Gal. 5. 12. I would they were even cut off that trouble you Sect. 61. Matth. 13. 29. But he said nay lest while ye gather up the tares ye pluck up the wheat also Sect. 69. 70. 71. c. Matth. 25. 15. And the Children crying in the Temple Hosanna c. Sect. 102. Psal 8. 2. Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained prayse Sect. 103. Deut. 17. 12. And the man that will doe presumptuously and will not hearken to the Priest or Judge even that man shall die Sect. 107. Esa 49. 23. And Kings shall be thy nursing Fathers c. Sect. 109. 110. HAGIO MASTIX OR THE SCOURGE OF THE SAINTS IT was a sad expression of Luther in his dayes when he said wee should finde cause to melt and be dissolved into teares if wee seriously consider what strange errours we have stumbled upon that there is not so much liberty now allowed to any man as to speake the Truth a In lachrymas meritò solveremur si nobiscum perpenderemus in quos errores impegerimus ut nâ—c â—odie liberum sit veritatem dicere Luth. Postill Yet if this were the worst of those times he complaines of he lived in a golden age in comparison of the dayes which are already in part come and attempted by some with an high hand to be brought yet in fuller measure upon the faithfull servants of God in this Land It is a small thing for the Spirit which works in many of the sonnes of high Presbyterie to deny men libertie of speaking the Truth the very inquiring and asking after Truth is made wickednesse and blasphemy impudence audaciousnesse yea little lesse then Atheisme or Devilisme it selfe by the angrie suggestion and clamorous imputation of this Spirit That in saying these things I put this spirit to no other rebuke then what the Truth it selfe and its owne professed noone-day actings and workings doe witnesse against it needs none other Sect. 2. proofe or demonstration but onely the perusall of the fift page of a late Pamphlet entituled A vindication of a printed paper c. against the irreligious and presumptuous exceptions irreligiously and presumptuously so called called Some humble and modest Queries In the said page that importune spirit wee speake of foameth out his owne shame in these words amongst many others of like unchristian inspiration VVho are you sir that have dared in your heart to conceive such A VVICKEDNESSE AND BLASPHEMIE as this Querie contains in the bowells of it And againe I summon all Readers in the name of God and Christ to looke upon them and to stand amazed at your IMPVDENCE that have been so AVDACIOVS as to AFFIRME or insinuate c. The man if yet he be a man hath not yet the one halfe of his mind in railing and revenge upon a Christian and honest action and designe but querieth the Querist further with this modest and humble Querie what are you that speake thus An ATHEIST or a DEVIL If he be an Atheist he is one of that Order who worship the true God in Spirit and Truth If a Devill it is in such a sense wherein his Lord and Master was the Prince of Devills If they have called the Master of the house Beelzebub how much more shall they call them of his houshold a Mat. 10. 25. He that takes pleasure in the Dialect of a railing and reviling pen without any mixture or allay of sense Reason or Religion may satiate himselfe when he pleaseth with the fragments and remainders of the said page with the better or rather worse halfe of that which followeth Who is the Syllogizer or Author of this vindication I am not Sect. 2. in the least desirous to know nor doe I intend ever to bestow two words upon the inquirie I can pray for him though unknowne upon that ground on which our Saviour prayed for those that crucified him if his condition will admit it Father forgive them for they know not what they doe b Luk. 23. 34. Many conceive that the Licencer and Author have but one Name between them of which apprehension though there be more reasons and grounds then one and more especially the many loose assertions that I say not falsifications in the discourse it self yet for my part I determine it not onely this I conceive that whoever is the Author is but a personated though highly pretended Friend to the Parliament but that what he is in love and friendship indeed he is to their enemies Sect. 3. and those that labour to lay the honour as well of their persons as proceedings in the dust And whereas in the very frontispiece of his booke he flourisheth over his designe as if it were at least in the principall branch of it the Assertion and maintaining of the Magistrates Authority both in Civill and Ecclesiasticall matters yet this outside compared with the inside of the booke shewes it to be but like the Apothecaries box which hath Pharmacum in titulo in pixide venenum physick in the title but poyson in the vessell For first he that shall not onely teach and incourage but even necessitate and compell urging by way of duty and conscience being an high compulsion in the kind Caesar not to be content with the things that are Caesars but to lay claime unto and hand upon the things that are Gods and secondly shall in the same sense necessitate and compell the Parliament to such actions which apparently tend to the deep discontenting if not to the utter destroying of those persons in the Land at least the most considerable part of them of whose fidelity unto them even in the face and presence of death they have had proofe upon proofe and proofe upon proofe againe and that above and beyond all contradiction both which are cleerely the materiall if not the formall designe of the said vindication Whosoever I say shall lift up his hand to either of these is without controule no friend to the Civill Magistrate much lesse to the Parliament except that be friendship to sow discord between friends or to perswade men upon specious pretences to destroy their Preservers yea and those who if the clouds should returne after the raine are more likely then any other generation of men that I know this day under Heaven to be their Preservers the second time It is a shrewd signe that they that set men on worke to tread downe the hedge would willingly have the corne troden down also Whereas the Syllogizer undertakes to know for he asserts it Sect. 3. without scruple that the Queries were put forth as to stop if it were possible the Houses proceedings in it he meanes the printed paper so howsoever to blast what they should doe in the pursuance of it and the Parliament also as if the two Houses were one and his Parliament another if they doe or shall doe any thing therein c. doth he not lift up himselfe into
of God to thee for thy good But if thou shalt DOE THAT WHICH IS EVILL be afraid for hee beareth not the sword in vain By doing that which is evill in this passage cannot be meant the spreading of Errors or Heresies because they had not Sect. 50. so much reason of being afraid of the Magistrate here spoken of for spreading of these as for publishing or preaching the most Orthodox Truths of Christianity They might without any danger at all from the Magistrate here spoken of have published and taught that the Idols which the Romans worshipped were true Gods that the worship of Christians that Jesus Christ was a deceiver and not the Son of God with twenty such abominable errors and blasphemies more They had ten times more cause to bee afraid of the powers that now were for publishing the most Orthodox Truths as that there is but one God that the Gods of the Romans were either dumb Idols or speaking Devils that Jesus Christ is the naturall Son of God and onely Saviour of the world c. Therefore by that evill upon the doing of which they had cause to be afraid of the Roman powers or Magistracy the Apostle onely meanes such wicked acts or practices which they were apt to punish and take vengeance on as apprehending them prejudiciall or destructive to the peace safety or wellfare of their state and not any publishing or spreading of errors or heresies of the evill whereof they were wholly uncapable Fifthly That doing of evill against which the Magistrate here Sect. 50. spoken of is the Minister of God to execute wrath is opposed unto that subjection to the higher powers injoyned in the first verse and of the same consideration with the resisting of these powers so sharply reproved and threatned ver 2. From whence it clearly appeares that by it is onely meant the doing of such evill which was prohibited by the Roman Laws and Edicts * Quod bonum est facito hoc est legibus obtemperato Contrarium est si seceris malum id est legibus fueris inobediens aâ—t refractariâ—s Par. ad Rom. 13. 4. For no man can be said either to refuse subjection unto or to resist the powers under which he lives who lives in an orderly subjection and obedience unto all their Laws Now certain it is that neither the Roman Emperour or Senate in these dayes had enacted any law against the publishing of Errors or Heresies in Christian Religion Therefore the publishing of these could be no branch or part of that evill by the doing whereof the Roman powers should have been resisted in their Laws Sixtly and lastly That doing of evill against which the Magistrate is said to be the Minister of God to execute wrath ver 4. is directly opposed to that doing of good spoken of v. 3. unto which Sect. 51. there is a promise made of receiving praise from the Magistrate * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 maâ—â—â— oppouitur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bono morali de quo ver 3. Idem Ibid. Doe that which is good and thou shalt have praise of the samâ— Now certainly that doing of good for which the Apostle undertakes that they shall have praise from the Roman Magistrate was not the preaching or publishing of the great and orthodox truths of Christian Religion of the goodnesse of which service they were wholy insensible yea rather enemies unto it as hath been said therefore by that doing of evill which is opposite hereunto cannot be meant the spreading of Errors and Heresies but onely the perpetration of such morall impieties of the evill whereof to their state and well-fare they were fully sensible Thus we have sufficiently and by the clearest evidence of the Scriptures themselves vindicated the Scripture-passage in hand from that hand of violence which goeth about to force it upon a bloudy service yea and to draw the Magistrate by it into a dangerous ingagement far above his abilities and strength onely to promote the secular designes of Ecclesiasticall men O England England make much of thy Scriptures but take heed of the glosses of thy Teachers And when they shall say unto thee Lo here is our Presbytery and lo it is there beleeve them not for they shall shew great signes and wonders of zeale for Reformation and building as they call it the house of God and shall deceive many Neither of those two piâ—lars neither the ancient law of God for putting false Prophets Idolaters and Blasphemers to death nor the Magistrates being the Minister of God to execute wrath upon him that doth evill were ever hewne by God to support that fabricke of Church-Government which these men labor in the very fire to build upon them And yet these are their Gods and these being taken from them they may lament with Micah and say what have we more * Jud. 18. 24. In their Answer to their ninth Argument they sit down quiâ—â— Sect. 51. besides the cushion The major in this syllogisme is this They who inflict death upon men for maintaining a doctrine contrary to their interprecation of Scripture had need be as infallible at least as touching the sense of that Scripture as God himselfe or else they do what is not lawfull for them to do Their answer is This major is falsâ— because it is blasphemâ—â—â— It is blasphemoâ—â— to assert â—r suppose that any man in any thing which he knowes never so certainly is as infallible as Sect. 51. God himselfe This Answer of these men is truly propheticall and if the people of England were but capable of the spirit that breaths in it they might cleerly foresee what they meane to doe with an Ordinance of Parliament to punish Errour Heresie and Blasphemy if they could procure it together with the managing and interpretation of it to be put in their hands whereof their hopes are pregnant if ever such an Ordinance shall be established viz. to accuse molest crush whom they please by making Errour Heresie Blasphemy of what saying or expressions of theirs they please though never so innocent and sound in the genuine and true import of them if there be but a word that is capable of wresting or abuse from their hand Was such an assertion especially such a supposition as this that a man in something which he knowes may be aâ— infallible aâ— God himselfe ever voted Blasphemy untill now nay was there ever any supposition or bare intimation whatsoever called Blasphemy untill now at least any such supposition or intimation which is onely collected from the words of another and not acknowledged or owned as a lawfull inference by the speaker himselfe But suppose the Syllogisme had not supposed but in terminis asserted that a man may in some particular of his knowledge â—e aâ— infallible as God himselfe by what law either of reason or Religion will this be evicted of Blasphemy Certain I am that there is no communication of any of the incommunicable
all thy children shall be taught of the Lord and great shall be the peace of thy children b Isa 54. 13. Ioh. 6. 45. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour and every man his brother saying know the Lord. For they shall all know mee from the least of them unto the greatest of them c Jer. 31. 34. Sect. 10. And yet by the way I doe not conceive this to be the last estate or condition of the Saints wherein God will be ALL IN ALL. Reader I have drawne up this briefe Discourse in this place chiefly to give unto thee and to all the world a plaine and ingenuous account what my judgement and thoughts are about Civill Magistracie because I have been most unduly and untruly and in the very face of many demonstrations to the contrary both reall and nominall represented as an enemy to it and particularly by the Authors of that Vindication which not thorough any substance or weight in it selfe but by reason of the weaknesse of others giving a loud testimony of strength unto it occasioned the following Discourse I cleerly and freely acknowledge it to be an Ordinance of God yea an Ordinance of very gracious intentions unto men in him who is the Author and founder of it And though I conceive it to be a very tender Ordinance extremely obnoxious to take soyle and apt to lose the grace and beautie of it when it comes to be handled by men yet when it doth fall into cleane and tender hands it makes the Sunne ashamed and the Moone abashed at the brightnesse beautie and blessing of it Yea I conceive it to be an ordinance of that grand import and concernment unto the world during the present state of persons and things in it that it cannot lightly fall into hands so farre unsanctified or unworthy the administration and manage but that it will doe more then beare its own charges more then ballance the inconveniences which shall at any time attend the execution of it I looke upon it as the onely preventive appointed by God to keepe the world from falling foule upon it self and being destroyed by its own hands And as I judge those very impolitique Christians and as men rejecting the counsell of God for their spirituall good against themselves who by casting off Church-Ordinances by Pastors and Teachers seeme to catch at the spirituall priviledge of new Jerusalem before it be come downe from Heaven so doe I judge those very unchristian Politioians and as men rejecting the counsell of God likewise for their politique and civill good against themselves who thinke they should or might anticipate that other great priviledge of this Heavenly Citie which wee spake of freedome from Magistracie by a present ejecting of this Ordinance out of the world Alas though God as the Apostle informeth us hath provided better things for us who live under the Gospel then he did for his people under the Law yet if they who liv'd under the Law had cast off those Leviticall ordinances and observations appointed by God for their generation upon pretence of weaknesse and unprofitablenesse in them saying that they would not worship God at Jerusalem but onely in spirit and truth because this was more Evangelicall and perfect had they not attempted to put God himself to rebuke in his dispensations and withall consulted losse and disadvantage to themselves and their own soules in their spirituall if not in their temporall affaires also Those fruits which being gathered and eaten in the spring of the yeare whilst they are yet greene and sowre are apt to cause diseases and to prove destructive unto health if not unto life it selfe if let grow upon their trees untill Autumne or the due season of their ripening may now be gathered and eaten not onely without danger but with delight also advancement of health In like manner though the dayes be acoming when deliverance from that both Ministerie and Magistracie which now support and accommodate the Christian world though with a mixture of many disaccommodations in both will be as a resurrection from death unto life unto the Saints yet to attempt a deliverance from either untill the Lord God Allmightie and the Lamb shall vouchsafe to interesse themselves in such dispensations which shall eminently be both the one and the other as wee heard must needs be as a covering of the Sunne with sackcloath and a turning of the Moone into bloud I meane of a dark and dismall consequence unto the world For mine own part if I have or hereafter shall at any time Sect. 11. suffer any unjust or hard measure from either I may possibly plead the righteousnesse of the cause for which I suffer yea out of the case of suffering from either I may declare the mind of God as well touching the respective bounds limits interests and duties of either at least negatively as concerning the qualifications requisite in the persons to whom the dispensation either of the one or of the other ought to be committed thus farre I presume I keep within the compasse and bounds of my Profession but as I have never so I shall never God assisting disparage either the one Ordinance or the other in the least nor yet seek or counsell the devestiture of any person lawfully called to the administration of either except it be in submission and subserviencie unto that Magistracie which hath a lawfull power to devest upon just and lawfull grounds yea and to command my assistance in such a case as I make no question but that the Parliament of England hath within the circumference of this Kingdome Neither is there I am confident the least jot or tittle to be found in any of my writings which hath the least affinitie with either of these positions or assertions 1. that there ought to be no more no other kinde of Authoritie in the Civill State then in the Ecclesiastique 2. that the people have a lawfull power to devest or depose Magistrates lawfully called when or as they please Both these positions have been charged upon me as enmity against Caesar was upon Christ But as Christ though charged as an enemy unto Caesar was notwithstanding Caesars best friend and the greatest assertor of his Empire and power so however an undue representation hath been made of me as if I were of opposite affections to our present Magistracie and Parliament yet without the least touch of vanitie or disparagement unto any mans either affections or service to the Parliament be it spoken I have been and yet am as reall in affection as faithfull that I say not even fruitfull also in my service to the Parliament as any man whatsoever It hath been the hereditarie portion of the best and faithfullest Sect. 12. servants of God for many descents and generations from the hand of their enemies and those that sought their ruine to have all their sayings and doings any waies capable of the forme perverted into matter
and fellowship in some such priviledge as this the misdemeanours of her pen how ridiculous soever in point of ignorance and folly how foule and abominable soever in forgery and untruth are no errors no miscarriages no more offensive or worth the taking knowledge of then strawes upon the ground or sticks broken in an hedge or panes crack'd in a window as if she knew not well what comparison to compare them with to expresse the neernesse of their neighbour-hood unto a meere nothing But Reader what wilt thou say if his Great self-admiresse who thinks her self either above or beneath all misprisions whatsoever whether in matter of learning or of manners being indeed in the very midst and thickest of them both hath in that very sentence wherein shee laboureth to similitude her selfe out of the dishonour and disparagement of either prâ—phaned the excellencie of her learning yet once more by dealing so in-grammatically with her nominative case that man who hath a Lordship or Mannor propounded to him that she hangs him up in the aire without the help of any verb to take him downe Doubtlesse he that then doth not put the nominative case and verb together when he ingageth with the best of his skill to vindicate himself from the disparagement of an insufficiency that way may well be conceived to give a pregnant demonstration that he is insufficient indeed When a man doth not find the way to such or such a place where being come he knows that he shall receive a great sum of money otherwise in danger to be lost is it not a signe greater then râ—proofe that this man knows not cannot finde the way to the said place The signall story in her third Part under whose banner and Authoritie all the rest in their respective troopes and squadrons serve is the relation of a March beaten upon an invisible Drum in Ducking field-Chappell in Cheshire whilst an Independent Church was performing of their worship and service there This relation this relatresse solemnizeth 1. with an exact description of many circumstances of weighty cognizance 2. With two theologicall and grave observations upon it First she layes her foundation for the credit of the whole in the relation of a godly Minister at least if not a Presbyterian also of Cheshire who related it not with some nor with a little nor with a deale but with a GREAT deale of confidence and that not simply as a Truth nor yet as a certain Truth nor yet as a MOST CERTAIN Truth but as a MOST CERTAIN Truth known to many of that Countie Secondly shee takes notice that there was not onely a sound but a perfect sound as of a man beating a March on a Drum Thirdly that this perfect sound of a March was heard 1. as coming into the Chappell 2. as going up all along the I le thorough the people and so about the Chappell Fourthly that this sound notwithstanding yet nothing was seene Fiftly that this perfect sound of a March was heard whilst Mr. Eaton was preaching Sixtly that it was heard by Mr. Eaton and the people that sate in severall parts of the Chappell Seventhly that Mr. Eaton and the people were terrified with it Eightly that it caused Mr. Eaton to give over preaching Ninthly that it caused him in stead of preaching to fall to praying Tenthly that the said March still beating they Mr. Eaton and the people with him broke up their exercise for that time Eleventhly and lastly that they were glad to he gone Tou have heard the Text this passage of Providence as she calls it toward these Independents heare now the grave and learned Commentaries of the Relatresse upon it which consist in two worthy Observations First shee conceiveth that this passage of Providence speakes thus much to the Independents and to the Kingdome that the Independents are for warres desirous of warres and thirst for a new warre with Scotland c. Secondly that the warres which they would have and occasion shall prove their ruine the means to overthrow all their Conventicles c. and cast them out of England for ever as the Bishops and their faction were greedy for a warre against the Scots to support their greatnesse c. But Reader if the Author of Gangrena were a man in any reputation for wisdome or honour here is a dead flie that would cause his oyntmeÌ„t to send forth a stinking savour for ever This passage of Providence as this Son of shame and inconsideratenesse calleth it this perfect sound of a March beaten on an invisible Drum c. asserted with as much confidence as pen could well expresse and by the tenor whereof this false Prophet and Diviner of follies undertakes to know and to declare the secret thoughts and intentions both of God and men was nothing else as many that were present when this Tragi-Comedie was acted and some of them Presbyterians yea some that saw the invisible Drummer doe report but a dog scratching his eare and with his foot upon every advance thereof to scratch beating the sounding side of the pew wherein he was And as for the greatest part of those circumstances wherewith the maine body of this notorious is drest and beautified as the sound of the March was heard as coming into the Chappell and then as going up all along the I le c. that Mr. Eaton and the people were terrified with it that Mr. Eaton gave over preaching and fell to praying that they broke up their exercise because of the March still beating c. All these are nothing else but sparks of that unhallowed fire which burnes in the bowells of Gangrena's race and consumes the very foundations of ingenuitie and Truth in High-Presbyterian Spirits If Gangrena her selfe had a forehead made of any other mettall then brasse or yron any sence or touch of ingenuitie or true honour she would bind her face in the dust and keep her sin and shame company in darknesse for one seven yeares at least after such a shamelesse and prodigious abuse of the world and her self as this But as Seneca saith one tree though it be never so tall is not wondred at when the whole forest or wood bears others of the same growth and stature a Non est admirationi una arbor quando totum nemus in eandem altitudineÌ„ surrexit So I feare that Gangrena being conscious of no more credit or truth in any other of her tales is not much affected or stirr'd in spirit with the discoverie of her nakednesse or foule falsifications in this I beleeve and not without ground that a very great part of the foule stories which she relates with truth in the matter of fact would upon due examination and triall be found the perpetrations not of that sort of men on whom she fathers them under the Names of Sectaries and Independents but of persons of her own judgement and fellow-members with her of the Church of England witnesse the storie of him who mingled
also Thirdly the said Answer halts shamefully upon this leg also Sect. 13. it affirmeth that that speech of Christ Luk. 9. The Sonne of man iâ— not come to destroy mens lives but to save them hath a peculiar reference to his being on Earth in the forme of a servant which implyeth that when he laid aside the forme of a servant and ascended up into Heaven he ascended not to save mens lives but to destroy them or at least that now being in Heaven he is more inclinable to destroy the lives of men then he was whilst he remained in the forme of a servant Both which are emphatically false the Lord Christ even after his receiving up into glory being altogether as tender of the preclous lives of men as before yea and giving out his Divine vertue and power every whit as bountifully as well for the comfort and preservation of mens lives whilst they Sect. 14. stood by them as for the restoring or recalling of them when they were departed a Act. 9. 40. Act. 20. 9 10. Yea the Scripture teacheth us to looke upon the blessed condition of Christ glorified as a more hopefull ground of obtaining grace and favour from him in every kind then his being in the forme of a Servant was For if when wee were enemies saith the Apostle we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son much more being reconciled we shall be saved BY HIS LIFE b Rom. 5. 10. Fourthly the said Answer blusheth also with the red of this inference or supposall viz. that because that negative expression of Christ mentioned that he came not to destroy mens lives is not necessarily an absolute negation but rather a preferring of one thing before another therefore it is necessarily and absolutely a preferring of one thing before another and the meaning of it necessarily and absolutely this that Christ came not onely or so much to destroy mens lives but to save them Doth the possibility or non-necessity of the being of a thing either so or so necessarily and absolutely imply the being of it otherwise This it seemes is one of the Logick pillars upon which Presbytery hath built her house Fiftly and lastly the Answer wee speake of vanisheth away and dieth in the hand of this most senselesse and importune reasoning Sect. 14. If Peter by his word struck Ananias and Sapphira dead for their sacrilegious dissimulation and Christ himselfe threaten destruction to Jerusalem for rejecting him their Messiah then is the destroying of mens lives by the Civill Magistrate for contradicting the most fundamentall Doctrines of Christ agreeable to the Spirit of Christ Doth the Antecedent and consequent in this hypotheticall proposition agree any whit better then harp and harrow Is the contradicting of what a man knowes no sufficient ground or reason why he should judge or thinke it to be a Truth nor with his best endeavours is able so to judge of it which according to the common Tenet of these men themselves is the case of all unregenerate men in respect of the fundamentall Doctrines of Christ a sinne of the like nature or equally punishable with the sinne of Sacrilegious dissimulation which the sinner cannot but know to be an abomination See before Sect. 11. Or is the threatning of destruction by Christ himselfe to Jerusalem upon an old score of all manner of provocations and abominations which had run on for many generations together which threatning notwithstanding was not Sect. 14. put in execution till almost fourty yeares after it was denounced is such a threatning I say as this by Christ himselfe of a like consideration with the actuall and present inflicting of the punishment of death upon a man by a Civill Magistrate onely for contradicting in words such or such Tenets in Christian Religion suppose the most fundamentall of the Truth or likelihood whereof the miserable wretch hath no assurance nor perhaps knoweth how to come by any Whatsoever an Apostle may doe by the immediate and infallible direction of the Holy Ghost nay whatsoever Christ himselfe may doe by vertue of his Authority and Interest having all power of Judicature put into his hand by God may a Magistrate doe by vertue of that limited Authority and Interest which he hath and by the suggestion or direction of his owne spirit onely or of those that are subject unto errour and misprisions as well as his Is it reasonable to say that a child may undertake as much as a man or a Subject as much as his Prince Take a parallel of these mens reasoning if the Vine may bring forth grapes why not the thorne if the fig-tree figs why not the thistle Take another If Presbytery be Jure Divino why not Episcopacie why not Independencie If something be something why not nothing The Faith of these men had need be strong for their reasonings I am certaine are extremely weake But their salve for this soare is to injoyne their Proselytes upon paine of death to cast their Reason out of their Religion and then quid libet will serve to prove quodlibet But before I discharge them at this point I must know of them or at least demand of them by what light new or old did they discerne this for a truth that Peter by his word struck Ananias and Sapphira dead for their Sacrilegious dissimulation Doe these men justifie the Argument of the Romish Disputants from Ecce duo gladii Behold here are two Swords to prove that Peter was invested as well with secular as a Luk. 22. 38. Ecclesiastick power Or doe they conceive that smiting with death is an Ecclesiastick or Church Censure Or suppose it be had Peter power to inflict it by his word Did God impart his omnipotencie unto him Concerning Ananias it is indeed related how Peter according to the duty of his place admonished him of his sin and that Ananias upon hearing the Admonition or Reproofe gave up the Ghost a Act. 5. 5. or died but it is no where said nor is it any wayes Sect. 14. probable that Peter intended any such severe execution in his admonition and consequently it cannot be said that he struck him dead with his word except onely in such a sense as a man may be said to kill his Brother who doth it at unawares and if a Magistrate shall thus slay with death an Heretick or opposer of the Doctrines of Christ viz. at unawares I shall doe my utmost to excuse him and the rather if he shall doe it onely by admonishing or reproving him for his errours Concerning the death of Sapphira it is said indeed that Peter foretold it before it was inflicted behold saith he unto her the feet of those which have buried thy husband are at the dore and shall carrie thee out But from these words it cannot be concluded that Peter struck Sapphira dead with his word except onely in such a sense as the faithfull Ministers of this Land may be said
his being in London though it be never so true that there he is yea and that he hath inform'd Peter of never so many things It is not the ground cause or reason of any thing which necessarily furnisheth a man with the knowledge of the thing but the apprehension and knowledge of them and that in their relation of causality unto the thing So that the Vindicators are quite out in assigning the contrariety which is in the Opinions sentenced in the Ordinance to the manifest word of God together with their destructivenesse to the foundations of Christian Religion as a reason or ground why the makers of the Ordinance must needs CERTAINLY know them to be damnable heresies Fiftly whereas our Querie opponents talke with so much peremptorinesse Sect. 24. and importune confidence of a CERTAINE knewledge in the Ordinance-makers and consequently in themselves that the Opinions condemn'd in the Ordinance are damnable heresies I am halfe jealous from the aire of their confidence that Sect. 25. they understand not what they say nor whereof they affirme a 1 Tim. 1. 7. I meane that they know not or at least consider not what belongs to a CERTAINTY OF KNOWLEDGE in matters of Religion and the things of God It is a gracious and excellent degree of perswasion concerning the truth of the Gospel and much more concerning the Truth of particular Doctrines in it when men being called to it by God are made able and willing thereby to lay downe their lives for them or in confirmation of them If themselves have attained such a perswasion or knowledge of the Truth of Gospel-Doctrines as this they have cause to be thankfull and to glorifie God abundantly in this behalfe He hath noâ— dealt so with many of his children nor have thousands of Professors any such perswasion or knowledge of them Yet these Gentlemen may please to understand that such a knowledge of spirituall Truths which is sufficient to strengthen a mans hand to die for them may very possibly be farre from a CERTAINE knowledge of them Wee have read and heard of man 〈…〉 who have been enabled to die yea and have died for some Doctrines or Opinions out of that strength of perswasion which they had of the Truth of them which notwithstanding wee generally know were not true Now most certaine it is that there can be no CERTAINE knowledge of the truth of any thing that is false Therefore such a knowledge or perswasion of any Gospel-Truth which makes men willing and ready to die for it is no sufficient proofe of a CERTAINTY in this knowledge Which considered that opposition between a necessity of being Scepticks in Religion and a necessity of knowing some things certainly which our Answer-men make in the sequell of this part of their Answer gives no testimony at all either to their learning or understanding For no man I presume will call him a Sceptick in Religion who is so farre perswaded and confidenced of what he holds in it that he is willing and ready to die in attestation of the Truth thereof And yet as hath been said such a perswasion or confidence as this doth no wayes import a CERTAINTY of knowledge Sixtly It is the common Doctrine and Opinion of those Authors Sect. 52. which are generally by Protestants reputed Classique and Orthodox though mine owne Jugdement I confesse rather inclines another way that all other Arguments and proofes which Sect. 25. are usually yea or which can be brought to prove the Divinity of the Scriptures and the Truth of this Gospell are but Dialecticall and probable not demonstrative or conclusive without all feare of Truth on the other side or however not sufficient to perswade men to a firme assent unto them They onely allow the supernaturall and immediate worke of the Spirit * Atque hoc argumentum nempe Testificatio Spiritus Sancti c. ut est renatorum proprium ita solum corda eorum non solum de veritate Authoritate Scripturae sacrae convincit sed etiam persuadet ut assentiantur in eâ firmiter acquiescant reliqua omnia communia sunt etiam non conversis quos quidem etiam convincunt atque ora contradicentibus obturant sed SOLA NON PERSUADENT NEC MOVENT AD ASSENTIENDUM NISI INTUS TESTIMONIUM SPIRITUS SANCTI ACCEDAT Ursimus Catech. Proleg c. 4. Sect. 14. Haec cerâ—è à legentibus audientibus percipiuntur Sed ut cum fructu fiat verâ fide necessarium est ut suorum uniuscujusque afflatu Spiriâ—ls sui cor tangat ut veritatem Divinam in his Scriptis elucentem agnoscat ad quorum lumen alioqui ambulare non possunt qui spirituali caecitate detinâ—ntur donee Deus iis quibus verbum illud legitur aut praedicatur CORDA ILLUMINET sine quo Spiritûs motu Ecclesiae verae testimonium quod medium ad fidem utile etiam censemus sed neque unicum NEQUE SUFFICIENS prorsus esset inefficax Andr. Rivet Isag cap. â— Sect. 8. Quare quod piis hominibus sole clarius est illis qui sunt mentibus obtenebratis quavis est caligine obscurius Musc Loc. De sacris Scripturis Quare si nostrum illud credere Scripturae pendet à Spiritu Sancto quid obstat quò minùs conclâ—damus quod proposuimus Scripturae authoritatem quoad nos pendere à Spiritu Sancto agente in Conscientiis nostris Probatur jam minor Nemo câ—edit iis quae continentur iâ— Scripturâ Sanctâ nisi doctus à Deo At quicunque credit Scripturae credit iis omnibus quae continentur in eâ Ergo nemo credit Scripturae nisi doctus à Deo id est per fidem insusam Minor per se patet quia Scripturae credere in hac saltem controversiâ est eam habere pro verè Divinâ extráque omnem comparationis aleam Chamier Panstrat lib. 6. cap. 3. Sect. 2 3. Et posteà loquens de Augustino Sic bonus ille Pater propriá experientiâ didicit eam fidem quâ amplectimur Scripturarum Authoritatem esse à Deo NON VERO ACQUISITUM ALIQUID asserting and sealing up the Truth of both in the Consciences of men as an Argument of that Interest I meane as an Argument demonstratively and infallibly conclusive Is it then such an hideous or enormous supposition as these men desire to informe the world in thunder and lightning or is it at any such distance from their owne Principles to suppose that men may possibly not know CERTAINLY the great Truths of the Gospel to be Truths and consequently not know CERTAINLY that the opinions threatned with death in the Ordinance are damnable heresies Is there any thing more horrid or strange in such a supposition then there is in this that God hath not by the supernaturall infallible Sect. 26. immedate worke of his Spirit revealed and sealed up to the Consciences of many men the unquestionable Truth of the Gospel And is it any
cause so that whatsoever they shall say or argue in order unto this it receives this modification from betweene the efficient and the end it is SVFFICIENTLY argued and prov'd May they noâ— in a manner as well pretend and say when they have onely cited those first words in Genesis In the beginning God made Heaven and Earth that they have by this Scripture SVFFICIENTLY proved the Jus Divinum of Presbytery as make their boast that they have SVFFICIENTLY answered my second Querie with those impertinent weake reasonlesse truth-lesse allegations as hath been abundantly proved of which this Answer so called is made But as it was in that old saying amongst the Romans between their two Captaines that Odeâ—â—â—uâ— conquered but Gallienus triumphed so is it between the present Syllogisme and the Answer to it The Syllogisme conquers and the Answer triumpheth Oh England my heart is inlarged towards thee and I will open my mouth proportionably unto thee Take heed of the grand Imposture of this word SVFFICIENTLY in the writings and in the teachings of thy Teachers they have learned to call their chaffe wheat and to say of stones that they are bread But in what degree these men were straightned for want of reason Sect. 30. in answering their owne Argument they are inlarged in Sect. 30. passion against my Querie But what were they so super-superlatively incens'd against it because they were able to make no better worke of answering it Or diâ— thâ— spirit of it touch the apple of their eye and so through the extreamâ—ty of the paine their imaginations suffered yea and their Consciences also through a consent and sympathie with the part affected But whatsoever the true cause of the accident is I verily believe that never did there such a flood of prophane and senselesse passion breake out of the spirits of men that were called Christian from the first day of this Denomination in the world to this very houre as these men poure out upon a Querie whose innocencie I say not weight and worth hath been vindicated upon such grounds of evidence and Truth that the light of the Sunne is not more apparent at noone-day then it Were not the Fountaines of the great deep of Corruption within them all broken up when this Deluge of bitter waters issued from them And as Joshua that he and the people with him might be avenged of their enemies spake unto the Sunne and Moone to stand still Sunne stand thou still upon Gibeon and thou Moone in the valley of Ajalon a Josh 10. 12. so did not these men their hearts being set to take revenge upon the Querist when they girded themselves to the worke commanded their reasons and consciensces to stand still and cease from their motions each of them respectively directing themselves to their own and saying Reason stand thou still over passion and thou Conscience in the valley of Indignation untill wee have avenged our selves in fire and brimstone upon our enemies that Arch-Enemy of our most beloved Designes But if in the day of their Answer I meane in the Rationall part of it we found nothing but night and darknesse can wee hope in the night thereof I meane the passionate part of it to find day or so much as the dawnings of reason truth or understanding I had once thoughts of speaking particularly to every straine and passage herein but upon more mature debate with my self about the undertaking I considered that in case I were an Engineere I should doe but childishly to load a Cannon only to batter a mushrome or a bubble which children raise with soape and spittle out of a nut-shell And thus our second Querie that great abomination of Classick soules hath fully recovered her selfe out of those fogges and Sect. 31. mists which partly by the ignorance partly by the ill will of her adversaries were spread round about her and shines in perfect beautie being onely troubled and full of sorrow for this that ever shee should be an occasion to men pretending to Religion of so much rebuke and shame as must needs fall upon those who have opposed her Sect. 31. Their third Argument rejoyceth against their Answer given to it because this also is built upon sandy foundations As 1. that to be called Rabbi is to require men to beleeve that which they teach them meerly because they teach it without any Authoritie from God in his Word This is a most strange and truthlesse saying and excuseth Scribes and Pharisees and who not from ever desiring to be called Rabbi For certainly none of these were ever so simple as to require men to beleeve that which they taught them MEERLY because they taught it without any Authoritie from God in his word There was none of them all but pretended Authoritie from God in his word for what they taught but especially it is the first-borne of incredibilities that they should require men to beleeve what they taught them upon this ground MEERLY because they taught it without any Authoritie from God in his word Can it enter into the heart of a man especially of any man that professeth the service of the true God and beliefe of the Scriptures to thinke honorably of his Teacher MEERLY and simply because he teacheth without any Authoritie from God in his word Certainly if the Scribes and Pharisees had fish'd with this baite especially amongst the Jewes for the acclamations of Rabbi they had caught nothing but contempt and shame in stead thereof Therefore for men to enjoyne or compell men to call them Rabbi is in the sence of the Querie in the Scripture import of the phrase either to enjoyne them especially under any penaltie as of their dis-favour or the dis-favour of God or otherwise to receive or beleeve any Doctrine as the Truth of God because they teach it for such viz. either as a true Interpretation of or deduction from the word of God whether they give any sufficient account that it is either the one or the other unto those on whom they impose upon such terms this tribute of beliefe or else to prohibit them on the like terms the holding and maintaining of such or such Doctrines because they judge them to be contrary to the word of God without giving any sufficient account or reason unto the prohibited Sect. 32. to prove them so Now I querie the Anti-Querists whether the makers of the Ordinance doe not in this sence compell men to call them Rabbi i. Whether they doe not prohibit men under penalties and those most grievous from holding forth such and such Doctrines as being contrary to the word of God without giving any sufficient account or indeed any at all that I say not without being able to give any that is sufficient unto the persons thus prohibited that they are indeed contrary to this word 2. The Answer now under correction is polluted with this uncleane Sect. 32. supposition viz. that the makers of