of them and yet men cry them up for the Ordinances of Jesus Christ the Spirit of the Lord arises up in indignation against them as they are so abused If you say where are those gifts of singing which are spoken off there 's no such thing to be found I Answer you They are not to be found with you you are the Land of Captivity you are Babylon we may sit down by the Rivers of Babylon weeping in remembrance of Zion while we are held captive by you for how should any sing the Lords songs in a strange Land The shadowes are not yet fled away the winter is not yet over and gone and therefore we cannot say to you that the time of singing is come we cannot tell you that the voice of the Turtle is to be heard in your Land It may be it is heard somewhere though you hear it not Lastly you have that among some of you which you call Communion But where that Communion lies I cannot tell If it were Communion with God and Christ then the Nature of God and Christ which they have communion with at that Supper as you call it though it be a dinner would put forth it self in the partakers of it They would walk as children of light and not as children of darkness in the works of darkness If any man say he hath fellowship or Communion with God and walk in darkness he lies and doth not the Truth 1 Joh. 1.6 But your Communion shewes forth no such thing accompanying it For men come to it proud and they go away proud They come covetous and they go away covetous They come persecutors and they go away persecutors They come worldly minded ones and they go away worldly minded Now they who are such know neither the the Father nor the Son nor have Communion or fellowship with them Yea it may be they come Extortioners Oppressors hard hearted task masters of Egypt liars cheaters Over-reachers defrauders drunkards swearers whore-mongers full of malice and revenge and such like Thus they come and thus they go as they came having no participation or Communion of the Divine nature in their Spirits to alter them But thus come and go in their sinfull nature having Communion with the spirit of darkness and unrighteousness while they pretend Communion with God and thus go on eating and drinking unworthily they know not what and you suffer them to do so and do it with them eating and drinking judgement to your selves while you thus take the Name of God and Christ in vain 1 Cor. 11.29 This is not to eat the Lords Supper This is not to eat the flesh of Christ and drink his blood for then would ye become dead to this world with him and Christ would live again in you Take notice of the words which Paul the servant of the Lord spake 1 Cor. 10.16 The Cup of Blessing which we bless is it not the Communion of the blood of Christ The bread which we break is it not the Communion of the Body of Christ Now the right Communicants are one bread and one Body being all made partakers of that one bread vers 17. which bread is Christ But ye cannot be partakers of this bread nor have Communion with it so long as you are in your Gentilisme or heathenish Nature living in Pride Covetousness Persecution oppressing over-reaching uncleanness lies and such like For saith Paul v. 21. Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of Devils ye cannot be partakers of the Lords Table and of the table of devils Now the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to Devils and not to God vers 20. Gentiles are every one in their Gentilising nature and what ever they sacrifice that is what ever worship they offer in pretence as to God it is to Devils and not to God Though they say it is to God as the Athenians did Act. 17.23 Yet God ownes it not such as worship him in Spirit and in Truth those are they whom he seekes to worship him As for those who walk in the works of darkness he hath not Communion with them nor they with him For what Communion hath light with darkness 2 Cor. 6.14 Further you have not so much as Communion one with another in that which you call Communion for which of you imparts to the rest of the Communicants as every one hath need You are so far from Community in these outward things that you will go to Law for your propriety one with another if you apprehend your selves but a little wronged therein contrary to the minde and counsell of Christ Mat. 5.40 Thus it is apparent for all your boasting of the Ordinances of Christ I say it is apparent that you have but a counterfeit image of the form of some of them and not the very true image of those which you have If you had the very expresse image of all the outward forms of Ordinances of Christ or practises of the Apostles and Beleevers yet these were poor things to boast of and to be exalted with Laodicean-like for if you had all these in form nearer then they are among any people in this Nation yet if your spirits fall downwards and become earthly the Lord would leave them and slip away from you to another people who arise in their spirits casting off every weight and the sins which beset them or hinder them that they might run with patience the race set before them Yea let me tell you that if you had not onely a true image and form of Ordinances but also a form of godliness in words and sayings of Christ and the Apostles alwayes in your mouthes Yet all this could not binde or hold the Lord with you But still he would slip away from under all these leaving these as huskes and chaffe for you who are disobedient and earthly to feed upon and boast your selves in while in the mean time another people should enjoy his presence for it is not any form of godliness that the Lord takes pleasure in but the Power the Truth the life the spirit And therefore he doth not binde us his servants to abide in Communion with any that live in any form of godliness without the Power But commands us by his Apostle to turn away from such 2 Tim. 3.5 And this is no unwarrantable Schisme or separation So that whether we look at the form of Ordinances or at the Power of godliness we have warrant enough to turn away from you and to have no fellowship in your holy things For as I said you have but an image of some Ordinances onely and that without the life and Power of them Others traditions of Christ you do altogether disown for they will not stand with your profit as namely to deny your selves to take up his Crosse daily and follow Christ which is a great Ordinance of Christ for without this one cannot be his Disciple Again you disown the liberty which Christ hath
A Word of Reproof TO THE PRIESTS OR MINISTERS WHO Boast of their Ministery and Ordinances and yet live in Pride Disdain Persecution c. SHEVVING What such are and how little cause they have to exclaim against those who separate from them AS ALSO A word to the Papists Discovering their Foundation to be carnal and sandie In a LETTER sent to some supposed Priests or Jesuits in the North BY WILLIAM TOMLINSON In the Cup wherein she hath filled to you fill to her double London Printed for Tho. Wayte and are to be sold at the Pavement in York 1653. A word of Reproof to the Priests or Ministers who boast of their Ministery and Ordinances and yet live in Pride disdain persecution c. O Ye Priests * I do not call you Priests out of derision I love not that though some must deride you But because most of you were ordained to your office under that very name and few or none of you have renounced that your Ordination Secondly because you conform yourselves more to the Priests under the Law then to the Ministers of the Gospel The truth is ye are not worthy of that name for it is a name peculiar to the Saints onely and to all the Saints under the ministration of the Gospel 1 Pet. 2.5 9. Revel 1.6 you call your selves the Ministers of Jesus Christ when as you do nothing resemble him You have nothing to bear you out to be so but onely great swelling words As the Jews once gloried in the Temple when the Lord was departed out of it crying The Temple of the Lord The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord as if those great words had been argument enough to bear it out to be the Temple of the Lord when he had left it So you cry the Ministers of the Lord the Ministers of Lord the Ministers of Christ the Ministers of Christ the Ministers of the Gospel the Ministers of the Gospel as if those great words were enough to prove you to be so when as the Lord is departed from you and your Ministery and leaves it to become as the blood of a dead man Revel 16.3 In which no life is to be found but death and stifeling of the Spirit For that holy unction which moves upon the hearts of the Babes of Christ and weaklings in stead of being strengthened is among you strangled and rendred as delusion and fancie and a thing which they must not trust to though this testimony be given of it from above That it is Truth and is no lie and is the onely preservative against seducing and the guide or Teacher that keepes us abiding in Christ 1 Joh. 2.26.27 For that Unction is Christ moving in us and as he is according to that obeyed and yielded to so he abides with us and we abide in him By that he leads on from truth to truth and so from strength to strength from comfort to comfort from light to light untill he lead into clearness and fulness and present us perfect before God and the Father without spot and blemish before his Throne Yet dare you blaspheme this holy Spirit which is no other but Christ himselfe in flesh which you deny fighting against him in every appearance of his in flesh and thereby manifestly declare your selves to be Antichrist and not the Ministers of Jesus Christ as you proudly boast your selves to be He is Antichrist that denies the Father and the Son 1 Joh. 2.22 He that denies the Son denies the Father also for they two are one And he that denies the Spirit or Unction that moves upon the hearts of Christs Schollars and fights against it when he would come and appear in flesh he denies both the Father and the Son for these three are one 1 Joh. 4.3 Every Spirit that confesses not Jesus Christ come in flesh is not of God and this is that Spirit of Antichrist whereof you have heard that it should come and even now already is it in the world I say every Spirit that confesses not Christ come in the flesh for so the words are more truely rendred as some of you know And so rendred they hold forth a constant Character or mark of that Spirit of Antichrist It doth not confess Christ come that is when he comes or appears in flesh or in his servants To say as it is translated in the English every Spirit that confesses not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh To say thus is not a full Character of Antichrist For the Papists themselves and the Pope whom you all say is Antichrist He doth not deny but that Jesus Christ is come that is once came in flesh Therefore in that sence it discovers not Antichrist But both He and They and You do all deny and fight against Christ come in flesh of his servants that is when he comes and appears in them Therefore in the same sence wherein it discovers him I mean the Pope to be Antichrist in the same it discovers you also to be Antichrist For as he fights against the Appearances of the Lord and confesses not Christ in those commings of his in flesh whereby he leads his people out of his mystery so no more do you confess Christ in those commings of his in flesh now whereby he would lead his people out from under your mystery So that I say the Spirit of Antichrist manifests it self in you and yet are you bold to cry up your selves The Ministers of Christ The Ministers of the Gospel as if you were able by these words to strike dead all Reasons to the contrary You do wisely in your generation to keep you there and so to fear and dazle the minds of men with those great words keeping them off as far as you can from reasoning about it making them by your great words of Gospel Ministers and I know not what to fear even to question whether you be so or not Oh ye Opposers will you always strive against the Truth how many of you who stand in the publique Ministery as you call it have been leaders of the People out of Error How many of you have lighted the People by your examples to forsake and renounce the world and the things thereof yea I may say The Relliques of the Romish trash that Idol service Book and all the trumpery of it Nay have not the People therein rather taught you are they first in the obedience do not you stick to it untill the stream of the People shame you from it and the fear of loosing of your livings as you call them make you to part with it Is it not thus with you also in other appearances of Christ when he comes in flesh in weakness in his servants to consume the mystery of iniquity do you not stand out striving and opposing untill the last If you can espie failings and weaknesses in that weak flesh in which Christ comes those you use as instruments to fight withall against
up a golden image and cast those that would not worship it into a fiery furnace Did ever Truth stand in need of Prisons to make men fall down to it Did ever any thing in that kinde need prison or furnace to make another thing stoop to it except onely Idols Did ever Christ or any of his Apostles call to Magistrates and Constables and other Officers to take others away to prison who interrupted them or needed they any other thing to keep men silent while they spake besides the Authority and Power of their words Surely if you be their successors as you would have men beleeve and if your Preaching be like theirs you would not need any other thing to make men silent but the power of your words But it s an Idol and so needeth iron to uphold and defend it and to fasten it as it were in a wall lest it fall It may be some will say Hath not God converted souls by this manner of Preaching in Pulpits I answer if any were thereby converted it was by some words of Truth falling upon the hearts of the hearers which might have had the same effect in other manner of speaking and therefore the converson of such is not to be ascribed to that Idolized manner of Preaching Sermons in Pulpits but to the Power of Truth which ought to have liberty to be spoken in other manner but cannot for that Idol I do willingly give my Testimony that the times of ignorance God winked at and was pleased to step in and give much power sometimes to the words of some who have spoken in that way especially to such as have been under some suffering for not being fully conformable Yea Babylon it self cannot keep him out but for his chosen sake he will speak to them there even in the midst of confusion But what then now when light is breaking out and discovering things more clearly He cals upon all men to repent and forsake the Error of their doings and he that doth not follow the light shall have nothing left him to uphold but an Idol For God is departing out of that which is not his own purely and will leave it dead and dry without life without nourishment Yea he hath already withdrawn himself and where formerly some life hath been found now it is become as the blood of a dead man Again if your manner of Preaching be not an Image an Idol of your own or other mens imaginations but the pure off-spring of the Spirit then tell us how it comes to pass that you can limit that holy Spirit now by the hour doth the Spirit Order you and administer words and matter to you by the hour or you Order him and keep him to your hour O vain men is it not the Idol of your own heads the formings of your own brain your woven and carved Oration-like speeches that you have this power over to reach to what length you would have them and to stop where you would have them They who have tasted of the Spirits ministring by them can witness that they then could not be stretched out to the hour or limitted by the hour Again is not your Preaching an Idol when as you uphold it onely for Gain It s from your own mouthes Take away livings say you that is tithes and other hire and what will become of the Gospel that is of your Gospel Oh ye earthly spirited men doth the care of the Gospel lie onely upon the shoulders of Hirelings Surely surely the time was when as the truth of the Gospel was upheld by suffering the loss of all things and is it now upheld by hire It was upheld and also spread abroad by a few sufferers but now it seems its otherwise No hire no Gospel no Livings no Preaching I think so indeed Such is your care of the Gospel You are worthy to be called Gospel Preachers and Gospel Ministers and yet the want of hire will divide between you and your Gospel Take away the one and take away the other also for so you speak plain out and are not ashamed Wo is us hath God committed his Gospel to such careless ones hath he hung it upon so tickle a point and in these times when men are ready every where to withdraw their stipends but onely that they are held to it by awe No no your Gospel and your Preaching is your Diana an Idol a gainful Idol and by that craft you have your gain If you should let the magnificence of it fall to the ground your gain were lost And therefore it behoves you to cry it up as the Ephesians did their Diana Act. 19.24 25 26 27 28. Cry it up with a shout and noise of words with staves and clubs and Constables and Bayliffes and sines and Prisons for this will be your best Argument Tell the People ingeniously as Demetrius did That by this craft or Art you have your wealth and therefore it behoves you to uphold it Not that you care for the Gospel any further then it s made a gainful trade and upheld by you as an Idol to bring in your gain for take away gain and farewell your Gospel and Preaching all dies with hire if that be taken away Much more may be said to your Preaching but I pass on to your singing You have Psalms indeed but how come you by them In the Primitive Church that is in the first gathering of Saints out of the world into fellowships one with another by the Apostles they had Psalms 1 Cor. 14.26 One had a Psalm another a Revelation another an interpretation They had all these and such like gifts given them by the Spirit which ministered to every one severally as he pleased 1 Cor. 12.11 But whence have you your Psalms Doth the Spirit of the Lord minister them to you Or do not you because you want that gift set up a Clark or reader in many of your Congregations to supply the want of that gift as if he were the ministring spirit to minister a Psalm to all the Congregation what is this pure fire from the Altar or strange fire like Nadabs and Abihu's taken from the Kitchin of your smoakie imaginations Or else you have your Psalms from your Books and so all times are alike to you you can sing when you will and forbear when you will which would not be if the spirit which breathes when and where he listeth did administer them to you for he would rule you and not you him Did not Christ ascend on high and give gifts to men for the work of his ministery But you descend to make use of the invented Rimes and Metters of men to make up with your ministery I know and witness that sincerity of heart expressing and breathing forth it self in these things in the time of ignorance hath been accepted and cherished by the Lord but now when light is come to discover them to be of humane invention in respect of the form and use
now are the Seperatist the Shismaticks the Hereticks in Scripture account making a rent and Schisme from Christ are not they the further off from Schisme and Heresie who obey Christ herein and come out of Babylon though they be but a few in comparison of the rest for they follow him herein who is the knot of union and so herein cannot be the Schismaticks and Hereticks and Separatists and Sectarists which the Scripture condemnes For their separation from the confusion and them that dwell therein is not a separation from Christ nor from truth being stricktly commanded and pressed both by promise and threatening Rev. 18. Come out of her my people that ye be not partakers of her sins and that ye receive not of her plagues And again 2 Cor. 6.17 Wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate saith the Lord and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you and will be a Father unto you and ye shall be my sons and daughters saith the Lord Almighty I say comming out from your Humane inventions and from all other inventions of man though never so finely guilded is here commanded being comprehended under the word Babylon I know that you will put off from your selves the word Babylon and apply it to Rome and they at Rome will apply it to something else for it is not to be expected that the Merchants of Babylon should confesse against themselves that they are so lest people should buy their Merchandize no more Tell us what is Babylon outward if it be not a building or frame of Humane inventions whose top pretends to reach to Heaven as the Tower of Babel was intended to do and so promises to set People in thither If it be any other thing tell us what it is Now you either trade in these Humane inventions or you trade with the pure Ordinances of Christ If you trade with Humane inventions and make sale of them then I think it will be found that you are in the number of the Merchants of Babylon enriching your selves with the abundance of her delicacies delicate carved images of your own brains and of other mens and if so it will be found no Heresie Schisms or unwarrantable separation to come out from amongst you If you say that you trade with the pure Ordinances of Jesus Christ for traders you are then I desire to know which one of them you will avouch to be the pure Ordinance of Christ answering the pattern as you uphold it Secondly I desire to know upon what ground you dare buy and sell any pure Ordinance of Christ or gift of the holy Ghost if it be so I know that you want not words to cry them up for the Ordinances of Christ As the Jews did with the Temple and as you do with your ministery so you cry them up for the Ordinances of Christ the Ordinances of Christ crying to the People Oh take heed how you turn your backs on the Ordinances of Christ But as I said of your Ministery so I say of your Ordinances It is not enough to say onely that they are so Which of you take the pains to shew the People what the Ordinances of Christ were and compares yours with them that the People may see them to be so The truth is you dare not bring them to the light nor suffer them to come to the light lest they should be made manifest For they are as far different from the pure Ordinances of Christ or practises of Christ and his followers as Nadabs and Abihu's strange fire was from the true fire if not further You say you have Baptisme you have prayer you have Preaching you have singing of Psalms and some of you have the Communion and were not these Ordinances of Christ I answer you Nadab and Abihu had their Censer they had fire and they had Incense which things were commanded by the Lord. Yet for all this they did that which the Lord commanded them not Levit. 10.1 And so you may have these things and yet be as far off from the right as they were First compare your Baptisme with that which the followers of Christ practised You Baptize Infants where did they Baptize any have you any example or any rule for the Baptizing of them Is not this built upon the sandy conjectures and consequences of your own imaginations I know that some of the acutest of you say That it is built upon the Promise which belongs to the children with their Fathers But let such consider whether it was the Promise belonging to them or their receiving of that Promise that was the ground of Baptisme Which of the Apostles did administer Baptisme to any of those to whom the Promise did belong untill they received that Promise by faith As for your Prayer which you use before and after your Sermons I know not one example left you for it either by Christ or by any of his Apostles What can you plead for it seeing they did not so Did they fall short in what they ought to do what was Christ and the Apostles unfaithfull in the work of their Ministery to leave such a thing out and to leave it unto you to amend what they failed in No no your praying before and after is for the honor and magnificence of your Idol which is to accompany it and that is your Preaching be patient with this expression untill you have the explication of it for I shall not onely call it so and there leave it as you do with many things I say your Preaching is an Idol I do not say that Preaching is an Idol Preaching is publishing or declaring abroad or telling to one another openly whether by conference or any other way Thus they preached or published or told abroad what Christ had done to one that was deafe and had an impediment in his speech Mark 7.36 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they preached it which word you know is used where preaching is expressed and yet it signifies no more here but telling abroad or publishing as it is rendered in the English So likewise the multitude of Beleevers who were scattered abroad Act. 8.1 Went every where Preaching the word vers 4. that is declaring it or telling it abroad where ever they came and this was Preaching and Preaching to conversion too So Pauls Preacling in the Synagogues was it not for the most part Reasoning with them Acts 17.2.3 that is speaking to them and suffering them to speak to him But you do Idolize the manner of the Heathen Oratorie made in Pulpits and all other speaking must give place to that and fall down silent before that Idol or else you will exercise Nebuchadnezzars Lawes upon them Dan. 3. If any manner of speaking will not be silent and fall down and worship that comely honourable manner of Oratory when it shall be set up then to Prison with him make him fast What 's this but to do as Nebuchadnezzar did when he had set