him for testifying against it The whole truth of the former appeareth to have been thus that a member speaking to him at a time about his being fully set apart from other imployment to the work of the ministry by the Church he replyed to this effect that he thought he should not yeild to it for that he should expect a greater maintenance then that Church could well provide for him as the case stood with them which said he cannot be less then 30 l. per annum but spake nothing of his leaving them This Member having occasion to speak something concerning him to the Church related this passage which he being present acknowledged was from a temptation But put the case he had made this reasonable Proposal it had in the whole amounted to thus much A Pastor of a Church as he is called having a family demands of the flock of Christ to whose service he is called 30 l. per annum as that short of which he cannot with his family subsist among them If this motion be justifiable then the Ministery of this Nation must not be testified against for compelling by Law their Tythes and large Revenues from persons whom they judge were never fitted by the Lord for Communion as a Church in all the Ordinances of the Gospel this is one of the Accuser's rational inferences Accuser 1. He is a notorious lyer that makes little conscience of his word and hath reported many untruths touching the publick Ministers of Tiverton nay justifieth himself in lyes when reproved There was a young man who wrote notes after Mr. Lowman preaching upon the Doctrine of the Covenant in Tiverton which notes this young man delivered to one of the Anabaptists who gave them to William Facy Within three or four days after this young man came to William Facy and demanded these Notes which he plainly and presumptuously denies saying he had them not but William Facy withdrawing the room the young man espies these Notes on the Table and takes them into his hand VVilliam Facy comes in and perceiving the Notes in his hand takes the Notes by force out of his hand When the young man reported this to some of his Friends VVilliam Facy comes to this young man and calls him Lyer before his Master the young man being then a Servant but the young man produced another to testifie the truth of this matter who was with him at William Facy 's House and heard him deny the Sermon-Notes Afterward Mr. Lowman meeting with William Facy reproved him for lying William Facy to justifie himself tells Mr. Lowman That the young man had cleared him in this matter before his Master which being examined was found a Lye So here were three lyes 1. he denies the Notes 2. he denies that he did deny them 3. he affirms that the young man had cleared him which were all false Several untruths hath William Facy reported which upon examination hath plainly and clearly appeared so to be yet they continue him to be their Pastor Answer Who would not think by what is said but 1. That the Accuser had from hence a very good ground to leave us or at least a very good evidence to clear himself from our second head of matter in charge against him could he have obtained liberty to speak for himself 2. That this William Facy hath very many times been had upon examination about notorious lyes touching the Ministers in Tiverton and otherwise and justifies himself when convicted 3. That he was unquestionably found in three in one matter The deceit of the former insinuation appears by this That whatever is pretended to made out in this his ample story was all transacted since the time that the Accuser left us and was rejected by us and therefore came too late for his just vindication in the matter for which the Church proceeded with him but still shews him to be as the raging Sea that cannot rest whose waters cast up mire and dirt For the second thing suggested if the single affirmations of such a slanderous person without any particular instances or further proof shall have any weight with the sober to fasten such charges then how can the very generation of the Just stand in man's day before envy Reason will prompt the indifferent Reader to suppose that were there indeed at hand proofs so cleer upon examination of those horrible impieties and injuries done the Ministers of Tiverton we should have had them inserted as more pregnant to his business and notorious then this of the Lad's that the Reader is at large informed in which upon the best light we can obtain amounts to no more then this There was a Sermon it seems preach'd in Tiverton about Infants right to the Covenant which had a very great similitude to and agreement to say no more both in matter and form with the Accusers formerly digested and much studied meditations on the same subject above examined The Notes of this Sermon were by a Member with Mr. Lowman's consent delivered to the person accused and he engaged to deliver them into that Members hand again as purposing to give some Animadversions on them Very shortly there came two youths to his house neither of them known to him by face one of which demanded such notes from him as being his William Facy denyed the giving them to him told him he could not have them the lads importunity grew so great upon him as would admit neither of denyal or delay at length not remembring where he had layd them and as the lad sayth saying he had them not at present while he went into a chamber to seek them the lad found them among other papers on the table when the youths were gone they reported that he had said he had them not in his house at present about which when the youth that claimed them was examined before his Mr. after he was in two or twree tales as his Mr. still acknowledgeth and witnessed it lately in one of our hearing who publish this as well as before other witnesses The sum is put case William Facy as the lad reporteth did say he had them not at present therby intending he had them not at hand nor remembred where to finde them at present and the Lad understood he meant by the words that he had them not in the house at present If there be not left in the reason of men or love of Christ a way for the serious reader to reconcile these things without our farther enlarging or to accommodate them to a more charitable construction and conclusion then the Accuser doth the business shal be left to his censure Only let it be understood to be far from us to excuse or plead for a willing use of such equivocal terms in any cases as may leave the party to whom we express our minds under a temptation to suppose otherwise then in the plainest sence seems to be intended and we have good ground to beleeve our accused
so that God may not lose his Glory nor any of his people lose their comfort which if you tender be sure to prize those ways in which you received the first Conviction lest you one day lie down in sorrow for going away from God and from the striving of his Spirit Let me ask you that have with drawn from that Ministery to whom ye can say We are your work of the Lord have you the same tenderness the same affections to God that you once had in former days are not these much decayed O return from whence you are fallen and repent And now I shall conclude by giving the Reader an account of the sad experience that I have had in two yeers digression from the publick Ministery in Tiverton which God did at first bloss to the awakening of my soul Answer As he draws towards his Conclusion you have the Application of his miserable Doctrines after he hath with some flattering insinuations bespoke the farther attention of his ignorant young Christian as he calls him in his Title-page That now he may give a testimony of his fixed enmity to the way he was in and shew farther what Oracle he hath consulted with and what Spirit he is of he adventures on the house top in the sight of the Sun under the coverts of his two yeers sad experience to cast upon the way of the Lord and them that walk therein such horrible reproaches as the thoughts of Temperance Righteousness and Judgement to come would have made him tremble at having though seemingly aimed at them in Tiverton therein yet so shot as may indifferently reach all them anywhere that serve the Lord Jesus Christ under that name of reproach Under all which as a part of our Crown we could quietly sit down and pray Lord lay it not to his charge Father forgive him he knoweth not what he doth appealing for our Vindication to the Consciences of all serious unbyassed and unprejudiced Christians that have tasted our Doctrine and observed our walkings in the three Nations whether the things be so or nay and so leave it to the God and Father of the Spirits of all flesh who is coming out to pass righteous judgement in all such cases for his poor people that wait for him But yet for their sakes at whom he levels who being ignorant of us may be apt to be offended at such an impudent testimony we present a few animadversions on the two or three first things he saith the rest being such wretched falshoods as we abhor the thoughts of and delivered in such general termes without any particular instance wherein it is possible to trace him we reckon not worthy any other answer then that Psal 120.2 3 4. and 52.1 4. Accuser 1. I do not remember that I have had one conviction under all the sermons which I heard whilest I walked among them but that sence of my condition which I had before did abate and by little and little fall away after I turned my back upon the means which God made use of in working upon me Therefore I beg all those upon whose hearts God is working to take heed of despising or slighting those instruments with whom God is present Answer The Reader must suppose his meaning to be either that he felt no such thing as motions quicknings soule-searchings c. while with us or else that whatever of that kinde he had they are now to be accounted no other then delusions and so not worthy the name of convictions or of being remembred If the former be imagined to be his meaning we have abundant and pregnant testimonies how that many times he hath declared his having met with God to admiration while he hath with us been waiting on him so that he would not have given such opportunities as he hath reported for the world But if he mindes all these to have been the delusions of his own heart we shall not contend about it but that likely they were so or that he dissembled those pretensions of enjoying God Only it further shewes the mercy we have of being delivered from such a deceitful mâ—mber who either then belyed the spirit while he owned such operations to him as were none of his or if they were the spirits works doth now in effect deny them Nay the mistake is very great if it cannot be made good that he being shortly upon the publishing of this pamphlet in his name demanded by a member how he could date affirm such a thing that he had no convictions c. replyed that he never had sayd such a thing If so the Reader may guess what hand it 's likely himself had in compiling the book which with other evidences if we liked to produce them would put that matter out of question Accuser 2. I was drawn off by these men when I was in the greatest probability of receiving good from the ministry that I ever was for I doe remember still the impressions which were made upon my soule by those truths which I heard from Mr. Chishul a little before I was thus drawn aside which did work mightily to conviction and to resolution in me but the devill envying my prosperity sent me this thorne in the flesh and their insinuations and temptations did so prevaile with me that I left this ministry to attend on them which was but a diversion from the work of my soule and I finde that whereas before I had some things of weight upon my spirit these were soon layed aside and I had nothing to doe but to dispute about Baptisme and to raile against ministers so that my former awakenings were turned into drousiness and doting about questions Answer How unskilful this man is of judging about Convictions appears in part by what is last said How infaithful he is in reporting them is no less evident by considering that when he came at first to make out among us a profession of his faith in order to fellowship with us he testified that the first convictions that were wrought on his soule were through the word of the Lord held forth in the Church after which as himself said for worldly respects he went again to attend on the publick ministry but was there met with by some word of Mr. Chishul which put life again into his former convictions begotten by the ministry with us whereupon he returned again and on a declaration of the work of faith was baptised and admitted If this testimony of his was in truth and a true work of grace was on him then did the Lord witness to our ministry if he deceived us in that profession then hath the Lord witnessed to our rejecting him he went out from us because he was not of us Whereas he lays the stress of his coming to us upon our insinuating and tempting him after the strictest search it doth not appeare that any were urgent with him at all but that of his own voluntary inclinatition he proposed his desires of
contentions among our opposites themselves in sundry points of great moment and therefore let us follow the godly as they follow Christ and no farther and withal take heed of making out a judgment while we are prejudiced with personal infirmities or entangled with wordly advantages or disadvantages but draw our selves and the matter in question into a naked simplicity before the Lord to receive the pure impressions of Scripture-authority as the supream judg of all controversies and no other But mark the condition of the person our judg and accuser before and since his defection as his own pen hath painted him forth that notwithstanding his pretensions of seeking and finding God you will finde the man not so much in the joy and love of a spirit bettered by his change as in the old gall of a deadly bitterness from first to last Accuser And upon serious inquiring into the word and earnest seeking of God it pleased the Lord to satisfie me in the truth and in particular touching these two controverted truths 1. That the Covenant of grace stands now in force to the children of beleevers under the Gospel 2. That this is a sufficient ground by Gods appointment why the children of believers should be baptized This is evident from many Scriptures in the New Testament which the Anabaptists have endeavoured often to obscure I shall onely mention one which was useful to me Acts 2.34 The promise is to you and to your children The Anabaptists have laboured to darken this truth by perswading the world to believe that children have no right to the promise till they are actually called which they would infer from the last clause of the fore mentioned Text. But by considering I saw their mistake in the Text call hath no relation to children but to them afar off Answer We account it not our concernment nor worth our while to inform the Reader with what might be truely said to discover the falshood of the accusers plausible insinuation by what direct meanes and with what mature consideration he digested those grounds of satisfaction but letting him pass with his desired applause shall only crave the exercise of Christian patience while we follow him laying down in plainness our perswasions about the severals by him hinted at in this point of Baptisme he first gives you two propositions as the ground of his satisfaction First that the Covenant of grace stands now in force to the children of believers under the Gospel Secondly that this is a sufficient ground by Gods appointment why they should be baptised Many mistakes usually perplex the point in question for want of a right understanding of the termes made use of which inconvenience we shall endeavour to remove out of the way before we goe farther and the terme or expression that comes first to hand to be explained is the Covenant of Grace This terme is applyed to signifie 1. The Covenant of Grace in its own nature singly and universally considered 2. It 's applied to singifie the manner of its administration according to divine institution As to the first signification the Covenant of Grace signifieth That great mystery of the mercy of God in Christ wherein the Father hath established Jesus Christ his Son the head of all things and given unto him a blessed seed of the Sons of Men to be by him and with him heires of the glorious inheritance of the grace of God and the blessed consequences thereof against all possibilities of miscarriage according to his eternal purpose This Covenant was by the Lord himself first published to man in Paradice Gen. 3.15 I will put enmity between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed it shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heele This Covenant is spoken by the Prophet David Psal 2.7 I will declare the decree the Lord hath said unto me Thou art my Son this day have 1 begotten thee Vers 8. Aske of me and I shall give thee the heathen for thins inheritance and the utmost parts of the earth for thy possession Vers 9. Thou shalt break them mith a rod of iron thou shalt dash them in pieces as a potters vessel This Covenant is it which Isaiah publisheth and preacheth Chap. 42. and 49. and elswere frequently This Covenant God calls his everlasting Covenant being still one and the same immutable from everlasting to everlasting This Covenant was it which at sundry times and after divers manners under divers signes figures and types by promises and prophecies was renewed and ratified with the blessed Patriarches Abel Seth Enoch Noah Sem Melchisedeck and with the Fathers Abraham Isaac and Jacob with Moses with David the king and with the Prophets before the comming of Christ and it is the same Covenant which openly and plainly was brough to light and revealed in all the mysteries of it by John the Baptist the Lord Jesus and his Apostles which still continueth to be ministred in the Church and shall continue without change to the worlds end This Covenant hath one Spiritual Father which is Christ Isaiah 9.6 The mighty Ged the everlasting Father and one spiritual seed Psal 22.30 A seed shall serve him it shall be accounted to the Lord for a Generation The Covenant of grace as it signifieth the manner of administration according to divine appointment may be thus described The Covenant ministring It doth contain the whole and every part of that instituted worship whereby God doth ordinarily bring about the purposes of the everlasting Covenant that is to set Christ upon his throne and to gather to him the seed given him by his Father And the Covenant of grace under this acceptation is not one and the same alwayes but hath passed under many great alterations and changes the Lord hating his ordinances and appointmens to the persons seasons and workes which he had to doe as it seemed good to his heavenly wisdom and therefore all the force and authority of the Covenant of grace considered under this head to wit according to the administration of it dependeth intirely upon the law of its institution and is in force as that law directeth and not otherwise And the Covenant of grace in this sence stands distinguished in Scripture under two known heads respecting two seasons the season before the ascention of the Son of God and the season which followed after The administration of the Covenant of grace The ministring before Christ before the coming of the Son of God passed under very great alterations and changes for the first two thousand years from Adam to Abraham the ordinances and forme of worship then in practise and other occasional figures having respect unto the mystery of the everlasting Covenant and the chosen and rejected seeds therein considered was a ministry dignified with as eminent and glorious saints as any the book of God recordeth and although this ministry were also for the nature of it the same with the law of Moses and
Prophetical instance in the very Family of Abraham the type of the true Church wherein this great change of Church-Priviledge was revealed to be taken from the carnal Seed that it should be given to the Seed according to Grace under the Gospel-administration And to put that matter out of question we have the unvailing of this Prophetical instance to the very same purpose in Gal. 4.30 so also Isa 54.1 Sing O barren thou that bearest not What she was the Apostle tells you Gal. 4.26 27. next consider her husband vers 5. Thy Maker is thy Husband the Lord of hosts is his Name and thy Redeemer the holy One of Israel at vers 13. you have the refined qualification of her Children and People And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord. Here you have a Prophetical description of the Gospel-Church-state which the People of a fleshly extraction from the most sanctified Saints cannot possibly compare unto it must therefore necessarily be understood of another Seed even of a Seed begotten of God by the Word of Truth James 1.18 the Gospel-People And this was a fair notice given of the change in question to wit narrower as to the qualification of the Persons but more extended in Grace To the like effect is Isa 60.1 Arise and shine c. at vers 21. Thy people also shall be all righteous Another fair warning for the fleshly Seed is Isa 65.15 For the Lord God shall slay thee and call his people by another name What think you of this warning Hear the Prophet Jer. 31.31 The days come that I will make a new covenant c. vers 34. They shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest of them Here is a plain notice of the change of the old administration which gloried in the Seed of Abraham after the flesh and as plainly foretelling the cessation of that propagation to give place to the new administration and the true Seed of Abraham the Seed according to the Spirit and indeed the change of the administration necessarily removes the fleshly Seed because it hath a standing by no other right then what it had under that Covenant We shall not make use of the New Testament to prosecute this point it everywhere abounds with evidence to it 4. And because the Accuser placeth the force of an Argument upon the supposition of not giving notice of the change of the principle of visible admission into the Church we also shall take the same liberty of reasoning and say That seeing the common way of admission to baptism in the Primitive Church was after personal Profession of Faith and also seeing the error of circumcising baptized Disciples had generally overspread the Churches and might be interpreted very much in favour of the fleshly seed Act. 15. it is very strange that notwithstanding the common practice of Baptism upon Profession and notwithstanding the severe Confutation of this and the like error by Arguments plainly in dis-favour of the carnal Seed as may appear Mat. 3.10 11 12. Rom. 4.13 14. Rom. 9.7 8. Gal. 4.30 yet that in neither case there should be found anywhere in all the New Testament a qualification for the saving of the right of Infants of Believers to Baptism if it had been a right especially upon that pertinent occasion about circumcision we therefore conclude that there was not such right Accuser Arg. 7. If their interpretation be true then the believing Jews should have loss by their repentance if their children should be excluded from the Promise as soon as the Parents had repented Answer 1. Very true and a greater loss then that would befal the children if the Parents repentance should exclude them from the Promise But where did the Accuser learn that Interpretation and Opion we utterly disown it and do place it among the other calumnies unjustly thrust upon the Profession of the Truth wherein we stand We say That the Children have a right in the Promise with the Parent and that the Parents Repentance and Baptism brings great advantages to the Childe but we deny that a right to the Promise infers a right to be baptized The Scripture alledged declares a right unto the Promise in these Jews when they had no right to be baptized the right to be baptized ariseth from the instituted Rule prescribed by God's word for the administration of Baptism and the Persons conformity thereunto Among all the Disputes in this Question when shall we be pressed with a rule prescribing Infant-Baptism as a part of the instituted worship of the Gospel-administration 2. We consear that in some sense a Jew converted to the Gospel should have loss and particularly in that point of sealing his fleshly Seed by an Ordinance together with the fall of all the glory of their Sanctuary and pompous Priesthood so much and so long the joy and boasting of that Nation which the Spirit of God fore-saw and foretold by Isa 8.14 and hence it come to pass that Christ became so great an Offence and the Gospel so sore a Stone of stumbling and Rock of offence to them all yea even to many of them after they had submitted to the Gospel yea the Gentile Churches were scarce if at all preserved from stumbling hereat with the Jew But all this loss well considered would amount to no more then what befalls a man who from the Priviledges of a Servant is invested into the Priviledges of a Son And this was the very case Gal. 4.4 God sent forth his Son c. Vers 5. To redeem them that were under the law that we might receive the adoption of Sons Vers 7. Wherefore thou art no more a servant but a son And the reason of this change the Apostle plainly sheweth us vers 23. He that was after the bond-woman was born after the flesh but he of the free-woman was by promise There was an infinite difference in the propagation of the Seed of the former Church-state and of the Seed of the Gospel-state no less then between Nature and the Power of God as was in the Types Ishmael and Isaac 3. Neither hath this change brought any other loss unto the child but 1. The Interest which it had in the everlasting Covenant under the former administration it still retains 2. The benefits and advantages which it had by the Parent are so much bettered by how much the spiritual state of the Parent under the Gospel by Baptism after Faith is better ratified then under the Law 3. All other and further benefits from the Covenant are more freely and fully tendered and with many enforcing advantages brought neer to be had and enjoyed 4. It is an advantage that as a token of the expiration of the bondage Church-state their signing upon the natural birth is also at an end and their sealing into all these Priviledges transferred to an Ordinance upon the visible Title of their New-birth without which no word of God can be found to raise them into the
willingness to lay that disputation aside Accuser I wish that the plain hearted among them would but seriously consider whether they can possibly expect a blessing from heaven under such amans ministery whose course I have a little hinted to you and judge you whether I have not cause to withdraw where such iniquity is indulged Answer Here you have his conclusion with William Facy and now upon the whole of what is said either in defiance or defence of him though we might say much more in the words of truth and soberness it would appear that the man is a poor sinner that stands in dayly need of his Saviour compassed about with weaknesses temptations and tribulations of all kindes without are fightings within are fears whose footsteps are watched and the iniquity of them written in his forehead who was left for a season under the power of the Tempter fell in a grievous manner was sharply rebuked of God severely censured by the Church to the breaking of his bones so that he hath neither the perfection of the flesh nor the honor of the world left him to glory in And yet being gratiously delivered by Love and upheld by Divine power from perishing by sin or sinking is at length brought out to declare the Lords praise in the middest of his Church who being a poor plain despised people abhorring the indulgence of iniquity and not judging aster outward appearance but righteous judgment finding that God hath humbled him to the dust remembring that they also themselves are compassed with infirmities and liable to be tempted have renewed their love toward him and can comfortably wait upon the Lord and their waiting is not in vain in the Lord for a blessing on the faithfull labours of him and others despised like unto him though yet they have not clearness to appoint him to Pastorship in a way of office as the Accuser falsly repeateth often as if they had done Accuser The third particular of my charge is for charging some of the Anabaptists with denying Magistrates and the neglecting of Family-duties and singing of Psalms let me tell you I do not charge you without a cause for these things abound in you at that rate that seeing you and sin will not part you and I must part and though some of you are dear to me whom I trust the Lord will convince in his due time yet the Lord Iesus is neerer and dearer whose communion I must and through grace do prize before yours had you and I continued it s to be feared the Lord and I should have parted for while I sat under your ministery I could never find that blessing which I have found from that Ministery you despise That tenderness which the Lord wrought upon my spirit by the publick Ministery before I came among you did much decay while I continued with you and therefore it is no small mercy that the Lord hath brought me from you Answer That which he calls the third particular of our Charge for charging some of the Anabaptists c. was thus far worthy to be laid before him in the iniquity of it that he had openly and very slanderously affirmed concerning us in the general that we denied Magistrates denied family-duties denied singing of Psalms c. and on this ground had left us The introduction to his Defence is filled with such flourishes and invectives as either we meet with and speak unto elsewhere or will be best answered by committing our Cause to him that judgeth righteously VVe come therefore to consider what he saith in the particulars for himself Accuser 1. For denying the power of Magistrates it 's notoriously known to many good people in Tiverton how you have carped at the Magistracy there for executing their power upon Sabbath-breakers and Quakers yea you confessed it and pleaded it against me as many of my Friends can testifie when I charged you with it affirming that Magistrates had nothing to do with Quakers Answer He publickly and falsly accuseth us that we deny the power of Magistrates or as he also phraseth it we deny Magistrates his proof is It 's notoriously known we have carped at them for executing their power on Sabbath breakers and Quakers We have in great part declared above and still do That we abhor the imputation of denying the power of Magistrates in punishing evil-doers though withal we say That it will be an hard task to undertake the justification of all the actions of persons in Magistracy who may presume to smite and imprison in execution of passion and lust and not of Law and that such things and so acted whether against Quakers or any other People are not onely lamentable but most abominable As to matters relating to the Conscience and what Power the Magistrate may exercise in that respect we leave the Accuser for answer to the publick Edicts of the Magistracy it self without which the Sect to which the Accuser is joyned can claim no more Priviledge in England Scotland and Ireland then any other Sect or party of People professing Religion by the Magistrate allowed We utterly reject what he suggests about Sabbath-breakers as not having the least colour of Truth of which had there been the least pretence to have fastned it upon any somewhat would have been said to tender us odious and liable to punishment in this Pamphlet or at the Meeting abovesaid proceeding his rejection where he was not backward to load us with whatever ignominy he could bring to bear on us or the way wherein we be Touching the Quakers what testimony we hold up against their principles is very well known to this Accuser and divers good people in Tiverton and elswere what measure they have found in that town and by whose violent importunity and instigation it hath been executed whether to the satisfaction in point of conscience of some that did it or whether even constrained to doe it beyond a voluntary inclination what compassions and complaints it occasioned in many good people in that place that are neither Anabaptists nor Quakers are not things unknown there The day may soon enough declare it in other places we judging it not now our work to say any thing unto it Accuser 2. For neglecting family-duties you cannot without blushing say that I wrong you in charging the neglect of it upon you being conscious to your selves that many of your families call not upon God which I can confidently affirme upon my own personal knowledg when I walked with you besides when I charged you with it you affirmed that it was a mans liberty not his duty to pray in his family as my friends can testifie who were then present Answer What his false accusation about this matter was and our defence therein are manifested above to which we refer the Reader Accuser 3. For neglecting to sing Psalmos an ordinance of Christ you never performed this duty in your assemblies but when I charged you with this you affirmed it to