preaching against the true Christ preaching against the Scribes and Pharisees and they affirming him to be a deceiver And I dare maintain that what they preach contrary to what we preach in publick if they do to be contrary to sound doctrine Object You say you do nothing but what is good you set open the great doors and little doors not caring who sees who heareth you Answ 1. Admit that what is preached is good yet it is not well done good things should be well done according to rule and order 2. The Tree is known by the fruits and by your such Meetings we see the publick Ordinances slighted neglected contemned 3. I cannot accuse what is delivered in your Meetings but if it is contrary to what we preach in publick it is not good doctrine And let me tell you that John of Leyden infused his dangerous opinions in private Meetings and how our Mr. Thrask in publick preached sound truths but in his private Meetings he did indoctrinate his followers with his pernicious principles Object They who preach to us in private Meetings are pious men the other are profane vicious scandalous Answ 1. If this be true that some of us are such we are sorry for it yea such we will not justifie and when was it otherwise nor is all done by the other justifiable 2. There are more sins than swearing and drunkenness who can forget the swarms of sins in our late Tragedies and who were actors of many of them in it 3. For the present Are not despising of Authority disobedience Cobler of Gloc. to wholsom Laws sins from which are these men free 4. Blessed be God although we all are proclaimed to be profane and naught yet there are very many as free from idleness drunkenness swearing and such like vices and as painful pious charitable and inoffensive as the strictest in your commanded company 5. But to be plain with you All professions whilst kept under it is their interest to be orderly but when these men of late had their liberty we are able to prove the profane excesses of some of them even to publick scandal by Epicurism intemperance and uncleanness to say no more For my part I cannot think but that the respect such who are in Authority bear to themselves their care to have their Laws and Religion upholden their obedient Clergy not vilified and people kept from Atheism and rebellion will awaken them in time strictly and by severity to do that which their clemency will not do You cry out much against Popery yet your doings endeavour to bring it in and set it up it is a Jesuitical plot to sow division amongst us to make our Religion odious and that they may fish in troubled waters From a good Author I will tell you a story which is this Before our troubles one Meridith an ancient Dr. Nicols and learned Jesuit told one reconciled to the Church of Rome that in England they had been long and industrious about the work of conversion but it went on slowly and so would do until they took a wiser course Two things there were that must be done before they should bring their business to a full effect they must first find a way to remove the Bishops and Ministers in whose rooms they must bring it so about that all should have liberty to preach Then secondly they must get down the Common-prayer-Book and suffer every man to use what prayer he list And we cannot but remember how far they effected this in our sad troubles Besides if you expect such priviledge why may not they expect the same They being Christians they being subjects they and some of you being Recusants why not they their Mass as well as you your Meetings Object Why Those you hear in your Meetings have rare gifts they are pious and precious men Answ I envy no mans gifts but bless God for other mens parts and piety 2. Comparisons are odious otherwise we could say as St. Paul of the false Apostles in his time Are they thus and so so are we 3. The forbidden fruit without doubt was excellent yet it had been good for our first Parents to have contented themselves with their allowed Trees and fruits Many mens Wives and Diet come short of other mens yet it is fit their own should content them 4. Blessed be God your allowance is large you may hear every week three Sermons in an approved way and none of them to be contemned And as for Popish Priests do you not think theâ— will say for their Priests and Jesuits the same that you do for your Preachers you say yours are rarely gifted men great Scholars pious painful and what you will more They will not conform to the Book of Common-prayer nor observe the Orders appointed by the Church of England they will not assent and consent They can and will say the same of theirs If you say yours will take no Livings they can say the same and add not Wives neither If you say that yours live by providence going about to do good they can say theirs have no setled abiding but are sometimes here and there to promote and spread the Catholick cause and are maintained by the peoples bounty We acknowledge that we and Papists are Christians agreeing in many things for we and they acknowledge unity in Trinity but we with them acknowledge no Queen of heaven to pray unto We and they acknowledge the Scriptures to be the Word of God but we with them make not the Apocrypha Canonical We with them make the Word of God the ground of faith but we with them make not unwritten traditions of equal authority We and they agree in admitting doctrinal traditions agreeing with Scripture or thence deduced yea ritual for order and decency left to the disposition of the Church although but of positive and humane right they not being childish nor accounted parts of God's Worship nor with opinion of merit nor burdensom for multitude But we with them believe not traditions obtruded as Articles of Religion grounds of faith and parts of God's Worship they not being deduced from Scripture by inference nor expresly commanded such we reject We and they receive and believe the three Creeds but we with them receive not the Creed of Trent We and they believe the true God is to be worshipped in Spirit and truth we with them believe not that he is to be worshipped by Images We and they believe that we are to pray with fervency and sincerity but we with them pray not in an unknown tongue We and they pray to God but we with them do not pray to Saints and Angels We and they acknowledge Christ to be our Mediator of redemption and intercession but we with them do not at all rely upon the intercession and merits of Saints and Angels We and they do honour Saints departed but we with them do not worship them We and they do urge to good works we as necessary
4. That they may be ashamed And (3) 2 Cor. 10. 8. 1 Cor. 5. 6. 1 Tim. 5. 20. to bring them to repentance So in regard of the Church that it may appear she maintains no vile persons that other members may be free from infection and that others may fear In Rom. 16. 12. there is a double duty commanded To mark To avoid The parties to be avoided are described from the effects Divisions and Offences they who cause these are to be marked avoided The rule to which they are contrary the doctrine they had heard namely of Salvation of Christ which they had learned in that Epistle or their first Converters False teachers then are to be marked so that we be not deceived by them they causing Divisions and Offences A watchful eye is to be upon all such Mat. 7. 14 15. Phil. 3. 2. who by their opinions or life cause divisions contrary to the doctrine of salvation Divisions and Scandals striking at the â—eart of Religion and of the Church The Apostles reasons to avoid such are The one Negative q. d. you think they serve Christ but they do not not submitting to his will not seeking to please him in all things The other Affirmative they serve their own bellies themselves their own turns their profit ease maintenance vain glory ambition carnal affections they aiming at their own gain and credit and not the glory of God Object We think they are good and honest men and their wayes good they being so successful they multiplying so much Answ 1. For their goodness and honesty I will give you Mr. Hodges answers in a Sermon upon 2 Pet. 2. 2. before the House of Commons March 10. 1646. You hear saith he what the Apostle sayes That many have a form and yet deny the power of godliness 2 Tim. 3. 5. The Wolf in the Fable that he might not be suspected but the more easily make his prey of the silly sheep put on a skin of theirs c. 2. Why saith he should you think to say he is an honest Pag. 58. or a pious man should be a foolish plea in case of abusing coyn theft treason or the like and yet should be of weight and force in this far greater business and more horrid mischief 2. For their increasing it is no argument of goodness 1. The Arrians did so overspread the Church that it was Miratur mundus se factum esse Arianum St. Hierom. a saying Athanasius against the World namely of Christians and the World against Athanasius 2. Popery did spread so fast and far that Papists triumphingly said and do Where was your Church before Luther and they make universality a note of the Church 3. Mahumetanism is so spread not only over the Turks dominions See Mr. Fox tom 2. p. 993. See Breerwoods Enquiry of Languages and Religions which are large and many in Europe Asia and Africk but in other Kingdoms and Countreys which are not under the Turk it having spread over Persia India China Tartaria c. Mahomet arose about six hundred years after Christ yet he hath bewitched so great a part of the World although his Alcaron contains such absurdities which are rather to be laught at then named Object But what need you to trouble us with such like things we being free from the one and the other Answ We living where and when errors do abound for we cannot all be in the truth holding contraries it is very necessary 1. Mr. Paget names about 143. errors and heresies which lately sprung up and shewed themselves not naming the Quakers of whom there was no notice when he did write that Book Among this swarm he names Papists praying in an unknown tongue holding Transubstantiation Purgatory c. Familists blasphemously affirming they are Godified with God Anabaptists affirming Baptism to be the mark of the Beast from Antichrist Antinomians teaching no Law no sorrow such an easie way to heaven that many follow them concerning whom Mr. Baxter saith I do not sit down in Pref. to Inf. Chur. memb an Antinomian conceit that I have nothing to do but express my joy and thankfulness Independents pretending to have a model of Government revealed to them better than all reformed Churches Sabbatarians affirming the Jewish Sabbath is to be kept Anti-Sabbatarians teaching there is no Sabbath every day being a Sabbath to Christians Thraskites observing many Jewish Ceremonies Millenaries believing that Christ shall reign a thousand years on the earth Socinians teaching that Christ did not satisfie for sins Arrians denying Christ's Deity Soul-sleepers Divorcers and others He dedicates his Book to the Lord Major and some chief Citizens of London He tells them that he had lived almost fifty years amongst them He commends their care against the infection of the Plague he minds them that the plague of Heresie is greater he shews how Antioch was consumed being a Nursery of Hereticks how Nicomedia a meeting place for Arrians was swallowed up how the Anabaptists meeting in Conventicles surprized Munster and how hardly Amsterdam escaped them Then he gives from Mr. Calvin he from St. Augustine notes of them They are great boasters of their own worth and actions as Simon Magus and the Gnâ—sticks They are blown up with pride which drives some to Rome some to Amsterdâ—m They are deceitful slanderers Separatists in this equalling the Jesuits They are treacherously seditious not preaching peace but division They have a shew of austerity and holiness Then he shews the end of his writing to be to give warning to well-meaning people to avoid errors fore-warning them to this end to beware of private Conventicles and to keep close to the Ministry of the Word and Communion of Saints in the Church 2. Mr. Baxter saith there are Devils abroad in the shape of Angels of light and Wolves within as sheep without 3. Mr. Vines in his fast Sermon before the House of Commons March 10. 1646. saith Are not the errors which are â—ife amongst us either by infecting persons of place and quality grown into that boldness or by carrying away Barnabas also crept into that credit or by spreading far and wide risen to that strength that they do face if not seem able to put into danger of routing our common saith publick worship authorized Ministry long and much expected promised reformation This to the common enemy is the Cape of good Hope the sound part are afraid lest the truth should come to beg for poor quarter and be led captive following the chariot of triumphing liberty 4. Mr. Hodges in his fast Seâ—mon at the same time and place saith How sad a sight is it to behold the spreading of this infection the shoals that being perverted follow these pernicious wayes to see how fast these tares thrive this leaven spreads this gangrene frets The Kingdom looks like a lazar house or field fought in many places by reason of this how many are there of all ages insnared by them The
worth or respect we have to any man but to search and see that they have a sound bottoming from the Word So we are not to wonder why the best of God's messengers cannot take men off from their unwarranted opinions The Jews retain their opinion that neither Elijah nor Christ are come The Papists retain their opinions and will die in their errors rather than embrace the truth It will be no strange thing then if I endeavouring to I neither do nor can remove you from your erroneous practises 1. In vilifying not coming to but absenting your selves from the publick prayers of the Church no not by Scriptures the testimony of holy Martyrs the hatred Papists bear to it the strictness of the Law under which we live the excellency and usefulness of it nor by the approbation the Reformed Churches give of it of all which I have made use but in vain 2. In not baptizing your children or baptizing them in an illegal and irregular way although I think I have shewed sufficient grounds and authorities and Mr. Baxters opinion which is That they who deny baptism to their children play the devils part yea do herein heinously exceed the Devil Some who admire the man will be his Interpreter saying his meaning is If they may have them baptized in his way and then will not but refuse Read his Book of Infant Church-membership through and through and you shall find no such limitting to this way or that he acknowledgeth ours to be true baptism valid and not to be reiterated And whereas some who think they know more than they do say It is the duty of parents to have their children baptized although it doth children no good such sensless silly speeches shew that some folks bolts are soon shot It is a duty and yet doth it no good Do Scriptures so highly Act. 23. 8. Rom. 6. 4. Tit. 3. 4. commend Baptism as we read and doth it no good Is it no good to be a member of Christ's Church but to be in the same condition with Turks and Pagans 3. In not coming to the Communion of which I have spoken often and at large but I see you are resolved notwithstanding I will intreat you to take notice that if your practises are erroneous as they are 1. That to be obstinate in an error is dangerous for mans salvation The ugliness of obstinacy in error doth appear from the Author of it who Mat. 5. 19. Mat. 13. 25. is not God but the Devil so obstinate errors diabolical and naturally it produceth Heresie or Schism and is such that St. Paul wished to be cut of A mutinous Soldier is Gal 5. 12. hanged when an open enemy hath fair quarter Consider also that errors in the end bring terrors such making men like children hulk on the Sea without rudder for in such a condition are such who flote on groundless errors yea errors Eph. 4. 14. make men as bones out of joint which cost groans to bring them in place again Alas what is a traveller in the night out of the way how is he troubled A Rebel out of the Kings favour how is he perplexed erroneous persons are Travellers out of the way and as Rebels out of favour Object You are deceived Papists Anabaptists Quakers we and other more you think do err are not troubled we fear not we suffer for our consciences Answ Admit some live and die confident in gross errors never fearing harms to follow So some run into the fire fearlesly and rush upon dangers desperately but they are frantick or foolish not wise and well-guided persons And that we may not err take heed of pride which provokes men to errors and factions Take heed of prejudice against any thing causelesly Take heed of covetousness Act. 8. 9. Act. 19. 32 Tit. 1. 11. truths adversary for some subvert houses for lucre sake gain perswades many to maintain errors that errors may maintain them And be we careful to this end constantly to believe what is taught you by the Scripture and conscionably to obey what is commanded you by the Church provâ—ded it be not contrary to Scripture Be careful to fasten our faith upon Scripture If Scripture saith it I will believe Gal. 1. 8. it To fasten our charity upon our Mother the Church and her directions and see that we our selves be humble for whereas many object all alledge Scripture we confess it to Mat. 4. be so The Devil himself did so yet it is certain if we will read the Scriptures carefully and faithfully hear the Church charitably and esteem of our selves modestly we shall understand Scriptures sufficiently to keep us from error Once again let me intreat you brethren not to err with any Master Some think they may safely do this or that because of such whom they follow To them I say as St. Aâ—gustine of Cyprian Although there are many things that Cyprian did excellently teach yet there are some things wherein Cyprian might have learned more than he knew So say I of some men such shall be my friends I love them well for the good service they may do but I must and do love the truth better since a wise man will not alter an ancient truth for the love he bears to the Author of any novelty Gal. 1. 8. and a good man dare not For although men are wonderfully pleased with their own conceits and their opinions must be the great Monarch to rule even the Monarchs of the world although they suppress truth to advance falshoods yet they are but like a cumbersom heap of sands a congested heap of groundless opinions good for nothing not worth any thing only fit to deceive here and to destroy hereafter a fruitlesâ— heap bearing no other fruit than to abuse our neighbour dishonour God and betray mens souls to Satan a disagreeing heap not fast joyned together Errors and falshoods may for a time be patch'd together like a beggars cloak but they continue not long united and an inconsistent heap for they who embrace errors are not long constant but run from one absurdity to another Let me therefore acquaint you how some have drawn and do draw well-meaning people into error being stirred thereunto 1. Sometimes by covetousness Paulus Samosetanus expecting preferment from the Queen of Arabia fell into such Schisms which in the end wrought his own overthrow Some men finding it an easie thing to live at another mans Table although so doing is base to a generous mind speak often things to maintain and please a faction Tit. 1. 11. Sometimes by ambition which hath often caused contention and separation because Arrius could not get the Bishopwrick of Alexandâ—ia Donatus of Carthage Aerius of Ponts they became enemies to the Church 3. Sometimes by intollerable pride working contempt of Authority the contempt of which causeth separation and mens self-love is the cause of this contempt Self-love as Lib. 14. cap. 18. decivitat Dei