Ministry But I pray God they may never meddle more with the Ministry that are incouraged to enter on it with respect to maintenance such ever more maimed then maintained the Gospel such which loved the gold of the altar dearer then the altar and Corban more then conscience and minded the wages more then the work as exceptis excepiendis some few onely excepted the national Ministry ever did since donations of dignities from Temporal Princes fell upon them were ever more murderers then Ministers of the Gospel nil tam sanctum the Heathen said but gold would expugne it You would be rich and so fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and hurtful lusts that drown men in destruction and perdition your love of money was the mother of all mischief which while you coveted after you were seduced from the faith yea in these daies wherein you vow and protest for the faith as if you would fain follow on to find it fully as t was once delivered to the Saints you l neither find it further nor follow it faster then it keeps pace with your outward enjoyments so that we may say truely Quantum quisque sua nummorum servat in arcâ tantum habet et fidei so much money as you can get by it so much faith religion reformation you l be for and no more yea like Lawyers that look more at the greatnesse of the fee then the goodnesse of the cause nay being feed better leave their old Clients and turn to the other side so do many of you in these daies wherein many run to and fro that knowledge may be increased turn to and fro that livings may still be established on you from masse to liturgy and back again and back again and then to the directory from all which while you stood in the practise of them there was no moving you by Scripture nor reason but qui pecunia non movetur hunc dignum spectatu arbitramur But you plead that the mouth of the Ox must not be muzzled that treadeth out the Corn that t is the will of God that such as have sown in the Church spiritual things should reap their carnal things that such as preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel I answer t is most true there is a power and liberty allowed â—or such as serve the Church to eat and to drink and to subsist in case they cannot subsist otherwise at the charges of the Church when she sets them a part for her service 1 Cor. 9. but it is most commendable and thankworthy in the Ministry to serve the Church and preach the Gospel freely and as far as t is possible not to be burdensome in this kind at all as namely in case they have any estates of their own or can improve themselves in any such outward employment labor or lawful calling wherby to obtain a competent livelyhood and lay out themselves and the gifts that Christ hath freely given them in the service of Christ freely too as men may do many times if they be not idle and loving their own ease more then to ease the church of Christ of unnecâ—ssary pressures in their purses And thus the Apostle Paul and the first Ministers of the Gospel did and though they pleaded a power to live upon them in case they could not live without them that the Church might know it to be their duty freely to minister to their Ministers necessities when they saw them willing freely to expose themselves to necessiâ—ies for the truths sake rather then seek superfluities to themselves yet they did not use that power they had much lesse abuse it too make a trade of it but did rather suffer all things that they might make the Gospel as little chargeable as might me 1 Cor. 9.12.18 yea they received wages sometimes when they went out to warfare i. e. to preach the Gospel up and down so as was utterly inconsistent with the totall maintaining of themselves which while they abode more settledly at one place they did attend to with their own hands for its evident that to this end they might not hinder the Gospell from taking place in mens hearts by seeming too much to make a trade of it they laboured working with their own hands as oft as they could conveniently and their own hands ministred to their own necessities and they had some honest outward occupation as also Christ himself had and followed too till he was wholly taken up in travel to preach the truth therefore Mark. 6.3 is not this the Carpenter wherein they wrought at all times saving when they were actually imployed in some service of preaching to the world writing disputing visiting c. as is plain to him that consults these Scriptures in the last of which least any should think they did more then Ministers now need to do Paul saies plainly they did not use their power that they might be an ensample to others to follow them so Act. 20.35 and therefore howbeit he bids Timothy that was a Minister of the Gospel not entangle himself in the affairs of this life for t is not good indeed that Ministers mind the world so much as to cumber themselves with over much business in it that they may be more free then other men to please Christ who calls them in a more special sense then all Christians to be his souldiers yet I believe he is far from prohibiting him in that speech from following any civil calling at all for in the very verse before 2 Tim. 2.3.4 he bids him endure hardnesse as a good Souldier of Iesus Christ yea Ministers of all men should be patient of all things for the Gospel sake that they hinder it not by their delicacy viz. of hard work sometimes and hard fare too if occasion be and hunger and thirst and cold and nakednesse and extremities and necessities and distresses rather then lie too heavy upon the flock of Christ which is a litâ—le flock and those few mostly poor folks too in this world though rich in faith that may have more mind then ability to Minister to their Ministers and many of them more need to be ministred to by their Ministers if at any time they have abundance then to have their houshold-stuff strein'd and sold as poor folks kettles pots pans and platters are by the Priests and their publican tith-gatherers to pay them You tell us that the first Ministers were gifted from God to preach the Gospel ex tempore and therefore well might they work and yet easily preach the Gospel too but the Ministers now must attain to it by much study and hard pains and therefore had need to be sequestred wholly from all earthly imployments that they may give themselves wholly to that work of preaching and to have such sufficiency of means allowed them as may free them from all thoughts of other things and furnish them to buy abundance of books without which tooles you say in
as if we feared to answer you so positively whether those things viz. Infants Iustification without faith and their freedome from that which not so much in Scripture language as by an Epithite of mens own coining is called originall sin be heresie or no I answer no as to the first though Iustification of Infants by works is the Heresie of a Romish Clergy whether by works we mean the work of faith Ioh. 6.29 or any other yet Iustification of Infants without that work of faith or any other work either of their parents or their own is the truth as it is in Iesus and such sound Doctrine as notwithstanding your outcries of gross popery and I know not what upon it you will never with right reason refute while you breath as for the other of those things viz. infants not having originall sin two questions may be askt concerning this viz. whether they have it secondly whether they ever had it if you ask whether they ever had any I answer that as to hold dying infants to be damned unless they believe which is your doctrine is as to the poor little ones at least that cannot believe somewhat too damnable a Heresie so to say that infants never had the sin of Adam so much as imputed to them how farr forth it may possibly be to a person in whom yet is no inherent corruption is seen in Christ who had the imputation of sin to him though none in him is for ought I have ever found yet to the contrarie nor a truth but if your quere be whether infants have any guilt as from Adams sin abiding on them after birth I reply that as in order of nature Infants must stand guilty by the first Adams sin before they can be said to be justified by the righteousness of the second so in order of time I believe them universally to be no sooner guilty as from Adam then clear'd by Christ which Tenet he that tryes it will find it I perswade my self so farre from meriting to be cried out on for Heresie as it is at random by the Clergy that it rather comes as nigh to truth as 4 pence to a groat but such a Bug-bear makes the Priest of what ere suits not with his wonted imagination that almost all is damnable that differs from him and what ere he meets out of the Kings high-way or sees Sectarizing from the common Rode of his own Cloudy conception and Clericall Cassicall Convocationall Canonicall constitution he draws at it presently as a thief that comes to Rob him commits it to prison and condemns it all to be hang'd for Heresie before he hears it Report You relate that after that none did propound any more questions Reply As if all men had been so astonished at your understanding and answers as they were at Christs that none durst open their mouthes before you any more that day yet some would with the help of Christ have ventured to have told the truth in your presence but to your praise be it spoken as you speak below of your selves you would not let them Report So say you the Congregation was again dismist Reply An argument of your itching after an end and being well nigh betwatled to be gone if the people had not been more forward to quere after truth then the Priest was willing to Answer for all his liberty granted in the seventh Article and his pretended forwardness to resolve page 27. where disswading men from going to seducers you advise them as from God to ask the Priest and if others had not been more free to both then the Preachers were either to Preach or hear As for what follows 't is not so much a model of mis-reports and mis-representations as thus farre of your Account is for the most part as of true reports and representations of some few more of the Ministers mis-apprehensions mis-affections and mis-actions under a colour of acting for the truth Report You say that your Respondent hindred their departure by making an unseasonable motion viz. that they would hear him preach Reply Emphatically even to a scoff that they would hear him preach alià s Sirs give Account in an intire discourse and this too after his offer to hear any of you first if you would but you would not of what he held and why which was the very business he profest to come thither for more then to dispute aliâs to shew upon what grounds he invaded the practise of the Church of England Scotland Rome c. in her infant sprinkling which say you in words in the fifth Article he ought to have done but here in your deeds and denial of it that he ought not Do you think that all save such as have eyes and see not discern not your dawbing your double-dealing and your Egypt-like requiring men to make brick allowing no straw delaâ—ing that 't is our Duty to shew our grounds yet prohibiting our discharge of it pressing people to prove all things yet not abiding they should hear all thâ—ngs tesâ—ing your Respondent that in reason he should have been opponent yet yielding him no opportunity on that day to urge so much as one argument though he offere'd it much less yielding to be responsible to him on the next magnifying preaching as much as any yet withstanding it more then all and making it an unseasonable motion almost at any time save when time comes by course to make mention of it as if any time were unseasonable for that which is strictly to be attended at all times by Christs Ministers both in season and out of season also 2 Tim. 4.1 2. Report This required some time to debate Reply As well it might being a matter of weighty concernment on both hands viz. of consequence too advantagious to truth as well as dangerous to your falshoods besides the more time was taken up in debating against it so much the less time if it fortuned to be cast that way that it must be done would be left to do it in Report The Ministers opposing it Reply And lying in the manger having no mind to hear themselves nor yet that those should who had a mind to it having the key of knowledge the keys and power of that place yet neither abiding there nor abiding that others should abide there to so precious a purpose which is so much to their commendation that men must needs see them to be not like Christs Ministers for if they had they would have rejoiced in Christs being preached whether in pretence or in truth of envy or good will well knowing all should have tended to the furtherance of the Gospel Phil. 1.15 16 17 18 Ob. And if they object that preaching of error will hinder it Ans. I say that publishing whether of error or truth gives that advantage of trying all things which as it is that duty men cannot do unless they hear all so that which they might not do by any means in ages above when the
the principle of reason and facultie of understanding in infants the faculty of understanding is an innate habit necessarily to be concluded and that in the highest degree to be in all infants t is in omni per se quâ ipsum but faith in Christ is by your own confession but an infused habit and by your own confession as not in all infants so in you know not which and which not till you see them act it and yet by your own conclusion to go round again t is in such not in such viz. not at all in Turks and Pagans infants for they are all in a damnable condition with you but in all infants of Christians even such as yet give no specimen of it and that so necessarily that a man may as truly deny that which is naturall to them even the faculty of understanding as deny the habit of faith to be in them Next in order to a fuller and more direct answer you prepare the way by a pannel of six or seven positions which you say you must necessarily hold concerning two or three of which we may say it s no great matter whether you hold them or no for any undoubted and infallible truth that is to be found in them in the sense wherein you take them or at least for any great matter of assistance that acrues to your cause by them and as for the rest of which you say you must necessarily hold them you might have said rather you must necessarily yield them to us for indeed they are the giving up of your cause and no other then the drawing of a dash with your own pen over all that ever you say throughout the residue of your works as concerning that sufficient appearance of faith you assert to be in believers infants yea he is blind that doth not see you thereby perfectly blotting out again what ever you penned in that particular with your own hands First say you the habit of faith must be before it can work I know no necessity of holding this for truth neither indeed would you hold it but that you imagine faith to be another kind of habit then it is for there are more kinds of habits then one though you speak of habit by the lump all along as if you were aware of but one for here 's ore and ore again habit habit habit habit habit but not the least hint of what kind of habit you mean you are never the men that distinguish of habits whereas qui bene distinguit bene docet there being some habits acquired and obtained no otherwise then by acting and faith it self is such a habit as will hardly be proved for all your confidence in the contrary to be any other at least to be apparent in any one or visible to the view of others till some act thereof hath past the persons in whom it is neither is any one in the world that I know of habitually a believer in Christ till having heard of him or his word he doth actually believe Secondly whereas you say the spirit of God infuses this habit I grant he infuses it if you take the word infuse in a true sense i. e. for begetting it in persons by the preaching of the word other infusion of faith if yet that may be properly called infusion which is a phrase rather of your own coining in this case the word knows none God indeed gives it but he gives it in the way of hearing the word of faith in the way of hearing Christ preached in which way he never gave it to infants neither is it his gift to them in any other the spirit works it but not without the use of means not per saltum and in nictu oculi i. e. so suddenly as you fancy but by the discharge of that office he bears from the father to that end and purpose towards the whole world i. e. moving striving perswading inwardly whilest the word doth without inlightning convincing a man of sin in himself of righteousness to be had and of a judgement to come wherein we shall be saved or damned according as we believe or believe not accept or neglect so great salvation upon which motions and convictions which are â—tricter and stronger in some then in other some some yield and believe and obey the Gospel and some for all this rebel and obey not so that t is true the spirit thus effects the business within us yet not so as that he is said wholly to do it without us he is the supreme efficient the operative cause of it but we are to be concurrent cum causà operante we have a part to do as well as he when he hath done his part towards us i. e. to believe which if we do not he will not force us he will go no further nor shall he be blamed but we and we not onely blamed but damnd for not doing it accordingly but if we do believe and turn at his reproof then indeed there is a promise of an infusion or rather effusion of the spirit in other i. e. those more special and peculiar offices of a witnesse to our spirits that we are Gods children a seal a comforter a revealer of the things freely given us of God a supporter under suffering c. all which it performes towards the Saints and in â—espect of which onely its called the holy spirit of promise Eph. 1.13 in this manner the spirit of God in order to that sweet infusion of it self into us may be said if you will call it infusion for which a fitter word may be found to infâ—se i. e. to work faith other infuâ—ion of faith into men much lesse into iâ—fants or such a downright infusion as I suppose you dream on the Scripture makes no mention of at all Thirdly in that you say he is not bound to work it in all the children of Christian parents nor barred from working it in any of the children of infideâ—â— this indeed you must necessarily hold as you say for t is undeniable truth but in holding it you must wholly let go all you held before concerning believes infants appearing to have faith and that in contradistinction to the infants of unbelievers for first you use to say as p. 14. out of Act. 2. that the promise of it is to believers and their seed i. e. as believers seed and so consequently to all and onely their seed not the seed of unbelievers for quod convenit qua ipsum convenit omâ—â— soli semper belongs alwayes to all of one sort and not any man of another and thereby you use to bind the spirit unlesse he will bee unfaithfull to work faith as without which you think he cannot give them salvation in all the seed of believers for a promise that is made to such or such a seed qua si must needs be sure as the Scripture saith Romans 4.16 and made good or else God that cannot lie breaketh his word to
duty and whether it be Mr. Baxters trick onely or the divels in him to draw men under pretence of Scripture and tempting of God to self-preservation so far as not to trust God in the discharge of duty is not amisse for Mr. Baxter to examine for that it savours not of spirit but of flesh it is so sure that it needs no examination If therefore it were indeed so dangerous to be dipt as is imagined by Mr. Cook and Mr. Baxter yet I see no word of Christ willing a declension of the dispensation But what if this be but a meer Chimaera of these mens coining how much lesse are we then excused in our non-submission and yet such and no other will it be found to be at last by then we have sounded this most murderous mater to the bottom For as to Mr. Baxters dismall divination of the hideous consequences that are if you will believe him as it were entaild to this course of constant dipping and his composed catalogue of Chronicall diseases viz. Catarrhes obstructions Apoplexies Lethargies Palsies all Comatous diseases Cephalalgies Hemicranies Phthises debilitie of the stomach Crudities Feavers Disentaries Diarrhaeas Colicks Iliack passions Convulsions Spasmes Tremores and all Hepatick Splenetick pulmoniack distempers and Hippocondriacks also All which to what end he hath Nomen-clattered together here I know not unlesse to make himself whilest he denies Mr. Tombs to be a Physitian seem to be a smatterer in the Art of Physick as to that pittifull piece of proof I say together with that formidable lecture Mr. Cook reads us concerning freezing and suffocation it is ridiculous and frivilous fibbling to fray faint hearted folks with from finding out that straight gate and narrow way that leads to life but a few will find it for all this especially when they shall find their so much believed Mr. Baxter to be such a flat false accuser as he is of this way of truth Hear therefore o ye doters on Mr. Baxters deep divinity he talks if you will believe him as if it were little lesse then impossible that persons should be dipped in cold weather in cold water and not be killed suddenly by hundreds and by thousands or at least not be cast into some Chronical disease which within a while must be an occasion of their death whereas there are hundreds if not thousands alive at this hour even in this cold Countrey as they call it many if not most of which have past through that sharp service in the sharpest seasons conversion falling out as ordinarily in winter as in summer whose present health both proves the falsnesse and reproves the madnesse of your prophet Yea I have cause to know a little better then every one and a little more then Mr. Baxter in this Expertus loquor I speak by experience against which no Argument of his availes I have seen since my five or six years converse among the commonly called Anabaptists many a one baptized totally in cold watet and weather too by others besides toward two hundred by my silly self many of which have come forth covered though not with yce as Mr. Cook phrases it out yet with that water which yce truly covered but just before yet never saw I any one so baptized in all that time who was not if not better in meer bodily respects yet at least as well after it as before he tells you if you will believe him that totall dipping is for nothing but to dispatch men out of the world that are burdensome but then I wonder how the Creature called Anabaptist that is so burthensome to Mr. Baxter doth not dy out of the way by hundreds and thousands and so save him and others that labour of dispute against their growth but rather grow from hundreds into thousands so fast that they are not likely to be dispatcht out of the world till they are such a burthensom stone as will press them to death i. e. the whole Priesthood that is troubled with them He tells you if you will believe him that dipping will destroy men except they be preserved by Miracles why else doth he say speaking specially as to this ordinance of dipping God hath not appointed ordinances in his Church that will destroy men except they be preserved by miracles now if it be not so as hee saies viz. that it is a miracle to be dipped and not destroyed then what a strange man is he to say so but if it be so indeed viz. a Miracle to be dipped and not destroyed then â—o fools and slow of heart to believe the truth though the Lord confirm it to you with Miracles which are wrought day by day amongst the Disciples who are dipped Winter and Summer as occasion is yet are not destroyed Yea whereas Mr Baxter dares say that in Cities like London and amongst Gentlewomen that have been tenderly brought up and antient people and weak people and shopkeepers especially women that take but little of the cold aire dipping in cold weather would in the course of nature kill hundreds and thousands suddenly or cast them into some Chronical disease I dare say that in the City of London there is hundreds if not thousands dipped in cold water and as it happens in cold weather too many of which are Gentlewomen tenderly brought up and antient and weak people and shop keepers and women that take but little of the cold aire and yet by the course of grace they are preserved from perishing by either cold or suffocation yea and out of the City of London too for these hands have baptized of all these sorts in the Countrey viz. Gentlewoman most tenderly brought up very antient people very weak people shopkeepers and specially two women both alive at this day which I 'l become a fool in telling you of them sith Mr. Baxter compells me did take so little of the cold aire that one of them if my memory fail me not and if I were truly informed was but once out of her house in 5 year before by reason of a dropsy and that was with much adoe and but a little before her dipping and to hear this doctrine notwithstanding which weaknesse and such swellings that she was wellnigh twice as bigg as now she is and scarce able to betake her self to the water she was dipped and was rather better in body then worse after it and after sending for some elders of the Church to pray over her and anoint her with oile in the name of the Lord according to his own institution in that behalf Iam. 5. was within a while so asswaged in her swellings that she is now as slâ—nder as in former times before ever he distemper took hold on her The other had scarce been out of her Chamber in two years together and durst not dip her finger in cold water and was ready to have her breath stopt with the least annoyance that could be yet was dipped and was better after it through Gods mercy
will oblige him seemingly to himself at least to tread down truth and set up false hood and all this by a law yea if the Magistrate take the part of any religion against all other so as to establish it alone and root out them whether it be the true one or a false one that he sets up not tolerating all others but forcing them to submit to it the mischief is in a manner intolerable on either hand for if false have not we all felt the smart of being forc't to false wayes Smectimnus as well as others if he hath not forgotten the groans that for liberty of conscience came once out of his own mouth while he was crusht under him that was crusht under the Popedom but in the Marian dayes above but if true the forcing men to own it before they see ground freely to receive it makes a world of formalists of nominal Christians who had as good be nothing at all as no better then they are of hypocrites which are worse then nought the worst sinners in the world for is it not better for me to remain a Jew under a blind conscience till I see the truth then to turn Christian against my though blinded conscience for fear of men before convinc't or before I yet see it to be the truth a forced feigned profession for fear of men if it happen to be of the truth it self is at best but splendidum peccatum a guilded sin Besides t is to weave the spiders webbe as Isa. 59. to make laws and penalties to bind conscience which brawny conscienc't men can creep ore let them be what they will as we see in Nebuchadnezzars dayes and in the Popes time and ever since all people for fear fall down and worship the golden image the King and Clergy sets up save such as fear God indeed And if it be thought that if the civil power take not the part of truth as I wonder where and when ever it did at least since Constantines times till of late it will be lost more in the croud of errors and Heresies that will ensue a general toleration then any other way it can I say let truth alone and turn it loose to plead fully for it self and it will work out its way and live and thrive maugre all the entanglements it can have from tares plain truth may be trusted to treat with the subtlest and proudest opposers it hath in the world that caeteris paribus do make head against it but if it be set against by the forrain power of a civil sword premi yet then too hand supprimi potest do but defend it onely from injury equally with others by the civil and then it will defend it self by the spirituall sword against them all Wherefore I again humbly represent that grave Councel of Gamaliel whose reason is good to all the civil Magistrates throughout the earth by whose subjects t is sharpely controverted and zealously quaeried what is truth viz. that they refrain from meddling more with men though they seem mad men to the world and besides themselves for the sake of truth in pretence lest happily they be found fighters against God for if any way be not of God t will in Gods time come to nought of it self and ye cannot establish it if of God you cannot withstand it but t will come on in this juncture specially wherein it dawns toward the great day and God is about to pluck up every plant he hath not planted And if men be in your apprehension blind leaders of the blind in things of God yet let them alone if they will not go to the right way when called to it they will see when they both fall into the ditch And likewise I humbly beg that what is further and more clearly held forth concerning this subject of liberty of conscience by Mr. Blackwood in the first part of his storming of Antichrist may be well weighed by our Magistrates together with the thirty quaeries presented to them lately by Mr. Iohn Goodwin and his vindication of them against the Apologist neither of which ever will be answered solidly by their parish Ministers And as for the P P Priesthood it self though I hope the night is too farre spent for any save such as will be ignorant and if any man will be ignorant let him be ignorant saith Paul 1 Cor. 14.28 and so say I to doubt but that the day is dark over them and theirs they are blind leaders of the blind in many things which many others see of whom yet they are asham'd to learn and which is worse such as stand not a little in their own light by snuffing at it that the Russet Rabbies and Clergy of Laicks should presume to instruct them more perfectly in the way of God which God in these daies wherein the last must be first and the first last will subject the proudest spirited Priests in Christ'ndom to take from some illiterate and perhaps non-sensical yet honest hearted Saints stammerers in speech babes with them bablers as of old eloquent Apollos from Aquila and Priscilla or else it may be hid from their eyes And though what they would not that others do to them when they were underlings each to other they have done unto all other professions that were underlings to them in the day of their raign hasting what they could to the hunting of the Sectaries out of their synagogues or their native rights and enjoyments therein which they have subjugated to be their Synagogues counting the compasse of whole Common-weals and Kingdomes little enough for them to Lord it over and set their several names of Papal Prelatical or Presbyterian there confounding and Babilonishly blending Church State Power together so that t was hard for any token clearly which was which or to know where to set the sole of his foot almost upon European ground in any Nation but he and all his conscience and all must come under the command and fall within the verge of some or other of their mercilesse Church Monarchies yet neverthelesse my humble desire to the powers on their behalf is that they may be tolerated and protected in the practise of what profession Religion way of worship doctrine discipline or Church-government soever they see occasion among themselves and such as shall see occasion to cleave to them or any of them to set up so far as they shall desire to build their several BBBabels without that blood of souls and bodies of men in which they have imbrued both their own and the Princes hands of the Christian Nations in former dayes I heartily plead for a toleration for them if ever the power shall as not a few people already do discern them to be as Heretical and Schismatical from the truth as they have judged all others to be such toleration I mean as may not be inconsistent with the toleration of all other people and professions of Religion in the
oppositions and imprisonments which Paul met with from the adverse party whereby they intended to smoother it in his daies fell out rather to the furtherance of the Gospel for it came to be the more manifest in all places by means of errors so earnest appearance against it 1 Phil. 12. to 19. Thus truth hath gained ground not a little in these latter daies by the ominous onsets wherewith falsehood fights it and would fain fright and force it to hide its head and wisdome works out it self not a little to light by follies flying so furiously at the face of it 3. That the truth mihgt be better loved and more price set upon it we prize lihgt the more by our knowledge of darkness health by our sense of sicknesse errour is a foil to a Diamond truth looks more lovely being compared with it The lilly looks most lovely and beautifull when it stands among black thornes 2 Cant. 2. the stars though ever obvious to us would never shine if there were no night contraria juxta se posita maxime elucescant contraries set together discover each other more lively in their severall loathsome or lovely formes the light of the Sun shewes brightest seemes sweetest when it breaks from under a dark cloud so does the Sun of righteousnesse now arising appear the more lovely by how much it hath been hid from the earth now of long time by that dismall darknesse and smoak of Heresies erroneous false worships and foolish figments with which the CCClergy hath filled all parishes throughout CCChristendome 4 For the punishment of hypocrites nominall Christians curious Minds such as have itching eares and heap unto themselves teachers stragling sheep fall into the wolves clutches such as will not keep the steps of the flock but go after the flocks of the Companions ever fall into most dangers of seducement all which is most plain by too woful experience in all Nations of CCChristendome for while Christianity and the Gospel was professed sincerely as it was saving some remote beginnings of mens traditions to take place against the commands of Christ in the first three hundred years wherein t was evidenced by the ten bloody persecutions that Christians served Christ for love then and not for loaves nor for lives sake neither for they loved not their lives unto the death there were not half so many Hereticks or Heresies as have been since but when once after Constantine Christianity comming into credit and being not onely owned by the Emperors themselves but established by their edicts in all things according to the pattern shewed them in the word not of Christ but of the Catholique Clergy convened in Councels as the Religion sub paena to be submitted to men turned Christians upon such sleight grounds and were born to that Name of Christianity without the Nature no otherwise then of the will of man and were no more then nomine tenus professors of it the Lord in his just and severe judgement to these nominal Christians permitted those Spiritual plagues that we see Rev. 8. Rev. 9. seconded the sounding of the trumpets to fall thick and three fold upon the world suffered the Clergy to fall to contentions jars and janglings about their ambitious interests viz. primacy and universallity c. and to Apostatize more and more from the plain primitive truth and to degenerate be degrees into darknesse till they came at last to be totally blinded in things of God and blind leaders of the blind Princes and people that implicitly give up themselves to be guided by them that both might drop together into the ditch yea he suffered that great star the Bishop of Rome that sometime shone very bright to fall as wormwood upon the third part of the waters the pure doctrine of the Gospel i. e. to foist in his heresies to the poisoning and imbittering of the doctrine so that many died even all that drank thereof because it was bitter and unwholsome and he suffered the third part of the Sun and Moon and Stars all the means and waies of Christs own institution and appointment to give light unto men by to be smitten and darkned corrupted covered with false glosses depraved with heaps of heresies and traditions c. crept in and authorized by the Pope and his Ecclesiastical Doctors so that what with the damnable and horribly devillish heresies by means of Mahomet and his Alcoran infecting the Orientall Christians through all Asia and these Papisticall errors of those Arch-Hereticks the Pope and CCClergy and Scholastick Rabbies who with vain deceit seduced the Occidental part of the world from the simplicity that is in Christ the day shone not for a third part of it the might likewise i. e. the third part of that pure and pretious truth of Christ which shined in the primitive Churches was now exclipsed and extinguisht neither had men by the third part so much of that clear light of Christs Gospel that they were wont to have in former dayes yea further in way of plague and punishment to hypocrites and meer nominal Christians the Lord at last suffered that star which fell before or angel of the Church of Rome when he was fallen from all his heavenlinesse and love of truth to earthlinesse and love of money and honour from beneath to open the bottomlesse pit i. e. the way to the very depth of hellish darknes and to raise up a smoak or thick fog of errors and heresies lies traditions which as the smoak of some great furnace darkened the sun and air i. e. totally put out the light of Scripture and pure administrations which were but in part ecclipsed before so that now nothing could be seen as it were but Popish legends and such stuff by the advantage of which smoother the Locuâ—ts came out i. e. the Clergy that swarmed all over the earth in every parish one at least stinging hurting wounding to eternal death by their poisonous doctrines propounded under pretence of the word of Christ all persons save such as have the seal of God in their foreheads even a few witnesses to the truth that withstood their doctrins which locusts are said to be scorpions i. e. carrying a fair face but stings in their tailes and to have crowns because of their great power for under their great King Apollyon they rule all and reign ore the Kings of the earth These are they that outwardly wear the sheeps cloathing i. e. cloth themselves with the denominations of Clergy Gods heritage Spiritual men Priests men of God which are the true titles of the sheep but inwardly are ravening wolves into whose clutches the stragling sheep that would not keep the steps of the flock of Christ but turned aside after the flocks of the companions going at a venture which way the most went for companies sake right or wrong did fall and by whose Heretical principles men are in danger of perishing for ever Thus when the world would be
you could tell how become guilty of the body and blood of the Lord however repent or repent not this I say unto you from the Lord that your bloody principle of persecution for conscience and forced conformity to your foolish forms canons creeds chatechisms dictates directories shall utterly perish from off the ear h. I wish the Independents for their turn 's next look to it in time and take heed of turning aside too much from that precious principle of depending upon no King but Christ in conscience cases neither state Councells nor Church councells nor Classes save onely for conscience to Christ to be subject freely in all meer civill cases to the one and for cognizance sake to consult in meer church and conscience cases with the other and whom else they please keeping Church and State as distinct as t is possible which the CCClergy have confounded so together that we have lost the true Peculiarities of either and as not suffering such sawcy doings as to have most general Assemblies of the Kirk quâ Church Assemblies to be tampering at all with state affairs so not troubling any officers of state qua State officers no not the highest nor Committees nor Sheriffs to wearinesse with representations of things pertaing purely to churches and church orderes expecting no more then a passive permissive influence from them to the church-ward i. e. to let all Churches and all religions Jewes themselves alone to their light till they see the true one so be they live faithfully under them and quietly peaceably and civilly one by another but me thinks I smell a mixt mongrel Independency too much on foot and creeping on an Indepency by the halves a Presbyterian Independency Independency too dependant in church work upon the state for state pay enquiring after parish maintenance telling some truth and taking as much tith as they can lay their hands on lending liberty to themselves to have no supper in the parishes when they please yet resolving to make the people pay for it so long as they preach whether they eat a bit of it at all yea or no A thing I cannot well tell what to call it that has a smack too much of Smectimnuus and yet t is not so tyrannical neither nor yet so tender towards a toleration of all consciences and Religions though of all tender conscienced Christians as that the poor Jew or natural Israelite can have any room or creep hole by it into the Common-wealth in order to his conversion he must keep out unlesse he be so converted before he come as to resolve heel own Christ and not speak against him as not the Christ which what power in any State under heaven can banish a Jew out of any nation for doing I plainly know not an Independency that is willing to let Israel go but not to let another Isâ—ael come into the Land so as to promulgate his principle which I'm sure is contrary to the principles of Christian Religion or if the Jew may deny Christ and yet live in the world in quiet why not another unlesse the word can gain him to the belief of it as well as he Independents a word or two with you by the way no hurt I hope if you will have but patience I find proposals presented Feb. 11. 1651. that make me amazâ—d to think that they should come from Independents for I took Independents till of late to be genuine Independents indeed but I see there 's nothing but may have something like it which is not the same and such is your Semi-demiindependency to me For supply of all parishes in England with Orthodox Ministers it s propounded that the Sheriff of each County give account to the Committee what parish hath no Minister â—hat maintenance each such parish hath what Ministers that reside in each County have no livings and such of them as are Orthodox be placed there as the â—ommittee shall think sit For settling right constituted Churches that all Churches that are or shall be gathered signifie to the Committee of the Vniversities or elsewhere whom they have or shall choose for their Pastors and that such and such onely shall be declared right constituted Churches whose Pastor shall be approved by the Committee to be able godly and orthodox Fye Fye Sirs that you will still have such a minglement of Sheriffs Committees Ministers Churches in a kind of Omnigatherum about the Gospell and your Churchwork and that you will trouble the Sheriffs to find what pay is in parishes what parishes want Ministers and what Ministers lack means if your Ministers lack meanes cannot they look aftâ—r it themselves and bestow themselves in some honest calling or other to get a living out on or if they cannot cannot your Churches see to them a little what they lack or do you lack to have the tithes and parish pay turned ore to you now as the Presbyters gaped after augmentations from the Bâ—shops Deans and chapters lands if you do I hope the State will save your longing as they did theirs and take them sheer away root and branch and let those Churches that have Ministers maintain them if they need and let the Gospel be preached freely by Messengers from Churches to the Gentiles to the world without charging them with it till converted to it for such you suppose the nation to be now as well as we and not a Church of Christ why else do you gather Churches of Christ out of it will you gather Churches of Christ out of Churches of Christ what rule have you for that surely Churches must be gathered out of the world and if so that the nation be no true constituted Church of Christ it s no true Church of Christ for Christ hath no falsely constituted true Churches that I know of and so her Ministers no true Ministers of Christ for Christs Ministers are not Ministers of no Church but such as came remotely as to their ordination and parish posture baptism and all from the Pope whom if you also look upon with such favourable construction as to own him and his ordinations and his baptism and administrations and what the Prelate and Presbyter sucks in a way of succession from thence as Apostolical so as to stand Ministers and baptized by it I shall think the world goes round then indeed and that whoever chances to get on horseback and sit in the Saddle here in England whether Prelate Presbyter or Independent they cannot chuse for customes sake but face about still and ride back at least a little way toward Rome or do you hold as some Presbyters do your ordination O Independents from the Magistrate if so he was ordained a minister of God in other cases but neither per se nor per alios to ordain and authorize Ministers for Christ Churches yet me thinks I sent you comming somewhat neer that when you propose onely that such shall be declared right constituted Churches whose Pastor shall be approved by
down to us again who shall descend into the deep to bring Christ to us from the dead who shall go beyond the Sea for us viz. Holland Germany c. and bring the word unto us that we may hear it and do it who shall go into Scotland and brings us a directory and platform of government from them You swear to reform after the example of the best reformed Churches but you mean of Europe not of Asia sure not the congregations you read of in the word but the Nations you dote on in the world viz. Scotland Holland Denmark Swethland Germany c. which all qua Nations excepting such in them as truly fear God and worship him answerably to his will are together with this till they be converted to the faith by the spiritual and the civil sword and then not in nonage baptized not sprinkled in the name of Christ with confession and for remission of sins and then walk in free not forced fellowship in breaking bâ—ead and prayers are as far in sano sensu from the denomination of true Churches and have as much need of reforming as our selves Indeed you talk of Church of Orthodoxnes and reformation as the thing much desired making them the Hereticks and Schismaticks that side not with you see Baxt. p. 151. We prayed for reformation and the progresse of the Gospel we fasted and mourned and cryed to God we waited and longed for it more then for any worldly possession indeed we overvalued it and had too sweet thoughts of it as if it had been our heaven and rest therefore t is just in God to suffer these men meaning the Anabaptists to destroy our hopes and if they root the Gospel quite out of England its just in God but yet we hope they shall be but our scourges and that God is but teaching us the evil of their Schisms c. But Sirs what is that hoped for reformation of yours the pure Gospel you Presbyters so much talk of which those that hinder and hold not with you in are all sentenced for Schismaticks ipso facto for my part I could never find what reformation more in ordinances discipline doctrine and government you Presbyterian Priesthood aimd at then establishment of the Scottish faith and the removal of the Bishops and their superstitious Clergy as they removed the Popish before out of place that themselves might reign as tyrannically in their steads the pulling down of red glass windows and placing of white the knocking down of Fonts and setting up Basons to Rantize in the forcing the fathers to say the same at the Font that the God-fathers did in old time the observation of your own directory instead of the old liturgy giving the supper to none at all for most riged Presbyters have denied that to their whole parishes this seven year instead of giving it promiscuously to all levelling the maintenance of the Nations ministry so that every one may have a competency of an 100d per annum and not some all some none as in old'n time and a few such trivial translations in which the Gospel is no more promoted reformation according to the primitive faith and baptism far lesse furthered then it would be if never a penny might more be paid to the Priests that preach for hire while the world stands such a reformation indeed you have generally overvalued therefore its justice in God to you and mercy to the whole land to suffer his people to prosper in their preachings of the truth to the utter destroying of your hopes which if they were not more after worldly possessions in many of you that settled your selves in 100ds per annum by the shift then after that which is truth indeed t will be the better for you another time but I testifie it to the faces of you that for all your prayings and fastings and mournings and cryings to God and waitings and longings for Reformation you are the fiercest opposers of the primitive practise under heaven T is true you CCClergy are some more reformed then some you differ each from other as Papal Prelatick Presbyterian facing each other a squint as the three corners in a Triangle falling out and contending bitterly with one another about your own false wayes yet canina utentes facundia concurring to bark altogether against the true yea even you Protestant Priests yea you Presbyters that pretend more strictly and peculiarly to the title of Preachers and Presbyters of the truth and more serious searchers after it in prayer and supplication are together with the flat Popish Priests grosse hiders of the truth as it is in Jesus for the revealing of which to your selves you seem and that sometimes with fasting earnestly to pray to God and for the revealing of which to them in preaching you seem and that sometimes Iure divino to take pay from men You cry mightily indeed after knowledge and lift up your voices for understanding saying Lord direct us more and more into the way of truth for we are blind and ignorant and in the dark neither know we what to do but our eyes are to thee give us pure ordinances shew us the right way c. but if in any of your publique places never so soon after your prayers the Lord stirre up the spirits of any of the messengers of his Churches that go forth in power and plainness of speech to make offer of any question or further information you are so far from that candor which the Rulers of the Jewish Synagogues used in this case Act. 13. and from saying men and brethren if you have any word of exhortation to the people say on that you rather rate them as dogs out of doors with what make you here to disturb us we must have an order taken with you to make you hold your peace and such like rough repulses as 100ds of people know are used by more then one of you Querists after truth and yet you tell us of running into corners as refusing and unwilling to be be openly examined and tell your people that veritas non quaerit Angulos see Featley p. 167 and that we creep into houses as if we were ashamed to come out into your publique assemblies though we tell you ore and ore again that as t is more for want of your leave then our love so to do that we do not tell the truth there before your faces so our meetings when in private houses are more publique then yours when in publique places by how much where ere we are and what ere we say we submit not onely to your accesse but your exception also as you though in publique do not to ours You professe your selves desirous to have all things come to light before all that all things may be proved by your people and indeed though he that doth evil hateth the light neither â—ometh to the light lest his deeds should be reproved John 3.21.22 yet he that doth truth cometh to
the light that his deeds might be made manifest that they are wrought in God yet the means and courses by which truth should be tryed which are plain and not puzzling discourses upon the Scripture you smother by all the means and courses you can conveniently devise as for any entire discourses of such as are contrary minded to you though teachers of truth as t is in the word these you cannot away with at any hand nor permit to be used in publique before the people while you have any powar to shut your pulpit doors upon them you bid your people now or then prove all things that they may find out which is good and shun the evil but by your good-evil will they shall hear no more then what you tell them and chuse whether they 'l take that for truth or nothing you bid them cut where they like and yet you 'l be their carvers and force them to feed upon what you offer them or fast and welcome for no more messes must be meddled with though they have never such a mind to cut and try then what is of your dressing that oft is no more then some sugar sopt sententious Academical bespangled hide bound glasse measured spirit stinting stuff which may challenge the name of duncery baldnesse babling and prating more then that sincere milk of the word you commonly call so which hour of divinity when you have bookt down and cond with no little care is many times but Sed and someâ—imes but Red ore when all 's done neither yet oft times you crow couragiously upon your own dunghil you pay it soundly in your own pulpits with convincing and opposing the approach of heresies and argue so substantially against them that you carry the cause and win all but t is because you play there by your selves for if any chance to hear you that hath never so much wherewith to undeceive your deluded people yet they may not receive his interrupted reply to never so little when you in the first place have pleaded your cause the next thing to be done is for all them that hear and have ought against you to hold their peace they must not andere audire alteram partem least they be infected though wise men know there is no other way to be perfected in the knowledge of the truth and freed from that hobnob implicit faith which is wrongly acted when rightly objected then by hearing all that is to be said against it as well as for it yea the heathen herein may be thy Tutor O PPPriest Qui statuit aliquid c. You cry out they are not Orthodox that oppose you and so forbid all audience of them to your people whom you feed with a word and a blow a bit and a knock lest if they be not as well corrected into a refusal of all direction from others as directed by your selues they quickly discern difference between you and them yet you would fain be counted free and forward that all should have liberty according to their duty to try all but the niggard shall never be called liberall nor the churl said to be bountiful for me for he deviseth not the liberal things whereby the liberal shall stand yea the instruments of the churl are evil and he deviseth wicked devices to destry the poor with lying words when the needy spoaketh right things yea his heart works iniquity to practise hypocrisie and to utter error befor the Lord to make empty the soul of the hungry and to cause the drink of the thirsty to fail Isa. 32.5.6.7.8 As for pro and con discourse or disputation you smother that likewise with all your might for as you desire no more of it then needs must so you decline it what you can and disclaim it too as far as you dare for shame be seen in such a service as disputing against disputing is declaiming against it as a dismal thing of some dangerous consequence poison means of infection contentionem scabiem and such like being sensible of your sores you come not to the stake to be questioned in your waies before your blind admirers but when you cannot with credit considering your over shooting your selves sometimes in hasty challenges make a cleanly come off without it though it be to meet with those that are inferiour to your selves save that the Lord is with them for surely you see somewhat further then a mole into a milstone that things are no better with you then they should be why else should there be such loathnesse like that of the Elephant that 's loath to drink in fair waters for fear of seeing a foul face to come to the light as we find there is in the most of you as well as in Dr. Gouge who would at no hand vouchsafe any publique discussion of inâ—ant-sprinkling whether it were of God or man nec per se ne per synodum in his parish with Dr. Chamberlain yet sometimes Euphoniae gratia for reports sake you make some pretty put offs in publike and put on tooth and nail for disputation but alas you curtail it into so narrow a compasse as namely half a day two hours or some odd end of an after-noon when two dayes is too little two weeks scarce enough two years not too much to discusse the truth in witnesse not onely Iude who bids the Saints of the last times saving Tertullian and Sir Henry Wottons dislike out contend for the faith once delivered to the Saints and Paul who for 2 years space disputed dayly in the School of one Tyrannus not such a Tyrant to the truth as you are it seems for if he had he would have admitted not a word out you confine it I say into such a corner of time that as Pilate askt what 's truth and when he had so said went his way without an answer so you hast to have an end not hearing half the half quarter that is to be said in opposition to your own opinions about that question And during that little while the busines lasts you carry all as much as you can above the reach and beyond the capacity of plain minded men and women that come together for resolution in Scholastick terms and conclave it from their cognizance under the lock and key of your Linsey wolsey Logick which is neither fine enough for the University from which you have a while discontinued nor home-spun enough for the Country which muddy way of mood and figure is neither suitable to the simplicity and plainess of speech in which the Gospel ought to be declared and discussed nor reasonable to reason in with Russet Rabbies that are otherwise reasonable enough to give you such reasons of their faith and practise as you can never rationally resist nor is it much more profitable to our honest hearted people then if you spake wilde Irish. And when you have done then you smother and cloud over all that was more plainly and punctually