeavour to close with the godly party of the Kingdome of England and rather to study union then division viz. how neare we might possibly without sin close with them then in the least measure to affect division or separation from them And be not loath to take another Pastor or Teacher saith hee for that flock that hath two shepheards is not indangered but secured by it Many other things there were of great and weighty consequence which he commended to us but these things I thought good to relate at the request of some well-willers to the peace and good agreement of the godly so distracted at present about the settling of Church-government in the Kingdom of England that so both sides may truly see what this poor despised Church of Christ now at New-Plymouth in New-England but formerly at Leyden in Holland was and is how far they were
neare halfe a yeare and before we attempted any thing against them wee advised with the Commissioners of the united Colonies who upon testimony of their insolent and injurious courses and perusall of the letter they sent to us left them to us to proceed according to Justice Whereupon the Court sent againe to them by two of their members who carryed letters to require and perswade them to come and give satisfaction and a safe Conduct withall but they entertained those Messengers as they had done the former threatening to whip one whom they tooke along with them and sent us word that if wee had any thing to say to them wee should come to them and wee should have justice there and that if wee came with force they would meet us half the way Our messengers returning with these scornfull answers the Court resolved to send some force to fetch them in and in the mean time there came a second letter from them the Copy whereof is hereafter also set downe but before wee sent forth our souldiers wee wrote to them to this effect Viz. That although the injuries and provocations wee had indured from them were very grievous yet that our Justice and moderation might appeare to all men wee had condescended so farre to their owne proposition as wee would send some Commissioners to them to heare their answers and allegations and if thereupon they would give us such satisfaction as should bee just wee would leave them in peace if otherwise wee would right our selves by force of Armes And signified withall that wee would send a sufficient guard with our Commissioners for seeing they would not trust themsâ—lves with us upon our safe conduct wee had no reason to trust any of ours with them upon their bare curtesie Accordingly about a week after wee sent three Commissioners and 40 Musqueteers with them with instructions first to speak and treate with them and to require satisfaction according to Justice and if it were denyed then to take them by force and bring them prisoners to Boston and to take with all so much of their substance as should satisfie our charges By the way as they went they met with another letter from them letting them know that they feared them not but were prepared for them And accordingly they had fortified themselves in one house some 12 of them and had lined the walls with earth â—usket proofe and had made Flanckers and provided victualls c. to indure a siege So that when our Commissiâ—ners came to the place they would admit no parly But after a while by the mediation of some of their neighbours they were content to parley and offered to referre the cause to Arbitrators so as some of â—hem might bee of Providence or of Roade Island Our Commissioners were content to send to us to know our minds about it and in the meane time sate still Such of the Court as could meet returned answer that their Proposition was neither seasonable nor reasonable nor could it bee safe or honourable for us to accept thereof 1 Because they would never offer nor hearken to any terms of agreement before our souldiers had them in their power 2 Because the ground of their Proposition was false for wee were not parties as they pretended but equall Judges between the Indians and others who were complainants and themselves and yet in a case of warre parties may bee Judges 3 They were no State or Body politique but a few fugitives living without Law or Government and so not honourable for us to joyne with them in such a way of reference 4 The parties whom they would referre it unto were such as had been rejected by us and all the Governments in the Country and so not likely to bee equall to us nor able to judge of the cause and their blasphemous and reproachfull writings c. were not matters fit to bee composed by Arbiâ—ement being deeply criminall but either to bee purged away by repentance and publique satisfaction or else by publique punishment For these and other reasons the Commissioners were required to proceed according to their Instructions And thereupon they intrenched themselves about the house and in few dayes forced them to yeeld and so brought them to Boston where they were kept in prison till the Court sate and had their dyet from the Cookes as good meat and drinke as the Towne afforded The next Lords day they refused to goe to the Church assembly except they might have liberty to speake there as occasion should be They were answered by some of the Magistrates that it appertained to the Elders to order the affairs of the Church but they might presuppose they should not bee denyed such liberty speaking words of truth and sobernesse So in the afternoon they came and were placed in a convenient seate before the Elders Mr. Cotton the Teacher taught then in his ordinary course out of Acts 19. of Demetrius speech for Diana her silver shrine After Sermon Gorton desired leave to speake which being granted hee tooke occasion from the Sermon to speake to this effect That in the Church now there was nothing but Christ so that all our Ordinances Ministers and Sacraments c. were but mens inventions for shew and poâ—p and no other then those silver shrines of Diana He said also that if Christ lives eternally then he died eternally and other speeches of like kinde And indeed it appeareth both by his speeches and letters that it was his opinion that Christ was incarnate in Adam and was that image of God wherein Adam was created and that the chiefe worke and merit lay in his Inanition when he became such a thing so meane c. and that his being borne after of the Virgin Mary and suffering c. was but a manifestation of his suffering c. in Adam Another of them said that the Sabbath was Christ and so was borne of the Virgin Mary They called Magistracy among Christians an Idol yet they did acknowledge a Magistracy in the world to bee subjected to as an Ordinance of God but onely as naturall as the father over his wife and children and an hereditary Prince over his subjects Their first appearance before the Court was upon the Lecture day at Boston before a very great Assembly where first the Governour declared the cause and manner of all the proceedings against them and their Letters were openly read and they had liberty to object and anwers were given as followeth First to their plea That they were not within our Jurisdiction it was answered 1 If they were not within ours yet they were within the Jurisdiction of one of our confederates who had referred them to us 2 If they were within no Jurisdiction then was there none to complaine to for redresse of our injuries in way of ordinary Justice and then we had no way of relief but by force of Armes Secondly to their plea Of persecution for their Conscience c. It was answered
you but Mr. Dudley disdainefully asking is this one joyned to Gorton and Mr. Winthrop unjustly upon the same speech refused the oath of the witnesse calling him knight of the post are these the wayes and persons you trade by towards us are these the people you honour your selves withall the Lord shall lay such honour in the dust and bow downe your backes with shame and sorrow to the grave and declare such to bee Apostatisers from the truth and falsifiers of the word of God onely to please men and serve their owne lusts that can give thankes in their publique Congregations for their unity with such grosse abominations as these Wee must needes aske you another question from a Sermon now preached amongst you namely how that bloud relisheth you have sucked formerly from us by casting us upon straights above our strength that have not beene exercised in such kinde of labours no more then the best of you in former times in removing us from our former conveniences to the taking away of the lives of some of us when you are about your disâ—ed up dainties having turned the juice of a poore silly Grape that perisheth in the use of it into the bloud of our Lord Jesus by the cunning skill of your Magicians which doth make mad and drunke so many in the world and yet a little sleepe makes them their owne men againe so can it heale and pacifie the consciences at present but the least hand of God returnes the feares and terrour againe let our bloud wee say present it selfe together herewith you hypocrites when will you answer such cases as these and wee doe hereby promise unto you that wee will never looke man in the face if you have not a fairer hearing then ever wee had amongst you or can ever expect And bee it knowne to you all that wee are your owne Country-men whatever you report of us though the Lord hath taught us a language you never spoake neither can you heare it and that is the cause of your alienation from us for as you have mouthes and speake not so have you eares heare not so we leave you to the judgement and arraignment of God Almighty The joynt act not of the Court Generall but of the peculiar fellowship now abiding upon Mshawomet Randall Holden This they owned in Court though onely Holdens hand were to it Postscriptum VVEE need not put a seale unto this our warrant no more then you did to yours The Lord hath added one to our hands in the very conclusion of it in that effusion of bloud and horrible Massacre now made at the Dutch plantation of our loving Country-men women and children which is nothing else but the compleate figure in a short epitomie of what wee have writ summed up in one entire act and lest you should make it part of your justification as you do all such like acts provided they bee not upon your owne backes concluding them to be greater sinners then your selves wee tell you nay but except you repent you shall likewise perish For wee aske you who was the cause of Mistresse Hutchinson her departure from amongst you was it voluntarie No shee changed her phrases according to the dictates of your tutors and confessed her mistakes that so shee might give you content to abide amongst you yet did you expell her and cast her away no lesse are you the originall of her removall from Aquethneck for when shee saw her children could not come downe amongst you no not to conferre with you in your own way of brotherhood but be clapt up and detained by so long imprisonment rumors also being noised that the Island should bee brought under your Government which if it should shee was fearefull of their lives or else to act against the plaine verdict of their owne conscience having had so great and apparant proofe of your dealings before as also the Island being at such divisions within it selfe some earnestly deâ—iring it should bee delivered into your hands professing their unity with you others denyed it professing their dissent and division from you though for what themselves know not but onely their abominable pride to exercise the like tyranny From these and such like workings having their originall in you shee gathered unto her selfe and tooke up this fiction with the rest of her friends that the Dutch plantation was the Citie of refuge as shee had gathered like things from your doctrines before when she seemed to hold out some certaine glimpses or glances of light more then appeared elsewhere whilst there was such to approve it in whom there might bee some hope to exalt the instruments thereof higher then could bee expected from others but you know very well you could never rest nor bee at quiet till you had put it under a Bushell idest bounded and measured the infinite and immense word of God according to your owne shallow humane and carnall capacities which howsoever may get the highest seates in your Synagogues Synods and Jewish Synedrions yet shall it never enter into the kingdome of God to be a doore-keeper there Do not therefore beguile your selves in crying out against the errours of those so miserably falne for they are no other things which they held but branches of the same root your selves so stoutly stand upon but know this that now the axe is laid to the root of the tree whereof you are a part and every tree that brings not forth fruit according to the law of that good things which the father knowes how to give to those that aske it shall bee cut downe and cast it into the fire Neither doe you fill up your speeches or tales wee meane your Sermons but that wee affect not the Idolizing of words no more then of persons or places For your selves know the word is no more but a bruit or talke as you know also your great and terrible word Magistrate is no more in its originall then Masterly or Masterlesse which hath no great lustre in our ordinary acceptation Therefore wee looke to finde and injoy the substance and let the ceremony of these things like vapours vanish away though they gather themselves into clouds without any water at all in them the Lord is in the mean time a dew unto Israel and makes him to grow like a lillie casting out his roots and branches as Lebanon We say fill not up your talk as your manner is crying that shee went out without ordinances for God can raise up out of that stone which you have already rejected as children so also ministers and ordinances unto Abraham You may remember also that every people and poore plantation formerly fleeced by you cannot reach unto the hire of one of your Levites nor fetch in one such Dove as you send abroad into our native Country to carry and bring you news Nor can you charge them in that point for it was for protection or government shee went And however hire in other respects yet
themselves with their friends and such as will follow after them where they may use their liberty to live without order or controule and not to trouble us that have taken the same course as wee have done for our safety and peace which they doe not approve nor like of but rather like beasts in the shape of men to doe what they shall thinke fit in their owne eyes and will not bee governed by any State And seeing they doe but here linger out the time in hope to get the day to make up their penny-worths in advantage upon us we have just cause to heare the complaints of so many of our Neighbors that live in the Town orderly amongst us and have brought in their complaints with many reasons against them and not to admit them but answer them as unfit persons to bee received into our meane State c. Now if these Reasons and much more which have been truly said of them doe not satisfie you and the rest of our neighbours but that they must be received into our Towne-state even unto our utter overthrow c. then according to the order agreed upon by the Towne I doe first offer my house and land within the liberty of the Towne unto the Towne to buy it of mee or else I may and shall take liberty to sell it to whom I may for mine advantage c. William Arnold A PARTICVLAR ANSWER TO THE Manifold Slanders and abominable Falsehoods contained in a Book called Simplicities defence against Seven-headed Policy Wherein Samuel Gorton is proved a disturber of Civill Societies desperately dangerous to his Country-men the English in New-Engl and notoriously slanderous in what he hath Printed of them WHEN first I entertained the desires of the Countrey to come over to answer the complaints of Samuel Gorton c. and to render a reason of the just and righteous proceedings of the Countrey of New-Engl in the severall parts of it against him being a common disturber of the peace of all Societies where hee came witnes New-Plymouth 2 Roade-Island 3 Providence and lastly the Massachusets being the most eminent I little thought then to have appeared in print but comming into England and finding a Booke written by Mr. Gorton called Simpliâ—ities defence against Seven-headed policy or A true complaint of a peaceable people being part of the English in New-Engl made unto the State of Old-England against cruell persecutors united in Church-Government in those parts I then conceived my selfe bound in duty to take off the many grosse and publike scandalls held forth therein to the great amazement of many tender consciences in the Kingdom who are not acquainted with his proud and turbulent carriage nor see the Lion under his Lambe-skinne coate of simplicity and peace The Lord knowes how unwilling I was personally to engage and I trust hee will also guide mee in answering his booke as I shall bee farre from bitternesse t is true time was when his person was precious in mine eies and therefore I hope and desire onely to make a righteous and just defence to the many unworthy things by him boldly ignorantly proudly and falsly published to the great dishonour of God in wronging and scandalizing his Churches which the Lord Jesus Christ will not leave unpunished I know the world is full of controversies and t is my great griefe to see my dear native Country so engaged in them especially one godly person against another 'T is my present comfort I come not to accuse any but to defend New-England against the injurious complaints of Samuel Gorton c. but as it comes to passe oftentimes that men wound others unavoidably in defending their persons from the violent assaults of such as draw upon them which otherwise they would never have done so if Mr. Gorton receive any such hurt which is unavoidable hee becomes an accessary thereunto by forcing mee to defend the Country without which I should bee unfaithfull I know the world is too full of bookes of this kinde and therefore however I am unfitted of many things I have and could procure at home would well become a relation of the late and present state of New England yet I shall now onely with as great brevity as may bee give answer to such injurious complaints as hee maketh of us And however his Title Preface and every leafe of his booke may bee justly found fault with I shall clearely answer to matters of fact such as hee chargeth the severall Governments withall so as any indifferent Reader may easily discerne how grosly wee are abused and how just and righteous censures were against him for disturbing the civill peace of all societies where hee came in such a manner as no Government could possibly beare and for the blasphemies for which hee was proceeded against at Massachusets they fell in occasionally by his owne meanes without any circumstance leading thereunto And first whereas hee accuseth us in the first page of his booke to goe over to suppresse hereticks 'T is well knowne we went thither for no such end laid downe by us but to enjoy those liberties the Lord Jesus Christ had left unto his Church to avoid the Episcopall tyranny and the heavy burthens they imposed to which sufferings the kingdome by this ever to bee honoured Parliament have and doe beare witnesse to as religious and just And that wee might also hold forth that truth and ancient way of God wherein wee walke which Mr. Gorton cals heresie Next in the same Pag. hee chargeth us with affection of Titles c. To which I answer either we must live without Government or if wee have Governours wee must give them wee call such Titles as are sutable to their offices and places they beare in Church and Common-wealth as Governours and Assistants Pastors Teachers Rulers Deacons c. these are our highest Titles we give In his second pag. hee chargeth the Massachusets to unite with other Colenies to the end they might bathe themselves in bloud and feed themselves fat with the lives of their brethren c. This is a notorious slander 'T is true that the Massachusets new Plimouth Coneâ—â—â—â—ut and New-haven I meane the severall Colonies there entred into a civill combination and are called by the name of the Vnited Colonies and this was occasioned by a generall conspiracy of the Indians against the body of the English there seated together with the distracted condition of England from whom we could expect no helpe at that time But Mr. Gortan and his company fell at that time into more then ordinary familiarity with the Nanohigganset Indians who were the principal contrivers of the Villany who where they could not draw others to them by forâ—e or flattery they did it by large gifts c. as I could prove by many testimonies of the Indians many hundred miles asunder from each other in which designe had not the finger of God in much mercy prevented I had beene the