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
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
endeavour to expose all that I think favour that opinion when as some of my most intimate and honoured friends favour the Millenary Opinion and I know how commonly it was owned by many of the Ancients and who doth not honour the name of Mr. Jos Mead Dr. Twisse Mr. Baily Mr. Porter c. that did more than favour it And when did I ever endeavour to expose such men its like you mean unto scorn or some evil 4. The fourth and notorious falshood is that I dare not look any truth in the face that brings present danger with it when himself saith that I am in the same condemnation with them which hath more truth in it in a full sense than I will here open lest I seem to dishnour my Governours And though I confess that my Imprisonment was not so long and sharp as his yet he can scarce be so ignorant as to imagine that he loseth by his judgement so much as I do by mine quoad lucrum cessans damnum emergens But his own Pen doth publish him temerariously false while he publisheth me to have been formerly as earnest and open an asserter as any of this Opinion and doth not cite one syllable whereby I ever did revoke it And I here as openly declare to him and all the world that I am still of the same mind that I was in that point and I am still ready to express my mind in the same words of mine which he reciteth And while I openly own the same words which he accounteth so dangerous and pretendeth that they assert as much as any judge whether he be a man to be believed that saith I dare not look that truth in the face which I openly own or any other that brings present danger 5. The next notorious falshood is that formerly I was as earnest an asserter of it as any that is of the Fifth Monarchy way As any Have I written for the Millenary Opinion as earnestly and openly as Mr. Mead hath done Have I I will pass over late practices Nay did I ever write or speak one word for it But you shall presently see how he confuteth himself But before I leave this I must name two or three implyed falshoods in these words besides the five expressed 6. The one is that the Doctrine of the Temporal Reign of Christ brings present danger when as all Christians that I know of do believe or hold his Temporal Reign And as for his Personai Corporal Visible Reign I never heard of any Law against any that held it nor any danger that any man incurred much less any suffering for holding it I am perswaded if Christ came personally and visibly to demand it the King himself would yield up his Crown to him But I must confess to you that if any man will call himself a believer of the Fifth Mâ—narchy and thereupon will either deny the Authority of Rulers that are bad even if they were Infidels or Persecutors or that they judge bad or will deny to swear Allegiance to the King or will maintain that good men may seize upon the Government because they are good or think themselves so and that because the Saints shall judge the world therefore they may depose bad Governours and take their places and set up themselves under pretence of setting up Christ I deny not but such as these may be in danger And I am none of them that will own such opinions as knowing them to be no truths but pernicious errors 7. The other implyed falshood is that I have changed my opinion or the profession of it in this point in question Sect. 22. E. B. 〈◊〉 not many years ago you told us that you were perfectly neutral as to the point of Christs visible and personal Reign upon earth and you did not know which way your judgement did most incline But the Theocratical Policy or Divine Common-wealth which is the unquestionable Reign of Christ upon Earth this all Christians are agreed may justly be sought and the temporal dignity of the Saints which would undoubtedly much bless the world R. B. 1. You misprint the temporal for that temporal and so turn the predicate into the subject 2. For as meerly neutral as in almost any point of so great moment c. you put perfectly neutral 3. For I scarce can perceive which way c. you put you did not know Yet I number not these with your falshoods but shew you that you are so habituated to Rashness that you seldom seem to heed what you report 2. And can you wink so hard as not to see how here you openly declare your falsehood Do you prove me as earnest and open an â—ssâ—rter as any by citing words in which I profess to be ignorant neutral and uncertain Will your followers still believe such an open self-contradicting false accuser Is Neutrality and Vncertainty the most earnest and open asserting of a doctrine If you say that you meant it of Theocracy I answer review your words you speak of Christs Temporal Reign and of the Fifth Monarchy way and say as earnest and open as any Was Mr. Mead and Dr. Twisse but Neutral Was Mr. Archer but Neutral 3. I still approve of all the words of mine which you recite What mean you then to tell me of a change 4. And is it like that I take that to be dangerous which I say that all Christians are agreed of 5. And do you not grosly wrong those Rulers from whom you think any danger or hurt will come to us for such doctrine as this Who is there that will deny that A holy and Righteous Government in the hands of holy and righteous men would be a blessing to the world and is to be vehemently desired and sought by just and lawful means Will any Christian charge this doctrine to be erroneous When it is much of the sense of the three first and greatest Petitions in the Lords prayer and when all Christians know that Tyranny Ignorance and Vngodliness are the three constituting materials of the Devils Kingdom in the world and that Tyranny is the grand maintainer of Ignorance and Vngodliness while the Heathen and Infidel and Popish Princes of the Earth do keep away the clear and powerful preaching and publication of the truth and Turks Persians Indians and other Mahometans and all the Heathens do maintain Deceivers and cast out the Gospel of Jesus Christ Sect. 23. E. B. p. 7. Sir I have been very curious to enquire into the doctrine of the Fifth Monarchy and most of my Converse is with those that do in Faith expect and in Patience wait for such a time and I never knew any of them however they are mis-represented carry the notion further than you have already done R. B. 1. And are you a man then that is fit to make such a stir to divide the Churches and to account your self wiser than all the Old Non-conformists in those
thus he did which is mentioned as no rarity should you not rather take part with God than him And if an Aaron will make the people naked to their shame will not God record it to his shame Is not the honour of the Spirit of God more tenderly to be preserved than his or yours or mine or any mans O do not injure God for Man Sect. 27. E. B. p. 8. But 1. May not a good man yea a true Prophet be sometime mistaken Was not Samuel so when he took Eliab to be the Lords anointed Was not Nathan deceived when he encouraged David to build the Temple R. B. 1. Yes they may be deceived when they speak in their own names and judge by their own Spirit or reason But do you think they may be deceived when they prophesie as from God If so then what certainty can we have of the truth of any of their Prophecies if they may speak falsly to us in the name of God 2. Will not your followers think you yet see your partiality who in one Page reproach others as denying Scripture to be a perfect Rule and in another can thus seek to parallel Gods Prophets with one that rashly in the Pulpit prophesieth three falshoods together in the name of God Is it not Gods direction to us to take him for a false Prophet who prophesieth that which cometh not to pass Every one that foretelleth that which doth come to pass is not a true Prophet Deut. 13. 23. But every one that absolutely prophesieth that which doth not come to pass is a false Prophet Deut. 18. 20 21 22. But the Prophet which shall presume to speak a word in my name which I have not commanded him to speak even that Prophet shall dye Mark whether God do judge as you do And if thou say in thy heart how shall we know the word which the Lord hath spoken when a Prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord if the thing follow not nor come to pass that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken but the Prophet hath spoken it presumptuously thou shalt not be afraid of him Sect. 28. E. B. 2. May not many Prophets truly foretell things to come and yet those things be a long time suspended and delayed because of the sins of the people Is not this condition to be understood in most Scripture Prophecies expressed Zach. 6. 15. And this shall come to pass if you will diligently obey c. R. B. 1. A Conditional promise or prediction may be not only delayed but never fulfilled so as that the thing shall not come to pass if the condition never come to pass 2. Promises are oftner to be expounded as Conditional than peremptory Prophecies when no condition is expressed But what words can more exclude both Conditions and Delayes than I tell you from God that you shall never more c. When 1. They never ceased paying Tythes from that day to this 2. And their Taxes were then upon them and I think they believe not that they never paid more 3. And that we have a King his Subjects all acknowledge Indeed the Jews say that the promise of the Messiah is delayed because of their sins and by such pretences what true Prophecy may not be perverted and false excused As for what you say of Mr. Powels Religiousness diligence and worthiness I never said a word against it And I desire to promote and not to cloud the true honour of his name And your calling that an unchristian calumny which you cannot deny to be a proved truth is but an unmanly calumny of your own And for your Prophecy of my memory dying before me I am not solicitous of the matter let God do with my memory what he please nor am I regardful of your Prophecy who defend false prophecying being commanded not to fear such Deut. 18. 22. Sect. 29. E. B. The pride of your heart discovered by your writings is so apparent that it cannot but be known and read of all men to go no further for instances than your last Books what needed you have told the world in print that you chase once on Easter day to communicate in a very populous Church purposely that it might be the further known Is not this like the Hypocrites to blow a Trumpet before and to do your actions that they may be seen of men What other end could you have in doing that so publickly then or in declaring it now but a vain glorious hope that doubting and unsatisfied Christians might look upon your example as their Pole-star and accordingly direct their course R. B. 1. As to the Pride of my heart I shall first say this in general that I am past doubt I have too much of it As no man is wholly cured of that odious vice so I am one that have no cause to say that I am perfect But these things I can confidently say 1. That so far as I am proud I sin as much against my own judgement I imagine as most men alive do there being sew that ever I was acquainted with that have said and written more against it than I have done I have had these thirty years and more more odious conceptions of that sin and a deeper sense of its commonness and prevalency in the world and the wofull ruines which it makes in the Church and State and souls and how frequently it sheweth it self even in men of great piety and worth than of almost any other sin I have had so many thousand thoughts and words against it as make me much more culpable if I be proud 2. And I shall sin as much against my Conscience in being proud as most men in the world As my Judgement is so much against the sin so my Conscience commandeth me a very Low and Constant self-abasement It telleth me that whether I look to a corruptible painfull flesh or to an Ignorant understanding or to a sinful will or to a sinful and unprofitable life I have so little to be proud of as will render my pride exceeding odious 3. I do evidently see the odiousness of this sin in others Were it not for seeming to retort your charge I should say that though I cannot as you do conclude of the heart yet the usual Ensigns of Pride with Temerity and Injudiciousness Boldness and Blindness do appear to me so monstrous in your Writings above the size that ordinary sinners ever fall to as maketh me the more apprehend how dreadful it is to give way to pride in the beginnings And methinks I see as written on the front of your Writings Be not high-minded but fear Therefore I am still the more culpable if I abound with that which is so terrible a warning to me in your self and other such as you 4. And as I every day watch and pray against it and if ever I knew any thing of my self in the world I am certain that I live in an
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
proof of the validity of the Ministers Calling any further than to put the accuser if he can to prove that any essential part is wanting whether in Qualification Ordination or Consent would be vain it being done so largely by the old Non-conformists 2. But is there a Power retained in such Churches to cast out offendors Answ Yes A Power divine or given by Christ Remember that as I have proved Disp of Ordinat men are not the Makers of the Office of the Sacred Ministry nor the Measurers or Givers of the Power but only the Choosers of the person that shall receive what Christ by Institution giveth and the Ministerial Investers of the person in that power Therefore Whoever receiveth the Office of a Pastor receiveth the power of the Keyes to take in and cast out Though not arbitrarily nor ungoverned by himself But the Parish Ministers or very many of them now in question do receive the Office of Pastors Therefore they receive the power of the Keyes to take in and cast out If you say that the Bishops intend it not in ordaining them I answer 1. It sufficeth that Christ intendeth it who is the only maker and giver of the power The Book of Ordination maketh them solemnly Covenant to give faithful diligence alwayes so to Minister the Doctrine and Sacraments and the Discipline of Christ as the Lord hath â—â—â—manded c. And to teach nothing as required of necessity to eternal salvation but that which they are perswaded may be concluded and proved by the Scripture as containing all such necessary doctrine And to be ready with all faithful diligence to banish and drive away all erroneous and strange doctrines contrary to Gods word And to use both publick and private monitions and exhortations as well to the sick as the whole And to be diligent in prayers and reading the holy Scriptures and in such studies as help to the knowledge of the same laying aside the study of the world and the flesh And that they will be diligent to frame and fashion themselves and their families according to the doctrine of Christ and to make both themselves and them as much as they can wholesome examples to the flock c. And till lately the said Book recited Acts 20. 28. to the Presbyters at their Ordination And the Canon 26. saith No Minister shall in any wise admit to the receiving of the holy Communion any of his Cure or flock which be openly known to live in sin notorious without repentance Besides what the Rubrick saith to that purpose And now though I think this one of the greatest sores which you have touched yet judge whether even the Laws and Canons concede no Power to the Ministers 3. But if they did not the Power of Office is one thing and the Liberty of exercising it is another We have Power from Christ to preach and if we be silenced and our liberty restrained by men that proveth us not to be no true Ministers If you mean that no Church is to be communicated with where the Pastor is hindered by men from the full discharge of his Office you mistake and can never prove it 4. They that voluntarily neglect their Office without hinderance by the force of men are more to be blamed than those that are so forced But in the Primitive Churches Discipline was lamentably neglected voluntarily as appeareth in the Case of most of the seven Churches Rev. 2. 3. for which they are threatned by Christ and in the Corinthians case yea corrupted by such as Diotrophes And do you think that the Church that hath Power to do well and will not is therefore to be communicated with because it can that is because it sinneth not through disability but negligence or wilfulness 5. But the Core of your erroneous reasoning is behind you say they were without any Vniversal innovation or degenerating in those Essentials of Order as well as doctrine which they fell into in the ages after c. An Vniversal degenerating in the Essentials even of Doctrine and Order too is a big and a sad word And the time pointed at by you being so early if I can understand you you do as the Seekers unchurch the universal Church of Christ For if it Degenerated Vniversally in the Essentials of doctrine it Vniversally apostatized from Christianity For where any Essential part is lost the Essence and just Name is lost And I beseech you let not rashness or passion blind you to over-overlook the dreadfulness of this Doctrine 1. If Christ had then no Church as he had not if the Essential degeneration was Vniversal then he was no King of the Church on Earth no Lord no Teacher no Saviour of the Church no Intercessor for it in the Heavens And do you not then dethrone him and deny him indeed to be the Christ What a Head without a Body A King without a Kingdom 2. So you will make all Gods Promises of his Churches perpetuity as built on the Rock against which Hell Gates should not prevail and of being with them to the end of the world c. to be false and fail And if the whole Church failed and the Promises made to it what particular soul can trust Gods Promises 3. If all the Church apostatized how shall we know that Apostates did not corrupt all the Copies of Scripture that are come down to us 4. And then the Article I believe the holy Catholick Church would have been a falshood or error 5. And then there could be no Baptism no Sacrament of the Lords Supper c. 6. And then there must be New Apostles with Miracles to make a new Church And thus we have Mr. Williams doctrine whose Story I recited in my last Book Sect. 52. E. B. p. 15. This necessity of separation which began then continueth still since our Churches though reformed from Popery that is from Antichristianism in some points yet are not restored to the primitive pattern and purity R. B. 1. Whether by our Churches you mean only the Parish Churches of godly Ministers or also All the Protestant Churches and all other Vniversally through the world I am not sure But as far as I can conjecture by your words you mean All. Because you speak of them as in a Continuance in part in the Vniversal degeneration in Essentials And you speak of them as avoiding Popery but in part and call them our Churches and mention no Church in the world here that you own as a true Church and whether any where in all your writings I remember not I confess I pretend not to know the mind of so careless a Writer by any words but very plain ones But if this be your mind as it seemeth to be you would do well being so bold a man to tell the world your mind more plainly And you that think that no Truth is to be sold as you call it for Peace let Independents Presbyterians Separatists Anabaptists c.
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