Mr. Hildershams acknowledgement of Gods authority above mans against Mr. Hildershams arguments against separation and his perswasions to come to the beginning of the Churches prayers and to imply that you know more than those worthy men when you give the world so little evidence of it doth prove the goodness of your cause as much as it proveth your humility or self-acquaintance Sect. 55. E. B. p. 17 18. The former non-conformists held Arminianisme so fundamental and dangerous an errour c. But you do not only speak favourably of it but also Proudly tell us that you are confident not one of many hundreds who speak against Communion with Arminians do understand what Arminianisme is As if plain Christians could not easily come to know it R. B. 1. As under Church-tyrants all is Schisme which contradicts their Schisme so with some men all is Proudly spoken which contradicteth their Pride and supposeth them to be but half as ignorant as they are 2. Were all the Non-conformists of one mind about Arminianisme Was not Arminius himself against Prelacy and Ceremonies and many of his followers Who were the great Antiadiaphorists in Germany but Iliricus Amsdorsius Gallus and other Lutherans Is not Mr. Dury a Non-conformist who hath forty years laboured to bring the Lutherans who are as far from us as Arminius and the Calvinists to Communion 3. Who would be at the labour to read over the many Volumes that are written about Pre-determination Free-will Concurse and Grace by which such Ignorant souls as I cannot to this day tell what they mean nor in many or most points wherein they differ when this man and his plain followers Women and Boyes so easily know it But like the Pope that can Infallibly expound the Scriptures but is so wise that he will not do it Le Blank and many more might have spared their pains of right stating the Controversies if they had this mans Key I never yet met with the man that could but make me well understand what it is that is meant by Free-will nor what by the Power which they dispute of to do good much less open all their meanings de scientia media de Concursu prae-determinations c. But here 's one can easily tell us all But I warrant him he will not Some men alas and some Treachers will be wise and humble in despight of Wisdom and Humility and Christians in despight of Love Unity and Peace Sect. 56. E. B. p. 18. His own Free-will hath not the least power to receive the things of God R. B. 1. What not sanctified Free-will 2. What! not a Receiving obediential power A receiving power is a passive power as it is strictly taken Hath a free-agent less Power to receive Grace than a marble to receive the engraving of the work-man Doth no man ever receive Grace Or do they receive what they cannot receive Hath a man no more Receptive Power than a block or stone I know its said The natural man Receiveth not c. that is Vnderstandeth not believeth not and loveth not in sensu Composito But it s never said that Our free-will hath not the least power to receive But I have said so much of this and the next point the badness of nature to which he giveth not any answer at all that I wonder that the man thinks that one that is all tongue and no eares or eyes is fit for credit or humane converse Sect. 57. E. B. You Jesuite like are not afraid to say The Scipture tells us not sufficiently and particularly which Books in it self are Canonical nor that the various Readings are the right nor whether every Text be brought to us uncorrupted R. B. 1. And by implying your assertion of the contrary you become a false Teacher of pernicious doctrine As if you designed to make men Jesuits or Infidels by renouncing the Scriptures as soon as they find that these things are not sufficiently there done and thence to be proved without subordinate testimonies 2. Why do not you save such as Dr. J. Reignolds Chamier and others their great labour and prove out of Scripture it self which of all the various readings mentioned by Beza Capelus and others and found in various Copies is the right and so of the rest Sect. 58. E. B. So that in effect you do resolve the Credit of the Holy Scriptures into the truth of Church-history which words are so contrary to the true Protestant doctrine so fully agreeing with the doctrine of the Jesuits c. R. B. 1. As to agreeing with the Jesuits fully c. all that know their Writings know it is an untruth 2. True Protestants usually say the same things that I do Though you may meet with some few like your self that do not 3. I have fully opened in the Preface to the 2d Edit c. of my Saints Rest how ambiguous that word Resolving into is and how far your saying is true or false He that enquireth what Laws are in force in England must distinguish of these two Questions 1. Which are the Laws which are the Statutes in force what words are false Printed and what right what Copies most perfect And 2. What Authority are these statutes of The Authority of them is all resolved into the Authority of the King and Parliament But we that are not so wise as you must be beholden to various Copies Records Printers Lawyers to know which are the Statutes in force and whether any words be falsly Printed And if we find so many hundred various Readings as be in the Bible we cannot know in every one which is right and which is wrong by the bare inspection of the Book it self And if you have any considering faculty left and your free-will hath the least power to receive any truth or stop you in your errour me-thinks these questions should force you into your witts Qu. 1. Shall he that by the Book alone can resolve all these doubts see it in the Original or only in Translations If in the Original 2. Shall he see the Autographs or only the Transcripts or Impressions 3. If the Autographs be not to be seen but only Transcripts hath God promised unerring infallibility to all the Scribes and Printers in the world or to some only or to none 4. If to all where is the promise If to some how shall we know them If to none may they not all erre 5. When many Copies so much differ as they do is it not certain that some of them erred 6. Can all Women and Unlearned persons or Ministers judge by the Original Transcripts who understand not the Original tongues 7. Must he that shall be certain see all the various Copies or will it serve turn to see some one only 8. If he must see all who is he or she in the world that can be certain If they must see many who knows how many and which 9. If they must see but one Copy how shall
sent out any that had as great a sin as this what none when he sent out Judas himself who was first a Thief and after a Traytor Do you think then that Christ ever sent out Lyars Railers furious Church-dividers false accusers c 5. That indeed they are nothing else as to the whole discharge and exercise of their office but the servants of men is another slander and untruth He that is a servant of Christ and a true Pastor of a Christian Church and a sound Preacher of the Gospel and an helper of believers faith and a lover of the peoples souls and a diligent upright labourer for mens salvation is something else than a servant of man even in the discharge of their Ministerial office But such are many of the Conformable Ministers Ergo Prove if you can that Dr. Preston Sibbes Stoughton Whittaker Mr. Bolton Whateley Gataker Fenner and all the late Assembly save eight or nine at most being all Conformists were nothing else but the servants of men and not at all the servants of Christ Your Father thought otherwise of Mr. Bolton and perhaps they were both as wise as you Prove now that Mr. Gurnal Mr. Trap Dr. Lightfoot Dr. Walker Mr. Langley and many others that I can name that are worthy men in London and round about it are nothing else but the servants of men And will it not be as hard to prove one to be a servant of Christ who serveth Satan by falshood and malice and calumniating Christs Churches and Servants as those that are thus the servants of men Sect. 42. E. B. For the question is not as you weakly and insignificantly word it whether a Defective faulty true Church may ordinarily or at least sometimes be joyned with But whether a defective faulty imposing Church is not to be separated from R. B. 1. You begin here with another untruth I was the stater of the Question and did not referr it to you to state it I chose that question to dispute which I thought fittest Therefore to tell me that it not the question which is the question is untrue 2. We have here another taste of your insolency To call them Magisterially weak and insignificant words which you design not to examine nor once notifie to the Reader wherein the Weakness or Insignificancy is nay which we suppose you in the next sentence use your self expresly in all the words save one and implicitly as to that For Defective and faulty are words that you condescend to use And when you say a Church you must mean a Church that hath Truth of Essence or else you speak equivocally or contradiction And may not a True Church be faulty and Defective where then is the insignificancy of these words 3. And as to the Predicate Is there a difference between the Questions whether such a Church may be joyned with and whether it must be separated from If there be I will put the question as hath least ambiguity I mean such separation as consisteth 1. In holding that such a Church may not be joyned with 2. And as consisteth in a privative not-joyning or refusing Communion as unlawful If you mean any thing else you talk not to me and to my question 4. But is all the stress of separation laid upon the word Imposing I undertook to prove that the Parish Ministers that I speak of do not Impose upon the people unless officiating be imposing As Separatists themselves impose their own Words of Prayer upon the people that are to joyn with them It being the Ministers office to word his Prayers and praises he imposeth them on the people And all other circumstances in which the Pastor doth and must guide the flock as what Chapter shall be read what Psalm Meeter Tune Time c. I think the Separatists impose And I know not that the Minister whom I hear doth impose any more on me Therefore by your own rule I am not bound to separate from this Parish Church because it is no Imposing Church It is Imposed on but it doth not Impose that I know of Sect. 43. E. B. This we affirm 1. Because we know not how else to preserve our Christian Liberty which it is an indispensible duty to maintain but by separating from those that would unduly take it from us R. B. These universal terms not limited nor expounded are to be taken universally And so here are two false doctrines one that it is indispensible duty to maintain all our Christian liberty and the other that we know not how else to maintain it But if by this Liberty you mean but some sort of liberty and not all you should have distinguished if you would not deceive And if by we know not you intend only a Confession of your own ignorance that would be no proof of the point in hand because that may be true which you know not 1. There is a Liberty called Christian because it is essential to Christianity as to be freed from the Covenant of Works and from the Guilt and Reign of sin and from the power of Satan and the state of enmity against God c. 2. There is a Liberty called Christian because it is procured and given us by Christ though not essential to Christianity as to eat of this meat or that flesh or herbs to be free from the observation of certain dayes and Customs and Ceremonies not sinful in themselves 3. There is a Liberty called Christian because Christians have it in common with all other men or with many as to marry or not marry to live in this Countrey or that to be free from oppression injuries slanders persecution when they can And we must distinguish of the word Our that is we must shew how far this Liberty is Ours indeed 1. It is one thing to be Ours Necessarily or as you say Indispensibly and another thing to be ours when we can get it keep it or use it without a greater loss than it will compensate or a greater hurt to others It is one thing to be ours in fundamental right to be used at fit times and another thing to be ours to be alwayes used Prop. 1. The Liberty which is essential to our Christianity or Godliness is indispensibly to be maintained and exercised Gal. 5. 1. Prop. 2. All degrees of the same liberty must be maintained as well as the essentials that is we must labour to be as free as we can from all the degrees of sin and misery But we cannot here have what we would Prop. 3. There is a Liberty to use certain things as statedly or ordinarily Indifferent which is none of Ours to use them in several Cases which take away the Indifferency as in case of scandal or greater hurt to others or our selves or of the restraint of just authority Prop. 4. The same must be said of forbearing things indifferent Prop. 5. Our Liberty from
enclined to them R. B. Here he untruly intimated that I said more who never said so much but only that she thought they lived strictlyer than we and fell in among them And now Reader I shall again tell thee my reasons for all that I said of her Mr. Joseph Baker then Preacher in Worcester a man of unquestionable Prudence and Credit now with Christ told me all that I have said of this Woman and that she had not been at Church of a long time before and was passing along the Streets and was suddenly moved to go in to the Church at Lecture time and that she was struck as aforesaid at the hearing of the Text and before Sermon was done could hardly forbear crying out in Church and that she had on the conceit of their strictness faln in among the Quakers and been often at their meetings but hearing them speak against Scriptures and Ministers was troubled and thought that they spake that which her experience would not suffer her to consent to and that she was like in these perplexities to fall into great Melancholy and her body also to be weakened by the troubles of her mind and that through his motion or perswasion she was desirous to speak with me I had no reason to deny belief to him When I came next to his house the Gentle-woman came to me and he and she together repeated the substance of all this again and she spake not a syllable against it And speaking a few words to disswade her from the Quakers in haste I never saw her more The said Mr. Baker told me after of all her sad and Melancholy abstinence and weakness and of Mr. Browne and Mr. Jordanes frequency with her And shortly after shewed me the Book with Mr. Brownes Epistle to it and told me that which they now thus quarrel with that Mr. Browne was one of the publishers of it and was for the doctrine in it Though I discerned by the Book that she her self was taken with that point These things I long heard affirmed and confirmed and never contradicted till this day and now you hear that the Timeing of Mr. Brownes Opinion and endeavours is all that they can say any thing against themselves And thus much I thought meet to say against their rash occasions on this by-occasion Sect. 94. R. B. p. 30. I have not yet done with Mr. Bagshaw He comes on again in a Postscript with more Untruths And first he tells you how little commendation it is to my honesty to have yet such easie access now to the Licensers and Press that he can Print two Books before another man can Publish a few sheets Answ 1. I never spake with the Licensor nor saw him And if neither of those two Books were Licensed when he wrote this at least is not this still a fearless heedless man 2. Is not Honesty among these men become a word of a new signification And is it any wonder if our dishonesty make us unworthy of their Communion when our honesty is questionable for the Licensing of our Books If it be a sign of dishonesty to do any thing which our Rulers will but allow of it may next be dishonesty to speak any thing that they think worthy to be believed and to Preach the Gospel if they do but allow it And may not your honesty be as reasonably questioned because you are suffered to Preach Sure the Licensers are not so bad men as to prove all dishonest whose Books they License Sect. 95. E. B. His last Book about the Sabbath might have been wholly spared Dr. Owen having judiciously and accurately handled that Question before him R. B. 1. The Wisdom from above is without partiality and without hypocrisie Was it a blot on Dr. Owens honesty that his Books are Licensed O forgetful man 2. Who made the Law that no man must write on a subject after Dr. Owen was Dr. Owen to be blamed for needless work because he wrote on the Sabbath after Dr. Bound Dr. Young Dr. Twisse Mr. Eaton Mr. Bifield Mr. Shephard and many more 3. Mine was Written and in the Press before Dr. Owens was abroad Though I had before seen Mr. Hughes his accurate Treatise that then came out Sect. 96. E. B. His last Book about the Sabbath doth make so full a discovery of Mr. Baxters spirit in pleading for Saints dayes that is for will-worship R. B. 1. Remember Reader that it is my own Book and not his that discovereth my spirit Fetch thy judgement of it thence and spare not 2. And if thou find cause to put down the Commemoration of the Powder-plot or such other dayes for fear of will-worship do not therefore renounce all see houres for secret and family-prayer and Lectures it being equally will-worship to appoint a set hour as a set day which God in Scripture hath not appointed Sect. 97. E. B. And in Atheistically arguing against the Divine and self-evidencing authority of the holy Scriptures which he doth for many pages together that henceforth I hope he will no longer be a Snare but justly he Rejected of all as one of the worst sort of Hereticks since under the notion of being a Christian and a Protestant be doth with his utmost industry and cunning labour to overthrow our foundation in that he puts the credit of Scripture on the Truth of History and denies any certainty but what may be gathered from that which dangerous doctrine I could not but warn thee Christian Reader as thou lovest thy peace and comfort as well as the truth of Christ that thou wilt diligently beware of And I must leave it to thee to judge whether that Conformity which such a person pleads for is not justly to be suspected R. B. Here are three more visible untruths in point of fact 1. That I argue against the Divine Authority of the Scripture yea or the self-evidencing either which I have written for at large in three several Treatises 1. In the 2d Part of my Saints Rest 2. In a Book called the Unreasonableness of Infidelity 3. In my Reasons of the Christian Religion most fully but never wrote a word against it 2. That I do with my industry and cunning labour to overthrow our foundation Hath this man written more for the foundation than those three Books 3. That I deny any certainty but what may be gathered from the truth of History For which he citeth not one word in which I ever said so nor can But the contrary is legible in the forecited Volumes at large As to the matter of his Accusation I will not here write another Book to tell men what I have written in the former Read my own words even those he accuseth and my Treatise for the Christian Religion and judge as you see Cause But for them that will believe him to save them the labour of reading it in my own Books as if another man were liker to tell
Principles of Church-division and censorious unwarrantable Separation I Know there is in Holiness a contrariety to sin and Heaven and Hell must finally shew the difference for ever And to reconcile them is as unpossible as to reconcile Light and Darkness I know that it is the endeavour of every faithful Minister of Christ to make this difference plainly known and in Doctrine and Discipline to separate the precious from the vile and to make ungodly men know that they are ungodly and to give to each their proper portion and to keep the Churches as clean as they can by lawful means I know that the ruine of this purging and differencing Discipline is a great part of the lamentable ruine of the Churches and occasioneth that scandal to the Mahometans and Heathens because of the wicked lives of Christians which is one of the greatest hinderances of their conversion And that all Christians should use their utmost skill and power to recover Religion to its primitive Purity and Splendour and Discipline to the most effectual regular exercise And I know that in mens private converse there must be a great care what company we converse with and especially whom we make our familiars And that to be indifferent and to intimate an equality or likeness of the godly and the wicked in doctrine communion and familiarity is a notable sign of an ungodly person And upon these accounts I know that when persons are newly recovered from ungodliness themselves they are very much inclined to fly from the company of such as far as their safety doth require And by this inclination and their ignorance they are frequently tempted to go further from them in Church communion than God alloweth them to do and instead of separating from them in their sin to separate from them in their duty and to separate from the Churches of Christ in his true worship because of the mixture and presence of the bad And this they are drawn to 1. By forgetting the Scripture pattern and state of the Churches even in the purest age and thinking only what they desire rather than what is to be expected or done 2. By forgetting the difference between the Church visible which is alwayes mixt with Hypocrites and offenders and the Church invisible which shall all be saved 3. By forgetting the difference between their private familiarity where they are choosers of their company themselves and their Church communion where the Pastors are the Rulers and Judges of the fitness of the members Or else not understanding that this use of the Keyes and judging of the fitness of the members is indeed the Pastors Office and not theirs 4. By not considering that nothing must be done by Discipline upon Offenders but in a course of Church-Justice upon due Accusations Summons Audience Proof and patient Admonition And not by casting out any irregularly upon the expectation of every one that will say that they are ungodly and scandalous 5. By forgetting the great difference between joyning with men in sinful actions and joyning with them in their duty in which they should be encouraged 6. By forgetting the great difference of keeping in our own place and duty though bad men are present and going out of our place and duty to joyn with them in sin 7. By forgetting that God will have all mens own wills by Choosing or Refusing to have more hand in their Welfare or Misery than other mens And if they mischoose the sin will be their own 8. By forgetting that God hath not left the Church at arbitrary liberty to judge any Godly or Ungodly at their pleasure But hath given us a set Test or Rule to judge them by which is their sober Profession of Consent to the Baptismal Covenant upon which the Adult and their Infants have right to Baptism And being Baptized have Right to Church Communion in all the Acts which their Age and Understanding makes them capable of And it is Church-tyranny to refuse such as shew this Title till they are openly proved to forfeit it by Impenitency in gross sin after publick admonition and due means This is the truth and the method of Christs discipline and the Rule of our Communion 9. By superstitious placing their Religion in indifferent and undertermined things and laying a greater stress on the words of prayer than there is cause Overvaluing their several outward forms expressions and orders in the worshipping of God when instead of provoking each other to faith and fervency to Love and to good works they place more of Godliness in words and circumstances which God hath certainly left free to every mans conscience than God doth place in them And one thinks that he is irregular that prayeth without a set form and another that he is ungodly that prayeth not by the Spirit who useth a set form when both do but speak their own superstition and make Laws and Rules which God never made Superstition and our own additions in Religion even in those that cry out much against it is the occasion of most of our Church-divisions One side supposeth every disorder or unfit expression in free prayer to be a greater fault than indeed it is And that its unlawful therefore to joyn with a Church that hath no set forms Another party supposeth the forms in the Church Lyturgy to be worse than they are and that it is unlawful to joyn in them or to receive the Lords Supper when they are used When as God hath neither tyed us to set forms nor from them save only as unsuitableness to any particular persons may make one less edifying than the other And both free prayers and set forms studied prayers and sudden prayers are all the work of man as to mans part and therefore they must needs be imperfect and faulty as man is And yet in both we may pray by the Spirit even with the holy and fervent desires which the Spirit exciteth in us And the Spirit may ordinarily be a Spirit of supplication in us and help our infirmities in the one way and in the other And therefore though I will not equall them For I prefer some mens free praying before any forms and I prefer the Common prayers before some mens free prayers yet I may say that I will neither Assent and Consent to every word in the one nor in the other no not of any man that ever I heard And yet I will not take it for unlawful to joyn with Church or Family or person in the one or in the other yea upon long experience if I had fully my own choice and liberty I would use free prayer one part of the day or one day and a well composed form another part because I see commodities by both and such inconveniences of either way alone as are if possible to be avoided But when the Mind hath received a prejudice against either way by Education Custom or former distastes no reason how clear soever will overcome it till age and
exempt a man from the malignant calumnies of this Judge of the Churches When in one sentence he telleth you how much I have written against the Bishops and in another that I am in the same condemnation with him and yet in another that I dare look no truth in the face that bringeth suffering when he talks of one point that all Christians are agreed in and directly bringeth none And when he chargeth me with Atheistical arguing against the divine and self-evidencing authority of the Scripture and therefore to be Rejected of all as one of the worst sort of Hereticks that under the notion of being a Christian and a Protestant doth with his utmost industry and cunning labour to overthrow our foundation When I know of no one man living in this Age that hath written so much I say not so well for the things in question Scripture and Christianity as I have done May not this man as modestly charge Bishop Downame to be a Papist that hath written so much to prove the Pope to be Antichrist or say any thing else that he hath list to say 12. Doth he not fix upon you by such Libells as these an odious reproach As if he would perswade the world that you that he writeth to are so partial so blind so false to truth and to your own souls and such pernicious enemies to peace as that you will receive that which is thus falsly said to you without ever reading what is said on the other side or against all the evidence that contradicteth it and will believe all these visible untruths of his without any proof upon the bare report of so rash a man 13. Whether following such men and wayes as this is not the likeliest way in the world not only to increase the reproach of the Non-conformists and make them all thought of as we do of the Quakers and so to continue severities against them as a company of furious unsociable persons but also to harden men into a contempt of Religion it self 14. Doth not God permit such a Champion of the Cause of Division thus criminally to miscarry that you may see that you are not better than those you separate from You blame them for subscribing erroneously or falsly And which of them hath put thirty three and forty eight visible untruths deliberatly in print and Impenitently stands in them as your Champion hath done Doth not this shew you that you are not so good but that the Churches of godly Pastors are as worthy of your Communion as you are of theirs If one should admonish one of your Church-members of one single deliberate avowed lye would you not call him to Repentance And will you believe this man and follow him upon his bare word who hath published eighty such falshoods Yet I am not one that think he loveth a lye because it is a lye but one that is thus guilty through proud overvaluing his own unfurnished understanding and through an extraordinary Rashness and want of tenderness of Conscience You have heretofore had better Guides and you have better still I never met with two Ministers that approve his Libell nor any but Mr. Browne alone you have a more peaceable Rule And if you are Christians indeed you have a Peaceable Spirit and a Saviour who is the Prince of peace who hath prayed that all his Disciples may be one John 17. 21. and a God who is the God of peace Follow therefore the Wisdom that is both Pure and Peaceable and not that from beneath which is earthly sensual and devilish and worketh by envious zeal and strife unto confusion and every evil work Jam. 3. 14 15 16 17. To Mr. EDWARD BAGSHAW BROTHER it is not a little troublesome to me and will be troublesome to many peaceable Readers both that these Writings should pass between us and that I should mention your faults so plainly as I do But as I began not with you so I know not how to let you talk on without betraying the peace of the Church the credit of the Non-conformists who are by your self obliged to disown you and the souls of the weak brethren for whom Christ dyed And I am constrained plainly to name your faults 1. Because truth consisteth in speaking of things as they are 2. And because my business is now to summon you to Repentance to which end the opening of your sin is necessary 3. And because these following Scriptures are my ground and your own word seem to me to charge it on me as my necessary duty upon dreadful penalties The Scriptures that I set before me are Lev. 19. 17. after mentioned Rom. 16 17. Mark them which cause Divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which you have learned and avoid them Jam. 3. 14 15 16 17. But if ye have bitter envying or zeal and strife in your hearts glory not and lye not against the truth This wisdom descendeth not from above but is earthly sensual devilish For where envying zeal and strife is there is confusion and every evil work c. 1 Cor. 1. 10 11 12 13. 3. 1 2 3 4. John 17. 21 22. Rom. 14. 15. John 8. 44. When he speaketh a lye he speaketh of his own for he is a lyer and the Father of it Rev. 21. 8. All lyers shall have their part c. 22. 15. Whosoever loveth and maketh a lye Psal 15. 2 3. That speaketh the truth in his heart backbiteth not with his tongue nor doth evil to his neighbour nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour 3 John 9 10. I wrote unto the Church but Diotrephes who loveth to have the preheminence among them receiveth us not wherefore if I come I will remember his deeds which he doth prating against us with malicious words And not content therewith neither doth he himself receive the brethren and forbiddeth them that would and casteth them out of the Church Gal. 2. 11 12 13 14. I withstood him to the face because he was to be blamed For he withdrew and separated himself fearing them which were of the circumcision and the other Jews dissembled likewise with him insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation But when I saw that they walked not uprightly c. Tit. 3. 10 11. A man that is an Heretick after the first and second admonition reject Your own doctrine is as followeth pag. 1. It will be a favour if you look upon me as one that neither desires nor if you believe what your self have writ deserves such expressions of your familiarity Pag. 2. I hope you are not to learn that every untruth is a lye Pag. 11 12. There being little difference in the sight of God between the persecuting of brethren our selves and by not sharply reproving it seeming to approve of it in others And I hope you will say as much against approveing your own sin as other mens Pag. 14. All are commanded to turn aside from them A Church which
are resolved not to know your self Do you not see now that the man who took it for so great a crime in the Bishop can speak himself 1. Against the same man 2. With the same accusation 3. In the same manner And is the same thing bad in the Bishop and good in you The matter is it seemeth now to be your concernment to speak it It s like you would then have separated from the Bishop for it And yet now it is no fault in you O what a blinding thing is selfish partiality And what reason hath any man to doubt but if it were in your power you would silence me as much as any Bishop would And will you not yet see that which you are so angry with me for telling you viz. How much of the very same Spirit is in Church-dividers with that which they most condemn in others Why then do you not separate from your selves 5. But though you may think its like that you have me here in your snares I shall make this benefit of it that you may see I am not so great an enemy to Repenting as you declare your self to be I do hereby freely profess that I Repent 1. Of all that ever I thought said wrote or did since I was born against the Peace of Church or State Against the King his Person or Authority as Supream in himself or as Derivative in any of his Officers Magistrates or any Commissioned by him 2. That I Repent that I no more discouraged the Spirit of pievish quarrelling with Superiours and Church-orders and though I ever disliked and opposed it yet that I sometimes did too much encourage such as were of this temper by speaking too sharply against those things which I thought to be Church-corruptions and was too loth to displease the contentious for fear of being uncapable of doing them good knowing the prophane to be much worse than they and meeting with too few Religious persons that were not too much pleased with such invectives 3. And I do Repent that I had not more impartially and diligently consulted with the best Lawyers that were against the Parliaments Cause For I knew of no Controversie in Divinity about it but in Politicks and Law and that I did not use all possible means of full acquaintance with the Case And that for a little while the Authority of such Writers as Mr. Rich. Hooker lib. 1. Eccles Polit. and Bishop Bilson and other Episcopal Divines did too much sway my judgement toward the Principles of Popular Power And seeing the Parliament Episcopal and Erastian and not hearing when the Wars began of two Presbyterians among them all nor among all their Lord Lieutenants Generalls Major Generalls or Colonells till long after I was the easilyer drawn to think that Hookers Political Principles had been commonly received by all which I discerned soon after upon stricter enquiry to be unsound and have my self written a Confutation of them ready for the Press many years ago 4. And all the rest of my sin in this business which I know not of particularly I do Implicitly and Generally Repent of and daily beg of God as I have done these twenty four years and more to give me a particular Conviction of them and not to suffer me to live or dye in any impenitence but so far to acquaint me with all my great and publick sins that I may openly confess them and give others warning to avoid the like This is the Repentance which upon your invitation I profess If you quarrel with it as not instancing in particulars enow I answer you that as in the Revocation of the Book which you accuse I thought it best to Revoke the whole though not as Retracting all the doctrine of it because if I had named the particular passages some would have said I had mentioned too few and some too many and few would have been satisfied so is it in the present Case 6. As to your Defence of me heretofore 1. You know I never desired it of you nor gave you thanks for it For though you took my part you understood not my Cause and therefore in the main deserted it 2. I am not at all ambitious of such an Advocate 1. Whose Defence was then judged by all that I heard speak of it to be commendable only for boldness and a handsome Epistolary Style having little of Judgement or argumentative strength 2. Whose errors and faults will disgrace the Cause which he defendeth 3. Who can blow hot and cold and when his passion and erroneous interest requireth it can change hands and take up his adversaries work and do the same thing in the main which he accused Threaten me not with so desirable a desertion As for the following insultations on supposition of the sufficiency of your snare you see now that it is to glory in your shame Sect. 21. E. B. Your mentioning with so much scorn the doctrine of the temporal Reign of Christ which you in derision call the fifth Monarchy way and your endeavour to expose all that you think favour that opinion is another evidence that you dare not look any truth in the face which brings present danger with it no though formerly you were as earnest and open an asserter of it as any R. B. I see but five express falshoods in matter of fact in these few words 1. One is that it is Christs Temporal Reign which I call the fifth Monarchy way when as I have no such words nor meaning but do my self believe Christs Temporal Reign even that now he is Head over all things to his Church Ephes 1. 21 22. and that all Power in Heaven and Earth is given him Mat. 28. 19. and all things are delivered into his hands John 1â— 3. 17. 2. that he hath power given him over all flesh and that to this end he dyed rose and revived that he might be Lord of the dead and living Rom. 14. 9. and that he is King of Kings and Lord of Lords But whether he will Reign a thousand years in corporal visible presence on earth I am not wise enough to know But I am afraid of those opinions which draw down mens minds from looking for a treasure and reward in Heaven and tempt them to expect great things on Earth But in this Age custome hath taught men to distinguish between those called Fifth Monarchy men and meer Millenaries And by the former name I mean such as they that assumed that name have been whom I will not describe lest I seem to imitate you or offend you more than needs 2. The second falshood is that I mention the Doctrine of Christs Temporal Reign with scorn and derision when I only mentioned the way by which many of my acquaintance came to hold it and the arguments which they used to defend it with pitty and dissent but not with scorn or derision much less that doctrine which he nameth 3. The third falshood is that I
Worship of God which he hath not commanded without exception is a sin 2. That being present where they are used involveth us in the guilt Where note 1. That it is not Part of the Worship but things used in the Worship that he speaketh of 2. That I proved the contrary to both these at large and the man saith only that he hath my word for the contrary and giveth not a syllable of answer to my twenty instances and many undenyable reasons to the contrary Doth he not either highly esteem his own reason and authority that thinketh it should be received if he do but say the word without attempting to answer what 's said against him or else doth he not greatly despise his own Readers and followers in taking them for such credulous ductile souls as will take his bare word without expecting any reason from him to confute what is said on the other side Or is all this on presumption that his Reader will not know what I have said Sermon Notes Meeters Tunes printed Bibles as printed and divided into Chapters and Verses the words of a Sermon or Prayer the particular Method Cups Tables c. are used in the Worship of God without any particular command or any command for this rather than that in cases of indifferency And yet all these are not therefore unlawful And I proved that all Ministers and Families sin in Gods Worship and yet that it is not therefore lawful to separate from them all If you your self say that you say nothing in preaching or praying but what is commanded you and that your Worship hath no sin you deceive your self and the truth is not in you But if you think it a sin for any to hear you or have communion with you why do you not plainly tell your hearers so To keep far from a false matter as from writing falshoods by the dozens and not to partake of other mens sins is one thing and for Children to tell their Fathers or People their Pastors we must not worship God with you because in Forms Words Method you do something not commanded yea because through error you do somewhat sinful is another thing Sect. 45. E. B. Lastly Whatever pretences may be used for the keeping of Peace yet to speak strictly so as to satisfie Conscience Peace is but ill bought if we must purchase it at so dear a rate as the loss of truth And this Truth concerning the sole Soveraign Power of our Lord Christ in appointing all matters of his Worship is a point so necessary to be maintained and so utterly inconsistent with the supposing that any thing is to be obtruded which he hath not commanded that we dare not allow our selves in the practice of any thing which may prejudice that fundamental R. B. 1. How oft have I answered that saying about selling Truth for Peace and must hear it again in the old confusion without any notice of what hath been said See my Treatise of Infant Baptism on that point particularly Do I fell thirty three Truths when I read thirty three untruths in your Writings Do I sell Truth if I should hear you preach or pray erroneously and impose your confused prayers on the people or impose this or that Metre or Tune on them in singing of Psalms 2. Here you say Matters of Worship before it was in Worship And even the word Worship is taken so variously as calls for explication before we determine whether man may appoint matters of Worship For if you will call putting off the Hat and reverent gestures in particular and Metres and Tunes and the Method and words of the particular Prayer or Sermon by the name of Worship then man may appoint it 3. It is an untrue supposition and but a begging of the question that our presence with any thing obtruded unlawfully is a prejudice to that fundamental of the Soveraignty of Christ All men that sin do sin against his Soveraignty And all that obtrude any thing unlawfully sin against it by that obtrusion But if you obtrude a rash and passionate prayer on the people or an erroneous or disorderly prayer or an ill-composed Hymn or Psalm their presence is no approbation of your error nor denying of Christs Soveraignty Do you or can you believe and make all your followers believe that the Synagogue-Worship and the Temple-Worship were kept so pure by the Priests Levites and Pharisees in Christs dayes as that there was nothing of humane Tradition obtruded Or nothing but what God commanded Can you believe this Or can you believe that Christ was not usually or often present there See Luke 4. 16. At Nazareth where he had been brought up as his custom was he went into the Synagogue on the Sabbath day And of Paul its said Acts 17. 2. As his manner was he went in to them and three Sabbath dayes reasoned Or do you believe that Christ was a sinner and that he contradicted his own Soveraignty What! and yet be a perfect Saviour Who is it now that prejudiceth fundamentalls Sect. 46. E. B. And we judge we have sufficient warrant from what the Apostles did in a like case Acts 15. 24. For if they reproved such as preached up Circumcision and other Legal Ceremonies at that day when as the Apostles had given them no such Commandment saying of them that they subverted or spoiled the souls of the Disciples then may we affirm the like of those men now who in things equally indispensible do act with every whit as little authority from whom on that very account we think it our duty to separate R. B. 1. The authority of the King and lawful Magistrates is more about the Circumstantials of Worship as whether Abiathar shall be High Priest c. than the false Teachers was about that doctrine 2. The Apostles do indeed declare that they sent them not to preach or not such doctrine But that 's not the thing on which they lay the great accusation but on the false and dividing doctrine which they preached Christ saith of one that cast out Devils in his Name and followed him not Let him alone he that is not against us is for us And Moses wisht all the Lords people were Prophets But these false Teachers would have made the keeping of Moses Law to be necessary to salvation And can you prove that the Minister doth so whom I use to hear Do all the Parish Ministers do so Can you see no difference between one that saith The Law or Cannons command me to use this Surplice or Form as an indifferent thing and one that saith Except you do this or that you break Gods Law and cannot be saved Except you separate from all Parish Churches you sin against God and prejudice a fundamental Sure it is one thing to say God saith this or binds you to this or forbids you this and it s another thing to say The King or the Bishop saith it 3. And what is it
The word mixt is ambiguous and implyeth a double act one of the Impure part and that Christ designeth not but forbiddeth the other of the holy who joyn with some that are unholy and that in some Cases Christ commandeth and did practise himself 3. Without distinction indeed it should not be for Discipline is appointed to distinguish regularly 4. Take home the argument and try it on your self Whatever Church is such as Christ did not call and design it to be is not to be communicated with But a Church that hath an erroneous Preacher or an erroneous sinful people is such as Christ did not call or design it to be Ergo And will you then communicate with any in the world or any with you Sect. 50. E. B. p. 14. Though through the Corruption of men and negligence of Church-Officers many ungodly prophane Formalists and hypocrites did and daily do creep in yet there is a strict command given to put such out of the Church and turn aside from them If such are to be withdrawn from then if any Church which is admonished concerning them shall still maintain abett and countenance them that Church is defiled and unfit to be communicated with 1 Cor. 5. 7. Eccles 9. 18. Heb. 12. 15. R. B. 1. It is only gross sinners after just Admonition upon proof that are to be put out The Officers ought not to do it without proof 2. Have you or others rightly Admonished every Parish Minister that you call us to separate from and convicted them upon proof when you have heard them speak for themselves 3. And who gave you authority so to examine other Pastors being but a single person 4. We easily grant and earnestly desire that true Church-Justice should make a difference But in case the Officers do not their duty it is none of the peoples duty to separate therefore haveing done their own part except in these cases 1. That the Error or Crime be so great as to be inconsistent with Christianity or Church communion 2. That the Church do not only neglect it but deliberately Own that Error or Crime in its aggravated state as it is so inconsistent with Christianity or Communion Not only being consequentially guilty of it as the best man may be of the most heinous sin of another by some omission of his duty to cure it but making it their profession or Practice 3. That this be done not by some particular members only but by an essential part of the Church that is either by the Pastor or by the main body of the people 4. That this be fully proved or so notorious as to need no proof 5. That they be impenitent herein after due admonition When these five things concur it is a duty to separate from a Church as unfit for Christian Communion And in lower cases it is a duty to prefer a Better when we can have it But it s much higher or lower rather that you go You say A Church which after admonition and discovery of offenders will not use her authority to cast them out This may be by mis-information on the sinners side or by meer negligence as in Eli's case and may be a great sin and yet not the same in kind as that which should be censured nor such as will unchurch that Church nor make its communion unlawful to the innocent As to your proofs the Texts you cite are all written to the whole Churches as Churches who are bid put them away c. save that to Timothy and Rev. 2. which is to the Church-Rulers And it followeth not that if a Church or Church-Rulers who have the power of the Keyes are bid to reject or cast out or not suffer an Heretick or wicked person and to have no fellowship with them therefore every member is forbidden to have Communion with that Church in Gods Worship unless they cast such a one out I did by many Scripture instances Rev. 2. 3. 1 Cor. 11. 15 c. prove the contrary to which you give no answer 5. Let all sober Readers note how few in the world we shall have communion with on your terms How certainly you will turn all Churches into strife and bitter envyings confusion and every evil work For Railers and Covetous among the rest are those that must be avoided And if any member of the Church shall think that one Railer or one Covetous person is kept in unjustly away they must go and condemn the Church as unworthy of Communion And who will not think that read your Book that you would be one of the first accused of Railing Yea how few even of the strictest separating Churches are they that neglect not Discipline upon some one person It may be it may be a rich or powerful man that will persecute or divide the Church if he be cast out Is there no Gathered Churches as they are called that have one Railing woman in or one Covetous person 6. But Sir our question is not only of the Communion of Members but also of strangers occasionally and rarely And what call hath a stranger to try the Discipline of another Church Or what opportunity hath he to know all their members crimes and to admonish them Why may not I in my travail communicate with a Church whose members and Discipline I know not At least all Parish Churches have not been thus admonished by you Sect. 51. E. B. p. 14. Lastly Which will fully answer the scruple It is to be considered that the Primitive Churches were setled by the Apostles and constituted according to the Divine pattern having all the Ordinances of Christ and true Officers rightly established among them so that though many scandalous sins did break out and were visible among some of the members yet a power was still retained in each Church for the keeping themselves pure by casting out offenders whereby they were kept to the institution and orders of Christ without any universal innovation or degenerating in those Essentials of Order as well as Doctrine which they fell into in the ages after and when Antichristianism which was then working did manifestly shew it self not only in rejecting truth 2 Thess 2. but in imposing error Rev. 13. 16 17. then was separation made necessary R. B. Reader this confused huddle of words it seems is the thing he trusteth to as a full answer to the scruple But 1. If such Churches are to be communicated with as yet retain all the Essentials of Office Order and Doctrine then those are to be communicated with that are now in question But the former seemeth here intimated by himself That our said Churches have all such essentials is thus proved Whereever there are true Pastors and a Christian flock related mutually as such receiving the holy Scriptures as such there are all things essential to a true Church for Office Order and Doctrine But it is so 〈◊〉 the Parish Churches in question To stay here to write a particular
to a member of the Church to be subject to the Pope Reader Is not this man uncharitable that will neither give us his leave to use our old words nor teach us better but intimate that we speak nonsense and he can speak better if he would We have hitherto been used to call a Governed Church a Political Society as distinct from a meer concourse or community of Christians And why not if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 come from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And if God hath prepared for them a City whose God he is not ashamed to be called Heb. 11. 16. And if it be well said Phil. 1. 27. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And if our Political conversations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be in Heaven why may not a Church at least such a one as the Pope doth claim be called a Political body or society Or at least why may not the Pope be said to lay such a claim We have been used to call that Government Spiritual which is done by the Word and Church Keyes and consequently the Governours Spiritual And why must this be non-sense now We have been used to call that Governour a Constitutive Head without whom the society is not essentiated in specie as a King in a Kingdom O unkind Teacher that will leave us all in this ignorance and not vouchsafe one word to help us out Sect. 72. E. B. And do not think to excuse your self from writing Non-sense by saying you meant a thing objectively and not subjectively R. B. Nay then I despair of scaping non-sense If the Object and the Subject must needs be all one and if sense in the Book or argument and sense or reason in the Reader be all one I am not the first that was deceived No nor if it be all one to say You understand not the sense or reason of my argument and you have no sense or reason But new Lords new Laws Sect. 73. E. B. And do not make Philosophy ridiculous as you do when you tell us That our acts of knowing exterior things are as Philosophers affirm objectively organicall though not efficiently and formally Sir I am sure no wise man talks thus and if Philosophers do its time we left them c. R. B. When you once begin to say you are sure and no wise man is against you I begin to think you talk more ignorantly than when you seem to doubt I will not prophane a point so little understood by you and so much scorned as to dispute it with you Enjoy your ignorance and scorn Sect. 74. E. B. Lastly When truth is to be examined and the nature of a thing strictly to be considered do not argue against it from some ill consequence as what you desperately urge against the Scriptures being a perfect Rule which foundation of faith and practice you labour to overthrow by tragically infisting on the consequences that will follow Sir this in the end will be found perfect folly and madness therefore leave it in time lest the Lord reprove you and you be found a lyar R. B. 1. Alas That your Pen could write the last word without the more prevalent rebuke of your Conscience After so many Untruths yea and when in the same paragraph you are renewing the same sin in saying I deny the Scripture to be a perfect Rule when I still say It is a perfect Rule so far as it is a Rule 2. If you intend sense and truth your argument must run thus He that saith the Scripture is not a particular Rule commanding the thing in particular but only a General Rule for the Metre and Tunes of Psalms for the dividing of it self into Chapters and Verses for the hour and place of meetings for the choice of a Text to preach on and words and method of Sermon and Prayer for the naming or determining the Person that shall be a Pastor for the form of Pulpits Tables Cups c. yea for the making of a Clock or Watch or Hour-glass to measure the time by or for building the House to preach in c. He that saith these are not determined of particularly in Scripture but only under the General Rule of doing all things to Gods Glory to Edification decently and in order c. this man doth deny Scripture to be a perfect Rule and laboureth to overthrow the foundation of faith and practice and proveing what he saith by the ill consequences that else will follow will in the end be found in perfect folly and madness reproved by God and found a lyar But such a one is R. B. Therefore c. Reader if this be sound doctrine if after all Gods warnings of the danger of Levity and Ignorant pride thou canst yet receive such errors and revilings as a defence of the foundation thy case also is to be lamented 3. When Def. par 1. pag. 98 c. I had fully described the opinion which I rejected and had given in fifteen reasons against it what doth this easie confident Disputer but instead of offering an answer to any one of them calls it perfect folly and madness so to confute it by ill consequences Doth this disputing satisfie any sober enquirer after truth Doth he not reproach his followers in the eye of the world about him while he thus openly seemeth to expect that they will rest in such reasonings or replyes as these And really if we prove against the Papists that though they directly deny not Christ and his Office yet that such Consequents will follow upon divers of their errors will this man that talketh so much of Antichristianism say that it is perfect folly and madness to charge such consequents upon them If I prove that any opinion doth consequentially deny God or the souls immortality or subvert all our faith do I deserve no better an answer than that this is my perfect folly and madness and I shall be proved a lyar What need is there of learning reason sobriety or modesty to enable any man to dispute and seem Orthodox at this rate Sect. 75. E. B. You may see by this brief taste how easie it is for me to defend my self R. B. O wonderful blinding power of self-conceit Sect. 76. E. B. p. 21. It is not a lessening of your Reputation that I mainly aim at much less at the advancing of my own upon the ruine of yours But I thought the truth of Christ worth my vindicating And when I saw that your name did stand in the way of it The whole design of this Letter is as to others to perswade all to look upon you not only as a fallible but a mistaken man R. B. I have long ago done wondering that such men as you can deliberately choose and use such means when once they have dared to intitle God and his Glory to their false doctrines For what is it that they will not think lawful to do for God and Truth If some serve him by killing his servants no
to joyne in Testimony that what was recorded was true And is this Printed Epistle and Testimony no Publication Sect. 84. Mr. Bowne The second untruth is that I am uncontrolledly affirmed so to be when I believe he had never a second in the world that either will or can affirm it R. B. Here are two more falshoods 1. That it is an Vntruth that I said of him 2. That I said it was uncontrolledly affirmed that he was the Author But that he was a Publisher you have now his own Confession of his Epistle which I had read and Mr. Joseph Baker gave me the Book and told me it was published by Mr. Jordain and Mr. Browne and this report I oft after heard and it never was controlled to me which is all that I can reasonably mean my uncontrolled For how is it possible for me to know what is said of him to all others in every distant place and corner Sect. 85. Mr. Browne As for the Book it self and the matter of fact contained in it I never yet met with any judicious sober Christian that had seriously perused it who durst adventure to pronounce either of the whole or any considerable part of it that it was an effect of Melancholy R. B. Who talkt of the whole But what part you will call considerable who knows Is not this a concession that some part is so judged of And must your Ignorance of such matters as Melancholly have so great influence into your Divinity But you may say true For most now adayes converse with few but those of their own mind And the Book is not to be got in any shop that I can hear of Sect. 86. Mr. Browne Whether this decrying of experiences this slighting the work of Gods spirit in the soul the crying out that these things are but the effects of Melancholy be not the ready way to make all supernatural Conversion derided and the whole mysterie of Godliness contemned consider R. B. 1. Here is implyed a fourth Untruth that I decry experiences and the rest here mentioned 2. Alas must the poor Church of Christ have such miserable Guides that build hay and stubble and think if it be burnt the Church must fall I tell you sir such rash and Ignorant Teachers as your Writings shew you to be are the men that do so much towards the very same effects which you seem to fear even to tempt men to deride all supernatural conversion as that I scarce know a more powerful way If you heard one man say Satan as an Angel of Light stirred up the Quakers to pretend Miracles Prophesies and spiritual raptures purposely to tempt the World to Infidelity by perswading them that the Spirit in the Prophets and Apostles was but the like And if you heard James Naylor say Your calling the Spirit in us a vain Imagination or deceit is the way to perswade men that the spirit in the Prophets and Apostles was but imagination and deceit Which of these two sayings would you believe I take the case which I spake of to be the like I tell you still that all the Truth and Goodness that your Book mentioneth truly was wrought by the spirit of God But if men will make the world believe that any false doctrine or any sin or any false exposition of Scripture is of the spirit or that their unproved Impulses which are not agreeable to the word but are against it or besides it must be believed to be of God and will describe these as Experiences and Gods way of Converting souls their Ignorance will as effectually serve the Devil to bring true Conversion and the spirit into scorn as the derisions of a Drunkard will do if not more It is no new thing for Satan to deceive as an Angel of light and his Ministers as Ministers of Righteousness And if you know not his wiles expect not that we should all concur with you in exposing spirituality and holiness to the scorn of such as now abhorr it or as of late have taken such advantages against those that are better than themselves Sect. 87. R. B. Whether you instructed her in those principles you know best If you deny it I retract it That you were very zealous in them is past doubt but just the day when you began whether before that Book was begun or before it was finished or when I leave to your own report Sect. 88. Mr. Browne Indeed it is now my Opinion that there is a glorious state of the Church yet to come before the last end of all things when all Oppression and Oppressours shall cease and every thing of man shall be laid down in subserviency to the Interest of Christ and the Kingdom of the World shall become his R. B. Amen! It is my earnest Desire as well as yours But Desire and Belief are not all one The Prophesies that you suppose foretell all this I thought I almost understood thirty two years agoe but since I perceive I did not But I contradict not that which I do not understand nor never did Who will plead for Oppression And what Christian desireth not the greatest Holiness and Righteousness in the World I freely confess my Ignorance in the point whether on this side the general Resurrection there shall be so perfect and universal Righteousness as you describe as that All Oppression shall cease My greatest Hope is in the three Petitions of the Lords Prayer Thy Name be Hallowed Thy Kingdom Come Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven And I am sure this will warrant my desires And I the better like those Opinions of a perfect age because Hope will set men upon praying for it But as I detest all Rebellions against just Authority on pretence that they are not truly Godly and all setting up mens selves on pretence of setting up Christ and using unlawful means on pretence of good ends so I am afraid of being tempted down from the Heavenly Hopes and Comforts by looking for more on earth than is indeed to be expected Sect. 89. Mr. Browne p. 29. He tells us first that she was suddenly moved to come to hear him Preach R. B. A meer untruth as I have before shewed I said not so Sect. 90. Mr. Browne That she had such convictions from his Sermon for so he seems to intimate c. R. B. Untrue again as is before shewed Nor will your seeming salve it Sect. 91. Mr. Browne That she desired to speak with him is another untruth R. B. Of that I shall speak anon Sect. 92. Mr. Browne That she did impose on her self abstinence from meat R. R. Here he contradicts himself as she did and saith she durst not eat and yet falsly chargeth me with untruth for saying the same sence Sect. 93. Mr. Browne Lastly She never fell in so among the Quakers as to be one of them though it is true that through the power of Temptations she was somewhat
rightly what I have written than the Books themselves I leave them to judge and do as they are and as such men lead them And how far Tradition or History or Humane aide and Testimony is necessary to our Reception of the Scripture I have long agoe opened at large in the Preface to the second Part of my Saints Rest and shewed you that Dr. Whitaker Chemnitius Davenant Rob. Baronius and other Protestants usually say the same that I do and that otherwise by casting away such subordinate means Proud-ignorance and pievish wrangling will cut the throat of faith it self and undermine the Church of God Reader I will conclude also with an Admonition as my Accuser doth As thou lovest Christianity Scripture and thy soul take heed of those Ignorant destroying-defenders of the Scripture who would tell the Infidel world that they may continue Infidels till we can prove that the Scripture alone by its own light without humane Testimony History or Tradition will bring it self to all mens hands without mans bringing it and will translate it self without mans translating it or in the original tongues will make all English men and all that cannot read at all to understand it or being translated will tell you sufficiently which is the true translation and where the Translater failed or will tell you among many hundred divers Readings which is the right and which Copy is the truest and which particular text is uncorrupted or rightly translated For instance whether it should be in Luke 17. 37. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Matth. 24. 18. and Beza saith In uno exemplari apud Theophilactum Scriptum est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 id est Cadaver sicut etiam in nonnullis codicibus testatur selegisse Erasmus Videturque haec lectio magis accomodata c. Hundreds of such may be named And believe not these men till they can name you one man that ever knew before some man told him by the Book alone whether Esther and the Canticles were Canonical and the Book of Wisdom and Pauls Epistle to the Laodioaeans Apocryphal and knew what was the sense of the Original Text and what Copies and Readings and Translations were true and what false Yea or that knew these particular Books were the same that the Apostles wrote without alteration till some one told it them Would not that man reduce the Church into less than one single person who would have no man believe the Scripture nor take it for Gods word till he can do it without any help of man or humane History or Testimony or Tradition But of this I put him twenty Questions before It shall now suffice to tell you this much of the plain truth that such furious false Teachers as shall take the foresaid course may not utterly subvert your faith The Scripture and Christian Religion taken together as one frame or Body hath that in it self which may prove that frame and all the essential parts of our Religion to be of God And the true proof of the Divine Authority of the Scripture is by the evidence of the spirit not a new Revelation of the spirit But by a double Impression of Gods own Image made by the Holy Ghost one upon the Scripture it self The other by the Scripture in its continued efficacy on Belivers souls And both these Images are the Impresses of the Trinity of Divine Principles even of the Power Wisdom and Goodness of God which are unimitably done in both This is the true proof that Scripture is the word of God But this proof excludeth not but supposeth the Ministry and Testimony of man as a subservient help and means even to bring it to us to translate it to teach us how to know both the sense and verity of it and to testifie which is the true Canon Copies Reading Translation c. And they are ignorant subverting deceivers and destroyers of your souls who would separate the Word the Spirit and the Ministry which Christ hath conjoyned as necessary together for your faith and that would cast out subservient helps as unnecessary under pretence of the sufficiency of the Scripture As if Printing it were needless because Scripture is sufficient of it self And the fore-said self-evidencing Light is not sufficient without humane help and Testimony to make you know every Canonical Book from the Apocryphal nor to know the truest Copies in the Original nor the rightest readings nor this or that particular verse to be uncorrupted nor the translation to be true nor this or that to be the true meaning of the Greek or Hebrew word nor that the Minister readeth truly to the unlearned that cannot try it by his own skill nor read himself And he that would make the contrary supposition to be the foundation of your faith would destroy your faith the Church and you Postscript REader since the Writing of this two things have faln out which make it a more displeasing work to me than it was before And I am sorry that Mr. Bagshaw made it necessary The one is that as the current report saith he is again in Prison for Refusing the Oath of Allegiance And I naturally abhorre to trample upon a suffering person which hath caused me to say so little against the Armies and Sectarian miscarriages since their dissolution and dejection in comparison of what I did before in the time of their prosperity The other is The Printing of the Life of Mr. Vavasor Powel which hath so many good things in it that I fear lest the mention of his false Prophecies extorted by Mr. Bagshaw who first published also his name as the Author of them should abate their exemplary use But yet I must give this notice to forreigners and posterity that they must not judge either of the JUDGEMENT or the SUFFERINGS of the Non-conformists by these mens It is not for refusing the Oath of Allegiance that they are silenced and suffer as they do nor do they consent to the words which conclude the life of Mr. Powel That since such a time he hath learnt that we must pray for our present Rulers as sinners but not as Magistrates No man can truly say that such Doctrines as these have been proved against any considerable part of the Ministers that are now cast out or that they were deposed and silenced for such things seeing they commonly take the Oathes of Allegiance and Supremacy And how far the ejected Ministers of Scotland are from the Principles of Separation Mr. Browne a Learned Scottish Divine hath shewed in the Preface of a Learned Treatise Newly Published in Latine against Wolzogius and Velthusius even while he saith most against receding from a Reformation overthrowing the Tenents maintained by our two or three English Brownes which formerly were called Brownisme Though the same mans numerous reasonings against the derivation of the Magistrates Office from the Power of the Mediator I waite